PMS 2.0 1409 - BA Day with Bruce Arians, Derwin James, WVU Head Coach Rich Rodriguez, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Hello beautiful people and welcome to our humble above the Thunderbird on this BA Day September 16th 2025 this program begins now

Football is magical.

We're so incredibly lucky that we get a chance to chat about it every single day.

A lot of football conversation after the two-piece last night.

That's all the Bucs beat the Texans.

Congratulations to the Buccaneers down there in Tampa Bay.

Also thought the Texans had it and then Baker Mayfield starts cooking in the kitchen and all of a sudden Baker Baker, the touchdown maker, does just that and they steal a dub.

Congratulations to them on the road and also Road Team Chargers go into Las Vegas, get a massive win.

We got Derwin James joining us, fresh off the massive dub here in about 15 minutes or so.

And potentially the touchdown maker down there in Tampa Bay if we can get a hold.

Nonetheless, we will chit-chat about the greatness from last night that went late into the evening.

and also all the storylines now that come out of this past weekend of ball.

We're just at the beginning of the season, but we're already starting to rule some teams out, aren't we?

Yeah, that's right.

We're already starting to crown some teams, aren't we?

Yeah.

And maybe we're starting to learn about some teams.

Like maybe this Chargers team's for real.

Yeah.

And maybe this Buccaneers team has something a little bit inside of that chest that they got there that might be able to propel them to some magical seasons and moments once again down there in the beautiful Tampa Bay City.

We are incredibly lucky today.

It's not just the talks at the table at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt.

Back-to-back days with the jacket.

How do we feel about it, Ty Schmidt?

You know, I probably wouldn't have, but listen, I love the Nor'easter.

You know, if I know Connor, he's going to wear this probably every day for the next month, so we might as well just get used to it.

Okay, so this is just you right now?

Well, look, I'm not going to change the recipe up.

I know that.

Patriots won.

I had my Nike Rivalries jersey on.

Do I want the Patriots to keep winning?

Yeah.

So right now, the sample sizes.

NFL Nikes rivalry gear, not that poopy company,

the Nike one.

That gear.

Not talking about Adidas once again.

No, I love Adidas.

I got...

Or Puma.

Or Puma.

Not talking about Puma.

Shout out to the Halley avatars.

The Opal Ones?

The Halley One Opals.

Opals.

The Avatars.

These are very comfortable.

They make me look taller.

I'm a little bit more athletic.

I feel pretty sprying.

Oh, yeah.

Like a jungle cat, like a Puma.

You know what I mean?

I would like to say Puma's paid me $0.

Would certainly wear other shoes.

company shoes on a regular basis.

With that being said, the Halley ones are awesome.

Yeah, and I'm glad.

Caitlin's got shoes.

Yeah.

Hallie's got shoes.

Don't look now.

Indianapolis is about to become the shoe epicenter of the world, baby.

These are nice.

They are.

These are nice.

Pat, would you ever wear pumas?

People would ask.

Sure.

Maybe a week ago.

Sure.

I'd say, absolutely not.

What are we talking about?

Puma?

I don't think so.

What do I like?

That's what I would have said.

I get that.

Yeah.

Okay, that's what I would have said.

What an ignorant statement that would have been.

Because I had no idea.

Boom!

These are coming into the world.

Look how cool they look.

They're really like Pandora and Avatar.

So shout out to,

look at this guy, too.

Look at him.

Man.

At the Halley Mark.

There's a lot of Halley things.

Yeah.

People put a lot of things at the end of that.

They do.

Love it.

Some three-letter ones, not great.

Not great.

But all the other ones, holla balling, the halaban with an M, you know.

There's a lot of things that happen.

Now we got to Halley ones.

We will support and they do feel great and they are cool looking.

With that being said,

this jacket just can't beat every single day.

I don't think this

for the whole season, what if you guys are good?

All the way through the Super Bowl?

That'd be wonderful.

But don't worry, there's other gear.

And to your point, though, Adidas.

We love Adam.

We got some ideas.

We got some ideas.

We love Adidas.

Yeah, we got some ideas for it.

We got some Adidas, if you will.

Oh, Adidas.

I mean, think about that.

The Shout outs there, Shoutoffs there, you know, like run DMC.

We love those.

I mean, a lot of ideas.

Yeah, a lot of, you know, those lines are pretty thick.

Why don't we sleek them out?

You know, everything's sleek these days.

Why don't we make the lines a little thinner?

I don't know.

We don't have to stick with that one either.

I'm sure you're

pretty committed to the stripes.

We change the company logo.

See, we are open to ideas.

Multiple.

Adidas is spending a lot of money with a lot of football and a lot of sports right now.

And we'd like to say to Adidas, thank you.

Good idea.

Good brand.

Great brand.

That's not in your NFL event.

He speaks the truth.

Great brand.

Also, hey, we don't mind the Halley ones either.

You don't mind those?

The Opals.

Opal.

Yeah, they're Opals.

They are 0-1 right now in the Thunderdome.

You know, me and Conman couldn't get it done against you boys yesterday, but they felt great.

We felt great.

And what we know about Halley is it's not over until it's over.

So one game, we're down 0-1 the series.

Felt great in it, man.

You guys lost very bad yesterday.

Oh, that's what I'm saying.

You felt great in them?

I felt good.

Yeah, well, you know.

More like Opal,

if you will.

Yeah, for you guys.

Not for us, though.

Foxy and I weren't wearing them at the time, but we certainly got hot.

That's what what the Opals do.

They brought us great vibes because he's a point guard, you know, so spreading the luck everywhere else.

They're beautiful shoes.

Debuck, great to see you.

And a man who's joining us with another sick angle hat, a man who always looks cooler than anybody else in the room that he is in.

47 years he spent coaching ball, 27 in the NFL, Super Bowl champion, ladies and gentlemen, multiple times.

Bruce Harry.

Yay!

Coach, big night last night, obviously, for your Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

I know you've coached in a lot of places.

Tampa Bay currently home and your last stop and won a Super Bowl as their head coach.

This Baker Mayfield guy is special.

It feels like the Buccaneers might be bottling something down there.

What were your thoughts after watching the game and how do you feel about the boys down there in Buccaneers?

Yeah, I thought it was a hell of a game, especially that Baker just willed his team to win this game.

You know, when you look around the league, you lose both tackles.

You got a center playing left tackle, and then you got your backup playing right tackle, and

you just win a ball game running the ball.

Great job by Josh Grazarda.

I thought Cullen plays and sticking to the run, and then Baker does what he does.

That's why he's a a head coach maker.

Okay, he is the head coach maker.

Liam Cohen gets a head coaching job after working with Baker Mayfield.

David Canalis gets a head coaching job after working with Baker Mayfield.

And obviously, both of those guys were credited with turning around Baker Mayfield's career, but maybe Baker, we're just seeing what Baker is here.

I think Baker might have turned their careers around.

Okay.

Okay, that's a fellow coach, obviously, Bruce Arians, who understands if you have good players, you can be a damn good coach all of a sudden.

Baker Mayfield has been special.

Let's go to the two-minute drive last night, D.Buts.

You're talking about everything that is Baker Mayfield kind of encapsulated in one moment.

And it was a game-winning moment for the entire Buccaneers.

Yeah, BA talked about it, wheeling his team to a victory.

It's now back-to-back week where Baker Mayfield has played his best football down the stretch.

We get to the two-minute drive.

Let's start here in the fourth and ten.

Texans sent pressure up the middle.

He scrambles.

Now, he was already banged up at this point in the game, but Scrambles picked up.

a big, huge first down to keep it going and keep that clock ticking.

Right here, not really in a big rush, but getting it done, not burning timeouts.

Out route to Cade Otten to the right side of the field.

He gets out of bounds, heads up play.

Then dump it off to Bucky Irving.

This is when you have talented backs.

You get the ball in their hands, let them do something special in space, big time play, protecting the ball as well.

And now you get up right outside of that red area.

Then you know who he's looking for down here.

13.

Had a tough matchup against Stingley most of the night.

Found some space.

Got a little dump off down there.

And once again, inside 30 seconds.

Still didn't call a timeout.

We got 14 seconds here.

Boom.

Quick little out route here to K Dotten.

He gets out of bounce, so now you're getting up to the ball with two timeouts left.

Nine seconds, you probably get what, two, three plays here, BA in a run.

Oh, definitely.

They hand it off to White, and he gets it in, runs it down, gets that touchdown.

So big-time drive, complimentary football.

I don't know on the defensive side of the ball if they let Chubb score, if that was a no-my situation, but he did score.

And then Baker got the ball and played his best ball.

Here's that Chubb play you're referring to where the Bucs are up 14-13.

Know that a field goal takes the lead for the other team team or a touchdown.

A lot of people that are connected with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Bruce Arians included, a lot of people connected with defensive football are saying it looked a little bit too easy for Chubb there.

Was this potentially a no-moss situation for Tampa Bay, knowing that the field goal would take the lead and they could possibly drain out the rest of the clock and Tampa Bay down one late in the fourth would never get the ball back.

That is a situation where you would call no Moss.

Definitely, and I can't swear to it.

But it sure looked like it.

No Moss means we're not trying.

We'll let the other team score a touchdown so we get the ball back and an opportunity to drive down the field and do exactly yeah what they just did that would be executing that perfectly if that was what the call was it would be that would be smart uh something we you don't do it too too often it's probably something that happened maybe once or twice in my career i forget which boxer kind of made it uh popular and that's the that's why we use the term no moss but you get the ball to your quarterback to your big-time quarterback and he drives once again back-to-back weeks he did the same thing against the falcons didn't start off great and this texas you mentioned we had a center you said playing left tackle daniel Hunter's over here.

Yeah, you got Danil Hunter.

You got Will Anderson.

I think he had eight or nine pressure.

So this is a tough, tough defense.

So for you to get in a situation where you know

it's going to be a must-passing situation and a two-minute drive, and for Baker to get the ball down there, using his legs still in that fourth and ten, that was huge.

So a big-time ball from Baker, the touchdown maker.

Roberto Duran versus Sugar Ray Leonard the second.

I guess that is called the no-moss fight.

It was a professional boxing match on November 25th, 1980, where Sugaray Leonard defeated Roberto Duran by TKO in the eighth round to regain the WCU.

After a tactical boxing match where Leonard used his superior movement and skills to outbox the aggressive Duran, Duran quit in the eighth round, famously uttering, no moss.

This shocking turn of events tarnished Duran's reputation while Leonard's victory was a triumphant return to form.

Hell yeah.

Congratulations to Sugar Ray, just I'll ask them.

That was Hummer Simpson, too, wasn't he?

Yeah, I believe so.

That was Hummer Simpson's

entire thing.

Like, we're just going to wear him out here, let him go ahead and tire himself out.

No moss, no moss.

If they called that in that moment week two That'd be very heads-up football insane and also the guy selling it running is yeah, that would be there would be a lot to that if they called it Yeah, big big

But it worked out well.

Then let's go to the second game Obviously second game late night 10 p.m.

start after a thriller Okay Emotional high there after the Baker Mayfield drive with Tampe Buccaneers.

Holy hell, did you bet the Texans?

Yeah.

Did you lose right there?

Yeah.

In the final 10 seconds?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, all that happens.

And then you're kind of, and then, oh yeah, I forgot now.

We got Justin Herbert and his Chargers team that might be,

might be for real

here in Hardball's second year and almost having the culture kind of plugged in place.

And Justin Herbert last year, are we seeing the best Justin Herbert of all time this year?

Sure feels like it here two weeks in.

And he's doing Hollywood.

He's going famous lady.

Yeah, he does.

I mean, Justin Herbert's fully blossoming into everything that everybody thought in the best possible ways as the face of this new team in this new city.

He is dominant, has been, and seems like will be for this entire season.

And then Harbaugh's entire culture kind of settled in, especially on the defensive side of LA D-Buffs.

Yeah, he came over from after he won that national championship in Michigan, kept his defensive coordinator, Jesse Minter.

And since coming over, we went out to L.A.

and talked to him.

He's like, I don't know how long I'm going to have this guy.

He'll probably be a head coach soon.

And you look at this Chargers' defense, not a lot of household names.

That's first play.

Yep.

Yeah, gino he was in hell all night long but not a lot of household names you got khalil mack you got derwin james outside of that not a lot of guys that just casual fans would know but they're always on the same page and it looked like everything was tough for the raiders every time he never got comfortable in the pocket geno he was looking for check downs early and anytime somebody touched the ball it was just a bunch of white jerseys flying around getting people down 15 i believe over 15 pass defense pass passes defended however you want to say it.

This team did three takeaways.

And Derwin James, you saw one of them up the middle.

He batted the ball down.

Can't wait to talk to him because he's kind of a chess piece that you can move all around the field.

He can rush the passer.

He can cover tight ends.

You had a Brock Bowers.

He was matched up with him a ton last night.

He just does everything for that defense.

Kind of the heartbeat of him.

John Harbaugh said a lot about him.

He kind of speaks about him the way he speaks about his quarterback, Justin Herbert.

So just a great team, a great culture they have right now in L.A.

Coach Harbaugh loves physical football.

I think he loves the fact that they have a great defense.

But let's talk about Justin Herbert, Coach BA.

Now, he tall, fast, handsome, humble, loves ball.

I've told the story before when we went out to Oregon for college game day, I got a chance to meet his dad.

And his dad was telling a story about how much him and his brothers loved ball.

They actually had to tape uprights onto the wall in the living room because they would play tackle football in the living room and they would want to kick the extra point.

So now Justin Herbert, you see tape from training camps where he's kicking field goals.

I guess he just loves, he can punt punt too, he can kick, loves ball.

Like since he was a kid, obsessed with the sport, he's seemingly coming into his own with a coach that seems to be the perfect yan to his yin.

Do you agree with that?

Oh, totally.

Yeah.

When they put that running game with him and John, you know, Jim Harbaugh in the running game, that's hand in hand, you know.

But now he's got everything.

He's got Keenan Allen back.

He's got the young receiver.

from TC

doing a great job

catching everything this year, protecting him.

I've always loved him coming out.

He's got all the size.

He's got every measurable possible, and he's got the great mind that goes with it.

How come, you know, it felt like for the first, how many years here of his career?

Four?

Yeah.

I guess four years of his career?

Everybody said, Herbert's good.

Herbert's good.

But they never really won anything.

Is that just strictly because everybody with their eyes knew he could be a guy if he was given the right opportunity?

Yeah, and you're not going to win in too many games, throwing it 50 times a game.

You know, now they got great balance.

They got that hardball toughness about them.

And

I think this Charger team's for real.

Yeah, I think we all think that, especially here after the first two weeks.

And boy, good for that Chargers faithful.

Those fans are very loyal.

They love my squad, man.

They love this team.

That's my squad, man.

Boat up, baby.

Boat up.

My squad.

Hell yeah.

We've been through it, man.

We've been waiting.

And here we are.

You guys have been through it.

City change.

Yeah, I love it.

You guys were in an MLS stadium for a while.

Remember, people were saying to your team, you guys are an away game at home games because your fans don't show up and your fans hate your team it was obviously the la rams win the super bowl in los angeles the same city you're trying to go in it's like man those are hard days had a couple coaches make some bad bad bad

decisions in critical moments bad

the cbs and when they did a game the stub hub against the niners it was all red yeah exactly

it was bad days brother we're pulling up the stub hub for an nfl game i'm like where the hell are we

bad days brother everything he's saying bad days mary and oh is there though she's She's been a fan of that.

You don't go back to San Diego, D-Bud.

Don't do that.

You started in L.A.

and you.

Actually, you know what?

I was born abroad.

I was born in Germany.

The first city that I lived in was actually San Diego.

Of course.

Finally.

T-Bud has come

home

to Southern California.

So, yeah, the Chargers faithful, which you have been one over the last few years.

You picked them to go to the Super Bowl a few years back.

That's because you had so much faith, and I think, and hope in justin herbert to play uh from everything that he just mentioned there now the team around him seems like it's a thing yeah i mean it is it's all dick they're the best kicker to ever start 100 kicks first 100 kicks in the nfl best there's ever been i thought brandon aubrey had to be the greatest and then literally that night they're like nah actually this guy's the best there's ever been 94 out of 100 or something like that it's in all facets of their game strong all of them seemingly tough and all of them humble it's a crazy and they got a brand new practice facility It's like they're doing it right out there.

It's got to feel good to be a charger speaker.

You talked about that facility.

We always say it starts from the top down.

Winning starts from the top down from the organizational level.

They're obviously investing in the team, giving them all the things they want.

And then that culture, you have a guy like Jim Harbaugh come in and then to be able to adjust because a lot of people expect, and you talked about it, you know, and I'm sure they will get back to more of the running game with Greg Roman, but it's been more of an open offense.

They let Justin Herbert doing a little more.

Johnson stepping up, being big in the passing game.

Lab McConkey, he'll continue to be in the dog.

And then Keenan Allen coming back and still getting it done.

And then that offensive line, Joe Awt, that draft pick, I think we'll look back at this draft pick and he'll be one of the probably all-time greats at that tackle position.

And you're seeing the best come out of Justin Herbert.

Not only the fantastic throws and the big time 300-yard games, but now putting your team in position to win games.

Had a little fumble there.

Late.

Got a little ugly with Max Crosby.

We can have it in the backfield, but closing out games and actually getting wins

has been big for them.

Max Crosby is incredible to watch.

You can put the Raiders on prime time anytime, strictly, so we can watch their defense.

More specifically, Max Crosby.

Speaking of defense last night, the Chargers' defense was a big storyline.

Three turnovers obviously is huge, but also if they are just going to play that way, forget Justin Herbert.

They can win games themselves, it feels like on the defensive side.

And there's a dude who's a monster on that side of the ball, Con Man.

Yeah, ridiculous.

Derwin James.

I mean, it's very similar to the Packers and Micah Parsons.

Like the Packers fight of the ball.

We talked about it.

They were on primetime.

It's just like what the Chargers do, and it starts with Derwin James.

Last night, third down, and he's covering Brock Bowers right before this play.

Now he's rushing the passer on the left guard.

Basically exhausted.

He covered Brock Bowers.

He's run 60 yards down the field, and now he's chasing Geno Smith after a big, smelly old lineman, had his paws all over him.

Obviously incomplete.

That's the game.

You know, once the Chargers get the ball back, they get a couple first downs, but Derwin James running all over the place, gets it done.

He goes to the sideline, and he's in hell, okay?

He's down on the ground, and then he pops up, huge smile.

And then they cut to Geno Smith, and Geno Smith is in space.

He is basically in the worst mood he's ever been.

He threw 364 against New England last week.

Everyone's talking about real Hoopers and Geno.

And then he runs into Derwin James and Jesse Minter in that defense.

And Geno and the Raiders are going to be great, but the Chargers' defense, it is ridiculous what they do.

And he never came off the field.

It feels like sometimes you go to the box score and you're expecting, you know, 12 tackles.

and when you only see seven from Derwin James, you're like, oh, maybe he didn't have a good game.

But then you see plays like that.

Then you see the.

Oh, he's playing D-tackle.

Exactly.

He's playing outside rusher.

He's also in the middle of the field on the play D-Buck just showed, deflecting a pass to get intercepted.

He would have had another interception in the red zone on Gino, but his defensive lineman deflected the ball after he uncut the ride.

It was just incredible to watch him work like that.

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the inaugural members of the all-everything DB team.

Wow.

Ladies and gentlemen from Florida State, an absolute stallion.

Last night, all over the field, literally and figuratively, playing D-tackle, Derwin James.

Hey, I know you just had to listen to Connor say all that, but I'm happy you got a chance to do that.

That's how we feel watching you play ball, man.

It feels like whenever Harbaugh gets there and and mentor gets there as the DC and the way Coach Harbaugh spoke about you being one of the pillars of the team immediately upon arrival, does it feel like a perfect culture for you to be in?

And does it feel like the best culture you guys have had over there in a long time?

Yes, sir.

Definitely one of the best cultures.

We had just the way they go about it every day, Coach Harbaugh, Coach Mentor, just setting that standard.

And, man, wouldn't rather have no other guys, man.

They truly the best, man.

From running Brock Byers down, 60, 70 yards, to the D-tackle play that we see there at the end on fourth down to win the game, and then having to chase him out of the pocket.

Is there a level of exhaustion that comes with your style of play, every play, every single position?

Like, how do you even prepare for that in the offseason?

And what has it been like this year thus far playing everywhere on the field?

It's been a lot of fun.

I feel like Coach Mentor, like I said, the best defensive coach in this league,

does a great job moving me around every week.

And not just moving me around where I ain't doing my job, but moving me around where I can do it at a high level.

