PMS 2.0 1616 - DK GameDay Wednesday with Peter Schrager, Malika Andrews, and Ryan Paganetti

18:16Pat McAfee:We're incredibly proud of you. And, obviously, said reporter is always going to get his cheese. That's how that works. It's part of the business. And if Peter Schrager is getting a show, I think it should be leaked and treated in a big way, as it has been. I think everybody is incredibly proud of you, buddy. So what's this going to be? What's Big Day with Peter Schrager going to be? We're going to get a little bit more of Peter Schrager breaking down the day's events. Top cool. We're going to have debates. Debates is a good sports type of conversation. Are you going to have guests on? How do you expect this to go?

18:43Yeah, the expectation is we're going to have a regular crew of analysts that are going to come through here in New York City. And Monday to Friday, we're going to have different groups of guys and gals, and we're going to hit all sports. And I know that sounds pretty generic, but we're going to do it in a special way where we celebrate the sports and we celebrate fandom. And we do it with a little deeper analysis, maybe, that we can do and use some of the best reporters in the business that are on this network. My vision is using the leaping off point of your show and your audience and then kind of bridging that to the rest of the afternoon and saying, let's bring the same energy, the same joy.

19:21We're in New York City. As you know, I've got a pretty strong Rolodex here, and the hope is that we're going to have a constant flow of in-studio guests, and we're going to talk NFL, college football, NBA, NHL, golf, all of it, and do so in a way that is upbeat, enthusiastic, and maybe takes a little bit of the piss out of it, too, and we can have a couple laughs about the sports world also.

19:45Pat McAfee:I like having a little bit of a pisser out there, man. It's Big Day with Peter Schrager. Monday through Thursdays at 2 p.m. Eastern during the football season, Monday through Friday during the offseason. Okay, let's talk about today's big day. What's the big day, big news with Peter Schrager on this particular day? Kroenke buys the Angels. Obviously, that's gigantic. We just covered that for the opening 10 minutes. Never thought I would do that, but I am so happy for the Angels fans that get a guy and a family in an operation that wins literally everywhere they go getting there. I wish that the Pittsburgh Pirates would have done this a long time ago.

20:15Pat McAfee:That's kind of my take. What is your big day, big shrags, big news, big say, big play, big game, big sway? What is your big day, big news, big shrags? You know I love the use of puns, and this is a great way to use it. So this would be the story of the day, obviously. And I think what's cool about it is I've got insights on this organization and the Rams and the Cronkies sports. And I would tell you that this wasn't necessarily supposed to be announced yesterday. And this has been in lock and key for a couple months in the works. And no one knew about it. But word started to spread. And now it's going to be official.

20:58What's interesting is the empire that the Cronkies are building. It's not just Stan. It's his son Josh as well. And you mentioned all these different touch points, whether it be the Rams or Arsenal or, of course, now the Angels and how they can all come together and work off each other with learning experiences. Now, from the Rams side of it, Kevin Demoff, Tony Pastors, Les Snead, those are the three big names that are running that point. The Nuggets, they have a different org structure. Then the Arsenal guys have a different one. And yet, I'll tell you, McVay, this summer, spent about five days with the Arsenal folks all the way through the Champions League stuff, and he was learning from their manager, and they were doing all these thought exercises.

21:39I think it's exciting from a point that here's Stan Kroenke, this billionaire owner, Obviously, we know he's got all this going on, but the coaches and the leaders beneath him, how are they going to lend each other's expertise off of each other? And how are they going to use stuff that maybe one organization uses that the other one hasn't seen? So it's kind of an open book, and it's exciting for baseball, as Kroenke is obviously a championship builder.

22:01Pat McAfee:Yeah, quite an umbrella to maybe learn from or share ideas with. Actually, Arsenal has this recovery process that they've been doing. Oh, really? And then all of a sudden, Mike Trout's learning about it, and he gets somehow better. That guy's been the Joe Thomas of baseball, right? Yeah, basically. Oh, yeah. Banged up a little bit. Unbelievable, but played on the poopiest teams. And we talk about stars in baseball, and it's like it's always Otani and Judge and Skeens, and it's like, hey, Mike Trout's still playing, right? Like, this is the Matthew Stafford of baseball, if you will, and it's here is his opportunity and obviously the Cronky connection there.

22:36But to me, I think of Mike Trout as like, all right, that's a guy that's always as consistent as anybody. Yet when I think of Angels baseball, I think of Garrett Anderson, and I think of Tim Salmon, and I think of, like, Wally Joyner. So I would love to see the Angels go back to being one of those relevant teams that we're talking about and not just guys from the Rally Monkey days.

22:53Pat McAfee:Yeah, I concur with that. Angels going back to Angels in the outfield as well. Phenomenal movie. Danny Glover, fantastic. Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Oh, yeah, great player. A young JGL. He was very young, but he got the job done out there. It feels like he had a certain calling that really helped him out. Rookie of the year or Angels in the outfield? Where did you go as a kid? What was your preference? Garden hoser every time, bro. No questions asked. Yeah, I'm rookie of the year. Same, same. Yeah, I mean, just the whole entire – no, you're not. You're Angels in the outfield? No, I am fully Rowan Gardner, and I think that Daniel Stern, some of his best work was in that closet being trapped while he was trying to break out of it.

23:36Just a fantastic physical comedy at a Stern. And these are the things that we'll talk about on Big Day in wake of a team being bought by one of the richest men in the world.

23:44Pat McAfee:Yeah, it changes a lot of lives over there. I couldn't even imagine after watching Rookie of the Year what this life will be like now as a kid. It's kind of sad. Yeah, I thought he would be more of a Field of Dreams guy as a kid. Field of Dreams, great show, great movie as well. Obviously, they're still paying tribute, and I like watching that. Schwarbo hit, what, two home runs in the cornfield there? I think they're still walking through those cornfields. They love that bit. That's Big Day. I thought he was more of a hardball. Remember? I told you. I'm going to tell it like it is. I love hardball.

24:13Pat McAfee:Great, too. Major League, perhaps. G-Baby. Love you, G-Baby. G-Baby got me crying. Hell, yeah. Hardball's great. Major League one and two. I'll even take back to minors three. Not terrible. Yeah, I love them all. It's great. Okay, so you started going in. What was the one where the guy was a pitcher? He's old. Oh, Dennis Quaid. For the love of the game. Love of the game. Or the rookie. The rookie. That's what I'm thinking. Don't call me Rocket anymore. What's the Bull Durham one? Bull Durham's great. Bull Durham. Yeah. Baseball's got a lot of. They got really good movies. Summer Catch starring Tom Campbell.

24:48Okay, let's move on.

24:49Pat McAfee:Moneyball, man. Shout out Brad Pitt. I mean, they're doing that in a couple. Hey, Bad News Bears. Oh, man. Who does that mention Sandlot? You ever mention Sandlot? Major League. The Benchwarmers. Major League, too. Okay, everybody loves Sandlot. I remember that. That was a cool thing. You're not a Sandlot guy. It's an all-time classic. Benny the Jet. That's literally number one. That's when America was America. Smalls. What about baseball? That's a good baseball move. All right, let's move along. It's a big day. Wait, I want to show you something. I'm in a conference room in New York, and this is the original picture of what ESPN looked like in 1979 when it opened.

25:34And I'm going to get artistic here. I'm hoping we can bring the energy and the youth and the stuff that we're doing over here with your show and all the other new Stuff that you know pay and and Compton and the one and all the great stuff that we can combine That era which I grew up on with was like I worshiped Chris Berman and Craig Kilborn and Tom Meese and and Stuart Scott And then kind of melded all together and we're like, all right This is awesome all day You could put an ESPN on and you're gonna get that same feel that you felt as a kid the nostalgia but also we're going to move it forward and we're going to be in 2026 and do things that way.

26:08Pat McAfee:Yeah, of course. I am excited to watch you take on the task of a daily show. You know, that is a lot of fun. Obviously, you've been in this world for a long time. Good morning, football Emmy Award winner. Now you're on all. Are you still going to do the morning rotations or what's going on? Full time, big day strikes? I think so. We're hoping I could still make appearances on Get Up First Take NFL Live. And I'm hoping you'll have me on as often as you'll have me. I mean, I love being on those shows and they're great. and the truth is i think i speak for greenie nah we're done with you yep sorry good run yeah it was fun we'd love to have a lot lasted we'd love to have you anytime you are available i am pumped to see what your daily routine becomes you know with the daily show i'm a little nervous because you do this like i'll watch you on on a on a july 6th day and it's like we've got the hot dog eating contest and we've got you know mets versus uh nationals and you guys do two hours and then and the third hour on YouTube, and I'm like, I have no idea what I would do in this situation, but we're going to try to figure it out.

27:04Pat McAfee:So, Shrags, there will be those days. There will be those days, and I don't think you're doing – are you doing commercial breaks or no commercial breaks? I think so. I think commercial breaks. Yeah, this is standard ESPN, so there will be commercial breaks. And I could fill an hour for sure during football and basketball season. We're going to have to cross the bridge when it gets to, hey, Savannah Banana highlights are starting off the show today. On that note, Ty's going to be pumped up about that. Ty getting back as soon as possible. I think next spring's going to be a lot of Savannah Banana baseball.

27:36Pat McAfee:Yeah, look out. I think we're going to see a Savannah Banana baseball team, maybe called the Pro-Eyes or something. They're like Aussies. They're like an Australia team, the Pro-Eyes. And it's going to be – Skeen's going to be pitching. Aaron Judge is going to be – If they'll have them. What do you mean if they'll have them? Harper's going to be – Might be throwing 88 by then. Skeen was on the bump last night. It was rough. He had a tough night, yeah, so people start seeing baseballs every once in a while, and all of a sudden Paul Skeens is having a – we get it. It's been all year this year, not every once in a while.

28:06Not all year. Friend of the show.

28:08Pat McAfee:What are we doing here? Not just friend of the show. We love Skeens. How? Love Skeens. You've got a 3-9, all right? It's not the worst. We're not just going to rub his back. We've got to shoot you straight. Yeah, big day, Shrags. You've got to be able to say the big things that nobody really wants to say, especially when you've got daily programming, dude. Yeah, especially with 2026, which I think you're referring to whenever you're pointing to that picture of your shoulder. How many people do you think worked for ESPN at that time in that one building right there? What do you think? Probably a couple hundred, right?

28:37I mean, you hear the stories. It was 1979, and it was like Chris Berman, Tom Meese, Bob Lee, and they got this thing off the ground, and away we went. Robin Roberts, like, I feel like it was a small crew, but they were a unified bunch. I feel like that's us right now, dude.

28:51Pat McAfee:Yeah, family biz, you know, kind of a small business operation to celebrate sports. How many people do you think work at ESPN now? Cool. I don't know. That's a big number. What do you think? Too many. That's the answer. No, no. I think people having jobs is a good thing. Like, I hate that we get attacked for that because I think, like, working is something that I hope I'll be synonymous with whenever I get older and having a job and striving and working towards it. So I hate whenever that's said about us, you know. But I guess there is a salary cap. Okay, I don't think so because there's, like, $140 billion in the company behind it, and there's a lot of money being spent in a lot of places.

29:24Pat McAfee:but I will eat certainly the blame for a lot of things. I think it's like 4 ,500 or something like that. That's a lot of people. Yeah. That's a giant. And then that building turns into what? Like a full city of things. The campus is awesome. Beautiful. Sick. I mean, you walk by like Baseball Tonight's set from what? The early 2000s or something like that. It's sick. And it's awesome. Like you walk through there and then you walk through another building and there's like, oh, there's the original sports center. It's like, that's awesome. Here's the original production room. It's like, man, this is a sweet place to kind of walk.

29:57Pat McAfee:Can I tell you? And her cafeteria is unbelievable. I'd never been to Bristol until last year. And, like, you have to understand, SportsCenter in the morning, yes, like memorizing every line from Craig Kilbourne and doing all his bits when I was like a kid. But Chris Berman and Tom Jackson with the primetime music and the nicknames and doing those, to walk into that building and know that, like, that's where, like, it was a surreal experience. It was like walking into, you know, like I'm going into the Vatican or something. It was crazy for me. And then to now be able to do it on ESPN, obviously it's unbelievable.

30:29And I pinched myself, but that juice is still there in that building where it's like they still revere those days. And I so appreciate that.

30:36Pat McAfee:Yeah. Yeah. They certainly revere a lot of things that aren't, you know, potentially new in a lot of those buildings. Yes. I understand completely what you're saying there, maybe more so than anybody in the history, but we all feel the way this way about ESPN, like all of us, even the people that are going to inevitably roast you for having time on ESPN. Because if they had time on ESPN, what they would do for sports is how they view it. And I think everybody's massive ESPN fans, sports fans. And I think all anybody wants is for the best of all parties. And I think you're going to do a great job, Shregs.

31:06Pat McAfee:We're very, very proud of you, man. We think it's a cool thing. There's not a lot of these spots, obviously. Now, people are going to hate that you have an hour or two. I don't know. What is it? It's one hour? One hour. They hate it. I'm sure. I'm trying to focus on the process. You're taking some agent's client's time, you know? Yep. And I was pretty naive to this whole thing, let alone, you know, having 10 hours a week that you have creative control of. You're taking a lot of time away from a lot of people that would want that. And they seemingly have a lot more friends, you know, that do a lot of this stuff than maybe you do.

31:39Pat McAfee:And you won't be painted as this, but taking up any time from somebody else, there's always going to be people that are upset about it. Stay in the pocket. We appreciate the hell out of you, and you're going to nail it. You're meant for this. You're built for this, actually. But I'll tell you, the shins will get busted pretty good. Yeah, and look, just to be quick on it, I worked 10 years hosting the NFL Network's morning show. Before that, I was at Fox for 10 years, schlepping out to L.A. every weekend, working on the pregame show. I've worked with the best of the best, and I've watched some of the best producers.

32:09And then to be a part of your family the last couple years and see how you guys operate. You might want to attack the fact that I'm the one being chosen, but I've earned it, and I'm excited to do it, and I want to do it in a way that's going to celebrate and take the best from all that. So I'm not running away from this. If anything, I think it's going to be a fun show and I think you're going to want to watch it. So anyone who's upset with it, that's fine. Just give it a shot and you'll see.

32:30Pat McAfee:Amen. Can't wait to watch it. I don't know if we'll be able to live. We'll have to watch it back, but we appreciate that you are following us and we love you, Shregs. We have some breaking news. Thank you, brother. We have some breaking news out of Las Vegas. Kirk Cousins has been named the week one starting quarterback. Fernando Mendoza officially starts his NFL career as a backup. Now, this felt obvious in the second preseason game. when Fernando Mendoza got the start, but they didn't have any of the ones offensive line, and Kirk wasn't even in shoulder pads. Felt like they were probably going to have Kirk Cousins be the starter for the regular season.

32:58Pat McAfee:They continue to say, no, no, no, we're not making any decision. They finally do. Congratulations to Kirk Cousins. And I think this is a good situation for Fernando, obviously, to be able to watch and learn. The whole combo is when does Fernando get his first shot? Will Kirk have to be asked for that, or is there a plan on how many games? Because we've seen Fitz get upset whenever it was handed over to Tua because he was not told like kind of what the plan was? Will Kirk be explained what the plan is or do they have one at this point? Shrags, you might know a little bit more on this particular case than we do, but I think they don't have a bye to like week 13 or something like that.

