PMS 2.0 1614 - OVERREACTION MONDAY, NFL 53 Man Rosters Are Set, Los Angeles Rams GM Les Snead, Adam Schefter, Daniel Jeremiah, Dan Orlovsky, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

19:05Pat McAfee:I was kind of brainstorming maybe all up football and make football a little bit bigger because what you guys are doing, seemingly unfair. So congratulations. Congratulations on that. Can you tell me about the Aaron Donald journey? because I think we talked to you shortly after there was maybe a little bit of interest or maybe a little bit of intrigue for Aaron. And you told us and everybody that knows Aaron to text him and tell him, hey, now's a good time to remind him that he's a great football player. Can you just tell me about this road and when did you think it was going to be a reality? It started probably with a text to you live on this show, right?

19:42That's probably where this whole idea was birthed.

19:44Pat McAfee:No. Okay, so you tell us where it was birthed because we remember Ty Simpson. remember saying i didn't meet with anybody i had no meetings with anybody for this entire thing so we know you're working back there can you tell us your side of this and how we got to this point with aaron well i think i think it did i think once let's call it once it naturally evolved i think aaron explained it well yesterday and uh okay based on what we were doing probably based on where he was at in life was like you know what maybe maybe i want to do football again i think the The part that, if you know Aaron Donald, from that thought of, I might want to get back on the field, and then it gets probably with Aaron.

20:26He goes, okay, if I get back on the field, I want to be Aaron Donald. I don't just want to be another football player. So very impressive in what he did from that moment until yesterday is he put himself through a grueling summer. There was no, I don't know, there was no cruises. there was no vacations Aaron's summer was can I do this or not and there were times where it was interesting uh there were times when Aaron was trying to figure out is my body going to be sore is it going to be able to hold up and there were times I was thinking well if you keep doing if you keep working the way you're working there's no way your body's going to hold up what he did over the summer was was impressive but it was all to come back and try to be as close to Aaron

21:14Pat McAfee:donald as possible okay so that's what we were kind of talking about like if he comes back to being aaron donald which we all assume he will but i think he was wondering himself if he was going to be able to do that did you like put him through a workout were you watching the same videos we were work uh watching like when does it push come to shove or was this all on him deciding whether or not he wanted to come back and then business wise was it kind of an understood situation at this time of the calendar and what was available what wasn't available because i I think when we saw 20 million, it was like good for Aaron.

21:44Pat McAfee:And obviously he could have, if he wants to come back and hit the market, there would have been 30, 40, 50 for Aaron Donald in there. So can you tell us a little bit about how does the decision process go from Aaron to calling you and saying him ready? And then business wise, was that already kind of figured out? Here's what I'll give business wise. I'll give, I'll give Stan Kroenke, our owner credit. Think about our off season back to the, I mean, it seems like we've all forgotten about the trade for Trent McDuffie, and him becoming a well-paid corner, bringing in his partner in Kansas City, Jalen Watson.

22:18And then we kind of get a bonus there after the draft with the trade for Miles Garrett. And then let's call it July, August. One of the pillars in Rams history, Aaron Donald wants to come back. So without Stan Kroenke being able to go, you know what? this is a unique, rare opportunity. Let's try to make it happen. We couldn't have done this. I mean, you're knocking. You want to talk about budgets? We all have budgets. We blew through the budget a long time ago. So give Stan credit. I also give the players, give his teammates credit, right? He wanted to come back and play with this group. He had played with some of them, not all of them, and he was looking forward to coming back and joining them.

23:03I mentioned to Sean yesterday, our head coach. everybody knows who Sean is, but for a player of his caliber to want to leave retirement and probably, what, two, three years away from a first ballot, possibly Hall of Fame moment to go, you know what, I'll put that on hold to come back and play for you. I think their relationship is special. It took Stan, it took Sean, it took all the players that he's going to come back, his now teammates, for all of this to come together.

23:36Pat McAfee:Yeah, you too, brother. Okay, and we read your little Warren Buffett piece in Wall Street Journal, and obviously we know your incredible brain in assets and investing. Pat, I did go check my bank account, and I was like, wait a minute, that comparison's way off. It just seems like his bank account to mine, it just wasn't jiving. Yeah, but at some point, you know, you'll be able to take advantage of all the lessons and things that you do because it does feel like the pillars in which you have on the defensive side are smart. If we have a good deep tackle, we're probably going to be good. good pass rusher we're good number one corner those three will spend whatever the hell you need and on the offensive side every position but interior offense alignment right tackle and tight end we feel like we can find people for where the stars are is where you have to invest let's talk about you investing in all those positions and bringing the stars into la whenever you first did this run and it was the uh you know f them picks type run all the people that are super genius who said well let's need sacrifice in his future right now he's leveraging everything in the future just to try to win this Super Bowl this year.

24:38Pat McAfee:And when you did that, all the super geniuses were like, well, now he's way to go. You ruined everything going forward. Had a down year, but then you're able to reload. And you hit on draft picks. Right now with what you're doing. McDuffie, Miles Garrett, Aaron Donald, let alone the offensive side. Matthew Stafford signs new deal. Puka's up. Everybody's kind of doing it. What are you leveraging against right now? Where you said you blew through the budget a long time ago. So I assume that was from Kroenke, not Souther Cap. Where are you leveraged right now and why? We talk about the executive of the year.

25:07Pat McAfee:What's everybody saying you're doing completely wrong in this particular case in your eyes? Where are you? Is it next year? Do we not have draft picks? Have we ruined money and cap in the future? We're not going to be able to field a team maybe? You're not even going to be able to have 11 guys on the squad? What is the downside of all these big moves for you? Maybe we'll go back to your partner's rules next year where, hey, we only have 10 on the field or we're throwing left-handed. We don't have enough money. Potentially. Let's put 12 on the field this year. I think you are. Yeah, maybe 13 with Miles and Aaron, Donald, and McDuffie out there.

25:38Yeah, you are. That's what we're saying. You know, it's a vision. And you mentioned, let's go to the word stars. Always stars is one thing. And I think a star actually means, right, some player, especially in football, you did something on the field where, wow, you have risen to the cream of the crop, which is hard to rise to the top. There's a lot of really, really talented, skilled humans doing their thing on the football field. But at the end of the day, you definitely want to bring in players that we do think can impact the game. Maybe change the maps a little bit. You're never going to be able to play with 11.

26:14That's going to be a penalty. They're going to throw a flag. But if at times it can feel like 12, that's a good thing. That's what we'll try to do. There's tradeoffs in football. We're going to weigh the moment a little more than the future moments, but we're cognizant of the future moments. But I do think I'll keep it simple. We've talked about our era with Matthew Stafford, who's the MVP in this. Let's make the most of that time together, right? We should. We believe that's the right thing to do because we're fortunate to have the MVP on our team playing quarterback at his age. That's a fortunate thing that we're going to try to take advantage of, and we'll get to the future in the future.

26:53Pat McAfee:God, your team has to love that. That locker room has to absolutely love that. D-Bot has the last question for you here. Les, we appreciate your time.

27:00Adam Schefter:Yeah, Les, we were actually talking about those 12 and 13 groups, and it makes me think about that tight end room. I believe you kept five on the initial 53-man roster. Is that more so of like, hey, just keeping our best 53? Or do you guys expect to continue to evolve and use more and more tight ends like you did last season going forward? I think it's all those things. we wouldn't have kept five if we weren't going to continue using some of that 13 package. Or there's a possibility you would have kept five if all of a sudden that fifth tight end was just glaring one of your best players. Because we always look at it this way.

27:35There's 48 they're going to dress, and the 49 through 53 are some version. They're in shirts. They're there in case you need them. They're not dressing. So we try to make that 48. Right, is special teams covered or all the position groups covered? But we definitely plan on using the multiple tight end formation, at least for the time being. You never know. Sean may evolve somewhere along the way in season like he did. Yeah, we may go to 14.

28:04Pat McAfee:Oh, he's frozen. Oh, Sean, so you're talking too much. 14 personnel. Yeah, Sean was shutting down your internet right there saying, hey, we don't need to hear 14 personnel. Okay, we don't need to hear. That was definitely Sean. Yeah, yeah, definitely talking about it, especially now with Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald possibilities, you know, in the backfield. Sure. No. Yeah. Not allowed. Yeah, maybe you do go to 14 personnel. You know, there's a chance that you've got Aaron Donald, Myles Garrett lined up right there, right next to Matthew Stafford. Oh, my. Triple option. Oh, my. I like that. We need to hire some consultants in this group.

28:37Yeah. Oh, yeah.

28:38Pat McAfee:Thank you. I mean, we will come up with as many ideas as you need.

28:41Adam Schefter:Very expensive. Keep blowing through our budget. Yeah, exactly.

28:44Pat McAfee:Yeah, exactly. Exactly. We hear Stan is willing to pay everything for whatever piece of information. We'll take this off air as we talk about that. Speaking of air, okay, I said last question there completely wrong. We're heading down to Australia. Go ahead, Con, man. Yeah, Les, you got to go halfway around the world for week one opener. And we found out the Niners are leaving this Wednesday for the game next week. But you guys, I believe, are leaving the day before, maybe two days before. Technically, are you leaving the same day the game is as you fly into the future? What is that play? That's a good question.

29:16Yeah, I think when you do the math in Australia, leaving on the same day, you probably get there the same day, you get there in time to warm up and play. It is – I can't say this. As we get closer to the game and we're getting close to right 10, nine days out, you start realizing, wow, you lose a day, you gain a day. It is a – I've never been to Australia, but it's a tough plan to plan because Tuesday's now Wednesday and Wednesday's now Thursday, All those days. We'll see what happens. We'll get there. We'll warm up. And you know what? We'll play the game. We're going to try to score more points than the Niners.

29:50And you know what they're going to try to do? They're going to try to score more points than us. I know that. That's right. We've had a lot of battles with this group over the years.

29:56Pat McAfee:That's a huge game down there in Australia. And we know the people of Australia will show up. I like the thought of Sean McVay going, only one team in the history of the NFL has gone undefeated. Okay? We lose this game. Who gives a fuck? We're flying 27 hours down to this place. Okay? hey, we will wake up, play the game, come home. What day is it? Who cares? We're going into a movie basically down there. And then the Niners, they're heading out there this Wednesday. Yeah. I mean, their NFL season starts this Wednesday. I've never seen two polar opposite views on a trip to somewhere, and obviously it's the first time going there, but it's like, does any of it matter?

30:30No. Well, this also sets the stage for every team after. Like, hey, if the Niners, because they're going out a week before. What's that?

30:37Adam Schefter:No, it's obvious. They're trying to get away from substations. Oh, I didn't even think about that. Trying to get a healthier place.

30:44Pat McAfee:Could be. I didn't even think of that. Okay. This is a little bit how we travel east. We did it when we went to London last year. I know Australia, you go a different direction than when you go to London. But we've kind of done it this way before. So we'll see if it works going, I guess you'd call it west versus flying east. I know this. We're going to take off from LAX and we're going over the Pacific. I call that west. But I think you're also going up over. I think there's these moments where, you know what, this is a meme, and I have no clue my geography and directions. Can we get a map up here?

31:17Pat McAfee:Listen, it's really far. But I think you're also flying. You fly up over too, right, don't you? Because the globe, the circumference of the outside of it is a little bit of a – Don't do that. See, an Australian flight is one of those ones where you can maybe find that out because they have the little screen in front of you telling you exactly where you're flying. You're going up over the top. A lot of blue. Okay. So it's dying. You're heading down here, huh? I think you're going to go this way here if I had to guess. I think. And I think you're coming out down here. Yeah, I think. You're probably right.

31:49Pat McAfee:You're popping on that bad boy right there. You see that, Les? I like it. I think that's what you guys are doing if I had to guess. Because, you know, you see, you're a bang. Boom. You still go off if you can. By the way. Because the globe, you see, smaller. You see that's right here, D-Butt. Okay? Yep. You were saying something about it looking like this everywhere. No, yeah. Now you got this thing. Look, burn. I thought the planet was round. I didn't know it had that black top. That kind of fog work cut. You got the fog cut up there. I guess nobody really says it's potentially built like this.

32:20Pat McAfee:You know, like your guys is so fine. Yeah. Yeah. Top of the stadium. Top of the stadium. Little LED boards. All right. Well, safe travels down there. We appreciate everything you're doing for sports, man. It's fun to watch your roster come together. We're all wondering why our teams didn't do it. But congrats to you doing it, pal. appreciate it enjoy always enjoy coming home you're the best yeah safe travels dude man yeah less never won the executive of the year that's because everybody was telling me stupid you're yeah you're ruining your team of the future that's what they said when it was the picks like why doesn't everybody do this well every other team that had never done that before had to tell their people their ownership their fans you can't do that what do you want me to do you We want to put the organization into the toilet for the next five, ten years.

33:05Pat McAfee:We're trying to have sustained success here. And then all of a sudden he's like, well, actually, we are thinking about right now. We'll worry about that. We're cognitive of the future, but we're certainly worried about right now. That was a very transparent answer there from Les Snead when he was like, Matthew Stafford, how many years he's got left? Let's go ahead and win with this guy now. Yeah, that is the best mindset. Like, hey, we finally have – or not finally because even when golf was there, they went to a Super Bowl. But, hey, we have the guy. We have a chance to just go on and do historic things.

33:33Why not just do it? It feels like he's one of those guys, though, where he understands that McVay gets a ton of love and Stafford. Even when they won that first Super Bowl, Cooper Cup was getting all the love. Big wit won Walter Payton, man of the year. He almost is like, I don't care. Everybody else can take all the credit. And that's what we talked about with John Schneider right before the show out there. John Schneider never won anything until this past season, probably because of that thought when they won the first one. and was like, hey, Pete Carroll. Pete Carroll, look at the job he's done with this team and how incredible it is.

34:04But it feels like after this year, this will be the less need. Like, how the hell did this guy do this? He's unbelievable.

34:09Pat McAfee:Other news in the NFC West is we kind of travel around the Pacific area. Jeez, they're so far over there. Yeah. That's where your team lives, man. Yeah, well, my NFC team is – Excuse me. Hell yeah. Yeah, because – hey, you like that, by the way. I love that. I'm watching Hard Knocks. I'm falling in love with this. I'm like, man, this guy is awesome. He's getting after people. The boys are kind of giving it back, but also it feels like they have a real culture. Won the Super Bowl, so you can see a lot of egos potentially. Yeah, right. They pay people. They celebrate people the way they talk. I love the way that building operates.

34:42Adam Schefter:And it couldn't be set up any better for them because we talk about it with college coaches. Hey, number one ranking for Oregon and Ohio State. And it's like, all right, you got that rat poison that Nick Saban talks about. Nobody's talking about the Seahawks. Obviously, we're talking about because of hard knocks and some of their players, but it's all Rams. Rams, Rams. and that's right in their division. They had battles with them last season that we all saw. So they're still somewhat flying under the radar. So, I mean, that's got to be great for Mike Mack in that building day in and day out to keep those boys motivated.

35:12Pat McAfee:A couple huge trades this weekend. Cowboys sent a third and a sixth round pick to the Steelers for a fourth rounder in Broderick Jones. Broderick Jones, you'll remember, is after Aaron threw a touchdown. Clothesline him from the back, kind of a lariat to the back of the neck. Tackles him down to the ground. Huge prospect. Absolute stud of a human when you look at him. I think Pittsburgh Steelers fans are okay with the trade happening. And hopefully he has, just like George Pickens, maybe a little bit better career with the Cowboys. Is that how the Inzers are viewing this? Yeah, that would be great for Broderick.

35:42He was not going to start for the Steelers this year. He was going to be probably a swing tackle piece. So getting a third or moving up a round from four to three, and this was huge in my eyes. Broderick was the first rounder. and it just never worked out. He got hurt last season. But, yeah, hopefully he does great with the Cowboys. Yeah. That was awesome.

36:04Pat McAfee:We remember this. We all remember this. Man, what a clip. One of the best ones from last year. Right after the little – Right in the middle of the air. He punched him right in the chest before this, too. Oh, man. Golly, who is that? It's one of your tackles, dude. It's one of your tackles right now. Okay. All right. He's a player, an athlete. Yeah. he's an incredible player joining us now is an absolute stud and congrats to him his podcast has officially been announced alongside omaha and espn ladies and gentlemen mr move the sticks daniel jeremiah how you doing dj i'm doing great boys i appreciate you having me on man we got a podcast move we we launched that thing on thursday so i'm pumped about that and I'm just more pumped about the fact that Broder Jones never clubbed me upside the back of the head so there's also that I'm happy I know these humans exist like Herbie gets a little excited and starts hitting and shoving and stuff I guess there is a breed of human out there who gets really happy and just wants to like fully shove once again I'm not saying Herbie's like that but he's close he's right there Herbie's like kind of on the line of those types of people I've never really been around one of those guys, I do know they exist out there.

37:23Pat McAfee:And if they do, you got to keep your head on a swivel there. Because they're looking for you. And you got to know that, I think. Look at the dude in the background, by the way. I love, there's a guy who's like smiling and then there's a player next to him who's really seeing what's going on. He has a very concerned look on his face. But I think everybody's trying to process that whole thing in real time. Yeah, I mean, hey, it was a good moment. Pre-game, head butter. I've had a few

37:48Adam Schefter:of those on the team.

