PMS 2.0 1507 - Franchise Tag Deadline Day, Jeff Passan, 3x Olympic Gold Medalist Mikaela Shiffrin, Adam Schefter, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

15:14Pat McAfee:Okay, so speaking of all of that, I think you are right. And the more we've gotten to know the baseball culture, Remember, I was never around, like actually never embedded in baseball culture in my entire life. Not as a kid. Hey, everybody does T-ball. No, I didn't even do T-ball. I did no baseball. So I don't know anything about the culture. I don't know anything about the people. You've done an incredible job in my eyes of informing me and others like me about what we should care about baseball, why we should care about baseball in the process of doing all that. We got new rules in the game.

15:43Pat McAfee:It feels like we got more star power than ever. and whenever you think about WBC, I think people that aren't baseball people are going to get locked into this. And I'm only saying that because a few years back at the last one, I was dialed in. Feels like Team America's ready to go, Jet. I know you weren't able to be out there yesterday because you were too busy signing new deals with ESPN, but the boys are locked in, it feels. What are your thoughts on Team USA and is this the most stacked team in history? And how do we bode against the Dominican Republic team and the Japanese who are obviously the reigning WBC champs?

16:14Mikaela Shiffrin:It is unquestionably the most stacked team. And all you have to do is just look at the lineup today in their exhibition game against the San Francisco Giants. Bobby Witt Jr., third best player in baseball leading off. Bryce Harper, superstar extraordinaire hitting second. Aaron Judge, best hitter in the world, third. Kyle Schwarber bombs fourth. Alex Bregman, Cal Raleigh. I think Roman Anthony's hitting seventh. Byron Buxton, eighth. Bryce Terang, ninth. Like, that's a bunch of one, two, three hitters. And oh, by the way, Paul Skeens is going to be on the mound. And when you can come into a tournament like USA is right now, and you can go with Logan Webb, Paul Skeens, Tarek Skubal, and Nolan McClain.

16:57Mikaela Shiffrin:In the past, Pat, it's been difficult getting pitchers on board with the WBC just because it's such high quality play early on. and guys usually aren't built up to the point where, frankly, they're ready to just go in and act like this is a playoff game. But that's what it feels like when you're wearing USA across the chest, when you're wearing Samurai Japan across the chest or Dominican Republic. It's just more meaningful. I covered four Olympics, Pat. I saw it up close and personal and didn't really understand what it meant until you see the athletes in that environment. They care more about this than they do just about anything and that this has just sprouted up in the last 20 years and turned into what it has.

17:43Mikaela Shiffrin:I think you got to give baseball a lot of credit for having this idea that there really wasn't anything solid internationally. And so let's build something. And they've built something that I think is their last.

17:53Pat McAfee:And we would like to say thank you to MLB who put the World Baseball Classic together for not gatekeeping us out of MLB, you know, like, and you as well. Because I know there's a lot of baseball purists and traditionalists because it's been around a long time. And believe me, I understand to be a fan of baseball, you've got to be fully committed.

18:10Mikaela Shiffrin:Whoever those people are need to go away. Baseball is a game for everyone. It doesn't have to be your favorite sport. It doesn't have to be number one on the list. You can still love it regardless. Fan the way that you want to fan. And if it's casually or if it's diehard, as long as you're still looking at that game and saying, I like baseball, that's ultimately what matters.

18:32Pat McAfee:Okay, so I appreciate you saying that. You've always been like that with me because I've said some things that don't make sense in baseball. It's okay because I don't get it. But the more I'm around it, the more I love it, genuinely. They had an infield practice yesterday. Oh, man. Got to watch. It was.

18:46Jeff Passan:Dino was hitting a mean fungo.

18:47Pat McAfee:Yeah, Dino. Polity in motion. Dino from the Dodgers. Dino Devil.

18:52Mikaela Shiffrin:Dino Abel's about as good with a fungo bat as anyone out there.

18:55Pat McAfee:Yeah, I guess he put up a perfect game yesterday. Yeah, of course. And even hit pop-ups to the catcher that, from my understanding. So high. Very impossible with the bat. I guess that is a tough thing to do with the bat. He was the fungo bat or whatever he was using. So there he is. This man is an icon. Also, he's thrown for, I think, three home run derby champs. Yep. And was also throwing BP for the boys yesterday. And then, oh, yeah, he's got the fungo bat, too, flying around as they're doing it. That Dino fella. The weapon. Hey, he loves it. Yeah, I mean, he was throwing it out there. I need to do a little bit of that.

19:27Pat McAfee:Maybe I should have been watching him a little closer while I was doing it. Okay, let's start chit-chatting about Tarek Skubel. Okay, so he obviously, I don't like that this has happened. You could probably tell me why it has happened. We had Scott Boris on the show yesterday. We understand the way he operates at the Boris Corporation. Obviously, Scoobel is one of his guys. He said there was 50 lawyers in there for his particular arbitration. The largest difference in the history of arbitration was$13 million. It came out, I don't know who put it out, whether it was the Tigers that released it or Scoobel's people released it.

19:58Pat McAfee:like hey he's only doing right after the men's and women's hockey gold medal everybody's riding this high team usa and then it comes out scuba's only pitching one game so get the most you can out of this guy okay and then it comes out he's only throwing 55 pitches this guy so depending on how they do it i don't think they should have said anything i think if they would have a conversation with d-row i think d-row would have been like we'll manage it let him take the bullets let d-row be like scuba's on generational wealth we got other pitchers we're trying to take care of our guy. If we need him, we'll do that.

20:27Pat McAfee:But that seemingly wasn't the angle here. How should we be viewing what's going on? How common is this? And when does he get his deal done with whoever? Is that very near future? Is that after this season?

20:39Mikaela Shiffrin:That's going to be after this season, unless Detroit does something which nobody in the industry anticipates, which is paying him enough to lock him up long term. And, you know, when you're Tarek Skubal coming off two consecutive of Cy Young's best pitcher in baseball and you have the opportunity to get a larger contract than any pitcher in the history of the game you got to be a little careful like I get it I don't like it I get it though and and look you got to look out for yourself and the fact that he gets to wear Team USA's uniform I think was important to him and you know at the end of the day Tarek Skubal just wants to be healthy at the end of the season.

21:20Mikaela Shiffrin:Because if he is, he's going to get$400-plus million in free agency. And we understand that.

21:26Pat McAfee:Hey, I think we understand that. I just think it was a stupid idea to make it sound like it was coming from Scoobel. You know what I mean? It seemed like the way it was reported, it was like this is Scoobel's decision. Scoobel would probably go pitch every game in this Team USA if he could. If I had to guess, he'd be an absolute dog. So this is the biggest people around him making this decision, which once again, best maybe in the history of sports, around him making these decisions. but we should have pawned that shit off on D-Road. Like, we should have pawned that off on Rossi, Sean Casey, Andy Pettit.

21:54Pat McAfee:We should have pawned it off on them saying, hey, this guy's about 500 million. Like, we all have been in this situation before. We're just happy he's here. Now, on that note, what does that mean for the pitching rotation for Team USA? Because Skeens is in. How many games should we expect him to pitch? How about Logan Webb out of San Francisco Giants? How many games should we expect him to pitch out there? What about all these other pitches that are listed? What should we be expecting from these studs? And how many games in total are we needing to win to win the entire WBC jet for America?

22:25Mikaela Shiffrin:There are going to be seven games if you get to the finals. And so Tarek Scoobel dropping out, listen, it's never great when the guy who's the best pitcher in the world is not going to be there for you when you could have had him. But Logan Webb is just so, so consistent. Going to be starting game one. Paul Skeens, you know, right there in lockstep with Scoobel for best pitcher in the world. He's going to be around to the end. And I think there's a realistic possibility, Pat, that Nolan McClain, a guy who's had a half dozen big league games in his career, who's going to be a rookie this season, could potentially be starting the finals if Team USA makes it there.

23:02Mikaela Shiffrin:And you see all the other names on the screen there. You know, there are legends like Clayton Kershaw, who's probably going to come in either in an emergency role or in a blowout game. But the number of high-end pitchers that Team USA has this year is so much better than they've had in past seasons. You know, in past WBCs, they've run out sort of like mid-level starters. They haven't had the studs. This is the first time that they've had real buy-in on the pitching side. And that's why I think Team USA is the favorite in this WBC. As successful as Japan has been, not just the last time around, but winning three of these things, and as much talent as there is with the Dominican Republic, nobody can compete with Team USA just in terms of pure talent right now.

23:52Mikaela Shiffrin:But baseball's a funny game, man. Talent doesn't always win. And one thing that Team USA has not been able to do over the last couple times is really lock this thing down. We're going to. We're going to. They need to, they have to, because I don't know the next time around whether they're going to have as much talent as they do right now. This might be the most talent we ever see on a Team USA.

24:16Pat McAfee:D-Row's going to say, we're going to have the most talent every time. We're going to do that. They've taken an approach of, they've been recruiting since last March. I mean, they've been putting together plans since last year. And I only just so happen to be on a bus in which some of it was being discussed. And I just poke my ear and start listening. I'm like, ooh, I'm fascinated by this. and I start getting some background information. It's like that entire coaching staff, all the boys, by the way, all ex-players, legends out there, they've been selling, taking trips to people saying, hey, this is what we're looking for.

24:45Pat McAfee:This is what we're hoping for. We have to, right? Don't we kind of have to for Japan? And from my understanding, now Scoobo's got a different animal on best pitcher and you've got to do his thing. But everybody was like, yeah, if they signed up for it, it's like, yeah, we ain't losing this shit. So it feels like it's a very locked-in group.

24:59Mikaela Shiffrin:You know where it started? It started with Aaron Judge. Aaron Judge was the first one to commit. And Aaron Judge just has such immense respect from his peers, the way he conducts himself, the way he trains, the way he just operates in New York, which is an extraordinarily difficult place to play. And he does it in a manner that is both welcoming and accommodating, but also holding others accountable. And I think it's like if Aaron Judge is signing up, what excuse does anyone else have? Right. Like he is the best. He's the captain of the New York Yankees. If he's going to be there, why aren't you?

25:42Yeah.

25:42Pat McAfee:And I think Dero said Judge was first call. So then whenever he knew that if Judge goes in, it'll be an easier sell for everybody else. But like Paul Skeens, I don't know how his big ass was ever going to fit in a fighter jet. I genuinely have no idea how that was ever going to happen. He wasn't. I don't even think his ass was going to be able to get in there. I'm sure he would have made it happen. But like playing for America for all these, like Bryce Harper talking about how like in J.O.'s, I played for America and what it was like to kind of do it. It felt really cool yesterday. I don't know how long that lasts.

26:13Pat McAfee:I know they're living in hotels for the next few weeks. Obviously, families will come and go. Their season seemingly starting early in and before. They're away from their teams. Like, I don't think they're making money. Bryce Harper's have no idea what the money is. So, like, I don't know how long the juice will last for this entire thing, but it feels like they're about to give it a go for the country, which I respect. Okay, we know you've got to get out of here soon. Ty, this is the last question for you.

26:33Jeff Passan:Yeah, so speaking of that, Jet, and this might be the best collection we'll ever get, but with baseball not being in the Olympics anymore, and I know that right now it is kind of the perfect storm in terms of everything that just happened with hockey and all that kind of stuff. But do you expect this to kind of be the expectation moving forward for the USA as a whole where this is the most important thing before the season and we will have kind of the best of the best who will be signing up and playing for this? Do you think this tournament is going to continue to carry the kind of juice it has right now over the next several years and it will be kind of...

27:10Jeff Passan:A thing. Yeah, like our version of, you know, because these guys are talking about winning a gold medal like it is an Olympic gold medal.

27:18Mikaela Shiffrin:Right. You know, ultimately, is it ever going to stack up to the Olympics? No, probably not. And by the way, baseball is going to be in the Olympics in 2028. And there's some real optimism that big league players are going to be there as well. That being said, regardless of what the public thinks the WBC is, the players are bought in. And I think the more that the players are bought in, the more the public is going to go there with them. But what it all comes down to is this tournament needs to provide moments. And last time around, man, there were some real moments. Like that last at bat between Shohei Otani and Mike Trout, you know, two teammates, two guys who love each other.

28:02Mikaela Shiffrin:in a one-run game in the championship with two outs in the ninth inning. It's like what every kid who has ever swung a bat in the backyard was thinking of. And we don't get a lot of those moments in meaningful games. We saw it in the World Series this year, but if the WBC can continue to provide that, I do think it's got real long-term health and sustainability and is going to be something that Major League Baseball and the players can look at every year is something that they're really looking forward to.

28:34Pat McAfee:We love the vibes. We love the energy. We cannot wait to watch. I know you got to see me one pitch maybe if you're on Twitter. A couple more. It looked great. On Twitter? On Instagram? I threw a strike. They showed a strike. They showed a strike on Instagram.

28:47Mikaela Shiffrin:I mean, I guess it was in the zone. You're talking about that one? Oh, Lord, Max.

28:52Pat McAfee:That's Twitter. That's Twitter. That's the only one I posted on Twitter. That's misinformation.

28:57Mikaela Shiffrin:You also acknowledge to Clayton, there's no way I'm going to throw it over the plate.

29:02Pat McAfee:Yeah, and that wasn't the first time I said that, actually. There was a few other times where I said that throughout the entire process. I threw other pitches.

29:10Mikaela Shiffrin:Patrick, I'll say this. You look damn good in the uniform, and that's what matters.

29:13Pat McAfee:I'll tell you what.

29:15Mikaela Shiffrin:Harper thought the same.

29:16Pat McAfee:Yeah, I mean, Harper's just talking shit about all the peptides. I mean, the baseball guys immediately were just like, that's science in a nutshell right there. I'm like, all right, yeah, true, but valid, boys. That is valid. That is 100 % valid. but I think my body type and some of my athletic abilities would have voted well for baseball. Now, I don't know if my attention span would have helped me in that sport. I think there's a lot of patience and things like that.

29:40Mikaela Shiffrin:Look at the shoulders.

29:41Pat McAfee:Yeah, I mean, we're lifting, Jed.

29:42Mikaela Shiffrin:You'd have had to catch.

29:43Pat McAfee:Jed, this is what lifting is. But on that note, yeah, I would have been very active. We would have been in there. What do you think happened between me and Kershaw hitting-wise? What do you think? We'll be releasing that video here in a little bit. What do you think happened for me and Kershaw hitting-wise?

29:56Mikaela Shiffrin:I got to be honest. Kirsch can rake a little bit. No, no. Him pitching to me.

30:01Pat McAfee:Him pitching to me. Oh, him pitching to you? Yeah, full inning. Three outs. Oh, you took him yard. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, that's brand new contract haver. Jet Branson. Thank you, Jet. Yes.

30:14Jeff Passan:I like that, Jet. He knows ball.

30:18Pat McAfee:Maybe, huh? You told me. You'll find out.

30:21Adam Schefter:They just locked him out for 20 years. Who, Jet? Yeah. ESPN. I'll say it last.

30:25Pat McAfee:He said, I guess I'll say anything. 20-year deals. Sounds so good. And then you get three years into them, you go, huh? How many more I got? When's this thing? 17 more. Yeah, but remember, when you signed this thing, right? This is what we wanted forever. Yeah, but him not saying how many years it was. He was like, am I supposed to say it? It's like, you definitely want people to know when you were up, Jet, if you're going to be good at your job. Now, if you're going to be bad at your job, you do not want anybody to know when you were up. Jet passing has been great for us and great for baseball.

30:55Pat McAfee:The World Baseball Classic is going to be awesome. James, please trust us. These first couple games are going to be boring because we are going to murder these teams. But hopefully. Home run derby is happening in the name of America. Hopefully. Also sweet. You know, that is a couple midnight here. All right, let's move along here. Now, there's some news coming out of the combine. Now, everything right now, smoke and mirrors whenever it comes to prospects, especially really good prospects. You never know what's real, what isn't real. There was something that kind of hit the internet. Sonny Stiles, that was not his dad, it turns out.

31:26Pat McAfee:Well. It was his dad, but we apologize. I'm used. Yeah, two-time Big Ten, old Big Ten NFL guy. We assumed that was possible. So just know, sir, you could potentially, I think, with modern science, get to that point. Yep. But it was only out of respect. Now, Caleb Dines, okay, there's a report coming out. And who knows what's real and what is it? But we do know that even the people that aren't considered real, if their shit generates enough traffic, it does become a topic of conversation for people around the league, especially if it involves somebody who was deemed a Hall of Famer the first day they were on campus in Alabama.

31:58Pat McAfee:We reach out to the Downs family. The Downs family immediately sent us to a suit, sent a thumbs up, never going to do that. So then we go to a couple NFL teams, and we try to get a little follow-up on what we have heard. Multiple NFL teams have told us there is nothing in the medical that would deter us from bringing Caleb Downs in, especially with how great of a football player it is. It feels like this is a part of this entire program. process and who knows what's real and what isn't but we do know that like this kind of made its run on the internet there's a lot of people from around the league not fan bases that were like hold on howard else told downs was flagged with partially torn meniscus this week that's not a serious concern but also being flagged with a potentially degenerative acl it's like these are these are big deals obviously whenever you're talking about investing millions of dollars into a player especially one that could be a franchise player like caleb downs but we every nfl team we talked there wasn't one nfl team that we talked to this morning that said anything was wrong and we talked to multiple so this feels like it's all bullshit but this is kind of the name of the game in this time because that might be a team that likes him the most yeah that is putting that out there actually hoping that he will fall a little bit so we got to stay on our

33:00Adam Schefter:p's and q's here i think d but unfortunately it's part of especially in this kind of day and age in this environment that could very well not be a team or agent just be a loser on the internet or somebody just with some bad information trying to make a name for themselves and become the next you know mel kiper whoever it is out there but calem downs he's a phenomenal football player like we've watched them boots on the ground a few times at Alabama and O State last year in a national title run and this year with the run all the way to the Fiesta Bowl. I mean, communication, tackling, like everything you want from a football player on that second level, second and third level.

33:33Adam Schefter:That's what Caleb Downs is. You see a lot of impact players in the NFL right now who do multiple things like a Kyle Hamilton or Nick Imanwari or these guys. Derwin. Derwin, you know, Witherspoon who had a huge Super Bowl. All these guys that can cover, that can blitz, that can tackle an open space, and just as importantly, communicate pre - and post-snapping. Caleb Downs provides all that. Second-generation NFL guy. His brother's doing his thing here. I can't wait to see this guy on the next level. I hate that we have to deal with bullshit like this.

34:00Pat McAfee:Just got a text from an NFL team who's watching while you're talking. Everything D-Buddy's saying is right. His stock won't drop because of any medical. There is no significant concern with the knee. Okay, that was enough. So that's like the fifth team there that has kind of said that. And I'm happy we're getting ahead of this because those types of things start to linger and then they take on a story of their own. And then all of a sudden, this guy can't run anymore by the time the draft comes. And it's like, what? None of this is real. And Caleb Downs can't come out. If Caleb Downs was to come out publicly and be like, mine is fine, people would be like, oh, that's what I would say too.

34:29Pat McAfee:It's like a, this is the drawback of this type of shit. You know, when there's billions on the line, and especially if you think that's what Caleb Downs could do for your team, which literally the first day he was on campus at Alabama. this is sabans alabama the first day caleb down showed up on campus the ogs of the team nfl guys they told us directly like that there's a gold jacket right there that that guy is a gold jacket guy he obviously transfers over to ohio state national championship has the time best player on the field whenever he's on the field so i guess these types of things are going to happen to those types of guys during this draft process but we would just like to let fans know that there is also another story out there from the people that are making the decisions in the nfl saying This ain't real.

35:14Pat McAfee:Now, will he have knee problems down the road? Like, is there a chance he has arthritis and shit in his knees? Potentially. Like, these are things that happen to a lot of guys, especially if they played a lot of sports or a lot of football. But this is happening to dudes all the time. So, if you want to pick and choose what you put out to potentially build a narrative, that's certainly one thing. But every team we have talked to said, this is a non-issue for us if it was coming to draft time.

35:35Jeff Passan:And it feels like he never dealt with injuries. Like, you could basically say every human in the world has a potentially degenerative ACL, if we're really getting technical with it. All I can remember from Caleb Downs, especially from the field passes, is how fast he is and how, whether there's 20 yards of open space and it's one-on-one with the guy, he makes a tackle every single time. I mean, he literally is one of the best football players we've probably been able to see up close and personal. He almost started the Rose Bowl off against Michigan with a pick six if J.J. McCarthy didn't throw a football 95 miles an hour.

36:08Jeff Passan:He is unbelievable. And think about the guys that he's been around. He's played for Nick Saban, the greatest college football coach of all time. Then he has played in Matt Patricia's NFL-type defense. Between the smarts and the production, he is probably one of the best players on defense in the entire NFL or in college football.

