PMS 2.0 1492 - Kyle Van Noy on Conference Championship Weekend, Dana White Previews UFC 324 and the Move to Paramount+, & AJ Hawk

21:32Pat McAfee:to get there it's like i write a passage it feels like like hey it's your duty to represent for our university i think yeah it's like a younger because you got to be in there used to be early morning it did start to become felt like overnight and then it was like three four days it's almost uh like in the greek like greek life i feel like the youngs have to go through something to get in right everybody talks about it feels like that is just kind of like a university sports fan base fanatical fan base uh kind of like and they'll prove it hey yeah you gotta go represent for on game day feels like that's what it's become which game day wildly wildly lucky and thankful for you know because having a crowd show up at that thing yeah it's a pretty big deal yeah kind of important and they show up and they represent i think and i do it does feel like they're all trying to represent for like the school and i think it is mostly the youngs like it does feel like it's young.

22:29Pat McAfee:That's why that yell practice was like six-year-olds to like 95-year-olds. Crazy. Midnight to night before. Crazy. No electrical substations near that place. It is definitely going to get It's going to get very loud because a Super Bowl team is going to have to practice there. So if one of those... One of the coaches is going to say something. It being this loud, yeah, this week two weeks out from teams having to work there, like you would assume they're already maybe looking at like a USC or I don't know where any of those schools are in relation to way far away. Stanford? Stanford, San Jose State.

23:06Pat McAfee:Cal, Berkeley, right? Oakland in that area. So Cal Berkeley's up in that area. Cal, what a place. What a fun place that was. Alright, speaking of fun places, we've fallen in love with Utah. The state as a whole. And also the BYU people. Yes. I was introduced to the Mormon religion. I'm not a Mormon, but I was introduced to what a Mormon religion believer was through Austin Cawley, who's draft class of mine. He was a wide receiver who I think was on his way to have an incredible career before, had multiple concussions. A lot of success. I think his second year, he led the NFL in receptions and touchdowns and targets, I think, from Peyton Manning.

23:48Pat McAfee:So, I mean, we had Reg, obviously, who was doing his thing, would require a lot of attention. And then we had Joseph Adai, who was running back And then there was Austin Cawley who was able to just kind of eat on the outside a little bit. So he was great. But one, Mitt Romney, I believe, was running for president. Correct. And I didn't know much about politics. Still don't really know much about it except for they seemingly get really mad at each other all the time. Yeah. They're really mad at each other. I hope they get to the bottom of it. I do. Fear that they never will. But I hope that they try to at least get to the bottom of it.

24:16Pat McAfee:Mitt Romney, that's my first time ever getting money. I just got drafted. He's now going to be potentially president. I have no idea what this guy believes. I'd like to just know a little bit. So through one conditioning period, next to Austin Cawley, at the Indianapolis Colts facility, he broke it all down. You know, how we ended up boom, and then we did boom, then we take a travel, and then how's this happen, how's this happen? And the way he has operated Austin Cawley, I watched him live amongst us whenever we were going and doing things. He lived by what he said. He took a trip to Argentina, I do believe, to go south.

24:42Pat McAfee:So I appreciate the hell out of the humans that are in the Mormon religion because of that conversation. And I respect the hell out of their commitment fully to what they're doing. Are they right? I think they would say yes, but there's a lot of religions that would say that. So I got really no disrespect towards anybody out there, but I certainly respect the Mormons after knowing the entirety of it. And I get a chance to meet more of them through their incredible athleticism. And a guy then becomes friend of the program who is like, what, in his 40th year in the NFL? Yeah, basically, yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, a Storm and Mormon, an NFL vet, Super Bowl champ, ladies and gentlemen, Kyle Van Noy.

25:20Yeah, Kyle!

25:22Pat McAfee:What's up, dude? I'm on the move. I apologize for that. But I do have to say, Boston Connor, you're probably the only guy in there that's team still doing something. So shout out to you. But I'm glad you need some help on geography. USC is in Los Angeles, not in the Bay Area. So let's just get that right. Southern California, USC. San Fran Bay Area, we're talking up here a little bit. North Carolina. Of course. Oh, trees, you know, and then you go in, actually, a farm, I think. That's right. Farmland. Fireball. Yeah, bingo. Exactly. I think he's got like 40 ,000 acres. That's right. And he's on them right now.

26:00Pat McAfee:Yeah, speaking of that, okay, everybody relax. Let's talk about the championship round here. New England Patriots are still alive. Obviously, you had a lot of history with the New England Patriots. Can you tell us about that particular team and how Vrabel was able to make them so damn dominant? The defense, outrageous. and then Drake May in his second year might win the damn MVP. What are your thoughts on the entire New England turnaround and why is Vrabel the right guy up there, you think? I think there's two things, right? It's Mike Vrabel being the spokesperson for that. I also think it's Josh McDaniels.

26:35I think he needs a lot of credit for the development of Drake May. I mean, he's been in MVP's talks. So just him elevating Drake May to an elite level of playing football, passing the football. And then he's got this belief, Mike Vrabel does, that he's the best coach, which you could argue he is this year. But he has the belief of that with his players, the belief that he makes every player think they're a star player. He has the relationship with them. You see him after the game, he daps the players up. He's doing his, like, no look with the wag, you know, the stank face. That just shows you the amount of love he has for his players to know the identity of each player for the relationship base to where those players want to do anything and everything to not let him down on a football field.

27:33And then he's done a great job of creating that culture, that winning environment that has been so accomplished up there. He's creating it in a new version. It's like the Patriots 2.0 to where it's his thing. He has nothing to do with the past. Obviously, he's part of the past, but he started his new wave. It starts with him creating this awesome culture of relationships, and then Drake May playing at an unbelievable pace, as well as when you pay somebody like Milton Williams, who's been outstanding in the playoffs. He's, to me, been the most dominant player on either side of the football. This whole postseason has been him.

28:17I think it's awesome what they got going on. I love Boston fans. I can only imagine what it's like up there. And then to go into a place called Mile High, where they've had a couple problems with and seeing how the past has been up there. Obviously, it's different circumstances. They're going to play a high-powered defense as well as Stiddy. Stiddy has a lot to prove. Stiddy gets to play his former team, Jarrett Stidham. I'm excited for him and his opportunity. He's waited a long time in the NFL and has worked, and he's going to come prepared. uh sean payton does a really good job getting his team ready to go especially the quarterback and you know i wouldn't be surprised you could see a nick fulls 2.0 with stidham going in there in the afc championship and doing his thing but you know the patriots they're rolling right now they just look like a team that loves each other that's playing with a lot of confidence yeah i

29:18Pat McAfee:agree a lot of confidence a lot of love it is the championship and the broncos obviously have earned the number one seed in the home field advantage. Tell me a little bit more about Stiddy, maybe turning Denver into Stiddy City going forward. What do you think he has? And were you teammates with him? So it sounded like you know him pretty well. Anytime you're in the NFL this long, it's quarterback position, you're certainly good. Buildings think you're good. That is why you're still there, even if you haven't had the chance. People just aren't backup quarterbacks for six years, seven years, just because people like you as a person.

29:49Pat McAfee:There is a lot of things that have to go into the veteran backup role, which I guess is what he is at now at this stage of his career. Tell me what you know about Stidi and then obviously second preseason game. I think it went for like 300 yards or something. That's preseason. That's different. But the ball left his hand and went to somebody else's hands for a lot of yards just recently. As you mentioned earlier, I've been in the NFL now for 40 years. It seems like I have so many teammates all over the NFL, and Stidi is one of them. One thing about Stidi that I loved about him, Even as a rookie, he was very cocky.

30:24I like that in a quarterback. I like a cocky quarterback just because they believe they can make any throw. They can win any game. They can do it all. Now, what I don't like about that is that can get you in trouble, right? Because you think like that you can make some mistakes because you think you can make all those throws. but knowing steady and how he's been able to prepare and how he sees the game. He knows he has a good defense. He knows he has to take care of the ball. And I think you're going to see him just facilitate it to his playmakers. I think he's going to make plays when they need to be made.

31:03I think you're going to see him scramble a little bit more. I can see that. I think there's space to scramble sometimes against the Patriots defense, but Stiddy's going to try to deliver the football in his playmaker's hands. He's going to give his guys chances, especially when it comes to the red area. You're going to see him give his guy chances to go up and grab the football. I think he's going to really hone in on Cortland Sutherland, who got off to a late start last game with Bo Nix. I think he caught his first pass in the fourth quarter. I think they're going to go early to him to get him going.

31:39They're going to lean on the offensive line saying, hey, give me protection. I'm not like Bo Nix. I need more protection. Let me read this out a little bit more. And I'm expecting a really good football game. This team is destined themselves. Sean Payton, you know, going in, basically getting waxed a couple years ago by getting 70 on their heads put on to now an AFC championship carrying a$32 million hit with Russell Wilson. he's ready to you know take the the show again he's like i'm here don't put me in other conversation with coaches don't ask me questions on a podium that i don't want to answer like he's

32:21Pat McAfee:gonna let you know i'm excited yeah i like sean payton back in the spotlight as well and i like he's still got his sauce and i like his shoe game still very clean i appreciate sean payton being back up there mike vrabel obviously uh coach of the year candidate wow what this guy has done is incredible he's in the Patriots ring of honor he'll probably be a first ballot Hall of Fame coach whenever it's all said and done and then whenever you think about the NFC Sean McVay this guy still looks like he's 25 people are already projecting him to be in the Hall of Fame and then there's this new head coach basically that comes into Seattle and has a whole new era go ahead Ty Schmidt yeah Kyle you were with McDonald in Baltimore in 2023 and if I'm not mistaken you absolutely flourished this year that year and I think had a career high in sacks what makes him what makes his defense I guess so hard to deal with and when you saw that he got this job are you surprised that he's been this successful as quickly as he has been no I'm not surprised thanks for the whiteboard question Schmitty appreciate it I do I'm not surprised at all because Mike Mack is a nerd when it comes to football he's a I think he's a savant when it comes to football on the defensive side of the ball.

33:35He really loves it. I think he's done a really good job in the two-year build so far. He's got a bunch of pit bulls on defense, and we've seen that. We saw that the last game against the Niners. Yeah, they were beat up, but that doesn't matter. Nobody said anything all year when they were winning, but when they got whooped, then they didn't have enough guys, and I understand that. But you just saw pit bulls get unleashed off their leash. Like that's how he, that's the environment he creates. He creates this dog pack mentality, this wolf mentality, where it's not just one guy stopping the offense.

34:19It's everybody. It's all 11. All 11 being on the same page. As I like to describe it, they're all connected. They all have leashes on each other, like ready to be let go off the next play. And then the leashes come back on for the play. And then as soon as the play goes, Who let the dogs out?

34:46Pat McAfee:It's McDonald's. Yeah. And then you take that dog mentality with Mike Mack being a nerd and putting guys and making them do crazy stuff, whether it's pre-snap where they make it really hard on the quarterback and then post-snap, it's a totally different picture for the quarterback. And that's why I think Purdy struggles so much against them because of the game within the game. The pre-snap versus post-snap, oh, shit, there's 10 people blitzing. It seems like, oh, no, there's only three guys rushing me. So you just never know with Mike Mack, and he's done a really good job of creating that environment on offense where he wants to go on the ground pound game.

35:35He wants to do a really good job of using Kenneth Walker. I see them using him a lot. But where it can get dicey, I hate to bring this up, Sam Darnold. I hate how people call him Sam Darnold. but I don't like that.

35:53Pat McAfee:No, no, it sounds like that's what you're saying he is. Why are you saying that? Because he led the league in turnovers. Oh, no, Kyle, you're not saying other people are saying. You're saying same, Darnold. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Other people are saying this. I'm just reading what people are saying, and I'm like, okay, I see where people are going for on this. You can't get in a drop-back game. And if the Rams get him in a drop back game, I think it could be a problem. No, he's not the same, Darnold. He's not the same, Darnold. Where I respect Sam Darnold is that even with the turnovers when they played last against the Rams at home to clinch, you know, going to San Fran to clinch the division and all that, you saw him bounce back from some turnovers.