33:29Pat McAfee:That's a long time to wait if a number one overall pick back there, especially if the team isn't great. But if Kirk does great, we're waiting a long time. Is that what you think? Yeah, I do. And I think I came on last week, I said as much as this, that like Kubiak and Janoka, who is the ones running the offense, they have a history with Kirk Cousins. And so he had a huge leg up on Mendoza and that he actually can come right in and it was plug and play. Mendoza's been great this summer. They love what Mendoza's been. But when you have those two and the familiarity with Cousins, they're paying Cousins real money, not minimum money, real money to be there.

33:59It was his job all along. And Mendoza's been aware of that. Now, when do we see Mendoza? I think these things usually happen rather naturally. And sometimes it's after the bye week and other times it's, hey, we're a two and six team. Let's throw the kid in. We think he's ready and he's mastered the playbook. But as long as Tom Brady was a part of this, and I'm told this year he has been very vocal and has been a part of it, they weren't going to rush their first overall pick to sell some extra tickets or to sell a jersey. They were going to make sure that he's ready to go. And in the meantime, Cousins, the hope is healthy, competent, can maybe compete and give them a chance to win a couple games.

34:33Pat McAfee:Yeah, and he's perfect for Fernando. Just like we think Cignetti was a perfect head coach for Fernando in college, just with personalities and how they kind of gel. Feels like Kirk and Fernando have gotten along very well, very quickly. I think Fernando understood that this was going to potentially be a reality from the very beginning. He gets a chance to watch and learn, which we know he loves to do. And they've got some tough teams, obviously, on the schedule. But it is the NFL, and it is the AFC West. Now, let's move to the NFC North. Made some moves this morning and last night. Go ahead, Con, man.

34:59Yeah, Schrags, last night, Patrick, referring to the Vikings. They bring in Kyle Van Nooy on defense. Whoa! It's a huge get. Let's go, Kyle! Pro Bowler, two years ago, basically, everyone in Baltimore said, hey this guy is a fantastic team man fantastic player but speaking of the vikings how do you feel about their expectations feels like everything in the nfc north has been kind of so so for a lot of teams you know the packers are dealing with micah being on pup in some other situations with josh jacobs the lions their starting safeties are both out they start on pup as well the bears have their center retire kind of out of nowhere a little early and the vikings are quietly just bringing in Kyler Murray, no real expectations.

35:42We'll see what happens. Do you think they're a playoff team? Cause it feels like there's a chance the Vikings go on this sneaky, quiet run with KOC, just dialing it up left and right with B flow on defense as well. Yeah. Look, they had terrible quarterback play last year and still won nine games. So the hope is you get an elevated quarterback situation with Kyler Murray in there and the Kyle Van Nooy addition. It seems like that's all right. He's a, he's a piece. He's a Kyle Van Nooy had some amazing seasons with the New England Patriots under Brian Flores. So he comes in and he doesn't need this huge ramp up.

36:12He knows that defense and he can play. I actually think the Vikings are one of the more fascinating teams this season. Lions, new offensive coordinator and a ton of new players on that offensive line. Packers, you mentioned, and then the Bears, the expectations are through the roof. Here are the Vikings. Very little buzz, very little talk. And yet if you get a great version of Kyler Murray and you get Justin Jefferson and you get this defense under B. Flo, who has always been good, Why not? Two years ago, they were the team. They went 14-3, and then the quarterback situation was in flux. So I love that division.

36:44I'm going to do my predictions probably next week. Seeing the Vikings as such a distant fourth, that doesn't seem to add up with how I see them doing. I think they would be much improved this year from last year, and they weren't that bad last year.

36:56Pat McAfee:We're happy B-Flow and Kyle Van Noy seemingly back on good terms because all the magic they were able to create together up there in New England. And I'm much like you. I think B-Flow is always going to have a good defense. And if Kevin O 'Connell has an opportunity to be able to complete passes, I think the offense is going to be good as well. Yeah, is Justin Jefferson still good? Yeah. Is Kevin O 'Connell still going to scheme him up to be wide open somehow? He had 180 yards in the first half. Think about that. They're going into the game. D, but you would tell me better. Game record. Who is it?

37:25Pat McAfee:18. Yeah, you won't miss him. He's got a grill, massive chain. He's going to be the guy that everything is going to go through. He is not going to – he's not the one that's going to ruin his game. Can't beat us. 180 yards, two touchdowns in the first half of a game. It's like, did you even know the guy was on the team? And it's like, they do know. And what KOC is able to do with him, unbelievable. So, if Kyler can be anything towards what he was when he was playing great. Plus 450 over there in the NFC North does seem nice. Let's stay in the NFC North. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Shregs, there's just been a couple things this week, kind of with LaFleur as a play caller and a quarterback coach.

38:01I heard Malik Willis say yesterday that LaFleur taught him how to be a great quarterback and taught him how you don't have to make a huge play every single play. And then that triggered something in my brain. Dano always talks about how he kind of doesn't have constraints on Jordan Love, but tells Jordan Love to be very, very careful with the ball. And then Jordan Love was an OC and scored 400 points in the fourth quarter of the final preseason game. Is this the year maybe that LaFleur lets Jordan Love spread his wings a bit and that Packers offense can take them to places they have not been yet recently?

38:31Look, it's going to rely on a lot of different factors. You said obviously the Jacobs situation is in flux. We'll see about that. But they lost two receivers that they really liked, and Dobbs and Dontavian Wicks. So now you have to see Matthew Golden step up. You've got to see other guys step up. And then Kraft has to come back healthy. this Jordan Love story it feels like we're in year 20 of saying he's knocking on the door of being one of those guys and then he gives you these glimpses and then there's other games where you're like oh he's he's at next year that's fine the hope is with LeFleur who is the only offensive coach he's ever worked for the hope is that in year seven or whatever they are right now year eight I don't know he's 2020 with the draft so year seven is that this is the year and that he shines I mean I've picked Love to win the MVP multiple times prior thinking that that was the year.

39:18So his last game we saw him, he played great against the Bears in that playoff game. He didn't do that. He didn't do anything wrong. He played fine. The issue is, can they do it week to week? And can they do it without two of those reliable receivers who he had grown to love?

39:29Pat McAfee:Let's pivot away from the NFC North. Let's go to the AFC North. Joey Porter Jr. had this to say yesterday whenever he was asked whether or not he was going to be playing football at the beginning of the year because he hasn't done anything yet. And it hasn't become a massive story. But if this carries into the regular season, this is going to be gigantic for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Will you still play? I don't know. I got to talk to the guys upstairs in my audience about that one. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, so are the guys upstairs and his agent going to say, hey, no deal's getting done, you should play?

40:02Pat McAfee:Or is that the guys upstairs and his agent's getting a deal done and then he's going to play? Omar Khan, Pittsburgh Steelers general manager, has come out and say, we will still continue to be how we've always been, which is we don't negotiate contracts during the season. And Steelers have been pretty stingy, I would say, in contracts whenever you ask for it during the season. They have done some things that they haven't done in the past. They paid DK Metcalf$30 million a year. He's never been a Pittsburgh Steeler. Obviously, that surprised a lot of folks the way that got handled. They bring in other players on the defensive side.

40:31Pat McAfee:They've made some trades. Omar Khan certainly operates different than Colbert, who was the GM for a long time. But it feels like – is this getting ugly? Shregs, what do we know about that? Because that sounded like if I don't get a deal, I'm not playing. But it could also be they telling me no deal is going to happen and I'm playing. So how do you see it? It doesn't sound great. It doesn't sound great. But you still have a situation in New England. You know, you still have players that are viewed as different level caliber corners at the moment than him. So there's other things that maybe have to happen that Khan is kind of waiting on.

41:04Look, you'd like to think with this team and how they're built with so many veterans that everyone's on the same page. but I'll tell you eight days before the start of the season, nine days before, you know, they kick off, whatever it is. This is not the headlines you want to be talking about. Not when you've got a quarterback who's 42 and you've got Cam Hayward and you've got TJ Watt and the other guys you're bringing in are not just rookies. You're bringing in guys like Jamel Dean, like champions who have been there and done that. This team is built to compete this year. So when Porter, one of the bright young stars, seemingly unhappy, it's not ideal, not ideal.

41:37Pat McAfee:I don't think it's a desirable situation for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but if they're able to figure it out, obviously that's good. Mike DeFabo has a video from training camp practice moments ago, Omar Khan and Joey Porter Jr. At the beginning with the three loops, you will see a dap up. Boom, they shook hands. Done, done deal. Okay, then he said, hey, what are you doing? He's got his helmet, got his sleeves rolled up. It does appear. They're doing special teams practice, it appears, on the field. So the fact that he's not doing something right now does not mean he won't be doing something later.

42:07Pat McAfee:How do you kind of read this, D-Butt? Do we think a deal gets done? And Joey Porter Jr. talking to the media and being present and being there makes me think this is good news, okay, like something positive is happening where he says, I'll talk to the guys upstairs and my agents. Maybe they just say, like, hey, no deal is possible. But, man, it's hard not to think, like, are the Steelers going to have to give Joey Porter Jr. a deal or are they going to have to trade him and get a deal somewhere? Like, what is going to happen when Joey Porter Jr. is their best corner? Technically, he has to play because he's under contract for this year.

42:36Did you hear that? That's a yinzer right there. And then he can also be tagged next year as well. But you did mention Cam Hayward and TJ Watt, two of the veterans on that defense. They have done this in a similar situation in the last two years and got paid right before the season. So it could be a similar situation to that. But you talked about Jamel Dean. Nassante Samuel Jr. has been good. But you want your number one corner out there to go with those guys. And then Jalen Ramsey and Brisker, who they brought in on the backside. Yes, you would like all these pieces to start week one of the season so we can just play football.

43:04And you're naming veterans. Like, these are not young guys. So when you're talking about Ramsey and Brisker comes from the Bears, who's not as seasoned a player, but these are guys who are built for 2026. Let's make a run at this. We have Rodgers for this season. Let's make a run at this. And, Tone, I think you said a little something. We were talking about, like, well, he's under contract. This is not a fan base that historically has been pro player in these situations. No, never. Cam Hayward's dad, just like Joey Porter.

43:34Pat McAfee:Cam Hayward's dad, legend in Pittsburgh. Obviously, legendary family in Pittsburgh throughout the entire, even the brother. So when Cam Hayward, after making all pro, I think he was all pro. He was. And he was like 15th or 16th highest paid interior defensive lineman, maybe 17th to 20th, way down there. Once again, he has given millions of dollars back to the city. His family has been a part of this. All the paint man of the year. The whole thing, okay? And then he didn't show up for practice, and what was the reaction? Okay, you're pretty lucky you're here at Pittsburgh. Steelers. You're a little long in the tooth to be doing what you're doing right now.

44:08Pat McAfee:Play ball. Pay your corner, man. Les Snead just gave you guys a playbook. You play passers, pass catchers, pass rushers, and cornerback ones. Pay this guy. He's going into his prime. He's done everything right on the field and off the field. Take care of him. Let's play some football. Yeah, that's Tone said, let's just get to the season here and play football because this has been happening in the off seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers the last few with a lot of their veteran players. Let's assume it gets figured it out. Joey Porter Jr., though, his name is becoming one, I think, synonymous with being a really good player, which is good through this entire process.

44:40Pat McAfee:Having to be like, hey. Actually, if you look into it, he's nasty. He's worth it. This guy's really good. The market's set, too. There's been a lot of deals already done. A lot of cornerback deals. Could probably figure it out. Pay him all. Pay him all that. I want every player to make $1 billion. That is where I stand. Put on the ticker. I don't know if that's how big Dave Schrags is going to be talking, but we have to, everybody. Let's talk about older player kind of earning his stripes almost yet again. Go ahead, D. Yeah, talking about earning it, New York, OBJ. You talked about it a couple, maybe last week, maybe the week before that, about him potentially making a 53-man roster, and he did.

45:16He was definitely excited about it. But what do you think his role will be with this Giants offense and the rest of that wide receiver room as well? Obviously, Malik Nabors, Darius Slayton, and the rest of the guys. Well, it's interesting because when I was talking two weeks ago, they had just gotten back from West Virginia, and all I heard about was how low maintenance and amazing leadership that Odell Beckham showed 14 days at the Greenbrier with those young guys and kind of being that senior leader. And I'll tell you, I've been around Odell. He is a superstar like no other in New York City, even in 2026.

45:47He can go to Europe and there's 100 people who are going to follow him and take paparazzi shots. For him to just get his lunch pail, show up to camp and say, I'm going to earn my spot on this team and I'm going to do it playing whatever role you need. says a lot about him, but also about Harbaugh and what they're building there. Now, you look at that wide receiver room, this isn't some novelty act or some feel-good story so they could sell a couple jerseys. They need him to be good. Like, he needs to perform. And the fact that he might end up being the three, maybe the two at some point, makes me a little concerned about the wide receiver room, that it's like, all right.

46:23No, no, that's a negative way to look at it. You know, but let's see if he can be that guy. because for whatever you want to say about Wandale Robinson, he played a role last year in Dable's offense, so much so that Dable and the Titans paid him$18 million to come about. Isaiah Hodgins doesn't make the team. They have him. They still have Darius Slayton. They still have guys that are there, but this is basically Malik neighbors, and who else wants to come aboard? Who else wants to step up? Because I'll tell you, in the preseason and training camp, one of the best stories was Malachi Fields, who's a rookie third-round pick, And I'm not sure they're ready to put him at that number two spot just yet.

47:01Pat McAfee:I like that Odell Beckham Jr. has worked his way back into a roster spot in the NFL. I think at this point of his career in life, I think he has real excitement about every single day. You never know when the last day is going to be where you're in an NFL building amongst greatness, which is what the NFL is. I may or may not have run into Odell Beckham Jr. at a wedding. Oh, how was he? It's kind of coming back to me now. Long night, good night. he said I got something I feel good it was like super positive interaction it was like a super positive super felt like he was going to work his ass off like I don't remember the exact words pretty loud I think Paul McCartney I'm joking I can't believe Bruce's wedding was so elaborate you had Odell and you had Paul McCartney good stuff yeah it was interesting the way it went Bruce actually did film a movie in Croatia for his wedding.

47:56Pat McAfee:Have you seen the magazines? I think Vogue Croatia did an entire movie. Yeah, literally. I think it was Vogue Croatia. And then there was their Ryan Seacrest e-Croatian thing over there. And they're like, look how nice this wedding could be. And I'm looking at it. Bruce has got like a full... Is that Bruce? Yeah, full pose. I'm like, damn, Bruce. No, he's going to inherit a billion dollars. I'll tell you what, the person in the family he's going to inherit from, from my understanding, legend. I need to get around that lad as soon as possible. It's a long flight, though. It's certainly a long flight.