37:50Pat McAfee:Let's go. Yeah, you got to, especially if you're not buckled. Which you aren't. Yeah, and that thing will fly down. Yeah, every single time. And they are, though. Oh, they're ready, yeah. I don't know how they have that capability. We had offensive linemen came onto the team, I think, for like a week, which we'll get into here with Daniel Jeremiah because I think it fits in well. Special teams people, bottom half of the roster. We know that there's a 53-person roster right now, and there's a lot of people excited and putting on their Instagram that they're a part of an NFL team. not like Dajon Love, but like they are actually on an NFL team at this exact moment, so they're putting it on there.

38:23Pat McAfee:And then somebody else that's at the bottom of a roster somewhere else will get cut, and all of a sudden you're no longer on a team. I mean, I had two breakfasts with guys that thought they'd made an NFL team for the first time. We're so excited, telling their family, holy shit, look at the story. And then after the second breakfast, before lunch, never saw that guy get – that guy cut, gone, never made the team. I hope – I don't know how that entire thing went. But we saw some offensive linemen come in middle of the season, and after the extra point or field goal, they were headbutters with, like, wherever they came from.

38:52Pat McAfee:Like, at college or something, it was the first NFL game, so I guess their natural instinct was. And, yeah, like, just going up to DAP guy up and all of a sudden just eating a full helmet.

38:59Adam Schefter:It was like, hold on. Brady was a big, big tunnel. Come get some wake-ups. Yeah, I guess that was a little wake-up for him, too. Yeah, Willie McGinnis had to calm him down. That was a Super Bowl clip where Willie's like, dude, calm down. Yeah. There's the pukers before him.

39:14Pat McAfee:tells you to calm down you you calm down willie's the size of an actual barn oh yeah that man and he is absolutely chiseled i don't think i'd want any piece of willie at all no so okay let's talk about these rosters that have happened daniel jeremiah obviously you're you know the draft prospect guy especially because you are the color commentator for the combine every single year or some surprises maybe for you you know we have a couple different graphics a couple different things that you wanted to kind of point out. We won't start with the rookies. We'll get to that. Let's start with the best additions for teams from Daniel Jeremiah.

39:49Pat McAfee:Look at that. Hey, got a graphic DJ. Look at this. Got a graphic DJ. Wow. Yeah, we don't have all the people on there, but we certainly have the opportunity for you to do that right now. Daniel Jeremiah's best additions for teams as we sit right here on Overreaction Monday post-cut day in the NFL. Let's work five to one, Pat. Let's go the forgotten man. Les Need was just on. They made Trent McDuffie the highest paid corner in the NFL. And it's like nobody even remembers that this whole thing even happened after Miles Garrett and Aaron Donald. But I mean, that was a big need for them. Think about them and Seattle, JSN and that matchup.

40:23So I'm going to go Trent McDuffie five. I'll go Kyler Murray four. I mean, the bar to clear with the quarterback play last year in Minnesota is so low. I think Kyler is going to be great there. I think you get in games where you can run around more. You're going to see things you're not going to see in a practice setting or you're going to see in preseason games. To me, I'm really excited to see Kyler Murray in that offense. Number three, again, a team that needed one very specific thing. That's Denver. They went out and get Jalen Waddell. I think he's going to have a monster season with Bo Nix there.

40:53It's going to be run after the catch stuff underneath. They're going to be able to all those design shot plays that Sean Payton loves to dial up. Jalen Waddell is going to be the recipient of those. I'll put him at number three. I'll stay at receiver. I'll go A.J. Brown. Just a legit legit one. To me, that's going to be fun to watch with Drake May. Drake May taking that team to the Super Bowl last year and then you throw this guy into the mix. Of all those 20-24 quarterbacks, those big four guys, I think New England is a team that actually improved the most in their team coming off of the Super Bowl.

41:27Obviously, number one, I'll go back to Myles Garrett with the Rams. They added the best defensive player in football. And then they

41:37Pat McAfee:brought back... Add another one. Yeah. The best defensive player in football. Miles Garrett cannot wait to watch him alongside Aaron Donald. Aaron Donald can't wait to watch him alongside Miles Garrett. These are high-motor guys. A lot of snaps, too. This isn't like we're just seeing this in, like, little couple bunches here, couple bunches there. This is Aaron Donald and Miles Garrett standing up, acting like they're crossing people up before a snap. And you've got offensive linemen literally with their knees just kind of shaking on what the hell is about to happen. And then, oh, yeah, there's two more people on that D-line.

42:08Pat McAfee:It's like the Rams, we just talked to Les Snead, and I appreciate him saying, I'm trying to win right now, bro. We got Matthew Stafford. I ain't trying to do shit. I'm trying to win right now. I'm cognitive of the future, but they didn't think he'd be able to do this. He continues to do this. Aaron Donald getting$20 million at this stage of the calendar is just absolutely crazy with incentives up to$30 million. It's like, how do you get a first down, DJ? I don't know how you get a first down against these guys. Yeah, and Byron Young's legit. Fisk is going to be awesome, playing off of Aaron Donald inside and Kobe Turner as well.

42:42It's not just those two guys. The crazy thing is I remember being in the scouts room and we'd always have these debates and conversations. And one of them one year was, okay, if we're going to value positions, what impacts the defense most? Is it an interior pass rusher? Is it an edge rusher? Or is it a corner? And it's like, well, the Rams didn't have to answer the question. They just said, we'll just go out and get all three.

43:05Pat McAfee:Yeah, and they certainly did. And now we all get to watch these two defensive players of the year next to each other, McDuffie and Watson eating in the backside. And then, oh, yeah, the MVP on the other side alongside an offense that has the offensive guru calling the plays in Sean McVay. Certainly a little bit of a wagon in L.A. Let's talk about rosters as a whole across the NFL. We saw an interesting thing develop here. Is it too much talent, not enough talent? D-Bot has a question for you.

43:30Adam Schefter:Yeah, DJ, you talked about you've been in that scouting room, I know grinding down, getting down to that 53 is always tough. What's your thoughts on more teams? I think we have four teams now keeping four quarterbacks on the roster. That was almost unheard of a few years ago. What's your thoughts on this? Well, I don't think we get to the regular season. I don't think we get to game day, and this is going to be the same setup with these four teams, D. But I think you'll see these teams just trying to buy a little time, seeing if there's other teams around the league that feel like they could upgrade and maybe one of these four guys would do it.

44:01it would be tough to roll with four guys eating up those roster spots through a good chunk of the season. So I think that'll change. I'm curious because there are different situations. The Eagles obviously set at quarterback, so then you're just trying to figure out between those other three. You don't want to lose the rookie in Cole Payton, but you might stack him up just where he is right now behind the other two. Obviously, Aaron's the guy in Pittsburgh. I'll be curious to see. You know, I would, it makes sense to me if you try to maybe sneak Will Howard down to the practice squad as we get closer to game day.

44:37And then the Vikings looks like Kyler's team there. But like Brosemur, I don't, I like Brosemur, but he's, I don't think he's getting claimed or picked up. So to me, that's a roster spot you could save by sneaking him down to the practice squad. And then the Falcons, they might be the one of all these that would be most likely to carry him a little longer just because of the health situation with Penix.

44:58Pat McAfee:Yeah, and Tua maybe. You know, it's like – Jack Strand's a dog. They got the guy. They just need to accept. Jack Strand. Jack Strand, baby. We watched him. We watched him. I touched the football. My daughter touched the football after it left Jack Strand's hands in Lucas Oil Stadium after he ran in for like a – That's a big old boy. 16-yard scamper. Huge. He's 6 '5". This guy is an absolute – University of Minnesota Moorhead, I do believe. I mean, that's a couple weeks back. I was very impressed with him. Now, granted, preseason football, what can you judge? Where is he putting the ball? What decisions is he making?

45:31Pat McAfee:How is he going about making his decisions? I was very impressed by him. Then you see he played a lot of football in college. I think he could have moved up, but he was studying to be an engineer or something like that. An astronaut. Yeah, I want to finish up there. Yeah, an astronaut. Yeah, I mean, no big deal. Matt Ryan might really like this Jack Strand fellow. He should. We have no idea. What is that major? We didn't have pre-astronauted after. What are you? Some sort of engineer. Yeah, engineering, telemetry. Astrophysics. Yeah, because you've got to be able to build the rocket ship. Yes.

45:59Pat McAfee:Because if you're an astronaut, you have to do the engineering. And then also you have to understand what? All of this shit. All of it. Broadcast management and marketing, boys. That's the train I was riding. Hey. Good train. You hit it home, especially with this new merch you got. Hey, the boys in the back, I think somebody's wearing one. Nope. No, never mind. Save it for tomorrow. Hey, I have that new T-shirt smell. Save it for Thursday. Save it for tomorrow. Yeah, that was a decision that was made late by one person behind the glass, I will say, because there was a full, loud conversation on whether or not we should wear the merch.

46:30Pat McAfee:Beautiful new logo. Awesome. Move the sticks. I appreciate that, man. New Omaha broadcast and brand management, bro. I mean, you were a major in it. You certainly hit a home run. Move the sticks with Daniel Jeremiah. Not an AI podcast from Omaha and ESPN, which we're pumped up about. Let's talk about some of the teams that could potentially be a part of the conversations on Move the Sticks, especially late. Go ahead, Con, man. Yeah, DJ, you just mentioned Kyler there with the Vikings. And there's that stat that every single year at least four teams who didn't make the playoffs last year will make it this year.

47:03There's some obvious ones like, you know, Cowboys, Chiefs, people who are like Bengals, Ravens. Who are some of those teams that you're looking at that will probably have a little bit of a comeback resurgence this season that could make some noise? well i mean the bangles are an obvious one i mean you mentioned them i'm curious to see what this falcons offense looks like with jeremiah love healthy i mean the division's just brutal if you could take that team and park them in a different division um i might be more optimistic about them being able to make some noise and maybe crack the party but that's just man that's brutal uh the division that they're in so it's hard hard to go there i feel like the the afc if you're going to say which of these teams have like Super Bowl aspirations.

47:44There's probably more in the AFC. You know, with Bengals, with Burroughs healthy, they got a legit shot. Obviously, you know, Lamar being out there and I like the new staff that they've put around him. I think Declan Doyle and him, that's a good match there. So excited to see what that looks like. And then of all the teams, I saw a handful of teams in camp. I kind of came away from the Cowboys feeling like, okay, this is not like Cowboys hype. Like this is legitimate. They got real dudes. really at all three levels now of that defense, it's going to be much better. So that combined with Pickens and CeeDee Lamb is the best one-two punch in the league.

48:20So that would be the one on the NFC I think I'd be most bullish on.

48:23Pat McAfee:I like the one-two punch with Pickens and CeeDee Lamb. Pickens, franchise tech. Yeah. Playing. Yeah, motivated Pickens. I'll take that. Yeah, but that's just very rare. Not causing problems about it at all. At all. Just, yep, I'll do it. You know, because most players get very loud, especially all the folks around them, about you need long-term security here. Like, you could potentially get hurt, and this is literally all you'll have when we are so close and should be in the time frame in which you should be rewarded for what you've done. That's what he's being told by a lot of people. And he's saying, it's cool.

48:52Pat McAfee:I'm going, let's go, let's roll. Because he loved what he did last year, I guess, with Dallas. He's excited to do it again and maybe up his value even more. But I think that says a lot about the culture that's going on in Dallas. Because I've always been, you know, pretty obtuse about what they got going on, Donner. Sure. I don't necessarily love they're giving tours through the building. I don't like that guys are getting washed like they're zoo animals while they're working out and getting treatment and everything like that. Got the sun coming in on game day. You can't see anything. I don't like that they have office buildings around a practice field because if I'm in your division, I'm renting an office and I'm watching your practice.

49:27Pat McAfee:It's like all these things I've always been very open about thinking that it's so stupid. We're trying to win a game here. Like what are we doing? Nobody else has to deal with this. Then you see like everything that's happening right now down there and it's like, they kind of got it under control. Is everything kind of in a great spot with the Cowboys? And all those things that used to be called distractions now, like look what these geniuses are also doing down here. You know, I think you're saying the same thing I'm saying, DJ. Yeah, there's real dudes. I mean, look, I understand it's different there with all the attention that you get.

49:58But at the end of the day, he still comes down to, do you have the right guys in place? And last year, defensively, they just didn't have the horses. This year, they do. Overshown had put on some weight when I was there. He looked great. Jay Sean Barham was awesome when I was out there watching him. He's played great in that last preseason game. You got a chance to see him as an off-the-ball linebacker. You have downs. Malachi Lawrence, just be a little patient there. There's a little more development to take place. But they've got – I mean, Pat, they are so much better. And then Christian Parker is outstanding as a defensive mind who comes over to call the defense from the Eagles.

50:31So I feel like a lot of times the Cowboys, everybody gets all pissy. Like, oh, the Cowboys, you guys are always talking about the Cowboys. I went and saw this with my own eyes. We're not trying to pump anything up here. This is legit a good defense to go along with what could be the best offense in football.

50:46Pat McAfee:Hopefully they'll be able to close it out. Always have a good season, and then it ends terribly, and then they get mocked and ridiculed for even being talked about. I like that they're running sprints without anybody telling them at joint practices. I like that they're seemingly a bunch of tough guys dying. They've got dogs across the board, and they've got beefs across the board. Good luck to the Dallas Cowboys. With our eyes, we saw a Pittsburgh Steelers as because McCarthy was trying to piece his team together. There was a guy not participating who's one of the best players on the team. He just got activated from PUP back onto the active, which is a huge deal.

51:15Pat McAfee:Tone has a question about something brewing. Yeah, thank God Joey Porter Jr. did get activated before he had to go on the PUP and miss the first four games. Obviously, you know, it's an injury-slash-contract situation. He's from the 2023 class. Obviously, Christian Gonzalez also from the 2023 class. What are your take on these two guys and them getting paid potentially before the season, DJ? Yeah, I mean, I don't know where the numbers are in the discussion with Porter. He's a good player. I still think he's an ascending player. He's getting better and better. So I'm excited about his future. But I didn't think he was sitting there holding all the cards in a negotiation that he'd be able to put your wishes out there if you don't get them.

51:54Either you kind of do a deal or we play it out and bet on yourself. But I did not anticipate that being a sticking point with them. Gonzalez, on the other hand, that just feels like that's a matter of time. When you got the same agent who had Witherspoon, they got that done. He's got Gonzalez. The market is well-defined there at the very top, and he's going to be clearing it. He's going to be at the top of the list. So that feels like one that's pretty cut and dry. I'd be surprised if that doesn't get done.

52:19Pat McAfee:Okay, so if it doesn't, though, because Vrabel maybe doesn't want to pay a corner, allegedly, which was the story that was— Per one guy. Per one source. Per one source. If it doesn't get done, I mean, that's a huge story, I think, coming out of New England in this Vrabel era, because he has been perfect for you guys up there. And then the Joey Porter Jr. stuff, it's like the Joey Porter name in the history of the Pittsburgh Steelers, very important. So we would assume that would have got done. Both these deals we thought would be way behind us at this point, I think. We all thought there was like a domino that was going to fall, and once it falls, all these deals are going to kind of fall in place afterwards.

52:53Pat McAfee:They have not, and allegedly they haven't been close, right? Isn't that kind of both stories here? That's definitely been the report out of New England, which makes no sense because Gonzo has been doing it kind of like We were just talking with Pickens the right way. He hasn't held out. He's been practicing. He's been doing everything. And he's one of those guys where it's not like, hey, is this guy in the top 10? Is he in the top 15? He's clearly one of the top three best corners in the NFL. Yeah. Yeah. So hopefully they get that deal done before you go into the season because you don't want to have any drama.

53:20Pat McAfee:There was some drama and controversy around Tampa Bay. They get Vita Vey's deal done. Feel like that's all done. Shout out to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They're very kind to me. I appreciate them doing that. I needed that. More than they can imagine. shots Blake Shelton as well. Last question for you. There is obviously some rulings that have to take place, but every year there's obviously some questions. Ty, Green Bay Packers owner, has one for you. Yeah, DJ, I know you're not a legal expert, so I won't ask you to get into the milieu of all that kind of stuff, but both Jonathan, no, it wasn't, yeah, Jonathan Cooper and Josh Jacobs, who put on the commissioner's exemplist, and we saw the Packers already trade for Caleb Johnson, so they obviously have a lean on how this is going to go.

54:01Do you think both those teams are operating under the assumption that these guys are going to be without them for a large chunk of the season? Because these obviously, both teams, those are two massive pieces that they're going to need if they want to go do the kind of things they expect to this year. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how long you would anticipate it, but I would imagine you're at least prepared to be without these guys for the first month or so. That's where you have to start. And I don't know how this thing comes down and what the punishment looks like, but the stuff that's out there serious enough that when you're in a front office, you have to plan accordingly.

54:36Now, the good thing from the Broncos is I think that's one of the deeper rosters in the league and they're stacked pretty much all over the place. So they can buy a little time for that elite defense with Cooper. We'll see how long that lasts. And then with Jacobs, you already go out there and you make a trade. Marshawn Lloyd health-wise, I think he finished up okay health-wise I didn't see that he did. Yeah, that he was because I was a Marshawn Lloyd guy coming out of college. I was excited about him. Unfortunately, the guys had not been healthy. So maybe we get a chance to see him a little bit and see what he's capable of doing.

