PMS 2.0 1619 - NFL Kickoff Eve, Ian Rapoport, Miami Head Coach Mario Cristobal, Taylor McGregor, SMU Head Coach Rhett Lashlee, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

17:10Pat McAfee:Okay, so that's Marco Bolli in there. Now, Marco Bolli – Did he tell you about us hanging out at the bar at Sharky's in Latrobe? We had a nice time. Oh, Sharky's. We've been to Sharky's, too. We had a good little time at Sharky's as well. What time were you in Koboli in there? Because we got there. There was nobody there. The place was closed. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, we were in probably – I would say 7 to like 9.30 prime time. There were some wings going on. Korean wings, really good. They did a nice job there. Had some weird pizza. It was great. The pizza was fantastic. Weird pizza? What do you mean weird pizza?

17:41Phenomenal. Well, it was like pierogi pizza, which is like a thing in Pittsburgh, but that was like strange to me. but it was good. Caboli style. What are you talking about? Was there pierogies on top of it? Pierogies on top of the pizza. Like as a topping.

17:53Pat McAfee:Oh, that's got to be delicious. Was it red sauce? I don't think I've ever had that. But I wish I did. Not really red. I would say more white sauce. You talk about weird pizza. I've never even got to experience this, and I'm actually bummed out. Yeah, I'll boo-hoo. I assume there was a time where maybe we were a little faded and lit at the same time, and we maybe took a pierogi, tossed it on top of a piece of pizza. Maybe a chicken nugget in there as well. I assume that's how this happened. Get some nacho cheese. And what are you laughing about? That's a good idea. It sounds disgusting. I assume that's how it is.

18:23Pat McAfee:Disgusting? How? Gross. What? Like that stupid sandwich you guys had stacked behind us in the draft. Stupid. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. Okay. Yeah, okay. You're talking about having a little coleslaw and fries on top. Show people what a pierogi is and just give people a visual. A pierogi is an incredible treat. What are you talking about? That's a little bit of a wrapping with an incredible filling inside, and then you can go ahead and you can crisp the outside. Oh, my gosh.

18:50Darius Butler:It's a whole Polish version of a wonton.

18:52Pat McAfee:Yeah. What are you talking about? This is right here. He is a pierogi. The potato and cheese is on the inside. So you've got to really trust the person that makes the pierogi that they're telling you the truth on what's on the inside. What's the background? Is this Italian? Polish. Polish. Polish dumpling. You need to go down to Rosie's Pierogi's down there. Because it's easy to make. Yeah, I like these on a different plate, just like that, and then you have your pizza on another plate. Yeah, but if you just were to happen, because it's going to come together at some point anyways inside of you, so if you kind of put them together, you know, you can really get a good, you know.

19:22Pat McAfee:So, anyways, yeah, Western Pennsylvania has an incredible delicacy of food, just a wide array of things that taste delicious. And, yeah, maybe when you're boozed up, they taste a little bit better, okay? And maybe you're on a rush because you've got to get back to work. You do put everything on this sandwich. Okay. Okay? Now, speaking of work, there's a man doing work in Denver for a long time who has found his name at the bottom of the list for how much corners are getting paid, and he is at the top of the list whenever people talk about who's the best in the game. D-Bud has a follow-up on the ripple effects here.

19:53Absolutely, Rapture. I love talking about cornerbacks getting paid. Stingley, J.C. Horn, Denzel Ward, all these guys have gotten their money now. Like Pat just said, Pat Sertain out in Denver, now he's the ninth highest-paid corner. You think he'd get a new deal done or a little pay bump here before the season starts? Or what do you think? You know, it's a lot of money over there in that ownership group. So he did get a little, he did get a pay bump this year. Another one. This came in the spring, I believe. I'd have to, I forget what it actually was. I think I was the one who tweeted it, actually.

20:24But did get a little bit of a pay bump. But, you know, it's crazy because two years ago, whenever his deal got done, he was the highest paid by a bunch. And then the corner market, and I believe it was Stingley that kind of, first it was Horn, and then it was Stingley kind of sent it into the stratosphere. And now the corner market, which like was stagnant forever, has like taken off. And so, yeah, I mean, you know, is Sertan, like, is he number one? Is it Gonzalez? Like, that's a tough, that's sort of a different argument. I don't know. But all of these guys deserve all the money. And, like, if it's not next year, first or ten, it'll probably be the year after.

21:01Like, these guys have just started earning and earning and earning for each other. And it's like, you know, what do they say?

21:07Pat McAfee:Rising tides lifts all shit. Rising tides. There you go. Same page right there. Yeah, same page. Yeah, it's a good cliche because it ends up being true. What were you going to say? You guys just finishing each other's sets? Yeah. It's nice. Hey, were you born naked? Yeah. Me too, man. It's crazy how much we're learning about each other here. Kind of on the same page. All right, Rap, let's get to the bottom of some really, really serious questions as we head into week one of the NFL season. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Rap, so we've heard that, you know, Bosa's going to play and then some other guys, Puka's going to play, but we have a graphic of a bunch of other, you know, kind of stars in the NFL who it's still up in the air on whether they're going to play this weekend.

21:47Could you just kind of go down the list here when this gets popped up and just kind of let us know what you know about whether or not these guys are good to go for Sunday? Okay, Pierce I would say playing Jeremiah Love, it says playing there I would say, yeah, that's probably right Hiddle seems to have done really well in practice You know, that's one you want to be absolutely sure Just because it's such a long season The rehab is so quick But a lot of optimism there We'll see where that ends up going Gentie, I would say that's probably right Cautious optimism sounds good But if it's not week one, it'll probably be week two.

22:29Dunze, I believe, is okay, but I'd like more information there. Neighbors is tracking to play. That's a good one. And, like, you know, that's been – he's been practicing for a month. No PUP, like, has done really, really, really well. You want to see him out there, but I think that's heading in the right direction. Bost is playing. Porter Jr. sure seems like it. But, you know, let's see on that one because he hasn't practiced a lot.

22:56Pat McAfee:Whoa, so you're saying Cabols might be a little bit off. You guys are having pierogi pizzas together one week and then the next week you're saying not so fast, Cabols. You just want to make sure when a guy hasn't practiced, it's a great way to get injured early. Like you want to make sure that everything is right. So I don't know 100 % sure that he's playing. Trevion, I think that's probably right. Eamon Worry has had a good week of practice this week. Seems early to play, but we'll see on that. I think that's probably right, but we'll see on that one as well. Okay, so these are all projected in the moment.

23:31Pat McAfee:We should add that to the graphic. This is what we know of. This is not the actual... Can change. Yes. Statuses are subject to change. Bingo. We should add that to this particular graphic because we had it on the full screen there. People walking through airport just looking up there. Oh, he's out. Oh, okay. It's like, well, we got to really clarify. Yeah, we've got to clarify some things on these particular graphics. This is where we stand right now if we're reading the tea leaves, is what we're trying to say about everything. George Kittle, I just don't see how he would fly to Australia to not play.

24:00Pat McAfee:That is just something that I feel like is – go ahead, you maybe. You got a little bit of a face there, Rat? Oh, no. I mean, first of all, I would say you're right. He's definitely got a chance. It is just – it's crazy because when he gets injured, I'm immediately thinking like October. That's how long these things heal. And then I'm there at training camp at Santa Clara and I'm watching him go through his workout. Not in a weird way, I'm just kind of watching. And he looked so... It wasn't weird until you said that. Hold on. No, I mean, I was just like, watching a guy run around is kind of strange.

24:35That's football, dude.

24:37Pat McAfee:We watch football all the time, bro. This is just like, I saw somebody on the internet call somebody a terrible name for leading their team out on the field. And they're the head coach of the team. Excuse me. You know, you don't need to say, like, something's weak. It's your job. Like, you're supposed to be watching people run around. You made a weird draft. Just really quick. Why'd you do that to all of us now? You know, because now we all have to kind of think like that. Listen, you're projecting your own feelings upon me. No, that's what you did whenever you said on a weird way. Yeah, and we're battling them back.

25:11Pat McAfee:Yeah, so hold on one second, though. You guys are really battling over there. Nobody's battling more than Tone right now. Tone just had a code red. Tone just got up and left. He's going to be out. Yeah, maybe. We might need to add him to that. Update the board. Yeah, something's up there. Yeah, certainly with some question marks. Who did you say that to one time that wasn't in football and said, that sounds weird, and now you have to feel like you clarify that. Welcome back, Tone. Good work, Tone. Tony in his brand new Unreal Eggnog hoodie. We appreciate the ones that they have sent over here for all of us.

25:45Pat McAfee:It is very kind of them. Happy you survived. We don't know what happened, but we're happy you are back. He was in the middle of saying something, and he said, I went and watched George Kittle workout, not in a weird way. It's like, why do you have to clarify? Why would it be weird? Is there sometimes he watches workouts where it is weird? Like, that's what you missed. That's literally what we've been talking about right now this entire time. Like if he was staying behind a pole? Oh, like head around a corner. Yeah. That would be weird. Is that what you were doing? Yeah, where were your hands? Have you ever done that before?

26:15I was doing it in a non-weird way. Yeah, where were your hands?

26:18Darius Butler:Where were your hands when you were watching? Play pocket pool while you were watching? That would be weird.

26:24Pat McAfee:That is weird. These are the things that now we have to wonder. So you watch George Kittle workout in a football insider way. speaking on a show as a football insider about somebody's injury. Are you a sicko? Yeah, what's going on? No, I'm not. So at one point did somebody say you're looking in a weird way and now you're like, wow, I got to make sure I don't look in weird ways at stuff. What coach was that? Was that a coach or was that a player? Peyton would have definitely said. I don't like the way you're looking at me. Yeah. Kind of a little weird. That's probably right. What was he wearing?

26:55When I was watching him, I was literally blown away by how good he looked, how fast he looked, all of that. And I was like, this guy actually has a chance. So practice has gone really good. Even if he's on a little bit of a pitch count, just having him out there, that's a huge win. So we'll see on the official status, but very, very optimistic there.

27:19Pat McAfee:And he's super jacked and super tough. Yeah, he's all sweaty. Cool hair. Hair looks really good. I didn't notice any of that. Okay. All right, I'm sure you didn't wrap. Thinking about him in the cold tub afterwards. Well, I heard it. I wanted to go see if he was actually telling the truth. He told me he was going to be in the hot tub and cold tub. I didn't see it with my own eyes, disappointingly. I tried to. But I definitely was asking for the creds to be able to get in there. Rap, just do your job, all right? If you ever want to get that SR title, you're going to just have to do your job. Stop being a pervert.

27:50Pat McAfee:All right, we don't need all the shenanigans. Long way to go. Long way to go. Yeah. I'm happy. Okay, here we go. We've added the question mark. Star status. Okay. Oh, great. Okay, now we'll clarify that. And at the bottom, status is subject to change. Boom. Boom. Okay, perfect. We nailed it there. We absolutely nailed it there. All right. We'll continue to do that as we go forward as a, you know, as a tribute to sports as a whole. Mm-hmm. You know, because stories do change. Yep. And things do, you get more information as the days roll on.

28:23Joey Porter's got to get out there.

28:25Pat McAfee:That says statuses, doesn't it? Star status. No, but at the bottom. Status. Status. You had ES on that, you think? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think so, too. Yeah. Yeah, Bruce back there with his. Oh, of course. Where'd you go to school, Bruce? Pots for ES. Where'd you go to school, Bruce? I went to Fordham University in the Bronx. Go Rams. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go Rams. There you go. Got a Fordham brain back there, though. Mm-hmm. And I think he thought it was status. Is this his? He thought it was M-I-S-S-I-S-S. Status. Instead of. Actually, both are correct now. So Fordham brain and pit brain back there have actually said.

28:55Pat McAfee:The back room was actually right, too. Let's not get it wrong, and I respect and appreciate that. We know both languages. Okay, let's continue to talk. Your statuses are subject to change, as are opinions about things. You're allowed to evolve your opinions on stuff. Always. As more information comes out, which is obviously life as a whole. Question for you about some injuries. Go ahead, Conman. Yeah, right. She's a guy that's definitely out. Tyler Smith, all pro guard for the Dallas Cowboys. What happened? He broke his thumb. Now it's four to six weeks. He has to get surgery. Was this a practice injury?

29:22Was this last preseason game? How did this come to be? and should we think that he's going to be back earlier than later because he's a mean, tough cuss? Yeah, I mean, I would say as far as the timeline, I mean, four to six is probably right, but he's got to grab. And, like, this is a big, tough dude in the trenches. Like, four would be amazing. I mean, that seems awfully quick. It's also like Cowboys are tracking to be, I think, really good maybe, and this is a guy they're going to want to round the whole season as long as possible. So, you know, six is around my guess. If he beats that, I think that would be awesome.

29:59It was bothering him for a little bit, and I think tried to play through it, tried to practice through it, just because you have to grab so much, couldn't do it. So have surgery now, fix it. Sounds like TJ Bass is going to fill in, has done fine, more than fine. And, like, Cowboys get to build a little depth, and Tyler Smith will probably be back, let's say, around midseason.

30:20Pat McAfee:All right, Rap, we appreciate you. Did we miss anything? Didn't talk about Aaron Donald. I saw a press conference. Everything we've said. Yeah. Everything we've said. I think he's going to dominate. He's going. I think he's very confident with where he's at. He said he thought 11 on 11 was going to be a little bit harder, I think, is what he thought. He said a couple plays got a little bit, and then it was like right back into it. And it's like, yeah, he just basically took a two-year break, bro. He did some, what do they call it in basketball? When you rest. A little bit. Oh, yeah, yeah. He did a two-year load management after a 10-year career.

30:58Pat McAfee:Did a 10-year career. Let's do some load management. And let's reboot for the second chapter. I think he's going to be Aaron Donald immediately. Do you think pitch count? I don't know. I guess that would be good for rap there. I mean, I would like to know for sure, for sure, that he's going to be out there first. It's just like. We don't know if he's playing yet. Is that real? I guess they haven't taken him off. No one has said it. We'll see. No one has said it. We'll see. Did you see his press conference yesterday? I did. I mean, he is amazing. It's like the problem. It's like these guys are so unbelievable that if he took two years off, practiced for one week, and then played, you'd be like, oh, that's Aaron Donald.

31:36Yeah, but he hasn't practiced for one week.

31:38Pat McAfee:He's been practicing for like three months right now. It's the first ever game over there in Australia, and you're telling me arguably the greatest defensive player ever is going to be like, no, I don't want to do that. Well, I do appreciate the fact, though, that none of these teams have to say anything about anybody until they have to put the report out, right? Nobody has to say it. It's like the first time they can actually do this. So is Kittle playing? Nobody, like you and Schefter are both like, nobody has said that. Nobody has said that Kittle is playing. And it's like, but we can assume.

32:05Pat McAfee:It's like, no, we can't assume actually because we're robots. So the only way we can do that is if somebody tells us that that is happening. And it's like, Aaron Donald, he's playing? No, nobody has said that. Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Nobody has said that. It's like, isn't it pretty obvious? It would be obvious if somebody told me they were playing. It would be more obvious, obviously. Shanahan's saying there's future in time, so he doesn't have to say it until a day after the Rams. I love that. Because we're playing on a Wednesday, but it's actually a Thursday. We're playing on a Thursday, but it's actually a Friday.

32:35Pat McAfee:So for us, Wednesday is actually a Monday. So, yeah, we're kind of all in there, and I'll get you guys a report. I was trying to think about when the injury report was going to come out, and I was like, yeah, I'm just going to give up. I have no idea. Well, you better be up late, because sometimes those deals get done, Like the one last night with Gonzo. We appreciate the hell out of you, Rap. Ladies and gentlemen, that's Ian Rapoport. Yeah, Rap. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is the head coach of an undefeated football team. And boy, did they put it on him. Yeah, they did. Oh, man.

33:04Pat McAfee:Oh, man. Last year, they went to the national championship. Okay? Everybody wondered, are they going to be able to continue to build on that? They bring in a quarterback? I think they continue to build on that.

