PMS 2.0 1383 - TJ Watt & Cam Heyward, Aaron Rodgers, Mike Tomlin, Danny Smith, Gene Steratore, Omar Khan, Pittsburgh Dad, Mark Kaboly

2h 20m
On today's show, Pat, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk and the boys
are LIVE from Latrobe, PA for Pittsburgh Steelers Training Camp previewing all things 2025 Steelers football. In the first hour, 7x Pro Bowler & DPOY TJ Watt joins the progrum alongside 7x Pro Bowler & Walter Payton Man of The Year Cam Heyward to chat about TJ's new contract, the additions of Jalen Ramsey and more. Also in the first hour, Super Bowl Champion & 4x MVP Aaron Rodgers stops by to talk about how fired up he is to join the Steelers, dorm life at Training Camp, fights at Training Camp, Mike Tomlin as a head coach & leader and more. Next, Super Bowl Champion Head Coach Mike Tomlin joins the set to tell us about the demeanor that Jalen Ramsey brings, the confidence Rodgers brings, and more. Steelers Special Teams Coach Danny Smith joined the program after Coach Tomlin for an electric pump up speech and epic stories from his 31 years in the NFL. In the second hour, Steelers GM Omar Khan stops by to discuss his mentality and approach in building the roster, give some insight into the process of bringing in Aaron Rodgers & reaching an extension with TJ Watt, and more. We close things out with the Pat McAfee Show Steelers correspondent Mark Kaboly, who brings some Rudy’s subs and divulges some unsavory information. Make sure to subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow or watch on ESPN (12-2 ET), ESPN's YouTube (12-3 ET), or ESPN+. We will be LIVE from Canton, Ohio ahead of the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game. Cheers.

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Transcript

Beautiful people

and welcome to the hollow grounds of St.

Vincent College on this final Wednesday

football

this lovely place home since 1966.

This beautiful Catholic college has been the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers training camp.

Every Pittsburgh Steeler that has just crossed your mind has worked their ass off on the fields behind us here today.

Just like this team that has been reimagined in a brand new way to put a press for a Super Bowl, the boys are buzzing.

The city is electrifying.

And this is one of those things that if you're a football fan, you have to experience.

The lines to get into this training camp every single day are hours and hours.

Yensers travel from all over the country to come watch the boys put in work here at St.

Vincent College.

And if you think about Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is a hard-working city.

You think about Western Pennsylvania, you think about Dobbs.

That is what training camp is all about.

Coach Mike Tomlin will be here today.

TJ Watt will join us today.

Cam Hayward will join us today.

Aaron Rodgers will join us today.

David Smith will join us today.

Omar Kahn, the general manager, will join us today.

And I think we'll have a show that'll be able to showcase one of the greatest football towns in the history of this sport for a few hours before they kick off their first full-padded practice here at St.

Vincent College.

Now, West Geneva,

Mama,

take me on

a trial.

You're going to have a lot of people from West Virginia here as well because the Mountaineers are all the way back.

as well.

Now, it's not just me, obviously.

I have a great group of people around me.

The Toxic Table is here at Ty Schmidt at Boston Connor.

We'll start with you, Ty.

Ty, we've been back to Pittsburgh a few times.

Got a chance to go to a Pirates game.

Obviously, we had a big night out a few months ago.

It was electrifying.

It was awesome.

This place is great.

We've been to a Penguins game.

Sell the teeth.

Sell the teeth.

Whoa, the penguins?

Back to Mario?

They're talking about the Pirates, I believe.

I think they're still talking about the Pirates.

I don't think it's the Penguins we're talking about.

No.

Mario's trying to buy it.

Shit, bro.

Mario is trying to buy it back.

That's the owner of the Pirates.

They're talking about the Pirates.

Okay, all right, so now we move forward.

Pittsburgh is a football town through and through.

That's what it is.

And it's a beautiful experience here at St.

Vincent College to celebrate all of it.

Yes, the best.

Tony and I talk about this all the time.

Here we go.

I mean, what else needs to be said?

The energy, the atmosphere around here, it's incredible.

I'm a Packers fan.

This, this, I mean, if I was a fan of a different team in the NFL, the easy counterpart, if you're a Packers fan, you look towards the AFC, it's the Steelers.

It's the Steelers.

I mean, the two organizations that are run a very similar way, I mean, you're not getting this everywhere.

You're not getting this everywhere in the NFL.

It just, it feels like we're ready for football.

It feels like the season starts on Sunday.

It's incredible, and it's a testament to all these fans that came out here today.

Yeah, and they're not the only ones.

There'll be thousands more that will litter through both the fan zone, the merch area.

There's a other gathering.

I think there's two.

two youth teams from around Pittsburgh that come every single day.

They go through some drills.

They get a chance to meet the boys.

It's been here for almost 60 years.

Let's go to one half of the hammer.

Tom, Cowboys, AP Tone, Pittsburgh resident, diehard Steeler fan.

Tone,

Tone,

you've been getting a rash, a little bit of zipper burn all morning.

And obviously the people showing you love here and a big night out has been beautiful to watch.

I'm proud of you.

But this is really an important piece of the entire puzzle.

A lot of new faces on this Pittsburgh Steeler team.

This team is being constructed differently than any other Steelers team of the past.

Feels like training camp matters a little bit more right now.

Yes, there it is.

There's one of them.

There's one of them.

Not to mention.

One of them.

One of them.

Jalen Ramsey, John U.

Smith, Darius Slay, and Aaron Rodgers, all the others.

But no, I went up and down.

Boom.

Aaron Rodgers.

These guys have been with the team for two weeks and they're already loved around here because if you become a Steeler, you're loved around here.

We landed here this morning.

You could just feel the Lombardies coming out of these sweet rolling hills.

I looked at the roster the other day we are better in literally every single position than we were last year it is Super Bowl or bust this year for the Pittsburgh nine-year NFL vet Darius J butler is here

bebuts we're back at training camp we're in a dorm up here we're in a dorm up here just kind of before the show had air conditioning that was nice it's hot as shit here in these hills of western pennsylvania and actually mike tomlin was on the record as stating last year they practiced in the morning and he said it wasn't hot enough let's move it to the afternoon We let the environment kind of harden the boys before they head out there for a season.

But it has been nice to feel like we're in training camp here for the last like five, six hours.

Yeah, these are the dog days.

This is when the foundation of your team is built.

Every year, every year the team is different.

You're bringing a new quarterback.

You got all these different players.

You staying on the campus.

You're sticking with each other.

You're spending time with each other.

You're really building that foundation for the season.

I can't wait.

till after the show to actually get out get a chance to check out practice man see these new guys yeah it should be fun to see the new guys You're talking about Jalen.

I can't wait.

I think one-on-ones are happening out here.

Him and DK will be box office if that's possible.

There's also one-on-one, so we'll see the D-lines get after it.

We'll see the running backs and the linebackers get after it.

And on that note, Jalen Ramsey, absolute beast, flies around like a, he's like a Terra Dak.

Like the way he moves, it's outrageous.

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, a college football champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Ryder Cup winner, a man who's a former president of Ohio, and loyal Cincinnati Bengal.

Ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hawkins.

Early thoughts on St.

Vincent as well.

Why'd he do that to you?

Hey, St.

Vincent is beautiful.

Oh, Bengals.

Okay.

Woo.

I respect it.

They say the same thing back.

But Pittsburgh's had a lot of success against the Bengals.

I agree.

I understand.

It's a respectable organization.

But if you mentioned, your new quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, mentioned when he got here how much he loves this dorm.

I think he stayed here a night before he even had to.

It's like St.

Norbert's, what they used to stay at in Green Bay.

They still do from back in the day when Bart Starr was there.

So a lot of similarities, a lot of carryover, I feel.

Brother, you know who's been around these parts?

How about Mean Joe Green?

You can feel it.

How about Lynn Swan?

How about the wheels on the bus go riding, ride,

ride,

ride.

Jerome Bennis used to run his big ass all around these hills and they'll run all over people.

Heinz Ward and the incomparable Ben Roethesberger found his way as a Steeler here.

And joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is two men that'll go down as Pittsburgh Steelers forever.

Guy's been here for 15 years.

The other's been here for nine.

They just got a deal done with one of them, and the other one is the Walter Payton Man of the Year every single year.

Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now:

Perennial Pro,

TJ Watt,

and Cam

Hayward.

Ladies and gentlemen, one more time.

Cam Hayward, 2 January.

Cam.

Anybody can get it right now.

And that's what training camp is all about.

You're entering your 15th year, I do believe, all here with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I believe that's a carryover from the previous chant right there, if you're wondering.

TJ, any facial expression that you make right now will be judged by everybody in Cleveland and across the NFL.

But it has to feel good to get the love from these people and also get your business handled before you get here and have a magical training camp.

Best fans in the world, man.

I'm glad we got the deal done so I could be here in front of everybody, man.

There's no place like with Grove, man.

Let's talk about it, Cam.

15th year you're going into it.

Mark Caboli, obviously, Steelers correspondent for our show, said he's been coming up here 20 years.

This has been the hottest it's been up here.

Do you feel as if this camp has been a little bit hotter, a little bit more drooling?

What are your thoughts on the current camp thus far?

Man, the weather's been a little bit wild, but

I guess from the time being, I think it's been the hottest we've ever had.

So it's a lot of fun, though.

Okay, enjoying the team.

You have the light.

Everybody loves Cam.

Watch Bateman here, been here for 15 years, gives back to the community.

Dad, a part of the team.

Brother, a part of the the team.

I mean, it's the Hayward family has certainly done a lot for the Steelers.

Now, let's talk about your offseason a little bit.

Mine or his?

Yours.

And yours in a second.

Cam.

So, after you talk shit about Aaron Rodgers, okay, you then said,

you then said,

you said, we're getting a little older, and I think everybody kind of feels that we need to go for it.

You said that on your podcast, which is great.

Not just football.

Great podcast.

Great show.

Great interviews.

Great conversations.

Hayden, Richard Sherman, we're awesome.

But on that note, does it feel as if this year everybody's kind of focused on one thing and we're going all in?

It has to, right?

I think every year we're like that.

You know, every time we get a chance to lace them up, you got TJ over there.

You know, years past, we've had Ben.

You know, I don't take it for granted, but I have the privilege of every year we try to compete.

And I'm very thankful to have Mike T and Omar doing that for us.

Your relationship with Coach Tomlin is awesome to watch in Hard Knocks.

Basically, they're going in for halftime.

I forget what game it was.

And Tomlin looked at you and was like, hey, if your group starts playing well, we're gonna win this game.

He looked at you as like an assistant coach.

Obviously, 15 years here, you and Mike have been through a lot.

Elder statesman, no longer, though, because old ass Aaron's here.

How is that kind of going?

He's old on that side of the ball, and I'm old on this side of the ball.

Um, with Mike T,

he knows if my group's getting called out, I'm gonna respond to it.

And, you know, I live and die by guys like him.

So, if they play well, I play well.

Yeah, I love the relationship you have with Tom.

Let's talk about TJ.

TJ, so rich.

So rich.

Wow.

TJ walked too, man.

TJ Watt.

108.

108.

108.

That's the amount of millions you signed for, obviously.

Congratulations on that.

Business out of the way.

Full focus on season.

Whenever that's all going on, how much do you let like agents and other people deal with it?

And how much are you worried about getting yourself ready for a season?

I'm always getting myself ready for the season regardless of what is happening.

I think the second time around, you're more involved with your agents than the the first time for sure just because you're older and more mature.

You know how the business works.

But we always knew a deal was going to get done.

I'm glad it got done when it did.

You guys added somebody on the back end that's a freak.

D-Butt has a question for you.

Yeah, Jalen Ramsey, obviously added DK on the offensive side of the ball, bringing in Jalen Ramsey.

How has it been so far with him?

Because look, you guys are our favorite friends on the back end, but how has his energy been with the team so far?

It's been huge, and it goes both ways.

I mean, he's the Swiss Army knife of our defense right now.

You're going to see him playing every position.

You're going to see him playing man.

And anytime those guys lock down just for an extra half a second, we love it because it allows us to get to the quarterback.

Yeah, I think just with Jalen, it's not just what he does when the play is snapped.

It's what he's doing before the play.

His disguise, his level of professionalism is just on display for everybody.

And so, like, that first pick Aaron threw to Patrick Queen, that was because of Jalen.

So seeing him out there, I'm excited to see what he's going to do this year.

Yeah, and obviously the world reacted to Aaron throwing a pick to somebody in training camp.

You know, a a lot of reactions in training camp.

That's kind of a part of the world they're in, especially whenever you get thousands,

thousands of people at every single practice.

Go ahead, AJ.

Yeah, for both of you, but TJ first, what's it like with Aaron in camp?

Like, what has it been?

Obviously, the hoop wall that surrounds a guy like him, but then actually going against him in practice.

I think today's, what, first day of pads, probably, so you get a really good look at it.

But what's that like having a vet like him come in here?

Frustrating because he talks a lot of smack.

He really does.

After line of scrimmage, is he saying stuff to you at the line of scrimmage?

Yeah, and I think a lot of the no-look passes are things that we're getting used to.

I like to bat down a lot of passes, line of scrimmage, and he's able to manipulate the defense good, so that's been very frustrating.

Hopefully, today we get the better of him.

You can?

Is he annoying to go against him?

He talks about his scrimmage.

How about his cadence?

If he's trying to get you with a cadence.

Yeah, I'm trying to learn the cadence right now.

His cadence is deadly.

The thing he does better than anybody, he knows how to abuse a play clock.

So we have it out during crash.

And it's ridiculous, but it's going to make us better.

Yeah, but you got to remember, too, when that play clock's going down and you guys got him, there's a fucking quick.

He's the fastest one of these at like 0.05 or whatever.

He is getting it.

Wants to understand everything that's going on.

And I, as a friend of Aaron and guy that has watched him and followed his career and watched him last year with the New York Jets, towards the end of the career, I think the narrative was like, oh, this guy doesn't got it anymore.

It's like, if you watch the back half of that season, they became what everybody thought they were going to be.

What you're seeing out here, how does it feel to watch them spin it?

We're still at an elite level, and is there any shit talking between you and he?

Because you did, remember, tell him you either come to the team or get the hell out of time.

He came to the team.

Yes, he did.

Yes, he did.

Yes, he did.

Yes, he did.

But, you know, I think when you talk about Aaron, he talks a lot of crap, but man, I love how he goes about his work.

He approaches it the right way.

He's asking questions.

He's been asking us about week one, how to prepare for that, night meetings.

You know, he's all about being locked in with this group, which is great.

Yeah, I heard his terrible teammate, though.

You know, it seems like

that is what everybody but his teammate says about him in the media.

Go ahead, tell him.

Boys, first and foremost, Father Paul just blessed us up there, so I think I could say, God bless all of you.

God bless Father Paul.

Oh, shout up.

Oh, there he is.

There it is, right there.

Father Paul dressed like a monk, but he is a priest.

There are monks here, though.

There are monks on this campus.

Remby?

Do you know that?

You're going to have a microphone, TJ.

Jesus Christ,

but we all know, we've seen it many, many times from your brother, JJ Watt.

He knows how to post an Instagram photo with the lighting, with the oil, and everything like that.

You recently posted an Instagram photo after your workout with Herbing, and you've got quads attached to your shoulders now.

Is this the biggest you've been coming into camp?

No, that's the power of the pump, my friend.

Okay.

If there's anything JJ's taught me, it's to stand on the outside, always stand about a half yard in front of the next guy and get the absolute pump as late as you possibly can before the picture.

Do you want to look good?

Look at you.

All right, boy, you look like you have the quad on your arm.

Cannot wait to watch you work.

Thank you for stopping by.

First day of full pads.

Good luck on the season.

Congrats on the incredible careers thus far.

And 108 million is a lot of money for anybody.

You're the man.

You've earned it.

Ladies and gentlemen,

as Cam Hayward and TJY exit the stage, I will say TJ just threw a hat out into the crowd.

And I believe

we almost had our first full scrum.

We almost had our first full scrum.

Yeah, good catch by that camera.

I saw the whole thing.

He's got a good flow to it.

Because if that hits the ground,

ladies and gentlemen,

four time NFL MVP.