36:45Yeah, they got to help Shahid with the touchdown, but then to march down the field with the game on the line. Sam put the team on his back and came out with victory. I really like that, and I think that's going to be able to help them in the playoffs when these next two games, they're going to come down to the wire.

37:04Pat McAfee:Okay, so you're saying, other people are saying same darn, and I'm saying, you know, lead to leading turnovers. I saw a couple of miscues here. They had a kickoff return to the house. I can tell you that, but what we're all hoping, for the good of Sam Donald, is that it's not the same Donald that we saw in a couple different moments this year. And also, McDonald understands the situation. Felt like there was a lot of this, a lot of this. Let's get him comfortable in these big moments. A lot of play action, get him comfortable. Yeah, let's take it. Let's make this. One more time, one more time.

37:32That was a good fake. Yeah, you see that?

37:35Pat McAfee:You see that? You see that? Boom, bang, pow. Watch out, Peyton. Watch out, Peyton. I was third-string quarterback. Okay. No big deal. Behind Peyton. Yeah. Yeah, so you need to. Yeah. You got tape, though. You got tape. You got that pass. You got that pass. I got two passes. If you look at just the passes on both of them, I think people will respect it. No laces on the first one, too. It's a big one. Just so we understand how things go. A little bit of that right there. I'm from Pittsburgh. We grow up playing football. Pump pass and kick. Yeah, pump pass and kick world champ. Got booed. No big deal.

38:10Pat McAfee:Perfect. Yeah. Yeah, it was maybe the biggest heel move in the history of pump, pass, and kick. Probably. Yeah, got booed by the – Doesn't Andy Reid have that too? So he what? He was big with a helmet on. He didn't do – Full pads. Yeah, he had the whole thing. I don't know if they booed him. Did they boo the big kid? I think they all were just like, oh, what's that? No, they didn't do that. There's no way they did that. There's no way. That's another Brigham legend right there. That's the guy right there. Okay, so that's what I'm saying. You Mormons go to ball. Legit. It feels like you guys love ball and are good at ball.

38:44Pat McAfee:And the investment in sports over there at BYU right now, gigantic. It's like I respect them. They better be their rich over there. They got a bunch of money over there. They. This guy. Yeah, he's been in the NFL for 100 years. Now, on that note, you've been with a lot of coaches. What you just said about McDonald in the year that you had your best year, you said he is a nerd who also wants a dog mentality. You mentioned something about a coach and who you think should get hired at a place. Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, Kyle, another one from the whiteboard boys. It feels as though you think X's and O's for the Ravens is the most important thing for the head coach.

39:18You know, we see a lot of the CEO types have success. Vrabel, I mean, being one of them right now, but also the play caller, both offense or defense. McDonald being a defensive guy. You know, McVay being that X's and O's, offensive guy for the Rams. Can you elaborate on what you were thinking for the Ravens? Do you think offense with Lamar? Do you think offense is kind of good because they have Lamar need a defense? What did you mean by that for Baltimore? Yeah, this is a great conversation. I want you to think about for a sec, how many leader of men coaches are there in the NFL? You could name Harbaugh, Tomlin, but he's out.

39:56Vrabel, who else? MCDC. Exactly. My point is that this young generation, they enjoy X's and O's coaches. They want to know where they can have success, see success. They want you to put them in positions. They want you to teach them, okay, I see you in this spot, and then go out on a walkthrough, do it, and then see it in a game. they respond really good to that from my point of view of being around X's and O's guys that's what this league is turning into you look at the teams that had success in the playoffs Leon Cohen, X's and O's, offensive corner Ben Johnson, X's and O's, Shanahan, X's and O's Mike Mack, X's and O's I still believe Vrabels and X's and O's type of guy at the end of the day whether it's the brains behind a little bit of the defense as well as offensive x's and o's he's been around football so much that he is x's and o's i know he's a leader of men but he still knows x's and o's at a high level let alone he understands situations probably the best in the nfl right now but i just see this generation of players coming up enjoy x's and o's a lot and that's what they want to see and I see the Ravens going up that way whether it's defensive X's and O's or offensive X's and O's I don't think it matters what I think matters or I don't think matters which side of the ball it is at the end of the day X's and O's where you can talk shop with players and have guys like Lamar Jackson or Kyle Hamilton be like okay I see that yeah because

41:47Pat McAfee:I think the new generation, I think Rich Rodriguez said this. He said back in the day when he was coaching, because he had to evolve is what he said. Back in the day, I would tell somebody, hey, we need you to run through the wall. You might have to pump them up a little bit, and then they would run through the wall. Now you ask guys to run through the wall, they're going to say, well, why? I would like to know why. What is the objective? Are we trying to get to the other side of the wall? What is the... And you've got to just explain to them why we are trying to do this. And if you explain to them why and they buy it, it's like all right i understand that'll create value i understand that'll work that is what it would do it feels like the new generation and i hate to say the word enlightened but it does feel like they need to be explained a little we would like to because we have access to so much information now and shit that has happened in the past and what has not happened what how something has worked and examples now than we didn't have in the past so we're just gonna have to hear why this is it that's what you're saying right now is what these yeah and i think the the best person of what you're describing is Mike McDonald.

42:44The way he's able to set up the beginning of his week, whether it's defense, I'm sure now it's at a head coach level, but when I was in the room with him, he would be able to describe how this game's going to go, how we want to play it, why we want to play it, what are the QB strengths, what is the offensive strengths, and try to take advantage of their weaknesses and I think that's why you see him being successful is because he's found his rhythm on how explaining how it's gonna go and then going out and executing it and getting everybody to believe I believe Mike Vrabel does the same thing at the beginning of the week um he's gonna explain you know from the game of what he thinks why it should go this way when when probably the dam's gonna break and how it's gonna break and when it does you're going to be looking at me smiling on the sideline like you were right so that's what i think the difference with some of these coaches i'm sure mcveigh does the same way when he goes into this offensive meeting with stafford this is how we're going to attack this defense this is y x y and z and everybody's like well yeah i mean you're right let's do it so hey kyle that's why ben johnson was

44:02Pat McAfee:the bell of the ball because he was the hey we're going to run this offense this guy's going to be wide-ass open every single time. Whenever this happens, this guy's going to be wide-ass open. It's like he is the X's and O's guy, which is why, and with a dog mentality, obviously, clearly, we understand that. Just like it sounds like McDonald is on the defensive side. So maybe that's why Caleb and him did get along, because Caleb just wanted somebody to explain, hey, if you do this, this will work. This is a guaranteed success if you go ahead and do that. It's like, okay, then if I just buy in, we'll be able to go and do the thing.

44:33Pat McAfee:Fascinating, because there's a lot of coaching vacancies right now Kyle, a lot of people are trying to make this decision right now, you know, and there's interviews taking place. Ten teams had head coaching vacancies. Two MVPs currently don't have a head coach. It's crazy where we're at right now, and it sounds like you have a strong statement of who should be getting these jobs. It's people that are basically, we need the football nerds that are up there that can explain it, and then if they have the dog mentality, that's the home run. as opposed to dog mentality, we'll find the football news is what you're saying.

45:06Yep. I do believe that's how it's going. It's going X's and O's and find the dog mentality after you get the X's and O's because of what you explained with Rich Rod, right? I think he explained that really well. Sorry, I got out of the car. My leg's dead. Oh, no. They're asleep. You got to shake it.

45:26Pat McAfee:You got to shake it. You got to shake it. You got to shake. Let me shake that thing. I think you hit it right there on the head. Honestly, I think you really got to come in and show those X's and O's mentality. And then when you get that X's and O's, you can build that relationship to then get that dog pack mentality out of folks. You can start calling people out a little bit more and they know you're coming from the right space, you know, at the right time. All right, last question. What are you doing? Are you playing still? How cold is Utah doing with this super storm we got going on right now, this super winter storm?

46:06Pat McAfee:Are you guys out of it? I think that's on the East Coast, bro. We're struggling to get some snow, but the mountains look beautiful. Wow. He said they earlier talking about people with money. That's crazy. What's that? Yeah. That's a beautiful view. It is. You've earned it. Anyways, we're enjoying life right now. I'm super pissed. Whatever happens, happens. I'm pumped. I would love to keep playing, but you never know. One of these teams got to offer you. Hopefully it's the Ravens to come back. I love the Ravens. They were so good. It was so fun. I would love to be a part of what they got going on.

46:50I've built really good relationships with guys like Kyle Hamilton, Roquan Smith, and Lamar Jackson, even Dee Hen. it's been really really fun I'm just pumped I'm just enjoying everything I appreciate y 'all showing that INT real quick make me look good but I'm just enjoying life hopefully that you'll see me soon I hope to see you at Super Bowl no matter of fact you will see me at Super Bowl I'll be hanging with you guys a little bit I'm excited about that yeah that's great news I'm just enjoying life right now life's good

47:25Pat McAfee:All right, whatever comes your way, you'll accept and appreciate. And I think that's why we respect and appreciate the hell out of you. Good luck the rest of this offseason. Can't wait to catch up with you very soon. We'll see you at Super Bowl. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. We'll see you in a couple weeks. Can't wait to see you out there. And congrats on everything. That view of the mountains you've earned, brother. You worked really hard for that. So enjoy it all. Yes, sir. Much love, guys. Have a blessed day. And let's have a great weekend. Let's get some good football games. Whether who cares who wins or loses, let's get some good competitive games where the refs stay out of it and we just get to play football.

48:03How about that?

48:04Pat McAfee:I like that. Their contract's up, too. Hey, their contract's up, too. The refs' contract is up, Kyle. Massive. It could be a very different year next year. Yeah, their contract's up in May. I like that. Yeah, yeah. Everybody. One thing I think they should do is I think refs should do press conferences after games. just like coaches and players they should have to go to the podium as a unit you have one spokesman spokesperson but whoever makes the call has to walk their ass up and explain you know what they see and how all that i think it would be awesome it might actually as opposed to just uh throwing rocks at them too them saying in real time we thought bang and bang we now know that we didn't we got that one wrong and obviously we can't go back in time that could also be a cool thing but i don't know if they have that in them no way i don't know if they have that in them you listen to these ref analysts on tv it's almost like they got a memo like hey our contract's up in may let's let's make sure we're you know you know let's make sure we're it's almost like they all got a memo and they're like yeah you're right you're right you're right let's be good to the group here as a whole because they're all just like ah you know maybe and then we're all watching like hey i would we know ball now at this stage i think it's a little different than it was maybe 15, 20 years.

49:17Speaking of controversies, what would... You guys don't have to dive into it, but does everyone in agreeance that that play with Buffalo was an interception, right? It's not that hard to see interception, not a catch.

49:31Pat McAfee:Okay, so you played defense. AJ and Darius on your side completely, defensive players. AQ Shipley said, basically with disgust, that was 100 % a catch whenever he was down. Of course he did. And it wasn't an interception. Joe Burrow came out Although on the defensive side, he said – Of course Joe B. did. Of course he did. Okay. That's hilarious to think about. Just the reason why you just said what you just said. All of it that went into that thought there. But on that note, defensive guys very clearly, openly, yes. Outside of Joey B., from what we have seen, offensive guys are saying, what are we doing here?

50:06Pat McAfee:Todd goes to the runner every single time. That's an interception. I agree, though. My first reaction and current reaction is that's an interception. It's fast time. Don't slow it down. Look at it. Fast time. Fast time. Bang, bang, pick. It's the same thing with Denzel Ward's pick against TJ Higgins. Bang, bang, pick. It was a little faster pick. Same thing. Sorry, Buffalo. We have a love-hate relationship. More hate than love, probably, but that's a pick, guys. Sorry. Hey, they're entering a new era up there, brother. McDermott's gone. McDermott's gone. It is. That press conference. Woo. Yeah, we need the owners.

50:48Pat McAfee:We need the owners on microphones more than we thought. Bashadi is the man. Bashadi, he's the man. He's the best. He is, honestly, he's awesome. He's so fun to hang out with. Do you know him? So you know this guy? I had no idea what this guy was. I think I heard the name. Bashadi's really good. Bashadi's really good. I'd never seen him. He sits down at that press conference. It's like every word that comes out of this guy's mouth is awesome. I didn't know that. Let's keep this guy talking. He's amazing. He would be an awesome person to interview and just hang out with. I think he's honestly so cool.

