PMS 2.0 1474 - TNF Preview, NFL Week 16 Preview/Picks, College Football Playoff Opening Round Preview, Mike McCarthy, Nick Saban, & AJ Hawk

28:39But let's move along. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen. I hope it happens. I hope it happens. So bad. Packers fans. Oh, God, they'll be relentless. I mean, the names we were throwing out, Chicago Bears is historic in the sea and everything. But, I mean, they got a chance to rebrand here. Not just Chicago. Like, hey, what about the – what was it? The American Bears? The American Bears. Once in the Midwest. Hey, goodbye, Cowboys. You're not America's team. The American Bears. Up there in Gary, Indiana. Up there in Gary. Our America's team. Sorry, Jer. All the Midwest. All right. Hey, welcome to Indiana.

29:13Hey, welcome to Indiana, Ben Jones. Or Ben Johnson. We appreciate you. Caleb. The new Indiana Jones. Yeah, Ben Johnson. Caleb's going to love Gary. Caleb's a big Michael Jackson fan. He might buy Michael Jackson's house. It's not for sale, brother. Okay, you can actually certainly have him. It's going to be a part of the entire thing, but let's not get crazy here. Gary's not completely for sale, unless it is. Unless the right price comes from. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who's an absolute legend. I think what I've been so impressed by is the depth of this Yenzer's thoughts I did not know was possible for said any Yenzer, really.

29:49He's a good football coach. Coaches a lot of great football teams. He's a Super Bowl champion. He's obviously incredibly handsome. and he has a dog that is a multiple time ribbon award winner for getting birds out in the woods. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Mike McCarthy. Hey, Coach! I'll tell you what, your introductions never get old. That was fine. I want to make sure you're a dog. Thanks for the love for Gus. I want to make sure Gus got a little bit of love there. Speaking of love, looks like there's a lot of love over your shoulder. Who do we have joining us here today? Well, I'll just, you know, being with the Christmas spirit and trying to line up with your shirt.

30:26It's amazing to all the parents that you have young kids and how fast they grow up. So these are my two youngest here, Izzy and Gabby. They're 14 and 17 now. And just as we're getting ready for Christmas and going through the old pictures and so forth, it's just amazing how fast these kids grow up. So just a friendly reminder to you and all the other gentlemen on the set there that have kids. Everybody tells you they grow up fast, and they certainly do. So it's been really cool just as you prepare for Christmas and as my wife Jessica gets the house ready that some of these pictures are floating around.

31:02So I just thought I'd share that today. Hell yeah. Thank you for the message. And I will, actually. You know, we're in the middle of football season. There's a lot of activity, a lot of things to figure out, a lot of things to sort. And you're right. Maybe, yeah, I did need to hear that. Thank you so much. Obviously, I'm enjoying time with my daughter, especially now that she's coherent enough to kind of understand what's going on and Ho-Ho and Santa is bringing good stuff. And then being able to hold that over our heads is nice, too. Hey, you think Santa's going to like that you did that? Santa's watching.

31:30That's been a lot of fun. Now, did you dress up as Santa Claus every year or just whenever they were young? It was good. Oh, come on. All right, all right, all right. You didn't deserve that. You didn't deserve that. Okay. I didn't always have his fine beard, but I'm about ready to get rid of this thing anyways. But, no, but, you know, it's funny to just – Because the enjoyment I get from that picture, all my daughters were scared of mascots, you know, Santa Claus and so forth. And this is probably one of the first times that we were ever able to get the girls to sit on Santa's lap. And so that's where, you know, you remember those times, the little things that happened.

32:06You know, my oldest daughter, Alex, actually when we were in Kansas City, we used to have Casey Wolf come to the house. You know, I had paid for Casey Wolf to come to the house for three birthday parties and never was able to get a picture with her and him. because they were scared to death of Casey Wolfe. So, I mean, so, you know, those are the little things you remember. So this was really cool for them actually to sit on Santa's lap and take that picture because, you know, some kids are just, you know, not comfortable in that space. Casey Wolfe is the Kansas City mascot. Casey Wolfe is not the guy that robbed the banks and ends up in jail.

32:39Okay, which is good because if Coach McCarthy would have been bringing that particular Wolfe to the house, obviously we'd all have questions. Instead, it's just the Kansas City Chiefs mascot, which we are grateful for. We love you, Coach. We appreciate the fact that you are a great father, great dad, and also a guy who shows up every single week for us. Genuinely. You try to crush it for us and you give us great answers every single week. You've made us better. I think in this holiday season, we need to tell you we appreciate the hell out of you. Now, Tom Cruise sent us a coconut bunt cake. Three of them.

33:13Just want to let you know that. Just something to think about as you're checking your list. I think it might have said it to him, too. There was a Mike on the card. Yeah, actually, he might have been talking about you. He might have been just assuming you were part of the crew. Tom Cruise sent you a coconut vanilla bundt cake to this Thunderdome. We ate it. You won't get to see it or enjoy it, but just know that it was spectacular. Well, that's cool. Yeah, Mike. Dump Mike. I will say this, though. You are on Jessica's Christmas list, so I have no idea what you're getting. but uh and i don't know when you know when that that's she's awesome at it so i think i think you guys will be in great shape all right well please tell jessica we said thank you we appreciate the hell out of you and your family for everything and uh i'll tell you what it is nice to find out what we got somebody sometimes you know you know whenever uh me me and sam walk into a thing obviously i'll make sure i ask yes that's uh that's that seems like a veteran i mean well i got next week right you know i'll be ready all right sounds good we'll see but sam having something perfectly wrapped obviously she wrapped it she does or takes her time with it everything like that she's an artist and then she hands it to somebody and then i immediately go i have no idea you're gonna love it i have immediately big sell hey that thing is awesome They're going to love that.

34:38Yes, yes, they are going to love that. Okay, perfect, perfect, perfect. You know what we've been for? Merry Christmas to all. And to all, a good night. Speaking of good night, we've got a great one in store here. NFC West battling. This is real football now. Week 16 is kicking off in a huge way. 62 % of the bets are on the Rams getting a point and a half up there in Seattle. Matthew Stafford, leader in the MVP odds this year at the age of 38 or 39, whatever it is. Devontae Adams, we assume, going to miss with a hamstring. still have a plethora of weapons. And then for the Seattle Seahawks, it's all about whether or not Sam Darnold can perform in the big moment, basically.

35:12Jackson Smith and Jigba's outrageous, but will that even matter with the 50-mile-an-hour winds, potentially? Will this come down to run game? Will this come down to defense? What are your thoughts on this game and how special it is that we have a matchup like this happening on a Thursday night just a week before Christmas, coach? I'm laughing because I'm looking at my notes. I think you read half my damn notes. Okay. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. You've been teaching me this year. It's all good. This is going to be another great division game. I know they played a few weeks back, and Turner was obviously very high for Seattle with the interceptions.

35:47But, well, I think this is going to be just a barn burner. This is going to be a lockdown drag out. Both teams are obviously excellent football teams, but they're playing very well right now. So I think this is going to be a clash. division. Seattle has to have it. Obviously, the Rams are already in. I think the key, I believe weather. Something I've always studied in Green Bay was the wind. Every day at practice, watching the flags and being able to tell the mile an hour. Obviously, the rain and things are coming out. The numbers up there. Do they not call 140 mile an hour wind in Seattle a hurricane?

36:29I mean, it was a registered hurricane. I forget what, four? Three? Four? Yeah, category four. Four, yeah. 142 mile an hour documented in Coldwater Ridge, which obviously, positive thoughts and prayers to everybody. We don't know where Coldwater Ridge. Two and a half hours south of Seattle. Okay, so the whole area is getting hit. Obviously that area the most, but yes, they did categorize it as a hurricane, which is obviously very detrimental to a football game that is potentially happening in the middle of it, Coach. Yeah, definitely. No, definitely. Win, to me, is the biggest factor in preparing for a football game.

37:04I mean, rain, snow, you know, heat, but I've always felt win factors more than anything. It always changed my mindset and changed the way I looked at the game. So I think, A, being a home team, you know, being an outdoor team, I think those things factor. You've got two outstanding defenses. I really love what the Rams have done, you know, practicing against the Rams when I was with the Cowboys, you know, out there in California two years ago when all these guys were very young. You could see this thing was building and can't say enough about the job Chris Scholl has done there. And so, and obviously what Mike McDonald's done with the defense in Seattle.

37:43So you got two knockdown drag out defense playing in a bad weather wind game. So it's always, it's always about the football, but, you know, taking care of the football is going to be at a premium. And when you're playing these games, you know, the way you call it and the way you play the decisions you make in situational football, field position will be huge in this game, the field position battle, you know, what you do on third and fourth down, you know, how do you approach that? So I think it's going to be a knockdown drag out type game. I have such great respect for Matthew Stafford because these games usually come down to the quarterback that can move the football in those types of situations.

38:19and I've seen him play outdoors so many times in Green Bay. So I think he'll definitely be ready for this. But to me, I'm 0-3 when I bet with my heart. This is when the tide's going to turn. I'm going with the John Snyder Seattle Seahawks. And I think they're definitely going to pull this one out. I like that. I'm going to take the Seahawks tonight. I like that because A.J. very similar with Snyder and his relationship up there in Green Bay. I'm 0-3 whenever I just clearly pick my friends, but I'm going with the guy none of us have talked about, Schneider and the C-Hogs. I love everything about it's a holiday season.

38:57Good for the friends. And they can certainly get a huge win here, just like the Rams could. It's only one and a half point spread. I want to talk to you a little bit more about the win with the quarterback. I talked about with the kickers, you know, about aiming and where you're doing and cutting and driving and pure ball as opposed to like a fat ball. You hit a fat ball, that thing's going to get eaten up. You have to hit it pure in the wind. Punting sucks in the wind worse than kicking, I think, because there's a moment of free fall where you're not touching the ball. And if it's gusty there, that thing moves.

39:24You're going to see some shanks tonight, I would assume, even though these guys are very, very good punters. It's like punting sucks. The decision to punt, though, is something that a coach has to make, certainly, because if we're going to only get 25, 30 yards here in net field position or 20 yards net field position, should we go for it or not? And then let's talk about throwing a little bit. Do you know any tricks that guys do for throwing in the wind or why some guys are better in dealing with the elements? Big hand. Is there like a spin rate maybe that cuts through the wind better? Is there anything that you've kind of seen or acknowledged?

39:56Yeah, definitely. I remember as a young quarterback coach, you know, I had a coach tell me that they would change the way they hold the ball. But I never believed it. I was very fortunate to have, you know, we had Aaron and Brett in Green Bay. These guys, you know, long arms, you know, 10-inch hands can really twerk the football. And the most important thing is not to overgrip the football in the bad weather. So I thought you made a really good point about the punting, something that I'd always look at, particularly on your call sheet, the shot plays, when you take them and so forth. Because third long now becomes a better opportunity to take the shot because an interception on a shot play would probably serve better than a punt.

40:36So all those little things that go into playing the game, in the win, really come into the strategy for the coaches. You talk about the wind for kicking. I thought Mason Crosby was an outstanding kicker for us all my years in Green Bay. And not only the wind, anytime there was the weather, the pattern would be different. Mason, whether it was during practice or after practice, before practice, him, the snapper, and holders, Rob Davis was a big part of that, would go up because they were always one to work a different wind. because we had the big flags in the north end zone out there in Lambeau, and full pitch flags, 25 mile an hour.

41:16So you learn how to read the wind with the density of how the flags pitched. I had an old military guy take me through that. So that's something you watch during the game. But during my time in Green Bay, they had a north end zone expansion. So now that changed the way the wind come in because now it kind of came. You may have a northwest wind, but it would start to come in and turn the bend a little bit to the southeast. And then when they put the south end zone in, which was even higher, now that kind of created a swirl effect. Because when you have those elements of building, like in Dallas, you've got those corporate buildings around that practice field.

41:53You're pretty much in a wind tunnel. So you learn through your years of experience that that's something I used to do as a head coach. Because you've got a guy behind us. We had T-Bone, Tom Bakken there in Green Bay. He said his name right, Tom Bakken. So in Green Bay, you know, just he would stand behind me doing that. He would be doing the time, doing the timing and things. But we'd always, anytime it was a windy day, we'd say, hey, what's the wind? We'd guess, you know, 14 mile an hour, 50. It was all based on the flag. So, you know, those years in Green Bay were very beneficial for me, you know, as a head coach learning that.

42:26But I thought Mason and Rob Davis in our battery of snappers and kickers did an outstanding job at getting in the stadium on the odd days. anytime you see a little different weather pattern, just to make sure they had a feel how that wind was coming into the stadium. And, you know, with those expansions over the years, you know, the way it turned changed too. So it's definitely part of the game. I mean, that could be the difference of, you know, taking a ball and, you know, going to the north or, you know, or deferring and getting the ball, make sure you want to go south at the end of the game.

42:58So that's, to me, that's all part of your pregame strategy. I appreciate that you think about all those things. As I was listening to you just unload things, I'm like, man, would have been nice to know a lot of these things here you you're doing a third down arm punt boy i would have been so pumped there's a day in cleveland where i wish we did about three or four third down arm punts and andrew luck gave me one he gave me one he actually came over to me afterwards was like i i figured you wouldn't care and i'm like nope thank you so much dude like he threw like i think it was like a 52 yard pick and it was very windy clearly just threw that thing up into nothing guy caught it tackled down like the 15 and i thank you thank you as he was coming off because for punting you have to drop that that thing is free falling so it's like if any gust happens it would be like when you're driving and the ball just falls off the tee but then you still have to hit it it's like the punting part of it nobody really thinks about because most people kind of go to the bathroom when the punting happens or they just it's a turnover we'll just get it whenever that comes back it's like if you're usually getting 45 50 yards and then you actually only get like 20 yards you're putting your defense in a bind especially with the way they could potentially go the other way it's like it's wind is a huge part and you understanding the jet streams of each stadium i like that the head coach is involved in that because obviously kickers punters that's what we're trying to figure out we're trying to figure out what the jet streams are as soon as we get in there because there's some places where it could be in your face field level, but if you get that thing up to about the third story, that thing is shooting that way, actually.

44:26So, the only goal is just to get this thing up in the air, even though usually with wind in your face, you would not want to hit it up because that thing's going to go backwards. It's like, well, actually, if you get this thing up there, that thing will take off before you go. That way, it's a wild part of the game that 50-mile-an-hour winds, it could really be a huge factor tonight. Go ahead, Conrad. In the snow. I mean, Drake May did this. They had the ball in the 40 and they were in the snow. It was a bad weather game. And on third and – I think it was third and 28 or third and 30, he did just do like an arm punt and it ended up being an interception on the eight-yard line.

45:00And I think Jage called it that in real time. He said that was a 49-yard arm punt basically there, which we will take. It's like I appreciate you as play caller and head coach being like – Let's help out Mac for a little bit. If nothing's out there, I think safety needs another pick for like a career record. Just throw that thing up to you, man. You know, like that is – go ahead. What were you going to say? Well, I'll say this. I mean, you know, I wasn't really doing it to throw the interceptions. I always felt that, you know, your 50-50 balls, you know, obviously favor the offensive player, you know, when the ball is moving in the win too.

45:33So, you know, not to disrespect the DBs, but there's a reason why they're on defense and you're throwing to an offensive receiver. So I also thought that that factored into taking advantage of those one-on-ones. And, you know, something I got into as a head coach is I started going on the early, early bus with the trainers and equipment guys over to the stadium, you know, which is like four hours before the game. And, you know, me and the equipment system, equipment manager, we would go out. You know, Bucky used to do it with me down there in Dallas. And we would go out there and we'd look at the wind, you know.

46:06So we would get the wind pattern and, you know, look at the surface always on the outdoor. You know, indoor games obviously didn't factor. but that was something that was part of the pregame exercise. And then when a special teams coach, particularly John Fossil, would come, then he'd obviously have the conversation with the specialists. So I think that's part of your job as a head coach, to understand the conditions of what you're playing in each and every week. We've wasted a lot of time on this, and I appreciate it. It's not wasting. It's a lot of information. But I did not expect us to get this deep into window reading, but there's a chance that it's a massive factor tonight.

46:39Let's talk about some other things happening around the league, and let's talk about one of the people that you literally just mentioned. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Coach, you mentioned Aaron Rodgers, and obviously he's one of the best cold and wind throwers of all time. And basically the last two weeks have been his best two weeks of the season as the temperature drops. But the play on the field, yes. But then he's coming out this week and he said, finally the Steelers are practicing like a team that is ready for the playoffs, their habits and stuff like that. He's getting 12 men caught on the field.

47:08He was yelling at the sideline because they substituted when there was a play that could have been overturned. Like all these things, I think we're starting to see what Aaron brings to a team. Are you seeing that? And what does Aaron bring to a team this part of the season, this late in the season in a playoff push? Well, this is why I was excited, you know, for him to end up in Pittsburgh. I think he just was a tremendous fit all the way around. You know, you've got a team that, in my view, has one of the top defenses each and every year. and the ability this time of year to have your defense that's always going to keep you in the game.

47:45There's no one else you'd want to have the ball in a two-minute drill. Just from a basic general outlook, I thought this was a tremendous fit. You're seeing a big part of this guy's greatness, his game management, and just the reps and the detail that he puts into this. That's the way he's played for well over a decade. And it's just reps. And they do really look good. I really like the way they played the last two weeks. I actually was real excited. I thought he was outstanding on the Pittsburgh tush push. I mean, his stance was something I'm sure he had to work on dramatically. Well, just in case there's a fumble, he's got to get the tackle.

