PMS 2.0 1607 - NFL Preseason Week 2 Preview, Keenan Allen, Pete Thamel, Vita Vea, Ian Rapoport, Rece Davis, & AJ Hawk

18:31Pat McAfee:I like that. They're going to have you do some really stupid shit on that social media. I can't wait to see it. Keenan Allen converted 29 third-down catches into first downs in 2025. That's the most in the NFL. Dang. Yeah. Yeah. We will take all of that, Keenan. I'll tell you, D-Butt mentioned it yesterday as soon as the signing happened. He goes, Keenan played in all 17 games last year. I think people forget that when they're talking about you. I think at this stage of your career. No disrespect. I keep saying you're old, but you've been around a long time, and you've obviously accomplished so many things.

19:02Pat McAfee:And then, like, last year, nobody really talked. You come into our team. we are excited about for you winning team losing team what do you think is the most important part is it the culture is it the tap like if you had uh now that you're older in the league good teams why do they happen bad teams potentially why does it happen because everybody seemingly has a similar amount of talent yeah um for me definitely culture and um you know you just got to be around the right people everybody holding each other accountable everybody here for the same reasons and the right reasons at that at that part and then you know probably the most important thing is staying healthy.

19:34You know, all the teams, I've been on a lot of great teams with a lot of talent. And, you know, like last year, you know, you guys probably seen it best. You guys were on a roll and then everything goes downhill and people start getting hurt. So definitely got to stay healthy.

19:49Pat McAfee:Yeah. Yeah, everything starts going downhill. We lost eight straight. We were the number one team in the world. I was screaming. You know how much fun I was having on this thing last week? I was having a time of my life. And I don't know a lot of the people in that locker room. If you could tell them how much fun I get the half on it. Like the first half of last year, number one offense, number one team. Danny Dimes playing his best football that he's ever played in his entire life. Then he breaks his leg, one leg, and then he tears his Achilles on the other within a two-week period. And then we lose eight straight.

20:17Pat McAfee:It's crazy how fast it can go. And I guess getting lucky in the health department is certainly one of the biggest reasons. I'm excited for this year for the Colts. 100 % health. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Keenan, do you feel like you've needed to, like, change your style of play at all as you've kind of progressed in your career? because you do kind of seem like you play the exact same way you did your rookie year. For people who can remember when you came and have been watching you your whole career, you don't seem like a different guy at all in that respect. Is there anything that you feel like you've kind of had to change a little bit to continue to be successful this late into your career?

20:52No. Yeah, just been playing my game, man. I said it yesterday in the media. I've never been a guy who would take the top off. that's been in blazing speed. So I haven't lost any speed in that department because I ain't had nothing to lose. You know what I'm saying? So we still doing what we do.

21:10Pat McAfee:Okay, so on that note, we saw Travis Kelsey cook a guy in one-on-ones. Just got his whole show. Then Hard Knocks did an entire thing on Jackson Smith and Jigba. Here's Travis Kelsey being able to do it. Obviously, Travis at this stage probably running 4.65, 4.7, probably still able to cook and get away and get free, and Patrick Mahomes obviously going to find him. And then Jackson Smith and Jigba and Hard Knocks, they did an entire thing about his route tree, how he looks, how he doesn't give anything away. For you, how do you describe your style of route running? And what is the key, do you think, to getting open in the NFL?

21:42Yeah, a little bit of the same things they were saying about JSN. His level of playing field is always on the same level. He's never up, he's never down. So you never know when he's breaking and things like that. So making everything look the same. Travis Kelsey is great at it. His pace of play is unmatched. I know a lot of people, they call it lollygagging. But no, it's definitely not lollygagging. He is a method to the madness, and he understands pace. He understands leverage. And that route right there, you know, definitely shows you all of that. The head deception, the way he's making it. And Elohi's my guy, too.

22:14Elohi's got game. So that was a good route.

22:16Pat McAfee:Yeah, that's what D-Bot said. D-Bot said, that was Elohi? Yeah. Come on. You cannot get out leverage outside. D-Bot, as he was watching it live on the show, he thought it was maybe somebody that was new or whatever. He goes, that's Alohi right there. We go, yeah. He goes, come on, Alohi. And all Kelsey's saying is, man, people have been falling for that shit for 20 years in this thing. Come on, man. I do this. I do this, man. Okay, you're talking about staying on the same plane. That was the big convo. That's something you obviously have to work, and at this stage of your career, obviously it's happened, but that's not a natural running style.

22:50Pat McAfee:So all these things are things you work on in the offseason, and how do you get better at all these at this stage of your career or whenever you're younger trying to get better at that? Repetition, man. Same way you get better at everything else. You got to do it. You got to put in the work. You got to craft it, whoever you're working out with, the receiver coaches, whether it's O-line, whatever it is, everything has to look the same, has to feel the same. You never give a tell to what you're doing. So, like you said, keep that same. Keep them shoulders level. And run them routes how you run them routes, man.

23:23Pat McAfee:I think the right thing to do is you just got to get them at the line. You got to get these guys at the line. Yeah, yeah. That's big. Yeah, I got to get two hands on Keenan Allen at the line. Because if I don't, boy. It's gone. Imagine chasing, and then he just hits you with one of these, and then you go, hey, and then, hey, well, we're going the other way. Oh, okay. You can really embarrass people out there. I mean, you can really embarrass. Okay, so when you got to the league 2013 versus now, was I think Richard Sherman and the Legion of Boom potentially changed some things. Corners now all giants, right?

23:52Pat McAfee:It feels like corners all very, very big. At the beginning of your career, were they still like the smaller freak athlete? Not that they're not freak athlete now, but do you understand what I'm saying? The evolution of the corner position seemingly through your career has happened. For you, better or worse with those styles of corners? The bigger guy, I mean, they're faster, bro. You know, it's harder to beat them. I got to beat them at the line of scrimmage, like you said. If I beat them at the line of scrimmage, I got a chance. But if you don't beat them, bro, they 6 '4", they 6 '3", and they run 4 '3".

24:26Pat McAfee:All right, so we'll watch you for the first yard. We'll know if Keenan's got it for the first yard. How long will it take for you and Dimes, you think, to get on the same page? Quickly, how long has that been for you in the past with other quarterbacks? It should be fine. I'm a guy who runs it by the book. So, you know, whatever he knows, I'm going to try to get on page with that. And, you know, I know the game pretty well, and I know the offense. So that's going to help us out and should be able to speed things up quickly. Can't wait to watch you. Welcome to Indy, dude. Hope you found a good massage therapist.

24:54Pat McAfee:Hope you found some good food. And we can't wait to watch you. Absolutely, man. I appreciate it. I'm a season ticket holder. So we'll see you. So we'll see you. Oh, yeah. I see you, Dan. I see you. Yeah, yeah. We'll see you. We appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen, Keenan Allen. Yeah, Keenan. I'm happy he's on our team. Yeah. Yeah, it's a huge get. Hey, how about being the vet in the room? Ah, let's just, okay. I got to play football first before I can start telling other people what to do. If I'm balling, though. Yeah, if I'm balling, we're certainly going to give away some ideas to other people.

25:21Pat McAfee:Him and Josh Downs working will be really nice, especially with what Alec Pierce can do. And you've got Tyler Warren. And then in the back, you've got a horse. Yeah, the guy. Yeah, and Jonathan Taylor. And then guess what Dimes can do, too? Shane Steichen potentially has a real chance. Can't get hurt. No. I didn't like the tweets about Tyler Warren yesterday. Colts tight end Tyler Warren is expected to miss about a week. With a minor groin injury suffered in training camp, sources say. No worries for week one. He came back out on the field with no helmet but still had full pads on. They said if it wasn't inclement weather, we weren't doing joint practices, would he be out there probably doing some stuff?

25:56Pat McAfee:Probably. So it seems like there is little to no worry about our number one receiver, which is what Tyler Warren will be and is. So that's great news. And the Colts dodge one here. Oh, yeah. Big time. There's a lot of that going on right now. Dodging or getting hurt? Both. Like there's a lot of these like, oh, they'll be back in a week, but will they? because it happened with the Steelers with DK and Michael Pittman. They said that, and they still haven't been back. And then there's other ones where it's like two, three weeks should be good for week one, but maybe we'll see. There's a lot of speculation going on right now with these soft tissue injuries, a lot of soft tissue injuries.

26:30Pat McAfee:Yeah, they'll be back by regular season. Two, three weeks are hopeful for week one. A lot of hopeful for week ones. It's like, yeah, but some of these won't be back by week one. But I do like that we're not hearing as many. I mean, granted, Higgins just ACL yesterday for the Texans. It's like we are hearing those. But it does feel like we are hearing more will be back, will be back than we have heard in years past. But it's a lot of people that will be back. So it's like the minor injuries, are we going to judge them as much as the major injuries? Because there's always a conversation about the offseason workouts.

26:59Pat McAfee:Are guys in good enough shape? Have they done enough football stuff? Why are they all getting hurt so much in training camp? It's like minor injury versus major injury. What do we judge against? What are we not judging against? I don't know. I just hope we get all the stars to football season. Yeah, exactly. We need to get all the stars to regular season. and we need our quarterbacks to stay healthy. Because remember, a couple years back, how many quarterbacks was there? I want to say 60-something. Yeah, 60-some quarterbacks played in an NFL game, and the sport felt the effects of it. It was certainly a worse product.

27:26Pat McAfee:Now, it feels like these younger quarterbacks are better than they've ever been before, which leads us to preseason games, especially tonight. I think we've got good football on the horizon for these preseason games. I think it's shown that in the past. Is that NIL? Is that transfer portal? Is that more reps? Is that a better quality of football in college? Is it all of the above? I mean, all those things are going to get studied down the road, but it does feel like we've got better trigger men right now at a younger age than we had in the past. Yeah, even coaching. Clint Kubiak, who's going to be a first-year head coach for the Raiders, he was the offensive coordinator of the Super Bowl champion Seahawks, and he completely flipped that place around.

28:00They went from an offense that was okay to Super Bowl champs. He resurrected, not resurrected Sam Darnold's career, but gave Sam Darnold another fantastic year in JSN. He completely changed him on offense as well. And then Shanahan, Jim Harbaugh, you know, all the coaches as well feel great. Some of the weapons now, too, thinking about it, I don't know with the Raiders because Brock Bauer is similar to the Colts. He's their number one receiving option. But even a lot of those guys seemingly, you know, you got four or five guys per team that feel like they could make the team that are very solid on the outside.

28:32I know with the Raiders, one of their stars from their first preseason game was Mike Washington, Jr., like running backs, also kind of had a plethora of riches, if you will, embarrassment of riches, if you will. So it is kind of awesome being able to watch and see all the different talent.

28:47Pat McAfee:All right, let's go to some preseason highlights that we were able to see through week one. Let's go to Bucs-Jets. Off the edge here, Jack Pyburn picks up. Boom! One of his two sacks, obviously going crazy. Look at the face paint, too. Yeah! Sunday, dude. No, someday, you mean, Sunday. What? What do you mean? Because this season, he'll be playing college football again. Really? Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now on how that works is the authority on college sports, Pete Thamel. Yay, Pete! Pete, I've seen you in this exact spot for a couple hours now trying to explain what the hell is going on.

29:25Pat McAfee:Obviously, in Colorado, there was a ruling for five for five. Kids will have five years to complete five seasons of football. The latest that can start is at the age of 19. So if you're in there, that's what happens. Then a judge in Louisiana has now granted the class of last year that didn't get the opportunity to do the 5-for-5 to open up the 5-for-5 deal to them, which included some guys that are currently in NFL camps and currently picking up two sacks in preseason games. They can now allegedly go back and play college football due to the 5-for-5. Now, it cannot be any redshirt players that played four years because that would be five years.

30:05Pat McAfee:These are all non-redshirted players who played four years or five years or less of ball, taking their fifth year that was ruled upon in Colorado. Now the Louisiana judge did that. Pete, did I miss anything? I've been listening to you all morning. That is basically what I heard, but you could probably explain it much better than what I just did. What did I miss and how did we get here? Yeah. I think the cleanest way to explain this, and it is muddled, it is muddled, Pat, is to say the class of 2022 right now, the players who have played four years and didn't take a red shirt who have gone on may now be eligible.

30:42And local state courts like this one in Louisiana have ruled some of them eligible. We're waiting for the appellate court ruling on the appeal of the Colorado case, the Wisney case. Could happen today, maybe tomorrow. It was supposed to happen yesterday, that could potentially take this very narrow field of specific state court rulings and widen it a little bit to maybe dozens more players. Again, we don't want to overstate that there's just going to be this flood of guys from camps, but there could be a significant amount, probably dozens, Pat, of fringe NFL players who only played four seasons, were four and done, who went pro because their eligibility was up, who may potentially be granted this extra year.

31:26And certainly the optics that come with this are wild, Pat. They're mind-bending. We see a guy get a sack for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and he could be potentially suited up for LSU or who knows. Fill in your pretty logo on the side. I do think the thing to caution folks on here, though, is everything is, again, going to be appealed, Pat. It's not going to be over until it's over. There are other rules that could come into play. For example, the SEC has an inter-conference transfer policy, which was really made for the second portal window, which doesn't exist anymore. So these Ole Miss players, for example, there are three starters from Ole Miss who were in this Louisiana ruling.

32:10Will they be able to transfer within the SEC? SEC rules say right now, no, but will those be amended, adopted for the times like that, or will that become challenged legally? Again, these are all things that are going to happen. This is not going to be linear. This is not going to be clean. And it is going to stay muddled. But the Wisney ruling will be the next big harbinger for how significant this impacts the 2026 season.

32:38Pat McAfee:We love a good harbinger for sure because that's obviously. I know you do, Pat. Yeah, that is obviously of titanic proportions whenever that ruling is made. Okay, so I like the inter-conference SEC ruling that was made for the second transfer window, which this could potentially be considered because I believe the judge said that there's seven days now in which the transfers are allowed to happen. It's a seven-day window where normally I guess there's a little bit of delay that schools are allowed to do. Now there's no delay allowed. Seven days is what the portal window is open. I think it's happened already.

33:08Pat McAfee:I think we are currently in the seven-day thing, so we'll find our answers quickly. But then you're saying the Harbinger ruling that is potentially going to take a while. So will the players potentially either go back to the schools like these Ole Miss guys don't have to transfer, so maybe they go back to Ole Miss. And then there's going to be a ruling that's going to say, no, you can't do that? Or how is this kind of? The Wisney ruling, Pat, would potentially widen the amount of players who could then return to college football. So these folks that say we're going back to do it, they're in for this season.

33:38Pat McAfee:We should know that Jack Pyburn right there, LSU guy, was at LSU, now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, undrafted free agent who thought that his eligibility for college was up. Undrafted free agent, forced to go to the NFL. Nobody picks him, ends up on the Bucs, picks up two sacks in a preseason game, finds out, hey, you're allowed to play one more year, actually. We just got a ruling. You're allowed to do that. Sweet. I'm out of here. I'm going to go do that. There's nothing that's going to take him back out of that, and he's going to have to try to reenter the NFL? Do we think the guys that decide to do this because of this ruling in Louisiana are good for the season, or is there more shit that's about to happen?

34:15As of now, they appear to be good. but the NCAA has come back and pushed back on all of these suits. So, again, it comes back to local state courts. It didn't take long for the old judge in Louisiana to make his decision. What are you saying? They rolled in with the paperwork and it got rubber-stamped. Yeah, there is a fascinating undercurrent to this 2026 season of how much local judges will impact the play on the field. That conversation starts in Oxford, Mississippi, where one of the transcendent players in the whole sport has a sixth year after the NCAA ruled he couldn't. And now you have this judge in Louisiana, among many others, by the way, their state court rulings popping all around.

34:59This one got the most attention, Pat, honestly, I think because of the Jack Pyburn optics that you mentioned. Like it is, it strains credulity to use another one of your favorite sayings that someone wearing an NFL uniform could show up in a college camp. Like that just doesn't make sense It bends our minds. So let me, can I follow? I'm not passing judgment on it, but it is an optic we've never seen in the history of the sport before.

35:27Pat McAfee:Agreed. And this is just like, and Ty's about to ask you about it because it happened over there in West Texas. A lot of heat for something that we never thought would be possible is happening. I think another big point of this is this is the only class that this will potentially even be possible for, right? This is literally the only time that this could ever happen. And it's strictly because the five for five rule that this class didn't get a chance to know about and were forced into the NFL draft or to try to get into the NFL. And then Jack, undrafted free agent, gets some playing time, does well.

35:55Pat McAfee:Then the immediate thought is like, well, why don't you want to stay in the NFL? He has no idea if he's going to make that team. But he does know in college, you're still, you can a couple hundred thousand bucks. You can build up your draft stock again. These guys are going into the NFL draft again next year. How's that whole thing work? That is unknown. And I've made some calls about that today. And I have not got a linear answer from, you know, these are just questions that have never had to be answered before, Pat, right? So, yeah, there is an air of ambiguity to use one of your favorite terms on how the potential redraft process would work for the Jack Pipermans of the world.

36:30I do think one point on 5 for 5, Pat, which was a piece of NCAA legislation, I believe passed mid-June. That's what my memory tells me. It sort of percolated up around the Final Four, got pushed through fairly quickly by NCAA standards. And this would basically give everybody five years of eligibility, right? So these athletes are glomming onto that saying, wait a minute, why did we only get four? It's a very fair legal argument that's clearly being heard in local courts all around the country. There's a lot of second guessing right now of the NCAA and the timing and the handling of this. If they had simply done this November 1st, this all like wouldn't have been possible.

37:06So again, there would have been reverberations and difficulties that would have come with, And I'm picking November 1st as an arbitrary. Yeah, before having to declare for the draft.

37:15Pat McAfee:Yeah, got it. Correct. Yeah. Well, no, these guys had already declared for the draft. Now, I'm just saying if they did it this year now, they would have avoided all of these 50-year folks. Oh, you're saying upcoming November, not last November. Correct. Correct. Yes. Yes. It wasn't even an idea last November that had been that. But they worked unusually fast, especially by NCAA standards where nothing happens fast, right? And then all of a sudden, they've now kind of stepped in it because they work too fast, because there's this period of time now where people are lining up. And the NCAA, as it is known to do reputationally, is losing in court.

37:52They have an objectively terrible record in court.

37:55Pat McAfee:Yeah, Charlie Baker, the head of the NCAA, basically told us, if we do anything, we're going to get sued and we're going to lose. That's true. They got sued in November, too. Don't get me wrong. and somebody would have tried something else. I'm not saying that would have been perfect, but there is a notion that this might have been less messy if they had timed it up. But look, if they did it that way, Pat, they would have timed it up to screw over the athletes who would have had these claims. So that would not have been great. Exactly, Pete. I'm happy that your brain has gotten through the quagmire to find yourself looking out for the fucking athletes.