51:20I think what's remarkable about him is that he's from Baltimore, raised in Baltimore, still has the same friends, still keeps in contact with them, and has built a monstrosity of a business. And then you can tell he knows football and understands football, by the way, and how elegant he answers uh how how just great he answers you know being on a podium like that being in front of press and not having any cards notes nothing he's gonna tell you how he sees it and then he's gonna go back to what he loves to do golf hang out and run his team from afar i think he does an amazing job from top down the ravens organization is first class and i'm excited for whoever they pick as the head coach.

52:09They're walking into a great situation.

52:12Pat McAfee:You're the man, Kyle. We'll see you soon. Ladies and gentlemen, Kyle Vanderloin. Yes, sir.

52:18Pat McAfee:Where was he going? What was he doing? I don't know. He's running some errands. Got an Uber to the gas station or something. Picked up a couple snacks. Maybe he usually does a walk. Then he got outside. Too cold. I'm going to go back in. I'm going to Uber. It's 10 o 'clock. It's 10.52. It's about to be a love. That view of the mountains was beautiful, and it feels like everywhere in Utah has one. Yes, it does. Like everywhere you are in Utah, it's like somehow a building never blocks a view of an incredible mountain. What a beautiful city. That lake in the summer? The salt one? Yeah. Oh, the home of the Real Salt Lake.

52:56Pat McAfee:Yeah, yeah. You're talking about the MLS. Yeah, of course. Real Salt Lake. That's where I started. Covered a lot of things there. X's and O's guy, fascinating. Hey, this generation needs to be told exactly why they need to do what they need to do. But if you can do that, you got them. So whenever you start thinking about the interviews that have taken place, how many of these guys exist. You know, Chris Shula, I guess, still out there. Obviously, now he's still coaching in the playoffs. His defense is going to be on display against the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship on Sunday, primetime Championship Sunday.

53:27Pat McAfee:So I guess we have no idea what's going to take place until after these games end because a lot of interviews are going to be taking place with the coordinators from the teams that are participating. Yeah, the Rams specifically, obviously, with Shula. He's the big one left still out there. And then Kubiak, the OC for Seattle, is also a big one. Patriots don't really have anyone. Broncos, maybe a little bit, but not a ton. So it's really the Rams who you're looking at after this, as far as coordinators or whatever that can get interviewed in person after this round. But no, there is a lot of teams with a lot of coaching candidates still left up.

53:59Pat McAfee:Do we know where anybody's going right now? The rumors. We knew Harbaugh was going to the Giants. Yeah. I don't think so. Like, Minter is heavily rumored to go to the Ravens. If you could throw that back up there just so I can. Thank you. Minter is heavily rumored to the Ravens. But, like, other than that, Dayball, I know, is the favorite to the Bills. Shula is the favorite to the Steelers. I believe Grant Yudinski is the favorite to the Browns. He's the Jags OC. He looks like Johnny Manziel a little bit. A little bit. Right? You know what everybody's saying? Yeah. Like, from the one photo they post, it looks like if Johnny was to shave.

54:32He took a rolling pin and rolled it over Giant Man's elk. I think he's like 6 '6". He's a big son of a bitch.

54:38Pat McAfee:Okay, so you do have to. Yeah, stretcher. Yeah, one of those. Yeah, exactly. Like people try to do before. Four horses, yeah. Yeah. Does that work, by the way? It would be cool if I could just go to 6 '4", 6 '5", all of a sudden. I've been told if you hang from a bar every day for two minutes, you grow six, seven inches. Six to seven inches. I could be. That's how Wemby got that tall. Bingo. He just grew six, seven inches like the last four years. Oh, I didn't know that. Just before the draft, they said maybe we do basketball? From hanging, yeah. Okay. Let's get you tall. And they put weighted ankle braces.

55:09Pat McAfee:People started doing Pilates pretty heavily. That became like a real thing. Yeah. And that's one, the stretching, right? Yeah. Like when you're strapped in. Yeah. Things and going up and down. It looks hard. It looks very hard. Yeah. So much so, I've been too intimidated to even try it. Yeah. It looks like yoga with weightlifting, I'm not flexible. I don't know if I can handle what they got going on. But everybody that comes out of Pilates is always like properly fit. Great shape. Yeah, great shape. But they've been strapped into things. Exactly. Doing all types of stuff. I did yoga for like a three-week period.

55:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, because somebody told me it would help because I haven't been able to touch my toes since I'm a kid. That's why I never got the Presidential Fitness Award because of the blue box. So stupid. I couldn't even make to my shin, so it was always a negative number. I never won the presidential one. I won the regular one. I should have won the presidential one every single time. Stretching is overrated. Couldn't touch my damn toes. Never been able to do it. Still can't do it. Have to be the only punter in the history of the NFL that can't touch his toes. So I go to yoga one off season because I'm going to get flexible.

56:06Pat McAfee:Pull my hamstring first time in my life. Never doing that again. Yeah. Smart. Boy, it was hot in those hot yogas. It's nice. It is. It's a good sweat. But then you learn about how that was created by who. Did you ever watch that talk? No, but that's everything. Yeah, I guess you can't really do that anymore. Who created it? Somebody that wanted you to know what happened in those hot yogas. Rich Rich. I don't remember what the guy's name was He had a lot of Koresh in him There was a run of documentaries there where we were learning a lot about a lot Oh yeah Some Mafia on Hogan Oh, that's Tulsk.

56:41Pat McAfee:Yeah, it's Tulsk. It's not a dog. Or. There might be. Maybe, though. We don't know. Hour two will be on the other side. We got AJ Hawk joining us and Dana White. First fight six weeks coming up this weekend on Paramount+. Can't wait for that convo. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We'll see you on the other side.

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58:10Pepper in a tiny quilt so it feels at home Oh how tender That'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:football i think i got all the words and football is the greatest we have a massive weekend ahead where we will decide our afc champion and our nfc champion to see who will be battling in the biggest game of the year ratings up into the right for all of ball including the nfl we assume the super bowl will break numbers that i don't think anybody could have ever predicted the issue with the numbers now versus the numbers then is there's such a change in consumption habits from people you know live sports seemingly the only thing that continues to bring the juice got to be there when it happens you know streaming has kind of changed it it's like all right i'll get to it whenever i got some time i don't have to change my life to watch something sports seemingly the only thing that has maintained a sense of got to see it when it happens where was eye when it happened and i think the super bowl regardless of who represents the afc and the nfc is going to do a number that is going to be outrageous especially with how popular ball has been so we're incredibly thankful for these four teams for representing the league in battling it out and maybe getting some luck and certainly some dog mentality to get them to the sunday that precedes the super bowl the sunday that tells us there's only three games left we have two on Sunday one at the Super Bowl the Talks of Tab was here at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt.

59:56Pat McAfee:Conman your team still in it congrats to you. 28 teams at home. We started with 32 counting down to one now we're at four almost at a Super Bowl champion and your team still in it yeah it's unbelievable to your point I wonder if they're doing this on Peacock and NBC kind of mix in the streaming with the Super Bowl since they have it this year But yeah, I'm jacked up. When you think about that Super Bowl matchup, I think everybody on here and everybody in the world outside of Colorado should be saying, hey, let's go Pats. Because you don't want to see Jared Stidham in the Super Bowl. All right, let's just be honest.

1:00:30Okay, we got two of the MVP favorites. The Patriots versus the Rams is a magical Super Bowl matchup. How many times in NFL history has the top two MVP candidates faced off in the Super Bowl? I'll tell you, none. And I don't know if that's real. But I'm going to tell you right now that that is what everybody wants, just solid football. And I'm not saying Stidham isn't going to put on a show. I am generally concerned about that, especially when the line is moving down to 4.5 when it should be going to 6.5. But still, just can't believe we are here. This is one of the better football days of the year just because it's two games.

1:01:05It's 3 o 'clock and 6.30. It's great start times. It's great end times. And you're not overwhelmed. It is kind of the last, wow, we have multiple days, and multiple massive games on the same day. Let's just enjoy the hell out of it and the Patriots to win. When's the Pro Bowl? Tuesday of Super Bowl. I thought it was Thursday.

1:01:25Pat McAfee:Yeah, it's either Tuesday or Wednesday. So what's the week after championship week before Super Bowl? Oh, you know what it is. What's that? Royal Rumble. Duh. Shut up. Where? But is it the – Wait, what Royal Rumble? It's the Riyadh Rumble, right? I have to go all the way to Riyadh? Yeah, I know. Oh, the Triple R. It sounded the way you said that. What you said, where, is as if you were excited to go. Yeah, I have to. Where? Yeah, never missed one. You certainly have. Can't wait for Cena to win. Last year was... Well, Cena's retired. He's not coming back. I don't know. I saw that untold documentary that you were in.

1:02:05It's unreal. Okay, this is... This guy's the biggest WWE fan I know. Yeah. So, I mean, you know, that's... He's been doing this all week.

1:02:13Pat McAfee:because he's been thinking about Joe Hendry. Oh, really? Yeah. I mean, he just said his name. What if he would have just popped up right here? Oh, my God. That would have been insane. Where? He's not here, actually. Neither is Cena, even though. You never know. Yeah, so that's what the weekend is, right? I guess Royal Rumble. Because then that used to be Pro Bowl, right? They slotted that in that weekend. Now it is moved to the following. So we have nothing through that weekend football-wise? Is that accurate? I don't think so. Shouldn't there be something? I feel like there should be some skills challenge.

1:02:43Pat McAfee:It is. I looked. It's on Tuesday. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who's in an attic in Ohio. He might have an idea on what should be taking place over the weekend. Maybe Roger Goodell will listen to him. He's the all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. He's a college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, and a Ryder Cup winner. Ladies and gentlemen, that's AJ Hawk. Yeah, Hawk. Walker, what are we supposed to do the weekend before the Super Bowl weekend? I think Tone told us. Tone's been a WWE mark for years and years. So, yeah, he's going to be flying out to Riyadh.

1:03:08I guess he would just let us know how it's going over there.

1:03:11Pat McAfee:Okay, so that's what Tone's doing, and we'll certainly watch. But then when that's done, there's no ball? We got no ball that weekend? Is this the first time they've moved the Pro Bowl to midweek? I think so, yeah, because usually it was the Thursday and Friday before or whatever it has been. We could watch. They should do the radio row race where guys earn points for the AFC, AFC racing run just in the middle of the day. Between media members or the players? I think they would clear it out and say, Hey, ladies and gentlemen, the AFC is currently racing the NFC for Pro Bowl points. What if they just made it throughout a day?

1:03:44Pat McAfee:Pretty sweet. You know, in like a dunk contest downtown. Like, hey, we got AFC Dunker taking on NFC Dunker. It's 2.30 Eastern on YouTube or something like that. These are for Pro Bowl points that are accumulated through the entire week. Boom. We're at the high dive, you know, maybe. Jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. Bingo. They have Red Bull athletes out there. People do that all the time, actually. Okay, if you do it back. Is that what they're going to do? Is that the plan? Do we know if that is the plan or what is the plan? NFL-wise, professional-wise, I do not know. Those are all really, really good ideas, and I don't know if this tickles anybody's fancy or not, but I do know the Senior Bowl is being played that weekend.

1:04:20I thought so.

1:04:21Pat McAfee:Okay, okay, that's good news. And there's a lot of big names committing right now. And I am a Senior Bowl. Hall of Famer. Helmet receiver, yeah. Yes, Hall of Famer. Don't sell yourself short on that one, buddy. I am pumped about the Senior Bowl, okay? having its thing happen. I do appreciate that it feels like names we know are playing in it. Yeah. Because it did feel like all bowl games were about to be non-existent, including senior bowl for a while because guys were scared to get hurt. And I don't know if it's more years of college, so guys feel like they're third, fourth rounders who played six years of college.

