PMS 2.0 1470 - NFL Week 15 Preview/Picks, TNF Recap, John Cena LIVE in the ThunderDome, Texas A&M Head Coach Mike Elko, & AJ Hawk

20:00I certainly have over the past two decades, especially over the past year. We came to Indy twice. So being able to do two runs here, that was extremely special. And later on in my career, I guess these last half decade or so, I've been around the world more than 10 times, I haven't seen anything but the inside of arenas and airports. So, you know, I kind of changed up my philosophy of like arrive early enough to experience something. I like a good cafe because it allows you to, you know, I like to have a coffee there and maybe some breakfast there. It allows you to see people coming into work.

20:38You get a decent view of the city or people around the city. And then I try to stay for at least a meal afterwards to try to at least if I'm only in a place for a day, I want to I want to actually see it. I just don't want to see the inside of the arenas that look pretty much identical. And the inside of an airport is kind of identical as well.

20:56Pat McAfee:Yeah, you want to experience the town a little bit that you've been in so frequently. You've lived this, you know, professional wrestlers, obviously people know you guys are on the road a lot. And it's talked about as the old school days. But I think people aren't fully, you've been living a rock star life on the road for like 20 some years. A traveling entertainer's life. I don't know how rock stars live. I don't want to think for them. Okay, okay. A traveling entertainer. I've been on the Traveling Roadshow for about 23 years now, and we're hanging it up tomorrow. Okay, so— I can't wear this for one more—I know, I got one more day to wear this.

21:26I just wanted to bring the jorts out one more time. Well, they look amazing. This is the actual uniform for tomorrow, too. I'm very excited.

21:31Pat McAfee:USA. USA. Thank you. USA. Got a lot of Easter eggs on here, a lot of stuff that's important to me, so. Well, you've been very important to the business that you've been a part of as a traveling entertainer for all these years. So I talked to Michael Cole, who I know is obviously good friends of yours as well. and he talks about wanting to retire sometime and this guy's been on the road for 30 years i'm like i don't think your body will let you ever kind of step away from this type of busyness or this type of hectic or chaos type schedule do you think about that have you thought about that obviously you've experienced life without the wwe you've gone away to do some movies this last time is now tor you had 30 some uh jobs which obviously was a conversation about maybe having 200 at some point but you had 30 some have you thought about that how life changes how the schedule changes You put a lot into there.

22:17You are nonstop. You just want to talk about the projections for the tour, the idea, the actuality. Talk about like, are you ready for life to change? Bingo. That's the one. This is just my perspective and only my perspective. I think if you get into something with the understanding that it will be forever, that might be your mindset. I'm here on borrowed time. I got defensively signed in Orange County because of the WCW-WF wars. I was retained in OVW because I could be an entertaining personality to help the talent more prosperous than me fall down. They kept me around in WWE when I made my debut and failed with ruthless aggression.

23:04I'm used to, or I've known what it's like to walk that razor's edge, to face my mortality. And I've also a tried and true lesson that I have learned through this business through mentorship and actual the business and fro unfolding in front of my eyes is Everyone is replaceable everyone so when you ask me if I'm set for the next chapter in my life without This thing that's been important to me for 23 years my answer is yes Because this is something that I do but it doesn't define me as a human being I am John Cena WWE superstar until the bell rings at the end of the match tomorrow night and then my my role changes but i still i'm still alive i can still find curiosity in life i can still hopefully aspire to do do good things and and and earn a earn a good life and feel fulfilled

23:53Pat McAfee:yeah you definitely will i mean we're going to dive into your acting and how great of an it also doesn't need to be monetized i heard you say before man who knows what his business acumen will be who cares well i'm just saying if you decide to start investing in companies i don't know what you're doing. Who cares? You got a big brain. I just want to always keep a childlike imagination and curiosity. And as long as that happens, I'm square, man. Okay. Well, I love to hear that. And we will talk about your acting, which is seemingly the next step, at least at this stage and already a current step.

24:21Pat McAfee:You are so good at it. You are. It's outrageous how good of an actor you are. Man, that coffee's good. You're a better actor than that coffee is good. You're not going to want to hear that. But just everything that you've done, Ricky Stenicki, not supposed to be that good. Ferdinand, not supposed to be. That's how we met. Bingo. First thing I ever said to you is like, I don't know if anybody's ever said this to you, but you crushed it in Ferdinand. And no one had ever said that to me. Peacemaker. Everything you're in, you are great. So the next step is obviously going to be great. We can't wait to watch it.

24:50Pat McAfee:But the chaos of the life schedule, I'm excited to see kind of how you navigate it all. Now, hustle, loyalty, respect, never give up. These have been things that you've been a part of the John Cena character literally since the beginning. Have you done much reflection on your Remember how I told you there are Easter eggs on the shirt? Yeah. This is never give up in my words of what that means to me. I'm duking the, I'm giving y 'all a spoiler. This is hustle, loyalty, and respect. And in my words, what that means to me. So those essentially are like core pillars or core values of my life. And they haven't really faltered over 23 years.

25:28I wasn't the same person I am yesterday. I was certainly not the same person I was in 2004, 2010. We evolve. We grow. My core values of persistence, hard work, seeking, longing connection, and just respect for those who have given you opportunity and respect for the room around you, that has not faltered. So for me to be able to sneak that in on the final final, which is also a nice piece of inside baseball to those who get it, Michael Cole will get it. And like I said, there's a ton of Easter eggs on this, but a lot of them are selfish. So I took some real estate for me on this one. I hope you don't mind.

26:04Pat McAfee:Yeah, no problem. Three losers will love it. And you don't have to apologize to me at all for absolutely anything. That's another Easter egg, I do believe, if I was to drop that accurately. But you've looked back on your career a lot? No, not at all. My eyes are focused on tomorrow night, Saturday night's main event. We got a hell of a program. I'm honored to share the ring with someone who considers the mat a sacred place. whose moniker given to him is the ring general because he commands the best out of his opponents. I know it's not going to be a walkthrough. Probably going to be some strikes.

26:38You'll probably hear some from the mezzanine section way up there. I'm really excited to have such a hungry competitor and such a build match, which has tons of anticipation. I'm also excited that we get to glimpse at the future of the business. You know, Javon Evans, Obafemi, Leon Slater, Sol Roka, are all going to be on the card against main event WWE current superstars. So this is a program with a bunch of eyes on it that's going to allow me to bow out, but I'm going to earn my way out because Gunther ain't going to go down lightly. And at the same time, it's going to provide opportunity for the future of the business.

27:14So I'll look in the rearview tomorrow, or I'll look in the rearview on Sunday. But right now, it's the night before game, man. I'm focused on Saturday.

27:22Pat McAfee:I think Gunther is the perfect opponent for you. But that was obviously something that I couldn't imagine the decision being made. And obviously he earned it through the last time is now tournament. And he was the one who in the ring earned the opportunity to be your final WWE match. Every match that you've had on this run has obviously been either highly scrutinized or highly loved. I mean, the AJ Styles thing getting added in is what everybody thinks allegedly. Who knows what's real, what isn't with the business, dish business, you never know. But all of these decisions getting made and all the things that you're hearing, I mean, let alone to heel turn and everything like that.

27:57Pat McAfee:You seemingly do always have that whatever's good, whatever's good, whatever's good for the business, whatever's good, whatever you think mindset. Have you had that your entire run? Who was the one that basically said, like, hey, your mindset should be like this? And how have you maintained that? Because as soon as you walked in here, I got mad at you. Because I heard the Chris Van Vliet interview where you said, after you gave the AJ Styles by Alicia, who's incredible what she does. the intro you said i apologize because i wanted a business for myself and everything like that yeah but the apology was by choice i was forced by no one it's something i had to do i know and i got so mad at you for saying you're john c you don't have to apologize to anybody no no i just i didn't feel right i had uh had i asked permission to do it i'm more than likely i would have been allowed or certainly i would uh i would have taken i'm always in search for a good explanation somebody says no and then gives me a good explanation well that's no if someone has a suggestion and gives me a good explanation, that's fine.

28:55And a lot of my creative path and just adapting to the cards that are dealt is because they get dealt with a good explanation. And I don't really care about, and I said this on Chris as well, like, yeah, we can sit here and chatter about what could have been, or we can react to what is, and we can go like hell to make what is great. And what I love about the whole year now, this is something we can reflect on. The whole year was an intentional year-long story. Some moments folks liked, some moments they hated, some moments wished they'd pan out different. But that's like a microcosm of someone's existence.

29:32You know, as we go through 23 years of John Cena in the WWE, man, I wish some moments were different. I wish you had this opponent more because of the magic you had. Why did they ever book you in this angle? Why did you ever do this? It is a microcosm for what I've done. I love the fact that at least through it all, again, a small microcosm of my reality, fans loved it and hated it. Just like me. Let's go, Cena. Cena sucks. This last year has been like a compacted version of let's go, Cena. Cena sucks. And then the realization of like, it's almost not me. It's like all of us. We're all just kind of getting all of our emotions out.

30:11And I'm getting way too deep. And I just I never put a lot of focus on, man, what could have been if somebody chooses to bail or we no longer have this option. That's fine. The easiest indicator of this, and this happens all the time, is injury. And injury is easy because it's inarguable. Hey, this person is on the trajectory to be the man blown out knee. We're going to have to have them forfeit their spot. Somebody's going to have to. Nobody complains about that. What if somebody's burnt out? Oh, tell you what? What if somebody just can't did for us? But let's move let's move forward man. Let's move forward and I love the fact that like There's been so many pivots AJ That was a pivot, you know, Brock was a pivot post WrestleMania all that stuff pivot because of the pivot I got Randy I got Punk.

31:01I got to work with Logan in a singles match because of the pivot. I got Dom. I got AJ I got Ron Cena. I got Sami Zayn. I got Cody at SummerSlam. Like, because of pivots, I got all these great moments. Never once was I like, but it could have been this. Yo, look what we got.

31:21Pat McAfee:Going into it, going into it. You had a thought of what it was, obviously, whenever it's getting pitched. And now that we're at the end of it, I'm talking about this tour. I'm not talking about your entire career. Yeah. By the way, probably the same. Yeah, I guess life as, I mean, we get deeper into that if you want to. But going into this last time. Don't wade into the water. You don't want to be in there. Yeah, well, I spoke a little bit. I can get in there. The last time is now tour, though. Whenever you sign up for it, that's a big emotional decision, I would assume. You know, a chapter of your life.

31:49Pat McAfee:Hey, we're actually declaring that this is going to be the last run. Now that we're at the end. We talked about that, too. This is it. I mean, tomorrow night, this is it. That, like, I am not coming back. And I understand you only have the data before me that you go on. No wrestler retires, right? That changes with me. Whether it all changes and everybody else after me retires and decides not to come back, that's fine. What I urge fans out there, please watch tomorrow and give yourself the closure that you need. Because my biggest concern is people are like, oh, no, he's going to parlay it into WrestleMania.

32:26Or this match would be great. No. Tomorrow night is it. and if you don't believe me, if you're not ready to take that on, you may not get the closure you want. And I just urge fans when they watch tomorrow to let it all out and understand that that's it. I've come to grips with it. I look forward to tomorrow with such a positive attitude and so much excitement about making that run one more time. But that's the last time. And I think that's important to say because the data before me suggests that that's not a permanent thing. Man, I've been called a lot of stuff, but very rarely am I called a liar.

33:07And I promise you I'm a man of my word on this one.

33:09Pat McAfee:Yeah, it feels like you are taking the integrity aspect of saying, this is my last time, I'm not lying to you. And it's not just you, it's a lot of traveling entertainers. And I also don't mind the perspective that other folks have. They're entitled to that. If I could just use a couple seconds of valuable airtime and say like, Like, yo, at least get the closure you need. I'm good with it. I'll be fine. But I ain't coming back. Okay, and you're going first tomorrow? I heard you said that. That is pizza gate, homie. What? I was on Jimmy Kimmel. I said I'm ending the show. I said I normally go to bed early, but I'm going to have to stay up late for this one.

33:43I guess people didn't read between the tea leaves. Like, we're last. By the way.

33:50Pat McAfee:John Cena's final match is going last. Excuse me. Yeah, I don't know how the rumor started. I think some folks with credibility like to kick a hornet's nest every once in a while and get people chattering. And I understand we're in the age of information, so it's going to keep my attention. You're not last? Sure, that'll keep my attention for a few hot clicks. I don't even know how that started. It's difficult to conceptualize that. Again, I don't make the menu. And if, gosh, if I show up tomorrow and they want me to go on first, well, that's what I'm going to do. But we are last at this point.

34:23Pat McAfee:Okay, as you should be. Cannot wait for the entire show available on Peacock tomorrow, Saturday night's main event. But what I was leading into there was... The idea that I had about the tour and the actuality. Yeah, and also we're here now. Like, we're at it. And you said you'll be doing a reflection thing on Sunday and all of that. But now we are at the point where it's kind of over. You're a heel for the first time ever, okay? Yeah. I'm sure you thought about that numerous times, whether you're traveling or on the road, what it would be like if you were a heel. obviously celebrating and enjoying cities for the last time it's like now we're the day before the final time and your vibes about this last time is now entire tour good you said you think you crushed it because of the pivots and everything like that so when you lay your head down tonight and you think about it all and i know reflections for sunday but when you think about it all you're gonna say we've done good here this is a good piece of business and uh you think you respected professional wrestling and your career with what has happened in this last time is now A great question.

35:20I think in there are so many metrics because it's opinionative. Am I entertained or not? So if you look at the collective data, right, my goal in life is anyone that that bets on me. If you bet a buck on me, I want to give you back 10 because I know you'll give me another buck and I get another chance. Every piece of good work is only a way to get you another opportunity. I'm not perfect with that ratio, but from an analytic company standpoint, I'd like to think we delivered from a talent to talent standpoint I'd like to think I delivered from an audience participation standpoint We had lots of folks show up and whether the noise was bad or good I know what apathy sounds like cuz I heard that real early on in my career a whole lot I didn't hear a lot of apathy.

36:08So you got consistent chatter return business and And the company's happy. The fans seem interested. I think the whole story of what this is is yet to be told. But we're here now. So as we go into the last one, I think not only with black and white analytics and just emotional instinct, I know I couldn't have given anything else. Man, I've given everything I've had. Creatively, physically. Like I said, I'm waking up in the middle of the night. My wife's like, yo, yo, you okay? I'm like, no, I got this idea for a spot. I got to write it down. I got to remember to say this in the promo, or I got to remember to suggest somebody else say this.

36:46Like, I've been 100 % in. So what I do know is after tomorrow I have nothing left to give, but I'd like to think that all parties included can say, like, man, it was a wild ride. Yeah, you've done good, John. It was a wild ride. Go, John. Yeah, you've done good. Thanks. Appreciate it. Right on. For one cup of coffee to another. I have to go cups. Yours is bigger than mine. Yeah, it looks like you got a glass of coffee and I got a cup of coffee, but that's a scene of difference, baby.

37:16Pat McAfee:That's a scene of difference. I think you've done a great job. And that whole reality thing. But that's okay. People to think otherwise is okay. No, I understand that. But you're talking about the reality of the business is a huge deal. You know, like me having the opportunity to work in WWE for a little bit and getting to see it and then seeing what people have to deal with. Well, actually, it was somebody got sick. in a city. Just something as small as somebody got sick or a flight got the lead. That got my first match. Undertaker was sick. He couldn't make the shot. So Kurt Angle calls out a dude with ruthless aggression.

37:48I had to get my hair cut at 3.30, came back in and wrestled a gold medalist. You on SmackDown?

37:53Pat McAfee:Yeah. Me on SmackDown is because everybody was stuck in Saudi, so I got a chance to commentate in Buffalo. I get a call that says like, hey, everybody's stuck in Saudi Arabia. Could you get to Buffalo tonight? Absolutely, I said. I could definitely do that. Could I at that time? No. We'll find out yeah i had no idea but i said yes absolutely i can get there figure it out yeah and uh and if you do good work it'll get you another chance it might not get you where you want to be it might like like you had mentioned i had an idea about what i thought this year would be and the the people who who own the entity that i'm pitching their response is like i like the idea we just want to do it this way just because it's my idea doesn't mean it's a good idea i got to be able to adapt if i want to do the thing i kind of i kind of got to be collaborative And I think a lot of times in entertainment, especially with star-driven entertainment, we lose the idea that, like, it is us doing this.

38:44We are only as good as our collaboration. Your effing John Cena is a testament. That's why I kept saying it on this morning. Yo, that is a testament to everybody I've ever danced with. Absolutely. Because I'm a collaborator. I'm not anything without them. And that includes the people in the stands. Because you, let's go to D.C. tomorrow and don't let anybody in. You see how ruckus that matches. So we're all doing it together. That's why I say tomorrow isn't about me stepping down. It's about sports entertainment, closing a chapter, and also opening another one at the same time. It's that last page of the chapter that folds into the next one.

39:24You get to see the future, but we're also closing this 25-year thing and taking a look at the next ride.