38:27Pat McAfee:Yep. Okay, thank you for doing that. Now, I, as former athlete, very pro-athlete and also former pro-athlete, but very pro-athlete, I think optically this one looks weird. Very, very, very weird. But knowing that this isn't going to be an every year thing where guys go in the NFL and coming back has kind of simmered me down a little bit. And just basically like this is the last group of guys, non-redshirt, four-year players who didn't get an opportunity to experience the fifth-year option. So it's not like this is going to be something that's going to carry on in the future. But it is wild. There's been a lot of wild things that have been happening.

39:00Pat McAfee:Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Pete, obviously this is all happening very quickly. And I don't know how many people you've had the chance to talk to. but how do you think that coaches and universities who aren't going to benefit from this, how are they going to react? We obviously saw everything with Texas Tech where it's very hard for them to even schedule games with certain schools now because they don't like what happened with the Brendan Soresby situation. So how do you think that's going to play out for maybe, let's just say, a couple of these SEC teams who are going to end up having NFL guys playing against them this year?

39:32Pat McAfee:West Virginia might have some guys too. Maybe. Okay, let's talk. We're going to find out what's all possible here. We don't know what's possible. Go ahead, though, Pete. Well, one of the things, Ty, is that a lot of these places are full, right? Like, they just don't – there are roster caps that have just been invoked recently in college football. So some of these places simply might not be in position to add. Now, there's always creative ways to injuries and all those types of things. I don't sense that there is a frenzy to go after these guys, right? But I do sense that people know what their needs are right now three weeks into camp, right?

40:08And they know where they've had injuries. And so I see this more as people acting like snipers perhaps than like buckshot here. Like people aren't just like, whoa, we're going to go add a bunch of people. But man, we could really use a defensive tackle because this gentleman got hurt and this guy hasn't flashed like we thought. and there's a pathway now to potentially go get a defensive tackle and they may go do it. But it's interesting, this quagmire, Pat, emerged in basketball in recent weeks and Dan Hurley, the Connecticut basketball coach, won two national titles recently, is one of the voices of the sport, had some pointed comments, and I'm paraphrasing here, but he basically said, like, we don't have to do this, right?

40:52We don't have to have these guys back. and I thought they were very noble comments and they were greeted well across the industry but there's also a vicious bottom line to college athletics right now. They are professional sports and if you need a nickel and you're light at nickel and there's a nickel sitting out there who's started 45 games in the SEC at safety like DQ Smith has for South Carolina and you can make your team better nobody's going to remember an ethical stand if you give up 46, you know, at home to someone. I agree. And that's just where we are. Pete, we don't like that, okay? We don't like that that is the case.

41:31Pat McAfee:We don't like that that is the case, but it is the reality of the business. You know, like, that's with, like, a lot of things. Like, we all hope to get to this land of euphoria where everything is how we wish it would be. But in, like, reality, there's things that have to happen to get to that still. And we're all hoping for this perfect world. We are. but man it'd be nice if there was some sort of something so everybody would understand feels like this might be the last ridiculous thing yeah maybe right perhaps maybe if there's one realization i've had this summer as we've sort of gone through all these changes in college sports since 2021 if you want to use nil as a mile marker we're never going to have stability all right and we just all need to embrace that it's just never going to like operate smoothly um whether it's congress and congress comes in there's problems with congress whether There's new rules, there's payment, there's NIL, and this is the cap.

42:19Nope, now this is the cap. Like, the system is not equitable, and it was not built to be equitable. The NFL, built to be very equitable, right? 32 teams, draft, schedule, you can, like, college athletics doesn't want to be equitable, right? It was stadium size back when you played. Hey, who had the biggest stadium? You know, who sold the, you had the biggest weight room, right? Those were the different things. Now it's just who can spend the most, and people are going to be creative, as they have been for more than a century, on how to spend the most. It used to be in McDonald's bags. Now it's, you know, MMR money and washing it through there.

42:51So anyone who thinks college athletics is like close to a period of stability, I think is naive. I just think it's going to be chaos. It is a multi-billion dollar industry that's generally unregulated. Nobody's really in charge of the whole thing. And it's going to be chaos for a long time. And until we have like a year or two of alleged quiet, I'm just going to stick to that belief.

43:14Pat McAfee:All right, Pete, I appreciate the hell out of you being that gif with the fire around you. Walking in and doing it. You're the man, ladies and gentlemen. That's the authority, Pete Thandland. Yeah, Pete. Okay, joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is the man who just signed a new deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was redshirted and then played three seasons at Washington. So I do wonder if there was any thoughts, maybe just sit this entire year out if they're not going to trade me. I'll go back and play at Washington. In high school, this man was running back, quarterback, wide receiver, D-tackle, linebacker, and safety.

43:42Pat McAfee:And I assume he played soccer and basketball as well. an absolute stallion, a superstar, a Super Bowl champion, and a Pro Bowler. Ladies and gentlemen, former 12th overall pick in the NFL draft, Vito Vea. Yeah, Vito. Big claps. Appreciate it. Hey, congrats. Tennis was actually my first sport. What were you doing? Were we checking to watch? Were you actually – is that why you think you had so much athleticism to play running back and such? Yeah, I think I had that – that's why I had that good side-to-side speed. How are you? Ping-pong? i'm uh probably not as good as you i know i'm i i know not to mess with the specialists we got a lot of time you know we got a lot of time you know to work on some shit uh thank you for joining us congratulations on the deal brother hell yeah that's on the deal okay so obviously we didn't expect to hear that you were potentially unhappy down there in tampa bay we've heard you say it many times you want to be a tampa bay buccaneer for life it felt like you were the epitome of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

44:41Pat McAfee:Obviously, business does get in the way. At what point did you realize, okay, deal could still get done? And was there ever a time where, in your mind, you were gone from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? I don't think in my mind I was ever gone. I think I'm just really, for some reason, I'm really optimistic. So I just had a really good feeling that we'd get something done eventually. I just didn't know what the timeline would be like, but I'm just happy we got it done. Absolutely. And then Jason Light was obviously out there patting you down. I don't know if he was trying to see if you were in shape or if he was just trying to give you a half hug or whatever the case.

45:17Pat McAfee:Can you tell me about his relationship with you and kind of how you view yourself with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? I don't know. Is he frozen? I thought you just did. It was funny. After he texted me last night, I think his wife and kids love me. I always say hello to them. And when I see him around, he texted me last night. He was like, Blair and the kids can finally talk to me now. Well, Rick Stroud kind of said that when he came on. He was like, Vita Vea is much more than just one of our best players on the field. In the community, in the locker room, for that team, he's everything. And anytime that type of person is having a contract dispute with the team, it can obviously get louder and louder.

45:59Pat McAfee:You were still present. Felt like you were still very jolly around the building. What was it like as that was all getting figured out publicly while you're with the lads in the locker room and on the field? I think the thing that really was really heartwarming for me is like knowing that everybody understood the situation I was in and just hearing everybody saying that they had my back in all this. And I think that just felt really good for me, hearing that from them. So there's definitely highs and lows for me. Some days were better than others. And it's just sometimes it just gets really boring just standing around and not being able to practice.

46:40You're telling me I was a punter, bro. Yeah, a lot of that. A lot of that, dude. A lot of that.

46:44Pat McAfee:Yeah, I was pretty bored too. That's why I talked so much shit. I had to do it. But for you, you're saying I assume you wanted to get out there and play but knew like, ah, can't though. There's like actually$30 million on the line on what's going on. I assume you're a little confused and conflicted through it. Is that what you're kind of trying to describe here? Yeah. Mainly that. Also, I felt like I had one of the best off seasons I had in my whole career. I was down in Palm Beach working with my guy, Charlie Wangroff, and I felt like he took care of me down there. We took care of a bunch of stuff in the body and took a different approach to training.

47:26So I think I feel like something like that.

47:30Pat McAfee:Were you swimming? Because Will Fork, right? Yeah, Vince. You massive athletes, massive athletes. There's only a few of you in the history. You know, there's a lot of fatso's that play football. But the elite freak, athlete, big guys get paid as such. I mean, that is just kind of what happens. There's not a lot of you guys out there. I think Wilfork said he got into swimming in his career because of his joints. For you, what are you going into here now? We try to do the math, but we never know. Year nine. Are we doing anything different? You know, big body still handling it? Because we saw that running in high school.

48:00Pat McAfee:You know, those joints have been used to it. Are we swimming? Are we doing anything differently? Or what is that? It wasn't part of the regimen, but I was in the ocean a lot in my free time. I feel like being – I truly believe that being my ethnicity, being Tongan, I feel like my people really need the sun and the ocean. I feel like that's something that's a necessity for me every once in a while. Am I allowed to say us for Tongan or no? you say toco we say toco because I do know there is a there's a little bit but for me white boy comes in you know that I know that I'll give you the pass I'll say that on both islands whenever I'm there excuse me big taco said I'm a-okay so let's get off my ass but I agree with that I appreciate you, you know, saying my roots say that this is what I should probably be doing.

49:03Pat McAfee:What was the different workouts? You alluded to doing something different this offseason. What was it? Was it just like different conditioning, different lifting? What did you go about differently this year versus years past? It was just the best way I could describe it was it was basically like from a rehab standpoint, style of lifting. There's a lot that goes into it. but just basically there's like a whole bunch of the science that goes into it like one of the things I learned this off season was mitochondria so it's training like how to get more oxygen in our muscles from the way you train and stuff like that and it's very beneficial for us because from a play to play standpoint you need more the longer you want to go, you basically need more mitochondria.

49:59Don't quote me on that. I might be. Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. We all kind of know that.

50:03Pat McAfee:We all know that. And whenever the cell is, you know, when two become one, that's called, you know, the mitochondria tag team. Oh, when two become one. Yeah. Synthesis. Yeah, whenever that happens. Synthesizing. And then sometimes these cells, whenever they have something, go from one to the other. That's photosynthesis. That's usually more so with plants. Okay, yeah. We got it. Might have contributed. Metamorphosis is what you're thinking about. Yeah, basically, yeah. It's just learn a bunch of new stuff, learn some stuff about nutrition, you know, get the weight under control and being able to stay healthy in that regard.

50:40And also, I don't know, there's just three things you told me. It was like we stay away from, I think it was acidosis, hypoxia, and thermal changes. Yeah. Okay. That's like the three main things you stay away from in our phases of this offseason. But I'm sure Charlie could explain a lot more to it. Yeah, we'll ask him.

51:05Pat McAfee:We'll certainly ask him. And I know you also need to take care of the outer membrane and the inner membrane. Yeah, that's big time. And then the matrix also is in there. Sure. And once the matrix and the mitochondria start going with the three acidists and the thing. Whatever the case, I'm happy you're looking in to make yourself the best version of yourself. We cannot wait to watch you. Happy it paid off, literally and figuratively. Tone has a question for you about another guy we're watching down there. Yeah, I do. Reuben Bain, a lot of highlights coming out of him. Obviously, your first-round draft pick out of Miami.

51:35Him working during practice, after practice. What are your thoughts on Reuben so far? What role do you play now as a leader on this defense with the young guys coming in? you always want to be there for the young guys you know you always want them to kind of have their own create their own role with the team and just be there as a helping hand for them Reuben's already a full time pro himself which is really rare when you see young guys his age but I think he does a lot more than And what you just see, like on this clip you're showing right here, he's out there by himself. He's always doing stuff to better his craft.

52:22I'm sure – I don't want to give away all his secrets, but he's very dedicated to his craft. And it's just exciting to see. And I just can't wait to see what he does this year. He's got good mitochondria.

52:37Pat McAfee:Yeah. Hey, don't you think? Yeah, he's got good mitochondria. Hey, he's going to eat too. Yeah, that's what they say. Vita Vea's teammates? They do well. Hembo stat for you, Vita, just to take to the renegotiation table after a year whenever this deal is up. Vita Vea's teammates recorded 24 and a half sacks with him on the field, 21 of which came when he was either single team or on block. They came single team or on block. That's because there's a big Tongan fella in the middle just taking up everybody. Congrats to you getting the deal done. Congrats to the Bucs, and thank you for joining us.

53:08Appreciate that. No problem.

53:10Pat McAfee:A. sounded like a lot of bad vibes out of the Bucs. It did sound for a little bit. Mike Evans is gone. Levante David, retired. Yeah. Big Tong and Vita Vea, not happy. Baker Mayfield, pissed. Should we look into any of that as the guy who's with the lads everywhere, or should we just kind of put that on? Obviously, you get paid. But did it feel like there was a little – we felt like there was a little chaos. Is that a misread from us from outside looking in and just being daily sports people and not understanding the biz? Yeah, I did. That was just the outside noise. I don't think you guys should be worried about that.

53:45I feel like everything's going well over here. I feel like we're all on the same mission. We got our eye on the prize right now. Everybody's happy. I'm happy. Obviously, Baker still has some stuff to work out, but I talk to him every day. He seems happy. So we're all on the same mission here. and I think we should be ready to go. I think obviously you don't love to see Mike Evans leave, but it kind of hurts seeing that, but, you know, he's part of the league and, you know, Levante, you're happy for him in retirement. And it was bittersweet for me, but I wish he was here so I could still talk shit about him, stealing my tape from last year.

54:37Pat McAfee:Okay, did you see Mike Evans' – I don't know if – did he do this at the Bucs? I don't think I've ever seen that type of shorts before. I've never seen the pants like that before with Mike Evans. He looks good, man. The legs look good. All of them. We saw all of his legs yesterday. They look good. He's seemingly in great shape. Yeah, he's in the Bay Area. He's in the other Bay Area. He is in the other Bay Area. You're right. I think he did that because it kind of helps with the power plant over there. He grew up next to him. You're the man. Everybody thought you were headed there, obviously, for a time.

55:11Pat McAfee:I was trying to get you to the Colts. Obviously, Tampa Bay was never going to let you go. You're the man. Thank you for joining us. I appreciate that. Togo? What am I saying? Togo. Togo. Can you spell that? So, it's T-O-K-O. But in the Tongo language, the T's are pronounced as a D. Doco. Yep. There you go. All right, Doco. I appreciate you, man. I'll see you. You're the best. Ladies and gentlemen, Vida Vega. Yeah, Vida. Oh! Fili Muala, teammate of mine, Tongan. Samson Satele, teammate of mine, Us. Okay? Me, white boy. What up, Us? Nah. On his arm, Tongan. Okay. I certainly know what that means.

55:55I'm going to back out of this. Mr. Fili, good to see you. Mr. Samson, how you doing? I'm going to get out of here. Incredible people.

56:03Pat McAfee:So good for the sport of football. So good. So good. the island of Samoa and Hawaii and Tonga, I believe. So good for football. So good for everything. So lucky to know so many of them. And very thankful Vita joined us. Good for him getting paid. Yeah, legit. Good for him. I'm happy that happened down there. And him and Light joking around. That's good. Light knew, too. He's looking right at, hey, post this. Yep. We're good. Where's the video with Baker? Hour two on the other side. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. Take three. Three. ZOO

57:06Pat McAfee:Football! evening as Justin Herbert will get a snap or a series or two and Trey Lance will come in. Brock Purdy will get a series or two. Then Mack Jones will come in. And then for the Raiders versus the Texans, the number one overall pick, Fernando Mendoza, has been said by coach Clint Kubiak to get a lot of playing time tonight. We should see a lot of Fernando this evening with the Las Vegas Raiders and Clint Kubiak's offense. What does that mean, though? Situations are situational. If he comes out and just gets absolutely thumped, I don't think they're just going to keep throwing them back out there.

57:37Pat McAfee:So if it ends up working out against a Houston Texans defense that won't be playing their starters, but on the offensive side, they will be starting C.J. Stroud and then Dougie Davis-Mill comes in. I think we got good football across the board this evening and the Monday Night Football crew will be doing this game right here and we will feel as if we are right back in the middle of the greatest time of all year football season. The Talks Tables here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. Want to have the hammer? Done. Cowboys AP Tone is here and joining us live from an attic in Ohio. is a college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, ladies and gentlemen, A.J.

58:09Pat McAfee:Hawk. A.J. Hawk! How you doing, Hawk? Great haircut. You look phenomenal. Oh, yeah. You know what? I got to thinking about this whole ruling coming out. Can you imagine if you got to do, like, an internship with an NFL team in training camp and then come back to your college? Like, the confidence that you would probably gain from that? I was thinking about that with Jack Pyburn. He's been training down there with Reuben Bain and NFL coaching and going against NFL players. And then all of a sudden, two weeks later, He shifts gears back down. Now you're taking on a college kid at left tackle. Could be a pretty good confidence builder, I think, as you head into your final year of college football.

58:45Pat McAfee:And I agree that this looks insane and absurd. And I hear Coach Danny Hurley over there in college basketball saying, they got G League guys coming and playing in college hoops now. All of a sudden, everything's broken. And he said this morning, oh, great, it's going into football as well with this entire thing. I think I understand that. It looks terrible. I think it's not a good message, you know, people trying to get back into college to play against amateurs or younger or whatever. This is the only class that it can happen for. And this ruling happening when it happened, with them not being able to, you know, kind of take advantage of it, be the first class to do it, I can see how they're going to make this hell for anybody to rule against.

59:25Pat McAfee:So we just need to assume that these guys are going to be playing in college and there's nothing anybody can do about it, and it's never going to happen again. That's kind of seemingly the way I'm kind of seeing it with the 5-for-5 in this particular class. Yeah, it's never going to happen again. And also the other thing is if this guy didn't have two sacks in the first preseason game, no one would probably care. And he happened to have two sacks played really well. The other side of the coin is like, hey, if Piper doesn't go out there and have 15 sacks this season, I'm going to think he sucks at football.

59:50So he's going to have to just go out there for LSU, whoever he has, and win SEC Defensive Player of the Year. So there's also pressure on the other side of this too. Like, hey, yeah, you got to go against these guys. Now you better go out and dominate an 18, 19-year-old every single Saturday for 15 weeks, or else I'm going to think you stink.

1:00:05Pat McAfee:18 to 19 to 24 now. At least there is an age cap with the 5 for 5, AJ, which I think that is good in the long run. Obviously, we had like 26-year-olds, 27-year-olds playing, and the puntering position has been experiencing this for a long time. But now it feels like the 5 for 5 ruling, you get five years to play five seasons, and the latest it can start, the clock is at 19. So 24 is seemingly the oldest that you could be in collegiate sport. Now, I assume they'll have to make some changes if somebody goes and serves in the military or some medical thing that takes place. There will be exceptions to the rule.