1:04:57Pat McAfee:So maybe the senior bowl is something that can help and show them and they just feel like they have to play ball or whatever the case. I hope it continues to go up and to the right, especially if the Pro Bowl is going to become a midweek operation, which it feels like it might in the end. And they should think about doing the daily events throughout the days. The daily events would make sense. All of a sudden, we're sitting there doing a show and we see a couple guys come zooming by and clip a couple people that didn't really know the race was happening. Why not? Justin Jefferson just ran a sprint.

1:05:26Pat McAfee:Who's he racing against? It was the AFC. NFC's up 2-0. They just raced down Broadway or whatever. It would at least And then the guys only need to be pro bowlers for, what, 30 minutes? We just need you at your event. Yep. And then you can kind of go do it. Something to think about, just kind of take over the whole week. Got a March Madness-like of events and challenges of AFC versus NFC. And then do they ever play football? Probably not, right? I just got a text from a reliable source. Pro Bowl Tuesday is super weak. It's a flag game in the convention center. What? Wow, what time? Hold on, let me ask the other guy.

1:06:02Or my source.

1:06:04Pat McAfee:Okay. Okay. That's Stanford Steve letting us know. He might be on the call. Is the other guy on the call? He might be on the call. He might be on the call. He might be on the call. He might be. Yeah, is he doing a snap? All-time center. Have to go under center. No shotgun. Get in here. No cup, guys. No cup. I'm wearing boxers. Other guy. Other cup's in great shape right now. I would not be surprised if that was the case. We can't wait to celebrate the Pro Bowl over there in Santa Clara slash San Francisco as we will spend Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, live from Radio Row at the Super Bowl. Radio Row is obviously a very exciting time.

1:06:39Pat McAfee:It's very chaotic. The shows are insane, and it's a celebration of ball and a celebration of another season for us. So we can't wait to get out there. I don't know if we're going to be there for the Tuesday one. I might have to change plans. Yeah, maybe. Oh, might have to get out there for the 8 p.m. That's Eastern? Probably. 5 p.m. local. Think about that. 5 p.m. on a Tuesday. Inside. Good place. It's going to be packed. What if it does look not good? I guess if it's a convention center. It looked cool. The last two times I think they've done it, they did a little convention center, like the throwing thing.

1:07:11Is Dano throwing? Yeah.

1:07:13Pat McAfee:Isn't it normally like a beach tournament or whatever, like a beach game like somebody has? I don't know. There's a beach one during the Super Bowl, usually like Snoop Dogg. That's what I'm saying. That's normally the week of Super Bowl game that happens in the shit. Like I think the beach one happened. Yeah. I remember Drewski running out there. Mm-hmm. This is taking place at a beach one? Sounds like it is. I think the other ones looked always good because it was at, like, a Disney property. So, you know, you probably got a lot of people that are going to the park anyway. And it's just like, oh, yeah, you know, hour and a half.

1:07:44Like, we'll go over there, and then we'll go back to, you know, Epcot. Tuesday. I don't know how many people are going to be driving down to this convention center in San Francisco on a Tuesday night to watch a flag football game.

1:07:55Pat McAfee:Okay, so you're saying not to turn out? I don't think so. What do you think, Connor? It's part of the whole fan convention thing. Remember, there's always the big fan fest that goes on around the Super Bowl. Yeah, but we don't. Remember, because we went out there. What did we get? We went out there Monday night one time. There's nobody there. It's going to be – LA. The internet is telling me it's going to be in the Moscone Center, which is the convention center, with a compact field and a large ballroom. Okay, so – They don't need a ball. You don't need a bunch. It's previewing Olympic flag football, so I don't know if they're doing the same rules, same size as the Olympic flag football.

1:08:26How many seats? If it's a ballroom, it can't be too many.

1:08:30Pat McAfee:Yeah, it'll look like... They'll bust kids in, too, if you need to. Yeah, absolutely. It'll be jammed. Yeah, especially with all superstars. What's that, Ty? What's the problem? I mean, you know what? They could just say, hey, we don't give a fuck about this thing anymore. That's why we're moving it to the Tuesday night of Super Bowl week at 5 o 'clock. Because we don't give a shit. None of the players do. It says the main ballroom. You could get 4 ,000 people in their seats. I don't know if that's with a football field in or not. That's not with a football field in there. Well, it's an Olympic-sized flag football field.

1:09:02Pat McAfee:Do we know the Dems? We don't know the Dems. We don't know the Dems. You've got to hope. Well, I guess inside there there will be no precip. That's huge. That is huge. You're right. Did you learn anything about the cold that is coming to the United States of America Midwest? I saw a couple of trees online, people saying, hey, yeah, things are starting to explode over here. Bob Ray sent me a tweet. It looked like he could have maybe Googled this too. Which kind of worries me a little bit. The fact that trees could do that without getting lightning through them is crazy. And also, let's keep our heads on a swivel out there.

1:09:35Pat McAfee:And also, let's maybe not go out there. See, this is the difference between warm states and where I have lived my whole life. There's just times where it's not legal to go outside. Don't go out there. Hey, humans aren't supposed to go outside. and you don't get to control how many days those are. Like this is about to be one of those. It's nowhere near the end. We're going to have more of these. There's more on the way. It makes you think to yourself, man, living in a cold, you got to be tougher than people living in a warm. For sure. Oh, yeah. But also, man, the warm people aren't kind of controlled by the sky nearly as much as we are.

1:10:08Pat McAfee:What does that do to the kind of mindset and mental of people? Because we are confined to homes throughout large portions of months during these times. And this is going to be another one. This seems like it's about to be another one coming through. Well, and that's what's crazy is because typically when you are from this type of climate, like even if it's super cold, like you're still like, hey, if I got to go do something, I'll go outside. I'll get my car. I'll do it. When you can't go outside when there's no precip, that's, I mean, that's really saying something because it's usually the precip that's kind of hindering you from doing whatever it is you got to do.

1:10:38Pat McAfee:Yeah, it does get slippy everywhere. And then just getting to where you got to get to gets a little bit slippery. You learn a lot about yourself when you can't leave your house. Yeah, it's called house arrest. Bingo. Tried it before? No. Me either. Sound like you're really sure of that. Let's go ahead and run a background check. Yeah, definitely. There it is. The COVID times were certainly, you know, house arrest for a lot of folks, which I assume that'll have some long-form effect on somebody somewhere. I don't know. Happy we're all okay, by the way. We made it. Yep. We made it. Let's go. We made it.

1:11:12Pat McAfee:We all did. Everybody's watching. You know, you made it. Hard times. It's going to be tough to explain that time to anybody. it's going to be tough to explain that speaking of a time has travis kelsey's time come and went in the nfl a lot of people were saying maybe that was what was going to happen travis kelsey's got a lot going on off the field he's got a mega deal with his new heights podcast where he gets to hang out and talk shop with his brother obviously he and the biggest star on earth are off and running to get married and so our family and her celebrity is not going down uh ever you know so you know business for Travis Kelsey in the NFL, going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer.

1:11:48Pat McAfee:Going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. He's accrued a lot of success, a lot of money for himself. Everything that he has done has been good. Resume certified, off the field, very good right now. So this would be the right time potentially to just go ahead and say, you know what? I'll bid you adieu and I will move on. Then Travis Kelsey says this on New Heights and makes me wonder, is the Travis Kelsey football show about to enter another era. It looks like Eric Bien-Aimé will be back with the Kansas City Chiefs. Trav, you and I have talked about this a lot. I know EB was a huge part of this offensive success for a while in Kansas City.

1:12:27How do you feel about this? I think it's great. It's a marriage that's going to pick up right where it left off. You can see those running backs over in Chicago, their body of work was definitely an Eric Bien-Aimé style of football, man. Hell yeah. I can't wait to see him back in the building, man. He's one of my favorite coaches of all time. One of my favorite people of all time. I've had so many unbelievable growing moments under him as a player, as a person. I just love the guy. It's going to be awesome to see him back in the building and see him back wearing the Chiefs logo, baby.

1:12:55Pat McAfee:It'll be interesting to see what he learned while with Ben Johnson. I'd be picking EB's brain. I'd be like, oh, man, what'd you learn? What do you think? And I also like, you know, how has EB changed as a coach? Is he going to rip his shirt off? Are we going to see a shirtless EB after a game? Hyping the offense up? I want to see it, B enemy. me i want to see those tits out maybe he's elevated he's taking his game to new heights in that regard yeah i'm excited for him to get back in it with the chiefs man excited to see you know how everything unfolds uh next year it'll be awesome to see him back with the chief jason kelsey nailing it per use yeah just keep batting a thousand brother and on that note i can't wait to see him back in the building yeah what does that mean like from the outside looking at the building him walking around he can't wait to peek through the windows and see the enemy me walking through but what does that mean he's what did you hear there aj ohio guy you think he's back yeah to me it felt like travis saying hey guys here we go i cannot wait for another fun season with the chiefs congratulations that's what it sounded like that's what it sounded like now he's allowed to make any decision that he wants he's earned it and obviously he can make any announcement he wants but him saying that and then that going out he knows that people are going to immediately think to themselves wait you're going to be back in the building then that's what that means we're excited for that we would like the travis kelsey patrick mahomes show to continue to roll on, but we understand that life after ball is certainly waiting, and I think it's going to be fantastic as well.

1:14:12Pat McAfee:So we're excited for you, Trev. You've earned it, by the way. You've earned this opportunity to be able to do this. Now, let's talk about earning something. Whenever you invest in a business or you force people, sorry, sell people into investing into a business that maybe a lot of people look down upon, and a lot of people say, well, how will that ever become profitable? and then you turn that into a multi-billion dollar conglomerate over a certain amount of time and never ever back down from who you are. I like to consider you one of the greatest American dream stories of all time. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, the president of UFC with just a couple days remaining before their six-week layoff, which is abnormal for this company.

1:14:58Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, Dana White. How are you, dude? I'm great. How are you? Good. Okay, I know you're a Miami dad now. So I saw you down there at the National Championship up in the suite, sitting right next to Mr. President. Obviously, we will dive into you potentially having some fights in his front lawn and all that type of stuff. But what were your thoughts on the National Championship? And how else have you been spending this six-week hiatus from UFC fights? You guys were pumping out fights, what, every weekend, every Tuesday, every Wednesday for like 10 years it felt like so six week layoff here how have you been spending your life you look good you look good I want to let you know that well thank you yeah it was uh the game everybody was telling me when I was going to the game boy you're not gonna have fun tonight at this game you know basically that it was gonna be a blowout it was a great game went right down to the wire uh you know obviously not the outcome we hope for but but it was a fun game um and then for the last six weeks it's been great for my team you know to to get some time off but everybody's been grinding on on the launch for paramount we're launching zupa boxing on friday and then the ufc on saturday on paramount plus but it's been great it's been fun everybody's fired up and uh we're already really happy that that we did this deal with paramount and cbs these people have been great to us paramount and uh cbs have been getting bigger and bigger into not only the content world they've been spending a lot of money on content but also into live sport now they're dabbling with the ufc obviously we appreciate you getting these deals done for the good of all of sport you know the more platforms that are doing live sport the better for all of us dana so let's uh you know what i'm saying dana let's uh yeah yeah so i appreciate the hell out of you now on that note you have a big card coming up here for paramount plus obviously anytime you got patty to batty a part of it people are going to get excited sugar sean coming back a little bit more mature, it seems like.

1:16:57Pat McAfee:Sugar Sean, the way I heard him answering a question about something he was calling, that was just a little joke that got taken way out of the way. I apologize. Different than how we would have seen him in the past. Gaethje, obviously, on the card as well. What are you expecting from the first Paramount Plus card here this weekend? And what are you excited about, Dana? Yeah, I mean, it's all about matchmaking. And these fights, you got Gaethje and Patty, who are in the top five, fighting for the interim title to see who will face Ilya Toporia. Gaethje's never been in a bad fight, ever. And, you know, Patty Pimblitt, everybody, you know, he's always the underdog when he goes in, yet he's undefeated in the UFC and always figures out a way to win.