Love you.

Super Bowl champion.

The starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Helmet, they're selling yellow.

Don't roll your ankle on a helmet.

Good for Daddy Rogers.

Mr.

Rogers here.

We told you, and you know this because of how many Pittsburgh people you've been around and your respect and appreciation for the sport and the league as a whole.

You knew Pittsburgh was a football town, always have.

Now you get a chance to be the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback.

Has that been a cool thing for you?

Like, legitimately, has that been a cool moment?

I've seen the pictures.

They're posting you in a Pittsburgh Steelers uniform.

And as a kid that grew up here, that's like a really cool thing for us to see.

I'm wondering on your side of it, being a Pittsburgh Steeler how it feels.

I mean, Pittsburgh is one of the cornerstone franchises in the NFL.

Everybody knows who they are.

There's only a few of them.

But it's just different here.

There's a level of expectation based on the excellence that's happened here where you kind of come in and you expect to fall in the line

to embody what it means to be a Steeler.

And

I really appreciate that because I've been in Green Bay for 18 years and it's the same thing there.

Yeah, because Green Bay, that's literally what Ty said.

Ty said, if I looked from the NFC over to the AFC, I would say the Green Green Bay Packers or the AFC is the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Just storied franchise to get season tickets here.

It's like a 30-year waiting period, just like it is at Green Bay.

Away games.

You'll see terrible towels in every stadium.

And now they're attacking your previous employer, which I certainly love.

These people, I told you this whenever you signed here, I said, hey, you win a Super Bowl for the city of Pittsburgh.

They will murder people and bury the bodies for you.

Yes.

You tell me where, brother.

Now, they're already chanting your name.

You've been here here for two weeks.

How has it been with the fans and the Insers in experiencing life here at Training Camp at St.

Fincy?

I love the Insers.

I've been around them my entire career.

You guys know Big Mike was on the show?

There's just something special about the people from this area.

You know, there's something in the water, maybe.

Rust.

But

steel.

They're built a little differently.

Yeah, and they love their Steelers.

They love you already, man.

And they will love you forever if you go do what you're going to to do for them here in a couple weeks.

Go ahead, Tone.

Yeah, you've been here for a few weeks.

I mean, you had a little bit of time back in the OTAs or mini camp or whatever, and then now you've been here for two weeks.

I feel like you kind of knew what DK was, working out with him.

Some of the boys went out to California.

Has anyone surprised you so far in camp that you've been thrown to?

No, I mean, I think the coolest thing is just...

What is going on right now?

My handout like this, literally like this, and a guy threw a marker, landed right in my hand.

He's got a touch like Aaron Rodgers.

This guy right here got got a touch like Aaron Rodgers.

It's a great throw.

Hopefully he folks he got that.

I mean, this place is crazy.

It's crazy.

It's hot as hell out here.

These folks show up every single day.

Yesterday they were rolling down this hill because it was raining like crazy.

But there's just something special about this place.

You can feel it.

You know, I love being here in Latrobe.

We did 14 years at St.

Norbert's in Green Bay and then kind of went away from that.

But there's something special about the camaraderie that actually gets to happen I think every coach talks about you know training camp is when you come together and you you know you're building that team chemistry but honestly when

at places that don't go away when seven o'clock hits or six thirty whatever the time is guys go home now here guys go into head's room cam he's got a huge head

They go in his room and hang out.

You know, last night we were in High Smith's room hanging out.

Guys come in my room and talk ball.

So there's actually real camaraderie that happens at a place like the trove.

So I give a lot of credit to

Mr.

Rooney because there's a lot of buildings with his name on it around here.

He's on the board here, actually.

For

sure.

For putting the money into it, but the opportunity that we have here to spend time together and actually come together is pretty cool.

And also with Mike's schedule practicing the midday, I know we got some issues with the weather, but

I enjoy the opportunities to truly develop that training camp callus.

Training camp's been here since 1966.

You,

they're saying bring us seven, which was one of the answers that you actually gave.

Whenever your first press conference happened, you were getting rapid-fire questions.

And I believe the way it was phrased was, if you were to win another Super Bowl, what do you think it would be for your legacy?

And you said, well, it'd be seven for the city of Pittsburgh, I think, is what we're trying to do here.

Is that the mentality of the entire locker room?

When you were talking to Tomlin throughout the entire process of whether or not you're going to play again, or if you're going to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers, you're kind of in the process of that.

You talk to them on a regular basis.

Was it like, hey, this city of Pittsburgh needs another one?

We need another one.

What is those conversations like?

And what are expectations?

Yeah, like 10 more if you could next 10 years.

I mean, everybody's

zero and zero right now.

There's 32 teams that feel like they can win a championship, but you guys know, covering the game, there's only a handful of teams.

I always say like six to eight, but it's really like eight to twelve because there's some of those teams like the Redskins.

Sorry, the Commandos last year.

Oh, my God.

This son of a bitch.

I just said

I saw the sign.

That's what got me.

I was just talking to Ty about the San Diego Chargers playing.

You know, when you're as old as I am, you played in so many different stadiums and against different team names.

We beat the St.

Louis Rams.

That team doesn't exist anymore, but

there's a history of excellence that exists in only a few places around the league, and thankfully I'm here at one of them.

Ty, hey, James.

They love it already.

Hey, Arthur Smith, what did you know about him coming in?

Did you have a relationship at all before?

Obviously, an offensive coordinator here, and what's it been like the first seven, ten days with him?

I love Art.

We started talking.

You guys love Art.

He's on the show a lot.

He's got a great mustache.

Great mustache.

Salt of the arts.

But I met him a couple years ago, and we had a friendship and would send messages back and forth.

But once the opportunity started to become a possibility, we talked more.

And he's just a great dude.

You know, he's very,

he's the opposite of rigid.

You know, he wants to do right by the team and whatever the best scheme is for the guys that he's got, he's going to implement that.

So whether it's me a quarterback or bringing a guy like John who's had in the past and finding ways to get him involved, obviously DK being our number one, making sure he's involved in the progression.

We're moving him around to give him different looks.

And then we got a bunch of little guys who were trying to figure out who's going to kind of step up and be that second receiver, who's going to be the third, who's going to be the fourth, but guys like Calvin Austin, Roman Wilson, Scotty Miller, you know, guys that you can move around.

Obviously, I'm talking about receivers right now.

Yeah, we got a lot of tight ends, we got four

great tight ends.

We could actually do 0-4 personnel, which

you know is four tight ends on the field.

When you could put John U and Darnell and Pat and Connor on the field, it's pretty pretty special.

So, he's great at kind of using the skills that these guys have and implementing them in the offense.

But he's a great dude.

You know, he had a tragedy that happened this offseason with his dad passing away.

It meant a lot to him,

but he's been great.

He's great in front of the room when he's installing plays.

Yeah, it's just negative air.

He's dog.

Hell yeah.

They weren't doing this with the previous offense coordinator.

I will let you know that.

They were a chance.

They were a chance.

Yeah, and it'll come back around potentially.

I saw you throw a pick to Patrick Queen, and then I saw everybody say that you lost it.

How much do you love people thinking that you lost it?

How much do you love that?

How much do you love people thinking that you lost it?

Legitimately, how much do you love that?

Oh, I don't give a shit about that

yeah

i bet

i bet it's been uh awesome to watch you spin it again brother legit go ahead d-bucking of spinning it how does the we're about a week into camp how does the body feel how does the mind feel going into this season right now body feels great db we just got two days off okay that never happens we had a day off and then we had a rain out yesterday so i feel great

Today's gonna be a monster.

What?

Today's gonna be a monster.

First day, guys, I got two days off.

And it's this hot out here.

It's going to be a grood and grinder today out there, for sure.

What should we be looking for today in practice?

We'll be down there.

We start every practice with what they call seven shots.

It's seven plays, fourth and two from the two.

And that play, that period is live as his team run.

I haven't been around a lot of tackling in training camp in my career, really, ever.

Maybe with Big Mike.

Pittsburgh Tough, you know?

Yes.

Hell yeah.

Maybe a couple times, but those two periods will be fun to watch.

And that's how practice starts?

We start with seven shots, yeah.

Oh, my God.

That's a good way to start a little bit of

pounding the rock.

A little pond to ground a pencil, Connor.

Yeah, Aaron, I hope you're still caught up on all the conspiracies going on right now because there are some champions out there.

But you talked a lot about the offense.

We're not that old line.

We talked to Alan Glenn.

Jesse Potter.

Jesse Potter.

That's a Jesse James versus the Pennsylvania.

Touchdown.

Sure.

Sure.

Oh, yeah.

Again.

Hey, Steelers fans, Aaron wasn't here.

He doesn't give a fuck about that.

But

what do you think about that?

I do.

I do.

Of course, of course.

2017, man.

What a year.

When you think about that O-line, very young, kind of similar to the Jets.

But AQ said, you know, just yesterday, of course, New Color broadcaster for the Cardinals.

He said just yesterday, Steelers, he expects to take a massive step up.

How has that been kind of working with the young O-line?

You know, sweet West Virginia boy, Zach Frazier, hopefully he has a towel for you today with all that swast that's probably going on.

He's actually a light sweater, so we're good on that.

We're good on that.

Is he getting the ball up to you yet?

Yeah, at least back there, it's light, you know.

It starts and ends with that kid, though.

I mean,

he's got a chance to be really special in the league.

You know, a lot of the great centers I've had were also wrestlers.

And

he was a great wrestler in high school.

But he's super smart.

He's a mountaineer.

He's a mountaineer, yeah.

Hell yeah.

He's a little too smug for my liking though.

He's out there making calls for me right now.

Tell me if I got the wrong check.

So

I got to get his ass in line a little bit, let him know who's in charge.

But no, seriously, Zach's done a great job.

Starts and ends with him.

13 hots!

13 times!

13 times.

13 times.

13, what?

13.

13 time.

13 time what?

You know.

They don't know what the hell they're talking about.

What are they talking about?

You know.

But

I like the battles that we got going on right now and the depth that we have.

Those guys, you know, we'll be in work in progress as we go.

We haven't even put the pads on yet, but I think I'm interested today.

We're all taking side bets on who the first fight's going to be.

And if I'm a betting man, I'm saying that either Zach Fraser or Mason McCormick will be involved in the first fight.

Okay.

Aren't they going everywhere together?

Mason McCormick and Zach Frazier both heard that, and they're also like, okay, now Aaron's expecting us to throw some hands.

Let's go.

You're damn right I am.

And do that.

We all view that way.

We all feel that way.

It is awesome over the last few years.

That's covering training camp.

Remember a few years back,

I think Aaron Donald took a helmet to somebody.

They were calling for

lawsuits and cops to show up.

And then fights are happening.

It's like, hey, fights are exhausting for players during training camp, but also it shows how together your team is, how tough your team is, what they stand on.

I think it's a big deal.

Now, I don't think Tomlin is promoting fights, but if you have no fights, I think that's a problem.

He's definitely not promoting fights.

You know, it's one of the rules: no fighting.

But if something starts, whip his ass.

get it on, baby.

That's everybody.

I think every good coach views it that way.

Big Mike did.

You said working.

You know, Big Mike loved

when we fought.

He never promoted it.

No, he didn't promote it.

He was never in a bad mood after.

No, he was not.

I legitimately think if your team doesn't fight, you should be worried.

I always knew if we fought in practice that night, that was back when we had two days.

Mike would be texting me after practice, saying, Hey, come on over and have a couple ICs.

A couple Iron Cities.

Have you had any mango mangoes?

I'll tell you what the Iron City mangoes.

There it is.

I see light.

That's the nectar of the guards.

That is.

They pull it from the rivers of dead bodies here.

Obviously, you got the Allegheny, the Monongahela.

They come together for the Ohio.

Okay, that is the point Danton.

Three rivers.

And they will get water out of there, put some booze in it, and that's the nectar that is I see light.

Every kid drank it as a teenager here in Pittsburgh.

It is the nectar of the guards.

Nectar of the gods.

You should have a couple.

You said work in progress.

How much do you know the offense?

Did you show up knowing the offense?

Because there was a report that Arthur Smith was quietly making an entire playbook for you and yada yada yada.

You're obviously an incredibly intelligent person.

I haven't seen that playbook yet.

Okay, good.

You're obviously an incredibly intelligent person, celebrity Jeopardy champion.

If you had to, you'd win against actual Jeopardy people.

I'm on your side for that.

Had a 500-page report in 2020.

People don't remember that.

I remember everything else.

But how do you feel about how comfortable you are in the offense?

Yeah, I'm getting more comfortable as the days go on.

There's not my own playbook in Arthur.

It's Arthur's playbook.

And I'm finding ways within it to add

a little stuff here and there.

But it's Arthur's playbook, and I like it.

I like it a lot.

But

I mean, these are Yensers, brother.

They're trying to catch.

They're the best.

This is how it's going to play.

They have their own agenda.

But here we go.

Stealers, here we go.

We got Aaron turning the ball down.

There we go.

And the guy named Artie.

There we go.

Boswell making kicks like he dies.

And we're looking for seven in the fucking house.

Here we go.

There it is.

Banger.

Absolute banger.

Do you know Renegade yet?

Did you learn Renegade on guitar yet?

I'm in fear for my life from the love

of the Lord.

There's a mic on his face, Aaron.

All right, last question.

Everybody can hear what you're saying.

There's a mic on AJ's face.

Ty has a question for you, Aaron.

Aaron, we talked about this a little bit off stage, and through the last several years you've been on the show, you've talked about how much respect you have for Mike T.

How has that relationship been so far?

Is there anything that's been, you know, like maybe kind of surprised you now that he's your head coach and he's just not a guy you respect from afar?

Where's my camera at?

Could be any of them.

Here's the jib.

They were doing a sweet artsy jib shot on you.

Zoom in on Aaron.

Yeah, no, just do a two-shot, manage.

Okay, okay, never mind.

Mike T is the man.

Any hate,

disrespect,

and the ilk is complete and utter bullshit.

Hell yeah.

Mike T is the man.

From day one that we talked on the phone in the offseason, I was never talking to a head coach.

I was talking to a friend.

I respected the hell out of that.

I have crazy respect for him.

The way that he leads the room, the way that he...

He talks in the team meeting, the way he is in practice.

The surprise has been just what a great dude he is, what a great leader he is, on top of what I already expected, which was already high based on what I thought from afar.

But being able to see it in person is incredible.

He's the type of guy that every great coach makes you want to play for.

And what I mean to expand on that is you care so deeply about the person, you don't want to let him down.

And that's the aura and that's the respect that Mike has from his players that

you want to play for this guy because you know how much he cares and you you don't want to let him down.

You've been on a championship team before.

You've had a lot of great, great, great, great, great teams that you've been on.

Yeah, we beat the Stailers.

Hell yeah.

Hell yeah.

Wow.

Should already have seven, you could say.

Oh, man.

That was a different day.

A different day.

It's a new day.

It's a new day.

It's a new day.

They pitched for recorders.

Yes, because AJ was using steroids.

Nick Milono called.

AJ was drinking his piss.

Yes, we know.

Okay, you confirmed that.

Still never was.

I said that the SP's people.

Look at this guy.

You think he hasn't drank his pee in the last five years, all the stuff he's been into?

Chewing bark, drinking piss.

Chewing bark.

Chewing bark.

Hey, great answer the other day, by the way.

And that guy would drink your piss.

He said, that's what I'm talking about, though.

That's what Pittsburgh would do for you, Aaron.

You need to know that.

We appreciate you so much for stopping by.

Can't wait to watch.

Come on.

Give him a standby.

You have a drug test this morning.

How's the piss?

Get them up here.

Aaron, I can't wait to watch you work out there.

I can't wait to to watch the season for you.

I can't wait to watch you experience a year with the Yensers.

And will you be joining us on Tuesdays or no?

Did they tell you you can't?

We'll see.

Yeah, we'll see.

You talk to Bert over there.

Oh, nurture.

Uh-oh.

Bert,

I appreciate you guys.

Good to see y'all as usual.

Good to see you in person.

Have fun in Canton,

San Diego Chargers.

That's right.

But it's going to be a fun year.

It's going to be a really fun year.