1:00:38Pat McAfee:But just at least there being some guardrails of five seasons in five years. I think that's good. Even though this is all going to make it look terrible, I think this is a good thing going forward, AJ. Yeah, exactly. This is a one-time thing. It's a one-off situation that won't happen again. But, yeah, we talk about, like, the guardrails we need. And no one really knows what exactly that means. but this is at least like one small step towards something coming together, I guess. One small step for ball. One giant leap for what the fuck is wrong with said sport. And Pete Tamer just came in and said, listen, boys, it's going to be chaos forever.

1:01:14Pat McAfee:It was chaos. McDonald's bags, you remember? Now it's a different type of chaos. Guess what? In two months from now, going to be some different type of chaos. You guys just need to know there's no stability in college football, is what Pete Thamel just told us, Ty. Yeah, and essentially that, like, there, you know, anytime something happens, people can basically just sue the NCAA, and the NCAA has no grounds to stand on, no foot to stand on. So I think that is, and, you know, again, I won't say it's necessarily, you know, troubling. Even if you love college, like, I'm not a college athlete. You know, if you feel like you've been wrong by the NCAA and you want to sue their asses to high heaven to get another year of playing or whatever.

1:01:55It kind of seems like people are going to be able to do that, and ultimately all you have to do is find one of these judges who's maybe an alumni of the school you went to or a prospective school you're going to, and they're ultimately going to be like, you know what, you're right. Fuck the NCAA. You can play, son. And then they can. So who knows where this is going to go, but it does kind of just seem like, I mean, we say it's the Wild Wild West. It truly is the Wild Wild West. Anything can happen. But when the games start. It's the best. Oh, my God. Yeah, week zero is coming up. Thursday, it is actually one week from today.

1:02:28We will be on the precipice of watching college football at night. I think there are still preseason games next Thursday as well. It is right around the corner, and there's a lot of big games coming. College football, week zero, North Carolina, TCU,

1:02:43Pat McAfee:San Jose State versus USC, NC State versus Virginia. Jack State, got a damn good football team. Tough. You know who else has a damn good football team? North Dakota State. D1 adds this year. What's that? North Dakota State is now a Division I program. Are they in Pac-12? They're in the Mountain West. Oh, I like that. Makes a lot of sense. Is the Pac-12 jumping in with the Mountain West? The Pac-12 stole a bunch of Mountain West. So Boise and some of those teams are now part of the Pac-12. And from our understanding, Pac-12 actually had people who represented the Pac-12 in very important conversations about the future of college sports.

1:03:20Pat McAfee:So I think the Pac-12 isn't going anywhere, even though everybody else said you don't exist anymore. Correct. They very much believe that they still do. They're trying to be basically the new Mountain West plus Washington and Oregon State. Yeah, I might play. I'm in. Hey, remember, they were coming after us. Me, mostly, because they come after Lee Corso, who made a joke about this entire thing. And then we're the bad guys because I go, hey, you need to stop talking about Lee Corso. That was my entire response. Then I had an entire school, obviously. Kind of my thing, I guess. I had an entire people tell me that I'm the worst person ever.

1:03:54Pat McAfee:I need to shut up and I'm loud and I'm loud and all this stuff. And it's like, you need not talk about Coach Corso, okay? That needs to not happen. If he wants to talk shit about your school. He's going to talk shit about it. You just sit there, okay? You don't need to be coming after Coach Corso. Yeah, right. Was my entire angle. Then, boy, they came after me, obviously. I was celebrating that they were no longer going to have ball and it was going to be this and they weren't going to exist anymore and all this type of stuff. And I did, you know, kind of learn a little bit about their passion also the reality of it.

1:04:20Pat McAfee:But I was just wondering why they weren't mad at the people in charge that got no deal done and got them left out of anything as opposed to being mad at me. But, hey, I get it. I can understand that. But I like the fact that they're fighting back. I like that the Pac-12 is fighting back a little bit here. I like that they're trying to create more ball, more opportunity, bigger schools, bigger names. And I like that everybody is being forced to take them seriously because they are in the seats in the conversations about the college sports council. So maybe everything isn't dead. They could get a playoff team in Boise.

1:04:46Boise is one of the favorites to be that 12th seed or whatever it is.

1:04:50Pat McAfee:Yeah, and I think that's going to be tough to get for any of those schools after what happened last year, especially with all the conversations and who makes the Final 12, who doesn't. But college football is always going to have that issue. We just had Vita Vea on. Obviously, Vita Vea signs a new deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He looked happy. He looked excited. He said they're all on the same mission. That made me feel better. AJ, how about you? Yeah, definitely made me feel better about their chances. And you popped up that Hembo stat to how much opportunity he creates for his teammates when he's in there.

1:05:16I mean, this guy going back to college, I remember watching him play. He's an absolute dream for really anybody on the defense. You always say linebackers would love to have big D linemen like this in front of him. Yes, obviously, but he helps all 10 of the other players on that defense when he's in there.

1:05:29Pat McAfee:An absolute stud gets a deal done. Baker, you know, that's a whole other convo that will probably linger all season or won't. Maybe Baker puts it to bed. Maybe the Buccaneers put that to bed. There's injuries happening around training camps. There's highlights coming. Obviously, deals are getting done. Joining us now from vacation, Who would have thought? Geez, again? No, I don't think he's on vacation. I think he's probably just traveling for work. But the backdrop looks very nice right now. Ladies and gentlemen, junior NFL insider for ESPN, Ian Rapoport. Yay! That's a good backdrop. What's up?

1:06:00Pat McAfee:That's a great backdrop. Is it good? Yeah. What is that, Gloucester? Wow. Very nautical. I mean, listen, we're in Nantucket. Obviously, it's a work trip. and so I'm doing a lot of work. This right here, right now, I am working right now. Yeah, of course, it's a work trip because you're doing this. You're welcome, okay? That's what it sounds like. Appreciate you. Yeah, no problem. Yeah. I can't wait to see who you're trying to get reimbursements from because of what you're doing with where you're at right now. Good luck with all of that. You do that, somebody gets fired. Remember. Yeah, it's on you.

1:06:32Pat McAfee:It's on him. Yeah. No. You. No. Literally you. Yes. Yeah. You're the, yes. No, I know you've been reading that all. Internet has decided. Yeah, I understand. I understand. And you know what? Fuck it. Yeah, we are the reason. Okay, now on that note, Ian Rappaport, we are grateful and thankful that NFL Network merged with ESPN and you and Adam Schefter are going to be able to tag team things. Just yesterday, he said, oh, yeah, Junior reported that bah, bah, bah got done. How is the relationship with Schefter? Are you two working together? And should we expect that this season, that you guys are both kind of feeding each other in this whole thing?

1:07:05Well, I would say right after he had sent on the Vitavia tweet that you showed just a couple minutes ago, breaking news from Bita Bea. We had dinner. We had a lovely dinner. It was awesome. You had checked? We talked about... Yeah, oh yeah. Hold on, hold on. We had a lovely dinner.

1:07:24Pat McAfee:Hold on, hold on. A lot going on. Somebody just walked behind you. What do you got going on? You got people working for you right now? Listen, there's people here. In the world, there is people, but that's okay. I got you. Once again, he's saying, I'm not on vacation. I'm where people are. Right. No, I'm working. I'm working. So you and Schefter had dinner together. You guys had a little vino. You got boozed up. We had a nice water. That's actually, yes, that is literally what happened. Sparkling water, but I had a tomato martini. It was delicious. Yuck. No, no, no, it's good. What do you mean yuck?

1:07:56Listen, I'm not trying to be whatever, but for those of us who have sort of like finer, refined palates, that's the kind of thing that can be really cheap. Shut up.

1:08:04Pat McAfee:Okay, yeah, I understand. No, it's true. You're able to pick through which tomatoes are from where as you're drinking it. I understand you have that. You own horses. You do the boozing. We get it. Yeah. Listen. Okay, you and Schefter chit-chat, though. Is there, are you guys sharing, like, potential news that's going to break? Do you guys talk about what you're hearing about certain situations when you get together? Or is it, hey, you know what? Forget about work. Let's do life together, guys. Is that what it's like? Well, I mean, honestly, like, I like the relationship. And he has been, I mean, we talked about this, but he has been awesome to me.

1:08:33Kind of, like, opened the doors a little bit to his process and how we do things. And like, you know, we definitely shared a lot of stories. And I think there's some stories that, you know, especially the way sources react and stories unfold and all that. Like there's not that many people to talk about that stuff with. So that's always fun. We combined on the Tyler Biotish news yesterday. And I mean, I would expect like this year on Sundays and, you know, for big news, we'll be sharing things and combining and kind of joining forces a little bit. and I think the football world is going to be better.

1:09:07Yeah, I think it's good for ball.

1:09:09Pat McAfee:We're very appreciative of that, obviously. Excited for it. The top two in the game coming together to provide more details and context because now you guys will be able to put the deals out and the money at the same time because it's always like one person gets the deal, the next person gets the details. Now you guys can say, Sheffield can say, per junior and me, here's the this and here's the entire thing. We're excited about it. Okay, tell me what you know about Tyler Warren because my source says, in the building are saying, And obviously we avoided a very scary thing for the number one option for us.

1:09:38Pat McAfee:And he should be good, right? We should be completely good. Yeah, I think he's going to be completely good. You know, these sort of injuries, like these soft tissue injuries, are always, there's really only two kinds. There's like, oh my God, is it bad? Or is he going to be ready for week one? And this is the good kind. This is the, he's going to be ready for week one. And I think you do a good job of sort of explaining his role in this Colts offense. Like there's a reason that some of the big time tight ends are about to get paid, like the Laportas and the Crafts and then eventually the Bowers.

1:10:08Like these guys are hard to find. But the era we're in now, and like I don't – it's maybe random or maybe college football is sort of just morphing into growing these guys. Like there's a couple really good ones. He is a really good one. He is going to be awesome for Daniel Jones, and I expect his role to grow. And I expect him to be back probably after a week or so, but none of that matters. because there's nothing to be back for. He'll be back for week one, which is the only important.

1:10:35Pat McAfee:Okay, let's run the hump, shall we? Let's wrap things up with Rap Sheet. Go ahead, Con Man. Yeah, Rap Sheet, terrible news yesterday. Jaden Higgins, the Texans wide receiver, going into a second-year tour as ACL. Now a lot of Texans fans, at least on the internet, and I assume some people in the building, are calling for Nick Casario to trade for Kayshaun Booty. Casario came from New England, has relationships with guys still there, and now Booty would be that wide receiver that could help them immediately. Is that something that you could see the Texans doing, not just booty, but maybe signing a veteran wide receiver or trying to make a trade for somebody else?

1:11:08Or what is the Texans situation now? All right, so let's go through it. So first of all, could they make a trade for a receiver? Yes, they definitely could. I mean, you know, if I had to, I would never bet on this, but if I had to bet on anything, I would say by the trade, by the cut down day, Nick Casario will probably do something. He is in the handful of GMs who likes to make a move and never has been afraid to kind of stick his neck out. They do have a need here. So I would say a receiver move makes sense. Booty makes sense as well. I think system-wise, this would be an easy one. He is talented.

1:11:45At various times in the year, he's been available. Like around the time of the draft, I think teams sort of thought, all right, maybe this guy will get traded. Sounds like he's had a really, really good camp. So I think if you're the Patriots, you say this would have to be a real cost. But that would be one I'm keeping an eye on. There's some other receivers that are worth discussing. Brandon Ayuk at least is worth discussing. Wow. Yes! He is still on the 49ers. And I'm not saying anything is coming. But I'm just saying, for every team that's going to need a receiver, he is worth talking about.

1:12:19He's still out there. He's still property of the 49ers. and like he's really good when he's right and everything is good you need to sit down for this

1:12:29Pat McAfee:well i i haven't had my seat up here because blue's been here but yes i do need to sit down for an iuk conversation if he's potentially getting signed because we obviously are all big fans of what iuk has been able to do on a football field and we as former players all hope that brandon iuk is in a place mentally where he feels good about life and everything like that But what we've watched publicly happen seems to be like career suicide. Seemingly has been, which we don't like. We hope he's okay. But the thought of him getting into the right culture and maybe writing this entire football story would be dope.

1:13:00Pat McAfee:That would be a very cool thing. Is there a change you're saying the Texans are thinking about Brandon Ayuk? Well, I would just say, yeah, I don't want to say specifically that the Texans are, but any team that needs a receiver would have to look at. And if you're the 49ers, first of all, he's still on the did not report list, so that would need to be rectified. But if you're the 49ers and you have him available and the contract's not going to be traded, or he'd have to work on that, but maybe the 49ers do end up getting the trade that they've wanted. We all thought it would be the commanders.

1:13:32It's obviously not going to be. Maybe someone would say, you know what? It's worth a late round pick to kind of take a flyer on him. 49ers have held him for this reason if there is a training game injury. So I think that makes sense. He has to be right. And I don't know that he's, it's all, like this is why teams want to kind of keep guys with them to keep it from going the wrong way.

1:13:58Pat McAfee:Yeah, I got you. Tyreek Hill, Sterling Shepard, Curtis Samuel, Taysom Hill, I guess, unless he's retired. That's obviously a tight end in this entire thing if they need another weapon. And then obviously Brandon Ayuk. And maybe Kyle Van Noy can play wide receiver too. Sure, maybe. You never know if he gets in there. The thought of Brandon Iyuk ending up on an NFL team this year is just, that's fun. Yeah, I thought that was done. That's a fun thing to think about. Texans are the right culture for it. Yeah, D 'Amico. I mean, D 'Amico. I would agree with that. Oh, yes. I mean, if there is any culture, I guess, is that what we're saying?

1:14:31Pat McAfee:If there is any place that could handle it? We think New England was another place that's able to do it with Vrabel up there, obviously. It feels like a lot of ex-players are able to kind of handle the situation. You know, up there in Detroit, you know, it feels like they could potentially handle it as well because MCDC, man, will actually fist fight you. Not drinking as much coffee, we heard. What did he used to do? Two black eyes, man. Doosh, doosh every morning. And then what would you do in the afternoon, Coach? We usually go through about two to three cans of long cut, would swallow and gut the entire thing.

1:15:02Two more black eyes. Doosh, doosh. and then usually around 5 o 'clock kind of finish it off with a nightcap with just drink an entire pot of coffee right out of the pot itself, man. Before bed, you would do that? I don't fucking sleep, man. Okay, season's right around the corner. Okay, I heard that. But you said black hot? Yeah, black eyes. So you're basically, you know, I'm getting just as much coffee and as big of a thing as I can. Boom, shots of espresso, black eyes. Doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh. As many as I can do, man. And that's what he used to do, right? Yeah.

1:15:35Pat McAfee:That's what MCDC, the head coach of the Detroit Lions, actually used to do. Yes, and then a doctor told him, like, hey, your heart's going to explode. Like, stop doing that. You're, like, 50-some years old. And he cut that in half, allegedly. So that is obviously a little bit different going into the season. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Rap, I believe you visited the Lions on your Ian Rappaport training camp tour. I don't know if you talked about the cutting in half of the coffee. If you didn't, that's a miss on your part. But they're also not doing joint practices this year. Things are a little different up in Detroit.

1:16:04What was your takeaway from Detroit? And did it feel like a different approach this year after missing the playoffs last year? You know, I really did notice that. The no joint practice thing. I mean, everyone's doing joint practices, but it really felt like, for me, for Dan Campbell, it was just like, no frills, no distractions, no nothing. We're going to be in camp. We're going to only do this. And we're going to focus on that. And then, like, that's how we're going to roll into the season. And so like, you know, it's like, it's a, for like a reporter, like it's a good place to visit. They're very accessible.

1:16:36This year felt a little stripped down. It felt a little more businesslike. Like it's, it's fine. It's just like the kind of thing where they're like, we're going to just cut out all of the other stuff, all the other stuff. And we're going to handle our responsibilities. It's going to be fine. We're not going to invite someone else in. We're not going to trap. We're just going to only do our things. Now, like, is it necessary? I don't know. Like, they're really talented still. So I think they would be fine. And I think, like, you know, health-wise, they're probably going to get a couple guys back in the secondary, especially when the season starts.

1:17:08So that's going to help, too. Like, they should be really good. But the kind of renewed focus, I did notice, yeah.

1:17:15Pat McAfee:Obviously, Foxy's the one pulling the trigger on the highlights for this show. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you see him back there. He's a diehard Detroit Lions fan. Some of these balls we're seeing from Goff, I think a lot of us forget about. You know, especially because the Lions didn't make the playoffs last year. Ben Johnson's gone. So the Chicago Bears are the talking point. And obviously in that, Green Bay Packers are always going to be chatting about who's the quarterback at the Vikings. Nobody's talking about the Lions. Nobody has been talking about the Lions. And then you see the highlights. It's like, man, Goff can really spin it if they can protect them there, right?

1:17:44Fox, isn't that the entire thing? Yeah, the offensive line needs to be better. Last year that was one of our biggest weaknesses, and that's why we weren't the same team, I would say, overall. And then Rapsheet mentioned it. Health is everything. That's why I think MCDC kind of switched things up with joint practices. And then also as a fan, I know not everyone buys into this. I'm buying into the easy schedule merchants this year. I think they'll be back in the playoffs because of that.

1:18:08Pat McAfee:I'll tell you what, the Patriots certainly rode that wave last year all the way to the damn Super Bowl, and they were a much better team. Oh, yeah. But not having a tough outdoor opponent until week 17, that's a huge deal for that offense. Huge. Massive. Especially whenever – That's crazy. Have you looked at it yet? They got Buffalo early. Can I see? Yeah, it's literally like week 10. Yeah, here we go. So New Orleans, obviously, dome at Buffalo early September 17th. That's a good time to do that. Jets early, Carolina early, Arizona early, Green Bay at home, Minnesota at home, at Miami. Okay, that's not bad.

1:18:46Pat McAfee:Yeah, okay. Home against New England, home against Tampa Bay, home against Chicago. At Atlanta is obviously a dome. Home against Tennessee at Minnesota's a dome. Home against New York Giants at Chicago there. I mean, that's – although the last two are – that'll be very tough. Yeah, kind of perfect, though, because it's leading into the playoffs. So if they're not the one seed, then they get, like, two games outside where they might have to go outside later on. Or they're on the bubble in the hardest games imaginable. That'd be tough. Actually have happened at the very end. They'll be able to practice outside, though.