48:26He's got to make the tackle. Yeah, I was hoping AJ would be honored because he got it. I mean, he had to be laughing at that too because I couldn't imagine not giving him the ball on third one or fourth one down there in a key situation when he's 25 years old. I think being 41, he definitely handles that a little better. Because, you know, them guys, you know, great players, great players want the ball in those situations. And then, you know, when I think back, actually I thought Brett Favre and Marcus Allen had two of the best explanations of goal line, you know, running goal line passing that I've ever, you know, I've ever heard nothing, but they also backed it up.

48:59You know, Brett's whole thing was, you know, give me the ball inside the five, you know, would go on personnel because you've got all 22 guys right here. So, and, you know, get me out of the pocket and I'll get it in the end zone. And Marcus Allen gave one of the all-time greatest, you know, explanations of, you know, Marcus is looked at as one of the greatest school line runners in the history. And his whole thing was the same thing. All 22 guys were right here, you know, in the phone booth. You just see that calm and color accelerate the crease. And, you know, if you remember Marcus's running style, I mean, it was, you know, just his forward lean and, you know, he couldn't be stopped.

49:33So, you know, there's a lot of doubt. I don't know why I'm talking about going on defense, but I just thought I thought Troy was having a good time with it on TV. I was dying laughing because I could imagine what was going through his head, you know. That's funny. They got you actually going in whenever he was young days with the Packers as we're building the goat resume that he's currently exists. all right Aaron so in this touchdown situation for you where it's an easy pass potentially uh you're just going to stand back here and we're going to bring in uh somebody else is going to take the snap and they're going to score instead is that okay you're just going to stand here yeah what am I just am I holding my ass Mike what am I doing back yeah just kind of don't pick your nose that's a penalty but just stand just stand right back there do nothing and I'm sure that would have won swimmingly, is what you're saying.

50:21That's what it sounds? Glowingly. He's been high-fiving. You can go push Tom Crabtree if you want. Somebody, Coon's going to be there. You'll see him. He'll take the snaps. So you need to teach him how to do that, by the way. He can take some snaps from you. And then also we need you to assist him to score the touchdown. Don't be surprised, though, if that snap goes between Connor Hayward's legs one time and Aaron's sitting there with the ball in his hand ready to throw it. And he might even have his hands in the thing like he does. and then all of a sudden, Darnell, Mount Washington. Sneaks out.

50:49Just right out the entire team. There you go. That might be the deceptive. That might be the next call. Okay, dump it, dump it. We don't want to bury him. Okay, that game, obviously, Steelers, Miami Dolphins, primetime game. Good game. And it was a good game for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Huge win for them. Huge win for Coach Tomlin. Obviously, it's getting very loud for this team with all the expectations going in. They're still very much in it. Are they on number one in the North is what he said last week. They still are and obviously have to beat Baltimore last game of the year to host a playoff game, which is crazy to think about.

51:17But on the other side, some changes were made after that game. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Coach, what do you think of the whole Tua situation? Obviously, we saw postgame he was the last guy on the field yucking it up with Jalen Ramsey as they were essentially eliminated from the playoffs. And then yesterday he gets benched. Quinn Ewers is starting. And a lot of people are just assuming, okay, his time in Miami is done. They're going to eat whatever massive cap hit it takes, and he'll be gone. If you are the head coach or the quarterback's coach or the play caller, like how do you digest that whole situation and also when when Tua does get another opportunity because he was the fifth pick do you think teams are going to view him as a starter or is he going to have to be kind of a reclamation project and be a backup for a few years here well that's a great question Ty you know I think a number you know there's a number of things there um you know number one I'm not totally you know engaged with everything that's going on in in Miami but you You do have a young guy in Quinn, and I've actually had a chance to spend some time with Quinn before the draft.

52:15So I'm excited for him personally. But, yeah, I don't know if this is a – you're out of the playoffs. I think when you get to this point in the season, you haven't been there a lot of times, but there's a lot of things you've got to talk about, particularly what are you thinking in the future. They don't have a GM, so I don't – I think there's some answers to your question that probably can only come from inside. So why exactly they're doing this? We all understand his contract situation. So, you know, that factors more than people would probably want to admit. So I think, you know, hopefully it's just they want to give a young guy an opportunity to see what they got in Quinn to get more information as far as the whole overall quarterback position.

53:01Because I'm a huge believer when you're developing the quarterbacks, you're developing the whole room. All three of those guys in the room, and personally, I wish they'd make you have four in the building and mandatory because it's the most important position in football, and the development of that position is critical. So I'm thinking they want to find out about Quinn and give him the opportunity. I think it's definitely part of this, too. So I'm not knowing exactly what the postgame, and I wasn't aware of any of that. So I don't know what all that plays into this if it's part of a decision.

53:34But, you know, I think there's a lot, you know, there's a number of quarterback decisions around the league that are being made. You know, obviously, you know, in Washington, you know, resting, you know, Mahomes went down. You know, when you see that, you know, what's your offseason is going to look like, too. So when you're out of the playoffs, you know, you definitely want to go win the game. The fans are, you know, they're paying. That's important from the business perspective of it and so forth. but there is a future outlook for some of these teams. And, you know, whether the coach and, you know, standing in the coaching gym, I know is probably part of that.

54:10But, you know, when you're building a championship program, you do have to forecast some of those decisions. And how you go into the offseason I think is critical. So I think some of that plays into it too. But, yeah, you know, I'm not exactly – I think there's more to it in Miami. There usually is. And those are really, you know, things that are going on internally. Yeah, and you talk about looking at Quinn Ewers for the future. It's like GM already fired. Is the head coach going to be there next year? I have no idea. Is he going to be down there with sunscreen? Maybe he gets a chance to see.

54:40Yeah, maybe. Quinn Ewers, we're not putting your name up for any jobs or forcing anybody out of any jobs, but it would be hilarious to see you back head coaching now that we know you much, much better. You know, much, much better. You in Miami would be incredible. Coach McDaniel is still down there, and obviously the team continued to fight for him, so we're not making any of those decisions. But I have, I don't know if you have done this, I have placed you in a couple different spots. Just the thought of you going out there in that teal, bright red. I mean, in Miami, you would be that guy right behind you with your daughters there.

55:12Sun hat. Bright red out there. Yes, sun hat. Oh, man, we need it. We need it. Now, McDaniel, we like him. Whatever happens in the future. But we appreciate the hell out of you, Coach. Enjoy the hell out of the weekend. Great ball tonight. College football playoffs tomorrow night. Alabama, Oklahoma. Any thoughts on these? Just looking forward to watching it. I don't want to upset any of these calls. I think this call is just national championship brackets. I just love what they've done. So these games are so exciting. And no, I'm just looking forward to sitting down and being a fan. All right, we'll be on ESPN2 noon on Saturday.

55:50Calling Texas A &M, Miami from the sideline. Hopefully you enjoy this. And we would like text messages if you see anything for anybody so we can sound smarter. We won't give you credit, but we will steal your shit. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Mike McCarthy. Thank you, Coach. Thank you, Coach. He's the man. Dude, it is fun placing him now. I feel like I haven't done that enough. Oh, you should. Have him in Miami. First training camp, it's 115 degrees, 400 % humidity, and he's just drenching. We've got a fast team. We've got to work hard today. It's a bad idea. It's a bad idea, man.

56:25There's Irish Yinzer in Miami. that'd be the italian answer went down there and did pretty good gay damarino yeah you're right maybe you need the irish to go down there a lot of italian injuries going down in my area there's a lot of italians in general that head down that way okay and a lot of irish head down that way too they all seemingly have similar jobs but trash amongst other construction sanitation please that's also concrete funny frank's still living in plum

57:02football is magical we're so incredibly lucky that we get a chance to chat about it tonight week 16 of the nfl season kicks off in a huge way and tomorrow the college football playoff the second ever 12 team college football playoff kicks off on a friday night in oklahoma as alabama will travel to take on mature inventables in an entire sooner nation ready to deliver an epic environment as Alabama is underdogs as Oklahoma favored by a point and a half at home. Let's go to one half of the hammer. Cowboys AP tone. What are the numbers saying for this particular game here tone and what's the percentage of bets on who?

57:39I naturally assume that more people will just say give me Alabama just because it's Alabama. Alabama I think there's some sort of stat line that's out there about something about since 1860 or something they haven't done something and lose in some sort, but obviously this is DeBoer's Alabama. This is not Saban's Alabama. This is a massive one for DeBoer, Ty Simpson, and Alabama. And for Venables, he's been waiting for this in Oklahoma. I mean, Venables was brought in from Clemson as the defensive guru that led the Clemson team in a fantastic fashion. He gets to Oklahoma. They have a little bit of a run, then a little bit of a lull.

58:15Texas goes on their big run, and then all of a sudden Oklahoma is kicking off the college football playoff with a Venables defense that's going to hunt. I mean, they are going to hunt. They are going to look awesome. Is Matier in our buckle in the offense that we saw earlier in the year, then a little bit at the end of the year, going to show up in the biggest moment and continue this magical run? Or Alabama and Ty Simpson, who had a tough road throughout the middle of this season and got to this point, will they continue their journey to a national championship in the post-Saban era? It's a huge one to kick off this college football playoff tomorrow night.

58:46Yeah, it's a ginormous one. I think the line kind of reflects how I feel about this one as a coin flip, but you're going to get the favorite because of the home in the home field advantage. These two teams played, what was that, three, four weeks ago. In Alabama. Yeah, in Alabama. Oklahoma won 23-21, but Bama outgamed them by 200 yards. It was kind of the story of turnovers. That Oklahoma defense was getting sacks, turnovers. They had an interception return for a touchdown. But, like, so Ty Simpson has five interceptions, I believe, on the season. Four of those have come in the last four weeks.

59:17So, it's, and there's, you know, there's internet rumors about his health and stuff like that. Alabama can't run the ball. And then the other side, the Oklahoma offense, the second half of the year has been shit too. But like these three weeks off for both of these teams, like what are they, are they going to, are these teams going to turn back to what they were at the beginning of the year where Alabama won five straight against ranked teams or four straight against ranked teams and Oklahoma's offense beginning of the season with material was unbelievable before we heard his thumb. It's yeah, it's, it's an incredible, it's a coin flip for me.

59:44You talked about Venables. He was kind of on the hot seat before the season. He is not anymore. He's a dog by the way. He's got, he's got net. He's got the vascularity. Yeah, he's still in there. I think he's still in there moving. Always has a raspy voice, no matter what. I think their SID, the guy that controls his press appearance, is the hardest in the country to work with. In my hardest, I mean keeps him. Yeah, biggest nightmare. Just like, no. That's what I heard through the Reddit pages that I was reading. They would spin it into a positive way, though. He wants Coach Focused on ball. Yeah, just kind of keep it out there.

1:00:16I don't think a lot of access to Venables has ever been a thing. I don't think that is something. Every time he comes on game day, though, the way he's on the show and then how he interacts with everybody in between, feels like he's a dude. You know, like Venables is a guy, is a dude that you would want to hang around even though we don't know much about him because he's not really out there as much. But him getting his team to be able to play this way and then bringing in Arbuckle and Matier together to kind of flip the offensive side and catch up, that was a magical story at the beginning of this year.

1:00:41Matier was going to win to Heisman, and then obviously he hurts his thumb. Then he comes back early maybe against Texas. Everybody was saying in the offense, kind of slow start. Three weeks to reset that, get healthy, and also go back and maybe do some self-scout. Maybe they're back to being that special offense and dynamic offense. And then for Alabama, Ty Simpson talked about injuries late down the season. Three weeks is a long time to get healthy. That's a long time, especially for these young lads, to get feeling better. I think we're going to see the best out of both of these teams. And this is what it's all about.

1:01:08Starting with 12, cutting down to one. Boom. It's about who's going to become a CFP national champion. If this one comes down to a kick, as you know, Oklahoma's kicker Tate Sandell, I believe he was 23 of 24 in the season with a long of 55. I believe he was either a finalist or won best kicker in the country. Those awards mean nothing because they do it via Zoom. We hate that. What are we doing? College football is the second largest sport in America behind the NFL. I don't know why we wouldn't treat it as such. The NFL shuts down the entire city for their award shows. College football does Zoom calls.

1:01:42So I don't know how that's a thing. We should know that. That should be a celebrated thing. That's on me. And that's a huge moment for him if he did win that. It was either him or the kid from Hawaii. I can't remember what I thought. That man from Hawaii. The Japanese guy who learned through YouTube on how to kick and then turns a dream and a career. Not a career, but yeah, maybe a career in this entire thing. It's a beautiful American dream story happening out there in Hawaii for the kicker. Yeah, the Tokyo Toe Kansai Matsuzawa. And the most prestigious trophy for the best college kicker in the country is in the Luke Rose Award given annually was to Tate.

1:02:17Yeah. Tate's winner. So if it comes down to a huge moment, by the way, for this kid's life, that he won that. And have you seen a clip of it or anything? No, no, no, no, absolutely not. And our outlet would see that, right, because we're college football and kicking? Yeah, yeah. I would assume so. Are we sure that's real? But Tate's good. True. Tate is good. Yeah. Tate is good. And now will he be good? He's got short pants. Yeah, but he said also, hey, that. It was a little shorter than I thought. He could have a little bit of a rip. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, he's a college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner.

1:02:48Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawk. Yeah, Hawker. Hawker, the CFP kicks off tomorrow night. Obviously, gigantic stuff. Friday night kickoff. I like that. Heading into a great weekend. I think it's great. I think we missed an opportunity there. You could have played the nice jingle for Coach Mike McCarthy. I think he would really enjoy that. I doubt that he has seen that yet. Well, we'll make sure he knows what that's all about next week. You're right. That'll be our Christmas gift to him. maybe and we'll put him full screen as we play it and just kind of see his... What are we doing? What is it? We still live?

1:03:16Is this your song? Am I on the screen right now?

1:03:50What's going on here? Obviously, there is a demand to get into these buildings, and this is what we love about the college football experience is the environment. We wish that there would be second-round home field advantages as well because obviously a game down here in Bloomington or a game in Athens or a game in Columbus or a game in Lubbock would be gigantic in the second round and be very special. But at some point, I guess, they decided that, no, only the teams that weren't the best in the country get home field advantage, and then we have to move it on to keep corporate sponsors happy. Hopefully, we'll be able to change that going forward and we'll still be able to hit all the New Year's Six rotating bases for the next round.

1:04:29But it's a special weekend. We're lucky to be a part of it. What's the Montana-Montana State ticket that's happening out there for the FCS? So, semifinals, FCS, Montana-Montana State. They played earlier this season. They were one versus two. It was a three-point game. They're back in the semifinals. Zeke was looking it up. He said the cheapest ticket he could find to get to that game was over$400. It's going to be an awesome environment. Wow. Montana-Montana State. A bunch of people, obviously, that thought we should go out there for game day. Just know we agreed with you. JMU had a weekend earlier in the season that same weekend where they should have potentially had it.

1:05:01We agreed with you. We thought it. I think there was a conversation like because of JMU's schedule, not by us, because of JMU's schedule, there's no chance, I believe is what the words were. Yeah, quote unquote. Just because I ask questions. So all of the college football fans that get mad about where game day ends up, once again would like to reiterate lucky to be a part of the institution and have been part here for the last few years of an institution that people are excited that your show and that your thing is coming to their game that's a cool thing always will be a cool thing for college game day i hope the people that run college game day understand that that's a thing and feels like some of them maybe but not you know not at the game day world but in the espn world as a whole like hey it's this is uh we're very lucky that this is viewed this way and treated this way Obviously, it's been earned over a long, long time of putting on great shows and everything and celebrating the second largest sport in America behind the NFL.

1:05:55But I also ask questions. Have no say. I think it's well documented that I'm pretty low on the totem pole over there. Have no say in the entire thing. So whenever some of these decisions are made and I just go, what? Why? Why? We were just there. They had 40 ,000 people for us. The entire, why would we not want to do that? Well, there's no chance they make the college football playoff with their schedule. So we'd basically be kind of just showcasing something that is only going to make more people upset because there's no chance they're going to make a playoff. Well, look out. JMU is currently in a college football playoff, right?

1:06:24They're currently in it. So whoever said that should probably look in the mirror and think to themselves, maybe I should just have a brain every once in a while. And then, you know, Tulane, I don't think there was ever a thought to go down there. But Montana, Montana State, definitely in conversation to go out there. Wanted to know why. Why the Brawl of the Wild, I believe is what it's called. It's a special environment. We got a chance to go out there in a negative 14 degree. The entire state came out for us, and it was a special thing. So just know that we ask the same questions everybody else does.

1:06:50Oh, yeah. And Stanford Steve is the one that's making all the decisions. Thanks a lot, other guy. Stanford Steve is the one making the decisions. But we do know college game day tomorrow night, college game day Saturday morning, field pass on ESPN2, Texas A &M on Miami. We cannot wait to call that. I don't want to give anything away. Don't like to go behind the curtain too much. Break the fourth wall. Sure. we got a chance to speak with both coach elko and coach crystal ball about things that they won't tell just the media because we are calling the game and uh we got a little bit of a production access to these guys really kicked back and relaxed got to get to know the real them yesterday that was an awesome experience yesterday aj truly that's first time we've gotten to do this we reach out directly to the coaches and to the people at the schools they're both like absolutely they would much rather do that than any of the other stuff that they have to do.