39:32Pat McAfee:Yeah, but you'll be remembered then, now, and forever. No, nobody remembers anybody. By the way, that's not the way it should be. Tomorrow should happen. People should be excited and emote. January comes, I need you looking at the Rumble, and I need you looking at WrestleMania because that means you're excited about the business. And in actuality, if you're excited about the business and the superstars in it, that makes every accomplishment meaningful, which makes a number like 17 meaningful, which brings me up casually in conversation when somebody's chasing down 17 and when somebody gets 18.

40:06That's how it all's supposed to work. But if they're still thinking about me in January, which is two weeks away from tomorrow, we got to focus on what is. You know what I'm saying? I appreciate it. I appreciate the respect. But the utmost respect is to look forward and look at the future of where we're going to go.

40:24Pat McAfee:I understand that, and I respect that. And I think you signed an ambassador deal with the WWE, so obviously the WWE still very much wants John Cena to be a part of the family, will forever, because you're fucking John Cena. So as you need to remember forever. In a different role. Yeah, before the boys ask their questions for you, final one for me is, can you tell me about Stu a little bit? I obviously know Stu. Everybody that's been in WWE knows Stu. You're talking about dancing partners. What a perfect tag team partner for you. So first of all, again, you hear me say this a lot. Nobody does it alone.

40:55Honestly, all these memorable moments that we have, I have, there's a partner attached and more partners attached. I'm talking about like Deggy Catering who feeds us all the folks behind the scenes I was told not to break the fourth wall not to not to talk to the camera So I said fuck it. I'll talk to the camera And I can look right over the lens and stews there and We got a whole crew of camera folks and people that make this live event look the way it does a whole TV truck of folks that shoot the cuts and make our stuff a lot better than it is and And my conversation with Stu, who's an individual I care deeply for, is also a conversation with what I call the truck.

41:40Everybody in that room over there making sure we all look good. And every time I say, let's go to work, those those men and women have already been hard at work making the show awesome before the first bump is even taken. So, Stu is kind of a conduit to my conversation, not only to the audience out there, because I'm stealing a way to break the fourth wall, but it's also me talking to the folks that I care about who never, ever, ever get to be in the center of a ring and have the audience go, fantastic. But without them, we are worthless.

42:12Pat McAfee:Yeah. You know what I'm saying? WWE crew is the greatest. It is the greatest. They are the greatest people. And a lot of them, you talk about traveling entertainers, A lot of them have been on the road for 30 years. And do it because it is what they love to do. Because they're not getting applause, man. They're not getting any of that. They just show up and hustle. You're talking about pre-show routines to keep the body loose now. Because that's how long they've been around. You're talking about prepping before the thing. All the camera people, the people in the truck, the lighting. The greatest people.

42:43The time under tension I've spent with these people over 25 years. Like, man, I know him. We're all, it's a family business. Like, you spend so much time around these people, you just get to know them.

42:55Pat McAfee:What if Stu tomorrow just punches you in the face from the camera? Says, you know what, actually, I'm sick of this. Stealing my job. So, if he throws an Ohio right and he connects, I'm going to tell him, I've been with him 25 years, he hasn't learned to work and punch. You are a good punch, though. Have I taught you nothing? Hey, nobody talks about the old scene of punch. Have I taught you nothing? All right, let's – the boys have some. Go ahead, Con Man, Boston Connor. Yeah, John, speaking of, too, I love the last fit. I'm hoping that maybe it's because you're, you know, rushing the passer for the Patriots on Sunday after your match.

43:28You can look through whatever lens you want to, my friend. I'm glad you like the style. Yeah, perfect. All right, well, then I'm going to just hold on to that, hope, until 1 o 'clock on Sunday. But speaking of, you know, Stu and Michael Cole and kind of the tribute videos, what do you feel when you see stuff like that? Because a lot of it is awesome. All the old clips of you wrestling is incredible, and Michael Cole is on the call for damn near all of them. And, you know, what does he mean to you just as a person, let alone an announcer? And when you do see all of these people who you've danced with in your terms and also people that you haven't even, them reaching out, like what does that kind of evoke out of you just because, you know, all the accolades, the 17 and everything, it is incredible.

44:07But just what about the relationships and what that means to you? So the relationship with each individual here is they're all different. I think what I take away most from all this is, again, we did this together. And I understand exactly how lucky I am. I am like one of, if not the luckiest human being on the face of the earth. Very rarely does life hand us a lottery ticket. I've been getting lottery ticket after lottery ticket after lottery ticket.

44:38Pat McAfee:Amen, brother. Save us. Now, every ticket is simply a chance to work harder. When I see something like this, I think when I begin to reflect on two and a half decades, the thing that I want to, I guess, be validated and the thing that I always struggle with is, did I do enough? Did I reach enough people? Did I use my opportunity correctly? Did I make the most of this lottery ticket or stack of lottery tickets that you've handed? because I'm a fan. I'm an observer of life. I've seen people waste them, and I've seen people use them, and there's no better feeling. You want to root for the folks who use their lottery tickets.

45:20When I see something like this, it says that we shared a lot of moments and that there's mutual respect from, especially people who are kind of apprehensive and even in the face of the show, who respect the business will give me a second of their time. It means the world to see all this because it means hopefully I did okay with my lottery tickets.

45:43Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think you did, buddy. And you gave lottery tickets to a lot of people. That's because you're fucking John Cena. Okay, so you need to know that. That's what the business does, man. Two and a half decades into this, and we are living the luckiest life of all time. But it does feel as if everybody in this business, old school and new school, all appreciate you. You've gone through a lot of different generations here, iterations of professional wrestling, from when it was still kind of viewed as carny side, not really thing, to mainstream, to out of kind of public favor, to struggling with tickets, to now being the biggest it's ever been financially and tickets-wise and globally and everything like that.

46:23Pat McAfee:Your thoughts on the current state of the business? I know you said, if you want to pay the ultimate respect to me, you continue to watch and look forward to what the next generation is. You're trying to put over a lot of NXT talent, And whenever Sol Ruka's flip stunner is, or flip cutter off the corner is insane. I think she did off the top rope too. People are going to lose their mind. Javon Evans is outrageous. He is outrageous. Oba is insane. I mean, all presence. Yes, he certainly is. So I appreciate the fact that you are utilizing your last platform, your last big one, to put over the future of the business.

46:57Pat McAfee:But the business has changed mightily since you got into it. Sure. There is a different world, different time. From the Unreal situation going on with Netflix, which I think you and I kind of viewed it the same. I don't want to say I'm old school in this business, but I didn't necessarily love the thought of what Unreal was. Coming from the guy who filmed me backstage, just kept filming all the time. I'm like, yo, man. That was foxy. That was foxy. Is there any like, hey, where's this going? Yo, man. So I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, I appreciate that. I don't know. Did you ever see that film anywhere?

47:29Pat McAfee:Okay, anyway. On that note, we protect this business. But with the unreal, with the streaming platforms, with how global it is, how do you feel about the state of the business? And what do you think about the future of it whenever it comes to creative, stars of the future, what's going to happen? How long can the WWE continue to do this? How long can wrestling continue to do this? In your eyes, with the current state of our everything. So I honestly believe that live entertainment has a strong future. We don't know what the advent of new technologies will bring. But, man, I think humans want to see humans do stuff.

48:02And I think WWE and sports entertainment is in a real good spot. I think people like getting together in groups. And the more we do this all day, the more maybe we want to get together in an arena or a stadium and just lighten our backpacks a little bit. I think WWE is in a great spot to do that. The talent roster is deep. I mean, we used to look to the bullpen. It used to be only a couple guys on the bench. Now we got people elbowing for spots. Like, we are deep, and it has never been a better time. If you're one of the active participants, it's never been a better time to be a WWE superstar.

48:33You get paid the most it's ever seen to train. You get paid the most numbers that I couldn't even think about the guys are making now to draw money. I mean, it is, you can make a vocation out of it in a short period of time. It's approaching that athlete's window, where if you do your five-year deal, if you do the small three-year deal and then an extra one, gosh, you are, you will never know want. And it used to be more incentivized. I think they're taking better care of the talent, but who's to say if that is good or bad? I prefer to be incentivized. I prefer to go out there and create interest, but I don't know because I've never been on the other model.

49:11We're working less events. I prefer to get that in-season groove, but I don't know the alternative. And I love the create more demand, which creates more excitement. Everything has a good explanation behind it. I'm not the biggest fan of Unreal, and I've told the producers of Unreal that, but I also say, hey, just because I don't like it doesn't mean it isn't right. The business, the consumer wants more, and they want to show behind the scenes, so they're just going off of what they know, and we're trying to give the consumer what they want. I saw every episode, so who's really wrong? And I'm excited for season two, so who's really wrong?

49:45But just because it makes me feel uncomfortable, if it's a success, maybe I got to look in the mirror and ask myself, okay, what about me doesn't feel comfortable with this? There's what I love about that. To answer, never been a better time than right now. There have been the golden era, the boom of the attitude era. this is like sustained incredible growth through all platforms and expansion and more content and allowing people to get out there and do what they do there's never been a better time the way we recruit is different with the nil program so we can get people who maybe didn't you know you didn't love wrestling all your life but you can be drawn into it and fall in love with it as a second mountain you know it is incredible and what i love about it most is i was always taught in the business, especially when I started gaining traction, swing big.

50:38Do not be afraid to swing big. And just because I personally don't get a lot of the swings, when I hear a comment like, I'm old school, what I hear is, I don't want to adapt. That's all I hear. I like the way it was, and I don't want to adapt. And if you want to look deeper into that, you can be like, okay, well, really what I'm saying is like, I like discipline, or I like coaching this way, and I'm not accustomed to this way of how we're doing it. I get all that. We can dig deeper on everything. But when I hear somebody say I'm old school, it's they just don't want to adapt. They like what was.

51:13So it's time to move on. As far as being in the business, never been a better time. But here's the kicker. The biggest challenge now is on the business, is on the men and women out there performing because, boy, have they had some large shoes to fill. You know, we got to keep growing and we got to keep prospering. And I don't know if a lot of folks have seen hard times. A lot of folks have seen a house 12 % filled. You know what I'm saying? So having gone through that, you feel great about where you're leaving the place. But the kids now, they don't know shows that aren't sold out. And they don't know, you know, selective noise.

51:54And like, again, 10 % draw of an arena. But it's their lottery ticket. Their lottery ticket is like, best time ever. Work hard to keep it up. So I'm interested to see where it goes. I mean, consumer chatter is an all-time high. Engagement's at an all-time high. We're in a real good spot. I'm excited for the future.

52:14Pat McAfee:Yeah, you've done a great job with your time. And the baton is obviously well-carried whenever you're carrying it. Excited to see the next generation of superstars take it to the next level. That's always the goal for this business. Ty has a question for your next business. Yeah, in terms of your acting career, I read an article. I think it was earlier this week, and it was maybe one you did with Variety or Vanity Fair or something like that. And it was when you were – I don't remember if it was 12 rounds or the Marine or whatever it was, but you were filming over in Australia, didn't really love the experience because it was a lot of, hey, we need you here by this time, and then you get there and then you just wait.

52:46And I think you talked to either your business partner or someone, and the decision was basically made like, hey, we're done with this for now, right, at some point in that. I want you to finish the thought because I want to jump in a bunch here, but I want to hear you. And this might go back to what we were talking about a little bit earlier with who knows whether that's accurate or not. So then you have that hiatus where you're not acting and it's all WWE for a while. At what point did you, if that is true, at what point in your career when you are established one of the biggest superstars in the history of professional wrestling, at what point did it go off where it's like, you know what, maybe I do want to dip my toes back into acting.

53:21and I want to kind of go in full bore with this, knowing that you had it made in the shade in WWE. Like, you didn't have to do that, but it was something that maybe you found, like, a new passion for. You're like, you know what? I actually could be really good at this. So the statement is great. The question is great. A lot of what I'm hearing, the way you describe your question, is it was my choice. It was not at all. I did the Marine as a young 20-something superstar who went from going from city to city with audiences and arenas chanting your name and going bonkers. Like, while I was in Australia filming The Marine, all I thought about was wrestling.

54:02So my passion wasn't in it. I was uninvested. And in doing so, I was also unprofessional, which made me unreliable. Then I kept doing movies, and the reason I did The Marine and did 12 rounds and did all these movies was a business model. WWE Films was supposed to make us movie stars so more people go through the turnstiles, which means more noise and more excitement. And we needed that at that point. I didn't do movies because I wanted to do the craft. I did movies to sell more tickets. So something's going to suffer. Yes, we might sell more tickets, but the movies are going to suffer because I wish I was in Nassau Coliseum or Rosemar Horizon, not on a movie set, twiddling my thumbs waiting for them to blow something up.

54:44My mind was elsewhere. I wasn't present. So when you say, oh, you know, you and your business partner said, we're not doing this anymore. No, my best friend and manager, I can't even call him manager because I don't like the term. My best friend, Dan Boehm, who's been side by side with me for over two decades. I looked at him and said, after doing a bunch of shitty movies and say, yo, we're never going to do movies again, aren't we? And this is the guy whose job is to hunt for film. He turned to me and said, no, we're not. But don't worry about it. we're going to find another way. And we did. I started hosting live shows.

55:19I started hosting game shows. I started doing cameos on TV shows, little quick hits. I read the news, stuff to keep me engaged, to keep my skills sharp. Just why I want to be an ambassador for the WWE. I don't want to lose the pulse. I want to keep that sharp because there's passion there. And then I got a lottery ticket. Somebody wanted me to come and audition. And I was a little older, a little wiser. And finally, I said, hey, man, if you say yes to this, we talked about this off camera. I want to be an actor. All right. Put the same passion and elbow grease beside it as when you said I want to be a wrestler.

55:58What did I do when I said I want to be a wrestler? Back in Kentuckiana, I bought as many tapes as I could. I invested in my appearance. I kept myself lean, strong, always looking to improve, go extra practice. put that amount of effort into this and just see where it goes and do that over repeated amounts and the law of compounding interest should should yield but i didn't say like time to get back in the movie biz no somebody bet on me and i approached it with the passion to give him 10 bucks back and that happened so somebody else bet on me and i tried to give him 10 bucks back and like i said i ain't perfect but nowadays if you you were like yo man we could do this over zoom fuck no we do a face-to-face.

56:41Pat McAfee:No, the fact that you flew all the way out here the day before your last... No, but this is... We are very thankful. We are obviously very thankful for it. But when I was being told you were going to fly out here, I was telling WWE people, I was like, no, just tell him he doesn't have... And you're like, no, we're definitely doing it. Yeah, because I want to be good for you guys. I want to be good for the show. I want to be good for our show. You're an advocate for the business. Hell, you're a co-worker. You know what I'm saying? So again, y 'all gave me an opportunity and I'm just trying to give you back 10.

57:09You know what I'm saying? So... I did. But I learned from my mistakes early on of like your heart wasn't in it. And if you try to put as much effort as you put into this thing that you truly love, then love it. Love what you now do. Don't a lot of New Year's resolutions give me. I want to get in shape. Fucking do it. One foot in front of the other and start grinding. Like I want to eat more healthy. Do it. I want to drink less. Do it. Like you got to you got to approach it with with passion and commitment. and I didn't have that. And I can say that because I got a lottery ticket. And honestly, without that ticket, I would still say that.

57:44Like, that's where I missed. But from my failure, it was a huge takeaway of like, man, you got a chance to do something. Let's see where it goes. And I'm not going to be perfect. I'm going to make bad movies. I doubt it. No, man. I don't think you are. Just like I'm going to have bad matches this whole year. Hey, this is great. This sucked. This is awesome. Why is he booked in this? It happens. It happens, man. But if you give all you can, I at least have, like, the sleep is sound. I've done all I can. The sleep wasn't sound because I knew my heart was elsewhere. That's a great question, but you understand how, like, you're like, oh, man, and then you just said, no, I'm not doing this anymore.

58:21And then you just said, like, I'm doing it again. No, it was not like that.

58:24Pat McAfee:Well, we want to let you know that whatever lottery ticket brought you into whatever business, we're thankful for it because we've enjoyed the hell out of watching you. Thank you for your commitment to our entertainment. What a cup of coffee. Great glass of coffee that you had there. but also incredible run in one particular business that we all love. Can't wait to see whatever you do next. Can't wait to watch tomorrow night on Peacock. That's what we're here for. Please watch tomorrow night. For the love of everything holy, tomorrow night, Cena will dance for one final time with Gunther. Let's almost go to work.

58:56Pat McAfee:Hey, I want to let you know, you can wrestle. You can wrestle. For one more night. You were all right. I cannot after that. Ladies and gentlemen, the GOAT, John Cena.

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59:54Storm. Good energy in, good energy out. Energy for life.

1:00:02Pat McAfee:Welcome back to our Hub of the Bone, the Thunderdome, on this magical John Cena. Feel good Friday, December 12, 2025. Our tour of the program begins now. Football! Had a massive night last night as NFL Week 15 kicked off in the NFC South as the Falcons got an unpredictable win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who are in an interesting spot with an opportunity to still win the NFC South, but certainly down on their luck as Kirk Cousins and Kyle Pitts and Bijan Robinson and Raheem Morris in a defense that was able to get stops whenever they need it, get a huge win on Thursday Night Football. His week 15 of the NFL slate is going to prove to be electrifying.