55:08Pat McAfee:All right. We're just days away from the Niners heading to Australia to start their NFL campaign. By the way, by the way, someone I was talking to some folks not on not in the Rams group, but, you know, talking about the difference between the Rams and the Niners on that travel situation. and the throwaway line was, man, the Niners are going to be speaking with an Australian accent by the time we get to game day. So they're definitely different approaches to how they're handling this. Yeah, Sean McVay said, let's not even talk to anybody over there. Okay, let's land, get off the plane, get on a bus, get on the stadium.

55:40Pat McAfee:We warm up, we play. I hate it. Guess what we do on the way out? Bus, plane, forever, bus, home. That's what we're going to do. I can't wait to see who wins and who loses because there will be people that say, this is how it should be done if the Rams end up winning somehow. Well, you see what happened with their sleep cycle. They actually never left the American time zone, which was something that we thought was potentially physically impossible with how far away Australia was. Sean McVay found a cheat code in a sleep game. If they lose the game, everybody's going to say the complete opposite.

56:13Pat McAfee:So good luck to both parties. I think McVay's pumped to be home a little bit longer. I don't think anybody's itching to block Miles Garrett off one hour's sleep or one day of sleep at the end of the day. Yeah. Aaron Donald, too. Jeez. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, move to sticks. Stay in there, Jeremiah. Yeah, DJ. Does anybody want to be in Australia? No. I'll take care of it. Same page. Flying day of. Same day. I want to fly in there. No delays. So what I learned going over there is if you're able to stay up long enough that you can fall asleep for the end of the flight and wake up in the morning, it does feel like you just got there.

56:52Pat McAfee:But you've got to be able to stay up, I think, like 13, 14 hours. You know what I mean? Can they do it? I think so. I think they can certainly figure it out, too, on the other side. Goodbye.

57:03This episode is brought to you by the Hulu original series, Chad Powers, starring Glenn Powell. This season, the walls are closing in on Chad's biggest secret. And with his future on the field hanging in the balance, He'll have to win back the one coach who wants nothing to do with him. Watch the new season of Chad Powers on September 3rd. Streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. Every game, every practice, every moment. We rely on energy more than we realize. From the courts and fields we play on, to the gear athletes use, to the technology and transportation that bring fans together, energy powers it all.

57:38And Energy Transfer helps safely deliver the energy that keeps it all moving. Oil and natural gas help make thousands of everyday products possible, supporting sports and the moments that connect us. So whether you're playing, watching, or cheering it on, it takes energy. Visit ittakesenergy.com to learn more.

57:59Pat McAfee:Football is the greatest, and we're so incredibly lucky that we get a chance to chat about it. Week zero of college football season is behind us, and there are some magical storylines potentially developing. And then this upcoming weekend, week one of the college football slate kicks off with College Game Day Live from Baton Rouge as LSU and Lane Kiffin host Clemson as we kick off maybe the biggest and best college football season yet. Shout out to McQuaid, by the way, doing great reporting over there in Dublin, Ireland. There is a chance that this is going to be the greatest college football season of all time.

58:34Pat McAfee:All indicators have told us that football is better now than it's ever been. And the atmospheres we know from college football at the past are going to be better than any sport we have here in the United States of America. Now, I would say the entire globe. The soccer hooligans will get pissed off that I say that, but just know that you soccer people, we understand you get flares in there and you get drums in there and you have a little bit more extreme capabilities from your fandom, and we have massive respect for you. But your stadium is also like 30 ,000, 40 ,000, 50 ,000, 60 ,000 maybe max.

59:04Pat McAfee:We got 110 ,000 people about to lose their mind in certain campuses around the United States of America as dreams of national champions. The series are happening across the country and even Hawaii. They had a little bit of a run out of there with Stanford. Shout out to them. Great game. And when Alaska gets a team, I have faith that they will be fantastic as well. But this upcoming weekend starts a journey that we're so incredibly lucky to be a part of. And then the NFL, San Francisco 49ers are leaving on Wednesday to go to their game in Australia. Let's go. So we're here. Rosters have been made.

59:37Pat McAfee:Stories are happening. Drama is unfolding. and teams hunting a national championship in a Lombardi have truly begun. Wow. Woo! Hell yeah. We did it. We did it. Yes, we did it. The toxic table's here at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer, done. Cowboys AP Tone is here. Nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here. D-Butch, obviously the day after training camp and the day after cuts, whenever you made the squad, is a cool day. But then you're reminded quickly about the amount of responsibility, accountability, and how hard the job is. What do you think is going through a lot of the minds of maybe the guys that are making their first NFL rosters right now?

1:00:11Adam Schefter:Obviously, first things first, very, very happy. Obviously, for yourself, all the work you put in, but then the people around you, your support system, whether that's family, your partner, your kids, teammates, former teammates, so you're getting all those texts and calls. And then it's still that anxiety for, I would say, probably the guys that are kind of on that bottom, maybe eight, nine guys, because you're looking at all the different rosters. Okay, if this guy's cut, this guy's available. So that's the tough part about it, but just making it is huge, and now you can actually start to put your mind into that, hey, preparing for week one.

1:00:42Adam Schefter:A lot of the starters, the guys who know they were going to make it coming into, they've been thinking about week one since probably a week or two ago. So it's a huge, huge thing, a huge accomplishment for the first-year guys and for a guy maybe going into his tenth year and he made a team. So it's a tremendous journey, man. So congratulations to all the guys out there that made it.

1:00:59Pat McAfee:Yeah, and to the guys that didn't make it, like great football careers. You know, there's guys being told for the first time in their life and the last time in their life because they're never going to play football again. that they're not good enough. And there's usually some, you know, people get jaded against the sport because the end of it is normally somebody in the sport telling you you're not good enough for it. And anybody that makes it to an NFL camp is good at football. You just got to make sure they make it to an NFL camp, though. You know, because some guys get cut, and then, like, Chavarrius Ward had my number, and I got, like, a chain, and he said next year I can have his number.

1:01:36Pat McAfee:we got to make sure these people actually make teams are on teams. That's true.

1:01:40Adam Schefter:You got to be careful out there. A lot of people scamming out. I watched. A lot of people.

1:01:45Pat McAfee:15 of that guy's videos?

1:01:47Adam Schefter:At least. It was hard to turn off, honestly.

1:01:49Pat McAfee:And then my algo was like, oh, you like this shit. I'm like, I mean, I guess this is. Another one. Yeah.

1:01:55Adam Schefter:And this one's six minutes long. What was your favorite workout video? So the beach ones, did you see the alternate angle beach? I saw about 10 different angles, but the sled. Pull, drag. At the resort.

1:02:10Pat McAfee:Beautiful backdrop. Just imagine if one of us was at one of these places. We would certainly have to go up and be like, Sir, what's going on here? This is awesome. This one's incredible. Did you see the alternate angle of the beach one? No. Somebody caught him that didn't even know his little scam was happening. There was an alternate angle from the street at the red light. And they were like, what's Buddy with the helmet or something like that running the route? and it's like, he was sending, how did he never think he was going to, he had to know he was going to get caught, right? I watched so many, and then there was more that I didn't see.

1:02:43Adam Schefter:Then I'd see quotes from this. It's basically Leonardo DiCaprio, you know, catch me if you can. He was, I mean, he had, you know, great stories. There it is. There it is. Who is this Niners dude?

1:02:55Pat McAfee:I just think about sitting there going, what is this? There's people that are watching this whole scam happen. He goes, oh, just, you know, doing it for the TikTok or whatever the case is. The guy was having an answer. I was about sick of staring up his nose, though. Yeah, sure. Every angle down here, I'm about sick and tired of it. But this is a message to everybody out there. You got to watch everybody out there. Yeah, double check. Yeah. A message to everybody out there, watch everybody.

1:03:17Adam Schefter:And I lost more trust in AI, too. Those AI Google searches. Like, how do you just set that up? How easy is that gimmick? So, yeah, you got to keep your eyes peeled.

1:03:27Pat McAfee:Why do you think Google recognizes me, but you don't? You know? He said, me and other professional athletes, we call you guys casuals because you don't really know. Civilians, we call you. Because you don't really understand the ins and outs. You're asking me about my number. He's doing guilt on this thing. Unbelievable. How did he never think he was going to get caught, though? He's just putting his face on. Everything about it. The contract was great. What an offseason for the Niners. I mean, I still do it. And now they've got to go to Australia. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now. Shanahan might bring him.

1:03:58Pat McAfee:Dejan Law? I'm not done. with Dajon Love being a football star. I still kind of believe it. I think he's gone to jail a long time. I think they've got a lot of evidence. I think they've got a lot of evidence. For being on the Niners? No, no. I mean, maybe. You might have seen something I didn't see, but he was just straight there staring at dead down. It's like, how do we not catch it? How do we not catch it as a society? How do we not catch this guy earlier? We've got to be better, too. Us. We've got to keep our eyes out for people abusing our sport. in our league. This game, hey, you want to go do some insurance shit?

1:04:35Pat McAfee:Okay? Get out of our life. Sure. Don't be using us. He even said, Jake Moody, the kicker for the Niners, he's super cool. That's my guy. Moody's like listening to this. What? That's a good move, though, because anyone who sees that, who doesn't really know, they're like, oh, this guy's name dropping like kicker? Like, yeah, he's definitely. That's not the first person you would say. Yeah, but as he was saying it, he felt good about that. You know that he thought, this is it. This is the one. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who's never had to do this because he's the realest there's ever been.

1:05:01Pat McAfee:Damn right. He's a college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner. Ladies and gentlemen, the all-time leading. I was the all-time leading tackler. Big Bob. AJ Hawkins. I know your out guy was feeding you this man all weekend for sure. What a wild thing. I didn't dive deep into it. I didn't watch everything because there's so much footage of this guy working at the beach. Just watch his training partners. Watch the guy that's playing quarterback for him. Watch the terrible bloop ball he throws him after he sets up. Nobody involved knows how to play football, it seems like.

1:05:36Pat McAfee:No, of course not. But they had a financial advisor. They had an agent. They had merch. Good for him. He finessed money out of people? What happened? It's not good for him. Look at that break. What a catch. He was pumping those knees. And then right here, this is how he gets so explosive. Just kind of dragging it. Doing what he's doing. Good hold on the ball. Do you think he played the gimmick live in the resort? Like when people came up and said, what's the deal? You think he's like, oh, I played for the Niners. Or do you think he's saying, I'm just making content? No, immediately. You want an autograph or something?

1:06:09You want a picture? Yeah, let's get a picture. Give him a FaceTime George Kittle. I got you. Stuff like that for sure. He has a fake George Kittle that he just goes to all the time, I'm sure.

1:06:17Pat McAfee:There's an AI Kittle. Greg Kittle somewhere. What was I hearing? Somebody had a number they could call, and it altered somebody's voice. So they had a phone call that they'd be able to do with people. Have you heard about this? No, that's kind of genius.

1:06:31Adam Schefter:Yeah, AI's getting really tricky. Oh, Kelsey Plum had something like that. Happened to her? No, no, no. I thought she had something you can either call or talk to as an AI. And it was her voice, so real responses. It was crazy. It was wild because it was months ago.

1:06:48Pat McAfee:Hey, let's keep our eyes peeled out there is what we're saying. Because Dejon wasn't even AI. No. He added that little extra human spot. It's all real. Yeah, so we got to keep our eyes peeled for all of that. You brought up George Kittle, maybe a potential fake George Kittle. We got some news out of the George Kittle world. Obviously, Shanahan said something about taking a step back, and everybody ran with that on the internet. We believe, from our understanding, from source, he meant step back to, like, returning to football. And from our understanding, George Kittle breaking will be a part of team reps, I think, tomorrow.

1:07:22Pat McAfee:So they head to Australia on Wednesday. Team reps, I believe George Kittle will be back full action tomorrow. That's probably a huge test, you know, before we hop on this plane to get down to Australia. But seemingly one of the best players in football is going to be back for the San Francisco 49ers. And I know it's been an offseason riddled with controversy for the Niners, but if Kittle's on the field, they're much better than when Kittle was not on the field. And his rehab process had to be crazy, but that's good news, I think, AJ. Yeah, it's huge news. obviously in the pass and the run game, he's such a gigantic piece.

1:07:54And also the energy he brings to that team is huge. But if he's practicing with the team Wednesday, I would imagine he's making that flight and he's most likely playing in the game, right?

1:08:03Pat McAfee:Yeah, we would assume that if he hops on that plane, he's playing in the game. AJ, how do you feel about leaving a week ahead of time versus trying to leave maybe actually calendar day of game in Australia? I love what the Rams are doing. I love the straight business trip, let's just get in and get out of that place. Are they going to stay a night in a hotel at least? I think they're there 24 hours. So you'll definitely have a place to stay where they can potentially go snooze. And we were talking about this during the break quickly. For me, when I came back, I was there for the trip was a total of 11 days, but you lose about three days in travel.

1:08:36Pat McAfee:You know, there's like a day and a half travel each way that you kind of drop off. So like eight to nine days I was out there. Coming back was trouble. Coming back was bad. When I came back from Japan, I was over there for like eight or nine days. coming back was trouble. I'd be waking up at 3 a.m., but I'm up, or 2 a.m., and I'm up because it is the complete opposite. So I wonder if McVay has heard that from everybody. Like, you can beat it going over there. Coming back is always the problem. Maybe he doesn't want to be there long enough to start a new routine. Seriously. Right? Maybe he doesn't want the boys to even get in.

1:09:09The long-term play. He's doing the long-term play. Hey, we can roll out of bed and win a football game, but we don't want those five, six days afterwards to drag into the rest of the season. Well, how long did it take you to re-acclimate? Like, if they do it that way, is there a chance that this is bleeding into week two? Like, where, you know. It took me longer than a week.

1:09:25Pat McAfee:I think we all remember that. Because game day was, what, two days after that or three days after I got back. And I was, it was like 5 p.m. for me for game day. It was like maybe the best I felt for game day. Like, maybe the best I felt for game day. But it carried into the next week, I think. So, for me, it was like a week afterwards. So, maybe it's like week two, but maybe it carries back longer. But I think going over, people have a trick. If you can wake up, if you're landing in the morning and you can wake up somehow after a full night's rest in the plane, you're just having your day. So maybe that's what they're going to try to do.

1:09:57Pat McAfee:How long is the flight? 17. From L.A.?

1:10:01Adam Schefter:Yeah, I don't know.

1:10:03Pat McAfee:To be honest, it was all just you're in a time warp. I mean, the screen is just blue. You know, you're watching where you're flying. Just blue. There's no lights. It says 16. Yeah, so 16 up.

1:10:17Adam Schefter:It's all ball here, you know, as far as the coach and, you know, John Gordon and those boys go. But outside, like, the families, it would suck for, like, I guess the Rams families if you're going. I know it's school time, so maybe if you have kids, maybe not. But, like, the Niners, their people, they're going to be going over there for how many days. They'll enjoy this, that, and the third. And then for the Rams people, if they're going the same day too and then just coming right back, like, that'll suck.

1:10:39Pat McAfee:Yeah, I don't know how it all works out. Joining us now is a senior NFL insider for ESPN. ladies and gentlemen adam shefter shefter you look unbelievable pal the camera is still batting a thousand uh we're talking about the australia trip we talked to less need a little bit and obviously sean mcveigh has his way kyle shanahan has his way why do you think sean mcveigh inevitably said we're going to go over so close is there some sort of science behind all this i assume they have to be talking to a lot of people they have spoken to a lot of people both of them have. Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay have come away with different conclusions.

1:11:14The 49ers, as you mentioned, leave Wednesday night. They get there Friday morning, I believe it is. The Rams go in right before, hours before the game. So barely time to just, all I can tell you is this is what the Rams have done for international games in Europe too. I think they played the last time in London, they flew in the day before, played the game, won the game, and flew right back home. So they are of the mind that they don't need to adjust, and maybe you just don't do any adjusting. You just go in, play the game, and come back, and that's the best way to do it. But the 49ers, I know they've spoken to a lot of scientists and nutritionists and all kinds of people like that, and they believe the right formula is to go in a week in advance.

1:12:01We'll see who's right. Okay.

1:12:03Pat McAfee:I can't wait. We're so close to football games. We're right there. We are so close to football games, obviously. Bill Belichick, big win this past weekend. I know you were counting him out forever, Shefty. I know you were. Of course. I never count out Bill. Never. No, I heard you say it. You're always saying it. You're saying, Bill Belichick, this guy's trash. You won't be able to figure it out. We heard it. We heard it all, Shefty, obviously. Shefty never said that. There was a lot of people saying that. What a win for Bill. He looked happier than whenever you win the Lombardi out there. and I think he's obviously been trying to coach his ass off and develop, and hopefully they continue on a positive trajectory.

1:12:38Pat McAfee:Let's talk a little bit about NFL teams and things happening around organizations. Four quarterbacks in multiple places. This is seemingly an interesting conversation piece because does this mean there's too many good quarterbacks or there's too many quarterbacks that they think could be good, or is there too many quarterbacks that they think other teams will definitely want? So is it too much talent, not enough talent, a promising amount of talent? Why do you think we're seeing roster spots that are very prominent and very hard to get onto like four or three quarterbacks such a more regular thing now than it was maybe, what, two years ago, three years ago?

