PMS 2.0 1510 - World Baseball Classic Team USA vs Brazil Preview, Shams Charania, North Carolina GM Michael Lombardi, & AJ Hawk

6:17Pat McAfee:I didn't think about the punch out pitch. Like, I was sitting there. I'm like, he's up 0-2. you're definitely gonna hit me with something.

6:25Michael Lombardi:Oh, where'd you go? Give catcher, got you there.

6:30Pat McAfee:I think I got on base.

6:33AJ Hawk:That's an infield single, you know it. You had enough though.

6:35Pat McAfee:Did you see his face? He said, I don't know.

6:38Michael Lombardi:I don't know about that.

6:39Pat McAfee:That's real, he said.

6:41Michael Lombardi:Mookie's a good shortstop, from what I remember. I'll give you one hit. Give you one hit, one foul ball, and then I did catch, does that count? Does that count your foul ball?

6:49Pat McAfee:Yeah, the catch definitely counts as a twofer there.

6:50Michael Lombardi:Okay, there's a few swing and misses.

6:52Pat McAfee:A lot of swing and misses.

6:53Michael Lombardi:Yeah, you just let me know.

6:55Pat McAfee:We appreciate you being a great American. Thank you. Good luck.

6:57Michael Lombardi:Thank you.

7:03Pat McAfee:Hey, no, there's no way I'm going to be able to throw enough strikes. All right. Thank you, dude. You're the best.

7:09Michael Lombardi:That was great, man.

7:31Hey!

7:32Pat McAfee:What? Let's go! This show stinks, and the fact that you listen, we are very, very thankful for. McAfee on the line with a gorgeous assist! The all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. You pick! Stunner! Stunner! Damn it! See your friend tell a friend something nice could change their life. We want out! We want out! Sports! Sports! Sports! Sports! Sports! Hello, beautiful people. Huh? Yeah. Welcome back. The Thunderdome is Fieldgood Friday. Sports program shall begin now. Sports! You are the greatest, and we're so incredibly lucky that we get a chance to cover them for a living, talk about them, and even participate every once in a while against a goat.

8:20Pat McAfee:that was the debut and the premiere of kershaw versus mcafee and uh me being mcafee guy that's only been in a batter's box one night of my life getting the opportunity of a lifetime a dream to be able to face off against a first ballot hall of famer a once in a generation type pitcher while out at team usa baseball training camp was incredibly cool i'm so thankful that clayton agreed to do that team usa allowing that to happen and we raised 60 000 plus for kershaw's challenge which is a beautiful thing. So very thankful for it all. And I'll tell you, when you're in there and you're looking at him do his, you think, I'm on TV right now.

8:59Pat McAfee:I'm in there. And once again, we think that what started as a Kershaw, where you just pitch against McAfee at the beginning of this thing, this would kind of be a marketing thing. As news starts happening, Scoob was only going to be throwing 55 pitches. There's some other stories lying. It's like, hey, also, if you want to get back, maybe, You know, maybe you do this thing. So we saw him do the bullpen session for this particular pitch session against me for the one inning against him. And he was like getting it. I mean, there was gloves popping up. Oh, yeah, big time. It felt like we were out of game.

9:29Pat McAfee:And I think he was really trying to find out. I think he's still trying to get back into it. But he's also willing. He said, yeah, I'll throw 1 ,000 pitches if there needs to. I don't care. I got nothing to do on the other side of this whole thing. And I'm never doing it again afterwards. I'd like to pitch to Clayton that we do that once a year for the next 20 years. Yeah. just to see how we both kind of evolved through it all. And if I never get to do it again, know that it was an honor of a lifetime, Clayton. Thank you so much for the opportunity to see that. And that curveball, everybody was talking about it.

9:55Pat McAfee:Boy, it really does make your whole entire time. Tonight, Team USA will take on Brazil 8 p.m. on Fox. Shohei Otani and the Samurai Japan team are, I'll tell you, they showed up and they said, let's go ahead and kick this thing off. Shohei hit a grand salami in the seconding. I think it was like he almost hit for the entire cycle by third inning. Correct. I mean, they are unbelievable in the Tokyo Dome. It feels as if everybody is really into this right now globally. Okay? Every scene that we've seen from these other countries and hosting home games, it's been bananas. We're hoping for the same thing tonight, although Timothee Chalamet must be filming some over.

10:36Pat McAfee:Can't wait to see what you're making, Tim. San Benito, also love that you're traveling. Probably sold out 10 stadiums over there. Love everything you guys got going on. But we like the fact that baseball is about to take over right now, and we like the fact that it's bringing countries together. We hope the same thing will happen behind this Team USA baseball team, just like with what happened in the Olympics about all the sports, and then at the end, both the women's and men's Olympics team. It can be special. We got our best team we've ever put out there for Team USA in the history of Team USA baseball.

11:03Pat McAfee:All the studs are out, and they're trying to win for their country. They're not the only ones. Obviously, we just saw Japan. Kuha is playing right now. Now, the Dominican Republic obviously has a lot to say about it all. There's a lot of teams that are trying to get it done, and we can't wait to watch it all unfold. 8 o 'clock tonight, USA, Brazil. We should win by a lot. We're favored by 9.5. You're better, sir. Okay. Pretty rare for a baseball game. That's very evident. MLB every game is 1.5. That's a touchdown and a field goal. Yeah. Okay, in this entire thing. But the boys are ready. We can't wait to watch.

11:36Pat McAfee:Logan Webb gets the start tonight against Brazil. can't wait to watch the san francisco giant do his thing he's got good mustache right now yeah we saw we had eyes on it the other day it looks great i also was potentially there whenever he got recruited on the team usa and maybe even was a little part of the recruiting to get him out there so it is a dream that we've had this much uh interaction with this team and thank you to baseball for the hospitality now on that note to toxic tables here at boston connor and at ty schmidt boys i like the america fits we got today gotta do it and ty this team usa baseball team might be the thing that really brings a lot more people into baseball we got rid of the uh we added a pitch clock yep okay we shortened the games yep bigger bases we got bigger bases we got stars playing good yeah stars are paul skein star what's he do oh he wins the the thing for the best thing uh aaron judge is the most famous best what's he do he wins the thing for the thing shohei otani's biggest star what he wins that all the stars are playing great too Bryce Harper, ding-dongs all over the place.

12:37Pat McAfee:Schwarbo doing all the names that we know in baseball playing very well last year. Into this Team USA Baseball, if they can continue to go and then they can have another season. Are we about to have a little renaissance moment for baseball? I think there's a chance off of this.

12:49AJ Hawk:Yeah, I hope so. I mean, I think the biggest thing is, because we've talked about this tournament in years past, and if you love baseball, it's fun to watch because you know a lot of these guys. But the major, major stars have kind of stayed away because they're getting ready for the season. but ESPN puts out their top 100 baseball players in the MLB every year, and I want to say 70 of the top 100 are playing in this tournament. So it really is kind of the first real buy-in, I think, where it's like every country that is entering this with players in the MLB, they're actually trying to win the tournament.

13:20AJ Hawk:You mentioned it. This is the best team we've ever had. And we're at the period in the schedule, there's a lot going on, but we do still have that high from the Olympics. So, like, anything we can watch that's like, hey, we can go support our country, and it just so happens we have the best team that our country has ever put out there. Like, these games are going to be electric. There's only been a couple so far, but all of them have delivered. Yeah, I like the baseball, I think.

13:45Pat McAfee:Connor and I were actually talking about getting MLB TV on our phones, I think. Why not? Can we follow the season? Why not get in? Especially with how nice they've been to us and how electrifying these early scenes out of baseball have been, Con, man.

13:56Michael Lombardi:Yeah, and just the culture in general. I feel like there's a natural respect for how baseball players operate. It's very similar to the NHL. And, you know, I mentioned it to Ty earlier, and Ty said it. Like, hey, the Red Sox have Roman Anthony and an ace and Garrett Crochet. Like, you can buy in and watch every single game, which let's take some baby steps first. I'm going to just – Yeah, let's watch a few. Yeah, let me watch a few. But still, with players like that on the team, like, you can easily do that. With the, you know, Pirates, you got Connor Griffin, the kid coming up, and Paul Skeens and the other hundo boy, Jared Jones.

14:27Michael Lombardi:You can watch those guys on a weekly basis no matter what. I feel like I have that in Boston. Then once you get to know the guys even more.

14:35Pat McAfee:I would like them to succeed. Yeah, you want them to succeed. I would like baseball to succeed after meeting the people. So all the people that get mad at us for going to stuff, because I'm a doofus, and I understand that. I understand I am. I've been with me a long time. But, man, I'll tell you, once we meet things and get into things, it feels like we do have a natural respect and appreciation for things a lot more. and we're just trying to learn, literally. I went to the PBA event. I'll tell you, they're using uppers over there. Yeah, I might be in. You know why they're using uppers over there?

15:04Pat McAfee:They're in that bowling alley for 13, 14 straight hours. That's right. Those guys are rolling balls in these. PBA tour player, Cam Crow, Resto, and Drug Chargers, Carmel, India. That's around here. That's near where the Royal Penn is. Sure. It was in the afternoon. Obviously, he's going to try to get some lunch, maybe wake up after a long session in the morning. Get a jersey. Yeah, a little cocaine. I mean, you know, I don't know if it was in the report, but a cop said, we get amazed for us at$10 ,000. There's no lights in there. You got no windows. You come out here, you need a big afternoon.

15:40Pat McAfee:You know, you need to be a 210 at least every time. But you just can't be moseying around our town just like that. Okay, you can't have it. And Cam Crow said, listen, I got four o 'clock. Am I going to be back out there? That's PBA. They are locked in. They love it. But on that note, learning about bowling and going to the PBA event, like anytime that pops up, I feel like we'll be able to give it a little bit more respect and appreciation, especially whenever we see a 300 maybe this weekend at EJ Tackett winning the US Open, first major of the year in his home state, you know, on Sunday. For sure.

16:09Pat McAfee:On the TV show, on CW. Yeah. If that comes up big, it feels like we're showing a little bit. Baseball, I've tried to do that. And I think baseball has been very welcoming to us. So we appreciate MLB. John, Chuck, Bob. All the boys. Up there at the top, lads. All the boys. Thank you for the hospitality. D-Row, opening that up. You know, talking to D-Row, this might be one of my favorite humans here now. Skipper America here? Yeah. Yep. D-Row, the former player, now morning show host on MLB. Okay? Izon can really spin it. Oh, yeah. He is really good. Head skipper for Team USA as a whole. Hand-selected assistant skippers.

16:46Pat McAfee:I don't know if that's what you guys fucking call them. You call them that. The assistant skippers in the entire thing. Hand-selected, like, the team. was a part with the Skippers putting plans together to get guys to come on team and felt like a real honor to be able to represent baseball and the United States of America in this. And he's given actual motivation, actual anguish. He's thought about this since last March they've been putting his team together. And this guy, if they continue to put him on a mic after these wins, I think he's going to be good for baseball too. I think he's going to be good for baseball.

17:14Pat McAfee:And he was very nice to us because there was a lot of opportunity to potentially throw ideas because I've been talking to him. I've been talking to Kersh. I've been talking to MLB people, just trying not to step on any toes. Yeah, Grandpa Rossi, legend through this entire thing. Absolute beast through it all. So I'm talking to all these people, and I talk to D-Ro. He goes, I got 30 minutes with the guys. That's the only time. I'm like, can we come get some stuff in the clubhouse? He's like, you can. I'm going to let you know. You can do whatever you want. We'll let you do whatever you want. I got 30 minutes.

17:43Pat McAfee:That's my first time with the guys. It's all been text messages, some Zoom calls. I'm like, you want to give a speech today? He goes, yeah. I'm like, I'm not going to be in there. I know how important it's been. Thank you. Thank you. Then we move along. That's my first training. It's our first training session. You know, we got time with the guys there. You know, I was like, so you don't want me just going out on the field mingling with the boys. We're going to try to, you know, this is really our time. We're trying to win this thing. Okay. We're trying to get the boys together. I was like, all right, sounds good.

18:09Pat McAfee:He goes, you hang out wherever the hell you want. Okay. And once again, you can do whatever the hell you want. But, you know, just so you know what I'm trying to do on this day that you're there. We're trying to build the boys here. As quick as possible. that we are trying to get a killing machine in baseball, basically, is what we're trying to do. And I have, I don't know how this guy isn't a coach or a leader of something already. Like, my conversations with him have been electrifying, and it seems like he's the perfect guy for the gig. And he's taking it, I mean, this is like, when he wakes up morning show host early, when he goes to bed, this is, America needs to win this because of how much he loves baseball.

18:46Pat McAfee:Pettit feels like the same thing. Oh, yeah. Sean Casey in there. Dino, who's another assistant skipper. Holiday. All of them are like, this is for our generation. This is for your generation. This is the next generation of baseball. This is our shit. And it's been really cool to experience, I would say, Ty, which is why I think we care so much at this point and why we're talking about it so much.

19:06AJ Hawk:Yeah, for sure. And like you said, I mean, like the buy-in right now, like how much – we talked more about baseball down the stretch last year than we have in the previous seven years combined, you know? So it's like you mentioned it. All these guys are playing well right now, and typically they wouldn't be doing this. But it just amplifies everything, being able to go to that event. And like you said, how gracious all those guys were with their time entertaining us being out there. It was awesome. And I think they understand, too. They understand the mission at hand, and they all want to perform.

19:38AJ Hawk:So that's why I think it's going to be very special.

19:40Michael Lombardi:And building it up. Like the World Baseball Classic being a thing every three years, right? Like, that would be something to look forward to constantly. And I feel like, you know, the last one, we didn't necessarily look forward to it. It was something that was on, and it was like, oh, great, this is awesome. Now it's something where it's like, hey, if we get our guys every single three years here to, one, first this year, go get the crown, and then defend the crown going forward, that would be great.

20:04Pat McAfee:Let's go to one half of the hammer. Done! Cowboys AP tone. But before you give us your odds, we have to introduce a man who looks so cool right now. Oh, God. So cool. Ladies and gentlemen, amongst us is somebody who has a college football national championship at the house. Right next to that, Super Bowl championship. Right next to that, a little placard thing that says, Ryder Cope winner, but the team lost. On the other side, title belt says most tackles in the history of the Green Bay Packers. And then right outside of that house, there's a tree. And that thing, its roots are connected all the way to another tree.

20:47Pat McAfee:That's on the Ohio State University campus because this guy was the president of Ohio. What? Ladies and gentlemen, the new NIL funder for the Ohio State Buckeye football team, A.J. Hawker. Yeah, Hawker. Good to see you, Hawker.

21:03Michael Lombardi:Yeah, that got me thinking. Have we ever seen a tree grow and the roots combine and then just hold on? They were soulmates. That's the difference. I'm saying like two miles away. It's called Awa. Heard of her? Oh, yeah. You ever been in Pandora, bitch? We're talking. You guys are talking the blue people.

21:19AJ Hawk:The avatars? Yes, avatars. Yeah, everything's connected. The blue people. Wow, I don't know if you're allowed to say that.

21:23Pat McAfee:Avatar didn't take over my life. I know a lot of people have that. I'm a big James Cameron fan. I don't think you're allowed to do what you just did right there. Okay, hope you're happy. I'm always going to get you. They were blue. Let's talk about they were blue? They were blue. Okay, yes. Yeah, but just to call them by the color of their skin is just ridiculous. Disgusting, actually. I can't believe you're doing that on this particular program. I can't believe you even see that. What the hell? All right, let's go back. I didn't know you hated the blues. Yeah, what's that all about? I thought blue lives mattered.

21:47Pat McAfee:Yeah, it's pretty blue. What the hell's going on? What are your thoughts? Oh, okay. What are your thoughts on Smurfs? Okay, let's move along. Disgusting.

21:55Michael Lombardi:I got some questions for you, Tom. We'll come back to you.

21:58Pat McAfee:I'm sure you do. Okay. Is it about Smurfs? I'm excited.

22:02Michael Lombardi:No, no, just about geopolitics, things going on around the world.

22:06Pat McAfee:I have a question. Yes, we have looked it up. Trees are connected underground through a complex symbiotic network, a fungi known as the microbes network.

22:14Michael Lombardi:So the roots don't connect.

22:16Pat McAfee:Yeah, it's called the wood wide web, dude. The wood wide web. That's sick. That's awesome. Okay, let's wrap up World Baseball Classic. You were not there with us. We were bummed out, obviously. That would have been a lot away from a lot of kids if you combine and into that. We understand completely we did miss you out there. Your expectation on me versus Kershaw, and then also your expectation of World Baseball Classic just as a guy who's not a big baseball guy.

22:40Michael Lombardi:Yeah, I'd say first off, you versus Kershaw. I thought you did great. I thought even when you swung and missed, you looked good. You looked like you belonged.

22:47Pat McAfee:It was upper body, right? I don't know how to activate it.

22:50Michael Lombardi:I mean, but you're also like golf. To even take a good, to have good healthy cuts like you got, I thought was a win. And obviously you got a hit. You're sprinting down the line. It always pays to hustle. We know that.

23:01Pat McAfee:And by the way, I would have Johnny Patty Hall. No question.

23:04Michael Lombardi:I thought that was beautiful. And then I thought you did get – it did you a little bit dirty by only throwing – showing the one pitch, I believe.

