PMS 2.0 1472 - BA Day with Bruce Arians, MNF Recap, Peter Schrager, Dan Orlovsky, CEO and Co-Founder of Big Loud Seth England, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

17:34Pat McAfee:Yeah, I don't like it out of B.A. Okay. I like the free plays for super genius stuff. That's third and three caused the first down. That's a huge play. Can't have too many men on the field on third down. Bingo. Like, what are you talking about? Can't have it happen. Follow up to that. Yeah, replay assist, not allowed to add a flag. But if we're allowed to do that now, I think this is good news, not bad news. Okay, if there's something clear and obvious that these refs, whose contract is up in May, okay, miss, which feels like they do. Humans. They are. They are humans, but also some of them ass at their jobs.

18:06Pat McAfee:Some are blind. Okay. Which we're happy for them, by the way. Living a dream out there. Yeah, exactly. Got blind people reffing in the NFL. That's unbelievable that we have that in 2025, almost 2026. We should celebrate that. But I had no idea the replay assist was allowed to add a flag. I think we were all kind of taken back. Yeah, and it's terrible for the game because it's going to be so subjective now. If there was a pass interference that they didn't really realize was a pass interference and then replay assists, like this is what it opens up. It was never supposed to be a throw the flag type of thing, like even a hold and offsides.

18:40I mean, shit, the Bucs in the Falcons game, the Bucs damn near lost because the Falcons, and this is in the first quarter, so you can't say they lost the game because of this, but they called an offsides on a field goal even though the guy got back onsides, and then it was a fourth and four. Atlanta gets the first out of the next play. Kyle Pitts is first as a touchdown. So that's why it doesn't help. Now, if they did this the whole entire year, yeah, that would be incredible. But there's no way in hell in week 15 that now they're starting to say, like, oh, well, replays just can't actually tell us.

19:13Like, oh, no, they were outside. Oh, no, it was, you know, seven or six men lined up on the line of scrimmage, 12 guys on the field. Like, there's so many calls now that we can go back through and be like, well, why didn't they use it for this when they used it in a primetime game? Again, the first time they used it is in primetime. The first time they used Hawkeye technology this year was in prime time, and it made no sense, and it still doesn't make any sense. That's why May, like I'm pumped for the Super Bowl. I can't wait to see what happens with this NFLPA and the NFL because it really is.

19:44NFLRA. NFLRA, excuse me. Because, yeah, that's actually awesome. But it will be, like the repercussions that come from that will be massive when you talk about the game as a whole.

19:55Pat McAfee:That's in May. That contract is up, and it's a big deal because the last time the refs contract was up, it got full chaos. And it wasn't good for the league. It wasn't good for the sport. It wasn't good for anybody. And the refs took advantage of that. And they utilized their leverage. And the contract that they negotiated was, we have no accountability. We're not answering any questions. You can't even talk to us after the season. How about that? We can't be full-time. Yeah, we got other things we got to focus on. It's not good for anybody to be able to do this. They had all the control because of the fail Mary.

20:23Pat McAfee:That happened on primetime, amongst all the other things that happened. So the refs union is the strongest, right? By far. But way better than the players union. You've got to be close to the coaches union, though. You guys get guaranteed cash for like 20 years if you get your deal. We don't have a union, though. That's just life. Man, you don't have a union, you have guaranteed contracts. The players have a union, don't have guaranteed contracts, and then the refs have a union, and they don't have to do anything they don't want to do. It feels like the players union is the worst out of all of them.

20:53It feels like the NFL is the toughest on the players' union versus all of them.

20:57Pat McAfee:Well, there's the most amount of people, obviously. Guaranteed injuries. 100 % chance. Well, how about the refs? There's a 100 % chance of failure for you guys, too. Every one of you is going to get a call wrong, at least at some point. I mean, they're so old, they're blowing out knees and ACLs and Achilles and feet these days. Now, some of the old – That guy has to return this past Sunday, too. Okay, shout out to him. And obviously, he wasn't going to let anybody that may be better at reffing than him get a shot at that. Yeah, right. Nobody's going to shot the shine. Nobody's going to shot the shine.

21:25Pat McAfee:Speaking of shine, last night, big for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And we talked about this yesterday. A massive piece of why we all assume the Steelers are going to win last night. Not only because two of the Dolphins are terrible in the cold. Not only because, here we go, Dolphins, they said yesterday. Hand up, hand up as well. I got to take some ownership. Yeah, D-Button Gumpy did that yesterday. That was a bad decision by you guys to do that in the moment we said it. But also there was a lot of OGs in the building for the Steelers. Joey Porter goes into the Hall of Honor. Ben Roethlisberger goes in.

21:58Pat McAfee:Pouncey goes in. Rooney family there. Roger Goodell was in attendance. I mean, it was a huge night in Pittsburgh, let alone Mike Tomlin and Bill Cowher both have never lost on Monday Night Football at home. That's insane. So that is, there's a lot of things that were kind of working for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The OGs back in the building seemingly mean more in Pittsburgh than maybe other places. Legitimately. I think the city of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Steelers, try to treat it like a college organization. Now, it's easier to do that whenever you have three head coaches over the last 60 years.

22:30Pat McAfee:So there's a lot of continuity, a lot of familiar faces. But the Pittsburgh Steelers, very big on having the alumni still be around. Hall of Honor celebration last night, very special. Do you think that is something that's different than everywhere else, is how the Pittsburgh Steelers welcome and keep the alumni kind of in the building in close proximity? Oh, there's no doubt. You know, every year when the rookies come in, we have a dinner. And Franco used to come, Rocky. All the guys would come and sit with the position players that we drafted. Free agents, draftees, and welcome them to the Steelers and what it was like to be a Steeler.

23:03And it was one of the best dinners I've ever been part of.

23:05Pat McAfee:See, that's a pretty cool thing that doesn't happen everywhere. Let's go to Hammer. Don, Don. Telling the boys we're back. Seven's in the building. Guaranteed. Dub is how you felt?

23:13Bruce Arians:Yeah, it was. We talked about it earlier the year when the Super Bowl anniversary happened and everyone was back in the building, and that was one of their best games of the season as well. But this was basically the same guys coming back. Kyra was back. James Ferrier did the towel twirl. I saw Casey Hampton there. I saw Kiesel there. Everyone was there. And I feel like it does mean the players on the current roster see that when they're there, and it just works out better. I don't know if they play harder, but it feels like they might. And this is also why I like the Tomlin thing. And, Tony, you've always kind of been, hey, Tomlin's not getting fired.

23:48Like, if anything, if he's going to leave, he's going to leave on his own terms. But, like, if you do fire a guy like Mike Tomlin, it's awesome that this has kind of quieted down these past two weeks. Like, that is what you risk. Like, all of Tomlin's guys being like Pittsburgh kind of, you know, treated him wrongly on the way out. And maybe, you know, stuff like this doesn't happen. Yeah, I think – I'm not going to say it.

24:10Pat McAfee:Coward's guys still come around. You know, like that is the – Did they fire him? Like unceremoniously? No, but he did. It was like a – No, Bill retired. Yeah, it was like a see you later. And then he left the icy light in the fridge for me and Tomlin. Yeah, hell yeah. He'll light out for you. And I don't think him and Coach Tomlin talked much. I don't think there was a lot of communication between the two.

24:29Bruce Arians:He told us deliberately that he didn't – he wanted Tomlin to kind of, hey, you figure it out on your own. I had to figure it out on my own. I don't want to be stepping on your toes or anything like that.

24:37Pat McAfee:Yeah, which is an interesting way to say, like, this is your time. I'm out of this shit. Because being the head coach of the Steelers does come with a lot. Yeah. Comes a lot. I went through that transition with those two guys. And Bill was ready. And a lot of things personally that were going on at the time. And Mike came in. It's Mike's show. Step back. It's Mike's show. You guys run it. And that's the Steeler way. It is the Steeler way. And I'll tell you, Mike Tomlin continuing to win. Look at the odds to win the AFC North here. Steelers minus 125. They got Detroit. What are they? Good football team.

25:17Pat McAfee:Yeah, unless the Steelers just say, hey, we want to punch them in the mouth. Well, actually, Tony and Nick told me that this game doesn't affect them at all. So I'm thinking Aaron sits, TJ Watt sits, Cam Hayward sits, Connor Hayward sits, and the whole Steelers defense sits. Connor Hayward with the tush push. Good to see him kind of getting into pain a couple different times. I like having Mount Washington literally just pick him up and just shove him through there. Zach Frazier's center. different technique than Jason Kelsey and the Eagles. I don't know if you saw this. They were trying to go over right guard.

25:44Pat McAfee:They were not trying to go directly over center. So Frazier actually, instead of diving, kind of stands, turns, and then they're pushing him to the right. It was basically every single time he was going to the right, almost as if it was on purpose, as opposed to Zach Frazier having to get straight through the Mountaineer. So I found that to be a little piece, an interesting piece, because now other teams are going to start loading up on that, right? And then guess what they're going to do? Matt Washington is going to go, boom, I'll throw his ass this way too, if you want me to. It's interesting.

26:10Pat McAfee:And then Aaron Rodgers is sitting back there either doing this or this. And we forget he's got a fractured wrist. You completely forget that his left wrist is fractured in two places. Tough. They banged the shit out of that thing yesterday. And he's just, yeah, we're doing this. Not even a thought of whether or not he's playing. No. Not even a single thought of whether or not he's playing. Seemed jovial after the game, too. Feels like as of late, after successful things, Aaron, happy they won, but certainly wants to clarify some things to people, you know, about what he liked or what he didn't like.

26:45Pat McAfee:Maybe this will shut you guys up about something. Like, there's always something. Last night, it felt like it was a pretty jovial Aaron Rodgers after a massive win. Obviously, his moment was Roswell Douglas, West Virginia Mountaineer legend, also former Packer. And Aaron told a story about him coming off the Cardinals. I think he was cut, then he was on practice, and then he comes to the Packers, and he becomes like a vital piece of the entire team. So it was obviously special seeing him catch up with old teammates. And I thought he was a bad teammate. How come all his old teammates want to come over and talk to him?

27:12Pat McAfee:I don't think I fully understand that. But the risk thing, it's not even a conversation. Like it wasn't even mentioned, I don't think, last night. This guy's got a cast on his left hand. He's quarterback for an NFL team. We would see other people potentially utilize that as an excuse to not play or maybe rest a week. But to your point, Foxy, Steelers can lose the next two games. As long as they beat the Baltimore Ravens in the last week, they go to the playoffs. Now, granted, the Ravens can lose a couple games and the Steelers will get in automatically. But Troy and Joe Buck were talking about that last night during the game about how Detroit and Cleveland, Cleveland will always matter because it's Steelers and it's Cleveland, but not really.

27:48Pat McAfee:The only thing that matters is that last one against the Baltimore Ravens. And they get a chance to host a playoff game, Pittsburgh Steelers. And there's a chance that, oh, mama, I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the long. So who would they be hosting? Right now, the Chargers. Yep. Maybe win that game. They could beat the Chargers now. Maybe you win that game. The Chargers have a tough road, too. The Chargers might, I mean, especially if the Colts continue to climb with Phil Rivers here. Be careful. So we got the Broncos sitting at the one seed. Congrats to them. Coming into the year, they were Lombardi darlings in a lot of projections for a lot of people because of how great their defense is.

28:30Pat McAfee:Defense has remained exactly who we thought they were going to be. Absolutely. William Bo Nix is playing his best football right now. Patriots, obviously. Congratulations. I think people expected them to have success with Vrabel and Drake May. This quickly, outrageous. Sitting at the two-seat. The Jags currently in the lead of the AFC South, sitting at 10-4. They got stretched down a road here. They got by his Colts team, and obviously they're going to have to finish the job. Will they be able to do that? They look really good. Trevor Lawrence threw five touchdowns and ran for another one. Liam Cohn seemingly not a dipshit at all.

29:02Pat McAfee:He's seemingly a very, very good coach. And this is all without the number two overall pick that they traded a lot of pieces away and Travis Hunter playing for them. And then Pittsburgh Steelers lead the AFC North. And then Chargers, Bills, Texans, Colts, and Ravens. Ravens, only real chances to beat the Steelers and win a couple games here to get into the playoffs and win the AFC North. Colts, though, we can obviously mess around and catch up to a couple of these other teams. You know, the Colts, with Phillip Rivers at the helm, can do anything. And we know that. Including lose by 50. There's a chance that that could happen?

29:31Pat McAfee:Certainly. I don't see it likely. No way. Phil Rivers on Monday night hosting the Niners will be his first time in a full Lucas Oil Stadium as Indianapolis Colts quarterback. Because whenever he was the Indianapolis Colts quarterback, back in 2020, it was COVID. So they had some cardboard cutouts. I think I had a cardboard cutout in there one game. Sure. I think I was sitting in like the – remember they were saying that? Tonight there will be 24 ,000 cardboard cutouts of fans. There will also be – I mean, you guys won a Super Bowl during that year. So you guys certainly handled it all the best.

30:00Pat McAfee:But whenever the NFL was trying to, like, spice up the announcements, tonight there will be 150 first responders. They will be scattered throughout the entire stadium. They will be each sitting in their own section, obviously safe. And there will also be 32 ,007 cardboard cutouts of super fans from their fan base's nation or whatever. And it was like, oh, that's really cool. And then they did, like, a pan of the cardboard cutouts. There they would be if people were allowed to be in public. Then people were stopping. I think that's my cardboard cutout right there. I paid$50 to be a part of. And that was an insane time.

30:35Pat McAfee:That was when Phil Rivers was the Colts quarterback. So he's never experienced a full Lucas Oil. Monday night against the Niners is a massive, massive ordeal. There's a couple things that we need to chit-chat about. Niners are one of them. Patriots are another one. Seahawks are another one. And the Eagles. Three out of four of them in primetime can all punch their ticket to the playoffs this weekend, B.A. Yeah, I think the scheduling guru's got it perfect. You know, you got Thursday night, Sunday night, Monday night, big, big games in December. It doesn't get any better than that. Thursday night, Seahawks play the Rams.

31:08Pat McAfee:Seahawks win, they're in the playoffs. Patriots play Sunday night. At Baltimore. And this is a flex as well. Let's keep in mind, fantastic job flexing a game like this and not just rolling with whatever is supposed to be there. Shout out to NBC doing that. That's on primetime Sunday night football. Patriots win, they're in. 49ers, Monday night football. in Indianapolis. They win. They're in the playoffs. And the Eagles playing at 1 o 'clock. They get a chance in the afternoon to kind of punch their ticket. This is the season. Now we are here. People getting into the dance. People falling out. People looking at the future.

31:41Pat McAfee:People thinking of right now. It's a wonderful time of year. Out of those four, how many of them punched their ticket this weekend, D-Bud? Oh, three. Which one does not? Niners. The Niners. Yep. Agreed. I like that. Yep. Three. Sorry. Shanahan, now they've got an interesting situation going on with Ayuk. Kyle Shanahan has come out, and for a while, Kyle Shanahan was talking about being hopeful that he would be back, hopeful that he would be back. None of us really understood what he was talking about. And then yesterday, his press conference, he was like, I haven't seen him in like a month. Literally haven't talked to him or seen him in a month, so we've just put him on the he's not going to be on our team.

32:23Pat McAfee:Are you still hopeful? I was very hopeful, yes, for a very long time. But now we're at the point where, like, we only have a few weeks left and we haven't seen or heard from him. Coach B.A., 47 years in coaching, 27, I think, in the NFL. Obviously, there's going to be business and personal grievances and all that type of shit that happens. What's going on with this situation, you think? Have you ever seen anything like it? And how did we get here, you think, for the Niners? Yeah, I think that's the thing. How did you get here? Because there's a point of no return. and a great player played extremely well for you.

32:57And all of a sudden, we don't want your ass around or you don't want to be around. And trades or whatever, you know, the grass ain't always greener anywhere else. It is around the septic tank, right? To quote Tom Moore. And so it's like, you don't know what's in front of you. You got a great deal right here in San Francisco. I don't know what you're thinking. Ayuk was blocker too, all in, right?

33:19Pat McAfee:If I recall, he was like all in for the Niners and then they're coming. This took me by surprise, and maybe I hadn't been paying attention to it close enough, but when Shanahan's up there like, I haven't seen him or heard from him. It's like, what does that mean in the middle of a season? I don't even know how we get it. We hope everything's okay, by the way. You first go to mental stuff, and is he okay, and is he in a good spot? But it's like, this is wild for this good of a player on this good of a team and this big of a run, I think. Yeah, we see him posting things or whatnot. This is extremely disappointing because he kind of had a rocky start with Kyle Shanahan.

33:50He was a high draft pick. Things weren't going well, kind of off the field. You thought maybe immature had to figure some things out. And then he did. Then he started playing great. We all know the contract stuff, the trade, rumors to other teams. Then they get it figured out. He gets paid. Then he gets hurt again. And for him to not be showing up, and maybe in a few weeks we saw a story about him voiding$27 million. You never want to see that with the player because of anything that they can control. You're just going to avoid$27 million because you're not getting treatment or you're not showing up or being around the facility.

34:21That would be a bonehead, idiotic move for him if there is any truth to that. But I hate this for Ayuk. And then it's like, yeah, you talk about the grass not being green in other places. A lot of other places wouldn't want to take a chance on a guy like this to bring him into the building and maybe throw off continuity. Other things are going on. So it's a terrible look right now. I hope it gets all figured out for Ayuk. But this is a tough, tough look right now. Well, and that's the thing. He was the bell of the ball last offseason. I mean, New England, I remember. Steelers. Steelers. Everybody.

34:50I think there was a story actually about New England reaching out to try and get him. They had a deal in place, had a contract in place, and he basically said like, well, I'm not doing that. Okay, I want to get paid, but I don't want to play for the Gerard Mayo Patriots, which, you know, understandable looking back on it. But him choosing to stay in San Fran, he gets hurt obviously last year very tough. But then for it to go like this is just wild because he chose San Francisco. This is where he wanted to be. Like how can that much change?

35:17Pat McAfee:It would be great for Brock Purdy to have him as a weapon down the stretch here. Here's this contract details from Spotrak and from Hembo. Pre-June 1st release or trade,$29.6 million dead cap next year for the San Francisco 49ers. Post-June 1st, it gets very easy. $8.3 million dead hit in 2026,$20 million dead hit in 2027. Feels like all eyes are headed towards the post-June 1st. And then there's always somebody, though, right in the NFL that says, it won't be like that in our building. I'll fix it. Right? There really is that, isn't there? Totally. That'll be 15. Not just one. That'll be 15. They're not going to be paying him that.

35:55Pat McAfee:Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who probably has a little bit more insight on this. He used to have a podcast called Flying Coach. Now it's called Schrager Hour. He also does the most interesting man in the NFL every single week. Didn't do Phil Rivers last week. No. Seems like quite a miss. Ladies and gentlemen, Peter Schrager. Yeah. Schrager, we appreciate you joining us. We'll dive into your selection of the interesting man piece that we obviously love as you one shot into a camera, tell a beautiful story. But let's talk about the story of the Niners and Ayuk. Shanahan coming out and saying that was the first time I really caught ears on the situation.

36:28Pat McAfee:What do you know and what are we kind of missing?

36:30Bruce Arians:Well, for the last couple of weeks, it has been assumed that Brandon Ayuk was just not a part of this team and was not going to be a part of this run, whatever they did. For Shanahan to come out publicly and explain that, yeah, we haven't seen him in a month. and yeah it would have been a nice bonus to have him especially with our wide receivers room um but we're moving on it was it was chilling considering to what you guys said all offseason last year was brennan iuke watch like panda watch uh you know on anchorman it was every day it was where's iuke is he coming and then they did find a deal to bring him back to think it came in and unraveled in such a way then he went on social media and was posting as well so it's obviously uh one of those situations where you want to make sure everybody's okay and then after that say okay okay, football-wise, what's that mean for his future?

37:13Bruce Arians:Because as much as it went awry here in San Francisco, and whether it's health-related or not, you would like to think that Brandon Ayuk's story is just going to get started somewhere else in the near future, if that's the case. The dead money is the dead money, but it seems like the 49ers and Shanahan, they're over this, and they're moving on with Ricky Pearsall and the boys that they got in-house.

37:33Pat McAfee:The NFC West is the NFL's best, and that Niners team can punch their ticket to the playoffs, so the win over the Colts on Monday night without Ayuk without Fred Warner, without Bosa. It's incredible work. What they're doing out there, they're a fun team. Let's stay in that NFC West. Devontae Adams, I think there's a report that came out, McVay said he felt it, but we're not ruling him out for Thursday. Did he save it maybe because he felt it and he's so in tune with his body? Or what are you kind of hearing about Devontae, the 32-year-old's hamstring, who's become a touchdown machine for Matthew Stafford and the Rams?

38:04Bruce Arians:Well, it's interesting because typically on a Thursday night, you would say, oh, no, no, no, rest that, take the 10 days, we'll be all right. But this is the biggest game of the season for them. A win on Thursday gives them the division. It gives them potentially a bye. Like, this is everything. So if you're going to push it for a Thursday night game, if you are ever going to push it for a regular season game, this is it. And yet I would think it's unlikely he plays, given the quick turnaround of this game. Fortunately, it looks like Puka Nakua is just fine. And when he went down, there was worries that he would be seriously injured.

38:35Bruce Arians:That Rams-Seahawks game, it is going to be so interesting because they're going back up to Seattle, where the Seahawks early in the season dropped a couple games and it was head-scratching and then since then have just been rolling. But this game being played up there on a short week on the road, I would be shocked if we see Devontae Adams. And yet I am not Reggie Scott, their trainer. I am not Sean McVay, their head coach. I'm not the one to make that decision. It would just be a really quick turnaround on four days rest to go up there and play in those elements.

39:04Pat McAfee:Jason Myers kicked the fairytale right in the balls on Sunday He had six field goals, including a 56-yard game winner. He grew up watching Phillip Rivers and the Chargers. He told us that. So afterwards, his family did say, like, hey, do you remember that? And, oh, I'm sorry. I just had the best game of my career. Maybe Phil Rivers should have chose a different time to come back as a grandpa. This Seattle Seahawks team, you talk about it dropping a couple games early. McDonald was doing his Seattle Seahawks show, I think, and he was chatting about how one of the refs was trying to talk to him, and he's basically saying, I did not hear a word you just said.