I'm just really,

if I can sum up my feelings

being in Pittsburgh, it's just gratitude

to be in such a special organization with Mike T, the leadership of the football team, and to play for a fan base that cares as much as these guys do.

Oh, yeah.

We're lucky to have you here in Pittsburgh.

I speak for the city at this moment, but not always.

You're the man.

I love you claiming Pittsburgh now.

You claim Indy when you're back in Indy.

I'm like the rock, baby.

I got two homes.

You should send me down to Morgantown, too.

I fucking love that.

I'm money.

All that money you got.

Yeah.

You got homes all over the place, Aaron.

All right, thanks, guys.

You're the man.

Ladies and gentlemen, four-time NFL MVP, the starting quarterback of the Steel Zara.

What'd you put on there?

Did you draw a dick?

Good luck.

You signed it, AJ Hawk.

Did you sign it?

You did a spaceship?

No, he didn't do a spaceship.

He just wrote in there what his status is still.

To this point.

And I just wrote in what his status is.

That's a long word.

I'm not talking Facebook.

I gotcha.

Oh, nice.

He subbed an X in there.

Just dropped an X.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

None of that.

It's a one-on-one.

And then...

Throwback.

He mentioned a lot of times about being synonymous with winning and greatness and a team that's all aligned and going in.

And we got a chance to talk to Mr.

Rooney earlier today, and I said, hey, you're writing a lot of checks.

I like that.

I liked you writing a lot of checks or whatever.

He was like excited for the season.

This has not been how the Steelers have ever been, Tone.

This is such a drastic difference than what the Pittsburgh Steelers were of yesterday.

Now them firing Matt Canada midway through the year.

Sorry, Matt, had to do it.

News be a pop.

They fired him midseason.

He was the first coach that was a head coach or a coordinator that got fired in the history of the Steelers one of the oldest franchises in the history of professional sports So they make that move It's like wait is this a new day then Omar Khan gets in following Kevin Colbert who has a fire pit up here that I guess all the boys hang out at at night They really bring the team together.

It's a beautiful setup, but Omar Khan is really he's he's drawn this up in his own way and the stars are out here in Pittsburgh though.

Yeah, I mean Colbert was here for 20 plus years multiple Super Bowls Kevin Kevin Colbert is an all-time Hall of Fame GM but like you knew once like free agency came around like you didn't have to pay attention at at all.

Like day one, day two, even day seven, you weren't going to get anyone in free agency if you're a Steeler because they built through the draft and they built their own guys.

But then, you know, Omar came in and it was kind of like, hey, that's not really working right now.

And obviously, this fan base hasn't been happy with 9-8, 10-7, stuff like that.

First round playoff losses.

So Omar got very, very aggressive this year, went out.

The first one was DK.

He was even in conversations for IUC last year that came out.

That was reported.

They are not resting on their laurels right now, Pat, or their Yannis.

and uh we're going in for a super bowl right now that was a good internet run there just like the black dress blue dress uh those really had a good time

we need those days back somebody needs to find a new one there for the internet and i think the city has responded in a positive way you know sometimes whenever you do something in an old-fashioned way an old school way there's going to be old heads that hate it uh any change uh you still are spending all this money

we don't need you think they need to do this to win in a pass this is a desperate move yada yada that hasn't happened at all

Everybody in Pittsburgh's like, yeah, we're spending money finally.

Yeah, we're bringing in stars.

Yeah, we're taking advantage of stuff.

And like, I think the players, too, AJ, Cam Hayward, year 15.

He's been pretty vocal about, like, don't know how long we have left.

TJ, I know he's still got hopefully six years left, 10 years left, whatever it is.

He's in year nine.

A lot of these guys have been around here a long time.

They're making a push to win.

It's good for all parties.

It's great for the NFL, I think, and obviously for Pittsburgh.

You got to evolve.

Like, yeah, you can still hold that old school, that core, the tradition, everything that is the Steelers, and then evolve into like the new age of the NFL and spend money.

I mean, look at one of the greatest, actually the greatest college football coach of all time, Nick Sabin.

He was constantly evolving what he did on offense and defense because he's like, I want to win.

I don't want to be stupid and just be stuck in my ways.

That's what losers do.

Yeah, we're not like that far removed from this being the way to win a Super Bowl.

Like, sure, the Chiefs and the Eagles have won more recently, but you look at Stafford, you look at Brady, you look at Payton.

Like, we kind of pointed to that for a couple years as maybe this is the way to do it.

You get Aaron for cheap, you bring in DK, you bring in Jalen, you bring in Jonu.

Like, it really is one of those things where it feels like a 2021 LA Rams, maybe even the 2020 Tampa Bay Bucks where this old veteran, something to prove, not run out of the building, but had to fly across the country and got kicked out of the building 10 minutes after getting there.

It is one of those damn near spite years that we're approaching here for Pittsburgh.

As we wait here for Coach Tomlin to join us in a matter of moments, a lot of people singing his praises.

I can't wait to experience that because the last couple years he's been giving shit talk to him relentlessly.

And then we get a chance to watch his hard knocks and it's like, I love that guy.

I hope they get a chance this year to go on another run.

Let's, we're going camping here in Latrope, or I'm sorry, Leitrope, as the locals say.

Let's go camping around the NFL, shall we?

Let's go camping.

Let's start with the Green Bay Packers.

Highlights from training camp are getting us going.

Kai Schmidt, you lost your mind on draft night when they drafted Golden.

Are you excited to watch him catch a deep ball here from Jordan Love at Training Camp?

Yeah, without a doubt, it looks like things are rolling like they should be.

I mentioned this to you guys earlier.

This is the first piece of content in general that I've seen from Packers camp.

So I'm pretty jacked up that it's a 60-yard touchdown.

They need this guy to be an absolute force this year.

Jordan Love stays healthy all year.

It looks like he's finally got his number one guy.

I'd love to see it.

I love that they're talking shit to their fans who are asking for them to post videos of the first round draft pick that hasn't happened in like 40 years or whatever at the wide receiver thing.

Social media admins have all the brains.

They got it going on.

Without a doubt.

They're the Green Bay Packers, actually.

Yeah.

Yeah, they are.

That's how these social media people operate.

I'm not saying the Green Bay Packers are doing that.

No, I think Ed Polise runs the Twitter account.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he does.

Okay, so he was the one that did the every other capital letter.

Exactly.

What do you mean you want to see our first-round draft pick run faster than everybody, you dip shits?

It's social media.

You're not supposed to see anything.

Not on my watch not on my watch we're trying to keep this the uh the best kept secret of training camp hey thanks for posting social media degree haver we appreciate you doing that

love it helped us out and helped out green bay packer owner now let's go to a green bay packer record holder aj hawk have you seen marvin Harrison Jr.

in Arizona just one day after another freak show catches rookie year wasn't fantastic by anybody's account, but now it feels like Kyler's going to throw him the rock regardless.

Catch radius insane.

Contested catches is his thing.

I think him and Kyler had to get on the same page with that notion going in through the offseason.

Yeah, and Marvin's like the old school quiet professional.

He's not real flash.

He doesn't say a whole lot, but if you saw, you notice what he put on 15, 20 pounds of muscle like a couple other guys throughout the league.

Yeah, the guy's an absolute stud.

And the Carters are one of those teams that can possibly, I think, jump up and surprise a few teams if they can keep Kyler healthy.

And obviously, Marv has a big year.

Kyler was a great ball there.

You know, not going to get talked about, but that is an incredible ball there.

Obviously, Kyler, remarkably gifted athletically, both on the ground and through the sky.

Will this be the year where it all comes together?

Will this be the year that it clocks?

Shout out to Justin Biebel.

We're talking about him having the population of the United States of America basically follows him on Instagram.

What a life he's been living.

But is it clocking for that Arizona Cardinals team to make a run?

AQ Shipley would be on the call.

Moontownship, great.

Hopefully they're not shite for his sake.

Now, let's go to Indianapolis,

Indiana.

Anthony Richardson, a man who's drafted number four overall for the Indianapolis Colts, has had an underwhelming start to his career, but this training camp, throwing dots all over the place.

He's looked much more accurate.

He's looked much more confident.

He's been putting in a lot of work.

This is what he had to say after practice about how his mindset has changed this year versus years past.

After last season, I feel like I needed to do more, you know, not only for the team, but for myself.

If I want to so-called be great and I want to be in the Hall of Fame one day,

I have to do more.

I have to go do the things that other people don't do.

So I've just been doing that, just taking it day by day, not necessarily trying to

change anything mentally or anything like that, but just taking a deeper dive and studying my playbook a little longer, you know, asking more questions.

You know, going through my footwork, you know, walking through the plays by myself, you know, just stuff like that, just trying to do more.

Okay, I love to hear everything that he's saying right there.

There is a group here from Monroeville, I believe, with the Gateway High School behind us here.

They started chanting that he's too tired, okay, because

I am from this area, okay?

If you were to ask any of these people standing here, hey, the starting quarterback for your team on a third down in the red zone against a division opponent in the middle of the regular season is going to tap out of the game because he was too tired.

All these people would say, get him the fuck out of our city.

What are you talking about?

You're too tired.

You're a football player.

And I had a similar reaction.

Okay, I had a similar reaction.

And it's like, hey, why?

You can't be saying it.

And even if you're at the mental point where you think you're comfortable enough and confident enough to say that publicly, it's like you're way too content.

I was very vocal now this year what we have seen he's slimmer he's fitter he's acknowledging how he needs to be different he's taking the pre-practice mental reps by himself it feels like he has matured yes immensely after a very tough start to his career growth maturity he's doing and saying all the right things and when guys show up to training camp or the off-season workouts they don't have to say much you can look at him and kind of tell what they've been doing in the offseason you look at him he looks great uh physically and we know what he can do on the ground you know with his physical traits But to win in this league and to win the big one in this league, you got to be able to play from the pocket.

And if you run that highlight back again, that's like a simple throw, but that's a whole shot.

Cover two.

Pittman gets up there, get up the sideline.

You got to put that ball on him on the line, and he did.

So I love what I'm seeing from five right now in this QB battle.

Yeah, that throw is incredible.

He's had a few, it feels like, that have come out during training camp where it's like the week one against the Texans kind of stalker.

I agree with you guys, but doesn't it kind of take away from the fact that the big thing going into the offseason was, hey, he's going to work out with Josh Allen's guy, and then while training cam starting, you think that he did, and then he says...

He didn't do that?

He actually didn't.

I don't care.

He's completely passive.

No, I'm genuinely out of it.

He was going to do that laser treatment to get more accurate.

If he has got more accurate without the laser treatment, I don't think we care.

Okay.

Okay, this is a results-oriented business.

Now, if his shit gets outrageous again, everybody's like, hey, your mechanics and your footwork and everything is off.

That's why you have the lowest completion percentage in the history of the NFL, and you chose not to do something.

I I think then it becomes a conversation.

But right now, he's putting it on guys, and he looks like an actual passer.

Is he gonna play in the preseason?

Like, that's a big thing.

Like,

I'm saying, should he get a good chunk of playing time in each all four games?

Hey, speaking of social media, Colts social media got their agenda, and they're sticking to it.

Yeah, I haven't seen Danny Dimes

too.

I think Danny Dimes is cool with it, too.

We're all cool with the school with the competition.

The only thing we worry about now with Anthony Richardson, and I mean, this is what I guess sports media does, is he's in such good shape.

Is he going to be able to withstand the hits now?

You know, like is he still?

He's still 240 pounds, I assume.

He's a monster.

We'll see how that goes.

Now, let's go camping to

the AFC North Kings.

The team that is favored to win the AFC North.

A team that is known for crab cakes and football.

Let's go to the Baltimore Ravens.

Lamar Jackson running wild all over.

Baltimore Ravens trying to kill.

Lamar Jackson, obviously an MVP, looking to win a Super Bowl.

Looking faster than ever.

They still got Nuke on their team as well.

I think everybody has forgotten that.

Front flips in training camp.

Lamar Jackson's in mid-season form.

They are the second.

They have the second best odds in the entire NFL to win their division.

What the hell is that, Tyree?

What are you talking about?

Damn celebrating.

Damn, celebrating.

He's celebrating.

College teammates.

Yeah, they're buddies.

And he's happy for it.

So this does lead to a conversation.

So with these training camp highlights, when Lamar Jackson's running wild, the Baltimore Ravens fans are going crazy.

When Aaron Rodgers completes a deep ball to DK Metcalf here today for 65, 70 yards, place is going to go crazy.

That's the defense getting dunked on right there.

As a defender, D-button.

You know that going into training camp, that your own fans are going to be pissed if you guys have a great day.

Rogue game every day.

It's a rogue game every day.

Bring your own energy.

You're obviously coming out there, you want to whoop their ass, but the crowds behind them, look, they're always going to cheer on and touch down scores.

And look, Jair right there running down, celebrating.

You know, if that guy was on my team, I'd probably accidentally do that too.

But I love this.

I love this, obviously, from Lamar.

He had an unbelievable season last year.

MVP caliber season, his best season so far.

He's motivated to go get that big one.

Obviously, this team here has had a ton of success against him on the big games, but I'm excited to see what eight and that Ravens offense.

And that Ravens team, I've completely forgot about D-Hop.

Likely he got injured, but it's not as bad as we thought.

Say Flowers, I can't wait to see what they do this year.

All right, let's stay in the AFC North.

Let's move away from Baltimore.

Let's not talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Why would we talk about Cleveland?

Hey, don't look now.

Jerry Judy's in better shape than he's ever been.

Cincinnati Bengals, Trey Hendrickson, has reported to camp.

He missed seven days of camp.

He was fined $50,000 per day, $350,000 in total fines.

He is now back with the Cincinnati Bengals.

AJ, what does this say to you?

This says to me that he is what, like you said, is he tucking his tail and walking back in and saying, hey, no,

I heard that's not the case, but I mean, I figure maybe Mike Brown said maybe Mike Brown promised him this time, said, hey, I gave you my word.

If you come back and shows goodwill, we'll give you what you want.

Has Mike Brown said that before?

None of the ownership has said anything positive.

I think this is potentially a new move, maybe an extension of an olive branch, because Trey Hendrickson loves football.

Ty, there's a lot of people saying, though.

Yeah, when I saw this, I said, Man, did Trey Hendrickson really show those guys?

He really showed the Bengals.

Hey, guess what?

I'll squeak Scalariate, you know?

You guys mess with me 16 to 17 more times.

I'm going to tuck tail.

I'm going to get out of here.

You're not going to see me.

And then when I realize nothing's going to change, I'm going to come right back and shake everybody's hand and say, Look who's back.

Trey's back.

We don't know if there's anything happening behind the scenes, seemingly not, but maybe this will change

the entire future for them.

Let's pivot away from the Cincinnati Bengals back to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Ladies and gentlemen, a Super Bowl champion, a future Hall of Famer, the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

What's up, Coach?

How are you doing?

I'm sweating my ass off.

I appreciate you.

Yeah, he gets it.

Coach, you can use this one if you want to.

Coach, first of all, thank you so much for stopping by.

I know.

It's real.

It's very real.

When you were hired as a head coach 45 years ago,

you look the exact same.

Shout out.

I guess cliches are real in certain things.

Yeah, yeah, I guess that is a real thing.

I have aged, you know, like a grape over the last few years.

You knew what Pittsburgh was.

I think you knew what it was.

But the way you have embraced this city, we see you at Penguins games.

I think you're even stopping by Pirates games.

I feel like you call yourself a Jenser and consider yourself a Yenser.

What is it like to be a part of this every single year?

And is it like a perspective putter about how great these fans are every training camp?

I'll tell you this.

First, it never gets old.

You know, I have the same level of excitement that I had in 07.

Probably even more so, to be quite honest with you.

I love being a Pittsburgh, man.

My kids grew up in Pittsburgh.

They call Pittsburgh home.

I'm proud to call it home.

I drink the Kool-Aid.

Yeah, absolutely.

And with that Kool-Aid, you understand the city.

You understand the expectations.

I'm not going to say anything you probably don't know.

It got loud there for a little bit.

And obviously, you were asked by Kyle Bran about winning, winning, having a winning record every single year.

And you had a great line, something along the lines like these guys were in baby seats, I think, whenever they were in car seats, whenever you're growing up.