Like you say, man, it's still early in the season, man.

We're getting that cardio up, man.

So I can't wait.

I think we had a 20-play drive this game, too.

So, man, it was a lot of fun, man.

It was a lot of fun, man.

Yeah.

We're going to have to keep

working on this.

Deba, that's a question for you.

Yeah, Derrick, I was talking about it earlier.

Outside of yourself and probably Khalil Mack,

y'all are easily the most known defenders, the household names.

But outside of you guys, bunch of dogs.

Tell me about these other guys, Phil Henley, all these heart, like you guys just fly around and inflict pain.

What's the mindset going into every week with this mental defense?

And then tell me a little bit about your running mates.

Man, I just say I start with Deion Henley, man, in that middle, man, with the green dot.

My brother, man, he's special, man.

Had a flu game last night, man.

I don't even know how he played, but man, he gives us everything he got.

every week every week, day in and day out.

Definitely, man, a Pro Bowl, all-pro player, man.

tarhe's still another young guy man making a lot of plays and uh like you said we got a lot of a lot of guys it don't really matter who step step out there with coach mentor honestly man uh i feel like man the standard is the standard and uh whoever out there they're gonna make plays what is it about his system though like because you guys Like that, I mean, that shit jumps off tape how you fly around.

I think they less than three and a half yards per play last night.

I think they ran 58 plays total.

Like, what is it about that defense?

And I guess to think, like, that he prepares you guys for going into the game?

I say, man, just getting hats around the ball.

Honestly, running to the ball.

And then when the ball in the air, you see two, three guys around the play.

That's why we're making tips on the ball,

guys popping it up, making plays.

And I feel like coach is always adjusting, man.

Coach is always one step ahead.

And, man, he's always preparing us.

And I feel like it's just on us as players to go out there and just do our job.

We've been talking about Justin Herbert.

The reason why Darius Butler is a fan of your team, I believe, is not only because of you, obviously, massive fan of yours.

I mean, the all-everything DB team was not easy to put together.

It was tough.

The inaugural thing, obviously, you're on there.

I know you've probably found out about this.

You probably cried, had a moment with the whole family.

Congratulations.

Trina, appreciate it.

Appreciate the fair.

No problem.

It was hard to crack.

Yeah.

I mean, people were really advocating for other players as well, including yourself.

It was tough.

A lot of politics.

Yeah, a lot of politics.

I mean, a lot of politics.

And D-Butt stuck to the film.

Have to.

He said, I'm not worried about any of the politicking.

People were offering him a lot of stuff.

Oh, yeah.

Shoes.

People are offering him up shoes.

His BA even saw it.

He said, no.

He said, no.

He said, no, I don't want that.

He had to do it.

But on that note, since the beginning of this run in LA, Justin Herbert has been a guy that we've all seen, I think, the potential and like the possibilities from outside looking in.

Just the way he handles himself.

Even last night, him flipping that camera off.

Awesome.

Yeah.

Like,

I think that is everything he does, I think, is awesome.

Yeah.

Like I am,

he's humble.

Everything about him, it feels like this might be the year.

Go ahead, Ty.

Yeah, Dermin, on that note, obviously you're insanely competitive, one of the best players in the league, but how happy are you that you don't have to play against Justin Herbert?

And do you guys look around and say like, wow, we knew how good this guy was, but he just continues to take his game to another level?

Yeah, I just can't wait for y'all to get to see what he already been doing at OTA's training camp, going against our defense.

I feel like he's been giving us great looks.

Some of the throws he made, man, in the red zone from just in the pocket, outside.

Man, I just feel like he's just growing into his own, man.

One of the best quarterbacks in this league.

I wouldn't rather have no other guy.

I love 10.

We love 10 as an organization.

And we always feel like long as we got him at quarterback, we always got a chance, man.

Are you in the Silver Bells Club?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

One.

TT, man, I'm in there.

I'm in there.

Hey, tell us about the entire culture of that building because we were in there.

Oh, yeah.

Beautiful building.

I say, man our sports performance team uh first of all the facility is amazing and then there's the sports performance team shout out to coach herb man coach dev all the guys man out there i feel like coach herb he does a great job sending the culture um man and uh we got a civil bell club man it's a dumbbell club is uh it's circled off like a ring uh we got the red the red part around it and if you 150 or plus on the dumbbell you get it you get your name in there so everybody don't have access to that so it's a lot of fun just being able to bring a culture um i feel like man there's some of the best in this league uh it's definitely in the sports performance well you guys are in la obviously that's a draw for some guys you know around the nfl very talented guys and then you get that building brand new building brand new facility we got a chance to go see it it's not 2025 ownership investing 400 500 million in a practice facility especially in los angeles yeah not normal like that is not a normal thing to happen so you guys got brand new facilities you talk about coach herb his vibes were immaculate down that weight room.

If you have a good weight room and like a hardworking, let's have fun while working our ass off type culture, which I think Harbaugh is going to bring everywhere.

It's like, it feels like you guys are set up for the long haul.

It feels like, it has to feel like that in there.

That we are, first, we got to go on a run.

Obviously, this year is the right year to do it.

Every year is the right year to do it.

But it has to feel like you guys are set up here and the cultures already put in place.

Yes?

Yes, sir.

And I say definitely with a defense.

Last year, we kind of got our feet wet a little bit, bit, but this year we're definitely trying to take that next step and just make this who it is, make this our culture.

I feel like Coach Harbal, Coach Mentzer, like I said, doing a great job instilling the culture and just make it tough where you want to play the Chargers, man, you know what you're going to get.

It's going to be tough.

So we're just trying to keep it going, not for one game or one practice, one day, but like you say, let it be the culture.

And also the uniforms are cool.

It looks so cool.

They're so great.

All of them.

They've got 100 of them.

We saw them all lined up at their facility.

It's like, yeah, we have the best uniform of every era.

Don't worry, boom, bang, pow.

Here's all our different uniforms.

We'll use them.

We're in Los Angeles, the weather, you know what it is.

They can really sell some shit to free agents.

Oh, yeah.

Especially if they win.

Especially if they have a tree company.

Especially, I mean, we've heard about that in basketball potentially.

I don't know.

Yeah, yeah, we don't know.

We don't know.

I don't know.

We don't know.

We heard it.

Papo Tory

told us.

That was not us saying that.

No.

But it does feel like you guys are building something very special.

We're very happy for you, especially for how much work has gone into all of this.

Season started internationally.

Go ahead, Conman.

Yeah, Derwin, this week was the second game.

So you guys have, you know, kind of stacked him up two weeks in a row now.

How was the Brazil trip?

It felt like a massive victory for you guys.

Probably didn't have to wait on the tarmac.

That was awesome.

How was the, you know, the strength and conditioning team, though, just because Makai Bechton was pooping his pants like the whole time.

So what was that like in Brazil?

First of all, man, it was a lot of fun.

Shout out, hats off to everybody in our organization, man.

It felt like we still was at home.

We had all our same equipment,

everything we needed to go in and have success.

And I feel like, man, it really allowed us to have time to bond as a team, grow closer.

You got offensive guys hanging with the defensive guys.

So, man, it was a lot of fun.

And we wanted to come back with the W, start the season off right.

And, man,

we did that.

How many Jim Harbaugh sayings do you try to like, all right, I'm going to write that one down?

Is it like an everyday thing?

Like, yesterday, after the game, two minutes and 40 seconds, he spoke about you.

i don't know when your contract's up next i got the i got everything you need for the negotiation okay it's two minutes and 40 seconds long is exactly what it is you can find it on the charger social media is all you need i know i know i love coach harbor man i love his organization i love everything about him man um

man i i can't wait to go out and practice tomorrow man so i'm excited can you tell me about his messaging though because he is very it sounds like the way he delivers his messages is what makes us all love him so much his press conferences are electrifying I mean, like every time he speaks, it's great.

Can you talk about his messaging a little bit and how he's either different from any coach you've ever had or?

Yeah,

he's one of a kind.

There's nobody like Coach Five Ball Bad.

He's different in his own way and in a good way.

He's not going out there with some script or some PowerPoint or like none of that.

He's giving you real life advice, real life situation.

It could bending just happened to him in the hallway and he's just going to come off and tell you what it is.

He can be going off with a story and then a thought will come to his head he'll switch it up so just him being that him being that man him being different we love him and uh he always got great stories it ain't one thing you could just write down because he's gonna give you something every day so man a great coach man so i was just walking in the hall i saw our lunch lady she said coach great job and i just thought to myself wow this lady yeah in the middle is that is that what it's like yes yes yes yes yes so he'll give you something anything man and he'll tie his good He will make him great.

Like, he'll give you like the analogy and it'll tie it to football, which make it make sense to us.

So I'm like, man, you got a gift with that, honestly.

Because everybody will be looking like, wait, what?

And then like, man, when he really explained and you really get, you're like, oh,

he landed the plane.

He lands the plane.

Everybody be like, hmm.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, bring it back.

Okay, where are we going with this?

Where are we going with this?

And then, and that's why when I tell you guys, we, oh,

pretty good, pretty good, pretty good.

Yeah,

he's electric.

We see that at the press conferences.

I couldn't imagine behind closed doors when I'm trying to motivate.

Speaking of doing that, I've been a coach ball for 47 years.

Big fan of yours.

Coach B.A has a question for you, Derwin.

Derwin, yeah, man.

I'm a big, big fan.

And prayers out to Khil Mack.

Hopefully he's okay and it gets better.

But with all these quarterbacks running around right now, did you get your choice of intercepting or knocking one of them out?

What do you want to do?

Intercept, man.

You know, the rules change, the rules are a little different.

I got to get that ball now.

I'm trying to get the ball.

I don't know.

Some of these

quarterbacks are trying to run people over now.

I'm trying to get the ball for still, Coach.

Hey, Trowan, let's talk about that, though.

Let's extend that point because it happened against you guys.

Patrick Mahomes, obviously, doesn't go out, lowers his shoulder.

Who is the guy?

27.

I forget the number on your guy.

That immediately led to everybody on our show saying, okay, if that's what it's going to be, now it's going to be open season.

But we're seeing a lot of running from the quarterbacks, like a lot of running from the quarterbacks.

How much are you guys thinking about that obviously

uh man we we obviously think about it because like i said the quarterback especially red zone man they they leads come alive man these quarterbacks running more and you got to count for them if you don't you're playing 10 or 11 so being able to know where they are and um we gotta we gotta tackle them like running backs in space if they're gonna run like running backs you know yeah but once they cross the line we gotta go tackle them like running backs honestly yeah but Yeah, but don't you even think about going close to the streets?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not on the sideline, no, no, no, not on the sideline.

And play if he he running.

If he ain't sliding, then they running.

Some of these quarterbacks are not even sliding.

They shaking, making moves.

They trying to get yards.

So, you know, we'll see what we get.

That's probably why that's probably where three or four of them aren't playing this week.

Yeah, five.

Some of these quarterbacks ain't sliding, man.

They just going in there.

So we'll see.

Get that ball, man.

Get that table.

And it took enough money out of your checks.

Yeah.

Suspended my dog.

So, yeah, they got him on the list.

Hey, man, those are good stats to have, too, whenever you put that two minutes and 40 seconds up there.

Then also, yeah, I got this many picks.

I think we're going to be a charger for life.

Yeah, that's what we got going on.

That's awesome.

You're the man.

We appreciate you joining us.

I appreciate y'all, man.

Y'all keep killing it, man.

Yeah.

Well, we're going to try.

Not as much as you, obviously.

Good luck against the Broncos.

Great win last night, ladies and gentlemen, Derwin James.

Yeah, they're winning.

What win for them?

Oh, yeah.

Three divisional games.

Oh, the gate.

Yeah, they started scheduling that.

They did a lot of division rivalry games there week one, and I think it's because of lackluster start last year.

Remember, last year kind of slow out of the gates?

Very.

So they, I think they wanted the schedule maker, wanted that, to have bigger games.

How do you feel about that as a coach with that as important the games are that early?

Yeah,

I'm not a big fan of it, especially three in a row.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, now if you get the three wins, like they got a chance right now, you're only a division, as long as you don't get killed with injuries.

But if you can get three up in your division, that's hard to go huge.

Yeah, especially because that's not happening normally until like week 14.

Yeah, exactly.

So now you have that at the beginning of the season, you get all the out-of-division games come in, find your team, get even better than whenever they get back into it.

Because they're always going to end with division games as well.

Because they want to have big-time football towards the end of the season, which the NFL has gotten right.

Every single end-of-season weeks there, they've always had...

very meaningful football games stacked up.

So I'm not saying that the schedule makers get it wrong, but last year there had to be a conversation about how slow they were out of the gates.

And college football was actually last year carrying it.

That was carrying football for a while because there was, so them having having the division games right up front, did it make it easier for coaches to get teams prepared, do you think, because there was more important games early?

Or do you still think teams have no idea who they are at this point?

They're playing very meaningful football.

I think the ones that have veteran players know what it means.

The ones that are playing with younger players have no clue.

The division is how we get to the dance.

This is how you get to the dance, baby.

You got to win these.

And you got to, people always say, football doesn't start in November.

September games come back and bite you in the ass.

All right.

If you start losing in September, that's a hard road to overcome.

And

yeah, I mean, it means so much more in training camp.

And I think if they continue it, you're going to see more guys playing in the preseason.

Okay.

That's kind of like what Lombardi said.

You know, Michael Lombardi, when he was coming on last year, every week, or the year before, he always said, like, hey, you can have a lull.

And the teams that go to the Super Bowl, like, they might look bad a couple weeks, but if you look at it after every season, they start really well and they end really well.

And then in the middle, there might be like two or three games where there's a lull or someone misses a game or something but like those first six weeks and the last six weeks are the most in time the most important time but like when you won the super bowl in tampa like you guys didn't get going till week 11 way later against the falcons

yeah like we're down 17 nothing and a half yeah big and um you know that big second half um was huge for us and that just continued on but uh that that was such a crazy year because we had no no tas no training camp yeah we were just Tom was there for the first time and learning our way as we went week to week you know and uh But in the past, it's sort of like break it down into four segments.

Try to go three and one, three and one, three and one.

If you win 12, you're going to have home to advantage.

And just break it down that way.

Keep it in those four quarters.

And injuries happen and other things happen.

And you've got to readjust and adjust because you're always adjusting in the National Football League.

Always.

You got to stay healthy, though.

Health is the number one thing.

You're going to get hurt.

And go ahead, Ty.

Well, that's what I was just going to say.

Like, when you, fans aren't complaining because you get a divisional game early and it's like, you know, it's sweet because you're more invested than maybe whatever but like you know if you're playing a division game week one and you play that opponent again week 15 it's like those are two different teams pretty much oh yeah both of them yeah have changed so much exactly the injury report coming out of week two here a lot of quarterbacks you talk about three four quarterbacks joe burrow he's out three months jarthy what is it two to four weeks yep jaden daniels sprained knee i don't think we've got a full they said he might not play sunday okay uh brock purdy mac jones already played a game and then Justin Fields' concussion, it's like, that's inevitable with the way we were watching that entire thing kind of happen, which goes back to BA points about how much running the quarterbacks are doing.

But that's one of Justin Fields' biggest upsides is he's the fastest guy on the field.

Then obviously Aaron Jones, Jalen Johnson, Kyle Van Noy, Highsmith, BB, Terrell, and Baker Mayfield, we assume.

We assume his left knee, it was shown in the final two minutes, the hit that he takes where he gets upended by CJ GJ.

That was the third hit to his his left knee.

That was pretty nasty.

It started early.

Here's the Neil Hunter against the starting center who's playing left tackle.

Centers and tackles, two very different body types in two very different positions.

Kind of gets rolled up on his left knee there.

Then there was this run happening in the fourth quarter where he goes in kind of an awkward landing.

Boom, gets up.

That's that left knee again.

Ah, ah, ah, ah.

CJ GJ talking his shit right there, which CJ GJ will do.

I mean, that is CJGJ football, I believe.

Bruce Arians and he have gotten into it a few different times.

A few times.

Yeah, yeah exactly it's part of the beauty of cj gj and then once again here's baker mayfield later in that fourth quarter boom takes another huge shot to the left leg and his leg was planted that's cj gj as well we assume that left knee is going to be the size of a basketball yeah we assume that thing is going to be gigantic what we would also like to assume there's a chance he's not practicing tomorrow yeah and there's a chance he's not practicing on thursday but we assume baker mayfield will be playing in the game oh there's no doubt there's no doubt he'll be out there and uh Moral dropped far, who heads up their rehabilitation.

She is outstanding.

One of the best there is.

She'll have him ready.

He's going to be like Ed Monics.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's going to get that thing drained.

That's right.

I'm assuming his knee is going to be.

Oh, yeah.

Just,

I don't know how he finished.

Yeah, how bad was it for you when you were playing?

Well, I'm just, I don't get any of these shots.

Like the hype, like twist, obviously, that's just like a little irritation there.

Okay, that's just a little irritation.

That'll spur some inflation.

Okay, the irritation in itself will do that.

Then him, this is a bruise, boom, into the ground.

Okay, right underneath that turf.

Cement, go ahead and defense.

Right there with that one.

This is a perfect example of kind of how injuries work in the flow of a game.

Something could be hurting,

but that adrenaline.

And when you like, when he, he literally was, probably would have laid there for another 15, 30 seconds if CJ DJ didn't come over and start talking shit.

He immediately popped up like, oh, no, I'm not going to lay here like a lame duck while he's standing over me because he knows that defense and number eight specifically feeds off that type of energy.

So as a competitor, that's what gets you going.

Now, when he's probably still in bed right now,

tomorrow, it'll feel even worse.

But when it's game time, like when it's when he runs out of the tunnel again, I expect six to be out there and take the field.

But when you're, when you, a lot of us deal deal with those things, but when that adrenaline is flowing and it's pumping, almost like anything else, kind of like fight or flight.

When it's going, you got to lead your team.

Like, the teams are feeding off you as well.

So, yeah,

I think that that was a perfect illustration of kind of what happens for the athlete when they're in the middle of it.

That's kind of Baker Mayfield's MO right there, right?

Just tough, gunslinger.

Yes.

Comes down two-minute drill.

Here I am.

Like, that is everything Baker Mayfield was heralded as coming out of Oklahoma.

Okay.

Remember, we remember at Oklahoma, the coin toss with Kansas, I think.

Yep.

The whole dance.

Everything.

The dog gear.

The dog gear.

Everything.

The

everything.

Sure.

It was like, yo, this guy's gunslinger.

Yeah.

Outlaw.

That is what Baker Mayfield does.

And tough guy does.

That last one, when he gets flipped, he comes up immediately calling a play.

He knows he's in two minutes.

He bounces up.

He's giving the signals for the next play.

He's not even thinking about that knee.

And he comes right out, boom, takes him right down the field and score.

But that's what I love about the kid.

You are a huge Baker Mayfield.

I'm a huge fan, brother.

Yeah, like this morning,

he's texting During game last night about Baker.

Then this morning, the things he was saying about Baker.

Tampa, the perfect place for him as well?

Oh, he owns the town right now.

And that, you know, when people talk about reviving a career, he got an opportunity.

He has taken advantage of it, and he is the franchise.

Mr.

Glazier has already said he is the face of the franchise, will be for a long time.

Tampa loves him because he's that type of guy.

Yeah, he's wearing it as a badge of honor.

Go ahead.

And that's what separates him from all the other guys, like the other guys, if you will.

Like, we talk about Geno being that guy as the first to kind of, you know, have a beginning of a career that maybe didn't play as much and then, you know, revive it.

Like, he got ran out of Seattle.

So he revived his career but he was never picked he was offered a contract he was okay but he was never hailed as the franchise guy I know the owner never came out and said he's the face of the franchise like they did for Baker and then like you think about Mac Jones you think about Danny Dimes you think about every court Darnold every quarterback now forever like if they do have a tough start to their career they're in their mind they're just thinking Baker Mayfield like that is going to be the face of hey sure I had a bad start and I got ran out of town but at the same time I might have a couple years here and then be the face of a franchise again.

He was on scout team punt block in Carolina.

The Carolina Panthers.

Yeah, man.

With Frank Wright.

The Carolina Panthers.

That's that rule.

Who, who, to be candid, stunk at football that year.

They got Baker Mayfield rushing the punt.

Now, obviously, he goes to LA.

He has those multiple weeks with Sean McVay.

And I assume whenever Baker Mayfield is finished and he looks back, he'll say like those days in Carolina where he was on the scout team and he was just on the sideline head-butting guys with helmets on.

He didn't have helmets on.