33:16Darius Butler:Yeah.

33:16Pat McAfee:They got a wide receiver. Might be the best player in all the ball. They got a defense that obviously is punishing, and they got a coach that will actually kick your ass. Yep. Ladies and gentlemen, head coach for the University of Miami football team, Mario Cristobal. Hey, coach. What's up, guys? How we doing? Coach, how are you doing? Thank you so much for joining us. Obviously, incredible start for the boys up there in Stanford. How do you kind of handle beating ass week one while understanding that the biggest jump maybe that your team's going to make is between week one and week two? What is your messaging to the lads after a successful opening?

33:52The flat-out truth, brother. Go right at the film. Find all the things that we could do a hell of a lot better, which we can. Even though it was a solid start, you know, after two and a half quarters, we pulled most of the guys that started the game. And a bunch of guys went in there that we are expecting to play and help us win football games. And just all in all, there is a lot of progress. But, brother, we got a ways to go, man. And we're looking forward to attacking that. We did all week in practice. and we got to suit up in about 48 hours here.

34:18Pat McAfee:Yeah, we cannot wait for week two of college football season to kick off. And obviously your team is going to be much must-watch all season and maybe forever that you're down there. You know, Coach Signetti and many others have come out before week one and said, I don't really know what my guys are going to be like. Like, I think I have a good expectation of what they're going to be, but until we actually play with this particular group, I'm not 100 % sure. For you, what did you learn about this group? More specifically, quarterback, first time operating a Miami Hurricane offense. What were your thoughts on how you maybe thought he was going to play versus how he actually did play out there?

34:50Yeah, I learned that we're still learning, right, that game one is chapter one of a season. I don't think you ever judge it right until you get to the very end, but as it relates to the quarterback, it's what we saw in practice every single day. Elite talent, elite human being, awesome leadership skills, precision, pocket presence. Ackert Balls, right, can extend plays and just improvise, and his juice is awesome. He loved being around this guy, man. And he brings so much energy to the table and impacts those guys around him. So all in all, it's just a very positive step. And the best part, the guy came in here hungry, is how to go get better.

35:25So we love that.

35:27Pat McAfee:Yeah, I certainly love that. And it feels like you have an evaluator's eye that is at the top of the game. You know, everybody talks about Cignetti. Cignetti, if you waste the money that the boosters are giving you and you spend the money on the wrong people, as Coach Saban would say, you're shit out of luck. That's kind of what it is. You have now had to replace the most important position on your team multiple years in a row, and you've somehow only seemingly got better. Cam Ward, number one overall pick. We thought, wow, how is he going to be able to do that again? You bring in Carson Beck, he explodes in your system, goes to the national championship.

35:58Pat McAfee:Now we're watching Mensa, and it's like, wow, how do you hit on these guys at the most important position? Is there something you're looking for that maybe others aren't? And I would like to let you know, I don't think your evaluation talents kind of get enough respect and credit as I think they deserve. I mean, I think, you know, everything here is we collaborate, man. We get together, we put our eyes on things, we get our ears out there to the ground, see what people are all, what they're all about, what they're made of. And then probably the most important part, we provide them with the right supporting cast.

36:25And not only football players and teammates, but also schematically and from a coordinator and coaching standpoint, mentorship standpoint, that it all fits together. Because you look at our team, like every team you're made up of, high school players, veterans, rookies, portal guys, guys that come in from the Juco's, guys that come in from Canada. So yeah, you got to have, again, the right, like, common mindset DNA to make it all work. And we've been very fortunate to have the right people here.

36:55Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think definitely. And we appreciate you doing it because you brought Miami all the way. I know you're not saying we're back. You know, that was... Don't do it. I hate to break it to you, brother. Hey. I hate to break it. Damn it. The U is bad. Hell yeah. No, no. It does feel like that, though. Every game is must watch. Just single leg. Yeah, yeah. Single leg coming your way up. Hey, I've been working on a sprawl. I just want to let you know that just in case your big ass gets down there. And I know you got another order. You better keep working. You better keep working, brother. I tell you, I got good hands.

37:31You ain't about that life. You ain't about that life.

37:33Pat McAfee:Excuse me. I've been rolling 4.30 a.m. before. Yeah. Okay, now once or twice. You've been rolling other things at 4.30 a.m. Certainly. I actually used to be pretty damn good, but now they've got these pre-rolls just kind of taking the game out of it. But nonetheless, the U does feel back. Defense flies around, star-studded. And on offense, you've got must-see TV. Go ahead, D-Bud. Yeah, talking about the U being back, and I agree with Pat, that U is definitely back. A lot of that is about the culture that's built. Not only with the guys there, the guys on the sideline, Michael Irvin, Bane in the league, he's on the sideline supporting.

38:04But the recruiting and putting that fence around South Florida. A guy like Malachi Tony, obviously he was tremendous on the actual field with the stat line. Things we don't see on the stat line, the blocking, just him behind the scenes, the leadership. What has he done this offseason going into his second season that you've seen him? It looks like he's made a huge jump going into the sophomore season. Well, 12 to 14 pounds of muscle, man. He can accelerate and decel at higher rates. His stop and go is taking another step. his flat out top end speed, his durability, his entire body just looks different.

38:38He is stronger. He is faster. And then the time he puts in his – it's never changed. He always tries to push the envelope with that. So he's just bringing in more teammates with him now. So when the coin toss is going on out there, he's at the forefront out there with the rest of the team captains.

38:52Pat McAfee:Yeah, I love watching him play. Yeah. And the videos of him working in the offseason and then him blocking. It's like this guy is from 1995. But then he has this speed and the explosion of 2026. It's like a perfect hybrid of old school and modern football at the same time. And it feels like Mentz is pretty pumped that he's out there. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it feels like that is certainly a weapon that you'd like to keep on your side. He's must watch. Oh, yeah. I like him and Jeremiah, too. Both of them. All season long, hopefully that'll happen for all of us. Now, on the offensive side, to get the ball to a wide receiver, a lot of things have to happen.

39:28Pat McAfee:Go ahead, Tone.

39:29Darius Butler:Yeah, Coach, we know you cut your teeth in the trenches. Sorry, excuse me there. And three or four of your guys got drafted last year off of the offensive line. How did you feel about the big uglies up front in their first time together playing a real game? Offensively, I thought pass pro was really good. And then in the run game, we were hit and miss a few times. But overall, considering that they were in a loaded box playing man coverage, handled some things pretty well and have to work a lot on some other things. and on the defensive side the same way. You know, we held them to six points, but there's a lot of things that we've got to work on to get better.

40:03You know, just the basic principles of getting our feet in the ground, coming off of the flat back, getting our hands inside, going low to high and lifting people, right? Knocking the line of scrimmage back. So those are things that we pride ourselves on and we have to get better at.

40:16Pat McAfee:Okay, you know what I think you need to do? There's this little really stout rugby guy with a sweet accent that's been in town. I don't know if you heard. He's training Miles Garrett on how to get low to high. Boom! How to get low to high. He's the little one that just went through the air right there. And by little, I mean, you know, rolling ball butcher knives here. This guy's an actual muscle man from out of time. He's coming in teaching that same leg, same shoulder, low man, leverage weight, Miles Garrett's killing people. So this has been happening. I don't know if you want to bring him down.

40:42Pat McAfee:Maybe do the big bulk jacked foreign Caucasian guy, low leverage man wins thing. But it seems like he can maybe – I'm actually going to start training with this guy for you. I just want to let you – you need to watch the film here. This is what's coming. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. let me know what i'm supposed to worry about and be afraid right now bro right now is the time that's what i'm saying they're gonna be calling you mario no crystal ball you know when i'm coming in there uh okay i appreciate the fact that you're like fundamentals we got to work on everything i saw four different plays where one guy didn't take the right step we got to work on that that type of accountability is what creates obviously greatness and then hopefully a strive for perfection that can guide you through an entire season now on that note it's gonna be a long one these seasons are long you got to experience it last year did you learn anything from the long road last year all the way the national championship that changes the way you're gonna coach this year like you said a lot of the backups got in the third quarter obviously had the opportunity to do that have you always been that way or is it this year like hey we got a long road we need more guys to have experience like how are you kind of viewing this season from what you learned last season yeah i mean you're 100 right you have to develop your football team so when and mind you you get guys in the game that have earned the right to play i really don't believe that we just throw guys in there because maybe you build a comfortable leader whatnot it still has to be guys that you're developing because they are going to have to play they're going to have to help your team win football games so that's what we did um again we don't that has to happen you have to work that into existence on a play-by-play basis and now look beyond that so but that's our philosophy develop your roster we had practice today and at the end we you know sent everybody the sidelines and brought out all the guys that need developmental work and ran another extra 20 plays of live ball to see who else we can get on the field for this coming i love it this thursday under the lights oh yeah oh yeah hard rock uh-huh lights on big powerful lights on shining big bright lights with ipads and helmet communications yep maybe and all the technology in the world video board video boards clocks not super secret clocks just regular clocks thursday night fam you good luck coach the rest of the way and we appreciate you so so much for joining us and uh it seems like you got another team that is absolutely stacked with electricity we can't wait to watch well i appreciate you guys having me again we're working at it we're getting uh we're getting better having a lot of progress but we have miles to go brother and again thank Thank you for having me and God bless.

43:34Pat McAfee:Hey, muchas gracias, mi amigo. It's better. Your Spanish is a hell of a lot better. Oh, de nada. Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen. It's Mario Cristobal. Hey, coach. De nada means. Thank you. No problem. No, no problem. No, it means you're welcome. And that's what it is, yeah. Thank you. It's nothing.

43:53Darius Butler:Huh? What's that?

43:54Pat McAfee:Is that what de nada means? I thought it was no problem. No, I thought it was welcome. Yeah, I thought it was welcome. Gracias, de nada. Yeah, I think that you. Okay. Because nada. Or are you separate? I thought it was the casual you're welcome. And like you're welcome is more for them. I always just say thank you and they're returning it. But I didn't know if it was actually. The nada is you're welcome. The nada from nothing. Yeah, it literally means of nothing. From nothing. They use it as you're welcome. Yeah, of course. But it actually means like. Well, how does that make any sense? Well, I mean, it's nothing.

44:24What's the source there? But that's not what you're welcome. You're welcome is nothing.

44:29Pat McAfee:Yeah, but that's their version of it. Yeah. Yeah, but they use it. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Yeah, Jesus Christ. No big deal. Yeah, thank you. Forget about it. It's not sin. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. I mean, they're forget about it. The connotation's very different. Yeah, I think in English it means you're welcome. You utilize it as...

44:47Darius Butler:No, in Spanish it means you're welcome. Okay, I agree.

44:50Pat McAfee:Okay. I took five years of it. Show me the Google Translate then, damn it. I live in South Florida. Google means you're welcome. Yeah. Yeah, I think you utilize it. Yeah, don't worry about it. Exactly. Yeah, it doesn't mean you're welcome.

45:02Darius Butler:But he's like, yeah, man. Nada does mean nothing, yes. Yeah, so I think it's not like. So then how does it mean you're welcome if nada means nothing? I think the phrase is meant to be utilized as you're welcome. Like, I think, you know, does that make sense?

45:18Pat McAfee:What are they teaching in the schools anymore, man? Yeah, you're welcome. Now, granted, that's not to write yours for nada. Yeah, yeah. He's good. Right, man. He's having quite a day. What are we doing, man? All right, let's move away. What's the point of teaching language? They'll wonder why we lost. Yeah, okay. What did we lose? Yeah, I don't think anything. De nada. Nothing. NFL Live. Oh, you're talking about the Emmy. Yeah. We're never going to win that movie. Well, we had the right answers. I wasn't talking. He wasn't talking about Jeopardy, bro. You're talking about Family Feud. We did lose that.

45:52Oh, my.

45:54Pat McAfee:Jack! All right, let's stop. Let's reset. Just keep going. Fuck it.

46:01Darius Butler:You need to call timeout. Bring us over to the sideline. Get us together. All right.

46:05Pat McAfee:Hey, listen real quick. Bang. Boom. Players only meeting? Huddle up in the middle of the stage. Get you some drink here. Let's go ahead and cuddle. Thank you. Give me a can of corn. Toss. All right. Now we're back in it. Yep. Bottles back to the sideline. Thank you. Balls up. All right.

46:20Darius Butler:Squirted in my own mouth. It was a...

46:22Pat McAfee:Thank you for doing that. I saw a lot of that, by the way. Marcus Freeman doing it the other day. I thought to myself, thank God Marcus Freeman's doing that right there. Perfect transition for Tony as well. He still thinks he's a player. Yeah, he still thinks he's a player because he's jogging out in front of his team as a head coach. I don't like what's going on on the internet with Marcus Freeman. Sure, his hair is certainly something we all see. Okay? We all see it. Let's make sure we know that. It's awesome. He looks perfect. Guy looks unbelievable. That's normal. He's in incredible shape.

46:50Pat McAfee:Okay? Also, what would people be saying if he looked like a fucking schlub out there? Well, we have seen a lot of schlubs out there. A ton. We have seen a lot of schlubs out there. And we know what they said. And I don't think Marcus Freeman's ever going to look like a schlub. I don't think that's going to be the case. But they're saying that this guy. I know. He's the leader of men. He's the head coach of the football team. Yeah. Yeah. He's going to jog out with or in front of his team. He's leading his team onto the field. You got some of these people on the internet. They're like, you know what?

47:18Pat McAfee:This guy's hair's weird. And also, is this the corniest guy of all time? Please. It's like, no, he's the head coach. He's their head coach. He's leading them on the field. That's just a football tradition. I think it's been happening for a long, long time. But it does feel like the new age kids, you better win. You don't win, you're going to get murdered. Absolutely crucified. Shrink the game. First half. Exactly. That's the bad part about the sport being so big and popular. There's too many people getting in, covering it. Everybody got something to say. We nerds. Yeah, but we like that. We appreciate that our sport has been able to open it.

47:53Pat McAfee:Yeah, we love that part. up to a massive amount of people. But I do think there's a lot of people that are very new to ball, as fans of ball, and don't truly understand the nuances potentially of ball, but are trying to project as if they are ball experts. So I think there is just some, you know, some things that could potentially happen. But there's a following for everybody. Whatever gets you into football is cool. But we can't just be, like, I was watching his workout, not in a weird way. It's like, yeah, what are you doing? What are you saying? Why are you doing that? Hey, the head coach is leading his team out.

48:23Pat McAfee:What a weirdo. It's like, this is football. These are things that happen out here. I like the fact that we're starting off the season and we're kind of realizing what it's probably going to be in some places, but all we do know, Marcus Freeman's Notre Dame team, they're very good. A lot of people probably only saw the first half. Maybe he fell asleep, didn't see the second half. It's like they're going to be A-OK. Who do we think, though, is the number one team in the country coming out of week one of college football season? And by we, I mean one man. And that man is a college football author, has sold thousands and thousands of college football books via the internet.

48:59Pat McAfee:I do not think he's a New York Times bestseller, but he's certainly the bestseller in our particular office. And, you know, some polls are average. Just kind of look at the 30 ,000-foot view. Some polls are below average, where they don't even know what they're talking about. Remember, we had people voting on awards, and they didn't even know what sport was. True. That would be a very below-average poll if they were to pull one out. There's the average poll, and then there's the above-average polls. And the above-average polls have a little bit of information and the ability to get in deep, but not deep enough that you don't understand what's going on.

49:35Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for our author, our college football guru, Tone Diggs' above-average poll. Who sits atop Tone's above-average poll? Tone, you have the Miami Hurricanes. Is that strictly because Coach Cristobal came on the show? And then it appears as if LSU is the number two team in the country and then Ohio State is the number three team in the country. Your above-average poll has Miami sitting atop of it. And why is that? And how did we get here?

50:06Darius Butler:Yeah, thank you for letting me do this slightly above-average poll, especially if you bring in the eastern hemisphere.

