PMS 2.0 1519 - March Madness Rounds 1 and 2 Recap, Coach K, Adam Schefter, Seth Greenberg, Iowa Head Coach Ben McCollum, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

22:13Pat McAfee:Not saying they are. And there's certainly some young studs. But I've loved the quality of basketball that's been happening throughout March Madness. Yeah, I think it's been good quality basketball through it all. They're older. I assume you agree. There's so many international players playing. I don't have the exact count. But, you know, Arizona has eight. Not all of them play. Illinois is playing outstanding basketball. They have, I think, five international players. And so the international influence, and those guys aren't coming in as 18-year-olds. They're coming in at 21, 22, and whatever.

22:55So it is more of a man's game. And there are more good teams, I think. Really, I don't know if there's a clear-cut favorite right now. Because Purdue, Matt Painter's done an amazing job. His three seniors have done an incredible job. So they're old and they're playing, I think, their best basketball. And how about the Big Ten having six teams? I mean.

23:30Pat McAfee:Hey, and also, who's the national champs in football? Last couple years. Yeah. Uh-oh. I mean, you Southerns are about to have us. You guys are dealing with it. Well, we do know. What we're saying is the last three years it's been Big Ten. Three different teams in the Big Ten have won the national championship. Even Indiana, which obviously you know very well because it used to be just basketball school. Now it's a football school. It's like now Big Ten with basketball showing up the way it's showing up. And, Coach, we asked Coach Saban about this, and he had an incredible line. He obviously coached at Michigan State at the beginning of his career, so he understands the Big Ten culture a little bit at some of the places.

24:08Pat McAfee:But the Big Ten has money. The Big Ten has money. A lot of business schools, a lot of alumni, a lot of people in. So I think this whole modern era for the Big Ten has been great because their alumni can be a part of the sports and the athletics. And I guess I'm finding this out right now, and I should know more. I understand I should. I'm a football guy. I guess it's carrying into basketball. The Big Ten is looking to win everything. Hey, Coach K, I don't know. The ACC. They haven't won a national championship in basketball in over 20 years. Whoa. They're not exactly knocking it out of the park.

24:48Nothing against the Big Ten.

24:51Pat McAfee:Of course. Of course, of course, of course. AJ from the Big Ten has a question for you, Coach. Yeah, Coach K, when I watch these games, you see a lot of them coming down to the wire, and you see coaches drawing up plays to get their guys open to get a shot four or five seconds. Also, defensively, you've got to figure out situational basketball. How much of that do you work on throughout the year? We talk about it in football all the time. Bill Belichick's great at it, obviously Mike Vrabel. Situational football, they're great at it. Is this a thing in basketball that you're spending a bunch of time on, situations like this at the end of the game?

25:20Yeah, amazing amount. End of game situations, ATOs after timeouts. To me, that's like one of the hidden gems in watching a game is after a timeout, what a coach does. Side out of bounds, under out of bounds, magical. I think our guy, John Shire, does an amazing job with that. And when he was a player and we won our national championship, ACC won the national championship in 2010 and won, I think, six or seven times in the last 20 years. Anyway, my mind was wandering. Be in the moment, Coach.

26:06Pat McAfee:Be where you feel, Coach. No, let me finish what I said. shire in our in the butler game he scored i think four times made reads four or five times on under out of bounds plays that we scored on and we won as a result of that not one play but he put together about five of them and uh the thing with that is you can draw up a play are your players good enough where can they make a read just in case that they see something new that's what i like and you know when john was a player he did that uh for us numerous numerous times i think i think iso gives fears that uh that latitude he has confidence in him to make the make those reads empowers him and obviously it paid off you have to have a high basketball iq i assume for a coach to want to go ahead and hand over the keys.

27:06Pat McAfee:Speaking of handing over the keys, you just brought them up and John, he's doing it now with Duke and you talked about the hiccup. Ty actually has a question for you about that. Yeah, coach, throughout your career in games like that, where, you know, Pat was mentioning, like, we were all saying like, oh, Duke's, they're covering 28 and a half. They're going to beat the hell out of Siena. How quickly into a game can you realize, or did you maybe realize throughout your career, like, oh boy, like we're actually, we're in trouble here. Like, does Does that happen quickly or is it at halftime maybe?

27:35And how do you kind of get them out of that when they start to feel that and then the pressure mounts and it's like, oh boy, now we are in a prime spot to be upset here? Well, no, you sense it right away, I think. One, if your team's playing well, you know that. But like the Siena game, John Shire knew right from the get-go that his guys just didn't, they looked sluggish. They didn't have good faces. And I think he let them have it in his way. And that still didn't work. That's what's scary, you know, when it lingers. You know, like I've called timeouts, you know, a minute or two minutes into a game if all of a sudden I sense that.

28:22I don't wait for a TV timeout. The other thing, I mentioned the timeouts. Sometimes a coach makes a mistake because of the TV timeouts of letting a run of another team continue. You know, like, you know, there's 8.45 left in the game and the team's on the run. call a timeout. You know, timeouts, not at TV timeouts, are also big decisions that coaches can make. I tried to, I thought I was decent at that. Hold on.

29:00Pat McAfee:So you're telling me that most coaches just rely on the TV timeout instead of wasting time out? No, not most. I'm just saying. Can get trapped in that. As somebody that doesn't. You know, put water on the fire, you know. Like, you know, stop it burning for Christ's sake. And what a coach does out of that time out then, sometimes a lot of games are won between five and nine minutes, not necessarily the last two minutes. Everyone knows something's going to happen in the last two minutes. But what do you do when, you know, under double digit minutes in a game? When do you call timeouts? That type of thing.

29:51How you sub. That's what makes the game so beautiful. And, you know, football's beautiful too. But you have time in between plays. You know, basketball favors the continuous thinker, the continuous worker. You can go offense, defense, offense in 12 seconds. And so being able to call a key timeout is huge.

30:19Pat McAfee:Yeah, but it's 45 minutes for your final 40 seconds of your game. Okay, so I don't need the whole, hey, in our game, we just keep going. You don't. Okay, you guys take forever. You guys take absolutely forever. Great game, great sport. We respect it. but like also let's not you know let's not do that i didn't know we were going to have a fight between football and basketball you started it you said i know i love i love football i just mentioned that you're pounding your chest about the big 10 the football championships i have to remind you that uh there's no chest pounding for the basketball national championships We'll see.

31:01I'm in the Big 12, too.

31:02Pat McAfee:West Virginia's on its – okay, okay, you got it. Big 12 is about to win it next year. West Virginia's finding a new NIL person, and we are off and running. So everybody's in deep shit whenever that takes place. Let's talk a little bit about the SEC. They got a stud. Tone has a question for you about a superstar. Yeah, Coach, I do. Coach Cal down in Arkansas has – it feels like he always has an incredible guard. But Darius Acuff is going for in postseason play. He's going for over 30. He's going for over seven assists and is shooting close to 50 % from three. Is this one of these kids that can lead Arkansas single-handedly to a championship?

31:38And if you're facing them, what do you do? Well, they also have another freshman, Thomas. Their two freshmen are averaging, geez, like almost 40 points a game. But Acuff is one of the top two or three players in the country. and he's got a man's body. He's got an NBA. He's NBA ready, you know, and he loves the pressure. You know, he can put that team on his back. They have a tough draw, though, Arizona. Arizona lost two games in February. They've won 11 straight. But I love Acuff. And John Calipari is a good friend and a great coach, but he has produced more NBA guards than anybody. You take a look around the NBA, how many Kentucky players and star players are playing.

32:45And so he gives them freedom and personalizes an offense around the guards. and Acuff has been fantastic. But they're going to have a tough time, I think, against Arizona.

33:02Pat McAfee:Arizona, you talked about all the international players. They also got Coa Pete, freshman stud. His dad, I believe an offensive lineman, he committed to Arizona on our show, Coach, big college basketball show. Obviously, that is going to be a very difficult match for anybody with that Arizona team, with how dominant they have been. Let's start talking about some more of the Sweet 16 matchups as we go ahead. And UConn grad and UConn great D-butt has a question for you, Coach.

33:25Adam Schefter:Absolutely. Got Michigan State coming up, so it'll be an in-office battle with me and Foxy. I know you know both of these coaches or both of these teams very well. How do you see these teams matching up? I know Carabin, two-time champ, carried us last game, and then there's great weapons on Michigan State's side as well. How do you see these two teams matching up? Well, Connecticut got their point guard back. You know, DeMarie played, I think, 22 minutes in the last game. He didn't play in the game before. So that's a big plus. I think Michigan State's hitting on all cylinders now. And this kid, Fears, is special.

34:06I mean, and he runs the show. To me, it'll be interesting how Danny Hurley defends Fears. Like, do you deny him the ball? do you make it difficult for him? Because the Michigan State players, as soon as they get the ball, give him the ball. And so denying him the ball would be one thing, making it more difficult for him. I love – I've known Danny since he was a high school kid. Both these guys are really good friends and great coaches. To me, physically, watch this game. They're going to go after one another. They both play outstanding defense. I think Michigan State has a little bit of an edge because they have more than one big guy.

34:59Although the kid Reed for, how about his performance in their first game for Connecticut? He had 31 points and 27 rebounds.

35:09Adam Schefter:Yeah, a lot. So I haven't watched Connecticut every game or whatever. They may be changing their offense a little bit to take advantage of that and getting him the ball more. He's probably saying, why the hell didn't you give me the ball more? I got 31 for you the last game. But that's going to be a big-time matchup. And Michigan State has a couple bigs, so they can combat that.

35:41Pat McAfee:Terrace Reed, to your point, ends up with 41 points and 40 rebounds over the weekend. He's the first player to go 40-40 over the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament since the big fundamental, Tim Duncan, in 1997. Yeah, I think that's pretty good. Hey, Hurley, why don't we get him the ball? Fucking Tim Duncan's here. Let's go ahead and figure out how we could do that. I got nothing but faith, obviously, in Coach Hurley doing his thing. All right, last question here for you, Coach, as we appreciate your time, just making us so much smarter and better. I'm up here in Bristol, Connecticut, you know, shaking hands, got big-time meetings up here.

36:16Pat McAfee:I'm letting them know, I think maybe you could do TV. You know, they're saying, is that Coach K worth a damn? I'm like, ah, I think so, guys. I think he's worth a damn. So I'm going to back for you up here. I don't necessarily have a TV face, you know, or a radio face. but with my big nose and big ears, I take up. Join the club, brother. Join the club, brother. We're all in there. Your hair, I think, is what everybody has been kind of. No, I don't color my hair. I don't color my hair. I'm 79, but a lot of people accuse me of that. What about your eyebrows? I don't have much hair to color. I think color.

36:54Pat McAfee:But what about your eyebrows? You color your eyebrows? You color your eyebrows? No. No. It'd be weird to pick just your eyebrows, wouldn't it? I don't use any color up here. Penny, you don't color your eyebrows or your hair. I'm looking at those eyebrows right now. You're telling me there's not more gray in those eyebrows? All natural, brother. There's maybe one gray hair. And quit looking at my damn eyes. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Well, I'm just saying, I don't know why you gotta dye that. AJ, what's wrong with this guy? I don't know. Especially, I mean, it'd be weird to dye your eyebrows, but not your hair.

37:26Does he do this on Mondays? He's remote, coach. He's a great weekend. He can't really see anything.

37:31Pat McAfee:Next thing, he's going to look at your hair. Let me tell you, let me guess. You don't shave that either. You don't grow it. How does your hair stay perfect? Because I remember whenever you were coaching and you were super, and you've been doing it a long time. So you immediately go to the hair. You're like, this guy's got to have the greatest hair of all time. And you just stayed Superman jet black, basically. So that's unbelievable. Way to clear the air. You do not dye your hair every single week to make sure that thing is always flexed black? Never, ever. You don't go the Herbal Essence Intense Darkening Kit every single morning when you put that thing on your eyebrows and your hair?

38:11I don't even know what the hell you're talking about.

38:13Pat McAfee:Okay, hey, that's what somebody would say. But I just want to let you know, it looks unbelievable. And I'm hoping for the bottom. Obviously, my eyebrows look great. Yes. Yeah. I'll tell you what, brother. We just spent three minutes talking about them. So you need to know that they are absolutely fantastic. All right, now let's talk about spending time, shall we? Let's get back to college hoops. As we just found out that Coach K might be aging better than any white in history. Like, this is actually a potential. Congratulations, Coach. You're great at college basketball, Coach. You're also aging maybe the greatest any white has ever aged in the history.

38:51Pat McAfee:It's unbelievable. Okay, let's talk about spending time here. Con man has the last question for you, Coach. Yeah, Coach, over these next couple days, these players and teams are going to be preparing for their biggest game of their lives, basically. How does a coach, when you were doing it, when some of these vet guys who are still out there, Hurley, Izzo, Calipari, how do they schedule these next few days? It's a lot of travel, of course, and you've got to factor that in. But how do they kind of do that? And then also, how do you keep your players locked in? They're coming off one of their biggest weekends of all time.

39:22Iowa upsetting Florida, some of these other teams. and do they get kind of in their feelings as far as, oh, I'm the best, this is amazing, we're going to go on, we already won the whole thing. How do you keep your team locked in? And also, I'm just going to say it as a conspiracy theorist, I don't believe you. You definitely dye your hair and your eyebrows. I'm sorry. Have to, dude. You have to. Look at that. Look at that hair. I believe you, Coach. You wouldn't lie to us. Yeah. Well, first of all, you can't – don't overpractice this wig. All right. You know, I'd stay away from real physical drills.

39:59You know, make sure that, one, if you have some guys that have been injured, like Duke has, you're trying to bring them back. You know, a big thing, like for Iowa State, to get Jefferson back from his ankle injury. But don't overpractice, and do not overpractice. And during this time, as you progress, you find out you have more friends and relatives than you ever knew in your life. And everybody wants a piece because everyone's into March Madness. And the player is a March Madness. And so limit your activity. Focus on what we're doing. Don't focus on what everyone else wants you to be talking about.

40:49They, you know, you're very popular during this time. And let's stay within the group. Let's keep our heads, let's stay in our lane. Don't get out of, get out of our lane. And I think you watch a lot of tape during this time and, and, and you get healthy. Make sure you're as healthy as can be. And the other thing with this is don't overcoach with scouting reports. You know, don't – you have a lot of time, especially for this round of 16, the Sweet 16 game. You can give them too much information. Make sure they're instinctive, healthy, and focused. You got a shot. Did you have to figure that out, Coach?

41:41Was that something you figured out? Did you overcoach at one point in your career, in your long, luster? Yeah, you can, you know, like I've always laughed when, if you're in a locker room before a game and a coach has the whiteboard completely filled with things, I said, holy crap. Is this an exam or what the hell are you doing? I would like to put down words like courage, enthusiasm, fight, or like this is what I want you thinking of. You should already know your damn game plan by that time. Now you're in execution phase, an instinctive phase. Don't have them think too much, but have them think a lot about a few things that are going to be necessary.

42:31And have fun while you're doing it, man. Have fun, fight like hell, and let's see what the heck happens here.