It did get a little bit loud.

Do you hear that stuff?

Do you block it out?

How much does that affect your day-to-day life or how you go about your business?

You know, I hear it, but I don't

because

I'm here to win.

You know, I share the same sentiment, the same level of pissed offness.

You know,

that's just who I am.

And so, like, I don't take it personally.

It's motivation for me.

I'm here to deliver for them.

Omar Khan, vastly different than Colbert.

Seemingly, from the outside looking in.

What are your thoughts on it?

Because Tone and I have chit-chatted about how this is so abnormal.

First of all, you're not going to like that this is going to happen because it was probably a very difficult decision because you know the person personally.

We just mentioned it.

You firing a coordinator mid-season never happened in the history of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Okay.

That was a big conversation for us.

In the offseason, free agency.

Never really a thing for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

This this year making moves bringing in obviously Aaron Rodgers who you recruited sorry texted for a couple months how does it feel this way of doing things versus maybe what it had always been with the Pittsburgh Steelers you know I'm not resistant to change I don't think you can do what I've done as long as I can do it being resistant to change and so I try to be open to doing things differently, to taking a different approach.

It's refreshing for me.

I'm excited by it.

Certainly made moves that we deem necessary in an effort to position ourselves to be what they need and want us to be.

AJ's question for Coach Jalen Ramsey, Darius Lane.

Obviously, here you're back in.

Let's say for Jalen, I've heard you guys call him like a Swiss Army knife.

He can do anything.

What is he going to bring to the defense?

For me, as a fan of watching, I love physical corners, and they obviously can play every position back there.

But I love dudes that can get picks and are physical and not scared to tackle them.

They seem to thrive in that rule.

And I feel like he's going to be very physical here.

There's no question, man.

He brings a demeanor, man, that's contagious.

His versatility obviously you guys will see today

but his attitude, his approach to business man, his professionalism, like this guy's as impressive in the classroom as he is on the grass, man.

I've been blown away by his approach to the business.

That's awesome.

D-Bot has a question for you, Coach.

Yeah, coach, you've been here obviously a very, very long time.

We've all been in locker rooms and now we're in the media now.

And sometimes you'll say, oh, maybe that coach, and you, I've heard it now, maybe that the words are getting stale with with the team.

How do you keep it fresh?

How do you evolve when you are the leader in the face of a franchise and standing in front of those guys for such a long time?

Cam was here 15 years, TJ 9.

Like, how do you do that?

That's a tough thing to do.

You know, for me, I try not to focus on me, to be honest with you.

My job is to be what they need me to be, and their needs are ever-changing because of the makeup of the group changes, the places they are in their careers as individuals.

And so, for me, I probably avoid being stale, at least from my

perception, just by simply focused on being what they need me to be and working to meet their needs.

Gotcha.

Ty has a question for you, Coach.

Coach, Pat mentioned it a little bit earlier.

What was that kind of recruiting process like with Rogers?

We've had him on the show several times, or you know, for the last several years, and he always talked about how much respect he had for you.

And kind of, we've seen the clips of you giving him that rise.

Yeah, you guys winking at each other, calling the timeout when he was trying to maybe get you.

But what was that recruiting process like?

It was kind of a bromance, you know what I mean?

You know, for me, man, I was just excited to get to know the guy on a personal level.

And so that's how I viewed it.

Man, we had some cool and interesting conversations about football, about life,

about where he is in his career and what he was potentially looking for.

You know, I slow-roasted it, if you will, man.

I didn't try to microwave it because I didn't feel like that would be effective anyway.

And so I just enjoyed getting to know him over the course of those conversations.

And I just felt felt like if we did it and did it consistently and they lay a nice foundation for our relationship when we started working together.

What are your expectations for him as a human?

Did you lay all that out as a player, as a guy in the locker room?

Do you have all those conversations?

And why was Aaron the guy that you wanted for this particular team?

You know, just through our conversations, man, he expressed his desires and they are in alignment with mine.

And so those

come to Jesus conversations weren't even necessary, man.

He's here and here in a mindset that's aligned with us.

He's here and here to win a world championship for this group.

And he wants to impart wisdom and share his experiences with young players, man, and give back to the game.

And so that's just a beautiful place to be.

And those guys are good guys to work with.

We were on the plane earlier today flying in,

high and high, just

thinking about it all, you know.

Aaron, when he went to the Jets, we talked about this.

Any legend that starts at a new place, a lot of brand new eyes watching you for the first time.

Your practice habits, how you do in practice, how you go about operating, how you communicate.

You got to like reprove yourself.

Aaron doing that for a first ballot Hall of Famer, I assume, is something that has driven him in these practices.

For you too, though, with Aaron, is there a similar thought like, hey, this is Aaron's first time experiencing my shit as a head coach, too?

Because there's rarefied air that you two are breathing that not a lot of people in the history of football breathe.

I like the responsibility of having to deliver for him.

You know what I mean?

Just the energy and the charge I get for preparing messaging and things of that nature.

But not only him, but guys like Jalen Ramsey and other veteran guys, man.

I'm sensitive to the delivering of the message, man, and making sure they understand how we go about our business, the things we value, and how they can be a part of it.

Is there any shit he's done yet to make you go, oh, okay, yeah, that's the Aaron Rodgers.

That's the guy.

Is there any of that?

Hey, I like the no-look passes, man.

You know, we've seen a couple of those just about every day.

But, man, the way he interacts with the defensive leadership, man, the way he competes with them and challenges them, it's a breath of fresh air, man.

We just feel like we're going to be positioned to be really good because of that iron on iron, that competitive spirit, the things that are happening day to day, man, and he's a central part of that.

On that note, Tone has a question for you.

Yeah, coach, with all due respect to everyone who has played quarterback since seven.

They're a Steelers, so we love them forever.

But does it feel different when you look across and you see eight?

Like, I mean, Kaboli said this is the most crowded it's been in the last 15 years here it felt like to him but like so it feels different to the fans does it feel different to you when you look over and you're like okay since then

that's Aaron Rodgers you're damn right it does

it feels pretty good too yeah but

you know just the possibilities man

to have a guy like that man in your huddle in your locker room a part of your group

it certainly gives us all great confidence yeah I'm trying to remember one of your hard every hard knocks was awesome.

I want to let you know that.

I think we talked about it while it was happening about all the good shit that you were giving away for free, basically.

We were hearing motivational speeches just being dropped, gems being dropped.

People were writing books

on all of the one-liners that you were doing.

Are we coming up with those still every single day?

Is there new shit coming out?

Is there more Tomlinisms?

Or is it all basically like a pool that you kind of pull from, if that makes sense?

You know, I don't chase it.

It just kind of happened.

Of course.

There's one right there, by the way.

That is bar after bar after bar.

I wish I got a chance to play for you.

You told me in warm-ups, I'm going to get you when you're old and cheap.

Damn right, I did.

Did you have those conversations with Aaron, too, throughout his career?

I wish I had.

I wish maybe I'd have got him sooner.

All right, have a great practice.

We appreciate you.

Congrats on all the success.

These people love you, baby.

Man, thank you guys.

Ladies and gentlemen, Cuts Mike Donbler.

I appreciate you coming.

Man, great feeling together.

You too, Coach.

Good luck.

Good luck.

Good luck.

You should.

Congratulations.

Thank you, Coach.

Thank you.

Appreciate you, Spells.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's Coach Mike Tobin.

And there's a man standing off camera that I don't know if he's ever done an interview before.

I don't know if he gets any requests.

Special Teams Coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Winzer

Dance.

oh my god, tattoo on the outside of the shin.

Good hope, Christopher.

Hey, hey, I'm about this stuff.

Hell yeah!

How about this here?

Hey, we got a local guy

big time.

He comes back to Pittsburgh to do a live show for us.

That's your mic.

That's your mic.

That's you.

He don't need a tail, Mike.

I appreciate you doing that for me.

That was not needed.

How about this?

Local guy comes back to coach special teams for the Pittsburgh Studio

for all of us.

And he chews through 200 pieces of gum every single game.

Danny Smith is here, ladies and gentlemen.

Hi, Danny.

We have like two, three minutes.

I know you love doing media, and this is something you really enjoyed.

You had the, I don't know if it was the best unit in the NFL last year, but we looked up stats.

You got a lot of number ones and a lot of top 10, a lot of top fives.

Special teams is something that is respected here in Pittsburgh because it's a football town.

How many years have you been here now?

This will be 13th.

13th year for you here as a Pittsburgh Steeler.

How do you feel about this particular team?

How's the energy?

You know, I mean, it's an honor to purchase.

I don't know if his mic's on.

Did you turn it off?

Give him that other one.

Give him that other mic there, AJ, right next to you, right next to you.

Try that one.

Come on.

Jesus.

Try that one.

There we go.

Come on, AJ.

I don't think you're on.

I watch the two mics.

There we go.

Really, it's an honor and a privilege, man, to come back to your hometown and coach this.

Okay?

And to clean up,

we were number one.

And that ain't me, man.

That's the players that I coach.

Okay?

They come out with rankings and that.

I got good players, man.

This organization will supply you with people.

You got to know what you're doing.

You got to give them a direction.

And these players will work their butt off if you know what you're doing.

And really, it's a credit to our players.

I got good players, man.

I got good players that work their butts off.

Those of you who watch practice, you see it.

And it's an honor and a privilege to be a part of it.

This year, is there a different buzz with how much Omar Khan and the front office have gone all in with this particular team?

Have you thought about that?

You know, I get puzzled in the media when I watch some of this stuff.

They say, like, what coach is on a hot seat?

What about, man, I'm on a hot seat every day.

Okay?

I don't look at it like that.

I'm on a hot seat every day.

This stuff changes so quickly.

So I don't feel no heat, no pressure.

I put the pressure on myself.

I expect us to win, and I expect us to win it all every damn year.

And I don't change.

AJ has a question for you, Coach.

Coach, what are you trying to do in training camp right now today, first day of pets?

What are you looking at to see some guys maybe that you haven't seen tested yet?

You know, and you did it, you know, for a living.

We got a movement, you know.

Who moves, moves, who could cover in space, who has some agility.

There's no real game planning at this time.

So you don't really get to mentally check on them.

But you get the physicality of it and the physical part of it with the change of direction, the hand placement, the foot work, the pad level and things like that.

So I'm consistently, constantly watching other drills too, along with my own, to evaluate them.

Yeah, can you talk about how guys need to get a heads up that the way they're going to make it in the league is through special teams and your messaging to them for that?

It's changed a lot, you know, over my years.

But our head coach heads up, you know, Mike T does a great job.

Mike T is great with me, supplying me time, supplying me players.

Okay, then it's up to me to get it done.

And that's as simple as I can put it.

But a lot of guys, that's the only way to make it.

I tell them all the time.

I say, okay, I want you to be the starting linebacker.

I want you to be the starting running back.

Damn, I want to be the head coach.

But that ain't happening, okay?

I ain't the head coach, and you ain't the starting running back, so we got a pretty good job.

Let's take care of it.

D-Bun has to do.

That's what I tell them.

That's a great message.

That's a great delivery.

Hopefully, they get the point.

Go ahead, Debun.

I was blessed to play with some great special teams coordinators.

Scotty O'Brien in New England, Big Man in Indy.

How have you?

You've been doing it a long time.

And Pat just mentioned you got to relate to the entire roster, but how do you get that juice?

How do you bring that same juice every day?

There's some great names right there, man.

Their predecessors that helped pave the way for me.

I mean, they really are.

And I respect them so much.

And it just, it's a mindset.

You know, it's a mindset.

You got to come come out all the time, and you know, if I've supplied the energy, man, they'll follow.

If you let players middle round, you play, do you let players middle round?

They will, okay.

Uh, how am I gonna ask them to give energy if I don't?

I just that's the way I coach, you know.

I really believe in that, what I tell them all the time.

I want you to know what you're doing and why you're doing it, then you're a better player.

Coach, why'd you have Antonio Brown in the fourth quarter return punts whenever you're up 21 points with six minutes left?

Let me tell you, let me tell you, let me tell you a quick story.

Please do.

Pat always brings this up on the times that we got him.

He don't ever bring up the time he got me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thanksgiving, baby.

Okay, Thanksgiving.

They run, yeah, you ruined my damn dinner.

I can't even eat it.

I go home from India out of my damn stomach.

I'm puking on the damn pressure of my home.

I can't eat Thanksgiving dinner.

Okay, because he runs a fake, because he got big balls and will do things like that.

And he's faking, fake, and fake.

It throws a pass for a first time, and it's on me.

So there's two sides to those throws.

Okay, Tommy has a question for you, Coach.

Yeah, coach, before you show fakes to the team, do you have to run them by Coach Tomlin, or what's that meaning like?

I can't even do it.

Danny, when you're running a fake, hey, when you try to run a fake or do something, running them by Coach Tomlin, what is that like?

I've always said this.

Like, when I was young in the NFL, I have a good arm.

You saw that.

You experienced that.

I'm also punt pass and kick champion here for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Troy Paul and all those showing up over there.

Feels like you guys had film in our practice.

Fuck you.

Now, with that being said,

always had a good, always had a good arm.

Always had a good arm.

When I was young in the NFL, I wanted to run more fakes.

I'm like, hey, I'm watching these punters throw these balls and everybody's talking about how athletic they are.

I could just let me spin one here.

Let me do it.

And

Ray Rich Lesky, who's the head coach, and Jim Caldwell was the head coach.

Special teams was Ray.

He said, so let me get this straight.

We're going to take Peyton Manning off the field.

Okay, we're going to take Peyton Manning off the field.

We're going to take Reggie Wayne off of the field.

We're going to take Dallas Clark off of the field.

We're going to take Joseph Adai off of the field.

And then we're going to have you do the offense for us.

That makes sense.

And if it doesn't work, they're going to go the other way.

Usually good teams don't do a lot of trickery shit.

Now you do your own shit.

Returns, fakes drawing up.

What are those conversations like with Tomlin?

And how aggressive do you think you guys are compared to the rest of the NFL?

It's a great point.

And Pat, the way I do it is this, man.

There are fakes and there are trick plays.

And the way that I define that is this a fake is something that we see that we want to take advantage of okay we saw something on tape they're weak over here they don't cover this or they don't like we were going to do against you for troy paul muller ruined it all when i was with score but i knew i knew because

so we covered that stuff and we didn't let it get away with it now trick play is i come out with some crazy formation or something and i'm trying to trick you and sometimes it tricks on me yeah

for real and that's what it is if i don't know where you're gonna align and things like that it's a trick play And I believe in fakes.

I don't believe in trick plays.

Got it.

Okay, so with that in mind, we cover that stuff.

Okay?

And we'll challenge each other on that.

I'm talking about players, coaches, everything.

If the players are comfortable and confident in running, it takes a situation to get it.

We'll go in the game with all the fakes, okay?

That don't mean we're running one every week.

This ain't a trick of dick and leap.

You don't win like that.

You got to beat them.

You got to beat your opponent.

We got to do field position.

We got to block kick.

We got to return balls.

We got to do those things to win.

But every now and then,

like a Peyton Manning and the names that he's mentioning, we try to steal a possession.

You know, it's like a turnover.

You can't give Peyton Manning the ball all the damn time.

You can't give Joe Burrows all his reps.

You can't give those guys all their reps.

You try to steal a possession.

It's a turnover.

So we'll run something like that.

And immediately upon hearing Joe Burrows' name, they send him their best wishes.

Luck, Joe.

I've gone through a lot out there.

Last thing I would like you to hit upon, and I assume if you didn't, they would talk shit about you.

Can you tell me about Boz, Johnson, and Koontz, your kicker, punter, long snapper?

You got dogs across the board.

That is a comforting feeling, I assume, for sports.

We're good there.

I mean, we really are.

And Boz is special.

Nothing is too big for him.

He wants the big kick.

He gets pissed off when we don't do the 56, 57 in that range.

So I'll piss him off in practice.

I'll put the ball at the 35, which would be a 53-yard field goal, and I'll call for the punt team.

And he calls me every name in the book.

And I always say, hey, just heads up here.

Watch balls.

Watch his balls.

And he ain't paying attention.

He's walking.

