PMS 2.0 1484 - NFL Super Wildcard Weekend Recap, CFP Semifinals Recap, Texans vs. Steelers Preview, Adam Schefter, JJ Watt, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

17:36Pat McAfee:No place for it. Can't have it. It's like what a weird thing to come out publicly and say, this is disgusting. Who do you think you are to say that you think that's disgusting and it matters? It's like, that is a crazy thing about the sports media people. I put a post out this morning about it because I've thought about it a lot. I've wondered why our show works. I've wondered why people like our show legitimately. I have been so baffled by the fact that this show, and we would like to let you know, we are so thankful that we get to do this show. But why is this show having the sense of it? And I think it's because most of the people that have been covering sports for a long time, not most, sorry, a percentage larger than you would hope, much larger than you would hope, that chose to do sports journalism.

18:19Pat McAfee:I think they don't like sports. I think these people hate sports. I think they're political journalists by nature who preyed on sports as an easier path to be able to get into the biz. You know, sports journalism is everywhere. Sports media, bum, bum, bum. I don't think they like sports. I think they cover sports. I don't think they like sports. So whenever you're always looking to kill something because you don't like it, I don't know if that should just necessarily be the only thing considered as journalism. Like, how about we just learned how Liam Cohen, who might be a goat when it's all said and done, which is what Lynn Jones...

18:51Pat McAfee:Yeah, seriously, you're the one. Nobody expected this out of you guys. He might be a goat whenever it's all said and done, which means there'll probably be documentaries, there'll be entire things about Liam Cohen. They'll be able to now know exactly how he was in one of the most miserable moments of his life because Lynn Jones provided him with a compliment. He was classy, he was humility, had a lot of humility. He did not bury her, he did not get uncomfortable, he didn't deflect, he didn't do anything. He was just a humble, classy dude in a miserable time. Whenever he knows that he let down his team, he let down everybody.

19:21Pat McAfee:He feels terrible in that moment. So I just, I hated the grandstanding about how that's terrible. That's good for sports. Okay, sports are supposed to be a, sports are supposed to be an uplifter. Sports are supposed to be a unifier. So if somebody who just so happens to have a pen or a microphone in front of them wants to say something positive about sports, that should be allowed. I don't think that should be something that's necessarily, you know, like hated on. But I guess if you go to the same exact journalism schools and you're all taught the same exact things about what you're supposed to do, whether it's sports or politics or medicine or all this shit, you're automatically going to be trying to pick things apart because everybody's in investigative journalism, which I respect the people that do that.

20:02Pat McAfee:I think they make the world better. But it's like not everybody has to be a miserable prick. Like that isn't how you have to be. Sports are allowed to be like it. So I thought that was a good moment that happened for all of society to realize how some of these people are. Like, these people are just miserable. So whenever you're reading something happens and you're reading their angle, it's like they were not going to be able to find something positive in anything, like at all. So just remember that as we go forward. And that's my grandstand. Oh, yeah. There you go. Get up there. Get up there.

20:29Pat McAfee:That's me riding a high horse saying because you all are miserable and hate sports, our show has been able to exist. So we appreciate you for it. But it would be cool if you got on board with sports being a unifier in a good time because the world needs it. Maybe now more than ever. All right. That's it. Well done. Well done. Now, on that note, ladies and gentlemen, we got five headlines coming out of Super Wild Card Weekend that you need to hear. Five things that we think really stole the headlines. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for top five driven by Ram Trucks. Listen, when you hit the gas pedal on a Ram Truck, the only sound you hear is Ram Trucks.

21:08Pat McAfee:You know, they're getting back into NASCAR truck racing. That's right. What have you said about NASCAR truck racing in the past? It's arguably my favorite thing ever, and that was before red trucks were out there on the dirt track. So I can't wait. I forget when it actually is starting, but I've been basically waiting every night for this to happen. Yeah, and we're not 100 % sure if it has already happened. Yeah, correct. 19 days, right? If your counter is right out there. Okay. Well, we don't know, though, because power goes up. It might be 100 days. Nine could be a zero. You're right. Whatever the case, this is driven by Ram.

21:44Pat McAfee:Let's get to number five, shall we? The Chicago slight. A cold handshake after a crazy comeback. What a win for the Ben Johnson-led Bears. Everything that Ben has kind of preached about mental toughness and his team has shown fourth quarters, they've been outrageous. Everything he has tried to build so quickly over there in Chicago, comes to spotlight in a super wildcard round against NFC North rival for a long time, the Green Bay Packers. Packers up by a lot. Kicking the shit eyes, Chicago Bears. I'm texting Chicago Bears fans saying, just like we said, just like we said. You thought Ben Johnson was going to be able to go in there in one year and create an actual winner?

22:26Pat McAfee:Whenever push comes to the shelf, you play a good team, you're going to lose. We already played the Packers. We already beat them. Doesn't matter. Bears can't get it done in the playoffs. A lot of people thought that. turns out they can you know who can't the packers oh green bay packers i shouldn't say that matt lefleur can't get it done in the playoffs whoa wouldn't that be the green bay packers i saw he's potentially going to be maybe uh negotiating to sign a new one with uh green bay do yeah yeah we'll see no but i mean you hit the nail on the head it's like the bears have been doing this all year long and kudos to ben johnson for dropping his nuts on the table not only at his opening press conference and kind of starting this whole thing off and saying like you know what I enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice uh twice a year I can't wait to do that again and then just kind of all the back and forth that led up to the game like he he knew he was going to get crucified he would have got killed if that would have been the end result you know they just played flat the whole game but he is an unbelievable coach and his team believes in him and we saw what happened yeah and not only believes in him what Caleb Williams becomes is late in these games.

23:30Pat McAfee:He's outrageous. Let's go to 537. 27-16. Caleb's down 11 at home. This is going to be his legacy. Cross body on the run. One leg off ground. One fallen into a bucket. Fourth and eight pickup. Extends the game. Keeps it alive and has play a season as he's jumping out of a sack. I mean, you're talking about Caleb shit in the NFL here. Now, I did see a couple people tweeting about people wondered if he was going to be able to do this like he was able to doing college in the NFL. I was one of those people. I had no idea if he was going to be able to do stuff like this against grown men who are all the best in the history of the game at one time.

24:04Pat McAfee:He certainly can. And his arm strength is outrageous. Outlandish, I would say, with how strong he throws the ruck. And then obviously his ability to move is crazy. Third and ten now after they pick up the first down. D-butt, they always got it when they needed it, especially in the biggest moments.

24:20Adam Schefter:Yeah, the three times these two teams played, it always kind of came down to the end. and we had the interception in the two games where he made big-time plays down the stretch. But this is what he did all season long for the Bears. Already six fourth-quarter comeback wins leading into this game. Now seven, including the playoffs, which is most in Bears history already. He's kind of already up there when you talk about Bears all-time quarterbacks. But, I mean, just these throws, Colston Loveland, he's been unbelievable, especially down the stretch.

24:45Pat McAfee:Had to go for two, obviously, to make it a three-point game. Oh, my God. Are they going to erase 11 points in four minutes? Are the Chicago Bears at home going to be able to do what Jordan Love says? Not on my watch. Dime to dog. He's the greatest guardian cap wearer in the history of football. He's the best player by far. That thing is everywhere. I see it. And, hey, whatever protects your brain, whatever makes you comfortable, you do what you've got to do. But it does stick out. And he always seemingly is making big plays. What a catch. What a throw. Gets them in a field goal range. All right, let's at least make them have to go down the entire field and get a touchdown.

25:21Pat McAfee:Brandon McManus. former Super Bowl champion, reliable normally, not this year as much for Green Bay, misses his second field goal of the night. Yeah, I mean, this is the shit that drives you insane because I've been saying this for weeks now. He's three of nine on field goals over 40 yards this year. So, I mean, they knew that was an issue going into the game. Really knew that was an issue. Guys won a Super Bowl. He's been there. He's done that. I will stick up for McManus. Now, on that note, he makes the 50-some yarder. Yeah. Timeout. hits it again, misses it, seems to move a little bit more.

25:54Pat McAfee:This ball feels like it was down the middle, moves way to the right. Extra point miss, obviously, it becomes a huge crap. He had his worst game I think I've ever seen Brandon McManus have in the Super Wild Card weekend against Chicago Bears. Yeah, and, you know, again, you don't want to just shit on him because he has had his moments in Green Bay, but, like, he hasn't been good this year. He just hasn't. And that's kind of where you're – like, and I don't even want to say that because honestly, yes, he misses that extra point. Packers drive down the field at the end of the game. He's not making that field goal to tie it.

26:27The way that the game was going, they had to score a touchdown. He's just not sorry. But, yeah, you leave seven points out on the field in a playoff game, that's usually going to come back and bite you in the ass.

26:39Pat McAfee:On the road. You might as well go ahead and call it a couple of turnovers. Then third and four. Are the Bears going to answer in front of a crowd that was insane? Very quiet, obviously. didn't have much to cheer for for a long time. Then this fourth quarter, Chicago Bears fans, awesome performance, I would like to say. Incredibly loud, wildly into it, and it felt electric through the television. First and ten, down three. What's Caleb going to do? Pump fake! Got him! Touchdown DJ Moore! This one almost went into his face mask, into his helmet, like in that one kid movie where they throw a football in.

27:14Pat McAfee:Little Giants? No Giants. Bang! Where it goes right there. DJ Moore almost got that. Had a drop a little bit earlier. So him having this catch, this touchdown, this release, this everything in this moment, congrats and shout out to DJ Moore. Always been an incredible player.

27:28Adam Schefter:Yeah, in this situation, Caleb didn't have to make a phenomenal throw or break the pocket. This was a great play call from Ben Johnson. And they kind of set this play up. One of the first plays of the game, they ran a screen to the same side of the field, picked up maybe 10, 11 yards, and then came back to it now at the end of the game. Kind of a screen and go. Great fake, great pump fake. everyone executed properly and then obviously hit him with an accurate throw for the go-ahead touchdown.

27:50Pat McAfee:I mean, if that thing hits in his face mask and sticks there, that'd be awesome. That'd be a really cool thing. Catch the catch. And said, DJ, he caught that thing like this. That is maybe the hardest. That's an incredible grab, especially in the moment. To score a touchdown, those easy ones, always the hardest. Congratulations, DJ Moore and the Chicago Bears. Now the Green Bay Packers will get a shot at it, down four. Got a chance to take a Hail Mary. We drop the snap, obviously, then we fumble-bumble around. Somehow they stop blocking, even though I still have the ball. Now we have pressure, little throw to no one except for their team.

28:24Pat McAfee:Could have got a pick in the Super Wild Card, instead drops it 31-27. I'll put this thing into the stand. Somebody can keep that for the rest of their lives. Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson experienced their first playoff wins together, and it's a dawning of a new day in the NFC North. Wow. Then at the very end, obviously, there's a ritual that happens of sorts. You know, each coach will go out and shake each other's hands and say, wait, wait, compete out there. Well, there's been a couple of these, obviously, this year because it's been split. Matt has been on the winning side of it quick. Ben has been on the winning side of it quick.

28:57Pat McAfee:This one, though, whoo! Go ahead and keeps it moving as quick as possible. Easy come, easy go. How you doing? Keep it moving. You know, Matt LaForest said good job, and then he turns quickly. I don't know if there was an extra stick-em on the end of that. Did he yank him that way, or was that just kind of Matt LaFleur pivoting like that? It might have been like a, watch this. Watch me go celebrate my guys, bitch. This is going to be awesome. Oh, is that what he was saying? Yeah, yeah. Look this way. Something that wasn't really talked about here is the fact that Ben Johnson going in, yelling quickly, leaving.

29:29Pat McAfee:Certainly an alpha dominance. Certainly an alpha dominance. But it was an answer, I think, to what LaFleur did before, right? Didn't LaFleur do a quick handshake on the way out whenever they won over the Chicago Bears? Yeah, he did. And these two have been bickering for a long time. Yeah. I saw some people saying they didn't like this.

29:47Pat McAfee:Who was Schwartz? Didn't he go fight a guy? Schwartz fought a guy. Schwartz and Harbaugh fought a guy. The backpats. And then Ben Johnson in the locker room going, the Packers. Hate those guys, man. Yeah, him saying how bad he hates them, like continuing to follow up on it. And the Chicago Bears posting it. Okay, like the Chicago Bears posting it. I respect that. I love that. I wonder what the Packers did to the Lions. Was there some sort of something with a locker room incident, some personal incident that took place? Because Ben Johnson immediately upon signing to the Chicago Bears says, can't wait to beat Matt LaFleur twice.

30:23Pat McAfee:Like, literally says that. Oh, piss ant. I can't wait to beat him twice. And we're all like, yes, we love this for the rivalry. But then now it's like real heat. And Ben Johnson living the gimmick in this entire thing. And the Chicago Bears social team posting that means everybody in the Bears building saw that and was like, yeah, we do hate those guys. let's go ahead and run this i love that for football i love that an entire organization in the nfl which i would say sometimes lacks the passion that college football has i like that in the nfl in a professional business brand new head coach a lot of new pieces in there obviously ownership past got new ownership in there i like that they're all bought in on keeping a rivalry of hatred hatred like i like that i don't know if lafleur is doing enough i don't know if the Packers are hating the Bears enough.

31:08Pat McAfee:It certainly isn't. I don't, well, okay. I didn't mean that. In any regard. You'll certainly be able to speak your mind here in a matter of seconds. But I don't think the Packers are pitching that. The Bears coming out and saying, nah, fuck this team over here. And that's been a rivalry for how long? Forever, right? Big city or small town. Over 100 years. It's like the oldest rivalry in professional sports. Yes. I love everything about this because Ben Johnson is letting his boys know, like hey this is really how i feel about this entire squad this is how ohio state and michigan started right then the two coaches uh they're both ohio state coaches and old buddy leaves and goes to michigan and their actual heat is what led to the michigan thing it's like i will be tuned in to bears packers not only because the coach is seemingly good great teams as well both sides i'm not saying ben johnson i'm saying the floor too seemingly good uh and also all the shit.

32:00Pat McAfee:This is a real rivalry. I love it, D-Bud. I love everything about it. There's people that are saying they didn't like it.

32:05Adam Schefter:Of course. There's going to be people that didn't like it, especially, actually, both parts of it. The handshake, obviously you think, hey, you want a coach to be respectful, and regardless of what the game is, regardless of how you truly feel about each other, do that gimmick, how the gimmick is supposed to be done. In the postgame, when you know it's recorded, and you know it's going out, hey, have the respect. And it was surprising to me only because of the history of the Bears, and from the ownership level I know they're really specific I think even with like a hard knocks they're like hey very careful with the language we don't want you know this uh franchise represented in a certain way but he's fired up like his first uh playoff win and it's kind of it seems like this is who he is you know authentically like he's been himself and when you hired him you got to support uh face of the franchise the new CEO of your team if that's who it's going to be and then hearing On the flip side, I feel like Caleb, he sounds like a 40-year-old man when he's talking.

33:00Adam Schefter:He's always taking the high road and being classy, and then he'll take his shots on his socials and stuff like that. But I love it. I love when there's some real heat between coaches, between players. It's football. I don't mind people shaking hands and exchanging jerseys or any of that either, but I also do like some of this throwback heat for sure.

33:16Pat McAfee:Ben Johnson, today in his press conference via Ari Mirov here, it's a rivalry. City of Chicago and Green Bay, it needs to be a rivalry. Hell yeah. Okay. Yeah, I don't know. I might like him as a person. Who cares? To hell with him. I don't care at all. I love that. That's so good for our league. So good for our league. Because college football has that. A lot of that. And that is college football, clear number two sport in America. The ratings came out. And what are they? Who knows? I had split screen on yesterday with sound on one. So are they counting the one as a rating? Or are they counting both?

33:49Pat McAfee:Because I had Golden Globes on. I had to see if Timmy and Dwayne and the boys get a big-time win. Did Dwayne? Did not. Did Tim? Timmy did. Timmy did. Timmy did. But I didn't have any audio on over here. You see, I had the audio on New England game. Okay, so I was almost picture it, almost sent a picture and sent it to Nielsen on X.

34:08Adam Schefter:Yeah. Count this. I can't believe you did that. Why? That's disrespectful to football.

34:12Pat McAfee:I know. I know it is. But I was trying to show respect to Timmy and Dwayne and them. You know? I was trying to show my respect. YouTube provides that. YouTube TV, which, boy, I'm happy. Yeah. Yeah. Thank God. They got it. By far the best platform. By far. By far the best. Great. No question. I mean, just being able to do that. Two very, I mean, we're doing okay around here. Two very big squares watching both things. But the audio is only on one side. So are they going to count me for that? Because then they will go to commercial, and I'll be like, oh, I'm going to go to the other one. And guess who comes on your side?

34:44Pat McAfee:Drake Mays. I'm like, yeah, right, dude. So sorry for me to care what's going on over here. I do wonder what that's going to do. But ratings up and to the right for football, huge. College football, clearly number two. Yeah. Clearly number two. I think it had eight spots in the top 100 or something like that. It hadn't had that many in the past. 90-something were football. Yeah. And then the others were whatever they were. Like, how do you not like sports, these people, that are just always miserable? How do you not? Good question. Everybody does, seemingly. Yeah. Get with the times. Come on. Get with the times.

35:16Pat McAfee:Football is good. It's fun. It's fun. Sports, good.

35:20Adam Schefter:They're fun. Let's do that. Humans. It's the humans playing and coaching as well. So it's always good to have like a human moment. Thank you. Regardless of where it is, like, hey, keep your head up. And you can tell Liam genuinely appreciated that too. So, like, I mean, I just don't get it. I appreciated Lynn going, listen, you're new here.

35:40Pat McAfee:You're a young lad. It's your first time. You got it, buddy. You're the one. Just her inner body saying, this poor little, look at this little. This guy needs to be lifted up a little bit. Yeah. Hey, Liam, you think it was a good idea to – first question. Hey, Liam, earlier in the year, you said bye, you said bye. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And he's like, give me the microphone, please. You all right, young man?

36:03Adam Schefter:Did you see any of the other questions asking that pressure? No, yeah, that's the thing. Or answers?

36:07Pat McAfee:Yeah. Oh, okay. We need to watch the whole thing, though.

36:11Adam Schefter:Yeah, sure. Well, it's not about winning the press. We care. We watch the game. You know what happened? I don't want to see a coach up there pouting. Yeah, but I don't.

36:19Pat McAfee:I just, I don't. The ownership of what something is, is my problem with things. It's like, we had three years, four or five years, I guess, in total. But three years, the first three years of Aaron Rodgers just wide open through an entire season. He won two MVPs. So awesome. We rode every single week with him, like every single day. And the guy never talked, really, to anybody before that. and they're like get mad at me for not like countering an answer that he gave that he has researched that he lived that is his opinions and i'm asking him questions it is we are learning about like how is that not journal like how is learning entirely about one of the greatest of all time not considered some form of journal are documentaries a form of journal like i don't think i fully just comprehend how this is what journalism is it is sawn everything down all the time and finding the worst it's like what about learning about things and like expanding your horizon like is that not a part of it i don't i genuinely don't know because we didn't i didn't get invited to broadcast true yeah i don't i don't have a clue what it is why is that always the thing i don't know i don't know because we get accused of it a lot a lot a lot well yeah i mean the rogers situation especially you know you can't have your cake and eat it too you know you can't want you to be a CNN or a Fox News anchor, and then 10 seconds later, all right, now you're an ESPN guy again.

37:46Okay, you're a sports guy. Get shut up and talk about sports. It doesn't really work that way.

37:50Pat McAfee:It's great. It's all good. But we're just saying, you're allowed to be happy in sports. It's fun. In our world, you're allowed to be happy. If you want to go be miserable, go do it. There are certainly a lot of options to these yell at each other. Cover war. I guess, and war is happening every day, I think, with the political world. Yeah. Every once in a while, that shit will show up in my algo, and I'm like, why would anybody want to get into this? This seems like the most negative of all of it. It just seems. And then every day somebody knew it was the best human on Earth. And it's like, so you're fighting every day for a new best.

38:23Good job, security, I guess.