1:13:14Let's leave up Ari's list there because I think every team is a different situation. Obviously, Jalen Hurts with Philadelphia is the starter. Tanner McKee has demonstrated potential in the past that they were very high on him at one point, even though he struggled some this summer. and Andy Dalton would be the guy that I think if anything were to happen with Jalen Hurts right now, they would call on Dalton. So you have a little Tanner McKee, the upside, a little veteran experience in Andy Dalton, and you have the rookie in Cole Payton. You don't want to give up on a rookie quarterback that you drafted that you see something in, which they clearly saw something, whatever that is.

1:13:49The Falcons, you've got two in Penix, two veterans, two is on a cheap contract, so there's no reason not to keep him. Penix is your former one. you still need a veteran backup which they do have one in Cooper Rush and Jack Strand showed out and played well this summer not well enough to be a starter but showed enough up the Steelers I think all along we know they like Howard and Aller Aaron's the starter the question was around Rudolph they didn't get anything in offer wise that was worth doing and they like Mason Ruff as a player so they're not just going to give up on him right now It just doesn't make sense.

1:14:28You hold on to him. The Vikings, look, Kyler's the starter. J.J.'s the former one. I think Carson Wentz winds up being the two right away. First of all, J.J.'s got the ankle injury right now. He's got a sprained ankle that I think is a multi-week injury. And then Wentz becomes the two there. And Max Brosmer would have been the guy that would have been expendable, except they like him. They've seen enough for him that they believe in him. So you're holding on to quarterbacks. Quarterbacks are currency. And if you see something out of a guy you like, you hold on to him. By the way, if Dylan Gabriel didn't have the back injury, it would have been another team with four quarterbacks.

1:15:07The Browns were getting ready to carry four until the MRI on his back showed some type of back injury that they had to put him on IR for. Man, that's saying she just had three touchdowns, obviously. Nails.

1:15:17Pat McAfee:Yeah, it was looking really good. Wait, this guy should have been talked about maybe a little bit more. He was drafted higher than Shador was hired, drafted. so he ends up with a back injury. Okay, that would have been four quarterbacks there. Inevitably, they've got to get rid of these guys, though. They're not going to carry this through an actual season. How do you kind of see it shaping up? It's a fluid thing. Again, we don't know. If there's a team that loses a quarterback to injury, maybe they're calling Pittsburgh for Mason Rudolph. I mean, that could happen. Maybe there's a team that loses a quarterback to injury and calls the Vikings about J.J.

1:15:47McCarthy.

1:15:48Pat McAfee:Yeah, and maybe you need a gunner to cover a punt. You know, so, I mean, Schefter, this is... Maybe J.J. never plays again. This is coming. Whoa. I hope that was from. I thought we were just throwing out maybes. That was from Boston Connor. I don't love that. Throwing out maybes. But it is like you are sacrificing, you know, you're robbing Peter to pay Paul here in this quarterback room, these places. And these are very important pieces, especially, you know, to bottom half of the roster. But I trust everybody that's in charge of these teams, and I assume they'll figure it out by themselves. Pittsburgh Steelers, obviously, a huge part of that particular conversation because who's the quarterback?

1:16:18Pat McAfee:But also, who's the cornerback? AJ has a question for you, Shefty. Shifty, Joey Porter Jr. obviously was activated from the Pup West. I guess, what are the chances that he gets a deal done? When does this happen? And I guess, are we going to see him out there week one? Well, great questions, AJ. And the amazing part is we've got this huge gap now. It feels like today should be Labor Day, but it's not. With the way the NFL calendar is set up, it feels like we should be getting ready for games this week. We're not. And so there's time here where they activated Joey Porter Jr. obviously they must feel like his back is healthy at this point in time uh they'd like to try to get a deal worked out if they can but they got to give him ready time to get ready for the opener in the event that he's going to be out there on opening day which would be the hope so i i think it's kind of both sides hoping for what they want here and setting it up so that he can play on opening day if and when they can get a deal done which there hasn't been a lot of progress there I think there's still a lot of time and a lot of questions.

1:17:24I don't have a specific answer for you there yet because it's a little early.

1:17:27Pat McAfee:We'd like to see him work out a little bit, says Mike McCarthy. I'd like to see him in my camp with my coaches, he says. He'd like to see what that looks like. Obviously, got to get the business settled on the back end. Hopefully, he's able to do that because we're inching weirdly close to regular season starting. At DB there, you can get exposed.

1:17:45Adam Schefter:Yeah, there's nothing like football shape. You've got to actually play football, especially a position like that. That's the same thing, you know, to be seen with Aaron Donald. Now, we expect him as a mutant, as a first ballot Hall of Famer. But in my opinion, you've got to play football. Like, I would hate for, as a corner, to be going out there with four days under my belt and I'm lining up against whoever he's playing week one. Drake London. Yeah, Drake London week one. Like, because this guy, he's matching up with number one guys. He plays a lot of man coverage. And the new coach, Patrick Graham, is in new D.C.

1:18:14Adam Schefter:So, it's one thing being in the meetings, being in the walkthrough. but actually being on that field, lining up and playing football. I mean, that division, he's seeing Jamar and T twice a year, too. I mean, you want to start your season full tilt, feeling great, and I'm sure that's what Joey wants, but he wants his money, too, which he's earned.

1:18:30Pat McAfee:We assume he's in shape and doing everything he possibly can to keep himself in shape. He understands what can happen out there, and he doesn't want to go through mentally the thought of, I'm about to get cooked out here. That is not what anybody wants. Hembo has a stat about Joey Porter Jr. That's certainly one that he has been presenting, I assume, to Omar Khan over there, Pittsburgh. Joey Porter Jr. has conceded a 71.2 pass rating and coverage second lowest by any qualified corner since 2023. Who's the other guy who's been paid? Derek Sinley Jr. And I assume Joey Porter Jr. is hoping for that.

1:18:59Pat McAfee:Let's move to another place in the NFL. What the hell's going on? Tone has a question for you. Yes, Shetzer, we just talked about who he is playing in week one, and that's the Atlanta Falcons. That's the only team left in the NFL without an announced starting quarterback. Tua didn't look terrible in preseason. week three do we have any indications on when the decision come or what the decision will be yeah i i can tell you exactly what's going on there they want to take a look this week at michael pennix and see how he responds see how he physically feels when he's out there practicing for a full week 11 on 11 go through things and they also would like to see if they decide to go to what it would be like for him to get all the reps working with the ones which he wasn't getting all summer long.

1:19:44He had some injury issues early on. They shared some of the reps. Cooper Rush got some. Jack Strand got some. Pennix in the seven-on-seven drills got some. And so I think, look, it's not going to be Jack Strand starting. It's not going to be Cooper Rush starting. It's down to Tua and Pennix. And they don't have a decision yet on what they're going to do and i think penix's health this week will go away towards determining exactly how they do

1:20:13Pat McAfee:that okay you just got a text maybe telling you that they have made a decision any updates down there uh in your hand uh just south of this camera uh look well first of all we are in almost the witching hour here where the nfl's waiver claim the wire is about to come out so i'm gonna guess we get about 25 players claimed on waivers here starting with the raiders who have the top spot. They're going to claim Darryl Luter, a cornerback from the 49ers with the first spot. I think that'll be the only player that the Raiders claim in the top spot. I don't think it's a particularly deep group of players that are going to be claimed at the top spot, but you're going to see a variety of moves that are going to come down here in the next five, 10 minutes.

1:20:54We'll see if Will Levis is claimed on waivers. I just got a text that the New York Giants are resigning Braxton Berrios to their practice squad with the expectation of playing the first game. So these are the kinds of moves we're going to get here in the next, I'd say 10, 20 minutes, but that could be coming out any moment now, Pat.

1:21:15Pat McAfee:I'm sure you're very pumped to be live with us right now while this is happening. Hey, listen, it's called multitasking. And you know what? Here's the thing. When the wire comes in, I don't know. I think some people are very interested. We'll go through and we'll tell you if there are any notable names right there on the spot. as it's happening in real time. Wow, look at this. Let's live the wire with Adam Schefter. Live from the wire with Adam Schefter. Maybe just call it the wire. The tight wire. Walk in the wire. Yeah. Okay, and we're going to do it right now. I see you put out some tweets about some players I've never heard of before.

1:21:49Pat McAfee:What is that all about? That's just like you kind of saying, yeah, I'll do you guys a favor. How does that work? What players have you never heard of? I thought you knew everybody knew. Dejan Love. Yeah, I didn't see any updates. I'm surprised he hasn't used your name. I haven't found a video yet where Dejan Loves says, Schefter was just asking me for what my opinion was. He's about to break it. On some stuff. I don't know if you got a chance to get into the algo on that. It is wild what the Niners name was being used as for a while there. Okay, so we'll wait for the wire to burst all over you.

1:22:23Literally, I expect it within the next five minutes.

1:22:26Pat McAfee:Okay, so as it builds up for the volcanic eruption all over you, we'll try to get some updates on some storylines that are lingering. Let's go up to New England. Con Man has a question for you. Yeah, Shep, we talked about JPJ, but what is the status with Gonzo? Is there any update? Is there some good news? Are they getting closer? I know last week it was like, hey, they're not relatively close. What about right now? Were there good conversations? I have not heard them getting any closer. Now, again, I expect more conversations to occur with the season coming up here, but I have not heard they've gotten closer here in recent days.

1:23:00I've got to follow up and check, but they were not close before. I always think that when the regular season rolls around, there's always a push to get these guys signed, and maybe that'll be the case here with Christian Gonzalez. He's a great player they'd like to keep, but they have not gotten close so far to my knowledge.

1:23:17Pat McAfee:Okay, rapid fire before the wire. Fernando Mendoza. How long is that? Is Kirk Cousins a starter? What's going on in Las Vegas? You know, I still think it's going to be Kirk. I'd be surprised if it was anybody else other than Kirk at this point in time. I think that's the way it's been trending all along. And Mendoza had moments in the preseason. There's no doubt his time is coming. He's going to be the starter. He's going to be the face of the franchise. The question is how soon? I was texting with somebody yesterday. They're like, sooner than you think. I'm like, really? Now, we'll see. What is that?

1:23:48I still think. I think. I don't. I'm not telling you. I think Cousins starts the opener against the Miami Dolphins. I think they want to go with the veteran. I think they want to go with the veteran earlier in the season when there are some tough games on the schedule. At the Raiders schedule right here. They have Miami at home. At the Chargers. That's going to be a tough one. At the Saints. Not a fun place to play. Home for the Chiefs. At New England. Home for Buffalo. home for Aaron Donald and Miles Garrett at the Jets. That's the one. At Jets would be more than November 1st. Maybe, but then it's at San Francisco, Seattle, at Denver.

1:24:28Actually, there's a bye. There's a bye in week 13, and then you have three straight home games. Chargers, Broncos, Titans at Arizona. Week 14? Week 13? What are we doing? It's the National Football League, man. It's the number one overall. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. I think that they would love to wait until week 13. I don't think that's going to happen. Throw him in the fire.

1:24:56Pat McAfee:Yeah. Well, I like that you were getting texts saying, he's going to be much earlier than you think. Who are you texting with? That matters. Is that person in the Raiders organization? Is that not in the Raiders organization? Is that somebody around the Raiders organization? Max Mendoza. Is that little Max Matt Mendoza? Is that who that is? We don't know who that is. It's just somebody's opinion. and I don't know whether they're right or not. I don't know. Again, I'm going to hold fast. I believe Kirk Cousins will be their opening day starting quarterback. That's what I'm expecting. I think that Cousins will be the starter early in the season.

1:25:30If he plays well, he'll keep starting. As long as he keeps playing well, he'll keep starting. If he struggles, they're not winning. The door's open. It could happen anytime.

1:25:38Pat McAfee:13 weeks is a long time. How come they're playing? By the way, I don't know that they're a good enough team to play well enough for 13 weeks to keep the rookie on the bench. And these teams are always saying, we're going to be patient with our first overall pick. We're not going to rush the quarterback. And lo and behold, the last six quarterbacks picked number one overall have all started on opening day. So Mendoza would be the first one at seven, not to start an opening day. But the point is, if these other six were rushed onto the field or moved along very quickly, I would imagine the same will be true of Mendoza but how long?

1:26:17Is it two weeks? Is it four weeks? And the one person felt like it would be sooner rather than later but we'll see.

1:26:23Pat McAfee:Okay well I was texting with Tim McAfee earlier. He said he thinks Fernando's got good up to him. Okay. He hasn't been watching football a long time. I was texting with somebody else. Yes he did. Exactly. So he's been seeing balls get out of hands quick. Just like Fernando. We three had Saints. Is that what you're thinking? Right. Week one in Miami. Yeah, he's saying week one. He went on the board. Has the wire exploded all in your hands and such? No, but I do have a question for you, Pat. Is this the first time that I can remember you wearing a collared shirt on your own show here? No, I've had a couple collared shirts in the past few months.

1:27:03Pat McAfee:It's not often. It's not often. I know. They sent me a President's Cup polo, though. So I feel like I'm part of the team because we need to win that because we've been losing a Ryder Cup. So I've decided that one doesn't matter. The President's Cup is the one that matters. That's pretty cool. Thank you. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I feel like I'm part of the team, actually. I'm not. People need to know I'm not. I thought purple. I thought it was from Jams or something like that. You know, that's great. Actually, good call, Shefty. Thank you for doing that. The grape is so good. We don't have a grape in here.

1:27:33Pat McAfee:We might have ate through them all. The grape is so good. Good call, Shefty. Shefty, you're a huge part of that story. You breaking the news that the NFLPA and Jams have negotiated a deal was the thing that made me go, all right, these Jams kids are doing it good. I like what they're doing. And now grapes available? Yeah. Just know that grapes available, and it is delightful. And I believe by the end of the week, it should be nationwide. Thank you for that, Shefty. You're a good man. Of course. You know, the grape PB &J really does taste like home, doesn't it? It does. Yes, it certainly does. Takes you back.

1:28:04There you go.

1:28:04Pat McAfee:And you think to yourself, wow, is that mom-approving? Ain't that approved? It is. And how about your taste buds? They approve them? They certainly do. Are there seed oils in there? No seed oil, actually. The funny thing about it is they said, seed oil, get the hell out of this thing. And then mom said, wow, I approve of that. And dad was like, you know what? If you do, I do, especially more protein. Yeah, boom. 10? 10 grams of protein. Getting that down your gully. Yeah, and the taste, all phenomenal. Now, on that note, I am an owner of gems. That needs to be said. And I am a huge fan as well.

1:28:38Pat McAfee:So let's make sure that if you're going to have a PB &J. Jams. Join the Jams. Okay. I do like that shit. I hope you like a Jaman too. There you go. Great Jaman, great Jaman, great Jaman, great Jaman. Yeah, okay. All right, let's move along here. There is more to talk about in the NFL world as Adam Schefter impatiently awaits the wire bursting into his phone. Not impatiently. No, we're very patient. We're very patient right now. No, I don't think we've heard that that is just not something that you actually have at all. You know, they say patience is a virtue. And that one, you right out from underneath it as you lick your lips, looking for the next piece of information that you can tweet.

1:29:19Pat McAfee:Ty has a question for you, co-host of the Adam Schefter podcast. Schefter, do you have any idea on the projected suspensions for both Josh Jacobs and Jonathan Cooper? Because like Matt LaFleur basically said before all this stuff came out, hey, we expect Josh Jacobs to be a big part of this team this year. but also his court date's not until November 17th. He's on the commissioner's exemplist, but I think you said the NFL doesn't have to wait until that court date in order to actually rule on a suspension. So what should we be expecting here for both of these guys? Well, look, when the NFL puts him on the commissioner exemplist, they do so as a placeholder, so nothing can happen.

1:30:03They just want to kind of freeze time until they can get more information. Now, if we go back and look at it, there apparently is a video that's involved. And the details of the video were explained in the criminal report that was filed last week. He was charged with two misdemeanors. And so the league is just saying, we need to see what's going on here. We want as much information. The league, I think, has learned over time that it'd rather be safe than sorry. And it needs to be diligent in its approach. And the Ray Rice lesson is something that the league learned the hard way. And I think the league is doing everything it can to make sure that there's never another example like that again.

1:30:54that if they see somebody that's involved in a situation like that, that the player's not playing football, as he shouldn't be. And so in this particular case, they wrote about the video in the criminal report. I don't know whether the league sees it, whether the video, I have no idea how that happens. But the league is just saying it's hitting the pause button on everything until the league can ascertain what did and didn't happen, what's right, what's wrong, and whether he should or shouldn't be playing football. And the league's in no rush to get to the bottom. The league's going to take its time and be as thorough as it can, and he's next scheduled to appear in court November 17th.

1:31:39So they could rule sooner than the November 17th date if they feel like they have enough evidence, but they're not going to rush it and do something haphazardly.

1:31:52Pat McAfee:Isn't the commissioner's exemption list just so they don't have to make a decision right now? We'll kind of let everything else figure it out. Yeah, and I think it's a good idea to create this list that they have done to kind of put a pause button on and see if we can get more information. When the time comes for the punishment, it comes. There is some sort of thing set for like 10 weeks into the season, I believe, with Josh Jacobs. I don't know about Cooper. So I guess we'll just continue to keep our ear to the ground as you keep your hand to that particular phone on this wire day around the NFL.