42:39Pat McAfee:so fun fight and fantastic might be like three key words for each game are you changing those words each game in the basketball season or is there a season mantra like hustle loyalty respect john cena has three words okay that was that was his mantra over there are you changing those focus words for each game i'm not going to tell you i'm coming out with a book on three word pregame talks. And I have a list of about 150 three-word groupings that I'm going to put out. Will you write the foreword to that book for me? Absolutely. I'll write three words for you, no problem. Read the foreword. It is important not to give them too much.

43:29It really is. It's not what you know as a coach. it's what your players can do under game conditions that that's and sometimes you you try to show them do you know too much when's the book coming out do you know uh soon as i get my forward from you yeah okay so this is very soon yeah no i'm not putting out a goddamn book

43:58Yes.

44:02Pat McAfee:You're the greatest. You're the absolute greatest. Hey, I want to let you know, maybe you put out a book about, you know, the shot with Leitner in 1992, which Patino just came out and said he's trying to get some revenge for, you know, as his boys take on Duke in the Sweet 16. Do you feel like maybe you're motivating this St. John's team to beat a Duke team that you're no longer coaching? Do you think you're maybe a distraction because of what you guys did in 92 with that play call for Leitner for the shot, something that we remember forever? Oh, no. Is this going to be on you if they come out super motivated?

44:33Pat McAfee:Coach, are these things that you've thought about? Because it sounds like Patino has. It happened 34 years ago. None of these kids, including the international players, were born yet. All right. So I'm sure Rick is really smart. He's one of the best ever. I'm sure he brought that up just to get it out of the way, just to get it out of the way. But I will tell you this, one of the most impressive things he ever did was the way he handled that game, not just coaching the game, but what he did afterwards. And how he celebrated what was a devastating defeat. I've always admired what he did with that game.

45:24Pat McAfee:Can you tell me about the play? How we came up with that? How often did you practice that? What are the percent? We practiced that, yeah. What a pass. Interesting, about a month before this game, we're playing Wake Forest at Wake, and we tried the same play. and Grand Hill threw the ball and he hit a lady on the side. Not that it was long. He threw a curve ball. No, I'm not lying. He threw it and it went into the stands on the side. And so we practiced it. And then during that time out, I asked him, can you throw the ball 75 feet? and he said I can do that and I said well I didn't say this but I'm thinking well the last time he threw it about 60 feet and so don't say those things that don't say a negative during that time and but he'll tell you that once he said he was going to do it it was easy for him to do it Waitner during that time time out said hey I'm going to bring you up from the foul line to the foul line from the baseline.

46:36And can you catch it? And he was so damn cocky and good. He said, Coach, if Grant throws a good pass, I'll catch it. And I'll do something with it. And he was 20 for 20 in that game. Damn. 10 for 10 from the free throw line, 10 for 10 from the floor. That's why they didn't double him. that's why they was able to get the pass they were afraid to follow him okay and he got it and then he dribbled a damn ball uh and then shot it and 20 for 20 a lot of people don't don't they just remember that shot but when it when he shot it i said oh it's gonna go in for crying out loud he he has it clean too splash it sounded like the hoop was gigantic they're they're coming

47:29Pat McAfee:now talking about him being like one of the biggest menaces in the history of sports what was it like coaching him the best no one no one believed in me more i'm saying a lot of guys is the same amount but christian was easy to you know like uh you never had to worry about fire from him Every once in a while, you have to make sure the fire wouldn't burn the house down, that he would really get on people. I loved him. He's one of the ultimate winners. You know, four Final Fours. I think his teams were 21-2 in the NCAA tournament. You've got to be kidding me. I think he's the leading scorer in the tournament history, the number of points scored.

48:26Not bad.

48:27Pat McAfee:Not bad. He may be a better coach, I'll tell you that. There's a lot of those guys through Duke. Obviously, the shot is legendary, and Pitino is never going to forget it. Hey, have you thought about the room in which you're putting the goats? You remember last week you omitted LeBron James from the room? No, he didn't. Don't say that. That's a lie. You, like you do with the guys on your team, they're in the midst of saying something really profound and you interrupt them.

49:03I was going through a list of people in that room and all of a sudden you spout off. You left LeBron out. I didn't know you as well then as I do now. I would have told you to shut the hell up. You keep having me on the show. I'm going to start coaching you harder.

49:26Pat McAfee:Okay. I love good coaching. Hey, everybody that wants to go on and do great things loves to be coached. So keep them sending. Keep sending them this way. Just keep sending the coaching tips this way. I want all 153 words. Three words. Go get them. Let's have fun and hustle all the respect. Send those. Send all those to me so I can be motivated every morning. Coach, we appreciate the hell out of you. Yeah, well, I've never questioned your motivation. Never. Sometimes what you say is not the smartest, but you're definitely motivated. I am motivated coach I certainly am and you know what else I'm motivated To do Win a bet on Duke So why don't you fucking tell them that this isn't a cakewalk Okay so when these guys come out And say we thought Sienna was going to be a cakewalk I don't need to hear that Why don't you send them a text Why don't you send a pigeon letter Whatever you need to do I don't know how you olds do it Can you get a message please To the team and say we're not cakewalking Okay Patino's not a He's not – what's a good Italian cake?

50:40Pat McAfee:What's a good Italian cake? Canole. Any of Tiramisu. This ain't Tiramisu, boys. Okay, just because Patino's there. We need to really go. Okay, we need to go, coach. Okay. Okay. I'm not going to do that. Need to – come on. Need to go. Period. Shire's the only one who should be talking to my – to our team. Yeah, I heard what you said You're the man Ladies and gentlemen, that's Coach K You're the GOAT

51:16Pat McAfee:Okay, I'll tell you what Coach K is getting comfortable, isn't he? I'm excited for the book Even though it sounds like he made it up on the spot Maybe it's going to have to happen How about that? Did he just make up the fact that he has 153 word mantras That he's going to write a book If I'll write the forward to it just out of nowhere Just as a gimmick And then says, I'm not doing that Go fuck yourself Unbelievable. Coach K, you had me, bud. I was excited. I was so proud. Three-word things. I can read that book. That's like a tweet, old tweet. I can read those. I can do that all day. What a legend.

51:47Pat McAfee:Feels like he thinks Duke's going to get healthy and they're going to continue to go. Feels like he thinks good coaching matters. Feels like that has been a constant through the conversations with him. And I'll tell you what, Tone, the big conference schools having money and shit, certainly paying dividends here in March Madness, Tone. Yeah, especially when I looked at it in second year in a row, that it's all major conferences that make up the Sweet 16. And that's the second time all time. So the last two years, NIL is definitely showing its teeth for these teams that are spending money and getting to where they are.

52:20There was even a coach, I think it was Utah State, maybe they were like, what's the difference between last year you losing in 64 and making it to 32? This year he said about$2 million on the roster. And Mick Cronin said, I need$5 million more for my roster. roster. Everyone's talking about the money. They had a good game yesterday. But no, it's making a huge difference. And I think it's making a huge difference. And Connor said it first. And yes, maybe the Cinderella's aren't going to be a huge thing anymore in the round of 64. But that was one of the best rounds of 32 that I've ever seen. Because there was so many close games, so many buzzer beaters.

52:54And it was like the basketball was really, really well done. And I think that's kind of what you're seeing with the NIL this year and last year.

53:01Pat McAfee:But it's real madness in March right now. UConn's still cooking. good for you guys?

53:05Adam Schefter:UConn is still cooking. I can't wait for this matchup. This will be a real good one. I feel like the years that we won the chip, and it's something that kind of goes unnoticed, but at the free throw line, you talked about all the late games and the coming out of timeouts and obviously defense, but rebounding and free throws. I think we were 90 % last night, so if we can keep shooting well from the stripe, obviously dominating in the inside with the bigs, I think we got a chance to run it. I forget who said it. I'm not sure if it was Coach K or not, but Like, it's no really a clear-cut favorite this year.

53:35Adam Schefter:But March Madness, it always delivers. Everybody and all the sports we watch, the playoffs are great. But, like, March Madness, it's always going to be a surprise story, a superstar, a play, or two, or nine. So, I can't wait for this one, man. I do hate when I just fall asleep in that first half, though.

53:52Pat McAfee:That's a real bummer. That's a real bummer. When you fall asleep during the first half and then all of a sudden everything's out, it's a blowout? Okay. Oh, this game matters? Okay, nice, perfect timing. Brain, thank you for waking me up here. There's been some electrifying moments already. I'm excited to see who takes it in. Will the Big Ten win for the first time in 20 years? Yes. Nice little stat there from Coach K. How about Jackson Smith and Jigba, AJ? Just became the highest-paid wide receiver of all time with the Seattle Seahawks. How do you feel about it? I mean, I feel good. I know the Seahawks.

54:21This was expected, I think, right? I mean, obviously we knew he was going to be most likely the highest-paid receiver ever. The numbers, we weren't sure exactly where that would come in, but he's averaging 42.15 mil per year. That is – I guess, is there a ceiling? Does it stop? How much – like what's going to be a contract eight years from now? What's it going to look like?

54:41Pat McAfee:Yeah, and D-Bot, that's the thing. Jackson Smith and Jigba obviously has gotten better and better, but this past year, like clear-cut guy, right, with Sam Darnold. They keep Sam Darnold. They have to move on from Kenneth Walker. They win the Super Bowl, so they're going to have to move on from some pieces that are probably going to be a bit too expensive. but you got to hold on to your guys, your pillar guys. Feels like JSN became that quickly out there debug.

55:03Adam Schefter:Yeah, this is a no-brainer. Obviously, he reset the market now, but when we look at this contract a couple years from now, they're going to look like geniuses when he's sitting at 42 a year, which sounds absolutely nuts. Puka's on deck. Puka will probably get somewhere close to this for sure. But Seattle, this is the problem, the good problem you have when you draft good players, especially these first-rounders. They're going to reset the market when it's their time. But what he did for Seattle last year was unbelievable. Obviously, he led the league in yards, Offensive Player of the Year, and Seattle was near the bottom when it came to actually throwing the ball.

55:33Adam Schefter:So when they was throwing the ball, it was 2-11, and he was making big plays. But on defense, they got another young stud who's in the same draft class, Witherspoon, their cornerback, who will probably reset that market as well when it's time for him to get paid. McDuffie just reset it for corners at 31 a year, so I expect him to get somewhere around that. own pieces for the defended champs, Seattle Seahawks. But it's a no-brainer with Jackson Smith and Jake, but he is unbelievable from the slot, from the outside, short routes, intermediate route, deep routes. He's unbelievable. He's going to make your quarterback, your offensive coordinator better week in, week out.

56:09Pat McAfee:Straight out of Ohio State, they continue to just create wide receivers that are problematic. One thing before the first hour ends here that we've got to talk about. Shout out to the ESPN people. By the way, Deck Rays, West Virginia. Shout out. Yes, sweet. Good work on the graphic bone. It's been incredible. I'm very thankful for the space here. And this campus is beautiful. You know what else is beautiful? UTSA kicker Jaffer Murphy. 4-4-7, 70-yard field goal. Absolutely shredded. That's what I'm talking about, Jaffer. That's what I'm talking about. Okay. He won the weekend. Draft him in the first round.

56:45Yeah. Should.

56:47Pat McAfee:I love what he's doing to kick off. I love what he's doing. Hey, kick it off high. Kick a pooch and have him go kill people. Yeah. I'm going to be a part of the coverage. Yeah. I mean, 11 men covering is obviously good, especially when you're running 4-4. Shout out to him doing that for the brand. We'll see you on the other side. Goodbye.

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58:09Sports! That's what's going on, Pat. How do you think Coach K was? He was pretty amazing. Obviously, you're very shifty, too, to show us what the flag football guys were doing the other day.

58:19Pat McAfee:Well, I don't know what their drug testing is for the Olympics, but I am going to work on the little penthouse-outhouse move where they drop their hips, you know, and they make it impossible to get tackled. This guy right here needs to be on a team stack. Yeah. I don't know if he's – I mean, he's Slytherin. I don't like it. Could you imagine Canada trying to tackle this guy in the Olympics? Yeah, right. You think Canada's going to be able to get their mitts on these flags? I don't think so. Who else is a big-time flag competitor? Take a look at what you're going to see in the Olympics. Whoop, whoop, whoop.

58:53Pat McAfee:Down to the ground. Up into the sky. He's a bird. He's a plane. He's a touchdown man. He's Brown Jr. He's a USA flag footballer who I'm not sure these NFL guys. Luke Kuechly just got in the Hall of Fame. To get in the Hall of Fame, he's going to be retired for at least five years. I don't think Luke had any idea what he was signing up for. There was one time where he grabbed the guy's entire pants and just pantsed the guy. It was like, did I get the flag? I don't know. The guy's naked. So, I don't know the entire thing. It felt like we didn't really know the ins and outs. Maybe got bamboozered.

59:23Pat McAfee:But I do know the flag football team that we're going to put on the field in L.A. in 2028. It ain't going to be no ray gun operation. No, no. We're going to be out there doing it. We're going to be out there doing it big. And it was a great weekend, A.J. Hawking. I need to start working on the little dippity-doo. You know, because when McKenzie wants to get into flag football, you know what I mean? And here's the ranking. USA, Austria. What? Wow. Okay. Arnold? European powerhouse. Austria won silver in 2024 and 2018, and then Mexico got silver in 2021. It feels like it's a three-team race with U.S., Austria, and Mexico as far as medals are concerned.

59:59Pat McAfee:This is by far the best. That's the best screen we've ever put on TV. Just right there. Just old school. Spelled rankings wrong. Two Gs in rankings. There's no decoration, not even a single flag on this thing. I have no idea what website this is from. They want to godaddy.com and said, fucking give me the lowest level. I just need to be able to put the numbers in. And they're like, do you want a title, sir? Do you want at least to be able to do a title? We guess. Do you want to spell it right? Do you want us to spell check it? No way. two G's in rankings because this is a different game. It's flag football.

1:00:46Pat McAfee:I can't believe we lost to these guys. It's all yeah. Like you said, we got bamboozled. We got some nice coverage beaters. We'll work guys open. No, it was just dink it down and have a guy break 55 times. Why do we have so many retired guys? Listen, Logan Paul did incredible. Logan Paul is chugging. Against the NFL guys, he sacked Jalen Hurts, but he stunk against Team USA. Boy, you want them to do their professionals. What's he doing on the field? They're chasing these little guys around. This is fanatic football. That's fanatic football. That's what it was. It was a white party on a football field.

1:01:22It was bullshit.

1:01:24Pat McAfee:Okay, all white party. You mean not just a white party? Yeah, geez. Because a white party is a little bit different. Everyone knew what I was talking about. No. Geez Louise. You know, the little thing they do. Who's they? Everybody? Everybody. That weird old party they all go to. Well, it's not weird. It looked like it was a good time. They're sharing games. Yeah, they had one after, too. It was a movie, bro. They did say that. Scenes, fam. I don't like that we're getting our asses kicked in football ever. And I don't like that I didn't like that Team USA was winning. I didn't like that they were named Team USA.

