PMS 2.0 1371 - Jalen Ramsey Traded to the Steelers, Adam Schefter, Peyton Manning, Shams Charania, Cal Raleigh, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome.

On this massive overreaction Monday, June 30th, 2025, this program begins now.

Sports are happening in a big way.

We got a lot of news, a lot of conversations.

There's been a massive trade or trades happening with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Miami Dolphins that we'll dive into here in about four minutes with Adam Schefter, who broke the news, I believe, from the Oak Bonk Country Club in Plumboro, Pennsylvania.

huge news uh early uh jalen ramsey's now a pittsburgh steeler whoa wow johnu smith also a pittsburgh steeler

make the fitzpatrick no longer a steeler he's once again a miami dolphin alongside a couple late uh round draft swaps almost between the steelers and the dolphins huge news this morning jalen ramsey being traded had been a conversation that's been taking place for like a month now had a big price tag like 24 million or something along those lines who was going pay who was gonna make the trade who was gonna have Jalen Ramsey on their team at the age of 30 still in the middle of his prime nine-year NFL vet Darius J.

Butler do we agree very much so very much in his prime just got re-upped what a couple years ago so hate to see him leaving the dolphins obviously a lot of people obviously Darius Butler massive Dolphins fan South Florida boy but he has picked up some other teams as well because the Miami Dolphins have not had much success now when they bring Jalen in, they bring Tyreek in, obviously they draft Tua.

They start spending all their resources on trying to win in a big way.

And now basically, everybody's gone.

Ramsey was supposed to go back maybe to L.A.

to be on the Rams.

Then the Steelers conversation started to kind of chime in.

Now we know Jalen is a Pittsburgh Steeler.

Minka Fitzpatrick is now a Miami Dolphin.

And John U.

Smith, who's a tight end for the Miami Dolphins, that was allegedly being shopped to the Pittsburgh Steelers over the last few weeks.

But was he just trying to get a deal done?

Was he just utilizing the media and insiders, his agent, to get a little leverage so that the Miami Dolphins feel obligated to pay John E.

Smith, all-pro, great football player for the Miami Dolphins.

Well, now we know John E.

Smith was actually being shopped, actually trying to get traded, and John E.

Smith is now a Pittsburgh Steeler.

So now the Pittsburgh Steelers had DK Metcalf at $30 million a year at wide receiver.

They had Aaron Rodgers at $10 million a year.

They just bring in Jalen Ramsey and John E.

Smith.

And oh, yeah, Darius Slay also on the Pittsburgh Steelers.

TJ Watts deal still looming, lingering out there.

40 million is what Miles Garrett got paid annually.

How are you able to pay everybody, including Jalen and now John U.

Smith?

And obviously, you had DK with the $30 million a year.

Aaron Rodgers not getting paid a lot of money.

It's quarterback position, which is good news.

But how are you able to get all this done?

Who knows?

Who cares, says the Insers.

Let's go to one half of the hammer.

Done.

Cowboys, A.P.

Tone already got a Ramsey jersey.

I already got a Ramsey jersey.

Shout out, shipping, got here just like a couple minutes ago.

Is that like a throwback Steelers?

I don't remember those colors ever representing the Pittsburgh.

I think the website that I ordered from got the colors wrong.

So I'll send it back after the show.

I don't want to say who it

starts.

It starts with an F.

Football.

Football.

But no, this is what you call going all in this offseason for the Steelers.

And you ask, you know, how are they going to afford this?

The Khan artist is going to figure that out.

He is a numbers guy, a numbers cruncher.

Omar Khan.

Yes, Omar Khan is.

Who is the general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers?

Before he became the GM, he was the cap guy, the pseudo-cap guy for years and years and years.

So he's going to get that done.

You bring in all these guys, and

they're going all in for this season.

This is not a, hey, we're going to tank for a quarterback next year type season.

This is, hey, we are looking at right now.

We are not a reload, rebuild situation.

This is, we're going to win a Super Bowl this year with these guys.

It's awesome.

Now, we did lose Minka.

I will not say anything bad about Minka Fitzpatrick ever.

For years and years and years, he was by far one of the best players on the team, was always a stalwart in the secondary.

But if you would have told me yesterday, hey, we're trading Minka for John U.

Smith and Jalen Ramsey, I would have taken it.

It'll be interesting to see what they do at the safety position, but no,

this is awesome.

This was just what we needed today.

Yeah, and this is huge news.

And this is a lot of the football rumors kind of ending.

Yeah.

You know, a lot of it coming out of the Miami Dolphins camp.

Now that is going to slow down to a sizzle.

I can't wait to hear what Miami Dolphins fan at Baba Gampino, the other half of the hammer.

Cowboys, Dolphins got players still on the roster.

Yeah, Minka, glad to have him back.

Hate that we lost Jonu, literally our best player last year.

We're going to have to hit the free agency market because we don't really have a tight end and we need some cornerbacks.

Well, that's the thing about the free agency market.

Nobody had been doing that already.

So

we're going fishing, you know?

Good luck to the Dolphins down there.

We love McDaniel.

We love Tua.

We love Miami.

We love the fact that they're, you know, they got great uniforms.

They look very similar to the one that AP Tone is wearing right now.

Tyreek's still fast.

Yes, he is.

Faster than he was last week, I believe.

I saw that he

loved Tyreek Hill and his ability to play football and get open and everything like that.

Waddle's awesome at one of the greatest celebrations

in all of Sport.

Untouched, really.

That's Talk Stable at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt.

A couple things to go back to there.

The Khan artist, which some people who might be watching don't know, that is Omar Khan.

He's the general manager of the the Pittsburgh Steelers.

That is a favorable nickname.

Yes.

That is like, hey, this guy is an artist.

His last name's Khan.

And it kind of goes together with a negative kind of terminology and calling somebody a Khan.

But in these deals, he always feels like he's getting a good deal.

He's a good deal maker.

He was a salary cap guy for a very long time.

Knows the ins and outs of it all.

I also think that Omar Khan knew.

You know, because for a long time general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers was Kevin Colbert.

Kevin Colbert.

Since like the beginning of time, he was there.

So then Omar Khan becomes general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

So how the Pittsburgh Steelers had been run, everybody assumed was just going to maintain the same way.

Hey, this is how the Steelers do it.

This is how the Steelers do it.

This is how the Steelers do it.

Now he's changing things up in a big way.

Coach Tomlin's changing things up in a big way.

And I think it's because they heard the outside noise of all the Inser saying, we're tired of being 9-8.

You have an over 500 winning record.

We are proud of you.

That is awesome.

But it leaves us in purgatory.

They're making massive moves that they don't normally do, Debuzz.

Yeah, this isn't necessarily the Steeler way as it's been over the years, but you're in a division.

What I mean, I think, two top five quarterbacks and pretty good teams around them.

Obviously, the Ravens are clearly, I think, the number one team going into this season, but you never know where Joe Burrow is going to be.

And then bringing in a guy like Jalen Ramsey.

Like, he is a guy, he's a needle mover.

He can do everything in the secondary.

Actually, it was a video from about four years ago in the Million Dollars Worth of Game podcast where he kind of talked about that.

But me personally, in my style, I like Charles because I think even though I say Deion is the best corner to play the game, game, I say Charles is the best defensive back to play the game.

Because he played multiple positions in the secondary.

He played corner.

He played safety.

He played nickel.

He did.

He did a bunch of different stuff.

You know what I mean?

And he affected the game in so many different ways.

And,

you know, me coming to L.A., like, that's kind of a role that I've started to...

be in a little bit like I'm still on the on the edges on the corner majority of the time but here and there, they're starting to, you know, let me be me a little bit more, mix it in, playing a little bit of nickel.

And then at some point in my career, if it take me there to safety, I want to do that as well.

But I want to have the mix of all.

So that, me looking at it, that's who I say.

If I had to pick one person, I'd pick Charles.

Shout out to Million Darshan for the game.

Yeah, for sure.

And that was four years ago.

So now he's going into year 10, still playing on the outside at a very high level, can play on the inside.

One of the gripes he had with Fangio when he was in Miami was he didn't let him match up, didn't let him go inside a ton.

You put him on his Stillers defense, he could be in that star position where he played at Florida State and really impact the run game in the pass game.

Phenomenal, phenomenal player.

He talked about C.

Wood.

C.

Wood won the defensive player of the year at age 33 back in 2009 with the Green Bay Packers.

So he's a player that can do this.

It's just going to make everybody around him better as well.

I love that.

Let's see if that's the plan.

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who was part of the news break this morning from, I believe, one of the hardest golf courses on earth.

Right there in the hills of Pittsburgh.

Ladies and gentlemen, senior NFL insider for ESPN Adam Schefter.

Shefty, we'll get to you golfing at Oakmont here in a bit.

And you being in Plum, our hometown, which we hope you go pay your respects to Rudy Subbs.

Get a whole Italian hot lettuce, onion, mayo, fries, cheese on a side, Turner's jug to go.

Let's talk about this deal.

We just showed that million dollars worth of game clip from 2021 and Debutch has talked about Jalen Ramsey in very high regard whenever it comes to being a D-back in the NFL with how athletic he is, how diverse he is, how everything really comes together if they let him.

Are the Steelers planning on utilizing Jalen Ramsey in any certain ways?

Do we know at this point?

And Minka heading out of town, what does that mean for the Steelers following that?

Well, it means they have an opening at safety.

They've been very active this offseason in adding Darius Slay and Jalen Ramsey.

I think it gives them options in the secondary pat about how they want to go about doing this.

Obviously, Joy Porter Jr.

also is there.

They've got a ton of defensive backs right now.

And it always felt to me like Pittsburgh was the most likely destination.

It never felt like the Rams or the Chargers were going to be able to do their part financially to make a trade like this happen.

The Steelers not only made it happen, but gave Jalen Ramsey a raise.

for this coming season.

So that tells you how much they wanted him.

They've been talking about him all along.

It becomes a very complicated trade here.

Certainly for the time of the year that we're in, the last day of June, you get a trade like this that involves two players who have been three-time all-pro selections.

And you see Mink Fitzpatrick on that initial list of Steelers started.

Well, he was a part of the deal.

The Steelers wanted John New Smith to reunite him with Arthur Smith.

They get him in this package as well.

I mean, to me, it says, yes, Pittsburgh is going all in, spending whatever it takes.

They go and get Aaron Rodgers.

They go and get Jalen Ramsey and Jonathan Smith.

It has been a very unconventional, Steelers-like offseason with all the players that they've added, including DK Metkep.

This is like a remade roster.

The one question I have in all of this now is,

and we haven't talked about it a whole lot, what about T.J.

White?

White?

Yeah.

Everybody just has assumed, rightfully, that the two sides will figure it out.

But I don't think they're very close right now.

And I don't think that he's particularly pleased.

Now, it could change just like that.

And they could figure out a way to get it done.

But you know what?

They just gave Johnny Smith more money.

They just gave Jalen Ramsey more money.

They haven't given TJ Watt more money.

And you just wonder how that's going to play out here in the coming, again,

he's such a part of the team.

You cannot imagine him not being there.

But you would think that this situation would be settled by now, and it's not.

Yeah, I agree, Schefter.

And I would like to let everybody know that if you were to go back and watch the tape, I would ask on a very regular basis, hey, if everything's good, why is TJ not there?

You know, if everything's just going to be a-okay why does he feel obligated to take a $170,000 fine of missing mandatory minicamp?

If everything was okay, you would think a guy who's a staple and a pillar of the team would have been there.

I'm not saying there's any issues, but I've just asked the question on a regular basis because like everybody else is saying they think a deal is going to get done.

I think TJ not going is him saying, is it?

I don't know if a deal is going to get done.

And now let's get back to the point of what you said there about paying Jalen more money and John who more money.

Kaboli put this tweet up here.

Kaboli said, well, he's been told he's the Steelers view Johnny Smith as a tight end, a slot wide receiver, and a fullback.

They will use him in a very harbored way in Arthur Smith's offense.

And they see Jalen Ramsey as an outside corner, slot corner, and he can take some snaps at safety, says Mark Caboli.

With that being said, if you're going to utilize the shit out of him, you would obviously want to pay them more.

I thought a lot of people didn't want jailing because they didn't want to pick up the entirety of the contract.

Do we know if they've picked up all the money from both these contracts or are the Miami Dolphins having to pay any bills?

Yeah, I don't know the full breakthrough of that.

There have been a lot of missed calls in this flurry of activity, and I don't have the full answer to that at this particular time.

Yep, Pat, I gotta tell you something, it was a very surreal scene.

I've never been to Oakmont.

I get invited.

I'm in your backyard here in Plum, Pennsylvania.

Hell yeah.

And I walk into the locker room.

And the only thing I wanted to see was where did Wyndham Clark take in that locker?

Is it still here?

Right.

So I took a picture of it.

I could send it over.

We could put it on.

It's still there.

And some of the members want to fix it.

I'm like, you can't fix that.

So I walk in.

I see the locker.

And right when I walk in, I see Neil Shipley, the great former amateur golfer who's on tour, and he's incredible.

Like, I watch Neil Shipley all the time.

And I'm talking to Neil Shipley.

And I get the trade that Jalen's going down.

And I go to post.

You know what I learned about Oakmont?

The men's locker room?

No Wi-Fi because I was posting for a few minutes and it wasn't going through.

And then I went running out, running out to go post it.

So there's no Wi-Fi in the men's locker room.

You're not missing anything there, Pat, but this place is pretty magical.

So the trades all come down, whole flurry of activity.

Again, the Steelers have stepped up and they're paying all these guys right now except TJ Watt.

I mean, that's really the deal right now.

And Miami.

Miami's made a lot of changes here with a lot of team captains that are no longer there in Miami.

So it becomes very interesting for them as well.

Big change you're not expecting here in late June.

Callaius Campbell, also not there.

Obviously, we talked about that.

It was like at the beginning of this entire thing, whenever Dumpy was losing his mind, go ahead, comment.

Yeah, Armstead, I forget if he was mentioned.

He's one of their captains, too.

I think someone tweeted it was four of their five captains or three of their five captains or gone.

Interesting to see how it goes.

Jalen Ramsey is now the fourth Dolphins.

You actually tweeted this shaft.

Yeah, okay, so from last season, no longer on the team in 2025.

Armstead, Calais Campbell, and David Long.

Go ahead, Debo.

I believe Tyreek Hill was a captain last year, too.

And I don't think he will be a captain going into this year.

I think he said he's got to earn that respect back with the team.

What is the relationship right now with Tyreek Hill and the Miami Dolphins?

The way I understand it, I think people are counting on him bouncing back, having a big season.

He's got a lot to prove.

I'm sure with all the money going around to wide receivers, he's going to want to get paid again.

I think Tyreek Hill has a chance to really bounce back and have a big time kind of year.

I think that's what people in the organization are expecting out of him this upcoming season.

It'll be up to him to do that.

But again, a lot of changes around him and they're counting on Tyreek Hill to come through.

Okay, so the only thing we're really thinking about here or trying to figure out is if Miami's paying any of Jalen's salary, right?

That is still potentially a piece of information we don't know.

I would think that they're paying something.

I would think that they're paying something.

I mean, you know, I think Jalen gets more money out of this, and I think they had a finagle.

I can't imagine that the Steelers took on the entire contract and gave him a race.

That would not be in my mind something that's practical.

I don't think.

But again, you have to see how it played out.

Okay.

And Omar Khan, Mike Tomlin, you're in, I mean, you can go visit them down.

You can go down to UPMC.

Are they done in this whole department?

Obviously, TJ Watt lingering.

And do you think this is going to be the new norm for the Pittsburgh Steelers?

Well, this is not what they've done.

And I think that they have to be done because there really is no other priority other than TJ Watt.

And this team, there has not been a team in the league the last couple of years that has inquired about and checked into more wide receivers than the Pittsburgh Steelers.

And I think that's what we're seeing here with Jonu Smith being viewed as a weapon because they wanted somebody else to step forward.

They're expecting that Calvin Austin is going to be their number two wide receiver.

From what I understand, Roman Wilson, the former second-round draft pick from Michigan, has looked strong during OTAs for whatever that's worth.

And now you get a guy like John Ru Smith to mix in with DK Metcalf, Calvin Austin, Roman Wilson, Robert Woods.

And I think that they feel like this guy can be shifted all around.

Arthur Smith knows how to use him.

It's the third different franchise that Arthur Smith has worked with John Ru Smith.

They were together in Tennessee.

They were together in Atlanta.

And now they'll be together in Pittsburgh again.

And I think, you know, They got Aaron coming in at quarterback.

And when you're doing that, you're trying to do everything you can to give him one last run in what looks like his last season.

So they seem to be all in with that one lingering issue that's outstanding right now.

There you slay missing from the graphic.

That was on us, not on dirty who put this together.

This thing looks filthy, but also Pittsburgh people are going to be like, eh, Pittsburgh's place to be been fucking saying it for years.

Excited for all these people, all these guys to get to learn about the Pittsburgh football culture, too.

Like what it's going to be like to be a Pittsburgh Steeler and learn the building.

Going to be great to have them in the city.

You talk about wide receivers and the Steelers snooping around on them.

There's one big name at wide receiver position that there's still a convo about before you tee off at Oakmont and I assume shoot at 250.

I think you might be generous.

You might be about 275.

Shefty, last time we talked to you, we mentioned how Terry McLaurin and Washington are pretty far apart on his new contract.

He's not happy about that.

Has there been any progress with that whole situation?

Or do you have any kind of update there?

That's a tough one.

I know there is an update.

There's no update, which is the update.

And that's the problem.

The problem is with this particular situation, I think Terrier McLaurin is going to argue that we've seen other wide receivers who his numbers are comparable to, like Jamar Chase and T.

Higgins and DK Metcalf.

get paid over $30 million

a year this offseason.

And I think the commanders then can say say yes.

But Mike Evans, who also has had comparable numbers, is at $24 million.

So there really is quite a difference and a gap between what both sides would want.

They have not made any progress.

I would think that we'll see if there are any teams.

that decide to come snooping around Terry McLaurin to see if they could try to pry loose Terry McLaurin, who, by the way, I cannot envision the commanders moving on from no matter how disgruntled he may be.

Again, it's sort of like TJ Watt.

You can't imagine that these two sides, as far apart as they are today,

wouldn't be able to somehow find a way to bridge their differences and figure out a solution.

But today, McLaurin and the Commanders are not close.

Watt and the Steelers are not close.

And those will be two of the storylines.

that we are tracking as we get ready for training camp.

A couple great players.

We'd love to see him play for the Indianapolis Colts at quite a discounted rate.

And welcome them to our city.

Pat, every team in the league would love to see Terry McLaurin or TJ Watt playing in their city.

Everybody.

Not as much as Indianapolis.

Okay, okay, you're right.

Yeah,

Indianapolis wants them more than the other cities.

Yeah, JW Mario, we'll put a picture of both of them on.

That's right.

It looks cool.

They would have to play at quite a discounted rate, I would say.

And it would certainly be a year to prove it, but we'd love to have them.

All right, Chefty, good luck out there, man.

How is your game?

How is your game?

Terrible.

I was walking walking down with Neil Shipley.

I'm like, what will you shoot today?

He goes, about a 70, give or take a few strokes, either way.

67, if I'm playing well, 73.

There he is.

Hey, come on.

Big dog.

Hey, how you doing, man?

Good to see you, dude.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I got my earbuds in.

Hey, hey, Shepherd, will you translate for us?

Hey, will you tell them that we think he looks good and it's great to see him?

Great hair.

They think you look great, and they love your hair.

They think I should be growing my hair the same way you have yours.

I didn't say anything, Shepherd.

Don't fucking watch your hair.

Thank you, Neil.

Thank you, Neil.

All right, good luck out there.

He's shooting at 67 today.

I'm shooting about 167.

Hey, can you ask him how similar it is to when the U.S.

Open was there, how it is today?

Like how you're going to play on it first?

Neil, is it similar to the way the U.S.

Open was when they play here now or not?

Well, the rough is a little shorter now.

Close, the rough is a little shorter, he says.

Okay, and ask him, how do I become a member at that place?

I just got to pay the fee.

I got to get invited.

You know what?

I was actually going to talk to people, but I don't want to overstep my bat.

Pat wants to know what he has to do to get out here and play around.

Got to be a member.

This is all.

We got to get that done.

We're going to work on that, Pat.

I'm here two days, okay?

And by the way.

Are you staying there?

Yeah.

See, that's what I'm talking about.

That would be, if I could, I don't even.

I'm sure I'm a member.

But that's in Paul.

That's the dream.

Yeah.

I've never even been there.

I've never seen that.

A huge shout out to Joe Schmidt and Steven Eisenberg who invited.

Pat, I don't know what I'm doing.

Eisenberg and Schmidt, the boys.

Come on now.

Can you come out?

I'm like, sure, I got nothing going on.

Like, there's nothing going to happen in the NFL.

It's not like there's going to be three players trading in the morning that I go to Oakmont.

It's not like I'm going to walk into the locker room and see Neil Shipley.

It's not like I'm going to be admiring Wyndham Clark.

Hey, what up, Doe?

Look at this guy.

How are we doing, dude?

Hey, how's Michigan doing?

How we looking?

He wants to know how's Michigan doing?

Great.

He's

kicking everybody's ass.

That's Wink, defense coordinator from Michigan.

Obviously, formerly the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Giants.

He's in my force from today, too.

That's Oakball, baby.

That's one of the greatest minds in the history of ball right there, that guy.

Also, great A, good time having.

Yeah.

Great A.