36:29Pat McAfee:Where do the sportsbooks think he's going to get drafted right now?

36:31Jeff Passan:I mean, he's listed anywhere. Top 10 is what everyone is expecting. Anywhere from 2 to 10, I've seen. I can't remember who was at 10, but it was like he's probably not falling past there. Thank you very much. Bengals at 10, yes. If the Bengals are a team who have struggled on defense for so many years now, who have a great offense, if he gets past 10, that would be shocking. 12, there's no chance he gets past Dallas, in my opinion. But I've seen anywhere from the Jets at 2 all the way to 10, somewhere around there, he'll probably be up there.

37:00Pat McAfee:Yeah, somebody's working here. Yeah.

37:02Jeff Passan:They want him to fall farther than that.

37:05Adam Schefter:You got a guy that improves your run in your pass defense immediately. You know, obviously a three-down guy, but, like, that's what you need. I mean, we're in a four-down league now, so you need a guy like that who's probably going to play 99 % of snaps, maybe be a green dot guy. So he instantly improves. A lot of times you get a pass rusher, he may not help run defense. You may get an interior guy, he may not help pass rush. This guy does everything, and he's going to make the players around him better as well.

37:31Pat McAfee:And didn't Fernando Mendoza do an interview at the Combine and say, one of the teams told him, like, hey, could you get arrested? Yes. Yeah. So you could drop a little bit. That is really how some of these teams are thinking, especially if it's a game-changing type player like Caleb Downs definitely is in this whole thing.

37:48Jeff Passan:And especially when a lot of people are saying, hey, this guy might be the best player in the draft class. And just because of the position he plays, he's not necessarily going to go in the top five. But I read an article this morning that it was an anonymous scout or GM. I can't remember who it was specifically, but they said Caleb Downs would be a top 10 pick in the last 20 years every single year. So there's not one draft you look at, and you wouldn't. That's how good this guy is.

38:10Pat McAfee:Generational type. Yeah. Yeah, especially from a family of athletes as well. Congrats to him on having to survive all the bullshit because it's going to be a fortuitous draft night for you in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With all eyes headed that way, what's the date of that particular draft?

38:24Jeff Passan:Oh, April 24th?

38:26Pat McAfee:Third, four, yeah. April 24th? I cannot wait. 20's the Monday. Pittsburgh is going to be bananas.

38:32Jeff Passan:Yeah.

38:33Pat McAfee:We're going to be out there. I believe we're going to head out there on Tuesday. That The Football Town movie that is at the... Rave reviews. Human Science Center. That's not what I call it, but... We do, though. We know the story of why it's called that. They should have kept Carnegie in there. Thank you. It should be the Human Carnegie Science Center is what it should be. April 23rd there in Pittsburgh. The Carnegie Science Center is something that has been a Pittsburgh staple basically our entire childhood. You take school visits to this thing. They've always had like a sphere before the sphere existed.

39:08Pat McAfee:The entire ceiling would do things. They'd show you like constellations or like Everest. It was like a school. It was always like for kids, basically. In the Carnegie family, Carnegie Mellon, Carnegie this, Carnegie that. Carnegie Steel. Yeah, Carnegie Science Center. They were the ones that donated all the money to this place. This is a fixture in Pittsburgh for everybody, basically, since we're kids. And this sphere thing is always really cool. I always, I just assumed everybody had it. Then when the Sphere came out, I thought to myself, oh, that's like Carnegie Science Center, which is an interesting kind of dynamic there.

39:36Pat McAfee:I believe the story goes that the Carnegie Science Center people reach out to a family in Pittsburgh who liked what they were doing and say, like, hey, we need to do some upkeep to the place. Would you like to donate? And they were expecting like, I don't know, like$100 ,000,$200 ,000,$300 ,000. Good donation. And I think they end up getting like$40 million. They're like, all right, we'll take the Carnegie family. Yeah, because as soon as I showed up and I heard about being a part of the football town, I was incredibly honored. Like, I'm going to voice over Pittsburgh football. Like, first of all, I don't deserve that.

40:06Pat McAfee:And also, this is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Thank you, NFL Films. And thank you, I think there's a Skydance maybe is a part of that. Thank you for choosing to do that to kind of put into perspective what our city is and how much football means to Pittsburgh. This thing is awesome. It was an honor to be a part. I mean, this was multiple days of shoots, a little this, a little shoot this, do this, do this. I was very thankful to be a part of it. But it is launching the Cuman Science Center just there. I believe tickets are available now. They had a premiere, I think, last week, last Tuesday or something like that.

40:36Pat McAfee:I am going to be trying to rent out the whole place, one of these draft night things, so we can have a good time in there to go watch it because I have yet to watch the entire thing. It is going to be special. So I think we'll go out there probably Tuesday. We'll do our show somewhere around Pittsburgh Wednesday, this show. And then Thursday for our first round of the draft. We won't have our show, which is custom during the day. And then we're with you for the first 10 hours of that night one NFL draft in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That should be a special time. We know Caleb Down's name is going to go early.

41:07Pat McAfee:And then we're going to have another four and a half hours of show afterwards. And that should be a good time.

41:11Jeff Passan:Yeah, I saw Football Town was 98 % on Rotten Tomatoes. So that's pretty good. Certified fresh. I got an idea where we should do the show on Wednesday, but I'll save it for later. What do you think it is? Come on. I think we should do it on the Gateway Clipper.

41:23Pat McAfee:All right, we're not doing it on a boat. We will find a blood flow. We will find.

41:27Adam Schefter:I got to start fact-checking Pittsburgh and stuff. What do you mean? They got a Fezzolini. I don't know, because we've been. And look, Joe DiNardo, he's my goat. Yeah, he's all of our. Holy shit. Don't you even. I agree. I don't want to be the guy, Foxy. But you guys told me he was, and it was only him. Nobody else in the conversation. Then I opened, which can't believe the bullshit you see on X. I'm seeing another name. What? What was his name?

41:52Jeff Passan:the guy that called in with the suspenders on our show? Craig? Nope, not him. There is a LeBron to the Jordan. I had never seen that name before. What? Me either.

42:02Pat McAfee:I've never seen either. This is fake. You're going for some trouble. It came from Caloli.

42:07Jeff Passan:Joe DiNardo's understudies Jeff Frisella. Okay? That's the guy. That other name that was out there?

42:13Pat McAfee:Nobody knows what we're talking about right now. And I was like, I'm okay with that. Normally not okay with us not letting people watch on the inside shit that we're talking about, I would like everybody to say, you need not explain what you're saying. You don't want to keep the legs? No, because what you're saying is just complete and utter bullshit. And Foxy, I'm like, no! Coming from back there, shut up! I'm the one that

42:32Jeff Passan:saw, and also, hey, I have a question for Tone,

42:34Pat McAfee:and Tone only, please no one else answer. If at the draft, I want to get the best sub in town, where am I going? Get your Rudy's sub! Get your Rudy's sub! We'll be back in Pittsburgh. We cannot wait to get back there. Foxy? What kind of Rudy? You've been going to Pittsburgh a lot. I love the place. It's interesting They're nice to Foxy in Pittsburgh. That can change, okay? And I think it should potentially with the way you've been trying to, whoa, don't you get a lot of that coming out of that mouth of yours, okay? And I don't love it.

43:02Jeff Passan:I love the city. I just want to make sure that I'm not getting lied to every time I go that Rudy subs. Oh, wait, no, there's a different place. Weatherman. Oh, wait, there's a different guy. Thank you.

43:10Pat McAfee:There is a different guy. I don't know what you're talking about. Honestly, this is Miss Maialgo. And when Koboli was around the other morning, he knew not to bring it up. So there's not even a question of whether or not Joe Denardo, the guy who created the fucking Doppler, is the guy or not. He is. Great pies on. Rest in peace. Not piss like what these guys are trying to do right now.

43:32Adam Schefter:Love you, Joe. Just want to get it right. Just want to get it right. I want all the information here.

43:36Jeff Passan:And to Foxy's point, it feels as though there is some sort of generation, you know, basketball type thing going on, okay? Denardo was 90s ball, and now there's some Greg Bednack or Bedzack or something like that. And I don't even know what the answer is. What is this misinformation that's being spread right now? What is happening? What are you guys? You guys have done it all. You guys have done it all. You guys have done it all. Shut up, please.

44:02Pat McAfee:Rest in peace.

44:02Jeff Passan:The only bad you need to know from Pittsburgh is Bednar, and he's going to be the closer for Team USA and dominate.

44:07Pat McAfee:Oh, mama, I'm in fear. All my life from the law.

44:15Jeff Passan:Let's move along. Heard some stuff about the Steelers, too. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

44:21Pat McAfee:Not about Renegade. Not about Renegade. Whoa. Can't wait for the draft. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is somebody we would draft with a number one overall pick. Hey, if you could take a goat, would you do it? Yeah. Do I know this world through and through? Absolutely not. But what I do know is when her name pops up, America's winning. And for that, I am very, very grateful. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe the greatest alpine slalom skier in the history, 30-year-old icon, three-time Olympic gold medalist, Michaela Schiffer.

44:57Jeff Passan:Yeah, Michaela!

44:59Pat McAfee:How are you, Michaela?

45:01AJ Hawk:You guys yapped like no other. I have, sorry. This is a yapping show. This is a yappy show.

45:10Pat McAfee:A lot of yapping over here. A lot of yapping. I do appreciate that. Holy shit. Okay. Thank you, Michaela. Yeah, a lot of yapping.

45:15AJ Hawk:Thank you for having me on.

45:17Pat McAfee:No, thank you for joining us. Honestly, we should have stopped our yapping early, but you don't even know what just happened. Joe DiNardo, okay, who I grew up, meteorologist. This man. Rest in peace. Rest in peace. Love you, Joe. Okay. Rest in peace. Thank you, Michaela. She feels like you kind of get it. Feels like you kind of get it. That's goat right there, D-Butt. You got anything to say? Love her already. Okay. and weather by the way huge yeah huge in this particular okay so michaela let's talk about this um i feel like i've been watching you dominate on mountain forever then we look it up you're 30 years old okay so we got another 20 years of this thing you're already a goat so can you just tell me how we got to this point did you start were you the greatest in the history like when you're 10 years old how do we get into the skiing world and how did you get to this spot you think now at this point at the age of 30, which is so young in everything.

46:07AJ Hawk:Thank you. Yeah, I guess, you know, 30 is generally pretty young in a lot of sports. In ski racing, you're actually kind of nearing the end of your career. The average age is getting a little bit older these days. But no, it's just, I don't even know how to compare. It's just a lot of years of, you know, we have a World Cup season from October until March.

46:34Pat McAfee:Most trophies of all time in a World Cup season, by the way. No, no, no. Most all time. Most all time. We did our research. We did our research. Okay, so that's how long?

46:41AJ Hawk:Thank you. So that's October till March. It's like 40-plus races per season. But I don't do all of the races. That might be wrong. But anyway, I don't do all the races. I do, like, kind of pick and choose. And it's just over the last, I think I've been racing for 14, 15 years on the World Cup circuit. I've racked up a couple good races, a couple victories.

47:06Pat McAfee:Yeah, all of them. So let's talk about the World Cup. Is that all in Europe? Where is that? Does America host any of those?

47:11AJ Hawk:Yeah, so we have a couple races, usually in November, December period in the United States. Like Beaver Creek hosts the Birds of Prey. That's a pretty iconic race for the men. And now the women are starting to race there. We have some races in Montremblant in Canada. But it's pretty much all in Europe. So we start the season in October in Sould in Austria. That's like up in the glaciers. And that's the end of October. And then basically we're racing every single weekend. We go to Finland next. That's where the reindeer is a prize for winning the race. A live one? A live reindeer. Yeah. How many do you have?

47:48AJ Hawk:Do you have a full? I have eight or nine reindeer.

47:52Pat McAfee:Wow. On a farm or? Blitzen. Common and keeping. Honor and blitzen. and this one I got for all the ashes I'm kicking. That would be great. I love that we got reindeers all over the place. We got a full farm up there. Okay, so we would say, and this is my take from Winter Olympics, I get all in every time. But I feel like they have quite an advantage over there, these countries that maybe create some of these sports. Some of these sports I don't see and I have no idea what they are. You just have been good since you were young Or do you think like their mountains have made you like, how do you kind of view your career and why you've been able to have so much success as an American in a European seeming sport?

48:36AJ Hawk:You know, that is such a good question.

48:39Pat McAfee:We're yapping, Michaela. We're yapping out here.

48:42AJ Hawk:Yeah, fuck yeah. So I would say that there's that it's definitely like European dominated. but our United States team, our De Steeble U.S. ski team, is building depth in a way that we've not seen before. Like right now, our women are leading the Nations Cup standing for the World Cup circuit, and we're like ending the end of our, kind of the ending stretch of our season. So we've had, you know, we've had podiums, Paula Moulton, Breezy Johnson, Olympic champion and downhill. You know, Jackie and Paula were bronze medalists in the team combined. And like through the World Cup season, we've had multiple podiums, obviously, Lindsey Vonn being multiple victories this season.

49:30AJ Hawk:And just like there has been so much depth building. But I do think of a big challenge in the U.S. is the size of our country is actually not really an advantage when you're trying to sort of centralize like skiing knowledge and development. So that's, you know, that's something that's it's really a different conversation. But for me, I think my parents and the way my family taught me how to ski, like my parents taught me some pretty key fundamental values in ski racing, skiing period when I was young. And I started when I was two and a half on skis. I wasn't racing at that time. I guess that's probably obvious.

50:10Pat McAfee:But you probably beat the other three or what's probably if I guess if you had to. Yeah. Yeah. Your pizza pie is just going faster. Nobody understood how you were pizzaing that thing and you were picking up speed. She's got something, I think. But we would like to let you know, we're incredibly proud of what you've done in this particular world for the United States of America. You mentioned Lindsey Vonn there. And I don't know your guys' relationship. Once again, we do a lot of yapping, a lot of looking upping. And that's 100 % on me. You guys obviously bring the best out of each other. She's older than you.

50:39Pat McAfee:She does like the different version of Alpine versus what you do, right? So you both dominant in your own fields? Yes. Is that accurate?

50:48AJ Hawk:Yeah. So Lindsay is like hands down the greatest speed skier of all time. And I have been more on the technical side. So we've got four different events in skiing. Solom, GS, those are the technical events. Super G and downhill are the speed events. Towards more the beginning of her career, she raced Solom and GS, and she won in GS, but kind of moved more towards speed. And then there was a period of time where she retired and then she came back. And obviously this has been like a huge story. Her whole season has been spectacular. And she had a really, really bad crash in Katrina. Gnarly, yeah.

51:31AJ Hawk:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

51:32Pat McAfee:That's crazy.

51:33AJ Hawk:But, you know, she's on like starting the road to recovery, which, you know, we're really thankful for. And on my side, I've been more on the slalom, giant, solemn side of things. I have most of my wins in slalom, giant, slalom with a few Super G downhill victories. Yeah, so the last, really the last 15, 20 years, I think is when Lindsay was sort of starting to win her first races was, that's been pretty dominated by the US, which is...

52:08Pat McAfee:USA. USA. That's why we get so excited. That's why we get so excited because we know you're going to be out there. Okay? Now, I don't want to say anything. When I found out you were 30, I was so pumped. I was like, we got this. Let's go. So we can be ridiculously arrogant about something we know. I can't even ski. I don't even know if I could pizza if I had to at this exact point. I pray ski. I've heard it's a good time. Would like to be a part of that. Yes. But about the skiing, we are very arrogant because of you. and I know that maybe some of us say some things that make you feel uncomfortable in spots, Americans as a whole, and we apologize for that.

52:42Pat McAfee:Just know we love being able to talk shit because of all your hard work. So thank you for doing that. D-Butt has a question for you, Michaela.

52:48Adam Schefter:Speaking of hard work, Michaela, you said you've been skiing basically your whole life and from what I read, you turned pro at 15, so you've been pro half your life. Any other interests or hobbies outside of skiing? And you said you're probably closer to the end now or any interest post-skiing career for you?

53:05AJ Hawk:Yeah, I have quite a few. And I feel like at this point in my career, I'm sort of starting a bit of a transition. Like, I don't know, you know, in sport, it's tough ending your career. You guys, I feel like you probably have this conversation a lot when you end your career. Not that I'm ending it right now, but it is like, it's tough to know what to do. Right. And so that's like athletes go into business and do all these other things. And I'm sort of like starting a podcast right now. This year has been the first few episodes. It's been super fun, but it's given me a whole different world of understanding or even respect for what you're doing.

53:47AJ Hawk:Because it is hard to host conversations and know what you're doing. You do such a good job. You yapped so well.

53:55Pat McAfee:Thank you. That's very kind of you. But, yeah, Michaela, I think I don't want to say this because people take this out of context and say that I'm saying you're you're good at yapping to Michaela because you're like goat. I don't want people to just rip that, which they will. I don't think I think you need to know you have a great head start because of how much America loves you. So anything you say people are going to be interested in. And I think you're a great yapper, too, Michaela. I think you should get excited. But also, you don't have to be the best at this. You don't have to make sure that this is your career right now because you have what you have going on.

54:23Pat McAfee:So you always keep the main thing, the main thing. And if you're going to experience other stuff and be great at it, we're thankful for that. Because the more we get to learn about you, the better society is. You know, when goats are sharing game, that's good for everybody. And I have a two-and-a-half-year-old as well. Indiana's pretty flat, so it's going to be hard for me. Maybe that's where I need to pour on a ski. Yeah, and start pushing her around out there. So it's like the more you do and say, we will be thankful for and we will want to support. And whatever you get into next, you'll be successful because you're a dog, which leads to this last question here from Ty, actually.

54:53Jeff Passan:Yeah, Michaela, being the goat and everything, and anytime the Olympics come around, like Pat mentioned, the expectation, whether we know anything about the sport, is like, hey, we're going to have someone who's going to win a gold medal. Going back to 2022, it sucked for all of us. I'm sure it sucked for you, too. I think you were expected to win a couple golds there, and then you end up not getting any medals. How difficult is that when so much of your time and energy goes into something like this and then you have to wait a full four years for like Olympic redemption? How difficult is that entire process?

55:27Pat McAfee:And congrats. You battled.

55:28Jeff Passan:Yes.

55:29AJ Hawk:Thank you. No problem. Yeah, you know, I realize now if I had said this right after Beijing, I wouldn't have said this right after Beijing. I wish that sort of didn't happen. But at this point in time, the lessons that I've learned since Beijing and, you know, it's kind of that cliche kind of statement that like you kind of have to have the rain in order to have the sunshine. Right. But I would not have gotten to the level of skiing that I've gotten to to be able to produce that in Cortina without Beijing. But there was so much going on at that time that was just so much bigger in my life. it was the second anniversary it's weird to call it that but the second anniversary of my dad's passing like in February beginning of February right when we were in Beijing during COVID I had just had COVID there were all of these sort of weird explanations but also it was just one of these things is like you don't get to really wash away the Olympics with excuses or explanations like if you don't get a medal you don't get and metal.

56:36AJ Hawk:So, um, going through that process and like realizing how big the expectations were. Um, and I've been, that's been a process the last four years. I realized how big the expectations were in Beijing over, over the last four years and leading into Cortina where I had to shut off social media entirely. Like we, cause we went to Cortina for the turns in between the start and finish. Like I was, I wanted to show up and do my best skiing, um, regardless of the metal. I know that's like easy to say now, but it was my whole, like I had mantras. I had like sticky notes on my mirror. I had my psychologist there, my whole team.

57:15AJ Hawk:We were all geared towards putting out my very, very best skiing. Cause this may or may not be my last Olympics, but it's like, I want to show what I can do in slalom. Um, and this, that was my very, very best slalom performance on an Olympic stage that I've ever had and I don't think it would have happened without Beijing so it's just sort of this message that like when you're in the thick of it and you're just in the trenches you just have to like keep slugging I don't know you just have to keep going and it's just not always going to be gold medals you know well for you it was for a long time that's why when it didn't happen we all were like oh no and then I know it's like what but I would like to let you know

58:00Pat McAfee:for us as a society it was incredible to watch somebody in the public eye you know and i don't think many people are giving you grace for the two-year i don't want to say it either publicly anniversary because it's not a positive thing obviously i've had that type of situation around me in my life i understand what that is so mentally what you're going through at that time nobody cares outside yeah you know nobody cares because your sport your athlete do your job don't be human so the fact that you were able to hear a lot of noise i would assume take a lot of shit experience a lot of lows while also feeling low and then fight your way out of that shit hey that's inspiring to everybody and that is why we need more michaela schifrins and not less and that's why we are thankful you represent our country you need to know that that's a real thing and your story will be told large and loud now the people telling the story won't really know what the fuck sport is.