1:07:39It's like we only need four or five minutes, six minutes. Yeah, eight out of ten, fifteen, seventeen, twenty minutes. Once we get them in there, we think they'll have a good time. If they're not having a good time, we'll send them the hell out of there. But they were very good with us, I think, AJ. And that was very productive for us, I think, as we try to call this game on Saturday and do it justice. Yeah, it was very productive. I mean, thanks to you, obviously you have a way of making these guys feel, I guess, at ease and comfortable, and they trust you, and you have a relationship with them beforehand.

1:08:05But, I mean, I've been in plenty of production meetings where you don't get anything, where they are tight-lipped, giving you like the coach speak. So the fact that they were so open and cool about it, and they both seem like – they just seem super excited. They just couldn't wait for the game to get here, I feel like. They're just – they're ready to go. Thankful gratitude for being in the – like, it genuinely felt like – And I think they view us as just football dudes. So, like, whenever we're talking about them, it's just like, hey, explain the situation to them about us calling these games.

1:08:32We have no idea if it's a three-yard gain or a four-yard loss from where we're standing. But it would be cool to at least get a heads up on how you're viewing so we can kind of call and talk about it as it's happening. Like, I think other people that call games get to do that. We were wondering if we could do the same thing. And they were like, absolutely, here you go. And then there was even a couple, when you see this, we're doing this. Whenever you see this, we're trying this. It's like, we would have never had that in the past. What a weapon that is. for us going into this game but what i got from both these coaches they both obviously love their teams but also they feel very good about how their teams feel going into this game like it's it's very much like hey let's go do this thing as opposed to like hey let's feel it out it feels like they are both very much going for it here and it's going to be fire i think we should expect the best of all parties in this particular game with the way the messaging has come yeah by all means this should be a night game this is the best game of the first round you can make that argument i think the price kind of reflects that it's so awesome that this is the noon game and yeah the NFL being on Saturday probably doesn't help it as much but both the school's first time in the college football playoff right I mean this is historic for both sides and it does feel like that is at least came through when talking to him like how much this means not just to the teams but to the universities to the cities to the towns that they are in like this is a monumental moment for both of these places and it also did feel as if the coaches and players knew they were representing their people like it was cool it was like a very genuine cool conversation about how confident they are in their team how much they like their team here's some stuff that we're going to do obviously we can't talk about until it starts happening on why it's happening and we had to obviously we're in the football world so we don't want to give away any strategy from anybody or anything like that but just like the genuine um excitement it felt like from both sides about the opportunity was cool.

1:10:19Even listening to Coach Cristobal talk about traveling and playing at Kyle Field. He's like, hey, I've been there with Alabama. We went up to Ohio State, obviously. Got a chance to experience that. FIU we played. Went to A &M. Played there. He was like, so I... When he was at Oregon, he had a bunch of big games like that. And he said, he talked about how pumped he is for his team to experience it because it is a different animal. Yeah. He respects, too. Yeah, it was like a very respectful... It was cool to kind of hear it all. Joining us now is a man who's obviously no stranger to huge games and also no stranger to huge games at Cal Field.

1:10:53Joining us now, the greatest college football coach of all time, new owner of the Nashville Prayers. Wow. Ladies and gentlemen, Nick Saban. Yeah, coach! How you doing, coach? I'm doing great. How you guys doing? What, are you selling Toyotas now? I see that shit sitting right over your head. I thought you were a Ferrari and Lambo guy. I didn't know you were a Toyota-thon guy. You're moving Toyotas too? Yeah. I had to do this in the store today because I had some meetings this afternoon. So they set it up for me and we're here and not trying to advertise anything. No, of course not. Yeah, it doesn't look like it at all.

1:11:36Doesn't look like I got a Lexus here if you need it. Shit. We got you the best thing you could possibly need for a stocking stuffer. We got a Toyota-thon little elf here. You can buy, where is this Toyota located out here, Coach Saban? This one's in Montgomery, Alabama. All right, well, if I ever need anything, I know I'm coming to Toyota right down there, Montgomery, Alabama. Coach Saban, Coach Gresti, and all the boys there will take care of you and get you everything you need. Let's talk about you being an owner of the Smashville Predators. Listen, you're a completely defeated NHL owner. Got their asses beat.

1:12:06Four to one. L, L, L with your ownership. But tell me how you got into this, and how much do you know about hockey, and what is your planned presence for the Nashville Predators going forward? Because I got a lot of friends in Nashville that basically, as soon as they saw this announcement, were like, Saban's coaching the Predators? We're winning this thing. What is it? What is the expectation, and how did you get to this? Congratulations. We love hockey here. Yeah, well, it was an opportunity for me, really, with Mr. Haslam, Bill Haslam, who we talked about some sports franchise opportunities in the future.

1:12:43And this was the first one that came up. I love hockey. I think hockey is a great investment. You know, they have a salary cap and, you know, it's a growing sport. I think there's a lot of interest in the sport. And Nashville is a great city. We have businesses there. So, you know, I'm kind of a fan and, you know, look forward to being a part of the team, which I think they have the structure there to, you know, rebuild this team and excited about being a part of it. And, you know, I don't know enough about hockey to really coach anybody how to play it, but I know enough about successful organizations that, you know, hopefully can contribute something to the organization in a positive way.

1:13:25I don't like to hear that. So you're actually going to do stuff here. You're not just going to stay away from the building because the Pittsburgh Penguins just sold too. I don't know if you've already signed. We'd love to have you in Pittsburgh and we'll certainly give you a better deal than whatever the Predators did. So you just kind of give me a heads up on that if you want me to stop mentioning that right now or now, as the ink tried. Well, you know, I went to a Predators game in the playoffs several years ago, and the Penguins were actually playing the Predators in the playoffs. And I had a Predators jersey on trying to promote our Nashville businesses, and I got about 1 ,000 negative emails from my people back in West Virginia who were Penguins fans.

1:14:03so I got my ass kicked on that one. Good. I hope you get more this time because we were just for sale. You could have bought the whole damn thing potentially. No, we love to see you continuing to get in the sports world and give back to the sports world. The Predators are very lucky. The city of Nashville knows and appreciates you becoming more of a part of it. It's a great thing. I love you're a part of hockey, Coach. We love hockey around here and to your point, up and to the right and go Preds going forward. Go Preds going forward but also the Penguins are about to beat that ass, Saban, whenever they have to.

1:14:33And that's the good thing about hockey. Let's talk about football now. Let's talk a little bit about college ball. This weekend is obviously huge. CFP is kicking off. Tomorrow night, Friday night, Alabama, Oklahoma, very close to home to you. And obviously Oklahoma came into Alabama just about a month ago and got a win. Tone has a question for you about what we think is obviously the X factor of the entire game. Yeah, Coach, you've obviously had to go up against Coach Venables in your time in the playoffs. now that Alabama has seen him once this season and they're going to have to see that defense again for a second time.

1:15:05Is that a good thing for Ty Simpson in the Alabama offense? And what makes going up against Brent Venables so hard? Well, I think the pressure package that they have, and I think that was the big difference in the first game. When you watch the game, when they got their pressures blocked up, they made a lot of explosive plays. I'm talking about Alabama. but when they didn't it was devastating in terms of sack fumbles pick sixes um sacks that led to stop and drives so uh it was like feast or famine you know in the game so how they can execute against the pressures to me is the most important thing because if you can get to the back end of Oklahoma's defense I think you got a chance to make plays which was evident in the first game I mean, Alabama had over 400 yards versus Oklahoma's 200, but three turnovers all in negative field position that led to 17 points, you know, helped Oklahoma tremendously in the game.

1:16:04And you can't have those kind of plays. If you have those kind of plays, Oklahoma will be successful. That's how they win. They've not scored a lot of points. Their defense is outstanding. And they thrive on making plays in the game that are going to impact the game. And they did it to Alabama a month ago. Yeah, they did, Coach. Yeah, and Alabama, Ty Simpson, has five turnovers or five interceptions on the season. Four of them come in the final four weeks. That three-week layoff, is there a way to fix that, or is that just something that's going to come with games down the stretch whenever you're trying to take a shot?

1:16:38Well, I really do think that some of the issues that have been created on Alabama's offense come from the fact that there's more pressure, more sacks. They've been able to affect the quarterback, which led to the four interceptions that you're talking about. But Ty's very capable, but I've always said this. Quarterback's a hard place, a hard position to play, maybe the hardest position in sports, if the people around you don't play well. So their ability to run the ball, their ability to protect, pick up pressures, the offensive line needs to play a little more consistently. That'll help the quarterback.

1:17:15And if they can do that, I think Ty's very capable of, you know, getting back to where he was somewhere in the middle of the season when he was playing outstanding. We're obviously hoping for the best out of everybody. Mateer included in Oklahoma whenever he started this season. It was, wow, I can't believe this guy is as good a football player as he is. He gets hurt. They weren't able to find their rhythm yet again afterwards, but starting to find it towards the end of the season. Will the three-week layoff help them? Now, let's move to Saturday as we travel from Oklahoma on Friday to College Station late Friday night.

1:17:45Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, Coach, we will be on the field for Miami taking on Texas A &M. I guess, what should people be watching? Say the first half, what should we be paying attention to to kind of see? Or what are you going to be paying attention to early in that game to see how it's playing out? Well, I think two things are very interesting in this game, and it's the style that both teams play defense. Miami has got really talented front guys. I mean, they dominate the line of scrimmage. They rush four guys most of the time. These guys make a lot of negative plays by how aggressive and physical they are.

1:18:19I think Jason Taylor's done a fantastic job of coaching these guys up front. And then you go on the A &M side of it. They're not as big. They're very athletic. They can run. And they rely on different kinds of pressures and slants to give you negative plays. And if A &M gets you in third down, they are lethal, man. They've got a great third down package where they create a lot of pressures, There's a lot of overload-type simulated pressures that give people problems. So this is going to be the tale of, you know, like, how does this game go? If Miami can control the line of scrimmage and eliminate the negative plays and stay out of third-down long situations, I think they'll have success against A &M.

1:18:59If, on the other hand, you know, A &M can't block this front, and they affect the quarterback, although I think Marcel Reed is an outstanding player, Not only do they have to affect them, they have to keep them running, which you see them doing right here. And this guy can throw it. They've got good skill guys. So this is going to be a real challenge. I think this is going to be one of the best games of this early playoff season, man. I'm looking forward to this game because both of these teams, to me, are very, very good football teams and play different styles. And it'll be interesting to see which style, physical Miami team versus a very skilled, fast, aggressive A &M team.

1:19:42I know you have relationships with every coach around the country. Yesterday, we had the chance to catch up with Coach Cristobal and Coach Elko, and you talked about this being one of the best games here of obviously this early, but the entire year, it sounds like. The way they're talking about it, the excitement that their entire team feels, as opposed to nerves and anxiety, what we heard through the coaches and through the locker room is like excitement and honor for the opportunity almost from both sides. And anytime you have that, I think you've got teams that are going to show up in a big way.

1:20:09How much does the Kyle Field, you think, play an effect in this entire game, especially with that Texas A &M defense that can get after the quarterback, especially with how loud that place can be? You played in some monster games there. You've talked about it before, both whenever we were down there for game day and on this show. But them hosting a college football playoff game I think is good for college football, for people that maybe haven't watched college ball all year. You tune into this game and it's like, holy hell, this place is one of the greatest fan places in the world, maybe, Coach Saban.

1:20:39Is that the way to describe that? I don't think there's any question about it. You know, I did more complaining to the SEC office. It was more than complaining that I don't really want to say on this show about this is the noisiest place, plus they pipe in noise. Whoa! They pipe in noise. I mean, you can't hear yourself think when you're playing out there, and it is a huge advantage when they play at home, especially for their defense, especially getting off the spot. It makes it really difficult for the offensive line. But the one thing that I think Miami can get under center and they can run the ball, that might be helpful to be able to settle them down from a noise standpoint.

1:21:21But if you have to go on silent count in this game, which you probably will, especially if you're in the gun, it's going to be a huge advantage for A &M's defense. Sankey, I mean, come on. Have you been there? There's no way that's just human voices. They've got to be piping in. I think they take a lot of pride in that, obviously, down there as being a fan base that knows when to yell, knows how to yell, and they have yell leaders. It's not cheerleaders. We've got yell leaders. They are promoting it from the day they get on campus. We're heading to that midnight yell the night before, Coach. If you want to come with us, it's going to be late after, obviously, see the Oklahoma game day whenever we travel down there.

1:21:58They have a pep rally basically at midnight before every single home game that 50 ,000 people show up to. It's like you're talking about commitment and being on display for the world here opening college football playoff weekend. I think we got it right here, Coach. Legit, I think we got it right. I have a tremendous amount of respect, even when I was coaching and happened to go play there, the traditions that they have at Texas A &M and the spirit that they have at Texas A &M. It's unique and special, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for it. It almost reminds me of, you know, like coaching at the Naval Academy where they have this tremendous pride, and, you know, you see that in the Army-Navy game.

1:22:42But they have that at A &M too. It's something different. It's something special. They're loud, man. I can't wait to be on that sideline. I didn't even think about us not even being able to hear the whole podcast. Yeah, hear the experience. Yeah, I thought about it. What? I'd like to get your guys' opinion. Are you taking the crew there? Yeah. Or are you just going to? Crew. So you tell me after this game if they're piping in noise or not. I'll pay attention. Yeah, we will certainly be snooping it out. Okay, let's talk about the other two games happening on TNT and True TV. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Coach, you've talked about rat poison, you know, so many times with us.

1:23:16for these two particular games where we've had 21 days where basically everyone has said, hey, Ole Miss is going to beat the shit out of Tulane, and Oregon's going to beat the shit out of JMU. There is no way that these guys can win. If you're the coach of either one of those teams, how do you address that? Because obviously it's not just another game. It's the playoffs now. And are you assuming that these guys will be able to handle it, Pete Golding and Dan Lanning, pretty fine because they both come from your coaching tree? Well, you know, I just this morning watched the first Tulane Ole Miss game.

1:23:49And, you know, the game really was like 23 to 3 maybe late in the third quarter. And Tulane got stopped three times on fourth down and short. Fourth one, fourth and two, fourth and three, fourth and five at the five-yard line. So the game could have been a little closer than it was. I think the issue for Tulane is offensively they moved the ball against Ole Miss. But, man, they just could not stop Ole Miss' offense, and I think that's going to be a huge problem for them in this game. My approach to games like this was I used to tell players all the time is, look, you're supposed to be playing to your standard, to your ability.

1:24:32When I was in the NFL, they gave me a cutoff. I didn't know who you were playing, what the score was. So your challenge is to play your best all the time because that's what you're going to get evaluated on. You want to play in the league someday? They're going to look at this film. You're going to play relative to the guy you're playing against or you're going to play the way you're capable of? And that's the way we try to get guys to think about it so they control what they do and they control the standard that they play to and that's what I challenge them to do. And when you're in the playoffs like this, you want to gain momentum.

1:25:03and to gain momentum you got to earn momentum so you got to play well make good plays play together as a group and that's what i used to try to you know emphasize to our guys so that you know we would gain some momentum so you're going to have a tough game the next game you know that damn lanning is definitely selling everything about indiana having jmu kids and coming in there and winning and then this show yeah even coach saban there was a couple times last week where some people on this show were like you know what jam you wins games i like them maybe they go in there, especially with what happened last year with Oregon and the Rose Bowl at Ohio State.

1:25:36Some people on this show were kind of feeding rat poison towards JMU's side, almost, as opposed to Oregon's side in its entirety. We know Lanning will have the boys ready to go, but JMU could obviously do something special. In the history of the college football playoffs or college football postseason, large spreads have not boded well for the teams that are receiving the points. They haven't won, but they have covered, seemingly. league. So highest point spread in college football playoff history. Obviously 21 is the biggest against James Madison. In 2020, the semifinal, Alabama, you remember this coach, 19.5 point favorites against Notre Dame.

1:26:10They won pretty good too. Didn't cover. Won by 17. Yikes. Had people pissed off at your ass, Coach Saban. Then obviously Ole Miss two lanes in there. And then 2018, Alabama, they were favored by 15 against Oklahoma. You remember this one, coach. They won by two scores. Didn't cover though. Only won by 11. So had a lot of people pissed off so i think what the stats are saying massive spreads in the playoffs certainly the winners are going to win but that's a little bit too much of a projection is that because maybe things are a little bit tighter regardless because it's playoffs maybe or what do you think it is uh why sportsbooks maybe overshoot it and how did you feel as a coach who probably had to hear from some people even though you win by 17 couldn't win by 24 but like that in this entire thing what are your kind of thoughts on the projections of a game versus maybe the outcome especially whenever it's playoffs and who knows what it could be like well there's one thing i've learned a lot from you pat i gotta admit that over the last you know year and a half two football seasons and i learned something today i never paid attention to the spread but i would have enhanced my legacy a lot better if i would have tried to cover some of these spreads yes yep because you pissed us off we got saban playing yeah all right they're definitely gonna cover and then wins by 17 instead of 19 and a half, this fucking asshole.

