PMS 2.0 1482 - Dan Orlovsky, Bruce Arians, The 2nd Annual All-Everything DB Team with Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

21:29Pat McAfee:He's like, oh, they bluffed me. They got me. And then he's making a decision later. It's like he gets it. You know, like he – You've got to mess with them, man. Like you've got to mess with them. You've got to do some things that are a little bit unorthodox. You have to consistently change the picture on them. You guys have heard me say this. I think there's two ways to really impact quarterbacks. You either speed them up or slow them down. And right now, you're not really doing either to Fernando. And I think the best thing that Oregon can do, knowing how good Indiana's offensive line is, it's like you've got to try and slow him down.

22:01You have to get him to second guess what he's looking at. I'm telling you, this is a generational guy.

22:08Pat McAfee:I think he's generational. That is how I am describing Fernando Mendoza. Not just because the way the ball comes out, the way he's built. 6 '5", 230. I mean, that is exactly what you want. He can't run. He just got the edge on Alabama. That's an SEC team. He gets the edge, picks up the first down. But in between the years, he is a Sunday guy. I mean, it is. No questions asked. Plus, he's having beers with the boys. It's like everything you want, basically, in an NFL quarterback, from what we've learned about Fernando Mendoza, he is. And it's like, I don't know how many of these guys just pop up.

22:37Pat McAfee:I don't know how many of these things are just out there, honestly, roaming around in the streets in 2025. Yeah, we've been to a lot of college football playoffs. 2026, sorry, Jesus. We've been to a lot of these games. None of them have looked like that, what Mendoza put on display for the Rose Bowl. Even when we watched Will Howard against Ohio State. Yes, what about Stroud? Because you guys talked glowingly about him after that. Similar feeling about Stroud. Similar feeling, but just vastly different. Stroud was moving more in that game against Georgia, which I think made us very like, oh, I didn't know he could run like that.

23:06Pat McAfee:With how big he is, we knew he could spin it. Fernando is like dissecting the defense. We talk about all these quarterbacks having their second chapter whenever they're later in their careers. Why are all these guys doing so well? Well, it's because they can break down what a defense is and all these younger guys because the way they've been doing offenses their entire careers, they don't really have to break it down. So these guys with experiences that have been there and done that and know what's happening, they can make the best selection for each play. It feels like Fernando's already at that.

23:30Pat McAfee:It feels like he is already at the second chapter where he knows what you're doing. His answer to us the other day was outrageous. Every play is a puzzle, basically. He's a nerd. We know he's a nerd. He's a football nerd. Every play is a puzzle. That's how I look at it. I just got to figure it out. And then, ooh, you got me on that one. Let me go to my check down piece that I got right over here. It's like he talks like a 10-year vet whenever he's talking about defenses, so much so people think he's a robot whenever he's talking about it. And to all of this, and Saban talked about a little bit going into the game, Bama going into the game was primarily a zone team.

24:00But Fernando has been so good against zone all season long off of the RPOs. That was the storyline coming in here. They were like, Bama's going to have to run a lot of man. So then he answers the questions against man, against Bama. So now he's great against zone. He answered all the questions on the test against man against Bama. So Oregon, yeah, it's in a bit of a pickle here about what to do against Fernando coming into this. Six, five, two 30.

24:22Pat McAfee:That is just a whole nother element. And he can move. I don't like the saggy pants he's wearing, but he can certainly move. What's that? Got to blame Adidas. He won't be wearing those at the next level, but I think he also, you talk about like his maturity in between the ears. I think if you're going to get drafted by a team like the Raiders or the Jets who has been habitually terrible for the last however many years like you need to possess a special kind of maturity as that quarterback coming in because a lot of those guys quarterbacks we've seen them draft like they just let the situation eat them up and I think he's shown that like he's not that type of guy beers with the boys is a big deal for me too that's a whole being a nerd and also beers with the boys that is just a part of the job of being not saying you have to drink but we need to hang out with the boys I'm all going to New York for the yeah like being a leader and being a part of the group is a huge part of being an NFL quarterback it's like everything this guy does seems to be great Orlovsky your last thoughts on it all yeah I think the thing that stands out is nowadays to be top pick and really good in the league you have to be a three-tool player you got to beat dudes with your arm your mind and your legs you have to have that capability we see it with all the good quarterbacks every great quarterback that we've really known and is in the NFL right now they're great problem solvers and when you bring up him saying every the defense every snap is a puzzle.

25:36I mean, that's, you have to be a great problem solver, and you have to have the tools to solve the problems, and those tools are different for a lot of different guys, you know, they're just different tools, and it looks to, right now, it looks to be that he has all those tools, and I would, the thing with Stroud is interesting, because I think this is for the public, I don't really believe it's going to play a part for the NFL evaluators, but CJ was at Ohio State and a big-time recruit, so it was like, oh, you're the Ohio State quarterback and you are a star recruit. I still think that there's going to be people in the public thinking, wait, this is the kid that went to Cal and then he transferred to Indiana and he's going to be the first pick.

26:16And it's like if you just took the human, moved them to their traditional powers of college football, there probably would be a less negative reception on that thought with Mendoza than it would have been.

26:30Pat McAfee:I agree. First impressions are tough to kind of shake. Now let's talk about another Cal quarterback that wasn't number one overall that could have been. Go ahead, Aaron. All right, Tone. Yeah, Dano, obviously I saw you talking earlier and saying that Aaron, maybe Aaron's best game in his last four or five years. And now he's got the Houston Texans defense coming to Pittsburgh, which if not one, number two defense in the entire NFL. I know, you know, they're going to throw a thousand passes to Gainwell and Warren and they're going to get it out quick. They're not going to let that D-line disrupt the game.

27:00but overall how do you feel about Aaron and the Steelers offense's chances against that Houston defense and I'll give it to you we gave you a lot of shit before the season you were right about a lot of things with the Steelers and I just wanted to point that out to you you're a good man Tony also I appreciate that I was wrong on things as well so don't okay clip that clip that that was cool we're just

27:25Pat McAfee:going to pull that go ahead just for I don't know who said yeah you were but Dude, I would say my answer for Pittsburgh versus Houston's defense is rinse and repeat with any offense. Houston's defense is ridiculous. We had to do the – we not had to. We got to do the voting for the NFL awards and first and second team, all pros. I struggle to not put six or seven guys on their defense on the first two teams. It's that good. And so one of the things that Pittsburgh has thrived on offensively this year is yards after the catch because they get the ball out so quickly. Aaron knows exactly what you're in.

28:00He's going to get the ball out to playmakers in space and yards after the catch. It's one of the best defenses in football and everything, but certainly defending yards after the catch. It's one of the best tackling defenses in football. And so that's the big challenge is the thing that Pittsburgh loves to do, and it's really kind of kept them afloat this year offensively, is the thing that Houston dominates with. They just thrive in it. And so this is not going to be an overly complicated thing for Aaron. He's going to know, obviously it's Aaron. He knows who most people are in defensively, but he will know exactly what Houston's in.

28:35They're not, you know, schematically incredibly creative, especially on first and second down. They're going to play four man front. They're going to play in quarters. The thing is it happens so fast and they're going to have, they got people who can cover both Stingley and Lassiter can check DK. I'm sure it's going to be a great battle, but DK is not going to dominate that battle. Petrie's as good as a nickel as there is in football. I think the one thing, the one thing that if you watch teams have some success against Houston defensively this year, you have to take shots down the field. You're not going to hit a ton.

29:08You have to. And it's just not something that Pittsburgh does. So I think it's a pretty significant challenge. Calvin Austin will hit the little starter.

29:17Pat McAfee:DK down the sideline. We would like to let Yenzers know, and we've been told that a lot of people in Pittsburgh watch the show. We appreciate that. We love you down there. You need to know that your offense is going to be punting a lot. Okay? The Houston Texans bring the boo birds to stadiums that they go to because your offense is not going to look good. I witnessed it with my own eyes in Indianapolis, and I was like, oh, I didn't even think about this. People, whenever their offense is not doing well, their natural reaction is, boom! That's what the Houston Texans do to your stadium. They bring the boo birds.

29:48Pat McAfee:It's not just the Texans coming to play your team. It's also the boo birds are coming in because they are going to make your offense look elementary. They've done that to everybody. Seattle Seahawks doing the same damn thing. They will make your offense look elementary. Your offense is just trying not to turn the ball over. Like, that is the move. They're sparring right there. Your offense is not trying to get exposed early in this game. So it's even an idea like, hey, let's not do anything crazy. They're probably going to get a couple three and outs on us. They're probably going to get a sack.

30:13Pat McAfee:That's the way it's going to go. So what we're trying to tell Jensers and Akersers is let's not burn the place down in the first quarter whenever there's not a lot happening on offense. I know that's going to be hard to do in the moment on Monday Night Football, but it's like this Texans defense can get you very, very upset with your team. That is kind of how they've been, Dano. Yeah, they've got the two as good edge rushers as anybody, but also in the run game. I mean, Will Anderson is a demon in the run game. Their linebackers are as quick downhill as anybody, and they run through your face.

30:47They're a violent group of linebackers. I mentioned Petrie. Petrie is as good as any nickel in football. They're fast. They're long on the back end. Bullock is sensational. Lasseter is sensational. So it's just a very dominant defense when it comes to their individual talent. That's what people start doing.

31:06Pat McAfee:We suck. We suck. How is this guy still the fucking coach? That's what they're going to be saying. To be honest, though, they don't move the offense a ton because they're so used to it sucking. Okay, we'll see. There you go. The Texans come in there, and it is 4th and 13. It is. We have not gone anywhere near 4th. Yeah, there has not been a positive play for a while. Like, there has not been a single, yeah, moment. Because they just smother your happiness. That is literally what the Texas defense does. In Pittsburgh's a place, you know, especially Monday night. Mm-hmm. Long day. Got out there and made a gold lot.

31:44Pat McAfee:Had a little cocktail or two there. Did their thing. Had some Dallas Dallas pizza. are by far the best pizza in Pittsburgh. Well, work's canceled. I don't know. Work's canceled Monday, by the way. There's no work on Monday in Pittsburgh. It's canceled. Is that real? I just made it real. Holy shit. We need Father Maximilian Maxwell to potentially do that. I think he can kind of do whatever he wants to do. John 316 and Father Maximilian Maxwell really getting a win for the Steelers the other day. Beautiful thing. Maybe they're the team of destiny, honestly, as we go forward here. But as we do look at you traveling to Pittsburgh because you're there for the game, People are going to be pumped to hear that.

32:20Pat McAfee:So also, geez, you guys got a lot of heat. You guys got a lot of heat on the internet calling that last game. You, Lou, Fowler. Yeah, there was a lot of people saying, talk too much, talk too much, talk too much. Three people in there. A lot of takes. Yeah, it's just a reality. It's a reality. We're going to talk 33 % more than other booths. But what people are saying is you don't have to. You're going to have the acknowledgement that there is three people and kind of make that decision together. not saying it should be you or Lou but there should be maybe be a little bit better of a conversation going in on expectation that's on you I'm not a tv producer I didn't go to broadcast boot camp but on that note whenever you're traveling out to and when that rules analyst talks if it's that same guy say you don't deserve to be in the NFL just say that to him you should not be speaking for the NFL okay thank you this is a meritocracy you get to the league you don't get to just be here because you were here and just because you're on my network that I work on doesn't mean I have to think you're good at your job because you're not you are terrible and you're representing all the fucking ball whatever you speak.

33:17Pat McAfee:You can say that to him. You're allowed to do that. Tone just canceled work in Pittsburgh on Monday. I would like to give you permission to be able to say that to that guy that we've never heard of before. He's a good man. I'm sure he is. There's a lot of good people getting fired right now because they're ass at their jobs. He's a good guy. I get it. We need Super Wild Card weekend, brother. You're on Monday Night Football. Let's fucking... Oh, that gets me worked up. I don't like these rules. Gene Steratore, that's it. Gene Steratore needs to be doing it for everybody. I don't know why he's not.

33:50Pat McAfee:Ed Hockley, where the hell did you go? Ed Hockley just wanted to disappear from the limelight? Nobody thought that was going to happen. Why is it his act? He's competing strongly in competitions. Tell him to stop lifting for 14 seconds and break down a plate. You know, that's who we need. This guy I've never heard of popping up on the screen? Well, I think we don't need it, buddy, okay? Unless you're going to be great. Let's move along. Let's move along. You guys are going to be great on calling Pittsburgh. Hell yeah. We don't have the call. Troy is the call. I'll be their friend if alive. Troy and Joe are the call.

34:23Pat McAfee:Yeah, they ain't wheeling them out. Oh, my. I'm like, what's your problem, Ty? What's his deal? You did too. They are kind of playing him$30 million a year each. Yeah, that's what I mean. Nothing against them. I'm saying they're not. Yeah, Joe and Troy. Yeah, Joe and Troy. Oh, my God. My heart's on. What's your problem, Connor? For me, it's just not that guy. It's not that rules analyst guy that's representing football on the biggest stage. He's not the one with Joe and Troy, right? No, it's Russell Yerke. Which, he's on the clock too. Yeah, he's kind of the GOAT compared to you. Yeah, that was like whenever they had the replacement refs.

35:01Pat McAfee:And they were like, is this what you want? Is this what you want? This is how bad it is. That's a touchdown. No, it's not a touchdown. They used to have John Perry. I think John Perry then went to – I think John Perry works for the Bills now, I believe. See, John Perry boots on the field. I remember John Perry on the field. I remember actually getting into it with John Perry on the field because he robbed me. The only other way to describe it would be screwed me out of 15 yards on a punt out of bounds. So I certainly – what was that, buddy? Because they do this whole thing. And then he had good moxie, good flow.

35:31Pat McAfee:He'd been there. Gene, been there. JP's a good dude. Yeah. I liked the Buffalo Bills are plucking. Okay. What the hell is he doing there? I think some of these officials do this where guys who are ex-officials are in that role. I believe they – I don't know if every organization has them, but they go and work for organizations and they evaluate, like, the upcoming opponent's tape when it comes to – We can get a lot of BIs on this team. Yeah, stuff like that. I think something like that where you're saying, hey, this backside defensive back or something like that or this right tackle. You know, pregame, these coaches have conversations with officials.

36:15Look out for this. Look out for that. I think that's in some capacity that role.

36:19Pat McAfee:That feels smart. That feels like a good idea. If you're making as much money as these NFL teams are making and refs matter as much as they do, having somebody to be able to potentially play the game a little bit on your side is a good play. We just hate that. I also think some self-evaluation, Pat. Sorry, like, hey, just so you know, maybe you're getting away with this shift or this motion or you're guys doing this. Check yourselves, stuff like that to try to get ahead of really either side. Interesting because Deion Dawkins does the inside hand chop that some refs call holding. I would assume that now JP, who's working for them, talks to the officials and says, hey, this is the move that he does.

36:58Pat McAfee:It is not holding more of a clarity on the entire. That feels like the Colts got one of these. Let's not get this guy. They probably do. The Bills keep changing rules. Got the inside track. Oh, you're saying maybe we should keep our eyes on what's going on. Yeah, keep our eyes. Still can't get a banner. Gumpy is a Dolphins fan. He should not be speaking. We got two. Give me two. Okay. 1972, only undefeated team. That's right. Pop the bottles. Still running it. Pop the bottles. Indiana Hoosiers might get you. It's prime for Josh this year. Indiana Hoosiers might get you. Prime for Josh. Hey, in Pittsburgh, though, you need to go.

37:33Pat McAfee:Great Italian culture in Pittsburgh. That means there's a lot of pizza. There's a lot of great food. Beautiful culture everywhere. And whenever you said you did not know Pittsburgh had pizza like this, we're there Monday for live. If you want to have on set, taste test, I'll volunteer. Interesting sentence there for the second one. But, yeah, a lot of different pizza, a lot of different opportunities. We'll make sure some Dalla Sala pizza will be delivered. That's the best in town. That's the best one, you say? Yeah, no questions. Dalla Sala. Yeah. Now, granted, did I work there and grow up with the family?

38:02Pat McAfee:Sure. So is that a little bit biased opinion? Of course. But I will say, Dallas Isles Pizza, certainly phenomenal. That is the place. That's my place. Augie's currently running this place alongside his mom, still doing it back there. Shout out to Beth. We love the entire squad, love the family. That's what you're looking for. Meat lovers. Okay. Oh, yeah. That's everything on there, pal. It's a good pizza. It's not the best. I have it on good. It looks much better than it did in that first photo. That looks good. I don't like the photo choice for the Dalla Sala pizza that they use on the graphic.

38:30Pat McAfee:Terrible. It looked like a piece of cardboard. It did. And I don't like that at all. But you can also buy it half-baked. So it does kind of look like that. So then whenever you get home after a long day, you pick it up half-baked. You put it in the oven. Now you've got oven-baked pizza. The old taking-baked. From Dalla Sala. It's taking care of people, you know, because that's a working-class pizza. Mama Mirada loves the half-baked. Oh, who doesn't? Who doesn't? Good people love the half-baked. Go ahead. Pat, I have a couple questions. So, one, what is Pittsburgh, at least pizza style-wise, is there an differentiating thing?