1:17:42O'Malley loves to stand up and strike and knock people out. He's taking on Song Yedong, who loves to do the same thing. That fight should be fireworks. It's a great card. And we believe that it's an incredible first card on, on Paramount plus no more pay-per-view what it would cost you for a pay-per-view last year. You can pay for the whole year on Paramount plus. And the other thing about Paramount plus is not only do you get everything UFC, but you get tons of great TV shows and entertainment movies. I mean, land man and mob land are two of the best shows on television period. You should get on Paramount plus just for those.

1:18:20Pat McAfee:Okay. So I like to sell. I appreciate the partnership you have with Paramount Plus, and I agree with you, by the way. Landman, I got introduced to Landman via Jerry Jones knocking it out of the park. And that's how I got introduced to the show. And then obviously taking trips down to Texas Tech and Texas A &M, fascinated by it all, started watching. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. Maublin, incredible. I believe we talked about it earlier today. Yeah, Tulsa King. Tulsa King's on there. Sly Stallone's on there. Mayor of Kingstown. Paramount Plus spending a lot of money, brother. A lot of money to get, you know, bigger real estate in the entire game.

1:18:52Pat McAfee:And you said no more pay-per-view. Let's talk about that. Because Gaethje did come out and chit-chat about maybe the finances of the entire situation. Are you still trying to figure out how this all works in this non-pay-per-view world? Like, how do you kind of view the evolution of going from what you were to what is now? Because this feels like a big step for your company. Legitimately, Dan. It feels like a big step. We completely have it dialed in. We got like really smart kids that came in and they can get down within single digits on how close it would be to pay them like it was a pay-per-view.

1:19:29And Gaethje, without getting into all that stuff, Gaethje was offered more money and Gaethje never responded. Okay, so obviously there's behind the scenes of business deals.

1:19:39Pat McAfee:I hope you and Gaethje figure it out. But the main event of the first quarter. Okay, good. on the main event of the first card on Paramount Plus in this new world. Didn't love hearing that there was any type of potential drama, but you guys figuring it out, good news. We appreciate you getting into this new space because I think obviously it opens up to a lot more people to watch your sport. How do you feel about where your sport is right now? Because I don't even think people know MMA. They just know UFC, UFC. How do you feel? You got multiple stars on here, let alone Lewis. You got multiple stars on the card.

1:20:08Pat McAfee:How do you kind of envision UFC over the next few years with this Paramount Plus deal? yeah you know we're going to continue to to create young up-and-coming talent that we think uh you know have the potential to be world champions we're going to put on the best fights we can possibly put on and i think that you know with this platform now that that costs less than a pay-per-view for the year uh you know we'll bring in more fans and introduce more people to the sport and some people that might have fell off because it was too expensive in the past so um i'm really looking forward to it hell yeah as you should be now let's talk about a new chapter for you as well, Zufa.

1:20:44Pat McAfee:You talk about building stars and kind of doing something to a sport. It feels like it hasn't happened in a long time. You come from the boxing world. Nick Kahn grew up in Vegas. Boxing was his favorite sport. Obviously, with TKO, alongside with Ari and Mark, obviously, in the promotional business. And teaming up with Turkey and I believe Crown Prince. God bless him. Feels like you're the right people to maybe take a run at boxing right now. How do you feel about where you are? Everything is about timing. And the timing is absolutely perfect right now. And I agree. And we're literally going to start and build the sport from the bottom up the way that I always wanted to do it.

1:21:20And again, it's about finding the best fighters in the world. And it's about matchmaking. You know, if you look at this card, our first card, the whole cards combined record is 227 and nine. Right. Top three fights. All the fighters are undefeated. so um everybody in boxing is undefeated right now at the end of 2026 a lot of o's are going to go and if you're still undefeated in the next couple of years it actually means something

1:21:51Pat McAfee:it's going to be special okay so that feels like if i go back to the muhammad ali um what was the act that they were trying to revival revival act or something like that where promoter manager something along the lines of you being able to start basically a new association. Has everything gone the way that Zufa has needed it to go to be able to build this and run this how you guys envisioned? And ultimately, in your guys' eyes, and I am a believer because I've heard you guys talk about it off air, but there's obviously some detractors, save sport and make sport bigger than there's ever been. Is everything aligned to be able to do that right now with whatever happened in government?

1:22:27Pat McAfee:What was that, a couple months ago? Yeah, yeah. Oh, the ALIAC. yeah yeah yeah uh they voted yesterday the vote was what was it 40 uh 34 to 3 34 to 3 or 34 to 4 or something like that it's all going good everything's great um leading up to the launch everything has been great we're we're really happy and uh we're actually having fun doing it okay congratulations that's a huge deal for you guys congrats i can't wait to watch you get back into it so everybody on the pat mcgavee show i don't know if pat told you guys this but we're up in the president's box uh you know at the at the national championship and he says mr president me and my team would like to cover the the uh the ufc white house event uh we want to be there we want to cover it and and the president gave him the thumbs up and said yes yes okay so i'm happy you were there as well so obviously i'm happy you remember this because there's a lot going on in there and i was i was invited up to the suite at uh halftime of the game calling the game by the day did you know i was calling the game i'm literally calling the game from the field okay so we get a text uh from secret service mike foss gets a text from secret service that goes uh hey uh the president would like to invite pat up to his suite if he has time uh 8 15 would be good and uh the mike foss comes up to me he goes hey the president would like you to potentially come up to the suite if you want to 8 15 i look at the club like we're in the middle of it was like eight yeah we're in the middle of the game right now i was like is there any other times or whatever.

1:23:58Pat McAfee:So they handle it. They're like halftime. Would you like to go up there at halftime? And I'm like, yeah, sweet. That'd be cool. So then secret service has this thing set up basically for me to sprint from where I'm at up into there to get this entire thing to go in. And as soon as I walk in, it's like, holy shit, full K. I literally just got done calling this sprint through the entire thousands of people. And then I get in there and it's like, holy hell, what is this? And I see, I see bald head. I'm like, Dan, is it good? I got friend in here. Good news. I got somebody. I at least I got somebody I know in here.

1:24:25Pat McAfee:Cause I didn't really know anybody else i saw jake over there fascinating fascinating huh that's the first time we ever met face to face okay how not terrible well we're not gonna act like idiots in front of the president okay so anyway so i turn i uh i turn a corner i get down in there and uh yeah that's everybody that was in there in the room so i get i turn the corner there's like a line of people to meet them but i was kind of told like hey we know you got a rush so like you can certainly cut i'm cutting people i'm cutting like uh i guess there's a governor's candidate in a cut right in front of him just like hey yeah you're good i'm like geez louise i gotta go call the game i gotta go call the game so then he stands up and i go mr president thank you so much for coming on the show uh we're obviously very grateful and you know it was it was huge and he immediately goes i heard it did well like obviously goes right into it and it was like yeah great to see you then i started talking about the white house fight and then i said i'm like hey would love to be able to do show from white house for the fight or whatever and he goes really and then And I go, good?

1:25:25Pat McAfee:And he goes, yeah, yeah. And then he shakes the hand. I go, good. I hope somebody got that on there. So we are excited for that. But on that note, you said you're going to start making that card, right? Didn't you say you're going to start making that card? When is that, after this? I'm making that card on Monday. And as soon as I got back to Vegas, I told Lene, I said, Lene, Pat shot his shot up there in the box. And the president said yes. So let's get it done. We landed the plane. I'm happy to hear you got that. Live from the White House is an absurd thing. Just as a program. Start in a basement.

1:26:00Pat McAfee:Go ahead. So yesterday, my team, they put together, we come up with a whole plan for production, how it's going to work. My head of production, Craig Borsari, has been working with the White House for a couple months now. And they build this video rendering. Every tree that's on the property and all this stuff, it's exactly the way it is. We can literally, the sun, how the sun will hit the seats at certain times, what it'll look like when it's dark. Crazy. This is going to be so badass. Yeah. It is. And it's a one-of-one in our lifetime to be able to do something like that. And, Pat, absolutely brilliant, as usual by you, to take your shot that night in the box.

1:26:48And, you know, for you and your team to come be a part of this, It's going to be something that you will never forget for the rest of your life. Considering all the things that you've done and all the great things you've been a part of, this is going to be special.

1:27:01Pat McAfee:Yeah, America's 250 years old. Okay, we did it. Okay, that's a long time being a country. And not often sports with White House happen, other than like championship teams. Go there. I obviously didn't get a chance to do that. So now that we're going to be live from the White House for this. Have you? Okay, and now I got to ask this follow-up because fight fans would be pissed if I didn't. so I heard you did an interview I forget who it was I apologize you'll probably remember who it was where you talked about the Chandler Conor McGregor fight and you're like that's old news Chandler comes out and says he's going to keep optimism about it you to be completely transparent at this point as much as you want to be at least how empty slate is that card or do you already have in your head what you're hoping to happen and then you just kind of got to make it happen like where are you in the development of the card because I know that's a massive ordeal for all parties so my entire focus right now is on the launch this weekend i got boxing on friday the ufc on saturday sunday i'm watching the patriots go to the super bowl and then uh then monday we're all in on the white house fight we don't have anything laid out we're not nothing it'll all start monday okay all right and no disrespect to chandler we love chandler chandler's one of the i you don't have enough time in your show for me to talk to you about how awesome Chandler is uh and you know how I feel about Connor and everything that he's done for the sport and this company but uh yeah that's that's not the fight we're going with go ahead AJ Dana I mean I know you're saying that's not the fight but is there anything I know Connor's been publicly asking for this he wants to be on the card is there anything that you're looking for him to do to to prove that he's responsible he can be the guy to headline that card Connor and I have a great relationship uh you know we talk a lot uh you know through text and um he's definitely in the running okay for this fight okay i like that i feel like we could keep prying but i don't want to don't want to do it you can pry if there's anybody that i would lay it out and say it to it would be you yeah for the god on my daughter all this starts on monday okay you're the man all right and also we appreciate you saying that but also for the you're good too because i remember we had turkey on and we started Turkey started saying things, and you were like, yeah, we can wait to make these announcements separately.

1:29:15Pat McAfee:We can kind of run a business here if we'd like to do that. Now, speaking of business, big decision was made by you. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Dana, I am 37 years old, but a lot of people would say I'm an old soul. Okay? And the start time now for the main event being – or sorry, for the main card being 9 p.m. is huge. I can't thank you enough. Is that something that we can look forward to moving forward, or is that based on geographical? How did we come to this decision? That was a Paramount call. Paramount wanted to go an hour earlier. They thought it was great for the East Coast. I remember when I lived on the East Coast, Monday Night Football was brutal.

1:29:49So, yes, Paramount call.

1:29:51Pat McAfee:Okay, so we like that, by the way. I have a kid. We're old, but I know you're West Coast, Vegas. You got to do the entirety. Ty has a question for you, Dana. Yeah, Dana, obviously you guys have. Well, you know what? The West Coast likes it, too, because if you come to the fight, right, and we bang the fight, the fight usually ends at 10. now it's going to end at nine you can still go out in vegas and go to dinner you go hang out you know it works for both for both coach add another night of doing stuff because normally club bar night before ufc fight run into night we all pass out immediately afterwards now we got two nights of doing stuff two nights of beating the casino yeah yeah that's because that's what we're gonna do dan aren't we we're gonna beat them every time we go in is that what you're doing these motherfuckers are filming gambling with you they win every time is that what you see am i the only one seeing this oh no i see it what's the question everybody wins when they gamble with you is that every fucking time or is that the only time i see the video because i feel like every video multiple different people different genres of the internet all doing the same thing is that every time or are the losers just being bought by you so the craziest night ever so taylor lawan comes to vegas he's never lost with me taylor lawan is over two million two and a half million, whatever his number is, he's never lost.