23:10Pat McAfee:Yeah, that was foxy. When they showed the one that went hard right,

23:13Michael Lombardi:which you probably did that on purpose because you threw – you burned a few in there before that one. So I get it. But I thought it was awesome. I thought that first curveball he threw you was awesome to watch from the behind. Like, that thing fell off the table. That thing was – Yeah. What was that? 18 inches of drop on it? I don't know. I thought it was hitting my head.

23:28Pat McAfee:I mean, I don't even know why your body would do that. Like, I don't remember the moment exactly in my brain. So me watching it back, it's like I didn't know I moved that much. The first time I saw that, I know it. You didn't fall down, though.

23:39Michael Lombardi:Some guys fall down.

23:39Pat McAfee:I mean, I was pretty close. I mean, if I wasn't so bad on my heels, because I think you're supposed to not completely be on your heels, which is probably how you activate your hips. But if I wasn't so locked into the ground, I think I'm down for sure on that one if you watch that back. And then the angle we have from Bill McComas' camera, I think, which was incredibly well done by everybody, that was all set up in like three minutes, four minutes, cameras everywhere, microphone, let's do this, do this. Great work by all parties involved because Kershaw was warm, and they just redid it so we didn't want to do it.

24:04Pat McAfee:But whenever I saw Pettit and Rossi do the full – I'm like, geez, okay, so everybody was kind of waiting on me. It was good. It was a good time. Now tell me about World Baseball Classic and then we'll wrap up and move into some football.

24:14Michael Lombardi:Well, first off, yeah, we know DeRosa and the boys want to win. I mean, nine-and-a-half point favorites. That's some pressure on you. Like if you're the skipper of that squad, you're thinking, hey, we've got to go win by 25 because the expectations are so sky high. But I think, yeah, I think like Connor said, if we can go get this one and then we defend it in another three years and we just know this is our thing. Coming off of hockey, too, I think it's like we have to have gold.

24:34Pat McAfee:Very worried about baseball labor negotiations that are around the corner, especially if we start hitting a real groove with baseball popularity. Hopefully all parties will come together and make sure that doesn't happen, but that's rare in these types of situations. But maybe baseball will seize the moment. Tonight, bets on this particular game. What should we be looking at, Tone?

24:52AJ Hawk:Yeah, you guys talked about it. The U.S. is minus 9.5 is the spread on this one. If you go or look at an MLB bet, they are all minus one and a half. And occasionally you'll see a minus two and a half. So anything more than that is very, very rare. You'll see that in the WBC, though. Samurai Japan was minus ten and a half, I believe.

25:11Michael Lombardi:So they just have no respect for Brazil's baseball team?

25:13AJ Hawk:Yes, that is correct. Or a ton of respect for Team USA. I laid it. There you go. I laid it. I mean, they've ten-runned everybody they've played already this season.

25:20Michael Lombardi:Yeah, I would take the U.S. here.

25:21AJ Hawk:And then a popular thing in the office this morning is we just took every single U.S. player to hit a home run. They're all up there. It starts with Judgy, who's plus 105. He can definitely hit a home run. Which is nuts. All the way down to Terrain at plus 475. So you can get it. We did it with all the boys. I mean, Judgy's hit a home run already. Raleigh has. Buxton has. Harper has. Bregman has. Roman Anthony has. Those are the ones that have already hit home runs in their first two warm-up games. So it's not like – and they've hit multiple home runs. So we just laid all the home runs with the boys today.

25:54AJ Hawk:That's just a fun thing to do.

25:56Pat McAfee:Yeah, especially if nine and a half, we're going to need a lot of them.

25:58AJ Hawk:Exactly.

25:58Pat McAfee:Yeah, let's hit them. So if we want to win, which we do, and we want to cover, which we do, these are going to have to happen. And this team was built to do this, right, Ty? I mean, that's what this team was put together for.

26:08AJ Hawk:Yeah, I mean, if you look at the lineup from one to nine, I'd say like seven of these guys typically bat third or cleanup on their regular team. So just having a guy who's got pop like a cleanup hitter does bat ninth, obviously that's a good thing.

26:20Pat McAfee:Yeah, maybe next time in this, Kyler Murray's playing in the world baseball class. Kyler Murray obviously no longer with the Arizona Cardinals, put out an entire statement thanking Arizona for the time. We assume there's a chance that he goes to the next stop and has success. You know, he's played a lot of football, he's thrown for over 20 ,000 yards, has a lot of touchdowns, obviously a lot of experience. There's some question marks on how it was all working behind the scenes as him as a quarterback of a franchise, a leader of a program. But is the Arizona Cardinals going to always be like that?

26:45Pat McAfee:That's kind of the question you have to ask, especially whenever you see report cards and Fs are across the board. What's that for? Everything seemingly for the Arizona Cardinals. And then all of a sudden we can't see the report cards anymore. So will that continue to be Fs? Will they continue to get better? We'll never know publicly unless it's Leaf like it was just a couple of weeks ago. But what we're saying is Arizona Cardinals seemingly never going to be successful or were they never going to be successful because Kyler was our quarterback. So there's the two questions. Now, if you get somebody in there who's like a super executive type quarterback, which I think Fernando's going to be.

27:17Pat McAfee:I think Peyton Manning was like that. Tom Brady was like that. I think Patrick Mahomes is like that. I think there's all the greats have kind of been like that. Kyler's not like that. Kyler has been drafted top 10 in MLB and the NFL. Only athlete ever. I think he's a super chill guy. I think he's an incredibly athletic guy. I don't think he is necessarily like a CEO type. So if the Arizona Cardinals get a CEO and be good, maybe. but it seems like Kyler and Arizona were never going to work. Will Arizona ever work? We don't know. Will Kyler and Next Stop work? Potentially. And I don't know if you know this, AJ.

27:47Pat McAfee:There's a new team lingering. Who? Do you know Kyler Murray is maybe the best athlete of all time? Could be up there. Maybe the best athlete of all time. They say Bo Jackson. Sure. Certainly. Deion Sanders. Certainly. Many others are chit-chatting. Jim Thorpe. Certainly. Pistol Pete Maravich. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. Sure. Because how many points he put up. I don't know if he played multiple. No three-point line either, but yeah. Okay, so he's in the paint, so he can't – I don't know how athletic he is. Can he throw a ball? I'm not 100 % sure. I'm only more of a short shooter, but I don't know if he played multiple sports.

28:17Pat McAfee:Kyler Murray, top 10 in the NFL and MLB, obviously has all the talent. The Vikings, seemingly the good convo. Albert Breer says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't discard the Colts.

28:28Michael Lombardi:What? Wow. Excuse me? The Indianapolis Colts? Does Kyler want to come here, or does Indy want him? Do you know?

28:33Pat McAfee:I think there's maybe a mutual of everything. Oh, really? I don't know. I don't do it. Wait a minute. Foxy says, if you read this closely, Albert Breer says, Kyler's certainly interested in Indianapolis. Wow. Now, that's from Albert Breer and his sources. Then there's other sources that say stuff. And then there's probably other teams that we haven't heard of that are potentially interested in Kyler Murray because the quarterback market both through the draft and free agency right now is fascinating. Almost brought Derek Carr out of retirement because there's probably going to be opportunity. But yeah, Kyler's thinking about maybe further shoot.

29:06Pat McAfee:And I'll tell you what, having the greatest athlete of all time in Indianapolis, yeah, that'll do the trick. But I thought we had Daniel Jones as our quarterback, so I'm still a little flustered on how it's all going to work out, AJ.

29:18Michael Lombardi:Daniel Jones, I guess, you'd only bring Kyler in if you feel like Daniel might not be healthy enough to start the season, correct?

29:23Pat McAfee:Or if somebody else pays him and we don't want to match him because we have the transition tag on him as opposed to the franchise tag on him, which certainly sent a lot of the Colts fans into quite a scuttlebug, I will say, about how we're going to lose Daniel Jones and we're going to lose Alec Pierce, and we had a franchise tag that we certainly could have kept one of them for at least a year, and we didn't use any of them, so people aren't happy. So I think the conversation would be if Daniel Jones, who had torn Achilles on one side and a broken leg on the other.

29:47AJ Hawk:That's right.

29:49Michael Lombardi:Tough.

29:50Pat McAfee:Tough son of a bitch.

29:51Michael Lombardi:That broken leg, I don't foresee that being an issue. He was banged up up top probably a little bit, too. Remember when that happened?

29:55Pat McAfee:Yeah, yeah, he's good. He's good. He took snaps today, and then we get Romeo. So, I guess you could say he took snaps. I called Conte immediately. Colts PR. You guys just said that he took snaps today? Yeah. He did take snaps. I said, Conte, I saw this. We all saw the snap that he took, though. That was not snap. He's in trouble. We're working through it. We're working. We'll see how he is tomorrow. He's obviously, we'll get back. We just came off a bye. And that's when I knew we were in trouble. And we weren't actually completely dead at that point.

30:25AJ Hawk:There it is.

30:25Pat McAfee:Looks good. Yeah, that was what we saw. and then he would go on and tear his Achilles on the other side. So Daniel Jones gave us a lot of great times. 8-2, number one team in the league. Oh, my gosh.

30:35Michael Lombardi:Sorry, he's in so much pain. That was the first video we saw. Off of bye week that showed up. Didn't they say this either right before or after this? Didn't Shefty say, we don't foresee this being an issue, though? Yes. He's got a broken leg, Shefty. I think that might be an issue.

30:49Pat McAfee:They said they could conceal it in a good spot or something. He broke his leg in a good place or something was the original report. And then we saw the video, and it was like, I think it was James Boyd, I believe.

30:58AJ Hawk:Yeah, Romeoville Kid.

30:59Pat McAfee:Yeah, Romeoville Kid. This is James Boyd. He does a local radio show, and I think he also writes for… Definitely. Indy Star. Somebody. Is Indy Star still a… I have no idea. Anyways, we saw this video. We knew we were dead. Yeah. So, is he coming back healthy next year after breaking his leg and tearing his Achilles? He's close 10 weeks into a season. And then on that note, are we just going to try to get another quarterback to play until he can get back and we're going to pay him$38 million for that. It's like, what an interesting dynamic in a situation. But everybody knows Kyler Murray's deal next year will probably be, unless there becomes a bidding war, which I guess is possible because all the money is getting paid from Arizona, it'll probably be like a million, 1.2 million, whatever league men is for a veteran at this stage.

31:40Pat McAfee:So it's a Russell Wilson situation in Pittsburgh. And it's like, is Kyler going to take 1.2 million to fill in for Daniel Jones who's going to come back? I don't know. I don't know if that, I don't know. If it's his best.

31:52Michael Lombardi:I mean, everybody should, if you don't have a quarterback and you only have to pay Kyler$1.3 million, whatever it is, because Arizona's paying him, you'd be doing your team a disservice if you didn't at least kick the tires on him and see if he could get to your organization. I agree.

32:05Pat McAfee:No money at$1.3 million is less than a punter.

32:08Michael Lombardi:It's all upside for you. And I guess the Colts are in a good situation if Danny Jones isn't fully healthy. Hey, Kyler, come here, revamp your career, play for a year, and then boom, go sign a giant contract.

32:16Pat McAfee:I like that. Prove it you're here under Shane Steichen's offense, and if you can do your stuff here, everybody's going to want you. Sure.

32:22AJ Hawk:Plus, he saw the combine. He saw that coconut husk. He's like, oh. Everybody's flying. That's fast track.

32:27Pat McAfee:That was a fast track over there, I will say. Go ahead, Conrad.

32:30Michael Lombardi:What about for the Colts, though? Like, if the Colts bring in Kyler, they go 8-0, Danny Dimes comes back. Are you going to start Danny Dimes because you're paying him$35 million or are you going to roll with Kyler? What's our record? 8-0. We're taking the hot hand. We'll worry about that when we get to Kyler.

32:46AJ Hawk:I think you run a two-quarterback package. You could.

32:49Pat McAfee:Listen, Shane Sykins, if we're 8-0 right there, Shane Sykins is super good. You've done it before. So he can do whatever the hell he wants. Four and four.

32:56Michael Lombardi:Yes. If you're above water. Why are you? Because 8-0 was right. You're right. It's a little much. If you're above water. A little much.

33:02Pat McAfee:We're 8-2 this year.

33:04Michael Lombardi:Yeah, true. With Danny Dimes. And then if Kyler comes in and does it for you, and are you going to then pay Danny Dimes$35 million to sit on the bench? It would track based on what we've seen as far as decision-making goes in Indianapolis. but it just feels like that almost might set up for a little bit of a tizzy in the Colts locker room.

33:21Pat McAfee:We're not worried about any tizzies. Okay, we're just worried about winning some games, okay, which has been my messaging to coaches and front office whenever I see them in public, and that's about it. You know, whenever you end the season on a seven-game losing streak, it's not a great taste in your mouth in any offseason. So still have jobs, okay? A lot of people are surprised by that. It's been a long time since we've won around here. I appreciate the situation you've been in. Win some games. Okay? Just win some games. And if Kyler does that, it's great. Let's go ahead and look at how he ranks history whenever you talk about just running the ball.

33:56Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah. Top five all the time. Okay. Okay. Not bad. So do you want him on your team on the coconut husk? Yeah, you do. But if we have Daniel Jones already, if we lose him, this would certainly be a great option. If we have them both, we're in a fascinating situation here in Indianapolis, and I'm here for it. Let's talk about a fascinating situation. I didn't know you could sign anybody right now. Yeah, what the hell? I didn't know you could sign anybody right now. But I guess whenever a player gets cut from a team, he's able to do whatever the hell he wants, whenever he wants. Who cares when a new league year starts if you've already been cut and your contract has been waived and voided?

34:28Pat McAfee:Well, the Chargers got the job done. They signed. Center. Tyler. Biotish. Three-year. 30 mil. He got cut. Now he signs a three-year,$30 million deal to go revamp a Los Angeles Chargers offensive line. And they certainly need it, Tone. People are celebrating hearties on the internet right now, not only for getting a deal with a center and trying to revamp it, but also getting a deal done before the free agency frenzy thing on Monday, which is when everybody else has to wait to get these deals.

34:54AJ Hawk:Yeah, at the beginning of the season last year, you're looking at Chargers O-line as a position of strength, and obviously you lose two of the best offensive tackles in football, in Joe Alt and Rayshon Slater to injuries. So then that's an interesting issue. And the Mekhi Becton, who they brought in at right guard, didn't exactly work out. So by the end of the year, that offensive line was terrible. So they bring in Biotis. They're going to get their two tackles back. They have Zion Johnson at guard, I believe. So if they go the other guard, it should be a position of strength again. So the Chargers are going with that.

35:25AJ Hawk:If they figure out their wide receiver weapons issue, not an issue, but maybe adding a couple more of those. The Chargers are in a really good spot. I know Biotis was taking trips to Chicago and a couple other places, but he had a great visit in L.A. and decided to go there. Got pretty wide-eyed eyes.

35:42Pat McAfee:Yeah. He's got pretty locked-in eyes. That's a nice fish. Big fucking eyes. That's a nice fish. Feels like him and Jim Harbaugh probably. Oh, yeah. Yeah, probably on the same page if I had to guess right there. I like any time anybody invests in their offensive line. I personally like the move. I always like when people invest in their defensive line. How about Daniil Hunter? Daniil Hunter gets a new 40-point-something million-dollar one-year deal down there in Casario say, we're not moving on, but also we need to figure this out. We get that you want some money. How about we just do a one-year extension here, $40.1 million, including a$30.7 million signing bonus.

36:20Pat McAfee:We assume there's some salary cap gymnastic years in the back of this thing. Congrats to Daniil Hunter. Jeez, easy for me to say. Going down to Houston, getting the job done, getting a massive payday, and for Nick Casario, getting a deal done with him, even though I assumed Daniil wanted something different. Let's give you this. Let's figure this out a different time.

36:37Michael Lombardi:Yeah, I mean, what, he had 15 sacks last year. He's been so dominant, I feel like. And Will Anderson's going to get a big old deal on the opposite side of him. Al Shayer's going to get a contract as well. So good for them getting them out of this, getting this done early, I guess. But one-year,$40 million deal. Have we ever heard that before? I guess just one-year extension, 40 per year.

36:55Pat McAfee:This is, I want a new deal. We can't do – Can't do it. We can't do – well, can we do something? And I think this is legitimately Nick just being like, you're right, you deserve it. Here we go. can we do this and then can we move on? That's what I read whenever I saw it. But it could also be – what year is this for Daniil?

37:12Michael Lombardi:He's 32. Was he 7, 8? I think it might be 9, 9 or 10. Possibly 9 or 10. He was in Minnesota for a while.

37:19Pat McAfee:Is Daniil Hunter at the stage of his career where he's like, I just want to go one year at a time. Let me figure that out. Is he the one that wanted to do it?

37:25AJ Hawk:He was under contract for this upcoming season. This is for the 2027 season. So they have him for the next two seasons. This is what – I mean, this is kind of what the Bengals should have done with Trey last year. here to avoid what was happening. Yeah, but Daniil has been unbelievable. So it makes sense to give him the contract. He is 32, 33, so maybe they didn't want to do a long-term. So, hey, one year,$40 more million. That's a lot. Hey, what's up, squirrel?

37:50Pat McAfee:I did just hold this. Kevin Green's on here.