1:19:19Pat McAfee:I mean, it's Detroit. Their weather's ass. Yes. Very bad. They'll be able to figure that out. Everything's ass up there. It's not just the weather. That's not true. Have you been there? That's not true. It's so bad. They got good restaurants. I've been there plenty of times. We owe Detroit a show, actually, still. That's going to happen. Well, we did do the draft show, and also I'd like to mention Detroit still holds the biggest NFL draft in the history of NFL draft. We were there, though. There's no way. That's not true. We're not getting into the numbers. Pittsburgh Steelers. That's not true.

1:19:43Steelers just broke it with like 800 ,000 people over the weekend. Are you sure? Yeah. Are you sure? Yeah, put on your face. Yeah, you're lying. I don't think you guys did Simply not true Maybe one night you guys broke All the nights

1:19:58Pat McAfee:Combination Remember that's kind of the Is someone really counting these Your question in Roger Goodell in the NFL Is that what you're doing right now You're questioning McCarthy's PR I would never 736 I'm like are we just doing this No they have the turnstiles AI drones are counting everybody And the issue is, I think what they did was, there's a space, and then obviously they go off the normal-sized man. They picked rap. Yeah. So they had the space, and then they did the math off of your dims. And they were like, we had 2 million people. And they're like, well, that's too many. We got to cut this one down a little bit.

1:20:39And then they dropped it back to 800 ,000. That's what I heard they did. But I could be wrong. I don't know. No, that sounds right. That sounds right. Were you the dim that they were going off? I was kind of like, you know, when they're testing you for Madden or one of those things, you're in the simulator and they capture your body and you're like, yep, this is what a regular-sized person looks like.

1:21:00Pat McAfee:Yes, this is exactly a normal-sized individual. Total three-day attendance, 805 ,000 in Pittsburgh. 775 ,000 in Detroit. Pretty good, though. Oh, that's close. See, that's his previous. See, but the difference is Pittsburgh used the rap sheet-sized human. In Detroit, they used a big, big body there. Like MCDC? Yes, exactly. So basically, Ipso facto had more than you guys. Yeah, well, I don't know. You're going to have to talk to Roger Goodell about that. There's something coming with Nielsen. Nielsen's doing something with football. Yeah, the NFL's not happy about it. Why are they not happy? I'd assume the numbers are going to go down.

1:21:31Pat McAfee:No, I thought they were getting a TAD, total audience delivery. Oh, I don't know. No, but I heard the NFL's not happy. That'd be the only reason they were. Yesterday, I read that they were getting a total audience delivered thing happening, which is normally whenever people are with groups. Oh, yeah, yeah. So it's like 1.2. Yeah, exactly. That's what I read, I thought. But then today I heard the NFL's not happy. Nielsen's changing a bunch, though, I think, over the next couple months or year or so. They did an adjustment a couple, maybe two years back on something to take in more streaming stuff.

1:21:59Pat McAfee:Now they're doing another adjustment, I do believe. But I think, I mean, as long as everybody's going off the same rating, I guess everybody cares. Nobody knows. And nobody cares. They're still going to have, like, the, you know, 95 of the top 100, you know, most watched things that happened this year. Everybody I know watched. Yeah. That's kind of. X is my news. Like whenever our ratings come out, it's, you know, it's a cool thing to see. But I'm like, what does that mean? What does that even mean? Are these TVs that have it? Is this humans that are watching it? Because, you know, at the beginning of our time here on ESPN, a lot of people saying that nobody's watching that.

1:22:35Pat McAfee:And it's like, well, I don't know, man. It feels like we are starting some shit. It feels like somebody's watching this somewhere. And then the numbers go to what it is. And it's like, it is this. And then this place is having a new high. This, this is having this. it's like what matters like what is real i don't i don't know what's because there's so many different platforms now you know there's so many different and some platforms withhold information from going public so it's like nielsen has a deal with these people to get their private numbers yeah right how much of the private numbers it's just you know what i mean it's a crazy time right now to know who's watching what but we know everybody's watching the nfl basically and that's what the nfl is just trying to say right i mean right like everyone i know is watching i'm kind of with you like maybe we exist in a bubble but everyone watches every nfl thing i just know like in the other parts of the world it's not like the greatest time of all time for polling like maybe there's not public confidence in polling just saying in general um what are you saying but maybe neilson's are better hey this is him no i'm yeah no no no i'm just saying it's not maybe the greatest there have been other times when it was greater than right now like one i I think we're just more woke now.

1:23:40Pat McAfee:WW2. Any other time. We're more woke or more enlightened now on how things work, you know? It's possible. And I think, like, the internet has exposed a lot of things because, for us, we were very lucky to come up through the internet, our show and everything like that. We're not the only ones, obviously. Is that a beer? There's, like, an actual scoreboard. He's already boozing. Yeah, of course. I wish. It's too early. No, it's too early. Spindrift. For who? Yeah. Talk it time. I did think about it, but I was like, I got to be on a show, so maybe a little later. But the internet has, like, a scoreboard.

1:24:08Yes.

1:24:08Pat McAfee:You know, like the internet has an actual scoreboard. And now, are those numbers kind of fudged or screwed? Potentially. But I think inevitably we're all going to kind of figure it out. Who has say, who doesn't, who's watched, who's not. I think it's easy to see. WNBA's coming for every other sport. You need to know that. Huge numbers are you talking about? Baseball. WNBA's coming for MLB. No, it's not. Yeah, they're coming for you. Stop it. And Nick back there, they're coming for the NHL back there. Okay. That's what these numbers are telling me. That's not what the WNBA needs right now is to start at like starting wars with other professional sports leagues.

1:24:46That's about the last thing they need. I'm telling you, I'm seeing big numbers, dude. No, no, I agree. And listen, I'm a, I'm a diehard fever fan, so I get it. But that those are not waters that they want to start playing in.

1:24:58Pat McAfee:And as a fever fan, which we are, right. We have all the ratings since one particular player came to our, yeah, exactly. So, you know, I mean, it's one of those things. Aaliyah Boston. Well, Aaliyah Boston was certainly on the team whenever it happened, and she's all-star, highest-paid max contract for a reason. And she's back. Double-double machine. Boom. I mean, she is certainly getting after it. But there was this one girl who came in from Iowa who just kind of ever rating. Hey, what's the second-highest viewed game? Oh, the one that was following the Fever game. That's kind of how it's been since the entirety of it.

1:25:31Pat McAfee:And if they can take care of that situation, which is just the WNBA as a whole, I think they do continue to go up and to the right. Because it's got heat. Every day there's a lot of heat. They are running hot. Let's get back to the... They're running wild. They are running wild, running hot. Like Hogan Hall and Nash back in L.A., dude. Which is why he got booed. Exactly. When he came back to L.A. Yeah, exactly. Any regrets? Any regrets at all, Hulkster? Maybe the leg drop. Really? Yeah, that was about it. Messed up my hips and my knees. Got these 23-inch pythons. Probably shouldn't know the sleeper, dude.

1:26:05No other regrets at all? No, that's it. That's it. Maybe I would have run a little bit hotter with Nash and Hall, maybe. I don't know. In L.A. Thank you, Heavenly Hulk. That was a fun doc. Thank you, Heavenly Hulk. Yeah, I mean, yeah, crazy. He was in here right here. He was, right there. I mean, Hulkster was – Wear basketball shoes. One of. I mean, I guess the doc came out after that.

1:26:26Pat McAfee:Was that his last live interview, though? It might have been. He came in wearing Kevin Durant's D-Buds question. I'm going to give you a shoe I didn't know. You big NBA fan. yeah it was incredible all right last question speaking of running hot go ahead ty yeah rap sheet uh we heard all the stuff about you know puka nakua and then like josh jacobs and that all that it's kind of dissipated a little bit haven't really heard too much but are we expecting suspensions for both those guys and there might be a couple more that i'm forgetting right now but uh what what is like the update on both of them respectively i would say uh generally for these things, when the legal process is done, like has been finalized and the NFL gets his time to investigate, whatever, that's usually when the suspensions come.

1:27:12So for James Pierce, he had reached an agreement. He was in a sort of year-long situation, whatever you want to call it. So then he gets his suspension and that's done. The Puka one, to be honest, I don't know where that stands as far as like, is the off the field stuff all wrapped up and is the NFL's investigation wrapped up. It is possible, but I don't know for sure. The Josh Jacobs one, that seems to me like it'll take a little more time. All, you know, suspensions, these things sort of come when it's final and you don't always see it coming. But my sense was the Jacobs one would take a little longer just because it's not all, there's still the legal process has to wrap up and all of that.

1:27:53Pat McAfee:All right. We appreciate your wrap. Good luck working up there. Listen, it's a tough situation. Someone's got to do it and I'm going to try. Thanks, Junior. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, that's a wrap for it. Thank you. Some of the kids aren't there either. Is that a cow that walked in the background if you saw it? Either a big old dog or a cow or something. Like a Great Dane? Huge dog, potentially. I saw that. It just looks huge. Blue also had eyes. Have you seen Blue roaming around today? He's back here laying down like a good boy. He looks awesome. Yeah, he's been doing good down here.

1:28:23Pat McAfee:I got him a nice little soft blankie. He's sniffing around. He's been eating everything off the ground. Blue, you want to say hello or no? No? All right, get off my ass. Hears perked up a bit. He's been a good boy. Great. Yeah, yeah. Just hang out. That's great. He's so active. This thing needs to run four to five miles a day. There is a hole in the fence over there that we need to fix, but after that. No, but we got the electric. Oh. We got the invisible fence or whatever it is. Nice. So hopefully that'll work. I am a little worried about whenever he's running hot. Yeah. When he's going, I don't know if this is going to stop him.

1:28:55Pat McAfee:There's a chance he runs right through it, but he's been a good boy. Came back when I whistled, thought he was gone. You know, this morning there was a couple anxiety moments where I thought he was gone forever. Whistle, he comes right back. He's been a great boy. Great to see you. Blue obviously bringing great vibes. Preseason football tonight, huge deal. AJ, I don't know if you saw our team ride for this evening. We're 2-0 on the year, and we're not saying that these are incredibly long odds or tough things to hit. It is preseason football, so let's make sure we're gambling responsibly all the time, but certainly for preseason football in which we know nothing.

1:29:21Pat McAfee:If you're of age, come join us on the best sports book on earth, available in all 50 states currently. We just need one. Fernando Mendoza passing touchdown. Odds are currently sitting at minus 155. We've been told that they will hold at minus 155. Okay. Unless some news comes like how long Fernando's – like unless they get some more information that none of us will get. They're going to hold this at minus 155, which we're grateful for. Obviously, this is a bet that we feel good about. The sportsbooks obviously don't feel great about it at minus 155. but I think Nando's going to spin one. And I'm excited for him to get some burn tonight, AJ.

1:29:59Pat McAfee:And that's kind of the story of tonight. CJ's going to get some. Brock Purdy's going to get some. Herbert's going to get some. Nando's going to get some. We don't know about Kirk. That's TBD. But we got four good quarterbacks at least actually playing real football tonight, AJ. Yeah, I'm excited to see Fernando, obviously. I think it's a big deal for him tonight. He could come out and, I guess, really – I wouldn't say he's got a bunch of detractors, but he can silence the people and make himself some momentum, I feel like, towards possibly being the opening day starter. Or is it a lock already that Kirk is going to be the guy?

1:30:28Pat McAfee:Well, that's the question. Who's playing offensive line? I guess we find out a lot whenever they announce who the offensive line is. That kind of will tell us everything about where Nando's at, who Nando is. If it's the one offensive line playing, I think we can speculate that there's still competition, obviously, what's going on. If it's not the one offensive line, that means, okay, that's why Kirk's probably not playing, and that's how they're viewing Kirk. Don't you think that is something we can probably judge upon, AJ? Yeah, absolutely. If you have any kind of quarterback competition, you have to have the same offensive line for both those guys.

1:30:59You can't flip it out and say, hey, this guy, he had the 2-0 line in a game. So, yes, if Fernando's in there with the ones, then you're 100 % right. I think it's still open.

1:31:07Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think so, too, at least at the moment. Now, Bennett, he can change that with how he plays tonight, and that conversation can continue to evolve and everything like that. But I think the offensive line that's playing will tell us a lot for all teams. for all teams throughout all the preseason. Never going to send the one quarterback out there without the one offensive line, or at least a majority of it, because we don't need that guy dying in a preseason game. And the line, I think, is the biggest separator from first team to third team, especially with see ball, get ball a lot easier than protecting guys that are running four threes now.

1:31:39Pat McAfee:So that tells us a lot of information, Con, man. Well, and that's the other thing with the three preseason games. It feels like we talked about this yesterday, but when it was four preseason games, It wasn't the fourth where everyone goes out. It was the third. And now that we're at the second of three, it feels like this would be the game where you give guys at least a little bit of burn. You know, I don't know if the first O-line is going to play just because, you know, like you just mentioned, if the number one center or the number one left tackle goes down, that is probably the biggest loss you can have outside of quarterback.

1:32:07So, yeah, like Linderbaum, he's the highest paid center for a reason. Who knows if he's going to be out there playing. But you need to have guys out there. And whether it's Kirk or Mendoza. Mendoza, we all assume, will be the starting quarterback at some point for the Raiders this season. So, they're not just going to throw him out there with nobody. Same with Stroud, Purdy, Herbert. They're going to have their offensive lines out there, which makes me just pumped because that means we're going to see real offensive football. Yeah, exactly.

1:32:32Pat McAfee:And also, Houston Texans will not have their 1D out there. That has been reported. Who knows what other matchups we've got in the big boys crossing the board. But if offenses can move and execute, that's when we've realized football is good. When offenses can't move, football is ass. That's what everybody says. So, like, the preseason first round and even the Hall of Fame game, offenses were moving. So it was like, this is good football. Whenever they don't move and defenses dominate, everybody's like, this is trash football. There's a chance we could see both tonight. Even after the starters are out, Davis Mills has been a proven solid quarterback in this league when Stroud has not been able to play.

1:33:08Mack Jones is going to be solid tonight. Trey Lance has been a pretty good. And he's got a chance. Yeah, and a little redemption tonight, preseason quarterback. So, yeah, I think we're going to see a lot of good offense tonight, which is great for us. Texans, too, if you remember from last year, they don't do the complicated stuff. Wasn't that their entire thing? We just line up, play normal defense, and beat the shit out of everybody. So, I assume, unless D 'Amico Ryan's just deciding to scheme the hell out of a week two preseason game, they might just be lining up and playing just pretty bland defense.

1:33:36And Fernando. Very smart. The guy loves the puzzle. Yeah, he loves. Every play's a puzzle.

1:33:42Pat McAfee:And I'm just trying to figure it out on where I'm trying to go. Dan Orlovsky. Matt, is he going to be able to say 15-word plays in the huddle? I don't know. Is he going to be able to see what's going on? Are we talking about Fernando Mendoza? The mega genius. The guy who – is that who we're talking about right now? Yeah. Well, you just never know. You never know with these guys. Yale and Cal. Yeah. I think with Nando, we can assume his brain's going to be an okay one. We can assume the brain's going to be okay. All the other things will he be able to accomplish naturally with this Raiders team?

1:34:08Pat McAfee:I guess that journey is still happening. Joining us now is a man who obviously knows a lot about Fernando, A lot about everything that happens in college sports. I am very lucky to call him a teammate on College Game Day. He hosts Game Day football and College Game Day basketball. Ladies and gentlemen, elite journalist, Rhys Davis. Yeah, Rhys! What up, Rhys? Oh, man, I'm glad to be with you guys. I don't think I've had an opportunity to congratulate Boston Connor, too. I mean, congratulations in order to have a baby. Thank you very much. Nothing better, my man. Nothing better. Well, also, can you congratulate Bone then, too?

1:34:45Pat McAfee:Because he got married at a courthouse this offseason as well. Is that right? Congratulations. Way to go, Bone. Maybe Bone. Bruce Brown. Bruce Brown got married in Croatia in a movie in Croatia. If you want to congratulate Bruce as well, Bruce. Congratulations, Bruce. Thanks so much. I'm happy the institution of marriage is being furthered. Yeah, the institution is certainly continuing to institute, folks, And Foxy's got a huge thing coming as well, family-wise. Yeah, I got a baby on the way. Very excited. Congratulations. Stop trying to steal my moment. What the hell? Well, also, I had baby Midas.

1:35:25Pat McAfee:You sent a gift, Dan, thank you. But if you want to do it publicly, you can obviously do that. We're very happy for you guys. New baby, Midas. What a great, what a cool name, man. We felt kind of weird, though, because we sent a silver thing. And I was like, well, we should look and see if it should be gold. Because it might. We painted it. Don't worry. As soon as it got there. We appreciate you, Reese. And Connor's thankful for you celebrating him. We're all celebrating. We're all coming. Yeah, very, very, very appreciative of that, even though everyone just piggybacked off his. Hey, the official visit series has been awesome.

1:36:02Pat McAfee:I appreciate you putting that out into the world. Obviously, interviewing all of the movers and shakers of college football as you've traveled around. We'll dive into some of those convos and your expectations for the season. but we got to talk about this five for five injunction in Louisiana thing that just took place in your thoughts. Obviously, you are pillar of college sports. I think you are somebody who does feel as if the tradition is the importance of why college football and college basketball and college sports in general are college. We saw the Soresby thing happen in Texas Tech and we saw the reaction.

1:36:31Pat McAfee:We're watching this kind of similar reaction right now to everybody calling this is egregious this is absurd this is obscene what are your thoughts on this i can i tell you that i've been talking about how this only being a this year thing for me has kind of settled it a little bit and i understand where these guys are coming from but it's still crazy to see jack on the bucks and then he's going to be playing in college football that's like a crazy thing to imagine from a college football sports fan how do you kind of view it all and where do you sit on where we are heading just a week out from the college football season starting.

1:37:04I agree with you. It sort of shakes what you feel like the sport has always been about. But when I sort of take a step back from it, Pat, and I look at it as what is college football, what is college basketball particularly right now? It's professional sports. So what needs to happen, in my judgment, is there has to be a consensus and an agreed upon one. Who's eligible to play? because the idea of, well, he played in the pros, he can't come back, well, it's just another professional league. It's not really that much different from a major league baseball player going down to the minor leagues or even going to the independent baseball leagues.

1:37:42They were at a higher level at one point. Now they go to another professional league. And while that sort of offends the sensibilities of some people to call college sports professional, when guys are making seven figures, it's professional. So I think we just have to decide. All of these leagues and other sports have eligibility rules. What must you do? What are the parameters for being able to play? And I think that's where we have to get in college sports. The problem is that every time somebody tries to decide that, then someone sues, they're given an injunction, and then we have the situations where people are being added to rosters, in theory, two weeks before we play a game.

