PMS 2.0 1504 - Live from the Lahd Hahse for the NFL Combine, Brandon Beane & Joe Brady, Nick Caserio, Randy Orton, Governor Mike Braun, Dan Morgan, Sean Payton

11:22Mike Braun:He had one missed tackle on the entire year. He's an absolute freak. He's going to broad jump 11. He's going to vert 40. He's going to run well. Sonny Stiles is up there. Everyone should know his name. The other one, Arvel Reese. Okay. Well, Arvel?

11:35Pat McAfee:Yes, yes, yes. Allegedly, it was potentially a clerical heir.

11:39Mike Braun:A clerical heir. Excuse me.

11:40Pat McAfee:Yeah, we were trying to do the right thing because we've been a part of a few of these before in the biggest way whenever we're announcing a draft pick where names have changed or pronunciations have changed. and we try to get it right because whenever people say McAfee, I say, no, it's McAfee. And then they say.

11:55Mike Braun:Like the antivirus?

11:57Pat McAfee:Bingo. And that's always the interaction that I have to have. And then I say it's more than an antivirus, which you should certainly download the app, by the way. We should play a little defense against these trolls. So I, as somebody who's had my name pronounced wrong for a lot, large portion of my life, I'll never forget. I think we were playing in Washington, primetime game. PA announcer. Coming out to kick. Opening kickoff or whatever. Adam Vinatieri. Oh, that's not an easy one. Was it? Kind of cool, though. It was not. I'm out there. I'm like, that's sick. So then I kick it off. And then somebody told me, hey, that's not Adam Vinatieri.

12:32Pat McAfee:Next one. Coming out to kick. Pat McCaffey. I'm like, all right. All right. Hopefully we get out here again for a third one. And then literally the third one hit McAfee or whatever. So we try to get it right. Yeah. So allegedly there was a little clear. Something happened. Yeah. Arvel.

12:46Mike Braun:Still Arvel Reese. Yeah. As we saw this year, he is an absolute monster. He's getting the Micah Parsons treatment because he played off the ball a lot at Ohio State. He's projecting, a lot of people projecting him to play on the ball. Just look at that absolute monster. He is huge. He's the same size as Sonny Stiles. He's supposed to run really well today. And then the last one who is the only one on this list who's not projected in the first round, Jacob Rodriguez, is an absolute monster. Over the last two seasons, 255 tackles and 15 forced turnovers. Everyone's very, very excited to see what he runs and what he does today because production-wise, he's an absolute monster.

13:24Mike Braun:He can make himself a bunch of money today.

13:26Pat McAfee:Yeah, and I think the more they talk to him, the more they're going to like him. And then they're going to start watching more film. He was a quarterback whenever he went to college, and then obviously he won$250 ,000, Con, man. Yeah, no big deal.

13:37Joe Brady:And he reeks of one of those guys that everybody knows when you're watching college football, but then for some reason doesn't go in the first round because of some bullshit. I don't know if maybe. Yeah, like third round. Exactly. Intimidated by the stash, and he ends up going in the second or third, and then he's, you know, first team, all rookie, whatever. And he's one of those guys that feels like everyone's fan favorite. Like some guys like Arvel Reese and Sonny Styles, polarizing because they're OHIO Buckeyes. Rodriguez, it feels like everybody wants that guy on their team.

14:04Pat McAfee:Wife's an Army Blackhawk helicopter pilot, badass. And, you know, and with that throw, got raised$250 ,000 for the children of fallen Patriots Foundation. It's like unbelievable dude every time we've been around him. And he was a quarterback coming into college. And then he becomes this linebacker. Then he just starts taking over everything. But right now, it feels like, AJ, we're back in linebacker, you, Ohio State world. It really is. Arvel and Sonny. Who was Arvel was the guy that Sean told me about before game day? Yes. So I talked to we had Ohio State, Texas first week of game day. Obviously, it was gigantic.

14:38Pat McAfee:Arch Manning kicked on Julian Sane, the reigning champs, taking on a rematch of the semifinal. I mean, it was gigantic. And right before I went up on stage, it happens every week whenever I'm doing that show, I try to ask quick hitters before I get up there by whoever it is, AD or somebody that works in the building. There's a guy named Sean Perkins who is with Ohio State. We love this guy. So right before I'm about to go up stage, I'm like, hey, who's somebody that if I say that, hey, I'll sound like a genius. That is what I'm trying to do right now. You know it. I don't know who it is. I haven't been at practice.

15:08Pat McAfee:You have. And he goes, Arvel Reese is the guy you need to say. And I go, that's a sick name, too. And then I get up there, and then I get towards the end, and I'm making the pick. And I'm like, what the fuck was that guy doing? I forgot his name. But then you watch the season go, he was. Oh, yeah. And he was absolutely everything. Him and Sonny were special. Ohio State's got some weapons coming into this draft class, but I think that's just norm for you guys, I guess? Yeah, that's norm.

15:28Joe Brady:These two are not the norm when it comes to, like, physical stature and freak athletic ability. I mean, guys like this don't come around very often, Both 6 '4", almost 6 '5", 230, 250 pounds between there somewhere. And, I mean, Arvel Reese, he's developed there. He hadn't played for a couple years. He played sparingly, had to, you know, was just putting on weight, becoming a better player, and then he had his breakout year. Sonny Stiles came in with a bunch of hype. I watched Sonny Stiles play, I believe he reclassified, so it would have been his junior year of high school in the state finals.

15:59Joe Brady:Division I state finals, the biggest division in Ohio, and he was an unbelievable basketball player as well. Sonny's dad played at Ohio State. His brother plays there. Just a great line of athletes. But guys that I think will impress not only in the classroom, but obviously on the field. We'll see whatever their numbers they put up. But, yeah, looking for big days from them.

16:16Pat McAfee:Okay, so those are the notables that will be working out today here at beautiful LaDos host of the NFL. I don't know if this is going to remain here forever, but I do like that we just signed another two-year extension. Yeah, sweet. It's a perfect setup medical-wise. I mean, everything is perfect, but you saw what they did with the draft. I was very lucky that I got to announce the two-year extension with Combine and visit India and Indianapolis and everything like that. And immediately after announcing, what up, John Lynch? Hey, good luck out there, dude. Who's the team? Yeah. I think he is. He said we will do anything.

16:49Pat McAfee:He knows. Check it out. He will definitely look into it. But the NFL, they started opening up tickets, what, three years ago for this thing? Four years ago? And the numbers have only doubled each single year that they go. And with what the draft has done, it's only a matter of time, it feels like until they're going to try to move it. The only thing holding it back is the medical is the most important part of this. So you can't just pick up all that and just kind of go to MRI machines everywhere.

17:12Mike Braun:Everywhere, yeah. And the coaches and GMs are so comfortable with it here. The draft is one thing because the coaches and GMs, they're not there. The teams aren't there. Like, they're in their own war rooms or whatever. So the draft is really just people setting up the draft, the NFL, stuff like this. This is the coaches and GMs and all the scouts. They're just so comfortable with all their meeting spots here. Boozing spots. Yeah, what they do.

17:32Pat McAfee:A lot of boozing out of these football guys. You know, they're saying the younger generation booze is down like 150 % or something like that. I forget what it is. It's like an absurd, crazy number. Which, congrats to them if that's what they're – Sure, I guess. We'll pick them up. It'll be cyclical. It'll be cyclical. These football dudes are all from the era of we're hammering beers and we're doing football. And there's a lot of that happening around town. It is a special vibe here. Speaking of special, there's a couple people that could have special days. I think you already mentioned one of them.

18:00Mike Braun:Yeah, so there's a lot of guys who we just mentioned, the Nodals, who everybody knows. Those are like household names. A few guys that I wanted to point out who aren't household names, unless you're super into college football. I want to start with a Cincinnati linebacker, Jake Golday. You're going to look at him and be like, is this guy actually going to perform well? I don't know why you would say that, but just looking at him. Why? Why does he say that? Tell me what he means. Because he's Irish? Yes, because he's Irish. Is Golday? Oh, Golday? It is today. Yeah, that's all. Janko Goldeo?

18:30Joe Brady:Janko Goldeo, yeah.

18:32Mike Braun:Goldeo? But he's going to be another one of these guys who is 6 '4", 6 '5", 240, 250. At Cincinnati, when they did their testing, he would have been number one in the combine last year for both the 20-yard shuttle, the three-cone drill, and then also the broad jump. He would have been, like, second or third last year. So he's supposed to test out of the market today. He's going to be a really, really good guy for these teams in this combine. The second guy that I want to look at is Kyle Lewis. He's from Pitt. He's a bit of an undersized linebacker, but that's fine because he moves really well.

19:05Mike Braun:He's not like a stiff, undersized linebacker. He's really good in coverage. He has 10 sacks the last two years, six interceptions, 180 tackles. He's not afraid to stick his nose in there, and he's supposed to run really well today. And then the last guy that I wanted to talk about is out of Illinois, the edge, Gabe Ackes, who is just absolutely huge. He's another 6 '5", 270 guy, over 20 miles per hour on the readings this year at 19 sacks the last two years. He benched over 30 reps. He's an absolute freak. He's another one who is supposed to show out here at the combine.

19:32Pat McAfee:This is what the combine is. It's just viral moments.

19:35Mike Braun:Yes.

19:35Pat McAfee:Whenever people do something absurd, it's a viral moment. And then Rich and Daniel Jeremiah are kind of guiding you through everything else. We're having a podcast. We're talking ball and then, oh, shit, what just happened out here? These are the guys that could potentially steal the show today, is what you're saying, in your eyes.

19:47Mike Braun:Yes, these guys. It was crazy because last year was a lot of guys who you weren't sure about, like the names you weren't sure about who performed really well. This year was Sonny Styles and Arvel Reese. The top names are also supposed to be the athletic guys.

19:59Pat McAfee:How's the game's last name spelled or said there? Akis. Okay.

20:02Mike Braun:The J is silent. Because it looks like.

20:04Pat McAfee:Oh, like Django, but D. Oh, yeah, so very different then. First letter. What is it then?

20:11Mike Braun:Akis, I believe. Akis.

20:13Pat McAfee:The amount of people that have called him jackass, I don't like it. He should lean into it, though. Well, especially whenever he jacks this entire place. For sure. Jack all over him. Jackass. We can't wait to watch. Okay, let's move away from the workouts on the field. Let's move to the people that are judging them. Okay? Let's move to the people that are the gatekeepers for the NFL. And let's move to a city that we absolutely love. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, the general manager and the head coach of the Buffalo Beals, just dapping up Josh McCown, the general manager, Brandon Bean. And yo, Brady.

20:46Pat McAfee:Hey. Appreciate you, dude. How you doing, man? Good to see you, dude. Can't wait to see you. Hey, Joe, how about this? All right, yeah. I'll wait. Joe, pleasure meeting you. Joe, good to see you. Hey, Joe, we've been doing this quarterback throw thing at the end. I just want to let you know, Brandon Bean hustled us out of a big money donation thing whenever he was golfing. You remember that? Oh, yeah. You lied about his score. Yeah, you remember that when he did that? He stand back. So I would like to let you know, Joe, I am not letting you throw. Mr. Bean, you're going to have to throw at the end of this thing.

21:16Pat McAfee:I love it. Just to have that in your back of your mind.

21:19Nick Caserio:I love it. Beats a hustler. Beats a hustler. I love it. Somehow I'm going to lose this bet.

21:22Pat McAfee:Yeah, certainly. I can't wait to see how much you donate. That's so cool that you're doing that. Bean, it feels like you love this entire process. We've had the opportunity. You've opened up your doors for us to kind of watch through your eyes on how this whole process works. Whenever you get back out here, what is the thing that you're most eager for? Is it learning about the guys? Is it watching? Like, what is the thing that you're most eager for? Or is it the backdoor booze and deals that are going on all around? Tom Bino. What is it, though, for you that you look forward to most out here?

21:49Nick Caserio:Yeah, I mean, listen, it is fun to see everybody. The whole NFL is pretty much here for a week. But I think the funnest part for me is getting these meeting rooms for 20 minutes. And it sounds boring, but just seeing where these guys are, what their football foundation is, kind of what their knowledge is of the game, where they're going, who they've learned from, who they've played for. Just it's a chance to finally hear what they know. You see them with their helmet and their uniform on, But you really don't know. Some guys look like they're smart, but you get them on the board. Maybe the guy next to them, if it's an over-line, and maybe the guy next to them is kind of helping them, and they don't know as much.

22:24Nick Caserio:So we just literally finished again this morning with another eight or nine guys, and we've got a few more later.

22:29Pat McAfee:Okay, so let's fire you up. I like that you have good energy in there. Is there anything that you ask specifically that helps you know about the human a little bit? Like yesterday, what did Schneider say? What cereal did he eat in the morning? Yep. And I gave him a full answer about how Fruity Pebbles is the right answer because it's the most consistent. It also never changed with any of the government bylaws. You know, the Cocoa Puffs used to be much more cocoa-y, and then we had to get rid of some of the stuff, and then it wasn't as good. Fruity Pebbles has remained great throughout the entirety.

22:53Pat McAfee:And on the back of every Fruity Pebbles box, you kind of learn something. You know, there's some little trivia thing on there, so I feel like I'm getting better in the morning. If I would have given him that answer, I'm sure that would have been an answer that they would have told other people later, like, this fucking asshole just gave me this. First round pick. But is there any of those things that are happening, like, for real? Because we've heard these stories, like, what's the appliance? What's this? Like, are you asking any of these weird questions to try to get them off the script? or is it just kind of like, hey, let's talk here and be a human and try to figure it out?

23:16Nick Caserio:Yeah, we don't get too crazy. I mean, Joe's got some pretty good questions. He throws out at them. What do you do, Joe?

23:21Pat McAfee:What do you say? Stole the offense.

23:22Dan Morgan:Yeah, stall the offense. See what they know. No, nothing. I just want to know football. Like, just I like trying to get – you can tell when the guy – you ask him a question, and that's what they've been practicing for the last few months, right? So, look, I always like to ask them, like, hey, what's one play you want back? And, you know, football guys, right, they're naturally thinking about the – look, we don't want the negatives, right? But, like, when a guy's sitting there and he's, like, for 10 minutes is, like, I don't remember any play that I want back. It's, like, you know, are you going to bed thinking about football?

23:49Dan Morgan:You know? And what did you learn from that? You know what I mean? Like, if it's going to happen again, do you remember? You know, so there's always – Yeah, because you only think about the bad plays.

23:58Pat McAfee:Yeah.

23:58Dan Morgan:In my head. You're supposed to.

24:00Pat McAfee:I just went through – Instantly. Whenever you said one play you went back, and there was 14 things that I did that were the worst that I've ever done. And I wanted to never show my face in public again. Yeah.

24:09Dan Morgan:You'd be surprised. Sometimes there's, like, there's quarterbacks, right? And it's like, man, we played a bowl game a month ago, and it was like, how many touchdowns did you throw this past year? And, you know, they know how many touchdowns, right? And it was like, well, what was the play of the last touchdown? And don't remember. I'm like, well, there's going to be times where you're playing football, and, you know, you threw a pick, that safety was off the hash cover too. And you're like, the next time I get that look, man, I'm not going to get fooled by it. But if you can't even remember the play call from your touchdown.

24:33Dan Morgan:Drew Brees, I bet if I asked Drew Brees a play right now, Sean Payton would talk about some things, and he'd be like 20 years ago, and he'd be like, that wasn't the play call. This was the play call.

24:40Pat McAfee:So that's just like the separator of, like, football IQ, it seems like, and also buy-in to ball. What has it been like with him as the head coach? Sounds like you've really enjoyed the opportunity of a fresh conversation or a fresher conversation in these meetings.

24:51Nick Caserio:It's been great. You know, Joe's brought a great perspective just from an offensive guy. It's the first time he's set in on defensive guys. So just kind of picking their brains. He's probably stealing stuff for himself. But he's not smart. Hey, steal everything. Yeah, absolutely. But, no, it's been good. There's been a good energy. You know, we bring the position coach in as well who kind of – I kind of tee it off with them just to kind of get them warmed up, ask them a couple things, just, you know, why did you come out early? Why did you transfer three times? You know, the crazy world we're in.

25:19Nick Caserio:Was it just money? Was it opportunity? Whatever it is. But at that point, turn it over to the position coach. He's kind of running the film or putting them on the board. And then Joe and I are kind of just chiming in, hey, what was your weight there? You looked heavy this game. Or, you know, just kind of try to see what they own up to. Sometimes you're even asking them stuff about, hey, I know you got suspended for a game. we kind of know why they got suspended you know a weed violation or one of them's covering up like a smoke detector in a hotel or something just to uh just see what they own up to and if they you know of course we've run into four or five guys that they are they're never going to smoke weed again uh they should if it got him here they need to keep doing it okay that's my take on this

26:02Pat McAfee:entire thing and laramie tunzel should have been the number one overall pick when that video came out and he didn't cough that his lungs were better than anybody's lungs in the history i sent a text to the building and i was like hey i've seen the particular device that is currently going viral right now the fact that he did not cough tells me go get him he is all pro and look at him exactly those are my scouting things you guys all have your own okay those you got your own uh last discussion for me before the boys have some and we appreciate you guys and we will appreciate the hell out of you as this continues to go for being so nice to us your organization is incredibly kind to us always has been and i don't know if you'll give me this away but is there years where you're coming in knowing exactly what you're looking like hey we need to do this we need this and we need this like is there a hyper focus or are you looking for best players right now no we're truly looking

26:53Nick Caserio:for best players because one of the things about the draft you don't know how free agency is going to play out even with your own guys how much money do you have um not enough 100 million is what uh

27:01Pat McAfee:Tennessee guy yesterday we were talking about.

27:03Nick Caserio:Yeah, yeah.

27:04Pat McAfee:But it's only going up, though, it feels like.

27:06Nick Caserio:It is. But, you know, we know what the range is going to be. We still – it's not a final number yet. But we got to work to get under? Yeah, we're probably going to be 15 to 19, 20 over that we got to get under. And we've already started doing some maneuvers. We restructured Spencer Brown the other day to get, you know, 10 and a half back. But we know we have some more work to do over the next couple weeks so that, A, we can get under, and, B, we can make the moves we need to make.

27:32Dan Morgan:AJ has a question for you guys. Yeah, I guess – Unfortunately, we got a quarterback that we pay that makes life a little easier for us too.

27:36Pat McAfee:Yeah. Anytime you're talking to anybody that comes to the combine, there's two. There's haves and have-nots. The haves are the ones that have a quarterback. Okay? And the have-nots are, oh, we got to build a team around this guy.

27:48Mike Braun:Yeah.

27:48Pat McAfee:Yeah, you know, and it's a different animal.

27:50Mike Braun:They just freed up 50 with Mahomes. Chiefs did, I think, last week or whatever just because, you know, his contract is used. I'm sure Josh will do that for you.

27:55Pat McAfee:So, you're trying to learn? Are you trying to learn?

27:57Nick Caserio:There's one thing to free it up. There's another if he would give something back. That's what – So if you could talk to Josh and tell him to give something back. No, no, no. Josh is busy. You need to give him more. He's a father now. Yeah, you need to give him more. He's busy. Congrats. Trying to steal from his kids.

28:09Joe Brady:He's an asshole.

28:10Nick Caserio:Good Lord. Those are going to be golden diapers.

28:16Pat McAfee:He earned it, by the way. Earned it.

28:19Joe Brady:Both of you. But, Coach, you can go first. I guess when you're watching guys run and work out, let's say, today, are you just trying to – like say you're really high on certain people from their film and their tape and their production. Are you just trying to confirm, like, hey, this guy's not, you know, he plays very fast on film, but I don't want him to go into 4.85 if he's playing linebacker. Are you just trying to confirm what you see on film for the guys you like? And then, like, how do you balance that with some of these guys that jump out of nowhere, I guess, to the casual fan, all of a sudden have a great combine, and you think, oh, this guy's super fast, he's going to be a great football player, which isn't always the case.

28:48Joe Brady:Like, how do you balance that, I guess?

28:50Dan Morgan:Yeah, well, shoot, sometimes there's guys that we know play really fast, and you hope they run a 4.8. It helps us a little bit. Yeah, you celebrated. You know, hey, nice 40, man. Good slow start. Yeah, no, there's – look, at the end of the day, right, this is important, right? That's why we're here. But, you know, they put a lot of clips together. But their resume is on tape already. You know what I mean? Like you played linebacker at Ohio State. Like that's – I could have had a great workout or not, but you saw what I – You don't have to kiss his ass like that. No, trust me. You know, look, I've sat in a lot of formals with all these defensive players, right?

29:22Dan Morgan:So I'm learning all this stuff right now. So I see what it was like. But, yeah, I mean, look, I like watching what they're like when they're not doing the drills. Are they out by themselves? You know, you're looking at all the little things, not just the workout.

29:31Joe Brady:Are they thanking the trainer, giving them the water bottle? Are they making the trainer squirting their own water in the water bottle? Do you guys have a rule on that? That's a big one. Do you have a rule on that? I do not have a rule. Especially if you don't really know the trainers, too, and you're sitting your hands on their hips, and they're squirting water in your mouth. I'm like, he might be crossed off the list.

29:46Dan Morgan:No, but we are looking at it. Look, you look at everything right now, right? Everything's an interview right now. So it's just depending on what you take stock in. But, yeah, no, it's all important.

29:55Pat McAfee:You guys have the greatest training staff in the NFL, I would say. They won awards for it. You know, there's the entire thing. Absolutely. They're not spraying water in anybody's mouth, right?

30:06Dan Morgan:No.

30:06Pat McAfee:Yeah, we are on a crusade against that because it was starting to come into football a little bit.

30:10Dan Morgan:No, we don't need that. Like if your gloves, I understand if there's a situation. I've got to be more alert to this. Yes, you do. I'm bothered right now. It's about, yes.

30:17Joe Brady:How tired you are, you can grab that water bottle and squirt it in your mouth. All right. And also, this crew.

30:22Dan Morgan:We don't give water.

30:23Joe Brady:Helps save. even better salt tabs get it yourself you better get the paddles but

30:31Pat McAfee:it feels like if somebody was to not do that for me just like AJ said I would just rule them out and I think you guys have an incredible culture so like finding the humans and how they interact and everything it seems like is the most vital part of what you have going on right now if they match your culture is there people that get in there after you pick them and go my I was wrong I was wrong on this yeah there's remorse I guess would happen all the time yeah I think also or wow I didn't expect this guy to be as awesome

30:58Nick Caserio:as a Buffalo it's it's been both but yeah there's sometimes you're like man I didn't I didn't expect this but that's where you hope a strong culture can hey let's let's pull them over let's don't let's don't let them drift over here let's help pull them over there's there's always guys you say hey if that guy went to the wrong city or the wrong team look out and we talk about that hey he's got some things do we think our culture is strong enough to handle this guy or do we think He's too far over here. He's just not going to be a fit. He's going to be a turnoff to his teammates.

31:26Pat McAfee:We don't hate weed in Buffalo. It gets cold up there. You've got to be in the house. Yeah. It's all right.

31:31Joe Brady:Connor has a question for you guys. Yeah, being Brett Veach said something pretty interesting just about the combine in general and the draft. He said 25 of their top 100 players are going back to college now. And that's something that isn't normal per se, but it's something that will probably continue to go. Have you seen that now with the combine and with the draft in general that there are older players and you have to kind of factor that in a little bit just because guys have stayed in college six, seven years at this point. And is that something that you also expect will affect the draft and just kind of how you look at it going forward?

32:05Joe Brady:And are younger players more at a premium now than ever because of that sense? Or is that something that doesn't matter? You're just looking for production once they're in the NFL.

32:13Nick Caserio:Well, you are looking for young guys that you feel can still grow, not the guys that are not at their ceiling. That's exciting. And I will agree with that, too. There's guys now that we're grading as underclassmen that years ago you'd be like, there's no way he's not coming out. He's going in the second round, third round. The money's going to be too good. But they're still taking it down to the end, waiting. And some of them are going, if I'm a first-round pick, I'm coming out. If I'm not, if I'm in the second, I want to come back and see if I can get myself into the first round. And listen, there's agents.