All right, we appreciate the hell out of you, Shepherd.

Good luck, ladies and gentlemen.

I'm Schefter.

Wink Martindale is the guy.

What a cameo.

Wink loves the show.

He loved the pod, too.

Speaking of.

Yeah,

I remember that.

Yeah, when are you guys bringing season two back?

Good question.

Season two of what?

Season two of what?

There's been the paw.

Oh, I think that's one of those one of those things where you thought something existed, but it actually never.

No, this isn't

the moon landing, Tony.

This is not the Magnandela effect.

The Vandela, when you remember it differently.

Like Shaq being in Kazam.

The pod never existed.

So what?

Tony, come on.

Listen, we've been in the writer's room the last, I don't know,

eight months, just hammering out episode after episode after episode after episode.

So we're getting close.

We're getting close.

It's one of those things where we really don't want to release it until it's perfect.

That writer's strike really slowed things down.

That was five years ago.

Yeah, and it's still affecting us today.

YouTube TV,

I heard they were trying to reach out to the pod.

Yeah, I bet they were.

Is that what you guys

need to be?

Mr.

Kim.

Preliminary discussions, exactly.

So there's just a lot of stuff going on.

A lot of people tell me it's me.

This is a hot.

Just so you, Foxy, will you please.

Yeah, oh, yeah, 100%.

This is not us.

We're the biggest potty acts you guys got, bro.

Since day one, it's Mr.

Kim, man.

Look, you mentioned him there, and I know he doesn't like to be talked about, but Mr.

Kim, there's a few things that we thought he would love.

Mr.

Kim didn't love them.

Really?

So we had to go back to the drawing board, but now we are almost at the point where Mr.

Kim has given us the okay.

Well, I'm excited for you guys to deal with Mr.

Kim and to meet Mr.

Kim someday.

Well, I mean, look, he's a tough son of a bitch to get a hold of us.

I know you get the pod's got different representation.

I understand.

So you guys have been through a couple of these, and it feels like Mr.

Kim is the right one for you guys.

Yeah, I think he is the one.

Have we heard an episode of the pod since Mr.

Kim has come around?

No, not at all.

No, he might.

He's trying to bury him.

He might not be.

That's what.

As a podiac, you're

a Partiac.

Huge Partiac.

Michigan.

Foxy Partiac?

Biggest Partiac on Earth.

No, you're not bigger than me, brother.

I guarantee I am, all right.

Anyways, we missed your show.

We miss it too, man.

YouTube TV is looking at it and wondering.

And they're also, they try to get avid sports fans to feel more at ease.

Okay.

Hey, you look a little uptight.

Relax.

Okay, fine.

They know that you want access.

All right, fuck it.

They have access to all their favorite sports and live TV.

YouTube TV is the greatest.

Okay.

YouTube TV, obviously the developers of the quad box.

They're the people that said, you know what?

This is what everybody's going to want eventually anyways.

How are you able to keep up with all the sports happening at one time?

What if you happen to have 11 games on in the same time slot?

What if you happen to have 10 games on at the same time?

What if there's multiple sports taking place, NHL, NBA happening at the same time?

And my favorite show.

Yeah.

YouTube TV says you should be able to watch it all.

And then when one goes to commercial, you're going to just bop over to the other one or bop up to the top right quadrant or how about this top left leave it there listen to one particular thing like red zone and then have three other games on happening at the same time youtube tv said let's go ahead and give you an uh a cyst uh an alley oop if you will so shout out to youtube tv and whenever you hit that qr code two months 59.99 it's a great deal great deal game in clutch actually uh last night during the pga playoff and the start of the uh united states men's soccer game could have both of those on at the same time yeah the soccer game for the men uh don't look now.

We got a team.

We do.

Now, LeBron James might be leaving the Lakers.

That's big news.

What?

The quote's the quote.

What are you talking about?

It's possibility.

He just opted in.

He opted in.

Then he said, what's the future look like?

And then, you know, Sean Shirania saying, hey,

they're looking to see what the Lakers do.

They want to win championships.

Possibly.

Want to win championships.

Makes sense.

What does that mean?

We'll talk to Sean Shirania in about 35 minutes or so.

Can't Can't wait to get the latest on that.

Feels like LeBron's going to be a Laker, right?

Yeah, I don't know.

Sure.

We should have found out what Sean says.

And do we know at this exact moment?

When you talk about most craziest offseason ever, LeBron being a part of it, Giannis being a part of it, when will moves be made?

Kevin Durant already traded.

I mean, these are legends of the NBA.

We'll talk to Shams in a bit.

The United States men's soccer team, though, good.

Yeah.

We got a team.

All the way back.

Tough.

We got a real team.

Yes.

We got dogs.

And we got a coach that looks in the camera and says, what do you want from me?

I feel like such a dickhead forever questioning Pete Ponchatino.

I do.

After watching that yesterday, not only just what he's wearing, too.

He's got the suit, but he's like, you know, I'm going to be casual.

I'm not going to wear a tie.

He's got just the black tee under it.

I mean, we got this.

He was talking to America right there.

Exactly.

He said, come on.

Yeah, let's go.

We got a team.

You know, a lot of the stars aren't playing in this Gold Cup.

And we just beat Costa Rica.

We're moving into the semifinals.

Hey, is Canada to Canada?

I saw they were in the quarterfinals of the Gold cup as well.

Really?

They all lost in a shoot up.

Oh, you guys lost a shootout?

Well, we won a shootout because we got a guy named Matt Freeze, six foot four out of Harvard.

He got his hand, he blocked three out of six penalty shots last night.

Got his hand on five out of six, I do.

Yeah, we're talking about an absolute dog.

This guy's a specimen.

Now, this is his first time playing goalie for us in a full-time rate because the gold cup, because the stars aren't playing or whatever.

Who's our normal goalie?

Guys really good.

Turner.

Turner.

Okay, so Turner, very good, great player.

Freeze, freeze though is getting an opportunity here and he was taking advantage of it making the most of it watching him he knew exactly where they were going this wasn't guest this wasn't luck he was reading the shit out of these people he would he had them dialed in and even the one the ones that they scored he was near it just so happened to go in there this guy was locked in we got a dude in matt freeze we got a coach i believe in punch yeah and i think we're finding the right team kind of leading in the world cup we got dogs yes our guys are dogs they uh wasn't a lot there was a lot of flopping from the Costa Rica side.

Sure.

Per year.

There's a lot of flopping going on.

But our guys running.

Our guys got Moxie.

I feel good about our team representing our country going ahead.

Yeah, these last two weeks, I feel like, at least me personally, I've just been hating on the United States men's soccer team and kind of started watching last night strictly because, you know, it was like a hate-watch event for me.

But by halftime, they won me over.

Like the way they play, you mentioned the style.

Like they weren't really flopping.

It seemed like they were talking shit to both Costa Rica and the the refs sometimes when they disagreed with the call.

And poncho.

Every time they showed ponch, it seemed like he was getting the boys going, saying something, hyping people up.

I'm all in.

I got my poncho on for good, baby.

It's raining right now.

At the end of the game, actually, at the end of full time, straight into penalties is crazy.

Ball gets hit down a sideline.

Ponch in his sport code because he's trying to steal it.

One touch, boom.

Right to our guy to do a throw in, blow it dead.

It was like, this dude's on the sideline.

Ball comes over.

Boom.

I'm like, I love this team.

And the type of team he wants, he's like, we got a lot of good players, but we need fighters is basically what he said coming in.

We need to find guys.

It's like, we might have a squad.

Now, with that being said, let's not get too excited.

That's a good point.

True.

If we win this Gold Cup, though, and we are once again the CONCAFA Kings,

it's going to be hard not to get a full-on patriotism.

Ha ha!

If you know what I'm saying.

If we win the Gold Cup, I think you have to just admit that we are the favorites to win the world.

Yep.

I think it's just, it is what it is.

And, you know, we were kind of saying, hey, all of our best guys aren't playing.

This is probably exactly what they needed.

Like, we needed some of those guys.

Confidence.

Yeah, exactly.

Like, guys who we are going to need in order to win the World Cup.

And they played unbelievable, or they have so far.

I heard a commentary say that some of the big names are gone, so that some of these younger guys have a chance to peacock a little bit because it's their team and they're getting the confidence at the right time.

Now, we were afforded the opportunity to debut a special

exclusive trailer from Netflix.

Answer the phone, and Brad sounds like he's out of breath.

You know, he's, Jared, Jared, you know,

thank God we got you on the phone.

You know, we're so excited to have you here.

We're so excited.

When we got the opportunity to land him, it was a no-brainer because I had an idea what we were going to start going through, and I knew how resilient he was and just thought that he'd be a good fit for the journey we're about to take.

You know, Dan gets on the phone and says the same thing.

You know, we can't believe we were able to get this done, and we can't wait to see you.

I remember the cult and I remember my excitement.

And I just, I wanted to make sure he understood how excited we were, how excited I was.

You're going to be part of the foundation.

You're going to, we're going to build this from the ground up.

You're going to be a huge part of this and you're ours.

Like you belong with us.

We're going to be tied to the hip.

It kind of brought me from this moment of like picking up the pieces to like

reinvigorated with this energy of like, oh, like this is what it feels like to truly be wanted and to have

you know these guys behind you and I hadn't felt that in quite some time.

I was going to dinner with my friends that night.

I remember you called me and you told me the news.

I remember you were like, will you come with me?

And I was like, yeah,

Detroit.

I don't even know where, like, I didn't even know.

I've never been to Michigan.

I didn't hesitate, but I also did not know what I was getting myself into in a good way and a bad way.

I can't imagine like having stayed in LA that whole time.

A lot of people saw it as like I was being cast away or I was being sent to my career to die.

And I think, you know, a lot of people in my former organization may have thought that as well.

For me, I saw it as what an incredible opportunity to be somewhere that has never won and has never been to the top of the mountain.

How incredible would it be if we're able to build this thing into a winner?

I mean, that's my guy.

You know, that's my quarterback.

Every head coach has got a quarterback.

If you want to have success, you better have a quarterback.

And I got one, Jared Goff.

To be able to be with a head coach who's a first-time head coach and a GM who's a first-time GM and be able to be the first decision they made when they got here and prove them right.

And, you know, how great of an opportunity is that.

And sorry, I'm trying not to cry, but

it's been so incredible to build with them, but that moment of hearing them on the phone and knowing that the opportunity that I had here was special.

Hell yeah, it was.

And it certainly turned out to be the executive producer of that show and about a thousand others, two-time Super Bowl champion and Hall of Famer, and fresh out of the Manning Passing Academy's 29th year.

Ladies and gentlemen, Peyton Mannock.

Yay!

Yay!

Thanks, Pat.

Hey, obviously we just watched that together here, and it was a beautiful kind of retelling or recapping of how Jared Goff got to Detroit, because we all remember it from the outside looking in.

Sean McVay was in Mexico.

Matthew Stafford was there.

They were having a good time.

Jared Goff got his ass kicked out of town.

He was a third-string quarterback, I believe, for the Rams at the very end of that whole thing.

Seeing his story, his side, and how Detroit views it is beautiful.

Is there a lot of that this season on quarterback?

Or what should we expect from Burrow Goff and then Cousins again?

You know, Pat, this is our third year doing quarterback or doing the Netflix kind of follow doc series.

We did quarterback the first year.

We did receiver the next.

Now we're back with quarterback.

And I think when all these quarterbacks sign up, look, I tell them, hey, we want the football.

We want to go behind the ropes a little bit.

We do not want to be a distraction.

And all of them

from Mahomes to Joe to Kirk and to Jared, they all end up giving us more than we ask of them, right?

I mean, look, we wanted to follow Jared Goff this season.

We weren't asking him to recap that tough moment of getting traded from the Rams, but he wanted to talk about it.

And he wanted to talk about how he got to Detroit and kind of what that meant to him.

So we were glad to be there to hear all that because he really hasn't told that story.

And I think you'll hear a lot of that from all three of the quarterbacks, things that you haven't seen, that you haven't heard before.

I think it kind of speaks to how comfortable they are with

Omaha and NFL films and Netflix following them around.

I think the best thing, Pat, is is that nobody really knows that we're following them all year.

This is not a camera in the cafeteria with Joe Burrow.

Everybody's like, oh, look at Joe.

He's got this, you know, camera with him the whole time.

NFL films, Omaha, Netflix, we just kind of blend in.

And we just want to be kind of a fly on the wall and to take the viewer behind the ropes.

of what it's like to play quarterback.

And you'll see Jared Goff and Ben Johnson designing these really cool plays that Detroit had that maybe Caleb Williams might have now in Chicago, but cool plays and where they get the idea.

You'll see just how calm and cool Joe Burrow is all the time.

I don't think he sweats the entire season, even when he's playing against the Ravens.

He's that calm and cool.

And you'll see Kirk Cousins handle an incredibly tough situation with incredible grace.

And you'll come out pulling for him once again like you did in season one.

So that's what I'm excited about this season for quarterback.

I mean, mean, three very different stories throughout the season.

You know, the Detroit Lions, number one seed in the NFC, they battle through so many injuries, too.

I'm excited to see the leadership behind the scenes whenever that whole situation brews.

The Cincinnati Bengals had the year that they had, and obviously they had an entire offseason the way it's gone.

And then Kirk Cousins with the Pennix situation.

I mean, what a wild chance to experience life as an NFL quarterback.

You continue to blaze trails, brother.

We can't wait to catch up with that.

July 8th, quarterback premieres on Netflix.

Thank you for getting us through the summer.

We will thank you in advance for that let's talk about a summer tradition for the last 29 years manning passing academy obviously you're fresh out of the most recent one how was the weekend down there a lot of people saying it looked like maybe you boozed a little bit the night before the vote open

part of playing quarterback is having a few bud lights you know uh on an off-night but you are at the eight o'clock staff meeting the next morning, right?

If you're going to soar with the Eagles,

as my dad said, if you're going to hoot with the Owls, Owls, you got to soar with the Eagles.

So it's kind of a good sign for a quarterback if you're there at that 8 o'clock meeting.

We had perfect attendance at every 8 o'clock.

Has it always been the case in years past?

Certain quarterbacks, and maybe that was a good sign that maybe they weren't ready to play quarterback.

But another great year.

Look, we had almost 1,500 campers.

I think we had 47 college quarterbacks.

We had over 120 top high school coaches coaches and

former NFL coaches or small college coaches from around the country.

That's our staff.

We're trying to make these entering eighth graders through entering 12th graders, quarterbacks, receivers, tight ends, running backs, better high school football players, Pat.

That is our goal.

If they all go on to play college in the NFL, that's great.

But our goal is to make them better high school players.

And most of the college camps now, Pat, they aren't really doing that as much anymore, right?

They're kind of recruiting camps.

They're running 40s.

They're running vertical jumps.

And I get that.

They're trying to decide who they're going to recruit.

We like teaching the basic fundamentals of playing quarterback.

And it's a fun time for me to be with my dad, my two brothers, Cooper and Eli.

My nephews, Arch and Hyde, were there.

My brother, my son, Marshall attended the camp.

So it's certainly a family affair as well.

Yeah, I posted that photo, obviously, was posted from Manning Pass Academy of your entire crew there.

Not your kid, but this whole, and I was just like, this family has done so much for football, legitimately.

And I texted your dad this.

I said, hey, I just want to to say thank you to you and your family for the amount of commitment to our sport that you have done.

You have tried to showcase our sport in every single fashion that you possibly could since retirement, let alone all that you gave while you were playing.

Eli the same way, Archie, the same exact way, and now it's Arch season, baby.

That's what uh, that's what the world is kind of waiting for.

And so, I want to say thank you to the Mannings.

Legit,

you guys are committed to ball, like committed to ball, and we appreciate the hell out of that.

Now, on the past,

to me, when I was playing, and I think all these college guys felt the same way, Arch, Garrett Nussmeier,

like I said, all the other quarterbacks.

It's just a great reminder of how great the game is and how lucky we are to be playing or to be involved with it.

When you're out there in Thibodeau, Louisiana, it's 96 degrees.

We're in three a day practices, and you don't hear one high school kid complain about how hot it is.

As a matter of fact, we tell them, hey, go back to your dorm room, get a nap in between practices.

They're all outside the dorm throwing.

They're always asking questions to the quarterbacks hey tell me how to help with my spiral tell me how to help which by the way i can't help with that yeah tell me how to help with my three-step or five-step drop so it's just a great reminder of you know what a great game it is and uh so it comes at the perfect time every year late june right before teams are going back to training camp going back to uh you know summer workouts and uh to me that's the best part about it hey kid you can throw a duck pretty good too you know you know you win all you can win a couple super bowls with a duck throw don't worry about that D-Butt has a question about the NPA.

Yeah, Peyton, so 29 years, awesome, 1,500 campers.

Over, I guess, the last three decades, how much have the campers changed?

I guess with the questions and the things the game has changed so much in between the lines, but even outside the lines with NIL and all these different things that they're dealing with at an early age, how much has that changed over the years?

Yeah, it's a great question.

And, you know, Tyler Shuck, who was a counselor for two years, he was at Louisville, Texas Tech, Tech, Oregon.

He came back to the camp.

Now he's the Saints first-round draft choice, which is very rare.

We don't really ask current NFL quarterbacks to come because, as you know, this is their vacation time.

And Tyler came back and wanted to share his knowledge with the college counselors and with the high school athletes.

And he just said, look, because he's lived in this NIL world, keep the main thing, the main thing.

Go out and have fun your senior year in high school, your senior year in college.

Don't worry about all of the outside noise and distractions, especially if you want to go play at the next level.

You got to make the main thing the main thing.

So that's easier said than done because people are pulling on them.

They have different commitments, different directions.

But I thought that was great advice.

You still got to go out there and work in the offseason.

You got to go out there and perform on Friday nights, on Saturday afternoons.

So we were certainly concerned a couple years ago with NIL, with the portal.

Would that affect the attendance of our camp from our high school kids, from our college players?

It hasn't.

People still come down and want to ask questions.

John Gruden was there.

He was giving the NFL,

he was giving the college players some advice.

He did a clinic for our high school coaches, which was awesome.

You can imagine how animated he is.

And so it's been able to kind of maintain.

the reason we started the camp and it's hard to believe we're coming up on 30 years next year.

I saw Coach Gruden got an Archie Manning jersey, I believe.

You went crazy.

Can you believe this, man?

Yeah,

that was a cool moment.

I love how much Gruden's giving back to ball as well.

Let's talk about the quarterback position as a whole.

Go ahead, Connor.

Yeah, Peyton, you just kind of mentioned how part of a quarterback's duties are having a couple Bud Lights with the boys, you know, the night before, but then still showing up at the 8 a.m.

meeting.

And, you know, being a leader, showing up and standing up for your teammates, of course, those things as well are important as a QB.

But for you, off the field, when it comes to being a quarterback, what are kind of the most important traits you need to have just as, you know, of course a player, but just a teammate in general?

Yeah, look,

to me, when I watch an NFL or college game and I see a quarterback drop back and throw a deep go route down the sideline and maybe the corner is there and the free safety is over there, I watch how the receiver fights for the ball.

Does he go up and go up and make the catch amongst two defenders?

Does he tackle the defensive back?

Because there's no way I'm going to let my quarterback get this pass intercepted.

It's going to be incomplete pass interference.

No way it's going to be an interception.

And that tells me how much that receiver respects his quarterback, that he's going to fight for him, right?

Sometimes you don't see that.

Sometimes you see the receiver kind of go, hey,

I don't really care if it's intercepted and it's double covered.

He shouldn't be throwing it anyway.

I want to see him fighting for the quarterback.

And that's up to the quarterback to get those guys fighting for him.

By the way, he handles them in practice,

how he handles himself in the locker room.

Is he a guy that these linemen want to fight and block for?

These receivers want to go up and get the ball for.

So it's not always with the rah-rah pep talk per se.

You don't have to give a speech every day as a quarterback, but you better be there on time.

You better stay late.

You better be tough.

You better be

in the conditioning front of the line, right?

You're not going to be the fastest or bench press the most, but you better be kind of setting the example in the conditioning, endurance aspect of it.

And I think all those things go into being a good good quarterback and your teammates following you i told the story the other day about uh first punt period when i was with the colts you know it's normal special teams especially punt period everybody kind of clears the field because you know balls are about to get tossed out there and while i'm sitting back for the first snap i'm with the indianapolis colts holy shit i'm in the nfl i'm playing a position i don't really understand i i've never really been an nfl punter i'm watching you and the other quarterbacks run gassers across the field on the other end full pads helmet on everything like that and that was a consistent.

It's like everybody else kind of off the field.

You're out there doing sprints.

Now, Clyde Christensen told me, Well, it's the only time we can get the field, right?

Right?

Like, that's the only time.

And it's like, but also, that is quite a statement.

Like, hey, listen, you can get shit done right now.

I think everything you did had purpose and meaning.

And that's why it was an honor to be your teammate.

With that being said, I know you've tried to stay out of the way.

So is Eli.

I'm here to answer all questions.

Let's talk about Arch, okay?

I'm excited for him.

No offense to you.

Okay.

No offense to you or to Eli.

Feels like he has a chance to have what you have,

have what Eli has, and then also,

feels like he's got what

your dad had a little bit more of.

All these things coming together, plus him understanding what a quarterback should be like in a locker room.

I think he was at a Wingo's cookout just like two weeks ago.

Obviously, this hit the internet went crazy.

It's like, this makes sense for how a quarterback, especially a Manning-led quarterback would operate.

You invited me down to a golf outing and had some beers and learned about me and my family and talked to my dad, invited my dad to something.

