PMS 2.0 1609 - OVERREACTION MONDAY, Adam Schefter, Dan Orlovsky, Tyrese Haliburton, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

14:43Pat McAfee:Now, joining us live from a car, I do believe, is senior NFL insider for ESPN, Michigan man, who might know a little bit more on the behind the scenes on how we got here, Adam Schefter. Yeah, Schefter. What's going on, Schefter? Gentlemen, what's going on? God, you look great. Where are you going? You heading to the gym, coming back from the gym, about to go buy a gym? What do you got going on? We're heading to Bristol, Connecticut for two days of the fantasy football marathon. I'm on my way up there right now, and it's been a nice, quiet morning. Yeah, nice quiet morning. Starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns has been named, Deshaun Watson.

15:14Pat McAfee:There was an original thought by me on this particular program. As soon as I heard that there was competition between Storr and Deshaun, and this was him coming back from recovery, obviously, of the ACL, I say, if Deshaun Watson can stand up and take a snap on a football field, they're going to put him on there because$230 million. Debo made a great point, as I agree with him. It felt like Munkin was given the free reign to pick whoever he thinks is best for his team as opposed to just who's getting paid the most amount of money. At what point do you think he figured out Deshaun Watson was a starting quarterback?

15:45Pat McAfee:And how did we get here, if you will, Shefty? I think there are a few things to factor into this quarterback decision that the Browns have announced with Deshaun Watson as their starting quarterback. I think we've been on this show. I know I've talked about it before, or maybe with Ty on the podcast, but it has always felt like it was trending towards Deshaun Watson as a veteran, with two games on the road to start the season at Jacksonville-Ampa. Now, again, even with Saturday's events, where Deshaun Watson did not play well, where he talked about how the fans were disrespectful, he didn't appreciate the boos, and his post-game press conference, which obviously did not play over well anywhere, you have a situation where basically it always felt like it was trending towards the veteran.

16:36And when they name Deshaun Watson as the starting quarterback, they name him for now. I think that's the key point to raise here. Is Deshaun Watson going to wind up starting more games than Shador Sanders this season? I'm skeptical of that. It's up to him and how he performs in the first two games. If he plays well the first two weeks on the road, he'll continue to be the quarterback. If not, I believe there's a realistic chance that for their home opener, Shador Sanders is the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. That'll be up to Deshaun and how he plays in the first two games of the season.

17:12Beyond that, when we talk about the money involved, they're married to Deshaun Watson. For better or worse, they don't have a choice. The money in my mind cemented the fact that he's going to be there now and I would guess next year. If they had released him today, they would have had to eat$41 million against the cap this year and taken a dead cap next year of$86.21 million, one of the largest dead cap hits in the history of the NFL. So they're stuck with Deshaun Watson. This is a product of restructuring his contract over and over, taking a bad contract and complicating it. So you have all those factors going on that play into this.

18:00In the end, Todd Monken felt like a veteran on the road is this team's best chance to have a successful start. We'll see whether that's right. But I feel like they felt like they're paying the guy the money. He's a veteran. He's looked pretty good this summer. And we're going to give him the credit of the gate and go from there.

18:22Pat McAfee:Okay, he's looked pretty good. I mean, you've got to say, yeah, the numbers ain't bad, but he looks pretty good. He had that one day in practice. Seven touchdowns. He's getting into pain. Okay, so we're just obviously mocking the Browns fans right now. But if this ends up working, we love the dog pound. We've had their little elf in here. I mean, we like the Browns and the dog pound and the elfie and everything they've got going on. But if Todd Munkin really thinks that Deshaun Watson is his guy to win games, That's why he made the decision, I think. And you can hear in his voice, Todd Munkin's been yelling at everybody around him.

18:58Pat McAfee:Yeah, yeah. So, hopefully Deshaun's able to have success inside that Todd Munkin offense, and hopefully they're able to win some games. And this all gets quiet by then, if that happens. Now, if he is ass, and Shador gets in there, and he'll say something happens with Shador, and then he put Dylan Gabriel in, and it becomes a whole entire situation, there is a built-in poison pill, says Spotrack. If he's on the roster next March 13th, a$200 million salary guarantee kicks in. This affords Cleveland the opportunity to designate him a post-6-1 release before March 13th, which splits the remaining dead cap into two.

19:29Pat McAfee:We saw this with the Russell Wilson situation over in Denver, 34.6 in 2027, 51.5 in 2028, which obviously we don't know what the salary caps are going to officially be for those years. Still a shit ton of money to not be able to have access to. Denver Broncos were able to navigate it. Now, they didn't win a Super Bowl, but they were able to navigate and still have a winning team. Sean Payton was able to build it. We'll see if this happens with Deshaun Watson. Okay, let's pivot away from Cleveland. Let's go to the opposite side of the country. Well, I guess Ohio and San Francisco right now kind of tied together by one.

20:04Darius Butler:Oh, true. Yeah, you're right.

20:06Pat McAfee:Let's go to the Niners. George Kittle, he's playing, huh? George Kittle's going to end up playing. And how abnormal is this from where we were maybe three or four months ago talking about George Kittle? Well, let's go back to last week because they were in Los Angeles for a joint scrimmage with the Chargers. And while they were there on Wednesday, George Kittle got a chance to go meet with the surgeon who performed the surgery on his torn Achilles, Dr. Neil Elitrash. And from what I understand, it was a great meeting. George Kittle was ahead on all markers. He's in a great spot. This doesn't mean ultimately that he will play week one, but everything looks right now to be trending in the direction.

20:48He received a favorable report from Dr. Elitrash. The Niners officially activated him yesterday. So the fact that the doctor seems to have been good with where he's at right now, when they've activated him, and that game in Australia, I believe is two weeks from Thursday night in the United States, and George Kittle is who he is, it feels like he's tracking to play. Now, they could decide, you know what? Didn't feel right in practice. We're not going to activate him the first week. We're going to give him an extra 10 days. But the way it's tracking right now makes it look like a distinct possibility that he's going to be on that field for that opening game against the Rams, which would be a very quick recovery from a torn Achilles.

21:33But right now, I think he's very pleased with where he's at. The doctor's pleased with where he's at. And the Niners are pleased with where he's at.

21:39Pat McAfee:All right, let's stay with the doctor stuff. We were very scared this weekend that something absolutely catastrophic happened to one of the best backs in the game. Go ahead, Tone.

21:46Darius Butler:Yeah, Shefty, not good news coming out of Raiders camp, especially yesterday. It sounded very, very serious, the injury to running back Ashton Gentry. And then this morning we got some news that maybe it's just an ankle injury. What's the latest on there? And is it kind of best-case scenario after what we thought could have potentially happened this weekend? I think, Tone, that's exactly it. It is best-case scenario. Now, again, as it was described to me, it's not nothing. It's definitely something still. And they'll have to see how much time he's going to miss. But the initial reports were he was helped off the field, couldn't put any pressure on his leg, team gathered up in a huddle.

22:22Like all the things that you don't want to hear that would seem to indicate that something is severely wrong were at play in this particular situation. And obviously there was panic across social media. the Raiders former high traffic people doing their fantasy drafts they don't know what to make of it but in the end I think the Raiders for a couple hours were holding their breath when he was going to meet with doctors and by the time he got done with those examinations my understanding is it's a sprained ankle I don't know if he's going to miss any time I don't know if they know if he's going to miss any time they're waiting to see that but it's certainly not a long-term injury.

23:04That we know.

23:05Pat McAfee:Okay, that's great news. And not just fantasy football people who we know you're heading to a fantasy football marathon over the next two days. Just fans of football. Ashton Gentry last year, what he was and what his career started looking like. We hope he is healthy. We hope he is able to, you know, maybe go with the best Raiders team they've had in a long, long ass time. There's still one quarterback competition looming. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Shefty, how do you think everything's going to end up playing out in Atlanta? We saw that Michael Penix has been cleared to resume 11-on-11 activity. Tua obviously hasn't been great.

23:39He's admitted that so far this preseason. And Jack Strand has kind of, you know, every opportunity he's getting, he's kind of looked great. So what is the plan in Atlanta right now? Is it still kind of wide open for potentially any three of those guys? Well, it's an interesting situation because obviously it felt like Tua had a real window and a real opportunity to kind of put away the starting job and opening day for Atlanta and it feels like that hasn't necessarily happened yet and in the interim Michael Penix now has been clear to participate for the first time since he injured his knee in 11 on 11 drills today will be his first day in 11 on 11 as we mentioned the regular season for the Falcons is just over three weeks away and it's a situation where it gives him time to begin to get acclimated they can judge how healthy he is or isn't and figure out whether or not he's physically ready to play an opening day but Tua hasn't run away with that competition it's been an uneven summer for him so far and Jack Strand's been very impressive so far but it's hard to imagine that Jack Strand's gonna

24:48Pat McAfee:be the Falcons opening day starting okay it is hard to imagine okay I understand I was there watching this guy okay first of all i didn't hold on shefty please you don't know anything i was boots on the ground here i don't need to hear your thoughts on jack strand okay i just saw the guy cook the indianapolis quotes first of all had no idea cooper kush was starting for the falcons knew that was a problem as soon as i walked into the stadium and saw kush lined up then this monster gets in six foot five 240 pounds he scores here he spikes this ball it goes right into our suite The next person to touch that football is my daughter, Mackenzie.

25:22Pat McAfee:She walks over, picks that ball out of our suite, gives it to ball guy back on that side. They demolished it. I mean, they crushed the Indianapolis Colts. This guy, though, huge, 6 '5", 240, undrafted, went to Minnesota State Moorhead. I'm not talking about Moorhead State University. I'm talking about Minnesota State Moorhead, M-O-O-R-H-E-A-D. He was fourth in the Heisman voting for D2. beast how's that happen i don't know he's top 10 in passing all the time has 126 touchdown passes to his name i guess there was a bunch of d1 schools that wanted him to transfer he said no i'm not that man his father was a pastor he had a 387 gpa in engineering physics what this guy was gonna go to nasa smart man we got another pastor or not here i mean let's not put it past that man who almost spiked the ball into my daughter okay in lucasville stadium maybe getting the gig but But back to your point, not reality.

26:19Pat McAfee:Jack Strand's going to be the starter for them. Is that what you're saying? Michael Penick seems like probably on track to be able to do so or Tua can figure it out. I think the moral of that whole story is that Mackenzie McAfee has a nose for the football. That's right. Yeah, I think that's 100 % right. I think that's 100 % right. I think she didn't expect how heavy the Duke to be, though. She went to pick up the Duke, and that thing just fell right to her hands. I said, ball skirt is job skirt. She picked that thing back up. hands it to the lad from Atlanta. It was an ass-beating by the Falcons, I must say.

26:53Pat McAfee:But it was great to be back in Lucas Oil Stadium. Felt like real football was happening. Okay, so really no clarity on that one. Jack Strand and Cooper Cush might make that a real problem. I've seen them lead the Falcons with Stefanski. They beat the shit out of the team that they played with. My own eyes. Put in Strand. I mean, Strand deserves it. Might be Matt Ryan's guy. You can't put it past Matt Ryan to say, I got somebody. Matt Ryan and this guy looking eye-to-eye. and he going, hey, I'm an astronaut. They said you're an astronaut. I'm an actual one. I can move. They said you can move. Let's go.

27:23Pat McAfee:I can be a younger version of you. They wanted me to leave. I said, no, I'm loyal to the lads. Where'd you go? Minnesota State Moorhead till I die. You know it. And the guy goes, okay, all right, sweet. Come in. And he slices the Indianapolis Colts. Conman has a question for you, Shefty. Yeah, Shefty, we've had a lot of injuries in camp. We're kind of getting to that time where, you know, teams are starting to form. They're 53. Which ones do you think are going to be the most active the junior to your senior on friday said hey maybe the texans take a peek at brandon iuk with uh the injury they had at wide receiver to jaden higgins what teams for you are going to be probably making the most calls over these next couple weeks first of all i think they're all making calls i mean that that's the nature of the job right now and these teams what they're doing when you bring up brandon iuk he has not died for reinstatement so far so nothing can happen with brandon iuk unless he applies for reinstatement which we're on august 24th here and he hasn't done that so camp has been open for a month close to a month and brandon iuk has been on the sideline and and honestly you hope he's okay nobody exactly knows what's going on with him right now um but football until he applies for reinstatement wouldn't be in the cards so So I don't know that he's an option for anybody right now.

28:47As for some of these other notable free agents, Tyreek Hill is expected to play this offseason. We know that certain teams have lots of depth at certain spots, like the Patriots are very deep at wide receiver, right? So Keyshawn Booty's out there. The Niners actually, believe it or not, have some depth at wide receiver with some of the veterans, even with all the injuries they've had. So I think every team is going through the list. The Ravens are deep at the cornerback position. The Jets, believe it or not, have some depth at certain spots. I'm trying to think of the team that has extra running.

29:24Anyway, the point is all these teams have certain spots where they're deeper than others and teams are lighter than others. It's going to be an active period at this time. Last night you see the Saints trade linebacker Deion Jones through the Niners for running back Zemir White. It's the kind of thing that goes on at this time of the year where teams have certain needs near the bottom of the roster. Dre Greenlaw hurt his hamstring last week. The Niners are a light at linebacker. Deion Jones may not make the Saints roster, so they trade him. The Niners have extra running backs. The Saints have Alvin Kamara dealing with a MCL sprain that will sideline him about a month.

30:02So they go and trade for a veteran NFL running back in Zemir White who would have a tough time making the Niners roster. That's the kind of thing you see at this time of the year.

30:10Pat McAfee:Okay, Dan Orlovsky just tweeted, who we'll talk to here in a matter of a moment, says he's on the highway to Bristol as well, I think. He said, hey, why not Atlanta trade for Stetson Bennett? Bring that dog back to Georgia and have him run wild for Atlanta. You know, maybe a late-round pick. Let's Stetson. Because Stetson, hey. Holy hell. He looked like Matthew Stafford, didn't he? I mean, Matty Stafford's giving the interview, and then Stetson's doing his best impression of him right up there. Two Georgia Bulldogs doing their thing for the Los Angeles Rams. He looked comfortable. After the game, he gave a speech at a locker room.

30:41Pat McAfee:The boys love him. Seems like he's been through everything he needs to be through to become a true pro. Sean McVay's offense seemingly can make a lot of people look good. Okay. Time Simpson looked very good. Now you've got Stetson Bennett balling. Kevin Stefanski, they still got big question marks if it's not Jack Strand. Yeah.

30:57Darius Butler:Yeah.

30:57Pat McAfee:Maybe pull the trigger on a Stetson Bennett trade. What do you think about the dog going back home to the world of the pines? Well, I think the Rams are talking to the side right now. Who's going to be their number two quarterback, whether that's Stetson Bennett or Ty Simpson. Matthew Stafford's had a great summer, feels better physically than he did last summer at this time when everybody was wondering how his back was faring. And he wound up winning the NFL MVP. And the Rams are in a window where, like, even if you're going to trade Stetson Bennett now, are you getting Stetson on your team or getting some late round draft pick?

31:27And that's what they have to figure out here in the final two weeks before the final roster cut down date on Sunday, August 30th. So if they feel like Bennett has any value to them, I would think that they'd want to hold on to. But if they feel like Ty Simpson's ready to be QB2 right now and be that responsible in the event that anything should happen to Stafford, then they go ahead and remove them. It's even interesting, which I haven't heard that they are. I think the Falcons have enough quarterbacks right now. They're just trying to figure out their own situation. They certainly do.

31:55Pat McAfee:Cooper Cush, too. Don't let him start knocking down the door. Last question here about Ty Simpson and, you know, the Rams and Orlovsky. Well, that leads to one other guy. Go ahead, D.B.

32:05Adam Schefter:Yeah, he's talking about the number one overall pick, Fernando Mendoza. It's been some bright spots in the preseason. Obviously, some bad spots as well. He's young. It's going to happen. But what's going on over there? I know kind of we all assume Kirk Cousins is going to start as the vet. I've kind of been on that train, Fernando Mendoza. I expect to see him week one as the starter. Where do you stand right now? what you know with who's going to be trotting out that week one starter for the Raiders? Look, we all know that Fernando Mendoza's time is coming. And the question is when. And I can just say that despite the fact that Mendoza has looked good in camp and been what they wanted and won the support of his team and the teammates love him and the kind of guy he is and the kind of leader he is, their plan, and plans change, but their plan is to start Kirk Cousins in week one against the Miami Dolphins.

32:54And their plan is to keep Kirk Cousins in there, especially during the early difficult part of the schedule. If you look at their schedule early in the season, it's challenging. And I think that they'd like to have Cousins out there to get through as many games as he can. And I think part of this is really on Kirk Cousins. If Kirk Cousins plays well, just like the John Watson in Cleveland, if he plays well and they win some games, they'll keep rolling with him. If he's not playing well, and they're not winning games, and he's struggling, it's when all these calls and questions will come up as to when we'll see the number one overall pick in the draft, Fernando Mendoza.

33:31But in a perfect world for the Raiders, they want cousins out there on opening day, and they'd like him out there for as much of the season as they can, and we'll see how long that turns out to be.

33:42Pat McAfee:You're the man, ladies and gentlemen, headed to a fantasy football marathon. Who's number one overall pick, man? Who's? Jameer Gibbs, I think. Jameer Gibbs. Yeah.

33:52Darius Butler:Mm-hmm.

33:53Pat McAfee:All right. Then B-Zone. So running back is the thing? That's always been, right? You got to. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Got to go running back early. Those are the two guys. Those are one, too. Okay. Those are one, too. In no particular order. Puka Jamar right there after them, but like, you know, 32 starting running backs, whereas some teams, you know, you got two guys, three guys per team you can use. Okay. You know, like Puka is a great top pick, but they also have Devontae. that you can get a couple rounds later. All right, Shefty, good luck. I hope you get the best team ever and maybe have the best season yet.

34:26Pat McAfee:Hey, Shefty, it's Adam Shefty. Hey, Shefty. So he didn't really say anything. No, not much. Because his tweet says, head coach Clint Kubiak is not ready to name a starting quarterback, okay, for the regular season, despite sitting Kirk Cousins and having rookie Fernando start in Thursday without the starting offensive line. So Clint Coobie actually said, do I have to say who's a starter? No. All right. I don't then. How about that? How about I say whenever I say it? That's what Rich Rod said to us. Yeah, Rich Rodriguez said, I'll name a starting quarterback at 11.59. Kickoff is at noon. I'll see you then or whatever the case.

34:58Pat McAfee:Joining us now is a guy who might know why or how this is all coming about. I'm sure he's taking some victory laps still. Oh, yeah. For whatever. I'm sure there's something he did. He still has that sweet tan from the incredible vacations he's taken. Yeah, he was pissed this morning. He was a little worked up, ladies and gentlemen, on the highway to Bristol. Different car, though. I'm not riding with him. Ooh, ladies and gentlemen, Dan Rodlovsky. Dan Rodlovsky. Dan Rodlovsky. What's up, Dan? What's up? Different car than Schefter, you said? Icky. I'm not getting in that car. Is that what you said?

35:30I never said that. I'd love to ride a car with Schefter. I would mean that I matter more. I think he came from a different origin point than I did.

35:38Pat McAfee:Well, I mean, we can get into that story another day, I guess, if we really wanted to. I don't know if now is the time. Okay, let's start talking about ball. We were just talking about Fernando there and Kirk Cousins. Clint Kubiak comes out and says he's not naming a starter. Shefty said he assumes this is Kirk's deal. If Kirk plays well, they'll continue. If not, Fernando will get in there. And then obviously it ties back to Cleveland as well with Deshaun getting the start. And then how long is he a starter? Who knows? Kind of with these two decisions that are being made, do you think this is?

36:07Pat McAfee:Let's let the veteran in there. They've obviously seen more. They've been a part of more. Let's just get this season started and see where we go. Or why do you think they're being made at this exact time, Dano? With the Raiders, we have to remember Clint Kubiak has spent all of his life attached to the NFL and grew up with his father as one of the really, really good head coaches. And in many ways, like an old school coach. I don't think that this is really a, we're still deciding on starting quarterback in Las Vegas. I think it's just I'm the new head coach in Las Vegas. It's a little bit of the Pete Carroll.