32:47Nick Caserio:There's coaches from college calling. where do you guys see this guy? We're trying to educate ourselves. But the money's so good. I mean, you get two, three million bucks to come back, guaranteed money. You know, I understand why these guys are going back.

33:01Pat McAfee:Whenever you think about the NIL era and everything that's happening right now, you being in the building I think is good news because you know the culture, you know the team, you know everything like that. But obviously you coach in college and you get to the NFL, you do your thing. Have you seen a generational change here? Like I don't know how you're going to coach. I haven't been in there. but they talk about, you know, like I think a benefit to the NIL era is these guys go through their first amount of money earlier. So like the fat pocket syndrome that happens to guys potentially has already happened maybe, hopefully.

33:30Pat McAfee:You would assume so you guys don't have to deal with that. But there's obviously other drawbacks as well. How have you kind of experienced this modern era as a coach? I know Josh Allen's a cowboy from out in the middle of nowhere, but whenever this younger generation has to mix with you, olds in there, how has it and what is that for you as you view it?

33:47Dan Morgan:Well, it is unique, right? Like, you watch the draft. Like, I remember growing up, you'd watch, and everybody would get drafted. I mean, everybody's crying. It's like you finally have an opportunity to make money, where now guys are like, I'm actually taking a pay cut in a sense, right? Yes, actually. But on the flip side, a lot of times you draft the guy, and money is going to change him. Well, we already know what money looks like with this guy. You know, we've seen, hey, did the NIL, did it impact him in college? You know, he got paid his sophomore year, and, man, after his sophomore year, it declined.

34:14Dan Morgan:So we already know that money impacted him. We don't have to wait until we draft him in the first round, and then it's like, ooh, what's it going to look like? So it's a different type of player, but at the end of the day, I do think that the money, in a sense, has helped us kind of understand what we're getting a little more.

34:29Pat McAfee:Are you two going to be on the same page with picks, or are you going to be jumping on the table for a guy, and he's going to go behind the door and say he doesn't like a guy? I heard that's what happens with you guys. I heard that's what happens. You've seen our dynamic already. Yeah, I heard that was what happens with you guys. That whole process, obviously that clip was huge, and everything in the NFL is huge. But what is that dynamic? Because obviously you've been there, done that, you've done a lot of these. He has witnessed you do it. You have a lot of success. We go through your shit. You have a lot of success.

34:55Pat McAfee:Now, obviously, having won a Super Bowl set is all you're being judged upon, just like Josh, just like what's happening in Baltimore with Lamar. But when it comes to making selections, how much do you guys agree beforehand? Like how much input? How does that kind of come about?

35:08Nick Caserio:Yeah, I mean, I think everything you do. Listen, at the end of the day, he's got to make decisions on fourth down. He's got to make decisions what we're going to do with a coin toss. Yeah, you like points, right? We kick field goals? I like points. I like touchdowns too, though. But I like points. Okay. Don't do it. Kick the field goal. But, no, I think it's one of those things. Listen, we're collaborative. We're in lockstep. And the thing about Joe is we've been through this. We've talked about free agents in the past. We've talked about draft. Joe sat in the draft room last year to kind of see some of our process.

35:40Nick Caserio:because about three weeks before the draft, we bring the coaches in and just kind of hear their opinion. We keep them separate from the scouting opinion right now just to see they've Zoomed this player, they've met him here, they might have gone to a pro day, bring them in. And then Joe and I were talking last year, and he was like, man, I'd love to see what y 'all do after we come in there. So walk on in, the door's open. And so he kind of saw our process a little bit more. So this year we'll continue to kind of do that. and he sees the process. At the end of the day, it's about getting it right for the Bills.

36:11Nick Caserio:It's not about who I want. It's not about who he wants. There may be an area scout that stands on the table, quote, unquote, and, you know, convinces us this is the guy or this is not the guy. And we just got to get it right for us. Like I said, it's not going to – I don't think it's going to be a big deal. We go through every scenario beforehand. So when we're getting close to the clock, we've already talked about kind of which way we're going to lean if it's down to this guy or that guy. How many picks do you have? We have seven. I got a good news for you, buddy. You got me some more picks?

36:40Pat McAfee:No, we'd like one of those. Stephen Holder is reporting. The Indianapolis Colts have given Anthony Richardson permission to seek a trade given his uncertain future in Indy. ESPN has learned he was number four overall pick. So you give us your first. And Josh, maybe. Yeah, swap Josh and Anthony. Yeah. See, remember we were talking about this, what, last year? Exactly. Something to think about. Joe! It'd be a big splash. Let's talk. Hey, Joe, remember when they drafted Josh, you weren't here. Yeah, you're a guy.

37:06Mike Braun:Not your guy. All right, this interview is over.

37:12Pat McAfee:On that note, Anthony, if you do find a new team, good luck, dude. Honestly, I mean, between injuries, missing, learning how to become a pro with not a lot of football, and then the freak accident happening in the at all, fresh start could be incredible. And if it's for the Buffalo Bills' number one overall pick, we will certainly be pumped up about that. Tone has a question for you guys.

37:32Mike Braun:Yeah, being the interview can't be over because we haven't done our annual tradition yet. I'm not sure if you've seen wide receiver class. It's pretty good. Let's go. Who do you like? Who do you like? Who's the wide receiver this year?

37:42Nick Caserio:I like them all.

37:43Mike Braun:There's some good ones. We've interviewed a few. So I listen to Daniel Jeremiah a lot, and he talks about putting guys in the same neighborhood and in the same houses and in the same clusters. And there's a lot of slot wide receivers, and then there's a lot of bigger wide receivers. How do you guys go about that as far as different body types and different how you judge wide receivers. Do you put them in different groups like that versus slot versus outside, and how does that go for you guys?

38:07Nick Caserio:Yeah, we talk about both, and we talk about versatility. Is the guy an outside guy only? Is he a slot only? And some of that can determine their value. And, like, you may have the physical skill set to play inside and outside, but mentally you can't do it, which is one of the things we're trying to figure out. So is this guy a one-spot guy mentally, and then is he a one-spot guy physically? The guys that you love you can't get your hands on enough or the guys like a Khalil Shakir that we got. Khalil is super smart, can play anywhere. He's an inside guy first, but he can go outside and play. So you're looking for as many pieces so that Joe and Pete Carmichael can, you know, when they come out of the huddle, you don't know where they're going to line up.

38:47Nick Caserio:You know, we do the same with our tight end group, our running back group. Just try to have as many different positionless players so that when you come out of the huddle, that just creates opportunities, you know, to get the right mismatch.

38:58Pat McAfee:I don't want to just pivot completely away from scouting wide receivers, but as you were talking about playing inside, playing outside, I just started thinking about your offense and how awesome it is with Josh and James Cook. Once you became the guy a year and a half ago, it felt like James Cook just let James Cook kind of became the thing. Head coach now, calling plays, yes, still. You see a lot of guys giving it up. Sean gave it up. Canales gave it up. Doug Peterson, when he went down to Jacksonville, gave it up. Obviously, you haven't been a head coach yet throughout season, so you have no clue how it actually is.

39:26Pat McAfee:I guess they say there's no guide or any of that type of shit. But how do you kind of envision that as being a head coach and a play caller while not getting stuck in just being an offensive guy?

39:35Dan Morgan:Yeah, I know. And I think that was the important part of putting together the staff, right? Like Pete Carmich, everybody talks about like offensive head coach, you need your defensive coordinator. But that was so important by me getting Pete Carmich as my offensive guy, right? He's a guy that's been this non-play calling offensive coordinator for so many years that while I'm on the sideline, I'm not just focused strictly on the offense. And when defense is on the field, I can be the head coach, right? And so having a guy that I can lean on throughout the games, that's going to be critical.

39:58Pat McAfee:We talked to McDaniel yesterday, and he was wearing a$3 ,500 jacket, I guess. I just found out what it was. His shoes are probably the same. He already had the head coaching contract. You guys saw it, AFC, CICS experience. It was really good times for you guys, I guess, throughout it all. But he was obviously here. And his late motions with the fastitudes on the field changed football. I think everybody kind of started getting into it, how you started doing it. and then defense kind of caught up. We're all kind of having the same conversation about that, even him, he's saying. He's like, now you just kind of got to think of the next chess move.

40:30Pat McAfee:Like, the defense caught up, now we've got to think of the next chess move. Is that how you're viewing it, too, whenever you think about your offense? How do you kind of view the going into the season with your offense on how you build from last year into next year?

40:40Dan Morgan:Well, I think you think about offense, but you're really studying all the defenses across the league, right? Like, we're just trying to break all their rules, right? And everybody's studying. If you're just studying the offenses across the league, I think you're picking up some things, but you're not beating what the rest of the league is kind of. It all ends up being in a circle, right? We all end up running the same plays and what everybody was running five years ago and everybody found the beaters. You know, in ten years everybody's going to run in those defenses again and whatnot. So I spend a lot of time studying the defenses and just trying to break their rules.

41:09Pat McAfee:Should we expect bigger dudes, slower dudes? Because everything was getting fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast. Should we expect this type of event, Combine, to get bigger and a little bit slower maybe because football is going back to ground and pound potentially? Or is there going to be a good hybrid of this wide open, super fast and physical football? Like how do you kind of see what football players are about to look like over the next 10 years in the NFL?

41:32Nick Caserio:I think they're going to continue to get bigger, stronger, faster. But the game, as Joe was saying, you know, back in Josh's earlier years, we were running a lot of 10, 11 personnel. We're spreading people out. And then the defense has started getting more athletic guys to match that. So what do you do? you get into 21, 12, 13. You saw a lot of that this year. Boom. So you look at the NFC Championship game. Boom. Rams in Seattle, there was a lot of 12, a lot of 13 by those guys. So as everyone gets to doing that, if all the offenses start doing that and the defenses start changing, guess what?

42:10Nick Caserio:As Joe said, it'll start getting faster and start spreading guys back out again.

42:14Joe Brady:AJ has a question for you guys. Yeah, let's say both of you were QB prospects. Like, say first, second round pick, would you throw here at the combine?

42:22Pat McAfee:Top 10. Top 10. Top 10, top 20. Would you throw? Oh, top 20. That's a good call.

42:27Dan Morgan:Look, I think any time you get a chance to compete, let's go compete.

42:30Pat McAfee:Okay. Okay, so you're viewing the opportunity to compete with others as opposed to having timing down and all that with the wide receivers and being scared that a wide receiver you work with at school runs and out at an exact distance. This is what this guy does. This kid that I've never met before runs terrible routes. Like that's a part of this guy and he's nowhere near where he's supposed to be. And I miss him and I'm going to look bad. And some other guy is going to look good. Like, I think that is the fear, right?

42:59Dan Morgan:And I say that I sucked at football, right? So I get a chance to go compete, right? But Josh Allen was out here, right? He was out here going and that's just kind of who he is. It's look, I might overthrow some balls. It might not look good. But again, I put a lot of clips together on tape the whole season, and you're just seeing me go out in there and compete, and it's just an opportunity, and you see how that kind of looks. So, you know, I'm not going to knock Guy for naught, but you love to see a guy that's like, I don't care, just put the ball down, let's go play.

43:25Pat McAfee:And that's what you, I think that's your angle.

43:27Nick Caserio:Yeah, I think you just go out and compete. I can't remember where some quarterback got dramatically hurt or lost stock because of the combine. Like, oh, man, you were missing guys left and right. I'm not saying it didn't, I just don't recall it. And I like guys that want to compete, want to go out there. I mean, was it Megatron or whoever the one year wasn't going to run and then just was like, I'm too competitive.

43:48Pat McAfee:He took somebody else's cleats.

43:49Nick Caserio:Yeah, the agent probably told him, and he had his mind warped the whole time. Yeah. The freaks. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

43:55Dan Morgan:Oh, we don't need a stretch. Let's go.

43:57Nick Caserio:But that's like you love that. Like this dude's competitive. I mean, you go back to Josh. Josh was just going to play at the Senior Bowl for a little bit. You know, I know talking to his agents, he wasn't supposed to play after halftime. It didn't go well in the second quarter as well as he wanted. And he went in at halftime and told him, no, I'm coming out in the third quarter to play. I love that.

44:15Pat McAfee:Josh is a grown-ass man, though.

44:17Joe Brady:Got a family. Go ahead, Connor. Well, I was going to say, as far as measurements go, Josh Allen had biggest, tallest, strongest hands. And that was like his big thing coming out because at Wyoming, not many guys knew about him. But then when he came to the combine and got measured, it was like, oh, this guy's a freak. And now that's what this week is kind of about is people get measured. And then it's like, oh, well, this guy is short arms. Yeah, 30-inch arms, so who knows what the hell he's going to be like. Do you guys value that more than other teams? Is it a combination of measurement with, you know, bench press?

44:48Joe Brady:Because A.J. mentioned yesterday, you know, he put 225 up. 26, though. 25, 26, 27 times. That's it. And he was all bummed out. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's how he felt, too. Yeah, 24. Coach told him, like, that doesn't mean anything. We don't really care about that as much. I think he made the fart sound. Doesn't matter. Yeah, yeah. So do measurements kind of value more than actual reps? Is it something like that, or is it kind of a combination of the two? Because I assume when you saw Josh Allen had 30-inch hands, you were like, holy shit, we need this guy on a team of buffalo.

45:19Nick Caserio:Yeah, I mean, you do look at it. It's all one piece of the puzzle, and that's the other thing about competing here. Let's say you want to, and I think some guys do it, let's say you run a great 40 here. You know what? Don't worry about it at your pro day. Just go do your position drills or whatever. But if you don't, if it doesn't go well, to me, you've got a backstop. You've got a retake of a test. Let me go do my – oh, I didn't do the vertical grade in Indy. Let me go do it here at my pro day and just focus on the position. He also drafted the fastest 40.

45:45Joe Brady:Yeah, Maxwell Heirston. Yeah.

45:47Pat McAfee:Speed kills matchups, brother. Yes, he does. Arms. Yeah. Cassius Howell, Texas A &M, Reuben Bain.

45:55Nick Caserio:Yeah.

45:55Pat McAfee:A lot of tweets coming out about if they were to make it, those would be like the two shortest arms. Since 99. in pass rushing history of the NFL or something like that. For that position, those types of things matter. Player matters because we watch Bain and Howell. So good. Game demolishers. You know, like absolutely in the college football playoff, but also through college. NFL is different. It's a different game, different humans, different builds, everything like that. How much should we be talking about Reuben Bain's and Cassius Howell's arm length? Should we? And like all those other things that we hear.

46:28Pat McAfee:How much should we be overreacting to him, you think, in your eyes?

46:31Nick Caserio:No, I think it matters. It really does. But what you want to try to do is find Reuben Bain. What are the best offensive tackles, offensive linemen that he went against? A &M. A &M, yeah. And how did he do? He took the game over. Just go through those matchups. And so those are more like the players he's going to see at this level. And what is his counters? Does he even have counters? And some of these guys, it's like what arsenal do they already have? What can you teach them? Now, if you see this guy, he's got a full arsenal now. He's ready to roll. and he's beating guys that are not going to play in the NFL, then that's a red flag.

47:03Nick Caserio:But if those are the only guys he's beating. But if he's beating guys that are going to be playing on Sunday, then that kind of is a glimpse into what you're going to see.

47:11Pat McAfee:How big are the damn bison?

47:14Nick Caserio:They're very, very big. Are they up yet? I've seen pictures. They're not up. Can we walk underneath them? Bigger than this form?

47:21Joe Brady:Is this where the chest is? Right here. You look up. 25 feet.

47:25Nick Caserio:To the top.

47:25Joe Brady:To the top or the chest? No, to the top. Can you walk under it and put your arms under the wall and hit his genitals?

47:31Dan Morgan:There should be the Pac-McAfee show in the Buffalo. You've got six weeks to do it until it's closed.

47:37Nick Caserio:27 ,000 pounds. The bison. That's how much it is? 27 ,000 pounds.

47:40Pat McAfee:Are you guys rolling that thing in one of those oversized loads with a bunch of cops kind of driving it across the country?

47:45Nick Caserio:I think you guys should do your show on a truck while they're being unveiled. That would be cool. They're in Pennsylvania. Like a tree in California. They're in Pennsylvania? They're in Pennsylvania. They're coming to New York. Who made them? You can get in here. Somewhere in Pennsylvania. The people of Buffalo.

47:57Mike Braun:The Quakers. I assume it's people. You could probably make it hollow.

48:00Joe Brady:It probably didn't have to be that heavy. It could be hollow. It is.

48:02Mike Braun:It's hollow.

48:03Joe Brady:Oh, it's hollow. Oh, that thing's going to blow away. 25 feet high, hollow? We better walk on it. Buffalo?

48:10Pat McAfee:That thing's going to get some snow on its back, and we're going to broken back.

48:13Mike Braun:Do we know if they're male or female? We've got a family. We're covering everybody. You've got to bring your family to the game. You've got a little baby bison. AJ's pretty interested in the male.

48:26Joe Brady:It's kind of weird. When you do sculptures, you do have to make a decision on what the genitals are.

48:31Pat McAfee:If it's an artist, it's an artist. I can't wait to get up there and ride one of these bikes. Yes.

48:37Nick Caserio:I can't wait to get up. I think you should be part of the unveiling of it. You should do the show from up top.

48:40Pat McAfee:I don't think I should be. That honor is crazy. Your last home game with videos afterwards and everything like that. Everyone staying. Dude, that was – I got emotional because I played there, obviously. It's one of those places, legendary places that you get to play at. But watching your fan base say goodbye to a place that has been so much to them, I got emotional watching that. So I don't think we deserve to be at the unveiling of the next one. You should let Bill's Mafia do that. But day two will come. Sure. We'll certainly come and kind of check it all out. I'm excited for the unveiling. It feels like you guys got a lot of special stuff happening.

49:11Nick Caserio:Yeah, we do. We're excited about the stadium. We're finally moving to grass, which is going to be cool. I know a lot of our players are excited about that. What do you got? It's 60 % of the stadium's covered. Canopy. You know, of the seat. 60 % but the protect players yeah but you're still going to see when you watch tv buffalo should be outside jeez i scared the hell we got going here wow i don't know where that was coming from all

49:34Pat McAfee:right we're ready to go that was one of those bison but when you watch when you watch the bills

49:38Nick Caserio:on tv the players are going to be out there playing in the snow what you would expect buffalo

49:42Pat McAfee:football to look like i think we have to and all these stadiums are starting to look the same your guys has looked really cool i'm excited to get up there in fact that it's so close yeah you know that's like the it's nice that is true beauty true beauty good for you guys buffalo colonians. Now, if you don't win a Super Bowl, everybody say you guys suck.

49:57Dan Morgan:That's the way the world is. That legitimately is. Yeah, right now we're just focused on how we use our water bottles.

50:03Joe Brady:Thank you.

50:03Dan Morgan:Yeah, boom. That's the number one thing to focus on. I'm glad you remembered that.

50:06Joe Brady:One step at a time. Full transparency.

50:07Dan Morgan:So, Josh, it's happened to me before. He'll unscrew the top a little bit. Yeah, yeah. So, now I'm sitting there and I'm like, I'm trying to get guys to actually use the water bottles, but next thing you know, you've got to be smart about it.

50:19Pat McAfee:It's much worse if somebody else is doing it and it falls off. That's true. Yeah, like if I'm... They feel bad. That's true. Yeah, the loosen the water bottle trick.

50:27Dan Morgan:Oh, classic.

50:29Pat McAfee:I think D came up with that.

50:31Dan Morgan:Yeah. I've learned. He's been around. I've learned. I've been around. I've been around.

50:35Pat McAfee:I've been around for a while.

50:37Nick Caserio:I've been around a while. We're around Josh Allen. You ain't getting cold with him.

50:40Pat McAfee:Yeah, I love that he is carrying that tradition. I do. I appreciate that. I don't want to say that Peyton loved that thing, but Peyton set up emergency fake phone calls to get people to answer the phone. to call for somebody. Like, fool. It was the best thing I've ever seen.

50:56Joe Brady:He got someone at the Pro Bowl. Yeah, maybe. I mean, all those things. Eli was, yeah. Those are just classic football.

51:01Pat McAfee:Like, just since the beginning of time, kind of roll through it. But I think I was in the training room. Like, Vinatieri was getting something. I'm, like, bullshitting or whatever. And then there's, like, an emergency that happens in the back room. Like, a phone call. Somebody chaotic. What? He goes, runs over. Who are you looking for? D. And then down the hall comes screaming, D's not. And it's like, I'm like, oh, my God. I got to be watching my shit around here.

51:26Joe Brady:Training camp with the bucket or the trash can. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. They were unbelievable. I mean.

51:34Dan Morgan:Bucking the water. No, when Josh asks a question, I don't answer. I just stare at it for a second. Let me just think. It could be completely a serious question. It could be football related. I'm like, there might be something to it.

51:44Joe Brady:Yeah, but you got to have the answer, though.

51:45Dan Morgan:You got to have the answer.

51:46Joe Brady:And when he calls you and he says, hey, draft this guy, you better make that happen.

51:50Pat McAfee:You better stand on the table for a guy because we've heard about it. All right, let's get to – would you do a throw? You have to. I'm going to force you to do it. He's got it. Okay. Joe, I would normally put you in a position to have to do this. You don't want to see that. Okay, so you're an ass football thrower.

52:06Dan Morgan:Yes. You've got to be one of the only offensive guru. I threw the baseball at me throughout the arm. So, I can – yeah. Okay. That's a fucking issue.

52:15Pat McAfee:I don't know if I believe this. It is. It is. Brandon Bean hustled us. I don't know if you know this story. He hustled us on a local golf course. But it was for a good cause. It was for a good cause. Allegedly. It was definitely a good cause.

52:28Joe Brady:Was that Dano or him that scratched out a few scores? Orlovsky scratched out 18. Don't put that on me. Yeah, I wouldn't. You shoot 72, though, on the regular. Dan's also an idiot. He just can't add.

52:37Pat McAfee:All right, here we go. Yeah, that could be the case. Mr. Bean, if you would come up here on to the pad. Yep, you could take that thing if you want to. Mr. Bean, you've obviously done wonderful things with your athletic abilities for us to raise some money. Okay, we certainly appreciate that. How old are you, sir?

52:52Nick Caserio:49.

52:53Joe Brady:Damn.

52:54Pat McAfee:Wow, you look good. These guys look good. It's crazy.

52:56Joe Brady:Everybody looks good. Yeah, he's like 30. Yeah, he's really young. Basically.

52:59Pat McAfee:Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Me and Joe have a similar situation happening. You look very good. Usually the whites age poorly. You look fantastic. Now, Mr. Bean, how often do you throw a football around?

53:11Nick Caserio:Only when Josh Allen throws it at me during practice.

53:13Pat McAfee:Okay, how often is that, actually?

53:15Nick Caserio:That's probably twice a week. Okay, so then you throw it back to him? He's trying to hit me.

53:20Joe Brady:Yeah. Skipping. Skipping.

53:22Nick Caserio:Indeed. Again, that's classic old school football. This is culture. Yeah.

53:27Pat McAfee:You guys are doing everything that old school football used to do. Yeah. Tom Brady, okay, just fun fact here. Tom Brady were playing up in New England. Me and Vinatieri are standing on the sidelines, I don't know, 50 yards away, and a ball comes skipping right by Vinatieri's, like, legs, and then off the wall over there. And you turn around, and Tom's like, this close, buddy. And I'm like, oh, my God. This is amazing. Okay, Mr. Bean, Josh Allen is not throwing a ball at your junk. But we do need to see you throw this ball into that hole. If you're able to make it into that hole right there, $100 ,000 donation to a charity you're choosing.

54:02Pat McAfee:Yesterday, almost everybody made it except for a GM. GM was the only person that missed it. He might have had a little bit of beer in him as well, which we certainly. Would have gone in the top. Respect. Top's not open. All right, Brandon, good luck with the throw. It's about a, I'd say it's about a 10-yard throw. 10-yard throw. All you got to do is throw a little bit of a seed. Yeah, the hole is smaller than it appears, but big enough for you to win. Fire that pigskin, Bean. Let's go ahead and win some money. Oh! That's a good motion. I like that you went for it. He stand back just again. I like that you didn't guide that.