1:00:42Pat McAfee:We just got done with a conversation literally about 35, 45 seconds ago with the greatest of all time, John Cena, who flew all the way out here to have a conversation with us the day before his final match tomorrow night against Gunther. Saturday night's main event live only on Peacock. For one final time, we get a chance to watch the John Cena show. The dude's a beast. The dude's a stud. He's everything you think he is. You know, it's almost like a Tim Tebow type thing. Yeah, it is. It's like you see him on TV. You wonder what it's like. Is this gimmick? Is this character? I know that's his name.

1:01:14Pat McAfee:I know it's his WWE name. And then every conversation we've had with him today, or ever basically, has all gone in a similar fashion. It's always John Cena. And he's special. The run has been special. What he has done for that business is special. And tomorrow night, it wraps up. I can't thank him enough for doing that. The Talks at the table is here at Boston Corner, at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer, done. Cowboys AP Tone is here. And joining us live from Anatic in Ohio is a college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawker. Yeah, Hawker.

1:01:45Hawker, what's up, dude? Cena was great, man. He gives you 10 back every time you give him one or he gives you one. I've heard him do it around a couple different other podcasts. I understood what he meant. But, yeah, he's an inspirational dude, man, for sure.

1:02:00Pat McAfee:Certainly inspirational, but also like his work ethic and the way he views life and how appreciative he is of everything is certainly warranted of massive praise. And, I mean, maybe we should have had the Miz on to join us for this entire thing. But tomorrow night is going to be special, and we can't thank him enough. And how about this? How about this? I got this bad boy is going to be in the studio for a while. Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah, you know. And D-Bone came his pants earlier. It was pretty cool to watch. I heard. I heard. Yeah, it was a pretty cool little moment. Had to get a little wiped on, you know, in the pants area because of what he did whenever he saw John Cena walk in.

1:02:34Pat McAfee:And we're obviously incredibly thankful for all of it. And tomorrow night, we will all watch Army-Navy tomorrow. Last night, though, AJ, Week 15 kicked off. We both were on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because there was so much in front of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Mike Evans was coming back. He's going to have a good night, right? They have to win. Well, he did have a good night. They had a good night, and they lose. Tristan Wirfs, all-pro tackle for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the game was basically speechless about how insane it was that they lost the game, that they had a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter.

1:03:02Pat McAfee:And so, A.J., your takeaway from last night, what are your thoughts on where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are right now, where the Atlanta Falcons are right now, and the Carolina Panthers? Carolina Panthers might be hosting a playoff game this year. Yeah, it's pretty quick to turn around that that happened in Carolina. But I take it more from – I give the Falcons credit for winning this game, going out and finding a way to win. Now the Bucs, I don't know what exactly is happening with them. It's a weird situation, what we've seen, especially the second half of the year for them. But we should have known, like, of course Kirk's got that magic left in him.

1:03:32Of course Kirk's going to lead him back when they need a drive. Fourth down, big third down conversions all the time. Like, yeah, Kirk still can show some of that Kirk magic. And obviously it doesn't hurt that Kyle Pitts has the game of his life.

1:03:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, Kyle Pitts has the game that we all would hope that Kyle Pitts would have whenever he's playing his best ball. We hope we will continue to see that because he is a special. I mean, they even had a – Sills has a catch there. He had a drop touchdown earlier in the game. They had 19 penalties for 125 yards. Obviously, there was not a clean game. The field was slick as hell. I mean, you're talking about potential ugliness, potential ugliness. And the Atlanta Falcons just kept fighting, kept fighting, kept fighting, get back, hit a game-winning field goal. A lot of people not happy that Al Michaels just kind of said, and it goes in.

1:04:14Pat McAfee:People in Charlotte are happy. It was a 14-point comeback. Obviously, a huge swing of momentum goes through the Atlanta Falcons at the end of that game. An improbable dub. Look how happy their team is. And the NFC South playoff race is now in complete turmoil. People weren't thrilled with Al Michaels' lack of emotion there late and how big of a game that was in meaningful football season. Yeah, maybe Al Michaels was just shocked too. And also just because the Atlanta Falcons are kind of playing for nothing, so I can sort of see Al Michaels' point, but at the same time, Al, just a little juice maybe.

1:04:45If you can go to the third and 28, Foxy, a lot of Falcons fans on the internet, and I tend to agree with them, are saying the Falcons have kind of made up for the 28-3 blown victory in the Super Bowl because of this. Because not only did this happen, Kirk Cousins also fumbled the ball on first down, and Ty goes to the runner, I suppose, and they end up recovering the ball at the same time as the Bucs do. And it was a very quick. Vitaveo, of course, smart guy. Hey, I know that's our boss. Game's over. But Kirk right here, fumble. And then, you know, he falls on it. Does anybody fall on it? But they immediately call it Atlanta.

1:05:23Like, maybe this is the turning of a page of the Atlanta kind of curse. We talk about it with the Panthers, you know. The Panthers are almost cursed. Pause.

1:05:31Pat McAfee:28-3 is right there. Right there. It is right there. And it is one of those cool things. They come back down 14. They have a third and 28 on their final drive. Even a fourth and 14, that was kind of a casual, yeah, they converted a fourth and 14. Kirk Cousins. No timeouts. No timeouts to Mr. Sills, who respectfully isn't as if he was Kyle Pitts. The fourth overall pick. Mountaineer, high school quarterback legend, basically changed the rules of high school football. But, again, like a lot of the things that happened for the Falcons team on this drive were miraculous. Like it is almost, hey, if next year the Falcons go 12-5 and win the division, it feels like we're looking back at this game as when everything changed for them.

1:06:20Pat McAfee:Yeah, you never know what's going to break a curse. And if it is a third and 28 and it says 28-3 on the bottom and a 28 is on the other team's side and three is on your side like it is there at the bottom, 3-28, and then obviously on the screen there it's different. But, yeah, maybe last night was the breaking of the curse. Shout to Kirk for doing that for Atlanta. They paid him a lot of money, you know. So him breaking that curse is obviously at least the least he could do on his way out. Tone, the public lost again. Yes, they did. That's what we've continued to do this season, it feels like.

1:06:50Pat McAfee:We've had one winning weekend where 60 % of the bets or more has won. Is that accurate? Yeah, it was two or three weeks ago that happened. Every other weekend, the public lost. Okay, so we start out 0-1 as 65. We're in a hole. Okay. and we're going to come back. But I was just looking it up. The Bucs are still the favorites to win the NFC South. They're minus 130 to the, I believe it's plus 110 for the Carolina Panthers. Now, I don't know if that's only because the Panthers are only two-point favorites going into New Orleans, a good football team. Plus, they have to play the Panthers two times.

1:07:21So, yes, last night sucked. You would rather get that win so that your odds are even better to win the division, but they are not dead yet, obviously, with two games still left against them.

1:07:29Pat McAfee:The NFC South is going to be the division that everybody points to for changing the playoff rules, Ty? Yeah, without a doubt. And I think someone mentioned it before the show, and ultimately it could be them screwing over the Lions. Who are the team that proposed in the offseason, hey, we need to do away with this. If a team is 8-9 or 9-8 and we have another team in the NFC who goes 11-6, that team needs to get in. There's a very good chance that one of these teams who is 11-6 is potentially going to get screwed over and miss the playoffs because of the NFC South. Yeah, and people are going to be mad.

1:08:02Pat McAfee:they're getting a home playoff game. You know, and other teams have to go. We go from potential one seed to five seed, and now all of a sudden this team has this. It's like, yeah, that's how the rules are. Win your division, maybe you'll be a little bit better. Exactly. And they're like, well, if we're in the NFC South, any of us could have won this division. Well, you're not. So let's live in reality, okay? Let's not live in a fairytale land. Speaking of reality, next weekend, the college football playoff will kick off. Friday night, Oklahoma, Alabama. Saturday at noon, Miami will travel to College Station.

1:08:33Pat McAfee:Kyle Field will be hosting a college football playoff game as Texas A &M, short into Elko's tenure, is now one of the teams still vying for a national championship. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is the man who's the leader of that Aggie football team. A man who's had incredible quotes this year. I mean, just a professional press conference. So good. Amongst many other things. Ladies and gentlemen, friend of the program, a man who will see us on the sideline as we do a field pass for his home playoff game live on ESPN2 the head coach of Texas A &M's football team Mike Yelko. How are you Mike?

1:09:13Pat McAfee:Before we get going Pat how much does it cost to get you on my team as the hype guy? Okay I would love to be the hype guy for the Texas A &M Aggies I think you guys do have money down there so I think we can serve. We do I do I think we can I think we can put a good package together for you for sure. I'm open anything send a pitch deck would love to get down there love the cowboy boots down there last time i went down there i was gifted cowboy boots and i was gifted some hats i mean i love your town down there college station let's talk about hosting a playoff game obviously this is the dream whenever you take the job but now that you're here how does it feel down there how does the community feel and what do you think people are going to see if they're potentially watching texas a &m in not prime time because it's a noon game but you get it in a prime position where it hasn't been for a long time yeah the energy obviously is real i think this is what this program and this town has been waiting for the chance to get to host playoff football uh first time in the playoffs and you've been here you've seen the electricity in kyle field when this place is rocking and and saturday morning when this thing kicks off uh there's going to be 108 000 strong with the 12th man and it's going to be a wild scene for sure okay so tell me about your team in its uh I don't want to say readiness for the game, but I guess readiness would be a good call.

1:10:24Pat McAfee:The Texas loss, obviously not great. And you're trying to run a professional press conference. Your line is one of the greatest of all time. I appreciate that you are certainly irritated because you're supposed to be in that moment. And I like that you talk some shit in it all. But how does the team feel? And what is your vibe of what the locker room is like as we head in to the most important game of the season? Yeah, I think guys are fired up. I think obviously it is hard to run the table and never have a misstep. I think that's the world we live in today in college football. And, you know, unfortunately for us, it happened in the last game with a chance to go to Atlanta on the line and against our rival.

1:10:57Pat McAfee:And that's not what you want. But, you know, at some point that was going to happen. And so in our minds, we feel like we got it out of the way. We feel like we've centered, refocused. Obviously, the goal has been to go and compete for a national championship. That kind of became a reality as the year moved on. And now it's the time to go get it. And so, you know, we're excited to have Miami in here. Go ahead, AJ. Coach, you guys, you feel like you're battle-tested when I think of your team. And like the season you guys had, you win plenty of games on the road and at home, like close games. You could win any different way, I guess.

1:11:28Is that something you actually think about when you review the season and how it all went to where, how you could be prepared heading into these, you know, the biggest games of the season, facing some of the best teams, obviously?

1:11:39Pat McAfee:Yeah, I know you guys are Midwest guys, but I think anytime you make it through the SEC season, you are battle-tested. The different venues you play in, the different teams that you've got to play, you don't survive the SEC gauntlet and qualify for the playoffs without feeling as though your team is ready to go compete. Now, obviously, the teams that you're playing in the playoffs are really talented as well, and that's not lost on me, but I certainly feel like we're ready and we're ready to go. You were the only undefeated team in the SEC remaining. Go ahead, Con, man. Yeah, Coach, of course you're in the college football playoffs, so nothing else matters, but do you almost feel disrespected that you're the number seven seed?

1:12:16I mean, you guys were in the top three for the better part of most of the year. Is there any thought of like, hey, these people, these committees, you know, the country, they don't even respect you as a football team?

1:12:27Pat McAfee:Yeah, I mean, honestly, we don't have time for that. We've got to really talk about Miami team coming in. We're in, that's all you want it. You know, I think there'll be conversation in the off season. And we've talked a lot about this, about processes and what this whole thing needs to look like moving forward. But right now, the only focus is the fact that we're in. We've got a chance to go compete for a title, and we got Miami coming in here next weekend. You make the move from Duke to Texas A &M, and we all knew the story going into the change at coaching for the Aggies. They spent a lot of money to move on from the coach.

1:12:59Pat McAfee:So we just assume in the modern era that we're in, okay, Texas A &M is obviously going to be able to keep up with everybody. You have proven that. You have a couple wide receivers that obviously come in and do huge things for you. Can you tell me a little bit about this offense? and how special it's become with Marcel and Marcel mode at quarterback. Not even really talked about for Heisman, by the way. Not even really talked about for Heisman at all. No, I think, listen, we knew we had to get more dynamic. You know, we got into the backstretch last year, and we felt like one of the things we had to do on offense was become a more explosive, more dynamic offense.

1:13:31Pat McAfee:That happens in the SEC with talent. I mean, that's the only way it happens. And so, obviously, the growth of Marcel has been a huge part of it, him becoming a much better pocket passer, him being able to push the ball downfield even more consistently as the year went on, but then going out and getting weapons. And so Casey Concepcion has been phenomenal, just won the Paul Horning Award and has been extremely explosive for us all year. Mario Craver is a kid who could take it the distance whenever you put the ball in his hands. And then Ashton Bethel-Roman and Terry Bussey have kind of provided tremendous support and have made their explosive plays throughout the year as well.

1:14:06And so it's a huge part of what you have to do to be successful at this stage, right? When you get to this part of the year, you've got to have explosive playmakers on offense to have a chance to win.

1:14:15Pat McAfee:Let's talk about the other side, which you are notorious for having a great defense. Your defense is kind of ass, right? Was that what it was? Is that how we would reflect upon your defense now at this stage of the season? Yeah, until I threw a chair. I think when I threw a chair, it was kind of a good year. So is that what happened? Honestly, what do you think happened with the defense? Because every week on game day, I don't know if you heard or pay attention to it, but I was like, hey, Texas A &M is real. I was told that Mike Alco is an unbelievable football coach. They have the money. They did the right things.

1:14:46Pat McAfee:They have huge wins. Why is nobody else talking about Texas A &M? It was basically all year I was like this, from jump. You were our hype guy. I know. That's why I'm trying to get you on the train. Put a pitch deck together, okay? I would definitely watch it. I got a lot of jobs, but I would certainly add another one if I could. And I love your team. I love your town. I love everything about what you have going on. But everybody pointed out, well, the defense is ass. The defense is ass. Like, that's all the stats that were kind of getting thrown into my face. And then towards middle of the year almost, maybe 40 % through the season, you guys turned.

1:15:14Pat McAfee:You said you threw a chair and changed, but what was the actual change, you think, on the defensive side? Because I think people were holding that against you in rankings and in conversation for a large portion. Yeah, I think we didn't play the first two games the way we would have wanted to, and I think that just has impacted our overall stats. I think, you know, whatever it was about the first two games, I didn't think we were on. Then we went up to Notre Dame and played a really explosive and got into a shootout. And coming out of those first three games, I just think statistically, we weren't where we believed we could be.

1:15:45And I think, you know, we had some really strong conversations in our building. The kids took it personal. And I think over the last nine games, we have been much more consistent with what we've done on defense. And we've got a really good pass rush. We lead the country in third down defense. I think we put ourselves in position, again, going into the playoffs to feel confident that we can make a run at this thing.

1:16:05Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think you lead the country in sacks as well. Home field advantage will certainly help that. Ty has a question for you. Yeah, Coach, I've never been to Kyle Field, but we will be there. Oh, you're missing out. We're coming, we're coming. Yeah, I'll be there next week. But listen, I don't know about what things were like when, you know, Bear Bryant was coaching there with the Junction boys. Me neither. Yeah, exactly. But Pat mentioned it. Like, home field advantage in college football is a very, very real thing, and everyone talks about A &M and Kyle Field being one of the truest home field advantages in the sport.

1:16:38Do you anticipate it to maybe be the craziest environment it's ever been inside there with this being a playoff game? Have you thought at all about what you expect it to feel and look like inside there next week? Yeah, it's going to be wild. I would certainly anticipate it'll be as loud and crazy as it's been.

1:16:56Pat McAfee:I've been part of some moments in this stadium that will be hard to duplicate. but playoff football in Kyle Field, this place will be rocking. This place will be behind us. And for sure, it impacts the game. And when you talk about crowd noise and how loud it will be in here, it certainly is going to have an impact on the game for sure. Are you going to be, how do you feel running on it? Because it's going to be my first time being on the field watching you run the boys onto the field as the, hey.

1:17:29Pat McAfee:are you are you we ready for the sprint out with the boys how do you feel at this stage uh primetime football playoff football yeah you know you got it you got to bring a little bit of swag to it when you go out there but um no it's it's a cool it's a cool feeling it really is it's it's when you get down to the bottom of that tunnel and the beat drops on power and the play starts bouncing and as you're walking down you can almost feel the stadium shaking it's just it is it's a really special environment it's a special place uh our fan base is extremely passionate and and it certainly will be that saturday for sure what i want to see is you rocking i want to see if you have the ability to keep up with the beat when the beat drops hey don't you worry about that okay okay you know i got that just know as you could uh probably assume we are going to have the biggest most outrageous cowboy hats on on that side for sure yeah as you should as you should cowboy boots rocking i mean pleated pants we're gonna do the entire thing out there we're gonna try to buy in to the aggie culture i think the boys are gonna try to go to the midnight yell to the night before to try to kind of experience it all i have to do game day early so i'm not gonna be able to make it you know that's something no i i think it'll be good that you guys do that i think it'll give you a different perspective really on what it is i you know i think when you get in here and you feel this place and you feel the passion behind it uh i think it kind of explains a little bit more what this place is really about and i think if you go out and you experience what midnight yell actually is and what it actually feels like uh i think you're going to get a greater appreciation of what texas a &m football and what this culture really is about it's a special place down there man i we didn't we didn't do game day down there once this year no saturday i want to let you know i had to get to the playoffs to get you down i was pitching a lot behind the scenes my words mean nothing with these people.