36:43Everything's going to be a competition. No one's going to get a declared job at any point up until it's needed. And so I think he's just keeping everybody on edge and on their toes of like, yeah, everyone's going to go earn their job. Kirk Cousins, Fernando Mendoza, Brock Bowers, Max Crosby. We all know, but there's a clear this is going to be an organization that's turning over a new leaf. I've been adamant there's nothing really that Fernando could and or would do that would get me to start him week one. I think Kirk Cousins is more capable of running the totality of this playbook. We talked about that last week.

37:23Pat McAfee:We did, yeah. When we say he grew up and he was born and he does that entire thing. The road to Bristol is always tough. What's going on? I don't know.

37:32Adam Schefter:Service sucks in Connecticut.

37:33Pat McAfee:What is it? Service stinks in Connecticut. It does. The last couple times we've been out there, it's been piss poor off. Isn't that where so many media places exist? Massive satellites. Why is it so ass? I don't think I understand the technology. I don't get it. I don't like it. I don't get it. I don't like it one bit either. They talk to us about being out in the sticks and stuff like that. It's like you guys live in the epicenter of all the shit and you don't have anything. So what are we even talking about? Ladies and gentlemen, joining us back on the road to Bristol, Dan Orlovsky. And a bit of a cat.

38:01Pat McAfee:Hello, Dan. Listen, out here in Indiana, every once in a while, you're going to run into some spots without any service, you know, because that's out here in the boondocks. We get quiet. You know, we get great views. We get a little, you know, birds chirping in the morning. We get that morning dew a little bit shit. And that's in his song. Hey, something to think about. Yen's ain't got shit in Connecticut. Yeah, I think that's not a bad idea to kind of do that. But safe travels. Let's get back to this, though. You were going to say I said something back in the day, and then it cut off completely.

38:28Yeah, like there's not much that Fernando, could and or would do to get me to make him the day one starting quarterback one because i don't think he's capable of running the totality of the playbook part of the reason why you hire clint kubiak is because you like the way that he designs and calls plays we talked about this last week so you know fernando's had some really good moments but there's been moments where you're like yeah we're not there yet and i'm not going to rush that um and also this offensive line this offensive line, Linderbaum knew, really good player, Holton Miller back at left tackle, but the right side is a young unit.

39:05So we can't talk about the offensive line and say, man, Ashton Gentry was the most hit running back behind the line of scrimmage in the NFL last year and be like, yeah, let's put the rookie quarterback out there. That's learning a whole new style of play from the under center element. And so I don't think it's that really like that much of a question mark is more of Clint kind of operating the way he wants to with this organization now and competition. Cleveland won for me. I've talked about it a lot this morning. I'm shocked. If this was just a football decision, just football, I haven't seen every day of practice, I would probably say coin flip 50-50.

39:43Start the guy you want. It doesn't really matter to me. After Saturday's press conference, I'm shocked that they did this to the Cleveland fans. I've said if I was a Cleveland fan and Deshaun still starting week three, I would not go to the game because of the interaction that we saw. I've had a buddy text me saying, this is smart by the Browns. They'll go 0-2. Deshaun will struggle and all of a sudden, Shador gets named the starting quarterback for the week three game, which is their home opener, and he's the hero. Bingo. Okay. You don't think that's what they were thinking when they did this?

40:19No.

40:19Darius Butler:Is this the NFL? We try to win games a lot. Yeah, it's Tom Marcus. Todd Monkhan. Yeah, what are you talking about? Yeah, and let's talk about –

40:25Pat McAfee:The Todd Monkhan that I know wouldn't – go ahead. No, go ahead. I would like to hear the Todd Monkhan that you know before I say what I'm about to say. I only know him as a coach. I've spent some time with him just because of games. I mean, he is a all-ball, all-the-time, high-level competitor maniac. I don't know him as a guy, so I can't comment on him like that. But I don't think that he would sign up for that. Okay, so he did, though. He announced him as the starting quarterback and said this. Munkin said he took in the full body of work, ultimately felt like Deshaun gave us the best chance to move the ball, score points.

40:57Pat McAfee:So I think Todd Munkin is saying, hey, I made the decision because I think this is best for our football team at football, and I'm trying to win games. Todd just watched Deshaun Watson get booed, obviously, in the Cleveland Brown Stadium. He's been around the NFL forever. He saw Baker Mayfield get his ass booed. Tatch got his ass booed. People get their ass booed in Cleveland on a regular basis. Todd doesn't want to be the next guy getting booed in Cleveland. Todd's the guy trying to bring the cheers. and the wrong. He's trying to win some games. I think that's what Todd is going to be trying to say and nobody's really going to listen to him.

41:27Pat McAfee:Nobody's going to listen to him. And the only thing that matters is if they play good football or not when Deshaun Watson's their quarterback. That's literally the only thing that matters.

41:34Adam Schefter:And Todd's been there. And we talked about the business side of it as far as putting ass in seats. Shador would easily be that guy. Didn't he just shatter whatever record it was last year when it came to like merger, jersey sales and all that stuff. So outside of actual football, I think it was easy Shador. I mean, like you said, we're not there every day. We don't see the practices, the meetings, the walkthroughs, all that stuff. But you would assume Todd sees all that. And then the locker room, you know, starting quarterbacks. Most starting quarterbacks are captive. We'll see. Does he have the seed patch?

42:03Adam Schefter:That'll be a crazy thing. It's a lot of different things. But like you said, all that matters is the football plan. You know, the home opener and, oh, we're going to try out. I don't see that. I think Todd is making this decision based off who is giving his team the best opportunity to win games.

42:17Pat McAfee:Yeah, and speaking of best opportunity to win games, they haven't done that a lot in Cleveland. And the last guy that did win a playoff game for them, they booed his ass out of the city as well. Go ahead, Conor. And with the captain thing, just remember when Jameis Winston was there, Deshaun Watson wasn't the guy, like, rallying up the team and getting everyone going. That was Jameis Winston. Like, that was known. Hey, Jameis is kind of the almost leader, if you will, in the quarterback room when he was there with Deshaun Watson. So I don't know, maybe Watson's doing that now because Jameis isn't there anymore.

42:45but that's how it was operating when he was.

42:48Pat McAfee:Man, if you go back to 2021, is that when this all happened? 2022? When he got traded there? Yeah. Yeah. 2022, I believe. 2022? 22. I mean, just thinking about Baker Mayfield sitting there, just won a playoff game, okay? And then they give the biggest guaranteed contract to somebody who's never been here, who said he didn't want to play here. Remember, because Cleveland Browns were in the running, Panthers were in the running, Atlanta was in the running, the Saints were in the running for who was going to trade for Deshaun Watson. and then he wanted to be a Jet at one time, I think. Yeah, the Colors.

43:17Pat McAfee:They were kind of out of it. Then the Cleveland Browns publicly were kind of like, they're not going to be a part of this. Cleveland Browns are done. Why is that? Deshaun doesn't like the cold. He doesn't want to go up there, so he's going to stay down here. That was an actual report, I think, from Peter King or Albert Breer. I forget which one reported that. And then, you know, Baker gets kicked out of town. This guy gets 230 minutes. Now they're still dealing with the long-term effects of this entire deal. If he plays good football, nothing matters. If he doesn't, it's going to be really loud for the rest of time in Cleveland and for Deshaun Watson.

43:48Pat McAfee:Now, let's talk about it getting a little loud again. It was December last year, and the head coach of the Chicago Bears said, we're winning in spite of our quarterback play right now. And we all saw the Chicago Bears going this crazy run. We saw Caleb make some insane plays. And we just assumed Ben Johnson and Caleb were on the same page. Turns out maybe they're not. D-Bot has a question for you.

44:07Adam Schefter:Yeah, obviously, anytime a head coach speaks, we're going to make a big deal of it, as we should. That's the face of the franchise. And he's made some comments about Caleb Williams coming off this last outing. We also know I'm a huge fan of Caleb Williams. I believe in the next jump he's gonna take. What's your thoughts on Caleb Williams and the Ben Johnson relationship and that step that is gonna be taken or that you expect to be taken this season? Yeah, I kind of, you know, kind of fell in love with that relationship last year in many ways, just because watching the interaction post game so often felt like a genuine like we're in this together thing yes you are my coach but like we're kind of in lockstep with this um I really enjoyed the post game comment from Ben Johnson in relation to a question on a throw that Caleb makes down the field to Loveland in the red zone this one when he misses it D but like for me I'm I'm kind of like all in on this because there's so much about this one play that I think is cool.

45:08Number one, what is open? And open to me is different than open to Caleb Williams because of his talent. Number two, the situational football understanding and the strategy of when should we take a throw? When should we be aggressive? There's a difference between making the right choice and a good choice, you know, because Caleb takes the shot there and a couple things one it's first and 20 high red zone okay so coach is probably calling a play to get a completion number two there's a blitz off caleb's right and a dropper off his left he's throwing to his right love that and then the third thing is the defender that is going to kind of cover loveland he's the read you see the running back bottom right corner wide open and so the defender that's run the 11 or 12 yard line right now that's the guy that caleb is reading if that defender stays shallow we take the ball downfield if that defender gets depth we take the underneath throw and so by all like x's and o's on paper football wise the throw that goes to the running back and that's kind of what ben johnson said ah the ball probably should go to the back but there's also part of me that sits there and says he could have made this throw

46:13Pat McAfee:this throw was not supposed to be made and caleb has the ability to make this particular throw yeah exactly and you don't want to take that stinger away from him because the reality is like if cable makes that throw first a foot lower or loveland kind of it's a touchdown and everyone's going sick you know and so but that's like for me this is like the the sticking point this year with this group quarterback and coaches you you have this coach that is really uh detail oriented and he's going to try to always get the best always make the right choice not a good choice the right choice and then you have this quarterback that sits there and probably is going i could kind of make any choice the right one because i'm so talented and that's going to be the the push and pull this year between them and i think that plays the perfect microcosm of it okay so thank you for breaking that down thank you for explaining why it is but this has been the question right since ben johnson became the head coach of the chicago bears ben johnson could have been the head coach of any team literally even teams that had head coaches for a couple years we're like is ben johnson available we will get rid of this guy yeah for sure if ben johnson's available he seemingly picks the chicago bears and it's like is it because caleb's there is because what he likes about there is it because he's a bears fan why is it exactly and a lot of people are like well because caleb's talent he's never been around anybody that has caleb's talent if he can execute the offense that golf was able to do plus add some caleb stuff on top of that think about what they could become and then last season they have all this success and massive success and the world's there and then ben john's basically like nah this is all just kind of luck right now we aren't even really doing it so we're all expecting like you this year to be more of like that machine let's go ahead and do it and then the first thing we hear is like nope this fucking guy's not doing it again.

47:56Pat McAfee:It's like, ah, Lee, I would like to see them come. I would like to see them be together because he could be...

48:02Adam Schefter:I mean, I love that kind of, I guess, edge about Ben Johnson. I feel like we do get some level of transparency, which I always love from head coaches, especially when the guys call him plays, too. And like Dan says, yes, that is the right read. That's the throw that all 32 quarterbacks can make. The reason why you draft the guy number one, the reason why whatever his odds are to win MVP this year is because of that throw. And I think I think that'll help going down the season, not only with him, but with Colston. With Loving, like that coverage, I think that coverage is kind of wanky. But like, hey, either fade more out or that's where I'm – if that's the look we get, that's where I'm going to put that ball because Loving is a good enough athlete to make this type of throw.

48:40Adam Schefter:This is like a Brady Gronk. Like if they run this or Kelsey and Mahomes and they get that look again, they're going to make that same play, that same throw, and it's going to be caught. So this is kind of what preseason is for. This is what practice is for. You make those throws. You go to the coach and you get that coaching as well. Hey, that dump down was there. or we could have gotten second and 10 and then been back there. The field goal is kind of in the back already at that position. So I like the throw, I like the decision. I also like Ben Johnson coming out and seeing what he said.

49:04Pat McAfee:Yeah, I hope we get to see Caleb. Caleb's. Sure. You know, I would like to see that. Because I remember when Johnny Manziel was with the Cleveland Browns. Who was the coach? Petten? Yeah, Mike Petten. Mike Petten. Mike Petten. Johnny Manziel had his first good half that he had had as a Cleveland Brown. First one, maybe he had positive yards, first one. And Petten was interviewed at halftime. He goes, our quarterback's got to start doing a lot better inside the pocket and make better decisions. I'm like, oh, this guy hates what Johnny Manziel does. Did he not know that's not what Johnny Manziel does?

49:34Pat McAfee:Now, granted, we've learned a lot about how Johnny was potentially operating as quarterback of the Cleveland Browns since then, and we obviously all appreciate what he's done for ball and everything like that. But I like a coach that likes their quarterback. I think Ben still likes Caleb. I don't think we're at the point where he doesn't like him. Totally. But I do love that he's like, hey, we are nowhere near where you need to be because that's when you get the real, you know, Tom Brady got his ass coached by Bill Belichick like every single day. And it'll maybe Caleb gets his massive job.

50:03Adam Schefter:The quarterback can handle it too. Or he should be able to handle it. I would assume he can. Like, yeah, he's not going to have a problem. Because some of these quarterbacks, you know, you may get the diva tag. We don't have a problem with it. Because Ben Johnson, that's who he is. That's who we've, since he's been. And we haven't really, we don't really know these coaches until they become head coaches. I feel like coordinators, they talk a little bit. But, like, head coaches, you hear them after practices, after games. You hear them, you know, their style of communication. And we always talk about it.

50:27Adam Schefter:When that head coach is talking, he's talking to the media, he's talking to the fans, and he's talking to that locker room and whatever specific players he's talking about. So you've got to know the relationship with those actual players and especially your quarterback as well. I hope, I hope. Well, we also have to know, too, Ben Johnson is just always pissed. No matter what, it doesn't matter. He's going to go up there after the game and just be rip shit about something that happened.

50:47Pat McAfee:I saw him shirtless. He's pretty happy. You remember? Yeah. That was pretty happy. Five, ten minutes. Five, ten minutes, there's happiness. And how about whenever they had him talk to the entire building? Just now that we know how pissed he always is. Yes. Great. Okay, I picked this place because of all of you. I love being here. All you want to do is go coach ball. That's why he was the belle of the ball for a long time. A lot of people predicting the Bears take a step back. Are they going to be able to get as lucky on the defensive side as well? I don't believe it. I believe in Ben Johnson, which makes me believe in Caleb, which makes me believe in the Chicago Bears.

51:17Pat McAfee:In Pittsburgh, they're starting to believe in some stuff in the future. Go ahead, Con Man. Yeah, Dan, the story of the preseason out of Pittsburgh really has kind of been Drew Aller, and it breaks my heart because Will Howard just holds a special place in here, and also I still believe he can be the guy. He basically was QB1 all offseason until Rodgers resigned, but Drew Aller's been unbelievable, and it feels like he might have been a steal for Pittsburgh. What have you seen out of him in Pittsburgh? Do you believe that he also could be the guy there? And what do you think Mike McCarthy's doing to make all these guys so much better?

51:48yeah alor once again really impressive um you know i think the the playmaking has been something that probably was not as prevalent in his tape at penn state obviously week one he's got the on the move touchdown and then this kind of broken play not only the movement but the point and then the ball down the field you know will howard throws two picks on some undercut routes that i would say doesn't see coverage once and then kind of throws the wrong type of throw but i think mike McCarthy's just understanding this is a really talented player. And this, this player, if we give him a foundation that allows the talent to kind of shine, that's to start to show itself a little bit more.

52:36And so we've talked about a little bit of the feet. I think feet give quarterbacks confidence in many ways.

52:44Pat McAfee:uh-huh yeah thank you

52:53Pat McAfee:he's talking about his feet giving him confidence

52:54Darius Butler:can't believe he said Drew's gonna be the best greatest quarterback of all time you kind of were saying that this morning was I? that's what I heard that's not what you were saying is that what you were saying I didn't hear that conversation I said he's got the potential yeah I'm not gonna get overactive preseason I just can't do it I can't do it anymore

53:08Pat McAfee:well he made a great throw that rolled to the left thing I don't know how he didn't get stripped or shacked I don't know how he kept it in there. He dropped it into an absolute pocket there. I have no idea how he didn't get sacked here. I don't know how he didn't get stripped. This guy right here probably real game gets him. But nonetheless, drops it in a bucket. First time. Pittsburgh Steelers. People getting real excited about Drew Aller. And then Will Harris is having his best show. And everybody's saying, get this guy the hell off the team. He did that two-minute drill. Yeah, he did good. He's done good.

53:35Pat McAfee:Obviously, he's been there for a while. But this Drew Aller thing could be a great experiment for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Mike McCarthy quarterback camp.

53:42Darius Butler:Yes.

53:43Pat McAfee:So everybody said you get Coach McCarthy an opportunity to kind of mold a 6 '5 quarterback with a rocket arm. Everybody, by all accounts, has good brain, loves football. What can McCarthy do with him if we put him in a developmental plan? And then the first videos we see of him out of OTA is literally McCarthy just kind of working there, standing right behind him, them doing the most mundane drills. We try to reach out to our source and ask how that's going, and we get told, I haven't even looked at the ball, to be honest with you. I go, what do you mean? What is this? Why is everybody talking about it?

54:13Pat McAfee:He's going, we're just working on the feet right now. We'll get to the ball. I mean, we're nowhere near talking about the ball right now. Okay, we are at the feet. We're going to work to the knees next. I mean, that is – so I think McCarthy, to Dan Orlovsky's point, they did just work. Like, hey, let's get your footwork here. Let's get your feet right. And then we'll move up to everything else. Because I saw one throw from the OTAs come out. I think Aller looked like he even launched it or it was an ugly throw. I forget. It was one or the other. and I mentioned I was like looking really good or looking absolutely ass and the response was don't care what the ball looks like we're worried about the feet let's just figure out the feet and then we'll be able to get going drew out their incredible athletes what everybody says for how big he is so if you get him some fundamentals and some coaching it feels like he could learn relatively quickly and if he's able to get his base under him by all accounts his accuracy would be better strength will be better and if he can learn defense it's like is drew out the prospect going to arrive much sooner than we thought strictly because of what he's able to learn and how quickly he is.

55:12Adam Schefter:I don't know. You just said a lot of learning and a lot of building and a lot of that. Doing that at this level is tough. He's got time. Now, if you're talking about a guy like Josh Allen or –

55:23Pat McAfee:He's got Aaron Rodgers. Caleb Williams. But that is why – I mean, his junior year, we were talking about him going anywhere from first overall to 10. He was a bona fide. This guy is going to be a first-round pick. He's obviously got the raw athleticism, the intangibles, but maybe that is what he needed. Maybe he just needed a QB whisperer to be like, hey, you actually don't know what the fuck you're doing out here, and we kind of need to rebuild everything from the ground up, and it looks kind of like that's what they're doing.

55:49Darius Butler:Mason did say he's very, very jealous of the structure that these young quarterbacks have that he did not have with the previous regime.

55:55Pat McAfee:Yeah, so he's learning how to play quarterback. Okay, we got to get him. Team loves him. We love him. We got a first-round grade on him. I think we got to steal. He's huge. Gigantic. He's huge. Did he have a first-round grade on him? Yeah, he did. He said that on the show, I think. He said we had a first-round grade on him. We thought whenever we draft him. When we drafted Drew out, we felt like we got a first-round pick. So all that's holding true with his work ethic. I did appreciate asking immediately after watching all the videos of, like, all McCarthy's been doing for three days is just standing in this one spot with this guy.

56:25Pat McAfee:And I go, how's it going? You know, I saw a ball. I haven't even seen a ball. I don't even know what you're talking about. Just watching film just strictly on his feet. There's a quarterback. All right, good throw. Yeah, all right. Listen. Your base is too wide. When your base is too wide, your arm starts to get you. See this? Then you have no idea where the hell it's going. Boom. Then you're overthrowing. Boom. Then you're underthrowing. You're tall. We need you to be in there. Go ahead and get a good base in there. Get a good knee bend. Go ahead and fire that thing in there. And then that's all Drew Howard worked.

56:50Pat McAfee:And now what's he doing? Rolling left. Setting his feet. Popping dimes. Okay. Look out. Here we go. The injuries are pumped. Will hired. I love you, Will. Maybe come to the Colts.

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58:09Pat McAfee:Now, football is the greatest. We're so incredibly lucky that we get a chance to chat about it every single day. Obviously, preseason football is in full thrust. Only one preseason game left for all these teams as they try to conquer Lombardi Mountain with who, though? Cuts are coming up, trades are happening, storylines are developing, and owners are getting arrested in Ohio.

