PMS 2.0 1416 - TNF Preview, Jeff Passan, Mike McCarthy, Nebraska Coach Matt Rhule, & AJ Hawk

19:21Jeff Passan:Jet, you know, dude, dude, dude, no, no, no. We don't need to belabor this at all. We're going to make it worth it. We absolutely are. So let's get right into it because there's a lot happening right now, Patrick. And I'm psyched. Like, I am fired up that I'm here right now. Thank you for bringing me on this early. Let's get after it.

19:40Pat McAfee:Jet, I just want to let you know. I'll tell you, this enthusiasm that you had on the call this morning, because I was sitting with the boys, and I think it was Ty goes, lots happening in baseball right now. Lots happening in baseball right now. So fire up the Jet. FaceTime Jet passing. And I literally say to you, I hate that I'm even doing this. It is football season. This is a very abnormal thing. But I watched that that Mets guy from center field, throw Buddy out at home last night in real time, send a text to my Cubs friend. Wow, what a play for you guys. Then it gets overturned. Yikes, that is tough to kind of handle it all.

20:15Pat McAfee:And then on the flip side with the Mets, so I was in the middle of it, and then you said, Bud, everything's happening right now. Is this the greatest time baseball has had? It feels like there's shit across the board, Jet, and you laid it all out for us. It's so good. And just like last night, seeing Aaron Judge go and hit two home runs. The first is 50. The second is 51st in the middle of the MVP race. And then to have that followed by Cal Raleigh hitting numbers 59 in an absolute bomb to the upper deck. and number 60 becoming the seventh player ever joining babe ruth and mark mcguire and sammy sosa and aaron judge and barry bonds and roger marris uh this mvp race in the american league is absolutely incredible paul skeins goes out and throws six shutout innings to end his season the detroit tigers a historic collapse and the cleveland guardians getting not just back into the race, but taking over first place in the American League Central.

21:19And on top of all that, you've got the Mets. They stink. You've got the Reds and the Diamondbacks with an opportunity. They lose in extra innings. It was just an incredible night of baseball, man. And considering the way that this season has gone and its whole trajectory, I was not anticipating it was going to be an exciting September. So this is like for somebody who loves baseball like I do. This is just such a little beautiful surprise. and I'm just enjoying every single day on this calendar.

21:47Pat McAfee:Absolutely. The highlights on the internet that are hitting and then the storylines that are developing are must-watch. Baseball has been good to us during the offseason and now it's showing up in the middle of football season. Paul Skeens throwing his last pitches last night, obviously watching his lady go through the anxiety of him becoming the first player in the modern era to have his first two seasons be a 1.96 ERA or something like that. Every pitch mattered, literally. Yeah, legit. history was on the line with every single pitch and Livy experiencing that the entire time I loved watching but also Paul Skeens is an absolute animal happy to hear that he is still a monster on the mound we need to build that team up around we've come to another offseason Bob now's the time to kind of maybe build that team up and let's talk about the things that are go ahead it's like it Paul Skeens is going to win the National League Cy Young Award unanimously this year and and deservedly so in his first full season as a major league baseball player and for all of the hype that that's what i love about false genes he came up with so much hype and he has not just lived up to it he's exceeded it he has been better i think than people thought that he was going to be and you surround him with the arms that the pittsburgh pirates have right now whether it's bubba chandler or braxton ashcraft or jared jones coming back mitch keller hunter Tabarco making his big league debut.

23:09The Pittsburgh Pirates are three bats away from being a playoff team right now. And the only way that they are going to go out and get those bats is if their owner goes out and spends some freaking money. And if not now, then when, Pat? At what point do you see all of this talent that you have and say to yourself, we need to take this opportunity and give the fans of Pittsburgh what they deserve? The losing, we've had enough of it. And you've seen opportunities that have been taken by the Kansas City Royals and by other smaller market, low revenue teams to go and change their lineup in an offseason.

23:49The Pirates can do this. The question for Bob Nutting is, will you?

23:56Pat McAfee:He already sold seven springs. That's the greatest tube and hill in western Pennsylvania. Sold the entire place. That was years. At least. We're talking about the greatest team. So many years ago. So many years ago. So we thought maybe he was selling that to maybe get some players. Turned out that went right into his fucking stingy pockets. That's what we learned about it. Vail bought it. Vail bought Seven Springs. They got a lot of money. Vail keeps doing that. Stick with Vail. Nuttin keeps taking money and just putting it in his pockets instead of putting it in the team. And I think what we need to say to this guy, and to be clear, he looks like he's a pretty oblivious guy.

24:33Pat McAfee:Yeah. Out to lunch, perpetually. Just pretty big, a little mimbo-y. A little, if you will. It'll be one of those, hey, bud, you win, okay? You make more money, okay? So if you win, it's crazy to think. I was at a baseball game where the Cy Young winner was pitching, and there was 6 ,000 people in the stand. Get that. In the stand. That's generous. It's chilly. If you win, and guess what? It goes up. The ticket sales. And then guess what else goes up, especially in Pittsburgh? The booze sales. and the icy lights are flowing. And guess what? I need a hot dog. I need some nachos. God damn, is there pizza and wings here?

25:11Pat McAfee:Give me some of that. Player's awesome. I want a jersey. Oh, I might buy some merch. This is cool. Holy, great hat. Yeah. Bob, you spend a little bit of money. We need three bats. That's what I just heard. I didn't do my own research, but I assume Jet knows for real. You get three bats, Bob, you're going to make more money. More than seven springs money, Bob. There's a chance that you make really good money, especially with the logo, the brand, the stadium. Everything is there. Pat, I think I'm sorry to interrupt you here, but we have a test case with this. And it's the San Diego Padres. And I know it's a baseball cliche.

25:45If you build it, they will come. But what the Padres have done in going out and for years and years. I mean, there was a there's a fan group called Change the Padres where they wanted new ownership in place and people who were actually going to spend money. Peter Seidler comes in and he tries to build it. He tries to build something by signing Manny Machado and by giving Fernando Tatis Jr. a long-term contract and by locking up Jackson Merrill. There are things that they have done that have shown their fans, okay, we believe that you deserve something more. We believe that we, it's on us, it's incumbent on us to give you a reason to go to the ballpark.

26:26So let's give you some reasons. And that's all Pirates fans want. They want a reason to go to the ballpark. They want to feel like ownership cares as much as they do. And right now, that's just not the case. But in this offseason, you sure can make the case that it is. It's right there for the taking for the Pirates. And the eternal question with that organization is, will they? I understand it's unfair the landscape in Major League Baseball right now when you have one team that's spending$500 million in the Dodgers and another team that's not spending even a quarter of that. And there are a few of those teams.

27:07And you have teams like the Cleveland Guardians, Pat, who don't spend a lot of money and win every year. Milwaukee Brewers don't spend a lot of money and win every year. So you can have your cake and eat it too, but there has to be a baseline level of effort amid this landscape that you can't change. Like until the new collective bargaining agreement, there is no changing what your reality is. So how about you operate within that reality, going out and trying to win as many games as you can rather than lament the existence that you're in?

27:37Pat McAfee:I love that. Great way to describe that lament the existence that you're in. And you said that fans want to see that he cares about winning as much as they do. Even if you don't, Bob, just care about money. If you invest into something, more money will come. It's clear that that's what you're in it for. Just know that you can get more by having success. That kind of goes hand in hand in the whole thing. Tone is a diehard Pirates fan, and we have buried him for it for a long time. Well, no, it is exciting, though, because I think the Pirates organization does know that they need those three bats.

28:11The only issue is they think those three bats are probably Tommy Pham and IKF and Kutch, and they're just going to roll them out there again.

28:17Pat McAfee:Well, so that's not what we're talking about here. Love Kutch.

28:20Jeff Passan:Would like Kutch to be around. Easy on Tommy Pham. All right. He'll find you, and he'll get you. He's got a good swing. He's a mean Kutch. He'll throw bombs. He'll beat the shit out of you if you're bumping gums. Which I like. Tommy Pham likes to fight.

28:35Pat McAfee:And he hits from both sides of the plate, right? He could. Yeah, he punches from both sides of the plate, too. Thunder and lightning on both sides. Okay, let's talk about actual baseball stuff now. Ty has a bunch for you. Yeah, Jet, I want to go back to the AL MVP because I think I saw a clip that maybe you said, like, you would give your vote to judge, but, you know, it'd be tough. And I don't like doing this because we've been doing this in the office where basically because of my bias being a Yankees fan, I don't want to say I've had to shit on Cal Raleigh, but, you know, Pat's really getting me going, and basically trying to say that Cal Raleigh is 100 times better than Judge, and I have to kind of just tell him, like, hey, listen, pal, you are very misguided in this.

29:18But also with this, like, is there just a level of Judge fatigue and we've gotten to the point where, like, people just don't admire how great he is or don't realize how great he is because we see it year over year. Like, is Cal Raleigh going to win the MVP? Or how should we look at this situation? I think it's going to be really close. And here's the reality, Ty. There's not a bad vote. Like you can make a very compelling case for Aaron Judge, and you can make a very compelling case for Cal Raleigh. And both of those are being made right now. I think a lot of it just comes down to how do you view the baseball world?

29:58Like if your baseball perspective is through the lens of what is best story, then Cal Raleigh's the MVP. He has the round number home run that everyone's looking for, like 60 home runs. And doing that from the position of catcher. Is that more?

30:15Pat McAfee:Is 60 more? Yeah, just let him keep going, though. We'll get to the stats that matter, too. Okay. See, this is what happens. He gets all fired up.

30:23Jeff Passan:I didn't realize time like singles so much. I didn't know that's what we were doing. You can't say that because Judge has hit over 50 home runs. But it's basically.

30:34Pat McAfee:Excuse me. I've never seen. This is Cal Raleigh's setup right here. Two bats, brother. Okay. We're on one side. We're on the other side. Sure. He's doing 100 squats a game, this guy. His mitt. Well, that's his fault. Go play outfield. I don't want to hear that. He decided to play catcher. So don't give me the squats bullshit. Go play first base. Go DH. But, Judge, or Jet, is this just turning into, like, hey, whoever hits the most homers is going to be MVP? He's mad. He's not happy, Jet. I love Aaron Judge. Aaron Judge is great for our show. We love Aaron. I'm just saying, Ty started getting a little bit of, what are we even doing here whenever the national narrative started becoming Cal versus Aaron?

31:12Pat McAfee:And I think that's because Ty thinks Mr. Judge is, like, best player on planet. Mike O'Down is the best right-handed hitter of all time. So that's Ty's argument. What I'm saying is two bats. Touching the ball every point.

31:25Jeff Passan:That's what I'm saying. I get it. He's in there. But this is what I mean, too. I didn't want to get in this because I love Cal Raleigh. He's awesome. You've been fighting against Cal pretty heavily. I have to. I have to go to bat for my captain. He does. Because he's – Pat, he is threatened right now because he knows how good Cal Raleigh's case is. That's the problem. Like playing catcher – Go on. Go on. You cannot deny that playing catcher every day is an incredibly difficult thing to do. A whole lot more difficult than what, yeah, keep doing your squats, Pat, because that's what the big dumper's doing.

32:00That's why his ass is as big as it is. Yeah, he's got that fat one, honey. Yeah, he's got that big dumper.

32:06Pat McAfee:Yeah, he's doing that. What we have right now is a case where I think, Ty, you said Aaron Judge fatigue. I don't know if among voters that's real, but I think among fans it is. I think we take for granted just how great Aaron Judge is. And all of a sudden, you have this guy who's named the Big Dumper, who literally is known for having a large butt. And he goes out and hits 60 home runs, carries his team to the division title for the first time since 2001, dethrones the Houston Astros, who haven't in a full season lost a division in the American League West since 2016 and does it with an awesome September where they've won 15 of 16 games and look like the best team in baseball and have the highest odds to win the World Series of any team on Fangraph's projections right now.

33:02It's a pretty damn good story, right? And so what you're doing is you, Ty, are on the side of the nerds. I hate to say it, but you're sitting there and saying... In this case, yeah. Yeah, you're sitting there and saying, but he's got 177 OPS points more than Cal Raleigh does right now. How can you possibly look at a guy with all the other things that Cal Raleigh has in his favor? Are you telling me that that makes up the gap? He's almost 100 points higher in on base percentage, which is the one statistic if I had any to judge a baseball player on, I would judge him on. He's slugging 686 this year.

33:42it's bonzie and like performance. And you're telling me that a guy, because he's got a fat ass and his team is winning because it sucked for a quarter century deserves to be MVP. Okay. That's the case.

33:57Pat McAfee:That is exactly what I said. Yes. Right over there. He actually said that. That is why I love that. You know, both sides of the argument so much, but the voters are nerds, right? In that kind of what it is. The voters are nerds. let's put it this way. I did talk with a friend who was a voter yesterday. And he said something very interesting to me. Like, most of us who do vote, and I stopped voting a while ago, but most of us who vote, like we take it really seriously. We take it seriously, because that's what the award was. Not everybody, not everybody, but we appreciate that you did. Tone does as well.

34:36Pat McAfee:We've seen some other voters for things come out and basically say they don't take it. Yeah, there are some but the person I was talking with was taking it very seriously to the point where he asks a lot of people who play the game and who know the game frankly better than we're going to because they're out there every day because they experience it because they face Aaron Judge because they face Cal Raleigh and my friend said every player he asks says Aaron Judge well is every player a former Yankee or a fan of the Yankees because that is a high and bruce are talking right there no this is this is also this is also somebody who does not cover a team uh in in the american league east this is somebody who is not based in the east so there is no coastal bias going on there two massive stories uh happening uh and they're both on a roller coaster going this one who is it yeah jet i mean i i know we're talking about the tigers as being like maybe one of the biggest collapses in like sports history but do you think the Mets are kind of getting off the hook as well I mean I know both those teams are still holding on to a playoff spot right now but for people who don't know can you kind of contextualize how bad both of these collapses have been Ty the Mets were 45 and 24 they owned the best record in Major League Baseball through 69 games everything was going nice for them it has not been nice since and it has been the slowest, like most painful three months for Mets fans, just watching this team.

36:16I use the word disintegrate. That's kind of what's happened. Like they look like they were going to be a World Series contender. And now they're flirting with 500. And the only reason that they still have a playoff spot is because the teams that are surrounding them, frankly, are not all that good either. And at the same time, the Tigers had a 15 and a half game advantage in July over the Cleveland Guardians, 12 and a half game advantage a month ago. Jeez. A double digit advantage in September. And to watch the Tigers lose not just the eight games in a row that they have right now, including the ones, the Guardians, that you're seeing right there with George Valera's home run, with Jose Ramirez coming up with yet another clutch hit.

36:59But for them to be in the position that they are right now, it would be the biggest division collapse in Major League Baseball history. And Major League Baseball is in its 150th season, gentlemen. So just to give you the context of that, we have like this is like the dueling pianos of substitute right now. They are both terrible at this point. And we're going to, I think at least one of them is going to make the playoffs, honestly, because the Astros, who should be taking advantage of what's going on with Detroit, have lost five in a row as well. It's not just that they've blown their lead that they've had over the Mariners all season, but the Astros are now behind the Tigers in the wildcard standings.

37:37It's going to make for an awesome last four days of the season. I'm just really excited to see how it shakes out and to know that on the 162nd game of the season, it could be one that determines the fate of multiple teams in the postseason and beyond that guys we've got the yankees and the blue jays by the top the american league east they're going to be fighting for position we we don't know who's going to be hosting games in the ails it's going to be the yankees it's going to be the jays looks like it's going to be the mariners at this point uh but there's just a lot going on right now it's why pat on any other thursday i would have I would have known better than to say to you, I need to come on early.

38:17We need to talk about this early. Baseball's worth it, guys. Baseball right now is as good as it gets in sports.

38:23Pat McAfee:That's big dumper baseball. And that's what we're talking about. And we're very thankful. Got to meet this whole fam. They're so good to us, you know, and obviously put on a hell of a show, as did you. Thank you for representing for baseball. And we can't wait to talk to you soon, man. When's the start? When's the playoffs start? Playoffs start on Tuesday. and ESPN, in fact, is carrying every single wild card game. I will be up in Bristol in studio with our friends there and we got a great month ahead. All right, we can't wait to watch. We appreciate the hell out of you. Good luck to Dumper and Aaron Judge.

38:57Pat McAfee:Good luck. On their races to immortality. You're the best. Ladies and gentlemen, Jet Pass. Yeah, the Hemi V8 is back for Ram Trucks. Fired up and raring to go. Get in on it. Motor Trend has chosen Ram 1500, the best truck down the line. Oh, duh. As its truck of the year. Wow. Not a day. Let's go. Not a week. No. Uh-uh. Not a month. No, Fortnite. None of it. The whole damn Ram year. Love it. Congrats to them. And Ram trucks are also back on the track and returning to NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for the 2026 season. What's the next race they got over there? That was, they're probably in Delaware this weekend.

39:42They're probably around Pocono or something. Let me check.

39:44Pat McAfee:Oh, up in the mountains, yeah. They're on that thing. Yeah.

39:59Pat McAfee:Because it's. Yeah, it's going in circles. So it's only. But that is the difference with the Ram truck race car and every other race car. All the other race cars sound stupid. Yep. Yeah. The Rammer. Their office week. Next race is down in Martinsville. Who won that? Oh, Martinsville. Tough track. Wow. Tough people. Tough track. Short track. Who won the Hacy 250? That was not what it was. That's a good question. It was. That's not what it was. I'm not going to answer that. That's not what it's called. Really? The Hacy 250. You sure? That was 500, I think.

40:34Jeff Passan:Oh, yeah. Sorry. Sorry. The Little Seeds run the 250. I'm not. Who won the Hacy 5, man? I'm so confused right now. So who won the Hacy 5?

40:46Pat McAfee:That was the last race, right? There's no winners. Nobody won the race. Everybody stopped. Let me look it up. They better finish on Green Flag, too. I'm about sick. I know. I'm about sick of the caution finishes. I can't take it. I can tell you that. Second best race out there. Obviously, Corey Heim is leading the series. He's good. What's he driving? What's he riding? You don't want to know. Yeah, I do. Just drive a Toyota. Yeah, we'll just wait until next year, bud. Yeah, exactly. Ram, ram, ram, ram, ram. It's coming back to ram, ram, ram, ram, ram, ram. Your ass off the track. Okay. And who knows?

41:15Pat McAfee:Maybe Corey Haim, now that he realizes Ram's getting back into the race, maybe he says, I want out his Toyota. Yep. Like anybody would. I want to get in a Ram truck. Especially if it's got that Hemi V8 in it. Oh, yeah. You got it. I can't believe they even let that type of truck in these races.