It's like very much a part of the Manning way of leading is like being a good teammate, being

in, I want to say investing in the relationship.

How do you feel about Arch now that it's about to be his time?

Like, hey, we're here now.

This is Arch season for Texas.

How do you feel?

And has he reached out to you or Eli much through it all?

Yeah, you know, Pat,

look, Eli and and I are his uncles.

We try to be there as a resource for him.

But, you know, Cooper has done a great job with Arch, and they've handled, you know, all the

different things that have kind of come their way in the right way.

And I'm excited to watch Arch play.

He's been very patient.

I thought he threw the ball really well at the camp.

He and Garrett Dustmeyer in kind of our three throwing exhibitions

really threw the ball well.

All the quarterbacks threw it well.

It's impressive.

I mean, they make throws that I wouldn't even think about making.

I mean, Arch made a throw the other day that I'd have to hit the cutoff man in order to get the ball to the actual receiver and Nussmeyer,

a Lenoris for South Carolina.

I mean, it's impressive all the way around.

But look, he's been patient.

You know, it's been well documented.

The fact that he's, you know, look, been there two years, I'm such a believer in mastering the system that you're in.

And when you have new coordinators every single year in the NFL or college, that's just frustrating to me.

I was lucky, you know, Tom Moore, Pat was there my entire

14-year career.

Belichick gave Brady some different coordinators, Charlie Weiss, McDaniels, O'Brien, but it was the same system, right?

Nick Saban makes his quarterbacks, our new coordinators learn his system.

So does Kirby.

And so the fact that Sarkesian calls the plays, that Arch has been there two years already, is going to know the system, that's going to be a huge advantage for him.

And I'm looking forward to seeing him get out there on the field.

He's worked real hard.

I love seeing him go go into that camp for his teammate.

That's being a good teammate.

That's being a good wingman.

And I'm excited to get down there and watch a few games this year in Austin.

I love the Moxie he's got too.

The breaking of chains after running somebody.

And I think he got concussed.

I mean, you don't have to give us anything.

I think he got concussed in the

Ohio State.

The Moxie, I mean,

that was his dad.

I mean, Cooper was a cocky wide receiver that was open every time in the huddle, as you can imagine.

I mean, I think my sophomore year in high school, I was a quarter.

Cooper was a senior.

I think I completed 120 passes that year.

I threw 90 of them to my brother, okay?

And he would have liked all 120.

I mean, he did not care about his teammates or his friends.

I think that little swagger comes from his dad, and that's good to see.

Look, Arch has got to be his own person, and he can move.

Yeah, my dad's sort of speed sort of skipped the generation, skipped me and Eli.

and I think Arch

Arch has that which helps him but I still think like all quarterbacks I mean I mean we got to be able to throw from the pocket first and throw it on time and and not take you know a lot of hits that's what we talked about to all of them hey know your system know your answers but then when it's time to make a play go out there and make a play with your legs but uh so I think he understands that yeah I love everything about him I do the way he's handled this the way everybody has handled the entire process I was excited for him to get in the game last year oh yeah hey now we're in Arch.

I was pushing hard.

A little bit too big of a platform at this stage for me to be doing that.

Caused some shit.

Had to back off.

I don't want to start any problems with anybody.

But watching Arch, I think I met Arch when he was just a little boy over at Eli's apartment back in the day.

And he was like, always had Moxie.

And now we're watching him do his thing.

I'm like, we want that guy.

And there's a lot of teams saying, hey, let's not be scared to lose a lot of games this year.

Maybe next year we can get Arch on our team.

Now, there's a quarterback situation brewing here in Indianapolis.

Go ahead, Ty.

Yeah, Peyton, I don't know if you've ever actually been in a quarterback competition in your entire life.

So maybe you don't, you know, have as good of an answer for this.

But when you look at what's going on with the Colts, Anthony Richardson, obviously they draft him high.

They want him to be the guy of the future.

And it's kind of, you know, there's been glimpses, but he's getting hurt a lot.

And then Danny Dimes comes in this offseason with a chance to kind of

reclaim his career, I guess.

When you have an actual quarterback competition like that and a guy like Anthony Richardson's hurt and he can't really take the reps, but he needs a lot of the reps like

what is a way that you can actually get ahead because I think you were a guy who never wanted to you know secede any reps to anyone else like so in that situation like how would both of those guys get ahead because at this point we still really have no idea who's gonna be the quarterback yeah look

I know all those quarterbacks, you know, speaking of the Manning Passage Academy, Anthony came, Daniel came, Roddy Leonard came.

So you get to know all of them.

You pull for all of them.

And look, I think competition can be good.

I know that's what Shane and Chris are looking for to this competition to push both those guys.

And hopefully, whoever comes out as the starter is

open to the season with a little swag and a little bit of edge because he just won a tough quarterback competition.

Certainly with Anthony

being injured, you know, that's tough, right?

That's frustrating.

I know he wants to be out there today,

you know, throwing with his receivers and a little bit of a test of patience there.

And obviously, by him being injured, that gives Daniel more repetitions.

I mean, the toughest thing when you're in a quarterback competition, it's tough for the receivers as well, is

who do you really get good timing with if you're only throwing 50% of the routes with each guy, right?

I know receivers would prefer to have one guy as the starter and get the reps with that guy.

So,

you know, we'll see how it shakes out through training camp.

I think it's a healthy situation for the Colts.

And I think whoever comes comes out of that is going to be going to be ready to go week one against the Dolphins when we're honoring Jim Mershick going to the ring of honor.

I'll be at that game, Pat.

So I'm pulling for both guys.

I want to see Anthony get back there and get healthy.

As you know, long season, sometimes it takes more than one quarterback to play the entire season.

But I'm excited for Daniel getting this opportunity.

He deserves it.

And like I said, I hope Anthony gets back out there healthy and has a shot as well.

I ran into Dimes downtown.

He's huge.

Did not know that that he was as large of a human as he is.

And obviously he's very mobile.

And Anthony Richardson, you talk about cutoff man.

I mean, he made like three of those throws last year where he just back foot 70 yards.

Obviously the talent is there.

Hopefully it's able to come together.

All right, last question.

We appreciate you so much for your time here from Pittsburgh Steelers fan who's flying high right now, AP Tone.

Yeah, I am flying very high with getting Jalen Ramsey today, which is just huge, huge news.

Feels like the Steelers are going all in.

But my question for you payton is after the steelers got aaron rodgers i immediately thought you going to the denver broncers winning the super bowl there tom brady going to the bucks winning a super bowl there well how do you feel about aaron going to the steelers and what exactly does a 20-year nfl vet quarterback who's won you know four nfl mvps bring to a young offense

Yeah, look, I'm excited for Aaron.

It's a good opportunity.

I saw Arthur Smith

earlier

this spring, and they were still trying to kind of figure out

what they were trying to do.

But he certainly acknowledged that Aaron was a possibility and he was excited about that possibility.

So I think my offensive coordinator is excited about it.

That's a good thing.

You've heard Aaron talk about that he and Arthur, you can tell they've already had quite a bit of dialogue on trying to get on the same page and make that system work for both of them.

But look, there's no substitute for experience and what Aaron can do to help these receivers.

And

you wouldn't wouldn't think that would take a lot of time

for them to kind of get on the same page just because Aaron's played with so many guys and kind of knows how to make those adjustments.

I think the whole team needs to do their part as well, right?

Defense needs to be the Pittsburgh Steelers and put Aaron in some tough situations and probably not expecting him to go out there and score 40 each week.

But I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Look, it's a big change.

I know Aaron did it with the Jets and

maybe got hurt and whatnot.

And it wasn't maybe what he was hoping for.

So hopefully this is a good chapter for him and can finish strong if it is his last year.

And

I know Tom just talked about going down to Tampa and that was exciting.

It was kind of new, right?

Going to a new school.

And I felt that way when I went to Denver.

So it can be kind of invigorating for a quarterback.

So hopefully Aaron kind of takes that energy and goes out there and plays really well this year.

We're going to do a new school.

All right.

Let's pick off.

Let's go to a new school over there.

A little

old school in Pittsburgh for the Steelers.

Jalen Ramsey got signed

this morning.

So that literally just happened.

So it feels like 30 million on DK Metcalf.

They're going to have to pay TJ Watt and figure that whole thing out.

It's like, is this the year for the Pittsburgh Steelers?

We shall see.

It's been an honor to interview you and Elvis Presley, brother.

And you,

I don't know if it made the cut or not, but I've seen the clip of you being Elvis Presley Saturday Night Live.

You're a huge King fan, right?

I mean, you're a fan of the King.

I love him.

I love him.

He was a football fan, Pat.

He loved it.

I mean,

he was a Browns fan.

He was a Steelers fan.

He used to request like NFL highlights, sent down there to Graceland.

He always had kind of his entourage.

They were playing pickup football games.

And so that's what I've kind of learned

about Elvis.

Not only do I love his music, he loved football as well.

So I would have loved to have met him.

And yeah, I have lots of Elvis memorabilia here in my house.

He's a dog.

Elvis was an absolute dog.

Have people seen the clip?

Was that a public one?

I don't remember you being.

Remember, it didn't make the cut, and it was kind of, it was, you know, it's a dress rehearsal you do before Saturday Night Live, which is awesome.

You get to go out there and kind of test jokes and see what's going to be funny.

I wish I could have done a dress rehearsal before a few football games, Pat.

Like, ooh, I'm not going to make that throw.

That's not going to work out.

I'll

fix that in the real thing.

So I did an Elvis skit, and the dress rehearsal did not make the final cut.

I don't think I pulled off Love Me Tender as well as Lauren Michaels wanted me to.

I think you did.

I've seen the clip.

That one, that's first ballot.

This one is a first ballot.

Hopefully one day Omaha will let that thing eat.

Congrats on all the success.

Have a great summer, brother.

Thanks, Pat.

Thanks, fellas.

Ladies and gentlemen, Peyton Manning.

We appreciate Peyton joining us earlier today.

The news of the Jalen Ramsey trade happened during our conversation with Peyton Manning.

We did not even know about the Minka Fitzpatrick news or the Jonu Smith at that particular time because the way the trade was rolled out this morning was wild.

Heads up, Jalen Ramsey's going to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

That's because Jalen Ramsey breaks his own news, put out a highlight video that was awesome.

Talking about how tough Pittsburgh is, basically, and how traditional and how historic the franchise is and how he's joining the team.

That's how he broke the news.

So everybody's like, holy hell.

Jalen Ramsey's going to the Steelers.

And then the insiders got their chance to get there.

Boom, bada, bang, baba, boom, bad, bum.

Then we we hear Minka Fitzpatrick's, Johnny Smith's going, two late-round picks.

Who's paying for all those?

Who's doing what?

Wow, the Steelers are all in.

That was this morning while we were talking to Peyton Manning.

It's been a great day to be an NFL fan.

Is it a great day to be a Dolphins fan?

I think Dolphins fans are saying, yeah.

Sure.

We got Miko Bet.

It's warm.

It is.

Great uniforms.

Yeah.

Cool coach.

Really good offense.

Tyree Kill still there.

Do they have enough players?

We shall see.

Tim collects bobbleheads.

A lot of bobbleheads.

Baseball bobbleheads.

Race car bobbleheads.

Little chihuahua bobbleheads.

He's got an entire room strictly for bobbleheads.

Does he need them?

No.

Is his wife mad about it?

A little.

But Tim works with Empower and he got good at money.

So he can be a little bad.

Ooh, horse bobblehead.

Classy, Tim.

Empower.

Invest well, live a little.

Start today at empower.com.

If this were a Reese's TV ad, you'd be staring at a Reese's peanut butter cup.

And sure, my voice is peanut buttery smooth, but still, you need to see the peanut butter cups, right?

No?

I can really just say Reese's and you'll go get some?

Okay.

Reese's, Reese's, Reese's.

Really working, actually.

Reese's, Reese's.

This, I'm on to something.

Reese's, Reese's, Reese's, Reasons.

Begins with nine

sports are happening in a big way.

Obviously, massive breaking news from basically every major sport.

The MLB has Cal Rawley, Big Dumper, competing in its home run derby.

Congratulations for that.

And big thanks to Big Dump joining us in about 28 minutes or so to chit-chat about a historic catching season he is having for the current number two team in the AL West, the Seattle Mariners.

Well done.

I'm doing the baseball.

Well done.

I am doing the baseball.

I like what the baseball is doing.

I like the superstars that are coming to fruition.

I like the names that we have playing very well.

Aaron Judge is doing stuff that's outrageous.

Shohei Otani threw his fastest pitch 102 miles an hour the other night.

102 nine-year NFL vet Darius J.

Butler.

So we're rounding up like we were talking about.

You always do.

Hold on.

Okay,

if it's higher than 0.5, you round it up.

Jet Cassin did a little.

Well, let's, yeah.

Well, actually,

he said it's 101.7 miles an hour.

And then he actually put out the number of pitches that have been thrown this year.

163 pitchers have been thrown harder than 101.7, which is the exact velocity, okay, on the stadium.

They don't go to points.

No, no.

They just round it up over five.

It's going up.

Under five.

It's going down.

That is the hardest pitch of his MLB career.

Oh, Tani did hit 102 miles an hour.

World Baseball Classic.

Funny enough against Vinny Pasquantino as well.

And obviously they had another moment there.

So maybe Shohei Otani is going to do full-time pitching as well.

Even though all the baseball people, let's go to the talksy table at Boston Connor, at Ty Schmidt, 102 miles an hour.

101.7 miles an hour.

No, you can say 102.

Let's not do that.

Okay, is he doing well?

And I think it was another no-hitter, I believe.

Yeah, he threw two innings this time.

I mean, it's really, it's just risk-reward because obviously, like, he's got unbelievable stuff, so he could do it.

It's just the risk of injury is definitely there.

But if he's going out and pumping 100 and 2 early and often and not, you know, giving up any hits, like, the Dodgers need starting pitching right now very, very badly.

I don't love that Shohei hates Italians.

I'm just going to say that.

Whoa, oh.

Oh, I mean, his two fastest pitches are against Vinny.

Like, jacks him up, gets him jacked up, sees him.

He gets all the way up.

That's called discrimination.

Paspentino actually did quote tweet that.

He's like, what the fuck?

What is this guy doing?

Okay, so maybe there is a chance that his respect level for Paisanos is at a level where he feels like he has to throw harder.

Or, you know, maybe he just happened to catch it a couple of times.

163 pitches.

That's not a lot of pitches in the grand scheme of a baseball season, right?

No, no.

But I mean, I'd be interested to see of those 163 pitches, how many guys that came from, because that would really tell us, you know, like, oh, how many guys are really throwing that hard?

Because if it's only a handful of guys, then Shohei is clearly in rarefied air.

and you know start spreading the news

i'm leaving today

i wanna be a part of it

new york mets okay what's going on the pirates just smacking them around that's what we've been saying about this pirates team we've been saying since they got their new super duper manager guy gone salty ball boom they've been playing a little gritty baseball salty ball brother they just annihilated a team that's paying a guy 750 million bucks we have never in the history of the pirates paid an entire team 750 million dollars close and the fact that we are doing this are the pirates hot don't look now are the hundo boys about to make a run into playoffs are the pittsburgh pirates about to be bucking all around uh playoffs up there i mean i think you would have to argue that they're incredibly hot

they're in the mets by Four.

Exactly.

I mean, the Mets are a good baseball team.

They've been in quite the schneide as of late, but hey, listen,

you beat anyone in the MLB 30-4 over a three-game series.

Yeah, I'd say you are playing some salty ball.

And maybe if the Buckers win this entire thing.

Yeah.

The whole damn thing.

The whole damn thing.

What do they call them?

Pennants.

Yeah.

That's the whole thing or something.

No, no, no.

That would be winning the NL.

Which would be sweet.

Let's start.

Let's start.

Let's start there.

We'd like to get that pennant.

Let's start with winning the wild card game.

Okay, boom.

What What do you get for winning a wild card game?

Do you get a pennant?

No, no, no.

You just get into the next round of the day.

At Pittsburgh, they will talk about that game for the next 10 years because that's what happened last time.

You're damn right.

We're still talking about it.

Paul Skeens actually mentioned it going into the season.

He believes in the boys in the change room, the Cup, Clubhouse, Clubhouse.

In the Clubhouse.

Obviously, all these words are really good, and they carry over to other sports, so that's why it's so easy to kind of do it all.

The thing that would be the best if they were to win the super pennants and the wild cards and the whole damn thing,

Cheryl might take Tim back.

Yeah, see that?

There's a chance.

There might be a way for Tim to get Cheryl back.

Who on the bucko board out there

say, listen, Cheryl, I know you're at this game.

Okay, please.

I didn't mean to kiss your sister like that.

Screw it up.

Signed Tim.

Cheryl knew exactly what he was talking about.

That was for an audience of one right there.

Maybe two, because Jesus Christ could be looking down and appreciating Tim's apology in a very public place.

But I think Cheryl might be gone for good, Tim.

I think there's a chance Tim needs to maybe turn his attention to Cheryl's sister and/or

other fishing to see and be a better person.

I think that is something for Tim to think about.

I would say go outside the family, you know, leave the sister alone.

He made a mistake, you know, everybody.

Yeah, but if you're in the family, at least you understand how they kind of operate.

I don't know how y'all get to see it.

And it's clearly got a little chemistry out there.

Yeah, you got it.

I don't think it's no coming back for Cheryl.

She's out of there.

Understandably so.

I mean, it's a lot of fishing to see.

Sister, was it dark?

Did you think?

No, are they true?

I need more context.

If I know Tim.

And we do.

I think we've met Tim a few times.

Tim had 10, 12 beers.

Yeah, sure.

Maybe a couple shots.

He's lucky.

He's had a long week.

Okay.

Enjoying the shit out of the night that was happening.

Walks in.

Hey, how are we doing?

You were pretty beautiful.

Yeah.

And then he just happens to fall face first into who he thought was maybe Cheryl.

Yeah.

Get some of that sugar.

I was thinking he probably had like 10, like you said, 10, 12 icy lights after a long work week.

He was down at a Donnie Iris concert, downstation scare.

Cheryl went to the bathroom.

Donnie played one of his romance songs.

Alia.

Yeah.

And he said, it got to happen.

Sucks face.

Yep.

Hey, for every show.

There's a chance Tim and Cheryl's sister and Cheryl will say were at a Bucos game.

Sure.

Pittsburgh Pirates.

And they got a big time win.

It was during one of these runs.

Zambelli fireworks go off.

Cheryl has to go puke.

Maybe Tim says, look how beautiful these fireworks are.

Should kiss.

Kiss cam?

They suck face.

Maybe on the kiss cam.

Yeah, maybe on the kiss cam.

That's what Pittsburgh Love's all about for Tim and Cheryl.

And I think if the Buccos were to win the super pennant, Cheryl will get back there.

The fact that that's real also, Matt.

Awesome.

Oh, you think it's like an Angels in the Outfield situation where he said, tell you what, Angels win the Pennant.

I'll come back and be your dad.

Cheryl says, Buccos win the Pennant.

I'll come back and be your family.

Yeah, the only way it's going to happen, Tim, is if...

The fucking Pirates win the World Series.

And then this is what it's all about for Tim, the boys in the clubhouse.

Good luck.

Joining us now from a different sport.

I don't know if he has any inside information on Tim or Cheryl.

We will certainly try to get it from him.

Senior NBA Insider for ESPN, the handsome Sham Sharanya.

Yeah,

ladies and gentlemen, that's AJ Hawk.

Hawk over.

AJ.

Hawk, do we have.

Yeah, do we have Seams with Cheryl?

Oh, man.

I'm like, damn, I look totally different today.

Jesus, I look different.

Similar, though.

Similar, though.

You know, similar.

The whole.

No,

AJ's got

got the clean face.

He's always clean.

He always looks the same.

You know, the consistency is important.

Well, I think you are the exact same human half and since we met you.

Literally the same exact look.

Even have that same background.

Remember the spaceship background?

Now he's just big time on ESPN.

Anyways, AJ, great to see you, brother.

Shams, thank you for joining us.

I heard via...

Your shit, both an article and a tweet, that LeBron James has opted in to his player decision contract for 52 million bucks.

Congrats to him, that's a lot of money.

Way to go.

And then we also, I believe, continue to read on to this entire thing that they're evaluating the Lakers and they understand that there's not a few years left.

Here's the exact quote.

LeBron wants to compete for a championship.

He knows the Lakers are building for the future.

He understands that, but he values a realistic chance of winning it all.

We are very appreciative of the partnership that we've had for eight years with Genie Buss, who now has sold the team, and rob palinka and consider the lakers as a critical part of his career we understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future we do want to evaluate what's best for lebron at this stage in his life and career he wants to make every season he has left count and the lakers understand that and are supportive and want what's best for him okay so there's a lot that's said there but basically after reading it i found myself thinking, oh, he's doing the same thing as like what Yannis is doing.

Is that an accurate depiction of what's going on with these two superstars?

And how real is any of the conversation about Lakers and LeBron splitting potentially?

Similar situation in terms of like both players are evaluating, seeing what moves are made.

Both players want to compete for a championship, want to win a championship.

But I think dissimilar in this way, LeBron James is 40 years old.

He's going to be 41 years old in December.

He knows whether it's one season left, two seasons left, his time in the NBA is nearing its end.

And obviously, as Rich Paul made clear in his comments to me yesterday, they are prioritizing trying to compete in a quote-unquote realistic way to win a championship.

And behind the curtains of all that, what you can see is LeBron James, where he's at in his career.