58:28Darius Butler:Classic.

58:28Pat McAfee:Starters are getting named in Ohio. Starting quarterback jobs are still open down in Atlanta. And then there's new deals that are around the corner at any given moment. The talks today was here at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt. Ty, is baseball doing anything right now? Yeah, baseball is really heating up right now. So it kind of stinks that, you know, at the most important time, we've got the football season starting. So, you know, you kind of just say like, okay, whatever. But if you just are paying attention on the periphery for the next couple weeks, it'll be very entertaining. And then this should be one of the best playoff fields yet.

58:59So once the postseason actually does begin, it'll be nice when we have those few days a week where football isn't on, where you have a Tuesday night playoff game or a Wednesday night playoff game. So yeah, a lot of marquee franchises that will be making the playoffs. And the teams who are really playing well right now, like Cubs, Phillies, Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Dodgers, all these different teams, they're going to end up matching up in the playoffs. So we should have a lot of good playoff series. And then down the stretch, you know, it's going to be incredible.

59:33Pat McAfee:Okay, so this is the wild card race right here. Yeah, this is the wild card race. Okay, so this is a graphic about not the leaders of the divisions, the second place or best records that aren't leaders in divisions try to sneak into the wild card race. Right now, the third spot in the AL looks like it is open. The Guardians obviously could have the Rangers or the Blue Jays sneak in there. A lot of games left. Everybody can kind of catch up. And then on the NL side, the Padres seemingly have that third and final wild card spot, as well as the division leaders in the NL, as the Diamondbacks, Marlins, Cardinals, and the Pittsburgh Pirates are still in there.

1:00:07Pat McAfee:So what the hell is this, Ty? What is this graphic? Yeah, I'd say this really just illustrates how many teams are still alive. You know, like in a lot of situations, in the baseball season especially, and especially if you look at some of these records, you just assume like these teams under.500 this deep in the season, and it's like they have no chance of making the playoffs. But that's not true. Like that last wild card spot in the AL, that is basically flip-flopping each day. Like a new team is in there. Like the other day the Twins had that. Then the Rangers had it. Now the Guardians are there.

1:00:36And a lot of these teams are in the same division or they have games against each other. So like we have, what is that, seven teams in the AL who could realistically make the playoffs. And then same deal in the NL. You have the Padres holding on to that, but there are still four to five teams in the NL who could make the playoffs.

1:00:57Pat McAfee:Are the Detroit Tigers going to make the playoffs after Travis? Absolutely not, Pat. We have lost like eight of nine games. We have the most blown saves in the MLB by a long shot. This team is in absolute shambles now. After when we traded Scooble and we were going like this, I thought we were going to make the playoffs. I thought it was going to be a dream scenario for the Detroit Tigers. Turns out we're just a bad baseball team, and that's how it goes. You're only three and a half games back from the wild courts. I know. It's kind of crazy. They play in a horse shit division, too, so there's a chance that they still win the division, actually.

1:01:26They just got to get hot right now. One of our guys, Riley Green, he got injured, and then we started playing really bad. He's a good man.

1:01:34Darius Butler:He's a good man. He's a good man.

1:01:36Pat McAfee:Let's go to one half of the hammer. Dad. Cowboys AP tone, nine-year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler. Yes, sir. D-Butch baseball still matters? It does.

1:01:44Adam Schefter:I saw the Marlins up there. Look at the Marlins. We're fighting. We're fighting. We're scrapping. We had some hot runs, but like you said, A lot of people are in the hunt. I need my Marlins to get hot and get in the dance, baby.

1:01:53Pat McAfee:Yeah, Tone, I think I heard you say 30 games left.

1:01:55Darius Butler:It's about, right? If I'm doing my math correctly there, 141 kind of for the Padres. 131. 29, yep.

1:02:02Pat McAfee:Okay, so we've got about 30 games left. Okay, anybody can win it. You know who's not on there? The stupid Reds. Joining us now, one of their fans, a man who's a coach, football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawk. Yeah! Who decided to put the in the hunt graphic? Who put that together? Was that DeBone? Because the Reds have the same amount of losses as the Pittsburgh Pirates. It's not about losses. It's about wins. Okay, one more win. So we're not in the hunt? The Reds are not in the hunt then, DeBone? How does that work? No, you're not. Look at the graphic.

1:02:31Pat McAfee:It's clear. Pirates, bottom team that's in the hunt.

1:02:35Adam Schefter:He had a spot, too. He only put four on that. Yeah, he chose not to.

1:02:39Pat McAfee:We're not the ones making the decision. This is baseball telling us that Cincinnati Reds have no chance. Pittsburgh Pirates still in it. Must suck for you guys. I mean, we got a pitcher that's going to be a Hall of Famer, and everybody's got an idea on how to fix him. Is he still pitching? We got Scheno still out there on the bump doing it or no? Hope not.

1:02:57Darius Butler:He's out there. He's out there. See, the tough thing is at this point in the season, you need Scheno throwing eight strong. You don't need Scheno throwing four innings and turning it over to your dog shit bullpen and hoping they can save the day. That rarely works. I don't know.

1:03:09Pat McAfee:I've seen a couple different things. Arms get a little bit through like this. Needs to get a little bit more like this. Also, he's showing the ball. So, I guess he's showing the ball. behind his back. I saw somebody on MLB TV breaking it down. He used to keep that thing right behind his big ass. Now he's showing the ball so the hitter gets to see it behind his back. And then also gets to see it in front of him. And then bang, you see this back in the day, he's covering it with his ass so you can't see it. And boom, it's coming on to him a little bit late, let alone the 100 mile an hour stuff that used to be taking place.

1:03:37Pat McAfee:But now he's showing him this thing, giving him one of these, and then they see what's coming. That's what I see. Then I see somebody else. Curt Schilling.

1:03:44Darius Butler:Everybody loves. And he knows. One of the best.

1:03:47Pat McAfee:People really don't like that guy. I just realized, I read through his entire thing. I'm like, Curt Schilling, didn't he have blood on his heel? That was not fake. That was just a spiteful Yankees fan pissed that Curt Schilling. No, Curt Schilling went into the dugout and put red Sharpie all over his socks so that when they won, it would be a big, ah, look at this guy, he's a warrior. Pull up the photo. Pull up the photo right now. Pull up the photo. Okay, so that's... Pull up the photo, Bruce, who's also a Yankees fan who won't, of Curt Schilling's ankle. It looked so bad. That minced meat. Gash.

1:04:17That kind of thing.

1:04:18Pat McAfee:What the hell was his ankle bleeding for? Okay, let's move along because he's just so much great. Blew it out. That's what I said. Anyways, he was saying something about his mechanics. Like he needs to go and somebody needs to come tell him, somebody who has enough gumption to walk in there and say, listen up, Paul, you need to do this differently. And then he'll be able to get right back to it, is what Kurt said. Everybody has an opinion on what's going on with Skeeno. And Skeeno's just going right back up on the mound and saying, hey, let's go ahead and do this thing. It's interesting. This is very interesting because this is like future of baseball at one point conversation.

1:04:49Pat McAfee:And now everybody's like, something's wrong. We got the ideas to fix it. Until Scheno wants to fix it, it's not going to get fixed, right? And does Scheno know if it can be fixed? And does he think it can be fixed? I think he probably knows it can be fixed. I would assume fatigue is a big part of it because he hasn't played in the World Baseball Classic. Not that that is like the thing, but he's been pitching full exertion for longer than he ever has in his life. So, I mean, I don't know. We'll see. Schilling says, hey, two to three, you know, bullpen sessions and this thing can all get fixed and righted, but I'm sure part of it is also that, like, he doesn't feel 100%, but he, they're five and a half games out.

1:05:23Like, they're not dead yet, so he doesn't want to have his season be done. He doesn't want to go on the IL. He wants to try to help out his club.

1:05:29Pat McAfee:Okay, let's do some baseball highlights now that we're in here. Didn't expect to do this to lead off the hour. Skeeno, I'm on your team, pal. I don't believe any of them. Now, on that note, let's get hot. Let's make the playoffs. Let's do a wild card.

1:05:40Darius Butler:Yeah. Because it'll be... We were in a good spot, and then I went out west and the Dodgers swept us. You guys took one.

1:05:47Pat McAfee:30 games left. Let's talk about the Dodgers. I don't want to.

1:05:57They've been cheating for the last hour and a half years. Everyone's been saying. That's coming to roost.

1:06:02Pat McAfee:That's what people are saying. Allegedly. What happens to all this money that was just up there? When are you paying it? 2050? I think we're paying it. How much money? All of it. So what's that mean for this year? Nothing. What? Who's doing this? I am. Who are you? Well, I own an insurance company. I own a private equity thing. I have about six different teams and I got the smartest idea of all time. Do you have rules against it? I didn't think so. So we're going to do this and then we're going to beat everybody. We're going to get every good player and we're going to go back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back all the way until they have to stop baseball because everybody's so pissed off about it.

1:06:35Pat McAfee:And then just a couple investigations pop off and all of a sudden it's like, whoa, boom, bang. All right. Maybe it's all over actually. Maybe this is the last season for any of it. it's crazy that this can happen in 2026. It's crazy that this can happen, actually, at this stage of professional sports, where now the question is like, so who's, where is, is this gonna, so whoever buys this team just picks this up? Is this gonna continue? I'm gonna shave a billion dollars off my asking price if I have to take on a billion dollars in deferred payments, right? Is that how it works? Exactly, and then you would assume whoever buys that will have enough money to be able to do that, and then this next person that comes in, everybody's just gonna be cool with them doing the old routine that basically was saying was ending baseball it's uh that's quite a quagmire yeah what i do know baseball's in a good spot especially if will turner from the portland sea dogs yeah it's an opportunity to pay tropical smoothie cafe right there in the back love that go ahead and get an acai ball so you can get real strong real juiced up and spider-man that thing yeah two steps pom pom pom gets up there and grabs that thing love what will turner's doing AJ, this is what Kirk Herbstreit says has been missing from the game.

1:07:42Pat McAfee:Athletes doing athletic stuff. And it's a Portland Seadog, Will Turner, saying, let me climb that wall and rob a home run. I love everything about it, AJ. Yeah, that's pretty cool. This is kind of what you dream about if you're playing center field as a young kid. Like, hey, let me go climb the wall and catch one of these. And I don't know. Someone would have to do a study to see, like, are there more catches like this? Is baseball less athletic than it used to be? I know Kirk tries to make that argument. I don't think so. I think we got freak shows all over the place. I think Kirk's saying the style in which baseball is played.

1:08:09They're just hitting for power now. Kirk's like, he wants them to play baseball and think their way around the diamond.

1:08:13Pat McAfee:Yeah, he wants to see hitters like place balls. The Brewers. Like Milwaukee Brewers. He wants to watch the Miz and the Brewers go do their thing. Are they calling that Miz-Walky yet? I mean, it's all. I don't know. That should be. Yeah, it is sitting right there. The Mike's not going to be happy about it, but he should have been from Miz-Walky. He's not. Which makes us believe Miz should be the Miz, and the Miz is the right Miz right now. But the Brewers, I guess, are the ones. Will Turner going up and getting it. What is that? That's timing, obviously. That's reading the ball, the instincts, like being able to read it right off the bat and knowing, like, okay, I got to go back there.

1:08:47I got to find where the – because he has to run full speed to get back to the warning track and then be able to find the wall so he doesn't run into it full speed. And then, yeah, timing your jump and, you know, absorbing the contact from the wall after you catch it to the ball. It's a lot of stuff going into one.

1:09:02Pat McAfee:Jacob Young also did it, a member of Washington. That would have been, what, a double if he doesn't catch that? So I actually said to Bruce earlier, I think that's an inside-the-park homer if he doesn't catch that because I think that's caroming off the wall and going way back into center field. And typically, like the other outfielders, they're kind of going to back that up. They're not playing a carom off the wall there, really. Okay, so this wasn't a home-run robbery, but it was potentially an inside-the-park home-run robbery. Now there's going to be a donut of people that aren't going to be able to get this.

1:09:32Pat McAfee:Old buddy's going to get around the bases and get home. Him climbing the wall, is that an LED board he's climbing right there? Yeah, it's an LED board that has almost like a mesh-type deal on the front of it. I think the degree of difficulty on that one is much, much higher because that wall is a lot higher as well. Yeah, congrats to Jacob Young making a highlight-type catch. And then Kyle Schwarbo has been hitting Schwarbombs all over the place at the beginning of games. And this one to end it. Damn! Boom! See ya later! Is that dead center smash right there? Swarbell clears that thing? Yeah, you don't even see the ball come down.

1:10:06So he hit that probably like 450, 460 feet. Going into the bottom of the ninth, the Phillies were down 4-0. They were down to their last strike, and they claw all the way back and walk it off. I believe that was their ninth consecutive victory. So Phillies are really heating up when it matters the most.

1:10:21Pat McAfee:Swarbell looks exactly like the guy from Rookie of the Year. Choose the gun. Come on! Yeah, Hedo. Come on. You know, he's a righty, but Schwarbo's a lefty. I don't think I've ever seen that much gum in somebody's mouth as they hit a dinger there, zoomed in on that. He knew it was over. Obviously, the place goes crazy. Shout out to Schwarbo having a hell of a season. Philadelphia loves baseball. Oh, yeah. Hey, the bank loves baseball. I hope that they go on a big-time run so we can watch the home field advantages as we go through. And that Little League World Series is happening. You got Panama and Canada playing right now on ESPN.

1:10:53Pat McAfee:Kid from Iowa might be the best pitcher out there. How many strikeouts, Ty? 15. And he's not – honestly, he's not even the best pitcher on their team. The catcher is. Wow. He's the kid who threw the no-hitter in the first game. Like, I'm not just saying this as a homer, as a guy from Iowa. I think this actually might be the year that Iowa wins the Little League World Series because they played the Bayonne team we were talking about in this game, and Bayonne looked unbelievable, unbeatable. Yeah, Bayonne, New Jersey, sure. And Iowa beats them 6-0. He also hit a three-run homer, 15 strikeouts. Same game?

1:11:27Yeah. Shoot. Anthony Johnson Jr.

1:11:30Pat McAfee:is pretty good at the baseball. Yeah. They have two absolute units on the Hill, which is really all you need to win the Little League World Series. Because he has alternate, right, every other game? Yep. And then does Anthony Johnson Jr. go to catch her like the other pitcher does? No, no, no. He's first baseman. He's a big boy. They don't want him. Hell, yeah. He ain't going after pass balls. He's not blocking balls in the dirt. He's, you know. He's going to first base. say he's going into that batter's box and he's hitting absolute bombs. Okay, so Iowa has a chance to win the whole damn thing?

1:11:55Yeah, very good chance. I think if they win their next game, they're already in the United States Championship. It is double elimination, so a couple teams still have an opportunity, but from what we've seen so far, they look like the team to beat.

1:12:07Pat McAfee:Iowa's Davenport Northwest Little League team. Davenport. Who do we know from Davenport? Anybody? Seth freaking Rollins. Wow. Freaking? Ever heard of him? Yeah. Yeah. He's from Davenport. Is there a running back from out there? Hmm. Roger Craig played high school football in Davenport. I don't know if that's who you're thinking of. Hall of Famer. Hall of Famer. Hall of Famer. Happy Hall of Fame to him.

1:12:30Adam Schefter:Is that who Mad Dog was mad about stealing the signals? Yeah. Or giving it your team? Yeah. What happened? He said that in the regionals to get to the Little League World Series, they were stealing signs on second base. Nice. That's baseball, baby. That's baseball, yeah. Sorry.

1:12:45Pat McAfee:Hold on. And so the kids that get on the second base were stealing signs and telling the people in the batter's box. As somebody who is not a baseball person, okay, did not play baseball, isn't that like what you guys were doing? Yeah. Is that the whole thing? That's a huge part of baseball, yeah. And then the Davenport's coach said, listen, we're not doing that. We don't teach these kids that. It's not the right way to play the game at this age. But my take is, guess what? If you can pick up something from the catcher and you can let Anthony Johnson Jr. know, hey, you've got a big breaking ball.

1:13:15come and sit back on this thing, and then he hits a two-run homer, why aren't you doing it? Are we trying to win this thing or what? How old are these kids? Like 11 to 13.

1:13:23Pat McAfee:Okay, so if 11 to 13-year-olds are able to signal to somebody in a batter's box what pitch is coming after deciphering what the catcher's signal was, I think it's a good thing, not a bad thing. I don't necessarily love that we're going after that.

1:13:36Darius Butler:It's on the catcher.

1:13:37Pat McAfee:Yeah, exactly. 11 to 12-year-olds are learning.

1:13:39Darius Butler:You've got to hide your signals.

1:13:40Pat McAfee:It's part of the game. I want to tell you this. Any athlete – nope, I'm not going to say it. That sounds good. I shouldn't say it. I shouldn't say it. No. Any edge that you can get, super competitive people are going to do it. And if they're showcasing this at 11 to 12 years old, I don't think it's on the kid that's super competitive in figuring out your signals. I think it's on the person giving the signals. That is an advantage if the 11 to 12-year-old can figure out. He's in your clubhouse figuring out your signals that you have talked about. If a kid from Davenport, Iowa, as an 11-year-old, knows baseball well enough, knows signs well enough, knows tells well enough to be able to signal it to somebody.

1:14:19Pat McAfee:I think that's charges to the game, baby. I'm not a baseball guy, though. Within a split second, though, that batter's got to digest that and realize and have it help you do it. Yeah, a lot of batters don't love that. Imagine an 11-year-old, though, sitting on second base and trying to read the catcher who gives, like, what, two, three signals, right, and goes, okay, this is curveball coming in, and just somehow gets it to the batter. If he can get it to you without you knowing he's getting it to you, I think, once again, that's competitive. These are all in his baseball, I thought. Yeah, no, it definitely is.

1:14:49Pat McAfee:But it's cheating? Is that considered cheating? I don't even know if that's considered cheating because I would like to go back on what I say as somebody that doesn't know baseball. Not considered cheating at all, no. In the majors, it would be a lot more complex, like the signs would be, so you can't. I'm guessing that some of these teams, they're just doing one fastball, two off-speed. So if the catcher's hanging that out there and your kids can see it, you pick up on it. It's not cheating. That's kind of on them for either not having different signs that you can't just decipher immediately or for hiding them.

1:15:16That's on the catcher and that's on the other team to be able to hide those.

1:15:20Pat McAfee:Okay, Little League rules on sign stealing. Official stance under Little League tournament rules, relaying signs around sportsmanlike behavior to Dakota catchers or pitcher signal is strictly prohibited. See, so I figured it was at this age that you couldn't do that. I don't like that they're cheating. I don't like that. Take it back. That's ball. And their coach said they weren't doing it anyway. Enforcement umpires have the discretion to use warnings or even eject players and coaches involved. So do that if you think they're doing it. And you know what that doesn't stop? Is both those kids striking out 15 guys on the bump.

1:15:53What are you going to do? You want them to throw with their offhand now? Because they're throwing too hard? They're pitching too good? Oh, they're coming after Iowa. It's a goddamn witch hunt against these kids from Iowa, and I don't like it at one bit. Just because they know ball a little bit. Exactly. Oh, wait, these guys are way too dominant. They're beating the shit out of everybody. Let's start manufacturing some rules here. Let's make these two lefties who these young kids can't hit. Let's make them throw with their right hand next game. See if we can kind of even the playing field.

1:16:17Pat McAfee:Well, I think what they're saying is stealing rules have been in here since the beginning of time. That's fine. You know what? Get with the times. Like you said, get with the times. That is part of baseball. If a kid is throwing – I mean, you know. Now, if we want to talk about Astros and, you know. Garbage games. Yeah, exactly. Doing all that mumbo jumbo. I get that. if these catchers are just hanging those signs out there all willy-nilly, gobble those things up, spit them back out. I'll tell you what, if I was an 11 - or 12-year-old playing baseball and I knew what their sign was, I'd be so proud of myself for figuring out what – you know what I mean?

1:16:54Pat McAfee:That's literally how I – You don't think these coaches are studying the TV copy, though? These games, if you have an opponent that played a game on TV, yeah, you are going to watch that game and see, like, hey, is this guy seriously still doing one for fastball, two for curve or changeup, and then no other dubbing signals? I was like, yeah, hey, guys, I think we've got an opportunity here coming up this week. Telling the 11-year-olds, hey, I didn't tell you this, and you didn't hear it, but if you see one hanging down there and you want to just give one little bang, okay, fastball is coming, everybody would be appreciative.