1:31:09So he's telling, you know, he's telling Dave Portnoy, you know, you don't lose. You go in and you tell him how much you want to win and he wins it. And Dave Portnoy, you know, Portnoy is like, I want to win a million dollars. And he's like, well, you have to be realistic, you know. So Portnoy shows up ready to shit all over fucking everything, right? You know him. So they literally have the entire barstool company there. and we start playing and i want to say right boom portnoy 150 grand right so portnoy's like i'm out he takes 150 grand and then you know then he's got all of his employees like all right him so portnoy would put up the 10 10 grand for him 20 grand for him 30 grand for him and uh went through the entire fucking company and and won them all money see that's what i'm saying what is the deal

1:31:58Pat McAfee:So you are winning all the time. I don't think I understand it. I think I'm impressed. I watched that movie 21 with those MIT kids. That was incredible to do. Are you doing that? No. Because you've been kicked out of places. I know you've been kicked out of places. Nobody would let me play if I was doing that. Believe me. Okay, so you just have a feel. The kids are much smarter than that. I'm on a run right now since September. It is the biggest run of my life by double. Congratulations, man. It sounds like it. Way to go. Proud of you, man. Proud of you, man. When am I going to be in Vegas? We need 1.2.

1:32:36Pat McAfee:Is it only Vegas that you win in, or can you win in any casino in any state? Yeah, come out here. Harris down here. We got really nice ones out here. I tell people all the time. Yes, I agree. I tell people all the time, if you're going to play like you really like to play, jump on a plane and go to Vegas and then fly back home right after. Vegas is better there's more competition out here you can cut better deals for yourself than playing in these podunk fucking places I did beat you know what's fascinating when you go down to Florida the Hard Rock that place is packed and it's like the biggest money making casino in the world if not the one and everybody there hates that place like all they do is say I hate it here I hope you kick their ass so I went in there it was sometime last year and I beat them.

1:33:31Did you walk out with a title? I walked out. No, I didn't walk out with a title, but I beat them and I left. Yeah. I did beat the Hard Rock.

1:33:40Pat McAfee:That would be cool if you got Rudy'd out of there. Rudy, Rudy, Rudy. The people, you know, have been losing to the Hard Rock Seminole for a long time. This guy's our hero. Yeah, Rudy. Yeah, you got it. Okay, all right, good. That'll happen at the White House, man. You're the best. We appreciate you joining us. Good luck this weekend with Zufa and Paramount Plus Lunch. Thanks for having me, boys. Have a great day. You too. Cheers, dude. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Dana White. Dana White.

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1:35:47Does seem to win a lot, huh?

1:35:49Pat McAfee:Every time I see a clip. He says because he leaves, I've listened to him kind of explain. I'm not out here for three days and I've got to sit and play for everything. He's like, I get up a certain amount, boom, I go home. How about him saying he won for everybody in the company? Yeah, how's that? And he's 20 grand. Just back to back to back to back to back to back to back. How? I don't know. I guess you've got to be willing to lose a good chunk to get it back, I guess. Because remember, we got tickets to the Sphere to go watch. U2. U2. Yeah, I remember that. And we basically said. Sphere is awesome.

1:36:16Sphere is really cool.

1:36:17Pat McAfee:What do we pay? $40 ,000,$60 ,000? $60 ,000. $60 ,000 or whatever. I was talking about it for the suite that we were in. Sphere is awesome. Yeah, it was so cool. It was cool. The way it was utilized, we were certainly wondering what the hell was going on. But the Sphere was awesome. And the amount of money we paid was insane. Dana's first reaction was like, how much was it? $6 ,000. Come to the Blackjack table and I'll get you that back. No problem. Like, what's that? I just tell you a number? Yeah. What do you need? All right, well,$70 ,000 at least. Because we, I mean, we don't have more meals here.

1:36:45Pat McAfee:We got some meals. More vitamins. I mean,$80 ,000,$90 ,000,$100 ,000,$150 ,000. Yeah,$250 ,000. $300 ,000. $450 ,000. So where is the cutoff, you know? And that's why he said there, you just got to be realistic. Portnoy immediately going, I want to win a million. Dana's, okay. Of course you do. Everybody does. Let's go ahead and do that. Taylor LeJuan being over$2.5 million. That's insane. He's one of the ones I see, though. What do I love going out there? Yeah, babe, I got to go to Vegas. You know what it is. Investment time. Yeah. And we're off. And it is unbelievable. Every time I see it. And then they're not the only ones.

1:37:16Pat McAfee:The Nelk Boys, I think, post that they do it. Other streamers post that they do it. It's like everybody goes in there and he just wins. How come it doesn't work for us when we go out there? I don't know if we're sitting with him. We're at the wrong table. I think we've got to be with him. But he can only do it in a couple of different casinos because he's been booted from so many casinos because of what we're talking about here. Casinos don't necessarily love you. You just beat them. That ain't something that they're just like, hey, yeah, come on in. Bring all your friends. You think Bill could win a million with them?

1:37:38You think you'd get Bill to win a million dollars? No. If he cuts his hands off and his tongue out.

1:37:43Pat McAfee:Yeah, so he couldn't do any – so he couldn't even – Can't hit. He can't say – But his nub would still – Yeah, wouldn't count. No nubs. I think you'd just have to tape him. His nub would still hit on 20. Sir, you have seven. I'll stay. Yeah, Bill McCombs certainly is an outlaw on that blackjack table. And he told us that he wasn't doing it on purpose. He just didn't know. But then whenever we were trying to tell him, like, what he's doing is, like, not even a smart, dumb move. He's a stubborn son of a bitch is what he is. We made progress last time we went. Yeah, I think he read the book, he said.

1:38:11Yeah, we told them, like, hey, you just shut your mouth. And if one of us is like, hey, do what you want to do,

1:38:17Pat McAfee:then you can do your stupid shit. There is some just like, and I don't like coaching people up at the blackjack table. I don't like doing it. It's your money. You do what you got to do. There are others. We're hearing them talk right now that certainly like to chat about. You got to be coachable. Yeah, well, certainly. But not everybody feels that way, obviously. I've seen those situations go not good with people. And it's like, hey, it's their money. They're allowed to do whatever they want. You know, I am a blackjack player. I enjoy it over there. But I am not one that goes like, what are you doing?

1:38:41Pat McAfee:until afterwards, like with Bill. It was like, Bill, you were staying on like 14, okay, when an eight is showing, just like not even an aggressive, smart move. You're going to lose. That is not your – there's no way you really win there. So, like, it's just a bad idea. You got to at least qualify your hand to potentially win. Like, that should be the only thing. Afterwards, not during the game. And he said, I play my own style. I'm like, all right, this fucking guy. All right. You know, there's something there. It can't impact the other players at the table. It certainly can. And I've seen people get very mad.

1:39:12Pat McAfee:And I understand why they're mad because I potentially got screwed by the decision as well. But I don't know. Random people, I don't think you should just be coaching. No, definitely. Never to a stranger. But Bill. I've seen people try to do that. That's crazy. Oh, yeah. People do that all the time. But I like the people that will ask. They'll say, hey, what should I do here? And other people tell them, hey, well, the book says do this. So if you're asking for genuine curiosity, because the two guys that I'm referring to in my head that got into an actual physical education, it was one and four, I think, were the numbers of it all.

1:39:39Pat McAfee:and I was sitting at two, you know, so I actually, actually, in the middle of it, conversation starts happening, and then he started asking him, oh, what should I do, blackjack genius? You know, like that. Yeah, oh, geez. And then, yeah. Okay. Yeah, and then got up. I turn around the whole thing. It happens. Shut down table. Got to get up, move. They have a full scrap. So I'm not big on the whole yelling at people you don't know at the blackjack table, but I like that Dana White just rents on an entire floor. Yeah. Since we're going to win$2.5 million. Yeah, sit down. Paramount Plus, 9 o 'clock start.

1:40:12Pat McAfee:That is a big deal. And they got some big names over there. Excited for that. Then we get leads into championship weekend. There's been some conversations around which coaches are going where at the exact moment. What coach is going to win the coach of the year? The AP Award finalists have been named, and we are lucky that we have one of the AP voters right here. Yeah. In our presence right now, AJ Hawk. And I would like to throw it over to this man. Did they get it right? Did you get it right? How did you feel about your particular ballot whenever the actual finalists were named? And is there any storylines in the awards that we need to keep an eye on?

1:40:44Yeah, so there was three, four, five, six, seven, eight categories total. I had four out of the five guys in seven of the eight. Comeback player of the year, five out of five. There was no real surprises in that category. I think one of the main things that we were talking about, and mainly Connor and I were talking about when we first got in here and saw these was Offensive Player of the Year because Drake May is one of the Offensive Player of the Year finalists. And this is a weird one. So last year, Saquon won Offensive Player of the Year. Josh Allen won MVP, was not in the Offensive Player of the Year finalists, but Lamar and Joe Burrow were.

1:41:27So this is a weird one because it's like, hey, the MVP is a quarterback award. Everyone knows that, okay? That's kind of what it is now. So do you put, do you vote a quarterback in your offensive player of the year? Finalists, that's the biggest question. That's kind of the biggest question.

1:41:41Pat McAfee:Well, if you're doing that, that means you're voting Stafford MVP. Correct. Yes. Bingo. So last year, a lot of people had Lamar, offensive player of the year, because they had Josh Allen as the MVP. And what they said was, such a good season. Yeah. You've got to win something, but more votes are going to the MVP for Stafford. This would indicate probably that Stafford is the MVP and that Drake might have accrued enough votes to potentially get the offensive player of the year. Potentially. because I remember last year you're going, so wait, there's a world where Saquon doesn't win anything, which he did.

1:42:08He did end up winning the Offensive Player of the Year. But Lamar didn't. Correct. So Lamar didn't win anything. So that was one of them. Daniil Hunter wasn't in the top five for Defensive Player of the Year, which I just didn't agree with because I thought he was one of the best five.

1:42:25Pat McAfee:Who would you have taken out? The one in blue. Oh, Aiden Hutchinson? What are you talking about? He had a great year. He had a great year, but I just thought Daniel Hunter had a better year. Yeah, so both Houston's ends would have been represented, which I guess is good for the season they had. No New England Patriots on there for Defense Player of the Year finalists. Yeah, no, especially just because the main guy, Millen Williams, he missed a lot of time and Christian Gonzalez. Another cool thing is McCaffrey. McCaffrey's nominated for three of these awards, which I think is the first time ever.

1:42:56Pat McAfee:Yeah, everybody's reporting it like we think this is the first time ever. We aren't 100 % sure. Even Schefter was believed to be the first time somebody has been nominated for three different awards. Comeback Player of the Year, you forget about that. You forget about last year where four days before the games start, we learned that Christian McCaffrey probably not playing football and then the Niners go into the dumps. And then this year, he is the entire offense basically for the San Francisco 49ers. Through a lot of injuries, none to Christian McCaffrey, he continued to carry them out there.

1:43:27A lot of – this was a lot of really good finalists for the comeback player of the year. Any of these guys in any other season probably could have won it. And the big talking point last year was that it went from, hey, you needed to actually be dealing with something to be comeback player of the year and not Joe Flacco who was just not in the league and then came back because that changed after the Joe Flacco, DeMar Hamlin thing.

1:43:49Pat McAfee:Trevor had injury to – He had a bunch of it. He had a shoulder and a – I want to say it was a knee or something. He missed a bunch. Obviously, Diggs had the ACL. Hutch had the entire leg. Dak was out for the majority. I think he played like five games last year, too. These were all worthy comeback player of the year. And then the coach of the year candidacy. What are your thoughts, Ty Schmidt? Honestly, you look at two of the championship coaches in there, McVay and Sean Payton, not up for coach of the year, probably because they've been successful for too long, maybe is kind of the old adage with the coach of the year deal.

1:44:25Yeah, I assume so. I don't know, just looking at this, this year it seems like is one of the harder years that we've ever had given to these just because no one would have expected the Jags to do what they did this year. I don't think many people thought that Ben Johnson would have turned around the Bears the way they did. And then, I mean, Vrabel, same deal. I think maybe he won't win because he had so much success in Tennessee and kind of everyone knows. But you could make an argument for any of these guys, and I don't think anyone would be shocked if any one of these candidates won.

1:44:56Pat McAfee:And more, not just these guys. There's a lot of good coaching, excuse me. A lot of ass coaching, but a lot of really good coaching as well. As a Patriots fan, I think you can understand the Stafford-May thing. For the coach of the year, it does feel as though Vrabel should 1 ,000 % win this. I am more passionate about him winning this award than May winning MVP. We don't have a GM. He is the GM. Every single player that came in, and I know this is just coaching, But this goes into it. All the players that came from, you know, free agency, Milton Williams, Chase on that we're kind of seeing now being an absolute stud in the playoffs and all year getting much better is because of Mike Vrabel.