38:24Pat McAfee:Oh, my God. It is just like a never-ending supply. And it's like, who's right? Is there a scoreboard? There is an R world. Let's go to the number four headline. And it's been very good to this team over the years. a familiar feeling in Foxborough. The Pats are all the way back. We chatted about it already a little bit, but here's the top five headline out of Super Wildcard Weekend. Mike Frabel, he's done it, folks. He's done it. Yep. He got forced out of Tennessee. They're in a great spot. Yeah. Goes up to Cleveland, has an office in the attic, I think. Okay, I don't want to say that we FaceTimed him one time when he was there.

39:04Pat McAfee:Oh, we did. We did, and he was in and out. I don't even, his office, I mean, I don't want to put anything down. I assume they just kind of cleaned out a closet maybe and put him in there. Ohio. I mean, he was just in the building, like not really, but obviously helping around. We see him in the practices. We see him the entire thing just kind of hanging. And then him going back to New England after a one-year stint for Coach Mayo is just like an absurd series of events that leaves all football fans thinking to themselves, this is the next 20 years. We've already seen this song and dance, and it's a whole new cast of characters, but it's such a familiar feeling because one of the players is the guy leading it, and obviously the uniforms and the fans are the exact same.

39:41Pat McAfee:What a performance out of your fans as well. Yeah, it was unbelievable, exactly. Starting with the fans, they were the best home field advantage home crowd of the entire weekend. You could even go to, you know, the only one I'd compare it to would probably be Indiana in Atlanta against Oregon where they dominated, but I think they had four false starts. The Chargers offensive line when it came to just noise in general from the Massles. Josie was playing, living on a prayer. Bon Jovi they came back with from one of their commercial breaks. That sounded electrifying. But then just the dominance of the whole entire thing.

40:14There was never really a moment where the Chargers offense looked like, okay, here they go. Early on, you mentioned the deflected interception Drake may have. That set the Chargers up with first and goal. And what do the Patriots do? They just stand pat, basically lock it down. The Chargers decide not to kick the field goal, get some points on the road. but instead they just say, hey, let's try and score touchdowns. You just showed the Milton Williams one. Sorry, what was that?

40:38Pat McAfee:I was going to say, do you think Harbaugh was worried about his defense against Drake Mayhem early because he decided not to take the points? Didn't think the three points would be as important as they inevitably would become, obviously. Yeah, I was very confused. The first points of the game? Yeah. Plus, with that defense, how many times are we going to be down in here? Just my thoughts on Jim Harbaugh. Plus, you keep the momentum when you kick a field goal. As soon as you get stopped, that momentum swing is just ginormous. Yeah, but did Jim think we might have to score some points here, at least 20 against, like, Drake and him?

41:06Or did he trust his defense and say, if not, we'll pin him down here and we'll get the ball back? I think that's what it was. Doesn't matter?

41:12Pat McAfee:Yeah. This is a bonus. This is house money. We just got a turnover we didn't expect to get. We're down in here. Let's just go for it.

41:18Adam Schefter:Yeah, I mean, I guess whatever school of thought you're from, some people, hey, if it's the points, especially the first points, take them in a playoff game. Or a lot of people now, especially with the new analytics, once you get kind of inside that red area, you're not taking any field goals unless you're fourth and seven plus probably because the likelihood of the team getting the ball and then driving the length of the field and scoring is whatever numbers are there. So it's wherever place you're in, whatever analytics you believe in. You know, you can always second guess the decision, but he also has, you know, one of the best defenses in the league over there with the Chargers.

41:49Adam Schefter:So maybe he trusted him to hold him up.

41:52Pat McAfee:And also maybe he thought his offense was going to be back there. Yeah. You know, maybe he thought like this would be – I mean, there's so many different – until he comes out and tells us, which I don't know if he did. I don't know if he gave his answer afterwards. There's so many different angles it could be. And in Harbaugh's mind, he was right. And that's what some people don't understand about having a differing opinion about somebody else. Like, at that moment, did not get to see what the Patriots defense was going to do to his offense all game. This is at the very beginning. Had no idea what was going to happen.

42:19Pat McAfee:And in his mind, in the time, we need to go get a touchdown right here. Why not? Maybe we're not going to score a lot of these against his Patriots. We won't be down here today. We're not going to be this close with how good it's paid. There's so many different things that are happening at the same time. All we do know is those three points will be huge. Yeah. With the way the score started to go in the entirety of the game. Yeah, especially just because they chose to play New England. They benched all their guys week 18. If they ended up playing against the Broncos, who knows? Maybe they win.

42:46They definitely don't travel to Foxborough. But Milton Williams was kind of the guy. He headbutted Mike Vrabel at the end here, which was incredible. After the game ceiling sacked, Mike Vrabel was a little bloodied up, but you know Mike Vrabel just loves getting bloodied on that football field. We always talk about when free agent frenzy happens, when the draft happens. You can't win any games in March, but definitely can make moves to help you win. Milton Williams wasn't supposed to be a Patriot. There was tweets, hey, Milton Williams is signing with the Carolina Panthers. What does Vrabel do?

43:18They come in way over the top, basically offer him, I think, five or ten more million than what the Panthers were offering him. For this moment right here, he won the game. Him and Christian Barmore, I guess, on Monday of last week, Vrabel basically said to lead off the meeting, hey, you two, this is where you earn your money. This is where, you know, the similar thing to what Caleb was saying. This is where you make a name for yourself. This is where the big dogs eat, and they did. Like, they completely took over the game. The defense had six sacks, and I think they had less than, you know, 200 – I think they had 207 total yards, but with all that net yardage BS, it ended up being underneath, you know, 200 yards.

43:54But the defense playing that well with what Drake may still be capable of, even when he wasn't playing his best game, the road is clear now.

44:01Pat McAfee:Are they going to be in everything DB or not?

44:05Adam Schefter:They'll probably be at the top. I've got to see what happens tonight with this Texans or Steelers defense. But right now, I mean, six sacks, 30 pressures. They were slinging that good thing. I saw 30 pressures total after the game. Held the charge two for 13 on third and fourth down conversions. Obviously, it starts up front. I thought the guys on the back end did a great job as well. And Comet has been talking about Milton Williams being the highest paid Patriot player ever. And he showed up in the biggest moments. The last time we saw him in the playoffs was him dominating the Super Bowl against Patrick Mahomes and that Eagles defensive line.

44:37Adam Schefter:So this is a great example of a big-time free agent signing showing off in the biggest moments. But this is a complete team-dominant win at home.

44:44Pat McAfee:Now, you mentioned that you guys overpaid him. Yeah. So you guys are in cap hell then? You're in a bad spot after this? No. No, not even a little bit. What do you mean? So many of these guys that you're watching dominate. I mean, Chase Hahn also had a massive sack on a third down, and Debo mentioned their third down. Staff's 2-10, 2-13. They're the number one third down team in the NFL this year, the L.A. Chargers, and it just did not seem like they could sniff a first down throughout that game. But there, boom, 44. He's on a one-year deal. I believe Christian Ellis, the guy who recovered it, he's on a very low-cap friendly two-year deal.

45:21So, Ponder 91 won your deal. Like, all the moves they made in March and April are paying dividends in the playoffs. So, I believe we're, I think we're top 10 in cap space. So, we can pay a lot more guys. Definitely not A.J. Brown because he has a$79 million dead cap hit. No, everybody, hold on. We'll get to that. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, sorry. Sorry.

45:40Pat McAfee:Actually, on that note, bang. Number three headline. Oh, no. Another brotherly brouhaha. Oh, no. Two N's, not two D's. Fascinating. Down goes the world champs. The Philadelphia Eagles. Another. In the link. Anuder. Anuder. Anuder. There it is. Anuder brotherly. Anuder brotherly brouhaha. There we go. That is a Delco exit. Anuder brotherly brouhaha here. Down goes the world champs. Philadelphia Eagles. World champs. So much talent. All across the board. Lane Johnson not playing. Surprising. That was huge. That was a big deal. Yeah. Me and A.J. Hawk both, and I think D-Bud as well, all picked the Philadelphia Eagles strictly because Wayne Johnson was coming back and the offensive line was what carried them, in our eyes, to a Super Bowl last year alongside a number one overall defense in what Vic Fangio was cooking over there in Philadelphia.

46:39Pat McAfee:Almost forgot the Paisons name 100 % on me. Has not been talked about much this year because the entire conversation about this particular team all year has been how much A.J. Brown hates the team. It's not just the wide receivers. Last year, whenever they became a very run-dominant team, Saquon Barkley, we all remember, he did the thing, and he did the things, and he did the thing, and he did the thing, and then he was doing the thing. You know, he did the thing and all the things. Remember, that's what they were doing. A lot of it. He was the number one rusher in the history of the NFL for one whole year, counting the playoffs.

47:13Pat McAfee:And then if he was to have his own individual representative on the rushing yards list as him before contact, before anybody touched him. You know, like let's say big, gaping holes. I think it would have been like the number four rusher in the NFL. So you're talking about what they did last year was just dominate the line of scrimmage and run the rock. First team to win a Super Bowl that was more run-heavy than pass-heavy since the evolution of football that we all watched live in person. So the wide receivers, Devontae Smith, A.J. Brown, both paid like number ones last year pissed. What are we doing?

47:48Pat McAfee:What are we getting paid money? Nick Sirianni, former college wide receiver, had to take it upon himself to keep everybody together. Hey, we're running the ball. We're winning. We're a number one team. Everybody hates us outside here. Yeah, who cares? Let's go. We're a bunch of dogs. They win the Super Bowl. Devontae Smith, A.J. Brown, get the Gatorade tub, dump it on Nick Sirianni. Okay, all year it was the wide receivers hate the Philadelphia Eagles. They win the Super Bowl. The wide receivers are dumping the Gatorade bottle on Nick Sirianni. You've got to think to yourself, wow, that's a great coaching job.

48:15Pat McAfee:That's unbelievable to be able to manage all of that, especially with the expectations going into the year. Then Kelly Moe gets a head coach and dropped out in New Orleans. New offense coordinator in Petulo. And they were calling him bad words at the beginning. And still are all the way through. And all of a sudden, A.J. Brown's like, I did it last year. Our offense stinks right now. I'm not doing it this year. Started getting loud. Started getting louder. Starting to become a little bit of a distraction outside. But inside, everything's all good. We watch hard knocks with Philadelphia Eagles.

48:44Pat McAfee:Everything's all good. They got it all under control. So in my eyes, whenever they get to the playoffs, the biggest stage is where all the stars want. Hey, two big plays away from being trending topic number one, and we're happy again. Whoever is looking for that. Two big plays away from upping our stats and becoming maybe$5 to$7.5 million more expensive per year next year. Whatever the case is, you could do it in the playoffs. And then when it doesn't start happening, and then balls start hitting ground, you start to watch it unravel. We're like, wait, I thought the big-time players were going to make big-time plays in the big-time games, which is why they're big-time players.

49:23Pat McAfee:Yeah. But instead, there was a big-time brouhaha. Yeah. Nick Serrano, AJ, you son of a... What are you doing? You think you're doing what you need to finish your play? You need to catch, make a catch? Maybe get off the field, run off the field. What are you doing? What are you doing? What you say to me? Stop. Oh, pause. Pause. Italian. A lot of people ask why he's got a headset on. Yeah, this guy. What do you mean? why he's got a headset. He's part of the game ops now. He's had the headset on all year. So he can talk to his LeBubu. What? Yeah. Sorry, what? It's like a fancy beanie baby. A LeBubu?

49:57Yeah. What's that? Yeah, there it is. This guy sucks. Hey, oh, look at my new LeBubu. Doc did not say that. I don't really like what you did

50:09Pat McAfee:to.01 % of me. I don't like the way you just mimicked. That felt like it was a shot at all at time. No. Dom didn't say anything about a little boo-boo. I don't like what they're doing to Big Dom. And unfortunately, you either die the hero or you live longer than becoming the villain. That's where a lot of people are with Big Dom right now. But I don't mind his La Boo-boo. I kind of like the La Boo-boo. I don't know what the La Boo-boo... This is coming. La Boo-boo is a popular, mischievous-looking, collectible monster character with pointy ears and sharp teeth created by Hong Kong artist Kai Sing Lung and produced by Pop Mart.

50:42Pat McAfee:known for its cute yet creepy aesthetic sold in blind boxes that add to the collecting thrill. He didn't even know what he was getting when he bought this thing. That's a big Dom of the Boo Boo. Oh, it is. It's got the J. It's got the E. Custom big Dom. It's little Dom. Yeah. Or like LeDude. I like Dom of Boo Boo a lot. Okay? If we're going to get into this business, I like it. But remember, he was given a headset because he was kicked off the sideline. What's his job? He doesn't have a job. Now he's assistant to general manager, assistant to coach, assistant coach. He had a headset on all year.

51:13Pat McAfee:And I've seen him flip that thing down in the background. I've seen him flip that thing down if he had a little bit of ideas. Maybe he's out there judging temperaments, you know, just like at the beginning of the game when the Niners and the Eagles almost get into a brawl. They ran the history of these two, recent history. I completely forgot. Oh, yeah. Hey, they've had incredible battles over the last few years, especially in the NFC playoffs and the games that matter. And on the flip side of that, this Niners team, how are they doing it? which adds even more, I assume, to the A.J. Brown stuff.

51:43Crazy.

51:44Pat McAfee:A.J.'s thinking, hey, why are we even in a game with this team? Why don't we just throw me the ball and see what happens? Then he has a couple drops. They get a little bit out of control. And then Jawan Jennings is on the other side throwing dimes over the shoulder in a bucket to Christian McCaffrey as eating. He's eating a shot right to the mouth. Christian McCaffrey is a specimen. He is a machine. He is outrageous. He takes big hits. He makes big catches. He does everything. Remember, Christian McCaffrey can also throw this touchdown. I wonder if they have an alternate side where Christian's throwing this thing to Jawan Jennings.

52:16Pat McAfee:They have so many weapons. Kyle Shanahan's been able to rally the boys. The amount of injuries that they had, and now you've got people in San Fran saying, Fred Warner's coming back. We've played long enough now that our all-pro middle linebacker, who's been described as the best linebacker in football, he's going to rejoin us. But they've had him gone. They've obviously had Bosa gone. Trent Williams has missed time. Brock Purdy has missed time. been out the entire year. First round pick out the entire year. Wide receiver situation. They traded Debo away. I mean, you talk about a culture, a team having a run that none of us could have expected.

52:49Pat McAfee:I mean, outside of their locker room, outside of their fan base, it's like, what a win. And like Kyle Shanahan deserves a lot more credit whenever we get into the, hey, is he a good coach, great coach conversation. It's like, I don't know how you keep the boys motivated. I don't know how you keep the boys rallied, how you keep the boys bought in, but he's certainly done that. Juszczyk is a 10-time Pro Bowler? Yeah. They put that up on the screen. I'm like, 10-time Pro Bowler? Crazy. That's first ballot. 10-time Pro Bowler at a fullback position, and obviously he has completely transformed what the fullback position is.

53:21Pat McAfee:He's a tight end who's not scared to line up in the backfield, run your ass over if he has to. But he is just outrageous. This entire group, I guess they have it all except for what? The Super Bowl. Yes. And it's like, can they do it this year? They seem more motivated than ever. Going into the Lincoln getting this win, they lose George Kittle, which is obviously heartbreaking. That sucks. That sucks so bad. George, Godspeed. Tease and peace. Good luck, George. Sucks, dude. The story about a tequila bottle getting taken to the locker room, though, that's awesome, dude. George, you continue to be legendary in every situation.

53:53Pat McAfee:We will miss you, obviously, and we know that you will kick ass throughout the entirety of recovery. I think he has like a full, remember? In Nashville, yeah. Yeah, he has like a full recovery facility. The amount of commitment he has to his body on a daily basis, we assume he will just crush this rehab and this recovery and everything, especially with modern science. What we're seeing with Tatum, what we're seeing with Halliburton. Now, obviously, football, different sport than that. But, like, George, it sucks that that's how your season ended. We will miss you, brother. Thanks for your service to football this year, George.

54:25Pat McAfee:But on that note, they've been able to win somehow. Kyle Shanahan, outrageous, this guy.

54:30Adam Schefter:Unbelievable job as a coach. Kyle Shanahan on the offensive side of things. Brock Purdy, the weapons around him. Jawad Jennings, you obviously saw him throw the touchdown there, but he's been an unbelievable receiver as well. And then what Bob Sala has been able to do on defense with a bunch of names that people don't know, you know, guys just showing up to play week in and week out now. You talked about Juice being a 10-time Pro Bowl there, fullback. A lot of people are saying he has more route options than A.J. Brown and Devontae Smith with how basic that damn offense is. So that's a conversation for this offseason.

55:00Adam Schefter:I'm sure that will happen in Philly. That last play was a perfect example of that. But what Kyle Shanahan has been able to do in San Francisco is unbelievable.

55:07Pat McAfee:Special. Let's get to the number two headline coming out of Super Football Weekend. College football, an instant classic in it. Or. Do we think an ass beating is potentially coming? I don't know. We could have changed the headline. Set up a banger in Miami is coming next Monday. This Indiana team, Con, man, we get a chance to be there. First of all, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, loudest stadium I've been in. They actually hurt my ears. That pick six first play of the game. The roof went crazy. Indiana, for real. And obviously, we've been saying it, and I don't want to undercut what they are. For real, though.

55:41Pat McAfee:This is for real one of the greatest teams ever assembled in college football. Absolute wagon. and it's hard to see them losing just because Mendoza is so locked in. Another game where he has more touchdowns than he does in completions. This is the perfect setup for a national championship. He's going home where he's from Miami to play Miami. Yeah, he went to Columbus High School about a mile away from the University of Miami campus. His mom, I believe, actually played sports at the University of Miami, so this is a huge ordeal. They will be taking on the University of Miami physical, tough, mentally and body team.

56:11Pat McAfee:Cannot wait to watch this game. Yeah, it should be awesome. They basically play like a Big Ten school does. So it'll be interesting. And they're very similar to Ohio State, who we saw last year, who you can kind of feel it. We've been at every single one of their games, and it did just kind of seem, hey, this team's destined to maybe not win the national championship, but at least be there. So the perfect story, really, for the national championship. Either of these teams can certainly win it. Obviously, the best two teams have made it to the national championship. It's been very obvious. Cannot wait for next Monday night, as we'll be standing on the sideline on ESPN2 yet again.

56:41Pat McAfee:Number one headline? Easy. It was a super duper wild card weekend. The record was broke for amount of lead changes in the fourth quarter. Need say anything else? No. Shout out football, shout out you. We're back on the other side. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice might change your life.

57:04Adam Schefter:This is Joe Budden, checking in this holiday season. Everybody is out here stressing, shopping, rapping, cooking. But me, I'm trying to kick back, watch some sports, and go green on my PrizePix lineups. Right now, PrizePix is getting into the festive spirit, where new users get$50 instantly in lineups when you play your first$5. It's real simple to play. Pick two or more players, pick more or less on their stat projections, and you could win big. Real simple, real quick. I'm talking two minutes tops, faster than heating up leftovers. Mix and match players from any sport so you don't miss any of the hard-hitting daily fantasy action with PrizePix.

57:41Adam Schefter:Available in 45 states, including California, Texas, Florida, and Georgia. Download the PrizePix app today and use code TPMS and get$50 instantly in site credits when you play$5. That's code TPMS on PrizePix to get$50 instantly in site credits when you play$5. Win or lose, you'll get$50 in site credits for just playing. Guaranteed. PrizePix. It's good to be right. Must be present in certain states. Visit prizepix.com for restrictions and details. Welcome back to Oh Yeah, That's a Pepper Thing. First up, we've got Harrison wrapping his Dr. Pepper in a tiny quilt so it feels at home. Oh, how tender.

58:15That's a pepper thing! And over to Becca, who's whispering affirmations to her can. You're sweet. You're unique. You're the best thing I ever poured over ice. She swears it makes it taste better. It's not a science thing, but it's a pepper thing! Why do they all do it? All for that sweet, delicious, truly one-of-a-kind taste of Dr. Pepper. It's a pepper thing!