1:17:25Pat McAfee:Now, I didn't tell you this, men in black, blue, white here, you guys keep it moving. One of these kids is going to come out with a tell-all. One of these Iowa kids is going to come out with a tell-all, and we're going to learn all about the strategies you guys have been doing. It's also fine because if they want to create a witch hunt and kill these kids for that, we're letting fucking Danny Almonte play in the Little League World Series when he's 18 years old. You've got this goddamn 18-year-old kid with a mustache and goatee throwing 95 miles an hour from 46 feet, and they celebrated him. Because guess what?

1:17:57He threw a perfect game every single time because he was eight years older than every other. He got drafted by the Yankees the year after the Little League World Series, pretty much. I think that's what we need to be. That's cool, though. Yeah, he was like six. That's not cool. He was like 16 playing in the Little League World Series. And they're like, we've never seen anything like this kid. He's throwing 85. He's striking out everybody. And then it came out like two weeks ago. I'm like, oh, shit. This kid's 17 years old. He's driving to practice.

1:18:21Pat McAfee:He was actually 14 instead of 12, whatever the kid is. That's a big difference.

1:18:26Darius Butler:He's a big difference. He hit the ball 350. Freshman in high school. Hey, freshman in high school. Played against sixth graders.

1:18:31Pat McAfee:Anyways, what we're saying is if you put competitive people in a position to get an advantage, they are going to try to do it, which leads to there are going to be NFL players back playing college football this year. Ladies and gentlemen, the Browns are waving tight end Daquan Wright. That was supposed to happen before August 30th, which is the last cut, which would be one week, six days from right now. If he clears waivers, he has an agreement in place for the 2026 season to play for LSU. per agents Drew Rosenhaus and Kyle Lincoln, who we spoke with on Friday. Wright is believed to be the first player who could play for an NFL team and then go back to play in college.

1:19:07Pat McAfee:Drew Rosenhaus was saying that same thing at the end about how this is history-making, and even Drew said, this is not a desirable way to go about doing things, but this is the current situation. There's obviously a lot of people that have thoughts and opinions about this taking place. This is the only draft class or recruiting class that this could potentially happen to because of the injunction that was signed down in Louisiana just a week ago. He could potentially be there. Jack Clyburn, I believe, could also potentially be doing this. There's like 16, maybe 24 others that could potentially follow in the same steps here as Daquan Wright of being an NFL player who was potentially either undrafted or a late draft who didn't get the 5-for-5 rule eligibility for himself as it was ruled after he had to declare to go to the NFL.

1:19:53Pat McAfee:now with an injunction in Louisiana is able to take advantage of that 5-for-5 rule, go back to college, build draft stock. And what some people say is, take advantage of the system. Take advantage of the system. But what's the system? Who makes the system? Who regulates the system? It's a bunch of local judges. And the NCAA gets sued by all of them. So, AJ, that's where we're at. How many NFL guys are going to the Buckeyes? How many are going to West Virginia? I know zero are going to Oregon because Dan Lanning came out and said, you go to the NFL, you're kind of in the NFL.

1:20:29Darius Butler:Ryan Day just came out and said the same thing.

1:20:30Adam Schefter:It's respectable. I like those. Marcus Freeman has said the same thing. Good man. They had their roster, too. They don't want you coming back and say, didn't Dan Lanning the All-Star? Two players have done it so far. You've got to boot somebody out of here, right?

1:20:39Darius Butler:And they both went to LSU.

1:20:41Pat McAfee:Okay, so two players have done it. They both have gone to LSU. Ryan Day has come out and said he doesn't like it. Dan Lanning said that that's not the way this thing works. Marcus Freeman said that's not how this works. Their roster is also completely full, we assume, right, at this stage. because how close we are to regular season. The fact that LSU even has roster spots still available, I think it's interesting. Maybe this is a long-term design. Maybe it's potentially a forethought, like a chess play by everybody at LSU, maybe Lane Kiffin. But I believe the stance, if you were to listen to LSU, it's like, it's a lot.

1:21:12So tell us a lot. Can you help us win? It would be tough, though, if you're a coach, and no matter how you feel, like, hey, can this dude help us win? I'm like, yeah, I'd have a tough time turning the guy down.

1:21:23Pat McAfee:I believe there was a quote that said he either plays for us or plays against us. You know, if he's eligible to play football, he's going to play. Somebody who's going to have him, especially in the college football world. And it's like with this guy, I think he was all SEC tight end last year. Obviously was in an NFL camp. And he comes back after training with NFL guys to do college football season. How big of an impact will you have? Probably a massive one. Will people be pissed about this once the season starts? Who knows? This could just be the flavor of the day, depending upon how big he goes.

1:21:55Go ahead, Con. Yeah, I know. It just reeks of one of those things where this guy scores week one when game day is down there, and that is part of the conversation. Like, how come LSU gets to use these NFL guys? But that is the thought. If LSU doesn't grab them, someone else probably will. And granted, Ryan Day and Dan Lenning are two guys who have said, yeah, no way we would do that. but you're telling me like a Tennessee or a Bama or a Michigan or one of these other teams would? It just feels like that would be obvious. I thought there was some sort of SEC transfer thing.

1:22:25Pat McAfee:We've only heard about that one time. It was by Pete Thamel. We haven't heard much follow-up.

1:22:30Darius Butler:I saw it was because they weren't coming from an SEC team. They were coming from an NFL team that maybe could circumvent. I also have to clarify. I only read the first part of the quote from Ryan Day. He said, but we do have to do what's best for Ohio State. Okay.

1:22:45Pat McAfee:Which I think is kind of exactly what, if you were to ask LSU what the deal is, it's like, certainly we know of the rule. Will we be a part of the problem here? Definitely. But if we're not a part of the problem, somebody else will be, you want this guy to score three touchdowns against us? I don't think so. So that's what we're telling our fan base and our school and our alumni, but also our locker room. It's like, boys, because of an injunction, we're able to have these guys. How do you feel? He's all SEC. Don't care how you feel. He's coming back and he's playing in here. It doesn't feel right by anybody's standards.

1:23:18Pat McAfee:There's a lot of things happening in college football and college sports as a whole that nobody kind of agrees with. I don't think anybody is saying everything's good, but it's just like the reality of the business right now. Until something gets figured out, all this different type of chaos and bullshit is only going to continue and grow even bigger. Yeah, and I can't believe I'm forgetting his name, but this would be a situation where the Falcons' fourth stringer that we just saw running wild against the Colts where he played Division II football, one undrafted, Strand. And then he ended up, you know, I'll say he doesn't make the Falcons because Cooper Cush is there and he's the fourth quarterback on that team.

1:23:52Like you're telling me that situation, it feels like might be kind of more doable, at least understandable because this guy never played Division I ball. He was unbelievable for the Falcons against the Colts, dominated the Colts. And then maybe there's a team out there who actually needs a quarterback.

1:24:08Pat McAfee:Texas Tech, you know, Thomas Castellanos for Florida State, I believe he went into the transfer portal. Everybody immediately says Texas Tech, Texas Tech, Texas Tech because, you know, what they have going on at their quarterback position. If Jack Strand, okay, goes from dicing up NFL – I don't know if he'll clear waivers after the performance. True. Because they've got to clear waivers. They've got to be completely eliminated from the NFL. You've got to get cut. Nobody picks you up. Then you can go in there. It's all such weird ruling. You know, it's all such weird like, yeah, actually, these guys get traffic to the NFL.

1:24:40Pat McAfee:Don't make it. They can actually go back and then maybe the NFL will let them into the draft next year and they can up their standards. It's like, was it work for the people that didn't go to the NFL that just kind of didn't, you know, get drafted or anything like that? Nope, doesn't work for them. Have to be in an NFL camp. Then you can get cut from NFL camp. Then you can go back and do college again.

1:24:56Adam Schefter:Join the workforce. Or get your CDL. Taking these kids opportunities. I mean, I fucking hate this. I hate everything about it. I mean, look, as coaches, you're going to do business as business is being done. I get that part of it. But it just sucks. I just, with all these different things, I always think about, like, the high school kids. Like, because even the NIL and the transfers, whatever. But, like, every year, every time one of these things happen, it's going to be less and less high school kids that get an opportunity to just get in the locker room. Maybe even a walk-on who we always see these great stories three, four years later to get a scholarship or become a starter.

1:25:30Adam Schefter:Less and less of those stories will happen when more things like this happen, man. So it sucks. Obviously, every person, you know, wants to live out their dream. But, look, we have opportunities, little leaguers. We go to high school. We go to college. And then we shoot our shot at the pros. It doesn't work out in the NFL. There are other leagues you can go in and maybe get another opportunity next training camp. But, I mean, I hate everything, everything about this.

1:25:53Pat McAfee:Yeah. Well, this is the only time this particular thing could happen.

1:25:56Adam Schefter:Okay.

1:25:57Pat McAfee:This is the only time ever. I mean, for now.

1:25:59Adam Schefter:Yeah.

1:26:01Pat McAfee:I mean, I saw some of the Johnson's boy. Yeah, Max Johnson. Oh, yeah. He's starting for his sixth team. He's been playing college football since Bear Bryant was the head coach at Alabama. Not Bear Bryant, but close. Coach O at LSU. Jimbo Fishers last year at Texas A &M.

1:26:20Darius Butler:His is a lot of medicine. Look at the job. He's a lot of medicine. A lot of injuries. A lot of injuries. His leg almost got.

1:26:26Adam Schefter:I hate that.

1:26:27Pat McAfee:A lot of injuries. You know, this was happening to punters when the Aussies were kind of being brought in after full Aussie rules football careers where they didn't start their university clock so they could come in as 24, 25-year-olds, 26-year-olds. I think there was even a 28-year-old at one point. And I love every Australian that I've met. This is not me burying the Aussies as a whole, but it's like if you're a college coach, would you rather a 27-year-old Aussie who has a family and has already done an entire Aussie rules football career with money and fame and everything, too punt for you?

1:27:01Pat McAfee:Or would you like a 17-year-old doofus from Plumborough High School in the East Hill? What would you rather have? It's like, give me the adult every single time. That was kind of happening for punters and kickers and stuff. It's still happening, but now the 5 for 5 rule obviously changes that. Through COVID, with the extra years and yada yada, it all kind of, everything kind of blew up. And now NIL with money and employment. More money here than even in the NFL for some people. It's like, whoa. How do we figure it out? They're never going to. That's what Pete Dammell told us. listen it's never going to get figured out you want stability fucking go somewhere else yeah exactly exactly and it doesn't really happen anymore but they used to there used to be very high profile cases like you know drew henson brandon whedon chris winky guys going and playing professional baseball and then that doesn't work out and they come and they're so start yeah joel clatt sure like starting quarterback you know at like a florida state a michigan an oklahoma state when they're 26 27 years old and like i think winky won the heisman didn't he won the heisman and they're like 29 years old.

1:28:01So it's like, you know, this, yeah, exactly. That's fascinating. Need the five for five. Just five for five rule forever. It's when you're 19, you got five years, or the day you graduate high school, whatever that is, that's the rule to fix it.

1:28:16Pat McAfee:Yeah, 19 is the latest for the five-year clock to start. So 24 should, in theory, be the highest you could be, which is still old. I mean, if you go to school and you really focus, I mean, I don't know if you can be an engineering physicist or whatever in that many years, but you can get a master's there. You go six years until you're 24 years old. I'm still looking to graduate. How many credits? I mean, who knows at this point? Yeah, transfer, new rules, all that stuff. Yeah, who knows how many of my credits were even real. Some of those classes felt not real at the time. I couldn't even imagine what, you know.

1:28:50Yeah, there's still classes there.

1:28:51Pat McAfee:Yeah, definitely not, but do the credits even count? Yeah. That's like one of those things. I think if I was to transfer with my particular major, Not saying every major at West Virginia is like this, just my particular majors. I think if I was to transfer, like, half of them would have went to the next place that I would have went to or something like that. Like, yeah, we're not. Excuse me. Those don't count here. That's not real.

1:29:11Adam Schefter:I would assume it probably got easier, like, post-COVID. Oh, yeah. A lot of places are just going to pass fail. When's the last time a player got suspended for being ineligible? That used to be a thing. Guys are, like, ineligible for bowl games due to schooling. Like, has that ever happened in the last five, six?

1:29:26Pat McAfee:Especially, can you even do it to them if they're getting paid because you're robbing them of cash potentially? Yeah, how does that work? Does it matter what grades you get? It used to matter. You kind of had to stay eligible. Yeah, you're an employee basically of the team, not really. Are they still student human athletes or are we talking human athletes? Student athletes.

1:29:45Darius Butler:Did I see Michigan for freshmen? They're not even doing grades anymore because it's too stressful.

1:29:49Pat McAfee:Oh, pass-fail.

1:29:50Darius Butler:No, not even pass-fail.

1:29:51Pat McAfee:What? Just go. I could be wrong.

1:29:54Darius Butler:I thought I saw it. But there's a lot of stuff on the internet I see. It's not real, so.

1:29:58Pat McAfee:The internet's swinging a hot bat right now. It's a good weekend. Yeah, swinging a hot bat right now, I'd say. Rick Pitino, you read Rick Pitino's tweet. Did I? Yeah. Two of my favorite universities for their academic and athletic excellence are Notre Dame and Michigan. I just read Michigan is going to pass fail for liberal arts and sciences for freshman year. Is this what you read?

1:30:17Darius Butler:Maybe.

1:30:18Pat McAfee:Or did you read the same thing that Rick Pitino read?

1:30:20Darius Butler:Maybe that, too.

1:30:20Pat McAfee:Okay. I don't know for sure.

1:30:22Darius Butler:Hopefully, Rick. I wish I knew.

1:30:23Pat McAfee:I'll tell you what. Brown University is real. Okay, good news. What's happening to us? Pressure brings excellence. Don't get soft, Michigan. It's not what you're about. Rick Pitino don't like it, and neither do I.

1:30:36Darius Butler:I side with Rick. Me too.

1:30:38Pat McAfee:Now, Brown University, I learned whenever I became an Indianapolis Colt alongside Colin Clordy, who was a Brown University draft classmate of mine. They were pass-fail the whole place. Yep. Had been for a long time.

1:30:50Adam Schefter:The whole place. The whole time? That's Ivy League, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. But that's why. Yeah, that thing matters. Because you're not a dipshit if you're getting in there. If you're going to Brown, like, you actually care about school. You're probably going to classes. So, like, you know, you don't have to worry about some slapdick going in there and doing what, like, you know, most of the people who are in school there want to be in school. So I think the pass-fail just kind of works. Yeah, that's not how I took it.

1:31:11Pat McAfee:I took it. I was like, you got good family relationships. You get a skewed-up score on your ACT, get into Brown. Who cares what you do? Pass-fail. You have a Brown degree for the rest of your life. Colin Clarity, very smart. I think he's like a lawyer.

1:31:28Adam Schefter:To Ty's point.

1:31:29Pat McAfee:Yeah, to Ty's point. He was a super genius. I'm talking about me, a guy that did not go to class, got loans out to have a good time. But there probably are situations like that, you know, where like a kid's dad went to Brown and so did his mom, and he's a grade-A slapdick, but he's okay. Pass-fail. Yeah, exactly. What does that mean? I got to get 51? Or I think an F is like 60. 60 F. Yeah. So you got to get to 60. I think it's a D +, isn't it, to pass? I didn't even know pass-fail classes existed, to be honest, until I heard about this at Brown. So do you get graded on pass-fail, which I've never been a part of, but I've heard of it.

1:32:04So say I write a paper. Does it just pass-fail on that paper, or do I have a running legit percentage? I think it's legit you have a running percentage, and then just based on what your percentage is for the entire semester, that is whether or not it's pass or fail.

1:32:16Pat McAfee:So does it give like a thumbs-up on something or a thumbs-down, basically? No, I think you still get letter grades. You just don't got to tell anybody about them. Yeah, exactly. It really doesn't matter. And I think it gets into a situation, too, which a lot of people... So if you have an A the entire semester, then you can... By the end of it, it's like, okay, well, I don't have to... This final paper doesn't mean shit, and I don't have to study for this. Bruce is telling me you've got to get a C or better. Oh, there you go. In the past, there's got to be a C or better. So if you're getting a C in Bryan, West Virginia...

1:32:45Darius Butler:Similar.

1:32:46Pat McAfee:I guess a B, probably.

1:32:48Darius Butler:Somewhere around there. Give or take.

1:32:50Pat McAfee:Just for mine, West Virginia has a lot of great degrees. I certainly was not. Physical therapy, athletic training, nursing. The law school, you went through and they were like, hey, by the way, you're not going to be able to do this. Yeah, this is cute. You're the first player that's ever said he wanted to do law. So we'll give you a tour of this whole place, but there's no way you're going to be able to do this. So good luck out there. It's like, thanks for the honesty, Mr. Dean. I'm going to get the hell out of here.

1:33:14Adam Schefter:It's funny, you get to school, you realize, all right, you can do one of these four or five majors.

1:33:19Pat McAfee:No, I want to be a lawyer. Oh, that's cute.

1:33:21Adam Schefter:Yeah, I bet you do.

1:33:22Pat McAfee:Give your scholarship back. All right. Okay. Yeah, you know what practice looks like, and this is what you're going to have to do for that. Is that what you want to do? Yeah, you're right. Communications. Let me get in there. Let me go ahead and learn how to communicate. Going to need to. Right? Then a little sociology in there.

1:33:37Adam Schefter:Oh, yeah. That was mine. Yep. Communication and sociology? Sociology and psychology.

1:33:42Pat McAfee:Oh. Sociology and psychology is very deep-thinking tag team partners there.

1:33:46Adam Schefter:People. They're like things you can use in actual life.

1:33:49Pat McAfee:I had a little poli-sci in there as well. I'll tell you what, I don't know if they told me the truth.

1:33:53Darius Butler:You never know.

1:33:54Pat McAfee:If you just dabble in there, there's going to be a lot of people saying terrible things. Even if you have the best interest in mind, like, hey, the future, we could do one of these. They don't care. They don't want to hear. Nobody wants to hear. Sociology. Got this. Groups of people interacting with groups of people. Rhypes. Yeah. And those two. Mm-hmm. I think everything. Always.

1:34:16Adam Schefter:Echo chambers. Yeah. Same thing. Sure.

1:34:18Pat McAfee:Yeah. that's been since the beginning of time survival tech think about the humans rolling out of the cave you know they all believe the same thing then they ran into somebody from a different cave it's kind of you know could be metaphor for our current social media world cave you know kind of come out the other side you hear somebody say something about like actually with fire you can just do one of these i don't think so back to probably since the beginning humans yeah Shout out Homo Sapiens just kind of doing it We've really been getting after it haven't we We've been trying to take care of each other too I think since the beginning of time We gotta remember that Tonight a superstar here in Indianapolis Trying to give back to the city Trying to reinvent something that was massive For our society Ladies and gentlemen Joining us now live via Zoom Kay is a man Who will be hosting tonight's super softball game for charity for Indianapolis.

1:35:19Pat McAfee:He'll captain one team. Daniel Jones will captain another team. Darius J. Butler and the Toxic Table will be on Daniel Jones' team. Joining us now, the captain for the other team, the man that's hosting this entire super-duper softball event, Tyrese Halliburton! Boo! Getting booed by the boys, Tyrese. How's it going, pal?

1:35:44Darius Butler:I'm good. Why are they booing me?

1:35:46Pat McAfee:Well, because you drafted the teams, and you decided to have all three of them on the other team. So I think that's a little bit of a shot at the entire program. I'll be MCing it. I'll be non-biased. But all of the lads are on Daniel Jones' team. It feels like that was kind of on purpose.

1:36:01Darius Butler:The teams are randomly assorted. Oh, I bet.

1:36:04Pat McAfee:Then how'd you get TJ McConnell?

1:36:07Darius Butler:I told TJ today, if it was up to me, I would not have been on his team.

1:36:11Pat McAfee:Why? Because he's white? So then even more so. I fell out. More so as Connor and Ty get down the hell off the team. Okay, interesting stuff I choose to MC for. Everybody says, I'm the bad guy. Okay, that's interesting.

1:36:26Darius Butler:That is not the truth. But you know what? You run with whatever narrative you want, and if they want to trade TJ for D-Bud, I won't complain. Whoa!

