PMS 2.0 1480 - CFP Quarterfinal Recap, NFL Week 18 Preview/Picks, Adam Schefter, Pete Thamel, Peter Schrager, & AJ Hawk

22:39yeah six seven exactly exactly that's over by the way it feels like yeah yeah good for us

22:44Pat McAfee:speaking of over let's move on to nfl conversations huge weekend in the nfl we got a lot of different positioning up for grabs we got teams that lose and go home win host a playoff game i mean there is crazy in store for week 18 here for the nfl season joining us now to break it all down and what have we missed over the last couple days have we been fully entrenched in the college football playoffs as the new year kind of struck. I saw a guy was wearing diapers at their Times Square. So that's what they do. Sure. That's what they do. That should be a fantasy football punishment. We talked about this the other day.

23:20Pat McAfee:I don't think we got to say it into a microphone. Fantasy football punishment should be you got to go do the ball drop in New York. Because you got to get there like what? Like 8 a.m. or something? Yeah. And then that thing's at midnight. You're not allowed to bring your own booze, right? Bruce, can you explain? We were going through the rules a little bit. You're not allowed to bring anything. Yeah, it's an absolute nightmare. I mean, Times Square is always kind of hell on earth, but on New Year's Eve, you just kind of take that and multiply it tenfold. I'm pretty sure you can't bring in booze, and yeah, you're just standing there for eight to ten hours, and you can't get out even if you want.

23:48Pat McAfee:Yeah, it sounds like worst case imaginable, but people do it every year, and we appreciate them for it because the shots are sick. I mean, all the humans celebrating the ball drop, if it wasn't for those people kind of doing their time down there, it's not as big of a moment. So we appreciate that that exists. Everybody kind of looks to the ball drop as a big deal. Now, granted, we were on a plane. We did three different New Year's as we were flying. They were all awesome. Yeah, we did 27 hours, I think, on December 31st. So we lived 2025 as much as we possibly could. Had to. Yeah, we certainly did it great.

24:18Pat McAfee:But that should be a fantasy football punishment is you got to go do the New Year's at Times Square. Like, with who? Just yourself. I'd quit forever. Fantasy football? Yeah. Isn't that kind of what fantasy football things are, though? Isn't that kind of what it is? Yeah. You don't want to lose people in your league, though, but that would definitely lose me. I don't know. Don't I see people walk around with signs? Oh, yeah, big time. Not just losing the league, maybe losing your life. None of that's worse than going to Times Square for New Year's Eve. Well, what I saw one guy does is he has multiple diapers.

24:48Pat McAfee:He just kind of switches in and out so he can celebrate the New Year. Yeah, that's good. And he's pooping. Yeah, dumps, logs. Then he's eating it because he's not allowed to bring his own food. Yeah, he's starving. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, He's the man who will keep us updated on everything. He's also a fantasy football legend. He might be doing it. Maybe this is what he adds to his league. Ladies and gentlemen, Michigan man, Adam Schefter. Yay, Schefter! Schefter, maybe, huh, for your league? Yeah, we had a tough finish here, Pat. We were playing in the championship game. Cameron Dicker missed a 33-yard field goal, the first field goal he ever missed from under that distance.

25:22And had he made it, had he made it, I would have won the War Room title for the first time in 15 years.

25:28Pat McAfee:It was almost like the U was back. I was up against Derrick Henry. He went for 46 and a half against me on Saturday night. I thought I had no chance. I want to thank Chase Brown and Drake May for trying to bail me out. But again, just not enough in the end. That's the way it goes. Sounds like you had a good locker room. And every once in a while, things that are very out of the norm will take place in football, which is why it's great. Cameron Dicker, most accurate kicker in the history of the NFL, right? That's what I think the title is at this point. Unbelievable. Step when it matters. Oh, for who?

26:04Pat McAfee:For you or for him or his team? I mean, there's a lot of that. Okay, let's talk about the Chargers. Chargers play the Broncos this weekend, 425 on Sunday. Chargers-Broncos. Broncos win and they get the number one seed. Chargers have come out and said Herbert's not playing and those that are potentially banged up will also not be playing. What does that mean? and what are your kind of thoughts on this particular game? It means that Trey Lance now stands in the way that Denver Broncos is clinching the number one seed in the AFC. Omari Hampton, I wouldn't think, plays either. He hasn't practiced all week long, so they're going to rest up his ankle for the playoffs.

26:40And it's interesting because the Chargers, obviously, are going to rest key people here, and they'll treat this week like their version of the bye week, which almost locks them in to a game against New England in the first round, which essentially New England was hoping to overtake the Broncos. They wanted the Chargers to beat the Broncos so that the Patriots could be the one. But now the Chargers are setting it up so that Denver is going to be able to win at home and set up a Chargers-Patriots matchup in wildcard weekend. Those two teams meeting because the Chargers are going to approach this weekend the way they are.

27:17So the Chargers rest some people. New England probably still has to play. kind of interesting what's going on there between Jim Harbaugh and Mike Vrabel.

27:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, so the Patriots what Conman is thinking is hopefully not long let's get this win locked up because I do believe there's not a lot of players on the other side for the Dolphins as well I think Waddle might not be there, no practice all week what are the other names? Achan, I believe Jordan Brooks their leading tackler and I believe Minka also already ruled out. Okay, so who knows what the Dolphins are doing unless you have more information on that for the Patriots, but the Patriots have to win that game. I mean, not that they don't have the AFC East already locked up, but it's definitely better to be the two seed than it is the three seed, because then you can potentially lock up home field advantage throughout the entirety of the playoffs, which is huge in Foxborough.

28:01Pat McAfee:So it is an interesting dynamic. Do you have anything else about the Dolphins and who they're playing, who they're not playing? I think the names that you mentioned, I think it would be a surprise if they wound up playing. It certainly is setting up. Today they signed the former Michigan running back Donovan Edwards off the commander's practice squad, so I could see a combination this weekend of Jalen Wright, Ollie Gordon, and Donovan Edwards running the football for the Miami Dolphins. Yeah, and also, that does not mean that they're going to be like ass. All these guys getting an opportunity for a tryout.

28:32Pat McAfee:This is a tryout. This is a tryout for these guys, not only for obviously the team that they're on and just got signed to, but for every other NFL team. And there's been a lot of stories of guys playing like waste time in the team that they're playing against, signing them, saying, hey, did anybody else see this? We saw what this guy was and didn't make it a team. Huge opportunity for these guys, but obviously Patriots need to handle their business and get the hell out of that thing healthy. I mean, that is the goal as we head into potential number two. Yeah, and you got to assume Mike Vrabel probably does love the whole Chargers bit too because he can kind of pull from that like, you know, the Chargers.

29:05Oh, they want to come to Foxborough. Okay. Looks like you guys just suck at football. That's why they want to come play you then. That is interesting. It's dynamic. I thought Harbaugh loved football. I thought Harbaugh loved football and competing and all that bullshit he peddles. I guess he was just full of shit.

29:19Pat McAfee:Harbaugh has more rush yards than Bo Jackson through his NFL career. I have a little bit of respect for that. But also, maybe he thinks we're going to take two weeks to prepare for the Patriots. Yeah. Because if you remember, what pictures were in the hallway over at the Chargers? Yeah, it's interesting. A lot of their wins, and one of them was a 41-14 victory over the Patriots. Is that the one you were talking about? Yeah, because every picture in the hallway at the new Chargers facility was the Chargers doing something to the Patriots, if my memory serves me right. That is correct, yeah. Okay, so, right?

29:46Pat McAfee:That is what it was? A thousand percent. So he might have more respect for you guys than ever before. So he's thinking about two weeks to battle against you. What's your head shake for? I thought they had pictures of every single victory from their wins that season. Maybe, but that whole hallway was just Patriots getting their – we're fast-forwarding to get to the point there. Because you actually say you guys beat other teams, didn't you? That is your actual quote because I think it was like five, six straight pictures of the Patriots just getting beat up there. And it is sweet just because actually with the Chargers possibly coming to New England, it's a lot of throwback Phillip Rivers, and I'm sure that's probably what those highlights are from.

30:24Run the clip, Connor. Sound, please.

30:30Oh, no. More than one game. Why did I get more than one game for one game? Yeah, see, it was.

30:37Pat McAfee:Yeah. Party in the back. It was all against the Patriots. So now Harbaugh's got two weeks maybe with eyes on the Patriots. He's got a lot of respect, not less amount of respect. Let's talk about the number one seed for the NFC. Let's talk about the number one seed for the NFC now. Huge, gigantic, Saturday night, primetime matchup, NFC West to do battle. Anything we need to know for both these teams as we head into Niners-Hawks? Well, the Seahawks ruled out their left tackle, Charles Cross, who they've been playing without the last few weeks, and they've been able to overcome it, and they play great football, and the defense is tremendous in Seattle.

31:11The Niners have three players that are interesting that are listed as questionable. Tight end George Kittle, who missed last week's game with the sprained ankle. Trent Williams, the left tackle all-world, has a hamstring injury. And Ricky Pearsall, who aggravated his knee injury last week against the Bears. So I think what's going to happen here is George Kittle already has said he's absolutely going to play. We expect to see him out there. I don't think the Niners are going to make decisions on Trent Williams and Ricky Pearsall until pregame warm-ups or pregame at some point in time. Both are going to be tested to go.

31:48Both, it's going to be challenging. We'll see whether either one can make it back. I think the 49ers are hopeful but uncertain whether either one will be able to play on Saturday night.

31:58Pat McAfee:Okay, so Brock Purdy's playing better than he's ever played, right? The entirety of it is insane. and then Seattle's just always going to have the question on whether or not they can get the job done. Sam Darnold's going to get that. Number one seed or number five seed in the NFC? That's a big deal. Everybody talks about it whenever it happens, about how, why does NFC South get a team that's ranked higher than the Seahawks for the Niners? Don't you think we should just change the entirety? That's going to happen on Monday or Tuesday whenever we get there. Wasn't Sam playing in this exact same situation last year in week 18?

32:28Pat McAfee:Yes, he was, and it did not go well, and then everybody buried Sam Darnold, and then Sam Darnold becomes the only quarterback to have back-to-back 13 winning seasons or something, or 13 win seasons or whatever the case. So congrats to these teams. You guys deserve it. We're happy for it. Go ahead, Shefty. You had something on that note, it sounds like. But there's a big difference. Like last year, Sam was in this situation. Went against a Ram defense that was loaded. This 49ers defense right now, they're doing as well as they can. And they've played well in light of losing Nick Bosa and Fred Warner and Mikel Williams.

32:59But, I mean, they're not generating the type of pass rush that the Rams were getting last year. And obviously that's going to be up to the defensive coordinator, Robert Sala, to figure out a way to get some pressure on Sam Darlene. And if the Niners can win, again, that's going to continue the conversation I think has gone on. There are so many great Coach of the Year candidates this year. Mike Vrabel, Ben Johnson, Liam Cohn. Kyle Shanahan takes this team without those players to the number one seed. You can make the argument for him as well. All these coaches are all deserving. And if the 49ers win, then it's two more home games to get to the Super Bowl in their home stadium.

33:36Like, they have not been on the road the last couple of weeks. If they win this game, they're not going to travel again this season.

33:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, and that would be incredible for a team to experience and their fans to experience. So good for the San Francisco 49ers for being there. But you talk about Shanahan potentially being coach of the year against these. Vrabel did this with the Titans, right? Vrabel had like 100 guys on IR, took the Titans as the number one overall seed in the AFC. They lose to the Bengals, but they still get like nine sacks against Joe Burrow in that game. They somehow win. And then you think about this Niners team. We all did the same thing. As soon as Fred gets hurt, well, as soon as Bosa gets hurt, then as soon as Fred gets hurt, we all go, can't win a Super Bowl.

34:13Pat McAfee:And they've not believed that at all over there. And this Niners team, wagon. The offense, Kittle, you said, he said he's all the way back to playing, obviously. It's like that's, Hardy and Kittle have had a connection since day one, let alone everything else they got cooking. if they were able to do this i agree with your sentiment maybe shanahan coach of the year and he'd have such a cool hat on in the present oh he'd look so cool in the entire process let's talk about coaches a little bit obviously shanahan's good vrabel's good ben's good liam's good but whenever you talk about vrabel ben and liam you talk about a coaching staff coming in and flipping it quickly what are some places or names that we maybe need to be keeping in mind that could potentially follow suit next year in a new spot.

34:57Pat McAfee:And how is the coaching firing world going to look this offseason, you think? Well, it's always busy. And we've had two head coaching changes already in New York with the Giants and Tennessee with the Titans. So there are two changes so far. I would anticipate that we get probably four to five more. This year, I might go the under, except when we get into this situation, sometimes there's always one that surprises you that nobody was forecasting or expecting. Obviously, there's been a lot of conversation about Las Vegas, been a lot of conversation about Cleveland. I don't think it would be a surprise in either of those two places if we saw some type of change.

35:42That would bring the total to four. Now, there are some other places that are in question. Sunday night, we have an incredible matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. And I just wonder, again, with all the speculation swirling around both coaches, with all the fan bases in both cities being unhappy and disgruntled at times with their teams and wanting a change, despite the fact that these have been two of the most stable franchises in all of sports, I think the losing coach that night, there are going to be some conversations. and it's not like they're getting fired. They're not.

36:20But again, what does that coach in that city of that losing team, what does he want to do after that game on Sunday night?

36:28Pat McAfee:So whenever you say they're not going to get fired, they're not. It's going to be a mutual agreement that is going to be leaned towards by the owners? If that even happens, I just think, again, there needs to be a question that's answered for the team that loses Sunday night. Because, again, we heard the Steelers fans chanting, fired Tomlin a few weeks ago. We've heard people, the fans in Baltimore being disgruntled, and the Ravens turned it around last week, won in Green Bay. They win in Pittsburgh now, finished the year with two straight wins on the road to win the division. How could people be upset in a season with injuries?

37:02But in the world we live in, people are always calling for change. They always want the coach's job. And again, the team that loses, I just think there's going to be conversations that occur both ways. What does the coach want? What does the organization want? And they're going to have to sit down and figure that. That might even happen for the winning team in that case. But it's certainly going to start the clock for the losing team and the losing coach on Sunday night.

37:26Pat McAfee:Yeah, the winning coach gets smacked in the first round, the super wild card weekend. It will certainly just be delayed a week probably is what you're talking about, especially in Baltimore and in Pittsburgh. And you say, you know, everybody wants change. If it doesn't happen, people, you know, get a little restless. It's like heavy is the head, brother. That is a part of being an NFL head coach, especially in a football town like Pittsburgh and Baltimore is. And you talk about the fans chanting fire Tomlin. I mean, they've been calling for it for a few years, not all of them, but there's been certainly a fire Tomlin contingency in Pittsburgh last five, ten years, I would say, as the seemingly complacency of being just slightly above average has kind of continued to linger.

38:03Pat McAfee:There's been yinzers who are like, we want more, we want more, we want more. Okay? We want more than that. Okay, that is what we want down here. So that's happened. Them chanting it publicly at the stadium, I think was the Ingers fans telling the entire country, we are sick of this. We would like to nationally announce that we are sick of it. And then Baltimore, I assume they've been doing the same thing with Harbaugh for a bit. I assume it's been the same conversation. Some Baltimore people have talked about it probably. Contingency of Ravens fans have thought about maybe Harbaugh's not the right guy to get us back to where we were whenever Ray and Ed and all these people won a Super Bowl way back in the day.

38:39Pat McAfee:So it feels like there is, we are at like a melting point for those two cities. That would be giant change, right? I mean, that would be a huge move. How long has Tomlin been there? 18 years? This is 19, I believe. Okay, that's buying cigs. Okay. Yeah. That's signing up for the military. Nice. That is a long, that's in college. You're a sophomore in college. Lotto tickets. I mean, everything. You talk about it. How long has Harbaugh been in Baltimore? not 16 17 much shorter about 16 17 years I'm going to guess that's forever that's too that's a long ass time driving if those changes were to be made I mean that's huge huge huge for both those organizations and not only not only would it be huge for those cities but like if those guys want to move on we said this before Mike Tomlin can work in TV and take just about any TV job he wants tomorrow, and if he decides he doesn't want to coach there, he could pick his opportunity.

39:39He obviously would be very selective. And I think the same is true for John Harbaugh. If the Ravens and John Harbaugh decided for whatever reason that they didn't want to be together next season, I think any team with an opening would look immediately at John Harbaugh as a potential fill-in or replacement hire in this particular coaching cycle. Anybody. Connor was just pointing at me. I got ideas. They would become, to me, they would become this year's version of Mike Vrabel. Like, desired by anyone who has an open. Easy.

40:12Pat McAfee:It was funny. It was funny. As you were saying that, we all started to think about jobs that Tomlin could take. And as soon as you see TV, it's like, wasn't Amazon allegedly offered McVay like$30 million or something? Like, Coach Tomlin, no offense, Sean McVay. Sean McVay can certainly speak. He's very entertaining. Coach Tomlin on a microphone is never lost. I heard Shregg say that. I don't think. I don't think he's ever lost on a microphone Mike Tomlin Him and Tirico on Sunday Night Football any football if he's doing studio, if he's doing calling games anything Tomlin on a microphone is a dub now if he wants to maintain coaching anybody would sign him especially if he sits down for an interview with anybody he would win with his resume in there so I immediately was like is Tomlin going to be the coach of the Colts so that is what I thought and then you mentioned Harbaugh and then Conor's over there giving me the double guns like here here it's like is zon harbaugh gonna coach the colts next year i am gonna be fired up about that now is that mean the colts are moving on from shane steichen and it's like well if they move on from shane steichen are they holding his feet to the fire for something that isn't necessarily his fault with the injuries and then not doing it for chris ballard and it's like well will they hold chris ballard's feet to the time it's like we don't know what the big three are gonna do we do not know what carly casey so let's go to the GM positions around the NFL.

41:30Pat McAfee:It's like, do we ever have an inkling on what that's going to look like? Because those are seemingly names that we don't know. Who gets hired for the GM? Somebody we've never heard of. Oh, but he's friends with blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. How about the GM thing? Have you heard a lot about that particular conversation happening around the NFL? And like, Ballard is certainly one of the big conversations, I'd assume, here in Indy. He's been here a long time. Long time. Shefty. I don't think, I'm not expecting as much activity at the GM position this cycle as at the head coaching position.