39:36Pat McAfee:I'm currently calling plays for the defense right now. Can you give a better picture on what's going on in Seattle and how quickly this has turned around into a brand new chapter? Because they kicked Pete Carroll the hell out of town. They painted the walls. They said we're a brand new era. And they are certainly become a wagon and expected to be, it seems like, with McDonald as the head coach. And if Darnold can continue to have success, played a great Indianapolis coach defense. So let's not judge him. But can you tell me about the Seahawks? This is special out there, man. Really, truly.

40:05Bruce Arians:It's really bold. John Schneider's been the GM going back since 2010, so he's been with both the eras, the Pete Carroll era, the Russell Wilson era, into the Geno era with Pete, and then now this one with Mike McDonald. It's really cool because they were able to turn this thing over without having that huge dip. What's also really interesting is that last year they had an offensive coordinator, Ryan Grubb, from the University of Washington, and it wasn't working. And it's so rare that a first-year coach would say, you know what, it's not what we're looking for. Rip the Band-Aid off. Move on. Gino Smith, he had a fine career there in Seattle.

40:40Bruce Arians:They were like, you know what? No, we're going to rip the Band-Aid off after one year, and we're going to move on and pursue somebody else in Sam Darnold. Clint Kubiak is the offensive coordinator, and he gets together with Sam Darnold. Now, what you have there is two guys who were together in San Francisco, but also with Darnold, you bring, you know, obviously the Shanahan stuff that he had, but also the Kevin O 'Connell offense that he played last year, which is kind of McVeigh-ish in a way. You combine that with Kubiak, and they have their own little offense going. Now, their defensive coordinator, I think, is one of the coolest guys in the league, a guy named Aiden Durde, who was – he's British, and he was the Dallas Cowboys defensive line coach.

41:19Bruce Arians:And one of the main things he was responsible for was bringing in Demarcus Lawrence and saying, hey, that's the guy who's still got something left in the tank. Every offseason move they made, whether it be hiring Kubiak, whether it's going to get Darnold, whether it be drafting Nick Emanwari, who is absolutely unbelievable in that defensive backfield in the second round to Demarcus Lawrence on forward with Cooper Cup in the rest. They've just hit home runs. And yet when we do this Coach of the Year talk, which we do all the time, we immediately say, Vrabel Ben-Johnson. What Mike McDonald's doing right now in Seattle is pretty impressive too.

41:53Bruce Arians:And oh yeah, what Sean Payton's doing is pretty impressive. What Liam Cohen's doing is pretty impressive. There are a few candidates in the thing. It's not just a two-horse race.

42:00Pat McAfee:Yeah, certainly as we get closer to the playoffs and everybody has to realize who's real and who's not. You know, the thing about Seattle, and it will always be the case, and I guess it's the entire NFC West, LA obviously is its own media market to hear about the Rams and AF Stafford and everything like that. But whenever the Seattle Seahawks decided to completely move on, I think for most media conversations, it's kind of just like, we started talking about the Seattle Seahawks on a regular basis this year because we thought they were unbelievable. We thought they were so good. but they had this road win streak that was just outrageous that needed to be talked about by people that understand how hard it is to go win on the road in that rapid pace.

42:36Pat McAfee:Seahawks fans started sending us, like, thank you for talking about our team. That actually started happening. Seattle Seahawks' social media team started ripping our clips and being like, thank you for talking about us because nobody talks about them, but you're going to be forced to now down the stretch because they're for real. The Seattle Seahawks can win a damn Super Bowl. Well, then the question all goes to, can Sam Darnold play good in the biggest game? Do we think McDonald will be able to help him with that? Do we think this setting with Jackson Smith and Jigba, Cooper Cup, and the boys will be able to help Sam Darnold?

43:04Pat McAfee:What is your projection and thoughts on how he does down the stretch? Because that's literally the only thing that the Seahawks are going to get judged upon is how Sammy D does at the end of the season.

43:14Bruce Arians:Yeah, look, they had 14 wins in Minnesota, but there was an eight-day stretch where he had two brutal losses and two brutal performances against both the Lions and then the Rams down in Arizona in that Monday night game. And that stuff's real. There's a lot of, all right, just find me in January with Sam Darnold. I think that's fair until he wins one. And that was the case with Kirk Cousins for a long time. Then he went and did it. And before that, it was the case with Peyton Manning and he did it. You got to go do it. So he can't get this thing out of there until he finally wins that big game.

43:43Bruce Arians:And I'll tell you, they had a road game against the Rams in which he threw, what, four picks in a big spot. and those doubters and those critics came out again. So Thursday night, home game. They've given you all the money. That city loves you. You're the quarterback. Go win this game. Shut people up. Like, it would be great for Sam Darnold to have a big game because, honestly, they are a passing first offense. You know, Kenneth Walker and Charbonnet are fine running backs, but they're not Corham and Kieran Williams right now. They don't lead with the run, and their passing game is what leads them.

44:16Pat McAfee:Okay. quarterback whisperer, quarterback guru here shaking his head. What is your take on this all? No touchdowns last week at home. Colts defense was stingy, brother. Without four starters and both their starting corners out. Something's wrong, brother. Lou and Betts are great. I love them. I know that. But it started last week. I started to see this December creeping into Sam. I see every single year. And I love Sam Darnold. Don't get me wrong. But he's got to prove it to me. Yeah, like if they go to Tampa in the first round, they're going on the road. The Rams last year, the Rams this year.

44:51Look out.

44:52Pat McAfee:Yeah, that's because you believe in Stafford. But before Stafford got to L.A., I think the same question was about him in Detroit because all the talent, all the skill, but not really ever winning the big one because was it him, was it the team? Now everybody thinks the Seattle Seahawks team can, just like the Vikings team can. So then it's 100 % on Sam Dardo, which goes back to the conversation. Yeah, like if they're going to Tampa. And I also love the Seahawks and their defense. To Trager's point, Eman Wari, watching him play, he had one of the greatest field goal blocks I've ever seen last week against Atlanta.

45:22But are you going to take Sam Darnold and the Seahawks over Baker Mayfield and the Bucs after Mike Evans and Godwin and Ibuka and McMillan and then Kate Otten comes back? I even find it hard to put myself there because I don't want to be there. I don't want to have to choose between Seattle and Tampa because, like, I don't know. Baker had an unbelievable start to the season. You could see them closing out the season strong, beating Carolina, and then maybe going on a run. It's crazy. I believe in Sam. Just need the opportunity. I believe in Sam.

45:56Pat McAfee:Hey, Sam. Come on, Sam. I thought you were doing it. No, that was tough Colts defense. Yeah? That was tough Colts defense. You know it. Dr. Lou was in there fucking doing his thing. Okay, let's move to the next conversation, shall we? I got a text from Dr. David Chow, former NFL team doc for a long time. He is currently in charge of the sports injury podcast or something like that. Sports performance.

46:25Bruce Arians:I see the patch on his shirt. I can't think of what it says.

46:29Pat McAfee:And I see what it is. So it's a slew of doctors and medical professionals that much like Sports Injury Central. Okay, sorry, Dr. David Chow. We apologize for that. SIC. Yes, I see. We see the thing. Yeah, but it's just like the refs have their own setup with TVs everywhere for replays and everything like that. This is basically a bunch of medical professionals who I believe are— I saw that for the first time this week, the Chow War Room. Been doing it for like three years now. They've been doing it for three years. It's like retired doctors, basically, or team docs or physical therapists and things like that.

46:58Pat McAfee:They're basically all in there watching games in real time and then giving their projections or prognosis through the screen. Now, I will say this guy gets it right a lot of the time. They get it right a lot of the time because just like all of us and just like Schefter said yesterday, we've all seen it a lot on TV. We can almost guess what it's going to be. He, I believe, predicted also the LCL for Patrick Mahomes, not just the ACL in real time with the Sports Injury Central as they're watching it. And he texted me and said, with the LCL confirmed, there's no way that Mahomes will be 100 % for the start of next season.

47:33Pat McAfee:Wentz in 2017 is the comp there just for your conversation piece. So on that note, with what the Chiefs are going for, that's his Patrick Mahomes, Patrick Mahomes. So obviously all these timelines and projections are certainly their own being and their own journey, and Patrick Mahomes will exhaust all options to get back as soon as possible. But what he's saying is with LCL also being damaged in this injury, the beginning of the season seemingly is going to be a tough task for Patrick Mahomes, which leads to, go ahead, Conway. Yeah, Schrags, what do you think the Chiefs look like going forward?

48:06A lot of, you know, fodder around Kelsey's future, Andy Reid. I think we all assume he will be back with Mahomes. And, you know, to Pat's point, even if Mahomes misses the first four games, you can see the Chiefs going 13-4 because of how good this guy is. But what do you think they will look like, you know, next year, the year after? Do you think this is kind of the beginning of a shift as far as their culture and maybe mindset and team build goes?

48:31Bruce Arians:Yeah, look, first off, Mahomes had surgery last night, so already has gotten under the knife with Dr. Cooper, who's one of the best in the game down there in Texas. I texted with Mahomes this morning, nothing for news, just to chat back and forth. And he's in good spirits and is like, yep, we're going to attack this thing. So Mahomes, I think of it from his mental standpoint. And Pat, you could appreciate this. And B.A., of course, going on these long playoff runs that you've had. I was heartbroken for the injury, of course. But I'm also heartbroken for Mahomes for the fact that he has played in seven straight conference championship games, meaning his season's end in late January, early February for his entire career.

49:13Bruce Arians:When they were getting eliminated this season, I almost felt like, all right, at least Mahomes gets an offseason. He's played four, five straight extra weeks every single year. And now you're talking about these injuries. He has to attack this. Like he's never attacked rehab or football in an offseason before. It's a huge mental weight on something that in his head, he was probably thinking, all right, if we're out on December 15th, we're out on December 15th, we finish out the string, we'll go from there. But this is going to have to be an individual rehab so tenacious, so aggressive, given the timelines, that it's going to be the hardest offseason he's ever had.

49:49Bruce Arians:So I think of it right from that standpoint, the mental anguish, in addition to the physical anguish. And then as far as the teams goes, there will be changes. I don't know if anyone's losing their job, but I would imagine the Chiefs look at themselves in the mirror and say, whatever version we were this year is not going to be enough. So whether they're minor tweaks, whether it's players, whether it's coaches, trust me, Clark Conn, Mark Donovan, and I would include Brett Veach and Andy reading these decisions, they're going to have to look in the mirror and really make some hard, hard choices.

50:18Bruce Arians:Because as much as this season didn't go their way, you could also kind of rest on the fact that we were one in six in one score games or one in seven in one score games. And we still do have a really good young defense. And oh, by the way, the Bengals had an off year. The Ravens are having an off year. There's still a window where next year we get back and we're back in this thing. So I don't expect a complete overhaul to answer your question, but I would imagine there are some really tough decisions and hard changes that have to be made that's so cool

50:48Pat McAfee:you just text me patrick mahomes tell him we said hello and godspeed uh we don't know what he sees or what he doesn't see we assume his blinders are on and yeah you talk about his most intense offseason it's miserable too and very painful going through all of this recovery and rehab so we're pulling for him but what it sounds like for you or what you're saying is andy reed back let's go ahead and run this thing again is what it sounds like you're saying and then are you also saying the human exclamation point uh travis kelsey expected in your eyes to be back next year playing or that's the big conversation piece because we're going to have this conversation later with ba he wanted to make the point like what patch bombs and travis kelsey are is a historic duo in the history of our nfl the hall of fame will showcase them on a very regular basis throughout the history of the league amongst the greats and who else are they next to well There's been a couple other duos that they'll certainly talk about.

51:41Brady and Gronk and Rivers and Gates. I mean, that's what we're talking about. And you have to go way back, Johnny Unitas and John Mackey, but that's a tight end Hall of Fame.

51:51Pat McAfee:And I think you could even add in just like quarterback and pass catcher. Yeah, I believe, if I'm not mistaken,

51:57Bruce Arians:I think they have the most touchdown passes in the postseason to each other in the history of the sport already.

52:03Pat McAfee:So this is a huge thing for the future of ball in our eyes and also as massive fan of Travis Kelsey and as somebody that would never want to, not that I could just text with Travis Kelsey on a regular basis, but would never want to say, hey, I wouldn't want to put the pressure on him to make a decision because that's a huge decision to make for your football life, for who you've been and for being a goat at a sport. But what is your lean towards that for the future? Because that's a huge part of NFL football that could potentially change next season. And that's the fears whenever we start thinking about this next chapter of this Chiefs dynasty.

52:35Bruce Arians:i wouldn't i would never dare speculate or put it in my opinion on it because i don't have one and if i know kelsey of course he likes the off the field stuff and would be a wonderful superstar in cinema and he could be the next john cena he could be whatever he wants to be but i also know that guy is a dogged dogged competitor and is a football player so everyone's speculating that just because they missed the playoffs and he's a certain age that he is done Like, look, everyone for Brady's last season in Tampa was telling me Brady was done. Brady was done. But Brady came back. You know, like everyone tells you that this guy's done.

53:15Bruce Arians:This guy's done. These guys come back. So I would not, unless you're Travis Kelsey or Jason Kelsey or Taylor Swift or mama or dad Kelsey, I wouldn't put your opinion out there as fact because he hasn't revealed anything to anybody. And my sources in Kansas City have no indication either way. So I'm not going to speculate on his future without him speculating on it first.

53:34Pat McAfee:Good luck, Trav. Don't be taking any bumps, though. We don't need you to start the John Cena trajectory. Don't want you losing on your last game either.

53:41Bruce Arians:Well, I kind of liked it. I know you don't want to hear my wrestling takes. I thought it was kind of cool how it ended. He quit.

53:51Pat McAfee:No, he didn't. He passed the torch to the next generation. Maybe that's why McDaniel stopped playing in the fourth quarter. John Cena's fault. I didn't even think about John Cena potentially influencing McDaniel. Two or two. And I saw those glasses. McDaniels certainly could have had one eye on Cena's retirement match, one eye on the game at the beginning whenever that thing was split. Don't let that happen if you're him.

54:13Bruce Arians:You do whatever you can to make sure that doesn't happen. I grew up loving The Sopranos, and when that thing goes to black and you're so shocked and you're so horrified and you're like, wait, that can't be how this thing ends, I will never forget that ending. I can't tell you, you know, rest in peace, Macho Man's last fight. I couldn't tell you this other guy. I will never forget John Cena's last fight because it was so shocking and it was so different and it was so unique. And, yes, the torch has been passed.

54:41Pat McAfee:That's a good call, Shrags. I didn't even think about that. And then Gunther comes out last night, the man that tapped out John Cena, and he says, John Cena tapped out like a bitch, dog. But I kind of loved it. Me too. Gunther's a bitch, dog. Yeah, right. Yeah, right. You know what Gunther is and what Gunther isn't. And that is not what Gunther is. But I do appreciate that it continued. And Gunther was getting an asshole chance as he's walking out the arena. I mean, that is good for the business, kid. That is really good for the business. Did you tap versus Gunther? No. Did Cena tap versus Gunther?

55:15Yeah.

55:16Pat McAfee:It might be my fault because my body couldn't stay awake whenever Gunther had me choked out. Then my body just quit Cena. I was like, I don't want to be a limp body out here on my last night. Maybe it's my fault. I haven't even looked in the mirror at this potentially being my fault. But nonetheless, him smiling right beforehand.

55:32Bruce Arians:I was going to say.

55:34Pat McAfee:Yeah, it was ready. Screw it. It's over. This has been fun. He wasn't comfortable at all. He took a shot. He was uncomfortable. He's having it. He's grinning like the butcher's dog, man. He said he's leaving it in good hands or, shall I say, arms is what he said. Austrian arms. About the future of the business. So you're right, Shregs. It was good for the Bayesian nation what he did. It was good for the Bayesian nation what he did. But, yeah, I didn't expect us to just dive into this entirely. There's certainly other things to talk about, but we've got to get a heart out, brother. Big story in sports.

56:05Pat McAfee:Yeah, truly. Last night, McDaniel, is he on a hot seat?

56:09Bruce Arians:Yeah. Look, you missed the playoffs, and on a nationally televised game, put out that effort. Everyone's going to be under the spotlight in Miami. I'll say that. Everyone.

56:19Pat McAfee:Who's that? Quickly.

56:20Bruce Arians:I think they have to explore the quarterback position. Are you going to get any further with this guy? I don't know. No. I don't know.

56:27Pat McAfee:That's going to be – he is certainly in his emotions right now, but certainly has a feeling. And there's a chance, though. There's a chance global warming makes every game warm, so he's better and good everywhere. But I don't know when that's coming, brother. Hopefully not that soon. Who knows? We appreciate you. That's Peter Schrager. We appreciate you. Listen to the Schrager Hour podcast. Incredible. He gets incredible guests because he knows everybody. And Jolly Fella. He's the best.

56:50Bruce Arians:Jolly Fella.

56:50Pat McAfee:It's very nice to talk to him. Feels like he knows more than most, but he's also scared to give out some stuff. So kind of got to pry at him. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. From professional-grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Grainger knows safety is always a priority, They're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities.

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57:30Bruce Arians:MLB.tv on ESPN is your home for every out-of-market game, live or on demand. Catch your favorite teams and players, plus MLB Network and ESPN app features like Multiview, syncing your stats, key plays, bets, and fantasy, all in one place. Sign up now for MLB.tv in the ESPN app. Separate subscriptions required blackouts and other terms apply. Visit stream.espn.com slash MLB TV for more information.

58:04Pat McAfee:That's right. Oh, that's a good cadence right there by a man who coached football for 47 years, multiple times Super Bowl champion, Coach Bruce Arians. Shout out to you, B.A. I said it was November 16th, and I think that's because my mind wants time to slow down. Sure. You know, not only because my baby girl is growing. She's going through growth spurs right now. It's a cool moment. She's obviously incredibly uncomfortable, but seeing her grow and continue to be the person amazing. and would like time to slow down at each one of these stages. But also football, I would like time to slow down. We're a meaningful football time.

58:36Pat McAfee:We got division championships about to be won. We're about to see playoff tickets get punched. We're about to find out who's who. And last night, I think we learned that Dolphins are still shite and the Pittsburgh Steelers might be for real this year. They invested a lot this offseason to take this miraculous run. It felt like everybody in the Pittsburgh Steelers building understood that maybe their window is kind of closing up. Cam Hayward's been around a long time. TJ Watt's been around a long time. Obviously, Coach Tomlin and the coaching staff have been there forever. Are we going to make a run at this thing?

59:06Pat McAfee:Sure. Let's bring in a Hall of Fame quarterback in Aaron Rodgers. Now, they didn't have a deal with him throughout all of spring ball. They didn't really have a quarterback. A lot of people were saying, we're just going to wait for this guy. We're going to wait for this guy. Mike Tomlin, from my understanding behind the scenes, was like, yep, we will wait for this guy because he's such a big fan. They inevitably get Aaron Rodgers into the building in the summer. He becomes their quarterback. They sign and pay DK Metcalf at wide receiver, a wide receiver,$30 million. A wide receiver that's never been a Pittsburgh Steeler for$30 million a year.

59:35Pat McAfee:Completely out of the norm for the Pittsburgh Steelers. They make trades for Jalen Ramsey, John O'Smith. They bring in Darius Slate. They start spending money and doing things that the Steelers had not done ever in the history of the Pittsburgh Steelers. All to kind of signal to the world, we're going for a Super Bowl. Their fans bought it. the NFL bought it and now we're living it the Pittsburgh Steelers are still very much in it they can still very much win the AFC North next two games against Detroit and Cleveland don't really matter play the Baltimore Ravens final week of the year if they beat the Ravens they will have a home playoff game if they get in the dance Aaron Rodgers is in the dance TJ Watts in the dance Chris Boswell who might be the best kicker in a league is in the dance and Mike Tomlin a man who's had a successful run as an NFL quarterback for the better part of the last two decades would be in the dance.

1:00:25Pat McAfee:I think all they care about is getting in, and when they get in, can they win? Well, that's what they're trying to prove to themselves and to all of us. Every single time they step on the field, pitches to John O. Smith, him running downhill, outrageous. Darnell Mount Washington, their tight end that weighs 320 pounds, who just sealed that particular block right there, who can get down the field in crazy ways, is obviously a monster. Are the Pittsburgh Steelers going to do everything that they hope to do whenever they change their ways this past offseason? Last night would tell you, yes. And on the flip side, are the Dolphins everything we thought they were going into the year?

1:00:59Pat McAfee:Last night would tell you, yes. They got to figure it out as well. The toxic tables here at Boston Corner, at Ty Schmidt. Ty, anything I missed there on the breakdown of both those teams last night?

1:01:09Bruce Arians:No, I think that was pretty accurate. And for, you know, a lot of people were saying last week when the Dolphins went into the Meadowlands and beat the Jets and it was 40 degrees, like, hey, they did it. Tua is a cold weather guy now. This is the end of this. The difference between playing in like 40 at kickoff and like 15 when it actually feels like it's closer to zero, just as people who live in cold weather states, like that's a pretty big difference. It's very cold when it's like zero degrees. It's not that cold when it's 40. And to your point about the Steelers in the playoffs, like if it stays like it is right now, like I can see the Steelers beat the Chargers.

1:01:44Bruce Arians:And then you win one game in the playoffs and get a little bit of momentum. Like who knows what could happen next?

1:01:48Pat McAfee:Who knows injuries that are going to happen to any team? Who knows what the future looks like for anybody? Honestly, you experienced this this past weekend. You lose your best player on the field. What does the future look like? Who knows? You know, the Green Bay Packers are going to deal with a Micah-less team going forward. Who's Green Bay playing next?

1:02:05Bruce Arians:The Bears in Chicago on Saturday.