1:36:33Pat McAfee:What the heck? Whoa! Whoa! I did talk to Tyrese earlier. He said, what position is D-Bud playing? I was at D-Buck and play a position. He goes, that's good information. Then he hangs up. Little I know he's trying to work a trade. Little I know he's trying to work a trade for this evening. Can you tell me a little bit about tonight? Obviously, the money's going to the Indiana Pacers Foundation, which gives back to the city, which we're very appreciative of. But how much do you know about softball, and what should we all expect? Like, what time is it? All that type of stuff that people might need to know about.

1:37:08Darius Butler:The event is at 7 o 'clock. We're at Toxic Table Depot. We're supposed to be there at 6. Okay. We're supposed to get there on time. I think we sold, last I heard, 9 ,000 tickets were sold. Got that. And it's a general admission. It's$10 a ticket. We're doing this, like you said, to raise money for the Pacers Foundation. The last time this event happened, my good friend, Paul George, said, I want to be a Pacer for life. Then he asked for a trade like a couple days later. so there has not been people in Indiana have been scarred since that moment so I'm here to help bring we're going to bring more joy back to the event okay incredible

1:37:49Pat McAfee:news cannot wait to get down there it was a lot of fun I got ejected from the last one

1:37:53Darius Butler:remember I could see that happen again tonight for some people well

1:37:57Pat McAfee:it's actually not a bad play but remember it is about the fans it is about the fans and I can't wait to see you three yeah talk to those fans after the game as if you're a Savannah banana. Stop. Stop. Don't give me that. I will renege on my yes, I'm going right now. I'm not a Savannah banana. You're a Savannah banana. No, I'm going out there and I play a little softball and try to raise some money for the Indiana Pacers. Oh, kind of gimmicky baseball. You're doing Savannah banana baseball. We're playing softball. We're playing Savannah banana softball. Well, that's a good question, Tyrese. Are there any bullshit gimmicks like that that we need to be doing?

1:38:36Am I going to have to like take my pants down and dance around and do what's the bananas take my shirt off and shit like that or is this kind of just a true blue softball game here yeah yeah true true blue right

1:38:47Darius Butler:down the middle there's uh no gimmicks there's no gimmicks with this this is real life well then what's the purpose who's are you pitching yeah go ahead aj do we have a home run derby tyrese i think that's always a fan favorite i uh i don't you know what there was a small conversation about it but i don't think we're i don't think we're having a derby next year next year we'll do it next year. It's a game. Yeah, this is bringing it back. Would you call it the inaugural?

1:39:11Pat McAfee:Would you call it that?

1:39:12Darius Butler:The revival of the softball game?

1:39:14Pat McAfee:Yeah. Maybe the rebirth. Yeah. I like that. Reimagined. You know? Jesus Christ coming out of the cave, moving stone. You know, it's back because we thought maybe it was gone forever. You know what I mean? So maybe it's one of those. Maybe you put maybe you do the whole thing. Stigmata. Yeah. Maybe you do the whole thing.

1:39:33Adam Schefter:No, no.

1:39:35Pat McAfee:Well, he brought this back from the dead. This thing was dead, dead. I mean, people hated this softball game after the whole Paul George situation. I mean, they thought that was the reason. So the fact that there's 9 ,000-plus tickets already sold. Now, granted, general admission,$10, come have a good time, especially in Indianapolis. People do enjoy going and doing things. But this should be a good show. How are you expecting your team to do, the one that you hand-selected and left the boys off of? And how are you at softball? I don't know.

1:40:01Darius Butler:You know what's funny? I have no idea how I am at softball. I might be trash. I'm thinking I should bad lead off just to set the tone. Either we're going to be trash or nice. Okay. I'll probably play second base. I want to be on the infield, but shortstop and first base, I feel like I get too much action. Who's pitching?

1:40:22Pat McAfee:Who's pitching?

1:40:23Darius Butler:Yeah, you know, they asked me to pitch, but then they said I would need to pitch with the net in front of me.

1:40:28Pat McAfee:And I'm like, I feel like that's kind of soft, so I shouldn't do that. Don't do it then. Move the net. Get the net out of the way. But then what if a line drive comes at you? Catch you, dude. Feel your position. Wake up. Yeah, wear a football helmet. Not a bad idea. We'll bring one of these football helmets. Yeah. Give him pads. Give him shoulder pads, too. Dress up like a colt. Dude, do you know what those softball pitchers do in these beer leagues? I mean, House of Big Dogs, they used to have a real team. That person's pitching, and because there's so much time, I mean, you're getting into a full defensive stance there.

1:40:57Pat McAfee:Or getting that out of the way.

1:40:58Darius Butler:You back up. They're telling me how to pitch. Yes, it's your turn.

1:41:02Pat McAfee:It's your game. It's you versus Daniel Jones. You got to pitch.

1:41:04Darius Butler:All right, I'll pitch them. Get the net out of the way, though. You don't want DJ pitching. You don't want him eating one off.

1:41:11Pat McAfee:You think Daniel Jones wouldn't, that thing if he needed it? He would actually chew that thing.

1:41:15Darius Butler:I'm just saying it would be very Colts-like if that happened. What do you mean?

1:41:18Pat McAfee:Okay, I saw a lot of names on here. For instance, I mean, you're fresh out of a recovery. Daniel Jones, fresh out of a recovery. I believe Tyler Warren obviously had a little something happen in practice. There's a lot of names on here where a lot of people are saying, hey, middle of training camp here for Colts. we don't need to be seeing Malik Naber's struggle at first base here. We are keeping that in mind, I assume, Tyrese, right?

1:41:40Darius Butler:For sure, for sure. Like it says, I think it says on the bottom of that graphic that the players and teams are subject to change, you know? So I know Tyler's a little banged up. If he doesn't want to play, he doesn't have to play. That's okay. We can figure it out. Whose team is he on? He's on Tyrese's.

1:41:55Pat McAfee:Wow. That's a shock. Have you ever seen him, Tyrese? Again, these teams are randomly made. I did not make the team. Okay, yeah. We'll find out if that's the narrative tonight. One person will be on a microphone throughout the entirety of it. That'll be me. I'm very thankful and lucky for that. As the boys will compete against Tyrese Halliburton. Winner will obviously win big. Losing teams. Captain, I heard donating an extra$100 ,000. Wow. Okay. Thank you for doing that, Tyrese, for the good of the city.

1:42:23Darius Butler:That's huge.

1:42:24Pat McAfee:Good people. You're good people, you and Daniel Jones. Thank you guys for doing that. When did you decide that was going to be the right move to really spruce it up a little bit?

1:42:33Darius Butler:uh i think about 15 you know 15 seconds ago it just had epiphany oh my mouth i thought i heard

1:42:41Pat McAfee:that that was not something that was that's what i thought i heard that you heard that too yeah good report a little extra sauce on this thing tyrese wants his team to win you know loves giving to charity but certainly doesn't want to be the one that has to donate 150 000 you know what i mean that's pretty sick that you guys have agreed to that so tell me a little bit more about your relationship with Daniel Jones being, you know, the pillars and the faces of Indianapolis at this point, alongside obviously Caitlin and Kelsey Mitchell and Aaliyah Boston and Sophie Cunningham. How does it feel, a little young generation of stars here in Indy?

1:43:14Pat McAfee:And obviously, thank you for committing to that massive donation if your team loses tonight. Daniel Jones, also very cool of him to do that, only two years in the city. Well, I think when it comes to me and

1:43:25Darius Butler:Daniel, obviously, we're both recovering from Achilles tears and we had the same surgeon. So we've talked a lot through the process. I was obviously ahead of him. So he's picked my brain a little bit and tried to help as much as I can. And, you know, with the timing of him doing it, him hopefully being able to go for week one at like that nine month mark is awesome. I'm really excited to see how he how he looks. And from all of our conversations, he feels great. So I'm looking forward to seeing him coming back here soon. And, yeah, I'm glad that the Colts are going to be a part of this and him being a major part of it.

1:43:58Darius Butler:So that makes it fun.

1:43:59Pat McAfee:$250 ,000 donation for the losing coach tonight. Unreal. As Tyrese will take on Danny Dimes in a softball charity classic that we all certainly love. Quarter of a million dollars.

1:44:11Adam Schefter:Is that, like, the biggest ever? Yeah. Got to be. I think so. I mean, when you're bringing it back, too. You can't just bring the charity softball game back and not have the purse be as big as possible.

1:44:20Pat McAfee:Yeah,$250 ,000 with, what, at least$90 ,000, right? Because$9 ,000 times$10 ,000. What do you guys do? Yeah, you're right. So that's, what,$340 ,000 donation at least, let alone all the concessions and everything like that. Hey, Tyrese, this is awesome of you and Danny Dimes to do this for our city. Thank you so much, man.

1:44:37Darius Butler:I'm so excited. You're the best. Me too.

1:44:40Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, that's Pacer. And also, remember, he's still doing this on a basketball court. Yeah, yeah. Don't get it to him. Boom. Is this streaming anywhere? Better be. I mean,$340 ,000 of charity on the line. I mean, it should be. Can we watch it?

1:44:53Darius Butler:Is it streaming? I don't know if it's streaming.

1:44:55Pat McAfee:I don't know if it's streaming. I don't think so. Okay, you don't have like neon or anybody coming through? Speed stopping by?

1:45:02Darius Butler:Nah, no. We got next year. Next year, I'm on a journey. We're going to get PG to come back. That's what would make me. Yeah.

1:45:11Pat McAfee:Yeah, that would be fun. Everybody would love that. Everybody would really be pumped up. Who's doing the anthem? That's a good question. Duflo? What did he say? Who's singing the national anthem? That's a great idea. Yeah. Have you ever seen Seth Duflo?

1:45:25Darius Butler:He's done it before. Who's singing the national anthem?

1:45:28Pat McAfee:These are our Colts. This is our team. We bleed blue. I don't know if he can do the national anthem. We don't need to put him in that spot as a season start. Absolute talent. Okay. Who could? Everybody needs to realize. Doug, what kind of question is that? He could bring Mitt. He will. He could bring Mitt to do it. Yeah, Mitt could do the national anthem. thing started. Ho, ho, say, can you see? Never thought about it. Can you? That's a letter. Okay. Thank you so much for joining us, Tyrese. Can't wait to see you tonight. Thank you for giving back to our city in such a big way, both physically and financially tonight.

1:46:04Pat McAfee:Cannot wait to be a part of it. Thank you for asking us.

1:46:07Darius Butler:Appreciate you guys.

1:46:08Pat McAfee:What a legend, dude. A quarter of a million dollars for donating for his first softball game, his inaugural, his rebirth of the charity softball classic here in Indianapolis. Ladies and gentlemen, that's Tyrese Halbert. Thank you, buddy. Hey, Tyrese! So happy, K-1. Let's go do the big donation. Where did we hear that? I thought I heard it. It's online everywhere.

1:46:28Darius Butler:Pacers.com.

1:46:29Pat McAfee:Yeah, I thought we heard that. Tyrese, I thought we heard that donation thing. Was that us? We just made that up, I guess, Ty? Is that right?

1:46:34Darius Butler:Yeah, you made that up. You made that up. No.

1:46:38Adam Schefter:What are you talking about?

1:46:39Pat McAfee:I thought this was a big, like, hey.

1:46:41Adam Schefter:That's all right. Shams, Shefty Collapse. Oh, no.

1:46:45Darius Butler:We're going to work on it now. I'm going to work. We're going to, you know, you put me on the spot. So now I've got to figure something out. Well, you know. No, I think you just did. Send a text to your money guy. That's what you've got to do. No, no. You've got to send a text to your money guy.

1:46:56Pat McAfee:You've got to tell Daniel Jones to send a text to his money guy. Because I think Tyrese now, all of a sudden, maybe that pitching gets a little tighter. You should watch some film. You can make that thing knuckle if you do it right. Actually, I'm being serious.

1:47:08Darius Butler:Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm a little worried about my pitching ability. Just throw strikes, dude. There's nothing worse at these things than someone out there who can't throw strikes. It just makes it long. People get pissed off. They get disengaged, disinterested. Just put it down the mill. And that's why. I'll be so angry if, like, the toxic table hits one off on me.

1:47:29Pat McAfee:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, con man's been working on his hip activation. Yeah, swinging hard. Yeah, dude. He's bringing it. Bringing it. A lot of ass in that thing. He's been walking on, you know, good elevation. What's that called? Incline. Incline on the treadmill. So he's ass big right now. He's ready to go. Feels like Team Jones has this one in the bag. We'll find out who's all on Team Jones by the time this game starts, I guess. You're the best, man. Good luck. We'll see you in a bit. Thank you for that massive donation, Tyrese. Your man. Yeah, Tyrese. I was just like doing the kick. Kirk Herbstreit said he's going to give$150 ,000.

1:48:07Pat McAfee:Yeah. What? Yeah, I did. Okay. Yeah, you don't want to help the kid? Bad guy. Bad guy. I will be excited to see what that number ends up on. We're almost there. How much are they going to donate? A couple signed jerseys. $50 ,000. I think they should at least donate$50 ,000. $50 ,000. Yeah,$50 ,000 losing coach. That feels like something. Get that thing up over$150 ,000 donation. That feels better anyways. Yeah. And also, they've got to have a little bit on the line. Yeah, motivation. They've got to have a little bit on the line, you know, a little invested. Because whenever they're giving speeches to the team, I want them to feel something.

1:48:37Pat McAfee:I want them to sound like the guy from the Dallas Cowboys. Oh, yeah. I want them to talk about what has rallied, what has brought everybody together, like we heard from the Dallas Cowboys locker room.

1:48:48Darius Butler:This game, this star, this team will make us brothers. Hey, man, hey, be quick. One, things to clean up for sure always is, right, okay? But the play style is right. It's right. I'm proud of you guys for that. But I saw something I've never seen before, 25 years in the NFL, an entire section cheering for one man.

1:49:11Adam Schefter:That man's gonna break us down! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!

1:49:19Darius Butler:Jesus! Well, that was an incredible win. Yeah. I am very fortunate to be amongst you and to play in the same field. We're the same star holding on our chest. And I'm proud of us. I'm proud of how far we've come. That's it. Oh, man. This game, fate. brought us here as strangers, but this game, this star, this team will make us brothers. Yeah.

1:49:48Pat McAfee:That's a boy! Yeah. That was awesome. Shyaz Pete, a member of the Navajo Native American tribe. And Shyaz stands for younger brother or little one. I'd like to see... Yeah, he's the one.

1:50:02Darius Butler:I'd like to see the... Is it an ironic thing?

1:50:06Pat McAfee:Yeah, did they name him that whenever they're watching him as a young lad? I'm not sure. The Native American contribution to sport, to football, has been happening for a long time. To sport just as a whole as well. They're going to win the lacrosse. Oh, yeah, for sure. They're going to win the Olympics for lacrosse in this entire thing. Shout out to Cheyaz getting his moment right there. Shout out to the Cowboys. And the Arizona Cardinals fans that showed up to cheer on their fellow Navajo, I believe, is a beautiful thing for the sport and for, I think, for society as a whole. Yeah, very cool.

1:50:34I believe I wrote a story about how his father was in the Army, I believe, and then when he was in college, basically the only problem that the team had with him was like he wasn't mean enough. So they basically sort of tell him like, hey, if you become a bigger prick here, you are going to basically fly in this football thing. And it turns out now he's going to be a member of the Dallas Cowboys. It's unbelievable. Maybe. We'll see.

1:50:55Pat McAfee:Hopefully, obviously. Pressure's on you, Jerry. Sign him now. Oh, my God, Jerry Jones. Listen, I've always said I love the Navajo. Cherokee tribe, a little bit easier to work with, but I love the Navajo as well. There's a lot of like, let alone the Seminoles down in Florida. It's like there's a lot of influence still very much by the Native Americans. And I learned about the Seminole tribe when I went on a trip down to Florida. Boy, geniuses. And then now with the sports gambling thing that's going on down there and everything, and the gambling, it's like, I don't think so. Hopefully Cheyaz gets a good chance at a run.

1:51:33Pat McAfee:The highlight they were showing wasn't like a great highlight. So I'm happy he was on the field for a touchdown, but I didn't like the angle in which some of the highlights were running. Shout out to Cheyenne's speech. Speech is awesome. Yeah.

1:51:43Adam Schefter:We always talk about, you know, how much we love or hate speeches, whether it's like – and it's usually from, like, guys that you expect it from. Like, if you're hearing the same guy give him a speech either before a game or after, it's like, all right. But, like, those, like, unsuspecting ones, like the guy that never speaks up or the quarterback that maybe may not be vocal once he speaks, that's when it's kind of different and hit home. and I felt like, you know, that one definitely hit home. That's one of the ones where it's like, oh, man, that's what we always talk about, missing a locker room.

1:52:11Adam Schefter:That's one of those post-victory moments where somebody gets their shot. Obviously, I hope he makes the team. As, you know, we'll see, but that was awesome.

1:52:17Pat McAfee:Yeah, that was awesome. Also, kickers are awesome this preseason. Let's go to Carolina. Ryan Fitzgerald, who was a rookie last year, was 24 of 29, his second year out of FSU. Hey! 61-yard bomb. Shout out to him. jacks him deville even sees it underneath us say that's special it certainly is even if it is preseason is still an absolute bomb let's go to green bay mr smock out of florida this guy's been a saving grace seemingly early for you guys ty yeah without a doubt he hasn't missed yet in the preseason he was four for four again in this game 59 yarder there he had another 50 yarder uh this is the most excited thing i've been about from the preseason so far with the packers is how good he's been yeah a guardian of victory is how jim harbaugh describes his kicker especially if It's a good one in Cameron Dicker.

1:53:03Pat McAfee:You want to talk about a good one? Let's go to a Super Bowl champ. Harrison Butker from 69 yards. Hits the bottom of the net. Would have been good from 70 plus. An absolute animal. Was dealing with a little bit of injury last year, I do believe. Was off his game. Spent the entire offseason getting back to who the hell he is. Hits a 69 yarder in preseason. The boys go absolutely crazy and berserk. Ariza is the holder. Perfect snap. Perfect hold. absolutely clobbered. Maybe a little bit of a breeze behind him, but who cares? You got to kill that dude.

1:53:36Adam Schefter:That's unbelievable. 69, got a tight draw, and like you said, would have been good from 70-plus. Incredible from Harrison.

1:53:42Pat McAfee:AJ, these guys are talented. They can pull up on you from anywhere. We're going to see a 74, 75-yarder at some point? Bucker would be one of the guys that could do it. I think there's about five or six of them. These guys are only getting better. Hopefully, we'll get better someday, but we'll continue digitally. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice might change your life. Goodbye. Okay. Got a little self-deprecation in there about us getting better because who knows if that will ever be able to happen. I watched a clip from us from four years ago earlier today. How was it? Basically the exact same.

1:54:12Pat McAfee:I know a lot of people are saying we're very different. We are not. That's what I kind of learned through it all. So hopefully someday we will figure out how to do this and get better at it. But until then, we appreciate you all for watching. But you're hitting from 69 is crazy. It's insane. Well, and that's the thing I appreciate. There wasn't a huge tailwind either, right? Like there was wind, but nothing crazy. No. Yeah, this is just obviously down there in Tampa. It's hot. It's hot. Humidity, you know, thicker air can either help or hurt depending upon how you view it. Whatever the case, Bucker just absolutely stroked that.

1:54:43Pat McAfee:Because obviously from that far, you have to swing hard. So whenever you swing hard, there's a chance you pull it. You hit a little bit fat. That's why you see some of the long balls be the most disgusting balls. They pull them way left or push it real short because they hit too low. Him hitting that thing basically pure for a 69-yarder, mentally the amount of restraint that you have to have to not swing out of your shoes, if you will. And then for him to have a lot of yardage left on that, special leg, special talent. And obviously he, last year didn't have his best year, and he didn't look like his knee was collapsing on that for the first time in a long time.

1:55:13Adam Schefter:Yeah, it's not a lot of things, like, I think players or whatever can do in a preseason game. It's like, oh, man, this really got me jacked. I'm ready to go for the season now. But for a kick, you talk about this, you know, Harrison has been one of the best kickers in the league, you know, since he's been in it, really. Obviously, he struggled last year. You talked about the injury. But for him, I would assume this is huge for his confidence going into this season. Now making a kick like this. You can see the reaction from his team. Like, this is a team. This is a quarterback that's won multiple Super Bowls and they're running on the field like they just did it from a preseason game.

