PMS 2.0 1419 - BA Day with Bruce Arians, MNF Doubleheader Recap, Matt Stafford, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

14:52Pat McAfee:He's a tackle. He would be a tackle. We even talk about this because we're talking about Rushmore, which we'll certainly get into. The show is great. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning give their Mount Rushmores. It's available now at Rushmore on X. Full episode, 30 minutes, very digestible and good. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning share a lot of stories. Ari Emanuel is the host, and Ben Persky is the host. they basically all give their own Rushmore's and reasons for why they have the top four at the receiver position and then at the end they have to come down to just one Rushmore and there is some real fire debate between Tom Brady and Peyton Manning it is a great episode and then they just have more Jimmy Iovine, Rick Rubin talking music Al Michaels, Bob Costas talking about the history of sports you name it Shaq and Reggie Miller are on here talking about dunkers and power forwards and they're wide open I don't know if they were boozing I have no idea.

15:41Pat McAfee:They're wide open on this thing, and they are definitely battling. And then Elon Musk is on this thing talking about video games, and I don't know shit about video games. Elon does. He does. I mean, and he is very, very invested, but the receivers, it turned into receivers and tight ends, the conversation basically, because Tom Brady was like, we can't make this without Gronk. Gronk is, he's the best receiver that I've ever, he just, the way he talked about, Randy Moss is well in there. But the way you talked about Gronk, and you chatted about Gronk could be a tackle with his size, but he could also slim down and be a wide receiver with his athleticism.

16:20Pat McAfee:It's like a perfect tight end. Do we think some of the bigger guys are maybe going to defensive end because the amount of money that's potentially coming, or to tight end? Is it like potentially one of those issues where we're losing the body types that are tackles to other things? Is that the problem? Or is it development and technique?

16:36Matthew Stafford:I think it's the development in college, too. because you've got to have some sand in your ass. You can't just be long. You've got to be able to stop people from the bull rush. It starts with the bull rush. Then you've got to be athletic enough to take all their moves on. And it's a very hard position to play. When you look at the draft a couple years ago when Tristan Wirth came out, there were like four really good tackles. And they're like, hey, we're going to get one. And we made sure we went up and got Tristan Wirth, and it changed our whole team. And so it's like there's a premium on those guys.

17:06Matthew Stafford:For me, I can find a wide receiver in the third round. I can find a running back in the third round. You can't find a tackle very often that can handle the pass rushers we have to see now in the NFL. TJ, Miles, Max Crosby. That used to be, I will get those guys later. Michael. Big, tough, strong guys. They fly by your ass so fast, it's like a swinging door. Now, if you're playing for some teams and just want to pound, pound, pound, yeah, they're good. But you've got to throw the ball to win.

17:35Pat McAfee:Yeah, which is the Jets story there. I don't know if that style of football is ever going to win them a Super Bowl. And it was tough to watch, to be honest. I was very thankful. So many penalties. Yeah.

17:44Darius Butler:Turnovers are penalties. Like a ridiculous amount of penalties.

17:46Pat McAfee:Troy, I think, in that – that was the other game. Right. Troy talked about it in the other game. He was like, I don't know what I'm supposed to say here, but this is ass, basically, is what Troy said. Right.

17:55Darius Butler:So, yeah, that's the right call. It's completely unnecessary. We don't need to be throwing this flag.

17:59Matthew Stafford:It had nothing to do with the play. It always drove me nuts. Yeah, it was a penalty, but it had nothing to do with the outcome of the play. It was like 10 yards back here. It was a blindside block. It wasn't even a tough one. You know, just a little peelback block. It had nothing to do with the play. Put the damn thing in your pocket.

18:15Pat McAfee:Yeah, like there's like a little hold potentially happening, but it's on the complete opposite side of it. It's like, are we going to stop this entire game for something that has nothing to do with the outcome of this game? And it's like DBs get stuff for holding backside plays whenever it's thrown the complete opposite direction.

18:30AJ Hawk:And legal contact 50 yards away from the play is terrible. but I thought the worst call in that game when it was still a game was the false start on Ted Harris on the center. Oh, the head lane. Oh, yeah. He does that every snap. Yeah, most centers. And I don't know if they're cracking down on centers in general because they had one in another game where it was like on the half-yard line.

18:49Darius Butler:It was the Packers game, move the ball up.

18:51AJ Hawk:Yeah, move the ball up, which centers have been doing that forever, so I don't know if that's a point of emphasis on centers in particular, but that Ted Harris call, that was unbelievable.

18:59Pat McAfee:Yeah, very aggressive call to make. Hey, I'm going to decide the game. Fourth and two, early fourth.

19:04Matthew Stafford:That was huge. He's only been doing that every single play the whole game.

19:07Pat McAfee:And also, that's a conversation with the refs, right? Yeah. Long snapper, our long snappers, Matt Overton and Justin, had to talk to the refs beforehand about their movement and the whole thing. Head bob. I think centers had to do the same thing. I think AQ has had to talk to the refs because the refs, if they get a complaint from the other team, the ref comes and tells the center normally, hey, they said that your head bob's a little bit too violent or something like that. That conversation takes place. So to call it on a fourth, I mean, that is a wild thing. Yeah, it's crazy. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who's played through so many different eras, both in what you're allowed to do to try to draw people off sides.

19:41Pat McAfee:You remember back in the day, quarterbacks were allowed to go, hey! It was an entire, then they cracked on, you're not even allowed to move your hand in an aggressive way. Don't even think about moving your head forward. You've got to stand exactly still. This man and I were drafted 221 picks apart. okay and uh boy i will say from the beginning until now there's vastly different levels to this shit for good reason this guy is one of the greatest ball throwers of all time he's a super bowl champion ladies and gentlemen the incredibly handsome man who was in the super duper live forever tube oh yeah training camp ladies and gentlemen la rams quarterback massive staff how we doing hey how are you thank you for joining us we know it's a short week obviously Obviously, you guys just had a massive win over the Indianapolis Colts.

20:27Pat McAfee:Can you tell – hey, we're a good team? Colts' a good team?

20:30Bruce Arians:Oh, yeah. Good football team. Good football team. Big physical football team. Yeah. I love hearing that.

20:35Pat McAfee:Put it on the ticker. I do love hearing that. As watching that game, though, obviously I thought to myself, the Rams are one of those teams you're trying to figure out if you're going to be able to win in the playoffs. You guys are that, especially because of everything that you've done. It feels like you've had a couple different eras of this Los Angeles Rams team. Why do you think you guys have maintained success? and why do you think your culture is kind of implemented in there so quickly, basically since you get to Los Angeles?

21:01Bruce Arians:Yeah, I mean, I feel like the success comes from continuity. We have enough coaches. You know, it starts with Sean. He does an unbelievable job that guys come into the system, they know exactly what it's about, they know what they're going to do, and then I think our front office does a hell of a job about bringing in people that know what the Rams are all about. Hey, come in here, fit in, get in the locker room, obviously learn our system, but learn what we're about as a team and how we go about our business. The older guys try to carry on that tradition, keep the guys understanding what it's all about, and then we go out there and play.

21:29Pat McAfee:I enjoy watching your squad. I enjoy watching you play because I don't know if – I'm 38. Are you 37? 37. Yep, 37. Okay. I don't know how you're still – I mean, brother, the shit you're – huh? We're feeling pretty good still. I mean, I know you great ball throwers. I think I've heard Aaron talk about this. I assume there's been some baseball throwers. like i'll always be able to spin it do you feel that way we talked to josh allen about that and how have you been able to maintain your health and uh physical capabilities is it that trailer tube that you want it what was it the immortal chamber i'm gonna live chamber that's right is that what are you doing how are how is the body feeling and you seemingly have only gotten better somehow throughout the entirety whenever uh father time's supposed to slow us

22:16Bruce Arians:down brother uh no i'm feeling good um a little touch and go during training camp um a little back issue but um as far as being able to spin it man i feel i feel really good um i've you know my body's been holding up uh you know really good for the first four weeks of the season the arm feels live i'm still trying to make some things happen out there throwing the rock to you know the likes of puka and davante so it's been fun pretty good start and uh just trying to keep it

22:40Pat McAfee:rolling man last question for me before the boys have some and coach ba's here as well he's saying your praises all morning. I don't know if your ears were burning at that early ass time of LA, but let's talk about Devontae and Puka. Obviously, it's a great time to have Devontae Adams on your team anytime if you're a quarterback. How about whenever you've got a guy like Puka, who is maybe best wide receiver in NFL right now, and then you've got Devontae Adams as another option off of that. How have those two paired so well together for you, and can you tell us about Puka kind of developing into the guy, maybe in the entire league?

23:13Bruce Arians:Yeah, I mean, they're both really talented players in their own right. Different, you know, play styles. Puka, big physical guy that, you know, run after the catch player, does a nice job really in all phases. Devontae is an elite route runner, has been for forever. Ball skills and the ball's in the air. The guy makes unbelievable body movements to catch it. I feel lucky and blessed to be the guy throwing him the rock. I think our coaches do a hell of a job dialing up stuff to, you know, let those guys be successful in their own right. And then, you know, I just got to pick and choose where the defense tells me to throw the rock, and they do the rest.

23:43Bruce Arians:So I'm a lucky one.

23:44Pat McAfee:Knowing where to go has seemingly been your thing for a long time. Let me share some stats with you here, okay, from Hembo. Stats, guys, not always good for people that life depends on how their stats look, okay? Kickers, punters, quarterbacks, pitchers, hitters, you name it, not always great. These stats, you're going to enjoy hearing these. And you're going to have to take these complimentary stats and enjoy them and really digest them. Okay? Don't be uncomfortable. Don't be awkward. First four games of a season. In 2012, with Calvin Johnson, Matthew Stafford. 29 receptions on 43 targets, 423 reception yards, 21 first downs.

24:23Pat McAfee:Okay. Okay? 2021 with Cooper Cup. You remember all of these throws, I assume. 30 receptions on 46 targets, 431 receiving yards, 18 first downs. Okay? 2025 with Puka Nakua. 42 receptions on 50 targets, 503 receiving yards, 26 first downs. Jeez Louise. Johnson and Cooper Cup wound up with the two largest yardage seasons in the history of the NFL. Okay. Which, oh, yeah, this guy has. So, hey, you and Pook are on a historic rate right now, brother, and you've been with them the entire time. That has to feel pretty good. We love Uso over here.

24:57Bruce Arians:Yeah, no doubt. It's pretty cool. He's a special player. Obviously had an unbelievable rookie campaign, set some records there, and then he's only built off of that. So just continue to try to find him when we can and let him do his thing, man. I'm just so happy to get to play with guys like that. They are special. You named three pretty unbelievable players right there, and so I was lucky enough to play with all of them.

25:17Pat McAfee:Yeah, and I think all of them would say we're lucky to have that tough son of a bitch Georgia Bulldog from Texas as the ball spinner. On that note, being tough, we've seen you broken neck, I think, broken ribs, back. Yeah.

25:34Darius Butler:Threw a touchdown or like an 80-yard pass.

25:36Pat McAfee:Don't touch me. Don't touch me. Don't touch me, please. I got a broken collarbone right now, actually. They're going to try to fix it during the timeout, but don't fucking touch me right now. D-Bott has a question about all of that.

25:44AJ Hawk:Yeah, keep representing for the 0-9 class, making us proud. But you've been doing this for a long, long time. Pat talked about it earlier. And Sean McVay, his offense, he's put out so many head coaches. The offense has been trying to be stopped for a long time. How have the defenses kind of evolved throughout your career, especially when it comes to kind of slow you and this offense down?

26:04Bruce Arians:Yeah, it's been a huge evolution. I mean, I think back to when I first got into the league, it was, you know, Tampa 2. We're bringing just, you know, old-school smack and wham and playing three-deep fire zone behind it. Then it kind of went to the Seattle 3 morph, you know, when they were winning their Super Bowls and doing all that. Then Vic Fangio kind of came around and was doing a bunch of his stuff, catching things from depth. There's a bunch of great coordinators. As offense changes, defense catches up, and vice versa. It's been a lot. It's kind of a fun challenge for me, to be honest with you, to try to remember what it was like back then.

26:34Bruce Arians:And now what we're facing is a whole lot different. But it forces everybody to kind of keep up and change with the times. And it's been a whole lot of fun.

26:42Pat McAfee:I think Drew Brees said, as you get older, you're just trying to keep your body up with your brain. And then when you're young, it's like you're trying to do the opposite. So when you talk about brain and you say you just rattled off a bunch of the defenses you face, there's a cyclicality to football, it feels like. Like, are you pulling from early days right now whenever you're seeing some stuff or thinking of that? Is that happening to you before every single snap? Are you like – how do you –

27:08Bruce Arians:Yeah, sometimes. Or if I'm watching tape during the week, I'm like, oh, you know what? This reminds me of this is kind of what so-and-so used to do, maybe out of a different front, or they run this, you know, pressure off of a different front or something like that. So, yeah, I'm always talking about that, talking about, hey, where did this defensive coordinator come from? What tree is he in? Oh, he learned from him. This is the thing he might pull from the past. All that kind of stuff. I'm sitting there wasting my time thinking about for sure.

27:30Pat McAfee:Yeah, I love that. And dissecting the defense is what you old fucks can do. That is the entirety of it all. Especially if you can still just... I mean, just so good. B.A., what'd you say earlier today?

27:43Matthew Stafford:He's the only guy I went out and watched warm-up every time we played him. And just because I was amazed at the throws he could make in warm-ups.

27:50Pat McAfee:I think I watched him and Kelly Moe up there in Detroit during warm-ups. I think you guys hit the crossbar like six straight throws, alternating each other. It was like the dumbest display of ball throwing that I've ever seen. We ended up winning that game, though. Hell yeah. I didn't do anything.

28:04Bruce Arians:I didn't do anything. Still won't. That Andrews left fourth down scramble? Donny Avery.

28:09Pat McAfee:We had so much fun in that building. That was a walk-off, brother. We went running up that tunnel. I didn't do shit. I had a great time. It was awesome. I'm sorry that happened to you, but it was a great night in Detroit for me. Yeah, that place was beautiful. On that note, throughout the history, go ahead, Con, man.

28:26Bruce Arians:Yeah, Matt. unbelievable game winner on Sunday, although it feels as though me, maybe B.A., Ty, could have made that throw just because nobody was around him. Was that the easiest game winner you've ever had? And then when you realized there's 10 men, or actually, did you realize there were 10 men? And if you did, did you kind of have to hide yourself from smiling or realizing that, oh my gosh, the Colts just gave this game away? Well, it was a nice. It was nice of them to leave one off for me. I wasn't expecting that out of the timeout, but it really didn't affect that place because Tutu still had a guy on him.

29:05Bruce Arians:Tutu just ran an unbelievable route. I said this, I think, in a press conference after the game, but it's kind of like a clear-out route. It's the fourth real progression read we're looking at, but, man, it kind of comes alive. Just happy for him. He's kind of had an up-and-down start to the season, but an unbelievable way to finish it, man. Just happy for Tutu.

29:25Pat McAfee:I think I watched a mic'd up between Peyton Manning and Ray Lewis. And Peyton Manning was telling Ray that he only has 10 people on the field. It was a red zone play. You only got 10, Ray. You only got 10. And then you see Ray's head start looking around. And then he calls a timeout. And then they actually did only have 10. Is there, and obviously, what an interesting give and take by Peyton and Ray Lewis to have. Are you a chirper out there? How much are you? Because you do get fiery. We see you get very fiery out there. Is there chatting from Matthew Stafford at the age of 37 still on the field?

29:56Bruce Arians:I don't talk to the other team too much, you know, but I wear the helmet. I wear the pads. I play on Sunday so that I can go act like an idiot and be crazy out there if we do something good or bad. I get the mic'd up sometimes, sent to me the full uncut version, and it's some off-the-wall shit. So I'm happy that not all of it makes it to the airwaves, but I do have a lot of fun playing out there.

30:18Pat McAfee:Shout-out to the L.A. Digital and Social team and the NFL Films people We're looking out for all these years. NFL Films have been looking out for guys for a long time. Yeah, it's going into a vault, but somebody's going to have access. Don't worry about it. I said a lot of terrible things about my own coach there. It's gone. Don't worry about it. Are you sure? Because if anybody shows that to them, I'm out of a job. I am sure of that. You know, there's a lot of those things happening. Shout out to NFL Films. And I appreciate the fact that you're still human. Still love it, huh? Love it.

30:45Bruce Arians:Love it. Have a blast. It's a hell of a challenge, but I still love doing it.

30:50Pat McAfee:every day you wake up excited about ball is it like um we're on the 16th hole 15th hole just hey let's try to enjoy the hell out of these last like are you have you changed your mentality of like uh who knows how many of these we have or have you always been like that have you seen

31:08Bruce Arians:that through the progression of the years no i think you always try to be that way but it's it's obviously a little bit more evident at the moment i mean i got a lot of gray in this beard right here so i don't know how much longer we'll be doing it but i do enjoy the heck out of it man And I think, you know, with experience, you know, I gained perspective on how much I love this stuff. And really missing time in training camp, man, it just gutted me that I wasn't out there. So that's a good sign for me to know that I'm still loving what I'm doing.

31:33Pat McAfee:We were worried about you. Everybody was because it kind of was ominous. You were in that tube and then you were out and then you weren't practicing. You were supposed to practice and you weren't practicing. Was there scary times in training camp? Was there worry?

31:43Bruce Arians:Yeah, definitely. My clone's having a first, you know, healthy first.

31:48Pat McAfee:That's wonderful to hear. Good clone. All right, so Matthew Stafford has the records with Calvin Johnson and Cooper Cup, the clone version. He's about to have the record with Puka.

31:59Bruce Arians:He's dealing to Puka right now.

32:01Pat McAfee:Well, I'll tell you what. These teeth. You're right. Clean. Clean on these teeth. Let's talk about the Rams' turnover on the other side of the ball. It has to be fun to watch. Go ahead, Ty.

32:13Darius Butler:Yeah, Matt, when you guys get rolling, I think everyone understands what your offense is capable of Last year, right before you went on your big run, the kind of talking point was like, well, is this defense going to be able to get there because it's so young? And then obviously Jared Verse comes out of nowhere, finishes the year incredible. What has it been like watching the development of that defense over like the past year to where they're at now?

32:36Bruce Arians:It's been awesome. A bunch of young guys, a couple key veterans in some spots that have really helped solidify it. They were outstanding on Sunday. They've done a hell of a job against the run so far this year. And then when the ball's in the air, those guys in the back end are making plays on it. Cam Curl with two picks is, I mean, what more can you ask for if you're the quarterback? So it was awesome. It's fun to watch them. It's hell to practice against them, to be honest with you. Our front is rushing like crazy. So it's a lot of fun to sit on the sideline and have a ton of confidence in the dudes that are out there going out there and making a play.

33:05Pat McAfee:They hunt, man. Yeah. They really do. It is a fun – you're a fun team to watch just in general. I think it's perfect for Los Angeles. Last question here comes from B.A.

33:13Matthew Stafford:Yeah, Matt, the division right now, nobody's got a losing record. I mean, it looks like the toughest division in football. Where is the toughest place for you to go play personally in the division?

33:25Bruce Arians:You know, Seattle traditionally, I mean, they've just done a hell of a job with their crowd. San Francisco, you know, is tough as well. Those two, you know, are the biggest two challenges. Arizona. Only one left. Yeah, you've got to say, you've got to say, if you're going to get two, they're going to have to stay. They're there. Well, no, it's true. I mean, you look at us. We went there and laid an egg last year at Arizona. So, like, they're a tough place to play, too. So, it's all three. B.A., you're right, man. To me, it feels like the best division in football. Quarterbacks playing at a high level.

33:56Bruce Arians:Defenses are playing really good. It's tough football out there in the NFC West right now.

34:01Pat McAfee:How about favorite place you've ever played? Can't be Detroit. Can't be SoFi. Can't be Athens.

34:07Bruce Arians:Lambeau's my favorite spot. I love Lambeau. The tradition. The walk out that little tiny tunnel. I feel like Bart Star worked at that time. I mean, it's just an awesome feel, and I love the history of the game, and you feel like you're a part of it when you play there.

34:20Pat McAfee:We appreciate you joining us. Good luck the rest of the way, and hold it down for the old guys. Hell yeah. Hold it down. You look great. You're spinning it.

34:29Bruce Arians:Appreciate it, guys. Thank you.

34:30Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, Super Bowl champion Matthew Stafford.

34:32Bruce Arians:Yeah, Matthew!

34:35Pat McAfee:Thursday night football, 49ers versus the Rams. Rams. Rams favored by five and a half.

34:42Bruce Arians:Brock Purdy. Yeah, why is he on the graphic? Is he definitely playing? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. 200-something million.

34:47Pat McAfee:200-something million dollars. Just wondering. Toe is hurting. Short week. Sore toe. Could get him a two-week break. Could get him potentially two-week break.

34:55AJ Hawk:Hey, you better play, Brock. After that stinker. We love Brock. Got to get out there and play.

35:01Matthew Stafford:B.A.? You got to be out there, baby. You got to be out there. It's all about availability.

35:05Pat McAfee:Yes, it is. The greatest ability is availability. That game is awesome. for Thursday Night Football. Oh, my goodness, yeah. And the Los Angeles Rams, exciting brand of football. Like, always going to be seemingly technically sound. Okay, Sean McVay's literally running routes with them out there. He's a good ball coach, right? It feels like Sean McVay, not just obviously incredibly handsome, good talker, fast talker, and everything like that. Substance-wise, as a coach, he's a great coach. That doesn't really get talked about much with Sean, I think, because he's so young and he looks like he's 12.

35:35Pat McAfee:They're always good, it feels like.

35:36Matthew Stafford:Yeah, when you look at that lineage where he came from, through the Shanahan system and all the people he's been with. He's got great background in his coaching ability and his knowledge, and he knows how to teach it. He knows how to teach it, and he brings a lot of enthusiasm to his guys.

35:52AJ Hawk:I like that. That's the thing you see most. Because in the league, you've got to coach with intellect, number one. We can trust you that you're going to put us in good positions. But it seems like he has the intellect, he has the energy, and he can communicate. Like he can get what he wants across to the team, set their vibe. They always look like they come ready to play. You talked about the defense, so it's going on both sides of the ball. And you talked about not only the coaching tree he's come from, but the coaching tree that he's already put out there and been so young in his career, so many head coaches out there running some form of his offense.

36:24Pat McAfee:On that note, just got a text from Orlovsky. He said what Zach Taylor's running is very different than Sean McVay now at this stage. And, yes, I think the system hurts the offensive line if you were wondering unsolicited. Okay. He don't know.