38:59Like, are they famous for thick, thin, stuff, all that? And then what do we like? Like, what kind do we like? Go ahead, Tone.

39:06Pat McAfee:Tone's about the slander, you know, or friends and family. No, no, no. I would say Pittsburgh, like, obviously New York, you know what a New York slice is. Detroit's got its own pizza. You guys up in Connecticut have your own style. We are just hard, bro. Chicago. I got a direct message from someone that says, McAfee's pizza sucks. Who said that? Fuck it, they don't want to say that to Dallas House Face. I'm going to let you know that right now. I didn't say Chicago because I don't respect Vince what? Vince, I would like to know names. Vince Vaughn? Okay, well, Vince was probably the owner of Vincent's, which is a solid pizza.

39:39Great pizza as well.

39:41Pat McAfee:I'll tell you what, Vinny doesn't do a bad job on pie, but now he's relaxing. We kind of adopted all the pizzas and then whatever shop you go to is kind of a style from potentially another place. My favorite is Fury's. which is more of a New York-style pizza. Pat's favorite, obviously, is Della Sella's, which is a square pizza. Everyone's got their different ones. There's even one where it's cold cheese. I don't love that. That's called Beto's. But, I mean, if you like pizza, it's got something for everybody. Whatever you like. Rockaway? Rockaway? Pizza Lupo? No, but just make sure it's an Italian name.

40:12Pat McAfee:Okay? Just make sure it's an Italian name. Tomorrow. I don't know. Yeah, boom. Banger. Don't do that. Don't talk about a New York site. Yeah. Don't do that. Okay? We're not doing Vaseline's either. We're not doing any of that. Okay? OG. Pittsburgh, Dan, I don't know if it still stands, but, like, the densest per capita of Italians in a city in the world outside of Italy was, like, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Actually. Italians everywhere. I mean, all of them. They're all Italian. This is Anthony DiGiulio. This is Franklin Nicholas Morolla. This is, I mean, these are, you know, like this. I think Phil's even Italian.

40:49Pat McAfee:That's why he gets so tan in the entire thing. His last name is Mains or whatever. It's like everybody around me growing up was basically Italian. And it's it. When you move out to Indiana and there's none except for Andretti up on a sign. It is a culture shock, I will say. It was a little bit of a wild time. I love Italians. They're the greatest. I love Italian food. I love Italian food. I've got to go to Italy. That's my number one place that I want to go to in the world. Just go to Pittsburgh. You're going. You'll be there. It'll basically be the same damn thing. Okay, let's talk about the Super Bowl.

41:19Pat McAfee:Where's it at? San Francisco. Okay, can't wait to see who gets a Santa Clara. We got Aaron obviously taking on CJ Stroud. Both of those guys have won in the playoffs. Feels like there's a lot of inexperience in the playoffs happening right in front of our eyes. Maybe the dawning of a new day in primetime. Go ahead, D-Butch. Absolutely. And this weekend, we got super wild card weekend. We got four quarterbacks looking for their first playoff win. Drake May, Bryce Young, Justin Herbert, and Caleb Williams. Who do you have most confidence in getting their first playoff win this year? Well, this round, I should say.

41:57I think Caleb and the Bears-Packers game just feels that there's a good shot for that. I think the world of Green Bay, but that game's going to come down to the final three minutes. Can Green Bay's defense, the last time we saw them out, at least with their guys, they got ran through by Baltimore. Obviously, that's the trademark of Chicago's offense is their ability to run the football. D-butt, you would know this, but I just think one of the things that makes it so challenging is everybody's got to tackle, and then that creates those downfield shots for Caleb. And so, Caleb, there's still moments of inconsistency and head-scratching misses at times, but he makes big plays down the field when they present themselves.

42:38And so, I think that Caleb's got a good shot because of some of the injuries, and again, just the challenge of playing them. I would also say this. I think the Chargers-Patriots game is a very interesting matchup. If we just look at New England and the Chargers and we say, what's the weakness of the Chargers? Because of injury, you'd say the Chargers offensive line, right? Just not an offensive line that is healthy enough. What's the weakness of New England? Defensively, it's their ability to get after the quarterback. And so I think maybe that kind of contrast or mitigating kind of leans to the potential for the Chargers offense to have some rhythm.

43:20And then I would say the second thing is this Chargers defense is different, man. I think it's one of the five to six best defenses in football, certainly one of the best in the playoffs. And I just don't think New England offensively has dealt with a defense like this one. Really good edge rushers. Derwin's outstanding. speed at the linebacker position coverage that's very good well coached and so I can see Herbert and the Chargers I don't know where I stand pick wise yet but I think that's a really interesting game.

43:53Pat McAfee:I'm fascinated by the Chargers as a whole you know because I like their building I like their coach I like their culture I like everything that's possible but can they ever really get it done I guess we shall see and then let's go down to Duval another great story coming out of this weekend. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Dana, why do you think that the Bills are favorites going to Duval? I mean, we've seen what Jacksonville's done over the last several weeks, and I know they love it that way. We've already heard Liam Cohen kind of mention, like, hey, we're home underdogs, so we got everything we need. But why do you think they are underdogs at home, especially what we've seen out of Trevor Lawrence as of late?

44:31And how do you think that game's going to go? One, the quarterback, two, Buffalo's really good. I mean, Josh Allen's part of the playoffs. Jacksonville's really good, too. You don't know who they are? You don't know who they are. You don't know who they are. You don't know who they are. You don't know who they are. Sean Connors, man. You hate Trevor Lawrence.

44:47Pat McAfee:I want to let you know, Dan. We had a full conversation out there where I said we're not going to be rude to Dan Orlovsky today. It's 2026. We need to be nice. That went out the door. That went out the door. Well, you started talking about it. Lack of Italians in Pittsburgh. Certainly, it's going to start. Grazie perrego. You know, all that stuff. But whenever we talk about this, whenever you say, well, Buffalo Bills are a really good football team, it's like. Yeah. Well, you ask me, why are they favored? And I said, one, they have the best player in the playoffs. Two, they're still a really good football team.

45:13It's not like Josh Allen's going down there playing by himself. They have the leading rusher in football. They have arguably the best offensive line in football. They have the best right now coverage unit in football. And so there's a lot of really good stuff with Buffalo. And that's kind of why I said a couple weeks ago, like, let's move on from this. Josh Allen have enough? Yes. You said best coverage unit? Better than the Texas. To my kickoff coverage? Yeah. What are you talking about here, Dino? Pass coverage? I mean, right now, that secondary is playing at a very high level. Very high level.

45:43Wow. Houston? Yeah, Houston. Seattle? Well, start. Houston. No, Seattle's secondary. No, no. No. What? Some good units out there. Jacksonville? They're not as good. Secondary-wise is Buffalo. No, they're not as good as second. Buffalo's secondary has been fantastic the last six weeks. All right, I trust you. Absolutely fantastic.

46:06Pat McAfee:I trust you. But now, whenever you say that, that's acting like, you know, like whenever you say they're a really good football team, is that the reason why they're favored? You're kind of saying like Jacksonville, not a really good football team. You know, just whenever you use it. I don't have to put one down to put up the other. It's like, well, you kind of do whenever the question is, why is one favored over the other? And you say, well, one's really good. So what would that mean? No, I said the quarterback, and then Buffalo's a really good football team. So that would indicate that Jacks are not a really good football team.

46:35Buffalo got lead rushing to lead rushing to lead. James Cook. James Cook is on the lead. Who is the number one rush defense in the NFL? Who is it? Oh, Jacksonville. Jacksonville. Who can't stop the run? Who's that? The Bills. Oh, okay. Who's not a very good run offense? Jacksonville. Who runs a lot? Trevor Lawrence. There it is. You hold the Bills water.

46:58Pat McAfee:I'm happy we got to that. That's the weakness of the team. They're not a very good running football team. Have you had eyes on Jacksonville? You know that answer. No, it sounds like... In real life, have you had eyes on them? Oh, see them in person? No, I've not seen them in person, no. Okay, so I can see how you can see eyes on them. Like, film, I get it. But, like, whenever we saw them take on the Colts, and it was without dimes, obviously, so it is what it is, but it's just, like, they're gigantic. They are all massive. They're all very fast. And people are wide-ass open. This guy should not be allowed to have the ball on offense.

47:33Pat McAfee:Parker Washington, I believe, is his name. He's a returner. Great returner. And Liam finds ways to get him the ball in space. It's like this team is unbelievable. I think a lot of people are very excited for Jacksonville this year. You know, obviously they had to Blake Bortles run. Whenever they go up to New England, take a knee before half, they could have continued to step on the throat of the Patriots. Second half, they collapse. Everything blows up after that. Literally everything blows up in Jacksonville. And then way before that, you had Brunel spinning it. And obviously, Fred Taylor, absolute dog for that team.

48:01Pat McAfee:But this one feels like the realest that Jacksonville's ever had. And it's just year one, hopefully, of what it is. You know their defensive coordinator? Paisan. Anthony Campanella. There you go. Yes. Did you see the tweet that Nick just sent you, by the way? We are – Pittsburgh is the number one Italian per capita world place outside Italy in the world. It makes sense. So go ahead and eat up over there, Dan. Mm-hmm. A lot of those sandwiches, too. here's a lot of small words that just say in numbers a lot of Italians in Pittsburgh last question the Italians say is water here? and they put roots down and they don't leave unless they're forced to and then Chicago happens I think my grandmother my grandmother I think was like maybe off the boat Italian montanero oh so you can say it then oh say what connor geez he's from boston that's complete opposite there you know that's kind of an irish run town with italians there pittsburgh italian run place with a lot of irish there so that's kind of the yeah yeah little that's the reverse there you see we should actually have the italian horn as a logo like the celtics have you know the three-leaf clover or whatever if we really wanted to accurately depict what the pittsburgh was and what Boston is.

49:23Pat McAfee:All right, last question here. Speaking of Boston, let's go up there. Go ahead, Con, man. Yeah, Dan, look, there's no winning in this MVP talk. I know you've probably seen it on the internet. No matter what, no matter who you say, you're going to get shit for. I even just laid out the reasoning for Matt Stafford yesterday, and people assumed that I thought he should win the MVP. Obviously, as a New England Patriots fan, I believe Drake May should win the MVP. Matthew Stafford currently minus 180 at DraftKings, the best sports book on the planet. Drake May plus 150. That has switched over the last couple weeks.

49:54You know, Drake May has been the favorite. Then Stafford. Currently, Stafford's the favorite. I would actually like to give you the chance here to explain to everybody why do you think Drake May does deserve the MVP? Nothing about Stafford. Nothing about the debate. Just talking about Drake May. Why do you think he deserves to win the MVP? Oh, look, he's squirming. He's squirming right now. He's squirming. No, this is my favorite moment for Conor because he's not trying to make me look like a

50:21Pat McAfee:What's that? Oh, we about to fudge and say something there? Dickhead? Yeah, sound like you were about to fudge and let one slip. I would tell you that, number one, probably did as much with as little as anybody in the NFL. Obviously, there's not a ton of stars on New England. I think Steph's had a fantastic year. I think Steph is in the running for at least on the field what he's done, comeback player of the year. Hunter Henry is another big-time player. Hunter Henry quietly has had, statistically, I think a top 30 season in the history of the NFL at tight end. Pretty good. Career. Top 30 career type stuff.

51:01Josh McDaniels is great. The two backs as patch casters. But they're not like these bona fide stars as a Puka Nakua is or a Devontae Adams. And so to have the season he's had without the no-brainer first-team all-pro or second-team all-pro guys, it speaks to how well he's played. Number two, to take a team that didn't have high expectations and obviously earn the two seed in the playoffs, it speaks volumes to how well he's played. And then three, and this is where I would say, Connor, people aren't going to like this, but this is just truly how I feel. I honestly believe, unless you've watched just about every single snap of these guys, I think it's really hard to make a fair judgment.

51:47And I promise you there's not a lot of Patriots fans who have seen just about every snap of Stafford. And there's not a lot of Rams fans that have seen just about every snap of Drake May. What they've asked Drake May to do, just when it comes to the control of their offense, is pretty significant. And that's why you've watched this kind of climb steadily throughout the season. Not only in performance, but warranting very much so being at the top of that MVP conversation.

52:14Pat McAfee:Hell yeah, Dana. We appreciate you. We know you have a vote. We know you put it in, just like Tone did. Odds have been taken away from DraftKings because the votes are already in, so you can certainly tamper a little bit. We can't wait to see who wins all these awards, and obviously being in the conversation is a great thing. Anytime we have a conversation with you, we appreciate the hell out of it. We love you, Dano. Love you too, boys. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Dan Orlovsky. Dano! Had a seatbelt on in the parking lot. When he's driving, he doesn't wear it. I think he's probably been yelled at before, like, hey, if you're going to be in the car, put a seatbelt on.

52:42Pat McAfee:He was like, all the time? And they're like, yes, all the time. and he parked it and he was like, keeping it on. You know how he doesn't really wear it? Oh, yeah. Because that thing's coming. We got to, you know, he probably doesn't even know. No. Somebody should tell him. He probably doesn't even know he can lift that thing. Crazy. It's all right, Dana. We love you, man. We love you, Dan. You know what else we love? What's that? That is also happening right now? Women's college hoops. Okay? Listen, I know nobody would expect us to be a women's college hoop show, but we certainly are. We caught the fever whenever Caitlin Clark was playing at Iowa and Angel Reese was down there at LSU.

53:14Pat McAfee:And Dawn was doing her thing in South Carolina. It was like WWE mixed with wild hoops at the same time. Kaitlin obviously comes here to the fever, changes the dynamic of our entire city, excited for her to get back healthy. We took our show to Iowa for the first Friday of March Madness to celebrate the women's basketball team, as opposed to the men's team, just to celebrate it all. So we are fans of the game. And this year, there's six teams that seem to be in for the natty. Now, UConn, dominant yet again, D-Bud? I didn't know this. Yeah, you can't talk about women's basketball without talking about UConn, one of the greatest dynasties ever.

53:47Sarah Strong is keeping that going, defending champs. Obviously, she got one with Paige Buckets last year. She's only averaging 18 points, eight rebounds, four and a half assists, three and a half steals on defense in a block and a half while shooting 58 % from the field. And also her running mate, Ozzie Fudd, who's leading the nation probably in three-point percentage, shooting 58 % back there. 48%, I'm sorry.

54:09Pat McAfee:God, UConn always good, it feels like. Always. Carolina, always good. LSU, always good. What's that, Todd? Yeah, actually, you know, they started out 13-0 this year, and they've dropped their first two SEC games. A lot of people saying, wow, has Kim Mulkey lost her fastball, or is it just because that rat bastard Lane Kiffins? No! I didn't know people were saying that. We can't talk women's college hoops without talking about my favorite team, the sixth best odds. Let's go out to Ames, Iowa, shall we, Foxy? You don't want to play your best basketball in January. You don't want to be a monster in January You want to be a monster in March

55:10That's how they go

55:26Yeah, we stay in the paint, make it faint, no restraint She's and you ain't, uh Oh, you're about to get cooked My Audi crooks Walking, talking, funky as you shook That's how they go Oh, you're about to get cooked My Audi crooks

55:43Pat McAfee:Come on! Yeah! Come on! What? Woo! You're about to get cooked by Arnie Crooks. Listen, I'm a huge fan of the way she operates. Huge fan. She just gets buckets. That is literally all she does. And did I know anything about Iowa State's women's basketball team ever? Nope. But Arnie Crooks highlights Papa Mayalgo, and I say, boys, immediately, I'm making a song. were making a highlight. Because people are trying to take shots at Audie right now. ESPN's TikTok. What? Yeah, they're like, Baylor exposes Audie. It's like, you better fucking watch your mouth. What the hell? Okay? They made a couple shots.

56:21Pat McAfee:There's a lot of good teams. Audie Crooks is going to cook when everybody looks. And that's in March when she's a monster, Ty Schmidt. And you know it. Women's College Hoops runs through Ames now over there in Iowa. No, it certainly doesn't. But I do love Audie Crooks. She is a Iowa gal born and bred, Algona, Iowa. so I will ride with Audie Crooks regardless of where she goes to college. You're about to get cooked by Audie Crooks. That's cute. That's cute. That's cute. We know who runs March. She said it. She better back it up. She's going to be a monster at March. She's going to be a monster today.

56:55Pat McAfee:What a good time. Song's a heater, though.

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57:37But 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. Rated T for Teen.

58:06Pat McAfee:Football is the greatest. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. Super wild card weekend is coming up and both college football playoff semifinals are preceding it. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday are going to have magical football to get us through the greatest weekend of all time. The Talks with Tables here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer. Cowboys AP Tone is here. Tone, as we projected the lines, is there anything that kind of sticks out or a little bit unusual as you look at the betting action? For college football, no. I mean, it's pretty standard.