1:55:43Pat McAfee:Yeah, jacked up for him. Watch his left knee here. Remember, in years past, it had been collapsing. Kick that thing, gets leg locked, stays on both sides there. Remember, he had been dropping down to his knee. So something had been going on. Maybe a little meniscus, maybe a little some sort of tear. He gets full leg lock on this thing. Boom. Bang. A little bit of a draw. Looks like the wind a little right to left as well. What a beauty, man. What an absolute beauty. Is Butker back? Will that help this Chiefs team? Certainly. Is Patrick Mahomes going to go on another Super Bowl run? Obviously, the odds think they're going to win the AFC West.

1:56:13Pat McAfee:That's a tough division. That's a tough division. Do you like holding? Honestly, watching the rise of the league. Do you like holding? That seems like I'd be pretty anxious heading out there, especially the better. I think the better your kicker is. Like, oh, we smoke. I could ruin this whole thing. Yeah. If Adam Vinatieri misses a kick, I don't think they're thinking it's on Adam, right? I think they're probably thinking it's the guy holding the ball. And I knew that. Yeah, I didn't sleep the night before first game, not because of, like, punting, which I'd never really done NFL-style punting in a game before the matter.

1:56:39It was because, like, holding was just, like, that was a scary thought.

1:56:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, and you've got to be right on. Like, if you're off by half an inch, it changes the leg swing. It changes the approach. It changes the stance. Yeah, yeah, it sucks. If you have a great snapper, like, that ball right there was perfectly snapped. I mean, that thing was laces, perfect, right over the spot. But it's, you know.

1:56:57Adam Schefter:He was pumped, too. And that's on the snappers, too. A lot of people don't know. The laces, you know, growing up watching Ace Ventura, I didn't know that. The laces are on the snapper.

1:57:05Pat McAfee:Yes. In the NFL, the laces are 100 % on the snapper. It's how they're being judged, actually, on the snaps. It's like, that's Winchester. He's been there a long time, I think. It's a perfect snap for him. But, yeah, I think, you know, Finkel is Einhorn situation. Everybody says it's on the holder. Holder can definitely make snapper, right? With how quick everything happens now, though, the laces are 100 % on snapper. You need to get them at least in the area of the front. And that's like the attention to detail that professional athletes are under. You just need to snap the exact same ball, and then we'll catch it at the exact same spot, and then the laces, in theory, should be forward.

1:57:41Pat McAfee:Yeah, but if I'm a little bit more juiced up and I spin it faster, it's like, don't. We need to snap the same exact ball. In pregame, you'll kind of bounce around. Like, Overton was really good at snapping laces. He had a very smooth stroke. But you could tell if he was a little tired maybe one day or if he was a little juiced up another day because the rotations were either faster or slower. So you either move up like a third of a yard or move back like a third of a yard to kind of find where he's at for that particular day. And then you just go off of that for the rest of it. But this is a perfect snap, perfect hold, absolutely stroked.

1:58:13Adam Schefter:And now, Delon, go ahead. What's the typical, I guess, what was your operation time? Snap the whole kick.

1:58:18Pat McAfee:One, two, one. So as soon as from the ball moving to the ball being kicked, like one two to one five one put two five so that's like one right now snap hold kick one three one four you're dancing with block from the edge drc yeah because everything exactly everything looks like it's this close coming around the edge whoa whoa whoa and it's like well actually we know the exact time that your line right shouldn't be able to get there should if you get the kickoff and they're like you shouldn't be able to get around the wing and block that if you get it off in the right time right there yeah so this is probably a one two six if i had to guess because how close that guy was probably maybe a one two seven in that area he's a little bit longer too might have taken a little bit longer steps whatever the case is but yeah because he got it off so quick that's why it didn't get blocked every kick almost gets blocked off the edge that's like we understand that's happening and the guy who's the wing he's just trying to push him to slow him down so he gets there by one three five all we're trying to do is just get this thing off under that so we can get the hell out of here.

1:59:17Pat McAfee:So being able to do that on a 69-yarder as well, not changing up anything, unbelievable. Look at my homes, dude. Look how happy he is. Good for you, dude. Good for you. A lot of that happening out there. Yippee, a lot of that. Okay, let's get to a break. On the other side, we've got to wrap up everything happening around the sports world, including the humanoid games. Oh, yeah. These things got no shot against them. None. I'm 39, not going to live that long. There ain't going to be none of these things that are going to be agile enough for me to worry about. And I'll tell you the way I'm looking at them now.

1:59:49Pat McAfee:I don't think McKenzie or Midas, my kids, got anything to worry about either in their lifetime. Now, their kids? Maybe.

1:59:56Darius Butler:Maybe. I didn't like them marching together.

1:59:59Pat McAfee:I mean, but that's pretty machinery, you know? They advanced pretty quickly. I don't know if you are. Things advanced pretty quickly. They were good at the celebrations. They had that down. Yeah, but all of us can, you know, that's all we got to. For now. Yeah, unless they got a gun in there. Why don't they build bigger ones? Once you give them weaponry, firepower, and then we're dealing with something, you know, horse of different color. You're talking about this thing right here? You're talking about this thing getting a gun in its hand? Yeah, right. They ain't never going to be able to operate corners.

2:00:31Pat McAfee:Not that one. Not that one. I'm talking about the one that, you know, allegedly beat Usain Bolt's time. You get him dual Uzi's and he's running around like that everywhere. Good luck. That thing's going to be tough to take out. Okay. I mean, I guess I didn't think about unlimited ammo on both hands.

2:00:48Darius Butler:Yeah, Madman.

2:00:49Pat McAfee:I didn't think about that. A Chinese robot runs 100 meters in 939. I don't believe it, by the way, looking at it. I think it's a different clock. It looks weird. It looks slow. It does. It looks like Usain Bolt could smoke all these things, but they're telling us that that's 939, so I guess we just got to believe it. Yep. Well, it's the Chinese. You got to remember that, too. Who knows? You can't really believe it. Ulterior motives. Is it dead? It is dead. Yeah, Ray couldn't stop. Imagine if I had two swords in his hand. Good luck. You're going to go stop it? You're going to shut him down? Well, I think he's just got to move, right?

2:01:16Pat McAfee:It's just kind of like when that buffalo is chasing out there. Yeah, true. He's kind of just got to move out of the way. These fuckers can't move. Yeah, kind of middle. They don't have any side to side. You're right. But still, they will eventually. Someone will figure it out. Oh, that blue one. Yeah, blue one came back. Walked his ass. Yeah, I think he had eyes on him. In the blue one, they said, this fucker's a closer. You know what I mean? They put it in him. They coated him in. That's my favorite part.

2:01:41Just like horse racing

2:01:42Pat McAfee:You know how they say some gave all All gave all It doesn't look real Well Messi's putting it up over top of that thing Look at that I do like that Looks like Ronaldo Miss Exactly That's what I'm talking about Soccer kicker's head right there Yes Oh he won Is somebody controlling these things with a remote Some of them are. Some of them are not. Some of them are. T-back. T-back. I don't know if that's particularly a remote or if that was just kind of coated in, but whatever the case, I like this one to dance better than everybody else. I was going to say.

2:02:24Darius Butler:Is that a bit of Hulk over?

2:02:26Pat McAfee:And what? No way. That's not real. That had to be in slow motion. I don't know, guys. I don't think they're just levitating. Centimeters, girl. What are they? Carbon fiber. Holy shit. No way. No. Not a chance. What if it had two guns and he's shooting over a fence right there? Now he's back down. We're deploying poison. Oh, is this triple jump? I didn't think about that. Look at that guy. Get the hell out of the way. What is this? Sorry, sorry, sorry, is the humanoid saying. Sorry, sorry. Walks it back, walks it back, walks it back. Walks it back. That guy should just go left hook right to the head just to see what happens.

2:03:05Pat McAfee:A medal. Break his hand. Hey, leg drop, brother. Right there on that thing. Oh, these things are loafing. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. They don't have heart. They don't have heart. Not this guy. Loafing. Oh, look at that. Hey, physical football. So they can't get up? Roy Keane. Once you're down, you can't get up? Is that how it works? It doesn't appear that. Some of them, yeah. Blue turtle. Yeah, it gets flipped over on its shell. What's going to happen here? Oh, wait. These things stink, dude. Fossil would double. Oh, foul, sir. Yeah, Fosso would beat all these guys. Wow. Yellow card, the number two.

2:03:44Pat McAfee:To his face. Right to his face. Oh, penalty. Goal. That goal was terrible. That goal didn't even move. That was a bit of a strike, though. Wake up. And then we get to the start. Damn that one. I can't turn. What is this? Is this dancing? Is this Jabalock? Is that David Blaine? I don't believe that. Oh my gosh. I still don't believe it. What is that for? I don't know. It's a hijack, dude. All right, we're done with it. We've seen it. We've seen these guys. It would be sweet to have one in your house if it could do random stuff for you. Vacuum. For now. You'd want to put a gun in his hands. I can already tell.

2:04:17Pat McAfee:Oh, no. Because he'll turn on me eventually. I'm not putting a gun anywhere near that. I'm not giving him any codes as any safes either. Good idea. Figure it out. Take care of the bees. You don't think he'll be able to send? Yeah, definitely take care of your beehive that we definitely got to follow up on. You don't think this humanoid will be able to go up to your code or whatever and just feel where you have pressed a bunch and just say, oh, there's only about a thousand different variations of these four, and then just, and then everything's open. Maybe I am a little worried about these things.

2:04:45Darius Butler:The more you say that, that does worry me. And you can't put a sawz on it either, so don't. What's that? He knows. A what on it? I don't know what he's talking about. Saw? Tony's talking about having sex with one.

2:05:05Adam Schefter:He is. Jeez, guys. Come on, guys. It's just a matter of time, Tony.

2:05:09Darius Butler:That's already happening. Yeah, you're right. We're going to be obsolete.

2:05:13Pat McAfee:I think I might have missed a convo that you guys certainly have had. So you guys found out about somebody fucking one of these things?

2:05:19Darius Butler:Well, he's one of the best O-line break her downers on all the world. Who are you talking about? We're back on the other side.

2:05:29Pat McAfee:We're going to talk about everything happening around the sports world, not the humanoid world. We already covered that. I guess that would be one guy that you would certainly look to and say, yeah, he might do that. It sounds like you guys are saying he is.

2:05:43Darius Butler:I'm thinking he's thought about it. He may have looked into it.

2:05:47Pat McAfee:Happy I got left out of that. I would have some follow-up questions. Did you guys hit him with a couple follow-ups or no?

2:05:54Darius Butler:No, I don't want to dive into his brain very much.

2:05:58Pat McAfee:What a spooky place.

2:06:00Darius Butler:Yeah.

2:06:01Pat McAfee:What a spooky time if these humanoids do get little guns at you guys. I didn't think about that. Yeah, that's what worries me. Like AJ said, two samurai swords, and then they program it so that its top can swivel, and it's just moving around like a top, swinging these things, and you're just slicing people's heads off. While running. That's going to happen, honestly. All right. I'll take back what I said at the beginning of this. I don't like what I just saw. and I, for the good of my daughter, would like to kick the heads off all these things. Yes, there you go. We need red cards, these things, not yellow cards.

2:06:32Pat McAfee:It's like they put jetpacks on their backs. We need some mobile EMPs. Yes. Boom. Knock out all the power. They're going to have their own defense. AJ said you don't think they've already thought of that? They've thought of all of it. I'm going to keep them on my side, though. How are the Bs? We got a big day, big week, actually. Yeah? What's going on? I mean, you guys don't deserve any information anyway. It doesn't matter what I say. You guys, oh, you don't know what's going on. I got about five or six frames full of bees out there. I got a queen that's cruising around. I need to, today, this week, I need to confirm if she's laying eggs or not.

2:07:08If she's laying, then we have a chance to make it through the winter and be good. So, yeah. Big week.

2:07:13Pat McAfee:The last one didn't lay eggs, right? That's why you think that they potentially killed her? Yeah, or they killed her. Yeah, something happened. She, you know, she was not living up to the standards of the colony, so they said, get out of here. So you brought in a Russian queen. Yeah. They can make their own queen, but they were not in the process of doing it, and I had to. Time crunch. August. Need to get going.

2:07:33Darius Butler:Can you bring them into the home with your family if she doesn't lay the eggs and you want to keep them alive for the winter? No. I've talked to some other people. Talked to another guy last night, extended family member, gave me a lot of good tips to help me get through the winter with these guys, these gals.

2:07:46Pat McAfee:I think you need to go give them a hug every day. Keep them warm. They've been great. They've been great. Very calm, very, yeah, not erratic. They're doing good. I like to hear that. Congrats to you. Wow. The Hawkeye of King. There's one queen, but there will always be a king. That's right. And that's this guy right here. Yep, that's right. You're the best. All right, we're back on the other side covering – we kind of covered everything, didn't we? Yeah. No, there's others. Be your friend, tell your friends, have a nice, might change your life. Take five. Five.

2:08:18Darius Butler:Hard Knocks is back, and so is the official Hard Knocks podcast. This year, the award-winning HBO original Hard Knocks training camp heads to Seattle to follow the Super Bowl champion Seahawks. Go behind the scenes with the team as they make another run at a title. Get unfiltered access to the personalities and challenges that define a championship team. Watch the official Hard Knocks podcast on HBO Max, YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. And watch Hard Knocks Training Camp with the Seattle Seahawks on HBO Max. Hey, Chicago. Class it up with Crocs. You know back to school is coming in fast.

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2:09:24Pat McAfee:Football! He is the greatest. That's A.J. Hawk. You nailed it. The Talks of Tim was here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. They, alongside nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler, will be playing in a charity softball game tonight. Here we go, boys. Here we go, boys. One half of the hammer. Dad. Cowboys AP Tone is here. Tone, who's the favorite for tonight's charity softball game? Tyrese Halliburton will captain one team that does not have the boys on it. Daniel Jones, starting quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, will captain another team. They do have the boys on that particular team. Now, all rosters and players are subject to change, says Tyrese Halliburton, just hours before first pitch tonight.

2:10:01Pat McAfee:Who's the favorite to win this, Tone, and how should we be viewing it?

2:10:04Darius Butler:When I first looked at this yesterday, when I saw it, I gave Tyrese's team a slight advantage, minus like 120. But it's basically a coin flip. This is one of the better matchups you're ever going to see in an event like this, especially so late in the summer. Normally you see these earlier in the summer. People aren't as serious about it. But now that we're into camp and stuff, it's going to be an absolute barn burner.

2:10:25Pat McAfee:I mean, on Tyrese's team, you've got Josh Downs there. Obviously, freak, freak show. Cam Bynum, freak show. Bryce Batcher, freak show. He got drafted to play in the big leagues. so yeah that was yeah he's the Oregon linebacker remember baseball guy that was the name I saw

2:10:40Darius Butler:yeah he's yeah he's Tyler Warren yellow or what uh I think he's Hal Burton's team it says he is an active player but again that could be a game time to see because I bet you he technically I would assume he can too I would assume T.J.

2:10:54Pat McAfee:McConnell from our understanding was going to buy pants for this thing yeah let's assume he's going to be pretty locked in Emma Halter she goes for it. We know that. Andy Ignite. Absolutely. Yeah. Bumps that spike it. That's the way we like it. Yeah. Absolutely. Ready for that. So, yeah, actually, they're like what? Second best team in the league or something like that. I believe so. Yeah, something like that. Riley Leonard, going to be good. Going to try really hard as well. Let's see who else is on that. They're all on Tyrese's team. I got Simone Biles. Laquan Trewil. Simone Biles is on the other team.

2:11:31Pat McAfee:Yeah. You guys got no shot. No, we got Jay Huff. Never mind. We got Jay Huff. That's all we need. Ashton Doolin. Anna DeBeer, is she in the Ignite as well? I believe so, yes. Okay, so she might be having a couple DeBeers. What? The whiskey. What? The vodka. What? Whenever she's just walking it off, you never know. And then Brayton Smith, obviously we know he's a big, big monster about that. Got the old lineman. Breonna Sturry, legend. Ty Schmidt, obviously, was thinking about playing college baseball. So he's got to face. Darius J. Butler, he could play any sport professionally. CJ Allen, going to be unbelievable.

2:12:12Peyton Curry, hometown kid.

2:12:15Pat McAfee:So, I think a lot of people are thinking Team Tyrese is probably going to win in a landslide. But I know you guys aren't going to let that happen.

2:12:21Adam Schefter:Not a chance.

2:12:22Darius Butler:You need to swing from the right side of the plate. Okay? Don't get cute. Yeah, I'm sitting on one.

2:12:26Adam Schefter:I know. I was thinking about that. Yeah. Right-handed. Switch it up. No. Don't listen to that. Switch hitter?

2:12:31Darius Butler:We did this in the office. We did this thing. He is an absolute stick from the right side of the plate. And then he got a little too cute, decided to go from the left side. He's just not the same.

2:12:40Pat McAfee:Yeah, but he said he thought he could hit from both sides, though. That was like a big part of his game, he thought.

2:12:46Adam Schefter:He could.

2:12:46Pat McAfee:Had to try it. I mean, tonight you might find out if you can.

2:12:48Adam Schefter:No, I'm going to stick to it. I'm listening to my coach.

2:12:50Pat McAfee:Oh, you don't think there's going to be maybe a little public pressure after you go 0 for 2 maybe for the third time?

2:12:54Adam Schefter:Well, actually, DJ is your coach, so you listen to him. Yeah, you listen to Coach Jones. You're right. You're right. Personal coaches, gimmicks, you're right.

2:13:02Pat McAfee:I coached somebody up this morning and then had to call them back up and say, hey, don't listen to anything I just said. Sometimes too good a coaching is a problem.

2:13:08Adam Schefter:Everybody's got to get out there healthy. Us included, boys. Yeah, believe me, I've been worried about that. Board hammies, quads. None of that mumbo jump. It is really close this season.

2:13:16Pat McAfee:We just got a text message from Chuck Pagano. So we have no problem having our players out here fucking around before the season starts. What if we lose somebody? It's for charity. They're not fucking around. Well, he actually says all for charity, But for fuck's sake, can't we do this some other time? It's kind of what we were saying earlier. Well, somebody just mentioned it. Normally this happens in the summer. Yeah. We've seen like 10 of these this summer already. It was like two months ago. We got one now. Mm-hmm. Can you watch it? We have no idea. There will be clips, though. Let's make sure everybody's smart.

2:13:48Pat McAfee:Mm-hmm. Steichen cannot like this one bit. Steichen might be there. Steichen might be a reserve designated hitter. If I know Stiken like I think I do, he hates that this is happening. He won't be there. Let's call him. Yeah. Gracious. Pete, what are we doing? They got the night off or what? I don't know. How does it work? I mean, they're basically in camp. Are we muted? Are we muted? Oh, yeah. See if he answers cold call. Are we muted? Nope. They better be in the middle of something. They better be in the middle of something. He can't answer. Can't answer. Can't answer. Can't answer. Can't answer.

2:14:22He might be talking to the team right now about this tonight.

2:14:25Pat McAfee:Hey. Fucking we're crawling. Hey, Tyler Warren, take a seat. You're not going anywhere. Okay, no answer from Shane Steik. He's locked in. Yeah, he might not even know that this is happening. I hope he does. I hope he doesn't. I hope he does. He's got about 12 guys who are going to make a significant impact on the team this year. He better know. What if I'll do Pierce rips one down the line? He is in that. He was in white.

2:14:48Darius Butler:And it's like a Forrest Gump situation where he's running down the line and the braces fling off and he's just come back.

2:14:53Pat McAfee:Oh, this announces to the world that he's all the way healthy.

2:14:57Darius Butler:Yep.

2:14:58Pat McAfee:Ankle heals on the spot. That's a super positive way of looking at what could happen here. I like that. Let's continue to do that. On the other side of this, we might talk about this night on this show for the entire football season every single time the Indianapolis Colts are brought up. Chuck Pagano just said heads will roll if somebody goes down. That's what he just sent into the group. There it is.

2:15:21Adam Schefter:We will talk about this day, Fox. We'll be like, you know what? That's when we knew the coach was going to play Super Bowl. They love each other. Dogs. Quarterback. Pimping home runs. Yeah. Or camaraderie. We just talk about how the office went fucking 12 for 12 for 12 home runs. And then everyone else just kind of looked on in awe.