36:40AJ Hawk:So much more run game in McVay and the Rams. I think Kyra Williams had like over 300 carries last week. So some of his personnel and Joe Burrow, Matt Stafford, both phenomenal quarterbacks, different though.

36:52Pat McAfee:I saw it at the very end. We should have thanked him for it. Did you see the drawing he had of me up there?

36:56Darius Butler:Yeah, top right for us.

36:59Pat McAfee:What's Armis? Oh, I forget what the name is. They always do something zany, right?

37:04Bruce Arians:Yeah, they are a zany bunch.

37:05Pat McAfee:Yeah. We appreciate that. Love that. Good energy. Stafford. So good. He's a ball player. I think it was – that was old, old CBA. That was old, old CBA. Would have been a good time to be a number one overall pick. Yeah. Who was the last one? I think it was like 50. Bradford. Was it Bradford?

37:23AJ Hawk:Yeah. Bradford. Yep. That lucky SOB. The year before Cam, I think Cam was the first of the new CBA.

37:28Bruce Arians:Oh, jeez, Cam.

37:30Pat McAfee:So sorry. Yeah, sorry. I mean, it was vastly different. And he didn't get NIL. Yeah, it was vastly. That's a good point. I didn't think about that. It wasn't called NIL back then. It's called SEC football. Just to be clear, deserved. Without a doubt. Every pick. Absolutely deserved it. Okay, let's get to if it happened. Legend. Man, that Under Armour deal was so awesome, though. Those high cleats. I bought Under Armour because it came to me without. If it's good for the – that's maybe the – the most athletically gifted person I've ever seen in my life with these eyes. If Under Armour is good for him, it's good for me.

38:09Pat McAfee:I think it was a good business decision. Whoever made said business decisions, whenever made said business decisions. People forget about Cam Newton, I think. That is happening. He was unbelievable. Even the Juco days where he's freestyling in front of the entire team, it's like this dude has always been front-mind, like legitimately. He's got interesting hats, I will say.

38:28Darius Butler:He does. Look at the roster he was on at Auburn and how many guys played in the NFL when they won the national championship.

38:34Pat McAfee:And then people would say, look at everything else. Yeah, look at the Panthers. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, Cam was special talent. Now, on that note, that's no BS. It is time for one of our favorite segments of the week, BS or no BS with BS. Okay, we're going to say a statement that has been made by somebody somewhere, and we've seen it. It's not us saying it. No. Just like the Puyo blow it, Colm. Yeah, exactly. It was everywhere on the internet. I couldn't stop watching. We were just trying to figure out whether or not it's BS or no BS. All right, here's the first one. The Bengals might be dead, dead.

39:15Pat McAfee:So a lot of people were saying after last night, especially no Joe Burrow here for the foreseeable future, no protection of quarterback anyways. If Joe Burrow's in there, inevitable almost for him not to be playing this season. Seemingly a reoccurring thought. They gave a lot of money to two wide receivers. Trey Hendrickson's still not happy to run around long term. And they just got their asses beat on prime time. So the statement is the Bengals might be dead, dead. Is that BS or no BS, B-A?

39:44Matthew Stafford:That's no BS because they can't block anybody.

39:46Pat McAfee:Okay, okay. Try not to get in step on anybody.

39:49Matthew Stafford:I mean, it's amazing to me that that is a very talented football team. And Jake Brownlee's had games, but he didn't have a chance to back foot last night a few times, and they're all over him. So if they don't get a running game, they're going to kill him.

40:05Pat McAfee:Okay, so D.C. leaves, obviously, Lou Anaromo. There's all the drama in the offseason about the deals that still haven't really been figured out going into this offseason, Trey Hendrickson most specifically. Are they going to think about being sellers, you think, this year? Would the goal be here to punt on a year if you're the Cincinnati Bengals? What do you think their mindset is? If they are, in fact, no bullshit, dead, dead at this point.

40:28Matthew Stafford:No, I think they're going to go fight, fight, fight every week. He's never going to give up in this league. Zach's going to be fighting for his job again. And that defense, they've got to have some more pride about him.

40:40AJ Hawk:D-butt, you think they're dead, dead? Yeah, definitely dead, dead. No BS. Historically bad run game, too. I don't even know the exact numbers, but Chase Brown, and he had a decent year last year, but no run game. So you talk about coming from that McVay tree, you got to have a run game. You got to have play action. I don't care how talented your receivers are on the outside. You can't be a drop back passing offense, especially with your backup quarterback. So everybody here with football brain sensor, we just saw him. We saw how we built a team. In the offseason now, you have the MVP caliber quarterback.

41:10AJ Hawk:He can cover up a lot of that shit. When you don't, shit can get ugly real quick. And it has. And we all had to watch it last year.

41:17Pat McAfee:Never again. Never again.

41:19Darius Butler:Like, let's do that right now. But aren't they? Yeah, they're probably. They are. Thanks. Oh, yeah. They are on Thanksgiving. Change it right now. What? Change it right now.

41:28Pat McAfee:I think the Cincinnati Bengals are scheduled for primetime Thanksgiving. Can't have it. No, can't. That's a lot of eyes. Now, we had the Lions for a long time on Thanksgiving. True. Yes, we did. At noon. Yeah, you're right. It kicked off the day.

41:40Darius Butler:And you can eat the tradition part of that because that was part of it. It's like, hey, you wake up. You're going to have Thanksgiving lunch with your family. You're going to watch the Lions get their asses kicked.

41:48Pat McAfee:No, they always put up a good fight. It was just devastating. Guess that?

41:51Darius Butler:It's a part of tradition to watch them lose. Exactly. We can't just be throwing in the Bengals because why not? Okay? Especially, and again, I said it yesterday. This is not Jake Browning's fault. Okay? You see it last night, but we don't need to be watching them on Thanksgiving night. Okay?

42:08Pat McAfee:Especially because we're all going to be a little tired at that point. We won't watch good ball. That kind of carries us through. That kicks off the entire holiday season. The Cincinnati Bengals are going to be tasked with kicking off our holiday season?

42:19Bruce Arians:Not on my watch. And they're going to have a lot more primetime games because Joe Burrow's so freaking cool. And Jamar Chase has so many cool dance moves. I hate the Bengals, dude. This sucks. Like, genuinely sucks. And he mentioned— Why do you hate the Bengals? They got a lot of cool stuff. This whole offseason, we talked—just, I hate them. Can't even go into how much they suck. They probably have four more primetime games. But to what Pat said that Dan Uflovsky told him, can he just change the offense? Can Zach Taylor just go out there and be like, okay, we're going to do what the Steelers kind of did.

42:55Bruce Arians:We're going to put six tackles out there when we run the ball. And then when we throw the ball, we're going to chip and help the O-line. Why aren't they just doing that?

43:01Matthew Stafford:Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, you've got to help the guy somehow.

43:05Darius Butler:I don't know. 47 years.

43:09Matthew Stafford:The jump that they were getting, the Broncos were getting, the tackles weren't even out of their stance yet. Had no chance. And the guy had no chance. So you've got to chip, help something, and run the damn ball with something. And I think that's the big difference, where they've gone to a 50-pass attack every week, even with Joe. Joe does some super stuff that they can't do.

43:31Pat McAfee:Well, they're doing 50 passes because they just paid$60 million a year to the two wide receivers on the outside. And we asked the question, to your point, do you buy in the offseason? You've been around football a long time. Somebody that's been around, is this how you build a winning football team? Everybody with a football brain was like, nope, never have, never will. This is not how it goes. The wide receiver thing, he even said it there earlier whenever he was chatting. Tackles, you trade up and get one of those. Wide receivers, you get one of those guys in the third round. It's like, I don't think you can get a chase in the third round or a tee in the third round.

44:06Pat McAfee:But what they're saying, all the OGs of football is like, you can have an operable offense with maybe not an outright rock star at wide receiver. you can't have an operable offense if you have a bad offensive line. The wide receiver does not matter. You cannot get the ball to the wide receiver. You've got to figure out this first. Inside out, I think, is how everybody talks about building a team. And it did feel like all offseason, the Bengals were literally starting as far out as they possibly could. And then they started going in. And now, granted, they were put in a position where it sucks for them to have to make those types of decisions, obviously, especially with talent that they had and have grown and everything like that in relationships.

44:42Pat McAfee:but everybody that knows ball is like, that's not a winning recipe. And then we watch on Monday Night Football, them score three points, and the quarterback is just getting absolutely brutalized. And everybody says, we told you so. That is basically what everybody is saying to the Cincinnati Bengals team. And I don't like that because unlike Connor, I don't hate Cincinnati Bengals. I like that they're a gritty football team, family-owned football team. Wish they'd be smarter business-wise to think they've tried to, and their fan base treats it like it's a college team down there. You know, it is a great environment.

45:11Pat McAfee:but the tailgating is insane. They always fill up. It's like it just feels like this particular roster construction might have to be re-reviewed. You don't like the bagels. Hmm? You don't like them. Well, you don't hate them. They were selling their TVs at our stadium to their fans.

45:23Darius Butler:That was one of the better things they've done. That's a good hustle. 55-inch TV for$80?

45:28Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think so. In the parking lot, they're doing that sale.

45:32Darius Butler:Exactly. Set up a tent. Yep, and when they're gone, they're gone. So get down here now and get them is basically what they're doing. It has nothing to do with hating them. Bury these guys at 1 p.m. on Sundays. Thanksgiving can't happen. No. I want to have a good Thanksgiving. Me too. You think I want to be yelling at my mom and my grandma and stuff like that and my brothers? No, because that's what's going to happen. We're going to look up. It's going to be 28-0 with 11 minutes left in the first quarter, and we're going to be saying, what are we going to do here? We're going to talk to each other.

46:00Darius Butler:You know what we're going to do? Leftovers. Leftovers. Yeah, but you're going to have to talk. Now there's no distractor. And because you're going to have to do that, what are you going to say? Politics. Religion. I'm going to go get liquored up first, and then I'm going to come back, and then we're going to talk politics and religion, and we're going to be doing that boozed up, and it's going to be maybe the worst Thanksgiving ever. And that's all because the Bengals are on primetime.

46:20Bruce Arians:Who do they play? It doesn't matter.

46:23Pat McAfee:Hold on now. If it's the Browns, Miles Garrett jumping over the offensive line and doing belly-to-back German suplexes. F5. What if he's doing release suplexes?

46:33Darius Butler:Bengals, Browns. If it's Bengals, Browns on Thanksgiving night, they should fire Goodell right now. I don't think it's a deal.

46:39Pat McAfee:Ravens, Ravens, Browns.

46:41Bruce Arians:I think it works right now. Zero-zero on Thanksgiving night.

46:47Pat McAfee:I think Jake Browning will slice and dice that Ravens defense right now. True. I think there's a chance. And whoever's behind Browning. Yeah, they just need to do what the Steelers did with Darnell Washington. They just need to bring in, that needs to be 12 personnel, even whenever they're trying to throw the ball. They need two assists. They need tag teams. As many guys as you got. You know what? Let's get a fullback in there as well. Let's have one wide receiver. Let's have one route on the outside.

47:11Matthew Stafford:We're paying them too much. They've got to both be out there. Oh, yeah. Okay, you're right.

47:14Pat McAfee:We can't even protect them anymore because we've got to have both of them out there. Good luck, Bengals. We're pulling for you. All right, let's go back to BS or no BS with B.A. Go ahead, Con Man.

47:22Bruce Arians:Yeah, Bruce, Sunday Night Football, we all watched it, and we were all pissed on how it ended. NFL games should end in ties, and that is definitely the right decision, B.A. Is that BS or no BS?

47:35Matthew Stafford:I think it's BS, and I'm part of the problem. Yeah, because I was one of the ones that, in the league meetings, opted to go for a 10-minute overtime.

47:42Pat McAfee:Oh, really? This is your fault. Micah's return to Jerry World is a 40-40 time because of you?

47:51Matthew Stafford:One of the reasons, yes, we had a game with Seattle, and we had like 106 offensive plays. We couldn't even practice that week. Yeah, no, if we'd had to play Thursday night, no chance. And it was about player safety. But I have a recommendation that now, if it's a tie, both teams go out. You get the ball in the eight-yard line. You score. You get the ball. You score until somebody wins the game. There are no ties. It's not going to put a lot of plays in.

48:18Pat McAfee:It's not going to take a lot of time. No, and it also lets the stars decide. Let's go. So I had golden boot idea. Golden boot idea. Have the snap-hold kick from 55 against each other. 60, 65, 70. So player health and safety, kickers can kick forever. and also it's electrifying. What you just laid out, golden boot, much better. Okay, so eight-yard line, both sides. I think offense and defense on separate sides on the field at the same time. I think right beforehand, quarterbacks meet at the 50. There's a coin. It says first or second. Quarterbacks aren't even picking. It's just a first or second thing, and then they shake hands, then they walk back to their team.

48:53Pat McAfee:If this team's first, obviously they go. They don't score. Holy shit, let's look down at the other end. Okay, this play's about to start right here. As soon as this play ends, this play's now on the play. clock down here. And if they stop, we go back. They have to go first in that time, right? And then they go back the other way? Yeah, like college overtime, where

49:10Bruce Arians:it's like offense, defense, and then defense, offense.

49:14Pat McAfee:Defensive team.

49:15Matthew Stafford:Yeah, it'd be very, very fast and wouldn't be that many plays added to the game.

49:18Pat McAfee:Guys are going to be exhausted down there. Imagine three straight eight-yard plays. Oh my God, the D-line. Everybody's going to be chasing their asses off at the end of that whole thing. That'll be electrifying. Somebody gets a big-time stop down here.

49:31Darius Butler:Oh, like the inch line?

49:32Pat McAfee:Oh, because eight-yard line, there's some yak potential. Oh, yeah. And there's some big shots there. Boom, big shot, knocked out of bounds at the half-yard line. Obviously, rest blow it dead.

49:41Darius Butler:Yep.

49:42Pat McAfee:No, no, let's go down to the other end.

49:45AJ Hawk:Wait, you can't do that? What if it's the Jacks? Huh? Got Travis Hunter. He's on one end. He's got a jaw all the way down. You don't want Liam Cohen. You don't want him. You want to get his back. We don't want problems with Liam Cohen. Yeah, we want to get his back.

49:56Pat McAfee:You know what we didn't judge in that Taylor to Tape yesterday is Liam's got a little bit more. Yeah. He's like you now. Salah being 6 '4", I think is problematic for maybe everybody but Vrabel, MCDC, and a couple others that are coaching currently in the NFL. Kelvin Shepard I would give the advantage to over everybody and any former players that are younger and still very fit, I would give them an advantage. Well, Cohen's 6 '2", he said.

50:21Darius Butler:Yeah.

50:21Pat McAfee:Okay, let's make sure this gets a correction. Why did we change that? Why did we not change that? What the hell is this? This is outrageous. There was a clear omission of facts. He was 6 '2". He is 6 '2". He's not 6 '1". Yeah. And he's 240. I thought the internet said 6 '1". No, he's 6 '2". The internet said 6 '1". No, it's Wikipedia. His actual college one said that he was 6 '2". Yeah, he got shorter. Yeah. Well, we don't know as you get older. And I'll tell you what, Salah might be 270 at this point. We don't know what he's hiding. He could be heavy-organed.

50:53Darius Butler:Yeah, especially if he knows he's about to get into a fight. You know, he might pack on some weight.

50:57Pat McAfee:But I like the 8-yard line shootout. that's brilliant. I think that keeps the stars on the field. I think there is an exhilarating and I think it would end. It would have a prompt ending and people would feel justified that they got the win I think.

51:11Matthew Stafford:Yeah, everybody's got a fair shot.

51:13Pat McAfee:You did it, B.A. You ruined it. You ruined it by voting for the 10-minute thing. Now you're making it right. Alright, last one here. This is more so a question. Which Rushmore is BS and which Rushmore is no BS? Rushmore on X debuted today at Rushmore on X. On X is where you find the full episode. It's about 30 minutes. Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Ari Emanuel, Ben Persky sit down and try to figure out the four best receivers, ball catchers, because tight ends got added to it because I believe Tom and also everybody said, well, with how much the tight end catches the ball, if you want to put one on there, you can.

51:50Pat McAfee:They did. There's debates. There's battles. From these two Rushmores and Ari and Ben's, then one final Rushmore is created. There's heat. There's stories. It's a great show. It is a great episode. From these two Rushmores that you see, Peyton Manning's Rushmore of wide receivers, which is Jerry Rice, Marvin Harrison, Raymond Berry, great throwback, and Tony Gonzalez, to Tom Brady's Rushmore, Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Larry Fitzgerald, Rob Gronkowski. You've coached numerous dudes that are up here, Peyton and Tom included. Which Rushmore is BS and which Rushmore is no BS, B.A.?

52:25Matthew Stafford:I think they're both no BS. I mean, I don't know. I can take any of them off. They're just eight great players and different areas. And I might throw John Mackey in there. Oh. Who has a war name after him and was one of the premier tight ends ever back in the day. Because I am a little old school.

52:45Pat McAfee:Yeah, you are old school. Tell me about Larry Fitzgerald, though. Tell me, Rob Gronkowski. I don't want to spoil the episode. Rob Gronkowski, we all get a reminder, I think. Yes. because everybody sees Rob having a great time literally everywhere. Doesn't seemingly take anything serious. I love that he is still just always himself. Now, I think he's a genius, too. I don't think a lot of people give him credit for being a genius. He is everywhere, seemingly getting paid all the time, too. So let's make sure we acknowledge the fact that he has big-time brains when it comes to being retired. But what they talk about him playing football, both Peyton and Tom, they start debating with each other, basically, about how great Gronk is.

53:23Pat McAfee:And maybe Gronk's the greatest. Yeah. Maybe Gronk's the greatest of all time. They get into that entire thing. It is a great conversation. You got to coach Gronk and Fitz. What are your thoughts on Gronkowski? I think people appreciate Gronk. I think they like Gronk. But I don't think there is like the Tom Brady's the goat. I don't think there's a lot of like, hey, Gronk might be one of the greatest players of all time narrative out there. Do you think that should be? And what did you see from Gronk behind?

53:49Matthew Stafford:Yeah, I definitely think it should be because he's such a unique animal. He can block like a tackle. He could catch over the middle, and you could put him out wide. And he'd catch the phase. He's just one-hand catching. He's just unbelievable skill set all over the field. And he's a total mismatch. We thought Darren Waller was a little bit of a mismatch the other night.

54:08Pat McAfee:That's Gronk every day. Okay, so let's talk about that. This is what Tom had to say about Gronk on Rushmore on X.

54:15Bruce Arians:There are very few guys that could get open on someone. Rob Gronkowski could get open on Darrell Rivas on the best corner of all time when Ocho Cinco couldn't when T.O. couldn't when other guys couldn't Gronk could get open on with his size and length so you're talking about the best cover guy in my mind that I ever played against was Darrell Rivas and there were plenty of times where I threw balls and I practiced in 2014 Rivas was a teammate and I would put Gronk on Rivas and Gronk was the best I ever saw getting open on Rivas and

54:48Darius Butler:And that was because of size and it was a tough matchup. Wow. But that's the only reason.

54:52Matthew Stafford:That's a tremendous compliment. I mean, like, you know, corners are supposed to be able to cover tight ends. If they can't, that means the guy's unique. He's a beast.

55:03Pat McAfee:Yeah, there was final spots being up for grabs here because there's only four, obviously. So Tom just continued to pile on for Gronk. Yeah. Because Randy, I think everybody knows Randy Maltz is going to be on there.

55:15AJ Hawk:Got to be.

55:15Pat McAfee:I think everybody knows Jerry. Probably going to be on there. No problem. Those final two spots for the one Rushmore from Peyton and Tom's brains coming together, it got really heated in there. I'm going to be honest. It is great conversation, great football conversation. But the Gronkowski memory lane was fantastic, and I think a lot of people forgot about it.

55:34Bruce Arians:Yeah, it's incredible. I forgot about it because once, you know, B.A. stole Brady and Gronk, go to hell. Everyone from New England kind of forgot those errors of them when they're in the Patriots. Seeing the Gronk highlights are unbelievable. especially when you think about his time in Indy when he just pissed on both of you guys. Don't fear that.

55:52AJ Hawk:Hey, doesn't get talked about, though. I was with him as a rookie in his first practice. You knew he was going to be special. Would have probably been a top 10 pick if he didn't have some back issues coming into the draft. But just a freak show in the run game and in the pass game. You look at the other tight ends receiving-wise, Gonzalez, Gates, Kelsey. Now it's a conversation, but when you talk about a total package, run game, receiving, not a conversation.

56:13Pat McAfee:Tom Brady talked about how we were running behind hits. Our rush game was where's Gronk? Our pass game where's Gronk? I mean, he's like, the way they start talking about it, especially during the greatest dynasty of all time. And we asked B.A. to put together his quarterback rush more. He asked Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Terry Bradshaw, and then he cheated a little bit. Johnny Unitas and Otto Graham will share that one up there. Any quick thoughts on why you couldn't make just four, B.A.?

56:38Matthew Stafford:Yeah, you got to go old school a little bit. You know, and Otto Graham had the best quote I've ever heard. He came in our locker room in Cleveland one Saturday morning. He said, he looked at Tim Couch and Kelly Holcomb. He said, look, I never threw a bad pass in my life. Even the ones that got intercepted would hit my guy right in the chest.

56:54Pat McAfee:Look, I've got to have that type of moxie on Mount Rushmore. If you agree, let us know. If you disagree, let us know.

57:02AJ Hawk:From 30 for 30 podcasts.

57:12Darius Butler:Brian Pata senior defensive lineman from Miami gun down. The key to this case.

57:19Matthew Stafford:It's Brian. An hour before he died, he was on the phone. This might be a hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction.

57:28AJ Hawk:We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now.

57:36Pat McAfee:Football! That's a good cadence. I have a 47-year coach, Super Bowl champion. Coach B.A. here. Great to see you, Coach. No risk and no biscuit. The toxic table's here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. Nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here. Congrats to your Dolphins last night. They look like a great team. Come to board. Also, congrats to one half of the hammer. Dad! Cowboys, Bubba Gumpino, congrats to your Dolphins last night. You've certainly rode the wave here of emotions with this team. Are you all the way back in? I know the Tyreek Hill news is certainly devastating, and he has posted thank you for all the prayers and love.