He'll probably talk about the amount of opportunity he had to grow as teammate and leader and everything like that.

It all makes sense.

But looking back on it, crazy

that they kicked him out of Cleveland with everything that Cleveland's gone through.

Right, eight and nine.

Kick him out of Carolina with everything that's going on.

And then obviously L.A.

and Sean McVay giving him an opportunity.

It's like, what a perfect ending for him to be in Tampa Bay with that team, especially with Mike Evans and all the weapons that they have.

Yeah, everybody they have going on.

But boy, you started looking back on some of those things and it's like was it the right move to maybe give up on baker and kick baker out of here ran out of cleveland ran out of caroline they those organizations you know historically it got it figured out but we've been cursed forever we can make that argument both those both those teams are cursed forever but we we always paid attention to all that other and it was you know some of it was a little extra or you'll call it whatever but like

for me at least especially with a quarterback because we've seen other situations quarterback gets gets benched hey i don't want to be anymore trade me get me to a new place i'm not doing scout team i'm not doing this so to do that, not only scout team for the offense, doing the punt rush stuff, we pay attention to all that.

Even going back to college for like Jalen Hurts when he was benched for tour, everybody paid attention to that and the evaluation.

And then when they get another opportunity, all those character things, they continue to show themselves.

But I want to ask BA, Jalen Hurts, Justin Herbert, now Baker Mayfield, we talk about even him being a head coach maker.

How tough is that on him, you know?

continuing to learn, I'm sure he does some of the same things, but continuing to learn a different offense year in and year out.

And at what point this season will he get comfortable in this offense, do you think?

Well, I think this year is really easy because Josh was there.

He did all their red zone.

He did all their third down last year.

They were number one in the league.

So that was an easy transition this year.

It's the same stuff, same terminology.

Now, going from Dave Canalis to Liam Cohen was different and two different systems.

But that just shows how tough he is and how smart he is and how much he invests in it.

And that's one of the things I love about him because it's not easy to follow Tom Brady.

Yeah.

All right.

Tom Brady wins the Super Bowl and here you come, and you take over a city.

Now, granted, this might be the best team he's ever been on, but don't forget now, he was rookie of the year in Cleveland.

Yeah.

He beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh in a playoff game.

All right.

So he was no bust, bro.

Number one fits bust.

Kicked him out, though.

Yeah, that's

classic.

Cleveland.

Yeah, classic Cleveland.

He's got a coach there, and has somebody that grew up in Pittsburgh and just watched them kind of do their thing.

And we all are pulling for the Cleveland Browns.

Good luck.

No, Cleveland.

No, no.

Tony, Tony needs you here.

We're not all pulling for the Browns.

Let's head the hammer.

Don, Don.

AP Tone will say, doesn't matter if you pull for him.

We're still the Browns.

Is that what you're going to say, Tony?

The Browns is always the Browns, just like the Chiefs is always the Chiefs, Pat.

That's exactly.

Hey, last night, money.

What happened with the money last night?

What happened with Sportsbooks for week two?

Anything we should be paying attention to as the market settled itself or is sports books still beating the hell out of everybody right now?

So week two as a whole, the totals market, the over-under market kind of reset itself.

Obviously, week one, it was 12 12-4 to the unders this week.

The overs, obviously, we talked about the second highest scoring 10 games on a Sunday.

The overs kind of

waterfind its level in the over-under total market there.

But as a whole,

it was a little bit better of a week.

I think two and three, the public went against the spread in the top five games.

Obviously, the weeks before that, it was either one and four or 0-5 in college football and NFL.

So, the betters got a little bit better, but

the sports books are still winning.

Okay, sportsbooks are always going to win, we assume.

Chargers are a good team to beat sports books with, what stats are saying.

14-5-1 against the spread since last year.

Shout out.

We appreciate you guys.

Appreciate you guys doing that.

Keep going.

Making people happy.

Making people happy.

Now, as soon as you stop doing that.

Oh, yeah.

They'll let you know.

That's right.

To hell with this thing.

Any other maybe gobbling grates that we need to pay attention to?

Any other wagons that have really done well that we maybe need to say, remember, Chargers, this this is kind of their thing they cover the spread they win in that is there any other teams we should think about this would probably be obvious or maybe not the Eagles and Ravens I don't have the exact stats off the top of my head but I know that they have been a quit of a quite a bit of a monster against the spread.

Okay, and tone, we didn't get to talk college ball as much yesterday.

What are some things that came out of the college football weekend that we need to be paying attention to?

And shout out to college ball, kicking a lot of ass.

And we'll have Coach Rod, Rich Rodriguez of the West West Virginia Mountaineers on at 1.30 Eastern Time to talk about the massive win in the backyard brawl.

But what are some college football stories that we need to talk about or haven't talked about?

Yeah, actually, I have five takeaways from this weekend that I wanted to talk about.

There's a couple teams up at the top of there, Miami, Oregon, Utah, Vandy, Florida, State, Oklahoma.

I just love the cut of the jib of these teams.

I'm not saying these are the best teams in the country, but like the vibes, these are all vibe teams right now.

Miami has been unbelievable, unbelievable obviously dominating florida in a big win against notre dame oregon anyone that that is on the field with them they are just absolutely pummeling uh gundy found that out when he tried talking a bit about oregon and day and landing they just put it on him utah obviously with the new oc and devin damperer coming they've just been like these teams vandi right here they

sorry excuse me got a coach fired basically uh at virginia tech and then just put it on south carolina last week and then obviously from week one from now florida State has just been putting it on teams.

These are teams like it doesn't matter who they're playing.

They are just going to put it on them, and they've looked incredible.

And the last one there, Oklahoma, obviously was a big one this week against Auburn.

Number two,

we watched them week one against Ohio State, and we're like, oh, it's okay.

They play at Ohio State.

They're a great defense.

But does Texas stink?

Whoa, Tony, Tony.

Tony.

Now they've won.

You see Arch run it in here against UTEP.

And they've won since Ohio State, but it it still hasn't looked pretty you'll you'll see a couple throws mixed in here from arch uh with the touchdowns where it's like things are just still off a little bit for this offense which we wouldn't we did not we nobody expected this coming into the season maybe you know we expected it not to be the quickest start but not how it's looked so far things have not looked great for arch in that that texas they are winning games they are winning games

they're beating you tap it's not good on the internet for old arch a lot of of people are saying he's more Archie, not Peyton.

And the real one is...

Archie's a first overall pick.

Archie has right Archie.

He's a kid.

And so will Archie.

I love him.

But

Archie ain't never won shit.

Okay.

And neither am I.

But I'm just saying one more time.

He was on the Ains Brothers.

He changed the entire franchise.

Exactly.

And maybe Arch ends up going to Cleveland and they go 4-12 for the next 10 years and it's cool.

And then the real Prince, who's promised Peyton's boy comes, and everyone doesn't hype him up.

Marshall?

They don't hype him up like Arch because it was a mistake.

Let's say Arch has a lot of pressure with that last name.

It's tough.

And we're a part of the problem.

Exactly.

I'm part of the problem.

I'm part of the problem.

Because I honestly was like, Arch is going to get dropped into this.

Number one team in the country, and they're going to be even better than they were at the end of the year last year with a guy who was starting there for three years or whatever.

You know, that was a lot.

I was really excited about the Arch man.

Bet on the one Heisman.

Let the the boy have some time.

Let's let the boy have some time.

No time.

Okay.

We know Stark's offense is going to be good.

And I know, even though a lot of others seemingly have started to let doubt creep in and maybe even win the conversation, I know Arch is going to be a player.

Now, there are some alarming little things we see.

There's some throws maybe in the first row.

on the stand.

There's some little skip passes that we don't expect.

There's a little pain in the face because the throw is so bad.

There's a lot of those moments happening right now.

And we're seeing all of it because it is Arch Manning.

He's got a lot of deals, okay?

We're bringing a lot of eyes.

We're bringing a lot of attention.

Let the boy figure it out.

Dude.

There ain't time, okay?

No, that's why Archie said, hey, listen, he's going to be back there next year as well.

I mean, you got to eat, you know,

let the boy figure it out.

Aren't we going?

Give him a shot.

B.A., will you tell the baby?

Let the boy figure it out.

Now, would I be saying that if I didn't have such close connection to the family?

Absolutely not.

But with that being said, watching it, it does feel as if this is going to be a situation that is going to have to take some time to figure out.

Will they figure it out?

Oh, definitely.

Definitely.

There's no time.

It's too good.

Just like John Santa said, the time is down.

That's hot.

Chris Berman.

The time comes in the Red River shooting.

John Cena.

We love you, Santa.

What the hell did you call him?

John Santa sucks.

Chris Berman called him John Santa last night in a family.

I'm sorry, Chris Fowler called him John Senna last night.

Yeah.

That's not.

It's Chris Berman.

We can't get those two.

Yeah, well, speaking of, actually, we got some ideas for Bourbon as well.

Yeah, he had a bar for Berman last night.

He had a bar for Burb.

It's going to work for as long as we need it, Burb.

Yeah.

Is Fowler okay?

Just give him a test or call.

He didn't tell him.

He needs an emergency.

What's that?

He needs emergency.

You're talking about vitamin C.

Yes.

We have had that shipped into the office in droves.

I'll have everybody know.

We forced BA to take one.

It's a fun ticket.

I always take it.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's just a little gummy.

We've set it up in a position, though, here, where it's, hey, grab your vitamin C gummy.

Get your emergency, guys.

Get your gummy.

Have a couple of them.

Maybe OD on vitamin C.

Maybe have too many here so we can fight.

And we're going to find out if this works or not.

Yeah.

That is what we were going to do this fall.

Every fall, everybody, including us, get something.

Especially when the weather changes.

Everybody gets something.

Every time.

I don't even think my allergies are that crazy.

Maybe they have grown as I've gotten older, but during fall, during football season, all of us always get something.

Maybe Fowler is having that right now.

I'm not 100% sure.

We all get it throughout the season.

We are going to OD on vitamin C this year.

Have to.

And that we're going to see.

We're going to see how good this vitamin is.

Yeah.

We're going to find out.

There's been some moves made to a couple different foods that might help

us going forward as well.

But we're excited for that.

What else should we be chit-chatting about?

Let the boy develop.

Speaking of vitamin C, let's go to number three.

Notre Dame needs the same run that they had in 2024.

If we go back about a year, they lost to Northern Illinois, who was just a MAC team, not a ranked MAC team.

I believe they're 27-point favorites against that MAC team.

And they went on a run after everyone said, hey, you cannot make the playoffs after losing to Northern Illinois.

And they won every game by 40, and they made the playoffs, and they went to the national championship.

Now, they start 0-2.

Very close games.

They only lost by three points and one point, but they are still 0-2.

And everyone's saying they can't make the playoffs.

But I think personally, if they win every single game by 40 points, just like last year, I think there's a chance they can make the playoffs.

Last year, after Northern Illinois, the only ranked team that they played that was good was Louisville.

That's it.

This year they have USC.

They got to hope USC keeps winning and they beat USC.

But if they go on a run, it's going to be hard to keep out a two-loss Notre Dame team that only lost by four total points to those two good teams.

Okay, you're speaking to me because I said to Saban, I actually bet a Ferrari or a Mercedes, which Saban owns dealerships for both of those, that Notre Dame was not going to make the playoff because I thought Texas A ⁇ M was going to beat them on Saturday.

And I thought with the way their schedule looked, even though USC, who I think a lot of people are saying USC deserves to be ranked much higher, like people are kind of disrespecting USC is what people in college ball think.

They think Lincoln Riley's offense all the way back.

Like they think they are underappreciated right now.

So I guess if USC, to your point, continues to go and they have a good performance against them, and then that tough Stanford team last week of the year,

they're so TBD.

You have no idea how that's going to go.

I guess to your point, if they beat everybody by 40, there will certainly be a conversation.

And they can.

They certainly can, Tone.

We'll see.

And we're going to watch it every week on prime day.

Big opportunity this week with Purdue.

Purdue's a tough team.

That could be a big statement win for the Irish.

Not only Purdue, they also have an opportunity against Boston College.

Exactly.

Keep them out.

Don't let them in.

Pittsburgh's a great football team, too.

Let's not forget that.

They are.

Pittsburgh's a great football team.

Syracuse, Franz got the boys running sprints on game day after game day.

This is true.

This is the worst schedule or the easiest schedule in college football, right?

Which is why they lose their two big ones at the beginning.

I immediately thought, I don't know if they have enough traction to get back.

No way.

But then I forget, Notre Dame's on national TV every week.

And if they win by 40, it's going to be hard to keep them out at the end.

So I texted Coach Saban after Texas A ⁇ M gets that win.

I go, I would like that Ferrari SUV that you were talking about.

Okay, I guess there's a Ferrari SUV.

Oh, yeah.

Because none of the cars he sells would survive in Indiana.

No.

None of them.

No.

He says, we've got an SUV, right?

And I looked at it.

I don't think it's going to survive here.

But since Texan M1, I immediately thought, you owe me.

Get one.

Yeah.

He said,

hold on now.

He thinks the same thing Tone's thinking.

There's a chance at the end Notre Dame does get favor because they're on national TV.

And if they kill everybody,

there's a chance.

That ruins it.

I just think there's a lot of people.

What do you mean that ruins it?

That ruins it if that happens because like that's bullshit.

They're a different team now than they will be at the end of the year.

They were favored in both those games, though, too.

Like they weren't dogs in those games.

They were favored against Miami and favored against Northern Illinois, too.

Yeah, and I'm not sure.

That was one.

Wow, that was one.

Now they're above.

You're not keeping out a two-loss nerd aim team that lost by four total points to Texas A ⁇ M.

I agree.

I have come around to that thought.

I just want to let you know after Saban says it and you say it, and then I look into it and I think about myself watching them on primetime every single week.

And if they were were to win by 40 every single week,

which they certainly can, there would be a lot of people that are like, put them in.

This team's not one of the top 12 teams.

What if one of those teams that

beat them is 8-3?

That's not good.

That's not good.

I'm taking the 8-3 team over Notre Dame at 9-2.

No, what they need, they won't take any of them at 8-3, especially ACC, Miami,

SEC, Texas AI, Majority.

A ⁇ M, maybe.

It's like if A ⁇ M is 9-2 and Notre Dame's 9-2, but Notre Dame beats.

But listen to what we're doing right now.

We're talking about what the conversation's going to be around the time.

Just put them all into playoff.

That's right.

16 teams.

Give us the Mac champ and three more.

Just give us 100 teams.

Put 100 teams in there.

No.

Never going to get it right.

But if Notre Dame does dominate on national television every week, you're 100% right.

What are the other two?

Four doesn't matter.

That team is done.

And number five, more importantly, the Mountaineers are back there.

I don't think Clemson deserved that.

Good luck to them.

What was the team that said we never talked about him last week?

They got a big-time win.

44 Connors is the guy that said Houston.

They beat Colorado Friday night.

Houston beats Colorado, and they said nobody even mentioned our game on the Pat Mack show earlier.

I want to let Connors know, we apologize.

You were awesome to watch.

The Colorado team's going to have to figure it out, but maybe Houston does have it figured out.

I think they got money too behind them.

They do.

Nothing to think about there.

That quarterback's pretty legit, too.

Wegman.

Agreed.

Yeah, Wegman.

Great story, too, around him.

So we're pulling for everybody to have great years.

But if you don't, we got to say it.

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Football!

Good job, Coach.

Head!

There it is.

Good job.

That's 47 years in football as a coach, BA.

The Toxic Tables here at Boston Connor and Atai Schmidt.

Good cadence there.

Yeah, yeah.

I think you got a couple.

I think you got a couple to jump there.

Nine-year NFL vet, host of everything DB, good D, bad D, ladies and gentlemen, Darius J.

Butler's.

And live from Hammer Dod Tod is one half of the Hammer Dod.

Cowboys, AP Tone.

Tone good to see you.

Good cheers.

You look good, Tone.

Great college ball breakdown.

We appreciate the five stories that we need to know.

Another story you need to know, Cal quarterback, Songa Polatelli, real deal.

Good guy.

He's going to get paid so much money this offseason.

I apologize to the Calgarhythram.

Maybe Cal's able to keep up, though.

Maybe.

After an offseason of losing a lot of their guys to other schools, it would suck if the Cal Bears just became a feeder system for other schools.

But there's a chance that is what Cal currently is because songa politelli their quarterback who is an 18 year old out of hawaii who was originally committed to oregon i believe then he saw that he wasn't maybe going to have an opportunity to start as a freshman whatever the case transfers in the nio uh era before his freshman year even started okay first person to ever do that a lot of people probably wanted to judge him quickly uh i would like to commend him on that decision after originally judging him because i thought to myself this guy's transferred before even sorry

this guy doesn't want any adversity what is this guy

well i think what he and everybody around him knew is this guy needs to be playing football.

The boy needs to play.

This guy needs to be playing football.

And that is the right decision.

This dude is phenomenal.

He's tall.

He's athletic.

He's a lefty, obviously, which in 2025 isn't as big of a deal as maybe it was back in the day, but it is a beautiful.

He might have one of the most beautiful lefty strokes that there is out there.

And his ball somehow either spins slower or faster, whatever it is.

It is beautiful going through the air.

And he throws dimes.

He can move.

And he's seemingly, I mean, he's in Cal.

So,

brain-wise, we're talking has to be a big deal.

This guy

might get the biggest of all time

after this season.

Mike might get the biggest of all time after this season.

You're talking about upside and potential.

That's what college ball is right now.

What he has earned for himself and his family just here in the first few weeks, unbelievable beat.

It's going to be a big, big job for GM Ron Rivera, who I love to death, to keep him.

I mean, they're going to have to come up with a lot of cash.

And we're not saying that's a good thing.

We're just telling you that is the state

where we are in right now.

That is the game.

And he is special.

Yeah.

He is special, special, the quarterback.

And that's something to look for now going forward.

Like, if there's a freshman that transfers, the first thought you mentioned, like, oh, this guy must be a bum.

There's a chance there's some 17-year-olds out there right now looking at the team that they might be going to, and they're like, well, I could maybe go to Stanford or Cal play year one, be the best player, and then go to the big school for even more money.

See, also, having some Cal connections or Stanford connections, not a bad thing.

Yeah,

not a bad.

Not a bad.

Berkeley, I did not know what to expect going there, obviously.

I think I had a natural thought

of what we were walking into over there.

Based on the state.

Well, not just the state, just everything that's ever basically been said about the university, the campus, the city, you name it.

It's all like,

I thought, not sports people.

Not really like sportsy people.

You know, I think there's in some places, and maybe I'm wrong in this, especially Berkeley proved that, is there is like people that are not anti-sports people.

I don't know what the fuck they do.

I have no idea what they do with their time, but I thought that's what it was when I go there.

That morning in game day is one of the most memorable life experiences that I have, just being mind-blown by what the expectations were and then what it actually was.

And I think it actually has helped me like almost.

not judge as quickly or like assume as quickly.

They love ball out there.

And with that coach and the way they're able to to do their thing, and Ron Rivera is the GM, it's like, I think they're going to get some special talent in there.

Are they going to be able to retain him?

That's the hard part.

Quarterback last year, now at IU.

Yep.

Wide receiver last year, now out.

And where's the, where'd the guy, another big time transition?

He went down to, oh, my God.

Oregon.

Florida State, Oregon, maybe.

Yeah, but their roster last year.

Ott.

Got plucked.

Ott went to Oklahoma.

O-T-T-T-O-G-O.

He's out.

It's like that cow has become like a feeder.

I'm not saying that's a good thing for Cal fans, but I I am saying Cal is coming on the board quickly, and this song of Pull the Color Kid is legit.

Their schedule is also

pretty cake as well, if you want to talk about some schedules.

So look out for Cal.

Okay, who else are some schedules that are pretty cake?

North Carolina has a cake schedule.

Wake Forest.

A lot of ACC teams have some cake schedules out there.

What's that mean?

What are you saying?

That conference sucks.

Yeah, honestly, kind of great news for the Big 12.

Well,

West Virginia's head coach, Rich Rodriguez will be joining us in about 24 minutes.

We understand what's happening in the Big 12 right now.

Okay.

Arizona State goes down there in Mississippi State.

They have problems with the Cowbelts.

Feels like it's about to be a two-headed monster in the Big 12.

Feels like 34-year-old or whatever the hell he is over there in Arizona State.

Oh, he's a good one.

He's great.

He's a good one.

Great.

He's restored, I think, faith in the entire community.

He wants to empower the valley, light up the valley or something like that.

He loves that area.

They've really gone around.

Top lost in Mississippi State.

Top.

Top lost in Mississippi State.