50:11Pat McAfee:We don't know if it's slightly or grossly above average. It's one or the other. You're certainly in the mid-afternoon.

50:16Darius Butler:Somewhere around there. I've been told by myself. Yeah, we wanted to do this. And, you know, a lot of like when you do like the AP top 25 or whatever, it's like you start with the week zero before any games are played. And then it's like, should you recreate that pool completely? Like, should you just every week start with a clean slate, which I do believe is that how you should do it? And I started with this clean slate. You're all right, bud? Yeah. You're right over there. Yeah, I mean, you guys missed it. There's some madness going on behind the elephant over here. Sorry, keep going, Tony. That elephant's pole is slightly above average as well.

50:52Darius Butler:But no, I thought... Whose body?

50:55Pat McAfee:Whose body is this?

50:57Darius Butler:That's me. Chris Pratt? Chuck Norris? That's me. I mean, the watch is on the wrong wrist, so maybe it isn't me. It looks like Jack Carr's body, honestly. It does.

51:11Pat McAfee:Am I wearing platform? Do you have boots on the beach? I just don't know. You've got to wear boots on the beach, especially if you're AP Tone. You've got an above-average pole here. Average poles are everywhere. This is an above-average pole. I like that, to be honest. Yeah, I know you do. Yeah, that's what we're saying. We're like, wow, okay, Tone, I like what you're doing here. Good forearms. Huge hands.

51:34Darius Butler:Huge mitts. Mitts on Tone. Tell you what, I think that's somebody else's body, and I bet you their pole, big.

51:42Pat McAfee:Maybe, maybe, maybe good pole. So it seems like they are a little bit more disciplined. Definitely bigger than mine. We're not talking about big polls here. We're talking about how good a poll is. We're not talking about if it's big or not. Oh, yeah, you're right. This is about if it's a good poll or not. Miami's on top of your poll. We like that. LSU 2, Ohio State 3. Can you tell us why it's not just an average poll? Can you take us a little bit deeper, but not as deep as others maybe?

52:08Darius Butler:I also like that I kind of feel like I'm King Triton down on the beach. Two hands on it. Listen, Ohio State and LSU, they absolutely take care of business. Ohio State versus Ball State. They were at home in the shoe. I think they went for 700 yards. They were awesome. Let's not ding them at all. LSU hosting Clemson in Lane's first game there. The environment was unbelievable. But just eye test-wise, going all the way up to Palo Alto for Miami, they were unbelievable. I didn't see anything wrong with this team. It could have been a sleepy, sleepy environment up there. Not a lot of people in the crowd.

52:46Darius Butler:And they answered all the boxes, checked all the boxes, answered all the questions. I just thought eye test-wise, they were very, very, very impressive. Not taking anything away from LSU or Ohio State as well, because obviously they're sitting there in the top three.

52:59Pat McAfee:Thank you for making that above average, not just average. Who went down on your poll because of their performances week-wise? And who sucked on the poll?

53:06Darius Butler:I mean, nobody sucked on the poll that I saw. Michigan? Michigan did suck on the pole, but they weren't even on my pole to begin with.

53:16Pat McAfee:Jeez. Okay, that's tough. Okay, so you did it, but then you were going to suck. You didn't get on the pole. Who did slide by the pole?

53:23Darius Butler:Obviously, Oregon was my number one. So I had to ding Oregon a bit, even though they outgained Boise by 200 yards. Just, you know, turnovers a little bit, sloppy stuff like that. Oregon dropped a bit. There wasn't a lot of dropping, to be honest. Okay, not a lot of dropping on the pole. There was a lot of dropping, but these guys? Climbing the pole. Yeah, climbing the pole. and they raised the poll to, you know, new heights, six to midnight, if you will.

53:46Pat McAfee:Okay. Well, thank you for the above average poll. Thank you. I'm going to do one next week. HBCU poll. Yeah, I think. Big HBCU poll. Yeah, I might have to change the name of it, though. New graphic. New graphic, yeah. Lock in, bone. I think we got to change. Actually, you know what? It might be a different one. You got this from Jordan. Dude, I put bone on that. Thank you for your poll.

54:10Darius Butler:Thank you for sharing your poll. I always love sharing my poll.

54:15Pat McAfee:I can't wait for week two for that. Woo! It resets every week. We're really on to something here. Yeah, I'd say. Some things are for us. We apologize. We do apologize. And if you're new to the program, which we are learning there are new people, somehow. With everything that's being said, there's new people too.

54:33Darius Butler:Sure.

54:33Pat McAfee:Which we appreciate that. Some things are just for us. and you're going to realize that that one, boy, really lit a fire in the Thunderdome this morning when it started cooking around. And to be honest, I thought we executed it perfectly. I don't think anybody's going to know what it was about. No, they're just talking about rocking new bod.

54:54Darius Butler:Thank you. The most in-shape fit guy in America. I'm glad we had Coach on before. Yeah, so that was a decision. That was a decision. Coach is definitely pumped. Was that prime Chuck Norris' body?

55:09Pat McAfee:I think so, buddy. I think you're doing it, man. That should be gold, maybe. Maybe you're working towards the guy that's holding that big old pole you had down there, dude.

55:16Darius Butler:Well, slightly above average pole if you include the Eastern Hemisphere. Great stance.

55:23Pat McAfee:Got to include all parties. All right. As we wrap up here, hour one of the sports program. Good hour. Pretty good. I'd say. I feel like we really covered everything we needed to cover. Above average, baby. Above average. First hour. A couple quick things we do have to say. It feels like the Irish coaches are saying you're going to have to earn leadership. Yep. Okay, each week. McCarthy and McDonald have both come out and said week-to-week captains. We're not doing full season-long captains. I believe McCarthy has done this before. I think he did it with the Packers because, remember, the photos used to come out of the weekly captains.

55:58Pat McAfee:It was always a big deal. I don't know if he did it in Dallas. I assume he remained in Dallas. That's kind of his idea. Will the quarterback be every single week? We're not 100 % sure. I think there was teams that I was on that was week to week, and then there was teams that I was on that was season long. Yeah. I don't really know the difference, but I like the thought of maybe you could earn a C one week. But you never get it on your jersey, I don't think. I mean, I like the old school, you know, four, maybe five captains with the C on the chest. And then we know we have coaches who, if you spent some time with that team previously, so say they're playing the Falcons, and maybe it's the former Falcon, you send them out for the coin toss, and they're like the captain.

56:32Oh, Jair, you're saying. Exactly, that type of situation. But I liked the captain. It was awesome. Jair Alexander just named himself a captain for the coin toss

56:42Pat McAfee:because coach of the floor for the Packers forgot that he was from here. Yeah, he played like the first series, and then they benched him like the entire game. Best player on the defense. Well, he should have been named captain maybe. I agree. That's what McCarthy and McDonough are going to have to deal with. Hour two on the other side. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. Thank you. This episode is brought to you by the Hulu original series Chad Powers starring Glenn Powell.

57:08Darius Butler:This season the walls are closing in on Chad's biggest secret and with his future on the field hanging in the balance he'll have to win back the one coach who wants nothing to do with him. Watch the new season of Chad Powers streaming now on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. Every game every practice every moment we rely on energy more than we realize. From the courts and fields we play on, to the gear athletes use, to the technology and transportation that bring fans together, energy powers it all. And Energy Transfer helps safely deliver the energy that keeps it all moving.

57:40Oil and natural gas help make thousands of everyday products possible, supporting sports and the moments that connect us. So whether you're playing, watching, or cheering it on, It Takes Energy. Visit ittakesenergy.com to learn more.

57:58Pat McAfee:Football! It's spectacular, and we're so incredibly lucky that we get a chance to chat about it. We are officially all the way in on football season as we sit here on the eve of the 2026-2027 NFL season kicking off in beautiful Seattle, Washington, as the Super Bowl champs are host to the New England Patriots, the reigning AFC champion. Mike Vrabel and Drake May will head over to the Pacific Northwest to kick off a season that it's about to be the biggest and best season yet. Talks at tables here at Blossie Conner and at Ty Schmidt. Ty, we're really potentially staring down the best season yet.

58:36Pat McAfee:Last night came down to a game-winning field goal. There was a block kick to win a game. There was a half-inch tackle, Baylor versus Auburn. There's been electrifying finishes and electricity. Hail Mary, obviously. Yeah, horseshit, but horseshit. I don't know. They said that they got one. They got their own super-duper clock that supersedes every other clock that nobody else gets to see. Now, on that note, nobody in the history of ball knew that that existed or was even possible, but somebody did, and they said that's why they put it on. Now, if Western Michigan had that happen to them, as Reese Davis asked yesterday on our show, and I'm assuming others did, would they get that tenth of a second second back?

59:17Darius Butler:Certainly not.

59:18Pat McAfee:We'd like to hope yes.

59:20Darius Butler:We'd like to hope yes.

59:21Pat McAfee:In the big house? We'd like to hope yes.

59:24Darius Butler:100 ,000 people.

59:26Pat McAfee:Don't believe it, though. Can't help it. Well, you can help in one hand, shit in the other, and see which one gets you further is what some people who are pessimists or realists, they would say, thing. Nonetheless, we've had electrifying finishes. I think this is all a great indicator into what the NFL season is going to be because even the preseason games had some electricity. It feels like football is at a better state now than it's ever been, and I think that bodes well for all of us, Ty. Yeah, I would agree. And it's crazy because it doesn't really need to be because, you know, So in years, I shouldn't say in years past, but like the last several years, like now you actually, you know, for instance, like this Sunday, I think the Browns and the Jaguars play like 10 years ago.

1:00:04That'd probably be like, OK, but like now it's like there's a good chance that at some point that's going to be in your four box on Sunday. And that's like one of the games that kind of stinks. But the amount of marquee matchups we have and this is you really have to tip your hat to the NFL because I don't know if it's just recency bias or like not really remembering. but the amount of stacked games that like it used to be like that we would have the showcase game the opening night of the season there'd be a good sunday night game and probably a good monday night game and then several games that i don't think you were getting super excited about but now with all the divisional games kind of moving up to earlier in the season too and even you know like like colts ravens that's a that's a great game you have um bills texans yeah bills texans Spangles.

1:00:46Exactly. You can go through pretty much, I'd say, outside of maybe Jets, Titans, and Dolphins, Raiders, especially with Mendoza not starting. Those are the ones that maybe you kind of just cast aside, and it's like, all right, whatever. But for most of these games, you can find a handful of things to be excited about and probably see yourself having that at least in one of your four boxes on Sunday.

1:01:07Pat McAfee:NFL underdogs are 178, 132, and 5 against the number in weeks one through two across the last ten seasons. Over 50 % cover in weeks three through 18. Interesting number here from him. But also the way he lined it up as if it was a baseball number there. I do respect the hitting because that's what we are. Stepping into the batter's box when we're trying to do these things. It's good one half of the hammer. Cowboys AP tone. Your take on how we should view week one here of the NFL whenever we're gambling or trading in all 50 states with the best sportsbook on earth, DraftKings. And if you haven't joined us yet, tomorrow you're going to want to whenever we start pressing.

1:01:44And if you agree to gamble responsibly,

1:01:47Pat McAfee:that's the only deal they need you to make. Come join us over there. And also, you're not getting rich with our boost, so I don't need you telling me how I ruined your life because we didn't hit a bull. Yeah, yeah. That's on you. That's on you. This is the responsible thing. Yep. Okay, sports gambling is going to be here. We as a society need to agree that this is just to make the games better, not to try to buy a house. Exactly. Okay, that's all we're trying to do. We're just trying to make games better, trying to sprinkle a little bit, have a little action, and also showcase that, yeah, maybe we do have a little forethought on what's about to come because of all the research and all the info we have and how we've talked about this for months and months.

1:02:21Pat McAfee:Maybe we should know exactly what's going to happen. So maybe we should sprinkle a little bit. But that's not how sports work. No. Sports are always unpredictable. The team that's in Australia for a week, they should be better suited to play a game in Australia, right, than the team that's flying in 36 hours before the game. We have no idea. We have no clue. Heard a sleep expert start to talk. Fell asleep while she was talking. Yeah, that's a good expert. So I guess couldn't hear it. You know what I mean? I tried to listen. I tried to understand what she was saying. And I assume that there's so many different ways to look at the circadian system and what's right and what's not right.

1:02:50Pat McAfee:But honestly, until the game is played, that is the only way that it's going to be judged. And if it comes down to like a field goal, make, win, miss, lose, even if it's just a field goal that's missed, the team that wins will be like, that was the right way to go about doing it, which is a crazy and absurd thing to think. But we have no clue what's going to happen in any of these games. But, Ton, what is the way you're going to be viewing this first week of action for the NFL?

1:03:12Darius Butler:Week one is a big, like, public perception. Bet high, sell low situation on all of these. Like, when you look at, like, the commanders, commanders and eagles. Eagles, Super Bowl champions in the last few years. Commanders, everyone down on the commanders. So, everyone's going to be on the eagles. Dolphins and Raiders, everyone's high on the Raiders because they made all the offseason moves and very, very down on the fins. Titans and Jets, similar situation where Titans make the offseason moves. Everyone is down on the Jets. People are down on the Falcons because of Tua. It's sprinkled across the board here.

1:03:42Darius Butler:The Browns and Jaguars in that situation that Ty talked about, everyone's going to be down on the Browns because of Deshaun Watson. One of those or two of those teams are going to beat the teams that everyone is high on in the public perception. It happens every single year on week one. You can add Cardinals and Chargers in there. Everyone's going to be on the Chargers. But every single year in week one, one of these teams that everyone has been down on all summer long ends up beating one of these teams that everyone has talked about. Oh, this team is going to make a jump this year. This team is going to be good this year.

1:04:07Darius Butler:It happens every single year. That's why in week one and week two, you're sitting at 58 % for dogs versus 50 % for dogs the rest of the season. Because in week one, you really just don't know, even though a lot of people think they know a ton about this team just because it's based off of last year.

1:04:20Pat McAfee:You think you know, but you have no idea. This is the real story of, what was that show? Real, was it? Real? True Life? True Life?

1:04:31Darius Butler:No. It was a good show.

1:04:32Pat McAfee:Oh, a show was. It's an NTV show. Well, you think you know, but you have no idea. This is the real life.

1:04:39Darius Butler:Diary. It was just called Diary. This is the Diary of, like, didn't you know what they said? This is the Diary of how to catch a... The name of the show was just Diary. Okay.

1:04:51Pat McAfee:What was the rest of that statement there that I was saying? What was the rest of the...

1:04:54Darius Butler:You think you know, but you have no idea. This is the story of.

1:04:57Pat McAfee:Okay.

1:04:58Darius Butler:Or this is the Diary of, sorry.

1:04:59Pat McAfee:Oh, okay. And that new character each week. Each week, yeah. I would have never...

1:05:03Darius Butler:Season 10 was Tony Hawk.

1:05:04Pat McAfee:That was probably the one that I know. If I had her guess. Probably so good. Who else was on there?

1:05:09Darius Butler:Season 8 had Ja Rule, Kate Hudson, Jason Kidd, Ashton Kutcher. That's a pretty good lineup. Ashanti, American Idol.

1:05:17Pat McAfee:That was the original. Hey, do you like documentaries, Pat? Yeah, I think you do here. And then what was the other one? Cribs. Obviously love Cribs. Maid. I found out there's something. Maid also did. Maid. I found out some of those houses were rented. Most of them, it seems. Yeah, we got work. Yeah, sweet. That's a nine-year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler. I had inspiration popping into my life every Cribs episode. I'm like, oh, need a stacked fridge when I cannot wait to stack the fridge like this. Oh, TV pops up out of the thing. Is this like exhibit and pimp my ride? No, this is what your bedroom could be like.