1:02:07Pat McAfee:You don't think the Bears are pretty pumped that they're facing the Green Bay Packers in Week 16 without Micah Parsons? Yeah, I would say so. I mean, that could happen any week. We saw Devontae go down. We saw Micah go down. We saw Patrick Mahomes go down. You're talking about pillar, pillar, pillar players, game wreckers across the board could change. That's the end of the season. That is what could potentially happen. So if you get in the dance, who knows what a team looks like in the divisional round versus the wild card round. It's almost a game of attrition at this point. Who can survive because the season's so long?

1:02:35Pat McAfee:And obviously it's very, very brutal. Who can stay healthy and who can go on a run? Are the Pittsburgh Steelers one of those teams? Nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler. Like you said, playoffs, definitely. Can win a game in the playoffs. Yeah. Super Bowl, that'll be a stretch. But, you know, down the stretch, I know we're saying these games, you know, don't matter when it gets to the math. But they do matter on the field when it comes to it. Because when you hit the playoffs, when you're hitting the home stretch, you want to be playing your best ball. And so these games will mean a lot. And obviously our last game against the Ravens will be huge.

1:03:05But Super Bowl run, that'll be a stretch. I'll have to see that to believe it.

1:03:08Pat McAfee:Let's go to Hammer. AP Tone. AP Tone, everything that you guys were dreaming of in the offseason still very much alive right now. Was it wet dreams last night, or did you stay awake and beat the hell out of yourself?

1:03:20Bruce Arians:Both, actually. I didn't get it all out the first time when I was awake, so that situation happened. But no, this team in general... A little half. Yeah. Visual. They show flashes in all areas of being a good enough team to go on a deep run in the playoffs. It's just like certain ports stored in the season. It just has never all come together in one game. the last two weeks have probably been the closest situation. And we talk about the next two games not mattering because you don't have to win those games. You can lose those and then play the Ravens in Week 18. But if the Ravens lose this week to the Patriots or next week to the Green Bay Packers, all the Steelers have to do is then beat the Cleveland Browns in Week 17.

1:04:05Bruce Arians:And then guess what? There's two left tackles out right now. The D-line is banged up. Obviously, we know about TJ Watt. Herbie got a little bit hurt last week. We have corners out. Then you could rest week 18 to get prepared for that home playoff game in the wildcard round of the playoffs. So while, yes, you don't have to win the next two games to get into the playoffs, it would be super awesome to potentially win and then not have to worry about Ravens, Steelers, week 18, winners gets the AFC North. Like that's not something that I don't think anyone really wants.

1:04:37Pat McAfee:Yeah, that are Steelers fans. Correct. I definitely would like to see. Yeah, the Baltimore Ravens versus Pittsburgh Steelers. for who is going to make the playoffs and who wins the daunted, tough AFC North. Coach B.A., you've gone on multiple Super Bowl runs with multiple different teams. There's always the conversation about the end of the season whenever you can choose to rest. Does that create rust or does that create recovery for your team? What are your thoughts on playing your best ball at the end of the regular season and how that can carry into the playoffs? That Tampa Bay team that you were coaching with, Tom, I think it was like week 11.

1:05:08Pat McAfee:You guys had a bye week or something like that. And then on the other side of that, I think you beat the Falcons. and then you guys just go and demolish seemingly and go on a war path basically right to the Super Bowl. Your thoughts on ending the season with momentum. Yeah, I think that was huge for us. We had to win the last four, and we're down 17-0 in the half at Falcons and scored 31 in the second half, and that propelled us the rest of the way. So there was never any rest. I've been on it, hey, let's sit them this week, and we went one year, we set everybody, and a team had to win to get in.

1:05:42and we went and beat them with our guys. It's like, hey, these cats, they wanted to play. And I'm not going to name the team, but it's hot. Get hot at the right time. So let's talk about the rest. Healthy and hot.

1:05:55Pat McAfee:So my rookie year, we were undefeated. And by we, I played a tiny role. I mean, I held for Venetarian. I kicked off. I also didn't know what I was doing punting the ball, but I punted for the team, and we did not punt that much. So I say we. I mean, I was a part of the operation that did this. we were undefeated until we chose to lose okay then we lose to the jets we choose to lose to the jets we kind of let them in the playoffs and then we lose to the bills uh the final week in the middle of a snowstorm blizzard ogs on the team are not happy because obviously 72 dolphins are the only team that's ever gone undefeated and they wanted to chase that i believe bill pullian made the decision though like we're not losing anybody these last two weeks if we're in the playoffs it wasn't for rest it was strictly like we are top heavy as a motherfucker on this roster We cannot lose anybody here, so we are going to remove the risk of anybody getting hurt was kind of what the decision was made there.

1:06:45Pat McAfee:Your thoughts on those types of things towards the end of the year? Because momentum, I think the boys would have said, like, we also can get better through these games, which is what everybody else kind of gets to do. Where do you kind of sit on that? Yeah, we kept playing our guys. Even in Arizona, we had a lockdown. You know, I had a lot of confidence in Drew Stanton if I wanted to sit Carson Palmer. But, you know, you can only sit like four or five guys anyway because you don't have so many guys on the roster. Somebody's got to play. So I'm going to let you three sit. You three got to play.

1:07:14I'm pissed about this shit. So let's all play. Let's go win.

1:07:18Pat McAfee:What are your thoughts on it, D-Bud? Oh, it depends on your team. You got to know your team, where you are injury-wise, how much it will help you. And to your point, it's only so many guys that dress up. So let's say you decide to, you know, sit, tie, and come, and then the guys playing ahead of them get hurt. Now you got nobody playing teams. They maybe have to go in now and play in the second half so it can be a shit show. And all these reps matter. And on the flip side of that, I know we're talking about teams resting and being at the top of the league. But at the bottom of the league, we had that graphic yesterday when it's done.

1:07:48And people say, oh, these are meaningless games. We see Jayden Daniels shut down, which is probably a good decision with how he's been this year. But most of these teams for players and coaches, these are critical games going forward because a lot of those teams, we talk about what, six to eight jobs being open. So those are coaches and front offices changing. So those rosters, most of those guys, after probably the top four or five guys, are kind of head on the swivel when it comes to changing. So these are critical games for a lot of those teams as well.

1:08:14Pat McAfee:Also, when it comes to evaluation, like your competitive spirit, all that type of shit comes into deciding if somebody's going to be a part of your program, be a part of your team. If you get a chance to get some film, let's make sure it's good film. That's why whenever people are like, this team's tanking for this person, it's like the players on the field aren't tanking because they don't want to put shit film out there. Well, if their superstars are good, well, they're trying to make the Hall of Fame then. So they don't want to put, there's no reason for any player to put shit film out there to anybody.

1:08:41Pat McAfee:Now, are there other decisions being made on who's getting a chance to do film by some people? Potentially. But the players never want to put bad ball on tape. That's just a matter of fact. This is a profession where money is made by putting good ball out there and money is lost by putting bad ball out there. Yeah, if you made it to the NFL, you're a hell of a competitor. And competitors don't fucking quit. they play and they play to win and that's the way every team should be oh yeah unless you know it's time yeah joining us from an attic in ohio ladies and gentlemen a college football national champion a super bowl champion a rider cup winner ladies and gentlemen aj hawk yeah unless you know it's time obviously to go and uh move on and allow the business to prosper in a different way but But let's talk about last night.

1:09:29Pat McAfee:And the Miami Dolphins, I guess, will fall into the category we were just talking about, about down the stretch here, what does their team look like? Who's going to be on their team? What does next year look like? And then for the Pittsburgh Steelers, hey, this is everything they talked about in the offseason. And I think there was a lot of times where Aaron had to do his R-E-L-A-X quote to a lot of different people about when they want to play their best ball. They're seemingly doing that. What did you learn last night, AJ, about this Pittsburgh Steelers team? Well, I mean, this throw to DK was awesome early on.

1:09:56You knew Aaron felt pretty good when you saw him complete this ball early. And DK, first off, getting in the end zone later was unbelievable. Like, the dude obviously cannot be tackled and gained well. I think their offense was great. I think Aaron, you guys, it's funny, mentioned, like, his – yeah, you notice he's got a cast on his left hand. Like, yeah, that is something for sure. It definitely affects his play, I would say. But to Miami's credit, like, they came out early. I was – I legit stopped it a few times and ran some of their defensive plays back for my kids. I came in and watched these dudes make an open field tackle.

1:10:25was watch them set the edge. Miami was very physical early, and then for some reason after half, it just kind of fizzled out.

1:10:31Pat McAfee:You want to know what it's like to watch an NFL game with the all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers as his kids. Just know Monday night football does become five to ten minutes behind the rest of the world because Dad wants to make sure we see proper form tackle, pursuit angles, look at the tenacity, and the alphaness here. This is what we need if we want to play good football. Is that happening every game you're watching with the kids? No, it's not. But the older I get, the more I do want to run plays back. Like, hey, man, remember I tell you, keep your outside arm free. Here we go.

1:11:04And then you keep it and you knock it back inside to your 10 buddies running inside out. Like, it's very simple. And when I see teams, like, showing that on national TV, I have a hard time not stopping it and running back. Who are you showing this to? Usually my three boys and my daughter, too, if she's there.

1:11:19Pat McAfee:What are your three boys' names, just so we can kind of get a little more intel? Hendricks, Vetter, and Axel. Okay. Yeah. Hendricks, Vetter, Axel, please. Come here. See this guy sacrificing his body for the betterment of his team, but he has good angle. See, he's on the outside shoulder. He's forcing him back. He will not make the tackle, but he sacrificed his body for the good of his team. Do you see that? That is Hawk football. That is what you will do. Do you understand? And Vetter's like, I don't know. He could have just made it. We'll go back to the fucking beginning of this. Every single time.

1:11:48Pat McAfee:That's awesome. Hawk football, baby. Hey, that's a good thing for the future of ball. I appreciate you doing that. But to your point, they didn't look like it was the cold. It didn't look like it was going to be an issue for them. And then the Pittsburgh Steelers pull away. Tell you more about the Miami Dolphins or the Pittsburgh Steelers, AJ? I think it tells you more. I think the Dolphins, maybe they're a little bit of what we thought they were. But I think the Steelers might be a little better than we thought they were coming into this one. Can they go on a run, brother? They get into the dance.

1:12:14Pat McAfee:Aaron Rodgers, TJ Watt, Chris Boswell. Okay, those are the three leaders of the three respective groups. Boswell, potential best in game. T.J. Watt, potential best in game. Aaron Rodgers, first ballot Hall of Famer. Now, I know there's 10 other people on the field with him whenever they're out there, but defense, most expensive in the league still, Tone? I believe so, yes. Okay, so they got talent, stars all over the field there, especially if they're able to get healthy. Offense, are they going to be able with Aaron to be able to make any plays against playoff-caliber defenses? I guess that would be the question.

1:12:50Pat McAfee:What does that look? What does that look? Well, you just picked up your two top receivers you just got in the last three weeks who have been cast off. Yeah, but Thielen's a blocker right now. I don't know if you see him. Thielen's getting down there. Demon mode. Yeah, the demon Thielen's getting panicked. Him and Darnell Washington. He was blocking guys that didn't want to make a damn tackle. Yeah, well, that's the Dolphins. Yeah, you're right. We're going to have to find out if it's going to be anywhere else. Valdez Gantley catches a touchdown. I mean, he was on the street. But? But Aaron knows each other.

1:13:15Rodgers loves him. He knows him very well. And Thielen, Aaron knows his role. But that still scares me when you think about going against a high-powered offense.

1:13:26Bruce Arians:Coach, you did it with Scotty Miller. Scotty Miller is on the Steelers. He can't even get on the field. They don't know how to use him.

1:13:33Pat McAfee:They don't know how to use him. Aaron can't throw it that far. This is Aaron, not Phil. Yeah, joining us right now, ladies. Watch your fucking mouth. Hey. You got that one. Yeah, it did. I was about to introduce somebody that was maybe going to give us a little bit more information. I didn't know old man Rivers was about to take a shot. You sack of shit. Don't you do that to Phil. There's no reason to. Now, on that note, Aaron Rodgers does spin that thing. Oh, yeah. That ball is still hovering above earth, defying gravity somehow at the age of 40. What is he? 42. 42. 42 years old. I mean, it's outrageous, the arm strength.

1:14:12Pat McAfee:And I don't want to reiterate the story, but it is worth noting. fresh out of bed bud light from fridge at cabin we are 80 yards away in lake two-step from the deck into somebody's tube uh looking for a beer whatever time it was in the morning that's fresh out of bed for aaron as a 30 plus year old like 35 plus year old as an old man shoulder you think potentially elbow potentially wrist maybe even in that thing yeah right goes back to fridge grabs a couple more spinning them out there and then i ask him about i'm like hey that beer toss might have been the most impressive throw that i've seen just because as somebody who was throwing a couple beer cans before i know the size of it and also the weight distribution not the best for this especially with how old you are i could see quarterbacks wanting to warm up entirely before or doing any type of those things, he just literally woke up out of bed and hucked something 80 yards as like a 37, 38-year-old, and it's like, what's that all about?

1:15:19Pat McAfee:And he's like, I could probably do that forever or whatever. There's not even a thought that that thing is going to slow down, AJ. No, no chance. Yeah, you know, it's quick release, everything. It was on display last night, I feel like, even in the cold. Joining us now, a man who has a lot of the same traits that Aaron Rodgers has, Dan Olofsky. Hey, Dan Olofsky. What's up? How you doing, Dano? Hey, what network are you on? What network do you work for?

1:15:45Bruce Arians:ESPN.

1:15:45Pat McAfee:Dork. Oh, wow. That's so cool.

1:15:50Pat McAfee:I like that. I'm not following. It's like he's on a baseball team. Yeah, sweet hat. Loser. How come we don't get one of these hats? How come we don't get one of these hats? That's not ESPN. Well, whoever it is, they're getting sued. They're getting sued. Yeah, they need to watch it. We weren't even allowed to put a line through the PMS Live. Remember that?

1:16:11Bruce Arians:This is Aikman's Beer Company 8. Bye-bye, Troy. He's going to get in. Are you sure? Better change that quick. I don't think so.

1:16:20Pat McAfee:I think you're lying to us. You got the wrong hat.

1:16:23Bruce Arians:I'm always lying.

1:16:24Pat McAfee:Exactly. Which is part of the problem. I'm always lying. Yeah, it's all. Is it a work or a shoot? We never know with you. Sweet Husky Vets. So that's the 8 beer? Because he was getting a lawsuit from somebody else for that. Yeah, Lamar. I don't think so. I'm going to look. Troy and the beer. That is not the last ESPN logo. I mean, what are you doing? Why are you lying to us? This is the eight logo right here. It's right, dude. What's the purpose, man?

1:16:48Bruce Arians:This is, I believe. Can you put Dan where my seat is? This is his new logo. He just gave me these hats like two, three weeks ago.

1:16:58Pat McAfee:Yeah, him and Joe Buck just got signed from Fox like two years ago, three years ago. Yeah, he's got signed to ESPN. They're the number one crew on Monday Night Football. We get it.

1:17:05Bruce Arians:ass mark yeah so he gave them to laura laura gave them to me said these are these are troy's new

1:17:12Pat McAfee:hats so i don't like that with what happened with herbert i don't know troy definitely told laura like hey let's tell orlovsky that these are the new beer hats and he'll just think that that could be true it could be true i mean how many years have you worked for espn all right let's take this off

1:17:33Pat McAfee:seven years i'm happy you're just now learning what the logo is you're the greatest uh we appreciate you okay so you've been doing television i hope i don't get in trouble for that let's see for not knowing what espn's logo is either one either one either one yeah troy is going to be pissed troy is going to say we spent so many hours with focus groups trying to get the perfect logo and here you are wearing ESPN's logo thinking that it's our logo. Troy's jock. Yeah, Troy's going to be doing some crazy core workout from however old he is, 90 years old or whatever the hell it is. He's just doing it.

1:18:04Pat McAfee:Him and Joe, very good, by the way. Yeah. Very, very good. They're great, man. They're great. Always will be and we appreciate them for that. Let's talk about the game last night. Pittsburgh Steelers stomped Dolphins inevitably in the end. Now, Darren Waller has a couple touchdowns. Dolphins seemingly make it to play his fourth quarter. They're just running it as a casual offense. This game's over. this to get some preseason reps here we'll kind of go about our business as if there is no sense of urgency and you know who knows how or why we got to that point is it because Tua doesn't understand what's going on is that because McDaniel doesn't trust him can they even operate a two minute who knows whatever nonetheless let's go to the Pittsburgh Steelers Aaron Rodgers I just told the story about him throwing a beer can 80 yards uh from literally waking up out of bed from like a as a 38 year old he had that throw to DK where they had the great replay from the end zone on it where it looked like the ball is still just levitating.

1:18:53Pat McAfee:Perfect spiral. We're in week 15 right now. He's been playing a lot of ball. He's still spinning it at his best level. The offense seemingly find it. MVS gets in the end zone. He might become a new deep threat for the Pittsburgh Steelers. TJ Watt's going to come back inevitably. That defense gets a win for the first time without TJ Watt on primetime. Just what are your expectations for this Pittsburgh Steelers team and what changed last night or maybe stayed the same in your mindset?

1:19:18Bruce Arians:Yeah, nothing really changed for me off of last night's performance last night i was way more disappointed in the dolphins and myself for actually believing in them but for pittsburgh um the reality for pittsburgh is this for whether they can win the division and get in and if they get in can they be efficient on offense and can they keep rogers clean if they do those two things yes they'll have a shot versus somewhere in the playoffs. But those are a very big ask and or question mark if. Like last night in Miami, defensively I really don't know what they were doing. I mean, they weren't very, they didn't make things hard.

1:19:58Bruce Arians:They were very soft zone. They were just giving completion on a consistent basis to guys. And they never really got to Rodgers. And so do I think that if the Baltimore Ravens defense is going to do that? No. Do I think that the Houston Texans or the Jags defense in the playoffs, the Baltimore Ravens, excuse me, the Broncos defense in the playoffs would do that, no. So there's a very small margin of how Pittsburgh has to play. It's efficient because they're not explosive and they got to keep people away from Rodgers. If they do that, they can play good enough on offense to be in a game, but I just don't think it's likely.

1:20:30Bruce Arians:Okay, and for the Miami Dolphins, you're bummed out? Man, I thought they were different. Man, they're the same cold Dolphins. Yeah, dude, they were playing so much better. Their run game was awesome. Just the different stuff that they were doing. I thought going against a defense that was struggling against the run, I really thought they could go in there, make it a good game in the fourth quarter. Tua would make a throw or two. And they were in the first half, but that was because of their defense, not their offense. I was just so disappointed with the way they played. I'm disappointed with how Tua's played all year.

1:21:02Bruce Arians:I've been a huge fan of Tua's. I still am. But goodness gracious, man, the turnovers are just debilitating. And, you know, performance last night only kind of reiterates a lot of the question marks about, you know, the longstanding spot in the organization moving forward, which stinks because I'm a huge fan.

1:21:23Pat McAfee:And for McDaniel and Tua, you're just saying maybe the future looks different for the Miami Dolphins. And you're saying that Gumpy is just going to have to kind of strap in for just another turnover. And here's the contract details for Tua Tongavaloa. If he's traded before June 1st, it's only a$45.2 million dead cap hit in 2026. If he's traded post-June 1st, it's 13.4 in 2026 and then 31.8 in 2027. With where the cap is headed and how much money is already a dead in most places, this feels like something the Dolphins would be willing to take on. But I guess another team would have to pick something up.

1:22:03Pat McAfee:BA, what are your thoughts on any of the movement for potential to a post-Dolphins? I don't see anybody picking up any of that money. What? Yeah. The guy hasn't gotten any better, in my opinion, in the last three years. If anything, he's got worse. He took two sacks. You just throw the damn ball away. Terrible. You're running to your left. You're left-handed. You're 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and you take two sacks. What year is this for him? Too many. Six, maybe? Same as Burrow. Yeah. And Herbert. Yep. Yeah, because the way we judge those quarterbacks is how situational football they are.

1:22:37Pat McAfee:What are they like with their football IQ, yada, yada, yada, all those things. And you talk about if Patrick Mahomes was to take a sack and not throw the ball away or something like that, we would bury him, obviously. Whenever we talk about guys who are in their sixth year, whenever we're talking about being in their second contract, show me the money to a bunch of fans that are showing up at a free event, probably because they do not have the ability to get tickets. so screaming that. We're talking about at least becoming an elite quarterback. That is kind of the goal of the entire thing and you're saying there's too many things that are just very much on display.

1:23:10Like Dan said, the first interception. He's got a two-man route. They're playing cover two. You're trying to throw a corner route with nobody in the flat to hold the corner and you throw it right to the corner. I mean, Asante Samuel's just standing there. Throw me the ball. And he did. That's inexcusable for a six-year vet. And they did do a little statue on there to BA's point about how I think 15 of his interceptions are against zone so like a lot of the times in man it's awesome because he's got you know high flyers all around flying around but when it's in zone he's not really reading anything he's just throwing to a spot and then a guy like you know Asante Samuel Jr.

1:23:49Pat McAfee:is just standing when there's eyes on you when they're just waiting literally for you to throw it to you it's a little different than whenever everything was kind of operating full speed and you're throwing to a spot and everybody was kind trying to figure out your game. Now defenses get a book, right? That's kind of what the conversation is. You get the book and you get the motions and you know the spots. I guarantee if you look at like a heat map of Tua, like it'll be between the numbers and the hash, those would be like dark, dark red and everything else would be, you know, blue or light blue.

1:24:17And I always go back to like my ISO cam test. If I'm just watching the quarterback and I'm just watching Tua, as soon as he goes from his first read and he gets to his second read, everything just gets off whack. his feet, his eyes, and it's almost like you know nothing good is going to happen. B.A. talked about it. The sack, like taking those sacks, like you can't take those, at least make it a situation where you got to think about going forward in this situation. But when you take this sack, this is like something we talk about with rookie quarterbacks where it's like, okay, you got to get used to the time.