2:15:38Pat McAfee:How'd those boys do it? Do you guys know anything else about the game at all? No. We just found out when he was on what time we're asked to be there, right? No. That's what we just found out all together at the same time? And my takeaway was we don't have to be there at that time. I'm the MC, though. So I feel like you definitely do. There's some sort of something. Get there by 7. Get there before 7. I got something going on at 5.30 that's pretty absurd. I'm going to be honest. Yeah, I got a plumber at my house.

2:16:02Darius Butler:So took a big dump. Sorry. How far is it? That's what I'm more worried about. Yeah, are they playing at the Riverhound or what?

2:16:10Pat McAfee:No, we're not playing at Riverhound Stadium. It's close, though. It's called the Victory Field, where the Indianapolis Indians play. Correct. They're the AAA affiliate for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Good squad. Beautiful ballpark. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Great ball. Ty, are you going to wear metal spikes? Yeah. No. Thought about it. I don't have any cleats here, so I'm just going to wear – in an ode to Tyrese, I will be wearing his shoes. The Halle's. The Halle's. Oh, you're not going to have good grip. I'll be okay. Don't need good grip. You guys are going to go yard a few times. I think all three of you might go yard tonight.

2:16:37I'm sitting tall. Yeah, I was going to say I'm not trying to do that. I'm just going to hit the ball where it's pitched. Get on base, be an F. Absolutely not. Swing out of your shoes. Yeah. No shit. What are we talking about?

2:16:47Pat McAfee:No, we're swinging hard. Okay, so, Connor, you're swinging hard. Ty and D-Bott are playing a little softball here. No, I mean, I'm swinging hard. What are we talking about? You guys ever seen Michael Bolton play softball? Rick the Crusher, sure, you know, but I'm also going to try to play the game the right way. Who should be their inspiration, AJ? Michael Bolton, the guy with golden pipes. I can sing his ass off. He was like a professional old man softball guy for a long time. I am sure there are questions. D-Michael Bolton? That was back in the era. I don't know if your guys' dads, like, I grew up, my dad was like we'd go around and dudes would drink 80 beers and they would play a softball game like on a tuesday night yeah we i had watched those games tim did not play in those games tim was uh on the road but i would see those drunks playing that because the courts were right next there you know so the best boys park had basketball courts here and then obviously there's baseball fields that were uh catty corner to it you get out there on the right night yeah so many drunks out there playing beer league softball very competitive these guys get really mad at each other in the pitching they're like yeah very good we got knuckles backspin it super high backspin because they're trying to force you to hit pop-ups because you know they're swinging out your shoe yeah and home run rules how you can only hit four or something or be plus four in home runs you know that throw all those rules out tonight that's right i'm only watching strowman tape bitch yeah it's braun strowman's dad and braun strowman i thought that's who you're going to refer to for inspiration braun strowman i believe his dad rick the crusher sure is the greatest hitter of softball in history, and it did carry into Braun's body, too.

2:18:17Pat McAfee:You get him in a batter's box, he'll hit you a little backspin riser that goes forever. I watched a guy do 130 mile an hour bat speed. Did you see that? Like, no. The Bryce Betcher? It wasn't Bryce Betcher. We do have great highlights of him. I saw a guy online. He's, I think he tries to break the bat speed record. I don't know. It's like his thing. He was trying for it. Absolutely. Oh, I did see that guy. There's a lot of those guys. Yeah, is it to left field? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did see that. Did he wear a cowboy hat? No, He had full gimmick on, though. Is he a righty? Yeah. He was moving.

2:18:49Darius Butler:Yeah, there's that guy who is in the full gimmick who tests all the metal bats. The baseball bat, bro. That's what it was. Yeah. That guy. He nukes. Are we talking exit velocity or his swing speed?

2:19:00Pat McAfee:I said 130 miles. Probably exit velocity. Whatever would be the record. Swing speed. Swing a baseball bat, 130 miles an hour. I don't think it's possible. Yeah, so it would have to be the exit velo or whatever. Yeah, right. Whatever the record would be. Yeah, 130 would be. Yeah, he mashes the bat. And then he was worried about denning the bat. Yep. That was like a big conversation. Are you guys worried about denning the bat tonight? A little bit. All right, we're right. A little bit. I am worried that they might have some Mickey. Like, I want, you know, state-of-the-art, brand-new softball bats.

2:19:25I hope these aren't some Mickey Mouse bats that they just went and grabbed at Walmart real quick. I hope we got some pure lumber, good wood, you know, something we can. I'm just trying to hit the ball hard. I want to hit the ball hard. Real hard. Okay.

2:19:37Pat McAfee:Do you want me talking in your back? Like, when? I don't give a shit about that. Sure. I mean, it's a baseball game. I'll be able to feel it out. Yeah.

2:19:43Darius Butler:If you can get the ump to dance as well. You guys have walk-up music? Some guy on stilts or something going on while Ty's swinging. I'll hit that guy in the knee as hard as I can, and I'll get ejected, and it won't be like a ha-ha-ha-ha. It'll be like, they'll be fucking taking me out of there in handcuffs if the ninja ump shows up. It's the dancing ump. Whatever the fuck his name is. The first base ump is the ninja ump.

2:20:03Pat McAfee:Yeah. Oh, okay. Ninja ump first base. Yeah. Maybe we'll get the dancing ump and the ninja. He'll be there. Well, who knows? Tyree said no hijinks, no gimmicks. Just a good old-fashioned game of softball. That's what he said. All right. Yeah. Let's pivot to college football. Keelan Russell is your starter for Alabama. Yeah, Keelan. Upside crazy, they say. Congratulations to him earning the starting role for the Alabama football. A lot of pressure on Kalen DeBoer. First time not ranked in the top ten since St. Nick came to town. Whatever. It's been forever. SEC at the top. Everybody sees Georgia.

2:20:37Pat McAfee:Everybody sees LSU. Maybe Tennessee is able to go on a run. Nobody talking about Alabama maybe winning a national championship for the first time in a long time. Kalen DeBoer has only won games as a coach. Let's not get it twisted. Since he's coaching D1AA, high school, D6, D7, whatever he coaches everywhere, he wins football games. Is he the right fit for Alabama? People still ask it, especially with how last year ended against Indiana, who'd go on to become the national champions undefeated and obviously clobber everybody. But nobody wanted to see the Indiana Hoosier football team at the Rose Bowl embarrassed the Alabama team.

2:21:10Pat McAfee:Instead, that's exactly what happened, and now there's just question marks everywhere. And Keelan Russell might be the guy that takes Kalen DeBoer out of the ad house in the hot seat into the promised land in the south yet again. There's a chance that could happen. Obviously, they've got studs across the board. We believe in Kalen DeBoer's coaching ability. Do we believe in Keelan Russell, TBD? Con man, nobody talking about Alabama may be winning it all this year. Yeah, probably exactly where he wants to be. I know the fans are probably pretty pissed that they're not in the top ten. I think it was 17 years ago when they weren't ranked in the preseason top 10.

2:21:41But this is probably awesome for Kalen DeBoer. I mean, it sucks that, hey, no matter what, you better start winning games or else you're going to be run out of town basically. But you got like a young quarterback. I assume this is a DeBoer guy, right? He recruited him, brought him in there because Ty Simpson was a Saban guy who stayed through it all. And now DeBoer is finally getting his first kind of star recruit aside from Coleman Williams. But this is awesome for Bama. It's awesome for DeBorn. To your point, I think his career record is like 130-20, and he's still kind of being questioned. So it will be cool for Bama.

2:22:12And who knows? The SEC's stacked, though. I mean, look at that. Look how many SEC teams are ahead of Alabama on that list.

2:22:18Pat McAfee:Are we worried about Texas? Loud weekend for Texas. Very much so. Linebacker dismissed from team. Offense looking elementary, they're saying. A lot of reports out of Texas, not super positive. But we just assume they've got enough talent, they've got another year under the belt, they're going to have success.

2:22:33Darius Butler:Yeah, data one of the freshmen, too. threatening to expose the program or whatever's going on. Yeah, a lot of drama. There was a lot going on down in Texas, but they are so, so, so, so, so, so, so talented. They had a down year last year with Arch, especially with what we thought they could be coming into the season. But the two years before that, they made it to the semifinals of the playoffs both years. So they can do it. They have the talent. Their defense is absurd. Their wide receivers are crazy. They brought in two transfer running backs. They are uber, uber talented. Them and Georgia are the top tier as far as the odds are concerned in the SEC.

2:23:05Pat McAfee:Let's stay in the South. Tennessee is named a starter. Congrats to Faison. Damn. Faison Brandon, starting quarterback. He's a true freshman for Tennessee. Hypo always seemingly has a good offense, right? Like his system, his style, the way he calls games. He can be great. Tennessee has an incredible atmosphere. Obviously, kneeling in his crazy stadium down there. Rocky Top is a beautiful place. Once again, another team nobody's really talking about, but makes a huge decision here. There was competition between him and George McIntyre, I believe, was the alternate. And I believe the conversation about upside ceiling is being utilized right now to name starters.

2:23:40Pat McAfee:Good for Tennessee. Get a guy up there for maybe the next three years as your starter. You can build around that, AJ. Yeah, can you imagine coming in and starting as a quarterback at a big school like Tennessee as a true freshman? Like you were just in high school a little while back, and now all of a sudden you're leading the Josh Heupel-led offense that seems to give the quarterback a lot of responsibility and a lot of decision-making on the fly. at the snap, pre-snap and post-snap. So, yeah, I'm excited to see him play. I think a lot of teams are going through this right now. Who to plug in at different positions.

2:24:08Do I want to plug in a guy that's been here and may not be as talented or maybe these young up-and-comers that just have not been tested in the biggest moments yet? I think we're going to see it through the first four, five, six weeks kind of play out.

2:24:19Pat McAfee:What is it, 113 ,000? Yeah, something like that. 113 ,000 down there packed out, packed out, ready for it. If you win them over, though, you've got to evolve for life. I mean, Peyton Manning's got Peyton Manning way down there.

2:24:31Adam Schefter:I'm excited just because this was the top-ranked overall quarterback.

2:24:35Darius Butler:Him and Jared Curtis, the freshman at Vandy, had the same exact rating.

2:24:38Adam Schefter:Yeah, so I like when these guys get a shot right out of the gate. Who is the last, like, true freshman quarterback that's kind of taken the nation, I guess, by storm? Was Nico? No, he was a redshirt. I feel like all these guys are, like, transfers. Was he a Maliava at Tennessee, a true freshman? Connor might be right. When they went to the college football playoff and got killed by Ohio State? No, but I do remember he played Iowa in the bowl game as a true freshman. Oh, yeah. You're like five touchdowns. Yeah.

2:25:03Darius Butler:But no, full season.

2:25:05Pat McAfee:Cal kid.

2:25:06Darius Butler:Oh, yeah. Song of Pulitelli. Yeah.

2:25:08Pat McAfee:But it was Cal last year. Song of Pulitelli, I think he's going to be in conversation. Big one this year. Stud. Yeah, I think he's going to be. He's the lefty from Cal that Tosh was able to keep out there. I thought he was on the first thing smoking out of there. They were able to keep him. Ron Rivera, right, who's running the GM up there as well. Tosh is the head coach. And, yeah, Saga Politelli, true freshman last year, I think. Oos, he went crazy last year. He's really, really good. He's sick. Yeah, he was. That's, like, the best part of the late games is when it's, like, a team like Cal. Yeah, and that was it all year last year.

2:25:43Like, if Cal was playing at 10, it didn't matter who they were playing. You were turning on to watch him play. Great.

2:25:48Pat McAfee:Got a 1.30 a.m. head time coming right down the pipe because this guy is must-watch football. Here are the Heisman odds as we go into another college football season kicking off on Thursday night. CJ Carr, Notre Dame, odds-on favorite to win the Heisman. Congrats to him. Arch Manning, obviously a lot of bets on Arch to hit this year. Dante Moore runs it back with a lot of the same folks out at Oregon. Dan Lanning says, you got to hate NFL here.

2:26:13Darius Butler:Get the fuck out of here.

2:26:14Pat McAfee:You're an NFL player, dude. I like that. What are you doing? Do you have any openings on your roster right now if you wanted to bring anybody in? No. No, of course not. That's not a part of the conversation. I don't like anything about this. A lot of people don't. A lot of people really don't like it. It's hard to. But how many things do we have to see that we really don't like before we're able to change, you know? It's like, hey, we need something. Somebody needs to do something to make sure there's some sort of something that we all can abide by. You know, because right now it seems like, is there anything that anybody abides by?

2:26:44No.

2:26:45Pat McAfee:No. If I'm a fan, I want my team to just cheat and cheat and cheat and cheat and cheat until we actually get some rules in place. Because then what, are we going to maybe try to retroactively take away some wins? That's fine. That's fine. Let me enjoy a couple national championships. And if you want to take those away ten years down from the road. You're not taking back my memories, brother. Yeah, exactly. Are you kidding me? Everybody else is fucking cheating. Let's all cheat. Let's do it. Well, that's kind of what they're all saying. Yeah, exactly. Actually. It's crazy, AJ. Jay, you grew up obviously in Ohio as an Ohio State fan.

2:27:17Pat McAfee:So I assume you might know the college football world a little bit better than we'd. I mean, Ty grew up in Iowa, I guess, in there. But like, I did not grow up in a college football town. I grew up in a football town, obviously, but it was Steeler Town. Watched college football because I love the sport of football, but didn't know like the entire, you know. The fandom, the craziness of it. The whole thing. Yeah, I didn't know any of it. So getting baptized through college game day with this thing is like, oh my God, this sport is the greatest. And you got Pete Thamel, the lead insider going, we've only just begun.

2:27:55Pat McAfee:You know, I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, there will never be stability. Okay, listen, there's going to be some new thing. And then who said something about churches the other day? I think it was Reese Davis said something about the old school way of having churches get involved. It's like, whoa, I missed that entire era. Can I be caught up, please? on the church era that we're referring to because if there isn't like and this goes back to um the 11 year olds on second base little league world series if you put uber competitive people in a situation to get an advantage they're going to do it i mean that that is just the levels that is the difference between the same uber competitive people not all of them will take you know a little bit of uh you know a uh i don't say a shortcut but like a um a morally corrupt decision not every one of them will do that but these uber competitive people are the ones that work the hardest they stay up the latest they're uh every day they wake up they're committed to it they go to bed everything they're thinking about is winning and success and getting better so if you do if if you see an 11 year old or a 12 year old that is trying to get signs to get to his person it's like we should tell them hey can't be doing that at this age but we should be very excited that and try to harness their amount of competitive spirit i think that that is where they're at now can't be doing that there hey let's for the good of sport you can't be doing this yet like how competitive you are though like what that is that can also become something if you become a college football coach where it's like so i'm allowed to do this yes i don't care don't want to hear shit let's go ahead and do it yeah but people are saying we shouldn't do it it's fairly good sport is anybody else other than me going to do this yes somebody will sweet i'm either playing against them or they're playing for me yeah i'm gonna do that then it's like golly will there ever be something where they say no nothing i think even the soresby situation kind of opened that up where it was like he's a new guy and everybody was like i don't think so you know and it's uh it's just whatever be able to get fixed how do you fix it the ncaa is not going to fix it it's not going to be them is it no yeah there has to be just a lord of the land like they can't just not have someone a commissioner for all of them which is no one's signing up to do that job that seems like a mad like i don't can you imagine even starting that process like who's gonna be the governor i don't know.

2:30:04I don't know how they get it back, I guess.

2:30:05Pat McAfee:We have some breaking news in the NFL. Yes. Yes.

2:30:15Pat McAfee:It is being reported. Great tease. Oh. Oh, whoa. Oh, hold the phone. No, it is happening. It's just who, this is an interesting game now. Oh, yeah. Yeah, this is an interesting little game now on who has what info now that there's multiple different... Oh, gotcha. You know what I mean? I haven't looked yet, but... Yeah, sure. Tom Palacero is reporting... Oh. ...that Booty has been traded to the Texans from the New England Patriots for safety. Jalen Reed and a draft pick. Booty's name had been on the trading block out of New England since the beginning of camp, basically, because of the depth that the New England Patriots have at the wide receiver position especially after bringing in A.J.

2:31:04Pat McAfee:Brown kind of expected booty how do you feel about getting a safety back and a draft pick on man yeah kind of unbelievable because when this whole thing first started the idea was Kayshawn Booty might get traded for a fourth or a fifth round pick and now we're getting a pick and a player it still might end up being a fourth or a fifth but it adds depth Mike Vrabel gave a conversation in an interview this morning about how hey we haven't played starters because we don't have great depth basically anywhere so adding someone in the secondary especially where there's some questions about health basically every single year when it comes to Carlton Davis or some other guys being hurt.

2:31:36That's massive and good for Booty. It stinks losing him, but you mentioned we bring in A.J. Brown, bring in Romeo Dobbs, one of the stars of camp, especially in these preseason games, has been Kyle Williams, who is essentially the next deep ball threat you would hope, which is what Kayshaun Booty was for New England last year. So great for Booty. Feels like great for Houston. Stinks to help a team in the AFC. That's a little tough, but he's going to be awesome for them and kind of wish him all the best because he was unbelievable for the New England.

2:32:03Pat McAfee:Who's Reid and what do you think Houston's getting with Booty, D-Bot?

2:32:06Adam Schefter:I mean, Houston's getting – obviously, we saw Booty have a great year. It became a reliable – one of the best, probably the best, if you look at the numbers as far as being a deep ball threat last year for Drake May. And we know Higgins just tore his ACL. Tank Dale, he's on his way back to recovery. He should be out there healthy. Nico, he's one of the best receivers in the game. So now you have another weapon for C.J. Stroud. You know, this is a huge, huge year for C.J. Stroud. So, obviously, as a Colts fan, hate this, them getting better. But I think this is a great, great pickup for the Houston Texans.

2:32:35Pat McAfee:Good for the Houston Texans always cooking. I mean, Casario is always wondering how can we do what we can do. C.J. Stroud gets another weapon. Hopefully, C.J. has a gigantic year and gets himself a big contract with the Houston Texans. And I'd like them to finish second in the AFC South. And I would like the New England Patriots to finish. Who cares? Just not the AFC champions. I don't know. I don't know why not. It does feel like the Patriots got so much better across the board.

2:33:02Adam Schefter:It really does. They really did. Tougher schedule this year. Tougher schedule this year. Much better team. I mean, but every single time we talk about one of these teams, especially, you know, like New England, Buffalo, the kind of top-tier teams in the AFC Kansas City, so much of it relies on health. That's the hardest part about, like, this time right now.

2:33:21Pat McAfee:Which goes to the Ashton Gentry. It was being reported like Ashton Gentry was about to be out for the season. You know, and that was a bummer. I was very bummed out. Turns out he seemingly benefits, I don't know, gets lucky. Not as bad. The original reporting that hit the internet was like, we've lost Ashton Gentry forever. It's like what I was reading and how my alga was kind of blamed and then listening to the Raiders fans respond. It's like that turns out not to be the case, which is good, but he's still going to be banged up. They're unsure how long he will be out, but it's not considered a long-term injury.

2:33:54Pat McAfee:and everybody has taken a deep sigh of relief. No doubt, man. Us too, Ashton Gentry. And you heard Schefter say, fantasy football owners certainly want to know if Ashton Gentry's going to be healthy, if he's going to be around. Running back position is obviously very important. Jameer Gipps, overall number one pick. Bijon Robinson, overall number two pick. If you'd like to get in there and get a little hands-on, Ashton Gentry could probably dance with that as well because we know he's going to be the primary ball carrier out there. But whenever we thought he was going to be gone, sucked for the Raiders as a whole.

2:34:20Pat McAfee:Happy it's not long-term. But, man, preseason has become just holding your breath basically deep.

2:34:25Adam Schefter:Yeah, every time we talk about or talk to a coach, everybody has their different approach of how they're approaching the preseason. Even I think Christian McCaffrey, he said today, I saw the quote at least, like, yeah, I plan to take a break during training camp and then ramp it back up during the season. For a guy like that who gets so many touches, like these running backs that are bell cows, you have to get them to the game and then through a season, week in and week out, you've got to be healthy. On an injury note, I saw Christian Gonzalez also return to practice for the Patriots as well, which is a big, you know, that was a big kind of storyline last couple weeks.