54:32Pat McAfee:You know, you can tell.

54:34Mike Braun:Oh! Bean! Wait, which GM didn't make it? Schneider. Oh, yeah.

54:41Dan Morgan:Salah still has to win. Sorry, he's got a Super Bowl. He's good. He's all right right now. He gets a pass right now. He won.

54:45Pat McAfee:Okay, boys, thank you for joining us. Shout out to Boyko, obviously. He needs that. Legend.

54:52Nick Caserio:Derek Boyko, legend.

54:53Pat McAfee:Yeah, he certainly needs that, too. I know that's a part of his life. He needs to hear that. He does. From my understanding, Boyko needs to hear that. Boyko, you did good, man. Way to go, Derek. Way to go, Boyko. So proud of you, Boyko. Boyko, PR guy from the NFL that doesn't hate us. We like him. Yeah, pretty cool. We are very, very thankful for him. We are very appreciative of your guys' entire organization. Good luck this entire offseason. And, yeah, thank you for being so hospitable to us. Good luck to you, man. Head coach is a big fucking deal.

55:22Dan Morgan:Appreciate you, man.

55:22Pat McAfee:You should enjoy all of it. Remember, your conversation with people is the most important conversation that they've ever had in their entire life now. That's real. You, too, you know that as well. You just so happen upon a guy who's like fifth, sixth rounder here. And then you talk to him, hey, what's up, man? How you doing? Oh, I'm good. How are you? Good. Thank you. And walk away. I hope I didn't blow you. That's a great point. I'm going to the Bills. Yeah, exactly. They still have that? They still have it because that's how it was when we were coming up.

55:43Joe Brady:I would assume they still have that same like, oh, my goodness, and they think about that conversation for the next three days.

55:48Nick Caserio:Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of – You can tell when the guys that have done their research – Oh, you're a trainer, some people think. Well – Oh, no. A slapdick.

55:57Pat McAfee:Sir, if you could grab me some coffee, please. Owner's son. Okay. Thank you, boys. Good luck. All right, we're going to wrap up this hour one here as Bean is kind of being held hostage. He cannot get up and leave because if he was to do that, he would walk in front of every camera. And he also doesn't know if he's supposed to dap everybody up, how much time do I have. So you're just going to hold tight for about 40 seconds. In the second hour, we have Randy Orton joining us.

56:18Mike Braun:I saw the Viper walk around. You might want to draft him.

56:21Pat McAfee:Randy Orton might be pretty good outside linebacker. There's a chance that that could be the case. We also have Governor Mike Braun joining us about the Indiana State of Indiana. Potentially stealing the Bears. Okay, that's potentially happening. Nick Casario, do you know him? Heard of him. You guys fight each other or what?

56:36Nick Caserio:No, Nick's a good man.

56:37Pat McAfee:He is a good man. Dan Morgan will join us later as well. We're live from the combine here in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. Stacked card as we have conversations about ball and sports and life being incredible. We hope you're having a great day. We'll see you on the other side. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. Take five.

57:01Brandon Beane:From 30 for 30 podcasts.

57:10Nick Caserio:Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman for Miami. Gunned down. The key to this case, it's Brian.

57:18Joe Brady:Boy, he scrapped it.

57:19Dan Morgan:An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing with somebody.

57:22Randy Orton:This might be a hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction. We had a killer amongst us.

57:29Brandon Beane:Murder at the U. Listen now.

57:35Pat McAfee:Football is the greatest. That's what we're all here celebrating. The entire NFL has come to Indianapolis, Indiana to figure out who the next class will be. That'll carry the NFL into a fortuitous future in which we are already seeing the peaks of audience and captivating entertainment.

57:54Joe Brady:Yeah, I mean, absolutely.

57:57Pat McAfee:126 million people watch the Super Bowl. It was the most boring game of football that we have maybe ever had. All people like is ball. And now we find out who the next torchbearers of the NFL will be here on this beautiful field. Here at the Lod House, Lucas Oil Stadium. A lot of workouts on the field today. Yesterday was the kickers and the punters day. They certainly did fantastic. Eckley out of Michigan State certified. Yeah, he's a punter out of Michigan State. We didn't know who he was. We were just watching numbers kick balls down on the field. He was the one. This guy is the one. There was two guys, I think, that I saw yesterday, certified NFL guys.

58:35Pat McAfee:It was Bjorn, the kid from Georgia. Thorson, yep. Bjorn Thorson and his Eckley fella. And I didn't get to see all the kickers because it was live whenever we were here. But that's the type of thing that you can do at the combine. You can separate yourself from the class. They have him as a potential top 50 player in the entire draft. And I'll tell you what. Yesterday, he hit one shank out of like 16, 17 hits or whatever. It was an ass kick. He needs to go end over end to his left. If you're listening right now, brother, don't even worry about turning that thing over to the left. You got a strong enough leg.

59:03Pat McAfee:Go ahead and hit the end over end ball. Okay, that's what I did. Your miss is my miss, brother. Let's get that out of our life as fast as possible. Let's turn it over to the right. He was special. Today, many other guys can prove that they are that. We're lucky to be here. We're thankful to be here. One half of the hammer. Cowboys AP Tone is here. You look fantastic. One half of the Toxie Table at Boston Connors here. Sweet hoodie. What was the we went back to the zoo today? What was this all about?

59:28Joe Brady:Funny enough, I cleaned out my car for the first time about two years. Found this thing buried down there, and I said, man, where have you been my whole life? I've been missing you so much, so I figured I'd wear it again.

59:37Pat McAfee:Hey, that's like when you find 20 bucks in your pocket. Bingo. Exactly.

59:40Joe Brady:I just want shopping. Yeah, let alone all this bad stuff that was in my car that should have been thrown out a long time ago. But finding a couple of these hidden gems, it's magical.

59:49Pat McAfee:Yeah, the fact that you had that many pee bottles sitting behind your driving was disgusting.

59:54Joe Brady:You're pooping in a bottle while you're driving? That's unbelievable. Sometimes if you have no bags, so not as much bottles there, poop and bags.

1:00:01Pat McAfee:I like that you're doing any of that type of stuff. And obviously, smack the bag, shit the bag, whatever you need to do, you've got to certainly do. I was in Foxy's car the last couple of days. He's driving a shit bucket, too.

1:00:10Joe Brady:Whoa, whoa, whoa. He turned it into him.

1:00:11Pat McAfee:I know exactly how much money all these guys are making. And Foxy is disrespecting his life and what he is doing. If you want to look tough, look physical, and kick some ass on the road, you drive a Ford Bronco, brother. Yeah, okay. That's not true. That's okay. His is actually 86 white. You should have seen me get in there. I opened a window up. I did the end of the window. Electric windows, electric start. There was a guy in the elevator. I want to kick his ass for talking shit about my car, too. That guy has no physicality at all. This is an inside conversation. There are a couple girls who said, oh, that's a very cute guy.

1:00:50Pat McAfee:And then we opened the door, and then they saw you had to slide the lock open and do the entire thing. and then you had to lift it up to shut the door. It is nice.

1:00:57Mike Braun:It still has a cigarette lighter in there. Yeah, exactly. That is cool.

1:00:59Pat McAfee:Which was nice. I needed that. I actually put that thing down. And also, whenever you smoke in his car, it's a better smell than the smell that was in it. Talk about poop. It is. Foxy, we appreciate you certainly shuttling around. We need to respect what we do for a living and how we do it a little bit better for yourself, okay, and for your family. I'm driving a monster truck around.

1:01:18Joe Brady:That's how I view it.

1:01:19Pat McAfee:Yeah, but it gets outfed by other cars whenever we're sitting there. I mean, there's really – you're a wonderful soul. You truly are. And I'm happy you're keeping your car clean for the first time in two years. 13-year – oh, sorry. How many years were you in the NFL? 11. 11-year NFL vet, college football national champion, Super Bowl champion A.J. Hawk is here. See that you stopped at a truck store again and truck stop and got another wardrobe change for yourself.

1:01:39Joe Brady:Yeah, you know what? I just can't – it's hard to walk by any shirt or hat in these truck stops and not buy it. So you never know – who knows what's going to happen tomorrow.

1:01:47Pat McAfee:Hold on, though. Will you think about our program?

1:01:48Brandon Beane:It's Cummins Diesel here.

1:01:49Pat McAfee:Will you please? Steve Ackless is here. Great year. Monday Night Football, buddy. So speaking of that, okay, Steve Ackles. So the people that are actually doing TV, tailors, think about that. Oh, yeah. Tailors, suits. Oh, yeah. Combine, best thing. Bottom of car, underneath bottles for two years. Loves truck stop. This got delivered from Amazon this morning. Coup Fandy. We need to start taking ourselves more serious. And if we do that, maybe we'll take it to the next level. True, you're right. Speaking of going to the next level, there's a man that went down to Houston in the middle of a burning ship.

1:02:24Pat McAfee:The entire place was on fire, literally. This guy was wearing a headset up in the booth. Everybody's thinking to themselves, why has this guy got comms to the sideline? He's meddling, he's meddling, he's meddling. Well, what we found out was he needed to meddle maybe a little bit more. A couple changes, a couple roster turnover, draft a quarterback, draft a pass rusher, and all of a sudden, the Houston Texans are a Super Bowl threat every single year. Out of the AFC South, ladies and gentlemen, Paisano Nick Casario. Thank you, brother. Appreciate you, man. Thank you. Thank you. Good to see you.

1:02:56Pat McAfee:He's in great shape.

1:02:57Joe Brady:Quick triathlon guy.

1:02:58Pat McAfee:He's got stuff to do. I don't know. That's actually a really good question. He probably is. We're going to, he looks like he's a runner.

1:03:02Joe Brady:On clouds, you would assume. Yeah, he's doing triathlons. Tell us.

1:03:05Sean Payton:Are you a runner? Let's make sure I wasn't getting an RK out of nowhere. I am. He's head on a swivel. He's lurking. He might be. Yeah. He's right there. I mean, he's right there.

1:03:15Pat McAfee:The orangutan that is the 14 time world champion. Randy Orton is over there.

1:03:19Sean Payton:Not a runner. Versa climber. Yeah, it's a great machine. Peloton. Kind of. And then, you know, maybe some. You don't swim? No swim. I can't run long distance. I just, that's not my thing.

1:03:32Pat McAfee:I think they've got a cartilage surgery that's coming out. They've been saying that for the last 20 years. Are you no music, no TV, just like psycho? Want to kind of?

1:03:40Sean Payton:Music or podcast. So, I mean, my podcast choice probably isn't for everybody. I'm probably listening to a bunch of finance podcasts, investment advice. Oh, Gary Vee. years no gary v i love gary v you went through a gary v run though we all did we know you did yeah she did and then to music they'll all go to music so a combination of the two a combination

1:03:58Pat McAfee:okay let's talk about you doing podcasts and finance and things like that how do you think that does that benefit you as a general manager like how do you tie everything back to your gig like do you think everything tries help you or is that like you trying to learn about something

1:04:08Sean Payton:different it's twofold pat honestly i enjoy finance i enjoy investments i mean i started my career in finance before i decided i was going to get into football like a moron but But I mean, moron, Houston Texans are for real, brother.

1:04:20Pat McAfee:I think you made the right decision.

1:04:21Sean Payton:I'm interested in finance. I enjoy the markets. I study the markets. I mean, honestly, like we're managing businesses to some degree. You're looking for trends. You're looking for different ideas. So it's just I have a personal interest in that topic and I enjoy it and I keep track of what's going on and I have my money in the market. So I'm trying to make sure I'm aware. And if there's some ideas or trends that there's some relevance, then, you know, I might be able to incorporate them to some of the things that we're doing.

1:04:45Pat McAfee:We're thankful you left the money markets. because, you know, that thing just goes round and round.

1:04:51Joe Brady:Right now.

1:04:52Pat McAfee:Be careful. Well, they're saying a lot of bad things coming, but then I'm hearing speeches saying it's only going up until the right. AI is going to blow up the world.

1:04:58Sean Payton:You know, everybody's going to do their job.

1:05:00Pat McAfee:I'll tell you what, AI, though, will certainly help you make some music quickly if you want to make a highlight tape in about four or five minutes. Among other things. Yes, they will.

1:05:07Sean Payton:No, it can distill information down pretty quickly. Oh, you're using it, it sounds like.

1:05:11Pat McAfee:Okay, so let's move into the next generation of ball in scouting. You guys are trading C.J. Stroud. Are you doing that here or when?

1:05:19Sean Payton:You guys must have listened to my press conference the other day. Yeah, you caught him around. Sorry to disappoint everybody. Okay, so let's talk about that.

1:05:24Pat McAfee:So he obviously doesn't play his best ball down the stretch, plays a lot of really good defenses. You guys had an incredible defense. The reason why having an incredible defense is good is because you win any game. The reason why it might not be good is because if a quarterback doesn't play good, all of a sudden Trent Dilfer gets brought up. Like, hey, this team was only winning because the defense, because the defense. We think C.J. Stroud's special. We love C.J. Stroud. We know you feel the same way. Did you expect the conversation or the narrative to potentially build that you might move on?

1:05:47Pat McAfee:And kind of how do you handle that with CJ himself?

1:05:49Sean Payton:Yeah, I mean, honestly, try not to pay too much attention to it. But if you feel like you have to address something and felt like that was the appropriate thing to do, I mean, he's our quarterback. He's played a lot of good football for us, to your point. He's had some good games. He's had some games. Look, all of us, I mean, there's some ups and downs, things you have to deal with. So glad he's our quarterback and, you know, glad he's going to be here for next season. And we want him here. And I think all players learn. I don't want to speak for you guys, but after each season go back, what are some of the things that did well?

1:06:15Sean Payton:What are some of the areas you can improve on? I think sometimes when you just accentuate the negative and you're just taking a microcosm of one particular game, look, we didn't play our best game. The Patriots played better than we did, and that's the way it goes. So, I mean, all of us in the offseason are trying to improve, trying to find ways and things that we can do better, and that's where the focus is going to be.

1:06:32Pat McAfee:Okay, I love that you're focusing on the positive. Let's continue to get better. You guys have gotten way too good too quickly. I hate it. But it has been cool for the AFC South to watch you guys do your thing. I feel like you have hit in this department on a pretty regular basis to flip this Houston team around. Is this something that you love? Like, why do you think you've had success in the entire draft process?

1:06:51Sean Payton:Yeah, I think all elements of the process are important. The combine is a big part of it. I think the interpersonal element, like, honestly, we utilize our time here to spend time with the players and more on the interview front, what they do on the field. I mean, it's a component. I mean, honestly, D 'Amico and I are leaving this afternoon, so we're going to watch the workouts on television. So, I mean, we'll get the information. NFL Network does a great job. We'll get the data. And, yeah, you can watch as much as you need to. But in the end, their performance on the field, what they do on tape, ultimately that's going to be the judge of what we think we have in the player.

1:07:17Sean Payton:And if there's something else or some measurement that you think you have that you think is going to help you, then we'll utilize it. So there's a lot of players here at the Combine that are going to get drafted. Honestly, there's a lot of players that aren't at the Combine that are probably going to get drafted or kind of end up on teams. So good players come from a lot of different spots. So, I mean, we use this as a good tool for us, and there's going to be other opportunities for us to evaluate players.

1:07:37Pat McAfee:I wasn't invited to the Combine. I assume you were doing finance then. That wasn't on you. Here's a Hembo stat. Thanks for the non-invite. I would not have ended up here.

1:07:45Sean Payton:I don't even know what that is. Hembo is a stat guy.

1:07:48Pat McAfee:He's an AI human form. Nick Casario built a defense that allowed 270 yards per game in 2025, including a play as fewest by any team since the 2009 Jets. That's Hembo, baby.

1:07:57Sean Payton:That should say D 'Amico Ryan's built a defense, so not Nick Casario.

1:08:00Pat McAfee:Okay, so I like that. Let's talk about it. You have a defensive head coach. Now, that's starting to become a thing. Defensive head. McDonald up there in Seattle. Obviously, Minter just gets the Baltimore job. There was an offensive run. D 'Amico, defensive giant, obviously becomes your head coach and flips the entire culture around. Because you have a defensive head coach, you have to have a good defense. Because you have a defensive head coach, you're going to have a good defense. How do you kind of view it? Or are you guys trying to build, like, yeah, we would like to swarm. We would like our defense to be the best in the league every single year because that's investment.

1:08:30Pat McAfee:Then you would have to do that.

1:08:30Sean Payton:Look, we're trying to build a good team. So we're fortunate we've got a lot of good players on defense. We have good players on offense as well. So I think the league, look, the league is cyclical. I mean, there's different trends. We're going to try this, and this is going to work, and then we're going to try something different. I'd say in the end, every team's got to hire the individual, and it's a leadership position in the end. So handling the team, handling the players, you're involved in all facets of it. Obviously, D 'Amico has an expertise in defense, but I think he showed a lot of humility this year.

1:08:54Sean Payton:He passed the play calling off to Matt Burke, and Matt did a great job, you know, so he could take more of a big-picture approach. I mean, the head coach ultimately is responsible for everything that a team does. So he has his hand in everything. So, I mean, we're fortunate to have the head coach that we do. I've said this publicly. I mean, there's no other coach that we'd want to have run an organization. There's no other coach that I want to work with. And, you know, glad that, you know, he and I are able to work together on a day-to-day basis.

1:09:16Pat McAfee:Obviously, you're not trading the coach either. Not yet. That'd be more honest. That's not happening. Okay.

1:09:21Joe Brady:AJ has a question for you, Pachon. I guess we're here at the combine and everything. We're talking about this. But what happens once this week ends until the draft? What do you guys do? Like, obviously, bringing in the 30 visits, all the different players. Are you going and visiting schools, going to pro days? Like, how does your schedule work out?

1:09:34Sean Payton:Yeah, AJ, all of that. So we'll finish up. We're actually going to start to bring players in our building probably next week. And it's to follow up and to continue the process. So maybe we want to have more conversations. We try to set up our visits so they have an opportunity to kind of touch everybody in the building that they're going to interact with. What do you do when they come in?

1:09:50Joe Brady:I know each team does different things. Yeah, I'll give you a snap. Some guys do stuff.

1:09:54Sean Payton:Yeah, no, for sure. We're not, like, going to Topgolf and doing all that kind of stuff. So we're bringing in our building and say, hey, here's what a day would look like for a Houston Texan when you walk in the building. Okay, there's obviously a coaching element. You're going to meet with sports performance. You're going to spend time with a nutritionist. Hey, here's some things. So we can get a comprehensive view of, okay, what do the players need? How can we support them? They get an understanding of what our program is about, and here's the expectation of what it means to be a Texan on a day-to-day basis.

1:10:18Sean Payton:So we try to use those visits to our advantage and try to get as much information. Honestly, it works both ways. Just because the guys in the building might say, you know what, okay, in the end it kind of answers some questions. We're going to move on. We're going to go a different direction. So we're just trying to arrive at an end point where we have a comprehensive picture of the player and what we think we're going to get when he comes in the building. So then when we draft them, we have an understanding. But the reality is when they get in our building, they're back to ground zero and they're starting from scratch.

1:10:45Sean Payton:So it'll be visits. It'll be workouts. It might be some individual workouts that take place. I'd say from the scouting side, obviously we're here draft-centric, combine-centric. But free agency starts in a week or two, whatever it is. So we'll kind of transition, go through that process, see if there's some players that we can add in that area. to help our team. So it's a combination of things, really, all the way up until the draft. And then once the draft is over, then, you know, we can take a step back.

1:11:08Joe Brady:Yeah, and you just mentioned free agency there. How much will free agency affect your, you know, draft day kind of moves? I mean, looking back on it, you can make the argument the trade for Will Anderson moving back up to three is one of the greatest draft day trades of all time. So much fun for us, too, by the way.

1:11:24Pat McAfee:If you want to do that again, we've got to show.

1:11:26Joe Brady:Yeah, but doing that, you know, you kind of – I'm here for you guys, so we'll just take it. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, that helped. But everyone thought, you know, you guys were trading at two. All of a sudden, a bunch of trade offers get rescinded. Once you take CJ, then who wants to make a trade with the, you know, number three pick with the Cardinals? You guys do. So it kind of opened that door back up for you. And then you got Will Anderson. It was genius. But how many of those moves kind of depend on today, depend on these next couple days, free agency? Like, do you know today or after the weekend's over, hey, there are a couple guys that might be available that we should maybe move up for, move down for?

1:12:00Joe Brady:Like, when does that kind of work?

1:12:01Pat McAfee:Yeah, unless they come to your building, take a poop, and don't flush.

1:12:03Joe Brady:Yeah, true. Or maybe clog a toilet. And don't say anything. Yeah, at your house, perhaps. That'd be the worst. Bad breath, don't touch. Yeah, Pat, it doesn't brush the back.

1:12:12Sean Payton:We have a pretty good idea of if we don't move, right? We're picking 28th right now. That could change, knowing our track record. Like, we're moving around the board. We should create flexibility and optionality for ourselves. We had a pretty good idea. All right, maybe who are some of the players that are going to be in that area? Free agency is kind of its own entity. So that's a snapshot. OK, here's where we are right now. Who can we add? There's a cost associated with it. The way we do it, all right, what's a player's role? Like, what are they going to do for us? All right, and what's the value associated with that role?

1:12:40Sean Payton:And we try to make sure that matches up. If there's a little bit of a mismatch, we might say, you know what? All right, we're going to move away from that and then focus on some other areas. So we try to take it case by case. So we'll deal with free agency. And then once we get through free agency, take another snapshot of the team. And then once we get to the draft, honestly, we're just picking the best players that we feel are going to help us over the course of our program.

1:12:58Joe Brady:How close are you also monitoring teams that are coming out talking about, like, cap casualties? Because you've been a guy that a player will get released, Joe Mixon, Christian Kirk, and then instead of being released two hours later, they're actually getting traded to the Texans. We're cognizant of it. You guys did that, right?

1:13:11Pat McAfee:Didn't that? That's one of your moves.

1:13:12Joe Brady:Yeah, Christian Kirk last year, a year before that, Joe Mixon.

1:13:15Pat McAfee:There's offensive linemen, too, from Vegas. Or, what, Arizona? I forget. That's a move, though. Yeah, we've done that a couple times.

1:13:20Sean Payton:I mean, there's some players, look, they're going to get released. So, you have players who you know are going to be for agents, right? They're already on the board. in kind of the cap casualty group, all right, they could be available. They might not be available. You're talking to teams and then figuring out, like, what's the situation. Typically those guys are, like, there's a cost associated with it. So can you fit the salary? Okay, if you can fit it, great. If you can't, all right, then you might have to wait and go somewhere else. So we just try to take advantage of every opportunity that makes sense for us.

1:13:47Sean Payton:And if we can add a player, great. If we can't, then we'll just move on. I think one thing about us, we're not beholden to just one particular way and one particular player. So the more players we know, we understand the league, and it gives us an opportunity to capitalize when it makes sense.

1:14:01Pat McAfee:Yeah, that's because you're day trading. Yeah, exactly. That's why draft night, we're at 28, we'll see. You know, it might be a little bit of value moving in this entire avenue. I love that.

1:14:10Sean Payton:We traded out of the first round last year, so we moved back. Let's not do that again.

1:14:14Pat McAfee:We need you in.

1:14:15Sean Payton:Okay. We need more in. And also, hey, I don't know if you know this,

1:14:20Pat McAfee:what is your pick this year, 28?

1:14:22Sean Payton:28.

1:14:23Pat McAfee:We'll take that off your hands. You get Anthony Richardson.

1:14:26Sean Payton:Him and CJ are boys. We got a good quarterback. And we got Dougie. You got two good quarterbacks.