1:45:30Like, sure, Mike McDonald, amazing coach. He's also calling plays. Has Schneider. Like, what Mike Vrabel has done as a coach and as kind of the de facto GM as well has been, you know, second to none. And he's the whole reason we're here.

1:45:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, it is certainly a tough award to win this particular season. Kyle Shanahan, obviously the only really tenured coach at his particular place of business up on there. I mean, McVay every year could be. McVay. I thought D 'Amico could have been on here. Obviously, Sean Payton could have been on here. There was a lot of coaches this year. Oh, yeah. D 'Amico, they started 0-3. Yep. Turned it around. Yeah, they're only a second team ever. Kyle Shanahan acts as GM alongside John Lynch as well, I think. Very collaborative, I would assume. Kind of talked about as if Lynch reports to Shanahan. Correct.

1:46:16Pat McAfee:So I guess outside of Vrabel running show there, Supreme Commander, I think the reason why the Vrabel story is so special, just because they were ass last year. Dead. The whole thing. But then you see Liam Cohen, and it's like ass. Also, Vrabel shouldn't be there. He should not be the coach of the Patriots. He should be the head coach of the Titans still. He should be the Supreme Commander of the Titans. Have they ever been a co-coach of the year? Put two of them up there? Yeah, because, like, I mean, McDonald, I called his shot. Didn't they do co-MVPs one time? So you can't vote like that, but if they have the same amount of points, I assume they could be awarded that.

1:46:54Pat McAfee:I mean, I guess you just have to look at how far their team's made it. Like, this championship run for Vrabel and for McDonald, I think should be considered a big deal, but it's supposed to be a regular season award, isn't it? Yeah, that's already it. Which stinks, which they should change. And I understand, like, there are players that didn't, like, Hutch, we just talked about Dak in comeback player of the year. You're like, there are guys that don't make it who are our finalists, but they need to include the playoffs because it does matter. Like if the Patriots lost in the first round or if the Rams lost in the first round, I feel like there would be people that would change their MVP just because of that fact.

1:47:26Pat McAfee:I think they've got to get it in ahead of time. There's some scheduling stuff that obviously can be changed, whatever the case. I know that the AP voters take it very seriously. The Offensive Rookie of the Year, also finalist named, we haven't hit that yet, Jackson Dart, Buka, who was the guy for Tampa for some time. Travion Henderson, Tetra McMillan, the Irish Oos down there in Carolina. And then Tyler Shuck came in and really became a guy for New Orleans that they're going to build around. I think they think he's a guy going forward drafted in the third round out of Louisville. Obviously, he's a little bit older than the other draft classmates, but he certainly got things done for New Orleans when I think they had no hope.

1:48:04Pat McAfee:I think they had no hope. Bruce Brown, who's winning the Offensive Rookie of the Year, Bob? It'll be the Irish Oos, Ted McMillan. I believe, but it should be Jackson Dart. If you're a quarterback and you have 24 total touchdowns and six turnovers, I think you should win Offensive Rookie of the Year. But they'll give it to Ted McMillan. He had a great season. Okay, why are you so negative about it? Why don't you think they'll recognize Jackson Dart's greatness his rookie year amongst a lot of turmoil? I don't know. I honestly don't know because he got one concussion and missed two games. And then he does kind of just dive like he's Fred Flintstone.

1:48:34Yeah, that stole a lot of the fodder. So maybe that's the reason. They didn't win a ton of games either. Four.

1:48:39Pat McAfee:And Scadaboo. That's not a ton yet. Scadaboo was also a part of it. Listen, if it was a combination award and I could do 4-4 and 6, that would have been a watch out. And how many voters are there? 50. And what is that? Those two? Those two? I don't understand. 4-4 and 6. Add them up. Oh, wow. That was a good reaction. Good math. That was a really good reaction. I thought you were going to be there with it. I did love 24 back in school. You and I both did. And Gate. It's gifted and talented education. if you are at the top of your class, you get to do that. At Plum, in Plum Borough. Yeah, you certainly do.

1:49:14Pat McAfee:That was an interesting thing. All the nerds, right? I happened to fall into this. I have no idea how. It was maybe fourth, fifth grade. Gifted and talented. Yeah, of course. Yeah, of course. That's what it was called. I'm not making it up. It was called gate classes. You were really cool if you got into gate classes. It was a lot of nerds, though. And then they started giving us games to play in there. So then if you were competitive at all against these nerds, I mean, it was game, set, match. 24? Was it 24 or 21? 24. 24. Did you guys have this? No. It's a math game. It's a math game, yeah. There's four numbers on a wheel and then a division or a multiply edition sign or whatever.

1:49:46And you just have to do whatever you get to 24.

1:49:48Pat McAfee:Yeah, first one wins. I like that. Boy, it was good. Yeah, I was throwing a lot of shit at the – I mean, I don't know if there was an actual way to do it, like the smart people were doing. I was just as many different combinations as possible at the time. And it felt like it worked out for me. I actually got suspended from that situation because being competitive in there, we were in a day of a 24 tournament, and I beat this girl, and I barked in her face and called her a dog and got suspended. I mean, 24 got pretty real in there. If you were really good, if you were really good, you got to go to like a citywide 24 championship.

1:50:23Pat McAfee:Yeah, that's real. Wow. Tone, I didn't know you were that intense in there. I was more of a casual player. I didn't know you were. Sorry, we're playing to win or not. You were pretty intense in there. That was not my style. My style was just, thank you, how you doing? You know, they kept it moving. Won some games, though. Did win some games. I didn't know we were barking at people at 24. That's awesome. I love to hear that. I was a science Olympiad as well, junior high. Yeah. Shout out. Would you go to, like, have competitions on the weekends or something? No, it was just one Olympics. It was one science Olympics.

1:50:51Pat McAfee:It was at a smaller college around. We all got it. There was a team of, like, eight of us. We got into a van. Yeah. Went to this thing in the morning. Had a full orientation. I was the last person selected for the science Olympic team. And the coach said, just want somebody who's like competitive on the team that could maybe help out a little bit. I'm like, thank you. You got it. Here we go. So we go to this thing and I was assigned. There's like different tasks, like science things. Mine was, we had to drop an egg from like 10 feet. It couldn't crack. It got this amount of straws at this amount of rubber bands and all that shit.

1:51:23Pat McAfee:So you had a certain amount of time to figure it out. That was my event alongside two others. They did not take my idea. Egg crack. Yeah, everybody's egg broke, though, from my understanding. That's a win. Yeah, so it was good. Yeah, sneaking hard-boiled one in there, sneaking underneath it, underneath the judges. That might have been why I was there. Like, hey, we need to win this one, right? No matter what. Oh, I should have got the memo. Yeah, Plum would have walked out of there with the Science Olympics. It's crazy. Let's talk a little bit about the defensive rookie of the year finalists. Congratulations, Abdul Carter.

1:51:57Pat McAfee:Yeah. Penn State, special talent. Eamon Worry. So good. South Carolina. South Carolina. Special talent. James Pierce Jr. Tennessee. Special talent. Carson Sweshinger. UCLA. Xavier Watts. Notre Dame. Studs across the board. Welcome to the NFL, boys. Yeah. Great years out of these boys. Great years. That is absurd. Yeah, 156. Hell of a year. Yeah, that's a hell of a year, AJ. He might be the next AJ Hawk coming out of that state of Ohio, pal. He's awesome. I tell you what, people in Ohio, I'm around a lot of Browns fans. They love this dude. They hope he's here for 15 years. And 49, kind of an ass number.

1:52:36Pat McAfee:So if he does go on to be great, he will make it his own, which is good for a swaging good. Nobody's really looking to wear 49. And this is a big part of why everyone thinks the Falcons' job is so good because they have the offensive pieces except for maybe a question of quarterback. And then Watts Pearson and their other first-round pick, their first first-round pick, Jalen Walker, who also had a really, really good season. So they got a lot of young talent. And the video of Matt Ryan showing Stefanski around the building, a lot of bricks, a lot of white bricks. I didn't know that. And Matt Ryan's seven foot tall.

1:53:07Pat McAfee:Big SOB. He is. He's very big. But I liked him showing Stefanski around and basically saying, welcome to the Falcons. You got the gig. I mean, I guess he could be successful down there. Very successful, to your point. I mean, there's a chance that could be great. Brian Flores has signed an extension with the Minnesota Vikings if he is to not get a head coaching opportunity anywhere. I like that little caveat in the deal. Brian Flores, his agent, says we're getting something from somewhere, no matter what. Let's get an extension here and remain D.C., so we won't go be a defense coordinator anywhere else because there was maybe a conversation that happened.

1:53:36Pat McAfee:Why would he leave? We don't know. Maybe it was all leverage play. But if you do get a chance to go be a head coach, you need to go ahead and do that. AJ, I like the move from the Vikings organization. Yeah, I like the fact that he's able to agree to an extension, but yeah, he's still open to a head coaching gig, I guess. Is there any kind of deadline you think that the Vikings want him to, hey, let us know? I guess when the last job is filled, then you know for sure. The hirings have kind of taken longer, but the NFL made a rule. We couldn't see anybody until January 19th. That was different than last year.

1:54:03Pat McAfee:We assume after this championship weekend, there will be more jobs handed out. So maybe they know sooner than later. Duke is suing their quarterback. That's right. For trying to go to Miami after signing a contract with Duke. This would be the first time this happens where a school goes, you know what? No, you're not allowed to just say I'm not doing what I just signed and said I would do just a couple months ago. So Mensa potentially heading to Miami. Duke says, uh-uh, you sign a contract here, you're staying here. Duke, big brains. Yeah. Okay, remember Duke, big, big, big, big, big brains. I assume they're very comfortable in this particular setting.

1:54:36Pat McAfee:I assume they're excited about the opportunity to keep Mensa as a Duke Blue Devil. I'm sure he'll love being there after this whole thing goes down. Do you want him on the team if he wants to go elsewhere? Duke says, we're going to see him and see if we want him anyway. Latest update, as of midnight last night, he did go into the transfer portal because the judge required Duke to let him go into the transfer portal, but the court case, I believe, is on February 2nd. He's not allowed to sign with the team until that court case. Crazy. First of many. Yeah, what happens if he does come back to Duke?

1:55:06It's going to be a bit of a strained relationship, you think?

1:55:08Pat McAfee:No, no. He's going to play hard because he signed that contract. He signed that contract. They might be pursuing jail time. I think so. You never know. What's the deal worth? We'll find out. Yeah. We're going to see what these deals actually are looking like through the court of law. And maybe the Duke people are saying, people need to hear what's going on here. We're bamboozled. You know how many different meetings we had to go to get the amount of money to keep this guy here? And then all of a sudden he signs it. We get the deal done. We celebrate. And then the U comes calling in our conference.

1:55:39Pat McAfee:And he goes, hey, everything we just did, we're not doing it anymore. I don't think so. Well, what if he hates your school? We don't care. We hate him. That's an interesting dynamic whenever you talk about actual humans being involved. for sure. Yeah. Conman said it's the first of many things. I guess we will see like this in the future. It's crazy. Sports awesome, though. The best. Ball is still great. We'll be back tomorrow with a Feel Good Friday. Our show continues digitally. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye. I think we're on tomorrow.

1:56:11Pat McAfee:On ESPN. Yeah. Next week. What comes on right after this on ESPN? SportsCenter. Remember, they used to have us sign off at 153. That's because the previous SportsCenter crew wanted to separate their show from our show by as much time as possible. Okay? That's a real thing that was happening. Just separation. Just let's keep it away from each other. Okay? As much time as possible. Because we don't do commercials throughout the hour. We sell like more of a digital sponsorship partnership type thing with people, which we assume most networks will do five years from now. That'll probably be the Evolution wherever they need to get into it for all the other shows, but we do that.