1:01:57Pat McAfee:Yeah, it was confusing. You know, I'm like, I like USA. USA's kind of dunking on us right now. And then you're like, well, who owns flag football going forward? And it's like, oh, is there potentially a little bit of investment in this from some people that would like to see the flag football people look really good in the future? Did the NFL guys know that they're about to get fucking smacked in the mouth and flag football on TV? I'm not sure. You're saying they did? You think they knew, D-butt?

1:02:24Adam Schefter:If they watched the other guys practice at all or play at all, they'll probably, yeah, there's no way. Yeah, but when they were being told about this,

1:02:31Pat McAfee:when they were signing up for it, do you think they knew that? No way. Not like that. They got smoked in every single game. Were the rules going to be different in Saudi? I think for the losers. I don't know. I don't know. We can do a whole second. Every place has different rules. Good point. I wonder who's playing tonight. I don't know if anybody was zinning in there. I don't think so. I don't think so. Let's move along. Come on. Aaron Rodgers was playing a flag football game this weekend. It looked like he was doing well. Did you see his no-look throat? Did you see him and Will Howard bantering?

1:03:16Pat McAfee:Did you see him appear to be in great shape? AJ, I know the people of Pittsburgh would like to hear it. Aaron Rodgers playing football again next year, and what are your thoughts of the videos coming out from this past weekend at his annual charity flag football tournament, which he does? Yeah, it's good to see this tournament. I think this is the same tournament we saw. He throw the ball back at that little kid who picked him off at one point, right? Just a little competitive banter back and forth. I don't know, man. No joke, I've been sending him texts telling him, Hey, you got to go back. You need to go play for Pittsburgh.

1:03:44You need to play for Big Mike. Thanks.

1:03:45Pat McAfee:Yeah. I love that. I've been saying shut up or nothing. So we're good. And so I've been saying the same thing. I mean, I haven't, but I'm just going to say publicly that I did because he won't come out and say that I didn't. So I'm just going to say I've been doing the same thing. I've been texting him and saying, hey, the Inzers would love to have you back. They'd like to know right now. Or do we know where they stand? Because last time whenever you talked to us, and I know everybody just kind of shoot it away, but he was like, I've not heard from Pittsburgh either on what this looks like in its entirety.

1:04:11Pat McAfee:Do we know if they've talked, Tone? What is kind of the stand and where they're at? And I'm going to say this. I know Aaron's trying to stay in shape so that he can go to Pantone. That's right. And it's working. He wants to go to Pantone. He wants to move in there for a couple hours, it seems like, especially at this stage. That is what he's in shape for. He's probably an expert in the combo sutra. But he does look very good. Like, he looks very good. And obviously coming out looks good. He looks like he's in great shape. And the way last season ended, could definitely see him coming back. What are the people at Pittsburgh thinking, and what are you hearing, Tone?

1:04:40The people of Pittsburgh are thinking we're being held hostage. Okay? That's what the people of Pittsburgh are thinking. Boo-hoo. That's not what I'm saying. And it was nice of QB1 to invite Aaron to that flag football game. That was cool to see Will Howard did that. But, no, we would like to know sooner rather than later if Aaron's going to come back, preferably by the draft, which is 30 days away. I don't know if an offer has been made. I assume Aaron knows he's welcomed back. But, no, I don't know if there's any other players in the league who are waiting this long to decide if they want to play again this year or not.

1:05:14But he's one of them, so we're just waiting on that.

1:05:18Pat McAfee:Well, good news. I think before the draft would have to happen, AJ. Sorry I stepped on you there. And where is the draft at this year, AJ? I believe it is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, home of the Steelers. That'd be pretty sick. Wouldn't that be pretty sick? Oh, yeah. Football time. What if he came out and he announced it right here? Excuse me, beginning of the first round. He's like, I'm back, guys. and he pumps the crowd, and then they draft a quarterback right in first round. That'd be sick. Yeah, just like Clay Matthews. Clay Matthews did that last year right in Green Bay. Came out, he read a letter from President of the United States of America.

1:05:49Pat McAfee:Yep. And then he said that the Bears still suck. God bless, I believe, is what he said. And place one crazy. Yep. Imagine if Aaron does walk out there and say, I'm coming back, and my new teammate is Ty Simpson. What? Again? Can you imagine? That would be great. Hopefully someone would let him know before that. Dan Orlovsky's out there, AJ, saying that, you know, Ty Simpson's his favorite quarterback in this draft class. A lot of people tying Dan O to his agent, to Ty's agent. A lot of people saying there's a lot of different conspiracies going around. I genuinely believe that Dan Orlovsky, through the first eight weeks of the season, because remember this is where he started, he watched Fernando through eight weeks, he watched Ty through eight weeks.

1:06:33Pat McAfee:This Indiana team was a wagon. This Indiana team was unbelievable. Fernando didn't have to play his absolute best ball until the end of the season. Dan, who came out publicly halfway through the season and said, yeah, Ty Simpson's better than Fernando the first eight games. He got killed for it. And we all know whenever you get attacked for something, AJ, what do you normally do? You normally double down. Bingo. That's so big. Dan Orlovsky's been quadrupling down here. He goes, you know what? It wasn't just the first eight weeks. How about this? He's better as a whole. I appreciate that. I respect that.

1:07:02Pat McAfee:I think Ty Simpson does have a chance to be a good football player in the NFL. Fernando Mendoza won a national championship with Indiana University. Indiana University, the Hoosiers of, once again, Indiana University just won a national championship because of this man and his team. It's like, and I've said this a couple times, if he had an LSU on his helmet like Joe Burrow did, and Joe Burrow's offense was a little bit different, I think Fernando could have ran that offense, by the way, with the way he spins it and how he can break down defenses and everything like that. But I think it still is like the IU thing.

1:07:38Pat McAfee:I still think, you know, Cal to IU. I still think there is a little bit of a it's hard to believe that somebody who could be this talented would end up at Indiana. And it's like, well, I think what you're going to see over the next 10 years is that Indiana is about to become a very regular conversation in college ball. So I think it might be a little bit more digestible for people five years from now, four or five years from now, whenever they run it back, run it back. But we were talking, I forget who it was here. We were walking through, and they're obviously college football fans, and they say something about, like, Indiana's dead now, right?

1:08:11Pat McAfee:Like, they're dead? And it's like, no, no, they're just getting started. More money's flooding into that program. Kurt Signetti, the man who's able to evaluate talent and get people in there into certain positions that you need, he's only getting started there. So I think the IU on his helmet is still holding him back, and I think Dano can't get over it. Con man, what are your thoughts on why Dano's doing this? Because we got respect for Ty. I think Ty Simpson's a good leader. Good athlete. Yes. Obviously, Saban likes him. I think he's a good player. But, like, this dude won a national championship for Indiana University, and he was third down, best in the country.

1:08:45Pat McAfee:Red zone, best in the country. Fourth and five to win the natty. Six foot five, 245 pounds. Running, scampering all over the place. Rose Bowl, extending plays. It's like, feels like he's a Sunday guy, clear cut, but obviously film and everything else can be held against him a little bit, con man. Yeah, and Ty Simpson's a tough son of a bitch. I have to say that too just because he was playing injured in the Rose Bowl. But the whole entire thing with Mendoza, it just doesn't make sense to me, to be honest with you. You mentioned Joe Burrow in LSU. The SEC in 2019 was the top-tier college football.

1:09:16But today it's not. The Big Ten now is what the SEC was when Burrow was there. So for that whole entire thing, three straight years, Big Ten. When was the last time the SEC won it? When was the last time the SEC was in it? I can't even remember. But that is like the entire thing that I don't understand. Now with Dan, I do think Dan just kind of chooses the things that he wants people to get pissed off about. He says, in my opinion, you know, Ty Simpson is the best QB in this draft. I don't know if I believe him, but I do believe that he's doing great internet by doing this. When it comes to Orlovsky, though, I mean, he does know quarterbacks.

1:09:54There's no doubt about that. He understands everything they're trying to do. It's just when you watched Mendoza, like not just his – and you can say, hey, Indiana was better. Like Mendoza leading the team down at Penn State when they were down and they had that toe-tap catch from Omar Cooper. Like that moment in itself, let alone all of the big moments in the biggest stages winning and dealing on every single play. I mean, they blew out Oregon in the semis. And then even in the natty, they had a pretty big lead. And then he answered for them to kind of put the game away. It just – it doesn't make sense to me.

1:10:27But, shoot, I hope both of them, you know, hopefully Simpson and Mendoza go on to be unbelievable. But it just feels like how would anybody even know who the best quarterback in the draft is if it isn't the guy who won the Heisman and the national championship?

1:10:40Pat McAfee:Yeah, it's pretty wild. It's been Indiana's coverage all year. And obviously there's a lot of different graphics about how everybody has selected Indiana's games this past season. And I rode with Indiana because we were forced to kind of watch their highlights because we live in Indiana. But it's like Fernando's special. And his growth as a leader amongst his teammates. It's like to be able to rally that group. He has beers with the boys. He's 6 '5". Every throw is a perfect spiral. Even during warm-ups, it's like, all right. I don't know what we're looking for. But I do appreciate the fact that Ty Simpson, also NFL quarterback.

1:11:14Pat McAfee:I like that for the NFL D-butt.

1:11:16Adam Schefter:Yeah, I love it for the NFL. And I love it for both these guys. And I believe Dano wholeheartedly when he says the shit that he says. especially when it comes to these quarterbacks. You know, he does the NFL every day until that stops, and then he kind of dials into these QBs. And I think a part of it, not with just Dan O, obviously we watched him much closer, but Fernando Mendoza wasn't really that guy until the – like late in the season when he won the Heisman. If you even look at the draft odds, I'm sure he wasn't the number one guy, you know, halfway through the college season. So it's hard for people to look at that guy and say, hey, this is a Cam Newton or Andrew Luck or a guy that's going to be good day one on the next level.

1:11:54Adam Schefter:And then some of the things that Dan said as far as making, you know, the layered throws and intermediate throws, it was an RPO-heavy offense. It was a lot of deep balls. But he did everything that was asked of him. And not only did he win, like, he dominated through the playoff run. Like, we were there. They had the bye week, the storyline or narrative of all the teams that had to deal with the bye week. I think this was the first team that even won a game in the bye week. And they made Alabama quit. And then they beat the dog shit out of Oregon and then beat a very, very good Miami team. So we saw our boots on the ground, so it's easy for us to see it.

1:12:25Adam Schefter:But for everybody looking out and then watching the tape, you don't get the same feeling as being in the building and watching the guy operate in these game conditions. I feel like he makes the right decisions. And even if it's close between him and Ty Simpson, me and Tony was just talking like the Dems. He's 6 '5", 235. So you go with the traits for sure. But I hope both of these guys are successful. but I'm of the opinion that Fernando Mendoza is still the clear-cut number one quarterback in this draft.

1:12:52Pat McAfee:And on that note, Daniel Jeremiah does not have Ty Simpson in his most recent mock draft of the first round. Will anything change as people continue to look at film? And remember, all you need is one team that needs a quarterback to like him, and then all of a sudden he could be top five. I mean, it doesn't matter. If you need a quarterback and you like a quarterback, you go and get him. Does it work out? Who knows? Not everybody's a home run. There's going to be a lot of busts in this draft, just like there is every year, but maybe a couple Hall of Famers. Joining us now is a man who will be in every single Hall of Fame that revolves around broadcasting and news breaking.

1:13:24Pat McAfee:Friend of the program, senior NFL insider, Michigan man, ladies and gentlemen, Adam Schefter. There's a man! What's going on? Okay, so Mike Tannenbaum, as you guys call him, Mike T. Now, Mike Tomlin is Mike T in my world, but in your guys' world, Mike T is Mike Tannenbaum. Former general manager for the Jets. It's also one of the founders of the 33rd team, which I think was doing great things there for a little bit. Now, Mike Tannenbaum, obviously great on TV as well for ESPN. Dan Orlovsky said he thought Ty Simpson was the best quarterback in the draft. Mike Tannenbaum said, I've caught a round.

1:13:59Pat McAfee:There's other people that are saying the same thing. What are your thoughts or early hearings about what this draft looks like coming up in Pittsburgh? And has this really crossed your radar yet, or is this all just kind of fodder happening early in a smokescreen-filled world? Well, I would say this, Pat, that these things always evolve as the draft moves closer. And again, I think back to last year at this time, everybody, everybody had Shador Sanders going in the first round, couldn't slide past Pittsburgh in the 20s, wasn't going to happen. And lo and behold, on draft night, all of a sudden, he's not taking the first night.

1:14:34He's not taking the second night. I got people in all walks of life that I've never heard from texting me draft questions. When is Shador Sanders going? It captivated the entire football world and country about where he was going to go. Again, I think back to the draft of 2018. I always remember driving to the airport early in the morning. I get a call. They're like, hey, you aware of the fact that Baker Mayfield may go number one to Cleveland? I'm like, Baker Mayfield? How often have we had a draft where a certain player never has been connected to the number one pick and then actually becomes the number one pick on Thursday night.

1:15:14So I remember filing a story, Baker Mayfield is in serious consideration for the number one pick. And I remember I flying to Dallas and my own father texts me and he says, Hey, did you hear about Baker Mayfield possibly going to Cleveland? I'm like, yeah, I reported it. And he goes, yeah, that's fake news. And I'm like, I really appreciate that. So again, these things, they, they change and they evolve. The one thing I can say confidently right now in talking to front offices is I believe, and it's not going on a limb, Ty Simpson will be a first-round draft pick. A first-round draft pick. That's all I'm comfortable saying right now.

1:15:50We will revisit this topic many times as the draft marches closer. We're one month out exactly. The draft is one month from today. and again I think that'll probably be one of the central focal storylines of the first round of the draft where does Ty Simpson go all I feel comfortable saying right now is I'm confident

1:16:13Pat McAfee:he'll be a first round pick yeah it's quarterback position if he's by far the second best quarterback coming out of this class he has the athleticism he has the leadership obviously Saban will sing his praises to these NFL teams which obviously matters why not take a shot if you need a quarterback, especially if you're a team that has been looking like ass for a while. I'd like to see Ty get drafted in the first round. I'd like to see him go on to have a great NFL career. But this is pretty wild what's going on with old Dan Orlovsky, your CAA counterpart, doing what he's doing to help a CAA client get a little bit more rub going into the draft, Adam Schefter.

1:16:52I don't think that has anything to do with it, but that's fine. People can believe it. I don't even know who Ty Simpson's agent is. I have no idea who his agent even is right now, to be perfectly frank with you. Who is it? I don't know, actually, either. I know it's in your world.

1:17:07Pat McAfee:I know it's in your world. I know it's in your world. I know he's texting you right now, probably saying, yeah, keep it up. Say you don't know me. Say you don't know me. Also, Ty Simpson runs fast. He wipes twice after he poops. He picks up people's jackets whenever they drop them. He helps old people across the street. He does everything. Is that what's happening right now in your phone? Is that what's happening? Yeah. Yeah. I can look up who his agent is. I am curious right now.

1:17:35Adam Schefter:It says Peter Webb, and I looked it up. Oh, Peter Webb? Peter Webb. Is he CA? P3 sports reps, it looks like.

1:17:44Pat McAfee:No, he's not even CAA. Hey, Dan Orlowski's doing this for no reason. This also could just be his NIL agent.