42:03Again, we've got right now the Miami Dolphins have a GM opening. I know people have talked about the Giants. I don't think the Giants are going to do anything. I think Joe Shane is going to be there for a little bit of time. That's my sense of things right now, that Joe Shane is safe. So we've got one GM opening. You raise Indianapolis. Atlanta hired a search firm. sportsology to go through the organization and provide a essentially a blueprint of what's going on there and what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong anytime a team ever hires a search firm like that um they're cowards oh what's that cowards yeah

42:45Pat McAfee:what do you mean by cowards you're put in a position to make a decision then you hire somebody else to make the decision that is not there they work for other companies they don't just work for your company yeah but we want to get an independent look from who if they had an actual good look would they still be independent or they'd be hired to somebody oh interesting that's how i view it today i'm a fan of search firms whenever i hear these schools hire search firms to find a coach it's like coward that's so like whenever that person doesn't work out you could say well we were but we'll get the right one the next one it's like well what are you in that position for why are you why are you in that chair what's the purpose of being in that position if you're going to hire somebody else to do the job you're literally supposed to do that's just how i feel i'm sure there's different looks at it and these consultant people it's like a crazy we would love to get into that business whenever we're done have no skin in the game at all absolutely get a massive paycheck and then say hey this is what you need to do yeah yeah we we're not here every day we have no idea what it's actually like we don't know what the day-to-day is but in theory this would be much better it's like what a life so we don't want to blame the um I almost said Rico because I got brought up around the internet.

43:51Pat McAfee:I don't want to blame the racket that these consulting people are doing. Okay, because that's a business that we could potentially, that's a racket that we could potentially get into someday. So we don't want to necessarily knock that. But people in positions to make decisions that opt to punt them to other people outside of the building so you can basically have a worked-in excuse if it doesn't work. Yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of that, Chef D. I don't really like that. And if you need somebody to come out from the outside to look inside your building, it's like well you're running the building what why are you in that seat get the hell out of there so that's just that's how i view it chef a little different i assume with them most how most people i understand i understand your point of view entirely see i like that could you imagine if somebody let's say jimmy pataro hires a search for uh an independent firm to come judge how you do your job it's like well Jimmy why don't you fucking it's pretty simple they will hire search firms to make recommendations of hires if you just ask people in the business themselves well who would be the best hires there are people that know have bigger stronger longer relationships that know those people better than the search firms in my mind once again we don't want to bury the racket of the pay us an exorbitant amount of money We could do one.

45:11Pat McAfee:That's what we're trying. Yeah, we will be. Let's dump that to let people know. We will certainly be in the, we got all the right answers. We don't know your business really, but we got all the right answers business. So I'm not judging the racket of the search firm. I just judge the human that makes the decision to put that as the decision maker when you're supposed to be. That is why you are, well, what are you here for? To find the, all right, don't worry about me. Let's get back to Steelers and Ravens Sunday night. Oh, whoa, whoa. No, let's stick on this point. Connor has a question for you about Miami doing something that we like.

45:45Pat McAfee:We actually like this a lot, so it kind of contradicts everything we just said. Yeah, Shefty, Troy Aikman, Hall of Famer for the Dallas Cowboys. He is going to be a consultant to advise the organization on its GM search process. Now, when it comes to exactly what Troy Aikman is going to be doing, Is that something where he is sitting down with these guys in the interview process? Is he more so advising, you know, Ross and the other ownership, Fergie perhaps? I believe she is also a part. Mark Antony. Is that more so what Troy Aikman is going to be doing? Are him and, you know, Dan Marino just kind of packing lips and talking shit?

46:27And then they're, you know, kind of mentioning some GM names. What exactly is Troy Aikman doing? And do you see other teams bringing in consultants like a Troy Aikman, you know, Hall of Fame type player, to give them advice on how to maybe point their team in the right direction? Well, look, Troy goes around week to week and is in these cities dealing with these coaches and these players on a regular basis. So he's got firsthand knowledge. And I think he's just going to be a part of this whole process. I would expect, I don't know this, but I would expect that he would be a part of the interview process that goes on.

47:03He'll give his input, and ultimately, Stephen Ross, the Dolphins owner, gets to make the decision. Tom Garfinkel in the Dolphins for an office, Brandon Shore in the Dolphins for an office. They'll all be a part of this. Now, how they come to that decision, we'll see how they do that. But Troy will have a voice. He'll have a say. We'll see how much they listen to him. But I think he just brings the credibility of three decades in the sport, understanding what it takes to win, knowing people in the sport. We talk about relationships. He's got a lot of different relationships. Troy's a very serious guy, very professional.

47:37You can count on him at all times. And so the Dolphins are leaning into that and using him as an advisor, which I understand.

47:45Pat McAfee:I like the move. Hate consulting groups, independent partners. Love bringing Troy Aikman in to get his ideas. and opinions. It's somebody that's involved in it. When you're bringing a search firm, who are these people? What are their connections in the sport? Are they going around week to week like Trey Aikman? Are they talking to the people that you are? Again, it's just a question. It's always about relationships. Where are your relationships? Trey Aikman. There you go. Trey Aikman's got a lot of them. Not to mention to sweet-ass beer. Eight you're talking about? Yeah, there it is. I wonder if they will just have a couple eights down there.

48:26Pat McAfee:A couple eights. Maybe Marino. Hey, throw me one of them. And then maybe he'll say, you know what we need to do is bring an eight back down here to Miami. Oh! Maybe that's what – maybe Troy starts doing more, you know. Actually, now that I'm down here, I've got some other ideas. And Steven Ross is like, feed me. Oh, an eight, huh? Feed me. Feed me. I just got rid of Greer for the first time in 100 years. He had my full attention for everything, basically. I'll take you down there. Could be. Could be. Let's just say, Troy Aikman getting more handsy, we like. Congrats, Troy. Guy never comes to our show, huh?

48:54Pat McAfee:You think Troy hates us? I don't know. I mean, you know, I kind of. We sent a lot of requests to Troy. Troy can never make it. First day of Rich Eisen's on ESPN at the same exact time as us. Troy, I think, was there for two hours. Don't love it. So I was like, hey, is Troy hate us? I don't know if Troy hates us. Troy, we appreciate your commitment to ball for as long as it's been. And you're super jacked, dude. Super jacked. Super, super jacked. let's get back to Sunday night football and some decisions being made. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Shefty, we're going to be waiting all day for a Sunday night Steelers-Ravens for the AFC North.

49:24And, you know, Pat just kind of mentioned maybe bringing an eight down to Miami. There's been a lot of stuff talked about Lamar Jackson and whether he's going to be a Raven or not moving forward. He said he is. I assume the organization has said they are. I believe he's practiced all week. Is he a good to go for Sunday night? And then my source is telling me that TJ Watt is potentially also a go for Sunday night. What's the whole injury situation for Sunday night? Cabols. Wow. No, I didn't say my source's name. I expect both players to be out there. Look, everything's on the line here. It's one game for the division title.

49:57This is the first time in two months that Lamar Jackson has had a full week of practice leading into the game, which is pretty amazing when you think about it. Not one week up until now. Has he practiced in full all week? But this week, he has. So, obviously, this is serious business. These are high stakes. Lamar will be out there. Now, TJ's coming back from the partially collapsed lung. Mike Tomlin sounded a note of optimism early in the week, and I think barring any setbacks in practice today, tomorrow, before the game, barring any setbacks, I would expect that TJ Watt will be out there on Sunday night trying to boost down the line.

50:35Let's go, TJ! Let's go, TJ! You're 9-0!

50:39Pat McAfee:You too, Lamar! Let's go, Lamar! Let's go, Lamar. TJ's going to have maybe the freshest lungs he's ever had yeah yeah is that how that works you know science better than us shefty is this thing the best it's ever been now because they had to pump it back up right from my understanding what a scary situation to happen out of nowhere honestly genuinely happy he's okay him coming back obviously huge for this team has played good ball and obviously in one of the biggest rivalries in all sport lamar jackson healthy for the first full week uh in two months that's he had sickness he had injuries he had a hamstring he had everything kind of right so So all systems go, and if they win, they have a home playoff game.

51:16Pat McAfee:And then if they win their home playoff game, Baltimore Ravens go on a little bit of a run. And we're talking about Harbaugh maybe being a coach of the Colts next year. It's like they might win a Super Bowl. They might win a Super Bowl over there in Baltimore. Everything's still in front of both these teams. Good luck to them. Now let's talk about a team with a new addition. Also out of nowhere. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Shefty, Trevon Diggs getting let go of the Cowboys when just a couple years ago, you know, He was arguably a Defensive Player of the Year nominee. Obviously, things haven't gone that great there.

51:47What are the expectations with him for the Packers? I don't think they're playing too many guys on Sunday against the Vikings. Can we expect to see him out there? And how much of an impact do you think he is going to make? Or I guess how much is he going to be on the field for the Packers during their potential playoff run? Well, Matt LaFleur said he hadn't decided yet whether Trayvon Diggs will play on Sunday in a game where they certainly seem to be resting a lot of different people. I know that they've already said that Jordan Love is not going to play, that he's clear concussion protocol, that it's going to be Clayton Toons turning a quarterback.

52:22I think we might see Trayvon Diggs on Sunday, depending on what LeFleur decides. But I think he's going to be playing for this team in the playoffs. And I think he's going to be coming with a chip on his shoulder. And I think he's going to be out to prove a point. And I saw what Micah Parsons said, like, wait till we see, wait till you see what we see from Trayvon Diggs here. Like, there's a lot on the line. The season did not go the way he wanted. There was mutual disappointment from Dallas and him and him and Dallas to the point where Dallas released him this week. Like, just moved on from the guy.

52:52So, I would think somebody like that is really determined to go out and show that he's better than that, that the Cowboys made a mistake, and he still can play and be a force. So I think you're going to get the best version of Trayvon Diggs in the playoffs here.

53:08Pat McAfee:Okay, congrats to Trayvon Diggs going to the Green Bay Packers. Obviously, big move for them. They've made multiples of those this season. You can't bring up Trayvon Diggs without bringing up Stephon Diggs. Obviously, he's had an incredible season for the New England Patriots. Very serious accusation and allegations come just a few days ago. And then Barmore, very serious accusations and allegations come out as well. What's going on in New England? And are they just waiting for the NFL basically to take the next step? Like, how does this kind of normally go? Yeah, they'll wait for the league to conclude their process or look into both situations.

53:41Now, what was interesting to me was that the Patriots clearly backed both players. Like, they stood behind both their guys. And I think usually teams are a little bit more neutral. And it seemed like, in this particular case, the Patriots were pro-player for whatever reason, you know, based on the information that they have. So, we'll see how it all plays out. obviously the team will let the league look into the situation the legal process will play out in both particular cases and we'll see what comes out of these particular cases all right we'll

54:15Pat McAfee:continue to follow your twitter account and everything else you have going on to keep us updated with everything happening around the football world we appreciate the hell out of you for 2025 and we can't wait for 2026 with you shefty here we are 2026 already happy new to you you guys. Happy New Year. This one's flown by. I feel like this season has flown by. They all do. I think that's what we're trying to, we're kind of learning here. It's like week two, week three becomes week 16 just in a couple snaps. All of a sudden you've done it 36 years like I have. 36 years. But you look young, brother.

54:48Pat McAfee:Yes, you do. You look young. I don't know what it is. You look young. I was sitting there about Stanford Steve, too. His breed of Caucasian, I don't think he's supposed to look like that at that age. What did he turn you as? 28? 49. 49? That's not true. He's almost 50. No way. Yeah, but he's in the sauna all the time. That was awesome. I saw him, yeah, put a sauna video out for Happy New Year. Happy New Year. That was on his birthday. I appreciate him doing that. Herbstreet's another one. Yeah. Herbstreet's an Ohio white. He's not supposed to age like that. He's supposed to age like me. How old is Herbstreet?

55:18Pat McAfee:50. He's up there. How old are you? 59. Jeez. No, you're not. What the fuck are you guys doing? You guys doing the surgeries? What is it? Is it the surgeries? nothing 59 moisturize you gotta do moisturizer there has to be a full moisturizing I do that yeah I do that I want to thank Shirley and Jeffrey Schefter for the genes I want to thank you living right I don't drink I don't do anything so I live a very boring existence Pat I'm always home you know hanging out with the dogs you know you yeah but on that note like the blue light is allegedly the worst thing for you and you're you're always in there so everybody has their own vice yours is finding new pieces of information to break news for everybody.

56:00Pat McAfee:And we appreciate the hell out of you for that. Happy New Year to you and yours. And congrats on the skin, dude. You look amazing. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Schafter. Yay, Schafter. I'm picking up a full moisturizing routine I have over the last couple years. Nice. My wife, you know. Gotta do it. Half Korean. And Asian skin is just like hers is phenomenal. Second to none. But I also realize that she takes care of it, too. It's like. Sure. does one go with the other. You know, the whites just be like, we want bad skin and just choose not to do anything. I think Bill Burr did an entire bit on it.

56:32Pat McAfee:It's like, so my wife would just slide some lotion in front of my thing and just be like, with a note, before you go to bed, just go ahead and try this. Hit some Papatouille. It's like, thanks. There it is. Exactly. Can't spell Papatouille without Pat right there in the middle of it. That's what I told myself when I was and I was rubbing it all and my skin was rejecting it. It was just a paste. I made you like it great. If you're ready for an oil change, trust the professional parts people at O 'Reilly Auto Parts to recommend the best products for your vehicle. Right now, get five quarts of Valvoline full synthetic motor oil and a Wix filter for$35.99 and receive a$15 O 'Reilly gift card after rebate.

57:17Upgrade to a Wix XP oil filter for just$2 more. Limits apply. See store for details. Stop by your local O 'Reilly Auto Parts store or shop online at OReillyAuto.com. This is Ark Raiders, a multiplayer extraction adventure where most of humanity shelters underground. But Raiders rise to the surface in search of something greater. In the Rust Belt, every run is pressure. Every decision is a play call. Face the relentless machines of Ark and rival Raiders chasing the same prize. Push forward or extract while you're ahead. Team up. Trust no one. Ark Raiders is on sale now. available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC.

57:57Rated T for Teen.

58:28Pat McAfee:We'll see you next time. T's and P's to Nick, who's in the middle of recovery for something that he had happened. He should be back next week. We hope he's okay. That was a crazy situation. He found himself. Oh, yeah. And I'll tell you what. He wasn't very positive going into it at all. What? Nick? No. Super negative. And it was like, yo. A shocker for him? I mean, I agree. Our Nick? I agree. Sunshine Moroto? No. Yeah, you're right. I mean, I should have expected it, I guess. but it was a pretty serious quick little thing that had to happen. Serious quick little thing. I mean, legitimately, that is the right way to describe it.

59:04Pat McAfee:A little medical procedure. He's good. But, boy, I didn't know you could find that many terrible things about something that quick. I mean, I didn't even know the way the body works enough that you could potentially hit something close to that that could kill you instantly and then obviously getting surgery done. There's a chance I don't wake up from that. It's like, that's.0001%. What did you say? Exactly. That's what I heard. then he said what if the new this what if this it's like buddy you're getting surgery they give you a bunch of pain pills you pass out for two days everybody feels bad for you this is a good thing not a bad thing and you're going to be healthy on the other side how other side what if i nick an artery i'm dead not zero chance what are we talking about it was like i i fought back a couple times and then i almost kind of like the i don't need your positive mumbo jumbo bullshit right now it's like bro what is the what are we even talking about so nick we want to let you know I know it's much to your chagrin.

59:54Pat McAfee:We're happy you're good. Hell yeah, Nick. Good to see you all the other time. And you were freaking us out a little bit with how negative you were being about it. I just want to let you know that. But that is kind of natural. And we're happy you're better. Honestly. We're very, very happy you're better. But I was like, no, that's not the way. I've got that a bunch of stuff. Your knee is nowhere near your heart. I was like, okay. That's a fair point. I mean, but what if I was the. Yeah. There's an artery down there. Yeah, it's somewhere. Yeah, there's certainly stuff happening. The toxic table is here at Boston Conner and at Tashman.

1:00:21Pat McAfee:We're happy next good. Yeah, of course. And we tried to say, hey, pretty run-of-the-mill procedure. Listen, I understand anything can happen. But the more you worry about it, the more anxiety it's going to get. For us, too. Without a doubt. All of us have to now have anxiety. I had none going in. It's like, congrats to medical. Congrats to you being alive at this time. This will happen quickly. They got things to fix this. Couldn't even imagine what the procedure was back in the day for this. I mean, by all, I might just literally just punch you. 47-inch incision, and they're milling around in there.

1:00:54Pat McAfee:And he just comes back, yeah, starting a new year, might not even make it to 2020. It's like, geez, come on. But he's good. He's good. Yep. Thank God. I mean, he didn't think that was possible, by the way. Right? No. To Tony's point, though, Nick might come back as Sunshine Moral, though. He might be a whole new. I'll tell you what. I don't know if we'd be able to handle it, but if he was to come in here with a radiating light around him at all times. Just a couple. Oh! What if he went to a Yes Man conference whenever he was in that service? That'd be sweet. What if he comes in here, grabs a guitar, wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend.

1:01:27Pat McAfee:That'd be great. Great movie, by the way. That lady with her dentures, too, I'm thankful she did that to him. He needed that. They performed great halftime. Yeah, they did halftime Oregon-Texas Tech, I believe. That's right. Grandma did. Third Eye Blind. Okay, I was about to say. I know she was good.

1:01:45Pat McAfee:Somebody's doing something that they're not supposed to be doing. The NHL. A lot of people. No. Us included, I guess. I guess we kind of fit in that. The NHL always finds a way to really find the right musician for kind of what they have going on. I forget who they got this year for something, but everybody was like. The Wiggles or something. I got to see Train when I went to that outdoor game. I think it was. I can't remember. Penguins played. It's behind the field. I can't remember who they played, but Train was the. Drops to Jupiter. Yeah. Yeah, it was awesome. Come on. I got chills just thinking about this.

1:02:15Pat McAfee:So I am a Train fan. There are certainly people that are bigger Train fans than me. And I learned that whenever Train was playing that particular, that exact game that he was talking about. And I put a tweet on saying, somebody other than, like, Train? I don't know if we need to do Train right now. Train loyalist. It was Train. Train loyalist. I mean, I got murdered for having. I don't even have an ounce of talent that the old buddy who sings that thing has. and obviously I'm jealous and envious of this whole thing. And I'm like, listen, I understand. I need to respect train a little bit more.

1:02:46Pat McAfee:I'm just talking about for hockey. I feel like they never really get who they think. But I think they view it like, well, our hockey fans are going to watch. We're going to try to bring somebody in that's going to bring a different demographic. And I'm not saying that's what they think about for the Super Bowl and everything like that. But I do think that is a strategy for some people that are putting together shows. And it feels like the NHL has kind of lived by that for all their big events. They got the stadium series coming up down in Florida. Yeah, they do. It does look sick. It does look sick.

1:03:12Pat McAfee:It's not open air, though. It's closed. The stadium, obviously, Tropicana Field, I think, has a roof on top of it. So a lot of people are talking about this not being an outdoor game. But I don't know how it's happening down there. Yeah, I read somewhere that they're keeping the Marlins Stadium closed so that it doesn't mess with the ice at all. So it's not Tropicana? What is it called? It's Home Depot. Okay, so it's Miami, not Tropicana. Field Depot, something like that. Yeah, Tropicana's going through it, actually. It got destroyed. Tropicana did? Yeah, a couple years ago by the Hurricanes. It's fully rebuilt now, though.