41:33Jeff Passan:They don't at the HC5. Tell you that.

41:36Pat McAfee:You should put that race on, maybe.

41:38Jeff Passan:What are you talking about? It's already going on.

41:40Pat McAfee:No, it sounds like it's not. He was pretty offended. I thought that was maybe a name as well. I guess it is not a name. No, I know.

41:46Jeff Passan:I mixed it up. I mixed up my races. I think they run the Fat Hick 250.

41:51Pat McAfee:That is not how that works. You don't know the racing community at all.

41:55Jeff Passan:No, I forgot. It's not the HC5 and that one. It's the load of hicks. This is what we know.

42:01Pat McAfee:the Craftsman Truck Series in the 2026 season is going to be dominated by one truck and one truck alone. It's a Ram truck. Get it in now, Toyota. That's right. Get it in now, Ford. Because they're Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram. The Watt family has disclosed what they fed their kids. You say to yourself, like the Gronkowski family, how the hell is there so many athletes coming out of one family? Holy shit. They're huge. You start looking around. How does this happen? The Watts, you start thinking to yourself, like was mr watt asked maybe to racehorse this thing yeah you know because uh what he was able to create a stud fee yeah yes i didn't want to have to oh my bad i thought we were looking for

42:40Jeff Passan:the name of it no i think we all hey i was looking for it okay you you when i said racehorse this

42:46Pat McAfee:thing you were diving you did not know that we're talking about what the terminology was that's what we're talking about though because of the studs that have been created obviously within in his family. There's obviously many others where that has taken place where brothers or a family is incredibly athletic. And I mean, the McCaffrey family, I believe, if you go through their entire thing, it's like, whoa, what's going on? Well, TJ Watt lost in on the entirety of it. What an absurd eating schedule. I mean, all they do is eat. Here's the video of TJ talking about it. What does he deal with the two dinners daily?

43:16Yeah, five o 'clock and then eight o 'clock. They we wake up to a five egg omelet every morning. I mean you always have a full breakfast either omelet or pancakes or muffins or something fresh and then they would send us to school with Two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches one you'd eat before lunch one you'd have to lunch and then you would have two Lunches you'd pay for yeah double lunch at school. Yeah, which I didn't even know that was a thing. Yeah, yeah double lunch so yeah chicken patty you just get two of them obviously and then after school you come home at like from next level or track practice and you'd eat dinner at five and that'd be like a spaghetti with garlic bread or something and then at like what 7.30 or 8 o 'clock my dad would make like salami sandwiches or whether it's that or he started at 5am so if like I went to noodles company I love the Japanese pan noodles he'd be like oh I can make the Japanese pan noodles so then like that'd be like something later in the night.

44:19Never the same, but I give him a lot of credit. We were into the Chicken Bacon Ranch at Subway. He thought he could make it exactly the same. It never quite hit the same.

44:27Pat McAfee:His dad, fireman too, I think, right? So probably cooking for the boys down at the fire station. The amount of eating. So maybe that's the trick. I got a two-year-old, Mackenzie. Congrats to her. She's got a 5 a.m. omelet or muffins or pancakes. Something fresh, he said. Omelet or muffins or pancakes. something fresh i'm like muffins and pancakes and omelet a little bit different of freshness scale but i like that we're having spaghetti at 5 p.m oh yeah oh yeah and then we've got a peanut butter sandwich before the double lunch and then a peanut butter sandwich after the double lunch listen the amount of protein we're going to be getting in here and then also we're going to slip in carbs in the middle of the day and then also at night yeah we got a sandwich coming like salami just so you can kind of get in there and they should come back from track or something think about the lifting schedule that they also had in there i mean that might be the trick who did we learned from Ted?

45:16Pat McAfee:Ted Karras. Ted Karras, the offensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals, formerly of the New England Patriots.

45:20Jeff Passan:New England Patriots from Indy.

45:22Pat McAfee:He's from Indianapolis. His dad was in the NFL. I think his uncle was in the NFL. Correct. And when he was in high school here at Cathedral, he didn't think he was big enough. His family didn't think he was big enough. His dad said, you're too small for how slow you are, and you need to be much bigger. So he drank a gallon of milk every day through two, three years. That's for Shoot, too.

45:44Jeff Passan:Make sure let's hammer this home. One full gallon of whole milk. Every day. Throwing up all the time.

45:52Pat McAfee:My dad took my side in eighth grade and told me I need to put on weight. I get 100 pounds one year drinking a gallon of milk before school every day. Before school.

45:59Jeff Passan:I didn't forget about that.

46:01Pat McAfee:100 pounds. 100 pounds. That's crazy. One year, 100-pound growth. Yeah. On purpose. How could your body react? I guess pretty well. If you came in, that got going playing the NFL win Super Bowl. These things don't happen by mistake. Yeah, legitimately, though, the Watt family, because you see the dad and you see the mom and then you see the Watts, it's like, okay, I don't think this was expected. You know, like, I don't think this was like, hey, we're going to have a 6 '7 monster of a man who's going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. And, oh, yeah, we're going to have another one of those that's 6 '2 or 6 '3 or whatever it is.

46:36He's 5. He's all 6 '5.

46:38Pat McAfee:Yeah, okay, 6 '5. But next to JJ doesn't look as tall or whatever. And then, oh, yeah, we got a tough son of a fullback in the middle of that thing who's, I think, a genius, they say.

46:46Jeff Passan:Oh, yeah. He was the high school one, too. Derek was the biggest deal early on. I think JJ told a story about how there was a homecoming game, and everybody, for the fans, dressed up like Derek Watt instead of TJ or JJ.

47:02Pat McAfee:Yeah, I appreciate the fact, though, that it might just be force-feeding the kids. Yeah. Yeah, just how much food can we get into these things? Let's do that. But what happens if you end up as that 700-pounder on Dr. Phil, though? You know, or on Maury. I think they have fat. That's why they're doing four workouts a day, too. That's the part that they all miss. That's the part that a lot of kids are going to miss in hearing this from TJ. Right. They're going to say, yeah, 17 meals. It's got a heat punch. I'll be TJ Watt. Do the whole thing. That's right. Well, you've got to work out as well. I think, you know, there's some stuff out there that is making people not want to eat.

47:38Pat McAfee:Okay? Nowadays. Sure. and then there's there's also people that are hearing that and not working out at all so their body is becoming a bag of leaves yep yes and it's like hey you're allowed uh you're allowed to work out while also doing that there's gonna be people that hear what tj do and just eat all the food without doing a workout along sure of it and those are the 500 pound lives yeah yes those are the 700 pound lives little they know they are four workouts a day away yeah from leading the nfl in sacks forever 40 mil a year yeah they were so close instead they're putting the crane in the roof yeah exactly getting them out of there some of that is so i get so sad now think about the entire existence there how do we get there how do we get there tj was like well i tell you how you don't get there you have track practice you have three workouts you got a swim lesson at night you gotta go fight fires with your father at two three yeah whenever things happen the watts are built lunch at school just immediately off the jump.

48:36Yeah.

48:37Pat McAfee:If we've got chicken patties, obviously we're having two chicken patties. All the other kids eating one. We're a bunch of losers. I'll bully you. That's what we do as Watts. I appreciate this. Pittsburgh Steelers in Ireland. Minnesota Vikings. Is this a make-or-break game for you guys? For fans? For fans? I think the fans are already partially but this would break the back, I think. But it's a tough matchup because of Van Ginkie and Grenard and Hargrave. Their defense, we're looking to play a team with not a great defensive line in defense. The Vikings are not that team. They have a great defense.

49:11But on the other side, you know, Wentz can give you a few. So it could be similar to the Patriots game in that matter. But I don't know.

49:17Pat McAfee:I don't know. I like 40 and a half. I feel like under potentially. But last time Aaron was international, right? Didn't he have a good game? I think it was against the Vikings. He had a good game, right? Yeah. Threw a pick six. They got killed by the Vikings. The Jets did. Oh, yeah. And I remember when he was with Green Bay in England, it was a year the Giants were really bad, and they beat them at Wembley. So I don't think Rodgers has fared very well internationally. Yeah, but this year it's different. It is different. It's Ireland. It is. It's Dublin. Hup, hup, hup, hup, hup. Going to see a lot of videos of NFL fans doing that.

49:53Pat McAfee:A lot of NFL personalities are over there. They got any of that trad music, traditional music. There's going to be a lot of humping over there. Vibes, awesome. Good time. Good for football. Perfect. Good for American football. They painted the pitch onto a Gaelic football field, I do believe. GAA, is that what that is? I believe so. Yes, Gaelic football field, which is an interesting sport. I mean, there's a paddle, a thing, a running, a jumping, a catching, a throwing. It is very physical as well. Interesting sport. Huge fields, all these sports that these people play on. Australia, I was down there for that Aussie Rules football.

50:29Pat McAfee:That field, it's a cricket stadium. Massive circle. Huge, just absolutely gigantic. They're running all over the place. That's the difference, I think, between the European sports and American sports. I think the reason why some of them have a difficult time of getting into American football is because there's a break taken every eight seconds, ten seconds. Over there, their sports are like, hey, you've got to be cardio. Constant motion. You're a conditioned athlete. Now, golf is obviously different, and we're about to beat their ass this weekend. Let's get to that. Ryder Cup starts. Come on now.

51:02Pat McAfee:Now, I hate that it's happening during an incredible football weekend. An incredible football weekend. It's almost like the college football schedule maker said, oh, Ryder Cup thinks they're going to have a Saturday? Yeah, right. Let's go ahead and put five ranked games back to back to back to back. And then the NFL said, Ryder Cup thinks they're going to have Sunday morning? Yeah, right. Let's have a game kickoff at 9.30 in Ireland. Who's that team going to be? Oh, the Pittsburgh Steelers are one of the most popular teams in the history of the game. And the Minnesota Vikings, one of the best teams in football right now.

51:27Pat McAfee:So it's tough to watch all this. But we do know if America is playing against somebody else, we're pulling for America. Yes. How do we feel about our team? Have we looked at the rosters? How do we? Yeah, just by looking at the team face value. And I'm not talking about how well these guys play golf. But I'm just, you know, there's a couple guys you can hang your hat on. A couple guys I'm pretty unsure of, but I'm willing to see what they do. For America. Yeah, for America. Exactly. But, yeah, several of these guys, if they were on tour, yeah, they'd be some of the last guys I'd want to see win a tournament.

51:58so that kind of hurts me a little bit when it comes into this. I agree.

52:02Pat McAfee:Can we go to the European team, please? Yeah. Okay, so we can match. A lot of moxie on it. These guys are way cooler. They all had full suit and ties on last night. They look good. We were a little loose. Yeah, we're acting like we won last time, and we didn't. Who's cooler on this team? Bob McIntyre. Literally everyone.

52:20Jeff Passan:Our team sucks, dude. Tommy Fleetwood, super cool.

52:23Pat McAfee:Victor Hovland, super cool. Shane Lowry, cool. Tyrell Hayden. Unbelievable. Rombo, Bombo, obviously doing his thing. Love what he's got going on. Rory McIlroy's chirping. Bryson DeChambeau. DeChambeau wasn't up for the fun in games last night. No. He wasn't YouTuber last night. No. He stood up, gave fist bumps, sat back down. He's representing the United States of America. Remember, he's a member of the cabinet. Yeah, he is. He's on the super-duper fitness thing with the president of the United States. He is. Can we go back to the United States team, please? We shouldn't be putting them up for that long.

52:55Pat McAfee:You know, we kind of got stuck on the European team. Let's remember, we've got legends over here. Remember Bryson DeChambeau?

53:01Jeff Passan:Yes.

53:01Pat McAfee:Yeah. He's not one of the guys we're worried about. How about Colin Morcala? I'm going to need to see a lot from him this week. He's a good iron. He is a good player. He's got good iron, so at Bethpage, I should be good, right? Is what they're saying? You would think. I've seen some people struggling with the rough over there a little bit. There's some videos coming out of guys not being able to get it onto the green. Matthew Fitzpatrick. Left-handed underneath, too. He thought he had it figured out. And the American chirpers in New York are going to be good. Yeah. I think it's going to be a good atmosphere for the United States of America to win.

53:29Pat McAfee:What's going on, Tony? I just had to look back there and see if Foxy was wearing a red coat or not. Son of a bitch. Because he kept the European team out there so long? That, and he's rooting for him, which is weird. Their team is just cooler than our team. That's all I'm saying, okay? Yeah, now's not the time to act like that, Foxy. Okay? Just everything going on. I am just keeping it real. We have the better golfers. Our team is a better golf team, but they have the face value. They have the cool guys on their team. Do they have Scotty Scheffler? They don't. No, they don't. They don't have the cool guys on their team.

53:55Pat McAfee:But let's be honest.

53:56Jeff Passan:We're at, like Ty said, PGA event. Sam Burns. I'm sorry. Cantlay. I'm sorry. English. I'm sorry. Ben Griffin. I'm sorry. Henley. I'm sorry. Cam Young. 50-50. And then Spawn, I love you because you're your Open champion.

54:09Pat McAfee:Okay. On that note, that's the first time I've seen Ben Griffin's face.

54:12Jeff Passan:Exactly. This is my entire point. This guy was like a pharmaceutical salesman like a year and a half ago. So we like this story.

54:19Pat McAfee:It's an American. It's a good story. It's a hundred-dog story. It's an American dream story. And then on this side, you've got just people that, I mean, even Sepp Strzok, you know that. We know all these guys. I don't know who Robert McIntyre is, but I know he's going to be a pro. You know Bobby Mack. He had quite the come up the last couple weeks of the PGA season. He was hot. He was sitting in the room watching when Spawn made his putt. Oh, yeah. Unbelievable. That was Gerald Hatton who said, oh, he hoed it. Unbelievable. I have some songs that I've wrote, written, I guess that I'm going to like, I would want to make very soon.

54:56Pat McAfee:I'm going to try to make these songs just because they've been sitting in my notes section for so long. Gotta add that unbelievable before one of these songs. One of the greatest sound bites of his. And to that point, that guy's entertaining on the course. He'll break a club. He'll throw that thing in there. He'll chirp a little bit at himself. He'll say terrible things to himself. So that United States crowd could potentially get him down in the dumps. But on the flip side, he could become an absolute monster in that place. Who's our Mr. Ryder Cup? Isn't it Patrick? No, it's Reed. Justin Thomas.

55:31But yeah. Patty Reed. On this team, it's JT. But Patty Reed, yeah, has been nails in the Ryder Cup.

55:37Pat McAfee:I remember when there was a thought of us going to this. Remember that? Yeah. That was never going to happen. Probably not. But while we were talking about it, it was sweet to be like, we're going to the Ryder Cup. It was cool. in the moment. I mean, we all do. Record-wise, Cantlay and JT are the best records as far as guys we have on the team. Come on, JT. This is your thing. Here we go, boys. Roll Tide. Roll Tide. Roll Tide. USA. A lot of those chances we did. Yeah. All right. Next hour, we'll have Coach McCarthy join us. And then 2 o 'clock hour, we're going to have Matt Rule and conversation with Stanford Steve.

56:10Hell yeah.

56:11Pat McAfee:Big college ball hour at the 2 o 'clock hour. We did baseball this hour. Did golf this hour. Mm-hmm. Did football this hour? That's right. Anything happen in basketball? At WNBA, it's taking place. Yeah, we don't have to talk about sports that don't matter. We can just take the football the rest of the time. No, fever matters. Fever about to win this thing. Kelsey Mitchell's about to win the MVP. And tonight, week four of the NFL season kicks off. Hell yeah. We're doing it. Yes, we are. This is a good game tonight. I think on paper, a lot of people are going to be excited about this one. You know, just natural.

56:40Pat McAfee:Very fair. But I think the game's going to live up to the billing. I think Al Michaels and Kirk are going to call it a great game. I think the kickoff crew there and the nightcap crew there are going to deliver a spectacular show. I'm excited for week four to kick off because that only means Ryder Cup, Saturday, Sunday, Monday night. Holy hell, we're in the middle of the great times. Let's never forget it. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Granger has your back. From professional-grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly.

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58:06Pat McAfee:Football is magical. Tonight the NFC West will battle in Arizona. Now that's a glorious city, Phoenix, but a lot of people do not think that they stand a chance against the Seattle Seahawks that are coming into town. Sam Donald will be leading in offense. MacDonald, the head coach, will be leading in defense. And if you think about that Baltimore Ravens defense, you know, the last couple years, beginning of season, they've started out as trash. They lost the defense coordinator who became the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks team. They painted over the walls there after the season. kicking Pete Carroll out.

58:33Pat McAfee:Kind of a rough start, but now it feels like his culture's in there. Sam Donald's very comfortable. He's spinning it all over the place. And they're taking on an Arizona Cardinals team. What are they? Are they the same thing they've been for the last couple years? Everybody feels that that's the case, but maybe tonight's the night that they say to the world, no, we're different this year. Gannon gets the boys buzzing. Kyler starts making all the right reads. Marvin Harrison Jr. lives up to everything that we assume that he's going to be at some point in his NFL career. There's a chance that that happens tonight at 8.15 p.m.

58:59Pat McAfee:Eastern time. On Prime. The Talks and Tables here at Boston Corner, at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer. Done. Cowboys, AP, Tony's here. What's the percentage of money on who? 74 % is now on the Seahawks, so it's dropped 1 % since we have started the show. Let's go to the other half of the hammer. Done. Cowboys, Bubba Gumpino. Gumpy, what are you not in your head yes for? I just love it. I love everything about it. Everyone's on the Seahawks. The Lions flip. Reminds me a lot of Monday night. Everybody was on the Ravens. Guess what? Lions win. No reason at all. Cardinals going to get it done tonight.

59:29Pat McAfee:Yeah, I mean, two different teams. Lions, Ravens, Seattle Seahawks, and Cardinals. But I like that you're on the Cardinals. I appreciate the fact that that is the case. Let's ask a Hall of Fame nominee, ladies and gentlemen, a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Ryder Cup winner. And in high school, this guy was the punter. I think he had a 60 or 70-yard punt in the game. And then he was a running back. I think he had 100 yards rushing, four touchdowns. And then he was a starting linebacker. He had 35 tackles. Ladies and gentlemen, Centerville Elk, A.J. Hawk. Hawker, we're going to do that as long as you're a nominee.

1:00:00Pat McAfee:We're going to go through, you know, the history of things that need to be said.