1:19:12Pat McAfee:I don't know if you've kept up publicly with my disputes with these people, but I love, because your people show up for us every time, and your people are very appreciative of game day being there. Yeah, we were down there twice last year, both times. Very, very thankful that we were there. Very appreciative in a love ball, which I can't wait for the entire world to see. Now, with success obviously comes some adversity. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Coach, obviously Colin Klein is going to go back to K-State to be the head coach, and then your D.C. is going to Kentucky. You're calling the play, so that's a little bit different.

1:19:44But also, you know, there's Ohio State's losing a coordinator. Oregon's losing both coordinators. JMU and Tulane have head coaches and entire staffs going places. How is it juggling your coordinators going to different jobs, potentially doing two different jobs right now during the playoffs? And you guys obviously not being the only team dealing with that in the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, I think obviously if you look around the landscape of the playoff teams, it's not ideal. And I don't know what a solution would be because you got a lot of different things coming together when you put this football calendar.

1:20:16Pat McAfee:But it's a problem. Like you said, everybody's dealing with it. Oregon's dealing with it. We're dealing with it. Ohio State's dealing with it. It just it is what it is. And so, you know, I'm thankful that we got really good people in this building, people that are committed to doing the job here until the job's finished and, you know, happy for the opportunities that the guys on our staff are getting. there's certainly a reason why we've had the success that we've had for sure uh and so you know but i am i am also thankful that they're committed to doing what we got to do to finish this job all right yeah some fix the uh entire college football schedule please if you the floor is yours to uh fix every problem the coach football has can you go full screen on him please floor is yours i'll go ahead and fix the entirety of it thank you no yeah it starts with it starts with tv right we got to figure that part of it out first calendars and um it's not a good mix and it just is what it is i do think i do think the people are working i do think um we're trying to do the things that make it make the most sense i do think having the portal closed right now is a really good thing we made that adjustment this year i think at least now the kids can focus on just playing ball and don't have to worry about all of that noise which was not the case a year ago.

1:21:26I think each year we're trying to get this thing a little bit better, and credit to the people in charge for that, but obviously still some things we can clean up and fix.

1:21:34Pat McAfee:Yeah, certainly. Texas A &M having all the resources, having that stadium, and this guy's big-ass brain as the head coach, they're in a good spot for the long haul. Coach Elko's like, yeah, let's certainly make it better, but let's not change it entirely. We've got some really good stuff going down here. Go ahead, AJ. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, Coach, you mentioned your third-down defense, obviously best in the country Was that an emphasis coming into this year? Is it something that you changed up throughout the year? I would imagine those third down periods in practice could get pretty lively at times when you watch what your team does on Saturdays.

1:22:06What has the process been for third down for your defense? Yeah, I think it's always been an emphasis. I think it's something, as a defensive coordinator, we've been pretty consistently good at over the years. I think we do some different things to attack protections and impact quarterbacks. and obviously we've got some really talented players and that's a big piece of it. You mix in some really talented rushers with some different looks and a home crowd that can really impact the game and that's a really good recipe for success.

1:22:36Pat McAfee:All right, Coach. Well, good luck as you continue to prepare for the biggest game of the year. We'll be down there. I think we're going to annoy you for like a... AJ, I don't know if you even know this. You know, so normally when we do these field pass games, we don't get a chance to talk to the coaches but since we have a relationship with both coaches of the team here, I think we're going to annoy you next week with maybe like a 10-minute Zoom to kind of get an idea on where your team is and maybe a little insight so we can call the game better. We appreciate you for that and your hospitality as we try to make something that isn't shit next week.

1:23:07Well, I wish you luck with that, Pat, because I think if you could do better than that, I think that'll be a good thing for college football and for our game.

1:23:15Pat McAfee:Hey, I like the way you're thinking. Tell the boys we said congrats on a hell of a year and good luck the rest of the way and uh we appreciate the hell out of you coach yeah for sure appreciate you guys having me on you think if you were to fight christobal

1:23:31see you coach see you later man i mean there was something he had going on there i like yesterday

1:23:37Pat McAfee:coach christobal whenever he was on and you asked about some of the shit talk or whatever he goes we say no comment to those types of stuff all right coach elco if you're gonna fight mario i'm not talking all right i'm gonna get out we'll get out of them at some point uh that's a huge game man huge that is a huge huge game obviously alabama oklahoma to kick the entire thing off is sweet on friday night can't wait to get there uh can't wait to get out there to norman it's a wonderful football town just an absolutely wonderful football place college game day will be there and then one and a half point favorite alabama will try to continue the ride or will old beautiful Oklahoma do their thing and then overnight we travel down to College Station for Miami versus Texas A &M.

1:24:20Pat McAfee:Tulane in Ole Miss. JMU, Oregon. College football throwing absolute heat the first weekend of CFP. It's also awesome too because last year you know we kind of followed Ohio State the whole time and now winner of this game will go to play Ohio State. Like we know Ohio State pretty damn well because of the four games we followed last year let alone the Big Ten title game we just went to, like seeing now the team that they might play up close and personal and be able to just know like, okay, hey, this guy's going to be covering Jeremiah Smith who we just watched. You know, like even those things will be really cool and it'll be a huge test too for, you know, A &M, just their first ever playoff.

1:24:57Pat McAfee:And I don't want to give away too much, but I think you could probably expect to hear and see us standing on that beautiful grass over there at the Rose Bowl. You'll probably see that. Now, once again, just like John Cena was mentioning, we're not supposed to be doing these things. We understand that it is outrageous that we get the opportunity to do that. The actual call with Fowler and Herbstreit and team will certainly be on ABC and on ESPN. But us getting an opportunity to kind of call the game in our own way, from our own perspective, on the sideline of these massive, historic, huge implication games is so stupid.

1:25:33Pat McAfee:We're so thankful. And we can't wait to get down there next week. ESPN, too. that's going to be Miami A &M let alone I've never been to A &M I know you have but yeah I can't wait it's way out there it is out there you are traveling Texas, Texas you're going out there but then you got people that just live by it is a football community it is a football place hundred some thousand they love America down there the biggest United States of America flag that I've ever seen flies right outside out of Kyle Field. Then they got 200 American flags flying on top of that thing, and everybody is all in on all of it.

1:26:14Yeah, I was just like, I mean, I've never been there either. Extremely excited to go, and obviously any one of these home teams could make a case, but Texas A &M will have as good of an argument as anyone with saying like, hey, we have the best home field advantage of any team in this first round. Obviously Miami's not bitching and whining because they got in about draw or anything like that, but boy, what a tough place to have to go and play right off the rip at Texas A &M.

1:26:41Pat McAfee:We were asked, hey, where do you want to call? Where do you want to kind of do the field pass? And we're like, well, anywhere would be sick. I mean, Autzen's outrageous. Obviously, that is a cool place. Oklahoma, sweet. Ole Miss, bro, I've heard nothing but great things about that. And then Kyle Field's there, and we started chatting about it. And every time I came back from college game day at Texas A &M, I told the boys, I'm like, hey, that place is just like, it's a special place kind of felt it with texas tech this year too you know kind of felt it with texas tech where i've talked to you guys so getting the opportunity to go there and i think for the boys to get a chance to experience something i've experienced a couple times obviously very special but the whole first round is going to have great environments which is why everybody thinks like hey one of the biggest parts of college football is the environment why don't we try to make that multiple round another round of that and they're like well the weather is the weather it's like well NFL teams are doing it so what is the what's the biggest issue here I we don't really see what the issue is we would like more of what college football is which is the environment which is the pageantry which is the student sections which is everything like that so us getting a chance in the first round obviously good beggars can't be choosers but let's go ahead and get another round of that you don't think Texas Tech deserves to have a home game exactly Indiana doesn't right all of them Indiana has a home playoff game but But instead, they win the Big Ten for the first time since the World War II era.

1:28:01Pat McAfee:And then now you can't have a home game because you have to buy that. It's like that doesn't make sense really in theory, let alone Georgia and Ohio State. Yeah, not only do you not get a home game, you have to go to what is geographically the farthest place away from where you are. But also just to what we were talking about, like how sweet would it be for Texas A &M gets a home game first round and it's going to be 75 and sunny down there. And then you turn around and you have to go to Ohio State and it's negative temperatures with the wind chill. Like, that's football. That's playoff football.

1:28:30That would just be awesome. It's probably not going to happen because, you know, all these bowls, like, they obviously won. If it goes to 16, maybe. Well, maybe. But it needs to get done. You're right, though.

1:28:39Pat McAfee:Let's go to the NFL. There's an updated story that certainly came out of nowhere and was pretty scary, I think, for a little bit. T.J. Watt ended up in a hospital. Then T.J. Watt ended up getting surgery. T.J. Watt ended up having a little bit of, you know, medical scare that his whole family. Burt Lawton said that TJ Watt was currently in hospital. JJ Watt gave a full update on everything. Yesterday, TJ had successful surgery to stabilize and repair a partially collapsed lung. Suffered Wednesday after a dry needling treatment session at the facility. Recovery timeline is still TBD, but all went well and he's being released from the hospital today.

1:29:18Pat McAfee:He and his family are very appreciative of everyone's kind words and well wishes. Obviously, JJ a part of the family, but he's talking about his immediate family. it's like this was scary and came out of nowhere i i think dry needling session at the facility tj's just trying to prepare for this continued playoff run that they have massive game and uh all of a sudden he's ending up at the hospital getting an emergency surgery we called jj yesterday i called jj off air i'm like hey what the hell is going on and i think jj was a little bit like yeah like this is a very this comes out of nowhere this is a very serious thing so we're happy to here he's okay but Monday night I don't think anybody at this point is expecting TJ to play but man this is just like the reality of perspective that everything can change just like this you have no idea what's going to happen in this life age yeah I wasn't sure what like when I heard that he was in the hospital yeah obviously very worried and think I'm honestly somewhat relieved that it was something that happened to him instead of like oh they something popped up or they found something like he's going to play again we don't know when that may be but I'm sure has been a very scary, what, 24, 48 hours for these guys.

1:30:23Pat McAfee:Yeah, and then there's obviously, I don't want to just immediately go to what football is, but football-wise, there's a lot of stats with TJ playing for the Steelers and TJ not playing for the Steelers. And the Steelers need every single game down the stretch. And this just popping up on a Wednesday, obviously terrible for TJ and for the Watts as a whole, but for the Pittsburgh Steelers, this is not good news either. Here's a Hembo stat, 1-11 win-loss, including playoffs, whenever TJ is not playing. They allow 27 points per game and 380 yards per game. 26 touchdowns, 7 interceptions with a 70.8 QBR whenever TJ Watt's not on the field.

1:30:58Pat McAfee:Things didn't look great for the Pittsburgh Steelers to potentially win in Lombardi. Without TJ Watt, we can't even get into that conversation, AP Tone. No, we can't. Obviously, very, very happy he's okay, and who cares about him playing on the field right now? But the 1-11, when you lose or when you're not playing with one of the best defensive players in football, especially him in the way that the defense is created around him. They are not good without him. And it's a huge game for the Dolphins coming in Monday night and to try to keep that lead in the AFC North. So, yes, it's going to be very, very hard without him.

1:31:31I have no idea how long it's going to take for him to get back or even if he will be back this season. But just glad he's all right.

1:31:37Pat McAfee:Out of nowhere, Age. Out of nowhere. Dry needling means he was trying to get, like, treatment. Like, that's what he – he was choosing to go focus on ball, focus on his career focus on getting better i've done this hundreds of times thousands of times maybe it's just kind of standard operating procedure and then boom something i don't know i don't know what is it have you guys ever done it acupuncture have you done it i don't think i know what it is yeah i've had it i don't love it it's like uh yeah it's like acupuncture needles but they kind of like jab them a little bit go a little bit deeper i don't know how how far you have to go to actually hit a lung though that's what that feels like that's pretty deep yeah because I think the immediate reaction is something with a long, it must have been the Tyrod Taylor golf tee incident where maybe he was getting a shot that was able to get there.

1:32:22Pat McAfee:Dry needling to get to a long, I don't know. I have no idea. But I'm happy he's okay. That has to be a very scary situation. Out of nowhere. I'm going to go get better today. Well, I guess he's super more jacked. I'm going to go get better today. I'm going to go do what I've been doing since the beginning of my career, football career. Go in there walking. Hey, how's everybody doing? We've got a playoff push coming. It's going to do the dry needling. It's going to hurt. You need to go to the hospital. Yeah, I do. I mean, oh, you have emergency surgery happening. It's like quick how life can kind of just unravel like that.

1:32:55Pat McAfee:Happy as hell he's okay. Yeah, anytime like the terms emergency surgery and you like need to be rushed to the hospital, like I think it's just human nature to always assume the worst anyway. So I can only imagine not only his family, you know, but like Steelers fans yesterday, you see this. It's like, this could be anything. Is this guy ever going to play for the Steelers again? And luckily, it wasn't that serious. But yeah, I mean, you mentioned it. How many times does he probably do this during the year? Like, how many does he do this? I don't know, Age, that's a good question. Dry needling dudes are normally like once a week, right?

1:33:26Pat McAfee:Or twice a week? Yeah, I don't know. I can't see anyone getting it more than once or twice a week. But yeah, I'm sure it's definitely a weekly thing for a lot of people. But I don't want to say dry needling dudes, but whenever I say that, I mean, like, there's dudes that do certain things. Like if he is a dry needling dude, which I would assume he is a dry needling dude, that's a part of the weekly recovery process. There's people that do the, what you guys just mentioned. Acupuncture. Acupuncture. There's people. Tubbing. Tubbing 12. Pliability. All that. All that stuff. There's people that have their own way.

1:33:55Pat McAfee:If you're a dry needling dude, I think you're probably doing that every single week. So that's just standard operating procedure for TJ. Once again, we don't know unless he added this to his kind of routine this week, which is certainly possible. I'm not saying it isn't. but it feels like this is probably just a part of his standard process, getting ready for a game, and then coming out of nowhere is scary. Yeah, so scary. And to Ty's point, that was what we were kind of speculating just after. As a Patriots fan, there's been multiple players over the last two, three years who've had blood clots, and they come out of nowhere, and then those guys are out for an entire year.

1:34:30So, of course, we're talking about Monday and everything, and even the week after and how important it is. But my initial thought was hopefully he's not out next year. You know, like this is one of those things, to your point, like it does give you a little bit perspective in how quickly everything does just change.

1:34:46Pat McAfee:Speaking of everything changing, sometimes to be great, you got to get the oldest guy in the league. Back. 50 hours, 49 minutes, seven seconds from now. Yeah. Phillip Rivers. That's correct. He's a 44-year-old. What do you think? It's correct. It'll be 48 at it. 425. I saw some more clips, man. We got some zip on the ball. Yeah, we got zip on the ball. And also, he doesn't look like the big tub of lard like everybody had been saying. That is true. Early in the week, people saw his neck and his face and they're like, wow, this guy's a complete fatso. There's no way his 44-year-old body is going to be able to hold all the blubber he's got.

1:35:30Pat McAfee:He's going to be even less active. Who said that? A lot of people said that. A lot of people are saying that. And now I see him, I'm like, am I missing something? I don't think he looks that abnormal to what Phil Rivers looks like. He looks exactly like what Phil Rivers has looked like. And just like it says right there, he has been on a relentless pursuit of greatness for 20-plus years, and now he has the opportunity to do it as a 44-year-old with a team that's still trying to win a damn Super Bowl. I mean, that is very evident that that is what the Colts are trying to do. We're not quitting on the season.

1:35:58Pat McAfee:We're not giving up. We're going to try and go for it. In 50 hours, 48 minutes, and three seconds, we are going to see if Phil Rivers still got it. this is a highly anticipated snap, this first one from Phil, AJ. It really is. What do you think if they throw him off? You run like design QB draw, first play of the game, just to keep the defense on their toes. Phil wants to let him know, I got in my legs, buddy. I'm faster now than I was before. So when this news was announced, obviously there was people laughing in the face of the Colts. Still doing it. Now, really? A lot of people. Oh, yeah. Who?

1:36:31The books are for me. What? The books.

1:36:36Pat McAfee:The books are certainly laughing. What's the line? It's big. It's the biggest of the weekend. It's the biggest of the weekend. I believe it's – okay, it was at 14 yesterday. It's back to 13.5. That's because people are seeing these videos from Romeo and from Kevin Bowen and Anthony Calhoun and James Boyd. They're seeing him spin it, and they're like, wait a minute. The books are like, we need to go ahead and drop that back down maybe. 13.5-point spread is the biggest spread of the weekend. Colts still in it. Seahawks, obviously, we know very much in it. To have a two-score spread like this is pretty disrespectful to a team that still can go on and win the damn Super Bowl in Week 15.