37:54Michael Lombardi:I was reading that. If you pop that graphic back up, sorry. I was looking at this when I was driving here today. I almost drove off the road. Just look at the company he is in. Reggie White, Bruce Smith, Kevin Green, KG, love you, RIP, Myles Garrett, and Hunter. Like that's a pretty good crew to be a part of, I would imagine.

38:07Pat McAfee:Yeah, that's one year, 40 point some million dollar deal worth, I would say. And I'll tell you, if Daniel Hunter is going to start doing one year deal, two year deal things towards the end, I think that's a smart play, especially if you can bet on yourself and hit. That is a betting on yourself type mantra. And I respect it. I like it. And shout out to Houston, keeping the Houston sack station running because Houston is a

38:31Michael Lombardi:problem. Yeah. And he probably does not. I mean, AJ mentioned Will Anderson getting a massive contract around the corner. Like, shout out to Casario. I wonder if Daniil Hunter, you know, didn't even go to Casario, and more so Casario went to him like, hey, we obviously need you here, want you here. We can probably get something done over the next two years. But also on the horizon is, you know, Will Anderson Jr. getting$40 million a year too. Like, if there was a spot to pay two guys, there would be the D-line.

38:57Pat McAfee:More news out of the NFL. Geno Smith has officially been released from the Raiders. He obviously is with the Seattle Seahawks before the Raiders. Before that, I believe it was the Chargers. Before that, I believe it was the... Was it the Giants before the Jets? He's been on a journey. Obviously, highly touted stud out of West Virginia. His career took its own path, its own way. He had success in Seattle, led the number one offense at one point with Pete Carroll for the Seahawks post-Russell Wilson. Then a deal was offered to him that he didn't necessarily like. an opportunity goes to Vegas to be a Raiders quarterback.

39:32Pat McAfee:He might have had the most unlucky interceptions all the time every game. I mean, people were dropping in from the sky like they were Chris Angel on those things, picking him off, making the plays of their lives. Seemingly, every time he threw a football, it does not work. Pete Carroll's gone. The entire system's gone. Geno's gone. And then he just retweeted a little bit ago Kyrie Irving's tweet from like 2014 that basically says the journey is the reward. So that means Geno has been excited and thankful he's been here before, and we assume he's going to get some looks because he can still spin it.

40:05Pat McAfee:That's another Minnesota Viking opportunity that could come through because they're looking for a guy that can layer a football. Geno can certainly do that. Now, I will say, in my head, what I just thought of with Geno layering a ball is a safety flying over top, hitting it off his helmet, and then catching it off of him because that's what it was like for Geno whenever he was in Vegas. But you get him in the right system, He can spin it. People are going to take chances on bringing Geno Smith in, and we might see another resurgence from Geno, or backup quarterback Geno Smith becomes the new role for him, especially with a guy with a lot of experience.

40:42Michael Lombardi:Yeah, that's part. What about Miami? About Gumpy's Miami Dolphins if they move on from Tua? I don't know what the Tua situation is going to look like, but, yeah, I could see him going back to Miami.

40:51Pat McAfee:Yeah, Geno going to Miami would be awesome. How about it, Gums?

40:54AJ Hawk:Yeah, him and Finn Ewers, Quinn Ewers, Wyn Ewers, Spin Ewers. I mean, I'm good with Quinn Ewers at the helm.

40:59Pat McAfee:Spin to win, Heuer.

41:00AJ Hawk:Yeah, we got Lin Bin. We got Finn Heuer. I mean, we got it all right now, except any cap space to sign fucking anybody. Well, I got good news.

41:07Pat McAfee:I got good news for you. You're going to be able to find some more money because you guys are going to be releasing your kicker, maybe your best player. After the two sides could not agree on a contract, the Dolphins now are expected to release kicker Jason Sanders. Sanders leaves Miami with a streak of 27 straight-made field goals in 9-9 on his last-minute pleasure.

41:24AJ Hawk:He was hurt all last year. Riley Patterson missed one kick all year as well.

41:29Pat McAfee:Okay, we like Riley. Hey, of course. Move on, move on. The Dolphins in 2023 Pro Bowl fullback Alec Ingold are parting ways as well. So it's just telling the inside. Another Pro Bowler goes out the door. He's a three-time Old Spain man of the year, not me. And team captain had discussions with Miami about a new deal. But he'll be released and free to sign with the team as soon as today if anybody wants to bring the fullback back into their offense. Con man shaking his head mightily because of a text message we received potentially earlier today with a potential team getting a fullback?

41:59Michael Lombardi:Or other ideas in your mind? Yeah, no, bingo. We're on the same page there. But he is also another one of those guys where it's like he's not just a fullback. They'll split him out when they're going five wide and he'll be catching passes.

42:11Pat McAfee:Oh, another use check just hit the market. Okay, thank God the Miami Dolphins are letting other people have great players again. Everybody that's good for the Dolphins over the last six years, get them out of here. That's right. Now, on that note, it's a new era. It's a new time. Dan Marino, Troy Aikman, and the boys helping out the hiring. You bring in the Green Bay Packers, basically. Exactly. Good luck to you, Dolphins. Not a bad move.

42:36AJ Hawk:Sully's at the wheel, and I'm just glad everybody can now see how terrible Chris Greer was at his job. You know, this has been happening for a long time, and now here we are.

42:46Pat McAfee:Gumby wanted to take one last opportunity to piss on a grave of Chris Greer, former general manager slash president of football for the Miami Dolphins for like five coaches, it felt like. These guys can't coach anything. Seems like there's one. No, he's good. He makes all the decisions. Well, it feels like the team's not good, though, no matter who's coaching. It's like, yeah, well, it's not this guy. That's basically what Gumby's life has been. How come all fingers aren't going to that guy? That guy's the only guy around. And then Ross would get on the microphone. I love this guy. Yeah. I love this guy.

43:16Pat McAfee:This guy will be here. He'll be making all the decisions football-wise. That'll get us into a spot. And then he finally fires this guy. and thank you for your service to football, Mr. Chris Greer. Gumpy would say a little bit too much service, but on that note, it does feel like Gumpy is a little bit more optimistic about whatever decisions are in the future. And that's what turnover can do. Turnover just brings a natural optimism, a natural hope, a natural maybe things will be different than it has been. And whenever you see, you know, northern stars like the Jacksonville Jaguars and whenever you see the New England Patriots or the Chicago Bears and even the Seattle Seahawks have this quick of a turnover whenever you make some change, it's hard not to get eager about firing people.

43:56Pat McAfee:But then all these teams that have some consistency have had success over the last 20 years. Intrigued to see what the next 10 years are. Is it going to be a lot of turnover people wishing for a star? Or is it going to be a lot of what's happening here in Indianapolis where we're going on 10, 11 years and not winning and it's like we want consistency. Interesting turmoil and turning point, I think, for the league.

44:16AJ Hawk:And it's what we talk about every single time we get to Black Monday or whatever when all these coaches get fired. And it's like a third of the league.

44:23Michael Lombardi:Exactly.

44:23AJ Hawk:It's like they're and, you know, certain teams who have been successful, their fan bases get fed up because that's kind of what happens. And it's like, hey, let's fire. Let's fire our guy right now. And it's like there aren't enough good coaches out there to fill all the openings that we have. So it's like you always think that the grass is greener on the other side. You kind of have to when your entire organization gets torn down and starts anew. But, boy, it seems that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. We've seen it, you know, many, many times.

44:52Pat McAfee:But that damn green grass that you think you're seeing, if you do happen upon it, life is good. Life is good. Patriots, it's such green grass. And then they went to a dirt AstroTurf field. And then all of a sudden they're like, nope, we need to get right back in there. And all of a sudden it's variable. Scott's Turf Builder Plus down there, no weeds. He's just spitting out seed for the grass. Drake May. It's unbelievable. Drake May out there. It's outrageous. Hey, we're happy for you guys. Thanks, man.

45:23Michael Lombardi:Hopefully more moves coming today.

45:24Pat McAfee:You know, New England is an area that is known to having a lot of success in all their sports. The Boston Fleet are the top of the PWHL. No big deal. We just found out they were a team. They are our favorite team. But they're number one around here.

45:37Michael Lombardi:Sold out the garden, by the way.

45:39Pat McAfee:The BCGC, who, the Boston Fleet? Yep. Sick. Can't wait to get to one of those games. I'm sure it's absolutely electrifying, of course, because it's associated with New England up there. Red Sox have won everything. Obviously, the Bruins have won everything. The Patriots have won everything. This BCGC team and TGL, they've never even sniffed Boston's air, but they have Boston in front of it. They're number one in the TGL. Got our keys. It just seems like that area is just always going to win for some reason. We have to just live with that. We don't have to like it. We don't, but we just have to live with that.

46:10Pat McAfee:and now it feels like their basketball team. Okay? I don't know if you saw it. They had a fleet of exciting whites the other night. Yeah, they did. Okay, just a fleet of them. Joe Mazzullo said, boys, you know what we're doing. You know what you're doing out there. And all you heard was, I'm straight. That's all you heard. That's all you heard. Win, dominate. Then, you know, they lose their megastar, their all-star. Will you stop it with this microphone? It's unbelievable. You smacked the wood and my whole microphone went left. That's what they were doing. I'm trying to get it. That's what they were doing.

46:40Pat McAfee:and bopping around. They do, this thing's flopping around.

46:42Michael Lombardi:Sorry.

46:42Pat McAfee:But anyways, one of the best players on earth now has recovered from an injury faster than ever to get back on a winning team just because it's New England. This wouldn't happen and hasn't happened anywhere else. Allegedly, Jason Tatum's going to be returning to the court, which is an absurd thing to think about after tearing his Achilles when he did last season. And everybody just said he's going to be gone forever. Well, Joe Mazzola and the boys have been able to keep the team good and in contention and just say, hey, when you come back, will add you to our roster. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who broke the news and a guy who is always on the beat for the NBA.

47:16Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, Shams Sharanya. Yay, Shams! Shams, what is this? Why does the New England area and Boston always get this type of shit? Honestly, why is this? Has this ever happened before? It's been, what, 200 and some days, I guess, and this guy is going to be back on the hardwood, running back and forth. What should we expect out of him? And when did it become a reality that he was going to potentially return this season? Because my understanding was he was just gone for this season, maybe late postseason. How did we get here, Shams, if you could kind of just catch us up on it all?

47:49AJ Hawk:So, Pat, I mean, the point you make is very interesting because, yeah, it's the Celtics. And it's that area. And what they play for is championships. And I had a Celtics official tell me last night, it's like, we play for championships here. All of our players, they all know the aspirations that we have. and you have to believe that plays a big part in Jason Tatum's mindset. Now, if Jalen Brown hadn't led this team for the first 60-plus games of the season to put this team in position to compete for a championship, to make some real noise, does Jason Tatum come back? We will never know. But he literally, from the moment when he had surgery in May, so just under 10 months ago, he underwent surgery for a fully ruptured Achilles tendon.

48:34AJ Hawk:And this is usually an injury that takes about a year. Kevin Durant took 16, 17, 18 months to rehab and recover from his. Jason Tatum, the moment he had surgery, he started two, three days or two, three sessions per day. He had daily sessions, multiple sessions throughout the day. He made it his goal, his mission to come back for the 25, 26 season as unlikely as everyone else thought it was going to be. And even in the fall, he did a string of media and he said, I'm not doing these two a day. working out two, three times a day just to sit at home. I'm doing this so I can play. And even still, I think a lot of people on the league kind of just looked at it and was like, all right, that's a good hope.

49:14AJ Hawk:But in the last 24, 48 hours, I had multiple people around the situation, around the team, around Jason Tatum tell me he is ready to go. So anytime you're coming back from an Achilles tear, an injury of this magnitude, yes, it's getting 100 % medically. It's getting 100 % mentally. And then it's getting the sign-off from the doctors, from Jason Tatum's representatives. Because think about it. Jason Tatum has a contract of over$300 million. So there's a massive investment there if you're someone around Jason Tatum. And then if you're the Boston Celtics, this is the biggest investment you have in any player in your franchise.

49:50AJ Hawk:So they're not just going to rush him back. They're not going to put him in a position where he's going to be in harm's way and he's not fully cleared. So when he got cleared over a month ago to do full five-on-five scrimmaging, I think that's when everything became a reality. And then from there, it's just been about him getting there mentally, him getting the conditioning, the reps that he needed from a five-on-five scrimmaging basis. And this week, I'm told he got fully cleared to return to action and make his season debut. and that will be all expectations are that's going to be tonight against the Dallas Mavericks.

50:27AJ Hawk:Celtics are bracing for that. His teammates are ready for him to return. Jason Tatum has indicated to the team that he's ready to return tonight. And the Celtics are already planning to be on a minutes restriction. They're planning that starting tonight, you're going to have 19 games left in the season. Start to get him in as close to peak Jason Tatum form as possible before the playoffs. And then from there, it's full steam ahead. that's everything that's being envisioned. And Joe Mazzulla, Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, all three parties, from my understanding, they've had conversations, just getting ready for tonight and getting ready for what's going to be, I think, an unbelievable atmosphere.

51:04AJ Hawk:Because not only Jason Tatum expected to play tonight, but Cooper Flagg, who hails from Maine, is expected to be in the first thing Maine is going to be there tonight. So Cooper Flagg, Jason Tatum on deck for tonight.

51:16Pat McAfee:Is this Cooper Flagg's first time playing in Boston?

51:20AJ Hawk:Yes, it is.

51:21Pat McAfee:I don't love what Missoula and Tatum are doing to that. Yeah, I don't love that. That's right. Hey, kid. Yeah, sweet. You're from Maine. You're the main event. Okay, actual main event? MVP. He's Boston, bitch. Okay, and Tatum's going to come play. Congrats, Cooper Flagg. We know he's a beast. Shout out to him his entire run, and him being the main event and everything like that is spectacular. But story of night is definitely Tatum defying odds, science, and doubts from a lot of different people. Last question for me on the entire thing. And as you were talking there, great layout of the entire situation.

51:52Pat McAfee:We appreciate you doing that. Connor was over here, Jace. Ear-to-ear and doing the rock goose bumps over here because how excited he is about it all.

52:01AJ Hawk:We were in Indy during the conference finals, and me and BC were talking about how bad it was looking for the Celtics, and they were going to tear down the roster. Trade. All the moves that were going to be made. They moved Porzingis. They moved Drew Holiday. This is a totally different team. This is a team built on these scrappy rookie salary players. They're clearly not a tax team this year. So think about it. They were a second apron team, which is like basketball, salary, hell. And now they're not even a luxury tax team, and they're on the brink of potentially competing for a championship.

52:36AJ Hawk:Yeah, of course.

52:37Pat McAfee:And once again, Boston. They always do it. And I'm at Tony Tony's board here. Roman Anthony, he's going to be doing it for a long time up there as well. Oh, it was great, man. This just always seems to work out up there. Good for you guys. Thanks, man. We're really happy for you. I appreciate it. Shout out to Joe Mazula. But I am happy for Tatum. Yeah, he goes to bed questionable, wakes up probable. He has a line for absolutely everything. Last question for me on Tatum before we have one or two other NBA things because we have a hard out of 57, Shams. We appreciate you joining us on this huge day.

53:07Pat McAfee:When we've seen guys in the NFL come back after an Achilles, it's clear that they're coming back from an Achilles. You said he's been playing five-on-five for 30 days. Have you seen any film of him playing? Should we be expecting him to be hobbly, or are they expecting, just other than cardio and game shape, they're expecting him to be able to move the same way he moved before? Is that what the reports are out of this practice, is we should be expecting him?

53:27AJ Hawk:Yeah, Pat, I've heard from multiple people that have been involved and seen Jason Tatum, have even practiced against him, and they say he looks like Jason Tatum. He looks great. But again, practicing in five-on-five, scrimmaging with the team, he scrimmaged with coaches, and then he scrimmaged with coaches and State Ready Group, which in the NBA State Ready Group is guys on two-way contracts, guys in the G League, guys that are end-of-bench players. So he's doing five-on-five against them. And then he goes up against all professional players, so the main Celtics. And then he goes up against the actual Boston Celtics practice.

54:01AJ Hawk:So he's been through every single prong of this as you possibly can go through to put himself through the gauntlet. So I don't think anyone's expecting Jason Tatum to come in tonight and have 30 minutes and 30 points and have a ton of usage percentage like we're accustomed to seeing, it's going to be a gradual, allow him to get his legs under him because there's going to be ebbs and flows. There's going to be stuff that comes up along the way, bumps in the road, soreness that he's going to deal with. This could lead to potentially other injuries. You don't want to see it, but there's always these potential.

54:36AJ Hawk:He could deal with knee soreness. He could deal with something else just because of the gruesome injury that it's coming back from. But right now, everyone there believes in this.

54:45Pat McAfee:Over-under is 13 for him tonight. Just something to think about. Last question quick from Con Man.

54:51Michael Lombardi:Yeah, that's just the worry, Sean. The minutes restriction is strictly to see how his body responds, not as much like, hey, this guy isn't ready to play.

54:59AJ Hawk:No, it's 100 % going to be him getting his legs under him, conditioning. And honestly, this is another thing we haven't spoken about. It's like the anxiety, the nerves. And I think that is something that Jason Tatum is very, very aware of. That, like, what is it going to be like when I step foot in TD Garden and get announced? Yeah, I understand. How will it be even getting my first shot? And so that's all something he's dealing with.