1:00:03Jeff Passan:That's all right. That's all right. I think it's a bit over-exaggerated maybe. I did play those positions, but I think you're pumping my stats up a little bit.

1:00:09Pat McAfee:No, remember you had 30 tackles in one game twice. Yeah. It was in one game. You had 30 tackles in two games. Is that accurate?

1:00:16Jeff Passan:Yes, thanks to Larry Knopfinger, my linebacker coach. That was, you know, every J-O-P, every time I was around the ball, I think he gave me credit for a tackle.

1:00:23Pat McAfee:Who gave? You go to the ball, good things happen. You know, so 30-some tackles. You're the running back, too. I think you rushed for over 100 yards on a regular basis, right? I don't know if it's a regular basis.

1:00:35Jeff Passan:Yeah, sure. What are we doing? What's going on here? What are we doing? Call of favor, bro.

1:00:39Pat McAfee:What we're talking about is this guy's a whole – He might be standing in the whole favor.

1:00:48Pat McAfee:That's what we're doing. That's a whole year of this. When do they make the announcement of who made it? Until you get that knock. Yeah, not for a while. NFL honors, maybe, after the season. Yeah, that's right. So buckle up, bud. New fun football stat for A.J. Hawk every day. A.J., big game tonight, Seahawks-Cardinals. Tone told us 74 % of the money is on the Seahawks, minus one and a half on the road against a division opponent on a Thursday night. What are your thoughts as we look at this game or what are you thinking about as you try to make your pick?

1:01:20Jeff Passan:Man, my early leanings were definitely Seattle. I like Seattle. I like what Sam Darnold is doing. And I know on the road, you know, we'll see what happens. Short week, all of that stuff. I've heard people think that makes a difference. I'm not sure. They're not traveling too far. But I don't know. I'm honestly still waffling on this one. I'll give you a picket by the end of the program. But right now, I was leaning heavy Seattle, and now I'm not exactly sure.

1:01:40Pat McAfee:Both teams, obviously two and one against the spread, have made some people some money thus far this season, even though the sportsbooks have been winning, right? Yes, they have. Like heavily, heavily? Yes. It's been a slaughter. Like if you look at the top five games that have been bet on each week, the sports book has won four out of five basically every week. What's that old bad age? Why? Is that AI doing it for them? Is that why? Yeah, which we talked about yesterday. We got to beat them. And D-Bot said live is the way we get them. Live is how we get them. Because they don't have a sense of feel or awareness or what's going on or momentum or anything like that.

1:02:13Pat McAfee:Now, granted, that's going to take a lot of attention, being paid to your phone while games are happening and obviously being in the moment and maybe predicting not as easy, but in the live, we can beat these AI pieces. Not mine. You guys are good. Thank you, guys. Mine are great. AJ said terrible things about you, AI, over there. A lot. They know.

1:02:32Jeff Passan:They're watching and listening to everything. They know I don't say terrible things about them.

1:02:35Pat McAfee:That's what you were just saying. You were just saying this stinky AI. Stinks, stinks. AJ said this stinky AI in my pocket always gets the wrong answers. What's that? And then just, yes, be nice to AIs. People were trying to turn me into Grok yesterday. I didn't love that. Think about this. Like, all you need is one. Like, last week was the Browns, okay? That ruined everyone's money line parlays or teasers. Everyone either teased the Packers down to one or picked them in their money line parlay. You get one of those games a week, everything is ruined. Yeah. Panthers winning by 30. I bet you there was a lot of Falcons money line parlays as well.

1:03:07Pat McAfee:There were some blowouts and then there were some thrillers. The blowouts do kind of ruin a lot of things. But unless you have touchdown parlays for the team. True. That is doing the – how have you been on the touchdown parlays? I know you and Gumpy have been cooking up some magic early in the season. Does that continue into week three, and how do we feel looking into week four?

1:03:21Jeff Passan:Not terrible. Week three was tough just because of some of those games. You figured that there was going to be high scoring when it came to Bengals, Vikings, so you expected a Justin Jefferson, a Jamar Chase. None of the stars have scored as much as you would have thought. I don't think Puka has scored as much. Leading the NFL in receiving. Yeah, leading in receiving, but not in touchdowns. There's a lot of situations like that. Jackson Smith and Jigba leading in receiving yards. I think he has one touchdown, maybe two. You know, there's a lot of those. So touchdown parlays have been few and far between, but a lot of the big guys do score multiple on a regular basis.

1:03:55Pat McAfee:Well, here's the thing, especially if we got the dimes dive and the tush push and all this stuff, you get within six yards, five yards. That's going to one person on a team normally. And that person is just going to get – Jerome Bettis. I forget the stat line he had in the game. Maybe like four touchdowns, two yards rushing. Something along those lines. I forget what it was because Willie, right? it was willie park is that his name yeah willie parker would get him all the way down all the way done just on his back basically balling taking big shots getting up making massive plays bang we're getting all the way down walking so everything standing in there for you name it and then they would get down to the three yard line it's like oh bring in the bus wheels on the Let's go right here.

1:04:41Pat McAfee:I see Willie just walk over like, all right. All right. Way to go. That's his fourth touchdown of the day. Happy he's getting them all. What was it? In 2004, it was five attempts, three touchdowns, one yard. It is. What a game. Yeah. So this is starting to happen there for some teams. Like Jalen's going to get the touchdown. Jalen's going to get it if they're within the three-yard line there. Danny Dimes is going to get it for the Colts if it's within the five-yard line. Because we are, even if they stop it, we'll do it again. Henry, normally, on the one. Derek Henry, yes. Because they're not going to let Lamar take that hit right there.

1:05:18Pat McAfee:So it's like, we need to start looking at that as well. Whenever we're viewing touchdowns, it's like, hey, this person is going to get the close one. And then these other people, they might be stars. Whenever it's like a layup touchdown, they're not even in the line. Like, they're not even in the layup line.

1:05:31Jeff Passan:Yeah, something to think about for tonight with that thought is the Kenneth Walker situation with Zach Charbonnet. Walker has been getting those carries. He played so well against the Steelers. He's established more so as the one. And then for Arizona, because James Conner is out, you would think the thought is, instead of handing it to a Trey Benson, rookie younger guy, or second-year guy, whatever, multiple times on the goal line, maybe Kyler Murray gets a carry or two towards the goal line. So a Kyler touchdown, maybe around the edge. He also hasn't scored yet.

1:06:01Pat McAfee:You know what you might see? Because this is a copycat league. You might see double pitch. Yeah. You might see double pitch tonight. Kyler seems like they potentially could be a possibility for that. And I will say this. Every team, as soon as Dan Campbell ran that, showed that to their team. Hey, what are we doing if they do this? Because that looked too easy. Didn't it, AJ? That play looked way too easy. And everybody's going to try to mimic that thing.

1:06:25Jeff Passan:Yeah, they will. But that's the thing. You've got to execute that. You've got to practice that many, many times. there's a lot of ball handling for guys that aren't used to ball handling all the time on the football field so yeah to trust a guy to make that step pitch right there which Amon Ra is the right guy for that but you better trust that receiver whoever's doing it I think I saw how about

1:06:42Pat McAfee:Goff handing it off up and down for him to be able to grab that easier that's like that's a tiny detail that once again they practice and work through like hey if I give this to you can you just instead of me having to turn that thing can you just yeah absolutely that's like tiny little details there that obviously Jared Goff hits in the biggest moment. And then Amon Ra has a guy in his face immediately, doesn't panic. I can make that pitch, coach. He does make that pitch. How many people can do it? How many people will try it? Anytime an innovation comes around, you see some people get excited if they have the personnel.

1:07:15Pat McAfee:This play, I guess Dan Campbell was a part of it. I don't know if you guys saw the clip. He was playing for the Cowboys. He was tied in on right side. They ran this play to left side, basically, so he was just kind of in the muck. I don't think he even remembered them running that play from what the conversation was. But I do like how offenses aren't scared to roll the dice a little bit. Let's talk about the Detroit Lions. There it is. That's the play. He's down there on the right. He's down in the line on the bush. Go block. Yeah, he got his arms inside and straight-armed him there. He had full control, obviously.

1:07:45Pat McAfee:That guy wasn't doing nothing. That guy wasn't doing nothing.

1:07:48Jeff Passan:Did you see the play this weekend from Purdue? That's so sick. Their kind of spin on it. Quarterback. Yeah, definitely find it. Quarterback handoff. This is probably the 15 going in. They're in the red zone. Quarterback handoff. Running back takes ball. Quarterback peels out. Running back gets to the line of scrimmage, turns, throws to quarterback, who peeled out, catch, walk-in, touchdown. Look for that one because it was automatic and it was an unbelievable play.

1:08:17Pat McAfee:I love any time people get creative, H. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is the man. What's the scare go deep and employable? That's right. He's been a Super Bowl champion. He's coached everybody. Most recently, he's coached the Dallas Cowboys. In his past, he's coached plenty of Hall of Famers. Oh, yeah. Might have another one on that list. Ladies and gentlemen, our coach, McCarthy. Yeah, coach. How you doing, coach? Doing great, doing great. Congratulations, AJ. That's incredible. You've got to be excited, coach.

1:08:50Jeff Passan:That's awesome. Oh, yeah, appreciate it. What's your background today, coach? What is that? don't change the sound of him roberto clemente i just wanted to you know let everybody know what's when you come across the roberto clemente bridge which what's right there in front of you the great

1:09:04Pat McAfee:one coach so coach so there you go cy young winner paul skeins rested team ass game's over why don't you tell the owner he'll probably listen to you let's get some bats let's get some bats in the pnc park barn let's get some bats in there coach hasn't it been too long they've sucked you're old enough, Yenzer, that you experienced good days with the Pirates. My dad and older generation experienced good days with the Pirates. I'm 38. I have not experienced really a single, there was a playoff run there for a little bit with Coach and him. I haven't really experienced a good Pirates time. They got the guy now, a pitcher.

1:09:38Pat McAfee:Why don't they spend a little money, Coach? Why don't they spend a little money and make this thing happen? No, I definitely, I agree, you know, as far as it's time, because you had a great run in the 70s. You had a good run there in the 90s. And then, you know, in the mid-teens, they're around 14 so i'm with you it's time to get let's get another run going so uh just an unbelievable ballpark though uh to watch a baseball game just looking at the highlights here so how about this p and how about seven springs you ever go up there you uh ever go tubing up there you know that's nutting owned that thing he sold it obviously we thought he was going to spend that money on the pirates but he did not he put it in his pockets seven springs under better leadership now we know that we understand that well yeah from my neighborhood they made us go to hidden ballot We couldn't afford something.

1:10:21Good tube in there as well. Beautiful place. Yeah, yeah.

1:10:25Pat McAfee:Coach, let's talk a little bit about tonight. We have another division game here on Thursday night. Thursday night games used to be just division rivalries, and they would all get dressed up and everything like that. We're early in the year, another massive division game here. How excited should we be about these two teams playing? And just like last week, is the knowledge of the other team, Is that way heavy in the outcome of every one of these fights? Absolutely. I think, you know, number one, the Thursday night game, all these division games has been awesome. You know, and as we've talked last week, the division games are the best games of the year.

1:11:01I've always felt that. And I think just really what's going on in the league so far, from a division perspective, I think with the Chargers being 3-0, and then when you look at the NFC West, how competitive their division is, clearly by a win percentage, the most competitive division in football right now. You've got one team at 3-0 and three teams at 2-1. And if you look at both Arizona and the Georgia. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. It's going to be a hell of a battle down there in Arizona because I know when, you know, the first thing I always look at from the numbers perspective is, you know, how are the teams trying to play, especially when you're going through September football.

1:11:39And then when you look at the numbers of both these teams, I think they both have done a really good job of staying on time. You know, you look at the turnover ratio, you look at the ball distribution, which is, you know, rushing attempts and completions, and you look at time of possession. So I think these guys have done a really good job of trying to play to a specific time clock, and it's been productive for them because they both have, you know, their one loss is both came against San Francisco in tough division, hard-nosed, low-scoring type football.

1:12:08Pat McAfee:Both of these teams 2-1 against the spread. Sam Darnold having great success with the Seattle Seahawks immediately upon getting there. We thought we'd never see him again. Like, hey, he had a good run with the Vikings. He took the bag from Seattle. They're in the middle of a rebuild. They lose DK. They lose everybody. That team's going to stink for a while. See you later, Sam Darnold. That's not the case at all. They are a great football team. McDonald's defense is a real deal. Sam's had time, and he's spinning it all over the place. Jackson Smith and Jigba is the leading receiver in the entire NFL.

1:12:37Pat McAfee:He's on pace to do stuff that nobody since Marvin Harrison has done with the amount of deep shots and explosive plays that he's converted already over the first few weeks. They're special, huh? Not a lot of conversation about them. Obviously, they beat the Steelers, so Steelers fans all have their attention. This morning, whenever we bring up the Seattle Seahawks versus Cardinals, every Steelers fan in the building goes, that's a good football team. Good football team. That's a good football team up there because of what they did to the Pittsburgh Steelers. But I don't think a lot of people really talk about the Seattle Seahawks like that, Coach.

1:13:03Pat McAfee:Other than like... Go ahead, I'm sorry. No, no, go ahead. Well, I was going to say, always loud stadium. Always like, they got a loud stadium, but they're in a train. They kicked Pete Carroll out. That's how we talk about them. That's how I think a lot of people talk about them. They're a damn good football team, Coach. I don't think anybody really expected that out of them this year. Yeah, definitely. And I think, obviously, with Sam there, but I see a different mindset in the way they're playing up front. I really like the way they're playing both offense and defensive line. And I think, obviously, this battle tonight, that's where it will start because they are definitely getting a big play production from their perimeter.

1:13:36So very good football team, you know, beating Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, obviously an excellent win, excellent road win, and this is going to be a tough road environment for them down in Arizona tonight.

1:13:46Pat McAfee:That was a 10 a.m. start for them local time against Pittsburgh. I mean, that's the hardest of hard – that's a home opener for Aaron, right? Yeah. Home opener for Aaron, home opener for the Steelers, 10 a.m. local. All the juice is on the other side of the field, and the Seattle Seahawks did what they did to them. Congrats to them. I'm excited to see if they can continue to go tonight. Go ahead, AJ.

1:14:04Jeff Passan:Yeah, Coach, switching to Sunday night, the Packers traveling to Jerry World, taking on the Cowboys. Obviously, Micah coming back after, you know, seeing me. It wasn't that long ago Micah was in that facility, and now he's coming back. What kind of game do you think Micah has, and what's that atmosphere really going to be like in that stadium? Oh, I think it'll be a great atmosphere. I mean, it always is, and especially when you have a team that travels like Green Bay. So it'll be electric. It'll be a Sunday night football. But I think once that ball gets kicked off, it's going to be about going back to the trenches.

1:14:34So obviously, they know Micah very well. He'll get plenty of attention. I say it all the time. He's the most disruptive defensive player that I've worked with, especially in the training camp environment and so forth. So there'll be double teaming him when he gets off the bus. But I think it'll be a hell of a football game. And just like I said, I think week one, I'm a fan this year. I get to root for the Steelers openly and root for the Packers and the Cowboys. So I just think it's going to be a hell of a football game Sunday night.

1:15:02Pat McAfee:NBC has sent all of their shows basically down there. They're making this a big spectacle, as they should. Packers, Cowboys, two legendary teams. And you talked about the trenches and the big boys and doubling Micah and everything like that. That Dallas defense is going to have to do a lot. They were on Darius Butler's Everything DB, Good D, Bad D. And there was a quad box for the first time for Bad D. And it was four different plays. Different? Where at four different plays, guys were just wide-ass open. Oh, geez. Wide-ass open. Not for, like, anything too extravagant either. It was the Chicago Bears.

1:15:34Pat McAfee:Now, obviously, Caleb Williams with a revenge game against Iberflus' defense, and he does his thing. But that Cowboys defense did not look good at all. And with this Packers offense, they can get you. So, obviously, you're going to have to tighten those things up. But as a whole, whenever you talk about playing, go ahead, Ty. Yeah, and that's coming off a week where they allow 450 passing yards to Russell Wilson. and we saw what he looked like on Sunday Night Football against the Giants. But, Coach, as a whole, when it's the defense – I mean, offensively, you've got potentially CD out. You're going to be missing one of your linemen.

1:16:04I think they're missing another lineman already, so they're going to be very banged up. But just as a whole, is there anything they can correct in a week from looking as bad as they did last week to maybe get into a point where this will be a more competitive game than a lot of people anticipate? Definitely, and I think really the quick turnaround helps because I think like a lot of things, I think September football has components that you see each and every year. And I know being grateful to being coached before the CBAs and post-CBAs, you have seen a change on how you're able to train your team and some of the things you experienced in September that you didn't in the old days.

1:16:43So I think you definitely have some of that. And when I look at Dallas' defense, and obviously having personal knowledge and relationship-wise to the men in that locker room, I just think you got to look at it. They're on their third defense in three years. So, you know, you go Dan Quinn, Mike Zimmer, and now, you know, the new coordinator. So there is a difference, particularly in the coverage component, as far as their base philosophy, how they're, how they're playing. So they definitely need to correct what they need to correct, especially the last two weeks. But, you know, it's, it's week four, clearly understand the magnitude of the Cowboys versus the Packers on both sides of it, but they just need to stick to, you know, stick to what they're doing.

1:17:23It's an excellent coaching staff. Really, really exceptional locker room. I would say that from firsthand. And it's week four. And I do believe that there's a lot of football left to be played.

1:17:36Pat McAfee:Some of these stats are saying, there ain't that much football left to be played. And I know the coach, your entire mission, especially if the team, and I don't know how many of those seasons you've ever been a part of, to be honest, because it feels like you win all the fucking time. Yeah, legit. Have you been a part of any, like, 0-3 starts? Oh, yeah. I mean, I go back to AJ, our first year together. I mean, that was a hard year. So we were 1-4, and then we were 4-8, and then we won the last four in a row in 06, and it really felt like it gave us a lot of momentum going into the offseason program, and then, you know, came back and was the youngest team in football both in 06 and 07, and played the NFC Championship game and lost in overtime to get the Super Bowl.

1:18:20So, yeah, I think we've all been there. You know, and that's why I go back to it. It's week four. It's a new coaching staff on the defensive side of it. I think you can see the carryover that Dallas has on offense. And, you know, I think they'll continue to carry the water as the defense goes through this transition. It happens. It happens every year. But you just got to stay, you know. Them players, they'll stick to it, and I think they'll come out of this.