58:35Indiana is getting, I believe, 60-some percent of the bets, which is not shocking, just the way that they have looked. And then the Ole Miss-Miami game is a little more even, and I think that's because of the storylines and just how the magical run that both of these two teams are on. But nothing out of the ordinary that I'm seeing with these two games in these situations.

58:53Pat McAfee:How about Super Wild Card Weekend? Anything we're seeing that makes us go, oh, that's interesting, sportsbooks, draft kings will certainly like that. Yeah, there's a lot of home dogs in this round of the playoff. Obviously, you're going to get that when the Steelers and the Carolina Panthers are hosting games as they won their conference. And then there was a flip recently between the Bears and the Packers. Packers were favored by 1.5. Now the Bears are favored by 1.5. Even though Green Bay on the money line is minus 112, Bears are minus 108. So this is basically a true pick-em in that game. Okay, so the Chicago maybe atmosphere turned that thing to them being favored by 1.5.

59:30Pat McAfee:Apple. Can you go back to talking about the Moneyline? On DraftKings, Moneyline, just straight up pick for the Green Bay Packers is minus 112, you said? Yeah, last time I looked, yes. And Chicago Bears' Moneyline pick, just picking them to win, is minus 108, which would say that the Green Bay Packers are actually favored to win that because they're taking a little bit more off of your bet if Green Bay wins as opposed to the Chicago Bears. That means they think that Green Bay is more likely to win because they're taking on a bigger risk whenever you're taking that bet as opposed to taking the Chicago Bears in their eyes.

59:58Pat McAfee:Then, whenever you talk about the spread, them being minus one and a half, I believe that is before it flipped, or has it flipped again? Has this flipped again? It has flipped again? Okay, just flipped yet again. Okay, so this thing is dancing back and forth. The Green Bay Packers now favored on the road. This could be a big bet coming in. This could be monitoring or something. This could be an injury up. This could be literally anything. You're talking about a true coin flip, it feels like, is what DraftKings is saying. and during the regular season it was split outcomes anyways. Ty, how does this make you feel about what's going on with the books?

1:00:31Yeah, I mean it doesn't surprise me with how banged up the Packers are as well, but like you said, the two games during the regular season, they were both incredibly tight. First game, Packers won 28-21 and Caleb Williams threw an interception on their last play of the game essentially. And then in the second meeting, the Packers kind of dominated the first 55 minutes of the game or so, and then the Bears score a touchdown. They obviously recover the onside kick, score again, go into overtime and win. So I would say, I mean, it makes sense. You would think that the Bears, this is a very close matchup between these two teams and they obviously know each other very well, but it would make sense that you would give the slight nod to the Bears being at home.

1:01:11Pat McAfee:How do you feel about this one, nine-year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler? You got Caleb obviously playing his best ball that we've ever seen him play. And then for the Packers, there's still a lot of interesting conversations happening around their entire operation over there. Absolutely. Health is always critical when it comes to these games. That's why you see all these different teams and coaches rest some of their star players. And Todd just mentioned a bunch of their key players are banged up. Obviously, probably going to be an all-pro this year, Michael Parsons. This is where you're going to really miss him on that defense side of the ball.

1:01:38I'm kind of leaning Chicago, even though this is Caleb's first playoff atmosphere. He'll be a first for a lot of different things. He'll be at home. He's still not necessarily hitting the singles yet. I would say he definitely has that home run hitting ability. The run game he has to lean on. Defense, they're going to get the turnovers to set him up, I think. So, yeah, I'm leaning to Chicago. There's a lot of pressure. I'm hearing some rumblings with Matt LeFleur on the sideline too. So, Ben Johnson is obviously very comfortable. So, yeah, I'm leaning to Chicago on this one.

1:02:10Pat McAfee:Hold on, but I heard there's an extension coming. I mean, there's been a lot of conversation around Coach LeFleur and what the future looks like. Ty, is that not accurate? Yeah, it is. I mean, I don't know if there's pressure per se, but it's just like, hey, guess what? You can't lose this one. You know, it's like the Packers at the start of the year, and granted, again, we talk about this with Ballard and Steichen and the Colts and like injuries. Injuries are a very real thing. But when the Packers traded for Micah Parsons, that was like signaling, hey, this is the piece that we need to get us over the hump to go win a Super Bowl.

1:02:37And early on there, when he was healthy and they were healthy, it looked like they were one of the best teams in the NFL. But since he's gotten hurt, they've kind of limped into the playoffs, which is exactly what they did last year. And again, the Packers are one of those franchises like the Steelers or, you know, one of those like winning one playoff game or just getting into the playoffs. Like that doesn't really sit well. They need to win an NFC championship or go to a Super Bowl. So I think if they struggle here, my guess would be that there will be very serious talks and considerations into not re-signing Matt LaFleur and maybe getting rid of him if the Packers do lose this weekend.

1:03:14Pat McAfee:Joining us now is the all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. That is on no sources. That is just our opinion. from the situation, or is it from sources? No, not sources, but it's like everyone who is associated with Packers media, like beat reporters, people who do radio shows. Schneids? Schneids, you know, yeah, guys like that. Like, everyone is kind of talking about it because that was a big deal when they asked Ed Policy about it at the start of the year, and he basically said, so Schneidman asked Ed Policy at the start of the year. Who said Policy? Ed Policy is the de facto, he's the president of the Packers right now.

1:03:45Owner. Yeah, exactly, the de facto owner. He's kind of running the show, and he was not committal on giving extensions to both LaFleur and Goodikin. So it was kind of like, oh, okay, he didn't outwardly say that they're going to extend these guys. So there is room to believe that maybe if this season doesn't end the way that they want it to or expect it to, that there's a chance they don't get new contracts.

1:04:04Pat McAfee:Is that Carmine's boy? That is Carmine's boy. And they make big moves. Yeah, big time. He was the one who basically came in and put the hammer down to get Micah Parsons. Now, you bring Micah in, you're unbelievable. Micah gets hurt, you don't do his play as well. Is that going to be held against Guth Koontz and LeFleur? We shall see. Just like here in Indianapolis, we bring in Danny Dimes. He was incredible. Danny Dimes breaks his leg. We stink. Who do you hold? Do you hold that against Chris Ballard? Do you hope for that type of return after Danny Dimes comes back? Are we bringing back Danny Dimes under contract?

1:04:35Pat McAfee:It's like all those things have to happen in every single building. Fascinating if it happens in Green Bay because that's a job. Everybody on earth would want. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that is certainly something they want. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is the all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers, a man who has celebrated another trip around his son, A.J. Hawk. A.J. Hawk! Happy birthday, A.J. Happy birthday to all who celebrate here on January 6th. It is A.J. Hawk's birthday. We love you, buddy. Happy birthday, Hawk. Happy birthday, Hawk. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.

1:05:16Happy birthday, dear Hawker.

1:05:23Pat McAfee:Happy birthday to you. Let's go to the Capitol! Hooray! No, no, no. No, no. That's a different January 6th celebration. Ours is always and will always be Hawker's birthday. Happy birthday, Hawker. You look good there on full screen. Wanted to make sure that happened just strictly so that the people could see whose birthday it was because with all these faces in places people could potentially be confused on whose big day it is it's yours happy birthday aj we love you buddy thank you appreciate that guys i one thing i don't think you mentioned this bears packer situation the robbery the head coaches they don't really uh you know there's some weird animosity between those two isn't there yeah and i like the fact that they've continued the rivalry like continue the tradition and the fact that we're getting to experience it in prime time on super wild card weekend on saturday night is just a special thing.

1:06:12Pat McAfee:It's a special game. It's going to be a special atmosphere, and the game is going to live up to expectations. AJ, how do you feel about this one for your pack? I mean, honestly, I feel pretty good about it. As long as Jordan Love's health is okay, I understand, like, for Caleb and the Bears, there's definitely, I mean, there's pressure on both these teams. We know that. It is an added thing with the whole of the floor rumors. I understand that's not, like, we don't have any solid information or whatever, but there's always rumblings about that if they don't win this game. But I feel pretty good about where the pack are going into Chicago.

1:06:41So I feel like they feel like maybe people aren't giving them a chance or people have been hyping up the Bears all year and Caleb and what they've done. So I feel like the Packers are kind of laying in wait and hopefully have a big game.

1:06:52Pat McAfee:Let's go around to Super Wild Card teams. And we're the only ones calling it Super Wild Card? No, that's what it's called. Oh, Super Wild Card. Yeah, it's Super Wild Card weekend. I don't know if I've heard it. I haven't seen anybody else really say it. Super Wild Card. I've heard it in the past. I don't know if I've seen anybody. It's Super Wild Card. It's Super Weekend. Super Wild Card weekend. It's leading into Super Bowl season. Exactly. It's a super wild card weekend, obviously. Let's just go around. I don't think either of these coaches are in trouble if they lose. McVay or Canales, I don't think so.

1:07:20Pat McAfee:This one, it seems like from what everybody that is following Green Bay is saying, certainly a conversation if Green Bay was to lose this game about the coaches. McDermott, it'll get loud. It'll get real loud for McDermott. And that hasn't even been brought up or broached at this moment. And we're not calling for this. We're just saying the reality of the situation. with Josh Allen being the best football player on earth, an alien is how everybody views it. Buffalo Bills fans, if McDermott can't get the job done, they're blaming him. They're not blaming Josh Allen. They're saying it's him that they can't win.

1:07:48Pat McAfee:No Patrick Mahomes, no Lamar Jackson, no Joe Burrow, no anything in the playoffs, and you can't get the job done. It's going to get loud for McDermott, and nobody has talked about that at this point. It has also gotten very, very loud for Brandon Bean, at least from the Buffalo people, especially with how the Keon Coleman situation has kind of happened. this year with him being a healthy scratch, it's gotten loud for the GM as well. Shanahan and Sirianni, they're both good, right? Yeah. It'll get loud. They'll ask for Sirianni's job, but that's just because he's good. Shanahan, it'll get loud too.

1:08:19Pat McAfee:They always attack what his record is. They always do that entire thing, and I'm not saying they should without Fred Mbosa on the defensive side. They're nowhere near at full capacity, but it always does kind of get loud for Shanahan if they don't win a Super Bowl. Ain't that accurate, AJ? Yeah, that's definitely accurate. I also think if you lose, how you lose plays a big factor in if they're thinking about possibly moving on from head coach. If you get rocked, if you go out there and look what happened to Alabama and Indiana, if you get dominated physically on both sides of the ball, people will definitely have questions.

1:08:46Pat McAfee:Yeah, people give up hope. The interesting thing, and I don't want to get too off topic here with Alabama, you look at all the other coaching staffs that are left, they're all Saban disciples. Alabama decided to go away from Saban in their next decision. I wonder if Alabama people are going to be good with that if they continue to not win national championships while Saban disciples win national championships. So these other schools are taking our fucking recipe. They won't. And then we say, well, we need a guy from... Make it make sense. I don't understand why everybody wants a piece of Saban's tree.

1:09:16Pat McAfee:Hey, Saban's apples are blooming everywhere. These things are great. Johnny Appleseed, this fucking guy. Every other school that's good is pulling from the Saban tree. And then we decide, cut the tree down, put a field up, and get the hell on. is I bet you Alabama people are going to get pretty loud about that. Oh, I think they already have. Yeah. Just thinking about that. And then we got Coach Saban, I think, on tomorrow. And I know he's tight with Greg Byrne, who's the AD, and he's very close with the Alabama community and everything like that. So I'm wondering how I'm going to phrase that to Coach Saban.

1:09:48Pat McAfee:But I thought about this last night and the night before about it all, just because we're seeing the four disciples and the way Signetti talked and the way Lanning was talking. They all talk about Coach Saban. It's like, Signetti said, I'll learn more about being a head football coach, all right? And one year with Saban that I did to 27 years before that, he said. That's what Signetti said about Saban. Yeah. So then for Alabama to choose to not go with a Saban disciple, like that's an actual decision that was made. And I got disrespected for Coach Saban. And it's like, Coach isn't going to feel disrespected.

1:10:18Pat McAfee:He'll high-road it. He'll be very nice about Alabama and everything. But I like immediately, as I was sitting in my house, that was in a state where it was legal, maybe a little hot, I fired off a text. I typed up a full text to Coach Saban about, you need to stop going to these basketball games and sit with this guy. Like, every other school was looking for you is basically what they were trying to do. And your own school tried to move on. I could see that he won't be disrespected by that. But it is something that's very fascinating whenever you think about how loud it got with that. And I think it's justifiable.

1:10:46Pat McAfee:We love Kalen DeBoer. I think Kalen DeBoer is an incredible coach. I like to hire. Whenever it happened, I thought he was maybe one of the only accomplished guys that could go in and fill the shoes of Coach Saban in Alabama. And maybe that's the reason why they wanted to go a different direction, AJ. Maybe. I'm not 100 % sure. Yeah, I don't know. Usually, it still ended well with saving. It wasn't like, oh, he was great, and then he wasn't good the last couple years. Then I understand going like, hey, we're going to bring in the opposite of what we had. But no, it was good, and he decided to step away.

1:11:13See you. And yeah, I don't know. I guess at the time, though, it sounded like it made sense for DeBoer to come in.

1:11:17Pat McAfee:Yeah, for me, I was on DeBoer's side. Still am. But then now we're kind of watching this all trickle, and it's like all of these coaches are saying, this guy birthed me, basically. Yep. And he birthed this era of Alabama football. And it's like, why does everybody else want something that you guys got except for you guys? That could be something. Now, granted, I'm going to look for disrespect guy. Coach Saban is not. He spends his energy in solutions. Not problems. I'm not looking for that type of stuff. But I'm excited to hear his kind of – this is me telling Jimmy Sexton to go ahead and – or Miss Amy, please tell Coach Saban that this is coming tomorrow.

1:11:58Pat McAfee:that I am certainly asking if he is disrespected by the fact that every good team in the country is trying to get a coach Saban light in there. And except for your school was trying to. And I love Kalen. This is not me backhanding Kalen DeBoer. This is me watching a Saban disciple Saban, a coach at the Rose Bowl, with our own eyes right there. Signetti is just dissecting every attention to detail. Every single thing is Saban's entire thing is attention to detail. It's just like bomb, bomb, bomb. Got to plan for everything. I got a plan for everything. Signetti, hyper like that. Lanning, hyper like that.

1:12:32Pat McAfee:This Golden guy, I assume there's a lot of Saban coming through in his leadership techniques right now. All right. And Cristobal, yeah, well, all right. He says, all right, all right. And Cristobal, he gives the way he talks about coach. It's like that's an interesting decision in hindsight being 20-20. Especially with having boots on the ground and seeing Miami a couple times and then seeing Bama just get completely bullied. It's like, okay, you know Cristobal on how he designed his team, you know, how Sig has designed his team, like just physical. I mean, that's all we know from, you know, Alabama football.

1:13:05And then to actually see that, like at that point in the fourth quarter, I was like, damn, this is embarrassing. Like these boys laid down. It's one thing to get beat, but it's another thing to just get absolutely punished. So, yeah, it's very, very odd. And the Bama people, to your point, Ty, they've kind of, I feel like kind of been out almost since the hiring. Like it was impossible for Kalen to live up to those things. It would be impossible for anybody to live up to Saban standard, but just the Alabama standard or even the SEC standard in general for Kalen was tough to step into that. Yeah, maybe not Golding.

1:13:34I don't really know as much with him, but it feels like all three, Signetti, Lanning, and Cristobal, wanted to build their own Saban type aura at their specific schools. Like Lanning especially, he's been up for every single job and his whole entire thing is the grass is damn green in Eugene. Cristobal leaves Oregon just to go to Miami because, you know, Alma Mater, like, very much a connection there, wants to bring that place back. And Signetti, I mean, granted, much different situation, him going to IU with the whole entire Bama job, but, like, IU has gone all in on Signetti. Like, you wonder if all those guys, all those Saban disciples that are so successful would rather, like, hey, I want to go and be Nick Saban, but at a different school, not at the Alabama itself.

1:14:18Pat McAfee:Yeah, taking over that Bama job at the time, AJ, not easy for anybody. I think, like, literally. Impossible. He's still there. He's still there. Yeah. Statue still. You're playing on his field. He's still there. And he's talking ball on the weekends, and everybody agrees with everything he says. Whenever he goes on and pontificates about shit, we put that on X, obviously, and all that's gone. Those numbers are outrageous. And I'm not saying, like, the numbers matter because only good numbers matter, but these are good numbers. These are not, like, people watching it because they hate it. It's numbers of people watching going, Yeah, that's actually my opinion going forward now.

1:14:54Pat McAfee:That is how I feel. And he's still doing that on a big stage while this team's happening. So not an easy job at all, we're saying. But it's just very weird that everybody else is trying to get a piece except for whenever they had to make the decision there. Was that disrespectful? Coach, you're disrespectful? I'm kind of disrespectful. You called me one of your best friends. Respect. I view you the same way. I like that you did that. I did not know that that's how we view each other. I'm pumped up about that. I don't want to let you know that. and as one of your best friends, I'm disrespected by what's going on down there.