1:38:19Pat McAfee:Yeah, what was the conversation? It's all about getting the NCAA an antitrust. Is that the wording? Antitrust, yeah. So they're looking for an antitrust so that their ruling actually matters. Charlie Baker has said for a long time, since he's gotten in there, especially in this world that we're in, everybody says it's the NCAA's fault. And then Charlie's like, well, if we do anything about anything, we just lose in court and we're completely wasting our time. So they can punish people for cheeseburgers. Like we know we can punish for cheeseburgers. We know we can punish for texts when you're not supposed to text or FaceTime when you're not supposed to FaceTime.

1:38:54Pat McAfee:but anything that involves employment or money or any of these other things we can't touch because like in court that we have no chance we're just done for especially whenever it's local courts that potentially you know you know not that we're never say that about any of these judges but in the future it could potentially happen it didn't happen yet but if it was to happen in the future that could be real it's just that's what i think the entire well protect college sports act was trying to get done and then it got politicized and now they're on recess it's like I don't know Reese I'm very naive to the entire thing I thought the protect college sports act after Petiti and Sankey got on board was going to go especially with all the names that it was especially with it being bipartisan uh and then instead no doesn't even get through the vote or whatever and then they're going on recess it's like can we depend on Washington take care of this we can't depend on the NCAA because they're saying we can't do shit anyways it's like how do we I don't know Reese I generally and then Pete Tamble came on the first hour and said listen this thing's on fire it always will be you got to just embrace the chaos because it's not going anywhere listen nil didn't start the fire it's been burning burning since the world's been turning it is what pete tamil basically said how do you view it as somebody that knows a lot more than we do about the world but actually just kind of sitting and watching this for me i'm starting to lose hope and i was not like that i was like we can get this figured out we have to we have to I'm starting to lose hope, Reese.

1:40:16Pat McAfee:How do you view it? I agree that it's always been chaotic. The one thing I'll say about the revenue sharing and the NIL, it's a more honest enterprise now. Now we know for a fact that players have value and they're being compensated. In the past, so many people tried to pretend they didn't and it was just about the university and yet the players are being paid, you know, brown paper bags left under bridges and funneled through churches. And there might be a rather warm judgment day for some of those back in the day who were funneling money through churches. But that's a different topic for a different day, I guess.

1:40:50But, you know, it's a more honest enterprise now because people who have value are getting paid at market value. And so I think there is some good that has come out of it. The only way, look, I'm no business expert, but I think the easy answer is collective bargaining. But the problem with collective bargaining is who bargains with whom. and the players have no incentive to do so right now because they've got the hammer both with the courts and with leverage against the schools.

1:41:19Pat McAfee:And with free agency every offseason, basically. And the players are turning over literally now every five years. So it's like who decides who's running the player side of the CBA? Well, it's the seniors now decide that. Well, what if the juniors that are coming in next year don't like what they just did? How does that get settled in? It's just like, I'm a little... Listen, it's a big old quagmire. Yeah. I mean, H-A-D-J, of biblical proportions, I would say. But the sport itself has gotten better, I think, through it all. Because I think guys have become professionals earlier, so they've been able to deal with distractions better.

1:41:53Pat McAfee:I think they're getting more reps. Instead of, like, five stars sitting for a couple years, they're all playing. I think the NFL has benefited from this. Obviously, the ratings are going crazy. There's more storylines off the field. So there's so many good that can happen. But it does feel like potentially how shikarj, you know, on the back side, how easily can somebody that entire thing and it seems like texas tech proved that the big wind's coming potentially and then now we got a ruling in louisiana that i think we're all just kind of understanding that yeah if a judge wants to do something it's just going to be the way it is but football is going to be incredible let's start talking about that ty has a question for you about the irish yeah reese uh you know you went around all these different campuses talked to coaches and some other different people and you know magnificent series but But you sat down with CJ Carr.

1:42:38I'm just curious. Do you think that this is Notre Dame's year? Finally, there's a lot of heat behind them. And obviously, after the way things ended last year, where a lot of people thought they were one of the best teams in the country and kind of got snubbed and didn't make the playoffs. Do you think, I mean, obviously, Ohio State's out there. We've got Texas, Georgia, some of these other teams. But do you think Notre Dame has just as much of a claim that they're the best team in the country and they should win a national championship this year as anyone else? Notre Dame is my preseason number one team and they're the team that I believe will win the national whoa wire to wire yeah so to answer your question yes now the schedule is helpful to them early they've got Miami they've got SMU I believe later on in the season he will be very good but I think the Irish are loaded I really believe in CJ Carr and I think this is a year Notre Dame breaks through for the first time since our late great friend Lou Holtz led them to the title in 88.

1:43:37Rest in peace, Lou. You done good, brother. We were so lucky that he liked our show.

1:43:43Pat McAfee:We were so lucky that he liked our show, obviously, because we were able to pay tribute to him, especially Catholic school boy who's been doing his impression since he's in like fourth or fifth grade and can say whatever. But Notre Dame has always had the lore, you know, has always had it. Marcus Freeman seemingly has brought them into the modern age. And now they're able to, with the benefits of having boosters that have money and alumni that have money, the Irish and the Catholic and the church have never struggled finding cash. You ever see those buildings? Yeah. Just the pain glass that they put out there.

1:44:13The pain glass is very nice.

1:44:14Pat McAfee:Yeah, it's whatever. Yeah, exactly. So that's going to benefit them. Marcus Freeman's been able to do it. Still got to do school, though. They got that brand new facility, too, which is unbelievable. Can turn that out next year if they want another one. Go ahead, Reese. No, I was going to say the building that they have now and what they had before was not what you would expect from Notre Dame. What they have now is industry standard. Now, Oregon's got a great building, a ton of teams in the SEC do, but that place, the Shields family all there that you're taking the shot through right now is spectacular.

1:44:49Yeah, I mean, that's beautiful.

1:44:51Pat McAfee:And guess what? They can redo that next year if they want. which is good for them. Marcus Freeman seemingly very comfortable in his position in Notre Dame. He was allegedly offered multiple NFL conversations, turned them down because he's happy with where he's at. There is a lot of heat, though, around a lot of different coaching. AJ has a question for you, Reese. Yeah, Reese, obviously we know the massive expectations placed upon these coaches coaching these big-time programs. I guess if you look around the college football landscape, which coach do you think has the most sense of urgency this year and has to win, especially get out to a hot start?

1:45:26That's a great question. I think the easy answer, people would say Kalen DeBoer at Alabama, but I don't think his job is in any jeopardy, barring just some type of empty elevator shaft season, and I don't see that at all. I think they're going to be pretty good. Will they be a playoff team? I don't know, but I think they'll be good. I think probably if you were looking for somebody that has to win, it might be Shane Beamer at South Carolina, and they've had some tough injury luck right now. But I think that they have some of the pieces. I actually believe they're going to win, and if they get healthy, I think they could be one of the surprise teams in the country.

1:46:05So those are a couple of guys that come to mind off the top. So many changes in the SEC a year ago, I'm not sure you're going to see a ton of them there. And historically, there's been a little more patience in most precincts in the Big Ten. So I'm not sure we're going to see quite the coaching turnover market that we've seen in years past. But, you know, any of these any of these guys that don't do well early, you know, Pete Golding got off to a tough start, you know, something like that. People might say, well, he's never been a head coach and all of that type of thing. But I think for the most part, you're you're not going to see a lot of change at the top, barring utterly catastrophic season.

1:46:44Pat McAfee:I have a sneaky suspicion that Golding is going to be all right. Just listening to him talk and the way his team played for him, and he might have the best quarterback in the country. And Winadado obviously got another injunction to come back and play, which has kind of just been one of the stories of the offseason. I'm a big believer in Winadad after watching him live when we had that field pass. He is a Sunday guy. He's a Sunday guy, I think, with his athleticism. There's a lot of great quarterbacks at the top. Now, we talked about coaches that could potentially turn over after this season. And interested that you didn't bring up Lincoln Riley there, honestly, at USC, especially because of potential expectations.

1:47:21Pat McAfee:But the Big Ten is a monster, and it has been certainly. So maybe there's a little bit more reprieve. On that note, at the top, go ahead, Con Man. Yeah, Reese, you sat down with Coach Cignetti, which was incredible, and just listening to him just talk ball about Fernando and now Hoover being there. Is it kind of out of the realm of possibilities that Indiana is going to go back-to-back? It feels like they might have gotten better, which is crazy to think of with Mendoza being gone and him being the Heisman. But Ohio State, Oregon, Notre Dame, it feels like a lot of other teams are getting that like, hey, this team is going to win the national championship versus IU.

1:47:55And IU is still a top 10 team. It's not like going out on a limb here saying they can win it all. But do you feel that the back-to-back championship possibility is very real? Oh, 100 percent. I mean, they've got the attitude, the belief that adding those two guys on defense back from one of the court rulings and then the guys that they got in the transfer portal on defense to fill some of the holes. And I think Josh will be terrific. Fernando's probably got a little more arm. He's a bigger guy, probably moves a little bit better than Josh. But Josh has been wildly productive for a long career at TCU.

1:48:30And he's the kind of guy who has thrived in Signetti and Shanahan's system. So I don't think that's beyond the realm of expectation at all. I mean, Indiana's schedule is probably a little bit tougher this year, but, I mean, who's going to bet against that guy after what they've done the last couple of years? And Pat was right. You know, I think SC is going to be a contender in the Big Ten. If that doesn't happen, obviously things could change for Riley. And the one massive mistake I missed on the previous question is obviously Mike Norvell at Florida State is under a lot of heat. He's got to win and play better.

1:49:04So that was a gaffe on my part to overlook.

1:49:07Pat McAfee:No, we put you on the spot there. You didn't have a lot of time. And there's a lot of – I mean, James Franklin, they were hosting game day. Yeah. They were hosting game day. Plays were sold out. Everyone thought. You know, and then like three weeks later, actually fired. Then he's on game day. Yeah, and then he was on game day four weeks ago. Yeah, same. Jeez. Yeah, so college football is obviously insane. So if you were to hit every coach that could potentially be on the hot seat, we'd never get the show done. So we understand that. But Norvell of Florida State, it feels like that's been a couple years now.

1:49:37Pat McAfee:Shane Beamer in South Carolina, interesting because we got a chance to go down there, obviously for game day. I didn't know it was like that down there. That place is, I hope they go. Columbia is. And they should, right? Sellers quarterback, obviously good. South Carolina's got dogs in their backyard. Yeah, Nick Harbour's a great wide receiver. Dylan Stewart is the edge who is not going to be ready for week one. They just announced, and they got a transfer tackle from NC State. They have the guys. Now their schedule's really hard, obviously, in the SEC, but they have a chance to go. Okay, let's talk about the SEC.

1:50:08Pat McAfee:Everybody's talking Georgia, obviously. I think it's just because we respect the hell out of Kirby and what he has going on at the quarterback position. LSU, obviously, with Lane Kiffin having an opportunity. Ole Miss can obviously go. A lot of the old guard, though, not really being talked about as much. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Reese, let's talk about the third Saturday in October. Obviously, your alma mater in Bama and Tennessee, they are two of the biggest schools right now who have quarterback battles and very similar quarterback battles into guys that are, I wouldn't say older, but have been around for longer than the five-star freshmen that they are going up against, Austin Mack and Keelan Russell at Bama, and then Faison Brandon and George McIntyre at Tennessee.

1:50:47Have you heard anything about these right now? Because these are two top 15, top 20 teams coming into the season that have not figured out their quarterback yet, so kind of a big deal. Seems to be trending that both of the guys with the higher upside have made moves in recent days, meaning Faison Brandon at Tennessee and Keelan Russell at Alabama. I think the good news for Alabama anyway is I think this is a win-win proposition. One, because DeBoer always finds productive quarterbacks. And two, I really think Austin Mack has every skill set you would want to be a successful college quarterback and probably a skill set to be successful in the pros.

1:51:28Now he's got to win a job here or somewhere in the future. But, I mean, this guy, he's got a lot of – I was around him a little bit this summer. I went down and spoke to the team in June. And he oozes leadership and class. I mean, he's the guy that you could get people to rally behind. I think Keelan is a younger guy or less experienced guy because Austin Max in his fourth year of college football, he's only 20 years old. I mean, he came to Washington at like 16. Damn. So I think they're going to be fine regardless of which way they go. Tennessee's a bigger question, but I would say the same thing I would have said for DeBoer.

1:52:02You could say for Heupel. Whoever plays quarterback for them, they figure it out pretty quickly and have been productive. He has not had a problem finding a productive quarterback.

1:52:10Pat McAfee:Reese, I can't wait to see you on the road. We'll see you down in Baton Rouge, brother. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me, guys. Have a great day. See you guys later. Emmy award-winning host, Reese Davis. Yeah, Reese. We have a hard out. Reese understands that. Hey, Reese certainly understands that. We will continue digitally. We'll see you tomorrow. Be a friend to a friend. Something nice might change their life. Goodbye. Oh, you see we took off the bottom countdown. Yeah. No, it's okay. Hey, listen. That's what we need a day after a hard-out catastrophe. You know, we need that a little bit.

1:52:43Yeah, it was a little bit of a test.

1:52:45Pat McAfee:It's preseason. It is preseason. Yeah. Yeah, it is actually. Yeah. Huge one tonight. Couple huge ones. Pumped. A lot of good players playing football tonight. Yeah. Very, very excited about that. And also, before we take a break, before the final hour, this dog's doing great. Great. This dog's doing unbelievable. Now he's laying down here. He's been back here. He was up here. He's been around here. Won't ever get a drink for himself. Okay? Didn't have to get it for him. Didn't have to tell him to go do it. Off his dog now. Could be, man. Got a drink for himself out of the sink, or do you have a dog bowl?

1:53:15No, he jumps up in the fountain. Hit the button. Actually did much better than Hawk does. Yeah.

1:53:21Pat McAfee:That's what this type of dog can do. I could see that happening. Does he teach him Talk how to use the drinking fountain? Well, Talk does the bottle in the back, so he puts it down and then hopes that the sensor hits. There's no way Talk could do the push. No. Ah, no. But Blue gets right up there, punches that thing with his front two paws, and was licking it. That's his type of dog. That's what this dog does. I guess he's a super genius. That's what people say about these types of dogs. Very, very smart. Kind of prickish with how smart they are. Like a herder. Yeah, can open every single type of door.

1:53:56Pat McAfee:We have a side latch, like sideways latch that you have to pull out. Difficult to open. He's figured out to put his, like you've got to pull it sideways to open something. He's figured out to put one paw up, other paw around, open this entire thing. Especially if there's food on the other side. This fucker's going to get to it. You know, that's kind of his life. Good job, baby, Blue. You done a good job, baby. I appreciate you out here. And you're not just terrorizing the house because you've got so much energy. So he terrorized the thud. Did you run him this morning? He ran outside, yeah. Ran outside a pretty good amount.

1:54:28Pat McAfee:He was running around here. He was running back and forth, obviously. So much room to explore. And then also, he saw Bone. This guy used cattle. He was a cattle herder. Oh, yeah. Kept doing circles around Bone for some reason. Just kept hitting him with his head, doing this number here. And Bone was like, this dog really likes me. Yeah, he certainly does. Bone's not that big. I'm not a cow. He's not that big. He's not. He's on his way right now, actually. They're doing the Mordor walk. Yeah. We got motivated Bone to do a Mordor walk challenge. Download the app. It's connected to his Garmin. We are on our way to Mordor about, I want to say, 1 ,780 miles to go.

1:55:08Pat McAfee:Okay. So it's 18 because we're less than 143 miles from leaving the Shire. Okay. So the Shire's where you started. Uh-huh. Okay, the way he worded that was absurd for some of us that maybe don't understand what's going on. But you guys, how many days have you started your pilgrimage to the Ring Lord? One day into the pilgrimage to Mordor. Okay, you're heading to Mordor, which is where you take the ring that you got from the hobbits and the creatures. To destroy. Because we don't want the ring because the ring's too power. Evil power. You need to get rid of that. So we're walking that fucker 1 ,800 miles.

1:55:41Pat McAfee:That's right. Got it. So that the bad guys can't see us. That's why we're walking. Where's Sauron at in all this? Sauron's getting his army ready. Okay. And where's Sauron? He's at the Ring Lord, or is he behind you? He's in the bad guy area, bad castle. Oh, so during these treadmill walks on this road to Mordor, you guys are going to run into some battles. Oh, yeah. A lot of trials and tribulations. What type of weapons do they have? Swords, bows. Okay, because we're going to make this realistic in here while you guys are walking. I think there should be. Well, the hobbits. He's going to bring in a bow and arrow, he says.

1:56:12Gate ball guns. The hobbits don't really carry weapons. They got little tiny daggers because they're more for stealth. So we're going to have to have Ty be Aragon. Maybe he comes in with a sword. I know Bruce is already joining them on their journey, but they got a ways to go until they're going to get to me. Yeah, still got like 180 miles until we get to our reinforcements, our kind of the fellowship of the ring, if you will. Now, this is Lord of the Rings. Okay.

1:56:37Pat McAfee:17 different Oscars it has won. Total, yeah. Best movie it has won. Yeah, the last one won Best Picture, the third one. Wow. Yeah. I didn't know that. Did you know that? I think it's tied for most Oscars of all time. I want to say it was nominated for like 14 and won like 11. Jeez. These types of movies don't normally just like win, right? Not typically, but this is like one of the most beloved series of all time. And for the longest time, it's like, how are they ever going to make this thing into a movie? And then Peter Jackson said, I'm going to figure it out. And he did. And I mean, this thing was a smash hit, you know.

1:57:14Now they re-release it all the time in theaters and stuff. It spawned a bunch of spinoffs and a bunch of, I mean, it's just crazy stuff.

1:57:21Pat McAfee:My mom loved love. I think she read the books. The books, very big, right? Like B-Blades. Yeah, very. Like B-Blades. I mean, they made three movies out of the first book, like the prequel book, which was just one, not three. Jeez. Is this walk like a common challenge that Lord of the Ring people do? Good question. I don't know about the challenge itself, but I do know people go to New Zealand and very specifically walk the sets of where they filmed all the Lord of the Rings movies. Are you guys following the topography? Are you going up and down inclines, or are we flat the entire time? I think right now we're just doing flat, like if there's a sidewalk through Middle Earth.

1:58:01You've been walking with incline. Yeah, I've been doing incline, but I don't think it's not based on the topography. I mean, there's one scene.

1:58:07Pat McAfee:Yeah, but you need to say, you've been doing incline. I've been doing incline. Bone is walking on regular treadmill. We like that he's moving at all. We like that he's doing that. He's put a weight vest on, too, at times. He is. He does. He has his boobs. As the journey goes on and the ring gets heavier, that's when the weight vest will come on. We don't like that way he's talking about Bone, but I do like that Bone finally looked in the mirror and said, I've got to do something. And if Lord of the Rings was the reason it got him into it, I don't care. I'm happy about it. And we're going to publicly pressure you guys to finish this walk.