58:52Pat McAfee:That is kind of an issue I'm kind of having, but we will sing your praises obviously forever and there will be many more like us. You're a beast. We appreciate you. Thank you so much, you guys.

59:03AJ Hawk:Thank you.

59:04Pat McAfee:What do you do with all your gold medals? What do you do with them all?

59:07AJ Hawk:Well, right now, I don't know. Right now, it's in its case. Oh, hey. The tricky part is like, we miss it, we miss it. I haven't gone home yet, so I'm still in Europe and we're racing. I haven't gone back to the U.S. yet, so it's like carrying around this medal for the rest of the season is a little bit sketchy.

59:22Pat McAfee:It's not fun. We're having a blast, yeah. Jack Hughes just had it in his back pocket. He was just walking around with it dangling out of his back pocket. Yeah. Looked really cool. He looked like an X Games skater guy that used to wear the stuff as it was kind of hanging out. If you need us to brainstorm, we could do it. You can maybe just wear it. That'd be great.

59:41Jeff Passan:Yeah. Maybe put on a belt. Oh, there it is. Oh, put on a belt.

59:45Pat McAfee:Put on like a...

59:47AJ Hawk:I don't think I'm going to wear that. I just so appreciate it.

59:50Pat McAfee:I really think it's an idea. I don't think she knows. Look up big belt buckle. Headband? Oh, headband would be so smart to put that thing right on the front. GoPro right above it. So you just get everybody's reaction while they're looking at it. These are all ideas, McKenna.

1:00:07Jeff Passan:Melt it down and make it the frame for your goggles.

1:00:10Pat McAfee:Oh, I didn't think about having it there. Look right here. Look right here. You know what I mean? And have those words. There's cool words on it. Something I read on Jack Hughes. have that one right under the eyes.

1:00:20Jeff Passan:Like Michael Johnson wore the gold shoes. It'd be the same thing.

1:00:23Pat McAfee:Any other idea? I think we got it, right? We figured this one out? Watch. One of those is a winner for sure. Watch. Which one? Nobody tells the time anymore anyways. So just have it. Just put one of those straps on it. Bang. What time is it? You tell me. All these things. You know what I mean? Just if you need these ideas, we can be here for you.

1:00:45AJ Hawk:I'll come back to you maybe with a little bit more brainstorming. I feel like we could work on this, but it's really good ideas.

1:00:51Pat McAfee:It's a bit bold. See, we like that. Boom. I love that. So thank you. She knows. Listen, I'm not bringing an umbrella to a brainstem. No. Shout out to Ted Lasso. I have a question before we let you go back to your life and what you were the greatest. Is there like a treadmill or something I can get on to try to do this skiing? Is there a way for me to be without actually having to go plane to car? Actually.

1:01:15Jeff Passan:To boggain. Helicopter.

1:01:17Pat McAfee:Is there a way I can experience what it would be like up there without having to go up there and see that I'm terrible at this thing? Like a wave pool. Is there a way? Yeah, like a wave pool. Is there like a wave pool for this thing I could experience what it's like? Or do I have to go?

1:01:32AJ Hawk:There actually are set up. So there are like skiing treadmills, literally. But you need to go like find them. There's multiple cities. I think there's one in Denver. There's like skiing treadmills. there is um kind of a ski simulation it's a ski simulator machine so you put you click your boots you put the boots on and you just you're just in a wherever in a room in whatever and there's a big screen and it's kind of like a it's kind of like a video game but you're it reacts to the way that you move your feet so that i mean i would love to see you guys go do that please go do a ski simulator. We will invite you to Park City, to the Center of Excellence.

1:02:16AJ Hawk:It's a little bit a funky name, but that's like the home base for the ski team, and you can use the ski simulator. Please, I want to see this.

1:02:24Pat McAfee:I don't know what we're doing. Do you get back to America? Are you going to be at the center of Superdome? I don't know what you're called.

1:02:31AJ Hawk:Center of Superdome?

1:02:34Pat McAfee:No, don't give away your location. Don't worry about that. We would definitely try to get on the simulator. We will definitely attempt to get on the simulator, and we appreciate the invite and everything you do for us. Yeah, I guess just kicking everybody's ass all the time on the mountains. Can we watch these things? What do I got to do? Do I got to download an app? And when's your next race? Where are we racing?

1:02:54AJ Hawk:Or I'm racing in Italy on the weekend, on Sunday. Sunday. I'm in a place called Val de Fossa, Italy, so it's not really... Oh, beautiful. Beautiful this time of year. The gabagool over there.

1:03:09Pat McAfee:Oh, the moots. That's good pasta. okay and we're racing this weekend and where can we watch it can we watch it you can watch this

1:03:18AJ Hawk:yeah they're actually there's a couple streaming apps um ski and snowboard live has oh my gosh you know what it's really complicated that's all right we'll look it up we'll look it

1:03:27Pat McAfee:up we'll look it up you don't have to do this you're doing enough you already got a podcast you're the best in the world you got to beat a bunch of italians this weekend you you do what you have to do we'll look it up just know we are betting on you to win it so let's go

1:03:39AJ Hawk:Thank you guys. Thank you.

1:03:41Pat McAfee:Thank you for joining us. Please tell everybody we said hello. Good luck this weekend. Why do you say that in Italian?

1:03:49AJ Hawk:Val di Fossa. The Valley of Fossa.

1:03:54Pat McAfee:True. Val di Fossa. Good luck this weekend and the rest of the season. Thank you so much for being a beast that others and youngs can follow and learn from as you continue to grow and become more of the goat that you are.

1:04:08AJ Hawk:Thank you so much. It's so good to yap with you.

1:04:11Pat McAfee:It is pretty good yapping, wasn't it? Now, I'm trying to get down to a 90 in this thing. Then I'm in the simulator. Is that what I'm trying to do here? I wore rollerblades out.

1:04:21AJ Hawk:You're turning in the simulator. But that was... Yeah. It's going to be so much fun. You guys are going to love it. I really believe it.

1:04:31Pat McAfee:I don't know what that was, but I felt pretty good balance. I wore rollerblades out for Halloween in Morgantown, West Virginia. They're called the Montaneers. I wore rollerblades out an entire evening. I wore tights. That is pretty impressive. See, that's what we're working with here. That was the last time I've done anything downhill. downhill yeah being able to move yeah that's the only time that's the last time i've done all right you're the best buono fortuna uh michela schiffering this week you're the best that's what it is in italia buono fortuna good luck yeah good fortune good fortune can you drop an ear on that can we hear what that thing is or do we have any sounds buona fortuna yep nailed it okay on that note let's take a break i think we blew through it Thank you at ESPN for keeping that going.

1:05:23Pat McAfee:Obviously, we're talking to a goat. So the people back in control at ESPN said, we'll roll with you until you want to take a break. So why don't we have that break now? We'll be back on the other side. We've got Adam Schefter joining us with all the updates happening. This should work out perfect. Thank you to Michaela. Thank you to you all for allowing us to do this for a living. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. Take three. Three.

1:05:45Pat McAfee:O 'Reilly Auto Parts can help take the guesswork out of your check engine,

1:05:50Mikaela Shiffrin:abs or maintenance light with o'reilly veriscan the service is free and provides a report with solutions verified by ase certified master technicians o'reilly veriscan can identify the most likely problem with just one scan if you need help o'reilly auto parts can recommend

1:06:06Jeff Passan:a shop for you don't ignore a check engine abs or maintenance light ask for o'reilly veriscan today a free service exclusively at o'reilly auto parts want to earn extra income for your business

1:06:19Pat McAfee:Amazon Hub Delivery is looking for ambitious business owners to assist with local deliveries. When you become a partner, you and your staff will deliver packages to customers in your area on a schedule that works for you.

1:06:29Darius Butler:With each package delivered, you'll gain extra income and exposure for your business. Plus, Amazon Hub Delivery makes it easy to get started. There's no upfront costs, delivery experience, or long-term contracts required. Sign up to learn more at Amazon.com slash Hub Delivery. That's Amazon.com slash H-U-B Delivery.

1:06:51Pat McAfee:Sports are the greatest. Genuinely. Just sports are the greatest. That's all that needs to be said until the end of time, whenever that's going to be. You know? Yeah, who knows? You start looking at the wrong memes all of a sudden. Yeah. They'll get you believing. Start digging, buddy. Trust nothing. And you get down there on Earth. Until forever. Sports are going to be the best thing that we have. Athletes should be celebrated. Now, do some athletes make terrible decisions, say bad things, and maybe piss people off? Yes. Okay, that is going to happen with any human being that exists in a human-driven world.

1:07:31Pat McAfee:But what athletes do and what sports can do for societies and communities is just so damn special, which is why we're so incredibly lucky that we get a chance to chit-chat about it every day. It's never been more on display than it was last week at the Combine We're watching these dudes try to live out a lifelong dream and change the trajectory of entire communities and families and definitely family trees forever. And then we're out at Team USA Baseball. These guys who seemingly have it all. All they want to do is put on for their country to inspire the next generation of baseball players here in the United States of America to understand that this is our pastime.

1:08:04Pat McAfee:Although it might be Japan's current time right now. This is our sport. Just the amount of pride, togetherness, community that this beautiful thing brings is so special. Sports are the greatest. And then Michaela Schifrin drops in from a world that I know nothing about. Never skied. I don't think I've ever had friends that skied. Recently, I've gotten invited to ski trips. Because I think this is a pretty big, you know.

1:08:27Adam Schefter:They're a good time. That's what I've heard.

1:08:29Pat McAfee:I've heard they are a great time. Never really been around the ski community. Always just drop a, I'm right, ski, ha-ha. Because I know what that is, but I don't really know anything about it. She comes on. Dog. Like, absolute dog, Michaela Schifrin. It just feels like if you have sports in your blood or sports in your life, life is much better. And we're so lucky that we get a chance to chat about it every single day. And I think that's what the break that we took for two and a half weeks kind of taught me is just how thankful we are to be able to be time criers, if you will, for what is sports as a whole.

1:09:01Pat McAfee:The toxic tables here at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt. Go ahead, Con.

1:09:04Jeff Passan:Well, and the Olympians. Like, we were just mentioning this. If they weren't always locked in 24-7 for, what, three and a half or four years out of their life every single time, and they got to do more interviews like that, like, Michaela Schifrin was unbelievable. Like, she was so good. That was her podcast. She's a human.

1:09:23Pat McAfee:Super fast ski strong lady over there in Mountain. She's doing her thing. She's unbelievable. The moxie coming out of Michaela Schifrin was fantastic. It's like, I would like to know what the hell's going on with Ski. Yeah. Let alone the podcast giving game away about what greatness is and working hard and falling and then having to get back to the top and having to go through a lot of incredibly difficult things, which is what life is. Battling adversity is another thing that sports kind of teach you. Also, working your ass off and not winning and still knowing, like, well, if I work again, something good could happen, as opposed to working, losing, and then just being like, well, I'm never doing that again.

1:09:52Pat McAfee:Sports teach people, like, hey, sometimes it's not going to work out how you want it to. You can go ahead and defeat that. She's a perfect story about that forever. Oh, yeah. Force your kids.

1:10:00Adam Schefter:What's that? Force your kids to play sports.

1:10:02Pat McAfee:Force them. Force them. It should be a necessity to play team sports. Honestly, as I go through this life and I meet people and there's certain traits about people, and then you start asking questions like, you ever get a chance to play any sports or whatever? No, no, I just loved it, though, my whole life. I'm like, man, I wish you had to buy in to what a team was. I wish you had to buy in to your role. I wish you had to buy in to dealing with people you don't like to accomplish a goal that we're all trying to get. Sports are the greatest. Honestly, this Olympics, I think, has only proven that even more for everybody.

1:10:32Adam Schefter:Yeah, you got to deal with, like you said, you got to deal with people. You got to deal with failure. You got to, you know, have certain run-ins and uncomfortable conversations, whether it be with a coach, whether it be with a teammate, go this way, go that way. And just even the little things, like with the baseball, like that was the first baseball practice I ever watched on any level. And even just a little thing, like after BP, like all the players, and you mentioned it, and you guys have been around baseball pretty much your whole life, like all them, you know, pretty much shagging at all the balls.

1:10:58Adam Schefter:You're like, these are – Aaron Judge picking up baseball.

1:11:00Pat McAfee:I think Bregg was hitting or whatever.

1:11:02Adam Schefter:That was cool to watch. Exactly. There's nobody else around the world making$40,$50 million. Even doing something like that, something as simple as cleaning up after yourself, the places you go and just how to treat people. And obviously, everybody's not going to make it pro, but I think dealing with people, being a part of a team, that is so important.

1:11:20Pat McAfee:Working while tired is a whole other animal.

1:11:22Adam Schefter:Yep.

1:11:22Pat McAfee:That is like, oh, I'm tired. It's like, cool, bro. We got a game. What, are you just not?

1:11:28Jeff Passan:Not going to play today?

1:11:29Pat McAfee:Oh, you know what? They'll delay the game. Yeah, they'll actually delay the game because you're tired. That is literally what sports does. And I agree to your point. So, like, let's keep sports thriving. And in doing so, let's also win some bets. Let's go one half of the hammer. Down. Cowboys, AP Tone. How'd your combine bets do?

1:11:47Jeff Passan:I think you did okay. Yeah, two and two. Could have done better. Lost on the under vertical. I didn't know they were going to put a trampoline under the vertical jump this year. Come on. Or under the 40. Yeah, the 40, we're good, though. I had the under in that one, so we won that one. But the over-under was 43.5 for the vertical. I mean, multiple guys hit that. And then 45.5 for Eli Stowers. And then, yeah, I got the bench press from Mr. Gusta from Kentucky. So those were the good ones. And then did not hit the broad. The broad was 11 foot four. Jump. Yes, the broad jump, sorry. The farthest was 11.

1:12:23Jeff Passan:I hope you didn't hit the broad. I was going to say. The broad jump. The broad jump. The broad jump. Good news. Let's move along. Happy one, two, and two.

1:12:30Pat McAfee:Thank you. I always had a joke.

1:12:32Jeff Passan:That would have crushed in some circles, but not a lot. No.

1:12:36Pat McAfee:No. Peace. What are you doing? It was over. It was over. We're already there. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now live from Manatic in Ohio, obviously college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, former number five overall pick, A.J. Hawk. Yeah. Hawkers saw some specimens at the combine, bro. I mean, we're talking special, special athletes coming through that combine right now, A.J. Hawk.

1:13:02Jeff Passan:Oh, you guys can't hear me. You cannot hear me? No. We can see you're moving, but we cannot hear you. Well, I mean, you may be doing one of these things. I don't know if I can trust you on that. Oh, yeah, you got me.

1:13:10Pat McAfee:You cannot hear him in the back. We cannot. We'll take him off, please. What am I saying right now, then? Okay, so we'll call him back. Oh, he's trying to not hear me.

1:13:17Jeff Passan:He's trying to not hear me. He can't hear me. I got it. I get it. All right.

1:13:21Pat McAfee:We'll get you there.

1:13:22Jeff Passan:Good rib. Good rib.

1:13:23Pat McAfee:Yeah, you're back. You're back. You're back. You're back. We can hear you. Go ahead, please. What were you going to say, Carmichael? Yeah, I mean, obviously the Carmichael. Shefter's sitting there going, I'm listening back! Go ahead, I'm sorry.

1:13:31Jeff Passan:You're right. You're right. I don't want to step on Shefty if he's coming, but yeah, Shefty was there. We know. We saw Shefty taking pictures with the gold medal and everything. There were specimens all over that place. All position groups as well. And like we said, we thought early maybe it might be our guys getting bigger and slower. No, they're getting bigger and faster somehow. So it's even a scarier league now than it was a year ago.

1:13:51Pat McAfee:Yeah, it feels like it combines the old school NFL with the modern NFL somehow. We thought because more weight was going to have to be had for some of these positions that the speeds were going to go down. And somehow, E equals MC faster. I don't know how any of it's taken place, but humans are seemingly at their peak. Joining us now is a man who's maxed out. On this Franchise Tag Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026, joining us now, Senior NFL Insider for ESPN, Michigan man, Adam Schefter. Hey! Schefter, sorry we wasted your time, okay? We couldn't hear him, and then we could, and then we wanted him to think that we couldn't.

1:14:23Pat McAfee:Anyways, let's get to it. But franchise tag at Brees Hall this morning. He gets tagged for the New York Jets. Then it comes out that Kenneth Walker will not be tagged. Is there any other news that we need on this franchise tag day? And is there anything we're missing? Yeah.

1:14:38Darius Butler:The guys that you're looking at right now that are relevant in that box, as we see, would be Daniel Jones and Alec Pierce and Trey Hendrickson. I'll give you what I think is going on right now. The Colts and Daniel Jones have been in discussions for a long-term deal. both sides I think would like to get it done there has been a disagreement on value that could change today we'll see but it certainly sounds like it's tracking for Jones to be tagged my guess my sense is it'll be the transition tag on Daniel Jones we'll see how that works out there's a six million dollar a year difference on the transition tag compared to the quarterback

1:15:16Pat McAfee:franchise tag I think can you tell me about the transition tag a little bit for people that are probably watching and saying, excuse me, what are the difference of these? I thought we were just tagging players. What is the difference between transition and franchise? One more likely to make move with, right?

1:15:31Darius Butler:Yeah, well, there's the money right there. Franchise tag means that if a team wants to sign that player, it would have to give back, let's just say the Vikings, let's say the Colts franchise tagged Daniel Jones and the Vikings want to sign him. Well, obviously at the franchise tag number, it would be 43, 8, 9, 5. The contract would start there, you know, 44 a year. And then if the Vikings were to get them, they'd have to give up two first round picks to the Colts. So that's just not happening. Franchise tag basically kills any chance that a player has to move on. Like Brees Hall, franchise tag.

1:16:09Darius Butler:As great as Brees Hall is, there's not a team in the league that's going to be willing to give up two first round picks for Brees Hall. So he's essentially off the market this year. Transition tag is interesting. In this particular case for a quarterback, if the Colts were to transition Daniel Jones, it would be$37.8 million. It'd be$37.8 million cheaper. But here's the difference. With a transition tag, another team could sign Daniel Jones to an offer sheet that they could construct that could make it cumbersome and difficult for the Colts to match. And if the Colts don't match, they lose the player, but they'd have the ability to match the offer that he signs with another team if he gets one.

1:16:52Pat McAfee:So they get a right to counter. They get a right to counter basically with the transition. To match. To match. Right to match. Okay. And if they match, it's good. They don't have to beat it. It's not like they can go back to another team again and say, all right, they match that. Can we go up more?

1:17:05Darius Butler:As is. They inherit the contract and change the name of the team back to the Colts on the transition tag. But the other team wrote it. It's probably not going to be in terms that are favorable for your team. They're going to make it difficult, although poison pills are illegal. You can't put them in there anymore. You remember the Seahawks once did that to the Vikings or the Vikings did it on Steve Hutchinson. They put in poison pills and he had to be the highest paid player on offense, which meant that to do that you'd have to cut the quarterback. Tricks like that, right?

1:17:36Pat McAfee:That's bad faith, I believe, is what that is called there.

1:17:39Darius Butler:Oh, shrewd business.

1:17:40Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah. Shrewd me. It depends on the eye of the beholder or the be not getting fucked her. Yeah, that would be certainly the way you would decide on who says shrewd business or negotiating in bad faith. OK, so Alec Pierce then means probably hitting the market. That's what we're assuming then.

1:17:56Darius Butler:Well, then then if Daniel Jones is tagged, as we think, then. Answer it.

1:18:01Pat McAfee:Answer it, Schefter. It could be something big.

1:18:04Darius Butler:Then Pierce would be able to hit the market. But I think the Colts are determined to sign him to a long-term deal before he gets to free agency next week. So, I don't, you know, listen, he's close to free agency. I don't know why he wouldn't get unless the Colts blew him away with an offer. But it sounds like the Colts are really prioritizing him and they want to keep him. And they're determined to try to get a deal done with him.

1:18:25Pat McAfee:It'd be great to have both those guys in a building again. Daniel Jones signing for 38-whatever for the transition tag. Fascinating. Because I would be interested to see what the market would say about Daniel Jones, especially coming off the injury. All I know is everybody's been acting like Daniel Jones is going to be the Colts quarterback next year very confidently. I hope they have all been right. We would love to have Dimes back in town. We're 8-2, number one offense in the league going to serve bowl. Oh, yeah. Oh, then we lost our last seven games. Okay? So that is what life has been like here in Indianapolis.