He's got one, maybe two years left in his career.

He wants to end his career on his terms to an extent.

He wants to finish, you know, and end.

Oh, he froze up.

Don't talk about him.

Uh-oh.

Oh, no.

Sorry, sorry.

Yeah, we lost you there a little bit.

You were about to say he wants to.

He wants to end.

Clearly, he wants to end his career on his terms, his way, as far as competing for a championship, trying to realistically have a chance to win a championship.

And I think in those comments that we saw from Rich Paul,

an understanding that the Lakers are moving younger, they're moving toward the future and prioritizing Luka Doncic, really as they should.

And from what I gather, LeBron James understands where the Lakers are at

in their position as far as Luka Donchic is the face of this franchise for the next five to ten years.

That's who's going to be the face.

And so he understands that they're prioritizing that.

I don't think he's really asking for them to like change their ways or bring him back into the fold as the face of the franchise or

give him an extension.

He's, you know, I think a lot of people can see there what's going on.

And so he wants to finish at the highest level in his career, play at the highest level.

And whether that's in LA, whether that's going elsewhere, I mean, clearly,

depending on how the Lakers' free agency period goes, what they're able to do in free agency, obviously they want to center.

They're dealing with Dorian Finney Smith.

He opted out of his player option at $15.4 million.

If they lose him, what wing do they get to replace him?

So what moves do the Lakers make in the offseason where LeBron James looks at it and is like, you know what?

My best chance to win a championship is right here.

And I think those are hard conversations that they're going to have next week, the week after that, and at some point in July, for real.

Okay, those quotes came from Rich Paul, who's obviously agent, entrepreneur, maybe the greatest hustler in the history of the United States of America.

I saw some clips of him talking to Matt Ishbia, chit-chatting about what could happen in the draft, him making some calls that ended with Kamon Maluak ending up with the Phoenix Suns.

So, I mean, Rich Paul, obviously, legend, and whenever he says something, there's obviously a reason behind it and a meaning, we would assume, especially if you're reporting it at this exact time.

And Giannis doing the same thing.

I think this is kind of a normal thing in the NBA.

Did we expect this from LeBron?

This type of thing.

And is Luca not,

you know, how's Luca feel about all this stuff?

Luca Dachesh was made aware, him and his circle were made aware before this came out.

But

what I would say

is it is unusual to an extent because, I mean, players have options all the time.

I mean, you're either going to opt in and you're working toward a trade or you're

set in your situation or you're opting out and you're a legitimate free agent.

In this situation, LeBron James had $52.6 million player option.

Of course, he's going to opt into that.

When you look at the marketplace, there are only a couple teams with MAC, with true max salary space, and that's Brooklyn.

Charlotte's got some money.

Detroit's got some money.

But there's not, you know, are those teams really LeBron James teams?

Probably not.

And so LeBron James had really one choice, and that was to opt in and from there evaluate what the best fit is.

And listen, we know he's going to play 23 NBA seasons.

That much we know.

We don't know if he's going to play more than one more season.

That's still something I'm sure he, he, his family, they've all got to decide.

But the one thing we do know now is that he's evaluating.

how he wants to finish his career, where he wants to finish his career.

Is it going to be in LA?

And again, the Lakers have this upcoming week, the next two weeks.

There's free agency.

There's trades.

This is a very busy moment.

And Rob Polinka, the president of Vassal Operations, he just got Luka Dachich in February.

That's a trade, obviously, that's going to go down in the history books.

So clearly,

he's not immune to wheeling and dealing.

This is what he does.

But again, these next two weeks, we'll see what happens.

Yeah, the thought of who's...

I mean, Debuff's got a follow-up there.

You talked about the money thing.

Would that be if he was to to opt out, then he becomes a free agent?

Then those people would have to pay.

Well, that's the thing.

If you opt out of $52.6 million

and there's only three teams with that type of salary cap space, right?

You're probably not going to go to those three teams.

After that, you're just looking at mid-level exception type deals, and that's around $15 million a year.

So, you know, the people that are like, oh, if you wanted to just leave, I mean, yeah, I mean, to opt out and then sign for 15 million, I mean,

sacrificing 40 million.

I mean, yeah, that'd be an interesting interesting business move from somebody that's a very business person.

I don't know any business savvy person doing that.

But who knows?

You mentioned Brooklyn and Detroit there.

Are those the only, I guess, realistic options for even if you could move players?

I saw people saying Cleveland, but they would have to do too much, been in the second apron.

So are those the only two realistic

landing spots potentially for LeBron?

I mean, we don't know how it's going to play out, but in the event or in a scenario where it does lead to him on, you know, in free agency, I mean, at that point, he could, I mean, it could be really anything.

It could be a minimum.

It could be an exception.

I think that becomes secondary, right?

Like, at that point,

if there is a resolution, it's about just figuring out what spot.

Yeah, he already tweeted about wanting to be a pacer.

So

I don't know what we're talking about.

He already said, I want to play with Tyree Salibur.

He said anybody would, and he was obviously a part of anybody.

Mrs.

Miami.

I don't know because chocolate chip cookies have actually been pretty wait till he tries the chocolate chip cookies out here.

I mean, if LeBron James is moving, obviously that would be a huge ordeal.

And we would all be pumped up that are in sports media forced to talk about sports every single day.

We would be very thankful for that type of thing.

The one thing, though, that makes this interesting is this is really Pat like a partnership, right?

Like the Lakers, LeBron James, they've been together for seven, eight seasons now.

And he won a championship there.

He won two conference finals there.

I mean before he got there they weren't they weren't a playoff team.

He gets there.

Obviously they get Anthony Davis.

They become a perennial contender year after year.

So that partnership, that relationship, that's why these conversations, that's why you have open direct dialogue between both sides.

Genie Buss, Rob Polinka, Rich Paul from an agent level, from a representative level, LeBron James himself.

I mean, just I mean, just at the draft, like the Lakers just drafted Adu Thoreau, a big man in the second round.

They moved up to go draft him.

That's a clutch towards client.

So, like, just because of whatever is going down here or what the statements are that we're seeing, and LeBron James clearly wants to finish his career on his own terms and wants to make the best decision for himself, just like the Lakers are making the best decisions for themselves.

Like, those both can be true while the two sides can conduct business together.

Yeah, I'll be excited to see how it all works out.

That would be huge.

If Giannis moves,

is there any update on Giannis?

Well, Giannis is going to continue to.

Don't be obligated.

Don't are obligated.

If there's no update, you say there's no update.

There's no update.

It's exactly where it's been.

All right, good, good.

Yeah, that's an okay thing.

So Giannis is exactly where it's at.

It's going to continue to monitor the moves that are made.

And now LeBron is in the monitoring camp as well.

Sure.

And then if that whole thing was to go, the most craziest offseason of all time would certainly take place.

Now, you talked about the Lakers, or we just talked about LeBron watching the Lakers.

Go ahead, Ty.

Yeah, Shams, you mentioned the Lakers needing a center.

And then we just saw, I think it was last night, that DeAndre Ayton and the Blazers have agreed to a buyout, so he's going to become a free agent.

Is this someone that the Lakers will be targeting big time?

And if not him, I would imagine that the Lakers need to do something pretty soon here, right?

If you're thinking that, hey, LeBron might be out of town if we don't start doing something here soon.

Ty's this surprised everyone in the NBA.

When DeAndre Ayton got bought out, he had about $35 million left on his deal.

And so he gets a buyout.

This is a former number one overall pick.

I saw a stat seven straight years of 10 points, 10 rebounds a game.

He's one of four players to do that for seven of the last seasons.

He's a guy that was that was a top three player on the Suns Finals team in 2021.

So the guy can play.

And from my understanding, is him, his reps, they went to the Blazers, talked about how he wants to be in a winning situation, the fact that the Blazers have four or five centers on their roster.

Young players, they're clearly transitioning more toward their young centers.

And they just decided, listen, a buyout is probably the best route for both sides, give both sides a fresh opportunity.

So now he's in the marketplace.

That throws a massive wrinkle into not only the Lakers at center, but other teams at center.

So DeAndre Ayton immediately moves to the forefront, but then you have Brooke Lopez, you have Clint Capella, Al Horford.

So those four center free agents, suddenly you're looking at a center crop that's going to be very, very

active.

This is a pretty big-time center class we're seeing right now.

So I would expect the Lakers to look into all those players once free agency starts tonight.

You know, DeAndre doesn't clear waivers until Wednesday, so that'll take a little bit more time.

But the Lakers will be shoring up meetings, from my understanding, with other available free agent centers tonight and into the next couple days.

Okay, so there's a lot of moves potentially about to take place and about to happen.

Big names potentially rolling out of town in a lot of different towns.

Their apron talk has really become, I think, a driver or a motivator for teams to make more moves, especially to big contracts.

Connor has a question for you yeah Charles you caught the Celtics kind of having to change their lineup because of the looming contract situation and it feels like now the Mavericks are kind of entering into that realm if you will between Clay and Kyrie and AD and now Cooper Flag of course and a couple other guys on that team that are kind of warranting more money Gafford they gave $60 million

could you make the argument that this year is kind of the only year we'll see the Mavericks with this kind of lineup Do you think they're kind of already looking forward and seeing what they're going to have to inevitably do because of how terribly set up the CBA is with this second apron bullshit?

Or do you see how maybe it changes and the Mavericks are able to retain everybody because it feels like the worst possible thing you can do is have a bunch of good players on your team now?

So basically, the Mavericks, from my valuation and how I've evaluated their structure right now, they're out of the second apron.

They are essentially a taxpaying first apron type team.

And there aren't any contracts really that they're bringing in right now or that they're signing.

You know, the fact that Kyrie Irving took three years, 119, that has now allowed them to use their five-point, I think, $4 million taxpayer mid-level exception.

You know, they're going to look at starting, you know, starting caliber point guards, D'Angelo Russo, Chris Paul, Malcolm Brogdon.

Those are conversations that are going to go on tonight to go get those players.

So they've actually been able to keep

their salary numbers low.

Now, again, again, until Cooper Flag hits in a few years when he's going to be a potential max contract, then we're having a different conversation.

But this year and really the next two, they're well positioned to stay out of the second apron.

And that means if they want to keep their group together, they can.

Now, obviously, they could make changes as well.

But they have actually, the way they've lined it up this year and the next two,

they're looking like they're going to be out of that vaunted second apron.

There is a lot of shit to talk about in the NBA, isn't there?

Oh, yeah.

Listen, a second apron.

You know what?

There were a lot of deals.

There were a lot of deals yesterday popping off, Pat, and we're not even going yet.

Up to something season.

Yeah, there was a lot of player options.

Five hours away, baby.

I mean, this is yesterday.

I just saw massive numbers with players decided to, yeah, I guess I'll take 45 million.

Player decided to, yeah.

That sounds good to 32 million a year.

There was a bunch of those yesterday that were kind of popping off.

Sunday, that was where the LeBron James opt-in and then the conversation around that really all began.

And then free agency tonight, we should expect a lot more is what you're saying.

It sounds like.

There's going to be some big deals tonight, Pat.

There's going to be some big deals tonight, Pat.

That was good.

Oh, you're pretty, you're

eager for this evening.

Big, big ones?

Yeah, how big are we talking?

You talking most craziest, big?

Better be.

Not yet.

Not yet, not yet.

Because people were very, very underwhelmed with the Nas Reed contract.

They thought that was highway robbery.

That was not most craziest off-season type material.

I don't know.

I saw a Minnesota Timber Wolf sign Nas Reed to a five-year, $125 million contract to stay with the franchise, including a player-ups.

Congratulations, Dawn.

I feel you, Nas.

Congratulations.

He was kind of the guy.

That's a big deal.

Then Julius Randall gets three years, $100 million.

So that is actually really big for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

You bring back Julius Randle.

You bring back Nas Reed.

Those are two big free agents.

They want to keep that core together around Anthony Edwards, Rudy Goberts back, obviously.

Jaden McDaniel's.

The one guy, though, that the Minnesota Timberwolves are going to lose, though, Nikhil Alexander Walker, Shea Gilles Alexander's cousin, he played some great defense all throughout the playoffs, was a big factor on both ends of the floor.

Three-point shooting, but my feel right now is that he will be departing the Timberlools.

He'll go somewhere else on a pretty big contract as well.

Well, good luck to him.

I hope everybody gets all the money that they've earned through hard work and what the current CBA is with the NBA, where a lot of people get a lot of money.

One guy who's supposed to get a lot of money is no longer in the middle of getting a lot of money, it seems like.

AP Tone has a question for you.

Yeah, Shams, all those contracts are good news.

You shared some bad news yesterday about Malik Beasley.

He's being investigated by the USDA's office for potential gambling, you know, in-game, stuff like that.

This has happened in the NBA a couple of times the last few years, but he is definitely the biggest name, the best player that it's happened with.

What do we know as of recently with Malik Beasley?

As of right now, it's an active investigation and it centers around allegations around the 2023-24 NBA season.

So it wasn't this past season, but the 2023-24 season.

And it's around gambling on NBA games, prop bets, things of that sort.

We don't know how vast and how big this could get.

I will say, though, it is important to say, his attorney, Steve Haney, gave me a quote.

He said, an investigation is not a charge.

Malik is afforded the same right, the presumption of innocence as anyone else under the U.S.

Constitution.

He has not been charged with anything as of right now.

But the facts also are this.

The Pistons and Balik Busy, from my understanding, they were set to reach an agreement on a three-year $42 million deal to bring him back to the Pistons.

He had an unbelievable year for the Pistons last year.

He was an unbelievable leader for the Pistons.

He fit so well around Cade Cunningham

in that back court.

He had the second most made threes of any player in the NBA behind Anthony Edwards.

And so that deal was pretty much on track.

That deal is no longer, as of right now, it is on complete pause.

I mean, his entire really free agent market right now is frozen because of this investigation.

And so for this to happen on the eve of free agency to one of the top free agents, one of the best shooters in the NBA, there's a ton of uncertainty around this situation.

Again, he has not been charged yet.

This is a very active federal investigation.

Okay, so thank you for that information.

And hopefully if he's found innocent inevitably, you're not pressed with any charges.

Hopefully this deal will still be available for him or he'll be able to get it somewhere else.

Obviously, we will be we'll have journalistic ethics and we will cover it if he is found to not be guilty of this because getting covered of this basically makes everybody's natural opinion to go, well, there's a reason that a DA's office is doing this.

That is just people's natural reaction.

So if he is innocent and there's no charges pressed against him, I hope all this money and I hope the conversation is brought up that he didn't do anything wrong.

Now, if he did, we just saw Jante Porter, what, two years ago, I believe, because of an investigation, get a lifetime ban on prop betting, I believe.

And then Terry Rozier, I believe, had an investigation, but then that thing disappeared.

So hopefully he has been cleared.

And if that is the case, hopefully, we know that and we can tell the world about it.

It's happened in football.

Terry Rozier, as of right now,

has been cleared.

I mean, he finished the season with Miami.

There's really nothing really active as of right now with him.

That's good news.

The NBA did, NBA spokesman Mike Bass did give a statement to me yesterday.

He said that the league is cooperating with the federal prosecutors.

So the league essentially, I mean, this is a federal matter now.

Like this is this is in the hands of the courts now.

So what does that mean?

It's a big enough amount of money that it's federal, that it would be some sort of scheming, some conning, some,

why would it be, is this the same as Jante Porter's as well?

I mean, to my knowledge, it's the same kind of district area in New York.

I, again, don't know how vast, how big this one is in comparison to Jante Porter, but the league has said at this point their measure is to work and cooperate with federal authorities interesting that's a big deal because i mean a lot of people point out the uh

the hypocrisy of us because we talk about sports and sports betting is such a just a natural part of conversation now in sport.

And obviously a lot of people are benefiting from it, us included.

We will not say that we are not a company that has certainly benefited greatly from the sports gambling world.

Shouts Fandu, by the way.

Yeah,

Shatz Fandu will change all of our lives, change everything.

And obviously, ESPN Bet Now is with ESPN.

The difference is that whenever you're competing in the sport,

if you were to do what we do as retired athletes, which is why our message is always like, hey, when you retire, it's going to be there.

Just wait.

It's going to be there.

And it's going to be awesome.

And you're going to be able to get better at it, actually.

because you're going to be able to actually focus on it as opposed to have somebody have leverage over you for the rest of your life with what's happening now.

So it's like, I understand there could be some hypocrisy.

See, also, the games have to keep their integrity.

That Tim Donaghy stuff still makes people think that the game is a work.

I mean, that is like the biggest part of all these leagues is has to, people have to think that this isn't a work.

People have to believe that their team can win and that they can just out-effort and out-execute.

So that's why, as former players, I think it's a bad idea to have gambling and I think it should be stern punishments.

Like a lot of people try to like like say, Well, compared to this, you're getting this like lifetime ban.

And they're letting this.

It's like, because that would fuck it up for everybody.

Like, everybody in every league, everybody in the league, every person, every family.

It just, it ruins everything.

So, I hope that what they're saying or alleging, and I saw some videos.

Oh, yeah, I saw some videos on X

are not true about Malik Beasley.

And I hope this doesn't become a big thing because we'll lose our leagues.

Yeah, we can't have that.

Can't lose our leagues.

You know what I mean?

This, this, Pat, Pat, though, this does have from a perspective of basketball and free agent.

Like, I'm an NBA insider.

My job is to break news.

This Malik Beasley situation had a direct impact on free agency.

He was one of the best players in free agency.

He has an impact on the Pistons.

He has an impact on at least four or five other free agents.

Like, the domino effect that has come from this

is a lot bigger than just a normal person realizes.

Like, it impacted who Detroit's now going to go after in free agency, what other teams are, like, it has a trickle-down effect.

So that's why the timing of this was probably, you know, why it was what it was.

But, I mean, yeah, I mean, in the case of what could have been for Malik Vizi versus what it is, it's not, you know, it's not the most ideal.

All right, we move on.

Good luck, Malik.

We hope you didn't do anything.

If you did, though, they're going to find out.

Yeah, no doubt.

They know exactly where you're at right now.

Got your show through.

If you stop to pee for longer than 35 seconds, they're going to send you a message on your watch saying, are you all right?

I mean, they know everything.

They know everything.

uh go ahead aj

uh you're muted it's moron's muted you muted your mic and forgot to unmute it

no it was it was actually you got me now yeah

yeah

i got you it was through face time it was with the face time situation shams dawn still the next head coach in the new york knicks is that true

uh that is not something that has come at my desk the knicks to my knowledge

don't go that go again i it's not something that has hit my desk as of yet.

But listen, the Knicks are going through their process.

I'm sure they're talking to several candidates.

James Borrego, Taylor Jenkins, Mike Brown, Micah Nori.

Those are the known interviews so far that I have.

I will say this.

I watched Coach Jenny for the Pacers kick ass through this entire playoff series.

She is awesome.

I also learned about her story.

I think she's a single mom as well.

Her daughter has kind of grown up around the teams that she has coached.

She's great for the Pacers.

And Don Don Staley, obviously, basketball G.

Everybody likes Don Staley.

Good luck.

That'd be a huge play.

That'd be a huge.

That'd be the most craziest offseason ever.

Yes.

And we'd be obviously very celebratory in all of it.

All right, Shams.

We appreciate the hell out of you for joining us, man.

Good luck figuring out federal investigations.

Good luck for-

Okay, yeah, four more hours for free agency, but you're also going to be in the middle of some federal investigation stuff with Malik Beasley.

Good luck with those things coming across your desk.

You know, we're going to need you to kind of figure all this shit out.

I'm bobbing the weaving.

I'm doing it all, baby.

Do you remember when he was down at City Hall in New York when Kyrie Irving stuff was going on?

Yep.

My sources told me at City Hall is what he said with a straight face.

It was unbelievable.

You're the man, ladies and gentlemen, Sean Shirani.

Yay, it's all.

That's real.

Yeah, he was.

He would come on our show.

My sources at New York City Hall are telling me, yada, yada, yada.

And it was like, what a piece of information there.

Kyrie was in the middle.

That was crazy.

Kyrie could go go as a spectator.

Remember, he could get the seat right next to the Knicks bench.

Yep.

So stupid.

Could basically sit on

the Knicks bench.

And he did.

And it became a big story.

Could not be a part of the Knicks organization, though, because of, you know,

he wouldn't get the show.

Wow.

The Nats.

Wow.

Knicks.

Oh, I'm sorry.

The Nats.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Geez, that's 100% on me.

In Brooklyn, in New York.

Knicks on the mind.

We were just talking about.

Hey, what if Don Staley is the head coach?

You're right.

That would be most craziest offseason ever territory.

That would be such a massive swing.

That would be huge.

Yeah.

Then what if they bring in LeBron to the Knicks?

So all they were talking, because, you know, that creepy video was released.

Very creepy.

I don't like that.

That was in New York, too.

Wasn't it?

Maybe not.

I thought it was.

Yeah, I thought it was in New York.

That was weird.

Did you see this, AJ?

I don't think so.

No.

We are not going to run it because it's a creepy video, but a lot of people just spread it.

And it was a creepy video.

LeBron at dinner, like sitting a couple seats out.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I saw that.

Yeah.

Whoever recorded it.

Like a Benny Hanna?

Yeah, it was like a Benny Hana situation.

And you would have thought that LeBron at a Benny Hanna would have the entire thing for him and team.

Exactly.

Feels like maybe he didn't.

I don't know, just the way the video came off.

So this one guy is recording LeBron at Benny Hanna.

Holy shit,

I'm eating Benny Hanna with LeBron.