1:17:51Adam Schefter:So I'm not sure.

1:17:52Pat McAfee:Oh, I forgot. We got an agent, assistant manager, dietitian, strength coach, cardio coach, hand coach, butt coach, legs coach. I understand that. These guys are obviously superstars. They're all in there. Okay, let's talk about the huge NFL news as opposed to just Dan Orlovsky giving his opinion, and we appreciate Dan O. We'll obviously have Dan O to join us in the next couple days to chit-chat about how he found himself in this particular predicament with Ty Simpson being the number one quarterback. Let's talk about a brand-new, highest-paid wide receiver, Adam Schefter. You broke the news today.

1:18:23Pat McAfee:Jackson Smith and Jigba reaches an agreement for$168.6 million. $120 guaranteed. Congrats to him. Congrats to his family. 42.15 per year. How did we get here? And did we expect this when Kenneth Walker leaves and other people leave? They had to pay him? Oh, that's definitely a part of the Seahawks planning. You know that you're going to be resigning and retaining Jackson Smith and Jigba. And you also know that you're going to be resigning at some point this offseason, Devin Witherspoon, two players that have worked out great. And you know you have to budget for these. What I find interesting also is that you see the big money involved in a deal like this and the Seahawks are for sale.

1:19:05So it's kind of interesting to me that this team that's in transition that is essentially moving or changing hands this offseason. I'm getting texts about Ty Simpson stuff now. Yeah, we all are. We all are. We all are. Yeah, we all are. That they sign off on this. Like John Schneider, the Seahawks GM, has the authority to go spend tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars on Jackson Smith and Jigba, on Devin Witherspoon, on free agents to do what he has to do to keep that team humming along. Like Jackson Smith and Jigba was as good as anybody in the game last year. The offensive player of the game or the offensive player of the year and performed unbelievably well, was as good as anybody at that position.

1:19:56And they paid them like that today. It's record marks for a wide receiver. Puka Nakua is still out there right now. You see the money right there. You know,$42.15 million. Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, CeeDee Lamb, D.K. Metcalf, Garrett Wilson also on the list. Puka Nakua soon will be joining that list. A bunch of running backs are going to get paid this offseason. Every year, there are certain positions that get taken care of. Last year, it was the pass rusher. It was the offseason of the pass rusher. This year, I would expect that there'll be at least a couple of these receivers, Jackson Smith and Jigba, and, of course, Puka Nakua.

1:20:34And I think you're going to see a bunch of running backs get paid this offseason. Dijon Robinson, Jameer Gibbs get paid this offseason.

1:20:42Pat McAfee:So we got offensive skill players getting paid. Wide receivers, Jameer Gibbs, Dijon Robinson. I'm sorry, you were going to say somebody else. I couldn't hear you. Go ahead. Devon H.M. Devon H.M. Me too. Oh, yeah. You pronounced his name right. Very kind of you for doing that. There's a couple. So D-Bot was going to ask about who's next in line at the wide receiver. It sounds like you just mentioned the guys who are going to be next in line. Are they going to topple that number, or is it going to be around that number, you think? Well, it would depend on who's answering that question. It's going to be right in that range, and we'll see whether or not it's just south or just north.

1:21:19Agents typically don't like to do deals for players of comparable skills that are less than the deals that got done. But I don't know where the Rams would be willing to go on Puka Nakua. So that's a battle that Puka and the Rams will be engaged in here these coming weeks.

1:21:38Pat McAfee:Situations are situational. You know, Schneider has now found himself in the general manager sphere of being like, yep, that guy knows what he's doing. So I assume the next owner will be grateful for the decisions that he's making currently with future owners money, okay, that is currently happening. But if that team remains great and Jackson Smith and Jigba remains the guy and they got Sam Darnold on a good deal, new owners are going to be pumped with what's going on in Seattle. Let's talk about some of the OG talents. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, Shefty, what about like Stephon Diggs, D-Hop? What's the timeline look like and where could they possibly be going?

1:22:10Well, I think OBJ. Yeah, OBJ. I don't know if you saw him in the flag football game. He just ran. He just looked fused. He's back. You know, I saw OBJ at the Super Bowl and we talked and he definitely wanted to play and he feels healthy. He feels like he could help a team. There are certain places I think that would appeal to him. The Giants would make some sense. That would be an awesome reunion. There was some way that could happen. But he definitely would like to come back and play and he feels like he could definitely help somebody this year. But there's a lot of guys out there right now, whether it's Deebo Samuel, Stephon Diggs, Juwan Jennings, some of the other free agents, some of the other positions.

1:22:49the problem you get to now is if a guy is sitting out there he obviously hasn't gotten his price that he feels like he's worthy of he's holding on to get that holding out to get that um you got the draft coming up typically i mean there could be a deal done today but typically you see veterans added a week or two before the draft as teams are making their final draft preparations and really assessing the position in the round they're like you know what let's go get this receiver right now and kind of fill that need going into the draft. So I think we're in kind of a quiet period for free agency.

1:23:23That doesn't mean that something couldn't happen with one of these players. Of course it could. But this is not typically a time where you see deals get done.

1:23:33Pat McAfee:We saw a big score touchdown this weekend with Tom Brady. Obviously, we saw OBJ do some OBJ shit. We also saw D-Hop kind of high, a guy, you know, one-handed tud. But he's come out very, very positive about Kyler Murray. And then Minnesota made some moves. Connor has a question for you, Adam Schefter. Yeah, Schefter, Carl Wentz back to Minnesota. We remember last year he basically laid his life on the line going out there and ripping his arm off his shoulder, still playing absolute beast. What does this mean for J.J. McCarthy? Now it's Kyler, Wentz, J.J. McCarthy. Is Wentz going there to basically kind of help J.J.

1:24:09learn a little bit more, grow as a quarterback? or are we kind of near the territory of is J.J. McCarthy's time in Minnesota maybe done? I know people have raised that question. It's not how I'm viewing it right now. This is a team that has gone through so many different quarterbacks, and maybe there's something to the Wentz signing that would dictate or influence J.J. McCarthy's future, but I don't view it that way. I view it like they've got guys here. J.J. has struggled to stay healthy. Kyler hasn't played there yet. They've got to see how that goes. And Wentz is somebody that knows the offense, is comfortable there, they're comfortable with him.

1:24:50You can never have enough quarterbacks. That's how I view it. Now, let's see if it's something different. But to me, it's just a situation of Wentz having an opportunity to go there and give them more depth at that position.

1:25:04Pat McAfee:Let's talk a little bit more about veteran quarterbacks. Tone Diggs, Pittsburgh Steelers, don't have a quarterback right now that's a veteran. Go ahead with your question, Tone. Well, they do. Mason Rudolph. Yeah, Mason is technically a vet. And Will, I guess. And Will. Yeah. And Will's old. And Will. But no, Aaron Rodgers is the question. We just saw him and Will Howard this weekend at their flag football game that Aaron hosts. Aaron hasn't made a decision yet. Has there been an offer to Aaron? Because when he was on our show, he said that there wasn't yet. Has there been contract talks? And is Kirk Cousins potentially waiting on Aaron to make a decision?

1:25:39I don't think Kirk Cousins is waiting, but I do think he's following and watching because I do think if Aaron decides that he doesn't want to play, that Kirk Cousins would be a logical pivot for the Pittsburgh Steelers at that point in time. I don't think Kirk Cousins is in any rush to go do something. I think he's going to wait for the right opportunity. And if that happens to be in Pittsburgh, that would be great for Kirk Cousins. But But Pittsburgh wants Aaron Rodgers back. And when Aaron Rodgers said that, that they hadn't even had any contractual discussion, that surprised me a little bit because Pittsburgh's been pretty clear about its intent to want him back.

1:26:15All the players want him back. Everybody wants him back. So what's the delay in a contract? And it just feels like, I don't know, like they want him. He's interested in them. And it shouldn't be that hard to figure out, especially after last year. But I don't know whether they've actually started it. I think everybody's just waiting to see what the deal is with Aaron, whether or not he's going to actually come back or not. If he wants to come back, the job's waiting for him. If he doesn't, then – Why don't you text him, Shefty? Text him. Yeah, there you go. What's that? Why don't you text him and ask him?

1:26:49Pat McAfee:We've tried that. It hasn't worked out for anyone. Go on. If you could remind me because, you know, sometimes I – You know what? I try to be respectful. Like, I don't want – like, you don't want me to text him? I'm not going to text him. It's not a problem. How'd you know he didn't want you to text him? Well, you know why. He came on your show and he said to lose his number. Oh. He was mad. You don't actually delete it. I forgot about that. You know, since like, I'm trying to think of the last time that I've been told to lose a number. He's in a better place now. He wouldn't do that. Yeah. Yeah.

1:27:25Pat McAfee:It's a different Aaron. We're in a good time. Remember, he's super happy right now. He is loving his life. He's having a – it is great. Probably Mr. Tech anyways. Because you didn't delete his number. There's no way you'd delete it. You still got it in there just in case, you know, just in case Adam Schefter football we needed. Now, if he blocked you, that's a whole other story. Now that's a whole other angle. That pops up a green text, which he might be anyways. We're not 100 % sure. Then you know you've been kicked out of it. But if you get to the bottom of that, I think all of Pittsburgh would be appreciative.

1:27:54Pat McAfee:Let's go from Pittsburgh's side of Pennsylvania to the Philadelphia side of Pennsylvania. There's a lot of questions still about what's going on over in Sirianni's squad. Ty has a question for you. Yeah, Shefty, has there been any kind of update in, you know, A.J. Brown potentially getting traded? I know we had a couple other names that were kind of rumored out there. Has there been any movement on this, or have things kind of been mum and then maybe it'll pick up around the draft or post-draft? Like, what do we know about this situation? Again, my understanding recently was such that the Eagles weren't in a rush to make a move that if they made the move, that it would come after June 1st.

1:28:36Now, a lot of people have connected the Patriots. That's a logical landing spot. But what we don't know is what's going to happen with New England from now until June 1st. New England could, for all we know, bring back Steph Diggs. They could go sign some of these other wide receivers that are out there. They could go draft a wide receiver. And if any of those things happen, then that would probably take them out of the A.J. Brown market. New England has been through a lot with the league in recent years, deflategate, other things. They're not going to bend the rules and take chances and do handshake deals under the table.

1:29:15If A.J. Brown works for them in June, they'll make a move if it doesn't they're not going to do that you know other teams yeah I think might be willing to look the other way and say okay yeah okay yeah we're good Philly we're good yeah okay we'll revisit this in April but we're all set New England is not going to do that I'm just telling you right now they're not going to sign off on something that would be against the spirit of the NFL rules and if AJ Brown is still available on June 1st and they still have a need on June 1st, that becomes a very logical destination. But there's no under-the-table, to my knowledge, handshake agreement between the two sides to get A.J.

1:29:55Brown to New England despite the rumors.

1:29:57Pat McAfee:Okay, yeah, it sounds like that. How dare you. Isn't that what it sounds like, Con, man? It sounds like the block is hot for the New England Patriots because Deflategate, he said without the recent years. That was a long time ago. It feels like Deflategate was a long time ago. I'm watching the quarterback at the flake gate lose to flag football players on my TV at this particular standpoint of life. But I like the fact that Shefter just said the NFL is not letting the Kraft Patriot family get away with anything at this stage. There's none of that. Is that what you're basically saying there, Shefter?

1:30:28I'm just saying that the Patriots are going to go out of their way to abide by the rules. P's and Q's. Okay. That's nice of that. Thank you, Patriots, for doing that. They also proved that the flake game wasn't real, Shefty. Who? Who, Bill Nye? The gourd on you to bring that up on a Monday in March. You son of a bitch. Lose my number. How about that?

1:30:52Pat McAfee:Hey, Shefty, tell me Bill Nye the science guy and O's. O's did? All right. Shefty, last question here as we go into draft talk. Just if you're hearing anything from General Manders from D-Butt.

1:31:04Adam Schefter:Yeah, Chef, you mentioned some of these big-time running backs getting paid shortly here. Bijan, Gibbs, those type of guys. So obviously you look at the draft at the top running back with Jeremiah Love. What do you hear? What's kind of like his ceiling as far as how high he can go and what's the floor as far as you'll be shocked if he gets past this pick?

1:31:23Another great storyline heading into the draft. Another reason for people to tune in to all the draft coverage. But to me, he's a top 10 pick. I know a lot of people have had him going to Tennessee. Again, it's just not what I'm sensing right now. And by the way, it's March 23rd. The draft is a month from now. There are a lot of teams that go back and forth on these things. And just because they're not in a spot on March 23rd doesn't mean they won't be in a different spot on April 23rd. So it's hard to say. Today, as we sit here today, my guess would be I don't see him going to Tennessee. I don't see him going to the Giants at number five, although that would be an interesting spot.

1:32:07And I think he'd have a lot of support there. To me, a place that makes sense today, a month out, would be the Washington Commanders. They've added to their running back room. I could see Washington being interested in a player like Jeremiah Love. Seven would be the spot. But if we go back to other years and other great running backs, B. John Robinson went number eight to Atlanta. Christian McCaffrey went number eight to Carolina. New Orleans just spent on Travis H. Aaron Jr. Well done, Shafty. Great job. Nailed it. Thank you. Oui, oui, bonjour, ça va, merci beaucoup. And Kansas City just spent on Kenneth Walker.

1:32:56So to me, Washington, I know they went out and they added Rashad White and they added some depth at the running back position. But I still think that if you could pair Jeremiah Love and Jane Daniels, that would be dynamic. And they've been in need at that spot. So to me, that's a spot that I'm watching a month out. Although, look, he could turn up at four. He could turn up at five. He could turn up at six. I just think seven is interesting to watch. That's me.

1:33:30Pat McAfee:Schefter's got his eyes on the Washington Commanders and Jeremiah Love, love story potentially. We are huge fans of this dude and also player. Excited for that draft. What city is that draft in, Adam Schefter? Pittsburgh, PA. That's right, brother. We'll be there all week. Yeah, you're going to be there all week? Okay, I have an event that I'm doing on Wednesday night at the Cayman Science Center. Okay. Need you there. What's the event? It's an event that you need to go to. We're going to be showing The Football Town, which is the NFL Films movie about the city of Pittsburgh and its history of football and everybody that's been drafted and how the football community actually ties together the entire city of Pittsburgh.

1:34:19Pat McAfee:It's done by NFL Films. It's in a sphere-like thing that our science center has, and it's a full production and it's, I was lucky enough to voice it over, but Wednesday night, the night before the draft, I'm kind of making an announcement right now. The night before the first round, I'm going to be inviting everybody that's going to be on camera talking during the draft to come check this out so they can learn about the city of Pittsburgh and how much it loves football and how many legendary football moments and humans have come from the city of Pittsburgh. And it's a beautiful, we'll raise some money.

1:34:51Pat McAfee:We'll watch a thing, maybe a couple of cocktails. I know that's not your thing. Force some weed down your lungs. I don't know if you do that either. But we'll have a little night celebrating Pittsburgh, and then you go on to cover the draft, if that's something that you'd be cool with on Wednesday night. We'll get your confirmation. I can figure out the schedule. Wednesday night is usually a fairly intense night. I have to see how it will be. But, yeah, I would love to come. I'm interested. I will definitely try to do my best to make it down there. I never want to disappoint my friend. If you need me there, I will certainly make my way to stop by for a little bit.