55:20Pat McAfee:Yeah, when you come back from an injury, you're always scared you're going to do it again. So that is, like, the biggest hurdle. I would assume that he's been getting through that for these five-on-fives that you just listed. But in real action against real teams, especially with the main event coming to town, I'm excited to watch him respond. I think I'm taking you over there on him as well. And I think it's going to be the first five shots, I think.

55:39AJ Hawk:You've got to shoot him quick. You've got to get the nerves out. They're going to be feeding him, I assume.

55:45Pat McAfee:Hey, welcome to the show here, main event. All right, I appreciate the hell out of you joining us, Shams. We're excited to chat. Basketball, as this NBA season continues to roll on. They're saying the college season much better than the NBA. Is that real?

55:58AJ Hawk:Come on now. NBA season, up to something season in the NBA. Okay. All right, here they are.

56:03Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, Shams, you're on. Yeah, Shams. They have been saying that.

56:07AJ Hawk:Oh, yeah. And I think it's kind of certified. We haven't even got to the tournament yet.

56:11Pat McAfee:We're getting close to the conference championships, right? Those are happening over the next week and everything like that. Yeah, age. They're saying college basketball up to the right, you know, and NBA's trying to keep up with them. And allegedly, these college teams are scoring. And allegedly, the environments are obviously awesome. And they turn on an NBA game, and it is like what it is.

56:29Michael Lombardi:It's the atmosphere. I think it's the atmosphere around the college game that makes people think that. And football as well.

56:34Pat McAfee:It has the same thing.

56:35Michael Lombardi:Yeah, the pageantry. People are juiced. The barns are much better than a lot of these NBA barns. Oh, you're right. Jack Hula said, I don't know how many barns are going to be doing this time. Not tonight. That place in Boston is going to be absurd. And also, if March Madness doesn't deliver and the NBA playoffs deliver, we'll have the opposite conversation. Yeah, for the rest of the year.

56:51Pat McAfee:NBA always delivers towards the playoffs. Be your friend, tell your friend something nice. It might change their life. We're back on the other side with Michael Lombardi. Whoa!

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58:30Pat McAfee:Sports! Connor goes, deals done. I didn't even read the tweet. I was told the tweet, and I was told the tweet said that the deal's done. And then you're telling me, Ricky Scoops, this dog knows. Okay, this dog knows. And what happens is, well, then Ty goes, that dog knew Micah before Micah. Yeah, they knew Micah.

58:49AJ Hawk:He had DK Metcalf, too. Oh, okay. Ricky Scoops knows.

58:53Pat McAfee:Yeah, well, Ricky Scoops didn't say Alec Pierce is going to the Patriots. Well, that's what I was told Ricky Scoops said. What Ricky Scoops, the dog, said is that the New England Patriots are about to throw a bag at Alec Pierce, which I think a lot of people are potentially expecting for a lot of people to throw bags at Alec Pierce. And on that note, he did have by far his best season that he's ever had in the NFL going into his contract year. By far. And what he does is what every NFL team is looking for. Last year, explosive play rate went down. Explosive plays for the last five years have been a good indicator on who's going to win games.

59:25Pat McAfee:Alec Pierce is an explosive play. So whenever you've got teams with shell coverages, you know, they're trying to keep everything in front of you. You can gain a few yards, then we're going to go ahead and tackle you. That's basically what defenses have done to kind of counteract what these NFL offenses have started to do. NFL offense started to have late motions, quick motions, and then they were taking advantages of defenses. They had big fatos like middle linebacker for the Green Bay Packer, A.J. Hawk. And they were just making them look like absolute maple syrup running, slow losers out there.

59:55Pat McAfee:and explosive plays just started happening. Boom, boom, boom. Then defense coordinators who get paid millions of dollars as well who are very high football IQ people said, well, if we just sit this thing back a little bit, get a little bit more speed out here, at least we'll give up the explosive plays. We're going to give up yards, but it's not a big deal. It was a counter to the chess move that NFL offenses did. Now explosive plays at a premium. Alec Pierce, he'll go get you one. He will go get you. If you throw it in double coverage, he'll go get you one. If you throw it at man-to-man, he will certainly go up and get it.

1:00:22Pat McAfee:There's times in years past where the balls maybe weren't perfect, or maybe they were getting broken up at the last second, but it was always an electrifying time. And then we hear stories in practice of Alec Pierce just going up on everybody's heads and making incredible plays. Last year, we saw all that come to fruition. When Daniel Jones was spinning the ball and when he and Daniel Jones knew exactly what each other were doing, he became awesome to watch. He's a tough, tough song guy. I mean, it is, dude. He's tough. He's a farmer, and he's got moxie, too. When he gets introduced coming out of the tunnel, I mean, he looks at the camera and does a full, and then does a full sprint out.

1:00:55Pat McAfee:it's like he's got the moxie, he's got the grit, he's got the speed, he's got the ability to read a ball. It's like he is an explosive play waiting to happen for any NFL team, and we are in an era where people are looking for that because defenses have gotten so good. So we assume that Alec Pierce, who was on with Kay on Up and Adams yesterday, said, I've earned the right to kind of see what free agency is. I think free agency is going to be good, Alec Pierce. And I do assume the New England Patriots, who have a lot of money and also a lot to sell up there, and Vrabes is a guy, I think Alec Pierce would have a lot of respect for whenever they were going into conversation.

1:01:28Pat McAfee:Remember, we heard the story of Alec Pierce. Hanging with the boys. He's got it in him. Two drinks. Guy who's hosting party, also athlete, leaving party. Alec Pierce puts one drink in other drink, daps up person. How you doing? See you later. Pulls drink out of other drink, takes a sip out of drink, continues conversation. Now, that was after a big-time win with the boys. That is what we're talking about with Alec Pierce. Checks every box, seemingly, and the New England Patriots would obviously be interested, but I don't think they're going to be the only ones, AJ.

1:02:03Michael Lombardi:No, I mean, unrestricted free agent. Do you think there's any chance the Colts find a way to re-sign him?

1:02:07Pat McAfee:No. Yeah, so that's probably...

1:02:09Michael Lombardi:I mean, no way, especially with what he said to Kay Adams. I mean, I don't know. I don't want to throw any shade at this canine that you guys are reading their tweets, but... Ricky's fucking Ricky Scoops. He's got a name. Ricky Scoops. This is the first time I've learned of Ricky Scoops. I was actually walking out of the bathroom when Bruce confirmed it with Connor. Oh, Ricky Scoops, Alec Pierce, done deal. New England. Thanks, Oliver. Thank you.

1:02:29Pat McAfee:Bruce, you're part of the problem.

1:02:31Michael Lombardi:If Ricky says it, it's as good as done. I didn't maybe read it all the way and see that he was just throwing a bag. You saw the hard hat, yeah. I saw the hard hat on Alec Pierce's head. I mean, they're probably going to be the highest bidder, if I had to guess.

1:02:43Pat McAfee:I mean, is Alec Pierce just looking for the highest bidder? What if he goes to the Chiefs? You know, what if he heads to all?

1:02:48AJ Hawk:He wants to know who his quarterback is going to be.

1:02:49Pat McAfee:Yeah, and Drake Maywood, obviously, great deep ball thrower, too.

1:02:52Michael Lombardi:Oh, yeah, best in the league, actually, statistically. Man, the Colts could really use him again next year.

1:02:58Pat McAfee:No, they couldn't.

1:02:59AJ Hawk:He said he wants to know who his quarterback's going to be.

1:03:01Michael Lombardi:That's what I'm saying. There's no chance he's going back, but it's a shame they had to lose him, though. He was great. Why'd you ask him two seconds ago if he's going back? Maybe they should retire his number.

1:03:10Pat McAfee:He's a great Colt. Four years is enough. The Colts might, actually. Not a bet. See, everybody's kind of saying things in these condescending fashions, and I don't know.

1:03:17Michael Lombardi:I didn't. I just said they do have a lot of names around this.

1:03:20Pat McAfee:I'm agree about some news that Kyler was hoping to come to the Colts. That was a good day. That was a good day. Still a good day.

1:03:24Michael Lombardi:I think he might come. It's Friday. It's a great day.

1:03:26Pat McAfee:It's feel-good Friday.

1:03:27Michael Lombardi:75 degrees outside.

1:03:28Pat McAfee:Hell yeah. USA! USA! USA! World Baseball Classic tonight, Tone. Has the numbers moved? Has anything moved for that game? And what other games are taking place today for the World Baseball Classic that maybe we should think about putting a little money on because it feels like the good teams are playing well and want to show up well early?

1:03:48AJ Hawk:Yeah, I believe there's eight total games today. The line's not moved for USA. They're still minus 9.5. Cuba and Panama are going on right now. Cuba's up 3-0 on Panama. Yes. And the Netherlands and Venezuela are playing as well. Venezuela's up 2-1 on the Netherlands. A couple other ones. Mexico, Great Britain. I don't know. Puerto Rico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Dominican and Republican. The Dominican is only minus 4.5. Jump on that. Nicaragua's a great team, okay? The Dominican, though, we've seen what they've been doing. Minus 4.5. Where's that game at? That doesn't say, I don't know, on Sportsbook.

1:04:23AJ Hawk:It's Dusty Baker, right?

1:04:24Michael Lombardi:At the Dominican. Yeah, it's got to be.

1:04:26Pat McAfee:At Dominican, it says. That's in the Dominican? Yeah. It might be the POD. Okay, that's mine. Keep going, please. We're going to try to get ahead of that. We are not saying this is a guarantee. We are just saying we are looking forward to watching this game because all of their bats got lightning, and it's in Miami. Okay, it's in Miami.

1:04:44AJ Hawk:Okay. All right, okay. It's in Miami, which, you know, that'll be a mostly Dominican crowd. You think so?

1:04:50Pat McAfee:You just did a quick demo thought? Yeah, I did. You really? You think you got Miami demo figured out?

1:04:56AJ Hawk:No, I texted.

1:04:57Pat McAfee:I had a couple beers in the elbow room. I had a conversation with a local or two. I think I know what's going on.

1:05:01AJ Hawk:No, I texted Butsy. I got him on FaceTime here. Yep. Butsy goes a lot. Yep. Okay. But that game's at 7, and then tonight, 8 o 'clock, is USA and Brazil. That's the night cap. Good games today. There's a lot of betting opportunities, a lot of home run opportunities. Dominican's a good home run opportunity game as well. Okay.

1:05:20Michael Lombardi:Yeah, also throwing in Vigro Jr. and Juan Soto, if you guys want to do that.

1:05:24AJ Hawk:Okay. Yep.

1:05:25Pat McAfee:All right. All right. That needs to be done. Thank you for that information. Yeah. It needs to be done. Dominican's one of the team we're looking at to potentially battle against.

1:05:34AJ Hawk:Exactly. And Chris Sanchez is their ace pretty much. He's on the mound.

1:05:37Michael Lombardi:Their odds bumped up, too, if I saw that graphic earlier. I believe they are now the second favorite behind the USA.

1:05:43Pat McAfee:The Dominican Republic managed by Albert Pujols. Yeah, exactly. He's heavily favored against Nicaragua with pitchers like Christopher Sanchez leading a roster of MLB stars. That's at 7 o 'clock in Lone Depot Park in Miami. Let's go, boys. Yeah, let's go, boys. Come on, Dominican. For now. We need to see you later. Good for baseball. All right, joining us now is a man who's good for football. Now, not everybody in football loves every time he talks about football because he certainly has opinions because he's been learning about the game since, I don't know, what, 1970 or something like that. He's been in the NFL for 100 years.

1:06:21Pat McAfee:Now he's the general manager of a college football team, friend of the program, Paizan legend, ladies and gentlemen, general manager of the North Carolina Tar Heel football team, Michael Lombardi.

1:06:31Shams Charania:Yeah, Lombardi! Oh, good to be back with you guys. Good to be back. How are you? Miss you guys. Yeah, big days coming up, huh?

1:06:39Pat McAfee:Yeah, we got big stuff. You know, this is all, let's bullshit narrative season for football. But then now we've gotten an interest and some friends in other sports we're covering. It's been a blast. I'll tell you, World Baseball Classic special, especially coming out of the Olympics. I assume you followed along with the Olympic competition and loved it. I loved how we came together. I think World Baseball Classic is going to do that as well, Lombo. Quick question. Always recruiting, huh, baby? That NC looks good behind you right now with that Tar Heel blue, little quarter zit. You look good right now, Lombo.

1:07:09Pat McAfee:How's life down there?

1:07:11Shams Charania:Life is good. You know, we're getting ready to go into spring. We've had a really good recruiting class, and we've been really working hard in our offseason program, which is, look, you know, when you win six Super Bowls and you have one pick in the top seven in those 20-something years that he was in New England, a lot of it goes into player development. And player development starts with the offseason program. It starts with our strength and conditioning. It starts with our nutrition. And that's really what we feel excited about going into the year. We've got a lot of good young players. You know, we've added players in the portal.

1:07:43Shams Charania:So to bring the team together, which we couldn't do last year because of the dual portals and because of the change in the calendar, this year allows us to be more of a Belichickian type team where we can go out there and focus on fundamentals, techniques, and improve the players.

1:07:59Pat McAfee:Okay, so on that note, I thought you guys were going to get your asses ran out of there. I mean, they were trying. It felt like every day you guys were going to be ran the hell out of town. And I'm going to be honest, even as somebody that knows you both and knew how much and how much passion I think you all had to get back into ball and how much you were enjoying it seemingly when you were talking to me, I even started to question, like, is this going to be something they're going to continue to stick with? Is this going to be something they're going to continue to want to do and deal with on a daily basis?

1:08:25Pat McAfee:Is this what you want your life to be right now, just constantly attack seemingly for everything that you have going on, saying that you're a piece of trash strictly because it's against recruiting now and they're trying to get players that you're potentially trying to get. I thought you guys were going to potentially say, all right, we are. We actually are done with this. But instead, it almost like empowered you guys. Is that a way to describe it? And I think going in, your plan was we're going to need a few years here to kind of build what we want. I thought you were never going to get to that.

1:08:51Pat McAfee:Where do you feel after basically everybody was trying to run you guys out of college football?

1:08:56Shams Charania:I think the program got lifted in December, Pat, when we signed our recruiting class. We signed 39 players. 34 came in early. And the beautiful thing about why it lifted our program was all during those stormy times, all during when the boat was getting capsized, when people were attacking us with fake rumors and fake stories all over, nobody's corrected them yet, but that's okay. We understand. Our players hung together. We did not lose one single recruit to another team. Now, they tried, but we didn't lose one single recruit. A lot of that, to me, was the dedication of our recruiting class. And that's what I think gives all of everybody in this program the lift that we need, because those players have bought into our messaging.

1:09:39Shams Charania:And they stood firm in a time of trouble. Look, let's face it. If you're not worth a darn, they're not going to attack you. Some programs are not worth attacking. They're going to attack us. We expect it. It's all good. We've been in the arena before. We don't listen to the noise. We focus on what we have to focus on, and we move forward. It's when you get older, you get more ability to deflect that and move on. And I think Coach and I and this team has, and I think it's – I owe a lot of that to these 39 freshmen who have come in who really decided that they're going to build North Carolina into something special.

1:10:13Pat McAfee:I love that for you. Congratulations. It got a lot out there. Boy, it got a lot out there. That might have been the loudest. I mean, yeah.

1:10:22Shams Charania:Yeah, it was. It was. But I think, you know, look, you know, we probably have to understand that we were going to get attacked. I didn't think it was going to be on an everyday basis, but it is what it is. And we have to do the problem. And that's the motivation.

1:10:36Pat McAfee:Yeah, I love that. Well, I'm thankful and pumped for you guys that you're going to stick with it and you're still in it and still loving it. Every time we talk to you, it feels like this morning we talk to you, watching film, trying to figure out who the next guy is. I love that it's captivated you again. Can we ask you about some other things happening around football?

1:10:52Shams Charania:Love it, yeah.

1:10:52Pat McAfee:Okay, college football.

1:10:53Shams Charania:I still follow the NFL, Pat. I haven't given up on it yet. I've got a son coaching the quarterbacks at the 49ers, so I'm fully vested in his future and seeing what's going on around the league. So I haven't just disappeared from the face of the earth.

1:11:07Pat McAfee:Okay, good. The boys will have some NFL questions then for you as well. I'm happy that you're still paying attention to that because it's probably good for your place of business as well to know what's going on up there. And your boy coaching the San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks, Mack Jones, whatever he was teaching them, he's got it. Did you see the ice shot glass takes a shot and then throws that thing off a gong, perfect strike, and then dances while George Kittle rehabbing an Achilles in the background? What a strike by Mac Jones. A little dancing in there. I mean, he's living. Good for the boy putting an incredible culture together over there in that quarterback room.

1:11:43Pat McAfee:Okay, let's talk college football. Last question from me, then we will move to the NFL. Today at the White House, 4 o 'clock, There is a college football committee or college sports committee coming together. It's a lot of people seemingly going there to kind of try to figure out what college sports and college football looks like going forward. Everybody from Cody Campbell, obviously former offensive lineman for the Indianapolis Colt. Colt's now with Texas Tech. He is there. He is a very invested human being in this because I feel like he love of sport while also having a great business mind.