1:14:31Pat McAfee:Dougie, by the way, might be. We started putting him on the trade block just strictly because we think people will be very, very interested. It was reported today that Colts have given Anthony Richardson the permission to go ahead and seek a trade. Nice refresh for him. It would be cool. I think he's incredibly talented. We'll see how that goes. If you want to give us 28, you can certainly do that. Last question for you here, Paizan.

1:14:48Mike Braun:Yeah, Nick, two seasons ago, you weren't happy with your offensive line. So last offseason, you made a lot of moves. It was a lot better this year. Congratulations on that. Appreciate that. But going towards this draft with the offensive line, it feels like there's a lot of really, really good right tackles coming out and then potentially guys that could kick inside. When you are going through this process, can you look at a right tackle and envision him actually playing left or kicking inside? And how much do you talk to them about that before you would make a move like that?

1:15:18Sean Payton:It's an awesome question. Thank you. I'd say it's twofold. Some guys that have played right tackle have played on the other side as well. And if they're not the starting right tackle, let's just say, your swing tackle, your third tackle is going to have the ability. Well, can he go to the left, or do you have to take your left tackle and make him right tackle? So we do have those conversations. And there's ways you can track it, like what position they've played, how many snaps a right tackle, center, how many snaps a right guard, how many snaps a left guard. Because, again, you don't want to just say, well, this guy's going to go inside.

1:15:46Sean Payton:Not all tackles can move inside. I mean, some can do it. I mean, we were fortunate, you know, when I was in New England, you know, we took Mankins, you know, it was a left tackle and he went inside. We took Tooney, he was a left tackle, he went inside. But, like, not everybody can do that. So, you just got to try to figure out, like, what makes the most sense and try to create as much optionality and flexibility in the offensive line as possible.

1:16:06Pat McAfee:I'm not pumped up for you strictly because elimination chambers this weekend are so much on the line. Yeah, you haven't been able to pay attention, I assume.

1:16:12Sean Payton:I was talking to Randy briefly about it, so I'm probably not up to speed with exactly what's going to go on. You're not involved, are you? or they're trying to get you involved.

1:16:19Joe Brady:You never know. What are you reading? What are you reading? What have you heard? Listen to Sam Roberts' podcast probably on the Bellator. Yeah, what have you heard? That's the podcast, yeah.

1:16:29Pat McAfee:So when you were talking to Randy, you were saying, Randy, what's going on? Is that what you were doing? He's a giant.

1:16:34Joe Brady:He is in great shape.

1:16:35Sean Payton:He's in tremendous shape. He could do some damage. He's got long arms. I mean, shoot, the RKO, they probably wouldn't even penalize it during the game. They don't penalize anything else. Or they do. You guys. You guys. Okay.

1:16:47Joe Brady:Hey, hold on. AI should help. AI should help with the referees. That's something they've talked about at a competition committee.

1:16:53Pat McAfee:I do like that the NFL is telling the refs union, oh, you guys want to mess around again? I don't know if you've heard. AI can do all this. Yeah. And it's like, you know those high school refs we had years back that got you guys a bunch of leverage? Yeah. Never doing that again. Now we actually have people that don't have feelings and don't have anything and see everything. So good luck in this renegotiation. That's a big deal for our league. This is a huge deal for our league. And I don't think a lot of people are talking about it. Ex-players, ex-coaches who have been fired because of bad calls.

1:17:24Pat McAfee:Obviously, people that are in front office talk about it. This is one of the biggest things that's happening this offseason. And I don't think anybody's really talking about it enough. I genuinely don't think.

1:17:31Sean Payton:They have a hard job. Yes, yes, yes. They have a difficult job. Blah, blah, blah. And I think everybody's just looking for some level of consistency. That's the most important thing. Hey, hi. Trying to get the calls right so that we can make sure that everything is officiated on an equal playing field.

1:17:44Pat McAfee:And then what do you guys do? You guys say, hey, once the whistle blows, then you hit them. That's what you guys say at Houston?

1:17:49Sean Payton:We play clean.

1:17:50Pat McAfee:Yeah, you guys. I like how you guys play violent football. You guys play physical. Violent football. Yeah, we love that. But if you get a tight ref or a tight crew, like we saw this in college football. The Big 12, cool, Vanderbilt was the refs. The Big 12 crew was like, we're letting them play. Like, hey, this is the college football playoffs. We're going to let them play. Big 10 crew, vastly different. They were like calling a lot of stuff. So for that Miami team who are hard hitters for Indiana even who were like a little bit hard hitters It was like who the ref was was a big deal And I think it goes back to what you're talking about We just want to know what we're signing up, right?

1:18:24Sean Payton:That is kind of what you all want to know equal playing field just be consistent and it's a subject sometimes some things are subjective So let's just try to make sure we're just trying to get it right and everybody at the boys play

1:18:33Pat McAfee:They need to get Vanderbilt up there in the NFL that entire crew He's on he is the most confident to that I've seen in a long time like just very comfortable with the moment Yeah, but he also has an ISO shot in front of 25 million people where you're speaking for the game. Like, you are representing football right now. Let's go ahead and make sure we got it. So hopefully they get that figured out. All right. Hey, before you get out of here, Nick, to head back to Houston, I guess.

1:18:56Sean Payton:Yeah, eventually. Yeah, sure. What do you got?

1:18:58Pat McAfee:See if Travis was back there. Can you throw a football or only ride bikes? I can try to throw one. Sure. Yeah, whatever you need. Will you be able to throw a football into that hole that's over my left shoulder right now, you think, for$100 ,000 of charity? Sure, I can try. Let's go. Let's do that, Nick. Let's do that. And then all of a sudden you're gonna get RKO'd, so keep your head on a swimmer. Please. That'd be awesome.

1:19:16Joe Brady:He's a huge thing. Come up here. Yeah.

1:19:19Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the Combine Charity Challenge. That was the name of it. We thought of it ten minutes before the show yesterday, but it turned out to be pretty awesome. Shout out to Blue, the best mascot in the game, you know that, in the Indianapolis. This is one of his gimmicks.

1:19:35Sean Payton:Toro would have an argument against your guy. Toro. I like Toro, though. Is your new place named Toro Town?

1:19:44Mike Braun:Did I see that? Toro District, whatever they call it.

1:19:46Sean Payton:Yeah, whatever.

1:19:47Mike Braun:You got a new practice facility, right?

1:19:48Sean Payton:Yeah, it looks like it. Hopefully. It'll be a few years before we get in there. But, I mean, it's going to be – it looks like a pretty massive space. So, yeah.

1:19:55Pat McAfee:I've seen the renderings. It looks like it's going to be good. We don't know when it's happening, but we hope that it certainly will. And, Nick, all you have to do is put this football – There's Adam Schefter right there and Field Yates. Wow. Oh, my God. The pressure is on. Nick, first question, how old are you? I'm 50. What? Congrats. Congratulations. You Italians really do it. All right, so all you got to do is spin that football into that hole right there. Adam Schefter will be looking on. Fiode 8 with brand-new hair will be looking on. 100 ,000. Holy hell. Lou, what's going on, dog? Great to see you.

1:20:23Pat McAfee:Lou Anarumo is here.

1:20:24Sean Payton:Nice. Great coach. Awesome coach.

1:20:26Pat McAfee:Yeah, you Italians have to say that about each other. Hey, grazie, paisan. Okay, all right, for$100 ,000 to a charity of your choosing, all you can do is put that football into that hole right there. Go ahead, Nick. Let's see if you got it, paisan. Good for him. Oh! I like that you went for it, though. I like that you didn't hold back. You didn't guide it. You really went for it. Let's act like this is something that could be – Do you have three shots or – No, this is it, Nick. Make this shot. Yes, you have three shots, though. Yes, you do have three shots. Nick Casario for 100 grand. Wow. That was a good throw.

1:20:57Pat McAfee:We're going to have to make this harder for tomorrow, certainly. But, Nick, we appreciate the hell out of you. Please tell us where to donate that. And good luck this season in every game except for two.

1:21:05Sean Payton:You guys are the best. Always coming out with you guys. So, a lot of respect for you.

1:21:09Pat McAfee:Is Randy Orton going to win the Elimination Chamber or no?

1:21:11Sean Payton:I hope he does.

1:21:13Pat McAfee:Yes. All right. Thank you dude. Thank you man. Ladies and gentlemen Nick Isserio. Thank you. Appreciate it. The best. Hi boys. Safe travels. Adam Schefter looks incredible by the way. Yeah he does. So does Field. Good to see you Schefter. You look like you're in great shape. You too Field. Ladies and gentlemen speaking of great shape. Joining us now is a 14 time world champion. At one point in his life he was 24 years old and he was tasked with being the world champion of the WWE. Going into the Elimination Chamber this weekend, it looks like he's in the best shape I've ever seen. Holy shit. Ladies and gentlemen, the owner of the most dangerous letters in all the sport, RKO Randy Orton.

1:21:56Randy. How are you?

1:21:59Mike Braun:Yes. How are you? Randy, how are you? Man.

1:22:11Pat McAfee:Gigantic.

1:22:18Pat McAfee:I wish we were one of those European crowds and just saying this thing.

1:22:21Brandon Beane:Man, that shit's great, ain't it?

1:22:23Pat McAfee:How is that for you? Did you expect that when everyone over there? I think it was a couple years ago. France maybe really turned it up?

1:22:28Brandon Beane:We were in Lyon, France. It was, I think it was close to two years ago, and that's where it started. I've had that entrance song, Pat, for, I mean, since 2008 or 9. I mean, that's forever. Nobody ever sang it. And God bless the guys that sing the song. It wasn't my favorite entrance music in the world. You need something that punks you up. Now, we'll talk about the chamber in a second. Trick Williams, his entrance music, I can't help. And now I can't dance. I have no business dancing. No. No, no. We've seen you dance. If you couldn't guess, no, you haven't. But when his shit plays, I can't help myself.

1:23:04Brandon Beane:I got my blood starts pumping my music never really did it for me. So when I was coming back from my Fusion that I have a few years ago. I was talking to Neil Lowry thinking about changing the music. Shout out Neil Yeah, shout out Neil Neil what's up? And you know we were thinking about new music and then I came back and was like man I've had it forever the fans like it and then all of a sudden when Leon and they start singing it Universe and then the next week they start singing it and then we come back cross upon back to the states they start singing it and I'm like okay this is my music.

1:23:35Pat McAfee:You still hearing voices in your head at this stage? How many years into this thing are you now? I think we saw 2000 is when you did.

1:23:40Brandon Beane:Yeah, 2000 since WWE? Yeah, I started well with Rip Rogers back in the OVW. Greatest class in history. Yeah, May of 2000 is when I took my first bump down in OVW and I was down there for about a year and a half. And then a few years later I was in Evolution and I think it was in 2003 I was in my first Elimination Chamber match. So that was 23 years ago I stepped foot in the chamber for the very first time.

1:24:03Pat McAfee:You talk about your fusion, I remember that being a terrible time. There's been other injuries, obviously you're a professional wrestler. Yeah, your dad in the business, you know the business that comes with the business. Especially, whenever you're working as often as you were working. Now, your style is generated, I mean, you could be whenever. And I think you know that, you take a lot of pride in that. And wrestlers always say, how Randy works is how you should wanna work. Rip Rogers says that. But still, it's gonna happen. You look incredible right now. Thank you. You feel that way? You feel great, incredible?

1:24:31Pat McAfee:Why is that?

1:24:32Brandon Beane:I do. You know what? I just, I had injuries early on. I blew both my shoulders out before I was 25. I had major surgeries and I had to kind of go back to ground zero and realize if I want to do this for any length of time, have any longevity, and I love this business. So that's all I want to do, right? I got to figure out how that I can get longevity out of the sport, out of the entertainment business. And that's what I've done. So I kind of honed my craft to where if you watch, and I hate to have anyone now look back at all my matches, but I haven't picked a motherfucker up in 20 years. Don't have to.

1:25:06Brandon Beane:No, and I don't. And, you know, it's not people that are looking to do the fancy moves. It's not the move. It's me that's doing the move that makes it fancy, baby. You know what I mean? It's the RKO. I've had that same finish, I mean, for almost my whole career. Best finish in the biz. Yeah, thanks man, thanks. Ever.

1:25:25Pat McAfee:Out of nowhere, whenever that started becoming out of nowhere and then it goes viral and then it trends and then you buy in with your family at home.

1:25:31Mike Braun:It's like - Everyone in the world was doing it, all generations.

1:25:34Pat McAfee:And then as soon as we see your ass pop up in the back of a frame, and yeah, here it comes, it's incredible brother.

1:25:42Brandon Beane:When I first met Logan Paul, he was like, man, I was doing the vines and I was doing the RKO's, I said I didn't know who you were, but I knew what the RKO was and I was like, thanks. But that's just an example of, like, it, like, superseded, like, everything that I was as a brand. It was like the RKO. It was huge. And, you know, shout out to Diamond Dallas Page, the Diamond Cutter. You know, and, of course, there was the Ace Crusher. Oh, so Ace gets mad at you.

1:26:12Pat McAfee:I assume that you don't give him a shout out ever. DDP gets a shout out. It sounded like you were just checking the box.

1:26:16Brandon Beane:You know, you know, you got to shout him out. But I think that there's a little – there's a story that goes way back where DDP did an interview where he said that I had given him a call and asked him if I could use the diamond cutter as a finish. And now this was back like when I was in my early 20s and I was having – you know, it was a little rough around the edges and I might not have remembered that conversation. So I called him out and I said, bullshit, that's a lie. I never called him. Sorry. Sorry, Paige. I totally did.

1:26:47Pat McAfee:That happened.

1:26:48Brandon Beane:That happened. I thought I might have been dreaming it, but no, it was.

1:26:52Pat McAfee:I like the fact that back then who you were, they're like, hey, you did the right thing. You called DDP. You're like, no, I didn't do that. I don't want to hear that. I did not do the right thing. That is kind of like old school business stuff. And I don't want to get into that entirety because, of course, you know, there's so many little things and how great you are for the business is a phenomenal thing. And there's a lot of different eras and you've been through a lot of them. Yeah. And you have showed up for the fans. So I would like to say thank you for that. Now, Tom Brady hasn't seen any of them.

1:27:18Pat McAfee:Tom Brady hasn't seen a single one of them. Now, he's in great shape, too. He's got the avocado ice cream. He's living his life. He's doing his thing. Whenever, you know, this has always been the old school how people talk about wrestling, you know? And him dropping the cute line, I know, is just like the greatest word that could enter your ears right there when you think about, this guy has no idea what he's talking about. How does this kind of all make you feel now that you're in the middle of it with the greatest of all time?

1:27:43Brandon Beane:Well, the thing with the cute line, like, so I'm just having fun at this stage of my career, man. I am just, especially after the injuries and the spinal fusion. I mean, there's no one on the roster that I'm aware of anyway that's had a lower lumbar fusion, let alone a double fusion. So the fact that I'm doing anyway, like, every second I'm in that ring, I am soaking it up. And I've been doing this longer than damn near anybody. gosh I feel so grateful to be around so hearing him call it cute like I just I'm having fun 10, 15, 20 years ago I would have been hot choice words to say for Tom Brady but the RKO line it's funny because I'll look at the comments sometimes just to get you know it tickles me but people get so freaking upset and it's like we're just having fun but Tom, if you want to take an RKO, dude, call Pat.

1:28:40Brandon Beane:Pat will call me.

1:28:42Pat McAfee:I would certainly love to do that for all parties involved, including the NFL fans and I think some Patriots fans. You know, wouldn't mind seeing that at this exact moment. AJ has a question for you, Randy.

1:28:53Joe Brady:You mentioned longevity. I guess I don't think there's any secret, any sport or business like, hey, the people that show up are consistent and work hard seem to be the ones that rise to the top and stay there. But, like, consistency, is that what, like, when you watch, How do you stay relevant for so many years? Because we see a lot of guys come up. I mean, I don't want to mention anyone, but there's different fans I've been with over the past where, hey, this guy, he's on his way to the top, and then all of a sudden you never hear from him again. That's what wrestling is. How have you been able to be you forever?

1:29:18Brandon Beane:Man, I think I've just been me. There's a lot of, you know, I think like anybody.

1:29:23Pat McAfee:Also, hold on, 6 '5". Yeah. Wildly attractive. Because he's wearing 270 pounds. Cool tattoos. Dad knows what he's doing. best worker probably in the history of the company stop it stop it my grandfather and

1:29:37Brandon Beane:my uncle wrestled too as a matter of fact but uh oh so i need to add that yeah yeah sorry yeah it's not just rest in peace grandpa man as far as that goes i i take care of my body um and and the thing is early on in my career i think i got lucky because i was horrible to my body like i was doing all sorts of shit i shouldn't have been doing and i kind of had a reality check and i turned things around and i just like you know the in-ring work that we talked about earlier Like, I make sure that everything I'm doing, there's a reason that I'm doing it. I'm not just throwing myself around. I see young guys come up, and, you know, they don't hurt.

1:30:11Brandon Beane:They're able to. Javon Evans. Unbelievable. Perfect example.

1:30:14Pat McAfee:This weekend, Elimination Chamber, if you haven't seen this dude, watch him.

1:30:18Brandon Beane:Yeah, he is incredible. But I've had a couple talks with him because, like, he's doing so many things that nobody else can do. And he just, he doesn't need to do them all every night.

1:30:28Pat McAfee:It's like Jeff Hardy.

1:30:29Brandon Beane:Yeah, Jeff Hardy, perfect example. But another guy, I mean, he's still wrestling. Yeah. He's one durable son of a bitch. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the heaviest man I've ever, I said I didn't pick anybody up. Earlier in my career, picking up Jeff Hardy, that was a chore. Yeah, he is a - Thick. He is a, and shout out to Chris Jericho, he's a heavy motherfucker too.

1:30:52Pat McAfee:That's why they're so devastating, that lion saw was so hard cuz he's heavy in there. My God, yeah. And the swan thorn bomb from Hardy, he got a lot of heaviness.

1:30:59Brandon Beane:I'm trying to think, I think that the heaviest probably a five star frog splash from RVD would probably be the most stoutest thing I've ever taken. Yeah, RVD, amazing, amazing talent, but man, he hits you. You know what, he was like as solid as this freaking table right here.

1:31:15Pat McAfee:I heard Rey Mysterio likes to lay it in a little bit too.

1:31:18Brandon Beane:I love Rey Mysterio, I don't see nothing bad about Rey. No, no, no, no, no, I would never. Rey Mysterio gave me a shot of tequila after my first match.

1:31:24Pat McAfee:I was going to the bathroom and I hear Mr. McAvee outside. I know that voice, but it wasn't tequila.

1:31:31Brandon Beane:Oh my God. Oh God, Ray. He's the greatest.

1:31:37Pat McAfee:I have a man, I have one of Ray's masks on my desk because of how much respect I have for now. Appreciate you.

1:31:43Brandon Beane:Yeah, Ray, dude, goat, goat, greatest of all time.

1:31:46Pat McAfee:And his kid, just a sack of shit.

1:31:47Brandon Beane:Yeah, piece of shit. He's a piece of shit, but let's be serious. Unbelievable. On his way. Amazing. When I first saw that guy five, six years ago, I thought, man, poor kid. Look at him now. Yeah, he's - Dude, he's got the world by the ball.

1:32:05Pat McAfee:Yeah, just such a scumbag, but boy, he's got it figured out. He's really good at everything.

1:32:11Brandon Beane:Yeah, no, he's smart. He's got a look. He went from not having a look, and I'm thinking, like, man, what's this kid going to do? And now, all of a sudden, he's, like, got more heat than anybody.

1:32:20Pat McAfee:Yeah, they dropped him in AAA, and then he got him in raw.

1:32:23Brandon Beane:Oh, yeah.

1:32:23Pat McAfee:I mean, he is a wet worker, worker, worker. Connor has a question for you. Scumbag, scumbag, scumbag, scumbag, scumbag.

1:32:29Joe Brady:But a marvel to watch, especially with how the crowd reacts to him. I know you're a gamer. I saw in the interview you're big on Elden Ring. Is that kind of your go-to hobby? Are you looking forward to some of the games, Crimson Desert, coming out? There's some big ones coming.

1:32:44Brandon Beane:Is that where you go to get away? I am a gamer. And the weirdest thing is, like, so I'm trying to think back. when my dad was around my age, and just to imagine him playing video games. Yeah. I feel kind of like a geek sitting here talking about it. No offense to all the gamers out there. None taken. I love video games. Are you good at them? My poor wife. Oh, my God. I'm like, hey, honey, Brooklyn's in bed. I'm going to go down to the media room and just like, see you in three hours. But Elden Ring, the one I'm playing right now, it's Wu Chang Fallen Feathers. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. It's like watching Avatar or something.

1:33:23Brandon Beane:You just immerse yourself in it. You have fun. And you just kind of it's I don't watch a lot of sports. That's all right. But like movies, video games, that's like where I get my.

1:33:35Pat McAfee:Your wife and you are cool.

1:33:36Brandon Beane:Yeah, yeah.

1:33:37Pat McAfee:Nobody talks about you guys as a couple like whenever it comes to like celebrity stuff because you guys stay out of it all so much. You two are awesome together.

1:33:44Brandon Beane:Feels like you're a perfect match. We want nothing to do with all that shit. My wife is absolutely amazing, man. She really is. And I've got five amazing kids. I feel I got to pinch myself every morning when I wake up. I am like the luckiest guy in the world. And I've had so many chances at life. I've effed up a bunch, but I got a bunch of good people around me, man, at work and just throughout my career. And that's another reason with the longevity, man. Like the right people were there to kind of pick me up, slap me around and say don't do that again and and i was given i don't know if it was the talent or if it was uh you know they saw something in me maybe it was just potential at the time but i was given those chances and because of that i'm still here so i gotta give credit to those guys and gals that gave me those second third fourth fifth not just still here still still in it elimination chamber

1:34:36Pat McAfee:this weekend yes you've been in a lot of them you talk about what 23 years ago or something like that what what is the mindset here what is the plan what's the game plan you know what do we Yeah, well - Because we would like to see you.

1:34:47Brandon Beane:Yeah, yeah, well, I think if you're a betting man, definitely bet on me. Yes. I'm winning that thing. I'm 46 in a couple months, and I can't do this forever. I've been doing it 26 years. If I could do it another decade, I will. The work rate, the way that I wrestle, maybe I could pull that out. But I know that time's coming. So I don't know how many more chambers I got. I don't know how many more WrestleManias I got. I think this will be my 21st WrestleMania coming up. You know, I just want to keep stacking them up, man. So, like, every week I'm taking it kind of one week.

1:35:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, you look so fat on TV.

1:35:28Brandon Beane:I'm a bloated mess right there.

1:35:29Pat McAfee:I think the first time I saw you, I was a fan here in Indianapolis. Is that Miz? Yeah, Miz is eating a few of those. How's that feel? Miz's got longevity, too.

1:35:39Brandon Beane:Yeah, he hasn't won in a long time. Four years. He's another guy, man. And he's been around forever. Kudos to him. He's a durable son of a bitch, too.

1:35:48Pat McAfee:Yes, he is. And I beat him at Mania, so that's good. Yep. But I wasn't the only one.

1:35:53Brandon Beane:You've had a couple good showings, man. I seem to remember you out there with Stone Cold having some fun.

1:35:58Pat McAfee:Right.

1:35:58Brandon Beane:And that was probably just all called on the fly on the spot. I'm guessing he's like, throw Pat out there, right?

1:36:05Pat McAfee:I can't hear him either. So we're out there. Yeah, it is all getting called on the fly. Yeah, it is. It is all out there.

1:36:13Brandon Beane:Talk about learning from the best. Oh, my God.

1:36:16Pat McAfee:In AT &T Stadium in Texas. Yes. Steve Austin in there. Yes. And then all of a sudden, it's like, hey, come up here. It's like, yeah, of course, this is what I'm doing. I'm trying to rely on what I've heard you guys or other guys talk about. Like, all right, I'm just following along right now. That is all I'm doing here. I'm going in and I'm listening. And then he starts talking. I'm like, oh, yeah, sweet. I can't hear him.

1:36:38Brandon Beane:Gravely voice.