1:15:25Pat McAfee:And that's who I'll be in your friend group. I don't know how many of those you have. I will certainly be the one that'll be... You need a couple. You need a couple of those. Yeah. Always have been that person in the group. So I'm excited to do that for Coach Sam. Coach, this is a good time. Just wait. You won't have to say anything. No, you're probably going to have to say, I don't feel like that. I'll say, okay, I'll be clear next time. Go take an NFL gig too. Give him one of these NFL gigs. I want to see him back in the league. He won't, but still. Raiders? I think he's pretty happy with what he's doing right now.

1:15:52Pat McAfee:That's his answer all the time. I'm really happy with what I'm doing right now. Him and Miss Terry going to the Alabama basketball game the other night, just kind of casually saying, Yeah. Let me get some popcorn, maybe. Let's do this. I'm going to go golf with the lads. All right. Oh, I'm going to go golf with business partners that are maybe worth a billion dollars like I am. Okay, I'm going to do that. Oh, what are they going to say about Indiana now? Yeah, exactly. My golfing buddies just had no idea. Tee off the first tee. Alabama should beat the hell out of... What? He's got no ball. You might be saying, why didn't we hire Sig?

1:16:23Like, having this exact opposite.

1:16:25Pat McAfee:Okay, so on that note, Sig and Kalen DeBoer are similar, right? Small school success, have a lot of success, and then get put into a big position. Like, I think a lot of these rookie quarterbacks, if you see a lot of ball in college, kind of puts you in a better position. I think a lot of reps at smaller places to get them into those positions. Sigmati could have been a guy, maybe, that fills in those shoes. Can you imagine? And also, like, loves the opportunity. Oh, my God. No chance. That would have been so loud. Yeah, DeBoer went from a natty to a bam. It's not as if he went to Tony's party.

1:16:59JMU. This guy was playing in the national championship. But what we have the beautiful thing of is hindsight.

1:17:04Pat McAfee:Of course. Greg Murray, what are you doing, brother? We need you to be a better talent evaluator. We need you to know who's the right guy for the right job. Not saying Kalen DeBoer can't win at all. We certainly think he can. But is Alabama the right place for Kalen DeBoer and how he operates? We'll see. You would have hired Kayla. Me? Those resumes? Did you see Signetti on our show? He said, hey, NCAA, why don't you suck it on our show? I would have hired that guy. With those resumes, you look at Kayla's record, like even going into Washington, he had a national championship appearance. I mean, if Signetti was like an SEC guy for 10, 20 years, it may be different.

1:17:42He's dying in Alabama. Yeah. Yeah, he had a couple. He was a pit stop down there. Yeah, but he's more of a –

1:17:49Pat McAfee:IUP. It's a good program. Coach Sheridoni's dead, I believe, coaching. Yeah. That's almost a factory down there. There used to be some rumors about IUP about, you know, go up there. You might leave with something. You know, good times, obviously. I told the boys that. What do you mean? Just good times. You're going to leave with a hangover for sure whenever you go up to IUP. That was kind of the rules. I think a couple of those bars are still there, still doing it. And I was up there when I was just a young lad, like a teenager, certainly in there as Jason McAfee, still doing it. So I think IUP is still bringing it out there, so we appreciate that.

1:18:22Pat McAfee:Love ball there at IUP. Yeah, they love ball. My brother went to school there. They're known for STDs, AJ. Yeah, that's what they're known. They were not anymore. Obviously, they cleaned that up, which we're very proud of them for doing it. How do you clean that up? Well, you know how you clean up. Just people graduate, and now we've got a new group in there. The youngsters, you break the chain. Yeah, don't let the youngsters continue it. You're right. I mean, that was a wild thing just to be – all right, let's move along. There's a couple of higher schools that have that same kind of situation.

1:18:47Pat McAfee:I think it's a little – I think it's rude to IUP because IUP have had great times up there. Sure. I mean, great times. There was a couple of basement frat parties that I was at up there. People had no idea who I was. Just terrible sound systems, DJs sweating on top of everything. Just – It's college, baby. Oh, yeah. Good times up there. And taking it back to ball, Fernando's living a college life with the boys. Did you hear that, AJ, whenever he said that? I thought that was a big deal for the number one overall pick. I agree, yeah, because you wouldn't think that. And then I saw the clip of him walking in with the boys to a local establishment.

1:19:21It looked like, yeah, I mean, that is true. Like, you don't have to sit there and go and get hammered with the boys every single night, every weekend. But it is, I think you need to hang out with them off the field for sure.

1:19:31Pat McAfee:Team chemistry is built a lot better around a keg than it is kale, has been my saying since the beginning of time. Now, you could change Kale out and put maybe another leaf in there, and maybe I would think it's kind of equal, but nonetheless need to be hanging around the boys. Like, that needs to be something that a quarterback does. You're the CEO of the locker room. That is what your immediate job is. So you got to know everybody. You got to have relationships. You got to take time out of your life to build the relationships. And it's like I think Fernando has all the pieces. He just got there about a year ago.

1:20:00Yeah.

1:20:00Pat McAfee:Hang out with the boys, rally around the boys, everything. It's like that's good leadership. I'm excited to see him in the NFL. Joining us now is a man who's known as a quarterback whisperer for the NFL. He's worked with every great quarterback that has ever existed. And coached with every coach that's ever coached Paul. Yep. Ladies and gentlemen, multiple-time Super Bowl champion, Coach B.A. Yay! How you doing? What's up, boys? Hey, great to see you. We missed you in here this morning, obviously. And your vibes and energy and energy drinks are certainly something that we are going to miss for the rest of the way.

1:20:31Pat McAfee:But we appreciate you joining us here. What I was just saying there about Fernando, how real is that, you think? Being able to hang out with the boys, have a couple beers, alongside being 6 '5", 230, and able to break down a defense. What are your thoughts on this Fernando Mendoza kind of sensation and him at the next level, Mr. Quarterback Whisperer? Yeah, I think he's got all the traits, man, and drinking beer is one of them, especially with the offensive line. Every quarterback's got to take care of his offensive linemen and maybe a top receiver or two. But he's got all the measurables. The guy can spin it.

1:21:01He's athletic. It reminds me a lot of Drake May coming out, same height, speed. But, yeah, he can place the ball anywhere he wants to put it.

1:21:08Pat McAfee:What's the difference between the NFL and college for these quarterbacks? Now, there had been a conversation that all these second-chapter quarterbacks that are around the league, we've seen them, Donald, Baker, Kirk, you just go around all these second-chance quarterbacks almost that have had an uptick in success. A lot of people started saying, well, they've seen the defenses, they understand what the defenses are, so they're able to make decisions. these younger quarterbacks with the way ball is in high school and college kind of slowed down the development of the football IQ maybe. Is that an accurate depiction of what is happening at the quarterback position in your eyes?

1:21:40Pat McAfee:And do you think Fernando, Dante, any of these guys are maybe getting back to understanding what's happening on the defensive side? Yeah, I think the volume of defense that young quarterbacks see is just so huge. You know, they might see four coverages in college and maybe five blitzes versus eight or nine different variations of coverage and 20 different blitzes in a game. Mendoza looks like he can handle the pressure extremely well. He seems very bright. Haven't sat down with him, but I'd love to sit down with him, put him on the board and get to know him a little better. But he just looks like he's got the cerebral part down pat.

1:22:17Pat McAfee:How many young quarterbacks should we see having success in the future? Because it has been a little bit of a run here. of these younger guys starting to really break out. And you look at this playoffs, not a lot of playoff wins from a lot of these quarterbacks. It almost feels like we're completely in the dawning of a new era of the QB. Do you agree with that? And how do you feel about these young guys heading into their biggest games that they've ever played? Yeah, I think for sure the NFL's in great position right now with a bunch of good young quarterbacks and a couple more that are going to come in next year.

1:22:45But, yeah, I think with the playoffs,

1:22:50advantage to the guys who've been there and done it. You know, to Josh Allen's Aaron Rodgers. But the rest of those guys, I mean, there's there's some talented young people out there that can really play. Trevor Lawrence is playing at a super high level. Caleb Williams is playing a high level. Brock Purdy. I mean, you know, Jalen Hurts is MVP in Super Bowl last year. So, I mean, the league has got a number of great quarterbacks. And we're not even talking about Mahomes and the guys that are missing. You know, Justin Herbert's in there. So I think it's going to be a whale of a playoff series.

1:23:19Pat McAfee:Most important time of the year, most important position in the game. Feels like we got studs everywhere, and the defenses are about to make it tough for them. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, B.A., when you're evaluating these quarterbacks coming out of college, I guess what was your formula or how did you do it? Did that change over the course of your time in the NFL and how you tried to, I guess, predict success in the NFL for these guys? Yeah, for me, I didn't like comparing people, but I loved comparing measurables. and who a guy might remind me of. I did it for like 20 years, and I'd love to sit down with them individually and get them on the board, talk to them about hots, blitzes.

1:24:03Tell me about your offense. Now, if a guy can put his up-off and explain to him what he's going to do versus cover two, what he's going to do versus this blitz, I want to hear how you handle it. Then we're going to put our offense up on the board and talk to them about it. and then out in the middle of the workout, I might walk up and say, okay, it's man protection. Here comes the weak safety. How are you going to handle it? And the best two I've ever seen were Andrew Luck and Patrick Mahomes. Peyton was great too, but Andrew Luck, I tried to fool him. He said, no, that's exactly what you said.

1:24:35You're right. You're right. That's exactly what I said. Mahomes just spit him out. I said, slide protection. Here comes a strong safety. Fix it. He's throwing the ball. He makes the right call. I mean, in a 15-minute meeting, these guys had it down. It may take some guys two or three years. Some never get it.

1:24:51Pat McAfee:Okay, so my question is then how do we miss on guys? If that is possible in 15 minutes, being able to find that out, why do you think there's so many misses at the quarterback position, which there has been? Now, granted, as of late, it feels like there's more hitting. It feels like there's a little bit more hitting as of late. But there was a run there where we had no idea if the quarterback was going to be good or not. How did people miss and why did people miss, you think? Sometimes it's system fit. And the really shitty team. I mean, if you're getting picked in the top five, you're going to a really shitty team most of the time.

1:25:21You know, you're not lucky. Like Ben Roethlberger was pissed. He dropped down to 11th, but he got on the Pittsburgh Steelers with the best defense in the world. He wins 15 games as a rookie. That showed young quarterbacks, I don't have to go in the top five. You know, that money is not necessarily going to come on this contract. It's going to come on the next one. But you get in those teams, and if you don't have an offensive line, so many times, like, you pick this quarterback. I'm looking at the Raiders right now, and to pick a quarterback to fix them right now I think would be a bad mistake.

1:25:54You got a hell of a lot of other things to fix. Well, one quarterback can't fix all that shit, and you better get an offensive line in front of this kid. You got a great running back. Get an offensive line. If you can slide down a couple spots and maybe get one that you really, really like a little bit later in the top five or six picks.

1:26:11Pat McAfee:I think Mendoza's generational. You're the quarterback whisperer. So free agency, you can flip an offensive line too. We saw Chicago Bears do that. They traded for Tony, which was a massive move. Paid two other guys to shore up kind of the middle. Ben Johnson says, we need an offensive line. I love Caleb, but we need to do this because our run game's going to be whatever. It's going to be able to protect Caleb. And that's worked very quick. I mean, the offensive line is like literally the key, it feels like, to whether or not you're going to be ass. You know, B.A., that feels like that's the biggest deal.

1:26:41Yeah, I mean, the thing is who's available, and you'll have to have a trade partner. You know, what are you giving up to get those guys? And the Bears did a great job. They solidified that inside interior part of that offensive line, which they needed to, and that's put them in the playoffs because Caleb is now not running for his life all the time. He's just running to run and make plays, you know, and he's very comfortable in the pocket because he's got a pocket. You know, these other cats, you know, I think back of David Carr and Tim Couch. In their first two years, they were sacked 140 times.

1:27:19I mean, Timmy Couch, he was all broken up by the time I got him. Hell of a player. Was never a bust. Was a great player. He was just torn all the pieces by the time I got him. His arm was about to fall off. And it's tough as tough as nails. But to get to some of these teams, you know, if I'm a quarterback, I ain't coming.

1:27:37Pat McAfee:I pulled an Eli. I pulled an Eli. I said, I ain't coming. Eli, John Elway, it has happened a couple different times, and obviously what happens around you is certainly very important to how you have success at the quarterback position in football. There's 11 people on the field for a reason, but boy, these quarterbacks take all the blame. And then they get all the credit as well. That's right. And a lot of the money. And a lot of the money. Okay, let's talk about Ben Johnson. We talk about him being able to sure up the offensive line. Whenever he took over the job, everybody thought he was going to be great.

1:28:05Pat McAfee:This is the bell of the ball. He's turned out to do just that. This is his first time in a big stage, though. Go ahead, D-Butt. Absolutely. So, Caleb, I mean, Ben, obviously it starts with him. You talk about quarterbacks getting the shit beat out of them. Caleb went from taking 68 sacks last year to only 24 this year. But what changes on the playoff stage? I know we all, as players, everything just got faster for whatever reason. You go from preseason speed to regular season speed to postseason speed. From a coaching standpoint, what changes once you get to the playoff stage, especially with a young quarterback?

1:28:36at? Yeah, I think it's a level of preparation. You know, everybody's, everybody's fired up. Everybody's intense. You know, for the, for the Bears, they're going to play somebody for the third time. That's hard. And, but they know each other, just get healthy, get ready, get a game plan. Ben's always got some surprises for people, but you know, they didn't just fix an offensive line. They got Swift and they got Roma Duse and Luther Burden. They got weapons, young tight ends because Ben's a 12-personnel guy. They got two tight ends that can really play. I love the Bears offense when those kids are all healthy on the outside.

1:29:12Pat McAfee:I appreciate the fact that that Chicago Bears culture was flipped so quickly. They're not the only ones, man. New England seemingly was able to get back to where they wanted to be. And then if you think about Carolina Panthers are hosting a damn playoff game. Oh, yeah. There's a lot going on around being a Joliet Cohen. He was hired late. This guy's not even going to be able to hire a staff. Because Bruce Arians ain't going to let him hire anybody out of Tampa Bay. This guy's not going to be able to hire a damn staff. That's how late it was in the process. They hire, what, a 21-year-old GM and stoner?

1:29:44Pat McAfee:They got no shot, and here we go. Now, all of a sudden, the Jacksonville Jaguars are hosting a damn playoff game, which leads greatly into, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for our favorite segment of the season. It's BS or no BS with B.A. We appreciate the hell out of you, B.A. Go ahead, Con, man. Yeah, Bruce, right now there are three home underdogs in the first round of the playoffs, and picking them all to win is the right thing to do. Is that BS or no BS, B.A.? I think that's no BS, brother. I mean, when you look at the teams that are under Houston, got great defense, quarterbacks playing great, going to make the road to Pittsburgh.

1:30:21I don't think that's a tough one for them. Buffalo and Jacksonville, that's a tough one for me because Jacksonville is really, really hot, but I'm not betting against Josh Allen because he's been there and done it. And, of course, the Rams and the Panthers, the Rams went out there and got embarrassed in Carolina. I don't see that happening again with that defense and Matthew Stafford playing at that level. I think they're all safe picks. The only one that's really questioned me is Jacksonville because Liam's got them playing so good.

1:30:46Pat McAfee:Okay, so is that supposed to be BS then? It's supposed to be BS? Don't take the road, dog. Okay, so the favorites are going to win. So you like the favorites, BAs. I like all the favorites. I'm going to take all the favorites. Okay, so we got a little bit of a scandal here. So let's go back. That's BS, baby. That's BS, baby. That's BS, baby. That's BS, baby. That's what that certainly is right there. Okay, let's get to the next one. Go ahead, Tosh, man. All right, Coach, you just mentioned it a little bit there. Defensive head coaches are all the way back. There will be more defensive head coaches hired this coaching cycle than offensive head coaches.

1:31:21Is that BS or no BS, B.A.? I think that's BS, too. Oh! I think the defensive coaches are way more qualified. But the hiring cycle the last four years has been all offense. I've had two calls this morning, people looking at different people, and they're looking for young offensive coaches. And it baffles me because when I think of the defensive guys, Brian Flores and Vance Joseph and Robert Sala and Steve Spagnola, just to mention a few on defense, unbelievable. defensive head coach. The trend, I mean, Kevin Savancy's going to get a job real fast. I think Matt Nagy's got a shot, and you're going to hear his name, Clint Kubiak.

1:32:05And I would think if somebody's smart, they bring back Mike McCarthy.

1:32:09Pat McAfee:Oh, hell yeah. We think he does want to get back into the game. You know, I feel like he enjoyed the hell out of his life. First time he's had a fall in, what, 50 years or whatever it was, the story. He got to hang out with his kids, got to go see volleyball. I love it. There you go. Duck hunting up there with his dog. Gus, which is an award-winning duck hunting dog in Gus. I think he enjoyed all of that, but he's a football guy through and through. He was excited to get back in there. I feel like he learned a lot from watching from this perspective as opposed to being in a building. Do you think that's possible with coaches maybe away from the game for a year and then you kind of get back in with, I don't want to say brand new, but a different perspective maybe than you had?