58:10Pat McAfee:He's at the hospital. We assume that his recovery and rehab is going to go well and smooth, but that's a devastating injury. I mean, that's one they talk about long term. Like your knees side, especially for how explosive, how athletic he is. It's sad. It is very, very sad. but away from that particular which is tough to just say hey away from the guy that we paid more money to than anybody we had ever paid money to and we reset the entire wide receiver market and we said we're going all in offensively with mcdaniel offensive guru and paying tyreek hill we think he's unguardable we're bringing in two or we're bringing in a big system it's hard to say without the tyreek hill news that has to be one of the best nights you've had as a dolphins fan

58:50Bruce Arians:in a long long time gumpy by far this season for sure by far what about last year what about last

58:55Pat McAfee:How did it go last year?

58:57Matthew Stafford:Two of us hurt a lot, so it was pretty rough. Remember we had Snoop Huntley, Skyler Thompson, Seattle, zero points. It was a little bit of a rough run. We got a four-game stretch here. Browns, Panthers, Falcons, Chargers. You got a chance. Four games, you got to get back in the mix.

59:12Pat McAfee:Yeah, absolutely. You win three of those. It's going to be good to have Darren Waller against that Browns defense. In Cleveland. Three? What's that? Three of those, Gums?

59:24Bruce Arians:Well, you have to win three to get back in the mix. Two's not enough. Don't be saying we're going to play us.

59:29Pat McAfee:It's overreaction Tuesday right now for Dolphins.

59:31Bruce Arians:No, I just want to let them know. I don't think you need that many. I mean, the Bengals are banged up. The Texans are shite. Like, all of a sudden, those seven teams in week one that you thought were going to make the playoffs, there's a few that are definitely right now out. Wild card spots potentially available.

59:47Pat McAfee:Ravens one and three. What are they going to be? Lamar Jackson, let's stay in that conversation for a second. I believe the Adam Schefter podcast that you were a co-host of, you guys do a great job, was talking about this morning something about Lamar Jackson. And I just kind of assumed that this would be the case, especially because he ended up not playing for the last quarter and a half of a game in which it was only a 17-point deficit in a huge game against the Chiefs. And him being on the sideline obviously was alarming to all of us. He had a hamstring strain is how it was being talked about.

1:00:20Pat McAfee:There's now kind of indicators for what's happening this weekend, right, Schefter was saying?

1:00:23Darius Butler:Yeah, Schefter said that where things sit right now, he gets the feeling that Lamar Jackson is not going to play Sunday against the Texans. And I can't remember who they have the following week, but then the week after that they have a bye. And he said obviously it's too early to say that, but he's wondering if they don't try to maybe sit Lamar the next two weeks, get him through the bye to get him healthy. because he said Harbaugh did say, hey, even if this would have been a close game, like Lamar wasn't good enough to come back in. So he has a legitimate hamstring issue. So we'll see. Yeah, I mean, we'll see what happens on Sunday.

1:00:57Darius Butler:But as of right now, on Tuesday, Shefty doesn't think he's going to play on Sunday.

1:01:00Pat McAfee:Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is former Cincinnati Bengals. Everybody forgets about that. That's right. College football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner. Ladies and gentlemen, the all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers, Hoffnum, A.J. Hawk. Hawker, we know you from your Cincinnati Bengals days, and obviously you grew up in Centerville as a Cincinnati Bengals fan. They seemingly are in trouble, especially after losing last night, 28-3. Baltimore Ravens seemingly in some trouble. Cleveland Browns have a chance at this thing, even though there's really no expectations offensively for them to be great for that long of a time.

1:01:39Pat McAfee:I mean, the fact that the Browns might actually. Yeah, come out of this thing. And then the Pittsburgh Steelers, obviously, yeah, they make some plays there. Then the Pittsburgh Steelers, like the AFC North, Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers all of a sudden sitting in a very favorable spot to potentially make it to the dance, AJ.

1:01:57Bruce Arians:Yeah, it is. And starting with the Bengals, yeah, this is – it was a tough one to watch, I think, and B.A. hit on it. Like when you have – you know, they're running a three-man rush and they're both outside rushers are getting off the ball so quick Our guys aren't even going to know their stance yet on the outside. It's just tough, man. I don't know what it would be like to be on the Bengals right now throughout this stretch and what they have coming in the future without Joe Burrow for the foreseeable future, that's for sure. I don't know what you do. But, yeah, AFC North, what are you talking about?

1:02:23Bruce Arians:The Steelers have to feel very, very good about where they are.

1:02:25Pat McAfee:Are we at a point now, Coach, where these teams know who they are? Do we think teams are starting to find out who they are about week five or so? I know nothing matters until Thanksgiving like Bengals playing primetime Thanksgiving night. We can't wait to that. But do you think teams are starting to figure out who they are and if they're a competitor?

1:02:39Matthew Stafford:Yeah, they should really know who they are right now. You should have your identity down pat. Now, injuries change a lot of things. You know, when you lose your quarterback, are we going to become a running team? We've got to change things. Lose a couple tackles, we've got to bring tight ends in. That changes things. But you should know who your football team is right now.

1:02:57Pat McAfee:All right, let's talk about some drama around the NFL. It's only continuing to build. A.J. Brown, after a huge win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Philadelphia Eagles continue to be dominant. I mean, the Philadelphia Eagles just go into somebody else's house and beat them. For half. What's that? For half. Look out the win. It was the final score of that game, Coach. I mean, there was almost some more cardiac Baker coming back and four straight comebacks in the fourth quarter would have been electrifying and great for the Baker-Mayfield tail. But the Philadelphia Eagles do what they do.

1:03:30Matthew Stafford:They're solid.

1:03:31Pat McAfee:Block. Get a big block in the kicking game. Jalen does his thing. The tush push, innovative. And they don't even need to really throw it to the wide receivers, B.A. What are your thoughts? Do you feel good about where Tampa Bay is after losing to Philly? And what are your thoughts on Philadelphia before we dive into the drama?

1:03:47Matthew Stafford:Oh, yeah, I feel real good about Tampa Bay's situation because there's still all the injuries and the guys that are missing. But, I mean, they didn't complete a pass in the second half. And they dug too many block kicks for the Bucs. Block kick every week, that's how to change. but I love the imagination Nick Sariani and Kevin did last week with the touch push and the little shuffle pass. I mean, everybody's got them. They knew they might get stopped going up the middle, but it was great coaching.

1:04:14AJ Hawk:Yeah, Philadelphia Eagles are on fire right now. I mean, that defense, like I love their defense. Zach Bond is awesome. Campbell, I think he's going to be great, the rookie linebacker they have. But two, and we talked about it preseason, my sophomore superstars, I had two Eagles, Quinone Mitchell and Cooper DeGene. And, like, those are probably the two best corners playing. Like, Quinone followed Ibuka a lot in his face, one of the best press corners in the league already. And Cooper DeGene played some outside corner, played a nickel. But, like, his awareness, physicality, like, those are two young superstars.

1:04:50AJ Hawk:I'm talking about, like, top ten players on defense right now.

1:04:52Pat McAfee:Cooper DeGene's playing outside and inside, a little bit of a hybrid.

1:04:56AJ Hawk:Yes, absolutely. They need help on the base because they're the outside corner. You know, you had Odor Jackson out there. You traded for Ja 'Cory and Bennett from the Raiders. So they've been kind of looking for somebody out there. He can play out there like 1 ,000%. But when they do go sub, which they play majority sub, that quarters kind of show that Stafford kind of talked about with Fangio, like you got to have Cooper DeGene in the interior of that defense when they go sub. We're so proud of Cooper.

1:05:22Darius Butler:Yeah. Aren't we? Yeah. I'll take a bullet for that guy. Great haul guy. He is. One of the best ever.

1:05:29Pat McAfee:How come? He's going to start a trend, isn't he? This is going to become a new thing. What's that?

1:05:35Darius Butler:I don't know if they're making a whole lot of Cooper DeGenes out there.

1:05:37Pat McAfee:What are you saying?

1:05:39Darius Butler:What do you mean? Just uber, uber, uber athletic white guys. I just don't know how many of those guys are growing on trees. You're talking about Caucasus out there. Yeah, exactly. Guys who can go line up in the NFL and you're not like, oh, Jesus Christ, there's a white guy out there.

1:05:57Pat McAfee:We know Seahorn. Unbelievable. Seahorn was so good. Think about the things that have been said to these wide receivers in the NFL, in meeting rooms, about Cooper DeGene locking them down. Legitimately.

1:06:10Bruce Arians:Don't let this guy lock you down. You cannot let this dude lock you down. You know, that's happening.

1:06:14Pat McAfee:I might argue that Cooper DeGene causes the most amount of shit talk maybe in the history of professional sports.

1:06:19AJ Hawk:I would say that. He's got some shit to him, too. Oh, yeah. He's awesome. He got a bullshit taunting penalty. Yeah, he did. Came down, made a great tackle, kind of did the AI step over, which I love. Bullshit. I hate the tone. I know there's a point of emphasis coming into the season, but he definitely got some shit to him.

1:06:36Pat McAfee:Wait, was it Jordy Nelson? Jordy, here's the walkover, I believe. Yep, give me that. Give me that. It's football. Lou Donner, right? I believe that's who he steps over in that entire thing. But the thought of Cooper DeGene being maybe the greatest of all time, Okay, greatest white of all time on the defense side of the ball. That's a huge – Cornerback?

1:06:59Bruce Arians:Corner? Yeah. He's already here. Wow.

1:07:01AJ Hawk:What about Denver? Already the greatest. What about Denver?

1:07:04Bruce Arians:Yeah, what about – Riley Woke? Oh, yeah, where can we go? No, he's good. He's good.

1:07:07AJ Hawk:He's good. He's good. He's good. He's – you got to pick it up a little bit, but it's not a question for me. The greatest white DB of all time? Not DB. We got Harrison Smith. We got Eric Weddle. I won't go DB. Corner. Cornerback. Without – How many are they going to choose from? What are the five? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, AJ.

1:07:25Pat McAfee:It doesn't matter. We got it. Love you, Coon. Congratulations, Coon. Coon. Coon. Coon. Coon. Coon. Coon. Coon. Coon. I'll tell you what. You put him out there on that island. A little bit more sunscreen. Yeah. Okay. It's a little brighter out there. Okay. There's a lot of that stuff. These are the greatest of all time. We need to celebrate that. It's early. That touchdown is Super Bowl.

1:07:49AJ Hawk:Yeah. Exactly.

1:07:50Pat McAfee:I mean, this guy is huge.

1:07:52AJ Hawk:Yeah, huge.

1:07:52Pat McAfee:So you'd think you'd want to be teammates with that guy. So this is what happens, Coach B.A. This undefeated football team just got out of the Super Bowl. Okay? They also paid wide receivers. Very good wide receivers. And what we have learned in the NFL, which is why we were so impressed with what Sirianni was able to do last year, is if you got two stud wide receivers, and their entire legacy, their entire bag and career depends on how often either an offensive coordinator is deciding to get them the ball or a quarterback is deciding to get them in the ball or an offensive line can protect for a quarterback to get them in the ball.

1:08:25Pat McAfee:A lot of things depend on other people for how they're going to be remembered and how much money they're going to make. So I think the wide receiver in nature is naturally a little bit louder than everybody else, you know, a little bit more demanding, we would say. The position as a whole kind of has that. So balancing two superstar wide receivers as they were a run-dominant team last year, I thought Nick Sirianni did an incredible job with that. The wide receivers were actually the guys that dumped the Gatorade on Sirianni. Devontae and A.J. Brown. Then A.J. Brown gets targeted nine times, has two receptions, and they don't complete a pass in the second half of a game in which they go to 4-0.

1:08:57Pat McAfee:A.J. Brown, who's a guy that we saw him go for 100 plushes a couple weeks ago, still got it. Absolute beast. He puts out a tweet, says, If you're not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don't make it safe. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way. Now, doing all that does the complete opposite of everything in the middle of that particular take there. but he didn't outright say anything so i think he's still good he's just saying worse people wouldn't do it the way i'm doing it right now so good for me here's nick sirianni answering to aj brown about his importance on the team yeah yeah um you know obviously aj is

1:09:35Bruce Arians:very important to this football team um you know i know he wants to contribute um i know he wants to contribute and do the things that he's capable of doing. And, you know, but, yeah, I mean, so it, again, he wants to contribute into these wins. And he's had a couple games where he hasn't been able to, you know, and for different reasons of why we haven't in these games. So, but I question nothing about, you know, his desire to play great football, his desire of being a good teammate, his desire to be here.

1:10:18Pat McAfee:We'll go to Jeff Nyberg and then John McMullen.

1:10:22Darius Butler:Nick, how do you go about addressing a situation like that with AJ? Is it something you talked to him about last night after it happens? Do you talk to him today? Have you talked to him? And what was that conversation like? Good question.

1:10:32Bruce Arians:Yeah, obviously, you know, always talk to him. somebody I talk to on a daily basis I try to reach out to all our guys on a daily basis and won't get into you know any private conversations that we have with any players about any topic right that's a that's sacred relationship between the head coach and players and we'll always keep that private but always in constant communication with all these guys.

1:10:59Pat McAfee:Okay coach BA wide receiver position and head coach relationship is obviously one of those ones that has been seen publicly. You're a part of one of them with AB, obviously, with how that whole thing goes. And from what I've heard, AB worked his ass off, showed up at everything, but obviously expected ball as well. A lot of other wide receivers, same situation. How do you think coach Sirianni handles this? And what do you think AJ Brown's end game is here? Do you think he wants the ball more? Do you think this is a way to try to get the ball more? Do you think he wants out? What do you think it is and how would you handle it if i think he just wants to contribute to the winning

1:11:33Matthew Stafford:you know they've had so much success i think nick's handling it perfectly it's a personal thing between he and the head coach and he's a receiver coach and the quarterback and uh they've got so many weapons there's just one ball you know and one guy can't get it all the time so if you're doubling him davante might get it they might start doubling davante he'll get it i think there are ways to get cheap catches.

1:11:59Pat McAfee:Do you feel like you've got to do that sometimes

1:12:00Matthew Stafford:with some people? Hey, we've got to get him

1:12:02Pat McAfee:in the game.

1:12:03Matthew Stafford:He's got to have a ball in the first five plays because they're looking at the script. When am I getting the ball? Where's my play?

1:12:10Pat McAfee:First 15. Oh, yeah.

1:12:13Matthew Stafford:I've had a few of them. Okay, I'm good. I'm going to get this screen. I'm going to get this ball in this one. Okay, I'm happy. I'll play my ass off. if you don't

1:12:24Pat McAfee:I didn't even think about getting the first 15 either a couple days beforehand or the night before and just being like I'm not even a part of this so you go into the game mad almost you're going into the game pissed and then whenever it ends up happening how the script kind of laid out to it then there's even more and AJ Brown is like I don't want to be he's kind of Trey Hendrickson this I don't want to be the guy that says this but what the fuck is what he's basically tweeted there. And Sirianni having to juggle that's going to have to be a real thing for this team because they're very good without throwing the ball.

1:12:59Pat McAfee:I mean, they're 4-0 right now. They're fresh off a Super Bowl champion. I mean, there's no end in sight for this team.

1:13:05Matthew Stafford:If they weren't winning, it'd be a big problem. Winning solves a lot of these issues, all right? If you're 1-3 and this shit's going on, it's a whole different story.

1:13:15Pat McAfee:Do you think one loss brings this conversation to the forefront yet again?

1:13:18Matthew Stafford:No, they're still going to be in first place. And I think this team's pretty tight. You can tell. And I think there have never been a great wide receiver that I've coached that didn't want to down the ball. It's your job as a coach to get him the ball.

1:13:32Pat McAfee:So you're saying you think maybe the script will change a little bit. Let's go ahead and just put him at running back here. Yeah. We can wheel route this thing. And if he doesn't want it to be a rush, he wants it to be a reception. We'll have Jalen back up a foot and kind of just give him this ball. Do the run across. Let's get him. Let's get A.J. Brown in this game. You think that happens and that's what he's doing this for for sure? I know it happens. We've done it many times. Go ahead, Connor.

1:13:55Bruce Arians:Yeah, this is like the third straight year A.J. Brown's due to this, so either say your piece or shut up, stop doing it. It's annoying. But for you, like when D. Bud and Pat talk about like, hey, B.A. would say, hey, this is a five-star game. You know, we're going to need our five-star players to show up. But then sometimes you say like, hey, this is a one-star game. Like we need our one-star guys to contribute. Utter guys. The utter guys. When it is like a one-star game and you know that the other team is going to take out like a Mike Evans or they're just going to completely eliminate like a Gronk when you had him, what do you say to those guys?

1:14:28Bruce Arians:Because it feels like the strategy for most of these teams was like, hey, we're going to make them make Jalen throw the ball, but he's still not getting the ball. So, like, what do you say as a coach to your five-star players when you know it's going to be a one - to three-star game?

1:14:41Matthew Stafford:Yeah, I mean, exactly that. You just put it out. Hey, look, you're probably getting doubled the whole game. Your touches are going to be down. So-and-so is going to have to step up in the middle. You know, maybe a Cade Otten or whoever your young tight end is. He gets 10 targets. And I think now as a coach, too, you move those guys around where it's hard to double them, stack them, release them, get them a little screen pass. Make them be open. Just get them the damn ball somehow.

1:15:10Pat McAfee:So I saw the Vikings and Steelers do that this weekend. Justin Jefferson was force-fed the ball. DK Metcalf was force-fed the ball. And I love seeing it, AJ, because too often, I don't want to poke fun at play callers or offensive head coaches, too often it feels like, well, they just took that guy out of the game. It's like, the guy's really good. Can we just not get him the ball? It sounds like BA's like, there is definitely a conversation to be had about getting these guys the ball even whenever we can't. I like that the Steelers and the Vikings did that this weekend. I hope that continues.

1:15:39Now, Justin Jefferson's going to get, he had 18 catches in what,

1:15:43Pat McAfee:like the first half or something?

1:15:43Bruce Arians:Yeah, like 25 targets or something.

1:15:46Pat McAfee:And they go into the game saying, this guy can't get the ball. So, KOC definitely does that. But, like, DK getting force-fed the ball. The studs getting force-fed and offensive coordinators making them get the ball happening around the league, I think feeds into A.J. Brown going, like, we can definitely figure out how to get me the ball. Puka. Yeah, Puka Nakula's getting the rock. Devontae's getting the rock. If they win, though, who cares is how everybody views it, I guess, A.J.

1:16:09Bruce Arians:Yeah, as long as you win, things can get – they do get kind of swept under the rug. It'll eventually, I mean, if it continues to go on and on, he's not getting any, the amount of targets he feels he deserves. Yeah, it could be an issue, but I mean, that's the problem about having a good team. It's one of the good, it's a good problem to have as a coach, I guess, when you have a lot of talented players that they all need and want the ball. But B.A. is right. You could find a way. I would imagine a guy like A.J. Brown, any stud receiver would appreciate when a coach finds ways to get him the ball easy and early on in the game.

1:16:36Bruce Arians:I think of it more from a quarterback's perspective. like imagine a young quarterback and having that kind of pressure of trying to force feed the ball to certain stars I can imagine that would be an issue I don't know if BA had to deal with that at all as a coach but for a young QB to have one or two guys that somehow will continue to be unhappy if you don't push the ball enough what does that do to a young guy

1:16:57Matthew Stafford:it's hard man with those young guys in the huddle and that guy's looking at you like I'm going to be open dude no you're not you guys say no you're not bro they're doubling you They say, throw the damn thing at me, I'll get it.

1:17:09Pat McAfee:Okay, so there was a moment, I think Costanzo, tackle, jumped off sides on a play. Play was designed for Reggie to get a touchdown. I forget what. The play was like Reggie has a walk-in touchdown. And the way Costanzo tells the story is he jumped off sides. Oh, my God, what an idiot. Then he gets back to the huddle. He already wants to physically damage himself, you know, because that's how he is. And he's in the huddle. And then Reggie's just sitting there basically in the huddle, just like looking at him. And it was at that moment, Costanzo realized, oh, I fucked this guy too. Yeah. It was like, like the way Costanzo tells the story is like one of the best stories I've ever heard.

1:17:49Pat McAfee:He's like, I already think I'm getting fired and I think my career's over and I'm heading back into the huddle. And then I realized, oh, there's one particular guy that hopes all those things potentially are happening at this exact moment. It was the guy that was supposed to get a walk-in touchdown. And we're talking legacies and careers and everything. is there so many things dependent upon for a wide receiver to get the ball yeah i mean that's real

1:18:10AJ Hawk:though and that's the other part of it we always talk about how much of a business this is like he signed a great deal a couple years ago you're looking around the other guys who are in kind of his tax bracket they're producing they're getting numbers they're getting targets and i'm not so winning obviously that that covers up a bunch of it and ultimately we want to be winners but to everybody's point you want to feel like you contribute and all we we know the uh wide receiver wide receiver one, the egos and the things like you need. Like that, and that's what makes them great is being a part of the game, being the guys that can change the math.

1:18:42AJ Hawk:And these defenses are keying in on 11 too. You come in every game, they're going to have their game records on the board. It's going to be 26, and it's going to be 11 in the pass game. So credit to them and the Tampa Bay Bucs. Morrison, he's a young dog as well. I think he's going to be a great cornerback in this league for a long time. McCullough, they got some good DBs back there and good defensive coaches who are going to take him out. So the offensive coach has got to do a little more to get 11 the ball, too.

1:19:05Pat McAfee:Yeah, I hope so. I hope we get them in. I hope they continue to go. They have a chance to be real. This team has a chance to be very real. You talked about the defense, special teams. Yeah, we're talking dynasty. And Sirianni is the leader of it. Yes. This is a hilarious – this is the complete opposite of the Bill Belichick. Yeah. Like literally the complete opposite of it. It's like showcasing that you can win in a variety of fashions, but you still need the same shit at the end of the day. no matter how you implement it. And it's like, Sirianni's going to have to jump. This is two years in a row where this is going to – it's a gift, but it's certainly a curse as well.

1:19:40Pat McAfee:He's been dealing with his whole career.

1:19:41Darius Butler:Well, and that's what – nobody talks about it. But, like, you know, because same deal. You want to take his first press conference. And, like, he is. He's a bit of a different dude. But, like, you have to have a very high emotional intelligence to be able to deal with this for this long. Like, he said it right there. He's like, you know, I got to check in with AJ every single day. You know, like, there's a couple guys who he knows. It's like he's not happy. I got to make sure I can at least massage this a little bit because it's not just that. Look who they've beat so far. They've beat three of the best teams in the end.

1:20:11Darius Butler:They beat the Cowboys first week, but they beat the Chiefs and the Rams. Yeah, the Rams and then the Bucs. Beat the shit out of you, Bruce. Beat the hell out of you, Bruce.