1:12:16Pat McAfee:and with what he's doing down there in West Texas, I feel like he thinks he has a model that we can maybe run elsewhere. He just wants to be heard, I think. There's a lot of people that don't want to listen to him because they think he's just in it for himself, which is why I think having all these different types of people, whether Saban's in there, I think Urban's in there, there's a couple media people in there, I think there's a couple commissioners in there, there's some professional team executives in there. I think they're just trying to lay out what they think we need from this. I don't know if there's any decisions being made, but I like that we're trying to think about it and trying to figure it out.

1:12:48Pat McAfee:I think President Trump and the government are the only people that can figure it out because from my understanding, the NCAA is always scared to get sued. So they're waiting on the government to put some policies in place so that they can enforce them. So I think the government is the one and are the ones that are going to have to figure this out inevitably. They're the ones that are going to have to do and empower whoever to make these guardrails that everybody seemingly wants to keep college football and college sports as a whole up and to the right because the product is beautiful. The atmosphere is electrifying.

1:13:18Pat McAfee:The pageantry is something that nobody else has. And college sports fans are our best fans. Now, you are in it and have been in it for a year. From your perspective, what do you think needs to happen? Have you even thought about what a good answer would be? And how productive do you think any of these conversations potentially become to save what we all love in college?

1:13:37Shams Charania:Well, I think it's a two-pronged question. The first is the NCAA has to stop some of these ridiculous rules that they have that were put in place before basically players were compensated for the play. Because of that, we're going to spend money on high school players, transfer players. The rules that were put in place before were to try to even out the balance of power to keep teams from over-recruiting. I think those old rules in the NCAA are outdated. They need to be contemporary. For example, Pat, I can't go to a high school to see a kid, but I could FaceTime a kid. So if I go to a high school and talk to the coach and the kid's five rooms down and we can FaceTime together, does that really make sense?

1:14:18Shams Charania:Like there needs to be modernization of the rules through the NCAA. That would be one section. Now let's get to the meat of the bone, right? The problem really is financial. And until we have a collective bargaining agreement where the players in college all form together like the NFL players form, and they agree on a deal. They agree on what is best for collective bargaining. Until we have that, we will spend most of our times in courts of law, predicated on the state that you're in, predicated on what judge is going to rule. And I think we need to have that so we have some guidelines and guardrails to operate a business out of, because essentially, when you're bringing players in and you're paying, you're running a business.

1:15:00Shams Charania:For example, in the NFL, I do a contract for a player. We agree. The agent and I agree. The player agrees to the contract. I fax it over. It gets signed, email it over, doc you sign. In college, I have a North Carolina contract that has to go to the agent. The agent's going to redline that deal, send it back. That takes three days. You know what happens during those three days? The player has an opportunity to take my deal and go somewhere else and shop it around. And so it becomes very challenging as you move forward in this. So I think we need a collective bargaining agreement. We definitely need to clean up some of the rules that have been in place for over 50 years that aren't applicable, but we need a collective bargaining agreement.

1:15:41Shams Charania:And I truly believe the people meeting in Washington have that in the best interest. I think Cody Campbell wants to see the sport to behave in a manner to where everybody has equal footing.

1:15:51Pat McAfee:Yeah. And he's certainly benefiting from the rules. You know, there's been a lot of people in the past. I think President Trump has even said it publicly like the tax system's broken here how do you know because like everybody i know has been getting around everybody's like this asshole's been doing he's like but at least you know we're pointing cody campbell has all the money in the world and he's been supplying texas tech and it's like no matter what happens with these rules if nothing changes texas tech is going to do good he legitimately seems like he's like i would like to just like maybe because we're losing sports he's talking about losing women's sports we're losing olympic sports he was like we're losing athletes because the finances of this are going to run out.

1:16:29Pat McAfee:All the money is going to be going towards one sport or two sports. And if we don't find a way to generate capital in this entire thing and make an actual business out of it, we're going to lose a lot of these other sports. And us as sports people, him as former professional athletes, we need more sports, not less sports. And I think what he is looking for is somehow to make them sustainable in a model in which we know football is going to make money. We know college basketball is going to be able to make some money in some places. College baseball, I think, makes it like there's some money makers.

1:16:55Pat McAfee:but he wants to make it a sustainable business. And I'm intrigued to see how they able to do it. Now, quick last follow-up for me on that. How do they get, how do you guys get the players to have a CBA? Is it because there's enough agents now representing enough people that are above board that we all trust that we think they'll be able to get this players to agree to something? Cause that's a changing every four years. That's a new group of kids. Right. And like, how do you get everybody to agree to sign into a unit? That's a lot. Don't you think that's a lot?

1:17:25Shams Charania:I think you have to get the institutions to sign in and you have to get Congress to back it up so that somebody can't take it into court like the NFL has been able to do. You enter the NFL, Pat, as a college player, you sign into whether you're in the NFLPA or not. You follow the rules. You can't challenge the NFL in some court of law because you've entered into a collective bargaining system. And I think that's something that we're going to have to do. Look, it's above my pay grade to figure all that legal stuff out. That's why those guys know what to do. But that's what has to happen. I mean, until we have that, we're never going to be able to control running to the courts for a player to get a ninth year, for a player to get his 12th year, you know, for a player to do this or a player, you know, to get more money, all that.

1:18:08Shams Charania:The rules are meaningless if there's no teeth behind them. And until we have teeth, which is a collective bargaining agreement, everybody's going to operate as an independent contractor.

1:18:17Pat McAfee:Such a fascinating thing because it's such a, maybe this is the combustible moment where we're able to figure out how to do it. But has there ever been a product so good and then the back end so bad? I don't know. Like every business we've encountered has terrible, dumb people at some spots that you don't expect people that are that dumb to be at. And so you think to yourself, well, that's probably a bad business. But then they got other stuff at least in place that makes them a good business. It's like this one, the business side is just, there's really, there's nothing. I mean, it's really like whoever you can pitch to give you enough money on a certain day, let alone if they back out of it, let alone if the contract's real or not real.

1:18:58Pat McAfee:And the NCAA just sits there and says, government's got to tell us what we can do. And then the government says, this feels like an NCAA thing. And it's like, no, they're saying it's a you thing. So hopefully they're able to figure it out because the product of college sports is fantastic. I mean, it is absolutely spectacular. We got to keep it going. You're obviously a part of it. All right, let's pivot to some NFL conversation, shall we? A.J. Hawk in studio has a question for you, Paisan.

1:19:22Michael Lombardi:Yeah, hey, Lambo. We see, you know, D.J. Moore, he's going to get traded to the Buffalo Bills, I guess, when it's official on Wednesday next week. What are your thoughts on that whole trade? I guess the Bills giving up a second rounder for D.J. I guess, is there a way to figure out who wins this trade at this point right now? And I guess, what do you think about both these teams?

1:19:40Shams Charania:Well, I think we have to stop. You know, every trade, everything that happens in the NFL, it's never player for draft pick. It's player salary and draft pick. There's three elements that go into it. And we are entering really domino season because all these chips are going to create dominoes that are going to move something over. I thought it was a great trade for Chicago. I think what Chicago is doing, what a lot of teams are trying to do when they have a young quarterback, is try to get that star player. Will they be able to acquire Max Crosby? because they're one of the few teams that can because they're not paying their quarterback $70 million,$60 million.

1:20:16Shams Charania:People say Dallas should go after Max Crosby. Well, the reason they tried Micah Parsons was because they had a quarterback that they're paying all this money to. So I think where Chicago is, and I think Ben Johnson, a North Carolina alum, did an incredible job coaching that team. I think he's one of the bright young coaches in the NFL. I love watching his offense. I do every week because I think he's so talented. it and I think he sees DJ Moore as a replaceable part because he's got some really good young players and to add something to his arsenal like a second round pick even though it's a low two it gives him an opportunity to throw those picks into a Max Crosby or someone like him and I think for Buffalo look it's hard to say just draft the receiver because he's young he's going to come in they don't get him until May I think Buffalo what happened in this offseason is really about we've got to win now.

1:21:05Shams Charania:I mean, Brandon Bean made a big move in firing a very good coach in Sean McDermott because of philosophical differences. And I think their window is really now. And so this move is about now. Now, is DJ Moore good enough? We're going to find out in terms of what they paid for him. But I think it was a move that Chicago's making to create another domino.

1:21:24Pat McAfee:I like the fact that Chicago is trying to gear up for another big move, especially if it ends up with Max Crosby, good, better, best, never let it rest. Good is better and better is best. Could you imagine Max Crosby and Ben Johnson shirtless in the locker room afterwards. That feels like a perfect match made in heaven up there. So if they're doing that, congrats to them and Chicago. And once again, I so quickly have become a, I trust Ben Johnson guy. So if this is what Ben Johnson wants to do, I trust what he's thinking. But for the Buffalo Beals, and maybe it's because we do know Bean and we've gotten a chance to chat with him.

1:21:55Pat McAfee:And I actually asked him about DJ Moore whenever we were at the combine, whenever there was just a bunch of names in one of those slow times, he was like, they know they got to win. You know, like to your point, they know they got to win. So if DJ Moore comes in there and helps them win, however, on the offensive side with Joe Brady, new offensive head coach, and they're able to get the defense to be able to keep Josh Allen on the field. You know, if your defense can get off the field and Josh Allen can get back out there and they go on a run, maybe the best player on earth in everybody's eyes at this stage can win a Super Bowl.

1:22:24Pat McAfee:But boy, if they don't win a Super Bowl, it is going to continue to just grow louder and louder and louder for Bean. And he understands that. He's very thankful for that opportunity, but they got to make moves to win now. Go ahead. Speaking of moves to win now, go ahead, Tone.

1:22:40AJ Hawk:Yeah, Lambeau, not so surprising. The Rams, who say fuck those picks, decided to trade another first-round pick for a player in Trent McDuffie, who has been an all-pro, been an incredible player for the Chiefs at the cornerback position. And the Chiefs, on the other side, it's kind of not surprising. They are a team that will let cornerbacks go to the market. They've done it twice, three times now. How do you feel about the trade for both sides on the McDuffie trade?

1:23:04Shams Charania:I think, look, the Rams' window, they know, is very tight. I mean, Matthew Stafford was sensational last year. He was incredible. And, you know, they know they need to win now. And they could have easily been the Super Bowl winning team. We all said when Seattle played Los Angeles, the winner of that game was going to win the Super Bowl no matter who they were going to play. We all kind of felt that way. And I think the Rams, knowing this offseason, they're secondary. They re-signed Curl, which was a really good move for them. And now they get McDuffie, who was actually a better slot corner for Kansas City than it was an outside corner.

1:23:38Shams Charania:But the Rams play so much zone that it's really going to benefit him. And it's also going to benefit them on third down, where he can match up on a receiver. So I like the trade for the Rams. Look, the Rams understand. I think you've got to give Les Snead a lot of credit. He always talks about not wanting draft picks. But when you break down his defense, what he's done with that defensive line, finding guys in the second and third round and really help that front seven for the Rams is legitimate. The problem with the Rams football team last year, and we saw Seattle exploit it, was their secondary.

1:24:09Shams Charania:They couldn't cover me, you or anyone. And so that was the biggest issue. And I think they fixed that with this move and giving up a pick at the bottom of the first round. You get away from the salary. You get away from the five-year decision. And you get a player you can come in right now and play.

1:24:23Pat McAfee:I like any team that is trying to make a move to win. I like it at all times. I want full court press all the time for my team. I want them in the mix. I want them making moves. I want them trying to win. The Chiefs, nobody's talking about. Now, the sports books still have them in the top five or whatever the case is because they have Patrick Mahomes and all that. The Chiefs are gearing up for something. The Chiefs are about to unleash, I think, this year. I think there's a chance that the makeup of their team, the makeup of their players, but every move they make in every tweet that comes from my homes where he says, damn, you know, it certainly is an interesting time over there as they're going to be moving over to another state.

1:25:01Pat McAfee:That's right. And then is 1587 Steakhouse even going to be allowed to – we got a plate. Uh-oh. I got a plate. I don't even know if I'm allowed to have this plate anymore. I have to trade. He's getting sued by YouTube. Did you see that? Oh, yeah. Somebody sued him for 1587 title. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Allegedly. I mean, I could have got there. It's a tough time. No, I'm pretty sure. That's what he went for me. This is from Fitz and Witt. That's right. They had a nice bone-in diner, 1587 prime steakhouse. That's just so good. Oh, it's in Kansas City, Missouri. Then you go ahead and have this steak in a couple years, and you get your car, you drive to Kansas.

1:25:36Pat McAfee:That's where the Chiefs home is. That's right. You hear the Bears are coming to Indiana, Lambo?

1:25:40Shams Charania:Yeah, I heard that. I mean, we'll see if it happens. I mean, you know, those are always – I mean, this is so much negotiations that go on. You know, look, the Bears played one time. You know, when they played at Ridley Field, The field was so short that the players slipped into the dugout. There were times there. So I'm not quite sure that, you know, everything's going to lock down. But look. The governor told me.

1:26:02Pat McAfee:The governor told me. Governor of Indiana said. I heard. He said, yeah, they're coming.

1:26:07Shams Charania:I pay attention. I just until they start building something, I never believe it. It's soon.

1:26:13Pat McAfee:I heard this happening. They're ready to break it around. I don't think they're using the Indiana thing as leverage over. No, why would they do that? I don't think they're doing it. Who knows? That governor is in an interesting spot. Which one? The governor of Illinois. You've got the governor of Indiana calling the governor of Illinois a mayor whenever he's kind of burying his power and what he's able to do. And then I'm reading that guy's name in a lot of things. It's crazy time. Are they going to be able to handle a brand-new stadium deal, new taxes to suffice what the Bears could potentially have?

1:26:43Pat McAfee:Just 15 minutes right over here on the other side where you can build up your own. I think it's going to happen.

1:26:48Shams Charania:That's a great question, though, Pat. as a player, right? I mean, are you paying Indiana taxes and Illinois state taxes here? I mean, we saw that with the Super Bowl being in California, right? I mean, you know what all the players' salaries being garnished from the state that they were in. I watched Sam Donald, the state of California,$137 ,000. I think this is kind of like another tax interest that you've got to get into. And that affects your free agency. Look, the teams that don't have this tax burden, the Tennessee, the Florida, the Texas, those teams benefit in free agency because of the tax burden and a tax liability that players have to pay.

1:27:21Pat McAfee:I don't know what it is in Tennessee and why they're able and how they're able to have no state income tax, but like Florida, obviously there's things that supplement the state income tax so they don't have to have it for their, is there an excuse? Yeah, they're proper. You know, there's California says we need all of it, you know, and then the other states that don't have it. Tennessee, I wonder what it is. Just Tennessee not having it. It's awesome. Arizona doesn't have it. Awesome. Nevada.

1:27:44AJ Hawk:Texas. Probably all the places, I figured it out. All the places that people like going to in tourism, they don't need to charge people for living there.

1:27:50Pat McAfee:Spend your money there. Yeah, outsiders will spend their money here. We don't have to take it. Indiana, though, low. We have low state income tax. So although it's no state income tax, it is lower state income tax. So that will certainly be a good sell for the Bears. Not that Ben Johnson needs it. But, yeah, it sounds like everything's up and up if you come over to Indiana, which is basically what the governor was saying. Now, I don't know if you heard this. I'm trying to get the governor to pass weed as well. See, he wanted to, you know, there was conversation here, a little quid pro quo. You know, it's like, hey, feels like good time to talk about sports in Indiana.

1:28:21Pat McAfee:The Combine's here for the 39th straight year and also getting the Bears. Would love to talk about that. Okay, cool, cool. Come on, come on, come on. Unprompted. I got some ideas, too. Isn't this how politics work? I need weed. Need weed to be passed around here. Okay. It's every state, Governor. Mr. Governor, we are fully surrounded by weed. Okay. All of our money is going out here. So if we're worried about money and we're selling things, let's go ahead and do it here. There's actually two people you should probably be talking to. Okay. I can see the benefits. I've certainly understood them, but there's two people you need to be talking to.

1:28:52Pat McAfee:They're the ones that are really against you. It's like, sweet, can I get those names? Yeah. So, boys, we need to send Happy George. Yeah, there you go. Lambo. Something you should do for Bill today, maybe. For recruits. Or to recruits. Is send him Happy George. Okay, we got this guy sent to our office this morning alongside of his wife. Go. His name's Happy George. He plays a guitar. He's a singing telegram guy. He brought a message to the Thunderdome. We set up a little audience for him. We wanted to make him uncomfortable. Little did we know, there's no chance of that ever happening. Happy George got more moxie than anybody, and some kid sent a resume in with a singing telegram, and we'd like to let him know, congrats, you cracked the code.

1:29:32Pat McAfee:This guy was so absurd outside, we felt obligated to let him in and do his thing. Turns out he had a thong on, and he's got pipes. Yep. And he's got an ability to sing. I mean, yeah, we're having a good time. Maybe send one of these to Bill.

1:29:47AJ Hawk:It's not a bad idea. Yeah, there you go.

1:29:49Pat McAfee:Just as a thank you. Say thank you, Bill, for letting me be here. Those would love that. Love you. Happy George and Mrs. George. I'll tell you what, great vibes. Really good vibes. This guy walks up to the front door, side door first, then the front door, two balloons, wearing his shit, cheeks out, you know, the whole thing. And Bruce goes up.