And I say, all right, balls on the 35.

It's fourth and three.

Let's go.

Let's go.

Punt, punt, punt.

What do you mean, punt?

I'm going to pick it up.

And he goes crazy.

So that's good to see.

So he got, you know, he's a good player, and he'll be good.

We got to punt battle.

We got to punt battle.

We got to punt battle.

Cam is a great punter, okay?

Cam has got credentials.

Cordos came in last year and did a great job.

We got a battling camp, man.

We really do.

They are great players.

They are great guys.

They are great teammates.

They are great workers.

They're two good players, man.

They're two NFL punters, and I'm blessed to have them both.

Hell yeah.

And long snap, but you know, Christian is as tough as it gets.

Okay,

we got other people in there.

We're going to have competition in there and things like that.

But Christian don't miss snaps.

Christian don't miss games.

And you know how that is.

You know, when you got the continuity, you should be better.

We got continuity.

We will.

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Football!

It is happening in a big way here in Leitrobe, Pennsylvania, about an hour east of Accra Sher Stadium the artist formerly known as Heinz Field

I will say earlier before the show I went on to my maps to see exactly how far we were from the stadium downtown

I put Heinz Field in there it did not show up

Now that's that's that's Timmy Jobs Timmy Apple doing that so I went over to Google you know and maybe it's just my app Across your is the only thing showing up.

Hate to say it.

Down at the shore.

Hate to say it.

We're an hour and eight minutes from

where we are right now and in this

batch of hills here.

And this is the most western Pennsylvania thing of all time.

Stages built on the side of a hill.

All the guardrails are like this.

We got people kind of crouched down here.

There is a drop off of a cliff on the other side of that over there.

People lined up on a hill here and at the bottom of this hill are two fields, field one and field two, where the Pittsburgh Steelers have worked their asses off since 1966.

Father Paul, the CEO priest of this place, came in and chit-chatted about this entire unit or this college and everything that's happened here.

They're thankful to be the home of the Steelers.

They're the right home of the Steelers.

And this is one of the things that is just synonymous with the NFL training camp at St.

Vincent College.

Let's go to the talks of table at Ty Schmidt Schmidt at Boston Connor.

Connor, they've been chanting things from 2017 at you, which I appreciate, but football people respect football people, am I right?

Yeah, I appreciate it as well.

I mean, the rules are rules.

Some Steelers fans, you know, get it, some don't.

It seems it's kind of a mixed bag out there today, which has been nice.

But it's a pleasure being down here

at the trove, as they call it.

It's hot as hell.

I don't know if it's translating through the television.

Probably one of the hotter programs we've ever had, but it is is awesome.

There's nothing like this, you know, like taking the program on the road.

I forget what the hashtag was.

I wish I remembered what it was from the home run derby, but it's a doing these live shows with you guys is so much fun, and it's just great seeing football on the field.

You called it the trobe, I believe, for late trobe.

I called it down there at the trobe.

Okay, I got that.

We should say day trobe, I think, because the way that he's saying is lay trobe.

But remember

the show down in Morgantown, remember it got so hot that it went off air.

Yeah, the generators blew off.

We We were a little worried today as the heat was rising in what Kaboli said about this particular game.

That we're going to have a similar issue, but this is exactly what Tomlin wants.

This is exactly what Khan wants.

And if we know the cut of the jib of this particular team, this is exactly what they want.

Let's get it hardened out.

You guys kind of sound like Euros, but like Europeans.

Complain about the heat.

When you watch the first half in the locker room, it gets too hot.

Yeah, it's too hot.

What is this?

That's not your death.

The guy can't be cold.

The guy can't be hot.

What the fuck?

30 degrees.

Just be be a guy.

Yeah, just be a cold.

Be hot.

AJ's got black pants or a black shirt.

He's hot as shit.

That's AJ Hawk, nine-year NFL vet.

He's also a Broad County Hall of Famer, which is South Florida, which it is always 120 degrees, Darius Butler.

And one half of the hammer.

That has to feel pretty cool.

Cowboys AP tone.

I think it's a beautiful day out here in Leitrobe tone.

It is awesome.

I mean, you guys are talking about hot, cold.

It's football weather is football weather.

Whether it's 15 or 95, we all know these fans are going to show up.

We all know Seal is going to go for the sevens, Lombardi.

Like looking out into the, like, we grew up, most of us grew up around, you know, these parts or whatever.

And you can just kind of smell it in the air.

Like, this time of year, you kind of smell the football in the air.

I can only imagine what the locker room smells like and brings back all those memories.

But being here,

coming here as a kid and into high school, like, this is the best.

This is awesome.

I agree.

It's been a nice trip down Nostalgia Lane for us.

We can't wait to watch practice.

Immediately after this show ends, there'll be practice out on this field.

We will head down there and watch the boys do their thing and we'll try to hold back AJ from

physicality for AJ Hawk.

Let's talk about some NFL news.

Big news broken on our show by Adam Shepher is that Christian Wilkins playfully kissed a teammate on the forehead.

Then I said they want the HNR

and they get released.

Now $35.2 million in guarantees with the handling of a surgery or non-surgery is in limbo.

And this story is obviously blown up because it's such an abnormal type headline.

What we were told was a kiss on the forehead.

Now you got every other media person that's been snooping around with it going, that ain't what all happened.

There's more.

That took place.

Weird scene over there in Vegas, but this is maybe the most ridiculous training camp story that I've heard in some time, AJ.

Yeah, we've had some ridiculous ones over the years, if you think back, but it can't just be one thing, right?

Like, there's usually there's things leading up to situations like this.

If it's one thing, then this one thing has to be more than a kiss on the forehead or a kiss on the top of what he said to get someone.

I'm saying there had to be something to lead their heads.

Well, that's what everybody else is saying.

We're like, say, allegedly.

Yeah, allegedly.

But I'm not, I mean,

I'm not saying anything even about Christian, but like, it's tough or one thing is the final death blow on someone.

Okay, you're gone, see you.

We already paid, you know, $35 million or whatever.

Could be the cherry on pop.

Yeah, it could be a cherry on top is what I'm saying.

Literally.

Big-time player like that, and we always talk about the sanctity of the locker room.

That's our locker room.

Like, coaches aren't even really allowed in there.

So, with something like whenever you're bringing up HR, I don't think I can remember any instance in my life.

I brought up HR, though.

So, a lot of people started running up.

That was in the report, though, right?

No, yeah.

Was it?

I don't think it was HR.

I think it was Coach or GM probably.

Okay, okay.

I fell HR.

I thought I saw it.

I did Schefter's podcast with him yesterday, and I believe he said that whoever came forward did go to

HR.

Never even knew that.

Well, so when I said HR,

I was kind of like...

Yeah, tongue-in-cheek, but I believe that is actually what happened.

I was doing kiss on cheek there.

Like, the

you go to HR for these types of things.

In the NFL, I didn't even know that was possible.

Exactly.

So, there's so many things a part of this story that are wild.

We'll continue to monitor it because we are journalists.

Let's chit-chat a little bit about other stories happening around the NFL.

We briefly mentioned it before Danny Smith and Coach Tomlin came on.

Trey Hendrickson is back with the Cincinnati Bangals.

He really stuck it to him.

That's a a joke.

That's embarrassing.

Okay.

And I get it.

It's great for the Bengals.

He's there, all that stuff.

He folded like a flip-flop.

All right, and I just have to say, too, he came on the program during the Super Bowl.

The grum, if you will.

Hey, I really, really don't want to do this.

I really don't want to do this.

That's supposed to be true.

And then, and then.

Sounds just like him.

He didn't.

You know, hopefully he gets a response.

He doesn't, because the Bengals' front office, they're Mr.

Brown promised him something.

Trey promised him something.

We're going to get him like a bunch of carrier.

Treating him like a bag of shit, actually.

No, Mr.

Brown said, yeah, I mean, at some point, you got to be, you know, at least a little grateful.

I think he called him Trey Henderson as well.

Like, watching what Mike Brown said, watching what has happened since his first initial interview in February gives him no reason to show up today.

Absolutely none.

If anything, it should kind of harden his stance.

But again, Trey, Trey Henderson.

We don't know how this is going to work out.

No, we do.

I like Trey Anderson.

I thought Trey Hendrickson would be on the Patriots.

I think everybody up here wants him on the team.

The Colts want him on the Colts.

He's unbelievable.

And that's why it's one of those things where, okay, so Trey Hendrickson is kind of acting like a wuss.

And it sucks to say,

kind of

being a little bit of a...

No,

he's doing it.

Trey's trying to do business.

He's trying to do business.

He said, all right, I'm going to do what others have done in the past.

I'm going to leave.

Okay, I'm going to get fined $350,000.

I assume that'll get taken care of on the next contract.

I think the way he is doing it, or viewing it, we would hope, is like, hey, let's get back to this.

Let's try to sort this out because he's probably missing ball, if I had to guess.

That's definitely part of business.

But I understand that holding out, a part of it is you're going to have to miss one.

Of course, you miss ball.

Yes!

That's what you do.

That's kind of the way it goes.

I think there is also a chance, and I said this from the start, he may be just resetting the Squeaks Galari scale.

All right, ladies and gentlemen.

Ladies and gentlemen,

16 to 17 more opportunities for them to rip on him, and then, hey, Rover's gonna meet the road.

Yeah, look, he's a cat.

He's a patrol.

That is disgusting.

He's a man of the clock

of mine.

He's another

on this Catholic ground.

Yes, exactly.

That's why I'm saying this.

But I also have to acknowledge the facts, term but fair.

He's acting like a cat.

No, he might get a deal done.

We shall see.

Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a Western Pennsylvania legend.

I'll say it.

The greatest official in the history of officiating.

Basketball, football, you name it.

Paisano Ginsterator.

Gino.

Good to see you, good to see you.

Good to see you.

I want to be a rep.

You hear them?

They're talking about you, brother.

I want to be a rep.

I want to be a rep.

That's for you, Gino.

Hey, you got a mic right over there.

Congratulations on.

CBS just announced all the crews.

You're right down there, lower left corner.

Rules analyst, Gene Sterator back for CBS.

I love it, Patty.

I love it.

I love it.

We're sight for another year.

But listen, before we start, if I may,

you know, in Pittsburgh, we bear gifts.

Yes, you do.

Yes, we have.

Eyes ones.

For everybody here, this is special.

So if we can pay attention.

It's like having that announcement, you know, it's really important.

Okay.

So we got everyone's attention.

We're great gift givers here in Pittsburgh.

We're also legendary lovers of the game.

That's right.

And we know you are as well as a Western Pennsylvania person.

This comes from the athletic director at St.

Vincent College, D.P.

Harris, that was gifted to him that he would like to pass along as a gift to you and the guys.

Holy shit.

That is a Pittsburgh Steeler signed football by the one,

the only mean

Joe Green.

That's awesome!

DP Harris right there, Patty, right there, DP.

I got the DP.

That's a classic DP.

That is sick.

Yeah, this will make the desk.

I appreciate that, DP.

There you go.

Great delivery through Paisano, who we love.

Okay, Gino, thank you for that.

You're the man.

I've always been a massive fan of yours before I got to the league, while I was in the league, now that I'm retired, you're the greatest ever.

You, I think there's a couple.

You, Ed,

That's about it.

There's a few others that are your friends, I assume, but none of them really popped up in my mind.

And I think it's because you're such a skilled communicator, but I think also because of how much you love the game.

How much do you think being a Western Pennsylvania guy and also Baisano?

I mean, you just said we love football, we love giving gifts.

Those all look really good.

I can't tell you.

How much do you think being from this area has helped with you becoming the football guy for all of us you are the authority something happens in a game what happened here let's go to fucking gene stairs gene what is going on you are the voice of football for a lot of people how much do you think growing up in this area is a part of that oh you know what I think it's a tremendous part of it I mean I was

I was a sophomore in high school in 1978 79 right

Italians might have the same

and

just really what you know what it is

first and foremost it's this amazing facility and we're in the hills of Pennsylvania.

It's the community.

It's blue-collar people that look you in the eye.

It's blue-collar football.

It's checking in with your fan to put in the dorm window.

So it's kind of everything.

And yeah, I think that's the foundation for it.

And then officiating was in my blood.

My late father was a ref for 30 plus years of both major college football and basketball.

So all of that combined, and I think you said it right, Pat, it's the love of this whole game and what it means to players, coaches, and just people, right?

It is, it's everything.

Football is the greatest.

Obviously, you're an incredible basketball official as well.

This has been spectacular as people are filling in for practice to watch.

Are you working these practices?

What are you doing?

Because I know back in the day, reps used to get their reps in at training camp, then there would be a meeting afterwards.

You led one that I watched.

All right, guys, this year we got this shit going.

What is the messaging from officials to players this year?

Actually, my role today is to come down here to see you and the fellas and to just say what's happening welcome home to those that are on the road and uh and really kind of get the feeling that the NFL is definitely here it's back again another year a lot of new stuff in the officiating window there's a few new nuances that I know you guys have gone over a little bit about

we would like you to talk about yeah I mean look

at the one that affects that I know you could talk to a bunch is the touchback being at the 35.

You know, a a lot of people think 30 to 35 is not a big difference.

That five yards is huge.

It means a ton if you get two first downs or even one and then you're even punting field position.

So I think that's a big one.

They also condense those formations a little tighter so space and speed are even more limited a little bit with the kickoff play.

And I think what you're going to see now is the talented kickers like you were, Pat, is you know, they're going to put that thing between the five and the one.

So we want to increase the returns.

We want that activity to happen.

So I think

it's a big step for that reason, and I think it ran pretty well last year.

1,600 more plays is what they were pitching last year whenever they made this, but that was when it was a 35-yard touchback.

Whenever they softened it and moved it to 30, I thought that was a bad idea.

I was literally loud, and you talk about that five yards being a vast difference.

If you look at the percentages of scoring when you're at the 35 versus when you're at the 30 versus when you're at the 25, vast difference.

That's why I think the 35 was the right play all along.

Happy they're there.

That does look explosive.

How about the Hawkeye technology?

It's breaking my heart a little bit.

Okay.

I can't pull the penalty card out now.

No.

I did want a pitch that could we just get an animated, you know,

come out maybe on a close one, right?

And then put it down.

But listen, it's going to make the game more efficient.

Measurements take almost two minutes of downtime, so we want to move through that rather quick, get back to the snaps.

So I'm digging it.

It's, you know, we're embracing technology.

Let's get this done.

I do like the chain crew, though, man.

It was a special bond that we had as reps with that crew.

We're getting kicked out last year.

We got to keep them there.

You never know when technology doesn't work.

So we want to keep the chain crew there in the event that we have a breakdown.

And Western Pennsylvania here.

We don't want to be taking jobs from anybody.

We don't need to be taking any chain crew out here.

Especially AI.

Yeah,

we don't need these robots taking any jobs out here in Western Pennsylvania.

Here is obviously the index card moment.

What a moment in the history of this sport.

I guess you could say this will never happen again.

Just like

I did a couple of surprise on-site kicks, it doesn't ever happen again either.

So we'll just go down as the greatest of all time.

Now, on that note, AJ has a question for you.

So, as the white hat, when you have the mic and you're announcing to the world in the stadium and all the millions watching on TV, you're probably the best to ever do it.

Was that something you actually had to work on and practice?

Do they teach you when you're coming up, when you're training, do they teach you, hey, if you're the guy,

you need to enunciate, you need to put on a good message and be crisp and clear in what we're doing.

Is that part of referee school or whatever they do?

Yeah, I mean, it really is.

And I leaned on the legends that were before me, AJ.

I was very fortunate that Jerry Markbright, who was really like the first true, I think Tunney, Mark Bright, Cassin, they were the first referees that had to speak on the mic, right?

So that really...

It's a daunting task for some people to think of.

Like, hey, here we go, one shot on me.

I got to explain this, right?

And let's face it, man, that's live television that's right on your waist.

You get one take.

Oh, yeah.

So there's a lot of little news.

Only 50 million people watching you deliver a monologue.

That's bigger than any late night show host.

That's bigger than anybody else that has a one-shot on national television, and you're speaking for the game.

Like you are representing the game.

You stutter, whole league looks like an asshole.