1:58:36And we will. And it's going to take over a year. Okay, I didn't know you guys were just signing up. It's like 1 ,800 miles. Yeah, strictly math-wise, I mean, it will take over a year. We need to start hitting this treadmill a little bit early and late in the day. You know, we need to start snacking. But see, like, that's when the point of it will get lost if we do something like that. Then it doesn't become for us, and it doesn't become fun. It's about the journey. Yeah, like part of just being healthy. Where are you guys headed today? Today we're just trying to get to the first pub. I'm not sure exactly what it's called.

1:59:09I know Bo knows all the names of this shit. I don't per se, but I know there's some pub that we're like halfway to that we need to get to. All right.

1:59:17Pat McAfee:Hey, you're going to have pints when he gets to the pub? No, I mean, that also will kind of, you know, do we walk so that we can then be bums and drink pints? That's kind of the whole part of the journey here. Kind of. I think more of the point is just to get in better shape. So I don't know if we're at the point of, hey, let's drink pints at the end of day two. Let's get to day 21 and then drink pints. Yeah, but if you get to the Ivy Bush, you've got to have a pint. Well, I mean, the Ivy Bush does have the best lager in all the Shire. It's just I don't know if we're there yet. What about the Green Dragon Inn?

1:59:47Pat McAfee:You need to stop by and have a pint at the Green Dragon Inn. Actually, we've got to be on our P's and Q's on the Green Dragon Inn. Some weary travelers go through there, so we don't want to get boozed up. Dupe box stops. You've got to remember these hobbits are very, very, very small. So like one flag in an ale, and they're going to be incredibly boozed up. Might not be able to walk for a while. Okay, so you guys got to get a size of a pint that's in proportion to what the Hobbits would have. So we need you to have maybe an entire pitcher. Yeah, and they booze. So it would be like two pitchers.

2:00:16These Hobbits, you know. That's what I'm talking about.

2:00:18Pat McAfee:And Bone, I mean, he might have to drink a keg. Yeah, true. I mean, that would be to size. Let's get to a break. I'm proud of you guys. Then again, we're going into the John Schneider. Like, we don't want Bone to be doing this just so he can drink 30 beers that night. We want to all be doing it. It looks like it's working out for John Schneider. Yeah, for sure. It seems like him and his body have a little agreement. Okay, I'm going to do what I'm going to do to you at night. Then I'm going to do what I do during the day. You guys figure it out in there. And it seems like they're doing it. He's wearing titles doing that shit.

2:00:46Pat McAfee:No doubt. Very loud, though. I don't know how he's on the phone. We have a walking treadmill in here. Baylor McCombs got one. Yeah. Yes. Obviously, Baylor McCombs got one for his office. He said he couldn't use it because it wasn't efficient. So I said, you know what? I'm going to do it. Because I started seeing other people that were doing it. I said, you know what? I'm going to do this. This is what seems like smart people do who are very busy and have a lot of bullshit type work that they have to do. You can multitask while getting in shape. Schneider's got a cowboy watching film. He's on a phone negotiating a future deal while also getting his steps in and putting his shots up.

2:01:16Pat McAfee:I'm really impressed by this. The walking treadmill we got here, so loud. Do you remember that? I tried to button it. It was so every step, too. It was just another wow, wow, wow. It was thin. Yeah, I had to walk like. And it was like a very tight walk. And so watching him do it, because guys do Peloton. Guys do Peloton in your offices. This is the first walking treadmill we've seen in there. But I like that he's just figured out how to kind of balance the body and the mind and the spirit, it seems like, at the same time. We've seen Mr. Schneider here put on a pretty impressive feat. I mean, Ty, we were talking to each other for two and a half hours.

2:01:56Pat McAfee:This close. I wouldn't go that far. You guys weren't as close to each other. That's loud. I mean, I want to hear what this guy's got to say. He's won two Super Bowls. I do like that. You, whenever you get a little boozed up, absolutely hysterical. You do come in for the real thing, though. You know, you do come in for the real thing to make sure we're really – Schneider feels like the same way. So you two were kind of making sure you both could hear each other. We were viewing from afar. Just so proud. Just so proud of what was happening at that thing. and we know how big of a moment that was for you with Mr.

2:02:27Pat McAfee:Schneider. It was huge. But I think for him also. We had a great discussion. We had a great time. He's a good time. He is a good time. Schneider's a good time. That's why I think McDaniel, or McDonald, sorry, geez. There's so many mix out here. Amen. McDonald had to be a guy, right? If Schneider's hiring him, we should have assumed that it was going to be the right move. Right? Yes. Especially the way how it all happened. like with pete going out like yeah he had to be very confident but he found his guy yeah now that we kind of know schneider a little bit more and everybody's starting to show him a little bit more respect in the history of ball and what he might be like greatest gm one of the greatest gms of all time it's like him moving and kicking pete carroll out of the building after kicking russ out of the building after kicking the legion of boom out of the building like those are a lot of very hard decisions but you have to have you know forethought on what the future could look like because if you just kick everybody out that does everything and you get worse your ass is getting fired instead he was able to do all that have the vision deal with the tough stuff take the shots on the shins and then move forward into a different era and the ownership group was like thank you yes sell and then the new ownership comes in is this guy staying yeah sweet so he'll just do the football thing and i just gotta do it yeah you got it it's like he has been very beneficial to the allen family he's been very beneficial to the seahawks and he's been very very beneficial to the league in being like a blueprint on how you can go from one era to the next and have success both times.

2:03:56Pat McAfee:Not easy to do. He has somehow threaded the needle. Good for him out there while he's walking on that fucking treadmill. Not easy to do at all. I mean, look, like, can you say, have the Colts been trying to do that ever since Peyton has been gone? There's so many teams that are trying to figure out to do what they do, but I think a lot of it starts with his talent evaluation. That dude knows how to draft. Like, he seems to draft the right people and plug them into place. I don't know what you're pissed off, but I didn't say anything bad. Well, there's just no reason to bring up the Colts. There's a lot of teams.

2:04:21I'm just thinking of how hard it is to transition from a great era of franchise to move to the next era it is. Tough decisions have to be made. Still doing it here.

2:04:30Pat McAfee:Patriots figuring it out right now in real time. We're watching it happen. Good for them. Pittsburgh Steelers are in the middle of who's post Ben Roethlisberger going to be the guy. Aaron Rodgers. So, Mason Rudolph, we'll talk about that. Let's get to a break. On the other side, we'll wrap up all the news that's happening. Seems like there's a clear-cut No. 2 quarterback in Pittsburgh. And it's not one of the young guys. No, it's not. Who is it, coach? Listen, I love Austin and Mason Rudolph. I said that last year. I was impressed with what this guy was doing. So, Mason's not going to play. Or maybe they don't want him to get hurt, so they can trade him.

2:05:06Pat McAfee:Whoa! Tony. So much fodder, so many angles. We'll see which one's accurate, which one's not. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. Take five. Five. Five.

2:05:26Pat McAfee:Football is the greatest, and tonight we have preseason. Are you okay? Yeah, I'm trying to time it up because I'm a little bit delayed. I always try to say it a bit early. I don't know how it is timed up at all. That one sounded like it was a little bit off by all parties. Do we want to go back to the top, or do you want to let us know, are you going early or late here? I was trying to go early on this time. Okay, let's go from the top. So this time, go early, and then we'll tell you if that's the right – what's that? What? What were you saying? I thought we were doing something. I thought that one sounded good.

2:05:57No, yeah. So tell us if you're early or if you're going early or late. This feels like a bit. This feels like a scheduled bit that I don't know about. No, it's not – I'm all in. I'm in. I'm playing. It's the preseason. We're trying to get ready for the regular season. It's called practice. You're right. It's called practice. It's not perfect. Yeah, let's do it.

2:06:12Pat McAfee:Okay, so you're going to go early in your mind, and we'll tell you if it's on time or if you need to go just a little bit later. That's where the mindset is going into this rep, right? Yep. Joint practice here, okay? Yep. From the top, please, Foxy. Let's go. Let's go! This show stinks, and the fact that you listen, we are very good. You guys got to say it, too, though. McAfee on the line with a gorgeous assist. Something's up. I can tell something's up. You ping. Stunner! Stunner! Damn it! Be a friend, tell a friend something nice could change their life. We want out! We want out! Sports! Sports!

2:06:51Sports! Sports! Sports! Hello, beautiful people. And welcome back to our humble abode, the DraftKings Thunderdome.

2:07:00Pat McAfee:On this Monday Night Football Thursday, August 20th, 2026, Outer 3, the program begins now. Football. Wow. That's about... Now we know the effort that you're giving. Because I never hear you do it. what we're doing. Don't talk about my volume. I thought you guys were joining me. What happened? No, we were wanting to know if you were on time or not. Nobody told you they were joining you. Nobody said anything. You need to do your job. Okay? Let's not worry about what everybody else is doing around us. I'm trying to time it up with you guys. That's what I'm saying. I go early to try to time it up with you because if I go, when I hear you guys say football, it seems to be a split second late.

2:07:36Yeah, if that's your volume, it doesn't matter.

2:07:38Pat McAfee:You might as well not even say it. Okay. No, but you need to say... Continue to say it. I am going to continue to say it. Okay, but we would like you to just confidently say it. Because you sound like that one had a lot of questions. No, there was no questions. I tried to say it quietly so I could hear you guys to see if I timed myself up. But we were going to be the ones that were going to tell you if you're on the right. That one felt like the timing good, volume bad. Oh, okay. All right, good. I wasn't trying to get the volume right. I was trying to get the timing right. Bam.

2:08:09Do you need one more? I can always use one more. Reps is what gets everybody better. Let's do that extra route. Let's do it. Let's do that extra route. From the top, please. Here we go. Let's go.

2:08:21Pat McAfee:This show stinks. And the fact that you listen, we are very, very thankful for. McAfee on the line with a gorgeous assist. The all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. You pick. Stutter! Stutter! Damn it! Your friend tell a friend something nice could change their life. We won't pass! We won't pass!

2:08:44Pat McAfee:Hello, beautiful people. And welcome back to our Humble LeBeau, the Draft Kings Thunderdome. On this Monday Night Football Thursday, August 20th, 2026, Hour 3 of the program begins now. Football! You're a little early, just delayed a tiny bit there. That's A.J. Hawk, the toxic team is here at Boston Corner, and that's Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer. Dad. Cowboys AP Tone is here. I think you need to delay like a half a second. Okay, I'm always working. Always working on it. Absolutely. First time we did that, Blue was in a different part of the Thunderdome. Second time he was standing. Third time, this guy's sitting like a perfect statue.

2:09:21Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah. A statue. A statue. Now Jabba, though, is kind of getting him a little bit. Stop, Jabba. Stop it. Come on. Yeah. Hey, Jabba, what's going on? Bite it. He's going to hurt this thing right here. Hey, Jabba, let's make sure we're acting right. Okay, let's make sure we're going where we're supposed to be going, little Jabba. Blue has been fantastic in here, I must say. I've been impressed by this dog and how he has acted. Very comfortable over here, hanging here, talking to everybody. Just told me he needed to go outside and pee during the break. Took him outside to pee. Started running the land a little bit.

2:09:51Pat McAfee:I hit a little whistle to him. He comes running right back, comes inside, jumps right onto Gumpy's chest, white shirt muddle. So it was a nice little break there, pal. Happy Gump Day, by the way. Happy Gump Day. Had to change the tarp there because Blue got a little excited, eh? Perfect. Prem starts tomorrow. Liverpool on Sunday. Here we go. Okay. Prem's happening. AJ, what does that mean? Yeah. Soccer. That is exactly right. Prem, so the league below the league is starting. No. Premier is the one in England. What's the champions? Champions League is all the leagues in Europe. So that's the all-star of the league.

2:10:30Yeah. It doesn't start for a month or so. And you got to do good in Prem to get two champions. So really. Next year.

2:10:37Pat McAfee:Yeah. You got to do good in Prem this year to be in champions next year. Is Ryan Reynolds' team and old Robbie Mack, where are they? Prem. They're in the championship. One below. They're in Burnley's league. They've come up quite a bit. I think they were like, what? The championship. You got the championship, the Prem, and then the Champions League? No. No, no, no, no. Yes. That's just England. Championship is England. Championship is England. Okay, okay. Yeah. Yeah, why don't we name them all the same thing? That sounds good. The English championship. Jeez, Louise. Don't forget League U. Your tone acts like it's common sense, like you would know this.

2:11:12I understand you follow it very closely, but as an outsider's view, some of the wording makes it tough, but I'm trying to learn. I mean, I would guess that Wrexham will never be in the Champions League, but shoot for the stars for sure. Maybe in the Prem, though. Maybe the Prem. I feel like they might hit a wall in the championship this year. It's a tough league to play in, but we'll see how it goes.

2:11:33Pat McAfee:Well, the championship is filled with Prem teams that have been relegated, because bottom three are going down to the championship. Top four going up to Champions League, AJ. Obviously, everybody knows that. Bottom three, Championship League. Top four, Champions League. Everybody else hanging out in the Premier League, which is England's Premier League. Now, there are other leagues. The Bundesliga, which is Germany's Premier League. La Liga is another one. They have the French Farm League where all the teams are ass, but they talk a lot, right? Is that not in the league? Just PHG beats the shit out of everybody.

2:12:07League off.

2:12:08Pat McAfee:MLS would do it to, I believe, the French League, right? No. I don't want to go that far. Yeah, it's the top league. Marseille would cook the MLS. The PHG's won the Champions League back-to-back season. I'm not so convinced that you could throw the MLS let's take the best six teams in the MLS I think you could have them come play high school soccer in Indiana and I'm not so sure the MLS six teams would there might be like Bishop Chittard here in Indy they might win the state championship over LAFC What? You think our American high schoolers are better than our MLS league? From what I'm seeing on the pitch lately, yeah.

2:12:58I'm not so sure that's not the case. MLS All-Stars are getting regulated in the prim. It's called relegated, I believe. They're getting regulated on the pitch, too, though. Regulators!

2:13:08Pat McAfee:Mound up! And they did that last night. I don't know if you saw Philadelphia Union, one of the Sullivans, form tackle on Cush. Just wait. We're not happy at all about what just happened. You know what I'm going to do about it? Yeah, I don't think so. Boom! You want to step over me? I don't think his little brother is about to jump in right there. Sullivan, he was 16 years old, I think, signed to the Philadelphia Union. He just got punched in the face, just kept eating and kept moving forward. We like that. He's a teenager. He's young. His brother right there goes at form tackle. See, this is what's coming.

2:13:36This is what the French League could never – Sullivan, picking guy. Hi. Oui, oui. Monsieur.

2:13:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think that would certainly be something. Bonjour, au revoir is what the Sullivan boys are saying over there. But I think that is not a great thing that that's the biggest highlight out of your league. I would agree because if we're going crazy about that takedown where he tries to squeeze the guys nuts before he does it, I don't know if that's what we want to write home about and say, wow, this league's awesome. Well, how about Messi scoring then? He did a little— Yeah, but again— He's down here at the bottom, Messi. Messi makes it look like he's playing against soccer shots like they're doing at daycare over here that my daughter's in.

2:14:18It looks like that's who everyone else on the field is, and then you have sweet Lou Messi.

2:14:22Pat McAfee:He did that in the World Cup, too, just he couldn't get the ball in the finals. Like, Spain didn't let him even touch. I don't think he touched the ball in the finals. But in the MLS, every once in a while, the ball gets over to Messi, and he makes everybody look like children. Would he do that in every league? I mean, yeah, best of all time, you know. But I told you, I'm just – I know we used to do this, where we'd act like the MLS is the top league in the world. It's not. It's a horseshit league. I'm sorry. I wish it was better. Soccer Don Garber, he's done his best. He's tried his best. And that's before we go to, you know, the Premier League schedule.

2:14:56And we got, you know, them playing soccer in Chicago when it's 20 below wind chill in the middle of winter. And then we'll really see no one watching. There was an hour and a half delay in Orlando last night as well. Due to rain? Yeah, they got back out there though. It's just they had their moment in the sun.

2:15:14Pat McAfee:When we beat, what was that team the first game? Who did we watch? Padigwe. Padigwe. Oh, no, I'm not even talking, you know, because that does not matter until the next one. And quite frankly, you know, even with us getting punch back, it doesn't matter then either because we're not going to win. Dude. Kevin Sullivan. Yeah, if he's so good, why the fuck's he playing in the MLS? Because you know what I've noticed? They're sending him out. He's doing the MLS. He's doing the MLS. He's doing the MLS. He's doing the MLS. He's doing the MLS. He's doing the MLS. He's doing the MLS. Yeah, guess what? But Lamin-Yemal was fucking starting for Barcelona when he was 15.

2:15:43And that's what it takes. That's different. That's what it takes. That's different. We don't fucking have that. So I'm done. I'm done. Fair enough. Now, if Bobby Boanga wants to rescind wherever he's from, I don't know. He's kind of a man of no nation, a beast of no nation, if you will. And he wants to come play for the United States. Now, granted, don't correct me if I'm wrong. I think he might be like 37 by the time the next World Cup rolls around. He'll be 31. He'll be 35. That's fine. Tim Rehm. Well, LAFC isn't fucking playing him, so it doesn't matter. They got their two best players. And that's why this league is a problem.

2:16:18On the line to the 64th minute cost me my goddamn parlay. All right, we did soccer. Yeah. His name's not even Bobby? I'll tell you what. What? No, no, no. It's like Dennis or something. Yeah, Dennis. You guys have been talking about this guy for months. When he scores, he says I'm Bobby Boanga, though. Okay, so Bobby Boanga was a name that I had heard only from you guys. Yeah. And you continue to speak of this, man. And I learned a lot about him. This guy's a player. He is a player. He's an absolute stallion of a player. And his name is not even what you guys call him. Can we show Mr. – is his name Boanga?

2:16:48Yeah, it's Dennis Boanga. Dennis Boanga. His teammates call him Bobby Boanga. That doesn't really roll off the tongue. You know what does? Bobby Boanga. Yeah, Bobby Boanga also has a chance to be – And it's probably not Dennis. It's probably Denny or something like that. It's Bobby Boanga. He is French or so. Oh, so it's Denny. Yeah, exactly. Denny Boanga. No offense. For LA in the MLS? Yeah. LAFC. And he lights it up. LA Galaxy. See, that's what I'm saying. He's such a good player. He plays in the MLS. He's from France. Can't even get any time. He scored in the final, right? Or the third place game?