1:18:47Pat McAfee:Shawty, first-time head coach. I assume he's younger than Eberfaloose. He's not 100 % sure. Is there a conversation that he's had by head coach there? Like, does Shoddy have to have an uncomfortable conversation with the Eberflus about, like, hey. Giving up 50 points a game. Does that happen? Or how does that kind of work as the head coach? Like, this is a first time Shoddy maybe, because what the offense is doing versus what's going on with the defense, it's like, how does the head coach have to handle that? And how do you think Shoddy might be handling that? Or any new coaches in those maybe uncomfortable conversations that have to take place as a head coach that doesn't have to take place at any other position?

1:19:20Pat McAfee:or am I kind of blowing that out of proportion? No, I mean, I can only tell you how it goes from personal experience and obviously having a lot of history with Brian, I think it's a constant conversation. I mean, I don't think you just wait to talk to somebody when it's not very good. So I think evaluation is a seven-day, 24-hour thought process, and I'm sure that he's going about it that way. So, you know, I know and learned it from his father. You know, you get in there early Monday mornings and the most important video is the video that you just got done playing because it's a very natural path where you want to just mind it, hey, let's get on to the next opponent.

1:20:01I know players and coaches, you feel that way, but I've always adhered to the most important video of that week is the game we just played. So I'm sort of going through it and the corrections are being made and they'll continue to grow from it.

1:20:13Pat McAfee:If they saw the four clips that we saw on everything DB, good D, bad D, I think Shawty's going to be good. Did we practice? Are we trying to? What is the – and obviously that's going to happen. It's week four. That's right. It's week four. September football. Low football. Yeah. Low football. Figure it out. We're going to go. Sounds like another T-shirt. September football. There's some teams, though, that we're talking, hey, they might win the whole damn thing in September. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Coach, and more specifically – That's a tough one, though. That is a tough one. Not normally, but today maybe.

1:20:50Pat McAfee:Really? I don't know. Specifically? That's a tough one. A lot of sp-sp-sp-sp-sp-sp-sp-sp. And then a p-p-p-p in there. That's a lot of sounds. I'm glad we got you, though. Coach, there's no way. Could you nail us specifically right now? No, I'm from Pittsburgh. Exactly. It's tough for our accent. But no, specifically talking about the division. Well done. Chargers are 3-0, and then you have the Bills, Niners, and Bucks, who are all 2-0 in their divisions. When you have a great start to the season, it's one thing, but talk about when you have a great start in the division as well, being undefeated in the division to start the year.

1:21:27I think it's huge because I think, like anything, just got done saying there's a lot of football left to be played and your season's not determined in September. But, boy, when you can get those division victories in the bag, especially on the road, those are huge. And I've always felt that because victories bring confidence. You know, road victories bring a little more confidence. And road victories and division victories bring you even more confidence. And that's just something I've always believed in. I think as your team grows each and every year, you've got to stack success. And that's all part of the momentum that you're building.

1:22:01And, you know, it's a long year. So, you know, getting that momentum rolling and keep building off it week by week is awesome. So to have that in September, I mean, it definitely gives them a nice springboard going into October football.

1:22:13Pat McAfee:Roberto Clemente had a good run. No signal back here. Did you see that? We lost the photo. Oh, no. Oh, no. Did you? Oh, we didn't. You did. Bye-bye, Roberto. Oh, well. Pittsburgh Pirates ain't spending. My first IT issue. All right. There you go. Oh! There you go. Hey, open the tab. Open the – go to the webs. Go to Safari and then go to History.

1:22:44Pat McAfee:Clear the cookies, Coach. Clear the cookies. The starting 3-0 in the division, though, that is such a great head start just to start your season. I mean, legitimately, what a relief I would assume that is as you get those out of the way. But whenever you see the schedule have that many division games that early, you know coming out of the blocks we have to play our best football. Feels like the Chargers are doing that for all these teams. How hard, like the Colts, for instance, and the Chargers, all these teams that are playing great. How easy is that to sustain? How hard is that to sustain? Like, what are your thoughts on dealing with a team being great early?

1:23:17Pat McAfee:Like, the Indianapolis Colts right now are playing the best football that they've maybe ever played, okay? The Colts as a whole. How do they sustain that for how long the season is? Obviously, we're crossing our fingers about injuries. That's going to happen in the NFL. But other than that, do they continue to get better in little things? Like, what is your thoughts on sustaining success, especially a hot start like this? Yeah, that's where I go back to the evaluation process we spoke on earlier. You cannot change your Monday process, regardless of the outcome of the game. So as long as you keep evaluating the same, win or lose, keeping things realistic, because we've all been there.

1:23:49We've all been part of games where you play very well and you haven't won, and there's games where you didn't play very well and have won. So I just think staying in tune with the reality of where you are each and every week and continue to build off of that and grow, because there are things, there are more little things in September. I think it's only natural because you only have so many padded practice. You know, the double team blocks aren't as tight. The pad level's a little high. You know, the spacing, you know, going to special teams, I don't know if we're going to talk about that. Absolutely.

1:24:20Next. Yeah, I mean, you got to look at the big plays on special teams. So are the alignments right? It's the time clock of the snap and the hold intact or the pads too high on, you know, on field goal protection because, you know, those are the things that, you know, how much time are you are you putting to that i know as a head coach i always looked at it as the challenge of scheduling and training your football team versus the other 31 you know coaches is so important and and always and always put a lot of time into that how much time we're going to spend on each you know situation if red zone offensive defense wasn't very good and in 22 then you know i'll tell you 23 we were going to work on it more so think so but you only have so much time in this in the CBA area.

1:25:01So all those little things add up. Those little things always add up, and that's why I just think it's so important on how you've got to find ways to win in September. It's critical. That's why I just have so much respect. I mean, I don't know. The Chargers 3-0 in the division after three weeks. Has that been done before? That seems very unique to come out and play three division games, and now they'll be sitting there at 3-0. So, I mean, that's definitely, you know, there's a lot of positive juice in the building right now, for sure.

1:25:28Pat McAfee:I appreciate that Roger Goodell went down to schedule maker or somebody and said, last couple of years, beginning of the season, you're shit. Division games. Make it better. We need the best games early, actually. The teams have all told us they don't want that, though. Well, that's good. You know how much Jeff Bezos, how much money he has? We would like to entertain. That is clearly a mission this year, it felt like. With the amount of division games early, and especially the primetime games, it's like they want their best games leading off the season because there has been a lull at the beginning of these seasons, and I think that's potentially because of the CBA era that you are referring to where there isn't much training, isn't much working, and then preseason, what does that become?

1:26:07Pat McAfee:But if they start putting these very important games at the beginning of the season, all of a sudden preseason becomes very important for these teams. So it might have been a good answer, even though coaches are going to have to dodge and kind of duck, dive, and dodge through this entire thing, through the early rigors of a schedule. Now, on that note, you mentioned something that people have been taking advantage of this year more so than last year. Go ahead, Connor.

1:26:29Jeff Passan:Yeah, Coach, a lot of game-winning kicks so far this year. I think we had four this past weekend. We also had a potential two-score kick for the Bucs to go up. Instead, the Jets take it back for a touchdown. Rams, Josh Cardi's got a chance at a game-winning kick. That gets blocked for a touchdown. Special teams seems to be a massive deal so far early on in the season. What do you think so far about field goal operations, things of that nature and then how do you feel about some of these kickoffs the rams josh carty and the panthers uh ryan fitzgerald i believe both those teams lead the league in um opponents starting field position i think the panthers right here this is ryan fitzgerald they lead the league um their opponents drive start the in the drive start they their opponents start their drives on the 21 um vrabel said he watched two hours of this special team stuff this week to prepare for the Panthers what do you think of all this Big Mike and how do you think it's going to affect the game?

1:27:28Going back to the first part I know historically for me personally the teams that I've coached being in charge of a draft and develop program always had a little more anxiety towards special teams particularly early in the year because being a young team obviously your special teams are even younger so that was always a bit of a challenge and something that was a really focal point for me and a special teams coach as far as how we were trying to play coming out of training camp going into the season. So I do think you see some of that that can affect the opportunity for potentially more big plays.

1:28:04And I think clearly on the kickoff, I think the league is getting exactly what they want. I don't recall specifically with the numbers, but I think they were down to 20 % returns and 80 % kickoffs. And I know the goal was to get it up to, I think it was between 70 % 80 % returns and, you know, 20, 30%, um, you know, excuse me, touchbacks. And, um, I'm not sure what those numbers are now. Way up. I think way up. I know the way, I know the way up, but no, but they are,

1:28:33Pat McAfee:they're celebrating that the NFL celebrating that. That's a big change. The whole kickoff was a huge change and they're saving it. They said, coach, everyone has saved the kickoff is what they were saying. Definitely. And I, and I, and I'm a big, and I, and I love the play also because I mean, it's, I think it gives you a chance also when you get into roster development, to make sure you're given the tournaments of the world opportunities to affect the game and things like that because there's definitely a place for those type of players. So I think it's great that the kickoff is back in the game.

1:29:02Pat McAfee:2006 Bears started 3-0 in division. You should remember that. They made the Super Bowl. Yeah. My first game as a head coach. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I'm open. Bad memory, right? It was a hard day, AJ. Yeah, I'm sorry. Let's talk about that kickoff. We made up for it later, though. We came out of it. You put a trophy in the building. Okay, that's, I heard the Steelers, I think it was Joey Porter. Yeah, I think Joey Porter spoke at training camp, and he said that his group, basically, we added a trophy to the building. We feel like we did our job. That's like a good way to kind of view it all.

1:29:37Pat McAfee:Back to the kickoff thing. They're hitting a squib. Okay, these two guys are hitting squibs, good squibs. They're calling it dirty ball and knuckleball. This is a squib. This is what a squib used to be. and I don't know if I love the kicker hitting the squib. I think the punters should be working on hitting squibs. Just the thought of a kicker having to hit a ball fat, I don't like. I just personally – That's just with their field goal kick. I don't like it, yeah. Just them seeing the ball come out shitty like that when they're taking their field goal steps, I don't personally love. But these dudes that hit good squibs, I think it's a real weapon right now.

1:30:09Pat McAfee:It is. It is a real weapon, Coach, and I assume there's going to be more people that are going to try to do it. But remember, if you hit this thing and it lands too short, if it lands in front of the 20 there, that ball is all the way out to the 40, which is like basically 70 % or 60 % scoring percentage or something like that. Whenever it's inside to 20, it's like 15 % or 12 % or something like that. So it's a huge deal if you're able to hit one of these good balls. And the fact that Vrabel is paying attention to it, I obviously massively respect. But I think special teams' importance is very real this season, more so than ever.

1:30:38Pat McAfee:And the kickoff's a big reason because of it. Yeah, definitely. I've been very blessed to have two exceptional kickers in my career, both starting in Green Bay with Mason Crosby and then down there in Dallas with Brandon Aubrey. And it's a great place to be as a head coach because it definitely makes you approach certain situations differently. I mean, Mason used to have an unbelievable spike on side kick that I would try to space it out almost every four or five weeks or six weeks. who were always looking for the opportunity to utilize that. And then he also had a couple different sky kicks, you know, different spots on the field.

1:31:14So I always looked at him as a tremendous weapon, especially playing outdoors in Green Bay, especially in the winter. So it is a nice part that has been added back to the game. So I'm definitely excited to see the kickoff back. And then, you know, Brandon Aubrey, I mean, what can you say about him? I mean, he used to go into games and talk about the game-winning field goal spot would be 33 35 36 yard line now you just got to get it closer to 50. so that's a that's a nice weapon to have so i'm very very blessed with those two guys that's really a comfortable spot to be

1:31:47Pat McAfee:he said he hit a 60 yarder in warm-ups and it was close he had hit a 66 yarder he just told his body hey we need a 60 yarder here that's a good thing to be able to do if you're a kicker in the nfl yeah i have no idea how far i can hit it but i know i need it to go 66 so just kind of all right just figure it out and he does he did and you stand behind him man that ball is like a rocket coming off his foot it's you know just over the years you you know that's that's where i would always stand during the special teams behind the punter or behind the kicker and well when we brought him into training camp that year after he was done playing at usfl it was obvious on the first five kicks that this young man was different you know the ball just exploded off his foot smooth swing too never really trying hard just like a super smooth swing perfect form every time and he said that none of his balls are the same and he's never back at the same spot because he doesn't want to become a robot he said he just wants to kind of keep it all kind of fluid which is the complete opposite of what every other kicker basically says which is why i love him i love him even more it's like this dude is an anomaly the kickoffs though i aubrey's a talented ball striker uh talented enough ball striker to figure out all these guys are but i don't like kickers taking their field goal steps and then the ball yeah i i in my head i'm just too mentally weak i i know i wouldn't want that you know i just cardi potentially on that last one too i know it gets blocked yeah that thing's poorly because they hit that squib you got to hit that fat coach you understand you know what i'm talking about you're gonna hit that ball fat you're gonna hit the middle of that thing you do not want to do that on a field goal i mean that is like and they're talking about the differences like this much so like that much of a difference between matt prater the other night and then hitting that thing perfect in the straight.

1:33:26Pat McAfee:It's like, I don't want to dance with it. But good luck to all the ball strikers. And I appreciate the fact these kickers are getting better. The surprise onside kick out of the game, coach, I feel like we're all to blame for that. You know, and you talk about Crosby, he was so good at that. Just casually running up and spiking that thing off the ground. He's a weapon. Janikowski, maybe the best of all time, especially whenever he was out at Oakland on that baseball field. He'd spike that fucker off that dirt. And that thing would hit the hit the weed clouds that are hovering above that coliseum out there.

1:33:55Pat McAfee:It was outrageous. Yeah, good times. Special teams are back. Special teams are back. They were talking about that leaving the game, Coach. I'm happy that's not the case. Hall of Fame nominee A.J. Hawk has a question for you.

1:34:06Jeff Passan:Coach, I don't know if you saw last week, we see Andy Reid kind of give Travis Kelsey, I think, a nice little shoulder on the sidelines. I thought it was a positive interaction. I think it shows both these guys care about their job and they want to get the job done. They want to win. Did you over all the time you've had in the NFL, have you, not you personally, I haven't seen any footage of you getting in a fight with anyone, but have you witnessed any great interactions on the sideline like this or something much better maybe back in the early 90s when coaches and players sometimes legit would fight?

1:34:34Oh my God. I mean, 90s was a whole different era, I mean, without a doubt. But yeah, I'm just watching Andy's interaction for the first time. It's awesome. That's your first time seeing that?

1:34:46Pat McAfee:That's your first time seeing that? Yeah, that's awesome. But I think that stuff's really, it's really awesome. But also what I like about it, I think it says a lot about the relationship, you know, because, you know, being from Pittsburgh, as you know, punching on guys is a sign of love. I mean, that's, you know, I think that's an expression from our generation. And I think that's really cool. I think it tells about the relationship. Obviously, whatever needs to be said or whatever was happening at that time, obviously, that they were addressing something. But, you know, what happens on the sidelines definitely needs to stay on the sidelines.

1:35:18And especially being a part of NFL pre where they had the mics in your face and so forth. I think people are more conscientious of it now because, I mean, it's hard not to notice a boom mic coming flying down over your head and things like that. Where obviously the, you know, the 90s was a lot different. I know when I first became a head coach, my mother used to tell me all the time that my language is terrible. And I says, well, she goes, you can't talk like that when I have the camera on you. I said, I have no idea when I have the camera on you. She goes, well, you need to clean up your language.

1:35:52But it's a different era now. But I think the 90s was a lot more fun, that's for sure.

1:35:56Pat McAfee:Okay, so I didn't get to experience the 90s. My mom as well, whenever I become a kicker and whole world change for my family, all of a sudden our first game was on national television against Syracuse. okay it was on abc my first football game freshman for west virginia and i just got out of the soccer world i would show up on fridays in high school this is like me just getting dropped into that and i missed like from 47 or something like that and i drop a nice clean mother fucker just immediately you know that's that's the immediate reaction then i walk into the locker room i apologize to the boys for that then we kind of get off and my mom was like hey you just need to know that they are zoomed in on your face as soon as you miss so what you said there was very loud so i would for a couple weeks you know i feel like i didn't do it all the time head down and everybody's like oh he's pouting or whatever no i'm yeah there are some terrible things being said about myself going straight down but in the moment it's hard not to get caught in it i think that's what andy reed did with travis and i think it goes back to what you're talking about about the relationship andy reed and travis kelsey got to get along very well both for what travis did to Andy.

1:36:58Pat McAfee:Yeah. And then now what Andy is doing to Travis. And then Andy Reid came out. And I don't think I like this. Mike McCarthy and I'm Pat McAfee. He said, you know, Travis is Irish, too. So we got, he gets a little fiery sometimes. Did you hear that, Coach? I mean, truth can hurt sometimes, Pat. I agree with Andy. You can't dispute that. I mean, it's part of the Irish genetics. Bill Pullian texted me after I got arrested for a public intoxication alleged story definitely publicly intoxicated he sends me a text hey when you get in uh come to my office we'll have a conversation and he put in there i know you're irish i'm irish as well let's just have a conversation about everything that took place and that was the first time that i'd ever had that said to me by somebody and i was like oh this this guy's like hey we're not screaming at each other in here just want to let you know that this is not gonna escalate at all that was uh i don't think the irish people should be judged like that i don't think we should be judged like that but it is reality of situation i would want to be associated

1:38:00Jeff Passan:with that as well i'd rather be that way than any other way let's talk about this weekend they're

1:38:04Pat McAfee:playing in ireland minnesota pittsburgh 9 30 kickoff for us uh central time what is 8 30 i guess kickoff all day getting a chance to enjoy it pittsburgh steelers obviously very popular we think in ireland dublin being a steelers home game is how everybody is feeling this carson once though i think the irish could potentially fall in love with this thing if they see him walking around the streets. How do you feel about these international games? How do you feel about them playing in Ireland? I love it. I didn't really get to experience much of it later in my NFL career, but I always enjoyed, you know, the Tokyo Bowl and things like that.

1:38:39But, you know, I was at the University of Pittsburgh in 1989. We had a chance to play Rutgers in the Emerald Isle Classic game over there in Ireland. And that was just such, I mean, that was the coolest experience. and then just to see all the Pittsburgh people come over there for the game. So I think it's just going to be an incredible atmosphere for the NFL, obviously with the Rooney family, Rooney family's connection to Ireland. So I think that's going to be a really cool game.