1:56:50Pat McAfee:But they wanted to keep it away. Then a new person got in charge of SportsCenter and was like, hey, we think it'd be cool, actually, if your audience maybe watched the beginning of SportsCenter, like maybe tried it out or something like that. It's called a lead-in. Yeah. So I guess it's worked out pretty good. I guess it's worked out pretty good, which we appreciate SportsCenter obviously doing the shits. They got a group in there. They got a young group in there, SportsCenter anchors. Yes, they do. And I think they're trying. I think they're trying. Legitimately, I think SportsCenter's trying.

1:57:19Pat McAfee:It's a new group. I think they're trying to get back into the full fucking thing. Like, hey, we're SportsCenter. Let's remember that, what we are, how we are, why we are. And I appreciate the Moxie. There's a lot of Moxie coming out of the SportsCenter roster, I would say. Yeah, Foxy's been pounding the pavement about the Morning SportsCenter crew as well. That whole entire... Good juice. Yeah, great juice. But that's what I'm saying. I think the entire roster has good Moxie rating. I think the entire SportsCenter roster has good moxie and like ball i think which is obviously a huge part of covering ball in our eyes speaking of covering ball and being journalists broke news yesterday at the visit indy uh tourism uh state of tourism down there with the visit indianapolis folks the combine is remaining in indianapolis through 2028 visit he was able to ink the deal uh with the nfl to keep it here in Indianapolis.

1:58:13Pat McAfee:I was lucky enough to break that news yesterday at the Visit Indy State of Tourism event that had 1 ,400 people there. I won Mr. McGowan's Leadership Award for the year. I was obviously very confused that it happened, embarrassed a lot of the time up there. I don't really enjoy these types of events, but I do appreciate the hell out of Indianapolis. And the people that asked me to do this and go to this are people I respect, you know, people from the Colts very high up were like, hey, this is happening. They want to do this. Will you come? And then I immediately go, no, I'm not doing that fucking thing.

1:58:45Pat McAfee:No way. That sounds like the worst time of my life. That sounds like everything I don't like about a lot of things. And then they go, okay. And then like a day later, get a call back. Hey, we think this would be cool. They are going to do it whether you come or not. Okay. So wouldn't you rather, you know, and it's like, all right, I will do this. I appreciate the honor, but there's a lot of people in that room that probably deserve it. I would assume there's a lot of people that make Indianapolis what it is. I'm very lucky to live here I think we are very lucky to live here we appreciate the opportunity to live here but I don't need to be winning awards for being a fucking citizen of Indianapolis this is how I kind of view it in this entire thing but they said very nice things about me I got kind of emotional up there because people were saying things and acknowledging things that potentially have happened Caitlin Ursay Jackson spoke up there she referenced her dad a couple different times and what it was like uh it was a very cool thing it was a very very cool thing to be a part of I'm very honored that they gave me a trophy which is over there should make its way over here at some point that they acknowledged us being good for the city as opposed to a lot of people thinking we're bad for society.

1:59:44Pat McAfee:So that was like a cool, that was a very cool moment. But yeah, the announcement of the combine being there for two more years was shocking for me because I thought they were going to want to travel that. Like the draft. The draft has become the NFL event for cities that can't get the Super Bowl because they're either too cold or something else is going on. So we'll send the draft there. And remember, they got kicked out of Radio City musical by the Rockettes. That's the only reason why they took the draft on tour. And then now it's hundreds of thousands of people celebrating ball and becoming these massive events and income changers or finance changers for cities.

2:00:19Pat McAfee:It's like the NFL making the draft a traveling event has been a smashing success. So it's like the Combine, definitely something that they're thinking, oh, we can probably get this. Keep it in Indy. Indy's to stay in Indy. Indy's set up so perfectly. So perfect. And that's how Indy feels too. And to visit Indy people are very like in the tourism people and the city people all very thankful for the combine. We, I'm saying we and I guess they said yesterday that I should say that that's kind of why I won the award I guess. But on that note, Indianapolis loves hosting these things. Like try to be a good partner with people so they bring their shit back.

2:00:52Pat McAfee:You know like hey we would like you to come back. I think that's why we've seen so many people return and have their championships here. Everybody from the Olympics to fucking wrestling to basketball, football the FFA, future Farmers Association of America. You name it, like everybody is coming to the city like every single year. So like the NFL and the combine was no different. Like I think Indianapolis was like took a lot of pride in hosting this. This is the biggest opportunity for a lot of people that they'll ever have in their entire lives in the city of Indianapolis is a part of it. And everything's tunnelable and there's hotels and there's so much room and space and the turf is built for speed and for workouts.

2:01:28Pat McAfee:And it's like Indianapolis really appreciates that the combine is here. And it being another two years. 30 ,000 people came last year to the combine. $9 million boost to the city, the combine was. So I think they're only going to try to continue to promote that and make it bigger. But Indianapolis through 2028 would make it 41 years in total here in Indy. Plus now they're adding a brand new beautiful Ritz and another hotel, and now they're redoing the entire mall area downtown. Now that it's actually getting nice down there, let's keep thinking. Oh, yeah. Yeah, let's keep going. And that Visit Indy crew, I think they're on it.

2:02:02Pat McAfee:I think they're on it. I think, nope, not going to say it. Say it. Yeah, might as well. I had no idea what I was walking into yesterday. I had no clue. I had no idea. Legitimately no idea. Like, I found it. And that was at the stadium? Yeah, I found that out yesterday. It was at Lucas Oil Stadium. So I was at Lucas Oil Stadium. Do we have, like, a theater in Lucas Oil Stadium? Like, what is there? Like, no, it's going to be on the field. I'm like, holy shit, all right. How am I getting in there? You know, and then they, I literally get texted, like, an hour beforehand like hey this is where you're gonna come in or whatever it's like sick had no idea then i walk uh through the back fox he's with me aq shipley's with me as well because he was heading to the airport which is that way i'm walking through the back supposed to be there at one time obviously that wasn't going to happen i have a job okay so then we get here at another time we're supposed to go on at a certain time let's just say there's seven minutes or so between those two times walking through trying to get briefed on what it is i have no idea massive curtain can't see anything on the other side of this curtain have no idea what i'm walking out to None.

2:03:02Pat McAfee:Just walking backstage. Here we go. Walking on the field. Turn a corner. Quick conversation with Mackenzie at FaceTime. Hey, I'm here. She goes, you what, guys? The guys? I'm like, kind of. I'm insane. She goes, you at dad game? You at dad game? I'm like, yeah, I'm at dad game. Actually, yeah. This is actually dad game. Hang it up. And then, boom, I'm on stage. 1 ,400 people. It's about, I don't know, 10 yards deep probably. I don't know, 50 yards wide. Oh, yeah. It was just like lights. So many lights. I had no idea. Up on a stage. Couldn't really see anybody out there because the lights are in there.

2:03:35Pat McAfee:And then we did a 10-question Q &A up there. They made like a little makeup of my desk. It was an interesting, fascinating thing, but I had no clue what I was walking into. Foxy, did you know what I was walking into there? I had no clue. I thought it was maybe 20 people, 30. I had no idea what it was. It was this fucking massive event. I had no idea. Shout out to Visit Indy. Absolutely no idea what we were walking into because you were going behind the LED screen. Me and AQ had a front row seat, so someone's walking us. But we turn around the corner, and both of us, literally both out loud, everyone is staring at us.

2:04:04We go, holy shit, because there were so many people there, and it was so bad. No idea.

2:04:08Pat McAfee:So, yeah, no idea. Yeah, no clue. And, you know, maybe there were some vitamins, like, moments before. I honestly had no idea. Q &A, I thought, yeah. It was a big event. It was a big to-do. It's a big deal. It was a big to-do. It was pretty cool. And I'm pretty honored that it happened. I should have done a little bit more research on what I was walking into. I think every city leader was there. You know, that was cool to see. Saw the mayor for the first time in a long time. Nice. What's his name? Hogset. He remembered. Oh, he's still the guy. Still bringing it. Yeah, he remembered everything we have said, too, about it all.

2:04:36And potholes. You guys really talk up those potholes? They're worse than ever. Ever, yeah. Well, only getting worse.

2:04:42Pat McAfee:I didn't get a chance to tell them about the potholes. Salt's eating the roads. It is. Especially with this no-precip, low-pressure. I know. We need some. It's changing hour by hour. We need to talk to somebody. Is it worse or better, Tone? The snow is now rising to the north a bit. We're getting some precip, it looks like now. I'd like to hear that. The quicker it comes, the faster it goes. Although it's supposed to be very cold, so it kind of sounds like the quicker it comes, the longer it's going to stay. In like a line out like a lamb. Is this Max Velocity's reporting? Yes, it is. Yep. Look at that long trail.

2:05:19We're going to be in it for days.

2:05:20Pat McAfee:Oh, no. We don't know if the max velocity of this particular storm is going to be four days. It could be gone. This thing could be gone, right? I don't think it's going anywhere. They should move Broncos' paths to New England so they can play in a foot of snow. Agreed. Think about how cool that would be. For the good of ball? Yeah, for the good of ball. That's a lot of snow coming. I mean, we're in the eight inches to a foot band. I thought that was north of us. It's supposed to be. And then I thought Nashville, too, was supposed to be. Fike said no precip. Fike's a fuck. No, he's not. That's what I'm picking up from looking at that.

2:05:56Pat McAfee:No, Fike answered the phone whenever we called him. We appreciate it. I don't get a foot. I don't trust Velocity, though. I trust Fike. No, we're 48. You trust Fike? Over Velocity. That's for sure. Neither of them are Ryan Hall, y 'all. Listen, I rode a tornado ride with Ryan Hall. Okay, I got respect for Ryan Hall, y 'all. Max Velocity has come into my life with the Exploding Trees gimmick. He was live for three hours. He does it, too. He's Ryan Hall y 'all in as well. I didn't know there was a full— The weather community is awesome. Yeah, they are awesome. And guess what? It's always happening.

2:06:29Pat McAfee:Yeah. Especially if we got 8 to 12 inches just moving up and down like it's hitting the fucking ladders. What are we doing? I got to go get snowmelt. Yeah, you do. Son of a bitch. Salt before, by the way. Remember, you need salt beforehand. Get your blowers out, too. Yeah. I love it. I got a plow on my little side-by-side now. I got a plow, so yeah, I can do some damage. You're always plowing. I'm clearing up all kind of driveway. I need to start plowing a plow myself. All right. I'm about one of those. You and Connor, you plow. I'm not fucking around with the shovel anymore. Me neither. My hands get cold.

2:06:57Pat McAfee:Yep. And my back hurts. Exactly. I just want to win, win, win, win, win, win. Right. Right. I'm going to put some chains on the quad, and then I'm going to put a plow out in the front of that thing, and I'm going to be... That's not a bad idea. You can get that on Amazon. Yeah, do it. And that's fun. Yeah, and that's a lot of fun.

2:07:15Pat McAfee:about this neighborhood you know feels like a lot of them just make my property their home a little bit too much yeah you know i don't like that at all uh that's gonna change for sure but like i do think going down and saying hey neighbor who probably doesn't have a set let me go ahead and whale this thing a little bit on it that's a good thing that's a good thing for society you could also just plow their driveways and like two weeks from now just like put like a bill in their mailbox that work remember when i did your driveway you owe me a thousand bucks yeah gas these days. Which is crazy because I think it's about to stop thinking about.

2:07:47Pat McAfee:All right. your friend tell a friend something nice that might change their life. Everybody stay warm out there. It's cold world. Cold world. It's cold world. It is cold. AJ, anything to say to the crew? No. All right. Team on me. Team on three. We'll see you tomorrow. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye. Two teams. One cup. The primetime stage is set for the TGL presented by SoFi Finals. Los Angeles Golf Club versus Tigers Jupiter Links. Keep up, it's playoffs. Tune in Monday, March 23rd, 9 p.m. Eastern on ESPN2, and Tuesday, March 24th, 7 p.m. Eastern on ESPN and on the ESPN app.

2:08:42without slowing you down. So put that fork down. Try the new wraps today in app or at order.sweetgreen.com. Available at participating locations only.