1:37:15Do you think there's – I mean, it's the NFL, so everyone – even when teams suck and they come in, a team like the Seahawks, if they're playing a team who has two wins, they're not thinking like, oh, we're just going to run through these guys and beat the shit out of them. Do you think, though, there might be a little bit of – they got Phil Rivers. and just kind of going in way, way overconfident? I don't think McDonald.

1:37:39Pat McAfee:My issue with McDonald is he looks like a full psycho. He's a psychopath. A full term. In the best way, he is. Yes, this is a compliment, not a bad thing. Yes, he knows that. I'm saying that as somebody that has watched him on the sideline, and he's stacked. You're going to heat him up. They're going to heat fill up early, I would imagine. And they're going to be throwing bodies at his – I mean, they're going to be diving at his feet. He's going to be – that ball is going to be out, and then there's going to be two, three – Because who knows how long it's going to take for him to get up. It might be a delay of game.

1:38:06Pat McAfee:Yeah, you're right. We're not 100 % sure all of that. But, age, the more I see, the more I like. And around the building, it's not like, hey, yeah, we're mailing it in here. We got a grandpa. Around the building, it's like he can execute the offense. He knows the offense better than anybody in the building. He's very comfortable. He's seen every defense. Now, AQ Shipley, I didn't love this, earlier in the week he talked about, and I think D-Bud as well, Seattle's defense is showing stuff that has never been seen before. It's like, well, I guess if you're 44 and have seen everything, if you've never seen something before, that's not good.

1:38:38Pat McAfee:If they're adding new wrinkles to just NFL defenses. But it's like the last time I saw Phil Rivers play football, he knew what he was doing and the offense was moving. That was a half a decade ago. Almost won a playoff game. Before COVID. That was half a decade ago. Now, will that change with time? Potentially. But I'm excited to watch Phil. And, yeah, I've been on a roller coaster alongside the news. The Rivers roller coaster has certainly been something. I like that the Colts went for it, and I hope Phil goes for 275. I hope he goes for 275. I think that's good. Know it is over-underers? Three touchdowns.

1:39:13What's that? Do you know it is over-underers? Uh-uh. It is, and I just said I've been laughing. It's disrespectful, okay? Talking about a guy who was a semifinalist in the Hall of Fame. I believe he's over-underers 151 yards.

1:39:26Pat McAfee:Okay, so there's an easy bet, right? I mean, that's pretty easy. It's all over all day. They're going to win outright. I really think they're going to. Don't do this. Don't do this to this guy, okay? No, no, no. This isn't for him. This is for me. I'm convincing myself. Literally, no one is giving them a chance to win. What are you talking about? No one. Anyone who's not a Colts fan who wants to go in and say, hey, the playoffs are still on, the Super Bowl is still on. They're still talking about it on a lot of morning shows about how this is gross negligence that this guy's playing on Sunday.

1:39:58This is not okay. Are you seeing this? Are they seeing the same thing we're seeing? They are. Bart Scott's going to get a tattoo.

1:40:06Pat McAfee:Yeah. I saw that somebody will tattoo the number 17 on Ash Cheek if the Colts get a win with Phil Rivers, the quarterback. Yeah, Bart Scott said that this morning. And any of the remaining games? No, this weekend. Just this? Okay. I mean, we just watched the Falcons beat the Bucs last night, and they put up 29 points, and the Celciahs just went into Atlanta, flew all the way across the country and beat the ever-loving shit out of the Falcons. So your angle isn't what Tone just said with anything being possible. Your angle is, hey, we just saw a team beat the Bucs, and that team just got obliterated by the team that you're about to play.

1:40:45Pat McAfee:And it does feel like the Seattle Seahawks team, even though they're incredible and they're on their way to a potential Super Bowl, we all believe, they're not really talked about much or celebrated much because they're so far away. so they can't even get to the point of being too cocky about it. They're just always under the radar. Sam Darnold's been in the league a long time, got paid a lot of money. Jackson Smith and Jigba might be the best wide receiver in ball. Their defense might be the best defense in ball, and nobody really talks about them that often. How about Phil Rivers? Because they're so far away.

1:41:13Pat McAfee:Because they're so far away. So they never really get to the point where it's like being arrogant or maybe not focused. Every game is like a game for them to prove themselves. That is definitely what McDonald thinks, especially with their fans kind of turning on them like a year and a half ago. And the Rams in their division. Yeah, they're the five seed. They're not. So it's going to be tough, I guess, for the Seahawks to overlook anybody. I'm more concerned about the Colts' defense, yeah. DeForest Buckner was put into his window to return, which is gigantic for the Indianapolis Colts. I don't think he's playing this weekend.

1:41:45Pat McAfee:We need him. You know, they have that T.J. Watt stat about what the Steelers are with and without T.J. Watt. I don't know what the Colts are with or without DeForest Buckner. But Colts defensive season with 20.1 points per game, without him an extra touchdown. With him, only 87 yards rushing. Without him, an extra 50 yards rush or 40 yards rushing. And then the QBR is about 50 whenever he's in, 58.6 when he's not in. And that's not just this year. Years past when DeForest Buckner's not playing, not good. It's just not good. He hasn't been playing because he has a freaking neck injury. And obviously we'd like him to be healthy.

1:42:22Pat McAfee:But, yeah, Sam Darnold and that offense have been very good. And we don't have Mooney, and we don't have Sauce. That hurts. Still feel good about the 13 and a half. I will say that. That is a ton of points. This is the NFL. I mean, Brady Cook is starting this weekend. And everyone, if you're not a college football fan, you're like, who the hell is Brady Cook? And I believe he's got a better spread than the Colts. He fumbled his first snap last week. And the Houston Texans with the Cardinals. The Cardinals routinely lose games by 20-plus points. Correct. Houston, routinely. Routine. I mean, that is routinely what they do, the Arizona Cardinals.

1:42:58Pat McAfee:And they're playing against the best defense maybe in the history of the league. Maybe in the history of the league. And you're playing against a defense that has new heights with a completely different vibe now. One of my favorite shows in the history of shows. Bummed out. Travis is bummed out. You got Patrick Mahomes giving press conferences, but I don't know if we have any – this is what the Houston Texans just did to the Kansas City Chiefs. They're spread against the Arizona Cardinals, the Houston Texans. less than the Colts. Might have an MVP running back. A semifinalist against the Seattle Seahawks.

1:43:30Pat McAfee:Cardinals just lost by 28. Routinely lose by 20 plus points. Shorter spread than Colts and Seahawks. So, yeah. Hey, Phil. Keep stacking the chips, Phil. Phil knows. That's all you gotta do. Is that dumb? Gunner's probably texting him. Hey, Dad, they're telling me you're some dumb hick, some piece of shit. What are you doing playing? And Phil is out there to prove it, not to us, to his family. Yeah, and I'm okay with whoever he's proving it to. Just know, Phil, I have all the confidence in the world in you on this particular Feel Good Friday. I think you're going to do great. Now, could that change by Monday after what I see?

1:44:12Pat McAfee:Sure. Sure. Could that change? For sure. But also, that could get amplified, brother. That could certainly get amplified because I like our guys. And Riley might see something. Phil might do something that Riley hasn't seen yet, and all of a sudden Riley Leonard becomes a better quarterback. So I was thinking about a Riley Leonard package, you know, that we might have because he's so damn mobile. But that would involve Phil getting off the field and then getting back on the field. Might take a minute. Might take a little bit. Yeah, so I don't know if we're going to have any of that, but I just want to let Phil know I love you.

1:44:40Pat McAfee:I appreciate you taking a shot on the Colts at this stage of your life, and I can't wait to watch. Let's talk about the Philadelphia Eagles. They're battling. They took that positivity rabbit out of the locker room. Yeah. Yeah, that's tough. I mean, anytime you've got to take a positivity, anything out of something because you think it's affecting you in a negative way, you're really reaching. I don't like what I'm hearing out of Philadelphia. Me neither, but their schedule down the stretch here, they play the Raiders and the Commanders twice, and I can't remember who the other team is, but it doesn't matter.

1:45:07Like, they're going to beat the shit probably. You would assume that they will beat the shit out of the Raiders this weekend and out of the Commanders both times, and they'll kind of have an opportunity to get right here going in the playoffs. but can they beat any of the truly elite teams in the NFC? That remains to be seen. The Eagles' story, fascinating, just in the history. I don't get it. I don't get it.

1:45:30Pat McAfee:Me neither, dude. Locker room dynamics, though, are always something. Could you point to – there's no way you could point to one thing. Could you point to a couple things it is? Like what? I don't know. We're not in there, so we don't know what has happened. I don't know what the locker room – because that positivity rabbit being in the locker room, Yeah. As opposed to in the cafeteria is a message in of itself. Like, hey, this locker room needs a little bit more positivity. It's like, do they win too much? Everybody gets too full of themselves. And then all of a sudden there's no real bonding or chemistry.

1:46:00Pat McAfee:Is that what happens? Did something happen amongst teammates? Was something said? Is there, you know, like all that type of stuff. I just don't fully know because we're not in there. But I am worried about this Philadelphia Eagles team. Well, that's what's interesting, too, is they're on hard knocks right now with the in-season stuff. And I understand that that's selective. and we're not seeing all of that, but it seems kind of chipper around their facility. It doesn't seem like the sky is falling. They're making tongue-in-cheek jokes about that. They understand it, but I feel like we would still be able to maybe tell a little bit, like, oh, wow, that was a weird interaction.

1:46:36You can tell these guys don't really like each other. It doesn't really feel like that, and again, that's just what they're choosing to show us, but I still feel like we would be able to tell if things were really, really different. and it doesn't seem that way.

1:46:47Pat McAfee:Let's go to the Sunday slate one final time. We'll be making all of our picks against the spread after the show ends here on ESPN as we continue digitally. Are we still on TikTok? That's kind of a thing that changes every day. We either get banned or attacked on there. We get a lot of reported attacks from people. What do I? I don't know. You think it's China? Do people report it or robots? AI reports it. I don't think it's people. I think it's hating folks. And we know they are. Dookie! Through and through. It's a great Sunday slate for Week 15. We are in a great position for ball. All three time slots have magical football games.

1:47:29Pat McAfee:And then obviously Phil Rivers taking his first snap in five years is going to be a must-watch there at 425. Let's talk a little bit about sports happening around the world before we dive into the picks. have you seen this free diver this Croatian free diver I didn't know this was possible he stayed underwater for 29 minutes what? oh I didn't know if this was real or not at Mise Ma TV you think it's fake? you think Mise Ma TV is fake? I've been watching some of these free divers I've been watching this guy that trains people to hold their breath for 10 minutes which I thought was nuts 29 is crazy this could be AI this could be a complete fugaze we have not back checked it but it showed up in my algo and I saw it 29 minutes i thought i heard like three five minutes is a big deal yeah 10 minutes is a big deal 29 minutes underwater sounds like a an insane thing so the fact that this is happening congrats to him we hope that this is just what future humans can do uh i don't really know how you get to that point i remember when uh david blaine held his breath for like six or seven minutes or something like that and it was an absurd feat now we know that there's actual fish walking amongst us, it seems like.

1:48:41Yeah, this is ridiculous. And I didn't think anyone ever, I mean, TC basically held his breath, I think for like 10 to 12 minutes when he was filming The Last Mission Impossible. I just figured that was higher than any human will ever be able to reach. So for this guy to go for 29 minutes, I would venture to guess that TC is in the pool right now.

1:48:59Pat McAfee:Okay, TC's not in space. I heard what happened. Yeah, basically he said, hey, I would need favors from the government in order to do this because I believe part of it was that they were going to shoot on the International Space Station. TC was going to do a spacewalk. Turns out you can't just go up and do that. You kind of need the okay maybe from the president. And I think TC just said, you know what? I'm trying to make movies here. I don't want to get politics involved. I don't feel comfortable asking for any favors. So he's going to figure out a way. He just might not be doing a spacewalk on the space station.

1:49:30Pat McAfee:Yeah, because the next movie that he was shooting was supposed to be a space movie. Yes, this thing has been in development for a while, and it was basically like, hey, this thing is full go. TC, when he wants to do something, he's going to do it. And guess what? He wants to go to space and he wants to fix the Hubble telescope. But, yeah, it's not happening as of right now. He'll get it done. He will get it done. We'll assume they'll all get it done. Let's go to some fun social media. Did you see the Texans? Did you see the Texans? No, what happened? The fun social media segment? Yeah, it's fun social media.

1:50:00Pat McAfee:Cal McNair, owner of the Texans, was trying to get a high five from CJ Stroud after the game. and CJ just kind of missed him. So high-fiving everybody. Bang and a bang and a bang. Cal McNair, owner of the team. CJ, thank you for doing that. Okay, gets caught on there. Cal McNair, a couple days later, still holding his hand up. Wants his starting quarterback to maybe give him a high-five because of how much he loves what CJ has done for him. He walks through the facility. Hi, hi. Not saying hi. Not saying hi. Not saying hi. Just want to high-five here. Gets all the way through it and inevitably, finishes off with a high five from CJ Stroud.

1:50:38Pat McAfee:And I'll tell you what, special stuff happening in Houston. You got the owner walking around like this for content and content purposes only, Ty. This is unbelievable. I mean, you hit the nail on the head. This is fun social media. This is great. And you know what? Even him still wearing the coat from being in Kansas City, just, and this is the guy everyone was calling Tommy Boy a couple years ago when things were bad. They're like, hey, Cal McNair, this guy's a big dumb dipshit. He is big Tom Callahan's son, essentially. Are we sure about that? Because this is genius. This fun social media kind of stuff.

1:51:09And wow, what a moment.

1:51:10Pat McAfee:And allegedly, it was his idea to do it. I don't doubt it. He said, hey, listen, aren't we in a content-driven world? There's a reason why I'm in this seat and you guys are in your seat. Have we not thought about me maybe finishing the high five here? How do we go about getting that? They make the video. Shout out to the Texans doing it right. And also, CJ Stroud and the Texans, they might win the Super Bowl. Yeah. We think that? defense and if cj can get hot and that offense gets hot with that defense anything is possible absolutely isn't it crazy this year we're judging off the defenses like hey does the offense have enough to be able to beat one of these defenses is the question as opposed to like hey can the defense get a stop in a certain spot which has been years past now it's like can the offense have success against the other team's defense crazy kind of iteration of football right now that we're kind of watching.

1:52:00Well, it feels like that's kind of the first sign of the cyclical nature of football. Not only the running backs having more yards in the top five than the receivers, but also just how important now defense has been. The last, what, five, six years running the ball and offense has become much more prevalent, but now it is like, hey, what is your trenches? The Eagles were kind of the ones last year that showed this. What's your D-line? What's your O-line? And that is the separator now between these good and great teams. You know, you look at the number one and two seeds across the board, the Rams, unbelievable, the Packers, unbelievable, the Patriots and the Broncos.

1:52:37Their highest paid players are on their D and O line. It's awesome to see, especially as one of those teams, but also, too, you know, who has a young quarterback who, you know, has a young deal or a rookie deal, rather, and where, you know, teams can spend elsewhere.

1:52:53Pat McAfee:Yeah, going forward, I guess he has a big conversation. We've got some breaking news here out of Michigan. sharon moore uh we have video of him showing up to his arraignment today obviously the story of him being fired for cause due to a an inappropriate relationship with a staffer happens the other day then afterwards he gets arrested now we know what the charges are and now we have seen him in court here's him sitting for the arraignment today it is uh a video of him uh sitting wearing a white i mean this is not where you want to be oh jesus this is not where you want to be obviously this This is a moment that is not great for Sharon Moore.

1:53:30Pat McAfee:And obviously there's victims in this entire thing. So we are pulling for all parties, but this will continue to move forward as he was arraigned today. I believe there's three different charges that he has been charged with, breaking and entering stalking and then something else, uh, in the entirety of it all, all of them carry years in jail and fines alongside of it. So Sharon Moore today, verse one week ago, uh, certainly vastly different. And once again, perspective, anything you do in the dark will come to the light and things can change very quickly. That is something that I think we all can remember from this story.

1:54:04Yeah, I mean, I don't know. We'll figure out everything, I guess, in the coming months of what's going on. But man, yeah, just what a different life that guy has right now than he did just a couple days ago. And Michigan's in shambles trying to figure out what to do with the head coach position now.

1:54:17Pat McAfee:John Gruden would be a home run, right? We all think. Yep. Sure. And I know Portnoy's pushing for it very hard. I saw Portnoy posted something from John Gruden's maybe high school days where he said his dream was to be the head coach at the University of Michigan. And Portnoy was like, the time is now. I mean, we're sitting in the middle of it. I know there's a couple other names that have been floated. I think Pete Thamel mentioned Braum. Braum would be – I mean, that would be like a Matt Campbell type hire. Yeah, Matt Campbell gets hired to Penn State. Everybody that knows Ball is like, that's a really good hire from the situation you're in.

1:54:50Pat McAfee:And even if you weren't in the current situation, that's a good hire. Brom would kind of be something similar in that aspect. Tommy Reese, offense coordinator for the Cleveland Browns, I believe his name has been mentioned. His name was mentioned for every head coaching job that's kind of come up as of late. Minter's name's been there. Michigan's got to figure it out. But until then, the Ohio State people say, ha-ha, it's great to be a Buckeye. Is that how you guys are viewing it right now? Yeah, it's always great to be a Buckeye, whatever's going on in Michigan. And so, yeah, you know, Schroden Moore, that's a tough look, man.