1:32:49Oh, yeah, totally. I did that with CBS after Arizona. I thought my health was not going to be good, and I got it all fixed up and decided to get back in. And the one thing I decided, I was not going to call plays. I was not going to be the head coach and the offensive coordinator. I probably would not have taken the job if Byron Lefkowitz wasn't available. And to me, it's still a crime that we're not talking about Byron Lefkowitz and his head coaching cycle. That's the brightest offensive line I've ever been around.

1:33:13Pat McAfee:I love to hear that. Byron Lefkowitz obviously could spin it as well. I've never been around him on a day-to-day. Toph, too. Toph, just what a name, too. Byron Lefkowitz, synonymous with ball. I appreciate the fact that you, away from it, come back and say, I could probably be a better leader as a whole if I'm not calling plays in this entirety. You go to Tampa, win a Super Bowl. That's all she wrote. Let's get to the third BS or no BS with B.A. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, B.A., Sam Darnold can and will lead the Seattle Seahawks to the Super Bowl. Is that BS or no BS? I think that's no BS, brother. Wow!

1:33:46I think right now Sam's figured it out. He's going to have to put a Superman cape on. They got that running game rolling. Showed up big last week in San Francisco. This may be the facilitator, get the ball out to the right guys, make some big plays with his legs. And, you know, he and JSN, man, that's a dangerous combination. But when they got that running game going with the defense they're playing right now and then the 12 up there in Seattle, watch out.

1:34:09Pat McAfee:It's going to be tough. Home field advantage is wild for Seattle to have. Congratulations to them and McDonald being able to turn it all around. And Darnold spinning it. Biggest game, biggest moment. Darnold's throwing dots. Good for Darnold. Hopefully they're able to get it done there in Seattle. Obviously their fan base worthy of being showcased to the world throughout the entirety of playoffs. Now, there's a couple game balls we need to give out. You know, in actual NFL buildings, the Monday after games, there are game balls given out in the team meeting. The coach comes in, has his game balls ready.

1:34:38Pat McAfee:He and the equipment manager have worked together. You read off a list of accolades and then you throw it. You know, sometimes back in a room, a little bit of a spain, big time catch, the energy, obviously fantastic. We want to do that this season with B.A. He's done it every single week. That obviously will not change this week. Go ahead with your game balls, B.A. Who should be celebrating a huge end of NFL season? Yeah, NFC. A lot of guys didn't play last week, but Matthew Stafford, again, put it up. Big numbers. Three touchdowns. Had a hell of a ball game, leading them to a big win. And then in the AFC, it was a little bit harder because they only had one tackle by Miles Garrett for breaking the sack record.

1:35:14His stat line was one tackle, one sack. that's hard to pay$150 million to a guy for one tackle, but 23 sacks might get it. Hell yeah.

1:35:25Pat McAfee:A lot of money. Stop the game. A lot of money. You know, he said as long as Upstairs has the same mentality about winning as B, I'm good, I'm happy. You know, because last year whenever his contract was in discussions, he put out a whole letter, high five to the ref there, it's hilarious by the way. He put out an entire message about how it's not just about being a good player i want to win games man i would like to win and seemingly took a shot at andrew barry with the way he described getting to canton and hall of fame almost as if that was a goal for the browns as opposed to winning football games then he gets 40 million a year that seemingly changes i'm gonna be a part of the change that's going to happen here then they go on and i'll win again it's like how long does this last is miles garrett going to continue to be a pillar and a sensation while they continue to lose like joe thomas spent his entire career obviously nobody wants to do that.

1:36:11Pat McAfee:The Browns are fascinating, B.A. Obviously, you're up there as a coach. It feels like they have been just cursed. Like, they are just going to stink. Doesn't it feel like that with Cleveland? I don't like it. I like the people of Cleveland. But it feels like that with the Brownies. Yeah, they're great fans, man. You know, I was with the Colts, and we went up there like week 16. It was snowing like crazy. I said, Peyton, you don't have to worry about a silent count today. We're in the locker. We came out there as an ass in every seat. It was crazy. We had to kick a field goal on the last play of the game to win.

1:36:37And then going there and coaching for three years, they had great fans, man, and they deserve more. It's a shame that you can't put the product on the field. It's just been the quarterback issue for years and years. And, you know, why they ever get up on Baker, I don't know. Yeah, that was wild. Beat the Steelers in a playoff game.

1:36:57Pat McAfee:Without Zvansky on the sideline. He had COVID. The Pittsburgh Steelers are who the Cleveland Browns beat in the playoffs. Get this guy, though. Get him out of here. All these commercials. I'm about sick of him doing it, Dougie. Let's get him out of here. Now he's down there in Tampa trying to win NFC South. Got a nice house down there. He does have a nice house. He's got a nice house down there. I've seen that through the Instagram story there of his family as he followed along with that NFC South. You think Tampa's going to be okay? Yeah, I think so. I think there have been a lot of injuries this year, and some things didn't go right in a couple different spots.

1:37:33But Todd's going to right the ship, and Jason Light's going to get another great draft. And they'll reload. They don't have to rebuild. All right.

1:37:41Pat McAfee:I guess we'll just believe it because you're down there. You're close to the situation. You're the man. We appreciate the hell out of you, Coach. You got it, guys. Ladies and gentlemen, that's Coach B.A. Hey, Coach. The Tampa Bay fans were calling pretty loudly for a new Coach Dunner. Yeah, big time. Real off, big time. B.A.'s in the building, you know, as a consultant. I think Todd and Jason will get it done. It's like, all right, that sounds like that's what's going to be happening. Right? That division, it feels like any year you could argue that any of the teams is by far the favorite to win.

1:38:12Pat McAfee:But what I'm saying is they're not making any changes. No. That's what it sounds like right there. Oh, yeah. I mean, Shefty kind of said that yesterday too. But, you know, things could change. Shefty living in his fears in this moment is certainly wild. Him getting a whole new narrative or perspective in a city, an entire city, just from one text message from him, hey, actually snooping around, Cliff Kingsbury, yeah, parting of ways. He's gone from Washington. Add Cliff Kingsbury's name potentially to a list of head coaching things. Well, did he get fired or did he leave? while him and Dan Quinn sat, talked about the future, and they decided to part ways.

1:38:43Pat McAfee:I guess they disagreed. So now he'll pursue other opportunities. It's like, is he still getting paid by the commanders and by the Cardinals? And then is he potentially going to be a head coach now all of a sudden? Because obviously what he was able to do with Jaden last year is certainly going to be a conversation that is going to be brought up during the whole interview process here with a lot of head coaching vacancies and not a lot of head coaching candidates. It's like, so did Dan Quinn tell Cliff, yeah, go be a head coach somewhere else. I don't like what you're thinking. it or did Cliff tell him hey I'm gonna need more money because I'm gonna go be a head coach or did they actually talk ball and Dan was like I'm done with it and then defense coordinator comes in Dan's done with it I don't want anything we need to not have whatever happened this year happen again fascinating development because you put that tweet up I'm sorry can you read like how that tweet is worded like he met with Cliff today to discuss the future of the offense after those conversations so heading into those conversations what was the thought I think that's what I want to know like What was your – what did you plan on into this meeting?

1:39:37Were you thinking like, hey, I'm going to – we're probably going to part ways? Or were you thinking everything's all good? And then after you talked, you said, see ya.

1:39:43Pat McAfee:Yeah, it was Dan Quinn. Like, he's going to have to earn it in here. And then he didn't earn it. And then they decided to move on. Maybe Dan Quinn wanted a different direction. And Cliff's like, I'm not going to do that if that's what you want to do. Because Coach Tomlin multiple times moved on from offense coordinators because he wanted a different style of football to people. And I think multiple times – he's not the only one. There's been other teams that have done this where the head coach with like a different style of football to be played. You can either do it that way or we'll find somebody to do that.

1:40:09Pat McAfee:Maybe that's what took place here. I'm not sure. But I think Cliff Kingsbury's name, I'm like, oh, people are going to want him to be a head coach for sure because of what BA literally just said. If you're an offensive guru, you're certainly going to get an interview and a sit down. He's handsome. He speaks well. He has Jaden Daniels, who has one of the greatest rookie seasons of all time. Yes. Now on his record that he can certainly sell. A lot of jobs open. It feels like Cliff might be a head coach. It's crazy how shit changed so fast in the NFL. And I'm thinking what you're thinking as far as philosophy-wise on the offensive side of the ball.

1:40:38Hey, Cliff, maybe we should do more of this. And Cliff is kind of like, hey, this is how I do it. And coming off of that NFC Championship run with a rookie quarterback, that was crazy. Ran a ton of hurry up. Were super aggressive. Went for it on fourth down a ton. I know Jayden got hurt a bunch with his running and his elusiveness. But that's a part of what makes him great. I don't know if this will be the right time for Cliff to hit the market as far as being a head coach with all the hot names that are out there. Are there hot names? Yeah, on both sides of the ball. The defensive guys, and we're looking at the landscape of who's out there right now.

1:41:10Kubiak could be a name that's out there leading Sam. But outside of that, I mean, Josh McDaniels, he's not going anywhere. The top offensive guys, who are the top hot names? I don't know. That's what I'm saying. We have six jobs? Yeah, we got six jobs available?

1:41:24Pat McAfee:Yeah. And then who knows if another one opens up after this weekend for whatever outcome. It's like, how many offensive names are out there? This might be the time for Cliff Kingsbury to get back in the game because last year, to your point about the NFC championship run, people were like, hey, Cliff's going to get back into head coaching. Yeah, I actually did it. I'm getting paid. I like Jaden. I like working with Jaden, actually. I like what Dan Quinn's doing here. Let's go ahead and stick it around, give it another run. And then if he doesn't get hired, this might be the old story of like, Like, hey, when you're hot, these opportunities aren't going to come forever.

1:41:55Pat McAfee:But it feels like he's going to get a lot of interviews. Yeah, definitely, especially with what you said. You know, like, look at those teams at the top. Like the Raiders, for instance, they're about to draft a young rookie quarterback, and he's had a ton of success, Cliff, with young quarterbacks. You can even go back to Kyler. Like, they kind of built Kyler up a little bit. They went to the playoffs, and granted, you see how that ended up with Arizona. But there, Tennessee, you know, the offensive guys are kind of older. You wonder if Stefanski wants to take a year off. You could definitely see that after living in Cleveland for that long.

1:42:25And then Big Mike. Big Mike, you know, older guy. A lot of these teams do want those younger kind of, you know, quarterback guru, offensive guru types. And I think Cliff would definitely fall into that category. Even Cleveland. You'd think Cleveland would give Cliff Kingsbury a look because they have multiple young quarterbacks. Does Cliff want to go to Cleveland? That would be a whole other. Absolutely not. He wasn't there. What's that? Cliff Kingsbury is not going to Cleveland. I can tell you that much. Cleveland, Cliff! If he gets another crack at a head coaching job, he will not be going to Cleveland.

1:42:58I believe he was a Pats backup for a while, so I wonder what kind of relationship he has with Brady. Because if you remember, it was a couple years ago. Remember, it was like a done deal that he was going to go to Las Vegas to be their OC, and then they fudged something with they didn't want to give him an extra year that he wanted or something like that. I mean, that's a different regime, so who knows there. But if you went to Vegas, I would think you would maybe more so want to go as maybe the OC. You go gangbusters with a guy like Mendoza, and then boom, after that, hey, I'm the hottest ticket in town.

1:43:30Yeah, and to Deebo's point about the defense, though, right now I believe Brian Flores is the quote-unquote favorites to land in Vegas. I think Flory reported over the weekend that the idea in Vegas right now would be a full-blown New England Patriots-Brady reunion with B-Flo being the head coach, Brian Dayball being the OC, and then Dayball being another guy who's good with young rookie quarterbacks.

1:43:55Pat McAfee:Dayball with a stoke out there in Vegas. He's going to pinstripe suits. Mark Davis. Oh, my God. That would be awesome out there. Yeah, just in my head all of a sudden, Cliff has a real shot at getting a head coaching job. Yeah, the offensive guys would be Clint Kubiak, Seattle OC, Cliff, Stefanski, Big Mike. Joe Brady. Joe Brady, Matt Nagy. We'll see. Yeah, TBD. I think I'm probably leaving a couple out. To your point, though, what if defensive guys win the day? Now, BA said that's BS, baby. And previous BS or no BS with BA, we asked him if a defense is going to be the thing that wins the title this year.

1:44:34And he goes, that's BS, baby.

1:44:37Pat McAfee:Need a quarterback. So he's always going to think offensively. I think that is what B.A. does. But with how great all these defenses are, and if D 'Amico's Houston Texans are able to go on a run strictly because of their dominance, McDonald's with their Seattle Seahawks, strictly because of the dominance of the defense, it's like owners are very much monkey see, monkey do. I mean, they are. Philadelphia. I mean, they have one of the best defenses last year. Obviously, Saquon had an unbelievable year, but they've kind of been rotating cast at that offensive corner. to spot their defense, especially since Vic has come over there, has been great.

1:45:09But I think, you know, I'm on board with what B.A. is saying because we know how important it is with developing quarterbacks. We've seen what Liam has done with Trevor. We've seen what Ben has done with Caleb. So, yeah, I can definitely see the monkey do – monkey see, monkey do part of that. But, I mean, you have to look at it. Every organization has to look at, hey, how do you want to build this team? Which guy can really come in here and lead this franchise, whether it's Avrabo or Dan Campbell or Sirianni or D 'Amico Ryans, whoever that guy is that you think is Robert Salah from 49ers, whoever that guy that you have the most faith to stand in front of the room and lead you to that next chapter, that's where you go whether it's offensive, defensive, or like a special teams guy.

1:45:47Pat McAfee:I like that that's being considered seemingly more by everybody. Like, hey, you need an actual, like, coach. You need, like, a leader in there, not just a play caller. Because there for a while after McVay, who actual leader, by the way. McVay, I'm not saying that he's not an actual leader. Sean McVay, great leader, great speaker. Feels like everybody respects the hell out of him, has made tough decisions, has had hard conversations. He's not just a play designer and a play caller, but I think a lot of people are like, well, everybody could do that if they got to good place. You got to good place.

1:46:17Pat McAfee:Why don't you come on in here? It's like leading a team and having like an alpha trait that you have to have while also having empathy and being able to relatable while your resume has to be able to hit. That's all a part of being a great coach. And I think a lot of that got forgotten about whenever there was a hiring cycle or two or three after Sean McVay had success where it was like, who could call best play? Fans like offense? We're going to give it to them. We're bringing in a super genius. It's like, well, what about leading a team, though? That is certainly a conversation that was kind of lost.

1:46:47Pat McAfee:And then MCDC gets a gig. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, Vrabel starts gnawing on glass, basically, up there. And then you start seeing Sirianni. His entire thing is his leadership style. Different than everybody else. Seems like he's got the boys rallied behind him. It's like, wait a minute. Maybe you do need somebody that can lead an organization at the head coaching job while also being able to do the football side of it. Yeah, exact, Taylor. I don't know if we consider him in that entire. We do, yeah. Yeah, okay, we do. KOC really was the one that flipped that for McVay. Like KOC went in former player after his entire Ram stint, and he made the Vikings what it is.

1:47:24And then he had to make a bunch of tough decisions with Kirk and some other guys. and Brandon Staley, I think, comes to mind for me as far as like, oh, yeah, that was a bunch of shit when it came to McVay's entire coaching tree. But there isn't a Ben Johnson or Aaron Glenn, like, at all, not even remotely close this year like there was last year. Like, last year going into this entire week, it was like, who's going to get the bell of the ball, the two bells of the ball, really, because Aaron Glenn was considered the number one, you know, defensive guy and Ben Johnson was the number one offensive guy.

1:47:52But it worked. And now this year there isn't that. So Cliff Kingsbury is kind of stepping into that, hey, don't forget to look at me. Plus his second time.

1:48:00Pat McAfee:Yeah, second time. How much he learned. What he learned. What we watched at Arizona since he's been. They've already fired another coach. Yeah. And they already got some. You know, that whole situation. They might be to Cleveland or the West. And I don't like that. Did you see the stat? Huh. The entire history of the Arizona Cardinals. I think it's like 100 years. They've never had a coach be there for more than six years. Yeah, there was another stat that came out of the Cardinals. that was just so horrendous. Danny Green? Yeah, they can win like 17. They can go 17-0 for like 10 straight years and their entire franchise's win percentage would still be under 500.

1:48:35That's the one that's coming to my mind.

1:48:36Pat McAfee:That was one of the stats. There was like most double-digit losses in the history or something like that. It was way – the graph was just like way this way. And then there was every other team. And it's like, have we not talked about how the Cardinals have been absolute shy? and how they're fans in that city. That's why. It's a beautiful city. That's why we don't talk about it because the city is so freaking awesome. And the people are awesome. That city is awesome. That might be. UCLA and college football. Beautiful place. Unbelievable campus. Unbelievable spot. They should absolutely be able to win, and they just don't for some reason.