1:24:45Understanding that throwaway is a good play. It was 14-3. Yeah, we can't have these conversations. You're looking at his class, Burrow, Herbert, Hurts. Like those look like veteran quarterbacks. They'll have a bad day here and there, but nine times out of ten, and they're going to make the right plays.

1:24:59Pat McAfee:All right, let's move past the Miami Dolphins, which look like a sad franchise. Absolute shite. Looks like it's the Finkel days almost, but they can only dream to have a moment in which a missed kick would matter. Right? They're in the middle of the purgatory, too, where they've won enough games where they won't have a big nice pick. How's the 14th pick? No thanks. Me thinks that stinks. Dan Marino was on the sideline last night, too, so the fans actually got a chance to see what glory almost times were like for the Miami Dolphins. And he's talking to Seven, who's obviously filled with wonderment of what he's seeing.

1:25:42Pat McAfee:Santa Claus actually came to the game last night. What you don't see on this camera is Dan Marino and Ben Roethlisberger seeing Santa Claus for the first time. Two different reactions. Yeah, Bob Humbug, Dan. Dan said, I fucking saw him yesterday. You told me you weren't coming here. And Ben's like, Santa. This is obviously two magical moments. I know what happened. Okay.

1:26:04Bruce Arians:Okay. Ben saw Aaron spin it, was like, oh, we're awesome. Okay. And Dan saw it and was like, oh, we're fucked tonight.

1:26:11Pat McAfee:So it's not, so it wasn't Santa Claus. I think it was a little bit of both. That's what two went through that pic. Oh, geez. Okay. That is potentially that moment. Actually, we would like you to tell us what this moment was. What do you think this reaction was to? Go ahead and comment below or post on X below or put in the Instagram comments below. Best responses, we'll make the program tomorrow. Now, let's move past the Dolphins and the Steelers. A.J. Hawk has a question for you, Dano, who has a Husky poking up over his head. Hell yeah. Hey, Dano, I'm sure obviously you've been asked about Phil Rivers and his performance going out to Seattle and probably should have won the game, obviously.

1:26:51Unbelievable. kick there to win it as well as what four other kicks I believe in that night what do you make of Phil's performance and how tough is that really if you think about it coming off the couch after five years almost and having three days practice leading into this yeah I got tons of credit or

1:27:06Bruce Arians:tons of um like uh kudos to Philip for doing that credit to him for doing it unbelievable and very cool and courageous and the post-game comments that he makes about his sons or son and the the kids that he gets to coach are awesome hopefully that they can learn from that and see like hey Don't be scared. Don't be fear of failure. He was good. You know, got the ball out. I thought he moved in the pocket. He didn't look uncomfortable in the pocket that often. The ball went to the right place. You can tell he's still got smarts, still can throw it under 10 yards, right place, right time type of thing.

1:27:38Bruce Arians:That game is what it is because of the defense and really because of Seattle's offense right now and where they are more so than anything that Indy did offensively. So really impressed by the fact that he was able to go out there and do it. but there's nothing really in that offense that makes me think this team's going to get in, or if they get in, they're going to be a threat to somebody. Can you get one or two wins here? Can you get one or two wins for them down the stretch, you think? I don't think so, man. I think San Francisco, maybe. San Francisco's pass rush is relatively nonexistent, and they'll be able to run it on San Francisco, but San Francisco's offense is just firing right now, and the way that they're playing and healthy and Brock has been sensational.

1:28:16Bruce Arians:And then they play Jacksonville. Jacksonville and Trevor Lawrence is on an absolute heater, and their offense can throw it around. I think that'll match up well versus that run game that Indy has from a defensive perspective. And then playing the end of the season, I believe they play Houston, which is a good luck. So I think it's hard to envision. If they can get maybe one, I don't think they get two.

1:28:37Pat McAfee:Okay, so all these conversations that are being had by people on television about Phil Rivers' performance, and you can't throw the ball far. He's playing a Seattle Seahawks defense. They're very, very good. Now, you talk about down the stretch, you've got the Niners defense and you've got the Texans defense. So he's not playing like the easiest defenses to get dropped back into an NFL game. And maybe they're not allowing deep balls to be thrown. And Phil Rivers is too smart knowing that it's not my job to be out here and do any turnovers. We are trying to keep the ball. So I assume there's shots that he could have taken that he didn't, that I think with another week in an NFL building for the first time in half a decade, he's going to be letting that thing fly.

1:29:15Pat McAfee:Look for Phil Rivers to have a 20-plus yard completion on Monday night in the lot house, in my eyes. But also, he put us in the right spots. And who knows what that team looks like without him. A lot of people are saying Riley Leonard could have done that. AR is back to his return window. Cam Newton, who we all, I am, we are massive fans of and have a lot of respect for. He had a lot of people, including himself, that were upset that he wasn't asked. It's like all they're looking for right now is somebody to operate this offense, right? Isn't that kind of what they're trying to do? Phil was our best option.

1:29:49Pat McAfee:I think so. Yeah. I think Phil was our best option. Phil was our best option. Maybe Riley Leonard. I don't know how much Riley knows, though. And I don't know how many defenses he has looked at and seen. I don't know any of that type of stuff. In the building, they might know that. I'm not 100 % sure if they would, if they haven't seen him actually in the games. But it was like it was clear what they were looking for. We want somebody that's able to operate Shane Steichen's offense. and Jonathan Taylor is the one that's going to be winning us games or not. Literally everybody else has been saying that all season.

1:30:16Bruce Arians:Yeah, I mean, to win that game, they couldn't afford Riley Leonard to go out and throw four interceptions, which it's possible a rookie quarterback would do. We just saw Max Brosmer do it not too many weeks ago. They knew, hey, Phil might not be having a bunch of explosive plays, but he's not going to go out here and throw five picks, and we cannot turn the ball over if we want to win this game.

1:30:35Pat McAfee:They got the entire AFC South down the stretch, obviously a lot on the line. Let's stay in the AFC South on a completely different side note, it feels like. Talk about two young quarterbacks. Trevor Lawrence, you mentioned it earlier, him being on a heater. Obviously, he had a historical day on Sunday. But this last five weeks, they've won five in a row. He's been playing great. And then C.J. Stroud, too. I know he had to knock some rust off with Nick Haley, his OC. He's been playing well. What are you seeing from these two quarterbacks and these two offenses?

1:31:01Bruce Arians:Yeah, I'll start with C.J. I think Houston, from an offensive perspective, is the most improved unit in football. If you go to what they were to the start of the season, offensive line was still a huge concern. The adjustments they've made on their offensive line has totally revamped this offense. The interior of their offensive line playing so much better. And now CJ, I think CJ's one of his superpowers, D-Bud, is like throwing the ball in the middle of the field. He's got great understanding of windows, the touch in between windows or over the top of windows. And then Nick Kaley, as an offensive coordinator, I think he's the most improved offensive coordinator in football this year.

1:31:40Bruce Arians:We called their Monday night game on the road in Seattle two months ago, maybe 10 weeks ago, and it was like, whew. It feels like the same stuff of last year. And the way that they've brought six offensive linemen into the game, the way that they've gone back to underneath the center, the way that their young players have stepped up in Higgins, Kirk is healthy, Nico Collins is dominant, Woody Marks running the football. They're not trying to get overly creative with their run game. You know, he comes from the Rams. And I think you're starting to see a lot of the stuff that Houston's doing has a lot of the elements that the Rams have done in the past.

1:32:13Bruce Arians:The keeper game. I continue to go to that. Matthew Stafford is running the keeper bootleg game more than anybody in the NFL. C.J. Stroud is in the top five when it comes to the usage of booting your quarterback out five or six times a game. And so we rave about Houston's defense, rightfully so. I've only seen this offense just get better and better and better. And Houston is much more a complete team today than they were, you know, certainly in the middle of October. And it's not just about their defense. It's a great unit, but their offense is very, very good right now. When you talk about throwing the ball over the middle of the field, though, because I see a lot of people take shots at other quarterbacks, avoiding the middle of the field.

1:32:53What's so difficult about that and what kind of separates quarterbacks that can attack the middle of the field and that can't?

1:32:59Bruce Arians:Yeah, I think the middle of the field, number one, there's more bodies there. So there's more danger, you know, quarterbacks that throw the ball to the perimeter. More often than not, there's less people that you have to throw the ball through or over. And so it's a little bit more of a safe and confident throw, you know, throwing the ball over the middle of the field. you're usually having to throw one of two ways in between people from a horizontal perspective so you got to throw it with windows that are open before you want to and close faster than you kind of see them so you got to be able to anticipate but also throw the right pace of a football to like this ball he's holding nico up so like you got to throw that ball in between that underneath defender of his right helmet number 20 but also 27 excuse me but also not pulling Nico into that backside defender.

1:33:48Bruce Arians:So like, that's a zone ball that that's a dangerous throw that just, if you throw that ball on a line, 27 will back that one off down here in the red zone. Like this is a, you got to throw over people, but you can't throw it too high because there's usually a safety behind or out of bounds. And so like, I just, you know, that's the, the, the skill of throwing the ball over the middle of the field is anticipation. And it's for me, it's pace a pace of a football of how fast or hard you're throwing it is a huge deal so real

1:34:20Pat McAfee:ball throwers can throw in the middle of the field hell yeah yeah that's kind of the difference maker that is you know in baseball it's can you see the curveball right that is the thing can you hit that's how you get into the next that's how you get into the majors if the hitter can see the curveball and hit the curveball so for quarterback it's like can you make the throws over the middle because you have to have good timing you gotta have good anticipation you gotta know where the ball is supposed to go you got to know what the defense is doing and you got to have elite arm talent is what you're saying middle of the field kind of equal equals yeah yeah like that throw

1:34:50Bruce Arians:right there if if if we took that throw that one that nico he just connects if we just took that and did routes on air you would sit there and if you just had cj and nico running the route you would go oh the ball's behind nico and then you would sit there and say that's an accurate throw but when we're playing real football and you're throwing with defenders and windows you that's the right throw at the right time. That's why I've always sat there and said, don't find me a quarterback who can make all the throws. Make the right throw at the right time. That's the right throw at the right time.

1:35:20Bruce Arians:And so, yeah, I think that's a superpower of his, man. And I think also I would say this, there's some quarterbacks that, because scheme, the middle of the field gets schemed open, so it's a little bit easier. But we'll know when those are happening, right? This is high-level quarterback play.

1:35:36Pat McAfee:We'll know when that's happening, though, right? For our eye, our un-quarterback. But make it open. Okay, we'll be able to see whenever. That feels like that's not really the quarterback having the courage and the confidence because the amount of things that go into every one of those throws, confident in your arm, courage that your decision is the right one, and then also an understanding that this could go terribly while getting blasted in the face as you're doing that. I was saying it last night on that touchdown pass to DK, where I think it was Davis, 21, his hand was like – he was like he never saw that same fight because he just trusted.

1:36:05He still has the juice to kind of get it through. It looked very similar to that touchdown throw against the Steelers. I think it was RC, Ryan Clark talks about that play. I think it was backside of quarters, and he had his arm and went right. But, like, the quarterbacks, they just got to trust it, got to be able to let that thing rip, too. Unbelievable throw, man.

1:36:21Pat McAfee:Yeah, Aaron said there's nobody that's currently out of my frame that's going to get this ball before DK gets it. It's the decision that he's making in his head. He had no idea if a guy was coming, but if somebody was coming, there's no way they're going to get there. And that's the one you think Aaron, whenever he came back after the injury or whenever he feels like he's in it, a strike over the middle to beat zone is a ball that quarterbacks can kind of uh i don't want to say flex their shit on but flex their shit on dio yeah i certainly think so i mean how are you over

1:36:49Bruce Arians:the middle dan how are you over the middle elite surgical good enough bro i wasn't good enough nor courageous enough um you know i think like if you watch stafford right now i mean that's where like some of the no lookers come in again zone people you would zone you got to move people with your eyes you know and so Stafford right now is lighting it up Trevor Lawrence right now we're the middle of the field to answer D-Blet's previous question you know I think that um you know with Trevor what you're seeing with Trevor is there's finally and BA knows this at a high level too like when the quarterback truly believes in the play call and the people around them it's almost to a point like I I could place this ball wherever I need to I just have so much confidence in myself and the play call and the people there's very much a Kyle Shanahan Sean McVay element to this where as a play caller as the quarterback you're like I have so much confidence in these play calls right now I'm just gonna cut this sucker loose because I believe the dudes will be open and with Trevor it feels like they've finally gotten him to this point where it's like dude just trust us we're gonna get guys open see it trust it and rip it and I think that's allowed him to be way more aggressive, way more confident, and also allowing him to not think as much and just react.

1:38:07Bruce Arians:And you're seeing some of the athleticism on display. I mean, that throws off the charts good, dude, because he's going from that crosser to that in-run on the backside. And he's hot right now, but I think a lot of it is to do with just the structure of the play call. Liam Cohen is dialing right now. Jacoby Myers has been a godsend for them. High level of confidence.

1:38:28Pat McAfee:See it, trust it, rip it. That sounds like a quarterback meeting. Yeah, that sounds like something that is said on a – it's just like alignment assignment technique is in there. You know, like there are so many of those little quick reminders for people whenever they're doing their job. See it, trust it, rip it. What a cool thing, bruh. Yeah. I heard a bra at the end of it too. I think that's probably how most quarterbacks –

1:38:50Bruce Arians:That's an old Ron Turner thing. Ron Turner, we used to – with Frank Reich and when I was in Indy with Peyton and Kirk Collins and whatnot, that's a Frank Reich – Ron Turner thing. Was he on West Coast, right? Ron Turner, I think, was part of a lot of different offenses.

1:39:06Pat McAfee:I think. Yeah. I think. Do I know?

1:39:08Bruce Arians:Norv. Yeah, you think of Norv? Norv is his brother. Chargers. Norv is with Aikman. PA probably knows him. Yeah, they're all from Ernie Zambezi and Don Correale. What's that? From that tree. Corleone? They're from the Corleone family? Is that right? Ernie Zambezi?

1:39:23Pat McAfee:Oh, Zambezi. Yeah, I know. He used to gobble-goo that thing better than anybody. Coriel was the best to put it up the field, baby. Yeah, and they called Ronnie Turner, Ronnie Play Calls. Where is he? Norv, Rondale came out of that Coriel tree. Okay. Yeah. Which is? Joe Gibbs and everybody. Okay. When you got Joe Gibbs, you got a good change. Yeah, exactly. Put your hands up. Who are we? The Commanders. That was a bar that guy dropped. Okay, let's get to some quarterbacks who can spin it, and we've seen spin it, but how long are they going to be spinning it for? Go ahead, Con, man. Yeah, Dan, everybody's kind of worried about the Cincinnati situation with Joe Burrow and the stuff going on off the field.

1:40:01That's been alluded to. That's one thing. Hopefully everything for Joe is okay there. But just talking about on the field and in the building, what do you think Cincy can do to get this fixed? He gave this press conference basically about how he's not really having too much fun. Pat talked about it kind of earlier in the week this offseason when they made their team and built their team around two number one right receivers and gave them all that money. not many people thought it would work um how do you think since he can kind of make this happen for joe burrow so he's not in this miserable situation and what do you think about the people calling him boohoo burrow on the internet i can't believe i can't get it out but it is sad they're calling him boohoo burrow i don't like that at all yeah i don't i don't really have any thought

1:40:45Bruce Arians:on that um i think that the problem in cincinnati for joe and really jamar is like where's the hope of the future there's there's this is a years of this kind of being the same story not drafting well enough not developing well enough the defense continues to fall apart this was a historic performance last year from an offensive perspective and didn't get in they can't protect and so there's not a lot of evidence in the last five years in Cincinnati with Joe that they'll figure this out so like what can get done I don't really have that answer I mean the answer is well draft better and develop better and better and get good players um could you sit there and say like a different philosophy scheme-wise maybe but they score a ton of points Zach Taylor can call an offense you know that so that's do you want to get rid of that um and so I think that's part of this is like Joe I gotta imagine sitting there going where what can I point to for a hope for the future and for everybody sitting there saying well they gave him everything that he wants they paid his two number one wide receivers.

1:41:50Bruce Arians:We've seen that at times in the NFL. We have. We're watching it in Philly. They've got two highly paid wide receivers and be successful, and they've drafted well with some of their younger players. And so I'm not saying it's the best way, but they've been very bad.

1:42:07Pat McAfee:Who's this one? For the Eagles. Who's this one right here? Sam, the quarterback. Hi. Who's this one right here? What's that? That's Saquon Barkley.

1:42:17Bruce Arians:Saquon. Yeah. I just don't know what to point to for them and say, if you fix this, it'll be better. His defense has been bad for years now. This offensive line can't keep them clean. It's not going to get fixed overnight. It's not going to just be one offseason and all of a sudden it's flipped.

1:42:37Pat McAfee:So we think he had the realization that that's the truth? Joey B had somebody in his family go, hey, we've been trying to shield you from this. Okay, so you didn't start thinking like how everybody else was thinking, but this looks – this is probably what the team looks like next year too. And, turns out, probably the team after that. And then, guess what? I hate to break it. Unless we get lucky on some draft picks, probably that next year. And then it all starts spiraling. And then Joey B, who has always kept the blinders on and thought as if he could be the one that changes the Cincinnati Bengals franchise forever and brings a Super Bowl, a Lombardi there, and becomes the Ohio boy who delivered for the Bengals.

1:43:17Pat McAfee:If that doubt starts creeping in, that's not good. I don't like that at all, right, no matter how it gets in there. Yeah.

1:43:23Bruce Arians:And I think the two quarterbacks that are getting correlated to situation-wise a little bit are Andrew Luck and Stafford. Because, and you were around Luck, but I remember Matthew got drafted, I believe, in 2009. Yes. And the Lions, he would get beat up and they would lose. But like he had the 2000, I think, 11 season. They went to the playoffs and they were really good. And he was like, so there was a there was improvement. I think they went to the playoffs in 13 and 14 as well. So they there wasn't this significant stretch three years in a row right now for Burrow not getting in while also getting beat up.

1:44:02Bruce Arians:And last year, the historic offense and bad defense. So there wasn't maybe as much with Matthew. And then with Andrew, I think Andrew went to the playoffs a decent amount in his first four or five years, right? Even though he was getting beat up.

1:44:14Pat McAfee:Yeah, we went to the AFC Championship. Second year, I believe. First year made it to the playoffs. And Coach B.A. Wildcard rookie, divisional championship. And remember, rookie year, we would have went to the Super Bowl. Coach B.A. got sick in Baltimore. Happy you're okay, by the way. But we certainly missed your ass. I mean, that was certainly a game-changer morning of the game. But, yeah, there was success. and there was those types of things that keep you going, I think, and keep you believing that there's a chance that you can win here no matter what. Well, and then when they finally figured out the offensive line, it was too late.

1:44:44Like, they finally drafted Quentin Nelson. They got all these pieces to, you know, block for him. But then he called it the year before, and that's when Jacoby Brissett stepped in.

1:44:52Pat McAfee:Bia, your thoughts on the Joey Burrow situation that's currently brewing? Because can he find it again? Can he find the – I mean, Carson Palmer, I guess, and you had him in Arizona. He has the best – what was the stats? The only winning quarterback in the history of the Arizona Cardinals. With a minimum of 50 starts. Yeah, boom. The only – how many? 50? 10. 10. What? 10 games. That's a crazy stat. If that remains to be true, there's no quarterback that has a winning record for the Arizona Cardinals with a minimum of 10 starts, says the Marv space. Kurt Warner, 30 and 31. They went to a Super Bowl.

1:45:27Pat McAfee:Really? Yeah, he was one under. Yeah, because everybody responded, and there was a response. But nonetheless, Carson Palmer was that guy. You coach him out there. Obviously, you know Carson well. Carson was like, I'm quitting football. I'm not doing it anymore. And then finally forced his way out of Cincinnati. And I'm not saying Cincinnati Bengals organization is the same now as it was then. Obviously, there's been a lot of upgrades and things have changed. And there's an indoor facility. And maybe that's the universe saying, They forgot to shovel their seats this weekend. Maybe that's why the universe they're saying not so fast.

1:45:58Pat McAfee:But let's just assume they're two different organizations then and now. but for Joey B if he's lost like the drive at this stage is this just middle of the season frustrations you think? Does it change in the off season or what are your kind of thoughts on where he's at right now? Yeah it's very scary for me because I would have never guessed Andrew to retire you know having coached him and how much he loved the game and how tough he was I mean for Joe to have the ball 40 minutes last week and no points that's hadn't heard of that's usually 35-40 points every time so there's something missing And obviously, hopefully it's not a mental health issue, but he's got to find his love for it for sure.

1:46:35That's for sure. And it's going to be a tough, tough offseason for them.

1:46:38Pat McAfee:We love you, Joe. Good luck, Joe. I love you, Joe. Even this cat in the middle, will you meow at him a little bit when you sit back up? Will you sit back up just a little bit, Dano? What cat? What are you talking about? Will you sit back a little bit? Go to your left a little bit. And, yep, stop. That's where you're doing. You did that, though, for a lot of your answer. I want to let you know you're going to watch it back. You had ears the whole time. You had ears the whole time. It was awesome. I was hoping he would purr or something. I didn't know what was going to take place. Better than the hat.

1:47:09Bruce Arians:It's a dog. It's a husky. It's not a cat.

1:47:11Pat McAfee:Yeah, but with the size of your head versus the size of that particular painting, the ears looked like cat ears. It did not look like dog ears at all. So you were kind of a cat. You know, kind of meow. There was no hurt.

1:47:20Bruce Arians:Hey, cats.