1:55:18That sucks for him.

1:55:20Pat McAfee:Michigan, I think I heard you say. And obviously the 126th Army vs. Navy game is happening tomorrow. Shout out to the troops. Shout out to America. Who's favored? What's a quick breakdown, con man, on that game? I believe Navy is favored. They won last year. This game is at M &T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. And if you remember Blake Horvath, he is very motivated as always. And I'm going Navy. Fuck it. Okay, so you have yet to receive your Navy merch. I hope you get it someday soon. Shout to Army, Navy. Shout to all of you for allowing us to do this for a living. We're back on Overreaction Monday.

1:56:00Pat McAfee:Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. See you then. Okay. You didn't want to make a pick or you just threw it in there at the end? Just want to let people know. I mean, we just went to Paris Island and the Marines are within the Navy, so I feel like it would be pretty wrong to not. Yeah. Go Navy, beat Army. Is that what you're saying? Yes. What's Army saying? Probably go Army, beat Navy. Blake Horvath last year tweeted us to talk shit after the big-time win for Navy. Because of Munkin, yeah. I guess we do still have a football program because Munkin on our show said, does Navy even have a football team?

1:56:32Pat McAfee:And Horvath's like, that's cute. Let's go ahead and get the win. And then let's go ahead and talk a little shit about a couple of yinzers on Navy as well as we look ahead to this game. Yeah, Horvath is back at quarterback Heidenreich. I believe he's number 22, is the wide receiver from Pittsburgh. and Texas is T-E-C-Z-A, is the fullback for Navy. So, yes, there's a Pittsburgh connection there. Minus six is the spread. 38.5 is the total. Fun fact, 16 straight years it went under. Okay, 16 straight years it went under. And then the last three has been a push and two overs. So, not sure what's going to happen there, but for a long, long time it was like a guaranteed under game.

1:57:11Pat McAfee:Yeah, and underdogs have covered 10 of the last 14, eight of the last 11, three of the last four. Six points, a lot of points, man. Especially with Army-Navy. Hembo and Greeny said this is the greatest rivalry in college ball. That was their kind of take on it all. AJ, your thoughts on Army-Navy being so special to college football and kind of having its own weekend alongside the Heisman? I like the fact that it's kind of a standalone situation. First off, these unis are unbelievable. I got a good buddy, AJ Hensler, who played for Army, who lives by me. He's a lawyer now. So I'm pulling for Army for his sake, but obviously I understand the whole situation on both sides.

1:57:46Appreciate the boys from Parris Island, the boys and girls. But I think the pageantry surrounding this game, I've never been there. It's one of those things that I think you absolutely need to go to. I need to take my kids.

1:57:57Pat McAfee:Not doing game day there. We didn't do it last year either. We did it two years ago, I think I was there. Didn't Bill come on? Yeah, Belichick came on. And I'm going to say it feels – people want us to do it. I want game day to do it. I say us as if I have any say in what those people decide with game day. But I would like, it was kind of weird doing it, you know, because forcing the people to stand behind us while there's, it's a, I understand wanting to celebrate and make it a bigger deal and having college game day there certainly does that. And I'm very lucky to be a part of a show that does that.

1:58:33Pat McAfee:So maybe instead of doing the standard game day outside, it's like maybe on a sideline for like an hour leading up to it, as opposed to a full game day thing. Because it is, you turn around and you're like, don't stand here. Like, you guys, there's a lot of shit going on today. Was it the cadets? What's that? Was it the cadets? Cadets and I think the other side too. Just in general, like even the vets that are standing there, it's like a weird, it was kind of like a weird feeling doing it. Just from my own perspective. I think obviously the vets that aren't there or, you know, the alumni of Army or Navy watch game day and they like kind of get a sense of it through there.

1:59:08Pat McAfee:So I appreciate that and I understand that. So I think if there was like an hour kickoff show inside the stadium as opposed to doing like a full game day outside is probably the right answer in my eyes personally because we should draw a little bit more spotlight to this game because this is everything that's good with America. This is everything good with ball and everything like that. But I would just like to say from my perspective, the game day was kind of like, man, you guys are – Army Navy is a huge day. Like the amount of this that happens, the amount of catching up that happens, the amount of everything that happens.

1:59:36Pat McAfee:and then for them to feel obligated almost to stand outside. It's like it was just a weird – I was very appreciative, very thankful to be there, honored to be there, but also like very much like, ah, I don't know if this is the right thing that it's supposed to be. Well, and like by nature of it being the only game on that day, if you don't count, you know, 1AA playoffs and D2 and D3 and all that kind of stuff, it almost gets overshadowed a little bit because you're going to talk about that game, but you're not going to talk about it for three hours. So naturally, you start looking ahead to the playoff games and those games, obviously.

2:00:10And then you start looking ahead to the Heisman and things like that. And it seems like Army-Navy itself, it kind of comes back full circle when you make the picks. But it almost ends up not being the story of the day. And I don't know if I love it or not, but there is a bowl game Saturday night. Nah, who gives a shit? Who was in it? Boise and Washington. The L.A. Bowl. Is that still the Gronk Bowl?

2:00:30Pat McAfee:The Gronk Beach Party Bowl? It might be the Gronk Beach Party Bowl, but is anybody watching anything aside from Saturday Night Main Event? Yeah, I'll be on Peacock for John Cena's last hurrah. He'll be good on last, by the way. Who would have thought? That'll be what? Midnight? No. No, no, no. You believe it's his last time? You believe him? I'll tell you what. He took an angle with me that I didn't expect off air, and then he kind of mentioned it on air. I'm like, brother, wrestling, you're never retired. because there might come a time where the John Cena character is needed back or wanted back.

2:01:04Pat McAfee:And there's an entire thing like that is kind of a part of the wrestling business. And chasing the dragon of going through the curtain and all that shit has been a part of the wrestling world literally since the beginning of the wrestling world. So like retirements aren't real in wrestling. It's like a real conversation and a real statement that is made. And he even acknowledged that. But then he said like, I don't think I'm a liar though. Do you think I'm a liar? and i was like holy shit i i didn't whoa whoa whoa i was not calling you a liar there he goes yeah i'm just kind of questioning my integrity here and i'm like that is not what i meant to do i did not mean to do that because and he explained it here i think even more so and he was also explaining to me again like i know you can only go off what has happened in wrestling your retirements are not real i mean that's just like a real thing especially with a business opportunity that pops up or, you know, like, hey, Saudi Arabia wants to have a match where you are going to make whatever the money is for amount of 20 minutes of work, like just sound decision making process.

2:02:05Pat McAfee:Maybe you do think about doing that. And then he went into a full speech about money and about like, is that what's driving decision making? Is that what you think? So now you're questioning my moral. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm not saying that. I'm not doing that. But he is very steadfast. I'm like, no, yeah. I don't want to be the guy that says it's done and then I come back because then I'm a liar. And then what was the purpose of this entire thing if I end up coming back later? And I'll tell you, he is way too humble for who he is. He's fucking John Cena. And he has no idea that that's the case, I think, which is obviously a good thing, not a bad thing, which is why his character and he is who he is.

2:02:41Pat McAfee:But it's like I do think this is it for John. I do. I legitimately think this is it for John. Well, and a lot of those guys, like no disrespect to them, but like Cena, he's a legitimate like A-list movie star now. You know, like he has his next thing lined up. And, you know, he kind of said to us, he was like, hey, if I don't commit to that and kind of put everything I have into that the way I did with wrestling, when I first started, like, I'm not going to be successful in it. So I could see that because, like we said, and the fans do it too. Like when we were in Philadelphia, we went fucking apeshit when Undertaker and Cena and all those guys came out.

2:03:16It was the best part of the night, but at a certain point, those people are always going to be asking for that. So it's like if you do it a few times, then you kind of do sign yourself up for like, oh, boy, am I expected to do this every single year at WrestleMania? I could see not wanting to do that either.

2:03:31Pat McAfee:He's a special human. He's so jacked. Yeah. So huge. So, so jacked. Has been forever. Work ethic insane. Let's go to work, Stu. Nice. He did that on the way out. He did. He did. I'll never forget it. Yeah, right out the door there. He gets changed. He goes into the locker room, comes out, changed, you know, to travel. He looks at us. Somebody was up on the screen. Maybe you. I don't know who it was. He looks at us and he goes, and he walks right down the hallway. It was like, what a moment. That was a real moment right there. He's awesome. Check on D-Bone. Let's talk about the Heisman tomorrow.

2:04:08Pat McAfee:Well, we already know he's exploded all over himself. He can't sweat right now because all the moisture in his body has exploded through his penis. He's come seven to eight different times. Casino is here. His balls weigh 50 pounds. Over and over again. So let's talk about Heisman tomorrow. There has become a clear odds-on favorite in Fernando Mendoza. Minus 1 ,800 to win this thing. That means everybody knows who's winning at this point, Tone? Yeah, you would assume so. And like I said, going into the Big Ten championship, it was kind of between him, Pavia, and Julian Sane. He won the Big Ten championship, so that kind of automatically knocks out Sane.

2:04:48So it's between him and Pavia, and then he has that huge throw down the sideline to Charlie Becker, and everyone was tweeting about it. It's his Heisman moment and stuff like that because, you know, there is – everyone's watching it. That's the last thing everyone sees before they turn in their ballots and stuff like that. So then his odds jump tremendously, and, yeah, it's highly expected that he will be your Heisman.

2:05:07Pat McAfee:I appreciate that he is who he is. I thought he had an incredible performance on our show. Not that I judge how people do on our show, but I certainly appreciate that he came on, obviously knew the show, and I think the response from a lot of people that maybe didn't know a lot about him was like, this dude's awesome. I don't think a lot of people knew that he was awesome. He was being accused of reading AI answers in interviews because maybe he was too robotic, people were saying about him, and then he comes on our program and he's pretty wide open. I think because he knows us pretty well, he understands the program and has followed for a long time from my understanding, Fernando has.

2:05:44Pat McAfee:So the way he plays, the way he talks about getting hit, the way he views football, the plays he has made, everything about him screams Heisman, I think, and somebody that they would want to be a part of their fraternity forever. But also number one overall pick, this guy. Like what a wild transfer from Cal to Bloomington, Indiana, takes the Hoosiers on this ride and also change the trajectory of his life AJ. Yeah. Imagine this guy's, imagine he's going to win the Heisman most likely. His speech is going to be like, it's going to be perfect. It's going to be emotional. It's going to be inspirational.

2:06:16It's going to be authentic to him. Like, yeah, it's impossible to root against this guy, I think. Him and a lot of the guys on the team, when you hear them speak, they got something special going over there. I'm a huge fan of Mendoza. I always will be.

2:06:28Pat McAfee:I had a lot of Ohio people attack me because I had a hole in my jeans and I was chanting for the Hoosiers at Lucas Oil Stadium. You know, a lot of people call me a douchebag from Ohio. What's the hole in your jeans? What do you mean about that? Well, I was wearing holy jeans as if I thought I was some fucking Abercrombie Fitz model. That's what Ohio people were saying. You know, classical. I'm from Pittsburgh. I understand how Ohio people are. There were some people talking shit to me calling me a douchebag, all these types of things on the internet and in real life for this particular moment.

2:06:56Pat McAfee:But it also felt as if the Ohio State people kind of have respect for Indiana. Didn't it feel like that, AJ? I don't know. You'd be around it a little bit more than me. I think they definitely do, yeah. I don't hear, like, Indiana slander. I don't hear anyone talk. Like, yeah, I think they respect who they are and how good of a team they are. I think they appreciated how tough they were. Like, I think that is what Ohio State people – and I'm not saying that Ohio State people are immediately going to respect a team that's tough because if Michigan's tough, Ohio State's not going to respect them.

2:07:22Pat McAfee:But I think from my understanding, from what I have witnessed, and it might just be through you and the other people I know from Ohio that have talked about it, but it feels like Ohio State's like, Indiana's a good football team. Obviously, we shouldn't have lost that game. We need to win those games. But I don't think it's like Ohio State hates Indiana. I think Ohio State's like, yeah, we lost to a really good football team in Indiana, and now we're in the college football playoff. Well, and it wasn't like a shootout. It was a gritty, physical game. To your point, if that was something where they were dancing around and maybe it was a blowout and it was a very pretty game from Indiana, that'd be one thing.

2:07:58but they shut down Ohio State's offense, and nobody has really done that. Actually, nobody has done that since the college football playoff started last year. And when you're talking about their defense too, like the Hoosiers took punches. The first play of the game, Mendoza got fucking blasted, and he bounced back and continued to play. And it feels like that is something Ohio people will look at and say like, okay, respect. You talk how you talk, whatever. You got killed. You came back in the game. and you stepped up in the biggest moment. It's good football.

2:08:31Pat McAfee:Good football. Yeah. And that's all we're looking for, good football. Play the game right, represent the game right, respect the game, and let's enjoy the hell out of this season. All right, let's take a break, and then let's make our picks on the other side as your connection is getting a little sticky over there as you're starting to compliment Indiana.

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2:10:19Pat McAfee:Football! We're about to get into our picks, but AJ, we would be remiss if we didn't pick this one. Cena, Gunther, one-on-one, Washington, D.C. in the final final for John Cena's legendary goat-like career. Now, he's taking on the ring, getting all out. Gunther, who I've been in the ring with, and I'll tell you what, brother, he's a problem. He's strong. He's tough. and whenever that chop hits your chest, it's not only your sternum that hurts and your body that hurts, your eardrums blow out because the smack is so damn menacing that your entire body can't help but to collapse. John Cena's obviously been in battles before, but I don't know if he knows what he's into with this Austrian monster in Gunther.

2:11:10Pat McAfee:AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? First, let's get some of the numbers. Tone, what is the percentage of bets on who for this particular matchup? A crazy 85 % is on John Cena in this matchup. Wow. But it makes sense. He is minus 300 to win this match. He's a heavy favorite. The odds have been moving, though, in this particular one. He obviously ends here as a heavy favorite, just like Fernando Mendoza for the Heisman. But it wasn't always that way when we were looking ahead to this match, Ty. No, it wasn't. And I think one of the reasons that it might be moving in the other direction towards Gunter is because a lot of people are speculating that the Kabuki Warriors might interfere with this match.

2:11:45and somehow they've been raising a lot of hell over there. So we'll see, but that could be why things are kind of moving back in the direction of Gunter.

2:11:52Pat McAfee:So obviously you bring up the Kabuki Warriors. Last time we saw Cena in a ring, Raquel Rodriguez gave him the Tejada bomb. Then he got the Pop Rocks from Roxanne Perez. He got kicked in the balls by Liv Morgan. So obviously a lot happened. Dominic Mysterio becomes the Intercontinental Champion. But Conman, when you talk about not only the odds shifting, has that changed your mindset on who's going to win this? And what do you think the strategies are? I think you always have to look at the odd moving. I would take the over on Chops. I think that's my biggest thing is Gunther especially is going to have to hammer him.

2:12:21I mean, this is the GOATS, the never-seen 17 champion. He will be going for his final bid, and he has all the motivation in the world, but Gunther also playing spoiler. I mean, he is Austrian. He's not American, so he doesn't respect anything that is true and real and patriotic. So I'd take over Chops because that's going to be his strategy. As far as Cena goes, I mean, I think he's just flying off pure emotion. Who knows about sleep tonight? I don't see any in Cena's future. So being well-rested, does that matter as much? I don't think so. Hard to go against Cena, but the safe bet here is just pain.

2:12:57It's just pure pain delivered from Gunther. What do you mean you almost got it? I had the perfect bow, and I completely fucking pissed on it. So I'm actually incredibly, incredibly mad at myself right now. I don't really want to get into it. But you're saying pure pain's on the way. Pure pain's on the way, man. I think Gunther wins.

2:13:25Pat McAfee:All right. Tone picking Gunther. Ty. I'm not going against Cena. He's with 88 % of the bets is what Tone says. Con man. I'm taking Cena in a landslide. AJ. I'd have to roll with Cena, but I think it's a possibility that for the business, Cena finds a way to just let Gunter have this one. I think it's possible. Do you think the last time is now he's going to let something happen for somebody else? He's leaving it all out there, and he never gives up. He wants to put over the business more than anything. It's not about John Cena. It's about the business. That's what he said today. I mean, he's a humble champion.

2:14:01He wants to springboard the most violent champion of all time into the next stratosphere.

2:14:05Pat McAfee:And that's why you're taking? Gunter. well how about showcasing to the next generation that if you work your ass off and you become the goat you fucking win yeah that'd be cool wouldn't that be a cool thing that would be and that's what it's gonna be give me john cena hell yeah yeah i'll take cena too give me cena big fight john i mean no problems i'm excited to see who all shows up now i thought it was potentially on mbc because maybe peacock would want john cena's final thing on mbc you know the peacock company would want the linear one to maybe get a little bit of a boost. You know, we got John Cena's final match.

2:14:39What is on it?

2:14:40Pat McAfee:It's strictly on Peacock, which means there's no hard out. Ah, there you have it. Peacock, there's no hard out, right? So for us, this match could be two hours long. Not just this match. Who knows? This card. Not just the card, but who knows all the, you know, the shits that could come with John Cena's final match. You know, who's going to want to say thank you to John Cena? Who's going to want to come see John Cena? You know, like that type of stuff. Those types of conversations. There's a chance that no hard out is definitely for the best of all parties, but also provides a lot of opportunity for tomorrow night being awesome.

2:15:19Pat McAfee:So congrats to John Cena. He gave a big time win on his way out. That's what he does. Good boy, John. The Wall, I believe, is on NBC at 8 p.m. Let's fucking go! They also have the Shrek the Halls Christmas special. Yes! You're not going to be watching that though I got multiple TVs and Shrek the Hulls will be one of them Yeah pure pain though is on the way Per square inch That's going to haunt you for the whole weekend And SNL Oh yeah SNL

2:15:51What's he doing? Hopefully it's not an indication of things I'm so serious Yeah I know we were watching Until 1 o 'clock I'm going to be thinking about that two minutes please don't it was great you actually saying I was so close man maybe my favorite

2:16:12Pat McAfee:take you've ever had calm man thank you for the breakdown over on chops good part that's good prop bet that's good prop bet alright let's get to our bets week 15 oh Mendoza is winning the Heisman yeah that's what I'm saying Yeah, they shouldn't have odds on it because it kind of ruins the whole thing. Yeah, it kind of does. It makes us know what's going to happen before a time, but we can look ahead to Mendoza's speech, which I think we all think. Army, Navy. Navy favored by six. AJ, you'll take? I'm going to take Army on this one. Army plus six. I'll take Navy. I'll take Navy minus six just strictly because, you know, we've got to represent for America on both sides.

2:16:51Pat McAfee:If you would have taken Navy there, I would have taken Navy. It's in Baltimore. kind of a home game in our backyard. Ooh, raw, boys. Six points, a lot of points. those helmets, both helmets are sweet. Obviously, they both played Air Force this year, and they both won by three points against Air Force. I don't know if that means anything to you. Six points, a lot of points. Fun fact, I believe I saw it yesterday on the internet. I think each helmet, each Navy helmet takes three hours to paint. Yeah, I saw the painting. It's insane. Yeah, very nice. It's going to be special. The, flyovers always.

2:17:25Pat McAfee:Yeah, the pregame festivities are awesome. Six points, a lot of points.

2:17:32Pat McAfee:Army plus six Navy wins. I'm on your side there, AJ. Six points, it feels like a lot of points. Underdogs. Yeah, and the trends are this is going to be a close game. Snow, right, we assume? Yeah. I don't know for sure, but I would assume. Feels cold. Yeah. Yeah, this one feels close, doesn't it? It feels like it's coming down to the end. High of 43, low of 30. No precipitation, so just a nice, cloudy Baltimore day. All right, I'll take Army plus six. Navy wins, though. Congrats to them. All right, let's go to the Sunday slate, AJ. Last night, we were both wrong, so that means we're zero and zero going into Sunday.

2:18:05Pat McAfee:Shout out to both of us. Browns, Bears. Bears favored by 7.5 at home. Over under, 38.5. Shador Sanders, Caleb Williams, Kaleeb Williams, depending upon who you listen to. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? Obviously, I was thinking Bears early, like I think everyone is, But you know what? For whatever reason, I think the Browns find a way to keep this one close. Give me the Browns. How cold is it now? What's the weather? This one's about to be historic. Yeah, 10 degrees, and I believe we got a 15-degree wind chill. It might get down to negative 5. Yeah, it feels like negative 4 at kickoff is what it says.

2:18:38Pat McAfee:Chilly. Yeah, that is a chilly. Who knows how this game goes then? You know that. Who handles this the best? It feels like negative 4, and then there's gusts coming. Yeah, it's literally just a mental toughness game. That is all this one is. I like where Ben Johnson's team is. I like them minus 7.5, even though I could see Myles Garrett getting a couple. Congrats to him on his record. I think Shador Sanders is going to do well again. I think he's going to throw for a bunch of yards, continue that conversation. But give me the Chicago Bears. I like them fresh off a loss to the Packers. Jets, Jags, AJ, Jags favored by 13.5 at home.

2:19:11Pat McAfee:Congrats to Jacksonville Jaguars having the opportunity to be favored by this much in meaningful football season. Such a quick turnaround for Liam and the boys. Anything we need to know about this particular game? Brady Cook is the starting quarterback for the Jets because Tyrod and Justin Fields are hurt. And if you watched him last week, no disrespect to him, but this is one of those things where it's like if you're a 13 and a half, a lot of points. But if you pick the Jets and they end up getting beat by 35, which they definitely could, you're going to be kicking yourself come Monday. AJ, who do you like?

2:19:40Well, with that being said, I guess I'll take the Jags. It was ugly.

2:19:44Pat McAfee:Me too, brother. Okay, I'll take the Jags as well. Bills at Patriots. Bills favored in Foxborough against the number one seed, New England Patriots. Whole new team in New England. Drake Mays, a bona fide superstar. Odds on favor to win the damn MVP. Mike Vrabel has always won when he was a head coach. And the Buffalo Bills are fresh off a Josh Allen MVP in the snow masterpiece. Late comeback to beat the Cincinnati Bengals. Connor, any final thoughts that we should think about? 95 % chance of snow on Sunday in July. It will be a snow game. It is a hat and t-shirt game. I believe it's the only one, first one of the season.

2:20:22Patriots win. They win the division. They are officially in the playoffs. I'm not completely sure as far as injury report goes. I know our third string running back is probably out. Christian Benford, starting corner superstar for the Bills. Actually, a guy who had the pick six against the Bengals. He popped up on the injury report. I believe he had a boot for a toe injury. Starting left guard, Jared Wilson, for the New England Patriots, who's been out the past couple weeks with an ankle. He will be back at left guard, which is massive. I mean, this is just kind of a throw-everything-out-blood-ball time, baby.

2:20:54Has Drake May played in a snow game yet? I don't believe so. Not this year. He might have had one late last year in the snow, but I'm not sure. Nothing with stakes like this, for sure.

2:21:04Pat McAfee:Let's go into the deets, shall we? Hand size, please, on Drake, and then obviously compare it to big hand Josh Allen. Drake May 9 in an eighth is his hand size. Josh Allen is 10 and an eighth for his hand. He's got an inch bigger hands. What's a standard for big hand quarterbacks to be? Over nine inches? Is that kind of the thing? I think anything over nine is considered good, right? Coming out of that draft, because this is how I found it or whatever, Pennix had 10 and a half. Bo Nix was 10 and an eighth. Caleb, nine and three quarters. Drake May, nine and an eighth. JJ McCarthy, nine. So I don't know what that does for you, but that's just kind of what the coming out of that draft was.

2:21:36Pat McAfee:Because Josh Allen in the snow, we all just see him do special things, and it's because he has massive hands. He's an athlete. and he can move. Drake May, we just assume, going to be good in a similar situation. Yeah, just for context, what were Kenny Pickett's hand size? Because that was the big thing with him. No, no. Can we actually get it, though? Because that was the whole thing. It was like, hey, this guy's hands are way too small, so if his are eight and something, then I guess... Eight and a half. Okay, so there you have it. So yeah, no big deal. Alright, let's move along. Who are you picking, AJ?

2:22:04Pat McAfee:The Beals or the Patriots? You know what? I'm going to go with the Buffalo Beals on this one. I will take the New England Patriots, even though there's a lot of unknowns. and we know how special Josh Allen can be in the snow, I like the Patriots team a lot. Not that I don't like the Beals. Love the Beals. They've been very good to us, but I just like. Maybe it's because Connor and me following along with this story so closely to it, they're a good football team. They're a very fucking good football team, the New England Patriots. And Vrabel, Connor said at the beginning of the show, off of a bye in the regular season is 6-0 ATS and straight up.

2:22:36Pat McAfee:Getting points at home, I'll take the New England Patriots. Cardinals, Texans. Texans, minus 9.5. I've already talked about how disrespectful it is to the Colts for what this spread is. So everybody knows I'm on the Texans. How about you, AJ? Yep, give me the Texans. Raiders, Eagles, Eagles favored by 11 and a half at home, taking on a Raiders team that has just been very fascinating to watch. Who was playing quarterback for the Raiders last week? It was Geno, and then Kenneth Pickett came in. He threw an absolute dart, and he will be your starting quarterback. It's not a revenge game. It's kind of like a commemorative game since he was the Super Bowl winning quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles last year.

2:23:10Pat McAfee:Kenny Pickett, last person to touch the ball during the Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl. A kickoff, it'll be 29. It'll feel like it's 19 degrees. Precipitation probability 5%, so we don't have to worry about any of the hand stuff with the football. Not that Kenny Pickett ever has anyways. He played a bit and won an ACC championship. He's from New Jersey. He used to bad weather. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it in this one? 11.5, it's a lot of points. Yeah, 11.5 feels like a bunch, especially like I don't feel great about where the Eagles are right now. but I don't feel very good about the Raiders either.

2:23:41So give me the Eagles right here, minus 11.5.

2:23:43Pat McAfee:All right, I'll take the Raiders plus 11.5, even though I don't think they win the game ever. Two and a half favorites are the Baltimore Ravens taking on the Cincinnati Bengals. Bengals, interesting situation, especially with Joey B saying, this sucks. I don't want to be around anymore. I ain't playing playoff football, so what is the purpose of playing? It's a kid's game. Okay, we get paid a lot of money to do this. I certainly love it, but, I mean, what do we play it for? There's a chance. Is where Joey Burrow is at. Yeah. There's a chance. What's that, pal? If they went out, which their schedule is not bad, there's a chance they could still make the playoffs.

2:24:18So they still have something to play for. And if they lose, they're out. They're eliminated, and this could be the last time you ever see Joe Burrow in a Bengals jersey. Or ever. Any jersey.

2:24:26Pat McAfee:At kickoff, yeah, because he was talking, and then all the Andrew Luck comparisons came in. We all saw what happened there. At kickoff, it'll feel like it's one degree. Sheesh. Okay. Lamar Jackson and Baltimore Ravens, they've looked very interested this year, right? Yeah. Very much so. Interested is kind of a word that could describe the Baltimore Ravens. Have they been? I don't know. Juiced up, ready to go, excited to play in every game. I think this is Joe's first home game since he's been back. Two and a half point favorites in Cincinnati. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? I like the Cincinnati Bengals here.

2:24:55Now, I know T. Who else? T. Higgins is out. Anyone else out? Trey. Trey. Trey. Trey's continued to be out. Okay. Yeah. Give me the Bengals at home here.

2:25:07I think Joe is Joe's a rope-a-dope letting people letting them think that he's like all down the dumps oh you know what is football what is life boom he goes puts up five touchdowns

2:25:17Pat McAfee:Joe's got to do a fool I love football I am football week I like Joey being the Bengals as well that's crazy to say about this Ravens team by the way just in my head I just saw the stats of Lamar for the last what four or five games or whatever it is. It's just not good or bad. Yeah, and everybody's hurt at this point, but it looks as though he's hurt. He's playing injured. Give me the Bengals. It's going to feel like it's one degree at kickoff. Jeez Louise. Chargers, Chiefs in the home of the Chiefs. Favored by five and a half with 76 % of the bets on the Chargers. Obviously, after the huge primetime win.

2:26:03Pat McAfee:There was a lot of things that happened with Justin Herbert. Obviously with everything that happened in Michigan, we assume Harbaugh's got a little bit of this going on. So there's a lot of negative potentially surrounding the Chargers, even though fresh off a win in the Chiefs. There's a lot of bummed-at mindset. What are your thoughts on the game, AJ? Who do you like? How do you like it? Man, I may be stupid, but I've got to pick the Chiefs here. I don't know. It's crazy to me that, is this a big line, right? Is that because Justin Herbert, the hand, the whole situation coming off the surgery, is that why the Chiefs are favored by this much?

2:26:32Pat McAfee:That's a lot of points, man. That's a division game. Yeah, for real. But I'm still taking them. So, yeah, I'm going to go against Big Mike's judgment and give me the Chiefs. All right, I'll take the Chargers plus five and a half. Washington Commanders, New York Giants. Giants favored by two and a half at home. Congratulations. Yeah. Okay. Snaps a 21-game underdog streak. Wow, congratulations. That's a big deal. How about Mara just a couple years ago was sick of telling his billionaire friends about why his team sucks. And for the first time in 21 games, his team isn't expected to lose. Good for him.

2:27:07Pat McAfee:Hey, congrats to you guys. Hey, Mark. This is a bust-wash game. Anything we need to know about this game that potentially would inform us on why you guys are favorites, Bruce? No, not really. I mean, the commies just got boat raced. But, yeah, not a ton to play for or really care about here. It's just pure pride. Rivalry matchup in the division, win it for the gaffer, you know. Shit. Let's go get one done. If not, we're picking first. Yeah, let's do it. AJ, did that get it over the hump for you to pick the Giants, or are you going to take the commanders getting points like I am? Who are the starting quarterbacks in this game?

2:27:41Dart and Mariota. Yeah, Mariota and Dart. Yep. Okay, give me the New York Giants. I like them at home. Oh. I do. Mike Kafka did say on hard knocks we're going to win out. He said if you guys aren't coming to do that, get the fuck out of here. So, I don't know. message landed. Remember they showed 2-10 on the board before the Patriots game? I love this shit. This fucking sucks. We're done with this. And then they lost to the pass, but they just had a bye. So now they're 2-11. And they did it again. Put the fucking record up. They said, nuh-uh.

2:28:16Pat McAfee:Fuck this, guys. We can actually do it this week. Now, on the flip side, it kind of cut to the guys in the meeting room. And they looked very disinterested. And kind of like they didn't care what he had to say. Oh, really? Yeah, we are. We suck. You're going to be gone. Fourth fucking guy to stand up there in the last month. Give me Mariota. Give me Mariota. Without Zach Hurts, right? Oh, yeah. Zach, we appreciate your contribution to sports. And if you come back from this, that would be insane. But that looked nasty. We hope you're okay in the future. Let's go Colts, Seahawks. Biggest spread of the weekend somehow.

2:28:55Pat McAfee:Seahawks favored by 13.5 at home. chance of precipitation is Phil Rivers is 49 hours 41 minutes and six seconds away from making his first start in five years his first playing time in five years is there anything else we need to know about this game other than old man Philip Rivers is returning nope that's it AJ Hawk who do you like how do you like him you know from the minute I heard that Phil Rivers was signing with the Colts. I was very positive on it. I said, it's a great idea. Why not? We've got to figure it out. Let's find a way. I'm going to stick with that. I'm taking the Colts here. Obviously, Colts plus 13.5.

2:29:34I think if you have Colts money on it, that's not a bad situation either.

2:29:38Pat McAfee:You're speaking from my brain. I love that. Thank you, AJ. You got my shirt on from Koof Andy. I love that. Amazon's looking out for both of us. You're saying my words out of your brain. I love where we're at. We're seeing the field the same way. Give me the indianapolis colts plus 13 and a half i think it was plus 14 yesterday too it was it was we'll take the plus 14 as well right aj won't we yes we will we will take it all day titans niners niners favored by 12 and a half at home titans i don't know man just really about anything well i i don't know if you heard but cam war was being a negative nancy on the team playing after with her win i heard that was taken out of context i heard that cam ward was basically like yeah it's cool man we won but also like what are we doing yeah we suck we're fucking two and eleven then I heard somebody who's the team comedian who has no relationship with everybody said, hey, it's hard to win this league.

2:30:26Pat McAfee:Let's make sure we enjoy this. I don't care what the hell Cam Ward said. Cam Ward, he's a fucking rookie. You don't know how hard he's winning. I saw there's truth in every joke. So maybe team comedian's a shit talker naturally. We know Cam Ward's a shit talker as well. So that's just a little shit talk, I think. And I like that Cam Ward's like, hey, let's not fucking have a parade. Because we won a game. Let's make sure we understand there's still things to do, which maybe bodes well for the future of the Titans. if anybody in positions of power can make a good decision one time. That's all we need.

2:30:55Pat McAfee:TBD. That's asking a lot. This is going to shock you. I looked it up yesterday. The Titans, after a win this year, are 0-1. What? We don't have a lot to pull from. We don't have a lot to pull from. Is there any Niners stats that we have here, other than the fact that they're just a much better football team than the Tennessee Titans? Oh, I bet there are. I don't have them at the helm, especially because stats today were a lot of opinions. But I do think that— It did feel like a mail-in on a stats thing. It's fucking ridiculous, but Bob Sala against rookie quarterbacks. Can't imagine rookie quarterbacks do too well against a guy like that.

2:31:28All right, AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? I was leaning Tennessee when we started this, but I'm going to flip and take San Francisco minus 12.5.

2:31:38Pat McAfee:Yeah, I had the same exact trajectory as you on this particular pick. Give me the Niners. Green Bay favored by 2.5, heading into number one seed, Denver Broncos. Now, obviously, the Broncos' defense is stat. Bo Nix is able to get the job done on the offensive side. And for the Green Bay Packers, you want to talk about a stat defense, that's a smothering defense that they have. Halfley's name is now up for basically every single job. Mike is doing things we've never seen of, and it's not just him. It's the entire squad on the offensive side. It's toy-o-thon. Jordan Love is about to go absolutely bonkers.