58:37Pat McAfee:It is magical. We're fresh off of four days of football magic. Some people said they were intoxicated with great football. Some people said, is my life football? Well, that's what it has been. Saturday delivered, Sunday delivered. And, oh, yeah, Thursday and Friday night, we determined who was going to be in the national championship. Football has delivered in a massive way, and we're incredibly lucky that we get a chance to chat about it every single day. The Toxic Table is here at Boston Conner, living good. at Ty Schmidt locked into LaFleur. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I guess that's one way to phrase it.

59:08I wouldn't say I'm necessarily locked. I'm locked into what's going on. You're an owner of the Packers. Well, no one's listening to me right now. Let's just say that. Let's just say that.

59:17Pat McAfee:Adam Schaeffer reporting. He'll be joining us here in a matter of moments. The Packers are expected to try to work out a deal in the coming days to keep head coach Matt LaFleur in Green Bay per sources. Yeah. I like that. Congrats to Matt LaFleur. I believe he has to have the winningest start. Yeah. Like top two, three in the history of all. Yeah, he's definitely up there. The guy wins games. He's three and six in the playoffs. If you can go find that, I know I sent that into the group. He has one of the worst winning percentages in the history of the NFL in the playoffs. So it's kind of one of those things like pick your poison.

59:50Do you want to be the best regular season coach of all time? That's cool. That's cool. You know, if you're coaching for a team like the Vikings or someone who's never won a Super Bowl before, When you're coached for the Packers, you better be fucking winning in the playoffs.

1:00:02Pat McAfee:I saw Matt Schneidman who covers the Packers. Schneids does cover the Packers, yes. Is it Schneidman? No, I just, you know, I like to call him Schneids every once in a while. Schneidman, he's tatted too. I hope he's doing incredible. I haven't talked to him in a while. He isn't today. I saw his tweet. I saw his tweet about the amount of games, you know, that kind of went this way for the Packers. It feels like everybody's kind of moving on from the floor. That tweet from Schefter felt like a surprise to me. That felt like a surprise to me whenever he announced that it was happening. Just the way the entire conversation was seemingly going going into the game.

1:00:36Yeah, I mean, everyone I think is kind of just the way that game ended on Saturday. You know, like you're up 21-3 and it looks like, hey, the Bears aren't good enough to be on the same field as this team. And then for them to just completely shit the bed the way they did in the second half. And I'll be interested to hear what Sheffy says about this extension because he basically said they're trying to come to terms on a new deal. Like, does that mean if he's – because a lot of stuff I've seen is, hey, does that mean he's going to get$15 million a year for the next four years? I think that's horseshit.

1:01:14I don't think he should be one of the highest paid head coaches in the NFL. so if that's the case and they can't come to agreement on something then does he get let go? Maybe because I don't think they were ever just going to fire him outright but that would be an interesting next step is hey is it worth paying this guy top dollar?

1:01:30Pat McAfee:Alright Wes Shefty here in a couple seconds. One half of the hammer Cowboys AP Tone is here. Good luck to your Steelers tonight. Thank you appreciate it. Also good luck to the Texans. We don't have to. We got to make our picks later today. Nine year NFL vet Darius J. Baller is here.

1:01:45Pat McAfee:Backers situation is interesting. especially because you look across the sideline, Ben Johnson's locked into the Chicago Bears for the next 40 years. He might live to be 120 with the way he's jacked. Or he'll die early because he's so intense. Not to be a rain cloud. Yeah, it does sound like that's what you're trying to be. I think Ben Johnson's living forever from the way that I look at him. He looks like a Terminator type in this entirety. So he's coaching them for the next 40 years probably. Wow. And then Caleb, he's doing all the crazy stuff. With his arm strength, by that age, he's going to be able to be 45.

1:02:22Pat McAfee:Because he's never going to lose it. He's never going to lose it. He's just going to be smarter. So that's 20-some years.

1:02:28Adam Schefter:Everybody saw this. Everybody saw the arm talent and all that shit. But I had no idea the intensity and the leadership that he had. Oh. Unbelievable.

1:02:37Pat McAfee:Lil Wayne was so flustered. Yeah, he was. Lil Wayne. A bit flustered he was. Packer head. Grating the cheese. Potting. Yeah, he was potting. Kind of like Caleb was potting in the first half. He wasn't potting. Yeah, he was. He was competing. He was potting. But he turned it on. He turned it on. He wasn't a pot. He was competing. He was potting. He was potting. And he had every right to be potting because they were getting their ass kicked. And then he went in the locker room and Ben Johnson probably said, quit fucking potting. Let's go. Yep. And then we saw what happened. And then Caleb afterwards said, what this guy means to my life.

1:03:09Pat McAfee:It's like. Started crying. Yeah, he did. He started getting a little emotional. Really cool, actually. Trying to give him a game ball for his first playoff win, you know. And Caleb, starting quarterback, that I did not know could gel with Ben Johnson.

1:03:23Adam Schefter:Mm-hmm.

1:03:24Pat McAfee:This guy changed my life, man. Toss it in the ball. That's 20 years. Yeah, it is. Think about that.

1:03:30Adam Schefter:Mm-hmm.

1:03:31Pat McAfee:Less than a year into it. Never let it rest, dude.

1:03:34Adam Schefter:We're not even close to best yet.

1:03:36Pat McAfee:Because the good has gotten better. Mm-hmm. Oh, shit. And then in that fourth quarter, better. Got best. Join us now. The all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. Certainly bummed out. He'll probably be potting. Especially with what Ohio State got happening. What happened to Ohio State. Definitely potting. This man won a national championship with the Ohio State Buckeyes. He won a Super Bowl championship with the Green Bay Packers. Both of them losing in ways that certainly makes him say, those aren't teams all I know. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawk. Yay. Happy you're not potting today?

1:04:09Pat McAfee:Maybe. I don't know. We'll see. Yeah, try not to. I mean, this isn't a – it's a very, you know, suck session for the Chicago Bears. It turned into the last 30, 45 seconds. No question on your guys then, but they are good. You could outscore 25 to 6. He's bad. This guy is bad. Okay. I suck session. We just – we're forecasting. I can tell you what you guys are doing. You're trying to gas tie up, trying to gas people up and just overly sell. No. You would never. Credit to them, man. 25 to 6 in the fourth quarter, like, you're not going to win that game.

1:04:39Adam Schefter:It is feeling like the good old days, isn't it? I mean, we've given Matt his Lafleurs here before. Yeah, I'm done fucking doing that ever again. I saw people say give him his Lafleurs but for his funeral. Whoa! That's what I saw. I like that. I'm okay with that. For the time being over, obviously.

1:04:56Pat McAfee:It'll be a celebration of the era then. That's what those flowers will be. It'll be a celebration. Celebrating what? Winning a couple divisions, limping into the playoffs the last three years, getting your ass beat in the first round. It's about winning fucking Super Bowl championships. all right it's not about getting embarrassed in the first round of playoffs or making it to an nfc championship or being a one seed and getting beat at home or not being able to win without aaron rogers that's not what this is about okay we were not gassing tie up the fucking title town is it not clip that and save that for me tomorrow just in case okay all right we certainly will we certainly will big one tonight houston texans pittsburgh sealers we'll certainly chat about that joining us now a senior nfl insider for espn who might have a little bit more information on ty schmidt who is an owner of the team's team ladies and gentlemen adam schefter shefty you made a lot of people pumped over here in the thunderdome whenever you put out that tweet about uh they're looking to potentially do a deal with matt lafleur in green bay i think now granted it might be because i'm around ty and ty is much like i guess search engines he gets to filter what I kind of know from Green Bay Packers fans what he picks and chooses for me to know but it felt like a lot of people thought if he was to lose again especially in a collapsing fashion like he did to Ben Johnson there was a chance his time was going to be up especially because Ed Policy first year big move maker traded for Michael Parsons has no real connection to anybody else on the staff did not offer extensions to the floor or good to Kuntz and if he was to lose he'd be gone you put out a tweet that say hey they're looking to do a deal where do we sit what does that mean And how do you think it all kind of shakes up from where we're sitting right now, Shefty?

1:06:36I still think we're at a time here where the one thing that we do know is they are going to try to get a deal worked out. Now, that doesn't mean they're going to get a deal worked out, but they're certainly going to try. And we've seen an explosion of head coaching salaries in recent years. and Matt LaFleur obviously will argue that he deserves and is worth more than some coaches have been paid in recent years. Everybody wants what they are worth on the open market and really what he's worth on the open market. Again, let's do it this way. If he were free, which he's not, what would the Tennessee Titans, Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants, what would they be willing to pay Matt LaFleur per year?

1:07:24And I would say it would be well north of what the Green Bay Packers have offered so far. So it's up to the two sides to figure it out, whether they can bridge their differences and come up with a deal that they're comfortable with, knowing that there would be any number of other teams that would be... Uh-oh. That's it right there. Construction. They just fired him. No, no, no, no, no. We've got calls coming in. And I don't know why that happens. Can you see me now? I have no idea.

1:07:51Pat McAfee:Kind of a silhouette of you. It's kind of mysterious. It's actually pretty cool. If you were to just, okay, you're back. You're back with cool watch. Go ahead. It's a situation where they're going to try to figure out, see if they get a deal done. And in my mind, and this is an assumption, I'm assuming that Green Bay has a certain price that it would like to get Matt LaFleur done at. Okay. Like everybody, you are willing to go to a certain level. Yeah. At what level is it too much? They say, okay, you know what? Maybe we're missing two first-round draft picks from the Michael Parsons trade. Maybe we look to get some draft capital back for you if the two sides can't agree on a price.

1:08:31I think that's within the realm of options. But the one thing to know is that they are going to try to work out a deal, and we'll see if they can get it done.

1:08:40Pat McAfee:Okay, so I'm piecing some things together. Team with no owner, okay? Team's mine. Ty's the owner. Ty's the owner. Certainly, Ty has paid for a paper and has contributed to the fund. Also, the real estate around that we've seen, the open books, like$170 million or something like that on real estate, $200-some million in the profit. So they don't have an ownership. They don't have an owner or a person. They have a committee, that kind of votes. The public owns it, the team owns it, which we respect and appreciate. But what we're saying here, if I'm following right, Ed Policy's policy is going to be, hey, this team's money, we want you here?

1:09:16Pat McAfee:$7-8 million. We'll have you. You've been terrible in the playoffs. 3-6 in the playoffs. So we'll pay you$7-8 million. $15 million though of not my money or anybody's money really. $7 million. He's already above set. He's already above set. Okay. So 10, whatever the number is. Whatever the number that they're saying it's worth. They're saying that money that they don't own that is no cap or no limit on it. Owners can pay whatever they want. They're cutting it off. You can't get it. We need to spend it on another tubing hill outside of the Packers instead of you being the coach for our team. What does this mean?

1:09:53Pat McAfee:We won't pay him what he's – there's no cap on what you can pay coaches. So Ed Paulus' policy is we like you to pay you about mid-tier because that's what we think you are. You don't like it? You don't like that? And then he's like kind of baiting him to say, no, I don't like it. I want to go elsewhere. Is that what we got going on here? because him negotiating for money that isn't his or anybody's is a funny thing to think of whenever it's like five, six million a year probably difference. That's a funny thing, just an angle of negotiation. Sounds like they don't want to give him a deal, right?

1:10:24I think it's hard to know exactly what is real and what's not there. Got it, okay. And here's the deal. Like in any negotiations, any negotiation, actions speak. loudest so the packers may come in at whatever number and if it's below a market they're telling him something in a direct way or yeah again they they they simply say like like this should not be if we're just talking about this should not be a difficult deal to do at all right that's what i'm

1:10:59Pat McAfee:kind of saying that's what i'm saying like the money is set this is what everybody else they want or they don't that's what it feels like either they want them or they don't come up with each of the coaches salaries which they can get which we have an idea of okay and you slot in where you think matt lafleur would be in that area and i would say this does he deserve more than some coaches who have been hired in recent years that number has been 11 12 13 million dollars yes the top coaches super bowl when he coaches 18 19 20 million no as super no he has not so should he be paid more than the young guys yes should he be paid as much no there it is we've just bridged the differences that's what i'm saying and that money that we just put out on the table for him that you just figured out right there not anybody's it's just it exists like do we just choose to spend it there's no repercussions other than we have to pay this to you it doesn't cut into anybody else's salary it doesn't prohibit us at all this is fairy tale money this is the going right for you, and it's just like if you're not...

1:12:03I like that

1:12:04Pat McAfee:Ed Policy's playing a little game here. I like that Ed Policy's like, yeah, you don't like it? You don't like it at all? Okay. And then who they're going to pay the next guy more? Sure. Just to stick it to the floor. You don't know who it is. Harbaugh? If it's Harbaugh?

1:12:20Adam Schefter:If it's Harbaugh, yeah. If it's Harbaugh.

1:12:22Pat McAfee:And then what's that say? Interesting. We could talk about this all in circles. Let's do talk about Harbaugh, though. He's taking interviews with the Titans, I do believe, and he's the bell of the ball. Obviously, Bruce Brown in the back there, he's a Giants fan. He's already AI'd Coach Harbaugh with his headset, you know, in MetLife. He's already done it all. Where do we kind of stand in the entire Harbaugh situation? Bell of the ball still, teams with coaches, potentially Packers, thinking about moving into the Harbaugh sweepstakes? Like, kind of, how do we kind of sit with it all right now?

1:12:52Well, if you want John Harbaugh in New York, I think the first thing you want is the Green Bay Packers and Matt LaFleur to work out a deal. That's the first thing you want to have happen. Because if they don't work out a deal, that opens up the possibility of Green Bay as a potential favorite there. Now, again, John Harbaugh gets to sit back and call the shots here to a certain extent. And he has interest from these teams. He could go, I'm sure, to New York if he wanted, Atlanta to there if he wanted, Tennessee if he wanted, Cleveland if he wanted. we're waiting to see obviously what else transpires namely Green Bay we mentioned yesterday on air his again might mean nothing but I don't think it does mean nothing his agent is Brian Harlan Brian Harlan's father was Bob Harlan AJ you know Bob Harlan right oh yeah great guy president of the former president of the Green Bay Royalty in Green Bay the Harlins and Green Bay are quite familiar with one another.

1:13:58So we now have a Harlin representing John Harbaugh with deep Midwestern roots. You could just see where all this could be headed if they don't get a deal done with Matt LaFleur. I think they'd like to keep Matt LaFleur. I think he'd like to stay. But again, in a negotiation, everybody's got certain stances and ideas and leverage and you see how it plays out. And again, it'd be great if we got word this afternoon, the Packers and Matt LaFleur reached agreement on our new extension and he's staying. That's within the realm of options. But it's not the only option.

1:14:34Pat McAfee:Okay, so Harbaugh is able to pick and choose. When do we expect, what is the calendar here for us to kind of know when all this is going to happen? It doesn't feel... That was a good sigh. That was a good sigh. That was good. That was from here. Yeah, kitchen's going well. It was guttural. Yeah, it was a good one. That was good. It doesn't feel to me like it's imminent. I'll just say that. Now, all of a sudden, could it change tomorrow or Wednesday? Yeah, I think this is a week where it's going to start gaining momentum, some of these things. Let's also keep in mind that teams can't do face-to-face interviews with coaches until January 19th, a week from today.

1:15:20Pat McAfee:Got it. Okay, so. Under contract. Like John Harbaugh could interview today. Raheem Morris fired. Could be interviewed today. Antonio Pierce interviewed last week with the Giants. Mike McCarthy with the Giants tonight and tomorrow. You're fired, not under contract. You could go now. Good luck, Coach Mike. We're pulling for you. Now, you didn't mention a name, but go ahead, AJ. Yeah, Shepty, what are you hearing about Kevin Stefanski? I did see a picture, I believe. I don't know if it was real or not. Him waiting in line to board a plane to New York last week, I believe. What's his options look like?

1:15:49That picture was real, I believe. And I expect he's going to get one of these head coaching jobs. Like, to me, I think we're going to wait to see what happens with Matt LaFleur. We're going to wait to see what happens with John Harbaugh. And I think Kevin Stefanski is right after him. Now, could there be a team that just steps out and says, we want Kevin badly enough, and we're not going to wait, and we don't think we're going to get John Hart? Yeah, that definitely could happen. And I just think Kevin Stavancy is going to emerge from this cycle with a head coaching job. It would be a surprise to me, an upset if he didn't.

1:16:27Pat McAfee:Him selling so hard, 230 million. You remember? 230 million guaranteed to a guy who didn't even remember how to play football. Flacco off the couch. Yeah, remember? We got to the playoffs. Remember that? And then guess what the next year? Shador, Dylan Gabriel, Deshaun's coming back. Joe Flacco's here. Kenny Pickett's here. I mean, we still won some games. What do you expect from me? And ownership goes, you're right, Haslam. That place has no shot. We'll hire you. Is that kind of the mindset there? Because I saw McDaniel was getting an interview as well. And my first thought is there's no way McDaniel gets another head coaching job after what just happened.

1:17:03Pat McAfee:Maybe offensive coordinator job. There'll be a lot of places that would probably love to have him as a coordinator, just like Robert Sala just went back and is now the DC yet again for San Francisco get a huge win in the playoffs and now his name's hot again back in the head coaching cycle I assume that for McDaniel but he's getting head coaching interviews he just got one with Cleveland I believe is that to be expected and is that how we should be kind of talking about McDaniel at this point you know Cleveland's definitely toyed with the idea of what it would look like if they hired Mike McDaniel as their head coach.

1:17:32I think when it comes to Cleveland, I think Jim Schwartz looms large there in this regard. He's a guy that has served his time and paid his dues and is worthy of a head coaching job. And I don't think Cleveland could go higher a defensive-minded head coach and expect that Jim Schwartz is going to want to stay on or be willing to stay on. So now if you're Cleveland, you're going to want to shift it to the offensive side. Now, how would Jim Schwartz feel? He probably feels he's ready for a coaching job if they hire Mike McDangle. Would he be upset with that? I don't know. That's a question and a conversation they have to have with him.

1:18:10But I think any hire they make, they're going to want to keep Jim Schwartz. And I think that those things are kind of interconnected, whichever candidate they decide to fall on. In an ideal world, they're looking for an offensive-minded coach. But it has to be the right guy. And we'll see how it shakes out.

1:18:29Pat McAfee:Man, if they find a Liam Cohen, you know, and he goes in there and flips the entire culture with Schwartz and that defense they already have. Well, look out. Cleveland Browns could be the new kings of the A's. And why couldn't Jim Schwartz be the head coach himself? Well, because you said that he'd keep him as the defense coordinator. Has he been interviewed? I'm saying, like, he's interviewed for the head coaching job. And my point is, if you can't find the right dynamic, to me, that is one of the scenarios that exists out there. that he could be the head coach there. Schwartz is a dog. Oh, yeah.

1:19:02Pat McAfee:Big time. That defense is unbelievable. Historic, actually. If you talk about how they actually performed at home, Miles Garrett just broke the record. Jared Allen says – I got something to say about that. I watched a little clip, but nonetheless, Miles Garrett, Hall of Famer, first ballot and has the record. Schwartz, I think, ready, second time too, right, being a head coach. I believe this will be his second time. Got a chance to kind of revisit the entirety. Okay, let's talk about – I mean, not great news coming out of Philadelphia. I like Philly. Okay, I love – congrats to the Niners. Hey, congrats.

1:19:31Pat McAfee:Big time win. It's a big time win in the Niners with all the injuries. Kyle Shanahan better be up for coach of the year, Tone Diggs, AP voter. I better see his name on that particular ballot and better see it on your ballot. You won't. You're not allowed to say anything because they're – Thank you. But whenever it comes out, we're going to need to see that. So just know, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. We're about to find out about it all. So great win for the Niners. But on the Philadelphia side, seems like there's been a lot of issues on the offensive side of the ball.

1:19:58Adam Schefter:Go ahead, D. Speaking of the defending champ just got knocked off. It's been loud around offensive coordinator Kevin Petulo all season long. Obviously, it's been a revolving door at that position for Jalen Hurts. Pretty much every year he's been in the league. What are you hearing about Petulo's future in Philadelphia? Well, I think the last time this team struggled coming off a Super Bowl type of season, they made dramatic changes to the coordinator spots. And one of the spots they made was they hired Kellen Moore, and that worked out great. And then when Kellen left to become the head coach of New Orleans, a team that had a strong finish this year, they obviously hired Kevin Petullo.