1:03:41I just saw that. Okay, good for Trotter Canna. Shout out to them. The roof is back.

1:03:44Pat McAfee:That's a legendary place. So this game is happening in Miami. Correct. And I believe I read that they're shutting the retractable roof leading up to the game so that the elements don't do anything to the ice. But I thought I read that they're going to pop that back open when the game starts so that it actually is open air. It looks incredible. In 2026, we can have Miami host NHL game with open air. I mean, good for sports going forward. Good for ice. Go ahead. Hockey people are not happy about this, actually. They want this to be in the north. They want it to have snow. They want it to be cold.

1:04:15Pat McAfee:They're not happy. I understand that completely because the pond hockey idea is kind of where this whole thing comes from. And it's in Miami, which is just the complete opposite. It feels like this is more so a showcase of what science can be right now and what ice can do, but also the Florida Panthers and what they've done for hockey down there. It feels like this is almost a tip of some super cold hat. Tip of the toque. It feels like it's a tip of the toque to the Florida Panthers and the people down there in Miami. So I understand how hockey people would be pissed about how we do like the snow and we like the environment.

1:04:47Pat McAfee:I like the sky cam that comes in there. I like the different angles that take place. I think it's a beautiful setup. I love what they've done with the stadium series. I didn't know the super hockey people were going to be pissed because it was in Miami. But, I mean, they've kind of taken hockey. They've kind of taken hockey down there, man, Tampa and Miami. And to your point about Tampa, the Bruins play Tampa in the stadium series, I think, February 1st this year. Again, doing it in Florida. The only time they've really, really had problems with it being outside and kind of nicer out was in Lake Tahoe.

1:05:18They did a game right on Lake Tahoe. And when the sun came up with, you know, the altitude of being in Lake Tahoe, that really screwed up. So, like, I don't think playing it in Florida, as long as it's indoors for the majority of it, once the game starts, it's like, hey, within three hours, it really shouldn't affect the ice itself. But I think it's just sweet because all those players get to go to Florida and play a game.

1:05:46Pat McAfee:Back whenever I was skating around Gold Mile Ice Rink. You know, we had to get off every, what, 45 minutes so they could fix the ice. Yeah, it was like every 45 minutes to an hour, which is one of either the great times or the problems happened. everybody's got to get off the ice now. You've got to be in the concessions. You've got multiple places. What did you say to me? Yeah, but there was a lot of that. But also good times. Let's not act like there wasn't great times there. Five bucks, all you can skate, have a good time. Make it out. I mean, there was a lot of... What? People were sucking face with a lot of people around there.

1:06:16Pat McAfee:Jeez. You turn a corner of a bleachers, and all of a sudden, two people sucking face. Looked like New Year's Eve. And be somebody from another school, and then somebody you know from your school. And you'd be like, wow, there's no way that person knows anything about that person, or they would not be doing that right now. That person seems to be way out of that person's league right now. But good on you. Go get them, sunshine. Beauty of the roller. But in that ice skating rink, then the inevitable part of it is that person that was from the other place would have people that they were with, and somebody in that group obviously was not happy that that person was sucking face with somebody from our particular.

1:06:46Pat McAfee:And then that's where it all starts. And then now you've got three hours at the skating rink trying to figure out who's going to try to stab who with an ice skate. And that's Friday nights. I ended up in a hospital two times there because somebody got stabbed with a skate. So it was – that's my thoughts, but that was indoor. It was very cold. Very, very cold there. And they had to reset it every single time. And there was times where it wasn't frozen, you know. So I don't know if Golden Mile is anything like what they got going on, Donner. Might be. But they need to keep an eye on that ice, especially in a warm area.

1:07:15Pat McAfee:Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is an ice expert. A man who understands everything about the cold. Not that kind of ice. What are you talking about? You're talking about snow? No. Guy is from Ohio. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, College Football National. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, AJ Long. Yeah. Hey, when's your birthday? What are you referencing? When's your birthday? My birthday is January 6th. It's coming up pretty soon. Yes, it is. Happy early birthday. Obviously, January 6th. Everybody thinks AJ Hawk's birthday. That is what everybody thinks about that particular date.

1:07:51Pat McAfee:Hey, it was fun, man, watching your team lose down there in Texas. Not watching them lose. Sorry. Let me rephrase that. That was rude of mine. We're coming up on your birthday. That was fun to be able to be on the field for that Miami-Ohio State game. And then also for Indiana-Alabama. And, A.J., I think you would say the same thing we say. The more physical teams clearly won those games. I mean, it feels like across the board. Oregon, too, very physical. And this Ole Miss team, they might be the mentally toughest team of all time. Feels like tough football matters whenever it matters. And that's what we kind of saw over the last couple days, A.J.

1:08:22Yeah, I mean, I don't know if we ever, like, got away from it. But there definitely was a time in football to where it's like, hey, spread them out, basketball on grass, that whole thing. And they didn't talk as much about winning the trenches and being the more physical team. But I think we're in a great time for college and professional football. I mean, how many unbelievably violent hits did we see in these games this weekend? Two different games. We saw people selling out, putting their body on the line. So tons of respect for it, man. Yeah, it sucks Ohio State loss. I'm an alumni there. Love everything about Ohio and Ohio State.

1:08:50But yeah, Miami, I have tons of respect for how these guys play. and getting to see them play two weeks in a row now in person on the field. Yeah, they're awesome.

1:08:58Pat McAfee:And I don't want to say this to disrespect the entire state. I'm just trying to point out something that I think Ohio State people should respect and probably do respect. Miami out-Ohio-ed Ohio. I mean, that is certainly what happened. And then Desmond Howard would say, so did Indiana. Indiana out-Ohio-ed Ohio in the Big Ten Championship. And now, is it because of their current teams that they are or because of who the teams Miami and Indiana have? I think Signetti wants that. I think Signetti is relying on their team to be very fundamentally sound and very tough. Like, that is just how we're going to be.

1:09:30They tackle well in space. That's a sign. We talk about this, too, on the field with Darius. Like, these guys tackle in space very, very well, and it's something you cannot really do in practice. So, for Indiana, coming off that 20-some day break and being able to tackle in space and tackle so well, like, that's usually what goes when you have a break, is you don't tend to tackle as well as you have, and these guys were absolutely on fire.

1:09:50Pat McAfee:Is that the toughness? I think that's tough. In my eyes, having the secondary, like Pons right there with a massive shot, he wasn't the only one. 12 was all over the place. There was multiple corner tackles in space, which is normally what it's going to end up being whenever you have an open field. Can your smaller guys make big-time hits? Does that go into the toughness that we're kind of referring to here about these teams, AJ? Yeah, I think so. Like, you have 11 willing guys to make tackles on every play. An offense, like, they're trying to make your corners tackle. They want to get to the corners and say, all right, we're not going to block the corner, obviously, because we expect our running back or whoever to make that guy miss or run him over.

1:10:25And when your corners are physical and they come up and run support on a consistent basis, yeah, it makes it very tough to score points on you.

1:10:32Pat McAfee:There was a stat that was floating around the internet here. This is from Care Bear Kieran. And once again, we have not double-checked this from Care Bear Kieran. He's unbelievably passionate about sports. He's from Brooklyn, New York, 13 ,500 followers. He tweeted he did a roster dive on Indiana. Hasn't found a single offensive player younger than 21 yet. Indiana plays more six-year guys than underclassmen. And then he puts in the end, that's a team of full-grown men. It's not just full-grown men. They're all very physical. They're all a very, very physical group. And they've all bought into the fact that they weren't supposed to be there.

1:11:06Pat McAfee:Kurt Cignetti has built through the transfer portal. The transfer portal has been opened today. Names in there, over a thousand allegedly. Big ones. Where are they headed? Well, to tell us, ladies and gentlemen, the authority on college football from college game day. A man whose hair was meshed up in his first spot on game day because of the rain. And then they wouldn't let it happen again. Perfection the second time we saw him. Ladies and gentlemen, Pete Thaylor. Yeah, Pete! How you doing, Pete? Pat, I'm great. How are you? Authority, you saw it. I saw it. First time, first hit at the Rose Bowl there.

1:11:39Pat McAfee:The rain was getting you. The humidity was getting you. There was a little bit more drop onto the forehead. Then the second time you hit us with, and you dropped the precipitous amount of something, hair was flawless. The delivery was perfect. I appreciate you battling the elements for all of us. And let's talk about the very, very, very important day that is today. Transfer Portal officially opens up. What does this mean in the modern world that we're in, Pete? all these people we knew were going to go in there because their agents have been telling people or how should we view today in the college football space so today pat is the start of a sort of two week binge where every player college football essentially can be a free agent every year uh there are now uh according to our max olson who's our portal guru 4 000 players more than 4 000 Division I players in the NCAA transfer portal.

1:12:29So it is just a completely ridiculous free-for-all right now. And, yeah, it's a mad scramble for rosters. And you combine that with 33 jobs having turned over, which means there's going to be probably 50 % plus roster movement at those 33 places. And the normal attrition that happens, yeah, it is by far and away in the short history of the portal here the last five, six years, the most frenetic and hectic time. And the big difference for the macro this year, Pat, is there is no second window, right? There was a post-spring portal. So you could kind of go and be like, eh, I don't really like where we are at Nickel or Left Guard.

1:13:09Let's go to, you know, grab the guy from Troy or, you know, some Sunbelt school and, you know, and figure it out. So now this is the only time for legal movement. I think graduate transfers could still end up moving. But for the most part, you need to address your needs now. and it comes amid a quintessentially college football moment where, you know, there's obviously still four teams playing, right? So we're going to have guys going in the portal who are going to have to leave their teams like we saw last year with Bo Perbula. We're going to have guys, you know, declare they're going to leave but stay with the team.

1:13:41So it is – and you have teams that may be trying to target the replacement for players who are going to be playing for them in the portal. So it is a weird moment in time. I don't know how long the portal will be at this moment, but it is here, and it is made for an unusual amount of hecticness.

1:14:01Pat McAfee:4 ,000 names in the transfer portal. That's 40 if there's 100 teams. How many total players are there in Division I football? Do you know? Well, that's what I was trying to do, the math. 100 teams. We'd go 133 times 85. I'm not a math guy, but I'm sure Ty can do that in his head. No, certainly not. Yeah, we got phones now. 11 ,300 phones. 11 ,300. So a third, basically, of the college rosters are currently in Transfer Portal. And I will say this, from a player's perspective, if I can go in there and go back to my school, why wouldn't you go in there just to see? Now, that leads to a conversation of, like, in the NFL, free agency frenzy launches on a Monday at noon.

1:14:42Pat McAfee:Okay? We're very lucky that it happens. It's part of our show, has been a part of our show. It's crazy. but all the tampering there's a legal tampering period in the nfl it starts at the combine and then it kind of works its way through where agents are speaking to other agents gms are speaking it's a it's basically like when it all kind of takes place but it's a legal tampering but they're not allowed to do it so they meet in bars and starbucks unless schultz and rapaport fight each other so you know it's all that does college have that happening as well because i assume that that's very regular right now because there's really no rules or no real person to enforce any of it.

1:15:20Pat McAfee:So I would assume the tampering has already happened. Have deals already been made? Do players know once they go in the transfer portal where they're headed? How does that kind of all work? So yeah, there is, to be fully blunt, I don't even know what the actual contact rules are, but they are ignored and the agents are legally acting as middlemen for their players and contacting schools and such but obviously the players are talking to the coach like all this stuff is happening nobody's even really hiding it if we're if we're being honest right so yeah guys started good you know declaring they were going the portal three four weeks ago and markets are set and preference lists are made and you know so today tomorrow we're going to see some uh you know some deals finalized for example last night uh right after midnight i reported uh rocco backed The Iowa State quarterback told me he's going to visit Penn State and likely will come to a deal.

1:16:12You know, that's not shocking. He played for that staff at Iowa State. And so deals like that, that, you know, that they're fairly obvious are coming together and set to come and set to come together. So I would say probably of the quarterback market, a third of it is probably done or close to done at this point.

1:16:32Pat McAfee:I think there needs to be a full calendar. There needs to be a full calendar here. They just need to do a calendar rehaul that'll fix a lot of the issues. I mean, Saban talked about it. He took his New Year's resolution to chat about it. But it's like, obviously, the players have to do what they have to do right now. Teams have to do what they have to do. But if you change the calendar, then I think that kind of fixes when you have to do what you have to do. And it might make it all a little bit morally understandable. I think that would be a way to kind of, what's that? You said, I don't think so, to morally understandable?

1:17:05Well, morally understandable. it would make it make sense right like and it would keep everything a little bit more a little bit more linear but there's always going to be tampering and there's always going to be dudes

1:17:14Pat McAfee:getting fired no agree but if we have a legal tampering period like the nfl has like it was happening now it's just kind of like hey it is happening then it's a little bit more like everybody's doing the same shit because everybody always says what am i allowed to do when am i allowed to do it it's like if they were to make a calendar i think to my perspective i didn't explain it enough it would be more morally understandable to be able to do all the shit that everybody's doing as opposed to just being like, we don't know what the rules are. We don't know what everybody else is doing. We're trying to keep up with everybody else.

1:17:41Pat McAfee:Well, who's everybody else? Have you heard exactly? No, but somebody's got to be doing that. There's a lot of that kind of happening, you know, where people are kind of justifying everything they're doing. So if we had a better calendar that kind of said, like, this is when this happens, this is when this happens, this is when you can do this, this is when this happens. But who would do that, Pete? And now we're dog chasing tail. Now we have no idea who would even accomplish that. Who's at the top? Who's in charge? Nobody, H. Right, Pete? Pete, will you just quickly, because I don't want us to talk about who is and who isn't in charge, because it's nobody, right?

1:18:09Pat McAfee:That's basically the final answer? Correct. Yeah, that's the succinct answer to that is no one is in charge. But the game is great. Awesome. And the players are awesome, and there's a lot of great opportunity. Now, you talked about 4 ,000-plus names in that transfer portal. The number one name in the ESPN transfer portal rankings. Go ahead, Tom. Yeah, Pete, I believe it's Brendan Sorsby, quarterback from Cincinnati, is number one. Now all four teams in the semifinals are starting transfer quarterbacks. Dante Moore being the only quarterback that's been there for two years. And Sorsby is not the only name.

1:18:40Levitt's in there. Drew Mestemaker, Lagway, Riola, Byron Brown, everybody knows. Rocco Beck, Josh Hoover. Like there's a lot of big quarterback names in this transfer portal. And we've seen you can go to a national championship with transfer quarterbacks. A lot of those big names. Have you heard any rumors on potentially where they're going or schools that are in the market? Obviously, we know that Miami's always in the transfer portal quarterback market. IU's always in the transfer portal quarterback market. I believe Texas Tech is probably going to be. Can you link any of those or any schools that potentially are definitely in that market?

1:19:13Sure. Let's start with Shoresby. A couple minutes before jumping on here, I reported that he is essentially on his way to Lubbock right now for a visit with Texas Tech, which obviously loses quarterback Baron Morton. And remember their backup, Will Hammond, who's a promising young player, played really well at Utah this year, tore his ACL. So Texas Tech has a significant need at quarterback, as does Lane Kiffin. So Sourvi is going to visit Texas Tech and then go to Baton Rouge and then will soon make a decision between those two from there. So that, as quarterback battles go at big brand programs, that is about as high stakes as you're going to get in this portal season.

1:19:58You mentioned Hoover. I reported on game day with, I think, better hair than the first hit that Indiana is expected to target Hoover. That can get tricky as things go. There's a few other schools that are involved, Louisville, Kentucky among them. but um that one is uh that that one is in line you know today as it was on uh as it was on i don't

1:20:21Pat McAfee:even know what day it is anymore thursday did i say yeah it is crazy yeah you should have seen us last night on the flight is it from is it today or is it yesterday what day is it today and that's like well we don't know our phones are they on central time mountain time or are we still on pacific time because you really don't have a clue but it's been an honor to do it all i will say, but it has been quite a blur here the last 2025 and 2026 into today. I think I got, this is not to complain, but this is certainly just to let everybody know what's been happening. After Cotton Bowl, we fly to Burbank, California.

1:20:55Pat McAfee:That's where we're supposed to fly to. Because there is low ceiling with all the weather and the clouds. Pilots come back. The boys in the back had fallen asleep at this point. Snoozing. A lot of snoring happened in the back. Can't fall asleep on the planes tried to did catch like 15 minutes on a flight home was pumped up about that but was wide awake pilots come back we're gonna try to land you in burbank uh but we don't know if it's gonna be possible if not we'll head to lax okay they tell us that it's like sweet and we're all very tired it's very late and then the guy heads back up there so him flight attendant turns around and goes they're thinking they're gonna be able to get into burbank cool because we got dry you know people picking us up and it's very late at night and the show starts at 6 a.m local and it's about to be 1 15 at this time so you know we don't have a lot of turnaround time and from one side to the other is like uh 45 minutes or so you know so that is a little bit of a drive so all indications are we're going to be able to land in burbank so we go sweet we'll go down to burbank uh we tell the driver we're about to come down we go down 200 feet sea ground first time we see it oh yeah it looks pretty nice down there we take right back off it's like okay a little peek can go we're not able to do it so now we're heading over to lax now we got to get into at LAX landing, right?

1:22:05Pat McAfee:Because there's a whole thing. So that's an extra 45 minutes to an hour there. Drivers obviously didn't get messaged because we didn't have service until 20 minutes after we had already left. So it took them another 20 minutes to get there once we get there. So all of a sudden, a four-hour nap time becomes like an hour and a half, two-hour nap time before college game day. So then I just roll into game day on like six coffees. You know, here we are, the rain's taking place. So then right after game day, so jacked up about being at the Rose Bowl, I'm going to sleep for an hour and a half, two hours here.

1:22:31Pat McAfee:Well, Oregon, Texas Tech's playing. And it's like, well, I'm going to watch that game a little bit, pass out about an hour, get in there. Then we get in last night about 2 a.m. We're in here this morning. So I'm not saying woe is me. I'm just saying not a lot of sleep because how great college football has been. But it's been the perfect way to start 2026. Are we going to get some massive signings? Like is Soarsby signing today? Like will we get these early announcements or is there an official time when all these deals kind of get announced? Like Rocco's deal. Will that get announced as it happens or is that like a couple days from now?

1:23:02And do the deals have to be in this two-week period? Or is that just a visit time where the deals have to be done in this time?

1:23:07Pat McAfee:Yeah, what's the next couple of steps here? Maybe a nap or two away from me. So I would expect sort of some dominoes to go. There's no like specific day, Pat, where they're going to happen. I would expect them to start popping formally maybe late today and then over the weekend throughout the week. And I think once a few go, we're going to get a bunch more. So, yeah, it will be a fluid and dynamic situation. But it's not like they have to do it by the 16th when the portal window closes. It'll get the pop in, he says. Yeah. Yeah, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. So you just have to enter the portal in these two weeks.