They took the goalposts out on him.

It was one of those.

Start Vegas, baby.

Yeah, exactly.

Great time down there.

That place loves ball, too.

New light show down there, knew everything in the stadium.

You could tell.

Herb Street, I think, said he thought that that was going to be a problem.

New light show, knew everything.

I don't know if this Arizona State team has any idea what they're walking into.

And then lo and behold, he was right.

And that's why he was doing the whole, oh, Mississippi State won that one.

I didn't know.

I didn't know.

He was really excited about it.

Oh, yeah, of course.

As he should be, because he basically called it to a T.

He's also called a couple guys' stats to a T going in.

Feels like he's on his shit, but Arizona State and West Virginia seem like on a collision course, about to run this in time.

What about Utah?

Yeah, look out for Devil.

Devin Camp here.

I hate that.

Don't forget about Texas Tech.

What about Iow State?

Texas Tech has a lot of money.

Oh, yeah, Rocko battle.

Chirocco's so good.

He's supposed to be a West Virginia mountaineer in New York City.

Kansas, Jalen Davis.

Joe Brown just let that one out of the fucking backyard.

Anthony Beck.

His dad's in the WV Hall of Fame.

Yeah.

Who is it?

Get the kid a scholarship.

Yeah, yeah.

What are we doing here?

You can blame, you know, Rocks in the backpack on that one.

He is holding a backpack for Texas right now.

He's working hand in hand from what I've been told with Arch Manning.

Neil Brown had a lot of

good references.

Wait, wait, wait.

Oh, yeah.

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, live from Anatoly, Ohio.

Oh, my God.

He's only in charge of his breakfast.

That's right.

That's what he served today.

Yeah, what's he serving him, poop?

Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, I don't think he's serving poop, but I assume there's people out there that would say poop actually pretty good breakfast because the nutrients and everything like that.

There's a chance that some sports scientist is bitching poop for breakfast.

And that's where we're at now in this world.

Joining us now is a guy who actually...

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, he's in an attic in Ohio.

He's college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, rider cup winner.

Potentially a poop eater.

Yeah.

We don't know.

Ladies and gentlemen, A.J.

Hawk.

You know about the urine?

You know about the urine?

Have you ever taken down your own bowel movement?

No.

First off, yeah, the urine thing has never happened, never tasted my own urine, never tasted anybody's urine.

And if somebody, if there's nutritionists pushing poop for breakfast, you might want to check out somebody else because I don't think that's, I don't know if there's any nutrients in it that you eat your urine.

You don't know that.

I don't think.

Oh, you don't know what these super geniuses are.

I guess you got to test it.

Somebody's got to test it for us and be conman can be the guy.

Eat poop for two straight months and see if you feel fit.

There doesn't help.

There's definitely an incident.

Connor sounds like he's already found this guy or i assume it was would be a guy i'll be sent to

it was a guy i assume it was a guy on instagram if i had to guess who's an influencer on being the healthiest you you could possibly be there is a slew of them and i am sure that one of them was like moose poop actually

and did an entire thing for sure that that is no questions asked i sounds like you're not one of those guys we take that back once again that's judging just like i did with berkeley i should not have done as such aj we're just talking about Cal being maybe a feeder system for schools like Ohio State or any of these other big, big Czech schools.

Do you think the people at Cal hate that?

And or is there just kind of a

kind of an understanding that that's the modern world we're in right now?

I mean, I'm sure you can hate it, but you also probably have to accept it at the same time until you are able to come up with the funds that it takes to keep these stud players around.

Yeah, I guess it's a good problem to have, hey, this guy is so good.

He's looking at going and other teams may poach him and take him away from us but yeah we have the good player what do we got to do to keep him around it's it's like a lot of coaches say hey i don't have to love the nil situation and all of it going on but this is where we are i got to find a way to navigate through it he's going to penn state next year oh

probably

lock that in where's it going can you bet on that somewhere guys is there a predicting market need that we could potentially put that on i assume that is where he ends up at if i had to guess miami

maybe Miami because Carson Beck though he has a year.

I mean, will they be able to keep up cash-wise with Penn State?

Yeah, yeah, he's an ooze.

What about Alabama?

I mean, I wonder if maybe Kalen DeBoer.

Yeah, maybe Florida, maybe Texas.

Florida.

They might be in a quarterback market.

Excuse me.

Just throw cautions.

But he's leaving.

Maybe he might want a first drive.

I mean, shit, if he wants to stay with him.

Lester J is not a bad place.

Arch Manning wants to transfer out of Texas.

Get away from Neil.

Come back to Rich Rods Hard Edge.

We would certainly take him.

Everybody needs to stop giving up on Arch.

Let the boy

develop.

Let the boy develop.

AJ, let's talk about last night.

What is your big takeaway from the big win for the Buccaneers?

Baker Mayfield, absolute dog.

And then for Chargers Raiders, what are your thoughts on maybe the new kings of the AFC West?

Yeah, first off with the Chargers.

Like, D-Butt hit it, hit it right on.

Like, if you're sitting there and you are the Raiders, you're Geno Smith.

Good luck.

There does not seem to be any, they didn't have any room to even breathe.

Like they were on them from the jump.

These white shirts just swarming everywhere you look.

You could tell like when defenses start to feel, when they start to play well together, like 11 dudes playing as one, they all know where their help is.

They all know what proper leverage, and they just fly around and have fun.

That's what it looks like when you watch this Chargers team.

They turn Geno over three times.

And when you do that, you got a great chance of winning that game.

I'm just, I'm impressed with Herbert.

I'm impressed with Coach Hardball, how he speaks about his players as well.

Obviously, we've heard him praise Hardball.

Listened to him him praise Derwin James.

I thought it was great when you said, hey, I got all the ammo you need when it's time for a new contract because your head, the head coach, has said that all of this great things about you.

I think it's cool to see.

Like, I think Hardball also knows, hey, my guys can handle it.

There's some head coaches, I think, that are almost scared to praise their own guys during the regular season, actually.

Well, I think Harbaugh would, if he didn't think that this was the right way to go about it, he wouldn't do it.

Like, I think Hardball probably thinks his Chargers team, maybe these guys have been beat up pretty good publicly, you know, for the lack of living up to expectations.

Maybe his strategy with this group is somebody needs to go to bat for these guys, like Herbert, mostly.

Like, hey, I want to build these guys up publicly so they know that I'm I got their back.

That might be Hardbaugh's actual strategy going into there.

Is that something to think about, or is that just what Hardbaugh is always like?

You think?

No, I think there's a good strategy.

And like you said, from where they came from San Diego to StubHub and where they've been, hey, we're damn good, man.

We're damn good.

And believe it and throw it out there.

Don't be afraid.

All right, expectations are beautiful.

All right, let's raise them.

Let's raise them.

Let's make sure.

Hey, we're a goddamn Super Bowl team.

Oh, yeah.

We got the golden goose of quarterback.

I talked to this John.

Yeah, Justin Herbert.

Oh, my God.

I saw him.

Did the football gods craft a human for me to coach?

Yeah, they did with Justin Herbert.

Joe All and his dad?

Yeah.

Hey, you two, take your hat off.

Yeah,

so tall.

So tall.

Joe All is the tallest guy of all time.

Toughest guy of all time.

Friendliest guy of all time.

Just like, he cuts promos for all of his his players and that 241 for derwin james let alone quentin johnson they're saying that guy can't catch now he is one of the best weapons in all of sports herbert's finding his group chargers are special the afc west going to be tough i will say i got travis kelsey's new hat

i'm not giving up on the chiefs just yet okay i'm not getting the moxie's got to be the vibes got to be high as the american eagle true colors collab arrives over there in the kingdom they got to feel good about that hat's great they got a three-quarter zip i'll wear in december man i got got a little flannel thing I'll put on.

Oh, yeah.

There's a lot of options in there.

Catch the damn ball.

Yeah, B.A., maybe they got a little too much.

Catch the damn ball.

Yeah, but.

Pretty cool merge.

Oh, he got that now, bro.

And a resume.

The brothers are killing it.

And they're in the middle of a dynastic run right now, obviously.

But yeah, BA's a big take.

I said, how do you feel about Travis Kelsey's new stuff?

He goes, you got to catch the damn ball.

That is not a Travis Kelsey thing.

No.

That is not like Travis Kelsey at all.

I think that's why he was so.

He was touched down forever.

Okay, so let's get to

one of our favorite segments.

Hell yeah.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for BS or no BS with BA.

We will present statements of fact that have been made by people thus far in this football season.

And BA, it'll be your job to tell us if those statements are BS or

no BS.

Sounds good?

Sounds great.

Let's go to the first one.

Baker Mayfield has won his way into the MVP conversation.

Special night on primetime.

Is that BS or no BS, BA?

Oh, that's no BS.

You know, the last two weeks, winning ball games on the last play, willing your team to win.

All right.

We're talking with, he's playing with five starters out.

Early.

Two top receivers, both tackles.

I mean,

what he's doing is amazing.

And he's got to be in the conversation right now.

And my hat's off to Jason Light because obviously they got some depth.

Losing Khali Jacansy on defense and still stopping him.

That Bucs team is, I think, for real.

We had some breaking news here during the show.

Kalija Clancy, that you were talking about, out for the season with a torn peck.

Damn.

That comes just after week two, after a primetime game, and obviously a big-time dub.

That sucks on the defensive side.

But you talked about wide receivers, talk about your tackle.

Tristan Worf's one of the best players in all the ball out still.

So this Tampa Bay team only going to get better, seemingly.

Has Baker ever been in the MVP conversation before?

Has he been a guy that's been left out of it every year that he's I don't think everybody's getting since his rookie year, you know, and he was too young for it back then, but he's got to be in it right now.

Will this end up being the best

trio of wide receivers between Evans, Godwin, and Ibuka when Godwin gets back?

Do you think that is what you're doing?

Well, you got Jalen McMillan, too.

Yeah, and McMillan with that.

They're both out.

Is that best in the league?

I think when you talk about four, it might be the best four-in-the league.

Igbuka, I mean, I put a tweet out last night.

Is he going to win offensive rookie of the year?

He's scoring touchdowns all the time.

That's three through two weeks.

He's a rookie, and they're talking about him being like a vet on on the field and off the field.

They love him down there.

And then obviously everybody was like, excuse me, does Tyler Warren play football still?

It's like, you're right.

I have boots on the ground.

I see eyes on Tyler Warren.

But this guy might have 45 touchdowns this year.

And that's going to be a number, especially with Mike Evans still being there.

And you talked about four wide at wide receiver, and then they still got a run game.

It's like, that's going to be, he's going to get one-on-ones.

He's going to get a lot of favorable matchups.

And him and Baker are on the same page already.

Yeah, because you still, even though Mike Evans is late in his career, he's still a game recorder.

He's still the guy you saw they had going to the highest paid corners in the league.

Derek Stingley Jr.

matched up on him.

He did a pretty good job, but that's where you're going to put your number one attention with Mike Evans, and that's where Ibuka can definitely thrive and eat.

AJ, you obviously have always been pro-Baker Mayfield, as we all have basically on this program.

It's great to see him doing this.

I mean, this is, Connor talked about it earlier.

Every quarterback that has high expectations that doesn't work out at their first place is going to hope to God that they have a career like Baker Mayfield.

You're talking about the depths depths of hell, brother.

We're talking about scout team punt block in Carolina for a shit team.

Come on.

For an ass team, he was doing that, willing, and then it kind of evolves, find his home, and then the owner comes out and says, this guy's the face of our franchise forever for the foreseeable future, basically.

What a time for Baker.

What a run.

What a story.

And what a football life.

Yeah, isn't it easy to, I guess Baker's an easy guy to root for.

Is it because he's like relatable?

Because we see how fiery and how intense, how much he cares?

I guess, at least for me personally, when you know that somebody truly cares this much, like he, he's pretty, he's pretty damn passionate, and you can tell on the field his teammates love him.

I guess that's why we all love, like, it's not a redemption story.

Like B.A.

said, he won rookie of the year.

The guy wasn't a bust ever.

But for some reason, you know, he had a rough patch, and Cleveland will do that to some people.

And he found his way back, and here we go.

He's in Tampa, I know.

And I just, I don't know.

He's easy to root for because he's a fun guy.

Hey, if you threw that guy at linebacker, I think he'll make a few tackles or he'll break his neck triumph.

He's a football guy.

You know, he told a story to us a couple years back whenever we were at the Texas State Fair before the Cotton Bowl Red River rivalry.

He said that in high school, he's playing in front of 45,000 people.

Like in high school, Texas football, he's playing in front of 45,000 people.

The only reason why I know that he said that is because Sports Center Next just posted that yesterday.

I forgot he had said that.

I listened to it.

It's like, this guy loves ball.

He's out of the movie.

The Texas movies about loving ball.

So whenever, you know, he has to go on that journey of being a pump block team and then back up third fourth string and then he gets kicked out of the town it's like an obsession with ball kind of leads him through it all and i think you can see that with the way he plays guy's not scared to contact not scared to talk shit everything that football is baker mayfield kind of loves and embodies what a what a football player yeah what a what a what an absolute football playing stud we have here the character you're thinking of is mike winchell he's essentially mike winchell who is the Permia Panthers quarterback in Friday night lights if he made it all the way to the NFL but even in that stat, like we're talking about all these guys, he threw a touchdown to a guy named Ryan Miller.

I do not know.

I should have known.

I should have done my research.

Furman.

Yeah, of course.

Furman, great school.

Love Furman.

They always have some noise in the March Madness.

But even him just throwing it to anybody, I assume it's pretty easy when you have Abuka and Mike Evans to have tunnel vision.

Since he's come to Bucs, he's led the NFL in touchdown passes.

He's led the NFL and touchdown passes in the fourth quarter.

He's the guy.

He's the guy.

He's the guy.

I also think that, and maybe it's a little bit recency bias because of the last two weeks, but I think he's firmly entrenched himself in that camp.

Of like, there's always like the handful of quarterbacks where it's, oh, he left too much time for blank.

And like, now it feels like that's Baker.

Like last night, just watching that game, it was like, there's no, there was no doubt in my mind.

Baker's driving down the field.

They're scoring a touchdown here and they're going to win.

Fourth and ten.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, right.

You think Baker?

Yeah, breaks the tackle.

Yeah, God.

Fuck it.

And then he gets blown up.

His knee, AJ, we talked about this in the first hour.

Three shots to to that left knee, including this one.

Well, that's the first one.

That's early in the game, first quarter.

Then the fourth quarter, two massive shots to that knee, both one off the turf whenever he falls awkwardly.

And then he gets upended, flipped with a shot directly to the same.

Ah, ah, CJ GJ's, you just got your ass kicked by the turf.

The whole

thing, you know, Baker's up there and at him.

We take him back all the way to college.

Baker's going to be fiery.

And he knew going in, Baker knew CJ gj's on the other side don't let him get you don't let him get you well not only does he pick up the first down but also

that's a shot right to the knee when they do the follow-up still playing it kind of hyperextended that thing is going to be this big and none of us think at all that he's going to miss any time with that.

No chance.

It's like that's a badge of honor.

And we hope he's okay.

And if he does have to miss time, completely understandable.

Which is another reason why we thought Cleveland was so perfect for him.

Like he's an Ohio guy.

You just, everything you just said about Baker is like Ohio guy when you think of an Ohio football person when we mention like Ohio folk.

Like he's just a hardworking doll.

And what the hell happened?

What the hell happened in Cleveland, honestly?

You guys kicked him out.

Cleveland happened.

You guys, hey, I grew up a Cincinnati guy.

You know that.

The Browns, yeah, Bernie Cozar, I watched him play as a kid, but I was a Bengals guy.

Shout out, Bernie Cozar.

Mick.

Shout out to all the great Browns of the past.

And shout out to the Browns currently trying to make it work.

But you had the guy to won a playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

And then you run him out of town without everybody else.

The head coach wasn't on the sideline.

He had COVID when Baker won.

Get him out.

He was at, yeah.

Get him out of here.

All right, let's go to the next statement of fact on BS or no BS with BA.

Yeah, speaking of another tough, gritty quarterback, some people are trying to write him off.

And now I'm looking at the silver lining because J.J.

McCarthy will be missing the next few weeks.

Is it good for him for missing this a little bit of time?

Is that BS or no BS, BA?

Oh, that's total BS.

Okay.

He's too young.

He needs practice reps.

All right.

He threw 35 passes in the fourth quarter as a senior year in college, and he needs reps.

Now, he is a dog.

We know that.

He showed that against the Bears.

But he's also

too much of a dog at times.

These young kids better learn how to slide quick.

All right.

Can you put yourself in harm's way?

Harm's coming, baby.

A lot of quarterbacks run him.

Oh, a lot of them got hurt this week.

You know?

A lot of other guys.

They probably played one linebacker in college that ran 4-5.

They all run 4-5 in a national football league.

You ain't getting away.

You better get your ass on the ground.

How do you feel about him maybe getting a chance to watch, though, like a Kevin O'Connell office?

I don't know how much he was in a building last year.

We assume he was there.

He's got a year to watch.

Okay, so

to me, you don't learn shit holding a clipboard.

All right.

Mental reps?

What are those?

You better get your ass out there.

Do it in practice.

Peyton Menny never, Kelly Holcomb never got a rep.

One of the greatest statements ever Tom Moore said, What would you do if Peyton got hurt in your backup place?

He said, We'd be fucked.

If we don't practice, fucked.

it's a great loss we're not living in our fears all right we're worried about right now you need those reps man you've got to be out you've got to be on the practice field getting reps what about that guy right there though what about kevin o'connell do you think it's his offense that jj maybe like do you think it's going to take some time for them to be speaking the same language and obviously this time away from each other is cutting into that time what do you think no they need to get their tackles back They had no tackles playing in the game

and they couldn't run the football.

That was the difference between, I think, the Bucs with no tackles.

They ran for 150 60 yards vikings couldn't run the down ball and it was all on now the pass rush had him up so you're saying time away from the game not good for jj mccarthy not good at all what we need right now is reps rips rips

we got to be on the practice field all right get healthy jj what do you pull it for you what do you think bruce just because you have been doing it for so long what do you think about the vr stuff because that's like what the it's fantastic yeah because that that's like you were one of the first ones to start using it way way back when it first came out And it's great for your backup quarterback.

You do all your blitz drills in a room this size, just drop back, see all the reeds, see all the blitzes.

So it's great for your backup.

Carson Palmer fell in love with it.

It really helped his career.

So JJ might be able to do that.

Yeah, it's like the wreck.

You can also box in there, too.

That's true.

Thrill of the fighting, VR.

Freaking beat Saber.

Yeah, you can play drums, too.

You can also swim.

In the ocean in there.

Oh, that's cool.

I got sick.

Yeah, I would want to do it.

Oh, yeah, the roller coaster.

Yeah, roller coaster.

It was bad.

I got sick.

What's that?

How do you swim?

You lay on your stomach and somehow swim?

No, so it's a stationary thing.

Kind of treading water.

But you got to do this number here to go get to places.

It gets really dark in there.

I got kind of scared, to be honest.

The roller coaster, the roller coaster one, that one made me puke.

There's a new one.

It's like, I don't know if it's a new one, actually.

It's new to me.

Where you walk out to the edge of a building.

Oh, yeah.

No.

And then you see how far you can get out there.

you know, yeah, it's like a plank, it's a plank, yeah, it's a plank, yeah,

and you're in your living room, bro.

You're in your living room.

What's the goal, though, to jump and kill yourself?

I'm in my living room, bro.

No, in the game, the goal is to get to the edge.

Get to the edge of the plank, get to the edge of the thing.

So, you're like walking out this thing, and then literally you look down, and it's in like I'll say 720.

It's not 4K, okay, but it's it's good enough where you scale, yeah, it's cartoony, but it's good enough, yeah, but it's not nicer than cartoony.

It is kind of realistic, but it's not 4K.

And you rely on that whenever you start getting really freaked out.

Does it go like if you actually fall off, are you free-falling on that thing?

Oh, yeah.

That building.

There's a video of a guy doing this,

and he jumps into the TV.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't doubt it.

There's people that are hanging out, trying to hang on.

Top ass.

Yeah, it's pretty real in there.

That's what we're saying.

Good reps for JJ.

And if he wants to get a little cardio and ping pong.

Boom, boom.

And ping pong.

they got ping pong figured out it will mess up your actual ping pong sure like but you can play real

you can play good vr ping pong in there with 11 i believe is the game and it's real you can play against people from all over the world it is fantastic good exercise good workout aj and i played against each other but in the real life ping pong game will suffer from it because you lose the touch of the real paddle so you got to commit to one or the other i become a full-time virtual reality ping pong player sure i now suck in real life i don't like it because in virtual reality, I'm very good.