1:39:09Pat McAfee:Hey, so Packers didn't do international games until what, Brazil? No, until when they went to England to play the Giants a couple years ago. Brazil was the second time. Runway's too short. Yeah, runway's too short. We can't get there. Yeah, exactly. It's kind of unfair. We can't get over there. Runway's too short. Sorry. Can't build any more, too. The land's bought. So we can't fly anywhere. And then Dallas. Does Dallas? I don't think I remember at 930 a.m. Dallas. I doubt it. Jerry, I could see never letting that happen. So you guys didn't do that, huh? No, Mexico. Jerry would go to Mexico. But I don't think going over there was an option.

1:39:42But, yeah, AJ, we missed the European. Ted Thompson never wanted to go across. But I think it's cool when you get to do that. I've never heard anybody dislike it. I coached in the game down there in Mexico when I was with the 49ers in 05. We played the Cardinals. That was a neat experience. That was the first regular season game outside of the United States. So I think it's been very positive, not only for the NFL, but it's been great for the fans.

1:40:10Pat McAfee:I like hearing that from you. If you get back into coaching somewhere, we know that Australia is looking to have a game. Sounds like he would love that. Yeah. Coach? Maybe not Australia. Coach, over. Make sure we got a bi-week here, Pat. Can you get that done? We got to make sure we're bi-week on the way back. Bi-week before and after. I mean, 16 hours over the Pacific you're going, let alone to get to L.A. or whatever, but 16 hours over the Pacific to get there. You just did that trip, right? Yeah, there's no Wi-Fi either. You're Amish there for that entire day. You are doing it, and it's a long way.

1:40:45Pat McAfee:You got to really do it. But once you get there, the place is beautiful. I mean, it is. That place would love American football if it was fully around and ever present. It's just the timing is crazy. That's why them thinking about taking a game over there is absurd. Life clock is going to be set back for weeks for guys, I think. I think that would be maybe too much for the players, no doubt. You definitely have to build in some extra time there. Coach McCarthy will take his team over. Yeah. You're a good bloke. I'll do anything right now. Yeah, you can get me to do anything right now. All right, let's do this.

1:41:18Pat McAfee:How do you think tonight goes? is because we know you're not against a spread picker. No, you're not a gonger. Okay? You would never want to do that. But if you were to, with the way you've been describing these games, we'd just like to let you know you would be 2-1 right now. Last week is the one, okay, in 2-1, and you waffled on that. Coach. You even said in your statement, this is how I believe, and on that note, I don't believe that tonight. You went directly against yourself last week. So you're 2-1. I think you're seeing it well, and I think you need to go with your gut. Isn't that kind of the mission?

1:41:51Jeff Passan:Yeah, especially because, I mean, Coach, I don't know if you want to say, but I believe Big Mike unfortunately caught some gruff last time he was up in Green Bay from a bartender letting him know, like, hey, I bet on the bills because you told me to, but now you're sitting at my bar and you just said that's too many points for a division game. What the hell is going on?

1:42:10Pat McAfee:Well, that's because he wants to get his own, right? You want to get your own intuition. No, I do. I mean, just my personal experience, division games are so damn tough. I mean, to take that many points. But, you know, I was kind of around, you know, just watching Josh Allen play that week and so forth. You know, you're thinking, oh, they can handle it. But I almost need to apologize to Miami. That's just a tremendous amount of points in a division game. So, yeah, I just do it. I know I feel like I say this every week. The division games are the best games. I mean, it's going to be tight as hell.

1:42:39You look at the games that both teams have played so far, they both have lost tough games to San Francisco, tough defensive battles. You know, both these defenses are playing well. I think that when you look at all the numbers, because the first thing I always look at is, obviously you look at the score of the game, but you look at the turnover ratio, ball distribution, time of possession. Then you go look for the big plays. But the one thing that really factors into these Thursday night games more than we probably give credence to is the injury report. And based off what I saw this morning, I think Seattle is a healthier team coming in than Arizona.

1:43:12So I'm going to go with the Seahawks.

1:43:14Pat McAfee:Okay. This doesn't even have James Conner, obviously one of their staples over there in Arizona. He's out. Backup running back is good, though. Connor has done film for fantasy football teams into him. And then the Seattle Seahawks, they seemingly are playing great ball right now, too. Like, it's not even a question. I know they lose. And obviously, what are the Niners going to look like going forward? Brock Purdy's getting one reps. Bosa out, though. So what is the San Francisco 49ers? Do they make a big trade for a pass rusher?

1:43:41Jeff Passan:That's what they were talking about, kind of alluding to in the past with the San Fran 49ers. Like McCaffrey was one of their acquisitions midseason. when they were really... And then they started giving him the ball. Yeah, and it worked for them big time. They did. Did they get Bryce Huff in a trade or free agency? And then they... Who did they draft? Michael Williams out of Georgia. So they do have guys at those positions. They're not Bosa, obviously, but they have guys at that position, so it'll be interesting to see. What about Hendrickson? Yeah, Trey. What about Trey Hendrickson? Especially with how it looks like Cincinnati's season could go from here on out.

1:44:13Pat McAfee:And he's a free agent at the end of the year, so that's one of those things that could potentially take place. We're just, we are, this is no intel. No, hypothetical. This is hypothetical. This is no inside information. We are just making this up on the spot, which is kind of what the show is, which is why we appreciate you joining us and being a part of the bullshit, coach. You're the best. Well, I mean, bullshit and wit, man. I'm glad to be part of it. I mean, it's just, it is impressive, though. I mean, you threw out some great, great ideas there. But as you know, all teams operate this way.

1:44:40They're looking at everything every week and so forth. And I'm sure the 49ers are obviously involved in conversations just like every team is.

1:44:48Pat McAfee:So that is happening every single week at every team, you think? There's like, who could we add, potentially add, will we? Probably not, but this is available. That has to happen at each team now at this stage of where the NFL is? Oh, I think so. I think if a personnel department's not involved in conversations 365 days a year, they're not doing their job. Hell yeah. That's been my personal experience. So that's the way the organizations that I've been a part of operate. That's your personal personnel kind of experience. I like that. I appreciate that. Hey, Coach, anything to say to the team on the way out here?

1:45:21Pat McAfee:Great job, guys. I mean, it's an adventure, and I'm enjoying it. I'm loving it. Team on three. Is that how we do it? Team on three. Let's get the Hall of Famer to break us down. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, you're right.

1:45:33Jeff Passan:AJ, Hawker, let's go. What do you got, bud? Coach, you ever go on Jerry's yacht? I meant to ask you that a while ago. Yes, it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. We'll hear about that maybe next time. It's a good tease from next time. Team on three. One, two, three. Team. That's good.

1:45:47Pat McAfee:That was good. Yeah, we may really do hear about that. It's Coach Carsey. Thank you, buddy. Good question, H. We saw Jerry drafting from that thing. Oh, my God. And they took that drone outside and shot it, and that drone just kept going. Just kept going. Thought it was crucial. Lost connection. That's Jerry Jones. Yeah. It's too big. Had to recheck into Bluetooth on the other side. Got two different Wi-Fis, two different passwords. The AirPods are reported as missing. But if they're left on the other side, to your phone on the other side of the yacht. What a special place Jerry has built down there.

1:46:21Pat McAfee:NBC, it's been reported they're sending everything down. Everybody. Jerry's like, of course, of course they're sending it. Got it damn right. Bring them down. Well, you think this is? They got the Ryder Cup obviously happening. That's great. That's special. Guess what's in that cap? The show. And guess what? Somebody we made into a star. Do you know him? Maka Starsons is what I like to call him because he had a star on his helmet. So that's why people. If you don't recall, we made him start. You're welcome. He's coming back in to the place that made him. I birthed this man, and now he's coming back to my world.

1:46:51Pat McAfee:We will not be showing a video, okay? There will be antidotes for that out there. Outside, you'll see maybe little koozies and things like that. There's enough welcome for him around, is what he said. There's enough welcome for him around there. It's like, from who? It is special.

1:47:10Jeff Passan:Were you surprised, though? Did you think they were going to have a video for him?

1:47:12Pat McAfee:No. No. No. I don't think so. He played there for four years. Yeah, four years is not a long time. Now, he was pretty great. Four great years. He's amazing. Unbelievable. The wound is still fresh.

1:47:23Jeff Passan:And every year after the Cowboys season, it is always like, geez, another disappointing season for the Cowboys. It has never been since Michael was there, at least. Like, hey, great season. That's part of it. Good season for the Cowboys. But seriously, I mean, if you win something, I feel like you get a tribute. Isn't that kind of –

1:47:43Pat McAfee:Well, Emmitt's a little bit different now, fucking Emmitt. I almost gave him a percentage of the team. Okay, he – 2-2, he did a lot for the star. That's different. Jerry Jones' life a lot different before Emmitt Smith and after Emmitt Smith. We will certainly pay homage to Emmitt. And if Troy wanted to come back and play somewhere, I guess we'll put fucking eight up there. Micah Irvin? The playmaker. Micah? We'll have him hit that siren, actually, if he's playing for another team. Micah Parsons, I'm not 100%. I don't think that's appropriate. That's not appropriate. I don't think that's appropriate.

1:48:17Pat McAfee:I don't think the Colts did it for Edge. I was there for that. That's different. Edge played for the Arizona Cardinals. When he came back, there was a nice tribute. And also, we know how close Jim and Edge were. They're like very good friends. So, I assume that was a very difficult decision. Joseph Adai, though, was an unbelievable running back for us. Same with Dominic Rhodes. So I think that decision was certainly one that Arizona made for everybody whenever they offered to pay the amount that they offered to pay for Edger and James. But when he came back, they showed it. Edge did a full, you know, Peyton Manning, obviously, during the 18-12 battle on Sunday Night Football.

1:48:50Pat McAfee:That was cool. I think NBC sent everything out for that particular night, too, as Andrew Luck took on Peyton Manning in the building that Peyton Manning and the boys helped usher into the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. It's like that was special, you know, but he got a full before the game. there was I think NBC even offered up the time hey we'll give you guys what time do you want to do your thing before the game there was the full I don't know if you remember this yeah during like throwing time for him before coin toss stopped his throwing helmet off full embrace of the crowd yeah that was a big deal yeah I'm warming up on the field there that's punting time as well and I'd never seen Peyton take the helmet off in that moment because that's like locked in time.

1:49:31Pat McAfee:And it felt like he did get emotional during that. That felt like a real... Because this city is very grateful to Peyton Manning. And I think in that moment, he got a chance to kind of experience it. And I do think that kind of... I think that was a little bit of a... Messing out of it.

1:49:45Jeff Passan:Gainsmanship, yeah. I think there was a little bit. Like running the military family out between the third and fourth quarter and the dad surprised him and I'm sitting on the sidelines bawling in my helmet watching the daughter run and hug the guy. That does something to you.

1:49:59Pat McAfee:Crying our faces off, dude. Because normally those are happening during times where the field's open. So I'm on the field punting. So then if something's happening in the middle of the field and a ball accidentally goes near there, I'm the worst person on earth. So I'm paying attention to all these things. And the military surprise come back home, every time water works on the field, punting. I'm like blurry, like literally punting the ball, looking over. Oh, my God, this is so awesome. He wasn't supposed to come home for three months. and then like the little kids obviously the full surprise mom might have a little sense something's up or dad if mom's coming home might have a little sense that something's up, the kids though have no idea, the kids have no clue so whenever old dad or mom pokes their head out or whatever it is you can't help but just like start to ball, you think that was a strategy though, I didn't even view that as a strategy for teams potentially

1:50:54Jeff Passan:maybe it's both, well no I don't think the military thing is but I think definitely honoring the guy. It's a little bit of both. Like, hey, we're going to put a great package together, make him feel great, maybe even cry a little bit, maybe get him off his game because we know how dialed in this dude is. We got to – he knows. He would respect us as competitors doing this.

1:51:09Pat McAfee:It would be cool if maybe they showed the boys on the home team the video, hey, this is what's going to happen. Okay, get the waterworks out now. This is going to happen right before fourth quarter. All the sidelines are going to be bawling their fucking faces off. Let's hit them. Here's Sunday Night Football. this is the war of 1812 as Peyton Manning returned back to Lucas Oil Stadium now remember Peyton Manning uh was cut by the Indianapolis Colts and it was during a time where they didn't know if he was going to be able to grip a football again because what he had going on with his neck and his spine and everything that was taking place and it was also during the lockout I mean there was here it is right here yeah thank you thank you all thank you thank you thank you and you remember the say that Peyton had in the city, he would literally forever do this number, and everybody in the city would shut up, whether they were at the game or not.

1:51:59Pat McAfee:If he did this, baby stopped crying downtown at Riley Children's Hospital, like Peyton Manning's Children's Hospital, his own Children's Hospital. Baby stopped crying when he did this. And then if it was this time, they went crazy. That dude, obviously statue well-earned, and the Colts fans that night delivered. They were so loud against him. They knew exactly what he didn't want. And they clapped for him jogging in. At the very beginning, yeah. It was like a perfect thing. How does that happen in New England?

1:52:24Jeff Passan:It was just like Brady. It was the same exact thing. I mean, you experience it with Vinny, kind of. Yeah, on the field. Yeah. Love you. Love you. Once the clock starts, this guy is... Yeah, exactly. This guy basically pissed on my mom's face. That's how much I hate this guy.

1:52:39Pat McAfee:Treason, yeah. That is what people were saying to Adam Vinatieri because it's a little tight there. So as we're jogging on the field, this guy has done a lot for the New England Patriots. He's jogging on the field. Please go, welcome back, Vinny.

1:52:48Jeff Passan:He's a top five Patriot all time without question, Adam Vinatieri. He started it. He started the dynasty. Exactly. And even before the dynasty, like the Herschel Walker thing, kind of before my time, but like my dad, when I bring up Adam Vinatieri, my dad's like go-to is, yeah, Adam Vinatieri tackled Herschel Walker. Obviously, he's a dog.

1:53:10Pat McAfee:So whenever he goes on the field, hey, welcome back, Vinny. Good to see you. And then as soon as that shit started, there were some terrible things And the net's like right there, very close at that stadium. And then as soon as the game was over, all right, Vinny, thank you for everything. He jogs out. It's like, damn, this place is awesome. Pittsburgh would do the same exact thing. It was nice to see Indy do that. Dallas, probably the same exact thing with Micah, if I had to guess. Although this thing has gotten really sour really quick. It might be on Micah's side, though. I was going to say, it's going to be interesting because he was traded and he kind of wanted to stay, as everything we've heard.

1:53:44And I also appreciate Jerry instead of making him cry. Let's mispronounce his name. Call him Michael about 100 times before he comes. Welcome back, Michael.

1:53:52Pat McAfee:We'll continue digital. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye. That came quick. That was a little premature there. A little bit. That clock. It's been an hour 57. I had no idea. That's crazy. That first hour, we flew. We did baseball in the first hour. AJ, did you see that?

1:54:08Jeff Passan:You did a good chunk on baseball. Yeah, Jet brought the juice.

1:54:12Pat McAfee:I called Jet. this morning FaceTime I go I fucking hate that I'm doing this okay it's Thursday week four the NFL season's kicking off we need to have a baseball conversation we need to pay respect to what's going on in MLB okay we need to pay attention to what's going on I think we should showcase it and Jet goes I'm only available in the noon hour and I go first hour brother I said I don't know dude I said we're trying to build during that hour you know there's a chance. Oh, no.

1:54:46Jeff Passan:I bet if we look, it's more than a chance now.

1:54:49Pat McAfee:Okay, well... I told that to Jet. But then out of respect for sports as a whole, and the argument that Jet laid out immediately upon me saying that, he's like, this is what all happened last night. Bang-a-bang-a-bang-a-bang-a-boom-a-bang-a-pow. Here's what's potentially coming up. The playoffs start on Tuesday. We got game 162 about to determine four or five different teams' fate. Baseball's really having a night. And last night, I happened upon that strike from center field, from the New York Mets on the Chicago Cubs. It was an electrifying environment. And I think I saw somebody with long sleeves on.

1:55:22Pat McAfee:I'm like, oh, yeah, we're in the time now where baseball really matters. And Jet won us over, so we did the baseball. And also, anytime you can get in there, Paul Skeens won a Cy Young. You got to. Hey, the best pitcher in baseball is our guy. Yeah, that's good.

1:55:37Jeff Passan:And do people know, other than – if people aren't diehard Paul Skeens or baseball fans, do they even know he had such an unbelievable season?

1:55:42Pat McAfee:So that's also, that was another part of the, we should do the baseball here on Thursday, week four kickoff. So we did that. We also talked about golf. Yeah. How do you feel about our Ryder Cup team, AJ? We haven't heard from the Hall of Fame nom here. Hoff nom, what are your thoughts on the USA team and on the European team?

1:56:03Jeff Passan:Well, there's been some slander towards this American team from this program. I mean, what are you guys saying? and they're not cool, or they don't have moxie. Not a lot of moxie on him. What's your problem?

1:56:14Pat McAfee:We don't need moxie. If they were in Europe, they would need moxie. Our boys would need moxie. But we're in America. Our fans will have enough moxie for our players. Players just need to lock in, dial in, and maybe not start verbal sparring with Rory beforehand. And Bryson DeChambeau, to his credit, last night, no games. No games. This ain't about chipping over my house. No. This ain't about putting a ping-pong ball into a cup so that somebody can wear a Ferrari in my living room. this ain't about having a good time in the back here at Thunderdome getting very close to a hole one multiple times very quickly this is about beating the shit out of Europe for the United States of America and I like that he's locked in I like that he's dialed in AJ but with that being said you look at the European team it looks much cooler than our team

1:56:55Jeff Passan:don't show it I get it but I don't know I have a good feeling about this American squad I do I think Keegan you know how much like I don't know I cannot imagine And Keegan feels like he's on the brink of a heart attack at all times because he's so excited about this opportunity and what he's doing as the captain of this squad. So I think JT, he's becoming Mr. Ryder Cup, right? Isn't he going to get everybody juice? Bryson's going to go for it on the first hole, they claim. Hey, be alert for Sam Burns, top left. I think Sam Burns, he's a stud. I'm looking for big things from him.

1:57:26Pat McAfee:Yeah, but we didn't know who that guy is right below Sam Burns, did we? Did we? Well, he wears the shades, right?

1:57:33Jeff Passan:He wears the big, like, aviator shades? You mean the number 11th ranked golfer? in the world who Foxy said sucks.

1:57:39Pat McAfee:This isn't about how good we are or rankings or any of that shit. I'm saying face value. I'm not rooting for a lot of these guys on Sunday.

1:57:47Jeff Passan:You go to the Europe team, I'm rooting for a lot of these guys on Sunday. That's part of the problem.