1:27:28This guy ain't got it. This guy ain't got it anymore. Can't get the boys to rally. Can't even cover out there. But yes, it is something that is interesting. And obviously the expectation. Go ahead. One thing I hated, though, was when we were heavy favorites in a game because I think sometimes players think that game is going to be easy. And these games are never easy. I mean, I don't care who you're playing, when you're playing. Anybody's capable of beating anybody. But I do think the bigger spreads come because the big people can dominate the game. When the big people can dominate the game, which is going to be the issue for Tulane, especially their defense, it's going to be the issue for JMU, who relies on running the ball.

1:28:10And if they can't run the ball and use the quarterback run game, I don't think they can throw it well enough to generate enough offense. So when you have the big people dominating the game, I think that's when you get the big spread. that's just my opinion and i think that in most of these games other than these two games you're going to have big people that are pretty well matched and that's going to make for some great games well i think it goes back to the point of like there's weight classes in every physical sport like there is any any physical sport there's always weight classes because there's advantages to having more meat and everything like that whenever you think about a jmu roster versus an oregon roster i mean any big name but oregon more specifically with everything that we know about Oregon.

1:28:53It's like you would assume in the trenches there is going to be quite a weight differential that could potentially cause a problem in a sport that involves physicality between the two people. But JMU, low man, good leverage, technique, you know, sport, all that thing. He got a chance to lose to the ball, you know, being able to sacrifice for a teammate. There's all those things that can come together on any given Saturday, Thursday, Friday night. But here's my thing about this. I mean, look, would we allow the winner of the AAA Baseball League, the International League, whatever they call it, I don't even know the name of it, would you let them in the World Series playoffs?

1:29:35I don't think they do. No, I don't think they do. No, they don't, but I'm saying, but that's the equivalent of what we do when JMU gets in to the college football playoff and Notre Dame doesn't. I mean, I don't want to start any shit here, but it is. Coach, you're adding your name onto a long list of people now because the one Power 5 team getting in and taking one of the 12 spots, everybody was like, good for ball. Love it. That's good for ball. We like that. Yeah, give anybody a chance. Now, granted, if the one Power 5 team makes it into the college football playoff as one of the final 12 teams.

1:30:16That entire team is probably getting poached to somewhere else immediately after the season anyways, but we still thought it was good for ball. The fact that two of them made it in this year, I think has made everybody go, this is not what we signed up for. This is not what it was at all. So we assume change will come. Don't you think it feels like it's getting loud? Yeah, I hope so. I hope we learn each year from this how we can make it better. The ACC not having a champ. that could be in the top 50 ranked. It just really threw an entire wrench into it. But we needed it to happen, right? And we need these games to happen this weekend.

1:30:51Because if Tulane goes ahead and smacks Coach Golden in the mouth down there in Oxford, and then JMU travels to Autzen and smacks Lanning in the mouth, this entire conversation is null and void. But boy, if Ole Miss wins by 30 and Oregon wins by 30, it is going to get real loud and maybe change will happen afterwards. Just so everyone knows, moving forward, you know how we've talked a lot about the Notre Dame. If they're in the top 12, they're automatically in the playoffs moving forward because of the deal they signed. Also, if you're a Power 4 conference and you win your conference, you're in moving forward.

1:31:23Like Duke would have been, if this was next year, Duke would have been in. Is that with a 16 team, Brad, or 12? 12, I believe. Okay, interesting. So I'm fascinated to see how it all goes. I'm going to make it better. What's that? To me, if you're not in the top 15, I don't care what league you play in, you shouldn't be in the playoffs. JMU, whoever it is. If you're not in the top 15, group of five, it doesn't matter. Because you're taking somebody out of the playoffs that deserve to be in the playoffs. So you can think about it one way where we're letting somebody from the group of five in, but you're also taking somebody that should be in out.

1:32:04And that's not fair. That was my whole point about would we let the AAA baseball team who wins their league play for the World Series. Doesn't happen. It's a different league. These guys ought to have their own playoff. It's all about money. Just give them the money. Each school gets$4 million for playing in the first round. Is that right? I think so, yes. $4 million and put Notre Dame in. You want to see Notre Dame and Oregon play? Texas Ole Miss? Hell yeah. Oh, hell yeah. Hell yeah. Hell yeah, we do. Hell yeah, we do. Hey, let's move some more Toyotas and maybe we pay them ourselves, Coach. Let's maybe get the Predators back into the Stanley Cup Finals and maybe we do that.

1:32:46But I think, Coach, I think there's going to be a lot of change this offseason, just like there was last. Remember, it was the four highest-ranked champions were definitely the ones. Now it's just the top four-ranked teams are in there. I think they are trying to massage it and fix it. The ACC champion not being in certainly was not expected whenever they made these rules. So who knows how it goes. But once again, we'll find out on the field. We'll find out on the field what happens. But when it goes down, how it's probably going to go down, everybody's going to say, we're done with this. We told you.

1:33:15This is not what it is. Now, let's talk about teams that aren't playing this week but have to wait another week. Go ahead, Con, man. Yeah, Coach, the winner of tomorrow night will play against Indiana in the Rose Bowl. And Kurt Cignetti just won his second straight AP Coach of the Year. I assume that's because they got sick of giving you the award, and that's why he's the first one ever to win it back-to-back years. What do you think about Coach Cignetti and the Hoosiers, this kind of playoff run? Last year they played in the first round at Notre Dame, and they were booted. But this year feels different.

1:33:48Mendoza wins the Heisman. Cignetti has the boys going. Do you think they have the best shot, I think statistically, or sorry, the odds would say that they do, or them are Ohio State? So can you speak a little bit on Ryan Day and Coach Cignetti and what their week looks like this week as they just kind of watch from afar and get ready for their New Year's Six Day? Yeah, well, first of all, you know, Indiana, I said this before, they played in the Big Ten Championship game. They have a better team this year. Mendoza is, in my opinion, the best quarterback in the country, probably the first guy going to get picked in the draft at that position.

1:34:27And they're more physical on defense. I mean, it surprised me in the Ohio State game that they were as physical as they were on defense and able to stop Ohio State the way they did. So this is a really good football team. Now, you know, I think the world of Kurt Signetti, he's done an outstanding job there, not only in how he coaches the team, but how he's brought players to the team, how he's gotten guys to come to Indiana. I mean, that's pretty impressive in and of itself. I think Ryan Day is, you know, I think Ohio State is one of the best jobs in the country in terms of your ability to have success and the quality of the institution, the tradition.

1:35:08And I think Ryan Day has done a fantastic job, you know, in what he's done with that team. And I think these two teams may be, you know, right up there as two of the best with the best chance to win the championship. But, you know, you're going to have to play the games to see because I think there's probably seven teams, in my opinion, in this playoff that have good enough players to be able to win the championship. I think there's seven teams that can do that. So there's seven teams that could beat any of the other teams, in my opinion. So that's how I see it. I know that the odds don't really reflect that, but I think A &M could beat anybody.

1:35:46They're the seventh team right there, right? Plus 2 ,000. They could beat anybody. Yeah, I mean, we kind of mixed up the numbers there, but 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 6, 10, 8, just a matchup-wise championship odds here as we go. But A &M, we think, could beat anybody, right? We all believe that, just what the team did. I think Texas Tech could beat anybody. Definitely. Georgia could. Oregon could. I think Ole Miss, the way they play offense, could outscore you. So, I mean, but I think that's what makes a good tournament, you know, when you have lots of teams that you feel like have an opportunity to have a chance to win.

1:36:29And I think that's not disrespecting the other teams in there, Alabama or Oklahoma or Miami, because they could probably beat anybody too on a given day. So that's why we're going to play the games, and that's why it's going to be very exciting. More teams get a shot to shine. You know, that's a lot more fun and a lot more pride. A lot more fun, yeah. Starting with 12, counting down to one. That's how we crown a CFP national. Yeah, champion. And you're going to earn it, you know, with these teams in there. Whoever wins it, they're going to earn it. And, you know, I was never for going to 12 because I didn't want to minimize the importance of all games, which has come to fruition.

1:37:18But the excitement that it's created is worth it. And I think it gives a lot more players an opportunity to have a chance to win a championship. So I really like this. Now, I think it's more difficult, just like it was more difficult when there was four than when there was two. and two was more difficult when the AP poll decided who was the national champion. Now it's going to be more difficult with 12 people in there, 12 good teams. Well, we'll start it tomorrow. I can't wait to see you out there in Oklahoma. Go ahead and move some Toyotas today, okay, for the holiday season. Yeah, I got to change hats here.

1:37:50There's no doubt about that. What's the quarters that we got on? I got to go from hockey to selling cars to being on your show, going back to selling cars. and I'm not much of a salesman. I'll tell you what, retirement life is pretty good. It sounds like you can sell the shit out of a lot of things. What's the quarter zip there? Is that a Toyotathon quarter zip there? Is that your National Predators? That's Nick's kids, man. Nick's kids. Oh, shout out. I think we're doing a donation to Nick's kids because of the Alabama lady. That was fantastic. Fantastic. The way that Miss Terry is so happy. I didn't even have to.

1:38:29Today's our anniversary. 54-year anniversary. Yay! I didn't even have to buy or anything because you took care of the whole thing for me. Hey, well, I'm happy I could do that for you. You know, that's a lot of fun. We don't know how much longer that's going to last, you know, future years. It's getting very expensive, obviously, week in, week out. You know, whenever you're paying to be a part of a show, you know, that's certainly something. That is certainly an interesting dynamic. But, hey, what you give will come back in spades. I get a chance to be friends and sit alongside you. We appreciate the hell out of you, Coach.

1:38:58Tell Miss Tara we say congratulations. Well, hey, we appreciate you guys. I enjoy being on the show. Happy holidays to everybody if I don't see you guys. Love you, man. Hey, they'll see you. They're going to make sure you see you. We love you too, Coach, ladies and gentlemen, Nick Saban. Yeah, Coach. That's the national rankings, I guess, in the top left corner with the odds next to it. I think we could have left the rankings off there. But I appreciate that it's added piece of information on the graphic. Should have maybe done at the lower left corner there, but that's on me. I should have known what was going up before it went up there.

1:39:29I thought it was just an odds graphic, and then I started seeing random numbers on teams, I'm like, who's fucking drunk doing this? 2, 4, 9, 7, 8, 8, 9, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10, 11, 12, 13, 13. And to be clear, the graphic design boys, this is something that could come out of their department. Without any other real reasoning behind it. There it is. Boom. That would be, look at that. Okay, it makes sense now. Now we're doing a graphic. I don't know what the teams are ranked in the playoffs. Well, it doesn't matter. This is what their odds are. This is what we're looking at here on this particular graphic.

1:39:59but I will say to the graphic design boys, great work out of you boys. They become a really good factory over there of, of graphics. Every once in a while, there'll be something that comes out of there and you just go, you're an artist. I know you're an artist. How just from the conversation we had, how is that the way that went? Well, I was trying to, okay. Yep. You're an artist. You're an artist. You're an artist. Now you just wasted 35 minutes of your life. and there's no way we could show that in there. We don't have a lot of time, but I want to let you know I appreciate you taking the shot and I appreciate your artistry, but I still don't fully understand how humans speaking the same language could be that further away from what we were looking for.

1:40:41And then they hop right back in the saddle, fix it, which is why we respect and appreciate them. There are some artists with some mental toughness and an ability to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge their way through every morning. We appreciate you graphic design boys. Good work, boys. Good job, boys. You are dealing with artists, though. you know anytime you're dealing with artists they want to protect their art and it's like nobody's gonna see that are you gonna tweet it who's gonna are you gonna put who's gonna see it we can't use that though because it doesn't make any sense you see but if you lay out how we got to the you know if you read right to left though it's actually oh okay we'll put it up in china then yeah where they read from that side of the page to the other that makes sense all right i'll I'll change your own.

1:41:25They're good, though. They're very good. We also have breaking news here at the Thunderdome. There are some new champions. Oh, hell yeah. I did see something about that. Did you? Congratulations to partners. It's like JMU beating Oregon, basically. Oh, easy. It is. More like Tulane and Ole Miss, but JMU Oregon as well. Bruce Brown and Boston Connor are you, ball champions of the world. Wow. I mean, I can't even begin to tell you how good this thing feels. I do now know, AJ, I think you can speak to this, Jim Trestle holding that diamond football. That's exactly how this thing feels. And, Bruce, let me just say, 9-5 game, Bruce puts one in the cup, 11-5.

1:42:11That's how we get to 11. It was all Bruce. That's how we got there. Bone and Deebutt, I think we can all agree, just not deserving U-Ball champions. They did not represent the game well. and me and Bruce will do that. Unfortunately, I did go to the doctors. I have a lower body injury. I will not be able to play for quite some time. So you guys are not champions. We will not vacate the title. You're vacating the title. We will not do that. We will not do that. The doctor actually gave me a note saying this injury is so serious to the point where vacating the title would be disrespectful to you, Paul.

1:42:45So you guys just need to respect my injury and respect the fact that me and Bruce, we earned it. We earned it back-to-back games. We used strategy. We used teamwork. We used throwing the ball freaking down. What? After Pat kind of let Bruce know, like, hey, stop laying the ball and start dunking it. And that changed our entire team. Bruce, I mean, I don't know. Bruce, you got anything to say? I don't even know why this thing's up here. Who cares? You know, we got this one. Oh, man. That broke. It was a Christmas miracle, truly, that you guys won yesterday. and we're incredibly proud that you immediately did a photo shoot and you are celebrating.

1:43:24Bruce, I don't think anybody would have thought an insider for a sport could ever become champion of the sport, but that is certainly what you've done. Congratulations, Bruce. Yeah, thank you all so much. And Connor was selling himself short. He came alive on the defensive end, was the MVP on that end of the floor. And then, you know, you just got to stay focused while you're shooting and make those shots, and we got the job done. It was a proud night. It was a proud night. I can't believe it, honestly. I never thought I'd see the day. I saw your wording of your tweet certainly drew some reaction.

1:43:53Thank God my family, my partner, Connor, at Pat McAfee Show, and everybody behind the scenes who helped make this possible. A lot of people saying the way you described your relationship with Connor was something, but I do think it is closer than just friends at this point. You guys are champions together. That's you, Ball. Yeah, that's what friendship's all about. You know, some people haven't been in the locker room, don't understand that. They don't understand the dynamic between, say, a Josh Harden and a Jalen Brunson. You guys did celebrate differently whenever you guys – He is my partner, and I'm proud of that.

1:44:20We did celebrate differently. Immediately, we said, hey, look, pumped, really happy. Let's go nuts. Keep your thumb out of my asshole. Okay? I know you're a fan of the Knicks. I ain't doing it. Okay? I'm not doing that stuff. That's how Josh and Jalen have fun. That is their thing. That is their thing. Was Bruce arguing, though? Was he arguing against it and said he needed it? No, Bruce, to be clear, even though he is a diehard Knicks fan and loves Mr. Brunson and Josh Hart and their antics, if that's going to keep the Knicks winning more NBA Super Duper Cups. Sure. I think he does have respect for it.

1:44:52But he clearly said, no, we don't need that. That's not our team dynamic. No, it's not. That is not our team dynamic. That might be the Knicks team dynamic. It is not. Do you guys have an official team name? Honestly, no. We're just the champs. You know, I think you guys could just call us that going forward. Maybe we do kind of create some sort of, you know, Brown Boston maybe. I think that's kind of cool. And now you're not able to play? Not forever. but yeah look lower I gotta listen to the doctors what do you want me to do? Do you want me to play hurt? You guys want to win an injured U-ball championship?

1:45:24I mean talk about winning something that doesn't mean anything and to be honest you could say that this title run by me and Bruce was even more impressive since I was playing with a lower body injury not to mention what Bruce was going through you know he was coming off a hell of a night after the Knicks won the NBA Cup the guy was as hung over as you could possibly be. And Bruce doesn't know he's a righty or lefty still. Bingo. And he's the champion. So that's crazy. Well, every once in a while he'll do this one, which he made big. He made big shots like that. I've watched him make clutch. He made clutch shots with me when he played.

1:45:56Put up an air ball in the first shot of the last inning. And it was like, oh no, the boys are about to crumble. And then all of a sudden, Bruce steps up, does his dribble. Splash. And then I think he hit another one. That's downtown Bruce Brown. Downtown Bruce Brown. And then on the defensive end, they started putting an effort and uh in u-ball because the hoop is at eight feet you see in the little ball it takes weird bounces because they're not it's not around so like doing a layup tip off the backboard is very dangerous i mean it is very dangerous that thing can go there bruce brown for a long time i don't know if because he's a humble guy or didn't want to cause too much of a fuss but he was always like trying to lay it up and it was just like brick city brick city and i said bruce can you dunk Like, can you dunk or no?

1:46:44And then all of a sudden, the Boston Brown team just starts. Like, Bruce starts hanging on the rim. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn't know we had a little monster on lockdown there. But it really did. You guys started kicking ass on the boards. You made shots whenever you need them. It was a valiant championship run. Congratulations. Yeah, hey, just happy to be here. And the bone and butts, that was a good championship run. I think they defended three full days. They had three full days of defenses, which I think is very impressive. and certainly the second longest run in the history of U-Ball.