1:18:53Pat McAfee:All we want is Shane and Chris just to win some games. If they have Danny Dimes as quarterback, we assume they'll be able to do that. Alec Pierce obviously became a number one threat with Daniel Jones at quarterback. That'd be a great duo to keep together. Okay, let's move to Cincinnati. Matty, go ahead, AJ.

1:19:07Jeff Passan:Yeah, Shep, you mentioned Trey Hendrickson. What are all the possibilities with Trey and what's likely to happen, you think?

1:19:14Darius Butler:Well, this is interesting. I think he's waiting to hear. Everybody's waiting to hear. The Bengals have called around the league to see if it were possible. If they tagged him, would there be a team that's willing to trade for him and give up something for him? I don't think they got the responses that they wanted, I don't think. and so they're unpredictable. My guess is there's been so much that's gone on between these two sides that it's probably, at this point in time, best to let him leave and he'll go sign and then the Bengals will get a compensatory draft pick in 27. But could they surprise us and tag him?

1:19:53Darius Butler:That could happen. They're the Bengals. Anything's possible. My guess, just my guess is he won't be tagged and he'll hit the market. That's my guess.

1:20:03Pat McAfee:Congratulations, Trey. If he gets there. I understand if he gets there, but you just said that that is what you think is going to happen, and you are a man that is plugged into a lot of information.

1:20:16Darius Butler:I want to be very clear, Pat. In this case, I really don't know. That's why I said I think. If I knew that he was not getting, I would say he's not getting. I don't know that. I don't know that here.

1:20:25Pat McAfee:This is like three years running here. Just let him go. Just let the guy breathe. Let him go somewhere else. And let him at least get an offer sheet somewhere else. And if you want to hear it or get a chance to counter or whatever the case is, do it. But I'm sick of hearing about Trey Hendrickson and Cincinnati Bengals, mostly because I like Trey Hendrickson a lot, and I actually like the Bengals. But the way this has all gone has been stupid, we all think, personally, especially as we've kind of been the starting point of the entire thing. When Trey came on our show at Radio Row and was like, listen, can we just figure this out?

1:20:55Pat McAfee:No, we'll do it next year. Hey, can we just figure this out? We never said that. And you should be happy with what she's – yes, she did. and now we're at another year we're doing this whole thing so we would just like them to figure it out for the best of both parties and trey don't be scared to come over indianapolis you know if you uh still got louis arua that's right you know we got all that going let's talk about other talking points around the nfl shall we go ahead con man yeah chef you mentioned this morning on

1:21:18Jeff Passan:get up how the prices of max crosby and aj brown might slowly go down uh into next week now obviously a team can still you know shell out the money even if or the picks or the eagles and the raiders can figure something out and keep those guys. But let's say they don't figure that out and these guys are on the block. What do you expect that trade compensation to go down to? Do you think it's still going to end up being first-round picks for both of them? Do you think maybe Max fetches a first, but slowly but surely, A.J. Brown fetches more of a second like D.K. Metcalf? What do you expect those deals to look like if they potentially happened?

1:21:55Darius Butler:I don't expect the price to go down much. I said, we don't know whether the teams are posturing and whether they would be willing to lower the price on either player next week. I personally don't know that they will, and I don't know that that will happen. Like, I don't think the Eagles are lowering the price on A.J. Brown. I think they'd be prepared to keep him. And I think the Raiders would be prepared to keep Max Crosby if they don't get the price they want. If they're looking for a Micah Parsons type of package, are they going to get that? I don't know. And if they don't, then what do they do?

1:22:33Darius Butler:Are they still willing to come off that price? I don't know the answer to that.

1:22:37Pat McAfee:Is the story Max doesn't want to be there or they don't want him there? Like, what is the reasoning behind this? Because I think what happened was Jay Glazer said it, right? Yeah. I think Jay said it maybe at the most authoritative, like he had the most authority, I guess, behind saying that this was news because we had been preaching for a long time. And I feel like we've been nice to the Raiders. I feel like we have been nice to the Raiders for the situation in which they're in. But we would like to see Max Crosby get an opportunity to play in games where there's 50 million people watching, 60 million people watching.

1:23:07Pat McAfee:We think Max Crosby's a special talent. So we've been pitching for a long time. We assume that that's actually pissed Crosby off because how much he views himself as a Raider. Then last season towards the end, when the Raiders, his Raiders in his eyes or what the Raiders are now, tell him, hey, we don't want you to play. And he's like, I want to play. Like, that's what I do. I play Hurt. I'm a Raider. He got offended. Like, can you tell us how we got here? And if he really wants out of there, if that's what the story is, I feel like he could probably make, right? Players can kind of make, especially Max Crosby's of the NFL, can kind of make that type of shit happen, can't they?

1:23:39Darius Butler:Well, Miles Garrett wanted out of Cleveland a year ago. Interesting. And he went to Cleveland. And Brandon Ayuk wanted out of San Francisco, and eventually he'll get his wish, but he's fine. Debo Samuel wanted out of San Francisco, and he stayed. And so these things are fluid. Do I think there's been a time here where Max has wandered out of Vegas? Absolutely. Do we know that he's going to be moved? I still think it's up in the air. Like, they could sit down with him and say, Max, I know you've had six head coaches in seven years. I've known you've had five.

1:24:14Pat McAfee:Sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. Go ahead, please.

1:24:17Darius Butler:Six coaches in five years, six head coaches in seven years, five general managers you never won in the pros you never won in college you never won in high school you want to win i got it well guess what we're drafting fernando mendoza we got 90 million in cap space we got brock bowers and ashton genti and we want you to be a part of us do i think that's going to change his mind i don't know that it will but you can make that pitch new head coach plink kubiak that people love right there's a lot of a lot of a lot of things go for them But all I'm saying is just because you feel one way, one month, doesn't mean you're going to feel that way.

1:24:53Pat McAfee:This guy deserves some happiness in his football life. If we get this guy some – now, granted, I think Fernando Mendoza is very good. Like, I think this might not be the time to leave the Raiders if you're Max Crosby. But the Raiders might also see it as a time to be able to get a lot of things in return to build what they want to do right now. Interested to see what it all is. And I saw some practice film with Max Crosby. that six head coaches, seven years, five GMs in, however, the same amount of time. Why don't they put his ass at tight end? That's why you get fired. Fraves, J.J. Watt, if this guy is doing this at practice, there is precedent for you putting this guy on the offensive side and have a couple packages.

1:25:29Pat McAfee:Then we see him hitting threes when he can't even walk. It's like, this is one of the greatest athletes we have. And you just rattled off. He didn't win in high school. He didn't win in college. Oh, yeah, and he yams on people's heads and cleats. And then he one-hand grabs things. and then he has a work, an engine that is just like second to none, potentially in the history of the NFL. It's like, we would like to see this guy have success. And hopefully everybody's on the same page there. And maybe it's now the Raiders' time because of how much we believe in Fernando Mendoza. Okay, let's move to another topic.

1:26:02Pat McAfee:Ty has a question for you, Shefty.

1:26:04Jeff Passan:Yeah, Shefty, you reported right before you hopped on that the Vikings are willing to listen to offers for Jonathan Grenard because they're kind of dealing with some salary cap space issues. Are you expecting more of this to come, especially now that things are heating up and it's kind of assumed that there's a good chance that they're going to have to go out and maybe want to sign a Kyler Murray or something like that? Or what is the situation the Vikings are in right now?

1:26:28Darius Butler:Yeah, I think they're up against it. I think that that probably factors into the Colts' decision on Daniel Jones if they transition him because really the Vikings might pose, might pose, the biggest threat to trying to get Daniel Jones. Everybody expects them to bring in some type of quarterback. Who's it going to be? And they have enough cap issues right now that they're going to be open to trading Jonathan Grenard. So they're going to release Aaron Jones, Javon Hardrave. There are questions about Jonathan Allen. They got a number of cap decisions that they still to make and payroll they have to trim to get under the cap.

1:27:08Darius Butler:And so they're trying to do that right now. Can't keep everybody. Obviously, if they got an offer back on Gernard, they would be open to dealing him right now. He's been a very good player for them. And this is just what every team has to go through all the time. So we'll see. Yeah. But yeah, I think we could see more trades than usual. We've seen front offices and GMs not be afraid of trading. We saw a crazy trade deadline day this past year. we've seen crazy trade deadline days in recent years and it wouldn't surprise me if it just carries over into free agency and the wheeling and dealing just continues how's free agency frenzy going to be uh i hope that the uh broadband the internet the the uh you know the bathrooms work like the foods and working i have no idea like what i'm eating what like you know uber eats

1:27:56Pat McAfee:from there um now why is chef in here for you chef do you actually got to tell us a couple of the food items that you would like uh chef he's going to be in here for free agency frenzy monday if you do now free agency frenzy monday is the biggest day of the office i mean it is the biggest day of the off season because all these deals that have been negotiated from the combine here in indianapolis to the back channels during the legal tampering period are basically announced on monday during free deals aren't allowed to happen until that wednesday but we've already had an entire negotiation period that's had a legal tampering okay well then it's not tampering if it's legal, just call it a negotiation period.

1:28:30Pat McAfee:But nonetheless, you do what you got to do. You got to evolve, whatever. And then on Monday at noon, literally at noon when we go live, everything is in a boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then deals are being accepted by teams that they thought they didn't have. So then all of a sudden money's getting shifted out of people's pockets and more people doing it. And that Monday is electric. It is electrifying to see what teams are doing. ESPN NFL people, okay, which is a department, ESPN NFL, They didn't think we were able to handle it last year. So they counter-programmed us on ESPN, too. They tell us immediately, yeah, you're not allowed to have Schefter.

1:29:06Pat McAfee:He's with Australia. I'll do this. It's like, okay, we'll see how this goes for you guys. Murder scene, by the way. Not only because we're on ESPN, which is what everybody has on, but also because we've lived this life, too, somehow. I know you guys created the game, but we've also been in this whole thing. So there was nice conversations since last Free Agency Frenzy until next Free Agency Frenzy where we're going to work together. Don't we think this would be a good idea? And we just so happen to have the computer right over here for the entirety of Free Agency Frenzy. Wait until you see what we're building up for you.

1:29:40Pat McAfee:There he is. You're going to be in a little zone over here that is going to be fantastic. We also got Orlovsky and Schrager coming out here. I mean, we are considering an honor to be able to represent for the entirety of ESPN on this. but also we're very thankful you're coming out here and your rider or whatever you know that yep hilarious to see it all i need somebody points me in the direction where i need to go i need uh i need to know where the food's gonna be where the water's gonna be how many steps for my dump that i'm definitely gonna like i appreciate uh you understanding how chaotic it's about to be for you and letting us know like hey if i'm gonna be doing this we need there's some shit we gotta because i'm i'm in the middle of it but we are ready and excited to take care and we cannot wait for that, Shefty.

1:30:25Pat McAfee:Legitimately, we cannot wait for that.

1:30:27Darius Butler:Well, you know, the funny part is they say that free agency opens at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Free agency ends at 4 p.m. It's over. Most of the big stuff has happened on Monday and Tuesday and leading into the start of the new league year. So we're going to be with you Monday. Did they tell you up, up, up, up. Hold on, Pat. Hold on. Do it! Hello. Coach.

1:30:51Pat McAfee:Mute him, mute him, mute him, mute him. Legit, we do not want to give whatever they do. No, of course we do. What if that person comes on? Did you see President Clinton? Yeah. What if that person... Yeah. Could you imagine that first birthday? That would be...

1:31:06Darius Butler:Did they tell you that I'm sleeping in your house that week?

1:31:09Pat McAfee:Yeah, I don't know if they ever said that, but we certainly have a few days you're going to be here, and we're very thankful for that. Who was that? Was that anything? No.

1:31:17Darius Butler:Not yet.

1:31:18Pat McAfee:Not yet. That's the thing. That's why having him in here, it's going to be good for him to have to feel a little bit. Yeah. Hey, let's go ahead. Let's get it out of you. Let's get out of you. Now, you're talking about markets and free agents and everything like that. That goes to an announcement that was made this morning. Go ahead, Tom.

1:31:31Jeff Passan:Yeah, Shep, you reported that the Seahawks will not tag running back Ken Walker, who was the MVP of the Super Bowl. Now he will be a free agent. What do you expect his market to be, and is there a chance that he does end up going back to Seattle?

1:31:44Darius Butler:I think that's always possible, but I think when something like this happens and you're not tagging a guy, you're giving him the freedom, And I think the price will climb up to where he's going to get a great offer somewhere. And I know that obviously it has to be a very hard decision for Seattle to make. They've got a lot of other financial needs that they have to address. They're going to want to re-sign Devin Witherspoon, Jackson Smith and Jigba, pay for the draft last, add some free agents. You just can't pay everybody. And it's almost like the Super Bowl tax. Everybody wants more money. And inevitably, there are some casualties along the way.

1:32:17Darius Butler:and in this particular case, they can't afford to franchise Kenneth Walker. Not going to tag him at all. He's going to get to the open market. And my guess is with all the teams out there that need running backs, he'll find an offer to someone else that is more lucrative than Seattle and he'll be leaving Seattle.

1:32:33Pat McAfee:Okay, I literally, as soon as this news came up, I was like, congrats to him, get a long-term deal. There's no way Seattle's going to let him out of there. You win a Super Bowl MVP at running back. Normally, football gods could potentially curse you if you just move on from said person. But the old adage is if you win, there's enough to go around. And it doesn't mean there's enough to go around here. There's other teams that potentially would like some of whatever you had that got us to the championship. So we will bid you adieu. Kenneth Walker on any team would obviously be spectacular. But you just let a Super Bowl MVP walk out the building like that.

1:33:07Pat McAfee:Crazy. I'll be intrigued to see how football responds. Oh, yeah. Genuinely. I think that's a tough decision to make. But once again, I trust John Schneider. I think we all should at this point. He has made a lot of great decisions and built, you know, multiple legendary teams. That's a tough one, though. So good. Yeah, that is a tough one. That is, especially with what happened with Charbonnet and then him coming on late, you don't even really know yet.

1:33:32Darius Butler:Yeah. You know what? You know what? But you're right. It was a tough one to trade Geno. It was a tough one to sign Sam Darnold. It was a tough one to make some of those moves. The moves he made. It was a tough one to hire Mike McDonald in a coaching pool where there are a lot of candidates. He's pushed the right buttons. And I think as good as Kenneth Walker has been, they feel like they really like Zach Charbonnet. He's coming back from an ACL. They tendered George Helani today. And they're going to add one of these running backs in this market. Somebody's not going to get the deal that they want.

1:34:02Darius Butler:And I don't know who it is, but one of these backs, these free agent backs, is going to wind up out in Seattle. I don't know whether that's Kenneth Gainwell or whether that's Tyler Algier. But, you know, take a look at some of these top free agents. There's a lot of good players. Rico Donald. ETN. ETN has a chance to be a guy. One of these backs in the free agent class winds up out in Seattle and takes the spot that Kenneth Walker is vacating.

1:34:34Pat McAfee:You rattled off a lot of names there about decisions that Schneider made that worked out. And we agree. He was awesome on our show. The man. And he's certified now. You know, Hall of Fame first ballot, maybe. Well, yeah, you never know.

1:34:48Jeff Passan:Nobody's first now.

1:34:48Pat McAfee:We don't know if he's first ballot because of your friend, Shefty. But, like, in that entire conversation about you mentioned off, it's like, Sam Darnold, tough decision. It's like, yeah, that's what I'm saying. Minnesota won 14 games with that guy and said, yeah, let's get him out of here. I think football was like, hey, you can't be doing that. I'm not saying that that's going to happen with a running back, with Super Bowl MVP stuff, but that's a tough thing to do, man. That is a tough decision in the history of football to do that. Not that it hasn't happened, and not that I don't trust John Schneider.

1:35:23I'm just thinking immediately, like, wow.

1:35:26Pat McAfee:You hope Schrodinger comes back and is exactly what he is. because if you chose to get... I trust Schneider. Trust Schneider. Anything but throwing a football.

1:35:35Darius Butler:Pat, if we look at it, right, there have been three other players that have gone on to win the Super Bowl MVP and then leave their team. Larry Brown, Desmond Howard, Dexter Jackson. Didn't Malcolm Smith do it too? You tell me you're the one telling us, bro.

1:35:51Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think it went to the Raiders.

1:35:52Jeff Passan:I know Dexter Jackson because the Steelers wanted him, but they didn't end up getting him, and then they drafted Troy Paul Mulder.

1:35:57Pat McAfee:I think that worked out. He's so good at football. How do you know that we were going to run? All right. Let's get to another conversation here, Shefty, about this time of year that we are in. Certainly something that we saw buzzing. Unless you're breaking news right now, it appears that you are tweeting right now.

1:36:12Darius Butler:No, no, no, no, I'm not. Just respond to somebody. We're good. This is what it'll be like Monday and Tuesday.

1:36:18Pat McAfee:I'm just letting Hembo know. Like, hey, can't be sending me half-ass stats. Okay. If there's four guys, you can only send me three. Okay. Not half-ass Hembo. It's all full-ass. That's great. Yeah, you're right. Right. Hembo is full ass all the time. We love Hembo. Hembo has made us look much smarter than we certainly are. But we're in a time now where there's seemingly some gamesmanship taking place. Go ahead, D-Butt.

1:36:37Adam Schefter:Yeah, always some smoke screens. We talked about the Caleb Downs and the report that came out about him. I don't know if it made it to you yet, but there was a false report based on some medical that came from the combine. With any of these guys, Caleb Downs included, did you hear anything medical-wise good or bad for some of these prospects coming out of Indianapolis?

1:36:56Darius Butler:I didn't hear that. Now, what usually happens is sometimes there's a guy that goes through the process and something comes out. Like I remember Nick Fairley had the heart issue. There have been other players that they've detected heart murmurs or stress fractures, whatever it may be. I have not heard anything specific yet, and I don't know that I would. But I have not heard any specific chatter about any player. So anybody that's saying anything may be right, may not be right, no idea. They're ahead of me in that area. I'm kind of on franchise tag candidates and free agency next week.

1:37:35Pat McAfee:Okay, how do you know? Okay, I know you're locked in. Jeez, we're thankful you're plugged in right now. How do you know what's real and what isn't, though, in this whole time? Because there's certainly favors going to be asked of you, you know, and you know the game, you know the business, you know how those things. Not that you're giving out favors. I'm just saying there's certainly some information maybe that gets delivered that you have to decipher through, I assume. Is that not an accurate read on how draft works?

1:37:57Darius Butler:Listen, I think there's a lot of people have a lot of perceptions for how it works. And I just think that it doesn't work the way that people think it works all the time. It's I've done it for 36 years. So when you say sift through it or decipher it, you know, there's stories behind every story. Every story is different. I don't know how to answer that question with just a blank statement. To me, it's just making calls and building relationships and tracking things. I don't know.

1:38:30Pat McAfee:Yeah, but if you're a friend with this one agent, you're not friends with this other agent, even though your agent can only represent a certain portion of the league and there's a much more greater part of the league. I do love whenever they say, well, Sheffer's doing this because he likes his agents. Sheffer likes a lot of agents, bro. Sheffer likes a lot of GMs. That's how this whole thing works. Yeah, but he likes this guy more. It's like, we agree with that, actually, from the intel that you're saying. But let's not act like all the other shit doesn't exist. You know, it's not like you're covering for four teams.

1:38:59Pat McAfee:You got 32, at least 32 situations you're trying to get the proper information out of. And we appreciate you for that. But we all, as subjects to your 36 years of work and networking and everything, always have to try to guess where the information's coming. So that's what we're doing all the time. So I think whenever you say, like, people don't have a misconception on how it works, I think you don't fully understand how we as non-insiders operate, which is as soon as you put it out, my, what's the angle? What's the angle here? I got it.

1:39:31Darius Butler:But I'm just telling you, and Ty and I went over this in our pocket. I'll tell you a story, and it pertains to your guy, our guy, Jack Hughes. A mensch, this guy. yeah so he came over and he says to me we start talking and he goes hey i got a question for you i said what's that he said where did you get the artemi panarin trade from when you broke that was the first thing he asked me and i said and i'm like wow you were aware of that he goes oh we got on our phones me and my guys are like how did shefty get this hockey trade so i showed him the i said you know there's this hockey insider out of canada who supposedly is really good, hardworking, respected.

1:40:10Darius Butler:And somebody sent me a clip of this guy going on Hockey Night Canada, had it at him. Get this. And he goes, oh, of course. His agency, you know, helps work with the same player. Not to mention the fact that apparently, as I found out after, Artemi Panarin hired someone in that agency, a Russian agent that day, who I've never met or spoken to. And I can tell you that when the trade came down, there was zero part of it. That came from any agent. Zero. But this guy went on national TV in Canada like he got it from his agent. No. No, I did not. Hey, stop smearing my name! Okay. I appreciate you advancing a false theory on this and I showed Jack Hughes the full exact text chain and told him that he was cracking up.