1:57:51Pat McAfee:You're pulling for anti-American propagandas on Sunday.

1:57:54Jeff Passan:No, this has nothing to do. This is the Ryder Cup. I'm rooting for America through and through, but I'm just saying they have a lot of cooler dudes on the Europe team than America does, and it's just unfortunate that it has to be pointed out. The thing we do have going for us is rory said in his interview like hey america is the greatest country in the world so like for rory to be saying that as we're going in i think we have it i mean this basically tells you all you need to know everyone wanted to make it in america it's the land of opportunity and i still believe it's the greatest country in the world and if you come here and you work hard and you dedicate yourself you can yes you can be or do whatever you want um we already i am we already won.

1:58:32I'm more American. And lucky that I got to come to America early on. Thank you. I think success is celebrated here. I think there's a wonderful sense of work ethic. And, yeah, I live here. My wife is American. My daughter is American. You know, I have a lot of affinity towards this country. And I think everyone that lives here should have that same affinity because it is a wonderful place.

1:59:01Pat McAfee:Don't be showing that right now. I don't need to see that going in a week. This feels like Foxy really wanted that to be run because he's on Team Europe, it sounds like. I'm not on Team Europe. We all know America's the greatest country on Earth. Why would I not run that video right there, especially going into this weekend? Rory's not thinking about Europe. He's not thinking about his homeland. He's not thinking about all of his fans in Europe. He's thinking about America because it's the greatest country on Earth. He's trying to warm up these fans. He's trying to warm you up.

1:59:30Jeff Passan:Mark, we have the better team, and that's all that matters. I'm just saying they have some cool dudes on that side. I believe it was 2000. I love it. Do we have the better team? I think it was 2000. We got to school the last time that an away team won. When was it? 2012, I believe. It's every two years? Yeah. I don't like that. It starts tomorrow morning? Yeah, tomorrow at 710, I believe. Just real quick. The COVID something happened there, I think. Okay, so pushed it back to an audio. Yeah. We got rocked last time, right? Was that Paris? Yeah. Yeah, they were doing that cool chant on the bus on the way home with the unbelievable guy.

2:00:11Jeff Passan:What was the chant? Oh, I thought he was just saying, you're unbelievable. Oh, it might have been that. I don't remember. Oh, he's hold it.

2:00:23Pat McAfee:Oh, wow, he hold it. Wow. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. It's hard not to root for that guy. And then Rory's saying America's the greatest. Exactly. And then on the flip side, you got Patrick Cantlay, who I want to see miss the cut and get last place every single week. So it's going to be very hard for me to come back around and wish him success on Friday. I will. I'll do it. But guess what? If he goes two down on the first two holes, oh, mama, I'm going to be ruthless. I hate that guy. Oh, mama. I hate him.

2:00:55Jeff Passan:What did Patrick Cantlay do? Oh, mama. What did he do to you? He sucks. He's the worm. He takes forever to hit his fucking face. He doesn't take a while. He only likes it. Yeah. Nothing about his game is compelling. Nothing. He's an American. That's it. Sure. I get that. There are a lot of fucking Americans out there, too, that I don't particularly like. But they're not playing golf for the country this weekend. That's what I'm saying. So I can let bygones be bygones. But having said that, this fucking guy better win every point. He better win every fucking point For the US while he's out there

2:01:29Pat McAfee:We're born for all of them

2:01:31Jeff Passan:Keegan's gonna put that in a video tonight To show the boys Hey no one believes in you No no no I didn't say no one believes in the team I said I don't believe in him I don't like him I believe in the boys We got fucking Scotty Scheffler You're right Cantlay You better fucking pick up some points For the country here pal What if he does? Will he win you over? No absolutely not. What?

2:01:56Pat McAfee:I hate the guy's guts. He does everything good for our country, though. You maybe turn over a new leaf. You got Yankees right there across your forehead, obviously, for the New York Yankees, but there has to be some sort of American pride. What if this guy goes out there and dominates? Pitches a perfect game. Then I would say, yeah, you're on the fucking Ryder Cup. It's about time, pal, because you've been on this team how many times before, and we're always losing. And I'm always seeing that goofy fucking look on your face after we lose. So, you know what it would take? He needs to a whole 75-foot putt on 18 on Sunday to win the Ryder Cup for the U.S., and then maybe I'd get back on his side a little bit.

2:02:32There's a chance.

2:02:33Pat McAfee:That's golf, baby. That's golf. I think America wins. I'm pumped for it. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, has become a weekly conversation and we're incredibly thankful for it. He has a wealth of football knowledge and his team had a tough loss to Michigan. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, the head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team Matt Rule. Sorry, man. Hey, Matt, thank you for joining us, Coach. You're on the road right now recruiting, right? What state are you in right now? Well, I would listen to the conversation. I can tell you this. I'm in Pierre, South Dakota, Mustang Aviation, and every single person here is counting on the U.S.

2:03:12to win the Ryder Cup. There is no debate on who we're rooting for here in South Dakota.

2:03:16Pat McAfee:Thank God. I'm happy to hear that out of you, Coach. That's why we let you. There's no debate on who we're pulling for, boys. I actually don't like the culture of this stuff for them all of a sudden. I couldn't agree more. There is no debate on who we're rooting for. We're rooting for America. None. It's not the name on the back of the jersey. It's the name on the front this week. It's USA. That's it. Tell that to Patrick Cantlay, coach. Okay, hold on. You're pulling for him this week. I am. I am. I am. Because he's on Team USA. Yes. That's what we're saying. He's saying it sounds like you guys are a little bit conflicted on who you're pulling for.

2:03:45Pat McAfee:And I don't like that that being a representation of what we have going on. We're pulling for America to be Europe, right? Foxy, you two. This team's so cool looking. And then he put it up there like four or five different times. Yeah, and it's true. Remember back in the day we used to have Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson. Where's Brooks Koepka at? Where's Dustin Johnson at? They stink at golf. We love those guys. They need to get better at golf because they're cool dudes, okay? Dustin Johnson would be cool up there. Thank you. He hasn't shot under par in two years. I know, but I'm saying if he was to somehow be good at golf again, maybe he goes talks to Wayne, you know, kind of does some osmosis stuff.

2:04:17Pat McAfee:It would be cool to see Dustin up there. It would be cool to see Brooks up there just because the big, fat, fucking lipper. Yeah. I realized this was a cool contest. I thought this was a golf contest. Yeah, I don't want to take a chance. I think it's part of it. I think it's part of it, especially with this amount of crowd and chirping and everything like that. I think our boys can be locked in now, Foxy. So why don't you come back to America, okay? Why don't you come back to America?

2:04:36Jeff Passan:Like I said, we're the better team. We're going to win. I'll be rooting for the boys. But if we lose, I know what I'm going to blame it on.

2:04:43Pat McAfee:Yeah, it's Cantlay's ass if we lose. We don't know. The Mustang Aviation FBO up there in South Dakota is a beautiful one. obviously you're hitting the road to get good players we respect that let's talk about what happened against Michigan we have to this was a big one for your team I think this was a massive one for the story of the Big Ten I think this was going to be considered a measuring stick for you I think but also for what your team could be this year do you agree with that or do you think we're still early in the process of figuring out who the hell we are at Nebraska well no I think I think both can be true I mean there was a chance to play a play a game versus a perennial top 25 team at home.

2:05:16They have a rookie quarterback, freshman quarterback. So you've got to go win that game. And we didn't. So we have to be disappointed, but we're also not going to put on black shirt, black tie, and just call it a season. We look at that game, Pat and I say, we gave up seven sacks. We gave up 286 yards rushing. So they got after us in that ways. And we lost by three. I told our guys, we've got playmakers making plays all over the field. We've got to get a little bit better in a couple areas. That was a good measuring stick for us. You know what? We're going to have a play a lot more good teams.

2:05:51We've got Michigan State in two weeks. We'll be ready.

2:05:53Pat McAfee:Okay, so everything's still in front of you guys, obviously, yes? Heck yeah. We're going to have a chance to face a lot of good teams. I think that took our pulse. It let us see. We knew the line of scrimmage battle would be one that we'd have to wait and see. We held them to 100 yards passing. We covered them all over the field. We played good. We played. We threw the ball. Dylan threw the ball for 307 yards. So the things that we've tried to get better at, we've gotten better at it. Now, you can't win in the Big Ten if you don't control the line of scrimmage. So we have to improve that. But, yeah, we're not seeding anything, man.

2:06:27We're going to battle back.

2:06:29Pat McAfee:Tell me about Michigan a little bit. Tell me about their team. Obviously, Bryce Underwood, phenomenal recruit is what everybody was talking about, five-star, build, everything. Tell me about their team. What did you see from them? I think two things really stood out to me. Number one, the week before they moved Jay Sean Barnum, they moved him from middle linebacker. We played at Maryland. They moved there and played. They moved him out to their outside linebacker. Man, I walked up to him after the game. I said, well, you're a top ten pick. I mean, that move disrupted everything. He didn't play that against Oklahoma.

2:06:58He played off the ball, and he's a great off-the-ball linebacker. But he is a difference maker coming off the edge. And then Justice Haynes, the tailback from Alabama. you know we gave up 286 yards rushing we gave up three three carries for 168 yards it's just he he's a he's a you give him a crack and he's gone and so um you know to win in the big 10 they're going to have to throw the ball more you can't throw the ball for 105 yards on screens you're going to have to throw the ball down the field but they got two guys there that i thought were were top 10 type type players that are going to be difference makers in the big 10.

2:07:33Pat McAfee:I can't wait to see what your team is by the end of the season and what this Michigan team is by the end of the season everybody basically growing at the same time go ahead aj yeah speaking to that

2:07:42Jeff Passan:coach i in your past as a coach i'm sure you you're always paying attention to how how good can your team get from the beginning from game one until say game 12 what kind of progress can you make what kind of momentum can you build is that something you feel like this team obviously each and every game win or lose like you guys are getting better i just wonder when you look back at the end of the season you look at hey week one or two and you think i know i've sometimes been We were a different football team back then. We don't make those mistakes anymore. We're so much better. Do you see that for this team and for teams you've had in the past?

2:08:13Yeah, no doubt. I mean, the interesting thing in that game, AJ, is we went down the field in two minutes before the half, ended up throwing a Hail Mary for a touchdown. We go down the field at the end of the game and go down and score a touchdown. So in critical moments, our inability to block their pass rush, but in critical moments, those two-minute drives, we move the ball. And so it's not a, oh, my gosh, we can't. It's that, hey, we didn't. And so I think, you know, sometimes positions like O-line and corner, positions where like if you mess up, everyone sees it. Like you almost have to go through a game sometimes where like, you know what, you had a bad game.

2:08:45You regroup. You wake up the next day. You're not dead. And now you go out and say, OK, I played against Barnum. He's an elite player. What am I going to do moving forward? How am I going to get better? And, you know, I showed the guys the other day, like the Ravens, you know, Lamar Jackson got sacked seven times. There's going to be days like that. I mean, this is a team in Michigan that beat Ohio State to end the year, beat, I think maybe Alabama in the bowl game. I can't remember who it was. They're a good, good football team. And it's a team we lost 55-7 to two years ago. Now there's no moral victories.

2:09:13But we lost by three. We had every chance to compete. We scored a touchdown. We stepped out of bounds. We didn't get to four points. So you're a player two away, but you have to make those plays up. And I think that's the mindset our guys have to have.

2:09:27Jeff Passan:On that note, Connor has a question for you. Yeah, Coach, what do you look for in your team when you're facing adversity? Is it just, you know, the week of practice, especially when you don't have a game the next week and you can't really get back out there and prove it? Are you just looking for effort, looking for energy all this week? What are some of those things? And then is it part of it, too, you also kind of, you know, letting up a little just because they are probably beating themselves up so much for the loss itself, you know, at home that you almost don't need to get on your guys versus when sometimes you do if you're playing a team under your guys' skill level?

2:10:03Yeah, I think that's a great question. Number one, I think having a bye week the week after a game like that is torture. I'm tortured right now. This is absolutely miserable because you want to get back out and play. I think the other thing, though, is if I took the approach with them of like, hey, it's okay, we lost, it's Michigan, then they wouldn't respect me. To me, it's like, no, no, no, no. We know they're good, so you guys are good, too. And you know what? Ohio State lost to Oregon last year in Game 4 by one point. You know what they did? They came back and they won a bunch of games. They got angry.

2:10:38They got pissed off and they came back. So we're not going to sit there and say, hey, it's okay. Like, hey, fix this, fix this, fix this. You know what we did? We went out. Coaches had their practice schedule. And, bro, I put the ball down on Tuesday and I said, all right, well, ones on ones, let's go play. Twos on twos. And we went for about an hour and 15 minutes. and the guys had so much fun. It wasn't punishment. Sometimes you have to, like, you put so much pressure. You've got to go back to just playing the game. Just go play. Have fun. Enjoy it. Fly around. We did that Tuesday. We did that Wednesday.

2:11:08This morning, we practiced this morning, and then I headed up here. So just wanted them to get back to, like, hey, you're a good football team. It's a play here, a play there. Now go make those plays, and I think we will.

2:11:19Pat McAfee:How'd the boys play? 115. Who won that? Defense or offense? Everybody get their licks? You know what? It was probably the best practice we've had all year. I think the defense, you know, when you give up 286 yards rushing, it's like your soul has been crushed. And you can say it's a play here, it's soul crushing. So I thought the defense, they came back and answered it. You know what I mean? It's like, hey, as you guys know, like on defense, you can't wait for someone else to make the play. Like you got to do your job, but then you got to run the ball. You got to knock the ball out. You got to strike somebody.

2:11:48You got to get off a block and make a play. And so I thought I saw some of our younger guys starting to be like, you know what, I can play better than this. So I think our defense made a jump this week.

2:11:57Pat McAfee:That's awesome. I can't wait to see who they are next week whenever you get back on the field against Michigan State. Hey, Michigan State's going to go green. Go white, Coach. You're putting points up. The defense, I don't know, but those boys are putting points up on offense. Yeah, defense is going to get tested again. They've got a great wide receiver. How's old buddy doing? Nick Marsh is doing great. He's a little banged up, but he's having a good year so far. Okay, Michigan State's good. I think that's a good team to have because not terrible. Oh, yeah. Good? Good test. Just lost to Michigan.

2:12:25Pat McAfee:Okay. I'm not going to say anything about the brothers, which one, you know, in the state of Michigan. You can stay out of that. One of them has 14 billionaires giving money. I don't know how many. Michigan State, I think, got that one guy that was sitting next to me at that basketball game.

2:12:36Jeff Passan:Yeah, we got guys that need to start ponying up because we do have billionaires. I know that.

2:12:40Pat McAfee:Okay, so we're saying, hey, Foxy needs to maybe start spending a little bit. We can have Phil do that. We can have Phil send some of your check right over to Michigan State to get players for that football team. Oh, you're talking about me. No, I'm good. Oh, okay. Not that, Ford. Okay, I don't know. So there's another huge game happening this weekend that obviously you have some familiarity with at least a home. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Coach, there's a few big ones in the Big Ten this weekend, but obviously the nightcap, the whiteout at Penn State, Oregon traveling to Penn State is the headline maker of that one.

2:13:08What's your early read on that one? I know you play Penn State later in the season. You don't play Oregon, but what do you think about Dan Lanning going to visit Happy Valley? I think it's going to be a great game. I think one of the unique, interesting things is going to be, I mean, Penn State at night at the Whiteout, it might be the loudest place I've ever been. And while Oregon, I've heard how loud it is there. I'm really interested to see Oregon, their communication with a young, a dynamic young quarterback, Dante, you know, but just to see how they handle the crowd noise, how they handle the crowd.

2:13:41That's really, to me, a key factor in the game. And then on the flip side, Penn State, you know, obviously you lose Ty Warren. You got the great backs. How explosive can they be in the passing game? Drew Allers, a great quarterback, but are they going to be able to get open versus the secondary that Oregon has? It should be a back-and-forth, back-and-forth game, but I really believe the crowd noise and playing in one of those elite Big Ten environments at night, that's something that's going to be interesting to see how Oregon, with a young quarterback, how they handle it.

2:14:12Pat McAfee:I heard something crazy like 112 ,000-plus going to be there. So many. And they're in the middle of renovating that stadium. So I don't even know what it's going to be whenever it's fully renovated. They got a great supply of people that are supporting that program. Whenever you look at teams around the Big Ten, obviously you've talked about you have great support in Nebraska as one of the reasons why that was a job. It feels like the Big Ten is more teams are stepping up than maybe any other conferences. Do you agree with that? And do you think the Big Ten right now at this point, by far, I think I heard Urban Meyer talk about how when he was down in Florida and then he comes up to Ohio State, you know, and he's won national championship everywhere by the way i mean urban has won everywhere he said it was definitely back in the day maybe not so far uh history sec was by far best conference no question asked geography where there was an advantage everything there was advantage more primetime games also and the environments and the cultures are crazy i mean it was sec urban said now it feels like the big 10 is certainly deeper than it has ever been and maybe at the time is we are the best conference in America.

2:15:17Pat McAfee:Obviously, national champions there from the last couple of years. How do you feel about the Big Ten, and how do you all kind of discuss it as coaches, understanding that the strength of the conference is a good thing, especially with the way the college football playoff is set up? Yeah, no doubt. I think the Big Ten has really emerged, and obviously winning the last two national championships helps. But the advent of NIL, you know, there used to be like, you know, Ohio State had all Ohio players. Alabama had all Alabama players. It was, you know, we kind of all recruited regionally, but now with the portal, with recruiting, we're all recruiting all over the country.

2:15:50I mean, I'm leaving here and I'm going to Texas, right? Like, it's just a completely different animal now. And so that benefits the Big Ten a great deal. It was really weird last week to have, you know, Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson do our game, you know, the 2.30, 3.30 Eastern CBS game. I mean, that's been the SEC forever. And what the Big Ten has done is they've bought a lot of those primetime spots. You know, like we were the national game against Michigan. And so I think the Big Ten has made some really big moves. And obviously bringing in USC, bringing in Oregon, bringing in Washington, who that's a sneaky good – I mean, they're scoring points.

2:16:25That's a sneaky, sneaky good team right now.

2:16:27Pat McAfee:They're getting eight and a half at home. And people talk about that being the loudest place maybe to play. That place is difficult to play out there. It's a far trip too, Coach. That's right. So I think when you factor in the travel, when you factor in the weather, when you factor in the last two national championships, and then the teams, adding the teams from the West Coast. I mean, I think the Big Ten is at a point that it has never been before and it's only getting better. And, you know, like even last week we're disappointed we lost, but like you don't need that to be 55-7. You want the good games in your conference to be 30-27.