1:47:13Yeah, a lot of people are actually comparing it to the Cena era, and that's not a good thing because they were the worst champions in this office that we've ever had, and how it ended reminded us a lot about how Cena ended the other day. Jeez. Yeah, it did seem like they were content, and they did tap out. Yeah, you guys were kind of like Roman. Tired. I mean, obviously theirs was like Cena, and maybe ours will just be like Gunther, you know? Stop crying. Sorry, I can't play. You know, it is what it is. Hopefully I can get back on that court soon. Hopefully. Yeah, and you know what? Boston Brown, Brown Boston, maybe we're just Team BB, and just like you ball, the team name's up to you.

1:47:50Big ballers, you know, big balls. Whatever you want to call our team is what it could be. All right. Well, congrats, champs. Hey, thanks, man. It's great to hear, before you even had a chance, you've decided you're not fighting champions. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is not on me, brother. This is how my body's responded. Look, do you want me to blow my achilles? You want me to blow a knee? You want me to blow a hip? It's a risk we're willing to take. Yeah, look. That's your. That's up to you. It's up to me with my injuries. Call it me, ball bitch. See, it's already a part of the problem. Me and Foxy need to get that title ball back as soon as possible.

1:48:27As soon as I am physically able. As soon as the doctors. As soon as the trainers clear me. I'm going to be back on that field with a emotion. Well, you also need some rehab days, I guess, to get back into the swing of things. Well, it's going to be exactly one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three, four-on-four, five-on-five. This is Zion Williamson type return, huh? Back to two-on-two. Let's play ball. Yeah, I think he's not playing. I don't know. Speaking of being out, Joe Burrow talked about being out of Cincinnati. Interesting call response here from a press conference for Joey Burrow, who said he wasn't having fun, then he looked disinterested, and now he's being asked about the future.

1:49:01Here's his response. Is there ever – is there any world in your mind where you're not the quarterback of the Bengals next year? I can't see that, no. Have you ever thought about the possibility of not being the quarterback here during your career or typing? You think about a lot of things. Who has the fucking typewriter in there? We need to get that out of there. Just burrow under the table. It's unbelievable. Do you have some soft-touch keys or something? Do they have them? Yeah, I don't. Maybe just. Is it? You don't have to type like that. Well, I like the fact that some of these people's fingers say, this is about me and they kind of go for it but also there's really nothing else they could do as they're trying to be stenographers and get the right answer there what did you hear from joe burrow he said i couldn't imagine that whenever they first asked him about not being on the bangles he could imagine and then they said hey have you thought about it he's like yeah you think about a lot of things what did you take from that i thought that was the most convincing i'm gonna be a bangle answer i've heard in some time but there's certainly people that like he said he thought about it though not being there i think your natural human instinct is to maybe visit else other places at some times.

1:50:05Yeah, of course. I would imagine at some point you've envisioned what it would look like if you were somewhere else. But normally you'd probably think, hey, what if the Bengals want me out of here and I've got to go play somewhere else? What does that look like? What does it feel like? But no, what I took from that is Joe will be back in Cincinnati next year. Did you hear that you cannot wipe or shoot your boogers in celebration? Amon Ross, St. Brown, I guess he is the booger trailblazer for the Detroit Lions, even though he's not the only one that's doing it. I guess the NFL officials told the Detroit Lions wide receiver coach to tell Amal Ross St.

1:50:39Brown on the sideline, enough with the mining for gold. What happened to your booger first down celebration? You guys stopped doing it. Why is that? Did you see me do it? I saw you do it. I saw like two other guys do it. Like what happened? What happened, bro? We do it the first drive. Our receiver coach comes after the first drive. Hey, man, ref said you guys can't do that no more. I'm like, what the fuck? Really? You can't dig in your nose and flick it? That's crazy. Why is that bad? I want to know. NFL, why can't I dig in my nose and flick it? Like, there's no way. What is bad about that? Is that disrespectful?

1:51:14Why do you want it? No. But, you know, they're... Is that derogatory? They're anti-fung. I don't know, man. It's not like you're flicking an actual booger on somebody. Like a moat. That was a great. Flicking, but like... Yeah. Not like, bro, I want to do that all game so bad, bro. Yeah, no, that was good. I'm sick. That's all he wanted to do. It was a fun game. It was a good time, but I wasn't allowed to throw boogers, yo. So I'm not happy about it. Hey, here we go. How you doing? Is it a weapon? Is he shooting a weapon? Is that what they're saying? So I looked into this a little bit. You know, the C.D.

1:51:45Lamb, this thing got banned and outlawed. I thought, and I was misunderstanding, I guess, I thought it was because of cocaine references, you know, where it's like, hey, you can't be signifying drugs or stuff like that. I guess actually, yeah, it's gang related. Yeah, with Rico Chargers, with Young Thug and Gunna down there in Atlanta. So you can't be throwing up gang-sized slime. Yeah, you can't be doing the entire thing, I guess, is what the NFL came out and said. It references gang, and they wrote that in the laws. So I thought the booger thing was like, well, they're talking about booger sugar, brother.

1:52:16You can't be doing that. The refs are saying you can't be doing it. Turns out that's not your rule. The rule is the gang thing is why CD can't do it. So I guess it's just unsportsmanlike is what they're going with, and they can call that on anything. and I don't know, maybe the guy can't breathe and he's just trying to get in there and clear the entire thing out. Or maybe he's just trying to be Booger King. And it might be the Booger Gang. We're not 100 % sure. So we'll have to get more information on why the refs are looking for it. This past week, though, he had a big-time catch. Sideline official was looking at his face.

1:52:45Don't pick your fucking nose. All right, we're off tomorrow. We'll be live game day tomorrow night for College Football Playoffs. See you then. Take me down, dude. He should pick his ass. Yeah, you got to throw your turds. They got to throw turds there. Pick his ass and smell it. Yes. Maybe both of them. Maybe both of them and then. I like that. I don't know. But then that would be a poop gun and a booger gun. You're right. You can't do the guns. So I'm not 100 % sure how he gets around it. But I think maybe this is what the Section 3 Unsportsmanlike Conduct Article 1 Prohibited Acts reads. Okay.

1:53:19Nice. there shall be no unsportsmanlike conduct this applies to any act which is contrary to the general understood principles of sportsmanship such acts specifically include among others okay throwing a punch or a forearm or kicking an opponent even though no contact is made so even if you say, I'm going to do this. If you get in the way, I'm going to kick you. They consider him already in the way. And you're already kicking him. Okay? You can't do that. B, use an abusive, threatening, or insulting language or gestures to opponents, teammates, officials, or representatives of the league. I don't know.

1:54:01Picking your own booger, pointing into space. Flicking on the other team. I don't think he's flicked it on the other team yet, though. Has he done that and rubbed it like we've seen others? Hypothetically. That would be a problem, yeah. If he went boom, boom, bang, pow. Or he shot it at a guy or he went and tried to rub it on somebody. I get that. Okay, but I don't think we've found it yet. I don't think we found it in here in Article A or B here. How about C of Section 3, Article 1 of the Unsportsmanlike Conduct? Using baiting or taunting acts or words that may, E-N-G-E-N-D-E-R, ill will between teams?

1:54:41In gender, ill will? Yeah. Okay, whoever's writing this needs to stop being an asshole. Okay, just use words that we all understand because maybe that's engendering ill will, I guess. You can see that. I can see that. Like, don't fucking pick your boogers at me. Don't do that. Engender is to cause or give rise to a feeling, situation, or condition. So using baiting or taunting acts or words that may engender ill will between teams. I don't know. I see a guy picking his boogs over there. I don't think I'm getting any ill will. I'm like, bud, everybody can see you. Yeah, I think he's the way everybody can see you.

1:55:16Yeah, really? Yeah, but what if you're with your kid watching the game? You're trying to get your kid to stop picking their nose, and all of a sudden, dad, see? Everybody's picking their nose. See, I'm not reading where that is hurting parenting. I haven't seen this anywhere. D, violent gesture, which shall include but not be limited to, okay? Because they might come up with other ideas. A throat slash, simulating firing or brandishing a weapon. Remember the kid? using a nose wipe gesture using a nose wipe gesture or an act that is sexually suggestive so any amount of pumps if it looks like you're pounding something it's certainly going to be a problem picking your butt potentially depending upon what you're into yeah because what if somebody starts whipping themselves and we don't know because maybe the ref's like I know what you that was, you got turned on that's section 3 article 1 D, you know.

1:56:11That guy over there got a boner. Yeah. Dama Matrix, boom! Could you imagine somebody gets a first down, wraps one of those chokers around the mouth. Ball gag. And the ref's like, why do you know that? Teammate starts walking him like a caller. Oh, please. Someone's got to do that. Golden shower. Shouldn't be illegal. That would be part of it. Cleveland steamer. I think if you were to do that by yourself as a celebration, it would just look like you were dumping. I don't think anybody would really know you were potentially dumping on somebody else, which I guess it would be engendering ill will, but I don't know if it would be a sexually aggressive thing just by the sight.

1:56:51Unless you laid somebody down. You would have to. What if they fall in Carely? You would have to. What if they say, I'm good with it? Yeah, I'm reporting. I'm reporting to the referee. He gets up on me, and then here we go. If you're the ref, do you have to go to all 53 on the other team and ask them if they were turned on by the move? Time out Time out It's your dick hard It's your dick hard It's your dick hard Cup check You know how We used to line up Before soccer games And they would check our Shin pads Exactly Just jump on Check the side Alright So we don't know Submit this Clip this and submit this By the way The only thing we've really got Is the nose wipe gesture Yeah Which is how it's written In the rules is nose wipe gesture.

1:57:40Unnecessary physical contact with a game official under no circumstances. A player allowed to shove, push, or strike an official in an offensive disrespect for or unsportsmanlike manner. Okay, so that is the entire rule right there. Because I was asked, what's the deal with the booger, man? Who cares? If somebody wants to do that, let them do it. You know, it's not gang affiliated. Unless, like you said, there is like a big upstart booger gang in Detroit who's going around wiping boogers on the back of seats at the Lions Stadium. It's a Pistons. Hey, Miles did it. Exactly. I mean, you could see Tim Robinson in Detroit doing that exact thing.

1:58:12Wiping boogers everywhere. Everybody in the 3-1-3, get your boogers on your fingers. You're going to wipe on me. Yeah, I mean, there's a chance. All right, let's get to a break. On the other side, we'll make our picks, and we'll wrap up all the very, very serious sports stories. Like that one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If we don't talk about it, who will? We just read the entire. Yeah. All the bylaws. Nose wipe, I think, is where they got you, Amon, Ra. Nose wipe. We read them all. Nothing there that says you can't throw turds, so they should try it. I guess you could catch them. Yep. Just launch it. Not at somebody, though.

1:58:49You can't throw it at another player. No, but remember, that would be dropping a bomb, and right here it clearly says any violent gesture, which shall include but not be limited to. So if the ref on site picks up the fact that you're catching a turd and throwing a bomb. Poop is a weapon. Flag potentially coming. Plus you might put a grenade. Don't throw it like a grenade. Throw it like your baseball pitch so it doesn't look like you're throwing a grenade. That's even worse. There it is. Bam. But you got to. You got to hold it like that. This is unstable in my hand. It's sliding through my fingers.

1:59:23You got to show that. It's sticky. You got to bring it up to your helmet. Like gorillas. You ever seen a gorilla throw poop? Yeah. Smell it. Yeah. Smell it. I saw a gorilla. Yeah. Shart? Yeah. On the window. I'm thinking, was that AI? I think that was AI because that was explosive. I don't know. What are they feeding that thing? It's explosive. What are they feeding that thing? Are we the only three to see that? Because that was bananas. Did you see it? I saw it. I mean, yeah. I saw it. It might be real. I know for a fact it's AI, but it might be real. Okay. I thought so. I don't know. This video is not real.

1:59:55It is AI generated. Son of a bitch. Community notes will get you. I haven't seen it. Oh, you have. You do it every night in your bathroom, pal. I'll tell you what. I have had a couple explosive situations in the bathroom. And as soon as I see his video, I go, silverback, definitely. Possible. This is certainly possible. This silverback gorilla, I think. I don't know all the different types of gorillas, but I believe it's silverback. The biggest, baddest, loudest. The one you don't want to kind of meet. You guys are questioning if that's real or not. How would you know? How would you know? I'm sending it to you, AJ.

2:00:33AJ, I'm sending it to you. When I heard you guys describe it, I knew it had to be fair. No, it was real. In the moment, I said I could see it. I thought it was real. I could see it. Run it. Run it. Run it. Run it. Run it. Look, this could definitely happen. You never know. She's getting sassy with him. Boom. Boom. You never know. You can't watch that once. Look at that spray pattern. Look at the science. Look at the science. It feels like that would be how it would go. And also, he's about sick of it. I've had a couple moments with orangutans. You never know. So that's not real. Okay, good. Go see the Silverbacks at the zoo.

2:01:11That's not going to happen to you.

2:01:20Football! It's happening in a huge way tonight and throughout the entire weekend. That's AJ Huck. The Talks at Tables here at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer. Done. Cowboys AP Tone is here. And Tone, I think we've got to make our picks, don't you think? It feels right to me. Because we're off tomorrow, we will not only be selecting this evening's game, but also this weekend's NFL matchups. And then for college, obviously, we're going to be on the call. So don't have to make a pick, right? Yeah, no, can't. No, can't. Not allowed to. That's kind of the thing. We can. Bugle Boys definitely can.

2:01:51No, but even you guys should. Technically, we can't either. That would not be – we've got to be right down the center with this one. So, Dez, Coach Saban, the guest picker, who – Boz is going to be tomorrow. Hell yeah, Boz. Let's go. Can't wait to see him. I assume he's still incredibly jacked. He's sheriff now. And then Johnny Manziel will be the guest picker for Saturday down there at College Station. Now, I've seen him thrown up to you recently with an actress. and I also saw him with Vandy a lot this year. I thought he was a Vandy fan. But I think he's a Diego Pavia fan. I think he's obviously a Texas A &M legend.

2:02:30So I think obviously any time you get Johnny Manziel at College Station, you're going to go ahead and do that. Johnny Manziel needs to be a part of the biggest moment in the history of Kyle Field because he has a couple of them. He has a couple of them already. So I'll be excited to see him, be excited to see Boz. But I certainly won't be able to pick that Texas A &M-Miami game now that I'm thinking about it. No, you won't. Well, Herbie should be able to pick it there, right? Because he's not on call. Yeah, you guys flip. You should, yeah. So I'll make the pick tomorrow, and I guess I don't want to.

2:02:57And he can't. And then you will. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Wow. That would be cool for you to say. I don't think you should let anyone know until it happens. Yeah, because there's no way anybody at game day knows that I'm calling the game. Bingo. Actually. No chance. Actually, they will not know that. It will also be awesome if you close the show by just doing like a big promo and be like, With that said, I'm going to go call this thing. I can't pick this thing because I got to go call it. Hurry! But it's in the stadium. Oh, yeah. I think we're in the stadium somewhere. So, you know, both games, actually.

2:03:29Yeah. In the stadium. So you kind of get out of having to really do any of the... The song, the dance, the... You don't have to do all the... Unless it's over the stadium, Pierre. Which? I don't want to give it away because I don't know if it's been set in stone yet. Saturday morning, college game day, we could potentially have the biggest field goal kick in the history. That's all I'm going to say. Kicking as easy as the contest, obviously, each week. This year has been spectacular. You know, it has been fun to kind of do. Very expensive. Obviously, a lot of money going out of this particular business into other people's pockets, including charity, which has been a very fun part of all this, finding different charities in different locations around campuses and all that stuff.

2:04:10Nick's Kids was the one selected by the lady from the SEC Championship Remember, she was Alabama fan. Husband was Georgia fan. Husband Georgia fan gets two kicks. He misses, but we still donate$250 ,000 to wife's charity of choice as opposed to his charity of choice. She picked Nick's kids and got a photo with Miss Terry and Coach Saban. I mean, it was a – Merry Christmas. You know, yeah, Kicking is Easy contest has created some magical moments, obviously, in Alabama this past. I couldn't even tell you the Penn State one was insane. Yeah, Vandy. Vandy was insane. It would be hard to just pick Georgia whenever Hot Rod comes.

2:04:41I mean, there's a lot of really cool moments that have happened. I think this one at Texas A &M on Saturday will be, if everything gets, everything has to get, because we're going to the stadium. So that would mean. I mean, the kick is in the stadium? Yeah, I think there's a lot of people that would have to approve it, but I think there's a chance that we have 100 ,000. Oh, my God. Jeez. Yeah. Not a chance. I think there's 100 ,000 plus. Yeah, I think there's a chance that that's going to happen. Now, Coach Elko and Texas A &M folks have been very, yep, we are in. but I don't know the actual logistics of what is happening.

2:05:17So I don't want to guarantee that it's taking place, but without saying anything, there's a chance Saturday morning, the kick is happening in front of a hundred thousand plus. And there's no chance that kid is going to make that. And it might be worth, it might be worth. Buku bucks. A big one. Yeah. Just depending on how the vibe is. And there's a chance that this will be going to, and the thing will be. Yeah. Pressure cooker. Oh my God. hundred some thousand people chanting some kid's name imagine that just yeah maybe you'll be so tired or she will be so tired or maybe they'll be so adrenaline fueled that it'll help them instead of hurt them or maybe that thing really gets to them and they have a moment of oh no this is not that fun to be a kicker how did i sign up and win this lottery to do this one of 300 people but there's a chance saturday morning's gonna be awesome no kick tomorrow night before the game because of logistics and everything but saturday morning allegedly there's a chance aj that it is going to be the uh the biggest one possible and that would be sick and once again i'm speaking for our experience the texas a &m hospitality has been outrageous for us we just got invited into the gym okay uh in an interesting phrase text message.