He turns to the chef, obviously, because the show's going on.

And then in the background, overheard LeBron saying he might retire, play one year, and he likes New York, and his wife wants him to retire and all this shit.

So like, then that just spreads, you know?

And that's a background conversation in a video of a guy who didn't appear to be with him, but nonetheless, but everybody started pushing that.

And it's like, he said something about New York before anything started spreading.

He loves Madison Square Guard.

Uh-huh.

He does.

It would make some sense.

It would make some sense.

It definitely would.

And it's in the East.

The whole conversation about the East right now with Tyrese and Tatum.

What if LeBron's player coach over there for the New York Knicks?

Oh, nothing.

Nothing happens by accident, Jackson, with LeBron.

This hasn't happened for 23 years.

A conversation at dinner late.

And it was weird.

Oh, you're saying.

You're saying that was a work.

You know, maybe, maybe, maybe it's a work.

He's the best worker in the world.

LeBron would have the entire Beni Honda.

Probably.

He would sit there.

It was a double date, though.

But it was a double date.

It was with Kevin Love and Kevin Love's wife.

Now, what Kevin Love's wife is.

That's close circle.

No, that's close.

That's fam.

That's before.

That's fam.

I don't know.

I know, but that's what I'm saying.

Like, if LeBron or Savannah calls and they're like, hey, the Jameses are coming through tonight, obviously they're going to, okay, fine.

But if Kevin Love's wife, Kevin Love can get a private.

But we don't know.

Since this is in New York, this might be Kay Love's, you know, home base.

They're like, oh, Kay Love's coming back through with his wife.

Let's go.

It's a double date night.

We'll put him at the cool table with all of our other people.

I understand we need the fool Benny Hall on us.

Yeah.

Okay, I understand what you're saying.

Might not have been possible.

It might have been a last-second decision.

Whatever the case.

I didn't like that people were spreading that video.

News.

It's got to be against the law.

I almost, I almost commented on one of the very big accounts and was like, Hey, there's some real creep shit here.

There's some real, you know, recorder without known.

I guess paparazzi's have kind of made it a business in of itself, but it's like, yeah, but paparazzi is like they know, you know, like for the most part, like they're taking pictures at him.

Like, this guy is trying to be coy, like, not doing it, but he's picking up the audio.

To be clear, LeBron's got to know that.

True.

I've been at dinner with some people,

and we are very much in the middle of a restaurant, and people are just saying stuff and i'm like hey oh yeah i've been there what do we

everybody can hear you right now bud i think that happens all the time i don't want to sound like that narcissistic prick right now okay but the moment that we walked in here

everybody knew we were in here okay because probably nowadays whenever we go out it is like a fucking fool group rolls in everybody as soon as we walk into everywhere we go and then if we sit down in the middle of a

public area oh very quiet all of a sudden you you know, and then and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, everybody in here is listening to our entire conversation right now.

Let's understand that.

Not everybody understands that.

People are very loud.

Sounds like LeBron, loud talker.

Absolutely.

Bron, no.

That was public.

And I mean, him and King.

You can't be 10.

You're not going anywhere very exactly.

MBA guys.

You have no chance.

I don't know.

It was creepy.

The video was creepy.

But I mean, I'm sure LeBron's not, you know, stressing about that bit.

You know, this is.

Was it hibachi table?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's easy to get carried away there.

You get excited.

You get captivated by what's going on.

Shooting the sake.

Yeah.

The sake's peeing in the guy.

How about poo?

Pooh.

Catch you off the hat.

What a play.

How about one of that?

Pine, pine, pine.

Shrimps.

Yeah, throw a shrimp.

It feels good.

Good point, Dick.

They make us dance.

Little sake guy.

Hey.

Everybody goes crazy.

Oh, my God.

I was a Hibachi fan.

We all were.

Obviously.

Obviously.

It's great.

I'm getting a full show here.

Yeah.

And then if if somebody messed up, obviously we got a full on.

Ho, ho, ho.

Let's go back to the beginning.

Let's restart that thing.

Start the period over.

Let's go back to the show.

Ladies and gentlemen, speaking of the show,

there's a man who is in the show who is doing something that no person in the history of his position has done.

He's a catcher, which obviously I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so I know Jason Kendall.

Sure.

The catcher.

I understand everything about it.

But the catcher position, obviously, involved in every single pitch, crouched over.

You know, obviously you would hope that they'd be great on the offensive side of the ball, but you don't know if they expect that they are going to be the best in the entire league.

Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now from the Seattle Mariners, we're the number two team in the AL West.

Affectionately known

by many as big

dumper Kyrley.

Kyle Rowley.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Can I please say congratulations on a phenomenal everything that you have going on right now?

We put up all the records and also I believe all-star voting is taking place right now.

This is phase two, which is not phase one, even though he had a huge lead in phase one because of the performance that he's had thus far.

Phase two, everything's wiped clean.

You got to revote, okay?

You got to revote.

Only one hashtag vote can be used per person.

You got to go to mariners.com forward slash vote to get this man into the all-star game, which obviously you have earned it and deserved it with your performance thus far.

Let's talk about your performance thus far.

We have learned about you because it's the greatest nickname I've ever heard about in sports: Big Dumper.

Now, we were told by Jet Passin that your mom maybe doesn't love Big Dumper, so we started saying Big Thumper a little bit, you know, because it's in the ballpark, but it's more so thumping a ball or doing that.

Does your mom hate Big Dumper?

How do you feel about Big Dumper?

The nickname?

Yeah, I mean, it's not the one, not the one you write up, right?

as far as nicknames go, but uh, no, my mom's learned, she's, she's, she's learned to love it, so uh, she's all good with it.

I think it's great.

Um, everybody here in Seattle loves it, and it's uh, like I said, I said it a few times, the uh

more fans now they're wearing big dumper jerseys than they are Raleigh jerseys, so it's uh, it's become like a little fan favorite thing.

Okay, so we can say big dumper and sleep soundly at night, not knowing we're not.

Oh, yeah, okay, you're good, ladies and gentlemen, big fucking dumper.

Yeah.

Cow Rolling.

Yeah.

All right, let's get to it.

What you're doing at the catcher position is obviously historic.

Have you always been a catcher?

When have you always been a big bat?

And why aren't catchers always known for hitting dingers?

I'd watch Jason Kendall walk up there.

No gloves, massive chaw.

And obviously he would do his thing.

But the catching position, it feels like what you were doing, it is being talked about as historic, legendary, anomaly-like stuff.

Why is that as a whole, Cal, for a baseball idiot like myself

well yeah i mean catchers uh glove first position right so you know their job is really to play good defense take care of the pitching staff run a run a good game um you know help uh help the pitchers get through really it's their kind of their job so and the bat kind of comes secondary and everybody really knows that so it's uh it's almost a plus if if catchers can hit sometimes so um you know it's just it's a tough position you know you're you're constantly squatted down you're it's a lot of wear and tear on the knees and the body.

And, you know, there's some built-in off days there.

And you've seen some teams just go with a full platoon style

catching system.

So

you want to keep guys fresh.

And you don't see as many

main

starting catchers anymore.

So,

yeah, it's just.

It's a tough position on the body and mentally.

And I'd say that's probably why you don't see as many catchers put up the offensive numbers that you see some of the, you know, Aaron Judges and Shohei Otanis.

That's why Big Dump's old school.

It's different.

You know what I mean?

Big Dump's an old school catcher out there.

How old are you, Dump?

I'm 28.

Did you guys have knee savers?

Did you use those when you were growing up, the knee savers, or did you hate those?

Yeah, I think in Little League, one or two years, I had those built in.

I thought those were supposed to save you guys.

You guys weren't supposed to be as sore from crouching.

I had to hold, you know, for like field goals.

I had to hold.

That's one.

We do three times a game, four times a game, maybe.

I would get up.

Ah, shit, you know, like that.

That's how I would go.

You guys literally having to crouch the entire game.

It's been something that I've been on 80 milligrams for.

And I've actually thought, this dude is in a deep squat for three and a half, four hours.

So the fact that you're able to get, is there anything you do differently than other players to get your shit back activated?

Or is there anything you've changed your focus on?

to become a better hitter in this entire thing whenever it comes to taking care of your body.

Big dumper, obviously, we're doing a lot of legs.

We're a deep squat.

That's why we got this massive ass.

That's what we're doing around here.

But is there things you have to do, you think, to make yourself handle all of that while also being good with the bat?

I mean, yeah, you just, you learn over time.

And

I'd say once you got into Pro Ball,

you're starting to play, you know, 140 games and you get to big leagues, you're playing 162.

So you just learn how to take care of yourself.

You do the right things in the offseason as far as lifting goes.

And then after a while, you know, you kind of just, you almost get used to it in a way, you know, just because you're doing it so much and you learn what your body needs and what it, what it doesn't need.

And

it's just one of those things.

You just got to every day kind of be consistent with what you do.

And I'd say the more often you can do that, the

easier it becomes.

I don't think it ever becomes easy, but, you know, there's, there's some days where you're feeling a little more than others, you know, day games or maybe a day after

a long, like extra inning game probably.

Yeah, because you guys are on tour for what, seven months straight or whatever.

Hey, squat, buddy.

Come on.

Get down there.

Go to a new city.

Squat, brother.

Need you to do that here in the middle of this ballpark.

Great views, though, from where you're at.

Everybody's paying to be where you are.

You know, a lot of money.

Everybody's paying to be where you are.

Pittsburgh is the best park you've ever been to.

Yep.

It's a pretty cool park.

I'm not going to lie.

I liked playing there.

I assume that means you did well.

Okay.

AJ has a question for you.

Okay, relax, dump.

Please.

Yeah, obviously

you're a product of your own success, and you've been so successful.

You're getting intentionally walked, it seems like, more and more as time goes.

What do you, I guess, how do you attack at-bats knowing that, hey, I may only get one or two good pitches to hit each game?

Like, how does that change your impact at the plate?

Yeah, I mean, I think sometimes it can kind of mess with you a little bit, you know, get in your head as far as like, oh, you know, are these guys going to pitch to me?

Are they not going to pitch to me?

But I've kind of found that, you know, the more you can just keep it the same and just have that same kind of approach every single time.

And I think it's like, it's like, if you're ready to go and you're prepared, then

you don't have to worry about anything.

You'll be fine.

Like you'll swing at the pitches you want to swing at.

You'll take the ones you want to.

And it's baseball.

Sometimes you're going to chase, sometimes you're going to miss, and sometimes you're going to hit it.

So you just got to be ready every single time and not expect to go up there and get walked because that's when you kind of mess yourself up a little bit, I'd say.

For you hitting, whenever you bounce back and forth from either side of the plate,

what are you looking at?

Is it some pitchers that you know that you're better on this side of the plate?

Is it, oh, right arm's loser?

Let's go ahead and make the left arm the lead arm.

Like what is the decision-making process on why you're on either side of the plate?

No, it's mainly just whatever,

whatever arm is on the mound.

So if a righty's throwing him hitting lefty.

If a lefty's throwing him hitting righty.

You know, it's kind of because of the breaking balls.

You want breaking balls coming into you rather than going away from you.

So really the only pitch that I had to worry about at the end of the day is change-ups just going away from me.

So, that's the only one.

Yeah, that's kind of why switch hitters do it.

You know, kind of helps out.

You know, you don't have to face left on left, right, on right, which is notoriously, you know, a little tougher for people to do because, you know,

you got breaking balls, you got sinkers, you got things like that.

Sweepers, yeah, all those things.

Yeah, we know.

Sweepers, the new fad.

So

that's great pitch.

But yeah, there's, I mean, there's some guys like Tommy Edmond in the league.

He He goes, sometimes he'll go right on right,

you know, depending on what type of pitcher's throwing.

So it's actually kind of interesting how he does it.

You ever bought back and forth in and at bat?

Like, you know what?

I'm not seeing it good.

Let me go to the other side.

In the middle of the at-bat or maybe every pitch.

What do we see?

Oh, yeah.

Some Japanese high school player was bouncing.

Bounced a back and forth.

And he also did this one, too, I believe.

He crouched down, maybe

small strikes on back and forth.

It was a full show.

I'm not saying you should make a mockery out of this thing, but have you ever bounced back and forth in and at bat?

Never in at-bat.

I've switched mid-at-bat when they brought in a pitcher.

It was like a 2-1 count or something.

They brought in a new pitcher, so I switched to the other side.

But yeah, I mean, if you're switching back and forth the whole time, you're probably not in a good place on the other side of the plate.

Don't you think you should get a count for both of them?

Yeah.

They should have to strike out both of you.

Yeah.

That should be.

0-2 switching up.

All right, let's get to you having Monster Wood this year.

Monster.

Go ahead, Ty.

Yeah, Cal.

I think everyone who loves baseball is jacked up that you're going to be in the Derby this year.

But I'm just curious.

There's always that kind of rumor, and I don't think it's ever been proven or disproven, that once you get in the all-star game, in the home run derby specifically, it can kind of like fuck up your swing for the second half of the season.

I think you've gone six games in a row right now without a homer, which, you know, I mean, for your pace this year has been crazy, but people already say like, oh, you know, he's starting to lose it a little bit.

Like, are you worried at all about your swing getting messed up up in the Derby just because it's so much different than what you do night in, night out?

And also, how jacked up are you to have your dad pitching to you?

Yeah, I mean, first of all, I'm super excited to be doing it.

You know, it's kind of one of those like dream come true, dream come true kind of things, you know.

You know, as a kid, you always, you know, you find a fence somewhere and you pretend to play home run derby with your buddies.

And,

you know, getting my dad to throw to me.

I'm going to have my little brother.

He's going to be behind the plate catching for me.

He's 15.

So Is he a catcher as well?

Your dad's a catcher, right?

Former catcher.

Is he a catcher?

Yeah.

Yeah, my dad was a catcher.

My little brother, he's 15.

He's a catcher right now.

He's playing the whole travel ball thing.

And so he's pretty jacked up about it, too.

I would say the biggest asses in all the towns,

the Raleigh family, when they walk in.

Probably.

Three catchers walking in.

I think your dad was also coach, too, right?

I assume.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Dad was a coach and a catcher.

And yeah, my little brother,

he's kind of built just like me now.

He's a little taller than me now, actually, which is crazy at 15.

But oh, yeah,

yeah, we're blessed, we're blessed from that side of the family.

Yeah, amen, brother.

Great for being a catcher and for hitting while having a lot of power.

Will you bounce back and forth in there?

You might have,

yeah.

I mean, I think I want to.

I mean, I know right field's a little shorter, so lefty might be a little more primary, but oh, you'll be fresher, though.

Early rounds,

boom, and then pushing to the later round, going to righty, haven't hit yet all night.

Interesting.

Yeah, I mean, it'd be kind of cool, right?

Strategy, They would.

Yeah, two guys.

Kathleen Rushman did that a couple years ago in the Derby.

He didn't win it, but that was the best part of the night.

He was bouncing back and forth and just hitting bombs from the left side.

Could you imagine if they had graphics, dumper on your left,

dumper on your big dumper?

Sorry.

It's not just a regular dumper.

I am 100% apologetic for that.

If you were to win a home run derby, could you imagine this season being outrageous?

Man, D-Bud has a question for you, Calvin.

Coming into this season, did you know this was going to be a special season for you at the plate specifically?

What was it?

And at what point did you know, okay, this is, this is, I'm in a groove right now.

I'm really seeing it.

No, not really.

I mean, I actually had a pretty, pretty bad spring training in general.

So

it's kind of funny how it goes sometimes.

Yeah, I was just, I was trying to get ready for the season like a normal year.

And,

you know, things started clicking early on and just kind of stayed the course, really.

You know, I think when you play 162 games,

it's a lot.

It's a lot mentally, it's a lot physically, and a lot can change.

And

throughout a season, you go through a lot of ups and downs.

And when you go through those downs, you can't really kind of stray off the path.

So I think that's the biggest difference for me this year is, you know, in the past I've tried to change things or

maybe try to make adjustments that weren't technically needed.

And this year I've just really trusted the plan and what I've been trying to do.

And

I'd say that's probably the biggest difference for

why I'm, you know, where I'm at right now.

Are you a little bit stitched, superstitious, medium stitious?

What type of stitches level are we at?

I'm not superstitious, but I am a little stitchious.

Yeah, I can see that.

We're doing the same cleat, especially with all the gear that you have.

I assume there's some sort of what goes on first, when it goes on type shit.

Do you have that or no?

Oh, yeah.

I mean,

I'm pretty sure every ballplayer has their thing.

You know,

you hit a homer, you wear the same pair of socks, you know, same cup.

You put everything on the same way.

You know, cleats, the way you wear your pants, all the way down to what you ate the day before.

If you had a breakfast sandwich, you're going to eat the same breakfast sandwich.

You know, it's coffee, same thing.

So it's, I think every ball player's like that, though.

Yeah, respect.

Yeah, I love it.

I love that that's part of your sport.

With how long you guys are on the road and how much failing happens, finding some success and happiness, I assume, alongside of that is certainly something we're going to try to make the baseball gods continue to give to us.

Now, a man has a question for you that was once the catcher.

for the number 24 team in the United States of America at Plum High School as a member of the Mustangs.

Ladies Ladies and gentlemen, AP Town is quite.

That's true, Kyle.

Respect everything that you do.

He never wore knee savers either.

No, I did not, but I did wear the goalie mask helmet instead of the old school helmet that you are rocking right now.

I noticed that your off days from catching are not really off days because you're DHing.

I believe you've been in 82 of 83 games.

Do you find it harder at the plate when you don't have to catch?

Like catching gets you into the game more.

Do you hate games that you don't catch?

Yeah, earlier this year, I was

actually, it was like the first month or so of me DHing.

I think

I was really, really bad at it, you know, just because,

you know, when you're catching, you have so much activity going on.

You're worried about calling a game.

You're back there,

you know, framing, blocking, throwing people out, doing that whole thing.

And

you're so involved, you don't even really have time to think about hitting or anything else.

And then, and then all of a sudden you're DHing and you're sitting on the bench.

You're you're talking to pitchers who aren't playing and they're talking about, you know, God knows what.

Yeah, couldn't even fathom you baseball players.

You're

chewing seeds, you don't know what to do with yourself, and then you have to go hit.

And then, so sometimes you can throw you out of your rhythm a little bit.

So it's a little funky, but you know, I've kind of learned to find the right routine for that and the right mix in a way.

Hey, when you're framing, is it a wrist action, finger action?

What am I?

Yeah, a little more with the elbow there.

Go out.

That's right.

Oh, is that what you're pretty good.

That's

just a little, like, a press.

There you go.

Are you working the umps for strike zones?

How's that go between you guys?

Because I obviously see coaches get pissed.

I see pitchers get pissed.

You have to deal with them literally

on your back the entire game.

What are the relationships like with the umps?

Yeah, I mean, each one's different, right?

You know, they have different personalities.

Some are a lot more chatty.

Some are not want to talk at all.

Some are,

you know,

they want to know if they think they got that right or not.

So, you kind of play the middleman a little bit.

You know, you don't want to, you know, you're not getting on them all the time.

Like, you see, you know, hitters and coaches and maybe pitchers sometimes.

So, uh, but you just got to keep them in check.

You know, you got to make sure that you know, you guys are on the same page, you're being respectful, and uh, you're just having a relationship with them.

Just talk to them, really.

You know, I think that's the biggest thing.

That's a good idea, especially as a hitter.

It's like, let's, we want this guy to be my friend, yeah, all these guys, and you're right there in it.

I love you saying some guys ask if you thought it was a right call or not.

You'll say like, yo, yo, missed that.

Hey, we can't be having that.

Is that real?

Is that real interaction?

How regular is that?

Yeah, no, it's real.

I mean, guys, you know, umpires all the time, you know,

they're getting graded just like we are.

So, you know, they have their system of, you know, calling balls and strikes, and they want to get as many right as they can.

And so, you know, a lot of the time they're just like, you know, you with me on that one?

Or,

you know, did you think that one was off or you think it was on a little bit and you just kind of have that back and forth all game like i said usually things are always good when you when you're just you know being up front and just talking to them and uh things start to go a little little wiry when you start turning around maybe maybe saying things you shouldn't say but um which sometimes that happens you know it's part of the game and people uh there's money on the line and there's you know games on the line wins and losses so careers legacies yeah they can get emotional so uh you know sometimes it gets the best of people and it's it's happened a few times.

Yeah, it's life's work, too.

Like, hey, what you're doing is ruining an entire family, an entire life's work, a legacy, a career, let alone everything else.

In football, it's hard for these refs because some of the calls are obviously so close when it comes to holding.

You guys, it's literally like that much.

And then the catcher or the umpire, from what I've been told, I didn't play baseball growing up.

My dad wouldn't let me hate his sport.

Didn't like it.

Didn't like that he didn't like the sport.

I think I probably would have been an okay baseball player.

But nonetheless, I don't know shit about him.

I'm from Pittsburgh.

The Pirates have been terrible.

What I've learned is there's a lot of unwritten rules.

And I think like umpires have like their own strike zone.

So like that little box that's on TV, it's like that's not always the strike zone.

The umpire might have a different strike zone.

It's like, well, why is the box on the fucking TV?

Well, because this is still a human sport.

They're not able to make it a robot yet.

We shall see.

The conversation continues with Big Dumper on YouTube, ESPN Plus, Disney Plus, and TikTok Live.

We'll be back tomorrow.

Goodbye.

Okay, dump.

So I just had to call middle finger fastball to you there so you wouldn't talk.

We just had to get off ESPN.