So I'm real caulking a walk.

Then I come into real life.

Everybody's like, come,

want to come play in real life.

And I can't find a fucking table.

It's like, well, I need to,

what do you want?

I just play a guy from Germany.

He was ranked 15 in the world in virtual reality.

But JJ is going to get better out there.

In virtual reality, I think it's something just like the NIL transfer portal.

We just need to understand this is now life.

We need to get in there.

Part of it.

JJ's in there.

We can be in there too.

Bruce, walk that plank.

Let's see if you got it.

Let's go to the next statement of fact, shall we?

Yeah, B.A.

A lot of people are saying that the Chiefs are ass cheeks, unfortunately.

They're dead.

We just talked about it.

Hey, listen, the AFC West is now the Chargers division.

You know, they don't got anybody who's doing anything other than Patrick Mahomes.

So I ask you, is that BS or no BS, B.A.?

I think that's total BS.

This coaching staff's way too good, man.

And, you know, they lost to tough

Super Bowl champs and the Chargers who, you know, they had to travel to Brazil and all that.

Those are excuses.

But this coaching staff is too good.

This team's too good.

And Patrick Mahomes is too good.

Now, if Patrick Mahomes continues to be the leading rusher, they got a problem.

That is the big problem because he's going to get hurt sooner or later.

I mean, he just,

now that he ran a DB over, people are going to take some shots on him, whether he slides or not.

And they've got to...

They've got to get a running game going to help him out because he's just taking way too many hits.

I mean, that's three guys hitting him from the Philadelphia Eagles defense that are very physical.

Your big takeaway is they're not cheeks because they're still the Kansas City Chiefs.

They got too many good people in that building to be cheeks.

So maybe we're putting Cart way ahead of horse in that particular column.

But if he keeps taking these, these are just, these all add up here.

Now, these are just shots that just kind of add up and add up and add up.

Second quarter.

And I think he maybe doesn't trust everything in front of him at the exact moment, potentially.

So maybe he's getting a little bit more eager to run.

And then he knows he's much more athletic than a lot of people give him credit for.

So he can make a play himself.

But that's normally the mindset of a younger quarterback as opposed to a guy who's already being called the GOAT.

How do you kind of stop that?

What do you think they try to do to get him more in the pocket or maybe not as

vulnerable to massive shots?

I think they've got to find a running game, first of all, and then they've got to protect him better.

You know, their tackles have not played well for the last couple of years, and they've been searching for a tackle.

And now.

This stuff is going to get him hurt and end his career.

Nobody wants to see that.

No one.

No one.

And they're making, you talked about Travis Kelsey earlier.

They're making mistakes that they very rarely.

Like, I think the Chiefs are still the Chiefs.

Now, did I pick the Philadelphia Eagles to beat the Chiefs?

Yes, that's because I believe in the Philadelphia Eagles.

I think the Philadelphia Eagles are a very good football team, but I still believe in the Chiefs.

Sounds like you do as well.

Yeah, I believe in Andy Reid and Spaggs and the whole crew and Patrick Mahomes.

Okay.

Yeah, what's crazy is just like that you didn't really expect this massive of a drop-off.

Like when Tooney leaves, they still had Creed Humphreys and they still have Trey Smith.

And the fact that they can't run the ball with two of the better players at their position, right?

Isn't that kind of weird?

Like, why is that happening?

Josh Shimmins, rookie left tackle, and he made a great play.

Actually, he stopped a pick six against the Eagles.

But, like, why are they struggling if they have two all-pros in the middle of their own line?

Yeah, it's in your

scheme a little bit.

Pachenko, get him going again because, you know, he's a fireball.

When he gets going, that kind of sets the tone for them.

And they haven't been able to get him going.

All right, last one here, Conman.

Yeah, B.A.

Steel Curtain.

More like soft pillows.

The Steelers defense absolutely stinks.

We don't know if anybody actually said this other than Connor.

Correct.

Yeah, this is my brainchild, B.A., and was I maybe, you know, jazzing it up a little because the Steelers are going to New England this weekend?

Maybe.

But sue me.

What's going on in Pittsburgh, though?

Everyone kind of thought, hey, maybe the offense will start slow and then, you know, the defense will kind of carry them.

They'll be okay.

It's kind of been flipped.

Why does the Steelers' defense stink out of nowhere?

Or does...

Hold on.

The question, remember.

Oh, yeah, excuse me.

Steel Curtain, though, more like soft pillows.

The Steelers defense absolutely stinks.

Is that BS or no BS?

That's no BS.

No BS, brother.

No BS.

Wait a minute.

That was the hardest watch for me on Sunday to watch that defense.

Knowing that Casey Hampton and Aaron Smith and James Harris and all the guys that have played in that defense for all the years, going back to Joe and all the rest of the guys, but Troy.

That was...

They get stoned by a fullback and knock both linebackers down to safety can't make a tackle.

Seattle just ran it down their throat at home.

That just doesn't happen.

I mean, it just happened.

And it didn't happen once.

That's third and 20.

Still a soft toss playing for a field goal when you're running in for a touchdown.

That isn't Steeler defense.

What is it?

What happened?

How's it happen?

Because that was 10 a.m.

local time kickoff for the Seattle Seahawks.

I don't think anybody gave the Seattle Seahawks any hope at all in this game.

Aaron Rodgers, home opener for his Pittsburgh Steelers era.

Defense, how much money?

Let's go to Hammer.

Todd, Todd, how how much money is on that defense?

A lot of money, right?

Number one in the NFL.

I think it's like $150 million or some shit.

Case got $150 million on that defense.

And not only

well earned, by the way, by the boys for how great they've been.

And the expectation standard is the standard.

I mean, two guys get knocked out of one.

I think Jeff Saturday gave some pancakes out earlier because of this.

But why is it?

What is it?

Is it just attention?

Is it focus?

Is it scheme?

What do you think it is?

You know, I think some of it is scheme.

Some of it is reading press clippings.

You know, and

they can't stop the run, then TJ and Highsmith can't tee off.

They're the finishers, all right?

But you got to stop them first to be able to finish.

And they're not stopping anybody in the running game right now.

And Highsmith, too, now.

Highsmith, I think, is out four to six weeks, right tone.

So, like,

yeah, they're banged up already.

So, Jack Sawyer gets thrown in there.

He's, you know, first year.

It's going to be, you know, kind of an interesting watch for the Pittsburgh defense going forward for the New York Times.

They're going to see a fullback for a few weeks.

I know that.

Yeah.

I'm putting one in right now.

See, old Bob plays 100 years old.

Run it down the the weak side linebacker's throat.

Knock two linebackers down.

And until they put that fire out, it's coming.

Everybody's just attacking right there.

That's a copycat leg.

So next week, you're going to see it too.

They hit that with some leverage, man.

Yeah, two guys.

AJ, coach, yeah, AJ, what the hell's going on?

Pittsburgh Steelers defense, brother.

And you see that moving late.

Look right there.

Cam Hayward's moving late.

He's standing up.

He's already screwed, so they can knock him down, create a huge gap.

And then here we go.

We're off to the races.

Missed tackles.

Yeah, what's 22 doing, D-Bud?

4-6.

That's that.

Open field, man.

These running backs, they get paid a lot of money, get drafted high, and this is why.

They're not paid to get tackled in open field

by anybody.

Seriously, that would not be fun.

That would not be fun.

It was like what AJ mentioned earlier with the Chargers defense.

Like, playing defense and tackle.

The only time we tackle the National Football League is on Sundays or on game day.

So tackling these guys, it's a team effort.

It's trust.

It's literally firing your gun.

Hey, if I got outside in leverage, I trust my guy to be inside out.

Because if I'm taking on this block and he talked about Hayward, but Wilson, if he boxed that outside in, it looks like, you know, Queen will come over and make that play.

It's all, and then once that your guy isn't there on play eight, on play 18, now you're hesitant.

Now you don't necessarily trust him.

He doesn't necessarily trust you, and it just kind of piles on.

But with the guys in that building, with the players in that building, they play a lot of good football with the coaches in that building.

I do think they can fix it still.

What did your leader say, your Supreme Leader say, Tone?

It's only week two.

so it can talk about aaron rodgers i believe wow in the long run this will be good i don't know if he's supreme leader or uh coach tomlin would be considered that over what both of them may be supreme's leadership positions over there

um is that practice trust confidence how's that why is that why are people not it's practice is meetings is it's walkthrough and then it shows up on sunday on game tape but it only you know you don't you have that little inch of doubt and then it can kind of grow but once you start making it like that Chargers defense, that team, like straight everybody, regardless, we don't know all the names.

The guys outside of it, they trust each other.

They trust, hey, Hart is going to be out there.

Gilman, James, like all these guys are going to be in their position, in their place, so I can go and fire my gun because one-on-one, me and Walker in the open field, it leans to him.

Two-on-one, three-on-one, now it's in our favor.

How about BA sass?

No, BS, brother.

Didn't expect that.

That was another segment of: is it BS or no BS with BA?

BA, BA.

Hey, we almost got through at that time.

No, it's on me.

Hand up.

No, but the first three times it was me.

So don't you worry about it.

Just, we always want to ask a question, but it's a statement.

It has to be a statement because then the statement's either BS or no BS.

But we always want to turn it into a question.

Then it's not.

So we've ruined the segment the first few weeks.

This week, smoothest we've had.

Hell yeah.

By far.

No questions asked.

BA did great.

You know what else was great?

Watching West Virginia beat the hell out of it.

What a game.

What a moment.

What a time to be alive.

Hard Edge is seemingly back in Morgantown, West Virginia.

And we're all thankful for that that our Mountaineers fans.

Ladies and gentlemen, the head coach of the Mountaineer football team, Rich Rodriguez.

How you doing, coach?

Boy, you look good, Pat.

You look great in that sweater.

Good to see my friend BA as well.

We go way back to our days in Arizona.

Back in Lake Oconee, Georgia, you know, going over to Gabby's,

having a cocktail or two, playing a little golf.

Yeah, it's great to see you.

You too, brother.

Hold on now.

So I know B.A.

is a noted club thrower and club drowner.

Okay, if it has to happen, I couldn't even fathom you on a golf course.

Are you a, what is the, what is the spirit or the mood in golf?

Do you try to be good?

Are you actually good at golf or are you just out there having a good time with BA?

No, I mean, well, I don't know what B.A., he probably lies on his handicap like all the other coaches do.

I don't know.

I mean, I was okay, you know, but I am a little probably

if there's a little money at stake, I'll get a little ultra competitive.

I've only broke two clubs, just two, and one of them was an accident.

But I hadn't, you know, that's the worst part about, you know, taking a new job, Pat.

Hell, I ain't got time to golf, which is ridiculous.

I got to make time to golf.

So

I'll find time.

If we get to a bowl game or win some games, I'll find some time next summer for sure.

Come on, come on down in February, bro.

I'm not giving you any strokes either.

okay see he's hustling too he just shot his age twice already this offseason i mean he's balling right now on the course obviously

he is balling for sure well i appreciate you not golfing and focusing on turning around that program there uh watching along this weekend the emotional journey that you were on throughout the entirety of it all i assume was a lot afterwards we saw some tears we saw some real pride some real fulfillment it felt like out of you What was that for your team?

And how did they feel in that locker room afterwards?

Yeah, you know, Pat, I didn't, you know, it's it obviously is not scripted, but I was probably didn't realize it till I after watched some clips of it afterwards.

I was a lot more emotional than you'd think after 300-some games as a head coach, you know, it would all kind of feel the same, but I was a little bit more emotional.

And I think it was maybe, you know, it wasn't just because we won, it was our rival and all that, and there were 60-some thousand people, and the game's so important, and everything like that.

I just think it was a combination of a lot of stuff.

It was, you know, being gone for 17 years, you know, seeing

what uh everybody put into this program people like yourself how important it was uh for us to to to play well and to represent west virginia the you know the way we need to be represented and so it was i mean every they say every game counts as one this one might be counting a little more than one you know

and and uh the folks started tailgating last tuesday and hell they haven't left yet so it's been uh it's been a wonderful uh few days you know obviously we've turned a page now and i'm moving on to a kansas on the road this this weekend but for for 24 hours it was the hell of a time yeah i know you're just trying to get a first down against kansas i know that's what you got to think about and i appreciate you acknowledging how big of a game that was because i think to everybody that was following along with your journey and our journey as mountaineers as a whole and our story and our team and the way everything that has happened that game was huge also being on september 13th 913 you know the whole it was a massive weekend and especially for you reinstating who you are and what your team is i think it was a big weekend man Legit.

And shit, Pat.

It should, you know,

when we play them again in three years, we're going to be a whole lot better football team in three years than we are now.

So this is the toughest time for us.

You know, we got 77 new players, only have one guy that started any football games.

And so, you know,

this was good for us to try to.

you know, to get a win because we got to wait three years till we play them when we know we're going to be pretty salty.

But it was a physical game, too.

If you noticed that, Pat, they had an inordinate amount of people that got hurt all the time.

I saw that.

On some snaps, there were two or three guys that were getting hurt.

And I was like amazed at that.

And then their training staff must be the best in the country because they all came back in the game.

I saw that.

It was phenomenal

how fast that medical staff of theirs got them healthy again to get back on the field after all those injuries.

And we will certainly take their information that they have to become a better medical staff everywhere else.

I think if they have any secrets to take care of these guys so quickly, we would like them to share that for the good.

Yeah.

I'm like, they got the worst luck in america there's a guy falling out on every snack i mean i've never seen nothing like that so it was uh hey hard edge that's a hard edge is back you know it can't keep up with it that's good news

something else yeah oh was it yeah okay uh watching your team you're talking about it being super physical you had like a super jumbo package when did this come to mind how long have you been doing this i don't think i've seen this uh in a while yeah we had we had like uh 3 000 pounds of beef going in we actually did something similar the last couple years at jack state but then we had, I got a couple, one lineman that Donovan has, he's two, two cheeseburgers away from 400.

And then another linebacker is a cheeseburger away from 350.

I'm like, hell, let's just, you know, BA will tell you this.

Football is a game with big people moving other big people against their will.

So I'm like, well, the more big people we can have in there, the better we have.

So the formation is called heavy, of course, right?

Heavy.

I could call it just fat.

Just our fat package.

But that may not be politically correct, but hell, who cares?

But we called it heavy to be politically correct.

And so we have nine guys, but I'm trying to get 10 guys.

I might have one where if I could find one of those fat guys that could actually carry the ball, I'll have 10 guys in there.

So that will be the fat package.

And we'll hand it off and block with all fat people.

You know, actually, Nico is not, Nico's not slim.

He's 225 pounds.

So he's on the borderline of a quarterback being like fat.

So

I say that in a kind.

Yes, we all know you.

And your players all understand at this moment, too, what that is.

Anybody that's ever played for you understands exactly what you're saying.

Is that fat spelled P-H-A-T.

Yeah, yeah, it's powerful.

Yeah, yeah, it's powerful.

Yeah, fat.

Super cool, too, to do something new out there.

Yeah.

And if you get a 400-pounder with a ball in his hands, I'll tell you what, college football people will celebrate that.

And I hope you're, you're, you know, that heavy package through the holidays might become,

you know, Thanksgiving, Christmas, let alone Halloween.

Holy shit.

Beast package.

Yeah, there's, and there's a lot that we can sell from that and t-shirts we can make.

You can imagine the marketing things like, you know, let's get fat, you know, let's go, Mountaineers, let's get fat.

And then, you know, let's get fat.

P-H-A-T.

P-H-A-T.

Yeah.

AJ has a question for you, Coach.

Yeah, Coach, winning a big overtime game against a rival like that.

I guess for some of the younger guys, a like you said, so many new players, what does it do for you guys' confidence?

I think great teams have to find ways to win.

You have to win many different ways.

You can't just be frontrunners.

You got to learn what it's like to come from behind or win these close ones.

But what can you guys take from that?

Can they build a bunch of confidence winning like this?

I think so.

That was, obviously, anytime you win, you're going to get a little bit of confidence.

And then when you lose, you maybe lose a little bit of confidence.

But I tell everybody, what we have to rely on is what we do every day.

You know, the way our practices go.

I tell our guys, we're a little unique in how we practice and then we had good practices last week you couldn't tell the difference between last week's practice and and the week before's practice and i think that's got to be who we are every day we do what we do we we go how we go and hopefully we can play well enough to win a game and keep playing and then you know a typical coach speak that you know i tell our guys i told them for the game it's gonna be a game don't look up at the scoreboard all right just keep swinging keep playing as hard as you can then after 60 minutes you can look up well shit that was wrong it take more than 60 minutes.

So I said, it takes 60 minutes and overtime.

Then look up the scoreboard and see what happens.

They truly, I think they really did that.

They just kept playing hard until the final whistle.

Tell me about Nico.

He's obviously big, strong, QB, stuck around from last year, which I think we all appreciate.

Then also Scotty Fox gets him burn at the beginning of the second half there.

I don't think he played the week before.

All those decisions.

What goes into it?

And what are your thoughts on the quarterback room?

Well, that's the other part, Pat.

It's like, you know, most people say, well, you take your quarterback out and put another guy, you're going to destroy his confidence.

Well, yeah, maybe he destroyed my confidence too, you know.

So I think there's times where

our quarterback, but people don't realize in practice, this is the way we roll our quarterbacks and we roll in them out.

And I tell them, if you make a mistake or two, I'm not, we're not going to pull you out just because you make a mistake or two.

Sometimes we're just going to try to make a change and make a spark or maybe it's a certain number of certain plays that this quarterback can do really well.

And so Nico understood that.

You know,

when he was taken out, it was to try to get a little spark with Scotty, but it was also because of a couple different plays we wanted to run.

And I wanted Nico and all the other quarterbacks to stay engaged.

Well, he did.

He didn't go pout and like, gee, whiz, you know, he stayed ready.

He stayed engaged.

And then when we're six minutes ago, whatever was in the game, said, hey, Nico, you're in.

It's your time to go get it.

He attacked it like

the person he is.

And it was a great lesson for all of us, for all of our players to see how engaged he stayed in, made a couple of great throws and like that seam throw right there and led us to victory.

Yeah, you know, you've been very open seemingly about liking the whole quarterback room.

Anybody that knows you, though, with how competitive you are, you want somebody in that quarterback room to take that job.

You would like somebody to become the guy in that room.

I would assume.

Not 100% sure, but I would assume that is the case.

Oh, you're, yeah, you're 100% right.

You know, somebody to kind of seize it and grab it.

And, you know, we hadn't really seen that yet, but maybe in the last six minutes, Nico.

is taking that step, you know, which is really neat to see.

But I want those other quarterbacks, you know, Pat, to be as competitive like, shoot, I'm not done competing with this thing.

We got a lot of games, a lot of football left.

It's still going to be wide open.

So, but at least for one day, Nico took charge.

At least for one quarter, Nico took charge.

And that's a positive sign.

Yeah, it definitely is.

Big time win and a big time moment.

I think it was the most people that have been in the stadium in years and years and years.

Obviously, the checkered was awesome.

The environment looked electrifying.

I wish I could have been there.

Ollie Straw, your punter.

Did you see that catch he made?

I didn't.

I knew it was a bad snap, and he hadn't made a great catch then after i saw a picture of it it was like that's got to be like a specialist like folk poster thing kind of deal yeah it's definitely a special all football players not just specialist asshole okay

that's two points right there you almost lose all these straw that you

yeah

And he was, he changed the field too.

They had good returners, and his location on his punts was next level.

So it was, yeah, it was really neat.

And what was neat about the crowd, I tell everybody, there were 60,000.

That's what the stadium holds.

I think it was actually about 65,000 there because they're like 4,000 in the end zone.

But 10 years from now, there'll be 600,000 that say they were there.

That kind of atmosphere.

On that note, B.A.'s got a question for you.

Yeah, Coach, do you think this is going to be the hardest week you have as a coach?

I know going back when I was at Temple, we had a big win.

And, you know, the guys didn't come down until Thursday.

Well, that's too late.

We just missed two days.

And get your guys.

I know you probably already had one good practice.

And how's the practice going the rest of the week?

Yeah, that's the perfect point, BA.

It's like yesterday, we go, we have one day off.

It's Mondays for them.

So Sunday, we had a walkthrough, and I could tell they were still high off the game kind of deal and excited.

And we turned the page a little bit.

But Tuesday and Wednesday, today's practice, tomorrow's practice is get after it.

And so I may, I don't mind yelling anyway, but I

probably feel that I'll probably be, I'll be into today's practice in their grill a little bit if I need to.