1:35:22Wednesday night is usually a busy night. Are you going to watch it? Jeez. You're not going to watch it?

1:35:26Pat McAfee:You're not going to stop by for a little bit. You said no in a hundred different ways, asshole. That's a pretty good no. I said we're going to figure it out. That's all. But it's a problem. Wednesday night. We'll give you a lot. But also on that note, I'm going to be there, but not really. You guys will see. I'm here. I'll drive by. I fucking came. Okay? Thank you. Now, back to who's drafting Ty Simpson? We understand that. We appreciate that. You're the man. Have a good one, Shepty. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Enjoy Bristol, Pat. What is that? What's on your hoodie? Bristol, Connecticut. You're there right now.

1:36:07Pat McAfee:Yes, I am in Bristol. What's on your hoodie? What is that? Mad happy? What's on your shirt? Do you know what a hoodie is? What is that? It's L.A. Kings. That's one of my hockey teams that I'm tracking. Oh, wow. Oh, Kings guy. Great playoff race right now. I like the Kings. Hey, they got good people working for the LA Kings. We got a chance to really enjoy an LA Kings game out there. A lot of great people. You're a hockey fan? You love the hockey? I like trades. I like when they make trades with the LA Kings are involved in big trades. Have you done any other sport trades that have pissed other insiders off?

1:36:50no but we but we reported on that trade with uh uh panarin right yeah deadline me and emily kaplan we did that jack hughes was was stunned by it it was remember he came up to you at the

1:37:02Pat McAfee:conference and how did chef yeah he walked up and asked him how'd you get that information and you know you know sometimes but shams broke the wmba news and there's people pissed that it was shams that ended up breaking the news i think if i was reading the tea leaves properly but it's like how do you as an insider decipher what information is your like how does that whole thing go well you know what i mean when people reached out to me about the trade i said to them i said the only way that i would do it was it would be if i could include emily caplan because she's our hockey and i don't want to do i didn't want to do anything disrespectful to her so i included her on the byline because she she made calls and she did work as well That's all.

1:37:42Pat McAfee:That makes me mad happy, dude. That makes me mad happy. Well said. That makes me mad happy whenever you do stuff. It's right there on your chest, right there next to your heart. I appreciate that. Actually, it turns out your heart's right in the middle of everybody. Very popular sweatshirt brand, according to my daughter, Pat. Very popular. Very popular. You need to get yourself a mad happy sweatshirt, Pat. I do. Yeah, that's wicked dope. Maybe I'll think about a mad happy thing. That'd be lit. You're the best. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Schefter.

1:38:13Pat McAfee:Mad happy is so sick, dude. Maybe you'll be mad happy someday. Lydia's gear. AJ, you're going to be mad happy. I mean, yeah, I've said no a lot of ways and tried to get out of things before, but his, like, 45-second no was amazing about Wednesday night. Yeah, I'm going to introduce somebody on this side, so if you could take it away for a moment, and then I'll be back in two minutes. Yeah, of course. Can't wait. But, yeah, so you think Shefty's coming Wednesday? Come, man. I mean, my early read right now is no. Yeah, maybe I'll go. Yeah, I should go Wednesday. It's really busy. Yeah, I'll go. I'll stop by.

1:38:45Maybe I'll be there. Yeah, we'll see. We've seen how Shefty gets when he's in really busy mode. What's he get like? I haven't seen it. The dog fucking bites. Yeah. Really? Yeah. We had to put signs. Can you imagine Shefty coming after you? Yeah. We did. That's Bruce. He came after Bruce. What'd you do, Bruce? Bruce, I wouldn't. Well, Bruce. Bruce has a professional boxing match as well. I respect the dog and the bark and the bite. Schefter, he's got a lot going on. You've got to respect it. And to Schefter's credit, I mean, when Bruce is coming up to you Monday, a free agency asking when Pat Ricard signed him with the Giants, with all this other stuff going on, you can understand.

1:39:22He said, hey, Bruce, shut the hell up. I'm working. I can imagine Wednesday night for Schefter before the draft. Okay, how many people is he texting, though? A thousand. And what do you say? A thousand. A thousand. And every single GM, scout, front office person, agent, are they texting me that? But that's what I don't understand. They're texting him actually asking Shefty for info. Hey, what are you hearing? And he's trying to relay to other teams. I mean, so I do his podcast with him, and on just like a random Tuesday, we will have to stop recording multiple times because he's either getting calls or he's got to respond to something.

1:39:55So I would imagine the night before the draft, yeah, it probably is. People are coming to him, don't you think? Oh, yeah. Teams are coming to him for info. what are you hearing from this? He's kind of in a weird spot because he can't tell exactly what other teams are thinking. It's kind of like a proxy, right? It's almost always just like, well, let me make a couple calls and then I'll get back to you. He's a broker of information. Hey, are they interested in trading pick number 8 or number 12? I feel like, because originally I was like, this guy's full of shit. He just wants to get to bed early because the drought's the next day.

1:40:31But now thinking about it, yeah, like GMs might call him to see if another GM is open to a trade or something. What are you hearing?

1:40:37Adam Schefter:We had Triggs with us last year. And he's not even an insider, but you were with him more than we were. Like he was on the phone all night long. But I think Shefty will. He'll show face on Wednesday. He will. Maybe for 10 minutes. What he said, like he'll show up for Pat as a friend now. Granted, will he be there for 15 minutes? Perhaps. Perhaps that's all. But still. I mean, still, I think it's nice to show up for him, Especially in the draft is his absolute pinnacle, the Super Bowl, of what he does, I guess. Kind of his Super Bowl. Free agency. Free agency is his Super Bowl. Trade deadline. Trade deadline, free agency, I guess.

1:41:14I think we might have a special guest with Pat back in studio in Bristol. Pat, what's up, man? You got everybody? Here we go.

1:41:20Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, living legend, Coach Seth Greenberg. Yeah, Coach. What's up, boys? Coach, I appreciate you, man. I just had to run and go to the bathroom. I'll tell you. more information than I need. No. Which one? Yeah, that's my hands are wet. Hands are wet. It's from washing my hands. Coach, you did an incredible job for us. Predicted some things that were going to happen. Did you know that the first two rounds were going to go the way they went with all big conference ending up stealing the day? Did we understand this was going to be the case? Yeah, I did because it's a cost to do business in college athletics.

1:41:49You guys understand that. And, like, the mid-majors are going to eventually not be extinct because you're going to have a guy that does a great job of developing players, have them for a year or two, and they have a chance to do maybe what High Point did, get a bunch of guys that were older guys. But the reality is that if you're a really good mid-major player, you're going to end up using that as a springboard to get you where you want to go and make the money you want to make. Good job battling that wire.

1:42:12Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think you're doing a pretty good job there. Not as nimble as I used to be. Yeah, that's on us because it's kind of over here, but it's over there. You're kind of doing it. The player is getting plucked. They have a good Thursday night during a regular season. Teams are looking for them on Saturday already. Is that kind of what's happening in college basketball? Guys are being recruited, and they don't even know they're being recruited. Like, all these guys have agents. Even the major guys have agents. So guys are literally, you start to get off and make plays and do some things. That agent's on the phone and saying, like, do you need X, Y, and Z?

1:42:42You know, this kid's interested, but here's the number. And what they're doing is the agents are smart. They're playing everyone against each other. But if you're trying to rebuild your roster, especially guys that think of new jobs, where they've got to get 13 guys, those guys are really valuable. But we're finding out you also got to get culture guys. You got to have some type of continuity. You got to have some type of retention long term. And the guys that have done it the best have found a balance between retention, recruiting, and basically the portal.

1:43:08Pat McAfee:I'm seeing some ex-coaches, mostly Dan Dockage, say, how can you lose with that much money in Kentucky? I guess Kentucky has, like, the most expensive roster that's ass, I guess, in the history of college basketball. Do you have any thoughts on that? Is that real? Coach Saban said it right on your guy's show. If you spend money on the wrong guys, you're shit out of luck. Exactly. I mean, like Coach said, and he hits 100 % right, like evaluation. People don't understand. Look, you played. You guys played. That's why Cignetti's so good. Yeah. The most important part of recruiting is evaluation. And I don't want some dude that writes a scouting service to tell me who can play for me.

1:43:42Like your assistant coach has got to know who can play for you. The guys that understand your system, you've got to find fit guys, guys that can play in your system, buy into the good of the group, are all about winning, competitive, and also are dudes. I mean, in the end, you need a couple of dudes. You need real athletes.

1:43:59Pat McAfee:Real players. So tell me about why great coaching probably matters in all this. Because the evaluation, like Tom Izzo, we assume January, February. Izzo. Okay, because they were saying Boozer there. We're on the way here, right? We're on the way. They were a little behind. Well, they were worried Boozer was going to get said there instead of Izzo. But it feels like good coaching really matters in March, Madison. Is it because they know the players they have or because they know how to handle the game? Well, it's a lot of things. Tom's been able to retain guys. Like, guys don't leave Michigan State.

1:44:27They leave Michigan State maybe to go out early. And his culture and his identity, I just talked to him right after they won the game the other day. Oh, that's cool. And I told him, is, like, how you win is because your identity and your culture is the best in college basketball. Those guys understand they're playing for those guys that played before them. I mean, it's like real. When you have all those former players around when they come into grind week, Like, when you have all those players around when they come in the summer and work out with those guys, when you have Magic coming in and out and all the great players they've had, there's an expectation.

1:44:54This is who we are. This is how we win. This is how we act. This is how we compete. And they understand. Like, Iz is nuts. All right? He's demanding. There's a standard. He's not going to – look, he's going to outlast you. You're not winning that battle. Like, oh, I'm going to take – no, you're not. You want to play? And, like, that's just the way it is. So there are certain guys that Hurley's been able to do that. There are certain guys that have been able to do that. Cal's in a lot of ways been able to do that. I mean, what Cal's done at Arkansas is a joke because Acuff, like he's a joke. Like that guy's just different.

1:45:23Like 30 points a game in the last two games. And at the end of the game, you give him the ball. But like Cal coaches him really hard. Like really hard. Like you go to one of those practices, you go, hmm. But that kid wants to be great. And when you have Shea Gilgis-Alexander and Tyrese Maxey and all those, you know, Derrick Rose and all those guys before him, it's easy to buy into like, hey,

1:45:42Pat McAfee:this guy's going to help you get me where I want to go. We started a conversation there with Izzo, and I think a big combo right now is six teams from the Big Ten make up the final 16. And obviously it's all the big conferences. Iowa knocks off the reigning champs. Ty has a question for you back in studio. Yeah, Coach, what do you think the likelihood that Iowa can continue this run here? Obviously they've already beat Nebraska this year. They split in Big Ten, and they don't really strike me as the kind of team who's going to come out flat after. They might not make threes, but the way they play defensively, I don't know if being flat kind of plays into that.

1:46:19But how much of a chance do you give them to kind of continue this run and maybe make an Elite Eight or a Final Four? I give a legit shot. I mean, they're a mistake-free team. They don't make mistakes. Those guys, they don't beat themselves. They're going to keep you in front. They're going to play in the gaps. They're going to force a contested shot. They're going to limit you to one shot. That's the art of the upset. Can you impose your identity on the game? That's exactly what they did to Florida yesterday. They imposed their identity on the game. They took Florida's length and athleticism.

1:46:47And plus, Florida, like everyone said, well, what happened? That last play, we can show that last play again. That was absolutely brutal because the last play in that game right here, he catches it around. Why do you have a man on the ball? There's eight seconds left in the game. It's not a long pass. You have a man on the ball. They're playing four on four. And actually, if you're front, you see right here, they're front of him right there. The game's over right there. because right there, Boogie Flant is trailing that play. Watch when the ball gets passed out. Now you're 4-3. Now you're 3-2.

1:47:14You can't leave the corner because that's the only thing that could have beaten you. The corner three is the only thing that could have beaten you. A layup, tie game, we go to overtime. So what are we doing?

1:47:23Pat McAfee:Golden was all worked up trying to fight McCollum. Yeah, big tough guy. Those guys were frisky, weren't they? Yeah, they were. They were trying to dance a little bit. McCollum, he's no joke now. I mean, he'll tell you too. I mean, he ain't afraid now. Yeah, it looked like they were going to fight each other, especially whenever there was a little bit of crap. Who would you take? Come on now. McCollum, like lower, good base, range with Golden? What do you think? I don't know Golden's coaching history. Was he D2, four-time national champ D2 guy? No, he wasn't, but he has a thing called a national championship and a very big banner.

1:47:53Yeah, but we're talking fighting.

1:47:54Pat McAfee:I want to know the grit. Yeah, I agree. That's the grit. I agree with you there. I agree with you there. I think McCollum would not. McCollum's beating the shit out of him. I mean, he's an Iowa guy, right? Yeah. Wrestling's big in Iowa. I bet back in the day he was probably a grapple. Not as big as it is in Penn State. Congratulations, Penn State. That's right. It's a basketball state now. That was a good lead by you. Anything I could do. I saw Penn State up there a second ago. I said, maybe lead back to that. You're a gentleman. You're an absolute gentleman. Penn State wins the national championship in the March Madness, the Matt Madness.

1:48:25Pat McAfee:They are legends. They're doing something that's never been done before. They weren't even on the sportsbooks. You couldn't even bet on them. They're that good. Yeah. That big of a favorite. And they go on. That's amazing. Yeah. A lot of people probably pissed off they couldn't bet. Yes, me. I'll hammer a minus 1 ,100 any day just to see one go through the hoop. Congrats to them doing that. Let's get back to the basketball now. Obviously, top dog still around. D-Bot has a question for you about maybe falling off somewhere.

1:48:50Adam Schefter:Yeah, you were just talking about the art of the upset. I want to know who's highest on kind of like your upset watch list. You've got Duke, Arizona, Michigan, all one seeds with pretty big spreads, and then Purdue as well. So who would be highest on that list to be on an upset watch? Coach K is not going to like this because I know he was just on. He's a friend of the program. I mean, you got Sabian, Coach K, and Greenberg. I don't know how I fit in this mess, but I appreciate you.

1:49:12Pat McAfee:And we have Belichick, too. Belichick, I mean, it's unbelievable. Thanks, Coach. Good to be here, brother. Yeah, totally. I think Duke, because if you think about, again, style of play, Rick Pitino, what are they going to do? They're going to extend their defense. They're going to press. They're going to wear you down with numbers. They're going to be physical. They're going to make it a rock fight. They're going to get up and underneath. Caden Boozer's been great. They only have one point guard. They don't have a backup. Their backup point guard is Cam Boozer. So you've got Caden Boozer. They're going to beat the crap out of him.

1:49:36If he gets in foul trouble or he gets worn down, they've got to come in and actually run their offense through Cam. So style of play. Styles make fights. Style of play and the physicality of the game, how it's officiated, the more physical, the better it's going to be for St. John. You saw it like yesterday. It was like a rock fight. I mean, it set basketball back about 10 years, but the ending was great. I mean, the ending was absolutely spectacular. But, I mean, like that thing, there were more shots in the first half where they missed the whole rim than that balls that went into basketball.