1:20:35The offenses look simple, flat, basic. I think a lot of people around the league all expect that there'll be change. They're coming to the offensive side of the football. It's a question of how extensive it is, how much the Eagles want to do. But I think that seems to be the prevailing wisdom. The offense never seemed to get it going. The offense yesterday had the opportunity to try to save the game, pull out the win at the end. Basically, their season was left in the hands of their offense to come through in that one drive, and they didn't get it done. And I know that they feel like they have talent there.

1:21:10The personnel is top flight and it didn't happen. So there's going to be fallout there, no doubt.

1:21:16Pat McAfee:Yeah, certainly. It was loud all year for them. Oh, yeah. And just think, if somebody trips falls and Goddard picks up another touchdown and they win that game, we're going to next week with Philadelphia Eagles saying, these guys, man, they have a fight on the sideline. By the way. Big Dom's in there, actually. He's catching passes now. You know, like we would be having that. But instead, great hands, by the way. That's why you get a little boo-boo. Yeah, that's right. That's why somebody makes a little boo-boo after UU.

1:21:45Adam Schefter:At least he caught the damn ball.

1:21:47Pat McAfee:And then right after he cut – well, see, that's what a lot of people in Philly are saying. A lot of people immediately say after A.J. Brown and Nick Sirianni kind of go draw a face mask there on the sideline and Big Dom has to get involved. A lot of people say, well, he's clearly trying to get out of time. Trade him, everything will seemingly go better next year. That ain't going to happen. What's the cap hit? $78 million in dead cap. So, let's figure out how we get everybody to get along. They're going to be trying to figure out over there in Philadelphia. Good luck to them. Now let's talk about tonight's game, shall we, Shefty?

1:22:19Pat McAfee:A super wildcard weekend wraps up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Shefty, tonight, Steelers, Texans. I believe both teams are relatively healthy, unless you have any other information that I do not have. And then, you know, talking about tonight's game, if this is the seventh straight playoff loss for the Pittsburgh Steelers, is there any world where this is Mike Tomlin's last game as a Pittsburgh Steelers? Obviously, and we've talked about this before, you said it would probably be on his own decision. Tony, how do you feel about the game tonight? I am cautiously optimistic.

1:22:54You are? Yeah. You know what I like for tonight for you? Uh-huh. I like the fact that most people feel like Houston's going to win. It just feels like most people are expecting Houston with that defense to go in there and win the game. And usually it feels like most people are wrong. That's what happens.

1:23:12Pat McAfee:Oh, oh, oh, oh, Shefty, breaking if you want to tweet this. First time Super Wild Card Weekend, first time public betting, over 60 % of the public bets, 5-0 heading in. 5-0. All season, to your point, though, whenever most people think a thing that's wrong, you're right. All season, 60 % plus of the public bets just absolutely demolished. Super Wild Card Weekend, though, 5-0. Does that mean tonight it makes it 6-0 and people actually know what we're talking about? There's a chance that that takes. People are due for a loss tonight. See, you're one of those super negative guys. That's what stats would say.

1:23:48I'm just saying stats, you know, people are due to be wrong. Nope, the crown is mine. The crown is yours.

1:23:53Pat McAfee:No, the crown is yours. Nope. Correct. The crown is ours. 5-0 on a weekend. Good for us, boys. Yeah. Anything else we need to think about tonight, though, Shefty? What are kind of your thoughts? Other than, you know, the Houston Texans defense can bring the Boo Birds to a stadium, and Yenzer certainly have been eager this year in the crowd. A lot of vocal displays of unpleasantry, I would say, from the Steelers faithful during primetime games, and a lot of home blowouts that have kind of happened throughout this season that is very unexpected. What is your thoughts? My thoughts are basically the same thoughts that we had going into the Steelers-Ravens game, except they now have a tougher defense.

1:24:36Could this, is this the last game of Aaron Rodgers' career? What about Mike Tomlin's future? Aaron told you guys that he was done after this year. He was pretty adamant about that. And then he seemed to leave the door open here a couple of weeks ago. And then Mike Tomlin, I think the thinking, look, everybody's waiting to see what happens. He's got a year left in his contract after this year. I think people feel like he'll take some time and ultimately he'll fill or serve out the time in that contract. But everybody also knows that he can have a TV job tomorrow if he wants. He can take a year off if he wants.

1:25:09He can do whatever he wants. He's Mike Tomlin. So we don't have full clarity there as to what he'll wind up doing. So those questions linger when you have two individuals who have meant as much to the game as Aaron Rodgers and Mike Tomlin have, who have been around as long as they have. DK Metcalf comes back tonight after the two-game suspension. You would think he'd have a point to prove and something to make up after being out. It should be a great atmosphere. It should be a great Monday Night Football game. Look forward to it. That Houston defense is amazing. Aziz Alshire is a tackling machine Will Anderson is a oof, he's unbelievable like if he

1:25:48Pat McAfee:Daniel too brother, I mean there's a lot of animals out there on that we got a chance to see you live in person Jalen Petrie I mean all these that's the league Stingley right there D 'Amico Ryans could play if he had to and also did you hear J.J. Watt's motivational speech to the entire Houston faithful. Did you hear that, Shefty? Well, I didn't hear it, but if he gave it, that's it. Turn it up a little bit. Can we get some sound on this? Our city has something different about it. Something forged. Not found. Okay, because Pittsburgh doesn't forge. It's in our DNA. It's in every fiber of our being.

1:26:34We were once the Bulls on parade. This defense, they are the real deal. But now, Caps got this team swarming. How do we want to build a team? I don't want to build it with players who swarm. You see, we have a special work ethic and a relentless mindset that we never stop believing in. When you think about a swarm, it's about that brotherhood, that togetherness, where we are powerful as one. When you show up, you better be willing to do what they're not. Every snap, every breath, every hit. And it's picked up. The takeaway train starts to roll. Swarm is how work gets done. It's belief when no one else believes.

1:27:19Texas trying to save their season. Steps up, he's going to run. Fields. Touchdown, Texas. At one point, it seemed like their season was falling apart. He believed the whole time. This isn't about being heard. It's about becoming impossible to ignore.

1:27:44So listen up because records they don't mean a damn thing anymore We let the whole world know who the f*** is going. Ground, well protected.

1:27:53Pat McAfee:Collins, wide into the end zone. Collins, touchdown. What a catch. No matter what we're up against, no matter how we have to go out, find a way to win games, you guys do that, man. A swarm is coming, and it's built to hunt, built to finish. A humongous touchdown to end the regular season. And built to stop anything. It all went. And if you've been here long enough, you know exactly what that means. H is up, H-Town. Who? Who? What do you think? Has that changed the way you view the entire game? Are you going to speak differently tonight on Monday Night Countdown because you just watched that, Shefty?

1:28:31Pat McAfee:I think you maybe should think about it. I'm going to run through a wall in my kitchen, except there are no walls in my kitchen. It's already been done, brother. It's already been done. You're the greatest. We appreciate you. Good luck tonight. Have a great day, guys. Thanks for having me. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Schefter. Hey, Schefter. Age, the voice acting in that. Oh, he's great. I would assume that Winningham has already called Schefter and wants him to do one for the Michigan, you know, the new breed. Michigan recruits all that, don't you think? What? I can see it. Don't you think the Michigan Wolverines will want Adam Schefter voiceovering a Michigan, like, off-season highlight?

1:29:07Because of what we just saw JJ do? Yeah, you can see him get all jacked up and bobbing his shoulders like he's ready to roll. Well, he wants to do that. I don't know if Shefty should be doing that. Walking down Ann Arbor Lane or whatever road they have around the stadium and then drone shots of Shefty. Yeah.

1:29:24Pat McAfee:M's down, Ann Arbor. You think he's dropping that at the end? Oh, yeah. I could see why Balltown didn't succeed now, though. Jay's just too intense as a voice actor. He might have been the footballer. It just didn't play. Really? You think the people that were on Balltown? It scared the kids, brother. Yeah, it was a kid's show. Let's be nice and jovial. And it turns out, he's got one speed. That's why he's a three-time defensive MVP. Also, for Jage, we learned that money is thicker than blood for him. Whoa. Yeah, that was a nice propaganda film right there. What do you mean propaganda? For what?

1:29:59Pat McAfee:Swarming? A special work ethic and a relentless mindset? There's no E in swarm, so it's more like swirm. The forge thing was bullshit.

1:30:10Adam Schefter:The forge, not found. The entire city of Pittsburgh was forged on steel. This entire country was forged on steel. And we found forged Houston? Okay.

1:30:19Pat McAfee:I don't know if they're burying Pittsburgh. We'll find out, the man who said it. Ladies and gentlemen. Oh, shit. Joining us now, a member of the Bull Ring of Honor down there for the Houston Texans. One of the best voice actors I've heard. Amen. Long time. Hell yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, future first ballot Hall of Famer. Brother of T.J. Watt, Pittsburgh Steelers Superstore. J.J. Watt. Yay! Hey, what's going on? What's going on? Happy to be here. Great to have you. The J.J. Watt Bowl was kind of happening tonight, you know, and we didn't even really know that. And then once we heard your promo you cut for the Houston Texans and their social media department, I remembered, hey, this guy loves the Texans.

1:31:02Pat McAfee:But his brother's playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He loves his brother. Oh, my God. Not enough. What's going to happen here? Did you just make Schefter sit through that whole two-and-a-half-minute video because you hate journalists so much? I don't hate journalists. I like journalists. I appreciate journalists. I just don't like whenever people just take every angle of killing sports all the time. It's like you clearly don't like sports. Can you not find something positive? If you hated something, you would certainly try to find the negative in every single situation possible. And in sports, there's a lot of great situations.

1:31:32Pat McAfee:Why do you always got to be negative? There was a great one with Lynn Jones. So clearly, that's just my angle. But shout out to the journalists getting things done, moving things forward. We appreciate the hell out of that. But we don't need to fucking try to kill sports all the time. It's kind of my angle. That's kind of my angle. It's not all journalists. It's like few. We know who they are. You know who they are. Hey, man, I'm all about the positivity. I'm here to spread the love. Tell me about the Houston Texans and your voiceover work here, okay? Did you know it was going to be the Pittsburgh Steelers when you said forged, not found?

1:32:03Pat McAfee:Because did you hear Tone Diggs immediately go, okay, forged that's literally our city okay that is literally what he said can you tell me a little bit more about this i thought this video was spectacular the quality of it your hey your voice inflection emotion and energy in it the messaging the clips the highlights the transitions i thought it was an incredible video i hope to meet those showing the boys right the fuck now actually in the hotel as we speak how did this come together yeah i appreciate that uh first of It's obviously tone using anything as motivation, which is smart. Thank you.

1:32:37You should do. Thank you. But this video was filmed two weeks ago. So no, nobody knew who was playing anybody. This was filmed during the regular season before everything ended. And the Texans media team does a great job. I think they do a fantastic job. We did one of these a couple of years ago. And they pull out all the stops. They have drones flying overhead. They have great cameras. They have tons of people helping out. It was cold that night. And we were outside the whole time. I mean, it's still Houston, so it's not that cold. But it was like 35 degrees, so not what they're used to. And it was a good night.

1:33:09It was a good night.

1:33:10Pat McAfee:It's a phenomenal video. Now, we did think that it was maybe filmed live because I did watch it at night. So I didn't know if they were kind of cutting all that live in there. And obviously, you being able to hit that thing in one take is certainly an opportunity. But I think it was really well done. Texting social media? Oh, man. Quickly. Hey. It was good. It was good. Quickly moving up. I mean, we're talking good banter, good shit talk, good action, dialed in, understanding things, picking and choosing trends that are good for football and not good for football. Texan social media department has really climbed the ranks quickly, I think.

1:33:45Pat McAfee:And in a couple other places, it feels like there's some new thumbs on social media platforms. It feels like we got maybe a new iteration, same team happening in some places. We'll keep our eye on all of it. You guys still going no capital letters over there? Let's move on. Yeah, that one stinks, but the Texans, the hottest bad, they do pull out the best old clips. They did the best, at least for my generation, SpongeBob clip. They did Halo 3. They did Fallout. They do all the things. Internetting. Internetting, yes. They do all the best internet clips and make them perfect with highlights from the game.

1:34:20Pat McAfee:And feel like they know ball. Yeah, and they don't do any of that stupid shit like lowercase stuff. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. If it works, it works. If you lose and it all crumbles, it doesn't work. So maybe we move along. Social media represents the team, but it doesn't obviously represent the outcome on the field. What do you think about tonight, James? We've had the best super wildcard weekend in the history of football. Twelve lead changes in the fourth quarter, most of all time, obviously most ever in one weekend. Tonight, Houston Texans have a defense that's swarm, don't they? They have a special work ethic, one word.

1:34:51Pat McAfee:A relentless mindset. They are a very special operation in swarm. and then the Pittsburgh Steelers obviously brought in all of these guys to go on a run this year. This is literally what the season was crafted for, is this exact moment. Monday Night Football in Pittsburgh, normally very good for the Steelers. Then playoff for the Pittsburgh, so it was not good. So there's a lot of different things you can look at. What are your thoughts on tonight's game? I have really no idea. Obviously, I know both of these teams extremely well, not only because of my connections, but also because we called them multiple times this year.

1:35:25So I've seen them both play. I know them intimately. I do think that the Texans defense is a top, top, top tier defense. Not only this year, I think they've done things that are just incredible when you have those two edge rushers and those two corners to set it off and then you add Aziz and everybody else to a Petrie. Just incredible. So scoring points has been an issue at times for Pittsburgh and it's certainly going to be a difficult task tonight. But then the same thing on the flip side. The Texans offense in the red zone has not been good at all this year. They had a lot of penalties, especially early in the year.

1:36:01They got kind of tightened up the pre-snap stuff as the year went on. They seem to have started to find a rhythm with C.J. Stroud and Nick Haley, so we'll see. But that Steelers defense at any moment can make you pay. And so, I mean, this is such a toss-up. I love that it's at night. I love that it's outside. I love that it's going to be cold. I love that this should have all the makings of everything we've wanted and seen this weekend. Hopefully this is the capper for it. Tom Diggs has a question for you. Yeah, Jage, about that. And by the way, great read. I was just kidding. Dome teams over the last decade in the playoffs.

1:36:37It was a good read. It was a great read. It was a great read. And I am using everything for tonight. Dome teams over the last decade going outside under 40 degrees are 1-15. CJ is 0-2 on the road in the playoffs. You obviously played in a dome for Texans and Arizona. Is that a real thing when dome teams or warm weather teams are going to cold weather places during this time of year? I mean, I'm going to be honest and say that inside the locker room and in your head and everything, it's always no. It doesn't matter. But there is no question that there is a – it changes just literally physically how things happen out there.

1:37:19You go out there and the warm-up is different. You do have to get yourself lathered up in a different way and keep yourself lathered up. And also mentally, some guys handle it better than others, but it does change things in your brain, in your mind, and obviously in your body. So there are people and teams that handle it better, even going from a dome to the cold. But anybody who says that it doesn't change anything is literally not true. I mean, you watched Tom Brady talk about the wind yesterday, and that's a singular factor that plays a role where you haven't really had that as much when you're a dome team.

1:37:53Pat McAfee:You need the inverse of a C here to keep the tip down, you know, because it can't be underneath that thing because too much surface area on the bottom. Get under the tip. Tip's down. The tip's up. I think we'll kind of go, you know. That's kind of part of the problem. That's why whenever you're punting into a wind and you get that thing, it rarely turns over. So then it just kind of goes, a lot of surface area. And that thing goes to the left and everybody boos you. And then you're driving the sideline and they say you're weak. So you've got to get a super tight spiral so that thing will cut through.

1:38:24Pat McAfee:To do that, you've got to be able to snap that thing off just like that. Speaking of, kicking tonight. Two great kickers in this game. That stadium known for creating kicking issues. Obviously, we just saw it last week. But two really good kickers in this game and going to play a huge role. 18-mile-an-hour Gus. Uh-oh. In Pittsburgh. there's a chance that that's a little you know there's a chance that that's a scary situation now do you think the Texans brought you into the social media video strictly to combat almost brought you in as a saint to combat Father Maximilian Maxwell do you think that they potentially brought you into battle against Father Maximilian because I'm going to let you know Maximilian's undefeated brother and I think he's saying I didn't read enough about this they do this every time they lay new sod correct but i assume they didn't lay new sod this week so he's not re-blessing so he is substitute first of all he's substitute priest yeah main priest not there father maximilian kind of in there as a sub he's done games before but it's not he's not the every game guy this is father b here this is the b father and this might just kind of be his thing i don't know if sod matters or just father maximilian feels it and goes holy shit just like jesus christ used to talk to paul amala he's talking that's exactly what he says i don't think he'll say that well he's talking to actually jesus christ yes what are we talking about so he definitely wouldn't say it what troy paul amala had jesus christ telling him whenever the ball was going which direction whatever direction that stadium has seen and heard from him before i experienced it on the wrong side which still to this day what's going on jc me dancing in the paint that night would have been pretty sweet in front of the family.

1:40:06Pat McAfee:But I think what Maximilian said, Jesus Christ telling me, it's kind of hit this thing. Literally, he knew that it was actually going to push a field goal wide. The guy was going to get fired, and they're going to have to do a full rebuild on the other side. But maybe he did know is what I'm saying. So maybe Maximilian today, tonight goes out to the middle of feeling like a little fumble is going to pop out. Maybe a make kick is going to come from Chris Boswell. We need to get eyes on Father Maximilian's water. Because he is carrying water for somebody. who yeah jesus christ yeah yeah and he yeah so we need to get eyes on the water of father maximilian and that seems to be a good fortune teller like joe denardo rest in peace for what's going to come down the road yeah you and i were always raised uh pray not for winning because god willing we shall um but i don't know if that's how if that's how father maximilian uh operates or not but to jj's point i did read an article it is blessed every time they lay new sod i believe that was the first game since the new sod was laid so that's why he was doing it but i think we need to maybe break that tradition and bless it again tonight, just in case.

1:41:05It's like, I'll go it off that. There's no fresh water tonight.

1:41:10Pat McAfee:We don't think maybe they'll be able to adjust? Is that not something that happens? Maybe we need a little bit more water? It's Monday night home playoff game? I think Father Max is doing the coin toss and the national anthem tonight. He's a singer? Yes.

1:41:26Flipping this forward, Chicago's got to get on this bandwagon. Get the Pope over. He is. He's potentially. Bossed him on Soldier Field. He doesn't care about him. Do you see the fourth quarter?

1:41:35Pat McAfee:I think he just kind of got a lot of other stuff going on. He's the Pope. The snow before the game, that was him? Yeah. That was him. He was like, hey, I can't make it, but. You won't feel it until later. Just wait. You're all going to experience it. What an environment that was. Hey, what a special time. Now they're talking about Packers, you know, extending LaFleur, trying to extend with LaFleur. Obviously, the Bears doing what they're doing. They invested in the right spots and turned this thing quickly. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, JJ, I'm just curious, considering you're one of the goats at the position, how do the Bears go from being maybe the shittiest defensive line in the history of the NFL in the first half of that game to all of a sudden you've got a couple of JJ Walsh, you've got a couple of Aaron Donalds out there.

1:42:20How does that happen? The Packers could not block them in the second half, and in the first half they didn't get pressure on Love, I don't think, once. yeah no it was uh the second half of that game was certainly something to study uh i mean sweat's a good player he goes out there he plays well i know booker has uh there's the packers fans have a fresh hatred for him um somewhat understandably at times but uh i mean the second half was crazy man the second half of that game is insane i saw the stat the other day that it was like the bears are three and three when they are trailing by 10 plus inside five minutes and the rest of the nfl is like 3-167 in the same scenario.

1:43:01We've talked about it all season long. They're not the same old Bears moniker, and you're kind of waiting for the hat to drop, and it just never dropped. That throw was the most insane throw in the moment on fourth down. Pretty just unbelievable all around. I don't know why they were so successful in the second half in the pass rush standpoint, but man, the cardiac Bears, whatever you want to call them, it is fantastic to watch. I'd love to watch Bears-Packers rivalry every week. This is cinema.