2:17:22Pat McAfee:No, I think it was only that other guy. What's his name? Bappy? Yeah, there it is. Bappy. He's really good. All right, that was good soccer. I'll tell you what, we'll probably stick around soccer every time it comes up going forward until we've just really pissed Ty off. because we got there, and boy, that was the goal. And it's up, and he scores, as Greeny would say. Greeny loves the beautiful game. You can really tell. Messi's down here at the bottom, and he gets it, and it's up, and he scores. All right. That's what Greeny said this morning. It was one of the best reads I've ever heard Greeny have.

2:17:58I was dying laughing because he wanted to say it's up and good because it was a kick. But then he was like, ah, it's not a field goal, though.

2:18:05Pat McAfee:In mid-sentence, you could tell he was trying to, nah, not the right decision. How does this work? While trying to show respect to the greatest of all time. That was funny. I do think Messi has been a success story for soccer as a whole in America. But, man, the way the U.S. team ended, I think, is going to be something. And then the MLS goalies, like, whiffing and goals going in. They're getting their season out there. They're back. Messi's back. He's off the World Cup. Isn't it almost the playoffs? Getting close, yeah. Inter-Miami's got it figured out. They're struggling right now, legitimately.

2:18:34Pat McAfee:Fuck! What is that, his first game back? Nah, second, they lost 4-1 the other night. I mean, they're in it. They finally switched goalies from that fucking guy who just lets everything in for no reason, so that was good. Connor, I didn't know you had affiliations like that. I just didn't realize they were fucking struggling. I mean, none of this shit matters. Basically, almost 90 % of the stuff we've been talking about for the past six months doesn't matter in seven days, and then it really doesn't matter in 20 days. That's where I'm at. We got preseason tonight. I don't even give a... If it was the World Cup final tonight or Raiders versus Texans, I'm watching preseason week two Raiders-Texans.

2:19:12Pat McAfee:Yeah, so that's Hall of Fame game numbers. We'll tell you the story about how America feels about our league and our sport. We do appreciate what soccer did. Gave us a lot of run. Gave us a lot of that. Helped the summer so much. Stop these obviously all in. But it is tough to continue to do soccer talk, especially after you get tied to exactly where we were trying to go. There was a north star to that conversation, and we ended up at it. And now there's a night filled with great quarterbacks playing the best sport to ever be created. As Fernando, we think he's going to get a lot of rub from what Clint Kubiak, head coach of the Raiders, said.

2:19:48Pat McAfee:Now, is that like he's one quarterback, and they're doing it to see what he does? He's number one quarterback, and then Kirk comes in. Kirk Cousins to be determined. I don't know if there's been any updates since we've been live, but there's no update there. Is this just kind of like, let's give a run with Nando? Who's he playing alongside? And then C.J. Stroud, probably a series or two, but nobody on defense is playing. So you'd assume that Nando should be able to have a little bit of success, but the Houston Texans' defense is the best in the league. Are the backups also that? We shall see. Dougie Davis-Mills will play.

2:20:16Pat McAfee:He's an experienced NFL quarterback. He can move the ball if he needs to. Brock Purdy, obviously a stud, a very paid, made man from the San Francisco 49ers, earned it out of Iowa State as the last pick of the NFL draft, now leading the San Francisco 49ers against Justin Herbert and the Chargers. This feels like a big night of ball. Like if this was week 10 and this was happening in a back-to-back primetime matchup and we had Fernando versus C.J. Stroud and Brock Purdy versus Justin Herbert, we would be very fucking excited. So we've got to count this as a massive win on Monday Night Football, Thursday, August 20, 2026, which is what you wanted us to be discussing this entire time, Ty.

2:20:53Yeah, yeah, definitely. And, you know, I mean, especially now when the preseason and training camp has kind of gone on a little bit and it wears off, especially if it's your team, you get very excited about a few guys and then you see different highlights. We're at the point now where you're kind of getting a little bit better of an idea like, okay, this guy actually might make an impact this year. You know, like this guy, he's come a long way from what I saw last year. And then again, just at this point, even for Herbert and Purdy, they might only get one series. But last week, watching the Packers-Steelers, that one series that Jordan Love got, that's really all I needed to see.

2:21:32It was like, okay, it looks good. I'm in a better spot now than I was before this game started with all the new pieces and everything. So if you're a fan of either one of those teams or just a fan in general looking to watch some good football, Like, that's enough of a carrot dangled in front of you that, like, it's worth investing your time watching these games.

2:21:52Pat McAfee:Joint practice is happening. Bears, Bengals, Bills, Browns, Eagles, Patriots, Falcons, Colts. I want to let you know, social media team for the Colts putting out some highlights. Here we go. I saw DeForest Buckner just moving bodies. I saw him going absolutely crazy. Saw Danny Dimes making some plays. Buck, whenever he's hurt, we don't play good. So, last couple years, he's been out for some significant time. We have not been good at football whenever he doesn't play. When he plays, we've been very good at football. And I think some of the injuries, like, is it worth him playing? Is it not worth him playing type situations?

2:22:22Pat McAfee:But when he's on the field, we are very, very good. Him and Grover next to each other, fantastic news. I like seeing this against the Falcons. And we'd like to welcome Buck all the way back. Here's Josh Downs cooking. Hi. See you later. How you doing? Now, Danny Dimes hits him with a ball. Josh thinks he can turn around and go back for it. Great route here. I mean, just route it up. Old buddy, I like that number 13's back out there. Looks like T.Y. Hilton. and here's Dolan, I believe, catching it. It's like Danny Dimes went crazy today, so did the offense. This is all you need in preseason. Just a couple highlights.

2:22:51Pat McAfee:Just a little bit of hope that your team can be great. Now, on the other side, what they're saying about the Falcons, not good. It might be the worst team in the NFL, they're saying, at one position, yeah. Yeah, I mean, the people that have been waiting to go after Tua, who are maybe a part of the Miami Dolphins fan base, they're certainly finding their reasons with what reporters are saying. Kevin Bowen, who is local radio host here in Indianapolis, He did a selfie breakdown of practice and was like, Danny Dimes, 14-14, offense moving. Tyler Warren, a little bit of a scare, but he should be good.

2:23:20Pat McAfee:Atlanta, trouble. I mean, two are not good. And then that obviously got picked up in Atlanta more so than it did here in Indianapolis. Here's his video right here. Literally, this is what the look was. This thing goes mega viral in Atlanta. And then probably down there in the Dolph Fam community, if I had to as well. Kevin Bowen, good man, has done a lot for the city of Indianapolis, from Indianapolis. Loves the Colts. We appreciate his reporting, but all good coming out of Colts, seemingly all bad coming out of Falcons, but that's just one day. That's kind of us living and dying literally with every single highlight or low light that comes out with our team.

2:23:52Pat McAfee:And I think that's why this year's preseason for me has been a bit more special for you as a Patriots fan. It feels like there's a new highlight every single day. Yeah, it's been incredible. They've also done the joint practices like Tony and I were just talking. It's nice that the Patriots have had this the last two weeks and the Colts, the same exact thing. Like there's actually stuff that you can compare to and react to. obviously there's other drama, contract stuff with Gonzo and stuff like that, but watching Drake May throw the ball to A.J. Brown, to Romeo Dobbs, like these new guys who are going to revamp the entire team so much, has been huge.

2:24:22And then also just even on defense, like being able to watch your team play against a different offense is so nice because usually if it's offense versus defense, you've mentioned this before, like you just want the offense to do well and you don't really care if it's your defense struggling, but being able to actually root for your own defense against another team's offense. I mean, that's the best part. And if you're Atlanta, if anything, this is kind of good news, right? Because if Tua starts the first couple of games and he stinks, at least you find out about Penix. Like, at least you get a chance to learn, like, okay, is Penix going to be our guy?

2:24:52Because even for Penix, like, he hasn't really had a fair shake or been healthy enough to really play enough where you know. So if he stinks, then Stefanski gets to do the quarterback thing again and be the head coach there for six more years.

2:25:03Pat McAfee:Yeah, we'll see how the Atlanta Falcons end up. Matt Ryan, Kevin Stefanski. You'd assume the offense will get it figured out. You know, you would assume. Paid a lot of money, he's going to say. They got a lot of weapons. Yeah, Bajon Robinson, obviously people saying best running back in sport is behind you. Kyle Pitts, obviously out there. Can they get it going? We shall see. Maybe two is just trying to catch up to the offense. This is training camp. We got to remember that, AJ. We say it a lot. Practice. Practice. Yeah. Trying stuff. We were just doing it. Trying stuff, AJ. Trying to. It is hard, though.

2:25:29It is hard not to overreact both ways. in a positive manner and a negative manner. If you see and hear of one tough day, you're like, oh, man, they're screwed. And then all of a sudden the next day is good and we're back on track.

2:25:39Pat McAfee:One tough period. I mean, we watched one-on-one for the Colts-Patriots and the Patriots offense was just cooking our corners. That gets put on the internet within 10 minutes of it happening. And I think we're losing every game of the year. That was my immediate reaction, just how bad it was. And then they're like, actually, by the end of practice, you see about 15 periods later, the Colts really started to actually dominate. It's like, okay, I like hearing that news. Us having Shane Steichen on immediately after that practice was a beautiful piece of, you know, just kind of football storytelling, I think.

2:26:12Pat McAfee:Shane, I heard we're getting killed earlier. What? No, yeah, I guess I would have to watch a film on the 101s. We just finished four touchdowns. What are we, what are we, I didn't see any of that. Okay, so maybe we should put more of it out. I think it's only a matter of time before there's full live stream with commentary of these joint practices, probably on NFL Network, if I had to guess. And that is me just saying that. I've not talked to anybody who actually makes decisions. But it feels like the emphasis on joint practices that's coming from next CBA, they will be where you see the stars play and the preseason games are going to become, you know.

2:26:45Now, owners like it because the owners like preseason games

2:26:48Pat McAfee:because those tickets are still tickets, you know, to those games. So they're going to have to figure out how to do the joint practices with places where they can sell tickets. I'm sure Jerry Jones will be able to figure that out before everybody else. But that feels like that's going to be the future of what we follow. It's not just going to be social teams getting clips out. I assume it's going to be live stream. And I assume there's going to be deals made between coaches and the networks on what's allowed to be shown, what's not allowed to be shown. Hey, in this period, we can't be showing this.

2:27:13Pat McAfee:Got it. We'll go to this side. We need something over here then you've got to be doing. So I think that's the next evolution of all this shit and what it becomes. And to be honest, that'd be great. Because you would see all the studs. All the studs have to take on the studs in those. And you also get situations. Hey, we got two minutes. We did it up there at the Steelers camp. We're like, all right, here we go, 147 left. And that was just us guessing and pontificating on what was happening because we didn't have refs. It's like, that shit's all good. And I think that's only a matter of time for that's what we're focusing on.

2:27:40Yeah, like Packers family night. You could see them just doing Packers family night, but with joint practices. Then you still get guys in the stadium. You're still selling concession and everything like that. So that would be cool. It will just be interesting to see if they just completely get rid of the preseason. Like if all those preseason games are gone and there's only one at the end of the year.

2:27:56Pat McAfee:Maybe like a showcase one for all the guys that are on the bubble. Yeah. Like a bubble game or something. When do you do that? Do you do that like this weekend where then there's still two weeks to the season or 17 days, whatever it will end up being? Or do you do it 14 days away? Like just to see how they do the preseason. I'll be excited to see Roger Goodell tell these people that what we're thinking is two joint practices for every team and then we'll do one bubble game at the end. In Australia. Players are going to hate the joint practice muss. Players are going to hate it. Some of them will be in primetime, too.

2:28:28Joint practices? 6.30, 7 p.m. Yeah, 7 p.m.

2:28:31Pat McAfee:Morning ones, too, because some teams go morning. I mean, that could be a joint practice. Move them to the primetime window, too, for certain days. Hey, we need you two. You guys need to be night practicing, because you guys might have a night game, right? Yep, that's on you guys. So you can sell it to your team on why you're doing night practices. So we don't really give a shit that you don't like it. We're doing night practices because you're preparing for primetime games. So way to go. And we are going to be streaming that with 10 cameras. We're bringing 10 cameras to this thing, and we are going to be showcasing it.

2:29:00Pat McAfee:Because I think those practice reps, as somebody that got to watch a lot of it, a lot, a lot of practice reps I've got to watch. It's electrifying. Yeah. It is. Way better than the combine. Look at the combine numbers. Like, joint practice is much more fun to watch. Yeah, one-on-ones going. When you stagger them all day. running back linebackers one-on-ones. Nobody even talks about that. Because right now all we see is wide receiver corners. You hear about offensive linemen ones. Running back linebacker ones might be the most vicious out of all of them. Don't you think, AJ? That's real. Oh, nasty.

2:29:32I've watched dudes' careers end in that drill, yes. Dude is CTE.

2:29:36Pat McAfee:Oh, okay. Well, potentially. But I thought you meant like they get exposed that they're not going to be able to handle what the NFL is. Because I've seen a few of those, too, where it's like, okay, that guy just got said, this ain't the league for me. Linebacker and running back. Both of them. Yeah, it happens both ways, yeah. The linebacker comes running in, got it, and a running back goes helmet to jaw, boom, right on back. You actually see the linebacker go, this is a men's league here. Wow. They just kind of walk this one off. Or a running back just getting actually steamrolled and finding out UFL is probably where I'm going to head to because they're paying these guys$100 million a year basically at this point.

2:30:14Pat McAfee:So that's the most official one, and we get no clips of that yet. I don't think I've seen any social team put out a clip of a running back linebacker one, but that's just one period that we could potentially have. Oh, joint practice era of live TV is going to be amazing. I cannot wait. That's probably like very soon if I had to guess. Next couple of years. Guys running like seven second routes, doing 13 moves, catching the ball in one-on-ones, and people are like, oh, we're going to score a thousand points this year. I think that's where the commentators will be a big part of this. Commentators need to actually explain what's going on.

2:30:45Pat McAfee:I think that's one home base, and I think you're red zone in that, right? Yeah, probably. Definitely. I think you're bouncing in there. Unless you just do, like 10 o 'clock, there's only one per hour. That would also be sweet. But then – From 10 to 8 p.m. You could do where you're like, hey, this practice, these two teams don't want it shown during this period. You could go to a different practice. Bounce over there. And also, you can have people on the ground, obviously. Already have people who represent things that we miss. What do we miss? Maybe there's a big scrum. Let's go ahead and go back to that footage.

2:31:16Pat McAfee:We have it here. This just took place. You can make that a whole day affair for sure. Yeah, they will. Oh, I can't wait for that. I'm sure they've already thought of all of this, and they're in the middle of creating that as we speak. Just like Heinz Ketchup when I sent them Ketchat Sauce, and they told me they were already in the middle of making it. Yeah. And then 15 years later, it dropped them. Like, excuse me. That was – I wish Tim was still here. I was maybe like 13 or 14 sent that email to Heinz. Thought I was going to be a bazillionaire. I would like to partner with you. Could have been.

2:31:48Pat McAfee:You need to put hot sauce in your ketchup. Mix it up. It's the best thing for everything. Kachot sauce. It's the next one. Let's go ahead and do that. Put on eggs. Put on chicken. You can put on anything. Actually, anything a ketchup can go on. This can go on. It's your next one. Ten emails, maybe. Ten emails. Send it to them. However, we can send it. Dial up internet through the entire thing. Finally get one back. Thank you so much. A lot of ideas that get sent to us, we already have in production. We will certainly be in contact or whatever. They weren't. They fucking 15 years later, they did it.

2:32:16Pat McAfee:But still haven't mastered it, I don't think. Still your idea. You might be owed some money. Don't talk about that. I need nothing, okay? I need absolutely nothing from anybody. I'm just happy that the world has it. Because it is, I mean, I'm a ketchup guy over mustard. I don't mind mayonnaise, but I don't mind mustard either. But ketchup and hot sauce together is like the, yeah, there it is. Well, that's sweet. Yeah. Is that it? No. Or is that Sriracha? I go Frank's. So you go Heinz ketchup circle to create a border. Then you go Frank's Red Hot into that. Okay? So then you fill up a pond. Okay?

2:32:57Pat McAfee:With that. Sure. And then you top the pond with ketchup. Then you take dino nug or whatever you are eating. Oh, okay. Fry, whatever you're doing. You whip that together. And you actually watch it come to the perfect color between a lightish, pinkish, red, reddish and orange-ish in there, and then you'll know when the right time is and you'll go for it. And it's fantastic. I still think they could do that. Heinz. Could. Who's Mrs. Heinz? Didn't she marry Schwarzenegger? Carol J. Heinz. Is that who you're thinking of? Is that the Ridge? Oh, she was married to a political guy back in the day. Who was it?

2:33:34Arnold Schwarzenegger.

2:33:35Pat McAfee:I think a member of the Heinz family was married to Arnold Schwarzenegger. That was the Kennedys. Okay. Oh, yeah. Maybe I'm wrong. Yikes. Same thing, though. Heinz family, Kennedy family. You get it. It's all kind of the same with Schwartz and I. All right, a couple big news. J.J. McCarthy is the backup quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. Thank God. Not Carson Wentz. Did you? What did you say? Thank God. Breaking news. Lions tight end Sam Laporta's status for Detroit's regular season opener is unclear after he suffered a hip injury. The star tight end sustained the injury during a recent practice and has missed multiple practices this week.

2:34:08Pat McAfee:E. Woodyard on the case. Sam with Senior NFL Insider Adam Schefter. Okay, so Sam Laporta. I think we heard a rumbling, right? We just didn't know what was going to be. I think we heard hoping. Yeah, exactly. I had seen that he was out of practice, and I had no idea why. And obviously last season he was out for majority of the season with that back injury that he ended up having surgery on. And then when he had that surgery and was out for the year, the Lions had a winning record, were doing great. When he left, there was a humongous drop-off in the offensive production. He blocks, he catches, he does everything.

2:34:38He has been outstanding for this team. This is a big-time bummer. This is a killer, especially with the new offensive coordinator, Drew Petsing, who is a big tight end guy, allegedly. So this is a killer.

2:34:49Pat McAfee:Yeah, Diggs just told Foxy in his ear that his daughter's down because Sam Laporta is potentially down. Yeah, sorry, that really threw me off. That's on me. I forgot. It's all right. Yeah, Foxy, big on-air guy. Well, I thought he was talking to me, too. I was like, okay. It's all right, Foxy. I appreciate what you said, what you did, and how you battled through there. But what Tone Diggs did say to all of us in one ear, his dauber is down right now. It seems like he's bobbering. It definitely is. Sam Laporta, didn't your center get injured as well? Yeah, the starting center that we just signed in the offseason, Cade Mays, he's been out.