1:50:04Yeah, it was ugly. Including our boy Darling. Yeah, it was ugly. Darling was wide right, wide left, short. And then, like, church bells just went and won the game. Yeah, well, that's Bellsy. That's what Patino said.

1:50:14Pat McAfee:You know, it's Bellsy. You said it last year, I think, about Patino's team being tough. Yeah. It's all about how the refs decide to officiate it. We saw that in the college football playoffs. Feels like we're going to see that with Patino anytime they play. Maybe Duke is in trouble. Let's talk about maybe who can get it all. AJ has the last question for you here, Coach. Yeah, Coach, with all your expertise, who's your favorite team, I guess, left as of now, standing here and looking at the future? I think Arizona. And the one that's obviously favorite, they have eight starters. I mean, they don't have five starters.

1:50:43They have eight starters. Every guy that they bring off the bench impacts winning. Delorso, he had like 26 in the Big 12 tournament. He's absolutely a killer offensively and defensively. Toby O 'Walka should be a tight end in the NFL. Might be. All right? And he might be. The guy averages a double-double in 10 minutes. And, like, our state makes shots. Jaden Bradley's the best finisher in the game. Burries is another one of those dynamic freshmen. And, like, we watch and we say, well, what does Crevas do? Well, he protects the rim. He rebounds the ball. He does what they need to do. So, like, the pieces fit.

1:51:17And Tommy Lloyd, he's incredible. He's just like this. Like, they were down, like, 14 points to Iowa State in the Big 12 tournament. And I was joking with him. I said, like, you were down 14. And he goes, yeah. And my dumbass didn't call timeout. And he just kind of worked with his team, worked with his team. They fought through it. And that was like a shot maker's delight. And, like, every shot went freaking in in that game. But I like Arizona. But that other team, Iowa State, they actually surgically removed Kentucky's heart. Every five-minute mark. Yeah, I mean, they didn't use a scalpel. They just removed it.

1:51:53Just when they're grabbing. Oh, with a hand. Yeah, the hand. and he just went and grabbed it. It was unbelievable. They play so hard. Iowa State plays so hard. It's ridiculous. And TJ's great. I don't know about the Smedians, but besides that, TJ, he's a monster.

1:52:06Pat McAfee:Okay, so let's talk about you say they set basketball back yesterday. What are your thoughts on the first two rounds of March Madness? I feel like you loved it. Obviously, the favorites have done very, very well. Yeah. There hasn't been as many Cinderella's over the last two years. What are your thoughts on the style of play in the tournament that we have thus far? The game's going up and down. There's more scoring. The better teams are winning. And, yeah, the mid-majors are getting beat up a little bit. But we still had – look, we still had High Point. We still had Miami, Ohio. We never had a zillion of those guys.

1:52:30Everyone was, oh, no, the mid-majors. How many mid-majors really make it deeper? Yeah, Loyola made it deeper on –

1:52:37Pat McAfee:Rest in peace, by the way, to her. Sister Jean. Sister Jean. She should be saying it. If that lady hasn't been saying it, I don't know. We have no chance? Well, I don't know. I don't know about Greenberg. Greenberg's not going to be saying it. I'm worried about you, Patty. I know you've got a nice family and everything. I don't know, but she should be. But, yes, obviously, 102-year-old, incredible lady. She's a great race. But you're saying there isn't a lot. I just don't look. 106. The economics is what it is. So, I mean, like, there's never a zillion of them. We overreact to everyone because it's such a big thing.

1:53:15But the middle range of all these conferences that are getting seven, eight, nine bids, they're good teams. They're not great teams. They're not the top three. So, like, a team can go 9-9 or can go 8-10, but, like, they got, like, five or six, seven good wins. So, like, they're just beating the crap out of each other. So, you know, to me, the mid-major and mid-low majors, you've got to get lucky by getting a six-year guy. Like, High Point had two six-year guys, two fifth-year guys. I mean, that team was older than the Oklahoma City Thunder. I mean, and they were good.

1:53:44Pat McAfee:So, I mean. All right, you've got five seconds here. Who's going to win it all right now as you stand? Arizona. I like Arizona. I think they're the deepest, most complete team. But, and then maybe next time I'll give you a couple of picks for this Sweet 16. I'm still digesting. Goodbye. We'll see you tomorrow. Yeah, you nailed it. Yeah, absolutely. We're still live. If you'd like to say bye to everybody back in the Thunderdome, we're still live. People can still watch you, too. You're still on there. Hey, boys, thanks for having me. Thanks, guys. Love to come back and talk about it before the games and kind of give you guys a couple of picks.

1:54:16Yeah, we fucking need them. We've been losing. You have?

1:54:19Pat McAfee:Yes. I lost every bet on, what was that, Thursday? I lost every bet. Yeah, Thursday was tough. You didn't have Alabama? That was an easy one. Okay. I had Arkansas, I think, and Vandy. And then I forget which one was the. It went south after that? Yeah. Yeah, everything's bad. I'm back with this one. Duke, Troy. Hey, will you give us a speech here before we go to a break? And then we'll come back on the other side and get a wrap every show. Team on me, boys. Team on me. Coach, go ahead. I'm giving a speech. Hey, guys. Break up. Yeah, we might be editing this segment right now, but here's the deal.

1:54:51When we leave here, your career best effort. We don't punch the clock. Each and every day, I want your career best effort. Like, no shortcuts. All right, you are your habits. Every single day, you guys make a difference, especially you guys on the right over here. All right, because I'll tell you what, you've heard a lot better speeches than I've given. I mean, you had Krzyzewski here. You have Saban. You've had Belichick. Screw those guys. I'm telling you guys right now, we need our very best effort every single day. Let's go. That's right. Hell yeah, Coach. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three.

1:55:20Team! Come on, see the other side.

1:55:22Pat McAfee:That was good. That was good, Steve.

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1:57:08We'll be right back.

1:57:35Pat McAfee:Ford, we like that he wants to win for us. I'm not sure he's going to get sainted. I've been thinking about that a little bit. I'm not 100 % sure how that works, but maybe not for him. Probably not for anybody, but it has been a fantastic Monday up here in Bristol, Connecticut. You know, this is where sports are king, you know, up here where it's 14 fucking degrees. It is freezing up here. I forgot about this new England. Let's go to the talks table at Boston, Connor, and Ty Schmidt. Con man, it's cold as hell up here. I mean, it is windy, rainy, cold. When's this stop? Punxsutawney Phil said we're close.

1:58:11Pat McAfee:They do not con me. Yeah, I don't know about Punxsutawney Phil. I already shoot that little rodent in the head. But you're just lucky it's not snowing, dude. They've gotten some of the worst snow since like the 70s up in New England. I think they've had over like 40 total inches throughout the entire winter. They had a span of like three weeks where they had three feet of snow. So the cold, awful. I think it's probably maybe turning the corner. This might be their second winner or third winner. They get three up there. Jeez. Yeah, well, it's an honor to be up here, obviously. Walking through the building, you see so many greats.

1:58:43Pat McAfee:Got a chance. Mike Foss, obviously, peacocking around. Running the 10. Oh, you should see him. I mean, he is shoulders back, obviously. We're doing the entire thing. I asked him where her bathroom was. He said, right this way, sir. Walked down four wrong hallways. Nice. Had to turn around, go all the way back. I thought they might drop the S in SVP out of his name just because of how embarrassing he was with the directions around the building. Who moved the bathroom? Exactly. The place is gigantic up here. You kind of forget how, you know what I mean? Yeah, I walk back. There's a newsroom out here.

1:59:18Pat McAfee:I'm sure there was about 1 ,000 anonymous sources out there. Probably very positive about me, so I'm very appreciative about them out here. But you forget about how many humans kind of piece this whole place together. It's an honor to be here. Saw a couple Emmy Award winners walking around. Whoa. Shite. Just kind of walking around out there. So more. Miss Laura Rutledge. Miss Laura Rutledge was walking around. Obviously, NFL Live Emmy Award winner. You see these super Seth Greenberg just bumps into me, poops his pants, prints out. You know, it's like it's a Disney world for sports media here at ESPN's campus, and it is gigantic.

1:59:52Pat McAfee:It is gigantic. Can't wait to get down to a little cafeteria, steal some of their food, and enjoy it all. It's a great overreaction Monday here, AJ. Yeah, it is. I guess when's the first game this coming up? Oh, my gosh. The lineup, that's the only thing with March Madness. I'm glad you just said that. Why? On Thursday, it starts at 7, and then they just have like four games. Yeah, here it is. They got 10-0-5 kick. Exactly. It makes no sense, and it is in Central. Now it's the biggest problem in the last two days. Saturday, Sunday was ridiculous. They have a game at 12-15 or 12-40 or whatever, one at two, and then six games between five and eight.

2:00:28What are we doing? You're playing to the West Coast, right?

2:00:30Pat McAfee:Wake up, man. What are we doing, man? I'm sick of the timing of this bullshit. Sucks. Sick of it. This feels like when I got to watch Scott Hansen bounce back and forth between two games. Whenever they had 17 in the other window. It's like, allow me to watch it with my life happening. Now, I do like whenever there's a score up on the top of the screen and I can maybe get baited and go into another game because the game that I'm currently watching is absolute shite. or you learn that a game's on, then you try to get a multi-view, and all of a sudden you have a women's first-round game on. Yeah.

2:01:04Pat McAfee:Because you didn't know if it was men's first round or women's first round when you build the multi-view. And all of a sudden you start looking at you like, hold the phone. We got some badasses in the women's college basketball tournament happening as well. And Iowa State lost. Oh, no. What? Already? I thought it was March. She dropped 37, though. Audie Crooks dropped 37 points. Okay. She had 37. She had 37. And we thought they were about to get cooked by Arnie Crooks. And they did. She dropped 37. The team just couldn't stop. I mean, it was a tough loss for Iowa State, but we are certainly going to continue to follow along with the women's college hoops.

2:01:40Pat McAfee:That Darius J. Butler, who's going to win that over there in the women's college hoops in your eyes? I know you've been watching.

2:01:47Adam Schefter:Of course, and we still have the odds. It's the long favorites, the UConn Huskies, I believe still undefeated. long. Obviously still in the 50. I believe 36-0 now. We'll be back in the Final Four. We'll win it all. Sarah Strong, Fudd, they'll lead the charge again with Geno, the godfather, still doing it. Minus 250 right there. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Easy bet. I mean, that's easy money. Damn near guaranteed.

2:02:10Pat McAfee:The crown could be ours. Crown could be ours there, it seems like. Could be UConn's, especially with the men and the women. When was the last time that happened? Did you guys ever do that?

2:02:18Adam Schefter:Yeah. We did it a few times. I know the year 2004. Yeah, it was like 10 years or something, right? Maybe 14.

2:02:25Pat McAfee:14 and 24 did they do it? How about this? Let's continue with women's basketball. I retweeted it. Wanted to showcase it. New deal done for the WNBA and WNBA. That's right.

2:02:39Adam Schefter:Got it done.

2:02:42Pat McAfee:It's good for the league. Big-time bonuses. And then I think from big-time upgrades to what their money was. $1.4 million now, max contract. There's a bunch of other stuff up like 107 ,000 % or something. There's like the amount of money that they are now agreeing to with the WNBA, I think is a beautiful thing. Hopefully they're able to continue to run it up, and hopefully WNBA survives because I want to let you know, Mackenzie did soccer again this weekend, scored a goal. Nice. But she does have a natural tendency to grab that fucking ball and throw it into things. So I'm thinking she might. Yeah.

2:03:19Pat McAfee:You know, I don't know if she's a lefty too, I think. So, you know, that's, you know, there's a lot of that is going on. So we need all these sports to continue to thrive, and we're very grateful and pumped that they got that deal done. Sham Sharanya breaking that deal really pissed off a lot of people. When they're stolen. Son of a bitch. Who was supposed to break it?

2:03:38Adam Schefter:I mean, some poor lady was out of camping out for like 17 hours. Why did she break it? She's getting the news, getting the information gathered, and Sham just swoops in and does his thing. Scoops the scoop, bro. Yeah, I guess so. Trying to do his job.

2:03:50Pat McAfee:And that's what Chaum said. Exactly.

2:03:52Adam Schefter:I love Chaum.

2:03:53Pat McAfee:That's what Chaum said. Chaum says, is this hoops? Is it the same ownership as the NBA? Okay, yeah, that'll be mine. Thanks. Where have you been? Outside the court? Well, I've been living on my phone for the last 20 years. I don't have any friends. So that's how I got here. And I eat my oatmeal with a fork, and I like lunchtime, and I know everything going on in basketball. WNBA is going to continue. We're pumped up about that. College Hoops also going to continue. Let's go to one half of the hammer. Cowboys AP town. We just learned that the UConn women are favorites to win the women's NCAA tournament.

2:04:27Pat McAfee:Who are the favorites to win the men's March Madness tournament? Arizona, Michigan, and Duke are still your heavy favorites to win it at Arizona being the favorite at plus 330 with Michigan right behind them. They looked really, really good against Bob Avila's boys of St. Louis on Saturday. And then Duke at plus 370. They were your tournament favorites to start the tournament, but they had the run-in with Siena. And then with TCU, they hung around for a bit before they pulled away. But those are your three largest favorites right there. And no surprise, they've been the best three teams in basketball all season long.

2:05:02Pat McAfee:Ty, how do you feel about that plus 12 ,000 down there, Ty? That seems like a pretty juicy little odds for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Yeah, certainly. I took Iowa at plus$20 ,000 before the tournament started. So, you know, you kind of just do it because, hey, I got to. But now we're in the stage where, you know what, don't be late to this train. If you're good with plus$12 ,000, you take that. Hawks got a team that they've already beaten coming next. So, yeah, I really like that number. That is very juicy. I may put my mortgage on. I might double down, put my mortgage on plus$12 ,000 as well. I don't know if you heard while you mentioned a plus 20 ,000 for Iowa, there was a Canadian, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, Gumpy.

2:05:47Pat McAfee:You love that. Yeah, it's good odds there. I like the old firm too. Johnny's in Arkansas, great odds. Those coaches, they know how to win at this time of the year. The old firm, what do you mean by that, pal? Calipari, Patino, they've been around. It is funny. What about Izzo? Yeah, January, February, Izzo, we know how it goes. It is kind of the old firm owning college basketball still as we carry on. Okay, so Arizona, old firm? Not quite old firm. Michigan, old firm? Newer firm. New school, dude. Duke? New school, dude. Houston? Old firm. Old firm. It's kind of half and half here. Purdue, old firm?

2:06:23Pat McAfee:Old firm, yeah. Illinois? Middle firm, older firm. Iowa State? New school. Newer. Yeah. Dan Hurley? Old firm. Old firm, Dan Hurley? The oldest of old firm? Old school, dude. How about Michigan State? Obviously, Izzo, Old Fern. I tell you what, I feel like the dogs are going to be barking in this Sweet 16 here. You look at those lines. There's a lot of good teams there. Yeah, the favorites are saying we're the best, and we have been for this entire tournament. And I've lost a lot of money. And if Gumpy says something, I'll certainly ride with it blindly, AJ. I don't know if you do that as well, but I ride with Old Gump blindly.