2:06:35We got invited to be able to use their facilities. Hey, we're not getting in until late or whatever on Friday. It's alright. We'll have somebody come here and open if you guys need anything. Early in the morning if you need anything, we'll have somebody come open it for you. It's like they have been very, and I would say this, Miami earlier in the year, probably the most hospitable to us. So it's like, we are very lucky that this game is happening with how everybody's been treating us. Now it's our job to hopefully do it some justice on ESPN too, boys. That's right. Do our best. what's Coach Saban about?

2:07:05Hey, you're all going to be there? I'll be interested to know after the game. You think that's real? The noise in there? I love that he said that. Made some noise. What's that? Since saying it? Well, that one, but more the G5 one. Yeah, and you know, elitist culture, elitist mindset. Ty Schmidt's been heavily in the elitist conversation for a while with this entire group of five thing. There's a chance to prove it on the field. Yeah, we're not saying it's their fault. It's not JMU's fault. it's not Tulane's fault. They just played the games. The committee put them in. Fox put out what we were talking about yesterday with five stars and shit, four stars.

2:07:40A lot of it, obviously, production on the field got to be good, but body type, speed, that's all like projections on what players could be. So normally the five-star players are all the big, fast guys, the unusually big, fast human beings, the bodies that are built differently than everybody else, normally the five-star, built on projections of what they could be. Four-star, same thing, just whatever. three-star same thing and then Fox put out the comparison of the roster and it's like yeah here's kind of how it lays out there's six of them on Oregon uh zero 52 four-star players there's three at JMU and then 51 others is like two-star I guess or uh anything other than that no star no star for Oregon so they still got the walk-ons and the lower recruited guys but it's like this is what Saban's talking about when he talks about a weight advantage because these stars I'm not saying this is how good of a player is I'm not saying this is guaranteed to make somebody be great because obviously i think i was a zero star before i went and hit a kick uh 65 yard field goal in miami and all of a sudden i was the number one guy in the country and nobody had even seen me before that weekend so i don't believe in all this shit but the stars normally are body type projections is what they are so whenever you're talking about size and shit they can be utilized not skill not heart not the size of a dog or the fight of the dog all that type of shit i'm just telling you from pure body type reasons this is why coach shaban and others are like this game involves physicality and whenever one side is clearly bigger stronger faster than the other in football they're probably going to win that game especially if it's that big of a difference that's why in the nfl you see a lot of same it's a lot of parody about it because whatever it is but whenever you have different weight classes fighting normally it bodes well for the bigger stronger faster team but jm you don't care about that aj and they can change the entire conversation this weekend.

2:09:26So can Tulane. They can literally change everything that's being said right now. It can get settled on the field. But, if it ends up going the way that all the people Coach Saban and basically everybody else has been a part of this conversation goes, it's going to be so fucking... There's not even going to be a conversation about Alabama-Oklahama. Nope. There won't even be a conversation about Miami-Texas saying, I'm going to the next round. The entire conversation will be, Notre Dame didn't get in, and these other teams didn't get in, and what happened on the field is exactly what everybody thought was going to happen.

2:09:54And once Once again, Tulane and JMU, not their fault. No, not fair for them either. They shouldn't be just getting murdered through this entire thing by everybody. They should be celebrating a championship win and being one of the top five ranked conference champions. But in the reality of the entire thing, they took Notre Dame's spot. One of them did, if not both of them did. So it's going to be viewed as such after the games. And once again, they can go out there and win this. They can. They can be lizard-licking all over True TV. They can change the future of the college football playoffs. If both these teams win, then they're like, okay, I think we figured it out, guys.

2:10:29We don't need to make any tweaks. Even if it's close. Good game comes down towards the end. I think that's all anybody's going to be watching for. But as soon as it – if not as soon, sorry, then I am falling into the same category as everybody else that's just assuming it's going to – which I lean towards. I do think that Oregon and, you know, Ole Miss – we'll see how they handle it all. Yeah. A lot of drama. A lot of drama. Most drama. before what happened in, obviously, Ann Arbor. But, like, that's not into the – That can also build them up, too, though. That can also give you the old bunker mentality, I feel like, for Ole Miss.

2:11:04Yeah, but the entire offensive staff are LSU Tiger coaches. So, bunker – That is tough. That does make it a little tougher. So, what bunker are, you know – And a lot of the guys who are on Ole Miss currently, like, are those – a lot of those guys will probably transfer to LSU as well. So, it is a fascinating thing. But, on that note, could rally them and say, like, hey, this is our one last chance to kind of do this as this team with this. So to your point, we never know how something could go, but there are certainly outcomes that are very polar different. And fun fact between those two games, seven coordinators in those two games will be on different teams next year.

2:11:41The only coordinator staying is Golding, who got hired as the head coach at Ole Miss. Yeah, both teams still dealing with that whole coach and people leaving and stuff like that. But, I mean, also when you go to those four biggest spreads, We talked about how like, oh, well, the two other biggest spreads, you know, those two teams covered. Well, it's also when there's only four teams. So, sure, the two other big spreads with, you know, where is it? Notre Dame-Bama, the 2020 semifinal. Yes, you know, Notre Dame, they covered. They're the fourth-ranked team in the country. And same with Oklahoma.

2:12:14Like, this is a much different situation. Like, there's a huge chance these teams get fucked. and then we just have to not even watch, but it also, like you mentioned, it takes away from these other games. That also might be blowouts. Like Oklahoma might blow. Last year. Yeah. Like that could easily happen. Like, oh, exactly. Ohio State murdered Oregon in the Rose Bowl. In the one seed. In the second round. Yeah, as the one seed. Like blowouts happen, but in the first round, that's when hopefully we could get rid of them instead. Those were the biggest spreads in college football playoff history.

2:12:48The biggest upsets, the biggest wins in college football playoff history, TCU was plus eight over Michigan in 2022. Ohio State plus seven and a half over Bama in 14. And Ohio State plus seven over Clemson in 2020. Ohio State, Ohio State. Yeah, and how did TCU do in the national championship after that? They got beat by 60. Close one to Georgia. Was it raining in Los Angeles that day? Yes, it was. The sofa? Yeah. That was crazy. People flitting on the concourse. Yes, cracking their skull open. Oh, yeah. Oh, that kind of thing. Have we got any? Oh, yeah. We move along. We move along. We're thankful that we're on the sideline.

2:13:22I've got no updates, though. But we need to keep our head on a swivel down there. Big time. Especially if Spank's running around. Yeah. I hope. Me too. We've decided we're going to fight you this year. If you're listening. Does he know that he is Spank, that you're talking about him? I found friends of his to make sure they relay messages to him. like hey let him know that like there's a significant investment on us being allowed to stand where we are so if he needs to move two feet like he needs to do that and uh we're about sick of him prancing around us giving us nasty looks and bumping into us and taking pictures of us and doing all this thing it's like just go do your job two feet to the left of us buddy we know you need this exact moment right here i'm sick of it i hate that guy oh yeah we'll see oh we'll see you it's true the ref if we're too close the refs politely ask us to back up that has happened before and we have but the refs also kind of understand like hey this is a part of the media package of the college football playoff like the thing that is kind of doing this entire thing don't want to big dog you but i'm in the actual meetings wherever this is all being talked about you can move your fucking ass two feet to the left here buddy okay and i think there's other people that do your job i'm not sure this one there is any so yeah i'm excited for that i am excited me too me too i forget it just now thinking about i'm like yes spank get him around here this guy's bigger than the game this guy's bigger than the college football playoff this guy right here that's unbelievable i had no idea that was even possible for somebody that dresses like that not to mention you know texas a &m goes down early and maybe spank runs his mouth to the wrong state trooper.

2:15:06That state trooper. We got to see him. Yeah. Was he banned? Banned. We don't know if he got banned. That day he was. That game he was, but I don't know if he's banned. They ended up winning, so I'm assuming he still hasn't paid for a beer in College Station. Let's make sure we find him so we take a picture with him. I think that guy got reassigned if I'm not mistaken. To the other side? To the old office. What do you mean? You ain't fucking working these games anymore, pal. I'm pretty sure he got reassigned. That was unbelievable to see that. I was like, is this real life? The Texas A &M said a state trooper made contact with South Carolina players during Saturday's game has been relieved of his game day duties.

2:15:44What? That's bull. What did this guy do? Save the team. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Hey, get going, motherfucker. And who won that game? Texas A &M. What was the score after that? Huge comeback. 31-3, I think. And I'm relieved of my duties. Oh, okay. Okay, I thought we wanted it every game earlier in the game. Y 'all like to lose, huh? Okay. This ain't my Aggies. I don't want to work here. I'm more of a tech guy anyway. Cody Campbell, I'm going to call him right now. Cody Campbell with like six of me around here. Boom. What are you doing? Jesus, get back on the fucking field. Unreal. You got both of them.

2:16:26He did. But you, specifically, get the fuck back on the field. Bitch. I love it. He's like, it's my tunnel. Protect him. Why are you? Number eight sucks. I would like to hear his explanation whenever he sits down and they go, all right, what's your side of it? As you can see, I was protecting that tunnel. That is where our Aggies come from. So I just wanted them to know that he can't be going down there. It feels like they were already coming back, though. They weren't really going. Yeah, but if they wanted to do it again, I had to let them know that that ain't the right move. But I don't think it was really just a situation with the – You don't care about that tunnel?

2:17:06See, that's why I was at that tunnel. Well, it seems like you went out of your way to hit them, and then you kind of made us all look like assholes whenever you turned and pointed. It was them. I'm the asshole because I want the Aggies tunnel to be protected. Fine. You want to hear me say it? We were down four touchdowns. I was fucking pissed. Okay? So I fucking gave them both the shoulder to chew on, and then that one sumbitch had the gall to look back at me. He said, fuck you. Get going. And we won. You should be thanking me. There's a home game this weekend. Y 'all in here. They're talking about wiping boogers on the side of the wall.

2:17:37All right, let's make some picks tonight. Rams, Seahawks. Seahawks favored by a point and a half on DraftKings. 62 % of the bets are in Puka Nakua. Hey, Puka, need a big one, buddy. Yep. Need a big one. You need to have a big game. This is part of becoming a superstar in the league and what it's all about, especially if you're going to do stuff. It's going to be very loud if you don't perform on the field, which you always do. We can't wait to watch. Pukanuku and Matthew Stafford, Sean McVay, and the boys travel up to Seattle for an NFC West heavyweight fight. Who's going to win the division? Who has a home playoff game?

2:18:12Or maybe a bye in home playoff throughout the entirety of the playoffs. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? No injuries, basically, other than Devontae. Okay, well, first off, I like these Seahawks uniforms. Do we have a name for these? These are their version of the NFL rivalries. I believe they're the last team to wear them this year. It was the AFC East and NFC West. That's what those are. Mike McCarthy took the Seattle Seahawks strictly because of Schneider. I know. I'm only three whenever I pick with my heart, but damn, Schneider's got my heart pretty good. I'm taking the Seahawks up there.

2:18:47He would be 9-5 if he was making selections. Last week he took another L, so he's 9-5, still very much a winner. That is still a very good odds, still very good picking. He's on the Seahawks, though, because of Schneider. That is basically all it was. So it's kind of tough whenever he's that biased, knowing that whenever he watched film for this game, it was with the mindset of wanting to pick Schneider Seahawks. So, AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? Well, when I heard Coach Mike say that, you know, I'm going with John Snyder and the Seahawks, I knew instantly what my pick was going to be.

2:19:19I was leaning heavily towards the Seahawks, and that just cemented my decision to take John Snyder and the Seattle Seahawks. And, I mean, think about it, though. The Seattle Seahawks defense, They bottled up Phil Rivers last week. That is not something that everybody can do. So I think they're going to continue with that momentum. Sam Darnold has a big game. I don't know why you're shaking your head. Give me the Seahawks. No, I'm not. Yes. I'm saying yes to what you're saying. Because you're right. Everybody was just killing the Seattle Seahawks because it was a close game against Phil Rivers and the Colts.

2:19:49Might we remind you that the Indianapolis Colts, whenever they had a quarterback that was operating, were the number one team in the NFL. This is the best offense in the entire league. Now, defense has a lot of injuries. So Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks not being able to move a lot on our defense. Lou Anarumo obviously gets a lot of credit for that. The defense flew around. So you can certainly judge that. But, like, Seahawks' defense is still very good. I mean, Jonathan Taylor was an MVP candidate just three weeks ago. So whenever you talk about beating the Colts in the way that they did and everybody holding that against the Seattle Seahawks, I think that was very disrespectful to the Indianapolis Colts.

2:20:22I think that was very disrespectful to the Seattle Seahawks. And on that note, give me the Los Angeles Rams plus one and a half going into Seattle. I like the Rams, and I think, I might not be mistaken, but I think Puka's going to have a huge game. I think Puka knows he has to. Like, I think Puka's going to have a huge game. Just any time there's a lot of this, most dogs understand what they have to do. We all believe that Puka's a dog, right? For sure. We all believe that is. So I think Puka's going to have an even bigger game, not that he doesn't every single week. I think Matthew Stafford's going to do well.

2:20:56I think the wind is going to even only spotlight what Puka is going to be able to do anymore. You're going to have a lot of jet sweeps. You're going to have a lot of short throws to him, try to get him the ball early. He's going to run very angry. I think he has a good game strictly because he has to, because if he doesn't, it's going to be very loud. And I think McVay gets the job. Nope. Give me the Seahawks. I like the Seahawks. What happened? I don't know. In my brain, I just saw, in my head, I just literally saw and heard the Seahawks faithful, like the fans. And it was like, that's a massive difference, actually.

2:21:24And the 50-mile-an-hour wins, 40-mile-an-hour wins, I think that bodes well for the home team normally, especially if they know the place. And I think, yeah, I like the Seahawks, I think, too. Wow. No Devontae. Like, we're talking Mike McDonald being a defensive mastermind. Like, having to cover 2-1 sucks. But now it's just Puka. It's like, okay, let's take him out of the game completely, and then let's see if these three tight ends, Tutu Atwell and Kyron Williams, can beat us. With Devontae, I'm with you. You wonder how all those touchdowns. How many goal-to-go touchdowns does Devontae have? Like 10 this year?

2:22:03That changes their offense just a little bit. Who knows if it's enough, but a little bit. 12. 12 goal-to-go touchdowns. Yeah, and we talked about it a bunch in the first hour, and I know Harrison Mevis has been good this year, but Jason Myers is arguably the best kicker in the NFL right now, and if you think it's going to be a close game, side with the guy who has been bulletproof. The last time we talked up Jason Myers, though. True. He missed a kick. Tonight he might miss a kick because of how windy it is going to be. Did you say 50-mile-an-hour gust up there? Yeah, they're saying 40-50. That's going to be wild.

2:22:37I mean, punting. I know I've played a game in Chicago where I'm on punt team and the wind was so serious, the snap got blown like 10 yards away from our punter. It's crazy it can happen. The punting is the worst. In McCarthy, I don't know if you heard us talk to him in the first hour he said something that was so empathetic of his punters that i was like fuck man i never even thought of a coach thinking of that coach mccarthy was like if it's super windy and it started dying you know you're not worried to maybe take a shot here because the worst thing that could happen is just long interception and it's basically just an arm point you kind of take it out of the punter's hands anyways you don't have to worry about the wind and i was like yes i would have loved to hear that from like somebody going into a game like in cleveland yeah we had a game in cleveland it was so cold so windy i mean it was ass and i did terribly and i thought i was built for that like born in pittsburgh west virginia like i'm ready for this and just mentally and physically just wasn't able to really do well it would have been great if andrew just throws four picks that game you know just four massive 55 yard picks he did it for me i didn't do it for me on purpose i don't think but he said it did cross his mind like ah worst thing that happens here is 50 yard gain if an interception happens Drake Bay just did it last week.

2:23:47It's like in these super windy games, punting is hard. I didn't even mention the snap. That's 15 yards where that thing has to happen. That's the scary thing. When it's that windy, that snap is not easy. That's for sure. That's a 15-yard completion. Like nobody really talks about it. Can Sam punt? Can Sam Darnold or Stafford punt and do the old Ben Roethlisberger, take a couple steps back, and then all of a sudden quarterback boots it? Could. That would be even more scary, though, because the free fall is what I talked about. So whenever somebody drops the ball and then from hand to foot, there's a moment where that ball is just kind of lingering and it doesn't have a lot of power or force.

2:24:19It's just kind of just hanging there. And if the wind's bad and that thing moves, it's like you got no shot to hit that thing clean, basically. So punting is a nightmare in this type of weather. And this is one of those games that I'll watch and I'll just be like so pumped that I don't even have to ever feel that feeling again of walking onto a field in warm-ups and just feeling and being like, well, let's hope I don't ruin my entire career today. Let's hope that this doesn't happen. And the worst thing that happens, you hit a shitty ball because it moves. Hits off the inside of your foot. It's low.