2:35:24They say for like eight weeks he'll be out. They've been jumbling up the offensive line, trying to figure that out. The guard, Tate Ratledge, he's been taking center snaps.

2:35:33Pat McAfee:So just like the Chargers, man, it seems like the Lions and the Chargers. Yes, exactly. Just injuries just seemingly are just showing up on a regular basis. Is it – do you guys have to do another cleansing of some sort? Like, how do we get through this? I have no idea because, yeah, two years ago we're 15-2, but every single starter on the defense was out. We go to the first – we get the one seed, go to the first round of the playoffs, we lose there. That was a killer last year. We absolutely don't make the playoffs. And then that was why when we made the NFC Championship a couple years ago, we were healthy.

2:36:04And it was like this is the time where we had to do it, and they never did. so everyone's scared that the window might be closed. I think this year is a massive, massive, massive breaking point in that window era.

2:36:15Pat McAfee:If we can stay healthy, obviously. The uncertain for week one is a different word than we've been hearing from everybody else. Actually, hopeful. Everybody's been able to use the word hopeful because we're a couple weeks out from week one still. I wonder how many of those hopefuls will become uncertains. We did hear now Sam Laporta uncertain for one. Go ahead, Tone. You had something? Yeah. We were just talking about the Lions and Foxy was going through all of the past. I wonder if Dan Campbell's regretting going for fourth down against the Niners that many times up 20 points or whatever it was.

2:36:43How many years ago was that? 2023, I believe.

2:36:47Pat McAfee:Okay, so we go from that to Heartbreak City to making playoffs and losing because you're a house of cards. Yes. To not making the playoffs to this year. Correct. Oh, no. If Josh Reynolds would have just caught those fourth down balls, we would have made the Super Bowl and probably won the Super Bowl. But now. You just kicked the field goal, actually. I mean, we don't want to go back in time and do armchair quarterbacking, but you guys should have won that game. Should have won that game. They're killing it. And now look at what we're doing. We got the injury bug and we can't get it out of the building.

2:37:25I don't like that at all. It's the worst thing to have. Yeah, it's the worst. It's an absolute bummer. But I'd rather have him be hurt now than hurt later in the season. Just let's get healthy, and hopefully he comes back.

2:37:35Pat McAfee:Hurt me now, healthy me later. Yeah, well, so said. Okay, I understand. I understand exactly what you're saying. Trevon Diggs has officially signed with the Seattle Seahawks. We believe, everybody kind of believes, the Terryon Arnold commissioner's exemption list conversation that we learned on Hard Knocks. We probably could have assumed that the Seattle Seahawks were going to try to bring in a member of the secondary, another corner. Trevon Diggs, veteran corner, was on the market. They bring him in. Obviously, Trevon Diggs is a couple years removed from leading the league in interceptions. Ball Hawk, obviously.

2:38:06Pat McAfee:How we fit into the Seattle Seahawks defense is obviously the question. AJ, how do you feel about the move? Obviously, we think very highly of Schneider and the moves that he makes. Was desperately needing a corner, it sounds like. He brings in Diggs. Your thoughts? I think it's a good fit. Obviously, we know Diggs is an absolute ball. Did he have 10 picks a couple years ago? 11, I think. I mean, that's – which is just unheard of to think of that much production. But so, yeah, I think Seattle, we see Coach McDonald like that guy is all about ball. He's all business. I think they will have a great role for him, and he can thrive in that system.

2:38:38It's like the style of play that they have there in Seattle, I think that's the biggest thing. Like they set a standard, especially on defense, and I feel like Diggs can step right into that. Yeah, it's such a hard position, man. Yeah. It's impossible. Watch those one-on-ones. That's all I'm thinking watching those one-on-ones. I'm like, how are you ever going to – this guy's got a 15-way go on me. How do you ever cover him?

2:38:56Pat McAfee:Well, and how about Jackson Smith and Jigba video that they did on Hard Knocks? It's like, all right, guess where this guy's at. And you're like, oh, he's going that way. And he does. And then he breaks that thing off and just goes a complete different direction. And then you hear him talk about it. He's like, a good route runner is a good artist. You're trying to paint a picture that isn't real to people. And it's like you watch that and like Keenan Allen and like Reggie and Cooper Cup and like Steve Smith, I think, was probably a good route guy if I had to guess. but like the people that are noted route runners these fuckers are outrageous just impossible to guess what they're doing and it doesn't matter if you run a 4-8 or 4-9 or 5-0 if the defense if the db gives you a window with the quarterbacks that we have if you can get open i mean they can get you the ball and uh that's why third downs are so important and so impressive because there's tight windows there's lock coverage and it's like these guys can make people just see ghosts literally the best athletes on earth are seeing ghosts because of where these guys are headed has to feel so good when you shake a guy yeah has to feel all hoopers huh like that's what i almost put with the travis kelsey one he looks in great shape by the way i know it does look good did you see him walk they did a walk down this is uh from mckenzie nelson travis kelsey's final walk down the hill wow saint joe obviously they do training camp at saint joe this walk has been a pillar of Travis Kelsey's life.

2:40:20Pat McAfee:And now he makes it his last time. And pause. And look, he's right there. Look at that. Hey, he looks fit. Yeah, he does. Like, actually, I was watching a walk and I'm like, I wonder if he's getting emotional about this or very excited to get the fuck out of there. You know, could be. Yeah. Could be either or, you know, just thinking about all the things that have happened since he started doing this as a Kansas City Chief first, now actually being his final walk. What's going through his mind? And then as I saw him get right past McKenzie here. Didn't say anything. Kind of an interesting video.

2:40:48Pat McAfee:You know? I thought there would at least be an interaction. From my understanding, there wasn't, but there might have been one on tail end whenever I went out there. I saw him get right in front of him. I'm like, golly, he looks like he's in really good shape. Because some of the videos from straight on, didn't really know. It's like hanging out to the side. This one, it feels like he's in the best shape that he's been in some time. He's obviously looking to rewrite the end of his football story or just write his football story, kind of how he's going to go out. Patrick Mahomes, not talked about really much.

2:41:20Pat McAfee:Chiefs still favorites because they have Andy Reid and the boys, but it's like I like how they're looking and the way they're operating. Now, obviously, Elohi there on defense, not great, that that is what is happening on the defensive side, especially whenever they trade away McDuffie and lose their other corner. Who's the other corner? Jalen Watson. Yeah, so they lose both their corners, so don't love seeing that, but it's like offensively, there's a lot to like about this Chiefs team if they can figure it out again, and they can win a lot of games this year, and none of us would be surprised by that.

2:41:49No, I wouldn't be surprised at all. I mean, when you have Patrick Mahomes at the helm, anything is possible, truly, but I don't know. I mean, they are in a good spot. We talked about teams kind of flying under the radar. That's what they are right now, but they jump out, and they go 4-0 in the first month or something. I think people will have their expectations right back up there for the Chiefs.

2:42:05Pat McAfee:The Chiefs is still the Chiefs is what I would be saying at that point, but I still believe that right now. And Mansoor Delane, kind of their number one corner, who they drafted, I think, seventh overall or eighth overall, whatever it is. It feels like there's some of those positions we talk about all the time in drafts. Like wide receiver, those top guys usually come in and are great right away. Corner feels like a position like that where the guys that are getting drafted, especially in the top tier of the first round of the draft, coming in are immediately great. It's Spaggs as well. So if Spaggs is confident enough to tell Veach, hey, this is the corner that we need to replace Trent McDuffie, probably going to be a huge piece for him.

2:42:41Pat McAfee:All right, tonight's a huge night for preseason football as we start our journey and continue our journey, not to Mordor, but to Lombardi Mountain. Oh, yeah. Which is February 14th in Los Angeles on ESPN and ABC. Cannot wait for it. Las Vegas and Houston, San Fran and the Chargers. We're a team ride on Fernando Mendoza to throw at least one passing touchdown tonight. If you are of age and agreed to gamble responsibly, we are live in all 50 states. we would love for you to join us on the best sports book on earth draft kings. Just one. That's it. That's it. Just one from the Nandozer. First drive.

2:43:20Pat McAfee:That's plus 400. If you would like to get on Fernando to throw a touchdown on his first drive, it is a plus 400 bet. That was almost the reason why I knew that so quickly is that was almost this particular team ride that we went on, but instead we said it wasn't touchdown just in general. Okay. Let's just continue to do our thing. We think he should be able to do that. But who knows how long he plays. Who knows what happens in front of him or on the other side of the field. It's preseason football. Let's gamble responsibly and not be assholes. Yep. What the hell is going on in baseball? Speaking of assholes, guy hit a home run last night that didn't count because he's too strong.

2:43:55Pat McAfee:Heard the polar bears getting ripped off. What the hell happened last night? Nah, I don't know about that. You know, hey, listen, this is going to happen sometimes. Humans are infallible. Pete Alonzo absolutely shits on that pitch from Brent Hedrick. and unfortunately, he kind of hit it too high and too far. And if you look, I was watching this game live. I saw that live, and it did look foul, like, towards the end there. It was like, okay, but then when you run it back in slow-mo, it does look like it may have been fair, but they did call it foul on the field. Yeah, if you stop it right there, like, it is well inside of the pole there, so it looks like a homer.

2:44:36But there wasn't conclusive evidence to overturn the call. So it was rule of foul ball. And ball don't lie, he then struck out on the next pitch.

2:44:45Pat McAfee:Okay, and everybody says, doesn't matter. Yankees would have won anyways if this counts because it was 5-3 or no? No, no, I don't know about that. Because if he would have hit that home run, it would have been 4-3 Orioles going into the eighth inning. So it was a massive, absolutely massive moment in the game. There's no two ways about it. because then the next inning the Yankees went on to score two runs and took a 5-3 lead and then ended up winning the game. A little momentum changer, we're saying. Certainly. Yeah. Certainly. Can't have it. We've seen the review and challenge room for MLB. It is very, very, like, involved.

2:45:20Pat McAfee:Very high tech. They got a lot of systems in place. Whenever some stuff happens, I do wonder how. Like, in baseball, is it the same as football? If it's over the upright, they have to guess whether or not it would have happened. Or if it's over the upright, is it good? Is it no good? Usually that's a homer. Yeah. Because if it hits the dong, it's a homer. Yeah. But I think, again, it was weird because in one of those angles, it looks like it is well foul, like several feet to the left. But then, yeah, this one. So, obviously, they did not use this angle. But that's where we've been in that room where they have all the angles.

2:45:55And I don't know if that is one that they don't typically use, like if that was like a different – I mean, again, I don't know because I feel like this is a pretty easy one to not mess up. But again, this is one of those things, too, where if they call this a home run on the field initially, then it probably doesn't get overturned, but he called it a foul ball.

2:46:15Pat McAfee:Okay, we have an even different angle here. Bruce just found on the internet. Let's see if this one changes. Oh, where is this from? This is from down home plate line. See? Where's the – there it is. Oh, that one looks white.

2:46:37But where's the pole? And when's it go past or when's it behind? I'm staring right down the line. Did it hook around it? So maybe the angle in which we saw, maybe we overreacted there. Maybe the replay folks in that room actually had different shots. That's what I was saying. Live watching it, I was like, oh, shit. That's definitely gone upper deck. But then when you actually see it come down, it looked like it was 40 feet left of the foul pole. So I was like, oh, okay, that's a foul ball.

2:47:08Pat McAfee:I mean, that still looks like a home run to me. But I'm a field goal kicker who would give that to obviously a kicker if he could. If it's allowed to be over top of that thing and hit it, it feels like that's still a home run. But I can see how this angle is a little bit different view than the other one. Right. I mean, I think it's kind of similar to stuff in the NFL where they make a call on the field. and then for whatever reason, it's just not conclusive enough to overturn it. You could argue it either way, but if he calls that a homer, it stays a homer because he didn't call it a homer. It's not a homer.

2:47:41And then Pete Alonzo was so fucking pissed, rightfully so. He's so pissed. And then you knew that he had no chance of getting a hit, getting on base, just terrible swing on the outside corner pitch. And he strikes out, he's bitching at the ump as he walks back in, and that was all she wrote. There was no way the Yankees were losing after that. How's Baltimore this year? Not good. Okay. Not good. Well, I shouldn't say that because the American League is really shitty and they're actually kind of clawing back and they're somewhat close to getting the last wild card spot. But they had very high hopes going into this year.

2:48:13They have a lot of young talent. And that was a massive move, Pete Alonso, not re-signing with the Mets and going with the Orioles, I think anticipating that they might kind of be on the start of making a run this year. and they've been very disappointing.

2:48:30Pat McAfee:I'm bummed out to hear that about the Baltimore Orioles. You see the Baltimore Ravens? They're riding roller coasters. Oh, nice. Mall of America. That's fun. Yeah, they're having a good time out at the Mall of America. I appreciate that it was Jacoby Lane, Zay Flowers, Lamar Jackson. You know Jacoby Lane, obviously new to the team, could be a massive weapon for them. They're out there in Mall of America riding on a roller coaster. See, bringing people together, little camaraderie. I like what roller coasters are doing. I like that the Ravens are doing this. I like them to win the AFC North because of this.

2:48:56Pat McAfee:Okay. I know it's not a good roller coaster if you can hold your phone the entire time on it. Don't. Come on. Mall of America is awesome. Buzz. The only time Mall of America is awesome is if you're rollerblading through the entire thing with your hockey team. Yeah, but where did they go? There's a couple whoop-de-woos on this thing in Mall of America, I'm realizing right now. I think we should maybe compliment whoever's holding. Is it Lamar with the camera? It's his Instagram. Yeah. Okay, so I think we should just understand that Lamar is able to hold the camera. Yeah, big hands. Good grip strength, yeah.

2:49:26Pat McAfee:Because I think they have a couple whoop-de-woos there, if I'm not mistaken. They do. I've never been there. Zay Flowers got his camera. We need a front view, too, Zay, if you can get this. I think they all put out a video, to be honest. Okay, hold on, because here in a second you'll see a whoop-de-woos. I'll tell you to pause when you can't keep going. Yeah, was there a whoop-de-woos? There's a whoop-de-woos. Is it definitely a twisty-type deal? I believe there's two whoop-de-woos. Right there, right there. Go back, go back. Go back, go back. There is. Go back. Multiple whoop-de-woos. Back a little bit.

2:49:57Pat McAfee:Right over there. Pause. What's that? That's that thing in the middle. Go ahead. A little slow. There's a couple of whoop-de-woos. There it is. Yeah. That's a different part than this part, though. So it looks like they do that. I believe there are two whoop-de-woos, yeah. Wow. Mall of America inside? Two whoop-de-woos? Oh, yeah. For sure. You ever seen it on top ten? That's cool. I mean, it was top tier when it used to be Camp Snoopy, and then they changed it to, like, Nickelodeon World, but Mall of America has one of the premier log rides in America. Log ride inside? Yeah. Yeah. Fucking awesome.

2:50:26Pat McAfee:Into water? Yes. Like the log jammer? It's a fully functional amusement park that is on the entire second floor of Mall of America. In the basement, it's the aquarium. Yeah, but when we say amusement park, I immediately go to, you know. Yeah, Kennywood, sure. No, there's like probably six roller coasters. They have like the huge star. Yeah, it's massive. It's a big deal. A lot of people in the Midwest, I'd say that's a very popular vacation destination in the summer. I had no idea the Mall of America was throwing that type of heat. It's the biggest mall in the world. Okay, I'd like to go check that out.

2:51:01Pat McAfee:I'd like to go do the whole whoop-de-woo roller coaster. Is this Super Swing? That's Jacoby Lennie went live. Oh, he's live from there? Yeah. I love these guys. I like the Ravens even more now, yeah. I like that the team's hanging. I didn't know Mall of America was doing it like that. Oh, yeah. Okay, congrats, Mall of America. I like that. I like that. A lot of respect. I didn't know that until I saw the Ducks rollerblading through it. Yeah, I think I remember them rollerblading through. I don't remember there being six. Maybe it was Team USA at that point, right? Six roller coasters. No, they would have been.

2:51:31That would have been Eden Hall Academy at that point. They do go pick up Averman, who works at the movie theater at Mall of America. That's right. What a great movie. Yeah, trilogy.

2:51:42Pat McAfee:All right, let's get the hell out of here. I think we hit everything we need to hit. Sidney Crosby's renegotiating. Shout out. He's going to play until he's 50 with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Stanley Cup's coming back to Pittsburgh, brother. Sorry about it. Columbus Blue Jacks, I think they're folding, right? Are they no longer having a team or do they have a team still? No, I think they're done. They have a team? Yeah. They got Adam Worenski. Yeah, you got a medalist. Okay. They got Worenski? Worenski. Worenski. Olympic. Zach. Both gold medals. Name is Zach. Zach Wierenski. Whatever. Related to Gabe?

2:52:21Go B's, bitch. Is that related to Gabe? Is that what we're... Well, that's... Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Marenzi? Yeah. Is that what you guys are... Adam Marenzi? He had a big show. What's that, AJ? Gabe had a big show at a public outing the other night. I saw him go post a great video. He was juiced. Montreal. I love that. 25 years of sports rage, motherfucker!

2:52:43Pat McAfee:Congrats to him for all of them. He was ahead of his time. Yeah. Love sports rage, dude. Gabe makes me laugh. Yeah. He's got an interesting ex, but yeah, for the most part. Ex account. Yeah. Ex account. Okay, yeah. Interesting Twitter ex account. Not like his ex. No, he's married. Of course, and we're happy for him. Yeah. His wife's friends ate all the vegetables with Agni. He'll never forget it. All right. Be a friend. Tell him a friend. Something nice to my kids. We're like, Gabe, we're happy as hell for you, brother. Yeah, Gabe. Gabe's been going to bat for me publicly, and I know that's been tough for Gabe, I'd assume.

2:53:17But I am worried about the... Yeah, his wife's friends are still fucking pissed about all the vegetables, Agni being gobbled up at his wedding. So he ate it? Who ate it? The French? Well, I don't even think they got the opportunity to... Oh, it's gone. Yeah, exactly. Buffet style. 18 months, but it finally made her. Yeah, it got gobbled up, and let's just say some people haven't forgotten. Certainly not you. Yeah, no. Or a guppy. No, definitely not. Never will. We'd like to get to the bottom of that. Yeah, I agree. thank you it never will thank all of you

2:53:55Pat McAfee:for allowing us to do this for a living you're the greatest we'll see you tomorrow be a friend tell a friend something nice might change your life hey let's win this team ride tonight team on me team on three for the good of sport baby one two three team goodbye