1:23:40Is that what?

1:23:41Pat McAfee:Unless your team's still playing and then you get what? Five days, I think. Afterwards. Five days. Yeah, they kind of open it up for another five days. All right. That sounds very feasible for everybody. Go ahead, AJ. Last question on the portal. Yeah, Pete, how much have you talked to these coaches, especially the guys that are in the playoffs, how they're handling this whole situation, not only trying to, you know, figure the portal out, But you're renegotiating with players you have on your team as well and trying to decide who you're going to have around. How are these coaches handling it?

1:24:06Yeah, it's a good question, AJ. A lot of the renegotiation for the playoff teams, they tried to do in December to just get it out of the way. It's probably not the best game week of a playoff if you're talking to a guy about his deal and his value. But there's also some of the reality of it, too. I think the most interesting high-stakes situations were like Ty Simpson at Alabama. like do you go try to find a replacement for him you don't know if he's going to go pro like you don't know how that's going to work now his season's obviously over Dante Moore at Oregon look I think everyone just slots him in the mock drafts at one or two and in in just assumes that's going to happen I'm not telling you it's not but there is there's a feeling at Oregon that he could stay and he's even said that he said that to one of the TV crews going into the JMU game he's younger he's kind of seen adversity um you know he's he's a little bit of slight guy he could probably use to put on some weight um so i'm not telling you he's definitely coming back but i do think that's that's there on the table so if you're oregon by the way you're going to need a quarterback for next year all these quarterbacks are falling off the board so it just creates some really bad situations and difficult situations which is why the the calendar that nick suggests that uh that pat uh mentioned earlier would again nobody's crying for the teams in the final four but they're in bad spots.

1:25:26Pat McAfee:Yeah, and maybe this is what the parity is created by. Everybody else that isn't in it has time to fully focus on it. The people that are in it, you have to be distracted a little bit, so maybe that'll help with parity going forward, or these teams that are in Final Four are there because they figured out how to deal with all of it. There is certainly a couple of different things, as Pete Dammel keeps his portal phone popping on this glorious 4 ,000. I think we have a little scoop when I get off here, Pat. What is it? What is it? I mean, I got to confirm it. Go with. You can run it by us first.

1:25:59Would you like us to confirm? Yeah, I don't know if you're the crew I run it by with the couple hundred thousand people, a million people you have watching. So that's probably not a good one.

1:26:06Pat McAfee:That would be the right time to do it. Okay, last couple quick questions. And you're talking about staying going. There's one particular team. I mean, this Golden guy might be the greatest coach I've ever seen. Go ahead, Con, man. Yeah, Pete, it's talked about today how Weiss Jr. is over at LSU, you know, 12 hours after the Ole Miss team beats Georgia. Now he's recruiting, getting ready for the portal with LSU. Is there a chance that these guys look at themselves in the mirror and say, what the hell am I doing? I'm getting the hell out of LSU and going back to Oxford and just staying with Ole Miss or all six of those guys locked in with LSU no matter what.

1:26:42They can't change their mind. They're screwed. They're starting from the bottom. Ole Miss might win a national championship. It is just generally wild that Ole Miss might win the national championship. right like it like what this is why college football is you know the most ridiculous best sport in america uh it is just uh it's mind-blowing it's wonderful it is uh it is it is awesome i do not expect connor uh any of those coaches to go back they have contracts that almost has also like hired their replacements too so it's the the world has moved on they're just in that little uh temporary time warp there and uh yeah ton of credit to to charlie weiss jr man he called an unbelievable game last night.

1:27:21He had Kirby on roller skates. That's difficult to do. That's, you know, that's, that is that, you know, that Georgia defense had been the best in the country the last half of the season. They had stonewalled a bunch of people. And yeah, Trinidad Chambliss is one of the great stories in the 21 or 22 years that I've done this. I mean, just what a, he's just been relentless in, in, in meeting the moment.

1:27:45Pat McAfee:And a guy that you'd like to have a beer with, says Coach Colting, which means the boys like him. Every time we've heard him talk, he's seemingly electrifying, and he's not letting any of the outside distraction or noise get in the way of him and the boys kind of doing their thing. It's been fun to watch. Now, about him, last question for you, Pete. Go ahead, Todd. Yeah, Pete, speaking of Winadad, is it just assumed that he is going to get another year of eligibility from the NCAA? And also after this kind of storybook run for Ole Miss is done is the idea still that he a thousand percent is going to be transferring to LSU.

1:28:19And a majority. Yeah. Yeah. A bunch of other guys, I guess, on the roster as well. Well, let's start with Trinidad. I think Pat would appreciate if I termed his medical redshirt situation quite the quagmire. so Trinidad's sophomore year at Ferris State he did not play a snap uh he was dealing with uh chronic tonsillitis uh and I've you know they they've filed an extensive letter to the NCAA there is uh there's 91 pages I believe this off the top of my head from something I wrote four or five days ago of medical documentation um about Trinidad Chambliss and why he didn't uh He didn't play that year.

1:28:59The early inclination from the NCAA as they communicated to Ole Miss was that they were not going to grant him the medical red shirt waiver. So they hired Tom Mars, the noted attorney, and they are pushing, trying to push a few buttons to see what's going to happen. The timing of this is horrific for Trinidad Chambliss. If he knew that he could have a year, he would be a top of market four or five million dollar a year quarterback for for next season. And look, the guy made a nice sum of money this year at Ole Miss, but it wasn't even anywhere close to seven figures. So this would be a chance for him to get a real payday, develop another year in college football and really set himself up well.

1:29:41So there is an NCAA committee that reviews these medical hardship waivers that is set to begin meeting likely today. They were closed until New Year's, as Mars pointed out to me. So it's fascinating because if Trinidad jumps in this market, I can't tell you he's won, but he's, you know, he's certainly he's certainly darn near close to it. And it would really create a fascinating dynamic between Ole Miss and LSU. But Ole Miss and LSU also have to go get other quarterbacks, too. Right. Like that, you know, that you can't sit and wait and hope for the NCAA for for a waiver in this situation. So it's it's pretty fascinating.

1:30:22And again, look, there's an expectation just in terms of players that a lot of them are going to, you know, who go in the portal after Ole Miss' season ends that they're going to consider LSU. So the longer they go, Pat, this is just an opinion. The longer they go and the longer Ole Miss wins, the harder it is to leave. Of course. Humans. Yeah, human nature. Yeah, human nature and also just like calendar crunch, right? The title game is January 19th, right? Like, are they going to hold a spot until January 19th? You know, it depends. Like, it's just the volume. You know, maybe like star guys, key guys, deals in the drawer, all that stuff, sure.

1:30:58And that's... Deals in the drawer. Oh, no. That was how to quantify the exodus. But it would certainly be interesting the more they win, how this goes.

1:31:09Pat McAfee:You're the best. We appreciate the hell out of you, Pete. We'll continue to follow along on this transfer portal... Palooza? Palooza. Yep. There it is. It's Portalpalooza from Pete Thamel's X account. We appreciate the hell out of you, man. Thank you for all the info. Thank you, gentlemen. Get some rest, Pat. Pete, I'm going to let you know we're bummed out over here. Yeah. Because of you. Why? Well, our refrigerator is certainly not big enough for the amount of people that are in here. Okay. I heard about this. Did you? I forgot to ask my wife. ask my wife but pat you're on the christmas card list it's like two years ago i was asking you for your address and you wouldn't give one yeah to me i like texted you that could be a little evasive right so all i want to do is send your christmas card that's all yeah but then i feel like i need to send something back you know so so no no you we're talking human nature we're talking my human nature so the reason why whenever people are like hey what's your address i want to send you something i'm always like yeah yeah yeah and i just try to hope that they forget about the conversation because first of all, I don't want to commit to opening it and I don't want to commit to having to feel bad for whatever it is or also send something the other way.

1:32:21Pat McAfee:So I'm trying to cut a lot of steps out of my life whenever I do that. You literally came up to me and said, just want to send you a Christmas card. You said, that's all I want to do. And I appreciate you, the clarity, you know, because who knows what shows up here? Actually, who knows what shows up here? So your family's Christmas cards, the last two years, are the only thing that are currently magneted to our refrigerator. It's a clear canvas, except for the two family Christmas cards on our refrigerator. So literally everybody sees it every single morning and throughout the entire holiday season we're like, I want to win this year.

1:33:00Pat McAfee:Can't wait. Guess what it is right now? It's 2020 fucking six. It never came. Broken freaking heart. we'll get to the bottom of this Pat I'll talk to my sources we'll resolve this we've added Teagan too so it's a pretty good card I'm not going to lie it's an upgrade even worse it's an exodus of debauchery you should see the real estate that your family has on our refrigerator it is an exodus of debauchery it's at eye level on the fridge set your watch to it there's fucking Pete and Teddy in the fam I'd love another water You know what I wasn't going to stay hydrated But just another glimpse at the Thamel family I'm going to head over there Making me healthier People are asking me why I'm in shape If every time you ate something healthier or got water You saw the Thamel family you'd want to go back to that as well And then all of a sudden this year The Thamel family says You're not a part of the family anymore What's that all about Alright thanks Pete Merry Christmas Pete Go confirm some news.

1:34:09Pat McAfee:Unbelievable, Pete. Break some news, Pete. What's that all about, H? I don't know why. Why do you get cut? I enjoy seeing it, too. I come in there on Fridays, usually. I get some water. I say hi to Pete and the fam. And, yeah, I've been waiting. I assume the third one was already here for this year. I didn't know you did that. I always salute the family. What did he do? He put a kiss right on the family. I didn't know you did that. I mean, look, it's a Massachusetts family. It's different for me. it hits even closer to home. He's a power player. Age, I don't know if you saw this or not. I thought your outfit for the Cotton Bowl was potentially the reason why the Ohio State Buckeyes lost.

1:34:48Pat McAfee:That was an interesting choice by you, honestly. I told you what happened. You were driving down. You got comfortable and just said, I'm not changing. That's what happened. Yeah. And it matched the tuxedo t-shirt, so I said, why would I change? I mean, wearing a onesie, though, on TV was certainly something we did not expect from A.J. Hawk. And what's the sweatsuit? It just says sports on it. Yeah, it's from China. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay. It was a$14 sweatsuit that A.J. chose to wear. And when he showed up in it, we were all very surprised. And then whenever he was like, I'm wearing this on the sideline, we were all aghast.

1:35:24No, you tried to get me to wear goofy shoes and make me even look more absurd.

1:35:28Pat McAfee:No, you were thinking about wearing the boots. We were just telling you, tuck the sweats into the boots. That'll look cool. That's all we were saying because we did think it would look cool. And now that we're looking back on it, that might have been the most Ohio thing you could have done. Maybe Ohio State would have been more Ohio as opposed to Miami with you wearing a sweatsuit. Oh, wow. Maybe. I did – I don't know if I told you or not, but I did leave the sweatsuit in Dallas in the hotel and left a little note and said, you can keep this. I wasn't bringing that back. I wanted to bring it back because it was so comfortable, but I can't.

1:36:03We lost the game.

1:36:06Pat McAfee:You guys did lose. We won, though. It felt like football was great. And obviously, Indiana pounds Alabama, so everybody thinks that's a bad game. I don't know. I thought it was awesome to watch a team just execute to perfection while also being very physical and tell a story that they'll talk about forever in the college football world, this Indiana Hoosier squad, and how special of a run it is. And is Kurt Signetti the greatest coach of coaching? just in general because of what he's been able to do to a program that existed but not really and then flip him into an absolute title contender that shot right here is by spanks this is spank no there's spanks you see him yeah there he is the one yeah he's in there he's he's a worker you know he's like a spider monkey in there he sat at us a couple times it was all it was hard not to just let him know that this game is not about you brother okay and there is 53 and a third wide here you know the way this entire thing goes by tower on purpose once yeah he walked right in front of us a couple times i almost tripped him but i know the camera was what wasn't worth it yeah that guy sucks i mean just through and through that guy sucks but that shot he had a becker that shot he had a becker really good pretty good now is that him or the camera you know very interesting that he's taking credit probably for the lens in the camp but that's a great shot i mean unbelievable shot if you guys weren't standing there he wouldn't be able to get that so he should be thanking you guys maybe because he came in from a different angle but this was electrifying that we were allowed to be there.

1:37:27Pat McAfee:We're very thankful that we're allowed to be there. We're very appreciative that we're there. And we had somebody watching from New York, which we're grateful for front of the program. Ladies and gentlemen, Emmy award winner, Peter Schrager.

1:37:41How you doing, Schrager? I'm doing great. I'm in Tampa. I'm on sidelines for this Saturday Buccaneers Panthers game, but I don't know how you guys are still standing. I turned on the television two nights ago. There you are doing your thing. I put it on last night. There you are on the other side of the country doing your thing. Can you just tell me, I know you probably talked about it, was there a greater American moment than that B2 bomber going over the Rose Bowl? No.

1:38:09Pat McAfee:The weather thought they had America. The weather thought they had us. That's what they thought. And then all of a sudden, we're back out there for halftime. Four Air Force men, properly blues. I mean, they were properly, they come up to us, they go, hey, when the clock hits zero b2 is coming right over that scoreboard right there and i was like excuse me i had to take my ears out i said excuse me i thought that was canceled they go they thought it was it's not when that clock hits zero b2 is coming over there to start the second half of the rose bowl this b2 stealth bomber comes flying overhead they thought they beat the b2 they thought the flyover was not going to happen because there was a couple clouds and maybe a little pressure in the atmosphere that thing flew from missouri to pasadena there was no chance we weren't going to see maybe our aviation anomaly the b2 bomber shaped like a falcon to be faster than you stronger than you more stealth than you i love that shot an indicative message to the rest of the world that we're america and you're not yeah i don't know if there's anything more american than flying over the rose bowl as indiana with their story of everything that happens inside of it taking on alabama with college football happening in a massive way to start 2026 yeah i'd say that's the most american thing you could be a part of and we salute the hell out of the troops the past the present in the future and any future bombers that we got that take out assholes around the world that don't like us shout out to them as well good question shrags that's why you're an emmy award-winning journalist i loved it it was cool i got emotional and you said it you said there's two things that no other country has college football and that b2 bomber and that got me riled up baby we got college football you don't shout out america and we got that thing i don't know what everybody else has but i feel good about where we're at forever and uh it was a beautiful thing that there was uh there was a couple uh uh off mic moments people uh thought that got caught on air that was crazy people were like these guys don't know they're on air it's like what oh you mean red what we do said that right in this mic yeah and i said freedom erection yeah right into another microphone and then i saw people going it's crazy what these people will say whenever they're not on the microphone it's like even crazier lady we're dropping that shit right onto the live mic and who was i talking to who was i talking to there was somebody grabbed my microphone uh and whenever i said it feels like somebody's talking into my microphone i guess you couldn't hear it on the feed some audio person was trying to fix my microphone because it wasn't working and he was just talking right into it and it was going into all of our ears like while i was talking so i was trying to tell that guy to turn off the microphone because you were speaking into our ears i guess the feed couldn't hear it but then people were like oh they don't think they're alive it's like we we know we know we're live and did you see what we just saw yeah you're not getting a freedom erection call sign death 11 are you kidding me yeah okay i think we're having it's not a jet it's a beat it's a bomber yeah emmett mcmahon properly known as PMI Mitt texted in the group as this thing happened that jet was sweet it's not a jet it's a stealth bomber I guess it does fly in the sky though where other jets would potentially be so we respect that he is employed by us so we are certainly a part of the problem and we will try to learn him up we will try to learn him up and now on that note let's learn about some ball you're down in Tampa I think huge one yeah you're a huge fuck out of Let's talk about Carolina and Tampa Bay.

1:41:38Go ahead. I did want to say something because I'm watching Signetti. I watch you and Signetti go back and forth, and we're talking about him in the college game. It is not a deep class of NFL coaches right now. Don't you even think about it. You're talking about Vrabel last year and Ben Johnson. I don't know if there's a hotter coach in any level than this guy. And if you look at those vacancies, Adam said it earlier, there might be four or five more. I'd be very curious to see if an NFL team Picks up that phone and calls old Bloomington, Indiana And just inquires That gentleman right there Because I don't know if I've ever seen a better coaching job Than what this man has done

1:42:13Pat McAfee:He's very comfortable in his own skin He is who he is He's a talent evaluator He loves college ball Obviously he's dedicated his entire life to it What he's doing for Indiana Incredibly remarkable and unbelievable And he even said Be a good move, he won it And then Reese was like Is there a follow-up to that? And Sig was just like that was later but reese did ask him about his thoughts on it and he said it'd be a good movie and then reese was like i don't know if you're gonna keep going or not and then sig just kind of looks at him okay next question next question sig is like that though i mean you are on even when we talk to him i feel like we get along with him very well we get along with him very well i I don't know where he's going.

1:42:59Pat McAfee:I genuinely don't know where he's going. And I think that's a part of his greatness. His team loves him. His team has obviously rallied around him. The school has rallied around him. The state has rallied around him. And I think he loves exactly where he's at. I mean, when you talk about statues, that thing's already made. I mean, he's already got a statue. In Bloomington, who knows what else will come. I appreciate you acknowledging this. I said it's one of the great coaching jobs ever. And then I asked Twitter, I'm like, is there a comp? and where a guy comes and out of nowhere, a program that's just been moribund and asleep for 100 years suddenly becomes a power.

1:43:33And the only two comparisons I got that were even closer, that I think were good, Bill Snyder at Kansas State, he resurrected that thing. But that was with a lot of Juco guys and they built it up and they had that great run with Michael Bishop and Darren Sproles and all that. And then Jim Calhoun at UConn because UConn is up there in stores, not necessarily a power. And then all of a sudden UConn was rattling off biggies championships and national titles but that is a elite elite company of coaching

1:44:01Pat McAfee:i think brad too you're a butler right yeah brad stevens for sure yeah whenever he did consistent multi like multiple years of national title now i don't want to say like basketball is not comparable to football but it's hard because there's like 13 people on their roster and then there's 85 to 100 on a football roster so getting everybody to buy in like that obviously a taller task but i'm not putting down basketball coaching as well obviously it's difficult but yeah sig special man he is a he's awesome and he's a western pennsylvania guy that went to west virginia and now he's out here in indiana it's like he and i have a lot in common i've met a thousand kurt signetti like peoples uh in my life there's only one kurt signetti though yeah i love that great take he is a uh he's a special italian man special italian answer who is uh special for ball Okay, let's bounce around the NFL a little bit.

1:44:53Pat McAfee:You're down there for the NFC South battle. Now, Carolina wins and they're in. Bucs win. Atlanta loses. Bucs win. Atlanta wins. Tampa Bay wins. Carolina's in. That's basically how it goes, right? Carolina, two out of the three different outcomes, going to be the NFC South champs and host the playoff game. What are the other storylines going into this one, other than the Bucs have been absolute ass? What are your thoughts there? Yeah, they have been. And they're 1-7 the last eight weeks. They started off 6-2. And in that 6-2 start, they won a game in Seattle. They beat the Texans with that defense.