1:30:08Shams Charania:He's not an idiot, Pat. I mean, he could get good marketing, get on his show. Like, look at this. I mean, he can't buy this airtime. Now he's going to get gigs. No, people are paying him for that.

1:30:16Pat McAfee:He's got gigs. He's got gigs for days. Happy George is booked. Okay.

1:30:22AJ Hawk:AJ booked him for a week just to kind of hang out at his house.

1:30:25Pat McAfee:Same clothes. Yeah. Guy's got spurs on the back of his cowboy boots. He does. Ass kicking.

1:30:30Shams Charania:I don't know what they're for, but that's good.

1:30:32Pat McAfee:It's good, Seth. Yeah, just anyway. Hey, Happy George. Well, here it comes, buddy. There it is. Hey, Happy George. Thanks for coming through today. Happy George. Happy George. Send one of those to Bill. I'll really go over pretty well. They'll go over pretty well. Okay, more questions about NFL, Lombo. We appreciate you. Go ahead, Con, man. Yeah, Lombo, maybe send one to Florio.

1:30:50Michael Lombardi:I think he might love it, too. Always a pleasure. Oh, yeah, he definitely would. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been too long. It's been too long, Lombo. Truly an honor to speak to you again. Foxy, great idea to bring in Lombo. He's the best. But with the Minnesota situation, Lombo, I want to kind of get your thoughts around it. Obviously, they're looking to add a veteran quarterback, even though J.J. McCarthy's only going into year three, and he really only had last year as experience. How would you kind of handle that situation in Minnesota with J.J. McCarthy? Because he kind of needs reps, but kind of needs time to learn more as an NFL quarterback.

1:31:28Michael Lombardi:And then what do you think KOC's kind of going through right now, just because he's the only guy, they don't have a GM throughout these next few weeks, which are pivotal and then the draft in April?

1:31:40Shams Charania:Well, I think Rob Brzezinski is outstanding. I think Rob, who took over in the interim role, should get the head job. I think Rob does a really good job. He's a great listener. He understands. He utilizes assets. I think they'll get back to doing more hands-on tape as opposed to looking at some of the analytical or the PFF stuff that kind of can be misinterpreted or actually did wrong. So I think Rob will do a really good job. I think that the real fundamental question is, does Kevin believe in J.J. McCarthy? And I think that answer is probably no. I would say not probably. I would say it is no.

1:32:16Shams Charania:And so they're going to go for another quarterback. Now, where do they go? Do they go to the Malik Willis market? Do they think they can take him and bring him in and pay him between$20 and$25 million? They're trying to get rid of cap room right now, so they're obviously up to something. Do they go for the Kyler Murray rehab program or the Tua rehab program? you know daniel jones will sign a deal one of the things about quarterbacks you know he'll sign a deal in indianapolis he has to i mean he's comfortable there shane knows him he's comfortable with the offense so you really almost daniel jones you could take him off the board unless somebody just really blows him out of the water and i think valet would have to match that even if he did so i think that's where they are i think minnesota especially in this draft where you know you've got the you got the one quarterback going to go first pick in the draft and then who else is going to go and where they're going to go.

1:33:05Shams Charania:I don't think Kevin has the patience or the will to want to draft somebody and then try to develop them like they did JJ. He rehabbed Sam Darnold perfectly. He put a lot of time effort into him and then lost him to Seattle. I think this is where the program he's going to be on. And Kevin's such a good offensive coordinator and he's such a good quarterback coach that whoever they pick, I think there's going to be the quarterback for their immediate future and then some. I think the J.J. McCarthy era is going to be on the back burner, if not over.

1:33:37Pat McAfee:Yeah, it almost felt like the Kwesi firing. The GM gets fired, Kevin O 'Connell gets kept around, and then all the rumors are like Kevin O 'Connell wanted another year for J.J. to develop, didn't want him to play. Feels like Kwesi was pushing for, hey, he's our guy, he's our guy, Allegedly. And it seems like that's maybe what is being kind of portrayed publicly now with the decisions that they made. So with that conversation that we have heard had happened in the past, it's like Kevin O 'Connell is definitely getting a guy that can spin the ball. I need somebody that can spin it. Kyler can spin it, right?

1:34:12Pat McAfee:Are we worried about off the field, him being able to not match what Kevin O 'Connell needs? Or do we think maybe Arizona was a potentially part of the problem of creating everything we heard about Kyler off the field? How do you feel about that change? How do you feel about maybe Gina?

1:34:25Shams Charania:I talked a lot. The guys can tell you, I talked a lot about this Kyler Murray contract when I had my podcast, and I thought it was ridiculous, Kim, coming off the injury for the Cardinals to pick up all that guarantee to the contract. I really felt like they had seen him. I didn't think he connected to his teammates. You know, now we're hearing some stories about leadership and work ethic and all those things. I mean, it hasn't really gone smoothly there, and they've gone through another coach as they started another administration with Mike LaFleur out there. I think to me, if somebody takes Kyler, it's going to be somebody who really knows the kid and can connect to the kid because it's still difficult to play with an undersized quarterback.

1:35:05Shams Charania:And it was the same thing I said about Tua when he was going to get that big contract. You know, it's like, look at the people around Tua and look at where he did when he threw the football. Now, that doesn't mean he can't go in and a Kevin O 'Connell system and utilize him. Perhaps that would be the alternative. But then you also have the health issues that come with it. Now, he's been healthy for the last two years. So I think the merry one's really interesting. I mean, think about it. Malik Willis, Malik Willis, is going to be the first dunk. You were so wrong.

1:35:35Pat McAfee:I mean, you were so wrong. I got it. I knew you were coming.

1:35:39Shams Charania:I knew you were ready to jump on me, too. But, see, I practiced it. I was in the bathroom practicing Malik Willis all the way. And so I got – I think he's going to be the first domino that falls, and then everything else is going to. But then what happens after he falls? You know, there's the Jets. Are they in on Willis? I mean, because that's obviously they're not going to get the quarterback in the draft. Mendoza is going to be gone. So how do they get their team with the ability to go out with Frank Wright leading the charge at the Jets? I think that's an interesting question. Murray, to me, it's got to be about that.

1:36:12Pat McAfee:You know the answer in New York. If Frank Wright is running it, you know. They got their guy. It's in the right direction. You know who that is.

1:36:22Shams Charania:I would guess it's Carson Wentz. I don't know.

1:36:25Pat McAfee:The GOAT. You're going to be more right. Carson headed over to the Jets, potentially. Obviously, all these things are able to be said right now.

1:36:33Shams Charania:If you're the GM of the Jets, and you've got to believe in Frank and what he's doing, and I certainly get that, but at some point, you have to have a sense of doubt that A, Carson can stay healthy, and can he play to the same level? You know? I think that that would be a concern on my part. You're going to have to protect yourself and perhaps they'll sign another quarterback to go along with it.

1:36:54Pat McAfee:Did you see him in the international game? I just want to – you know, Carson's got it still in there. And on that note, definitely knows how Frank operates. Frank knows how he operates. This quarterback class of who's ready, who's not ready. Carson being a Jet this year would be awesome. And once again, Carson, it was an honor to experience the Carson Wentz experience. Whenever you're here in Indianapolis, the highs are real high. The lows are incredibly scary. So it's just – it's a fascinating existence, that CWE.

1:37:21Michael Lombardi:Sam Darnold goes to Minnesota, wins the Super Bowl. Dan Jones goes to win Minnesota, comes to Indianapolis, leads them to an 8-1 record. Carson Wentz goes from Minnesota to the New York Jets. I'm not so sure they win 12 games.

1:37:32Pat McAfee:Yeah, there's a chance, I guess. Everything they're doing over there makes a lot of sense.

1:37:35Shams Charania:I'll take your action on that, Connor. I'll take your action on that. You can't do that.

1:37:40Pat McAfee:You can't do that. You can't do that. Okay, speaking of action, there's seemingly a lot of chatter about some action, but not really a lot of actual action in Philly. Go ahead, Ty.

1:37:49AJ Hawk:Yeah, Lambo, we've heard about A.J. Brown potentially getting traded for the better part of the last two years, it seems like. And now, you know, every day Conor's coming in and saying, hey, you know, let's go. He's getting traded to the Patriots. And then we had Schefter on who basically said, like, hey, they're not shopping him. If someone blows him away with an offer, they will listen. But that hasn't happened yet. What do you think is ultimately going to happen with A.J. Brown?

1:38:14Shams Charania:Well, and Schefter I trust, so I believe that they're not shopping him. But I think, too, the fact that, you know, when you when you look at A.J. Brown and you look at what he does for the Eagles, and especially as they transition into this more of a Kyle Shanahan harder play action, which I think really fits Jalen Hurts more. You know, when they go into that style of offense, I think A.J. Brown's a huge component. It's one thing to trade the player. It's another thing to figure what are you getting back in return? And I think that's where Howie Roseman has made a really good career of getting great value on return.

1:38:48Shams Charania:The one thing we do know is New England is going to be very aggressive in the marketplace. I mean, they're going to go out there and try to look. They've got it. The reason they're going to be aggressive is is is all the teams that are going to be aggressive are the teams that aren't paying a quarterback. Sixty million dollars. Now, they're going to have to pay Drake May down the road. So they have to be fiduciary in terms of that. but they also have to understand this is their moment to add more talent to their team so the tennessees and the you know the new england patriots those teams without a high-priced quarterback are going to be the ones that are going to be active in free agency to me i think new england's going to try to be as active in the offensive line as they can and everywhere else

1:39:28Pat McAfee:because this is the moment to do it yeah and there's already been one center signed uh to a 30 million dollar contract to the chargers this morning lindenbaum still available there's a chance that people are going to be making a move, a big one for him. I think Tennessee Titans have$100 million in cap space. Yeah. Whenever you talk about the ability to make some plays quickly. Well, five, actually. Yeah, yeah, we're going to see. Letting us know it's a different number. As we have been chatting, some breaking news has taken place. For the Detroit Lions, left tackle Taylor Decker, the team's longest tenured player, has been released by the Detroit Lions.

1:40:04Pat McAfee:Taylor Decker put out a quote here. This is fascinating, Foxy. I'm excited for you to read this. things change. 145 games, started three playoff appearances, two division titles, a decade carrying the shield. I fully intended to do it once again, but my time as a lion is coming to an end. In the week since notifying the team of my return, there have been numerous discussions, many of which were a surprise to me. We can not find common ground. Therefore, I decided to request my release. I am opting for a clean and amicable close to what has been such a beautiful 10 years going to war as a Lion.

1:40:41Pat McAfee:It has been the absolute privilege of my life to be your left tackle for the past 10 years, and I am forever grateful for the opportunity the Ford family and the Lions organization afforded me. Taylor Decker with a cool signature at the bottom of that. Foxy, he didn't want to leave. It's Pete Carroll's situation, so that's what I'm hearing right there. Now, at the end, he certainly had to put aside his anger and say it was an honor, Detroit. I do appreciate this. How about him saying it was a surprise to me? Yeah. I said, hey, we'll be able to work this deal out. What does that mean? That means they offered him an amount of money that he was – can you please bat that thing?

1:41:13Pat McAfee:You're upset about this. This guy's banging the mic over here because of it. Big Decker guy. I didn't know you were going to get that emotional. I didn't know you were going to get that emotional.

1:41:21Shams Charania:This is a domino move here. There's another move here. This is how we have to think in free agency. This isn't just a singular move. There has to be something that's attached to this. Now, they know they can move Sewell to left tackle, but they had a price point on Decker that they didn't want to go over. Now, Decker's smart. He knows if he makes it to the open market, it's just watch out. Left tackles rarely make it to the open market. Trent Williams is redoing his deal. So you understand that. Does this, like the first thing as you're reading that, I'm thinking is Detroit trying to get into the, you know, the Max Crosby sweepstakes, which we've heard they were.

1:41:59Shams Charania:He went to Eastern Michigan. He's from the area. Certainly he would be a huge impact. playing along over the side of Aiden Hutchinson. Are they in that ballpark now? Now they've got Goff under a huge contract. But I think what they could be saying, and I don't know this, is if we move Sewell over to left tackle, we'll replace them. We'll get a right tackle for a lot cheaper. And we could take that money and put it into a good player like Crosby. So I think this is more of a domino thing. And I think if you are Decker, you understand your value is so great that why should you take a reduced deal?

1:42:33Shams Charania:You know, it's one thing to take$3 million less. It's another thing to take$10 million less.

1:42:38Pat McAfee:Yeah, so the Spotrack report on the money issue that you're talking about,$9.4 million of dead cap, $11.6 million of space kind of cleared out there. 32-year-old has two years,$39 million remaining on this contract. Foxy, a quick wrap-up here about the pillar of Detroit on the left side.

1:42:58Michael Lombardi:Yeah, no, this bums me out because Decker and Ragnar were really the only two guys that were part of the same old Lions and got to experience the brand new Lions. And when he announced he was coming back, I'm like, okay, he's only coming back to play for Detroit. And as a fan, you only want to see him play for the Lions now that he's not. This is weird, but I'm sure it has some cap space thing going on here. But, yeah, ultimately bummed out that Decker won't be a Lion through and through.

1:43:24Pat McAfee:If Max Crosby ends up a Detroit Lion. Yeah, now we're talking, though. It'd be sick. I didn't even think of that long until you're like, this is something. They're opening up wide. Think about it.

1:43:33Shams Charania:They got rid of David Montgomery. When you start shedding contracts, you're doing something, especially when you're as close as the Lions are to being into the Super Bowl. So when you start shedding contracts, understandable, they're older players, but they're still a very good player. I mean, Montgomery is still a very good player. It isn't like, oh, he can't play anymore. We've got to get rid of him. So when you start doing that, there's another move that you're going to make, and it could be, you know, we're going to sign this guy for less or whatever. But I think to me, if I were Green Bay, if I were Chicago, and I were Minnesota, I'm like, what are the Lions up to?

1:44:09Shams Charania:They're not doing this just because they can't. They can get Decker done. They've got cash in that building. So there's something else that's up their sleeve. Oh, is it up to something season up there?

1:44:19Michael Lombardi:It might be, but also we're going to pay Gibbs, highest paid running back in the league. Jack Campbell, probably highest paid linebacker in the league. Sam Laporta, he might reset the tight end market. And then Brian Branch, if he comes back off that Achilles, they've got a lot of guys to pay too, Lambo.

1:44:33Pat McAfee:Oh, no, maybe no Max Crosby then.

1:44:37Shams Charania:Maybe this is more of a remax where you're selling the house

1:44:41Pat McAfee:because you guys got to pay for stuff. Oh, wow. Sorry, Lambo. Need a more good job there.

1:44:47Shams Charania:But you could sign those guys. I mean, look, I think all those guys are really good players, and obviously Gibbs they're going to have to sign. But remember, when you sign those guys, the beginning of their deals are the cheapest cap deals. It's going to cost more cash. So when you have to re-sign players the first two years of the deal, because of the structure of the signing bonus, you pick up enough cap room. Yeah, you fucking idiot, moron.

1:45:08Pat McAfee:Yeah, why don't you stop saying stupid things in the back? Well, this is why I said we ought to get Michael Lombardi on.

1:45:13Michael Lombardi:I actually said I need Lombo to lose 20 games in a row at UNC because I want him on the show again. That was selfish. I apologize for that, Lombo.

1:45:20Pat McAfee:And he does not actually wish that upon you, Tar Heels.

1:45:22Shams Charania:I would like that to be. No, don't do that. But I think that's where you have to kind of constantly, that's where on Monday you've got to ask the question, what is going to be the cause of this move? What is the effect of this move and how does it, and it may not happen instantaneously, but it will happen down the road, right? And so, you know, when Willis signs with a team, what team he signs with, what does that free up? How does that make a move? You know, if somebody offers something for A.J. Brown and how he can't turn down. He's got to figure out how he replaces him. That's a domino that goes into effect.

1:45:57Shams Charania:So I think it's all about – it's really – it's almost like you're playing pool, Pat. You know you're going to make this shot, but where do I put the cue ball to make the next shot?

1:46:05Pat McAfee:Let me go ahead and back this son-bitch up a little bit just so I can get a little better at the side. That's right. Drop back. Yep. You know nothing about the Black Widow. You don't know anything about it. Show me how you approach the ball. Once in a while, whenever you get in there, you got to let that thing smooth it out there. You know, I'll take that thing and I'll... Yep. You know what that is? No. I'm chalking a cube, pal. Come on. With your foot? Yeah, I'm spinning that song, man. You fool. Right here, pal. You ever seen one of these? Now's your foot. Oh, that's because you ain't been in a billiard hall.

1:46:39Pat McAfee:That must be some Pittsburgh. You are exposing yourself as a man that has never been down there with the billiards. Haughty Lane's had a lot of pull-up. Yeah, they did. Oh, yeah.

1:46:48AJ Hawk:Actually, the Black Widow loved to play at Holiday Lanes.

1:46:51Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think she actually came through there. People would put their cigarettes out as she walked by and say, Lady, lady, lady, thank you for coming through. That's what they actually did there. Nine ball, eight ball, you name it. What's that shit they do over in England? Snooker. There it is. Oh, yeah. You know who's actually surprisingly a good pool player? Who's that? My mom. Oh. Why is that surprising? Sally, because I just don't think my mom really hung out at places that really had that. but turns out her dad used to take her to places that had it. And whenever she was like a teenager, I guess she like kind of.