It doesn't bother me at all.

So today and tomorrow will be the true test.

But you're right.

This will be the challenge.

And

I didn't bother me at all.

I can't wait for you to pat on your back to stab you.

Yeah.

The whole.

Pat him on the ass, sit in hand, that kind of deal.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's going to be one of those days.

Yeah, it's going to be one.

Yeah, yep.

Get pissed down my back, tell me it's raining, all that kind of stuff.

Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.

Headlines.

Oh, oh, look who's good.

Somebody's a good football player.

Oh, Nico.

Oh, yeah.

I cannot.

I hope you're mic'd up today.

Obviously, Raquel will control what gets out and what does not get out.

I think she's doing a great job, by the way.

You should tell her that.

And I saw Miss Rita celebrating thereafter.

I think that was probably a big win for her as well, if I had to guess, for the entire family there.

Yeah, the fam was there.

The famous here was nice.

And I had some buddies of mine that came from Arizona, some buddies of mine from

the town.

And we smoked BA, we smoked some good cigars till about midnight.

And then we all realized, damn, we're hungry.

I hadn't ate since 8 a.m.

And like, what the hell's opening?

And so there's an Applebee's like a mile away at 12 o'clock.

And thankfully the chef was still there.

So we kind of barged in there and ate some Applebee's at 12 o'clock at night.

Had a grand time.

I'll tell you what.

If you have an Applebee's that has a chef,

a cook made me tell.

And a bartender's made this.

Hey, we should be pit.

We're having a good time out here.

Hey, who sent me, somebody sent me a video from your cigar smoking session.

I don't have the number saved, but it looked like it was a great time.

You guys are literally, I got a video from it from a number I do not have saved.

I was so happy you were enjoying the moment, though.

I want to let you know that.

Yeah, you know, I probably all as coaches,

you try to move on to the next one, but like shit, for four or five hours after that one, I wasn't even thinking about anybody or anything other than my, you know, my friends and what just happened.

Yeah, let's go to Alpha Beaster.

Hell yeah.

It's good enough for MCDC.

It's good enough for me.

Let's go to Hammer.

Todd, Todd.

AP Todd has a question for you, Coach.

Yeah, coach earlier we were talking with BA how and how he kind of split up the season into quarters you guys just ended non-conference you're about to get into your tough conference schedule so does your does your thinking does your how you're coaching these kids does that change at all how do you break up the season now that you're into the conference schedule Yeah, for us, it worked out just perfectly with our three non-conference games being in the first quarter.

I said the first quarter is over.

There was some good, some bad, a lot of stuff that we're learning to get better from.

And now we have our conference conference play on the road, and we play a team that's really athletic.

It's had an open day, two weeks to get ready, you know, and at home opener for them in the conference.

So it's going to be, it's going to be a big challenge.

So maybe being on a road, I think somebody already said we're like 14-point underdogs or something like that.

So, you know, what do we go out there and got something to prove again this weekend?

Oh, I think somebody said we're two touchdowns.

I think somebody said, did somebody say that?

Somebody said that, yeah, the boys will know that.

We got no chance this week.

We got no chance.

you know i hope we can get a first down you know i hope that uh you know everybody comes out of the game healthy uh that kind of deal be a fun trip out there beautiful campus too they've got a great big investment from their uh boosters they have a huge huge investment you can tell what 300 million dollar donation or something and and they've they're they're putting it back in their athletic program so it's uh it's neat Yeah, hopefully you guys will be able to compete out there.

Ty actually has a question about that.

Yeah, coach, on that note, Pete Thamel put out a tweet, I think, yesterday, that basically said, hey, West Virginia has, they've pledged that they're going to be in the top funding tier of the Big 12.

Like, obviously, as a coach, that's a big part of it now is, you know, not only the recruiting, but the fundraising.

Was there a conversation there where it was just like, hey, listen, we can, we can say whatever we want, but at the end of the day, like, if we can't compete money-wise, then guess what?

Like, we're not going to compete for Big 12 championships.

And how good does this feel?

knowing that you have the pledge from the university that's like, you know what, we're going to take care of that aspect.

Yeah, you got to be.

As a coach, you want everybody to be aligned in the same thinking.

You know what?

It's your administration, your board, your coaches, your players, and everybody like that.

And we're running a business now.

Let's be honest.

And it's a business and it's an expensive business.

And if you want to compete at the highest level, you got to make an investment financially.

And that's why I feel good about our administration.

I feel good about our board as they know that that's what's got to happen.

And you're seeing what's happening at Virginia Tech.

And, you know, they're trying to do the same.

They're trying to get everybody aligned the same way I'm just blessed that we're aligned here and that we got great support and we got people like Pat and everybody else that that loves this school that's going to help us compete in this new era that we're going to be in because we're in we're running a business now and we we've got to we've got to have the financial resources to compete at the highest level on that note this logo is beautiful goes great on a hat you can certainly buy any of these hats they are available everywhere and the fat package shirts p-hat certainly

yeah that'll certainly be available as well Run the holidays, maybe some Black Friday specials if you need it.

You have had that mindset, though.

And I think it's maybe because you're at Jack State or whatever.

Like, hey, we got to drum up.

We got to do this.

We got to run this as a business.

I think you've been very forward-thinking in this entire thing.

And is that because you're from, had to go through a smaller school in this era and keep it all?

Or why do you think you are that way?

I think just more than anything, Pat, every coach would say, what do I got to do to win?

You know, what does it take to win?

Used to be, well, you got to recruit at a high level, which obviously you still still got to do.

You got to evaluate a high level.

Now you better make sure you evaluate the right ones if you're going to pay them a certain amount of money.

And you got to be able to have, you know, schemes that can help you win.

If you're competitive enough, like, what's the rules?

What are the rules that we got to have that follow?

And then how do we take advantage of these rules to be as good as we can be?

What does it take to win?

What does it take to win?

It's as simple as that.

What does it take to win?

And if you don't press that part as a coach and just say, well, tell me, this is all we got and just accept it, Then, you know, you're not going to be

coaches that think they can outsmart people and win because they're going to be smarter than you are going to be the ones that aren't going to be doing it for long.

You better know what the hell you're doing, but you also better have a whole lot of help to get you there, if that makes sense.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I'm excited to see what you grow out there at Hort Edge is back.

Printed this past weekend.

And on that note, with the ever-changing everything, it's a whole new world than it was maybe 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago.

Go ahead, D-Bud.

Yeah, we're talking about much more of a business now than ever.

But more important than anything, we talked about it kind of with the Pittsburgh Stillers and that defense is the trust and kind of that team building.

How do you kind of expedite or speed up that process with all these new players?

And now, like you said, entering into this conference play now.

How do you do that in this era?

Yeah, everybody says, well, nowadays you can't coach the guys as hard

as you want to because they're getting paid and they can transfer.

I'm like, you can coach them harder because they're getting paid.

You know, I mean, they got more to lose now if they're not playing or if they're not, you know, making, maximizing their their abilities and so i tell our guys sometimes you you know you got to tell them why you're getting on their ass a little bit or and all that where in the past you just tell them that and they they'd follow you but uh we our culture i told our coaches and it's still true because we know there's going to be some tough moments in this first year or so i said we cannot do we cannot sacrifice our culture we can't ever like have a guy be lazy and soft and not say something or a guy not do his best and let it go because we're afraid to hurt his feelings or afraid of whatever a financial ramification

he might be leaving, whatever.

You got to have the right process and the right culture, no matter who it is.

And once they understand that and they're part of it, then they'll be the ones that help you make sure that's held every day.

Right now, they're all new.

So everybody's got to learn it.

But eventually there'll be just a handful of new guys every year that have to learn the way we do stuff.

Do you have anybody hosting any camaraderie building cookouts at the end of training camp?

Any of those types of situations, you know, that maybe the entire city comes to?

And, you know, the football team celebrates in a front yard with the entire campus at the end of training camp.

Any of that type of stuff happening?

No, hell, when our guys get an hour or two of free time, I realize they like to have their free time.

I don't have a lot of long meetings.

I don't have a lot of long talks or anything like that.

It's like, you know, most of the guys I talk to is, hey, you got a couple hours of free time?

That's valuable to you.

Go have your free time.

Yeah, and maybe have a party, too.

Let the boys enjoy.

Don't be setting any couches on fire, though.

They're fine, and kids.

All right.

They're fine.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we don't like.

I don't like money being taken out of anybody's pockets.

Certainly have a good time.

Let's also protect the city.

Okay, we appreciate the hell out of you, coach.

We will continue digitally on YouTube, ESPN Plus, Disney Plus, and TikTok Live.

We'll see you tomorrow.

Have a good one.

Goodbye.

You see that?

You see that countdown at the bottom?

Oh, good wave.

Look at you.

You fucking hit a wave.

Wow.

We're still alive.

We're still live.

We're still live.

That is a good wave though that looked very very natural there yeah yeah

presidential wave yeah just trying to get a first down and nail the wave on the on the way out of the entire thing uh coach i

i was so happy watching the end of that game a lot of moments where i wasn't um and then ohio obviously the week before like what a gut punch to the entire thing and i think aj was trying to reference this as well after you win and and you prove that your style can win, players more naturally buy in, I think.

Like, I think it's like our hard work paid off.

Like, when you see success for all the shit that you're going through, you're more naturally to want to continue to do that, I think.

So whenever a game like Ohio happens, and I think they got a great team, Navarro gets hurt against Ohio State.

That's a whole different story.

If he doesn't get hurt, I think they're a good team.

But a game like that can be devastating to a build of a culture, I think, from outside looking in, especially with what it was with Neil Brown versus what your culture is.

I think it can create or generate a potential.

A lot of people going, I'm not doing all this shit.

It's not working.

After that pick game, was there a sense of like justification or fulfillment maybe from the boys from all the hard work?

Because I know the shit is not easy compared to anything else that they've done in the past.

I think so because of just some, you know, being in the locker room, you know, there's nothing like a winning locker room.

You guys all know that, the winning locker room.

But the number of guys and players that came up to me and was saying, was hugging me and saying, coach, I just absolutely love it here.

I love what we're doing you know what i mean that was unprompted they didn't have to say that and and i told her guys it's not totally ingrained in in the in the program like it needs to be i mean it's getting there and i got a great staff and everything like that but it's it's still a process to get it to where the hard edge if that's what you want to call it mentality is ingrained in our guys every day every minute of every day no matter you know the game or whatever it is and that's that's the process that we got to go through that's going to one game's not going to change that, but one game sure in hell can make a difference.

And I think that's what this game should be able to do for us.

How about you hit

after it out there?

Letting the boys know we got a little wiggle.

We got a little wiggle under this West Virginia Southern hick accent in here.

We don't dance on TikTok, but in the winning locker room, we'll dance our ass off.

Cheers, beers, Mountaineers.

Congrats.

It was great to watch you.

And I'm happy you're enjoying the moment while also understanding we got to get a first down against a team that's two touchdown favorites against us.

Touchdown.

Yep.

Two touchdowns.

At Kansas.

At Kansas.

Two tids.

Two touchdowns.

We'll be ready.

You're the man.

Plays the gentleman head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineer football team, Rich Rodriguez.

Yay!

Thank you.

Thank you.

He's fucking hilarious.

Yep, he's fucking hilarious, too.

I love him.

Love him.

Fat, the fat thing.

Yeah, that was incredible.

And the reason why I enjoyed it so much is because hearing him say that about somebody in real time, in practice, is one of the most, I would assume, scary things for said fat person,

but also from everybody else, hilarious delivery.

And like, the reason why I think sports coaches feel this is because being in shape is a massive piece of Rich Rodriguez's entire thing.

Like the reason why those guys were hurt so often is because West Virginia is running.

Like you got to be in good shape to be a part of that offense.

Like that is just what it is.

All offseason, I think they only did six hills at Law School Hill.

We're doing like 12 of those back in the day.

Big guys, DN, like every like we are conditioned, this team.

I stopped playing soccer.

Okay.

Had way more offers to play soccer than I did for football.

Only had a few for football after a kicking camp down in Florida after I went in.

And I'm like, you know what?

Got a strong leg.

The thing I don't love about soccer is having to run seven miles.

You know, I'm a little heavy, my knees.

It's not my, I love kicking a ball, though.

Like, I enjoy, boom, football.

This is

this is the fucking avenue.

And I get dropped into the West Virginia Football Strength and Conditioning Program

two month or a month out of high school during before the season starts.

And I'm running more than I've ever run in my entire life.

I mean, we are, people are puking around me and I'm still in soccer shape.

So I look good at all these things.

But I remember thinking to myself, like, this is fucking way worse than soccer ever was.

This is a fucking nightmare.

And that's like a part of what Richard's thing is.

Hard edge is like, we're going to be, we're going to be be in better shape than you we're gonna be tougher than you and we are just gonna pound the shit out like that is the mindset that he is trying to create so whenever he calls a guy fat ass that that is a you are fucking the entire team you are you right there because we can't depend on you now i assume he's gonna say it's because the modern generation we still got guys that just stay fat somehow

so him having to use

All right, you want to be fat?

You think that's, we'll fucking put you in back?

I want 10 fatsos out here.

Just meet, moving, meat is what he said.

I feel like whenever he thought of the idea, he had such an epiphany.

Yeah.

Yes, all these fats are now for good, not for bad.

What he means, though, is heavy and can move.

And he's not scared to do that.

He'll do that right down the entire field.

That was my first time seeing him do that.

And then as soon as I saw it have success, I'm like, Rich will run that play 30 straight times.

from

his own goal line all the way to your goal line if it works because that's like what he wants to do what a coach you know him obviously through a lot of different situations and he was out arizona whenever you're coaching the cardinals and obviously mentioned the lake out there in georgia that a lot of you guys live on and it sounds like a great time but he i think in the football world also a lot of respect for everything he's done the spread offense that we ran back in west virginia i think he started all the way back at glenville state maybe in the entirety like he invented tempo okay people talk about tempo they're all cut they're all copying rich rod i mean that that's the guy that said we're not stopping next play's up let's go let's go let's go.

And all these young coaches, okay, this is the way to play football.

And it's kind of just took over college football.

And he's always been successful.

He's always been a great coach.

He's a dog, too.

Yeah.

Every day, he's a dog.

5.30 a.m., he's on the stepper in the middle of the weight room.

So when you roll in there at 5.40 for your 6 a.m.

workout, there's a guy already glistening in the back.

He's got a towel over his shoulders, and it is max difficulty, max speed.

And you just see him back there.

And it's like, that is the one that's leading the pack here.

He was supposed to be a drill instructor.

He was supposed to be, especially his way with words.

He can piece swear words together better than anybody in history.

And I did wonder if the modern era would be good for Rich Rodder or not.

I thought maybe he wouldn't be able to coach.

And the way he talks is like, maybe not all guys, but like our guys, they

rally around that.

I know.

Oh, definitely.

Man, these kids love discipline.

They really do.

The guys that are great.

Yes.

And they just don't bullshit them.

Don't bullshit them.

Rich is always going to say the truth.

It's going to hurt.

He's going to hug you later and make sure you're okay.

But if you're a fat ass, you ain't going to be one for long.

Or you're not going to be a part of the program.

You can't move.

One of the two.

You're going to be a part of the four offense, or four touchdowns that we score with your package.

But literally, you're in there just as a shield, a meat shield, literally for everybody else.

But he is.

I was going to 3,000 pounds.

What's going on?

The meat shield shows crazy.

That's what in his head.

When he drew that fucker up,

it was a big circle.

What is that?

That's our fat ass offensive lineman.

What's that?

That's another one.

What's that one fucker?

Three what?

90?

Cheeseburger way.

Fucking put him right there.

Another one.

Fucking what?

What's that one rookie that did?

Yep, put him there.

And then somebody was like, coach, there's six more.

I fucking know.

We're putting them here.

We're putting them fucking here.

We're putting them fucking here.

Then we're fucking stacking them here and here.

And then what are you going to do with the ball?

We're going to fucking run it.

That's what we're going to do.

What do you mean?

And they did it.

Yeah.

This thing showed up on my television screen, and I started dying laughing.

I'm like, of course, the tush push now is just, it's evolving.

Take me off the field.

You.

Yeah, yeah.

There's no background here.

There's no safety here.

The beauty will be one of them pass some bitches will be able to catch.

Yes.

And he'll catch the touchdown pass if he blocks really well.

Well, and also, if he got a guy, yeah, he'll give him a little treat.

Hey, hey, you do this good.

Yeah,

you're this good.

You'll do one of these.

Be the old fridge.

And then all of a sudden, we got one of these right at the back of the end zone because everybody's coming up.

It's but that's going to be a few weeks of just

a lot of this right there.

Kansas, he loves that they're two touchdown underdogs.

That's a lot.

I'm just going to try.

Yeah, they got 300 million.

He knew exactly.

Yeah, I think they got $300 million donation.

I think they got Lance Laipold, great coach out there.

Yeah, they got it all figured out.

It's a home opener.

It's going to be a a great environment.

Yeah.

Hell of a quarterback to stop, too.

Hell of a quarterback to stop.

Six year of Jalen there.

Did he get hurt?

No.

I don't believe so.

No, it was other Jalen Dennis.

Other Jalen Dennis.

Jay Dennis.

There's a lot of

names, right?

It is, especially, I'll tell you what, game day, beginning of the season.

Boy.

Just swimming.

Everyone's, I know the last name, and I think I know what the first name sounds like.

And then I'm like,

not going with it, going with the last name.

Not doing it.

And it's like those decisions are happening every single sentence, you know, just as we go.

That is a lot of fun to learn about all the new storylines.

Like game day, literally.

Get the rundown on Friday for what the show is going to be or whatever.

And then Friday night is just like,

what team am I learning about tonight?

Or teams.

And then like.

watching all the movement that has taken place and all the things that have happened.

It's so much fun to learn all these storylines.

I think the NIO and the transfer portal is making the sport more electrifying, you know?

And I think free agency obviously is something in the NFL that is highly regarded.

Free agency frenzy is one of the biggest days of our offseason.

It's a Monday.

It's at noon.

We got counter-programmed because maybe we couldn't handle it or something like that.

But that's how big of a day it is in the world.

In college, if they are able to get this free agency right, okay, and they have a window that is actually a part of it.

Now you're talking about college football having a similar to the NFL football of a year-round, you know, they can set up this calendar where college football can start becoming year-round excitement as well.

I think we're just at the beginning.

I know college football has a lot of tradition, been around a long time.

It is incredible.

We are very lucky that we get a chance to be a part of college football at all.

I feel that way.

We feel that way as a whole.

With the amount of history, pageantry, tradition, it is different than any other sport in America.

It is the greatest cult, sports cults in the world is college football ones.

Hooligans and soccer, I get it.

It's your entire town.

I agree.

You guys are very passionate and very entertaining.

That's like, what, 40,000 max?

30,000, 40,000 max, dumping.

What about?

The bigger stadiums, they're growing, but not up to 100,000.

We got 102,000 is what Tennessee was.

It's the eighth largest in the world.

It's the third largest in the SEC.

So it's like the college fans are just like insane.

So I don't want to say that we're just at the beginning of what could be for college football because obviously there's deep history a lot of it but it's like in this modern world I think what college football is going to be able it's only gonna ratings up 21% week one probably another 20% week two it's like they can always this free agency has made teams good out of nowhere and has a lot of storylines kind of develop on it like song of Politelli's free agency is gonna be

must follow anywhere he wants to go and it's like that he's not the only one there's gonna be other guys in there college football has a chance here I think to be

I'm not saying it hasn't had chance, but I'm just saying, can really cement itself as the number two sport in the world.

Like NFL, soccer, I know, you get it.

Number two sport in America by far is like NFL football number one, college football number two, and then everything else.

I think we're in a good time for ball.

Yeah, I hope they made the right decision.

Like, I feel like it's kind of right there, very plain and simple.

But you mentioned like the college football history.

I just worry about the NCAA.

Like, there has never been a time where there's been like, oh, NCAA has done a good thing again.

You know, that's.

Yeah, but we're in a new era.

New era.

We are with the same people up.

No, no, no, you got Charlie.

Charlie Baker.

Yes.

Great.

I got no faith, unfortunately.

Yeah, but they might have no say.

Yeah, well, hopefully they don't.

They don't.

They don't.

They're cashed out.

Listen to B.

This is the first time he spoke about this.

20 years as a college coach, they have no say.

NCAA is basically toast.

I mean, it's going to be the Big Ten, Big SEC, whatever those other two coverages, those commissioners are taking over football.

Yeah, but one of those TV contracts up again, we just looked at this.