1:32:19Pat McAfee:So, Shefty, anything we missed there that we should have definitely talked about on this overreaction Monday? Obviously, Aaron Donald to the Rams has happened. We've covered it pretty good. We've covered it pretty good, I think. So, unless you got some ground break. I thought there were some big IR additions yesterday. You know, players on Pup or IR. Jordan Tyson out a minimum of four games. Zach Charbonnet out a minimum of four games in Seattle, which thrust Jadarian Price and George Helani into a big role on opening night against the New England Patriots. I thought those were some big additions.

1:32:50We knew Micah was going to be placed on Pup there. He's out a minimum of four games and is targeting a week six return against the Dallas Cowboys. By the way, I don't understand how he comes up with a week six. What about week five with the Chicago Bears? Are they not worthy of getting back for in time as well? That was interesting to me, but he's targeting week six against the Dallas Cowboys, and we'll see if and when he can come back. I thought the Green Bay Packers were busy yesterday trading for a running back, trading for a tight end, knowing that they need depth at both positions. Josh Jacobs, the uncertainty surrounding his season, his future, and the uncertainty surrounding Tucker Kraft.

1:33:32He's back, but they need some depth at tight end. Luke Musgrave is still dealing with an injury right now. So they had some questions there. They went out and traded for a tight end for the Rams. I'm trying to think of other players that were placed on IR that were out of four games. But Jordan Tyson, Zach Charbonnet, those got my attention.

1:33:50Pat McAfee:Huge names. Can you tell us quickly, Pop, physically unable to perform, is a four-week thing to start the season. Then there's shortened IR and long-term IR now. Can you just kind of classify what all the words we might hear coming up over the next year? Yeah, I'll do the best I can. Hopefully I don't get something wrong. But with IR, you can designate players to return. I think you're allowed eight players that you can bring back during the course of the season. so you almost have to prepare for that and space out your eight moves that you're going to make because you don't want to bring back seven guys and all of a sudden be the last month of the season and be out of roster moves for guys that are coming back for the postseason.

1:34:28It's like giving an allowance. You're giving eight players that can come back off IR. You have to figure out what the best thing to do is and who's the best player to be brought back. So that's the deal with that pup. You're at a minimum of four games. Then you can be activated. They don't count against the roster. So that's kind of where we're at with those moves right now.

1:34:45Pat McAfee:All right. We appreciate the hell out of you, ladies and gentlemen. That's senior NFL insider who's about to explode on your timeline with all the wire transactions. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Schefter. Yeah, Schefter. Next five, 10 minutes, 15 maybe. Still hasn't happened. What the hell's going on here? Yep, yep, yep. I'm very patient. I got patience all the time. What are we talking about? I would like a text to come through right now telling me that these wires have kind of going everywhere, but it's kind of a race to the first ever tweet. What is getting the first tweet at? I think everyone's just juiced up.

1:35:12It's just football news. No matter what it is, I don't care if it is a Dajon Love or some other guy. I don't think he's making a team.

1:35:21Pat McAfee:I don't know. I don't know if now, this year is the year it's finally going to happen for him. But I do know that the designated for return on IR, when that comes COVID, it used to be you got IR, you're done. Done for the whole season. Now there's eight guys. It's like, I don't know why we don't have a lot. What's baseball? They have a DL. Yeah, they changed to the aisle. But there's like 15-day, 30-day, 60-day. We always wonder because you put a guy on IR because, let's say, he has a bad hamstring and let's say it's week 12, but you need players because of where you're at, whatever the season is.

1:35:54Pat McAfee:It's like, dude, IR guys that don't need to be on IR, but they had to because it was the only option. Guys losing entire seasons for injuries that weren't season-ending type injuries just because that was with the IR. I'm happy that they opened that up.

1:36:07Adam Schefter:They do that in preseason with some players just to hide them. Like, hey, this player is good, but people don't really know. Yeah, put them all IR. Boom. Almost like a redshirt year. That's genius. You can develop, yeah.

1:36:19Pat McAfee:Yeah, you used to be able to do that. Now it's like the designated return. Obviously, the announcement goes publicly. PUP to start the season. Interesting. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, drinking out of a 200-ounce bottle. Nice. Ladies and gentlemen, the very hydrated Dan Orlovsky. Dan Orlovsky. Show that thing again, please. Can we see that thing again? That's gigantic. Can we see what you're drinking out of there? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, shout out. You asshole. It's got his name on the bottom. Never lose it. Porridge, what's in there? So what's going on? Do you attach that to like a belt loop?

1:36:47Pat McAfee:It does. Do you attach it to like a belt loop? How does that work? Do you just carry that thing around? No. So this is usually for like, if we go to games or the beach, this is not like the normal one I use, but the normal one I use, which is probably half the size, is getting washed. So I'm just using this one, dude. Yeah, it looks like you literally have a – That's what our name is on it. I don't have my name on mine, but this is like when we're going to games or whatnot or tournaments for our kids. Yeah. Jamboree. New year season around the house. I get it. You want to stay hydrated. We're close to the season.

1:37:21Pat McAfee:Okay, bring that energy. Bring that juice. Let's go ahead and come alive. That thing's huge, though. Does this always happen to me? That's too much. Why is what always happening? No, it's not.

1:37:29Adam Schefter:I don't see any of those in a while. There's not a whole lot of those floating around. Obviously not that color. You don't do it to yourself at all.

1:37:34Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah, because maybe people don't see you because you are a tall, handsome lad walking through. They'll definitely see your bong, bong, bong, bong, bong. I don't use this often. Like, this is not something that I use. Just when you come on TV. I understand that. I literally just said it. All right. Why does this always happen to me? And if you need to kill somebody, someone attacks you. Oh, bong. A weapon of mass destruction. You can definitely bong with that thing pretty good. Maybe you need to get two of those things so you can do the double bonging. That's not bad. I like that. Bong, the bong.

1:38:04Pat McAfee:I can bonk off. Okay, Dano, let's talk about the quarterbacks around the league. There's a couple positions that are obviously still in question. Down in Atlanta, they don't know who their starting quarterback is. I assume they thought that would get figured out by now. Kyler, obviously, starting in Minnesota. They got four quarterbacks on that particular roster. So, is Kyler starting for long-term? Steelers, they got four quarterbacks there as well. What's the future look like? We know Aaron Rodgers is a starter now. Does McCarthy want those guys to potentially get, like, a year behind Aaron, one more year in our offense behind Aaron?

1:38:34Pat McAfee:in the quarterback room how do you see these four jobs all working out and there's no way they keep four quarterbacks and follow up state of quarterbacks that each of these teams think that there's four quarterbacks that will either get plucked by somebody else or good enough to potentially play in the future for their team okay so i think number one for all quarterbacks i do think it's a little bit different nowadays in the nfl than it was i want to call it five or six years ago, I think we are very much so back to precision being a mandate of the position. I think we had a stretch where precision wasn't as necessary because I've talked about this with you guys.

1:39:13The game was so spread out that the athleticism, the creativity was more of the mandate and precision wasn't necessarily as needed. I think the way that we've watched offensive football evolved over the last four or five years and in many ways go back in time precision is needed I think we went through a stretch in the NFL with quarterback play where the I don't want my guy to get hit kind of took a back seat and it was I'm okay with him getting hit more than they have in the past because it generates more offense for us I think once again we are back at that position to doing everything you can to make sure you're minimizing hits on quarterback so i think that's a blanket statement for all guys it just feels you're gonna hear myself and a lot of us say you know the quarterback's feet timing and rhythm and the timing and the rhythm and in the process of the player the timing of the play so i think that's kind of something that's very much so back at that position in the nfl um the four quarterback thing is interesting to me uh i don't think teams carry should carry four quarterbacks i think three In Atlanta, the two starting guys are such question marks because of twofold, health and performance.

1:40:30How healthy can Tua be? And then if you've watched Tua play in the preseason, there's been sloppiness on offense in every game. This past weekend, another fumbled snap before the pre-snap penalties. You would hope that that wasn't the case for a veteran. I don't know how long Kevin Stefanski thinks they can survive with the ball not going downfield much. Kyle Pitts looks amazing, which is great, but the ball just does not go downfield much right now. Maybe that's by design in the preseason, but I just don't think you're going to survive like that. And I think the same question happens for Michael Penix is, well, what's his availability?

1:41:08So you've got two starters that health is a pretty significant question mark. I think at Pittsburgh, you obviously know who the guy is, but I think you like both of those two young players. Year two, Will Howard, year one, Drew Aller. I think both of those guys did things in the preseason that you have to be intrigued by. And so that would be a place that I could sit there and say, keeping forward does make sense. Because I wouldn't want, if I was Pittsburgh, I would not want to move on from Will Howard or Drew Aller. I could move on from Mason, but I don't know if I want one of those guys playing for me in a regular season game right now for a team that, in their eyes, I'm sure is a playoff contender.

1:41:49Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think McCarthy has a lot of high hopes for the future with those boys. But I also know, Dan Orlovsky, you've never had to worry about, like, special teams coverage guy down there at roster spot 53. Nope. You know, like, that is, four quarterbacks is wild, but I think the way McCarthy will sell it is, we need these guys for the future of our organization. Do we think watching Aaron for a year is certainly something he wants in the guys, especially as he puts his culture in, and Aaron already knows what it is and knows what the offense is, which is why he maybe wants to keep all these. Are they going to carry four quarterbacks throughout the entirety of the season?

1:42:23Pat McAfee:There's going to come a time where it's going to get really tough, really tough to be able to do that. So I wonder if they're just holding on for as long as they possibly can and learning as much as possible about these guys. Yeah, I'm sure that's part of it. Teams are making their waiver wire claims, and you're seeing if other teams claim quarterbacks and maybe you can stuff one of them on practice squad and not worry about losing them. I've been a part of teams where like you put a guy on practice squad, but you pay him active roster money and to make sure that they won't leave because that's what happens a lot.

1:42:52As you know, guys on practice squad, he can't go from one practice squad to another guy. One practice squad to another practice squad. He has to go from practice squad to an active roster. And so a lot of times they'll work out deals where, hey, we want to keep you on the practice squad, but we will pay you the active roster money to guarantee that you don't leave. So I can see that happening for some of these quarterbacks and their situations, but you're trying to wait to do it to the last minute so they don't get claimed, I would assume. The Minnesota one's interesting as well. I mean, I would imagine you're keeping all three of those guys and maybe trying to hold Brosmer on practice squad.

1:43:32But I think keeping four is silly outside of I can see reasons for it. Yes.

1:43:39Pat McAfee:Yeah, it's just are you delaying the inevitable? Probably. So you can see where other teams stand. But if one of these guys are really liked by another team, they're going to wait until you get rid of them anyways and make the play. Right. But good luck to everybody making these very difficult decisions. Let's go to Les Snead. We chit-chatted with him earlier today, Dan Orlovsky, and I said, what are you leveraging? What are people going to say that you are being stupid about? He says, Matthew Stafford's got us through a bowl window. So we're going to try to win within that window. And we are cognitive of the future, but we'll figure it out then.

1:44:09Pat McAfee:Defense getting a lot of the chatter today, but the offense obviously star studded as well. Go ahead, D-Bud.

1:44:14Adam Schefter:Yeah, rightfully so. Best roster we've seen put together in a while. But I have just some questions about the offense. What are your expectations for this offense? One of the questions I asked Les was they kept five tight ends on an initial 53-man. You saw the evolution of more tight end usage last season for them. I think after Pook and Devontae Adams, wasn't another receiver until like eight or nine when it came to their target list. So what are your expectations for this Rams offense? How would it look going into this season? I'm thinking it'll be a top five offense. I think it's the easiest offense in the NFL to play quarterback under.

1:44:46And that's a connected thing because the defense will be so good. Obviously, Sean McVay is remarkable. And so not minimizing anything that Matthew's going to do, but this should not be an enormous ask. I think it'll be a top five offense on top of that. I think one of the things that probably did not get celebrated or talked about enough last year was, and this goes a little bit to your point of the five tight ends and at least the initial roster for them, he was the least touched quarterback in football last year. And so there's this overall thought from McVay, at least from the style of play, is we're not going to let this dude get touched.

1:45:28that if we make sure that he's healthy, we should win the Super Bowl. And one of the best ways to guarantee the health is making sure that that protection is shored up. So this tight ends and extra body and protection, we can leak him out. He was also the quarterback that was moved the most on those bootlegs and rollouts last year. And so that's part of their design. And when you're putting all those tight ends on the field and the different versions of their tight ends, I think you're just not only presenting personnel problems to teams, D, but I think you're presenting schematic problems to teams of, okay, this tight ends their pass catcher.

1:46:06This tight ends their dual threat. This tight ends the do-it-all. This tight ends a little bit more of a pass blocker. This tight ends a little bit more in their run game. And, you know, I think you're presenting some really unique scheme stuff to defenses that they just aren't seeing on a week-to-week basis. Certainly not the way that it's going to be deployed. So I really believe this is a lot about making sure that they keep the quarterback as clean as possible.

1:46:31Pat McAfee:I mean, we've spent a better part of this particular program already. Everybody's talked about it. Aaron Donald coming back on that defensive side at this stage for the amount of money they're paying him should be illegal. It's bullshit. It should be. It should be illegal. How do they get first done? How do you get a first done? How do you get a first done against? Miles Garrett's been a part of a defense that didn't give up a first down for like eight weeks or something at home. That was in Cleveland. And obviously we got massive respect for that Cleveland defense, how good they are. They didn't give up a first down for some extended part-time.

1:47:03Pat McAfee:I'm starting to wonder the same thing. How do you get a first down?

1:47:06Adam Schefter:Dan will scheme them up. I was thinking about it like this. I was thinking kind of like this, being dead honest. Sunday night, you're the offensive coordinator for, I think, week two, they played the Giants. So I'm not going to, Kyle's had more time but you got to play the the rams week two and you're the giants sunday night okay we like this play versus the structure of their defense the structure just x's not not actual players just bodies we like the this play and then the next question or the first question is going to be can we block this play versus aaron donald yep we can yep we feel good coach we could double team aaron donald on this play all right cool can we run it versus 95 as well nope we can't all right throw that play out go to the next play can we run this play versus aaron donald nope all right throw it out uh can we do this protection versus miles garrett and aaron donald uh nope all right so like i think your playbook just has to get unbelievably shrunk from an offensive perspective of these are the things we actually think we can do and i just don't think you're going to walk into every game with your full book because there's just going to be plays that as a coaching staff you're gonna sit there and say can't call it this week we can't we we don't have enough people to block it i it's gonna feel like you're playing with nine guys on offense truly and it's

1:48:22Pat McAfee:gonna feel like they have 13 on off on defense it's how do you double everybody i don't know

1:48:28Adam Schefter:you can't and then on the back end it helps us tremendous me aj like if you got to keep a tight in the chip or you got to keep the back end and now you're only getting three guys out maybe a late fourth like that for our coverage that makes us so much better and shula you know he was getting head coaching looks last year. I'm sure he'll be at the top of that list again. But yeah, it's a cheat code. But you know, it's NFL. But think about it like this. Think about it like this. Just imagine they take Aaron Donald and Miles and put them on the same side of the defensive line. Like say it's to my offense's right.

1:49:02I have to commit four bodies that way. I have to. I only have one other body, the opposite side for two. So, like, here comes the tight end or here comes the back. Again, massive advantage. And then you guys have seven in coverage. I can only get four people out. So, like, you have such an outrageous advantage.

1:49:22Pat McAfee:How did he get a first done? I'm wondering this because you know how you were talking about offense coordinator because inevitably that's what you're going to be. I was just thinking about fan watching game. Okay, I'm just watching game right now. And you see the PFF rankings across the bottom. It's like on right last year, number two. Oh, yeah. Maybe. Miles Garrett, 75th. Maybe they do say that, but maybe there is a sense of feel this year for PFF for what somebody actually might be. And if they're in the hundreds, maybe don't put it up there. Let's not bury the stars of the night. But whenever they just line it up, the amount of shit they're going to have to say for both of them because of the accolades, and then you see them get on the field, they might both be standing, literally.

1:50:01Pat McAfee:And it's like, how do you gain a yard on that? Because then you know the back end is going to be sitting on everything. And if they sit on anything, it's a pass break up.

1:50:07Adam Schefter:I worry about a double move.

1:50:09Pat McAfee:Ever. Never scared of the double move. And you guys are sitting sticks and then on guy probably. And it's like they're just going to be the most smothering potential. Got to run it down their throat. Yep. That's all. 13 personnel. Old school ball. That's legit it. Tush push over and over and over and over again. I don't know if you're going to be beating them 13-10 a whole lot, though, because their offense might be 35 points a game. Yeah, but tush push, I mean, that's one quarter, one drive. Bingo. And that's what you're trying to do. That's what you need.

1:50:39Adam Schefter:Shanahan will have, I think he'll have a decent plan because their personnel groupings, at least, you know, what I expect, they do a ton of 21 and 12, so they have more bigger bodies. And then you got Juice and Kittle, guys that can block. And they can also – so you can dump it down to Kittle for three and he can turn it into a 17-yard game. So week one, and then you got Trent, who, like, if it's anybody I can leave on an island for at least a few snaps, it'll be Trent, and I can, you know, put some more assets somewhere else. So week one will probably be the most human version of this defense we see.