Now we're going to continue on digital.

Okay, so we appreciate you hanging out and watching all that take place.

But that is a real thing, right?

These umps are working their own boxes.

And as a guy who sees the pitch, do you know that maybe a little bit more of a advantage in this thing?

Yeah, so I mean, it's kind of crazy.

You know, they had a, you know, they had their own zone and

what is the, you know, regulated strike zone.

And last year and the year before is they had this this two inch buffer zone inside and out of the zone which was something that you know if they got if they call a striker ball in that zone they weren't going to be docked you know points or whatever for calling the wrong pitch uh but this year they've shrunk it down to 0.75

and so now you're getting a lot a lot of umpires calling a little smaller of a zone and being a little tighter because uh you know they want umpires to get all the calls right so and as that's happened you've seen a lot more ball calls you're not seeing as many strikes

But in the past, you know, each umpire had their own zone.

You know, it was, it was kind of, you know, special to them.

And some people would give off the plate.

Some people would give up.

And some people would give down.

Some people wouldn't give down.

And it's just how it was.

And there were a lot of unwritten rules.

Like you said, you know, guys, you know, rookies, you know, you better be swinging.

It wasn't like, it wasn't like, you know, there's this strike zone, set strike zone where.

You had to get every call right.

They would let you know, you know, as soon as you got to the league, it's it's you better be swinging.

You're not going gonna get any special treatment.

You know, rookies are gonna

have a little bigger of a zone than the veteran guys are.

I love to hear that actually out of baseball.

Hey, you want to make it in this league?

We're going to need to see some action, earn it, sir.

Okay, and I love to swing.

I love it.

I love that the umpires are like, Yeah, that is a strike, okay?

And you're gonna shut your fucking mouth or get out of my league.

Okay, that's welcome.

I love that that was a thing because that is like baseball has that more than any other sport, I think, rules-wise.

Hockey has like unwritten rules, and it's like, we're gonna handle this.

Baseball, it's like, I mean, if they get the signals, they get the signals.

That's on you.

I guess that's a big deal.

Yes, I did my research and I thought about what I should ask a catcher in the MLB and what would be a good relevant question.

They're trying to get your shit all the time.

right?

They're trying to get your signals, your numbers, everything.

Are we dancing?

What is the do we do a couple dummy calls?

How do we and who's relaying?

How does that whole process go for somebody that doesn't really know?

Yeah, I mean, so there used to be, you know, everybody used to do fingers, you know, obviously putting them down.

But I think in 2022, they switched to the pitch comm, which is basically an earpiece, kind of like a football, you know, the quarterbacks have.

So now pitchers have an earpiece in there.

Catchers have the remote and they're controlling.

And they're, you know, I hit the button and it says fastball or it's slider.

So it's.

Is it your voice?

Is it your voice in there here?

Just some kind of random AI voice, you know.

Come on.

I think they should be better if it was Morgan Freeman.

Yeah, we should put maybe.

Maybe you should be able to select who's giving it

when you're driving.

Okay, so.

Yeah, but people, yeah, people used to steal signs all the time because they would, you know, especially now with video and stuff, they would, they just have, they literally would hire somebody, be like, all right, what's this guy's signs when he comes in the game?

There's runner at second base.

And they'd be like, all right, he uses second sign, shake the first.

And teams would already know that.

And then as soon as the guy gets in the game, they'd have their signs and they'd be relaying, you know, to the hitter.

And that's

what it kind of came to with all the cameras and stuff.

Yeah, and I heard garbage cans.

You know, we heard about the garbage cans and this entire thing.

But then I heard baseball people be like, meh, I mean, they kind of got it.

Let's just move along.

You know, it's like in the football, whenever the Patriots got caught for whatever, all people in football were like, meh.

Yeah, yeah, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible.

Let's move along.

Let's move along.

It's like a very interesting thing about the sport.

Now, you deal, obviously, with some of the most special people in the entire sports world.

Go ahead, Con Man.

Yeah, Big Dumper.

It feels as though most pitchers are lunatics, head cases, kind of walk to the beat of their own drum.

There's stories about Zach Grinky being an absolute psychopath in the best possible way, though.

Do you think that you have to kind of change how you call games and interact with pitchers based on who's pitching?

How does that kind of go for a catcher?

Sometimes, do you want to say something to a pitcher, but you you know, hey, nobody talks to this guy while he's pitching, so I can't really do that.

What is kind of the communication like between a catcher and a pitcher in that relationship?

Yeah, I mean, you have your pregame meeting pretty much every time with a starting pitcher.

And, you know, the way I kind of like to phrase it is, you know, you go over, and it's like scouting reports and videos.

And, you know, you have a plan.

Like you're in, you know, in football, you got your first 10 plays mapped out.

And it's kind of how you do it the first time through the order.

You got it kind of mapped out and then you know after that you kind of go from there based off what you're seeing some guys may be hot some guys maybe not and you might uh might have to change some things up and uh each guy's different right you know we have 13 pitchers on staff so that's 13 different personalities and so you got to learn how to deal with every single one of them some are like you said like a little crazier a little more psycho a little you know uh you know take that pre-workout red bowl to the head and

they're geeked out by the time they get in there and some are a little more calm and a little more you know rational at the time so it's just learning how to deal with those guys yeah I couldn't even fathom the amount of personalities that you have to keep uh focused and locked in good luck on all that they're professionals too let's act like adults out here but in baseball it feels like there's more blow-ups you know i love the i love the kicking of dirt in the hole i like that i like the benches clearing too i love the just the theatrics of it all we're jogging in from center field that's right okay we're jogging in from center just so on film they know we were with the boys whenever there was an opportunity to fight.

Now, let's go back to what you said there about first 15 for football.

Did you play football?

I think I went to one practice and I banged it.

All right, smart.

Dad catcher, you know, good ahead the whole time.

Cow would have been great.

Yeah.

Hey, you would have been a thumper, dude.

Fullback.

Yeah, big dumper would have been a thumper.

Okay, so first 15 for football is offense coordinators are trying to get an understanding of how the defense is going to react if we were to do this type of formation or this style of play.

And can they stop this?

Like if they can't stop this, we're going to go back to this.

While you're going through the lineup for the first time, are you getting a sense of whether or not a guy is, let's say, nervous, scared, or is not seeing it on a particular day?

And are you like trying to read body language and sounds or like aura almost while they're in there, while you're trying to call it?

Or do we have a system like this what we throw, this way we throw, then this is what we're doing?

Yeah, I mean, you know your guy.

So really you start off with with your pitcher strengths and depending on the day maybe the guy's throwing a little harder maybe he's throwing a little slower and and based off of that maybe you're you know seeing something different with him maybe he's locating maybe he's not locating maybe he's landing in secondaries maybe he's not so a lot of it starts with the pitcher and then based off of that um

you know especially if the guy has been around for a while uh you know players will start doing scouting reports you know they'll set you know they maybe they'll step off the play a little bit maybe they'll scoot up on the play a little bit and it kind of tells you what they're looking for and are maybe not looking for.

So

there's a lot that goes into it, like you said, with like body language.

And

you can kind of tell too, you know, if a guy takes an ugly swing or something, you know, maybe he's not seeing that pitch particularly well.

And that's kind of how it goes.

And how much are they looking at you?

Are you scared to give anything away back there?

Because I'll see you guys sometimes do a cool slide, you know, and I'm like, the batter, does not see that.

Is that a real tell or not a real tell?

Or can you not be seen by batter?

Yeah, I mean, you don't want to set up too early because sometimes you might give away location or in a location might give away a pitch.

So you got to, you got to just, you know, stay honest because, you know, you got people from dugout, you got people on base who may be watching.

And if you're setting up a certain way for a certain pitch every single time, that could maybe be a tell or something like that.

So you got to keep people honest.

And, you know, there's always somebody looking for that extra advantage.

You know, it's and it's usually somebody in the dugout or somebody on the base paths.

And, you know, sometimes all it takes is that one little thing that can make a difference in a game.

Have you seen Dumper?

He's got this cool slide.

You know what else is coming with the slide?

Curveball fucking thing coming every time.

You see that big ass slide to the outside.

Just know what's coming.

I love that you guys think about all these things because it's such an intimate, in such a fine line of success and failure, even though failure comes on a regular basis.

Not for you offensively, obviously, this year.

Ty is a question for you.

Yeah, Cal, obviously the power numbers have always been been there with you, but I think the most impressive thing when looking at what you've done this year is your batting average is like 50 points higher than your career average.

Do you feel like you've become a much more complete hitter this year?

And like, what was the work that went into it this offseason?

Because obviously, you know, like if you make contact, you're always going to be hitting home runs.

But I feel like you're hitting the ball to all fields incredibly well this year.

And obviously, you're not just that guy who, hey, you know, he's either going to home or he's going to strike out.

Like, that's not the case anymore.

Yeah, I think, you know, first couple of years in the big leagues, you know, obviously I knew I had the power.

It was just, you know, finding a way to put bat on the ball a little more often.

So

I think it just comes with learning yourself and learning the league and learning, you know, certain type of pitchers and what you need to do against those guys, what you need to do against, you know, other guys.

And,

you know, also credit, you know, Justin Turner a little bit too.

You know, he helped me out a lot last year.

He's with the Cubs now and he's been around for a while.

So he helped me a lot last year, you know, kind of learn how to approach certain guys.

And, but, yeah, like I said, you just sometimes it takes a little while to learn the league and learn how they're going to pitch you and learn certain type of pitchers and what you need to do against those guys.

All right, dumper.

I played baseball one time.

I still don't know if I batted from the right side of the plate.

Uh, I didn't know if I was a righty or a lefty.

I batted in the game righty, but the lefty swing, so much smoother.

Maybe I was supposed to, maybe I'm, maybe be both sides of the plate.

You're a switch hitter.

Yeah, you're a switch hitter.

That's a compliment.

How many of you guys are out there in the league right now?

Not many.

It's a dying.

Not many power guys, though.

Did anyone try to make you not a switch hitter because you're such a power hitter?

I've always had people tell me different things.

You know, they're like, I think you're righty.

I think you're lefty.

But no, you know, it was something I've always been stubborn about.

And I was like, no, this is something I have to do.

And I was always very committed to it.

I hit dongs, bro.

I'm going to continue to hit dongs.

Both sides.

Both sides of the plate.

You roll a lefty out here, fucking righty me.

Gone.

You roll a fucking righty.

Lefty dumper.

Gone.

See ya.

But it's not just donger gone anymore.

He's getting wood on it.

Going to be.

He moved like a freight train down that fucking first baseline.

Imagine you move a football.

Oh,

one practice.

Mike Allstott Jr.

Oh my God, yeah, especially

the original big dump.

All right, Cal, we'll vote for you.

The voting's very stupid, I will say.

But hey, has anybody got an all-star game type thing right in any league?

I don't think so.

So we will play.

Oh, actually, NHL with the Four Nations becoming eight.

Sorry, they got it right.

Everybody else is chasing it.

Home run derby, always awesome.

Big dumper will be competing in it.

And let's make sure we get him in the all-star game by going to mariners.com forward slash vote.

Boom.

That's a wild request.

Can you still do the hashtag vote, Cal?

Do we know?

I think

it's worth one vote per person.

Okay.

Only one time.

Okay.

We got a couple days here, so maybe a couple of those up.

And shouldn't we be able to say hashtag vote dumper?

Absolutely.

I mean,

1,000, you should have been.

Shouldn't you just be in if you lead the league in home runs?

Yes.

Congratulations.

You made the all-star game.

Good point.

That's what they should say.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, we'll vote.

We're voting for you big time.

I appreciate that, guys.

We were trying to come to this.

We want to let you know the home run derby.

We were trying our best to come.

You're going to make it?

I don't know if there's enough space.

That's a real thing.

That's a real thing.

I guess we've kind of gotten in here late to the game and all the spots have been taken up basically for everything.

But

Faso is in the middle of trying to figure it out.

So there's a chance.

What I'm saying is we had wanted to come because we think the derby's awesome.

Like, I'm ADD guy.

So, like,

that spot, I fucking love it.

You know, I love, especially your dad's pitching to you, your brother's catching.

There's like emotional.

It's a, I think it's one of the best things in all of sports, the home run derby, legitimately.

So we had wanted to utilize ESPN's access to get to the Derby.

I guess we got in a little bit late, and now we're trying to figure it out.

But we're trying to get there.

I mean, we're big fans of the Derby.

They need to just do it like you do the, like when the national championship, the playoffs or whatever, they did the, you guys did your own little Pat McAfee, the broadcast live.

Oh,

sure.

You guys get more viewers for sure.

That would be fucking

good.

good.

But that being said, we need to get on there.

That would be all.

That would be sweet.

Put us in a little thing.

Put us in a little thing out there.

I mean, bro.

We have a little cage.

A little cage out there.

Absolutely.

We definitely.

Put you in the center field.

Yes.

Yeah.

I need a glove, though.

Maybe put us in the same AJ.

Yeah, we need a glove.

We definitely need to.

Yeah, but we don't get that.

We don't got those kids out there.

Maybe Mitt.

Maybe Mitt out there with no glove just running around.

Face.

Hey, I heard these baseballs, they're trying to screw you hitters.

What's that all about?

And why are they doing that?

It's not a problem for you, obviously, leading the league in homers, but they're saying that the seams are bigger.

What is that all about?

Yeah, I mean, they're saying there's a little bit of drag in the balls.

There's the seams are a little higher, which causes the ball to go a little, you know, not as far.

And, you know, you don't really think about it until you hit one right to the wall and you're like,

damn it.

That should have been gone.

Okay, so like.

Yeah, that's the, if that's the drag coming into play, then that one would be out.

So.

Okay, so three-point shooters, they know if the hoop is off by a centimeter.

Okay, they know if it's off by a centimeter.

For me, punting, as soon as the ball was leaving my foot, I knew if it was a good ball or not.

For you, is there one because I saw a highlight of a guy, a couple guys with the, they were pitching this big seam bullshit ball thing, even though I'm watching Shohei, Aaron, and you just take them out.

They're like, hey, there's different balls this year.

Guys think they're home runs.

They're pimping these things.

They're actually feeling as if it's home runs, and then outfielder literally just backing up like 10 feet and grabbing it and then throwing it in.

Is there any time you've hit where you felt like it was gone and then it wasn't?

Is that real?

Yeah, I mean, that's real.

I mean, a lot of it.

No way.

Yeah, I mean, sometimes, you know, sometimes you play places and you might have a little harder balls, and sometimes maybe not.

And, you know, it's something that they're, you know, you're constantly trying to figure out.

These balls.

What's going on?

Yeah, sometimes the bigger bigger market teams seem like they have harder balls.

Whoa.

Yankees.

You don't know.

I mean, there was that rumor going around a couple of years ago,

you know, when Poole Holes was trying to get to

700.

They were

sending him the harder balls.

I love baseball.

I love it.

All this shit is possible in baseball.

Everything you just said, I'm like, yeah, that would make, I would do the same if I was the league.

Like the ump giving a bigger strike zone against rookies.

I like that move.

i like hey welcome to the show yeah it's it's a show

i like that even though that's not if they're sending harder balls for a chase it's like hey it's within the rules yeah these are these are all within the rules but it is baseball all of that i would believe any rumor is believable i think baseball Yeah, well, it's like it's like one of those things, you know, somebody starts it and then it gets around and you don't even know if it's true at the end of the day.

And it's one of those, maybe it is, maybe it's not.

It could be a little bit of a conspiracy.

Connor, that has been proven that that has never been a thing.

Look, I'm just saying.

That's why it was so believable.

The jury's still out that

Jack Master wearing an exoskeleton on his entire time.

That's not true.

Jack Matthew came out and said the investigation said that never happened.

But with that being said, as soon as that made its way on the internet, baseball people are like, oh, it fucking makes sense.

Remember he kept his shirt on after the walk-off home run?

He's like, don't take my jersey.

He was shot.

That's why.

It's because he had an exoskeleton on.

Anyways, it's all believable.

You are unbelievable, though, sir.

We appreciate the hell out of you, man.

Good luck the rest of the way, and maybe we'll see you at the Derby.

Yeah, that'd be great.

Thanks for having me on, guys.

You're the man.

Hashtag vote Cal.

Remember, hashtag vote dumper does not count as an all-star vote for Kyle Raleigh.

Yeah, and don't search that on X.

No, you shouldn't.

Yeah, there's probably a lot of dumpers.

All right, but there's only one big

dumper.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's Kyle Raleigh.

Congrats, dude.

Have a good day.

I'm a kid.

So am I going to surprise you with the poster board I need for the science fair tomorrow?

Probably.

But can you get up to 40% off back to school essentials on Uber Eats?

Definitely.

So order on Uber Eats and get up to 40% off.

Exclusions May Apply.

Check App for Availability.

Brooks Running reminds us that we're all powered by something.

Whether it's the me time energy of a run after a day at the office, the electrifying energy of your first marathon, or the infectious energy of a group run with your friends.

No matter what energy powers you, Brooks has gear specifically designed to unleash it.

So lace up and let it out.

Let's run there.

Visit BrooksRunning.com today to learn more.

I thought hashtags were banned on X.

Oh, from ads.

Oh, only ads?

Yeah, only ads.

Oh, well.

They're not completely banned.

They'll always exist.

You don't really need them though, just because words exist.

It's like, okay, you've never run a contest, you've never had to search for something, you've never had to hash, but

you've never, you know, experienced the thing of it.

I love Big Dumper.

Yeah, he's a man.

He's great.

Big Dumper knows the program, too.

For sure.

Need to get him out of Seattle, but outside of that.

Yeah.

Whoa.

What?

Second in the dude.

Short Porsche.

Second in the AO West.

Yeah, I get it.

Short Porsche, Yankee Stadium.

Big Dumper was made to be a YOOS.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Could you imagine the merch?

Yeah.

The Big Dumper in the Big City.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Get out of his ass just be like a big apple.

The moon.

Yeah,

the moon looking over a statue of Louis.

Yeah.

Writes itself.

We'll revisit that in a couple years.

I want him to continue doing what he's doing in Seattle right now.

People watching from Seattle are like, hey, fuck that.

Got to be true.

For sure.

Yeah.

We got a guy.

We got a guy.

Sorry.

Beautiful ballpark, too.

You've been, right, up there?

Yeah.

Used to go every year to see the Sawks.

I went up there for that Seahawks game against the Niners.

Beautiful.

Hey.

And then up there for University of Washington's College Game Day.

It is beautiful views up there.

Beautiful vibes.

How are the fans for the Mariners?

We know the Seattle Seahawks fans of the family.

Die Hard.

Yeah, they're

still off the field.

They love the Mariners.

Mariner Seattle.

They've had some good teams.

I think the Seahawks fans are like, what are we doing?

I think the Seahawks fans are asking some questions.

But who stole them?

The Bills and the Chargers, right?

Yeah.

Packers, too, big time.

Stole the stadium.

Yes.

I'm fascinated football or something that football one of them.

Probably not Chargers, though.

It's not a Seahawks fans, we know.

Chargers got it.

They get their stadium stolen.

That's because Los Angeles.

Marianne Doe.

Yeah.

Buffalo Wild was.

She's my super fan, yeah.

She is a good super fan.

Oh, yeah.

Wasn't she on the show?

Yes.

She was on the show.

I remember.

Of course.

She would be on the show.

Great gift.

Why wouldn't she?

Somebody mentioned something to me the other day, and I just thought to myself, I can't believe our show is a show.

Hey, do you remember when blah, blah, blah, haba, blah, blah, blah?

That's when I started watching.

I was like, of course, of course.

Dr.

Drew?

We had Dr.

Drew on early, huh?

Yeah.

Hey, not only Dr.

Drew, he was a Myron Roll.

Yeah.

Dr.

Meyer and Roll.

Yeah, he was awesome.

He was a brain doctor.

He was great.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Brain surgeon.

He's a brain surgeon, either.

He's got a doctor.

He was a real doctor.

One of the greatest interviewers.

People say he wasn't.

I think you could definitely take away from us.

So we're a curious bunch.

Yeah.

Also, Dr.

Merrill Hodge.

Yeah, Dr.

Merrill Hodge.

He's a mathematist.

I forgot.

He's a doctor of mathematics.

Yeah, what time everyone about fractions.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're the denominator's number that is needed.

Okay, you do all this shit.

We need a little context.

Turns out he was right.

Yeah, check the tape.

The science checked out.

Yep.

Math.

Oh, the math?

Check the science.

Yeah, he wasn't.

Science, absolutely funny.

Science whole course.

Funny enough about the science.

A lot of that.

There's a lot of the science.

The thing about it is, it feels like there's always the complete opposite side that has the same thing that is arguing harder back.

That's the word.

For everything.

That's for everything.

Everything.

And there's stats that legitimize every argument somehow.

I don't know how we've gotten to that point.

That isn't necessarily what I was led to believe, I think, whenever I learned about this shit.

But then I'll start reading people that feel the exact opposite way that I feel about something.

And I'm reading like what they're saying, how passionately they're saying it.

And then they're throwing in baba da-ba-ba-da-ba-ba.

And I'm like, pretty good argument.

You know?

But then I'm like, well, wait a minute.

And then I have fucking.

And it's like, they have to respect my side.

Nope.

Completely wrong.

It's like, I don't know.

We've gotten to a point where there's so much information, but not enough context, I guess, would be kind of the way to describe it well if you were to break it down just flooded where you're flooded with so much information that how are you ever supposed to know what's right and what's not yeah especially nowadays especially with what gra can do yeah so just do whatever you want just do whatever you want who cares that's what i say okay that's a good message great

live your life

live your life live your life live your life that's what you were saying Yeah, absolutely.