You get it wrong, the game looks broken.

Like for new fans, like that's a lot of pressure.

And some of them do melt in the moment, it feels like.

I feel like that should be something that is taken into.

We need a little moxie from the one.

I think the other thing, too, quite honestly, and we all talk, right?

I mean, officials all talk when we retire.

We want to give back.

We want to continue to pass the message.

There's a bridging in the NFL that's different with other sports with the referee announcement.

You are that bridge a little bit between the production of the game, the talent.

So there's enough information.

And quite frankly, I talk a little bit too much everyone.

No, no, no.

I think it's quite funny.

Maybe it was a little too much more.

So I think there was that good balance where officials do become part of the production of that show for that moment, right?

So own that space, control it, but try to keep your individual personality involved as well.

And it's not an easy subset.

You guys know what it's like, right?

But what you do is not easy, as you're

right there.

And we know, we've seen other people try and not do that.

What's kind of hard is after you kind of missed a 50-50 play and you guys were a lot closer than you feel like you are now to me, and then you had to kind of click and become one with the living room.

You know, that wasn't always easy to do right in that space.

Yeah, the interactions between players who are pissed at you, and then excuse me, I gotta talk to 50 million people actually.

This guy right here.

I mean, it's a moment you need to have confidence.

And if you don't have confidence, I think the game isn't taken as serious.

Like, I legitimately think that white cap speaking to the audience is one of the most important parts of the game.

It can ruin the entire league.

How do you feel about now?

Connor has a question.

Yeah, Madonna, it feels like right now the refs, there's a new ref accountability accountability initiative.

And I think it was last year, maybe there were two refs let go.

I think Roger Goodell kind of talked about it a little bit at the NFL draft when he came on, the Grum.

But how do you feel about it when it comes to people wanting referees to do a press conference or do something?

I know they released a sheet of paper and explaining stuff, but sometimes that kind of gets missed.

What do you think about kind of that future?

You know, I mean, the first point of it, I would tell you from

the accountability portion of it, it may not be like public consumption, that type of knowledge.

The accountability level to the officials in the NFL is of such a high level and the scrutiny is so detailed for the right reasons that they're held accountable to a place that you really could not imagine unless you lived a week of an NFL ref and watched how that process took place.

So it's really there.

And like most things refs do, it's not for public consumption.

I know the world wants to see officials stand up and take questions from a podium and

get through that place.

To me, listen, there's a window of what officials do in every sport.

That, look, if we called this game by the letter of the law, but what you said, look in the book, it says this.

It's a foul.

You could have 10 questions in the last three minutes of every game and by the book say that those are fouls, right?

I know, but the art of what we did was that 3-5% of that gray that understood the second part of it.

Yeah, he did get held a little.

They also ran the football nine yards away from him on the other side.

It just got an impact.

I would have got there.

No, you won the page.

He might have got there.

You always have to take the individual into it as well.

Milk tracking, milk tracker.

You know what I mean?

That's knowing the game, though.

That's just the way to get it.

Hey, Gene, Gene, what you're talking about is knowing the game, though.

Well, that's part of this whole process, Patty.

And really, the nice part about football, as opposed to my hoop life.

In hoops, you see a play, you just have a fraction, you're either going to blow the whistle or pass.

Football, you could digest for two seconds, right?

Like, watch the thing evolve because flags happen and plays finish.

In hoops, you blew the whistle and it was over.

You needed to like step up, right?

But

yeah, I think it is part of understanding the game, and quite frankly, that's the majority of the training that's done with new officials moving to this level.

It's a little different.

Don't we just need a pipeline of ex-players just to do full-time, go to a university, go to an academy, work around the college, get a pool, make them full-time?

Not saying we need to eliminate all full-time refs, but don't we think ex-players would be great refs?

I've always thought that.

I think they would understand the game.

I mean, yes, so

there's that portion of that.

And I think most people that are into officiating in some capacity were part of organized sports to some level.

But then there's this whole other piece, Pat, and that's managing these individuals in this environment,

understanding when that game needs to kind of pick up a little bit, right?

Like, let's keep the, look, you'll go to training camp, you'll be here today, that horn goes off, and we're playing things within seconds all day.

You guys are programmed that way when you were practicing.

Officials, a big part of what they do is when that play ends, get that football back in there, get it down, and get out of the way, and let them get into that rhythm of efficiency.

That's how they've been programmed.

If we are lax as an officiating group and being not efficient there, things get choppy, right?

And other calls choppy.

You know what I mean?

We get down on ourselves.

And also, if there's a flag a holding, we don't need four straight penalties.

Unless it's a full giveaway.

The feel that you're talking about, it seems

feels like the officiating need feel.

I think the only way you get that is from reps, which I think a couple years ago, a lot of those young reps were ass.

Last year, it wasn't a lot of, hey, these reps sucked conversations by us on Monday.

I think that's good, right?

Don't you think?

Patience, patience, patience.

I don't got it.

I lost the bat because you guys can't call a goddamn game.

I remember two of them in Brad time.

I remember

game winner.

Change my homes.

DeMurdoch.

He got his face ripped off.

Yeah, you guys can't make a call.

I lose a bet.

I hate the refs, but there's about 100 different moments where the refs make the right call and we don't give them any credit.

So I think last year was a good officiating year.

Yes, I agree.

Knock up more.

Debt has a question for me.

I never want to be the conversation.

But talking about understanding the game, I know as players and even playing for Belichick, we would kind of go over the referees and what calls they call, what do they stay away from.

And he would always say, do business as business is being done.

Coming into the game when it's certain, maybe like a Raven Stillers game, do you come in and say, hey, we're going to kind of let the players kind of dictate the outcome of this game and kind of stay out of it?

Fourth quarter, overtimes, fourth downs.

Is that a conversation with Russ before games, before quarters?

I got to be honest, but I know how you guys scouted us.

I did.

And it was right for that.

You knew who was coming in.

You knew what percentage of holds we called.

You knew where we were because that's who you are.

That's why you lived in that space.

We did the same thing.

Did it every game.

First it was a team-team matchup.

Then it was individual matchups.

And then it was talking to each official or creating a playlist from previous games to show what this matchup's going to bring to you as an official that's on a line of scrimmage, who has a number two receiver in the slot plus a left tackle today.

Like, this is how your matchup is.

It's this rookie left tackle, and it's TJ Watt on the edge, right?

So make sure that rookie left tackle is up on a line of scrimmage.

Don't let him creep off.

But make make sure TJ doesn't have his hands creeping in the neutral zone either.

I'm going to keep it cleaner.

That was my matchup.

So yes, you constantly are building matchups that way in preparation for what's going to happen the next day.

Because just like you guys, when you focused and practiced and you went to those 10 bullet points that we got to do to win, when they started happening on Sunday, the level of calmness and confidence that we prepared properly for this game, That was taking place in real time and we were telling each other that on the sideline.

The same thing was happening with me and my crew, right?

We'd go over that two or three plays, and now that play happened on Sunday at 2.15, first thing I was doing was pressing my button, letting that crew know.

We just talked about that at 3 o'clock yesterday in a pregame, remember?

Elevation of that.

And then I think I always went to the alpha, what I felt was the alpha on each side of the ball.

Many times it was the quarterback because he dictated the tempo for me as a referee.

But I wanted to find the alpha on the defensive side to let him know, play on the edge.

That's what made you great.

But trust me, that if I think you've gone over that edge and it's not good for the game, that if I just can check you back down one click to get back on the edge, then we all live in that space.

When that trust occurred between player and referee, then manage the game and let the players do what they do.

It's why they played it.

And still the Ravens, not because I'm from here.

Toughest regular season matchup is kind of for me.

And again, not because I'm here.

But I was part of that Monday night game with Hans and

Ed Reed.

And Richard Mendenhall fractured his shoulder on the second play.

And we went into overtime, and I flipped a coin, and it didn't flip over, and it hit the ground.

Oh, no.

And I left my ref hat on the bed the day before at my home.

And Coach Tomlin actually knew I left my ref hat on the bed.

And he wanted to let me know that as we went into overtime.

Like, I might not have been always there.

So, yeah, there was just in that space and living in that environment is

quite frankly what we all love.

It's why you still talk about this the way we do in the passion

because that's kind of what we were all addicted to, right?

Living in that high altitude of space and being so aware of everything around you that only that space maybe can put you in is kind of what I know that that's why I did what I did.

All right, Gino, last question here from fellow Paison AP Tone.

Yeah, Gene Rowe.

He saved the best for last, big, big Z.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Come on, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, come on, I gotta go there!

Hey!

I've been a pinky ring for a while.

Listen, the sauce is thicker than the blood.

Today, I know Coach Tommy is bringing.

I know Tommy is bringing rest out here today.

What position group, when you're out here in training camp, talks to you guys the most?

Connor?

You mean like out on the field, what position you're talking about?

Not during your game.

No, no, no.

Like the position, like a player position today like is it the DBs who's at the lot most

the DBs start talking before it even starts right they're talking while they're stretching so yeah the DBs coach here stay away from Danny Smith he's my main man I called a penalty my rookie year real quick in Washington when they were called a different name I announced on a punt that the hold is on 44 against Washington right I was a rookie referee second game

Danny Smith starts running down the sideline screaming who's the foul-on rookie because they know I said I told you it's 44.

He goes, Really?

I said, Yeah.

He goes, You know who 44 is here?

I'm like, Who held?

He said, No, look at the ring of honor.

It's John Riggins.

You just called a penalty on John Riggins.

Because I had the number wrong, you know.

But, Danny, one of the best.

Those interactions are what you miss.

Yeah, well, we all miss you on the field.

We're thankful you're on TV for yet another year.

Thank you for the gift from the DPA.

The DP, the DPA.

Thank you for always being so kind to us.

You're the man, you're a legend, you're an actual goat.

Ladies and gentlemen,

thank you, thank you, Gino.

All right, appreciate it.

Good luck to you, Gino.

Bye, Zoe.

Great to see you.

All right, Madon.

I got you.

Good-looking hats.

You guys playing bocce?

It's good-looking hats.

A lot of love you gene texts coming from people around Pittsburgh.

Gino's living legend.

Now, speaking of living legend, there's a man who is creating his own path for an organization that is riddled with tradition and history.

Ladies and gentlemen, the man who is simply known as the con artist, the general manager for the Brittsburg Stales,

Omar Khan.

What's up, man?

What's up?

How you doing, Omar?

How you doing?

How you doing?

Good to see you.

Appreciate you, man.

You got that handheld right next to you there.

Mr.

Khan.

Great.

Congrats on a hell of an off-season in training camp, sir.

Appreciate it.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Okay, so.

Thank you for having me on.

No, thank you for joining us.

Thank you for the hospitality.

Thank you for everything.

Talk about these fans, man.

They're investigating.

Oh, yeah.

Everywhere.

Investor is.

It's been amazing.

I was here as a child.

I think Tone was here as a kid and as a high schooler.

It's basically the pilgrimage that every Yenser feels like they have to make since 1966.

The place has been here.

Since the beginning of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Steelers have operated in one particular way.

And I know you've heard a lot of this, I assume, because we've chatted about it a lot.

A lot of Steelers fans have.

Completely different offseason for the Pittsburgh Steelers this year.

Was that the mindset going into the offseason?

Was it like, hey, we're going to bring in a top tier free agent in DK Metcalf and pay him $30 million?

We're going to make a trade for Jalen Ramsey and John U.

Smith.

We're going to bring in four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers.

Darius Sledty is going to come in.

You're hunting stars in paying, guys.

Very abnormal for you.

Mindset going into the offseason, or how did we kind of get here, you think?

Yeah, I think

going into the offseason, you know, we reflected on how things ended last year, and that wasn't good enough,

and some things had to be different.

And, you know, every one of those things was a case-by-case

situation.

They love you, buddy.

They love you.

They absolutely love you.

They were all case-by-case.

We just got to be better, you know, and I don't necessarily want to say we tried something new, but because every one of those situations was

unique, but we just got to be better.

You know, the way last year ended up left a bad taste in our mouth, and that's unacceptable.

And the Yensers fans are all behind you.

These moves that you've made, I haven't even heard any old, miserable Yinsers say that they hate that you're spending money in the way that you're spending and everything like that.

Get the TJ Watt deal done as well.

I mean, love TJ, man.

So much stuff.

Was that always going to happen?

Because the way the insiders insiders talked about it, whenever they would come on our show, they're like, TJ and the Steelers are going to get a deal done.

We all know that.

And then he holds out of the mandatory minicamp.

In your eyes, always going to get done.

It was just a matter of when.

We felt confident.

It was always a goal of ours.

You know, TJ's one of those guys.

I mean, how awesome is TJ, man?

He's just awesome, man.

Awesome.

On the field, off the field.

And he's one of those guys that, you know, he's going to be a first, first,

a first ballot Hall of Famer.

And you know what the reality is?

He should be a one-helmet Hall of Famer.

And to have him to get the deal done, and you know, hopefully, that's not the last deal we do with him.

We think he's got a lot of football left, but that was important to us.

And

I'm glad we got it done, especially before Cam.

Was there anxiety, though?

Had to be.

You know, these things always take a little longer than you hope.

I was always confident we'd get it done.

It's just a process, but

we got it done.

That's all that matters.

You know, he's a stealer.

He was happy, too.

We saw him earlier.

And myself, Cam, D-Butt, and AJ, and the boys all talked about how much money he has now.

So just know that we let him know that he got a great deal, but he's earned it, obviously, through it all.

Well deserved.

Last question for me before the boys have some.

So the rumors now out on the internet are that you guys are maybe one of the favorites for Terry McLaurin.

Not going to ask you about that because that would be a stupid thing for you to answer on our show.

But the fact that your team is being mentioned to be a part of the teams that could get him means that people have looked at your salary cap and think that you could get Terry McLaurin to become a Pittsburgh Steeler.

Now, whether or not he is going to be a Pittsburgh Steeler or any other team, how have you been able to navigate the salary cap gymnastics to pay everybody and still have room if you were to sign another big-time player?

And you have 12 picks in next year's draft that is being held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

They call you the con artist, and

the business that you've been able to do here is absolutely Jesus.

Pinecone.

Thank you for the pine cone.

We'll smoke this later.

The entire thought of how have you been able to navigate it?

And what are you focusing on when you're getting these deals done?

$30 million to DK, $41 million to TJ.

Jalen Ramsey's here on Market.

Patrick Queen just got paid, let alone Cam and everybody else that you have that's worth money.

What are you focusing on while you're doing this?

And do you think you're not getting enough credit for the salary cap gymnastics that you're doing that others have done in the past?

Well, with respect to the credit, you know, until we win a Super Bowl, I don't really deserve any credit.

But the reality is,

you know, our goal is to win a Super Bowl this year, and every move we make is reflective of that.

And, you know, we understand we can't sacrifice the future.

But, you know we won a super bowl this year and the moves that we've made and how we've structured these contracts it's it's with uh with that goal in mind are you done i mean you never say you're done but you know i really like the group that we have here and you know we've we've done a lot this offseason and um um you know we'll we'll see if there's ever an opportunity to improve the team you know we'll we'll think about it and talk about it but you know we feel good about the team pat yeah but your phone works here you're saying phone does work here though always it works at la trove

aj has a question for you what's it like when you first introduce the idea of say like all that you go, you go out and you sign these big-time players, say DK Metcalf, when you first float that idea to Coach Tomwin?

How does that initially

come about and then the process of that?

I would imagine he's a pretty fun guy to go through a process like that, trying to go after these big-time stokes.

Coach T and Trump.

He's awesome.

Him and I work great together.

And

the,

I don't remember if we heard about it or we inquired how exactly it came about, but we,

you know, like every big decision, you know, Coach and I will get together with our owner, Art Rooney, and we'll talk about it, see if it makes sense.

And that was one of those where, you know, it worked out.

And, you know, we watched DK in action.

And,

you know, to have the opportunity to have an impact player like that, it just made perfect sense for us.

Whenever Mike Tomlin is recruiting Aaron Rodgers via text, are you telling him, hey, let's slip in there, like, hey, we want to build a team, too, with the deals?

Or was money something that was kind of figured out early in the entire process of potentially getting Aaron Rodgers?

You know, with respect to it, I don't really want to get into the contract too much, Pat, but one thing I will say with Aaron is we had great communication.

Contrary to what reported out there, you know, and

I don't know everything, but him, he communicated great with us, and we communicated great with him, and we were very upfront as to what our goals were.

And, you know, he was upfront about his, and, you know, it just worked out.

I'm glad he did.

He's been awesome.

Just getting to know him has been great.

$11 million in starting quarterback contracts the last two years.

No big deal.

That's Con Artis football, football, baby.

Ton Diggs has a question for you.

Can you kind of walk us through the Jalen

and then the John who and then Minka going to Miami?

Because

that came out, kind of came out of nowhere.

There was John U rumors a couple weeks, months before that, and

people just kind of, and then they went away.

And then out of nowhere, it was, hey, Jalen.

And then, oh, Minka's going there too.

And John who's coming.

Like, it was weird how it all came out.

How did that all come together?

Sure.

You know,

there was word out there about John Johnny being available.

This is before the draft, and we inquired about it.

And, you know, the conversation just sort of continued, and it was a few weeks' process, and a couple months, I guess, and it just kind of came together, and we just felt it made sense for us.

You have the opportunity to get two Pro Bowl players, two impact, one on offense, one on defense, and it just made sense for us.

So much money spent this offseason, a lot more than you probably could have predicted in one particular position.

Go ahead, Con Man.

Yeah, Con Artist, you kind of got to the key early with the DK Metcalf deal.

It seemed after that, some of those other wide receiver deals exploded with the TJ Watt one.

It was kind of the opposite.

You know, Miles, Max.

I think there was a couple other passes.

Yeah, there you go, Daniil.

And now, of course, coming on the other end here is Micah.

Probably not Trey Hendrickson.

What did you think when you see those numbers, when you see those massive deals?

$40 million.

How much does that change everything for you?

Was there any point where you're close to getting a deal done with TJ and then boom, you know, Miles or Max Crosby signs for 100 million guaranteed and then your deal changes?

Like, was that going on when all those other contracts were happening?

You know, without going at specifics of the negotiation,

I'll just say it's, you know, it's obviously part of it because the players, you know, it's important to the players, but we also have to be

careful and understand the structure of our roster and the contracts and what's coming forward and all that.

So you take all that into account.

But, you know, with TJ, I'm just so glad we got it done.

Like, it meant a lot to him.

It meant a lot to us.

And, like I said, he deserves to be a one-helmet Hall of Famer, and he represents us so well.

And do you guys have him on?

Oh, yeah.

He's awesome.

He's about as good as they get.

Is he not?

Like, I mean, he just.

Let's talk, though.

Yeah, let's talk about that question.

All right.

You see that Haslam has given out

another

gigantic, gigantic deal at a position that you have to work.

That certainly changes everything for you, right?

Does it not?

Whenever the market changes that big?

I mean, it went from what, 32 to 40?

To 40, yeah.

Like, there was no, usually things climbed, especially at that

position, but it goes all the way up to 40 all of a sudden.

And now you got Yinsers and Steelers fans, they all know immediately.

That's TJ.

Okay, TJ now,

how is this going to work?

You get a deal done, but that does change it, right?

Whenever the market changes?

I mean, I'd be lying if I told you and didn't come into account as part of the conversation.

I mean, it's natural, but you know, that's how this goes.

And like I said, at the end of the day, the goal was to get TJ done, and we got him.

You're getting a text from somebody.

Go ahead and check it.

Go ahead and look.

What happened?

Hasle.

What position?

DN.

The one.

How big?

Biggest of all tiny.

All tiny position.

Anyway, you need to do it.

So it's a beautiful thing.

D-Bud has the last question for you.

I know why every GM is kind of different in their principles.

Some people are just numbers guys, but how much do you think about when you sign a free agent or when you trade for somebody, how they're going to impact the guys already in that meeting room?

Like signing to Jalen Ramsey and bringing out Darius Layover with JPJ and their development.

Mooth, you're bringing in John U.

Smith.

How much do you think about factoring that in?

It's a big part of it.

You know, we don't just

throw a dart and hope to sign a guy.

Like it's all a props to make sure they fit in.

They're Steelers, right?

You grew up here, Toe, and you know what it's like to be a Steeler.

Like it would take us two days to go over all the characteristics and how special and unique that is.

But every one of those is a case-by-case, and you know, we evaluate to make sure they're not gonna, that it makes sense for us.

And those guys all have, you know, we're excited to have.

I don't know if you guys had got to know a lot of those guys or had them on.

So I don't know who you guys had on, but we had a great, great lock room of guys right now.

And I'm excited.

Like this, I'm excited about this season.

And, you know, Reddick excited for the first padded practice today.

You remember those days, right?

How awesome is that first day of padded practice, right?

Conditions are so different.

It's as exciting for all of us as it is for them.

Everyone wants to see people getting knocked out, Cole.

But you guys want to see who you're drafted, see if they're the real deal.

And we've obviously seen it in shorts.

It's a big day.

Is it your birthday?

No, no, no, no.

I don't know where that, but I'm happy to take the happy birthday message into Samarine, folks.

I was about to have everybody sing you.

I'm happy that you're going to be a little bit more,

not me.

Happy birthday, Omar.

We missed a few.

You know, we missed a few.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Thank you guys.

Thank you, Busy.

You're the man.

Thank you for the hospital.

Come back and visit next year, for sure.

Okay.

Hey, I have a question.

Let's hear it.

Aaron Rodgers on Tuesdays.

How do the Pittsburgh Steelers organization feel about that particular?

You know what?

We have a PR director, Bert.

I'll let you discuss those.

We got it.

Ladies and gentlemen, the general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers at Mark Hall.

Have a great day, Baron.

Thank you.

Thank you, Duke.

Thanks, guys.

Appreciate it.

Good luck, you see, Rick.

As we wrap up here on ESPN, we'll continue digitally on YouTube, ESPN Plus, Disney Plus, and TikTok Live.

What a day it's been here in Les Trobe, Pennsylvania.

Big shout out to the fans that have hung out with us here

on either side.

This side over here has been in a pretty good spot.

They got this big-ass pine tree that's got to give them some shade.

I appreciate you guys for hanging out.

He just put a

stuff.

He just put a sandwich in his paws.

There's a chance that that the Pittsburgh Steelers actually do go to the Super Bowl this year.

The AFC is absolutely stacked and loaded.

The reigning AFC champions are the Kansas City Chiefs.

Oh, yeah, don't forget Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills.

Oh, yeah, don't forget Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore

Ravens, Joey Burrow, Trey Hendrickson, and the Cincinnati Bengals.

Anthony Richardson and the Indianapolis Colts.

It is a murderer's row in the AFC.

And the Pittsburgh Steelers and their fans do not give a damn about any of them.

All they want to see is seven come back to this city.

The seventh title coming to the Pittsburgh Steelers is what's on everybody's mind here, and it's been an honor to experience it.

From all of us here in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to you watching wherever the hell you may be.

We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living.

You're the greatest people on earth.

Here we go.

Steelers.

Here we go.

Picks for the steel world.

Nailed it.

I am off.

All right, sweet.

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Terms apply.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are now digital, and I've never

thought that I'd get an opportunity to do this, but

our dad is here.

Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for Pittsburgh Dad, boys.

Welcome to the extrogants, guys.

Yay, so is it latrobe or latrobe, dad?

You know what, that's a judgment call on your part.

What did Mr.

Rogers say?

I don't remember.

I was trying to think about it, honestly, because my dad says La Trobe.

Diggs' dad says Latrobe.

Bonnie Palmer says La Trobe.

Yeah, so what do you think?

What are you kind of the...

I would say Latrobe.

It sounds more like Yenserific that way.

Hello, Latrobe.

Speaking of Yenserific, how often do you come up to training camp?

Is it every day, every season?

Every single day I quit my job in the summer.

I come come up here and I sit with Steeler Nation getting the team ready to get number seven.

How do you feel about this year's team, Dad?

You know, I'm going to go out on a limb here, Pat.

I don't want to get too overreactive, but I'm going to go ahead and say

17 and 0.

Oh, no.

We got Aaron Rodgers now, A.J.

Hawk.

We got Aaron Rodgers.

Okay, so expectations very high for Pittsburgh, Dad.

Is that normal for you or no?

No, you know, sometimes

it's normal, absolutely normal.

Yeah, and we're going to win all the time?

All the time, every time.

But what if there's a little hint of negativity that happens?

What happens then?

Well, I'm just saying.

I don't think there's any Bronze fans out here, Dad.

There's a bagels fan.

Oh, get them the hell out of here.

I don't need that negativity up here.

We have to start the whole camp over.

Nope.

Actually, not a bad idea.

Pittsburgh Dad, I think that'd be fun.

I have a Pittsburgh Dad.

Everybody has a Pittsburgh Dad.

You are very similar to them.

And we know that if Aaron Rodgers throws a pick to Patrick Queen on one of the first days of practice there might be a little bit of up

just like we said this guy's old and out of touch is that how you heard that I heard that he threw interception on the first play I was the first to go and if you email an Omar Collin and tell him to get him out of here but then I calmed down and I think he's still going to do a good job okay okay

forgot about Super Bowl 45 I ain't forgot about how the Packers greased up the ball with Wisconsin Shedder.

So Mendon Hall fumbled it.

I ain't forgot about that.

I forgot about that, Dad.

I didn't know that happened.

Tone has a question for you, Dad, Tone.

Yeah, Dad, obviously, there's been some favorites over the years.

Chris Fumatomal Followed.

That's not his name.

Chris Fuamatuma Follow.

Exactly.

Pop?

Yes.

Fuamatuma.

Fuento mid syllables in that.

Kimo von Ohlhoffen.

There's been others.

Dan Crider.

Dan Banger.

Dan Kreider,

is there a Pittsburgh favorite on his roster yet that you've discovered as like in that ilk of those type of guys?

You know who I really really like to watch and he get he's getting his chances every year in and year out here the last couple years I like Nick Herbig yeah every time that guy every time he gets his chance he makes us watch that's good to be right now he's gonna get more and more chances and he's gonna make his year this year I love him I saw him at the jelly roll concert he's electric he's an electrifying human being and great actor scheduled release remember he was a part of that video that's right aj hawk has no idea what's going on here I don't think no I do Aaron's been a big fan of yours for years Aaron loves you Pittsburgh

me for a long time.

But he did tell me you obviously played ball in high school, most likely college.

Did you get a scholarship?

Were you a quarterback?

You have the physical build of a guy that played in the

middle.

That's under wraps, all that kind of stuff.

I don't like to discuss the old days because, you know, you still need to start putting your name out there.

That's when someone gets on a dark web and steals all your Giant Eagle fuel perks.

You gotta watch them.

You know what I'm talking about?

I got my Giant Eagle Walter right here.

That's all you need.

You don't need any of that fancy stuff.

Get the stuff of Giant Eagle.

I got my Giant Edge.

I'm on M them today.

You got your Iron City.

So the guy chunked at Iron City out here earlier.

I don't have to be.

You're allowed to have beer out there.

You keep it low.

No one can see that.

Bring back the sun.

Are you a Permanentes guy or a Rudy Subbs guy?

I'm a Permanis guy all the way.

Put the fries and slaw on everything.

I put the fries and slaw on my baby when he was baptized.

D-Bun has a question for you.

I love Rudy Subbs guy.

But we got this phenomenal gift from me and Joe Green.

What's your first memory of coming to the Pittsburgh Steelers Training Camp?

First memory coming to Pittsburgh Steelers Training Camp that CC.

That's the year 1994.

That's whenever they, whenever Neil O'Donnell was at the hell.

That piece of shit.

We had a lot of hope for that guy.

We had a lot of hope for that.

Neil O'Donnell.

He threw the Super Bowl.

He went through a Super Bowl.

Right to Larry Brown.

He went right to Larry Brown and it passes.

Two easy interceptions.

And that's the first guy I see when I come up here.

Didn't sign my football card.

You know who did?

Cordell Stewart.

Bingo.

Slash.

Slide slash?

Ahead of his time.

Slash way ahead of his time.

He's the Lamar Jackson.

And if there's a Fountain of youth, that's the first person I'm giving it to.

I think there is.

Actually, science has found it.

AJ's been on it throughout his entirety, which is why they might have won the Super Bowl.

Ty has a question for you, Dad.

Yeah, Dad, I've seen a lot of rumors out there.

I don't know if this is true, but when all that stuff was going on with TJ and he wasn't here and he hadn't signed yet, didn't you publicly say, hey, TJ, it's time for you to pack your shit up and get on the town?

I think you're looking at the wrong account.

You're looking at some Bengals guy account for Trey Hendrickson.

That's not how we do it in Pittsburgh.

And if that is how we do it, that was done in private down in my cellar over a couple irons.

That was never put out there on the internet for anybody to see.

Why are you making a blog?

I saw it.

Why do you watch too much of stuff?

Listen, AI these days.

AI these days, you can never trust anybody.

Oh, yeah, watch that AI.

I'll tell you what.

We eat too much New York.

We're out of the darkness retreat.

We're in the light of Pittsburgh now.

Bingo.

You an ayahuasca guy, Dad?

I don't know if Pittsburgh dad's big ayahuasca guys.

I heard about that.

It says some kind of tea.

Yeah.

That's a stronger tea?

Yeah, yeah, it's like a Turner's tea, but also like putting

new flavor a Turner's tea.

I think they do have the Turner's tea.

I'll try one of those and watch a game, see how that goes.

Lemon-flavored ayahuasca, I think.

You think I'll get mad watching a game on that?

No, I don't think you'll know much.

Yeah, I don't think you're watching any games.

I'll try one.

I'm always down for a new tea or something.

You're going to Kennywood after this?

I already done the Kennywood trip.

I'll tell you what, we went down there, we rode the Steel Curtain.

We sat down and prayed at Steel Curtain because that's where the log jammer used to be.

And now it's not there.

Rest in peace.

We all missed the log jammer, but we made ready for a Steelers ride.

We still haven't gotten a playoff win since that ride's been there, so I don't know if we're going to have to have a petition to get that ride removed.

Let's start to think about it.

We'll see.

Did you see Cedar Point?

Had that one get stuck up there?

I don't see nothing about Cedar Point because that's over in Ohio.

And that whole state needs to be abolished.

I want to do whatever.

Whoa.

I need to get away from me.

It's too close.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

That line of demarcation is too close to Pittsburgh.

Well, actually, wheeling, I think, kind of splits it.

West Virginia like it.

I'll let West Virginia slide.

That's okay down there.

Oh, yeah, you like West Virginia.

You like West Virginia.

Yeah, you don't mind West Virginia.

You like it down there.

How about the Mountaineers?

Maybe back.

I don't mind a Mountaineers eater because I think there's a good portion of the Pitt fans, a Mountaineers fan, who really love Steeler Nation.

All of them, yeah.

West Virginia, I think, is a lot of Mountaineers.

I love it.

Last question here from Boston Conner, Dad.

Yeah, Dad, of course, it's football season.

We're all football, but 20 years today, the Pittsburgh Penguins drafted Sidney Crosby.

Yes.

And

it kind of seems as though that the Penguins might never win again.

Do you think they should trade Sidney Crosby?

Because

you're from Boston.

This is a Boston talk everybody.

Get the hell out of here.

Trade Sidney Crosby and that.

I said, you know what?

Just because she's lost Tom Brady, he couldn't wait to get the hell out of there.

No, we got our stars already leave.

They want to stay here.

They want to be buried here.

They want to enjoy it here.

Yeah, buried at 9 and 8 graves.

Hello.

Hockey's 82 games.

Did I see Gene Starator come up and die here?

Yeah, the ref was here.

Oh, my gosh.

And I saw him handing out gifts.

He was giving you a gift.

Mean Joe Green.

Oh, that's amazing.

And since he's handing out gifts, let's get him back up here as an official of the NFL to decree now that Jesse James caught that ball.

Okay.

This is another Pittsburgh Daddy.

Richard Pittsburgh.

Regular season game.

Sell it to me, Bob.

Sell it to me.

All right, Pittsburgh Dad.

Thank you, Pittsburgh Dad.

You're the man.

I want to live again.