1:36:39Pat McAfee:Yeah, because he said, you see the video. I watched the video back where he points to both things. I couldn't hear a word he was saying. And I was like, okay, I've done it before. Yep, we're doing beers. Yeah, right, right.

1:36:48Brandon Beane:Thank God you were a fan, or you are a fan, and you had watched, and you knew what the hell he was talking about.

1:36:54Pat McAfee:Yeah, and then whenever, as you receive a stunner, as a wrestling mark, and as somebody that's watched the entire thing, it's like, this is the greatest thing that could ever happen to me in my entire life. And also, I've been thinking of how I would take a stunner for 20, 30 years. Sure. You know what I mean? So it's like immediately like, shit, we've been planning, we've been planning. The thing about you guys, obviously, you don't know what's going to happen.

1:37:21Brandon Beane:Right, right.

1:37:22Pat McAfee:And how you strategize and work is how you're going to get a win. But all of that is happening, fully encompassed. Broadway, live in front of people, but it's only one way. Like concerts, there's comedians that are in the middle, but they're not doing physical things that are happening. You guys having people at all angles around you watching your every single move, listening to everything, has such an amount of pressure, I think, to execute on everything. Whenever there's a mess up, it's a huge deal. That's why mess ups are such a big deal, because it's unbelievable the amount of talent that you guys have.

1:37:53Pat McAfee:Honestly, it is unbelievable. I feel like you probably took a lot of pride in this next generation, like in helping to lend a hand and carry on the tradition of biz.

1:38:01Brandon Beane:100%. And you're right about, you know, it's 360 degrees. You're playing to everybody in the crowd. you know a place like this you got tens and tens and tens of thousands of people you're playing to then you're playing to the people at home sitting on the couch too so there's all these different elements but as far as the younger talent um you know i get you know in my salty old age i have gotten some fulfillment in uh helping out the young you didn't want to though earlier no of course not well i don't want anybody to take my spot and then i kind of got to the point where i realized that oh that's not possible they can't take my spot no yeah yeah i'm ready or yeah sometimes i gotta remind myself that i yeah well 100 i'm human and i forget but then like some then i remember it's like oh let me help these kids out and there's a few of them now you get the occasional kid that will come up and like hey will you watch my match you watch it you talk to him he doesn't change anything or take any advice and you realize like oh okay you piece of shit you're doing what you think you should do but then there's the guys that really care and you know i mentioned like a javon evans or a trick williams and there's so many other guys you know i could name so many guys

1:39:04Pat McAfee:Can I explain something to you that you might not realize?

1:39:07Brandon Beane:Yes.

1:39:07Pat McAfee:So I've learned this with Aaron Rodgers. So Aaron Rodgers has been in the league so long. All the guys that are in the league basically grew up as fans of Aaron Rodgers. Sure. So, like, whenever they play against Aaron, you hear media talk about Aaron, they try to kill him, you hear all these people. But you hear players talk about it, and they're like, that's Aaron Rodgers right there. That's what's happening with you, I think. We all grew up watching you somehow, even though you're still in the business as good as you are. So these guys all grew up being like Randy Orton is the guy. So you giving them any time, I think they're very thankful for.

1:39:33Pat McAfee:And I am pumped that you're doing that for the good of this business. I think you're doing it good for this business. Tone has a question for you, Randy.

1:39:40Mike Braun:Yeah, I do, and it's kind of around how long you've been in the new generation. I lived in Southside, Pittsburgh from 2006 to 2010. Mario's, after a Monday Night Raw, you and the guys had a room upstairs. You went there after Raw.

1:39:52Pat McAfee:That was when he called DDP.

1:39:54Mike Braun:Maybe, maybe. Did you say 06? It was 06 to 010. I can't remember what year it was. Okay, yeah, those were fun years. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, but I'm saying, and we talk a lot about being here at the Combine and the new generation. Like, you guys went out after events, and that's how you built camaraderie, I assume. Does the new generation do that at all? How has the locker room kind of changed over the years, and what do they do for camaraderie now?

1:40:17Brandon Beane:I think that a lot has changed. So, with social media and everybody having a recording device on them, so much has changed. You know, and I was just talking about my wife and my kids, and I know they might be watching. I don't want to get into the exacts, but, like, we were always getting into something after the show. And, I mean, I think last year I heard L.A. Knight wrestled 64 times, and that was the most anyone wrestled last year. Yeah. I mean, 64 times. I was averaging, like, 180 matches a year for 15 years. In 2013, I think I had, like, 220-something. So, like, times have changed, but that's a lot of night out.

1:40:59Mike Braun:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:40:59Brandon Beane:nights out you know with the guys the camaraderie was you know camaraderie glore we had a lot of fun a lot of camaraderie yeah and much and um god be in so much trouble this day and age so i think the guys now are smarter the more interested in getting up early and training the next day you know uh your body's your temple you know what i'm saying times have changed we used to put a lot of things in our body yeah yeah so so i think i think I think just like with football, I'm sure. Yeah, I think a lot of that's the same. So I think they're getting together. They're hooking up, but they're doing on a safer, more respectable, smarter plan.

1:41:42Brandon Beane:Shame.

1:41:43Pat McAfee:All right, Rip Roger. Big shame. Yeah, big shame. It's football. We say that about football, too. Yeah. We're kind of bummed out that this generation doesn't get to experience the keg as much as they do the kale. You know, because it's like, you get a lot tighter here than I think on this side. But that's the modern world. Nobody wants to go out and get caught. Yeah. Like anything ever. get a little booze and you say one thing wrong your career and your family's over forever forget about it yeah it's over so uh last question for me i also trained with rip rogers uh he indiana legend obviously down ovw hilarious human being just but the classic old school wrestler yes you know just like the classic they hate i think the modern era of wrestling more specifically the unreal thing on netflix gosh i hated it okay i felt like i was an old wrestler whenever I hated everything about it.

1:42:32Pat McAfee:I'm like, I'm not doing any of this. So then I watched a couple of episodes. I'm like, I can see how people who aren't wrestling fans might watch this and have more respect for what wrestling is as opposed to, you know, beforehand. So maybe it's exposing it more. Then I was asked to be a part of it. I told them no. Then they kind of forced me into it. I told them you can't have a camera in here. Joey, who we like, set up a camera up on the Thunderdome to get without my, I think I can kind of sue, but kind of without my permission in this entire thing. And then I'm lucky to be a part of that Unreal.

1:42:58Pat McAfee:I'm happy that my daughter and my boys are going to be able to see that kind of documented. So it's kind of a double sided thing here. How do you feel about it?

1:43:06Brandon Beane:It's hard. Well, it depends on the time of day you ask me.

1:43:10Pat McAfee:Yeah.

1:43:11Brandon Beane:You know what I mean? I think like you at first, oh, this is terrible because like, I mean, there was a day and age where, you know, if you were working with a guy, I'm a bad guy. He's a good guy. We might be bros, but we're not going to ride together, even though we want to. we're not going to be seen in public together certainly not in the town we're wrestling now it's like you know not like that at all um kayfabe is dead no i i yeah well you're just talking about putting a camera up on the yeah yeah yeah okay k-fabe's dead this is entertainment we're all superstars i i understand it uh and i also hate it and i understand it and i think it's I think bringing in a crossover of, like you said, your daughter gets to see it and she'll understand it.

1:44:00Brandon Beane:And people that aren't fans might be fans and have more of a respect for what we do and what. I mean, listen, if you don't know what goes into it and now you watch Unreal and you realize, like, oh, my God. A lot of thought. There's a lot. And it's boom, boom, boom. I mean, live TV almost every day of the week. It's insane when you think about the amount of content that's put out and how it's pretty much all live. So I think it makes sense to me that it's a thing, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I think they're going to force you to like it at some point.

1:44:32Pat McAfee:Yeah. No doubt.

1:44:34Brandon Beane:I've seen a few episodes, and I've seen myself in the background doing shit, and I'm like, eh. You've never let it out?

1:44:41Pat McAfee:No, no, no, no, no. Because all the OGs would kill you?

1:44:44Brandon Beane:Yeah, I don't think they'd kill me. I think they all get it too, you know, and even Rip. Well, maybe not Rip. No. No way. No, no, no. He hates him. No way. No, no, no. But you know, it's just - Like Heyman. Different generation, man.

1:44:58Pat McAfee:Paul Heyman said the same thing about how it's this, it's that, we gotta adapt. And then I assume that they'll end up working that. I assume that'll end up being a work. Like, I assume wrestling will do what wrestling does. Sure. Too unreal at some point. Right. But it was certainly a shock to the system.

1:45:14Brandon Beane:Yeah, yeah, big time. Yeah. Especially for me.

1:45:16Pat McAfee:All right, CM Punk's back. He's the guy.

1:45:18Brandon Beane:Yeah, Punk's back. Punk's cool. Huge one in Chicago. Big one. And you know. AJ back. Yeah. Well, Finn Balor. Let's talk about Finn. Talk about holy smokes. Smoothest guy out there, dude. I can't wait to watch him in punk in Chicago. That's going to be a banger, dude.

1:45:36Pat McAfee:AJ and Becky going to be huge. Does Finn eat pizza? You ever seen Finn eat a piece of pizza?

1:45:39Brandon Beane:Sandwich. I have not seen Finn eat a piece of pizza. Yeah, I didn't think so. No, no. And he's Irish, too.

1:45:43Pat McAfee:He should like.

1:45:44Brandon Beane:Oh, I see what you're saying because he's shredded. Yeah. I think he eats whatever he wants. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes me hate him. He's one of the. Well. I fluctuate, I'll go up and down. Sometimes the diet suffers, the abs disappear, and I'm all of a sudden 300 pounds. You've seen me. Oh, yeah. Then I'll go down to 280 and kind of, you know. There was a time you came back, I forget when it was, and

1:46:05Pat McAfee:you might have been 310 pounds, and I'm like - Oh, we were there when we were there? Look at this thing. I'm shredded. Because your quads are gigantic. So then any time the upper body gets even bigger, it's like, is this Brock?

1:46:16Brandon Beane:I was too big, bro, too big.

1:46:18Pat McAfee:Your knees were probably upset.

1:46:20Brandon Beane:Yeah, too bad. You can't get a fusion and gain 60 pounds.

1:46:23Pat McAfee:No, you can.

1:46:24Brandon Beane:You just can't expect to do things. You can, but it's not smart.

1:46:28Pat McAfee:Randy, we appreciate you stopping by, man. Thank you, Pat. Safe travels up to Chicago. Yeah, I appreciate that. We're pulling for you. Yeah. We would like you to win for the good of the business. Yeah. For real.

1:46:37Brandon Beane:Well, I'm going to win this thing, go to WrestleMania, main event it, and get that 15th title. Boom.

1:46:43Pat McAfee:And then what? And then you've got to give it up again, and then you've got to go.

1:46:47Brandon Beane:16. Hey there, Wyatt. Wyatt.

1:46:50Pat McAfee:Wyatt. Wyatt.

1:46:51Brandon Beane:Wyatt. That's right. I don't think anyone's getting more than 17. Yeah, you know what I mean? If you know what I mean.

1:46:59Pat McAfee:You're the man.

1:47:00Brandon Beane:I love you, John.

1:47:01Pat McAfee:I'm VW classmate. Yeah. You're the best. Hey, thanks, guys. Ladies and gentlemen, 14-time world champion, Randy Orton. Hey, Randy. Hey, can we get a selfie with you?

1:47:10Joe Brady:Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Good luck. Jeez, this guy. This son of a bitch. I did.

1:47:29Joe Brady:New game coming out Randy.

1:47:32Pat McAfee:Hey, I just saw you paid$1 ,000 to upgrade your character. What a mark. See you dude. See you dude. He's the man. He's always been very nice to me in the business cuz of Rip.

1:47:44Joe Brady:Yeah, and also the RKO. So, like, whether you're a WWE guy or not, you love the RKO and, in turn, love Randy Orton.

1:47:51Pat McAfee:He's the best.

1:47:52Mike Braun:He's huge. Because you know why he also looks like a WWE superstar, okay? That's how I want my WWE superstars to look, act, and be like.

1:48:00Pat McAfee:Amen, brother. Yeah. Hey, don't be watching Unreal. He said it. Hey, baby. That's why we don't. I don't like it. I wish he would have told us if he was going to win the Elimination Chamber. Then, if that's the case, I thought it was all strategy. Speaking of strategy, Indiana has enacted a strategy that is awesome for the state of Indiana. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a man who is going to be in the news a lot, especially if something comes through where Indiana joins New Jersey, Florida, and California as states with two NFL teams in them. Joining us now, the governor of the great state of Indiana, Mike Braun.

1:48:40Pat McAfee:Damn, Mike. Sir, thank you for joining us, man. My pleasure.

1:48:44Joe Brady:Hell yeah, very kind of you. How you doing? Very good. Nice to meet you. Good to meet you. All right.

1:48:49Pat McAfee:This is for you, sir. Okay. I like that. It's not my good. Okay. Okay. All right, okay. I did. That was the guess. We assumed. Assumed it was. Wait a minute, sir. Okay, I like what you're doing. A joyful day. Mr. Governor, thank you so much for joining us.

1:49:05Randy Orton:My pleasure.

1:49:07Pat McAfee:Congratulations on the state in which you govern, hosting the Combine for the 39th straight year. Obviously, Indianapolis is built to host things. The partnership with the NFL has been spectacular. And I think our state and our city show up every single time. How do you feel about the Combine and the NFL's partnership with our great state?

1:49:22Randy Orton:Well, I know we've got to renew the deal, and we're going to definitely want that to get done. Been here a long time. When I ask them how long, it's been since 87. Is that right?

1:49:30Pat McAfee:Yeah, 39 years this year. Then we agreed for two more years through 2028, so it would be 41. But we would like a 10-year deal, Gunnar.

1:49:37Randy Orton:We'll work on that. But anything that lasts that long, you'd have to have a really good reason why would you change it. If it's not broken, they'll try to fix it.

1:49:45Pat McAfee:Okay, so let's talk about that. Chicago have been the homes of Chicago Bears for a long, long time. I think there's a vote happening right now in Illinois. Obviously, in the NFL, this has happened throughout history where owners, in an attempt to potentially get a new stadium or get some public money, will say, like, hey, there's other options out there if that's how we want to go about doing this. The other option in this was the state of Indiana. And it felt like you very much were like, we are open for business, if that's the case, able to pass the Bears bill, Senate Bill number 27, which gives them some tax breaks and some property stuff.

1:50:17Pat McAfee:How do you feel about that coming along? And how real did you think the conversation was at the beginning of this, actually getting the Bears to come to Indiana?

1:50:24Randy Orton:So you got to look at how long the Bears were trying to talk to their own state and their city. That goes back like three years. So for two and a half years, they were just like, were not interested, I think, assuming that it would just happen there. But to get something done, even though that lease goes through where they'll be playing there for several more years, their clock was starting to run out to get it planned for a new stadium. So they came to us. We didn't try to lure them because they thought there was no interest, and they were being told bluntly, you know, you've got to build your own stadium.

1:51:00Randy Orton:We're not putting any taxpayer dollars into it. So we never got ahead of our skis. I wanted to make sure it was an honest broker. We were talking.

1:51:09Pat McAfee:As opposed to being used for leverage, which is certainly going to happen in business.

1:51:12Randy Orton:And that can happen at any time along the way on a real estate deal. Agreed. Therefore, before we went to, I guess, last week, when they made that strong statement and our bill passed through the House, that was kind of a threshold point. So when that happened, it was far enough along to where we believe it's mostly due diligence to just get the I's dotted, T's crossed, a month and a half or two, and then you ink a final deal. That doesn't mean in the meantime something couldn't waylay it, but I think they are really now got a good look at what it's like doing business in a place like Indiana.

1:51:51And it's going to be a lot easier to run a business over the next 40 or 50 years than it would be there.

1:51:56Pat McAfee:OK, so there's a vote in Illinois, I guess, to kind of counter what you guys are doing today. I assume you guys are watching this closely. At this point, it sounds like you're very confident that this deal is going to get done, and the things that you're offering for the Chicago Bears in Indiana would not be possible in Illinois. Sounds like what you were saying.

1:52:11Randy Orton:I'm confident that we've done everything you needed to do to be in the place we're at, where they make that strong public statement, regardless of what they do in the legislature. There's still a lot of things that would have to happen. And due to the fact that they took so long to get to this point, I think they can really see, I mean, the Jets, the Giants. Look at all the other places where you're playing just across the border.

1:52:37Pat McAfee:Yeah, and Kansas City just moved to another state. I mean, these are things that happen, especially with stadiums. And we're running into the final 40 seconds here live on ESPN. We'll continue digitally. We're talking to Governor Mike Braun. I mean, this guy, whenever he came in, I remember the ads. I'm an outsider. I'm a businessman, and we are going to be open for business here, taking over for Holcomb. Governor Holcomb has been here for a while, and I think this move is you stating that to the world, right? Isn't that kind of a move that you would like Indiana to be known for? Like, hey, we are open for business here in the state of Indiana.

1:53:05Randy Orton:Open for business, reasonable regulations, taxes, high wages, low cost of living. What more would you want?

1:53:13Pat McAfee:Boom. That's a good sell. That's why we're here. We'll continue with the governor. Exactly. We will continue with the governor. We'll be back here on a feel-good. Golden Friday at the Combine tomorrow. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. It might change a life. Goodbye. Okay, Governor, we are still live. We're just not on ESPN. We're on YouTube, TikTok, and X, and things will obviously continue to get. ESPN Plus. Sorry, I'll make sure I check all the boxes. There's still a lot of people out here watching, and obviously this is a huge story for the NFL as we kind of piece together what the future could look like.

1:53:43Pat McAfee:So whenever, let's say Illinois, and you say if they get through legislatures, a lot of other things that still have to happen, are you in the position where you feel like you're nimble enough where if Illinois does put together a proposition for Chicago, you will be able to counter again. Like, is that a potential outcome in this entire thing? Like, how do you see this joust potentially going and what are you prepared for?

1:54:03Randy Orton:So you got to put it into context when there was no interest and all of a sudden you're very interested. And we've been able to do all of this basically in a couple months to get it from agreement generally to an accommodating bill and a strong public statement. That's the speed of light in this business. Yeah. And I think they've got a good feeling, too. We are an honest broker. We're not going to, you know, and we wanted to make sure they were doing the same thing. So I don't know what could happen, especially when they say they're not going to put any money into it. We'll see. And I think fans have already done the calculation.

1:54:42Randy Orton:You're going to have plenty of room to tailgate and do all the fun stuff in Indiana. It's the Indiana Bears. Yeah.

1:54:49Pat McAfee:Chicago Bears, sorry, I don't want to – I do not want to piss off the Chicago Bears fans even more.

1:54:54Randy Orton:And I won't let you do that. It's going to be the Chicago Bears in Indiana.

1:54:58Pat McAfee:Okay, good. It's only, what, 20 minutes away from Soldier Field. From Soldier Field. No difference. So it's just like, what does the business of the Bears want to do? And, by the way, good for the Bears business is good for the team. It's good for the NFL. So we appreciate you guys stepping up and doing that, especially with what we've realized with doing business here in the state of Indiana. AJ has a question for you, Mr. Governor.

1:55:16Joe Brady:Yeah, Governor, you said like high wages, low cost of living, all of these things. It seems like common sense. That's what everybody wants, right? Why is it so difficult to actually execute that in most states?

1:55:26Randy Orton:Well, I think you'd have to listen to J.B. Pritzker, the mayor of Chicago, how much common sense is coming forth. Not much. I mean, they're talking about in a state like Illinois, they generally grow government, not the real world, the private side of life. and most of us have to make our living in the real world, not in a world that's dominated by government.

1:55:48Pat McAfee:Pritzker, governor of Illinois. Funny you called him the mayor. I like what you're doing. Unreal. I like how this whole thing's going, Mr. Governor.

1:55:55Randy Orton:Well, that wasn't on purpose.

1:55:56Pat McAfee:No, no, no, of course not. Of course not. Connor has a question for you, Mr. Governor.

1:56:00Joe Brady:Mr. Governor, it's an honor. First of all, this would be sick. As someone who lives in Indiana, I would love to have the Chicago Bears here, but call them the Indiana Bears. simultaneous you know piss off Colts fans and Bears fans but as far as timeline goes like as someone who might not be locked in obviously the Bears wouldn't be playing in Indiana next year you know like when do you see them you know being able to be up there when do you see those type of things breaking ground you know and also specifically what city is it in because I've heard Gary I've heard a couple different other places yeah Hammond's like is Hammond the one Hammond Air Wolf Lake.

1:56:37Randy Orton:So it's got a lot of room up there. And I think when it comes to that whole idea of how you're going to acclimate, I mean, you've already done the timing. It's going to be easier to probably get down there for most of the current Bear fans than it would be fighting your way up through traffic to get to Arlington Heights. And I think the fact that it's happened in so many other places, that will be the Bears nation still going to be there. You're going to add a lot more folks from the region that go to the ballgame. When's this going to happen? It's going to happen. The stadium will be built as soon as we're starting on all the stuff you do preliminarily on real estate.

1:57:18Randy Orton:But they'll be in Soldier's Field. The lease goes, I think, through 32 or 3. Okay. So they'd have a point where if they get it built, they can move into it and then work something else on the balance of the lease. So it's mostly done on the lease. And I would imagine they'll get started on the construction sometime soon after the.

1:57:38Pat McAfee:Yeah. Well, next week we start building. Quicker, quicker it's up, the quicker they're in there. We can negotiate a buyout. Or can you with Illinois?

1:57:45Randy Orton:I think I heard maybe 29 would be a goal of when you'd actually build a stadium.

1:57:49Pat McAfee:Tone has a question for you.

1:57:51Mike Braun:Yeah, I do, Mr. Governor. I live here. I pay the taxes here to the state. What would the Bears moving to northwest Indiana do for the residents of northwest Indiana and just us Indiana taxpayers as a whole?

1:58:03Randy Orton:So, look at this. Imagine this up there. And for Indy, this is kind of the heartbeat of the city. And look at what it's done to make us a sports state. NCAA headquartered here. You know, all the events we have. We've got great sports facilities. So, imagine that in the region. Most people in Indiana don't know that there's as much population in the region, Lake Porter County as you nearly have here in Marion County.

1:58:34Joe Brady:So, and that's a place.

1:58:35Randy Orton:I did not know that. Yeah, it's under a million, but it's the next largest place in Indiana. And when you look at the synergy from it, Gary was once our second largest city, bigger than Fort Wayne at one point. And steel whooshed out of the area, out of the country. Look what happened to the economy. So this is how you rebuild. They've got a convention center. They've got a casino. FedEx put a hub in there. They've got the Gary Airport, which is underutilized. Do we still have a casino up in that area? Yeah.

1:59:08Pat McAfee:Is there a casino up there? Yeah, that's the biggest casino in the state. Is it a winner? Am I walking out of there a winner or no?

1:59:14Randy Orton:Depends on your talent vetting.

1:59:18Pat McAfee:Okay, Mr. Governor. So we're moving the Bears to Indiana. Congrats to the Bears, by the way. It sounds like you guys got a really good deal here. Way better for them. Way better for them. Way better for the league, I think, because it's all going to be in. Now, the Chicago people are going to have to swallow. That's going to be a hard pill to swallow. But once again, governments, public money, all this stuff gets involved. It can get a little bit messy. It's happened before. There is precedent. We're excited for you. Now, do you think this is a little bit of a get back by Indiana for all the money that I've spent in Illinois and in Michigan?

1:59:45Pat McAfee:On what? You know what I'm talking about. Gov, I think we should have that conversation next for the good of Indiana. Do you not think?

1:59:54Randy Orton:I think you ought to talk to the legislators about that. Okay, I will. You go with me. You go with me. I may.

1:59:59Pat McAfee:That's good for business. Money maker. Yeah, it is a money maker. And it's also, it's all around our state.

2:00:04Randy Orton:Yeah.

2:00:05Pat McAfee:So I'm taking.

2:00:06Randy Orton:Even Kentucky.

2:00:07Pat McAfee:Exactly.