1:45:30And they beat the 49ers straight up. And then they went off the rails. And they've been awful ever since. We spoke with the Buccaneers yesterday. Had a good chat with Baker. It's basically, this is the first week of the season where they don't control their own destiny in the division. And the message around the team was, look around. We're a bunch of veterans. We've all been here. We've all done this. Let's leave it out there on the field. and let's do this. Let's play free. They're hoping to get Tristan Wirfs on the field. I think he'll play. And they're hoping to get Kalijah Kansi back, who has been out for 14 weeks and is their energy guy and their best player on their defensive line next to Vita Vea.

1:46:04So there is hope in the air. They are not a defeated bunch. And yet, to your point, if you're at home and you're trying to figure it out the playoff-wise, Buccaneers fans need to root for Baker and they got to root for Tyler Shuck. If they get those two guys to win, the Buccaneers can go to the playoffs.

1:46:18Pat McAfee:Last question on this game. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, Shregs, people have tried to, I guess they hypothesize maybe that Baker's not 100%. Do you get any feeling that this guy's banged up a little bit? Oh, yeah. Baker's all sorts of banged up. I mean, he's playing with about 100 injuries. What's the most? What's the biggest problem, you think? Well, I could look at the injury report and what I got. I don't have it on me right now, but there's multiple things listed, and he's going to play and be Baker and be what he's going to be. That's what it is, and his whole body's aching. What's interesting is it's the first time he's had all four wide receivers healthy, you know, the last couple of weeks, and that includes Jalen McMillan and Mike Evans who have been out.

1:46:58So they get Bucky Irving back there. They get Tristan Works if they can. Like suddenly they're the healthiest they've been in weeks, but Baker, of course, is banged up, but he's not going to miss this for the world.

1:47:06Pat McAfee:Let's go to the number one seed in the NFC Saturday night special. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Shregs, what do you think the biggest takeaway is from 49ers and Seattle? Seattle, I don't know. I mean, maybe they've obviously been very good all year, but no one is playing as good as the San Francisco 49ers right now. Well, it sounds like Ty's already made his selection there, didn't he? Seattle, I don't know. Well, I'm just saying, you know, I mean, Brock Purdy is arguably the best player in the NFL right now. Kind of done this with Darnold already. Yeah, we kind of have done this with Darnold already. But he has obviously a big shot at redemption.

1:47:40How do you see this one going? Well, I think it's an incredible game, and we're blessed on ESPN to have both of these games on our network on Saturday. And you look at Darnold, you look at last year, you also look at the fact that Clint Kubiak is a Kyle Shanahan disciple and Sam Darnold spent all that time with Kyle Shanahan when he was the backup to Purdy. And you think, does Kyle Shanahan have something up his sleeve where he knows this other team and knows how to solve them? I would also look at this, two other parts to this game that are really interesting to me. The first one is an easier one.

1:48:09There's a carrot at the end of this game. If they win this game, they do not have to leave their homes the rest of the year. What? The Super Bowl is in Santa Clara, and it would be the first time ever that the number one seed also has a Super Bowl at home. So we've seen the Buccaneers and the Rams win Super Bowls in their building, but they went on the road and they had to do some things to get there. This one will be fascinating because the Super Bowl being there means that they can get a full week off after this, and then two games, and then the Super Bowl. Unheard of stuff. So that's the carrot.

1:48:40The second thing, which I think is really interesting, as we're debating Stafford or May, Stafford or May, remember, humans vote on this award in the MVP. What Christian McCaffrey has done the last few weeks on two primetime games. All right. With the rest of this roster.

1:48:56Pat McAfee:Oh, no, Schrags, don't Dan Orlovsky do this thing. Not even being listed in these oddsmakers. They're saying Bo Nix and C.J. Stroud have a better shot than Christian McCaffrey. I'm telling you this. There are 50 voters. Orlovsky's one of them. There are several at ESPN. We're humans. I am not one. I don't know if everyone's looking at the EPA stats and the strength of schedule. They might just be looking at when the games mattered the most, who played the best. Stafford threw three picks on a Monday night game in Atlanta last week. Drake May was up 21 to nothing and lost against Buffalo the last time we saw them on national TV.

1:49:30Shut up, dude. The last three weeks, though, of the season, the 49ers had prime time against the Colts. McCaffrey ran wild. prime time last week against the bears mccaffrey ran wild and if he goes a thousand a thousand and does it by beating the seahawks for the number one seed i'm telling you odds makers be damned this thing can flip there is a narrative to be said that hey this is the year that we give it to a

1:49:52Pat McAfee:running back okay i don't know i i don't i don't really with what drake may has done i i understand you guys don't want to crown him um i i understand that you guys it was really cute though that you crowned Malik Neighbors and you called him better than Terry McLaurin before anything happened basically before this season, which was a wild move by you, but you've hit on a lot of things as well that were wild. Is that such a wild move that Malik Neighbors has a higher upside and might be a better receiver than Terry McLaurin? That wasn't the conversation! Now you're doing exactly what ESPN people do.

1:50:27Pat McAfee:So, like, that is... Let's just go ahead and not... Let's stop doing that. But just what Drake may has done this season there shouldn't be an hey let's pitch for somebody else to win it what christian mccaffrey has done certainly special and we are some of his biggest fans whatever the case drake may is 23 in his second year and even with this 32nd ranked schedule or whatever what he has done against common opponents with matthew stafford who people were saying has done is better than what matthew stafford was doing it's like and you can't really name okay stefan diggs okay keep going exactly okay valuable he's the MVP right okay so it's like I understand you old TV people don't want to kind of give it to Drake May because he's in his second year but it's like this year is warranted of an MVP winner for Drake May and uh I respect pitching Christian McCaffrey for the record I respect Dan Orlovsky who has a vote I did not know he should I did not know I did not know Dan Orlowski had a vote with what he did for Stafford.

1:51:28Pat McAfee:It's like, okay, I respect what you're doing. I love Matthew Stafford. I think we've been very open with our love for Matthew Stafford. Christian McCaffrey, massive fan. I've been very open about how much we like him. But like Drake May's season is fucking special. Like this has been an important of an MVP for sure. So let me tell you how it's voted. So you have to fill out a ballot one to five. And the person you put number one gets like five points. The person you put number two gets like four points. The person you get number three put three. So it's not necessarily who gets the most first place votes.

1:51:57It's this culmination of 50 different voters. And it's interesting because, yes, Orlowski has one, but I think like Boomer Esiason has one, Troy Aikman has one. There's a lot of former players who have them, but it's also writers and it's also people on TV. But I don't know if there is a, if, okay, here's how I would say it. We've had second year quarterbacks. Lamar did it. Pat Mahomes did it. Kurt Warner did it. We've seen second year quarterbacks win it. I don't know if they look at Drake May's season as this historic slam dunk, most valuable player type season.

1:52:28Pat McAfee:All right. On that note, AP voter Tone Diggs is here. Tone, whenever you look at it all, how are you kind of viewing it? And MVP award has become quarterback award. I think that is basically what has happened. So if you guys were to not vote Drake in with the year that he's had, boy, the mass holes are going to be loud for a long time about it. But on that note, it feels like you do understand that Drake's had a year that he's had, although your vote is not final until all 17 games are played. Yes, I need to see all 17 games. And it is a two-horse race, I believe, between Drake and Matthew Stafford.

1:53:01And I respect the Christian McCaffrey angle. I feel like it's hard, even though he has basically been that entire offense, especially when Mac Jones was the quarterback. But Bijan, technically, is having a better season statistically than him, so that kind of hurts him in that. That's a team that's been eliminated since Week 12. No, no, I agree. I completely agree. And, yes, that's where the valuable thing comes in and all of that. But, no, I don't think it's – I don't think Drake's a clear-cut winner right now either. Like, Stafford – If that game didn't happen the other night, which it did, it obviously did, and it didn't happen in Week 17, like, Stafford would still be the favorite.

1:53:37Pat McAfee:Okay. I appreciate that. That's AP voting. That's right. That's a voter. Schraggs and I don't have a vote. Here's AJ. Dan Rolowski does, though. I don't want to vote. Stay away. Me neither. I would like you to have the greatest weekend of all time, though. We'll see you on Monday. Goodbye. Love you guys. Oh, that was good. I think you did get it in. I think you did get it in. That was really good work out of you. Connor has exhibit A. Well, I mean, just the wording really pissed me off. You know, and not everybody might. It's not like the other Lamar Jackson seasons that are historic. Drake May is the first ever quarterback with 4 ,200 pass yards, 30-plus pass touchdowns, 110-plus passer rating, 400 plus rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns.

1:54:16Yeah, but they're not going to get the number one seed. Maybe, but probably. We've had this conversation. It would be a nightmare. And I said this, Schrager, just as a Patriots fan. I would take a win in the playoffs over an MVP. Of course. Because if he were to win the MVP and they were to lose in the first round of the playoffs, everyone for the rest of time would call him a easy schedule merchant and the only reason he won the MVP was because of the schedule and that they would never actually beat a good team and that he's not a good quarterback. Did you know it's actually Stanford Steve told me this weekend easiest schedule since 1999?

1:54:53Pat McAfee:Well it sounds like we know does Steve have a vote? He should. Steve says a lot. We see. It was his birthday the other day. Happy birthday Steve. Happy new year. Or you're not. What's that? Yeah, he's on TV. Of course he says a lot. Stevie TV is what they call Stanford. That is what they call him. He looks so young. He does. Doesn't that look amazing? He was wearing that red with red behind him. I know. Which was surprising. That's such an aggressive move for his particular caucusoid. Yeah. I was more surprised seeing that than his co-host.

1:55:28Pat McAfee:Love. We love love. What a moment. What a moment. So he had no idea what was coming. Didn't look like it. He just got a run and whatever. And then natural reaction. Life comes at you fast. It certainly does. Especially if whoever's running the video is just like, let's fucking see what he does. Take a lot. Take a lot. See what he does. What about? Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Respect working those hours, too. On New Year's. Legit. Now, granted, we had three New Year's, Shrags. We were flying. Oh, my gosh. We hit them all. We had 26 hours at least. AJ, have you thought about that?

1:56:04Pat McAfee:How many hours we had on December 31st? I have not yet. Had to be 27 hours. Have not thought about it. He's living in the moment. Yeah, he's right now. I'm here. I'm here. And then the next one. We learned this about AJ. He broke this down to us on the flight to the Cotton Bowl or to L.A. He literally just lives in the moment. I was like, we all try to live in the moment. He goes, no, but I'm actually living in this moment right now. And here. And here. And here. and here. And I'm like, Jesus, you're a goldfish. I guess that's how some people would describe it, but I'm just mentally where my feet are is what I am.

1:56:39Pat McAfee:And right here, do you remember what this exact moment was, AJ? I do not, no. So we were telling him, oh no, there's a new king of the Big Ten, and it's the Indiana Hoosiers. He didn't want to hear it. What was he doing? Patting. He was patting. AJ patting. AJ was patting all weekend, Shregs, because Ohio State lost to Miami. I mean, he was potting, potting pretty good. Some very lucky person at the hotel just picked up a gorgeous sweatsuit that was worn once. I don't know about gorgeous. Gorgeous should have been me. Franny Connor would have certainly worn it every day, which goes to the exact point I was making there.

1:57:17Pat McAfee:That sweatsuit was something. That sweatsuit was something, dude. I had no idea that he was going to. Did you think that ever with AJ? No. I certainly didn't think when I saw him wearing that, that that is what he was going to be wearing on the sidelines. Maybe it was because he was getting a little active because he thought he was in the game, you know, because it was a Buckeye game and he's so different. How about the shot of him yelling at the ref to call a fucking touchdown? He's in it, Tricks. He's in those games for real. It's awesome to watch. It's part of why college football is so amazing.

1:57:46Pat McAfee:AJ lives in the Columbus area, obviously an Ohio State legend, but it was every snap he was with it, and he just so happens to have to have a microphone on him with people talking shit to him while it's happening. It was cool to watch. AJ, you are why college football is great, though. Sorry, Shranks. Go ahead, brother. I was going to say, I watched the entire broadcast, and I texted you guys at halftime. Pat, I mean, I'm not trying to blow smoke up here, you know what, but you did play-by-play really well also. And that's a skill that, without having the spotter and the full thing, you were calling those plays as they were happening in real time from the end zone.

1:58:21It's pretty impressive broadcasting chops you showed there, too.

1:58:24Pat McAfee:Oh, thanks, Shranks. It's very difficult to see anything, so I'm just saying whatever dumb brain has. But D-Butt and AJ both basically have the game pinned pretty quickly. I mean, it is a— He almost stopped talking, so— Two quarters, all right, I guess I'll stop talking. The game's over. Game's only two quarters because at the beginning, during the commercial breaks, everybody who had a microphone to AJ's ears were letting him know, oh, no, 14-0, this thing's over. Okay, game's over. I'll stop talking. I'll show you for the rest of the game. It was like, that's where he was doing his pouting. But for us, like calling it, AJ and Darius have the game immediately.

1:59:01Pat McAfee:Dialed in. Almost immediately, like exactly what we're looking for, what it's going to be. And then once you start kind of getting into it, the players are make the game, you know? So all we're trying to do is spotlight the players. There's some dog days, I'm sure, of the sports calendar, but you have to at least pinch yourself when you're on the field in those moments, right? Oh, yeah. The cotton ball we added, like just, yeah, we would like to do that. Can we do that? We are not contracted, so would you like to take one from futures like nah nah just you guys we're not paying to do it for sure but the other way can we do it so like absolutely we don't have any setup so it's like we're very thankful for the opportunity to do it and when we're down there yeah it is always a constant reminder to each other and to ourselves about how dumb this whole life is i don't want to speak out of pocket no without a doubt i mean without without a doubt like that that is you're hard pressed that we've done a lot of cool shit i don't know if any favorite part of the tops that Yeah, it's so stupid we get to do that.

1:59:53Best part of the year. Yeah, Rose Bowl every time. We eat the grass on the Rose Bowl every time we step onto the field.

1:59:59Pat McAfee:We do not. So that is what you guys are doing. We have to. On our end, you have to. Yeah, for the Bugle Boys' broadcast on the other side, we have to have the Rose Bowl in us. We need to be penetrated by the Rose Bowl. Because you guys played in the league, so our credibility is to have the Rose Bowl inside of us. Okay, and you guys certainly do cheer for that, or is it like? No, just pick it up. Do it on your own. It's a very personal moment when the Rose Bowl enters you. So it's like a ceremony. Exactly. Very much so. And even yesterday, you know, we had a lot of that rain. So that was some of the more fresh grass that I've had.

2:00:30Noodly, if you will. Okay.

2:00:31Pat McAfee:So how many pieces of grass? How many? I'd say 20 to 30. Like what you would pick up on like a tee box to see which way the wind's going. And are you doing one bite or is it any? No, no, no. All in one. I think, Conor, I'm pretty sure I saw Conor pick up part of the painted grass on the sidelines. His was as soon as we got down there. Some painted, and I'm going to just say it, a smidge of dirt this year. Okay. Usually it's just the grass, but I got a little of the brown stuff. And I didn't eat it. So the granddaddy of them all was inside all of you. Yeah, yeah. This year I put a lipper in for a little bit.

2:01:05Oh, you're sucking daddy. Yeah, it was nice. Yeah, he was sucking daddy. The granddaddy of them all.

2:01:09Pat McAfee:I love that. Tastes so good. Why don't you guys tell me that? I can put that over there. You guys are literally living the Rose Bowl. We don't want to brag about it, man. Everybody's trying to gnaw on it. Yeah, everyone wants to suck on Granddaddy. Of them all. Rose Bowl. Yes, but we honor it by doing that. Thank you guys for doing that. Yeah. So that's what you can feel through the TV, Shrags. You can feel that. Tomorrow, Shrags, do it to the field. Tampa. I will. Maybe grab a piece of the ship, actually. There you go. It's not the Rose Bowl. Suck on the ship. Yeah, take a split. Pat, weather-wise, Montana State or Rose Bowl rain?

2:01:46What do you remember more?

2:01:47Pat McAfee:uh i would take rose bowl rain um a thousand times out of a thousand i think yeah that montana state thing it was so cold and shout to the game day crew um so at montana state we're powering through generators because it was so cold so they they were losing power and they had to make a decision on like do we send the show or do they still get a heater for their feet you know like that was decisions that were either or that was decisions that were being made so obviously the feet heater lost there so they sent that thing out to the the world so we could continue to be live and i'll tell you what that that was a decision that was made that did not think about the humans that were out there it was really cold because even the fans that were out there freezing with this they had like fires going around they were around fires it was like negative 14 or something like that negative 20 was crazy the the frozenness of everybody's body while we were doing the show will make me remember that forever but also it's not a bad memory like that's not a bad memory yeah that was cool to be a part of don't want to sign up for it again but it was certainly like a cool moment i remember forever that rose bowl rain i think saban was in the worst spot so with the way the wind was blowing the wind was blowing into our in a stage my left side was getting hit Herbie's right side was getting hit.

2:03:09Pat McAfee:So if it was Herbie's right side and my left side, I think that was basically the full width of his back. Yeah, I think Saban was getting hit by that. It was like 50, 55. It wasn't like freezing. Could see the breath a couple times, though. But yeah, we were just getting onslaught from behind us. But it was like. Couldn't believe I would. Because I went to sleep probably right after the game Thursday night. And then I wake up, and there you are in Los Angeles. I mean, I got it. It's just unbelievable to me. Thank you. Yeah, it was unbelievable to me too. And I'll tell you what, I almost missed that one.

2:03:42Pat McAfee:You know, I gave myself the hoot with the owl, sore with the eagle speech like 10 times. Yeah, you have to. That 6 a.m. local, that game day goes live. 5.27, I'm still naked in my bed. Really? Yeah, I'm naked in my bed. And I'm laying there staring, doing the, you get to do this. You can't be just out there. Who with the house if you can't soar with the eagle? Could you imagine you don't show up? What is saving going to say about you? You don't show up to this thing. And I immediately get up. But how good did that pillow feel? Oh, I was thinking about it the whole time. And then I get outside, then I get outside the bus or whatever, and it's actual monsoon happening.

2:04:27Pat McAfee:And it's like, all right, at least this wakes me up though, you know? And then you walk down the tunnel and it was all drenched. I'm in cowboy boots. I'm maybe I'm going to eat chicken. Yeah, slip and slide. So, like, the most – I'm, like, dancing down this tunnel while drenched. And it was like, I needed – I, like, woke up, dude. You know? And then you get down onto the field, and they're obviously working their asses off with the squeegees, which we appreciated for sure. Because if that would have sat there, I don't know how much more it could have taken with the amount of water that was falling in there.