2:24:50Returner gets it. House call. Okay, so not only is it terrible average, it's a touchdown. Angie's fucked your team. So, all right. It's been fun. That's possible tonight for the punters. So, I believe in Dixon. Yeah. Yeah. I think he's very good. Who's a Rams punter? The Jack guy, right? Ethan Evans. I like him. Yeah. I think he's very good. Whip side, though, for returners trying to catch those punts, if they actually do catch them, they can also muff them a lot easier. Yeah, a lot of this. A lot of this. Yeah, they're going to be getting away from it, for sure. A lot of Peter, Poison. What did you guys say?

2:25:22Peter, always. I always heard Peter as well. Whole life. Every person, Peter. And then there's people that say, like, Poison, too. You ever hear that? People say that? I definitely heard other teams say Poison. Yeah, we said Peter from first grade on, probably. Yeah, and I think even backyard football, street football. What is that? What's the background of that? How did that start? It might be regional as well, because I've only ever heard Poison. Back in, I think it was the early 20s, 1920s, Peter Van Dyke. He muffed the pun. He shouldn't have touched. And so Peter, Peter, Peter. And then the band Poison, who obviously a legendary band.

2:25:55Yeah, their ax man was a punter. And, you know, growing up in the Northeast, he started the whole Poison thing. Poison, Poison, great band. Get away from the ball. Yeah, listen to music. Don't touch the ball. Exactly. Yeah, there's a chance. Both those things are true. There's a chance both of them are not. I assume there is a guy named Peter, though, that did something on a pump play. And everybody was like, this fucking asshole. Don't beat him. Just don't do it. All right, let's go to the Saturday doubleheader for the NFL. Philadelphia and Washington. Washington with Marcus Mariota, over under 44 and a half.

2:26:26Philadelphia Eagles seem to be very jolly on Hard Knocks. I'm actually really falling in love with their team. Bradley Cooper, obviously, was in attendance with a big smile on his face. Go watch his new movie. Is this thing on? It's available, what, tomorrow? Yeah. December 19th. A stand-up movie, right? A stand-up movie? It's with Will Arnett and Laura Dern. Fascinating. He wrote, directed, shot, and is in. Bradley Cooper. So you're talking like super talent in this entire thing. And we potentially heard from him while he was shooting and creating this. We're talking about actually holding the camera for a lot of these shots.

2:27:03And then directing and then editing and writing the whole thing. So we're incredibly pumped for Bradley Cooper. We think he did a great job. The tomato score for this is very high. Certified fresh. Very, very high. And it's like a 90-plus, I think. Very, very high. So, congrats to him. And Will Arnett and Cooper, I believe, have been friends for a very long time. And Cooper was, like, so excited and thankful that Will Arnett agreed to do it. Seems like he was perfect for the character. We got a chance to watch, like, the first 45 minutes in here. Very thankful for the opportunity to do that. You're going to see the artistry in there, brother.

2:27:36I mean, there is shots, the whole thing. Congrats to him. That's available tomorrow, I do think. 31-zip. Eagles just beat the Raiders. Philly favored by 6.5. Who do you like? How do you like it, AJ? I mean, I got to go Philly here. I try to talk myself into taking Washington because I like a lot of the guys. I like Dan Quinn, but I like Philly here, minus 6.5. I'll ride with you as well. 31-zip will shut up anybody who might have some doubts, myself included, for who that Philadelphia Eagles team is and who they can be. And it's meaningful football time. All Sirianni's teams, right, except for that one year where they lose six straight, have seemingly got better towards the end.

2:28:12Green Bay versus the Chicago Bears. Bears, one-and-a-half point dogs in Chicago. Could be one of the last times they play in the city of Chicago. Go ahead, Bruce. What's that? Oh, I'm sorry, the Bears favored by a point-and-a-half. They were dogs yesterday. They were one-and-a-half point dogs yesterday. Okay, so this is coin flip. I think the news that this could be one of the final games in Chicago. is maybe what changed things. AJ, we haven't got your opinion on that. Bears exploring all options as another seemingly deal to relocate is now no longer 100 percenter. Northwest Indiana, Gary area, only 31 minutes away from where Soldier Field currently is, said, hey, we're open for business.

2:28:59And Governor Mike Braun, who is a former businessman, now governor in Indiana, said, hey, we're open for business and then allegedly there was either a law that was pitched already on the books that could involve i think sports complexes being built for professional teams with tax-free incentives if you're to build it so it's like everything that we've heard that the chicago bears are looking for and any team is looking for whenever they're trying to build these new massive stadium hotel shops restaurants patriot place jerry world type business uh indiana's like yeah we got it for you if you really want it and if you can have it.

2:29:34We got it. And we're close. We're close. You can still be that. So, AJ, I know Packers fans would make fun of the Chicago Bears fans forever. I think Chicago Bears fans would not be happy at all. But it feels like the Chicago Bears relocation thing is just as bad as when the Athletics are trying to leave Oakland here. It's not really going well for them, AJ. No, it's not. I mean, come on now. You can't have the Chicago Bears have a stadium in Indiana. I don't care how close it is. If I'm Indiana's governor or mayor, if I'm Indiana, absolutely. Bring them in. Build your stadium. Give me your millions and millions of dollars and tax dollars that are coming in, and we're going to bring all this revenue for sure.

2:30:10But, no. The Bears need to be, they need to play in Chicago. The Jets and Giants play in New York City? No. They're the New York Jets, New York Giants, and they play in New Jersey. That's what I thought. Chicago Bears? We're negotiating in the public. That's what we're doing here. That's all we're doing. Potentially, but they've done this multiple times. Kevin Warren has done this multiple times with the Bears and it has come back not good multiple times where it said like, yeah, we're doing it. Can't get the funding actually so we're not going to be able to do it. Well, why'd you say you're going to do it?

2:30:40It felt like you thought you were going to get the funding. Well, there's always a chance. And then, we're doing it! Where the Cowboys play it. And then all of a sudden they ain't got it. Arlington. Where are the Niners play? It is the state of Texas. Santa Clara. We're talking cities? We're talking states. Both. We're just saying there's a lot of lies. We're talking about the Midwest Bears here. We're talking about the Gare Bears. The country Bears. Gary, Indiana. The Midwest Bears. The American Bears. Is that what you're talking about? Chicago Bears? I guess so. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, either way, nothing's happening anytime soon.

2:31:15Oh, Governor Mike Braun said, actually, we can break ground tomorrow. Right now. Can't touch Michael Jackson's house. Can't do that, but. Anything else. Where's that? Gary. Oh, Gary, you mean? I used to drive through Gary all the time coming to and from Green Bay. See? So you know the land well. So Michael Jackson's house is going to be right there. The Chicago – sorry? The Gare Bear Casino will be right here. You can not only stay at the Gare Bear Casino, which we're getting all the revenue from all the hotel rooms and everything else that's happening right there. You can walk right outside. Guess what we got?

2:31:46We got the American Bear Shopping Plaza right here. Oh, man. Oh, my God. Not just a gift shop, but obviously any actual stores that you could potentially need on a trip. You want a new jacket maybe to go hang out, maybe some gifts? We've got 14 different stores here, a full plaza. Build-a-bear workshop. Oh, my gosh. And not only can you build a bear, you can also build a nice meal. We've got 14 restaurants here that you're going to kind of – so basically you come watch the Gare Bears. You're staying in our place. You're eating our food. You're shopping in our stores. You're gambling in our casino.

2:32:14And you're watching our team in our stadium. That's all possible in Gare. Full weekend. That's right. That's all possible. Not just Michael. Tito, also born there. Okay? All the Jacks. And the rest of them. Janet. There's a bunch of them. And? Latoya. And? Jermaine. Jermaine. And? That's about as far as I'm getting. You were close, though. I mean, I think you were very, very close. You almost had it. Joe. Is that Joe? That could be their pump-up song. Their renegade turns into ABC. Yeah, you know me. Oh, my gosh. Or Man in the Bear. Don't Ray Me. ABC. Man in the Bear is good. One, two, three. Oh, my gosh.

2:32:48And then they could, in the back of each end zone. Beat it. for only Bears players, maybe Thriller. I mean, if we're just going to start listing off all the songs that we know by Michael Jackson, I like that. But in the back of the end zone, the Gare Bears cleats, they'll have secret things in there. They can strap into two metal things and they can do that forward lean. Yeah, that's a good idea. So that could be only in certain spots in the back of the end zone. Only the Gare Bears will know the location of. And their cleats, they'll be able to strap in like it's a bike, you know, like a Peloton bike.

2:33:17And then all of a sudden they're... And then the refs are going to be like, If he goes below, what would that be? 45 degrees? If he goes past 45 degrees, you've got to throw the flag. He just can't go. Yeah, you can't be. Can't do that. Caleb in those things, he's going to 10 degrees. Oh, my God. I didn't think about him all the way down. He's going to get a matcha probably. A get which they own the matcha shop. They do. It might be Caleb's matcha right outside. Maybe Khalid's. Could be. Some say Khalid. Never know. Some say Khalid. Roma Dunze and Luther Burden are out for this one. and they just got rolled out.

2:33:51All right. AJ, does that change anything for you? Packers, I would feel like. No, but with all that being said, I will take the Green Bay Packers on the road.

2:34:00I know you want to do it. I know you're going to pick the Bears, but you want to pick Green Bay because you feel and you know that they're going to win. But I understand what you're doing here. It's a program you got to pick against me. Here we go. Okay. This is a must win for the Packers. As I saw the GB there, all I thought to myself was good better. you know and then is their best on the other side there I don't know he's never got to say that against the Packers so you know Ben Johnson said I can't wait to beat LaFleur two times 2026 close to 2026 though maybe the year starts early just like Chicago kind of stretches into Gary Indiana they were going to realign the states AJ that was being pitched seriously very real Southern Illinois was about to like parts of Southern Illinois were about to become part of Indiana And then I think parts of that were about to go to Illinois.

2:34:51It was being pitched. Local news, who knows if it's real. Who knows what's being pitched and what's not being pitched. But I think politicians are always spitting something.

2:35:04I'll take the Packers. Golly, I don't like it. Good to see you making nice rational decisions. Oh, no. I'm actually wanting to a box over there. Boom. I like the pick. Let's move along. Let's go to Sunday's games. We have the Buffalo Beals taking on the Cleveland Browns. Beals favored by only 10.5. Once again, the Colts, the Colts were 14-point underdogs in Seattle. I thought that was very disrespectful by the books. I will continue to think that is disrespectful. Buffalo Beals favored by 10.5 in Cleveland. Cleveland's defense in Cleveland, crazy. Myles Garrett can obviously get a record for most sacks ever recorded in one NFL season.

2:35:51Shador Sanders fresh off a lot of picks. What do you think goes? How do you think goes? AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? I mean, I feel like this Buffalo Beals team is really rounding into form, and they're really starting to hit their stride. Obviously, Josh Allen doing well. So I will take the Buffalo Beals on the road, minus 10.5. 15-mile-an-hour winds, 28 degrees, 30 degrees is what NFLweather.com is. The colder and windier, the better for Josh and the Bills. You know that. Agreed. Slight chance of rain, so it could be a little bit shitty. Give me Josh Allen in the Bills favored by 10.5 as well.

2:36:23Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers. Now, this one's interesting because Canalis, the head coach of the Carolina Panthers, formerly of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, referenced how this particular ref crew loves call pass interference. And for Mike Evans, this might be a little bit of a benefit. For the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they might be able to eat off this. Now, I know this because shit, we did whenever we were down there with Mike Evans in our weapons that we had. So that could be a storyline that could develop. I also appreciate the fact that we're starting to talk about these types of things with ref crews going into it because teams talk about this type of shit with ref crews.

2:36:54Hey, this crew is more likely to call a hold. This crew is more likely to let it go. This crew calls the handsy shit. This crew does these types of things. So these are the types of conversations that actually happen in buildings. Now that it's becoming public, I like it, especially with the NFC South on the line here. Who do you like? How do you like it in Carolina and Tampa Bay, A.J. Hawk? Yeah, the Bucs have been a bit of a weird team for me. I've picked the Bucs a lot of times. It's blown up in my face, but I feel confident. I'm taking the Bucs here, minus three, even though they are favorites on the road.

2:37:27Why are they favorites? You should give the Panthers minus three. You need to talk to the sportsbooks for that. So 57 % of the public bets are on the Carolina Panthers. Congrats to them. There's no way that has ever happened. Nope. in a long time. It has not happened in a long time. I'll take the Carolina Panthers plus three at home. I was going to say, if you believe in that the Panthers basically have been really shitty one week and then they look like world beaters the next week and then they look really shitty the next week, they got beat by the Saints last week. A lot of people saying, hey, that may have been their really shitty game.

2:37:59They might come out like gangbusters in this one at home. To his point, Panthers are 5-1 straight up after a loss and 6-0 against the spread after a loss. Kansas City Chiefs favored by three in Nashville. Gardner Minshew at quarterback? Yeah. Okay, he gets a full week to work with the boys. Oh, yeah. He's going to want to win. Gardner Minshew, perfect quarterback for the situation that the Kansas City Chiefs are currently in, I would say. He's older. He's respected. He only knows one speed, so hopefully that can rally everybody around him to buy in. Andy Reid and the Chiefs have to figure out what the future looks like, obviously, in the offseason.

2:38:34The present is the Tennessee Titans. Cam Ward has come out and said something about wanting to meet all the coaching candidates. Cam Ward, I don't think you should want to do that, and I think you should not say that publicly. Just naturally, I appreciate what you mean by that and the sentiment of that, but everybody's natural reaction would be, okay, bud. Okay. That is basically what everybody immediately does. Okay, let's try to do something. Aaron Rodgers wasn't even talked to whenever the Green Bay Packers hired their new coach, Matt LaFleur, currently. Some places do it, some places don't.

2:39:04Tennessee Titans have a lot to figure out. I'm not saying Cam Ward's going to be a bad quarterback. I'm not saying Cam Ward shouldn't feel as if he should talk to the coaching candidates. But Cam Ward should also know that it's much bigger than him whenever it comes to an NFL franchise. And who knows what the Titans look like next year with him, without him, move on from him. You know, he has no idea what this looks like anyways either. Kansas City Chiefs favored by three with Gardner Minshew. Who do you like? How do you like it, AJ? I mean, I was thinking of taking the Titans here because I think the Chiefs have never been in this situation.

2:39:33A lot of these guys on the team have never been in a situation where you're not going to make the playoffs game doesn't really mean a whole lot. But I can't do it. I'm taking the Chiefs still. Yeah, Chiefs are going to play free down there. Hey, a lot of history in Nashville for one particular one of those players. A lot of history in Nashville for one of those particular players. Who knows who's going to be singing the national anthem? It's going to be Taylor Swift? Maybe. For a team under.500? Chargers. She'll be wearing Chiefs gear. Oh, okay. Chargers. Oh, yeah. Chargers. Cowboys. Cowboys favored by two and a half at home.

2:40:0576 % of the bets are on the Chargers. Yeah, Chargers need this one. They are at Dallas this week, but then versus Houston on the road and then at home, rather, and then at Denver. If they drop this one, then there is a chance that they finish in that seventh seed or after the Colts beat the Niners, damn near fall out of the playoffs. Just came out today that Floos will be spending the rest of the season up in the booth, calling the defense from up in the booth. Okay, I thought their defense was kind of figuring it out. I like that we're making some changes down the stretch here. A big fan of that.

2:40:34Dak Prescott and Brandon Aubrey had an incredible interaction on hard knocks after Brandon Aubrey knocked the guy down, didn't lose his balance. And then also admitted on the side, I don't know what I'm supposed to do in that situation. Obviously grew up playing soccer, played soccer the majority of his life, gets a tackle. Then I guess he showed up a little bit late to practice, probably had some media obligation. Maybe it was, yeah, I have no idea what he was doing. And as he jogged out after Dak, the entire team was like, okay. And Dak even goes over to him and was like, hurt a little bit though, right?

2:41:01Hurt a little bit. And Aubrey's like, yes. It feels like their vibes are immaculate at the Dallas Cowboys. I know that not everything has gone swimmingly for them this year. I know there's been ups, there's been downs. But if you watch the hard knocks, it's hard not to be a believer in Dak Prescott being the face of anything you want to run. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And I think that, you know, I just think back to when they hired Shottie and just how it was kind of like, not that he was going to be a lame duck, but everyone basically saying like, this is who you guys, you fired Mike McCarthy, you had no plan in place, and you just said, all right, fuck it.

2:41:31we're going to hire, you know, Shadi. I think he's, I think all those guys really like him. They play for him. I think he's done. I mean, the Cowboys were the laughingstock of the NFL after they traded Micah Parsons. And, you know, 10 weeks later, we were talking about them being maybe the hottest team in the NFL. So, yeah, they're probably not going to make the playoffs. But this season overall, you know, has been kind of a success for them. Yeah, they're damn near out. 99.9 % eliminated from the playoffs. A lot would have to happen. They would obviously have to win, and many other things would have to fall into place.

2:41:58Do you like the Chargers, or do you like the Cowboys, AJ? I was leaning Chargers, but honestly, you guys kind of talked me into taking the Cowboys. So give me Dak and the boys here. I don't know who to take on this one. I mean, for one team, it's a must win. For the other team, it's a let's go have some fun. Yeah, which you don't know. Who plays better? Exactly. Yeah, I know. That's why it's a... Playing loose. That's why, like, for the Chiefs, I feel like the Chiefs are going to play very fucking good because it's just, like, first time in forever. Exactly, yeah. Travis Kelsey hasn't played in a who cares game.