2:07:01Pat McAfee:And I was in a plus 4 ,000-something 18-1 that ended before it even started. That was Ohio State right off the hop. Yeah, thanks, Buckeyes. I was going to win 20 grand on the first day of March Madness off of Gumpy's big brain, but instead the Buckeyes just couldn't make a fucking basket. Why didn't you tell – you didn't answer either. We FaceTimed you. We FaceTimed you four or five times. I wanted you to get in there and motivate you. Yeah, dickhead. Yeah. Five or five times. My plan was to FaceTime you guys back once they won the game. They didn't. They didn't, unfortunately. That was the problem.

2:07:35I thought I was going to call the boys. You guys were all hanging around. Like, hey, look at this. You guys thought they were going to lose. Oh, well. They did.

2:07:41Pat McAfee:Well, we did, actually. Everything you guys thought was accurate. Everybody that I know that had a team that was losing a bet for me got a face done. Everybody. Coach K, he got two of them. Coach K got two of them. In that first half, yeah, right. We're losing. We're losing, Coach. Okay. And then immediately after the game, Coach, we can't cover 28-and-a-half against Siena. How can I believe in this team at all? And then he goes into an actual basketball breakdown as if I'm being serious. And I'm like, Coach. I was just fucking around. He was talking about getting healthy, though. Like the way he started breaking it down, he was like, well, because we don't have a guy, Boozer has to do more.

2:08:19Pat McAfee:Boozer's getting beat up. Then we get this guy. If we just get one more guy or two more guys in there healthy, it should help everybody is kind of how he started talking. So I go again, hammer time, and obviously it goes how it goes. So it's like I appreciate this March Madness, but it does seem like it's a bit unpredictable. And there's zero perfect brackets. How many was there in total? Do we remember what the number finally got up to? I think there – oh, in total, I'm not sure. I know going into yesterday there were two. And then Tennessee beating Virginia ended completely. Yeah, but was there like 30 million, 40 million?

2:08:51Pat McAfee:How many – Oh, how many total brackets? Oh, jeez. I don't know. When we almost filled it out, there were like eight, I think. We would have a perfect or two. I haven't checked.

2:09:00Adam Schefter:I saw you guys. I saw it brewing, too. What? That we didn't do it? We didn't get to it? I saw it brewing the last 12 minutes. Like, no fucking way you're going to do it, Brackett. We did the one, though. What do you mean? What do you mean? No way.

2:09:13Pat McAfee:Riddle me this. What are you talking about? You're talking about how everybody was making a mockery out of it? Everybody was basically telling me, let's not do this. Everybody was kind of pushing me. Yeah, I was ready. You were pretty hype. We ended up doing the super-duper 18. It's the college basketball crowd. Yeah, they tip off in like three months. So it should be sweet. Congrats. DraftKings tweeted that there was 26.6 million brackets. 26.6 million brackets. Nobody's perfect. And maybe one will have a perfect bracket for the super-duper college basketball crime that West Virginia is going to win.

2:09:42Yeah.

2:09:42Pat McAfee:And that's what it's all about. They got the Toronto Blue Jays in the semifinals. That might be a tough team to beat. But Oklahoma, Colorado, Baylor, Minnesota, we're comfortable against all of them. So West Virginia, Toronto will battle the winner of Oklahoma and Baylor, if we had to guess. And that's coming to you in May. And you can get your tickets now at vividseats.com. Back to the March Madness. We had a chance to catch up with a coach earlier today in the middle of his travel. He is currently plus 12 ,000 to win it all. Will your thoughts change on those odds after listening to him speak?

2:10:19Pat McAfee:We think so. We caught up with Coach Ben McCollum this morning. Here it is. Wow. Yeah! Hey! Congratulations, Coach. How you feeling, brother? Appreciate it.

2:10:32Adam Schefter:Thank you. I'm good. I'm good. Just getting ready to get on this plane and head back to Iowa City, God's country. Hell yeah.

2:10:40Pat McAfee:Well, we appreciate you taking time here quickly to join us en route in the middle of this chaotic March Madness. Obviously, you have won everywhere, okay? So now you end up at Iowa and you get this gigantic win over the reigning national champs. How can you compare it to maybe in the past? How do you kind of describe your feelings having this big win at a new school at Iowa? How do you kind of describe where you are right now and how you feel about your program? Yeah, you know, I think we wanted to make sure that we brought some of that back to the state of Iowa and Iowa City and University of Iowa and have them take pride in what we're doing.

2:11:17So I think that's, I think we're doing that. I think we're trending that the right direction for me personally as a coach. You know, I think in 2017, we won our first national championship and a division two. And I got done and I'm like, man, this is what this is supposed to feel like. And it didn't necessarily feel like you would think it would because we're so process driven. Like everything's process. Everything's next game, next play, next thing. and that's how you sustain success. So it felt good. Probably not what you would think, but I'm really happy for the state of Iowa and the University of Iowa.

2:11:57Pat McAfee:Yeah, and we have Ty Schmidt here. He'll be asking you a question in a second. I mean, he was erupting last night. I mean, just, yeah, yeah, yeah. He always looks good, too. He's always got that Iowa gear. He is repping it. And my understanding, because I actually watched your show some, he's from Waterloo. That's right. corner is that right there you go and when did you graduate iowa city uh 2013 2013 yeah so i you know hey i was i was there for the lick lighter era like i i've seen some dark days you're a real fan oh yeah oh yeah big time uh coach yeah like you said that that was the i think that was the most excited still coming in here just like floating this morning that is maybe the most excited I've ever been after a sporting event.

2:12:43So the state is behind you. They appreciate it. This is awesome. I'm curious, looking ahead, like, is it more difficult playing a team like Nebraska, who's in your conference, who you've seen twice, or is it, you know, because I feel like Florida and some of these other teams, like they're maybe not used to Iowa's style of play in terms of, you know, playing really slow and like the defense, like what, how, how would you look at the next game and like how difficult is that as opposed to playing you know the number one ranked team like florida yeah i think it's probably conference driven a little bit meaning obviously they've seen us we've seen them uh the the big 10 isn't necessarily a slow league but it's a little bit slower than the sec a little more half court a little more physicality more just x's and o's driven um for the basketball purist if you will and the sec can just they're they're physical they overpower you they can get downhill they score a lot of points and so you know specific to nebraska i think just having them seen us uh and us seeing them it does make it more difficult probably to score and it probably makes the scores go down quite a bit just because we know each other so well um what matchup do you want i don't know there's only 16 teams left i don't think there's any good matchup at this point i think it's hey how about in coach

2:14:02Pat McAfee:fighting. How about in coach fighting? We saw you almost do that. Is there any coaches like Patino? Probably good right now, but he might sneak you. I don't know if you've thought about that. He might outlast me. Patino's tougher than hell. I wouldn't mess with him. He might outlast me. I can guarantee Fred, a former NBA player, you don't want to mess with him either. I'm just going to stick to my own bench at this point. Would you like to chatter a little bit about the passion here? This is a part of March Madness that we love. I believe the Maryland women's coach was shown, obviously coaching her player up hard where she was saying, I believe in you, but you've got to want this.

2:14:40Pat McAfee:Hurley gets a lot of stuff because he's obviously a maniac and a psycho. Same with Mick over there in UCLA. But, like, I think it's a part of college sports and a part of college hoops as a whole is the passion. You obviously get caught up in that yesterday. Your team has a huge win. What are your thoughts on it all, how people talk about it, how it's perceived, and kind of how you handle all the type of situations that pop up in a very emotional time here in March Madness. Yeah, I grew up in a time, I mean, I'm still young, I feel like, but I grew up when we would go play pickup, and you'd play against your best buddies or your teammates.

2:15:14And if there wasn't a fight, it wasn't fun. Not an actual fight, but you're competing against each other, right? Like, it's not any fun. Like, if I'm just going to go, you know, be nice to each other and stuff like that, that's the beauty of competition is you can do that and then it's done and you leave the you leave it there so they say leave it on the floor that's what it is now do i make a habit of that absolutely not i didn't i didn't know what was going on to be perfectly honest i was like what just started yelling at our bench but it is it is a part of it like it doesn't necessarily need to be a constant deal um you Those guys were going for 50-50 balls.

2:16:00They got into it. There was a little scrum there, but it's nothing. It's competition. It's fun. It brings out the best and the worst on occasion. But once the game's over, it's over. It's hoops, baby.

2:16:15Pat McAfee:That's why sports are the greatest. That's why sports are the greatest. It's the greatest thing on earth. Sports are the greatest thing on earth. And what you guys are cooking right now with this March Madness is obviously electrifying. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, Coach, I guess obviously you've had a ton of success as a coach, not really, I guess, on this stage at this level. Have you talked to anybody, any other coaches, about how to handle the rest of this tournament? Obviously the rest of this week, like you said, you're flying back home now. What does the rest of the week look like for your coaches and your players?

2:16:41Not a lot. I think it's probably actually more – I think the noise is different at this level, so you've got to get that corrected with your team. Like, hey, we've got another game. We actually want to continue to win would be the first part of that. The second part of that is at Division II, you play the next day most of the time. So you'll play the next day or you might have one day break. You don't change locations. At the high major level, you get your private jet. It'll fly you back. It's a two-hour flight. You eat the best food ever. You sleep in your own bed, and then you get back on your private jet, and you go to your hotel.

2:17:19I don't know. It's pretty easy from what it is at Division II where you're taking six, seven-hour bus trips. We're pretty spoiled. If you can't get up for this next game or you can't handle it the right way, then I think we've got bigger problems.

2:17:34Pat McAfee:That's a beautiful thing, Coach. We can't wait to watch you the rest of the way. Good luck. If you continue to fight coaches, just know we're on your side. Hell yeah. As long as Ty's there with me, got my back. Oh yeah, I'll die for you, Coach. Know that. Love it. And with a bottle of Jack emptied in his soul, he'll be ready. Yeah, he'll be ready for whatever. Ladies and gentlemen, the head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes basketball team, Coach Ben McCollum. Guy's a winner, AJ. Guy's a winner. And I'll tell you, I love the fact that Ty gets a chance to say that his coach is a dog. Ty, is that your biggest takeaway there from our conversation with the four-time D2 national champion?

2:18:17Yeah, without a doubt. And I wasn't kidding when I said, you know, I will die for that guy. I'll go into battle for that guy, take a bullet for that guy. I mean, Iowa basketball for the longest time had a lot of success, but it was one of those things where more often than not, they would go to the tournament and be a higher seed, win the first round, like squeak by, and then get upset in the second round. It was kind of just like a rinse and repeat type deal for him to come in in his first year. And he's doing it with a bunch of like mid-major guys who were with him at, you know the d2 northwest missouri state then went to drake with him then came to iowa for them to be in the sweet 16 in his first year where they haven't been since 1999 like this man can do no wrong i wasn't kidding when i said last night was maybe the happiest i've been in like 20 years it was just i mean just unbelievable and i'm still just floating today like i cannot wait for Thursday.

2:19:11Pat McAfee:Let's go Hawkeyes. Congratulations to Utah and to Coach McCollum who, him making time for us was sweet. That was in between travel for him to join us. I think we got Coach Patino tomorrow. We will obviously continue to try to contribute to the sports world as much as we possibly can. AJ, great work traveling over there to Thunderdome. Oh, shit. Oh, no. Good save. I just had the Justin Timberlake microphone. You remember when he had that? Oh, yeah. He used to kick down and, like, catch it and then bring it back. He had a great weekend. Saw some videos of him. Yeah. Great. I don't know why they come out, man.

2:19:46Pat McAfee:Great fucking internet. Wait. Great delivery. I don't love that they're doing that to Justin Timberlake. That guy's already been through it 100 times. And then they show him, like, dancing. Now they're doing it again. We already went through this whole thing again. Yeah, I mean, it's going to be me. People will never forget it. That's Justin Timberlake forever in its entirety. But, AJ, anytime we're on this show going forward, we need you to stop making any jokes about concussions in football players. Yes. I don't. I know what you're trying to get to, but I don't really mess around with that too much.

2:20:20No, you share the same sentiments as some players. What's that?

2:20:23Pat McAfee:I joke about helmets. Kim Scadaboo had to apologize. Kim Scadaboo had to apologize for making a joke about CT and asthma, saying he doesn't believe in both of them. What is asthma? Asthma? He said, just breathe, man. He said, just breathe. Asthma's not real. And I will say I've met a few people in my life that do have similar beliefs to Cam Scadaboo. I used to not believe in headaches because I never got one. Now, on that note, I've been told that that is not real. On that note, we will continue to try to bring awareness to the dangers of football and concussions to the future. But we've got to be able to joke about stuff.

2:21:01Pat McAfee:Come on, come on, come on, come on. Football players are a lot of jokes. So people that aren't like Cam Scadaboo, A.J. Hawk, you know, guys like this have to be able to joke about it, obviously, to get through it. Sometimes that's the only way people can really get through stuff is by making jokes. I appreciate him coming out and saying, I'm sorry I offended you. And I think Webster's son came out and was like, hey, this has affected a lot of people's lives, you know, in a negative way. So we appreciate you acknowledging that. We would like to go and say we certainly understand that the future of some players because of concussions with CT is not great.

2:21:31Pat McAfee:But on that note, I don't know how we're supposed to not reference it in some sort of way that is, you know, real, you know, in the reality of a situation. Happy Cam got through that. I love Cam Scadaboo. I hope he plays football good again. We think he's going to?

2:21:45Adam Schefter:Yes. Yeah. He only knows. Yeah, I think so as well. But I did find it interesting how many times Shefty mentioned Love and the Giants at five, even though I'm for a month. That would be pretty cool. pretty cool.

2:21:59Pat McAfee:Scadaboo in love? Yeah. Dart. And Jackson Dart. Pat Ricard in front of him. Ricard, Scadaboo, with love behind him. Yeah. Jordan Stout, ready to punt. Yeah. Neighbors back. Jeez. Bruce, do the Giants not suck anymore? I don't think so. I think we're going to be all the way back. We're definitely going to be pounding the rock. Neighbors seems to be a little bit more behind in his rehab than Scadaboo is. Scadaboo is going to be good to go for OTAs, but Neighbors' knee apparently was pretty fucked up. All right. Well, hopefully everybody gets healthy over there. We'd love to see the Giants have a good team.

2:22:40Pat McAfee:And Cam Scadaboo, keep living your life, dude. Keep living your life, brother, doing whatever. You dominate that taco, Cam. That's right. You dominate that taco every single time. You just keep it moving. Congrats to Matt Fitzpatrick. Huge putt on 18th. He was so close a week ago. Obviously, Cam Young gets the win. Fitz has a chance to finish it here on 18. And now he's done. Gets excited, does the quiet. I'm an introvert, but I want to do a fist bump, lose my mind thing. And I appreciate him doing that. Congrats to him. Getting a big win. Foxy, PGA's doing it. We like the Valspar Championship.