1:49:13Pat McAfee:Phoenix, after Indianapolis, Indiana, obviously, might be best city in the United States of America. Nashville. After India. Oh, Nashville. After India. They stink, too. Yeah. Oh. Maybe that's why. City's too nice. Football. Just like we talk about with Miami. Yeah, all three. All three of those places. Too much going on. City's too good. City's too good. Can't focus on ball. How could you? Fucking Phoenix. Yeah. That's what they said. Oh. Martin's. With a view. Oh, there's a five-star restaurant. Here's a five-star restaurant. There's a five-star restaurant. Relatively affordable. And also, anything you want to do, a good time is here.

1:49:48Pat McAfee:I don't want to go practice there. Oh, I'm going to be late. I'm going to drive 150 miles an hour. That happens. because they're living life too much out there. You're not Tyreek Hill. Maybe Phoenix being too awesome is the problem. That's also why you think they would be able to attract a top-line head coach, a bunch of good players in free agency, because it is awesome out there. What's Miami doing? What's playing down there? What do you guys got cooking down there in the Dolphins? Nobody really knows by the sounds of things. McDaniel said he was helping in the GM search, and Barry Jackson reported that McDaniel actually isn't safe.

1:50:20So I think once we get the GM, the GM will make the decision on what the hell is happening.

1:50:25Pat McAfee:Who's the GM potential possibility? Who's the name we know? John Eric Sullivan of the Packers, I believe, is having an interview today. I think they're interviewing maybe like six people via Zoom today. Okay, so from our understanding, we don't know a lot of people telling us things about front office people around the NFL. Would be open to it. Wouldn't mind getting more info on the people that we don't know about in the league, which would be cool. these people are kind of like under the guise of watching film and on the road behind the scenes to kind of build, you know, a roster that's normally who's getting the general manager dropped.

1:50:57Pat McAfee:Are they leaders too? I think that's something you certainly have to look at. But allegedly, out of the Packers organization, this John Eric Sullivan guy is a guy. AJ, you know him, I think, from your time in Green Bay? Yeah, he's been there a long time. Yeah, he's a dude. Like, I think if I didn't believe that, I just wouldn't say much about him. But, yeah, I think he's absolutely a guy. Yeah, but I think Green Bay has been creating a lot of these. Like, good leader. Not just, like, find out evaluation. They've watched it. They've watched it. Like, Green Bay, whatever you want to say, like, from the top down, like, it's run the right way.

1:51:25They do things the right way. So they've grown up in that system. They want to try to implement that somewhere else when you become a GM.

1:51:31Pat McAfee:Schneider, Elliott Wolfe, New England, over there at Seattle is obviously Schneider. They're littered literally throughout the rest of the league in high profile. He's going to be the next one, allegedly, even though they're interviewing other people. AJ, I have a question because I'm trying to shape my mind. how I feel about John Eric Sullivan. Do you have to call him John Eric Sullivan if you are a friend of his? Do you have to call him John Eric? Do we call him Jess? Johnny? Jay? I don't know. I think you can call him whenever you want. I don't know what he prefers. Sully's available. Sully, after the plane crash, I'd go with Sully.

1:51:59I just didn't know if he was a two-name guy or not.

1:52:00Pat McAfee:Plane landing. Yeah. Beautiful plane landing on the belly of the plane in the Hudson. That's right. Belly of the beast up there. Can't use Sully because he just signed that$560 million contract with the Chargers after their Monday Night Football game. with Wazowski. Oh, I forgot about that. Him and Wazowski really put on a show for us. Sully is a dog. Yes. So maybe they just call him Johnny. Yeah, Johnny. J-E. J-E. Rick. J-E Wentworth. J-E Wentworth. Good jingle. Yeah, that would be a good one for him. That's a good jingle. New G-E. Did you hear that Audie Crook song before you came on? Honestly, that's very good.

1:52:36That was you? Come on. Come on. It's really good. I am a big fan as well. She is awesome to watch play basketball.

1:52:44Pat McAfee:I already got people tweeting. What's the name of that song? Audie Crooks, brother. That's the name of that song. Maybe even brother at the end. Shout out to AI. Shout out to bars. Shout out to Melody. And shout out to Audie Crooks. You're about to get cooked. That's Audie Crooks. Yukon's in trouble, especially if that thing starts going. Okay, I don't like that. I don't like that. We wish them all the best. We love Audie Crooks. We also appreciate the hell out of you. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye. Yeah, that came up out of nowhere. Let's take a break. And on the other side, obviously got to cover everything else happening in this board.

1:53:25Pat McAfee:D3, D2B, D2A. Obviously, figure out there. I don't know what any of us call it either. Me neither. I get attacked, though, for saying. You guys are elitist. There's no more 1AA, right? Correct. I guess there is 1AA. They call it FCS, but 1AAD2. Like, what are we doing here? What are we doing here? What are we doing? I didn't know the NJCAA and the NJCAA. Well, we know it only remained. Junior college. Oh, okay. I didn't know that was going still. That's Coach Chef JB, I know. Yeah. That's right. Chef JB. So much meat. Which one did he get all that meat? Steve Kim, Big Smitty, Dave Portz, you know, all the cast characters.

1:54:08Pat McAfee:The food does look phenomenal. It does. It does. It takes his real time out there. This boat looks phenomenal. It's a yacht. It's a yacht. That's a respect. Jesus Christ. All right. Let's get out of here. We'll be back on the other side. We appreciate you all so much. Happy New Year. We're thankful to be here. Let's wrap up all the sports talk on the other side. Be your friend. Tell a friend something nice might change your life. Take five. Five.

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1:55:44Pat McAfee:Football! It's magical. AJ, happy birthday, buddy. I don't want to have to do this again, but there might be some new people here, so... Happy birthday to you! Hi, hi, hi, AJ. That would have been awesome if we would have did that. That would have been great. You know what, maybe we should, right? It only happens once a year. I think so. It's only once a year. You're right. My connection's kind of choppy right now. Happy birthday to you. He's going to hang up. Happy birthday to you. I can't hear you. Oh, we're going to be louder. Happy birthday, dear AJ.

1:56:26Happy birthday to you.

1:56:37Hell yeah. Happy birthday, AJ. Thank you. Yeah, it was like shifty yesterday. My audio cut out. I didn't really hear it.

1:56:43Pat McAfee:Oh, you didn't hear it? Can you hear us now? No. You can't hear us right now? I was reading your lips, so yeah, I'm still doing it. Here we go. Okay, can you do that? Stop. You're not doing it again. Can you hear us right now or no? Seriously. Yeah, I just came back. Okay. Happy birthday to you. I appreciate it. Can you believe it's been five years since his party at the Capitol? It's crazy you did that, H. You know, a lot of people do mention that to me. A lot of people do. Isn't it weird your birthday is the same day as what was happening over here in Washington? It happened to not be on the program.

1:57:20Pat McAfee:Here's A.J. Hawk highlights, by the way. If you don't know this, the guy that shows up on the screen every single day from Manatic in Ohio was an absolute monster on a football field. I mean, no questions asked. All-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers at Centerville High School over there in Ohio outside Dayton. Shout out to all the Elks out there, obviously legends across the board. A.J. once had like 30 tackles in a game while also rushing for 250 yards and punting six times for an average of 50 yards. You're talking about the Ohio boy of Ohio boys. He has a tree named after him on the Ohio State University's campus because he was once the president of Ohio, voted by his constituents.

1:58:01Pat McAfee:So, ladies and gentlemen, we are certainly going to celebrate Will and Grace football guys, Will and Grace Ohio guys, and good friend of the program who's not only good on a football field and on this particular show and in day-to-day life where he's living in the moment, like right now and right now and right now. He's also an incredible mixed martial artist. People forget that at one time he was potentially going to take down John Bones. But instead he stayed focused on football. Obviously we thank him for that in the football world. In the UFC and the MMA world, you missed out on this. You missed out on this.

1:58:38Pat McAfee:AJ, happy birthday, buddy. We love you. Thank you. That clip's amazing. It is. It showcases what could have been. What about what we found out this weekend? What's that? His senior year, he tours PCL, ACL, and MCL, was out for four weeks, and then came back and played quarterback the rest of the year because the quarterback got hurt and led him to a state championship. And he stayed. I wasn't. Yeah. Yeah. That's real. He took a lot of liberties with that story. But, yeah, you know, I guess like one piece of that. I tore my PCL my first game my senior year. Okay. Not your ACL? No, no, because the ACL wouldn't be able to come back.

1:59:18I've torn a PCL, got scoped, cleaned out the cartilage, rehabbed, had to come back the last four weeks wearing a Don Joy. That was awful. I've been playing quarterback. Quarterback's a tough position, not going to lie. Even in high school, it's tough making those reads. I was tucking in and running a lot. Did you guys win? Yeah, I think so. I don't know. We didn't go to the state finals or anything like that, no.

1:59:39Pat McAfee:So your high school quarterback obviously needs to get added into this entire thing. Were you playing linebacker as well? clearly, obviously. Yeah, well, I mean, I was like, so I played linebacker running back, and I was always like a backup quarterback in case they needed me, and then they needed me when I came back, because that guy got hurt. So you're playing full-time linebacker and full-time quarterback in Ohio high school football? For a couple weeks. God, that'd be legendary. They tell stories about this guy. Oh, yeah. For sure. When I ran into, who'd we run into? We ran into somebody who was at another place in Ohio, another high school, at the same time, and said he used to go watch Centerville high school football games to watch A.J.

2:00:14Pat McAfee:Hawk, this absolute maniac on the football field. This guy has been like the Ohio boy through it all. And A.J., happy birthday, man. Happy birthday, Hawk. Thank you. And don't you worry, Ohio. He's spawning others. That's right. He's spawning others over there in the great state of Ohio. We appreciate that. And what a great week for it to happen. Maybe the greatest week of ball. What a great football week, huh? I know. Legit, A.J. The semifinals, semifinals, Super wild card, super wild card, super wild card. This is it, AJ. We made it here. Yeah, we did. I think, Ty, didn't you say this is like the greatest football week slash weekend of the year?

2:00:50Yes. I would say you are most likely spot on there.

2:00:53Pat McAfee:Yeah, especially because Thursday we start with college football. Can't be. And it's not just a potential no-nothing college football midweek game. No. It's college football playoff semifinals. The game. This is – here we are. These are the best four. And then Friday it backs it up. And then we got two very, obviously, very good games. Sunday, three very good games. Monday, one. And we don't have to be distracted watching eight different screens. You see Scott Hansen get emotional when he said goodbye. Yeah, he did. Had to. Yeah, he said. Can't blame him. No more octoboxes until next year. I'll see you guys in September, he said.

2:01:26Pat McAfee:So what's he do until then? Unplugs. Yeah. He's in a corner. Does he pop up in the offseason at all? And then come, what, you know, the first, the last week of August, first week of September. What does he do? That's the unplugged. That's it. What happened? He goes, they unplugged him. You want me to unplug him? Yeah. I'll plug him from the back.

2:01:49All right, we're good. And then September, what happened? September, they walk in. They actually have to get a duster. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

2:02:02Hello NFL fans. Welcome back to week one of NFL Red Zone. And then he does his whole fucking spiel and it's like he never left. But he has been unplugged. Basically collecting dust for the last six months. You forgot after they first plug him in before he does that he has to pee and poop. Well of course. Well actually maybe he doesn't. Yeah that's why he doesn't.

2:02:24Pat McAfee:A large extent I thought he builds up. He changes style of play. He changed his style of play this year. You know, new contract for Scott Hanson. He changed his style of play. He's basically like the NFL's point guard, just kind of passing into games, coming back, getting the ball. Boom. He was a little bit more – Give a couple more shots up. I'm going to dribble into your area, and then I'm going to dribble back. And then I'm going to take it up, then we're going to run again. And then maybe I'll go, see? And I'm going to take it back like it's okay. And then every once in a while something big is going, let me go ahead and kick it out in the corner.

2:02:54Pat McAfee:Let me go ahead and do that. Every once in a while he'd send it to a booth that was complete shite. And we'd be like, come on, Scott. He didn't pass the ball for the last 10 minutes. We don't need these people to be the next ones talking in that entirety. He changed his style of play a little bit this year. I think we all noticed it, right, with Red Zone? Absolutely. Did anyone end up boycotting because of the commercials? A ton, dude. There's a lot more commercials as the year went on. Ratings were down for Red Zone, I think, like 98 % or something like that. He heard about something else that had that percentage before we went live.

2:03:22Pat McAfee:That is not real. But I did take it on the shins going into the NFL season because I was an NFL Red Zone shill because I said one minute out of seven hours was going to be, who cares? We're still going to watch this thing. And I'll tell you what, there was a couple times where Scott was about to get to a really good point and all of a sudden, boom, somebody pops in for a 35-second ad. And I'm like, what was he going to say? That's true. Still watching it on your side. You'll still see it. You'll never know. Yeah, fucking Mercedes looked nice though, didn't it? Oh, my God. Are you kidding me? They got good commercial wings.

2:03:51Pat McAfee:They do. They do, actually. Good bow tie. Great bows. Jon Hamm voicing him over. He's making quite a comeback for that. I'd love to. Yeah. Coop has to leave the league in NFL. The Uber one really went all in with him. Uber went all in with him. And they should, by the way. Yeah, Coop nails it. Good commercial. He's actually a fan. Knows ball. Studies ball. Watches ball. Lives ball. I can't believe he said that thing in that thing. Yeah. That was crazy he said that. I know, but it was spot on. What was that thing, though? What was the GQ? Oh, yeah, the GQ thing with him and Will Arnett. Will Arnett.

2:04:30Pat McAfee:Is this thing on? Available now? Please go watch. It's incredible. Good for Coop. I believe he wrote, directed, shot, edited the entire thing. Hold mine. We are massive fans of Coop, obviously, and his big-ass brain. Him in that conversation, though, saying, I mean, retelling a very real story because when we found out we had his number, it was a very, all right, boys, we're doing a cold FaceTime here, which is move that happens in the Thunderdome whenever we get somebody that we think should not know of our existence. Not much outside of the Thunderdome. Not many people outside of the Thunderdome are doing the cold FaceTime for the first time you ever reach out to them.

2:05:05Certainly not to someone like Bradley Cooper. I didn't even think about that. It just feels like the right move, doesn't it? It's your move. It's what you do. It's great.

2:05:14Pat McAfee:And it's crazy when people answer. Holy shit. We don't have to call the Catfish Show. It's actually this person. That is a crazy thing. And as soon as Coop answered that, we went immediately into, Hey, I mean something, girl. We're all jacked up. And the fact that he remembers that moment is so cool for us. And the fact that he says it publicly. Crazy. That's cool, baby. It's a great story. Here it is actually from GQ's social media. I believe this is for, is this thing on, what's that called? Press junket. That's sweet. He's a cool guy. Let's go back to the beginning, I think, of the movie. That's the end of it.

2:05:48Will, I can feel you. I just texted him back he met him all this stuff. I was at Chris Henschey's house in the morning having coffee Because we would always do that in the morning and then I see on my phone says Pat McAfee calling So I must have got his number yeah, and then it was a FaceTime And then I open it and he's with all those guys and I was they started singing shallow and then I looked like a little boy He just met Elvis

2:06:12Pat McAfee:That's crazy. That's fucking crazy That is crazy that yeah exactly that is insane that that is the way he's talking about it But that's because I think, and I don't want to speak for him here, I think he watches our show like every day. Like that's how much he loves ball. Like the guy is addicted to ball. So him getting commercials and being a part of it, we're a huge fan of that. And we appreciate the hell out of him. We are biased. He spoke the team onto the field. Exactly. Oh, yeah. Got a great promo. Yeah, and it sat in the owner's box. And then he made some decisions in the offseason. And then now they're back-to-back champs.

2:06:46Pat McAfee:for the first time in 25 years for the NFC East or something like that. I don't know. You tell us. I think the only back-to-back division champ this year, pretty sure they're the only one who won their division two years in a row this year. And nobody's happy with them. Nope. Are people giving them a chance to win it all? No. What are we talking about? It's wild that they're defending champs and people don't, like, it's like they're just, I don't know, flying under the radar. It's like people just don't believe in them or what? All season it's like that age. They're, like, waiting for them. It's not just, like, national people.

2:07:13Pat McAfee:It's like the Philly people, too, are just, ah, this team sucks. This team's exactly what we thought they are, but biggest stage, they got stars all over the place, could certainly just dial it up. That's not really how people are talking, though, about this team at all, right, all year, Todd? Yeah, no, not at all. I mean, it's the same thing, but I don't know if it's just because people, like when your team's defense is so much better than their offense, it's more often than not a tough watch because they're beating teams like 13-3 and 13-10. And, yeah, their offense has kind of looked like shite.

2:07:45But their defense is so good. And the fact that we haven't really talked about them, I feel like if teams take them lightly in the playoffs, which they won't, but Philly has just as good of a chance to come out of the NFC as any other team right now.