1:47:22Pat McAfee:Cats are good animals. Hey, cats. Why? I'm watching. what's going on they suck damn they don't that was cats pretty good animals they take care of themselves they poop in their own places they kind of just live amongst themselves you can even have some cats that want a little bit of attention so they'll act like dogs and then they'll kind of

1:47:40Bruce Arians:leave you alone you like dogs dan love dogs give me give me all the dogs and big dogs too i don't

1:47:47Pat McAfee:i'm not i'm not a little dog either there's a new big dog in my house and i'll tell you what this thing is what'd you get wrecking ball it is uh we saved it from the hamilton county humane society which we are very grateful for that blue healer you know uh what bluey is you know the the cartoon bluey it's uh the the type of dog is called a blue healer dog it's like a cattle dog or something like that and when i was in australia where bluey is actually from i saw a couple of them on the street walking with a veteran man who had been in the military for 16 years and he was walking without any leash with them downtown brisbane just walking with these two dogs and i could see that they were a special breed of dog they had like gray hair a very cool look so i went and asked him about i'm like i kind of want a dog that just kind of trails me like i'd be sick to just have one of those dogs that's just always on the lookout you know so i started talking to aladdin also i'm in australia everybody that i know is asleep right now because it's the opposite time of the world so i'm talking to anybody i can over there so i start chatting to this guy learning his story and he talks about these dogs are the best bloke you know he does the entire thing about how loyal they are how fast they are how athletic they are and everything like that he said but they are stubborn you know it gets into the entire thing so then we look at the list of dogs at the hamilton county humane society uh i believe it was on thanksgiving we look into it and this dog that is like bluey which is obviously mckenzie's favorite cartoon is bluey and i saw the bluey in australia told the story about it there's a bluey at the humane society it's very abnormal i don't think blue healers are just kind of sitting at a humane society so we go look at this dog dog runs like the wind i mean it's a gazelle it's like such an awesome dog such a good personality you know very loyal but what i forgot is how smart these things this thing was just kind of selling to us because it wanted to get the hell out of there this dog is a psycho i mean you're talking about the most amount of energy out of any dog in history you know those puppy zooms that puppies get and puppies are small this thing is this big this large zoomies around the house i jumps over full bed from one side of bed doesn't touch bed to other side just casually galloping around the house it's like holy what's just doing to the floors so pissing i didn't even think yeah bingo he is putting him on the treadmill man get him on the treadmill tire him out we're getting the geotag here for the thunderdome we're getting the geotag for the thunderdome because we got a field over here this thing needs to run like this thing needs to be out there moving i don't even know how it survived this long in our house i'm running it upstairs from one side of the house to the other like just trying to get some energy out of this thing and i looked into it i don't think that energy is ever leaving like for the

1:50:23Bruce Arians:next 10 years this thing is at least jacked like a sheepdog or something it is yes incredibly cool

1:50:30Pat McAfee:nice kind sees mckenzie jumps over or around mckenzie like doesn't hit me like this dog is awesome it is so kind so cool but geez louise it is way too big to have the amount of energy that it has and i'm being told that this is the rest of its life so we are promptly trying to find a way to get this energy out and we're putting the laser the electric thing here and i think every morning i'm bringing this thing up and i just gotta as far as i can for as many as i can with this dog. So, yeah, I love this dog. I love dogs, but it's a life changer. It's a life changer completely that what's about to happen, but it is awesome, this dog.

1:51:10Awesome.

1:51:10Bruce Arians:It's awesome. I want a Burmese mountain dog. That's the next one I want. Big. Those are big. Those are very big dogs.

1:51:16Pat McAfee:Hey, you look like a cat again, so on that note, let's get you the hell out of here. Ladies and gentlemen, that's Dan Orlovsky. Meow! Meow! Hello! Hello! Alright, we got three minutes before the end of the show. That dog, Blue, he's awesome. Oh, yeah. He's a cool dog. Blue's a cool dog. Jump up in bed whenever I'm going to bed and, like, does a full on. How old is he? They said one, but who knows, dude? Who knows? The feet are so big. And it's like, is this thing only going to keep growing? Like, is this thing only going to? Here he is laying at her feet. Literally, this is what he looks like.

1:51:47Pat McAfee:So he is. Oh, he's cool looking, man. Cool dog. Nice dog. Fun dog. Just the most amount of energy for a horse that I've ever seen. like i've never seen a horse with this much energy he's uh he's sweet they're very new to the family and mckenzie loves him like you wake up mckenzie and she go blue home and it's like yep yep blue i mean i think she just likes the spectacle of this big motherfucker just wrecking our house you know i mean just all the way through the entire thing it's been sweet you should adopt though by the way there is uh a lot of dogs especially the hamilton one they have such a Nice facility.

1:52:25Pat McAfee:A lot of people donating to them, obviously, which is what they run upon and they're very thankful for. But so many dogs just looking for a home. And dogs are such a good companion, obviously, for a family. If you have the ability, I would certainly promote it. And I'm very thankful for Blue coming into our life. It's going to make me more of a runner, I think. I think I'm going to have to. I mean, I'm running sprints at my house trying to wear this thing. Because there's snow and everything that's going on. I'm telling you, you can put them on the treadmill, man. I had a dog that ran on the treadmill and loved it.

1:52:51Pat McAfee:Who, Kevin? No, not Kevin. I will put his ass. He's smart enough, too, to learn. Oh, yeah. He put that leash up on there. Just stand on the side with a little leash. The thing will go. It'll run forever, man. His strides might be too long for the treadmill. That's something he's going to have to figure out. Yeah, he's got to adjust. Quiet, too. Like a ninja. I'm like, what the hell is this thing? First morning, it's in the house. I'm sleeping. I hear, like, a little, like, some noise. I think it's maybe a cat or something. and then all of a sudden this whatever pound, 70, 80 pound thing jumps over me, lands on bed next to me and then puts its head down on my pillow.

1:53:31And I'm like, what's up, dude?

1:53:33Pat McAfee:Welcome to the house. And he's like, yeah, great to be here. You should have seen the shit all over. Yeah, right. Yeah, I couldn't even race. So go ahead and adopt this holiday season is my big message. And you never know what you're going to find. Maybe a whole new life. And it's a beautiful thing. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice that might change your life. We continue digitally. Goodbye. All right, let's take a break. On the other side, we got BS or no BS with BA. We got BA's Game Balls. We'll also have a conversation with Seth England. Really? Yeah, one of the founders of Big Loud, which is obviously a music label down there in Nashville.

1:54:08Pat McAfee:Has many artists that you obviously know and guys that we love. Hardy, Ernest, oh yeah, and the third largest artist of all time, Morgan Wallen. Boom. So we are so incredibly thankful for his friendship and I'm excited for the combo with him. We're kind of forcing him to do this because he's here. So I'm sure he's pumped about that. But we got questions. He's got answers. And we hope you will watch as we continue on this glorious B.A. Day, December 16, 2025.

1:54:44Pat McAfee:Football! He's the greatest. That's A.J. Hawk. Coach B.A. is here. The toxic table is here. That was your best game. Wow. Yeah, what was that on right there? That's three, baby. That was hard. Let me hear the three again. Okay, so let's say I'm an offensive lineman. All right, I'm in my stance. It's fourth quarter. 65 plays in. Cold. It's cold, but I'm dead. I am dog tired. I'm over there. Miles Garrett right over there. Okay, just waiting on me. It's late in the game, and my quarterback comes out and goes, we're going on three to try to save you, right? That's what we're trying to do. So I'm out there on an island, and I hear this out of the quarterback.

1:55:23Pat McAfee:Hey, hey. Oh, it's five. Yeah, and then you back up five, and it's like, just fucking go on one, please. Jeez Louise. And then you got the DNs who are up there on the edge of their fingertips, just like Rudy back in the day. I'm sorry, Vince Papali back in the day. Rudy applies. Rudy also. If it's red, it's red, it's red, it's red, it's red, it's red, it's red. I'm coming. You're on the edge. Myles Garrett's trying to get the all-time sack record in the history of the NFL, and the quarterback decides to go on three, and it sounds like what? I mean, how do you? No. No, it's going the other way.

1:55:55Pat McAfee:That's a good cadence. Need that. It's from here. It's not from here. It's from Seoul. It's from knowing ball. Is Zach Wilson going to be doing that for the Miami Dolphins? Coach McDaniel has come out and said, after being asked about Tua Tonga-Veloa's struggles, is there a quarterback change possibility? Everything's on the table, says McDaniel. Talk to the table at Boston Conner, at Ty Schmidt. Nine-year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler. What does that mean whenever that answer is given? Everything's open. Exactly what he said. Usually coaches lie, but I believe that. We've seen the worst. Some bad football.

1:56:32I won't say the worst. It's been some bad quarterback play this year, but it's been some terrible quarterback play. We talked about all the reasons earlier with all the quarterbacks in his class. When you're at this point in your career, you can't do some of the things that Tua has been doing.

1:56:43Pat McAfee:B.A., when a coach says this publicly, that means conversations have already happened behind closed doors, that he's allowed to say that about the franchise quarterback you've already paid? Yeah, I think it's already been set in stone. We're switching. And talked to you yesterday. I'm going to put it out today. Okay, and now who has to be a part of that decision? Everybody, right? Chris Greer gets fired, so obviously there's no GM or president. But you would think top down would have to be a part of the head coach coming out and saying, hey, the quarterback that we paid a lot of money is potentially not quarterback anymore.

1:57:08Pat McAfee:Like, that is a massive statement to make, I think, by the head coach. Yeah, you're going to the ownership. You go straight up top. Hey, we're making this move. And you have to have their blessing. And there's been signs, too. Like, against, I think it was the Browns or whenever it was when, you know, they had that interaction where Tua threw a pick. And McDaniel basically, you know, very, very animatedly, if that's a word, basically was like, all right, sit this guy the hell down. And then, you know, other stuff happened as well. But, like, there has been things. Like, it feels as though this isn't out of nowhere, even though, you know, the losses and stuff have piled up.

1:57:39Pat McAfee:Let's go to hammer.top. AP Tone. Tone, we thought there was a chance that this game was going to be a clear house situation for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Instead, your team is on the side that is actually causing changes on the other side. Good for you, Tone. I know you didn't think that was necessarily going to be the outcome last night.

1:57:55Bruce Arians:Yeah, I mean, it feels really good to be on this side. It feels nice to be happy the day after a game. It feels nice to respect your team and be proud of the team that you watched play on Monday Night Football instead of, you know, the Miami Dolphins, who haven't won a playoff game in 25 years and their quarterback stinks okay let's go to the other half of the hammer

1:58:16Pat McAfee:dad cowboys bubble gumpino what do you hear from mcdaniel here whenever he's saying everything's

1:58:21Bruce Arians:on the table even on the win streak too it wasn't playing that great you can look at his numbers it was like 14 to 21 like we can go back give me quinn yours as well i don't need to see zach wilson

1:58:32Pat McAfee:let's trot out the rookie okay yeah quinn yours goes from first overall pick to seventh rounder somehow. I don't know how that took place for his college career, but maybe him and McDaniel's system, maybe he is the one that needs to do it. And Zach Wilson would have been so negative about. A lot of quarterbacks that have left New York have gone on to have prosperous careers in their second chapter, third chapter.

1:58:53Bruce Arians:Ewers already jumped him for backup in one game. He came in in that Browns game, so it has happened before, so I imagine it is on the table.

1:59:00Pat McAfee:I think I saw Ewers in a shiesty last night and I said, I forgot Ewers was on the Dolphins. Is that what you did as well, AJ? Yeah, a little bit, but can any of these guys save his job, the head coach's job? Well, that's the thing, especially with his offense, right? Because there's a lot of shit to it. It's kind of what we learned through the What if Hewars comes in and lights it up then? Could McDaniel say, hey man, I told you, like, Tua's just not seeing it how I see it, but other guys will. And they have kind of turned it around. Like, this was, of all the teams in the NFL, the team in Miami after firing their GM, you would think, be like, alright, let's quit and let's just have some fun in Miami.

1:59:30But like, they didn't quit per se. One to six? We start one to six? Yeah, they were awful.

1:59:36Pat McAfee:And when people quit, they say that's on the coach. Yeah. They did kind of quit

1:59:40Bruce Arians:last night, though. They were cold. Well, the coach, kind of. No, they kept fighting.

1:59:44Pat McAfee:No, they kept, yeah, take your time on this. Make sure we're under, four-minute offense here. Let's do this thing right. Four-minute offense here. Let's go ahead and operate here. This is exactly why you got to root for multiple teams. This is exactly why. This is example one, exhibit A, because imagine just being, what did you say, Tony? 25 years, waiting for a playoff win. It is week 15 just wrapped up. This season's already done. Probably new coach, Probably a new quarterback. Guess what? I got Jalen Hurts in the Eagles. I got the Chargers in Hurts. I mean, Chargers in freaking Herbert. Herbert.

2:00:18Pat McAfee:Oh, no, you're not? You're not a man. It's like D-Bot's not getting sent to any coach. Don't call yourself a fan. You're not a fan. You're a football fan. And to your point, it's exactly why you stay a fan of one team. Hold on. Because when you suck for this long, once you finally get good again, it means more. Ask Foxy. Foxy's team has sucked his whole life. They're finally good. It means more. I mean, look at me. He must say 25 years. It took me 30 years to see my team win one playoff game, and that was the greatest day of my life. Now, on that note, was it worth 30 years of suffering? That's a long time.

2:00:52Pat McAfee:It built character. It built grit. Boom. He must say, I got character. I got character. I got grit. Now, guess what? Detroit's on the borderline of being out of it again. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Eight and six football team. Eight and six football team. Borderline right now. Hey, root for multiple teams. Look, I'm a fan of players. I'm blood in, blood out with the Dolphins. I'll forever be a Dolphins fan. It sucks, yeah. Same thing with the Colts. That's my football family, football home. So that's one side of the bucket. Another bucket where, as a player, I'm a fan of players. I'm a huge fan of Herbert, huge fan of Hurts.

2:01:22So they made me a fan of their team. So it's two different buckets. But I'm going to enjoy every football season.

2:01:27Bruce Arians:Ex-players. Everyone. Ex-players can also do that. Agreed. You can do that. Because I see organizations differently. Right. And also, all these teams could have drafted you.

2:01:34Pat McAfee:For instance, I grew up in Pittsburgh. Steelers could have drafted me. I want to pick 222. That's a long time waiting around where they could have picked me. The Colts said, hey, we would like to financially invest in your family's future. So my family picked up the Indianapolis Colts as a thank you. And I am an Indianapolis Colts fan because of that. So I do think ex-players are a little bit different. Yes. But you've been a little bit greedy with your just picking everybody that's good to become a fan of. Good place to be. You could just do your teams, though. What's that? You also talk about New England.

2:02:04You still have love for New England, too. Absolutely, for sure. You know, you could do that. Yeah, you know what?

2:02:09Pat McAfee:You're right. I do like New England. That's what he just did right there. Number two team in the AFC. That gave me an opportunity. It gave me a first opportunity. Being an NFL player, callback. Hey, Robert Kraft, I will always have a huge respect. I said courtside of the finals, Robert Kraft. I got to watch Kobe B. Bryant playing the finals. God rest his soul. It will always be near and dear to my heart. How'd you set that up? Yeah, that's amazing. How's that come about? He set it up, you know. When you play football in New England, Tom D. If I told him what it means, we play football in the Wigler.

2:02:37The teams, all the teams, the Bruins, the Celtics, the Sox, all got great relationships. And it wasn't like some other teams where you got to pay money. Like, these are free court side seats. The final, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett. I can't believe they're doing it up there. As Titletown, baby, it means more.

2:02:54Pat McAfee:Is that why I'm seeing Anthony Anthony around there? Exactly. Well, Tony Tony and Drake May happen to be freaking best friends. So the young core in New England, from that standpoint, yeah, they are all buddy-buddy, very close. And Missoula and Vrabel, right? Missoula and Vrabel, both sickos in their own right, yes. They don't really have friends. They just talk ball 24-7. That's all they think about. And then, you know, the Bruins, the Bruins are the Bruins. A lot of Eastern Europeans on that team. I don't know how much they have in common with the other kind of athletes in the area, but that's the thing.

2:03:30There are so many good guys that just buy it.

2:03:33Pat McAfee:Who's on your team? I forget. You guys trade away all your good players, right? No, no. Funny enough, Bruins are already back, baby. David Pasternak, yes. We currently don't have a captain, but David Pasternak has kind of taken his leadership role. Chuck, Charlie McAvoy, he broke his jaw three weeks later. He's backed. I mean, he looks like the Goonies guy because of how messed up his face is, but he's already playing hockey again. I mean, he's a sick fucker. Are the Pens still in the lead, the best team in hockey? No.

2:04:01Bruce Arians:The Pens have lost a couple games in overtime recently. We're worse than the Flyers? Blowing a lot of leads. Whoa!

2:04:10Pat McAfee:That can't be true. What do you think? It's probably one point out of a playoff spot. We're worse than Detroit. It's a tight race right now. And two games in hand. Five and O. A week from now, the whole thing will be different. The NHL is hot. Oh, really? Everybody's doing good? Actually, yeah. The NHL is incredible. And there's already been a massive trade. The captain from the Vancouver Canucks, Quinn Hughes, just got traded to the Minnesota Wild for like a first-round pick and three-player. And the Pens traded a goalie, I think, to Edmondson.

2:04:40Bruce Arians:Funny enough, they traded Tristan Jari to Edmonton for Stuart Skinner, the goaltender. Goalie swap. Those teams play each other tonight.

2:04:49Pat McAfee:Goalie revenge game. We needed it. We needed a new person back there. Change of scenery for both guys will do them both wonders. And both cities, I assume, would be good and better off. We've done this before in the past in between the pipes, AJ. We love hockey around here. The NHL season's rolling. Florida Panthers way down. I was hoping we'd just gloss right over there. They have won five straight. Tampa Bay Lightning, baby. What, are you a Tampa Bay Lightning fan? Oh, yeah. Pittsburgh Panthers were good to you. Who did?

2:05:19Bruce Arians:Cats beat the shite out of the Bolts. Panthers are finding it right now. Five straight.

2:05:22Pat McAfee:Okay, that's Florida Panthers and the Bolts is Tampa Bay Lightning. What you heard was a Canadian speaking about hockey right there. People that don't follow hockey might not have known who either of those teams were. Florida Panthers, been to three straight Stanley Cups, one back-to-back. They could win three straight. They got dogs all over the ice, but a lot of them are injured, right? Is that why they're so low in the standings on the?

2:05:45Bruce Arians:Yeah, they got a lot of injuries, a lot of long-term injuries. They played a lot of hockey. What was that, Nick? You know, D-Buds. You know, Barkov, the captain. He's been out a long time. Chuck, he's hurt. Great pot. What's it called? Bob was struggling for a little bit. He's turned around.

2:06:03Pat McAfee:It's called ice heights. What you say? Be a sick name. I was just reinforcing all D-Bott's points about all the injuries and the goaltender struggles. They're turning it around. Feels like you don't know what's going on with the Florida Panthers. No, this is what we get going. December, baby. December hockey. Toronto fucking stinks again. D-Bott. Kind of sweet. That is sweet. All right. Well, good luck, hockey. We appreciate you, NHL. Love you. Go, Coach Coop. It seems like they both had quite a run there. Will they be able to continue to do as such? We shall see. Okay. let's do bs or no bs with ba where we will read statements of seemingly fact that have been said around the sports media world and ba will tell us if it's bs or no bs are you ready ba i'm ready baby okay let's get to the first one having a top tier defense is the way to win a super bowl again rams seahawks broncos and texans all have dudes on defense to win it all is that bs or no bs ba that the top-tier defense is the way to win a Super Bowl.

2:07:03That's BS. What?

2:07:05Pat McAfee:No. It helps. It helps. If you've got a quarterback that can't score no points, you're going to get your ass kicked anyway. What do you mean? What are you talking about? There's only one defense that won the National Football League. That was the Baltimore Ravens with Ray Lewis when they outscored their offense the whole month of October. That defense. Trent Delford. Now, when you look at those teams you just mentioned, the Rams, number two in offense, Seahawks, number five, Broncos, number 12, and Texas, number seven. They all got great quarterbacks. They can score points. Now, with a defense and points, we had a great defense in Super Bowl XLIII, but it took Ben 92 yards to go win the Super Bowl at the end.

2:07:48You got to have a quarterback, baby. You got to be able to score points.

2:07:50Pat McAfee:So we're putting a lot of, and I don't know if you're seeing our clips or just the conversation in general about how great defenses are this year. We've been talking about, hey, it feels like this year, do you have an offense that can keep up with your defense as opposed to a defense that can maybe get a stop at some point? We started chatting about how defense is about to be the leader here down the stretch, and what you're saying is that's cool to have one. Yeah, but a fucking quarterback is the most important thing whenever we're talking about Super Bowl. Yeah, I thought the Broncos-Green Bay game was a highlight of what's going to happen in the playoffs.

2:08:22The hottest quarterback's going to win. Jordan Love came out on fire, smoking the Denver defense, who's great. All of a sudden, Bo Nix comes back. Micah does get hurt. But Bo Nix had a hell of a fourth quarter. And they beat him. And you ain't doing that without a quarterback.

2:08:38Pat McAfee:Okay, and we've already heard your thoughts on the Seahawks then, I guess. Yeah. Because he said what's starting? That one's got to be seen. What's that? That offense. That's got to be seen. Is it the offense or is it Sam Darnold? It's the whole offense, I think. But it starts with Sam. Well, we hope he's able to figure it out. Me too. And I think defense is going to be the story of the playoffs but i appreciate the fact that you're like yeah yeah yeah yeah is it going to be zero zero in the super bowl or is somebody going to have to make a play on third and long or make a drive in a two minute situation or hell is there going to have to be a wide receiver that's going to catch some hail mary or deflection that's going to get the win inevitably offense is going to be the thing that's going to win it but your team being great defensively certainly gives you a head start and quite an advantage yeah and i guess part of it

2:09:23Bruce Arians:It could be that in the AFC, there's no Mahomes. There's potentially no Lamar Jackson. There's no Burrow. So the elite of the elite quarterbacks, if they're not in the playoffs, you kind of just tend to lean towards like, hey, this team with the better defense might win this game.

2:09:38Pat McAfee:NBA, I want to believe you outright, but Hembo sent me a stat actually that kind of contradicts what you're saying. This season, offense and defense are virtually identical and explanatory power for winning. They each account for roughly the same share of win percentage variance. Thank you, Hembo. That's what I've been fucking saying this whole time. Let's go to the next one. Shall we? Hembo or B.A.? Huh? Who are you listening to? Hembo or B.A.? Are you saying the Hembo stat is B.S. or no B.S.? I think that's analytics. What's that? That's analytics. Oh, okay. So he's saying B.S. You're saying B.S.?