1:40:54Darius Butler:He loved it. He loved it. Oh, crack you. You cracked him.

1:40:57Pat McAfee:He was great on Saturday Night Live, by the way. That was spectacular. All of it. I'm appreciative of sports bringing laughter and light to people as opposed to division and nonsense, which seemingly was happening for a little bit there. Sports are the greatest. So what you're saying is you've heard what everybody has said about you.

1:41:14Darius Butler:The point is stories often and usually don't come from where people think. Sometimes, occasionally they do, but more often than not, they don't.

1:41:25Pat McAfee:All right, we're going to find out for Agency Frenzy Monday when you're out here. I'm going to put your spotlight on you right here. I told you, Chefy.

1:41:32Jeff Passan:We should bug his phone. There you go. We know who Tony Panarin. Somebody is.

1:41:36Pat McAfee:Who's that?

1:41:37Jeff Passan:Gabe Morenci. All right. That's Canadian. All right.

1:41:41Pat McAfee:You're the man, Shafty. We appreciate the hell out of you.

1:41:43Darius Butler:I'll see you guys on Monday, right? If I don't speak to you before.

1:41:47Pat McAfee:Yeah. And I apologize for asking this. I'm sure it's very nice. And I just don't know. Have you had to board your window? Are people coming after you? Are you boarding your windows behind you? It looks like I was conceived in a trap house. That window there appears. Is everything okay? Are we all right?

1:42:07Darius Butler:We did get a notice that we have a dumpster in our driveway. It needs to be moved.

1:42:11Pat McAfee:HOA, we couldn't do that. Yeah. So you need to at least put a bush around it. I don't need to see this thing. That is not a boarded window, though, behind you? That is not a boarded window? No.

1:42:21Jeff Passan:Oh, it's a blind. Oh, it does? It's like a window. Yeah, it's got designs on it. It's blind. Drape, whatever you call it. Yeah.

1:42:27Darius Butler:Oh, shit.

1:42:28Jeff Passan:Egyptian cotton.

1:42:28Darius Butler:I thought that was just good wood, though. But the rest of the house is boring enough. The rest of the house.

1:42:33Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah. I forgot you got 18 months in there.

1:42:36Darius Butler:I forgot about that. What a joy it is to live through this stuff.

1:42:41Pat McAfee:That's life. It keeps lifing. And we appreciate you, ladies and gentlemen. Adam Schefter. Yay! Signed up for a kitchen remodel. How long is it going to take? Six, seven, eight, nine, 12, 14, 24 months. Oh, man. You're in my house? Well, your kitchen, yeah. Then he showed us, and it was just fucking dumb.

1:42:57Jeff Passan:Blown out. Yeah. Two porta-potties in the backyard.

1:43:00Pat McAfee:You're just getting a little glimpse of what it's going to be like on Monday. Look at my phone, have a conversation with you. I'm a special talent. I understand that. Okay? And a lot of people think that stories are coming from a place. They're not. They're coming from somewhere else. You ever hear your art of war? Yeah. Shinzu? That's what I'm doing with every tweet to lead people off the set. I will say, though, every time I read it, that's my immediate thought. Who's this coming from? If it's not like an injury or something.

1:43:24Jeff Passan:What kind of propaganda is this?

1:43:25Pat McAfee:Yeah. Somebody wanted this information to be delivered in this particular fashion through Schefter.

1:43:30Jeff Passan:Why?

1:43:30Pat McAfee:We have to do that. Now, granted, good information, that is breaking news, but why am I learning of that right now? And that's a big draft conversation.

1:43:39Jeff Passan:Yeah, and that's like leaning into free agency. Like Linderbaum, last week the Ravens reported that they offered Linderbaum, or Schefter reported that the Ravens offered Linderbaum, like a record-setting deal. So then that angle becomes, well, did he report that? because if Linderbaum says no, then the Ravens are baby-facing the good guys because they are on that deal? Or is the deal not actually like that, and now they're making Linderbaum just the automatic bad guy?

1:44:05Pat McAfee:Or is that Linderbaum's people saying, hey, highest of all time, and other teams know? There's so many. So many. The angles are endless. Yeah. Hey, the NFL never sleeps. Yeah, it does not.

1:44:18Jeff Passan:Probably nice for him to get out of that house during free agency because could you imagine the construction workers? knocking on his window while he's trying to figure that out. Do you want these handles or these? Which handles did you want on these? Wait, wait, who the Giants game? Is that someone from the Giants? No, you can tell from the blind and the wallpaper that no one's allowed to touch that area. That's his sacred place. It's been like that for 35 years.

1:44:40Pat McAfee:I thought he had a boarded up window over his head. And I was thinking to myself, what the hell did Jeffy do? Is that like spray paint on him? Is he in a bunker? Has that always been there?

1:44:50Jeff Passan:Oh, yeah.

1:44:50Pat McAfee:Really?

1:44:51Jeff Passan:I thought it was a different blind. Yeah, I thought so.

1:44:54Pat McAfee:Maybe a different angle, too. It's always been that wallpaper. Certainly a different angle.

1:44:57Jeff Passan:Like Tony said, I'm pretty certain that that room has not been touched in 25 years.

1:45:03Pat McAfee:And he won't let it, especially after what's going on with the kitchen right now. Exactly. Let's go to some notable free agents that he obviously mentioned. Free agency frenzy is next Monday. Adam Schefter will be here. Dan Orlovsky will be here. Schrager will be here. Scott the jib man will be here. Okay. Hell, yeah. He did a fantastic job at everything. But certainly out there in Phoenix yesterday, we appreciate the hell out of Cajun Mountain down there from Louisiana. Mike Evans potentially on the move is crazy, D-butt, don't you think?

1:45:27Adam Schefter:It is. I thought he would be kind of get that Larry Fitzgerald treatment in AZ where, hey, one year, one year, two year, we'll keep you here. Because he seems like a one-helmet guy. He's had, I think, a Hall of Fame career down in Tampa Bay. But he'll be a great addition to any team. He's a mismatch. He will be a mismatch for however long he plays when it comes to that red zone. You can just throw it up to him, and it's a rebound, and most times he's going to come down with it.

1:45:50Pat McAfee:We talked about this with Landon Dickerson, offensive lineman. Once they win the Super Bowl and they've been paid, for offensive lineman and hand-to-hand combat guys, it's like, all right, check the ball. I did it. We did a football season. We did a football career. For speed and talent and edge, once you get to Super Bowl, it's like, okay, now let's go ahead and try to get another one here. So I think a contract with Mike Evans is very doable, I would assume, especially if you're a ring contention. and having him either be your 1A or even a two or third option on particular teams would be absurd.

1:46:19Pat McAfee:Imagine him going to the Chiefs. We'd all be pissed. We would all be pissed off if he went to the Chiefs.

1:46:24Jeff Passan:Smoke around the Bills for him, obviously.

1:46:26Pat McAfee:We'd all be pissed if he went to any of these teams that were incredible. But him at the Bills would obviously be something that Josh Allen would welcome. And so would new head coach Joe Brady. Mike Evans on the moves crazy. Kenneth Walker, we talked about him. Daniel Jones allegedly going to get the transition tag, which means he might be Indianapolis Colt next year. Other teams can sign him to an offer sheet. The Colts will just have a right to match it if he does get transition tag. Malik Willis, obviously, is what he was able to do with the Green Bay Packers. They're saying he might be the bell of the ball here as we talk about quarterback needy teams.

1:46:56Jeff Passan:Yeah, and especially, I mean, I think, you know, all of the teams, there's obviously the connection in Miami with, you know, John Eric Sullivan, who was with the Packers, and Jeff Halfley, so they both know what he can do. And then he kind of flourished in Matt LaFleur's system and obviously Mike LaFleur out in Arizona. So all signs have kind of pointed to, hey, Malik Willis is going to get paid and he's probably going to get paid by either the Dolphins or the Cardinals.

1:47:21Pat McAfee:And the Dolphins, obviously, that means Tua would not be there. That Minnesota Vikings quarterback situation is fascinating because when he brought up the transition tag for Daniel Jones, did you hear what Team Schefter said might match? She was like, if the Vikings want to get involved, they just moved Grenard. They're obviously doing some salary cap gymnastics. They need to do that. I don't know if they'd be able to afford Daniel Jones out there, but they're talking any quarterback that can layer a football, potentially becoming a Minnesota Viking next year, especially if they're a veteran.

1:47:50Adam Schefter:Yeah, Tua's not too far removed from like an MVP caliber type season where he was slinging it all over the yard, and we know accuracy, timing, the shit across the middle. That's his strong suit. But, I mean, now how would the money work for Tua if he's released from Miami? Would it be kind of like that Russell Wilson cheap rental for what?

1:48:10Jeff Passan:Yeah, I believe it's$1.2 million probably. He could sign the vet man and then he gets all that money from Miami still.

1:48:15Adam Schefter:Yeah, so you bring him in to compete maybe with J.J. McCarthy for the starting quarterback job. I don't see that being a terrible situation.

1:48:22Jeff Passan:Yeah, but we can kind of – that ship has sailed, right? I mean, we are two seasons removed from the J.J. McCarthy thing. and we're already talking about, like, who the hell is going to play quarterback for the Vikings? Like, I think the GM who drafted him is gone. So there's that. If they love J.J., and we all love KOC, like, genuinely, he's an amazing coach. But if they aren't confident now, what is going to change over the next year if he's not going to play this year? Like, at this point, J.J. McCarthy feels like he might fall into the, like, hey, Baker Mayfield. He'll go somewhere else, you know, revitalize his career, fresh start.

1:49:00Jeff Passan:and Minnesota kind of damn near moves on? Because they're not going to pick up his fifth-year option. I mean, that is completely out of the question, and this is going to be a third season. Is the J.J.

1:49:09Pat McAfee:train leaving the station in Minnesota already, D-Bud? I'm not going to write him off. The nine train is out of here? I'm not writing him off.

1:49:17Adam Schefter:He's still a first-round pick in the building. You bring in somebody for sure, hopefully a veteran that's going to come in and compete with him. But, I mean, he's still young. He's still talented. He showed glimpses at times. Fourth quarter, Chicago Bears. Yeah, he definitely looked terrible at other times. Week one.

1:49:34Jeff Passan:What do you mean? Sick. What do you mean week one? No, you're right. That was sick. That was offensive player of the week. Yeah, you don't remember that. That's how memorable it was. Sorry, D.Va. Sorry. I'm not writing him off yet. He was offensive player of the week. You're not writing him off? Not yet, no.

1:49:45Pat McAfee:Okay, sounds like he sent that train. A lot of people, yeah.

1:49:47Jeff Passan:I am from in Minnesota for sure. Not like career. It just feels like in Minnesota things have gone sour. Like, plain and simple. They wouldn't be looking for it. It goes one way or the other, though, Con, man. They bring someone in. It's one way or the other. Either he finds a way through competing with a veteran maybe and figures it out and takes that next step or he gets beat out and then bam, he goes somewhere else. You've seen the meme too much.

1:50:09Pat McAfee:Yeah. The nine things on a lot of things. I've seen it on presidents. I've seen it on... Who was it on recently?

1:50:16Jeff Passan:On everybody. The toll?

1:50:18Pat McAfee:I guess we're kind of just going down the line. There has to be some sort... I'm getting highlight updates from war. This is a crazy thing to be a part of right now. We got another one. Put two up there. It's like, whoa. Scrolling through. We got a scoreboard now on this thing?

1:50:36Jeff Passan:Kind of just playing duck, duck, goose over there. We need to

1:50:39Pat McAfee:make sure this is not a long... Hey, I don't know. Crazy time to be alive on your phone.

1:50:44Jeff Passan:Certainly.

1:50:46Pat McAfee:Then Elon comes in and goes, you can go up to the 4U thing and just get rid of politics if you want right now. Don't you worry about that. And they go in there and you're like, I feel like everybody else is watching it right now. Kind of want to be in there now. we'll keep it in. And then I'm a part of the toxic problem. I'm part of the toxic problem.

1:51:03Jeff Passan:X might be the worst place to get the news on all this.

1:51:05Pat McAfee:No, because right there on the bottom, Grok tells me if it's true or not. And then somebody goes to Grok, are you sure? And then Grok goes, good point, X. No, I'm not. It is a crazy time to be alive. We hope it all works out. But the JJ meme has entered into that world, into that space pretty good. and to your point about not giving up on him maybe he becomes a guy but it does feel like the minnesota vikings are at a point where they need somebody else to be their quarterback at least at this exact point and then moving on and if this quarterback does good i don't know if they're just going to sam darnold him i don't know if they're just going to kirk cousins him feels like they would probably not make that same mistake so i think whatever veteran comes in here if there is success i don't think we ever see jj because that's what they're looking for again now will that happened with Tua, Kyler, Geno.

1:51:55Pat McAfee:Is Aaron Rodgers potentially? We don't know what's going on with Aaron Rodgers, but there was a little smoke with Aaron Rodgers and the Minnesota Vikings last year. And you start putting two together, it's like Aaron Rodgers and Kevin O 'Connell's offense, what do you got to be able to do? Well, you got to know what the defense is doing. I think he knows that. You got to know where to go with the ball. And then you got to be able to put the ball there. Those are the three things you need to do in a Kevin O 'Connell. Because there's going to be people wide-ass open if you know what the defense is doing with the way he draws up plays and it's like could you imagine aaron rogers in that offense and then everybody's like well could you imagine mike mccarthy what do you what are we even talking about back in pittsburgh there so it's the minnesota vikings quarterback is a massive question mark i think this entire offseason and i don't know how much money they have to really address the entire situation i guess they're gonna try to find not a lot yeah it sounds like they're gonna try to find it yeah it's gonna

1:52:43Adam Schefter:be interesting when you have uh one of the best wide receivers there that always helps you have some talented offensive linemen and obviously the head coach being the play caller uh helps as well the only drawback i would see with aaron is what it's been for the last you know few years it's just the age and like if you're getting a quarterback in the building at this point it's somebody that you want to like build a future with especially if you got they're not hiring the gm until after the draft process but you're gonna have a new gm there with koc so i would think it would be someone that you have you know at least kind of a longer road at this point i see aaron Rodgers almost been, you know, a year-to-year type thing.

1:53:16Adam Schefter:After every year, it's like, hey, am I retiring or am I going to continue? So that would be the only drawback.

1:53:21Pat McAfee:But that would be a perfect setup if they still believed in J.J. Yes. You know, and then that's a – He needs reps, though. He's got to play. But he's not going to play.

1:53:29Jeff Passan:But that's what makes no sense either when you're talking about guys like Kyler or, like, Kyler's not going to Minnesota if he's not the starting quarterback. Does he seem like the kind of guy who's going to be like, hey, I'm going in and I'm going to battle? And even Dan Jones, like, is he going to be healthy? So if they're bringing him in, he's not competing with. And they made him an offer,

1:53:47Pat McAfee:allegedly more than what the Colts made him an offer for. So they've been in the game before. It's crazy. All these things are possible. And that's why this time is fantastic. Today, in about an hour, Team USA takes on the Giants. Let's see Skeens and the boys do their thing before we take over the World Baseball Classic. We'll be back tomorrow. Be your friend. Tell your friend something nice. It might change their life. Goodbye. Got a lot of info in there at the end. Yeah, perfect. I wanted to drop one more take. I wanted to give one more take. but I didn't. I held it back. What was it? I don't know.

1:54:16Pat McAfee:It's gone. Just the one from earlier?

1:54:18Jeff Passan:I have not said that one.

1:54:20Pat McAfee:That one's waiting. I had something that was ruthlessly toxically smartass that almost came out of my mouth earlier. I said, I'm not even letting that get out of here. Everybody goes, no, we want to hear what I'm doing. I'm going to have to craft this one a little bit better. Make sure it gets out of my mouth and doesn't destroy everything. I got some ideas. Okay. It was really cool doing the combine. Great. Combine's here every single year. We talk about it like, hey, all the deals get done in these things. Never been in there. You know, just hear from everybody around the city basically about what it is.

1:54:55Pat McAfee:Never actually got to see it. Getting a chance to kind of see how it all operates. What a special time for the NFL here in Indianapolis, honestly. And the amount of info that is being gathered by everybody, obviously on the new prospects, but just like getting a little bit of intel on what an expectation is for something and it's like thank you thank you thank you thank you and then going back to home base putting all the info that they've gathered trying to decipher what's real what's not real what matters and what doesn't matter to set the tone for free agency frenzy to set the tone for franchise tagging to set the tone for everything that's about to happen during drafts it's like it it is a insane time in indianapolis throughout those four nights and i don't know how they survive well i don't know how these fucking people survive i genuinely don't i mean you're talking 2 33 3 30 just normal hey we'll meet at 2 15 2 30 it's like i have a show 12 3 and they're like no no no i'm talking there's another one right coming around go ahead and catch that fucking second one i'm like what and they're like yeah i have something at midnight with and then something it's like oh you guys are just doing shit all night it's like yeah have a drink figure this whole thing out it's like would love to catch up with you and i get in there and then you start like listening to this person talk about everything that just took place and then pointing over something like right over there right now if i had to guess i would say they're trying to figure out what their salary cap issue is and who they can get to renegotiate their deal and if they're able to do that what they can move and it's not like people are hammered drunk now having drinks like a lot of that but it is like a happy hour basically for like eight hours for the entire city and all the shit gets done and we just got a chance to get a glimpse of like a lot of it and then uh we were invited to a couple different suites during the combine shit and we stopped by a few obviously the buffalo bills post a photo of us in there being in them were so nice like what looking at why what matters here's how this goes why we got to this point who's doing what it's like everybody was kind of like that and what i kind of gathered from this and it sounds pretty self-serving but i mean the show's named after me the people watch our shit in like in every single building and it's like very somebody told us that something we mentioned on our show made them uh change it not in buffalo we we happen to know a lot of people in a lot of places now which is what i learned at the combine people we played with people that were younger coaches maybe when we're in there and now in different spots gms that know somebody that we know are now in spot it's an interesting time as we get older feels like these older nfl reporters had quite an advantage you know yeah because all the people that they had were kind of oh yeah our group is kind of getting in there now lads like our boys are kind of getting in there who who kind of know who we are so like getting a chance to kind of chat and hear all the shit around it's um it was really cool i mean it was a cool combine and then we just fucking fly right over to what the greatest city on earth over there yeah well

1:57:46Jeff Passan:Pretty close.

1:57:47Pat McAfee:I'm not going there.

1:57:48Jeff Passan:But it is amazing.

1:57:50Pat McAfee:You were fasting for half of it. You missed the whole fucking thing. It was beautiful. You missed the whole fucking thing. It was beautiful. I was so mad at him. I was so happy for him that he was fasting. And then I just looked at him. I was like, you got to fucking eat.

1:58:02Adam Schefter:He probably experienced it better than you. Exactly.

1:58:05Pat McAfee:Okay, that's not the city to go to if you're going to do that.

1:58:08Jeff Passan:Top 10 U.S. city.

1:58:09Pat McAfee:Yeah, sure. Absolutely. I'd drop it in top six, top five.

1:58:13Jeff Passan:I think I would too.

1:58:14Pat McAfee:I'd put it in top six, top five. I don't want to have to listen.

1:58:19Jeff Passan:Nashville. I like Nashville. Depends what you want to do, though. I think whatever cities depend on what you're looking to do.

1:58:25Pat McAfee:That's what we're talking about, though. Like having things to do, being able to do things. I think that goes to a city being ranked. I don't think it's just like event at place. Like Scott, the weather there was out. It was 92. Yeah, weather. It was dry. So obviously you get a bunch of winter creatures like us in there. We're going to naturally just like it. But then the way they took care of it, the people. the group these boom boom birds out there there's lightning and then there's the thunder and those birds are boom boom they're not on mushrooms but this group was awesome and they really took care of us and then while we're hanging out with Team USA it's a joke of an existence that backdrop on the show the backdrop looked fake bro how about Cajun man Scott just working that thing it was unbelievable bro your camera is so good So good.

1:59:16Pat McAfee:Grandpa Rossi, what a legend.

1:59:18Jeff Passan:Yeah. He's the man.

1:59:20Pat McAfee:Andy Pettit was talking shit to me. I don't like that.

1:59:23Jeff Passan:After you threw a strike, though, you said, okay, at least he's coachable. He does say that.

1:59:28Pat McAfee:Feels like the USA baseball guys all have a little something to them. Feels like they all got to have a little something to get through the time, if I had to guess.