No matter what you're saying, no matter what you think is gospel, you're going to have plenty of people that think the complete opposite.

They're like, cool, you're allowed to.

I'm going to go about my way.

Continue to do it.

They've had different life experiences.

They've met different people, gone through different things.

That's experiences.

Obviously, I just doubled down on the same thing, but you get it.

Might have a little different life.

Is lacrosse happening?

Yeah, lacrosse is happening.

I think it was actually

primetime, 6 p.m.

on ESPN this past weekend.

What is this?

PLO?

P-LO.

Saturday night, right?

Yeah, Saturday night, PLO.

Yeah, Saturday night, bingo.

Okay, your kids playing lacrosse.

Are they watching lacrosse?

Oh, yeah, they love it.

Kavanaugh Boys, they love all those guys yeah okay so those are people that have been on our show are you guys watching plo legit i'm asking this question is somebody like not like uh not like appointment tv hey the game's on at six but the when i see that the game is on boom we will lock in then okay because like

The soccer world, whenever I was a kid, they're like, the more kids we have playing soccer, the more kids that watch soccer.

That was kind of always like the thought.

I was a person that grew up in a household that I played soccer.

We did not watch soccer, though.

So it was not like a should have, probably should have, would have been able to learn some things, you know, probably would have been a little bit more invested in leagues and stuff like that.

But I wonder if lacrosse, like, because if they're having a boom youth-wise, are those kids also watching lacrosse?

And are we getting to a point where PLL, and I'll tell you what, that NLL,

I enjoy, both of them can make it.

They're two different sports, obviously.

Does it get to a point where it's like

actual needle mover?

You know, because it could be.

Live sports have become that.

And lacrosse, I mean, guess has the chance to become that.

Yeah, I think the college game has typically always been the appointment TV for lacrosse, and I feel like that is the one that's growing before the PLL.

I actually believe there is a little bit of a controversy between the PLL and the NLL now with the new ESPN PLL deal.

I'm not sure, and I haven't confirmed this completely, but my source says have told me that there is kind of this looming decision to be made between the NLL and PLL.

And that

their seasons, yeah, might overlap in that there might be some sort of, hey, you kind of have to pick one or,

you know, you kind of have to align yourself with either the NLL or the PLL.

Yeah, I believe this actually just happened.

One of the best

players in the PLL.

Yeah, it's very dumb.

I just learned about this last week when we were trying to obtain certain phone numbers.

And I was told that there are some things that might be coming down the pipe after this season between the NLL and PLL that are going to be very bad for the league if they can't figure it out.

Because if you're to split, obviously the biggest thing for them is just, hey, all the best players are playing in one league or both leagues at certain times.

And now all of a sudden there might be a situation where

some guys are going to go to the

PGA Live.

Yeah, it's very bad.

I don't love that at all, especially for a league.

And maybe that this will change with the contract and everything like that.

But if you can get money in your offseason, you know, that's like I'm learning about these arena league boys, the soccer players.

It's like what they're making for their seasons, their salaries, okay, good amount of money.

Not like comparative at all to any of the other leagues, but a good amount of money to live during that period of time.

Live.

I'm not saying like save money and, you know, invest in the future.

Get groceries and stay comfortable.

No, no, you're able to do that.

Okay.

The guys at the top are during the league, but it's like you're getting an apartment.

Thank God.

You're getting a grocery stipend, I believe, thank God.

And then the amount of money you're making is like a good amount of money for that period of time, but you're not getting paid for any other time.

So then these other tournaments that these guys are able to go to, or these other leagues they're able to play in, like supplement their income.

I think women's basketball used to do this.

Yeah, WNBA.

And then they would go overseas during the offseason to make more money.

So it was like, so they could have like,

WNBA is doing it currently with this three-on-three league that Bruce Stew started down there at Rivald.

So it's like the fact that if lacrosse does end up just becoming a one league only per player thing, it's like you don't get that double check, you know, that double play that I was thinking that has probably been happening.

It would be awesome if they did, like if the NLL and PLL joined, but if they stay split, that would be an absolute nightmare for like the growth of lacrosse.

That'd be the biggest detriment to lacrosse ever because then you'd basically force kids growing up like, hey, you're either going to play box lacrosse or you're going to play this other style.

And the other style isn't in the Olympics.

Yeah, yeah.

Box lacrosse is in the Olympics, right?

A form of box across?

Yeah, yeah.

I'm not sure if it's exactly boxed with the boards, but the numbers, I believe, are the same for the Olympic game.

But the thing is, it'll just completely split.

It'll be Canada because Canadians care about the NLL, like grow up watching it religiously, and then it'll be the PLO Americans.

Oh, no, oh, no.

That'll be terrible.

Do you think there are enough good players?

to have two good leagues or no?

Probably two good leagues.

I think it just all depends on when it is.

you could put, you could have the NLL could be all the greatest players in the world, but if it's aired between September and December, no one's going to watch because it's football season.

Like, there is that window after the NBA, like right now, when the PLL is.

That's like ideal.

But like, the NLL season is at such a tough time where it's hard to care about.

I just learned a lot about me.

Who cares about the NLL?

The Canadians.

And who cares about PLL?

Yeah, the United States.

Sure, PLL guy.

I didn't know I had any Canadian thoughts like that.

Doug, go.

I like double doubles.

Don't get me wrong.

Sure.

I love poutine.

I think it's good.

I'm not eating it every day.

Toronto is a beautiful city.

I got a chance to enjoy that place.

Smooth cream oil, Crosby.

Smooth cream oil exactly Sidney Crosby.

He's giving me a lot of happiness from Canada.

I wouldn't be too hard on yourself.

But I don't like to say that I have Canadian views.

You know, like, I

don't, I don't want to say, no offense, well, with Niagara Falls, I grew up there.

Me and Nick, basically, you know, I love that place.

Okay.

I found myself naturally watching NLL, thinking to myself, oh, that's more high-paced, that's tougher.

They're fighting each other and a little bit more electrifying.

Now, PLO, a lot of talent, a lot of conditioning, a lot of cardio.

I respect it.

So it feels like the Canadian version of that game is a little bit more...

It's like soccer versus TST stuff.

Exactly.

That's kind of how it is.

That's exactly right.

But the Canadian version is a little bit more.

Did we expect that?

I don't know.

They still fight in the PLO.

Actually, Kavanaugh got into one.

Well, I guess we should have with hockey, right?

Because they all.

Yeah.

Are the Canadians?

It's a fucking.

Not getting into it.

You heard what Big Berg said last week.

The dogs.

He's looking for what's in their wall.

He did say that.

I like the NLL.

I like the PLO as well.

Okay?

I'm not getting.

I respect the PLL.

I'll watch it.

The NLL, though, fucking.

Well, yeah, just tight quarters.

So, yeah, and they fight all that.

It's just, it's a little, yeah, it's definitely different.

We'll be interesting to see if the PLL changes to 6 on 6 after the Olympics.

Because if the Olympics is going to be kind of the goal as a lacrosse player, then why wouldn't they change the

game itself to what the Olympic game is going to be?

Not college, but in the pros, I mean.

I thought about that a little bit.

I had a conversation with somebody about when Canada wanted to kill me.

You remember that time?

Sure.

Money in the bank?

Elimination Chamber.

Elimination Chamber.

Elimination Chamber.

Yeah, I'll never forget it.

So, I mean, there was a lot of them, but we were up there in Toronto.

And me sitting around, just as somebody that grew up in sport, in Olympic sport too, soccer, like, hey, we are, the national anthem in sports is like a big deal.

It either means we fucking won or something big's about to go off.

So, like, obviously, have always felt that we are better than other countries.

Like, whenever we are, and that's strictly from a sports-minded human being.

Whenever we watch the Olympics, and I think we've explained about this, we are tough to handle because we expect to win every gold medal and we are better than everybody and we won't beat everybody.

That is the sports mindset whenever it happens.

Bingo.

So when that booing takes place, when that booing takes place and everything goes down after that, it's like, I don't like, I don't like that at all.

I don't like that at all.

And then I start getting attacked, you know,

for good reason.

Hey, you got passion for your country.

I'm just letting you know I got some for mine as well.

And if we're just going to judge off politicians' decisions, I need to be well first whenever it comes to the Olympics on who's playing who and who we're allowed to boo and who were not allowed to boo during their national anthem and it all but like

canada is a sick place no it's not what just not true but but i hear you i hear what you said and they've kind of fallen into line so what do you mean toronto's nice toronto's very nice really definitely nice

coast is way nicer than toronto

i grew up in a niagara falls area there okay so i'm not even gonna get into that montreal is north of Toronto.

East Coast.

I do believe.

He's talking about Saskatoon.

Sure.

Well, I get that.

And Victoria.

Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia, by far the most beautiful in Canada.

Where'd Sidney Crosby come from?

Ooh.

Other way.

Nova Scotia.

Yeah, he's on the East Coast.

Yeah, he should be part of America.

But if Indianapolis.

Lower than Maine.

If Indianapolis was in Canada, it'd be the greatest city in the country.

Well, Indianapolis is a great city.

Let's not get that.

They have some laws up there that I wouldn't mind Indianapolis adopting.

Sure.

You know, I wouldn't mind.

Keep taxes, but

I would take the couple of the vitamins laws.

Yeah, unfortunately, damn near every state

touching Canada has that.

It's just Indiana.

Never going to it.

Just never going to.

Never?

Really?

What is it?

Who's holding it up?

Who is holding it up?

I think there's a couple people.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think Lilly is the biggest.

Lilly's like the biggest company in Indiana.

Oh, a pharmaceutical.

And it's it's the campuses.

And they give a lot of money to the city.

Now, they probably feel obligated to do as such, but they give a lot to the city, to the state, to the politicians.

I mean, there is

Lilly is a very massive message.

They're lobbying hard in Indiana, you're saying?

We got cold beer on Sunday like five years ago.

They couldn't even get cold beer on a Sunday, you know, like that type of stuff.

Maybe 10 years ago now.

When I first moved here, you couldn't get it.

Okay.

Wow.

So, yeah, within the last seven years.

So that's why we're saying it.

We just don't know.

We think it's going to be a tough fight, but we would pull for somebody if they were to get behind it and more like

presentable stuff whenever they're at the gubernatorial debate.

I was just going to say, if we could somehow track down Bobby Rainwater and just kind of refine a couple things, hey, don't need a Hawaiian shirt during the day.

Don't need your hair.

Let's make it look at least presentable.

Just a couple tweaks, and we might be okay.

This guy was running for governor.

He was big.

We loved him.

Legalization of marijuana.

Okay.

And we didn't, I hadn't seen him.

I don't think we've ever seen him.

We had just seen the quotes.

And then there was a gubernatorial debate that popped up.

And it was like, watching this for sure.

I have no idea how I got caught in it.

And I got to see, he actually did a walk-in.

They did like entrances.

Like people would walk in, they'd sit in their little spots, and it was slotted, each three of them.

He was the independent, so he was in the middle.

And he literally walked in late.

Hawaiian shirt, hair all over the place.

Like, our guys got new shit.

It's like an AI.

If you typed in, like, what does someone who

doobies look like?

Exactly.

It's like, buddy, we got no chance with you out there.

Come on.

Yeah, oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I think it was a lady, a dude.

Was it Sleeping Joe Dong?

I don't think he was governor ever.

It was

who's the most recent governor?

Holcomb.

Yeah, who just, he got done.

Yeah.

He retired.

Remember, he was like super into governing.

Like, he really enjoyed governing.

Every time I talked to him, he was like, we got 35 days left to really make an impact or whatever.

And I was like, Hey, lame duck, about to be on your way out.

He's like, Nope, that's not how I view it.

I view it as we got 35 more days for him.

Like, he was like,

He was like, I don't want to say a robot, but he was exactly how you would hope that somebody that was in that world would be, wearing cool shoes and everything like that.

I think he was running for governor for the first time.

Last governor kind of left, and it was like a chance to open.

He was like, All right, we got a guy in here that wants weed.

Can't wait to see him.

Fucking turn that corner.

Like Jerry Marston.

Yeah, no,

bad constant.

Come on, bro.

Come on.

Joe Donnelly had no shot.

Nobody will ever give us credit for that.

That you let him know.

That was a pretty big deal.

We broke news about two and a half months before election night that incumbent Joe Donnelly had no fucking shot in this race.

And nobody was listening.

Nobody's.

First big announcement of the night.

Kind of a startler here.

Incumbent Joe Donnelly has lost in a pretty decisive vote to start the entire...

They called it like 4 p.m.

Yeah.

Maybe like it was like while we were doing the show.

Yeah, and still live.

And that's just because we're local here.

We're watching these ads.

And it was like, this guy was just getting beat down.

I mean, every commercial break.

Did you know Joe Donnelly slept?

through 14 out of the 15 meetings about Baba Baba.

That's why we call him Sleeping Joe Donnelly.

If you want a better snooze, vote for Sleeping Joe Donnelly.

And then it'll pop up.

And then there'll be another one.

Did you know that Joe Donnelly took 14 vacations to Mexico Mexico Joe he was there he wasn't there when this was being discussed that's why we call him Mexican Joe Donnelly oh yeah this is every commercial did he have anyone anything any rebuttals coming back none

we were coming on our show like hey Joe Donnelly fight back

fight back Joe I'm learning a lot about you Joe

we saw him in the airport and you're like Joe I tried to tell you ah fuck it don't worry about it let's get get a picture.

He knew.

He knew.

I mean, he just, you know, what can you do?

It was him and Frances in that vlog of that trip.

Yeah.

After the Heisman of Radio.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Heisman of Radio.

That was cool.

It was cool to get out there and meet all these people.

Joe Donnelly, that guy had no shot.

Leave our politics out of it.

We try to give Joe Donnelly a heads up every show.

Remember, it was every, last night they debuted a new one.

Did you know this fucking guy?

New piece of information.

I learned so much about him.

And it was none of it was good.

And then like he hopped in an RV one time for a 15 seconds.

He's getting to work for you.

And then shut the door of the RV and he drove away.

I was like, I don't know if that's enough.

It is.

That's a joke.

I don't know if that's enough.

I don't know.

Sorry, Joe.

He was going to teach a class, I think, whenever he went out there.

I think he understood what happened.

Here's me and him meeting for the first time.

Me and Joe.

Nice to meet you, Joe.

He was nice to us.

I assume he tried tried his best, but I'll tell you

his marketing department or whatever the case is.

It sounds like his competition just hit the nail on the head.

He's like, fuck, that is what I thought.

No rebuttal.

Okay.

Well, yeah, I'm going back to Mexico.

They're right.

Yeah, Zito, Zito just told me, I do not remember this.

So this would have to be a Zito.

This is, Zito, you could say this.

What'd you say?

He told us that he spent $300 million on ads against them.

Yeah, because we got into the full conversation in person.

So anytime I run into somebody and if I remember that we had something, I will bring it up immediately.

I will bring it up immediately just because it's going to be looming anyways.

If I don't remember something happened with somebody, that's when,

you know, like I don't remember somebody saying something about somebody and I show up and they hate me for what's being said and I'm walking into it.

I don't know.

That's always something that's tough.

If I know there's something, then it's like, all right, let's just bring this up immediately.

So I go, Joe, literally, that's what I do.

Joe, you had no shot.

I don't know if you heard us.

I did hear you.

He did ask for a photo.

And then I did a full-on.

So how does this work?

How does this whole thing?

And he talked about how much money they raised, how they try to combat it, and yada, yada, yada.

Then we learned a little bit about politics.

Then he talked to us about he was going to be a professor somewhere.

And I was like, well,

was all that true?

He goes, no, there's obviously.

I was like, okay, all right.

It just happened to know you're not Mexico or sleepy, Joe.

Maybe a little.

Yeah, he saw him got on a flight to Mexico City.

He was born in Paris.

That's a wild world.

All right.

Let's get out of here.

What's happening tonight?

Monday Night Raw, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Should be a great show.

Should be a very good show.

Especially till Night of Champions.

Sure.

Hell yeah.

Early start, too, 6 o'clock.

Did you see what Cena did?

Really?

With Charles Robinson.

Yeah.

That was sick.

What?

Charles Robinson?

Charles Robinson is a legend.

Yeah, and he ate one like a legend, too.

Yeah, but the meme, obviously, of him sprinting out of WrestleMania is iconic.

Sure.

He's so athletic.

He's been doing it for so long.

He also oversees, I believe, the building of the rings every single day in every single arena.

You're talking about Pillar, legend of wrestling.

One of the best wrestling

shoulder tackle.

That's criminal.

You see his eyes get wide like, oh, oh, no,

he saw Cena turn the corner.

Yeah.

And I think he was thinking, maybe this is an embrace, a hug, because we've been down so many roads together.

You know, and then Seth freaking Rollins, he was threatening cash in.

CMD.

I love watching him run.

Time to go to work.

Same leg, leg, same shoulder.

All right, Stu.

Yep.

That was a great tackle by John Cena.

It was.

And John Cena did the handshake to punk.

And Stu got the zoom in.

It was a good show, Night Championship.

It was.

Really good show.

There was a lot of, I think Naya was using a Kendo stick.

Something.

There was a lot of...

Oh, Nia went through a table, two tables.

I think there was a lot of...

A lot of carnage.

We had some extreme.

Yeah, Night of Champions and SmackDown over there had a lot going on.

All right.

This is for Kyle Raleigh.

Get voted in the All-Star.

Boom.

Done deal.

Hashtag vote Cal.

Yep.

If you want to add.

Hashtag dumper.

Vote dumper.

Yeah.

Should not hurt.

Vote big.

Yeah.

Should count.

Vote big dumper should count.

Yeah.

Agree.

You say he comes from a long line of dumpers.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Big ones.

His boys are going to say, my father,

my father's father, and my father's brother all play a catcher.

That's what they can't play.

Grand dumper.

My great-granddumper.

Yes.

He started the entire squad.

That is a long time.

Oh, yeah.

Just like that.

So long.

It's so grueling.

I mean, how many games do they have?

It's just such a different experience than anybody else playing DH or in the field.

It really is.

Like Tone said, he doesn't really get days off either.

He's played in every game but one of the first half of the season.

Like it's crazy.

That's big dump football.

It is threatening.

It's for the all-star game, Bub.

World wide.

That's right.

Oh, sorry, Dobb.

Oh, looks like it's not going to make it.

We didn't vote him.

He didn't vote on it.

The universe is trying to make it hard.

He had a million vote lead over the person he is now battling against in phase one of the all-star voting.

That all gets wiped clean.

You've done nothing.

Now it's phase two.

So dumb.

So dumb.

Speaking of all-star voting, you see Caitlin Clark?

Oh, yeah.

Captain.

Broke the record again.

Broke the record amount of votes.

I think 1.4 million or something like that.

Last year had 700,000 votes.

Her and three of her teammates, I believe four Indiana Fever players are amongst the top 10 in all-star voting or whatever.

I assume Sophie.

Oh yeah.

Yep.

I assume Sophie's going to make it.

I assume Kelsey Mitchell.

Yeah.

Bucket.

Bucket.

Hey, she's a player.

Yeah, she's nasty.

I assume Aaliyah Boston.

She had a big night the other night when Caitlin didn't play.

Okay, here we go.

The Commissioner's Cup final tomorrow.

What?

Tomorrow night.

You want to win the Commissioner Cup.

Have to.

Yeah.

Because if they're having a cup, you should want to have it.

No doubt.

Especially in this new WNBA where Cece is the show.

She's getting hurt, though.

I think we're going to get her

fully healthy.

I don't think she ever, do we think?

I mean, you know, those groins, they linger.

It was Hammy, though, right?

First time?

Or was it a groin?

I don't know.

I know it's groin currently.

I'm not positive.

I think it was Hammy first, then groin.

And I wonder if the two go hand in hand there.

Sit her down for a month.

Let her sit down for a month to get healthy.

I agree.

Especially if the team's going to be able to win games.

What about the Cups?

They're going to make the playoffs.

Well, the Commissioner Cup, she's not going to be able to play anyways.

Is she coming back from this groin for the Commissioner Cup?

That's her question.

I would like to win the Cup.

They showed inside the locker room.

The WNBA Commission called to congratulate her on being the all-star game captain.

And she basically said, like, listen, Kathy, we're trying to get this dub in the Commissioner Cup.

So I think she's going to play tomorrow night.

Okay, I hope so.

Because when she's playing, it's great.

She came back from that hammy first game.

She had nine points in like 30 seconds or whatever.

Pull up.

She's a prop.

Kyle Raleigh, big dumper.

He's framing those things.

What am I doing?

Does the WNBA have open locker rooms?

Like, Kaboli can't be going in there interviewing WNBA players, can he?

I don't think Kaboli has

no credentials for that.

He's not allowed at WNBA games anymore.

So Caitlin Clark.

Caitlin Clark.

We don't know if that's true.

That is, we're not 100% sure if that's true or not.

Caitlin Clark did have a hamstring injury,

and then now she has a left groin injury.

So these are all

that.

You know, these are all strains of things.

Those can hang on forever or those can heal.

Yeah.

It's kind of a question mark, lingering, lingering.

I assume we need her healthy for the playoff stretch.

Yeah, big time.

Three new teams, too, coming, WBA, next five years.

Who's that?

Cleveland, Detroit, and Philly.

Philly.

I think those would be good WNBA times.

One year after another.

And what are the expansion draft or these new teams?

Who were we getting players?

Do it like hockey.

The expansion draft for hockey?