1:51:11Adam Schefter:But as Aaron gets more comfortable, as Shula gets more comfortable with the defense, it's going to be scary hours. Your Seahawks as well? I mean, who knows how their offense looks because Kubiak's gone, but you would assume Mike McDonald's going to say something to the boys to get them fired up enough to go out there and compete.

1:51:27Pat McAfee:I got faith in the Seahawks wanting to line up and fist fight anybody. Bingo. Including this Rams team. And McDonald's going to leave no stone unturned. I know that from watching Hard Knocks. Yeah. I watched one hour of this team out of an entire week of what they got going on. Made me a believer. I love what's going on. That's my NFC team, Dano. I don't know if you've heard. And it's really hard for me to do that. They're the reigning Super Bowl champs, but nobody's talking about it. Nobody's talking about it. Not even favorites to win their own division. First couple weeks, we're going to assume that maybe Aaron gets back into it.

1:51:56Pat McAfee:Is that what we're thinking? Yeah. Because has Miles done a lot of practicing too? No, he's still out, actually. Yeah, he's used a ton. But he's been playing. They're already falling apart.

1:52:05Adam Schefter:here like i think he i think he'll be fine i just saw him float levitate on yeah exactly box at 65

1:52:10Pat McAfee:right i think he'll be all right i watched people watching uh box jumps for the first time too on the internet that was fun watching them how are they doing that what was it that's like there's some real talent coming out of those box jumps especially the people that land like really soft you ever seen there's guys that like float up there and land like super soft incredible athleticism we see miles garrett dunk i assume aaron yeah like it looks like he's a feather up there as well. From sitting, too. From sitting makes it even harder. You don't hear any noise when he lands. Just feather. There's a couple they zoomed in.

1:52:40Pat McAfee:I saw those toes land, and it wasn't Miles Garrett's shoes. Just let that be known. But the guys are insane right now. The athletes in the NFL are absurd. And the season is right around the corner as the Niners and Rams travel around the globe to kick this entire thing off. You're the best. We appreciate you, Dano. Later, boys. It's Dan Olovsky. He's a gallon jug of water. Yes, of course. As we wrap up here on ESPN 2 or News. I think 2 because U.S. Open. But it might be News. I don't know. Did you see Fed? Or was it Fed? Roger Federer had it behind the back. Did you see that against McEnroe? I didn't know.

1:53:17Yeah, they did a little. Oh, yeah, yeah, I did. Yeah, they had a little celebrity kind of match. They did a little pairing. Doubles.

1:53:21Pat McAfee:Yes, and McEnroe won after Fed. Okay, they won after Fed. So it was Fed and McEnroe, and then he hits a little drop top cross court. McRae comes back, Fed behind the back. Burial right next to him. McRae just puts his hands on him. It was. I think it was a celebration of Federer. Yeah, it was. From my understanding. Yeah, okay. Open's bringing it. Sports are bringing it. We'll continue digitally. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye. Okay. That was pretty good. Yeah. Pretty good little show today. Let's sneak. Here it is right here.

1:53:54Pat McAfee:Look at this. This is coming from the U.S. Open. Can you go back to the entire rally, or is that just the behind the back? Yeah, here we go. Yeah, McEnroe. Event one-on-one. Who cares who our partners are? Let's battle. Ooh, good shot, McEnroe. He might get him. Ooh, cross court. Boom.

1:54:11Adam Schefter:I doubt you. Better luck next time. Still got Joker.

1:54:15Pat McAfee:They were literally playing two quarters there. They were just playing two quarters. The other two, McEnroe had no plans. None. I get a chance to really. Federer, too. This is an opportunity here for us to really do battle, and it ends the way it does. It's beautiful. And yes, to what you were about to say, Joker, they're saying this guy can't do it anymore. He was sick. Real sick. Sick. I'm hurt. Nobody was saying on the internet, they were saying this is the downfall of whatever they were attacking him. He's puking and shit. Joker, I think his name will always be synonymous with greatness. So anytime he doesn't win, people are going to get loud about it.

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1:55:51Pat McAfee:Speaking of, Scotty Scheffler wins the entire damn thing. Congrats to him. Scotty's an absolute stallion. He could have won the quadruple crown if it wasn't for Ham, Foot, and Moth. Remember? He couldn't grip the club week two of the playoffs. He ends up winning the finality of it all. And he heads off into the offseason, putting together potentially one of the greatest seasons in the history of golf. Tiger Woods has come out and said, great job. This is hole number two on a Sunday. Scotty Scheffler didn't know how close he was until watching before turning in his card, his scorecard afterwards.

1:56:25Pat McAfee:And you see him actually get visibly frustrated. That should have won it. That should have won it. What are we even doing here? What are we doing here? He started Sunday three back, and the two leaders had to watch him start, almost hit a hole in one, go absolutely crazy. Scotty Scheffler subbed out his driver, put in his backup driver, and has gone on an absolute tear during this playoff run. best golfer in the world best season ever and potentially ever and now they're talking about him amongst the greats for sure AJ even the people who are the doubters have to say the respect that he has earned well so he just makes it look so easy and I'm old enough to have kind of lived through some of the Tiger era when Tiger was dominating in every single tournament he was in you felt like he was going to win and there's very very similar feelings when Scotty Scheffler in the field, especially if he's within striking distance.

1:57:16You're like, oh, yeah, of course. Everyone else is going to take a step back. Scottie's going to shoot seven under. He's going to dominate this thing and win and make it look easy, which we all know this is almost – this is so difficult to do, how he wins so consistently.

1:57:28Pat McAfee:Yeah, and I like how comfortable he's getting. He said he had a nice cold beer after the night because he was outside. They asked him if he'd go inside. He said – he asked if he'd go inside for five, ten minutes, get some air conditioning, goes inside, there's a bar in there, give me a beer. I don't like this. I'm talking to my family. Got to get this camera out of my face. Okay. Scotty Scheffler is really evolving and growing into who he thinks he's allowed to be. And we'd like to let him know, Scotty, you've earned everything, brother. It has been so much fun to watch from the very beginning of like, oh, this is the guy, to actually sustaining that.

1:57:59Pat McAfee:Because there's been a lot of people we've all crowned and thought we're going to take the next steps. Okay? We all thought Jordan was going to make a run. We all thought Justin Thomas was maybe. We thought Rory was going to make a run. He did. I'm not saying these guys have. We thought Ricky was maybe going to be a guy there for a while. Dustin Johnson, Brooks, Rombo Bombo, you name it. All these guys had their runs in golf where we were very thankful for, but we all were maybe crowning the post-Tiger King. Scotty Scheffler came in, and he's kept his foot on the fucking gas, and now he's earned more money from PGA Tour wins than Tiger has.

1:58:35Pat McAfee:Now, if you adjust that for current models of Tour championships, I believe Tiger's up over 200-some million, And I think he would have to adjust Scotty Scheffler's earlier winnings if it was to modern tour winnings, because it's obviously different now than it was just a few years ago. Shout out to Liv, I guess, is what D-Button Liv would say. But there's a lot of money won. There's a lot of greatness displayed. And there's a consistency and a sustainability to his game that we didn't think was going to be possible ever again in golf. And instead, Scotty's been the guy. It's been fun to watch him.

1:59:06Adam Schefter:Yeah, that's the most impressive part about any sport. You know, it's one thing when a guy gets to at least what we assume is like the peak, but then the longer you can maintain it. And I feel like with this sport, you know, we could just be at the beginning. He could do this for another 15, 20 years if he stays healthy. So that consistency that he has. And going into Sunday, I think, was he three back? Yeah. So I remember looking at it, and I think the odds, I forget what the odds were, but it was one of those times where it's like going into a game with Patrick Mahomes, and it's like he's a three-point dog, and it's like I got to take this.

1:59:35Adam Schefter:There's no way he's going to. And so that was the same with Scottie in week in and week out. He just shows up. Now, I remember a few weeks ago, maybe a couple months ago at this point, a lot of you boys in here were concerned, oh, top five finishes, top ten. He's not winning enough. I know he didn't win any majors this year. But I would be interested to see how he feels personally, just within his close circle, about this season.

1:59:57Pat McAfee:Have you heard about the haters, of which there were many, come out and say he didn't win any majors this year. So I don't want to hear it. It's like he won the whole damn thing. Literally won the season. and won two out of the three playoff weekends, which they'll have another one of these next year, and then they get to bracket match play. So that's 2028. We still got to go through this particular go through. Sorry. It's been electrifying. Mostly because Scotty Scheffler's been. That is why. Go ahead, AJ. I'm sorry, buddy. No, we're going to thrive. We're going to thrive through the next year until 2028.

2:00:28Pat McAfee:Exactly. It's not an obstacle. It's an opportunity. It's not another year of what are we doing before it seems like awesome is happening. It's another year to celebrate what it has been. And what it has been is Scotty Shefford dominating on a golf course. And we love him doing it. Hand, foot, and mouth took out the quadruple crown. So, Scotty's going to be trying to get that next year, obviously. That's probably up on top of the motivation wall. Quadruple crown. We know Scotty probably operates like that. But he has a chance to do that. What a fun year it was. Yeah, it was unbelievable. I mean, 58 % top fives, I believe, over his last 100, which is just absurd.

2:01:05and being so good down the stretch to win the PGA regular season and the playoffs and all the events. But I do want to – I would love to ask him, hey, do you think this is a successful season? Because with no majors, I would love to hear what he says. Yeah. You think he'd say that?

2:01:21Pat McAfee:You don't think the playoffs are majors? It's only the top 30 guys in the world. One of us kind of asked him. In comparison to the majors because he already knows, like, hey, I mean, like the proof is in the pudding. If I go out here on the tour, like, I win or I get a top five. Like, that's what I do. And now it's like, hey, he's got to chase Tiger with majors, you know, and he's got a ways to go for that. So he needs to start racking those puppies up. Because when he plays in these tournaments, newsflash, he fucking wins. New drivers. Yeah. New driver. Yeah. Certainly he's won two out of the three tournaments with this new driver.

2:01:58Pat McAfee:This could be a game. Two out of two. And that's what everyone said about his irons, too. It's relative to everyone else, but for him, he's playing like shit with his irons right now. And then we see when he dials in, it's not fair.

2:02:11Adam Schefter:Who's the other guy that can make it? We saw Cam. He was outside of Rory and Scotty. Fleetwood. They don't exist yet.

2:02:21Pat McAfee:Yeah, they don't exist yet. There's a new class of young guns out there that we've seen a little bit this year. Hopefully one of those guys can be it, but it's not going to be. and I see a big smirk on both of your faces. We know who it is, and he happens to be in the senior tour. The number one showman in golf? We got Shooter McGavin on the PGA Tour Championship. His name is Michael Block, also known as Blocky. This man came into, obviously, fame. Yeah, that's him on a golf course in the lead. Come on. Come on. Come on. Get up. Come on. Everyone up. Did you see what I just did? Make some noise.

2:02:57Pat McAfee:We saw a throw of a golf club on a par three on the tee box. Okay. This is the best one. Bump, bump. Bump, bump. I'm in the lead on Sunday. PGA Tour Championship. Cricket Crazy Life. And it's near the flag. 20 feet. Get that thing out of here. That's why I'm going to block it. Give me that putter. Here we go. Let me dap everybody up. Stop hands. Even a scorecard holder. Yeah, let's go, blocky. Let's go. I'm doing a score. You're in the lead. Bang. Like that shit. Boom. I like it. I'll tell you what. The PGA Tour Championships never needed blocking more than this moment right now. Oh, man. I was tuned in all weekend for the next clip.

2:03:31Pat McAfee:He's turning his back. He's walking off putts. Walking off putts. Now, there is obviously a little bit of a other side of the story. What? What do you mean? Michael Block was very open about it. He was a little bit nervous on Sunday. He ends up getting third place, actually. Oh, he didn't win? No, he entered Sunday with the lead in a championship, PGA Tour championship round. in series, and he ended up in third place. So I had a little bit of a tough Sunday, but made big plays, brought a lot of attention, and I think Blocky knows he's made for the moment now. Okay, and I can't wait to see what he does next.

2:04:07Pat McAfee:Is this tour all full? Because I need more Blocky. I need more Blocky. I need more Blocky. Who's he waving at all the time? Those are his fans. Millions and millions of fans. Groupies, yeah. Look at that. Oh, my God. Come on, lads. You. Hey. Here we go. Hey. I'm going to step in line. Walking through lines. No, he does. He doesn't care. How about PGA Tour Championship? Par three. Hits a beautiful draw in there. About 15, 20 feet. Looks good. Obviously can't tell depth all the time. It's a senior tour. I thought I was next to it. He gets jacked up. People go crazy for him because they like him.

2:04:41Pat McAfee:Throws his club, obviously, two cad. Wait, how close? It's like 15, 20. Yeah, 20, 25. But it was directly in eyesight. We've all been there before. He pard. We've all been there before. You know where it's like tracking, tracking, tracking. What? Yeah, I mean, there was a chance anything rolled in from where they were standing. This is the greatest showman in sports right now. It's Miz. And he hit the pump. Yes. He is the mic. He is the mic. The blocky. I love him. Give me that. I'm not a blocky. He's talking in third person. Come on. I changed my mind. You missed his quote, Dan, because once you read his quote, it's like, wow, how can you not be a fan of blocky?

2:05:17This guy's talking in third person. This dude is the man.

2:05:20Pat McAfee:I want to let you know, D-Butt, I think you're missing it here. Yeah. Okay, I think golf potentially needs this. Definitely. Liv would still be alive if it had a man like Block. I put his poster on my wall last night after all this. He has a poster. See, that's one of the things I think. No, I made it. I created it. AI printed it out. Fucking threw it up. Is it him doing club throw? Yeah, shirtless. And he looks yoke. You're missing it, D-butt. Come on, D-butt. I don't think you did him. Get on board. He almost did the Hulk. I think he did. He did actually earlier. And then he told people, please keep it down.

2:05:49Pat McAfee:Somebody else got a putt here. It's not just my tournament. It's others. It's BGA Tour. Stand strong, D-Bud. Look at this right here. Stand strong. This guy's a fucking dickhead. No. No. No, he is not. Blocky is a grade-A cocksucker. No, he is not. No. He sucks. He sucks. This guy sucks. And listen. Fuck you, man. This is bullshit. I wanted to be a Blockhead, too. I am a Blockhead. I came back around, you know, several months ago. I said, hey, listen, I don't know if my Block party invite got lost in the mail the first time around, but guess what? I showed up to the barbecue this time around. I'm at the block party.

2:06:23I just, I can't pretend I'm no longer going to do it, especially when he's doing all this shit. And that's the only thing my Twitter was all weekend. Like, oh no, you know, like I can't imagine. Need to check in on. And I just had to say, listen, if you think I'm losing any sleep over this grade A dickhead, you're nuts. Okay. I saw the clip. Sure. I ain't fucking watching this guy. I ain't. What are you talking about? I put the note. He's on for him.

2:06:49Pat McAfee:Yeah, me too. I'm tuning in. You know what? I got 31. Block, Blocky, Michael, The Mike, Golf God, all these things. And I'm happy for you guys. If you're going to act like a petulant cocksucker on the golf course, you've got to win tournaments. And Blocky fucking choked down the stretch and he didn't win, but we won't see any of that. He was nervous. We won't see any of that kind of stuff. What was the setup on Sunday? Tough. It was tough. No, it wasn't. No, no, no. Hey, tell him, Blocky. Tell him. So out of the top 20 guys that finished in this tournament, there were only two that finished over par yesterday.

2:07:20Pat McAfee:Michael Block, he had the lead after 10 holes. He made it birdie putt to take the lead. He only has eight holes left. He's going to be a champion on the tour. He finishes two over. Once again, only one of two players that shot over par in the top 20 of this tournament. He did indeed choke. I love Michael Block. That's your hero. He left out half the story. This is his first time in this moment. What do you want from the guy? He woke up, knees weak, palms are sweaty. Then he got the crowd go a little bit, and he was like, wait a minute. Maybe this is the time. And then down the stretch, got a little tired out.

2:07:54Pat McAfee:He got a little tuckered out. The guy's not used to playing 72-hole golf. Did you see what the senior tour did to him, too? We all know that Blocky loves to play the power fade. They set up every hole on Sunday for draw players. They were against Blocky on Sunday. They were like – I don't understand why they're against him, but they were. Because he acts like a fucking son-of-a-bitch dickhead on the golf course. Maybe that's why. It's great for ratings, though. It's fucking booze, bag, it's great for 15. That's the other aspect of this, that they're leaving out. Blocky was the only one out clapping cheeks, talking to all the fans the night before.

2:08:28Getting boozed up, having fun. He needs the Virginia Bay. We like Blocky. Yeah. Think for yourself. You guys can have Blocky. Okay. You guys can fucking have him. I will say, there's a lot of people joining your... I'm with Ty. Yeah. Stay with Ty. Just give it time. You guys will be here in a couple weeks. No, I did the full runaround. I did the full Romo circle on him.

2:08:46Pat McAfee:And also, good news, Champions Tour goes until mid-November, so we've got more. Let's go. Also need him in TGL. If he's not in TGL this year, TGL's making a massive mistake. The newest team, the Motor City Golf Club, as a fan. Blocky, you're invited on our team. Oh, I'm sure him and Koepka would get along swimming. Might throw a club through the screen. Blocky really strikes me as the kind of guy Brooks Koepka would love hanging out with. They do. You never know. They go on family vacations together. I don't know any of that's true, but I do think that Blocky, he made some great shots in a PGA tournament there.