1:59:35Jeff Passan:Like you said, too, that's the other thing. I think almost all of those guys watch the show every single day, too, because there is so much downtime. time. You're in the clubhouse or you're in the weight room. ESPN is on. They know who we are.

1:59:49Pat McAfee:The lads knew who we were. The lads knew us pretty good out there. I will say. Did not expect that, AJ. Honestly, did not expect that. Tony, Tony's boy coming over to us, Roman? Legend. What a stud. What an absolute stud. He looks exactly how you think.

2:00:03Adam Schefter:I didn't know he was that big.

2:00:04Pat McAfee:I suppose Jack-looking Italian kid I've ever seen. He is the one. Italian-American kid playing baseball. This would be the one they would make. and his dad's name's Anthony Anthony. I mean.

2:00:16Jeff Passan:15 tons of muscle this offseason. He's a worker. Yeah. He's huge.

2:00:20Pat McAfee:Yeah, he's blue-collar. He's Italian. This is just what he is. It was unbelievable. He knew who the hell we were. Obviously, Bednar just immediately. Bednar's the man. I mean, all of them. The whole crew was very, very cool. Dump, obviously, got a chance to ride alongside the big Dump for his entire season. It was cool to know that they know who we are because I have so much respect for him because it's a completely different world than I know about. Aaron Judgers is a giant. Dina, it was nice to meet Dina. This guy's Dina. I don't like it. Look at the grass. Kind of Sicilian. The way the angle of the camera is in the mountain in the back.

2:00:53Pat McAfee:Yeah, and the groundskeeping crew, we'd like to say, shout out to the dogs. Yeah. We appreciate you boys. Once again, I believe they watch the program as well. Shout out to the horseflies. Okay, I got a ping pong team jersey from one of the grounds crew. Gentleman, his name was Patrick, I do believe. He gave me a tank top. He has a ping pong team. They're called the horseflies. He actually drew up the graphic pretty solid. He had a large and an XL. Oh, no, he had an XL and a XXL. Didn't know how fat I was because he is a fan of the program. Sure. I said, hey, you're on. No, smart man. I said, I'll take the XL.

2:01:25Pat McAfee:Give me a couple months. Maybe keep getting a little lazier. I'll take the XXL. So it was like felt very welcome. Maybe the most welcomed we've ever felt at one of those types of events. Yes. In any sport.

2:01:35Jeff Passan:Yeah. Players, coaches, people working there.

2:01:37Pat McAfee:Absolutely. I think so. Yeah. Thank you, baseball. We appreciate it. I don't know. I don't know enough about you, but I'll try my best to learn. That's right. Thank you for all of it.

2:01:46Adam Schefter:I mean, you kind of can't say that anymore. I know. You stared down one of the coats. Yeah, yeah, I was in. When did we get to see that? Yeah, so, I mean.

2:01:55Pat McAfee:Wait till you see the camera angles, too. The boys did it. Hey.

2:01:57Jeff Passan:Yeah, it's great.

2:01:58Pat McAfee:We kind of did some shit out there, Age. I think we got some good content. You went right-handed?

2:02:03Jeff Passan:You bat right or left-handed? We know you're a switch hitter.

2:02:06Pat McAfee:He didn't know that. I didn't want to drop that on a mid-inning because I know. And also, he's a lefty. Yeah, you do not. You're going lefty on left.

2:02:12Jeff Passan:You chose to go right, yeah.

2:02:13Pat McAfee:Yeah, for his sake. For his sake. But there was a couple times in there where I had to remind myself, like, hey, like, try to hit, you know. Yeah. Try to hit this thing. Because I'm sitting in there, and I'm like, holy fuck, Clayton Kershaw right now is pitching me. I sent him a big, long text afterwards, like, hey, brother, listen. Thank you for allowing me to experience that. Okay? Like, top 10 pitcher all time is what the conversation was. Obviously generational, maybe even top five. their stats are going to be able to say he's whatever when whatever forever it's like the only people that get to do that are the people that have worked their ass off for their entire life in baseball and gotten a chance to experience that i know and while i was in there i don't know a lot of baseball people but while i was stepping in i'm like this is certainly a fucking bucket list item for a hundred percent of baseball fans and then as i'm getting in there i'm like i'm not the right guy to be doing this but holy shit we're staring down like a goat right now who can still do it yeah he can still and there was some real i don't know what's all going to happen in world baseball classic i'm not going to be the one that's going to be putting out ideas or opinions because i don't know shit about shit but i think there was a little bit about how this was going to be what clayton was going to do for team usa was potentially just this and then be and then all of a sudden they're seeing what he's doing it's like of course kershaw can still and then it's like wait a minute or uh are you they're like we don't you know and then pettit's like hey yeah we don't need to fuck up we don't need as much fucking downtime right i just warmed up we don't need any more fucking pitches okay so let's so it was a uh it was awesome it was a really cool experience but as i was in there there were so many times where i was just like a little kid just like let's just man i'm at disney world right now clayton kershwin on this thing and then And I remember, oh, we're trying to hit this thing.

2:04:05Pat McAfee:And yeah, right. By that point, we're so far gone. We have no chance. Was there a buckling? What is your guess? No. I like that. Jet Passon said I took him yard. AJ said I didn't buckle.

2:04:18Jeff Passan:I thought you took him left field. I think you pulled it. You went left field.

2:04:21Pat McAfee:You have to see. You have to see to see what happens. You know, it was an inning. I had three outs against Clayton Kershaw. And we'll be releasing the video. All for charity. All for charity. If I hit a home run, he would have had to donate and would have to donate$25 ,000. And then there's different monetary values for different things. Him throwing a strike, me making contact, me getting a hit. We didn't put anything in there for laying a bump. There was a couple times where I was like, easily.

2:04:50Jeff Passan:You squared around on him. What if he threw you a curve and you squared around a bump and you just ate one right in the dog? Right in his face. Yeah.

2:04:58Pat McAfee:Yeah, it was crazy. He's the coolest guy. Yeah. The man. the coolest guy dude him walking into that fucking tank top that headband yeah yeah imagine him just walking into that clubhouse boys we're gonna win this thing or what it's clayton kershaw doing that like he knows he's a vibes guy team guy and also a legend and uh he was so cool with his time and he's one of the first people the jelly roll did this at big night out he's one of the first people where i say hey we're gonna make a donation um you know if you want to be a part of the girl whatever that's cool and he goes yeah i'll donate dude yeah i'll donate with you and i was like well you're gonna have donated you know if i take you when yeah when potentially you already you're gonna have done it okay yeah he said okay there was some shit talk from uh mrs kershaw sure which i respected she was holding a baby and she talked shit on me i thought i thought that was really awesome i thought that was uh that was a cool moment yeah it was really cool the hospitality was outrageous from baseball and we're very grateful for it very very very grateful for our relationship and we're going to continue to try our best to learn more and celebrate the out of the sport but i think the sport's going to do that with this wbc yeah i'm very excited

2:06:06Jeff Passan:yeah these next two weeks it's like actually all baseball and then march madness all right let's

2:06:12Pat McAfee:take a break on the other side we'll wrap up all the storylines around sports and then we'll get the hell out of here and watch team usa in their first scrimmage against the giants that that giants practice facility over there they did it yeah it looks it looks uh pristine i would say it comes

2:06:26Jeff Passan:Crossed well on camera.

2:06:27Pat McAfee:I watched them put together a batter's box and a line down the thing, their grounds crew, in, I don't know, 14 seconds.

2:06:36Jeff Passan:Yeah, less than 30 for sure.

2:06:39Pat McAfee:Like NASCAR pickers, put a cage up, take a cage down, move this over to here, move this over to here. It's like, no problem. Bang-a-boom-a-da-bang-a-boom. And they're all just lockstep with each other. And then everything's perfect. Hey, you know what? That dirt looks a little dry back there. Nope. Not anymore. Perfect. like I thought. There he is. Team USA. Drop the A off the hat because it's all about us. I like that. Me too. That was a good bar. That was a good bar. I dropped it on somebody else and they didn't know what I was talking about so I don't know if they're all saying it.

2:07:10Jeff Passan:Bryce has been doing that for a long time. Spread it around. It was the first day. He's been on that team for 20 years.

2:07:14Pat McAfee:Hey boys, remember we dropped the A. Us. Us. Us. Us. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. This might change your life. We're back on the other side. Take five. Five.

2:07:29Jeff Passan:As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. From professional-grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions.

2:07:48Mikaela Shiffrin:And because Grainger knows safety is always a priority, they're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by.

2:08:00Jeff Passan:When you want your spring break to feel like... And your kid's pool day to feel like... And your hotel bed to feel like... Ooh, and room service to feel like... Because at Hilton, hospitality feels like...

2:08:19Mikaela Shiffrin:Your cabana's ready. Would you like fresh towels?

2:08:22AJ Hawk:It matters where you stay.

2:08:25Mikaela Shiffrin:Book now at Hilton.com. Hilton, for this day.

2:08:34Pat McAfee:Sports! Thank you, AJ, for fully committing like that, even though you're completely off because of timing issues, not because of yourself, but because of technology. That's AJ Hawk. Hawker, how you doing? There's a professional league here in town, I believe, this week happening at this exact moment. I got an email saying that they would love to host us out there, and I just read it literally right before we go live, and Connor just stopped in his tracks. He goes, I would seriously do that if we were going to do that, and then we're back right there. So I did not expect the full-blown reaction out of Connor in the exact moment.

2:09:10Pat McAfee:Maybe we do got to go check out some bowling.

2:09:12Jeff Passan:I mean, it's electric. I'd co-sign. That would be awesome. Someone just bowled a 300.

2:09:17Pat McAfee:Perfect. I believe the PBA is in town, and we got an email saying, hey, if you want to come through, let's go ahead and do it. I think it was a brand new guy. Yes. I think it was like his first round. Young gun. Beast. I think so. Rolls 300, kind of knocks everybody's pins off their shit.

2:09:30Jeff Passan:Yeah, calling him the next Rick Hemmore. He's that good.

2:09:32Pat McAfee:No, they were calling him more so the American two-handed wonder from down under. That's what they were kind of saying at the time. I believe from my reporting or journalism around the internet. But yeah, I guess PBA is here in Indianapolis. And I did not expect the immediate from Connor over there. I mean, it was like a dog-seized treat.

2:09:50Jeff Passan:You guys do realize that Ken Moore and Norm Duke and Pete Weber, they're not going to be there, right?

2:09:55Pat McAfee:No, but I'm saying you don't know that.

2:09:57Jeff Passan:You don't know that.

2:09:58Pat McAfee:And what if the moment happens where who the fuck do you think you are, I am, happens right here. Yeah, for the new generation. Right now. We have no idea.

2:10:06Jeff Passan:A suck-my-sack moment. Are you kidding me? That is what you live for. And, yes, Tony, they're not going to be there, but, you know, people when they first went to see Rick Kenmore and Pete Webber didn't know. No, they did. Holy shit, we're watching until they got there and watched.

2:10:18Pat McAfee:Yeah, and we see the clip now. It wasn't like it was planned to happen. Exactly. It might take place at the Go Bowling U.S. Open happening here. And it is U.S. Open. U.S.

2:10:27Jeff Passan:Open is the fucking major we're talking about here.

2:10:29Pat McAfee:Yeah, so a nine-year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler, saying, I don't think this is what you guys think this is.

2:10:34Adam Schefter:No, I'm not saying that, but, I mean, those are great. Those are all-time guys. I don't know yet. We got a new young gun just coming out here rolling 300. His first go around. I mean, we never know. We'll see. I'm in, too. Count me in.

2:10:45Pat McAfee:Okay, so there is a two-handed. We need to think about this. Scroll up, please. Scroll up, please. There is a new two-handed. You see that? Oh, yeah. There is a new double wonder coming there from. Is that Brandon Bata? What? Is that double B?

2:11:00Jeff Passan:Is that legal? That could be Bata. This one.

2:11:02Pat McAfee:We know this one, don't we? That one is a famous one. The one over the two of 2026. He's somebody. We know him. He's been around a long time. Is he a size more? Make sure. They're in town.

2:11:15Jeff Passan:Does it just happen at normal bowling alleys? Do they just set up some bleachers behind a couple lanes at a normal alley? You son of a bitch. You're calling Roll Pin?

2:11:22Pat McAfee:Just at normal? Do you guys know Roll Pin Woodland? Do you guys know this place? I know that if you go in there, the fucking oil pattern is a little bit tougher. Exactly. RP Dub? Yeah, we know. You need to get a little bit more weight in that ball. You need to check the watch. Exactly. Just a little bit cleaner. and a little bit smoother. You need to go three triangles to the right. Go ahead and let that thing eat. Because what you don't know is there's a little bit of a dry spot out here on L2. So, yeah, I think we know what it is. Exactly.

2:11:50Adam Schefter:Surprises there.

2:11:52Pat McAfee:Yeah, that is a fascinating place. I have been through Royal Penn Woodland. I do appreciate there's a lot of space.

2:11:57Adam Schefter:I was thinking Lucas Oil.

2:11:59Jeff Passan:Normally for the crowds, yeah. Not enough space. You can't set up a Mickey Mouse runway just out of football field. These guys are going to get up there. Runway? Oh, I've been to Royal Penn. Yeah, I'm saying the whole deal. I mean, obviously the alley. They call them runways. You got the runway leading up to it. You know, that's got to be pristine wood. That's got to be old. Royal Penn Woodlet is an interesting thing. I've been there, yeah.

2:12:18Pat McAfee:Yeah, we've been there. I think we've all probably been there. It is crazy it's not at Lucas Oil. There's a good arcade.

2:12:24Jeff Passan:Gamebridge, at least, used the basketball court. Yeah, why not down there at Butler and Fieldhouse? Boom. They can use their wood. Know what they need to use? Because it ain't a fucking bowling alley. Until when? Until fucking double wonder. IMS is probably the only stadium, arena, facility that we have in the Indy area that would house everyone who wants to watch it.

2:12:44Pat McAfee:Yeah, you're talking about maybe we do put it in the middle of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a place that is as large as some cities, and put it right in the middle so everybody can watch from the outside. What we're saying, PBA, is look out. Sounds like we're coming through. You guys still smoking cigs in there or not? Oh, yeah. I'm coming in with mask because of the smoke. I will declare the reasoning on why I have it on as well so everybody understands that. But actually, no, I need to get back in.

2:13:10Jeff Passan:Yeah, yeah. It's good for you every once in a while.

2:13:12Pat McAfee:What was it, Holiday Lanes?

2:13:14Jeff Passan:Yes.

2:13:14Pat McAfee:I grew up in Holiday Lanes.

2:13:15Jeff Passan:Don't go. The last real place that people could smoke cigs was bowling alleys.

2:13:19Pat McAfee:Yeah, Holiday Lanes, it's not open anymore. They shut it down because they fucking hate America, I guess. So maybe it didn't make any money. After school Friday bowling.

2:13:27Jeff Passan:Probably the second part.

2:13:29Pat McAfee:It was right above McDonald's. It was right above McDonald's, man. They had to walk down there, go up to the bowling alley. They had a little bike track in the back.

2:13:37Jeff Passan:Upstairs bowling alley?

2:13:38Pat McAfee:No, it was up a hill. Pittsburgh, dude. Everything's up a hill. So, like, McDonald's is here. You walk uphill around Bend. Holiday Lanes is up here. A lot of fighting in that back area back here. Sure. And then you come in here. You got smokes. You got billiards, obviously. You got bowling.

2:13:52Jeff Passan:That was kind of the parking lot to fight in, wasn't it?

2:13:54Pat McAfee:I mean, you kind of pass six, seven hours of your day, and then you just walk your ass back home and be like, well, that was fun. What did you do today? I couldn't have.

2:14:01Jeff Passan:Went to the lanes.

2:14:01Pat McAfee:There was a fight. Somebody got beat up pretty good.

2:14:04Jeff Passan:They're fighting down the lanes. We got to go.

2:14:05Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think I smoked a cig at one point. I was trying to get some cigs out of the machine, too.

2:14:10Jeff Passan:Old school cigarette machines where you pull the lever. Those things are – I bet those are worth big money now.

2:14:15Pat McAfee:Yeah, try to convince somebody who is leaving before their ball rental ends if we could steal their balls for the last 10 minutes or so so we can get a little round in here. That would be great news. Also, I'm selling those cigs here, not smoking. So if you could just leave it, it's out easier. I would appreciate that. The bowling alley brought a lot to my life. Bowling's awesome.

2:14:36Jeff Passan:Yeah.

2:14:36Pat McAfee:But I never got into the – I could hold my own. Like if we were to bowl, I would not look like an asshole. What did I do for that one where we took on the 170-something?

2:14:49Jeff Passan:Yeah. I was going to say 182 was the first thing.

2:14:52Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think I had like a 170-something. So that is possible. That is possible.

2:14:56Jeff Passan:Are you a spinner like a real bowler?

2:14:57Pat McAfee:Check watch, bro. Yeah, all I've learned one time, somebody I watched who probably rolled over 200, I was like, oh, this guy's the greatest in the world. I didn't even know that was possible. Just check watch. Move right to, just check watch, dude, and then it'll go where it needs to go. And I ain't picking shit up. Like, I'm not doing the, you know, I'll watch the thing. You could. He'll tell me I need to fuck in. It's like, yeah, we'll see here, pal.

2:15:18Jeff Passan:Maybe you're a two-hand guy. That's what. There's a chance.

2:15:21Pat McAfee:And it is immediately when my eyes go to, it's like, holy shit, we got some real fucking.

2:15:26Jeff Passan:I thought you only go two-handed if you're not strong enough to go one-handed.

2:15:29Pat McAfee:No, that's because you want some more solace.

2:15:31Jeff Passan:You want to move over four and rotate that thing. Someone doesn't know his shit.

2:15:37Pat McAfee:Obviously, guy in blue here that you are fucking disrespecting, he's turned that son of a bitch from the gutter to the head. He's hitting that pocket. Boom. Dancing that thing. Every time it's going down, people go, Boom! There's a lot of that. What's that? I want to know who's competing. I hope they're doing it closer to today so that when we're done here, I can maybe think about making the great decision of going and watching that. You know, I haven't heard anything happen tonight. If it's today, I can't.

2:16:07Jeff Passan:I thought it was going to be Saturday.

2:16:10Pat McAfee:It's all day. Okay. Prime time, yeah. It's always prime time. Is it happening right now? Go bowling, U.S. Open. It's on CW, too.

2:16:17Jeff Passan:Oh, shit. No, it's March 1st through March 8th. Yeah, the final is on Sunday, and it'll be on CW.

2:16:22Pat McAfee:Can we call these people and see if anybody's competing to try to get on CW right now? I'd like to go see Double Wonder Kid. Is he pitching right now? I'd like to know if he's out there. Are they open for normal traffic, like foot traffic?

2:16:34Jeff Passan:Oh, yeah. Are you kidding me? We've got at least eight lanes open. You think we should?

2:16:40Pat McAfee:Maybe we'll get both sides of what they've got sitting up. That's a bad idea. Just set up some chairs. Boppers on one side. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. We need to stop brainstorming on air. This is the offseason. Michaela Schifrin lied on the internet. Don't like that. Yes, she did. Yes, she did. Friend of the program. Okay, we will call her friend of the program forever because of how great she was. She seems to be very active on social and on X. We like that. Okay, we are excited that she has entered our algo. Oh, my God, you guys, I just went on Pat McAdams show live and told them they yapped a lot.

2:17:08Pat McAfee:That was the first thing she said. It was. That was maybe the greatest intro I've ever seen of anybody.

2:17:12Jeff Passan:We were yapping in her defense.

2:17:13Pat McAfee:Yeah, there was a lot of yapping. And then, you know, she actually pretty good yapper as well. But I also didn't say fuck. She did.

2:17:20Jeff Passan:She a thousand percent it.

2:17:22Pat McAfee:Right away. And shit. And then she said that was awesome. We agree. We appreciate you having us on, but let's not be lying here.

2:17:28Jeff Passan:Yeah.

2:17:29Pat McAfee:Let the record show. Exactly. Michaela said fuck and shit numerous times through it all.

2:17:35Jeff Passan:Quick succession.

2:17:36Pat McAfee:And we would like to say that's why almost immediate Hall of Fame performance on our program out of Michaela Schifrin. And we appreciate her. This weekend, she's got the Gabagool down there. Gabagool open. And she Is she bowling? Yeah.

2:17:52Jeff Passan:Is she bowling too? Oh, okay. I didn't realize.

2:17:56Pat McAfee:She could. No doubt.

2:17:59Jeff Passan:Where's the Gabagool open?