2:10:14Pat McAfee:B.S., baby. Oh, that's no B.S. I'm not even finishing that. I'm not even finished reading that, baby. Win percentage variance, you don't even know. That's a big thing. That's no BS. Yeah, exactly. WPV? Yeah. We've been talking about that for months. Okay, let's get to the next one. Con man has it here. Yeah, B.A. Mahomes and Kelsey can only be compared to Brady and Gronk or Rivers and Gates. They're a Rushmore QB tight end tandem. Is that BS or no BS, B.A.? That's no BS, man. This tandem has been great for 10 years. and did just pass Grump and Brady for, I think, the most touchdowns in the playoffs.

2:10:50And Antonio Gates just went to the Hall of Fame. These combinations, I go way back to John Mackey and John Unitas, was, I thought, one of the greatest, too. But these guys, they're just not tight ends. They're receivers. They're game changers. They're game wreckers. And the quarterbacks love those tight ends.

2:11:07Pat McAfee:Is the tight end position more prominent now than it's ever been? And will we see more of quarterback tight end duos that might be able to catch up to these four that you just referenced. Yeah, I think you're seeing more and more athletic tight ends. But the guys like Gronk, who they can block and catch and be a wide receiver, they're very rare birds. But college football is starting to put the tight end position back out there a little bit. Travis Kelsey, the reason why he's so good is because you just had a feel for the game that was just better than anybody, much like Gronk, I guess, and probably the basketball player, River.

2:11:38Pat McAfee:Antonio Gates, yeah. Antonio Gates had a great feel. Phillip knew where he was all the time and they'd always go trips and 10-0 gates on the backside. Let's get a safety back here and give him a two-way go and that's not a fair fight. And how about Gronk? They talk about his football IQ as if it's just outrageous. I mean, if you go look back at the Super Bowl, his second touchdown. Oh, yeah. He's got a corner route, all right? He sees Tom and he sees the DB turn. He turns and goes back inside. Tommy hits him for a touchdown. That's just playing great football. That's Kelsey all the way. all the way.

2:12:10Him and Mahomes, there's no design plays. Just go out there and get your ass open. I'll get it to you.

2:12:14Pat McAfee:And he, even by his own self-admittance, had to get better at blocking as he got older. I think as he became more of a prominent tight end in the GOAT conversation, I think he felt obligated for the position, but also for the good of the offense. Started putting his body in the way later in his career, as opposed to earlier in his career, which is completely ass-backwards whenever it comes to everything. But I think that's because of how much he appreciates the position and how much he appreciated the opportunity to be part of the good Chiefs because I think he was there when they were asked, too.

2:12:41Pat McAfee:I think at the beginning of his career, I think they were not good. And then they get great, and he's a huge piece of it. I think he feels like he had to hold up his end of the bargain.

2:12:49Bruce Arians:Yeah, without a doubt. And he came on and basically talked with us about how they went through that period where the offense kind of had to change. They went from where he was having 14 catches a game and 130-plus yards, and he was like, no, basically I had to learn how to block a lot more and then just make more out of the opportunities that I was given. And then obviously in the playoffs, it seemed like he was good for a touchdown every single playoff.

2:13:12Pat McAfee:All right, let's go to the next BS or no BS with B.A. Ty Schmidt has this one. It's about the kicking position, which is amazing this year. Go ahead, Ty.

2:13:23Bruce Arians:Coach, the new kickoff and new K-balls are winning and losing games for NFL teams this season. Is that BS or no BS, B.A.? Yeah, that's no BS. Yes, I think this has changed defensive play colors totally. At the end of the half and at the end of the game, I look at the Colts-Seahawks. The Colts had a game-winning drive. That's a game-winner for the last 10 years. Now, getting the ball in the 35, even the 40, if you hit that short kick and it doesn't make it, two first downs and all the kickers are making 60, 62-yard field goals, was unheard of five years ago since they changed the balls. Now, the balls have had at least 15 yards.

2:14:00Look at that kick last night by the kid from Miami at Hinesfield in 54 yards at 10 degrees.

2:14:08Pat McAfee:Just in Hinesfield in general, let alone in freezing temperatures, hitting a 54-yarder and having room. He's not known as like, no offense to him. I don't think anybody's thinking him as like one of the best kickers in ball. He makes a huge kick last night, one of the best I've seen to your point. Yeah, and you look at Seattle makes two completions, and all of a sudden they kick a field goal and beat the Colts with 45 seconds left because of the ball and the kickoff rules. So the kickoff, the new kickoff, having to hit the land zone and having to cover a kick is, we've talked about this since the beginning, it's just like baseball.

2:14:43Pat McAfee:Like you're going to have to throw a strike in baseball to get out of a game. No matter how much you're winning by, if it's a close game, you just took the lead, you have to throw a strike, you have to give the other team an opportunity. With this kickoff, it's very similar. You have to give the other team an opportunity to return it, or you're going to have to just give the ball to them at the 35 if you want to hit a touchback. It's like 35-yard drive start. To your point, about 56-yarder was what Jason Myers hit. Routinely, that was a 56-yard field goal. Just kind of a walk in the park. It was his sixth field goal of the day.

2:15:13Pat McAfee:That's only a couple first downs. That's only two plays, which takes, what, nine seconds? Maybe 10 seconds is what that takes? It changes your whole philosophy on defense at the end of the game. It's like the word prevent is out of the game, I think, anymore. You can't play prevent defense anymore, and you never should have. But you've got to come out and you've got to have a blitz. You've got to have a special one-minute package. I think now as a defensive coordinator, and I'm saving it. I've got two special blitzes. I'm not going to give up anything big, but I'm getting after their asses. Sack changes, obviously, the math for all of it.

2:15:46Yeah, you're talking about having to throw a strike on special teams. You've kind of got to throw a strike on defense, too. It's not like you can sit back in too high because traditionally it was, hey, cover two or cover six. You keep too high safety. You kind of play it safe, make them walk down the field. Now you kind of have to be aggressive. You got to play more press coverage. You got to have more one-on-ones. Maybe, like you said, send the pressure, which typically you're not doing in like late two-minute situations. So, yeah, everybody, it's kind of like everybody has, it makes the game more exciting in all phases.

2:16:13Pat McAfee:AJ, what are your thoughts on how we thought this could end up being a thing? Because I think early in the season we started seeing some kickoffs. to either go out of bounds, ball at the 40, or a big return happened, and so all of a sudden it's a completely different outcome than we could have expected just 20 seconds beforehand. Now it's starting to get to meaningful football in primetime. People are starting to see it. It's going to be on display. This is what the NFL kind of wanted, didn't they, AJ? I mean, this is making it much more exciting. I mean, you're never really out of it. You're always in the game, I feel like.

2:16:41And like D-Bot said, you can't sit back. You can't give any free access. They only need two or three completions to get into field goal range. You've got to press them. You've got to blitz them. you've got to do something to disrupt them. Because before, yeah, hey, nothing behind you guys, nothing behind you. Let's sit at the sticks, protect them. Let's rally and make the tackle and keep them on the ground, try to sit on them for a couple extra seconds and not get that penalty so they get up slow and it takes more time. But now it's like, okay, we've got to get up in their face. I mean, you're obviously giving up.

2:17:09You're taking a little more risk defensively to getting beat deep.

2:17:12Pat McAfee:A little ripple effect here for the new dynamic kickoff is like defenses also have to play a little bit more aggressive. There might be more plays there, which also causes some explosive plays against it. No risk it on either side. No biscuit. But also, you risk it every once in a while. You're going to get cooked for said biscuit going the opposite direction. That's going to change the season. That's going to change the playoffs. Oh, yeah. It's going to be massive. The playoffs for sure. And there's going to be people that are very pissed off about that. There's going to be people that are very pissed off about the fact that a new kickoff, the way it is in some people's eyes, a gimmick kickoff is deciding games.

2:17:47Pat McAfee:That's what we're going to have a new kickoff to decide what games are. And it's like, yeah, I think we got a couple thousand more plays. The defense has to play harder. The kickoff has to match. It's like, this I think is what the NFL wanted. Now we're going to experience it and see, I guess, the reaction. It is electrifying to know that at any given moment, some guy that was signed on Wednesday to a team is going to have to keep his lane integrity on a kickoff. And if he doesn't, all of a sudden, another team is going to continue in the playoffs for the Lombardi. I mean, it is an interesting dilemma, but it certainly adds electricity to it.

2:18:21Bruce Arians:Yeah, I don't know if you really can be pissed because at this point, like, we've had an entire season of it. You know, everyone was working from the same set of rules, and it kind of has been from the start. Like, there are certain teams that are pretty solid with this, and there are certain teams that aren't very good with this. And, you know, the Packers have actually kind of, you know, tightened things up a little bit. But even, like, when they're doing it successfully, they're kicking it to the eight-yard line, and the opposing team's getting a 25-yard return, and it's like you're at the 32 or the 35.

2:18:49Bruce Arians:So it's a massive deal, and every team has had the opportunity to kind of figure out how to game this or how to get good at it.

2:18:57Pat McAfee:Yeah, and it'll be on display. Those who have sucked at this will get exposed in the big moment. It doesn't show up until? It shows up. And that'll be when everybody's watching. Now, on that note, I think that adds to this BS or no BS, D-Bud. Everybody better show up. This will be the most exciting last three weeks of a season for playoff spots ever. Is that BS or no BS? That's no BS, man. Oh, ever? Long time this league's been around. You look at these last New England and Buffalo, Jacksonville, Houston, Indy, all in it. Chicago, Green Bay, and Detroit all playing each other at the end. Tampa and Carolina play each other twice in the next three weeks.

2:19:35They're tied for it. And the Rams, Frisco, and Seattle. Throw it up. Who's coming down? It starts Thursday night.

2:19:42Pat McAfee:God, Thursday night's going to be special. And three out of the four teams who are trying to punch their ticket into the playoffs all play on primetime this weekend, which is one of the first things that you said to me was like, Thursday night matters, Sunday night matters, Monday night matters. The team can punch their ticket into the playoffs. This is exactly what the schedule makers were dreaming of.

2:19:58Bruce Arians:And for the purpose of this graphic, too, the Bears and Packers play on Saturday night in primetime. So, like, you know.

2:20:05Pat McAfee:Hey, congratulations, schedule makers. It felt like this year, AJ, and I might be mistaken. It didn't feel as if there was as many dud weekends. There was a couple shitty slates, but I don't think there was a lot of them this year. No, there was always some good games, I think, to balance it out when we did have a slate that didn't live up, I guess, to the week prior. But yeah, you're right. We're having just blockbuster games. I guess that's what the NFL, right? That's what they want to do. Every single weekend, they want all these games to be a huge deal. And now, especially leading into the playoffs, too, we have these monster games going into their most viewed games of the year.

2:20:38So yeah, it's a great time.

2:20:39Pat McAfee:And network executives not being cowards and actually flexing games. We appreciate them doing that, having the right to do that for the good of ball. You are in a position to be a steward of the league for all of us sports fans. So having enough courage to say, yes, we are going to flex this for the betterment of ball. We appreciate you activating a right that you have been given and only you in that seat can make. So thank you for doing that for the rest of us so we don't have to watch some shite whenever something else gets buried into a one o 'clock slate. behind a bunch of other games. It's like we're in meaningful football season right now.

2:21:12Pat McAfee:The fact that all these games matter and there was a flex to make a game matter, it's like, let's go. Hell yeah. This is, we're doing it right. I mean, the NFL is throwing heat and college football is about to do the same exact thing this weekend. Now, there's some college football news, obviously, not just the college football playoffs and then transfer portal news. There was a big announcement seemingly on the internet, even though it didn't come directly from family. Arch Manning set to return to the University of Texas next year. We obviously have not heard this directly from Arch Manning or the family.

2:21:48Pat McAfee:This is via Schefter's report from Adelson's report here about what is the plan for Arch Manning going forward. It felt like, and this is just my perspective on it, and I think you could go back to September of last season on college game day where there was a lot of talk about arch manning becoming the starter because quinn ewers got hurt arch played a couple games he played really good they blew some teams out they obviously had an incredible team that would end up making it to the semi-finals and losing to ohio state and everything like that the texas team but arch was playing for a couple games and quinn ewers maybe wasn't playing his best ball going into it so there was an easy natural conversation arch should be the starter arch should be the starter and he got really loud i mean he got really loud and there was a lot of people that were just trying to live in a fairy tail land saying this shouldn't be that big of a deal you know nobody should make this that big of a deal this is just stand up breaking procedure it's like i bought the world has watched this guy play football since he's like in 10th grade his entire family name is football so like if he's going to be playing football games it's going to be a story like that is just kind of how it is so the manning family came out was like hey you don't lose a job from injury this is quinn ewer's job we are very here and then i was also told that like hey arch is not rushing this college football process either like he is okay he understands what he's signed up for he doesn't mind the process getting better and you know the entire college football thing so i the narrative that he's rushing through this or wants to get on the field so that he can potentially speed up the clock to get to the nfl and maybe you're ready it's like that was never from the manning so like i don't think this is abnormal to hear this uh as announced and maybe with how the season went it wasn't exactly what he was thinking but obviously ba you know the manning family very well you know quarterbacks very well.

2:23:34Pat McAfee:There was still chatter about him maybe being the number one overall pick because he is Arch Manning, and he has shown some spots of being very good at football this season, even though the entire season hasn't been it. What are your thoughts on this decision, and how do you kind of feel whenever you hear it about Arch? Yeah, I think that was the plan all along. I mean, the Manning family, they're going four years. They're going to develop all the way and be totally ready when they get to the NFL, and I don't think it's any different for Arch than it was Peyton and Eli. And so it's like, yeah, he got better and better this year, but he's still not a finished product.

2:24:06Go back, enjoy yourself, play college football, learn, keep learning. And I think next year he will be the number one pick.

2:24:11Pat McAfee:You can never go and do college again. You know, like that is a message, especially if you're making millions of dollars. We don't know what his contract is and don't want to pocket watch. He has a Red Bull deal as well amongst other deals. So if you're already making millions of dollars and your family is okay, you know, money-wise, financial-wise, your situation is what it is. if you can go back another year in a system that you know with a team that you know and potentially accomplish something that you had dreams of feels like probably easy decision for arch even though maybe there's talks of him still being top five pick because he is arch banning oh i wouldn't yeah i wouldn't call it easy you know being in his shoes maybe for the people around him but as a as a kid or a young man who has the opportunity to you look around the landscape he can definitely be the quarterback that flies up the charts and be the number one pick so that's always i think a tough decision in any sport when you have that opportunity.

2:24:58But like B.A. said, been in the family with two former number one overall picks who went the whole ride through college, and they didn't have to either. So having that guidance around him, having the family around him, definitely I think part of the decision was kind of made for him, and then he obviously has to make the final call. So I like this, though. He needs to go back and develop, hopefully have a fully healthy season, and be that guy coming out.

2:25:19Pat McAfee:A.J., enjoy the little run that Ohio State's been having. because what I read from that tweet is we're back and that's the Texas Longhorns, AJ Hawk. Maybe. Hey, it's good. I want the Texas Longhorns to be a solid team, obviously, but did Arch put in his draft grade? You can try to apply whatever and they'll tell you where you might get drafted. Do they do that? I have no idea. I would assume that his family does know from people that they know what people are thinking or saying. I assume he has access to all information while they're making these types of decisions. And people are going to say, well, that's nepotism.

2:25:59Pat McAfee:Yeah. Yeah. It is. Yeah. And it's not his fault either. Like, that is not Arch's fault. It's like his grandpappy is maybe the grandpappy of football just as a whole. You know, college football and the NFL. His uncles are obviously Hall of Famers, Super Bowl champions, and also promoted by the league. and by football as the faces of football. So Arch might get access to things and viewed and talked about differently than everybody else. That's just life. I think that's just kind of how it is. And to that point, maybe the beginning of the season was a lot for Arch. And maybe he was nowhere near his best ball and he had to experience that.

2:26:39Pat McAfee:And maybe that's a part of development of being a good quarterback is like when everybody is expecting you to be the greatest player of all time like your uncles were and talking about that with a team that's supposed to go win a national championship, mentally mindset forcing things, maybe not being the quarterback that you are, that's a part of college development to make it into the NFL. So maybe that's behind him, and now he wants to work on everything else going forward.

2:27:00Bruce Arians:Yeah, and I think there could be maybe a little bit of human nature involved too, looking at next year's potential top three. Like, okay, well, the Raiders fucking suck, and they might for a really long time. I don't want the fucking – the Jets are really bad. You know, the Giants, they obviously have a quarterback. But all these teams, if you have the opportunity to go back and maybe win a national championship and continue to get better, why don't you just put the dice back in the Yahtzee Cup and just shake that up again and maybe try to get a Yahtzee next year.

2:27:31Pat McAfee:Let's go to Hammer. Not time. AP Tone, your thoughts on Texas getting their quarterback back, not only for next season, but transfer portal. You got Arch Manning as the quarterback. During the recruiting period, you were able to say it. What are your thoughts on it all, Tone?

2:27:45Bruce Arians:Yeah, I think after the way the season started that this is kind of how everyone thought it was probably going to be. He did get a lot better as the season went on. And that's expected as your first season as a starting quarterback in college football. And we look at all these quarterbacks that come out. Guess what? If you play more games, you're going to play better in the NFL. It's kind of how it works. And also, a lot of these guys who are now staying extra years, a lot of them are making more in their last year of college football than they would as a rookie in the NFL. So I think that probably might – I'm not saying it has anything to do with Arch because, like we said, with his NIL and the family and everything like that, he's going to be fine.

2:28:22Bruce Arians:But a lot of these quarterbacks, they're making a lot – they're making more. I shouldn't say a lot more. They're making more in their final year of college than they would as a rookie quarterback.

2:28:30Pat McAfee:Salary-wise, not signing bonus-wise, but still, point remains. We understand it's a new world in college ball where you are making a lot of money and he stays in a system. He gets a chance – you know, there's a lot of expectation that are going to come with it, as they should. Maybe we'll see Arsh at that top. Tough decision. DJ Lagway, he's hitting the road, Jack. Bryce Underwood soon. Where's he going? Definitely away from Michigan. Dylan Riola, he's on the way. Yeah, he's at Soarsby. Yeah, there's some QBs out there. Soarsby, yeah, Cincinnati's quarterback. Leavitt. Sam Leavitt leaving. Oh, shit.

2:29:07Pat McAfee:Transfer portal is about to be. Oh, shit. Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew. exclusive shots shout out to gannon um okay ladies and gentlemen final thing with ba here is it's time to give out ba's balls ladies and gentlemen ba will give out his game balls one for the afc one for the nfc and as a custom in team meetings uh on mondays after nfl games or whatever day your game is played uh coach normally comes in and has a couple game balls made throws them out it's normally a big celebration we're doing that each week we will continue today Your NFC game ball winner, B.A., is who? Jason Myers. Six field goals.

2:29:47And it's hard not to give it to, you know, Pitts from Atlanta. But Jason Myers just put on a show the other day.

2:29:54Pat McAfee:18-16, six field goals from Jason Myers. Phillip Rivers and the Colts get 16. He hits a game winner with 56-yarder with less than a minute left to put Phil Rivers' fairy tale story into quite a bind up there in Seattle. We talked to him, and he's been good for a long, long time. We're happy that he was able to have this type of game. And also, AJ, anytime a kicker gets game ball, good news, brother. We like that. Great news. He also, I assume he played some other positions when he played football as a kid or he played other sports. He seems like an absolute athlete, too. He seems like a stud. Mindset, yeah.

2:30:30Pat McAfee:He has a lot of humility, too, about him. You know, he's special talent. But once again, he's up there in Seattle. So it's so far away, nobody really talks about it. Every time he's on my TV, though, and I'm not just talking about this week against the Colts, which also would remain true, he makes the kick. Like, any time this guy's on, the kick is good. And that's such a weapon to have. And he beat the Colts. Congrats to him winning a game ball from B.A. Now, your AFC game ball goes to who, Coach? Oh, game. What a game. It's Trevor Lawrence. Oh. Six touchdowns, five throws, one run. What a game.

2:31:03I mean, he's coming to fruition. Right? He's the guy that I thought he was going to be. and Liam Cohn is doing a great, great job with him.

2:31:10Pat McAfee:Learn it, trust it, rip it, know it, trust it, rip it. I forget the exact Ron Turner line that Dan Orlovsky dropped, but what do you think the difference is? Do you think he's comfortable and confident in the offense and has trust in him? What are you seeing from Trevor? Yeah, I mean, his first year in this offense, and he and Liam, and Liam did such a great job with Baker last year, and I see a lot of the same things with Trevor. Started out a little bit slower, and all of a sudden, boom. Now, he's got great anticipation. He's always had the great arm. But he's seeing it, and he's letting it rip and letting it go.

2:31:39Pat McAfee:First NFL player in history. And anytime you're the first one in history, obviously that's a special thing. You see him running there, had 50 rush yards, a rushing touchdown, and threw for five touchdowns. That's called taking over and dominating a game. He certainly did that against the New York Jets, who have a defensive head coach.

2:31:56Bruce Arians:Yeah. They fired the defensive coordinator, though, so that was –

2:32:00Pat McAfee:Yeah, he was calling boys. Yeah, it was a good move. Yeah, it is a good move. Trevor Lawrence, though, this might not be – There might not have been anything anybody could do on the defensive side without Trevor was rolling down there in Duval. Does this continue? Oh, I definitely think so, yeah. They're on a roll right now. He's got a lot of trust in the guys around him, and Etienne is running his ass off. And we had a little wasp play here from Trevor Lawrence from the Super Bowl. Unbelievable throw. Where he's 30 yards behind the line of scrimmage, throws it as far as he can and gets a completion for a first down.