2:09:18We did.

2:09:19Pat McAfee:Champions tournament. He'd be riding the bull around the TGL arena. Because if you remember, he has played in PGA tournaments, and he typically doesn't make the fucking cut in those. That was a long time ago. Let's get that distinctly going. So I do think the big issue for Blocky is people are comparing him to like Scotty Sheffield. Bingo. You know, because it's both Sunday golf. But when you're burying putts like that, and you're making, you know, tee box golf balls dance. Sure. Can't help but get a little excited. Block is doing a boudin. He's feeling a flow. He's a player. There's no two ways about it.

2:09:50Pat McAfee:Okay, thank you. We got to at least say that. I'm not saying he sucks at golf. By no means am I saying that. I'm saying I'd love to see one of these guys on the Champions Tour take a seven iron and hit him in the neck as hard as they could. That's what I'm saying. In the neck? Yeah. You're supporting all this. Are you on that side as well? Neck, knees. I'll say it with time. Thank you. Thank you, D-Butt. This guy grew up in Divingport, Iowa. Blocky? Yeah. I don't give a fuck at all. What? He's an Iowa guy. No, he's not. He reaches Iowa. Guess what? We don't fucking claim him. Block was born in Reno, Nevada.

2:10:27Okay.

2:10:28Pat McAfee:Then he grew up first in Davenport, Iowa, and then he went to the St. Louis area of Missouri. During his adolescence, he played in the golf in Belarive at the Belarive Country Club two miles from his home before graduating from Parkway Central High School in Chesterfield, Missouri. This guy's a Midwest kid. Yeah, he is. This guy's a Midwest kid doing a bull dance. So I got to like him? Guess who else was born in Davenport? Who's that? Me. I don't give a fuck. Fuck Blocky. Oh, my God.

2:10:56Adam Schefter:Stay a little bit. Thank you. He's going to be so good on TGL. Oh, yeah.

2:11:01Pat McAfee:The best. The hands. The hands. Because, you know, the drive, the power is where Blocky lacks. Sure. If he was more powerful, he'd be Roy McIlwain. He'd be the number one player in the world. Yeah. I heard Tiger was considering him to be his personal proxy. Like, if Tiger can't play in a match, he's going to have Blocky go out there. Wear power red. Keep the ratings up. Blocky's got DUI written all over him in the coming weeks. No way. He's got drivers, which, speaking of. Is there a tournament here? We need everybody to get drivers, please, immediately. And Blocky, keep going, dude. He is certainly a hater, but there's supporters out here.

2:11:36Pat McAfee:If you do, keep doing your thing. They need a Shooter McGavin out there at PGA Tour Championship. He is. And I would assume, you know, they will be grateful for the attention. I don't know where the next tournament is. We need a group of people to be following Blocky around. What's that, Ty? Nothing. I love it. I love it. I can't wait to see more Blocky videos next weekend or whenever the fuck the next one of these tournaments is. And we will because, you know, the golf that people care about is not on TV anymore. Well, President's Cup here in a few weeks. Yeah, sure. I do believe we'll have that.

2:12:04Maybe Blocky will be on the President's Cup team.

2:12:06Pat McAfee:Should be. He keeps playing the way he's playing. Ned's my pick. Captain Block. He keeps playing. I like Blocky. Blocky, keep doing it. Keenan Allen, member of the Indianapolis Colts, was charged with DWI this weekend as he was in a car that was parked in a non-parking zone downtown Indianapolis while being inebriated. So he gets charged with DWI plus also endangering, I believe, DWI, I think because he was in a no-parking spot, obviously humans. I think there's a lot of people that wanted to come out and kick him out of town. And then they found out he was maybe passed out in car inside, which there's a bunch of rules, different states on.

2:12:49Pat McAfee:If you have key in car and you're in car intoxicated, it counts as DWI. Someplace if it's within arm reach, some of the cars on. Sometimes if keys are in car at all, so people have keys outside. Whatever the case, not smart to get behind a wheel whenever you're intoxicated. but it was nice to know the car was parked now do you have to assume that car was driven by him at that point to that space yes but i think it was a good piece of information here the car was parked he definitely needs to be smarter especially at this stage of his career but i i think the colts are going to wait for probably more information but i think you know new city needs to figure it out and he needs to not do that every game well said Bingo.

2:13:36Lesson learned.

2:13:37Pat McAfee:But we need to stop driving when we're in talks. People need, like as a society, it needs to stop happening. There's so many options right now. Like there's so many options right now. Uber is everywhere, obviously. Lyft, I believe, happens. I mean, walking is certainly an option. It's just like we got to be smarter. And I think Keenan Allen learns that very loudly here in his first couple weeks here in Indianapolis. And now all eyes are on what the Colts will do, also what the city will do. And if there's any punishment, we have some breaking news from Adam Schefter. He's been waiting for the wire.

2:14:05Pat McAfee:Former LSU and Buccaneers Edge Jack Parburn was claimed on waivers by the Chiefs. Wow. I love it. He has informed LSU that he's withdrawing his claim in the NCAA's 5-for-5 eligibility litigation and will remain in the NFL rather than return to LSU, per his agents Christian Addison and Harold Lewis. So this was something that was being chatted about in our group text a little bit. These NFL teams could do something very funny here to these guys that if they were to get cut from a team and clear waivers would potentially be able to go back and play college football because of an injunction that says the 5-for-5 rule should also have them be eligible for it.

2:14:39Pat McAfee:Chiefs claim, Pyburn, who is a great face paint, led the NFL in sacks this preseason, and is certainly a dog. He's saying, I'm not doing it. I'm going to go chase my professional dreams. Will that continue to happen, AJ? We shall see. I guess so. But it sounds like even if guys try to go back to school, even Lane's saying, no, no, thank you. We're not doing this, right? all right, we're going to follow what the SEC and all the people are saying? Isn't that what is going on right now? I don't think that's exactly what it is. I think working in conjunction with the SEC, there's a court hearing, I believe, on Thursday in Baton Rouge, I think.

2:15:11Pat McAfee:And then a big decision by Lane and any other coaches that are potentially having this particular class be deemed eligible. Friday, I guess you've got to set your 105 roster. So Thursday, there's a hearing. Friday is the roster setting day. So we're going to learn a lot here on what happens where. but there certainly has been quite an initiative from Sankey to be like, we don't like this in our league. We don't like this at all. And then there's a Texas injunction that says it doesn't matter if you like it. Like court saying you can't. So just like the NCAA doesn't have power, you don't have power.

2:15:41Pat McAfee:And then there was a report that Sankey came out and said, all right, well, what's wrong? Then there was a report that said, fuck it. We'll fight this. We'll see you in court. We'll see you in court. And it's been kind of an interesting seesaw of who I think is going to inevitably end up winning this entire thing. I think Pyburn saying I'm not doing it I'm going to continue my NFL career is a big deal and probably part of him hearing all this noise too not wanting to be a part of it maybe we haven't even thought about the players perspective about not wanting to be a part of the negativity that has certainly been around this entire story but injunctions in court cases seemingly going to end on Thursday and then Friday be a big declaration for football and now uh just within the last like 20 minutes it looks like I think um it looks like LSU may be getting the Texas Tech treatment where everyone in the conference is just going to say, like, all right, that's fine.

2:16:26We're just not going to play you. Okay, so good luck with that and see what happens.

2:16:30Pat McAfee:So then they would say, sweet, that would count as a win for us. I mean, I think the Texas Tech situation with Sorsby provided Big 12 commissioner your mark to do something that I think other commissioners are looking at now. Your mark talks to the NCAA. The NCAA says we have no power over this. We'll get sued by Sorsby, which we just did. we can't rule that this guy which we all agree can't do it because we have no power inevitably which is why the protect college sports act needs to happen so an antitrust thing happens for the ncaa so they can empower and do their own rules okay so your mark big 12 says you know what we can't enforce any of our rules but we don't like what you did and actually everybody's not going to put you're getting suspended they're gonna kind of make you an outcast you're getting shunned basically by the big 12 that is the only real regulation we have seen over the last three four years of any rules so then i think big 10 and sec saw this and were like okay this is how it has to be done now they're trying to do as such then an injunction happens in texas now another court case in louisiana just dog chasing tail right now seemingly but if the conference doesn't want something to happen we're about to find out whether or not it's possible for them to get the job done in this world with no real regulations or rules so interesting way to start a college football season.

2:17:48Pat McAfee:But we're starting it. We're starting it. Let's go. See you Saturday at LSU. Yeah, see you down there. Going to be in the area in which it happened Saturday in Baton Rouge. It's going to be incredible. Incredible. But yes, it is going to be so hot down there. I've been looking at the feels-like numbers. Don't, don't, don't. My phone actually told me. So I go to the weather app and I go Baton Rouge. Let me see what this looks like. Then I get the Saturday and then right there, it like lays it out for me. Like more information the better. It's actually 87 or 90 degrees. Gonna feel like 106. It's like, I don't need to know that.

2:18:29Leave me in RV. Leave me in hotel room. It might fry your phone. You might need to bring an extra phone. Oh, you think my phone was telling me? Yeah. Feels like you shouldn't bring me outside. Legit. That happens. I feel like that's happened to you before on set.

2:18:43Pat McAfee:Yeah. Don't burn me out, please. Yeah. It is quite a hot start. Excited for it, though. So pumped. I think we've got ranked games Friday, too. Yeah, we've got college football. We've got college football. I mean, Colorado, huge questions. Are they a football team or not? Huge, huge questions. We'll find out what Georgia Tech favored by six and a half. Mendoza's. In Atlanta with Albert. Is that his name? Yes, Alberto. Alberto Mendoza. Shout out to Alberto. Miami taking on a team we were impressed with. Tough Stanford, fought hard. They're playing against Andrew Luck every day in practice. I think he's putting pads on, and I think he's running scout team up there in Stanford.

2:19:24Pat McAfee:He's running around with them. He's on the sideline. He's talking as if he is a coach. He is the general manager. Should I? No, I'm going to score a touchdown here opening night and cover potentially here late, as this was an absolute epic battle. But I think Andrew Luck is all in on the Stanford team, and until he's not, I won't believe in him. Now, granted, taking on Miami Friday night. Different. Crystal ball. 24 and a half point dogs. Linsa. Straight out of a lost national championship. You know, what's that going to look like? Excited to watch. Long trip. It's a long trip. Yeah. It is way upper.

2:20:00Pat McAfee:Will the crowd fill a show up there for that particular game? No. No. They didn't last week. Miami comes, they should. I don't know. Stanford didn't really fill it up. You know who else didn't? It was a big conversation piece. Oh, yeah. Yikes. Hey, USC over there. Lincoln Riley. Oh! That's a huge stadium, obviously. Yeah. Huge stadium. Yeah. But we were told, Will Blackman, who we're big fans of, was there at the game. He said it was really hot and there's no shade. And it's also early kickoff in Los Angeles. So they're obviously doing comparisons to, like, back in USC's heyday, temperature, time of kick, what it looked like versus what it looks like now.

2:20:35Pat McAfee:It's just, that was a bad look for USC. But if they win games, who cares? Who cares? They don't inevitably fill up if it fills up. But what'd you say? Recruits. Yeah, it looks like nobody gives a damn about this. I was just about to say, they just got the number one recruiting class in the country. I don't know how that happened. Really? Yes. Oh, wow. Yeah, they had five freshmen start this weekend.

2:20:55Adam Schefter:So maybe it's just because they're playing against San Jose State. Yeah, but that was something that Bumpy sent into the group chat. They played San Jose State in, I want to say it was 2010 or whatever, same exact weather. The place was packed out.

2:21:07Pat McAfee:Packed out, huge. I mean, it was 80-some thousand or something like that in there. So for that to be the display of what your team is, I assume Lincoln-Rotley didn't want noon San Jose State first week. Can we get a night game maybe so everybody can kind of travel in here and enjoy? But that didn't look good, especially with what we're going to see in these other places. Yeah. Like what Louisiana is going to look down there, what LSU is going to look like down there is just going to be. They had a full practice this weekend. Full practice, walk-through game, walk-through. I guess they didn't tell crowd, though.

2:21:37Pat McAfee:They were just going to do it, obviously, and kind of walk through it all. We got banned. We got flyover. This is what it's going to be, boys. We're going to go through it. lane probably wanting to go through it one time too to kind of see what it all looks like and how it works before it goes allegedly news just kind of trickled out amongst campus like this was happening and they said they got like 10 15 000 that just showed up at the stadium like to kind of be there so to say that they're excited down there especially with the bunker mentality that they could have with everybody attacking lsu as being a bunch of not good men yeah just not good people down there is what they're saying these people are ruining college sports that could create quite a hive mentality, you know, and going right into it as it actually feels like 106 degrees, fired up, boy, that's going to be a great start to everything.

2:22:20Pat McAfee:Dabo. Dabo on the other side, a good man. And he used the transfer portal a little bit this year. He definitely did more than in the past. But if you look at how teams are built, if you were to just go strictly off of Dabo, it's like, Dabo's old school. We're going to recruit. We're going to develop. Okay, we'll bring couple transfer portals in. Lane Kiffin is, who's available? Yeah. Who can play football? Build a best roster. How do I go right now? How do we do that? So just two different, you know, thoughts as we're in the middle of quite a transition period for college football. Great way to start it all.

2:22:51Pat McAfee:And then, you know, group of five teams that can sneak their way in there. Did you see the Memphis Tigers? Yeah. Did you see the Memphis Tigers? Yeah. Even them. UNLV walked out with Elvis Presley. Yeah. Coach Mullins, they got a guy out there who I think I saw breaking them down. who's played football a long time. UNLV had a lot of hope. Coach Huff there got knocked on his ass right there. He did. In the locker room, he gave a speech that was like, hey, listen, I know I'm hard as hell on you guys. I know it's a miserable fucking existence here. Okay, I know that. But it's not just you players.

2:23:24Pat McAfee:I also talked to the staff, and accountability's on everybody. Shout out Miss Kathy. Miss Kathy comes. I guess Miss Kathy is seemingly. Because the team and the way the players reacted to Miss Kathy was like, thank you, Miss Kathy. And at Memphis, who knows how many things they have for what? You know, like who knows what's all possible, what's all available, who has to drum up whatever for whatever all the time down there. So Miss Kathy seems like she is a bit of a beast for the Memphis Tigers, but also Coach Huff, it feels like they got respect for him. And then you listen to the music and the reaction immediately afterwards, it's like they got dogs in that locker room.

2:23:57Pat McAfee:And he's obviously been to multiple different places, Marshall, Southern Miss, and now here at Memphis. and I think he's got a couple players that have maybe been all three places for him. So he's got his culture in there. He's got a lot of transfers in there, and I think he's got dogs across the board. I really liked what I saw in that Memphis Tiger locker room. Yeah, like you said, he rebuilt Marshall and then last year at Southern Miss, and he brought 20 guys with him from Southern Miss. So, yeah, he does have his culture in there. And you want to talk about, like, spending and college football.

2:24:25They actually, as far as group of five, group of six, whatever it is now, actually have a little bit more money than you would think because of good old FedEx Donner.

2:24:33Pat McAfee:Oh, I didn't know FedEx Donner in Memphis. Shout out. Maybe they're able to build a bit of a roster. And then they've got a psycho strength coach. Love that. When I say I've been – I almost tweeted out, like, it feels like I've been in a locker room or two like this one. Coach is a hard-nosed guy, got dogs across the board who have been counted out, and the strength coach is a psycho. Put this on, please. Hey! We started the jam! How we been? That is a – Tiger Jack team, Eddie! Tiger Jack's my team, Eddie! Tiger! H-S-R-E-R-T-E-R!

2:25:13Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think they are going to be a problem. I think they're going to be a problem for some teams. And I'm excited to see who does that. I think they got Boise September 12th.

2:25:24Adam Schefter:Big one.

2:25:24Pat McAfee:Memphis has Boise at Boise September 12th. So that's a group of five convo obviously comes to a point right there.

2:25:29Adam Schefter:Yeah, in this era, man, like building these cultures, because, Coach, you talked about bringing 20 guys, like all these different guys. Because when we were in school, like you go with your recruiting class and usually you stay those, you know, wherever you're at, three, four, five years together. But now building that culture, when you come out and you see that proof in the pudding, like you see a week one, you go out and get a huge win on prime time for them, like that can just propel them even more forward. And I say it all the time. I'm sure you guys would agree. like a college program like the strength coach is probably up there with two or three most important person in that building because they really set the tone you're really turning you know boys into grown-ass men like when you come in there at 17 18 and by the time you leave a program at 21 22 years old like the bodies the mentality like because you get through that shit and win a workouts or summer or whatever it is once the game time comes like that that should be a cakewalk, man.

2:26:21Adam Schefter:So seeing that type of shit, like the behind the scenes, which we don't get to see with a lot of these scenes, seeing that, seeing how everybody's bought in, that's pricing.