2:23:17Pat McAfee:And how do you feel about Fitzy getting the win, Fox? Yes, sir. PGA's doing it. Fitzy's on absolute fire right now. He's one of those guys you look at because the Masters is pretty close. And then over in the Live Golf League, Pat. Thank you, Foxy. Bryson DeChambeau has won back-to-back tournaments. He just won in South Africa. The scenes were unbelievable after he said that it was the best Live tournament they've had to date. So look for Bryson DeChambeau, who won in a playoff against John Rahm in that tournament. Look for both those guys at the Masters as we get close to that. Okay, so first place and second place or first place and runner-up or first place and last place to Tone's point whenever it comes to what the live is at this point.

2:24:00Pat McAfee:But we love the alternate option, don't we, D-Butt? Whenever we find it on a Super Duper DW channel, we turn it on and we say, wow, Rombo's playing, DeChambeau's playing. We got golf in its highest form. Right, D-Butt?

2:24:13Adam Schefter:I think they kind of figured it out with the international scenes. Whenever they go to Australia or South African, I know it was Rom and DeChambeau in the playoff, but it was a South African. I'm not sure of his name, but he got a huge pops, huge rules for the crowd. Yeah, Louis. But this shot, this finish, like, I think he was, like, 290 out, shot two. Got it up on the green for, like, a 15-footer for Eagle. Ended up tapping in for par to win it. Like, this is top tier Bryson. I know after the win, he was pretty emotional. I guess he's dealing with something in his personal life. So T's and P's there for Bryson.

2:24:45Adam Schefter:But it was a great scene. And then post-match, Calvin Harris still bringing it out there in front of 100 ,000. So, yeah, they'll be back in South Africa in 2027. But those of you in the office who have been to a live tournament live, I think they kind of have that down pat even over the PGA Tour. But PGA, you know, that's still the cream of the crop right now. But when we get these guys in the same field when the Masters coming up, I will definitely have a nice ticket on Bryson. The crown will be mine.

2:25:14Pat McAfee:Okay. I like that you're trying to get the crown, and the crown might be yours. We'll see if the crown's yours or D-Sham crown bow, whatever the case. I like that he's getting emotional big wins, especially with stuff going on in his personal life. D-Bot, what's your favorite Calvin Harris song?

2:25:27Adam Schefter:I mean, you know, they kind of all sound the same. That's not true. That's not Calvin Harris. You know, Diplo, freaking Rufus. Diplo played the after party of the flag football situation. He did. He did. You know, all of them. He's bringing it. All of them. Let me hear just a little melody.

2:25:44Pat McAfee:Let me hear what that one sounds like. Oh, beat guys. So we'll give a beat. Most of his songs usually start with lyrics, actually. So if we gave you the beat, it's like half a single song.

2:25:53Adam Schefter:Yeah, I met you in the summer. That's not real. Oh, that is real. I feel so kind of here.

2:25:59Pat McAfee:How about they found love in a hopeless place, I believe. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. No, that's not good. Blame it up! Yeah! Dang, dang, dang, dang. That's Calvin Harris right there, I think. Buttsy, do yourself a favor. And then we can go dip low. Go ahead. Sorry. No, no, no. It's on me. I was going to say look at Calvin Harris' glow up. Research that on the internet after we're done here. I look on X. Yep. Well, yeah, he's doing live tournaments, bro. He's fucking at the top of the world right now. Yeah, that dude.

2:26:31Adam Schefter:See that fucking crap? Yeah. Who do they have at Valspar? Who do they have out there? At Valspar? Look at this shit. Better watch it, man. I think Darius Rucker was playing Valspar. I know. I brought up Lillian.

2:26:43Pat McAfee:But Liv stinks, Dad. Let me make one thing clear. I brought it up. This is on me, but it still stinks on TV. They got to figure that out. All right, let's think about things that stink but have a pretty good show coming. The UXSFL has... Have you seen the halftime performances? What? Have you seen them? No, who? Stack. We got Nelly fucking playing somewhere. We got Russell Dickerson playing somewhere. We got everybody out there. Yeah, Gucci Mane. I'm still going to have to. Boom. Gucci Mane. T.V. Myers. Wale. T.V. Myers. Which one's the Columbus one? I believe it's Ty Myers. I was thinking the same thing.

2:27:26How did they get him? Of course. T.V. Myers. T.V. Myers.

2:27:35Pat McAfee:Well. Bring it. He's still bringing it. Wale is going to fucking murder that. Okay. We love Wale. We appreciate Wally. We assume Gucci's going to do his thing. Gavin's been doing it forever. TV Myers, I apologize. I cannot wait to watch. Nelly in the St. Lunatics going crazy. DJ Khaled, I just watched him jump off a yacht. Okay, and then while he was swimming to shore, he said, New Muse, come soon. Okay, so we assume he's going to drop some of that. Russell Dickerson had the song of the fall, obviously. And then Luda. Yeah, right. That's 100 bangers. I don't know how they're going to have. Is that halftime going to be 45 minutes?

2:28:10Pat McAfee:Maybe. Maybe that's the new UXSFL thing. I'm not sure, but I love that they're coming out with some bangers for halftime. I will certainly be paying attention, AJ. Which one here are you most looking forward to? Are you looking to get back to the M? Ah, crooked letter, crooked letter. Oh, you are. Ah, ain't nobody know what I'm at. Hey, that Nelly of St. Lunatics is good. That's good shit. Gavin DeGraw had a good run for a long time, I'd say. I mean, TD Myers slash Ty Myers. I'd say Gavin DeGraw. I don't know. I can't name any songs right now. Let me hear it. What is the song called? Tony, start singing that one.

2:28:42One of his good ones. Dude, you don't know Gav? I know Gav. What does Gavin DeGroff sound? Gav back in the day. Come on. Give us one. How's he go? I'm not a good singer, but. That's okay. Speak it. What is it called? What's the one? I don't want to see anything other than what I've been trying to be late. Him and Jason Mraz like had a good run. Yep. Yeah. Is Jason Mraz playing? Yeah. He's still doing it. He should. He's doing the Super Bowl or whatever they call it. Are we worried at all that the USXFL may have spent their entire league year budget on getting these guys to perform? Maybe.

2:29:16Pat McAfee:You've got to remember, last time they played, they lost$60 million. So picking up Nelly and the St. Lunatics for halftime is nothing. What's it going to look like, though? Go ahead and charge it to the games, says Rapold. I hope they can fill the stands because you know how it is. It's tough to play anyway at halftime with a stadium. Russell Dickerson's filling the stadium. You think they're not going to fill the stands?

2:29:37Adam Schefter:Smart business move by him. You're right.

2:29:40Pat McAfee:I like that they're trying to make it an event. I have no service. I can't look up a Gavin. What is a Gavin song? I don't want to be anything other than what I've been trying to be lately. He's got some hits. And then what is the other one? Oh, Cherry. Oh, yeah, that's a banger. I got time. T.D. Myers, what's he got? I've never heard of that fucking guy. But I'm excited to watch him. Ty's got his USXFL opening weekend. Exactly. Hey, Ty Meyer's going to bring it. Hey, what's that Russell Dickerson song? I listened to it at game day. It's a hit. He does this one here. He's got good. He's got good.

2:30:21Pat McAfee:Something about girls. A couple of trucks. Nothing. I'm being seniors. That's cold beers too? What's it? Nick knows the song in the back. Nick looks like the guy. Nick, what's the song from Russell Dickerson? What's that sound like? Why do I know the song? Happen to Me. Driving down a mud road. Happen to Me. I think that's a song. Sing it. Let's get a little. Go on, D-Bot. I have no service.

2:30:45Adam Schefter:You know it. D-Bot, hit the Russell. That's the song you've been singing. It is, Mike. I gotta have my tea.

2:30:50Pat McAfee:Yeah.

2:30:51Adam Schefter:Russ Dick brings it. He does.

2:30:54Pat McAfee:Every time. Russ Dick is what it is. R.D.'s a dog. He was on the Thanksgiving Macy's Day Parade. That's right. Isn't it girls just want to have fun? Isn't it a remake? That's what I thought, yeah. Yeah. Girls. Yeah. But like a country version. Yeah. It's a country version, though. I'm watching. Fuck it. I'm going to watch all these things. And I'm not just watching for the halftime show. I'm watching the football. Hell yeah. I don't think any of these quarterbacks can complete a pass. We're talking about the 100th ranked quarterback in the country playing for the USXFL. I got faith. Especially if DJ Khaled's coming out there and blessing him up.

2:31:29Pat McAfee:Especially if Nelly and the St. Lunatics are coming in with, Give me To I Need To So I And if all A's coming in Yeah

2:31:42Adam Schefter:Who knows

2:31:44Pat McAfee:USXFL coming out with a bang

2:31:46Adam Schefter:What's that D-Buck? I said who knows Who DJ Khaled's gonna bring up We taking over Remix The entire crew Yeah Drake

2:31:50Pat McAfee:I heard Beyonce's maybe coming out Yeah I heard Beyonce's maybe coming out She's big Houston Brahma Renegades Yeah She does like the Brahmas Yeah To your point Who's in Columbus? No I think they're The crew They're calling them the beehives. Ted Kinsey.

2:32:03Adam Schefter:Yeah, I know. That's some more team. We care about ball. I don't know. Do they show – does it say where each one's performing? Yeah. I'm dominant. All right. First team, boy. We promoted ball. We did. I like the ball we're on on how we're at in shows. This is good.

2:32:18Pat McAfee:Yeah, I'm dominant. I'm going to watch. Five-minute quarters. I'm definitely watching. 45-minute halftime. 4.60-point field goals. Boom. That's right. Is Team USA flagging them to be in this league? No, I don't. That's the first Team USA I've ever wanted to see lose so bad, and I don't ever want to see them on my TV again. But on that note, they are very talented, and we need to respect them, and hopefully they'll go win us a gold medal.

2:32:42Adam Schefter:But if they lose to Austria, it's going to be hell to be. Don't sleep on Italy. Look up on us one.

2:32:48Pat McAfee:The Italians are flippers. Has anyone bought that espresso machine yet? The Nespresso one? I got one for the bus. It was a Keurig, and I said, nope, I needed an airstrike, a Nespresso. That's right. Did you see that Pasquatino? Oh, yeah. Soak and what? I don't know why it was at some Mickey Mouse six flags and not Kennywood, but whatever. He said he set the record for the three-point challenge. I thought the hoop was built so you couldn't make shots at these things. I didn't know you actually go in there and knock it down. The big pie is on. The Pasquatch is certainly on quite a run. Have you ever run a record at one of these?

2:33:27Adam Schefter:Absolutely not. Now, I've never seen one as fair as this one. Usually they are a gimmick, pretty smashed in from the front, so you got no chance. But, yeah, this is on repeat, but I thought he's smart. No, no. Ten in a row.

2:33:40Pat McAfee:Ten in a row. Ten in a row. All right, let's get out of here. Please get out of here. D-Butt, you're the man. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice in my change of life. We're in this thing together. I got a chance to watch that movie yesterday. That was crazy. The movie I was in. Hell yeah. How was it? You like it? It was insane. I don't know what I'm allowed to say, what I'm not allowed to say. I think there's a lot of money involved in all these things. But me and Gumpy were in a sweet theater in Beverly Hills with what appeared to be kind of tired. Didn't they seem a little tired, a little edgy?

2:34:13Pat McAfee:A little edgy, a little bit. Yeah, West Coast difference there. Yeah, a little edgy. One of them in particular. Can't stay off plate. Yeah, a little bit. Don't got it like they used to. Yeah, used to have it. From what I've been told, they used to really have it. Really have it. Now it's like, 9 a.m. go to bed because I got a super duper bed to lay in in the morning, so I live forever. You know, there's a lot of that. But the movie was awesome. It's a fucking, yeah. I can't believe I'm in a movie. It's a war movie, though. That is a war movie. It was sick. And I haven't watched a war movie in a long time, so it was very cool.

2:34:47Pat McAfee:Yeah, I was in there. I mean, we were in there, in there. I think that movie is going to be really good. I think people are going to think it's very good. It's the best genre of movie. I agree. I'm very excited for that. What, war movies? Yeah, my car, the best genre of movies out there. Yeah. I mean, I was fucking in war last night for an hour and 40 minutes. Me and Gumby were in war. That's what it felt like as we were watching this movie. It was like, fuck. It was a reminder, you know, of what war actually is. Especially because where we're at right now and everything that's happening today, it's like, hey, this is what happened in World War II.

2:35:18Pat McAfee:Actually, you feel like the way it was shot. Peter Berg, obviously, a fucking genius the way he does stuff. and it's like, it was very intense. It was very intense. Very lucky to be a part of it. Tells a wonderful story and, you know, you're crying at the end of it. I guess that's good. That's the goal. Yep. I don't like that I'm a crier now all of a sudden though because I have a daughter. You know? It's alright. I start crying and stuff. It happens. You cry when you're happy, not when you're sad. Or both. I was sad. I was sad during this movie. Well, it's like a sad, happy thing though, I think.

2:35:48Pat McAfee:Yeah, since you're a test now, dial it in. Use that. Harness that. I didn't even think about me fucking just being able to cry like Vernon. Yeah. Yep. All right. What's everybody laughing about? Fucking take it easy, boys. Huh? Okay. Buy in. Let's be professionals. Be your friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We're in this thing together. ESPN people, thank you so much for the hospitality here. Honestly. Thank you, ESPN people. Appreciate you guys. Really appreciate it. Weeks was on the lead for this entire thing. And I'll tell you what, the bald guy did some magic in here.

2:36:26Pat McAfee:There's a guy named Tyler here. He's got great hair. Yeah, weapon, of course. Beast. Huge fucking hook is on. This guy, he's walking around on clods. This guy's really doing it. I mean, it is the time. All right, we'll be back tomorrow. Be a friend. Gumpy, way to go, Gump. Way to go, Gump. That is a giant. I'll have you guys know Gumpy's sleeping these days. I don't know if you know that. Catching Gumpy's sleeping. I don't believe you. Uh-oh. I'm telling you, fuck you. I fucking look up. What do I hear? I hear a little snorry elf from Canada. He's losing it. That's awesome. Sorry, guys. Getting old.

2:37:03Getting old. Be a friend.

2:37:06Pat McAfee:Tell a friend something nice and my change of life. We're in this thing together. We'll see you guys tomorrow. Team on me. Thank you, everybody at ESPN, for being kind. I washed my hands three times when I was in the bathroom because I didn't want any anonymous sources to say that Pat McAfee didn't wash his hands. So a new person came in. I had to say it loud. Like, I'm washing my hands right now. This is what I do every time I piss. You know? All right. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice about it. Change your life. We're in this thing together. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three.

2:37:32Pat McAfee:Team. Goodbye. Monster Energy. Everybody knows White Monster. Zero Ultra. That's the OG. It kicked off this whole zero sugar energy drink thing. But Ultra is a whole lineup now. You've got Strawberry Dreams, Blue Hawaiian, Sunrise, and Vice Guava. And they all bring the monster energy punch. So if you've been living in the white can, branch out. Ultra's got a flavor for every vibe. And every single one is zero sugar. Tap the banner to learn more. ESPN is now the home of MLB.tv. If you have the ESPN Unlimited plan, you'll get a$15 discount on the 2026 seasonal MLB.tv package. And if you don't, no problem.

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