Thank you, Dad.

Thank you, Dad.

How?

Thank you, Dad.

Look at this.

Look at this fucking guy.

We're going to be the one seed.

How's a regular season game have that much real estate for Pittsburgh?

Because they got screwed, brother.

We're going to be the one seed.

That was 17.

That was going for Super Bowl year.

One six titles.

They will never forget getting screwed by the rest.

That's Pittsburgh.

That was the killer beast.

That was the one that was like it though last year, yeah.

Pittsburgh Dad.

Okay, I think at the beginning of Pittsburgh Dad's run, everybody in Pittsburgh, myself included, wanted to hate Pittsburgh Dad.

Like, this is bullshit.

This is terrible.

Then you just keep going.

He's like, this guy actually is kind of like my dad.

And then everybody in Pittsburgh's like, hey, Pittsburgh dad is like all of our dads.

Close my eyes and hurt Tim.

Yeah, it's like a perfect, it's like a perfect thing.

He is, and he hasn't tried to go national.

No.

He has not like tried to become.

He is very content being a Pittsburgh guy.

I think he also has a jump.

We love Pittsburgh Dad.

Hey, Dad.

Hey, good work, Dad.

Hey, Dad, dude.

Good work, Dad.

Hey, Dad.

Congrats.

He has a cool career.

Bruce Tilly.

Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is actually D-Bone's dad.

The guy who is the Pittsburgh Steelers correspondent for the Pat McApee show

ladies and gentlemen living legend Mark Caboli

watch outstairs hey we're seeing

one DJ

drop this glass drop his glasses tie up

present oh yeah

that's a Rudy suck put in my pocket chain

thank you

thank you cabols

Oh, thank you very much.

Fucking ballot!

Yeah, yeah, baloli!

To the people!

Who needs something to the people for Caboli?

Hoody Sucks!

Santa Claus Caboli!

Santa Bush is Jackie!

Booty, somebody got in there!

You need one, you need one, you need one.

You get a job!

You get a job!

He's got there.

And obviously, Caboli's got his pocket sub.

Yes!

He wants to go!

Leco!

That was!

Yeah, make sure you eat that one.

That was nature's microphone.

Oh, we have another one!

He was strapped.

Shout out to CFO Phil.

Shout out to CFO Phil grabbing those.

Shout out to Rudy Subs.

Appreciate you guys.

Hey, Rudy Subs and Pizza 286.

How can I help you?

I'd like a whole Italian hot lettuce lettuce onion mayo.

Sorry, we're out.

You're gonna have to go down the street.

That's what got me fired from Rudy Subs.

But I still eat there.

There is a microphone next to you.

I don't know what you're planning on doing sitting there without one.

The Caboli.

What's up?

Your microphone's off.

Caboli.

Boom.

That's right.

What's up?

Yeah, that's it.

You come bearing sandwiches and obviously great vibes.

You look good.

I see the haircut.

You look like you're fighting shape here.

How has training camp been thus far?

I saw your tweet about this being the hottest by far.

As you can tell, it's kind of warm out there.

If you guys get to go down there later, you will find out.

We are.

We're done in John.

Let me tell you something.

All the water just lays there from the rain the past couple of days, and you can see the heat just coming up on your legs.

Oh, yeah.

And I did the old man thing the other day.

I went to the tent in front of the fan.

Really?

Let's take it anymore.

You just

started eating the fan.

Did you have the mister behind the fan?

No, I don't even think I was permitted in there, but I just snuck in.

Had to do it.

Cabolo, you own the place.

You do what you got to do.

Both Achilles are intact this year, which is incredible.

Yeah,

let's talk about the team.

Seemingly, everybody healthy, knock on wood, training camp football happens.

What have you seen from this team?

Is it going to live up to the hype from what you've seen thus far?

Yeah, I mean, everything seems to be going as planned right now.

I mean, Aaron Rodgers has made, I think, a huge difference already, just the overall morale of the team.

Confidence level, you mean?

Oh, it's unbelievable.

Just his smooth attitude and his not getting excited over, you know, silly stuff.

I think he brings the calm to the entire offense and the defense.

There's not one person

I've heard say something negative about the guy.

Oh, you have all here.

All in the media.

Where he been?

Caboli?

Well, within the organization and the fans.

Sure.

Well, I don't think you've heard that in a lot of places about him, legitimately, because how he shows up.

He's definitely different.

You know what's not different?

This Rudy Subs hits like a bunch of

talented pots.

Nice.

There isn't lettuce onion mayo on it because I think the travel

you don't want the lettuce to get kind of chopped up.

If you come to the Pittsburgh area,

obviously grab some Permanis.

Okay, you got to do Permanis.

Do the Permanis.

It is our thing.

Obviously, putting the fries and slaw on the sandwich.

The steel workers didn't have a lot of time to eat their lunch, so I put their shit into one sandwich,

and then we keep it moving.

Then you go to Rudy's Subs and you get yourself an Italian.

Best sandwich in the world.

Best sub in the world.

And thank you for bringing it.

Well, you got the pocket version, so you're special.

No, mine was in a bag.

Oh my god.

Yeah, somebody out there got the pocket version.

AJ has a question for you.

Boy, I love reading everything that you write, and I think of you sometimes.

Like, you put these tweets out that look like they're, you know, 16 pages long.

And or these stories that you write, and I think of you as a writer, like, what's your process like, is when you're speaking, like, your words per minute isn't off the charts speaking super fast.

So when you're talking about it.

He's saying I can't talk or not.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

What's me?

Like, I'm a monotone, slow.

Like, so when you're typing, though, how long does it take for, say, one of your tweets?

It feels like it could take a couple couple minutes.

You're doing a great job.

It all depends.

I'm killing it.

If you have a good idea.

But are you a home row guy?

Are you picking and pecking through

your keyboard?

I struggle with the tweet on the phones because the fat finger small skis type of thing.

Yeah, I'm with that.

I'm with that.

And if you try to voice tweet it, it comes out.

Who knows what it comes out?

Especially with the fleet.

But actually writing, I mean, I've been doing this for 23, 24 years now.

You pretty much know what you want to write as you go into it and you get things.

Like today I was talking to the wide receiver coach Zach Azzani.

You pick up different things.

You see what's important.

A lot of people were interested in wide receiver two.

So you talked to Roman Wilson, but it doesn't.

What are you looking for today when you watch practice?

Oh, it's absolutely paddling.

I mean

everybody reacts.

They're going straight from individuals to seven shots to

backs on backers.

Back on backers to probably team run.

Boom, boom, boom.

Back on backers.

I suggest AJ,

if you ever get it.

AJ's never done it before, actually.

Debut has a question for you.

Just talked about wide receiver two.

Are there any other position battles you're looking at closely during this camp?

Ooh.

Punter, punter, there's a battle.

No.

Just so a massive battle.

And Danny Smith says himself.

Danny Smith is actually,

I mean, nothing against Presley Harvin.

He had a great season last year.

That's not what it is.

There's a message.

That's Charles Whiteman.

What did I say?

Presley Harvard.

You know what?

He tweeted something of mine the other day.

That's why I messed that up.

See?

Those are both black punters, too.

I can see how you can.

Yeah, yeah.

Cam Johnson is a difference maker.

Cam Johnson can punt the living crap out of the ball.

I think he's a difference maker.

I think Danny just wants to create competition right here with Coreless.

Any other positions?

You're looking at a lot of backups.

You're looking who are they going to go running back, right?

Is it going to be Jalen Warren?

Is there Caleb Johnson?

He's going to be a mix of the two.

Not quite sure yet of that.

But they're pretty much set, Pat.

I mean, you look at that defense, and there's not much in the way of

battles.

Maybe free safety, but I don't even know how much you're going to use free safety.

I mean, they got three shutdown corners.

Massive balls, gays.

Against Jugs, brother.

Jugs, brother.

No, Jugs, yeah, yeah, Jugs.

I was about to say, kind of hear the

day.

They're cheering.

Double end over

just massive balls.

Yeah,

they got Jugs.

I think the bunners are off today.

You talked about not a lot of battles.

It's all kind of sorted at the top.

You'll figure it out.

I know there's been a lot of battle amongst wrestling fans, you know, about something that has happened.

Connor has a question for you, Mark.

Yeah, Mark, obviously, it's still real to me, damn it.

And the WWE Unreal show on Netflix now is kind of

removing that curtain.

K-Fabe seems to be dead, so in my mind,

I'm going to have to re-evaluate myself when I think of myself as a WWE wrestling market.

I know, I'm bummed out not about it.

I will always

acknowledge.

But when it comes to Odie Odes and some of the other guys,

I mean, look, I'm not here for it.

I don't want to hear about Kevin Owens and Cody setting up this fucking match, brother.

So what the hell's going on?

How does that mean?

They're determining my business.

Did you watch it yet?

Yeah, man, I watched it.

I don't.

I think I turned it off because it fucked up.

I don't think they watched it.

Two people have sex.

Yeah, you're not supposed to do that.

So you had to cover your eyes like this.

No, no, Mr.

H, I don't want to know this.

I just don't think they revealed as much as they could have revealed.

I think it made me

wanted more?

I've only got through two episodes so far, and it seemed like me wanting to come back for more just wanting to see what's going on.

It's a great show.

I will say it is a phenomenal show.

Like, I think a lot of people that aren't wrestling fans or might just say, like, oh, that's wrestling, might learn, like, hey, there's a lot of psychology going on right now and a lot of business and a lot of big brains going on.

But I just, it is tough.

It is tough.

Like, I think about Michael Cole as the goat at it.

But I think about commentating like the day after one of those episodes is released.

And it's like, these two guys hate each other.

I know you saw them yesterday on Netflix.

I think 20 million people saw him.

It was one of the biggest shows that Netflix has ever had.

But like, I just, it's an interesting dynamic.

We're in a very new world now with the WW, with this Unreal, I think, personally.

I mean, even stuff like you saw Triple H even talking to Michael Cole during the scene of turn.

He's like, You didn't even know, did you?

You go, No, I didn't know.

And I think that's interesting.

I don't think they've pulled the curtain back as much as they could have.

No, no, they've done happy media.

I feel like there are some people, and Todd made this point the other day: like, it's a mature show, so they're saying everything, they're not bleeping everything, so those younger kids aren't going to get it.

But I don't know, just personally, this is just how I feel.

It's almost like that's it's cooler to see it in an AEW dock, or not AEW, excuse me, AE dock down the road where Stone Cold, you mentioned this, Stone Cold and The Rock, like them talking about when they're in the ring and Stone Cold and The Rock have the moment of like, I love you.

And now it does matter.

Now we all want to know.

I think K-Fabe has been dead for since the internet, right?

Oh, fuck you.

Still degree.

That's what they're talking about.

They're telling you to take it off.

No, not the hat.

Suicide dial.

You must be joking.

Everything suicide They're taking the info serious.

Cabolas.

Hang on.

I want to let you know, I think you're doing great work on X, buddy.

I appreciate it.

You keep us all very much updated.

How have you enjoyed it?

Have you enjoyed being on X?

Absolutely great.

I mean, I can

do what I need to do.

I can write what I want to write and not be constricted by the newspaper rules.

That's great.

I think you're doing a great job.

We're appreciative of everything you do.

You're a real tag team.

Yeah, you and D-Bone work great.

Oh, D-Bone's great.

He's your kid.

He's your kid.

He knows that as well.

All right, we're going to wrap up from here as practice has begun down here for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

We're going to head down there.

Remember to follow Kabul.

He deserves a follow.

Yes, he does.

He tells us too much about his personal life.

Yeah.

How's it all been?

How's it all been?

Everything been good?

Yeah, you know what?

Yeah, it's been pretty good.

Other than the fact that a wipe company reached out to me and offered me free wipes today, which is kind of interesting.

You should do that.

You want that, right?

You know, MMO.

That's kind of weird, isn't it?

No, it's good.

You want money deal?

You want to make it a money?

No, they were going to send me like a case of wipes, I guess.

That's good.

Which is fine.

Which is fine.

Not wiping your ass is weird, man.

No, but somebody reaching you out, you don't know who it is and said.

Well, what you just said there, yeah.

It was an individual or was it a company?

No, it was a company.

I don't know if I'm allowed to say it, so I'm not going to say it.

If it's Cotton L, you do it now.

No, it wasn't company.

It's not right now.

Is it dude wipes?

It was dude wipes.

Yeah, you should take the dude wipes for sure.

What?

Yeah, I just posted a picture of like the hillside, and they're like, I think you need dude wipes.

I'm like, yeah, I probably do, but.

Yeah, one per flush.

Yeah.

You know, sometimes throw it in the trash.

Yeah.

If I'm you, I'm throwing them in the trash.

Just because you're not.

I'm not talking about after you do your business.

I'm talking about to dry it up a little.

Yeah, yeah.

You dry it out, let it get all hard and crusty.

At least talking.

You'll be down there.

You'll see what the swamp ass is all about.

Come on, I already got this swamp ass, but I ain't wiping my my ass and throwing it into the trash can.

What are you talking about?

Didn't you know a guy who used to do that?

Yeah, West Virginia.

Yeah, yeah, we had a guy.

There was a guy who came from, I think he was in New York somewhere.

And he, they're talking to you, Cabo.

Did you guys flip him off?

No, no, no.

They're injured.

You should not flip him off.

These are good people.

He did that.

He wiped his ass and he threw the toilet paper into the trash because he didn't want to clog the toilet or whatever.

So the entire place smelled like shit.

I didn't have animals.

I walked in and I was like,

why does it smell so bad here?

And they're like, what are you talking about?

And I like literally sniff it out and I go into the bathroom and I'm like,

is that ass toilet paper in the trash?

Like, yeah, we don't want to crack the pipes or whatever.

I'm like, you flushed that fucking toilet paper.

I didn't know I needed to tell you the same thing.

You need to be flushing your toilet paper.

Now, if it's

one per flush, no, it does not depend where you're at.

If I'm in a public place, it's going wherever.

If I'm at home, maybe that's what I'm going to do.

You are where I am.

You're an animal.

Why don't you act like you've never done this?

No.

No.

We wipe our ass and we flush it.

That is what we do.

Not all the time.

The only time I see a cobalt.

Come on, it's going to back me up.

It's gotten raised by the country bears.

Ladies and gentlemen,

that's been the show.

We're going to go watch practice.

Caboli.

That's unbelievable.

You need to know that.

That is unbelievable that you do that.

Just give a diaper.

You need to be putting your toilet paper and your dude wipes into a fucking toilet after you wipe your ass.

Thank you for that.

Keep them at the bottom of the garbage can.

They won't know.

Oh.

So I'm coming to us with all these people.

Practice about the start.

We're going to head down there.

Thank you to Burt Lawton and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Thank you to the production crew that set all this up here on the side of a hill.

We appreciate your incredible work.

We appreciate the Yensers and the people that turn

to hang out with us.

Tomorrow we'll be live from the Pro Football Hall of Fame right next to a highway, chit-chatting with the entire class of this year for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and other legends.

You all are the greatest people on earth.

Thank you for allowing us to do this for a living.

Our swamp ass

in our

toilet paper that we're flushing down the toilet.

I don't even want to look at this guy.

That should be death by fire in this car.

Yeah, this is a fireable offense.

Oh, yeah.

You can light him on fire, too, yeah.

I think we should make him go walk in the highway and get hit by a semi.

If you're actually doing that, just

don't look in that trash can right over there.

That was good.

Ladies and gentlemen,

this has been the Pat McAfee show.

From myself, Ty Schmidt, Boston Connor, one half of the hammer,

Cowboys, A.P.

Tone, nine-year NFL of vet, Darius J.

Butler, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, A.J.

Hawk, a man who needs to take his shirt off, Mark Caboli.

To everybody back in the truck, great work, boys.

Good work, boys.

They got a four-season setup in that truck.

How to feed us.

Really nice setup in that truck for the boys.

They deserve.

Yeah, we know.

We know.

And you guys do great work.

Foster, great work.

Bruce, really good job.

All right.

Be a friend.

Tell a friend something nice.

It might change your life.

We're in this thing together.

We're live from the Hall of Fame tomorrow.

Team on me.

Team on three.

One, two, three, two.

Goodbye.

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