1:43:31Pat McAfee:I love Ben Johnson and Matt LaFleur. I love everything. Also, love what he did in the locker room. Can't stand people that are like, why is he saying that? That's classless. I'm like, dude, this is what we got to get back to. Like, we got to go back. Like, this whole jersey swap on the field, like, I got you on my fantasy team. You're on my fantasy. No, no. Let's go back to being in the locker room saying how much you hate the other team. Like, that, this is good. Yeah, and the boys have rallied around it. They've certainly rallied around it. And before he even met this locker room, he was already setting this up.

1:44:03Pat McAfee:Can't wait to beat Matt LaFleur twice, just immediately. Oldest rivalry in professional sports. Ty informed me of that in the first hour. I should have known that. Probably heard that before, didn't remember it. I apologize. But I like whenever the coaches don't like each other. I like it. I like when the outfits don't like each other. Now, granted, I don't think we'll ever see the Packers come out and publicly say it. But now the Bears have kind of set the precedent here. like the Bears have kind of set the precedent like next year whenever it's Packers Bears week the first one it's going to be a full Packers hate week coming from the Bears team like this is what this is this is good for football this might end up on like Thanksgiving or like uh Christmas or something like this this should become one of those games yes become an NFL staple yes you set yourself up for the next time you lose it's all coming back your way that's why everybody's so scared of it in today's world because they're like well at some point this is going to come back well yeah, that's sports.

1:44:55That's why it's so awesome because it should come back your way when you lose. This should be the most hated. You hear AJ popping jokes at Schefter like it should be Ohio State hates Michigan all the time. Like this, I love this.

1:45:07Pat McAfee:I didn't even think about AJ Barry and Schefter there saying Ann Arbor Lane or whatever they call it. I was trying to get him another gig. I thought he could pump the troops up. He was saying that that's the best person they got for their hug. Exactly.

1:45:25Pat McAfee:I can't even think that I didn't think of that, especially with AJ, because I know he's always working some angle. Jay just immediately watching that going, oh, AJ just killed shit. I didn't even think of that. He did. He did. I don't think AJ ever in his life has said anything on this show that did not have some form of underhanded something in it. I don't think so. I don't think that's true. In that answer right there. Braylon Edwards, there's plenty of great Michigan players. I mean, Hutch. Hutch with his cool pants. Hey, Hutch looked cool. He did good. You know who he said he looks up to? JoJo Watt.

1:46:00Pat McAfee:Who? This guy. Wow, wow. He's a good dude. Oh, I love him. Sorry, Ajax. Says this guy. I love him. Says this guy. But he basically did a breakdown of TJ's move. Ghost, I think he said. Something ghost into something. And then he gets propelled into the quarterback. And oh, yeah, we're here. We're definitely getting the ball, too. This is a three for one. he did like his entire speech he said tj does a lot of this but tj got it from his older brother jj who i learned from as well like he gave like one out of his way to kind of show you love i'm sure you got all rocked up here and that look at you already excited i'm i'm happy i didn't catch it where was this i'd like to go watch it now it sounds great i'd like to participate in this it was on espn he was actually pretty sweet he did pretty good job he did the whole pre-game looked very comfortable but he did the entire sunday nfl countdown show showed you a lot of love your brother how do we feel about tj watt let's talk about what you guys have done for football obviously i like him okay first game when he came back from the lung you know there was worry about being in game shape everything like that you obviously don't want to give away inside info anything how does tj feel from that entire thing should we expect the absolute best tj watt tonight yeah he's great uh he's doing great he feels great obviously last week um went out there played did well uh he had no clue everybody i mean everybody had no clue what it was going to be like coming back from that like he just said uh during this last week he couple weeks ago he had a tube hanging out of his chest to like it's nobody knows how to handle this situation um but he did it well went out there played had an interception it's what he does guy changes the game makes plays and would imagine that uh he's going to do similar things tonight that's what he does now he has to take on the might of the entire h town yeah you know who was told by his brother to basically put the...

1:47:46A lot of good edges on the field tonight. I did text him. As soon as the playoff matchups were set, I saw it. I texted him and said, hey, I just want you to know this video was filmed last week. Just letting you know. And also, very impassioned.

1:48:02Pat McAfee:You're going to hear me. I get really into this. Yeah, okay. And I didn't know who it was going to be. I didn't know it was necessarily going to be you. It's going to be a great game, though. Speaking of great... It's a win-win. It's a win-win. I mean, I obviously – yeah, I mean, it's either a win-win or a can't lose. Can't lose. Can't lose. J.J. Watt, can't lose. That sounds like life. Now, speaking of can't lose, it feels like we might be back to a time where the New England team has that going on. Go ahead, Con Man. Yeah, J.J., how did you feel about the Drake May debut in the playoffs? I know I believe in your playoff debut, you had like a pick six or something ridiculous, some stupid J.J.

1:48:41Watt thing that's really good. But Drake kind of struggled to start. This has happened in big games during the regular season, but then turned it on and made the plays that mattered in the end to get the victory. How did you feel about his performance as a whole, and do you think this now kind of lid is off? Drake May is kind of experiencing most things in the NFL and can really just fly now to the Super Bowl. Yeah, they won. They did what it takes to win. that we get so caught up in today's world and analyzing everything and oh we need him to have these numbers and we need it to look this way like at the end of the day the playoffs is about finding a way to win the game move on to the next one and find a way to win that one so did he maybe you know get get his first action and and it wasn't as smooth as you'd like it to be sure and now maybe he knocked off that and he gets to come out next game and feel completely comfortable great but I mean I don't care like this is the playoffs it's like the it's like the strength of schedule comments during the season.

1:49:38He cannot control who's in front of him. All he can do is go out there and win the games. In the playoffs, it doesn't matter who you're playing or what happens. They are a playoff team. You go out there, you win the game, you move on, you win the next one. That's all you have to do.

1:49:50Pat McAfee:Get headbutted if you're a head coach. Spill some blood. You go out there, do that. Win the next one. Come on, Milton Woods. Spend big money on the D-line. Vrabel knows exactly what he wanted to build up there. They built it. Quick turnaround. So quick that at 23 year old is in a conversation for an mvp i put out a tweet that said uh drake may mvp and all over the field and people just started shoving stats in my face that's all he started saying he has an interception it's like okay did you watch did you see what happened on that and he has two fumbles it's like did you see he actually steps into the pocket this guy's crazy he's like a 1995 quarterback he's looking to get up into the pocket every single time when that thing collapses he's taking some big shots and gives up the ball he's gonna have to fix that but for the future the The fact that he wants to get in the pocket as opposed to run for his life, I think bodes well for what he's going to be.

1:50:38Pat McAfee:But I go crazy about the MVP thing all season because this 23-year-old, he's in his second year. He's only getting started with his entirety. And then there's an old gunslinger that's out there, D-Butt.

1:50:48Adam Schefter:Yeah, what was your thoughts on Matt Stafford? Talking about finding a way to win in the playoffs, they struggled a little bit with the Panthers. But once he got the ball, I feel like everybody kind of felt like this was his kind of MVP moment. This was going to be classic Stafford drive down and find a way to win. And he did. What was your thoughts on Stafford and how he finished this game? Yeah, similar thing. Like, didn't have his best game by any means, but at the moment needed, go down there, find a way to win the game no matter what happens. And it's the same thing. Stafford, it's an interesting conversation you guys are bringing up.

1:51:19Obviously, everybody else is because Drake's just starting his career, so people are like, oh, he's got plenty of time. Stafford's closer to the end of his career, so adding an MVP in the way that he's played this year. But that game was crazy. It was an awesome way to start the weekend. And when you have a team that's a double-digit underdog, that's able to give us that type of performance and legitimately have a very, very good shot at winning that game, that was awesome. I mean, this weekend's been great. I think last night, the Sunday night game was kind of the finally like, all right, guys, we gave you four awesome games in a row.

1:51:50We're going to cool you off here a little bit. But I'm hoping tonight we're back on the train.

1:51:56Pat McAfee:I hope so. Speaking of train, you'll be on the Manning cast tonight, right? I will be. I'm looking forward to it. Yes. Not only Jage. Who else? Who else? Ben Roethlisberger. Seven. Oh, shit. Oh, mama. I'm in fear. Oh, my life runs along. Oh, my life runs along. I get a little bit worried. Because if those boo birds come out in that first quarter, what the Texans defense can't do, So, is Renegade by Sticks going to get booed again tonight? Not the first quarter. Even played? You don't think they'll boo the first quarter? Used to slow starts? They haven't scored more than seven points in the first quarter in 76 straight games, I believe it is.

1:52:41Okay, so first quarter. It's an unbelievable stat. It's an unbelievable stat. That stat every single time is mind-blowing, dude. I will say, TJ did say, I mean, I think he said it publicly, but he also said that last game against the Ravens was the best atmosphere that he's seen at that stadium since he's been there. So now imagine a Monday night playoff game. Like this is, this has a chance to be.

1:53:11Pat McAfee:That's your brother's intro music. Okay. And you can't even sing it. You know why? I don't think that's their intro music. You don't even know. That's his intro music. They run that. And guess who's showing? Do they do it for the intros? No, they do it for the fucking fourth quarter defense on the goddamn field. It was not the Astros. Hey, I don't know. It is an intro. I was trying to figure out where you're at. I don't think you know what you're talking about. That song plays and then a shot at TJ. The Colts couldn't use the hype video that you filmed for them because they didn't make it. So now you're mad.

1:53:37So now you're trying to lash out. No, he did IU.

1:53:40Pat McAfee:They play. Yeah, shout out. Yeah, he's all of a sudden going to universities and never stepped foot on campus before in his life. They would never let me in there either. There's no way with how smart they are. But they show the highlight reel of defense kicking ass, and then they cut right to TJ Watt, basically. And the place goes crazy. Yes, of course. Yeah, I mean, that's as you would. But you can't even sing it for your brother right now because you cut that promo for the Houston Texans. It's okay. Can't lose. Win-win. Can't lose. If you can't lose, can you win? JJ, always doing that. I'll tell you what you can do.

1:54:14Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. Might change their life. Do something like they did down in Jacksonville. Spread some positivity. Spread some love, some happiness, some joy. You guys have a wonderful day. This is the Pat McAfee Show signing off. See ya. Yes, JJ. Oh, my God. That was great. Look at you. Look at you.

1:54:34Pat McAfee:That's unbelievable. Gosh, I really wish I had that lady's name ready to go. It would have been great if I could have dropped her name in there. I wanted to drop her name. Lynn Jones. Lynn Jones. I thought it was Lynn. I thought it was Lynn. I just didn't know for sure. yeah because that you would have been it would have been the complete opposite yeah if you get the name wrong that's a smart idea yeah staying up here smart idea jacksonville yeah jackson yeah i'm still laughing at the fact that you just had shepty sit there on camera for two and a half minutes i was i was getting ready to come on and i was watching i was like he's just got to sit there and watch this whole video well i was i was expecting a take maybe afterwards but then to be clear i think i forgot how long that video was and then as it pops up on the screen when do we cut it off because he jage is getting no no you no you couldn't let me you couldn't cut me off for the crescendo brother right yeah exactly the whole reason why i was listening is fucking listen to this guy because he does this isn't about being heard it's about becoming impossible to ignore yeah and you had it in there where'd you record the actual audio on the field that's no uh yeah that's all from the this that's as you were walking and everything yeah there's no I agree.

1:55:46They did.

1:55:47Pat McAfee:They did a good job. One take. That was one take off the top of my head. Fucking said it. So hold on. So there was a group of people over here that needed motivated that you were talking to or was it an empty, dark night field? You're just walking jacking the fucking people up. Not off, but up. Almost lost it there. Yeah. Yeah, no, I was just motivating the camera, just straight to the camera. This guy's a pro, dude. I call it the McAfee. No, no, I need humans. You know, I need humans out there. You just being able to deliver like that, that's JJ Watt football. You can catch him tonight on the Manning cast.

1:56:31Pat McAfee:That's right. While his brother takes on the team that he's in the bull ring of honor for. You're the best. Who do you got? Who do you got? We'll make our picks on your side this break. Who do you pick? Can't lose. Can't lose. Can't lose. I can hear the music. Nah, it's just because it doesn't really mean anything this time, the music. Just kind of like maybe we're leaving, but we're not playing you off like it's Golden Globes. That's certainly what it feels like. I feel like it's a hard playoff because somebody has to take piss. That's what it feels like. Yeah, I certainly have to. You have to.

1:57:06Can I give JJ homework assignment? Certainly. Because he's very smart with these things. J.H., could you study low-frequency electromagnetic fields and how close they are to practical fields? I know all about it. Check the trees, brother. Check the trees. Okay. That's just real. I'll tell you what. What do we check on the trees? I don't know. I just thought someone said it. I think the trees closer to it are dead, and the trees further away from it are alive. I don't know. That's what I've heard. Just pure Twitter bullshit, I think, but I also saw it, so I'm spreading it on national television apparently.

1:57:36Pat McAfee:No, we're only on the internet now. Still can't stop it. Oh, yeah. Never mind. We're back on the internet. Yeah. It's already here. so still counts when i saw that we should not put it up but when i saw it for sure i thought to myself oh yes i love that this is happening like the conspiracy side of the internet seemingly getting into football now this is going to be a fun run you know that that is 20 million views on that i was excited i'm like yes this is here we go because then there's going to be more right because once you start snooping around wait a minute wait a minute also also so i got pretty excited about the opportunities.

1:58:10Pat McAfee:Didn't really think. Then you start reading thread, thread, and then he threads to another thread, and all of a sudden I'm in an actual rabbit hole going, they need to move us. These guys need to get out. I was thinking this last night. Is there one free agent, maybe a different level, maybe not Big Dog, that does say to himself, I'm not going there. Mac Hollins. Just one single one. Mac Hollins would be the one, yes. He could feel it, though, with his actual bare feet. That's why Rodgers didn't go. And Brady. You all right? No. No, I'm not. Struggling? Grinding through it? Yeah. Come on, man.

1:58:52We got the second most viral clip of all time here. I'm starting to sweat now. Mouth water. Yeah. Getting hot mouth.

1:58:59Pat McAfee:Knees weak. Arms are heavy. There's about to be vomit on it. Think about spaghetti. Think about spaghetti. I'm out of here. All right. The big, here we go. Hold on. One of my favorite camera angles coming up. There. That's bad. That's bad. Guy just got off a horse. A lot of shoes over there. I think something happened. That's the only reason why you would do that, right? Because you're going this way. You're going this way or something. That was a bad gate. We'll have an update on the other side. Jage, we appreciate you, buddy. Thank you, guys. You're the best, Jage. Always a joy. Ladies and gentlemen, it's JJ Watt.

1:59:36Pat McAfee:Yay, Jage.

1:59:40Ever wanted to go to the NBA Finals? Well, now's your chance, courtesy of FanDuel. All you have to do is use your profit boost on an NBA future, and you'll be entered for a shot to win an NBA Finals trip for two. NBA Futures let you lock in your pick for who you think will go all the way, whether it's a team to win the championship or a conference title. Visit FanDuel.com slash podcast to get started. Play your game with FanDuel, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming.

2:00:17No purchase necessary. Limit one entry. For profit boost token, opt-in required. Must apply profit boost token on select market. Restrictions apply. See full terms including methods of entry at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com. slash RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy.

2:01:00But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. From professional-grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Grainger knows safety is always a priority, they're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by.

2:01:32Pat McAfee:Football! It is impeccable. That's A.J. Hawk. The Talks at Tables here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer. Cowboys AP Tony is here. Good luck to your Steelers tonight. Thank you. And I'd like to say good luck to J.J. Watts, Houston Texans tonight as well. Representing the AFC South. Need them. H-Town. He was so jacked up in that entire thing. D 'Amico Ryan's might just be running that on repeat. They flew all the way to Pittsburgh. You know what video was running the whole time in every back of every seat? That one. That one. Fucking J.J. Watt ended doing this one. Walking across a bridge, walking down a field.

2:02:12Special work and relentless mindset. Beautiful shot right there. Beautiful.

2:02:19Pat McAfee:Look at the lighting. I mean, it's just special stuff. Obviously, hands together because he's going to work. And he was cold because he was 35. I moved down to the south, obviously, a little time ago. Can't handle it. From Wisconsin, I do that in the summers, though. I don't really do that in the winter anymore. I'm like most people. They don't like living in a cold. They just kind of have to if it's the case. If they can't move south, they will. But some people choose to stay in Indianapolis, Indiana. Why? It's so cold all the time. Yeah. Took the dog outside. Frozen nostrils. Extra cold. Frozen nostrils.

2:02:50Pat McAfee:extra cold these last few days wind yeah blew off my damn gutter yep oh no oh off house frozen nostrils blue going crazy this all happened at the same time is it hanging there sound at the house what the fuck turn around blue's almost gone oh squeak squeak squeak squeak hear it hear it hear it please oh it's too windy can't hear it okay this thing's gone squeak squeak squeak throw back so cold. Jay just moved to Houston. He's called it his home. He has championed them over his own brother. He has. Now we see what happens tonight. H, there's a chance that tonight's game is the best one of them all.

2:03:29Pat McAfee:Haven't had overtime yet. Oh, yeah. No. Okay, haven't had overtime yet. Have had 12 lead changes, obviously, in the fourth quarter, but that is all indicated to great game winners at the end, whether it's a couple MVP candidates kind of taking their team down, or maybe it's a big-time defensive stop. Whatever the case, We have not had overtime just yet. Maybe we got five, six quarters tonight. Oh, please. Oh, hey. Sick. 1 a.m., 2 a.m.? Oh. Three. Why? Four. Maybe it's 10 overtimes. Yeah, it's still going on this time tomorrow. Oh, my God. Our show has not – Monday Night Football, Joe Buck and Troy.

2:04:06Pat McAfee:Still going. That could happen. Good. Anything's possible with this NFL. Nine-year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler is here. Hey, Bunch. D-Bunch. D-Bunch, you think we have a 10 overtime game?

2:04:15Adam Schefter:tonight uh no i don't but i would i would love to hear joe and troy i feel like the uh broadcasters

2:04:22Pat McAfee:for the most part did great as well this weekend hey tom really age don't you think that tom brady shit i like that it's tom brady oh yeah all those little things i love that and now we're we're actually without red zone you people are hearing them for a full game a lot of times if people watch red zone they don't really get to hear the broadcasters that much yeah i think that is some people are experiencing a game for the first time, maybe in some time, with a couple different commentators, and go, this is what this is now? And people are certainly loud on the internet, always going to be. Calling a game, you got two different fan bases.

2:04:54Pat McAfee:You say one good thing about one team and forget to compliment the other side, automatically you're going to skew some people to hate you. That's just kind of how it goes. And if you're in commentating long enough, there's going to be enough sports fans' bases that are going to hate you. I mean, that's just how it is. So you're going to take it on the shins for sure. Tony Romo takes a lot of heat on the internet. He does. He takes a lot of heat. He's the best of the best, though. He came in, changed the entire game, got paid more than anybody, which we would like to say thank you, Tony. Thank you, Tony, for the sports media thing.

2:05:25Pat McAfee:But I don't know if people are used to his freewheeling, gun-slinging style in the commentary booth. I think if you watch with him through the season, you kind of get used to it. Because I'm a similar person. We are kind of the same thing. I think if you just drop in out of nowhere, though, I think there is like a little bit. This is not what I thought this was going to be at all. Yes. And I enjoy the ride. I enjoy the ride. It is a Romo ride, and I enjoy it. But it does get loud about Tony Romo. Yeah, if you look at it as like he's – if you're watching like a comedy, yeah, I think it's great.

2:05:58Yeah, exactly. Tony's great. Tony Romo football. If you treat it like that. But if you're going in and you're treating it like an NFL football game and watching it, you know, for stats and information. and perspective and preparation and stuff like that. I just don't think that's what you're going to get.

2:06:11Pat McAfee:So I think you just heard Tone's answer. I think you just heard Tone's answer. Or he was reading what a lot of people on the internet were saying. But Tony Romo's accomplished. Tony Romo changed the game in the booth. And if you're going to do that job with that many eyes on you, you're going to catch shit. I mean, that's just how it's going to go. But like Tom Brady, okay? Greg Olson, obviously. Greg was awesome. So good. Greg Olson's unbelievable. We all agree with that. I think everybody agrees with that. they're trying to figure out where the hell to put Greg Olson. I think is what they're trying to do right now.