48:29Pat McAfee:We'll have to pick it up on a jaunt someday. My question for you, Shregs, is who's going to win the Super Bowl? Good question. So I will say this. Okay. Don't pick your buddy. Kind of a big sway there, wasn't it? It was kind of a big get out of the way. Get out of the way there. I have never seen a team have the hype and the bandwagon as full, having lost two of three games to an opponent in their division in the history of this sport from the year before. The Rams hype and bandwagon is out of control. It's spilling over with whoever and whatever. The Seahawks are sitting up there very quietly in their Pacific Northwest haunts, watching as everyone else talks about the Rams as they bring back JSN with a happy extension and they bring back Devin Witherspoon with a happy extension and they bring back Leonard Williams and Shahid and Hall and bring in a first-round running back who they're very excited about.

49:32So as everyone is going and everyone assumes I'm just going to be, what's the term the kids use, glazing Sean McVay, I don't love any bandwagon where we're doing segments on the morning shows the Rams or the field. That doesn't feel right with the NFL. Let's not forget about those Seattle Seahawks and their madman of a coach, Mr. Mike McDonald.

49:53Pat McAfee:Yeah, I've been watching Hard Knocks. We all have. And I actually picked up the Seahawks as my NFC team. Yep. I am. They're my NFC team after watching Hard Knocks just because the way McDonald operates. You're talking about being a mad scientist on the X's and O's on the defensive side and obviously his leadership's awesome. I mean, in a way the boys respond to him. I really like their respect. Oh, turns out I run this fucking practice to the player. And the player's just like, come on, man. Derek Hall, a star player. He does that, and they all respond. Yeah, they respond. It's not like disrespect.

50:26Pat McAfee:The relationship you have to have with your players to talk to them like that has to be real. A lot of people see the videos of coaches being hard on their players or whatever. It's like that doesn't happen if you don't have a working relationship with the person. So it takes a lot of investment. It takes a lot of energy. It takes a lot of empathy. It takes a lot to get to that video of him saying, oh, is that right? In front of everybody, you know, because that could be considered embarrassing somebody, disrespectful, especially with all this shit, especially after winning the Super Bowl, egos get out of the control.

50:55Pat McAfee:Richard Sherman was talking to Coach McDonald about that to begin with. After he won a Super Bowl, Legion of Boom, quarterback Russell Wilson gets money. Who gets money? Who gets money? McDonald's like, I don't know what that means. Yeah, we're just doing football. Bro, he's so dialed in. I talked to him yesterday and it's like he's just like I'm ready to kick off right now and you know He's he because I this hard knocks has been a great a great a great visual of what he brings to the room now I don't know if you saw this I posted it on Instagram because I loved it He you know everyone else listens to music going to high school as a kid He downloaded old episodes of America's Game which is the documentary that NFL films used to put together Of all the different Super Bowl champions and when everyone else was listening to like Eminem or Lil Wayne or blink 182 whatever the hell was popular when he was driving to high school, he would listen to episodes of America's Game that he would memorize word for word, knowing Mean Joe Green and Tom Brady.

51:48And like, that's what his hobby was. He is football obsessed and he didn't play college football. He played high school football and then batted around for a long time trying to get into this coaching thing. And he was this close of being an accountant and not an NFL head coach. And he got a shot from Mark Richt at Georgia. And then, of course, Harbaugh. So his story's awesome. And those guys, he's so transparent and honest and authentic that it's hard not to want to run through a wall for him.

52:13Pat McAfee:He missed a lot, man. Get Rich or Die trying was in that era. Unbelievable. 50 Cent had such good music in that era. And he was listening. So Kanye, graduation. I mean, you talk about that era. You mentioned Lil Wayne. I mean, Wheezy was on every song. It was amazing. T-Pain had a run through that entire time. T.I. definitely went crazy. Jeezy won absolutely. You need to probably play college ball. I'll go boot with the fur flow ride. I had a couple hits. I mean, this was a good hit. Still bringing it. Nellie and the state lunatic. Dude, M.I. Crooked letter. Crooked letter. Come on. Some 41. Mike.

52:51Pat McAfee:Who? Blink-182 was back then. Bingo. Eric Willoughby. Easer. McDonald needs to figure it out, though, that he's allowed to listen to, like, iconic music. I think it worked out. Yeah, I did. You don't want your coach doing that. He's listening to Johnny Unitas talk about Super Bowl 3. I mean, this is what we're talking about. I guess it makes sense. It makes sense what he is. We appreciate the hell out of you. Good luck with big day. We appreciate that. And ladies and gentlemen, Peter Schrager. Yes, Schrager. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now live from the U.S. Open. She's the host of NBA Today and also an analyst of tennis and many other sports, an absolute weapon.

53:32Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, Malika Andrews. Yeah, Malika. How you doing? Making my debut on the Pat McAfee show today. This is a big day. Joining you from my hotel room in New York City before I go out to the U.S. Open. I'm good. How are you guys? Great. Okay, so let's talk about that hotel room. I mentioned this earlier. I said I talked to some people at ESPN, and they're living in a hotel for 22 days for this U.S. Open. You were that human. Okay, so thank you for your commitment to the U.S. Open, living in a hotel that long. Can you tell me about the tournament thus far? And let's act like I don't know much about tennis.

54:04Pat McAfee:I watched the big stars playing like Coco last night. Hey, let's go, Coco. Let's go, Coco. Ben Shelton two nights ago. I saw that. Roger Federer obviously doing some trick shots. What are the storylines that are kind of developing over there at U.S. Open from a little bit better tennis perspective than what I can deliver? Yeah, let's start right there with Coco Goff, right? Because she was awesome last night, Pat. I mean, this was just an incredible match to watch, and she looked like she was already in form. But on the women's side, this is a really exciting tournament because essentially we could have a new world number one after the U.S.

54:37Open. So there are four women right now that are competing for world number one, and Coco Gauff is one of them. Right now the world number one is Irina Sabalenka. She's been world number one for 98 weeks. That's a long time. And she has to win the U.S. Open in order to stay number one. She's won the last two, so she's going for a three-peat here at the U.S. Open. Coco Gauff, if she wins the U.S. Open, she is world number one. Jessica Pagula, another American who just won a little bit earlier today. If she wins the U.S. Open, she's world number one. And then there's a fourth, Elena Rabacina. You can see right there.

55:11She's actually on Arena Sabalenka's heels for world number one. But she has an injury that she's been dealing with. Calf, Achilles, she doesn't look quite right. Andy Roddick said yesterday he doesn't think she'd be playing in this tournament if world number one wasn't up for grabs. So on the women's side, it's not just winning the U.S. Open. You could be world number one, walking away. And there's two Americans that are in the run for that. and Jess Pagula and Coco Goff, I really like the way Coco's playing. Like, she has a real chance of winning the U.S. Open. And remember, so she won the U.S.

55:39Open in 2023. She won Cincinnati in 2023, the lead-up tournament, and then won the U.S. Open. This year, she won Cincinnati. So could history repeat itself?

55:48Pat McAfee:Yeah, it feels like that's a good indicator for me. If you win Cincinnati, you win the U.S. Open. I like that storyline for Coco. Is Pagula, that's the Buffalo Bills family? Yes. Okay, all right. Exactly. So we got Buffalo Bills. That's just Pagula. We got potentially the Buffalo Bills is number one women's tennis player. I like that. That's good news. They just put those big bikes in it. Okay, let's go to the men. I saw Ben Shelton the other night. Obviously, he gets cooked in the first set, 6-1. Then he comes back set two and wins three straight. It got late, obviously, for him. A lot of people said it shouldn't have taken that long.

56:20Pat McAfee:Maybe he started bad. What should my realistic expectations be of Ben Shelton? Because I met him in Atlanta with Trinity. Great convo. Love how competitive he is. like his aura. I heard him saying some mean stuff to himself at the end of this particular game when his backhand wasn't working. He was, like, very mean to himself. What are the expectations from the men's side? And can Ben dance a little bit here at the U.S. Open? No, Ben's got some power. I mean, he was clocking 140-plus mile-an-hour serves, and that's the thing with Ben Shelton. It's the power, but sometimes I wish, okay, could you take 10 miles an hour off of it in order to maybe have a little bit more control?

56:54That's what we were seeing in the first set that you mentioned, and then he really settled in. So Ben plays a little bit later today. He's coming up in any minute now. He should be taking the court against Hercos, who's another huge server. Ben has the opportunity to win this tournament. Ben Shelton is the number one American man. Taylor Fritz is another American man that I could see sort of being one of the last standing. He made the finals here a couple years ago. But Ben Shelton, he has the weapons, right? We've seen him do really well in some of the lead-up tournaments. He's got the weapons to win.

57:26But we haven't seen an American man win since Andy Roddick at any major since 2003. So that's what the American men are contending with. Yeah. Malika, 2003? It was Pete Sampson. Yeah, the American man has not won a major since 2003. Malika wasn't even alive.

57:41Pat McAfee:Malika wasn't even alive. I was rocking kindergarten. Come on, man. That is. Okay, Ben, let's go, Lads. Let's go, Fritz. 2003. Okay, let's get going. Francis Tiafoe as well is sort of in that conversation. But here's the thing. Carlos Alcarez is back. And Carlos Alcarez looks good. We were wondering how he was going to look. He hasn't played since mid-April. We saw him the other day. He's going to be playing tonight under the bright lights at Arthur Ashe. Carlos Alcarez, I believe he should be the favorite to win this tournament. Sasha Zverev's going to have something to say. But, yeah, 2003 is for the American men.

58:16It's been a long time.

58:17Pat McAfee:Zverev is the world number one. Learned that, obviously, in real time as I was watching him battle late into the night last night. Alcaraz has... He's the number one seed. Oh, number one seed. Number one seed. Yeah, tennis gets a little funky, right? Because Yannick Sinner is the world number one. He's hurt not playing. So this is the first time we've seen Zverev play as the number one seed in tournament. You can be world number one, but not be the number one seed. It gets a little funky. Okay, so he's interim number one right now. Yeah. Okay, okay. We got an interim number one right now in Zverev, who had a late night battle.

58:47Pat McAfee:Obviously, if you're up at night, there's tennis happening, and it is electrifying. So I caught Shelton. It caught this one late night. I saw world number one interim playing late into the night. Obviously not expected this early. I think it's the first time a number one seed has gone that long or that late in long time, whatever the case is. Long time. Okay, so Alcraz, we like him. Obviously we love him. But there was a name that we all know that kind of had a moment. Go ahead, Tom. Yeah, Malika, we were watching in the first round. It was very, very disappointing. We saw Joker go out. What has been the reaction to that happening and just the overall vibes after Joker went out?

59:24That was tough to watch. I thought we were going to get a little boot and rally because who hasn't had a good one of those? But Djokovic was throwing up early in that match, and I thought that he was going to get back to himself, but he just never found it. That one went the distance, five sets. The fact that he's 39 years old, and he's still playing at an incredibly high level, this is the first time that we will have none of the big three in terms of Novak Djokovic, in terms of Rafa, in terms of Federer since 2006 that is continuing to play on in a major. So this is sort of showing a new era of tennis.

59:59I was bummed to see that. I was just outside of Arthur Ashe Stadium when that was happening, and there were fans that were all out in the courtyard, and you could hear an audible gasp because I don't think anyone was expecting him to lose that match. We haven't seen him lose ever in the first round of the U.S. Open. He'd been 19-0 coming into this tournament. So now the questions turn to what happens next for Novak Djokovic. He'll probably take a little bit of time, but there is the question, okay, was this the last time that we saw him play at the U.S. Open? I tend to hold onto belief based on no inside information, just knowing Novak as a competitor that that's not going to be the case.

1:00:33But at 39 years old, you know, we're seeing someone like Gail Monfils retiring at 40. That's up there for a tennis player.

1:00:41Pat McAfee:Monfils, 40-year-old, jump cross. Yeah, we watched him. The win? Yeah. The win on his 40th birthday. Okay, happy 40th birthday to Monfils. So he's been doing it a long time. I wish I would have seen him earlier. 20 years ago. Yeah, I feel like I could have had a hell of a ride alongside this Frenchman who certainly has a little bit of a flair for the theater. A little flair for the theatrics there. He's playing on a video game. And then he gives a full, all four sides. Yep, let me hear it. Oui, oui, oui, oui. Oui, oui, oui, oui, oui, oui, oui, oui. And you're welcome. Okay. and he turns, does a full four even to his opponent side.

1:01:18Pat McAfee:I mean, I love this guy. I wish I would have seen him 20 years ago. But I understand what you're saying about 39, 40-year-olds, especially for tennis when speed and everything is such a big deal. I don't know how their joints hold up. You got to stretch the back. Andy Roddick, last night, we were not even, he wasn't playing. We were just watching the five-setter that Zverev was playing. And he's like, I got to stretch my back just watching this. Because, yeah, it takes something out of you. And, by the way, Gail Monfils married to Alina Svitolina, who is a top 10 player on the women's side vying for a title.

1:01:47So they are a power couple in tennis.

1:01:49Pat McAfee:Do we think they play table tennis at the house? They made pickleball. Maybe a little pickle. A couple things. Is there anything like me, though? I mean, you can't be – you've got to go all out for it. You can't go easy on your spouse. You've got to try to – you know, you've got to – Gail's got to try to win. Aleem has got to try to win. Oh, you're burying David at the house? So what are you guys competing at? Are we playing hoops? Are we doing – I mean, he's winning in horse for sure. Yeah, he's off there nodding. He's winning in horse for sure. Hey, I need you to keep winning there, okay? Sounds like Malik is going to try to kill you and everything else.

1:02:22Pat McAfee:Let's pivot to the NBA, shall we? D-Bud has the last question for you, Malik. Great job, everyone, covering tennis. I can't wait to watch the finish. But NBA, obviously thinking about that a little bit over a month away. A lot of big moves this offseason. Which, I guess, duo or even trios are you most excited about? LaMelo, AE out in Minnesota now. obviously all the guys down in philly miami big fan here bam freak freak who are you most excited about uh going into this next nba season yeah i mean it's got to be lebron in philadelphia i mean i'm really excited to see how that's going to shake out especially because i don't i don't think that is a move that necessarily means you're a hundred percent it's not it's when kevin durant joined the golden state warriors at his prime it meant that a title was coming there's still a real road here in front of the Philadelphia 76ers and the question mark about how much is Joel Embiid going to play how is he going to look alongside LeBron alongside Jalen Brown not to mention Tyrese Maxey and uh BJ Edgecombe so I'm I'm really excited to see how the east shakes out particularly because like I feel like the Knicks they're the real deal and the Indiana Pacers are coming back and healthy with Tyrese Halliburton right so I think that the east is really going be a different beast no celtics mentioned love it no no no no that's espn hey listen that is this is espn and nobody did and no one oh yeah it might be above 500 maybe let's see you know lebron it's crazy that the big decision was that he went to philadelphia he could be retired and throwing oops or receiving oops on a yacht like chris paul and russell westbrook i don't know if you saw this life is pretty good for them They'll be doing that on a yacht near you.