Did you see Indianapolis?

Protect players.

Did you see that?

That's huge.

Play right in Gambridge.

Absolutely.

I mean, there was news that four cities are potentially in the conversation for an expansion NHL team.

New Orleans,

obviously a city that hosts a lot of things.

Austin hosts a lot of things.

Houston hosts a lot of things.

You know who else hosts a lot of things?

Indianapolis, Indiana.

You know, has the infrastructure already in place for a hockey team to drop into Gainbridge because there used to be hockey in Gainbridge, actually?

Indianapolis, Indiana.

Why not

Indy getting an expansion NHL team?

And with what you just said, AJ, the expansion draft in the NHL, it allows for teams to get good quick because the NHL understands that if a team comes to a city, if it's a good team, that'll probably be better for success as opposed to if it's kind of a shite team.

Nobody's really going to get on board.

Expansion draft, every team in a league has to put up a certain amount of players into a pool that you can pull from.

And it might be guys that they're trying to get out of a contract with.

It might be guys that are a little bit older in the tooth.

It might be guys that are just available because you don't want any other guys.

There's a chance to get some megastars.

Las Vegas Golden Knights are the most recent example of that.

They were able to become the island of misfit toys and become a champion out there quickly.

And obviously the Vegas Golden Knights brand became a very big one.

And

if Indianapolis gets a team, that would be special.

They should because those other cities don't give a shit about hockey.

So New Orleans?

That's an option.

Atlanta?

Atlanta's already failed NHL a few times.

New Orleans.

That's a big hockey city.

Yeah.

Yeah, India, especially after the show they just put on in the NBA Finals.

It's like you got to look at that at least and be able to show the rompus and the atmosphere and the fans, like how much they really do ride and dive for the Pacers.

Like you should absolutely go to India.

It's the center of the country, too.

It's not as if things aren't going, you know, up and up with Caitlin and Tyree.

What's it now?

$2 billion, they said, I believe was the number for the franchise.

That's just what you give, and then you have to obviously build the team on top of that.

So it's probably, what, a $3.5 billion, $4 billion operation?

Yeah, in the arena if you're not already equipped.

Just got to get a hold of $4 billion, $3.50, $4 billion.

We already got the arena here.

Yeah, but Bill, you don't ever feel like you are

small bank

at the table.

You

want to be able to operate.

Want to be able to be, you know.

You're not going to get leveraged out of shit because you don't have enough money.

You would want to start that venture with a good good bankroll.

Practice facility.

Entire thing.

Practice facility.

How do we spice up these games?

Yeah, a lot of different things.

What's the environment?

Players we're going to have to pay players, obviously.

Now, I know there's a cap.

We got to do that, but like, you always want to be able to also would love to be able to sell, you know, if you're going to do this, dollar hot dogs.

Sure.

Would like to be able to sell $2 beers in this entire thing.

Make it a spectacle without having to worry about make money, make money, make money to be able to continue to operate.

So that's what I would think.

In my mind, they would try to get $4 billion for that.

And do they bid for expansion teams so that can get run up there?

Or is it awarded to teams?

I think they propose a bid to the league and then the league, like the commissioner and the owners, all look at it and find what is the best fit.

So it's like the city of Indianapolis would be the right one.

You get the $2 billion expansion fee plus to build on team on top of that.

As opposed to, hey, Houston just offered up $4 billion dollars for this thing indianapolis only yeah now there may be an ownership group in the those cities that says hey we can also include this in our bid we have we can build our own arena it's not going to cost anybody anything tax breaks all that stuff they got

definitely i feel like a lot of people would want to get a team yeah you know especially yeah professional sports are the thing to spend money on, the driver for ratings still, and also a good place to,

you know, a lot of people flexing that they own teams.

Oh, yeah.

You know what I mean?

Sitting in suites doing their things.

Some owners even have press conferences.

Just keep it moving.

Just want to let you know, my team here, my brand, this is what we're thinking.

That'd be cool if they got it.

How about Bezos just renting out that whole city?

Crazy.

For like the last three weeks.

So what he, I wonder, I mean, I'm assuming we'll get the number at some point or how it all happened.

He had to have people go to every single business in the city, say, what is your daily rate to rent out?

Rent out every single place in the city, right?

That is basically how that would go about happening.

Yeah, no, I know a lot of those European cities, they just have a designated month off of the year.

Like, they don't do business.

But, yes.

I thought I heard it was 50 million.

Yeah, 50 million, but I'm just saying.

50 to 100.

I heard 50 to 100 just to throw the word.

And how'd they get to that number?

Like, there had to be some sort of money given to them.

He had to donate to, didn't they donate to a lot of local things they said to try to quiet everybody down because they were pissed off that he was disrupting things yeah from um from what i've been told is there it went off without a hit it was uh from what i've been told it was a magical moment i think from the pictures we're seeing yeah i assume it would be you spend 50 million dollars on an entire city venice everyone was there but yeah i've been to europe times where like you go to a store they're like no this is our off month something

that's awesome any our people there that's definitely not right now though this is the busiest time of year to be traveling to italy or anywhere in euro tom brady brady was there brady was there yeah right Brady was there.

Yeah, I wonder how many football people.

Yeah.

Herbie's there.

Is Goodell there?

Yeah, Herbie.

I would assume Roger Goodell was there.

Herbie's Amazon, yeah.

Herbie should have been there.

Yeah, I wonder if Herbie has a relationship.

Is he there?

Might be.

Was Ben the ring bearer?

Oh, excuse me.

Breasted Peter.

You sack.

You suck.

You know what I'm saying?

Come on, Ty.

You know what I mean?

Show some respect.

God damn it.

Wow.

Yeah.

Miss you, Ben.

You got to get that cleared up before we get to the bottom.

Love you, Ben.

Ben was awesome.

Peter's a dog.

He is.

Yeah, except I hate how people have forgotten Ben already because of Peter.

Well, it does appear that that is what Ty did, but Ben was a great soul.

We were lucky to know he was.

He's trying to honor him.

Obviously, he hasn't forgotten him, guys.

Thank you.

Deba.

Trying to honor the guy.

Oh, yeah, by getting his name wrong.

Getting his face wrong in your mind.

Both these dogs are awesome, and there's also others that are awesome at the Herb Street Manor.

Yep.

The Undesirable.

Did you see that photo that was...

No, they're not.

They're just in waiting.

Did you see the photo that was put up of Peter?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Majestic.

Maybe the best picture that's ever been taken.

Yeah,

I think Peter's A-okin is season.

I think he's in mid-season four.

Jesus Christ took that photo.

If he had color swat, I'd be Gatorade commercial.

Yeah, and maybe Gatorade will use this as a commercial.

They should.

Yeah, you should put a little drip off his tongue.

Is that his tongue hanging?

He is a tongue hanger.

That is his tongue hanging.

You could easily put Gatorade hanging off of that tongue something think about it's not AI no the tongue just the picture

no he's almost looks like can't draw

Peter is a beautiful dog truly big head huge head huge paws like I think he's still growing I think he's gonna be size of a fucking arch wolf whenever it's all said and done

I think so good boy though I mean he is either 280 pounds I heard he's gonna be there's a chance I'm like Harvey where do you get all these big dogs he's got a breeder uh mystic mare oh he's got a certain breeder i forget the name of it i i should do that but are they all related all this

peter ben everybody from the way it's in my head i've never asked is it's just like this uh rolling hills of fields of golden retrievers

just majestic dogs right in my head that is how i think of this particular place and every dog that i've seen come from there is kind of fits the bill yeah all of herbie's dogs are like beautiful coated You know, they got the whole thing.

All right.

Congratulations to

Aldrich Pot Guider.

Yep.

Yeah.

Fifth playoff hole.

Five playoff holes.

It was exhilarating.

I did not get to watch all of the lead up to it.

I didn't get to watch the entire build the entire day.

I just caught it in the playoffs after McKenzie went to bed.

It looked like they had another hour or two of light too, and there was no end in sight.

These boys were just kind of getting on, missing putts, go ahead and tapping for par.

Both of them got a birdie at one point on a par five it was like these guys might play forever

play forever

that's what i literally thought was gonna happen and then uh you know paw guyer takes it home rolling one home he missed by about half an inch on the hole before to win it on an eagle putt and then this one pure and true uh center cup he's from south africa his dad was there got a little bit emotional he's 20 years old he had he was doing some shit with his driver that was uh turning some heads.

This might be the next one.

And the other guy that he took on there,

Wasson.

Grayerson, maybe?

Yeah.

Something like that.

I don't know

about the

what's going on there, you think?

Is this the next?

Is this what makes me a better golfer?

Texan is.

That's a sun thing.

I've heard people talk about the sun.

Like they're out in the sun so much or they had like some moles removed or something.

Okay, so that's a sun.

Instead of having to wear long sleeves because long sleeves is hot, we would just wear this to keep it.

It seems very uncomfortable, doesn't it?

Yeah, and I thought it was long sleeves, and then I saw him bend over to pick it up.

I saw his uh, the back of his tricep, a little hair popping out of his armpit.

I'm like, he's got AI sleeves on right now, like, is that what

in both of them?

And I was like, okay, is this make this guy a better golfer?

He's in a playhoff hole.

And then I worried, what if one of those things just tightens up?

Yeah, you don't want that on a plate.

Like a clip that he has on top?

I don't know.

That looks like a whoop band.

Probably.

That's that whoop.

Yeah, a lot of them wear whoop bands up on their arms.

Yeah.

Okay, so the sleeves are

that's for sun purposes.

UV makes it a little better.

Okay, I like that.

Okay, I'm with that.

I thought it was for swagger and I was like, I don't know if it's the right one.

It's for protection.

Okay, I like that.

I'm going to start wearing this.

I'm going to start wearing this.

Help us up, yeah.

Yeah, because my skin, very pale.

I'm asking for it.

I go out there.

Are we golfing or not?

I think so.

Today or not.

Did your putter come in?

Where's the putter?

Great question.

That's a great question.

I haven't even thought about that until

You're going to make every single putt you take with that.

The unmissable.

Thank you.

That is exactly how I've been describing it in my head as well.

One of those things will work out for me.

You know, if it's the taller one, I'll do the lock it up on that.

And then I'm just painting that some bitch in there.

I think we're going to do the golf.

Get back into it.

It's too good of a sport.

Too good of a sport.

It's the best.

Too good of a time.

And also, you hit one up here in the sim, and it's like,

wait a minute.

Wait a minute.

This is nice.

Is this sim accurate to what the ball's gonna do in real life i don't know yes because this is seemingly going pretty straight here and then i get out in real life

gone it's like all right what's the difference here is it the open air is it the grass is it me is it the sim or is it just the sport in general it was impossible yeah sometimes you hit it about as good as you possibly could have uh and you fucking snapped the driver in too though that happens every once in a while too so that was unbelievable what you did to bruce brown's driver he was having a great round maybe the best he's ever hit his driver or any of his clubs.

And then you got a celebrity shot,

and you snapped that fucker right in half.

I did.

I put him in position A, though, and what did he do?

He went on to sink a 12-foot part button.

Wow.

That was real.

That was.

Did you hit the ground or what?

No.

Or just snapped.

No.

Too strong.

Wow.

Routine.

Yes.

Whoa.

Because I looked up.

I was thinking at first, like, oh, fuck.

I hope I didn't smack the projector up here and fuck up the simulator.

No, I didn't.

You know, I hit it about as square as I could.

It was maybe the best drive I've ever hit in my life.

And that some bitch just snapped right in two.

There's afterwards.

Oh, you may hoe up there.

Yeah, that's big pop, obviously, because Bruce was having a phenomenal round.

Just an absolutely phenomenal round.

And then his driver gets snapped at about 25 cent percent down a shaft or so.

But that driver is going to break regardless, Bruce.

That's what I think we're trying to say.

That thing had a weak, weak top.

Have you continued to play good golf without your driver?

Yeah,

I'll be honest.

Well, luckily we have two of those up there.

So

we had one to spare, luckily.

But I will say, went out and played real golf.

I was not nailing any 30-foot putts.

I can tell you that much.

You are rolling it on your shaft.

That is a video game up there.

If you can just figure it out a little bit on the sim, you can putt really well, but it does not quite translate to the course.

Now, with that being said, shout out to Full Swing, fixing our simulator.

Huge.

We had up here a simulator that was the worst in the history of simulators.

Would legitimately let you do the entire setup to get to the golf.

Thank God, 15 minutes of this.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, get all the way to it.

And then it would only let you hit one or two balls.

And then guess what it's doing anymore?

It's not reading the ball or it's frozen on the last one.

You could reset the computer, do the full setup again.

Now we're 30 minutes into this.

We've hit two balls.

And guess what it did again?

Freeze again.

Full swing said, that is not how your simulator life life should be got a new computer up there got new software up there it has been awesome this has been a treat to have actually work and they did um confirm to us that we maybe had the worst simulator in the history of simulators which we wondered so we are happy to know that that is the case do you remember how big of a pain in the ass this thing was aj oh yeah i think i hit in there once or twice and then ever since then you guys yeah Said, absolutely not.

This thing is garbage.

It was like one of those ones that you would try to create if you didn't have an actual simulator.

Like, okay, you know what I mean?

Like, that's what it was like.

It was just, and who knows if it's real.

So we would just hit into an open bay basically up there.

Now we get a chance to really do it.

It's a shout out to Fool Swing.

We're very grateful for you helping us out.

Very grateful.

All right, let's go do a day.

It was a good Monday.

Yeah,

great Monday.

Jalen Ramsey getting traded this morning.

Crazy, AJ.

Awesome.

Good for him.

Good for the Steelers.

They're going all in.

Johnny Smith, though, don't sleep on him.

That dude, he is, They'll line him up everywhere, I bet.

Mark Caboli said that, actually.

Mark Caboli, he said his source is telling him tight end, slot, wire seer, you name it.

Fullback.

It's on everything.

Yeah, fullback, H-back.

Shit.

We might have him quarterback.

With Jalen.

Jalen Ramsey could be anywhere.

Caboli's tweets.

Southside, inside, in the backside.

Up front.

He might be playing D-line.

Anywhere.

Maybe.

What if Jalen Ramsey?

Might have to.

Might have 30.

TJ.

Oh, need TJ.

Yeah, where's TJ?

Probably at his house.

Did you see Schefter put out a tweet?

Yeah, the tweet that said Steelers ain't dealing with him.

Is that what he said?

They're not dealing with him, I thought it said.

Can we fool up that Schefter tweet that came out during the show?

Sources in recent weeks, multiple teams have been discussing whether they can trade for Steelers standout.

TJ Watt, who skipped the team's most recent minicamp.

Pittsburgh hasn't shown any willingness to deal Watt so far.

So far.

But he's unhappy with his contractual situation, and sources believe outside team interest is likely to increase given today's trade.

There's no way you're able to pay TJ with everything you guys got going on.

Plus, he reported that the Pittsburgh Steelers are picking up a big chunk, I believe is the way it was used, of the Jalen Ramsey contract, and they will be picking up a small portion of the Jalen Ramsey contract.

That's $26.6 million.

So there's a lot of money going there, a lot of money going to Johannu.

And how do you pay TJ?

There's still $20-some million available in cap space for the Pittsburgh Steelers?

There was $23 million, and that was before the details came out that the Dolphins were going to to pay 7 million of the 26 million that came out from wrap.

So yeah, they got plenty of cap space.

The TJ contract is not going to be a big deal at all.

They're not paying any quarterbacks.

So that's kind of a

cool thing in the NFL.

Yeah, it's like you got a rookie quarterback, but instead you got a four-time NFL MVP.

Boom.

Yeah, and their quarterback plays the end.

So

TJ Watt would have to get the quarterback type contract.

Yeah, and then you'd have to deal with that for the next three, four years.

That's fine.

I still don't have any other quarterbacks to pay.

Well, it could be Woohard.

could be will hard he's gonna be making 600 000 next three years is that the actual number uh well purdy was around that number and will was a six round pick so something around there

those rookie contracts quarterback contracts so vital to a team

right now the pittsburgh steelers are saying now is our moment metcalf 30 million jalen ramsey 19 million John who, what's he making?

12, I think.

12 here.

12 million.

Brand new Steelers.

There you slay.

This is a brand new

Steelers down there.

All right.

If this goes in, they're winning Super Bowl.

Okay.

Boom.

Here we go.

Oh.

Wow.

Wow.

All right.

Here we go.

Steelers.

Here we go.

Pittsburgh's rolling the Super Bowl.

Here we go.

That's what the ball said.

Right over there.

Here we go.

Aaron Rodgers and his cool fucking hair.

Here we go.

We signed guys we wouldn't sign before because it's this season.

We're trying to win some more.

Here we go.

Steelers.

Here

we go.

Could be.

They're going all in.

They're sick of people, the insers being like, we're done with the over 500 shit.

We're sick of it.

Fired an offensive coordinator in the middle of the season.

Hadn't done that ever.

Now they're pushing money in big in the the free agency world, trading for big names, accomplished guys already, guys.

That I assume Tomlin has been a big fan of throughout their entire career.

All these guys are guys that Tomlin has come up to and said, I'm going to get you when you're old and cheap.

He said that everybody, I would assume, and Omar Khan, obviously making it all happen, good for the Steelers.

It's kind of a shame we got guilt-tripped in doing training camp up or a show up at the training camp.

But I guess we'll go.

Yeah, have to.

I guess.

Get to watch Jalen Ramsey DK go one-on-one.

We've seen some tape of them in the past whenever NFC West opponents.

Have you seen this tape?

I have not.

Not the greatest of friends.

Fierce competitors.

Yeah, fierce competitors.

Geno Smith takes a shot late from Jalen Ramsey.

I'm sure he didn't like that and probably told somebody about it.

We'll talk more about that.

Metcalf, though, goes finger in her face.

What are you doing?

What do you think this is, huh?

He's defending his guy.

I think everybody respects it.

Jalen goes, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Lost my bounds.

That should be at least 15,

maybe 20.

That should be a 20-yard penalty in the entire thing.

Did you see Geno this weekend?

Yes, I loved it.

Where was that?

What was the situation?

It looks like this is flag football or...

Seven-on, like seven-on tournament.

Yeah, and his team.

And I know there's a lot of guys that have teams, and I know these tournaments get very, very competitive.

Oh, yeah.

I know these are also synonymous with camps, too.

So I think there was a full development of football.

And I think a lot of these guys really care about how their camp and their team is doing.

And Geno talking.

Big shit to somebody that his team obviously just beat.

What did this tell you?

This told me for the Patriots who they play the Raiders week one.

Got to be a little more careful about Geno now going forward.

I don't want to piss him off.

I don't want to say anything out of pocket because he's either listening or he will hear it and he will respond.

And I don't want to be the guy that causes Geno Smith to go up and down the sideline yelling.

That's why they pay me the big bucks because that scares me.

I mean, he's peacocking on somebody there, AJ.

I haven't been to one of these tournaments.

I haven't got a chance to experience it.

It feels like this happened after

our generation.

I think it's awesome.

I think more reps is good for all parties, especially with the way football is.

But this type of intensity, you don't get to feel that that much.

No.

You know, like you don't get to feel that much like buy-in and also want to let a motherfucker know.

You know, that doesn't, those types of opportunities don't always just show up, AJ.

Yeah, I assume he's yelling at the other team's coaches or parents or any like, yeah, obviously it looked like a spirited game that he came out on top.

So yeah, why not?

Cam Newton got in a fight in one of these, didn't he?

Yeah.

He was like 10 dudes.

Yeah, Cam's team.

That wasn't even during the game, though.

Cam has produced a lot of, as far as his teams, like produced a lot of NFL talent.

But yeah, the shit talking, it's a lot of cash shit talking out there.

A lot of people, other coaches you probably grew up with, you know him.

Talking shit, calling, you know, he's a quarterback, obviously calling plays, you know, big time plays, you know, emotions.

Test hops rolling happens.

Huge win.

Massive.

What?

If Gino's just locked in on that, you're talking.

Oh, yeah.

Chip Kelly calling the plays?

Yeah.

Maybe.

Pete loves it.

Pete loves it.

Maybe Gino just calls his own shit.

You're You're right.

Right.

Yeah.

Is Chip Kelly asked for his place?

So, I mean, that is.

He's pretty comfortable with these.

All right, let's get the fuck out of here.

What a time in sports.

What a time.

Be a friend, tell a friend something nice.

It might change their life.

We're in this thing together.

Thank you to sports for giving us shit to talk about every day.

More specifically, Toddy.

This is great.

Today is...

We need tomorrow to be like today.

Free agency for the NBA starts this evening.

There's going to be some big conversation.

Remember, Sean's is all giddy about something big that's coming out.

Team on three.

Fuck.

Team on me.

Team on three.

One, two, three.

Team.

Goodbye.

Talk about stepping up.

It's time to level up your game, introducing the all-new ESPN app.

All of ESPN, all in one place.

Your home for the most live sports and the best championship moments.

The electricity is palpable.

Step up your game with no annual contract required.

It's the ultimate fan experience.

Level up for more on the ESPN app or at stream.espn.com.

Sign up now.

You've seen the headlines, heard the debates.

The three-point ball has created a monotonous rhythm to the game and others.

Has the three-pointer ruined basketball?

And how did we get here?

The rise of the three-point shot can be partially traced to an eccentric Kansas genius named Martin Manley, whose story didn't turn out quite the way he imagined.

I decided I wanted to have one of the most organized goodbyes in history.

30 for 30 podcast presents Chasing Basketball Heaven.

Available now, wherever you get your podcasts.