2:32:14Pat McAfee:Ty, anything we should think about before making this pick? No, you kind of mentioned it when we talked about this in the first hour. Josh Jacobs did have another MRI just to make sure he didn't do anything to his knee, and it came back clean. But there is a thought that maybe he won't play Sunday. I think he's playing Sunday. So at this point, that's kind of the only thing. Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said that running back Josh Jacobs will practice today in a limited fashion. It sounds like he's feeling pretty good. LaFleur added they will have to see how he feels after the workout. LaFleur said there, and we didn't hear it exactly, Josh Jacobs telling us he's playing this game.

2:32:48Yeah, I mean, you know, this is a massive fucking game. I can't see there being any way he sits this out.

2:32:53Pat McAfee:AJ, who do you like and why is it the Packers? I tell you what, I mean, the fact that the Packers are favorites going into Denver when they are such a good team and a tough place to play at mile high, that says a lot about what these oddsmakers, I guess, believe the Packers are. I think the Packers win this. I'm taking the Packers here, minus two and a half on the road in Denver. We know the impact Micah has, even if he's not making the tackle. We know what he can do, and the rest of that defense is very, very good around him. And Jordan Love's going to hit a few deep balls over the top, too. I don't like what my brain just did.

2:33:24Pat McAfee:I don't like it. I was on the Packers there, and I might end up still being on the Packers. But in my brain, I saw Jordan Love backing up like this and doing one of these, and for some reason, Broncos are on the other side of it. There's a chance. I mean, he threw a pick early against the Bears last week and then kind of recalculated and just absolutely shredded him. No, that's old Jordan. That's not this Jordan. I was going to say, he's been playing so good over the last four weeks, and I would guess that's why the line is what it is, because ultimately the books just are a little bit more confident in Jordan Love than they are Bo Nix.

2:34:02I'll take the Green Bay Pack. What were you going to say? Yeah, exactly what he said. If you look at the teams and how the Broncos have beat them, they haven't had an impressive win this point yet. And we talked about this yesterday to someone who called you. The Patriots get a lot of gruff for their strength of schedule, and no one's really talking about how the Broncos have the second easiest schedule, but they haven't beaten anybody handily really yet.

2:34:28Pat McAfee:Okay, I like the Packers minus two and a half. I don't know why my brain did that, though, because my brain was just trying to, hey, checks and balances. You know, every stone. And he played, Bo, to his credit, he does step up in big game. He does. He does. I like Jordan, too, after his interview, which, once again, I can change the way I think about somebody entirely from one conversation. I liked Jordan Love coming into our convo with him earlier this week. I love Love now. Boom. Detroit Lions, I used to love them. What happened? Well, I fell out. Mostly because we have zero relationship with the team, but also because they don't look the same this year as they did last year.

2:35:06Pat McAfee:No, they don't. I fell in love with them last year and the year past because they were tough, they were fun, they were exciting, they were electrifying. And MCDC was giving us a sound bite every single fucking week. Where have those been? Honestly, good question. He's focused on the offense. Well, Applebee's commercial was ass. Bad. His press conferences have been ass. Bad. What are they contributing to fucking sports all of a sudden? The locker room sellies have been worse than they normally are, I'd say. Oh, no. Jameer Gibbs is really the only redeeming. Him and Jack Campbell, yeah. The offense is playing great.

2:35:37Pat McAfee:I'll give MCDC a lot of credit there. And they're going to have to score a million points in this game. But I will say the defense has not been, if you guys remember, Brian Branch out with that Achilles injury. Kirby Joseph was supposed to come back. He's been out for a million games. Well, he had a setback, so he's out for the regular season. And Terry and Arnold, another starter, out for the season, so that secondary is banged up. And that's not good against Matthew Stafford. Do they have the revenge game every time? Matthew Stafford's playing the Detroit Lions. Do they have the immortal chamber thing in Detroit for all these players, or did Matt only get introduced to that in L.A.?

2:36:07Pat McAfee:Great point. We need that. Also, let's look into the turf. I think you brought that point up to me. That turf seems to be a problem because we have injuries two years in a row now, and it's not looking good. Yeah, nobody ever talks about Detroit's turf, and I'm not saying all the injuries are there. Just natural thought whenever we hear about a team having a lot of injuries is like what's going on there that maybe isn't where else, and maybe it's just misfortune or whatever. but on that note the immortal people I think have tried to get in touch with us. Seriously? There's a chance we get one of those trailers in here.

2:36:36That would be awesome.

2:36:38Pat McAfee:Yeah we're living forever. Our haters are going to be fucking mad when we are alive forever and they are not. We're all going to be able to dunk again? Again? You were able to dunk? And you were able? Huh? No. No I know you weren't. That's what I'm saying. What dunking are you referring to? High school brother. High school what? Fucking basketball. You're dunking in us. What are we talking about? Tennis ball, but. I didn't know. Honestly, I'm going to be 100 % serious right now. I had no idea you had ever. Tennis ball counts. I'm saying with the tennis ball, you were able. Yeah. I didn't know you had that type of explosion.

2:37:14I bet you still can.

2:37:15Pat McAfee:You're more of a savvy player, I always thought. I didn't know you were like an explosive. Not anymore. Still savvy. I didn't know you could get the tennis ball in. That's even a good feat for you. Yeah. For anybody. Yeah. Yeah, I couldn't touch my room. Kidding me? Never? Not even close, brother. But you fucking got A.J. Dillon on the sideline. I was a savvy basketball player. More of a stock team. Could you smack the backboard when you were doing a layup? The bottom. The rubber? The rubber part. Smacking rubber? I mean, look, no one was picking me to dunk the ball. They were picking me to pass the ball.

2:37:52Pat McAfee:I know, but for a guy that, in my eyes, is a good athlete, I think you are a good athlete. after watching you do all different sporting styles. I think you are a good athlete. You're the first good athlete that I've ever met that has not been able to touch like rim. Jumping, and I mean this seriously. Basketball was probably one of my better sports growing up, but yes, like jumping has just never been my thing. Yeah, but Connor can throw. Connor can shoot. Connor can do it. Connor, you're like a real athlete. Oh, yeah, I can skate. Like if we go across the board in sports, I can do them all. Just jumping, no matter what, has never been my thing.

2:38:25Pat McAfee:Dancing there, you're not bad. Yeah, again, on the ground. Ten toes. Yeah, exactly. Two feet. You gassing up that drummer the other night, I still would not be able to ever. Okay. I mean, he was a talent. I mean, he might have been a cocky son of a bitch. Is that when he owned Tabittle? We were at a, oh, that was crazy. This might have been the reason why Indiana won, to be honest. At halftime, Indiana's band was doing their thing first. Tabittle was walking in front of us. our suite and i don't know how many people are on that too many maybe a thousand a lot a lot he got every other one of them so 500 then they'll say if there's a thousand eight hundred he got 400 of them he they would walk and they would have no idea and they go he kind of go hey to beddle to beddle and uh ohio state band would look and he'd go on the field to beddle and then he it was funny they were pissed they were not i i laughed every other time i did it to beddle and the indiana band put on good show at halftime How come nobody was saying that about the Big 12 championship?

2:39:26Pat McAfee:What's that all about? I don't know. I thought John Party brought the fucking house down. He did. But apparently not everybody thought that. Came out of the ground. Give this guy some credit. He had three different stages. Three stages, fucking pyro and fireworks. This guy had a clean shave, sweet jacket. That might have been the problem. Huh? That might have been the problem. He should have maybe grown a beard because I saw a lot of people saying, who the fuck is this wobble body? Oh, it's dirt on my boots guy, and he doesn't have any fucking dirt on his boots. Those things look brand new. Well, that's because he was in Jerry World and they gave him a full thing.

2:39:56Pat McAfee:I don't think it was fair the way that people were talking about Mr. Party. I agree. I will say this. I thought it was great. And there might be a little dirt on my boots. Banger. Stage can't be the star. You can't be going after like, the stage was cool. Stage was cool. Stage was cool. But that can't be the one. Like Jack White and Eminem. I don't even remember the fucking stage. I remember the setup of the fans very close. Which I thought was a smart idea for the optics to have that many hands. Whenever they zoomed out and were like, oh, that's only that hard. Then the cheerleaders were in there.

2:40:31Pat McAfee:I thought maybe that was interesting because trying to utilize all that space is difficult on a football field. So I think they're always trying to balance that. I think Eminem had the right idea, though. Wasn't there an equal? Everybody tight in here. That was a couple years ago for Jack Harlow. It wasn't great. John Party, I thought you did great, dude. Gumpy and I really enjoyed it. We were in transit. it. Gumpy and I were in transit and we're standing in airport watching said performance. Little bit of sound. Certainly static sound out here. This guy pops up out of the ground on the stage.

2:40:59We're like, Big 12, bring it.

2:41:01Pat McAfee:And then we see the Jack at a party. We're like, holy shit. Sings a song, walks a hundred yards to another stage. There's firework, there's pyro, and he's absolutely getting on that thing. And me and Gumpy are like, is this the this should be super bowl halftime maybe did we hear it entirely i mean we weren't plugged in like some people were dumpy sends one party's kind of doing it here or whatever because we were so impressed literally stop what we're doing to watch it we're like wow what a show then i retweet double down this production's outrageous and then we got a thousand people telling us how terrible it's some mean things about him mean mean things i didn't like it not Were you listening to it on mute?

2:41:45Pat McAfee:I mean, well, and I didn't want to respond. Kind of. Yeah, it was. Maybe we didn't hear it as clearly, but Party, we thought you did good. Baby, John O. He's hating Fox or Dookie, dude. Don't ever forget it. His jacket. So cool. Yeah. He should have just done dirt on my boots every time. Because there was a point during his first song he looked up and he was like, God, ain't nobody fucking care that I'm up here right now. And he started to be like, how y 'all doing, Big 12? Which, you know, that never really plays. Yes, it does. What are you talking about? Always. What are they supposed to say?

2:42:20I got a lot of dirt on my boots. What's up, motherfuckers? Guess what? I got some fucking dirt on my boots. I mean, guess what? You're right. Every 70 ,000 on there. Fuck yeah.

2:42:31Pat McAfee:And then when it's over. Hey, you know what I was thinking the other day? I just looked down here. Oh, shit. Got a little motherfucking dirt on my boots. Or point someone out. Hey. is that some hold on you got a little dirt on your boots yeah so remix yeah exactly here at the big 12 we all kind of got a little dirt on our boots yeah I mean but he's a fucking artist he is so why don't we have a little respect for everything he put into that no doubt absolute showman to boot amen to boot thank you party for the show and we apologize for I guess just throwing you into the sun with our particular setup on our little portion of the internet, but there wasn't one.

2:43:14Pat McAfee:No. I mean, we're scrolling. We got on a plane. Phone goes in pocket. Send that tweet. I fucking doubled down. Absolutely. Phone in pocket. Let's walk the plane. Get on plane. Sit down on plane. Okay, we're going through the whole thing. Let's check the phone before we take off. Jeez, Gumps, are you reading? Holy fuck, this guy's trending right now. They haven't said one good thing about this guy. Have you seen this? And Gumpy goes, It does appear as if we were a little off on our judgment of party's performance or something like that. It was a great show, though. Are you kidding me? Look at that.

2:43:49Pat McAfee:It's unbelievable. Yeah, he's doing it. Gassing up the crowd. The Matt LaFleur bump. I mean, look at all the fucking band on the entire—I mean, they did it. Everything Bump Party. I was going to say, people left in droves, too. They were borderline stampeding towards the concession stands when he came out. I know. I'm just saying it's not fair. You'd think people would be like, well, actually, I'm going to just shit or piss my pants because party's out there. but they didn't. Big 12, great job on halftime alongside Party. Also, Big 10, what you guys did to Lucas Oil Stadium made it awesome. I mean, like, taking over these NFL things and making them college atmospheres, you certainly did a good job.

2:44:22Pat McAfee:Let's get back to the Sunday slate, shall we? We're both on the Packers. We're all on the Rams. Yep. Me as well. I, uh... Man, I don't like that, though. It feels like it's the same old Lions. I gotta give MCDC a little credit here, because he's unlocked JMO. Gibbs has had one of the best years ever. Goff's numbers are actually incredible if you look at them. And St. Brown's doing St. Brown things, and that's without Laporta and without Ragnow and some of the – you know, so MCDC's doing a good job. Only way we win this game is if it's a shootout. We have to win 42-35 or something. But isn't that what the Rams want too?

2:44:56Pat McAfee:The Rams aren't scared of that either. And that's the problem, and that's the problem with our banged-up defense. Stafford will probably throw for 350, three tons. This is what happens when you win a bunch of games. Your schedule gets very, very hard. Indeed. And when you lose a few, when you run into the Rams late into the season, that's when it becomes a huge problem. 75 % of the bets are on the Lions, so maybe we're seeing it wrong. 65 last night? You like the Lions? Yeah. How come? I don't know. I just feel like they have to win this week. I think people have kind of written them off and act like they're, you know, six and seven.

2:45:29Like they're eight and five still. Like this team is very good. They play in a very tough division. And I don't know. I don't want to say that the Rams are due for a stinker because that's definitely not the case. But I could see this being like a big, you know, hutch statement game as well.

2:45:43Pat McAfee:Six points, a lot of points, man. Yeah, I guess I don't know if they're going to win, but I think they'll cover. AJ, final answer? L.A. Rams.

2:45:57Pat McAfee:I'll do the same. Panthers, Saints, Panthers favored by two and a half in New Orleans. New Orleans fresh off a win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Carolina Panthers can still win the NFC South, potentially should win NFC South with what is happening down there and host a home playoff game. Bryce Young, shock. Who do you like? How do you like it, AJ? I'm a little surprised the Panthers, well, I guess. I thought they might be favored by more than two and a half going into this game. I know it's a tough place to play down in New Orleans, but give me the Carolina Panthers. I think Bryce Young lights it up.

2:46:32Pat McAfee:I'll do the same. Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys, Sunday night football. Five and a half points spread. Dallas Cowboys favored at home. Tell me a little bit about nine in the Vikings. Any pieces of information that need to be heard? They're coming off a blowout win last week. Nine had an efficient game, if you will. Didn't throw for a ton of yards. 128 points something. Yeah, very, very efficient. He was 9 of 10 to start the game. But I heard someone say today, if the Dallas Cowboys don't win by 40, they're the laughingstock of the NFL. Who said that? What? Stephen A. Stephen A said that? Yep.

2:47:05Pat McAfee:Well, he's always got that little thing going on with the Dallas Cowboys. Minnesota Vikings have it all, man, don't they? They got it all. Except Van Genke, if you throw a quick screen his way, he's going to pick it off and take it the other direction. Cowboys still in. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? Man, five and a half feels like a lot, but I like this Cowboys team. I really do. And I don't know if the Vikings offense will score enough to keep up, so give me the Cowboys at home. I'll take the Dallas Cowboys as well, minus 5.5, as we wrapped up the Sunday slate there with our picks.

2:47:38Pat McAfee:We hope you have an incredible weekend. We hope you have the greatest weekend of your life. And remember, anything you want is available because of our friends at DoorDash. Hell yeah. Win every week with DoorDash Streaks. You know, you can save up$250 a season when you order on game days. And obviously, this QR code will make your life easier. And this pizza right here will not be delivered because this pizza is on a graphic. But any pizza that's around you can be delivered to you. And it's not just pizza. You can get local steaks, Chinese food, fast food, healthy food. You can get smoothies or shakes or burgers or pants, T-shirt, medicine, cleaning supplies, towels, anything with our friends at DoorDash.

2:48:25Pat McAfee:Shout out to DoorDash. Shout out to all of you for allowing us to do this for a living. We appreciate the hell out of you. In the back, great work this week, boys.

2:48:34Pat McAfee:The GDB graphic design boys, good work this week. Good work, guys. Congrats to D-Bone. Yeah, what a day. He's in the middle of a hair transition too. So he had to take a photo in the middle of a new haircut with his hero, John Cena. So I'll be excited to see how we view that photo four or five years from now. You know, it's like wedding photos that happen whenever somebody's in a different stage. Here he is right here. This is obviously a magical moment for D-Bone. Oh, he's a big dude. Bone, yeah, he's offensive lineman. National champion offensive lineman. Yeah. Yeah, he's a gigantic guy. A lot of people are saying his legs are like pogo sticks and stuff like that.

2:49:14Pat McAfee:Just know that he's a great athlete. D-Bone is a great athlete, and he's current U-Ball champion. And he had a chance, obviously, to meet his hero in John Cena. And he kicked ass this week, as did Dirty, as did Talk, as did Bill, as did Mitt. Zito, we appreciate the hell out of you. Tim McAfee, great work this week. AP Tone, way to go. Thank you. Talk to the table, way to go, boys. AJ, way to go. Hey, you watching around the world. Way to go, you guys. Another week of doing this as a job. Hell yeah. Crazy. That's right.

2:50:00Pat McAfee:Your time is up. Time is down. His time is up. Tomorrow night. Yeah, it is. Damn. It's the dawn of a new day. And let's remember that we have no idea what it'll bring. Be your friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. Let's try to enjoy this life. Team on me. Team on three. We'll see you on Monday. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye.

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