2:16:55You want there to be bar burners coming down. Who would have ever thought Oregon-Penn State would be like a conference, you know, game on national TV? But it is now, and that, to me, that's what's making the Big Ten so proficient and such a good league.

2:17:10Pat McAfee:I don't want to talk any shit on anything, but I think the noon game being the biggest Big Ten game every single week, and obviously that's a good deal. I appreciate it. I respect what they've done for college football, a lot of investment and everything like that. We see it whenever we travel to a couple game day spots. I think national recognition of Big Ten cultures kind of go down because the primetime game isn't what it is. They're about to fucking see it with Penn State. That place is about to be alive. That is a spectacular cult up there. I mean, they are all in, and they will be. The, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, we are the same.

2:17:50Pat McAfee:It's about to be legendary. But, boy, if Oregon gets hot early, like Ohio State did to Oregon at the Rose Bowl, you can take a home field advantage and kind of make it your own. It's all about how you start, I think, in those games. Do you agree with that, Coach? Yeah, absolutely. I think you have to take the crowd out of it early on. But, you know, one thing about Oregon is they've played in big games, right? And they've played in loud stadiums. And they have a coach. Dan Lanning, to me, is one of the best coaches in football. He's got elite swagger. And so he's not going to tiptoe around the moment.

2:18:25He's going to be ready for the moment. Now, you know, you go back and look at their year. You know, the Oklahoma State win isn't quite as – when I saw 69-3, I was like, oh, my goodness. But then, you know, they scored whatever, 10, 12 points against Tulsa. So I don't know what that is. But I know this. They've got great players. They've got a coach who isn't afraid of anything. And you go out and you play well early, and all of a sudden the stifling crowd noise that makes you be on silent cadence, it kind of dissipates. Now you just get back to playing football, settling down, and that would be very much in Oregon's favor.

2:18:55Jeff Passan:Go ahead, AJ. Coach, you mentioned fast start. We always talk about that. Every coach obviously wants their team to have a fast start, but what can you do as a coach to facilitate that, to make sure it actually happens? yeah i think a unique thing is is when you have that big of a trip and that much travel making sure your guys like their legs are fresh and they're energized and they're juiced up you know i i don't know if or you went two days ahead or not but you know even in the nfl you don't make this many cross-country trips so there's a there's a travel component to the fast start i think one of the biggest things early on is is is throwing your best stuff at them um and that's not just defensively it's you know if i'm at organ right now i'm saying hey we need that we need to hit the quarterback we need to get to al early whether we blitz whatever we do like we need to make sure he knows that we're here and then offensively you know you you have a young quarterback this is his first moment in this level situation like i want him to start off eight for eight you know eight for eight even if it's for 88 yards like be eight for eight get get in rhythm feel really good early on come over the sidelines you have a bunch of different guys who caught balls and then all of a sudden everyone starts saying like okay i'm ready for this you know you don't want guys having their first catch to be in the middle of the third quarter on third and seven.

2:20:04Let's get the ball pressed around. Let's get the quarterback in rhythm, and let's make sure their quarterback isn't in rhythm, because this game will come down to, in my mind, which quarterback plays the best.

2:20:13Pat McAfee:Dante Moore's been spinning it. Drew Aller's stats have not been spectacular with their start. They haven't really played anybody. Have they been hiding everything? That is kind of the narrative around the Penn State team right now, which is never good if you haven't been hiding anything. No, we've been playing our best football, actually, and everybody just thinks we're holding back. Dan Lanning spoke about the whiteout, and he said, play the game, not the occasion basically is his messaging to the boys we've seen a lot of behind the scenes stuff of how dan talks to his team i like the way you described him he's got a lot of swagger his team carries that as does your team good luck in recruiting out there in south dakota that's a beautiful state brother they got a lot of dogs out there they do they do so we're happy to be up here evil knievel yeah adam vinatieri cold anderson yep mikuya of course dallas goddard uh dallas Goddard from out there.

2:21:00Pat McAfee:I think Brock Lesnar born in South Dakota. Tucker Craft. Tucker. Boom. Who?

2:21:06Jeff Passan:Valdo. Didn't he do

2:21:07Pat McAfee:a game day there? He lives out there. He's in Montana. You're right. You're right. It's not South Dakota. I think he left that silver ball in Dakota. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, on a recruiting visit, which we appreciate him making time, good luck the rest of the way. Friend of the program, host of Haas Rules. That's right. Hey, Will Compton, not a bad-looking bald guy. Obviously, he would rather still have hair, but not a bad-looking bald guy. He looks pretty good. It was hard to shoot house rules after losing this week, but we put it out with Joey McGuire from Texas Tech. You know what? Part of being a man is doing everything every week.

2:21:42Like I said, we'll be back, though. We'll be celebrating on the show here soon.

2:21:45Pat McAfee:Yeah, you've got to answer the bell. And you did here today. We appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Matt Rule. Yeah, Coach! Alright, let's get to a break. On the other side, we'll make our picks. We'll cover everything that we haven't talked about, and then we got Stanford Steve conversation about college ball. It's a great time to be a football fan. It's a great time to be a sports fan. Baseball's crushing. I actually was captivated by baseball this night. You've watched it in the past. The baseball playoffs are awesome. I get it's a slog getting to that point because there are so many fucking games.

2:22:18But look at it. 162. The season is going to come down to the last game of the season. Like, it's fucking crazy. And there are multiple teams who still have a chance or who could choke. But once the playoffs actually start, like, those games are awesome.

2:22:35Pat McAfee:Yeah, but if it was 100 games, Detroit Tigers good, New York Mets good. That's true. Right. All these other teams. Good point. I like that, actually. You know, but now it's 106-2 games. Tigers just ain't got it anymore. Hey, it's because, you know what, you got to play the whole season because sometimes the cream rises to the top and sometimes the teams who are pretenders all along, they fall off. Oh, yeah. Exactly. Rest in peace.

2:23:25This episode is brought to you by Google Health. Stop chasing someone else's definition of health. What matters is what's healthy for you.

2:23:33Pat McAfee:Google Health offers a new kind of coach, built with Gemini for effortless tracking, sleep insights, and holistic coaching tailored to you. Visit googlestore.com to learn more and start a new relationship with your health. Requires Google account, Google Health app, internet, and Google Health premium subscription. Features subject to change. Availability and results vary. Not intended for medical purposes. Works independently of Gemini apps. Check responses for accuracy.

2:23:59Pat McAfee:2.33 we will start this third hour now that is uh hoff nom aj hawk right there

2:24:10Jeff Passan:you get it yeah i think i get it now i get it hoff no hoff nom okay it's abbreviation

2:24:19Pat McAfee:not nom like viet it's nom like nominee so then it would be Hoff nom Hoff nom Hoff nom Hoff nom Hoff nom A.J. Hoff right there Hoff nom Hoff nom Hoff nom Hoff that's where that's the that's your abbreviation some people go to school to get PhDs some people are doctors sure Some people we call Masters of Love No, what is it called? Whenever you get a

2:24:56Jeff Passan:Master of Love Ceremony Ordained

2:25:00Pat McAfee:Yeah, but it's called something Pastor Ministry Those exist

2:25:06Jeff Passan:Oh Yeah Love Doctor You can officiate weddings

2:25:14Pat McAfee:Yeah, it's like 35 bucks They overnighted If you change it to Doctor of Love Universal Life Ministries. Yeah, that is what it's called. But it's called something. You become something.

2:25:23Jeff Passan:You are ordained.

2:25:26Pat McAfee:Something of love, though. I don't know about that. Anyways, yours is Hoff Nom. So that's a pretty cool sir title or whatever the hell it is. Toxic Tables here at Boston Corner at Ty Schmidt. That's a sweet shirt.

2:25:41Jeff Passan:Thanks. Kit and Con. I haven't worn it in a while. I saw it at the top of the pile, so I'll grab it. A couple planes in there. You got the Wright Brothers flying around. Oh, yeah. It's supposed to be King Kong, but just with a cat. Oh, I get it, because the kitty cat. Kitty Kong, yeah, yeah. Right there at the top. Not too shabby, not too shabby.

2:25:55Pat McAfee:I'll tell you what, that cat would raise a lot of hell out of her.

2:25:57Jeff Passan:No doubt about it.

2:25:58Pat McAfee:Yeah, especially with the way those planes look. That'd be a big toy for that cat. I mean, that would be batting the shit out of her. Cats are very athletic. Very. Nine lives.

2:26:06Jeff Passan:Yeah, well. Always laying on their feet. No shoulder blades. Well, is it the shoulder blades? Cats do not have shoulder blades, so that their arms, when they're straight, When they go back instead of stopping, they don't stop because they don't have shoulder blades. That's amazing. So they go all the way down.

2:26:20Pat McAfee:I think they also, flying squirrel, they make themselves into like their body naturally like becomes a parachute. Like a parachute for them as they're falling. There's four cats at my house. One of them is three-legged cats. AI says, Google says, yes, cats have shoulder blades. They're called scapulae in scientific terms. Cats' shoulder blades are different from those of humans in several ways. They have different shoulder blades.

2:26:44Jeff Passan:Excuse me. Yeah, Bruce.

2:26:45Pat McAfee:This is Bruce Braun. Fucking vet. This is Bruce Braun. I love this place today.

2:26:49Jeff Passan:This is Bruce Braun.

2:26:51Pat McAfee:This is unbelievable, Bruce. There's no reason for that. It was just so tempting. Not even called shoulder blade.

2:26:55Jeff Passan:Just seeing the yes that they obviously have some kind of shoulder blade, I just thought it was fun.

2:27:01Pat McAfee:You should have looked up the parachute of the cats, what they do as they fall. I watched an Instagram video of cats showcasing how athletic they are. So quick, so dynamic. My three-legged cat lands. Same exact thing. They're a good animal. I couldn't even imagine one being the size of King Kong right there with those particular – there's people jumping out of planes. That's probably the right play. One half of the hammer. God. Cowboys AP tone is here. 74 % was the last time we got the update on this game. Is it still at 74 %? 72%. Oh, money's moving. 72 % now on the Seahawks minus a point and a half traveling to beautiful Phoenix.

2:27:35Pat McAfee:Well, Glendale, I guess, Arizona. Wonderful stadium. Great fan base. will the Seattle Seahawks beat them by more than a point and a half? A.J. Hawk, we'll start with you. Last week was not good for either of us, but this week could be our best week of all time, and that's how we need to view it. Seahawks minus a point and a half against the Cardinals. A.J., how do you see it going?

2:27:57Jeff Passan:So I was leaning Seahawks early on in the show. I talked about it earlier. I heard Conman talk about the Cardinals and what they have going. I understand that. I think the Cardinals are a little bit banged up on the O-line. We'll see. I know there's some questionable guys on the injury report. But I'm going to take the Seahawks on the road behind this fearless Sam Darnold. I think the Seahawks find a way. I think they get it done. I think they win by six, seven, ten. Who knows?

2:28:19Pat McAfee:Okay. On that note, Rappaport just reported that Zach Charbonnet, who is listed as questionable for the Seahawks, is expected to play tonight against the Arizona Cardinals. He had been dealing with a foot injury, but was full participant in practice just yesterday. Okay. So we should see one of their best players on the field. Jackson Smith and Jigba for the Seattle Seahawks leading the NFL in receiving. And then on the other side, Kyler Murray and the boys. It's hard for me to be even. I used to bet on the Cardinals a lot. Remember that? It was like two years ago. I was like, Kyler. Because of shots and explosives.

2:28:51Pat McAfee:I was going to make some Kyler plays.

2:28:52Jeff Passan:But, you know, some highlight reel plays for sure.

2:28:54Pat McAfee:It was mostly because I believed in Kyler. Like, I think I've always believed in Kyler. I've lost a lot of bets believing in Kyler. Beginning of the year, though, normally they start out pretty good. Yeah. Two and one thus far. Would the Cardinals go 3-1? Cool. That's an interesting thing. If they're 3-1, you've got to have a conversation about the Cardinals all of a sudden. Especially if they get a win over the Seahawks, only lost being to the Niners. Now, granted, they're going to have to get that back later in the year, you would think. But are the Cardinals for real? Are the Arizona Cardinals going to?

2:29:24Pat McAfee:Gumpy really liked them. Gumpy really liked them because of the percentage of people that are betting on the Seahawks. Is that the only reason why? Is there any other reasons, Gumpy? No, not at all. Absolutely. I've just been riding that, and it's been working. Primetime games. If you fade the public, you usually got a pretty good shot. Okay, 70-plus percent, too, is a no-brainer for you. Is there any number? If it was like 55-45, would that be a sway for you? Once you get over 60, I start to worry a little bit. Like, it was very loud that the Ravens were just going to smack the Lions. I know the Lions are very different than the Cardinals, obviously.

2:29:55Also rivalry jerseys tonight.

2:29:57Pat McAfee:Oh, my God. Arizona sent us. Yeah, the sand. Sandstorm. Sandstorm.

2:30:04Jeff Passan:Is that sandstorm? Oh, yeah.

2:30:08Jeff Passan:This is the new color rush. Oh,

2:30:15Pat McAfee:it's a rude.

2:30:15Jeff Passan:Sandstorm.

2:30:16Pat McAfee:Yeah. Sandstorm. That's their thing. They actually sent us their uniform. Can we get the helmet? Gumpy has it on. Yeah, Gumpy has the helmet on. I don't think we can see it.

2:30:23Jeff Passan:Can you come out here, Gump?

2:30:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, Gump, can you come out to the light? It was once in the shade, and it was in a box that was filled with sand, actually. Yeah. Filled. The Arizona Cardinals sent a package to the Thunderdome with sand inside of it.

2:30:35Jeff Passan:It spilled everywhere. A lot. Are you serious?

2:30:38Pat McAfee:Yeah, I was not here whenever it was opened, but from what I heard, not a lot of happy parties in the Thunderdome that they put actual fucking sand in the box. With that being said, what they pulled out of the sand, greatness. This thing looks sick. Great color. Obviously, Gumpy looks more athletic than he's ever looked because of this helmet. Turn to the side there a little bit, Gumps. Oh. Okay. And the uniform, I assume, is going to match. Did the uniform come into the box of stands?

2:31:02Jeff Passan:Yes, there's a Marvin Harrison Jr. Don't bang his head on the wall a little bit.

2:31:04Pat McAfee:See if it works. Yeah, is it a tough? Above the chips belt. I think you can hit one of these pillars, Gumpsh. See if it's a good helmet or not. A couple headbutts.

2:31:16Jeff Passan:Oh, my goodness.

2:31:17Pat McAfee:Okay, and now, Gumpsh, because you look like Kyler kind of out there, let's go ahead and do a universe shot here. Okay.

2:31:24Jeff Passan:Yeah, yeah. Let him drop back a little bit, scramble around with your Kyler.

2:31:27Pat McAfee:Take the helmet off. Take the helmet off. Yeah, you got to. Take the helmet off and then we'll get you.

2:31:32Jeff Passan:Unbuckle it. Hey, this is your. Oh, no.

2:31:33Pat McAfee:Oh, no.

2:31:34Jeff Passan:Is that your bud? Yeah.

2:31:40This is universal. You're going to do this for universal. That's a sick jersey.

2:31:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, yeah. It is. That's a game jersey. That's how tight they are. That's a legit jersey. Looks good. Good teamwork.

2:31:50Jeff Passan:Oh, those are sweet. Now we're talking. Now we're talking. Is that a professional athlete?

2:32:00Pat McAfee:All right, Cubs. You look like Kyler. Okay? All you need to do now. Here we go. This is for Arizona. This is Universe right here. Yeah. I don't like this tarp, to be fair. It is. This is something you would wear in public on a regular day. So I do appreciate the fact that, you know what? That can be yours, bud. Wow. That's yours. Now, Arizona Cardinals win tonight if you put that football into this hoop right over here. And that's big. gets a lot of pressure here on the throwing arm of Gumpy that is not normally the best. Grew up playing soccer. Grew up a soccer player. Ran some sprints this morning, actually.

2:32:40Pat McAfee:Could be a little bit tired. True. Could be a little bit winded, but he knows the fate of the game tonight is literally in his hand. That's a great play action.

2:32:49Jeff Passan:Statue of Liberty.

2:32:50Pat McAfee:Oh, left hand, too. He did both hands. Yeah, I like left hand, left leg, too, there. That's very athletic. Pitch is a good play. AJ, anything to say to Gump here before he hucks one out here?

2:33:00Jeff Passan:Can we get someone to give him a shotgun snap? They don't have to take it under center, but a shotgun, he can move around a little bit. Absolutely. Like he's Kyler? Absolutely. Shotgun snap. Mm-hmm. There you go. Call it, Gump. He said call it. Yep. Blue, 42. Yep. Okay. Blue, up.

2:33:19Jeff Passan:Get in.

2:33:20Pat McAfee:All right. That looks like one of those kickoffs. I thought that was going in for sure. That looked like a squib. Good game.

2:33:25Jeff Passan:That looked good to me. He definitely got the laces.

2:33:31Don't laugh it on the way out. I'm not playing your fucking hair.

2:33:34Pat McAfee:And on that note, I'm picking the Seahawks. I was thinking about it. I was thinking about it. I want to let you know. If he would have put that in, I was going to pick the Cardinals. He looked so good in that uniform that they're going to wear tonight. I almost picked the Cardinals strictly because of that. It's a good uni. But I like the Seahawks. I do. And it's week four. Are the pants that color, dude? You never know. I think so. I think it's probably a one. AQ would have looked really good in that uniform. What's that, brother? Yeah, that's the rookie for Seattle.

2:34:01Jeff Passan:Torrey Horton, that guy's legit too. He's emerging as a star. He had the 90-yard kick. Cooper Cup too, man. Why do we keep forgetting about Cooper Cup? True.

2:34:10Pat McAfee:True. I did not remember Cooper Cup right there. Yeah, he just said his name. Good football team. He killed the Steelers. That's a Steelers fan in the back saying they're a good football team. Let's never forget it. Catching the ball at your own five, obviously an aggressive decision, unless you're going to crib that thing. Wow, he's very Oh, shit

2:34:26Jeff Passan:Yeah, he caught a touchdown in this game too

2:34:28Pat McAfee:Punter just got absolutely fucking killed Can he go back a little bit there? Hold on What a good block I did not know that that punter got fucking murdered like that Way to put the body on No! Oh, no And the arm straight up Oh, no

2:34:43Jeff Passan:Hey, Paul Boom! Did he see him or did he He wasn't trying to take on the block, I feel like

2:34:49Pat McAfee:I don't know if he didn't see him Okay, Foxy Jeez, Bruce, whoever's doing this right now, let's take it easy. The guy already lived it 10 times in his own brain. His brain is probably bouncing back and forth. I hope you're happy. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I guess he didn't see the guy, or maybe he thought he was going to get around him. I don't know. We need to stay out of that area, though, brother. That's one of those areas we need not be in. That's where Kevin Huber was. You remember that?