2:00:08Randy Orton:Medical.

2:00:09Pat McAfee:But I got a card. That would be fine. You got issues. We'll beat you halfway. But what we're saying is, like, I think you, in having the business mindset, have been good for Indiana. I mean, from where we were, COVID, here in Indianapolis, COVID city gets shut down. It gets bad. I am in Indianapolis. the rebuild, the comeback, and then also try and do it for the state. We as Hoosiers would like to say thank you for your commitment to bringing business and to bringing other outsiders into Indiana. Thank you for representing. And if we can just get that one little thing kind of passed, this would be a dream place for everybody to live, I believe.

2:00:45Randy Orton:Well, I'll take that under advisement, and I'll tell you this. When you look at how many individuals run a business, sign the front side of a paycheck, and got the willingness to get into the business I've been doing as a senator and a governor, not many. In the Senate, there were maybe three or four that had run a business at a certain scale that would even know what the heck to do to get that place in order. And governors, you'd think there'd be more because it's an executive role. Most of them come from the farm system of politics, and that's what I was running against. And, yes, it's a big advantage doing something in the real world before you wanted to run a state or be one of 100 on the board of directors of the biggest business in the world.

2:01:29Pat McAfee:Yeah, well, we appreciate what you're doing, man. Where did you cut your teeth? What was the business world you were in?

2:01:34Randy Orton:It was a little company that was building truck bodies that I went into six months before the farm crisis in the early 80s. That's when a mortgage was a bargain at 10%. And within six months, to wring the inflation out from the Jimmy Carter days, they had to take them to 18%. That was a wobbly business. Circling the drain, I created two new businesses, had a fancy MBA, became a used truck dealer. Love that. And it did a milk run on truck accessories when only farmers drove trucks. It was jumping in the stream at the right time, and three of our four kids run it. and it was in a trailer as my office for 17 years.

2:02:18Randy Orton:True. Love that. And now it's got 90 locations in 40 states and several in Canada. Congratulations. That's good Indiana business, baby.

2:02:25Pat McAfee:There you go. That's good Indiana business from the trailer park to the world. You got it. I love everything about it. Mr. Governor, great work on this Bears deal, and thank you for being willing to be, because you said speed of light. That's real. Yeah. Having something that you think would be good for the state, executing for the good of the state, and hopefully signing the deal to make it all happen.

2:02:42Randy Orton:We're going to do everything we can to get it done.

2:02:43Pat McAfee:We appreciate you appreciating ball, too. We know you love sports. I do. We love the fact that you love sports. More people in the politics world that love sports, we think the better, because that's what we know. So we appreciate the hell out of you, man.

2:02:53Randy Orton:Well, let's do it again. And we'll come back on when we talk about the deal being inked, ideally.

2:02:59Pat McAfee:Which deal?

2:03:01Randy Orton:Bears deal, and then we'll talk about sports.

2:03:04Pat McAfee:No, not sports. I want to talk about... Sports medicine. Sports medicine. Sports pain management. Herbs. Herbs. Herbs. Yeah, I'm looking for herbs. Mr. Governor, you've done a fantastic job on this whole thing. Congratulations, and we appreciate you. Can you throw a football or no?

2:03:18Randy Orton:I was a split end back in high school. Yeah.

2:03:21Pat McAfee:So I can catch them. You can catch. Can you throw or no?

2:03:24Randy Orton:Not enough to where I'd want to do it on national TV. Hold on now. We're on the internet.

2:03:28Pat McAfee:We're not on national TV anymore. Remember. So hold on now. Do you think you could get this football from here to there, to that hole right there, Mr. Governor?

2:03:35Randy Orton:I don't think I could.

2:03:36Pat McAfee:Okay. Hey, I like that. I like that. I like that. I like that. All right. We're going to take a break. We'll be back on the other side. Dan Morgan of the Carolina Panthers will be joining us. Governor Braun, seemingly, with what you just told us, Bears are coming to Indiana.

2:03:52Randy Orton:Yeah, looks good. Good chance. We're going to do our best, and it's looking decent.

2:03:55Pat McAfee:Appreciate you.

2:03:56Randy Orton:You bet.

2:03:56Pat McAfee:Congrats on Indiana being awesome. We'll be back on the other side. This is the Pat McAfee Show, live from the NFL Combine, which has been here in Indianapolis for 39 straight years. We appreciate you all so much. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. Take five.

2:04:21Pat McAfee:It's a wonderful time. I mean, we just had a governor on who is seemingly taking a victory lap about getting the Bears confident over here to Indiana. Very confident. Obviously, nothing's final until it's final, but it feels like he is very aggressive and very pumped about the opportunity of the Chicago Bears moving their home into the state of Indiana. Thank you for him for making that happen for our state. Also, can't wait to see what he does with cannabis. I felt like that was pretty good. I feel like I did good there.

2:04:46Joe Brady:I think you did. Yeah, you put in like the groundwork. I did a little politic. You put in the groundwork. Found some names, you know, to maybe check in with.

2:04:51Pat McAfee:Hey, just, yeah, learned afterwards who I need to potentially get. We can go lobby.

2:04:55Mike Braun:We can go lobby. We know who to go lobby to.

2:04:57Pat McAfee:Well, that's what I think I was trying to do there. In my head, I'm like, am I lobbying right now? It feels like I'm kind of lobbying. Don't want to piss anybody off. Don't want to get into that world too much. Would like to be able to, you know, do everything that I could do in literally every other state. But this one would be cool. One half of the hammer. Done. Cowboys AP Tony's here. One half of the talks table at Boston Connors here. College football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner A.J. Hawk is here looking fantastic. Wearing a shirt he bought at the Love's truck stop on the way from his home to here today.

2:05:26Pat McAfee:He is obviously a legend. Joining us now is a legend. A man who played linebacker at the U. A man who is now the general manager of the Carolina Panthers. They were once ass. Now they're good. Ladies and gentlemen, Dan Morgan.

2:05:41Joe Brady:Yeah, Dan. That a baby, Dan. That's right, Donald. That's right, Donald. What's up? Has to shake the linebacker first. You know, I get it. Now the bugles. How you doing? How you doing? Oh, sorry.

2:05:55Pat McAfee:All right, all right. I was waiting. I was waiting. I was waiting. I was going to wait for you. I was going to wait for you. You did the right thing there. You did the right thing there, I think. I think you handled that well. Yeah. It's the right move for the lads, for the team, for the boys, for the building. It's your guys. Let's talk about the building. Your building. Yeah. Life has to be good for you. Now, obviously, didn't win the Super Bowl. Okay. Sucks. You guys didn't win the Super Bowl. We hoped that you would win the Super Bowl last year. Obviously, you did not. But from where you sat when you got the job to where you're at now, it feels like things are coming together.

2:06:24Pat McAfee:I don't want to say like expected timeline, but where you're at right now with the vision you had whenever you got there, how do you feel about it?

2:06:30Randy Orton:Yeah, we feel good. We feel really good about it. I think we're making steps each year that I've took over. We're building a foundation. We're bringing the right type of guys in, guys that love football. guys that are passionate about football. So we've got to keep bringing those type of guys in and just keep the culture of winning going.

2:06:50Pat McAfee:How did that feel, that stadium playoff game?

2:06:53Randy Orton:Oh, it was sweet. It was nice.

2:06:55Pat McAfee:I played down there for the Monarchy. No.

2:06:58Randy Orton:Was it?

2:06:59Pat McAfee:No, Monarchy Car Care Bowl was in Jacksonville. No, was that Garland?

2:07:04Randy Orton:That probably wasn't real jacked up, though, the stadium at that time.

2:07:08Pat McAfee:Excuse me, the West Virginia Mountaineer fans travel. I don't remember. It might be it was the Monarchy. No, the Gator Bowl was in Jacksonville. Meineke Karkar Bowl was in Charlotte. So I've played there a few times. I don't think I remember the stadium being as daunting. It felt like it was going straight up. There was a shot of Bryce coming out for the huddle, and it was like a low shot, and it just looked like a gladiator-like vibe. And I don't want to go back too far, and we talked to owner Tepper about this and Bryce about this, but not that long ago, there was not a lot of excitement about the Carolina Panthers from within the city.

2:07:37Pat McAfee:Whenever you see that type of reaction, whenever you see that type of game, That kind of like vindicates everything you're building, makes you feel like stronger to keep built. Like how does that kind of motivate you and how do you kind of feel about what has happened?

2:07:48Randy Orton:I mean, I think it makes everybody feel like we're on the right track. You know, when you see the fans out there excited, that's what you want. You want the city to be out there excited about things and knowing that they're, you know, teams putting in the work and, you know, progressing year after year. So, yeah, we want to get it like that. We want it to be consistent like that. That's the thing. We don't want to just be like a flash in the pan in the playoffs and then not in the playoffs. So we want to consistently be in the playoffs.

2:08:17Pat McAfee:Tell me about Bryce Young. He's taller than I thought. Yeah. He came on the show. He came on the show, and I was looking for him to walk out from the back. With a backpack on. Because the backpack, the big back. He was taller than I thought he was going to be. I think that potentially got blown way out of proportion. But I think he would even admit that, you know, learning the game, figuring out the game, getting a chance to do it, took him in his own path. Where do you see him at now? What are you proud of Bryce Young maybe throughout this entire thing at this stage? And what do you see for him in the future?

2:08:44Randy Orton:I'm proud of Bryce in general. To go through the adversity that he went through and, you know, getting benched. You know, I remember him sitting in my office and talking to him about, like, hey, like, you're eventually going to be back out there. You know, just take this in stride. You know, try to go out there. Just keep working hard. And, you know, he went out there. He worked hard. He put the work in. And I'm just so proud of him for doing that. And then Andy Dalton gets in a car accident. He hurts his thumb. And then insert Bryce back in the lineup. And he took off. Let's talk about Andy.

2:09:20Pat McAfee:Can we talk a little bit about Andy? Shout out to Bryce, by the way. Bryce, your story is a good one for people to see. Bryce is my guy, though. Yeah, should be.

2:09:26Randy Orton:We talk all the time.

2:09:28Pat McAfee:He seems like a cool character. Oh, yes, he does. Yeah, he seems like a very cool cat. He had a pretty good. Good jumper. He's a baller. He's an athlete. He's really good. You know who else is? Who's that? The ginger, the red rocket. Yeah, the red rocket. The red rocket. Yeah, he definitely is. The red rocket. Okay, so now news is coming out that he's a trade conversation for a lot of teams. Yeah. We've seen these veteran quarterbacks. I mean, he came in and played good for you. We've seen these veteran quarterbacks, though, that I think, and I don't want to talk out of line here, I think these veteran quarterbacks that can read defenses are maybe at a premium now maybe than maybe they were in the past.

2:10:02Randy Orton:Yeah.

2:10:02Pat McAfee:You're seeing a lot of these OGs getting a second opportunity because of the experience that they have.

2:10:07Randy Orton:Yep.

2:10:07Pat McAfee:Andy Dalton seemingly going to be a guy that some teams are going to want. Is that why we're opening the door? Or how has that conversation happened with you?

2:10:13Randy Orton:I think there's a potential that somebody may want him. And Andy's a really good player. And he's a great guy. Great culture fit for us. I haven't talked to any teams about a trade. But I think if the possibility did come up that I would talk to Andy, give him that option, and let him explore a trade. So I do think that we want to get a little younger and a little more athletic at that backup quarterback spot. So we'll see what happens from there.

2:10:44Pat McAfee:There's a quarterback here in Indianapolis. Oh, yeah. Yeah, but we're not trading.

2:10:49Randy Orton:Okay, all right. I'm not giving away draft picks. We've got to build through the draft. Well, we would like some draft picks, okay?

2:10:56Pat McAfee:Everybody seems to want what you want, okay? AJ has a question for you, David.

2:11:00Joe Brady:Yeah, we had your owner, David Tepperon, on the Super Bowl week at Radio Row. He was – I mean, I don't know what I thought he was going to be, but I love – like he was very open, very – seemed like a very real human for being a gazillionaire, having all the money in the world. He seemed very competitive. I guess, what's it like day to day? How involved is he week to week and throughout the season?

2:11:19Randy Orton:You know, we talk almost every day, sometimes twice a day. He wants to win. I want to win. The organization wants to win. Yeah. He's so passionate about the team and about the guys on the team. and quite frankly, everybody in the building. So him and Nicole Tepper have been amazing to work with. And some people don't believe that based on the reputation that he's had. And it couldn't be farther from the truth. He's fun to work with every day. He's funny. He is funny. He likes having a good time. He's like us.

2:11:56Pat McAfee:He's a Pittsburgh guy, which I forgot about as I was talking shit about him at the beginning of it all because it was easy, I think, to kind of nitpick at a new owner that isn't having success. And then also soccer team not having success. And then all these other things are happening. Got signs outside. And then him throwing the ice. And then him going, can I give my side of that story? Yeah. These guys were just celebrating that my player was hurt right there. And it's just not. I'm from Pittsburgh. Sorry, I got a little bit fiery. And it was like, oh, I didn't even think about you having a side.

2:12:26Randy Orton:I'm actually a little bit to blame for that because the guy was being just obnoxious all game long. And then finally I couldn't take it anymore, and I told the guy to shut the –

2:12:37Pat McAfee:Okay, so you were a part of this as well. Yeah. Okay, so I wish we would have known that this was a – Yeah, exchange.

2:12:43Randy Orton:So it wasn't all just him. I think maybe I got him a little riled up. But on that note, that's probably a moment where you guys –

2:12:51Pat McAfee:Yep. You guys went to battle together. Yeah, that's good for camaraderie.

2:12:55Randy Orton:We're a lot alike. We're both very competitive. We're both fiery. We both want to win. Where are you from? Philadelphia.

2:13:04Pat McAfee:Okay, so he's from Pittsburgh. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Simpatico, if you will. Now, Pittsburgh's a better city, obviously. Connor has...

2:13:11Joe Brady:Nothing like a team kind of fuck that guy together to bring, you know, front office together. So that's actually really cool to learn. Another guy in the front office we talked to on Radio Row Hall of Famer, Luke Kuechly. I'm not sure specifically what his title is right now, but he obviously huge weapon for you guys to use. Does he send you questions that you can ask some of these guys to kind of inform you on if they are a football genius?

2:13:37Randy Orton:He doesn't, but he is a football genius. And obviously, like, he's one of the best linebackers of all time, and I'm just so proud of him for making the Hall of Fame this year. Couldn't happen to a better guy, and obviously an unbelievable player.

2:13:52Joe Brady:What are those questions that you are asking? You know, we heard, I forget who said it, that they asked about cereal in the morning. Schneider. John Schneider. Like, do you do any of those? No. Or are you just kind of locked in with them? Hey, tell me why you love football. Stare at me. Don't blink. Ours is, ours is.

2:14:07Pat McAfee:You have an incredible ability. I'm telling you. I'm locked in.

2:14:10Randy Orton:I'm locked in. All the time. Yeah, you are. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got a story after this. Okay, good. I'll remind you. Yeah, so, you know, we want to know about the guys, right? Like, we want to know, like, what's their story? What's their football story? When did they fall in love with football? Why did they love football? You only have 20 minutes with them. So we just want to hear their story, like how they grew up, who got them in the football, who were some of their mentors, and why are they playing? Why do they love it? You know, so we just want to find more about the guy because I feel like if you're going to miss on a player, I think it's more about missing on the guy than it is the actual player.

2:14:51Randy Orton:So we just want to dig as much as we can.

2:14:53Pat McAfee:It feels like those eyes are good at finding it. Is your story that you haven't blinked since you were born?

2:14:58Randy Orton:So everybody, like, in the draft room, yeah, I don't blink a lot. No. It's awesome.

2:15:03Joe Brady:Don't blink. That's like what people say. Don't blink. Cut your eyelids off.

2:15:08Randy Orton:In the draft room, like, we'll sit there in draft meetings, and we're in draft meetings from, like, 7 a.m. to, like, 8 p.m., and I'll be, like, locked in to where people are like, hey, can we take a bathroom break? You know, so, yeah. I wear a diaper.

2:15:23Pat McAfee:You should do the same. You do a good job. Joan has a question for you.

2:15:27Mike Braun:You were just talking about finding guys in those meetings that love football. And congratulations, you found one of those in Ted Rowe and McMillan, Offensive Rookie of the Year. But there were questions last year about, like, if he did love football. A volleyball player didn't watch any. Unbelievable volleyball player, by the way.

2:15:42Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah. Unbelievable.

2:15:43Mike Braun:But, like, was when in the process were you like, oh, that's all bullshit. This guy does love ball. And is that like the main goal of the combine for you, or is it on-field stuff? Yeah.

2:15:56Randy Orton:So, first of all, don't listen to the outside noise. There's going to be rumors, but do your own homework on guys. And that's what we do. We bring guys in. We talk to them here. We bring guys in on 30 visits. We do a bunch of Zoom calls with them. Like, we're always talking to these guys. We're trying to find out as much information as possible about them. And with T-Mac, I mean, it was obvious that the guy loves football. The guy lives, breathes football. He's a baller. He's a great dude. And when he walks into the room, you're like, this guy's massive. Like, he's big. He's long. And, you know, I don't really play into all the narratives that I heard.

2:16:40Randy Orton:I just want to, like, meet the guy face-to-face, look him in the eye, and ask him those questions and see how he responds. And he responded really well.

2:16:48Pat McAfee:Did you watch his volleyball tape? Yeah, yeah, online. Dude, do you know much about volleyball? I don't know how much you know about the sport. No, I don't know much about that. So I played in high school. So I played in high school. Loved the sport. Like, very much loved the sport. It was, I had already committed to West Virginia to kick. It was the spring, so I wasn't playing, like, cup soccer, trying to do the entire thing. Volleyball was a spring sport. Played my senior year. It was, like, with the boys. Like, I had so much fun. The amount of strategy, but also the athleticism. Like, you are, the jump, the explosion is, like, a real thing.

2:17:15Pat McAfee:I saw a video of him going from back row, like, jumping 10-foot off and like absolutely hammering. It's like, oh, that guy might have been like an Olympian volleyball player. He's an athlete. Yeah, and then the questions were like, well, he doesn't like ball. And it's like, if I was the greatest volleyball player on earth, I think it would be hard for me to buy into it. And then what he did with you guys. And if, yeah, this is him, right? Yeah. Yeah, he's unbelievable. I mean, it was, as a former volleyball player, I was watching saying, wow, this bang, right down the line right there.

2:17:41Randy Orton:And he hasn't even scratched the surface of how good he can be from a football perspective. of like he's going to get bigger, stronger, faster. Like he's got so much potential.

2:17:52Pat McAfee:How do you feel about bigger, stronger, faster offseason plans? Like I assume you guys have 100 % attendance and all that shit.

2:17:57Randy Orton:Yeah, yeah. We got a good locker room. Like we got a bunch of guys that they just want to win. So our attendance I think will be pretty good.

2:18:06Mike Braun:Bryce talked about that. He said like it wasn't like, oh, great, we made the playoffs. They were like the locker room was pissed. Yeah, the guys are hungry.

2:18:12Randy Orton:I'm telling you, we've all been around it, you know. our locker room is hungry to win and you know we're we're hungry upstairs and ownership's hungry

2:18:21Joe Brady:so let's eat let's go eat it sounds like organizational alignment as we talk about a lot you guys are on the same plan but going back to uh you know switching subject a little bit Miami Hurricanes obviously you're a legend so close legend in Miami we got to see their whole playoff run they're awesome big fast strong very well coach what do you think about Mario Cristobal and that staff is doing down there and are they here to stay it seems like they They really are.

2:18:42Randy Orton:Mario, that's my guy. That's my guy right there. So he was a G.

2:18:45Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah, you two would get along. So now that I'm thinking of you, just headbutt each other every day.

2:18:50Randy Orton:He was a GA when I was a senior. So obviously I was there with him, and, like, that's my guy. So he's done an excellent job. And our new defensive coordinator down there, he was killing it this year. He did a great job. And having, like, Malachi Tony and guys like that that they've recruited, they've done a great job with that too. So I think we're going to get draft a bunch of Miami guys. It's tough about the draft. Hold on now, Dan.

2:19:15Pat McAfee:Let's talk about that. Reuben Bain.

2:19:17Randy Orton:Yeah.

2:19:17Pat McAfee:Short arms.

2:19:18Randy Orton:Yeah. But he's got a powerful lower body. He can bend. And he's got some power. He's got a motor. He's got some power.

2:19:27Pat McAfee:So riddle me this. You're a human.

2:19:28Randy Orton:He's not going to be there when we pick. Unless you make a move. At 19. Unless you make a move. Yeah.

2:19:34Pat McAfee:Let Tepper get all hopped up. Let him get hopped up and make some plays. But on that note, so, like, whenever you think about the dimension stuff, and we've asked this a couple times, a couple different GMs, it feels like if you like a guy, you're going to find reasons why it doesn't matter. If you don't like a guy, you're going to use it as a reason. Do you think that's probably accurate? Like, humans are making these decisions at the end of the day, right?

2:19:56Randy Orton:Yeah, for sure. For sure. Listen, we always say, like, hey, can we make his arms, like, 31 on the card so it looks better? Like, if you want a guy, like, you can make every excuse. So, I think you really just got to stick to your process. You got to stick to what you do. And there's always outliers in every draft. And you just got to decide if, hey, is that outlier? Is he going to defeat that, you know, outlier stigma? Yeah.

2:20:25Pat McAfee:And he took over games. I mean, we watched it. You did, too, obviously, watching the entire run. He was – he had an aura and a presence about it. And then this thing. He's a bull. Sick. He's so awesome.

2:20:37Randy Orton:Mesador, he's a bull.

2:20:38Joe Brady:He might be available. I mean, there's a lot of comments. Go ahead, Con, man. Miami played in a bunch of big games. And, you know, Ohio State, some of those schools. Is that important when you're looking at some players? Like, hey, these guys have been in big moments. They've performed in big moments. When they get to the NFL, every moment is massive. And it won't be too big for them. Is that something that you kind of consider? Like the school conference type play?

2:21:00Randy Orton:Yeah. So we, our analytics department, they put together like a blue blood score. So it's against, you know, how they do against good opponents. So I think that's really important to see how these guys do against top level competition as opposed to playing against the lower tier schools. Yeah. Yeah.

2:21:18Pat McAfee:So what are we looking for? Just good players? Dogs?

2:21:23Randy Orton:Dogs only? Dogs. Dogs and good players. That is a good linebacker class. Yeah. It is. Yeah. What are the positions? Do you get fired up about that?

2:21:29Pat McAfee:What are the positions that we should talk about that you think are deep in this class?

2:21:33Randy Orton:I think outside linebacker, linebacker, running back's weak this year. There's some tight ends that are good players in this draft, some corners, some safeties. So there's a bunch of guys I'm excited about. More of a defensive league now? A defensive league? League, yeah. No, I don't think so. I mean, I think it's always an offensive league right now. You know, points are what everybody wants to score, what everybody wants to see. But when you have a good defense, you see what it does.

2:22:05Pat McAfee:Keeps you in every game.

2:22:06Randy Orton:Exactly.

2:22:06Pat McAfee:Go ahead, Tone.

2:22:07Mike Braun:Yeah, I was like at you as a former linebacker when it is a really good linebacker class. Is it hard for you to not kind of focus on them more? Like or you're like, I'm a GM now. I can't.

2:22:18Randy Orton:Yeah, I mean, maybe at first, but I'm kind of out of that now. Now it's just more about, like, putting a team together and trying to, like, fit all the pieces of the puzzle together.

2:22:28Mike Braun:And what about, like, you have guys like Arvel Reese who are just absolute freaks, and then you have guys like Jacob Rodriguez who their production is absurd. How do you go, you know, potential versus production that you've seen?

2:22:42Randy Orton:Yeah, I mean, to me, I'm always going to go with the production. You know, so, you know, even like a guy that maybe makes, like, a big senior push and had a big year in his sixth year. To me, you do have to be a little careful with that. You're looking for guys that have been consistently productive throughout their careers.