1:47:19Pat McAfee:Ted Lasso situation. And every once in a while, yeah, she'll just show up and we'll be playing pool. And then all of a sudden she grabs a stick and is like, Sal, what are you doing with that? And she's like, don't worry about it.

1:47:27Michael Lombardi:Run the table. Boom.

1:47:28Pat McAfee:I'm like, whoa, Sally McAfee hanging out at boozing places. I didn't know that. Yeah, but that's what you got to do. Okay. Okay. I just need a little bit more respect. Last question for you here, Lombo. Yes, sir. Before we let you get back to your day job.

1:47:41Michael Lombardi:Go ahead, AJ. Okay. Lombo, we had obviously 10 coaches get fired last year in the NFL. Anyone that really piqued your interest that you thought was a great hire? You know, Robert Salas in Tennessee. We got Mike LaFleur out in Arizona. We mentioned them. We have a list here of everybody. But anyone here pop out of you? You thought, hey, this team did it right?

1:47:59Shams Charania:Well, look, obviously the Giants needed somebody to come in and be a proven winner, and John's done that in Baltimore. And so that gives them – the Giants bought instant credibility with their hire. You know, and they needed that going through the last regime that they've gone through, going back to Ben McAdoo all the way up until Brian Dayball. So they needed to buy credibility and they certainly did that. You know, I think second time a guy's a head coach, you know, I think is always going to be a better situation for him. I think Robert Sala announcing he's going to call the defense. I think he understood the mistakes that occurred in New York.

1:48:32Shams Charania:I think he certainly could fix that. Same with Kevin Stefanski. I think he'll get that. There's a learning curve being a head coach. But, you know, Mike McCarthy is the most fascinating of them all. You put Mike McCarthy's resume next to John Harbaugh, and it is exactly the same. John gets incredible PR. Mike doesn't. And it's really an injustice for Mike McCarthy. What's that about? Hey, for real, why is that?

1:48:55Michael Lombardi:How does that work? Why do you think Harbaugh gets that?

1:48:57Shams Charania:Well, look, we have people that are seldom uncertain, rarely right, that report on the NFL. and they've decided that they are going to you know mike's not a good coach and he didn't do this and then we got the guy in the basement in des moines who's calling about his play call on third and four even though he's never played a play in his life or call to play i mean we do it all the time pat started this conversation up with us getting attacked most of the people attacking us never even been built a football program before so i think mike pays a part of that and it's kind of unfair you know all this belichick talk about not getting in the hall of fame i wrote about this in football done right.

1:49:35Shams Charania:You know, I said that there needs to be a standard criteria for a head coach to enter the Hall of Fame. And I set the criteria in the book. And Pete Carroll, Mike McCarthy, John Harbaugh, they meet the criteria. Now, whether they get in or not, that's another thing. But to get into the selection process, you've got to meet the criteria. And for Mike to have to take as much crap as he does media-wise from people, as opposed to John, who doesn't. And I like both coaches. But if you did a blind taste test on their resumes, it's the same. And we could say, well, he had Aaron Rodgers. Time out. We had Lamar Jackson.

1:50:16Shams Charania:You know, it's like – Joe Flacco. Joe Flacco.

1:50:19Pat McAfee:And Joe Flacco.

1:50:20Shams Charania:Yeah, please. A little respect. Well, and he won one Super Bowl, and Mike won one. And Mike did a great job in Dallas. Dallas felt they needed to make a move. So I like it. I think Omar Khan got himself a proven coach to go in there because, look, let's face it. If he brings Rodgers back, he's got Mike with him. But he needs to lay a foundation to develop, whether it's Will Howard or someone else at quarterback.

1:50:42Pat McAfee:All right. Maybe we'll see you at the Hall of Fame next year. Maybe.

1:50:46Shams Charania:Well, you know, I mean, look, winning six Super Bowls is just not enough to get you in there. I mean, and then we couldn't even find out who voted for who. and you don't want to get me started on this subject at all because this is the most ridiculous thing of all time. I mean, remember in the scene in The Godfather where this committee owes this man an apology? Well, that's really what they do. Whoever voted for that thing owes Coach Belichick an apology because this is the most ridiculous thing we could have ever heard in our life, that you win six Super Bowls and you're not going to go in. Give me a break.

1:51:20Pat McAfee:Give me a break. Hey, you know what we took a break from? you not in our life. It was way too long. I miss you guys, but I don't want to get fired.

1:51:30Shams Charania:I want to win here. So I love you. Hey, big one this weekend, right?

1:51:35Pat McAfee:UNC Duke. That's right. Let's go. Let's make sure we're putting out good energy for this.

1:51:38Shams Charania:Got a baseball game too, Pat. And don't forget our women's basketball team is outstanding.

1:51:43Pat McAfee:WVU women's basketball team about doing it. And remember, it's March. So we got a monster in Iowa State and Audie Crooks cooking as well. Good luck to all of them. We appreciate the hell out of you, Pison. Thank you, Pat. Thank you, guys. Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Lombardi. Yay, Lambo!

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1:52:18Pat McAfee:Your cabana's ready. Would you like fresh towels?

1:52:20Shams Charania:It matters where you stay.

1:52:24AJ Hawk:Book now at Hilton.com. Hilton, for this day.

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1:52:59Pat McAfee:While we're talking, the Packers will be releasing Pro Bowl D end. Rashawn Gary, get him out of time.

1:53:08AJ Hawk:Yeah, I mean, kind of expected. You know, cap space move, and he was one of those guys who, when Micah got hurt, it was like, hey, we really need you to go here. Really need you to go. He's a very high draft pick, and he kind of just never went.

1:53:19Pat McAfee:Rashawn says, when I got the call in 2019, It was one of the greatest moments of my life, and it always will be. The opportunity to represent Green Bay and Packers Nation across the country and around the world is something I will never forget. Like all chapters in life, this one has come to an end. I want to thank everyone who supported me and my family throughout the years. The love, the energy, and the memories mean more than words can explain. Then bigger, bolder letters. On to my next stop. Nowhere near done yet. all 6 '5", 275. Can't wait. Rashawn, Bane, Gary. We got another Bane, huh? We got some Banes coming through here.

1:54:03Pat McAfee:Congrats to him. I like to hear that. Oh, yeah, 6 '5", 275. Still doing it, if you're wondering, right here at the end of my sign-off. It was a cool chapter. Shout out to Green Bay. Loved all the cheeseheads. On that note, who wants to win a Super Bowl? Sean, Bane, Gary.

1:54:15AJ Hawk:Yeah.

1:54:16Pat McAfee:Maybe it's Colts.

1:54:17AJ Hawk:Could be. Maybe it's your team. He'll fetch. He'll fetch. He will. He's on$20. Yeah.

1:54:23Michael Lombardi:Dude can play. I wonder who's making these guys these graphics. They look pretty nice, don't they? Deckers.

1:54:27Pat McAfee:I would like to say I need the words to be a little bit more visible.

1:54:32Michael Lombardi:Yeah. Yeah.

1:54:33Pat McAfee:Okay. That's rule number one. Message needs to be read. Then we add sauce around it. Like those are really cool letters, but everybody's doing one of these. Yeah. I want to see those things. Trick and scratch. Congrats to you on hitting a free agency. Taylor Decker's on the move. Free agency frenzies on Monday. we'll be live with everybody that needs to be here. Holy hell. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. This is going to be the greatest weekend of all time. We'll see you Monday. Goodbye.

1:54:59Michael Lombardi:I think I hit it. Yeah, you got it. There was also another massive release during the break. Bill's corner, Taron Johnson, who Rogers just talked about as being one of their best players.

1:55:09Pat McAfee:Yeah, I'm seeing a bunch of people tweet us about how just one day after Aaron Rogers said this guy's one of the best players in football, Taron Johnson has been released from the Buffalo Bills corner. They've got a new defensive scheme up there, so obviously they're trying to figure it out. A corner is now in the market that obviously people in ball have high regards for. This free agency frenzy is about to be bananas. Yes, it is. This is about to be a good time. I'm very excited for what's about to cook on Monday. Right now, Schefter, Rappaport, and all the other insiders are just burning through their phones trying to predict what's going to happen on Monday at noon.

1:55:42Pat McAfee:And if this follows through, what does that mean for this? What does that mean for this? Are you interested in this? Am I going to see you maybe making a play? I'm going to be in McAfee's place at the Thunderdome. I'm going to have a lot going on. Are you guys doing this or are you guys not doing this? If you don't do this, what else are you going to do? And then when that money's taken, how are you going to be able to fill this roster? That's what Schefter's doing right now.

1:55:59AJ Hawk:That's right.

1:56:00Pat McAfee:And we'll certainly utilize his little chaotic brain to the max ability that we can. As Schrager and Orlovsky will also make their ways out here and we'll enjoy the hell out of a free agency frenzy that's going to really catapult us into draft season and into the next NFL season. Free agency frenzy Monday is a huge day for the league year. Huge day for fans. Huge day for the inevitable Lombardi winners.

1:56:23Michael Lombardi:It feels like there's a bunch of players now. Not to mention the guys that got released today, but we were even just looking over the wide receiver market. It feels like in years past, you're hard-pressed to find a really good receiver, and then there's random names popping up throughout that whole entire – like Jawan Jennings, we realized. Tyreek Hill. We forget Tyreek Hill is a free agent. He, a couple years ago, was the number one player in the entire league. Romeo Dobbs. Yeah, Romeo Dobbs. Mike Evans. We also talked about, too, how two of the top four spenders last year in free agency were the Patriots and the Seahawks.

1:56:54Michael Lombardi:Your team literally can't win the Super Bowl in March, but you can set yourself up to go on a Super Bowl run in March for sure.

1:57:02Pat McAfee:Yes. AJ, any final thoughts on this? What's wrong? What just happened? We're reading a story about what happened at 11, and it feels like there was maybe a... Oh, I didn't see it. I don't know. We're not talking about it. The USA team? You mean the USA? We will continue to follow along with the development down at 11. There was a little bit of an unrivaled championship celebration down there that I did not know about, I would like to say. Unrivaled the basketball league?

1:57:25Michael Lombardi:Come on.

1:57:26Pat McAfee:That's not real. I refuse to believe that's real. Think about me reading that while you're talking. Well, I get it now. Yeah, it was unbelievable. That was sent into the group. So what happens here during the program, because we are a live program and a lot of things are happening while we're at IT. Come on. I know. You can't read that. That's not real. You can't read that. That's not real. See, this is us. I choose to be. Why didn't you call? What's that? I know. I know. I know. That's why I laughed at it. It's just, we will continue to keep our ears to the grind and our nose to the grindstone on all developing stories around Club 11 and an arrest that happened last night during an unrivaled championship celebration.

1:58:04Pat McAfee:I would like to say, I fucking love that they got after it. Oh, yeah. I love that they got after it. Yeah. Hell yeah. What's so funny? I just happened to read.

1:58:16Michael Lombardi:I didn't know there was an assault. Someone got struck. That's definitely. Yeah, dude. That is definitely. Did it take the beer bottle and bam. We don't know. We don't know. We don't know. We were not speculating. I'm not speculating at all.

1:58:27Pat McAfee:But we will say I like that they walked in that son of a bitch like we are the chance. Dream out.

1:58:34Michael Lombardi:Dream out.

1:58:35Pat McAfee:Yeah, unrivaled. I love that they're fucking celebrating. That's what you work for. You should. That's why you win games. It's for that moment. You win the championship, you go have fun. Now, we can't just be punching people in the face.

1:58:47AJ Hawk:Can't be going out handcuffs. Can't be going to jail.

1:58:49Pat McAfee:Been there, though. Hey. Hey, man. Learn from this.

1:58:52AJ Hawk:Yep.

1:58:53Pat McAfee:I like to hear that the unrivaled league gets after it, though. These are the positives that we are hearing. Yes. Negatives, boy, people are going to really attack this entire thing.

1:59:00AJ Hawk:Yeah. If it's true.

1:59:02Pat McAfee:If it's true.

1:59:03AJ Hawk:It's not only like four people on a team, too. I think it's seven. Please have some respect.

1:59:08Michael Lombardi:If you don't know the league, watch it. Because this is legit. What team won, Connor? It's pretty fast-paced. The best one.

1:59:15Pat McAfee:And by the way, I think it's six, actually, with a swing woman. Oh, sure, sure. And congrats to the mist. Big time win. Yeah. It's a good team. We are the mist. Is that her? Yeah, is that B-Stu? That is. And she's the founder of the league, right? I think so. It's the league where they get painted. Do they have cities they represent or just like? It's just the mist. I think they played down there in Miami. Yeah, but Beast who started the league, right? This is kind of her thing. And now she's the champion. Yeah, we had her on for it. Good for her. Congratulations to the Miss getting a chance. So second championship?

1:59:49AJ Hawk:Second league year, yeah. I don't know if they won last year. For some reason, I want to say like the Roses won last year, but I could be wrong.

1:59:57Pat McAfee:It's a fucking Miss League now, bub. And I'll tell you, when they're celebrating, don't you even fucking think about getting in the way. Yeah. I hope there's a video. There is, they said.

2:00:08Michael Lombardi:Everything at 11 is filmed.

2:00:10AJ Hawk:Yeah, the Rose won last year. God. See, I know the fucking league. That's why I need to dive in and make sure that this isn't real.

2:00:17Pat McAfee:Yeah, we need to make sure that this league continues to go. More money in women's sports and in sports is a good thing. Congrats to the Miz. And I can't say this enough. I fucking love that they went to 11 this year. Yes. I absolutely love that. Jail can't happen. You've been there, right? You've been to 11? Jail.

2:00:36Michael Lombardi:Yeah, we know you've been there.

2:00:37Pat McAfee:Been there, yeah. Never been to 11. Yeah, me either.

2:00:40AJ Hawk:T.I.'s there tonight.

2:00:41Pat McAfee:Tip? Let him know. Gumpy has been to 11 a few times.

2:00:46Michael Lombardi:He wears mesh shorts, he says, when he goes. That's what he told me. Yeah, no underwear.

2:00:52Pat McAfee:Hey, find your best pair of sweats heading down to 11. That is Gumpy's normal text into the group whenever he's heading down there. He is our boots-on-the-ground correspondent. He is in Miami all the time, now that I think about it.

2:01:04Michael Lombardi:You know why? flopping that thing all over.

2:01:08AJ Hawk:Beautiful leather.

2:01:10Michael Lombardi:After you go watch some obscure soccer game

2:01:12Pat McAfee:that nobody else has heard of. I'll have you know, Inter-Miami was in the White House yesterday, and Trump said, these guys are the sexiest dudes on them. Jesus Christ. Soccer players are all like this tall, super jacked. So cool looking. So cool looking. And Gumpy tries to watch every one of their games, and then he's on a one-way trip to not 10, not 12, right there in the middle. And, yeah, that USA hockey celebration up there, every one of the lads over there are basically echoing the sentiment that Gumpy says. Greatest night of my life, Gumpy says, every single night. Wow. Yeah. And maybe you haven't figured out why, because it's what he's choosing to wear there.

2:01:57Pat McAfee:Yeah. I even think about the wardrobe department for Gump, since he might have an Airbnb down there with an entire closet. different pair.

2:02:05Michael Lombardi:Go to Dick's Sporting Goods. Get everything you need for a lemon.

2:02:07Pat McAfee:That's right. Blue-lulemon, too, potentially a good one. Sure. That'll get you jacked up. A little fancier. All right, AJ, what do you got this weekend? Anything? Because I'm going to tell you about the weekend of sports on TV. I can't wait.

2:02:17Michael Lombardi:I see this list that you're about to talk about. There are some great, great things going on this week.

2:02:21Pat McAfee:What's on the menu if you want to watch some sports now that we're in the offseason? Obviously, Jason Tatum is returning. What seemingly is impossible time after an Achilles tear to join the Celtics as Cooper flag. The main event returns to New England for his first time. Celtics favored by 15 and a half in Jason Tatum's return. This is good news for the Celtics, good news for sports, and good news for the NBA, I think.

2:02:45Michael Lombardi:Yeah, fantastic, especially at this time when basketball really does pick up and we all start paying attention. Tatum coming back 298 days since he tore his Achilles.

2:02:54Pat McAfee:Team USA takes on Brazil. This is the first game official game for Team USA in our redemption run here as Japan won the last Royal Baseball Classic. We'll take on Brazil as nine-and-a-half point favorites. We're all team riding on that. We hope that the bats get hot, but that's a lot of runs for baseball against anybody, even if the guy pitching can't throw a strike. Miami continuing their streak. This is an unbelievable run here for this team over there in Ohio. Tony, they're talking about bubble talk for this team, what, 31-0 or something like that?

2:03:25AJ Hawk:Yeah, they're undefeated, obviously. And, yes, it is the MAAC, but, like, the MAAC's a solid conference. There's a lot of good teams in the MAAC. And if you're undefeated in a basketball season, you get to your conference tournament. Even if you don't win your conference tournament, there's 68 fucking teams in there. There's going to be some 8-8, 8-9 in-conference team from the Big Ten or the ACC or something like that that gets in and gets blown out in the first round and they have no reason to be in there. That's why the Miami Redhawks should be in there, my friend.

2:03:54Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think so, too. No matter what. I don't even know what we're talking about.