2:04:53Pat McAfee:The field itself was unbelievable. Where we were, it wasn't even that bad. No. The Rose Bowl crew did a phenomenal job, but it felt like it was very relenting, I would say. Yeah. I don't know if you heard, we did a peek and go with the plane too. I've already told a story once on here, so I don't want to continue to do it. But plane down, 200 feet, back up, can't land. I did not know that. Yeah, that was at 115. And then we get 2 a.m. to LAX, 240 back to Pasadena, 245 back to Pasadena. Shout out to Denzel driving me over there to get back there. so then 3 o 'clock to 5 10-ish, 5.15 we're trying to pass out and then we wake up.

2:05:37Did you sleep at all or no?

2:05:38Pat McAfee:I got like an hour and 40, two hours there. But it was like we're lucky to do it. As soon as you get down to the game day set, it's like not the fucking lose ball. You see Steve over there. Yeah, wearing his jaw. Didn't even know it was his birthday. Here's a guy. Exactly. It's like good to see you, Steve. Appreciate you. The whole crew, the camera crew were all there. I didn't see them the last time. I don't think they were there so it was good to see them. Good to see you. Good team, team. Some of them are just getting absolutely pissed on. When we got to the hotel, they were leaving to go to the game day set.

2:06:07Pat McAfee:Yeah, to go set up all the stuff. Yeah, when I got to they had already set up all the security barricades to get in for the day because people were checking in to work for the day as we were getting there for the first time. I did Good Morning Football for many years and we used to do the draft in those LA, we did the draft in Vegas, I'll never forget. I had a 2am call time in Vegas because we need, you know, whatever. And I'm walking up there, and the entire world's at the casino tables. The entire world is spilling out of clubs, and I'm wearing a shirt and tie with a mock draft at 2 in the morning, walking up to the room to do the filming.

2:06:43I mean, it was crazy. Yeah, you morning show folks. What time did you guys start? Eastern. We started at, we used to start at 7 Eastern, so it would be 4 Pacific. And, you know, we have the Zoom call, the meeting, the whole thing. When they moved the show to the West Coast, it was like I you know you lose years off your life and that that I couldn't do it much longer

2:07:03Pat McAfee:and we're pumped you came over to you hell yeah that's ever a morbid take no we are pumped the morning show thing I started with the Bob and Tom folks which are radio and by start I mean like once a week I would go in there there you commit your entire life to doing morning I mean that is uh hey you're going to bed nine eight nine o 'clock because you're up. I did it 10 years on the East Coast, but when they, the West Coast, when the show's over and the sun's not up yet, that's... Yeah. You're a third shifter, brother. Yeah, that's right. That's what that becomes. And shout out to all the third shifters, but on the head, their entire life is different.

2:07:40Pat McAfee:And I'm happy you said, I don't know if I'm built for it. I don't know if I am built for it. We got a couple other questions about what's happening around the NFL before we make our picks and get the hell out of here. It's going to be a great weekend. It's going to be a very good weekend. Yeah. We got great ball this weekend, Shraigs. Great ball this weekend. So good. Week 18 of the NFL season is about to deliver. Ty Schmidt has a question for you, Shraigs. Yeah, Shraigs, just curious. When you look at the potential number one pick in the draft and how that can shake out, I know a lot of New Yorkers are all pissed off because the Giants won last week.

2:08:15And if they lose, there's a chance they can either have the number two pick. I don't know if they have the number one pick. They can go all the way down to seven. how do you think uh this is going to shake out and also have you heard anything like is fernando mendoza for sure going to be the number one pick in the nfl draft yes there's such a long way to go but i would say he is the perennial favorite right now with two teams the jets and the raiders both in desperate need of a young quarterback so you would assume that he would be and he has checked every box and i you know i spoke to daniel jeremiah for a while this week because i don't think there's anyone better as far as year-round doing this stuff and dj was like the nitpick on him is that it's all RPO.

2:08:55It's all RPO. So he's like, so I went through all the third and sevens or longer. And this kid is money in that situation without the RPO. He's smart as hell. He's a great kid. And he takes a beating and just gets right back up. The comparison that DJ made, which I thought was really good. And I shared it on get up this morning. Everyone's talking that he's, you know, well, it's Kirk cousins because of his personality. That's fine. Playing wise though. And I think that's a really good compliment. He said, Matt Ryan, where it's just big body, smart as hell, can do the progressions, can stand in the pocket, and is just a leader in every single way.

2:09:26I mean, and that to me is worthy of the first overall pick. The other quarterbacks in this draft are, you know, you got Moore, who's a bit of a long shot to be the number one pick. And the number third, number three quarterback, we don't know if Simpson's coming, you know, what his deal is. We don't know if Trinidad Chambliss is going to skyrocket up, but it is a shallow quarterback draft class, to say the least.

2:09:47Pat McAfee:Fernando's definitely the number one. Once they meet him and talk to it's only going to grow and I think maybe you and a team that doesn't need a quarterback like doesn't appear to need a quarterback might want to make their move for Fernando I think I appreciate your comparisons to Matt Ryan and Kirk Cousins and stuff like that he's a dog though and not that they weren't okay I think they obviously have to be dog to be able to play in the NFL and everything like that but like the way he talks is that of a football dog he takes a lot of pride in the fact that he's tough he takes a lot of pride in the fact he's a good teammate he brought all the boys up to the Heisman.

2:10:19Pat McAfee:And everybody's talking about Diego and his offensive lineman. For sure should be a part of it. Fernando's boys were there too with him and they got trapped up there. They actually, there was a flight situation. They all hung up. Is that right? And Fernando led the way. It's like, he's, I don't know. Maybe we're too close. How about this? We're too close to the situation. How about he goes to - He's 6 '5". He goes to New York. 6 '5". He's a beast. He can move. He moved yesterday. And I'll tell you this. He goes to New York and I know that this was covered at the time, But, you know, what's he do Saturday Heisman afternoon?

2:10:49Is he out, you know, shopping himself? No, he took, you know, 10 different kids whose parents suffer from multiple sclerosis on a shopping spree around New York City. That's how he spent the day. Like, if you don't, I've never met him. But if you think he's cringe or dorky, like, please, go get your quarterback. I will take this kid 10 out of 10 times. He is dorky, though. And that's okay. Yeah, that's a good thing. Can he win the games?

2:11:12Pat McAfee:I think it's a good thing that he's a dork. We need to start changing that. I don't know how we change that because we'll say nerd and dork, and I'll have nerds and dorks get upset at me. I don't mean this 20 years ago, nerd and dork. I feel like now nerd is a good thing. It's a good thing to be a nerd or a dork, I think. Yeah, I would call myself a nerd or a dork. The first thing I'm doing after this is going to watch Stranger Things. Is that nerdy and dorky? Maybe. Am I going to play video games all weekend? I think culture is a little bit more nerdy and dorky now. I think culture is a little bit more nerdy and dorky.

2:11:41Pat McAfee:Because we do a lot of tech stuff. But like you said, too, he doesn't play like that when he's on the field. He's a fucking killer on the football field. And also, I got cracked, no pause, and then just kept rolling. It's like, okay. I think he's a guy. I think he's a program generational quarterback is what I think of Fernando Mendoza. That is how I view him. Just everything about him screams guy. He's addicted to film, super smart, loves his teammates. You talked about him taking the shopping spree to the kids of MS families. That's because his mom has MS. So he's literally watched life go the way it's gone and has found motivation, inspiration, never going to get in trouble.

2:12:20Pat McAfee:And, oh, yeah, he can fucking spin it. Everything is the tightest spiral. Every ball coming out of his hands is an absolute dart. AJ, am I mistaken in that? Even his warm-up throws, because of the white paint on the ball, you literally see it. Now, he's going to hold on a ball there on the sideline. But when he spins. Almost killed Sig. I mean, it's a perfect throw every single time it feels like, AJ. So if he goes to a cold weather climate, he'll be able to handle it. It feels like he is a generational type NFL quarterback, potentially. He's what it feels like, AJ. Yeah, he feels like the prototype that you would want.

2:12:53And everything, like the mental part of it, is just on top of what he does physically is what puts him over the top for me. He seems like a no-brainer.

2:13:00Pat McAfee:Can he figure it out, though, at the NFL level? That's always going to be the question at the quarterback. Well, there's also this knock that, well, he was a one-star recruit. Guess what? Cam Ward was a zero-star recruit. And I don't care what guys were recruited by the services when they were 15, 16 years old. Can we take the kids for what they are now? He's 22 years old. He's played in, I believe, 33 college football games now he's started them. If we haven't learned anything from Bo Nix and Tyler Schuch the last two years, I'll take a quarterback with some experience and who's played in multiple systems over the raw product who you say, well, he could jump real high.

2:13:34Pat McAfee:Yeah, and he might be able to jump high. We don't care. We have no idea. Him running yesterday was so funny. Yeah. because he's a lumbering lad. And it's like, I didn't know this was a part of his game. Carson Beck doing the same exact thing. I wonder what Carson will do, you know, for the quarterback draft class going forward, honestly, because he's a big son of a bitch too. And there's your five-star guy who we've been hearing about since he was 12. So that's the other side of the spectrum, right? And he's won big games. You can point it like, hey, he's been a part of big games and has won big games.

2:14:02Pat McAfee:His teammates like him. He's been in two different places. There is a lot to like about Carson Beck as well. And then Dante Moore, I guess there's a chance if you listen to Pete Tamer earlier, where he goes back to Oregon. So it's like, uh-oh. He was another one of those five stars. All of a sudden, you got some questions up there at the top. All of a sudden, you got some questions at the top. Are the Indiana Hoosiers about to have the number one overall pick? Yes. It feels like they are a lock, too. Especially when you, like, at DraftKings, I believe he's minus 450 to get number one overall. He's this big, too.

2:14:30Pat McAfee:Yeah. Has Indiana had a basketball player going? Was Isaiah first overall pick? That's a good question, Pete. When they see him too they're gonna only be more impressed i mean he's fucking he's big house he's very big like it's like holy shit in a way his throwing motion is like perfect uh he's got like perfect mechanics and i'm telling you the ball comes out fucking perfectly i i mean it is every time is the tightest spiral go ahead iu basketball has had uh two number one overall picks uh walt bellamy in 1961 and Kent Benson in 1977. Kent Benson was a problem. Oh, yeah. Isaiah and Victor Oladipo were first round picks, but not number one overall.

2:15:14Pat McAfee:Oladipo was there. He looked so cool. He had a jacket on that made him look awesome. Was he at the game? Yeah. A lot of Indiana legends around. Mark Cuban, I believe, was there. Yeah, saw a Cubicubester. Cubes, big supporter of... He got a big pop on the Jumbo Troll. Yeah, as he should. He's a big supporter of Indiana athletics. I think he is really I think he's a part of a massive piece of Indiana sports right now, kind of having a big resurgence. So that's good. Pittsburgh guy comes to Indiana, does his thing. Signetti, Pittsburgh guy, comes to Indiana, does his thing. We Pittsburgh people come to Indiana, do our thing.

2:15:47Pat McAfee:Great state over here, dude. Let's talk a little bit about Pittsburgh, though, shall we? Go ahead, Tone Diggs. Yeah, Shregs, obviously Sunday Night Football is a big one for a lot of different reasons. Winner goes to the playoffs, losing coach. Who knows what's going to happen? and even the winning coach, as Schefter talked about earlier, who knows what happens if they have an early first-round exit in the playoffs. You've been one of the more positive people talking on TV about the Pittsburgh Steelers and their chance Sunday night. Why is that? And then what do you think about the coaching situation for these teams if obviously one of them is going to lose on Sunday night?

2:16:19Aaron Rodgers lives for moments like this. Aaron Rodgers had a moment in 2022 at the end of the season where it was winning in, and it was his last game as a Packer, and he lost on Sunday Night Football to an aspiring Lions team. Oh, no. He's about to be positive.

2:16:34Pat McAfee:They shut him down. Okay, you're back, you're back, you're back, you're back, you're back. He hasn't had a chance. He's looking to avenge that. And I'll tell you, last week, get it out of the system. You go into this game. They played the Baltimore Ravens a few weeks ago. Everyone picked Baltimore to win. It was in Baltimore. They punched Baltimore in the mouth right from the gut go, and they never looked back. I don't understand how everyone today wakes up and says, oh, well, at home in Pittsburgh, which might be Aaron Rodgers' last game, they might get T.J. Watt back on the field. Oh, and by the way, Mike Tomlin might be coaching his last game, that they're suddenly going to take a nap and go in the corner and not show up for this one.

2:17:12I have full confidence that the Steelers are not going to be the same Steelers team that we saw against the Browns last week or against the Chargers earlier this season. Personally, I'm picking the Steelers to win this. They're at home, and they've got Aaron Rodgers at quarterback in a game where everyone's doubting them. I'll take those odds.

2:17:28Pat McAfee:I love to hear that. Pittsburgh people are certainly going to be interested in your thoughts there. I'm not sure because I said that. I think they're torn, brother. Go ahead. A lot of them are like, no, just lose and just be done with this whole thing. Exactly. But, yes, that is what I'm referring to. A lot of them are very torn. It's like, okay, so we win this game. Great. Baller Aves, the North title, and we get a home playoff game. For what? Oh, it's going to be the fourth time we come down to Accresure, okay, this season, and play a team that's actually good, and they're going to beat the hell out of us in front of our faces.

2:17:58Pat McAfee:That has happened in Pittsburgh like three times this year already, right? Was it three times this year? Yeah, Green Bay was at home. Seattle? Bills was at home. Seattle was at home. Seattle. So it's already happened three times at home where Yenzers have had to travel in. Had to leave at halftime and all of those. But to get there, had to leave two hours before the game to get there, to the tunnel. Well, I'm going to play schedule maker. I know those guys at the league office pretty well. And traditionally we get the 4-5 game as a Monday night playoff game for ESPN. And it's either NFC or AFC.

2:18:28If we're doing Panthers-Buccaneers tomorrow on ESPN, And I doubt they're going to give ESPN Panthers-Buccaneers winner the following week. So I would imagine the winner of this game is going to play Monday night football the following week for the wild card round in that building. So if you can't get up for a Monday night game at home in the playoffs. Oh, that'd be awesome. We're great on Monday night at home. Undefeated. Oh, yeah.

2:18:54Pat McAfee:Talking it, boys. We're going to the divisional round. And then guess what? Anything. Anything. Oh, mama. I'm in deep. Oh, mama.

2:19:07Pat McAfee:Oh, my God. Divisional round in Foxborough. Already won there this year. That's a piece of cake. Yeah. Hey, if they go to the divisional, they're probably playing against either Drake May or Bo Nix. You guys. That'd be fun. Everyone to play a game? That'd be fun. Never seen them do it. Never seen them do it. Aaron Rodgers on the road. I've seen it before. It was the 2011 Packers. AJ Hawk was on the team. Yeah, they beat the Steelers in the Super Bowl that year. He owes us one. This is a giant vat of iced tea from Publix alone. I love that. Hold on. How many is it? What is it? Unsweet or super sweet?

2:19:47Pat McAfee:Which one? I go unsweet. Of course. Just the tea only? Body is a temple. Here it is. Of course. Zero calories. Look at that. Hold on. What do we have in there? We got potassium. Hold on, H. There's fucking nothing but sodium in there. Potassium, sodium. Salt water? Dump some sugar in there, Shregs. Yeah, what is in there? Oh, yeah. Go back to the ingredients, please. Can we see that? What are the ingredients? I'm sorry. Oathnut. Down a little bit. Filtered water. Brewed tea. Caramel color. Oh, I love that. Potassium. Caramel color? What am I drinking? Potassium sorbite. There's preservatives. That's a preservative.

2:20:29Pat McAfee:You got caramel color, which is just food that I assume, right? Nothing too bad, right? Even though I've heard some of these colors are really the problem. Yeah, not great. And then potassium sorbet, which is a preservative. I'm sure that's okay. And then why is dehydrated piss one of the ingredients in there, too? Yeah, I didn't know they were doing that. What animal is that from? Yeah, good question, AJ. Humans. Well, hey, Batches of Hule and got himself a long way drinking that. That's right. And Shred's is now an Emmy Award winner. So, I mean, it turns out A.J. Hawk, it led him to be the all-time leading tackler for the Packers.

2:21:04What did?

2:21:05Pat McAfee:Drinking your own urine. Remember? Oh, okay. Ice cold glass of piss every night. What are you cool with that? What do you put it in the freezer for the ice? Put ice cubes in it. What do you mean? On ice. Don't act like you don't know. Imagine how quickly ice cubes would melt in a big glass of piss. That's when you put ice in coffee, brother. That happens. But just like, did you see, Stanford Steve ordered something similar to D-Bud on our plane. I did not expect that. Did you see what they ordered? I think it's pretty similar to your order. D-Bud asked for just like basically give me four shots of tequila with ice.

2:21:36Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah, a glass of tequila. Yeah, just a glass of tequila with ice. I'm like, are you putting anything in there? He's like, no. Oh, shit. AJ, you told us that you used to do that of piss, right? It was like you'd get the square ice in the thing. With the big cube, please. I forgot the tequila. No, actually make ice cubes out of pee. That's the other thing. Oh, that was supposed to be a gift. That was a gift from me to your wife. I know where it's at. They're not going to find it. I'll get it on Thursday, Wednesday. They're going to take apart the plane? Somebody gifted me a big bottle of tequila, and it's like.

2:22:06They're not going to find it.

2:22:07Pat McAfee:I can't do that. I'm in a chapter of life. I cannot be doing tequila. It's just a decision. I didn't even consider there would be tequila or drinking involved in the run you guys just did. Oh, brother. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? Jack and Diet for sure. I had no idea. I didn't factor that in. What do you mean you didn't factor that in? It was fucking New Year's Eve. We were driving. For three hours straight, it was New Year's. James, you're going to be with us. Midnight. We had to celebrate New Year's Eve three different times, brothers. Yeah, we were fucked up. To be clear, there were some very banged up people on that plane, I would say.

2:22:43Pat McAfee:There were some boozed up people. I could not. I did have a jack and die to celebrate the situation. But then there was these little gummies that AJ was handing out. Yeah. Surprise gummies. Hey, that was crazy. AJ was just like, look alive. AJ was still drunk. He put the parachute on. We had to, like, rip it off him. Like, he was thinking about jumping. I'm going to pull it. I'm going to pull it on the plane. Living in the moment. Yeah. Think about him showing up in that moment. Whoa, how'd I get here? What were the previous moments? What happened in this moment? What led to this? Yeah. All right, Triggs.

2:23:14Pat McAfee:Happy New Year, dude. We appreciate the hell out of you, man. We appreciate the hell out of you. Thanks so much. You guys are the best. Thanks for bringing me in your family. I appreciate it. We're lucky. We're very, very lucky for you. We can't wait for 2026. You need to do one of these runs with us. You should. It's a pretty wild time. Are you going next week? Are you doing any of the games? Both of them. Both of them, brother. Arizona then to Atlanta. The Atlanta one is intriguing to me. Atlanta one should be epic. Because you have two quarterbacks, and I'm a draft junkie, so Mendoza and Moore together is very intriguing to me.