2:23:00Pat McAfee:Potential get your ass fired. Yeah, no doubt. I think that is a former player thing. I think there's a lot of things that benefit you being a former player, being in your position. Because we've all been in the locker room, watched guys come in that were supposed to be good, and all of a sudden we're losing games and they're gone for four or five weeks because they can't figure it out. I think it's a weapon for you. AJ has a question for you.

2:23:19Joe Brady:Yeah, I guess what's your goal coming into this week as the GM of Carolina? You've been here many times, obviously, in other roles. But what's your – like when you come here this week, do you have any – I need to see this group or this type of people? Or what do you want to come away with this week?

2:23:33Randy Orton:So I really come down here more for the interviews than I do anything. We watch these guys all year long, so it's nice to put a face to a name. And just even if it's 20 minutes just sitting there, like get to know the guy, get a little bit of feel for the guy that you may be calling on draft night and maybe figure out, like, hey, do we need to bring this guy in and, you know, kick the tires a little more and, like, figure them out a little more than what we already did.

2:24:00Joe Brady:You just mentioned about – sorry. Oh, you're good. Fight him. Fight him. Yeah, yeah. You scared the shit out of me. I'm not blinking. I saw him. But what you just mentioned to Tony about how it's kind of a weak running back class as opposed to other years. You guys bring in Rico Dattle, and he's one of the stories of the season, it felt like, especially when Chuba Hubbard is one of your leaders. Do you feel like there's kind of more established running backs that aren't getting as fair of a shake in places? And that's why even when it's a weak running back class, you can kind of scout the other players that, you know, some teams like the Cowboys who drafted Rico, but then, you know, kind of let them go.

2:24:38Joe Brady:Is it better to go after guys like that at certain positions where you know, hey, this guy can be an absolute stud? in our system versus one that they might have been in before?

2:24:48Randy Orton:Yeah, a little bit. Like, we did that with Rico last year. Like, he ran all over us. And, you know, we thought we could get him in free agency. And, you know, the price worked out for both sides. I mean, we pulled the trigger on that. So, yeah, you're always looking for that value.

2:25:04Pat McAfee:He was the best player in the league for a little while last year. For two months. Ty Schmidt, who's on our show, I think he'll be back tomorrow. Ty, we miss you. We love you, man. He's Packers fan. Okay, so I'll be Ty Schmidt. Oh, okay. He came in on Monday. He was like, is Rico Dowdle the best player? And he wasn't the only one. There was a lot of teams that were like, holy. Killed the Cowboys. Cowboys, yeah. I mean, that becomes a good thing, I think, for the entire team whenever you hit on something like that, right? Yeah, for sure.

2:25:33Randy Orton:I mean, that's the goal every year is to just kind of maybe find those free agents, those second-wave free agents, if you want to say, like diamonds in the rough. How much money do you have? not a ton but you know you can always make money okay so that's kind of what being being said

2:25:47Pat McAfee:we're going to be like 15 19 over but we're going to make some moves and then we had borgonzi on he

2:25:52Randy Orton:has a hundred million over there in tennis we're we're on the low i think we're like right in the middle nine who's about nine eight nine we're looking at who knows if this is accurate shout

2:26:01Pat McAfee:to spotrak by the way spotrak does a lot for us but he's he's also expanding have you seen what spotrex doing oh yeah projecting contracts maybe you check it out projecting contracts values we do that do you we do that in-house oh your own you have your own spotrek we yeah yeah we just

2:26:18Randy Orton:i mean we we always how does that come together okay okay so how does that you have like a uh

2:26:23Pat McAfee:so i go to um what's that uh car auction mecham mecham and what's the other one the uh there's

2:26:31Randy Orton:another one the these two auctions so we'll have like the apy list barrett jackson so i'll go in

2:26:36Pat McAfee:there car will be coming by yeah and in my head i'm like i'll spend 17 000 on that but i'm not literally not going a dollar over you're doing same thing in free agency at different positions different players how's that go because i remember who was a carolina panther last year and then went up to uh melton williams was a uh panther and then he went to new england he was gonna be yeah that's it was reported yeah it was reported that he was going to be there by shefty who knows everything But so then is there like a number you're like, ah, we can't do that. Like, how do you kind of formulate that?

2:27:07Randy Orton:So in free agency, you know, we have basically like a spreadsheet and it'll have the APY of each guy and by position. So you can basically be like, OK, Milton Williams, where does he slot within this? And then you just kind of slot him in there and you're like, OK, like he's worth this.

2:27:26Pat McAfee:This is where we can go.

2:27:27Randy Orton:Yeah.

2:27:27Pat McAfee:Yeah. I love that. I love the amount of business that has to happen behind the scenes before these decisions. And then when you're in it, it's like, do we hold on to the rules we made before we were in here? Or do we? It gets tough.

2:27:38Randy Orton:That's where you got to have discipline. Legit.

2:27:40Pat McAfee:And I think that's probably where Tepper is probably good because of his history and finance.

2:27:43Randy Orton:Tepper and Brant Tillis, he does a really good job, too. So I have a good team.

2:27:48Pat McAfee:All right. You look like you're in pretty good shape right now.

2:27:51Randy Orton:Yeah. Peloton.

2:27:52Pat McAfee:Still? Still.

2:27:53Mike Braun:All you guys.

2:27:54Pat McAfee:Everybody Pelotons, man. Yep. Is that because you can put it in the office?

2:27:56Randy Orton:It's just easy. I have it at my house. I actually wake up in the morning and I work out before I go to work.

2:28:01Pat McAfee:What time are we up?

2:28:03Randy Orton:4.30.

2:28:05Pat McAfee:These eyes want to open. They never want to close.

2:28:10Randy Orton:Okay, so there's a certain bedtime, too, we need? 9 o 'clock. Every day? Yeah, 9, 9.30.

2:28:18Joe Brady:Just fall asleep the second you lay down? Yeah. Oh, yeah. What happens if the Panthers run late? Are you like, well, this sucks. Can we get some more morning? I'm exhausted.

2:28:25Randy Orton:I'm exhausted. And I won't work out the next day. Yeah. Okay.

2:28:29Pat McAfee:Okay, that makes me feel better. That a machine actually does take a couple days off.

2:28:33Joe Brady:How many straight weeks? Because Bob Sala. They lose his own sleep program. 107 straight weeks for Bob Sala.

2:28:39Pat McAfee:Bob Sala has 107 weeks straight with at least one workout on Peloton. I mean, I probably have that.

2:28:46Mike Braun:Which means. I haven't checked. Yeah, I don't know where this stat is. He was pretty happy about it. Do you race people?

2:28:52Randy Orton:What's that?

2:28:52Joe Brady:Do you race real people in real time?

2:28:54Randy Orton:You can do that, right? Yeah, you can do that, but usually when I'm working out, nobody's up there because my eyes are wide open.

2:29:02Pat McAfee:Yes, they are. 4.30 a.m. workout on Peloton. Those fuckers have no idea who's walking in. You got some mom that's like, yeah, early Roger before the kids. Look, get out here. What is this? Eyes wide open, guy. Whoa, master.

2:29:17Randy Orton:I'm going to change my eyes. Yeah, I'm going to put eyes on that. I don't think it's not a bad idea. Profile picture. Yeah,

2:29:26Pat McAfee:it should just be a black shirt that just has to open. I'll make it.

2:29:31Mike Braun:You remember those? No fear. No fear logo.

2:29:34Randy Orton:Oh, yeah. I had those. Can you throw? I know you're a defensive guy. I can, but it's going to look bad because my left shoulder is jacked up. You can't lift. Are you a lefty? You're a lefty. I'm a lefty. Yeah, it's all. It's like a kind of a frozen shoulder. I can barely lift it above my head, but I can throw.

2:29:52Pat McAfee:Can you tell me about where you were causing CT with your hits? And how do you think about now how the game has gone? Like, it feels like it's a fool. And are those. The green goo? Yeah. This is Celsius. Okay. So that's how we do it. Celsius in the sun. Celsius in water. Okay, this guy's drinking energy drinks. I like it. I like it. Holy shit.

2:30:19Randy Orton:You've got to stay up down here, man. Yeah, Celsius is no joke. Hey, I love it. It does taste good.

2:30:24Pat McAfee:You're just mixed. Hold on. Okay. Do the packet. Okay, there's a packet. Yeah, there's a packet.

2:30:30Randy Orton:Okay, I thought you were. I'm not like dumping it in there. Yeah, making a formula. Getting it all over the counter. I thought you might have a funnel. I thought you might have a funnel. Yeah, I mean, I would do that if I had to.

2:30:39Pat McAfee:Yeah, which is why, hey, which is why we respect you. Yes. Let's talk about the game as a whole, though. I assume AJ, like, loves you. Like, AJ loves you.

2:30:49Randy Orton:We're LBs. Bam. I mean, yeah.

2:30:52Pat McAfee:You should see his mere advisory he had in Miami.

2:30:54Randy Orton:That was amazing.

2:30:55Pat McAfee:A lot of sway, a lot of moxie for a Philly kid playing for the U. But also, I think, like, we're hitting people. You know, like, we're trying to really do it.

2:31:04AJ Hawk:Yeah. Striking.

2:31:06Pat McAfee:Yeah. Violent. Yeah, a lot of it. A lot of we're doing this. The game has completely evolved, right? How do you feel about where it's at right now? How do you feel about the state of the game? I think it's awesome. We're still getting huge hits. I think it took a generation of kids to go through the Heads Up football program and all that shit that they initiated 10, 15 years ago?

2:31:22Randy Orton:Yeah, it's definitely safer than when we played. You know, we're going face first in the stuff and knocking ourselves out. So, yeah, things are a lot better now, especially all the offseason stuff. There's more time, you know, for the guys to get rest. And even, like, the OTAs and the mini camps, like, they're not as intense as they used to be. I love it. I love where the game's at.

2:31:46Pat McAfee:I love where the league's at. I love where your team's at, bro. It was fun to watch Charlotte come alive. Yeah, I appreciate that. You know, because Charlotte has so many down there. I mean, obviously, Luke Combs is like the man who loves your team. Eric Church loves it. Steph Curry. I mean, Cam Newton coming back was awesome. It's like that city is a – That was awesome. It was. Yeah, it was. That place was crazy. I think he – did he put a hole in that thing? I don't know if he did or not. Almost did. I don't think so.

2:32:09Joe Brady:Torbert did. I believe – I think Keighley did, too. Torbert, excuse me. Torbert, man, that guy was impossible to tackle. Legs were this big.

2:32:17Pat McAfee:That's a hub, though. And I think people forget, like, hey, Charlotte is a hub for a lot of shit.

2:32:23Randy Orton:You've got to give them a reason to show up. Bingo.

2:32:25Pat McAfee:But just like Indianapolis, like Charlotte hosts a lot of things. Charlotte's a great city. Charlotte has it all. And if your NFL team is playing well, it kind of spotlights it all. So the fact that you're doing that for a city that we love is so awesome. So I can't wait to see what you do out there.

2:32:40Randy Orton:Good football team.

2:32:43Pat McAfee:Hey, Panthers are a good football team. Yeah, we do. The Panthers are a good football team. That's another thing. I like that. They're a good football team.

2:32:49Randy Orton:Yeah, I like that. Okay, so you've heard us say this? Oh, yeah, I have. I like that. That's a good football team.

2:32:52Pat McAfee:Because you beat a team, and everybody's like, this team sucks. They lost to the Panthers, and we're just like, hey. No, that's good football. Panthers are a good football team. That is a good football team. Appreciate that. Soon, I think, it's a great football team. You know what else?

2:33:05Mike Braun:You guys were, I believe, 9-0 or 10-0 against the spread after a loss. Great bounce back team. Thank you for that. Resilient.

2:33:12Pat McAfee:Appreciate that. Appreciate that.

2:33:13Mike Braun:No, we appreciate that. That's a weird time. We knew, hey, if there was a loss, you guys were fucking winning the next game. Hey, that's dogs only.

2:33:20Randy Orton:Hopefully that doesn't happen too much. There you go. Oh, okay.

2:33:23Joe Brady:Cool. Now they're legends. Oh, shit. Looks like he's going to go run a 40. I don't know. Yeah, you probably tackled him a couple times. What's up?

2:33:32Pat McAfee:Frank, good to see you. Man. What's up, man? A couple of Miami legends here. Frank Gore, obviously. How you doing? How you doing, Frank?

2:33:36Joe Brady:Jeez. Nice to meet you, man. Frank.

2:33:38Pat McAfee:Frank, Frank, Frank, Frank, Frank. Do you want us to fall down? Those shoes are beautiful. Here you go, here you go, real quick. Frank, how are you?

2:33:46Mike Braun:I'm great, man.

2:33:46Pat McAfee:We love you, dude. You know I love you, baby. Come on, dude. I love you, man.

2:33:49Randy Orton:I wish he would have been with us in San Francisco. I told him all the time when I played with him at the coast.

2:33:53Pat McAfee:Yeah. I'll be back. I'll be back. Okay, okay. We'll be here tomorrow, too. All right. We appreciate you, Frank. Hey, you think I could slip one in here? I wouldn't try. What do you think, Frank?

2:34:01Randy Orton:That's a great dude right there. Dude, unbelievable. Yeah.

2:34:05Pat McAfee:Wears no pads. No pads. What do you play? Sonny Cs?

2:34:09Joe Brady:Unfortunately.

2:34:09Pat McAfee:I think the first thing I said to him was like, hey, you're fucking hilarious. And he goes, well, why? You know, because he's quiet. I'm like, you got no pads on. You're wearing soccer cleats. I don't know what size those socks are. That's definitely not what you're supposed to be wearing. And you don't care at all. He didn't care about any of it. Great teammate.

2:34:28Randy Orton:Yeah.

2:34:29Pat McAfee:Beloved by everybody. Worked his ass off. Like, I loved Frank. I was so lucky to be his teammate. I was so lucky to be his teammate. But he did tell me a lot of times, like, hey, if you would have been in San Fran, you were supposed to be with us. Yeah, thank you, man. I appreciate that. That's an honor to hear that, and I would love the city out there. Dan, you said you can't throw great, but because you're a competitor, because you're an athlete, I think you're going to get the job done. Would you like to attempt a$100 ,000 throw? Yeah. Let's go ahead to the stand. Come on, Dan. Yeah, he's a competitor.

2:35:00Pat McAfee:Let's go, Don. Just don't make fun of me.

2:35:02Mike Braun:Never would. We will. Definitely. You can. You can.

2:35:08Pat McAfee:Dan Morgan. Hey, you can come over here. You're a lefty?

2:35:10Randy Orton:I can't believe he's drinking piss. Okay.

2:35:12Pat McAfee:How old are you, brother?

2:35:13Randy Orton:47.

2:35:14Pat McAfee:God, you look good. I want to let you know, the guy right over there, wait until you take your headset off and said, I can't believe this guy's drinking piss. So there is some people that are wondering whether or not it's Celsius.

2:35:23Randy Orton:It's good, though. Piss?

2:35:26Pat McAfee:Or Celsius? Okay. 47 years old. Obviously a defensive legend. Current general manager for the Carolina Panthers. If you put this football into that hole right there, we will donate$100 ,000 to a charity of your choosing. Does that sound good, dude? Sounds good. All right, why don't you go ahead and do that thing. Let's athlete that thing in there, shall we? Come on, not that. He shredded his shoulder, giving CT. Okay. All right. Good zip on the ball.

2:35:46Mike Braun:Yeah, he's bringing it down. Good zip. Oh, hold on, hold on.

2:35:49Joe Brady:He's going quick. Put that. Yeah.

2:35:51Pat McAfee:He put that in the pocket. He can't lift it above his arm, you know. Do you throw at practice ever? No, no.

2:35:58Randy Orton:There's a quarterback that didn't show up to a workout that I was out in Memphis. There was a running back working out. And I had to throw and it was ugly.

2:36:08Pat McAfee:Did the kid get the gig or no?

2:36:10Randy Orton:What's that?

2:36:11Pat McAfee:Pick him up? Did the kid get the job or no?

2:36:12Randy Orton:No, he didn't get the job. He had no chance. He strapped him because I couldn't tell if he was good or not.

2:36:20Pat McAfee:Okay, well, let's not think about that. Let's not think about the first throw. Let's go ahead and put this thing into that hole for$100 ,000. Donation to a charity of your choosing. Oh, yeah. Hey, that kid, it might have been the running back. Just suck, bro. That was a great throw. Dan, we appreciate you. The boys love you. Good luck in Carolina and thanks for everything man. Appreciate you guys.

2:36:40Joe Brady:Oh my goodness. This is gonna get weird. Yeah it is. They don't. Already is. They don't. He dominates his kids in the staring contest.

2:36:48Randy Orton:My son's the same.

2:36:51Joe Brady:That's a skill. You won't win. That's a skill. You won't win.

2:36:54Pat McAfee:I don't think I will. I don't think I will. Appreciate it man. You too dude. Thank you dude. Good luck down there. Please tell everybody in Carolina we love them and appreciate it. Hey Dave. Hey Dave. Thanks man. Good luck. Hey, last question. Need this. Dave giving up play calling duties. What's that all about? We like that? We don't like that? Why? Why not?

2:37:09Randy Orton:Yeah, I mean, I think he just kind of wanted to be more of a head coach.

2:37:13Pat McAfee:Is that a decision that you talk with him? Everybody talks?

2:37:15Randy Orton:Yeah, we talked together, but it was his decision.

2:37:18Pat McAfee:Okay, so we don't. We're not. I think it'll be good.

2:37:20Randy Orton:Okay, good. And I know he's excited about it.

2:37:23Pat McAfee:Okay, cool. So we shouldn't make a big deal of that. No.

2:37:25Mike Braun:Okay, good. You can always take it back. Yeah.

2:37:27Pat McAfee:There you go. Yeah. All right, Dave. Always an honor. We got a group of lads over here. I don't know, they look to be strapping. See you, Dan. Good luck, dude. Everybody's just leaving. We'll do the meetings and we'll get out of here. Yeah, it's interesting.

2:37:43Joe Brady:It's too good of a TV product, so they watch on home. They're here for the meeting.

2:37:46Pat McAfee:So, I mean, that started with, for us, learning the Chargers. Remember, the Chargers always come on Wednesday for our show. They stop by, and they're like, where are you guys going next? They're like, home. It's like, the workouts start tomorrow. They're like, exactly. So we're going to go watch this. Got to be in my seat for it. What are you here for? Well, here for the meetings, here to kind of learn about the guys, put a face to a name. There's been a lot of that. It feels like the interactions are what the Combine's all about. That's why the NFL spring break happening here in Indianapolis is so damn perfect.

2:38:15Pat McAfee:The city is conducive. Do we know who these guys are that are just kind of standing here? It looks like they're potential workout guys.

2:38:21Joe Brady:Yeah, I was going to say, it kind of looks like they are kids that might be working the Combine field itself.

2:38:27Pat McAfee:That would be the equipment managers from the Colts, right? Isn't that normally who?

2:38:32Joe Brady:I don't know. I don't know.

2:38:33Pat McAfee:Hey, who are you guys? A rugby team? Yeah, you guys. Okay, sweet. What do you say? I don't know. Congrats. See what they say? What did you say? Huh?

2:38:47Mike Braun:We're working. They're working the event.

2:38:49Pat McAfee:Where are you guys from? Taylor University? Oh, hell yeah. Good to see you, boys. Thank you for stopping by. Baylor or Taylor? Good to see you. What's Taylor? Taylor. I'll tell you what. I could have been in college. I threw out university. Felt good about it being right. I assumed you knew.

2:39:04Mike Braun:Foss is working the beer stand over there, so that's nice. Yeah, grabbing a couple pints.

2:39:09Pat McAfee:Yeah, that's the problem, isn't it? That's the problem. That's exactly what we're talking about. He's behind the bar. That's exactly what we're talking about right there. It is a spectacular spectacle.

2:39:20Mike Braun:It is a spectacular spectacle.

2:39:21Pat McAfee:And, you know, with where we are, obviously this is absurd that we get to use this. Yeah. Shout to Lucas Oil. Shout to Indianapolis. I don't want to continue to reiterate this, but there was a time where the Combine was a massive show. Remember, it was like a huge spectacle. And then I don't know if the NFL Network kind of just took it in and kind of took it over and like, hey, nobody's allowed in here because then they start the convention center, Radio Row. And it's like once we get the relationships that we kind of get in this entire thing and we're from Indianapolis, it's like, hey, the Combine's like a very special event, not only for the NFL, but for our city of Indianapolis.

2:39:56Pat McAfee:We'd like to try to at least do a show from there. And then the people of Indy, you know, come up to me and they're like, hey, you know, nobody's using the horseshoe stage or whatever. And I'm like, the one that's right in the dead center? And they're like, yeah. And I'm like, could we use that? And the people are like, yeah, we will certainly allow you to do that. And I'm like, sick. So then Roger Goodell and the NFL gets in. And then obviously with ESPN helping out with the production of it all, it's like we're very lucky and thankful to be here. and getting to hang out downtown usually uh because we're from indianapolis i would never hang out downtown but like hanging out downtown after the show and before the show has been so much fun getting a chance to see people that i haven't seen in a long time meet people that i haven't you know ever got a chance to meet even talk to people that maybe we have buried on this show definitely and then walking into a room and just be like oh i have no idea how this is gonna to go i remember distinctly us saying some funny definitely funny that's our job shit about it and that's how they all reacted that is literally how they all reacted they like everybody that i've talked to has been uh very gracious to us and uh very welcoming to us in our show and uh we can't thank everybody enough for allowing us to do this honestly that's the people that watch and the people that had to approve all of this shit so we're thankful to be here and it continues tomorrow And tomorrow, feel good golden Friday, Jackie Hughes will be here live in person.

2:41:18Pat McAfee:We cannot wait to chat with the gold medal boy, Jack Hughes, what he did last night at his Devils game with Tage Thompson with the Buffalo where they did an entire, like, I don't want to say ceremony because it didn't, it was kind of a ceremony of a celebration of him. I thought it was really cool. Cannot wait to chat with him. And shout to the Devils fans reacting the way that they certainly reacted. and Megan Keller will be joining us via Zoom call. I would like to let everybody know, offered up private travel for her to come and join us live alongside Jack so we could have a nice gold medal celebration of the hockey teams and us being the greatest hockey country on earth, the home of hockey, us being the hockey capital of this here planet.

2:42:05Pat McAfee:Canada used to have it. Not anymore. Sorry, Gumpy.

2:42:10Sean Payton:It's 45 more straight, and you'll be tied. Way to go. This guy. We're just looking for right now. Congratulations, by the way. We're looking for right now.

2:42:18Pat McAfee:Thank you for the congratulations. I liked hearing that from McKinnon, too, whenever he.

2:42:22Sean Payton:Well, they chopped that quote, let's be fair. No, people don't do that. They chopped that quote. They did him dirty.

2:42:28Joe Brady:That was one of the sentences in the entire quote.

2:42:31Sean Payton:And then he said, United States won the game.

2:42:33Joe Brady:And he was still salty about it and said, you be the judge.

2:42:35Pat McAfee:He certainly was salty about it, which I certainly could be if I was them as well, because they did. But Halibuk saw every puck. A hundred shots is not enough. We own the sport. That is so tough. He's on his head. That's Halibuk. So we'll talk to Megan tomorrow via Zoom. She's in Ottawa. She cannot make it to Indianapolis, although we did extend. And also, if the women's hockey team or anybody else puts together any big-time parties that we hear about, we'd love to be a part of it. Love buying drinks for people that do awesome things. We're incredibly thankful for all of our athletes that are representing our country.

2:43:14Pat McAfee:We'll get a chance to chat with a few of them tomorrow and also into next week. I believe we've got Michaela Schifrin stopping by the show next week. I believe we've got Alex Ferreira stopping by the show next week. So we're trying to showcase and spotlight all that is great in sports and athleticism. And whenever you talk about great things happening in sport, you can't help but talk about big Turk Lesnar. Oh, yeah. Okay. Highlights hit the internet of Turk Lesnar. First of all, is this the greatest name of all time? Up there. Potentially. 16 years old. 6 '2", 230 out of the JPHL. Okay, they're in the playoffs right now.