1:05:48Pat McAfee:Yes. Give me that thing. This guy's got what in the basement? A restaurant? I like that. Turns out they weren't living in it. A lot of them weren't living in it. No. It was all fougays. An HGTV show. Basically, yeah. Showing off houses. Yeah, so I want to let you know. We should still be inspired that those exist, though. Yeah, I guess so. Some of them are real. Yeah, like I know Master P had gold on the ceiling. Ludacris had KFC and, you know, Corona in his fridge and had his own damn football field in his backyard. And Tommy Lee had the caught barista. Exactly. And the Zen thing and the booze thing.

1:06:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, he did have an above-average poll as well where he ranked the things that he wanted in his life and he put them all in his house. Went and got them. red man's episode oh the best it's all time hey welcome he's putting the wires together yeah he's the man he's still bringing it i do believe oh yeah i've seen him pop up on the internet shout out to him microphone check to swing and swallow letcha closing down the scepter supreme neck protector better one on camp mr method lollipop oh they were unbelievable yeah they need to come back out still bringing it now that i got a wu-tang sweat on my back maybe it's uh true maybe that's That's why it's going through my soul a little bit.

1:07:03Pat McAfee:Joining us now is a rapper, a philanthropist, a speaker, a college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, ladies and gentlemen, mental health advocate, ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hart. Yeah. Thank you, AJ. Hey, somebody had to own those places. Even if these people on the show were renting them, somebody owned those sweet houses. Yeah, but it's probably some finance person that has an amount of money that was going to be tough for you to get if you were to pick up a guitar someday. I think there was a little bit of maybe some misrepresentation of some funds of some people in some professions, but nonetheless still got inspired by him, AJ.

1:07:39Pat McAfee:And AJ got inspired too. This guy was number five overall pick in the NFL draft two CBAs ago. Legend. Yeah, this guy bought the entire state of Ohio with his signing bonus before he even stepped foot into an NFL facility. AJ, we're sitting here on NFL Eve. Your big storyline heading in there? What is it? Is it Patriots-Seahawks that's happening tomorrow? because I think people have forgot that this game's kicking off the entire – us included. I mean, we've been talking about Aaron Donald, the Rams, MVP, primetime. Holy hell, they've got the Avengers on the defensive side. They're in Australia.

1:08:10Pat McAfee:Then you talk about the Niners and the substation. That's what we talked about all offseason. Patriots Seahawks kicks this thing off tomorrow night. This game is going to be awesome, I believe, and I think they're both going to be playing very, very good football to start this entire season, AJ. Yeah, they are, and the atmosphere is going to be unbelievable out there in Seattle. I think it'll be fun because it's very easy to overreact one way or the other, I think, when you see the week one games especially. We don't really know what these teams have. The coaches don't even really know exactly what their team is.

1:08:38So let's see who comes out there first and kind of sets their identity. Obviously, getting Gonzo paid is a huge deal for the Patriots. But, yeah, I think this is an awesome matchup. I think it's like there's a lot of good personalities on both sides as far as coaching staff and players. To your point, I do like that our best environment that the NFL has

1:08:56Pat McAfee:is going to be on display opening night. Not that any Super Bowl champion buildings have not been awesome. I mean, you go back a couple years ago when the Eagles were getting booed off at halftime during banner night. And obviously the Patriots have hosted a lot of banner nights and they've gotten slaughtered in some of those banner nights. So the crowd is what it is. It's like, and I'm not saying these are bad. These are great fan bases. Obviously, if you have a Super Bowl winning team, your fan base has to be good as well. They're part of the entire process and probably going to join you through the entire ride.

1:09:22Pat McAfee:But like Seattle is known to be our best environment. So it being on display for opening night, I think, is a big deal for the NFL. And I'm excited to see them show up. And on Thursday, 820 on Netflix, Rams, Niners. Here's what the stadium looks like, Melbourne Cricket Grounds, with a football stadium inside of it, as Mike Holder, who will not get the checkmark. I'm not giving him three bucks. I don't like him. He gets a nice video here of what it – it won't look that bad. I was a little bit worried about too much space on the side. Looks very normal. Very close in the corners. The corners, yeah.

1:09:55The corners look close, but everywhere else, obviously, there's plenty of space. But that's what you expect from these international games, I feel like.

1:09:59Pat McAfee:Yeah, and especially with the cricket field. Yeah. You know, because like Aussie Rules football, I think, is a big round one. I think it's a big round. And then cricket's big and round as well. So this is just like whenever a football field has to go into a baseball stadium. Like, obviously, different designs of what the field space looks like. But I think it fits pretty nice. I'll tell you what, if our field was 55 yards wide instead of 53 and a third yards wide, I don't know if we'd be able to get it in the – No way. In the stadium there. I think I maybe miscalculated the size of one of these Aussie rules football fields, but I think that's going to create a great environment.

1:10:33Pat McAfee:And I'm excited for the Aussie that's in the corner right there. He's about to have a great day. Yeah, and I think, you know, no one's really talked about it, but I assume there's going to be no issues with the playing surface at all because that's every single time they go to, you know, Tottenham Stadium or like Wembley or something like that. First play of the game, we see the massive like seam in the turf and it's like, oh, okay, this is terrible. Hopefully no one goes down today. I assume that they aren't going to have to deal with that at all. I think their turf is a push, a strong turf, right?

1:11:02Pat McAfee:Because they're doing it. Doing a lot of that kind of stuff. Yeah, so I think it is a type of grass that should be good for the big boys. Yeah, for sure. Malleable. Yeah, because the soccer stuff, you get a 300-pounder out there doing this, that grass ain't used to it. No. Got soft grass. Never. You need some tough-ass grass. That's right. What a matchup. For the big boys, what a matchup. What a matchup. I mean, just all week long, this opening week. You know, even if you pop up that full slate, you got obviously Wednesday, Thursday, but then the Sunday night, Monday night games too. Like obviously, you know, all eyes on the Giants.

1:11:34What do they look like with Harbaugh at the wheel? Next year for Dart, Malik Nabors, hopefully back out there fully healthy. Everybody's high on the Dallas Cowboys like we usually are, but this year it's kind of seems like they are, you know, with the quietness that has been around there. And then you look at Monday night with Denver, Kansas City. So those are two divisional matchups. Thursday's divisional matchup. I don't know how you guys felt, but as a player, you always felt like that week one coming out of the gate, playing a divisional game like that, that was like a little extra boost to start the season.

1:12:02Pat McAfee:Yeah, and obviously divisional games matter most. You win a division, you get into the dance. That's all anybody's trying to do. The divisional games being this early, I think it has had a mixed response from like coaches and GMs and things like that. But the NFL has tried to put their biggest games earlier to try to get a little bit more attention because sometimes you save the divisional games for late, and obviously you do that, so the build at the end is very real. Every game matters almost double here. Can you catch up? Can you not catch up? Well, we've got three straight divisional games.

1:12:30Pat McAfee:And then there was a little bit of a lackluster start a few years back. I forget what year it was, but there was like three to four start of the weeks where primetime games weren't good and the matchups weren't really desirable. There wasn't a lot of marketing, but towards the end of the season, it was packed and stacked. So now I think they have tried to bring some into the beginning so we can start the season in a big way. We'll probably have a couple weeks of shite. Definitely. Sure. We are robbing Peter to pay Paul here at the beginning of the season. And it has been announced that Patrick Mahomes will be starting on Monday night.

1:12:57Pat McAfee:So he's back early off of injury. So Monday night football will be a packed cast of characters of high. We are the NFL to the entire globe. Cannot wait to be on site. Lucky to be a part of Monday night countdown for that. And, yeah, NFL is off in a big way tomorrow night. Now, college football week one ended last night in a little bit of chaos. Don't you think, AJ, a little bit of chaos? Yeah, I'd say it started out, and there's a little bit of chaos throughout the whole night. Yeah, I mean, let's not even talk about the falling. Okay, I mean, like football gods just seemingly not blessing Florida State at all.

1:13:33Pat McAfee:And then, this is tough. If this was to happen and they were to keep the power, okay, let's say the power stays on, I would still think to myself, no way Florida State wins. Yeah, it looks bad. That's what I would say. Almost caught the whole place on fire. Luckily, it's moist down there. Ah, they start cheering. Ah, yeah, we're alive. College football. Down. Start a fire right on his face. Okay, so I see that. I immediately think to myself, Florida State's in trouble here.

1:13:59Darius Butler:Chief Osceola and Renegade are better than that.

1:14:00Pat McAfee:Chief Osceola and Renegade, obviously. We appreciate their service. Good luck next week, next time. Let's go ahead and throw that thing. Let's not be scared to death. And also, first time needs to go. Yeah. There was a little hesitancy. There was hesitancy here, and then there was hesitancy here. Chief Osceola, we need no hesitancy out there. You understand that. But I see that, I think to myself, no chance. And then full power surge comes through, knocks out all that. I think to myself, holy shit, they might as well not even play a season. Then somehow they get enough power to get the lights on, but we don't have any of the other power.

1:14:33Pat McAfee:So they decide to play Amish, and inevitably Fuller State loses, even though they won the turnover battle, won the time of possession, collected them off punt, had less missed kicks. Less penalties. You know, everything that you're supposed to do to win a game, they did. Other than spear, power, football guts. Yeah, score. Joining us now was the person that was in the middle of all of it, literally giving us all the information we need to find out. When is this game kicking off? How did this happen? All over the field, sideline reporter for ESPN. Also, Chicago Cubs reporter. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Taylor McGregor.

1:15:10Pat McAfee:Yeah, Taylor. How you doing, Taylor? Great, guys. I'm just in an Uber back to my house in Chicago. So chaotic night. But, you know, it's not about how you start. It's about how you finish. And it was a great finish to the game. I'll say that. Yeah, it certainly was. And I think all the power came back for either second half or later in the second half. So we could have the green dot communication and everything. But certainly to start that game, it was a little bit Amish there. And you were the one giving us all the info. Can you tell us what happened? Because I think I read some tweets. I heard some of your reporting.

1:15:40Pat McAfee:I don't think I heard all of it. Then I saw a car crashed into a transformer. That might have been the night before. Can you give us what actually ended up happening to get to where we were at the beginning of that game yesterday, Taylor? So it's still not confirmed exactly what caused the power outage. But, Pat, I am with you. I have heard the same rumor that there was a car crash, which ultimately caused a power outage on Sunday night. And then they believe led to the power outage at the stadium. But that has not been confirmed. I tried to get it confirmed several times last night, but nobody could.

1:16:12So basically what happened was the power went out and then like anybody would do if your light isn't working in your bathroom or whatever, you go to try to reset it. And when they reset the transformer, it basically blew and there was no contingency plan. So they had to go reset a bunch of different stuff around the stadium. But it was so fried from that original blowing of the transformer that they were just having a ton of problems. So it was wild. We were learning all this information in real time. And luckily, things started coming on slowly. And as you know, we played the game. So it was crazy for sure.

1:16:53Pat McAfee:Okay, so great job reporting last night, getting all the information, running around trying to figure out something that none of us could have ever fathomed happening in 2026, especially with a massive school like Florida State hosting a primetime game. The ACC show did an incredible job covering as well. That's a lot of fill time that you all had to do. Thank you for that. What were the coaches doing in this? Because we heard Lane Kiffin come out and say, yeah, I was all right with the delays because our locker room, great. Their locker room, shit. So if this goes another 30 minutes, I'm okay with that.

1:17:22Pat McAfee:Them just kind of sitting over there. And obviously it ended up being quite a route. What were you hearing from the coaches about how they were handling the delays and kind of talking to their team? So the coaches were in a majority of the meetings that I was in, beginning with Mike Norvell. He was in the first one, and then eventually Rhett Lashley came. And a big reason they were in the meetings is because they were deciding how much time they would need to come out and eventually warm up. So they were pretty much with the officials. But I will tell you, I walked past the Florida State locker room and that place was bumping.

1:17:51I also saw them running sandwiches. So everybody was eating a little bit, but just trying to stay engaged for when the game would eventually go. Because, again, nobody knew. And they knew the minute the lights came on, it was probably going to be about 15 minutes. So they were just trying to stay as ready as possible.

1:18:06Pat McAfee:Last question for me before the boys have a couple now. When did they find out that they were going to have to play Amish? And what were their reactions to that? Because obviously, I think Rhett Lashley came out and said it's been like two years since we've even had to even think about preparing like that. And I think a lot of people, you know, old school football people, you know, potentially old coaches of teams, it said like, oh, who cares? You're playing football. Spot the ball. Yeah, that's basically what a lot of people are saying. Like, this is what football used to be. But none of these modern-day coaches are preparing for having to do this, right?

1:18:41Pat McAfee:So how long did they have? Was that potentially a good indicator of, like, how some shit was going to be sloppy? Now, granted, Kevin's still through for over 400 yards, and obviously it was 27-24, incredible scoring game. But how long did the teams have to prepare for having to do, like, number system, hand signaling, as opposed to what the modern football is with everything basically on comms? Yeah, so basically what I learned was that it was 8.45 the meeting came down where they thought, okay, the lights are bright enough for us to go on, but all of these other factors are not in play. You're mentioning no coach to player, no iPads, no PA, no scoreboard.

1:19:20And I was in that meeting, and so they had to get the okay from coaches. Are you good with playing like that? And immediately both head coaches gave the thumbs up. So that was about 8.45, and then it was kick at 9.15. So really it was about 30 minutes, Pat. And to your point, I asked Rhett Lashley, when is the last time you guys practiced without the coach-to-player communication? And he said, two years. And I said, you never even do it for contingency plans? No, we don't. So, yeah, it had been a while since they had done anything like that, and they were really only given about a 30-minute notice.

1:19:57So that's why you saw, especially early, There were a lot of communication issues, and I noticed it on the sidelines. Everybody was kind of rushing, trying to figure out what the heck was going on, but it was sort of, all right, we can play this game, and they figured the lights were all they really needed at the end of the day.

1:20:15Pat McAfee:Yeah, and I like that they did that. That's an old-school decision saying, yeah, we'll do it, and then going back to their locker room going, all right, we've got to figure out how the hell we're going to be doing this because there's a lot of communication, obviously, how it works out. Obviously, an interesting start to a season for both of them. SMU gets a big-time win. Florida State loses and has a lot of football God stuff go against them last night. Go ahead, Tone.

1:20:34Darius Butler:Yeah, Taylor, a lot of the reporting is that the vibes around the FSU program are about as low as they've ever been in the history of Florida State football. Could you feel that in the stadium last night? I saw a report maybe that Norvell came on the big jumbo screen in a pre-recorded video to tell the band that they were going to be performing in the Macy's Day Parade and the entire place booed them. What is the vibes around that program now? What did you pick up on that last night? Yeah, the vibes around Coach Norvell are certainly low. I did hear those boos as well, so Ken confirmed that. But I will say this.

1:21:08I have to give a lot of credit to their fan base last night for sticking out the hour and 45-minute delay. And when that game eventually did kick off, that place was rocking. So I do have to give them that. But as far as the belief in Coach Norvell, we had said it at the top of the broadcast before everything happened that I'm not sure there's a team in college football that needed to win week one more than Florida State. And unfortunately, that did not happen. And it is very clear the people around Tallahassee are not happy with Mike Norvell. And to answer your question, I absolutely felt those vibes, that the patience is not only thin, I think it's completely worn off at this point.

1:21:47Pat McAfee:I think it might be tough to find somebody to come coach down there. You can't even get power to the stadium. Now, unlucky, I will say incredibly unlucky. but it's like who will be the person that saves Florida State, I guess, if it's, you know, I guess you got to hold. There's one guy. Got a guy in my eye. Did he play there? He sure did. Is he currently at altitude right now? He sure is. He's got cool sunglasses. How would that all go? You know, are we getting UPS systems at least operating in the stadium going forward? Lighted himself. Last question about last night from AJ for you, Taylor. Yeah, Taylor, Pat mentioned the UPS system.

1:22:22They popped up some contraptions that can keep the lights alive for a while, like some kind of generator, I guess, some kind of fancy generators you showed me. Is Florida State going to invest in these things? Are they going to have a mandate at places that you have to have contingency plans if something like this does happen? You know, that's a good question. And I've asked the ACC what they learned from that, and I think people are still trying to figure it out. I mean, it's just happened. So I think moving forward, of course, when something like this happens, That's usually what transpires, right?

1:22:52Disaster causes everybody to then develop their contingency plan. So I would assume that not only Florida State, but probably the ACC demands something that is available at every stadium across the league to make sure that these situations moving forward are covered.

1:23:07Pat McAfee:I'll tell you what, Taylor. As somebody that has gotten to the bottom of the generator operation multiple times, I don't know if they're ever going to find the right answer. No. Because the only time you find out if it is the right answer is when you need it and if it doesn't work then there's oh well we should have done this actually and it's like okay well i thought that's what you were doing power is an interesting thing especially whenever it's just like a a little bit of a surge it just goes through and knocks out everything it's like well we got to figure out where the hell that came from and how many different wires i saw the report on espn where it said we found it in a bus something station they found a short circuit in a thing it's like okay all right well i appreciate we got football Taylor, that was good news.

1:23:48That was good news. And I've never had to Google so much in my life. What is a transformer? What's a generator? Just making sure my lingo and verbiage was up and I'm not saying the wrong things because a power line and everything that they were communicating to me. I'm like, OK, how can we make this as clear to the audience as possible? So I did a lot more research on power in Tallahassee than I probably did on football last night. And I never would have predicted that.

1:24:14Pat McAfee:Hey, but you got that forever now. You got that forever. There we go. Last question isn't about power or about college. Actually, it is kind of about power. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Taylor, just how enjoyable has this year been with the Cubs? I always think doing your job, like let's say if you were working for the Colorado Rockies, would be very difficult because you're there a lot. The team stinks. They're eliminated midway through the season. But the Cubs are legitimate World Series threats this year. PCA is having an MVP season. just how special has it been doing that all year? It really is. It's such a fun gig.

1:24:53You know, September is the best month of the year for a Major League Baseball sideline reporter because you're really hanging on to every single pitch and especially with the MVP in the National League, the favorite in Pete Crow Armstrong. Every time he steps up to the plate, you just have this belief that he's going to do something incredible. So that's what's really, really fun about it. In a sport where you play 162 games, there can be a little redundancy. But this time of year, it certainly does not feel like that. And it already feels like playoff baseball has kind of begun. And in fact, the minute I get back to my house, I'm driving up to Milwaukee to do the Cubs game tonight in Milwaukee.

1:25:30And that's going to be awesome. Should be a fun one. And looking forward to what PCA could potentially have against Jacob Mizorowski, who is also just an incredible talent in Major League Baseball right now.

1:25:41Pat McAfee:Miz is starting tonight against PCA? Oh, yeah. Okay. Baseball bringing it here on this NFL Eve. Yes, it certainly is. Well, safe travels up there. Thank you for being a beast. Great work last night, and thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me, guys. I hope to see you soon. You got it, ladies and gentlemen. It's Taylor McGregor. Yeah, Taylor. Just driving up to Milwaukee to watch Miz versus PCA tonight. Big series. That's huge. Is this the first game of the series? Second. Who won the first one? They played last night. It was late. I fell asleep. I don't know. I know the Cubs took a lead at some point, but I do not know if they won that game.

1:26:16Tony, do you know who won that game? I've looked it up right now.

1:26:18Pat McAfee:How about tonight? We've got Maze versus PCA. I like that a lot.

1:26:21Darius Butler:Brewers won 4-3. We also have Ben Shelton-Alcaraz tonight. Huge one. Quarterfinals for the U.S. Open.

1:26:28Pat McAfee:And I think Faux is going right now. Yeah. I think Faux is going right now. This U.S. Open is forever. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Take about a month every 10th tournament. How many matches do you have to win to win at all? It seems like 40. I want to say like 15. It can't be that many, can't it? I mean, I seriously thought there was like 160 people in a tennis tournament. I have no idea. Is this like winning and getting the quarterfinals right now? They're in the quarters right now. They're in the quarters. Elimination starts now. Men and women? No, I think it's elimination from one from the first match on.

1:27:00Pat McAfee:You've got to win seven total games. Seven. Matches, sets. Matches. Games. Yeah. Tennis, matches. All right. Match. All right. We tried. Set match. Game's part of a set. Malika told me she was in a hotel for 22 days. So that's how long, I guess, the U.S. Open is. A long time. Got to really be dialed in. Dialed. Is Wimbledon this long? Yeah. I mean, it must be. They all are. I mean, in England. Are they real? All the majors? All the majors are, yeah. I mean, super long. That have gone as far, I guess, as far as, I don't know, this amount of Americans making it this far. I saw some tweet saying, like, it hasn't been this many since whatever year.

1:27:40For men's and women's? Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome.

1:27:42Pat McAfee:Let's go, America. Let's go back to last night. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now. Nope, hold. Okay. All right. Is this still tennis? No. Well, to add, Coco Gauff became, like, the first woman to make the quarters in every single major or whatever it's called since, like, Serena Williams, by the way. I think she did that last night. Did Serena and Venus, they played in this, right? Yeah, they were playing doubles. How'd they do? I bet on them, I don't think I got the crown. I don't think they won. I saw one of them had a bad unforced error, and they were both laughing, kind of just jacking around.

1:28:16So I think they were just... What do you mean laughing, jacking around? I think like 10 years ago, they would have been at each other's throats, like, hey, let's go, let's win. And Serena was like, God, that was so bad. Like, I think they were just having fun out there.

1:28:28Pat McAfee:I like that they're doing that. Yeah. Because Roger Federer did a behind-the-back thing. Yeah. So he's going to have a good time. Yeah. I didn't know I should bet on him, though. I think I should find out. Yeah, maybe don't. You know, because if I see the Williams sisters. Are you jacking around or not? Maybe I need to pay closer attention to what's going on. That seems like a smart decision. The man who was paying very close attention to everything going on last night, ending up starting with a dub. Ladies and gentlemen, the head coach of the SMU Mustangs, Mr. Rhett Lashley. Yeah, Rhett! How you doing, man?

1:28:59Pat McAfee:We just talked to Taylor McGregor, and she was talking about finding out about Transformers and power, you guys having to go Amish and in meetings you guys were having can you just talk about first of all congratulations man congrats on the meantime I appreciate it what a cardiac type win late night down there in Tallahassee can you just tell me about last night and what you're telling your team through it all yeah thanks we're definitely glad to be 1-0 we made it harder than it had to be but um we like doing hard things apparently um yeah it was weird right we're actually about to run out of the tunnel and you know how it works Pat like you're on the road their team's gonna to run out and they got some guy saying hey you're running out at 3 30 and all this stuff and then like there's 4 40 on the clock we're at the tunnel waiting for Florida State to run out then so we can run out and the clock just stops at 4 40 and so we're all just standing there and finally he's like look just run out 30 seconds after they come out we're like okay so we run out on the field the captains go out they flip the coin we win the toss we take the ball and the next thing you do is you kind of look up and it was kind of like right as the sun was setting and you realize the lights aren't even on and so then we're all kind of standing there like what's going on there's a little bit of a delay and officials come over like hey we have an issue we're like yeah no kidding uh the lights aren't on the clocks aren't working but but it was weird because half the half the stadiums the scoreboard was still on and some other things were still on and so we ended up waiting for five or ten minutes they kept coming back and forth about 15 minutes into it mike and I just walk out to midfield and we're just talking like, Hey, what do you want to do?

1:30:28You know, how, how much longer do we wait till we need to go back in and sit and how long till we need to restretch and all that. And so, uh, eventually we just went in a little before eight, we went back into the locker room game was supposed to kick at seven 35 and, uh, they kept hoping they could get it done, but, uh, they couldn't. So about eight, about eight 30, they call, I walk across the field, go into the Florida state tunnel. Never done that before on the road. Smart. and and then they took us into like their old weight room and we had the commissioner of our league both our school presidents both our ad's and me and mike in there we were trying to figure out what we're going to do and uh fortunately they were able to get enough of the lights on for us to play you know make it playable and um we just weren't going to have any coach to player any ipads we did have headsets that worked so we could talk to our coaches in the booth and that was really it other than that it was just old school no game clock no play clock and Mike and I just agreed hey it's the same for everybody let's let's go old school and go play so

1:31:26Pat McAfee:so that's what we did well I like that you two made that decision and obviously we're very thankful we got a football game out there in the ridiculous abnormal conditions in which you lose power because of a power surge in a short circuit somewhere else I mean that can all possibly happen I guess anytime and it's almost like we should maybe start paying attention to power grid a little bit too yeah you know like let's make sure we got the power grid all kind of tightened up you talk about agreeing like we'll have headsets to the booth but we got no other conversation play clock game clock i think taylor mcgregor just told us that she asked you when's the last time you had to like coach like this you said a couple years haven't even done it because this is something that doesn't even kind of cross your mind what do you tell them we're going to go to number system we're going to put on like how did you kind of adjust with the offense because obviously it worked you out gained florida state by 260 yards or something like that so the offense obviously still worked you were running hurry up there early what did you change and how long did you have to make that change with the lads?

1:32:18Yeah, good question. I mean, for us, we like to play with tempo anyway, so we already signal everything. But two years ago, they gave us coach to player, and so when we aren't going fast, we do huddle up. I'm able to talk to Kevin, you know, until 15 seconds on the clock, just like they do in the NFL. And look, now in this day of college sports, we're espionage, legally espionage, stealing signals and all that's a thing. When you're not going fast it's important to be able to huddle so people can't pick your signals and and kind of lost that so we were actually going old school when I say old school when we weren't going fast I was telling the huddle and Kevin was running out to the numbers and I was coming out to the numbers and telling him the play and then he was running in to the huddle um because we didn't want to risk signaling and them them being able to pick what we had going on and um so that's what we did and uh we didn't have to change anything else now to my point to Taylor yeah two years until two years ago we couldn't talk in the headset so we just kind of went back to doing what we used to always do um but that's all we've worked for two years so fortunately kevin's been with us long enough his first year as a starter or playing a lot we didn't have coach to player so he and i had some experience doing it and then i think it was about five minutes left in the second quarter when all of a sudden the game clock play clock came on the stadium and we got coach to player back

1:33:37Pat McAfee:big announcements made we have power and all of a sudden go green dot again i like that you talk about kevin in the way that you do 400 some yards obviously three tuds has a couple turnovers one of them look really bad down in the red zone obviously gonna have to get that fixed but let's talk a little bit more about him go ahead con man yeah coach there's so many great quarterbacks in college football right now it feels like kevin jennings is the guy that's kind of sliding under the radar across the board you know and you mentioned that he's been starting there for a little bit now but what have you seen from him you know growth wise as a leader wise and how big was it to have him last night with all these weird circumstances just to have a ton of confidence in him to go out and execute the game plan man it was huge um and you know he's healthy this year so he can do some things with his feet you know he had 30 40 yards rushing last night but he extended some plays look more like the kevin from two years ago you know to pat's point um i hate The stat line looks like it did.

1:34:30The first turnover in the red zone was the receiver ran the wrong route. And that's unfortunate. We're about to throw a touchdown and probably go up 24-10 and hopefully try to pull away because, to your point, we won everything except the dadgum scoreboard. You know, I wish Kevin, when he saw he ran the wrong route, was getting a little pressure, wouldn't have thrown it up. But, man, if he goes in like he was supposed to, he had a shot. But we didn't. Now, the second pick wasn't good. And so – but, man, when you talk about a game like that, we ran almost 70 plays. I think he had one bad play. had almost 500 yards of offense like he's special um you know and to your point that's kind of why we did the whole Heisman campaign that's why we've been talking about him because we have to tell his story if we don't no one else will and look Darren Mintz is great he goes out and throws for 400 that's all anybody talks about Kevin goes out against a much better opponent and throws for 430 so um he's special he gives us a chance to win his experience in that moment last night when it It was weird, and we have an hour and 45-minute delay.

1:35:29He was playing with one skilled player he had played with last year. Everyone else was different, running backs, tight ends, receivers. He missed two weeks of fall camp, and still he looked like he was in midseason form.

1:35:39Pat McAfee:Andrew Luck's going to be pissed about what you just said last year. Crap. I love you, Andrew. Hey, we've got to play him. They're not going to be happy. I like that. Not at all, but you're just complimenting your guy. That's all you're trying to do right now. And I love Andrew. That's the problem. Yeah, I think he's going to hear what you say. I don't like what you just said. And I'm sure the Stanford crowd is going to make you hear that. They're certainly going to show up and make you hear for that. You talked about him playing with only one skill player. There's also a lot of new people in the building.

1:36:06Pat McAfee:Go ahead, Tone.

1:36:06Darius Butler:Yeah, Coach, obviously you're calling plays on the offensive side of the ball, but you also have two new coordinators this year. How did that go into last night? And what did you come away with from your new coordinators after last night's game? Yeah, I was really pleased with how we communicated, how everything worked on offense. Yeah, I call the plays, but we do have a lot of consistency. Derek King and Garen Justice, you know Garen. Those are our co-coordinators on offense, and they've been with us the last three years. So they've kind of taken over on the offensive side. And then on defense, Maurice Crum and Ricky Hundley have been on Scott Simon's staff the last three years.

1:36:42You know, they're co-coordinators, most call on the defense. And I thought for the first night they did a really nice job. You know, we put them in some tough spots. We muff a punt. You know, we... What did you think of that punt, by the way?

1:36:56Pat McAfee:It was a heck of a kick. You know, our punter can do that too. We kick those sidewinders on purpose, right? When you have a good returner, because our guy's a really good returner, you kick those, one, to keep it away from them, and you hope they try to field it. And Miz is our punt returner there. He's usually excellent, and he tried to field it and got a really bad second hop, hit his toe. And sometimes you've got to know when you're a really – it's kind of like you said with Kevin. When you're a really good punt returner, every now and then you've got to let it go. So you can't field them all, even though we'd love to say field position.

1:37:25But we got the most faith in him. He'll be fine. But it was a heck of a punt. I mean, those are really hard, as you know, to field.

1:37:30Pat McAfee:Yeah, I can never do it. It's always the Aussies. They've been doing that since they were a kid. Because if you miss that just by this much, you're hitting that thing. I think you're hitting that thing straight sideways. It's like I didn't have enough gut sack to do that on the field in a real game. Well, their guy's an Aussie. Our guy's an Aussie. Our guy can kick with his left and his right. Well, Americans can do that, too. Let's make sure we fucking remember that. Okay, let's make sure we remember that. But I do appreciate and respect the Aussies. Let's go back to last night. Last question about it.

1:37:57Pat McAfee:Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, Coach, I guess they mentioned the possibility of suspending the game and coming back the next day. I guess how close were you guys to that? Was that something you guys talked about back in that room? I think we got pretty close. Like when I walked across the field about 830, we'd been in the delay about an hour, and walked all the way into their tunnel. that's the first time they got the home side of the lights on. They had gotten the visitor's side up, but the home side came on except for two big blocks, but it was enough to kind of light the field. But they weren't sure that was going to hold.

1:38:29And we were talking about if that held, we could play, but if that didn't, you know, they were talking about, like you said, I don't know all the fancy words, transponders and all this other stuff.

1:38:40Pat McAfee:Transformers, Rhett, have a break. Transformers, yeah, whatever. Transformers, whatever. Thank you, good God. Where's Optimus Prime when you need him? I think he was there last night, actually, as part of the problem. Robots in disguise. And so it had gotten brought up. So Florida State has an off-way. We have to play Saturday. We play UC Davis this Saturday. And it's a pretty quick turnaround. And we were discussing, like, there was a chance the game would have been played today at 2 o 'clock. And if the game didn't get played last night, our commissioner was great. He came up to me and Mike.

1:39:10He goes, hey, whatever you guys feel is best, I want to support. because he knows we got the teams, we got a lead. But we needed to obviously get a conference game played. But had that happened, I don't know. I mean, Florida State has some runway with an off week. Would we have played today and then not played UC Davis? Like, I'm not sure what would have happened there. We didn't have to get to that. But there was some real conversation. We were up against it where we probably felt like we had 30 minutes to an hour. And if some things didn't hold and didn't work, we were going to probably be looking at playing today.

1:39:40Pat McAfee:Speaking of next week, UC Davis coming up here quickly. Obviously, anytime you play on a Monday and then a game on Saturday, that only leaves you a few days to get the boys ready. But we know this is a huge week. Go ahead, D-Bug. Yeah, short turnaround, Coach. With no preseason in college football, I feel like we see a lot of sloppy play or unforced errors, and I know coaches hate that. What are kind of the details? Because we always hear the cliches of teams improving, making their biggest improvement from week one to week two. What are some of those details actually in practice or in meeting rooms that you're really focusing on?

1:40:10Great question. And, yeah, week ones are tough. And for us, that was a week one game. You saw if you watched the Louisville Ole Miss game two nights ago, it was 10 to 6 at half until the offenses kind of woke up. It just takes a little bit of time sometimes. I was really happy that we came away with a win when there was a lot of really good. Offensively, we did a lot of good. Defensively, we did a lot of good. But there was enough sloppy with three turnovers on offense, the muff punt. We only had six penalties, but there was two or three that were really critical. and it's always a lot more fun to correct things and get their attention with a win.

1:40:44And we can come in and say, man, we won on the road against a talented opponent in conference week one with a lot of new faces. But guys, we're not going to beat many people, you know, with a 4-1 turnover margin, really 4-0.

1:40:56Pat McAfee:Did you ever win a game minus three turnover? I mean, I think. Actually, yeah, Pat, we beat Duke two years ago with a 6-0 turnover margin. Jeez. Damn. I do. We like doing hard things. how is that because i think there's like every stat in the history it's like if you're minus two you're gonna win like 12 or something like that minus three drops you down i think like a four like a five percent let alone losing time of possession which i think you do a lot because you move so quick so if that potentially happens for you but muff punt missed kicks like everything says that you guys should not have won last night let alone there being no power to the stadium in its entirety.

1:41:36Pat McAfee:I like that you say we like doing hard things. I assume that's what you say to the team. We just have to do this every time. Is that your messaging or no? No. My message is we can't do this very often. I think in the last decade there's been six times a team has won with a minus four turnover margin or whatever we were last night and all these other things and we've done two of them. So we've probably ran out of our options there. We probably don't have any more in the bag. So no, but I just think what last night was sometimes winning some tight games with some adversity, maybe not, I don't want to say ugly.

1:42:09There's no ugly wins, but a little bit not as clean as you'd like. We could have made it easier on ourselves in the second half. It's important in the season because what I do think we saw is we could be really good. I think we saw a lot of ability because there's a lot of talented athletes on that Florida State team, and they're still really well coached. I know they've been struggling, but it's not nothing to go into Doak Campbell and to find a way to win, but have all those miscues. Like if we can tighten that up and clean that up, then we have a chance, I think, to be a really good football team.

1:42:41Pat McAfee:Man, if not, it sounds like you guys win those games anyways. It sounds like that's a lot of fun for you to watch on the sideline, a little cardiac game after game after game as you're allowing the football gods to potentially take the win away and you steal it from the jaws of defeat. Now, the ACC, though, feels like we got some real teams. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Coach, it seems like when we talk about college football It's the Big Ten and the SEC, and then the ACC and the Big 12 are kind of – people put them in a different stratosphere. But, I mean, you mentioned it. Miami went to the national championship last year.

1:43:12Everyone's talking about them. You guys have been to the college football playoff within the last couple years. And even Virginia Tech with James Franklin, they look resurgent. Louisville took Ole Miss to the brink the other night. Virginia looks good. Do you feel like the overall strength of the ACC is very, very – maybe the best it's been since you've been there? And how big do you think that divide actually is between you guys and, you know, maybe the Big Ten and the SEC? Yeah, I think so. I think the thing about our league is there's a lot of parity top to bottom. You just mentioned it. Look what Virginia did week one against a really talented NC State bunch.

1:43:48Look what Virginia Tech did. Look what Pitt did. Pitt's not getting talked about, but, like, they've got a returning quarterback scoring a bunch of points. Pat's always good on defense there. Louisville, I agree. I mean, every year Louisville to me is one of the top three or four teams in our league. They can beat anybody and almost got it done against Ole Miss with a first time starting QB. Miami's obviously back. I mean, I think there's – I mean, look at Florida State and Clemson that are – and, you know, their standards struggling but still have really talented players. I think there's six to eight teams that can win our league.

1:44:24And if last year doesn't tell you anything, I mean, a team that tied for second in our league and a five-way tie played for the national title. So I do think so. I think, you know, to your point, we've got to win some of those big out-of-conference games. Last year we went 8-6 against the SEC. Nobody talks about that, but we did. So, you know, we've got to come through when it matters there. But I do think we have, you know, at least four or five teams that could compete to not only win the league but get into the playoffs.

1:44:54Pat McAfee:North Carolina, look out. Bill Belichick seemingly has a roster that maybe looks like a college football team this year. Yeah. Right? Definitely. And I want to let you know, I'll say it right to your face. I was asked on college game day who's going to win the ACC. I should have thought maybe the team of Destiny, SMU lads. You know, Louisville, they're going to be a problem. Yeah. Miami, obviously. Miami again. I didn't even think SMU must have. And I want to let you know, that is rude of me. I said North Carolina, but I think that goes to what was kind of talked about with the ACC. Feels like more teams now than ever.

1:45:32Pat McAfee:How has the NIL affected your team, you think? Because I know North Dallas, right, I think is where you guys are, from my understanding. I've never been there, but from my understanding. Not a bad place to be. Oh, yeah. I heard there's – we got big fucking houses. Big, big houses. from my understanding. Yeah. Great cars. We're talking great cars. We're talking real, you know, valeting everywhere, show parking. A lot of honey holes. Oh, so many honey holes down there north. They were ready to game it in IL, too. Yeah, kind of way back. Yeah, I think they were. They were ahead of schedule. Yeah, unfortunately a little too ahead, yeah.

1:46:12Pat McAfee:No, but they just, they kind of knew what was coming way back. I mean, people weren't happy back then, though. No. Death. Yeah. That's what they said. Death to this team. But it does feel like you're potentially in a very good spot with the modern rules and where everything's headed down at SMU, and that never really gets talked about with you guys. Is that an accurate assessment? Yeah, well, first off, we've got to get you to come hang out with us. You'd really like it. Like, come down here, spend some time. You know, it sounds like your kind of place the way you're talking. No, no, no, that's what I'm saying.

1:46:42Pat McAfee:I think we would. I'm saying I don't know if I'd ever been in one of these types of places, but I do think I'd like to come look around from my understanding. Probably really nice restaurants. Great restaurants. Oh, my God. How about, I bet you the sidewalks. Oh, yeah. Oh, so clean. Maybe marble sidewalks. Yeah, the bulls tip to tip down there. Oh, we got big old longhorns in between there, though. The steak's probably so good. Holy shit. The steaks are pretty good. Yeah, we are. We're well positioned. Well positioned. We're well on. Sorry, we are well positioned. Yeah, we've got great alignment for probably the first time in about 40 years, to your point.

1:47:24And because of what happened in the 80s, and look, I've always said that the excuse that everyone else is doing it doesn't justify doing it. But it wasn't like SMU was the only people doing that back then. They're just the people that they decided to punish. But that did set our school back and our football program and our athletics program back 30, 40 years. And so as we've come out of this, though, we have great alignment from our president to our boosters and our donors and everyone that is extremely successful, like you're alluding to, and our administration on the athletic side. We want to be great at football.

1:47:56We want to be great at athletics because that enhances the entire university. So we're in a great situation because we have commitment and alignment and we have the resources. And that's why I feel like we can continue to build on what we've done over the last few years. And, you know, it's hard to win, but I think we've only scratched the surface of what we can build long term here.

1:48:13Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think so, too, from my understanding. Because they got bumper stickers on. Ferrari's down there saying, my other car is a Hawker. And that's a private plane. You know, so that is, I think that's what they're doing down there. Yeah, from my understanding. Good for you. You're the right coach for the job, too. Obviously, offensively, it's incredible. Modern day and age, relating, reaching, all of it. We're huge fans of yours. Please tell Big Oak we said what's up. And good luck the rest of the way. Thanks, Pat. Appreciate you guys. Ladies and gentlemen, that's head coach at SMU, Rhett Lashley.

1:48:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, coach.

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1:49:49Pat McAfee:kind of an acc showcase here today a little bit yeah nice on espn they deserve it too so whenever they say espn how we get left out of that stuff whenever that gets talked about then whenever it's all the bad stuff we get brought in you ever realize that That's interesting how that works.

1:50:05Darius Butler:I have realized that, actually.

1:50:06Pat McAfee:They don't talk about any other sports. It's like ESPN doesn't cover anything. It's like, do we count? Do we not count? Then whenever it's bad, we do count. Okay, got it. I like that. Uphill is both ways. We like that type of stuff. We like adversity, don't we, AJ? We like doing hard things, as Coach said. We like making it harder on ourselves. That's right. Brett Lasher was awesome. He was at SMU whenever I was doing Thursday nights. He was the offensive coordinator. Then he goes down to South Florida somewhere. Miami. Okay, he goes down to Miami. Then he gets a job back at SMU, and it was like – I think he was very happy to be there when he was the offensive coordinator.

1:50:39Pat McAfee:I think he liked the area. I think he liked the school. I think he liked – I think he loved being at SMU, actually, genuinely, when I was talking to him down there when I first got to meet him. And Garen Justice, former offensive lineman for West Virginia, is their co-offensive coordinator. He's been with Rhett since that time, once Miami, and came back with him. So just getting to learn a little bit about their entire operation. I like the way he operates. And they got money. They're gooeya. Yeah, they're good. His offense is one that good players want to play into because there's a lot of yardage, so you can pick up a lot of your type of players in the transfer portal if you have the funds to be able to do as such.

1:51:13Pat McAfee:They do, from my understanding. So look out, especially in an ACC that's packed. What if the ACC gets three spots in a CFP? Why not? That would be shocking. That would get crazy. Okay, you know what that would do? That would certainly take a little bit away from the Big Ten. That would be shocking. A little bit away from the SEC.

1:51:28Darius Butler:That's not get crazy. If Louisville would have won, maybe. Maybe it would have been in the cards, but obviously not this weekend because he talked about UC Davis, but Louisville and SMU play the weekend after. So that would be an interesting one to watch.

1:51:40Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think the ACC obviously has Miami. Yeah. And Miami's never won the ACC. Ever.

1:51:47Darius Butler:Which makes no sense. Since 2004, I think they joined.

1:51:50Pat McAfee:I was getting attacked by Miami people. I feel like I'm a pretty big Miami supporter. Yeah. As somebody that didn't go to Miami. I had a couple people from Miami with a little bit of following. They were attacking me for picking UNC to win the ACC. It's like the ACC tournament is, you might as well just, from my understanding, unless Miami goes undefeated, which they might. They might just handle business outright. But if you ask Coach Griswold, he said our last two losses are against ACC teams. So the ACC league in of itself is very confusing. I mean, they didn't even have power last night in the game.

1:52:20Pat McAfee:They were playing without a green eye. It's like the ACC is pretty chaotic, but they got a lot of teams that could steal wins. They've got a lot of teams that can maybe become great. Miami sits atop in our eyes, in all fronts. But to win the ACUC, which Miami has never done, you're going to have to get through a lot of shit, I think, throughout this season. Well, and if I remember correctly, when SMU went to the playoff, they got beat in the ACC title game by Clemson anyway. So it's like, yeah, in the college football era, the team that has went to the college football playoff from the ACC has not been the champion.

1:52:51Pat McAfee:Yeah, it's been fascinating. And I think the Clemson guy hit a 50 or maybe – Yeah, it was. It was a deep field goal. 56 yarder or something like that as time expired. I think we were on a plane watching that as we were traveling back from somewhere else.

1:53:02Darius Butler:Clemson played Texas in the playoff save.

1:53:05Pat McAfee:Yeah, Clemson-LSU game is tough for the ACC. This is it right here. Is this the kick? Yeah, 56 yarder. Oh, what year was this? Two years ago. 2024.

1:53:16Darius Butler:We watched it in the suite when Oregon beat Penn State in the Big Ten championship. Yeah, that's what it was. This is right after. Yeah.

1:53:23Pat McAfee:What a kick. That was a freshman, I think. I think he was a freshman at that point, and he talked about it. Maybe his family played soccer, and there's Rhett taking it off going, you got to be full kidding me. Son of a bitch. Dabo Swinney, that was the time. It's the last time he smiled, yeah. That being said, UNC is a wild pick. It's a wild pick. I agree. Why not? They know ball. So I legitimately was just thinking. Bill? Bill's going to make every one of these games just disgusting.

1:53:49Darius Butler:Yep.

1:53:49Pat McAfee:It's going to be disgusting.

1:53:51Darius Butler:We'll see. Well, and then you have Petrino on the offensive ball wanting to open it up.

1:53:57Pat McAfee:And they got guys that look like college football players this year. They too. Last year, I mean, they didn't really look like a college football team.

1:54:04Darius Butler:No, they're maybe one of the worst offenses in college football this year.

1:54:07Pat McAfee:They've got a lot happening outside the building and maybe inside the building from my understanding. That's what it sounds like. Let's talk about some draft games. On what? On them to win the ACC. Get some good odds on that one. Give me money? Yes, good value there. And we got a bunch of people mad at me about picking West Virginia winning the Big 12. It's like, okay, we'll see. Those people get it. Texas Tech, I get it. I like Texas Tech.

1:54:28Darius Butler:UNC's plus 17 ,000.

1:54:30Pat McAfee:Woo! That's not that crazy. Come on. Come on. Get on now. Only in front of Stanford and BC. All right. Okay. Just so I know, what is Stanford?

1:54:42Darius Butler:Plus 40 ,000.

1:54:43Pat McAfee:And what is BC?

1:54:44Darius Butler:Plus 50 ,000.

1:54:45Pat McAfee:Okay, plus 70 ,000. That's a pretty big gap. Okay, so they know what I'm saying. You never know. All I know is we'll be back tomorrow as the NFL kicks off. Holy hell, one more sleep. Nailed it. Fucking right on the screen. If that was timed up with that. Right. Nailed it right there. Because there's only one more. One more sleep. One more sleep. Hey, you know who's doing this again? AJ, have you heard? Who, Shohei? I don't know. Aaron Judge is, though, from my understanding. Judge is back. It was announced with one video on social saying, hey, Captain's back. Let's all rise. Is that what's happening?

1:55:20Pat McAfee:Aaron, how are the Yankees as we sit right now? They are still the number one wildcard team in the AL. They are about four games behind the Rays right now. They have a four-game set with the Rays coming up. So, yeah, I mean, perfect timing. Could not happen sooner. They have been one of the worst offenses in baseball since Judgey got hurt. He's missed 84 games. He is the straw that serves the drink. He is fucking unbelievable. his stats before he I mean he broke he broke his a rib when he was diving for a ball in the outfield he tried to play through it for like another month and just wasn't the same they thought he had thoracic outlet syndrome which apparently is like kind of a death knoll for like your career yeah it would have been like hey he's never going to be the same guy again it wasn't that it was just a really bad break to one of his ribs so he's going to be back tonight and boy boy boy Boy, do the Yankees need him.

1:56:13They have the Rockies for a three-game set. So hopefully – I anticipate that he'll probably maybe start tonight, maybe get like two at-bats and then probably come out of the game. Like they're going to work him back in as we get –

1:56:25Pat McAfee:Where's the game at? It's at Yankee Stadium. Okay, so we can assume bombs coming from Aaron Judge? I would – the odds for him to hit a home run are probably better tonight than they will like – than they have been all year and ever will be again. but the big thing is I have no idea how many at-bats he's going to get. He just started seeing live pitching again a couple days ago. This is more so like, hey, we want to get him back out there. We need to get him ready for the playoffs. He's not doing a rehab assignment. He's doing it against Major League Pitching. Yeah, I think he was like plus 285 maybe to hit a homer tonight.

1:56:59246 now. 246 now. I just have no idea how many at-bats he's going to get.

1:57:03Pat McAfee:Okay, so they sent Roman Anthony to Portland when he was coming back. We don't do that. the judgey because he's Aaron Judge? He basically said like I know exactly what I'd need to do to get back. I've had to do this before like so no I'm not going to be doing a rehab assignment especially with we're at the point of the season where they're four games back. They have the Rays coming up like they need to they need to win all these games. They can't really afford to have him down in AAA taking at bats you know like that's a waste of time. If he can get right he can do that by playing and he's good enough to get right while playing in the majors.

1:57:37I can't

1:57:37Pat McAfee:wait to see Judgey back, especially with what's potentially coming down the pipe for next baseball season with him with the Savannah Bananas. Yeah, need him in shape. Yeah, we do need him hitting bombs into October and then we could see him in April on the wild thing. Him and Jazz Chisholm. Yeah, him and Jazz Chisholm for sure. They'd be perfect for the Bananas. Brand new team that's never played Savannah ball. You could say they're kind of virgins to Savannah baseball. And that could potentially be Jazz Chisholm and Aaron Judgey and everything like that. You know what I mean? Jazz is a wacky guy.

1:58:12Pat McAfee:Who is? Jazz. Yeah. He's a virgin. I'm guessing he's not a virgin. That would just be my initial guess. Maybe he is. I don't know. A tennis virgin. A U.S. Open tennis virgin. Yeah, and Savannah Banana baseball virgin. He's not worried about that. He has a contract year. He's looking at signing a big money deal somewhere. He better have a... So his contract's up after this season? Yeah. I think that's what I'm saying. So he has no allegiances after this particular season? I mean, technically, yeah, unless they're going to give him like$30 million a year, which I don't think, you know, bananas are making.

1:58:48Maybe they are. I'm not sure. I don't know. What are they making over there?

1:58:52Pat McAfee:A lot. They're selling out college football stadiums. They're making a lot of money, buddy. Yeah. And this is what – Judge, you might bat one-handed for the Savannah Bananas. Oh, that would be so sweet. Might have one arm behind his back. Maybe a gavel. Maybe he'll use his dick. Oh, even better. You know, I mean, if we're just fucking making all these jokes. Maybe he'll use the bat in between his legs. If anyone can do it, it can be fucking jokes. That's what Savannah Banners do.

1:59:21Darius Butler:They go shirtless and pull their penises out. No, they do not. They don't do that. I feel like that's all I see.

1:59:26Pat McAfee:That is not what happens. They still play the banana ball championship. You never get to it. No, they have playoffs and a championship. I know, but then it's right back at the start of the climb. That's a problem, then. No, it's not. It's a never-ending chase for greatness with the Savannah Bananas. And I want to let you know, next offseason is about to be the greatest Savannah Bananas we've ever seen. I don't even know if the Bananas are the best team in the league. They can't beat the fucking Loco Beach Coconuts, so you tell me what's going on. Wow, sounds like you know a little bit about Banana Ball.

1:59:56I know the names of the teams. I thought the firefighters were at the top of the... Well, the tailgaters are pretty tough, too. What about the climb? Can we talk about the Indianapolis Clonk? Duh, Jackie Bradley Jr. JBJ, baby, yeah. No, I know. You've been to it again?

2:00:08Pat McAfee:Way to go. Oh, really sounds like you're maybe just from one moment to the next there because you're kind of killing them. And then all of a sudden it's like, wait, maybe deep down you are one of their biggest fans. Kind of banana-ing. Yeah, no, I'm not. No, maybe, though. But sure. Hey, do the trick plays give them points? I know they keep it running. How does it give you points? Well, you win enough points, you get certain things. Yeah, if you get like, what is it, 10 points, you get to whip your dick out the next inning. I think that's what that's. That never happens. I think it's a running total just to tell you to take your shirt off, whip your penis out of your trousers.

2:00:38No. Here's rule number one.

2:00:42Pat McAfee:If you win the inning, you get a point, so no game is really out of reach. Rule two, two-hour timeline. We ain't got time. No stepping out. Once you're in there, you're in there. Rule number four, no bunting. We hate bunting, obviously. Batters can steal first base. No walks a lot. No mind visits. If a fan catches, can we scroll? Thank you. Fan catches a foul ball. It's an out-group work, Bruce. Showdown is a tiebreaker. Hey, showdown? I've actually – that is the one thing I saw the other night. The showdown thing is pretty sweet. They have one guy on the field. He's usually playing shortstop, and this motherfucker – like, a guy hit a ball to the wall, and the guy at shortstop had to run all the way to the fucking wall and try to throw him out at home.

2:01:22It was pretty funny. It was Mickey Moss, obviously. Oh, now you don't want to be too big a fan. No, I mean – Rule number 10? It's Mickey Moss. Let's not get crazy. Well, it's Savannah Banana Baseball. It's a good gimmick. And then after the guy cut him down at home plate and whipped his dick out. No, he did not. That did not happen. That's what they're playing for. That does not happen.

2:01:40Pat McAfee:Who whipped it out? Rule number 10, the Banana Ball Challenge rule. Rule number 11, the Golden Batter rule.

2:01:45Darius Butler:Okay.

2:01:46Pat McAfee:Okay, these are all the rules of Banana Baseball as they sell out football stadiums. There is no appendages. Are you sure? Yeah.

2:01:52Darius Butler:I looked at the playoffs. They play Cirque du Soleil and then Disney on Ice right after that.

2:01:57Pat McAfee:Wait. that would be sick the Cirque du Soleil would be crazy I don't know if they can catch or throw you gotta remember all these banana ball players good ball players real players for real Now I saw a white chair right after. You forgot to do that. What was that? Let's move along here. Star status we have for week one NFL season. We had the graphic earlier. We corrected the graphic so it wasn't just telling people this is exactly right. This is where we sit on this September 8th, 2026. From reading the tea leaves, Alec Pierce seemingly playing. Jeremiah Love seemingly playing. George Kittle, probable to be playing, seemingly playing.

2:02:44Pat McAfee:Ashton Gentry, cautiously optimistic. Yep. Seems like he might be playing. More likely than not. Raul Madunze, I don't love it.

2:02:55Darius Butler:Yeah, they originally said on September 3rd that it was a minor injury, but he's still out of practice, so we'll see.

2:03:00Pat McAfee:Okay, Malik, remember, first week here, they don't have to say shit.

2:03:03Darius Butler:True.

2:03:04Pat McAfee:They don't have to tell anybody anything, which is kind of a little bit of a fun game to watch these insiders is try to figure out who's active, who's not active, who's where, who's playing, how much are they playing, because these teams are trying to give away zero advantage to anybody else in their preparation. For instance, the Rams, even though it all appears as if Aaron Donald's playing, Aaron Donald on his press conference said it felt good, took me a couple plays at 11 on 11, and then all of a sudden it really cleared up. I'm not where I need to be yet, but I think it's pretty good. He said virtually no drop-off.

2:03:33Pat McAfee:Yeah, and he thinks he could only get better. He's coming off a two-year rest where maybe his body is feeling better than it felt towards the end of his career with hopefully all the knowledge that he had whenever he was playing, while also accruing some, I assume, from being an outside looking into the fans and seeing some other stuff. I think Aaron Donald's going to play, but why would the Rams come out and say that? You know, we'll just make them think. You don't have to. Or wonder. Same thing with Niners with Kittle. We'll just make them wonder. Yeah, waste some time thinking or wondering whether or not Kittle's coming when they both probably understand what's happening in the reality.

2:04:04Pat McAfee:That's why nothing's been formally announced. Travion Harrison, doubtful. Eman Worry, that's big names for our season. Bosa, we assume. Joey Porter Jr., now this is the interesting one. Tongue Diggs, what have you heard? What do you know? Joey Porter Jr. is the last corner standing without a deal, basically from this offseason of corners wanting to get paid. It's been all across the league. Boom, bang, boom, big numbers. Corner back in the market as being a needed player, especially with the run game. If you can have a corner that can take away a player, obviously that person is going to be rewarded mightily.

2:04:36Pat McAfee:If you can get a player or a corner that can tackle and be in on the entire defense so they don't have to add more bodies, that player's going to get rewarded mightily. Joey Porter Jr., considered a guy that should get rewarded mightily by a lot of people, especially outside of Pittsburgh Steelers organization. If he was hit the market, we assume he would get a lot of money to go play somewhere else. Well, he's a Pittsburgh Steeler now. His deal has not been completed. Gonzo's deal gets done in a big way. Joey Porter Jr., is he upset about this now that Gonzo got a deal? Is he going to choose to play?

2:05:04Pat McAfee:Is he playing? And Mark Paboli, our Pittsburgh Steelers correspondent, said, sure seems like he's playing. Tone, where do you sit and what is everybody saying about Joey Porter Jr. playing against Falcons Tua? Yep. That could be a potential good lead-in to the rest of the NFL season.

2:05:21Darius Butler:Yeah. Listen, he's been ramping up at practice every single day over the last week, doing more and more each day. The depth chart came out today, and he was listed as an or with Asante Samuel Jr. on the starting depth chart. So we'll see there. I would be shocked if he does not sign a contract before Sunday.

2:05:41Pat McAfee:Do you have any inside information on that? Not yet. Oh, you're trying, though.

2:05:46Darius Butler:Not yet. I got some lines. Got some lines in the water. Got some feelers out there.

2:05:49Pat McAfee:Hey, I'm sick of talking about this every day. Can you guys give me a little bit of a heads-up or guidance on what I need to be saying here?

2:05:54Darius Butler:So we will see. But, I mean, as we see deadline spur action, we saw it with Gonzo last night. And now that all the corners have been paid, we know what all the numbers are for everybody. There's no questions left out there. They paid four other guys from that draft class already this year in this offseason. So that's already been taken care of. I would be shocked if he doesn't sign before Sunday, a new contract.

2:06:14Pat McAfee:Okay, Joey Porter Jr. maybe signs. Age, how do you feel about Mike McCarthy doing week-to-week captains? McDonald doing the same thing. Might be an Irish thing. You got to earn it every single week. C's on the jersey obviously have become synonymous with a lot of great players across the league, especially older players that are deemed leaders. How do you feel about this kind of strategy or mindset towards the captains? And how will this work out, you think, for McCarthy as somebody that's been in the building? I like it. I mean, this is kind of all I knew as an NFL guy. I came in with Big Mike, and we had every week there's just new captains named.

2:06:46And, you know, the whole picture thing, if anyone remembers back in the day of seeing Favre started getting peeking his head in the back of the captain's photo, and then Aaron carried that on for years and years. But what he did do was they would vote for playoff captains. That's the only time the team would vote for captains. They do it just for the playoffs. And so I'm a fan of this, doing it week-to-week, especially when you can get a guy, like we mentioned earlier, like Jair, like a hometown kid to go out there when he gets to play in a visiting stadium that he grew up in the area. Whether the coach names you captain or not, you know what?

2:07:11Just get on out there, buddy. It's yours.

2:07:13Pat McAfee:Yeah, I love that Jair did that. And I've been on teams that did the week-to-week. There was like one spot. There was like three captains, and then there was one spot that was kind of a week-to-week type thing. And then obviously been on teams where there's named captains throughout the entire year. And then I think I was on a team where they did what you were inferring to right there, where week to week, week to week, and then it got to a certain point, and it was like, hey, these are the captives. Then the C's got put on their chest, and it was towards the end of the season. So I guess it's all just where you are with your team.

2:07:43Pat McAfee:You're building a team. You know, Mike McCarthy's first year there, he certainly doesn't want to just deem something without putting over the younger guys who might not be around. I like the move. I like him showing respect and appreciation for people working their ass off each week. But the Rams got, what, 12 guys with C's on their chest? Yeah. Run around. Have they announced Aaron yet as the 12th captain? Yeah. Would he be the 12th? Or did they do the 11 on purpose? So, like, hey, each of you have a week here. You guys got the first 11 weeks. That's why we named 11. And then they're also adding two more per week.

2:08:17So then they end up with, like, 33 to 45 captains on the season.

2:08:21Pat McAfee:And then if you don't end up with one, they really – they're kind of telling you how they feel about it. They're leaving that guy in Australia. McDonald doing it as well after winning a Super Bowl. Sam Darnold, obviously, there's still question marks. I read a headline earlier, like, do we believe in Sam Darnold? I saw that. I love if Sam Darnold's going to get that, I guess, for the rest of his career. Unless he wins MVP this year.

2:08:43Darius Butler:14-2 and then a Super Bowl by the last two seasons.

2:08:46Pat McAfee:Pretty good. Pretty good. Threw for 300, I think, in a game that mattered pretty good down the stretch at the end. Now, granted, he was not the Super Bowl MVP, a running back was. He's got a brand-new offense coordinator. The offense coordinator that was great for him is now the head coach somewhere else and was the most sought-after coach in the coaching cycle this year because of how talented he was. So is Sam Darnold going to always have to prove that he isn't shite? I think so. And his contract right now, very team-friendly, the contract that he currently holds for the Seattle Seahawks. But it does feel like Sam Darnold has become a guy that's just going to have to prove himself over and over.

2:09:17And that's good for him. That's added motivation. We always talk about chips on the shoulder. And this was a guy, so it's kind of weird that he has to continue to prove himself because he was a guy that was looked at potentially be the number one pick in his draft he went number three overall obviously it didn't work out early for him but he kind of figured it out but you know looking at him even last year that team was near the bottom of the league when it came to passing and passing attempts uh you know per game i think he was near the top of the league when it came to interceptions so people who have that thought of sam darnel they're still holding on to that i think if he puts together another maybe two or three seasons then he'll really get to the point.

2:09:53And then once you make that money too, let's say he has a great year this year, and then he becomes a quarterback making$55,$60 million a year, then I think that'll kind of be behind him. But for quarterbacks, once the general consensus has an opinion about a guy, even Brock Purdy, we saw it with him. I think we're just getting to the point where people can look at that team. And still nobody really talks about him when you talk about quarterbacks. But if you look at that 49ers team, you say, hey, that's a really good quarterback, but it took a while to get there. So I think Sam, from the seeing ghosts, he's still kind of climbing that respect ladder for, you know, the general public at least.

2:10:25Pat McAfee:Which is crazy, you know, because the wide receiver is the offensive player of the year, you know, and he was throwing him the ball. So you would think that would help, but then everybody just says, actually, this guy's open. Yeah. Anybody can throw this guy the ball. You know, it's just a fascinating narrative. It's just like Matthew Stafford when he was in Detroit. He was breaking every record. They were calling him what? Stat? Stat Pat. Stat Pat. Yeah, whatever the case is. He's doing good, yeah, but he's not really a guy. You know, he's got Calvin Johnson. That'd be really nice. It's like he's in Detroit, though.

2:10:54Pat McAfee:Isn't that kind of counter, Calvin Johnson? Nope, nope, nope. Then he gets to L.A., wins the Super Bowl, now wins an MVP. Everybody's like certified Hall of Famer. Even though many of us were like, Matthew Stafford's a guy. Many people that know Ball were saying that for a long time. But the general consensus, to your point, D-Button, did not have that there for a bit until he gets out to L.A. Maybe Sam Darnold over the next few years will be able to prove everybody, prove to everybody that he's a guy for real. I like Sam Darnold's story a lot. and I like that McDonald's his coach feels like they might be like perfect for each other and the guys in that building absolutely love him I don't know if you remember but I think it was Ernest Jones that came out linebacker on the defense and came out because you know they hear they hear the stuff and the shit that's talked about their quarterback but they regardless if he was throwing an interception or doing whatever like the guys in that building we've seen it more with hard knocks now they absolutely love 14 and as a teammate as a quarterback that's really all you need who gives a fuck what people or microphones are saying about you if the guys that are actually going you know to battle of which you have your back and believe in you whether you are struggling or not.

2:11:53So I love that about him. And, you know, I'm rooting for Sam, man. Anytime a guy is doubted, especially coming in with those type of expectations, not living up to him, everybody basically saying you're sucked and then getting all the way to that mountaintop. And this is the same class, was he Lamar? Yeah. Lamar. So, yeah, you look at the rest of that class, Lamar, Josh, like those guys, you know, haven't been to a Super Bowl, let alone won one yet. He's already got to that man. Baker's, but, yeah. So, yeah, I love everything that Sam's doing with his career, and I think when this story's done, it'll be a great story to tell.

2:12:23Pat McAfee:Was Ernie the one that said, if you don't like my quarterback, fuck you? Yeah. At the speech. Did they make some shirts, too? What's that? They had some shirts that said something like that as well. At some point, they wore it. If anyone has any say Sam Donald bought the QBs four interceptions and Seahawks lost the Rams, fuck you.

2:12:41Darius Butler:That's great. Love it.

2:12:44Pat McAfee:What do you have to say to the people that say Sam Donald, potentially the reason why you guys lost this game. What do I have to say? Yeah. Fuck you. Okay. Thank you so much. And we'll get out of here. You cleared it up. Yep. Okay. Is that from everybody? Yeah. And to you too, yeah. You're probably the one that's saying that actually. I'm going to get out of here. That team, the speeches they gave after winning the Super Bowl, the whole vibe, the hard knocks. Yep. It's like that team is a bunch of dogs. And a hard edge. They do have a hard edge. Yes. I like the way they're running their shop up there.

2:13:19Pat McAfee:That's your team. That's your team, dude. That's my NFC team. Your favorite team. I am a season ticket holder to the Indianapolis Colts, the city in which I call home. The team plays at the lighthouse. I am a Colts fan. Your home team. Your favorite team is in Seattle.

2:13:38Darius Butler:I like that we all have a couple. We could all have more teams now. Who's your NFC team? Packers? Yeah. Brethren? Yeah, we're brethren.

2:13:46Pat McAfee:And then are you the Steelers? That's right. Oh, you guys just made a deal?

2:13:50Darius Butler:I mean, we're the two most glorious franchises in the history of the NFL. You're all fucking losers. That's all I hear.

2:13:57Pat McAfee:Yeah, well, that's why you pick another team. Yeah, fuck that. Well, congratulations, Carl. You've lived a great fucking life. I went through six years. Shit, man. No, you didn't. I thought I'd act like we're not that far away from watching Bill Zappi chuck the ball to Juju Smith-Schuster and Nikhil Harriot. It was terrible. Carson Wentz is a Colts quarterback. Shut up. And that was fucking sick. Matt Ryan. Are you kidding me? Carl Wentz. I would have killed for him during the Zeppi years, brother. No, you wouldn't have made the playoffs then. I mean, same outcome. Maybe. We'll never know. And now we have Greg Mann.

2:14:34That's how it works sometimes. No, because Vrabel is just sitting in Cleveland.

2:14:37Pat McAfee:Anybody could have hired this guy. Well, there is a guy sitting around that I think would be perfect for here. John Gruden? No. Good enough. Well, John would be perfect anywhere. I was trying to get John a job in college last year. Yeah. I believe in John Gruden. Needs not email. GM, right? Whatever, everything. Everything. Football. He needs to coach ball. Maybe both. Head coach and GM. Who do you – we got Shane Steichen. Who's your guy, Con? I would hope Shane Steichen continues to be head coach because he's one, the man, and two, a genius. Yeah. But Sean McDermott would turn this fucking place around in a heartbeat.

2:15:12Pat McAfee:I like the way Sean McDermott's talking, by the way.

2:15:14Darius Butler:Love the way. He's doing a lot of soul searching, a lot of reflection on his time. People forget how fucking bad the Bills were for so long. They were garbage. They were Cleveland. They picked Josh Allen.

2:15:27Pat McAfee:Yeah. Well, not only picked Josh Allen, also moved on from Tyrod Taylor. Remember, Tyrod Taylor got him to the playoffs there. For the first time in forever. And then they'd say, no, no, we didn't want to make the playoffs this year, bud. Come on. You kind of pushed us back here a little bit. then they build that thing up. And obviously Josh Allen, first year, second year, third year, as they continue to go, just not able to beat Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. So they'll be judged completely. I do appreciate what Sean McDermott's doing, but this is why, you know, the greats, I guess, not everybody, but second opportunities at something usually go much better than the first because you have so much experience in what's right and what's wrong.

2:16:04Pat McAfee:And it does feel as if Sean McDermott is doing a lot of this is what I did wrong. so maybe next time he doesn't do that. I like the way he's talking right now, I think that is very good for himself, but also whoever he ends up coaching for. Here's a man that admits that he wasn't perfect at the first stop. It's not like he got screwed, is how he's talking about it, which he could have had that angle. He's not a victim, I feel like. We don't want a coach to feel like they don't act like they are a victim when they get fired, for whatever reason they get fired, but yeah, I mean, think about it. When you're a head coach, I cannot imagine the pressure NFL head coaches are under every single day of their life, but once they get a half a second to step back and they're out of that world, I'm sure they view a lot of things differently.

2:16:43Like, man, I wish I would have done this, I wish I would have done that, and then, hey, if I'm able to get another chance, I'm going to make sure I am supremely ready for that, and I have every single box checked, and I give a team a good chance to win.

2:16:55Pat McAfee:Yeah, I I'm pulling for them. Yeah. Pulling for Steichen, too. Actually, I'm being serious. When the Colts are good, we've talked about it before, the city is just so much better and more fun and more enjoyable. And, like, I want them to do really well. But in the reality of the situation, sometimes teams that don't do as much in the offseason don't do as well. Did you hear that, dude? When he was talking about the reality of the situation. We like our fucking guys. You did not watch last season. Hello. We like our guys. We like our guys. They were awesome. Alec. They were huge. Awesome. Don. Fantastic.

2:17:30No more Michael Pittman. Okay. Tyler Warren, big step up this year.

2:17:35Pat McAfee:Hey, AJ, I want to let you know, Connor said earlier today, before we went live, I was like, I'm excited to think the Colts are going to the Super Bowl again. That's how I feel. And Connor goes, we don't even have to act like that this year. Nope. We don't even have to act like that this year. And I thought to myself, actually, why? Why don't we have to act like that? But there's people that have no faith in the Indianapolis Colts. I think it's strictly because no primetime games. Nobody knows anything about them. You look at the social media, you think to yourself, Okay, so we're doing some fun gimmicks and games.

2:18:06Pat McAfee:Super Bowl odds are plus 6 ,000 down near the bottom. Same as Seattle last year. Jeez, I can't even find them. Yeah, they're way down there next to the Washington Commanders and New York Giants, which, by the way, Giants have a lot of high hopes this year, and they're way down in the odds as well. Do they know something that maybe everybody that's talking about them doesn't? But it's like the Indianapolis Colts, those first 10 games, they were unbelievable. So good. They weren't active.

2:18:29Darius Butler:Only lost to the Rams and Steelers, I think. That was real. And they would be one of those teams week one where everyone's really high on the other team, Baltimore. Bingo, bingo. And then they have to go on the road in Minter's first game with Declan calling his first game on offense. Everyone's like, Ravens, Ravens, Ravens. And then, boom, Steichen and Dan Dimes and Alec Pierce and the guys who have actually already done it and won games go out and win the football game.

2:18:54Pat McAfee:And remind everybody. And remind everybody, yeah. And then the conversation – I like that we're doing here. because then the conversation that's happening on every reaction Monday is like, remember, the Colts for the first 10 weeks were the number one offense in the NFL, potentially the number one team in the NFL, and the defense was getting stops whenever they needed it all the time. It's like, that could be a convo. Now, on the flip side, we kept everybody except for Pittman. We kept the GM. We kept the coach. We haven't won the AFC South in 12 years. If Lamar and the lads, who look to be very tight very quickly, remember?

2:19:23Pat McAfee:Yeah. Everybody in the 3-1-3, put your hands in the air and fucking follow me, Jesse Minter. If they come into the Loud House in his first game and they dismantle the Indianapolis Colts, it's going to be tough on a microphone next day. It's going to be tough. No chance. I don't think that's happening. I think the Indianapolis Colts. No chance, D-Butt? No chance. I think we've got a good team, bro. I think the Colts have a good team. I don't think we have a deep team. I think they could sneak a win here. Like, not sneak a win, but I think this is one of those ones, oh, okay, the Colts won a week one, and you should not be shocked if that does happen.

2:19:53Pat McAfee:I would definitely, you could say it's a sneak a win. Now, granted, because you're on this show and I talk about the Colts so much, You probably sound stupid in this exact moment, but whenever it comes to overall NFL chatter, this would definitely be stealing a win by the Indianapolis Colts against the Baltimore Ravens. Obviously, they're favored by three and a hook or whatever the case is, but I don't think many people have faith in the Colts. But if you watched their games last year, they were playing good football, smart football, sound football, good fundamentals, good techniques. They were everywhere they needed to be.

2:20:20Pat McAfee:The mistakes were, like, making sense on why they made the mistakes. It was the first time the Colts looked fun. It was the first time it was fun being like a Colts fan, like, hey, I can't wait to go to this game, as opposed to like what the hell is about to happen here in this game. So it is – I think people do forget that, but they're going to have to prove it. Defense should be better. You can stay healthy. You know, Sauce, Mooney on the outside. We've got Wally on the inside now replacing Kenny Moore. That will be a big role because Kenny's been fantastic in that role for years. Buck and Grover healthy in the middle of that defense.

2:20:52Then Cam Bynum, I think he's one of the best. free safety, ball hawks in the NFL. Now, how do the young guys fit in? Was it CJ and AJ? So, how do they fit in? And this is the second year now in this defense. So, you know, I have high, high hopes. I didn't expect it to be that low with the odds. I know we've seen that graphic before. That's just the middle tier. Yeah, you said the Seahawks. And Patriots. So, I'd love to hear that. Both in the 6 ,000s. And the other thing, like Grove, Buck, you just mentioned, The Ravens have an incredibly young, inexperienced line. That would completely play in their favor.

2:21:27That other game, too, just looking at it, would be the Bears-Panthers, where everyone's like, Panthers suck, Panthers suck. Who cares? They just won in the division.

2:21:35Darius Butler:I think 97 % is on the Bears. Yeah, and everyone, of course, Bears, Caleb, Ben Johnson, and you just assume that game is going to be easy. It's like that game is in Carolina, and that team has just slowly gotten better and better and better. The good football team, we say, of course, But they might be a great football team now. They almost beat the Rams in the first round. Like, they were, you know, two minutes away from beating the Rams in the first round of the playoffs.

2:21:58Pat McAfee:And I think we all just believe Morgan's going to go right, right? Yeah. Big year for Bryce Young. Guy hasn't slapped or shut his eyes since last season, so I assume he's got it all figured out. Bryce Young, if he can continue to go, maybe they got something down there in Charlotte. Absolutely. If this goes in, Colts win a Super Bowl. Boom. Oh, jeez. Big ball. Fuck. Hold on. Jesus. This one, too. This one, too. Is this Seahawks again? Better odds on this or world peace? You want to do a world peace, Paul? We should before the season starts. It's going to Super Bowl or we get world peace. It's more than plus 6 ,000 for the fucking world peace.

2:22:36Oh, I didn't know.

2:22:37Pat McAfee:It's been happening forever, dude. They don't have peace or war. This goes in. We know it. It does feel. I get a little bit of a buzz whenever World Peace is on the line.

2:22:51Darius Butler:How could you not? It's the earth channeling you. How about just the Strait of Hormuz?

2:22:56Pat McAfee:Just opening that up?

2:22:57Darius Butler:Is that open yet? We dug our own Strait. No, we just blew a hole in one of the land properties around there. Oh, we got our own Strait. Yeah, we built our own Strait. It was pretty awesome, actually. Strait of America.

2:23:07Pat McAfee:I don't know. I think there's still some vessels that are hung up out there, from my understanding. From my understanding. This is for World Peace. Okay. Come on now. I can't wait. I love these ones. I love these.

2:23:19Oh, man. The whole way there, I was like screaming.

2:23:24Pat McAfee:Just doesn't want it. Be your friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. Tomorrow, the NFL kicks off. Tonight, PCA and the Miz battle. Judgy's back today? Yes. Okay, is Peyton Toll pitching? Because I like him. He is not pitching today, but Shelton Alcaraz tonight as well. Okay, Peyton Toll is the guy who hugged the guy out on first baseline and then more recently struck a guy out, slipped and fell, did a push-up, pushed himself back up. Might be one of our favorite athletes of all time. Yes. Remember, he's 6 '6", 275 with a velo pouch. Here's him from the other day.

2:23:59Pat McAfee:Slip and strikeout. Hey. Push-up. Let me go and get out of here. Did it on purpose, he says. Like that. Incredibly smooth, fella. Great pitcher. He throws a Chris Sale. Like, we're meeting that thing. Mm-hmm. He's like that other ump one out there. He wouldn't have went for that bullshit. No way. Karate up? Hey, what's that guy's name? Doug Eddings. Yeah, Doug Eddings. He got chastised pretty good by the league, I believe. I guess this isn't his first time. Paul Skeens, something happened with Paul Skeens and him last year whenever a strikeout took place. He's a bit of a Barney Fife, power-hungry dickhead.

2:24:31Some of these guys, that's the way they are. Chipper Jones had a few things to say about him as well.

2:24:36Pat McAfee:Yeah, I guess this guy's been acting like he is baseball since the beginning. I appreciate that he's a showman. I like that everybody says they hate him, too. You know, and now that this thing happens, this guy's really lost a lot of his power. So when he gets a chance to wield it like a hat sideways, I don't like your little skipping and dancing after the pitching thing. Is there any rules against it? Well, in my rule, I don't want my eyes to see it. So you need to stop it. This guy's straight out of the past and still hanging on. I like whenever you just publicly mock him like they certainly did at the next game.

2:25:09Pat McAfee:And allegedly he came out and said, hey, sorry for handling that the way I handled it. I was told to spot my bosses and the entire world told me I look like an asshole. I respect that, too. Yeah, I do. Come up there. Maybe he's a changed man. If not, they're going to continue to troll him forever because the player's now got a little bit of power, especially with this bad boy and with everybody saying this guy looks like an asshole. Baseball's kind of bringing it. But tomorrow, the NFL season begins. And that's how it's going to be. We can't thank all of you enough for riding with the offseason.

2:25:40Pat McAfee:through everything that we got a chance to cover this offseason. So much great soccer. Never said that before. A beautiful game. We've never said that before on this particular program. Thank you to soccer. You carried us through a lot of the offseason. Basketball obviously doing its thing. We thank you. Baseball was fantastic for us. Very, very grateful for that. All the other sports that popped up and gave us life and energy and things to talk about. We certainly thank you. But tomorrow, the NFL kicks off. College football week two, Thursday night. I mean, we're in the middle of the greatest season of all time, football season.

2:26:14Pat McAfee:Yes. So we thank all of you for allowing us to do this for a living. We have the greatest jobs on earth. We'll be back tomorrow as the NFL kicks off. One sleep from now. Let's enjoy it all. 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. It's football season, baby. One, two, three. Goodbye. I didn't like what you said, Odin pauses, about the future. This is the love story of real hinge couple Odin and Edward, written and read by me, Curtis Garner. Listen to the free audiobook now. Can you hear that? It's the calm, sugar-white, sandy beaches of St.

2:27:00Pete Clearwater. And if you listen closely, you'll hear the mmms coming from the epic restaurants. the cheers from sun-soaked music festivals, and the beat of our legendary nightlife scene. Before you hit play on your next song, text the group chat. It's time to plan a trip to St. Pete Clearwater. Learn more at visitspc.com.