2:06:43Pat McAfee:So whenever Tom Brady takes Greg Olson's spot for the deal that he made, once again, thank you for getting that deal done, Tom. Pretty good of all. That was leaked on like an investor call, I think, by one of the Murdochs, I believe, if the story is correct. How much money he was making? Like$350 billion. I think I remember it like it was yesterday, the amount of money that was kind of announced. It's like Tom Brady's making that right up. Good for Tom Brady. First time in the booth. He earned it, obviously deserves it. He's the GOAT. But immediately, with that amount of money getting paid to him, and football fans hating Tom Brady for a long time because he was the best, and also super handsome, and there was some asterisks next to it, I think a lot of people were pissed that he was getting the number one booth over Greg Olson.

2:07:25Pat McAfee:So then whenever the season goes, at the beginning, I think Tom Brady was nowhere near what he was going to be. That fucker works on his shit. Like, you can tell he is maniacal about it. You can tell he watches probably the whole game back on regular speed, listening to everything he says. I assume the notes are outrageous. And then you can just tell he tries to eliminate the bad and try to do the good. Some of it a little forced. I think that happens with everybody as they go in there. But I think he's done a great job adjusting to who he is in the booth. And I assume he's only going to get better.

2:07:55Pat McAfee:That feels like that's fucking how Tom Brady is. But I think he's crushing it. I think Tom is really, really good in the booth. Yeah, without a doubt. And he also does actually teach you things throughout a broadcast. And I'm not saying every single broadcast, especially when it comes to primetime football games where the football is what you're there for, needs to teach you things. But in a situation like the game he had, Niners-Eagles, where you are actually curious how the wind will change both Purdy and Jalen Hurst throwing the football. And then he teaches you exactly how you are supposed to throw the football through that wind.

2:08:28I think that is what makes him so good.

2:08:30Pat McAfee:Hi, fan that's watching this sport. I'm the greatest of all time. Now, when I'm throwing a football in this wind out here, right here, this is what I'm doing. It was like a hilarious infomercial for sport, but also like everything else. And it's good that our greats continue to commentate and continue to give back to the game. And then tonight, obviously, Joe and Troy are just like, are they the coolest dudes of all time to call games? Feels like it. Tariko's outrageous. Yeah, he's great. Yeah, and that's why Greg Olson. Boom, let's get him in there. Collinsworth looks so cool last night. He's been doing it how long now?

2:09:03Pat McAfee:Feels like he's been in the prime for a long time. Too long. I mean, that's how you feel. I don't know what he's doing with his hair. That's all I'm going to say. I think he was in a turtleneck yesterday. He was so cool. He looked cool. I stuck around for the after conversation. Have you ever been there? The after conversation? Yeah, they do a podcast. Have you ever been there? You ever been there? No, I have not. Like after the game, or what do you mean? Is it a different spot, or do you mean right after the game in the booth? After the game in the booth, there's a podcast that happens between Tariko and Collinsworth live on NBC.

2:09:29Pat McAfee:Have you seen it? I've seen a little bit of it. Yeah, not all of it. It was good. I thought it was good takes from the day. Obviously, that's when they get a full body shot of Collinsworth mostly. He looks so cool, so calm. I thought he had good takes, threw it out. Tariko showcased himself to be able to host whatever. I mean, he's just so fucking good. The Amazon show, do you ever watch the after for them? Yeah. Good? Yeah, they're pretty solid. Good show? Al Michael's coming back for another year? Yep. Good. Yeah, it's good to have Al Michaels in sport. With that being said, though, it's like Tim McAfee will never stop.

2:10:06Okay?

2:10:07Pat McAfee:Tim McAfee will never stop. There's nothing in him that will stop him. Like he would just go and go and go and go forever. Is Al Michaels got another five years in him? Maybe. Like is it his – Tim. Whose decision? Why wouldn't you want to? Why would you just want to stop? Agreed. Just because you're getting older doesn't mean you just want to stop doing what you love and you've been doing your whole life. Agreed. And his voice is just synonymous with big-time football, you know, which is why people say his voice isn't as excited whenever it's not big-time football, you know. Yeah. When a Thursday night game is ass, a lot of people say, oh, Michaels doesn't care.

2:10:39Pat McAfee:Why is he – there's no emotions. And oh, Michaels is like, do you believe in miracles? Okay. We've been there.

2:10:47Adam Schefter:Mm-hmm.

2:10:47Pat McAfee:When this gets to that, we'll do it. And then I think everybody's kind of expecting that.

2:10:51Adam Schefter:Yeah, people don't care about that. No, not at all.

2:10:54Pat McAfee:But oh, Michaels is coming back for another year. means Herbie coming back for another year there? I'd assume so. Okay, who else do we got this weekend? We're basically at all the same booths, right? Yeah, they're all locked in. But is that everybody? Have we hit everybody? Yeah. Great season out of you. Numbers are bigger than ever. Something like that. Numbers are bigger than they've ever been. Good job on a call. And also for football, way to show up in prime time. Way to show up. How about we haven't really talked about this. Fiesta Bowl? Boy. What a fucking game. Unbelievable. How about that age?

2:11:29Pat McAfee:Honestly. Back and forth. You know, I mean, when it comes down to the wire and they keep their trading, like, trading shots back and forth, yeah, it was awesome. Trinidad? Yeah. Jeez. Yeah. He's got it. He's got it. Whatever that is. Yeah, and I know they're worried about a six-year and all that shit, and they're suing him in Mississippi court, which will be a favorable court, I think, for Trinidad in the entirety as he tries to get another year at Ole miss and he's already committed to old miss if he was to get another year of eligibility the thought of him as an nfl prospect i think changed in my eyes after watching him live i think like he's playmaker and he can spin it and he can put the ball everywhere and it was clear he just kind of put the team on his back though and you you talked to the los angeles rams general manager less need he says and he's hit on every draft pick right we think with less need he's really good He says the transferring up guys are the guys that he likes.

2:12:25And it's like Ferris State, D2 national champion.

2:12:28Pat McAfee:And he does that in the SEC his first year. And now the SEC. Don't even want to get into that conversation. But Ole Miss and this guy who's D2 national champion was holding SEC on his back as they were trying to make it. And then Carson Beck to answer him. Hey, that was a fucking great game. Phenomenal game. That was a great, great game. Legitimately, I almost forget about it because it was kind of immediately followed by us flying to the other side of the country, which was incredible. Good work by all parties. Shout out, Karen. Hey, shout out, Karen. Shout out. Karen's an absolute beast. Karen's logistics, planes to get us everywhere.

2:13:03Pat McAfee:Monster. Karen's been working with us for like four or five years now, right? Karen's a dog, yes. Karen's been around a long time. We appreciate the hell out of Karen. She does make magic happen. And also, Starlink planes. Yeah, that makes a big difference. Karen also calling FBOs and airports. Huge. To make things happen so we can land potentially on the right side of a city as opposed to an hour and a half away from the side of the city. Yeah, Karen's an absolute beast. But anyways, we go from Fiesta Bowl all the way to Peach Bowl over there, and we watch this Indiana team just absolutely smock the Oregon Ducks.

2:13:38Pat McAfee:I mean, just demolish them literally from the first play. Pitch six, first play. That was the loudest stadium I think I've ever been in. I think that was the loudest stadium I've ever been in. And I didn't know if my microphone was amplifying it with my ears in or if that's actually how loud it was. So I took my ears out. It got louder out here. And it was like, that was the loudest stadium I think I've ever been in. And I don't want to sound like I've not been in a lot of great environments because you're going to say Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Indiana Hoosiers. It was 95 % Hoosiers fans. First play of the game, pick six.

2:14:13Pat McAfee:I mean, it won. That was the loudest it's been. I think that's the loudest I've experienced.

2:14:18Adam Schefter:The games that we've been a part of, the first time we were here with the Peach Bowl, with Georgia and Ohio State, that one was pretty loud. That was a great game back and forth. But this game, like you said, even before the stadium, you knew how the stadium was going to look based on how the city of Atlanta looked. And then the college crowds, when you bring them into these NFL stadiums, this indoor dome, they've been 95 % Indiana fans. And then for the game to start like that on the pick six from one of their best defensive player, D 'Angelo Pons, it was an unbelievable start. It was an avalanche from basically this point on.

2:14:50Pat McAfee:AJ, it was a party down there in Indiana the whole time. Oh, yeah. We knew that from the second we got into town. Man, looking around, I'm saying there's a lot of Indiana fans going up and down these elevators with us. And then one of the workers said, oh, yeah, it's probably 95 % Indiana since I've been here. And it was. We could literally experience it and feel it. But then the team, this Indiana team, they just methodically pound you. I mean, that's just what they do. It's outrageous. The amount of talent they have, the amount of dogs that they have, but also how, like, fundamentally sound.

2:15:22Pat McAfee:They look like an NFL defense. Now, there was an entire conversation about whether or not this team, which his average age I think is like 22 or 23. Yeah, it's up there. 22 or 23, which would be an age. People get drafted in the NFL when they're 20, 21. Okay? So, Drake May is 23. Yeah, Dante Moore is 20. Okay, so Dante Moore is 20 years old. This average age, like, 22, I guess, 23 years old, is the average age of Indiana?

2:15:45Adam Schefter:Don't ask me.

2:15:47Pat McAfee:Men. And the quarterback? The man.

2:15:51Adam Schefter:Well said.

2:15:52Pat McAfee:He's going to be a guy.

2:15:53Adam Schefter:Yeah. Like, I continue to say this,

2:15:56Pat McAfee:and I guess I could look very stupid in the whole thing. I want the bat heavy for Will Howard. We haven't seen him, but obviously we saw him do his thing. I want the bat heavy for C.J. Stroud. We've seen him. Can't wait to see what he does tonight. Nothing. This dude is – that was turned to Steelers fans saying that about CJ. This dude's – I think he's the one – I think he's a one. I think he is like a one. Like a clear-cut number one guy. Now, Mel Kuyper had Dante Moore as the number one quarterback prospect for the draft before this game was played. They put it up on the screen. I literally just got done saying, I think Fernando Mendoza's generational.

2:16:32Pat McAfee:And then he popped up a lower third. Mo Kuyper Jr., big board heads, Dante Moore, number one or whatever. It's like, I don't know if you've been watching this 6 '5", 230-pound quarterback who can run very well, has beers with the boys, and is like a savant when it comes to football. It feels like this guy is the one. AJ, every time we see him, I think that, honestly. And it's hard to comprehend how he doesn't have massive success in the NFL, but I guess there's obviously always the chance. What could the knocks be on Mendoza? that he's the prototypical height of an old-school NFL quarterback. He moves like a new-school type guy, and it seems like every ball he throws is such pinpoint accuracy and just such a tight spiral.

2:17:14It's not even going out on a limb saying this guy is going to be a dude. Hopefully he gets the right pieces around him wherever he goes, but man, he will give you a great chance to win.

2:17:22Pat McAfee:He throws some undefendable balls, and then obviously blown coverage and some other stuff, but I feel like his only weakness is potentially... The logo, the IU logo. And the run like this, the only thing you can compare it to is Burrow. Like Burrow came into his senior year at LSU, and there were no Heisman or national championship or number one overall pick type of expectations on Joe Burrow. And the same exact thing has happened with Mendoza and IU. They were supposed to be good. Yeah, they were ranked in the top 25. But, I mean, he dominates these games. And there's not one throw that you watch him make where it's like, ooh, what's he doing on that one?

2:17:59They're all unbelievable and perfect.

2:18:01Pat McAfee:He said every play is like a puzzle. Do we see him make a lot of hard decisions? What is kind of the question between college to the NFL debunk?

2:18:08Adam Schefter:I mean, yeah, you're going to make hard decisions when you're playing some of these coordinators in disguises and stuff. But like he said, and like we've seen him do at this point in the game, at this point in the season especially, if it's not there, he'll just tuck it and run. He has the athleticism to escape and pick up a few yards. That's not why you're going to draft him because of his athleticism. But what he can do between the ears as far as diagnosing coverages and what's going on in the field, and then having the pinpoint accuracy. That's typically the biggest separator in the NFL, knowing where to go with the ball and then your accuracy down in the down out.

2:18:38Adam Schefter:Now the things that can affect him where he can get to the NFL and stink or be a bust is what we've seen, just what's around him, the support system around him. Typically you're going to go to a bad organization or a bad team, so the roster around him, the offensive line in front of him, the guy who's calling the plays for him, are they going to be there for multiple years? Are they going to get fired halfway through his first year? Or is he going to have to go through four or five different coordinators? Those are the things that typically impact these quarterbacks. I forget who said it, but they said a lot of times, maybe Kevin O 'Connell, a lot of times franchises fail their quarterbacks more than the other way around.

2:19:12Adam Schefter:So that's the only thing that can impact them. And you can't really know how that's going to play out on the next level. But everything we've seen, boots on the ground, lets you know this is a top-tier pick. And the boys love him.

2:19:23Pat McAfee:That's a whole other thing. His leadership, I think, is one that translates to today. And he's addicted to positivity. Like every answer is just like, first of all, Jesus Christ made this all happen. So I'd like to thank him and my team. Obviously, we'd like to do that. And on another note, how amazing is it that we get a chance to be like every answer is just like AI. It's like it's like an AI positive answer. But that's like his natural reaction is to be like that. Then his entire family story. It's like this guy on the other side, too.

2:19:52Adam Schefter:But Miami, like Carson Beck, you know, we saw him go up. We saw him go down. We see him playing his best ball during the playoffs. Now, he doesn't have the same type of numbers, but he's taking care of the football. He's showing his athleticism. And late in that Ole Miss game, that back and forth, it was like the NFL Super Wild Card weekend. It was back and forth. Okay, are you going to answer? Okay, you're going to answer. Okay, now he has to answer. And there was times when we thought, okay, they're going to hand the ball off. They're going to do this. But they took explosive shots from pretty much their first drive.

2:20:19Adam Schefter:And then whenever they needed to play, whether it was a screen or him stepping up and making accurate throws across the middle of the field, he made those type of plays. So I'll be interested to see where his draft stops. See, like this point in the game, like fourth quarter, less than a minute. Those are the throws. We saw him hit time after time, and those are the throws, AJ will know this for sure, that you see week in and week out in the NFL. You got to make those digs, those posts, those layered throws across the middle, and then obviously you got to be able to use your legs when the time presents itself.

2:20:47Pat McAfee:Yeah, what a perfect time for it to present itself. Carson Beck beats Trinidad Chambliss in an epic instant classic at the Fiesta Bowl. What a time out there. They were so nice to us. Yeah, they were. We appreciate that. Genuinely, we appreciate the hell out of them over there. And then the Peach Bowl people, incredible. Thank you. What a time. The college football stuff's wild, you know? Especially because I feel like we got a pretty good relationship with both of the programs. You know? Whenever we're... Whenever we... Ah! Yeah, he was gonna suplex me right there. He did get me. I gave up the leverage when I went in for the DAP, but he did it on purpose whenever he came in early.

2:21:23Pat McAfee:This is what he told me. They had a group of guys with the flu last night. That's what he said to me. And I said, what? That's literally what I said because I didn't know that they were having a flu game. And then he said immediately afterwards, he was like, I sent them all highlight reel at Jordan and flu game and said it's not an excuse. He said, but it certainly was. I mean, these guys were in a bad spot. Like, they got a flu night before. You know, so that's like sleep's terrible. Yeah. Like, if you get it in the morning, at least, you know, you kind of get through it. But night before and your body, it's like, that's tough.

2:21:52Pat McAfee:That's really tough. I think Miami feels like they were nowhere near. He didn't tell me who were the players, who they were, but he wouldn't bring that up if it wasn't a couple people that were important to their success. We're all watching make plays, yeah. Yeah, exactly. As soon as he said that, I was just so even more impressed by that team, dude. I'm so impressed by Miami. Just win the game. How do we get away? Well, we're going to hit the shit out. We'll win the game. They're old, too. That's what it felt like. What an intriguing matchup, too, though. Sorry, but what an intriguing matchup these two teams, like how they're set up, the size difference, all of it.

2:22:23Like, it's going to be awesome.

2:22:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, size difference with Oregon and Indiana, I think, was there as well. But, yes, Indiana certainly has a little less meat, maybe, than this Miami offensive line. That's like 6 '9 through 6 '7 across the board at front. It's an insane group that definitely moved bodies. And then running back, huge. Backup running back, finisher. Yeah. I mean, Marty Brown.

2:22:47Adam Schefter:Yeah.

2:22:48Pat McAfee:Came over, said, thanks for talking me up or whatever. It's like, hey, fuck. You got it? No problem, dude. You can come into a game cold in the fourth quarter and catch one of the biggest catchers of the game and then finish a game tough-wise. Yeah, definitely, dude. No problem. They got a bunch of dogs on that team, man. It's like Miami has been a fun team to watch and can certainly win it all.

2:23:07Adam Schefter:Absolutely. You talk about being tough. That's something that we've seen, too, from not only these two teams that are in the Nattie, but I feel like throughout this whole playoff run, we've seen teams on both sidelines. Because we can see it. That's one of the things that we can see being boots on the ground is like somebody gets banged up, clearly very, very, very hurt, go to the sideline, locker room, blue tent, whatever it is, and then whatever they got to do, get back in the game and compete. So I'd love to see that, you know, because it's something that we thought maybe we've lost with, you know, all the money at stake, not only for the next level, but what they can make possibly on the next level, I mean the next year on the college team.

2:23:41Adam Schefter:So I've been very impressed with the toughness of these young kids too.

2:23:44Pat McAfee:Adam Rittenberg is reporting from ESPN. Indiana coach Kurt Cignetti is very impressed with Miami. A lot of twitched-up athletes playing fast, playing with a nasty edge. Is that what he sounded like? What did he say? Can you put it up here, please? Okay. No, actually, you know, I can probably make it. Okay, thank you. So, they've got a lot of twitched-up athletes now. They're playing real fast, okay? They play with a nasty edge. So, yeah, it's going to be a challenge for us. I do think these two teams will look in the mirror at each other here. Like, the way they – I think the way their coaches are, I think the way they operate, I think the way they try.

2:24:19Pat McAfee:Both these teams, for this entire college football playoff run, but throughout the entire season, I assume, we haven't watched every single snap of both these teams. I wish we would have and could have and had, by the way, because they're electrifying. They're tackling people through ground. They're trying to punish the other team. I mean, both teams are doing that, and both coaches are very much like, yeah, let's see if they can handle getting beat down a little bit. Let's see what they look like in the fourth. It's a special, special time for ball if this is what it's going to come back to. Yeah, I can't wait for this.

2:24:51It really wouldn't shock me if we found out Monday before the game that Sig and Cristobal met up at some, like, boxing gym and sparred like Rocky and Apollo at the end of Rocky III the night before the game. They just both happened to be there. No cameras. Yeah, exactly. You and me. Yeah.

2:25:07Pat McAfee:I don't know if Sig wants that, but he'll probably have some plan. I assume Sig would have some plan. Christobal is former offensive lineman. And I'll tell you what, he looked pretty comfortable doing this move. He certainly is. Yes, he did. But you sleep on SIG, you're going to go night-night. You're going to get slept. Yeah, exactly. You sleep on SIG, you're going to get slept by SIG. Bingo. That's kind of what it's been like in football. Yes. And this dominating run here could be historic if they're able to finish it off. We appreciate the hell out of the opportunity to be able to be there.

2:25:39And that Peach Bowl, man, that's the one that I'm going to say

2:25:43Pat McAfee:whenever they say loudest thing you've ever been a part of. That fucking pick six first play. What? Yeah, because if you think about it, like a neutral site game very, very rarely has 95 % of one team's fans there. Yeah, especially biggest game of the year. And Indiana people tailgating all day. First play. So still have the juice. Yeah. This isn't fourth quarter. This is kickoff just happened. This is maybe the most juice that an entire building can have. so first play pick six with the 95 percenter yeah that might be the the recipe for loudest pop in history that i've heard that's the loudest fucking pop indoors as well yeah that was it it off the charts loud you're right it could have flipped too because then oregon had that long methodical drive where they went back down and scored and then indiana just immediately fucking marched right down the field and scored again and then it was like it was game on third and seven third 304.