2:42:26What, in 10 years? And think when they come out to warm-ups for that Titans game. The stands probably aren't going to be jam-packed. It's going to be bring-your-own-juice, one of those games. And for the Chargers, I mean, this is a third one in a row. They were overtime against the Eagles, and it was a 16-13 last drive against the Chiefs. Now it's at Dallas. I think I saw some resume for the Chargers about the most wins against playoff teams or something like that. I think the Chargers have a lot of, like, if we're to score good wins, I think, or strength of schedule and shit like that. I think the Chargers fans were telling me, It might have been another team, so maybe I misremember.

2:43:00I know there was something in the group about teams with records. Above 500. Above 500, and the Rams were 10 and whatever, and everyone else was like three and whatever. I don't know if that was it. I thought there was a Chargers stat somewhere because there was some Chargers fans tweeting me to have respect for what they're doing over there, and it's like, we do. All right, I'll take the Chargers. I'll take the Chargers plus two and a half going over there. that's interesting though man that Chargers team I want to believe right don't we all we do you don't want to believe not after what that child had to hear last week he's just trying to talk to his favorite player well it's not his favorite player we know that to one of his favorite players to a player yeah but on that note still a child still just a small boy with an even younger sister at his heels Those are influential moments in the history of people's lives.

2:44:00That kid went home and ripped posters down. Now, would Dak do that? Mm-mm. All right, so on that note, give me the Chargers. Because Herbert's going to have to walk around a lot of kids. Exactly. He's going to be fucking pissed. So mad. So mad to see all these people and kids talking to him. Fuck this! I fucking hate these people. Why are these people here? This is football. They're not a fucking carnival. Hit me, Jim. Hit me. Right in the face. Actually, in that kid, too. Smack my hand really fucking hard. I forgot he had a broken lemon. He does. Vikings, Giants. Vikings in nine, favored by three, going to take on Dart.

2:44:37AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? I like the Giants. Whoa. Jeez, that was quick. I don't know why. When I saw this game pop up, too, I like Jackson, Dart, and the Giants. I really do. All right. I think he finished the game. I'll follow the lead of betting against you. Give me the Vikings. Wendy, what's the weather here? I mean, it might help. There's a chance of snow, and nobody's going to fucking be there. Amen. You're going to have just your buddies on the sidelines. A lot of those. Yeah. Just your buddies on the sidelines for this one. All right, I'll take the Vikings. Give me nine.

2:45:18Yes. Give me nine. Jets, Saints. Saints favored by four and a half. I like the Saints. AJ? Saints. Bengals, Dolphins. I like the Dolphins. What do we think the crowd for that one's going to be? Similar to the morning. Quinn, yours first start. Place will be cranked. Four and a half. Who do you like, AJ? I know Joey B's trying to throw us off the set, and it's like things aren't really great, but I like Joey B here on the road. Give me the Bengals. That is. What? You said the same thing last week, and they went out and laid an egg. I did. You're right. Miami, models, fashion, warm. Good point. Give me the Bengals.

2:45:59Give me the Bengals minus four and a half. Jacksonville Jack, cool. But it felt like maybe a rally around moving on from Tua down there. Oh, everyone's pumped. Yeah, the center was pumped. I saw the center get interviewed. He seemed pretty excited. That's one of our games. Fire coach game is one of them, and new quarterback is one of them. I'll take Dolphins plus four and a half at home. Let's go, Gump. Let's go. Got to have it. Well, no. No, you had to have had it. No, no. Quinn Ewer's first start. Got to have it. Well, who's going to coach him next year if he is the quarterback? We'll figure that out down the road.

2:46:31We just got to win on Sunday. Yeah, just cover. This is all worth of court. Plus four and a half. Jags, Broncos. Broncos favored by three in Denver. This Jacksonville Jaguars team special. Trevor Lawrence coming off his best game as an NFL quarterback by far. Five through the sky. One through the ground. Six total touchdowns. They got weapons. They got schemes. And they got a defense that's seemingly humming. How do you feel about this one, A.J. Jayhawk with the hot Denver Broncos. Yeah, I'm a big fan of what Trev and the boys are doing down in Jacksonville, but I feel like this is Bo Nix in the Broncos defense on this one.

2:47:02So give me Broncos. 58 % of the bets on the Jacksonville Jaguars. Good for them. I'll take the Broncos as well. Falcons, Cardinals, just because I need the Broncos, by the way. Falcons, Cardinals, three-point spread. 53 % of the bets are on Arizona. Kirk Cousins breaking down every offense in the NFL at press conferences. Raheem Morris says everything's on the table for the quarterback position going forward. Ownership says everything's on the table for every position going forward potentially. And then the Cardinals routinely lose by 20 points. That is seemingly who they are now. What are your thoughts, AJ?

2:47:36Who do you like? How do you like it? So, Kirko's starting for the Falcons, right, this game? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we just don't know. I like the Falcons. I feel like they've got to figure it out. And like you said, you say the Cardinals routinely lose by 20. I don't know if they lose by 20, but I think the Falcons win in cover here. Yeah, they might lose by 20. Drake London did practice yesterday. He's missed four straight games, and I think Marvin Harrison Jr. also practiced. I like that. I like the Cardinals team. I like Gannon, but every time you look at the score, it's just not good. They stink.

2:48:06Yeah, I don't know what happened. I have no idea what happened to them. They got great local commentary team, though. Number two in the NFL, some people. Number two in the league. Also, Trey McBride is 12 catches away from setting the all-time record for single-season catches for a tight end. Good luck to McBride. I hope he gets it this weekend. He has been fun to watch, and his intensity would be great on a good team. So hopefully they're able to become that. I'll take the Falcons as well. Raiders, Texans. Texans favored by 14.5, over-under 37.5. So you start looking at the over-under, and then you look at how big they're favored.

2:48:39They're like, the Raiders are scoring maybe three points in this game. Their team total is 10.5. Okay, exactly. Shut out by 30-plus, outgained by 300-plus. The Raiders, Kansas City Philly, became the second team to have multiple such games in a season since the 1947 Colts, who are in Baltimore, obviously. Shut out by 30-plus and outgained by 300-plus yards. It's only happened one other time in the history, multiple times in a season. This Raiders team is one of them, and this Texans team can certainly do it. And I will take the Houston Texans minus whatever. You as well, AJ? Absolutely, Texans.

2:49:14Lions favored by seven at home against the hot Pittsburgh Steelers. Aaron Rodgers is going to want to go into Detroit and get a big-time win. Obviously, he has a lot of history in Detroit. Foxy favored by seven. Love it or hate it? Seven's a lot of points, but if you guys remember, Dan Campbell after a loss holds the record currently. I think it's tied for the record for wins after a loss, so this would continue that record, break the record. And it's just been a weird season. Our offense is, like, number one in every category, but the defense can't stop anyone. So I'm expecting a shootout. If it's a shootout, I think Lions win.

2:49:48Tom? Yeah, I tend to agree with what he said. Lions 5-0 this year off a loss, 4-1 against the spread off of a loss this year. The one thing that they are horrendous at is their secondary in the passing game. So do the Steelers have the offense to exploit that? I don't know. I've been excited to see. This one doesn't matter. DK Metcalf gave a great answer on Koontz's podcast about Pittsburgh basically being, hey, this city just shows up to work. They're genuine people. You know exactly how they feel. There's a ruggedness to this city that he appreciates. You're about to work with it. I like to hear that from DK Metcalf.

2:50:23I like the Pittsburgh Steelers getting seven going into Detroit. Detroit might win the game, but getting blown out at this stage, I don't think this team is going to have that happen to them. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, I'm with you. I think the Steelers also, they get indoors. They feel pretty good. Your body feels good. You're all, you know, your joints, everything's great. So, yeah, I'm taking the Steelers as well. Watch out for the Demon. I was going to say, it's not just Rodgers who has the NFC North, you know, memories in that building. The Demon. I think the Demon's going to score his first touchdown as a Pittsburgh Steeler this weekend.

2:50:49I like that. You got a cake from Tom Cruise today. Very true. New England Patriots taking on the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night football. Obviously, when you forecast this at the beginning of the season, you wonder if the New England Patriots are going to be good enough to make this game matter. Now, if we were to forecast this Sunday night football game at the beginning or at this stage of the season, it's like, what the hell happened to Baltimore? And also, what the hell happened to New England? This team, all of a sudden, Super Bowl favorite, Super Bowl darling, whenever they got a first-year head coach, second-year quarterback, brand-new offensive system, and expectation level going in, that maybe next year they'll be good.

2:51:24Maybe in the next couple years they'll be good. They're good now, and they want it all. And they're underdogs going into Baltimore. Conman, how do you feel about that? Yeah, this is going to be a tough one to pick right now. Bob Spillane, Marcus Jones, Carlton Davis have mispracticed the last two days, including today. Yeah, Bobby Spillane. Yeah, boy, oh, boy. Last week against the Bills when that starting defense runs out and Bob Spillane doesn't run with them, that's kind of when you start thinking, uh-oh, Josh Allen might have some fun today. But the Ravens defense has kind of come alive. That's the real problem.

2:51:58Shutting out Burrow, you know, maybe not this year. means as much, but still blanking them means a lot, but three-point dogs, I mean, kind of love it. Win and we're in the playoffs, baby. Let's go to the dance. 80 % of the bets are on the New England Patriots. Fuck, man! That is not surprising. What the fuck? What do you mean that's surprising? I thought they'd be favorites, even on the road. Yeah, me too. AJ, you're taking the Patriots? Yes, I am. Yeah, me too. Alright. Let's have the greatest weekend of all time. Hell yeah. Oh, you guys want to pick the Jake Paul, Anthony Joshua fight? Yep. AJ?

2:52:36I love Jake, but I'm going to take Anthony Joshua. Okay, well, I am a real American. So give me Jake Paul. Jake said he's going to be coming everywhere. Yeah, he did. And he said fifth or sixth round. I don't like the angle in which Jake Paul is choosing to create content here, but certainly getting a lot of eyeballs on the situation that the fight's happening. A lot of people seeing Anthony Joshua pick up Jake Paul and suck his face. Yeah. That was AI. It was. I know. That one, I could tell. I still think the silverback gorilla might be real. Yeah, I don't love that that was immediately shot down as fake.

2:53:15If that silverback gorilla had the capability of doing that. Who shot it down? Whoever shot it down immediately is an asshole. Okay, that's something you got to watch 10 times before you say, Okay, fine. Poop doesn't just come out like a circle perfectly like that. Well, you would think if he does have consistent flow out of his cheeks, which clearly he could. Definitely. The window would then be doing the science. Exactly. And it would disperse at a perfect radius. And we don't know. Do they just put some Windex on that exact spot? So it kind of just catches it naturally, makes that shape. And we assume that this man, sorry, this silverback gorilla has perfected the art of bullet pooping.

2:53:54Yeah. No doubt. And that was clearly birdshot. Correct. So. Just the velocity at which the turds flew out are what threw me off. Like made me think it's probably not real. So you've obviously never watched them. He clutches his butt right there. Yeah, he aims it. So like four. He's probably four feet away from the window. And somehow he got turds. That's one yard, dude. Anybody can get a yard. That was believable to me. You see the gorilla just sit down right before to projectile. Boom. It's strategy. You see the muscles? I can't rule it out because in sixth grade, we went to Washington, D.C., and we went to the zoo, and there was a hippo at the zoo.

2:54:36They spin their tails. He pooped with similar velocity, but they spin their tails to chop it up. So it was impressive to see in person. You ever seen that? It's similar. It's awesome. No. I mean, if Bevo pushed the way that gorilla did, it would have pooped on your back. Yeah, but Bevo is a longhorn. This is Silverback fucking gorilla. Yeah, exactly. It's that zoo. We don't know. Did a couple burgers get dropped into the enclosure? Did this guy eat a couple slices of za that day before he had to do something like this? We don't know. Case Doritos back. Well, maybe it was that. But also, what we would like to say, because he clearly has an upset tummy if you're able to do this.

2:55:10Yeah. He should be having some of Tom Cruise's coconut blunt cake. I couldn't agree more. Maybe not the venison, because my stomach is killing me.

2:55:22Really? Dude, multiple times. Is it the cheese, you think? Well, I eat the same thing every day. Did you have the cheese? I had both, yeah. Maybe it was the cheese, not just the venison. You never know. You guys get tummy aches a lot from food? What's that, brother? You guys get tummy aches because of food? No. Fast food, greasy stuff will get me now, I think, because I'm trying not to eat it as much. So I certainly feel like shit, but I think I've just always felt like shit eating it and it's just been a part of it. Like, yeah, this is just what life is. my stomach feels like this and then i dump it and i move along now whenever you don't eat it every day you do feel differently when you don't eat that type of food and then when you have it out of nowhere it's like a hangover like when you get drunk you get tired i just get tired yeah yeah and also you explosive i i know i've never like yeah i don't know i've never thought of like i've never correlated food to how i feel like that he don't eat anything he poops like a rabbit i do aj hasn't had a normal bowel movement in 15 years he's got rabbit pellets in there i remember he's a hundred wiper.

2:56:20I don't know how... That's a good point. So now he's acting like that silverback gorilla could... Okay. He probably poops like that gorilla. Yeah, he's the vanilla gorilla and he's out here just judging. I instantly thought of which poor soul has to clean that glass is all I thought of. Bringing out like gorilla pads and scrapers trying to get those turds off the window. That silverback gorilla is not cleaning that. That silverback gorilla is arms cross watching whoever. Clean it. I'm doing it again tomorrow, too. Doing it again the second. No. Right after it gets cleaned, it dumps again. I would like the Tom Cruise coconut cake.

2:56:57Now. Or we're doing this every day. All right. Have an incredible weekend of ball. We appreciate you so much for allowing us to do this for a living. Before we get out of here, there is an announcement that we have to make. Saturday, we'll be doing the field best. Please join us on ESPN2. If we suck, you should leave. We'll tell you if it's not going well. And today we celebrate. one of the most talented human beings that sits in front of a microphone on a daily basis in the entire world. Maybe the history of the damn world. He was smart enough to be an Ivy Leaguer. Got accepted to Harvard. Said, nah, I want to be a Big Ten angler at Iowa.

2:57:38Give me the booze. Give me the football. I'll figure everything else out. We're so incredibly lucky that this guy blesses us every single day with his presence. I would say that he is one of the most unique individuals in the history with his talent versus mindset versus off the cuff versus script work. He's special. We're lucky. And it's his birthday. Happy birthday to Ty Schmitt Happy birthday Ty Thank you guys very much We appreciate the hell out of you I guess the ice cream cake melted Shout out to the entire group over there Just certainly put it outside and left it there for at least an hour or two It was cold It was ice cream, now it's just cream So that's actually This is a TC cake Happy birthday To you Happy birthday Happy birthday to you.

2:58:34Happy birthday, dear Ty.

2:58:42Happy birthday to you. We love you. We appreciate you, buddy. Happy birthday. Appreciate you guys. Thank you very much. Hell yeah. Shout out to Mitt. This is the first time that there hasn't been a bunch of wax all over the cake. Well, that's because they had to adjust here late. Good for them making an audible. And yes, to your point, it's crazy how when there's a birthday in the back room, they all sing. Yeah, just us. We were singing the whole time. No mics wrong. We didn't hear anybody. We didn't see anybody. So, Ty, just know that there is a little bit of a... Okay, sure. Now I do. Yeah, now we just learned that.

2:59:12You run the footage back. Yeah, it's on the audio. We were here because you can't hear it. But we were singing. You can see me screaming at the top of my lungs. Yeah, he didn't cut to us either. That doesn't help. Nope. Oh! Yeah, see? Boom! See, that's what we're talking about. That boy, Nick. Thank you, Nick, who didn't turn on the mic. Didn't say. And thank you, Foxy, for pointing that out back there. But I would like to let you know, Ty, we love you, man. Love you guys, too. Thank you very much. Happy birthday. We're thankful you were born. And we can't wait to see what you do this next year.

2:59:40Appreciate it. And I'm very proud of you for saying you're going to be eating free, clean, and living clean for the next year. I'm certainly going to try. I got another kid on the way, so I definitely need to try. But you guys heard JJ yesterday. said, man, you look slim. You look good. And no one has fucking said that to me in years. So I don't know. I'm kind of thinking I'm just fine right now. You certainly are. You're more than fine. You look good. Whole fucking TCK right after the show. Well, I think that's smart. Yeah. Well, the elixir of eternal life, a lot of people would say. Be your friend.

3:00:16Tell your friend something nice. It might change your life. We're interesting together. AJ, anything for the team here? Nope. I'm good. Thank you, though. Hell yeah. Thank you, too. I'm not going to fake it. I'm not going to fake one, but yeah. Can't wait for Saturday. All right. We'll see you tomorrow. Game day, 6 p.m. Eastern tomorrow before kicking off the college football playoff. Game day, Saturday morning, 9 a.m., and then we'll be live, Field Pass, ESPN2 for Texas A &M, Miami. The college football playoff is here. Week 16 of the NFL season is here. Football, all day Saturday, all day Sunday.

3:00:50We're back on Monday. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. And in this holiday season, we hope we all enjoy it a little bit more. We're allowed to do this. We get to do this. We're lucky to do this. And we're not dead. Let's celebrate that. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye.