PMS 2.0 1626 - Thursday Night Football Preview, Kirk Herbstreit, Morgan Freeman, Pete Thamel, Coach Chuck Pagano, & AJ Hawk

21:27Kirk, you did it. How about that? How about that? Morgan Freeman. What a thrill for College Game Day and for all of us. That's going to be great.

21:41Pat McAfee:Actually, Kirk, like this is a crazy thing because, you know, big-time celebrity outside of the sports world coming on game day, always a mixed bag on how it's received, you know, because are they tied to the school or are they not tied to the school? I think that's the number one question that everybody kind of wonders as a game day fan. Like, what is the tie to the school here? Is there a tie to the school? And it's like he has tied to school, obviously very – he's in love with, obviously, the school has shown up. I think he's donated. I think he is a part of the Ole Miss culture, and he's Morgan Freeman.

22:14Pat McAfee:So it's like this is a home run, Herbie. I would say, again, a guy that's been around watching this celebrity picker, and I understand that sentiment, but there are certain people that fall into a category, even without his lady friend, as he said, and going to the basketball game, even with that, it's Morgan Freeman. Whether you're in Oxford, Mississippi, Columbus, Ohio, Los Angeles, California, Eugene, Oregon. You know, if you get a guy like Morgan Freeman who's willing to come on the show, you get a Brad Pitt who's willing to come on the show, you get guys at that level. Like, come on. I mean, we'll love to have you on any week.

22:48So there is a tie there to Ole Miss, but I can't imagine. I mean, it's Morgan – enough said. It's Morgan Freeman. Any week, any time, we're grateful. It's this week for such an emotional game between the Rebels and the LSU Tigers.

23:04Pat McAfee:I do kind of like that the voice of God is there for Lane Kiffin going back to Ole Miss. That's kind of a special. I was going to say, I mean, you know, and there will probably be some people who would disagree, but I don't know if there's ever been, or I don't know how many guest pickers are legitimately, like, universally loved. Everybody loves this guy. Everybody has a memory of this guy. I think it might be, like, the first time ever when, and I don't know, you know, but I'm assuming he's going to pick Ole Miss. I think even LSU fans are just going to be like, man. you can't even be upset about it because you love Morgan Freeman too much so yeah kudos I'm very excited to watch this on Saturday it's going to be awesome Ty if I may on another subject if you can hear me my man week 5 there's a potential there's a potential some things have to happen but there's a potential we haven't been to Iowa City in a long long time.

24:02I know that is honestly, Kirk, the first thing I thought when Ohio State got beat by Texas. Week five is still in play. It's still in play. When was the last time we went to Iowa City? Probably when they played Penn State maybe over a decade ago. They were both top five. Yeah, it's been a while. It's been a while, but that week five, interesting.

24:26Pat McAfee:Week five, they have Ohio State at home. Yeah. Then they got who next? I believe it. Oh, this is week five as a whole. Oh, this is week. Sorry, Bruce just brought this up. This is not the Iowa schedule. This is the week five schedule as a whole. So Notre Dame, North Carolina, we don't know. If North Carolina beats Clemson, pretty much I would think. I'm not involved in that. I would think that Notre Dame at North Carolina is probably a leader in the clubhouse. But if North Carolina loses to Clemson, I would venture to guess that the next one on the board could be Ohio State at Iowa. If you look at that, I'm speculating looking at the schedule there.

25:11Pat McAfee:Let's go to the week before. Can we go to week four of the college football slate as well? So you can maybe do some speculating as well because I actually don't have any say in where we're going. He's saying he doesn't have any say. Sure. Sure. He's Kirk Herbst. 30 years. He is Kirk Herbst. He does try to stay out of this shit, though. I will say, you and Adam Vinatieri, very similar. Adam Vinatieri, when I get in there, Adam Vinatieri's already in the Hall of Fame. He's already in the Hall of Fame. He would outlast me, but when I get there, he's already in the Hall of Fame. So there would be something that needed to be said.

25:41Pat McAfee:And we're all like, all right, Vinny, you're saying this. He goes, no, no, no, absolutely not. I'm like, what do you mean, though? He's like, they're looking to get rid of my ass. I'm old. I'm like, no, you're never going to be funny. He's like, no, no, no, that ain't me, bro. I ain't saying that. So I, as young guy, become a person who, they're looking to get rid of me too, Vinny, but somebody has to say this. So like that happens. Herbie, very similar. No, no, no. I'm lucky that I'm still here, bro. I'm lucky I'm still here, dude. This is how it goes. Herbie. Happy to be alive. Happy to be alive over here.

26:11Pat McAfee:Happy to be alive. Yes, you certainly are. We all are, brother. Lucky to be doing it. So week four, this would be next weekend. Obviously, everybody looked at week three. I think West Virginia is potentially in play. I don't see it on this particular. I don't see it in this particular slate here, but I think West Virginia. West Virginia is in play every week. Thank you. Oklahoma State at West Virginia. Wow. Yeah, I think Oklahoma State continues to win. They just knocked off Oregon. The only curveball, I got a curveball for you, is a guy by the name of Arch Manning in a Texas Longhorn, survived Ohio State and are ranked number one in the country, and they go to a noon Eastern kick to Knoxville, Tennessee, who's probably going to be undefeated.

26:58On ABC right there. Yeah. On ABC.

27:01Pat McAfee:Yeah, let's – okay. Well, sorry, Ty. There's a chance Oklahoma State – That's the week before. That's week four. There's a chance Oklahoma State, West Virginia, big time. West Virginia, double-digit underdog going down to Virginia. Take that. And they're already – Because, bro, bro, we were dead set for Oregon at USC at the L.A. Coliseum lock and load week four massive big 10 game let's do it and the ducks the ducks lost obviously last week in stillwater and they've really struggled out of the gate so i haven't heard but i would think that that one's a little bit shaky there's there's alabama or there's oklahoma going to georgia there's uh there's tennessee and texas there's there's some it's a pretty good slate of games that weekend so i don't know where it went up but i know i know oregon usc was going to be the obvious choice but after that loss i i think that one now is probably off the board yeah it feels like texas and tennessee probably leader in the clubhouse just once again we do not make actual decisions on that that is done by people uh i you know i don't know how high so you know that's an interesting thing i'm giving up a lot of leverage here if i just start saying who's where but uh by a couple folks that are above are the ones making the decisions right herbie i think we We can certainly say that.

28:20Pat McAfee:People come after us. People show up in your DMs, I assume. My DMs publicly, they attack us. It's like we're pounding drum for places that are going to have best for our show. That is what we are hoping. Absolutely. We would like to celebrate who's going to celebrate. That's where James Madison was the greatest. Montana State, negative 100 degrees. It was so cold. Our generators froze and stopped working. Actually, those people showed up for us. That's spectacular. Going out to Cal, that was awesome. I'm like, us – Unreal. Unreal. Know that us on set, and this is us kind of passing the buck, but – We want the juice, man.

28:53We want the juice from the crowd. Oh, we're out there in front of these people.

28:57Pat McAfee:So, like, we would like this place to be whatever's going to be that. So, if it's the biggest game – Iowa City, man. They would go – if we went to Iowa City, I mean, Ty, you tell them. I mean, they would go absolutely crazy. If it's Ohio State's top five, whatever they would be by then, top five in the country going in there that that would be wild yeah no no question about it especially because it hasn't been because that is kind of the i mean obviously they would have to get past michigan in week four and that's that's another massive game but if they if they do that then you're looking at iowa probably i was inside the top 15 you know i mean so yeah and iowa city it delivers every weekend much less a weekend when game days is that definitely ohio state i was the I was looking at it.

29:44I was thinking, let's say Kamario Taylor and Mississippi State beats South Carolina this week, and then they beat Mizzou next week, and then they host Bama week five. That could be one down there. Doesn't Ohio State play someone in week six that's supposed to be pretty big? Oh, do they go to IU week six? I think we'd be there, right? You've got to go there for that. Not if they get beat by Iowa. Two losses. I don't know if If you're going to Bloomington. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah. If they lose, that's fair. I love playing this game.

30:18Pat McAfee:Man. And good luck to the people that actually have to make that decision. Good luck. And stop saying it's our fault. Good luck, Stanford Steve. We don't do it. Okay. That's who makes the decision, right? Steve. Blame Stanford Steve. That is what we need to do. Let's make sure Stanford Steve is the one that we. Right here. Who's that boy? He's right here. I'm on the show with him. Right here. Go ahead, sir. Sir. Sir. Come here real quick Sir we're there

30:48I'm representing him Thank you yes He's here in spirit No we're here because you're here We're here for the Pat McAfee show That's why And Peter's here You've represented Well you said in spirit

31:05Pat McAfee:So that's not what we talked about We're there in person The show is here. You personally are here in spirit. The show is here. And we are very grateful to the entire Bills family for the invitation to be there on the day of. And also, Amazon. Herbie's currently sitting at the Amazon desk right now. So shout out to Amazon for the hookup as well. We appreciate that. Can we talk about tonight, you guys entering year five together, you and Al Michaels. And is the entire pregame show crew back? Like, what are you expecting? Home crew. You had a preseason game. How do you feel? How do we feel? What is this year like?

31:40Pat McAfee:Oh, my God. It feels great. It feels great. The chemistry is, you know, it's just second nature. It's been that way really the last couple years. I think the studio show, you know what it's like now on Monday night doing these NFL studio shows. By the way, they start tonight at 7 o 'clock on Amazon Prime. They do a great job hosted by Carissa Thompson. The guys do an unbelievable job throughout this desk. They'll hype it up for an hour, show you a lot of different things to kind of get you ready for this, not just a matchup, but the new stadium. And then Al and I and Kaylee taking off it at 8 o 'clock.

32:12We're going to do a lot. The intro, you're going to want to tune in right at 8 o 'clock. It's going to be really cool what they've done as far as celebrating this new stadium, the Bills Mafia, just everything that's gone into the history of the Bills. And then it's toe meets leather. And I think, like I said, it's not just a game. You guys are all over it. I agree with you. And, Coach, what you were saying, it's not just defenses trying to figure things out for both these teams. It's also really good offensive firepower for both the Lions and the Bills. It has the vibe of a game. Both teams maybe getting into the high 20s, into the 30s.

32:50Last time they played, it was a shootout. You'd expect nothing less. We were talking to Aiden Hutchison yesterday. This guy, believe it or not, he's bigger, he's faster, he's quicker. He made a really good point about coming off the injury last year. It wasn't that normal offseason for him. This was a normal offseason for him. So he was really able to really push himself. I've never seen him look any better than he looks right now. He had two sacks in the opener against the Saints. I expect him to, you know, what an interesting game within a game. A coach can really talk about this. How often have we seen Josh Allen step up and to his right?

33:31Up and to his right. And that's where Aiden Hutchinson is, who does those spin moves and a lot of times getting up field. Well, tonight, you know, is he going to be that guy? Is he going to be a little bit more controlled to prevent that where they try to keep Josh Allen in the pocket or maybe make him go left? And if he goes left, he usually runs the ball. But, man, every time people come up with a plan that I do at a Bills game, you know, you're out there and it sounds good on paper. It's another thing to execute it and try to keep him bottled up. So I think that's a really interesting battle.

34:05Aiden Hutchison on that right side of the offense, left side for the defense, trying to keep Josh Allen in that pocket. But I think it's going to be a shootout. I think it's going to be an exciting game tonight.

34:15Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think so too. And then you talk about the shootout and all these stats that we're seeing. And there's a chance that the defenses step up from week one to week two. Maybe tackling gets better. Maybe coverage gets better. A lot of 13 personnel in week one. Maybe that took a lot of defensive coordinator by surprise. But the stats for the Hembo stats are saying, I think it's like 13 out of the last 17 Bills home games have gone over. Okay, so when Josh Allen's at home, you know, we remember the massive fourth quarters where he just goes absolutely crazy. Last week, he was fourth quarter going absolutely crazy.

34:46Pat McAfee:It's like this guy's a gamer, obviously a stud. He's going to want to open that stadium in a big way. And if you're MCDC, what a perfect message. They're trying to have a home opener. We're trying to close it down. You know what I mean? Like they're trying to take all of their happiness from this monumental day for the entire city, the entire mafia. A lot of motivation on both sides. That would be a great flight home. You go into a home opener on Thursday night and beat Josh Allen and shut them down. I don't know if that's possible, but that is certainly a good flight home if you're able to accomplish that.

35:16Pat McAfee:Last thing from us to you, Herbie, as we know you've got to continue your day of preparation for the huge night tonight. I listened to nonstop. I saw some of the clips with you and Joey Galloway, who I absolutely love. What was your take on week one? What was your takeaway from the NFL after what we've seen? It seemed like it was the worst defensive performance that we've seen in some time, but they had a lot of turnovers. How do you kind of judge what that was and what you're expecting here for week two? First of all, I think you and I talked about this in preseason. When people start speculating about who's going to get there at the end, and everybody's talking about the Rams, and after watching hard knocks, it's hard to go against Seattle.

35:51And on the other side, the AFC, you and I, you know, we've got a kid chase about Patrick Mahomes, but coming off that injury only nine or 10 months out, I think, you know, he's not at 100 % yet. But just the spirit of having that chip on their shoulder, a little bit of a reminder that things still go through Kansas City and the AFC. But I'm with you and I'm with coach. which I felt this way really for the last five or six years, ever since this became such a trend in the NFL about resting your players, not taking the risk in preseason OTAs, they don't hit. You know, when, when coach was coaching early in his career, and when you were playing even Pat, I mean, you guys hit guys hit a lot.

36:31And you got used to kind of getting into football shape. Not only were they not tackling well, but I saw guys with their hands on their hips. These guys are not in football shape. And I think that's a huge advantage for the offenses. and it creates a lot of big plays. I mean, we saw the Bills last week in that game against Houston. They had more big plays last week than they had a number of weeks last year. So I think that trend's going to continue. I don't really think you start to see NFL football because of the way they treat training camp until you get to early October. I feel like this is an extension of training camp when you watch September football, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

37:07Pat McAfee:Yeah, and some of the coaches have even come out and alluded to that. You know, like, hey, let's just get them into this season. and then 17 games is a lot of games. There's only been one team in the history of the NFL that's gone undefeated, and they're talking about maybe adding an 18th game. You're going to see guys rest for games. I think we're going to get G-days on actual game days going forward. Everybody wants to be playing their best ball late. To be playing your best ball, you've got to be healthy. If you're not healthy, you have no chance. It's very rare that a team that has to use 100 different players on their roster can sustain.

37:36Pat McAfee:I think the Tennessee Titans were the number one seed. With Vrabel. Yeah, with Vrabel. And they had like 119 guys or something that they turned over. But that was just a house of cards. Because whenever you get into the playoffs, you run into the good teams. And the good teams will take advantage of all your backups. So keeping people healthy late in the season, especially if you're a good team, is like a main focus for a lot of these decisions that are being made. But their fan bases have to watch shite football the first couple weeks. I think that kind of goes hand in hand. Go ahead, Herbie.

38:03Yeah, that was just the last thing I was going to say for Foxy. Because it's a lot about Buffalo, Buffalo, Buffalo, the stadium and everything. But it's just, I don't know if you guys agree or disagree. I feel like Jared Goff, maybe it's because of the trade when he left the Rams and went to Detroit. Because Stafford, you know, right away won a Super Bowl. And everybody gave Matthew his accolades. And they should have. But I almost feel like Goff, because of the optics of that, has never been treated with the respect that he deserves. I feel like he's a top seven guy in the league. He's got playmakers around him.

38:37St. Brown gets a lot of attention. J-Mo continuing to get better and better. The tight end Laporta is healthy. Jameer Gibbs could be as good a three down back as we have in the game right now. So I just, I think Goff is, he could get into a shootout. He could get into a game where he's got a score with Josh Allen. But I really wish the league and the fans of the league would pay more attention to what Jared Goff is doing. Not just the numbers, but watch him tonight at the line of scrimmage. He almost reminds me, not to the level of Peyton Manning, but they give him so much at the line of scrimmage.

39:09And, you know, it'd be tough in this environment to be able to handle it the way he did at home against the Saints, but I just have a great appreciation for the command at the line of scrimmage, the way he's able to get in and out of the bad play, into the good play, the decision-making, the accuracy, and how damn consistent it is. So this guy deserves love. He's in his 11th year. I just think because of the way that deal went down with Stafford and Stafford and McVay and the Rams, became the toast of the town that for whatever reason, Goff doesn't get the do that he deserves. And I just want to say before this season really gets going that this guy, I think if they stay healthy, he's going to have a monster year.

39:48And what an opportunity on this stage tonight on Amazon Prime to kind of show who he is and really what this Detroit Lions team is all about.

39:55Pat McAfee:Yeah, you're saying that dude deserves some do. Yeah. Yeah, there's some do that is deserved by that particular dude up there. And you mentioned Peyton Manning. Just like Peyton Manning, If they can keep him up, he can operate perfectly. We've seen that with the Ben Johnson offense. Now we're obviously transitioning into this era. He is a super genius, and he can throw the out that is unguardable. He can throw the ball two yards out of bounds on a rope to Amon Ra, and it's just absolutely unguardable, seemingly if you can keep him on his feet. Now, last question, follow-up, because you bring up that entire thing.

40:27Pat McAfee:Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Herbie, I don't know if you've talked to him yet, but how do the Lions feel about their offensive line and their offensive line injuries? I believe they're going to be, obviously they lose Cade Mays, their starting center in camp. He's out. I believe they lost their left guard and right tackle in week one for tonight. How do they feel about their offensive line coming into this game? You know how it is. I mean, this has been, to me, the staple of this franchise since Dan Campbell turned this thing around. It was physicality. It was the line of scrimmage. And now it's a complete overhaul.

40:54I mean, Sewell, who's one of the best in the game, has gone back to his college position at left tackle. Start with that. You got a rookie at right tackle in Blake Miller who got dinged in that opener. If this game were on Sunday, he would play. Thursday night, he's not able to go. So Larry Borum, a kind of a journeyman, he goes in at right tackle. You mentioned Scruggs, who's a backup. He was a throw-in in the David Montgomery trade to Houston, just a throw-in trying to make the roster. He's starting at center tonight in this environment. The left guard who was in a battle throughout camp with Ben Barch, that's Christian Mahogany.

41:25He got dinged. He's out, so Barch will go. He came in the middle of that game last week. So you go from this offensive line being one of the best in the league when Dan Campbell got this thing going at 22, 23, 24. So now they've had to try to reshuffle the deck. So that's a really good question you bring up. I think it's a big part of what they're going to try to do tonight. These guys are NFL players. They're going to have to step up and be ready. But to go from this being as good as there is in the league to just trying to kind of find the continuity with the right guys, it's a bit of a question mark.

41:56But if they can hold up, I would argue that with J-Mo, St. Brown, Jameer Gibbs, and Sam Laporta, that's about as good a skill as anybody. And again, Goff, the trigger man, that's about as good a skill as anybody has in this league. But you're right, Tone, as always. It's really about that offensive line and how they hold up, especially with two starters down tonight.

42:18Pat McAfee:All right. Chuck is chomping at the bits to talk about the defense a little bit. We know you have to get out of there. So we appreciate you. Thank you to the Buffalo Bills for having host of the Pat McAfee show. That's right. Kirk Herbstreit on location at the unveiling of the brand new Highmark Stadium. Good luck tonight, brother. Thank you, guys. Appreciate you having me, boys. Take care. Hey, is Peter there? Yeah, he's right here. Here you go. Is he going to be the mom of that Bruce Bison? I don't know when the Bison's going to be coming in. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. That's a good boy. That is a good boy.

42:55Pat McAfee:All right, boys. See you. Take care. Okay, coach, we just talked about points, points, points, and over and offenses, and if they could protect them. And it was an honor to be boots on the ground at the opening of the brand-new Highmark Stadium. We are so thankful that we got a chance to be there. That was awesome. Shout out to Amazon, actually. Now, Amazon does have that place completely, which was an immediate realization whenever it all happened. We were never getting in there, ever. How come Amazon doesn't deliver the game ball with one of their delivery drones? Great question. Should start happening.

43:26Pat McAfee:I assume that that would be a nice sponsorship deal that it could get even more money from a partner that is given a lot of money. We very much understood that Amazon had that stadium. It's a home opener. First time really debuting it all. Amazon pays a lot of money for that. So when we were asked to do that, it felt like it was an incredible honor. We appreciate that. Logistically, it might be a little bit difficult. Trucks. Right. Their first game of the season. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff. So on that note, friend of the program, host of the show. Yeah. Kirk Herbstreit being there. It is an honor to be there, Dave.

43:54Pat McAfee:I cannot wait to get up and experience it. Kirk Herbstreit has been glowing about it literally for the last 24 hours as he's learned more and more. It will certainly be on display. It will be loud, which you would think would potentially help home defense. Maybe Jared Goff isn't allowed to do it all. Chuck, you just heard a lot of convo about the offense and points, points, points. And our super boost that's going live at 157 involves a touchdown on the ground and a touchdown through the sky for either team to be boosted to plus 150. That's plus 150. A lot has to happen here. But they're just saying, no problem, plus 150 is the boost.

44:24Pat McAfee:So everybody is expecting points, points, points. For you, young defensive coordinators, we'll start with Buffalo. What do you expect from Jim Leonard? And how does this defense fare against what Jared Goff can do? Well, yeah, Jimmy, I had the great pleasure of coaching him at Baltimore in 2008, one of the brightest, smartest defenders I've ever been around. Week one to week two, they'll be better. But both these defenses struggled mightily. The back end for Detroit is beat up to all get out. But as far as Buffalo, with this offensive line, like if I'm Dan Campbell, I'm running the ball. Like Houston held the ball for almost 37 minutes, time of possession.

45:05They tried to shrink the game, and they had a chance at the end of the game to beat the Bills. I think Dan Campbell goes in there and say, okay, we may not be great at pass blocking with these new pieces in here, but let's run the football. Do they have a good guy to run the football with? Yeah, Jameer Gibbs is a nightmare. So trying to handle him, you know, when they hand it off to him, when they split him out in the formation, get him the ball on screens, out on the perimeter, this guy's an absolute nightmare. And then you load up and bring an extra guy in the box to do that, and now you've got to cover this tight end, Laporta.

45:37You've got St. Brown. All right, you've got J-Mo. J-Mo needs to catch the ball, right? He's got to look the thing in, all right, see the X, Catch the football. So, you know, it's a tall order. They've got some good pass rushers. They've got Chubb. They've got Russo. Ed Oliver in the middle. Bernard, you know, the back end for them. They've got Harrison, who's healthy. He's starting on one side. Benford's on the other side. CJGJ, keep an eye on CJGJ, all right, for this Buffalo defense. He's one of the safeties back there. He is a big hitter. He's going to look to take somebody's head off back there.

46:13Well, legal. Well, yeah, no. He'll keep the head out of the game. Responsibly. He will keep the head out of the game. He'll use a shoulder. It'll be between the belt buckle and below the neckline.

46:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, he'll keep the head out of the game, but the head games are certainly a part of the game for CJ, GJ. That is why they brought him in there, right? Didn't they say they need a little bit of attitude? Yeah, pass some juice. You want an edge? We need a mess. He'll give you an edge. Yes, he certainly will. Was he with you last year? What's that? Was he with you last year? Yeah. Yeah, he had a cup of coffee with him. Oh, yeah. It was a quick stay? or? He came in. I mean, we had a defense that was loaded anyway with a bunch of people. So it made sense for him to get somewhere where, you know, they actually, he was going to get on the field.

46:57How are the headphones doing? These are wonderful. These fucking things.

47:01Pat McAfee:I'll tell you what. You've got to put it behind your ear. The wire is behind the ear. No, it wasn't. I was just looking at it. It kind of blends in with your hair. I feel like Mad Dog Russo. Like, what the fuck is this? It was great seeing Mad Dog here yesterday. What a performance. Has he ever been on the show? Was he on the show? I don't think so. I don't think Mad Dog's ever been on the show before. And I really like, he was awesome on the show yesterday. He was awesome on our show yesterday. He's awesome on TV as well. I didn't grow up listening to him from Pittsburgh, but certainly learning of him as the internet just had clips of him in Sports Pope kind of hitting my life was certainly a moment that I'll never forget.

47:35Pat McAfee:And we got Mark Madden, okay, in Pittsburgh. Sure, sure. That's who we have. And Mark Madden is delivering all of the spices. Pittsburgh is a local radio, local sports talk place still. Okay? It's not like as obviously noted as some other cities, but it is still very much a local sport. I think any sports place is. So learning of the New York sports radio, radio host thing later in life, I didn't really know about it at the time when I was young. What a weapon that guy is. And he's been mad about the same shit for so long. And he brings it every day. I mean, that guy brings it every single day.

48:11Pat McAfee:Hasn't missed a day since when? Yeah, like 36 years, 1989. Wow, that's unbelievable. That's the only reason he missed like two weeks ago on Wednesday? No, he didn't miss. On first take? I didn't miss. Because he had a shoulder surgery. He was scheduled off that day. Yeah, he hasn't missed in 36 years. He doesn't miss. The Mad Dog doesn't. He likes gummies and betting, too. Yes, he does, which is why we appreciate it. We like the way he operates. We are a big fan. we got dropped onto his station on SiriusXM. It kind of happens everywhere we go, you know? Yeah. And he wasn't like the most thrilled, I don't think, you know, because he had his lineup.

48:48And then we come in there just swearing because it's Sirius.

48:51Pat McAfee:We were excited to get to SiriusXM because we were on Westwood One regular radio. We go to Sirius Radio. Hey, we're just going to be able to say whatever. You know, there was a thought of like what station are we going to go on? What channel are we going to go on? Are we going to build a channel? I mean, there was like a lot of convos happening. We're very young in the entire process, but still had a little bit of juice, I think, at the time. So then they were going to put you on Mad Dog. And it's like, sweet. So then, obviously, when you do that, you kick somebody else off the air. Canel, I think.

49:16Pat McAfee:Yeah. He got all pissed off. Obviously, we saw an enemy with this guy. Okay, great. Can't wait. We did not choose for this to happen, but obviously, this is something that's happened. And then Mad Dog Rousseau, he backed his guy that just got kicked off. And we got added in there. And he didn't like the swearing. You know, the rest of the channel did not swear. Bocking was fine. The only reason we were going to series was so that we could swear on the air, because Westwood 1 was like a real problem whenever we were on there and would swear and all that stuff. So, yeah, it's an interesting relationship, I'd say, with the guy.

49:42Pat McAfee:Learned about him as an adult. We're lucky to be on his channel. And then also it felt like they were pretty happy we were no longer on the channel. Yeah. And then we see him on TV, and then they're still doing it over there. So it's like, yeah, we're fans of – don't know him literally at all. Lakers will bring some juice. Yeah. Had one phone call before we went on his channel. LeBron, obviously. Yeah, LeBron, if he's – LeBron's got juice. He's got juice. Let's remember to make sure we're hitting the things. He basically gave us his playbook because I think he was kind of told, hey, you should do this or whatever.

50:15Pat McAfee:They had an entire holiday. Remember they had an entire holiday dinner? Yeah, his big thing was at the Super Bowl, everybody from the channel gets together, and we have dinner together. So I'd like you to come to that. That would be my big ask. It was an honor. So we don't really know him, but it feels like we do, and we are big fans. And we like that he does TV. We are big fans of him. Also great to see Michael Irvin back on TV a lot. That was my Sunday watching routine was that show over on NFL Network, and he was somebody that just woke me up on Sundays. It was fantastic. Great to see him back on television.

50:51Pat McAfee:Okay, let's talk about some stuff that happened on television yesterday. Well, I guess it was only on the Internet. It was our third hour. It came out from Cincinnati practice to Joe Burrow. Hey, he's not doing any purposeful throws. Obviously, it's the first day of work. He was talking to his staff. He didn't go through warm-ups and stretching. You know, this kind of gets reported by at-trags out into the world. We see that. We go hold the phone. Dan Orlovsky says, hey, there was a run there where he ran to the side. It was third and six. He gets hit. He lands very awkwardly. And then there was blood, I guess, coming through his elbow or his shoulder.

51:21Pat McAfee:So there was a lot of speculation taking place. We even talked to Schefter at the time. He's like, we're learning this in real time. Don't know. We look into it. Then it came out. Joey Burrow's just resting. He does have some soreness. And then he was quoted as saying, if I'm not getting surgery, I'll be out there. Okay, so what is the level of concern here? Is this actually nothing? This feels very early to kind of start something, especially if it's a back, because we know how backs linger. But I do believe Joe Burrow is tough. I do believe Joe Burrow will play through whatever. But if I'm a Cincinnati Bengals fan, this is a little bit alarming, I think, for how young he is, for the Wednesday practice to become what it is, and his storyline developing might be absolutely nothing in the end, because Joe Burrow is super tough.

51:59Pat McAfee:but it was a little bit of an alarming eye-catching tweet there from Traggs. Yeah, and it could be nothing like you're mentioning, but it's week one. And we're talking about a back injury that isn't just going to go away if you continue to play. Now, if he continues to play and it gets worse, is he going to be done for the season? We remember a few years ago where he had that kind of rogue wrist injury, right? And then you heard about it middle of the week, and you're like, what is this? Then the game comes, and on the first drive, he tries to go. Clearly, he's very banged up. He throws a pass, I think like a little out route, and he basically couldn't do it.

52:33So, like, sure, this might be nothing. It might be something small, but you're going to play the Houston Texans. You're not going to play the Cleveland Browns. So, Houston Texans that just gave up 36 points that are probably getting told all week how shitty their defense is. It's like you've got to kind of take care of yourself a little bit, and I would be shitting my pants if I'm a Bengals fan because of all the fodder in the offseason and how the season started.

52:55Pat McAfee:Well, and also in the offseason, he was healthy. This is the first time in a long time where Joe Burrow was healthy. It's like, here we go. This is what we geared up for. This is why we pay a number one and a number one A wide receiver because we think our quarterback can handle it. They invest in a defense because the defense is clearly the problem. Most healthy they've been. And they get a win week one. Yeah, right. This is not Bengals at all. Then Wednesday comes. And it's like, Joe's kind of taking it easy today. Don't worry about it. Just a little backstornness. And it's like, I don't like that at all because I was excited about what this Bengals – their defense.

53:26Pat McAfee:Yeah. More turnovers. pommeling turning the ball over attacking the ball joe burrow is going to be joe burrow jamar chase came out on his podcast and said he was seeing a lot of cover under coverage over coverage they basically said hey you're not in it anymore so please fantasy football people that are yelling at me like understand this might happen okay this is a chance this is going to take place that's why you have a one in a 1a and t higgins so i'm a little bit worried about this but not mightily we'll see how it all plays out backs though i don't think those lingering yeah backs are problematic And then you don't even know, excuse me for interrupting, how serious.

53:57Because they're not going to tell you. They can't. Who's that? Miles Garrett didn't practice for three weeks. And then all of a sudden he's on short-term IR and having knee surgery. So they're going to say, okay, he's got a back. He's got some soreness. Like if he can't move, like Will Anderson, Daniil Hunter, to your point, those guys are going to be frothing at the mouth like a bunch of mad dogs out there. And if he can't move around.

54:22Pat McAfee:Yeah, but maybe, you know, you go to a chiropractor, sometimes you got a little soreness in him to kind of pop that out. Houston Texans defense, they've got some chiropractors over there. Yeah, a bunch of them actually. Yeah, they've got a lot of chiropractors over there. So maybe it'll help because at one point in his career, he was like, I need to get hit to kind of get welcomed to the game. And we're like, that was cool. You don't need that anymore. And he even came out and said, I don't need to get hit anymore. But he is Ohio guy. I mean, he is football guy. He's going to put his body into jeopardy every once in a while for the good of team, in his eyes, for the good of ball.

54:52Pat McAfee:And it's just, they need to keep him healthy, you know, because if he's upright, he's like golf. I mean, that guy can just absolutely anything. They haven't been able to protect him. Has he put himself into positions to not be protected? Potentially. Let's move to some other storylines happening around the NFL. Texans wide receiver Nico Collins having some tests done on his hamstring. What's the update here on Nico? Obviously number one down there. Yeah, so he was finding the game, and then I actually saw a clip from their team. They put out for practice, and he was at practice, and then this came out after practice.

55:25I'm not sure if he did something in practice, but he had a huge first game against the Bills. He's obviously their number one. They already lost a receiver for the season, so this is huge for them, obviously, for the season, and C.J. Stroud and his season, so we'll see, but nothing, obviously, cemented right now.

55:39Pat McAfee:Okay, C.J. Stroud was talked about by Andre Johnson. Andre Johnson, one of the Bull Ring of Honor members, I do believe, for the Houston Texans, former teammate of mine. Full clip, he said he liked what he saw out of C.J., but in the past, he has said that he had bad body language. What do we think of the entire C.J. Stroud storyline in Houston Conway? Yeah, it feels like they just kind of clipped down Andre Johnson saying, hey, I don't love his body language. That's been my only issue with him, even though right after that clip that everyone saw, he says his body language against the Bills was actually very good.

56:05And C.J. has come out multiple times and said, like, that's something I need to work on. So it does feel like, hey, here's the clip of Andre Johnson saying something that he doesn't like about C.J. Stroud, where in reality the full clip shows the entire story that people didn't actually see.

56:18Pat McAfee:And I think, you know, we all see that with C.J. We've all seen that with CJ. CJ even said he's heard that. But, you know, nonverbal communication is like 80 % of communicating, especially from a leadership position. I like that CJ acknowledges it and trying to get better. I think that's all Andre was doing while saying he thought he was better there this past Sunday. Yeah, it's huge. I mean, some guys have this look, you know, and it's just like I'm disinterested. I don't care. You know, I'm whatever. But that's not the case with this kid. It's just some guys are leaders and some aren't, And they're trying to bring the best out of him as far as leadership goes.

56:51Pat McAfee:It is crazy because at that position, you're just expected to have the C. Not everybody is just born being a leader. Not saying CJ isn't, but I'm just saying all the traits of it don't come naturally to some. They can work. We'll see you on the other side. Buy five quarts of Mobile One full synthetic motor oil and receive two times O rewards points. Plus, get a$10 gift card and receive a 2311 die cast after rebate. Terms and conditions apply. Get details at O 'Reilly Auto Parts. 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.

57:34Oil 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. Thank you.

57:51Pat McAfee:Football! He's amazing. Man, with 37 years of coaching experience, our coach is here, ladies and gentlemen, Coach Pagano. Hello, Hog. Great to see you, Coach. Way to get into it there. One half of the hammer. Cowboys AP Tone is here. Tone, tonight's game, obviously 54 and a half over under. Bills favored at home, both of them coming off of massive 30-plus point explosions on the offensive side and wins. Home opener for the Bills. What are the expectations? What are the percentages of bets on what? And how excited are you about our Superboost coming at 1.57 Eastern time? Yeah, the percentages tonight, everyone's on the Bills.

58:2878 % on the money line, which is not shocking because you have the injury news to the Lions and the Saints took them to overtime last week. And then the other side, you see the Bills go down to Houston and see Josh out and see what he does in the home opener and all these things. And home on Thursday night on a short week. Those all go towards the Bills on the 78 and the money line. The 5.5 is 60 % on the Bills, so a lot of money on the Bills tonight. Last time these two teams played, there's points, points, points, always points, points, points. Our boost tonight, boosted to plus 150, is each team to score one rushing and one plus passing touchdown for both of those teams to do.

59:01Plus 150 tonight will be a great one.

59:04Pat McAfee:If you are of age and agree to gamble responsibly, we would love for you to come join us on the Best Sportsbook in the world. DraftKings tonight for a plus 150. Now, we did lose our last most. And I don't like that at all. It was a tough one. Yeah, it was a tough one. Kenneth Walker took us halfway home. We're waiting on J.K. Dobbins. We're still waiting. On J.K. Dobbins. Tonight, with a lot of points being thought about, with James Cook and Josh Allen on one side, okay, and then Jameer Gibbs on the other side, and maybe a Jared Goff. Yep, sure. Definitely. Goal line, sneak type situation. We do think that there will be a ground touchdown for both teams.

59:48Pat McAfee:We believe both coaches will want to keep the ball on the ground. Now Jared Goff, he could spin it. He's got weapons all over the place if he needs to. Now can they protect him with an offensive line that's banged up? We shall see. Josh Allen, let's assume he's going to throw one to somebody who's going to be in the end zone. He's Josh Allen. Huge jump from week one to week two. Week one, I don't think anybody, including the teams, knew exactly who they were and us. We're still in a learning process of who the hell these teams are. Tonight is going to tell us a lot about both these teams. Are they both just here, and this is what it's going to be for the rest of the season?

1:00:20Pat McAfee:Are we going to see a big fall-off offensively? Are we going to see defenses take kind of over? We don't know. We have no clue what this week should hold. But we like the fact that we think that a ball should be taken over the goal line on the ground for both teams and through the sky for both teams. Absolutely. And that is boosted to plus 150. Shout-out to DraftKings. Once again, gamble responsibly, please. Don't be an asshole. If you're an asshole, you ruin it for all of us. So don't do that. There's going to be more games, and there's going to be more bets. That's right. Okay, so this isn't your last one.

1:00:50Pat McAfee:This isn't one you're going to win a house with. This is responsibly here. Just a little bit of dancing to make the game a little bit more interesting and maybe a team ride celebration on this beautiful Thursday night, week two NFL kickoff Thursday. Joining us live from Manhattan, Ohio, is a man who's a college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawko. Yeah. Hawk, how you doing, pal? I'm doing great. I cannot wait to hear Chuck break it all down so I can make my pick for the Knights game. Okay, so are you kind of torn on what you're going to do?

1:01:20Pat McAfee:You had a great opening week. You saw the board very well. You seemingly were able to predict what was going to happen on Sunday's NFL slate into Monday's slate. Better than I and better than most, I would assume. How do you see? Do you think it's going to be a big get-back for the defenses, or do you think we continue to see an offensive explosion like the NFL trend started in week one? I am looking for a continuance of the offensive explosion. Both these offenses know that they can put up points. They know that. Let's just see which defense shows up. I know the Lions and Bills both feel like their defense can play much, much better.

1:01:51But I think one of them is going to shine tonight. And I'm leaning one way right now. And I'm not going to let anyone else really sway my instincts, I think, until I hear Chuck. Because he is kind of like the god of all that predicting games and what's going to happen.

1:02:03Pat McAfee:Oh, he's the Morgan Freeman god. He was wrong last week. He was. People started to kill him. And he said what to Chuck, which we're certainly going to have to get into here. There's some Paisanalytics that might sway you a little bit that we got from Mr. Paganetti. Over the past 20 years, teams playing on the road on Thursdays, which Thanksgiving, Christmas, et cetera, you never know, after going to overtime on the previous Sunday, just four days beforehand, are 4-17 against the spread. Yikes. Restricting it to just Thursday night games, they are 3-13 against the spread. So overtime seemingly does catch up to teams on Thursday.

1:02:36Now, week one to week two, is that different than week seven to week eight

1:02:40Pat McAfee:or week 11 to week 12 because it's only a four-day recovery process? So does the first week early in the season change that type of stat potentially, Coach Pagone? Yeah, you're not – I mean, they should be able to play. I think it was 89 snaps that they played in that game. So there will be a little bit of residual, especially on a short week. But, yeah, I don't see that being a factor. Or is it worse early in the season because everyone – Like, if you've ever played football, week one is just the worst for your lungs and getting your legs underneath you. And it obviously gets better week by week by week.

1:03:11And then there's a decline at the end of the season because of the toll of everything that's taken on your body. But earlier in the season, like, you're sucking wind.

1:03:19Pat McAfee:So maybe you're not in football shape, but you are in cardio shape. So maybe week six to week seven is the best four-day period because you have your game shape up and your body is still hopefully held together. How did your body recover for Thursday nights? Obviously, you're going to say, we're all playing it. We're all hurt. So that's how it is. But actually, what was it like? Because I remember seeing big guys before the Thursday night just became regular and became just understood that this is what this is. Like Wednesdays, guys, still golf carting around, you know, after a Sunday game. And then all of a sudden, yeah, you got Thursday game.

1:03:53Pat McAfee:It's coming early. And obviously, the way it's sold to the players is you got a mini bye week on the other side of this thing. Hey, you got three days off here. We can all watch games, have a good time. We won't see you until Monday. the thing that isn't mentioned as much to the players is like yeah you've had no recovery time here your bodies are certainly beat up how did you feel about it AJ and how did you treat it it's definitely a quick turnaround I think the older you get the harder it is to make that quick turnaround it's true like they are definitely guys especially big dudes that you're going out there to practice Wednesday and they're barely moving like they're not walking around too much they uh they're super stiff and trying to work things out so yeah Thursday's quick but I think like I said like you mentioned it it's true they're all in the same boat we know that everybody feels different, like how their body responds.

1:04:33But as long as the coaches take care of you throughout the week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday before, you're doing things quick on and off the field. It's a super mental week. We know that.

1:04:42Pat McAfee:Okay, so let's talk about super mental week. You normally see basic shit, right, on Thursday nights? Isn't that kind of the conversation, or is that a little bit of a lie? It's usually cut down. It's pared down. You don't have as much time, but as far as the health and safety and all that kind of stuff, it's all walkthrough, right? We were never in pads. We never put the helmets on. To AJ's point, we just walked through everything. We might get you moving a little bit, you know, the day of the travel, maybe that Wednesday, and then hop on a plane if you've got to go on the road. But physically taxing, it was all recovery, and it was all mental.

1:05:15A ton of walkthroughs. Practice was shortened down. We cut all the reps. Normal 12 play period would go to eight plays all the way through practice, and then again, it was just communication. It was mental. It was getting guys on the same page, but it was recovery.

1:05:30Pat McAfee:Yeah, getting everybody back early in the season, so hopefully that is not the case, and we see some great football tonight out of everybody. I am excited to hear that stadium. Yes. The way Herbie was describing it, it's like, hey, let's go straight up here. That is – that's built for sound. That's what that's built for. It sounds like. Now, granted, maybe there are some airspace restrictions or maybe there was something that forced them to go up as opposed to like the UFO-y shape that all these other new stadiums are. But this thing's built for sound is what I heard from Kirk Herbstreet. And I think the Pagoula family, certainly sports family, they understand the advantages of that, AJ.

1:06:06Pat McAfee:I think they're going to put on a show tonight, this Bill's Mafia. Yeah, I definitely think they're going to want to show up and represent their team. But I love how Herbie's saying it's like an old-school basketball arena. Like when the crowd was right on top of you, and you can't really tell that. Even seeing Herbie sit there, you can't really – the perspective is tough through the camera. So I was glad to hear because I think that's the best. Those are the most raucous environments, the most fun to play at, whether you're home or away. You want to play in those kind of environments. I don't like that they did the soft open preseason.

1:06:36Pat McAfee:The first time I seen this thing should have been tonight. Now – Where have they played their home preseason games? Right at University of Buffalo. Yeah, there you go. It probably did have to do a John Taffer stress test, though. Concessions, you know, bathroom lines, all that kind of stuff because you can't have a giant clusterfuck come week one with all that kind of stuff. Yeah, you're right. Also, how do we manage the photos with the bison figure? True. Exactly. You know, who goes there? Seats are awesome. I guess you do have to do the test. The seats are awesome, and also it looks like a soccer stadium.

1:07:06Pat McAfee:It does. The one side where it goes straight up at the end zone. We're going to get some optics and visuals that are probably going to be in our primetime television screens for a long time with the way Josh and Joe Brady are playing. Did you know about the win deal that Herbie said? 40 miles an hour outside would be 20 miles an hour. I feel like that's a massive deal. Huge deal, especially later in the season. Kickers, punters love that. Also, quarterbacks that spin the ball love that. So it feels like they got it right, kept it open so their fans aren't super pissed. Also able to cover the people that are paying a shit ton of money.

1:07:33Pat McAfee:Yeah, bingo. Yeah, so you don't have to do that. Kind of a win-win. We'll see how it debuts tonight. This weekend could provide us some situations that need to be talked about on a Thursday. Last week, we debuted something that I think we've all not only enjoyed on the show, but have taken it off the program as well. Yeah. It's helped our diction. It's helped our Rolodex of words. It's helped us describe things better. And I hope that every weekend we get some fantastic moments that make us say, What the Chuck! Okay, Coach Pagano, what the Chuck week two. Some moments from this past weekend that made us all go, What the Chuck's going on out there.

1:08:16Pat McAfee:I guess we're starting on Sunday night. Is that right, Chuck? Yeah, we are. We got the Giants. We've got Isaiah Likely all alone in the back of the end zone. This is one of the New York Giants' top weapons, and nobody covers this guy. So I don't know what the chuck is going on in the back end. To me, if you roll this thing back, Pat, it looks like they're playing a cover four. People talk about quarters all the time. We've been playing quarters in the red area forever. And basically, 17 is number one, 9 is number two as far as the receivers go. And then if 17 goes vertical, our corner's going to take him.

1:08:53If he dies underneath, he's going to belong to the quarter flat player. That's the linebacker that's going to take him. You're going to see him come off a number two on that. And then the corner, no work, get depth and look for work. And so as soon as one drives underneath, he yells in, in, in, get some depth and go cover likely. And you basically have a bracket on him. I don't have any idea what the chuck these two guys are doing. It's early in Christian Parker's tenure over there. There was a lot of communication breakdowns in this game. I'm sure they'll be better in week two. They have to be better in week two.

1:09:25But this is just something that can happen in the back end.

1:09:29Pat McAfee:It kind of makes you go, the truck is going on over there because we've seen, what, six guys wide open against the Dallas Cowboys. Four bucks. Four guys wide open against the Dallas Cowboys defense and secondary. That was supposed to change. Now you cut this thing in half. You're talking quarters coverage. This thing has been run since the beginning of ball. This should not be that big of a learning curve. If the two goes deep, he becomes the one. And if the one goes short, he becomes the two. You want the linebacker on short so you don't have to chase a guy who's obviously going deep. Corner doesn't see it.

1:10:02Pat McAfee:Chase is inside. Linebacker thinks he's got it right. Then all of a sudden he goes, what the chug? And then Jackson Dart's thinking to himself, these guys should be way better at this. As soon as he sees linebacker and corner drop down, that's an easy pitch and catch. Isaiah likely makes them right. And all anybody on the defensive side is watching, oh, no, oh, no. This is week one on primetime, and we look like this. What an embarrassment. What the? Chuck! Love that. Let's go to the next one, shall we, Coach Pagano? I'll tell you. AJ, there's a lot of this happening. We don't like it, but the offenses have obviously been exposing it all.

1:10:36Pat McAfee:How about this one? Third and six, AJ. Fourth quarter. One-point game. You're on the road. Division rivalry, AJ. and we've got the defense, three of the defenders on the right side. The tight end's going to go short motion outside here. The tackle, he can point to who he's supposed to protect. And these two move. The play clock's going, so they snap the football. I don't see a flag. I didn't hear a whistle. They're running a play. You've got to keep playing. You can't stand up and start pointing, hey, where the chucking flag is. What the chuck is going. And then they complete the pass. And then we got four defenders here.

1:11:16I don't know what to chuck these guys. Poop ball. Poop ball. Poop ball. We used to say bad ball around here. Poop ball. This is egregious. You got a one-point game on the road deep into the fourth quarter. You're fixing to win this game. You got a legitimate chance to win this football game. And they still had a legitimate chance at the end. But this is just like you're scratching your head going, what the chuck?

1:11:41Pat McAfee:And then there's poop all over the place. Goddard's still doing it. Jalen Hurts taking advantage. But you're looking for a flag, not looking at your guy. All of a sudden, boom, Philadelphia Eagles beat you at home. There's some other stuff that happened in that game that made you say what to Chuck from my understanding. A little bit of maybe an upright dance, maybe a pole dance. We know what we can and we can't do now in the National Football League as far as scoring touchdowns and celebrating. And Diggs right here is going to go hump the hell out of this goal post right here. I don't know what to Chuck he's thinking.

1:12:12Look at the score right here. They're down eight, right? So you know this late in the fourth quarter, they're going to do what, AJ, after they score a touchdown right here? Got to go for two, Chuck. Go for two. But taunting, unsportsmanlike conduct, it's a 15-yard penalty. So, AJ, we're going to go for two from the, what, 15-yard line? 17. 17-yard line plus two? It's going to make it a little tougher, isn't it? Yeah. It's going to be a little tougher. So they've got to kick one. Usually it's 33 yards. Now we've got to make a 48-yard frickin' PAT. So this probably had Dan Quinn and the entire offense, David Blau, the new play caller over there going, What the Chuck?

1:12:51Pat McAfee:Good lead in there. I like what you did, kind of a TV host. Where do we go next here? We're going to go to Las Vegas. Okay, I like that. And we're going to see a flag come in here, boys. We're going to see a flag. We're going to see a great play. It's third and 13. This is a great play by the safety here. Anderson breaking this ball up. Great timing. You're going to see the coaches on the side. Coach Coop coming over in his rookie year. He's going to come over. They're all signaling, hey, we need a flag. We need a flag. That's pass interference. Well, there comes a flag out right here, right? What's he doing?

1:13:28It's a she. It's a missus. We're all thinking, right? The sidelines think a day. We got it. We got it. They just gave us a first down, right, on third and 13. What a gift, right? No. No. If we run this thing back, you know what they end up calling on this, AJ? No. Do you remember this? No, I need you to tell me. I'm going to tell you right here. See number eight? He got the flag. For what? Oh, yeah, standing over top of the flag. Taunting.

1:13:56Pat McAfee:That got taunting called right there? He's looking at his teammate. Chucking taunting. No, that can't be the level of celebration that we're calling taunting at this point. He's just looking at his teammate. Now, he does stand over him a little bit. What do the refs do when there's an incomplete pass? Oh, yeah. That right there, right? So what do all the DBs do now, right? They do that right there. Incomplete. Way to go, my man. Way to go. We're off the field. Fourth down punt. We're getting the ball back. But no. No. We got a chucking penalty flag coming out of the pocket. You know what they tell the officials to do?

1:14:29We all need to do before we let something roll off our tongue that we're going to regret. What's that? Can't wait. Take a deep breath. let's just all take a deep breath and just exhale and say was that really what I thought I saw you know so you know we don't chuck and need this we don't chuck and need this what a break for Las Vegas though

1:14:52Pat McAfee:certainly 3rd and 13 make a big time play probably excited to tell the lad week 1 hey good play my man but instead we got a taunting penalty and everybody's saying And what the Chuck? Hey, good stuff, man. Hey, baby, Coach. Chuck, unbelievable. We could have had 50 of these. What the Chuck? 50? You saw the points in yards, right? Hell yeah. So you just look to the defensive side. A lot of our conversation has been on the defensive side and how much improvement the defense is going to make from week one to week two. We're fixing to find out tonight. AJ, did you know what that call was? it sounded like you genuinely didn't know and you were thankful that chuck told you about what the chuck was going on yeah i was thankful for for chuck letting me know but i did i remember reading about that thing and just saying so they claim he stood over top of him right and i know they don't want you standing even though he was looking at his teammate i mean this one is really pushing yeah we're just well i think the reason why we wanted to potentially spotlight this one today and i don't want to speak for chuck of what the chuck though uh is like hey this can't be we can't be given first downs because of this type of if there is egregious ones which we know there are and players uh certainly get worked up in a moment kind of black out do their thing and some people are natural shit talkers that is how they play sports some people aren't some people are some people that's their entire drive and motivation how they operate so as these rules change it certainly affects how some people are in their demeanors this cannot be what our level is at the bottom of what taunting is.

1:16:24Pat McAfee:Third and 13 here. This is a massive stop for the Miami Dolphins. This is a huge deal for the Miami Dolphins. As you're looking at your teammate who's standing right there, I think did he know the guy was down there because he gave a little look? Potentially. He did do a little look down. But if he's in his face, I think we all agree with it. T-bagging him, all that stuff. Yeah, boom. We're throwing it right now. T-bags. Yep. Read the T-leaf. Can't put nuts on heads. Chuck, I don't think you're allowed to just say what you just said there. Oh, no. I'm not 100 % sure. I'm putting nuts on foreheads.

1:16:56Pat McAfee:Yeah, Chuck, that, man. That's what he said. That tie. That's what you said. Everybody heard you say it. Don't put words in my mouth. Well, we're kind of like, what the Chuck is this guy saying? Yeah. And it's not mouth. It's forehead is what you're talking about. You know how hard it is to get off the field? Hard. As a defender these days, as prolific as these offenses are, we just found out in week one, the rules are also all we see as points, right? And the scoreboard lit up. You can't touch a guy. You can't fart around a guy. You can't do anything around these receivers as a defensive back.

1:17:27Now you get off the field on third and 13, make a great play.

1:17:31Pat McAfee:I think you should be allowed to say it's an incomplete pass. You actually brought up a good point earlier and to me yesterday that I think kind of debunks a theory that we've been saying for a long time, especially with head coaching hirings. AJ, wait until you hear this. I'm excited to get your take on it. I don't know if Chuck texted it to you or not. We've been chatting about it here a little bit. But we've always said that in the hiring process of head coaches, it feels like the smart decision is get an offensive guy who's going to run the offense so then you don't have to find a new offense coordinator every year.

1:18:00Pat McAfee:You don't have to find a new offense coordinator. Chuck mentioned a complete counterpoint that was like a lot of guys seemingly offensive gurus now, right? Because the system and what you're able to run and who these people are, seemingly a lot of offensive gurus. He thinks you get a defensive guy that's good. you need to hang on to said guy. And obviously McDonald up there in Seattle wins the Super Bowl as a defensive head coach with a defensive coordinator. But I think Chuck brought the light. It might be harder to find a good defensive coordinator right now than it is to find a good offensive coordinator.

1:18:32Pat McAfee:Your thoughts on that from Chuck Pagano? Because as he said it, my mind was like, interesting. Because we do have a lot of good offenses. Oh, yeah. Like a lot of good offenses. And it feels like if you pull from a certain tree, the system should create some success. if the coach is a good leader and the coach is able to apply it and everything like that, which seemingly more guys are able to do now than they've ever been able to do in the past. On the defensive side, though, it does feel like some defenses get exposed on a regular basis, and some defenses seemingly know what the other side's doing before it happens.

1:19:04Pat McAfee:Just kind of your thought on, Chuck, trying to protect defensive head coaches going forward and maybe putting a little bit more respect on their names? Well, I mean, I think it's interesting because it's true. Say you're a young coach and you're thinking, what's my quickest way to the top? What's my quickest way to become a head coach at a big school? It's to be an offensive guy. That's the way that gives you the best chance, I think. We see offenses, what sells tickets, we get it. I understand, too. I want to score points. I want games to be high-scoring. They're fun to watch. So, yeah, I think there's probably just less guys that are trying to get into the defensive coaching arena, I guess, as you say, even though coming up, most coaches at some point will coach almost every single position, offense and defense, if you coach long enough.

1:19:42But, yeah, why would you choose to be a defensive coach, I guess, when you are starting out, if you know the best chances to become a head coach and to get paid the most and all of that is to be a head coach or be an offensive guy.

1:19:52Pat McAfee:Obviously, we saw Spags on Monday night. He's been doing it a long-ass time. McDonald, obviously, he had massive success quickly in Seattle. Minter over there in Baltimore, seemingly a very quick success story. He's a defensive-minded guy. Vrabel, I mean, we don't even have to get into Vrabel and his leadership style and what he is as a defensive guy. I don't think we've ever had that conversation on this program. I appreciate you bringing that up. How many guys on the defensive side do you think are worthy of being, you know, head coaches? But also, do you think there's less DCs than there is OCs at the current point of football?

1:20:24Probably. But I think what Mike's doing in Seattle, winning a Super Bowl, playing great defense. Jesse now in Baltimore, certainly he had a reputation coming in. He was in Baltimore before he won a national championship at Michigan. He goes out to the Chargers, plays great defense there the last two years. Now he's the head guy in Baltimore and calling the defense there. Weavers is defensive coordinator who helps him immensely on that side of the ball. This is all cyclical. So like when Sean McVay hit the ground running in 2017 with the Rams, everybody was looking for the next Sean McVay. Everybody's looking for a Shanahan tree, Sean McVay, right?

1:21:04And so it's kind of like trying to find a needle in a haystack where sometimes you hit on these guys, sometimes you don't. That's why we saw all the offensive guys because all the owners wanted, okay, what's the most important position on the team? Quarterback. Quarterback, all right? So we need a guy that can whisper, a quarterback whisperer, guy that knows offense, guy that can develop, all right, and communicate with the quarterback. So everybody went with the offensive guys. So now defensively, again, Mike doing great. Jesse's going to do great. That's going to say ownership, okay. Guy comes in as a defensive coordinator.

1:21:37That side of it's fixed. Who's your offensive coordinator? And if he can say, hey, I've got this guy. I can go get Declan Doyle. He's going to run our offense. Boom, he's getting hired right now.

1:21:47Pat McAfee:Okay, so the defense might be the new lead, sexy head coaching candidate because of what McDonald's done, but also because of what these offenses have been doing to a lot of these defenses. Owners are sitting in suites watching their team just get absolutely drummed here to start the season. There is a thought we need to change that. Who can, who can't? Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, speaking of who can, who can't, among other reasons, but do you think because of that fact right there, like Sean McDermott and Mike Tomlin, probably the top two head coaching candidates going into next year, depending on what other gurus come up, and you think they're going to get hired immediately, depending on how many jobs are available?

1:22:21A thousand percent. I mean, trying to find these guys is next to impossible. These guys are proven. One guy's 19 years at one spot, Tomlin. McDermott was, what, 10, 11, whatever it was, and won title after title, just couldn't get over the hump? Absolutely, and mostly because of the proven track record out of both of them. Man, they're both defensive guys, so that helps as well.

1:22:45Pat McAfee:Yeah, I'm excited to see the trend of football continue to evolve this football season. Because if the defenses do catch up to this offense, and we've got 13 personnel in the field, I think we've got a lot of smashing. I think we've got a lot of physicality coming down the pipe whenever football starts to matter the most. AJ, you were expecting the same thing? Absolutely. It happens naturally, I think, as the elements. I talked about it yesterday. As it gets colder, rainy, windy, like, you're going to have to be able to run the ball at some point when the other team knows you're going to run the ball and you've got to be successful.

1:23:16Pat McAfee:AJ, I like physicality. We like big-time hits. Everybody does. We like people getting after it. Yeah. We like people playing football a way that, you know, makes football proud. Tough. What? Hard-nosed. What? Gritty. Why? Electrifying. Why? Foxy, we're on it. It's time.

1:23:45Pat McAfee:It's time for Ram Truck, driven by Ram. Obviously, it is back. Shout out to Ram Trucks. If you're going to get a truck, a Ram Truck is the best one to get. Now, not only are you riding on clots, but also you've got enough power to pull whatever you need. That's right. And then whenever you hit that gas pedal with that beautiful engine that has been concocted to make you sound and look fantastic, all you hear off that gas pedal is...

1:24:12Pat McAfee:Who got ram trucked this last weekend? Well, let's head to a punt. Don't love this. My man, James Madison, wide receiver, Miles Halbert blocks a Wagner punt. Oh, jeez. I don't like it. Yikes. Yeah, I don't love it because it's a punter, but you can't help but go Ram. Yeah, he was like a Ram too with his head down. I don't know if you're allowed head-to-head contact like that. Okay, I don't know if that's... How about on the balls? Yeah, balls. Yeah, I don't think that is allowed. I'd like to let the Wagner punter know, I love you, man. It is a damn shame that that happened to you. Thank you for being tough and taking that.

1:24:46Pat McAfee:This guy gets a shot to the... Yeah, it doesn't able... And then they get a touchdown the other way. He's a paisan too. That is certainly a Ram. I don't like it. Nice protection. Yeah, it seems like Wagner forgot to block anybody. Catch it with your hands. Chuck Pagano, former special teams coach down at the U, and I believe a couple other places took a lot of pride in blocking kicks. Is that not accurate? Yeah. They didn't. I don't know what that scheme is, but that poor kid, he probably won't kick again. Who, Vinny? Vinny. Vinny Musillo. Kicking to Michael Scott. He got one right in the culu.

1:25:24Right in the cojone. And a broken frickin' leg. Yeah, and he's tough.

1:25:28Pat McAfee:He's back up. I hope he punts again. It's never going to be worse than that. Please. Maybe. But on the other side, what a ram. Let's go to the NFL. This man was caught in traffic a lot in the preseason, said he was going to be a boss. Watch Saquon Barkley and Sonny Stiles. That's one-on-one linebacker running back. AJ, what a dream for the backer, especially against Saquon Barkley. Yeah, what a dream. I heard Saquon talk about this after the game. Yeah, he said, yeah, low man wins. Sonny's a giant guy underneath him, but I would assume if I'm Saquon, I am going to cut him so hard next time I see a guy puts it right down my face.

1:26:03Pat McAfee:I like that Saquon put his face in there. I do appreciate that. Obviously, he's an MVP-like player, huge leader, made a lot of money. He's going to get hit a lot. Him putting his face in the fan, I appreciate it. Sonny Styles putting that big body right through him is certainly a Ram truck sitch. Yeah, and especially if you watch the video when Saquon sits back up after he realizes what happened. It feels like even he accepted in the moment like, okay, yeah, this guy's just a freaking nature. Hands on his knees. Okay, so maybe we get tight end to come in and chip. Let me go out into the flat here.

1:26:32Pat McAfee:I'm Saquon Barkley, but welcome back to NFL football. Sonny Stiles, congrats to you getting a highlight. Yeah. There was a lot of lowlights out there for Sonny Stiles all preseason and certainly week one. Then the stiff arm, heard Ryan, the world. Darnell Mount Washington just throws another professional athlete two to three yards. That's about nine feet this man got shot put in. Jesus. Threw the ground at Acresher. And Darnell Mount, Washington, is a man that we saw in Georgia. And if you see him in real life, he's left tackle. Then he's able to catch. He's able to move. People say his knees aren't good coming into the draft.

1:27:09Pat McAfee:It's like he's 6 '7", 300 pounds. His knee's probably not going to be perfect because of the way he can run. He's been a nice fit for the Pittsburgh Steelers. If they continue to use him in ways that he can be used, this is going to happen a lot. as Watts literally had no shot. No, no. Against Darnell Mount Washington. Tone, you guys love him around there? Are we going to continue to use him this year or no? Yeah, he's unbelievable. He came into camp actually down this year. They were talking on the broadcast that he was listed at 265. No one believes that on the broadcast. I don't think anyone believes that anywhere.

1:27:39He came out last year and said he was over 300, so we will see. But he did this last year a bunch of times. He's a great six offensive lineman. He can catch the ball. He can run. I love. And he got paid this offseason, too, so that's great.

1:27:49Pat McAfee:He is a Ram truck, 2 ,500. Yes, he is. He might be 3 ,500. Yeah, it might be 3 ,500 with the duallys. The duallys, yeah. Diesel, too, probably. AJ, what do you do whenever a big man says, get through the ground? What do you do there? I want to ask Chuck. Chuck, what are you going to tell him right there? What do you tell your DB right there? Like, you're watching film, what do you say? All right, line up. Hopefully next, make a play next time. Yeah, normally it's like, okay, knock the stiff arm down first, right, and then tackle this guy. Good freaking luck. You got to go for his ankles. There's one thing on every man's body that's virtually kind of the same size, and that's the ankles.

1:28:24You go low, get the ankles together, wrap up, hold on for dear life. I stood next to this guy twice last year, 350. He's not 350. He's 6 '17 and 350 pounds. This is the largest human being I ever stood next to in my whole life. I said, holy hell, we're in trouble. Yeah, and he can move. Size of like Calais. Yeah, he can move. Exactly. It's like when you go to – if you didn't know who Megatron was and you didn't know what position he played back in the day and you go to Detroit and you see this guy, he goes, is that their edge guy? Is that a pass rusher? No, that's the wide receiver. Cam Newton as well.

1:29:01Cam Newton?

1:29:02Pat McAfee:First time I saw Cam Newton walk by us, Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts. He walks by me and Vinatieri. I've told this story before, but it's like very real. He walks by. Vinatieri, who's been there, done that with absolutely everything. We both go, holy shit. What is that? Like, that's a quarterback? okay, if he learns how to play quarterback in the NFL, how do you stop this guy? And it turns out, almost won an MVP, almost goes to Super Bowl. Injuries affect him because obviously how physical of a player he is. But there's some bodies that are just built differently athletically, and if they can figure out football, it is a real problem in a sport that involves big versus little potentially.

1:29:38And you've got no chance.

1:29:39Pat McAfee:Darnell Mount Washington. He was a Brock Bowers. Him and Brock Bowers were the tight ends at Georgia. Okay, so everybody talks about Brock Bowers. Brock Bowers, this guy's unbelievable. But you had an extended left tackle that was playing, and every once in a while would get a drag route, and he would jump over people and throw people. It's like this is an otherworldly type athlete. And then I brought it up because I think it is worth mentioning. His knees aren't perfect. It's like, no shit. He's 350 pounds. We think his knees are just like built to be perfect like that? Absolutely not. And I think he's probably been having knee stuff since high school, if I had to guess at that size with how athletic he is.

1:30:16Pat McAfee:So I like that the Pittsburgh Steelers saw through that, say, hey, your knee's always hurt. Yeah. Sick, dude. All right, let's see how long they last, bro. Let's see what it is. And he's certainly done a great job. This is a different athlete. You know, this is a different athlete. Love him. He and Friermuth. Yeah. DK and Pittman. Moth is playing some ball. They're huge. You've got some massive dudes. Coming off the bus, the Pittsburgh Steelers are an intimidating front. I mean, that is just what they are. Can they piece it all together and be an electrifying offense to keep up with the defense.

1:30:44Pat McAfee:If Darnell Mount Washington has anything to say to him, and we got more Ram trucks, there's a chance. You need to get him the ball. Maybe put him in a backfield tone. That'd be sick. Yeah, we could do like a Heisman-style package with Aaron and Muth in the backfield. That'd be sick. I would sign me up. Muth has the ass of a Clydesdale. Yes, he does. He looks like that, what's that, the human with the horse? Centaur. Centaur, yeah. He kind of has a centaur look to him. It's kind of obnoxious, actually, how big his quads, hamstrings, and gluteus maximuses are. I assume his gluteus medius and all the other ones are gigantic as well.

1:31:23Pat McAfee:But it's an alarming, disproportional size to what his body is supposed to be with his caboose. And then DK Metcalf is an alarmingly jacked human being. Freak of nature. Darnell Washington is an alarmingly athletic offensive lineman. Yeah. Okay, is what he is. And then Michael Pittman Jr. will throw his face into a brick wall to catch a ball. And he also, 6 '3", or whatever. I mean, they are monsters over there. Mike McCarthy wants big bodies. Is that what you think he wants? Yeah. I mean, didn't Nick Saban talk about that all the time? Like, who beats small foot players? Like, big players always, like, you want the bigger, faster, stronger player.

1:32:06In the NFL, to have guys that stand out like that against other NFL players, That's what's crazy because they're all the biggest humans alive, and now these guys stand above all of them. Hey, and Michael Carthy also. We're a big baller. He is a big baller. He's a giant. You know, the chess match, it's interesting to watch. When they put Muth and this guy out on the field, 12 personnel, how are you going to defend it? Are you going to put base defense out there? Are you going to play nickel? Everybody wants to play nickel, right? And if you've got a big nickel like Kyle Hamilton, you can get away with it.

1:32:36But most people don't have that dude. You know, they got one up in Seattle, Iman Wari, right? They got that guy. They got Derwin James at the Chargers. So if you put a base out there, what they do with these big athletes is they'll go to empty on you and then get the mismatch they want in the pass game. Got a linebacker on tight end or running back.

1:32:56Pat McAfee:100%. You can't cover them, you know? And then if you play nickel, they hunker down and just run it down your throat. All right. News out of the Pittsburgh Steelers today. Joey Porter Jr. left the field with a trainer during the portion of practice. open to media. Before that, he participated in some individual drills. Mike McCarthy said prior to practice that today's plan was for Porter Jr. to increase his workload from yesterday. He was full participant, I believe, yesterday? The most that he's done this year. Maybe the injury actual real and lingering, or maybe there is some other conversations being had.

1:33:27Pat McAfee:Nonetheless, Pittsburgh Steelers would love to have Joey Porter Jr. on the field for them, and Joey Porter Jr. would love to get paid like a corner of his caliber is supposed to get paid. Obviously, classic stare down happening between a family that is very respected in Pittsburgh amongst the Steelers organization and an organization that does not negotiate during the season like this is just not what we do so what's the standoff is this actual injury long term we thought maybe him getting back to practice was assigned to others like hey he can play he's good maybe for trade or for him we will continue to monitor a situation that was relatively quiet throughout all of training camp Now kind of growing some legs.

1:34:08Pat McAfee:Speaking of growing some legs, there's a story that came out from an LSU injury report. Starting quarterback for the LSU Tigers. Prime transfer portal signing from Lane Kiffin immediately upon arriving down there and realizing he doesn't have Trinidad Chambliss. He's listed as doubtful after some stiffness, I believe, some soreness, a back, a leg came in. I mean, who knows what this could be. Another thing on this initial injury report, you got Whit Weeks listed at number 40. He's actually number seven. So a lot of people say, is this real? What is real? What isn't real? Joining us now, a man who will tell us what's real and what's not, the authority for college football.

1:34:48Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, from College Game Day and also ESPN.com, Pete Thamel. Yeah, Pete. Hey, Pete Thamel, obviously LSU, Ole Miss, a lot of tension, a lot of hype, a lot of storylines. Another one potentially, Lane Kiffin doing a little, how you doing? We don't know who's playing. Or is this a potential real problem for LSU who don't have the quarterback that was potentially going to lead them all the way this year? Well, Pat, I know how much you enjoy quagmires and conundrums. I think we're going to end up filing this one under chicanery. Sure, sure. Lane Kiffin has a long and colorful history of taking liberties on injury reports.

1:35:29And I do not doubt, and in fact, I know that Sam Levitt was limited in practice yesterday, but there's still a widespread expectation that Sam Levitt will start and play on Saturday night in Oxford. I recall two times, I believe, that Lane Kiffin listed 26 different players on the injury report for a Kentucky game and I believe a Georgia game while he was at Ole Miss. So as someone who traffics in these injury reports, I've always appreciated his creativity and, you know, his insistence that we all stay on our toes. But I, you know, there is nothing that has led me to believe that this is going to impact him trotting out there and taking the first snap.

1:36:10Pat McAfee:Listen, I appreciate the gamesmanship. Also, hate it. I haven't slept now in two days because this is a quarterback for the team that everybody's talking about. Also, game day's there. So now we've got executives involved. Is the starting quarterback going to be here? What is happening? And, Pete, you're just trying to figure out what's real and what isn't. Love that that is even a thing. And what are the rules? Like, when does he have to actually declare the report for what it actually is versus being able on a Wednesday to say our entire offense is doubtful? Yeah, I don't know, man. Think about it, Pete Golding over there.

1:36:43Pat McAfee:Even though I assume everybody at Ole Miss has the same thoughts as all of us as soon as we saw this, there still is a little something to it is how you think Lane views it. And when do we know the truth here? in this injury report? What are the rules? Well, the truth will reveal itself at, I think, 7.30 on Saturday night, right? Pat, it always does. So I got a text from someone at Ole Miss this afternoon, and they said, oh, typical Lane Kiffin Wednesday injury report, right? Like, they lived this with him, so nobody knows better than the people at Ole Miss of the chicanery, if you will, that Lane likes to, the games that Lane likes to play here.

1:37:21um the rules are i believe a doubtful designation is less than a 25 chance to play uh that's off the top of my head now you are subject to fine um if you manipulate the report but there's also like he was limited in practice yesterday so i don't think we end up in in that uh in that world it's an interesting time for lane to be poking the sec bear considering um you know they filed against federally in court about 10 days ago or two weeks ago whatever it was but he's lane kiffin he likes touch the stove um god bless him never change lane um keeps things interesting for uh people who host the daily talk show pat i believe that was your line last week yeah it's very real yeah

1:38:01Pat McAfee:we got a lot to talk about he certainly provides it so much chicanery yeah a lot of so much chicanery which is the use of clever dishonest talk trickery or legal sophistry to deceive people and gain an unfair advantage pete i believe you nailed it this is potentially chicanery and we will certainly keep Sam Levitz in our positive prayers for his Godspeed comeback, especially if Morgan Freeman's going to be there. Voice of God, certainly going to want him around any potential injuries. Now, gambling happening with the heightened ratings, viewings, becoming clearly the number two sport in the world behind NFL football.

1:38:38Pat McAfee:Ty has a question for you. Yeah, Pete, taking all that stuff into account, is there any plan that college football is going to maybe transition to more of like an injury report like the NFL does where we have a pretty clear picture of guys and whether or not they're actually going to play before Sunday so that, you know, gambling and all that stuff doesn't come into play and that can of worms, if you will, is never opened? From your lips to God's ears, Ty, right? That would certainly be that. But if you haven't noticed, people in college sports have trouble making rules and enforcing rules. So as Pollyannish is that notion that you just said sounds, I just until anyone's punished doing anything in college sports, right, whether it's cap circumvention or anything, it's hard to imagine hard and fast rules.

1:39:25I do think we've come a long way with these injury reports in a short period of time. And there's, you know, it's an effort for transparency. And I just think that gambling is real. And it's a reason behind all this, though it may not be overtly stated. I do really think it's, you know, it's a multi-billion dollar industry. And college football is a giant part of it. So, yeah, the NFL, it's certainly a little more linear. And they also, but look at the NFL. Like, the NFL is just going to find dudes big amounts of money. And at a certain point, if everyone feels the same way about the potential punishments, then they're going to follow the rules a little bit better.

1:40:04But I do think there's probably a little bit of chicanery in the NFL reports, right? Am I right?

1:40:08Pat McAfee:Yeah, we just found out Myles Garrett's going on the IR for four weeks because he had a swollen knee all offseason, but we didn't really know it. So, yes, there is some chicanery in the injury reporting, but there is like a do we need to hear, and we want to know everything. The NHL, you just say what part, like upper body, lower body. You don't really get to hear it because they just kind of do their thing. College football, a lot of eyes. Obviously, injuries matter, especially at the quarterback position. If you lie, the SEC does have the right to fine you$25 ,000 for the first offense, $50 ,000 for the second offense,$100 ,000 for the third offense, and any succeed.

1:40:42Pat McAfee:Whoa! Yeah,$100 ,000. So they're never going to mess around with that. Never. Never. Lane knows that. Lane knows that. He wouldn't want to dance in there or dabble. Okay, last question about this particular game comes from AJ. Go ahead, Hocko. Pete, yeah, what are you hearing as far as the atmosphere that we're going to see this weekend in Ole Miss? We know all of the craziness and the security they're talking about. Is this a real situation? What do you think it's going to be like the first time Lane walks out of that tunnel and gets on that field? Yeah, I think this is the most anticipated atmosphere in the 20 plus years I've done this in terms of just pure, unadulterated hatred.

1:41:21Right. I don't think there's ever been a scenario where there's one singular figure who has been as hated as Lane Kiffin is in in Oxford. His departure pierced the soul of the school, of the community and of the entire state. Right. And, you know, the way it dragged out, I don't have to remind you guys, you do a daily talk show. The way it dragged out was was just it was just a big, giant mess. He has said he regretted the way he handled it. You know, he tried to have his cake and eat it, too, essentially by staying for the playoff. It didn't work. And, you know, essentially, when that all when that all unfolded, that that final Saturday night when Marty Smith was turning into a meme and we were all kind of waiting for the team meeting for it to happen from that point on.

1:42:06Everyone had this game. Now, they hadn't scheduled it yet. Hats off, you know, tip of the cap to the SEC schedulers for putting this right at the start of the conference season so we could really, you know, enjoy and relish this in the early point. So there will be increased security in Oxford for mounted police. There will be the normal Louisiana state trooper presence that comes with this. There will be an increased sheriff's deputies presence that comes with this. And then the Mississippi State Highway Patrol, I believe, released something that said they're going to have 65, 70 more cars yesterday.

1:42:39So the security will be ratcheted up to, you know, as high of a level as I have never recall covering a game where the amount of security was this big of a storyline. And there were just all these different entities saying, you know, how much more secure it's going to be. So let's just hope everybody, you know, nobody does anything dumb and we can just get between the lines and play football on Saturday night.

1:42:59Pat McAfee:Yeah, I'm pumped for it all. I'm pumped for the game day atmosphere, you know, because I don't think they're the biggest fans of you know how everything went down with our particular program as well you know last year that was a huge piece of the talking point of it all so that starts 9 a.m eastern can't wait to be in there oh my god can't wait to be in there thankful for the opportunity obviously okay last question about the biggest game of the weekend down there in oxford last time those two teams let alone all the drama and storyline and backstabbing and everything you know that is being alluded to and sweeping of buildings for cameras and poaching of talent and coaches and how much they hate each other.

1:43:34Pat McAfee:The last time they were both ranked in the top 10, 1962. Wow. Whenever they're playing against each other. So you got the best versions of these teams going against each other with the best storyline right now in hate in college football. Should be a magical Saturday as it always is. Now, there was an article that came out in The Athletic that we're looking for a little clarity on. Go ahead, Con, man. Yeah, Pete, Pat's talking about the article about the college football spending, basically ranging between$8 million to$50 million. and all the rosters and the cost of them. How accurate is this?

1:44:06Was there anything that you saw on here that surprised you that you thought, yeah, probably a little too high, maybe a little too low? And is there anything that you take away from this that makes you think something about the future of college football? Yeah, I think those generally, and they were cast by the athletic as estimates, I think they were generally right. I got a call from someone at Boston College that said, hey, we weren't$13 million, we're$16 million, all right? Like, you know, we're not as it's not as low as it is because nobody ever wants to be the highest spender or the lowest spender.

1:44:34Right. Everyone wants to be everyone wants to be somewhere in the middle. But look, there's always chicanery, if you will, when it comes to this stuff. Right. Do you list the number that they're paid guaranteed? Do you list the number with bonuses? The agents bump the number up. It's like in the NFL, like when they when somebody signs a big deal, like what is it, the guaranteed money or do you include all the bonus money? Is it that? Is it up to? So there's there's ways that these things can be can be nebulous. But nothing stood out looking at the chart and the reporting of that. It's like, whoa, they're way off there, you know, with a particular school.

1:45:05I think the teams we know that spend are the spenders as they listed them. And then, you know, the have-nots are not spending as much. I would love, Connor, if we actually had transparency in this stuff, you know, like they are in the NFL. No one sits around and says, you know, what does Josh Allen actually make? No, it's like it's tied to a very sophisticated system and you know, like to the nickel exactly what he ends up making. And that just leads to a less convoluted system. For college football to advance in this world, transparency does need to come. You can't work in shadow markets. It's just it's foolish.

1:45:44And it makes difficult things to enforce unenforceable until there is full transparency.

1:45:50Pat McAfee:Hey, I'll tell you what. Difficult things to enforce, unenforceable because of the current situation is certainly a beautiful way to describe it. I don't know if you've heard. I don't know if you've heard. Allegedly, that act has got some votes. Really? It's still amendable, too, right? From the last raid of a tweet from somebody that knows more than I do. So maybe we'll be able to make this thing into what everybody wants. By we, I don't have anything. Maybe college, the thing, is able to do it as a whole. But what, it's every commissioner? Yep. Pete Pavacqua is in there. The NFL player, is it the NFLPA is in on it?

1:46:32Pat McAfee:Or the NFL? It might be the NFLPA. Like every, Yankees are somehow in on it. Yeah, Randy Levine. Yep, president of the Yankees. Bipartisan, allegedly, right? I don't know what that means. So if anything was to happen, this might be it, especially because it's still amendable, allegedly. So some of the things that are maybe holding people back are able to, we need something, because if not, you know. Pete doesn't look like he's sold on it. He is. What do you think, Pete? I've been pretty clear in my skepticism, and we won't have any sense of this. So ultimately, if it passes the Senate and there's a bunch of amendments, they're going to get batted around, and who knows what's going to happen.

1:47:10Nothing's going to happen until after Election Day, which is obviously in early November. But the House, especially if it flips as it projects to, is going to be a that is going to be tricky. So, look, it's alive. And quite frankly, I didn't think it'd be alive at this point. And there are still a bunch of big issues to drill down on. But again, college forts in Congress, two entities that rarely get things done. So now they're combining forces. We'll we'll see if it happens. But there's a lot more politics that can come into play here. So there is an increased chance since probably last time we talked about it, but a long, long way to go still, Pat.

1:47:48Pat McAfee:I like that it's still amendable because maybe we can make the bill that everybody would like. And I don't know enough about it, but good luck to everybody in the process of voting for it and figuring it out for the good of college sports, which are incredible for the future. Because it does feel like if you look at that athletic graph, which is there's going to be a separate just in football that normally the middle class kind of gets eliminated. Right. Yeah. Isn't that kind of what inevitably ends up happening? So if there was some way to make sure that everybody's playing maybe in at least the same universe, I think that would be good for football.

1:48:19Pat McAfee:But let alone all the other sports that are potentially going to have to fall by the wayside because of ridiculous spending in one sport or another in sports somewhere else. So we hope it happens. We hope that everybody who's pissed off about it can make some amendments or project some amendments that could maybe fix it. And let's hope that politics are able to do something good for sports. Yes. And they're back from recess, Pat. So the world is their oyster. I do like that I got some messages from some politicians that didn't necessarily appreciate the way I was describing their recess. You know, like some people's offices said, you know, recess is a very important time to get back with the constituents and kind of learn what everybody wants, which I certainly said.

1:49:01Pat McAfee:But I also said, well, you have an ice cream, playing kickball, doing a little monkey bars. Get your fucking asses back in there. We got a lot of stuff going on, but none. I don't know. You know, just you guys do your things. We need it. Last thing before we let you go quickly. Steve Belichick has resigned from the North Carolina Tar Heels football team. He had been on a medical leave since August 6th. Bill Belichick was asked about it. He said, I love my family. I'm not going to talk about a medical situation. I think it's kind of been left at that. Hasn't been around. Obviously, they show hope.

1:49:28Pat McAfee:They have Clemson this weekend as three-and-a-half point dogs. What does this tell you? With Steve Belichick resigning, Michael Lombardi resigning, and then that investigation happening, what do we think this means for Coach Bill Belichick and the UNC Tar Heels at this point? Well, not a surprise, right, Pat? And you have two significant resignations in the month of September between Mike Lombardi, the general manager, and now Steve Belichick. So I don't think this impacts anything on Saturday, right? He hasn't been with the team since early August, you know, dealing with that health issue. I think for Bill Belichick going forward and UNC going forward, there was a pretty significant thing I felt like in the internal investigation statement that they released today.

1:50:11First of all, the investigation is resolved, and that's the word they used. And the quote was, it determined that certain actions demonstrated disregard for Carolina's values, et cetera. And they also found the actions were isolated in scope and not a systemic failure. So I think there had been a perception that perhaps this internal investigation could jam up Bill Belichick. He has one guaranteed year left on his contract. It's$10 million. That's still a lot of money, although not nearly the scope of the Mike Norvell's and Dabo's and the buyouts that we've been discussing. But to me, that statement said that this, you know, Bill Belichick's hands are washed with this.

1:50:45And you just move forward coaching football. So, again, it's hard to cast it as good news. But he does not appear to be directly in that investigation, which is now closed. So, yeah, it'll be on to Clemson.

1:50:58Pat McAfee:There's an Atlantic article, I think, that breaks down from the other side on how the view is on what has happened since Bill Belichick has become the head coach at UNC. Fascinating stuff across the board. We appreciate the hell out of you. That's the authority. I'll see you down in Oxford. Ladies and gentlemen, Pete Thamel. We were going to do Chuck's pick, but we had to obviously get all that information in there for the sake of journalism. So what we will do is at the beginning of next hour, Chuck Pagano will be making his pick. Okay. that we will be making our official pick. And at that point, because at 1.57 Eastern time, about two minutes from right now, our Superboost will be going live on DraftKings.

1:51:41Pat McAfee:Now, DraftKings available across the country. If you haven't been able to utilize DraftKings because you're in a state that didn't legalize sports gambling, welcome to DraftKings. It is a great time. Now, on that note, the only way it can be a great time is if you are of age and you agree to gamble responsibly. Okay? That is a huge deal. That is a big part of this entire process. We do not want you joining us if you do not agree to be responsible. That's right. We don't want that, Connor. No. Mostly because it's not safe for you. It's not safe for sports gambling. But we don't want to hear, too, from you that you are an asshole with our Super Boost and now your problems are now on me.

1:52:21Pat McAfee:No. This is just to make the game a little bit more interesting, make the game a little bit better. That is what our Super Boost is. One rushing touchdown, one passing touchdown for each team. People are expecting a lot of points. Tone, final read on our Super Boost that goes live in about a minute on DraftKings. Yeah, we've talked about today how prolific these offenses are and how many points they score. Obviously, both of these teams scoring more than 30 points last week. All we need is one rushing touchdown and one passing touchdown from each of these teams tonight boosted to 150. It's a great boost tonight.

1:52:52Pat McAfee:Yeah, I'm a pretty big fan of it. It's not a guarantee. None of them are. None of them are a guarantee. Can't expect that out of us. Definitely not a guarantee. One touchdown. On the ground. On the ground. One touchdown to this guy. Both teams. So that's four total touchdowns. Okay, so the last time these two teams played, they scored 12 total. Boom! So you tell me. Uh-oh. Be responsible. Not again. Be responsible. Don't be a dumbass and chase money. Thank you. Don't do that because none of us need that because we enjoy this. And when you do that, you ruin it for all of us. So just agree to do it responsibly.

1:53:35Pat McAfee:Join us and let's beat them tonight. Yeah. Go. We'll be back tomorrow. Kicking off a fantastic Friday. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. Goodbye.

1:53:48Pat McAfee:Big day. Big day. Breaking down.

1:53:59Pat McAfee:Are we ever going to be able to watch that show? I don't think so. Probably not. They ran it back at 3 o 'clock. Yep. A.M.? No, P.M. yesterday, because I guess something went down up in Bristol. Oh, no. They had, I believe NBA Today was up, and then something went down, So then they rerun Big Day with Big Schrags, from my understanding. And then all of a sudden we did have baseball. There was a post-game baseball on ESPN. And then our logo showed up on ESPN just like that. It was just sitting on ESPN. As we're sitting over here, we're watching ESPN. Love what's going on. Convo, convo. We see our logo to the left, which is normal for one of the screens over there because we need to see what's in the feed.

1:54:44Pat McAfee:See it on the big feed. See the ESPN ticker. We're still talking. I think I've been some. Is that our shit right there? Are we on ESPN right now? Turn on the sound. What is the sound? No sound. Sweet. Put on the pack. Turn me on. Go sprint over there. Okay, start putting my ears on. Cut to me. We're on ESPN. I'm putting my ears on. About to hit the microphone. We have no idea why we are live right now. We just want to let you know. Joe Burrow says he's okay. We're going to get right into it. We're going to do another show. Cut us off. Go to commercial break. NFL Live on the other side. It was a technically, technologically, I believe there was some stuff, you know, that has been happening.

1:55:23Pat McAfee:And we just need to understand. I mean, everybody like attacks everybody whenever it happens. Tech is kind of just doing tech right now. And we're all just kind of. We're tied into what's been going on and these people that have resigned from gigs talking about what's going to happen. Okay, that's AI. He's talking about AI and what's been happening. I know. But maybe they are doing that. But tech nowadays is like hopping on the back of the bull that's up there in Buffalo. Sure. That's 13. With nothing. I mean, it's just not even the string that the bull riders have. Okay? You don't even have that.

1:55:58Pat McAfee:It's so powerful. It can be so great. You can maybe put together the best ride of all time. But there's a chance that that thing's just going. And you have no idea how or why it happened. You're done. You're done. and then you just got to hope that it lets you back on there at some point faster than not because what i've learned is when tech has a glitch the people that even created the tech have no idea yeah i'm bugging man restart it shouldn't do that shouldn't do that yeah should not do that i think you should just maybe take it out put it back in or whatever restart it refresh it see if that's what it is but that's certainly not supposed to happen so Sorry about that.

1:56:37Pat McAfee:Is there anything we can do right now to fix? No. It should fix itself. I mean, it's been built to fix itself, kind of. So you might have to wait a few minutes. How many minutes? See? It could be four or five hours, weeks. It could be four or five minutes. Yeah, we have no idea. But it should fix itself. That's where we are with tech right now. And especially whenever you're talking about input, switcher, camera, audio, blah, blah, blah. It's a nightmare. It's computers everywhere. You've got computers literally everywhere doing it. So I think it will get figured out. But beginning of football season, I think there is a lot.

1:57:12Pat McAfee:I think there's a lot happening to a lot of things. So hopefully they'll settle in. And we're only saying hopefully they'll settle in strictly because I think that's even the people that own it are saying, like, yeah, it'll learn. We'll get it figured out. It'll figure it out. It'll kind of figure it out. It's an interesting little time to be alive right now. Tech better than ever, but then also most devastating as it could possibly be. Because they all got to communicate and they all have to be intertwined. It just makes me think, how the hell do we have a live phone call to the moon, to the president?

1:57:41Pat McAfee:In 19 years ago. Things were a lot simpler, buddy. Good question. NASA, the telemetry, we've went over this about 100 fucking times. I don't know why you've got to keep bringing this up, you motherfucker. That was analog, brother. I'm not claiming it didn't happen. Every chance you get, hey, you know what? I think I'm going to be a cocksucker today. That's exactly what you said coming in. every time you bring this up at least once, if not twice a week. How many times do we got to say it? Huh? NASA. I think we landed on the moon. Fucking space race. We won. Telemetry. What else needs to be said?

1:58:15Pat McAfee:Clear phone call. NASA just did a flyover at home. Crystal was zero sound. On a dull telephone. I like that NASA's doing flyovers now. I do appreciate that. Zero sound. Yeah, I think they certainly have advanced for 2026. Can we get back to 1969? it was a super clear phone call. Crystal. I'm struggling to do that in the Thunderdome. Well, that's because not everybody else had cell phones jamming up all the phone lines like they do now. Well, yeah, exactly. Analog, much simpler times back then. You introduced digital. You introduced all this other stuff. It obviously muddies the waters a little bit.

1:58:46Did we have Bluetooth or Wi-Fi or anything at the time? Didn't need it. Wi-Fi. Did you just so? There's no internet.

1:58:52Pat McAfee:Well, I'm just saying. I'm just wondering how we're able to connect to the fucking moon, but we weren't able to connect from Omaha, Nebraska to Indianapolis. It just so happened, too, the moon at that particular time when they made the phone call was literally directly above. That's how they planned it, of course. Yeah, exactly. That's NASA. Again, that's telemetry. That's the fucking slingshot method and everything we know about now. Do you think that's true? Without a doubt. The smartest mind. Talk to him, Chuck. You guys hate America, huh? Yeah. Not me. Sounds like you do. No, it's not me. I'm just wondering.

1:59:27This Chuck and piece of shit does, apparently. I don't know. One small step. I mean, what?

1:59:31Pat McAfee:Yeah, one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind. I mean, you were in high school. You were in high school when it happened. Like, can you tell us, Chuck? Yeah. Yeah, right. He was 25. He watched the goddamn thing. I missed that. We were doing some other stuff. 1969. One rolling doobies. Were you a hippie, Chuck? I grew up in Boulder, Colorado. Oh, so yeah. Around all the doobies. Oh, my God. What years? What decade? The 60s you're in? Yeah. Born in 60. Oh, so 70s or more so you're... Almost named his son Doobie. I was amongst the people because my mom worked up on the hill. Was that right?

2:00:07Right next to the University of Colorado, and that's where all the hippies were. So you picked me up, dropped me off afterwards because Dad was coaching, and so I had to stay with her up on the hill, and I was on my own with the hippies. Yeah. I was learning. Did you throw rocks at them? Streets were. No, you didn't throw. You dapped them up. Smoked their drugs. I know. They were good people. He was against them. They were all about no war. Streaking was big back then. I mean, a lot of – You love that. Just hung out on that hill and watched them.

2:00:33Pat McAfee:You saw a lot of dogs. Sicko. I like that. I like that. Meat eaters tonight. Lions. Yeah, good point. That was a great point. Almost swayed me. Yeah. Okay, on the other side – Boy, that affected me. Did it really? All right. Well, on the other side, we'll make our picks. That'll be good. I'm happy we got to the bottom of it. Chuck didn't think we went to the moon in 1969 Sounds like AJ doesn't think that either AJ definitely doesn't No First off it doesn't affect my day to day ever So I'll never get too deep into it But I believe we will I don't think people can keep secrets That's why Too many people would have to be bought into that In your eyes But there's a lot of things that people are like Yeah If you're told you're going to die you won't say anything And it's like okay, well how often is that happening?

2:01:25Pat McAfee:All the time, brother. And it's like, well...

2:01:32Maybe they can give people not to say anything. Not fucking John Glenn. Not Buzz Aldrin. Neil Armstrong from Wapakoneta, Ohio, bud. He's not lying. Then why are you always bringing it up, dickhead? You're the one who's trying to fucking piss on his legacy. I am not talking about the moon landing itself. I'm talking about the technology once we were there to make the phone call. Just don't question it then. NASA. Oh, you can't tell me that. It's America. I'm going to have to question it. You have to. He just called Houston, and Houston put them into the capsule communicator, which is how Houston was talking to the astronauts.

2:02:04And they just plugged it right in, analog, like everyone's saying. Boom. It's simple. If they went, then why don't the astronauts swear on the Bible that they did it?

2:02:12Pat McAfee:What are you talking about? Why do they? That's a bunch of chicanery. Why won't they do it? That is some chicanery right there. But you're right. There are certainly some things. Why won't they? How do we know they're Catholic? Are they Catholic? Some of them. Yeah. We don't know. They don't want to be forced to do that. If they're not Catholic, then they wouldn't have any problem with doing it. No, it's because it's fucking church and state, and you don't fucking mix those two things up, period. Shout out to Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Clay Travis actually just launched sports. Yeah, no, I know he did.

2:02:41Pat McAfee:I know he did. He actually is kind of mixing church and state over here. He could do that. He's from the South. They do whatever the fuck they want down there. They do mix church and state down there. Good luck to him. Good luck to him, certainly, as he dabbles in a world that certainly has a lot of heat. Did you see that I'm Hulk Hogan? Yeah, did. Crazy. Congratulations. What? I'd like to see this. What happened? I sent it into the group. You probably were coaching one of the four teams that you're coaching, but there was a deep dive into me and Hulk Hogan being the same fucking guy, brother.

2:03:12Pat McAfee:Pretty cool. And I'll tell you what, I started to believe it as I was watching. I didn't buy it initially, and then when he kind of did the slow burns effect from the Hulkster into you, I was like, holy shit, you are Hulk Hogan. Grats, dude. Thank you, me. Any regrets? Thank you, me. I got these 22-inch pythons, brother. I don't know why I did a leg drop. I should have been doing it. Nick could not wait to get this up. Nick could not wait to get this lower third up. My man here, the immortal Hulk Hogan, explains who he is, And then, obviously, all the different numbers. Yeah, 33. Coding and one-third fallen angels and, you know, everything.

2:03:55Pat McAfee:Deep internet. Deep, deep internet stuff, which we certainly know the ins and outs of because we have grown up in the internet. He falls on. Did you know me and the Hulkster, Terry Bilyeu, our birthdays? 33 years. Interesting number. Yeah, okay. Eight months. Interesting number because eight actually, if you look at it, that is just two threes kind of flip back and forth. And then 21 days, I believe, two plus one, that's another whole. There's another three. Okay, so if you do the math here, it's 33 years, that's three, three. Okay, then the eight is two threes, so that's three, three, three, three.

2:04:35Pat McAfee:And then 21, that's two plus one, that's another three. That's a coincidence? What does Cena have to do with it? Well, John's obviously in threes. It's a threes. Oh, the threes. Everybody's doing a threes. I have to do one there. Everybody's doing a threes. Do you hold up the threes a lot? I do not. Did Hulk? I was not shown in there. Oh, no. This is not the diamond cutter. It's not. He was going blah, blah, blah. This is not the diamond cutter. You have no idea what this is. Yeah, I mean, it was a full on. And now the follow-up is going to be us laughing about this because they do it right in your face.

2:05:09Yep, exactly.

2:05:10Pat McAfee:That's what they say. What happened with me and Hulk when we were on the same stage? He came in here, one of his last live interviews. You guys were never on camera together. That's when you guys morphed. Yeah, you weren't together. I never did see you guys both at the same time. Okay. We got running back. Can you please pull up the photos of me and Hulk? Yeah, AI is hell of a drug. Just know that it is cool to be at this stage of whatever we are. I thought that was just Ty wearing the Hulk Hogan costume. Could have been. It was, wasn't it? Yeah, with the Donovan Mitchells. I mean, especially this is...

2:05:36Pat McAfee:People are going to look at this photo and say it's AI, you know? Yeah. I mean, look, you guys aren't even in the same room. There's no way. Yeah, where's the mouth of the south? Can you go to the other photo, please? There's another one in there. Obviously, just put him in there. Yeah, there's another one, please. Here's me and Terry Belia, Mr. Hulk Hogan. Has he brought real American beer in, brother? Look at this. Look at this. AI slop. I mean, come on now. That's a real photo. That's right in the same thing. That's making a$3 bill. We know that. Oh, wow. $3 bill. Wow. Another$3. Oh, wow. Oh, no.

2:06:08I didn't even think about it.

2:06:09Pat McAfee:Yeah, that's the problem, AJ. Jay, because you don't have to think about it. Look at his shoes. Look at his basketball shoes. He's just hooping. How about D-Butt's question? I had no idea you're an NBA fan. Wearing Kevin Durant's. Is that normal? No, brother. Not all dudes. Some of these black guys, dude, smooth butter, dude. No, he did not say that on our show. He had so many words. To be clear. He loves Donovan Mitchell. Loved Donovan Mitchell. D-Butt was. Darius was hilarious through the entire process of that whole thing just at all us asking him do you have any regrets just with everything that's kind of been out there and him being like oh i don't know actually yeah i do have one i was actually thinking the other day it's like well what we were pretty excited because it was all pretty topical at the time of everything that happened in the past he goes what was i doing sleeper brother what am i eating i don't like this i don't like who did whoa Young Hulk?

2:07:11What do you mean? We just did that photo shoot last week.

2:07:14Pat McAfee:No, we did not. Hold the phone. You are the real American. Fight for the rise of every man. Dude, I'm a real American. Fight for the rise. Fight for your life. Do, boo, do, do, do, do, do, do. When it comes crashing down, it ain't down. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, brother. Yeah. Yep. We actually created that. Yeah, we did. All right, let's get to a break. If you ever return, please come out like this. To Hulkster. Are you going to Hogan's Hangout on Monday nights for karaoke? I've been there, brother, a bunch, you know. You were running hot in L.A. too for a bit. I was running hot. With Scott Hall and the boys.

2:08:03Pat McAfee:Yep. Nice, dude. Watching that, though, just watching it and knowing people, that certainly will believe that yep okay it was like wow pretty cool to get to this part of life here at this point you know that was my big takeaway because we are internet humans so everything in there obviously we're pretty well versed in all of it and just piecing it all together i'm like holy i've become one of these what a time to be alive yeah brother yeah exactly what an honor that's a pinnacle

2:08:40Yep.

2:08:41Pat McAfee:Let's hear it, AJ. Oh, man. I can't. I don't want to, you know, disrespect you slash the Hulkster. Rest in peace. Thank you. Rest in peace to Macho Man who made a really mean song about me. Yeah, he did. Now that I'm thinking about it. Good song, but. Be a man, Hulk. Mm-hmm. Well, trying to be a couple times. Now, if people were saying it was you, that would be vastly different. Oh. You know what I mean? Now that is something that maybe I can – Which one is supposed to be the real Hawk there? Exactly. I would kind of buy into this if this was kind of happening. Okay. Look at how low your belt is.

2:09:22What do you mean? It's just perfect.

2:09:26Pat McAfee:Thank you. How's Jimmy doing? Not great. I've known him a long time. All right, let's get to a break. On the other side, we'll make our picks. It is crazy to be at this stage of life. Lucky and thankful to be here. There's going to be people that believe that for the rest of their lives now. No doubt. So I got to make sure I live up to the billing. Exactly. I'm going to take all my vitamins. I'm going to get pretty jacked. I'm going to get super tanned up. Super tanned up. But I'm going to do it right here. My regret is not going to be, nobody's going to be wondering what my regrets are. Okay.

2:09:58Pat McAfee:All right. How about him just melting my face? Look at this fucking guy. Face swap. Interesting. Yeah. And it was. It was. The other one was what? Magic Johnson and AI maybe? Yeah. Who was it? You were magic? The answer? No, he said 33 years, 8 days. 8 months, 21 days. Difference with somebody else as well. Two celebrities. So how come the last two people I searched just have a say what he said one time? I'm like, me and Hulk Hogan and this guy are the last two people you searched? It was. That's awesome. This guy hits batting a thousand. We'll see, I guess. Is that his day job? Oh, yeah. He's got a lot of followers on him.

2:10:43He's killing it. We'll see whether you're Hulk Hogan. Is that what we will see?

2:10:46Pat McAfee:Yeah, I guess we'll all find out real time, brother. Okay. I'm excited. I think we already know. Can't wait. Oh, shut up, Chuck. Shut up. Yes, sir. Don't you be feeding into this guy's stuff, Chuck. You knew me when I wasn't Hulk Hogan. You knew me when I was just a young little lad trying to find my way. Love that guy. You know who Chuck's? No, don't do that. What were you going to say? Probably should. You should think about it, though. Maybe, Tony. Go ahead. 33 years, 8 months, 21 days? Harry Houdini? No. Worse. Way worse. He was on the wrong side of WWE, too. All right, let's get to a break.

2:11:23Pat McAfee:Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. Mussolini? Yeah. Really? I didn't know that. Who said that? Why don't we let him in here? Fuck Jesus. Wake up, old man! Chucking bastards, boy. Let's get to a break, please. Okay? Let's get to a break. Bruce is watching the whole video down here on his computer. Yeah, I don't doubt it. Yeah, I'm watching this guy break me down right here. Isn't this interesting? 33 years, 8 months, 21 days. Who else? And then look, the video, Universe told me, 3 minutes and 33 seconds. He talked right through that time. But that time definitely did exist at one point during the video.

2:12:02Pat McAfee:There it is, Dion and Magic. That's what it was. Dion and Magic. AJ's even crazier. No, no. He's a deep thinker. He's a deep thinker. He's a deep thinker, and I appreciate him looking into it. He's the fittest flat earther. The fittest flat earther. He's in there, bro. He's in there. He got a bunch of followers. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You got to remember, that scratches. A lot of itches. So many internet itches. Especially out of COVID when people are just kind of in their houses, only on the internet. Dominate. We lost a lot of good people out there. Yeah, we did. They're still in there. Oh, yeah.

2:12:39Pat McAfee:And I'll tell you what, every time something that they believe comes true, they're only going in there even more. That's exactly right. I guess we'll all learn in real time whether or not. Yeah. Exactly. You know what I mean, AJ? You are good in the ring. To be clear, I did pitch for one of my matches. obviously everything kind of unfolds in real time in the ring yeah yeah but my plan for the end of one of my wrestling matches yeah was a leg drop to win it yep top leg drop brother which i don't even know at the time maybe that was hulk hogan saying do the leg drop brother could have been it's a finisher he'll do it i didn't know in real time he was saying that but i certainly had planned on punt, leg drop, one, two, three.

2:13:31Pat McAfee:You could guess who that one was probably against. The Mike. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. On the other side, we make our picks for tonight. We are so thankful that football is back. It's going to be another weekend of spectacular ball across the board. Will Chuck finally get on the chucking right side of things? Better. We shall see. Why don't we take five? Five!

2:14:23Right where it's needed. So communities can keep moving forward. Bloom Energy. Power America relies on. ESPN's going to Super Bowl 61 and so can you. Enter for a chance to win the trip of a lifetime. Four tickets to Super Bowl 61 plus a three-night stay at Disneyland Resort where you and up to three guests can enjoy the magic of Disney plus the Super Bowl champion cavalcade. Enter at www.espn.com slash sblxi by December 31st, 2026 for your chance to win. No purchase necessary. ends 12-31-26 at 11-59 p.m. Eastern. Open only to legal residents of the 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., who are 18-plus at time of entry.

2:14:57For odds of winning and full official rules, visit www.esbn.com slash sblxi. Void where prohibited.

2:15:06Pat McAfee:Football! He is the greatest. That's A.J. Hawk. He's won a title in college and in the NFL. And in high school, he was a running back, linebacker, punter. Yeah. In one game, he had two touchdowns on offense, 30 tackles on defense, and averaged 50 yards a punt. Wow. Ain't that right, AJ? Holy shite. No, that wouldn't be correct. I was a very inconsistent putter. I might hit one 60-yarder, and then I'll punt one into the stands, you know, directly to the left, maybe even negative yards. Okay, so that would have been 30-yard average there. You could have still potentially got yourself up to 50 if you would have had multiple punts.

2:15:37Pat McAfee:But he's not punting a lot because he was a running back, and he was scoring touchdowns all over the place. And then was 33 tackles the number that we saw on the plaque at Centerville High School in Ohio? I don't know if it's on a plaque or anything, but it's possible. I was credited with that many with my great linebacker, Coach Larry Nofsinger, who passed away earlier this year. He was very generous as far as tackles. Well, rest in peace, obviously, trying to get the eyes of the Buckeyes on the Centerville Elk, A.J. Hawk. Anytime he was around a pile, he's certainly getting a tackle stat. That's why if you have 42 snaps at linebacker in an NFL game, you should record some sort of stat just at some point.

2:16:15Pat McAfee:Like, isn't it almost more impressive? Like, this is if you were to do a full weekend slate of picks and you get zero right. Yes. That's like a pretty impressive feat to be able to just not blindly get one right. Yes. 42 snaps, zero stats at the linebacker position. That's almost pretty good. You know what I mean? I've almost come full circle saying, like, has that ever happened before in a football game? I don't know. I genuinely don't know. Maybe in all the passing situations, he had such lockdown coverage that the quarterback wouldn't even look his way, so he's not getting any PBUs or picks.

2:16:54Pat McAfee:Lamar threw for 400 yards or something like that. I don't know if there was any lockdown happening there on that. That's nine years. Oh, sorry. 37-year football coach. 18 in college, 19 in the pros. My former head coach, Chuck Pagano. Coach, we're talking about the Indianapolis Colts right now. I didn't want to get into it because obviously there's a big game tonight on Thursday Night Football Prime. Talks at the table at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. You guys look great. One half of the hammer. Cowboys AP Tone is here. But, Coach, it's hard not to talk about the Colts. Obviously, we live in this city.

2:17:27Pat McAfee:I'm a season ticket holder. You're a former head coach of the team. We obviously love the family that owns the team. We love all that. That looked downright terrible. I mean, it looked ass out there by the Indianapolis Colts. But it was spectacular to get to watch Lamar Jackson kind of do his thing. He was operating at a level that I don't know if I've ever seen from him, but certainly not a quarterback that's walked into the lothouse, especially with this new era of team. And they just dismantled us, demoralized us, just demolished the Indianapolis Colts. They were D-D-D-ing all over us. Zay Flowers goes for 150, doesn't even finish the game.

2:18:01Pat McAfee:Derrick Henry obviously goes crazy, runs their record books. And then Lamar Jackson goes for 350-plus or something like that through the sky. They didn't break a sweat, and they crushed us. We had guys on the field, 42 snaps, zero stats. It looked bad, bad. And then Shane Steichen yesterday said it was a nice wake-up call. Okay, so as Colts folks that we are, we are pro-Colts people. Okay, I think I'm very apparent. Every once in a while I'll tell the truth about the Colts. These super-duper Colts fans that don't live in Indianapolis on the Internet get very mad at me for those things. Haven't heard an apology yet.

2:18:32Pat McAfee:Have not heard one. Waiting on it still from the people that were trying to kick me out of the city in which I call home. Lucky to call home. But, Chuck, bad start. And then Shane says wake-up call. What are your thoughts on the Colts? And do I need to give up hope? Because I still see the Indianapolis Colts winning the Super Bowl in Los Angeles February 14th. A lot has to happen. But you can still see it out there. You can still see it. It's a long season, Chuck. It's a long season. Yeah, I was a little bit, you know, alarmed by the wake-up call. I just thought based on, you know, I listened to Carly say, okay, look, this was like went to the movie and we hit pause.

2:19:15Did she not say that? Yes, she did. About last year, right? Uh-huh. Eight and two start. Then we lose our quarterback, Danny, goes out, right? And then we know the rest is history. And it was like, okay, I can't wait until we get to, you know, hit the play button and watch this movie. So everybody, all the expectations were like, okay, we're just going to hit the ground running. Our quarterback's healthy. unbelievable, you know, recovery from the Achilles. And we're just going to roll. And nobody expected, you know, what happened. Baltimore's a really good team. I was obviously there last year.

2:19:48I saw these guys up close and personal person every single day. Lamar is an absolute, you know, weapon. King Henry, Zay. They just, and I think a lot of it stems, like, the defensive issues. You know, they just took the mic, you know, the green dot off of Bynum, right? So they had it on Bynum. And from Jump Street, the very first snap, they couldn't get lined up, confused. They ran a bootleg. They hit Zay on a runaway, and they go down to the one-yard line. You know, and it didn't get any better. So I think from a communication standpoint, the green dot went from Bynum, who's a safety. They talked ad nauseum about how hard that would be.

2:20:28Can you imagine, A.J., the safety having to run in deep parts of the field then run up to the front of the huddle at the line of scrimmage, give everybody the play call, right, and then run back to the deep part. And so if their speed – Why? How did we fall on that one? We got young linebackers. You know, Boettcher was starting right. Allen hadn't found his way yet. He didn't play a snap. So from a communication standpoint – Second round pick. That was tough.

2:20:57Pat McAfee:What about Grove? Grove, DeForest Buckner, Buck's in the middle of the defensive line. He's got to be in every play kind of. He kind of needs to be a guy that's in there the whole time and not rotate out. So who are they putting on? Do we know? Different linebacker. Vatcher? No, they went to 51. Three names. He's got three names. Okay. Gaither. I like that. Right? Better than two. So they put it on. Three is normally like an assassin. He had it at Cincinnati. So they're putting it on a linebacker. So that takes the onus off of Bynum. Taylor Britt? From our communication. Hakeem Davis Gaither. Three.

2:21:31Three names.

2:21:32Pat McAfee:He's 6 '2", 238. Dog. Good dims. Great dims. Good name. He went to App State, obviously. Lou had him. They had him down at Cincinnati. So they're obviously familiar with him. Yeah, I think they cut him after that terrible year. Greened up back on him. The Lou or the linebacker? Both. Young guys. You got a rookie safety starting, Halsey. That's his first outing. Justin Wally started in the nickel for Kenny Moore, right? And he's lined up against Zay Flowers. Where the fuck is Kenny Moore? We saw what happened. Hanging. You know, with that, Justin's going to be fine. Halsey's going to be fine. But this was their first outing against a really, really good football team, a really good offensive football team.

2:22:18Zay just made – they're paying him$35 million a year for a reason. You know, so they'll be better. Communication will be better, and they got to go to Kansas City. Can't get much worse, right? No, 41 points.

2:22:30Pat McAfee:Yeah, not only 41 points. We had a guy out there who made no tackles. It maybe makes a little bit more sense if they didn't know what the play call was. I was going to say, it sounds like he had no fucking idea what was going on out there. So you remember Matt Ryan in the offensive line here in Indianapolis couldn't get on the same page. And after we found that out, we would go back and watch. We're like, makes sense. Makes sense. Cam Bynum not relaying the message or able to relay a message potentially because you have some of the fastest players in football on the other side, so we probably can't be lingering around too close.

2:22:57Pat McAfee:We've got a deep job that we have to do. So maybe just nobody was on the same page on defensive front, so maybe that's why that happened. And then offensively, yeah, we're going to be great, right? Yeah. Yeah, Colts go to the Super Bowl. I like that. I like they've got a wake-up call early, you know, because there's an entire offseason potentially a wake-up call, but I guess everything stayed the same other than Michael Pittman. So, you know, we're all kind of hunky-dory. Good luck, boys. Good luck. We need it. Go get them. Come on. Pounce back this week. Chiefs. What a great opportunity. And, you know, Kansas City didn't look any good.

2:23:28So, hey, it's a great opportunity to go on the road. I'm with you. And I think D. Butt mentioned it, right? I was back home. You guys went there and clinched playoff berth, right, when I was out sick?

2:23:41Pat McAfee:That's right, cold. And beat Kansas City in the cold, right? Great win. We've had good success there for whatever reason. That was a little different Kansas City team back then, wasn't it? Well, Kenneth Walker wasn't there for sure. They were pretty good, AJ. Yeah, they were certainly. Was Patty Mahomes there? Yes, Patty Mahomes was there. 2019, Jacoby Brissett goes there. Okay. Yes. Now, granted, once again, we're saying a lot of names that aren't there and then new names that are there for the Chiefs. But when these two logos play each other, Colts have fared pretty well against the Chiefs. Now, Sunday Night Football, fresh off of an announcement to the world that the Chiefs are now ground-and-pound football team again, which they clearly are with Kenneth Walker.

2:24:20Pat McAfee:And the Colts giving up 150-plus yards to Derrick Henry just a few days ago. It's certainly a little bit alarming about what could happen in there at Arrowhead. But why not Danny Dimes, Jonathan Taylor, and that offensive line stealing the juice at Arrowhead, which is like a college atmosphere. It was such an honor to be in there and watch a game just to not have to play again. Well, I couldn't watch the game. But you get it. But I got to see the beginning of it, home of the Chiefs. get off the field, go Tottenham, please come back out. So didn't really get a chance to experience it on the field.

2:24:50Pat McAfee:Got a chance to see in the suite level. That place is electrifying. Now, get off to a hot start, maybe get them questioned a little bit. Maybe they can't hand the ball off 45 times, Kenneth Walker. Then maybe you got them right where you want them. Sauce Gardner, Eaton. Mooney. And where the fuck is Kenny Moore? I asked that question earlier. He didn't sign with any team, right? No, he didn't. He just retired? Not that I know of. I don't think he did. He's just hanging out. Probably just staying in shape, waiting for him. Sign with a contender. Injuries are going to happen. He's going to be out there.

2:25:24Somebody's going to lose a dude here or there, and he'll get picked up. He was a great player for us. Great player. What the fuck happened? Great story. He's never really won anything, right? No, yeah.

2:25:36Pat McAfee:A lot of guys on this particular team have never won anything. both playing and running team and coaching team have never really won anything. Now, got it all figured out, which we certainly appreciate and are treated as if they have it all figured out. Sure. But as a season ticket holder, I haven't had a fucking primetime game, really, to be able to watch. No. It would be sweet with Gardner Minshew. We were this far away from hosting a playoff game. We're still holding on to that right now. Passing a flat. Mm-hmm. Tyler Goodson, maybe. Those were good old days. Last year, they were 8-2. That's good news.

2:26:12Pat McAfee:Beat the hell out of a bunch of people. Came to the number one team in the league. Number one offense in the league. We're going to be able to find that again. Six of those wins. Teams, they fired their coach at the end of the year. So maybe I think. That's an interesting stat. He shared that this morning. They were really 2-2? No, I mean. Boy, dark days. We haven't won since what, 2024? But I think we need to just be realistic and temper our expectations a little bit. We got a bunch of young guys that are going to get better. We got a good staff over there. We got a bunch of coaches. You can't temper expectations.

2:26:47His stank is like 15th year. Yeah, there's money spent, dude. What? A lot of money out there. He just paid a wide receiver and a QB. Top dollar. He's been hurt. They like their guy. Yeah, that guy. They're saying some crazy things about him on the internet. I stay away from it this time of year, guys. You should do the same.

2:27:09Pat McAfee:Okay, we will. Thank you. What time of year should we not? I don't like because, you know, what you think or say about me, you know, it's none of my business. Well, yeah, that's you. If you were Chris Ballard. I'm trying to pass it along to everybody else. They've got to stay locked in. Yeah, but we are staying locked in on what the things on the internet are happening because they're kind of cooking right now, and Chris Ballard's on the flame that they're cooking because of lack of success. And I think we like Chris Ballard, the person. but never won the AFC South. I mean, going on 10 years here.

2:27:39Pat McAfee:I don't know how. When was the last one? 12, 13 years. When was it? 2014. Was that you? Yeah, it was. Yeah, right. Was I there for that? Who the Chuck did you think it was? Yes, I was. I was there for that. We did it. Hell yeah, good for us. We absolutely did that. It was good on you guys. We had good players. Yeah, we had good coaches. We had good coaches. And general manager, Ryan Grigson, had success. I think obviously he had a lot of learning curve situations that took place. I thought his name was going to get back into the general manager circles. Where's he at now? He is back to Cleveland.

2:28:11Pat McAfee:Cleveland, yeah. Back in Cleveland. But, yeah, we did win. There were a lot of winning. Now had Andrew Luck. That certainly helps. Andrew Luck was really good. Had Peyton Manning before that. True. Then we go on the search for the quarterback forever, and, you know, that kind of provides a lot of excuses. Yeah. I think. Dog shite teams. Because real. Real problem. You don't have a quarterback, you're in trouble. That is a real thing about football and all that. But, yeah, Chris Bauer knows that, you know, there's a lot of eyes on him. But is there? I don't know. I genuinely don't know what the future holds for the Indianapolis Colts.

2:28:43Pat McAfee:I think they're going to win the Super Bowl this year. I don't want to temper my expectations. There we go. I don't like hearing that six out of the eight wins last year came against teams that had to fire their entire fucking front office. I didn't know that. Well, the Titans were in there twice. Yeah. Okay. Dolphins. Dolphins. But there was two really good teams. Also, they beat the Chargers. Arizona. They beat the Chargers. They beat the Rams. Falcons. Yeah, Pittsburgh, we lost to them. Atlanta, they got a whole new coach. Oh, man. I mean, Atlanta, Tennessee, Arizona, Vegas, Tennessee, Miami.

2:29:20Pat McAfee:Good program. I didn't see any of that. It turns out hindsight here has a little bit better projection on what those teams are. You get this with any team, though. You know, you could do this with any team. No, your team is the fucking team we're talking about. No, but in general, like a lot of other teams, coaches, a lot of coaches got fired. If you went through another team's schedule, it'd be a lot like this. That's a good point. That is good. I like that. I choose to believe that one. Now... It's on a lot of your wins. That's tough. That is a tough realization. Let's keep that one in the holster next time.

2:29:56Pat McAfee:Whenever we're looking for optimism here on a week two, okay? We're going into Sunday night. They'll bounce back. They're going to bounce back. I think so, too. The only issue is what if the Chiefs just keep bouncing, though? You know, because they don't really got to bounce back right now. They just got to keep bouncing. Letdown game. Big win like that. Look up for a letdown. Yeah, because they're not like a mature group either. They've never experienced this type of shit before that they had there on opening night. And it's primetime pressure. Yeah, big lights. Oh, yeah. They won't be able to.

2:30:25Pat McAfee:No way. Coach Reed. He won't have an answer. He's just eating all week. Cheeseburgers. He ain't game planning. Six and a half is not bad, actually. I kind of like that. Maybe it is a big bounce back in the sportsbook's eyes because I think if you were to take that number a little bit bigger, I think a lot of people would still pull the trigger. You're probably right. Take them 13 and a half. Well, I don't need alt spreads right now. It's fucking Tuesday. Thursday. We don't need that. Close to Tuesday. Thursday. Some people say Thursday is the Tuesday of Saturday. I'll tell you. Monday after Monday night countdown.

2:30:55Pat McAfee:You're right. and it depends on what time's ever in as well. Monday night after Monday Night Countdown, I got on that plane and I was like, week one, done, you know? Kind of like, I was thinking that one game day to Monday Night Countdown, get on the plane, think to myself, why don't we give me one of them diet buffalos real quick, kind of have a little bit of a celebration that we kind of did this thing. And then all of a sudden I remember, hey, fucking show tomorrow morning right now. Yeah. This is not week one's over. You're actually just kind of in football. Tuesday. And it's like, that's incredible.

2:31:25Pat McAfee:I do think keeping track of the days will be problematic for me. So I hope everybody keeps me honest. Seeing lads in person certainly help. Yes, it does. You know, like AQ popping in was like, oh, it's Wednesday. Walked in, saw AQ, was like, I forgot we were doing this. This is incredible news. You obviously coming in on Thursday. What a great start. Walk in here, 45 ,000 calories. So many donuts. And donuts are over here. So many. So many. For the lads. Yeah, I thought we cut those down, didn't we? I thought we got those like two. Six boxes also, too. Football season. Four box. Let's go. I know you brought four boxes.

2:31:59Pat McAfee:Well said. Quad box the donuts. Four box, baby. Yeah, I understand, but I thought we had a conversation about, like, hey, there's certain ones that get eaten and certain ones that don't. We could kind of bundle these things into, like, one or two boxes. I did not expect the entire island to be filled with donuts this morning, but Chuck was jacked up. So was Jack's Donuts, I assume. They were excited to get their new shit in here. It's actually, excuse me, they've branded, new branded, this is no-name donuts. Private equity coming in and ruining them? Yeah. Do you see any branding on those boxes?

2:32:33No. Just white. Oh, no. No-name donuts. Okay. But just as delicious.

2:32:39Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah, of course. We had one of these. They were Jack and Burger King. Remember down on the south side? That's exactly what they're doing. What was it? They lost the brand Burger King. Yeah. They had a Burger King on the south side. We had walked past it. It was the goat. It was so good. They lost the Burger King licensing deal. But they just continued operating without the sign. So shape of Burger King sign, no words on there. Menu, same as Burger King, getting it in a paper bag. And then you're on your way out. They were operating late nights. How does it taste? Same? So good. Okay, so tell me, these things taste any worse?

2:33:19Pat McAfee:Well, there's fucking a lot of... It's the same, right? They're still delicious. They're great donuts. Yeah. Well, they might have problems. It's the Patton family. Well, they might need to figure out how not to give away so much shit. We don't need four... It seems like they're in a new process, a new business they're building, no-name donuts. I like to create a brainstorm that went behind that, by the way. What name is going to be better? There is no name that's going to be better. How about we just eat no-name donuts? Tell them to keep two to three extra boxes of stuff, supplies, so they can give it to somebody else.

2:33:47Pat McAfee:I don't think we need 200 donuts in here. There's 10 people. Very generous people. I will have a conversation. I'm going to need one of the guys, the fellas in the back, our all-stars. Let's go ahead and get exact what we like. We did that already. So the list is the list. I got the list this summer. I got the text message. We want to go back to them. And boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. That's why we got Chuck and Four Box out there. So now, if we want to pare this thing down, I'll pare it down. But I don't need guys running roughshod over me about how many goddamn donuts are here. That's fair. No, there's two extra boxes of shit we did not circle.

2:34:26Pat McAfee:Talk clearly. Circled one that was already selected. There was a couple others. I think there was only four to five options. There is 30 options over there right now. Nobody ordered a mystery box that has the most absurd donuts with bacon, with sausage, with all sorts of toppings. That was potato crisp. today. Exactly. So the fuck is that? Foxy, I know you're a little emotional. You got three linemen down. We're fixing to happen here tonight, so you just calm down. Yeah, but you just lied to what Foxy said. They just threw in this fantasy box. Hey, let's see if the boys like a little bit of, you know, a maple bar with some bacon on it.

2:35:07That was damn good. That was damn good. We were going to give the extras to the construction And I didn't see anybody bitching or hollering about apple fritter. Apple fritter was brought in in the same box. How about the goddamn, excuse me, the coconut filled.

2:35:23Pat McAfee:Custard? Two of them. Coconut sucked. AJ, you should see how many fucking donuts are here, dude. The amount of chucking donuts that are sitting over there is just absurd. And now I like to hear that. Somebody needs to eat a couple of them twists. We got more. Those fucking twists. That's what Tuck. Tuck ordered the, what did he call that thing? a tiger something? Tiger Tail. Oh, yeah. Those are the worst. Take the freaking Chuck and Tiger Tails home, Doc. How's the fucking Jack Sprinkle? On that note, on all of this, I do like that you said, hey, make a list of stuff that you guys want in here, and then you told No Name Donuts, and they said, yeah, yeah, yeah, fuck these guys.

2:36:02Pat McAfee:We also got these ones that they need to try. So there was no reason to put a list together ever, I don't think, but on that note, there has been a couple that have surprised us in your fantasy mystery box. I didn't know Maple Baker was over there. added maybe to the entirety of what we have in the past. But No Name Donuts has showed up in a big way for us here. We need the little guys, right? Yeah, we're the donut holes. Yeah, the donut holes. Evan, listening, Eric, we need the little holes. Is that his name? Yeah, Eric and Nicole are the parents, owners, and the son is Evan. He's 16. He gets to sleep in.

2:36:35He's been dropping them off. Oh, good kid. So he's missing like first period, which I think is like study hall or something, so he's good. He's a great kid.

2:36:43Pat McAfee:Okay, yeah, we think it's study. This kid's skipping so he can haul in 15 boxes of donuts. Get his kid's ass to school. I saw him this morning. As soon as his program's over, he's in detention. He comes in with an 18-wheeler. You saw him? Yeah, I saw him dropping him off this morning. I mean, he was, like, struggling getting these boxes, and then Chuck's struggling getting these boxes. A lot of donuts. That's a lot of donuts. What we're saying is we'll take them to the fire department across the street. We appreciate them. And I like your idea of taking them to the construction workers. Are they out there?

2:37:09That's the thing. We're trying to, but they had to get the serve. We get to serve and give back. The fuck we do? We get to buy these guys lunch every day, these construction workers. Bending over backwards for these guys. It's OSHA. They don't work when it's over 95.

2:37:22Pat McAfee:Is that real? Yeah. It's not even 90. I hope that they're healthy. I hope that they're healthy. But we do give them drinks, food, snacks. Try to keep them comfortable. I don't like it because the route that my Uber driver took this morning to get here. Kind of route. Pitch black. There's no lights, right? I'm thinking, okay, I'm done. This guy's taking me out to the field. Sure. Why'd you think that? You don't travel with protection? Is that normal? That's just kind of normal thought? Well, there's no lights. It's dark. I mean, these roads, you can't see crap. Take advantage of you and kill you?

2:37:54What do you think? Yeah, exactly.

2:37:56Pat McAfee:Roads are closed. It has caused quite an interesting scene for our door dashers. Some figure out a way to get through and get to us. Some just park it a mile away and carry a bag through construction sites and neighborhoods to get to the Thunderdome. What I'm saying is we appreciate all the workers. We do. Thank you for it all. And we have 200 to 300 extra donuts for you this particular week, if you guys are, to come work. Shout out to No Name Donuts. Shout out to the 16-year-old skipping school. He's definitely going to class after he drops it off here directly. He's not smoking cigs in some parking lot.

2:38:31Southwest people over at the airport, unbelievable human beings. They're getting a box taken to them.

2:38:38Pat McAfee:They're going to be so pumped. On my way out of here. They're probably just like us. We got space for an extra fucking 45, 50 donuts. You know, we could definitely put that somewhere. Take it through security. I was going to say, what are you doing? What are you fucking talking about? What are you doing? Why would you do that to yourself? Put a sandwich in your backpack and I had two donuts wrapped up in a... Two donuts? You're talking about bringing a box of donuts through security. I had a twist. Ever seen First Kid bombing a bear claw? Frickin' glaze I had wrapped up. It didn't trigger nothing.