2:32:27Pat McAfee:Etienne makes an absurd catch. It's like their weapons are starting to show up too, D-Bud. Yeah, Etienne had three touchdowns. Tootin, he had a touchdown. He will be out for the remainder of the season. I believe Parker Washington was out. But if you go to that touchdown from Tune, obviously it's about Trevor Lawrence, but the play design, like there are unbelievable play designs. Dan O talked about having the confidence in the plays, having the confidence in the players around him. We were talking about Brian Thomas Jr. earlier in the season, how he was struggling with drops and his confidence.

2:32:55He's come on, he's making big time plays. But the play design, along with Trevor Lawrence, believing in it and making throws, They're hitting their stride at the right time. Yeah, if you run it back to the beginning, this is an unbelievable play for defense to try to guard. This corner, he has a flat, and then Tootin's going to come from the backfield, the other running back. You'll see ETN flare out. Unbelievable play design. Great throw, great play. Yeah, obviously, he got fired for good reason. They weren't producing for him, but Lawrence had an unbelievable day.

2:33:27Pat McAfee:Ref, get the hell out of the way. Trevor Lawrence has a little bit of space that he needs. Congrats to the Jags. 10-4. They're in the lead in the AFC South. Wow. 10-4 to rookie head coach. Unbelievable. And rookie GM. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's 27 years older. Exactly. Without his number two overall pick. Without his number two overall pick. Yeah. Crazy. B.A., we appreciate the hell out of you. You're the man. 47-year football coach. Our coach, ladies and gentlemen, Coach Bruce Herring. Hey, B.A. We love you, B.A. We love you, B.A. We appreciate the hell out of you. AJ, you know, through this world that I've been living and we've been living through it all, college football has become a special thing for meeting legends.

2:34:07Pat McAfee:OK, because in the South down there, there's a lot of people that love college ball. In the South, there's a lot of people connected to country music. In the South, country music is king. And in the South, country musicians and their friends all watch ball. so I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of different legends of country music and it's actually been a pretty insane like an insane thing actually certainly like hey who'd you boom just no problem and then hey these people want to talk to you actually because you're a part of college football it's like an absurd little connection from the south and with its ball.

2:34:43Pat McAfee:And in doing so, I met this 39-year-old dude, not even from the South. He's actually from Southern Illinois. Grew up a Colts fan. Now, he is being regarded as one of the greatest young executives in all of everything. One of the founders of the Big Loud music label. A man who's been in music for 20 years. Friend of the program, Seth England. way to go Seth way to go Seth coming through the think tank I like that normally people come through the hallway Seth he's an innovator Seth thinks differently Seth's going to do his own thing Seth's going to do his own thing I appreciate you man no not your bad good this is what you do Seth you think outside the bar trailblazing entrance I would say anytime anybody comes from the think tank we'll say hey that was that big brain big loud guy Seth England's entrance whenever he was here.

2:35:41Pat McAfee:First of all, thank you for traveling up to the Thunderdome. Thank you for having me. It's always an honor. It's a very cool place. Thank you for being kind to me and the boys. Oh, the boys are great. I thought I'd be nervous up here, but this is very comfortable. It feels very similar to over there. You just got to remember, people will see this. Over there, nobody really sees. Here, people will see. People get caught up in that sometimes. Even some of us get caught up in that sometimes. You remember when Tone, at the beginning of the season, was like, is Aaron really? And we're like, yo. Yeah.

2:36:06Pat McAfee:We are live right now. I didn't say that. I didn't say that. So there is a little bit of like a kind of lost in where we are. Know that people can hear you and they can see you and they should, by the way. You're a legend and you've been very cool to us. So we are very, very thankful for that. I don't know about all that, but thank you. My phone was blowing up. Was it last week where I got some nice compliments from the show? Some unfair words were thrown out about my style. I appreciate that. Was that me? Yes. I had teammates from my college days that I've probably forgot about. They're watching this show religiously.

2:36:36So y 'all's impact on football, culture.

2:36:39Pat McAfee:Yeah. What's your play? You played football? I did. I played in college. I was more on a music business track. But yeah, I played football all the way through college near St. Louis at Greenville University. Are you a ball fan still? Big ball fan. Actually, when I was in college, I was trying to decide about going to the music business or coaching. And I was very serious about it. I think I love recruiting more. So I probably would have tried to stay in college if I had done that. Okay, so I don't want to ask the cliche question, but how do you think your football experience has helped you with your record label executive world that you're in currently?

2:37:09Well, yeah, it kind of does sound cliche, but there's actually a ton of parallels. Recruiting, number one. You know, when you're recruiting an athlete, you need to make them feel comfortable, make sure it's a mutual fit. You don't want to just force them to come somewhere where you know it's not going to work. The same is very true in music. And also, as you know, a lot of athletes and musicians become natural friends. It's very competitive. You kind of always have to have this always on edge, you know. And so when we're hanging with Morgan in Indianapolis, I saw a ton of similarities between you and him and Tyrese.

2:37:40It was just different professions.

2:37:41Pat McAfee:Okay, so let's talk a little bit about Morgan and Miranda Lambert and Hardy. Big Loud, obviously, has become this name in music that is obviously synonymous with success and awesome in my eyes. Everybody that I've met from your company and your business, cool. You're a suit, but I think you're like super cool suit, an innovative suit. I assume the music industry is very old school, though. There's a lot of tradition and pageantry. How do you think you guys kind of have separated yourself? And why do you think you're having the success that you're having with Big Loud? And who's with you at Big Loud?

2:38:10Yeah, it's called Big Loud. Well, first off, there's three owners. Myself, a man named Craig Wiseman, and a rock and roll legend named Joey Moy, who we borrowed in country music for about a decade and a half. We're now, unfortunately, sending him, outside of maybe Morgan and Hardy's music, sending him back to rock as he's making his own rock label. And Los Angeles, we're so happy for him. But yeah, my path was very interesting. Again, musicians are a lot like ballplayers. Ballplayers can sniff out a coach if they're full of shit on different topics. And not that I know every single thing or can make music in the studio.

2:38:42Some is as good as Holman who's here helping you out or Joey Moy. But I understood it and I went to college for music. So to have a little bit of appreciation for what they do, I think that's the first thing an athlete would want to know, a little bit of validation, appreciation from the coach.

2:38:56Pat McAfee:So that's your role you view as a coach? Big loud. Very much. I've probably had worse nicknames or very synonymous nicknames, as you might find with a coach sometimes, just because I think, you know, not to sound cliche back, but I think you've got to always compete against your best self, and that's very true in music, whether you're writing songs, you know, your live performance, no different in football. Okay, so let's talk about Morgan. Today was a huge day. He was just deemed the most successful country musician of all time, RIA-certified musician. You know what that means. I'm not 100 % sure.

2:39:27Pat McAfee:All I know is I saw that he is the most certified country musician of all time in the streaming world, I think. And then he's the third largest artist of all time behind Taylor Swift, Drake, and then Morgan Wallen. He's obviously Big Loud. He has his own business, I believe, as well in the music world. But your ride with him has been through, I think, from the beginning, right? And when you talk about coaching, it hasn't always been where he is now. There's a lot of the other stuff. What has the ride with him been like? And what has it taught you maybe for the rest of the record label and how everything else goes?

2:39:55Well, on a human level, he's one of the best dudes. Like, if he was here right now, I think he would just become everyone's best friend on the human side, you know? And I really enjoy getting to know him that way. We met him before he became popular, and we helped him with that ride. And so it's a very cherished experience for us to sort of always get to look in his eyes and know who's there, had we met him during this ride. But I'll say, you know, if I was to speak about his music skill like you might an athlete, he's all pro elite, first ballot Hall of Famer, not just because of the stats you mentioned, but his drive and his ability behind the scene is second to none, and his natural skill, especially in singing, his taste in music is still sharp.

2:40:35Song selection is a big deal, right? Huge, huge deal.

2:40:37Pat McAfee:And that separates the great from the good? Is that a part of being a talent, is figuring out what song is right for you or writing the right song as opposed to just performing it? Because I hear a lot of people outside the music world that go like, everybody can sing and everybody can play. It's just the people that got lucky are the ones that made it. when that's not necessarily true from your perspective, I'd assume. There's certainly some serendipity in our business, just like others. But no, I don't think that's an accident. I think, and Morgan, one of his superpowers, I think he has a few, but one of them is his song selection.

2:41:05He has this ability, certainly like anybody else, they're going to love something they wrote, but he has this weird ability to not have that much more attachment to that than a piece of music he didn't write. And that, if you stop and think about it, if you were to paint a painting or something, you're going to be emotionally invested. If you spent hours trying to, you know, when you write songs, you feel investment to it. But to have that equal feeling when you hear something else as if you're in the room writing it is not normal.

2:41:30Pat McAfee:It's a talent to be able to do it. It's a talent to be able to do it. And also equally, he knows when it's not him. But in the same way, he knows 1 ,000 % when he hears it. It's him. Well, congrats to you guys. Congrats to Morgan. Congrats on the success. Congrats to everything you guys have going on. Let's talk a little bit about Ernest now. Yeah. Another member of Big Loud, but also DeVille Records, Cadillac Records, hit maker extraordinaire guru genius hilarious individual i mean one of the funniest of all time i if he was a talk show host i think he would do a phenomenal job i think phenomenal now granted he's got adhd worse than any human i've ever encountered ever in my entire which is a part of his gift not his curse guy can freestyle for about 25 30 minutes straight just no questions asked no problem and during that freestyle he'll drop five different songs that'll go diamond in him and then people would just be ripping him basically and being like there's a song there's a song there's a song special talent he's the reason why i get to know you and uh he's been helping me out with my shit you've been helping me out with my shit but how many earnests are out there and uh what is earnest if you could describe it to people that maybe say well he doesn't have the most amount of listens it's like well this guy is influencing music basically all over the board yeah he he's another one in my life that you know at times uh for better or worse i kind of call him my little brother in the business because that's where when we met he was just this young kid who he got his first publishing deal he hadn't quite found his success and some people had introduced us because he was so unique you know and they thought maybe maybe Seth might have an idea for him and our friendship just grew and grew I've signed him to three different record deals with the partners meaning different stages in his life over 10 or 15 years I've just believed in him so much but I would I would describe him as a savant sometimes I jokingly tell people if you haven't met him, he's an alien.

2:43:14You know, there's many styles of songwriting. I'm not sure if there's just these two, but I would say there's like a freestyler style, freestyle style, and like a surgeon. And neither are right or wrong. I think for me, I've met way fewer freestylers. So when you meet one and there's accurate as him, he doesn't just rhyme and ramble. He rhymes and storyline. He can, he can turn King of the Hill on and put on mute and go in the Hank Hill voice and just start rapping whatever the show, what it looks like it's doing. And it just shows his, his brilliance. You know, it's effortless for him to do stuff like that.

2:43:45Pat McAfee:Can you tell me a little bit about the songwriters? Cause that is Nashville music row. I got a chance to experience it. I am huge fan of music. The show song land was one of my favorite shows. I couldn't believe they got rid of it. It was a glimpse inside of like the super music minds and how a song kind of comes together. I actually sent an email to every one of the coaches from there saying, Hey, I would like you guys to make my songs into good songs. Never heard back from any of them. Talked to jelly roll. Jelly roll was like, Bubba, I got you. Let me introduce you to earnest, earnest brings me to this.

2:44:12Pat McAfee:That's how this is all literally come to be. But my fandom of music and not having a clue about the behind the scenes, because I don't come from a musical family. I never took a music class, never took a choir class, never was able to do any of those things. So learning about it all has been awesome and spectacular. Music Row in Nashville is one of the most powerful places in the business, obviously, but all of entertainment and the songwriters are seemingly held up as the like the gods almost of the entirety right is that inaccurate i would say so and also because of that well i tell people a lot that nashville in nashville the songwriters it feels like they run the town nashville is so unique because it's all together densely i have people in the music friends in the music business in new york la or any other london where when they leave the office they may not necessarily hang out with music friends and in Nashville we're all right there together in a super unique way so sometimes I say on the best days it feels like going to a college campus I can walk across campus and see my friends and so this dormitory is connected with this one in a publishing company and we got a riff with this frat house over here you know because they've been punks or vice whatever it is I say on the negative days it's kind of like a theme park you know what I mean you can't always get out that's why you see artists spend their work hours there maybe and take a break but But no, the songwriting community, Ernest, you mentioned, Hardy, he's a surgeon.

2:45:31He can do a lot of different things, and he's great off the top, but he's an absolute surgeon and maybe nobody better when he knows where the song is supposed to go. But yeah, the songwriters kind of run the town. Some of Morgan's best friends, for example, again, are some songwriters, people he's being creative with a few times a week for a few hours at a time. He'll add on a workout class with them, maybe a Bible study. And I think you just kind of see how the creative partnership is very intimate. And you need to talk about more than the song sometimes just to get good at it together.

2:46:00Pat McAfee:You know, us songwriters. Big music star. Yeah, right. Yeah, right. It's been a fun process of learning about your guys' world. Don't let you guys know on the show, but for people watching, don't let this guy play you. When we met, which by the way, it's not like we have a ton of free time to make music with people just interested in making music. I'm not trying to suck up or anything, but kind of caught me off guard that day when, Pat, when you're going through your phone and you were showing me, you know, voice note on voice note of lyrics on lyrics on lyrics, some of it structured, some of which not, some of which had a hook and a concept.

2:46:30And I think that's what Ernest saw as well. And then not to mention your platform and willingness to try things that most wouldn't, you know, you take some courage to do that. It's not, it's not easy. It can, it's a very vulnerable sport, to be honest.

2:46:41Pat McAfee:Well, I appreciate you giving me effort and time and honestly investing your energy in it and travel. I mean, you've traveled up here multiple times. Boys love you. I mean, Bone obviously is big loud's biggest fan i mean he knows your entire bone he already pulled the album that you gave us he goes i got a vinyl did you see it's fine 10 year anniversary big loud vinyl i had to be at the christmas party to get this obviously i wasn't invited to the christmas party the first day you brought me through i honestly said this is the big loud of sports media i i'm i for those in here that haven't been to big loud come down because they're the songwriters the creators the you know the people help make the show and it's it's the same same for us yeah well we're very thankful that you've invested and I'm excited for the people to hear my my story through songs when are we leaking the next one what's the plan I don't know I don't know we're up there recording this morning though we hey I think you would know much better than me I think we have a couple people are thinking that like I'm not gonna get into it Dookie was a canary into the cave that is what Dookie was it was a bold place to start it certainly was it certainly was but it was I'm proud of it yeah because we went to Oregon a couple times I mean it just so happened to be I mean, in there, but it's like with your guys' brains and the music that has been around it.

2:47:53Pat McAfee:And I practice, you know, a little bit for so I don't ruin these words in these stories. But it's been like a pretty emotional journey through my shit through the last couple years of my life, last 20 years of my life, revisiting moments. And like, you know, when you journal, I guess I've never journaled, but I've always like wrote poems or bars or verses or choruses. It's like me talking to myself in there. so it's like the songs are very much like me going through different moments of my life and what i was telling myself or what i was trying to get out so whenever i'm reliving them or like recording them it's all just so crazy to me that it's going to live on you know like that is like kind of the weird thing and if my daughter hears it you know or my baby boy like i think they will be able to know exactly who i am through different stages of my life so if i was to die which is certainly possible which you're going to hear me talk about a lot you're going to hear me talking about a lot of death stuff in there because i i never thought i was gonna live long like i thought i was dead at 30 like i i the fact that i'm 38 now is crazy i never thought about life as a 40 year old and then now in the world that i'm in i have people telling me they wish i was dead and then there's other stuff that happens around the world it's like i'm gonna die i think i'm gonna die at some point okay i think i'm gonna die at some point there's a chance i freeze myself i was gonna say yeah shout out to that i have looked into that i have tried to hologram but the catalog is gonna live on i wanted this to out i wanted all my shit out i wanted like my daughter and my family and people that maybe didn't get to know me or people that didn't know me or only read like headlines from people that didn't know who i was and wanted me like this is who i this is who i actually am this is my fucking note section and there's different parts that are mixed with different parts so not everything's there but like you were like hey man i'll get your messages out dude like you said that to me like very much like hey i will do this for you so i'm very grateful for you Thank you.

2:49:40Thank you for letting us do it. And nothing's going to happen to you, but if it ever does, your kids are going to know you made bangers and you were fearless to try something uncomfortable. And I think that's dope.

2:49:49Pat McAfee:Bangers, we got a couple, right? Don't you think? We do. I believe it. I believe it. You don't want to overhype the music, let the fans aside, but I think they'll be pleasantly surprised how good it's going to get. Hell yeah. Let's talk about music a little bit more now and then. Go ahead, D-Bud. Hell yeah. Speaking of bangers, you know, I'm more throwback traditional country. Charlie Pryde, Linda Martell, even Hootie, Darius Rucker. Obviously, we got the same name. So you've been in the – GS, Thor Strait. Oh, well, these are my favorite. My run for it. But you talked about the parallels with sports and music, and I feel like you guys are kind of a big part of evolution, and you obviously got to take a chance, and you'll hear a lot of noise.

2:50:27How has it been kind of been a big part of kind of the change of country music as a whole? It's been great. I mean, you know, both my parents are still alive and watching what we're doing, and my mom is always great about hitting me and just sort of saying something very grounding. Whoever's important in your life when you're excelling in sports, reminding you like, because in and out of a football season, you're excelling just by doing it. A lot of people don't realize that. So I think just being up at bat to play is a special thing. But then taking a step further, I idolized Motown records, Fueled by Ramen records.

2:51:02Craig Wiseman, one of my partners, came up in A &M records and all of these, plus more, Sun records, Stax. They were very specific cultural brands. They weren't just a major music company, which we have good friends there But I think just by doing that in general we are setting out to be different And so the first band we had before the record label that we met was a country band named Florida Georgia Line And yeah, like let's start the petition.

2:51:24Pat McAfee:Never heard of them. Let's start the petition and bring that shit back Maybe you wanna roll my windows down When they're ready Hop up in his truck

2:51:36Bruce Arians:A brand new Chevy with a lift kit Would look a hell of a lot better With you up in it

2:51:44Pat McAfee:When they're ready We're turning the lights on back in Noblesville I saw them take pictures together I saw them take pictures together at the last event Hey, we like that boys That would not have happened I don't think like six months ago Baby steps, all the right steps Let's get them back in there But Florida Georgia Line, I think, to D-Bot's point, contemporary country versus old school country versus what's pop, what's rock, what's what is kind of like the conversation around it. And they were so polarizing when it started. You know what I mean? With that band, you either loved it or hated it.

2:52:14And we learned over time that was one of their superpowers. You know, kind of talking to the guys individually recently, kind of explain to each of them, you know, as you're both making music, I think that's awesome. But remember, it's kind of hard to chase your own tail here because what you would make for either one of you individually is so different than the songs you should make for Florida Georgia Line. That's a buddy with my band. That's like Thursday Night Basketball. You know what I mean? That's what I do for guy time. And the songs should sound like that. They should sound like for the boys in a way.

2:52:39And so, yeah, we all kind of miss that in our A &R pursuit.

2:52:43Pat McAfee:What do you think of, because I think Hardy addressed bro country. I think there's been a lot of conversation about it. Has that kind of settled down now that there's two different genres for awards? because that's really what everybody was pissed off about right definitely i mean you know go on the fact that they're talking about you again admit like in your profession can be a good thing if they want to label it something that probably just means you really stood out in that decade and you know both hardy and earn before they were artists they were young aspiring songwriters on buses that would travel with the florida georgia line tours because all of our paths crossed and so we put those two guys in front of brian and tyler often they were spark plugs in the room I remember walking back up on the bus and hearing a demo that neither the FGL guys had had sang that night And I'm like who's saying this demo like the voice was just jumping off the speaker And they kind of point to you know at the time I would I would describe him as dude on the couch You know always sitting there really quiet smoking and it was a very young quiet Michael Hardy I'm like bro.

2:53:35I know you but like let's go for a walk and just got to know each other and eventually his Aspiration grew and you know, I feel like the songs are the most important thing anyway

2:53:44Pat McAfee:so he had that unlocked and he goes from there to having a place wall to wall and he's still sold out i love that he ain't scared to put a dead buck up on his instagram you know he ain't worried about it at all obviously incredibly talented and all these people have been so nice to me uh through my entire process of trying to make my words become music and uh you got a special group of people man the culture is good is that where bone was driving the hershey yeah 17 hours Me and Greet. Me and Greet. And Bone also put together the Ernest songwriter playlist on Spotify. Hey, Ern, here you go, brother.

2:54:17Pat McAfee:You're welcome. Here's all your songs in chronological order in which you have wrote them. Bone did that on his free time. And then, Hardy, I'll be able to predict what your song order will be for your album because I know you better and you know yourself.

2:54:30Bruce Arians:And he does.

2:54:31Pat McAfee:And he did. Turns out he did. And that's Bone football. I mean, that is Bone football, but he's a fan of talent. And you guys certainly have that in abundance. Go ahead, Con, man. Yeah, so you just kind of mentioned it a little bit there, kind of the stars that are stars now, how they start out. Like in today's day and age, Pat's situation is a little different, but how does that kind of go as far as seeing a guy who might – or a girl who's a songwriter and then realizing like, okay, you're different. Like you can be a star. Is it going to bars in Nashville and just seeing who's performing? Is it people who are already within labels and kind of realizing like, okay, like you have something different?

2:55:11And is there like a specific look? Like is there anything like that that also goes into it? I mean, yes and no to all the above. There's no one or most common way that it happens. I think if I was to pick one of the most common ways, there's people that develop in the publishing companies, which that's sort of if you're not familiar with the music business, that might be the sister company, if you will, to record labels. record labels are for artists as publishing companies are for songwriters, many of which don't have artist aspirations. So their skill would be to pair them up with successful artists who may want to find new collaborators to write music together, maybe hear some of their songs, even if they did or didn't write them.

2:55:46So Big Loud has that. We have a very dense publishing company, as we were talking about, and all the songwriters are there available to the artists if they want to work. So that's how Hardy and Ernest came up, right? They developed in the publishing companies. Morgan, we met him through a booking agent. He was with a group of guys in Knoxville, we're starting to play shows and through a network of people was trying to get his now manager's dad at the time to be his agent. And he kind of put Morgan through this test. Like, would you play cover gigs at these bars for three hours straight, which is a very, it's not what an artist wants to do.