2:23:44Second time.

2:23:45Pat McAfee:And I don't want to say when you get eyes on Mendoza, it's a little bit of a different thing. his ass, his legs he's a horse don't look at the Adidas pants though shout out to Adidas being a part of that thing Heisman weekend and shout out to Adidas having Indiana and Miami so they're obviously in the dance in a big way they've invested in college football but they need to fix their fucking pants the pants were loose on the quarterback we can't have loose football pants I might have to text Mikey Foss and see if we can get me a little credential action here. This might be the move. Rose Bowl, you would have had no chance.

2:24:26Pat McAfee:The Rose Bowl, it's four different. Have you ever heard about this? Have you heard about the Rose Bowl? No. Is it like Fort Knox? Yes. Yes. They actually do have it. They have it locked down pretty good. Feel safe in there. Yeah. Yeah, like feel very safe in there, but it takes time. Like you got to schedule to get into that thing. It takes a long time. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. Okay. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying that is very much what it is. College football playoff, I think has been, especially Emmy Award winning Peter Schreiber. Yeah. Nah, I know. In Atlanta? I mean, went to Emory?

2:24:54I love Atlanta. Yeah. I love Atlanta.

2:24:56Pat McAfee:Is Emory in Atlanta? Oh, yeah. Georgia Tech, look out. Emory's knocking. Yeah, they are. Got a lot of money. They can make it. We're coming. Yeah, you guys might be able to build a football team. Yeah. Bingo. Ladies and gentlemen, our friend. What are you doing? You're on the sideline tomorrow? Yeah, sidelines tomorrow. I'm going to have a serious face on, a suit, a tie, a whole different guy. We like both of them. Yeah, we do. Ladies and gentlemen, Booshrager. I think Shrieks. Do love Shrieks. All right, let's take a break. On the other side, we're going to make picks for the entire weekend's sleep, and then we're going to get the hell out of here for the greatest weekend of all time.

2:25:30Pat McAfee:Right, AJ? Yep, can't wait. The amount of cocaine accusations that I've gotten over the last couple days is when they really show up. For you? Yeah. Especially because I was like, I slept an hour and 40 minutes, and then I did game day down there, and then another hour and 40, people were like, this guy's got to be doing something. It's like, I regret to inform you. I've smelled said cocaine a couple of times. Not my speed. The trees somehow keep me growing. There you go. And going. And I don't know how, to be honest. I don't either. I've been looking into the science. I don't know if it's supposed to work that way, but I'm very grateful for it.

2:26:06Pat McAfee:I'm very grateful for it. But also, like, what a fucking great time to be alive. Honestly. Then I get home, I see Mackenzie. That's the first time I've got But like, she's obviously every day becoming more and more of a human, you know, like more human-y. The reactions, the responses, the questions. She can see you on TV too. She recognizes you on TV. That's got to be cool. Boom. Like that started to happen for real. Like I think a couple months ago, maybe beginning of college football season, she would see me and, you know, Sam would be like, that's dad. Like I would see little videos and she'd like look up and point and say dad.

2:26:43Pat McAfee:But I don't think she really, you know, I think it was like a dude. now it's like she's like listening to me on tv i'm like that is so cool and crazy i think and then when i get there she tells me she saw me on tv you know it's like i saw you at dad game that's what she calls it dad and it's like yeah you did see me at dad game holy hell i almost start crying you know the entire thing and then bluey this dog yeah i mean he pissed on me immediately upon me getting into that house just so excited i guess better than him pooping on you i guess I guess this is because he's excited and he likes me yeah happy to see you he's this big is he still growing he's never stopping he might be Andre the fucking giant he might just keep going as soon as I open that thing 2 whatever it was yeah around 2, 15 open the gate get up the stairs shut that thing I hear it before i see it and it like heard me come into the house i guess this thing gets itself out of its cage it's so smart this is so smart gets himself out of his cage it opens the doors this guy just puts his paws on the handles just opens the doors we're gonna have to get the these handles because we got these handles and he just too easy pulls it open this pulls it open not just push doors he's opening he's opening pool doors so think about that this guy guy.

2:28:14He's unbelievable. He's going to be sleeping in your spot next time you come home. You're going to pull the sheets back and he's right there just snoring.

2:28:21Pat McAfee:I don't know if he sleeps, to be honest. I've never seen it. If he was to sleep, that would be cool. He turned this corner, though, and he certainly was pumped. I mean, it was a full on. And he comes flying in, turns that son of a bitch sideways so he can lay down, comes right at my feet, little shot at the shins, and obviously he just starts fucking pissing right on himself and anything. Oh, yeah. It's just like, I need a fucking shield when I get in there. Come on up, dude. Good to see you. And he's never going to relax. No. No, no, no. If I don't fucking... Trazodone, I guess. Yep. That's how you relax him.

2:28:56Pat McAfee:What? What's it called? Sound like a drug. Trazodone. Yeah, tranquilize him. Yeah, knocks him the fuck out. Yep. They wanted to do that to me as a kid. And my mom fought hard against it. You're not fucking just zombying my kid, okay? So I refuse to do it at the blue for now. What's the name of it, though? Tres. Yeah, I've got it as well. Oh, yeah. Great for pups. See you later. Maybe I'm done being pissed, though. Yeah, exactly. I love it. His dog is awesome. But, boy, he's got the juice.

2:29:33Pat McAfee:We'll be back. We're going to make the picks for the entire slate this weekend. It comes down to this for me and you, AJ. Okay. Good. That's how it should be. I'm 7-8-2. You, obviously, 8-7-2. We could end up completely tied on a season. That is how it's supposed to be. Maybe. Should come down to the wire. Which way am I? I can't see. On her way. There you go. It was your left hand, right? There you go. Got it. Easy now. That is weird. Easy. Watch your hand. You're going low. You were going low. That's where you took your hand. and you were trying to guide me down there, you weirdo. Yeah. That was fucking weird out of you, dude.

2:30:17Pat McAfee:I'm happy you're not potting anymore.

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2:32:04Pat McAfee:Football! He's glorious. That's college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, and all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers, A.J. Hawk. Great work by Bill on the music there. Yeah. Yeah. Good job, Bill. Just a little touch, you know. Bill flipped that thing down earlier like it was, you know. Bang, bang, bang. Bang, bang, bang. Bang, bang, bang. Bang, bang, bang. Bang, bang, bang. Bang, bang, bang. Bang, bang, bang. Bang, bang, bang. Bang, bang, bang. What if Bill does just kind of casually put on a helmet somewhere and he DJs, you know, around town? He does. It's just with skulls.

2:32:43Splitting them.

2:32:44Pat McAfee:That's the talks of table. At Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. He's not a killer. Yeah, whichever poor human's the most drugged up, it doesn't know where they're at. He takes them back. That's not true. That's one half of the hammer. Cowboys AP 10. That is all said in jest. That used to be the story about Bill McComish that was being told all the time by basically everybody in Thunderdome. So much so that you had to wonder if it was actually happening. Why is there so much? And then we saw Bill McComas start attacking the days as if he was an elite operator. Guys start doing three-a-day workouts.

2:33:19Pat McAfee:Have you seen this? I loved it. Three-a-day workouts. He's still in the middle of doing it. He had to join a 24-7 gym so he could get another workout at night. Him and Rip Rogers are competing in there for the most amount of time spent in the 24-hour gym. and he's got this mustache. He's got new fits. He's been wearing new fits. Slop portions are smaller and smaller. That's right. Still smell. Sure. The slop does still smell, but what is happening is it's fueling an absolute beast. Hey, Bill, we appreciate the evolution of who you have become, and thank you for stepping in for the audio today and the graphics.

2:33:50Pat McAfee:You've done great. Well done, William. What's up, Bill? He didn't say hi. Thank you. He does not want to try and unmute his mic. Yeah, that's true. He's not looking for that button. Could potentially mute everybody. See? Yep, exactly. Just like that. So now you're muted? Oh, really? Oh, Bill's holding this against you. Are you back? Bill, okay. Let's not be a petty son of a bitch, Bill. Oh, Bill's maybe kind of getting comfortable about it. He is. How about the power he potentially has now, he feels? Oh, I don't like what you're saying. Let's go ahead and slide that thing all the way down. That's unbelievable.

2:34:26Pat McAfee:I haven't really heard that all day. Has he been doing it all day? It's kind of a thing to do. Oh, wait a minute, Bill. I know Bill doesn't like Tony. How do you know that? Just because of that move? Yeah, well, I think this weekend, Bill, every once in a while, I was like, man, is Bill going to slug Tony in the stomach right now? Really? They're kind of getting into it? Yeah, I didn't know why. Maybe it was just a one-way situation. Oh, see, look, you're no longer muted. He brought you back. Bill just brought you back. That's very nice. And you are gone. There he is. Wow, easy come, easy go in Bill's eyes, especially if you're going to try to get into a fight with him whenever we're traveling for New Year's Eve.

2:35:00Pat McAfee:What was he calling him, fat? He's not fat, he's jacked. No, it wasn't that. I don't know. No, no, one way he was coming at me. I just took it because I know what he would do to me. What would that be, Benji like a pretzel? Oh, okay, he didn't even want to tell you. He didn't want us to find out. Okay, I appreciate that, Bill. Thank you for not exercising your power for the rest of the show today. That was very kind of you for doing that. Yeah, it was. He saved you for now. Thanks, Bill. That's very kind. And Nick, once again, we hope you're okay. Absolutely. We have an update, right, from Nick?

2:35:25Pat McAfee:He texted? Yeah. He said thanks. Oh, he did? I didn't say that. Yeah. Did he say he's going to be super positive? Yeah, I believe that was the main sentiment. Thanks, boys. Can't wait to see you all on Monday with Big Smile. All right. New year, new Nick. That is. New year. And how about new you? Maybe you sign up for a little bit more digital safety with McAfee. Hell yeah. More than an antivirus. Got a video coming from that. i think that's going to really do uh shatter some records in the marketing departments that one's the most maybe close to most ridiculous video we've ever made it's up there has to get approved right now by uh some companies but boy whenever that thing rolls out there it's good people are going to understand what they're missing whenever they don't download the mac fee app which will protect you all of you the digital version of you more specifically also provide vpns for safe surfing on public wi-fi that's huge it's big that's big scam detection, easily screenshot a link or a picture that you get or a text that you get or an email that you get.

2:36:27Pat McAfee:Just kind of pop it right in there and they'll respond. Don't you fucking think about hitting it. I don't think they'll say fucking in there, though. You never know. Is that an option? That'd be cool, maybe. So they used to be antivirus, AJ. You remember Mac for the antivirus? Oh, yeah. Everybody's computer. Adam, we're going to fight bugs for you. Hey, first code or maybe... I don't know. First antivirus software, right? Yeah, definitely was. for all the computers during the big boom, so they were everywhere. So obviously they have all this tech, they have all this vision, they have all this forethought.

2:36:57Pat McAfee:John McAfee has his story, he moves on. How's company continuing to do it? They decide, oh, we should start protecting people digitally because there's so much out there. It's really impressive what they do. Especially if you haven't been, you know, aware for the last 10 years from the last time I had, you know, McAfee on my laptop. Well, even now, though, like, you sign up, AJ, you sign up for this app, and it'll immediately scan the device you're on for something uh anything that's in there trying to get you the wi-fi you're on obviously that's a big part i didn't know the wi-fi's were as dangerous okay like whatever people don't they get on there people get they can steal all your stuff if you get on public wi-fi yes i learned that through the conversations with the mac v folks they're like uh vpns for whenever you're on public wi-fi uh wi-fi is a big deal and i'm like vpn so if i want to pick up like a show without paying for it right that is that is kind of what a vpn is kind of put me somewhere else if i want to do it they're like uh i guess but also it is a blocker basically for this wi-fi So you're just basically here instead of going directly to it, you know, so it kind of takes the thing away.

2:37:53Pat McAfee:It's like a shield basically for these public Wi-Fi where people can get in easily and I guess just snatch it. And then during that initial scan, they'll also tell you if your shit's been breached. It's really fascinating. It is really, I'm telling you, this has been a big development for my life, especially in the world that we're in right now. Everybody's getting texts that look real. Everybody's getting emails. Everybody's getting all this shit. And people are able to hack into whatever, whenever. It's just our natural thoughts now, I think, at 2026. For sure. You should at least let McAfee find out where it's happening, if it's happening, and try to protect it a little bit.

2:38:25Pat McAfee:And that's all they're trying to do. Very easy to use. A lot of this stuff sounds confusing. A lot of words, acronyms. I didn't know what they mean. And then you get on the app. It's all very right in front of you, easy to use. That was my biggest takeaway. Well, Bruce was in there since the beginning of these conversations with the McAfee people. I told them, like, straight to their faces. I'm not signing up for any confusing shit. So if this is confusing, I just won't be able to push it. I just want to let you know that because I personally will not do it. And you're like, no, easy, convenient.

2:38:53Pat McAfee:And what an upbeat bunch, the McAfee people. I'm telling you, they're active in the Zoom or the Teams. They're sending like responses, like reactions while you're talking. They're muted. And we're getting like thumbs up coming on the screen from somebody I've never even met. Hey, Helen just sent in a thumbs up while I'm speaking. it's like okay alright instant response. I don't have any hackers and they're not worried about it. Exactly. Very passionate about what they do too. Very very passionate bunch. I feel like they're carrying the torch of the McAfee into the next one and we're lucky to be a part of it.

2:39:27Pat McAfee:It makes sense we should be McAfee McAfee. Certainly. It feels like it should be him. It is a nice alignment. It is a nice alignment and also in the world that we're in you fucking need it. That's what I realized through the conversation with them. So thank you to them for taking care of this for me. Oh yeah. And also I think if you could put a bank account, I guess, because people are hacking here. Yeah, without a doubt. Yeah, same thing. And it's like people acting like they'll arrest you if you don't do it. They put a lot of pressure. These days, they got a lot of leverage on these people. And AI is making things look more real.

2:39:57Oh, scary times. Grok needs some McAfee help in his life. He's getting hacked. The internet is just taking advantage of Grok and doing just unfathomable, thinkable things to Grok.

2:40:10Pat McAfee:I remember the one time people were asking him a lot of questions and he was giving answers in one specific order and then the CEO or the president stepped down the next day but now all the porn weirdos sorry just left all the porn weirdos have taken advantage of Grok recently what do you mean all the porn weirdos just the horniest imaginable people on the internet have just taken advantage of Grok okay so Grok added the photoshop right or something like that yeah Yeah. Like, that did happen over the last, like, week or two, right? That was a big announcement for Grok, I think. Yeah, so every reply is now on Grok's actual page is the problem.

2:40:46Pat McAfee:Okay, so... So whenever it was announced that Grok has access to the highest level of Photoshop now, it would make it easier for you. The first thing human beings did was say, hey, take this person's clothes off. And Grok has to listen to do it. And that's what happened? Yeah. Messed up. That does sound pretty fucking wild Who would be monitoring that? Is that something that somebody would have to corral Grok in to stop doing? Elon, I assume So then they make an AI version of the naked person Because how do they know? They don't have actual naked pictures of that person Yeah, Grok just guesses to the best of its ability Oh, that can't be allowed That sounds really fucked up Yeah, I told you They need it I don't know, Tony You'd probably get there and make him give you a 12-foot dong You'd probably post that out there I mean, there's probably some positives that have happened That'd be sick A 12-foot dog?

2:41:35Pat McAfee:That feels too big. Don't you think that feels... That would affect your day today. I didn't want to counter-argue him, though. That would be sick. Just thinking of a... I mean, I guess you'd be actually tying that thing up. You got it wrapped around your shoulder twice. Like a hose. Like a hose. You're doing this one. Yeah, the extension cord. It's a good nickname, though. They're wearing it like a necklace. Extension cord. so are you doing yeah it is actually so you're doing this here and then you're just yep turtleneck or your outfit all right i mean that's not good though i don't like that they should corral the out of that that should be something that has to happen because there is some incredible things that ai is able to do with pictures obviously like hey can you remove this can you move this can you clean up this can you fix this yeah can you um make this more hd yes can you add that like they've done i mean i was on a texas oil field one time yeah that was really one of my only times dabbling with the ai picture thing has smoke on didn't put my uh my rings back on though so my hands were off hands look similar hands were off right before posting photos see that the hands don't have wedding ring on or baby girl's hair hair tie and i immediately have almost the anxiety of, you know, a thousand super anxiety people.

2:42:57Pat McAfee:So then I have to add my own wedding ring on their photo. Then I put it up and all anybody notices, obviously, is that an edited photo? It is. Let's make the pics. It's a wild time to be alive. Grok can't be doing that. That sounds fucking crazy. Week 18 is a big one. Last week of the season. Last feel-good Friday of the regular season of the NFL. We made it. We did it. Saturday, 4.30 on ESPN. Peter Schrager will be there. Dan Orlovsky, I assume, as well. The Carolina Panthers will take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Carolina Panthers win. They get the NFC South title. Tampa Bay wins and Atlanta loses.

2:43:39Pat McAfee:Tampa Bay gets the NFC South title. If Tampa Bay wins and Atlanta wins, Carolina gets the NFC South title. So congratulations to whoever wins this and gets a home title game. It could be the Carolina fucking Panthers. Congratulations to them. Tampa Bay is favored by three at home. Baker definitely banged up, says Schrager. Who do you like? How do you like it, AJ? I was thinking Carolina early, but Baker and with Schrager telling me that the receivers, people seem pretty healthy. Give me Tampa Bay here minus three. Okay, I would say Carolina plus three down there. Let's go to the next one. Our Saturday night football for the number one overall NFC seed.

2:44:17Pat McAfee:on ESPN at 8 p.m. Seattle favored by one and a half traveling into the Super Bowl site. Santa Clara, California, the home of the San Francisco 49ers and one of the most dynamic offenses the world has ever seen. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? Seattle's favored by one and a half. I have a good feeling, I'm guessing, that you like San Fran at home here. I'm taking Seattle. I have faith in Sam Darnold and the crew, so give me Seattle. Why is Seattle favored so on the road here? Maybe Kittle and Trent. Kittle playing, though, right? Is Trent out? Yeah, I thought you said it's still up in the air for both of them, unless I'm missing it.

2:44:55No, he said Kittle playing. It was Trent and Pearsall. Pearsall. Pearsall.

2:45:00Pat McAfee:Okay, so Trent, huge deal, obviously. Not saying Pearsall is not. Trent Williams, once in a generation left tackle, who was a massive piece of their entire offense, not playing, is a huge deal. You like Seattle, minus one and a half, AJ? I do, yes. You think I would like the Niners? Why do you think I like the Niners? Just because I've seen Brock? I mean, just because they've been playing so well. Brock Purdy has been on fire. The San Fran is very good right now. How's Seattle been playing? They're up for the number one seed in the NFL. Pretty good. Offense, not great. Beat the shite out of the Patriots.