Like, they might be toast, but it's still another

32.

Yeah.

Yeah, but I mean, NCAA ain't taking shit to Sankey and those guys.

They're running college football now.

NCAA coming up to Sankey.

We're going to need you to look into what's cool.

I'm going to need you to look into a lot of other shit.

Shut the fuck up.

I thought that.

We got to discover.

Yeah.

What do you guys run?

Oh, the one that everybody hates.

We are the one one that everybody, why don't you let us maybe look into this?

Petiti also with the Big Ten.

Incredibly,

I think, good at his job, but also knows that he has a lot of say and power.

I believe Sankey and Petiti are on the same side of a lot of things, a lot of issues.

I think they understand that.

Big 12 commissioner, I think he's in it too.

He hates it.

Yeah, he's in it with Sankey.

And the ACC commissioner, there was one drive down North Carolina where they were almost the strongest conference in all football.

That's right.

And he knew that.

He still holds on.

Still got Florida State and Miami Miami in there.

Agreed.

Agreed.

Agreed.

I don't think Clemson's dead, but they're close.

They're dead, Bruce.

Yes.

That boy's dead.

I think he can stay at Clemson for however long he wants, and who knows what the future looks like post-Cade Klubnick.

I think how many years is this last year for Cade Klubnick?

It's got to be.

It's been there for 10.

Yeah.

I just hope it's Davos.

To be honest, it's only his third year starting.

Did he start as a true freshman is what I'm trying to do.

Yes, he did, remember?

I guess he could.

DJ, he took over a DJ.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's go one more year down there.

That's right.

It'd just be sweet for a fresh start.

Like, I think it'd be like, not, you know, hey, Dabo, you know, it's time to go run him out of town, but more so like splitting for both of them.

Like, hey, this has been fun.

I think maybe I should go back home to Alabama and coach the Todd and then see what happens.

Clemson still has everything in front of him.

They're the reigning ACC champs.

Okay, is what Dabo would say.

Can we all relax real quick?

And Bam ain't dead either.

Yeah, Bam ain't dead either.

We've seen it.

the nuts.

You see Ryan Williams on that?

Yeah.

I've seen Ryan Williams do a lot of stuff.

Yeah, this

right here?

I've seen him do this.

Yeah.

Does he have

two guys dead?

Big 10.

Does he have Wisconsin?

Did you see that?

They were counting this as a part of the Big Ten SEC football battle.

Yeah.

Yeah, and it wasn't.

I mean, like, did you see that, AJ?

Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, technically, it is.

That's Big Ten SEC class.

But AJ knows, too, like when he was playing, like when I was in school, too, like, Wisconsin was awesome.

Like, they've sucked for five years.

They were scary.

They were scary back in the day.

Exactly.

Their offense was awesome.

They were mean and they ran the ball.

Okay, so I understand what you all are saying.

And for that reason, what you're saying about Wisconsin being a perennial, you know, through it all.

They're reviewing this as SEC Big Ten.

They put it on the stats.

They say this is if we're going to keep score here between the North and the South in football, Wisconsin's representing the Big Ten.

That's what they say.

No, I get get it.

Let's keep track in December.

Okay?

Let's keep track when it matters, not fucking week two, week three.

You know, I mean, who gives a shit?

Well, they're saying the SEC, oh, man, Oklahoma gets a big one.

I get it.

Do we want to look back at what Ohio State did to Tennessee when it mattered most?

They fucking embarrassed them.

Like, you would not believe.

And that was kind of our whole thing:

hey, this is cool.

This kind of shit when it's hot outside.

When it's, you know, negative temperatures and you got to go up north and there's maybe snow on the ground and maybe the ground's frozen, is it the same thing?

So that is an interesting conversation piece that's going to start around a college football playoff and I will certainly be a part of it, where the conversation has always been the SEC team is far superior, okay?

We got 300 plus thousand stadiums down here, places packed out.

History of football down here.

During COVID, you guys didn't want to play.

You remember Big Ten said we're not playing?

Kevin Warren, president of the Chicago Bears, said us and the Ivy League aren't playing.

Everybody should give us a round of applause.

Greg Sankey said, hold the applause for me then.

We're playing football.

So that's the difference between the SEC and Big Ten is how people in the SEC feel.

Then he started looking at the five-stars and where a lot of these recruits come from.

The SEC for a long time has said, if they were to play, what would the sports book say are the favorites strictly off the rosters?

What has now been entered into

evidence is, well, maybe you can't have

11 five-star 4-2 runners on the field for Big Ten teams because it becomes four degrees outside and football is a little bit different.

So whenever you're judging rosters, does the 4-2-4-3 across the board matter as much because the Big Ten team saying, are you able to run like that when it's frozen?

And also,

when we start hitting you and it's freezing, does it matter?

Two different footballs.

Yeah.

These are two different styles of football completely that have to be judged at the end of the day on who's better.

That is a wild scene.

Because if Ohio State has to go down to Tennessee, what happens?

Yeah, they might get stomped.

Who knows?

I mean, I doubt it.

I think Ohio.

I think Ohio State's the one.

They were the one team.

Yeah, exactly.

They were the one team.

Just look at the two quarterbacks.

Yeah.

I mean, go on.

Will Howard versus

Yeah, but at that time

the forgotten man.

Yeah.

Yeah, Nico Yamaliava forgotten man.

He's looking to transfer again.

But Ohio State is also one of those teams who who could compete in the SEC.

You know, like

they're in SEC school in the north, yeah, which is what everybody talks about.

But it's that northern football.

Who gets a home for that?

That makes a difference.

It is a huge world.

And we'll see a different world.

It's a different sport.

Think about playing in September and 72-degree weather compared to what we were at at Ohio State when they play Tennessee.

Like, there's some guys that the second they walk out on your team, they walk out of that tunnel for warm-ups and they're already done.

They already quit.

Like, well, I hope somebody else makes a play because I'm sure as hell not making anything today.

Like, that's that legit happens.

Yeah, never playing those games.

Go ahead, Deborah.

We almost never had, like, really, really, because, you know, season will be over.

Once you go both season, like, those are in warm weather

states and cities for the most part.

So, you never, I played at Yukon and I rarely played in like snow.

I don't think I ever played in a snow game or like below 20 degrees or anything like that.

So, yeah, it changes everything.

And then, in NIL as well, that kind of can't kill the SECs, you know.

Coach Sabin talked about that, about how the territorial advantage that the SEC had with the amount of dudes coming out of different states.

Pockets, South Carolina, LS, or Louisiana, Florida, obviously, in a big way, Georgia, Tyler Atkinson, we just met him.

He's what, 6'4, 225 as a high schooler.

It's like these pockets of talent across the South that exist, obviously.

And obviously the North has places as well.

But they used to want to stay home, want to stay home, want to stay around family, want to kind of represent.

Now, Penn State shows up and goes, home's cool, right?

We can build a new home, Kick.

How much money they offer?

We got.

2 million more a year.

Is that what you want?

We can get it.

Yeah, sure.

We'll build.

Yeah, your family come up.

We got a house for them too now all of a sudden you're close to home yeah now you got a new home and it's happy valley congratulations we're paying you oregon you ever been west of alabama nope you ever been west of the mississippi nope oh come on out here fly all the way up here come on out this is uncle phil he founded uh nike

these are all the uniforms you're going to be wearing this is the nike deal you'll have whenever you become an nfl player and oh yeah we can move your family out here and this is the amount of money that we are willing to pay you if you would like to do that i don't know what else you're offering I know Brian Kelly's a great ball coach and everything like that, but we're just telling you, this is also an option.

It has even the playing field.

Oh, yeah.

Definitely.

Let's change it totally.

Changed it totally.

Yeah, I think I'm excited for the college football playoff chatter.

Especially if Notre Dame goes on a run.

Yeah.

Can't do it.

They win out by 40 every game.

They got USC, they got Pitt still, they got Stanford,

Boston College.

They went out by, and they win some of these big ones that are in.

What big ones?

USC?

Man, USC.

The Joel Chile game.

Shack.

It's a big game, right?

They're very good.

It is very good.

USC loses two games and that game is done.

But they're not going to.

People are saying USC not being treated with enough respect.

I bet their schedule is much tougher than this if we look at

their side of it in the Big Ten.

AJ, to what you said there about them getting in, that is exactly what Tone said as well.

If they win all these games on primetime television and everybody sees it, it's going to be hard at the end of the year to be like,

to win a fight where there's gonna be too many people fighting for the irish catholics i would assume yes but they need a lot of these teams to win games they got to score 40 once before they're gonna do it twice

yeah that's what they gotta do though

that's what they gotta do carrying daughter down

uh tone is that what you're saying tone was carrying all of us what are you saying we're saying no way they get in you're saying that

tone saying that yeah tone you're saying they're in huh i mean it's the exact same as last year so So I don't know what.

They made it last year, right?

Am I wrong?

They lose.

Who were the two last year they lost it?

No, they only lost to Northern Illinois.

So, yes, one loss versus two, but I think a loss to Miami and A ⁇ M is better than one loss to Northern Illinois.

Depending upon how Miami and Texas A ⁇ M end up.

Miami is, let's say Miami, one loss or undefeated, which is definitely doable.

And then A ⁇ M's got three.

I like Texas A ⁇ M's team.

I thought everybody was going to pick them over Notre Dame.

I don't know if I told a story on the show or not.

I walk into a production room, give picks, and I'm like, tech saying I'm over Notre Dame.

Is everybody picking that?

Like, nobody's picking that.

All right.

Okay.

Wait a minute.

Nobody?

This is

like, yeah, nobody.

Like, holy fuck.

Georgia Tech ever Clemson.

Everybody's feeling this way?

Nope.

Holy fuck.

Obviously, West Virginia ever pitched.

There's a couple people that coach Saban's got to be pulling for West Virginia.

Nope.

He's picking pit too.

What?

Everybody's fucking picking.

Holy shit.

Boy, it would have been nice if Tennessee wins that game.

You know?

Because they posted this.

Said, hey, he won lone wolf multiple times and actually got it right.

And then the comments immediately were just, who's that coming down the track?

Oh, what do you say about the Tennessee Georgia game?

Did he pick the Bulldogs?

Did he pick Georgia to beat Tennessee?

No, he picked Tennessee.

Fuck him.

That's what everybody said.

And they're right.

They're 100% right.

We got to make that kick.

We can't.

Oh, boy.

I felt so bad for that kid.

Night poll, five-yard penalty.

Seven seconds left.

Just kick it at seven seconds.

What are we doing?

Hypo will learn, obviously, from that situation going forward.

But if you go out to run a play with seven seconds, I guess to get it down below five seconds, so it's definitely the last play of the game or whatever, so you have a walk-off.

I get it.

But if a penalty happens, I think you've got to commit to the bit there.

I think you've got to throw that fucker out of bounds.

I think you've got to get the bad juju from the penalty away from the field goal kicking operation right there, personally.

Yeah, just take the ball, throw it out of bounds, kill four seconds.

boom then get the kicker to come out you don't throw it to anybody just throw it out of bounds yeah because it's not after a penalty a penalty backing up is the worst thing that can happen for a kicker ball moving further away you got a harder shot so i think you just need to separate that from even if a nothing play i think you just need to separate from the vibes but nonetheless make the kick and they win tennessee still very good at football that was a fun game to that was an electrifying game and that kicker bounced back in overtime and hits and get proud of him for doing that but uh that was a great game that i thought tennessee was going to win and inevitably Kirby Smart still got the dogs down there in Georgia.

Pretty crazy it happened to Sagapolitelli's team in Cal.

They were playing the Gophers, Minnesota, and they were in like a dogfight.

It was 0-0

or 7-0 with like a minute left and Minnesota scores.

And Cal trying to score right before the half, they go all the way down.

There's seven seconds on the clock, and they just run a five-yard out.

get you know a little extra room and then they make a field goal like barely but by doing that and it's like that situation happened on, I want to say it was Friday night, not Saturday night, but it might have been Saturday.

But just thinking of that and then not happening on Tennessee.

The biggest, yeah, in the biggest game you would think.

Yeah, but you got to remember, all that's happening so quick.

So quick.

All that shit's happening so quick.

It is like very much in the moment.

You don't expect somebody to false start.

Like, hey, there's seven seconds left, bro.

Let's not fucking

what are we doing here?

Fucking Georgia Tech.

We didn't even talk about that.

They're fired drill.

One of the best.

Them running out to beat Clemson.

Perfect execution.

Yes, perfect execution.

Georgia Tech, by the way, I love

what they are cooking out there.

Yeah, 23 seconds at this time, third and fourth, fourth quarter.

You got no timeouts.

No, you got to run a NASCAR situation.

Fire drill is whenever there's a bad snap.

NASCAR here.

You're going to have full time to take steps, probably.

Yep, takes a little three steps back.

Gonna be a big one here, brother, to beat Clemson in front of your crowd.

55 yards, snap, hold, give me that.

What a kick, what a win, what a game for Georgia Tech.

And I would like to let the world know or reiterate what I said on Saturday, Haynes King doing that interview with us while he was spinning it in the middle of his warm-ups, keeping his train of thought while also communicating with wide receivers on what routes to run and the person getting him the ball.

This guy is a Sunday guy.

That felt like a Sunday guy whenever I was watching that.

And I literally was picking Clemson.

And then we did that interview.

And immediately afterwards, I'm like, I'm betting on that guy right there to beat them.

I like the cut of his jib.

I like what Georgia Tech has become down there.

Coach Key's done a hell of a job.

And, man, we just go back to that Georgia game last year, what, six overtimes, whatever it was?

Yeah.

That was almost the program changer.

I think this game's the program changer for Tech.

I think him coming in on game day and having that interview made me a much, this was awesome.

I mean, he was just so casual.

I love when you guys do this.

One of my favorite parts of the entire show.

Yeah, Yeah, but usually it's ass.

Right.

You know, you usually

there's a delay or usually people are a little bit too intense or locked in.

And, you know, it's kind of like going around.

I'm not saying ass.

Like it's a good conversation, but it does feel like very forced.

It's very like, it's not smooth.

The way he was just going through his drills, it didn't feel like we were impeding on his pregame, which sometimes it feels like when we're talking to people.

It's like, oh, he's still getting his work done, still getting warm.

And also, how fucking confident is this guy?

And this is game day against Clemson.

Yeah, this is a huge game for him.

And he's just locked in.

That close.

103,000.

Yeah, it was like Billy Napier when you, when you did.

No.

Did he almost hit that?

It looked close.

I couldn't see it.

The TV we were looking at was real small.

So I was waiting for a reaction from others.

And everybody went, whoa.

And I was like, is that a hit or not a hit?

And then I was waiting to hear it, but it looked like it was close.

Hanks King definitely was close.

He probably nicked it.

He got Willow.

He got my daughter.

I need to find her.

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I love that.

Nice little.

It is.

That's 47-year football coach Bruce Aries.

Not your NFL vet, Darius J.

Butler, the toxic table at Boston Conner, and that Ty Schmidt.

That man right there is A.J.

Hawk.

And live from Hammer, Tan Tong, is AP Tone.

Tone, great work on a college ball wrap-up.

We did a lot of college talk there.

Let's do some Tom Brady talk, shall we?

The goat.

The goat.

This guy who has obviously seen it all, done it all, and obviously experienced it all, a man who will be remembered as the greatest football player of all time because of how many rings he has won and the way he went about doing his business is that of perfection.

It's called the Patriot Way.

More so the Tom Brady, Bill Belichick Way.

Now Tom Brady, former player and owner of an NFL team.

We, as ex-players, are all incredibly pumped for him.

Hey, baby, Tommy!

Tommy, the greatest of all time, also committed to becoming a color commentator for NFL games in a big-time spot.

Number one guy for NFL on Fox.

We appreciate the GOAT giving back to the sport and teaching us the way he views football.

Hey, baby, Tommy.

Tommy!

Thank you.

Now, those things kind of battle against each other when Tom Brady is an active NFL owner, not just a angel investor, not just a laissez-faire owner.

This dude is on the horn, a part of game planning, allegedly with Chip Kelly three to five times a week.

And then when the interviews were happening for the coaches and everything for this new era of the Las Vegas Raiders, he, Tom Brady, was the one doing the interviews with Pete Carroll, amongst others, to kind of run that team.

So last night, prime time, Las Vegas, we see Tom Brady up in the coach's booth with a goddamn headset on and a suit.

Whoa.

The suit is a headset on on sitting right next to an assistant on the offensive side.

He can obviously drop in at aim time and tell Chip Kelly, hey, I don't fucking like it.

Why aren't we scoring any points?

The Chargers' defense is really good.

Oh, are they?

Everybody's really good at the NFL.

And if he wants to call a fucking play from up there, if he wants to drop in and say some things, he certainly can.

Is what everybody assumes as soon as we see him in the coach's booth with the headset on.

And we know that that booth with all those microphones on the sides of everybody's head speaks directly to the sideline.

This guy's a part of game planning.

This guy's a part of play calling.

This guy's a part of hiring.

This guy's a part of strategizing.

This guy also was part of the New England Patriots that had how many gates happening at certain times throughout their run of their dynasty?

A lot of them.

We ain't allowed this fucking guy in our building to let him do his color commentating bullshit.

It was a big deal last year.

It was a big conversation piece.

Then it kind of just kind of got wiped under the rug.

Then kind of we move on.

He got paid 375 million to call games.

He's the greatest of all time.

We're going to let him call games.

Let him do that.

Now it has been reissued basically from the NFL.

Just a reminder as everybody starts heating up the conversation, Tom Brady's not allowed in these buildings.

Remember, we allowed him in the production meetings via Zoom or FaceTime, but he's not allowed in the buildings.

He's not allowed to walk around them.

Because the conversation immediately led to him sitting in that booth with the headset on, to all these coaches around the league not wanting this guy to know anything about their team.

But he's about to call the game.

He has to know about your team.

We don't give a fuck.

Okay.

He's got the Bears, I guess, coming up in a couple of weeks.

Guess who else got the Bears in a couple weeks?

The team that he owns and the team that he strategizes for.

So Ben Johnson is obviously not somebody that is kind of loosey-goosey.

I think he's pretty, I assume he's not going to say shit to Tom in these meetings.

How do you view this all going for Tom Brady?

And should we have expected him to be this hands-on whenever he was named an owner of the Las Vegas Raiders?

Oh, definitely.

That's what Tommy does.

I mean, he doesn't do anything half-assed out.

Tommy's full speed, doing it 100%.

Now, when you're coming back to do a production meeting, that's a whole other story.

No, hell no, you ain't getting in the building.

Okay, so he's not allowed to.

He's not allowed to Tommy, but you ain't getting in the building.

So he's not allowed in the building, okay?

I think the NFL said that.

Once again, we haven't had him.

He's not seeing Friday practice.

Okay, not seeing Friday practice.

You're not seeing our best plays, not seeing what we like the most in red zone.

You're not seeing who maybe we're trying to maybe hide a little bit and get in there for future reps.

But you are in a production meeting and a Zoom call.

What comes from those and how will people treat those, you think, with Tom?

i think it'll be total bullshit okay everybody would just be lying yep totally and um you're not gonna get any information for that people really pissed about this him in the coach's box i would assume i would think so i would think that's that's that changed the whole narrative uh of being allowed to come in not being allowed to come in this changes everything see but i think i even saw the internet being like This guy shouldn't be just walking around.

Last night, I think I saw that kind of happen in real time with Tom Brady.

Did you as well?

Yeah, I did.

I saw it a lot.

And I understand it.

There is a huge conflict of interest.

And we know, not even, even if he didn't with the Patriot stuff and all the gates that you mentioned, yeah, you're definitely concerned with

if you're an opponent.

But this, for me, just like BA, is expected.

You didn't expect Tom Brady to half-ass do this ownership thing.

If it is a guy that can do it, we always hear it as players, as coaches, hey, it's nobody bigger than the Shield.

There's nothing bigger than the NFL.

It's a guy who won seven Super Bowls.

He went to to ten of them this would be the guy that can kind of get away with anything he's you know been a part of part part owner of the raiders there was another owner there who was a maverick and kind of did things his way al davis we saw the jerry jones docs he's a he's did his things his own way tom brady in my perfect football story he would be the next maverick and just doing things completely outside of the box like no one has ever done it before and he's earned their right to do it so we'll see how long he does he does both if i see him giving up one obviously it'll be you know leaving the booth and then just being more of a full-timer maybe he's on the sideline with a headset maybe he just steps in at halftime and takes over play caller who knows what it'll be but i'm excited about this next chapter with tom brady for the betterment of the game him being the next outlaw and not just going along with everybody else says will certainly be the case i mean that would make the game better it's like whenever they were changing numbers and changing rules and changing everything he was very outspoken about uh-uh this ain't how this goes i love that he has that mentality i like that the nfl has come out and said we're not letting him in buildings buildings.

He's not doing any of that.

Pete Carroll came out, I guess.

Andrew Ceciliana is reporting, Tom Brady is not playing games with us.

Is he playing games with Chip?

Maybe.

Yeah.

He didn't say that.

He says he's not playing games with us, but we were told that that's what happening.

And in the offseason before the combine and everything, everybody that was around the situation was saying Tom Brady very hands-on involved in all of this.

So conflicting reports, I guess.

And I'll trust Pete Carroll.

Pete Carroll's, I like Pete Carroll.

Pete Carroll's never lied.

Maybe Tom Brady should be playing games games with you, but if he's not, but if he is, which is what everybody thinks, I think it is a huge talking point about him getting access or knowledge or anything like that.

I think that's why it got so big last year.

Well, and Pete's saying, you know, Tom Brady's not game planning with us.

Well, well, Pete, you know, Tom Brady beats your ass.

He beat Chip Kelly's ass.

He beat me.

What I'm saying is he doesn't have to game plan with them.

He can game plan on his own.

He definitely doesn't need the help of those guys to create his own game plan for a team.

Branking, breaking, breaking.

Before you go any further, Vinnie Bonseignor.

Okay.

He says, Pete Carroll said the reports that Tom Brady meets three or so times per week with Raiders OC Chip Kelly to go over film game plan is not accurate.

Okay, so we just got to say twice a week.

Yeah, twice a week.

Yeah, exactly.

Like, no matter what the assumption is going to be, he's doing.

Shraig's broke this news.

He did, yeah.

So this is Shraig's news.

Wait, Shraig's broke the original?

Two or three.

During the game, I think he.

Correct.

And then this is Vinny saying

that Pete Carroll just said.

Pete Carroll's talking to reporters, I would assume, either right now or last night.

And bonseigneur here, Paison, he is currently reporting what is coming from the press.

And Pete Carroll saying,

who's that?

Shanks?

Shranks doesn't know.

Shranks doesn't know.

I'm the only Pete around here that knows anything, is what Pete Carroll said about Shrag's report, seemingly.

Yeah, but that wouldn't be as weird if they didn't scrub the internet of all the tweets about Brady

being in the booth in the coach's office.

I believe the NFL deleted a tweet with that involved in it, and there are other things.

So that makes it more seem like a spin.

And him saying, yeah, they don't meet three times a week, what AJ said.

The immediate thought was like, okay, well, they meet once a week.

And we can't assume anything.

The devil is in the details.

Exactly, yeah.

A lot of things, you know, a lot of things that maybe be conspiracy fodder, if you will.

Just kind of putting my hat on for a second.

Brady did hire Pete Carroll.

He was a huge part of all of the hiring process for the team.

Who's the GM?

John Spy Tech.

They played together at Michigan.

Came from the Bucs.

Spy Tech.

Great, great GM.

It's going to be a hell of a GM.

Yeah, does he have any assistance

technology, perhaps?

Oh.

Spy technology?

Oh, is it right there in the name?

It's always so obvious, isn't it?

Isn't it?

It's always too obvious.

It's right there in front of us.

And Ben Johnson, yeah, hey,

Ben Johnson's going to give Brady bullshit.

Well, guess what?

Brady knows what's bullshit then.

Hey, Chip, they're not gonna do this, this, and this, because this is what they told me they were gonna do.

So, yeah, maybe he will get nothing out of the team meetings, but boy, oh, boy, we don't know how the goat thinks.

He might think completely different than everybody else, and he might be able to get information.

B.A., do you,

BS or no BS,

Tom Brady can get a lot of info from a building if he's Keller commentator?

No, terrible.

Can't get anything.

No, but I'm saying anybody.

I don't think anybody gets anything.

That's what I'm saying.

In general, not just Tom Brady.

not just Tom Brady.

Other commentators.

I mean, I did those things for

how many years?

I would tell the truth sometimes because I knew they thought I was lying.

You know, and hey, this is going to be the first play.

Nah, bullshit.

And then we ran it anyway.

Okay, so that meeting is a what happens in those meetings?

I've never been, I've sat in a couple for the games that I called, but I was always like third person.

So they're trying to get info on what your strategy is or injuries or how

mostly

injuries, who's going to be on game day roster, who's inactive,

what do you think this week?

And of course, nobody tells them anything.

To me, it was a waste of time.

I did it for a year.

I was like,

I should be out on the golf course.

How about walking around the building?

Like those Friday practices.

Friday practices.

That's totally different.

Friday practice, you see everything.

All the important shit.

You know, red zone, two-minute,

all your gimmicks, your final drive.

Some people they'll go through their script on Friday.

Now, that's big.

That's big.

And seeing who's out on the field.

Yep.

What the hell are you doing playing in that position?

All right.

Where the hell is Derwin James?

I'm watching for that.

Being at Friday practice, that's totally different than a production meeting.

And the NFL is saying he's not allowed at Friday practices.

He's only allowed on Zoom calls in a production meeting.

Yeah, but the guys that he works with can so there's no way those guys tell him anything about what they saw so now tom brady is being paid 375 million by fox and now he picks up also spies for him and spy tech for the las vegas raiders no no the guy he calls the game with what's his name kevin burkhard yeah burkhard is it does burkhardt go to the practices on on fridays so would they not communicate about what he saw i mean i'm not saying this is going to happen i'm just saying like this is like the internet this

would be Do you think Tom Pickman lists?

Hey, Burkhart, check this out.

Check out who's playing nickel in this situation, who's doing that.

And then

you could do that, but come on.

How many reps are Badging getting?

Yeah.

Are they still motioning Loveland?

Yeah, what is the thought?

Does it seem like there's a little bit of a short leash on Caleb before we play?

Is there...

Let's look around.

Offensive line and Caleb.

Can you get the interaction between those two in between drills?

Can you see how many people are letting letting trainers

kind of squirt the water in their mouth?

Can you show me all these things?

Kevin Burkhardt I don't know if he would be able to see all the things that Tom would probably factor.

No shot at Kevin Burckhardt and this isn't a shot at

non-player journalists.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no.

Or non-coaching journalists.

None of those things.

But I think what they fear, what he fears, is Tom, because of his fucking knowledge of the game and being there doing that, he could potentially see see some shit oh yeah like and it could benefit the raiders immediately he's what all football people who are paranoid motherfuckers to begin with go i mean those production meetings and friday practices you know coaches and players you're worried about that shit getting out you know within that 48 hours before the game once the game is played you're seeing all those different things so like

those that's the vital time 48 hours so once sunday happens or monday whenever it is and the game's being played like you're going to see who's playing it nickel you're going to see who's calling the plays you're going to see these different things so if you're going into the game if you're playing the raiders that week and getting that information that vital information that um you know that you don't know that you're not going to see until game time that's when it matters but outside of that you know it's not that not that big a deal i like that head headset on up there but i like that he's spreading the game worldwide

yeah that that was awesome what do you mean that's an announcement he's taking a fanatics flag football superfest right over here saudi arabia that's right taking it global here's tom Brady yesterday alongside Turkey al-Alashik and announcing Riyadh season is officially welcoming football to Riyadh.

Yesterday.

I've always admired the power of flag football, the fastest growing sport in the world and how it connects fans of all ages.

And I want to help continue the global movement and momentum that our game is having.

So I'm very excited to announce that I'm coming out of retirement and teaming up with His Excellency Turkey Ala Sheikh,

Fanatics, OBB Media, and my friends at Fox Sports to launch the Fanatics Flag Football Classic, which will bring American football to the Middle East on March 21st, 2026 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as part of Riyadh season.

Way to go, Tom, taking football worldwide, worldwide.

I don't know if every word sounded natural coming out of his mouth or not, but I do know it is a huge, huge announcement for football and also for a lot of guys to profit mightily from the sport of football.

And maybe this does take over the entire Middle East as our new favorite sport.

With that being said, the NFL has come out with a statement on this particular Superfest.

Fanatics made us aware of the event, but this is not a league initiative.

It's up to the individual clubs to provide clearance for their active players to participate.

I think a lot of ex-players are going to be playing this.

A lot of stars are going to be playing this.

I cannot wait to see how it all comes together.

And congrats to Tom getting his deal.

He might be owner of the whole team soon.

Especially if we're doing heading up a deal with Sonny Raid.

There's a lot of cash.

Yeah, I always

got a couple coaches.

Yeah, I assume the Super Dupe professor is going to be doing it.

Yeah, there's going to be a couple coaches.

Nope.

You sure?

Why not?

I don't know.

Pretty good.

This is my job now.

Okay.

Sydney,

we love to hear it.

We'll see.

This actually might be awesome.

I mean, I'd much rather watch this than like the UFL, and that's kind of, you know, the same time period.

So we'll see.

I mean, Saquon's playing in.

With the coming into the Olympics and everything?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's going to be big.

Huge.

Saquon's playing in.

I saw Saquon as one of the names.

I think Max Crosby was one of the names.

Yeah, McCaffrey.

Miles, Garrett.

Look at some of these.

Huge.

He's so touched.

And I like the NFL that's come out and said,

The teams are allowed to say no, is what the NFL basically just said.

we would like to just let everybody know the teams are allowed to say no if they'd like to.

That is our stance on it.

But big names, big partners, big money.

Yeah.

Big for the game.

You know, I like that that is happening.

Soccer, golf, tennis, other sports, football now.

Yeah, grow it.

Getting a chance.

Why not?

Good for the sport.

A lot of money for those people.

Yeah, it's going to be real tough when

they're playing, you know, Dubai week eight, but hey, it's not me.

Here's how we're Saudi Arabia's team.

Yeah, no.

The Fanatics flag football team.

I'm assuming if this goes well, you know, 2030 international game, I assume they sent one over there.

I will say, Tom Brady and Gronkowski look good still.

Oh, yeah.

Every time I see them on camera together, they're throwing throwing news, Tom's throwing a Gronk.

Had one down in New Orleans, I think, across the street.

Where was it?

Yeah, it wasn't.

That was like last week or whatever.

They did one last week, and then they did one to announce this flag football thing.

A little bit of a lower catch, yeah.

Rob Gronkowski.

They're going to win.

Whatever team they're on, I'm thinking is gonna win.

What if they just who will they play?

What if they just start taking their players?

And doing what, flag football, super classics?

Yeah, just go over there and play flag football, play four games for $55 million.

We talked about this for the WNBA.

Maybe 100.

We talked about this for the WNBA with that three-on-three league.

Yep.

It was like,

so they're gonna make more money to do three-on-three than they're gonna make in the WNBA?

How long before the three-on-three thing becomes the thing?

They're like, no, they're committed to building the WNBA.

They're making 50,000 a year here for how many games?

And then over here, they're making 250,000 is what you're saying for this money.

Yeah, but that's just an off-season thing.

We'll come on.

It's like, okay.

I'm happy to hear that.

I'm happy to hear that they both are going to...

Money talks to both changes.

Exactly.

And, you know, Saudi Arabia, obviously, with golf was able to

get a lot of golfers, notable golfers.

Not everybody, though.

Soccer, they've gotten some notable soccer players.

Not everybody, though.

I assume all their sports, it's a similar story.

For football, this one feels like it is just going to be like event-driven as opposed to full league stuff.

But what if the Crown Prince, God bless him, sees flag football and goes,

I like this sport.

What is this?

Let's do this one.

All of a sudden, Tyreek Hill, you're not happy in Miami?

Boy.

Do we got a league for you?

Here's $150 million for one season, and you're going to be untackleable.

You're actually playing for the Crown Prince team.

Yeah.

He's throwing you the football.

Actually, leave them.

I mean, we're not going to talk about that.

We're not going to talk about that.

That is not.

This is good for the growth of the game.

It's not going to take over the game.

No.

Well, no, no matter what, this wouldn't, I mean, this would only happen in like April or May when they.

Yeah, but what we're saying is, what happens?

Like, if they did a season.

What we're saying is, what happens though, if a crown prince, God bless him, falls in love with the sport, you know, like you did with soccer, like you did with golf, and says, you know what?

I like this one.

This is fun.

Because they're airing it out.

Oh, Tom Brady's going to.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They're rushing in that, don't they, Rush?

They're rushing that.

That's one thing I said when Tom said, I'm going to come out of retirement.

Miles Garrett's going to be chasing you?

That's going to be easy catch.

No, I've got to be on his team.

Miles got to be on his team.

Tom's team.

You got to count steamboats or what?

How do you rush?

Mississippi city.

One, Saudi Arabia.

If you watch the high school kids, it's like, bam, and they're after you.

So the quarterback's always running around.

And

that's not Tommy anymore.

What is the high school rules?

How many Mississippi?

I had things that one,

just one Mississippi.

I think it's like seven yards back.

I think if you're like seven yards back, I'm in flag football, and my little kids played.

If you're like seven yards back, you can blitz from like a cone behind the line screen.

What if it is they count in Saudi Arabians?

What if it is one Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia.

Two Saudi Arabia.

Three Saudi Arabia.

I was going to say

probably three Saudi Arabians.

The Mississippi of Saudi Arabia is the Wadi al-Ramah.

So they will count one Wadi al-Aha.

One Wadi al-Ramah.

Two Wadi al-Ramah.

Three Wadi al-Ramah.

Yeah, so it's probably three Wadi al-Ramah.

If I had to guess, before they're allowed to rush.

Miles Garrett, he's got to say it, too.

Got to get it right.

One wall.

Nope.

No, yeah, no speakers.

Because him and Mad Max are going to be trying to do that.

Absolutely.

Mushroom.

Nope.

No.

Go back.

Go back to the code.

Max Crosby's definitely not wanting to go three Wadi old Rawama.

No, he's not doing doing it.

No way.

He's not wanting to.

They're going to need to do that, though, for Tommy.

Wall with a llama?

No way.

That's not it.

That doesn't count.

Exactly.

No way.

Did you fact-check that, Tony?

Yeah, how'd you get that?

Did you say what is the Mississippi of Saudi Arabia into?

No, I googled what's the largest river in Saudi Arabia.

Oh, well.

Smart.

Well done.

It is smart.

Is that why it is Mississippi we count?

It's because of the river?

I was just trying to go apples to apples.

Yeah, but is that the property?

I always

said one, like Ohio River, one Ohio, two, that's not enough.

Yeah, but I don't think Monongahela.

Yeah, but they're not as big as Pennsylvania and Monongahill come together to form to Ohio.

Obviously, three great rivers are coming together at one point, downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

We all love that.

But I don't think it's one Mississippi because of the river.

I think it's because of the name.

Just because it's so cool sounding.

I assume so.

I always assumed it was the river.

Fuck it.

So it was like like one Mississippi River, two Mississippi rivers, three.

Too long.

So they just got rid of the rivers.

One Mississippi, two

Mississippi, three Mississippi.

I mean, Brett Farb might have created that.

He might have.

That might have been his entire thing.

Nobody talks about his contributions with the state of Mississippi like that.

Well, you know,

he might have created Mississippi down there.

We don't know.

We're not 100% sure.

So Waddy Holawama, what was it?

Wadiol Rama.

But yeah, I just looked it up.

Apparently, they were looking for a four-syllable word

that timed out to be about a second, and one Mississippi was about that.

Look, I thought apples to apples though, with rivers just raining on the river.

We know I still stand on it.

And that's why we love you.

Except for the river, I can't stand on that.

Jeez, good.

He could.

He could.

Then he went out there and just.

Oh, yeah.

To my Mississippi.

JC Walk.

Was he one leg in this thing?

Or was he?

Oh, yeah, I forgot.

Who was the

Jack Easterby?

Yeah, yeah.

One fish, two fish.

Red fish, red fish, blue fish.

Walking on top of him.

That's a blue fish.

He's still breaking down a game.

I've got a text every once in a while, Jack Easterby.

I feel blessed.

Really?

They're very long, in-depth.

He's still breaking down.

Nose ball.

He's breaking down a game.

Yeah.

I don't even know what the number could start with.

Yeah.

He's a Houston?

That's kind of my issue.

I don't save phone numbers enough.

So then if a text is coming through with a number I don't know, I'm gonna say this now.

Not enough people are gonna hear it.

I'm not reading it.

Okay, I am so sorry.

I just should, I know that I should, but boy, that one's probably not getting read and I don't like it.

But every once in a while, there'll be like an incredibly detailed stat about football as the first sentence.

It's a number I don't have.

I cracked that thing open.

And there's a lot of detail.

And I get to the bottom.

Hope you're great.

Jack Easterby.

Hell yeah.

I'm like, hell yeah.

God fucking bless you, man.

Thank you for all that.

Try 832.

Okay.

It's a good text.

I mean, he's got a lot of information in there.

Wait till you guys hear this.

He's his own stat guy.

Is there a word that you remember from the text that you could search?

Maybe Jack Easterby, right?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

That'd be.

Oh, we found it.

It says bless you or something at the end.

I found it.

Oh, Jackie.

Oh, wow.

Look at that.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, don't do that.

Jeez, geez, that's on me.

Yeah, but it's a, it's a, it's all stats.

It's a scroller.

Yeah.

Holy fuck.

Like, is Hembo?

Is he getting from Hembo or what?

Yeah, with ideas, too.

And like, hey, remember, these people did this.

I'm like, holy shit, I think I'm supposed to pay for the information you sent to me.

Well, thank you, Jack.

God bless you.

Well, love ball.

God bless you, BA.

All right, let's get the fuck out of here.

BA, do you want to do a giveaway or no?

Sure.

What do you want to do?

You want to putt?

Want to throw?

Oh, we're definitely putting a day.

Okay.

There you go.

Don't use that big old belly putter.

Don't use that Adam Scott.

Whatever he wants.

Okay?

Watch that job.

Well done.

He's been out with a freaking...

Look at these shoes.

Pretty clean.

Doc Martin's?

They're all.

Good choice.

All right.

All right, BA.

Okay.

Take the glasses off so you can't see shit.

You can do where that front one is if you want.

Hold on, hold on, hold on, on, hold on, hold on.

Do you want to count this one or is this practice?

Just count this one.

This counts?

Love it.

Okay, you gotta.

Go freebies.

Move up a little.

Yeah, I think you should go up to where the black dot is.

Yeah, black dot is.

Yep.

I want to.

What is he?

One of four?

50?

50?

Yeah.

Two of four?

Is two of four good or no?

That's good.

Two of four.

We'll give 15 people $500 to repost this post.

Say something nice to somebody and put the easiest way to pay them.

All you got to do, BA, is showcase that smooth, buttery putter stroke.

Marry two out of these four, and 15 people will be happier.

Those shoes are spectacular.

Oh, yeah.

What are they?

Jimmy Chew.

Oh, Fatty Who, Jimmy Choo, 15 people.

All you got to do is hit two, B.A.

Rolls that one left.

Range find a little white ready.

I like this little grip.

It does have a little claw grip forward lean.

Oh, you might have found it.

Can he split the uprights?

You got the line.

Both of those potentially off the green.

Doesn't matter here, though, ladies and gentlemen.

BA

great pace.

Ladies and gentlemen,

this is what you came for.

Two-time club champion.

Boom.

Hold it.

Nice.

Oh, no.

He looks good, though.

That's a good stroke.

That's a good stroke.

You can tell he's never three-putten.

We'll try it again next week.

We'll try it again next week.

Good putts.

Good speech.

That was great putts.

Great rolls.

Coach BA, we appreciate that, ladies.

Hell yeah.

Hell yeah, Coach.

Hey, be your friend today.

Hey, Diggs, why don't you come out here, buddy?

Great work in the back, boys.

Great work in the back.

Work, please.

BA, great work today.

All right.

Be your friend, tell a friend something nice.

It might change your life.

We're in this thing together.

Don't block BA a little bit here, Tone, so he might give a speech.

Yep.

BA, anything you say here?

Great show.

Better next week.

Team on me.

Team on three.

We'll see you tomorrow.

One, two, three, team.

Goodbye.

Eight years ago, I blew my football career.

He dropped it at the one-yard line.

On September 30th, Chad Powers arrives on Hulu.

If I can't play as Russ, I'll play as someone else.

My name's Chad.

And last name?

Jeff.

From executive producers Eli and Peyton Manning.

Remember, you're wearing a prosthetic mask.

This is acting.

And starring Glenn Powell.

He thinks you're a rubber chief, Toy.

Not rubber.

I'm a man.

Made of flesh.

The Hulu original series, Chad Powers, premieres September 30th, streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers.

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