2:39:06Kidding me.

2:39:07Pat McAfee:Chuck, it's great to have you back in here. I just want to let you know. I love being here, Pat. Yeah, we're very lucky and thankful. I mean, we're all trying to get in shape. You know, Mordor is a destination that's kind of happening in front of our eyes. Have you guys had gluten-free donuts? Fuck that. Fuck that. Let's move away. They're not bad. No, we're going to move on. We're going to move on. We appreciate the donuts. We appreciate no-name donuts. You guys can keep some of your flour and stuff, though. We don't need 200 donuts every single week. But thank you for rolling the dice to send us the extra stuff.

2:39:37Pat McAfee:Coconut cream pie, obviously. Ty, love getting a nice... Fucking fire. Yep, and the maple bacon. Love, love that. What name do we give that thing? The no-name donuts? No, the maple bacon. I don't know. Just that? I want one name. Is there any sprinkles or long johns out there? Yeah, everything. Donuts? Everything, AJ. Yeah, so it's like a maple glazed pig glaze. Something along those lines. Is he traveling in here this week? Who? Yeah, he comes here tomorrow. There's usually some donuts there when I show up on Friday. Okay, good. We'll save you some, AJ. Yeah, he eats them. Yeah, he definitely eats them.

2:40:13Pat McAfee:Thanks. Okay, the name of it is called the Maple Bacon Long John. Maple Bacon Long John is that thing. But I want to come up with a, what would Hulk call it? Well, he's here. What would you call it, Hulk? Well, I would just kind of follow along with what No Name Donuts is doing. Maybe it is the Maple Bacon Long John with this AI slob. Maybe they just call it the Me G, dude. Oh, yeah, maybe. But kind of calling Gene a pig. Yeah, I'm sure Mean Gene love bacon. Certainly. Remember Mean Gene's pizza at a bowling alley if you go there? So good. I remember bacon pepperoni. It was fucking fire. All right, let's get off the donuts that you brought way too many of, but we appreciate you starting there.

2:40:54Pat McAfee:We'd like to be able to say, whoa, instead of go, especially as coaches say. Let's get to your real job here. Okay? You are an Italian lad. obviously coached football for a long time, so you can openly participate, but you certainly know the ins and outs of potentially dabbling in the sports gambling world for multiple years now. You've had a winning record on Thursday night football predictions, and last week did not go your way, but tonight, week two, on Amazon, the Detroit Lions travel up to Buffalo to open a brand new stadium as the Bills and Josh Allen host the NFC North MCDC-led crowd. Now, obviously grass turf up there in Buffalo, a lot of shenanigans, a lot of celebrations.

2:41:41Pat McAfee:We got a bison family. We got a baby bison out there. A lot of points potentially. Chuck, how do you see this one going, and what is your pick as the Bills sit five and a half point favorites? Yeah, Pat, you mentioned last week, certainly a wake-up call for me, so I really had to take a deep dive. Thanks, Shane Steichen. I had to take a deep dive into this. The short of this thing is very, very simple. but we got two prolific offenses who both fared really well on week one, right? Josh Allen goes down to Houston, which has been his kryptonite, right? And he throws for 334 yards. He scores, you know, two passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns.

2:42:21I mean, he was just on fire. All right, their defense, you know, they gave up 124 yards rushing to Houston. Montgomery was running all over the place a little bit. CJ played well. You know, they had a bunch of yards and points in that ballgame. And then Detroit, I mean, they're up 21-0 on New Orleans, and then they let them come back in. Detroit secondaries beat up. They're missing their two best safeties. They're on short-term IR right now, or PUP, whatever you want to call it. You know, Kirby Joseph and Branch, they really missed them. I guess, you know, they got the three offensive linemen out.

2:42:55We know that. Reed might be a question mark. I guess one of the starting corners. Rock Yacin is the other one. Reed is the right corner. Yeah, I don't see either of these teams right now. Jimmy Leonard, we talk about Jimmy Leonard. He's the defensive coordinator at Buffalo. He's going to do a great job. Shep's going to do a great job at Detroit. But these offenses, like who, like if you're the D.C., if I'm the D.C., if I'm Jimmy Leonard, I'm like, okay, public enemy number one is who? Gibbs. Gibbs. He rushed for 160, you know. So we got to stop him. Okay, so now I put all my attention, all my eggs in one basket on him, and then who gets you?

2:43:36Amon Ra. Amon Ra. Porta. And then La Porta. And then Jamo. You know Jamo's been on the jugs all week. Or three days, three ways, three days, short week. Yeah, a lot of jugs work, though, in a short week. Yes, you can because you're not hitting. So, yeah, so this is – I see a lot of points being scored. We talked ad nauseum about 2024, the last time these two teams played each other. 90 points, over 1 ,000 yards of total offense. 12 total touchdowns. Two great quarterbacks. Bunch of weapons on offense. DJ Moore. You think Josh Allen likes this DJ Moore? Yeah. Yeah, he does. And Kincaid? Yeah. Yeah.

2:44:19He likes Kincaid. And don't forget about Shakir. Shakir, all he does is move the change. Safety blanket. A lot of points here are going to be scored. Turnovers. The one thing about turnovers in this one, they're both plus two on the season. This is a small sample size. We got one week, right? Plus two on the turnovers. So, to me, this is like, okay, who has the ball last? All right? And who takes care of the ball? They both did a great job of taking care of the ball in this last one. They're both plus two on the turnover margin.

2:44:52So, yeah, this is a tough one. Wow. I mean, I think the easy thing here is, like, your boost? Please. I'm going to be responsible. No, not. Yes. You have to be responsible. Don't be an asshole. Had a baby check. No. I think I got$40.

2:45:11Pat McAfee:That's responsible. There you go. Right? For the amount of money you have made over your career. Give it to me. And I think you have a brain. And Miss Tina's doing his thing. $40 bet is a unit. It's more, right? It's responsible. What we need you not to do is thousands and thousands and thousands. We don't need that. We need you to be responsible in this. That's just too easy. Okay. Not a guarantee. You boys put this together? This is too easy. Yeah, this was one of the bets that was on the docket to potentially. We did want to boost just 50 points. You see the overrunner is 54.5. We wanted to boost 50 points as a total.

2:45:47Pat McAfee:That was minus 260. the draft kick said come on okay can we please at least do something here it's like all right and this became an option and yeah we're big fans of this one now nothing is a guarantee but gamble responsibly this one feels good with how everybody is seeing this game going with a lot of points taking place now anytime you got like a field goal in every quarter or a touchdown in both halves there's always some chicanery and some tomfoolery that can happen. Play action on the goal line with a throw will give us all a heart attack if the rushing touchdown doesn't hit. This is not a guarantee but we all feel good about it.

2:46:25Pat McAfee:Now what's your pick? What do you feel good about whenever it comes to the Lions and the Bills? Bills favored by five and a half. Sound like you were waffling a little bit while you were talking about these stats that you were kind of reading off for the tail of the tape. It would be so hard to bet against the Bills, opening up a brand new stadium. Josh Allen is your quarterback. He got over the hump in Houston with a big win down there. Short week. They're at home. They don't have to travel, albeit Detroit. It's not a far trip for them. I have a hard time giving five and a half, to be honest with you.

2:47:02Oh, you hear that, Foxy?

2:47:04Pat McAfee:I thought he was picking a bill. Just think about this. I mean, whoever has the ball last, right? So Josh makes that incredible. If Lasseter catches that ball, this whole season starts a different way, right? Lose by one. They're done. But off balance, he doesn't catch that. Then he hits Palmer for that go-ahead touchdown. And then CJ, like right here, catch the ones they throw to you. That would have been a really great play by him. But how many times have we seen this? Oh, drop pick. Oh, we're done. We're toast. They're going to come back and score. Yeah, what'd they do? Whistled one into Palmer.

2:47:38for the go-ahead touchdown. But C.J. takes them right down, and they get a strip sack and a fumble. Otherwise, you know, this thing is going to go Houston's way. So I think whoever has the ball last on this one, I have a hard time giving five-and-a-half points. I'm thinking that gritty Dan Campbell, Goff, Gibbs, St. Brown, J-Mo. I know they're missing some pieces on that offensive line, but you think Panay Sewell is going to let those other guys not go compete and fight? No way. You don't think Elton Sheffer is going to bring the frickin' his-o?

2:48:21Pat McAfee:I don't know. Like B-Flow blitzed 80 % of the time, right? His protege is down in Washington. They blitzed 65 % of the time. The guy that was with him. He's now the D.C. down in Washington for the commanders. So you tie this together? I think this – Shep? Hmm? So what are you going to – like if you're missing some pieces in the back end, how do you protect them? Don't want to get there. Goff's like on his ears. Mm-hmm. And on his back. Josh Allen, you mean. Yeah. Huh? Oh, yeah. Excuse me. Yeah. That guy. He's going to throw bodies at him. He has to throw bodies at him. Hopefully. And then Hutch can get home, but they're not going to let Hutch rest this game.

2:49:03There's going to be a lot of attention over there. He's going to be tight end over there. It's going to be back chipping. Yeah, it's going to come down to want them.

2:49:10Pat McAfee:Sounds like you're trying to make yourself believe right now. Yeah, so who – yeah, what was your – Your Lions plus five and a half? Yeah, I'm going to go with the Lions. Wow. All right. Take the points. Let's go. All right, Charlie. We're going to end the play. Bills win, he thinks. Bills win. Lions cover. Okay. A.J. Hawk, did that sway you any particular way as the Highmark Stadium opens as five-and-a-half-point favorites against the Detroit Lions? Yeah, I mean, everything, when Chuck presents his case, it definitely does sway me. But my instincts on this one had me lean in Buffalo early for sure.

2:49:45And after hearing everything going on, and obviously the injuries on the offensive line for the Detroit Lions, I do love the Lions' weapons. I really do. On offense, I do love it. But you know me. I'm a Josh Allen guy. I'm a Buffalo Beals guy. The new stadium thing, and that might be overblown, all of that whole situation. I know those fans are going to help, but they're not going to make one play on the field. But with that being said, give me the Buffalo Bills minus five and a half at home.

2:50:09Pat McAfee:I'll do the same. I don't like it, Chuck. I don't like it, Chuck. But I do like the fact that AJ's seen the board well, and he and I are seeing the same thing. And also, we were boots on the ground as a show at the new Highmark Stadium on opening day. We, as a show, were there. Yes, that's true. Yeah, it will be. Boy, Joe. That little guy's not leading him on the field. Who, Bruce? Yeah, Bruce the bison. He's going to grow up a bit. Baby Bruce. I don't know why they haven't put baby Bruce out there. It's going to be so loud, sensory overload. Yeah, he's a baby. He's a child. Bills fans aren't impressed with baby Bruce either.

2:50:45What? What do you mean? He's a baby. They're not impressed. You can't put that little calf out there like that. Not yet. That's soft.

2:50:52Pat McAfee:He's going to grow with the stadium. It's the first day. It's going to be the stadium in the Bills mafia are going to be his parents. Yeah, train him, Mike. You're going to bring one out like CU and get Ralphie running and about dragging four people around? That's a different story. Here's Bruce walking in. Love you. Hey, it's great to be home. Love you, baby. I hope that Bruce will run like Ralphie. There's no one at Grand College. Oh, my God. He looks very excited. Look at Bruce. They're really yanking him. Dragging him on his way. They like that, actually. Just two, three years from now, we're going to see Bruce.

2:51:23Yeah.

2:51:23Pat McAfee:Yeah. Agreed. Huge. That's what's going to pay off. Josh Allen's riding that thing into the stadium. Peter's riding that thing. Well, maybe Peter becomes actually Bruce's mom. I talked about that earlier because maybe Peter could lead. I mean, maybe. They do what they're going to do. That'd be cool for you. Buffer dog. That don't look like Tatanka to me. All right. Who's Tatanka? You've seen Dances with Wolves, right? No, I've seen Avatar, which I think is similar storyline. AJ, you've seen Dances with Wolves? It's been a minute. I know Kevin Costner, right? Tatanka. Beast. Yeah. classic do you ever see Avatar it's like Morgan Freeman at Shawshank I've watched it 1 ,000 times do you know a movie's called the Shawshank Redemption fine no but I'm just saying I like them both I learned that today I learned that today because I've always just disrespectful I've always just called it Shawshank yeah Shawshank yeah exactly and then bone puts a graphic together notable movies first one the Shawshank Redemption and I'm like this fucking idiot.

2:52:24Pat McAfee:How does he get that wrong? And I look it up. Turns out it is Shawshank Redemption. That is the thing that they are talking about. So just something for us to remember as we go back. And he was Mandela. Mandela effect. Invictus. Maybe we kind of change our thoughts on that. But Morgan Freeman here. Fantastic gentleman. Can't wait to see him on Saturday college game day. Chuck has the Lions plus five and a half. Me and AJ have Beals minus five and a half. Talks at the table. Who do you guys have? Buffalo Beals and a Dalton Kinkade touchdown. Buffalo Beals. Tone? God. That bill. Oh, no, Chuck. On an island.

2:53:01I hate going chalk. Atta, baby. Coach.

2:53:03Pat McAfee:We're not going chalk. Pagano Island. No, I mean chalk. Favorites? Everyone's on, yeah. This is Pagano Island. Hey, let's find out right now. Hold on a second. What? What? Wait, Tone, what are you doing? What are we doing? What are you doing? You're not going to waffle, are you? No. You know what happens when you waffle. Consequences. Coach. Coach that ass. Shower up. Hold on a second. Don't do that. Now he can't hear anything. Did you guys actually think? Oh, no. Oh, what? Oh, wait. Oh, yes. What is he doing? What's going on here? Outfit change? Nope. I, for one minute, was going to go against Joss Allen and the Buffalo Bills and the alumnus University of Wyoming.

2:53:54Are you freaking santuling me? Get the chuck out of here. I'm going to Bills minus the five and a half. So let's go. Josh, if you're listening, let's go. Our college stinks right now, but you don't, pal. Hunt. Okay, I like that. I'll tell you, man. You had us all. You're on your own island there for a second. Truly one of one, Charlie.

2:54:20Pat McAfee:I mean, you master baited us right there. Yeah, big time. Well done. Remarkable work. What a showman you are. Okay, so we're all in the Bills minus five. Yeah. Okay. Team Ryan. Woo! Coming out of shoot number three on a bull named Widowmaker. Okay. All right. All right. I like that. Widowmaker is certainly a good name for a bull that's going to buck in a big way. Yes. Josh Allen's certainly been on the back of that bucking bull since the beginning of his NFL career. Tonight, can he continue this magical run that the Buffalo Beals might be on as they open a brand-new stadium? All of us on this particular program are riding with the Buffalo Beals, minus five and a half at home.

2:54:59Pat McAfee:Chuck Pagano, if he makes this football into... Which hoop? Which hoop? Sorry, this hoop right over here. 20 people will win$500 because Chuck Pagano is truly feeling himself. We had a costume change. We had a dupe. We didn't have a waffle, and we got Chuck Pagano maybe throwing 100 on the paint on the Thursday to kick off week two of the NFL season. One question. How many throws do I get? This is it. Just one. Make it count, Charlie. Remember, just fire that thing. Don't aim it. 20 people,$500. Coach Pagano. He did fire that thing. He's jacked up. He just did a whole costume wardrobe. Rightfully so.

2:55:44Which was awesome.

2:55:44Pat McAfee:All right, you get one more. I think you have to. I think you have to. Especially because we're all betting the same. Is that your sweatshirt? What size? Yeah, it's a little big. Is that yours? This is mine. Okay. I saw you in a Boise State thing the other day. Mm-hmm. That was a great video. Did you know he was doing that sober? I asked him. No way. Don't hate. Don't hate on what? I mean, for a minute, you're up 17-3 feeling yourself like, man, Coach Huff, Memphis, we rolling. Yeah. Then we went on to outscore him 35-3. Get out of town, Baldy. All right, I get it. I get it. I get it. Hey, Huffy.

2:56:19Pat McAfee:Yeah, I get it. All right, last ball here for Coach Pagano, who certainly has had a magical day here today. Got a chance to talk to Morgan Freeman. Yeah. Kirk Herbstreit. Wow. Pete Thamel. Wow. Broke down the game from all different facets and sides. He duped us, obviously, into believing he was going to ride with the Detroit Lions plus five and a half, only to bust out a Wyoming Cowboys long sleeve and say, I'm with Josh Allen. Forget everything else. If this ball goes into the hoop, we're all going to win. Yeah. And 20 people win$500. Chuck Pagano, our code! That one's always worse for you. It's okay.

2:56:59Pat McAfee:It's okay. All right. Good work today, Coach. That was for world peace. Thank you. That was for world peace. That was for world peace. Safe travels out of here. We appreciate you. AJ, thank you for traveling out here tomorrow. The boys can't wait to see you. To all of you that allow us to do this for a living, We can't say thank you enough. It is because all of you that we get to live the coolest lives of all time. We're just trying to do sports justice. Sports are the greatest thing of all time. NFL football is the greatest. Here we go. Tonight, we mark the dawn of a new era in Buffalo, Highmark Stadium.

2:57:37Kirk Herbstreit described it as a high school basketball,

2:57:42Pat McAfee:college basketball arena that is a football stadium. That's right. He clarified it is a football stadium. It's going to be loud. It's going to be raucous. It's going to be special. As the Buffalo Bills cover by five and a half. Hell yeah. Need each team to have one rushing touchdown and one passing touchdown. The over is what everybody likes. But what if the defenses steal the show? So this could potentially be in play throughout all four quarters. Let's not lose hope if it looks dire at the beginning. Let's hold strong that we're going to win. And if we don't, remember, we told you to gamble responsibly.

2:58:21Pat McAfee:Don't be mad at us. We can't thank you all enough. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in this thing together. Anything you say, Coach, to the team? That's you, Chuck. Live full, die empty. Well said. Fuck yeah. Team on me. Team on three. Football's back, baby. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye.

2:58:49Pat McAfee:A new podcast series from ABC Audio in 2020 goes inside a case that has captivated the nation. To many people, Luigi Mangione is a modern-day Robin Hood. People were cheering the demise of this person they'd never met who was a father of two and a husband and had a life and was just doing a job. From the manhunt ending in a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, to what authorities are saying about a possible motive. I'm ABC News legal analyst Brian Buckmeyer. Listen to Burden of Proof, Luigi Mangione, wherever you get your podcasts.