1:20:20Pat McAfee:And I heard Sirianni was like, is this the house that Bruce Arians built? He was talking shit to Baker.

1:20:26Darius Butler:It was awesome.

1:20:28Pat McAfee:Baker and Sirianni?

1:20:29Darius Butler:Yeah. Oh, my God. He's chirping him all game, going up and down the sideline. That's Sirianni, though. Have you met Sirianni?

1:20:36Matthew Stafford:Oh, yeah, very well. I like Nick a lot.

1:20:39Pat McAfee:He is. He's awesome. He's himself. They try to kill him. They tried to kill him. They were winning games last year, and it was like, this guy. The reason the Eagles aren't going to win. Yeah. When they lose, it's going to be his fault. They've won five straight. Yeah. It doesn't matter. Who's the weakest link? But it was a lot of that for Sirianni. Now it's the offense coordinator. Yeah. Now the offense coordinator is the one that's like needed to do this.

1:21:03Matthew Stafford:He was a genius this week, man. Look what he did with the tush push.

1:21:06Pat McAfee:I agree.

1:21:07Bruce Arians:First of all. Shovel pass. Sweep. The Philly Johns were real pissed they already used that play. Is that a thought for coaching? Like, why are they using this right now instead of, you know, the divisional round? No, because they would have lost a damn game to his score. Well, that's Buccaneers proof right there.

1:21:22Pat McAfee:So that is how we do it.

1:21:24Matthew Stafford:That 270-yard touchdown's got to brought it back.

1:21:26Bruce Arians:Go ahead, AJ. It helps their tush push as well because now you've got to think about, hey, they're not guaranteed to run the tush push. They can run outside as well.

1:21:33Pat McAfee:Anything you put on tape is good for the future. But on that note, if they would have just continued and then in the biggest moment dropped that shit out there, Sirianni would have been a genius. I'm a genius. You fall for the trap. Now, granted, that's Vitavea over there too. Remember, Vitavea and the Bucs did beat the tush push. Kind of the antidote. So them actually just being like, yeah, we're not doing that again. No way. Is Vitavea still on the team? Yeah. he's so oh remember we beat uh levante david said we handled the tush we'll be ready for it we'll try to do it again or whatever and that's like a probably uh i assume the tampa buccaneers defense is very proud of that like oh yeah this game this play that was going to change rules of games because nobody could stop it we stopped it and then all week sirianni's like look at them down there they're gonna we got it we got it and then just hook line and thinker we're going around What time you see we do?

1:22:27Pat McAfee:Yeah. What time you see we do? Genius, man. And then A.J. Brown's like, can we not have put me in there, maybe? Yeah. Hand me the ball. Okay, can I have done the little skippity-doo-dah in there instead of the guy you just paid two years early in the entirety of it all? Good luck to the Eagles.

1:22:40Darius Butler:With the expectation after all of this happens, and he puts out that tweet, would you expect A.J. Brown to have 10 catches for 150 yards next week?

1:22:48Matthew Stafford:Yes. I would have at least 10 targets, you know, whether or not he gets 10 catches, but the ball's coming his way for sure.

1:22:55Pat McAfee:This is like when OBJ joined the Rams. Remember, like, the first drive? Yeah. Was just Stafford to OBJ every single play. Antonio Brown to the Patriots, I think.

1:23:06Bruce Arians:Same exact thing, yeah. It was like five catches and a touchdown on the opening drive in Miami.

1:23:11Pat McAfee:There is a statement that can be made to these guys. Like, hey, you are a very vital piece of this entire thing. Even though if the rest of the game we're not able to, because we got Saquon Barkley back here, and we got the offensive line, you can you're saying extend a relationship or an olive branch and saying hey we still appreciate you and we're going to need you through this because you never want them to give up right never even clear out routes blocking you never want to your stars to just say what am i doing this for am i just here a track practice the hell am i running 70 yards a clip every time if i'm never going to get the rock you can see why they're upset but also they're undefeated yeah so it's hard uh it's hard you know doesn't really matter yeah it's a really hard thing to kind of go to bat for let's talk about some other stuff happening around the sports world i hate to say this oh no i've really enjoyed watching this european team enjoy this rider company oh geez aj have you seen this yeah they uh they seem to know how to have a good time all of them they get along so well i mean rory rory rory hey hey he's in your head Listen to this.

1:24:24Your head. Rory, Rory, Rory. Hey, hey, he's in your head.

1:24:34Pat McAfee:Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Rory, Rory. Shut up. Okay, so that moment's happening. That's my first thought was, too. That's a good song. I'll need to hear you guys doing that shit. And then you go to the press conference when Rory is asked about a couple of give and takes in the crowd. Not just listen to Rory. Listen to the whole team. Listen to the jocularity in how well this team gets along. Go ahead, run it, Foxy.

1:24:57Darius Butler:With all that in mind and everything you go through, how satisfying is it to turn around to someone and say, quote, shut the F up and then stiff it to two feet? Very f***ing satisfying. Congratulations.

1:25:10Pat McAfee:Congratulations.

1:25:12Darius Butler:It wasn't stiff. It wasn't stiff. I had to put it.

1:25:18Pat McAfee:The jocularity. Shane Lowry. who goes from one Don to winning the entire thing with one incredible hole and a great putt. This guy's standing on bars, drinking. Yeah, this is great. Look at this. I mean, and then they head to downtown New York right next to the Brooklyn Bridge and take one of the coolest photos that I've seen and tell some truths, a lot of truths in the middle of this thing. From Broadway to Bethpage, New York was built on the backs of Europeans. And it's like, damn, this was planned out. They had all this, hey, we're going to do this photo shoot. We're going to go ahead and have all this.

1:25:49Pat McAfee:it's like they had a mindset that they were going in here to win for the fifth time ever that Europe has gone to America and won. You know, the four stripes on their jersey or on their polos was to indicate the four other times that they've won away. But it's like they had a plan. They seemed to be team, and they had so much moxie. And they showed that while they were playing, while they were putting, and now in their celebration. I can't help but respect it. Honestly, AJ, I can't help but respect it.

1:26:15Bruce Arians:Yeah, I respect it. I mean, it's true. They're a team. we talk about all the time on this show, you can't really measure what puts a great team. And we've both spoken, hey, the best teams I've ever been on, the guys, we were the closest. We hung out off the field all the time. That's what you get when you get that feeling when you watch these guys, especially when you watch them celebrating all their little side comments back and forth during the presser. These guys, they feel like they've all grown up together and that they're all best friends. There's a reason that they play well together and they win.

1:26:44Bruce Arians:I mean, that was ridiculous.

1:26:46Pat McAfee:Yeah, he took the thing for a stroll, legitimately, and then fist bump to the crowd what what think about making putts in front of that oh yeah and then they were just locked in but i think it's because to aj's point that we were kind of talking about them being a team they've been on like a group text for like two years these guys like they they like they're real family it feels like their wives and girlfriends all friends it's like they're a real team that came in here and kicked our ass for the better part of two and a half days throughout the rider cup b.a we know you're a big time golfer obviously big team guy and uh just like All of us would like to see the United States win any time we're taking on.

1:27:17Pat McAfee:On that note, what was your thoughts while watching the Ryder Cup? And I think we need a, you know, like right now in the soccer team, they're going through this with Ponch, trying to find our style of team for soccer. Like Ponch is not necessarily just going with who's been on our national team. He's trying to find dogs to kind of fit in with our stars, trying to change the culture and mentality more so to be American. That American team, Foxy's biggest takeaway whenever he looked at the roster was we had no moxie. We got no swagger, no moxie. Is that gone from our entire United States American golf?

1:27:49Pat McAfee:Or do we need to maybe pick and choose our team a little bit better so we have a little bit more? Like if Keegan Bradley's playing, we have more moxie. Do you think they need to think about that?

1:27:58Matthew Stafford:Oh, totally. I was hoping Keegan would play, you know, because he is that guy. He's that fiery guy. And he respects the position too much, you know, of being the captain. But, hell, we could make a four-footer for par. Yeah, it was embarrassing. I mean, on our greens? For America?

1:28:15Pat McAfee:On our grass? On our grass.

1:28:17Matthew Stafford:Come on, bro. They're supposed to be fast for us. They couldn't miss. They made everything they looked at, and we couldn't make a 4-footer for par to tie.

1:28:24Pat McAfee:Can't have it. No. Not on our grass. I didn't even think about it. That's our grass out there.

1:28:28Darius Butler:Well, that's what they said. We weren't expecting it to be as slow as it was. And Keegan said, of course, mismanagement was a big part of it. But it's like, they care. Our guys, they care after the fact when you get embarrassed. But coming in, these guys, that's what they said. Rory mentioned it after they won in Rome. We're going to Bethpage in two years, and we're going to win there. Guys like Scotty Scheffler, that's the other thing. He's the number one in the world, and he maybe isn't built for this format, but he can't go one and four. He just can't.

1:28:58Pat McAfee:A lot of talk about the crowd there being obnoxious and an embarrassment to the United States of America and all that type of stuff.

1:29:04AJ Hawk:Long Island football.

1:29:05Pat McAfee:We'd like to say the location and also the outcome early. I don't love that it's reality, but I felt like that was reality, especially if we're getting smacked. United States of America was just getting smacked.

1:29:19Bruce Arians:Trying to do the celebrations, the non-organic chants and stuff. Those videos are embarrassing for America. Agreed. And for our fans, it really is. They couldn't even figure it out.

1:29:27Pat McAfee:And then the throwing a drink. There are certainly things that I don't like at all, but the chirping, you're going into Long Island, and then America's just going to get bopped in the face. it's like I think there's going to be some intoxicated people there on Long Island that are potentially going to – it's a bunch of – they go 10 ,000 Bruces out there just getting smacked around by the Europeans. Pumped full of whiskey. Waking up at 4.30 a.m. with the national anthem playing at 5 a.m. Yeah. It's like I think there's a potential chance that some people are going to act not great, and I don't love that, okay?

1:30:01Pat McAfee:And we'll get better for the next time, hopefully. Hopefully. Kind of an expected outcome, but also we can't – We get our asses kicked. I think that only ignites it even more. But then there was a conversation I had in the office earlier. Did you hear this, Connor? I think you were sitting right there.

1:30:15Bruce Arians:I'm not sure. When golf, now that golf is getting brought up after the Ryder Cup, yeah, no thanks.

1:30:21Pat McAfee:Your ears kind of go off? Yeah, they turn off. Well, it wasn't really about golf. It was more so about just adult males as a whole. Let's go to hammer. Don, don.

1:30:35Pat McAfee:One half of the hammer. Die! Cowboys AP 10. What was your take on it all? I heard you had a take on it all about the celebrations from the boys and the reaction from the boys and how the crowd acted as a whole. You said something this morning that I don't think I ever expected somebody's mouth to say, but it was certainly a topic of conversation immediately after it came out of your mouth. Would you like to reiterate what you said this morning?

1:30:59Bruce Arians:I don't know if I'd love to reiterate it. It was kind of a broad statement, and it didn't include you or D-Buts or AJ or coach. But I said, in general, maybe the Europeans are cooler than the U.S. guys. When I think about it, every European that I've ever met, I'd much rather hang out with them than me.

1:31:27Pat McAfee:I didn't like it. I immediately wanted to fight Tone. I almost kicked him out of the company. Tone was almost fired today. AJ, that almost happened. It came out of his mouth three feet away from my ear, and it was almost an immediate, I don't want to work with this guy ever again. I don't want to see his face ever again. And then there were some points that were being brought up. And then some states and some maybe generations and some demographics being brought up. And then some videos were even being displayed. And it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We can't be thinking like this. This cannot even be a conversation right now.

1:31:58We need to let everybody know, America's cool.

1:32:02Pat McAfee:Yeah. Yeah. We're cool. Yeah. Yeah, Europe has a lot of songs that they drink and they have a good time. There's live music in every single place. And they all got a personality, it seems like. We got Nashville! Yes, we do! People forget about that.

1:32:17Bruce Arians:I will say this. This is bullshit, okay? This is your fault, whatever it is. Hold on, it is. It's always my fault. Always is. Pretty dramatic there, yeah. Well, no, every area of my life.

1:32:31Pat McAfee:Okay. Hey, us too, brother. Yeah, we understand.

1:32:36Bruce Arians:I think if you live in the U.S., you shouldn't be allowed to play on the European team. And there'd be like two guys on that team.

1:32:42Darius Butler:Well, I do appreciate what Rory said. It's the best country in the world.

1:32:46Bruce Arians:He did say that. Yeah, but he was just sweet in us. Yeah, exactly. That was just a pure bait. The real issue here is that if you take away all the cool accents, you take away the names, the jerseys and everything, the clubs, all the gimmicks, if you mute the videos, you would just hope that the team that was Europe was America. You would think in your head that's how the American team should be acting. Fleetwood's got cool hair. Shane Lowry's got a great bag of leaves, body. There are so many things. Wobble body. He was a wobble body.

1:33:21Darius Butler:He's lost a lot of weight. Exactly.

1:33:24Bruce Arians:American dream. That is based on what America is all about right now. The fact that that is coupled with the fact that all those videos, they are unmuted. Okay? You get to hear how cool those accents are. You get to hear Rory. And I don't know if you heard the Donald Trump one. They also, they got Trump as well. It was awesome. Trump posted on his social media. Very funny video. Good jab from the Europeans. Like, they got moxie. They're funny. They got cool accents. I can't do this anymore, actually.

1:33:56Pat McAfee:Why? This is what happened to me. I'm not watching golf until the next Ryder Cup. Fuck it. I don't think that should be the next thing you watch. If anything's going to like this, Dana. Shoot, you're right. I'm not watching the Ryder Cup anymore. It's only majors from here on out. Okay, I like that. You're going to miss out on some grid USA chants.

1:34:11Bruce Arians:Maybe, maybe. Because you know what else happened this weekend? Amazing college ball all day Saturday. Amazing NFL football from 9.30 a.m. until midnight on Sunday. Ryder Cup who? You know, why not?

1:34:23Pat McAfee:Well, Friday's going to be tough to get through, I think. Everybody on earth is talking about Friday of Ryder Cup.

1:34:28Bruce Arians:Friday was a long day. Friday was tough. And we just got obliterated. They put their theoretical pipes down our theoretical throats. Jeez. Well said. Smoking pipes. Don't do that. Old school. You know how they do it in Europe. Also cooler than in America. They use the pipes. I think they smoke cigs too. Just call them that other name. We don't do that here. Which? Which? Oh, what's up, you know?

1:34:57AJ Hawk:That's what I don't like. That's what I don't like. I actually became more of a Rory fan after the Ryder Cup on our home soil because, yeah, you could say Euros are cool, who's cooler. It was never and is never a conversation of who's tougher. And they were the more mentally tough team. I would never say that. Hostile environment. Rory making a putt. F you, F you, F you. Like, all that shit, like, seeing Shane, seeing all the boys, Justin Rose, first of all, telling G-Bo, hey, fuck out of the way. Making a putt, that whole back and forth there, and him walking in the putt from – like, all that – like, that show is, like, mental toughness.

1:35:37AJ Hawk:You're going to a hostile environment, playing football, and it's like, all right, it's just us against them. And that was their thing. So, for me to come out of this and seeing Rory and the European team as a whole as the more mentally tough team, that's tough.

1:35:50Pat McAfee:So, they're mentally tougher, they're cooler. AJ, how do we feel about the state of America right now all of a sudden with what Tone just brought up? He almost got fired. And then a lot of points were thrown in my face.

1:35:59Bruce Arians:Yeah, I think we need to start. I mean, hopefully they started a couple days ago already getting the Ryder Cup team situated for the next, what, two years from now? Where are we playing? Ireland? Is that right? Oh, no. We better figure it out. We better start recruiting some super soldiers to become our next golfer. I don't want to be that guy. I think there's a chance, me and you specifically, maybe we don't own the Irish flag. No. No. We're not doing that. Let's just think about it for a second. We're not doing that.

1:36:27Pat McAfee:Where did golf start? Ireland? Scotland? Scotland, yeah, Scotland. Whatever. Let's do it, man. I know. And to the point of their tweet, you know, with the photo about New York and Europeans and everything like that. Yeah. They might be right. You do 23 a meter, any of those things, they steal your genetics, I think. And who knows where that's at. That's a fact. But then you find out where you're from, and it's like, that area over there. Yeah. A lot of history over here, and that needs to stop being made. The U.S. doesn't lose on American grass ever again.

1:36:59Darius Butler:Never. We need people to go over there, and we need to one-up Sunday's Dublin game and have the most U.S. people going over to Europe for the Ryder Cup since the war times.

1:37:10Pat McAfee:We have a few fact-checks for McQuaid. I think...

1:37:16Bruce Arians:He's spot-on, right? He was spot-on with everyone.

1:37:18Pat McAfee:What were some of the stats that McQuaid had for the Dublin NFL game? If you could definitely get to the T.J. Watt one, that would be good.

1:37:27Darius Butler:Yeah, the T.J. Watt one was, if you remember, after T.J. Watt kind of baited Carson Wentz into throwing it over the middle there, he got his big paws up and got an interception. He actually ran over to the Hogan stand and punted one into the crowd, and it was an ode to Gaelic football.

1:37:42Pat McAfee:Okay, so certainly possible, we asked T.J., and TJ's response was, stands look pretty far. I want to see if I can make a pun over there. So it might have been a tribute to Gaelic football. It might have also been TJ just seeing if he could ball the ball real quick. What was the other one? The most amount of people since wartime?

1:38:02Darius Butler:Yeah, there were 74 ,000 fans at the game in Dublin, Lutz. That is the biggest movement of U.S. souls over to Europe since the wartime, since World War II, obviously.

1:38:13Pat McAfee:And then obviously we found out maybe the Olympics had a couple, double, triple.

1:38:17Darius Butler:Yeah, quite a bit more actually. So that one was on McQuaid.

1:38:19Pat McAfee:But outside of the Olympics.

1:38:21Darius Butler:Outside of the Olympics, a massive movement, maybe the biggest sense, war times if you exclude like a couple big events that were overseas. But the other big one, and he said, listen, NFL came into my ear. One of my producers, they said, 22 jerseys in the crowd right now, McQuaid. Get it out there. Get it out there, lads. Say it. Say it. So he wasn't going to take ownership for that. and he did mention to D-Bot's point, hey, there may have been a couple of Houston Oilers jerseys out there, maybe a couple Earl Campbell jerseys and things of that nature, maybe like a Steve McNair jersey as well.

1:38:52Darius Butler:So that one was correct. That one was correct. And then he just had to reiterate the touchdown to DK Metcalf, the longest touchdown in Ireland slash UK game history. That was for just ordinary touchdowns, passing play, maybe running play, if you will. That discounts anything special teams. Like a 96-yard. punt return or kickoff return, obviously. So, you know, it got lost in translation, lads.

1:39:16Pat McAfee:Yeah, you're right. I forgot about that because Ireland, America. Yeah, exactly.

1:39:20Darius Butler:Ireland clad, not iron clad. McQuaid was effusive in his praise for us for not really killing him because he said, listen, lads, I gave you five stats and four of them were wrong. Okay. I just completely made them up, lads. Someone told them to me before the game. I was excited about the Ireland game, about football coming to the island. I fucked up. Hand up. On me. Still love you, Lads.

1:39:42Pat McAfee:Okay, we still love him, too. And we appreciate him selling it. The Ireland game seemingly was a big success. B.A., what are your thoughts on the international expansion and what are your thoughts on the Minnesota Vikings-Pittsburgh Steelers game? Pittsburgh Steelers go all in this year. You think they can win a Super Bowl? And for the Minnesota Vikings, the Carson Wentz experience was awesome. If you could just tell me about Sunday morning for you and your thoughts on it all.

1:40:01Matthew Stafford:Yeah, I thought the Steelers looked really good. And obviously, getting the ball to DK Metcalf helps. And that is Steeler country. Ireland is Steeler country. Ambassador Rooney kind of set that up a couple years back when he was the ambassador over there and got college football to go over there. I think it's fantastic. I don't want to see a team over there.

1:40:21Pat McAfee:None of the...

1:40:21Matthew Stafford:No. I don't want to see any kind of expansion over there because somebody's going to get screwed in that travel. Yep. There ain't no big open dates coming back. And that's hard. That's hard on players. It's hard on everybody.

1:40:33Pat McAfee:I don't know. Are they still talking about the team over there? The conversation shifted to almost like a division might be over there where there's multiple teams over there. Somebody's still got to go over there to play them. Yeah, exactly. I agree completely. There's going to have to be away games, but allegedly they were going to play all their games over there and then they were going to have a home base. That was one of the last conversations they were going to have. So you're going to have to build four headquarters in Europe and then four headquarters in America for these teams. And they'll play nine straight away games in America.

1:41:08Pat McAfee:I guess, and then maybe some of them will be from Europe, so some games will be a home game. That's 17 straight away games, basically.

1:41:15Darius Butler:Logistically, that makes no sense.

1:41:17Pat McAfee:And is there enough players? Is there enough good players?

1:41:20Darius Butler:No.

1:41:20Pat McAfee:We have enough tackles now. Tackles, quarterbacks, you name it. Is there enough players to add four more teams? I don't know. The international team is always a good conversation because we understand what the NFL wants, which is total global dominance. And it's good for football if there's total global dominance. but I think just games and festivals are a good way to spread it. The logistics, remember Concord. Yeah. The Concord flight. Jim Irsay told us this, rest in peace, legend. He was the most unfiltered owner that would tell us what was going on in those one per club meetings and what the future was to look like.

1:41:54Pat McAfee:I think they thought that Concord plane was going to be the key to having a team in London because it was supposed to be like a three-hour flight.

1:42:02Darius Butler:From New York to London, yeah.

1:42:04Pat McAfee:It was like a three-hour flight. Right. It was a super jet or whatever. Yep. Supersonic. Supersonic jet. They thought that was going to be the connector. I assume they weren't the only business. I assume business, business thought that. I assume finance thought that. And then I think that thing blew up, right? And then... One of them did, yeah.

1:42:18Darius Butler:And then, but now they're trying to bring it back. And they said like 2030 is like the expected date of when, like the new version of the Concorde is going to be here.

1:42:27Pat McAfee:Because if they make that a three-hour flight, I think then there's going to be a lot of conversation about like, we need to have...

1:42:32Bruce Arians:How do you handle training camp and off-season though? Does the team work? Are you there for camp? Are you there for your offseason?

1:42:37Pat McAfee:I think you would have to have your headquarter. You'd probably be at home because the amount of players you've got to work out. It's like working out players, too. Like, how do you sign players during the season? It would have to be the home base back in America would have to make that decision. And then, oh, yeah, home base back in America is about to be your full-time home base, too. So you have to build two full.

1:42:54Darius Butler:That would be a lot. You'd almost need a dedicated staff for, like, the United States portion and the international portion.

1:43:01Pat McAfee:The international games are awesome, though.

1:43:02Matthew Stafford:Oh, they are. I mean, they're a lot of fun. I've been a part of a few of them, broadcasting and coaching. No luck winning, but it was other than the Munich game.

1:43:13Pat McAfee:Blake Bortles punted a ball right in the stands against us. He had a hell of a game. But I think Ireland showed up in a big way. We appreciate them doing that. And shout out to McQuaid just gassing some numbers up.

1:43:23Darius Butler:Exactly.

1:43:23Pat McAfee:Speaking about gassing numbers up, are we in the middle of baseball right now?

1:43:26Darius Butler:Yes.

1:43:27Pat McAfee:Okay, baseball is really happening. We're on ESPN2 right now because on ESPN there's an actual baseball game. Correct.

1:43:32Darius Butler:Yeah, playoffs have started today. The wild card starts today. Tigers and Guardians are currently playing right now on ESPN. We have the Padres at the Cubs at 3 p.m. on ABC. Red Sox at the Yankees tonight at 6. And then the nightcap is the Reds at the Dodgers at 9. So best of three series, and they're going to play for the next three days consecutively. All these games, kind of weird in the wild card round, are at the team with the better record. They're all at their place. So, like, the Red Sox play all three in New York at Yankee Stadium. Reds had to travel cross-country. They play all three in L.A.

1:44:11Darius Butler:against the Dodgers. And then, obviously, the same for the Padres and the Tigers. But if you haven't been invested at all, now's the time to start watching baseball.

1:44:18Pat McAfee:Tigers are up one zip right now. Huge. What inning is it, Bruce? Third inning. Okay, so we've got four more hours of that game. No, not anymore. Not anymore.

1:44:28Darius Butler:Fast. No, everything's fast.

1:44:30Pat McAfee:Everything's fast.

1:44:31Darius Butler:And Tigers have Tarek Skubal on the mound, who's one of the best pitchers in the majors. Maybe the AL Cy Young. Anytime guys like that are pitching, the games typically go a little bit quicker.

1:44:41Pat McAfee:Okay, Jerry Jones did some conversation about how long the games were, actually. He did a weekly hit, and he chit-chatted about how these games need to maintain in a three-hour window. It's very important to try to attain a three-hour window. Now, I immediately said Jerry's lost his fastball because when it gets to overtime, there's no time frame for that. We want more of the electricity. You know, like good business is to have more electricity. And then D-Butt immediately counterpointed. He said, if it's a 1 o 'clock game, though, and you got Bengals versus... Whoever. Anybody. And then you got Eagles versus Rams waiting on deck at 4 o 'clock, and then you have to stick around this overtime game for whatever reason because it goes on forever and ever, and you miss that, that's certainly terrible.

1:45:29But when it's a primetime game, okay, Sunday night football,

1:45:33Pat McAfee:and we get to 40-40, this thing is – this is now – this is electrifying. I don't think we need to worry about three-hour windows. But I do appreciate that all the other games, other than the primetime ones, we're worried about how long these games are. B.A. said in the first hour, A.J., that it was his fault, basically, for the 10-minute overtime. Is that what you said? Yes. I was saying. We played Seattle. We had 106 snaps. These guys were exhausted. We can't be doing this. This can't be a forever overtime thing. Do you want a 10-minute clock on it? Yes, I. Yes, I do, said B.A. B.A. said, I am in for that.

1:46:08Pat McAfee:Then gets to Micah Parsons' return to Jerry World. Now we've got a 40-40 tie in the biggest game, the most hyped game of the year, and everybody hates it. He put out an eight-yard line start for each offense on either side and kind of handle it like it's a shootout, back and forth. Obviously, one team goes, if they score, the next team goes, they score, we carry on to the next one. The team that won second goes first, then the team that went first goes second, and then you just kind of continue on. What are your thoughts on where we're at with the tie conversation? And if you digested completely what the perfect answer is, if you could write the rule right now, what are you doing, AJ?

1:46:43Bruce Arians:If I could write the rule right now, I would write some form of what B.A. was saying. What do you say? Eight-yard line, and you guys are on both sides of the ball. So, yeah, Travis Hunter, he may be jogging back and forth a little bit. You might have to do that every once in a while. But it would go very fast. It would limit the amount of plays that these guys would have. So it wouldn't be a crazy extra 40 plays on the players, most likely, in the game. It would be quick, and we would find a decisive winner. And it wouldn't be – I like your golden boot situation, too. But some people would say, hey, let's do 11-on-11.

1:47:11Bruce Arians:Let these guys – I want to see DK Metcalf end the game, not a kicker.

1:47:14Pat McAfee:So I guess they would have – okay. It sounds like you would say that. And I agree. I'm just speaking for people. Yeah, I understand. Yeah, people saying classic situation there. We do that a lot on this show. Somebody did say it, I assume, at some point. Pick six would be a winner. Guess they can't be on the field, huh? They would have to be. It would be kind of cool, though.

1:47:34Bruce Arians:Get off, get off, get off, get off.

1:47:35Pat McAfee:22 on 22, though.

1:47:37Bruce Arians:Oh, yeah, they turn around and then offense has to block for them. Oh, yeah. Dog fight football.

1:47:43Pat McAfee:Yeah, it is dog fight football. What if they both get pick sixes? Oh, same time. Yeah. No, no, because – Happy dogfight football, bro. Pick six, it's over. Pick six is over, but we got 22 guys on the field on the other side, in my eyes. I've just learned we got to take that – Can't have you on the field.

1:48:02Bruce Arians:Well, because especially in Travis Hunter's situation, their play ends, snap, offsides. Yeah, because he is. Boom. Game clock starts right away. That's not a bad play.

1:48:11Pat McAfee:Set, go. I'm throwing this in the end zone either way. So everybody's on the sideline, I guess, if they're not potentially up. But they better hustle.

1:48:17Bruce Arians:They got – They got to be ready. What if they're just around the end zone that they're going into? Like the other offense and defense, like lying the outside of the end zone. So the other guys are out there. It's like a joint practice goal line period. Guys would get hurt if they're too gimmicky. Yeah, too gimmicky.

1:48:33Pat McAfee:I'll tell you, we do need something, though. Some form of a shootout. What does the NFL not have that other sports that aren't as entertaining have? A shootout. It's like you can have a shootout now. Like that is a – and when do we get to it? when there's already been 70 minutes of football. This isn't like...

1:48:49Bruce Arians:Yeah, look, think about hockey. Like, hockey and shootouts are awesome when it goes... Like, soccer is... When was that soccer? What, last in this past year? We saw the U.S. in a shootout, right? A couple of them. There's a tournament every weekend. I know that's the next World Cup, but we watched something happen recently, three, six months ago. I don't know, where the U.S. was in a shootout. Dudes were standing on their head, the goalies. Yeah, so, yes, I remember that.

1:49:09Pat McAfee:It was with the backup goalie. Gold Cup.

1:49:11Matthew Stafford:Gold Cup. They were going after 90 minutes, too. They weren't doing the regular half hour extra time in that tournament as well.

1:49:16Pat McAfee:So I don't think we should do that. I don't think it should just be game straight into shootout. But if it's game, then overtime, why not find out how we can do it at the end of it? Your fault. Oh, why not game straight into shootout? Oh, no overtime.

1:49:31AJ Hawk:I mean, yeah. Straight to eight yard line. Oh, shit. We got action.

1:49:35Pat McAfee:What was that? The XFL four point play? What was the eight yard line? Do we remember what that was? I don't remember. Because you go for one, two or three, I think. after a touchdown. Going for one was at the two-yard line. Going for two was at the five-yard line. I think going for three was maybe the ten-yard line. The XFL is nothing like the NFL.

1:49:55AJ Hawk:I would like that. This is OG XFL. He hate me.

1:49:59Pat McAfee:No, this is you.

1:50:01AJ Hawk:This was new XFL.

1:50:03Darius Butler:Did they not do that in the old one too?

1:50:05Matthew Stafford:I don't think there was three-point conversions in the old one.

1:50:08Pat McAfee:No, just in the new UXFL.

1:50:11Bruce Arians:You watch. It's still going on?

1:50:14Pat McAfee:No, I did. Somewhere. Did you watch? They're bleeding like a stuck pig. They got to figure something out. They're losing a lot of money. And then their quarterbacks did a holdout. Yeah. It's like you guys, it's been publicly stated. You guys lost$40 million.

1:50:26Darius Butler:I want$20 million.

1:50:27Pat McAfee:Other. Do you watch the UXFL? Were they ever asking a coach on that thing? No. What? The UXFL.

1:50:34Bruce Arians:You did combine them, I guess.

1:50:35Pat McAfee:They did. Yeah. And they should not have got the X out. No. They turned that into the UFL. You should have kept the X. The X was really good. The X was what made the league. It was really the only thing. Is it still happening? Got through.

1:50:48Bruce Arians:The UXFL. We got Jake Bates out of the winter, right? Jake Bates legend. We got a couple of dudes. Yeah, Kevante Turpin. Yep. Yeah. Kickoff idea as a whole. Puka Nakua's brothers in the UFC now. What? What's that? Is he really? No, he just punched a fan that one time. I was joking. But he could be.

1:51:07Darius Butler:It was good. It was a swift hook. It was. Destroying. Broke his back. during that game.

1:51:14Pat McAfee:That was scary as hell. I did not like that at all. There's stars in the UXFL, and we're happy that spring ball exists and there's more opportunities and everything. That was terrible to watch. Yeah, that was a tough brand of football to watch. You almost watched the crowd like in D.C. when they were drinking beers. So maybe it'll catch on. Maybe B.A. should coach a team.

1:51:32Darius Butler:Oh, there you go. You want to head down to Birmingham?

1:51:35Pat McAfee:Yeah, the Birmingham Biscuits.

1:51:37Matthew Stafford:NFL Europe, where we allocate players. Put those young quarterbacks, put those young tackles out there and let them play in the spring against each other and get better quality and then bring them back to camp. That's what we did with NFL Europe.

1:51:50Pat McAfee:Maybe you do NFL Europe. They're trying to get a thing in there. Maybe you reinstitute NFL Europe, then get some of the local guys to maybe play. Like Vinatieri and a local Amsterdam guy were kickers. So a guy from Amsterdam was a kicker, and then Vinny was also a kicker. So there's two kickers on the team. He was a soccer player star, beloved over there. Vinny just trying to make his way on the Amsterdam Admirals. A lot of stars came through NFL Europe, and I think now would be a good time to launch that. Now that Europe's kind of getting into it. Especially get some OGs. Isn't Tom Brady back playing football?

1:52:19Pat McAfee:He is. Yeah. Gronk's back out there too, right? Yeah. Well, I think AJ, have you seen Rushmore on X? Did you watch it yet? I've only

1:52:27Bruce Arians:seen the clips. I want to watch it, though. It looks awesome.

1:52:29Pat McAfee:Dude, it's very good. It is...

1:52:31Bruce Arians:They get in some real shit in there. What'd you say? I don't know if these guys are boozing or what, but there wide open. That sold it for me.

1:52:37Pat McAfee:It's not just Tom and Peyton who are wide ass open in this. Shaq and Reggie, wide ass open. Elon and the other guy, you're talking, this is the most authentic I've seen any of these people.

1:52:52Darius Butler:Costas and Al Michaels is an awesome episode too.

1:52:54Pat McAfee:Sitting on a couch next to each other. Like this. Just sharing stories from the last hundred years of sports basically. It is available now at Rushmore on X. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning. go through the Rushmore of receivers of football throughout the history of the NFL. Obviously, you can catch the clips on any of the platform. Full episode available on X. We're thankful to be a part of it. Shout out to Ari and Ben coming through earlier today. We have an interview with them. We're going to roll out tomorrow. It's a good time to be alive. We'll be back tomorrow. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice.

1:53:22Pat McAfee:It might change your life. Goodbye. Okay, I didn't do the digital toss there, but I did toss on Rushmore and X. AJ, we really did this shit now, like this show. It's Rushmore and X. It's the first time we've really gotten the opportunity to do this you know a lot of other sports production companies get called for everything and i'm not going to say like we're friends with some of the good ones there's some ass ones out there who have never made anything that's true and somehow they're like an authority just strictly because they can accomplish the task like we can do that for you and then they do it it's ass every single like that is the sports media world somebody has an idea they pitch it we've heard a couple different guys now come on the show and be like we want to be the home for sports content i think glenn powell literally just did it yesterday with his studio box barnstormer he's like we want to be the home of sports media and i assume glenn powell will have people around him that will be able to create good content but there's a lot of people that have these hubs or production companies that i don't think they've made a single fucking good thing and somehow they're still able to fundraise and they're still able to get deals and all this shit.

1:54:29Pat McAfee:So I talk shit on these people. Pretty good. Like pretty loud. You know, pretty, pretty loud. Two people. I say, this guy makes ass. Why would I ever do something with that? Yeah. So this show got shot, audio, and you'll hear some audio glips through the entire thing we tried to fix. The shot's not really our thing. The booking, all Ari. Like everything was basically done and they had a couple episodes made and Ari was like, what do you think about this? And I said, where's this going? And he said, it's going to live on X, which is a huge deal for us because we use X a lot. So them investing in shows on X is a good thing.

1:55:07Pat McAfee:But the people that edited it clearly have never been on X in their life, like never have used the thing. So I watched it and I said, I think this is shite, to be honest. But this is really good booking. Like the episode was like an hour and like 20 minutes or something. I was like, this is not, I don't know what you guys think you're doing. here like on x this is just i don't know what because he's friends with elon so he's like why don't you edit it and i was like okay and they just started sending us files literally just started sending us files just a couple months ago so then we talk bailey dirty d-bone foxy myself i guess you could include me in that thing we go to work on this thing and uh we start creating these shows and all of a sudden we're watching them we're like these are really fucking good show these are really really really good shows and then all of a sudden we become the production company for this so this is our first time getting a chance to do this the guest lineup is absurd oh yeah it's breaking down i think some some real maybe walls on what x is going to try to become too because x is trying to get into the content game they're trying to do some youtube x is trying to be everything we want to be youtube we want to be x we want to be instagram we want to be this so them you know getting this deal uh for x exclusivity and then us being a part of it we're very lucky and we think it's a good show like i think it's a very very good show i wish we would have rolled out a couple episodes but that decision was made before i was allowed to speak so next tuesday another episode coming that's incredible there you go is what you need to know aj it's teaser yeah the lineup is fucking outrageous aj what's the additional content available on youtube the gram and tiktok those are all the clips so the we're gonna clip on all the other platforms full episode available only on X exclusivity on X YouTube is up and running and once again this show had zero handle no nothing nothing

1:56:57Bruce Arians:I would have that that's kind of important to be to carry it where it's carrying I mean Ari and Ben just got

1:57:05Pat McAfee:X accounts the host of the show the people that were editing it I don't think it ever been on it was an honor to be a part because Ben and Ari, I don't even think they knew this while they're doing it. They created a show that nobody else on earth could create. Like Ari's relationships through business throughout all these years has ties with all these people that are the top of their industries. And it's like he gets them to open up. It is, it's a very good show. We're lucky to be a part of it. I do wish we'd have another episode to follow up on.

1:57:39Bruce Arians:Yeah, for sure.

1:57:40Pat McAfee:Tomorrow.

1:57:41Darius Butler:But, you know.

1:57:42Bruce Arians:Any name you don't know on there, their story's unbelievable and you're gonna want to know their name too like just looking at that list i forget those names but then i think of the episodes that they're in it's like oh yeah that guy invented inserts coolest shit you've ever made moguls all moguls really you got a lot of

1:57:59Pat McAfee:mogul talk in here there's a lot of business conversation in here there's a lot of debate there's stories there's insights there's history of things that i could have never fathomed wanting to know about and then all of a sudden i'm learning i'm like this is a pretty good fucking show i nobody wanted to say it to Ari, you know, because Ari is Ari. Right. But like telling them like, hey, this is a pretty good fucking show you put together here. What? You think so? You think it's pretty good? You think it's okay? It's like, yes, I do think it is very good. We watched every single episode as a group and we were all captivated and I would say we're pretty harsh critics, so yeah, it's a pretty good show.

1:58:32Pat McAfee:Yeah, I'd say. Congrats to them on a great show. Oh yeah, boys. And what if this is another avenue we get a chance to do? What if we get an opportunity to do some more shows. That'd be sweet. Would be cool. Watching Taka through it was awesome.

1:58:47Pat McAfee:I asked him a question and his face just... He's got the indent on his head. He has one headphone on for this and then he has an AirPod in this ear so that he's like a DJ with it off his one ear but then in this ear it's not free conversation. It's AirPod in here so he can hear something else. And then yeah, the indent on his head from his headphones and then he's always sitting at his computer So I'll ask him a question about something. They're like, I don't think that's the right color. Who you look up with a sigh like a cock eye? What? It's been a lot of fun. It's exactly what it is. It's been a lot of fun to kind of go through this.

1:59:22Pat McAfee:A lot of work, though. I mean, a lot of. He did a great job. Yeah, it's a lot of work. A lot of hours of shit and a lot of guests, and we've got to make them all look good.

1:59:29Darius Butler:That's Taco.

1:59:30Pat McAfee:And Ben. That is Taco.

1:59:32AJ Hawk:That is Taco.

1:59:33Pat McAfee:What do you mean?

1:59:34Bruce Arians:It's talk.

1:59:35Pat McAfee:Yeah, but. Taco. It's Tuesday. I was going to say, yeah, Taco. All right, let's get to a break. It's B.A. Day. It's not Taco Tuesday. Excuse me. LeBron invented that. I'm not trying to step on any toes. There was a run there of LeBron creating everything, and boy, that was bad for his image, I think.

1:59:51Darius Butler:It was.

1:59:52Pat McAfee:But I don't think he knew that everybody was trying to attack. I think he was just trying to have a good time. I love Taco Tuesday. You're telling me he didn't invent Taco Tuesday? Don't tell me that. Barbershop conversations, potentially, as well? What do you mean? as a whole, I think people at barbershops did not talk.

2:00:10Darius Butler:Yeah, that had never happened before.

2:00:13Pat McAfee:You walk into a barbershop and then you throw that key out.

2:00:17Darius Butler:Yeah.

2:00:18Pat McAfee:Shut the fuck up!

2:00:20Bruce Arians:And then Braun was like, yo, we should talk. And here.

2:00:26Pat McAfee:And then it kind of launched it. I love that guy, man. Pretty good. Do you see how young he looks at camp right now?

2:00:33Bruce Arians:Look out.

2:00:34Pat McAfee:It ain't his last year. He's wearing Lakers stuff, too. A lot of question marks. We'll see halfway through. What do you mean? AD's wearing goggles.

2:00:43Bruce Arians:Yeah, exactly. And I'm wondering if the Lakers collapse in a last year contract with one last ride on his mind. If LeBron decides, why don't you send me down to Dallas so I can play with my guys AD and Kyrie.

2:00:56Pat McAfee:Could you imagine Nico? Exactly. That guy. What if they make a winner?

2:01:04Bruce Arians:They're in a pretty good spot. How's Coop? Have we seen anything out of him? Saw him dapping up Michael Jordan, and guess what? What? He had a goatee. He ain't 18 anymore. This kid's going places in the league. The main event's got a goatee? That's right.

2:01:18AJ Hawk:It's a cool picture, too, with all the number one picks. Him, AD, and Kyrie. I thought that was pretty cool. Who that guy? Okay.

2:01:24Pat McAfee:Who's that guy, 45 or 18? I can't tell. What do you think Michael Jordan's saying? I would have cooked you fucking four-way. Yeah.

2:01:30AJ Hawk:All right, bitch. See you later. All right. Duke is shit. That's probably what he said. Yeah, you're right. little fuck dude. But I do got a question going back a few minutes. The barbershop talk. How is it in the white guy's barbershop? You guys have the same type of banter? Or is that like a two American situation?

2:01:47Pat McAfee:To be honest, I'm not 100 % sure. I don't spend a lot of time in white guy's barbershops. Never really have.

2:01:51AJ Hawk:Okay.

2:01:52Pat McAfee:So not really my thing. I believe in a good fade. Okay. Salon, potentially as young buck because when mom gets hair dyed, I'll get my cut just at the same time. Very good time. Not a bad time. I was a little boy. Salon's a good time as a little boy. You know, mom getting the hair bleached down. Get a lollipop. Yeah, you get to hang out there. They're having interesting times. Male, white, barber shops. I'm not hermsting. Like supercrumbs.

2:02:18Bruce Arians:It's pretty lively. It's pretty lively. Yeah, it depends where you go, but it's pretty, you know, it depends on which one. Some of them have more of a younger vibe. Some have more of like an old people, old stooge vibe where they don't talk much. What's playing in there? Bad Bunny? Sometimes. Depends which one you're at. Is it English or Spanish? What is it?

2:02:36Pat McAfee:Bob-on?

2:02:37Bruce Arians:Yeah, is he going to sing in English at the Super Bowl?

2:02:40Pat McAfee:Don't you worry about... Shambia! Oh! Ba-da-da-da-da-da-da-da!

2:02:47Bruce Arians:Went through his catalog. Unbelievably sounding music. It sounds great.

2:02:54Pat McAfee:It is just kind of... We've got to view it as a techno song.

2:02:57Bruce Arians:Yeah.

2:02:57Pat McAfee:And the words are just another sound.

2:02:59Bruce Arians:Boom. That's okay.

2:03:01Pat McAfee:Exactly. vibes. That's a great, yeah, techno. I'm a huge lyrics guy. I would like to hear the story being told. Me too. Okay, I would like to hear, when I listen to music, I enjoy the story being told. I enjoy the lyrics. But for a Super Bowl halftime, I guess I'm just going to have to view it as all sounds. That's a great instrument, whatever that is. That's like in the back.

2:03:24AJ Hawk:And in the show, too. He's going to put on. The show. Maybe that is a difference, because I'm not a huge lyricist. It's probably five songs I know every lyric to. I do have friends that know every fucking beat walking, beat jukebox.

2:03:38Pat McAfee:I have to respect the story before I can respect the song.

2:03:43Bruce Arians:I don't even know the story. What's that? I usually don't even know the story or what the lyrics are saying. To be honest, everyone digests it differently.

2:03:53Pat McAfee:Yeah, true. So on that note, I actually had this theory about why people hate me so bad. because they just hear the sound. They're not listening to the words that I'm saying. So it's like some people listen to music just for the sounds, and then some people listen for the lyrics that are happening. So I think there's a lot of people that hate the way my music is, it sounds, and I'm like, what I'm saying is making sense. I don't fucking hear your words. It's like, okay, now I'm learning AJ. This guy hasn't heard a thing I've said in seven years.

2:04:24Bruce Arians:I'm saying a song you can't have unbelievable, like unbelievable lyrics is just a poem like but you need to put some great beat to i need a beat to that to where i can follow along a little bit of energy so like i i like it's a mixture of both but i i need a good beat for me to get it in like invested in the song so i need clever lyrics or

2:04:41Pat McAfee:good lyrics or i'm not supporting that guy that is like it obviously has to be a banger as well but i can't be having fucking the grass is blue you know just bullshit lyrics it's on the beat I can't do it. I mean, now, granted, do. Do host. Do host me. It's foreign language. You have nothing. And there's terrible lyrics to that. I'll get after it. So this is just techno music is how we have to view Bad Bunny. Yeah. He's a DJ coming out there. That's how we got it. Our simple, non-Spanish-speaking minds for American football's biggest game. We just have to utilize the lyrics and sounds

2:05:24Bruce Arians:is what we got to view it's calvin harris tiesto bob buddy but to your point like people also didn't like it because of like the change that was going on and there's a lot of like this guy's acting like this for three hours like you're like this 24 7 and no one really knows that so it's like those those people it's a lot of assumptions and bullshit yeah but it's hard

2:05:45Pat McAfee:for them i understand where you're coming from i'm with me all the time it's fucking a nightmare let's get to a break on the other side we'll break down every storyline that we haven't talked about yet and obviously baa's got to tell us something magical about something that happened in the past here we go bruce i feel like we learn about football history with baa here you know why because this fucker was in the book yeah everywhere hey you remember like bear brian yeah you need to watch the documentary on a guy that created what do i need the wishbone the wishbone yeah friend of mine created a wishbone you need to fucking watch the documentary about it so we'll learn more about ball and we'll cover everything that needs to be chatted about including there has been a flex to a game.

2:06:22Pat McAfee:Thank God. So we like that. Good. Great move.

2:06:25Bruce Arians:Huh? Thanksgiving? No. That's coming.

2:06:28Pat McAfee:Don't worry about it. No, like a really shitty Saints-Pats game week six. Don't... Week six the 49ers and Bucs will go to 425 instead of the Patriots and Saints.

2:06:38AJ Hawk:Good move.

2:06:39Pat McAfee:Yeah, I mean... We like when they do this. Smart. When networks do this, we gotta be happy about it. Executives I think are sometimes scared to pull the trigger because they want to piss off ownership or fan bases or maybe ruffle any feathers at all. Just kind of let's go through a season. The flex is a weapon. And for the good of ball, we need some of these people in some of these powerful seats to be willing to take it on the shins from a couple fan bases for the overarching good of everybody's soul. And that is something that is very real. And that needs to be said. And it needs to be weaponized.

2:07:13Pat McAfee:We need to utilize the flex. We need to start doing that, especially if we know what some of these teams are.

2:07:17Bruce Arians:And we need to write down the people who get upset when their team gets flexed out, because those people are so delusional beyond saving, because they think their team's good enough to play in those Primetime Games.

2:07:27Pat McAfee:And they're bad for ball. Bingo.

2:07:48AJ Hawk:or Kultur Heidelbeeren 125 grams for just 1 ,39 euro in your Aldi Nord-Filiate and continue just listen and enjoy Aldi good for everyone

2:08:17Darius Butler:Thank you. Thank you.

2:08:18Pat McAfee:You came in wearing like a full uniform today.

2:08:20Darius Butler:Pretty much had to. This is go time. This is go time. When you watch 162 regular season games, give or take, like, it fucking matters. It really matters to me.

2:08:29Pat McAfee:Connor just said that you and me both, brother, when he talks about watching 162 games. It's been a long season, a lot of ups and a lot of downs.

2:08:36Darius Butler:Yeah. I mean, big time. You know, there were a point where I didn't think they were going to make the playoffs, you know, after going to the World Series last year. You know, it's just really fun. And it's nice when, like, we don't have football the next couple days, you know? To have something to be, like, incredibly invested in on, like, a Tuesday or a Wednesday, it's awesome. We have somebody joining us from the baseball world.

2:08:56Pat McAfee:Bruce, who's joining us?

2:08:59Bruce Arians:Somebody's joining us?

2:09:01Pat McAfee:Yeah, he's in – It's tomorrow, sir. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, tomorrow. Yeah, sorry. Swarbo is joining us tomorrow. Oh, shit. Sorry. Let's go. This is a big deal. So I am very excited about this. Schwarbo is hilarious. Imagine, brother. You're a baseball guy? Oh, yeah. Baseball is probably my best sport. You? Okay. So you were a pitcher? No, I was a catcher. Oh. Did you see what Cal Raleigh did this year? Oh, baby. Unbelievable. He deserves the MVP, doesn't he?

2:09:28Matthew Stafford:Yes, indeed.

2:09:29Pat McAfee:Yeah, because he was a catcher and he also hits from both sides of the plate. He had more home runs. This guy is part of everything. I mean, maybe one of the greatest seasons of all time. By far for a catcher.

2:09:38Darius Butler:Yeah. Thank you for that designation, Coach. For a catcher. Certainly. Certainly. We don't have to do this like Eric Judge led the MLB, not just the AL, the MLB in basically every statistical category except for home runs. But don't worry, he hit 53 of those too. So, you know, I know Cal Raleigh hit, you know, eight homers more than Judge. You're right. Let's give him the MVP. Let's do it.

2:10:00Pat McAfee:It wasn't just that. He's hit on both sides of the plate. He's hit on both sides of the plate. He's doing it all up.

2:10:06Matthew Stafford:He's catching every day.

2:10:07Pat McAfee:He's squatting, standing.

2:10:08Matthew Stafford:He's on every single pitch. He is. I had both my knees replaced.

2:10:12Pat McAfee:Because this guy was catching Cal Raleigh's leading the leagues. Wow.

2:10:15Darius Butler:I get it. I get it. He's a very important player. Very important player. Seattle doesn't get where they get without a guy like Cal Raleigh. And you know what? Nah, I'm not going to say that. Never mind.

2:10:28AJ Hawk:Never mind. I'm not going to say that. How many MVPs does a judge have?

2:10:32Darius Butler:He has two currently. Got robbed one. Altuve won one when that little motherfucker was cheating when he had the exoskeleton on.

2:10:40Pat McAfee:Jeff Bassett said that was proven to not be true.

2:10:42Darius Butler:He didn't have the exoskeleton on, but he cheated for like three fucking years.

2:10:45Pat McAfee:They were doing what other people were doing, just at a larger, larger, much larger extent. Yeah, exactly.

2:10:49Darius Butler:No teams had any problems with what all the other teams were doing. Like the Apple Watch is like, hey, let's do this kind of stuff. And then those guys had to be jackasses and take it 100 steps over the limit, which is fine. It's fine. They won a World Series. It worked. But no, Judge should have. I mean, he should be winning his fourth MVP. Fourth or fifth one here this year.

2:11:09Pat McAfee:But there's a chance from what I've been told, maybe because of how good Kyle Raleigh's season was and what he did for the Seattle Mariners, maybe he wins it because you might not have a destiny-like year like this year for Kyle Raleigh ever again.

2:11:21Darius Butler:And that's okay because guess what? In the grand scheme of things, winning the MVP matters to me. Judge, don't give a fuck. He wants a ring. That's what I want. So if he doesn't win the MVP and the Yankees go win the World Series, who gives a shit?

2:11:33Pat McAfee:I don't know what this tweet is from Ben Verlander, but I'm excited to read it live on air for the first time. MLB attendance and viewership numbers from 2025 are in, and the growth is insane. Okay, baseball. Wow. Way up across every platform. Fox says baseball up 9%. Fox Sports 1 says 10%. ESPN says up 21%. TBS, 29%. MLB Network, 13%. I don't know what that one is. And then MLB TV, plus 34%. What is NHK? I have no idea. Is that North Korea?

2:12:04Darius Butler:It better not be. Thanks, folks. Although I have heard that Kim Jong-un throws fucking heat. Like gas.

2:12:11Pat McAfee:Well, then he also has a knuckleball. Yes. And he has a curve and a slider. Yeah. He has everything you could potentially need.

2:12:18Darius Butler:He does. I think he has like the – well, I don't think. I know he has the fastest recorded pitch ever, 274 miles an hour.

2:12:25Pat McAfee:It is not North Korea. It is actually Japan. Okay. Okay. There we go. It wasn't – okay. So it's Japan, which obviously makes sense because the amount of Japanese talent in MLB right now, Obviously, it meant Shohei Otani leading the way with it all. We're very lucky for that. And then third straight year of attendance growth for the first time since 2007, 71.4 million fans. I don't know how that number comes together. Social media, most viewed season, 17.8 billion views. Once again, I don't know what accounts those are coming from, but I do know baseball is much more prevalent. Baseball stars showed up.

2:12:56Pat McAfee:So shout out for those stats from Ben Verlander. Shout out to baseball, making some changes to the game and seeing some benefit, but also their stars showing up in the biggest moments, which is why this wild card should be electric.

2:13:05Darius Butler:Yeah, that's the biggest thing. I mean, to even have this discussion, like Cal Raleigh versus Judge, that's like two guys and then Shohei, obviously Schwarber. Like there are a handful of guys around the league where like the MLB simply can't afford for those guys to get hurt or not play or not play well. And all those guys just continually, and it's been like the last couple years now, but when like the spotlight has really been on and they're kind of trying to make a push a little bit, like it seems like one of those guys is doing something special like every night.

2:13:32Pat McAfee:That's why we need Paul Skeens and the Pirates to make some big money investments this offseason.

2:13:38Darius Butler:Without a doubt, he should be pitching this time of year.

2:13:40Bruce Arians:Put him on a different team, for sure.

2:13:41Darius Butler:Without a doubt.

2:13:43Bruce Arians:Whoa! Got to. Hey, don't let the Reds knock the Dodgers out and get the star power out of the playoffs, but the Reds are pretty sneaky out there.

2:13:52Pat McAfee:Okay, I'm happy to hear you're pulling for all the platforms to be done during the playoffs because Shohei Otani is the needle mover, and the Dodgers is Kershaw's final ride here, right? Yeah, exactly. I mean, there's a lot of storylines through the Dodgers. The Reds ruining that would be terrible for baseball.

2:14:09Darius Butler:They've already said if it goes to three games, Shohei will probably start game three. As a pitcher? Yeah. Let's go, Reds! I don't love that.

2:14:19Pat McAfee:What do you mean you don't love that?

2:14:22Darius Butler:Well, first and foremost, I hope this thing doesn't go three because if it goes to a winner-take-all, like, Reds are scrappy now. They're a scrappy ball team. play small ball. They don't care about hitting homers. I just don't love Shohei. Let him focus on hitting.

2:14:39Pat McAfee:What did you see? This is your hater. I'm not a hitter. You got a Babe Ruth jersey on. Yeah, that's what Babe that's what the big did. Isn't that what I heard? Early on.

2:14:50Darius Butler:Early on. And then he just started hitting because that fat son of a bitch would call a shot and he'd hit a homer every time. And that's what we needed him focusing on. We don't need you throwing fucking 92-mile-an-hour lollipops right down the middle for Shohei's going to hundo. No, I know. Shohei's throwing a lot harder. I'm just saying, you know, he hasn't been otherworldly pitching this year. That's all I'm saying.

2:15:08Pat McAfee:I saw a couple tweets from some people throughout the year saying this guy just won five innings, no hits. Yeah. Throwing strikeouts.

2:15:13Darius Butler:His last start was good. You know, five innings, but I mean. Oh, so that was literally his last start I saw that from? His final start of the season, yeah. He threw five innings, yeah, shutout ball.

2:15:23Pat McAfee:AJ, they've never said I wasn't a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately guy. They've never said that about me. I don't think that's accurate, but shout out to baseball, man. We're happy for baseball. Cincinnati Reds knocking out the Dodgers. Kirk Herbstreit would be so happy. Is there a diehard contingency of Reds fans that are feeling something special about this particular group of boys that are out on the diamond for the Cincinnati Reds, AJ?

2:15:45Bruce Arians:Yes, of course, and they are led by Kirk Herbstreit. Tito Francona, we know the great manager at the Reds have. This guy is invested. He is all in. So, yeah, imagine the Reds going on the road, three road games. Maybe they don't even get to three. Maybe they just won the first two and we call it a day.

2:16:00Pat McAfee:A lot of baseball chat here today. Tigers-Guardians 1-1.

2:16:04Darius Butler:Yeah, as of the last time I checked. Still 1-1. Still 1-1. There we go. A bit of pitchers duel.

2:16:11Bruce Arians:Top of six.

2:16:13Darius Butler:Top of six is a cagey affair. That's baseball.

2:16:15Pat McAfee:Hey, that's wild-court baseball. Hell yeah. I want to see home runs and stuff, but that's wild-court baseball.

2:16:20Darius Butler:We were never going to get home runs from this early one. these next two games, that's where your opportunity, well, and the Dodgers, obviously, those were going to be a lot of home run opportunities in those games.

2:16:31Pat McAfee:The Cubs have any chance here? We have some friends that are diehard Cubs. Sure, it's in Chicago.

2:16:36Darius Butler:They're good. Padres got a lot of power. Padres bullpen, very, very, very strong. Cubs, maybe not so much. If you're the Cubs, I think you're hoping it's maybe a bit of a slugfest. Cubs could absolutely win this series.

2:16:49Pat McAfee:Red Sox, Yankees, then it comes down One of the greatest rivalries in all sports. I believe there is a rivalry. Rushmore coming out here in a few weeks. That's Bob Costas and Al Michaels chitchatting about him. Yankees, Red Sox, obviously mentioned throughout the entirety of it. Boston team, you've really enjoyed this squad. Oh, yeah. Is Tony Tony still playing?

2:17:10Bruce Arians:Tony Tony, unfortunately, got hurt. Terrible injury, but he was still celebrating with the boys in the clubhouse once they clinched it.

2:17:18Pat McAfee:That's Tony Tony baseball. I get what the boys are good, though?

2:17:21Bruce Arians:Oh, yeah, I guess. I mean, you know, you guys know me. I'm locked in 162, 365 when it comes to baseball. What it do, yeah. Yeah, what it do, bingo. But, yeah, I mean, fucking Teddy Williams. The shades of Teddy Williams are going to be in New York City for Boston. Did you not know whose jersey? I completely blanked. I forgot if I grabbed the Williams or the Damon this morning. I don't know. I shouldn't have because I just said Babe Ruth, and I was like, oh, fucking Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, old baseball guys, us too. But no, I mean, I love the Sox. It's just one of those teams in Boston where, you know, you like them when they're good and when they're not, you don't give a fuck.

2:17:59Bruce Arians:So guess what? We're good. And I care. And we got a pitcher tonight. And all these judge stats are cool. It would be a real shame if old Aaron Judge laid another egg in the postseason to the Boston Red Sox. This might destroy Judge's, you know, whole entire, Oh, fucking big tall guy. That whole thing. If Judge lays an egg against the Red Sox in the first season, he better grab some fucking devil's reserve money. He's going to need a lot of booze to do something like that. I'm just throwing that out there. And I know he's nervous. I know you're nervous that Judge, maybe he does have some yips in the playoffs.

2:18:41Bruce Arians:And that might get real. It is.

2:18:44Darius Butler:No, yeah. And if they do lose to the Red Sox and he doesn't play well, It will be very, very loud. And the guy going tonight for the Red Sox is one of the best pitchers in baseball. But, you know, it's go time. It's go time. Guess what? If you can't beat the Red Sox, you don't deserve to fucking win a World Series.

2:19:00Pat McAfee:Amen. I'll tell you what, Connor. Playoff baseball is sweet, tropical, and spicy, isn't it? Amen. You really fit that.

2:19:06Bruce Arians:Amen. Amen. I thought I saw something pop up on the screen. So I was like, oh, fucking, it's got to be this. It's got to be. You nailed it.

2:19:13Pat McAfee:Look at it. You nailed it.

2:19:13Bruce Arians:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought I saw the colors. But, yeah, sweet, tropical, spicy. See how the fucking greatest shit you've ever had. I actually had a bunch of Cuervo last night. It was wonderful, especially when I can't find the text, Bruce.

2:19:28Pat McAfee:What? Can't even get mad out. Shit. I'll tell you what, you snuck it in pretty good, though.

2:19:34Bruce Arians:I mean, yeah. Well, the thing is, I'm not sneaking it because I fucking love it more than anything. More than anything? You did say that. Yeah, you guys heard me. I was like, holy fuck, dude. You guys got this Devil's Reserve yet? No, but for shoot, I do love this shit. You can go to your local liquor store or go to Cuervo.com to purchase your own bottle of mischief. But remember, must be 21 years old and over. Again, I just hate that sentence, man. But remember, must be 21 years old and over and please drink responsibly. But genuinely do love the Devil's Reserve. I am not a tequila guy. Never have been.

2:20:13Bruce Arians:Tried some of this and it was good. so I will dabble in the reserve.

2:20:17Pat McAfee:Was it kind of...

2:20:18Bruce Arians:It was a little bit... Sweet? Sweet, sweet. Spicy. All I know is that it was devilishly good, boys. I mean, that's what it says, baby. Reserva, Jose Cuervo, devil reserve. Man, you did so good.

2:20:34Pat McAfee:You did so good.

2:20:35Bruce Arians:It is good. I do like it, though. I mean, I suck at this shit, but I like this booze.

2:20:40Pat McAfee:I really do. You are not great at this. That's why it's a good time. For all of us. for you to be the one that has to be.

2:20:46Bruce Arians:I have fun too, especially when Bruce sends me sentences like, but remember, must be 21 years old and over and please drink responsibly. I went back to the drawing board on that one and it stumped me too. I don't even know how to say it. It's 21 or over. Yeah, must be 21 or over. There it is. We found it. Great work.

2:21:08Pat McAfee:Holy shit, we split the atom.

2:21:10Bruce Arians:So Now it's registering with me That that's a thing 21 plus over I knew that I knew that Again I'm one of those Like hey if there's a prompter in front of me I'm going to fucking read it This is what the Senate says

2:21:31Pat McAfee:What if they shut it down Then fuck you San Diego What if they do Let's go over to Hammer time time college football is bat talk about ratings being up for baseball college football is the same exact thing has been all year did you have a sweet tropical spicy take on college football or how should we be viewing how the college football season is going right now I always have a

2:21:58Bruce Arians:sweet tropical spicy taste on college football Pat oh it's like devil's reserve god I love a devil's me and Connor polished off a whole bottle last night it was awesome Tony don't tell everybody about that.

2:22:09Pat McAfee:Where was it? Was it with your daughter or where were you guys at? No, I went downtown.

2:22:14Bruce Arians:Oh, nice.

2:22:15Pat McAfee:You joined the downtown boys for a bottle of Sweet Tropical Spice. Listen, when you have a doubleheader

2:22:19Bruce Arians:that good, you can't miss out. And he's not talking about the game. He's talking. Two of those.

2:22:26Pat McAfee:The Devil's Reserve.

2:22:27Bruce Arians:Yeah. Two bottles of them. Which, yeah. We drank the other one.

2:22:34Pat McAfee:We would not recommend drinking two bottles of those. No, especially with only two people. Maybe patent that one, too. Drink responsibly. Did you guys have that one in there? No, I think it says must drink responsibly. I mean, you gotta. A 21 or older, too, is crazy. Yeah, I know. He's piecing that together. Yeah, he'll get you. It will get you. AJ, you ever have any of this?

2:22:56Bruce Arians:Oh, yeah, it's beautiful. Sweet, spicy, goes down smooth. Tropical. Tropical? Tropical, yeah.

2:23:02Pat McAfee:All right, you know what's not tropical? everywhere in college football but the University of Miami Hurricanes. That is a resort down there. They're still rolling. They got a huge one this weekend. What should we be chatting about in the college football world, Tone?

2:23:16Bruce Arians:Let's start with this past weekend. Just in case anybody missed it, we start in Happy Valley State College where you were for game day. Penn State was down 17-3 in this game, and then they stormed this fourth-quarter comeback to make it 17-17. They score first in overtime, obviously. And then, you know, Oregon tops that to take it to a second overtime. And, you know, unfortunately, that's where things turn Penn State, Penn State. That's just kind of what they do. Oregon gets an easy touchdown on their first play in the second overtime. And then, obviously, Drew Aller throws the interception in the second overtime on their possession to it to Tiananmen, who was transferred from Purdue, the huge transfer.

2:24:00Bruce Arians:Exciting what? Yes, he is. Don't forget it, D-Butt. So that was a huge one, obviously, in Happy Valley. And then the other big one of the day was we went down to Georgia where they were on a 33-game home winning streak between the Hedges. And Alabama came out early and often. They scored 24 points in the first half, and that was all they needed. That's Caden Proctor, their left tackle, getting the wide receiver screen right there. Tell you what, it is not DeBover, and especially when DeBoer wears that black hoodie. He is undefeated wearing the black hoodie. I don't understand why he doesn't wear the black hoodie every single game.

2:24:34Bruce Arians:Just something to think about.

2:24:36Pat McAfee:Yeah, it should be a big night with that. What you say, Conor? What's that?

2:24:39Bruce Arians:Well, this is the best play.

2:24:41Pat McAfee:I mean, Caden Proctor is the man. Yeah, Coach Arians, how come they're not giving him the ball every time, B.A.? Why don't we just give the ball to him every play? Definitely down on the five-yard line for sure, man.

2:24:52Matthew Stafford:He looked like a wide receiver spinning in there. He looked like.

2:24:55Pat McAfee:Who'd you feed? Vita Vea, right?

2:24:57Matthew Stafford:We got Vita Vea the ball a couple times? Vita cut a touchdown, yeah.

2:24:59Pat McAfee:Whenever you're drawing a place, these guys get excited about this.

2:25:02Matthew Stafford:Oh, God, yeah. I said, Vita, just work on a good dance because it's going to be a touchdown. I got to see a good dance. And he froze on me. He got excited. He come running off. I said, where's the dance, brother? Oh, not anymore. He's got it all. Yeah, they got it figured out right now.

2:25:18Pat McAfee:A lot of aura. The big guys, though, that lifts the morale of the entire team. Oh, yeah. Legitimately. Yeah.

2:25:22Matthew Stafford:And we'd always holler, Vita, Skola. And he'd come screaming down, you know, defensive line. They'd stop practice and watch him. oh he's going to get a pass this week that's amazing anytime we did fake punts

2:25:33Pat McAfee:or something like our fake field goals fake field goals always throw it to a fat guy okay even if the ball is definitely going to tight end in game there's always going to be some tackle release in downfield or somebody dragging behind and it's a huge guy in practice we're running this fake never throw it to the tight end never throw it to anybody you get it to the fattest guy on the field Every single time. And the reaction from the entire building, any time one of the big guys gets a ball, is electrifying. When they were practicing that with Proctor, I assumed the building was electrifying whenever they were going through it.

2:26:09Pat McAfee:And I think this Alabama team, AJ, started out the worst they could have possibly started. Now they're rolling. And I like that they're doing this with Proctor, AJ.

2:26:20Bruce Arians:It's awesome what they're doing with Proctor. But I think they just need to do this a few more times, get some more victories, some blowouts to have that Alabama, that aura, that mystique about them that the Patriots had for so long in the NFL that Alabama had for so long under Nick Saban. I think they can kind of regain that a little bit. They lost it early in the season, but I think they can get that back.

2:26:39Pat McAfee:A lot of question marks for what the future was going to be down there in Alabama. It feels like the future for us is going down there for them taking on Vandy. Isn't that crazy? We're going to Alabama Vandy this weekend. That's an incredibly large compliment to Diego and everybody at Vandy. But also, like, they've earned it every step of the way. This Vanderbilt team is fun. And they're the team that everybody's going to look at during this NIL transfer portal era and say, hey, you can change the entire culture of your university overnight. Have you watched much of Diego play? He is special, special.

2:27:11Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah.

2:27:11Matthew Stafford:He's close and personal against Virginia Tech. And scored 34 unanswered in the second half. And now I guess he's trying to get a seventh year. They're going to give it to him, too, I assume. They should.

2:27:21Pat McAfee:They should.

2:27:23Matthew Stafford:He's a hell of a football player now. A lot of moxie. Oh, tough. And they got a big, strong offensive and defensive line. They built their trenches in the right way.

2:27:34Pat McAfee:You talk about him being tough. I saw a video he did maybe with On3. I forget who it was. It was a TikTok or a reel. And build the perfect quarterback. And it was like, they were asking him. It was like a rap fire. And they were like, football IQ or something. like that and i think he said uh peyton or something like that and then he said like mindset and he said tom and he said uh athletic ability or he was like lamar or something like that and then he said toughness he said me and then the next one he won and then it was like arm strength or something he said vick like he he put together like the perfect one but when it was toughness he like he was very proud that i am a tough motherfucker and i was like i love this guy more and more the more I hear him talk.

2:28:18Pat McAfee:It takes that type of guy, underappreciated, undervalued, to go to a place and have enough fucking confidence in himself and damn near arrogance you have to have that you can take on and be something that your school has never been before. What a match made in heaven down there for Vandy. I'm so pumped that we're going to a Vandy game, actually, because I wish it would have been in Nashville. First of all, I love Nashville. It's a great place. Love Nashville. I do love Nashville. But also, these schools that don't get game day a lot, You know, and we feel honored that game day game means something.

2:28:48Pat McAfee:That is very cool that I'm a part of something where that actually means something. But whenever we go to a place that doesn't happen, it is fucking outrageous. So now that it's a Vandy game, I still think it's special because it's not normal. But going down to Bama here with Kalen DeBoer, Saban on set, should be an electrifying weekend.

2:29:04Bruce Arians:Well, and that's what might be kind of sweet is Bama's one of those places you would slot as like, hey, they've won so much, don't really care about game day. because of the Vandy-Bama-Saben debacle last year, all of a sudden, Vandy's coming in like, well, we're going to beat Bama. And Bama's also looking at it as, hey, we kind of have to get Saban's back. They a little bit dunked on him after they beat us last year. Not just a little bit. Yeah, a lot of it.

2:29:27Pat McAfee:There's a lot of dunking on Saban's head from the Vandy people who have not won as many games as he's won national championship. So that was a wild time, but he certainly, all right, I stepped in at this time. I'm on that. That's a rat poison. I did it. You know, he's awesome on TV. But I like that we're going down there. Tone, what else should we be thinking about whenever we look ahead to this weekend? Tone, digs?

2:29:50Bruce Arians:Well, yeah, that is a big one. And the cool part is of the SEC this year is they played the exact same schedule that they played last year, but just the home and way are flipped. So this game last year was after Bama beat Georgia with the Ryan Williams spin move or whatever. Bama becomes the number one team in the nation and loses to Vandy. So there's a lot of implications this year. Same exact situation except for Bama's at home and they're looking for revenge, so that's interesting. The other big game, not as big as it would have been if Florida State didn't lose on Friday night in Virginia in that awesome game.

2:30:21Bruce Arians:But Miami going to Florida State. Another test for Miami early in this season. Obviously, they've played Notre Dame already. They've played Florida already. So another one going to Florida State. Miami versus Florida State is the other top 25 versus top 25 game of this weekend.

2:30:37Pat McAfee:Okay, I'm going to ask you, D-Butt. Yep. Florida State, Miami guys, a lot of commonalities there, right? Yeah. That is like the – Florida has Florida boys, of course, but Florida State and Miami normally similar recruiting process.

2:30:52AJ Hawk:That is the – like that's the rivalry for especially South Florida kids, Florida fans. When UM is UM, you always look forward to that Florida State game. Florida Gators, when they're good, obviously that's the thing too, but this is the rivalry regardless of what the records are. Wish Florida State would have handled business last week and won that game to make this an even bigger deal. But their offense showed up. I think it's still going to be a good game. I can't wait to see it. But, yeah, this is the one, especially when you're talking about, hey, the U is back, the mystique, the swag, the aura, all that shit.

2:31:22AJ Hawk:It's about what's your record, just like at Ohio State, what's your record against Michigan at these different schools as a Seminole or Hurricane? What is your record against the op?

2:31:31Pat McAfee:Okay, and that's ACC football down there.

2:31:33Matthew Stafford:Yeah, and it's old Big East football too. Oh, yes. I mean, these guys have been going batty for a long time. And like I said, the kids all know each other. They got recruited together. And it's a big game for Carson Beck. He's been playing really, really well on his little redemption tour. And I can't wait to watch this one.

2:31:51Pat McAfee:How do you feel about the transfer in quarterback? It's worked. Yeah. It has worked basically everywhere. Across the porch. Will Howard wins the national championship. Riley Leonard was in the national championship finals. is obviously Diego transfers in, transforms. Vanderbilt entirely everywhere. Kind of basically hire an assassin. Dante Moore. Dante Moore, Dylan Gabriel before that. Mateer at Oklahoma, they brought in the OC. It feels like this is how you – I know you're a part of the Virginia Tech hiring process. Yeah. But it feels like a quick way to win is get a very good quarterback and maybe the coordinator as well.

2:32:24Pat McAfee:There's no doubt about it.

2:32:25Matthew Stafford:I think it's hurting quarterbacks, but it's really helping college football. I mean, to get over the hump quickly, to go get a quarterback, get the coordinator with him, and all of a sudden, you're playing in the championship.

2:32:39Pat McAfee:Hurting quarterbacks, though, because?

2:32:41Matthew Stafford:They're not developing. They're not staying in the same offenses. I don't think they're getting better prepared for the National Football League. You know, talking to Tom and Peyton about the same thing. They were the same guys in college for the whole time. And you learn that way. You get better that way. bouncing around, you make a lot of money now. Yes, yes. Totally different. Totally different. It's not about I can make as much money now that I can my first two years in the NFL. So I'm all for it.

2:33:08Pat McAfee:Good for the game. Does it sacrifice future talent? You know, that is what's good for now. Is it good for later?

2:33:14Bruce Arians:Development for sure, right? That's kind of, it's like being proven damn near right now. Just with quarterbacks, especially like Danny Dimes right here even.

2:33:21Pat McAfee:Peyton and Tom, yeah, good development is happening to him. Mac Jones took like four years to develop, and he was in an NFL system with Sark down there in Alabama. Baker. Yeah, Baker Mayfield, I guess, took him a little bit, even though whenever he came into the NFL, he had success. True. Yeah, I forget about that. He had the rookie of the year. He had success. He broke the touchdown record. He broke the touchdown record?

2:33:42Darius Butler:For a rookie, yeah. They'd be like a top two to three favorite.

2:33:46Pat McAfee:What happened? Honestly, what happened? With their defense, H, with the Cleveland Browns defense and just Baker Mayfield playing anywhere near where he's playing right now. with Judy. Oh my god. And then the running back situation just like...

2:34:01AJ Hawk:You want a playoff game for the Cleveland Browns. Against? The Steelers.

2:34:07Bruce Arians:And he has that demeanor too that will go like the Browns fans with how Baker is and how he plays and how he puts his body on the line. It makes perfect sense. He lived in the stadium. They unlocked beer when he won the game.

2:34:21Pat McAfee:He shotgunned beers at numerous Guardians games, I think.

2:34:26Bruce Arians:Send them to London. That's who we're sending to London to be the trial run for a team over there. Cleveland. And their home base can be Cleveland still, but get the fuck out. This sucks too. The Jets and Browns should combine teams and go to London.

2:34:41Pat McAfee:The Jets, I don't know if they're ever going to win like that. I was watching that game and I was like, Michigan won a national championship like this. Michigan just was able to be more dominant than you. We don't have to throw the ball. We're just going to run it. I don't know if that's going to work in the NFL. I don't know. That was interesting last night. What was that messaging, you think, last night? What is the – what do you mean?

2:35:05Bruce Arians:They're trying whatever they can to win a game, I guess. But they turned the ball by three fumbles as well. I mean, I guess that's the one positive you could take. Hey, we fumbled the ball three times and we only lost by six points. So maybe it's a moral victory.

2:35:15Matthew Stafford:And 15 penalties. Tall. Ten of them pre-snap.

2:35:19Bruce Arians:Tall. Oh, no.

2:35:20Pat McAfee:Oh, sins.

2:35:22Matthew Stafford:A lot of sins. Can't do that to yourself. It's just beating Jets, baby.

2:35:25Pat McAfee:Is that ever going to stop? Aaron Glenn, I feel like. Yeah, I think Aaron's going to put some discipline in the program.

2:35:31Matthew Stafford:I really like Aaron Glenn. I think his personality, he hasn't had a chance to really build this thing yet. I think next year they're going to be a totally different organization. To play devil's advocate with the way he is.

2:35:43Darius Butler:He's a pretty intense guy. They're saying, you know, the media was on the other side of the locker room. and they could hear him just motherfucking the team for 20 minutes after the game.

2:35:51Pat McAfee:Ten pre-snap penalties.

2:35:52Darius Butler:Ten pre-snap penalties, all that stuff. He said that was the first thing he said. Hey, we're going to clean up the penalties. That is not going to be the way we play football. Inside that locker room, let's say this continues, they go 0-8, and you've got a guy just riding your ass nonstop. I'm not talking mutiny, but when do guys start saying, like, fuck this guy?

2:36:09Pat McAfee:Matt Patricia.

2:36:10Darius Butler:Bingo.

2:36:10Pat McAfee:Eric Mangini. Bingo. There's been a couple other situations where this was seemingly the storyline. mind man genie in cleveland you were coaching in pittsburgh at that time okay so we were in indianapolis and uh i think i was a rookie and i was hearing from other people in our locker room what they were hearing from their college teammates what was going on cleveland i think they were doing 6 a.m oklahoma's the rookies i was hearing the same thing that was going throughout

2:36:34Bruce Arians:the league that wasn't just to you we all heard i had a guy teammates yeah everybody was hearing

2:36:38Pat McAfee:about that me as punter gassing it up so much like boys i would be there i'd be there right on the sideline letting you know, like, let's get after it, boys. Everybody had the same reaction. Fuck that. Thank God I'm not in Cleveland. I couldn't even imagine what the Browns players were thinking as it was going through. If you win, it's good.

2:36:57Matthew Stafford:It's a crazy story. I was supposed to go in for the interview on Saturday. He'd be the head coach. He heard Eric on Thursday, I think. Oh, so we had Baker.

2:37:09Pat McAfee:Yep. Potentially had B.A. He'd go on a way, Sir Bull was the head coach, obviously, in that entire thing. Cleveland's made a lot of decisions. You know, they certainly made a lot of decisions. But if Mangini would have won when he was doing Oklahoma drills at 6 a.m., everybody would have bought in. If the Lions would have won when Matt Patricia was doing whatever Matt Patricia was doing, everybody would have bought in. But whenever you don't have success, the locker room immediately goes, so this sucks worse than everybody else and we're not winning? I don't fucking think so. Phil O 'Brien. There's another instance right there.

2:37:40Pat McAfee:Like, this sucks. We're not doing this. But if you have success, you've got to almost be like, win immediately. Does that worry you with AG or no?

2:37:46Matthew Stafford:No. With his personality, no, not at all. No, he's a corner, man. He forgets that shit quick. But he's not going to. I don't think they'll mutiny on him at all. Even if they're 0-8, because you just want to see it get better and better and better. Clean the shit up. And it'll go back to Peyton's 3-13 year. You know, we weren't. But we got better each week in practice. And the guys never quit. They say, hey, we're getting better. You know, and the next year we're 13-3.

2:38:14AJ Hawk:And the players got to take ownership, too. Like, it's not him fumbling the ball. It's not him jumping off sides or false starting and shit. Like, you can look at each other and say, hey, it's us. Now, we hate players-only meetings. But, like, you got to police your own, you know, your own locker room. What he's preaching, I'm sure he's preaching all the right shit. He played, and the difference between a lot of the coaches' names, like he played in the league for a long time. And then he went kind of the long route to get to this job. He was a scout. He was a coordinator. He was a coach. He's been around other good coaches.

2:38:42AJ Hawk:He's been around a turnaround. It was terrible. What was the record first year? 0-10 we started. We started 0-10 in Detroit, but you stuck to it. And a lot of that started from the ownership level. Ownership level came in and said, hey, this is our guy. We got his back. This is how we're going to do things. It's got to be the same way with the Jets now. Now, before that, in our lifetime, Detroit hadn't done anything right. And it's the same kind of story with the Jets. Now, will they start to do things right from the top down? We'll see.

2:39:07Pat McAfee:Let's talk about the other guy that left the Lions, Ben Johnson. He might be hitting here. Yeah. His team might be kind of finding – now, this would be considered early, I think, in a culture shift. By week five, kind of everybody bought in. Maybe even by week four, it was already bought in. that's when like the his speech in the locker room afterwards very intense but everybody yes sir yeah everybody yes sir it's like holy shit this guy might have flipped this group into being what he envisions them to be and obviously they can only get better that's like a exact conversation point that we're having right now feels like ben johnson's got chicago buying in to what he's been pitching and everybody says he's a hard-ass accountability driven guy it's like kudos to Caleb for buying in kudos to the defense for buying like congrats to everybody seemingly buying in and it working out for them and maybe this is a whole new era the Ben Johnson era is one that brings success to Chicago AJ yeah I mean I think anytime you bring in a coach that's

2:40:07Bruce Arians:drastically different from the guy you had before there's going to be like a little bit of an adjustment period for the team and Ben Johnson like I think players know and it's like a corny thing, but if you think even if your coach yells all day every day and he's crazy and he does this, if you feel like he cares about you and he truly cares about you as a human and each player feels that way, I think you'll do anything for him, especially if you can win some games and you see like, oh, okay, he's not just yelling at me to yell at me. He's put me in a good position to make plays and when I step out of that, that's when I make mistakes or whatever.

2:40:38Bruce Arians:If I do what he's kind of guiding me through, I'll be alright and I think now they have some hope early and they did not have any hope. they didn't have hope what three weeks ago people were pretty upset i didn't have hope that k i

2:40:48Pat McAfee:thought i thought the caleb experience was going to be a bad one i thought it was going to end with him going to a couple different teams and then maybe finding his shit down the road which i was bummed out about i want to let you know because generational conversation was happening whenever he was coming out of usc and i thought man this ain't gonna work this is what they talked about last year with his recollection of the defense and what they were trying to put on then what ben johnson was trying to put on his plate and then how it was looking and the conversations that were taking place and it's like, well, does Ben have the power in that room or does Caleb have the power in that room?

2:41:17Pat McAfee:We'll see what the future looks like. Now it's like, wait a minute, Ben Johnson is the right guy to get the most out of Caleb. And maybe that was this personality type that Caleb needed, or at least at this point in his life needs to become the best quarterback he can be. Because if Caleb can get that ball right there, it's insane. That is an insane throw right there. That's a second window down in between linebacker, corner and safety on a line. It's That's a filthy throw. That is just a disgusting ball. Do we think Caleb is starting to come into maybe realizing, understanding what offense he's running, what the defense is doing, and do we think there's still potential massive upside for Caleb with Ben Johnson?

2:41:56Matthew Stafford:I don't think there's any doubt about that. The guy is so talented. I go back to that first one. He completed 10 in a row. He's taking his check downs. He's doing everything. Take the Superman cape off. Just leave it on the bench. Just go play quarterback. We don't need no Supermans out here. And I think Ben's going to do that for him. and he's done it, look at Jared Goff's career. Just took off with him. I think Caleb can do that same thing. I hope so. And they've got players around him too now. I gave up hope, D-Bot.

2:42:21Bruce Arians:I gave up hope on Caleb. I know you did.

2:42:25Pat McAfee:The GQ shit, all the shit. I'm like, man, he's falling in love with everything that isn't football right now. Investment funds. Yeah, exactly. The whole thing.

2:42:31AJ Hawk:And that matters. It does matter. Personality, leadership in the locker room, all that shit definitely matters. When he has the talent, I said it earlier, talking about Sean McVay, like in the National Football League, you have to kind of lead with intellect. Like we got to know you're putting me in a better position, especially if you're a guy like Caleb Williams who was five-star recruit, number one pick, all these things, has had all the answers up until this point. You got to be able to swallow your ego and say, okay, this guy's going to put me in a good position. You got to have that energy.

2:43:01AJ Hawk:You got to be able to communicate. It looks like Ben Johnson kind of has all those things. And then B.A. would know this better than I would. But the staff he has around him too on the defensive side of the ball, You got a former head coach, Dennis Allen. You got Al Harris on that staff, who's a great player in the league for a long time. A lot of people thought he should have probably been the defensive coordinator in Dallas before he left there to come to Chicago. And they've kind of been kind of makeshifting that secondary and putting pieces that they didn't expect coming into the season to play big roles.

2:43:25AJ Hawk:So I think they're doing a good job. And the intensity factor that we get from Ben Johnson, I didn't know this when he was a coordinator at Detroit. You never see the coordinator speak and talk as much. Now you got to set that tone not only in the locker room, But when you're doing things outside of the locker room, press conferences, meetings, all these different things, and it looks like the boys are buying in.

2:43:45Pat McAfee:Yeah, this was a cool moment, I assume, for Ben. But also, if you're a Bears fan, I think when you watch this video, the boys are all bought in. Like, this is a moment where you can find out if the boys are bought in or not. The yes, sir, responses out of everything is, go back to the beginning. Can we run this? With sound?

2:44:03Bruce Arians:Yes, sir!

2:44:04Pat McAfee:Yes, sir!

2:44:06Bruce Arians:Let me tell you something, man. That's a character win. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. That is a character win. And it took all 60 minutes. Yes, sir. And you know what it took? It took belief. Yes, sir. It took belief that we were going to find a way.

2:44:25AJ Hawk:Yes, sir.

2:44:25Bruce Arians:Because at the end of the day, gentlemen, that was two teams that were desperate.

2:44:29AJ Hawk:Yes, sir.

2:44:29Bruce Arians:Both teams. I give them a lot of credit, man. But you know who wanted just a little bit more? Yes, sir. Chicago Bears! Chicago! Chicago! That's Chicago! I got a few game balls. I just see the two interceptions, alright? But you talking about big time tackle when we needed it? Let me give a little Kevin Byer that! Yeah! Yeah, boy!

2:45:00AJ Hawk:Hey, now real quick, listen. Coach said it the other week. The book on this team is that if we get the game close, we was going to lose. And what the we do today? Where's the culture with, fellas? We talk about changing the culture. That's how you do it, fellas. Let's go into this bye week, man. Let's get this going, baby.

2:45:17Bruce Arians:Man, we wouldn't have won that game had we not gone four for four on field goals. Love this. Give me that. Fire up. Let him. Hey.

2:45:29AJ Hawk:Hey.

2:45:30Bruce Arians:Hey.

2:45:34Bruce Arians:Hey man, like I said earlier in the year, I'm inspired by all you guys. The best teammates, O-line, you know, come through. It's not just me. Snap, hold, HP. All of us.

2:45:48Pat McAfee:Pass him up. Pass him up.

2:45:50AJ Hawk:Walk him out.

2:45:52Bruce Arians:All right, man. And you know, game on the line, when we needed it most. When we needed it most. We needed someone to step up to the plate. Josh Blackwood!

2:46:04Pat McAfee:Come on. That's a great culture. That feels like they're bought in, AJ. Look out, NFC North. There's a new powerhouse coming from the Midway Monster.

2:46:17Darius Butler:Yeah, I certainly don't love seeing that one bit. I don't. I mean, I just – especially like where the – because in years past, like the Bears losing that way week one to the Vikings, like especially with the new coach and Caleb and everything, Like you could see that thing just nosedive and like, okay, that's, that's all they needed to kind of tip things over. And you look at where the Packers were at week one and where they're at now. Like, and, and even as like a Packers fan, just watching, you said a lot of things about, you know, Ben Johnson or whatever, like their offense does look different.

2:46:46Darius Butler:Like there'll be like five, six times a game. We'd be like, Jesus Christ, that was a great play. That was a great play. Like that, that does happen pretty often. So yeah, as a Packers fan, don't love seeing that, but here we go. What does Ben Johnson do as a play caller or a play designer

2:46:59Pat McAfee:that has made him be the belle of the ball for the last three off seasons in the coaching carousel?

2:47:04Matthew Stafford:He's had a hell of a group around him. And my man Antoine Randall-El, he handles some trick play stuff. He actually put one in that he ran back. And when he was a stealer, we tossed him the ball. He ran the shuffle pass back.

2:47:16Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. With the Lions. Yeah, the Lions just ran.

2:47:19Matthew Stafford:So he listens. He listens to his guys. He puts input, which when you listen and they see their plays getting called, guys work harder. Coach, I got more shit for you. I got more shit for you. And he listens and he puts it all together extremely well.

2:47:35Pat McAfee:Is there a style in which he calls plays that makes him very good? Some people are chess players, I guess, whenever they're calling plays. Is that Ben Johnson?

2:47:42Matthew Stafford:He starts with the running game. He's got a great play-action game. He's got a great knack for when to throw the gadget. When do you throw the flea flicker? When do you throw the reverse? When do you do this gimmick shit? Especially in Detroit, you know, when they start throwing the linemen and in the middle of a game throwing the lateral on the short end, he pitches back to the other. That takes a lot of guts. It takes a lot of creativity, too. How about the – is it a feel thing? It's a total feel thing. Yeah, I think some guys have it, some don't. Some just are computers. Computer says, I do this.

2:48:13Matthew Stafford:All right? Guys that – Andy Reid, the people that have been doing it for a long time, they have a feel for the game.

2:48:18Pat McAfee:Ben Johnson's fun to watch. That Bears team might be problematic.

2:48:22Bruce Arians:Actually, I have a question for you when it comes to these block kicks. Yeah. Do you think we're going to see a ton more fakes now, both punts and field goals, just because they're so aggressive because there's so much success? Like now are they going to start trying? Because some of these teams are blocking. I mean, the Eagles have like three block punts already.

2:48:38Pat McAfee:Yeah, there's been three games, I think, decided on block kicks, literally game-winning blocks. So Greg Olson spotlighted it on Sunday morning, which, once again, this is Greg Olson going into detail about something that's so minor but such a good piece of information for the people at home to have. So for field goal snaps, normally it's the holder opening his hand like this. Can't move the hand forward, can't move the hand back, can't move it up, can't move it down. Just has to keep it in an exact space, and you're allowed to open your hand, but you're not allowed to move forward or you're trying to draw them off.

2:49:06Pat McAfee:Like the staff thing you were talking about. Bingo, yeah, can't move at all. If I was to give cadence, which I did, blues, with the hand, I would do that. I wasn't allowed to move my helmet forward whenever I was doing it. walt anderson that i did get people to jump off sides i was very proud of it only could do it though because vinatari could handle it back there but you need to be going on two you need to be going on three you need to be going on one you need to switch that up if they have a jump on your operation like old buddy said uh that they had it on the long snapper yeah on the raiders

2:49:36Bruce Arians:long snapper they always move the ball just like an inch right before he uh snapped so they're

2:49:40Pat McAfee:watching for all that like even in warm-ups uh other long snappers or maybe us are watching the other long snapper some guys like move their fingers like right before they like readjust their fingers all the guys are trying to get the jump are looking for something like that whether it's the holder it's the snapper sometimes the kicker will even do something where they put their

2:49:58Bruce Arians:hand down or they all got something they all got something that that gives a little bit of a tell so now they're gonna have to go change that aren't it's like a quarterback changing signals or trying to hey this is a work this is a fake or we're going on i'm gonna open my hand three times like

2:50:10Pat McAfee:we're gonna see a lot more of that one it slows everybody down not just the edge it slows down the middle down too like when i when we would hard count at home that is for the offense alignment not to just get fucking steam because yeah soon as those guys just go ears back this thing's going but but and it's off they're not even trying to block the kick they are just spearing the offense alignment so like not only does it slow down the outside guys they can't get a jump on the edge but also in the middle it slows them down too so i think just switching up the cadence which sounds so basic, but I think that's, I don't know, how do you slow people down?

2:50:44Pat McAfee:Isn't that how you slow people down?

2:50:46Matthew Stafford:Same through that sideline count with the center. People nod, they spin, they double twister. I mean, they got five snap counts. Peyton had five or six. Oh, yeah. And Saturday was great at it. You know, they were a double twister. He'd twist his head both sides.

2:51:02Pat McAfee:But it makes everybody's life easier.

2:51:04Matthew Stafford:The defensive line's going, I didn't see that one yet. one one off sides at Cincinnati that one time maybe that rest would have slowed down last night

2:51:15Pat McAfee:yeah talking about Ted Karras doing the head and then they call it on him actually in the entirety of it all but it's like you just gotta slow him down somehow but everybody's gotta be on the same page and good you know it's like there's always a conversation about Aaron Rodgers is like hard counts and shit it's like is he doing too much for these young guys it's like no all these guys need to fucking figure it out This is...

2:51:37Matthew Stafford:It's not hard to count to three, brother.

2:51:39Pat McAfee:Yeah, but the sounds and the inflection. I don't know how offensive linemen don't budge with how big they are. Yeah. And obviously some of those offensive linemen are really good at, like, readjusting and moving while not getting the call. But, like, D-linemen being able to stunt and move and shade down and 360-pounders aren't allowed to even budge is insane. And then for the lack of, with the sound, people moving, I think we should applaud offensive linemen for not fucking jumping off more than they do. It's like they've actually gotten too good at holding their water and then jumping right before that we all think they're cheating.

2:52:18Pat McAfee:It's like, how about them not being allowed to fuck? Hey, freeze, literally.

2:52:22Bruce Arians:You got beat Ava six inches in front of your face too.

2:52:25Pat McAfee:Don't move. What's he doing? Well, he's allowed to actually get a little running start. He's going to start off the line actually, and then he's going to come down, perfect timing. don't even think about thinking about moving your hand. Because if you just, boom, right there. He moved. He did. You fucking saw it. Got him. First down. And you're the biggest doofus of all time. I love all the little intricacies of the little game, but it does feel like special teams are starting to take over. Let's stick with the Chicago Bears and wrap it up here. Ben Johnson and Aditi had a conversation coming out of halftime.

2:52:59Pat McAfee:This is how it went during the game.

2:53:00Bruce Arians:Your offense has struggled to take advantage of those tickets. away yeah okay so what did you tell them to get things going that that it wasn't our brand of

2:53:07Darius Butler:football we're capable of a lot more and so uh we're hitting the reset button here at halftime we're going to come back and establish our identity here in the second half you need to change what you're doing i don't know you think so we're gonna be just fine and they end up being

2:53:22Pat McAfee:just fine uh that was his message adidi uh i think she said that it was a question or a reiteration of what he was saying even though it might have sounded like so you need to change what you're doing and he said he didn't really this was his response to it whenever he kicked off his press

2:53:37AJ Hawk:conference and you know if you care to address this I know there's been some buzz about your halftime exchange uh can you relay what how you interpreted that that conversation yeah you know in the moment I honestly I didn't think too much of it I'm kind of in in game mode um but then when I look back at it you know I am a little bit uh disappointed with what that looks like.

2:54:03Bruce Arians:You know, I didn't hear very well, and that's not an excuse, but when I thought I heard that it was not a question, but that I needed to make some changes, I didn't take that very well, so I'll do a better job with those going forward.

2:54:18Pat McAfee:Yeah, I like the way it was viewed. Aditi's been around Ball a long time. I assume she was not the one that was offended by the interaction, but those are tough moments to have an interview. That is a, especially if your team is not playing well and you want him to play well and if it's loud and you hear somebody that has not been at your practices or in your team meetings or know anything about your team. Not saying football, but just your team in general. So you need to make, it's like yeah, can we do this after the game? Like that is almost immediately the thought. Obviously guys that have been around a long time are much more seasoned vets in those moments, but I appreciate Ben Johnson acknowledging it, but I didn't think he had to.

2:54:56Pat McAfee:AJ, I didn't think he had to.

2:54:58Bruce Arians:I don't think he had to. I mean, coming out of halftime or going into halftime, doing an interview as a coach, I think is almost impossible. It's so, like, you have so many things on your mind, I can imagine. Now, college coaches doing these interviews, the smart ones know in the back of their head, hey, I'm recruiting. Anytime I'm on camera, I'm recruiting these high school kids, these young kids watching me, or these kids I want from the transfer portal to come over. So that gives them, like, another reason where they can almost, you know, fake it easier, I guess, and make themselves, I don't know, just make it a little bit better.

2:55:25Pat McAfee:Anytime on camera, we're selling, we're selling. And for Ben Johnson, he's on camera. He's trying to answer questions about his team. Let's go to a guy who had to do a lot of these. We feel like there's a couple of timings of interviews that, what are we doing? Right before the game, they'll get players now. As like after introductions, as game is like starting like 30 seconds away, they're talking to players now. That's a part of the new TV deal, I guess. And then the halftime conversations with coaches. I feel like we really never really get anything good out of that. How did you handle those?

2:55:56Pat McAfee:And what was your mindset as you're doing those?

2:55:58Matthew Stafford:Let's get this shit over with quick.

2:56:00Pat McAfee:Okay. exactly our point

2:56:06Matthew Stafford:I'm not going to say anything I'm not going to tell you thank God Laura Oakman I was just ripping some official and I was probably red as a hornet and came over are you okay? she was worried about me I said no I'm good honey what do you want to know?

2:56:22Pat McAfee:yeah you got to be able to compartmentalize I guess but on that note you got a lot going on a lot of jobs I mean, there's a lot of things on the line for every one of these games. In the middle of the action, just stopping and dropping out and going into the real world. Because there you're talking to the fans. You're talking to the fans. You're talking to everybody. You're not talking to your team. And you're in the middle of a game, which is your team's moment. It's interesting. I know the NFL wants more access, but I think some of these time, I think the people should be able to opt in or out of them.

2:56:51Pat McAfee:I think Ben Johnson should be like, nah, I don't really want to do this right now.

2:56:55AJ Hawk:Yeah, I hate it. I'm a fan. Just being a fan now, it's nothing. I don't want to hear from the coach. I don't want to hear from a player right before kickoff. As a fan, it's not even that engaging or entertaining. I understand we want the access. And then to B.A.'s point, all that adrenaline. You are in the middle of – and that game was a dogfight. One-point game came down to the last play, last kick. So too much adrenaline. I can understand in that interaction how it kind of got lost in Trent. You're in the middle of a stadium, loud stadium, and she was trying to say, okay, so you need to change something up.

2:57:26AJ Hawk:But he took it a different way. And then I also understand why he addressed it, too, because as a head coach, as a player, first of all, you represent an organization. We know how that organization specifically is very – Yeah, don't swear. And then, like, you don't want to ever become a distraction. So you just own it. You say whatever you say to it, and then you move on from it. So now nobody's asking him about that today or anything else. So I understand kind of the weight he has to bear as a head coach. But I think he handled it well. I think, to your point, Aditi will be fine. She's been in the fire for a long time.

2:57:56AJ Hawk:Ball. It's been down there. I get it, but I hate the mid-game interviews.

2:58:03Pat McAfee:Also, now that we know Ben Johnson a little bit, think about what he just got done doing and saying in that locker room. I told him we're hitting a reset. He didn't just say, boys, we're going to hit a reset. That was a loud and very fucking intense reset. Fucking slamming his head. I assume there was a reset button that was imagined in the sky. and that thing was not tapped. No, that thing was fucking, we are. Yeah, 100 fucking times. Then he comes out and he's like, you need to make some fucking changes. Oh, okay. Everybody has answers, huh? Okay. Just that whole series of events, just thinking from Ben Johnson's angle, just like, is this real?

2:58:44Darius Butler:What'd you say to me?

2:58:45Pat McAfee:Is this a real? We'll be just fine. Thanks. Thanks. Happy I did the fucking interview. Roll it back. It's like, game mode, bro. That's like Luke Keekly as a human versus game mode. It's just like there's like a switch that actually gets flipped for some people, almost all people. Now, granted, the drastic change from one human to their competitive element of themselves versus maybe like the most, like Luke Keekly, I think, was actually the most drastic. I think he's potentially. Troy Palomaro.

2:59:19AJ Hawk:Brian Dawkins.

2:59:20Pat McAfee:Oh. Okay.

2:59:22Bruce Arians:Yeah, Troy says it's all spoken.

2:59:23AJ Hawk:Reggie White, minister. Yeah, there's five.

2:59:26Pat McAfee:I don't know. Luke. Luke Kuechly, glasses. We're talking. He's there, too.

2:59:32Bruce Arians:He's there. Did he play like eight-man football and then he went to BC? Just like. Nah, he's from Cincinnati. He played big time. Okay, so full 11. How you doing?

2:59:40Pat McAfee:How you doing, Baron? Nice to see you. Good to see you. Yes, do you want to go through some physicist shit? Like, that is how it is. And then on the field. Full chaos. Who were some others there? Reggie White.

2:59:54Matthew Stafford:Troy Polamal.

2:59:55Pat McAfee:Troy. Troy. Oh, my God.

2:59:57Matthew Stafford:Unbelievable.

2:59:57Pat McAfee:That was in between every play. He was talking to the Lord, and then all of a sudden the ball gets snapped. Ah! We're everywhere. Over the top.

3:00:04Bruce Arians:The Takiyo Spikes Brian Dawkins story.

3:00:06AJ Hawk:Yeah, Brian Dawkins was, like, when he turned to game time, like, didn't he have – he was the one with two lockers, right? I believe so, yeah. For him and the one for, like, X or whatever his other alter ego. So, yeah, those guys that have, like, alter egos or, like, Josh Norman when he turned into Batman or whatever, you know, their gimmick is. But, yeah, those are. Imagine them getting interviewed, though.

3:00:27Pat McAfee:Like, that's what I'm saying.

3:00:28AJ Hawk:Yeah, in the middle of, yeah.

3:00:29Pat McAfee:We don't need, like, Ben Johnson might be that human. Yeah. Like, when he's coaching, what he is. Versus, when his eyes, good building. Yeah. Remember? This place's great. Really nice. Yeah. Okay, let's get better. I fucking hate this place.

3:00:48Darius Butler:He's an intense son of a bitch Psycho

3:00:52Bruce Arians:Football sicko Psycho sicko sick fucker A lunatic A lot of success

3:00:58Pat McAfee:You see his pregame smell this up Oh yeah and we knew that Because bring your own smelling salts too So he's not leaving that at home Did you read the smelling salts guy

3:01:08Matthew Stafford:No never

3:01:09Pat McAfee:Come on B.A. Not just one time

3:01:13Matthew Stafford:I didn't need it bro I was already up there. Yeah, you're right, you're right.

3:01:16Pat McAfee:When did you get in? You got a, you were a consultant. It was the year after, it was the year whenever you weren't the head coach, but you were still there on golf cart at practice, and then you're on the sidelines during games, and you almost fought somebody. A lot of hard in New Orleans.

3:01:31Matthew Stafford:I got banned from the sideline after that.

3:01:34Pat McAfee:I don't need any smelling salts, brother. I was a consultant. Marshawn let him work in me. What a good give and take, I assume. You're a good shit talker. Oh, yeah. I assume that was a matter of fact. Take a lot of pride in it, too. As you should. Hey. Amen. As you should. As you should.

3:01:50AJ Hawk:Amen.

3:01:51Pat McAfee:Tone, did the public win or the sportsbooks win this past weekend? How do we sit against them?

3:01:56Bruce Arians:Sportsbooks, once again, we saw the tweet again. One and four against the spread for the top five games. We did as a public win last night, though. Dolphins and Broncos were a good result for the public in both of those. I think it was 55 for the Dolphins and 67, 68 for the Broncos. So we got back a little bit last night.

3:02:17Pat McAfee:All right. Well, congrats to us. Why don't you come out here, Tony? Why don't you leave Hammer? Done. Done. AJ, great. Hut. Hut. Hut. You hear that? I got a pretty good one. That's pretty good. Thank you. That's from down here.

3:02:30Matthew Stafford:You got to go deep, brother.

3:02:31Pat McAfee:Yeah, yeah. Down. Yeah. Who was the hut gut? Who was the hut gut? Coach Wiley. Bob Wiley. Bob Wiley. Bob Wiley. Wow. Yeah. You know Wiles. Oh, yeah. How do you not know Wiles? Him on training camp. Hard knock. Hard knock.

3:02:46Darius Butler:So good. Hurt!

3:02:47Pat McAfee:Yeah. Hurt!

3:02:49Bruce Arians:I think there it is. Bingo. There it is. It's a hit! It's a hit! Do it again. My fault. Here we go. I'm not a quarterback. Obviously, you can tell. Stretch is way overrated. Did you know World War I, World War II, all those guys that fought in that war? Right? They didn't. Push-ups, jumping jacks, sit-ups, climbed the open, ran. But none of this fancy. Okay? Right? And they won two world wars. Two world wars by doing jumping jacks, push-ups, and sit-ups. Two world wars. You think they were worried when they were running across Normandy about stretching? Are you kidding me? Shahat! Shahat! Shahat!

3:03:32Bruce Arians:Shahat! Shahat! Do it again. My fault. These creatures live within football facilities. All around the country.

3:03:42Pat McAfee:These creatures, these football guys, this is literally what these people are. I know 10 to 15 of them that have no idea about any world events. They have no fucking clue about what's going on on earth right now. They are in a football facility watching football film, trying to game the system so their team can win a game. And for that, we thank them. A man that was one of those guys for 47 years. B.A., thank you for another week. We appreciate you. D-Bots, great work. Toxic table, phenomenal job. In the back, great work, boys. Way to pull it all off. Big day today. Huge day today. To the Rushmore team, talk, Bill, Dirty, Bone, Fox.

3:04:28Pat McAfee:Congratulations, boy. Huge launch. Hell yeah. Good work, boys. Elon Musk retweeted it. Yeah? Congratulations, gentlemen. That's going to do it, don't we? Fucking awesome. So we'll consider that a success no matter what happens the rest of the way. No big out. And on that note, it was a great fucking Rushmore on X. I did it. We did it. It's a great show. It's an unbelievable show. I'm happy a lot of people are going to see it. Got another episode coming out next Tuesday. We'll obviously put out more clips. And look for the Rushmore on X account on X to be rather active. Should be a good time and a good follow.

3:04:59Pat McAfee:Just like tomorrow, we're going to have a great program. Schwarba is coming on. Hell yeah. Schwarba is going to be here. Yeah, baseball. Baseball. AQ Shipley is going to be here. Yeah, football. Football, AQ. Oh, right. Sorry.

3:05:12Darius Butler:He lives close to Alex Bregman and Stephen Kwan. They're both playing in the playoffs. Yeah, tonight.

3:05:16Pat McAfee:So maybe he shows up wearing a baseball costume. He might. Did he play baseball? I don't think so. I don't think so.

3:05:22Bruce Arians:Ate a bunch of them. He could have. What position would he play?

3:05:26Pat McAfee:First base. Okay. No. AQ? AQ would be a catcher, bro. He'd have that thing. He wouldn't even wear one of those things. Yeah, you're probably right. He actually might have been able to. He probably has an absolute cannon for an arm. He does have an arm. He would tell you at least. There's a couple of those quotes out there. He's a great athlete. His dad, massive Pittsburgh Pirates fan. I assume he did not follow suit because he saw the misery his father went through for a large portion of our lives. Hey, Tony, you're a Pirates fan. Are the Pirates going to get some hitters so that Paul Skeens can be fucking throwing during Super Duper wild card day?

3:05:59Pat McAfee:Like what we have today where all the stars are performing?

3:06:02Bruce Arians:No.

3:06:03Darius Butler:Don Kelly's coming back, though.

3:06:05Pat McAfee:Salty ball. You look cool today.

3:06:08Bruce Arians:Paul Skeens took a long walk around Fenway Park when he came to visit. I don't know if you guys saw that. He does it everywhere. He wants to know. No, no. This one, he went underneath the monster. He went up the ladder in the monster, and he went on the seats in the monster.

3:06:24Pat McAfee:He likes baseball. That's a trifecta, baby. He saw where Gumpy was sitting when Gumpy was posting every night of his life. There was a time there where Gumpy went to seven straight Boston Red Sox. Yeah, it was awesome. The top of that guy who actually watches 162. 162. And he was in Indianapolis in between those games. Yeah. So we're going to go check out the Red Sox and then come back to Indianapolis and then their next homestand wins that four days. I'm going to go sit on a monster again and come back and they did it again. He was really over there. I experienced the green monster through gumpy one week run of going to every game.

3:06:55Pat McAfee:Beautiful seats. You're literally. Oh yeah.

3:06:57Bruce Arians:That's the best seat in sports. You're on top of the field. It's incredible.

3:07:01Pat McAfee:It's baseball. Let's remember that. I'm just saying

3:07:03Bruce Arians:if any sport was played there on top of the field is awesome.

3:07:06Pat McAfee:Pretty close. Well, good luck to all the baseball boys. We appreciate baseball. Aside from that one seat for the Utah Mammoth

3:07:14Bruce Arians:that hangs over the ice. That is the only one that might be better.

3:07:19Pat McAfee:How about them selling that seat as if it's, ah, this is a shitty seat. Let's go ahead and sell these things. I got a ticket for$14 from SeatGeek. Okay. Where am I sitting at? Holy shit. What the fuck? Like a nightclub VIP booth over top of the ice. It should be$25 ,000 for that ticket a night. I do think it was the first game. I don't think they had an idea. And then the second game, I think it did become a thing, if I do recall. But they redid their whole shit.

3:07:44Bruce Arians:Oh, yeah. Overnight. Yeah, smart. That's going to be the mammoth thing. Wait until we see the mammoth statue. That's coming up here soon. You're right. Hockey. Yeah. You follow hockey? Hockey. Yeah, starting real soon.

3:07:55Matthew Stafford:The boats had a run down there. Oh, I had a great one, man. My man. Stamkos? What's his name? Stammer? He's gone. Stammer's in Nashville now, boys.

3:08:03Bruce Arians:Oh, you're talking about the coach? Bezleski. Oh, Basel. Basel, the goalie.

3:08:08Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah. You know your lightning, yeah. Oh, yeah, bro. That was great. Of course. Who's the goalie down there? Huge mids. Bezleski. No, the goalie. That's him.

3:08:17Bruce Arians:That's Basel, baby.

3:08:18Pat McAfee:No, who's the guy that hit me? Is that Tampa? Oh, Luongo. Oh, Luongo. That's Tampa, baby. Oh, yeah. Pablo Luongo. Yeah, Luongo. He's got huge mitts. Yeah. He hit me on the shoulder blade and the tit somehow.

3:08:31Matthew Stafford:I think that was one. That last Stanley Cup team, they were all big. They were like 6 '1", 6 '2". That was like 6 '5". I mean, that was a hell of a team.

3:08:39Pat McAfee:I think they're pretty big boozers, too. I think they had a good time down there. Good crew.

3:08:43Matthew Stafford:They had a boat party. They had a boat parade. Oh, yeah.

3:08:45Pat McAfee:Yeah, we saw it. They started them. And then you guys followed suit and said, hey, you know what? We're going to black out on these waters as well.

3:08:52AJ Hawk:That's what it's all about.

3:08:53Pat McAfee:It's sports, baby. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in this thing together. BA any final thoughts for the team here great day better day next week no risk it no biscuit team on me team on three one two three goodbye