1:04:05Pat McAfee:Relax, guys. CP got up there, too. CP was on the other end of the lob. He was, look at this. Look at CP go. Yeah, we like that. He's 6 '1", 6 '2". Against, next to the Giants, he looks small. Malika, we appreciate the hell out of you for joining us. And have a great stay at that hotel for another, what, month or so for the U.S. Open. Yeah, 29 days to go. Ladies and gentlemen, that's Malika Andrews. Yeah, Malika. 22 days. That's a lot. Ran into her at the hotel. Like, how you doing? We've been seeing you doing tennis clubs. I'm here for 22 days. You saw her whole wardrobe behind her. She really said like, it's crazy.

1:04:40I can't think about anything but a yacht. What's that? Good size. Do you think CP used a wave? Like, you know how a wave lifts you up? That's how he dunked? Oh, no. Double jump? What are you talking about?

1:04:50Pat McAfee:He's been dunking since high school. Hey, that is living. Congrats. They've earned that. We're back on the other side. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life.

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1:05:59Pat McAfee:Football! It is the greatest and college football week one kicks off tomorrow night as Colorado travels to Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech, six-and-a-half-point favorites. And all day today, DraftKings is rolling out fun, new boosts, odds percentage uppers, and how you doing, keep it moving. You can maybe some home run boosts, and maybe some soccer boosts, maybe some tennis boosts, maybe some college football boosts, maybe some NFL boosts, maybe some future boosts. I mean, they've just been rolling these things out all day. And we've got to remember, when we can take advantage of them, we have to do as such.

1:06:33Pat McAfee:They are going to win. DraftKings are going to win. That's the thing about sports gambling. There's been like one or two people in the history that have won on a regular basis. So whenever they're handing out all-purpose 50 % boost, you got to take advantage. If you're handing out futures boost, you got to take advantage. Team yards boost, got to take advantage. How about a 50 % Clemson-LSU boost heading into week one Buzzsaw in Baton Rouge? If you're of age and agree to gamble responsibly, we'd love for you to come join us on DraftKings, the best sports book on earth. and all these are rolling out time-wise throughout the day.

1:07:05Pat McAfee:So you missed the 7 a.m. one if you already did. Don't miss any future ones. We obviously have multiple guys on there all day letting us know. Brand new boost has hit DK on DraftKings game day. Shout out to them having this particular offer, and we got to take it when we can get it because they're going to get theirs. You just got to get yours sometime because you're going to get got more of it than you get the Marshawn Lynch. Talks and tables here at Boston Corner. and at 10 Diggs, Ty Schmidt, we love you, pal. Conman, I think we're really taking advantage of DT today, but none of this matters unless you get a winner.

1:07:38Pat McAfee:Finding a winner is difficult, especially in this day and age. This weekend's spreads for these college football games, gigantic, basically across the board. Six and a half tomorrow night, Georgia Tech and Colorado is actually a pretty short line from what we see for week one here. Yeah, especially because of some of these kind of week zero type games happening in week one, like teams always talk about. hey we we could kind of shorten the college season if we don't have you know indiana playing neil brown's north texas team and granted sure should indiana be favored by 50 points yes is it going to be tough to actually bet on a team to win by 50 plus points when it's a competitive type of game of course but that's why these boosts are kind of awesome because you can maybe sprinkle in a couple favorites and you could have indiana being a massive favorite with some of these other massive favorites.

1:08:26Notre Dame being one of those. Oregon taking on Boise State, who's a great team, but it's just a disparity between the two. U-Miami is flying from the U to Stanford, and they're still favored to win by 25 points. So it's one of those things that you kind of have to judge, but there's winners there. You got to do your research, do your own things, find them, find your reasoning. You know, sometimes if you want to be one of those fun gamblers, I have a cool guy named Parlay Touchdowns. I just pick a name that I think is kind of cool. If it's an ed, there's a chance that they're getting picked. And then you just throw that in there.

1:08:59And that can just be a fun way to sprinkle some money on it, too.

1:09:02Pat McAfee:You have a college football name parlay every single week. And you do share it amongst the group. So I appreciate you doing that. Makes it easier for us to kind of dive in there. But there's opportunities right now for us to get some from DraftKings. Now, it doesn't mean anything technically towards the bet because you have to hit a winner for any of the boosts to matter. But we appreciate this right before season really officially kicks off. Nine-year NFL vet. Darius J. Butler is here. D-Butch, great to see you. Huge fantasy draft. Obviously, you're going to do great there. NFL news. The Niners are on their way to Australia to kick off the NFL season.

1:09:32Pat McAfee:Your thoughts with how close we are, but yet how far away we still seem. This is kind of that weird time where it's like, alright, what do we talk about today? What's important? What's the big news? And it's not a lot of things, but we are so, so close to NFL football. Obviously, college football is already here week one, right here around the corner. So now it's just about for teams eyeing your players, okay, who's going to be healthy for week one? Who's naming starters? The Vegas Raiders, they just named their starter. What other quarterback situations are going to get figured out? What other players are going to get contract situations figured out with JPJ?

1:10:03So there are a bunch of important things, but until they actually happen, then there will be news. But I'm excited football is finally here.

1:10:09Pat McAfee:Yeah, it is finally here, but not before a court case tomorrow. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who, I mean, I don't know how, like, if Ohio State goes through something, Does he also, because he's former president and he is Ohio State legend, if he has to sign up for all that type of stuff. For sure. College football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, former president of Ohio. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawk. Yeah. We think football for you. I don't know if you guys have to deal with anything. I mean, Ohio State related. I'm not 100 % sure. But obviously, what's that?

1:10:41No, just, you know, we got game one. That's all we're worried about right here. Why? What would you worry about? What are you thinking?

1:10:47Pat McAfee:I don't know. I just read some tweets and stuff. I see stuff that you guys seem to be gaslighting all over the place that I don't see really anywhere else. Like what? Washington Post, bro? Washington Post situation. Yeah, I don't know. So we're the only ones gassing up the Washington Post. Sure feels like it. Sure feels like it right now. All right, let's dump it. You don't need it. Football is so close. We don't need to be talking about it. Sorry we care about national security. Thank you. Nobody ever talks about that with us. Okay, we have real range in here. Ohio State Buckeyes, though, it has come out.

1:11:14Pat McAfee:Underdogs against the Texas Longhorns week, too. They are not the favorites. Texas is favored over Ohio State. That line has come out. That's crazy to think about, especially with Ohio State being the number one team in the country. But it's down there in Austin. It's going to be hot. It's going to be tough conditions. And Arch Manning potentially does what he did last year, which is play a little football and maybe end up getting shut out by the Ohio State Buckeye defense. What are your thoughts on the Ohio State Buckeyes this year as we enter the season, AJ? Well, I mean, I feel very good about where they are.

1:11:42But that's the thing, like, especially in college football, like there's a lot of turnover on some of these rosters. There's definitely some guys that are stepping into defensive roles that haven't had full-time starting situations yet. So we will see how they respond. But I like where they're at and talking to everybody around the program. They seem to be very excited to get this season going.

1:12:01Pat McAfee:Julian Sane with another year of experience as well. Arch Manning with another year of experience. Everybody's talking about that. So we think football is going to be fantastic. The first few weeks are obviously loaded. And, yeah, can't wait to get on the road. We've got a full football tour this fall. So lucky for it. Can't wait to get down to Baton Rouge and get started. They're saying it's going to feel like 100 or so, I guess, at some point during the show. And it's going to be hot in the kitchen down there. Got a court case tomorrow. We assume a lot of lawyers are going to be showing up in Baton Rouge.

1:12:27Pat McAfee:That's going to be a pretty big ruling on precedent and what the future looks like for being able to regulate your conference. And then Friday, the rosters have to be placed. 105 active rosters. Who will be on LSU's roster will be the big conversation, especially with what happens tomorrow. So we've still got some drama, and we've still got some off-the-field chatter. But Dabo Sweeney says it's embarrassing that this is even a conversation. And he's unranked for the first time in a long time. And he's maybe going into a buzzsaw that I certainly have not experienced in my college football world.

1:12:56Pat McAfee:And I don't like talking, like, the deep history of college football because somebody will tell me how dumb I am and I don't know what it's like to be a part of it. This is a lot of noise heading into a city and into a state, I think, that could potentially have a bunker mentality feel. And whenever, you know, an entire group is rallied like that, that can be quite an environment. That aura alone can kind of provide enough of a daunting task for a team to maybe fold or crumble. But then if Clemson walks in there because of the amount of distractions and gets a dub, college football season starts with the most chaos it could potentially have.

1:13:31I mean, yeah, these guys who talked about Greg came on yesterday and said they don't have any pressure on them. So, you know, you're coming in there, no pressure, all the pressures on LSU to put up a bunch of points and to have this big debut, Lane Kiffin, everything else that's going on. So there is no pressure. And the standard, the standard is still pretty high. I'm sure if you are, if you sign up to go to that Clemson program, Dabo, he's been a winner. He's won multiple national championships there. So he's trying to get back on the map. I'm sure he feels disrespected. So you talk about the bunker mentality over there in LSU.

1:14:04They have that same bunker mentality over there in South Carolina with Clemson. So I wouldn't be shocked if this is a game in the fourth quarter.

1:14:11Pat McAfee:Wesco, Moore, two wide receivers, very good. Very. Very, very, very good tandem. So can Vizina hit it? We shall see. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, as we pivot away from college football and the storylines to the NFL and deep storylines. I want to make sure I get this right. The man joining us right now is a Super Bowl winning NFL analytics strategist and game management expert who has spent over a decade with the Eagles, Jaguars, and the Raiders. While he was on the headset with the Eagles, he was in Doug Peterson's year, their Super Bowl winning year. They went for it 25 % more than everybody else in the NFL on fourth down.

1:14:48Pat McAfee:Obviously, others would follow suit with the strategist in the ear of the head coach. This man could potentially be one of the trailblazers in game management and weaponizing of analytics. And over the last couple weeks, if you live on X at all, you've seen him breaking something down that nobody's ever thought of. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe an asset and a weapon to the football community and to sports media as a whole this upcoming NFL season, ladies and gentlemen, Ryan Paganetti. Yeah, Ryan! How you doing? Appreciate you guys. Ryan, I know you always do TV interviews. I know this is something you're very, very comfortable with as you've been an analytics guy and a game strategist for the NFL for the better part of a decade.

1:15:31Pat McAfee:Cape Cod hat looks good. Is that lobster up there? That's a lobster. We obviously got Cape Cod Lobster. Okay, Paganetic, can you tell me a little bit about the game strategist, the game management, and the analytics department of this whole thing? Because now it seems very normal that somebody has somebody in their ear up top kind of talking to them. When you were getting into this, how did it start, and how does Doug Peterson be a guy that says, you know what, yeah, I would like your ideas in my head? So, you know, Doug learned from Andy Reid. He was Andy's offensive coordinator. And Andy had a guy named Mike Frazier who was a beast who kind of helped him out with that stuff.

1:16:06And so when Doug got the job with Philly, I was already there. You know, he offered the job to me to basically be that guy that was sort of helping him out during the game. And it was really super beneficial that both Howie Roseman and Jeffrey Lurie were very supportive of analytics. So they wanted to use the data. At the time, there was a lot of research. That team should be going for more fourth downs. And because Doug was not sort of an established head coach, like his attitude on it was really good because some of the established guys were like, what are you talking about? We're not going for fourth downs.

1:16:33so you know i think that that was a really big positive and then we started having success with it you know in 2017 and it got a lot of attention and you know we had the philly special and everything and after we managed to win that game a lot of the owners and gms around the league were like what are we doing like why are we not you know implementing this as well so you really kind of see that season has sort of been a turning point for analytics use at least with like the game management when you go for two when you call timeouts but it was really cool to be a part of that and and even you know in the current era like ones that were controversial maybe 10 years ago like those are basically standard so it's really changed dramatically yeah i'd say it changed

1:17:11Pat McAfee:dramatically and i'll say your war on punting is certainly something i don't love okay paisan uh i don't know you were the driver behind it but going forward on fourth down obviously we had heard the story of the high school coach i think in california that literally went for it every fourth down kicked an onside kick every single time went for two every single time they scored actual war on kicking and special teams as a whole, but he had success with it in high school. In the NFL, obviously, field position is such a massive ordeal. When you start piecing together that we need to be going for it on fourth down, there's still some feel to that, or are you strictly, hey, the numbers say 62 % of the time you're going to pick up the first down, we should go for it.

1:17:47Pat McAfee:How do you kind of view it, and did it go astray a little bit, and is it finding maybe a little bit more level now, you think, after like a 10-year run? It was always a battle, And a lot of the defensive coaches in particular really don't like it. You know, you go for fourth and one at your own 45-yard line, there might be a 30 % chance the defensive coordinator is going to be facing a 45-yard field. So, you know, in particular, even after winning a Super Bowl, I've sort of gotten in a lot of battles with different guys. But what I would say is that I liked letting – when I worked with Doug Peterson, I worked with Pete Carroll, like I liked having the head coach kind of feel like he had ownership in the sense that, you know, I'm going to provide data, But from that data, they can kind of nudge in either direction.

1:18:28Like, hey, I feel really good about our O-line versus their D-line or our center is getting crushed by this guy. But what I try to sort of communicate is even if you think we absolutely suck on offense, a lot of these fourth and ones and fourth and twos are still strongly in favor of going for it. So that was really kind of one of the starting points is really those fourth and very shorts that we were sort of going for, particularly over field goals. and now you see like ben johnson went for a fourth and five from his own 32 yard line in the in the playoffs last year in the second quarter which i've never seen anything like that except for in madden and you know it didn't work they actually came back and won but um the it used to be you know you do that five years ago 10 years ago like there would be a lot of people calling for you to get fired if you lost that game so it's pretty cool like how things have have sort of changed now some in some cases they're still going to be very controversial ones Dan Campbell had one a couple of years ago against the 49ers.

1:19:20I think it was fourth and two. I actually my numbers were very slightly in favor of field goal. I think one message that would be useful for the people listening is like there's actually variation in the models. And some models might actually say go for it. Some might say punt. Some might say field goal. So, you know, I think there's actually just like there's nuance and like who's the best coaches, who's the best, you know, who's the best player evaluators. I tried to say like, you know, there was actually talent in the analytics world and you want to have the best possible people because you don't want to necessarily go for a fourth and two at your own 38 yard line.

1:19:51But, you know, there's some some book told you to do it and you do it and then you look like an idiot and, you know, you get criticized relentlessly. So there's definitely a balance there that kind of has to be factored in.

1:20:00Pat McAfee:I like that you say like the stats person has to have some feel as well on what matters and what doesn't matter because the numbers can present any story. I mean, you just said it right there. You can literally utilize stats and analytics for any argument. I don't want to get too much into your world, but it feels like in sports there's a stat or some sort of something for every argument, even if they're completely against each other. And then definitely in the politics world we have seen, they have a stat number for everything on opposite sides. Like stats is on every team. What you're saying is being able to read the stats are a huge ordeal.

1:20:33Pat McAfee:Knowing ball is a huge ordeal. You want to know when I found out that you were a football nerd that probably knew ball a little bit? You posted what you did last night about what they do up in Gillette Stadium with the just slightly off uprights. Now, the natural reaction is these are NFL kickers. So, like, obviously they know which uprights are the right uprights. But just why not? Just a little bit of a blur. Just a little bit of a subconscious type distraction potentially. Some places we've seen it before, they zoomed in on Vinatieri's face. So like zoomed in tight on Vinatieri's face, and they put that in the back thing.

1:21:12Pat McAfee:I appreciated you doing the research on this and then explaining about how this evil empire, yeah, they might have been evil, but there also no stone was left unturned in trying to win the damn game. And then you look up some stats on this, which I assume you did. Hembo says, including playoffs, visitors have only hit 77 % of their field goals. The hell? Okay, now weather, obviously terrible. They used to have that wind tunnel too because it was wide open, so that's certainly a part of it. But maybe there is a little optics head game happening, and I appreciate you pointing that out. Is this something that we should expect from you, Paganetti, as we go forward, and how did you kind of dive into this one?

1:21:46Yeah, so like when I took over my role on the headset doing the game management stuff in 2016, I studied every single team, and I'm like, I want to be the best at this, and the first person to go to or the first team to go to was obviously the Patriots to sort of study because, you know, they had been doing it for really two decades. I'm from Massachusetts. That's why I got the Cape Cod hat. I'm in Massachusetts right now. So I went to a lot of their games. I had seen this to some degree during the games, you know, just from attending the games in person, but I never really had put it all together.

1:22:15And then I would, I would watch all the TV broadcasts each week to try to pick up on anything obscure to let me communicate that to Doug Peterson and to our Jim Schwartz or whoever our coaches were. And I just came across it one day and I'm like, this is like diabolical. Like this is it just looks so perfect in terms of like creating this optical illusion. And there's there's been this whole, you know, mystique around the Patriots. And I just thought like this clearly seemed intentional. You know, I pulled up all the copies of when the opposing or when the Patriots were kicking field goals. This, you know, this visual was not present.

1:22:47If you look at the numbers, you know, in that time frame that Belichick was the head coach, the field goal, you know, conversion rate of the opposing team in Gillette was the lowest in the entire NFL. So, you know, I think there's definitely something tangible there. And, you know, I really studied them for everything. Like, you know, we everybody talks about the Eagles and the sneaks. The only reason they ran the sneaks is because we meticulously studied what exactly New England was doing with the sneaks in 2016, 2017. And we tried to implement that. And one of the analytics messages from that, you know, research that I kind of did, I worked with Jeff Stoutland, Jason Kelsey, you know, Doug Peterson was the Patriots are going for these sneaks when there's an open a gap.

1:23:27But the data actually supports just doing it every single time. So in 2017, if you go back, we actually just started sneaking on like all these short yardage ones. We're like, we don't care what you're in. We have the cadence. We're just going to go first. You know, I put out a tweet recently that got a lot of attention that no team since at least 2000 has been stopped on four straight sneaks. and actually no team has been stopped on three straight sneaks on a set of downs. So, you know, what people don't necessarily factor in enough is when the sneak fails and it's on a first, second, or third down, you just have more downs and you avoid that nightmare situation.

1:23:59And I think the perfect nightmare representation is that game, if you remember, Ohio State versus Texas a couple years ago in the college football semifinal. They had second and goal at the one. They tossed the ball out. They lose seven yards. And then they went incomplete on third down, and then fourth down was the strip sack for the touchdown. It was at the end of the game. But when you run a quarterback sneak, the bad outcome, even if you don't convert, is almost always zero yards or maybe a half yard. Tom Brady had the most sneaks in NFL history. He's probably going to get passed by Jalen Hurts or Josh Allen here shortly.

1:24:31But Tom Brady's entire career had one sneak that was for negative yards. And that just sort of shows you, if you're looking at it, this attitude of multiple plays. So we would approach that. This is what the Eagles have done recently. you see they get to the one yard line everybody in the lincoln financial field knows they're going to run a sneak like they're they're just going to do it if they don't get it they're just going to do it again and i think that the the sequencing of the sneaks is something that people

1:24:54Pat McAfee:aren't talking about enough are you one of the founding fathers of the tush push i i i actually was not particularly involved in that aspect of things i ended up moving to the jaguars in 21 but i i from my understanding steltan was kind of you know an anchor on that one but interestingly enough, Bill Snyder is the first guy I've seen do it back in about 2015 and 16. I'll send you guys the video if you guys want to post it, but they, yeah, Kansas State, they were lining up, and I think they called it the clown car or something. They put three guys in three-point stances right behind the quarterback, and they would just smash forward, and they got it like almost every single time, and I think that was a little bit of the inspiration for the NFL version of it, probably, that came out about 2021.

1:25:37Pat McAfee:Snyder's sitting out there in Kansas State going, okay, anybody going to? I did that. Tush push, clown car. Okay, clown car is the godfather of the tush push. I love that the, oh, there it is. Wait, that was on a video game at one point. I think that was a potential option for a play. Brought it back this year, by the way. Way back in, okay. So it was an option. Did West Virginia do something like that this year? Yeah, fat. Yeah. That's what Rich Rodriguez called it. Remember, he said it was people, heavy attack, touchdown, or something like that. We call it our fat package, but I'm saying I'm not allowed to say it.

1:26:13Pat McAfee:It's a pH. It's a pH, of course. But, yeah, he said everybody on the field will be over 250 pounds, 260 pounds. And if you can't pick up a yard, what Paisan here is saying is just do it again. Yeah, line up. Do it again. Do it again. Those types of things that are happening behind closed doors to become the best football team really put into emphasis how any distraction could potentially put you behind. Convan has a question for you, Paisan. Yeah, Pags, you said that you're a Massachusetts guy. Actually, no, you went to Belmont Hill. You're a milk and cookies guy. I'm a BB &N guy. Go Knights. But I don't love that you're giving away all these New England Patriots secrets to kind of direct our attention elsewhere maybe.

1:26:51But something you tweeted about was kind of sacks are on more of a quarterback stat than anything. A lot of times when a quarterback gets sacked a lot, it's like, okay, so those teams have the worst offensive lines. Can you talk a little bit about kind of the sack situation in the NFL and what that is reflected upon when it comes to quarterback play versus offensive line play? Yeah, I think I heard from a lot of offensive linemen on that one, which was kind of entertaining. But really one of the great misunderstandings in the league is just the O-lines get crushed every week. These guys don't even compile any stats, and they still get blamed for maybe 70 % more sacks than they really should be responsible for.

1:27:29But if you look back at so many of these top-tier quarterbacks like Dan Marino, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, if you look at the year prior to them getting there, when they're there and then when they leave, there's almost always significant movement in the sack rate. So, like, for example, I think Dan Marino had, like, six years in a row that he was number one in sack rate, which was, like, crazy. But, like, you know, Peyton gets hurt with the Colts. The number jumps straight up. You know, Peyton leaves the Denver. It goes up. Peyton arrives in Indy. It goes down. Tom Brady, you know, has an incredible year in 2007.

1:28:07He gets hurt in 2008. The sack rate jumps dramatically. He comes back in 2009. It's super low again. He leaves. The Patriots' sack rate jumps dramatically. He goes to Tampa. Tampa had like several years in a row with very high sack rate, then it drops dramatically. And I think the idea that ultimately the quarterback has way more ability to impact if a sack actually occurs than people are really, you know, categorizing there. And, you know, I know you I know you have JJ on the show all the time. He mentioned that, you know, he only got Brady basically one time in his career. And to think of like a first ballot Hall of Famer that really just could not get to the quarterback at like, you know, for however many times they played each other.

1:28:43It really is the quarterback can, you know, understands the protection, knows the weaknesses. He needs to have a clock. And a lot of these quarterbacks, I think that, you know, are sort of underperforming a little bit. You know, they might have decent counting stats like yards per attempt or completion rate, but the sacks are just way too high. And I think that that's something that people need to consider, like the full sort of encompassing of how the quarterback is playing is that, you know, some of these guys that are going to start this year, like over 10 percent sack rates. and that's just like not sustainable both for winning games and also just from like the quarterback health.

1:29:16Pat McAfee:So as soon as you put that out, did you hear from every offensive lineman in history saying, that's right. Thank you. That's right. Go ahead and say it, Paganetti. Yeah, it's you saying it, not me. You're a super genius. Yeah, this is on the quarterback, the guy we're paying$60 million a year. Thank you. I appreciate that. Especially whenever you got Aaron Donald, Miles Garrett, Fisk, and the boys on the other side. What Paganetti is saying, the good quarterbacks see that and they say, I got to get this thing the hell out of my hand as fast as possible, where maybe the quarterbacks that aren't as good think they can extend a play, then take a sack, loss of yards, loss of down, and you're hurting your team as opposed to just saying, we'll do this the next day as we move on.

1:29:57Pat McAfee:I love what you're doing, Paganetti. I absolutely love it. And you talk about, you know, the quarterback sacks that being a little bit of a misconception. I think you nerds have some of those as well. AJ has a question for you. Yeah, Ryan, I guess what's like a common misconception casual fans have towards the analytics department when it comes to the job that you have held, you know, wearing the headset and the sideline and all that stuff? What do people get wrong, I guess, when they think about it or talk about it? Us, mostly. Yeah. Well, you know, I'd say there's some nuance in what the actual roles are.

1:30:28You know, like I was with Pete. I was with, you know, Coach Peterson. And I actually sat in all of the game plan meetings. Like, and I was even assistant linebackers coach in Philly as well. So like there are some cases where these analytics people are actually coaches as well, or they understand the X's and O's. And I, I try to disassociate myself with the guys that are just like know-it-all nerds. And they say the coach is an idiot and should have done this and should have done that because oftentimes they are missing some kind of context. And I think that that's that is definitely like where I've tried to differentiate myself is like I want to be pretty good schematically like no I'm not going to be Belichick or Jim Schwartz or Sean McVay.

1:31:03But if I the more that I know schematically I can sort of help the coaches and understand like okay they're not running this play because of this front or you know we can't do X Y Z we can't run play action you know under center play action against this edge pressure. Some of these nuances, I think, help me be a better analyst. But I continue to see stuff on Twitter where they're just, like, pounding the drum saying the coaches are really stupid. And, like, a lot of these coaches are really good guys, and they put in an incredible amount of time. And what you see on the field is a lot of times, like, protecting their players and trying to do what's best, you know, to win the game.

1:31:34And I think they don't get enough credit when they do that.

1:31:36Pat McAfee:That's like the PFF rankings and ratings. You know, the big complaint from all the players is, you have no idea what my assignment was on that particular play. Well, this is cover, too. It's like, yeah, but our cover, too, for this week was a little bit different because we had a guy who maybe was 80%, to your point, about protecting players. This guy actually can't do that this week, so you're going to have to cover here. Nobody knows that. So I like to appreciate the, hey, we need a little context on these numbers as well as we go forward. I think that's good for ball, Pags. Hey, I think you're good for ball, Pags.

1:32:05Pat McAfee:Now, I'm going to let you know this. As soon as we read your tweets and what you're breaking down, we immediately thought to ourselves, how can we take advantage of what this guy is telling us? Okay, how can we take advantage of what this guy is telling us? And we're not the only ones that are going to be thinking that. Let's go to one half of the hammer. Cowboys AP Tone. Tone has a question for you, Pags. Yeah, Pags, I love the way your brain works, and I love the way that you break down the game and you talk about schematically and analytically because that's just the best way to do it. But immediately my brain went to, how can I benefit financially off of this information?

1:32:37You know, big betting show here. uh it's draft kings day it's a great day to bet um but is there something like in your research i'm not sure if you've tied it to gambling or anything yet that people maybe should look towards or certain statistics that you think are more beneficial when you're breaking down game lines and stuff like that yeah so what i'd say is like on the team side obviously you can't touch any of the betting topics whatsoever so like it's a it's a sensitive topic but i use the spread every single week because like i would generate basically a fourth down game book and it really would be dependent on like are we an underdog is our quarterback in a play so like that spread was factored and i'm very familiar with a lot of the numbers one of the number one things that i think you guys could take advantage of is like taking a look at the consensus from these joint practices and the idea being is that nobody cares about preseason anymore i think like john harbon a couple coaches try a little bit but for the most part you get these guys just mailing it in they They line up in two formations and run a couple of plays.

1:33:33You know, it's mostly backups. But joint practices are one v ones. And you get a lot of teams that they feel like the film is not being shown to the rest of the league. So they might game plan that stuff. And I basically took like 15 years worth of data on essentially what the sentiment was out of joint practices, mostly from beat writers, sometimes national writers, sometimes in these open practices, the fans are watching. and when there was a clear winner in a joint practice like that actually did have some you know useful power that season and how that team did against the spread so you know if you look at so if you look particularly like you know some it usually correlates a lot a lot of times with these teams that are pretty good on the o-line and d-line a few years ago the eagles were kind of you know they were getting blown out in pre-season but the lines were looking great in in these joint practices and a lot of the consensus there was that they were doing very well there and then they kind of came out and did a great job but um there's there's a few you know some of there was a number of joint practices this year where there was like some kind of interesting nuances like the saints kind of beat up on the jaguars on one the uh most of them were relatively logical sort of matchups like okay the dolphins were really struggling in joint practices and you know there's some somebody expected ones did occur but when there there also was like a few cases that were a little bit unexpected in terms of, you know, okay, like the, you know, the, the chargers kind of beat up on the 49ers.

1:34:54Now, was that just because the entire 49ers team is hurt because the substation or whatever else is going on? I'm not, I'm not, I'm not implying anything, but, but like the chargers looked pretty good in the joint practice setting and like, you know, the, you know, the Rams did a great job in theirs. And, you know, there's, there's been a number of kind of interesting matchups that I think some people who just blow off joint practices and to consider them like sort of useless like i wouldn't necessarily be in that attitude like i know the texans were so dominant on their defensive line in some of these joint practices that like it almost like ruined the practice and like yes we kind of knew they were going to be good but that's just like another confirmation that things are pretty promising there but if there's like anything to use you got to think like the market maybe isn't totally pricing in like how these teams have done you know have they made the right improvements in free agency in the draft.

1:35:42And, like, you know, I think it's something that you can maybe keep an eye on.

1:35:44Pat McAfee:I think joint practices is a good call because that's ones-on-ones there. You know, that is everybody's going. It's the reason why it's going to be a big part of the next CBA negotiation. I think you're going to have one preseason game. It's going to be a bubble game at the end. And then I think you're going to have teams forced into joint practices. And I think the joint practices will be incredible television. I mean, if you just did an all-day March Madness-type setup of the joint practices, people would be able to cover it. I think coaches should be able to say, hey, we don't want this covered.

1:36:11Pat McAfee:We don't want this talked about. We don't want this kind of on the live thing. I think that's where we're headed. And I think the players know that that means it's going to be a much more physical camp than it has been with a preseason game model. But I also think we're going to be able to get a lot better intel potentially on the teams and how they're doing. Because if you're asked into joint practice, you're probably going to be asked in a regular season. But maybe you'll get hot. Let's certainly utilize that information early. Now, you talk about the Texans D-line kind of wrecking practice.

1:36:37Pat McAfee:Defense is a fascinating thing in 2026. Last question for you here from D-Budd. Yeah, Ryan, we've been talking a ton about the offensive side of the ball. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on building a defense in kind of the modern NFL. When I was playing, I feel like that slot defender position specifically kind of evolved throughout my career. What's your thoughts on that position? I know Caleb Downs, we thought he was one of the best players in this draft. He went 11, I think, because of positional value. But what's the thoughts on that slot position? You look at the last two champions, Cooper DeGene, Nick Imanwari, Devin Withers when they all played in that slot.

1:37:09So what's your opinion on that, building through that position in the modern NFL? Okay, so interesting stat. Three of the last five years, the Super Bowl champion team was number one in two high presentations before the snap on early downs. And that's including if you just look at the first down. So that's Mike McDonald was number one. Vic Fangio was number one in 24. I think Raheem Morris was number one. but it's created these worlds where it's like the light box that that player is going to have to get involved in the run game because it you know that's the sort of the way that you can get them out of these two high looks is to really be able to kind of thump the ball and if you look at the rams they've been one of the teams that have sort of had a good counter to that because they're like very heavy with these with the duo run game it's duo insert um i'm a little bit of a myth buster on the on the rams 13 personnel stuff just because i think they ran the same exact plays from 12 or 13 or 11 and it really was just a matter of like what the injuries were i think stafford was even interviewed last year and said or interviewed recently and said they didn't even practice 13 last off season and it was kind of just something they did because of the injuries but i think ultimately the counter to this too high thing whether they start in too high and stay in too high or they start in too high and spin down to one high you've got to be able to get like north south in the run game and sort of threaten that and get them out of it and the the nickel is going to be involved in that.

1:38:28And, you know, there's been a really big jump with different teams. You know, Belichick used to do it, of course, Schwartz would do it. You know, Mike McDonald did it this last year, but what I would call is like big nickel is like these three safety nickel packages where you're a little bit better in the run defense than conventional nickel. And you can also handle like 12 personnel, 13 personnel, a little bit better versus some teams just like line up in their pure nickel defense with like a legitimate small nickel cornerback. And if I'm in 12 or 13 or 21 or, you know, I saw some teams were playing 22 personnel in the preseason, which is kind of interesting.

1:39:00Like I'm looking to try to take advantage of that, make that guy tackle. And I think, you know, just assuming that those players have to be good coverage players is like totally incomplete. Just, you know, for where what they have to be able to do now.

1:39:12Pat McAfee:You talk about 22 personnel. You think about the Giants right now. You got Scadaboo and Ricard in the back and then two tight ends, including Likely, who can sneak out and do his entire thing. And then Jackson Dart can run the ball as well. So let's see if these nickels and safeties and corners can tackle. There's a knowledge in there, too. Texans and other guys. Jalen Petrie plays in their nickel a lot. It's basically a safety hybrid to cover blitz. Let's see if they can. It's because he's got the biggest helmet in the league. That's right. He's going to have to throw that thing around. Speaking of protecting melons, we hope you do that, brother.

1:39:44Pat McAfee:Yeah. We need you. Nope, not going to say it because it would be taken the wrong way. We need you to protect that brain, brother. You're good for sports. So we appreciate you so much. AJ's first response to learning of your tweet about the field goals was, good luck, kickers. This is happening everywhere now. Isn't that what you said, AJ? Isn't that kind of your reaction? I'm just wondering, are other teams, other stadium operations, are they looking at this saying, yeah, why are we not taking advantage of doing this as well? Well, some stadiums just have tiny jumbotrons. That's the problem. We live in a city where that exists.

1:40:12Colts couldn't do that. I was digging on this recently, but there was some kind of game operations update in like 22, 23, where they did something to kind of limit this. There's definitely a gray area. And if Belichick was still in the league, I promise you he would have found like a way to capitalize on this. But I was reading the rule book and I'm like, I don't even understand necessarily what is exactly allowed. I'd love to see more colleges do it because it's like awesome. Like somebody had Squidward on the screen, I think like Tarleton State the other day, but just like doing something wacky, there's probably like a psychological study you could do of like what would cause the most confusion that is legal.

1:40:48I was kind of thinking if you actually have like a large target on the screen, but it was like not in the center, that that could really kind of optically really mess with somebody. But, you know, I'm sure there's a world where people are maybe, you know, getting somebody checking out this tweet and coming up with some ideas of things that they could do. There's a response to your tweet actually of like Oklahoma State and they put on their jumbotron just a bunch of yellow lines. So you legitimately, it was like an optical illusion. You couldn't.

1:41:14Pat McAfee:I mean, I hate it obviously for the kickers and the punters, but I love it. But it's one of those things about competitive people is if there's an angle, they're certainly going to find it. Love it. Love everything about it. Yeah, that's awesome. All right, Pags, we appreciate you, bro. Hopefully we talk to you soon. You're great for sports. We appreciate you opening up your brain to all of us. Really appreciate it. You know, thanks for having me. I thought you did good here, man. You know, I know you're a little bit worried about potentially having to do this. I thought you nailed it. Great hat.

1:41:42Pat McAfee:The lobster hat. Yeah. That's a good idea. Great touch. It might be AI. He didn't look at us. Yeah, well, his screen's done, so he's below. You know, it's first time. Yeah, I've got some ideas that I think are better than what the Patriots did, but maybe that's for another episode. Oh, he's teasing shit. Okay, we appreciate that, ladies and gentlemen. Ryan Paganetti. Yeah, Pags. That was awesome. I saw his last couple tweets. I've seen him, and then I read his bio, what he was. I was like, this is fascinating. And then the field goal one, I was like, I like what you're doing here, bud. and sent him a message.

1:42:17Pat McAfee:I'm like, thank you for doing what you're doing. This is incredible for sport. And I was like, would you want to come on the show to talk about this? Get his phone number, talk to him. Live television interview. I can call in. So can I do a phone? It was funny just to go through that process with somebody who's certainly going to be a pretty big figure in sports media. He is going to do very well for us this football season. For us, I'm talking not our show. I'm talking football as a whole because he's literally been a part of all the analytics conversations that are inevitable here with decision-making processes literally every single week.

1:42:50Pat McAfee:So I'm very thankful that he took time, and I'm appreciative of whatever he figures out this season that makes us better fans. I love the way his brain works because it is a perfect combination of the analytics, and he thinks about literally everything. But then when he's talking about duo insert, which the Rams did a ton last year out of 12 and 13, and then being like, yeah, everyone made a big deal about them going 13 personnel. That was just because there was injuries and stuff like that. So it's not just analytics. It's also being very, very smart X's and O's wise. And that's just an absolute stud.

1:43:20Yeah. I came talking about how it's not as if there are 32 analytics people and they all come from the same school. Like they're there. Some analytics people are much better than others. And, you know, some analytics books are different than other books. Like, I don't know why, but I also thought that that was just kind of like a bland, maybe one, maybe two different books. But him saying, like, yeah, that MCDC going for it on fourth down in Niners territory, like my analytics said to kick it. Whereas someone else's would have maybe said, hey, go for this. You know, MCDC made his money, made his hay on going for it on fourth down.

1:43:54That was, you know, Motor City Dan Campbell. He was just risking it all the time. Like, that was interesting to learn about.

1:43:59Pat McAfee:Yeah, being able to read the stats and which stats should you present as gospel. You know, like there's a lot of power in the numbers and which numbers are heard and which numbers are not heard. That's just like when people selective, you know, information for anything. It's like, well, what's being left out here? Well, normally the context. So having somebody that understands ball while also being able to dissect the numbers is huge. And this is why Mina Kimes does well in the sports media world, because she does know ball clearly with what she presents and how she presents it. And it feels like her number, which is why she has been put on top of the stats world.

1:44:33Pat McAfee:I think because she likes ball and knows the numbers. it's like Paganetti feels like he's, those two need to happen. There's a lot of people with rocks for brains football-wise that are getting a hold of numbers and having people make decisions that shouldn't necessarily be happening. It's a very powerful thing, not just in sports. Obviously, if you present a situation and leave some key things out, it can certainly be taken one way versus maybe a complete opposite way. Stats and going forward on fourth down, certainly real, it has to happen like right now. It's a lot of power that headset has, AJ.

1:45:05Yeah, head coach has to have a bunch of trust in that person, especially if they weren't a headset that they're talking to him throughout the game. I would just like to see how many times, like, head coach, like, all right, I get it. I understand what your stupid book says, but, you know, we can't block their three techniques, so we're not going for it. Like, I would imagine there's some give and take there. I'm kind of mad we saw his face. Like, he should be kind of faceless. We should have had, like, an animation maybe. He didn't want to be on camera. He likes being behind the scenes. Maybe we should workshop that for next season.

1:45:30Well, there was a shade over top of him.

1:45:32Pat McAfee:You know, it was, like, a little bit darker. I don't know if he left something over top of the camera that he's never used before like maybe there was like a film or a Screen on top of it sure was but to your point as he was talking I looked over there I was like if he was like a deal or no deal banker Silhouette, yep, that would actually be pretty dumb. I mean, how do we know if those his face though? You know that's the other thing is how do we know that that's actually what it looks like or if he was Yeah, cuz these things got big brains big brains. They know how to program stuff They know how to kind of make things look differently than by these things super genius.

1:46:05Smart people. I thought you were calling him a hybrid. He was part of Alien. I mean, the school he went to is no joke. They got some big brains over there.

1:46:13Pat McAfee:Who's that? Vanderfield Yates, right? Vanderfield Yates is from there, too, but I'm talking like presidents. Ah, shit. I should ask some fantasy questions. Call him back. It was a Zoom. Can't call him back. And also, that might be the last time. He just destroyed that computer. There's no way. Destroy the chips now. We're ever going to see from him. I thought he was great. That's a good piece of information. Tone Diggs did not write a book this offseason. What? You didn't write it, did you? The Gambler's Guide? I did, but it sucked, so I just didn't bring it up. Okay, so I appreciate you putting the effort in to write it and then not publishing it or whatever.

1:46:48Pat McAfee:There was a couple of potential lawsuits last time we did this as well. I loved the previous ones. Me too. Me as well. I just wasn't happy with it. Yeah, there were some people that just did not know they were going to be in there or have pictures in there and use their imaging in there. So we had to take that thing down pretty quickly last time. But we would say potentially New York Times bestseller and author of college football, Tone Diggs, put out his first bracket. And ladies and gentlemen, here it is. As we sit just on the eve of college week one, kicking off tomorrow night with Colorado taking on Georgia Tech.

1:47:27Pat McAfee:Here's what Tone's college football playoff prediction will look like. G-16, probably Memphis if I had to guess. Could be Boise. There's a couple other squads that could slip in there. Taking on Miami. LSU taking on Texas. That's a good one down in south. Oklahoma, Texas Tech. Now we're talking Cowboys taking on Cowboys. Ole Miss and IU round out the field. Quarterfinals end up being Miami, Oregon. Oregon gets the win. Takes on Georgia who beats Texas. Notre Dame beats Oklahoma. And Indiana beats Ohio State again. Sorry, AJ. Final four. Indiana, Notre Dame. All Indiana semifinal as Georgia takes on Oregon.

1:48:03Pat McAfee:All Big Ten national championship. Oregon takes on IU with IU going back to back, says Tone Diggs. Tone, reports on a camper that Hoover's spinning it. Yep. And is that why you like the IU Hoosiers? Is it because you like Signetti? Why do you have Indiana going back to back with all these other fantastic teams on the docket? Yeah. It's crazy because you talk about IU and they talk about how perfect everything was last year I think the roster maybe besides Mendoza because we don't know yet about Hoover could be better because they bring back four of their offensive linemen they lose Pat Coogan but they bring in an offensive lineman from Wisconsin who was really really good they have a ton of their entire defensive lineback plus more additions that they got in the portal plus two more that they may get back with an injunction in a certain state though I think the wide receiver room is more electric more explosive so we'll see in that instance like but they they retain all their coordinators all the brian haynes is coming back uh shanhan's coming back as their oc um i just think like yes i had them as the seven seed because i don't know their schedule is tough we'll see what happens in the regular season but i figure like once it gets to the playoffs and the rubber meets the road i'm not betting against signetti it's just not something that i want to do right now hard to do and he enjoyed last year's national championship and a negative amount of time you know like i think even whenever he was up on the stage and the confetti was flying he was holding the trophy he was probably in the back of his mind going we got to do this all over again next year like right in that moment and then he obviously has a chance to kick off the ncaa video game with his speech and now people are talking about his old speeches being maybe one of the greatest leaders of our time and how he goes about doing his business he's gonna have the boys locked in and we talked to charlie last week he didn't even want to talk about last year at all Yeah, right.

1:49:52Pat McAfee:We're on to this year. We're on to week one against North Texas, and that is how we're going. Seems like the right mindset to have if you're in the middle of building a dynasty. D-Bot, how do you feel about Miami losing in the quarterfinals? I hate it. What? And because of it, I hate this entire bracket. It all stinks. But, yeah, I mean, I don't like it. I mean, them winning games against a group of six team and then losing to Oregon. I hate that. I think Miami. It's going to be a close game. I think Miami got. Crystal Ball not losing to Oregon, dude. Not at all. They got better. He's been there.

1:50:20He knows what Oregon's about. They got better at quarterback. I mean, I think we obviously lost edge with Mesador and Bain, but I think we grew there. I think we got better in the trenches offensive line, the weaponry outside with Malachi and the boys. Fletcher came back in the backfield as well. I don't like that. I like them to be higher seated as well. Well, that's an 11-1 Miami team, and they're only at five because they lost to Notre Dame in the regular season. So, I mean, they could be an undefeated team if they win at Notre Dame. The one through seven, good luck to the committee. Okay? Good luck.

1:50:59Pat McAfee:Do you think it's going to be craziness this year? The one through seven, I am very, very high on. Georgia, I got them as a one-loss SEC champion. Notre Dame undefeated? Notre Dame undefeated. Congrats to them. A lot of people say – Now, the Notre Dame people aren't happy that that's being talked about, But their schedule is rather easy. They're not the only ones, though. Team you didn't bring up, Penn State. They obviously allegedly have a good schedule as well. Rocco Beck, very experienced quarterback. Matt Campbell is obviously a winner. Goes into Penn State. You don't have them making the playoffs.

1:51:29No, so it was do I put the 11 as another SEC team or a fourth Big Ten team? And it is year one with Matt Campbell at Penn State, and the schedule is nice. but I like Oklahoma's team better than I like Penn State.

1:51:47Pat McAfee:Ohio State doesn't even make the Final Four, AJ. Whoa. They won the Big Ten championship. It's just, you know, it was a slobber knocker in that Big Ten championship. And they're walking wounded going into that game against IU. But they have two months until the game. And IU does it again. Wow. It gets them again. Well, I can't believe that happens. Julian's saying again. Yeah, Big Ten champions. Back to back. They won the Big Ten championship. AJ, are you okay with how this is all going to unfold? That's exactly where we want to be. We want people doubting you. Come on now. What are we talking about?

1:52:17This is, it's all speculation. Everybody feels great about their team. Everyone got better in the offseason. Good luck. We'll see. One seed, four seed, three seed in the semis. Only one team's won off the bye, and that was IU last year. So that would be much different having three teams winning off the bye.

1:52:32Pat McAfee:So, Tone, we appreciate you putting your bracket out there. If you hate this, at Tone Diggs with a Z on that thing, we appreciate the amount of commitment that you put the ball. Thank you. Genuinely, thank you for that. As we wrap up here on ESPN and continue digitally, we can't help but thank Ryan Paganetti enough. Hey, Malik Andrews. Schrager announced a big day today. Did you see that, AJ? Are you excited for big day? Yeah, prime time with Schrager's at 2 p.m. or something? What's it called? Big day. Big day, asshole. Big play, Schrager. Come on, man. Big day, Schrager. Big day, Schrager. It's 2 o 'clock.

1:53:07Pat McAfee:They'll be following us every single Monday through Thursday this football season, Monday through Friday in the offseason. I think everybody's happy for strikes. And also, DraftKings game day, AJ. I don't know if you've been in there. New boost popping up every hour, every half hour. Obviously, we're playing alongside, trying to take as much advantage of them as we possibly can. Because if you're of age and agree to be responsible and not like an asshole, we'd love you to come join us on DraftKings, the best sports book on earth as we take on another incredible football season. That week one of the college football season kicks off tomorrow night.

1:53:39Pat McAfee:Teams are already en route to an NFL game. Life is great. That's A.J. Hawk. The boys are here. Great work this week, D-Butt. The show at Rascal tomorrow not happening. Be later in the fall. We continue. Goodbye. It'll be later in the fall. This is a crazy week to speak for that. Yeah, yeah. You may be moving parts to try to do it right before you leave. Later in the fall. A lot of stuff. Later in the fall, I think. You're going to have time to do those rehearsals. I mean, you've got to do sound check, right? I'm sure as the season goes on, you'll get more and more. Okay, so let's go. Probably spring.

1:54:10Pat McAfee:It's probably going to end up in the spring, if I had to guess. That makes sense. With the amount of talent, like the musicians that we're going to be playing. Yeah, yeah. Obviously, hey, are we doing a rehearsal? We've done this before. Have you ever done this before? It's like, actually, no. I haven't even sat in. Rock band, I did that at 2 or 3 a.m. I've done that before. It's like that. They're like, well, we'd like to at least run through each song maybe once or twice. It's like the practice or walkthroughs. Yeah. Minicamp, OTAs, training camp. Yeah, and I didn't even think about that. I was just like, all right, I'll just – you guys got a song.

1:54:46Pat McAfee:I'll sing the thing, you know. There might be a little – One, two, three. How do you even start it? Yeah, honestly, I did not think about any of that, okay? Obviously, I don't think about any of that. I'm like, right before football kicks off, we'll just go ahead and do this. All the incredibly talented musicians from Nashville that made the songs that were phenomenal what they do, they'll come on up. They did. They all agreed. Yeah, we'll definitely come on up. You got it. No problem. We're very grateful and appreciative of the opportunity. Thank you. I'm like, I'm very grateful and appreciative.

1:55:12Pat McAfee:We got to perform this one time at least. Who knows if it's ever going to happen again? That was my thought. And then as it was getting closer, it was like, okay, so we're going to have to do a rehearsal, sound check probably. Where, when, is that possible? I'm like, that's a good question. That's a really good question. They're like, Wednesday night we can come up, do rehearsal, whenever we get back Wednesday night. I'm like, sweet, let's do that. That sounds good. Going to need you probably. I mean, we got to do each song at least twice, right? So we get comfortable. We should do it at least twice.

1:55:42Pat McAfee:And then there's probably going to be some work on it. It's probably two and a half, three hours probably Wednesday night. Is that good? We'll probably get in around 8.30 at night. I'm like, so it's like 9 to midnight on Wednesday? We can move that to Thursday morning as well. It's like, we got a show on Thursday. I'm like, oh, no, I've grossly underestimated it. I have grossly underestimated it. It's a live show with all those musicians. Like, what a day. I have grossly underestimated it. to think about it yeah i guess i i assume like yeah when you announce like oh sweet you can perform and then i never thought about it either about all of what goes into it what's going on we got college game day on saturday i i this is the first one of the year and then we're going on tour basically for the next five months i mean imagine you going through each song twice too like the day before i think we got it i think we got it yeah yeah that's it that's the night when we got on your vocal cords right before so that's the thing though now that i know how to direct the air through my vocal cord muscles okay and it's obviously a work in progress but now that i know how to do that it actually should help me this season whenever i get to the uh losing voice time of year which is inevitable around week three week four as the pollen and traveling from the south back to the north let alone with monday night countdown coming into play there so normally you know we try to stay seed up seed up try to stay seed up let's all remember that by the way We are entering seed-up time.

1:57:03Pat McAfee:Let's remember our vitamin C as we go forward here. But I believe Coach Guyton, shout out to her down there in Nashville, with what she has taught me, I should be able to find something in there somewhere throughout football season just as a speaker, which I would suggest everybody try to figure out and learn how to sing. I think it is an incredible control over, like, your body. I obviously can't do it every single time. I think my conditioning of being able to do it longer will hopefully continue to grow as we work through the all the different drills and messages but it is something that i think we should try to figure out because we all lose our voices because there's a lot of talking there's a lot of yeah you should practice together guys we should i'm more of a soloist nah i'm a shout i'm a shower guy we're a fucking course i get after cool like warm-ups choir yeah we should do that we'll do that on our road we'll do that whenever we go on the road We'll do everybody will do a breathing exercise.

1:57:57Pat McAfee:Sure. Sweet. What I was told, though, is that, you know, whenever I get going and you can see these going, that's the complete opposite of what you want. Okay. We don't need everything. What do we do? What should we do? We would like everything to be relaxed around the vocal cords that are in here. Because if not, you're kind of straining everything. No, it's like when you see a runner, like a track star. It should be, like, relaxed. Yeah. So whenever you're seeing this, when I'm yelling, whenever this Saturday, just know that's not at all what I'm supposed to be doing. We'll let you know. Coach Guyton say, listen, you're ruining your vote courts right now.

1:58:29Pat McAfee:You should relax that thing. Let those things kind of cook in there, you know, direct the air through there, you know, and then kind of let it eat. But to be clear, I thought for sure just going to be showing up. Let's play these songs, okay? Have a good time. Turns out that's not the case at all. So we're going to have to punt that to later in the fall, maybe spring. As you pointed out, probably not possible. But I do think there will be time for me to get down to Nashville. during the football season. Go through it with Doug. And I think if I get down to Nashville, then I'm able to do it. So in my mind, rehearsal slash practice slash sound check potentially doesn't happen.

1:59:00Pat McAfee:Sound check has to happen at the place. Rehearsal and practice happens at some point, then show later down the road. So in my head, I have to get down to Nashville at some point as opposed to them all coming up here, have hotel rooms. Sure. Hey, if anybody can do it, you can do it. Good luck, brother. Godspeed. football season. Countdown, game day. Come on. Rehearsal? Rehearsal? You got to do that. I'm like very excited. I had this wave of excitement that hit me last night while I was laying in my bed. I was like, man, we are literally just a couple days away from being in a full college game day.

1:59:38Pat McAfee:Buzzsaw down there in Baton Rouge. Anybody that comes out and hangs with us on Saturday morning, obviously we appreciate you. I think there's some sort of tropical storm potentially in the area down there. There's three out in the Pacific. So watch the total for the Hawaii game on Saturday night. There's three hurricanes going on in the Pacific. That's awesome. And then there's one in Texas, I believe, hovering around right now as well. I don't know if it's going down the bayou or not, but maybe some residual. Maybe some residual rainfall. I know there is obviously. We're fully in El Nino right now.

2:00:07What's that mean? I don't know exactly, but I know we're in it.

2:00:10Pat McAfee:I thought El Nino was the name of a hurricane. El Nino is the name of a weather system. Okay, so we're currently in El Nino right now, which is potentially hurricane season? Hurricane season is now, yes. So is El Nino weather system saying it's hurricane season? El Nino is a weather system that will also go into the winter and produce snowstorms and stuff like that, I believe, as well. I think I'm right, but I could also be wrong. El Nino is a climate pattern that causes unusual warming of surface waters in the central and eastern Pacific. What happens during El Nino? Well, that's a good question.

2:00:40Pat McAfee:Weakened winds. Trade winds blow weaker than normal from east to west. Warm water shift. Now, this is the one. Warm water sloshes towards the coast of South America instead of pooling near Indonesia, which has global weather changing implications. Shifts in heat and atmospheric pressure disrupt normal weather systems worldwide. So I think you nailed it. Pretty close. Who's our weather guy this year? Cantore. Every year. Is Cantore still? I wonder. The guy that had the thing that was melting in the back window? Yeah. Got his name. Jim? Storm chaser, the guy. Cantore always. Jim just celebrated four years.

2:01:13Yeah. It's been 30 years.

2:01:15Pat McAfee:Oh, Adam with the... Yeah. Oh, that fucking guy? No. No, he's a good guy. Yeah, but no. What's wrong with him? It's Cantore. This is football season, boys. We can't be messing around with the weather, guys. Thank you. All right. Jim Cantore. In Arena League. I saw Max Velocity still doing it. That was something to say. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking Max Velocity. I'm those guys. No. Any of those YouTube streaming weather people, no chance I'm listening. Hit the fucking road. What are you talking about? No, they're all lying, and they're scaring everyone, and they're all like tornadoes are coming.

2:01:47Pat McAfee:Welcome to weather, bro. The news has been doing this forever. Hey, hunker Don. Actually, go to the grocery store first. Then hunker Don. For about two weeks, the worst insert name of some sort of weather is on the way, and then it doesn't. And then it's like the boy who cried wolf, because at some point they do say, hey. They got it right this year. It's actually coming, and it does come. So it's not just like the YouTube influencing weather people are. Those guys are the worst. Tantori don't miss. Illinois set a record for tornadoes this summer, and they were on top of all of it. And the rain here in the Midwest, I think they were on top.

2:02:21Pat McAfee:And the snowstorm. I'm not saying they're Joe DiNardo, bro. Nobody's. They're not Joe DiNardo. He's just got PTSD from his two-week go. Al fucking Roker. Whatever fake tires going around. Al Roker. I think if we all talk on top of each other, we'll hear everything. You didn't know that? No, I didn't know. I think that's good. I think if everybody just talks at the same time, we'll get it all accomplished. You talking about when Al Roker shit his pants? No, Al Roker got it right is what happened. And maybe he did poop his pants. I'm not 100 % sure, but. I didn't see that. Al Roker can do it all.

2:02:52Pat McAfee:He can read the weather. He can obviously read a Doppler. He can walk a parade. He can do it all. He's a host. He's an interviewer. Yeah, he's great. Al Roker's a goat in the world. Yeah, a dog. Yeah. Al Roker's still alive. He would celebrate those people that are like 100 years old. Smuckers. Is that the real Al Roker? Remember that being a kid? Still. He lost a lot of weight. What do you mean? I remember I saw him on TV one time. One time? He lost a lot of weight. He just froze for like two minutes. That happens. Every once in a while. Al Roker? Rebooted. Happens to me all the time. Yeah, unless I'm getting them confused.

2:03:22Al Roker's black, right? Yeah. Bald. Yeah. Glasses.

2:03:26Pat McAfee:He's lost a lot of weight. That's Al. So a lot of people. What's that? there's there's many people that are like holy smokes you see them 10 15 years ago and they're 220 pounds heavier than they are now oh you're saying you're saying they've gotten fatter we're saying they were fatter and they've gotten smaller sometimes you forget that people were much bigger oh yeah i guess when you see photos from the past first maybe now like oh i forgot i forgot there's there's a whole another person with them back then yeah literally bigger person And then you tell them, like, you look good, you know? And then somebody comes in and talks to you and you go, it looks fucking weird.

2:04:02Pat McAfee:It's like, whoa. They worked their ass off on this. It's like, yeah, but that's not. Well, no, that's the thing. There are some guys looking weird. You got to work, too. If you just lose a bunch of weight and you're not working, then you do look weird. You got to lift some weights. Yeah, because then you become bag of leaves. Yeah. Yeah. You don't want to be looking like a bag of leaves. It's certainly possible in this modern day and age. Yeah, unless you're a big orange bag of leaves and you got a jack-o'-lantern. Based on him. That's nice. Oh, you're talking about because we're in a spooky season?

2:04:29Pat McAfee:Yeah. Well, no, close. We're close. We are. We're getting there. It's a little too fucking hot outside. Yeah, I guess there is a heat warning here in Indianapolis for the rest of the week. Obviously, tropical storms coming through. That means heat down there. South Florida, you know more about hurricanes than us. Are you guys in hurricane season? Yeah. It hasn't been a rough one yet, but as we get into the fall, that's when they start to. Because I was usually away for football, you know, at post-high school. and then you have to see it on the news and feel like a fucking asshole because you can't help.

2:04:58Pat McAfee:Is that post, is it beginning of football season? Throughout, kind of, yeah. That's scary stuff because that's a lot of bully who cried wolf type stuff, right? A whole lot of it. And then you have like, you know, certain ones that actually show up, you know, maybe category three, then it turns into a four, then it hits like a five. And then you have some that are out in the water that say, oh, by the time it hits land, it'll be the worst since whenever. And then, you know, it'll knock over a couple of chairs. But that's what you have for your old people, your grandparents who like 80 years old you're like hey yeah i should have been i ain't fucking leaving i ain't going to i'll be all right so it's it's scary though especially when you're not like i said boots on the ground you got to watch it on tv with everybody else but um it's always a wild time mother nature you know crazy it's crazy mother nature is a crazy crazy lady i mean beautiful obviously i love when that sun comes out i love a nice 72 degree day 69, maybe 69 to 72 in that window.

2:05:53Pat McAfee:Light breeze. Suns. It's starting to change. Oh. Did we just all went there, right? Oh, yeah. Yep. I live there constantly. Close. Do you really? That's incredible. In my brain. That's good, man. That's why the Midwest is. That's the best thing about the Midwest, for sure, the fall. Agreed. Spring I like as well, but spring has kind of become summer. Fall now feeling like summer as well. I do wonder if we're just going to power through these transition seasons. Get a week or so around Halloween. How do we power rank the seasons? So if spring was actually spring, I would go spring first. I was born then.

2:06:26Pat McAfee:And also the weather, I think, is good. It's like 74, 75, supposed to be. You know, under 80, I think, is what spring is supposed to be. But spring, as of late, has just been winter and then 100 degrees. I agree. And then winter and then 100 degrees. And then winter and then 100 degrees. And then we're in summer for the entire time. So I think I'm kind of out on what spring is. Fall still has it a little bit. So your spring, fall, summer, winter? Yeah. There's a place for each of them. Each of them has a time. Because we live in Indiana, winter definitely drops a good bit because there's nothing to do.

2:07:03There's no skiing or snowboarding here in Indiana in the winter. Winter's still sweet, though. I don't like the winter. I agree. Do you have stuff to do over there? I mean, yeah, go out in the yard and throw snowballs and roll around on the hill and do that. I've never skied. It's not my thing. I got to side-by-side, pull my kids around in that.