2:08:00Pat McAfee:Yeah, definitely. I mean, unless you talk about the CLC. I mean, hey, they're the real deal. They are. This is unbelievable. No BS, brother. Hey. Well said. Superman K. Did he say Sam was going to put the Super Bowl in people? That's huge. I mean. It's a huge development. They're so far away. Just, you know. They're like so far away, so it's hard to talk about them, which is not fair, okay? We're going to tell you we're part of the problem. We probably didn't talk about them enough. Now, Grannie, you would go over to Pittsburgh early in the year. We talked about it. Yeah. Good football team. Good football team.

2:08:40Pat McAfee:Exactly what was said. What we didn't know at the time, that's a grateful ball team. That is a grateful ball team. Played them real tough. And I think they've kind of developed all year, only gotten better and better, and figured out different ways. Remember, he was just getting the ball every single play for a while. And then all of a sudden, now Charbonnet is the guy. Now we'll definitely have him going on. We got a couple tight ends getting loose. And then the defense is just going to be one or two in every statistic. And Mike McDonald, our head of coach, he's actually calling the defense as well as leading this entire thing.

2:09:07Pat McAfee:So we're going to have a tough mentality. Yeah, I don't think anybody really talks about Seattle enough in this entire time. At defense, we all know how great the defense is. JSN, how great he is as well. That Rasheed Shahid highlight, I feel like he's going to make, you know, a couple splash plays here and there. Maybe it's a kick return. Maybe it's reverse. Just a 70-yard post where people are going to remember, oh, shit, they did get Rasheed Shahid at the trade deadline. But they put this team together greatly, and they got the right head coach. We'll see if they got the right quarterback on this run.

2:09:38It's a lot of pressure on Sam, but a lot of people believe in him.

2:09:41Pat McAfee:I believe in him, too. Look at these stats from Hembo here on playoff teams versus playoff teams. These are the people that made the dance. How do you fare against them? Seattle Seahawks, 6-2. Worst Steelers, 1-5. Patriots, 2-2. Only played four playoff teams, which is a part of the strength of schedule issue, which everybody's wondering about. Does this surprise you at all, though, Conman? Seahawks at 1. Steelers the worst in the league. Definitely a little bit with the Steelers, but also because of their division having a down year in general, them not playing as many playoff teams probably did not help them.

2:10:14The Jags being 5-3, I think, is what kind of stands out. We're talking about them being home underdogs. They won 13 games. They've beaten other playoff teams, and they're still kind of being disrespected. I'm not there yet with Seattle. I'm just going to come out and say it. I don't think they're legit at all. I don't think Sam Darnold can win a Super Bowl at all. But I do think their defense can do it. That's why all the – okay, the Rams. Devot's gassing. No, no, no, no. Devot was actually – I'm just listening. No, no, no. I mean, Seattle's a loud kind of internet fan base, so they will definitely let me hear it because of this.

2:10:49The Rams win. They go to Seattle. Who are you taking? Because I know I'm not taking Darnold over Stafford. That was a great game. It just happened. It was. It was a great game. And they had a punt return touchdown to basically win it. And that can happen again with Rashid Shahid. And they had a two-point conversion, which also helped them win it. I'm not pointing down the Rams.

2:11:08Pat McAfee:I love the Rams. And I don't want to put down the Seahawks either. My beliefs are not in Sam Darnold. And unfortunately, them winning 13-3 against a team where Phillip Rivers scored 24 points doesn't make me think any higher of the Seattle Seahawks. But at the same time, I still believe in defenses winning championships. The last one that I saw from New England, it was 13-3. The last one from Philly, I mean, that defense dominated Patrick Mahomes. That defense won the championship. So it's still very possible for them to win a Super Bowl. It's just game on the line. I don't know. Okay, let's move past that and let's go to defense.

2:11:44Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, it's a war season. Isn't it, AJ? Hell yeah. Yeah, it is. Ladies and gentlemen. What the hell? Was that a real belief or kind of asking a question on whether or not it is? We get it. No, it was a real belief. I had my thing muted and I hit it at the last second and just wanted to make sure I got it across. Oh, so you try to just make sure we really understood where you're going. I was going to say, what kind of award season? I was going to pose a question. Oh, I like that. There it is. I like that. I did that to Ty earlier. I said, who is Ed Policy in the middle of him giving an answer, just in case other people don't know who he is, that he's acting owner of the Green Bay Packers.

2:12:16Pat McAfee:So I like the thought of the potential alley-oop there from, hey, happy birthday. Thank you. Trying to figure the mechanics of TV out. There you go. That was a good mic. great mike and uh he's the man i hope he gets hired i'm excited to see yeah what happens with him i think he's very focused and excited for the opportunities to potentially get hired and what a nice refreshing feeling it would probably be leaving a place get a chance to get away do life a little bit while observing football from a different perspective and then dive him back in and obviously know that this is it so this is the the final run at this entire thing that has to be a great feeling for coach mike we're obviously pulling for him but it is award season.

2:12:56Pat McAfee:Season's over. So now we've got to give awards. The AP did all their voting. All their ballots have been cast. Congratulations to AP Tone getting that done. Tough task. Tough task. Had to watch every single snap of every single player at every single position for every single title. Thank you for doing that. And the other 49 AP people, like Dan Orlovsky and others, I hope you did the same as Tone because us watching him take it seriously was actually awesome. Tone, we appreciate you doing that. But it's not just AP they're giving out awards. We've got awards to give out too, AJ. You know that.

2:13:25Pat McAfee:Yeah, I do. What are they? Oh, that's a good question. How about the Everything DB, Darius J. Butler, All Everything DB team? Yeah! Tough to make this team. I'll tell you what. I asked if we needed a first and second string. D-Butt said, nah. I don't want a full first and second string. It's going to be tough to make this team. Now, granted, there's a lot of DBs all around the league. We're appreciative of their services. These are the five that made your final five? Yeah, I go one through five, and then there are two rookies that kind of get a co-I guess rookie of the year but yeah it is tough to make the team it's only five spots and they're very a lot of deserving guys I think uh Dan O said earlier it's tough to even put all pro defense together and not put all the damn Texans on there but we're going to start with the Texan second time making the RFC DB team Derek Stingley Jr.

2:14:12one of the best cornerbacks in the league if not the best cornerback in the league uh the only cornerback in the league to have four plus interceptions in three consecutive years. He was drafted number three overall and has lived up to the hype. Already got a new contract, becoming one of the highest paid cornerbacks in the league. And we know we've been around the league for a long time. A lot of times when a player gets that money, gets that first big, big time life-changing check, they kind of take a year off. We kind of have a year where they get – it's kind of a dub. But, no, he stepped up big and has been one of the cornerstones of the best defense in the National Football League.

2:14:46It was tough not to put his counterpart on the opposite side of him, Kamari Lassner, I'm going to already say it right now. He's honorable mention. He's shipping on here. But it's tough. It's tough. But speaking of the other corner on this list, I mean, we already showed all five. We'll go Quinjon Mitchell, sophomore superstar. Congratulations, Quinjon. First rounder a couple years ago out of Toledo. A lot of guys didn't know this guy's name coming out of college, Mack Maction. But he is one of the best press corners. And we know how much of a premium that is, especially in the playoff time. He will lock up with your number one receiver.

2:15:19He will travel from the left to the right. He will get in his face, and he will challenge him down in and down out. Once again, it was tough to pick these two top corners because there are other guys out there. Denzel Ward, Christian Gonzalez. There are other really, really, really good cornerbacks out there. But this guy right here has put together two back-to-back years. He almost made the team last year, just not a ton of ball production. And a lot of these press corners won't have a lot of ball production, but he has been unbelievable this year in that Vic Fangio defense. where they play more man coverage.

2:15:48So I expect to see that more down the line in the playoffs as well. So congrats to Quignan.

2:15:52Pat McAfee:Great, congrats to the corner. Congrats to the corner. It's not easy to get on this particular graph. Absolutely not. And this spot is near and dear to my heart, the nickelback position where I kind of made my hay in the league. Cooper DeGene. Wow! Wow! Wow! Another successful superstar. This is a monumental day. He's breaking barriers, I'll say, on this team for sure. Unbelievable year once again. And it took until week 12 this season for Coop to give up his first touchdown in the National Football League. He's become one of the best, if not the best, slot defenders in the league. He can tackle.

2:16:27He can blitz. He's a great pre-snap communicator. And his ball production is going up as well. We all remember the big-time interception, which was his only interception last season in the Super Bowl, which he took back for a touchdown. But he is a physical specimen out there. And once again, communication is key at that nickel position. He can line up. He played some outside corners this year because they needed him, but he's back where he's most comfortable in that slot, and he is an absolute dog. Another sophomore superstar up here with his teammate on this team. Honorable mention for this spot, Jalen Petrie, Marcus Jones.

2:16:59Also had great years in this spot.

2:17:01Pat McAfee:Congratulations to them. Congratulations to an exciting white crack in the all-everything DB team. This is a huge day. Hey, Coop, thank you. And Riley, too. I know they come up here and think you're a Coop. Congrats to you as well. Yeah, that is out. I've been waiting for this day my whole life, arguably. And this is one of the happiest days of my life. Seahorn? Yep. Eric Weddle. Oh, Weddle was a monster. John Lynch. Hitman. Yeah, I guess, yeah. Hitman up in Minnesota. If you're sticking corners, though. Chuck Pagano. Yeah, Chuck Pagano. Chuck and me at Wyoming. Dustin Fox. Riley Moss. Yeah, corners, though.

2:17:41I think Dustin Fox was corner, right, AJ? Oh, yeah, cornered with me at Ohio State, and then he got drafted by Minnesota. Yeah.

2:17:47Pat McAfee:And we're just talking about random corners throughout the history. Yeah, we're just random super athletic corners. Surprisingly super athletic. Congratulations, Coach. Congrats, Coach. Now we move on to the safeties. Kalen Bullock, he was the best free safety in the National Football League this year. Once again, this secondary, this defense can be all Texans, if I'm being honest. But he's going to get around the ball. He's a big-time hitter. He would show up in Lata Wood as well. Once again, a great communicator. They don't do a ton defensively as far as scheme-wise. They don't try to trick you.

2:18:22This defense just lines up and do what they do. Four defenders in that back end who have at least four interceptions. That's Kalen, that's Jalen Petrie, that's Kamari Lasseter, and that's Derek Stingley Jr. So they are ball hawks as well as getting after you and Landa Wood. They do everything you want to do on the defensive side of the ball. and he was the best free safety in the National Football League this year. So shout out to Kalen Bullock on his first appearance in all everything.

2:18:47Pat McAfee:Hell yeah, Kalen. Two Eagles, two Texans, and then obviously Stud that's been around for a long time. Yep, back-to-back years now for Derwin James, and he could be a slot. He could be a linebacker. He could be a safety. He's Mr. Everything when it comes to the Los Angeles Chargers defense, another pillar on that back end. Also leads all defensive backs and pressures, and he was actually chipped on like 12 % of his pressures, which you rarely see safeties getting chipped that much. But he's around the ball, around the line of scrimmage a ton, kind of similar to Kyle Hamilton. Obviously, he came before him, was one of the best players in college of Florida State and has hit the league running a bunch of all pros, a couple with all everything DB teams now.

2:19:29But he does everything. He had a little more ball production this year as well, had three interceptions, but will get after you, will sack, will tackle you in open field, and also a great communicator as well. That's all. All these guys talk their shit pre-snap. Now, Stingley is probably the quietest guy. He's just going to follow your best guy around, Shadow, and make plays. But all these other guys, great communicator. Actually, Quinone as well. He will lock your ass down and just get in your face. But those guys in the middle, and usually the guys in the middle of the defense, safeties, nickels, backers, they have to be the communicators, get other guys lined up, and also be kind of Swiss army knives and do multiple things for their defenses.

2:20:03So shout out to all five of these guys on everything DB team this year.

2:20:05Pat McAfee:Congratulations, boys. Derwin first ever back-to-back All-Everything DB. Tim and Stingley. Oh, Stingley was on as well? Okay, so congrats to both those guys. That's multiple years of dominance. Did I see a C was on Derwin James' chest there and nobody else? He would be the captain, you think, of this All-Everything DB team? Yeah, he's the OG of this group for sure. This is a pretty young group, actually. So the league is in good hands. And I can't wait to see these guys on the biggest stage making big plays on primetime games. Speaking of young group, a couple rookies of the year here. Now, to be something of the year, you would normally be just an individual.

2:20:41Pat McAfee:Yep. But this is couple rookies of the year. Don't just pick one. Too much good football. It was tough. It was tough to pick just one. I'll start with Xavier Watts since their season is over in Atlanta. But he had an unbelievable season from wire to wire. Was a part of a very good defensive draft class, what I thought with the Falcons, the two-edged rushing Walker and Pierce Jr. Xavier Watts was kind of the pick that went under the radar. I thought he should have been a higher pick based on what we saw him do at Notre Dame. He will come up and hit you. Once again, another guy that will communicate.

2:21:10And he plays like a vet. Like when you watch this guy, you just turn on the tape. You would think he was a six, seven-year vet out there with Jesse Bates. He will attack the football, lead all rookies with five interceptions. He will lay the hat. He will make big-time plays. I can't wait to see this guy's career just ascend down there at Atlanta. He's going to be a good ball player for a long, long time. And then speaking of good ballplayers, Nick Emanwar, he was a first-round pick and just an absolute playmaker. Once again, just like Derwin James, same number. He's obviously NFC. You got Derwin and AFC.

2:21:40He will line up all over the defense. He will blitz. He will tackle. Is he 6 '10"? He's huge. He's awesome. I mean, when we think about LLB and you think about Cam Chancellor and he was kind of the tone setter of that defense, I will put Nick in that conversation. he's one of the tone setters of this defense you have great players all around that defensive secondary we know Mike McDane, he's an absolute madman they have a great front as well I think their front is a little better than it was in the LOB days so they've kind of been carrying this team best defense on third down and Nick Imanwari and what he's able to do in coverage what he's able to do in the run game what he's able to do getting after the passer he's a big reason why this is one of the best defenses in the National Football League as a rookie We highlighted him at the Combine coming out of college.

2:22:27Hey, this is probably going to be a guy who does well at the Combine. He was 6 '3", 220. He ran a 4 '3", 8". He jumped 43 inches for his vertical, and his broad was 11 '6". So, yeah, he is just an athletic specimen who is also really, really good at football.

2:22:44Pat McAfee:Congrats to the secondary. Good job, boys. And the all-everything DB team and honorable mentions. Didn't want to make a first-team, second-team. No. So we just did one. Tough to crack. Tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen, the Trenchies. Wow. Yes. Same trophy? Oh, the reigning, who was it, Trenchie, Lane Johnson? Yeah. He's expecting to practice tomorrow. Oh, that's a huge deal for the other vehicles. Very huge. I'll tell you what, biggest stage. It's like the thing we always talk about with the Chiefs. Whenever they're in the middle of their run of every single year, it's like Pat Mahomes, Travis Kelsey, Chris Jones, all the boys on that team, like they're used to the big stage.

2:23:20Pat McAfee:Like, not that they're mailing it in, but like. Been there. When it's time, like, to win or go home, lock in with the amount of skill that they have. It's like if they are to completely lock in, which turning on and off the light switch isn't necessarily always easy. Okay, that's why people work their dicks off every single day and prepare and yada, yada, yada, you name it. But with the way the Philadelphia Eagles are constructed, a lot of big-time players. and normally in the biggest moments is when they play their best ball because they understand the ramifications of everything in those moments.

2:23:55Pat McAfee:So I'm not saying that they mailed it in or didn't play their best ball. I'm just saying there's a chance. There's a chance that we have not seen anywhere near their best football yet. What is the status of Jalen Carter? Because he had surgery on both his shoulders and he missed the last little portion of the season. Is he 100 % healthy? Are they still trying to figure that out? Do we know if he is also already back practicing? What do they call him, Baby Rhino or something? Yeah, Baby Rhino. How did he block that guy? I don't know. He just blocked. Didn't he just block a kick? Jordan? Was that Jordan?

2:24:22No, Jordan blocked one, too. I just remember him going. He definitely missed a couple weeks throughout the stretch. I think he's healthy. I would have to check. But I think Jalen Carter's healthy. Lane Johnson should be coming back. And as you guys mentioned, like that run game, if that can get going, that'll change everything for the Eagles. Carter returned in week 18 from a month-long absence because of injuries to both shoulders. Yeah, so it feels like he – What about Lane? Lane, I don't know right now.

2:24:53Pat McAfee:Let's see if we got any. Because if he's coming back to practice, you assume he's playing. Why would you practice? Yeah, Lane. Trent Williams, I expect. I don't know. I haven't seen anything. But with Trent Williams, knowing who he is with a hamstring injury, I expect him to be back out there. I saw him tunnel, you know, boom box. I saw him – Still vibing. Moving a little bit. And then on the sideline, it looked like he was not agonizing in pain like that thing was. Not that that can't pop up on you, though. Yeah, for sure. Lane, who's been out since week 11, should be back for the playoffs. He's in line to return for the playoffs.