2:03:57AJ Hawk:Me neither.

2:03:57Pat McAfee:There's 100 teams that are in there and an undefeated team is being talked about not being in.

2:04:00AJ Hawk:I was going to say you don't need to do it that way, though, because devil's advocate would be that one of those eight, nine seats from the Big Ten, they'd probably beat this Miami team by 25. Wait, wait, wait. That's all I'm saying. As soon as the worst Big Ten came out of my mouth, I knew you. I'm not saying they shouldn't be in the tournament, because they absolutely should, but let's not use that as the example.

2:04:17Pat McAfee:Okay, there will certainly be others that we can throw under the bus.

2:04:20AJ Hawk:I meant like Indiana. Oh, fuck you. What are you talking about? The basketball team.

2:04:25Pat McAfee:Yeah, DeVries' bowl is getting hot right now.

2:04:27AJ Hawk:They're on the bubble. They are a bubble team. they're going to need to perform well in the Big Ten tournament. They won't. The Big Ten's loaded, brother. The Hoosiers ain't got it this year. They're getting better, but they're not there yet. That's who I was thinking about when I said that.

2:04:39Pat McAfee:The Hoosiers? If Hoosiers played Miami, who would win?

2:04:43AJ Hawk:Where's that? Neutral site? Yep. Red Hawks. I think if it's a neutral site, I think you see Indiana's probably a two-and-a-half point favorite.

2:04:51Pat McAfee:If it's an assembly?

2:04:53AJ Hawk:Indiana might be a eight. Oh, I was going to say six-and-a-half to eight. That is the storyline.

2:04:59Pat McAfee:I haven't followed college basketball enough. I know if you go on the court and win 30-plus straight times, you're probably a pretty good team, no matter who you're playing against. Without a doubt. And then Michaela Schifrin, obviously over in Italy, will continue her World Cup slalom competition. 4.45 a.m. on Peacock, AJ. I'll be there. I know that'll be replaying. We need her to win. Yes. I don't know how feasible this is. This feels like a post-Olympics men's hockey run here where the boys, you know, they had a celly for the ages. And then they're right back in their season. Michaela, remember how she talked about what she did for this Olympics?

2:05:39Pat McAfee:It was like full lock-in, full everything. I want to be at my absolute best. She wins. She has not gone home. She's still over there. And then now as a race, it's like if she's mentally tough enough to be able to go put out another one, It's like we're talking about a unique, unique individual, just human as a whole. But she's the GOAT. Yeah. There's a chance she does it again. And we'll definitely walk. I don't know if I'll be up at 4.45 a.m. on Saturday, but I will certainly watch that back to see her runs and certainly follow along. She was great on the program.

2:06:08Michael Lombardi:Yeah, no doubt about it. She's one of the best. All these Olympians, she was one of the best ones that we've had, especially on the program. 4.45 a.m. Peacock time. It's not bad. I almost wonder if being on the West Coast is better. You catch this thing at 145. 189. Yeah, you're still up.

2:06:23Pat McAfee:Hey, before you go to bed, let's watch Michaela fucking shred these slopes out here in Italy.

2:06:29Michael Lombardi:Bingo. Or if you wake up early, because there's a chance, you know, start time's 445. She's the GOAT. She's probably going last. You might catch it at 530, 6 a.m., 7 a.m. Her first run. She might be just going on then. Yeah, so check it in the morning as well.

2:06:40Pat McAfee:Yeah, because main event of the evening. Bingo. Yeah, okay. So that's a little later. And there's, what, three runs normally is how they do it?

2:06:46AJ Hawk:Well, that's what I was going to say. catching it right when you wake up then maybe because then you don't have to watch all these other people who you don't really have an interest in. You can just watch all of her runs and then see how she did. Nice cup of red, white, and blue.

2:06:58Pat McAfee:Oh! How do you do? Oh! Saturday. So good is true. Oh! I think she's going to fly down that mountain. She was awesome on the show, AJ. She was. She was fun. From the beginning. What did she call you? Yappers? She was talking to you too, I think. You just weren't on with us, but she was certainly talking about you. You're real yappy. I know.

2:07:16Michael Lombardi:Believe me. I'm trying to stop. She actually sent us a message after like, hey, let AJ know I met him

2:07:21AJ Hawk:mostly.

2:07:21Michael Lombardi:He's a shit.

2:07:23Pat McAfee:Go blue, bitch. She said that? I think so. That was crazy. She said that. Yeah, I think she said O-H-N-O or something.

2:07:30Michael Lombardi:Well, either way, I will support her. I'll be up at 445 to watch.

2:07:33Pat McAfee:Okay, and he would be up regardless, but now he has something to watch as opposed to last night's stuff. Flyers taking on the Penguins. This is a huge one for us in this particular office because the Penguins are so much better than them. At home, 530 ESPN plus. UNC Duke, gigantic. Great Britain, Team USA. Saturday night, 8 o 'clock. We should demolish them as well, right? Yeah. Who's pitching? Logan Webbs tonight. Who's Great Britain? Scoobs.

2:07:57AJ Hawk:We got Scoobs for 55 and there's a chance that we're going to mercy rule them anyway, so that might be all we need.

2:08:04Pat McAfee:And then UFC, CBS, and Paramount, that's going to do huge numbers, especially with how Holloway and Oliveira fight. BMF.

2:08:11Michael Lombardi:Go ahead. That's the BMF title, so that will be a end of the fight, hey, let's just stand here in the middle and throw as heavy hands as we can as the time runs out.

2:08:21Pat McAfee:And then on Sunday, we got everything. We got golf. We got basketball. We got hockey. We got bowling. You name it. If you want it, you can have it. Sports are the greatest. Go see something. SeatGeek has tickets to everything. I don't know about everything. I don't know if you can go watch Michaela. I bet you could

2:08:36AJ Hawk:over there. You think SeatGeek has tickets

2:08:38Pat McAfee:to that?

2:08:39AJ Hawk:Let me look.

2:08:41Pat McAfee:Okay, if they do, they have the best price tickets for it of course shout out to sea geek the greatest ticket buying platform on planet earth and the moon obviously they have tickets for any live event that is taking place whether it's music or comedy or magic you name it they have tickets for it but in sports they have the best tickets just like in every other genre for anything you want to go see if your team's playing go watch them with your friends at sea geek if you're just uh kind of bored go watch them with your friends at sea geek and right now use code pat mcphee you get 30 off tickets whether you're a new customer or a returning customer.

2:09:12Pat McAfee:Shout out to SeatGeek. They're our first ever partner. We're still partners with them. And they're only getting better somehow. Shout out to them. Shout out to you. Shout out to sports. And shout out to us getting to do this for a living. Hell yeah. What a time. AJ, great to have you in the office. Thank you for welcoming Happy George so much.

2:09:27Michael Lombardi:I'll tell you what, I did not know what I was getting into. I walked in the door and I saw a bunch of chairs set up. You haven't played any of the Happy George clips, right?

2:09:36Pat McAfee:We showed a couple there. We didn't show you eyeballing every camera around there because you thought you were potentially getting some leveraged blackmail footage on you as Happy George was moving his little tongue around your face.

2:09:47Michael Lombardi:No, I just – walking into this, you would think it was like, oh, this is set up. It's a bit – he knows what's going on. I feel like nobody knew what was going on.

2:09:54Pat McAfee:No. Jenny saw a guy. Yeah, he came running in with his wife. Anyone pat him down, make sure there's no weapons or anything? Bruce, yeah. The only weapon he's got is his pants. Yeah, you can see his weapons. Yeah, it's obfuscated. Skid tight. Bruce went out and saw him. this guy was just moseying around Thunderdome wearing this just moseying around with a lady following him with a camera like this just kind of following him around everywhere just outside we could see him we got cameras everywhere so we'd see these people doing this so it's like all right Bruce go see what this is about so Bruce goes out talks for like 10 minutes comes in and goes his name's Happy George he uh wants to deliver a message to you and uh we did a quick little briefing quick conversation we're like I think we have to do this but I wanted to make it uncomfortable for happy george so we told happy george to wait outside let's go ahead and set some chairs up let's get a stage here when he comes in he's immediately being thrusted into like oh my god this is a lot this is kind of maybe intimidating uh and then we hit him from you because we didn't want you to see him whenever you arrived either so we actually told him to stand in a corner behind bigfoot over here so you don't see him when you're coming in because we were hoping for your first reaction to happy george and uh i think we got it all i think we got absolutely everything we had no idea he delivered and he was not intimidated by the ground at all it almost empowered him it made him even stronger and better his cheeks were around he took a couple requests and he delivered the message and i think the kid's last name was young out of ball state that sent the resume in not a bad idea to have happy george deliver that thing yeah not hiring but if i do i will remember you as the person that sent us incredible happiness from happy george and mrs george and uh at least one phone from the group so it was a good time and a great guitar.

2:11:34Pat McAfee:And he had a microphone that went right into a speaker that was on his hip. So when he was talking to you, you had a stadium speaker coming at you. And I was like, did you plug into my speaker? How'd you get into this? He goes, bam, right there, buddy. This guy's the best.

2:11:46Michael Lombardi:He'll deliver a message for you. I tell you what, we saw a little bit ago, you couldn't hear him. He was coming for Gumpy. He came back a couple times and you, I got a job for you. I want you, buddy. And you said, no, you're coming back to Columbus with me, brother. Hopping in the back of the truck. Yeah, him and his wife for stealing the back of my car. I'm going to take him back and tell my kids, hey, go get a happy George game. I don't know if that's the best use of your happy George. I don't think he's allowed. You should send him to the house. Cross state lines? What do you mean? No, he goes international.

2:12:12Michael Lombardi:Yeah, he's international. What are you laughing at, Tone?

2:12:15Pat McAfee:He just thought about happy George performing for a little.

2:12:17Michael Lombardi:What if he just played the guitar to my whole ride? Hey, keep me awake, George. I'm dozing off. Are you just playing for me?

2:12:21AJ Hawk:Stick your butt cheeks in my face, George.

2:12:23Michael Lombardi:I'm dozing off. That's what you'd be saying. I don't smell that thong, George. I didn't wake up. These are all things I would not ask. Come on, we don't know. It's a three-hour trip. Your brain could explore this space. Depends how tired you get. Yeah, exactly.

2:12:33AJ Hawk:I think the super troopers, when they arrest that couple and then they put the kids' bed in there.

2:12:38Michael Lombardi:You're doing that.

2:12:40Pat McAfee:All right. You and Happy George's cheeks, I do hope, are around each other again.

2:12:47Michael Lombardi:He wanted to make sure that you noticed his cheeks. He did a couple spin moves. That's the best part.

2:12:52AJ Hawk:My best part here.

2:12:54Michael Lombardi:Fuck your good looking. Yeah.

2:12:58Pat McAfee:okay happy george fucking delivered yes he did yeah he did i don't know how much that was 150 200 300 bucks what i don't know 205 dollars i would say happy george gets the job done if that is what you're looking to do have to have to pick the right group at the right time yeah talk was filming from the backside talk knew he had a thong on before any of them because talk's trying to get the clips for tiktok you know so he can get facial expressions and reactions on the other side

2:13:23Michael Lombardi:Patting him down.

2:13:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, well, Bruce patting him down, knew it. But as soon as this guy walked past Talk and he got his camera out, Talk just goes, he starts staring at this guy's ass. So I think he knew before anybody. AJ was certainly questioning a lot. Bailey took a camera behind him at one point, and AJ refused to even watch the Happy George show, and he just eyeballed the camera. You consented, by the way, as soon as you walked in here.

2:13:47Michael Lombardi:I don't know if I did. I walked in, you guys said, hey, he's about to go. He's about to perform. I said, who is that? What is that? and then you guys said, just shut up, just sit down.

2:13:56Pat McAfee:I didn't like that you were second row either. We wanted you front row so we could get you. As you remember, I was trying to promote that, but instead I got balloons immediately upon arrival, which I had to deal with now. I don't think the balloons were the good play. Happy George, I think you need something other than balloons. Like what? Flowers, because I can put those down. These balloons, I mean, I had to actually. I thought he had to wait at the bottom. No, there was nothing, so I had to hold these things. They were getting in my face. I was missing the George show.

2:14:22AJ Hawk:So, you know, he ties him to his guitar.

2:14:25Pat McAfee:Have an incredible weekend of sports, all right? We're incredibly lucky and thankful that we get to do this. Monday is going to be a pretty epic show. It's going to be a pretty epic show. We're putting together a couple different studios for Schefter to organize all of his chaos that's going to happen on Monday as new deals are announced. Hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of dollars are going to be given out in contracts on Monday. We're going to be covering it all from noon to 3 on ESPN. Schefter will be here. Schrags will be here. Orlovsky will be here. The Bullies will be here. I believe even AJ is potentially going to stop by alongside D-Butt.

2:14:53Pat McAfee:We should have an incredible Monday, but that's only going to follow the greatest weekend of our lives. That doesn't have football in it.

2:14:59AJ Hawk:Nope.

2:15:00Pat McAfee:Correct. World baseball classic. A lot of good stuff, though. Going to carry us. America's about to do it. That's right, baby. Bowling on CW is about to do it. Yeah. Good show. These guys are jacked up. EJ? Tackett.

2:15:09Michael Lombardi:Tackett. Yeah. Arnie Palmer. Who's the two-hander?

2:15:13Pat McAfee:Well, there's been a few. The last bowler of the year before EJ Tackett's run here was a two-handed roller. That's a ball rise of bowling, baby. Yeah, EJ kind of just...

2:15:23Michael Lombardi:They should ban two-handed bowling. Whoa! You should shut your fucking mouth. Whoa! Just feels Mickey Mouse. You're talking about the two-handed one from down under? If your wrist isn't in-handed and strong enough to sling that thing one-handed, then you've got to go to the minor league. They're rolling 10 ,000 balls a day. How heavy are their balls that are rolling? Do you know?

2:15:46Pat McAfee:Well, I think they've got a heavier one. 14, 16. Oil patterns. 32 pounds. Yeah. Two balls. Yeah, rolling two of them. You would never understand. You're right. And now Packers Edge, Rashawn Gary, has deleted his goodbye to Green Bay post. All right.

2:15:59AJ Hawk:Good riddance, you son of a bitch. Whoa. What if he's not cut?

2:16:03Pat McAfee:What if something – what if they call back?

2:16:04AJ Hawk:Then welcome back, brother. Oh, my God. Did he get his dibs right? Excited to see what you do next year.

2:16:12Pat McAfee:We'll see. We'll see. We will, won't we? We will see. All right, let's get out of here. AJ, you're the best. Thank you for traveling over.

2:16:19Michael Lombardi:Thank you, guys. It was awesome.

2:16:20Pat McAfee:AJ, favorite thing of the week?

2:16:22Michael Lombardi:Man, big week we had this week, didn't we? I wasn't unable to go. World baseball classic situation, all of you guys. You getting a hit off of Clayton Kershaw has probably be the highlight.

2:16:32Pat McAfee:You know what? We'll run that to end this thing because you said it, AJ. That's going to produce it and direct it out of you.

2:16:37Michael Lombardi:My lips to God's ears. Good work. You ever heard that saying? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. My lips to God's ears.

2:16:44Pat McAfee:You're talking to God's ears. You should say your lips.

2:16:46Michael Lombardi:If you talk, I would say your lips to God's ears, brother. Your lips to Happy George's ass.

2:16:52Pat McAfee:I didn't say that. I'm sure somebody has to.

2:16:53Michael Lombardi:You're talking Gumpy. Gumpy was offered a couple times. Stop dragging me into this. I can see your little head. Happy George tried dragging you into it. He did. He did you, beard. Happy George was backing right into Gump.

2:17:05AJ Hawk:I'm going to have fun with you later. That's basically what you said. Out of this speaker. Yeah.

2:17:12Michael Lombardi:I saw them bump phones to their contacts, you know, how you can get your contacts over. They were bumping? Yeah.

2:17:19Pat McAfee:Playing phone sticks is a good time. All right. Now we're having a great time because sports have afforded us the opportunity. Boys in the back, great work. Good work, boys.

2:17:27AJ Hawk:Good work, boys. Good work, boys.

2:17:29Pat McAfee:Graphic design, boys. Good work this week, boys. Good work, boys. Zito, good work this week. Good work, baby. Zito, Mick, good work this week. Good work, baby. All right. Talk to the table. well done. Well done. Good job. One half of the hammer. God. Cowboys AP town. We'll see how good of a week you have. You. Okay. All right. You too. Hey, go baseball. Go baseball. Love baseball. Safe travels back, man. We will get you happy George sitting shotgun with you. And from my understanding, he does live by the code of the road. Yeah.

2:17:57Michael Lombardi:He delivers whatever you need.

2:18:00Pat McAfee:Be your friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in this thing together. Anything for the team, AJ? No. And that's all that really needs to be said at this point. America's playing Brazil tonight. America's playing Great Britain tomorrow night. Yeah. And we don't need no tea party to let us understand that that needs to be an ass beating. Just like this entire thing is. So, yeah, you're right. No words need to be said about what's about to happen. Magic everywhere because of sports. We will rerun Me vs. Kershaw immediately after this. And then we will see you on Monday for one of our biggest shows of the year.

2:18:37Pat McAfee:We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. You're the greatest people on earth. We love you. We're forever indebted to you. Have a great weekend. We're in a scene together. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Team.

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