2:18:00Pat McAfee:It's over there in Valla de Luz. Gabagool, Italy? Valla de Luz. Gabagool, Italy is actually a pretty big region. I think it's a pretty big region. The Gabagool province. Yeah, I think it is. Territory, sure. Speaking of bowling and all these awesome things, I put out a bird call in the middle of the break because I would like a new segment on the show. I'm looking to do the Thunderdome's world's greatest. Whatever it is, if you have a talent that would be deemed world recordable, like if the Guinness folks would come and say, that's a world record, if they would adjudicate it and say, that's a world record, we'd like to start doing our own here at the Thunderdome's world's greatest.

2:18:45Pat McAfee:Now, the first person that we want to be entered into the Thunderdome's World Greatest Hall of Fame has already been decided. So nobody except for this one person who is the one that we would like to model the Thunderdome's World Greatest after. Okay. But we would like ideas. So we got terrible responses, sis.

2:19:05Jeff Passan:Yes.

2:19:06Pat McAfee:Okay, we got a few. Like what? Just, I mean, there was just some bad ones. There was some marathon ones. like there were some like those types of things we appreciate what they they have and what they're able to do but i think what we all understand we're trying to do this as a segment on show so like we we it needs to be something that could be done but we obviously cash prize 10 000 bucks down here to a winner travel them in and obviously you're a part of the thunderdams world greatest hall of fame which will become a book which we will start giving out so i'm trying to make this a real thing because i think people who have special talents should be celebrated but i also think it's absolutely spectacular television whenever people are attempting to do something that i've never seen before and it appears to be incredibly difficult and holy hell nobody's ever done this before so i would like to add that to our world and to our entire program we just need the people that have those abilities to want to do it as well yeah so some people say only 10 000 bucks it's like if somebody's throwing a paper clip for fucking like all right we want a million Yeah, what have I, you know, like there's.

2:20:12Pat McAfee:Yeah. Oh, my God. Holy fuck. Everybody stop what they're doing. Guy Fieri's on SportsCenter. What? Yes. What are we doing? Can we get audio? He's talking about the Raiders, obviously. How did we miss that today? I don't know. We should have been told by FOSS to market this. Yeah. Can we? I'm fucking sick of not knowing awesome stuff's happening. This kind of goes back to the Thunderdome's world's greatest. We want to know all the awesome that's happening in the world. If Guy Fieri's on SportsCenter talking about the Raiders, we'd like to know about it.

2:20:44Jeff Passan:Yeah. If somebody can make 1 ,000 free throws in a row,

2:20:49Pat McAfee:we would like to celebrate you in real time. You know, hottest pepper in the world. I've already done that.

2:20:54Jeff Passan:I know you have. Maybe a bullseye on a dartboard from 150 feet.

2:20:58Pat McAfee:I don't know if we have, from however long we have. The most important one or something. Yeah, from any of these. Archery, though, good idea. Yeah. Whatever you think you could do in here, it'll be happening in here. We got the height. Whatever you need to do height-wise, we got it. If you want to do a belly fall, you know. On to cement. That would be outside because we got a wooden floor in here. Oh, yeah. A waiver. But the amount of waivers that will be happening for this underdog will be real. But we want to celebrate people who have special talents. And I put a tweet out, got a lot of responses, did not necessarily get any of the things that we thought would potentially be.

2:21:35Pat McAfee:so we're trying to do this again. We would like this to be a thing. We would very much like this to become a thing because I think it would be awesome watching us watch something happen. Yeah, certainly. And also, we'd love being in the presence of greatness. The world's greatness. The Thunderdome's world greatest. Well said. Wow. That might be the tagline. We need Guy Fieri maybe in there somewhere. What would he find? I'm watching. I bet he has. I believe it. He's got multiple.

2:21:58Jeff Passan:Most delicious burger of all time. How'd the person that you talk to before the show not suggest that we have a guy on?

2:22:04Pat McAfee:That's what I'm saying. Yeah, we called multiple people. Hey, anybody got anything, need anything? Nobody. Nobody we talked to. Numerous people.

2:22:15Jeff Passan:This could be why no one's trying to fucking book someone head up with Guy at really any time. Yeah, you want someone at 1 o 'clock? That's a great point. It's like, hey, Guy's on TV, cancel plans. You were going on TV today?

2:22:28Pat McAfee:No, you're not. Look what we did. We turned our show off, put their show off. Yeah, exactly. Immediately upon seeing it. And, Guy, we love you're in sports, brother. Keep on coming. Thank you, Guy.

2:22:38Jeff Passan:There's a really interesting thing going on with Guy, too, with his tequila. You guys see anything about that? He lost, like, multiple truckloads, right?

2:22:47Pat McAfee:I did not see anything. Guy, I think he has, like, 45 different businesses to it. Yes, he does. I mean, that is a fascinating human being. When they look back on the Guy Fieri life, they're going to be like, wow, that guy did this, this, this. And let's not even talk about groceries games. Yeah, exactly. I mean, let's not even talk about the mayor of a town, triple D. Yeah. Flavored town. Flavored town. Tournament champion. Donkey sauce. He's more of the king of flavor town, I think. But I like that he says mayor as if it was duly appointed. Or mayor of a state, perhaps. I was voted that here in Indiana.

2:23:18Pat McAfee:Shout out to me. That was pretty cool at the combine. Who's the unofficial mayor of Indiana? It's like, well, that's not how that works, I don't think. They put that up on the jumbotron, and everybody was voting on it with a QR code. Sorry, Fernando. I'm the fucking mayor of a state. Take your ass to Vegas, bitch See ya, dude Guy Fieri's waiting for you Maybe he's back I'm the mayor Oh my god That's such a good start I don't like that early Because people will think That he's not as good at football Because they'll call him a donkey If he's representing a donkey

2:23:46Jeff Passan:Yeah, you're right It's like that quote he had People are like You have one bad game Get ready for this thing On that note

2:23:51Pat McAfee:Guy Fieri If you have anything That you could do Perform live An act of some sort That you think would be considered The Thunderdome's World's greatest Guy We would like you to be a part of the Thunderdome's World Greatest Hall of Fame. Celebrating the world's greatness. The Thunderdome, world's greatest. That's a good tagline. Now we just got to find them.

2:24:14Adam Schefter:There's some bench press reps. 600 pounds. Well, yeah, for God.

2:24:20Jeff Passan:Tebow and JJ Watt still, you know, they said they'd come in. And AQ. AQ was in there as well.

2:24:26Pat McAfee:I don't think Tebow and JJ, because. And I said records. They look at AQ and they're like, there's no way that thing is going to beat me in something. It's like the bench press, this guy's body was creative.

2:24:40Jeff Passan:I just watched him do 315 for 10. Who, AQ? Yeah.

2:24:44Pat McAfee:Where?

2:24:44Jeff Passan:I think it didn't talk about a video or something. Those short arms, it helps.

2:24:48Pat McAfee:Yeah. I mean, you just saw it. It's pretty damn good. I didn't know if he did it this past weekend.

2:24:53Jeff Passan:Yeah, I think. Probably did in that basement. I'd have to confirm with talk, but I could have swore I saw it on a talk video recently. You did. Thank you.

2:24:59Pat McAfee:He's in a recent video, though.

2:25:01Jeff Passan:Yes. Yes, he sent him a video.

2:25:02Pat McAfee:Doc texted him and said, hey, can you hit some bench? And he did. Doc just hit me with a thumbs up walking through. True. I did that. AQ is the greatest. AQ is an absolute beauty. No, we got to go stop at this new place. No, I got this other place. I won't go to bed kind of, though. Yeah, but you won't. I'm kind of tired, dude. I mean, it's been a long couple this next place. One more. One more. The way TC is next place. And I'm going to walk in. This is really nice. Holy shit. So what are we doing now? We're just sitting here? What's going on? No, we're having a good time. Come on. Check out this room.

2:25:42Pat McAfee:Come on. Okay, all right, all right. Let's do it. I'll do it. I feel like I'm kind of being a downer right now, though, in this entire thing. It's been a long day. A lot of sun out here. A lot of boozing. I think I should go ahead and bet. And then you all exit.

2:25:52Jeff Passan:I thought, I just assumed we were leaving.

2:25:54Pat McAfee:I get a tour of a place.

2:25:55Jeff Passan:Yeah, that was the word.

2:25:56Pat McAfee:I get a tour of a place, okay? Kind of like look at a place. Hey, this is kind of happening. This is what's possible. It's like a club of some sort, you know? Very nice. I come back, boys up and leaving. I'm like, oh, no, these people that I just talked to are not expecting me to leave right now. And I look at you guys. Where are you guys going? Everybody get out of bed. I'm like, motherfuckers. You're going to bed right now?

2:26:17Jeff Passan:We out of here?

2:26:18Pat McAfee:I did. Yeah. That's what we said. Yeah. We said, yeah, okay. And then you guys got pulled the trigger and got out of there. Yeah. I should have been celebrating you guys, what you said. Let me tell you what I was thinking when you guys were walking out of that place. And I was saddling up for whatever the fuck was about to saddle up for. I was like, these motherfuckers doing everything I want to do right now. I was watching you guys skip out of there. It looked like you guys found energy on your way out of there. That was the first time in like four hours.

2:26:41Jeff Passan:They're going to get those tacos.

2:26:43Pat McAfee:Oh, Velvet Taco. Thanks for showing up. Smash Burger Tacos. Those things were phenomenal for the group. Thank you very much for that. The place was gorgeous. I mean, there's just like seven more places to go. I don't know. Was it a private club?

2:26:53Jeff Passan:He took you to a couple of private clubs. Yeah.

2:26:56Pat McAfee:Yeah. That happened. A couple of those. A couple of public ones. A couple of, whoa, what is this? There's no way this is allowed. I thought about that a couple times. This is real life out here? This is, felt like a couple places were staged just for me and Gumpy. I felt like we walked into a place that was like, this feels staged. This feels like a recruiting trip. Like I thought I was on like a recruiting visit to a school. They were trying, because there was a lot of, look at this house. Look at this house. There was a lot of trying to get me to move there. And I'll tell you what, but they got me pretty close.

2:27:24Pat McAfee:Yeah. They got me about 5.36 o 'clock, almost had me buying a house out there. It's a very nice place. It is. And then 7.30 came, and I wanted to go to bed. Mm-hmm. And then 8.30 was still going. And you, 7.30, you guys, that's when you guys left, if you recall. Yep.

2:27:37Jeff Passan:Yeah. Yeah. Yep. When we said,

2:27:39Pat McAfee:let's get out of here. That was really nice of you guys doing that. Yeah. Then 8.30 happened, then 9.30 happened, and then fucking 10.30 happened. You gave us an order. I was in a basement with 10.45. You gave us an order, and we followed it. That's not on us. Gumpy was there. Bill was there. Bruce, were you there? Yeah, Bruce was in the middle of it all. You should have seen him. Not a lot of basements out in Arizona either. That's how you know. Yeah, I guess it was first floor.

2:28:03Jeff Passan:You got to have some cash to have a basement, I think, out there.

2:28:06Pat McAfee:Yeah. Exactly. A lot of that. I mean, I didn't know a lot about what was going on.

2:28:10Jeff Passan:Those are critters.

2:28:10Pat McAfee:I'd seen some of this stuff before in public. You know, I'd seen some of this stuff before. They had little energy devices that they were using. Sure.

2:28:17Adam Schefter:Is it a bunker or a basement? What happened?

2:28:20Pat McAfee:It looked like it was a basement. I didn't know you were saying, were they bumpers? Yeah, there was a lot of that going on. It looked like I didn't know that was still taking place. It was 2026. It was like, Jesus Christ. You guys all got a little burst of energy, it seems like. I don't know what's going on around here. I'd still like your bed. Come on, come on, come on. No, that ain't my shit. Can I smoke in here? No, you got to go. Fuck. Okay. I'm going to go sit outside. I'll see you guys in 10 minutes. Yeah. Holy shit, here is AQ fucking doing it. Here's the video TikTok put out there. I love Arizona.

2:28:55Pat McAfee:I'm going to say that. Yeah, it's awesome. It's kind of a dangerous place for us to go, I think, because of how awesome it all is. We didn't even get on a golf course. No. But this guy just walked us around. Look at that. What is that? That's not 315, is it? Is that 295? Yeah, I think so. It looks like. For five?

2:29:09Jeff Passan:What's on the end? For fives or tens? I don't know.

2:29:12Pat McAfee:Can you run that again?

2:29:13Jeff Passan:Still a lot. Still a lot of weight, AQ. 275, 295, maybe?

2:29:18Pat McAfee:See, that's what the team That's moving a total of four inches

2:29:23Jeff Passan:Yeah He is built, I mean, AQ is one Powerful dude, that's true

2:29:27Pat McAfee:Yeah, and he knows it too, you know, like somebody What'd you say? Yeah, he got a little bit of that You know, got a little bit of that in his old age You know, and he had it when he was young too But now he's still letting everybody know He's still got it, you know, that's a good thing You didn't really get him riled up pretty quick Oh my god Just so quick, what? What'd you say? He had one where he dropped his glasses.

2:29:48Jeff Passan:What did you say? He does do that sometimes.

2:29:51Pat McAfee:You look like your fucking dad right now. I'd like to go to bed. You have no idea where we're going next. Just wait. Okay.

2:30:02Jeff Passan:He's very flexible, too, for how thick he is.

2:30:05Pat McAfee:Yeah, he had to be, man. You lose one trait, like having arms the size of most adults, you have to gain another. He's super duper flexible. He's the best. AQ is the best. The weather is so nice. We didn't get really burned up.

2:30:19Jeff Passan:No, not like I was expecting to yesterday, especially.

2:30:22Pat McAfee:Yeah, we didn't get cooked as much as I thought we were going to.

2:30:24Jeff Passan:And it was hot, but when it's not humid, you know, it's not – I mean, you're not sweating buckets everywhere you go.

2:30:30Pat McAfee:Arizona might go into the Thunderdome's world's greatest. I think you might. They have a chance. If they're able to get here, the state, which we know the group that would come. Yeah, exactly. Belts on. I'm sure they could do some shit. They were a great group. Thank you for the hospitality out there. Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson is not being tagged and will now become an unrestricted free agent. Congratulations. He's free. Go on, lad. Ladies and gentlemen, they've done it. The Cincinnati Bengals and Trey Hendrickson have figured out what they're going to do with each other. This has been a three-year battle of, well, he needs to just take the deal and shut the fuck up.

2:31:06Pat McAfee:Well, don't you think I deserve some sort of something? No, you don't. Well, I'm not going to go then. but i feel bad if i don't go so i'm actually gonna go and i'm gonna say the reason why i haven't been here is on their side they're gonna understand that trey hendrickson a lot of people wise uh too good of a dude to do the whole hold out be a squeaky wheel that could potentially get an oil especially with the cincinnati bangles franchise and organization restructured his contract a couple times negotiating good faith a couple times at a little bit of a lower uh value was allegedly from his side of things was told that they'd fix it next year next year came they didn't We'll fix it next year.

2:31:41Pat McAfee:Next year came. We'll fix it next year. So now, Trey Hendrickson is going to be able to go wherever the hell he wants and receive whatever contract is available. We are incredibly happy for Trey Hendrickson. And congrats to the Bengals not having to answer questions or say anything stupid about this situation going forward. This is a good day.

2:31:58Jeff Passan:Yeah.

2:31:59Pat McAfee:It's a good day for the NFL that this is happening. Now, Bengals fans are going to say, well, it'd be nice to have Trey Hendrickson on our team, which I think is what Trey Hendrickson has been saying for multiple years now. Like, yeah, can we not? Don't we want to kind of commit to that? I've already done a lower number. Like, what are we doing? So good luck to Trey Hendrickson. Sucks that the Bengals are losing a stud, but I'm very happy for Trey at this moment. I think all parties involved, AJ.

2:32:21Jeff Passan:Yeah, didn't we talk about this? Like, they claim, obviously they could have tagged him. They could do whatever. But didn't they claim that they would take care of him after this year and they would not tag him? Isn't that something we talked about?

2:32:29Pat McAfee:Yeah, but then remember they were going to give him a new deal last year and then they didn't give him a new deal. So there's been a lot of things. Yeah, exactly. And then his value went to him. That's the thing that sucks.

2:32:40Jeff Passan:If this would have happened last year, he would have been one of the... Yeah, exactly. He'd have been getting paid like that. And now, like you said, we'll see what contracts out there. 30? 35?

2:32:50Pat McAfee:Anywhere from 25 to 30, I'm thinking. That's what I'm going to know. How old does he know? 31. 31, yeah.

2:32:58Jeff Passan:Because he missed like 12 games or something last year, didn't he? Most of the season.

2:33:01Pat McAfee:Let's just turn on the highlights. Still very, very good. Turn on the hands. Turn on hands. Turn on the untaped hands. You know, and him buying into everything. It's like we like Trey Hendrickson around here.

2:33:14Adam Schefter:Yeah.

2:33:15Pat McAfee:And some team's going to sign him that's going to be in a Super Bowl hunt, and they're going to get an absolute dog. That's what they're going to get. Huge. That is a big deal for today. Okay, so Kenneth Walker's going to be a free agent. Shefty doesn't think he's going back to Seattle. They're not going to be able to afford him. John Schneider's going to move on. Trey Hendrickson, he's now going to be a free agent. Congrats on whoever signs him and everything like that. Brees Hall got franchise tagged today. Kyle Pitts has been tagged, and so has George Pickens for the Dallas Cowboys. That's the first time we've brought that up.

2:33:43Pat McAfee:Yeah. Sports media. Should have done it a long time ago, but also that could have been A Block, B Block, C Block.

2:33:51Jeff Passan:I saw other shows talk about Max Crosby to Cowboys a lot today, even though Shefty said on each show, Cowboys have not talked about this at all. Well, they said something about a Micah deal.

2:34:03Pat McAfee:Micah used to be with the Dallas Cowboys. It's a natural tie-in that you can kind of do that. Max Crosby, I just saw a clip from his podcast, I believe. A lady, a young woman asked him, so what are you doing, dude? It was a pretty good little gimmick out of her, actually, asking some real questions. He said he meant Kubiak. Life is good, trying to figure it out. He said he spoke too much on this. We have reached out to Max Crosby to potentially come on the program. We do not think that's going to be happening. We've sent him a lot of like... Yeah. But then he's on the rush, and he's phenomenal.

2:34:38Pat McAfee:So I would do the same if I was him, by the way. But it would be nice just to get a full clarity on it, but maybe he doesn't even know what the hell is going to happen. There's so much turnover. Six different head coaches in seven years, five different GMs from Max Crosby. That's an absurd couple stats. Nuts.

2:34:53Adam Schefter:Insane.

2:34:53Pat McAfee:Just turnover, nothing ever real. Hey, I've heard what you're saying. You've said a hundred fucking times. Hey, I'm going to come in here. I'm going to get everybody by and I'm going to do it. Okay. The last four coaches have literally said that, buddy. Yeah. Hey, I'm a GM. I'm going to get the right guys in here. I'm going to do that. Okay. The last three GMs that I've had in the last four years have said the same exact thing. I assume it's getting hard to believe. I assume that is something that is taking place. But once again, we got a new one. Yeah, that's right. We got a new one. We got some new ownership as well.

2:35:24Pat McAfee:Fernando's a guy. Brock Bowers. Ashton Gentry. Right now might not be the time. A whole lot of money. Now might be the time to kind of hang on. But then the rest of the NFL is like, are you available? Because if that's the case, new time, fun. Yeah, we got an old time. In this old time, we go to the Super Bowl. That's what we're trying to do. That'll be an interesting talking point as we continue throughout this entire time frame.

2:35:45Adam Schefter:Yeah, for him, you mentioned earlier, we want to see him playing on the biggest stage. Shefty talked about him not winning in a collegiate level or in high school. I mean, I don't know how he lost games in high school. I feel like a guy like that would just dominate both sides of the ball based on the highlights we've seen. But that sucks, especially when you get to this point. You are such a good player to not be on a winning team. And you're in a division. You talk about the NFL, but you're in a division where you've seen teams go from the bottom to the top, obviously with Kansas City and the Chargers, they're doing their thing.

2:36:15Adam Schefter:And then Denver, they've turned things around as well. You're sitting here going through all these different head coaches, different GMs, and I believe Fernando Mendoza is a great quarterback. But it is still going to be part of a rebuild. It's a rookie quarterback. You still got a young running back back there. Hopefully you can fix the old line. But I want to see him on the contender. He's said it multiple times. He wants to be a Raider. Now we hear the reports that maybe not. We'll see how it plays out. But I want to see 98 playing in some big-time ball games. I feel like he obviously deserves it.