2:25:27Pat McAfee:That's a big deal. Huge. Their record. That's like the craziest stat of all time. Like 120 and 50 with him, and then they're awful without him. It's from Jeff McClain. Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson. is expected to practice on Wednesday for the first time since he suffered a Liz Frank. Johnson has made progress in his recovery, but still has to test his right foot before the team makes a decision on his availability for Sunday's wildcard game versus the Niners. He's playing. Yeah, he's in. Yeah, Liz Frank sucks. Yeah. Because that's everything. That's the whole foot. Super painful. Yeah. I rubbed my pinky, my big toe.

2:26:03Pat McAfee:Okay, you can walk on the outside of your foot, the inside of your foot. Got an ankle, maybe you can hobble a little bit. Just the entire fucking that sucks. he's taking many great men down Lane Johnson will return though from battle against that thing how tough is it I guess AJ both of you went to Super Bowl certain surgeries no not even that injury just as a team we always hear like Super Bowl hangover like you have that long run you win it all you celebrate and then coming back that next year obviously not too many people go back to back how tough is like that really handling that and being in it being a part of that team I'll answer quickly before AJ gives an actual answer I thought we were just coming back to the Super Bowl the next year.

2:26:42Pat McAfee:Everybody told me I was wrong, and I was. We never got back. So, A.J., your thoughts going that entire time? Yeah. I mean, I don't know if we assumed. See, we won it all, and then we got locked out like, you know, a month later. So, it was different. We didn't come back together until training camp started. So, that made it a little bit different. I think we weren't together. So, it was like it's all fresh and new again. We didn't have, like, the complacency. I think we went 15-1, I believe, that year, and then got beat in the playoffs, which sucks. But I don't know if I can say, like, there's complacency.

2:27:08but people, like, it's natural human nature to get comfortable. Like, if somebody, if you do get a ring or something happens, I don't, I wouldn't say that was the case with us. I don't think Big Mike was not going to let that happen with us, but I think it is real. It's definitely real.

2:27:21Pat McAfee:The team that I was in the locker room of, I'm not even going to act like I was really a part, I wasn't, there's no reason I should have been there. I had no idea what I was doing. I feel like I brought good vibes, though. But, like, that seemed very mature. So, like, the next year I think we made it to the divisional round and we lost to the Jets. I think we gave a deep shot to the right after calling a timeout because we thought we were getting the ball back. Pass interference, Nick Folk hits a 30-some yarder instead of having to be a 54-yard. Nick Folk's still doing it, by the way. He was old at that time.

2:27:50Pat McAfee:He's still doing it. Unbelievable. We lose the second year. But, like, I think all the OGs, I think they knew how hard it was to get to the Super Bowl. I had Mount Rushmore quarterbacks, too. Like Peyton and Aaron. Yeah. You would assume like every year you had a legit chance. Peyton took it really hard, I think. From my understanding, I don't know all the information on anybody or anything. But from my understanding, it was Peyton like, I think he disappeared for a few weeks. Like, get away from everything. Like, really took it hard because of how good our team was and how we had to lead at halftime.

2:28:26Pat McAfee:And I keep saying lead, but like, I didn't do shit, you know. That team was so fucking cool to be a part of. They were just like grown-ass fucking men, you know. Like, yeah, we're drinking a beer the night before the game. Where is the ice cream? Yeah. They used to have beer at our Saturday meetings early on in my career. Yes. Ice cream, beer, pizza. Ball was ball. What else do we need? We're playing cards on this night. We're doing dinner this night. This is happening on this night. It's like, that was like, it was fucking awesome. And I just get dropped in there strictly as a single young vibes guy at every one of the events, you know, for basically every part of the team.

2:29:05Pat McAfee:defense offense skill linemen you know i got a chance to really see how they operated and i think they got a chance to see how i operated too and i would say i think they did they think i did okay i think i did but it was like that was like at west virginia it was the same shit like we were you know our team was like pros yeah you see yeah i said i came into ohio state we won the national championship my first year like i saw those dudes were men like those upperclassmen watching them I'm like, okay, like this is – they were like a part of an older generation to where they could go out as hard as anybody on the planet, and then they would be there at 6 a.m.

2:29:38the next day just cracking skulls. They did not care.

2:29:41Pat McAfee:And I think they would say that that was a trait that helped them in football. Like, you know – Overcome. Yeah, well, not only that, but like I feel like those people got a lot tighter as a team. I think there were certain things that happened whenever guys weren't just completely worried about nutritional science at every single wake of the term. You know, I saw something about track, the 100 meters from the beginning of documented time till now. And we've only gotten like 0.7 or 0.8 faster whenever it talks about all the shoes, all the new technology, the new track, everything like that. Documented 100 meter time.

2:30:17Pat McAfee:And I might have got caught by AI. If I was, they put a lot of work into this thing to do it. but it's like how much faster did the human body actually get with the advancement of all this science and technology and information and all this shit? And it's like not that much. So like whenever these nutritional people came in and just changed the entire culture of fucking football, like that almost. And the NFLPA and the NFL made it mandatory in the CBA. Like everybody needs a nutritional coach. Everybody needs a science coach and shit like this. And I think athletes just bought into it because it's like, yeah, okay, this is what the nutritional person says is what it is.

2:30:50Pat McAfee:that really changed quickly that's why whenever i'm talking about fernando mendoza having beers with the boys like i think that's a fucking big deal like i like i think that is a huge thing because yes i guess everybody's stronger faster by how much certainly there's guys that are very very fast and there was guys that were nowhere near as fast playing football back in the day but it's like how much did all this super duper nutrition help and what did we lose by taking away all the bad stuff that could potentially bring more chemistry than anything else you know and that's why whenever i hear mental toughness sorry i don't want to lose that mental toughness when i like when everything is crafted for you and here smoothies and all this that's what i get worried about is guys that say like i yeah yeah i'm not gonna you see a guy all of a sudden in straight clothes after a warm night don't feel right today yeah i don't feel right like what are you talking about you don't feel right like come on man like that's what i hope we don't lose also hey yeah make a peanut butter and jelly bro we're fucking hungry yeah fucking open that thing okay take anything spoon fucking whatever's nearest boom bang and then do just doing that as opposed to hey here's this for you here's this for you want two protein balls how about a protein stick you want a little bit of this gatorade oh you want to get it we used to have to fucking try to fight for some goddamn gatorade out there and i'm not yelling at the clouds in front yard right now.

2:32:09Pat McAfee:I'm just saying when I'm talking about players being generational Fernando feels like an older generation quarterback in the modern era right now. And I don't even think he knows it. I think he's just like... It's a good thing. It's a great thing. He doesn't know it. At Oregon defense I was going to home. Dan Landon. I'm really excited for that game. So pumped. Dan Landon's second shot at him. I'm glad that game is Friday. And not Thursday. And I'm pumped for Miami. Ole Miss too. It's just Oregon, Indiana. You see what the nerds are saying about Dan Lanning? What? About beating him twice. Yeah, pretty easy.

2:32:45Pat McAfee:The board did it. He was the only one, I guess. This is different. That's what Hembo said. Everybody's talking about beating Lanning twice. I think Hembo sent me a stat about another team that was trying to beat somebody twice. He's like, everybody talks about it being hard to beat somebody twice. It's actually not factual. Maybe you beat him the first time because you're a better team. This one is about Dan Lanning. and maybe these teams are just better teams, which is what Hembo and the stats people say, I think, about the whole narrative about it's hard to beat somebody twice. Because I think outside stats people, us, we get better knowledge, more fired up, a little bit more motivated.

2:33:20Pat McAfee:Stats people say, well, actually, higher score first game was more corresponding with how good team is. And then the second time should be the exact same. But we all understand what this is. We all understand adjustments. We all understand what could happen. But stats say it's certainly possible. Also, you see the DeBoer-Washington who beat them twice, 36-33 and 34-31. Those games could have gone either way. 32-31, Ohio State first beating. Rematch ass beating. Yeah. 41-21 was not the score. It was not that close, yeah. Yeah, that was 41-0. That's what it felt like in my mind, and I assume you feel the same way on that one.

2:33:58Yeah, the beating team twice, I guess I'm a victim of that too. I guess I'm guilty of saying it's hard to beat a team twice just because, yeah, that's stupid. We should change that. Just because I heard it before. It's like saying, oh, make sure you don't go outside with wet hair when it's cold. You'll get pneumonia. That's dumb. Like, that doesn't mean anything. Don't touch the eggs. If you touch the eggs in a bird's nest, the bird won't come back because the mom will disown them. Nope, that's false as well. Like, yeah, we've got to figure it out.

2:34:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, all these things are just do it this way because this is how it's always been. You don't want poop on your hands. You don't want your little kids having mushy bird poop and garbage all over their hands. so don't be digging around a bird's face. Okay, I like that. So they went to the extreme saying, hey, you want to ruin this life? Yeah, the mom will kill all the babies if you touch them. They make them feel bad. Yeah, the most extreme. What about pumping gas with your car's on? Yeah, I guess that's... Well, that's never been any question. You shouldn't do that. Are you sure? Especially in the winter.

2:34:50Especially in the winter, D-Butt. You're in Indy. You're going to need to do that. You knew AJ. I always do it.

2:34:55Pat McAfee:You knew... Okay, you do as well. You knew AJ felt very strongly about that, and I appreciate you alley-ooping him here on his birthday. AJ's never even thought about turning his car off while pumping that gas that's just common sense you know that well how come at every gas station it says turn your car off everyone does I mean there's a lot of signs all over that mean nothing that are garbage that they just have I agree what is it for what do you think CYA cover your ass because they don't want to get sued if your car blows up exactly and that's you know what yeah it is fine until some fat hayseed flicks a cigarette near your car and it blows up the entire gas station and now you don't just have one fatality.

2:35:30You got 30, 40, 50. This is just like the bird with the eggs thing. Exactly. I looked up the bird with the eggs thing. I think he's right there. He's wrong about the gas thing.

2:35:40Pat McAfee:A lot of signs, but what he's saying is just because we've heard it all the time doesn't mean it's real. You know, just because that's what AJ. AJ likes to question the He doesn't like I like to question they when people say they say like my mom is guilty. She always says they. Mom, who is they? Here's they right here. We'll say it's Google at this exact moment is one part of there. I don't know if this is how they identify. We shouldn't necessarily just automatically throw they on them. But, yes, you should. I see rare. Rare is what I see right there. Rare. Very rare. Yeah, but do you see the first line or do you just not read, like, first line into.

2:36:14Pat McAfee:What are the two words after rare? It's Tim McAfee nicotine right here. Catastrophic risk. I mean, come on now. AJ. AJ. All right. So, obviously, everybody has told you you're wrong. But I understand you've got to live. No one's ever mentioned it to me. I think they all said, thank you for keeping me nice and comfortable. why you're pumping gas. I think that's all that he also does this new thing on the plane flights where he refused to sit in his seat during takeoff. Yeah. What's that all about? Oh yeah. Pretty active flyer because he was told one time, Hey sir, can you sit in your seat for takeoff?

2:36:41Now he refuses to do it.

2:36:43Pat McAfee:I'll tell you what, every once in a while I'll protest some shit that's being said on those things. I respect, I very much respect what you were saying. I can't wait for it to hit his head off the ceiling. I got a wide base. You see my wide base. The real problem is he's banging on the exit door like, oh, you think this is fun? Don't you want me to do that now? Before, if I did it in the air, it would be much worse. I just want to see if it's holding. Yeah, I appreciate you doing those last plane checks for us. How about the peek and go? You were dead ass asleep. Oh, no, I watched that whole thing, believe me, because I saw it foggy and I heard him juice it back up and I was like, oh, dang it, we're going around.

2:37:22Pat McAfee:Okay, so you were up for that. Okay, I'm happy to hear you were up for that. in the way you fly, I assume you're actually woken up by the plane moving in your body just, we're going to puke right now, even though you're dead ass asleep. Us in the front, kind of in real time, dealing with the information, knowing that hell was about to potentially happen. Like, hey, if we can't land, we'll just pull it right back up, and then we'll head over to LAX. And then getting a message like, hey, I think we're going to be able to land, so we're going to be able to see ground, we're going to be good. It's like, awesome.

2:37:50Pat McAfee:So kind of like anxiety kind of just kind of settles away. And then we get to a part where we see ground, Like, okay, we got here because we knew the mission the whole time. And obviously, we're paying attention. We're doing the entire thing. We see ground clearer than I think we've seen. Oh, yeah, it looked good. I mean, it was clear. Definitely. He could have touched down. I'm thinking the pilots wanted to land it the other way. You guys saw the ground? Oh, yeah. I saw a house. Oh, big time. Because I woke up on the. Yeah, exactly. We could have done it. We woke up on the. Yeah, I'll tell you.

2:38:20Pat McAfee:It was certainly an impressive relift back up into the sky. but from what we were understanding and I'm sure some pilot would give us I don't have my hours I know AJ got some hours under here there's minimums he was fully legal to do it he made a decision he's conservative I agree it's better to do that than die which he can always grandstand with you know like well we just thought it was safer for all parties but also potentially and my hotel's right there yeah so that is where you know we in the back of the plane who then had to do an hour drive you know with limited certainly had some questions like my I was told if we could see we're going down here is air traffic control telling you we can't go down no they're saying you can't okay you're just finding out if you could see so you're making a decision to go to LAX then airport was open yeah still fully open oh yeah operable but hey glass down safe that's right oh yeah thank you for doing it we're here oh yeah we can't complain honestly that's fucking nice playing we're on it a long time, but that was a nice plane.

2:39:26Pat McAfee:Three rooms. I mean, you guys were sleeping in the back. Had no idea what was going on in the front, right? Luckily. Could not hear you guys back there. I didn't know that you guys knew we were possibly going to go a go-around or touch and go. I didn't even know that. I just knew it was foggy. Yeah, we were very much in the know on how it was all going. Pilot actually came back, sat in front of me. All right, hey, listen. I'm going to take a seat. Did this one here? It's going to be a long one. Had his glasses on his lap. So here's the situation. Kind of breaks it all down. Low ceiling. Obviously a lot of pressure.

2:39:56Pat McAfee:Blah, blah, blah. The whole thing. Super scientific words. We're all what? Half asleep at that point. It was a long time. I was nuked at that point. Oh, man. Yeah, still up. This guy, very well dressed. Good hair. I mean, seems very professional. Moves glasses to the lap. I mean, knows his whole thing. Breaks it all down to us. Does it sound good? It does sound good. Thank you for You know, the information gets up, goes back up there. Now we're all on high alert. All right, here we fucking go. Let's see what happens, boys. Flight attendant turns around. They're saying they think it's good for landing.

2:40:31It's like, oh.

2:40:33Pat McAfee:Yes, that's great news. A little burst of energy there about the 27th hour of our day, 28th hour of our day or whatever. Lucky to do it, not bitching about it, just tucked in about state of mind where we are at the time. And then, yeah, the, oh, look at that guy's house. I'm literally seeing his backyard. Okay, we can see down there, it looks like.

2:40:53Pat McAfee:Holy shit, we're out of here. That was a good takeoff. Shout out to that plane still having a juice. To be able to just turn that. I was hoping he was going to circle around and come back in the same airport. They do that sometimes. Try it again. No, no, no, no. Guy was never landing there. Never. Well, no. The hotel was connected to LAX. He wanted us to take the roller coaster ride. Yeah. That was all that was about. Boys, wake up. You got a fucking hour and a half ride.

2:41:21Pat McAfee:Thankful to be safe. Yep. Thankful to be safe. Or shoot. Cannot wait to get out to Arizona. Then do Atlanta. Then Super Wild Card weekend. Why, why, why? Then Super Wild Card Monday. Why? I'm going to be live. Happy birthday, AJ. Here we are. Happy birthday, Hogger. Happy birthday, Hogger. Happy birthday, Hogger. Hey, Hogger. All right, we're back tomorrow. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're obviously in this together. Team on me. AJ, anything you say on this birthday? No, I appreciate you guys. Thank you. And you guys know, these are the good old days.

2:41:47Absolutely.

2:41:49Pat McAfee:You landed the plane, brother. Let's live in the moment. And this moment. This moment. And a new one. And a new one. The past is dead. The future does not exist. Here we go. New one. Here it is. Tone's not in the moment. I can tell. Tone's worried about that. No, he's trying to move on to Hammer Don. He's got a lot of bets to get. A lot of winners. Shout out to that little thing. No, we don't. Happy birthday, AJ. Love this moment and every moment we get to spend together. We're so thankful for the moments in which we get to talk about sports for a living. It's the dumbest life of all time, and we can't thank you all enough for allowing us to do this.

2:42:29Pat McAfee:Team on me, team on three. One, two, three, team. Goodbye. 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. It's all of ESPN, all in one place. Sign up or activate now. From 30 for 30 podcasts. I need everyone. You don't want to. Did you say tell I got shot?

2:43:12Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami, gunned down. The key to this case, it's Brian. Boy, he's ripped it. An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing with somebody. This might be a hit. You want the truth. Biggest one of convictions. Being placed into arrest. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now.