2:26:35Pat McAfee:Touchdown wide open guy. All right, let's go to the sideline. Let's see if the defense can get a stop. They do. Okay, now we roll. A couple turnovers in the red zone. Can't have that. Can't have that. We love Coach Dane Lanning going at Oregon team. Good luck out there. Get it figured out. Eugene's a special place. I hold that place in very high regard. I got massive respect for what they've been able to do. But the ending of the season the last two years might have been against the national champions. It might have been just the worst possible outcome. Yeah. And you can tell how much they love him because everyone who, so far, everyone who's supposed to go to the draft has decided to stay.

2:27:14Pat McAfee:Okay. Do we know about Dante Moore? No, but they're – Breaking news. Yes. Pete Thamel is reporting. Oh, yeah. I hope I just almost fell through the cracks, but Dylan Raiola is actually – we all know he entered the transfer portal, obviously. But he has announced his commitment to Oregon. Oh, no. Yeah, well, if Dante Moore returns, he's obviously going to back him up. Is that a spelling mistake from a Pete Hamill tweet? Pete Hamill can't be doing that. Oh, of Dante. Well, that actually could have been Pete Hamill, not Pete Thamel. That's kind of a literary mistake, not a mistake in the tweet itself.

2:27:54But, yeah, he'd back him up in 26 and then obviously take over his starter in 27.

2:28:00Pat McAfee:Okay, so Pete wanted to get to the bottom. What if Dante Moore comes back? Well, he'll be a backup. No problem. Just like Dante Moore was. Dante Moore transferred in from UCLA. Was a backup. Then he got the job. He's 20 years old. He's only played like 21 football games or something like that.

2:28:13Adam Schefter:Veralo would be healthy at the start of the year next year. Is he expected to be healthy? It was a fracture. So, right? They would normally be just a fracture? Yeah, definitely.

2:28:21Pat McAfee:Isn't that crazy how strong that word sounds? Fracture. And then you say just a fracture? Versus a torn ligament. Fucking Kittle. Man. Yeah. It stinks. It's so obvious, like, as soon as it happens. He knew it, too. Yeah. Man. Hell of a year, Kittle. We see Kyle Shanahan in the locker room. This is in the locker room after the win. Kyle Shanahan addressing the team. Guys, losing George like that, like, at the beginning, is George in here? I love you, dude. Love you, dude. Thank you for everything, man.

2:28:55Pat McAfee:Love you, dude. That was a cool moment. I'm sure that made George feel good, plus the tequila. All right. A couple positive words Big win I sent him a text while he was in the locker room I said hey buddy That sucks I'm smoking right now I was going to stay where it was legal And I wish I could send some your way And then the tequila tweet came up I was like alright He is thinking of saying I appreciate that He'll take care of himself He'll get back into it That road sucks though there That one sucks for all of us as Kittle fans. All right, let's get to some overreactions, and then let's go ahead and make our pick, shall we, AJ?

2:29:36Pat McAfee:Let's do it. Oh, before overreactions, we have breaking news out of the golf world. Oh, yes. Brooks Koepka is back with the PGA. That's right. Welcome back, Brooks. The PGA says, Brooks Koepka says, I want to thank my family and my team for their continued support throughout every step of my professional career. When I was a child, I always dreamed about competing on a PGA Tour, and I'm just as excited today to announce that I'm returning to the PGA Tour, Being closer to home and spending more time with my family makes this opportunity meaningful. As Ty Schmid exits, stage left. He's got a code red.

2:30:09Pat McAfee:T's and P's. Tough day. Two in an hour. Yeah. And the first one, I don't think he caught all of it. That's tough. No. I think it got him here on this way. I think early bird got the worm here. So I think he had to change his stuff. Oh, rinsing his undies out in the toilet? He just throws them out. No, he put them in his backpack. Oh, yeah, that's right. He puts him in his back bed because he's not an animal. Throw it out somewhere else. No, you're a new Ty. I don't think so. I think someone was just in that bathroom back there because Ty just came running back here. Oh, no. Who's it? I know he's trying to get there faster, but if he would have came through stage there.

2:30:46Adam Schefter:Get into a bathroom. Oh, did he go upstairs?

2:30:48Pat McAfee:Yeah, head up there. There's somebody probably going to be in there too. Oh, man. That's the bone zone up there, ain't it? Especially right now. Oh, yeah. If Bowen's in there right now and Ty goes all the way up those stairs. Give me hell of a pay for Bowen. Oh, man. All right, Ty, we're pulling for you. And every toilet. On that note, let's get back to what we were talking about. Brooks Koepka is back with the PGA Tour. Yeah, Brooks. We watched Swing to Survive on Netflix. My takeaway from it was Brooks Koepka didn't think he was ever going to be good at golf again, was offered multiple hundreds of millions of dollars to go golf somewhere else, and he took it.

2:31:37Pat McAfee:And that's why he went to live. He was certainly in a bad place. It didn't look like a lot of fun. I think he had lost a lot of confidence in his golf game. Whenever I had kind of just observed Brooks Koepka from afar, I think I remember hockey guy, liked the chill, didn't really love the entire golf thing, but love like winning golf is what it felt like is kind of the way my head thought of him then i watched that swing to survive show and it was like this guy's obsessed with golf of course he is that's why he's so good all the time this guy loves it he works his ass off he's all these things and he was at a point where i think he didn't think he was ever going to really be good again just from watching swing to survive so then somebody comes in and offers him a couple hundred million dollars to go do it it's like i think i think that was a decision that was fairly easy at the time for Brooks Koepka to make for the good of his family.

2:32:26Pat McAfee:I think that is a conversation that he probably had and said this is good. So now that it feels like maybe Mojo's back, feels like maybe Mojo's back. We've seen him do good golf. Feels like now is the time for him to kind of come back to the PGA Tour, closer to family, do his thing. And I guess Brian Rollap, formerly of the NFL, he came out with a statement that was basically like a$5 million donation, a part of your money that has to go to a charity of some sort, and also a five-year ban on the earning of equity that the rest of the tour players will be getting. So I think he'll still be able to win tour money, probably past$5 million, the first$5 million he'll be donating.

2:33:05Pat McAfee:Yeah, what? That's what? What's that? This is like his punishment? Yeah. What? Because at the time, PGA said, if you were to take$200,$300,$400 million right now to combat against PGA, you will be never allowed back. That was, I believe it was a banishment. Remember, there's a lot of things said. There was some real high horse in happening at the time by a lot of people. So that was said at the time. So I believe the PGA, Brian Rollap, new leadership, is trying to uphold so he doesn't get all the PGA players pissed off at him because all the PGA players, I think, didn't want to jeopardize their PGA futures, I think.

2:33:42What are you going to do? So if you look at Rollap's statement and the PGA Tour put out, it's the first two paragraphs of the second page that kind of explain who can come back and what they would have to do and why they would have to do that situation.

2:33:54Pat McAfee:They got a lifetime ban there, remember? And that was the reason why the PGA guys, some of them didn't go. So if they were to just let these guys who got multiple hundreds of millions of dollars to come back and these guys say, well, why didn't we just do that if we were going to be allowed back at the end? I just think Rollap's probably trying to do as much as this is. And the only people who can come back, I believe, is if you won a major between 2022 and 2025, which that would be Bryson, that would be Rom, and there was one other one I can't remember. Tom Smith. Dustin Johnson? DJ. No. When did DJ forget how to play golf?

2:34:38Pat McAfee:Only if he can win. I think when he went to, right? Yeah. 2022 and 2025. If you've includes elite performance-based criteria that requires winning the Players' Championship, Masters' Tournament, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, or the Open Championship between 2022 and 2025. He says there at the beginning, good point out by the entire thing. So I think that's what he's trying to do.

2:35:00Adam Schefter:Yeah, I definitely get that part, but a domino effect of them going over to live was the PGA players actually getting way more money, bigger purses, getting the equity, all this other shit. The entire model of golf changed, and they got way more paid because of what the guys did, even though they stayed in legacy and all that shit. So I get that part. So now that Brooks is coming back, he said, okay, you got to get$5 million somewhere, and then you also can't get this equity for the next five years. That's what, five years of his prime? Golfing years? Like, I think it's kind of fucked up.

2:35:34Pat McAfee:All right. Well, they're saying you got equity in Liv. Yeah. You can't get equity in PGA is what Brian Rolap is saying. Yeah, 100%. Honestly, I'm just glad Rolap accepted him back because an absolute disaster would have been telling Brooks, nope, you can't come on here. You don't want to be in live. And then we have Brooks Kepica playing zero golf at all. So I'm just excited. We're going to see him with the waste management open here in like a month or so. We're going to see Brooks playing golf again. That's all I care about. So it's Brooks they're talking to, DeChambeau they're talking to. It's clear they listed out the championships.

2:36:03Pat McAfee:If you won this in 2023, hey, come on back. It is. It's Cam Smith. It's Bryson. It's Rom and Brooks. were the... Which, I think everybody... Are deals up with Liv soon? Do we know? The other guys? I don't know how any of that works, dude. I just assumed Brooks was getting paid for the rest of his life, hundreds of millions of dollars. Yeah, what the hell's going on with Liv then? I mean, if they leave Brooks and DeChambeau, what do they have left? Yeah, what's up, D-Bot?

2:36:29Adam Schefter:Phil, Bubba. I carry their water. Yeah, you are. You carry their little bit. I just want to watch the best golfers golf. If they're Liv, I'll watch too. Watch TGL, brother. If they're TGL, I'll watch them.

2:36:40Pat McAfee:I'll tell you what, they need to put that on a time where people can watch it. Let's think about the people that would watch that. What are the other things that those types of people like? Let's not schedule it directly at that time. Let's do some other time. When those types of people, I know it's hard to think about that, but when those types of people aren't doing something, let's put TGL on. Brand new product. It's good. Let's go ahead and make sure people can find it. Let's do that. That fucking thing's cool. Fans need to have some juice, too. You need chance. Guy chipped in, unbelievable shot.

2:37:15They're all sitting down playing tiddlywinks.

2:37:17Pat McAfee:I don't like them playing tiddlywinks back here. Me neither. Pretty corporate crowd, isn't it? Yeah, it probably sponsors people that paid to build that thing. Yeah, it's probably pretty expensive. You need some drunk hillbillies in there to actually cheer a little bit. Yeah, teams. We need just some team fans, you know, and I think they'll come just like these darts fans. Oh, yeah. They're a real deal, brother. Is their season over because the World Championship just happened, or are they like soccer? The Premier League starts, I believe, after the Super Bowl. It's either the Thursday after that or the last Thursday of February 1st, week of March.

2:37:50Pat McAfee:Did you see Iowa State women's basketball team lost to West Virginia? Ooh. I was in a can't-lose situation. Boy, people told me I lost. Was that two straight losses now? I did. Since I am in West Virginia, I know. You're about to get cooked by all these crooks. I'm not trying to be a monster now. Trying to be a monster in March. Okay, that's what we're trying to be. Shout out to the West Virginia women. I had no idea they were good. That's a good ball club. On the road? 83-7. Killed them. Yeah, big points. We're putting up numbers over there in West Virginia.

2:38:19Adam Schefter:It's a big win. 85.

2:38:21Pat McAfee:I like what West Virginia – ladies and gentlemen, he's back. That'll be every time.

2:38:24Adam Schefter:Every time.

2:38:27Pat McAfee:You had to go upstairs, we heard. Yeah, I was not prepared for that. What, with your timing? Yeah. Was Bone sitting back here? No, I wasn't Bone. Who was? else was. Surprisingly, someone else was taking a shit. Back here. Yeah. So then when you go up there, open, clear skies? Yeah. Only problem, no wet wipes up there. Oh. Did you have to air raid some in? No. Did you sit in the sink? No. I'm just going to have to use toilet paper for the moment. Gas station. Oh, no, really? And then post-show, I'll, you know, because I'm definitely, I believe I have a stomach ulcer that's acting up quite a bit right now.

2:39:05I think that's kind of the issue.

2:39:07Pat McAfee:So what's that mean? What do you mean? Because I saw you got two Red Bulls this morning. So what do you mean? Sugar-free stomach ulcer. It could be a lot of things, you know. A lot of things can contribute to it, you know. My stomach's just fucked up, and I've kind of just made peace with that. And, you know, a lot of people tell me, hey, take this, take this, take this. Like, I have pills that I religiously take to kind of keep it in check. And, you know, sometimes it just, it's got other ideas. Every once in a while, yeah, two Red Bulls in a morning, maybe some Chick-fil-A. Sure. I've been having about two Red Bulls in the morning for a long time.

2:39:41Oh, really? Because they're here, you know, and I've told Mitt, I said, hey, stop putting these in here. Okay? Because if they're in here. Because they're ice cold, too. They're ice cold. It's like a gas station. Exactly. I'm going to fucking drink them. I'm tired. I'm sleepy, you know, and if I can't just drink a bunch of coffee, because guess what? What do you think is happening in that? Coffee's worse? Coffee's worse? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I won't even make the show time without shitting my pants if I'm drinking two, three cups of coffee in the morning. Not a chance. That's why when we go on the road, I'm sleepy or need a little pick-me-up.

2:40:14Sometimes I'll have to go to the coffee, and you just kind of know this is a bad idea. I'm going to end up taking a really bad shit in a port-a-potty somewhere.

2:40:22Pat McAfee:Future time is going to have to be outside of Lake Minnetonka. Exactly. That's the exact situation because it was so cold. had to have coffee and a little bit of energy is a little bit warm. And then you end out there with the Arctic Wolves in an outhouse with no ceiling on Lake Minnetonka. Exactly. So, you know, it's just... But with Red Bull, you don't end up having to run across and run to Thunderdome. It's usually not the Red... I mean, I had a burrito this morning. You know? Okay. Now we get to it. Which could be... Some curly chips and dip on the side? No, I didn't. Just ground beef. You know, which typically, you know, just some basic ground beef.

2:40:58there shouldn't be any issues with that.

2:41:00Adam Schefter:That's at the top of the new food pyramid. Exactly, exactly.

2:41:02Pat McAfee:I heard that thing got flipped upside down. Snacks are good for you now. Snacks are good for us? Yeah, snacks are good for you. Now you can have as many as you want. What? I didn't see that. Yeah, according to the new food pyramid. Holy shit. That's how I read it. Yeah. Really? Is that because your guys preconceived knowledge of what the food pyramid was and then you saw a new one and you just kind of... I didn't even see the new one. I just heard it was flipped. So in my head, snacks are good. And I got my information from Tony. You guys hear snacks are good for you now. Okay, got it. So that's good.

2:41:32Pat McAfee:All snacks. Eat real food, protein, dairy, and healthy fats right there at the top with vegetables. Down at the bottom is the whole grains.

2:41:40Adam Schefter:Whole grains suck, man.

2:41:41Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think the whole grains are really the thing. They make you fat, I think, right? Aren't the whole grains? Bananas aren't good? That sugar is the issue. Yeah, I was going to say, I was under the impression whole grains were good for you. See, that's the old pyramid speaking for you guys. If you eat everything on this, you're going to be fine. This is a great diet. Who are you, a fucking director? I mean, look at it. Look at it. There's nothing in there that's going to make you fat. If you think bananas make you fat, come on. Where's the snackies? They're in there in the middle. There's a little yogurt right there.

2:42:11Pat McAfee:You see the shrimp cocktail? Thank God AJ can have that. Yeah. AJ? No, yeah. I can. Foxy, now, I will say, this does look like a good spread that we can all eat and we should all eat, but you, of all people, should not be talking about anybody getting fat. I'm just saying, you guys were talking about the bananas. Oh, we can't have bananas because they're at the bottom. That's not true at all. We just got to make sure we make that clear. Thank you, Foxy. I do appreciate that because people watching at home could potentially – I think people will find an excuse not to eat healthy. Is this RF pyramid?

2:42:45RFK? He didn't sign it, did he?

2:42:47Pat McAfee:He should have autographed that thing. He's down there at the bottom. I got this off Secretary Kennedy's Twitter page. I trust it then. Yeah, but where are the snacks are good for you now? They're in there somewhere. I'll text them. It sounds like you just kind of made up your own thing there. It's behind the broccoli. It's kind of what we do. That's football, baby. All right, let's get to some overreactions, shall we? Shout out to Brooks Koepka and to PGA. Senna, didn't know if we wanted to do it. Wild card weekend. Is there enough teams? Is there enough storylines? College football also included.

2:43:16Pat McAfee:What should we do? Let's go ahead and run it. Overreaction Monday is one of the greatest things of all time. Put on a tweet saying, and I'd like to hear your reactions to how your program is currently doing. Do you need to change? Do you need to move on? Are you going to win the Super Bowl? All you got to use is the hashtag. I don't want to overreact. But. Let's get to these. Darius J. Butler is our first one. Look, hashtag, I don't want to overreact. But. Two of my teams are in the relegation zone. I can't have four teams and all of them out heading into the divisional round. Back to the war room I go.

2:43:45Pat McAfee:And the big part of this message is he has a hat on in a crowd, and it says NFL on it. Yep. Doesn't have any team names. None of his four team names. D-Butt, do you want to give a state of the union on your fanhood?

2:43:57Adam Schefter:No, I don't know what this guy was whispering in my ear. I forgot right there. He had something important to tell me. But, yeah, my two teams, Chargers, two of my teams, sorry, Chargers, Eagles, both took L yesterday. Obviously, my real two teams, Dolphins, Colts, they'll never be in a relegation zone. Those are lifetime teams for very important reasons.

2:44:16Pat McAfee:Oh, this is your front-running team.

2:44:17Adam Schefter:These other – exactly. Boom. Perfect. So these other two teams, if I'm going to be on the bandwagon, I'm not jumping on the bummy-ass bandwagon. No. So we got to figure it out. I can't have – You're already on them. Kevin Petullo can't be on my staff. I can't root for an O-line like the Chargers. You're a Bears guy. You do. I've been scanning. I've been lurking. I do like Iceman and Ben Johnson. I do like them. I have been keeping my eyes on the other side, too, where it all started. It may be time to just go back home. Amen. Wow. It's time. 2009 it was a call from Robert Kraft. So Robert Kraft may be just calling me home.

2:44:53Adam Schefter:So I didn't say he should have been the first pick in the draft as well. But we'll see. We'll see. It's a long postseason. And then I'll get to it during draft season. Okay. I like that. You hear that? What's that? Is that a dinner bell to come back home and eat with the boys who are on a run? I think it is.

2:45:10Pat McAfee:Oh, maybe he does this keeper of the life. Yeah. Keeper. I mean, good friend of D. Bush. Actually, you Miami alumni. Vince Wilfork, first one to ever do it for the playoffs with the leader of the landslide. And boy, he bangs the fucking shit out of this bell. It's like a Liberty situation with the bell. It's not supposed to move like that. It's supposed to stay in the center. And Big Vince just, nuh-uh, I'm going to make this bitch move. Him cracking that thing would have been epic. Liberty bell 2.0. Give me Liberty or give me death. I do like that you just change your bandwagons whenever the fucking other bandwagons suck.

2:45:52Adam Schefter:That's what I'm here for.

2:45:53Pat McAfee:That's what a bandwagon is. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, you golf with the Maze. You're basically in the family. I did. Truly. Oh, yeah. 18 holes. What was that with?

2:46:03Adam Schefter:I was with the... It was with Liv.

2:46:05Pat McAfee:Oh, was it?

2:46:06Adam Schefter:Phil Lefty, Drake May, and Bill Levis. Will! What's that fucker doing?

2:46:13Pat McAfee:That's a good question. On that day, he was golfing. All right, let's go to the next overreaction, shall we? Why would you want a bandwagon team that's ass? Can't do it. You already got two teams. Yeah, I already got a ride with the Colts.

2:46:24Adam Schefter:Who knows where the hell we're going. They're ass. No. Super Bowl aspirations. They fucking suck. 26 years and counts as we've got a playoff win. 25. You're not winning one this year. This year's 25.