2:26:28Pat McAfee:And once again, or not once again, I would like to clarify, we don't know if that's a strength coach. We assume. Assume. Just by looking at that guy, that is the strength. Exactly, AJ. It's got to be. Or linebacker coach, potentially. Or maybe it's a student tutor. Good to be. It's just a good speech giver. But we assume that he's a strength coach. But to your point, they're the ones instituting the culture every single morning, every single day. They are very, very important to the process. And also, here's Coach Huff. Hey, listen, we don't play music. We don't throw ice cream. We don't do fun stuff.

2:27:00Pat McAfee:At the beginning of his speech afterwards, he was like, life sucks around here for the players. But also, that's how he got to Miss Kathy. And the players were like, yup, yup, it certainly does. But that's a way to win. And it has been for a very long time. Your attention to detail, accountability, high expectation, everything like that normally leads to success. And he's had a lot of success everywhere he's been. So I like what they're cooking down there in Memphis. And inevitably, one of those group of five schools is going to go on a run where we're all going to have to talk about them. And then they're going to get in a college football playoff.

2:27:32Absolutely dog walked by somebody. Maybe.

2:27:36Pat McAfee:But maybe not. Maybe not. I think Memphis has some sort of record about the amount of wins that they've had over the last few years. Yeah, they've been really good for – yeah. I think they win down there. They do. That's where Norvell started. Yeah. Could have stayed. Yeah, and then Silverfield just went to Arkansas. That's a factory of, hey, you win at Memphis, and then you go get a bigger job. I got a chance to go to Daytona this past weekend. Oh, really? I saw that, I thought. The Cuck 0-400. Okay. What was that? Some racing. Great race. Some rubbing. I'll tell you what, there was a lot of rubbing because it was the last race for playoffs.

2:28:10Pat McAfee:It was the end of the season. And they wanted to keep it. Now, I'm in George's and a tank top out there. I would be told rather quickly by a rules and safety official to get the hell out of here. And that was probably the right decision. And I would like to let that guy know. I appreciate him looking out for me. He's, who, why are you here? He comes up to me. I go, I think he's told me to hold a sign, man. Told me to hold a sign. And he goes, get out of here. And I go to shake his hand. He's like, get out of here. It gets wild in there. Yeah, very wild. And also, obviously, with shorts, you know, anything can kind of bounce through.

2:28:40Pat McAfee:It was before the race started. I appreciate them being super safe and super healthy and everything like that. But it was an incredible – that was my first time down at Daytona. They have this grandstand that's just one side, basically, of the track. It looks daunting, like, whenever you go down there. The amount of people camping out, obviously. They do three races down at Daytona. They start the season at Daytona 500. They end it there for the playoffs. The France family, which I believe founded NASCAR. I think they're from that area. They have an entire thing up at the top. New CEO, Steve O'Donnell.

2:29:13Pat McAfee:Okay. First non-France family member to run NASCAR. Wow. Got hired in April of 2026. Him and Tim, I believe, chief brand officer, got a chance to chat with them throughout the entirety of what they're looking to do, how they're looking to do it. They're like, we're trying to make NASCAR people happy. That's what we're trying to do. It's like we might drift it a little bit away, but it's time to. Yeah. Get back. And I like that. I was like a big fan of that because you could feel their culture and community down there at that racetrack. And obviously we're here in Indianapolis, so we know the IndyCar racing community in which it is.

2:29:43Pat McAfee:It felt like that with the NASCAR. It felt like a real family. And obviously I got a chance to, you know, chit-chat with Cole Trickle a little bit. No big deal. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. It was insane. Did not know this was going to happen. I think there was a conversation I had with Tom Cruise's folks about maybe a time to have a conversation with somebody who's in the media and for some reason tom's people were like uh we should probably try to have mr mcfee do that that'd be cool if he would come down so i got asked to come down very late did not know the days of thunder announcement was coming whenever i was asked to go down there and then i was told it was all happening i'm like holy shit would love to come down there so we'll have a conversation with tom cruise tomorrow that i got a chance to have talks about a lot of things yeah it was an incredible setup and then Got to walk the pits with old Tom, watch him operate.

2:30:33Pat McAfee:It wasn't just him. Bruckheimer was there. The head of Paramount was there. I mean, the entire crew was there. They were trying to gather as much information as possible while doing all of this promotion. It was like, and when Tom Cruise walked, he went to talk about motion. Holy shit. He's got it. I've never, yeah, it was remarkable. So shout out to the NASCAR folks taking care of me, being so kind to me. It was fun to get to learn a little bit more about your world. Shout out to Tom Cruise and the family for the invitation down there. And I can't wait to watch Days of Thunder. Saw a lot of people, you know, asking me to stay away from the movie.

2:31:06Pat McAfee:I know nothing about the movie. What I do know is I had a conversation with him about all of the movies that he currently has cooking. And Tom Cruise, once again, just. It's TC.

2:31:16Adam Schefter:That's TC, baby. Did he do the thing that you guys said he always does? Did he fuck with something in the engine? Did he grab a tool or something? No. So when I talked to him, we were just kind of standing next to the car.

2:31:26Pat McAfee:Just kind of standing. He had a good, cool pose. Of course, sure. He looked really cool, I would say. But there was no fidgeting of anything. He didn't need to. He built that car from the ground up. So it's like, you know, he's not making any mistakes, obviously, with that under the hood. So he doesn't really need to tweak anything. I don't want to give too many spoilers to our conversation, but he had been thinking about this for 15, 20 years. I don't doubt it. What's the right way to go about telling a story and getting back into it and everything? And I said, are you going to be a crew chief or whatever?

2:31:56Pat McAfee:I'm driving. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. If I'm making an airplane movie, I'm flying the car. Flying, yep. If I'm making a NASCAR movie, I'm driving the car. I was like, okay, yeah, I can't even believe I asked. People are just trying to figure out how you're going to do it, just trying to figure it out. But he is. You can feel it. It's like irradiating around. But it was an entire team. Got this hat right here. Yeah, sick hat. So sick. Sweet. Thank you.

2:32:25Adam Schefter:D, but you like the original Days of Thunder movie? Yeah, it was fire. You know, high bar right now, though, that F1 movie. Well, there's a lot of people's dreams to see that hope that he somehow gets tied into the days of the day. Comes together. Because he did. Sonny can drive anything. Yes, correct.

2:32:42Pat McAfee:I like that. That's like very, very fan fiction. Like, that would be awesome. Okay. Well, I also think that we all have a little bit more faith that it's going to be good because we saw what he did with the Top Gun sequel. You know? Like, I think we all have expectation that because Top Gun Maverick was so good.

2:32:57Adam Schefter:Oh, yeah.

2:32:57Pat McAfee:Okay, Tom's only going to make it better if he was to do it. And I ask him about that. I'm like, hey, it feels like if you're picking a movie at this stage, we all just have faith it's going to be good. And then him talking about the team and the crew and how we're setting it up, he's really going for it. What should we expect from Days of Thunder here? I mean, the last one came out a long time ago, but I think just with – I mean, that was like the big thing with Top Gun. A lot of people, the first one, love it so much because of the nostalgia, But then when you see the second one, the way technology has advanced so much, like the second Top Gun is just as a movie and like as like a piece of entertainment and something to watch.

2:33:34It is a thousand times better than the original Top Gun because like the the way they can shoot, like they can put the cameras inside the planes now, like the stuff they weren't able to do that, you know, for the first the first movie. So same deal, like the advancements in technology and the way they've made movies has, it's been crazy since, you know, the last time he did this, which was like, yeah, like, you know, damn near 35, 40 years ago. So it's like, I mean, it's going to be incredible. And that's the thing is if TC is doing a movie and he's very hands-on and it's the team that he usually has produce it, write it, someone he has direct it, those movies very rarely stink because he stakes his entire existence and reputation on them.

2:34:16He takes them very seriously.

2:34:19Adam Schefter:Who can't be the Rowdy Burns in this movie? That's a great question. I don't know. What do you think, AJ? I don't know. We'll see who it's going to be, D-Button. It's going to be Glen Powell. Oh,

2:34:30Pat McAfee:maybe. New Chad Powers is out, I do believe, on Hulu. But it was a fun, fascinating conversation. Anytime you talk to one of the most interesting people to ever exist, there's obviously going to be nuggets to come up. We appreciate the invite, and shout out to Daytona. Hell yeah. 80-some thousand people in there packed up. That thing is just huge. Because here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, obviously there's bleachers on both sides and everything like that. That one is just right down one side. It's just packed in. It was a cool night. And those cars lag. They got a lot of ponies under. You don't have ear protection down there?

2:35:07You don't need to wear ear protection?

2:35:08Pat McAfee:I was asked if I wanted ear protection. Obviously said no. You know, the entire thing. I don't know if I was doing that to act tough, but everybody else had ear protection around. And I said, I want to hear.

2:35:19Adam Schefter:Is that him asking you right now? They do ask me, I would say within the next three minutes.

2:35:25Pat McAfee:Gumpy, when do you think, like three minutes after this shot right here, I was asked if I wanted to go out and hold the sign, or was this after I was told to no longer hold the sign? I think this was before, and then also after you used that tool, 400 PSI, fucking just zigging around. They only got a one shot, because it used to be, right? Change the tire. Now it's just, just one in the middle. Oh, wow. Oh, I don't love that. That thing, I think it was 300 PSI, maybe 400 PSI, whatever it is, fire hose. Guy, this guy maybe, potentially. I don't know if it was Kimbrough, I believe was the name. Mob and Bush here.

2:36:03Pat McAfee:They hand me the thing. It had a towel around the head of it, obviously. They hand it to me. And they go, hey, I hit that thing one time. I was like, all right. I was just fucking with it. That thing almost bopped out of my hand. It had some real power. I was like, oh, shit. So then the second one, I was like, all right, fuck. And they were obviously all laughing at me. I'm like, oh, this thing's got some real juice, huh? Real juice. And I try to lock into it more. It almost breaks my wrist or whatever. So I just, well, I can't put it down, you know, because that thing's still spinning. So I, like, had to, like, weirdly place it so it wouldn't break.

2:36:32Pat McAfee:And I'm like, get me the fuck out of here. I should not be touching any of the races about to start. Okay, they're in this. It was, they were very hospitable to us, let alone the three hot dogs I had up in the France family suite.

2:36:43Adam Schefter:Did you run into any former football players down there? I heard that's kind of a big culture is a bunch of former college or pro.

2:36:50Pat McAfee:All the pit guys, former team man of mine, Tyler, all the guys. They're all football guys. The pit guys were very kind, which is why I was asked to hold a sign, do the thing, send them the thing. They were all football guys. But, yeah, incredibly athletic squad. They were doing practice ones. Like, as their car would be driving around in the warm-up laps, they would, like, watch it go. And then they were bouncing around and getting back. And then somebody would come out with a sweeper to kind of clean it all up. It was like watching them lock in was pretty neat. Once again, me and Gumby thought, we should not be standing right where we are.

2:37:22Pat McAfee:But we did, Gumby, didn't we? We watched 10, 15 laps down there just right where we were not supposed to be at all. Yeah, it was a very cool experience. Also, the flyover before was unbelievable. All of it. It was even up in the suite. The view from the suite could not be understood. You're just watching the thing right in front of your face. The family that created NASCAR invited us up to their suite. Shout out to them. They had a hot dog station, which I guess all NASCAR suites have because Bill French Jr., which I believe is his founding father, loved hot dogs. He liked making his hot dogs.

2:37:52Pat McAfee:So we had some parky butter that we put on the grill to heat up the bun. And then you had everything. You had slaw. You had relish. You had chili. You had onions. There it is right there. Yeah, that thing. Oh, yeah. I almost busted mine. Oh, yeah. Let me get out of here and then put it down. Well, can't. It's got to stop, obviously. Don't want to bust this thing. Yep. And it almost broke my wrist. It was incredible is what I'm saying. And that conversation with Tom will come out tomorrow. And that came together within like 24 hours. So I was very lucky and thankful to be there. Saw a lot of people not happy with what I was wearing.

2:38:24Pat McAfee:I was at a NASCAR race fucking Daytona. What are you supposed to wear? Tux? What are you going to wear? I don't know. I genuinely don't know. You dress like that to meet Tom Cruise. If I wasn't dressed like this, would I get invited by Tom Cruise? We're at Daytona. It's fucking NASCAR. Sponsored by Grizzly Pouches. Relax. Grizzly Pouches were all over the place. They had a Grizzly nicotine patch's green lot where people were parked inside. I mean, we saw the Grizzly Wintergreen lot. Yeah, maybe, but it didn't say Wintergreen. It just said Grizzly Patches lot. Would have been better if it did say Wintergreen, which maybe, hey, you guys need to think about down there.

2:39:04Pat McAfee:But literally, we see this car grow. We walk by this car, and it's just Grizzly huge. I'm like, hell yeah. Grizzly's fucking still doing it, man. I thought they would be done for. And then we're driving out Grizzly parking lot. It's like, okay. Grizzly's still fucking bringing it down here in the NASCAR world, I do believe. People are really kind to us. Jeff Gordon's got a new car. Looks beautiful. Yes. Rainbow War? It's Carvana 24. Oh, okay. It looks pretty sweet. Looks super cool. Still burning it. The greatest paint schemes of all time. It is. All right, let's get the hell out of here. We'll be back tomorrow.

2:39:33Pat McAfee:Speaking of flyovers, though. Boy, is that one a little tight.

2:39:36Adam Schefter:Just thinking about that. What's going on? It's how they planned it.

2:39:40Pat McAfee:And taking some shrapnel from underneath. Did not expect the flares to be going off at the exact time. And then there's some reports came out that there were 41 or 46 feet above the stadium. There's some mountains in the background as well. Just I would assume these are ex-military pilots who are in commercial jets or commercial planes for the first time with no passengers. So like, hey, let's go ahead and give this thing a little bit of a whirl. See if we still got it. The front one had the back end down a little bit. Actually had to flatten it back out and then take it back up. Just an absolute insane display of confidence that are people saying a little bit reckless.

2:40:16Pat McAfee:A little bit reckless from what could have potentially happened here. This one's scary. Buzz the tire. Yeah, touching it. I mean, going down into the bowl is certainly a move, but everybody in the bowl. There's a mountain right there in the background, by the way. I mean, they were doing the Top Gun Maverick drop into the mountain, pull that thing out there, and I wonder when they made the decision. Obviously, that couldn't have been pre-planned that had to be made in real time that they were going to do this. 41 feet, 46 feet allegedly above the stadium is an insane move, but the boys got in and out there and gave you something to remember is what they're going to say.

2:40:45Pat McAfee:Are we trying to have a memorable moment or not? And I think the flight people are probably going to say, you're never doing that again. Actually, you're suspended and fined for however long you're going to be. I read that this is like a common occurrence at this thing. Oh, really? That they do this type of thing. Now, I don't know if it's that low, but like that they take two big old fucking commercial airplanes every year before whatever event this is and basically play chicken to see how close you can get to crashing that thing into the stadium. And to thousands and thousands of people, here's Arrive Alive.

2:41:14Pat McAfee:The two aircraft were flown by highly experienced crew. Sure. With each comprised of three senior captains operating in the roles of commander, co-pilot, and safety technical officer. Sure. The flight data recorded by both aircraft confirms that the flights were performed within the SACAA's approved and rehearsed safety altitude and speed limits of the fly pass. Okay, so this country's saying, take them down in there. Don't worry about the people. And the people inside say, wow, I could almost touch that. Don't want to, obviously, but I guess the talent that was on display and the confidence should at least be celebrated.

2:41:49Pat McAfee:All right, let's get the hell out of here. Respect Generali. Yeah, big time. I mean, I could go really wrong. Really bad. Yeah, I thought it was fake as well. Are we sure that's not a... No, there's been five different angles. I had to check before I quote tweeted it and sent it out there because obviously people were waiting for me to potentially fall for something like that. And I was mind-blown. When I saw the red stuff go around the plane, I was like, that'd have to be really good AI to be able to get that. And then we saw a bunch of different levels, and then their aviation people are coming out saying, yep, they did it.

2:42:18Pat McAfee:I wonder why they didn't buzz that next one, too, just kind of get a little skip on the walk. You know what I mean? Before that mountain, just kind of go ahead and take – try to get down in the bowl. Make sure they can really feel the jet engine, please. Maybe take it down to the next one. Boom. They should try to drop it down into that one. I agree. And then take it up there. Insanity. Happy they got out of there. Incredibly talented people, obviously. We'll try to become more of that for tomorrow. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. if we're in this thing together.

2:42:43Pat McAfee:Hope you had a great weekend. We're back tomorrow with a big show. We got football real soon. Yes. We had football this past weekend. Yes. Everything's great. Why are they saying that awful nonsense that I'm going to force them to kick Laney and Hootie and everybody off the game? Is there going to be a full follow-up to that not being real? Because that one really went. They've got a bit of an obsession over there. I was going to say, they got a bit of an axe to grind with you, I think is the way to say it. It does feel like it. I'm happy their narrative is continuing to build by just one piece of bullshit after another but hey can't wait for it all lucky to be here thankful to be here we all are football is the greatest sports are the best thing ever created and we're lucky we get a chance to chat about it thanks to all of you for allowing us to do this for a living if it wasn't for all of you we wouldn't get a chance to experience the greatest football season yet be a friend tell a friend something nice it might change your life we're in this thing together Team on me, team on three for the good of sport, baby.

2:43:43Pat McAfee:One, two, three, team. Goodbye.

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