2:43:49Pat McAfee:His Calgary team is certainly in it. He had a hat trick while also dummying like six different dudes. Tell me about your third bingo, Paul. Hey, talk about the third bingo. I just got it from, I think Beersy sent it to me, and I went barred down, and it was just like such a magical moment here of hockey and sports celebration. And the fact that Brock's boy, Turk, is out there doing it. He's a defenseman putting up hat-tricks, three bingos, and fighting eight people in one video that I saw on the Internet. This is what we're talking about. Hockey's the greatest sport in Turk. I know you play a lot of hockey up there in Canada.

2:44:25Pat McAfee:when the time comes you know what to do you know what uniform to put on you know who it's going to be for and I'll tell you what Maya Lesnar our eyes are on the Olympics in LA Turk Lesnar our eyes are on the Olympics coming up and then there's a little Lesnar there's a younger Lesnar and when the dad is maybe the most dominant athletic creature that has ever been put out there. What a time to be alive. Hey, Big Turk, keep doing it, bud. And the entire Calgary team, good luck winning the league. We hope you guys do that. And maybe a couple more bingos for the boys.

2:45:07Mike Braun:Yeah, a couple bingos.

2:45:08Pat McAfee:A couple apples. The insiders are no longer going to be live. I've seen they took their set down. Okay, that's interesting. NFL Live, I believe, is going to be live.

2:45:15Mike Braun:I believe they're live, right? Well, I see Tannenbaum and Field Yates.

2:45:19Pat McAfee:Oh, that's that Draft Daily show. Okay. That's a Draft Daily show on ESPN2. I believe NFL Live will be live from over here as well. Sweet. I think I saw Schrags. I believe Dono's over here. I believe Laura Rutledge is in town.

2:45:32Mike Braun:Yeah. Shefty's still sitting over.

2:45:34Pat McAfee:The whole team.

2:45:35Mike Braun:Yeah.

2:45:36Pat McAfee:Everybody's filing in for the... Oh, Sean Payton. Not calling plays anymore. What happened? Hold on. Can you walk right over here? He's coming. Sean, can you walk right over here? There's a microphone right here. Sean, can you walk right here? Yeah. You're Sean Payton. You can do whatever you want. It's like a urinal. I just come up to it. Yes, yes. Exactly. Yes, exactly. That's awesome. First of all, congratulations. Hey, hell of a season.

2:46:01AJ Hawk:Hell of a season. Honestly, you're on air right now.

2:46:02Pat McAfee:Yeah, we're wrapping up, but then we saw you.

2:46:04AJ Hawk:Yeah, listen, I'll stop and talk with you guys anytime. Appreciate it.

2:46:07Pat McAfee:Two quick minutes. Congratulations. Thank you. You didn't win the Super Bowl, but fuck. You guys are in a great spot right now. We're young. Yes, it feels like you're young, and you're obviously building, and you can see and feel what you're building. Is that how you feel about the Denver Bowl?

2:46:19AJ Hawk:I would say this. I think, yeah, absolutely. We're in a much better position cap-wise now. Yeah. And you kind of approach it like, hey, we're going to play young players. And you guys have seen this long enough now. Young and naive can be dangerous sometimes. And when you have one of those teams and they get this type of experience last year, first round of the playoffs, this year, into the second to last weekend, you just, yeah, you get excited about coming back and looking at another draft class now.

2:46:57Pat McAfee:Yeah, so let's talk about it. I don't want to bring up.

2:46:59AJ Hawk:No, no, bring up anything.

2:47:01Pat McAfee:Bo getting hurt, man. We are so sorry.

2:47:03AJ Hawk:It was on the third, second, third to last play of the game. And he had come over to the sideline. You know, after the injury took place, he threw a deep pass, pass interference. And it was a significant play. We're going to kick this chip shot. And so when he comes over, I kind of jack him in the shoulder like, ah, you know, and he's like, ah. And I was like, what's, I said, you'll be fine. I said, watch this kid hit this field goal. We're going to be in the championship. I jabbed him again. And all the while he's, and so we get into the locker room. It's pretty common where I would do the media.

2:47:41AJ Hawk:And then after he got undressed and showered, he'd go do the media. And when I came back from the presser, they're the trainer. I WAS A BOWER AND I WAS A BOWER AND I WAS A BOWER AND I DIDN'T KNOW, I KNEW SOMETHING WAS UP, THEY WERE IN MY OFFICE THERE, I JUST DIDN'T KNOW WHO AND THEN THEY TOLD ME IT WAS BOWEN. SO, WELL, IT WAS SATURDAY NIGHT, WE WEREN'T GOING TO SEE OUR TEAM UNTIL MONDAY AND I THOUGHT THERE'S NO WAY THIS STORY GOES. YEAH. YOU KNOW, TILL MONDAY AND I JUST, SO I SHOWERED AND WENT BACK AND JUST SAID, HEY, HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED. AND IT WAS, YOU KNOW, THERE WAS KIND OF THIS SURREAL FEELING OR NUMBING, IF YOU WILL, BECAUSE so many things have just gone on.

2:48:18AJ Hawk:You just won a big game, but you just lost your quarterback. And it's unfortunate. It's one of those deals.

2:48:27Pat McAfee:Yeah, it's football. I mean, it's the NFL. It's football. That's going to happen. But obviously, you hope that that is not the case. I feel like for you guys, though, you'll be able to use that as motivation all offseason, right? It feels like. Yeah, I think, look,

2:48:39AJ Hawk:the one thing, and you guys all know this, as tough as it is, it's like freaking chutes and ladders, though. Like table gets flipped up dice get put away open it back up. You started zero and and you start the journey again. Now you're more experienced. You've got more confidence. You've added some key pieces. And I think with every season there are these extremely important games maybe in 17 weeks there might be two you know when that road went at

2:49:19AJ Hawk:I think we're going to have a good schedule. Obviously we play the NFC West. You know pretty good. Three of those teams were all playoff teams. But you do have to recharge and start again. You push the offseason schedule back a little bit. Normally it starts mid-April. Our guys won't come in until the 1st of May. And then we won't see him. We won't do a football item until June. Like they'll just be lifting for the first of May. for a month before we ever, you know, because you don't want them to feel like we're back here at practice again and we were just here.

2:49:56Pat McAfee:It wasn't enough time. Yeah, refresh.

2:49:58AJ Hawk:You want like a gap. And honestly, they need that and we need that. And so I like when they have like a good month of just, so we'll just do phase one for a month, regardless of what the schedule says, and then we'll do OTAs in a mini camp in June.

2:50:14Pat McAfee:I love that. And once again, you're a gangster, so you can do these things. You know, you can walk into a place. That's what we're doing. Yeah, exactly. You can do that because of who you are. Your resume says that.

2:50:24AJ Hawk:I think here's the other thing, though. We're constantly selling. Like, so we had an injury issue that first year I got there. They had finished 32nd with players missed games because of injury. 130-some players. And we spent a lot of time and money with our training staff. staff it's hard to have that room be something the players love. Yes. Follow me. Yes. Agreed. It's always like that Shangri-La somewhere else it's better. And that very first offseason after twenty three we put the numbers up and we reduced it to thirty six first in the league two years ago first in the league first in the league.

2:51:05AJ Hawk:So they believe in like part of it is like hey I want you to be here but tell me why. And then we could show them here the numbers you're doing the right thing and as a result of it our team's healthier yeah and also

2:51:18Pat McAfee:you have one of the most prolific offenses in the history documented multiple times so you are a guru genius so the boys are going to buy into that got great shoe game so the swag is obviously ridiculous yep always you are you're giving up play calling I am this feels like a huge deal have you ever done have you ever given up play calling before the first time I in 2011 fractured my tip plateau

2:51:41AJ Hawk:in a Tampa Bay game. A play came into the sideline, and it was, you know, a surgery Monday. It was like a nine-month recovery. But anyway, all during the week I'm in the hospital, and I tell Pete, hey, you're going to have to run the meetings, call the plays. We're playing the Colts Sunday night football.

2:51:58Pat McAfee:In New Orleans? In New Orleans. Yeah.

2:52:00AJ Hawk:Peyton is not playing.

2:52:02Pat McAfee:Yeah, Curtis is playing. Yeah, I played quarterback. Okay, can I tell you our angle of this? Go ahead. Because this is a good story. Okay, I was scout team quarterback against our defense. And, boy, if I looked left and then to the right, tight end was wide open right down. I threw for 50 touchdowns that week maybe with your offense.

2:52:22AJ Hawk:And then you guys did the same. So, if you were having that success, we just had to find a way for Drew to have it. Yes, Drew Brees, first ballot Hall of Famer. Yeah, exactly. I remember I was back in the office for Friday's meetings, and really, you know, you're out of touch. You have surgery, and we're playing Sunday night. I'm in the press box, and Pete's calling the game, and we win 63 to something. I said to Pete, you were killing me. You know, I'm getting ready to do a new contract. I'm up in the press box. We score record total points in the history of the Saints organization. Anyway, I got pissed at Fred Goodell because I had a dip in, and they put the camera on there.

2:53:13AJ Hawk:And I got busted with the dip in. You won people over. So this would be the second time? That would be? That was the first time. And, look, it's happened a few times. I think this young coach, and I say young, Davis Webb is something. And sure, it's funny, the timeline that when you have a young coach like a Joe Brady or a Declan Doyle or any of these guys that I've been fortunate enough to hire when they're young coaches, like what you think is their timeline of success, position coach, coordinator, head coach, is always two years behind with the league C's. It's much quicker. And so I remember interviewing Davis.

2:53:53AJ Hawk:He's one of those few players that came from playing right into coaching. There's usually a couple of years. And he finished the interview, and we had a schedule with some other guys lined up, and he's heading to the airport. I turned to George Payton. I'm like, I said, I don't know what we're doing letting him leave the building. Call the driver back up. He comes back and hire him. But he's going to be one of those guys, like, just as I'm making him a coordinator, it's just it's not on your timeline. Yeah. And they just and the same thing happens with these young players that all of a sudden hit it.

2:54:28AJ Hawk:And they it's a young man's league. So I'm excited for him. Look, I'll still be involved. Having done it before, the thing that is a little unusual, like when you're in those studio sets, chairs, I did this with Fox. Like, where do you put your hands? Do I put my head away? Yeah, sure. And on game day, you feel like you've got a call sheet. You're looking at it. You're kind of empty-handed.

2:54:56Pat McAfee:I'm excited to watch you be a CEO full on. Yeah, me too. And I'm excited to see that evolution for you. AJ has a question for you, Coach.

2:55:01Joe Brady:Yeah, you talked about the team health and how you figured that out once you got there. We know you come from your Bill Parcells coaching tree. We know your practices are legendary. Your training camp is known to be very tough, very hard-nosed. I guess how have you worked that out over the years?

2:55:15AJ Hawk:Here's the one thing I think all of us have gotten better with is you have to cycle up and down. There's never this just straight. And so how we approach the day following a day off is much different. It's a ramp. We have these alert days that we are not going to have anyone get injured on these alert days. And so it's a ramp up. It's a plateau. It's a ramp down. And we're not, I mean, we've learned a lot since we had a seven-week training camp in Jackson, Mississippi that first year.

2:55:50Joe Brady:Oh, yeah, I've heard about those. Yeah, the legendary stories. So that's changed, right?

2:55:54AJ Hawk:Okay, yeah. And so, but I do believe you have to build a callous, though, relative to inside run, play in some preseason games. We're not three days on, a day off, three days. And now I can say all that, but then when you go three years in a row and point to the data, the thing I think is most important, though, is this time of the year, like when they join us again, I really don't want coaches talking to them about football. If the conversation exists, I want it to be about your family or how much you're benching, what your weight's like. Like, I want that month, month and a half. And Bill was that way.

2:56:35AJ Hawk:I mean, I'd run out with the QBs, and the first time, it's my first year with Bill, and they're throwing the receivers, and he calls me over. He said, if one of those guys gets a hamstring, I'm going to have another quarterback receiver coach.

2:56:49AJ Hawk:But you want them pulling into the parking lot, not feeling like they're coming to practice, like they're actually coming to train, and there's all the stuff they need, the supplement center, we're building a new facility. So we are selling, you know, because it's a choice. And you just want to make it so good that it's way better than any other option you have.

2:57:09Pat McAfee:I wish I could have played for you. And I know you guys opened up an office that was in that building just a couple years ago. Oh, yeah. There's one upstairs in a parking lot and everything.

2:57:16AJ Hawk:Yeah. We're three months away from moving literally right across the field to a new facility. Oh, really? And so right after minicamp, we'll pack everything up. And when we come back for training camp, we'll be in the new. And it's literally just on the other side of the practice field.

2:57:34Pat McAfee:That's a dream situation. New facility, young QB, young team, experience early. Life has to be good. Last question for you, Coach.

2:57:44Joe Brady:Yeah, Coach, you're on the competition committee now. What is kind of the most pressing thing?

2:57:49AJ Hawk:I was on it before, and I was asked a bunch of questions the other day. And the problem is Sunday I had gotten food poisoning, and I literally was in this Marriott for like 24 hours. Oh, I beat up or not? Listen, not yet. I had the Pedialyte, all that stuff. But I didn't get to the first two meetings, and so I'm doing my media session, and they're asking me about this, and I'm just trying to cruise through it. Fortunately, there aren't a lot of big items. Yeah. You know, it doesn't appear. I'll get up to speed and be there before the owners' meetings. But, look, I like those topics. when you're passionate about the game.

2:58:35And, yeah, I'm easy to get fired up on some of those things.

2:58:41Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah. Hey, Coach, the refs, the union, renegotiation happening, that's a huge deal.

2:58:49AJ Hawk:It is. Are we going to fix that ever? I'm so removed from it. Okay, okay. Like, in other words, I have no idea what that means. I know there's a union. I know that the last time they had that, you know, there was a challenge. A high school ref. Yeah, yeah. And then... Yeah, like all I was thinking about is like my cycle getting off the plane and it was every 25 minutes that I was having to and I knew that it was 28 minutes from the airport to the hotel and it was 1250 in the morning and my driver didn't speak English and I thought if I asked him to get out he might leave me here. It was eight degrees and I thought this is where I'm going to die.

2:59:31AJ Hawk:And then I get to the hotel, and the manager's training someone to check in. And I said, not with this room. The worst.

2:59:37Pat McAfee:Now's the time. I need my key. Immediately, yeah.

2:59:41AJ Hawk:No, all good, though. It's good to be back here. You know, I'm just from right up the road. I went to camp here, Franklin, Indiana, for so many years. My high school coach was from Indianapolis. I didn't know any of that. Yeah, I'm from Illinois, so I used to go to Franklin College.

2:59:55Pat McAfee:Oh, did you hear? Did you hear? Illinois? Illinois?

2:59:58AJ Hawk:No.

2:59:58Pat McAfee:the governor of Indiana was just on, he's saying the Bears are coming to Indiana.

3:00:02AJ Hawk:Really? Yeah, he was sitting right here. People don't realize, back in the day, when we all watched, and you guys may not have, you're young, but you remember Brian's song? I do. Brian Piccolo. I do. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Very sad movie. That was at St. Joe's University, which is no longer a school. That's where their training camp was. So when you see those old films of the Bears coach, You know, they trained in northern Indiana for a number of years. There you go.

3:00:30Pat McAfee:Pete Ward, president of the Colts, sent me a text while I was talking to the governor.

3:00:33AJ Hawk:That's really unbelievable.

3:00:34Pat McAfee:Yeah, that's happening. He seems that the governor seems that it was going to happen.

3:00:39AJ Hawk:And quietly, I think the Chiefs moved from Missouri to Kansas. Yeah. And that was kind of, yeah.

3:00:50Pat McAfee:And I think people didn't, because a lot of people, Kansas City, they're in Kansas.

3:00:53AJ Hawk:The whole country woke up and we didn't pay any attention to it. We paid attention when the Colts moved from Baltimore here. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. But I think it's hard to believe, being from the Chicago area, that the Bears are going to be in northern Indiana.

3:01:09Pat McAfee:Crazy. I think it's happening. Pete Ward said, the president of the Colts, he said Hammond had an NFL team back in the 1920s.

3:01:19AJ Hawk:There you go. Good squad.

3:01:20Pat McAfee:The Hammond pros.

3:01:22AJ Hawk:And so I don't think people realize how close. Like, if you're from the Chicago area, Notre Dame kind of became your adopted university a little bit. Back when there wasn't, you know, and there are a ton of alumni. It's not that big of a drive. Did you watch the Olympics? I did.

3:01:42Pat McAfee:How awesome is that one? When we win anything, I get so excited. Like the women's team, when Keller cooks Canada in overtime, it's like, what a moment. and the men doing what they did on the second to last day of the Olympics.

3:01:52AJ Hawk:How about the skater from Wisconsin? They showed the little ice track his parents dug. Jordan Stoles? Yeah, he was a star. Star.

3:02:00Pat McAfee:Yes, he absolutely was. I got captivated by all that.

3:02:03AJ Hawk:Just competing, I think, is what we like. No, it's good. And there's something about the Winter Games. I don't know why. And I'm kind of the traditionalist where some of the X-game stuff, I don't know when it was like, when did that get to the Olympics? But, you know, the traditional was like the ski jump, the lose. Yeah. Those are all the conventional ones. And then all of a sudden there'll be one of these you're like, I don't know when they slip that in there. You're the man. Good luck this entire offseason. Thank you, Coach. Great seeing you guys.

3:02:33Pat McAfee:Appreciate it. Hey, congrats, dude. You're the man. Thank you, man. Hey, never a doubt, by the way, Sean. Ladies and gentlemen, Sean Payton.

3:02:39Joe Brady:Yeah, Sean.

3:02:40Pat McAfee:Could be late to a meeting there. For sure. Yeah. His person was behind him.

3:02:44Joe Brady:Probably running the meeting. Yeah. Now he's jogging. Yeah. A little pep in the step. Shefty chasing him down.

3:02:51Pat McAfee:Yeah, Shefty, catch up, bub. We need the news, Shefty. We need the news.

3:02:59Mike Braun:Shefty's a shadow right now.

3:03:00Pat McAfee:Shefty, we need the news. He caught up to him. Shregs just showed up over here. Holy hell, we might have him on the program tomorrow. That a baby, Shregs. Boom. He was just sitting here on the director's chair for like seven hours this morning on Get Up and First Take. just telling everything he knows from the bars and the greatest brunch spot maybe in America that he needs to keep his mouth shut.

3:03:20Joe Brady:Yeah, he does. Yeah, ruining that for everybody. I'm assuming he might have gotten a noogie or two. Like, hey, Peter, why don't you shut your trap, buddy? You want to be invited next year? Peter's kind of giving away. Has Ian and Gordo seen each other? Yeah, they did. Interesting. It was a big fight, yeah. Chest to chest. Wouldn't that be awesome to see them chest bump? Yeah. A face off? They were chin to chin, yeah. Imagine, I mean, take their shirts off to a face-off. You're like Dana White in the middle of them.

3:03:46Pat McAfee:Lads, how you doing, boys? Good to see you guys.

3:03:48Mike Braun:We haven't seen rap, but we're also above like 5 '5". Yeah.

3:03:53Pat McAfee:Whoa. All right.

3:03:54Joe Brady:Let's get out of here. He walked by.

3:03:56Pat McAfee:He walked by. Shrek, do you know anything about rap and Schultz? Anything go on yet? Two fights. We should have them do a little stare-down. That'd be cool.

3:04:06Joe Brady:Yeah. And then they could squash the beef. Or they'd fight. No, start the beef. Wow. We can sell it as, hey, guys, squash the beef, and then all of a sudden they get into a fight. Maybe we call it Zufa. And we give them both like drugs.

3:04:17Pat McAfee:Don't tell the UFC fighters.

3:04:18Joe Brady:Give them both meth. Yeah. All right.

3:04:20Pat McAfee:Let's get out of here. Let's find it. Go ball. Hey, AJ, thank you for traveling. Thank you. This is awesome. Connor, great show. Yeah, you too. You too. I like your bets. I do too. I do. Now, granted, you were boozing so hard, we don't know if your brain still works.

3:04:35Joe Brady:There was one problem also we ran into this morning. What was that? just right now, I don't know if they're currently on the site at the moment. For some of us, they are. Some of them aren't. We'll figure it out.

3:04:47Pat McAfee:Yeah. What do you mean? The bets that he gave out?

3:04:49Joe Brady:Any of them. Hey, here's the bet of the day.

3:04:51Pat McAfee:Everybody's like, where is it? Yeah.

3:04:52Joe Brady:You need the combine tab to come back. Okay.

3:04:55Pat McAfee:Yeah. DraftKings, I think Tone might have cooked a little bit, got a little action on something, and then all of a sudden it disappears. Checking right now just to see. Yeah. See if they brought it back. Truck boys. Good work today, boys.

3:05:06Mike Braun:Baby.

3:05:08Pat McAfee:Bruce, way not to just cover up Gumpy's face. Yeah.

3:05:11Joe Brady:Yeah. Got rid of the computer stand. It's right here.

3:05:14Pat McAfee:Hey, Foxy, full chaos I heard, you know, in my ear from the truck as the show started. Yeah, six minutes before we go live. Another graphics worth. Terry Deck just crashed. We still go live, but not on TikTok or X. It's like, okay. Do we have anything?

3:05:30Joe Brady:Yeah, a lot of chaos back here in the first hour. It's not good when, you know, you're crammed in this corner and then you got someone here. working with all this stuff, and then you got people in that room trying to fix stuff, people in that room trying to fix stuff. But, hey, that's technology, baby. Good battle.

3:05:43Pat McAfee:That is technology. And we'd like to say the barcode and team back there, and Nick, I think, was in the middle of it as well, and ZB, baby. It's like, hey, good work, boys. They did. They figured it all out very well. I think if you watched, you wouldn't have noticed that we had tech issues, I hope. No, definitely. Those graphics at the beginning of the show were ass. They were screenshotted from previous shows. Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. Barcode and Nick were back there, like, just trying to figure out a way to do it. Screenshotting previous ones. Yeah, unbelievable. I would like to say, in the truck, from the chaos that I was hearing while I'm speaking about what's going on in the truck in one ear here, this is kind of how this whole thing works, a little fourth wall here.

3:06:24Pat McAfee:So my right ear, obviously, I could talk to boys. I could talk to truck. I can talk to Scott. I could talk to everybody. I got this button up here. My right ear, though, is the thing that everybody communicates back through. and you know sometimes i'm not acting like this is abnormal while i'm talking this communication is happening so it's like you know my voice is very loud and they got other people's voices in here and then there's like we have no graphics we have graphics wait we don't have graphics while i'm talking and it's like wow this is awesome what's happening back there and i want to let you boys know just like bailey mccombs did this morning way to handle adversity back there way to handle the pressure and way to make magic happen i'm very proud of you all and shout out the barcoding team for making that happen.

3:07:02Pat McAfee:Honestly, legitimately.

3:07:03Joe Brady:Good work, boys.

3:07:04Pat McAfee:Now, let's not fucking have it happen again.

3:07:06Joe Brady:Yeah, we already got two computers ordered, a good computer and a backup computer if good computer goes out. So problem solved until it's not.

3:07:13Pat McAfee:Technology is the greatest thing on earth and then also the worst. Yeah, it's going to happen. It's going to happen. This is literally just what happens. And I would say this, it's better to have no graphics and be live from the combine than have a bunch of graphics and not be live from the combine. We're incredibly thankful to be here. We'll see you tomorrow. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice that might change their life. furnished in together. AJ, anything to say to the people here? I hope all the boys have a great workout this afternoon.

3:07:36Joe Brady:Hell yeah. Just the Ohio State guys? Them as well as everybody else. And Michigan? Whoa! Sure. They don't have any guys here. Once they're in the pros, they're going to be teammates.

3:07:45Pat McAfee:You're the man. Team on me. Team on three. We'll see you tomorrow. One, two, three. Team.

3:07:49Joe Brady:Goodbye!