2:46:38Pat McAfee:What the fuck's going on here? There's a lot of negativity there towards Chris Ballard. He likes his gash. He likes his gash. He likes his gash. I'm thinking about moving out of downtown Indianapolis because of how fucking shitty that team is. That's where I'm at. Are you going to move to northwest Indiana? I'm thinking about, yeah, I mean, the commute would be tough, but the country bears, they got something. They got something to root up there. Allegedly, there was a meeting of the minds in the northwestern Indiana area to potentially house a stadium, amongst other things that the Chicago Bears are potentially interested in as they continue to look for the next location for their team as they move out of Soldier Field, which was an incredible environment.

2:47:21Pat McAfee:Also, interested parties reported at Arlington Heights, also looking at the location there. Okay. I believe there was a site surveying situation happening, and, you know, Super Wild Card Weekend happened to be a good time to do it because you've got a lot of parties in place is what's being reported. Okay. But you being a Gare Bear. I could see. I mean, I'm never going to root for a team. I'm not a fucking sellout. I'll only root for the Patriots forever. But I will say when it comes to Indiana fanhood, I could see myself swinging for the Gare Bears, especially because, you know, you're talking about those deals.

2:47:57I mean, the mayor of Gary, Indiana, basically said, hey, we'll give you the fucking governor.

2:48:02Pat McAfee:Governor of Indiana. Governor, boom. The governor of Indiana basically said, hey, we'll give you Gary, Indiana, if you move your football team here. So you're not going to get a better deal elsewhere when it comes to business. If they're even looking into what is the best business decision, the governor of Indiana said, I don't know what you need, but we'll pay you to come here. You can have the whole region. You can have Northwest Indiana. We don't even know what's fucking up there. You know how D.C. is? You guys have the district of the Bears. Right up there in between Illinois and Indiana. Fly in black bears, brown bears, to live in Rome.

2:48:36That's not a bad idea. In northwest Indiana. That is what we're talking about.

2:48:41Pat McAfee:The opportunities are endless. And Roger Goodell was in town. They're like, you need to hear from this guy. The governor comes over. Just like I told them. This could fucking be your sovereign state right here. Take sure. Okay. This is NFL land. You want to call it whatever you want to call it. It'll be like Greenland, but in the middle of Indiana. Well, well. Like the Vatican. The Vatican is its own country. You can have your own country. Right here. Exactly. That is what I, from my understanding of what the governor has said of Indiana, that is pretty much what the governor said. We'll rezone the whole fucking place.

2:49:10Pat McAfee:We don't care. It's yours. Now on that note, we're going to need five bucks from every ticket for the next 30 years. And we get the parking at the place. Forever. Forever at the place. Until we recoup our investment. And then it's 5 % after that. Yeah, boom. that it's all gear bears or whatever land bears you guys call yourselves or they make up a new place name oh Chicago land there it is there it is Chicago land bears not to be confused with Chicago water bears those fuckers are crazy

2:49:44Adam Schefter:there's polar bears too fuck it

2:49:46Pat McAfee:oh the Chicago polar bears those are the mean ones right yeah yeah mean cusses are they the most mean because

2:49:52Adam Schefter:no I think

2:49:54Pat McAfee:we're in northern India they're the only ones that hunt humans for game well I think that's because they don't have a lot of shit to hunt. So they just fucking find whatever. Like brown bears, black bears here in America, they see humans all the time. They eat some other shit. I think those polar bears don't see a lot of shit. They hunt seals and then they chase the seals and the seals jump in the water. Fuck! I think the polar bears can only turn left. Or is that the grizzly? Just like a NASCAR, yeah. Really? I never heard that. Yeah, I think there's a blind spot on one of these bears from my understanding.

2:50:28You got to run the opposite way.

2:50:30Pat McAfee:Well, I think I watched a reality show where somebody was on one of them fucking snow. There was a thing going on. Couldn't turn, so you just went right. Those look like a good time. Oh, they are. So fun. I've never done it. Snowmobile? Incredible. Yeah, snowmobiles are sweet. Do they ride like jet skis? Yeah, I've never done it either. Very similar. Jet skis or quads? Sorry, ATVs. I would say more like ATVs. Agreed. Because jet ski, you have to kind of guide like a boat where you're turning it slow, whereas the actual snowmobile is quicker. Yeah, because it's got two little dancers on the family.

2:51:04Two skis. Are we in prime snowmobile season right now? I feel like in the prime snowmobile areas, that season is much longer because they get snow constantly. Like New Hampshire, Maine, it is damn near December 1 to April 1. Okay, you can book trips up there.

2:51:24Pat McAfee:Yes. Like you can go to a house or resort and do a snowmobile trip. Just like Utah. Just like Park City or Vail or Colorado or one of those mountains. You'll have a guide and snowmobiles available? Bingo. When can we do that? Anytime. It's so awesome. We can go on a trip and go to lunch. Maybe you take a long couple-hour trip through cool woods, and then you stop and have lunch and some booze, and then get back on it. Exactly. Another four hours. That feels like a big group thing. Doesn't it feel like a big group thing? Yeah, like the Minnesota Super Bowl. That probably would have been a great time for you guys.

2:52:00Pat McAfee:I feel like now is time we should do this. I feel like it's a good bonding. Where do we sleep at with these things? They got tents? Oh, if you want to do a full excursion. Fuck that. I mean, yeah, you don't have to sleep in a tent. No, I don't want to. I'm just saying, what's going to house all of us? There's something to house. Oh, yeah, big cabin. Big cabin. JJ's house up there. Yeah. Those trips are dope. We should. Yeah, I've never done that. That would be a cool trip. Maybe that's team building. There you go. Okay. The question is, do you want to take a vacation and go somewhere fucking cold?

2:52:27Pat McAfee:Yeah, I always struggle with that decision. It's an adventure trip or it's a vacation. And then anytime we get some time off, I'm always like, beach. Bingo. Always. Especially, I mean, it's, you mentioned it. It has been so fucking cold and so fucking windy the last couple days. And, you know. If we were to take a day and go do that. That'd be cool. I'm sure there wouldn't be a big reaction from people if we weren't on air. Wow. Yeah, you're right. That was sweet. I appreciate you all so much for the love that you have for us. That was very cool. We got fucking international publications right now, baby.

2:52:59Pat McAfee:It's like, yeah, we're flying from Arizona to Atlanta. Yeah. We are so sorry. We should have done a show, though. Friday, we should have done a show. It would have been terrible. Yeah.

2:53:07Adam Schefter:Oh. Nah, you made the right call. I think so. Could it go to ball? How about us just fucking stand on it?

2:53:14Pat McAfee:Yeah. What a time. All right, let's get to another reaction, shall we? It's from Jack McGonagall at JackMcGonagall6. Hashtag I don't want to react. But what happened in Philadelphia this year is up there with the worst crimes in the history of the world. OJ, John Wayne Gacy, Jeff Donner, and worst of all, the offensive coach staff in Philadelphia, Petulo should die by fire and scrub. Jeez Louise. Philly fans not happy. No, and surprisingly, I think Sirianni, he kind of skidded around this way. It was pretty much all Coach Petulo today. We're pulling for you, Petulo. Although Philly's tough. Let's go to the next overreaction, shall we?

2:53:54Pat McAfee:This is from Shannon Duggan. That's Shannon 52652464. Hashtag I don't want to overreact, but the Packers' brutal death grip on the Bears is officially over. The quick handshake and Ben Johnson yelling, fuck the Packers. I hate those guys. It's only going to make the rivalry better. This is the best football has been in a long time. Hashtag the Bears. Shannon knows ball. I like where Shannon 52652464 is coming from. Is she a Bears fan or a Packers fan or a football fan?

2:54:24Adam Schefter:Oh, I mean, probably AI. Put the Bears at the end. Got to be Bears. She's a Bears fan.

2:54:28Pat McAfee:Whoa. Right, yeah. It's not AI. Good chance of it. It's Shannon 65426755. Ty, you're picking out these tweets. Do you make sure these are all human-based? Yes, I do. Especially when you see, you know, 800 numbers after the name. I clicked on the profile, looked at it. A lot of Bears tweets. She is a Bears fan. At Shannon52652464. She likes to make it tough to find her. Let's go to the next one here. This is from Biggie Smalls at JuniorJJs2. Hashtag I don't want to overreact, but Josh Allen is going to drag the Bills to Santa Clara with one arm and one leg, and that leg might just be his third one.

2:55:05Pat McAfee:NFL even tried to stop the Bills with the most egregious end-of-half sequence of all time, and they still won. Hashtag Bills Mafia. I don't think he got the snap off. Okay? I don't think he got a snap off. But I do appreciate how we had to go through every single step of this. Does he get snap off before zero? Okay? If he gets it off, they're off sides then, right? Yeah, but if he doesn't get it off before zero, it doesn't matter because they can't be off sides because the play never happened. I appreciated that crazy Cam Little misses kick. It doesn't really matter. But I do appreciate that Bill's fans are like, we remember what happened before half.

2:55:35Yeah, this is one of those times where it's like, okay, maybe there should actually be milliseconds on the clock for NFL games for this exact reason because it almost affected the game.

2:55:46Pat McAfee:I assume in other sports that have milliseconds on their clocks now, at one point with where technology was, they didn't have milliseconds. But now we all have it. Now it's all pretty possible. NBA. Yeah, I think the NBA added it in, right? So I don't know. NHL, F1. Yep. F1 always had it, though. Come on. I didn't see Brad up there yesterday, any of those GGs, Golden Globes. I didn't see any F1 movie Super Duper awards last night I saw Amy Poehler up there Yeah I saw

2:56:22Pat McAfee:Timothee Chalamet up there Timbo Haley was up there, Steinfeld Leo DiCaprio Will Arnett from Bradley Cooper's newest movie And Jason Bateman Sean Hayes Good rib

2:56:37Yeah, because the announcer Three seasons too long

2:56:41Pat McAfee:Mm-hmm. Ha ha ha. I like what they did. Yeah, that's the Globes, baby. But once again, how does Nielsen count it? Sound on this side, but I'm watching both of them.

2:56:51Adam Schefter:They'll give it to you.

2:56:51Pat McAfee:Gotta give you both. Yeah, because if you go into it, remember, you can rewind both of them. I did not know that. Hold on, hold the phone. Yeah, if you have a quad box and you see a play you like, you can click on that quad box, rewind. Okay, so if I'm just on it, I gotta click into it? Yes, to rewind, yeah. Every time that thing does the load to go into the full screen, I get very scared. I'm always like, no, I lost it. I lost it. And then I accidentally go back one too many times, and it takes me back to the quad box where I started. And I'm like, holy fuck, where am I here? I got to get back.

2:57:24Pat McAfee:Just give me the home base. There's almost so many options. You just got to get used to it. That's why we love it. Exactly. They need it because they only need one TV this weekend because all the games are bangers. Will tonight be a banger? I think so. This is from Chili Willie at Cascading Curse. Hashtag, I don't want to overreact, but the 49ers need to keep Salah at all costs. Change the name from Golden Gate Bridge to Bob Salah Bridge and use the tolls to pay the salary if you need it. Salah got those guys believing. Oh, yeah, Garrett Waller led the team in tackles. Cry, Eagles cry. Shout out to the Niners fans.

2:57:58Pat McAfee:Shout out to Salah. I love everything about it. Let's go to the next one here, shall we? As Andrew Sotelo at Drewski12. Hashtag, I don't want to overreact, but... Chargers fucking suck. Same shit every year. Herbert sucks, Jim sucks, and Greg Roman is reading a buffet menu in the booth. Minter is going to walk the Baltimore and make the dominant again, and Chargers will be stuck with old-ass Jim and fat-fuck Roman. Jeez. Andrew Sotelo, I thought you guys were supposed to be mild-mannered out there in Southern California. Seems like they're pretty upset. Obviously, this is how Andrew Sotelo feels in a moment as they lose again with Justin Herbert as their quarterback.

2:58:36Pat McAfee:In fact, if they can figure out the offensive line and keep that offensive line healthy, I think it's a different conversation for the season as a whole and obviously Justin Herbert. But him getting asked questions about his legacy in the playoffs is certainly not a fun thing for him to have to deal with for another offseason. No, he's too good. Justin Herbert's too good to be dealing with that. You would think at some point in his career they're going to find a way to get over that hump and figure it out and have playoff success. But yeah, with injuries, everything going on, I don't know. This Patriots team, he ran into a juggernaut as well, especially defensively.

2:59:02Pat McAfee:I don't know if this is the one where 91 comes in late. and flips his soul out of his body, it appears. I mean, it was – he kept getting up, which I respect. But, yeah, this one right here, 90. And then he just kind of lays it down. I think I heard an audible, fuck me. Crown of his helmet. Yeah, but he's in the pocket, so it doesn't matter. So, he went through it. But if you look at the stats for what their offensive line is, he's been taking a lot of shots. I mean, a lot of shots. Let's go to the next ever reaction, shall we? Patrick Cronin. We need him to take less shots, by the way. We need him to play football.

2:59:36Pat McAfee:At Patrick Croner. Hashtag I don't want to overreact. But the Panthers are so fucking back, dude. The bank was on fire Saturday. And a team that was written off almost beat one of the best teams in the NFL. The league was put on notice that we belong and are building something special. Next year we go. Keep pounding. Hell yeah, I like to hear that. Almost won. Off a loss. It's Carolina. They were selling tickets for a buck. Give them a break. They're 50 cents, I think, to get in. And a beer. I mean, then just the booze bags came. and then they got too drunk. They had to leave by the second half.

3:00:07Pat McAfee:They had nobody in the stands. That's what we're talking about just a couple years ago. They're where Foxy was three, four years ago. Now he's a real fan. I like where Foxy's at right now. That's where the Panthers – I get it now. Agreed. Panthers, like, let me just get to – please, can we just get to the playoffs? That place was awesome. Cam really fucking – He was trying to break that. Definitely trying to break that thing. Just like Torbert. I like to skip. I like to skip, too. I like to skip at the end. I thought it was – Sweet video. I don't – yeah, it was incredible video. Happy they brought him back.

3:00:35Pat McAfee:Obviously, the place goes crazy. We were lucky to play against him whenever he was their quarterback in their stadium. I was lucky enough to be there. D-Bot, I think you were as well. Yep. Monday Night Football, and he ran that place. I mean, he was the maestro to the entire stadium. I was the MVP, right? Yeah, he was literally the guy. And they turn on music because he was doing something. Superman music gets played before a fourth and one or a touchdown, and then immediately afterwards, obviously, he comes up like this. He was like a maestro to that place. So seeing him back there is obviously good news, great news, I would say.

3:01:11Pat McAfee:And the Carolina Panthers social team, wrong emoji. Yeah, I got it. Yeah, I got it.

3:01:17Adam Schefter:Yeah, I was there with Cam his rookie year in Carolina and the way he brought life kind of back to that fan base because they had some success early when they had the Super Bowl run and all those great players were making their run. But when he came back from Auburn, those Carolinas were rocking And then obviously he had the MVP year and then the Super Bowl run. And then it was some post-career, some, you know, rumblings about the relationship between him and the franchise. So for him to come back for their first home playoff game since that 2015 season, that was a great environment.

3:01:46Pat McAfee:I think him and Tepper got a big photo together. Obviously there was a moment beforehand. And I'll say it again, social team, you can't be putting out the wrong fucking emoji.

3:01:53Adam Schefter:You can't do it.

3:01:55Pat McAfee:Okay.

3:01:55Adam Schefter:What'd they use?

3:01:56Pat McAfee:They used the Rockhorns, H-Town, H-Up. when his is, I believe, one pinky, one finger, one thumb, one love. It's like his entire, I don't think, you know. What are you doing? That's just how we know. Mickey Mouse, they're not there yet. They're old Panthers still. That's a different. Remember the Panther social? Yeah, very good. Remember bike? This is how we do it. Oh, yes, they're a social reveal. Yeah, they, yeah. As soon as I saw that, I was like, yes, this is awesome. And I looked at him like, there's still some work to be done, I guess, on him being all the way back. They got the stupid font, right?

3:02:38That's fair. You're right. I guess you're right. You're 100 % right. All right, let's make some picks for tonight.

3:02:47Pat McAfee:AJ, we're tied going into tonight. I want to let you know. Really? Yeah. We were the same for the second and third games on Sunday. So once we were tied after you had the Bills, I had the Jags, I knew it was going to carry into tonight. Age, it's been a hell of a year with us picking games. The public was 5-0 this weekend. What will happen tonight? We start with D-Butt. D-Butt, Pittsburgh Steelers hosting the Houston Texans. Texans favored by three on Giraffe Kings and getting 61 % of the bets. 60 % of the public bets plus have gone perfect on wildcard weekend. Will that continue tonight in your eyes?

3:03:28All right.

3:03:29Adam Schefter:I think it will. I said it earlier. I'm going to lean to the home field this week, and I'm going to go with Pittsburgh Steelers. Tone dropped the stat about the dome team. Yeah. Less than 40 degrees. It should be like that tonight. The environment, the crowd. DK Metcalf been back. I got the Steelers plus three.

3:03:47Pat McAfee:Okay. There's the D-Butts pick. He likes Aaron Rodgers and Mike Tomlin to continue in their Lombardi hunt. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? So I think this is going to be a physical and a chippy game. I think early on it's going to be very, you know, we're going to see he's pushing after the whistle. It's going to be great, like an absolute playoff matchup. Like we want to see. I think DK being back is huge for the Steelers team. I'm taking the Steelers plus three at home. Oh, okay. D-Butt and AJ both on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Akershire. Let's go to the Toxie table. At Boston Corner, who do you like?

3:04:19I was kind of expecting nobody to pick the Steelers, so it made me think like, oh, I'm really excited to pick the Steelers. But now that we are here, I'm going to pick the Texans. Just like that? Yep, just like that.

3:04:30Pat McAfee:Okay, so it's a flip-em in your eyes. It's a flip-em. Ty, your thought? Yeah, I kind of agree with Connor, but I'm also thinking that it's fucking Steeler time. Bam! So I'm going to go with the Steelers.

3:04:43Adam Schefter:Is that a new song? It's fucking Steeler time. It's fucking Steeler time.

3:04:52Pat McAfee:It's going down tonight.

3:05:06Is that what you're thinking? Yeah, that is exactly what I'm thinking. Thank you for putting the words in my mouth, actually. No problem. What? Yeah, exactly. It won't quit. It won't stop. Unrelenting. Can't stop. Won't stop. Straight from your brain. No, no, no.

3:05:19Pat McAfee:I can't believe that. Yeah, that's wild. All right. So it's fucking Steeler time. Yeah. It's fucking Steeler time. It's fucking Steeler time. Tone, who do you like? Let's have some stats real quick. Mike Tomlin, 24-9-3 at home as a dog against spread. Stroud is 0-2 on the road in the playoffs. Stroud is 1-3 under the 40 degrees. Dome teams won in 15 their last 10 years. Steelers have won 23 straight on Miami football. Those are just stats. I'm a stats guy, so I'll go with the way of the Steelers. Okay, so I guess you said it's fucking Steelers time. So now I got to decide. Do I just want to beat AJ on the weekend?

3:06:09Pat McAfee:Sure. What's our overall record? How far are we off? 8-7 and 3-7. Okay, so I can take another tie. I can. Certainly. Because everything that's just happened right here makes you feel like it's fucking Steeler time. Bad! Doesn't it? A little bit. And I kind of want to hear old mama. Yeah. You know? I kind of want to watch it. But boy. Oh, no. The Houston Texans. And the boo birds coming in. Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo! That's what they're able to do. Aaron Rodgers will know what to do, though, right? Sure. Yeah. I don't think Stroud's won an away game in the playoffs. Dusty's only one home game. Correct.

3:06:50Two and one home.

3:06:51Pat McAfee:You're the only one that took the Texans, but you just had the Steelers before everybody else said, it's fucking Steeler time. I would have taken the Steelers, but I didn't expect it. All right. I'll do a team ride with everybody. Let's do the Steelers. Okay. All right. For the graphic, I'll take this. Sounds like you're thinking that it's fucking Steeler time. Yeah, I did. I did kind of shout out to Bones. All right. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. I might change your life. We're in this thing together. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three, team. Peace. Bye-bye.

3:07:47all in one place. Sign up or activate now.

3:07:52Adam Schefter:From 30 for 30 Podcasts.

3:08:01Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami. Gunned down. The key to this case, it's Brian.

3:08:09Adam Schefter:Boy, he scrapped that. 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 under arrest. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now.