2:07:20Pat McAfee:That's a good little game, play in the winter. Yeah, I think I'm fall or spring. If spring was supposed to be – if spring was spring, I would have spring at one. Spring doesn't have ball, though. Yeah, I agree, but it did have the best weather. Spring and college was the best. By far. And it had like Southern California weather for like a month and a half. It was like perfect. It's not like that anymore. Fall feels more like spring. October might be the best. Yeah, I like Halloween. I like heading into Thanksgiving, Christmas. Yeah, I think fall is number one for me. Same. Fall, spring. Just because it's football, obviously, so football wins.

2:07:56Pat McAfee:But if we're talking strictly weather-based, I think fall still. Those crispy evenings, golfing, leaves. You guys got a big fantasy dream. You didn't get that growing up, D-Bot. You realized how cool fall was. Summer, summer, summer, summer. Growing up. Spring. Summer. Hot, hot, hot. Hotter. hotter hotter hottest holy shit nobody go outside it's too hot back to hotter hot hot hot hot shout south florida living baby but it doesn't snow that much winter's great too i like winter yeah because i run hot so i'd rather it you know be very cold but you don't see the sun throughout winter so that kind of bums me out a little bit i like snow i don't like freezing bitter cold but i like snow i like seeing snow i'm okay with that snow feels warmer when it's when it's cold and it's snowing it feels warmer very much when it's cold and not snowing yeah ass that's because there's no sun normally windy uh if it's rain sleet shit oh cold rain is the worst yeah i think so especially because that thing's probably gonna freeze yep you know and everybody's gonna be we had some nasty ice didn't we this past one i remember we had a huge black ice polar vortex we had polar vortex come through i think this past one el nino normally indicates warm winter from our understanding of what the internet's telling us.

2:09:16What's the Farmer's Almanac tell you?

2:09:18Pat McAfee:That's a good call, because that thing was predicting the future, right? That's what people claim, yeah. Who writes it? Michael J. Fox, maybe, I think, right? He did, yeah. Yes, you are right. Him and the professor. That's what that movie, Pressure, is kind of about. The World War II, how they figured out Normandy. Precious? I don't know that. Precious? Gabrielle Cittadife? I met her multiple times. Let her know I was a huge fan. That was a big deal. I got a selfie with her, two of them, and I feel very proud of that. Nobody's going to talk about it, but I'm a huge fan of hers. And, uh.

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2:10:57Pat McAfee:We got a live look at Ben Shelton right now at US Open. Taking on Hubert Kieches, a Polish lad who's 2-9 in career majors. Shelton up 6-3 in the first set. 3-3 now. Battling a little bit. Break point. Oh, I like that. He put a little backspin on it. Herc has had no shot there. Advidot, Ben Shelton. He's on the return. Mick Jagger. What's that? That Mick Jagger right there? I think it's probably Hunter's coach, maybe. Yeah, it looked like a coach. But it might be Mick Jagger as well. I thought you were right. Mick Jagger still has it. Hunter obviously understands that this is very important right now.

2:11:33Pat McAfee:Advidot could turn 4-3, could swing the entire – oh, what a serve. 138 mile an hour painting the corners. D-Bot, how much do you know about tennis and the ins and outs? Oh, not much at all. My sister used to date a guy who was big in junior tennis. And, you know, as an athlete, you think, oh, I can get out there and I can do anything, especially tennis. I couldn't – I mean, I couldn't even get close to touching or returning to serve, which I thought I could do. This kid was 140 pounds maybe. So, yeah, I have a huge level of respect for them, but I know nothing about the actual game. Love Coco as a neighbor.

2:12:07Love Serena, obviously, growing up. Federer, Nadal, Joker, all those guys. But I like watching. It's cool. That's a good point.

2:12:14Pat McAfee:This is a great rally right here. Yeah, I got. Yeah, a little backspin, a little ping pong, a little shoot that thing across the table there. What a play by Ben Shelton as the crowd gets a chance to celebrate the hell out of the American boy taking Advidot over Hunter Horkas. This is a great shot that ESPN has been using for their replays. Feels like you're actually in the game against Ben Shelton. I wish they had one on the other side, and they had the ability for us to just kind of have a split screen with both of them as if we're behind them like a video game. What a shot by Ben Shelton. Useful cut shot, little cut shot.

2:12:46Pat McAfee:A little side spin on it. A little dropper maybe. I'm not 100 % sure. Now, he did fault on the first serve here, so the second serve should be much easier for Ben to kind of handle. That's why the first serve not going in is a big deal because it's a layup probably. Oh, actually, it's a double fall to lose it. That's the good. That's why the first serve is such a big deal because they're going for it there. Broke them. That's it. Once you have one. Congratulations, Ben Shelton. Good win, Ben. Guy double-faulted to walk his ass out of the US Open. That's what Ben Shelton's doing to people. All right, scoring real quick.

2:13:18Tennis 101. Like, what's the score? How many sets?

2:13:21Pat McAfee:15, 30, 40, win. So, okay. 15, 30, 40, win. But then you got the deuce and all that. You got to go into it. If it ties at 40, then it goes to extra. Deuce. Advedad is advantage or up one trying to get the two of them. Isn't Bruce our tennis guy? Yeah. What's love? Love is zero. So it's 15 love, 30 love, 40 love. 40-40 is deuce. And then you go add in means the guy serving has the advantage. And add out means that the return player, Ben Shelton, in that instance has the advantage. That was a massive break for Ben Shelton. He's going to win that match. And you've got to go two in a row whenever it gets the deuce.

2:13:59And break is when you win a game when the opponent is – Guys have got to win three sets. Girls have got to win two. You want to win every game that you serve. And then if you can win a game in the return, that's where you really take control of the set and then the match.

2:14:14Pat McAfee:Different rules, men and women? Yeah, three and two, I believe, is what AJ just said. Yeah, best of five, best of three. Oh, I didn't know that. It's win by two in the sets, right? So if it's like 6-5, you've got to get to 7. Yep. Yep, and then 6-6, tiebreaker. And then the tiebreaker rules vary from tournament to tournament, I've found. I'm kind of fucking confused with the tiebreaker. And when I was playing growing up, you'd go to like a random away game, and it's like, what are we playing for the tiebreaker? Are we going to 7? Are we going to 11? Nobody ever fucking knows. Okay, tell me this.

2:14:44Pat McAfee:Tennis, we talked a little bit about this beforehand. The people growing up, tennis in general, country club sport, right, just happens to be the most athletic kid at the country club normally dominates tennis because he can't do that in golf against everybody else so where i grew up in connecticut and on long island there are a lot of clubs that are just pool tennis and then there are super nice country clubs that are golf pool tennis and those are usually nicer pools nicer tennis but also have a golf course My club was a swim pool, a big field where we played baseball, wiffball and shit, and then clay tennis courts.

2:15:23So it was just pool, playing water polo, swimming, and then go over and play tennis. Yeah, I – Is it a country club or is it a public situation? That would be a swimming tennis club. It was a private club, but, like, you know, it wasn't, like, hoity-toity.

2:15:38Pat McAfee:No, you just signed up to utilize the facilities. It was like my mom would drop me off at 8 a.m. and pick me up at 4 in the summer, and that was like school replacement. Got it. That's camp. And you were good. You played water polo and you played tennis because it was there and it was available and you were good at it. Yeah, I did it all. I would like to let you know that you should have maybe got into basketball a little bit more. Hey, Bruce's been knocking down shots out of you. Lefty and righty. Sneaky hot. NBA threes. Lefty, like kind of cross face, and then just floater right hands. He's been knocking them.

2:16:09Pat McAfee:It's been outrageous to watch, but Bruce has kind of found an NBA three-point shot amongst the Game of Seven returning. It's been fun to watch, Bruce. Yeah, it'll disappear completely. I'm the worst kind of ambidextrous where you're not really good with either one, but you're somehow capable of doing a lot of stuff with both. I like that. That's not the worst kind. Yeah, because the worst kind can't do shit with either. Yeah, you got neither. That's an – That's D-bone. Yeah, exactly. That is no dextrous. That's who? D-bone was the national champion. No, I didn't say that. Yeah. He was a smaller ball yesterday.

2:16:41He can shoot a bit too, actually. Yeah, he's always competitive in seven.

2:16:44Pat McAfee:Yeah, good shooter. He's got really good form. He watched like J.J. Reddick's tape and said, I'm going to shoot like that guy because he's doing that. Does he really? Yeah, he's got really good form. Yeah, with Juergens. He did potentially lotion himself down whenever that was happening. So he has to step right into a shot. We talked about this. So I think like actual basketball could be tough for him, but he has to step into every single shot. And game point yesterday in seven, he was still in it, and he actually decided to go behind elephant, step back, three to shoot, had to make it. Low IQ play.

2:17:17Pat McAfee:Was nowhere. Play or? Decision. Player. Shot. Okay. Low IQ player. In and out. Step behind the one defender on the court. And fade away. Not the side that's shorter, NBA three, from the point, which I think is the furthest three-point shot that you can. Why would he choose that? We don't know. We still don't know. And he said, I just wanted to be natural. I just didn't want to think about the moment. And it's like, all right, we appreciate that. And I like that he was locked in seemingly, but he lost yesterday. A couple big-time games. Obviously, basketball has helped carry us through this offseason.

2:17:49Pat McAfee:Look at tennis. We got into tennis today. Tennis. Yeah. We did tennis. Golf simulator carried you through like an hour or two. Not even. Hour? What did he say? That was a magic trick. A shot? Two shots? How fast that thing got out of here. One shot. Don't miss your chance to blow. It was a good shot, though, man. You biked it. opportunity comes once in this Thunderdome, you know, and it did. But with that thing still around, just doesn't get property on the court if you're not going to work. Yeah, right. That is not how... From my understanding, that thing was going to fucking shoot a golf ball up to be on the tee, and it was just going to boom.

2:18:31Pat McAfee:Another one. Boom. I was going to be able to hit 100 balls maybe 10 minutes because they were just going to be loading them up for me. Like a bowling alley, that thing's going to get your balls, kind of put them back in there, and it's like, wow, this is the future. This is how I'm going to get good at golf. This is what it's going to be. And they say it works, because the worst thing about golf seminars is they never fucking work. I don't know how it happens. That was the best shot I've ever hit. That might have been a 330-yard drive. Too good. You hit it too hard. That's what they said. Frozen.

2:19:00Sleeping, man. It wasn't up.

2:19:02Pat McAfee:It was up. It was up. It was on. I saw it. Fucking had its eyes open if it was sleeping. I see you in that day. He was up and at him. Golf will have to be another day. Shout out to Kevin Hart. He's only going to get better. Love what he did. 132. Only up for me. Hour and 12 minute video. Him playing golf. Over a million views. He shot a 132. I like that he's respecting golf that much. I like that he's going to stick with it. And I'm excited to see his growth. Golf does not necessarily mean you're going to get better if you play more, though. Like, that is part of the problem with the sport. You can actually get worse if you practice.

2:19:33Pat McAfee:That happened to me. I had to hang up with clubs for a while. I was almost back. I'm potentially thinking about it. But, A.J., the ability you have on a golf course should not be understated. And that's why, alongside your football capabilities, your basketball capabilities, your fathering capabilities, you were named president of Ohio. You have one final opportunity here to talk about that Washington Post article yesterday. First off, I have not read the Washington Post article. You probably have to pay or subscribe to it, I would assume, if you click on the link. I did read certain things about it.

2:20:03But you know what? I'm not hearing anything about it other than you guys. Take the one shot out of here. We get it. We understand. But we know that you guys are the only people keeping this thing alive. I don't hear anyone talking about it.

2:20:14Pat McAfee:Okay. We're not keeping it alive. We're just trying to do a little journalism. You're president of Ohio. We'll have the other president on, Herbie. I'm going to ask him on game day. Maybe you're issued. Yeah, you should. I'm going to ask him on game day. We're going to talk about the Big Ten. I'm going to say, I think there's some international assistance potentially happening for one of these teams here. Wow. Who? You. Washington Post told me China's in Ohio State, basically, just kind of watching film for Ryan Day. Is that what they said? That's his problem. He's listening and putting his ear to the ground in English.

2:20:47It's in Mandarin, brother. You've got to change your settings.

2:20:50Pat McAfee:She, she, me. You do got to change your settings. And they've got apps for that. Just something to think about. Washington Post saying not good. But, hey, we'll continue to be fans of the Ohio State Buckeyes because of how great they've been to us, how great they are for ball, and they produce you. So we obviously have to like that. Before we get out of here, we've got to celebrate the President's Cup roster, United States. Let's go, team. Come on now, boys. Come on, boys. Need you here. Obviously, top-ranked Americans make the team. Scotty Scheffler, Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns, Russell Henley, Colin Morikawa, the stars of the playoffs and of the PGA Tour.

2:21:20Pat McAfee:They make the team. Who are the captains' picks? Good question. How about Jacob Bridgman, Patrick Cantley, Chris Goddrop, incredible video on social media, Xander Shoffley, Justin Thomas, and the lad, the Auburn War Eagle, man. Jackson Coivin makes the squad. These guys are going to be very pumped to play for America. Oh, yes. If Chris Goddorup's video tells us anything, it's like the lads are very excited to represent our country, and obviously after getting our asses beat in the Ryder Cup, we need to make it 12 straight President's Cups. They got a good team, though. Now, granted, there's some people saying out of the top 18 ranked players in the President's Cup, only two of them reside for the other team.

2:22:03Pat McAfee:Okay. Okay? Now, they got a Canadian on their team. I didn't know that was a part of this. I didn't know Canada got a chance to sign up for this. Two Canadians. I knew this was Asia. I knew it was Australia, New Zealand. I knew that entire stuff. I did not know that Canada was also trying to get us. So, once again, boys, let's keep the Chris Goddard spirit up. Let's make sure we're representing for the country, and we cannot fucking lose. Cannot. Okay? Cannot lose. Not an option. They got a good team. to Ryan Fox. He said he just wants to get out there and base on it. That's all he wants to do.

2:22:38Pat McAfee:Minwoo Lee, unbelievable. He'll do it. Adam Scott, no problem. Hideki Matsuyama, yeah. He's a winner. Siwoo Kim. Those were the two. Yeah. We got problems, potentially, if we don't come out with our best and we need to play our best so we have the best President's Cup yet. Let's get the hell out of here. Be your friend. Tell your friend something nice. Might change your life. D-Buck, good work this week. Good work, brother. Whenever you come back, guess what we got? Football. NFL week. True. AJ, you're the man. We'll see you tomorrow. Thank you for allowing us to do this for a living. It is because of all of you that we get to live the dumbest and great life that we do.

2:23:17Pat McAfee:Thank you, thank you, thank you. Football season is here. Let's enjoy the hell out of this season. And let's be assets to society, which is all we're trying to be. Hell yeah. Literally all we're trying to be. Not asses. It's very close. You know, the line between hero and villain is pretty close. I've been saying that a lot lately. And the word asses in ass sets, very close. Let's not be asses. Let's be ass sets. 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. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye.

2:23:52You want to impress them on a first date, but also play it cool.

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