2:35:10Jeff Passan:Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

2:35:12Pat McAfee:You're either back or you're all the way in. You're either all the way in, and they didn't block you, so you're past everything, or you are last line. You're at the back. if you're anywhere in that other area, that's called the mixer. And you can be the one that's getting mixed, basically. That is where you need not be. I appreciate that he stuck his face in the fan, though. Yeah, in the mixer. Yeah, I give him credit. He did go into the mixer. He didn't come out of the mixer. That was the last time we saw that, man. Who was that? Who was the punter for the Saints? Man, I don't know if we need to do that.

2:35:44But to Connor's point. That was a great punt.

2:35:46Pat McAfee:He fucking murdered that ball. Is it Kai Kroger? I think it's Kai Kroger. Good player. New Orleans State's current punter is Kai Kroger, who signed South Carolina. Oh, yeah, I remember him. He's a good punter.

2:35:58Jeff Passan:He's willing to go in there. I give him credit for honestly putting his head in there.

2:36:01Pat McAfee:Agreed. And that punt, if that's not caught, probably goes out of bounds at like the four. I mean, that's a great punt. He hit an absolute bomb in the corner, and then all of a sudden, I'm going to ruin your life, is what he said. Yeah. That's what the returner said. That was fun. You did a good job. Let's make sure you remember this as a terrible experiment. All right, football kicks off tonight. Ryder Cup begins tomorrow. Life is amazing. We had a chance to catch up with Stanford Steve about what's about to happen on Saturday. Great lineup. Love college football. It's another college football convo with Stanford Steve.

2:36:34Pat McAfee:AJ, have you downloaded this show?

2:36:36Jeff Passan:Oh, yeah. I saw it last week. That was week one, wasn't it? No. That was week two. That was week two last week? Wake up, boy.

2:36:43Pat McAfee:I've seen both of them. It has its own podcast thing. It does. You can download it. RSS feed, right? Yeah. Bingo. Started one from zero there. Could have just snuck it in under ours, doing the entire thing. Didn't want to do that. Wanted to show respect to college football. Have its own entity. I think it has its own socials already. We're starting up there. So, you know, good luck to that college football show. But it's great catching up with Stanford Steve every week. Awesome. He wore that bandana thing.

2:37:09Jeff Passan:Mateer.

2:37:10Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah. Yeah. You and I thought of it at the same time. Thanks, Steve.

2:37:15Jeff Passan:That was two weeks ago. He played a game in between. Maybe it was late. They won the game day after Steve won it. You're right. That's a good point. Okay.

2:37:24Pat McAfee:But maybe he was just like on a wagon and it got delayed. Because Sooners, and that's what they ride him. He did tweet today, though, that surgery went well, Boomer Sooner. He said, Dr. Chin's the best or something. Chin. Jesus. I knew it was along those lines. Chin. Yeah. Dr. Chin. Could have been Dr. Chin. He is Doug Goat. Yeah. When's he back? So they got a couple weeks here before Texas, and I don't know what the expected return time is, but it felt like the way everybody was talking is he's going to be back for important football. Yeah, Red River. They were hoping that. They said hopefully by the end of October.

2:38:02That's tough. I was going to say, yeah.

2:38:06Jeff Passan:He's coming back early. I think so, too. If we know anything about Mater. What if he plays lefty? He could. Run the ball 80 times. Why not? He's built like a horse. Drop back lefty and just play a whole game as a drop back lefty.

2:38:20Pat McAfee:Matt Zenitz, M. Zenitz, who I do not know, but he says, I appreciate his intel and his family. Lovely. The current hope is that Oklahoma star quarterback John Mateer will be back before the end of October, says CBS Sports. Michael Hawkins will take over for Mateer, whom ESPN had previously reported was expected to miss about a month. Number 7 OU has a bye this week. Then plays Kent State, Texas, South Carolina, and Ole Miss. Okay, before the end of October. So who knows if he's back for Red River? That's the 11th. That's what I'm betting on. You think? Because Mateer?

2:38:50Jeff Passan:It's a tough son of a bitch.

2:38:51Pat McAfee:It's the 25th, two weeks. I think he'll. And Dr. Shin is? Doug Goat. Doug Goat. We all know that. All right, so is Stanford Steve. That's what we're learning. He brings it every week. He does. He does. We get a Tuesday night whole thing. That's what it's about to be. And that's very kind of him to do that. We are very appreciative of him to do that. And also, this college football slate, AJ, how's Ohio State going to be? How's Ohio State going to be? We've got a tough test.

2:39:16Jeff Passan:We've got a big test at Washington. It is a legit test. They're a good squad, and that's a tough place to play.

2:39:21Pat McAfee:Matt Rule said it. I think Tone told me yesterday, 33 game. 33 is Georgia, 22 is Washington. Okay, 22 straight home wins for Washington, 33 for Georgia down there as Alabama comes in. Wild. Yeah, we dive into all of that. And have enough people said to Ohio State, like, hey, tough place to play. Like, don't sleep on Washington. Eight and a half points spread as of the other day. I don't know where it's at right now. I think it's down actually to seven-ish. Can you pop that tweet back up about home win streaks? Whose home streak is at risk this weekend? Does anyone think Oregon and Bama is going to lose their home win streak this weekend?

2:40:01Jeff Passan:Yeah, I thought that was weird. And they're just putting the longest active win streak.

2:40:07Pat McAfee:Yeah, the question you're talking about, the words, it's like whenever a team's social media account tells us we're about to see highlights and we get one play. Yeah, you're right. But I do appreciate the information that's coming from. Good information. That is a good graphic. 33 down in Georgia, that's a tough place to play a lot of dogs. Yeah, between the heads down there. Yeah, especially with Alabama going down. I just got a text from a couple Bulldogs, actually. What did they say? I don't want a name drop, but I'm going to Colt Ford just texted me and said, Go, Dogs. Go, Dogs. Colt Ford?

2:40:35Pat McAfee:Yeah, Colt Ford said, Go, Dogs. Apparently Gilbert talked to him last week after I picked against the Dogs. Why'd you do that? That's what he said. Overtime win over Tennessee. Felt even better. He felt even better. Georgia might be all the way back.

2:40:48Jeff Passan:Colt Ford sings that song.

2:40:50Pat McAfee:Which one?

2:40:52Jeff Passan:Do it. That one. Colt Ford has got bangers. Who the fuck is Colt Ford? I'm sorry. I don't know. I'm sorry.

2:41:03Pat McAfee:I'm sure this is bad. I can't play this. I can't just play the songs. Is there a photo out there? You need to just go Spotify Colt Ford.

2:41:12Jeff Passan:You've heard five. All right. The one, like, fucking toes somewhere in sand. No, that's Zac Brown. He's also a dog fan, I believe.

2:41:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, Zach Brown also from Georgia. You know, the highway, Tony Rad over there. Yeah, just maybe Colt Ford would be a good discovery for you. I think Colt Ford's not my cup of tea. No, I think he is, actually. Okay, I'll try. What are you expecting from the name Colt Ford?

2:41:38Jeff Passan:Cold beer. Probably exactly what I heard when I was at the AC 500. Okay. What do you think it is? What do you think it is? Yeah, liquor in my cabinet, fucking beer in my gut, fucking meat on the grill. So what? Sounds sweet. That's what I assume.

2:41:53Pat McAfee:I don't think he's... He would take it by surprise. Cole Ford has bars. Okay. Yeah. Cole Ford lived a life now. Cole Ford has lived a life. I'm excited for you to discover him. If we pull up a photo, I'm sure I know. I don't. To be honest, I'm not 100 % sure if you would, if you did see a photo of him. And also what he looks like now versus what he has looked like. Very different. I think he had a couple life situations kind of take place. Reform fatso? I think so, yeah. Okay. Has taken care of himself. Yep. has been forced to, I think. But bangers in the set list. You should dive into Cole Ford.

2:42:28Pat McAfee:But what I'm saying is all the Georgia fans are happy with where Georgia is right now. There's one woman that's talked about more than anybody else in all sports. Yeah, that's true. Just call them plays.

2:42:43Jeff Passan:Carly Orsay? No. Sister Jean? I know she retired. She did.

2:42:47Pat McAfee:I don't know if she's still getting talked about as much as she should be. In a M &A. Yeah, in a M &A. No, but I think the one you're talking about. Taylor Swift, I think. Taylor Swift is part of sports. She gets talked about a lot in sports. Yeah. Right? Yeah. I think probably a lot. A lot. Peace them out. Cece. Kaylin Clark, Kelsey Mitchell now. Asia Wilson just won the MVP. Serena. Serena.

2:43:17Pat McAfee:Do you know the answer to this? i do not it was on cover of uh us weekly or u.s weekly oh yeah okay i i knew this answer i i don't i'm cool with whatever i am cool with whatever whatever bill belichick wants to do she runs digital and social i think every team has those people that do that and they are around okay so they are always around so if that is who is running that i have i know a lot of people don't love it especially her being on the sideline and all the drama and attention especially with how the team's playing but like social people are around nowadays more so than ever before so if she is the designated social person for team and bill decided that or whoever decided that uh that should be around i think regardless saying you're the most talked about woman in sports is a wild that's a wild thing i think that is a wild is a that is an absurd thing to put out there but also So it feels like they're working at all times.

2:44:16Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah. They're always working. Always got something cooked up. Do you think that – obviously not expected out of Bill. Do you think Bill likes it, though, at this point, that they're always working and angry?

2:44:27Jeff Passan:I don't know. All I know is I got my name – I got his name tattooed on my arm, and if this continues down the same path, I'm just going to have to cut my arm off. No! Yeah. So –

2:44:40Pat McAfee:No!

2:44:41Jeff Passan:Let's see what happens.

2:44:41Pat McAfee:What if they win football games? No, maybe they do.

2:44:44Jeff Passan:It sucks because I grew up in Belichick. It's always been Bill Belichick. Whatever the fuck's going on down there sucks. I think him going to college was a huge mistake, and I think everyone's realizing it now. And I love Bill. He damn near fucked the last 20 years of his life up. No, no. But that's fine.

2:45:10Pat McAfee:That's his decision. There are people saying that this is a Jason Witten in a booth type situation where people forgot how good Jason Witten was at football when he went into that booth because he was heard by every football fan in America every single week. And it wasn't the most comfortable place, I think, for him or the best setup. So people forgot how good of a football player he was. He had to go play football again and remind her about, hey, hey, the reason why that happened is because how good of a football player I am, how good of a teammate I am, how good of all those things. I think they came back to being positive.

2:45:40Pat McAfee:But he got really negative there for a while for Jason Witten's brand as a whole. Right now, Bill Belichick's brand is very low.

2:45:45Jeff Passan:I mean, he... Yeah, and Jason Witten got back. He did. I don't think Bill's getting back anymore. Good run. Maybe they win. ACC, Doug. I hope. Who gives a fuck? He was winning Super Bowls.

2:45:56Pat McAfee:Come on, the ACC. That's a tough league. Dabo Swinney's talking about it. Eight out of the last ten years, we're in the league. Dabo's getting fired. I mean, who gives a fuck? Yeah, so maybe Bill goes down to Clemson. Yeah, there you go. He's a different call. He runs down the hill. He runs down the hill just like that. I'm telling you, I don't love it. I don't love the way everybody responds to everything that Bill does. But everything Bill does now, we all go, that ain't what. Wild. The whole thing is wild. But he's having a different era. Hey, there's different eras of this entire thing. Most talked about women in sports.

2:46:28Pat McAfee:I guess we're talking about her. So she said that?

2:46:29Jeff Passan:Yeah, we did. She said that? Yeah, we kind of leaned in.

2:46:33Pat McAfee:We're part of the problem. I mean, I think most people would say they'd hear that from her and they'd say she would say that. And on that note, we hope everybody's happy. Yeah, we do. And after Bill's retired from coaching, after winning an ACC championship here in a couple years, we assume, or if he gets back into the NFL, whatever happens, which I don't know if that's going to happen in this case, because I think owners are a pretty big, like, higher-on-brand type people, I think. I don't know if anybody's going to sign up for all of it at this point, especially if they're not having success in North Carolina.

2:47:09Pat McAfee:But we got to remember whenever he's done coaching football, which whenever it is, we will still remember the greatness, right? Yeah. Right? No matter what? Banners last forever. Right, AJ?

2:47:18Jeff Passan:Yeah, I think some old people will for sure. What about – are we old? You know, younger – yeah, I'm old. So I know. I remember when the Patriots had their dynasty. But, you know, like young kids have no clue. By young kids, I mean 28-year-olds. Yeah, but 100 years from now, when they tell the story of the NFL, guess whose name is going to be there for 20 years? Bill Belichick. So he will never die. But as people who were fans of him throughout this whole thing, people who were fans of him when he was the head coach of the Patriots, I think for a lot of people after that, it will be hard to separate the two, no doubt.

2:47:53Jeff Passan:He is living his life, right? So we should be happy for him. This won't survive 100 years. The six Super Bowls he won will. Yeah, I think it might. AJ, don't be –

2:48:07Pat McAfee:What are you doing? He was on our – Asked impressions publicly.

2:48:14Jeff Passan:AJ, it didn't even last 25 years for Ray Lewis, brother. What? I think you know what. No, but I'm saying that's – Well, I mean, we can go – I think a lot of the – The worst stuff in people's careers gets forgotten. which it should because of what they give. Unless it's the end, which is I think what he's saying. He's saying our last impression is going to be. Unless he gets an NFL gig and wins the Super Bowl. Well, that's not going to happen. Whoa! We don't know that. It could. I mean, do we know if Tom Landry dated some 25-year-old when he was done with coaching? I don't know if we do because we don't remember that stuff.

2:48:45Jeff Passan:But he could have. Old guys.

2:48:48Pat McAfee:Yeah. Bill Belichick. He's living. He's living a vastly different life than any of us could have expected.

2:48:55Jeff Passan:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he's losing. Hey, as long as he's all in and he's happy. Valid.

2:49:01Pat McAfee:I don't think anyone's going to expect him to lose down here in North Carolina. Capitol Hill is beautiful, though. Yes, it is. It's so nice. That first drive, too. We were there. Nice golf course. Country club, right, dude? Exactly. Paizan Lombardo's literally in a cave. Love you, Mike. We do love you, Lombo. We got faith in you guys.

2:49:25Jeff Passan:Takes time. Takes time. Build your roster.

2:49:27Pat McAfee:There's people saying some really mean things. Oh, yeah. People trying to sue, I think, the whole thing. Really? There's a lot of shit going around down there. As soon as he got there, there's just been a lot. It's been a... But if you win games, guess what? It all goes away. That's football, baby. There's always going to be year two.

2:49:46Jeff Passan:And then year three. And then another one. And magazine cover two. And cover three. And then another one. They didn't pose for that, to their credit. What? It's a picture from a while ago. We know that. A picture from a while ago that they posed for. They didn't pose for a cover of a magazine. They didn't bring him into a studio and say, we're on the cover of Us Weekly. Yeah, and they definitely didn't pick that photo either to be used as the cover. I think she may have had some creative control over which picture was used. Yeah, I think that's right. If this relationship, unfortunately, doesn't work, I can't wait for Bill to be the golden bachelor.

2:50:18Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah. Oh. Boom. I don't even think about him. There it is. This relationship is going to work. I said if it unfortunately doesn't. and he's the golden bachelor and she's the bachelorette. We'd like to put him fastest on, unfortunately. Yeah. If it unfortunately does not. But we think it will work out, especially with how committed he seemingly is. Because we love love. I mean, he's got to be fully committed to this. Yeah. He's on magazines. He's doing Instagram. He's doing the entire thing. So we are happy for him. But, boy, they got to win some fucking games. They got to win some games. All right.

2:50:46Pat McAfee:Be your friend. Tell your friend something nice. Hey, here's something nice to a friend down there in North Carolina. You guys need to start winning games really soon, really fast. It's going to get really low. You know that, though. You guys have been born in it. They'll figure it out. I don't like the most tough. It's like Taylor Swift actually. She's a sports girl. Yeah. That's Jordan. That's Jordan football.

2:51:17Pat McAfee:We're in this thing together. Never forget it. Let's enjoy tonight. Are we all in the Seahawks? No. You're on the Cardinals? I like the under. Cardinals. Goops on the Cardinals, right? Toxic tables both on the Cardinals. Yeah. I like the under. 40 and a half, you like the under. Yeah. Gump, you're on the Cardinals. Yeah. All of a sudden, are you starting to wonder that everybody else is on the Cardinals with your kind of thing? It's a percentage. It's not this room. Bruce, who do you like? I'm with Tony on the under.

2:51:45Jeff Passan:I would take the Seahawks if it was a gun to my head. Same. I'd have to pick a side.

2:51:47Pat McAfee:Nick?

2:51:49Jeff Passan:Go Hawks, go. It's a good football team. Good football team. Steelers need Seahawks. You're going to see a guy, Wilson, for the Cardinals. And I only know this because I've watched it live twice. This guy brings the fucking wood. It's not just Buddha anymore. There's another guy back there. Safety? I believe he's – I don't know if he's a safety, if he plays linebacker, if he's like Harold Perkins Jr., but he fucking flies around. I can't wait to watch him.

2:52:15Pat McAfee:Leron Landry wanted to be safety D-end. That's kind of what it reminds me of. Okay, I like that. I like that. And that was possible at that time. All right, AJ, it feels like we're kind of on an island right now.

2:52:24Jeff Passan:We are. I'm holding strong, though. 73 % island.

2:52:28Pat McAfee:No, no, that's people we don't know. Oh, yeah, we don't know that. Talk about our friends. And that number, who knows? Who knows? On that. Rest in peace, Gensig. Hell yeah. Have a great night. This is a dream come true, getting to talk ball for a living. And the fact that you guys let us do this, we're incredibly thankful for. Another football convo. with Stanford Steve follows this. Let's have an incredible night. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye. Turn it up. Storm has zero sugar and 200 milligrams of caffeine, so you can turn that workout up a notch. Good energy in, good energy out.

2:53:10Pat McAfee:Energy for life.

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