2:36:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, he's special for football. We hope the world gets a chance to see him. But if that's with the Raiders, that'd be cool too. Good for them. Let's go to some breaking news. Adam Schefter has reported officially Bears Pro Bowl center Drew Dahlman has informed the team that he is retiring from the NFL at age 27. Dolman left Stanford in 2021, and after four seasons in Atlanta and won Chicago, he has made the sudden and surprising decision to retire. That offensive line was the first thing that Ben Johnson focused on. Obviously, they had immense and immediate success with Caleb Johnson, or Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson, kind of seemingly clicking.

2:37:16Pat McAfee:Defense that hunts. Wow, that sucked. Hey, congrats, dude. I assume this is a huge decision. You see the helmet that he has on. He went to Stanford. Obviously, what's in between those ears is also incredibly precious. I assume he thinks he's made enough money from the game. He's given enough to the game, has enjoyed the game enough, and now it's time to move somewhere else. Very hard decision to retire from anything, especially at this young of an age with as much opportunity that's still out there that can lure you away from it if you really want to do it. So congrats to him. We're happy for him, AJ.

2:37:48Jeff Passan:Absolutely. And I don't know how it works. If you retire in the middle of a contract, you have to give some of that back. How does it work?

2:37:53Pat McAfee:Well, it depends on what the refundable of the signing bonus, because signing bonus is normally money from future years just kind of being allotted up front so that we can kind of dance it around. That's why you're always paying it off forever. So who knows what the contract stipulates on when's refundable, how long it's refundable. Sometimes there's like obviously one year with Chicago. I don't think that's going to enact a clause that it's no longer refundable or whatever it is, but that's probably all within the contract. I assume Chicago's not going to take any money from them. That would be an interesting look from a franchise and organization.

2:38:26Pat McAfee:But this is interesting. This is, I mean, not that I've had any conversations with Drew Dahlman about Drew Dahlman ever in my life, but anytime you see somebody that Pro Bowl, at a place that just had success, got a chance to experience success and can see the future up and to the right, decides to walk away at a very young age, you hope everything's okay. First of all, we literally hope everything's okay. and then you think immediately that had to be such a difficult decision to make.

2:38:52Adam Schefter:Oh, yeah.

2:38:52Pat McAfee:His whole life probably around football.

2:38:54Adam Schefter:Yeah. Yeah, and part of that money thing, too, is about the team, too. Remember what I said? He didn't go after any of the money, that luck, because when he retired, only a bunch of money that he let him walk away with. But, yeah, at the height of his career, he is a human at a part of it. And, look, you don't know what he's dealing with off the field. I mean, to be in a building like that with Ben Johnson, how he's turning things around, Caleb Williams, he's been a tremendous quarterback. The arrows only seem up to the right for him, but we don't know what he's dealing with as a human off the field.

2:39:25Adam Schefter:You went out kind of at the top of your game at the peak. I hope everything is good, and shout out to Drew, man. Congrats on a great career.

2:39:31Pat McAfee:We're happy for you if you're happy. We just hope you're happy, Drew. Thank you for your commitment to game. Spotrak, who's been evolving. Spotrak is doing good shit. Drew Dahlman has two years,$24 million remaining on his contract, including$9.5 million fully guaranteed in 2026. and you have to wonder what the signing bonus was and a lot for it and all that type of stuff. We assume SpowTrack will do the math. We'll follow up with that tomorrow. Also, about an hour and five minutes left before franchise tag deadline hits. We will not remain alive for that. The boys are about to start their journey.

2:40:02Pat McAfee:Yeah, Team USA. Paul Skeen's about to take the bump. Skeen's about to take the bump. So what you're about to see is, if you had Oz inside the Thunderdome, what you're about to see, AJ, is this entire group just mosey right on over there. and there is going to be a good time had watching this Team USA that we had the incredible opportunity to experience yesterday start their journey to becoming world champions again. Good luck out there, boys. Good luck. Here we go, boys. I'm fucking proud of the boys.

2:40:30Jeff Passan:Hard not to be.

2:40:32Pat McAfee:I hope we get hot bats for the entire game. I was going to say, let's get proud. I'll be more proud when they win it all. Yeah.

2:40:38Jeff Passan:As we go on here. Wasn't really proud of any of the Olympians before it started.

2:40:42Pat McAfee:Michaela Schiffer and we were proud of.

2:40:44Jeff Passan:Oh, you weren't? No, I wasn't. Wow. I wasn't proud of Jordan Stoltz. I wasn't proud of any of them because.

2:40:49Pat McAfee:We didn't know.

2:40:50Jeff Passan:I mean, if Team USA won silver, would I be as proud of them? Everybody's talking about it. Yeah, I wouldn't. They won fucking gold, though. So let's go out there and take that shit back from Japan. Yeah. Well said.

2:41:04Pat McAfee:And let's definitely understand that the Dominican team is.

2:41:07Jeff Passan:Has to go baseball.

2:41:08Pat McAfee:They're not even on my radar. No, they need to be. They're a good baseball team. Somebody showed me their lineup. I know those names. Yeah, yeah.

2:41:15Jeff Passan:Big Zach. I'm not the biggest.

2:41:16Pat McAfee:Yeah. Yeah. I know those names. I know. Yeah, I'm not a big baseball guy. I'm seeing some of these lineups. I'm like, wait a minute. I thought it was us and Japan here. Not that guy was American. Holy fuck. Where's he playing? Here. He's been here since he's how old? How come we don't got him? Oh, yeah. He's fucking pounding a baseball right now. Yeah. DeBeex is just.

2:41:37Jeff Passan:Yeah, this BP looks a little different.

2:41:39Pat McAfee:Yeah, well, they're also in tropical island. There wasn't wind howling in our offense. I'm not working on anything. Juice balls. What are you saying?

2:41:47Jeff Passan:Well, I'm just saying, you know, any of the guys on our team could have went in there and just, hey, fucking hit a homer every single time. They could have done that. They're taking BP from fucking 25 feet away. They're working on it. You know what? I'm going to take every single one of these the other way.

2:41:58Pat McAfee:Are you talking strictly about Aaron Judge right now?

2:42:00Jeff Passan:Yeah, I am. I am. Because guess what? Judge, he could hit as many fucking homers out of that, you know, complex as he wanted to. But he's saying, hey, fucking Rossi, can I get a situation here? What am I trying to do here? We got guys on first and third with two outs in the seventh inning. Okay, yeah, I'm going to fucking rip one into the gap the opposite way and make sure both these guys get in. That's just a level of professionalism, a level of captaincy that I don't think a lot of these other countries are dealing with.

2:42:24Pat McAfee:You're saying because all these guys just want to hit ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong.

2:42:28Jeff Passan:We could do that, and guess what? We had guys who said, you know what? All right, we got a bunch of media here and people here. I'll be that guy.

2:42:34Pat McAfee:Bryce took one. Bryce Harper hit it. Hit the fuck?

2:42:36Jeff Passan:Bryce Harper hit it 1 ,000 miles an hour every single hack he took. Braggie. Yeah. Boys were hitting the ball hard.

2:42:44Pat McAfee:Bro, so as soon as his BP starts, I don't know the game. I don't know how this works. Bryce gets in there, two bunts. Ding. Ding. I guess that's just tradition for baseball.

2:42:55Jeff Passan:Yeah, and you saw the bunts Bryce laid down because guess what? Bryce ain't going to be bunting.

2:43:00Pat McAfee:But he just felt obligated to do it for the game. I think Judge did the same thing.

2:43:03Jeff Passan:See a couple. See a couple.

2:43:04Pat McAfee:If you got to do it, let's do it. breg boom bang and then you see after the second one as soon as that thing leaves their bat it's like all right i did what i was supposed to fucking do like if my dad was watching right now or my coach was watching right now they'd be like that's how you do it and then as soon as that's

2:43:21Jeff Passan:that bregman guy he's got a lot of pop junkyard dog they siciliano'd him too i mean with the group he's not a huge dude we said he came out and we saw him after you know just in street clothes i

2:43:32Pat McAfee:I don't know where it's coming from. I don't know where it is coming from.

2:43:36Jeff Passan:A lot of baseball players are like that. Powerful Lord. At Torque. They find some Torque. They got crazy Torque to it, and their hand speed is off.

2:43:41Pat McAfee:I mean, the fucking knock that was happening, just the purity of the sound. Yeah. There was a couple where Bryce just decided he was going to start pulling this shit, just kind of put on a show. It felt like it's literally what he was doing. And he was just like a pitcher would. He was curving it. And then to your point about Judge, Judge hit every one oppo, every single one oppo, and he was slicing it basically to hit a thing. And Ty goes, oh, he can hit a home run anytime he wanted.

2:44:08Jeff Passan:That's why that guy's hitting fucking 330, you know, because he's going to use the whole field.

2:44:12Pat McAfee:And he really did.

2:44:13Jeff Passan:Yeah.

2:44:13Pat McAfee:He was just fucking putting balls places, but he didn't hit anywhere near as many home runs.

2:44:17Jeff Passan:No, definitely not.

2:44:18Pat McAfee:Harper went deep center. Yes. It was crazy. Bomb time with howling wind. Yeah. Yeah, it was cool. We're lucky. We shouldn't continue to brag about being there. We understand we weren't. It was pretty cool. It was cool. I saw Mush.

2:44:30Jeff Passan:Yeah.

2:44:31Pat McAfee:Saw Marty there. That was good to see him. There was multiple different media entities over there. It's cool to see everybody. They all love ball and see people.

2:44:38Jeff Passan:Do all the boys stay together like in one big hotel or really?

2:44:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, I guess the way it goes is they'll stay in a hotel. Families will come in at different times and leave. I guess that's kind of just like the baseball world. Like families will travel in on a road trip somewhere because they're on the road so much. It's just normal for them.

2:44:53Jeff Passan:A couple of boys live there.

2:44:54Pat McAfee:Diner in Houston? No, Diner.

2:44:56Jeff Passan:Oh, Houston. I thought you meant Arizona.

2:44:58Pat McAfee:Yeah, there's been a couple of the boys that hosted a couple of dinners, I guess out in Arizona. But yeah, once they get down to Houston, whenever this all starts, I guess they're in hotel living down there and it's just like, we're in. They're in the MLB season all of a sudden. It's like, let's go, boys. Let's fucking go.

2:45:14Jeff Passan:Gregman knows Houston well. He'll take care of the boys. Yep.

2:45:17Pat McAfee:Oh, he was a part of the... The bats. Yeah.

2:45:20Jeff Passan:He was cheating.

2:45:21Pat McAfee:Bats on canes.

2:45:22Jeff Passan:He was cheating.

2:45:23Pat McAfee:That's what they were doing with garbage cans. Can't wait to ask them about that now that we're friends with them. Because we're doing a lot of speculation there for a while. Yeah, we were. Now it feels like we maybe get to the bottom of it. I'll tell you what, it would have been nice to know what Kershaw was throwing. Yeah, exactly. Would have helped. It would have been nice to know what Kershaw was saying. And maybe in there he actually tells me something. Maybe he does start telling me what pitch is coming, you know? One of those. Which is nice.

2:45:48Jeff Passan:Would that help? If you knew a curve was coming, would it make you feel better?

2:45:52Pat McAfee:I'm not going to give anything away. Yeah, you have to watch. I'm not going to give anything away. I'm not going to give anything away. Did I know what pitch was coming at one point? Maybe. Did I? Oh, I think I know what he wants to do right here. I think I know what he wants to do right here.

2:46:05Jeff Passan:He pitched the show. All of a sudden, you see it lasered in.

2:46:08Pat McAfee:You know exactly where it's going. No, because there was a moment, because he was.

2:46:13Jeff Passan:We're doing the full. He did his. His windup is sweet. Is it intimidating?

2:46:18Pat McAfee:Yes.

2:46:18Adam Schefter:You can see his eyes over the gloves.

2:46:20Pat McAfee:So there was a couple times where he was not as serious while he was pitching to me. And I'm like, okay, he's treating me like I'm one of his kids right now. I got it. Then there was a couple where I could feel it. two strikes on you and it's like i can feel i can feel i'm like oh he's fucking taking this one this like shane did uh with the two sumo wrestlers when we didn't know when they were going to wrestle or not and shane said this one feels a little bit more intense and then they went for it there was like a couple pitches where i was in there and i'm looking at him i'm like oh i think this is uh i think he's really trying to fucking cook this one i think this is real i think i'm experiencing real clayton kershaw right now and it's like this is so cool but then also like let's fucking try to make contact here on Clayton Kershaw, and then all of a sudden, I'm not going to give it away.

2:46:59Pat McAfee:I'm not going to give it away. There were some fucking sick pitches coming in. Dong shot, dead center.

2:47:06Adam Schefter:Maybe.

2:47:07Pat McAfee:Maybe.

2:47:08Jeff Passan:I'm sure I used a metal bat, by the way. You should have brought a metal bat.

2:47:12Pat McAfee:Not going to say anything? Don't think it would have mattered. Alright, we're going to get out of here. We're going to watch the boys, be your friend, tell your friend something nice. It might change your life. We're back tomorrow. We love sports. We hope you do as well. We're in this thing together. Let's never, ever forget that. Team on me! Team on three! One, two, three, team. Goodbye. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news, and this is big. The Indianapolis Colts have officially placed the transition tag on Danny Dimes. Wow. Old Indiana Jones. Now, this means that if any other team makes an official offer sheet to Daniel Jones, the Colts have the right to match it, okay?

2:47:49Pat McAfee:$37.833 million will be the least amount of money that Daniel Jones makes next year playing football. I would like to say to Daniel Jones, I'm incredibly thankful that there is a chance you're going to be a Colt next year. Remember, when Danny came into town, he was allegedly in a competition with Anthony Richardson. Anthony Richardson, former number four overall pick for the Indianapolis Colts, now seeking a trade away from the Indianapolis Colts. Daniel Jones was coming in here. Not a lot of fanfare from Colts fans other than us. Not a lot of hope and optimism from a lot of people around the league, including Colts fans other than us.

2:48:20Pat McAfee:And what Danny Dimes came in and did was an incredible leadership position. His talent was outrageous, and what he did was lead the Colts to an 8-2 record, the number one offense in the NFL, and us singing every single overreaction Monday that the Colts are going to win the Super Bowl. And he broke his leg overseas. Yep. All of a sudden, he couldn't do anything that he was able to do. You know, Shane Steichen's offense is certainly much better whenever the quarterback can move and the quarterback can run, and Danny Dimes can certainly run. A lot of people undervalue his running ability, mostly because he is a big, dorky, white dude.

2:48:54Pat McAfee:Correct. But he is a weapon with his legs. He's a weapon with his arms. And what he was able to do in Shane Steichen's offense whenever he was healthy was spectacular, something that we haven't seen here in Indianapolis in a long, long time. Going to games was awesome. We were able to talk shit once again. And then we won 0-7 to end the season. That was tough. And now we wonder, broken leg in one leg, torn Achilles in the other? Will Danny Dimes be able to be healthy for next season? Feels like those conversations are taking place, and it feels like it's probably, potentially, going to be with the Indianapolis Colts, which makes me zeeked up, Darius Butler, that he's going to be here, because there was a lot of chatter.

2:49:33Pat McAfee:Dimes is back, Dimes is back. He's like, do we know that? Feels like a lot of people are going to be interested in Dimes with how he played. Now at least we know there is interest, and the Colts can keep him if anybody loves him more.

2:49:43Adam Schefter:Absolutely. We know that revolving door that has been at quarterback since Luck left, and now it looked like we had a guy. You know, the first half of the season, not only a guy for this year, but a guy for the future. So now getting him back on his one-year deal, we'll see how that plays out, and then hopefully he comes back and he is the same guy, and then we get him long-term because you want a long-term answer at the quarterback position. So getting him healthy is the first thing, obviously. Another team not stealing him away, and then him getting out there hitting the ground running like he was this year.

2:50:11Jeff Passan:And now what this means for the rest of the players on the team. You know, Alec Pierce, you cannot use the transition tag and the franchise tag. So Alec Pierce is going to be hitting free agency, which also means maybe they let him go. Hey, let's bring Pittman back. We still have Downs. You've got Tyler Warren. You've got Jonathan Taylor. This is kind of great for the Colts as a whole because now he can rest. Maybe you give a couple other guys a chance. Riley Leonard, he was unbelievable against the Texans. Maybe he gets a little more reps early on, and then he has more time for Danny Dimes to come back.

2:50:40Pat McAfee:Schefter, to your exact point, just tweeted, Colts cannot tag free agent wide receiver Alec Pierce, but the Colts still hope to work out long-term deals with both players. So this just gives an extension of time for them to work with Danny Dimes. It also lets Danny Dimes and his people go see what the market's saying so they can take a fair deal back to Chris Ballard and the Colts to see if they want to match it or not. I'm eager to see what the market looks like for Daniel Jones because what he did for us, man, he saved an entire football city. I mean, we were down in the dumps over here. There was not a lot of expectation.

2:51:15Pat McAfee:I think one of those places, one of those blogs put out like a vote of optimism from the fans. And the Colts had a 96 % negative reaction to what the expectation was for the team going into the year. And that was strictly because Danny Dimes was the quarterback that was brought in to compete with Anthony Richardson. Nobody really in our universe. Now, granted, the people that are voting in polls on the internet are those really people that you would quantify as actual people that you want to take opinions of. I'm not 100 % sure. But I do know they weren't the only ones. People in real life are like, Daniel Jones?

2:51:49Like, he's not really good, is he?

2:51:53Pat McAfee:It's like, well, actually, Shane Steichen's offense, if he can do, remember Jalen Hurts? Remember what Jalen Hurts was able to do in Shane Steichen's offense? You know how that whole thing worked? And they're like, Daniel Jones is not Jalen Hurts. It's like, actually, he might be taller, might be faster, actually. And if we can get his ass to be a good, accurate thrower, it's like Daniel Jones has a chance to be great. He's a big, strapping, very athletic, incredibly intelligent lad who felt like he was at home with Shane Steichen and the Indianapolis Colts. And then it all crumbled as soon as he got injured.

2:52:21Pat McAfee:We lost seven straight games. Everything sucks.

2:52:23Jeff Passan:But I think that's also part of the – people are kind of forgetting that because things ended so bad. Like, he wasn't just good. You know, he wasn't just like a good, steady – Like, their offense was setting records. You know, I mean, it looked completely different. They were the one seed for, you know, like, and we're not talking in September. This was, you know. October, November. Exactly. Halfway through the season. So, like, when things were going, and then I guess if other teams are interested and they're, you know, putting offers out there, you would assume that medically teams are comfortable with whatever the case may be.

2:52:53Jeff Passan:So, yeah. I mean, we'll see. The Phillies are tough.

2:52:56Pat McAfee:Well, not only that, he had a broken leg in the other one. That's a lot of injuries, dude. especially when that's a big piece of your game. But he, from all accounts, dog. I think he's a 4.30 a.m.er, wakes up, he's in a building at 5 a.m. every single day. Everything you want from a guy, from my understanding, is exactly what Daniel Jones was. And then think about what Jonathan Taylor was able to do whenever he was putting him in the perfect play every time.

2:53:20Jeff Passan:He was the MVP before Daniel Jones got hurt.

2:53:22Pat McAfee:Hey, here's the perfect play for you to do what you do. You think Jonathan Taylor likes that? Yeah. You think the offensive line likes whenever a quarterback knows what the fuck's supposed to happen. Yeah, that was the first time, long time, the offensive line had that. I mean, there's many stories about the revolving door at quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, and the quarterback in the offensive line, nowhere near speaking the same language, and it just being a complete clusterfuck. Instead, Daniel Jones gets in there, gets along with the boys, understands the offense, understands what defenses are, puts everybody in the right position.

2:53:48Pat McAfee:We look like an actual we look like a legitimate threat. I'm happy he's potentially back.

2:53:54Adam Schefter:It's a huge win-win.

2:53:55Pat McAfee:And we won off the air live, and then that news broke 25 seconds later. The trend continues. Shout out to the Colts. Shout out to you. We'll see you tomorrow. Be a friend. Tell your friend something nice. It might change their life. Hey, we'll see you in the comments, dude. Like, comment, and share.

2:54:09Jeff Passan:Yeah.

2:54:11Pat McAfee:Right? Bill will love that. Yeah, Bill will love that. Ring the bell, dude. Get more of this. All right. See you. Goodbye.

2:54:18Mikaela Shiffrin:Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for$15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch.

2:54:37Darius Butler:Upfront payment of$45 for three month plan equivalent to$15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. Default terms at mintmobile.com.

2:54:48Pat McAfee:If you're a content creator, you know the struggle of picking between quality and quantity to grow your channel, especially if you're on a tight budget. But why not choose both? With Storyblocks, you get everything you need to create amazing videos fast. Instead of expensive pay-per-clip pricing, you get unlimited downloads from a library with millions of stock assets for one set price. Go to storyblocks.com slash Spotify to learn more.