2:45:31They are 7-1 straight up and against the spread on the road this season. Oh, yeah, I forgot they're road warriors. Yep.

2:45:39Pat McAfee:Hawking animal. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

2:45:46Pat McAfee:Give me the Seahawks. Oh. Congratulations, Sam, getting a number one seed. Yeah. Wow.

2:45:58Pat McAfee:Oh, I don't know this one. This one's – You're going to take the Niners. You know. You're going to go back to the Niners. You know that. I'll take San Francisco for it. I mean, what am I – No, I like McDonald maybe in this thing. Remember, on the road, he's super locked in. We got Dale Coyntos here. Okay. If it's on this side, Jackar with the two axes. That'll be the Seahawks. Run to the sound of the guns. That'll be the Seahawks. Are you going to catch it and flip it under your hand, or what are you going to do? Yeah, I'll probably do thumb, toss, catch, flip over to here. This one will actually be the Seahawks because there's green on it.

2:46:32Pat McAfee:Cry havoc and let slip. The frogs of war. Okay, so that'll be the Seahawks. And then run to the sound of the guns. Okay, will be the Niners. Nailed it. Okay, and there's axes. for the Niners. That's how they got the gold. That's how they got the gold, yeah. Yeah, exactly. These axes for killing. We're talking about gold axes back in the day. I think this is a pick-em, actually. We'll let Jack Carr figure it out. He's never been wrong. Did Magic Johnson get to flip the coin? He didn't. He was just standing there? Yeah, he was just standing there. And the coin wasn't heads or tails. It was like this.

2:47:06Pat McAfee:Why? Magic Johnson should flip that coin. I don't know why the hell he'd make him walk out there. Well, he's a Big Ten guy, so they didn't want him to, you know, Yeah, but imagine if Magic Sure. No look. Yeah, something like that. Behind the back, yeah. We'll never know. Now we'll never know what he would have done or could have done. Go on, Jack Carr. Strength and honor.

2:47:29Pat McAfee:This is a San Francisco 49er. Wow. Okay. All right. I mean, Jack. Never been wrong. That's a great writer. Great, the best. Started the eighth book yesterday. Did he really? Yeah. He announced that? Yep. His next novel's coming out in like May, I think. James Rusey. So much whiskey just being housed by him right now. Oh, yeah. Just cleaning up. I need to do it. What a weapon. Thank you for your service, Jackar. Thank you, Jackar. And for picking the Niners. Let's go to the Green Bay Packers taking on the Minnesota Vikings. Minnesota Vikings favored by 7.5. Is that right? Yeah. Clayton. Clayton, too.

2:48:08Packers aren't playing anybody. They have the 7 seed locked up. Love is out of the protocol, but Clayton Toon's going to be starting a quarterback.

2:48:17Pat McAfee:71 % of the money are on the Green Bay Packers at plus seven and a half. That's because people don't know that everybody's not playing for the Green Bay. Definitely. And Minnesota also has – they've already shut down a few players themselves. Oh, really? Who have they shut down? Christian Derisaw, highest paid player on the offensive line for sure. I don't know if they shut down the other two higher paid players, but can't imagine Justin Jefferson's playing, although he's like 50 or 60 yards from 1 ,000. J.J. McCarthy has no injury designation. We'll start on Sunday per Kevin O 'Connell. Says Kevin Seifert.

2:48:47Pat McAfee:Seifert? Seifert, I think. Seifert. We appreciate Kevin Seifert's contributions. I'll take the Minnesota Vikings minus 7.5. A.J., you like the Packers plus 7.5? Yeah, I mean, yeah, give me the Packers. I think they either win or they find a way to cover it. Is anyone else not – is Packers defenders playing? They didn't really say anything other than LeFleur just kind of said, like, yeah we're going to be sitting a lot of guys but i mean some guys got to play you know i don't know for how long but i just want to let the world know for the sake of gamblers out there it feels like we need to know more about who's doing what when okay i i feel like i'd like to know a little bit more about who's doing what when let's just stay away from the games like this one that don't mean dick okay let's not pick this one then sweet titans jags this matters jags win they win the afc south they're favored by 13 and a half who do you like aj a lot of points but i like the jags give me the Jags as well.

2:49:41Pat McAfee:Colts, Texans. Texans win, Jags lose. Texans win AFC South and have home playoff game. They're favored by 10.5 against Riley Leonard in the Indianapolis Colts. Who do you like? How do you like it, AJ? I think Riley could you know, he might have a little bit of magic, but I like the Houston Texans here. I'll tell you what, I haven't seen the defense do much. Okay. You know you haven't. I have not seen it. Sauce is out. Who's out? Sauce. They shit down the dudes as well. Yeah, I'll take the Houston Texans favored by 10.5. Browns, Bengals favored by 7.5 at home. Will Myles Garrett get it done? That's really the only conversation about whether or not they'll win.

2:50:17Pat McAfee:We don't know. Shador Sanders, though, this guy's got something special up there in Cleveland. Yeah, we'll see how the Bengals, what their game plan is. This game doesn't matter, right? No. We move. Sorry. Good luck, though. Good luck to them. Cowboys-Giants, this game does not matter. We move. Mike McCarthy's name has officially been listed as exploratory options for the New York Giants next head coaching vacancy. Do we like that, Bruce, or no? Oh, we fucking love it. Need Coach Mike in New York. GM's not going anywhere, though, so is Mike okay with that? No, we like our guys. To be honest, I actually like our guys against the Cowboys, and Joe Shane's going to be at the press conference saying that he likes our guys right after the season ends.

2:50:55Pat McAfee:Okay, we've heard that one before, haven't we? There's a lot of people that are picking the guys and paying the guys are saying that they like the guys. No shit. You guys like the guys. We know you like the guys. You're the ones paying them. Obviously, Saints-Falcons has a little bit of intrigue because if the Falcons win and the Bucs win, the Carolina Panthers get in. It doesn't matter that the Bucs win. If Atlanta loses and the Bucs win, Bucs get in. If Carolina wins, it doesn't matter across the board. So Saints-Falcons, minus 3.5. Falcons can't win the division, but they can certainly take it away from the Buccaneers.

2:51:32I like the Saints here. I like Tyler Shuck. I think he's a future superstar, maybe. Is Atlanta playing people? I would assume so. I mean, they did last week. Back-to-back. I mean, the Saints have been out forever, and they've been playing everybody, so I don't see why they wouldn't. Chuck's back-to-back 300-yard games. Who do you like, Con, man? I think the Saints hate the Bucs so much that they are going to throw everything possible at Atlanta to get the job done, so Carolina goes either way.

2:52:00Pat McAfee:Okay, so I'll take the Saints plus three and a half. That's a crazy pick because of what we just saw the Falcons do. But who do you like, AJ? I like the Saints here. Okay, that's crazy. Dolphins, Patriots, potential number one seed implications on the line here, depending upon what the Broncos do. Patriots favored by 10.5. Who are they playing? They're playing Spin the Quinn Ewers. Spin the Quinn Ewers from what it sounded like from Shefty, Donovan Edwards, Jalen Wright, Ollie Gordon running the rock. A lot of guys coming back from injury for New England. Probably going to get some time to just get that rust off before the playoff.

2:52:35Pat McAfee:Gumpy, classic AFC East battle here, brother. What are your thoughts on your Dolphins? Finn Ewers will keep it tight. Jalen Wright can pound the rock. Ollie Gordon could still keep it moving. O-line should be playing. Only word would be, I think, Aaron Brewer might be out our center. He's probably our best player. If he doesn't play, we could be in trouble. Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel told reporters it looks good for left tackle Will Campbell and D-tackle Matt Williams to be activated off injured reserve for Sunday's game versus Dolphins. Big boost ahead of the playoffs with two of their best trench players in Williams and Campbell return.

2:53:03Pat McAfee:That's a good piece of information from Cameron Wolfe. Are you with Wynnewers, AJ, or are you with the New England Patriots? I will take the New England Patriots on this one. You like Drake, Drake, May, May. I like the thought of Drake, MVP, Drake, May, May as well. I think they're dominant. I don't like the whole, you know? The Stafford stuff? No, not only that. Maybe Christian McCaffrey needs to win this thing over Drake, May. It's like, what? I'm fine with it, honestly. It's because he's 23, you think? Is that what he's too young? We don't know yet? It's not proven? He's not like a staple in the NFL?

2:53:38Pat McAfee:The award and the people who vote on it fucking suck. No, and you do not suck. Sorry, Tony. But the whole Orlovsky thing, and I think that's what is interesting for me, is the whole Orlovsky, let me stand on this mountain and scream for Matt Stafford, and then the people who are kind of exposing, not just Dan, but like, hey, this guy works for this company, and this company also represents these people, so it would benefit everybody in this one particular portion for one person to win, and then every year it's changing. If there were set things every year and those are... Whenever you start doing that, you lack the reality of people just making decisions and having a stubbornness about it.

2:54:22Pat McAfee:Yeah, and those people suck. And saying whatever they want to say and prove it right. That's what I mean. but I think a lot of people piece together like I saw the tweet about CAA and all that shit and everything which once again we have friends at CAA we have friends at WME we have friends at we do business with people so we kind of know them and I think agents certainly have a lot more say in what's being said on tv as opposed to everybody wants to kind of always kill producers you know always like you'll like don't talk about this don't talk about this don't talk about this a lot of people kill producers for that and it's certainly them as well but I think agents do have some saying like what address what doesn't get it how it gets addressed i don't i wonder if they're just telling them to vote for their people though that would be crazy if that was happening and you would hope that it would sniff it out especially with the transparency of the ballots you know especially with transparency of the ballots but then you're just assuming every human just buys into whatever they're being told to do and then you start thinking yourself well humans do that they would wait a minute i hope not and then you start spiraling into does this even matter it does Okay?

2:55:20Pat McAfee:And we can never forget about that. It very much matters. So, Tone, whenever you're making your vote, with all your connections. Yeah. Okay? I was about to say, my agent, my only agent, is my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Who's he like this year? He loves Drake, man. It's going to be carrying his water. Oh, there's a couple of gallons back there. Yeah. I just think just trying to write off a game, everybody's saying if that game didn't happen, But, well, it did. The guy threw three picks and blew the number one seed in the NFC. And the strength schedule thing, we literally talk about every single week.

2:55:57Like, you can lose any game. These are all professionals.

2:56:00Pat McAfee:Yeah. And then the common opponent, that was the one that was just sitting on the screen right there. What would this guy be like with their schedule? We know. That's what happened in those six games. There's 11 other games. It's like, all right. No one brings up the above 500 stuff, so that's weird. what are you doing is that what you're doing is that what you're voting off of i'm just pissing connor off is what i'm doing well you're an actual voter let's make sure we take these things serious and not just piss off people from a particular region of football town i mean me doing that is not putting any names on papers yeah you're right transparency because we're gonna see what you did that's right and you're gonna have to be able to sleep at night yeah i will will you be able to always see that's not good either we need somebody that can't sleep at night sometimes whenever a mistake is made i don't know how we're gonna find these people We need a final.

2:56:46Pat McAfee:Tony, you better take this shit serious. Always do. What if Drake lays an egg this weekend, throws three picks against the Miami Dolphins defense? Tough defense. No one's talking about that, you know. That Dolphins defense has been good pretty much all season. Which one's your favorite? Quinn the spin? Spin yours. Spin yours. Spin yours. Quinn yours. I don't give a shit. Just Quinn. Yeah, I mean, I'm all in on Quinn right now, but that could change next week. You know, that's kind of the – As a Dolphins fan, anything could happen right now, and that's the world we're living in. All Yens don't do is win, win, win yours.

2:57:19Yeah. You know? It's all about the you, baby.

2:57:22Pat McAfee:Hey, they're a good football team. Could they beat the Dolphins? All right, let's not do those conversations. Because that goes back to what we were talking earlier with the Drake May strength of schedule thing. The NFL is the NFL. Let's never forget that. And on that note, I don't like that there's open campaigns happening against Drake Mays. We should be celebrating what Drake May did here. You know, this is like Josh Allen last year. Like, hey, Josh is doing some special stuff, and then we got a lot of people just starting to attack it all. I guess that's kind of the game that's played. I think they should all be celebrated.

2:57:53Pat McAfee:Great. See, they're up for the fucking MVP. They're not the least valuable. Exactly. They're not averagely valuable. They should all be celebrated. They're all super-duper valuable. SDBVPs. They've all had really good seasons. Super-duper valuable players. Exactly. Well, who is the most valuable? Only our Lord and Savior knows. The olds are going to vote for Stafford because he hasn't got one is what's going to happen. And I don't know. You know, is there anything wrong with that? Who knows? Sounds like you think there's something wrong with that. I would say, yeah, just because people think he's probably old one because he should.

2:58:27Matthew Stafford, in the grand scheme of things, should have an MVP in his career.

2:58:32Pat McAfee:We agree. But just not this year, in my opinion. And you don't have a vote? Yeah, nothing. Who's your agent, though? You're trying to, aren't you? I can't disclose that as well. Oh, yeah, of course. Of course. All right, let's get to the next one. I got the Patriots minus 10.5. So do you, AJ? Yep. Bills, Jets, does this matter? Josh Allen's not playing. Doesn't matter. Kansas City Raiders, that was fun. Hey, good on you, Trav. Whatever you decide to do. Lions, Bears, does this matter? Yes, Bears need to win to hold on to the 2C because if the Bears lose and the Eagles win, the Eagles go to two, Bears go to three.

2:59:11Pat McAfee:Okay, I will take the Bears minus three. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? I will take the Bears minus three as well. Philadelphia minus four and a half. Still some seeding, it sounds like. Yeah, I'm not sure if they're playing everyone, though. It might be a very similar situation to New England where they play for a quarter or so, and then, hey, let's check some scores. Okay, maybe Tanner McKee can get this thing done against the commies. Four and a half point favorites. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? Man, these are tough ones, but I like Philly here. I like Philly as well. Cardinals, Rams, doesn't matter.

2:59:48Pat McAfee:Chargers, Broncos, obviously Broncos can lock down a number one seed. Chargers seemingly not playing anybody. Just going back, Hurts is sitting. Hurts is sitting. Yeah. I'll take the Washington Commanders plus four and a half. Yeah, me too. Okay. Yeah, me too. Chargers, Broncos. Broncos can get the number one overall seed. They're favored by 12 and a half. Chargers not playing Herbert and potentially not playing other good players. Is that accurate? Is 12 and a half enough, AJ? Yeah, give me the Broncos minus 12 and a half. I'll take them as well. And then the Baltimore Ravens playing the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night football.

3:00:26Here we go.

3:00:27Pat McAfee:Ravens favored by three and a half going into Accresure. Hey, Tony, what's Mike Tomlin's record as an underdog against the Ravens? Since 2020, it's 7-1 against the spread and 7-1 straight up. Three-and-a-half point dog at home. Aaron Rodgers, people talking about, is this going to be his last season? So this will be his last game if they were to lose? That's correct. Does he not have a fresh mindset? Teej back with a brand-new lung. Mike Tomlin obviously understands the loudness outside. At home in front of, oh, mama, mama. and lead all my life from the long, long, long, long. Then Derrick Henry just went absolutely crazy.

3:01:10Pat McAfee:Lamar Jackson, first time he's been healthy all week, all season, basically. Baltimore Ravens can have a home playoff game, favored by three and a half. Is the defense good enough to stop Artie Smith? Is the offense able to move against the Pittsburgh Steelers defense? What happens here? in a case of if we win, we have a home playoff game and maybe win the Super Bowl. And if we lose, tear it down. We need something new. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? I like the Steelers here. I like Teej's back, new lung, as you said. So, yeah, Steelers plus three and a half, absolutely. I'll be doing the same.

3:01:44Pat McAfee:I'll take the Pittsburgh Steelers plus three and a half at home just strictly because, oh, they can't get beat four times in bad ways at home in a season, right? and still be worth it to you? Anything is possible. Anything is possible. You guys can win the Super Bowl. After you laid out the path, yeah.

3:02:10Pat McAfee:I like the Steelers. Do you like the Steelers? Yes. Let's get the hell out of here. Have an incredible weekend, everybody. We appreciate you all so much for joining us. We're lucky to do this. We understand that. The fact that it's existed all the way into 2026 is crazy. And on that note, we only started like nine years ago as Evan Fox tries to get in all the DoorDash L-Raps. I'm trying over here. He just took it down and put it back up. Tell him it was two. Tell him it was two. it was clearly down it was clearly down we would like to let you know DoorDash is the greatest you understand that scan the code, it's the whole thing good work back there Foxy you're supposed to do it three times in an hour we do a long thing we do a long thing and it happens AJ have you seen any shoes I'm wearing?

3:02:56Pat McAfee:these would have been a good part of your little goof troop costume you had for the New Jersey stick them up in the camera, let me see a little goof troop oh yeah you're like 6 foot 8 in those Yeah, they're Nike's version of the Hokus. Okay. Jeez. Yeah. You rolling your ankles? You rolling your ankles at all? You do feel like you're kind of falling off these things. Jeez. But I'll tell you what, when you're walking perfectly straight, like people are in their lives, I assume. Yeah. I assume there's not a lot of agility happening in day-to-day lives as we get the DoorDash thing over with. Congratulations, Foxy.

3:03:25Pat McAfee:You got the job done. 2026 would have been a complete miss for Foxy instead of hits it. You do feel like you can really roll your way straight ahead on clouds. Look nice. And wherever you're headed. They do get a much better design, I think, than I could have expected. I think I got these from Vandy. Shout out to Vandy for these. They were in the bus from the season. And, you know, quick wrap-up of the season. One of these, I looked at them, I go, holy fuck, those are nice hokas. So I said, those are really nice hokas. I fucking grabbed them. Oh, good shot. Look at me. I mean, so much cushion.

3:04:01Pat McAfee:Yeah, so much. You see my pinky toe there, you see that? That's not great. You know, those get a little painful on the outside. That's always my problem with any shoe. You know, I need the wide boys. There's that pinky toe. These ones have a little bit of a shark. A neckton. Yep, mentality. Sure.

3:04:22Pat McAfee:But I am walking on clouds. Eric, cool. It's because I get to do this every day with all you guys. I appreciate the hell out of you. Boys in the back, great work. Really good. Bill, way to step up today. The graphic design boys, way to go, boys. Oh, yeah. There you go, boys. Zeet, incredible work on Thunderdome this week, buddy. Very Zeet. Matt, way to go, dude. Yep. AJ, really good stuff out of you. Thank you. You too. Sorry you had to pot your way through Ohio State losing in a college football playoff, but it is what it is. That's college football. Happy 2026, everybody. Be a friend, tell a friend, something nice about changing your life.

3:04:58Pat McAfee:We're in this thing together. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye. From 30 for 30 podcasts.

3:05:12Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami. Gunned down. The key to this case, it's Brian. An hour before he died, he was on the phone. This might be a hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction. They're placed under arrest. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now. Hey, sports fans. The ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network in service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional cause. Visit activate.espn.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app.

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