PMS 2.0 1437 - NFL Week 8 Preview/Picks, TNF Recap, Professional Poker Player Matt Berkey, Mike McCarthy, Nick Saban, & AJ Hawk

21:11But this is the first actual confirmation in my 22 years of playing that I've heard any real involvement there.

21:20Pat McAfee:Okay, now let's talk about cheating a little bit in these private games that are out of the casino. Obviously, casino is a little bit more regulated. Obviously, they have a gaming license, everything like that. Dealers, professional dealers, you name it. Whenever you've got these private games, you're walking in on trust, basically, that everything is on the up and up. whenever the cheating happens or something like that. I heard stories. There's x-rays now in the tables. Did you know this was happening? There's x-rays going through the tables and they're able to tell what cards around the corner.

21:46Pat McAfee:Did you know any of these things? And what is kind of your takeaway on what cheating does actually happen in these poker games or in poker games in general? Yeah, I think the x-ray thing was a bit of a misunderstanding or misrepresentation of what actually took place. Basically, the home games are ripe for cheating because the back of the house has access to everything. So you as the player, you're trusting fully in whoever is particularly running this. And this notion that absolute power corrupts absolutely is kind of where these things break down. The game runner is incentivized to make the most money.

22:23The game runner is incentivized to ensure that everybody is able to get paid and they're certain to get stiffed. So they'll often take precautionary measures, whether that's taking a large rake or in this instance cheating the game to ensure that they're able to basically keep the Ponzi going as long as they can. As far as like the x-ray and the other methods, I think that they confused that with something that's known as infrared decks. So you can get these like pre-marked decks with infrared technology where like a fake key fob or something of that nature can actually read the deck top to bottom.

23:03And if you have somebody in the back of the house who's able to get decks into the game, then of course it's going to be very easy to rig the game. They also use the visible ink with context lenses, but to make people at ease a little bit more, these methods are very complicated. You could never do this in a casino or at least be incredibly difficult. You need a middleman who's able to get the decks into the game, who's able to orchestrate the entire thing. And that's kind of the issue with these unregulated games is that you're dealing with an environment where all your trust is solely in the person who is incentivized to make the most money.

23:41Pat McAfee:Hand in the cookie jar to make sure we all get equal amounts of cookies. That's an interesting dilemma for humans since the beginning of time, let alone maybe a potential gambling community. Last question from me. How many of these games are taking place on a regular basis? Like if you just had to give a projection. Like, I put this tweet out as soon as I heard about it, and obviously I grew up in a World Series of Poker era. I think you did as well, and we're in the Pittsburgh area, a lot of Italians, a lot of games. We did a lot of this. I assume that's where you started as well. I just want to make sure to reiterate that fact.

24:10Pat McAfee:That was not me. There's a lot of Pat Massey. Now, there is a lot of those, but I played in a lot of games. Like, I played in a lot of poker games, a lot of private games. Now, this is a long time ago. Long, long, long, long time ago. And I think statute of limitations is like five years or something, depending upon which year, whenever it comes to these things. So this was at least 5.2 years ago, you know, 5.1 years ago. This was a long, long time ago. These games are happening on a very regular basis, though. I think that is something that needs to be said as well. It's not like a majority of these games, to go back to your point.

24:40Pat McAfee:Card community, I think, does have morals. Like, I think we do have, like, unwritten rules in the card community, let alone at the level that you're at. Like, this is an abnormal thing, right? This is how people should be viewing this, as opposed to maybe a regular thing in the card world. Because it's kind of an attack on cards, brother. and I don't like that at all. Yeah, yeah. It's an attack on people who are willing to go to the ends of the earth to make a buck, I think. Yeah, to your point, these games, they're happening coast to coast. They're not actually illegal to run or to play in, so you don't have to worry about your statute of limitation.

25:13They're illegal to take a rake. So if the house is profiting off of it, now you're stepping on the casino's toes, and that becomes the big issue. But yeah, I was in the basement of the steakhouse the same way that you were coming up, just playing a little 5 '10 with a bunch of bookies, Blaireville Johnny and Mike the Greek, all flinging cards back and forth. And at the time, I was 21. I was totally naive to everything, and I just went in there blindly trusting. Thank God those guys were on the up and up. Yeah.

25:47Pat McAfee:Yeah, legit. Me too. I literally thought about my high school story when this whole thing made, and I walked down into a basement, literally, of, like, an Italian restaurant, and it's like, man, thank God those guys let me win, I guess, like, that was very, imagine if they don't, like, on the way out, I just don't go to the camp, my whole life changes, it's like, I'm very appreciative of said Italian restaurant that took care of me there, and I'm very appreciative of cards as a whole, I hope people don't get scared to continue to play cards, cards are great, play Euchre, obviously, out in Indiana a lot, obviously, play Rummy with a wife, not scared to play a little Tonk, not scared to play a little 727, not scared to play Hold 'em, you name it.

26:22Pat McAfee:Cards are good. It's good for community. It's good for everything like that. I hate that people are trying to scam the shit out of people at the highest level, and that's making national headlines. But people like you, Burke, will continue to carry the torch of good card playing, and we appreciate the hell out of you. Thank you, guys. All right, man. I hope you get every card. Ladies and gentlemen, Matt Berkey. Yay! Yeah, I thought that was just some information that people needed to know because there was some crazy stuff. It was all kind of taking on a life of its own about what these card games were, what was happening.

26:51Pat McAfee:I saw some people putting out graphics of these x-rays under the table. It's like, oh, my God. I mean, how could you know if anything was in there? So I appreciate him who lives in it literally every single day for the last 15 years talking about it. That's crazy, AJ. I'm a card person. You are as well. It's like this can't be like what people think cards are as a whole. Yeah, I imagine. I think we're giving people too much credit almost, thinking there's these super complex situations going on all around the country where they're cheating everybody out of money. I don't think it's that rampant, but this is a giant case that the FBI came down on, so it's happening for sure.

27:27Pat McAfee:yeah like there's always been people that try to like oh i'll tap the table when i have a diamond or a spade like there's always like table talk potentially set up options out of people but i feel like that's a part of me trying to catch those people while playing like i gotta know that these people were pretty but whenever you it's just like the houston astros i guess technology they go like yeah like whenever you get whenever you there's a let there's a line here and then going that far is just not great. The fact that these guys with how much money that they have doing that, I don't get it.

27:59Pat McAfee:I don't know what the leverage. There had to be some sort of leverage on these guys. Definitely. Yes. That's what doesn't make sense. That's the stuff that I feel like will be interesting to look at just going forward with these cases. And just like the baseball thing, to your point, now I'm just looking back through all my favorite players and all the guys I loved growing up, especially in the NBA, and now you just wonder about everything. No! No, I know, but seriously, especially for Matt, I don't think I would have been able to ask him a question without wanting to know some sort of information about people or players, and that's why this situation is so sticky because some people are coming out and just saying a lot of stuff, and it's hard not to look at that stuff, and it's not meant for any public conversation, and regardless, they're doing it.

28:49But it's one of those things where now you just start to wonder about everything when it comes to things of this nature just because it is so prevalent, especially now with gambling.

28:58Pat McAfee:Yeah, I don't think we need to go back in time and start questioning anything. Now, speaking of going back in time, Tim Donahue is going, excuse me. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, there's – So, I mean, that is just – it only opens up for it. And D-Bud asked Adam Silver the other day whenever we got a chance to talk to him about like, hey, tell us about gambling. He talked about playing defense. So now, Shams has reported that the NBA did not know about this until we all knew about this. So Adam Silver at the time, I don't think, knew that all these announcements were coming. At least that's what's being reported in this whole thing.

29:28Pat McAfee:But he certainly knows that, hey, like one of the biggest knocks on our league, especially now with how prevalent gambling is, is that how rigable it is. Just because anything can be a foul. Anything can be a foul. And if you give two fouls on a guy early, he's out of the game. So it's like, in this case, co-conspirator 8, which fits a lot of the descriptors of the poker player up there in Portland, tells Fainsey or Fransy or something, I forget the name of the guy, that somebody's not going to be playing for the rest of the games, the last 10 games of the season or whatever. Nobody else knows it.

30:02Pat McAfee:It's like, you pick one player out, that's like a guaranteed loss almost. Like, basketball is so ripe. Oh, yeah. You know, if you look at it from a praying standpoint of taking advantage of AJ, which we certainly know some gamblers will try. So it's like him trying to play defense on that. Like, can we get irrelevant props maybe out completely so there's not even – like, I think they're trying their best over there at the NBA legitimately. I think they're trying their absolute best, AJ. Yeah, they're going to – I mean, you mentioned they're going to probably, you know, come down with a pretty hard sentence or whatever is going to happen now because you have to scare not only NBA players.

30:36You need to scare football players, baseball players. I'm sure the MLS is susceptible to this. Everyone is. Anyone can come and ruin a whole situation like that.

30:45Pat McAfee:No way. Yeah, but we're a part of the problem because we took sportsbook money. It's like, I get that. It's a lot different than manipulating a game and shaving points off a game and changing a game like that. Yeah, but I understand how it's just sitting there, though, to use. I think yesterday there was ESPN Bet logo on there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And we'd like to let everybody know. nobody's betting on that okay so you know like let's so but it was up on the screen while they were talking about it and you can see how hypocritical that would potentially look and it's like we're trying to say that there's a line yeah we're trying to say that there's a line between like the difference but then they're they're saying well the line is all kind of becoming you can see how people are it's like yeah we can't we all can see what the susceptibility is here but we're all saying that there's certainly differences between being a part of the action and betting on the action.

31:40Pat McAfee:I would say people are definitely taking liberties, though. There's a big difference between promoting a legal sportsbook and betting legally versus rigging basketball games. As Berkey said, that's something Blairsville Johnny would never do. That's a good point. What do you say, Mike? Mike of the Greek. Mike of the Greek. Don Wilberding, yeah. Somebody need to check out Mike of the Greek. He always got cards, this guy. He was always hanging around. Turn River was always really nice to Mikey the Greek. I think we need to check in maybe on what he's got cooking. A little different Greek yogurt on that particular thing.

32:17Pat McAfee:You know what I'm talking about. Oh, joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is an Irish man from Pittsburgh. Okay? Hell yeah. So I would assume that he knows about a lot of this stuff that is potentially happening, at least how it could potentially take place in the sports world. Ladies and gentlemen, our coach, Super Bowl champion, Coach Mike McCord. Yeah, Coach. Wow, picking on the Irish right out the gate, huh? Oh, my goodness. I'm Patrick McAfee. My name is Patrick McAfee. You are Mike McCarthy, okay? I come from an Italian community. Was yours Irish or Italian? Both. It was both Irish and Italian in Greenfield.

33:00And then the lower part of Greenfield was more hunky, Slovak, Czechoslovakian. Of a sort. We didn't have a lot of Czechoslovakians in plum.

33:11Pat McAfee:We had all Italians. I mean, it was just Italians everywhere. You just walk outside. There's an Italian right there. There's an Italian right there. Jeez Louise, there's another one. Good God. All right, we got some more pasta, more gravy. Got it. Got it. Brajou. We do that. Some of them weren't always on the up and up in those games we played in either. I'll tell you that. Yeah, that's a fact. That is certainly a fact. But on that note, the NBA is caught up in a massive thing. Like, as a coach in the NFL during the era here of sportsbooks becoming legalized and a part of the league and the culture as a whole, did you feel obligated to talk about that with your team at all?

33:49Pat McAfee:Like, how do you kind of address that with the team other than just the signs that are everywhere in the hope that nobody will want to kind of get involved with that type of stuff, Coach? Well, I mean, you definitely have to talk about it. I think the league has done, the NFL has done an excellent job with the education. It starts in the spring during the offseason program and ultimately as we've all been through the meetings there and training camp. But the continuing education throughout the season is important. And I think just clearly just the volume of betting as far as the variation. I think we had a situation at one point in the past season where a player went out of the game and the communication wasn't clean between the training staff, the player in communication to the head coach, whether the player was up or down.

34:37And so when a player does go out of the game, that obviously affects the end game betting. So I just think when you add that whole element to the end game betting has created a whole different, I mean, my goodness, amount of scrutiny. And with that, I think just the communication as a coaching staff, training staff, players and so forth during the course of the game, you know, your communication needs to be even better. So but yeah, it's it's the landscape is definitely different. I mean, it's totally different than I know when I first got in the league in the 90s. I mean, you know, in the 90s, I can remember my first gambling presentation, you know, and you kind of we kind of laugh about it.

35:25I mean, it was a joke, but it was like, hey, don't leave a paper trail. You know, cash only. So, you know. James!

35:32Pat McAfee:You're part of the problem. You're part of the problem, Coach. You're part of the problem. No, but like I said, it was a joke. But it was just a whole different landscape back then. I mean, it's changed so much in the volume and in the variations of what you can bet on, especially in game. It's amazing. Yeah, and you talk about what the NFL had to go through with fantasy football. Remember, Tony Romo wasn't allowed to go to some event in Vegas for fantasy football, but he was allowed to take a check for a scratch-off, and they're like, nope, you're allowed to play blackjack, but you're not allowed to take free drinks while you're playing blackjack.

36:10Pat McAfee:Remember this? You're not allowed to get a hotel room, but you're allowed to play roulette if you want. The NFL had to really—there was a lot of NCAA just—what did the NCAA just approve? Yeah, they just legalized gambling for all divisions, Division I, Division II, Division III on pro sports. We're in such a weird time right now, Coach. Yeah, as it's becoming so prevalent, like everybody's trying to adjust and be fair and be real about the situation. All we all know, everybody that's ever been a part of any of the sports, can't have the players or the people in the games, coaches or affecting the games, be rigging the games.

36:46Pat McAfee:Because then you take down everything for all of us. So stop being so fucking selfish. Now, let's talk about the game last night, shall we, Coach? Carson Wentz, obviously, in a middle of battle all night with this Chargers team. Now, Justin Herbert with Joe Alt starting this year. They're 4-0. Feels like he's a real difference maker. What's your takeaway from last night's domination by the Los Angeles Chargers, Coach? Yeah, definitely. I think, like most games, it really starts up front. And I think having Joe Alt back definitely made a huge difference. And you can't, you know, from the start of the game, I mean, the Chargers were in control throughout.

37:21I mean, I think they had a plus 40 rushes. And I think Justin threw the ball about 27, 28 times. So, I mean, that's a great formula for success. I thought they ran. They threw it. I thought the chunk yardages. And I thought Justin really played a really gritty game, you know, with his rushing attempts and, you know, extended plays. And when he did throw it off the action game, you could definitely see the big play opportunities that they were able to hit. So I thought Chargers were clearly in front. I know there was a lot of injury challenges throughout the week. And I know we've talked about this in past weeks.

37:55The Thursday night injury challenge, in my experience, it's clearly the biggest. Because, A, you're trying to get an injured player that may or may not play in the game, get him reps. But then also, if he doesn't go, you're trying to get the next guy, the reps, and to get that coordinated to get the connection and continuity that you want to get each and every week going into it. You know, Thursday night being a short week on its own is a challenge, but it's really on both sides of the spectrum of is he playing, isn't he playing, you know, and so forth. And I think definitely I thought Joe all looked like his old man there last night.

38:28I thought he played a hell of a game. Coach, we saw, speaking of injuries, J.J. McCarthy, he's on the sideline. We showed a clip a little bit ago. I don't know if you watched him. He's got some great agility. He's supposed to have an ankle injury, I guess. He's moving pretty dang well right here. You see, he avoids a disaster. That could have been really, really bad. And he's still locked in on the game. I guess it seems like we're expecting to see J.J. McCarthy out in the near future under center for the Vikings. What do you expect to see when McCarthy gets back in here? Well, I think the biggest thing, not knowing without any communication, but the fact that he was the third quarterback in the game tells you he's close.

39:04So I thought that was definitely a good sign for JJ. But, yeah, I think clearly getting back in there and just getting him in on the rhythm. I mean, I think, you know, clearly if you're calling a defense against a young quarterback, you really want to make it hard for him on first and second down because I know as an offensive coach, an offensive play caller, you're always trying to make the ride for normal down the distance a little easier on your quarterback because we all know the third down in red zone is where they truly make their money and the emphasis on making sure he's ready there because those are the things when you don't play as a quarterback, you know, to get back into that time clock, you know, because things move differently, faster, come at you differently in third down and in the red zone part of it.

39:45So I think if it can just, you know, move them around, the quarterback, the movements and keeps and so forth, and, you know, tie the run and action passing game together, you know, give him some productivity so he's playing a favorable down distance in third down and, you know, give him some clean opportunities in the red zone.

40:01Pat McAfee:Yeah, you always want to have favorable donning distance, Donner. You certainly want that whenever you're talking about an offensive game. You want to matriculate the ball. Just teeing you up here, man. Just teeing you up, little Pittsburgh. Are we going half-back today? I didn't get the demo.

40:18A little Irish guy probably gets the sun on his face it looks like that.

40:24Pat McAfee:Hey, that looks awesome. You look unbelievable. AJ, please. AJ, please. AJ. There he is. There he is. AJ, you look good behind the mic there. There we go. Tone, Tone, Tone. Tone, do it. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Back at you. Okay, so the Backwards Hat boys are here to talk a little ball, and I am certainly having a blast about that. Okay, let's talk JJ McCarthy potentially getting back onto the field. Obviously, Carson Wentz has the night that he has under duress. They had Sam Darnold in that building, obviously. They had Danny Dimes in that building beforehand. Aaron allegedly was interested in going there.

41:07Pat McAfee:Now you're talking about guys that are having incredible seasons and the Vikings are in the situation that they're in. Excited to see how they move past that. Hopefully, J.J. is a guy. Let's talk about another quarterback that is having an absolutely massive season, which I assume is no surprise to you. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Coach, like three or four weeks ago, the Cowboys were pretty much left for dead, even though Dak had been doing unbelievable. The last couple weeks, defenses looked a little bit better. What's your overall thought on the Cowboys as we stand right now? And do you think they're kind of – I mean, we've already heard Jerry mention it and it's kind of been floating around.

41:40Are they going to be buyers at the trade deadline thinking that they actually might be able to kind of make some noise down the stretch and going into the playoffs? Yeah, I mean, clearly staying out of the home or mindset here. I mean, we've talked about this since the draft. I think this is an ascending football team. I think they did the right things during the offseason. You know, as far as going through veteran free agency, you know, the draft. And my experience of being a head coach is the biggest improvement in your football team comes from the players that are already there. And they've got an excellent locker room and an excellent group of core players, and they're young.

42:16You know, I look at the Cowboys and the Packers very similarly. These are young teams that are only going to get better. And I think that, you know, with the injury challenge that every team has, if they can just stay in front of that a little bit more, this team's going to get better each week. And I do agree with you on the defense. I mean, the offense has hit their stride. You know, they're putting up big numbers. But, you know, also I think when you look at stats, you know, the defense has played in two overtime games. So, you know, that goes both ways. That definitely weighs down your statistics.

42:44And I think the defense, if they can, you know, the mindset, if they can just get one stop, a half, you know, build that up to one stop, a quarter in the way the offense is playing and their special teams, particularly, you know, their battery, their core guys are as good as anybody's in the league. So I think this is a very good football team that has an arrow pointing up. I've always felt that as far as being buyers, I think they just got to stay the course. You know, Micah Parsons deserved the contract that he received in Green Bay. And, you know, on a personal level, when you see one of your players get that contract, it's obviously exciting because he's definitely earned that.

43:19But what it has put, it has put Dallas in a position to do second contracts on their draft class guys that are coming up. And that's where AJR experience in Green Bay. You know, we are able to keep signing all those second contracts and you do not have enough good football players. We've talked about this on the show before. 77 players will win a Super Bowl. And I think what they're doing in their roster development is exactly the way you need to do it. They've gotten more second contracts done in the last two months, and I think I know I saw my time there, and that's a huge, huge benefit to the overall roster development of that football team.

43:52Young team, excellent locker room. They can lean on the offense right now. I do believe the defense is going to be better. It's the third, you know, three defensive coordinators in three years. That stuff does factor a little bit, especially, you know, philosophically they've gone back more to more 23 than what they were in 24 so i i just think this is a good team that they can stay healthy keep working together uh it's a really good group of guys that bust their ass and and that's that's the facts jack you know now that's what i feel

44:21Pat McAfee:about those guys yeah and i was about to say you've never been bitter even whenever you joined us at the draft which was just a couple months removed from you know you no longer being the head coach of the team you talked about how good you thought that team was how good the roster was is then when the Micah thing happens, you don't bury anybody. You stayed very above board with the entirety of it all. And you just talked about roster development and second contracts and everything like that. Should we give Landman, Jerry Jones, a little bit more credit maybe? Because everybody kills him for everything.

44:48Pat McAfee:But it sounds like you're talking about actually being able to build from within and keep your own guys, which is what I don't think a lot of people think of whenever they think of the Dallas Cowboys. Everybody thinks Jerry Jones got his hands on too many things. He's ruining the roster as opposed to any other stuff. Who takes the compliment for being able to build the roster the way it is? And how did you know that this group was going to be a group that was going to be good, even though there was a lot of shit being thrown at them after the Micah trade? Well, first off, I do want to thank you for recognizing my EQ there, Pat.

45:18That was awesome. Secondly, I do think it's good EQ. That is good. It's good EQ. Okay, awesome. You're on it, Connor. This is EQ. This is EQ. There you go. Yeah, I potted that up. No problem. I think it's their process here. You know, I think the process of, you know, how they built, you know, build the roster. It's, you know, it's you're looking at this thing as two, three, four years of draft classes that are come together. And one of the things I know when I first went to Green Bay and the benefit of working in Kansas City, I always felt was our offseason program was so good because so many guys live there in the offseason.

45:58And, you know, in Green Bay, that was a bit of a challenge. And we, you know, had some guys, you know, later in their career that would stay there year-round. But the benefit you have in Dallas, Texas, is your whole team's there 12 months out of the year. And these guys are developing and working out together all the time, even if it's not at the facility. It could be across the street, you know. So this is a very tight group. The White House. Yeah. Oh, man. That's what Jerry had. In a weight room. Hey, hey, hey. Yeah, across the street. That's what he was talking about, right?

46:29Pat McAfee:You're getting too much sun on your face here, my man. Come on. I was trying to talk some real ball here. You've got to move that out of here. Me too. Me too. Hey, let's get him back. What are we doing? Here we go, Coach. We're back. We're back. We're back. I'm sorry. I was across the street. I was across the practice field. I'm sorry. I cut you off there. But you're saying the boys are around. You're saying the boys are around. Oh, no. They're there all the time. I mean, it's a good group. and Dax, I mean, he's an incredible leader. You know, he has a situation where he's part of a workout facility there that, I mean, you go in there, you know, January, February, March, there's 40, 50 NFL players there.

47:08So it's just a really good training environment. I just think that, you know, and we used to say it every year in Green Bay when we were together, you know, the biggest improvement will come from the guys that are already there. The draft class is great. You know, the free agents you're at, they're nice because they're new, they're fresh, but the dudes, the main dudes, your core guys, That's what makes the needle move each and every year. And I think Dallas is in that mode right now. I do. I think they've got a chance to be a pretty good damn football team the next couple of years.

47:35Pat McAfee:George Pickens, obviously a huge pickup as well. Fits right into the culture. They like, yeah, huge. And him playing as good as he's playing and buying in as quickly as he has, good for him because he was fun to watch whenever he was playing good football. And obviously there's always going to be stuff around wide receivers. I'm happy he's getting the rock deck, handling it perfectly. Now let's talk about some things that have come up in a couple different games now. Obviously, a couple of different games. There's been some blatant misses when it comes to the refs. But the refs as a whole have become a little bit of a conversation piece.

48:03Pat McAfee:Connor has a question for you. Yeah, Coach. There's actually a study UTEP just did, and they kind of released it about benefiting from certain calls as teams. And the Chiefs were the team to spotlight. And I have a Patriots helmet on my desk, so believe me, I get it. But TJ Lang said, basically along the lines of, look, when the Packers, when we were really going when we were the best, you know, like sometimes there were certain crews where we would benefit from. And I saw some people respond to that saying that's the single dumbest thing said in modern history. But I don't think TJ Lang, you know, took it that serious.

48:39But when it's, you know, when it comes to those type of things, reffing crews, you know, and not just in the NFL and NCAA and kind of all sports, even, you know, umpire crews, if that's how that works, Whatever. You get it. When it comes to NFL reffing crews, why do you think some crews have a different feel for the game? Do you think that is, you know, kind of depending on the teams? Do you think that's depending on the weather? Like, why do you think that refs kind of decide and go about games kind of differently on a week-to-week basis when fans like myself just kind of see it as like, hey, whether it's a 1 o 'clock game, whether it's a primetime game, whether it's Wednesday afternoon football, like the game needs to be called the exact same no matter what?

49:24Well, I look at it, you know, every season, you know, as a journey. You look at, you know, as a head coach and you look at players, you know, the vibe and how everything moved through your season, you know, where you are as a team, there's ups and downs. The ebb and flow is so critical. Well, I mean, the officiating crews, they go through the same thing. And I think the biggest thing is to answer your question specifically, There's a number of variables, I think, that go into how these crews have to manage their ebb and flow of the season. And this is obviously my opinion. I think, number one, the White Hat, you know, he's the leader of the crew.

49:58He has the biggest effect on the crew each and every week because these guys put a ton of work into it. And I think one of the best things the league has done here of late the last, you know, how many years it's been, five, six, seven years, is having the crews be a big part of the training camp. So you're seeing these guys, these crews are going out to two or three training camps themselves. So now the interaction with the players and coaches is higher than it's ever been. So, you know, interaction, common language, common understanding of the, you know, the fact that, you know, players get to know the name and the face of each guy.

50:33I've always put the guys up in front of the team meeting room and had them, you know, interact as much as possible, encourage them to be around the players as much as possible in the cafeteria and things like that. So that's part of it. But as the season goes on, they're getting graded every week. You know, they understand that the trends, you know, they know what the trends are of holdings up and what's down. And they know if they miss a call and things like that, too. So the human nature is. Oh, I think so. Oh, I think so.

51:03Pat McAfee:I think that coach coach, that pool report shit is bullshit. I'm not, yeah. I'm not staying up for the pool report. Yeah. I mean, who wants, I mean, I don't, I don't even know why they do the pool report. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, exactly. That's what we're saying. Yeah. Because, you know, I mean, what are we testing their, their immediate accountability after the game? So I mean, so there's another box to check, you know, I, yeah, that's that. Yeah. that to me, I, yeah, I, yeah, I, I must've missed something. I don't know, but is there something happening in a poll report that I, that I missed in my, no, you just thought about these guys.

51:40Pat McAfee:No, you, you said that these guys know whenever they get a call wrong or whatever, then every time we hear from them, it's always this poll report and they go, well, we actually did this and there's no accountability. So like one of the reasons why people get so mad is because there's seemingly no accountability from the refs at all. And they'll send you guys an email. Hey, we missed this one. So yeah, you guys lost the game. Your entire staff's probably getting fired. and the player has a low light for the rest of his life on there. But we missed that call. We apologize. It's like the accountability thing is always like the biggest, I think, from the fans.

52:09Pat McAfee:So you're saying they know they missed the call. I think that's big news. Like, okay, at least behind. Well, I'm not saying immediately after the game, Pat. You know what I mean? The poll. I'm sorry. I made it interrupt. Coach, they claim they get graded from whoever their top official is. They say they grade them, and then those guys don't get playoff games if you're one of the lower-graded crews, I guess. At least that's what they've said to me. Yeah. yeah that's what I've done that's what I was referring to the post-game evaluation process that they do go through I you know I do know they go then and then as a coach you do have the opportunity to call the league office and you know call the regional director so I just think that it's just like anything I mean you know you want to solve problems heighten the communication you know heighten the education heighten the interaction you know between the people that you want to you know perform better and i think the league office has done that with the officiating crews you you have the opportunity to communicate more with those guys more today i know them back in in 06 you know when i first became a head coach so um so i think the system of trying to get it right uh they're definitely working it um but you know at the end of the day i know one of the things you know just watching tv um you know being a fan it looks like they've had a lot of change in personnel, too.

53:26So, I mean, there's a, you know, there's newer guys, there's more going on. So, I mean, that takes time, too. But I do think the White Hats, you know, the head guys are very much impactful on how that crew is going to officiate each week. And the communication that goes into that and, you know, the fact that they can communicate now during the game on the headsets, I think, was a huge asset when they put that in. And what's that, 10 years now? So, it kind of all runs together. But I think all those steps have been very beneficial to improve in our game.

54:00Pat McAfee:I agree. And I even like the New York calling in saying, hey, this is obvious. Get away with it. But then whenever they lie about it, I mean, it's just a tough gig. Nobody wants to be a ref. There's a lot of new refs, a lot of good refs leaving. I think they're only going to continue to get better. Let's get some more players in a pipeline to become officials in the NFL as well. Last question here about the biggest game of the weekend. AP Tone has one about another McCarthy Bowl. Go ahead, Tone. We had McCarthy Bowl 1. That was the Cowboys and Packers earlier this year ending in overtime. We have McCarthy Bowl II this weekend, Sunday Night Football.

54:30Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers take on the Green Bay Packers. Coach, obviously you have some ties to this one. I don't know if you're going to be there or not, but how do you think this affects Aaron? Because obviously you know Aaron better than a lot of us. The motivation going into Sunday Night Football, how do you feel Aaron deals with that and just the game overall? First off, you guys are awesome because you've communicated so well that this is actually a McCarthy Bowl. So I've been invited to this one. So I think it's going to be a hell of a game. You know, I think just fall, you know, fall ball back in Pittsburgh.

55:05The Packers coming to town. I think it's going to be incredible setting. Really looking forward to watching the game. So I think it's a pick them. You know, I'm going back to the old pig skin games. I don't even know what the line is. Don't want to know what the line is. I think this is going to be a hell of a football game. Looking forward to watching.

55:22Pat McAfee:I'm excited for you to get back there and hopefully get your love. I'm happy you were invited. And we appreciate the hell out of you, Coach. I think the backwards hat, not a bad play. You know, Dan Quinn started doing it. You saw it. He became like a Florida man. Whenever he joined you, he started doing a backwards hat under your leadership. We appreciate the hell out of you, Coach. Safe travels back to Pittsburgh. All right, man. Have a great week. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Mike McCarthy. Dan Cole! Hey, look at this, boys. Obviously, that's DoorDash. If you need to get anything at any time from something that is around you in any capacity, go to our friends at DoorDash.

55:57Pat McAfee:You got to save up$250 a season when you were on game days. That's an asterisk. That probably means there's something to talk about that more. I do not have that on me. Okay. DoorDash is the greatest, though. We have obviously sang their praises. Look at this. Look at this. I mean, we got a couple different shots here that have been plugged in by the boys. Okay. That's obviously the first big stadium jumbo truck. How about this? Whoa! Is that the Vanderbilt Tower? Yeah, yeah. I'm not 100 % sure. I'd assume it's a super-duper tower there. Look at these. These are brand-new suites that they just built in here.

56:31Pat McAfee:Whoa! They're filthy! Corner to the end zone. I like that. That's awesome. That looks fake, too, doesn't it? And then here's a very artsy shot at me saying, this city of Nashville is so damn beautiful. And there is obviously a lot of greats and legendary things that have come from this beautiful city. And this particular football team is the next thing. These sports here in town are spectacular. I'm lucky to be here. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. From professional-grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly.

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57:51And Messi only trusts Duracell.

58:01That's right, Pat. Chargers obviously annihilated the Vikings last night. Dominant performance, what, 37-10. I had to glance down and check. I can't believe the score is that high, actually. 37-10. What a win for the Chargers. Pat, what a win for you as well. I picked the Vikings. I was on the wrong side of that with Coach Mike McCarthy. Looks like the Chargers are rolling, huh, Pat?

58:20Pat McAfee:Yeah, I didn't know that. Honestly, I didn't get to see the pick segment of program yesterday. I thought you guys did an incredible job. I'm very thankful for you guys. I'm down here in Nashville. Yesterday was one of the coolest days that has ever happened. Obviously, you guys did a great job. I assumed everybody was going to be on the Chargers, honestly. As soon as I saw the line, I'm like, this feels like a Chargers. This team is very good. Now, obviously, they look like ass last week against the Colts and dress like ass last week against the Colts with the yellow jerseys. And to your point, to start this thing, one half of the hammer, done.

58:51Pat McAfee:Cowboys, AP tone. Maybe they just decided to wear the better uniform, and that's why the football gods blessed them as opposed to the yellow. And the toxic table at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. This Chargers team, Ty, looked like who we thought they could potentially be. And what a perfect time maybe to have their best game thus far, Ty. Yeah, without a doubt. Like you mentioned, especially coming off last, because I think a lot of people were jumping off the Chargers bandwagon after last week. Hey, this team's so beat up. But like Connor mentioned in the first hour, when Justin Herbert plays like this, man, it's hard to envision many teams that they, I mean, they can beat anybody, you know, and they're one of those teams who, you know, a couple teams have been super banged up this year and their season has gone one way and it's kind of like, oh, it's over already.

59:35But, you know, for their offensive line and running backs to be as banged up as they have been and them kind of just staying the course and continuing to look this good, like, yeah, I'd agree, especially with Harbaugh and Herbert. Like, I don't think this is a team you really want to see down the stretch. if you're in playoff contention in the AFC.

59:52Pat McAfee:Yeah, Joe Waltz, an absolute force. The Chargers seemingly good with whoever's on their roster, and Ladd McConkie is going to be one of the ones. You know, it's just long-term. Now let's pivot away from last night's game. Let's do some NFL news. Remember when Dayball was telling the unaffiliated neurological consultant person to hurry it up with his quarterback in the blue tent. You know, he pokes his head in there and goes, hey, what's she doing? He's got a cigar. He watches one rep from Russell Wilson, who we're learning now is one of the greatest tweeters of all time. Love what he did there.

1:00:27Pat McAfee:Sees one rep of Russell Wilson, goes, I don't think so. Goes into the blue tent, says, where's Jackson Dart? The entire thing. Everybody the next day goes, that can't happen. Full uproar, obviously, because the reason why that blue tent was made is so that the unk and the doctors can get a little alone time without any pressure of making a decision that isn't good for the player, but it is good for the team maybe to get back in there. Everybody thought they were going to come down hard on Dayball for this entire thing. Well, they fined them all. So the NFL was fined the Giants$200 ,000. Head coach Brian Dayball$100 ,000.

1:00:58Pat McAfee:And Cam Scadaboo$15 ,000 because you remember he put his – the issue with him is his head's so big he poked his head in there. It's like when one of those Texas Longhorns puts their head into something. And the whole blue tent rattled when Scadaboo put his head into that thing because of how large it is. That's what the$15 ,000 fines for. I think he'd be okay to be proud of that. But Dayball getting$100 ,000 directly and then the Giants getting$200 ,000 as a whole is certainly enough money that makes head coaches say, I'm not doing that again. I'm not going to lose$100 ,000. But I don't know if any punishment would be as big as what people wanted the next day.

1:01:35Pat McAfee:AJ, do you remember how people were reacting the day after about this? I had no idea in the, watching it in real time that people would freak out that much. Me neither. Dayball going in. Hey, what are we, uh, tweaking a little, uh, a little bit of a - Get him out of there! Lot on the line here. Lot on the line here. It's not going good. You know, that entire thing. It certainly is, it was abnormal, especially because, uh, doctor - That is awesome visual. Hey, hey, come on! Can we do the test? One, two, folia. Can we, what are we doing here? Let's get after it. So him doing that, and there's a doctor going, you're not supposed to do that.

1:02:11Pat McAfee:There's no way. I assume that medical person says that. But on that exact night before the game starts, who's Dr. Stills, I think is his name, from the NFL? Stills. Stills. Dr. Stills from the NFL actually did a social media video about how this is a sanctuary in here. This is sacred fight, this blue tent. This is what's in here. Nobody's allowed in here at all. And then four hours later, Dayball's just poking his head. Let's kind of go ahead and do this. I think they made obviously a massive deal out of it. I don't think the NFL wants to see anybody trying to interfere, influence medical people into getting players back on the field, especially with all the injuries, and especially when it comes to concussions, everything they've been through over the last 15 years of science kind of telling us what it is.

1:02:53Pat McAfee:So, yeah, 200 ,000, 100 ,000, and 15 ,000, I don't know if it'll be enough for the people that wanted maybe Dayball to be kicked off the door, Doug, but it certainly is a punishment from the NFL, AJ. Yeah, if I was Scatterboot, I'm appealing that, though. I would say, hey, I was trying to go see the doctor. Like, what do you mean? I was next in line or something. That's all he's got to say. For real. Everybody's judging. They don't think I could have had a headache. I get it. My head is a part of my superpowers, but I was also feeling a little. Yeah. I feel that thing. You just get it cut in half maybe.

1:03:23Pat McAfee:I don't know. A$7 ,500 fine would be a hilarious fine from the NFL. Have you ever seen one that small? They used to cut fine. They used to, like, you could get some leeway. If you got fined 15, you might be able to cut it in half. Then they stopped doing that a long time ago, I think. These fines are huge. There was an entire report or a statement, I guess, from McCarthy here, Brian McCarthy, the NFL's PR. And it's a joint statement from the NFL and the NFLPA about how they got to this and what that blue tent represents and what it is, what players and coaches can't do. So they obviously take care of that.

1:03:55Pat McAfee:And it's a lot of words. That's a big statement, Brian. I mean, come on. It feels like a story, dude. Can we get a statement a little bit? I'm not reading that right now on air. Statements should be very easily read. Let's just get to it. There's like two paragraphs setting the tone, and I assume the NFLPA and the NFL are jousting for every word on how it goes there. But that's a lot of words to be put out. David basically can't do it is what they all said. Can't do it. So congrats to them kind of getting done with that entire thing. The Bengals have a situation brewing. Cottonman, what's going on with the Bengals and their linebacker, brother?

1:04:34Yeah, absolute dog Logan Wilson yesterday. Kind of requested a trade out of nowhere, it felt like, especially coming off a Bengals massive win. I do believe this is a situation where he's just kind of yelling at air. Great tweet from Schefter. Awesome. Got to love it. But just based off the Bengals history, don't think anything's really going to come with this. This is kind of news that's not news because it's the Bengals. But there is a disgruntled linebacker in Cincinnati. And, I mean, A.J., you probably know, Logan Wilson for the Bengals is so good. I've been following this. So there's two young rookie linebackers that are getting a lot more time.

1:05:10This has been going on for, I don't know, two, three, four weeks now where Logan Wilson's play time has just been, you know, reduced. And I was in the stadium last Thursday, and I'm watching him kind of run all – I think they said he played 40-some percent of the snaps that last Thursday game. But, yeah, Logan Wilson's actually handled it very well. I've heard him speak to the media, and he said, like, Like, hey, I'm going to support these guys. I know they're stepping in and they're playing more than me, but I'm going to be there. I'm going to be a leader and support them and answer all their questions.

1:05:34He's doing it the right way. It sounds like behind the scenes. Ty, Ty, Ty.

1:05:40Pat McAfee:AJ's saying he's doing it the right way. Who's it sound like over there? Oh, yeah. Cincinnati. It sounds an awful lot like Trey Hendrickson, and it sounds like we have a new budding squeak Scolari situation in Cincinnati. I don't love it, but, hey, listen, the proof's in the pudding. if you disrespect me or offend me 15 to 16 more times, I'm done with it. I understand where Logan's coming from, and I appreciate you saying doing it the right way. And I view, I mean, I guess I used to view it the same way. I'd say, sorry, being a good teammate to the guys, the young rookies who are stepping in, he's not a dick to them, which is very natural if that did happen.

1:06:21Pat McAfee:Yeah, and that's like him as a human, which I think we try to say the right way because we've been in there, and it's like, hey, you don't need to be a distraction. But the right way seemingly in these situations is never the right answer to get something done. It never works out. You seemingly have to be just a terrible prick. Unfortunately, that is the case, isn't it? It does feel that way. And I hate that. I hate that that's the case because you and me both say like, hey, Trey Hendrickson's doing it the right way here. He's trying to be above board here. He's trying to be good to the rookies.

1:06:50Pat McAfee:He understands his value. He's going in there talking to the media. He's not really burying anybody. Owner comes out to Trey Hendrickson and says, at some point, these guys just got to be thankful they're getting offered any money. And then Trey goes, they say they're ours. I still think there's a, you know, he's doing it the right way. He's doing it the right way. He's doing it the right way. They give him$13 million more. I assume at this point, Logan Wilson requests a trade. And Trey Hendrickson looks at him and goes, join the club, bud. You think we want to play here? Yeah, right. And then publicly, unless you're like the loudest and the worst of all time, I don't think it's going to sway anybody, including the Cincinnati Bengals.

1:07:27Pat McAfee:You know, and the Bengals have just been kind of steadfast on how this all goes, AJ. More news coming out of the NFL. Sean Payton says, whoa!

1:07:39That's not...

1:07:41Pat McAfee:That was... Was that tweet? That tweet's about me. I was. Is that what happened? I don't think I know the full context of this one. Tone Diggs. What did Sean Payton come out and say about the Russell Wilson pressure that Russell Wilson certainly responded to for the first time in the history of Russell Wilson being Russell Wilson? Yeah, he basically said that this was all about Jackson Dart and complimenting Jackson Dart. It had nothing to do with Russell Wilson. That's obviously not how Russell Wilson took it. I don't know if I believe Sean or not based on their past, but I bet some people do think he was just talking positively about Jackson Dart.

1:08:14I am not one of those people that does. Nope.

1:08:17Pat McAfee:Here's him talking about the situation. I did. Look, in the euphoria, the way that game unfolded, that was strictly about dark. I mean, that was in no way, shape, or form anything that was directed at Russ. And I might be able to see how he might perceive that. coming off that win and watching how he played. Yeah, that wasn't any intention at all. Yeah, so listen, I'm putting somebody up. It doesn't mean I'm burying somebody. I mean, it certainly, I guess I re-listened to it. Yeah, I could see how he... Rising tides. The euphoria. The, oh, it was... Yeah, I... All right, enough. I was talking about him.

1:09:18That's what he said. You know what I want?

1:09:21Pat McAfee:Hey, that's next week. That's next week coming out after something where he goes, I know how you all thought I said something last week. I'd like to let you know, I'm doing that right now. This guy, so much better than that guy. I can't take it. Sean Payton has a little pizzazz, been in the media. Obviously, he understands how this all works. But I think the reason why it's such a big story is because Russell Wilson did something that is very abnormal for Mr. Unlimit. He did a little burial as opposed to something that kind of feeds the internet to bury him. So a little bit out of character from the Russell Wilson.

1:09:53Pat McAfee:And, you know, he's always, let's ride the high road. And we've told him, I think, over the past, he needs to stop doing that. He needs to start, you know, letting people know that this is not okay the way they talk about him. I like him talking his shit a lot, AJ. I do, too. I like these three emojis. How would you describe those right there? How about Bruce retweeted and favoring this thing as quickly as possible when it burns off the floor? Yeah, the favorites, the likes is an interesting... Now's not time for this conversation. No, the views as well. The likes going private. The views obviously indicate that it's been seen by a lot of people.

1:10:28Pat McAfee:How long has it been seen by somebody to just pop on a feed? Who knows? 5.3 thousand people say, I want to revisit this. Yeah. I'd like to revisit this. And we'd like to let Russell Wilson know that anytime you want to let these off, brother, we are here for it. And I still believe in my heart of hearts that Scadaboo, Jackson Dart, and Dayball were sitting around, saw the video, go like this to Russell Wilson. He's talking shit about you, buddy. And then Scadaboo goes, I don't know. And Jackson Dart says, this ain't how we roll. And then Dayball goes, no quarterback on my team is just going to be taking shots from a coach on another team.

1:11:08Pat McAfee:And I think there was a potential motivation around Russell Wilson to be like, hey, just one time. Just one time. Will you fight for yourself and stand up for yourself? So I'd like to tell Russell Wilson we hope this is a new era. We hope this is a new era. Yeah, Russ. We hope this is. Let's talk about football a little bit getting better. You know, the dynamic kickoff last year was supposed to be the big savior of special teams, but they adjusted the 35-yard line touchback drive start vert to the 30-yard drive start after a touchback. And we thought the 35-yard line rule was a good one. When they moved it to 30, I think everybody that knows special teams was like, this ain't going to change the kickoff much.

1:11:46Pat McAfee:This year offseason they moved to 35. Thank God they did that. These numbers are crazy. 79.3 % of kickoffs have been returned. That's 877 of 1 ,100. Up from 31.7 % last year whenever they made the little bit of adjustment, which was obviously up immensely from the year prior to that. Highest return rate in 19 years. That's back whenever the kickoff was at the 30, and they were kicking brand-new balls, I believe. So balls weren't easily as pumped through the end zone, so people were forced to return them. There have been 32 returns of at least 40 yards, which is the most through Week 7 since 2012.

1:12:19Pat McAfee:And there have been the most kickoff returns and kick return yards and second-highest kick return average through Week 7 in NFL history. I don't want to do McCarthy's job. That one in the bottom leads the way most in NFL history. All the ones that are kind of most since, you kind of put those towards the bottom, McCarthy. Let's lead the storyline at the top for most in NFL history whenever we're putting out these bullet points. On that note, they were talking about how many games, how many thousands of plays did they say were going to be added when they were dreaming this up a year ago whenever we were talking to Riz and the special teams.

1:12:48Pat McAfee:I thought it was like thousands. Yeah, 1 ,500, 2 ,000 I thought is what the number was. Like somewhere in there. That was the selling point, AJ. And now it's kind of coming to fruition here. Good thing or bad thing for the NFL, especially because we've seen the end of some of these games with kickers hitting the ball fat and it hitting the ground before the landing zone than a 40-yard line drive start whenever it really matters. So some people are saying, wait, there's more pressure and more influence on kickers in the game. What are your thoughts on it, AJ, now that we've kind of gone through it a little bit?

1:13:16Yeah, I think it's good. It took something. I mean, the old-style kickoff looked better. When you're running, you have, you know, they're gaining ground 40, 50 yards and they're hitting each other. But there was, like, the fact that there's way more returns, it's better. It's good for the league. I understand the aspect of the player's safety, and they claim there's less concussions. I'm not sure how all that works, but I think it's great. It makes it a play. And now, even if you're up, it's still a thing. Dicker last night kicked one and donged off the calf of one of his guys in the front line.

1:13:47The guy didn't even know it. So it's always a thing. It can always happen. It's wild. And that's what's cool. It puts more emphasis on kickers now. Now the kicking itself is more difficult. We've seen games end because kickers haven't been able to get it all the way through, and guys have returned it during a vital time when a two-minute warning or anything. But, Pat, do you think kickers are going to be practicing now more than the kids practicing for the Vanderbilt kick tomorrow, or do you think that is more so one of those things the punchers will just have to do?

1:14:16Pat McAfee:A massive respect to the Vandy kids practicing their kick for the kicking contest this weekend. That's an interesting little wrinkle being added. They got a kicker out there training these kids on how to kick. Now, granted, I will say this. Even if the guys or girls that kick are like actual ball kickers, making that kick with that amount of money, with the amount of people around them, is kind of the part of it all. But I appreciated them doing that. Now, back to the kickers hitting the – punters need to start working on the squibs to be hitting the kickoffs into the landing zone. I think that's going to be the next development we're about to see with this entire kickoff.

1:14:49Pat McAfee:But, Ty, you tell me. It's very similar to having to throw a strike in baseball. Kickers at the end of a game, you have to basically put the ball in play, and you have to go cover a kick. This guy might have been signed to your team literally on Thursday or Friday. He's going to be running down there to try to win you a divisional game on a kickoff, and he has to make a play. And if he peaks one way or another, it's a touchdown going back. That's basically what they wanted out of this kickoff, though. They wanted more electricity. They wanted more excitement. But at the end of games, Ty, it's very similar to baseball, right?

1:15:18Pat McAfee:Doesn't it feel like that? Yeah, for sure. it's the same thing as if the bases are loaded. You have no choice but to throw to the guy. Because if you do anything, they're going to score a run, or it's a situation where if it's the bottom half of the last inning, the most important time of the game, you don't have a choice. You don't have a free base. That's also what I feel like I've noticed with some of these kicks at the end of the game. If a team scores a touchdown to maybe take a three or a seven point lead, a lot of times they won't even try to do the squib anymore. They will just boot it deep because they don't have a guy who's capable of landing it in the landing zone, or they're just worried that something is going to go catastrophic, and you still end up.

1:16:01I feel like it's happened so many times. You take that lead, they get the ball in the 35, and then you're kind of playing prevent a little bit. And then before you know it, the other team is either in the red zone with an opportunity to score with a little bit of time left. Like, it's really changing how teams approach the end of the game. Yeah, and they're already talking about just kicking the ball out of bounds. Yeah. Like, never has there ever been like, hey, just turn left and do the worst possible thing on a kickoff, kick it out of bounds, and now that's become damn near a strategy if there's, you know, 2.05 left or something like that.

1:16:33Yeah, college still does the old school kickoff, so it's fun to turn on Saturdays and see them running and covering, and I believe, you know, the greatest college football coach of all time has just sat down with Pat. There you are.

1:16:43Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, the GOAT in the toughest environment in the SEC. His words, not mine. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Nixon. Coach, obviously the story of you talking about Vandy a couple years back on this particular program took on a life of its own because what Vandy would go on to become and what they are now. $130 million renovation to this brand-new stadium. They opened up in August. How does it feel to be here and understanding that this Vandy football team is for real and also feels like they're invested for the future down here, which is abnormal for the SEC, obviously. Yeah, well, there's no question about it.

1:17:18I mean, that wasn't there the last time I was here. This wasn't here. The basketball arena wasn't there. So they have made a commitment, and it's working, and I think it's good for the league. And I have picked against them time and time again, and I want everybody out there to know that I am a J.O. You know what that means? I'm jumping on the bandwagon.

1:17:39Pat McAfee:I didn't think that was coming. You're going to have something else. Yeah, Coach, J-O could be Jackoff. Or Jagoff. Or Jag. There's a lot of J-O. You know, there's Jerk as well. I mean, there's a lot that could kind of. I define my J-O. Yes, you did. That was smart. That was a good play. That was a good EQ, sense of awareness. A lot of people jumping on their bandwagon here. Mizzou, also very good football team. Game day here for Vandy Mizzou, seemingly very improbable. But with the NIL and transfer portal, all these teams have a chance to make big-time leaps in their talent level, especially if they have supportive kind of boosters.

1:18:19Pat McAfee:What have you seen from Vandy? What have you seen from Mizzou? And what are your thoughts on that as a whole? Yeah, well, I think that the culture of college football now relative to no guard rails gives places like this the opportunity, if they want to make a commitment, which they did here, not only in the facilities, but they have a competitive collective where they have a chance to get some of these players in. They've made some academic adjustments where they can get some transfers in that are freshmen, sophomores, or graduates. So they've done the things that they needed to do to have a competitive program, and it's paid off for them.

1:18:59And, you know, I still say this all the time. This is a great academic institution, But the window that people look at this institution is really going to be a lot through the athletic program. And there's no way that they can get more exposure than having game day here and playing in a big game like they did last week against LSU. And they're going to do this week against Missouri.

1:19:20Pat McAfee:Yeah, Diego Pavia feels like a guy who's ready for the moment. Same with Coach Lee. Good for them. Happy for them. You talked about how, you know, you've got to be able to live up to the hype. Live up to the hype. Can't be a flash in the pan. They're the faces of, like, kind of creating a whole new culture overnight alongside Indiana as well. What is different, you think, between those two particular programs as opposed to people that have used NIL and been good and then got bad? Why do you think these two have been kind of sustainable here for the first couple years? Well, I think that, first of all, you know, Kirk Signetti's done a really good job of, you know, everybody uses the term rat poison.

1:19:54But he's done a good job of controlling the spotlight on his team and keeping his guys focused. You know, the more distractions you have, the more fragile psychologically your people become in terms of their ability to sustain success. Consistency and performance define success to me, not just having one successful game or season or whatever. And he's done a really good job of that. I think this is still the question mark for Vanderbilt. You know, can they deal with the flash? You know, can they deal with the success? I saw signs at Alabama when they played a couple weeks ago down there. You were there.

1:20:36That wasn't the case. So can they do that? Did they learn their lesson there? And can they finish this season strong? Which if they do, they're going to have a chance possibly to get in a playoff.

1:20:46Pat McAfee:Boys, Coach was so pissed that Diego was practicing victory formation at Warmup. So pissed. It is a weird thing to practice in Warmups, isn't it? You can understand that. Look at him right now. He's shaking his head. He's about to... What's that about, coach? I love Diego, but that would have been a catastrophic player-coach relationship moment before the game. I mean, I never wanted our players to ever do anything. I didn't even let them talk to the other team. I never wanted them to do anything that was going to affect the other team's motivation to beat us. So don't ever say anything. Don't ever give anybody a reason.

1:21:32They got enough reason to want to beat us. Don't give them any more.

1:21:35Pat McAfee:Yeah, everybody wants Bama, brother. And the reason is because the way you were able to kind of psychologically put your boys into positions to success for so damn long. And everybody does it differently. Diego has certainly captured the entire world by storm. And us talking to him last week, he seems like he is just continuing to mature every single week and get used to it. Absolute dog, though. He is that, man. He is an absolute dog. I'm very appreciative of him in college football. Tone has a question for you back in the Thunderdome. Yeah, Coach, there are a lot of job openings already this year, and there's a lot of pros and cons to every single job opening.

1:22:10If you are a coach that is being lured in by these schools, what do you look for? What is most important to coaches when they go to these schools? Is it NIL? Is it recruiting base? Is it the AD and president in support of the school? Is it facilities? There's so much that goes into these coaching. or is it where you're from? Is it your alma mater, stuff like that? What do these coaches look and what do they value most when they're looking at potentially going to a new school that's offering them? Well, where you're from has nothing to do with it, but all of the other things that you mentioned absolutely do.

1:22:43And I think that the most important thing when you take a job is how do you establish the ground rules going in? All right, you've got all these people giving money so that you can pay players, But does that come with them having some influence on what happens in the program and how you coach your team and how you coach the players and all that? So, you know, to me, when I took a job, I said, okay, this is how it's going to be. I'm not listening to the board of trustees. They're not telling me who to recruit. They're not telling me who to play. I mean, I'm not. So understand that going in and go tell them before I take the job because I'm not listening to that bullshit.

1:23:21All right? So that was, because I didn't want to have to deal with that. So you need to set the ground rules for all those things. What is name, image, and likeness going to be like here? How is our administration going to be evolved? What's the academic circumstance that you're going to support so that we don't have issues when it comes to academics? Facilities are important. They're not as important as they used to be because you could have the nicer facilities in the world, but if you don't have any money to pay the players, they're not coming. So all those things are factors, but I think establishing the ground rules before you get there is the most important thing.

1:24:00Pat McAfee:Can't be house poor, huh? You're saying the facilities used to matter, but now if we're going to do$45 million in the facilities or$35 million in the players, let's go ahead and feed these players. Feed the players. If we can do both. Feed the beast. Yeah, let's certainly do that. Feed the stud, brother. That isn't a bad strategy actually across any of the parties. You said being from somewhere maybe shouldn't factor in as much as it has. Clark, you know, here he is, Vandy guy, and there's a lot of quotes of him talking about becoming the number one program in the country. I think Kenny Dillingham also, he's very proud to be from the Valley over there at Arizona State.

1:24:34Pat McAfee:Some of these jobs, though, are about to make some pretty crazy offers, right? Wouldn't you think? Florida, Penn State, there's obviously huge jobs on the horizon that are going to be available. Virginia Tech just said they're putting in$229 million into it. Feels like there's going to be a lot of big-time numbers for some of these coaches. Do you agree with that? I absolutely agree with that. I think there will be some huge numbers. But I also think that some of the guys that you mentioned, you know, Clark being here, you know, Kenny being at Arizona State, they probably understood how to set the ground rules and what the place needed to do because they had previous experience here, which probably helped them set the table for what they needed to do in the future.

1:25:14Got it. And my point was just because you're from someplace doesn't mean it's going to help you win. But I think if you have knowledge and they're willing to make a commitment to doing those things, then you've got a chance.

1:25:25Pat McAfee:Yeah, there's a man standing right over there. We're talking about how much money these coaches are going to get. Somebody else is going to be getting a little bit of cash off all these deals too. You know, Big Deluxe is over there wearing his white khakis. We're in his town right now. You know, he lives in one of these penthouses. I don't know which one it is, but there's going to be a new one on the way with this new job opening. You know, Penn State and Florida. Jeez Louise. There's going to be a lot of money in Jimmy Sexton's pockets in about a week. You know, I want to stay retired. And I do not want him anywhere near Miss Terry.

1:25:58Because when she hears some of these numbers, she gets interested. And I ain't interested.

1:26:05Pat McAfee:That was last week. I believe that was last week whenever the question in the grab bag was, who's going to be the next coach of Penn State? And it was just so easy because everybody on the internet had put you there. Penn Staters were like, Penn State needs to go to Nick Saban and say any number that he wants. So then we bring in, obviously, Miss Terry, the boss, and she goes, I haven't heard a number yet. And I was like, oh, wait a minute. That just made athletic directors out there go, okay, ho, ho, ho. That wasn't a complete no there. That was a we could kind of work with this at this stage.

1:26:34Pat McAfee:Okay? No way. All right. I have so much fun working with you. Why would I go do that? Okay. Yeah, I mean, you would potentially do that because maybe one of these places has a never-ending supply of money, and boy, they would like to fucking win. So I think there's a chance that that's on the horizon. Let's continue to talk a little bit more about ball. AJ has a question for you, Coach. Yeah, Coach, there's a lot of good games this weekend. One, I think, maybe flying under the radar. Michigan traveling to Michigan State. I know you coached at Michigan State for a while. What is that rivalry like?

1:27:07I know I've seen the quips of guys coming out pregame and, you know, turfing up the logo, all that kind of stuff. How do you think that goes, and what was it like being in the middle of that? Well, you know, I think these rivalry games sometimes have a little imbalance in terms of what it means to one school versus another. And let me explain. You know, the Michigan-Ohio State game probably for the Michigan players is huge. The Michigan-Michigan game for the Michigan State players is the huge game. because they're sort of not the most talked about school in the state, so they've got a lot to prove.

1:27:43Some of them probably would have liked to have gone to school at Michigan. They ended up at Michigan State, so there's a lot for them to try to prove in a game like this. But I do think, and I was very impressed with the way Michigan played last week against Washington on both sides of the ball, and Michigan State struggled to the late. But I tell you, there's been some huge upsets in this series, in the past, and it's always an interesting game.

1:28:07Pat McAfee:Talk about that one side views the rivalry a little bit bigger than the other side. It's natural, especially with how many rivalries there are in college ball. But I think you've talked about your Alabama team, there being a couple games that maybe it's harder to get your boys to believe that this is a rivalry than maybe some other games. And the other team is the biggest game of their season. How do you kind of adjust that with your squad? Yeah, well, that was always a little bit of an issue as time went on, you know, at Alabama because it's generational with the Alabama folks, but a lot of people see Tennessee as the big rivalry at Alabama.

1:28:38This generation sees Auburn that way. And then LSU became such a big rivalry game because they were always so good and we were always pretty good, and that game had such significance in terms of we played late in the season and whoever won was going to win the SEC or whatever. So it became harder and harder and harder when you have multiple rivalry games to get the players to focus on all of them the way you'd like for them to, knowing that the other team, like Auburn, was always going to be ready to play us, especially when we played there.

1:29:13Pat McAfee:Everybody wanted Bama, brother. Everybody. Still do. Yeah, still, there's still a chance we won Bama because of what you were running there. At what point did you realize, like, oh, we are the mountain, basically? Is that after your fifth national win? Is it the fourth? The third? When do you realize we are the mountain that literally everybody is trying to carry? I think we won in 9, 11, and 12. When we won three out of four years. And the 10 team might have been better than the other teams. And they didn't get in the playoffs because we lost three games. We had such complacency. But I think from that time on, it was like...

1:29:51You were just disgusted with that. We were going to get everybody's best game.

1:29:56Pat McAfee:Yeah, you certainly were. But if you could get the other team to run their mouth, that was helpful in motivating your team. Yeah, we talked about the Vandy situation here. No doubt. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you certainly need that. I couldn't even imagine just trying to figure out how do I keep the boys motivated when we are supposed to steamroll everybody and everybody is looking up at us. Because any given Saturday, I mean, college football much more than the NFL, any team can get any team, especially now with kind of the parity with NIL. A couple good players in a couple good positions, wrong Saturday, which tomorrow could be, actually.

1:30:26Pat McAfee:Let's pivot away from that, and let's talk a little bit about the story that's kind of captivating all of sports right now. You as a coach, obviously, with college, this is a big part of it. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Coach, the NCAA recently okayed all three divisions to have their athletes and coaches be able to bet on professional games. And I think, you know, immediately people kind of think, well, it's a slippery slope. You know, these kids know a lot of kids at other schools, and not saying that the integrity of the game will be compromised, but you could see how it starts as, hey, you're only supposed to bet on professional sports, and then eventually that kind of seeps into college.

1:31:02As a coach, how would you address this whole situation with not only your players, your staff, and ultimately do you see this being like a very, very slippery slope for college athletics as a whole and kind of ripe for a scandal? Yeah, I think there's no question about it. and Pat and I were talking about this before, but any time that you have something that is legal, that is against the rules in your sport, so gambling is legalized, but yet from an NCAA standpoint, players can't gamble. I'm on college games now. But that becomes the most difficult circumstance to try to control as a coach. And we went to great lengths.

1:31:46I mean, I talked about it, but I had the FBI guy come in and tell them how they could get caught and how they would get technically how they could follow the gambling line and all that, especially if they did it on their phone. And then I had Franchese, Michael Franchese, is the only mafia boss that they didn't kill when he was in jail, and then he got hired to go speak everywhere.

1:32:12Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah, we know Franchese. Yeah, I would bring him in, and he would scare the players to death. Like, you know, you might get shot someday if you do the wrong thing. So he would just scare them about how bad it was to get involved with people in gambling and how they could force you to do things you really didn't want to do. So we did a lot of things to try to make the players aware that this could be a huge problem for them and how it could affect them and their career. Which, you know, to what we were talking about before, and this is no different, I became very much a guy that talked less about team and more about individuals, thinking that, you know, players are selfish, they're self-absorbed, and they're ambitious.

1:32:58So how do I take advantage of that? And I would talk to them about all this behavioral stuff that could help them and enhance their value and all the behavioral stuff that actually could kill them. And this was one of those things. But they took that part of it better when you made it about them and how it would affect them rather than just talking about the team.

1:33:18Pat McAfee:Yeah, personal stuff. Scared Straight seemingly has worked for a long time. I wish they would do another kind of round of that with actual prisoners and bad kids. That always created good content. Francis came and talked to us as well. Did you know about his gasoline scheme? Oh, yeah. That was brilliant. Brilliant. Unbelievable. For somebody that used to pump gas, I was trying to figure, how could I do it? He was scraping just pennies off of every single gallon. And by the time they were about to catch him, he was at another place. They were already gone. He was like taking it. It was a great loophole.

1:33:49Pat McAfee:We're talking helicopters into the city. This guy's got Ferraris, Lambos. Probably would have bought them from you if this time was happening. Yeah, we know Francie's pretty good. Francie's been a little bit of internet beef, you know, with other mall bosses in the past. But any time you can kind of hear from the source about what the possible outcomes are, that's obviously a little something that can maybe make you act a little certain way. That's why I think the FBI and I think even the NBA and all the leagues are probably going to want really heavy punishments for this. We've got to set a precedent like, hey, this ain't good.

1:34:13Pat McAfee:Not just for the NBA. This is for all sports right now in the world that we're in right now. This is a huge deal. We can't give up the integrity of the sports because then everything's gone. Sports are gone. Leagues are gone. Sports, gambling, everything is gone. Everything is gone. If the integrity of the game starts getting questioned, you can't have it. I agree 100%. You are so right. I want to let you know. I played a lot of those poker games. We need cash. We need Cash not to be stupid around. Okay, I don't know if he's in Pittsburgh in the early 2000s, but Cash, I hope you just kind of missed that.

1:34:44Pat McAfee:The poker game one was crazy. Yeah, I mean, I can't even figure that out. How could you cheat in a poker game? I know how you can deal the cards off the bottom and all that, but using AI, is that how they did it? So we had Matt Berkey on, who's a professional poker player, in the first hour because the Internet was starting to run with a lot of different – they were saying, like, there was an X-ray machine in the table underneath the felt and everything. It wasn't that. I think there was a potential camera that was maybe on the table that was maybe showcasing what a card was coming, which is obviously big for Hold 'em because there's a turn in a river coming.

1:35:15Pat McAfee:So if that was happening, then that would mean the dealer was on the take as well because the dealer would be showing the cards. Then there's also potential paint that they put on the outside of the decks if they were able to get the decks in there. And if you have contacts lenses, you can see the top of the deck. So I don't think they had x-rays, but I think they were using other things to certainly cheat. But yeah, that is like going to that extent to screw people over is obviously disgusting. No, it is. When it comes to cards. You know, we have games so people can enjoy games. It's not worth it to not play by the rules because that's what makes the competition fair.

1:35:46And, you know, the honesty that goes into it not only builds a character, but it makes you feel good about earning the success that you had doing it the right way.

1:35:55Pat McAfee:Agreed. AJ, did you hear that? Maybe you should think about that when you play Euchre. You cheating piece of trash. I can never use any technology, Coach. Thank you. I can never use any technology. I'm a great teammate. I can communicate with my teammate when I'm playing Euchre. Not true. Just because you're immune. You almost got to be from Ohio to play Euchre. We played Euchre when I was at Kent State. I never heard of it in West Virginia. In Pittsburgh, I never heard of it either. And then I get out to Indiana, I play. Great game. Do you still play or no? No, not lately. Okay, well, if you play and you and Miss Terry play, do not play AJ.

1:36:22Pat McAfee:He cheats. This guy's a cheater. Like a son of a bitch. Not even close, Coach. Yeah, he does. He cheats like a son of a bitch. AJ's a great partner. That's all I'll say. Thank you, Foxy. Yeah, you guys are dealing weird and talking loud. Look at my hands. You think I could deal weird with my fingers and my hands, but I cannot deal weird. I wish I could cheat on dealing. I would. I would deal from the bottom if someone would teach me. Now, on that note, my wife also is a bender of the rules when it comes to cards. I play by the rules. Okay? Now, do I know the game better than you? Potentially. Do I know a rule that you don't know that exists?

1:36:55Pat McAfee:Potentially. We can Google it if you'd like to. But, boy, it is great whenever you win and beat the cheaters like A.J. Hawk. coach to everything you're saying. A little fulfillment. A little gratification. A little, hey, this is how the game's supposed to be played. The card gods have blessed me. And now, you know, Chauncey's going to find out the other... The card gods will certainly affect you. We're waiting on it to happen to A.J. Hawk and Euchre. That is what we are waiting for it to happen. That surprises me. I always held A.J. in high speed. You see how a little bit of misinformation can really skew your opinion.

1:37:25Gumpy, when you put this... Gumpy, when you put this clip out,

1:37:29Pat McAfee:make sure you tag the FBI. Yes, Cash. Yes, Cash Patel. Cash Patel on it. A.J. Hawk is cheating in Euchre. Arrest this piece of shit. Get him out of here. Get him out of here. Now, there's some stories coming out about the old teams that you have. I assume it's nice to go take a trip down memory lane. Connor has a question for you, Coach. Yeah, Coach. One of your Heisman winners, Devonta Smith, was on the Closed on Sundays show with Pat Sertain and Tarion Arnold. And he basically told a story about how when it was Jerry Judy, one of our favorite players across the board, Devonta Smith, Jalen Waddell, and Henry Ruggs.

1:38:05He actually told a story about how you basically went up to either the players or the OC at the time, and he talked about how, you know, hey, you would tell them, hey, you guys got to stop scoring so quick because you're catching one ball, you're running 80 yards, scoring a touchdown, and then basically our defense is dying because they just played their asses off. and now they've got to go back out on the field. How many times did that happen to you where your team was that good, where you had to basically tell the players, hey, you know, I preach, you know, stay locked in and play as hard as you can, but right now I can't have you play as hard as you can because if you do, the other side of the ball is screwed.

1:38:46Did that happen often? And when the OCs did get the word from you, not the negotiation, the ass-chewing, I'm assuming just basically, hey, you better run the ball or your ass is out of here, Lane Kiffin. What was that kind of like when your teams were that dominant? No, I loved it when we had those kind of skill guys that could score fast and make big plays. But, you know, there is a strategic side to all that. Because, you know, understand we came from run the ball, play good defense. Our defense was probably in the top five for the first five or six years. We ran the ball. Derrick Henry had some great backs and all that.

1:39:22We shrunk the game, played good defense. When we changed over to take advantage of the rules, RPOs, throwing the ball behind the line of scrimmage, blocking downfield, all those things, when Lane came and hired Lane with the idea that we were going to change because we needed to score more points. When you go no huddle and you score more points, you play more plays on defense. That was a psychological change for our whole team, that we were going to win the game 44-40 sometimes, not 19-6. All right, so, and it was also a little bit of a change for even me that sometimes when the defense got tired and we scored fast on offense that they had to go right back out there.

1:40:03There were times strategically we needed to just keep the ball a little bit on offense. But I'll take the great players and the speed, and those four guys were great players and they had great speed and we could score fast. And I might have tried to get them to score a little slower, but I'd rather have that issue and have the other issue and not have any speed and not be able to score.

1:40:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, I would assume it'd be nice to have to put a governor on your offense. You know, hey, we got to slow this down a little bit. We got to at least have four plays before we score a touchdown as opposed to having a team that can't score. Well, you know, the 2019 team had all those guys on it when Tua got hurt. That may have been one of the best teams that we ever had. And when Tua got hurt, you know, we lost to Auburn with Mack playing when he probably wasn't quite ready, to play, but that was one of the best teams we ever had, and they never even got in the playoffs. Yeah, that's the thing about college ball.

1:40:53Pat McAfee:You've got to get lucky in a lot of different ways. I'm lucky that I get a chance to sit next to you. The boys and I are lucky that we get a chance to chat with you. How do you feel about the vibe? I'll tell you what. I'm not going to say it. Say it. Tell them. Might as well. Hasn't been a lot of buzz around campus. Whoa! No! What? I thought it was going the other way. No, I saw the kickers kicking, and I thought it was what it was going to be. And maybe I'm just on a part of the campus that doesn't have humans. I'm going through. There was nothing. Gumps, please. Gumpy, please. You're with me.

1:41:30Yeah, there was nothing. What?

1:41:32Pat McAfee:We might have been in the wrong parts. I'm going to search for it. I'm going to look for it. I'm going to certainly look for it. Yeah, I think so. Vandy's in school. Yeah, it is. I was going to ask the question, is it possible that they were in class? Which you may have not have done at West Virginia. Yeah, don't ask dumb questions, Coach. Jeez, there is a chance they were in class. So I got to, you're right, I didn't even think about that. That's part of the problem. That's part of the problem. I apologize, Vandy. I can't wait to experience tomorrow. I've heard it's going to be electrifying. Coach, you're the best, ladies and gentlemen, the GOAT, Coach Saban.

1:42:01Pat McAfee:Yeah. Thank you, Coach.

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1:43:05I know there's a bunch of good games. I know we have a college football slate. Here we go. Look at you guys already potting up before I even think about it. Look out of these games, Ty Schmidt, look at this. Which one's your favorite? Which one would you pinpoint that you're going to watch the most? The one I'm going to watch the most, I mean, outside of the, yeah. Which one are you so excited to see? Outside of, obviously, Texas LSU, I am actually pretty excited to watch BYU-Iowa State. Really? I thought you were going to say, like, hey, why the fuck is Iowa and Golden Gophers not on this? No, no, I would say that, but it's actually funny because that game applies to what Coach Saban was talking about, where the rivalry game is much more important to one school than it is the other.

1:43:47Is this the Floyd Rosedale? This is the Floyd Rosedale game. It's a big deal. Can you explain that to people that might not know? It's a pig. Yeah, it's a big pig. The first year Iowa and Minnesota played, the governor's put up a pig, an actual live pig they played for. I've never heard of this. Oh, yeah. What? It's an awesome trophy, Bruce, if you can pull up the Floyd Rosedale. And then after that, they basically realized, hey, pretty hard to get this massive pig from Iowa to Minnesota every single year. Let's just play for a trophy instead. So, yeah, boom, Floyd Rose did. Oh, okay, yes, I have.

1:44:17My bad. I was hoping they still had a live trophy, though. Well, I mean, I'm sure they could, but that's the thing. They slaughter a pig, right? Nobody in Iowa wants a hog from Minnesota. Oh, really? You know, we got Iowa hogs. We don't need Minnesota hogs, okay? They ain't winning no medals at the Iowa State Fair. I know that. From the 4-H situation, Pat, I believe you got Saban and the crew. They already departed, I think, but, yeah, here we go. I don't know about you guys, Pat. Pat, it looks like a green screen. I know we have people moving on the field, but everything else looks almost fake.

1:44:46It looks so nice back there.

1:44:48Pat McAfee:Yeah, the lighting department did a great job here, I believe. And obviously the entire production crew, Weeksie and his squad, I appreciate the hell out of you guys. It's been multiple weeks in a row absolutely flawless from the group. So we're very, very thankful for them and how they pieced this thing together. But, yes, brand-new stadium, brand-new everything. It is gorgeous here. I don't know who these jacked dudes are. They're jacked. I don't know if they're a part of the team or not. Very jacked, fellas. They've been trying to kick field goals. Haven't made one yet. They've only pulled every single one of them.

1:45:16Pat McAfee:What the hell? I'm not 100 % sure that guy could throw it pretty good, too. It doesn't look like Diego. Appears to be six Caucasian males. But I appreciate the hospitality. All right, let's make our picks here before we get off ESPN, AJ. Last night, obviously, I had the charges. You had the Vikings. I'm undefeated, but you can ride alongside of me to maybe a perfect slate. Bronze at New England Patriots. Seven-and-a-half-point favorites at home are Mike Vrabel in the boys. Con man, quick thoughts on this game. Anything we need to know? Yeah, they haven't played a home game in a long time. This will be the first home game in a month.

1:45:55I think they were three straight on the road there, so it's been quite a bit. I expect this to be an atmosphere, at least for New England, that possibly will kind of hopefully bring them back to when they were very good. They haven't had something to cheer for at home in a while. They lost to the Steelers, I believe, last time they played at home. Or they beat the Panthers. But they haven't been good at home recently. So I expect Gillette to show out for the new and improved New England Patriots.

1:46:22Pat McAfee:So in 7.5, is that the only line? You can get the Patriots minus 7 if you please. Okay. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? I'm going New England Patriots minus 7 at home. I mean, it's like a revenge game, too, for Braves. Frapes is from kind of in that area. He was on the staff for the Cleveland Browns last year somewhat. Here we go. All right. I ride with the Patriots as well. Giants, Eagles. Eagles favored by 7.5 at home. Bruce Braun, how do you feel about your team getting 7.5 points, especially with the news of them getting fined$200 ,000 as an organization, Bruce? Yeah, I would say that Fofo and Six should be able to, like, file a waiver where the unk doesn't apply to those two moving forward.

1:47:07But this does kind of feel like that spot where perhaps the Giants get their asses kicked. Historically, we're banged up in our secondary. We do have the$6 million man, Graham Ganoe, back. So that's fucking nice. But, you know, Jackson Dart is essentially the second coming of Patrick Mahomes thus far. So maybe we got a shot.

1:47:29Pat McAfee:Any different lines, Tone Diggs? Same as last game. there is a seven out there if you prefer the eagles aj your thoughts and pick i do prefer the eagles here at minus seven at home me as well let's go to the niners in the texans obviously a lot of things said about the texans they're favored by two and a half at home who's starting quarterback there boys oh i want to say brock purdy yeah i want to say that as well but i don't know if it has been confirmed yet not sure if he's practiced this week brock purdy or mac jones getting two and a half down there in Houston. Houston, tough place to play.

1:48:04Pat McAfee:Any different lines, Tone? There is. There is a one and a half, if you prefer the favorite, all the way up to two and a half. Okay. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? Brock Purdy coming back. We saw San Fran run the ball last week in CNC. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. I just looked it up. He did. David Lombardi, who we've had on the program, said another day of spry Brock Purdy at practice. That was yesterday. So if he's practicing and he's spry, you would assume. Oh, there it is right there. Yeah, okay, so we got some spryness out of Brock Purdy. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, he's sprying as long as Juszczyk is in the lineup as well with CMC.

1:48:40Give me the Niners.

1:48:41Pat McAfee:I'll take the Niners as well. We're on the same page, AJ. Look at us. Bears, Ravens, Lamar Jackson has practiced multiple days in a row. They have not made an official designation. After the bye is when we all thought Lamar Jackson would be back, which is this particular game. Jameson Hensley on the reporting there. Bears obviously looking damn good at this stage of the season and of the Ben Johnson era alongside Caleb Williams. They're getting six and a half in Baltimore. Tone, is that the only number? It is six and a half across the board. That's insane. Ty, is there a reason for this that I'm not seeing?

1:49:16Pat McAfee:No, yeah. They assume Lamar's playing, I'm guessing? Yeah, exactly. Lamar has to be playing, but even so, just because Lamar's playing with how bad the Ravens have looked and the Bears are quietly you know, they've been one of the best teams in the NFL over the last couple weeks. So, yeah, this is very, very interesting. This feels like a sucker line. Tell the homie Zito, we're all riding with the Bears, it sounds like, AJ? Yep, give me the Bears here, you're right. Geez, unbelievable. There's a man named Ari that's watching this show going, yes, yes, yes. More Bears talk. I think all of Chicago feels that way.

1:49:52Pat McAfee:Bills at Panthers. Bills favored by 7.5 in Carolina. Any other lines on that one, Tone Diggs? That one is 7 or 7.5. Okay, down in Carolina. Carolina's got a good football team. Now, this is the one Connor was saying, hey, wait, Buffalo's coming out of a bye week. Maybe they'll be slow. Schefter reported the Panthers are listing quarterback Bryce Young is doubtful for Sunday's game versus Buffalo. So that's Andy Dalton, I believe, still the back. Yep. Down there in Carolina. Josh Allen, Andy Dalton, maybe a revenge game, I believe Connor brought up earlier. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it?

1:50:28If I can get the Buffalo Beals at minus seven, I will take the Beals. I think this is a get-back-on-track game for them.

1:50:34Pat McAfee:Okay, give me the Carolina Panthers plus seven and a half down there. Not that the Bills don't win, I just think maybe the Panthers. Nope, give me the Bills minus seven and a half. Give me the Bills minus seven and a half. Yeah, I think so. Just in my head, we just came out of the bye, and you said they might be slow out of there, but for some reason I just thought Josh Allen coming out of the body is going to be even better. Yeah, I don't know. In my head, I just saw that. That just literally just went through my head right there. Yeah, I don't know about the slowness. I know the offense will fly.

1:51:03I just, especially with Andy Dalton playing, the Bills' kind of weakness on defense is stopping the run, and they might give Rico Dowdell and Chuba Hubbard 20 carries a pop. But seven's a good number.

1:51:14Pat McAfee:You're right. You're right. Okay, give me the Panthers plus seven and a half. I'm back on. My first instinct was that. Oh, no, no, no. No, don't do that. Don't do that. I'm like, no, no, no. No, Panthers. I'm on to Panthers. That was my first pick. Jets at Bengals. Bengals favored by six and a half at home. Any other lines, Tom? You can get six if you want the Bengals. Okay, so you can get minus six Bengals at home against the Justin Fields, possibly led New York Jets. Aaron Glenn, head coach of the Jets, has yet to commit to a starting quarterback. What does that mean? We do not know. Rappaport says, Tyrod Taylor with his knees questionable, but trending in right direction.

1:51:51Pat McAfee:We don't know who the quarterback is. If Tyrod can go, he's potentially out there because we can't complete a pass with Justin. I like the Joe Flacco-led Cincinnati Bengals minus six at home. AJ, you the same way? Absolutely. Give me the Bengals. Dolphins at Falcons. Any other lines there, Tone? Seven and a half across the board. Okay. Dolphins at Falcons. I'll take the Falcons minus seven and a half. AJ, who do you like? Man, yeah. I'll take the Falcons as well. Gumpy, has he ever picked the Dolphins in this entire thing? No, but Bijan and Algier might have six total tons in this one. We can't stop the run.

1:52:26Pat McAfee:Okay. Sounds like we're on the right side. Buccaneers, Saints, NFC South battle. Bucs favored by four and a half. Mike Evans was back. He's back on. Emeka Buka was back. Baker Mayfield, fresh off a loss that didn't look like themselves. Any other lines for this tone? There's actually, you can go anywhere from three and a half if you want the Bucs to four and a half if you want the Saints. AJ, who do you like? I want the Bucs at 3.5. Me as well. Tennessee Titans, Indianapolis Colts. I'll take them at minus 14.5 for sure. Welcome back to the Indianapolis Colts being odds-on, awesome favorites in games.

1:52:59Pat McAfee:I love that it's 14.5 in the AFC South. We haven't won that thing in 13 years, and we're more than two score favorites in a game. Let's go with the Colts. Your pick, AJ. Give me the Colts. That was aggressive. I didn't know that was going to be the line. Can I get them at minus 14? 14.5. If you wanted to buy half a point, yes. But if you just all the books. What if we both want? Can we both get it at 14? I'll allow it. Okay. Okay, we're both at 14. Good for us. Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos. Broncos favored by three and a half. Fresh off of a Sean Payton. I wasn't talking about him. I wasn't talking about Russell Wilson.

1:53:35Pat McAfee:AJ, do you like the Cowboys or the Broncos? I like the Cowboys here on the road. Me as well. And then the Packers, Steelers. Sunday night football. Aaron Rodgers hosts the team he played for for 20 years in the city of Pittsburgh. Can Money Time Micah end this thing for the Packers, or will the Pittsburgh Steelers continue to grind and pound and work towards the Super Bowl? AJ, who do you like? How do you like it as the Packers are on the road and favorites on Sunday night? I will take the Green Bay Packers on the road as favorites, minus 2.5. Oh, mama. It's going to be a sweet atmosphere. We know that.

1:54:19Big Mike's doing the coin toss, I think.

1:54:21Pat McAfee:I'll take that. Pittsburgh Steelers getting two and a half at home on a Sunday night. Sorry, getting three, some books, at home on a Sunday night. I can't wait to watch this weekend of football tomorrow. Game days live from Vanderbilt here in beautiful Nashville. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. We'll see you on Overreaction Monday. That's AJ and the boys. You're the greatest. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. Goodbye. On the screws. Nailed it. Nailed it. You got it. Big time. You walk over to that$20 million new baseball facility and just pound it out of the park.

1:55:00Yeah, exactly.

1:55:02Pat McAfee:43. Hold on. So here's all the numbers. 130. I wrote them because I was in the, elevator with a man named Austin who was clearly very proud of everything here. His name is Vandy Austin. And Vandy Austin knows everything about Vandy. He had a few stats. A few numbers. A few money lines. A few stories. 130 million on the football stadium. 90 on the basketball arena 42 on the baseball stadium 14 on the outdoor tennis stadium 7 million on the indoor tennis stadium And Vandy Olsen said that's the bottom line Because Vandy's got fucking money Basically is what this guy said I mean they're all in on sports and Chancellor Diermeier and Candice Story Lee, I think these two are really driving it.

1:56:11Pat McAfee:And obviously Coach Lee, Carclay is obviously a part of it. But, yeah, Vandy's all in on the sports and obviously the history of this city. I mean, I can't. I can't wait for people to see what I did yesterday. Yeah, me too. Same. When will they get to see? You know, it's a – I don't even know what I can say without giving shit away here. We got some great footage. We got some incredible footage, like some incredible footage. Like it's going to be a doc and then obviously a project. It is – yesterday was fucking cool. Yeah, fucking play the footage. Play the footage. We're on stage. No, no, no.

1:56:46Pat McAfee:Not to it. Not to it. Not to it. But getting down to Nashville in the middle of football season is crazy. And then obviously, we, I believe, as a whole, have become friends with a lot of people in the music world. Like, very, very lucky that we've become friends with a lot of people in the music world. Because a lot of country music, especially, obviously, this is Nashville, a lot of country music, all the guys and girls that are in country music come from towns that they love college football. So, like, and all their friends love college football. So like college game day and being a part of college football world has like kind of introduced us to a lot of people that call this city home.

1:57:20Pat McAfee:And whenever they found out we were coming down here and that I was coming down here, it was like it was I was part of I was part of history yesterday. I just got it like all time. It was most absurd thing I've ever seen in my life. Yeah. Gumpy's right in there. Gumpy's in the middle of it as well. Just kind of looking around. It was fucking. Yeah. And we documented it all. So it'll be something that everybody will see. And I can't wait for people to see it. Just know that I think it's all incredibly stupid, and I'm wildly lucky to be doing it all. And also, shout out to everybody that was with us yesterday.

1:57:48Pat McAfee:Thank you so much for your effort and your time and your talent. Like, I was watching, I mean, I was watching Masters and Professionals. Yeah, you were watching a master at work. Yeah. Yeah, we're talking everything. Like, I was in some places I shouldn't have been just watching these people create the magic. And it's like, yeah, it was very cool. all right on that note aj thank you so much for traveling in of course boys up there great work this week i appreciate the hell out of you guys great work yesterday let's have you stop behind the glass good work boys way to go boys very very grateful great work boys all all week obviously and then the graphic design boys and the entire squad back Good work, boys.

1:58:35Pat McAfee:Good work, Jim, boys. I heard you guys talked about D-Bone's crash out a little bit, a little Red Bull at 6 p.m. Yep. After. Yeah, shaky hands. Yeah. Yeah, he's kind of. Irrational. You know, this is kind of a. Yeah, this is kind of a part of it. Because remember, he had that good first day. Yep. Remember that? Oh, yeah. So, good first day, he was like, oh, this is my game. Yeah, this is how it's going to work. And, you know, me and Foxy both told him, like, hey, enjoy this now. because it's going to happen. Reality's coming. It's going to happen. Very much interested. Congratulations. Enjoy this now.

1:59:12Pat McAfee:And I even gave him a forewarning about how I was a little bit worried about how excited he was because that means it's going to be even more. And the other day it was that we saw it happen. We saw it happen the other day. He was down in the dumps. He was chugging a Red Bull at 6 p.m., freaking out, blaming everybody. And that is just, yeah, 6 p.m., Red Bull chugging it while sweating, yelling at everybody. It was like we knew it was coming. Literally day one knew this was coming. It happened yesterday. And I'd like to let D-Bone know I appreciate your competitive fire, bro. I appreciate it. Hell yeah, Bone.

1:59:49Pat McAfee:And Bone, it sucks, by the way. It sucks for you that this is kind of the world you're in. I know it's very new, but there are people around you that are professional athletes. And once they start to learn things, it's a little bit of a potential. There's a separator in there. And I don't think D-Bone has necessarily grasped all of that yet, but it is certainly a good time in the office. How was your U-Ball experience yesterday? Speaking of, we got basically Shaq reincarnated on the court yesterday with A.J. Huck. No, we didn't win. We won a couple games. We got beat many times. Shooting is tough sometimes.

2:00:27Sometimes you got to get in the rhythm shooting wise. He's a power dunker.

2:00:30Pat McAfee:But on that note, if you were to do it like three, four days straight, you're a professional athlete. Oh, yeah. I think you would start to kind of figure it out. You know, that's kind of a separate, I think. It's shooting that small ball. It's like shooting a golf ball almost, it feels like. Yeah, you feel like Shaq because it's coming off your hand. So then if you do it for four or five days straight, you know, and you happen to be averagely athletic, you're probably going to – and D-Bone just has no respect that there's levels of athleticism. because he's D3 national champion. Olympic gold medal.

2:01:02Pat McAfee:Well, not Olympic gold medal. He was asked to be on the USA team. Olympic finalist for the football team. He got to the second tryout. And shot put. He thought this was it. Like this game, especially with how fun it was, he thought this was the one. I'm never going to lose. He thought he was never losing again. Is that what he thought, really? Yeah, this happened in Cornhole with him. He was beating a couple people in Cornhole, and then all of a sudden he lines up next to maybe a professional athlete, and it's a different game. I'm so sorry that I am so sorry that this is just how it goes 33 I think he maybe had like a game or two where he thought he was figuring it out had like the moment and then all of a sudden just not and then U-Ball day one he's like holy fuck this is the one this is it this is what I'm going to be great at and there was just like a little bit of a warning like bro it feels like this might be the same outcome as the other couple but he just keeps getting in there and that's why we love him now on that note speaking of loving people ladies and gentlemen we have a birthday today in the Thunderdome Oh, yes.

2:01:57Pat McAfee:Shumpy actually. Shumpy would actually like to make his way over here to celebrate this alongside all of us. A man who's been, I think, continuing to evolve his creativity and his artistry. And also started getting loose in U-Ball a little bit. Started participating in the Thunderdome events, you know, a little bit. Obviously, a father, a husband. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Dirty's birthday. Oh, Dirty! Happy birthday, Dirty. Happy birthday, Dirty. We appreciate you, man. Happy birthday, man. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Take it, go. Happy birthday, dear girl. Happy birthday, Kordo.

2:02:55Tony. Happy birthday,

2:03:04Kordo. Happy birthday, Kordo. Thanks, everybody. I appreciate you guys. Blow the candles out. Blow the candles out.

2:03:11Pat McAfee:Oh, I'm not tricking. Hey, make a wish. Hey, real talk, Dirty. Great year, I think, out of you. I think we would all say this. Don't you agree? Great trip around the sun. I appreciate it. Hell yeah. We appreciate you, too, man. Keep doing the thing. Hey, you're awesome. Dirty will make an incredible graphic and then spell one fucking word wrong and then we're all like, hey, bud. This is the only thing anybody's going to talk about. Dirty, you've been kicking ass, brother. You need to know that. Happy birthday, man. We appreciate you. And also, maybe you team up with D-Bone and U-Ball. Give him a little bit of luck.

2:03:41Pat McAfee:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You might get mad a little bit. Hey, call you guys Dirty Bone. Yeah. Dirty Bone. You don't want that Dirty Bone. Bo, Bo, Bo, Bo. We're ready. I don't want to break up time. What you going to do? Bone and Butt was a great team. I think that was actually part of D-Bone's crash out the other day. He had a professional athlete as a teammate. Oh, he forgot about that. Yeah, he was saying a lot of things. I mean, he's – D-Bone, happy birthday to you, buddy. Happy birthday, D-Bone. Happy birthday, Bo. It's a nice birthday, AJ. I think you were looking around. I'm trying to find the guy.

2:04:21I can't. He's gone like. This is usually the isolation. This is usually his mid-afternoon shite time. And it's. Oh, boy. Like an hour and a half. You won't see him for a while. My kids do that. He's got a big window.

2:04:33Pat McAfee:On that note, you talk about sitting down maybe too long on the toilet or things that could potentially happen that I had been talking about earlier in the week with the boys, if you remember, through the, for me personally. Oh, yeah. You guys remember what I was doing? Oh, yeah. I remember. Yeah. Yeah, full explosion last night. Hey, that's good, though, right? Need that. Yeah, definitely good news. Looked like a murder scene on my bed. I don't doubt it. Looked like a murder scene on my bed. But life is a lot better now than it was. What? There you go. Long blood. I had a blister on the back of my leg for something.

2:05:10I thought you dumped blood all over your bed. You scared me. It's not, like, normal.

2:05:15Pat McAfee:No, yeah, it's just a little bit of a thing. Okay. There's a little thing that built up on my body, and then it just popped last night. It was certainly aggravating. And that was an eye-opener while I woke up, go to the bathroom, middle of the night. Is somebody die here? What is that? And then it was from myself, you know. So it was a great morning. Just know there was a lot of relief this morning. A lot of relief whenever we woke up this morning. So we're heading into the greatest weekend of all time. AJ, safe travels back to Dublin. Gumpy, let's enjoy the hell out of Andy. Hell yeah. Boys, you're the best.

2:05:50Pat McAfee:Happy birthday, Dirty. Be a friend, tell a friend, something nice might change your life. We're in this thing together. Let's never forget it. AJ, anything you say to the team here? Let's have a better one next week. I'll go. I hate that. Don't you hate that too? AJ does it. B.A.'s good coach, though. Yeah, he is. He is a great coach. It's a gimmick infringement. It is a gimmick infringement. Well said. Gumpy, do you have anything to say to the team, Gumpy? Since AJ won't do, I will take the wheel here. It's been a great week, everybody. You know, football is at full swing. MLS Cup kicking off.

2:06:30All the sports. World Series starts tonight. Shohei O 'Khani. Bring it back. Bring it back. But we're heading into the greatest weekend of all time with the Dodgers knocking off the Blue Jays to get it started tonight.

2:06:43Pat McAfee:I love that. Appreciate you. Team on me. Team on three. Let's have the greatest sports weekend of all time. Oh, the boys over there in the corner too. Hell yeah. Appreciate you guys. You guys did great work here. See you guys on Over Reaction Monday. Hope you all have the time of your life. Team on three. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye. Good energy in. Good energy out.

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