2:34:59Pat McAfee:Huge deal, whether he get paid or not. Is the Hugh Convo now healthy as well? Good news, Con. Yeah, that felt similar to the McCaffrey situation with the Chargers, where would he have practiced if it wasn't a joint practice? Because New England's been doing them the last two weeks. Who knows? But, yeah, having him back is huge. That deal needs to get done, though. Now that Witherspoon's been paid, Gonzo has the same exact agent as Witherspoon. It feels like one of those things where, like, hey, the market's set. Let's just get this done. We do still have him for two years, though, which is very nice.

2:35:25Pat McAfee:You know who else is coming out and saying deals need to get done? Who's that? Over in Pittsburgh, Joey Porter Jr. Okay, now he's got Jalen coming out saying, hey, Joey Porter Jr. needs to get his deal done. Like, this needs to be happening. He wasn't practicing whenever we were there. I think he was off to this side. That has been very, very quiet. but he's certainly been looming and lingering over the Pittsburgh Steelers' entire conversation, especially at head coach Mike Carly said Pittsburgh Steelers are an impasse. With Joey Porter Jr. as cornerback remains sidelined on a physically unable to perform list.

2:35:58Pat McAfee:What did you hear here, Tone, out of this quote?

2:36:01Darius Butler:Yeah, we definitely, like Jalen came back to practice today. That was awesome. He did say that, and all the secondary members are saying you need to pay Joey Porter Jr. because they all want to play together, and he's one of the best corners in the NFL, and it's huge for the defense this year. Yeah, I would like to pay Joey as well. I'm always on the side of pay the guy. Let's get it done with before the season so that everyone's happy and we can move forward and play. And, yeah, there's some speculation whether this injury is contract-related or not. I'm not going to speculate, but just something that's going on right now.

2:36:31Darius Butler:But I would love to see the entire secondary back. Is he supposed to get – is there some sort of projection on money for him? So it's been like 33? Yeah, Witherspoon and Gonzo. Somewhere like 28-ish, 28-30, somewhere around there.

2:36:46Pat McAfee:I hope that gets figured out. We're live. We're live. We're live. We're live. We're live. Okay? Head coach Shane Steichen of the Indianapolis Ball. There you go. We're live. We're live. Go Shane. Tell us. Hey, what's up with this softball game? How do we feel about it? A lot of the lads here are like, this could be a sweet team chemistry building operation. We don't really see anybody hurt. So we just want to go directly to your source. What is your messaging about the softball game tonight to the lads, and what do you expect?

2:37:10Darius Butler:Hey, it's going to be a hell of a time tonight. That's what I know. All right, it's going to be a great bonding experience. Pacers coming together. Colts coming together. It's going to be awesome.

2:37:19Pat McAfee:Okay, so you love it. You're happy that the lads are going. And who do you think will do well that we won't expect to do well? How do we think Daniel Jones is going to be as a softball player? How do we think the lads are going to handle it?

2:37:31Darius Butler:I think Daniel Jones is going to be solid. I think he's going to be able to hit it well. I think he's going to be able to throw it real good. I mean, that little softball pitch, you never know. It could be nice.

2:37:39Pat McAfee:Okay, are you going to show up at this or no?

2:37:41Darius Butler:I'm working right now. I got the clicker in my hand. Hell yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Boom.

2:37:46Pat McAfee:That's what I'm fucking talking about. Hey, let the boys play a little softball, okay? Coach Steichen's got the boys for you. Are you calling Phil Rivers? I guess his team just got smoked by Luke Bryan's boy. Did you see that?

2:37:56Darius Butler:Yeah, I think his son got a little knee, but he's going to be all right. So no ligament damage there.

2:38:03Pat McAfee:That's good. That's breaking. All right, Coach. We appreciate you, man. Good luck out there. I appreciate you. Hey, should not be bummed out about us getting fucking smashed by the Falcons there at Lucas Oil Stadium.

2:38:15Darius Butler:Yeah, that wasn't ideal. We got to be better there. You're the man. All right, see you, coach. All right. He didn't know Strand was fucking future of the Falcons was playing against the four stringers.

2:38:27Pat McAfee:I walk into the suite. It's great to see everybody. Good to be here. Man, football is all the way back. I look out on the field. I see Cooper Cush warming up. And I go, did we know? Wait a minute.

2:38:36Darius Butler:They picked him up a couple weeks ago.

2:38:38Pat McAfee:Did we know Cooper Cush was on that team? Nick Folk jogs out. Nick Folk's their kicker. Excuse me. Nick what? They got Cush and Folk. Who are we playing? I looked down the sideline. Nobody. A lot of 48s and 62s. A lot of those. I've never in my life thought to myself, we got no shot here today. Turns out, we didn't. Tyler Goodson revenge game too. I was kind of always in the cards. And then this 6 '5 guy from fucking Minnesota State Moorhead. Yeah. What's his problem?

2:39:13Darius Butler:Just preseason. It's all right. She's unbelievable. It sounds like he's about to be the starting quarterback for the Falcons.

2:39:19Pat McAfee:Schefter wouldn't give us a single second of that conversation.

2:39:22Darius Butler:I would be shocked if he was the starting quarterback. I wouldn't. After what I saw on Saturday? Better look out for Strand, brother. Nice quick release, man. Yeah, and he spins it.

2:39:33Pat McAfee:And he can run. I mean, he ran right at me. Literally right at me. Whenever he ends up spiking it into our – Look at that. Yeah. It was. And then he says, you know what? How about this? I'm 6 '5", 240 pounds, and who's going to tackle me out here? Nope. Absolutely not. Let me go ahead and get this thing. Boom. He was super jacked up. Big spike. Big spike. Big spike, Jack Strand. Yeah. That's what they're calling him. Can you imagine him running the option with B. John? Yeah. They'd win 12 games. Ty, can you break down baseball a little bit more to me? The Milwaukee Brewers are about to win it all.

2:40:08Pat McAfee:Okay, they got the best record in baseball. Yes. But it's abnormal, not only because they have the fastest pitching starter in the history of baseball, but because the way they go about doing it is a little bit more college, high school-y. Is that accurate or is that inaccurate? I would say more just kind of old school-y. The way we talked about it is everything now is like exit velocity and things, launch angle. Teams want to hit homers. They want to hit a lot of homers because there's been some sort of metric or statistic that has been like, hey, if you can get decent pitching and you can hit a bunch of home runs, it doesn't really matter how much you strike out.

2:40:44You can have a bunch of guys on your team batting like 215 or below. That never used to be the case. You'd have three to four guys batting over 300 in a lineup. But the Brewers, they legit play old school baseball. They play small ball. So they have the least amount of home runs in the majors. But you can see right there, they lead the MLB in batting average walks and stolen bases. So they work a lot of counts, which means typically, now it doesn't always happen, but if you're working a lot of walks and you're getting deep into counts, you're usually knocking the starting pitcher out of the game earlier.

2:41:18so you're getting to a team's bullpen quicker, which those guys usually aren't as good as the starting pitcher. You'd rather get to the bullpen early in a game. They do it early in a series so the team's bullpens get depleted so they can't use their good guys. And then when they are getting walks, because they don't hit for power, they're turning those walks into doubles because they're having guys steal. And then you just need a single to score a run, or they're not afraid to put a bunt down or anything like that. And then they play unbelievable defense. So essentially, there's no deficit that they can't really come back from.

2:41:54Now times, when you do the things that most teams do, where you're trying to hit a bunch of homers, if a team gets down, like the Yankees, for example, if they get down three to four runs, that's very hard for them to come back from if they aren't hitting homers because guys are just striking out because they're trying to hit homers. And they have a bunch of guys who are kind of boom or bust. They could strike out or they could hit a homer. more often than not these guys strike out. The Brewers can, they're okay with, hey, we need a walk here, and then let's get a single. So we got guys on first and second, now let's lay a bunt down.

2:42:25So they are constantly manufacturing runs, moving guys around the bases, and they can do that one through nine. So there's really not any point in the lineup where they're worried like, okay, we're kind of fucked here. We need this guy to basically hit a home run, otherwise this is going to be a nothing at bat. So you pair all that with having a guy like The Miz, who you're expecting him to win every single time he goes out there. There are very few pitchers in the MLB who are like that. But then you look at that stat about their bullpen too. So Aaron Ashby, he is a pitcher in their bullpen. He has 13 wins this year.

2:42:56That's unheard of. That does not happen. So if the Miz, it's very well known, he's not pitching deep into games because they want him to be 100 % healthy by the time the playoffs come around just because you've got a guy throwing 105. You don't want to burn his arm out. So they're comfortable with him just completely shutting teams down for five to six innings. Hey, we trust our bullpen. We can go to them, and they'll shut teams down. But they just don't make mistakes. They don't make mistakes, and they don't really care that you're probably not going to see very many of their highlights on SportsCenter or anything like that.

2:43:30They just play the game the right way, and there are so few teams that are willing to do that anymore. Kirk Herbstreit loves this team. Yes. This is what he's talking about when he says he wants teams to play the right way. because most teams now, like I said, it's like you get a guy on first base and the guy at the plate is maybe batting like 205. Conventional wisdom would be like, all right, this guy sucks. Like he needs to lay down a bunt to move the runner over so that we can try to score a run as opposed to all these teams are thinking, well, there's an off chance that this guy's going to hit a homer and we'll go up 2-0.

2:44:00And then more often than not, that guy strikes out. Then the next guy doesn't lay a bunt down. So it's just like you're basically wasting the opportunities you get. They don't waste any of their opportunities. and any guy in their lineup is willing to lay a bunt down or just I'm going to be good with a single here instead of a homer. There's maybe three to four teams in the majors who play that way.

2:44:22Pat McAfee:Yeah, the Rays are one of them. They're leading, obviously, the AL East. Well, their grip on the AL East is shrinking. Yeah, but they still got a big old grip on it. No, they're three games up on the Yankees. They were about seven and a half up like a week ago. They need to get their shit together. Yeah, I agree. Hey, listen, being up's being up, I guess. Who else plays like that?

2:44:42Adam Schefter:Brewers, Rays, who else? In the AL East? Just period. In baseball? Yeah, just in the majors.

2:44:47Pat McAfee:Well, the Marlins right now have a chance. They're kind of a couple games out. They're three games out from the wild card. Pittsburgh Pirates are eight and a half games out of the wild card. Jeez. What? That said eight and a half? Yeah. Oh. Yeah, we're in the hunt. Yeah. Okay. When this graphic first got put together, I believe they were 5.5. Yeah, and then they played the Dodgers. And then they got swept, so yeah, 8.5. I mean, sure, you could say that's in the hunt, but... It's actually the glaring outlier on here.

2:45:17Darius Butler:It's not even lurking. I haven't been in the hunt since all sorts of games. It's on the edge of, like, just barely lurking. They need to sweep this. Whoever they play next right now, they need to sweep. They need to go 22-8. 22-8? No problem. You're a shitty thing. Go 30-0. 30-5. They're going to slam Diego against the Jazz, unfortunately. Oh, yikes. See, they got a tough stretch here. This is not the point of the season where you want to have a West Coast swing.

2:45:41Pat McAfee:Well, we're going to need to really get our best Coast swing. That's kind of what we need right now. And if I know anything about Skeeno, he's telling the boys that right now. Skeeno needs to stop showing the ball. I think Ashcraft might be the guy telling him that right now. I love Ashcraft, too. Hey, listen. When the horses and the stallions are in the barn, you know you've got a chance to have a winning barn. I was at the Indiana State Ferry yesterday. Saw a lot of gold ribbons. There's no reason the Pittsburgh Pirates can't get their own gold ribbon this year. Eight and a half games out, let's go, boys.

2:46:13Pat McAfee:Put the fucking hay in the barn, let's go to work. We need big bats, right? Yeah. I mean, the Pirates are one of those teams who when they get hot, they had one of the best offenses in baseball for a very long time. They hit a lot of homers.

2:46:26Darius Butler:And then the All-Star break.

2:46:27Pat McAfee:What happened in the All-Star break?

2:46:28Darius Butler:They just forgot how to play baseball.

2:46:30Pat McAfee:Oh, gosh.

2:46:32Darius Butler:Probably because DeRosa saw the boys at the All-Star game, just kept turpin' at them, turpin' at them. See, that's low-hanging fruit. What's DeRosa saying about Skeens? Has he said anything on MLB, just about? I don't know. He wasn't the one saying that. He's showing the ball. Okay. He's making imaginary trades. He said, like, I shouldn't have made him throw 180 innings for the WBC.

2:46:51Pat McAfee:He didn't throw 180. He threw a standard amount of innings.

2:46:54Darius Butler:What is Detective DeRosa saying?

2:46:56Pat McAfee:I said he's showing his ball back here. So he's showing it back.

2:46:59Darius Butler:Harold Reynolds said that, I believe. Is that who it was?

2:47:01Pat McAfee:Maybe. They came here. I wonder what building Skeeno is right now. Because you know how the starting pitchers put themselves on the biggest buildings in Pittsburgh? Remember how they were doing that gimmick? I wonder what building he is. K &L Gates. That's a big building. Huge building.

2:47:17Darius Butler:Probably Chauncey's down the strip. Maybe.

2:47:19Pat McAfee:Montemore is. Diner.

2:47:21Darius Butler:Yeah, something a little smaller. Put him in. Maybe the Heinz factory. Old run down. Too big, yeah.

2:47:27Pat McAfee:Old run down. That guy's still young. He's got another 10 years. The building, I mean. Okay, thank you. They're saying mean stuff about Ski. I don't like that. Yeah. Did I see D-butt on the stage at the Live celebration?

2:47:39Darius Butler:D-butt, yeah.

2:47:40Pat McAfee:Yeah, I saw a little bit of a depressing end to the Live season. I guess they haven't – have they fully committed to saying it's over? Pretty much. That was the end of 1.0.

2:47:49Darius Butler:That was 1.0. 2.0 is coming soon. The mass exodus is about to begin.

2:47:53Pat McAfee:Well, I did see the finals were here in Indianapolis, and congrats to the winner as everybody went crazy. Wow. Holy shit. Way more than I would have thought. Yeah, me too. Me too. The people in there?

2:48:06Adam Schefter:No, they obviously took people out.

2:48:08Pat McAfee:Oh, okay. I mean, maybe there's a chance. AJ found this and said, I think this is worth a look. AJ, what was most impressive to you here? Well, there's another angle of them. You can see the guys on stage. You know, Terrell Hatton, he's not the most excited guy to be up on stage, it looks like. He kind of pops off the back and doesn't really know what to do. So, but yeah, they did. So the people that were, what is this? This is TNT, I guess I see in the top right. They were zoomed out. And this was on for about less than a half a second right here. Cut away. I would assume, yeah. You can't let this one out, but it was.

2:48:39Pat McAfee:A lot of people were laughing at the demise of Liv. Liv still believes they can survive, right? And there's some, yeah, but a lot of players. I didn't know that. They're still talking about it. A lot of players are trying to get out of there and get to the PGA. Obviously, the PGA in the middle of their biggest weeks happening. Congratulations to Wyndham Clark, front of the program. Go, Wyndham. Wyndham gets a big-time win. Goes birdie, birdie, birdie down the stretch to go ahead and win himself a playoff. And obviously, Roy McIlroy was in the conversation. Patrick Cantley made things a little bit interesting.

2:49:08Pat McAfee:Woodland through the weekend was obviously hot. It was a fun weekend of golf. Wyndham Clark ends up winning. People were saying he was collapsing in free fall and was going to give it up and he was going to be a massive chalk job. Foxy, I heard you already mumbling it in our group text about what Wyndham Clark was doing on Sunday. Instead, he pulls it out the other way and gets a huge win. Yeah, 100%. He had a massive lead going into Sunday. He didn't have a single birdie until this one on 16 right here. And the hole before that on 15, Rory had a chance to take the lead. Easy birdie putt. He misses this.

2:49:38Would have taken all the momentum. Instead, Wyndham gets his first birdie here. He birdies 17. He birdies 18. Now the conversation that they're having on there was that Scotty was supposed to be player of the year. Wyndham is having such a good year, especially with this win. he might steal that crown here at the end.

2:49:55Pat McAfee:He's got Hanhoff and Moth. Yes, he does. Hanhoff and Moth, as Scotty Scheffler said on Sunday, that he had a bunch of blisters and stuff all over his body this week as he was sick. He ended up getting under par there. He started out terribly. He had no idea he was so sick. Thank you, Scotty, for going out there and playing in the middle of that heat for us. Obviously, he loves golf, loves the opportunity. Wyndham Clark winning the player of the year would be fascinating because all the players have laughed and said, And Scott, he's been top five in every single tournament, basically. But Wyndham's got a couple trophies, got a couple purses.

2:50:27Pat McAfee:Love when golf is good. Felt like it was this weekend.

2:50:29Adam Schefter:Wyndham's kind of becoming a guy. Kind of becoming a guy. We saw it with Cam Young earlier this year. I mean, obviously the game is better more times when guys step up and kind of be in that spotlight. But for him to dial in 16, 17, 18, birdie, birdie, birdie down the stretch, that was unbelievable. But, yeah, this started off rough. I thought Rory was going to make it. I always kind of like when he gets very, very interesting down the stretch. but I love that he closed it out between the ears, man. Absolute dog.

2:50:53Pat McAfee:And now the tour championship is coming up, and$10 million goes to the winner. And whoever wins this is the champion. Now there's a regular season champion, that was Scotty Scheffler. Now there's a FedEx Cup playoff series, which is this past weekend, the weekend before, and this upcoming weekend, where it went from top 70 to top 50 to now top 30. And whoever wins this gets$10 million and also the title of tour champion. Huge. Here we go. We'll talk to Wyndham Clark tomorrow to see how he's feeling. We talked to Scotty after he won. He ended up getting hand, foot, and mouth disease.

2:51:23Adam Schefter:You don't have to put that out? You don't have an injury report? That's what I said. That would have been nice to know before betting on the guy. He can't even grip his fucking club because he's got blisties all over his hands.

2:51:32Pat McAfee:How do we get hand, foot, and mouth? Kids. From his kids.

2:51:35Darius Butler:It's usually kids. Daycare. I don't think his kids are going to daycare. Maybe. But you're right.

2:51:42Adam Schefter:Maybe. Hanging out with other kids.

2:51:45Pat McAfee:Yeah, could be. Hand, foot, and mouth disease is a contagious infection common in children. Parents often contract through respiratory secretion, stool, or blister fluid, says Hembo. Dr. Bo. How are you getting it through stool? Are you playing with people's poop? You ever let your kids act? Poop, finger, fingernails.

2:52:02Darius Butler:He's like Herbie. Yeah. Ew, sick.

2:52:07Pat McAfee:Herbie, what do I do with a baby? That was awesome. That was awesome. His peak. Mackenzie wanted to wear another pair of pajamas today to school. She had pajamas on. Wanted to wear another pair of pajamas to go to school. I said, you don't wear pajamas in public? And she said, but they look good. I said, deal. Full pink. Matching shoes on. She was fucking stunting on them walking out of the house today.

2:52:37Darius Butler:That's a fight not worth fighting.

2:52:38Pat McAfee:Exactly. That's exactly what I said. You got it. Full negotiating with her for everything. She's awesome. She's spectacular. Life is good. We hope it is for all of you. Thank you so much for allowing us to do this for a living. We'll be back tomorrow after an intense charity softball game. Here we go, boys. Good luck, guys. Good luck, guys. Big, big thank you to Tyrese or Daniel Jones, whoever donates that massive amount of money whenever their team loses tonight. We are very grateful, aren't we? Very. Very grateful. Won't be Danny Dimes. Nope. Not if you guys have anything to say about it. That's right.

2:53:08Pat McAfee:And if you guys are still on his team, whatever. Well, yeah, exactly. Who knows what the hell is going to happen there. What about Wes?

2:53:14Darius Butler:I think there's booze there. Oh, yeah. Yeah, double check before we go. Smart.

2:53:20Pat McAfee:We'll be living a night. We can't thank all of you. Enough. We appreciate all of you for allowing us to do this for a living. And we will see all of you tomorrow. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice might change your life. We're in a sitting together. Team on me. Team on three. For the good of sport, baby. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye. I didn't like what you said. Odin pauses about the future this is the love story of real hinge couple Odin and Edward written and read by me, Curtis Garner listen to the free audiobook now

2:53:57Darius Butler:close your eyes exhale, feel your body relax

2:54:01Pat McAfee:and let go of whatever you're carrying today well I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class I got them delivered free from 1-800-CONTACTS Oh my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-CONTACTS.com today to save on your first order.

2:54:26Adam Schefter:1-800-CONTACTS.