2:56:22You want to play your music, you know, get on hard ticket shows and all that. But he was more than willing to do it, put the time in, learn a bunch of songs in order to prove it, to just get this one guy's attention, I had Florida Georgia Line with him. And so he sent me an email just saying, I met this new kid, you know, he was just trying to get him a co-write. And I heard the demo. The songs were, Morgan would even say, mediocre at best, but his voice just jumped out of the speakers. And, you know, when we met him, if you've never met him, he's just a very down to earth guy, but when he gets rolling, he's funny and he's unique.

2:56:49And, you know, he's just that, the way I talked, that first song that came out, it was just very much his personality. So it happens a bunch of different ways, but I would say, at least for Big Loud, we definitely want to find the best creators we can. You know, that's kind of something if we're trying to be, if an NFL team has a certain way of guys, they're picking up on their squad, there would be a few quirks that we might emphasize more in a weighted decision than others. And I think it's, yeah, as far as...

2:57:12Pat McAfee:Patriots like super smart guys with Belichick, so they think they run four different defenses in one particular game. What you're saying is we're looking for good, obviously, but a trait that we would like is creativity. Yeah, creativity 100%. And then the look, you know, there's no one right or wrong thing, but I would say the fans are the best A &Rs. And we've seen this happen over and over again where, like, the unlikely physical appearance person has an insane skill set. You know, Luke Combs, where, and I mean this lovingly, he would probably dogging himself worse if he was here. Like, the guy that looks like he should change your oil has an incredible skill set, and I think that's almost what makes him even more believable.

2:57:49Sometimes we get the perfect-looking artist, an amazing voice, but they may not believe the singer for some reason. We may be really high on someone and we just can't get them to connect with the fans. So that's also a subjective thing that happens from time to time. We have these all-star looking folks. How do you know when artists can't connect with the fans in that aspect? Like Luke Combs, for instance, if he sings a song that maybe if Morgan sings might do really well, but if it's coming out of Luke Combs' mouth, it might not do well. How do you even gauge something like that? Well, two answers.

2:58:20There's one now with social media, if we're putting stuff out, putting videos, we can react with our eyes. We say that to our artists a lot because I never want to be a trite company. Like, go make music with your gut, your ears, your inspiration. Once we put it out, we will need to react with our eyes and see what the fans are gravitating to because they're not wrong. Don't say they're wrong because their habits are their habits of their choice, you know. But for me, behind the scenes, especially before we had social media to get a quick read like that, and this may sound very like cheesy record label guy, but, you know, there's a word I use a lot around the office, is called frisson.

2:58:51It's a French word, which just means your body's emotional reaction to music, to something, a painting, a poem. You know, you ever heard someone say, that just gave me chills. Supposedly, I don't know if this is true or not, supposedly everyone has a different amount that their body will let them do, right? So if I'm trying to give you an objective answer, like there's a lady in our company, our head of A &R, Sarah, one verse will make her just waterworks, you know, but then there might be other people in other departments in the record label may not have it. They may not, they can appreciate a good piece of music.

2:59:22They know why it might work, but they may not have that unexplainable body reaction. And so for me, that's kind of been my guiding light. I get, I get it pretty good. You know, I don't go to waterworks, but if I'm listening to a piece of music, even if it's a party song, but I see images in my head of the music video or how big this might be live or the fans singing with it, it'll give me that chills feeling versus sometimes you can't explain why it just doesn't, you know? So I've, I've missed songs that way too. Could have just been an off day. Um, you know, but, but for me it just... Your frisson was low.

2:59:49Pat McAfee:Yeah. I more or less did a nap before I got here, so if I go up there and miss one, my frisson might be on E. No, no, we need you up there with good. Yeah, so you need to fucking lock it in up there with your frisson. Fisson, pronounced frisson, is a French word adopted into English, meaning a sudden intense shiver, thrill, or shudder of excitement, fear, pleasure, or awe, often felt as tingling on the skin or chills down the spine, commonly triggered by music. Feels like you're in the right space. Art or elegant speech. It's a fleeting sensation a mix of physical chill and emotional intensity translating directly as shiver or thrill in French.

3:00:23Pat McAfee:And basically what they're saying is... Yeah, bingo. Here, here, wherever it happens to you, you know. You can feel it. Yeah, that's what he's saying. All right, last question. Actually, we got two more. AJ has one from Ohio. I apologize, AJ. Dude, what's up, Seth? Hey, I'm wondering with all these, like, elite performers, all these singers, songwriters that you're around and that you recruit, like, is there a common thread through all them? Like, is there one or two things that the great ones all have? well certainly songs we covered that but i would say if i was to mention something next um sort of the opposites attract uh uh thing that some people do one of the best examples on our roster right now is an indiana boy stephen wilson jr legend right fucking legend this guy's story is incredible incredible and he says this he describes his country music as death cab for country um when we met him it was there was no one like him so again i don't know if there's a sports parallel there, a strategy someone has.

3:01:16But yeah, I would personally rather sign the people that are going to be go big or bust, because they're so unique. They don't just fit into a crowd, which you would think sometimes in signing music, you want to make sure you get things that you think has a high percent chance of working. Perhaps we have a luxury of that because we've had a few that are on the board keep providing business. But we really look for the unique. And opposites attract is Stephen does not exactly look how he ends up sounding. That's what I mean. that can also be in songs. Adele, rolling in the deep, it feels like a big positive melody, but heavy lyrics that just cut you like a knife.

3:01:49So that comes out in a few examples, but even in the human itself, I love opposites attract, where you just do not see it coming. Someone very, you know, the human being is a unique... Hey, do you smoke?

3:01:58Pat McAfee:Will you do it or no? I don't know. Every now and then. Yeah, I think so, yeah. Blame on Florida, Georgia Lion, and Ernest, if I do. Yeah, well, certainly, and also... And now Pat. Well, hey, take it easy. We're in Indiana. Obviously, whenever we're in states, which is legal, we will certainly smoke all the time with the likes of Seth England. AJ, do you hear his brain, though, dude? I hate suits. Okay, sorry. I hate talentless suits. That is something that I don't like. I think it's a laziness. I think it's a nepotitude. You talk about nepotism. I feel like these people got to the positions that they're in strictly because of the network that they have, probably whenever they were kids with their families, everything like that.

3:02:37Pat McAfee:I just have that natural reaction. now am i able to be won over yes i think i am a pretty fair person whenever it comes to that but if you have like a drive and you say shit where it's like wow you've thought about it like you have spent time not just at work when you're clocked in you have spent time in your life focusing and thinking about this and provide a different idea or concept or a different way of looking at something i am i don't say wooable but i am certainly win overable and i think once you win me over i am ready for war with you too i think that is something that is very true i don't know i think it'll be judged definitely true whenever i'm done with this entire thing you know there's a lot of people that make anonymous quotes uh that have certain power levels to very powerful uh publishers and broadcasting companies and things like that that have had jobs for a long time that i do not get along with because i think they suck at their job at some point they might have been good at their job but in the modern world i don't agree with them because i don't think they're good and i'm trying we're trying to okay we are trying to okay so i don't really get along with those people and i'm and i'm not quiet about it either i'm just like And this person sucks at their job.

3:03:45Pat McAfee:I am not working with this person. I've afforded myself with the boys the opportunity to say that and do that. That's how this is going to go. Well, that's not how it's been forever. It's like, well, I don't. That sounds like a you problem. You would never do that to somebody that is has awareness and has drive and cares about their job. You wouldn't do that. Care about their job. If you care about what you're doing and you care about putting something good in, respecting the position that you have. There's other people that wish they had your position. if you respect the position any position that you have there is somebody that wants that but if it's a especially in this business there is and you're in there if you respect the position that you're in and try and want to care like I will okay I respect it even if I don't agree with you I will I think that is what history will say whenever I am and we are kind of done with how this whole thing goes on that note as soon as I talk to you I tell boys immediately I'm like yo this fucker's a thinker this guy is a this guy is a thinker.

3:04:40Pat McAfee:This guy is an executor. It is like, uh, we are big fans of the way you operate, man. And I think there's no suspicions on why big loud is successful. I want to let you, not just you, obviously your team, but like you're, you're a good, you're a great suit, man. You are a good mind for our, our society. Thank you. The feeling is mutual. You guys do not phone it in and sports media. I'm not trying to just volley one back. Like it's clear and evident. You try every day to be different and that's why you'll continue to have success. Yeah. You just volleyed one back. This is our shows, not yours. Okay.

3:05:06Pat McAfee:We will compliment you. Ty has the last question for you.

3:05:09Bruce Arians:Speaking of the success. Nice hat, Ty. You've had. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Speaking of the success.

3:05:13Pat McAfee:Are you a Packers fan? I'm a Matt LeFleur friend. A friend of the man. Oh. I support him. He's a Nashville guy for one year with Braves. Yep. That's right. Yep. I mean, what's the fuck? Is it with him? I'm sorry. Did I just. Did I just. Decray our. You got a fucking Patriots element right here. Nope. You can't say go Brable. I'm sorry. Rabes for six years. Even more so. Six years. Whatever But you didn't say anything I'm sorry Shit Anyway go ahead My bad

3:05:42Bruce Arians:We did just learn a lot That's okay though That's not what we're talking about Go Pat Go Go Pat

3:05:48Pat McAfee:Go Okay it's gonna be tough down the road You guys lost a good player

3:05:50Bruce Arians:Yeah without a doubt But again we can talk about that off the air I am curious though With how successful you are now I would guess that most Young up and coming artists Like it would be a godsend if they could come work for you and be a part of Big Loud. Has it gotten more difficult now with, I assume, just more people, you know, believing that they're right for you guys and very talented and all that kind of stuff? I assume you have to sift through a lot more stuff now. And going back to what you said about, like, your culture, is it difficult finding people who you know will fit? Because I assume you are kind of coming in contact with a lot of very, very talented people that you believe you could make into massive stars.

3:06:29Yeah, and maybe just like a roster, you don't have enough bandwidth or time for everything that you see that you think could be successful. You kind of just have to pick, of course, pay attention to what you have on your roster. Maybe not have too much of one style yet. Styles can be of season, so you may have a few in that vein. A few ways we've grown but still felt local is we started an office in Austin, Texas called Big Loud Texas. That's a partnership with Miranda Lambert, John Randall, and Brendan Anthony. Football player? John Randall, no. But man, how awesome would that be? He turned the door.

3:07:00He's got a guitar in. Welcome to Big Loud Texas. Lock in. And then one of the co-owners of Big Loud, Joey Moy, as I mentioned, he has more or less started Big Loud Rock in Los Angeles. And the same things are happening there. I'm almost jealous of those two offices because they remind me of day one of Big Loud where it was very cultural and kind of all in. I would say it's not a requirement that you get along with our roster because not everyone's going to like each other. Again, in sports, no different. You're going to have little riffs even within the same team. But I think we definitely think to ourselves, how would that go?

3:07:29Because on the good side of things, if they do get along well, it's natural and the roster is attracted to them. You know, artists break artists. That is very true. You know, in sports, you never do anything alone. So a good teammate you had put you in a position to win. Artists break artists. What does that mean? Artists break artists. They do. Whether you take them on tour, whether you put them on a record, whether you just listen to their music. People want to know who they're listening to. You know, and that's happened with Morgan. and he jumped on the FGL tour a lot as an example. And throughout the years, he would then check in with me or other friends of his in the business, who you're working on, always glad to be a good partner.

3:08:05You know, and many shows where he didn't have to do that, continues to do that. And I think he picks things that he likes. We don't ever ask him to pick something he doesn't like, so it starts there. But, yeah, we always check on that, especially being big loud. I think we're an all-together kind of company, so we see if the camaraderie can help because it really can.

3:08:21Pat McAfee:I think it has. Country Radio named you the record label of the year. All right. Thank you. Congratulations. That's the OG building right there. Love that silhouette picture. Come see us in Nashville. Yeah, they're in that building. They added on to it, I believe, right? Have you added on to that? We had to expand. We're across four different buildings, but by mid next summer, we're moving for sports fans a few blocks from the Titans practice facility in that part of town if you've been over there for any sports shows or coverage or anything. But I'm hoping to keep that building, Craig Wiseman, if you're watching.

3:08:50I want to keep that building for some history's sake. Even before Big Loud, Garth Brooks signed his very first record deal in that building when it was Capitol Records in the 80s. So I think it needs to be preserved and a lot of history.

3:09:00Pat McAfee:Was I in the room where that happened? Yes. Yes. That's Holman's writing room. He was passed on. And in the media room, he came back and he signed it there. And then all the Morgan music's been made there, Florida Georgia Line, and many, many others. So I think they should keep that. AJ, I don't know if you've been through Music Row. What he just said about that particular building right there and Big Loud and what that is, across the street hey this building waylon jennings recorded here this like every building is like a museum music row you drive through it and it's like if you're with somebody that knows and they'll have billboards outside of the current music that they have and which their writers have created top ones and everything like that out front of it but if you're with somebody that knows music like ernest is from nashville and he's in a music boom in that building elvis presley in that building and it's like one street you just kind of drive down and it's like every single building and inside of that building all those buildings at any time of the day there's somebody in there just trying to do one thing and that's make a hit that's all anybody is trying to do is just make a hit and there's it's a constant chase i think for every single building constant collab and it's like a really cool experience that you guys let me in on for like four or five days and it was like wow this is all every day they're trying to get in there and hit the power bowl every day you're walking in to all these buildings 2 a.m you drive by there's a light on in somewhere somebody that headphones in trying to figure it out 4 a.m 5 a.m middle of the afternoon there is somebody in all those buildings just trying to make a hit and trying to chase the dream very much it's very cool very cool scene very unique and anything can happen and it does we uh when when the big loud guys a lot of writers on that balcony you kind of if you can tell in that picture if they're congregated out there.

3:10:43Maybe they're not in the same session together and an artist drives by. This has happened on more than one occasion. The last one I remember Luke Bryan stops in the middle of the street and gets out of his truck and he's like, hey, motherfucker, write me a hit record today. He gets back in the truck and drives on and I'm like, see, that doesn't happen in London, I don't think. That's awesome. Nashville is sweet.

3:11:01Pat McAfee:We appreciate how kind you have been to us and hey, let's try to make a hit. Let's go. Well, you've already made a bunch. We're going to go make more today. Let me get the stats. Cut your teeth in Nashville. That's right. Come see us in Nashville. Hell yeah. There really isn't much to do, though. They come see you. They'll just be sitting outside. You guys got to figure out things for them to do. There's coffee across the street, I think. Oh, nice. You can get good coffee. Too much to do. Yeah, but I'm just saying, definitely drive by, see the big, loud building, take the photo, and then, yeah, you go do Nashville.

3:11:30Pat McAfee:Yeah, you're right. There is a lot to do in Nashville. What a city, dude. What a city. You have a good city, Doug. It's a great city. It's a great city. I grew up coming to Indianapolis, though. There's a lot of memories here. Hell yeah. Well, hopefully we'll make it more. Yeah, boom. Still a Colts fan, right? Go ahead. I was, and still am, by the way. I didn't abandon it. I moved to Nashville. By the way, they were at Rose-Hulman in camp for many years. How many years were you there at Rose-Hulman? Two. No, first year, one year, one year. But many before that. The Colts were, yes. Yeah, yeah.

3:11:59So I grew up in Illinois, but Terre Haute, Indiana was more or less my hometown. So I grew up seeing a lot of camp there. Became a big fan. RCA Dome a couple times. Okay. You know, very middle-class family whenever we could. And then when I moved to Nashville, it was a year or two after that when the Peyton departure happened. So, you know, for a lot of Colts fans in that time, if we moved out of town, he might have lost us for a little bit. And then I still definitely, I'm happy as I've gotten to know Pat. Cheer for him. And I think it's cool what's happening this year. The Phillip Rivers story is like, yeah.

3:12:28Just getting started. It's like the F1 movie. You know what I mean? Bring one of the golfers back. Except Phillip Rivers ain't winning like Sonny Hayes. Relax a little bit. Sonny Hayes.

3:12:38Pat McAfee:You have no idea what you just did. That F1 movie, dude. You don't understand. I'm a fan now. I'm all in on Cadillac. I want to ask you about music engineers because the engineers in F1 are so important. What was it Toby Keith said? I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was. And that's coming on Monday night. Three more weeks. Let's go. I'm locked in on this right now. Let's hope he survives. He will. He will. He knows where he's going. He's a dog. He certainly is. But the F1 thing, I don't know if you know this, but our show pretty notoriously anti-F1. You know, just because Indy 500's right here.

3:13:12Pat McAfee:Indy car and everything like that. Now, I just want to let you know, hold on though, Seth. Big development here over the last couple of days. I don't even know if our fans know this. Darius Butler watched the docuseries on Netflix, became a G1 fan, came into this particular program, and was shoehorning F1 shit into our show. I was getting disgusted. Everybody was. It's gross. Connor used to take his ears out and say, I'm not fucking doing it. Yeah. Connor watches this Brad Pitt shit. He comes in the other day. He's like, I'll tell you what. Cadillac's got a team. They're in Indiana. It's a movie.

3:13:43Yeah, it is a movement. I'm not going to lie. I am actually excited to watch it. Now, I'm only giving it one race. I'm not doing the whole season. I'm here for a season. But I will give it one chance. I will give the Cadillac team. Don't be the Monaco one. Yeah, not the Monaco one. The first one. I'm doing the season opener. Okay? Because think about how excited we are. That's where you're closed. By the way, IndyCar for life. I grew up friends with Holman families. I didn't mean to overlook IndyCar. We're at a pinnacle. We're talking pinnacle. From New England, racing sucks. We don't have to play this.

3:14:19We don't have to do this shit. I grew up in the Boston area. Just the four major sports. Sure, New England Revolution. Who gives a fuck either way, though? But moving out here, you get ingratiated in racing. You go to the Indy 500 once. It's cool. You get it.

3:14:34Pat McAfee:You meet some of the drivers. Yeah, good guys. There's go-kart tracks out there that have cars going 60 miles an hour, as opposed to just where you're from, where it's electric, like out here. The governor's off. Yeah, it's actual racing. It's like you learn more about racing naturally. And the Indy 500 is the world's largest sporting event every single year for good reason. So anytime F1 or G1 was being mentioned on this show, based out of Indianapolis, Indiana, I felt obligated to say, get that shit out of here. And I used to have a team of people on my side. And now what I'm learning is you fucking put Brad Pitt in a onesie, put him in a fucking G1 car, all of a sudden everybody is all the way back.

3:15:11It's not just Brad Pitt, though. Javier Bardem is a true magnificent actor in this movie. But you understand. You understand the entire team. I'm in. Listen to how I'm talking. I sound like an asshole, but I'm telling you, all of a sudden I kind of get the whole entire thing, and I'm not going to try and woo anyone to F1. Use the words. Use the words. I will. I agree. It's the pinnacle. I'm not going that far yet. I haven't watched the reality show or the documentary piece on Netflix, but my wife and I went on our honeymoon in Italy this year, and we found out three days out that the race in Monza was the same day as we were in Milan.

3:15:50So we went to the race. That was my first ever F1 race, and I realized that I'm just like forever changed. You know what I mean? I went to the pinnacle race. I'm not going that far.

3:15:57Bruce Arians:I mean, I think Brad Pitt's been awesome in the movie. I'm just saying I was there in person. I got to feel it. I'm not calling it the pinnacle until I watch the race because I've watched an Indy 500 race and it is so sick. But the way they party before the race, during the race, and after, and they're walking out in the track, it's nothing like I've ever seen. It's a real event. Well, congrats to your wife on getting married.

3:16:18Pat McAfee:She's great. The family's awesome. Thank you. I don't like you turning on us as well. It feels like I've got nobody. AJ, are we still still? You got me. You got me. I've seen the first 30 minutes of that movie. I will watch the rest of it. The movie could be great. it does not entice me to actually tune into a single file line, you know, time trial. This reminds me. So this reminds me from the way everybody has reacted to this Brad Pitt movie. Remember that Netflix had a documentary. It was Turner, buddy, vegan. You remember that was happening. And I was like, I'm not watching it. I'm not watching.

3:16:46Pat McAfee:And then everybody would be like, just be mentally tough. And then I watch another friend go down. Boom. I'm not eating burgers anymore. I'm like, why did you see the thing? I'm like, no. So I'm like, I'm not watching it. I'm staying at it. I've put the same exact rules on this Brad Pitt G1 movie okay I love Brad I really do I will support the shit out of him but I'm not watching it I don't want to know I get it I don't want to know who cares that the Cadillac team the American team is 10 minutes from this fucking office it's located it's based 10 minutes from here it is literally right there they got the guys too the engineers did some research into him today the team principal Nonetheless, he's a legend over there.

3:17:28So I'm excited. It's a great story. You don't think there's a script writer right now writing down this Philip Rivers timeline? Definitely. And going, one day, it's the perfect Friday Night Lights scene. Rivers is coaching his cell phone rings, and it's Shane Steichen. Can you get on the plane tonight?

3:17:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. It's tonight. Yeah, what you're talking about is turning people into Colts fans and football fans. I'm worried about seeing this fucking G1 movie and becoming a G1 fan. I don't want to do that. Mark J, Australian Grand Prix season open. I'm pumped. I already got it in my calendar. You didn't even know it was 13 seconds ago. No, no, no. I knew it was in March. I just didn't know the exact date. He had no idea what continent it was on. I'm jacked. I'm going to freaking watch it. Unveiling the car at the Super Bowl. But still, IndyCar for life. I'm with you. Thank you, Seth.

3:18:12Pat McAfee:And also, thank you for being with me during this musical journey. Thanks for having us. Thank you for working with Big Loud. Let's make some bangers. What are we doing? Fuck off. We need to motivate. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. it might change their life. Anything for the team here, Seth? Act like it's end of practice, you know, when everybody calls it up. Big hits, launch small names, small hits, slow down the big names. Team on me, team on three. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye.