PMS 2.0 1316 - Feel Good Friday With Sweet 16 Preview, Tyler Hansbrough, Paul Skenes, Ted Karras In Studio, & AJ Hawk

Speaker 1 Hello beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome on this Feel Good Friday, March 28th, 2025. This program starts right now.

Speaker 1 Sports are happening all around us.

Speaker 1 Last night was a Sweet 16 and thank you to the college basketball gods for delivering us four fantastic games being capped off, which I fell asleep for, with an overtime thriller where both Arkansas and Texas Tech played their best basketball whenever overtime was wrapping up.

Speaker 1 You're talking about an electrifying finish to this game. I think a lot of us were asleep.
A lot of people thought Arkansas beat Texas Tech.

Speaker 1 A lot of people thought that Calapari would add another dub into his 14-3 sweet 16 record throughout his entire career. At one point, they were up 16.
Holy hell, Arkansas.

Speaker 1 The Cinderella story lives on. Uh-uh.
This Texas Tech team, including Mr. Williams here, who popped a three late to tie this thing, really turned it on.

Speaker 1 And whenever you talk about great basketball games i don't care if you're talking nba i don't care if you're talking high school i don't care if you're talking and one uh harlem globetrotters all you're hoping for is magic at the end and there was in this particular game texas tech got hot there was a jump ball controversy the gumpy certainly thought uh took place earlier in the game but in the overtime period neither team gave up neither team choked it away both teams showed up it just so happened to be that texas tech ends up with the dub congrats to Texas Tech winning in the night cap.

Speaker 1 And congrats to Arkansas for covering. And congrats to Seth Greenberg for basically going perfect last night in his bets.
He thought the BYU Bama game was going to go over. It was 175 points.

Speaker 1 Well, there was a chance Alabama was going to score that.

Speaker 1 And going into the first half, there was like 91 points scored, I think. So I'm like, wait a minute, we were on track for 175 point over when a lot of these games went under in the first round.

Speaker 1 We were seeing a lot of low scoring, good defense, bad shooting basketball out of college hoops this year. And then this Alabama team, they broke a record.

Speaker 1 Old Buddy had like 12 threes or something like that. They had over 100 points.
They won absolutely absurd. And BYU did as well.
Let's not get it twisted.

Speaker 1 They had to help to hit the over, but Alabama looks like the hottest team in ball right now. And they weren't the only team that won over 100 points.
That happened multiple times in all four games.

Speaker 1 We thought were electrifying. Now, obviously, Maryland's magical run ends.
That Florida team's a real deal. Yes, they are.
Yeah. That Florida team is a real deal.
Certainly.

Speaker 1 You know who else is a real deal? Who's that? Doug.

Speaker 1 I wonder who is going to win this entire thing. It's crazy.
Legitimately. Like, is Florida going to win this entire thing? Is Alabama going to win this thing?

Speaker 1 Is the SEC going to be the year, not only do they have the most teams in the Sweet 16, most teams in a tournament in history, but are they going to go ahead and win it?

Speaker 1 Or do we got an old school story that's going to happen? Do we got an old school ACC representative in there doing their thing. Got some more magic happening tonight, obviously, in the Sweet 16.

Speaker 1 We'll actually be in attendance for a couple of the games. Cannot wait to get down to Indianapolis.

Speaker 1 And shout out to College Hoops for being electrifying and for us understanding that although there was no Cinderella stories, maybe Arkansas was really the only one.

Speaker 1 And maybe NIL and the Transfer Portal have ruined it forever. Got a lot of good hoops happening.
A lot, a lot of good hoops happening. And it's a magical time.
There's obviously some NFL news.

Speaker 1 There's some NBA news. We got a lot of things to chit-chat about today.
It should be a good one. Psycho T will be joining us.
Hello,

Speaker 1 yeah.

Speaker 1 Tyler Hansborough. Mm-hmm.
Be joining us in about 17 minutes. That is what that man has accomplished.
Obviously, whenever he was at UNC, he was must-watch.

Speaker 1 You're talking about first one in, last one out. You're talking about Coach Hussain.
You're talking about lunch pail guy. You're talking about high motor.

Speaker 1 You're talking about trying as hard as possible all the time. You're talking about smacking the wood.
You're basically saying Tyler Hansborough basketball. Yes.
Yep.

Speaker 1 That is what you're saying as a whole. He then would get drafted to the Pacers out here while I was playing for the Colts.
I got to know him.

Speaker 1 I got to witness the Tyler Hansborough experience on numerous occasions. What a weapon.
Yeah. Okay.
Just what an absolute weapon.

Speaker 1 And I believe he's covering college hoops currently for the field of 68, I believe. Okay, so I can't wait to get his take on college ball.
Also, the NBA have had a couple magical evenings.

Speaker 1 Buzzer beaters happening all over the place. And then the NFL, obviously, we're going to have new rules and the league's meeting next week.
And there's still rumors going around.

Speaker 1 So we'll chit-chat about it all. Paul Skeens will join us in the next hour fresh off a opening day loss okay

Speaker 1 opening day loss this was scheduled long beforehand

Speaker 1 you know

Speaker 1 and he came out and he was doing some dealing wasn't he sure was this guy's a professional dealer yeah let's get him in a blackjack table get him at a poker table you're talking now he gave up a run had himself in a jam obviously a couple at bats went a lot longer than anybody could have imagined had more pitches i assume than we would come to expect from a paul skeens uh outing because normally it's one two three one two three one two three that is kind of how the Paul Skeens seven strikeouts already whenever he leaves the game they're up four to one

Speaker 1 then they get a relief in does great another relief does great and then they end the game and they shit all over themselves and he gets another loss to start the entire thing yes

Speaker 2 well he got a no decision so he doesn't actually get a loss but not a win correct We thought he's potentially going to have 30 wins this year.

Speaker 1 29. We're down to 29.
A no-decision gives us no shot. Yep.
Let's go over the talk to the table at Bruce Brown and at Ty Schmidt. Opening day was yesterday for baseball.
We had it on here. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Multiple games. Yep.
We had multiple games on those TVs right over there. It was kind of fun.
Obviously, when Skeens is on the bump, it's awesome. When the Yankees are playing, that's great.

Speaker 1 What were the big stories from yesterday, Ty Schmidt?

Speaker 2 So you hit the nail on the head because as a Pirates fans, like Tony knows this. You're going to come to find this out, and you already know this.
But like,

Speaker 2 that's kind of the MO and it even was last year. Like, Skeens was super,

Speaker 2 he was still winning a bunch of games and performing very very well. But this is kind of always the M.O.

Speaker 2 is if you don't let him go deep, deep, deep into the game, like there's a chance the bullpen is going to ruin it for him. They did this several times last year, but he'll bounce back.

Speaker 2 It's the you know, first game of the year. The Marlins had their ace on the bump, too, so that was a good game.
You mentioned the Yankees. Austin Wells is batting leadoff for the Yankees.

Speaker 2 He's their catcher, the guy with the big mustache.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you're saying, who is this guy? He is the first catcher to hit a leadoff home run on opening day since 1900.

Speaker 1 That's awesome. Jason Kendall?

Speaker 2 Well, a little bit before Jason Kendall's time as well. The Yankees hit a couple of short porch homers yesterday, him and the kind of quasi-hometown kid, Anthony Volpe.

Speaker 2 And then the Yankees closer, Devin Williams, was actually on the Brewers last year. So he closed down the Brewers.
Yankees get a win. A couple other kind of big things yesterday.

Speaker 2 Tyler O'Neal for the Baltimore Orioles. He hit his sixth consecutive opening day home run, which is just crazy.
The Orioles hit six homers in total and beat the shit out of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Speaker 2 And then in the nightcap, Shohei, he went yard again. Dodgers are 3-0.
A lot of people are already saying, hey, is this team going to go 162-0? Maybe. Can it be done? Is it possible?

Speaker 2 And people are starting to say, is it possible that Shohei maybe has his eyes set on the single season home run record this year, which would be 74? That was.

Speaker 1 Well, Tom Hanks, Magic. Yeah.
Can't believe it. City of stars.
Yeah, that's Los Angeles baseball.

Speaker 1 Shohei is the biggest star. Yes.
In all of baseball. Yes.
Yes. Makes sense that everybody's there.
He

Speaker 1 obviously in Tokyo, they go 2-0, right? Because they started the season eight days ago in Tokyo. And they're doing that because

Speaker 1 this guy. Right.
Yes.

Speaker 1 Tens of millions of fans in Japan of the MLB all of a sudden. Not that they haven't always been fans of baseball and fans of the MLB.

Speaker 1 Obviously, Ichiro, who went out last night and threw an 84-mile-an-hour opening pitch,

Speaker 1 Japanese players have a lot of history. I mean, this is gas.
In full uniform. Yeah.
That's the Ichi, baby. In full uniform.

Speaker 1 And we're throwing heat. Okay, that's a ball.
Yeah. Okay.
But at least you know you still got it. They have an Ichi meter that is out in the stands.
It's at 84 Ichi speed meter.

Speaker 1 Yeah, 84 miles an hour on the opening pitch. I don't know if anybody else is bringing that.
But with that being said,

Speaker 1 I think Japan has always loved baseball.

Speaker 1 Japanese history in MLB is a deep one. But I think Shohei has brought the eyes completely back, you know, like to the MLB.

Speaker 1 And them just selling, they're selling ads to these Japanese companies right behind because the amount of Japanese people that are watching it.

Speaker 1 It's like the MLB has to be so incredibly pumped and thankful that Shohei Otani exists. The Dodgers obviously paid massive money for him to be over there.

Speaker 1 But I bet you like everybody that's around him says he's the right one for it.

Speaker 1 Seems like he is just, you know, somehow was able to stay the course when he was getting frauded by his translator who was supposed to be his best friend. I mean, best friend now.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 We've learned. Sure.

Speaker 1 Might not always be what it is. Exactly.
Not always what it's cracking. In the media sports world.
Yeah, in the media sports world. But this guy was his eyes and ears in America.

Speaker 1 And then he was doing something that could ruin his entire legacy and then also stealing millions of dollars from him at the same time. He still has just remained just like this.
How old is Shohei?

Speaker 1 How many more years of Shohei do we have? And how many more years of Paul Skeens do we have, do you think? Like Paul Skeens, this is 15 years

Speaker 1 potential. Like that's what great pitchers do.

Speaker 2 If he stays healthy, yeah, I mean, Randy Johnson, who we've had on the show a couple times, he pitched until he was like 41, 42.

Speaker 2 So it kind of, it, it's tough, like when a guy throws that hard, you just hope that he's not going to have a couple elbow surgeries.

Speaker 2 And that's kind of what when I go back to when you're asking about like Shohei and whether or not he's going to pitch this year.

Speaker 2 He's already had a couple elbow surgeries, and like that, really at this point is the only thing that could like end Skeens' career short because he's going to have good stuff like this for a long time.

Speaker 2 So, if he stays healthy, like, yeah, he could be doing this for the next 15 to 20 years.

Speaker 3 It also seems like with Skeens that he's starting to chase movement more than just trying to go up in Vlo to like 102, 103.

Speaker 1 Such a good drop there, V Lo, dude.

Speaker 3 He is moving that ball side to side like crazy. It's awesome to see.
Shohei is 30, so luckily he won't be torturing us for the next 15 years, maybe more like 8 to 10, maybe 12 on the high side.

Speaker 3 We'll see with the pitching too.

Speaker 1 He needs to get into the pitching. Yeah, but it is.
He's not going to do it. He's 30.
No, no, I think I'm going to have him do it.

Speaker 2 Just let him hit 80 home runs.

Speaker 1 I agree. I agree.
You say, because why would we even focus any time on pitching? Let's just keep seeing the

Speaker 1 beach balls that are coming down.

Speaker 2 And there's already an injury history there. If he had never gotten hurt before, then it'd be like, yeah, of course, have this guy pitch.

Speaker 3 He's on the bottom. Elbow and shoulder sliding into second base during the World Series.
So now it's two different parts of his arm as well.

Speaker 1 And baseball, pretty important part. Yep.

Speaker 1 Playoff arms. Playoff closer would be

Speaker 4 sweet.

Speaker 1 Biblical. Yeah, that's what we're talking about.
Yeah, that would be sick.

Speaker 1 Him coming out some music. Yeah.
Just like he did the international things. Right, the World Baseball closer.

Speaker 4 Or even just a closer, like... every handful of games.

Speaker 4 He doesn't have to be the full-time closer, but I know, you know, it's weird if you have two closers because the closer is such a like a mental thing and having to close the same closer every game is a thing.

Speaker 4 But like, yeah, it would be awesome to see him in a closer role. But I mean, their arm gets worked a lot too.
I mean, it would be 10, 12 pitches versus 100 pitches.

Speaker 4 But I mean, they're seeing they're closing every one to two days or whatever.

Speaker 1 Just a spotlight, you can have your closer, full-time closer. Sure.
But, you know, tonight, Shohei has actually hit two bombs. He stole three bases.
And he also feels pretty good. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So we're going to let him go ahead and finish this thing out. Let him get a close.
You know, like. I don't hate that.
Those moments would be awesome.

Speaker 1 But there's no way with how methodical baseball is, they would be making that decision on the fly.

Speaker 2 No, and again, it's like one of those things where the Dodgers bullpen is unbelievable. So it's like, are you going to kind of like rob Peter to pay Paul when you have a really good guy already?

Speaker 2 Probably not.

Speaker 1 Do you get a, you don't get a save if you're up more than three runs, right?

Speaker 2 There are certain situations because there are like multi-inning saves, like where if a team is blowing someone out, but like a relief pitcher comes in and throws like two and a third or three innings, sometimes those are safe situations as well.

Speaker 4 There are situations though where the closer has gone back-to-back days and you're playing three games in three days and the closer, like they'll know before the game, the manager will say, our closer is not available today, where he could go in a situation like that.

Speaker 1 Edwin Diaz is back in he?

Speaker 2 Well, I don't know. He didn't have an opportunity yesterday.

Speaker 3 Yeah, he did not show up. It is.

Speaker 1 Edwin Diaz is the closer for the Mets who we missed out on last year because he broke his ankle on the mound at the World Baseball Classic. Correct.
Okay. We missed out on him.

Speaker 1 The way we knew that he existed was most electrifying entrance in baseball.

Speaker 1 Play the trumpets, Timmy. He would come out from the outfit.
This is what we're talking about with Shohei. Yes.
When the closer comes out and everybody knows, like, all right, spotlight,

Speaker 1 yup, follow the guy. That's the one right there.
Take us home, buddy. Take us home is literally the expectation.
An entire baseball stadium is waiting on your arrival to kind of close this.

Speaker 1 It is a spectacle every single time it happens, especially whenever Timmy Trumpets is playing live and then he's coming out and he was having the playoffs in the postseason that he was having where he was coming and cooking.

Speaker 1 And then he got paid and it was like, we got this all year. Yep.

Speaker 1 I couldn't wait. Yeah.
Whole baseball season. Paul Skeens is coming in.
We got Trumpets coming in.

Speaker 1 I'm a Mets guy. I'm a Skeens guy.
Sure. They didn't even play all last year.
He's got her at the World Baseball Classic for his country. Okay, respected.
Now he's back.

Speaker 1 That makes the Mets a problem, right? They pay all this money for Juan Soto. They get Edwin Diaz back.
The Mets are a new

Speaker 1 start spriting the news. Not quite.

Speaker 3 So Soto's debut, he did have a nice single in his first at-bat, worked a couple of walks.

Speaker 3 Left stranded, though, did not score a run because what we may have been talking about in the think tank a little bit, you don't have Aaron Judge behind them. You got Brandon Nimmo.

Speaker 3 You got Pete Alonso. He's going to be left out there on second base more often than not this season.

Speaker 3 And then his first, his first opportunity to have his clutch signature welcome to the Mets moment, down two runs in the bottom of the ninth, runners on first and third.

Speaker 3 Before it got to a full count here, it was actually a 3-0 count. And Soto, like we all know Soto, he's not taking that pitch.
He's not looking for a walk in the ninth inning. No, he's mashing it.

Speaker 3 But no, he stares at a slider down the middle, 94 miles per hour, fouls off the next pitch, and then chases an outside slider in the dirt with an absolute sword.

Speaker 3 People are calling it.

Speaker 1 He's two are Yankees fan. We should let everyone know that he's.
This is biased journalism. There's a lot of crashing out.
They lost this man. This man was on their team last year.

Speaker 3 There's a lot of crashing out going on lately, and people are saying that Soto might be crashing out a bit over there in City Field.

Speaker 2 I mean, you'd be a good person to ask. You're a Mets fan now.
A lot of Mets fans out there. They're saying buyers remorse already.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 After one day. Overpaid.
I did get some. I am not a Mets fan.

Speaker 1 Yes, please do, actually. Please call that.
Oh, yes.

Speaker 1 So we're going to call the Mets fan that I happen to sit next to every single Monday night and have it very lucky to have text conversations with throughout every sporting event of every one of his team's games.

Speaker 1 You know, he's very active.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think a lot of Mets fans said, of course.

Speaker 1 I think that was kind of... the takeaway.
Of course we did. Yeah.
Paid the most money in the history of anybody. Get this guy here.

Speaker 1 First game has a a chance could win it yeah it's a deer there yeah we win this game uh instead he strikes out yeah i think there was a lot of that but a lot of season left oh yeah

Speaker 1 he was still getting used to the uniform we don't know what the equipment managers did with his arms we don't know if it was a little bit too tight maybe that chase normally he's able to stop it because the shirt's tighter looser you know because he doesn't have his jersey fitted yet and that's why he goes all the way down do you call that a sword

Speaker 3 yeah a sword it's when you swing but it you don't really swing

Speaker 2 kind of looks like a yeah swinging a sword, like a medieval, you know, like a real

Speaker 2 sword.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I got, yeah, I get what you're saying. I get what you're saying.
Yeah. Shout out to baseball.

Speaker 2 Shout out to Juan Soto. He'll be okay.

Speaker 1 Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, with the Metroport, Michael Cole. Hey, Cole, Juan Soto had an opportunity.
The Yankees fans here are saying,

Speaker 1 start spreading the news.

Speaker 1 They're the same as yesterday.

Speaker 1 The Mets are gonna

Speaker 1 screw it up.

Speaker 1 Is that happening right now? Juan Soto, is this too much money? The Yankees fans are dancing on your graves after one particular game.

Speaker 6 In the eighth inning yesterday, I text Jeff Passon and I said the Mets suck. And then he texted me back and said, right on queue.

Speaker 6 Same as last year.

Speaker 6 Can't score runs. Juan Soto strikes out with a tying runs on base.
There it is.

Speaker 6 He was up 3-0 on the count, by the way. And this Bozo here had walked like two straight guys and given up a single.
So

Speaker 6 Soto couldn't even hit him. I mean, it's the same shit every year.

Speaker 5 I mean, come on.

Speaker 6 I mean, it's ridiculous. So I don't know what Clay Holmes, the guy who was a reliever for the Yankees.
Now he's our number one starting pitcher. And now McGill's going today.

Speaker 6 This season's going to be a disaster. We're going to be lucky we won 80 games.

Speaker 1 All right. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
Michael Cole.

Speaker 1 Love it. Thank you, Cole.
That was awesome. That's awesome.
Oh, hell yeah. That was the text.
I don't know if he uses like talk to text

Speaker 1 or if he's actually typing this thing up, but these texts I'll get. It'll sound exactly, I mean, that was exactly the promo.
You know, someday, though, you guys will be the kings of that town.

Speaker 1 Keep spending. We appreciate it.
Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, live from an attic in Ohio, fresh out of, I believe, Mexico. Wow.

Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, ride-cup winner A.J. Hawk.

Speaker 1 Hawker!

Speaker 1 You missed a lot. You missed a lot.

Speaker 7 Yeah,

Speaker 7 I'd say

Speaker 7 the news spread to Mexico very quickly about the LeBron situation, Stephen A. going back and forth.
So yeah,

Speaker 7 that kind of took over everything going on down there. So yeah, I missed you guys.
Good to be back.

Speaker 1 We missed you as well. And we're happy you and the family had a good time.
We hope the weather was great. And yeah, it's been a wild week.

Speaker 1 Now, with that being said, you know, because it is March Madness, it does feel like the sports calendar operates in a fashion where they are kind of cool with each other.

Speaker 1 Now, I know the NFL just took Christmas from the NBA, like that certainly happened, but it feels like it's like March madness time. NFL doesn't really have a lot of shit.

Speaker 1 You know, like there isn't a lot. Aaron is the only outstanding conversation, pretty much.
Now, obviously, Russ Wilson goes to the Giants. That's great.

Speaker 1 Stephon Diggs goes up to the New England Patriots. Congratulations to both of them getting big time deals.
But this is like the fifth wave of free agency now.

Speaker 1 And then owners meetings next, like, okay, we'll kind of give the tournament the time. So this week for us has been, AJ, I don't know how much you've got to catch up.

Speaker 1 Obviously, you said the LeBron Versation made his way down there. Talking to these college players, we had a college commitment this week.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's been a basketball, it's been a fun time, AJ. I will say we're enjoying the basketball season more than we ever had in the past, is what I'm telling you.

Speaker 7 Well, yeah, I mean, they're scoring points at an unbelievable rate. It's fun to watch when guys are scoring, they're making buckets and they're playing hard.

Speaker 7 That's what college basketball is, I feel like.

Speaker 7 You, you know, smacking the floor, playing defense, guys that, you know, getting back to old school roots, obviously with some three balls mixed in that they may not have done 40, 50 years ago back when Koozie was playing.

Speaker 7 But yeah, it's been fun to watch.

Speaker 1 Koozie was a dog. Yeah.
Koozon.

Speaker 1 Kooz had game. Kooz did have game.

Speaker 1 We'll have Tyler Hansborough joining us here in a couple minutes.

Speaker 1 If you want to talk about everything you just said right there in it. But it's been cool to learn about these stories.
And the transfer portal NIL thing with college hoops, fascinating.

Speaker 1 And I'm only saying that because, you know, West Virginia had been looking for a coach for a while. And I was watching what was happening with these other coaches that were going places.

Speaker 1 It's like, okay, these coaches from smaller schools get hired at the bigger schools. And now because of the transfer portal, they're just bringing their guys with them.

Speaker 1 Like, hey, boys, we made the tournament. We should be able to do better if we get better.
It's like, you're almost like just paying for a group to come. Like, that is kind of.

Speaker 7 It's like you're bringing your book. You know, like if a financial guy works for a firm and then he gets recruited away and gets a big like bonus to bring his book over to another firm.

Speaker 7 Like that's what's happening in college sports, I feel like.

Speaker 1 Yeah, your network right there. You're not just getting me, you're getting this network is what you're talking about.
Yeah, I think, and it happens in the NFL whenever coaches get hired.

Speaker 1 Normally you'll see coaches hire the same assistant coaching staff.

Speaker 1 Now in college ball, it's like same with the coaching staff, assistant staff, but it's also like if any players have any eligibility left, probably going to come help you with the culture.

Speaker 1 Especially in basketball, you get two to three guys that know the culture and are good. College hoops, you got a team.
You can bring other people in from the transport portal.

Speaker 1 You can bring in freshmen and then you're off and running. Fascinating what that'll be in the future.

Speaker 1 Because like Willard, the story in Maryland was happening and he got booed while he was walking through the hotel. I think I didn't get a chance to hear the entire thing.

Speaker 1 He walked through like the Maryland hotel to head to the buses and they said it was not like a welcomed response by the Maryland fans. This guy's got Maryland a suite 16.

Speaker 1 This guy's got this team and everybody's like, well, he's leaving. He's leaving.
Then afterwards, he said he didn't know what he wanted to do. And Maryland people are saying, that's bullshit.

Speaker 1 But you listen to Derrick Queen. He's the best player on the court for them.
He's like, are you coming back next year?

Speaker 1 He's like, I got to talk to my agency, my family, and obviously Coach Willard as well.

Speaker 1 And it's like, Derek Queen's probably going to the NBA because he's six foot 10, can move, shoot, and do everything. He's an NBA guy.
But like, if he doesn't, he's probably going. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 He's probably going with Willard to Villanova, you know? And it's like, does Villanova know that whenever they're...

Speaker 1 like hiring the coach like hey also probably getting a pseudo-made team coming alongside of it joining us now is a man who probably knows or has opinions that are definitely better than whatever we would say on the subject he's a national champion his name name is synonymous with college hoops.

Speaker 1 He was an Indiana pacer, and we were proud as hell to have him represent Indianapolis for a while. He played in China, then he played in Puerto Rico.
Now he's covering the college hoops world.

Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, Tyler Hansborough. Yeah.

Speaker 8 Hey, thanks for having me on, fellas.

Speaker 1 Glad to be on here. Tyler, it is our honor to have you.
on the program. Just would like to let you know that massive respect for the way you went about doing your business and you never changed.

Speaker 1 You were you through every situation. North Carolina, every time I saw you, you were Tyler Hansboro.
You came to Indiana, every time I saw you, you were Tyler Hansboro.

Speaker 1 Hardworking, let's go ahead and do this shit, maximum effort, all in, guy. And in the community here in Indianapolis, you were.
I saw you at events you were crushing it at.

Speaker 1 I saw you for the Pacers do that. And obviously, North Carolina.
So I want to let you know, we are fans of the way you operate, Tyler. You need to know that, okay?

Speaker 8 Well, I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 And that's kind of all I know, but I really enjoyed my time in indianapolis playing for the pacers i'm a blue collar guy so worked for everything and uh kind of played uh an old school style compared to what's being played now uh but i had fun at every uh every place i was yeah we were lucky for you and i i think that's a good descriptor it feels like you nailed who you are you know who you are let's talk about uh let's talk about the current college hoops i was just chit-chatting about it there for a little bit where like if willard gets the job at villanova i think a good assumption is that some of the guys guys that he has on his team now are probably going to transfer with him to Villanova.

Speaker 1 And a lot of people thought maybe the players wouldn't respond to or be distracted because the Maryland conversation and where they, I think they're just committed to the coach now.

Speaker 1 Do you agree with that? Do you think that is kind of what College Hoops is becoming? Absolutely. Go ahead.

Speaker 8 Yes, I think you've got to kind of do that. And a big reason.
probably the only reason I chose North Carolina was to play for Coach Williams.

Speaker 8 And it wasn't just because I liked the program and the tradition.

Speaker 8 But, you know, if you're choosing a school to play, you know, you like the coach's style and you like how you fit in the offense and you guys have good chemistry.

Speaker 8 If he leaves for another place, of course, a lot of players are going to go with him. And also, you saw this at Arkansas.

Speaker 8 Caliperry took a lot of his players.

Speaker 8 And McNeese, you're probably going to see a lot of Will Wade take a lot of his players from McNeese and bring them over to NC State.

Speaker 8 And especially with the way that college basketball, the way the landscape is now, you're supposed to have a quick turnaround. Programs aren't waiting for rebuilds.
They want to be good right now.

Speaker 8 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And if you're good right now, it can change everything. You have one magical run in March.
The school tuition can go up. The enrollment's going up.
The brand is going up.

Speaker 1 It's a great thing. Sports are great for the university.
University is obviously great for the sport. And then if you get to a bigger one, you would assume more money available.

Speaker 1 So then you continue to grow. Interesting.
A lot of young coaches. Yes.
Like I see that Florida coach on the side. I'm like, damn, I had no idea who that guy was.
I did not know.

Speaker 1 Texas Tex coach last night, I saw him. I'm like, I had no idea who that guy was.
And then McCollum, you know, obviously a Drake. I had no idea who that guy was.
Feels like it's a younger coaches game.

Speaker 1 It's happening kind of in football where the modern world is something that these younger coaches are either more likely to want to do or also better at with the business side of it, the communication side of it, the brand building side of it, as opposed to older coaches.

Speaker 1 Then you got the Cal. you got Izzo, you got Betino.
What does it take, you think, to be a great college basketball coach?

Speaker 8 Well, it's kind of changing. I'm old school.
I like a coach that comes in there, gets after the kids. You lose a game, you get back to the arena, and they're going to run you, discipline you.

Speaker 8 I think they're losing a little bit of that. But also a lot of the older coaches, you know, they weren't real receptive to change.

Speaker 8 They didn't like how the landscape was kind of changing and they were kind of stuck in their routines and their styles. So they, you know, they just said, hey, I can't take this new era of basketball.

Speaker 8 But the young guys, they're hungry. They're more willing to adapt and to get a head position at one of these big-time schools.

Speaker 8 Of course, they're going to change and kind of make, you know, get with the times. But the one thing I will say, I gained a lot of respect for Patino and how he handled things.

Speaker 8 He's won at multiple airs. He comes in there.
He still coaches. He still gets after his kids and he's winning.

Speaker 1 So he's a coach who's, you know coached pre-NIL and after NIL and I think he's probably the coach of the year so I gained a lot of respect for him this year he was great in Greece too as you know as an international player how easy or hard is that to get used to like a different country's league in basketball is basketball the same or is it different

Speaker 8 Oh, it's different, especially in China. China is one of the most physical basketball leagues in the world.

Speaker 8 So, oh, yeah, they'll bang you in China. You'll get fouls.
It's like NBA in the 80s.

Speaker 1 Really? You were there for, what, four years, then COVID hit and you leave, right?

Speaker 8 Yeah, I played three seasons over there. COVID hit in the middle of the third.
I took back off to North Carolina, got out of there.

Speaker 8 Had no idea that COVID would turn out to be what it was. And I was training in North Carolina, messed up my knees.
So I never played again after that. But,

Speaker 8 you know,

Speaker 8 playing overseas, there's a lot of different dynamics. I actually really enjoyed my time in China.
It's probably some of the

Speaker 8 best and probably my favorite experience playing basketball just from the fact that I couldn't hear the fans talking trash.

Speaker 1 There was a language barrier right there.

Speaker 8 It was just hooping. I took my best friend from my hometown.

Speaker 8 He didn't have a lot going on. So he went with me to China and he actually ended up staying over there.
Got married, had a kid, and now they're back in the States. But yeah, it's a great story.

Speaker 8 So he got more out of it than I did.

Speaker 1 Hey, you ain't got shit going on, right? No. You want to go to China with me?

Speaker 2 Yeah. Sounds good.

Speaker 1 Hey, I fell in love over here. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I fell in love over here. That's awesome.
That is a wonderful story. I'm happy to hear that.
And you said it was physical, huh? You're just not calling fouls?

Speaker 8 It's physical. Well, you know, you can get some calls.
This depends on how much the refs like the teams and, you know, what the situation is.

Speaker 8 You know, the refs, you know, in China and Beijing, of course, the government team,

Speaker 1 they're going to get a few more calls than what we got at Gongzhou.

Speaker 8 So that's just the way it goes.

Speaker 8 but uh i love the basketball over there it's physical they went inside they didn't hemorrhage threes uh and of course they didn't apply the analytics and ruin a lot of the aspects of the game that i love

Speaker 7 hemorrhage threes oh that's amazing never would have guessed some of the officials might be a little bit cooked in the books yeah interesting anyways i assume you knew that going in though uh go ahead aj Tyran, what are some of those analytics that you feel like you may not be the biggest fan of that you think may be changing or slash ruining the game that we watch now?

Speaker 8 I think it's got to be the three ball. And the reason I say that is because

Speaker 8 just because the NBA guys are making a high volume of threes and they think that they can apply a lot of the NBA analytics to college kids. Well, college kids can't shoot as well as NBA guys.

Speaker 8 So a lot of what,

Speaker 8 you know, the analytics that they're applying at the college level isn't necessarily going to translate. And I think it's really hurt a lot of good big men.
I think that they're not going inside.

Speaker 8 I think there's a lot of value in going inside, trying to get easy buckets, and try to, instead of passing it out and just shooting a ton of threes, I don't really think that translates all that well.

Speaker 8 I'm old school. I think that, you know, getting open looks inside, layups, dunks, free throws, I think that's a huge difference maker.
And I don't really think the three-ball analytics is really

Speaker 8 all that successful as people believe.

Speaker 1 Now, on that note, Alabama hits their threes, which might be why they are good.

Speaker 1 Like that is, if everybody's chucking up threes, if you hit your threes, you're going to be the team that is going to profit from it.

Speaker 1 I think 51 of Bama's 65 shots last night, I believe, yeah, Alabama took 66 shots. 51 of them were threes.
So to your point, exactly. The entire game plan is knocking down threes.

Speaker 1 And I think last night during the Arkansas game,

Speaker 1 Arkansas hit a bunch of threes early. And you heard the commentator say, if you're Texas Tech, at at some point these shots have to stop falling.
Like at some point, these threes have to stop falling.

Speaker 1 That's inevitable. And to your point about how your sport's probably going to evolve and has evolved, football did too.
It became a real showy, kind of lighter, faster, quicker finesse game.

Speaker 1 And then it came back this year and over the past couple of years into being a physical game because people are taking advantage of the humans that are on the field now or were on the field whenever it got fast and finesse.

Speaker 1 Do you think basketball will have the same type of thing? Like, how do you think, do you think it only continues to go more and more threes?

Speaker 1 Because like in the NBA, Wemby's seven foot nine and he's chucking up threes. Now great.
He goes inside and he swats the shit out of things, but he's shooting threes.

Speaker 1 Like everybody's hucking up threes. Do you think it's cyclical? Do you think that's how basketball will work like football?

Speaker 8 Yes, I absolutely think it's going to come back around.

Speaker 8 And I think a lot of teams that are applying these analytics now, Alabama, they're kind of like the, you know, they really embrace analytics and they've been on some pretty good runs.

Speaker 8 They have some really good players as well. Nate Oates does a great job.

Speaker 8 But I'll just say Michigan State is a team that doesn't really shoot the outside ball all that well.

Speaker 8 And they've had a lot of success and everyone, you know, they're not the most sexy style, but they play defense, they rebound, they dominate the paint. And you know what? They win a lot of games.

Speaker 8 So I think teams that are applying these analytics and aren't really seeing the success or the wins translate, I think it's a matter of time before they revert back to going, you know, kind of the older style basketball that we're all kind of used to watching.

Speaker 1 I watched the highlights of the COA Pete. There was a kid yesterday that committed to Arizona on our show, and I watched his highlights.

Speaker 1 His older brother, offensive lineman for the Raiders right now, three-time Pro Bowler.

Speaker 1 His dad, offensive lineman in the NFL, he's six foot eight, and like he plays, like obviously he's explosive, but I think he takes a lot of pride in being like a like a physical, like a physical player.

Speaker 1 I think with the way the NBA in basketball kind of is right now, if you do have somebody who can be a big body strong while also having to have the finesse game, that feels like the winner.

Speaker 1 That feels like the future. On that note, let's talk about the future of the NBA and the current of the college hoop storylines.
Tone has a question for you while he's wearing a brand new sweatshirt.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I am. I figured I'd represent this today for Tyler.
And basically, you were the mayor of Cameron Indoor. I believe you're 4-0 at Cameron and basically owned Duke your entire career.

Speaker 4 So I figured, how would you defend Cooper Flag, who is going to be the overall number one pick in the NBA when he decides to come out? And

Speaker 4 how would you go up against this Duke team?

Speaker 8 Duke's a tough team, man. Cooper Flag, to me, is the best player in college basketball, no question.

Speaker 8 I know Janiai Brooms had a really good year, but Cooper Flag and what he's doing and how he's stepping up in these big moments is incredible. I would be physical with him.

Speaker 8 I would bump him and I'd make him defend. I'd put him in a lot of duck ends.
Obviously, his length

Speaker 8 presents a lot of problems, but his ability to do, you know, impact the game in so many different ways. But I would run him.
I would try to wear him down and I'd be very physical.

Speaker 8 And I would make sure that he's not getting any open or easy looks and try to limit a lot of his shots.

Speaker 1 I'd run him. Okay.
We're going to test him a little bit.

Speaker 1 Then we're going to see if he can. Can he handle these? Can he handle this elbow? Because this elbow is coming with a strong pivot foot.
Because that is within the laws of the game.

Speaker 1 Tyler Hansborough's elbow is going to be available too for your body. And if you want to punch me in the face, do it.
I've shattered his nose before.

Speaker 1 No problem at all. We were looking up some of your photos, dude.
The bloody nose shot, the dive on the, like just the...

Speaker 1 The ruthlessness of just tenacity, seemingly, at all times on the court. Such a wonderful thing.
You're a dog. Psycho T.
I don't think that was the proper name. I think you're just relentless T.

Speaker 1 like i i think high t high t high t relentless t tyler hansborough what a fun you would have been able to play in any era brother you would have been able to play in any era uh on that note this era you see north carolina we were just talking about duke used to be a lot of those ty has a question for you yeah tyler obviously when you played at North Carolina, the ACC was the bell of the ball and had been for a long time, only getting four teams into the tournament this year.

Speaker 2 What do you think the ACC needs to do to kind of get back to the top of the mountain where a lot of people think it should be?

Speaker 2 Obviously, you know, with the SEC getting 14 teams in and the Big Ten doing what it's doing, why do you think the ACC is kind of taking a back seat?

Speaker 2 And what do you think they need to do to kind of reclaim their throne when it comes to college basketball?

Speaker 8 Right now, I think we're making a lot of the right moves. I kind of like some of the hires.
I really like the hire at Miami for, you know, hiring Lucas from Duke.

Speaker 8 I think that it's just a matter of time. And the one thing I will say about the SEC is they have the money.
And that's what college basketball has turned into, kind of pay for play.

Speaker 8 So they have the ability to pay more than what the ACC has.

Speaker 8 And I know that's a little bit of an excuse, especially when you see teams, you know, you know, having these runs outside of the SEC, but I think that's why the SEC is dominating.

Speaker 8 But I think the ACC, I think this is just a bad year for us. Now, let's not forget, recently we've dominated a lot of these tournaments, and so we'll be there

Speaker 8 in the coming years. This is just a bad year for us.
We're going to figure it out. We're hiring new coaches at these places

Speaker 8 that some of the coaches left or made some changes. We're making the right moves.
We're going to figure out the NIL, and we'll be back in the tournament representing again.

Speaker 1 That feels like 10 years ago the ACC mattered. You remember that? Yeah.
Yeah, it feels like maybe 100 years ago.

Speaker 1 It's crazy. It's an SEC sport now.
Wow. That's crazy.
Southeast. Just this year.

Speaker 1 Was that?

Speaker 8 Just this year. I would say, you know, it wasn't so long ago that we met Duke in the Final Four,

Speaker 8 right before Coach K retired. I would say that.
North Carolina, we were one seed last year.

Speaker 8 Duke possibly could win it.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's not that bad of a year for ACC. I just...

Speaker 8 I would like to stand up a little bit for us.

Speaker 1 Yeah, absolutely. That's why we're saying what we're saying.
Yeah, because that has been the convo. Like the SEC has just taken over.
It is the basketball school now.

Speaker 1 And you got everybody talking about how ACC used to be the creme de la creme.

Speaker 1 Now they're even saying, and Seth Greenberg said this on our show and then said it on many others, and the concept of it, not bad. Maybe the ACC links up with the Big East for basketball.

Speaker 1 How would you feel about that?

Speaker 8 I wouldn't mind having UConn. I wouldn't mind having a little St.
John's action. I think that's great.
We're both known for basketball.

Speaker 8 So bring them on board. You know, the Big East has a ton of great programs.
There'd be some great rivalries in there. And yeah, I would love that.

Speaker 1 Okay, I like to hear that. Let's get going.
I like to hear that because I think a lot of people are like, no, can't do it.

Speaker 1 And then you got like one of the main faces in the history of ACC basketball being like, I think that'd be okay. Petino told us St.
John's doesn't have a football team.

Speaker 1 So whenever this revenue share thing happens, they might be in like a great position for the revenue share than maybe other schools that have a football team.

Speaker 1 You know, like the Big Easts right now, I think are maybe

Speaker 1 primed for a little bit of a basketball run because the amount of money that they're going to to be able to have versus some other schools that are going to be splitting it or divvying it up with the football team.

Speaker 1 So ACC Big East back on top. Let's go.
Good luck, boys. Good luck.
Good luck. They need you to get back in there and coach.
Go ahead, AJ.

Speaker 7 Yeah, Tyler, as far as coaching, like I'm curious from college to pros, whether it's the NBA or overseas, are you, like, how is the coaching different when you're at college?

Speaker 7 Like, is it, we think like college for our era, Pat in our era, when we were in college football, like he played for Rich Rodriguez. Like, it's, there's, you're never late.

Speaker 7 You're never, you're never doing anything out of line. Like you are, you're part of the program, part of the system.
You're one little piece. Are they able to do that in the NBA and overseas?

Speaker 7 Can coaches still kind of hold guys accountable the way they can in college?

Speaker 8 I think that's the one thing about the new era of college basketball. It's really hurt.
I think a lot of kids need to be coached like that.

Speaker 8 I played for Coach Williams, and you are never late. You're late once, and you're never late again.
I can tell you that. I still have a little bit of anxiety about showing up late to anything.

Speaker 8 And, you know, the old school coaching that, you know, a lot of people associate with college, getting after guys, you're still seeing like Izzo gets after guys, Bettino gets after guys.

Speaker 8 I think there's a lot of value in that discipline, but there's a big difference between, you know, the NBA, college, and overseas.

Speaker 8 I think in the NBA, you know, it's really hard for a coach, probably just like it is in any professional sport for, you know, a coach to get after really an all-star, somebody of a high caliber name.

Speaker 8 But a lot of the younger kids, I actually think in the NBA are a little more receptive to coaching just because they're not dealing with so many outside voices like a lot of the college kids are dealing right now.

Speaker 8 And I think that they can make a big impact on young guys, young rookies.

Speaker 8 But overseas,

Speaker 8 I saw some crazy things.

Speaker 8 China's a little different.

Speaker 8 They'll light up a cigarette right there in halftime. I've never seen that before.
And so that was my jaw dropped when I saw that. But they will get after you in China, too.
Yes.

Speaker 1 Coaches, you were saying there were lighting up SIGs or players were as well.

Speaker 8 Or both. The players would light them up in the locker room.
I will say that. But I wouldn't be surprised if they were, you know, they smoke over in China a lot of cigarettes.
So,

Speaker 8 yeah, I mean, I saw that. That was a new experience for me.
But, you know, I got used to it. Didn't really necessarily like the smell.

Speaker 1 But, you know, that was one of the biggest differences. That's all.
Was the coach, did the coach speak English at all? Or did you guys play charades?

Speaker 8 Not many of them.

Speaker 8 There was a translator, so they, you know, they spoke broken English, but it's funny after my first season, I had a full-on conversation with my head coach in English, and I had no idea that he even knew what I was saying or knew English until after the season was over.

Speaker 8 So I think he kind of kept it from me just from just because he wanted to know what I was saying and didn't think that I knew that he knew English.

Speaker 1 That was a setup, brother.

Speaker 1 You had a hot mic. You had no idea.
Yeah.

Speaker 8 No idea. It really caught me off guard.

Speaker 1 Hey, talking to the translator. Let me think of what to say to this piece of shit.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 All right. Tell him that I'm thankful for everything he's done for me.
Please. That's the translator.

Speaker 1 All right. And then keep it moving.
What a moment. That's awesome.
How about day-to-day over there? How's the food?

Speaker 8 Food's amazing.

Speaker 8 Everyone always asks about that. No, I didn't eat any of the crazy dishes that everyone's probably talking about.

Speaker 8 A lot of meat.

Speaker 8 You know, I'm a big, you know, I like some steak and stuff like that. So I had a ton of that.

Speaker 8 And the food was amazing. Yeah.
So they took care of us. A lot of Western food too.
You could always get that. But,

Speaker 8 you know, the spicy hot pot, unbelievable. If you guys have ever had spicy hot pot, it's amazing.

Speaker 1 No, I've had rice-aroni.

Speaker 1 I've had number three

Speaker 1 from

Speaker 1 What's the name of this one down here?

Speaker 1 China Express, I believe. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is what it is. I've had General Sow's.
Yeah, oh, yeah. General South, so good.
So good. Oh, kung pao chicken.
You bet. Wow.
Unbelievable.

Speaker 1 Orange chicken, obviously. Good.
Broccoli. Would rather General Sows than orange chicken.
Every day.

Speaker 1 Like when you walk up to the Chinese buffet and they're trying to sell you like it is General So's, but you know it's orange chicken. Yes.
It's like, hey, similar, but I know the difference.

Speaker 1 So that was your life every day over there?

Speaker 8 Not necessarily like that. You know, I think you're thinking more of what we've made the Chinese food out to be here.
I mean, I never got a fortune cookie. What? I was a little disappointed.

Speaker 8 Yeah, never got a fortune cookie in China. So I always kind of laugh at that when I come back.

Speaker 8 But,

Speaker 8 you know, there's a ton of pork, ton of dumplings and stuff like that, a lot of noodles.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, I enjoyed that. We had a guy who ate four fortune cookies just on a Tuesday.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 That was this Tuesday. He did that just the evening.
You know, Monday, too. Oh, yeah.
And Monday. He had eight.
This guy had eight fortune cookies Monday, Tuesday. That's the beginning of the week.

Speaker 1 That's more than you had in three and a half years in China. That's wild.
He swallowed all the fortunes too, right, Foxy? Because if you swallow the fortune. Only way they come true.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's not real. Okay.
So

Speaker 1 unless they told you that in China, I don't know. Is that real?

Speaker 8 No, they would have laughed at me.

Speaker 8 I'm not even sure anyone knew what a fortune cookie was when I was over there talking about I've never seen any fortune cookies over here, but yeah, I mean, I've never never ate i've never eaten the wrapping that's for sure so thank you yeah yeah that's because you're a smart man okay last question before we let you go how about how closely are you paying attention to the nba and can we ask you who's going to win the ncaa tournament and who's going to win the nba championship

Speaker 8 Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 8 Right now, I'm really locked in on the NCA tournament. I'm going to go with Bama.
I know, you know, they face up with,

Speaker 8 you know, Duke. I actually had Duke losing the first game to the 16th seed.
Oh, really? But, you know, so I'm a little biased.

Speaker 8 And I picked Bama at the early part of the year. So I'm going to stick with Bama and the NBA Championship.

Speaker 1 Man.

Speaker 8 I really want to pick Oklahoma just because they haven't gotten a lot of credit. I'll roll with Oklahoma, the Thunder.

Speaker 1 Okay, they're a team that has obviously had a lot of wins. They go into Boston.
They beat the Celtics.

Speaker 1 They're at the top of the convo or top of the leaderboard, but not at top of the convo is what you're saying. Small market team, not getting a lot of love.
SGA SGA is electrified. Yeah,

Speaker 1 excited for playoff basketball. We can't thank you enough for joining us.

Speaker 1 What's like today look like for you?

Speaker 1 We assume you're squatting. You put a bar on your back every single day.

Speaker 1 Maybe go till the land. What is today? What do we got today?

Speaker 7 You know, I'm not in the weight room today.

Speaker 8 I know that's a big disappointment. I'm actually going to play a little pickleball action right now.

Speaker 8 So yeah, I'm fully addicted to pickleball and everyone's going to laugh at it because of the name, but that's what I'm about to go through.

Speaker 1 No, we know pickleball.

Speaker 3 You're a professional pickleballer right

Speaker 8 i wish that hey i tried to play against some pros and realized that dream is gone gotcha it's not a reality for me where where do you lack at it in the kitchen the hands it's your hands you don't have good enough hands what you're rating not my hands i got the hands it's more of you know the technique i didn't play a racket sport and also i'm on the back end of 30 so i'm not you know the the young 20 year olds that just finished college are d1 tennis players i kind of struggle against those guys they get you moving a little bit.

Speaker 8 Yeah, they get me moving. I move like a school bus now.
So I have my challenges.

Speaker 1 I will say you always did, though. You know, you always did.
And the things you were able to do, nobody could have expected. Absolute weapon.
What is your rating?

Speaker 1 Isn't there a number rating thing in pickleball?

Speaker 8 About a 4-5. Not a 5-0.
Yeah.

Speaker 8 So 5-0 means you're pretty good, but 4-5 is all right.

Speaker 1 So how many games will you go play right now? And this will be like against high-level talent or these motherfuckers have no idea what's showing up at the pickleball uh court that's coming

Speaker 8 i used to go out there and get smacked by the retirement community uh it was martha and that's when i really started getting addicted uh so i've kind of outgrown that uh you know little community but yeah i'm playing against some high level guys i if i go out there and give them work today i'm gonna be really happy leaving that uh facility hell yeah hey go give them that you know what i mean old school high tea yep you know boosted tea not psycho tea cerebral tea, kitchen tea.

Speaker 1 That's what we need today. Good luck out there.
We appreciate you, man.

Speaker 8 Thanks, fellas.

Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, college basketball and basketball icon. Tyler Hansberg.

Speaker 1 If I give these guys work, I'm going to be real happy.

Speaker 1 These guys should beat my ass today. But they have no idea I'm coming 110 miles an hour out there.
No, they don't.

Speaker 1 Like, do you think they see like a schedule of who's playing who and they see tea dot hands, bro? And they think to themselves,

Speaker 1 it's going to be a long morning. It's going to be a long morning.
He's got to be on the ground all the time.

Speaker 7 What's the highest rating you can have?

Speaker 3 I think it is five.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think five's pro. I think you get to a five, you're like a pro.

Speaker 4 What did AQ lie and say he was?

Speaker 1 4-3 or something, 4-2. So we don't know what every 10th is.
No. I'm assuming it's pretty.

Speaker 1 Pretty. It has to be.
I assume a 4-5 is very good. Yeah.
Yes. No offense, AQ.
AQ has committed a lot of his life.

Speaker 2 He was a good player when we were out in Arizona.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but I think that was at the beginning of his run. I think he has continued to play since then.

Speaker 2 He's in tournaments now.

Speaker 1 He's got his own gloves, his own thing. It goes up to 5-5 plus.
Whoa. So 5-5 plus is top caliber players.
Okay, those are pros.

Speaker 4 5 has you mastered the strategy.

Speaker 4 4-5 is high level of consistency. Use pace and depth to generate opponents' errors or set up the next shot.

Speaker 1 What's a 4-2, 4-3?

Speaker 4 4-0 is consistently hits with depth and control, still perfecting shot selection and timing.

Speaker 1 Oh, so you're being judged for the score? Apparently. Yeah.
Dude's doing the judgment. You got an adjudicator coming in? Yeah.

Speaker 1 This guy can't work the kitchen.

Speaker 7 What if you pay him off? What if you pay off the judger?

Speaker 1 AQ probably tried if I had to guess. Then you run into a 5-5-plus and get your ass kicked.
Yeah, I think AQ is probably trying to get his lower. I bet you everybody's probably trying to get theirs.

Speaker 1 Yeah, sandbag.

Speaker 7 Well, you should, but golf, people should lie the right way. People lie the wrong way when it comes to golf handicap all the time.

Speaker 7 I'm a two, and then they shoot 95.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but those people don't say that whenever they're about to compete against somebody. Those people say, hopefully not.
I'm a 10. Yeah.
They're actually a five.

Speaker 1 You know, much like brandon bean sure yeah

Speaker 1 dan rolofsky had a sue yep people were saying aaron rodgers yeah josh allen said this about uh aaron rodgers because he played in uh was it pebble beach i don't remember which which was it pebble beach i think so yeah yeah Oh, Aaron's a seven.

Speaker 1 Did you guys see Aaron Rodgers as a seven handicap in golf?

Speaker 1 I think is what Josh Allen was saying. Man, I just thought the guy was better.
That's all Josh kept saying. Aaron won.
I think Josh probably came in second or third.

Speaker 1 And all Josh could say was, man, Aaron, I thought Aaron, yeah, Aaron really outdid himself.

Speaker 1 Aaron really outdid himself. But Aaron never plays, right?

Speaker 1 That is kind of the thing with Aaron Rodgers, which is so annoying.

Speaker 7 For what he shoots, yeah, he plays a tiny amount of golf for how good he is.

Speaker 1 That one that was on TV for the

Speaker 1 match. The match or whatever.

Speaker 1 He had just landed from like Hungary. the day before that.

Speaker 1 It wasn't a golf trip.

Speaker 1 It was on a golf trip over there and then gets his clubs. I think they were just fitted.
If the story is, it goes how I think. Just got his clubs, and then he plays in his thing on television.

Speaker 1 Has not played. These guys have been fucking playing, obviously.
And then he buries the putt to win the thing at the end.

Speaker 2 He kind of carried Bryson the entire time.

Speaker 1 What an asshole. Okay.
On that note.

Speaker 1 How the conversation has been with him? Is he happy? Was he down in Mexico with the family? What has he been?

Speaker 7 Days make the trip.

Speaker 1 He's been talked about, AJ. There's been a lot of reports about him.
That's really the only thing NFL media has right now. Aaron Rodgers, though.
Huh? Uh-huh. Huh? Holy crap.

Speaker 1 And then all of a sudden, Quasi, who looks wildly young.

Speaker 1 Quasi, general manager of the Minnesota Vikings at his press conference, he didn't close the door on

Speaker 1 Aaron Rodgers. That's basically the only thing right now.
Steph Diggs of New England, congratulations. That was about 20 minutes.
Yep. Right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 And it was that night. Yeah, and it was 26 million.
Congratulations. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 Russell Wilson goes to the giants oh okay russ okay mr unlimited 10 and a half million could go up to 21 million it's got malik neighbors got jameis winston over there jameis winston tolly cutlix and russell wilson that's a reality show hard knocks should be doing offseason again there but obviously i don't think the giants will allow that to happen after what happened last year and then inevitably it all roads go back to what's aaron rodgers gonna do because that affects the draft so before we can really do a proper mock draft we have to know what aaron rods is planning on doing so like basically he is still the only thing radiating at this time.

Speaker 1 Now next week, owners meetings, there's going to be rule changes. There's going to be a lot of that.
But this week, it's just been potentially, maybe we heard potential situation brewing.

Speaker 1 Not certain, but maybe

Speaker 1 Aaron Rodgers waiting on the Vikings. We heard maybe

Speaker 1 Aaron Rodgers thinking about retirement. We heard maybe the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers have had a contract in place for weeks, if not months at this point.

Speaker 1 They're just trying to figure it out after the meeting. What have you heard? And how do you think people should be talking about this situation?

Speaker 1 Because my entire take has been, I don't think Aaron knows exactly what he wants. And

Speaker 1 are all the options already shown to him that it's going to be, you know, throughout it all? Is he waiting until the draft to see who does what with a quarterback?

Speaker 1 Like, what are your thoughts on it, AJ, as somebody who we all know is a close friend of Aaron Rodgers?

Speaker 7 Yeah, waiting until the draft, I haven't really thought about that. I cannot imagine that would be the case.
Like,

Speaker 7 what would that do for him? Right now, it looks like, what, Pittsburgh? Pittsburgh is an option, and the Vikings are possibly an option. Is that what's out there? Is that what it feels like?

Speaker 1 Yes, that is kind of what the and retirement, obviously. So, retirement, Pittsburgh, and then the Vikings haven't said no.
That's right. That is the.

Speaker 7 Yeah, they didn't close the door completely. That's the thing.
Yeah, like you had the opportunity to close the door completely publicly, at least if you were the Vikings and you did not.

Speaker 7 So, what does that tell you? I don't know if that means there's a possibility that the Vikings would want to bring them in or not, but it means there's got to be some kind of chance of that, correct?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I would say that's probably why people are saying it publicly. Yeah, I would say there's some chance.

Speaker 7 What's Aaron? And what? He visited Pitt? He visited Pittsburgh and probably loved it.

Speaker 1 Well, Pitt and Pittsburgh have the same facility. So we will see.
He was probably, he did probably see both sides of it.

Speaker 1 But yes, allegedly, and I think confirmed by multiple reports, Jerry Dulak says...

Speaker 1 Aaron Rodgers came to UPMC practice facility to visit with, I believe, Arthur Smith, Mike Tomlin, Omar Omar Kahn, and ownership.

Speaker 1 I don't know if you met with cafeteria, equipment managers, athletic trainers as well. Probably, though, if he's in the building.
Did you hear that as well?

Speaker 7 Yeah, well, I mean, I do know that he actually really likes all the Pittsburgh staff. He loves the staff, the front office, everything about Pittsburgh.
Yeah, the people there.

Speaker 7 That's what makes the Steelers the Steelers, don't you think? Like what they, from the top down. I think he definitely loves all that.
Well, great.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the program, the franchise, the city, the lore, the tradition. That is everything that, you know, does make the Pittsburgh Steelers the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 1 But you're saying he loves everybody in the building. Okay, so that is.

Speaker 1 Okay, put that on a seat geek ticker down there. A.J.
Hawk says he loves everybody in the building. So A.P.
Tone has a follow-up question, I assume, for this. Yeah, what do you say?

Speaker 4 Like, when's he deciding?

Speaker 7 That's a question I don't think he knows. I don't know what he's waiting on.

Speaker 11 I really don't.

Speaker 7 I have no clue what the timeline like.

Speaker 7 Maybe Big Night Out. Remember, we called it a couple weeks ago.

Speaker 1 Maybe he's going to pop in there and say, hey, I'm going to the Viking to everybody at Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 That would be awesome. Okay, we should think about that.
Oh,

Speaker 1 by the way, everyone hits that.

Speaker 1 That's happening. What's that?

Speaker 4 It's all everyone on the internet thinks that's what's happening.

Speaker 4 He's deciding at that night.

Speaker 1 On Big Night Out? Yep. Yeah, I know.
That's crazy. That is hilarious to think about.
I do appreciate that people think that is what is possible, though, for like big night. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Guys, gonna sign to the fucking Pittsburgh Steelers. Big Night Out.
Yeah, we actually scheduled it in advance. He's leaving everybody

Speaker 1 in the in the

Speaker 1 dark

Speaker 1 until big night out. Yeah, you caught us.
Now, granted, if we are still around in a decision he's made, then I would like to let Aaron know that it's certainly an opportunity for you.

Speaker 1 What a great way to introduce yourself to the city. Yeah, and the people that we have coming, I think, would be a good, that would be a good,

Speaker 1 that'd be a great start to the entire thing. Yeah.
Also, not a bad time or place to give a little speech about what we're looking to do. Yeah, I mean, it is an option for you, Mr.

Speaker 1 Rogers, If you would like to change your neighborhood to Mr. Rogers' neighborhood, which was filmed where?

Speaker 1 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Okay.

Speaker 1 So, you're rest in peace, Mr. Rogers.
Rest in peace. What a

Speaker 1 great guy.

Speaker 1 Chess. Yeah.
And the way he tied his shoes.

Speaker 7 It all checked out, too. He always was a good guy, right? No matter what.
Like, he always

Speaker 6 behind the camera, in front of the camera.

Speaker 4 You're not getting Fred Rogers, okay?

Speaker 1 That's not happening. A lot of people are getting got right now.
Fred's not wulf.

Speaker 2 He is a Marine sniper.

Speaker 1 Marine sniper. How about that?

Speaker 1 Was that him or Bob?

Speaker 1 Oh, I know.

Speaker 7 Maybe both. I think they both were in the same regiment.

Speaker 1 Probably. Could be.
Probably the same platoon, too, potentially. You know, good.
We don't know. So much talent.
I know. Could you imagine Mr.
Rogers waking everybody up and then tossing it over to Bob

Speaker 1 in the middle of a war zone? I have bad news. Rest in peace, boys.
I have bad news.

Speaker 4 Google's saying that's a urban legend.

Speaker 1 Which one? What?

Speaker 4 That he was a Marine sniper.

Speaker 1 Who?

Speaker 4 No. Mr.

Speaker 1 Rogers. What about Bob? Bob.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 4 Come on. Seg it.

Speaker 1 Oh, I don't think he's crazy, actually. You never

Speaker 1 know.

Speaker 1 I believe he was a sniper, though. I mean, he.

Speaker 2 Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 Barker. Rest in peace to a lot of people.
Barker. Everybody that has passed, another one.
Yeah. Rest in peace.

Speaker 1 We appreciate you all.

Speaker 12 I've never felt like this before.

Speaker 1 It's like you just get me.

Speaker 13 I feel like my true self with you.

Speaker 12 Does that sound crazy? And it doesn't hurt that you're gorgeous.

Speaker 12 Okay, that's it.

Speaker 13 I'm taking you home with me.

Speaker 12 I mean, you can't find shoes this good just anywhere.

Speaker 13 Find a shoe for every you from brands you love like Birkenstock, Nike, Adidas, and more at your DSW store or dsw.com.

Speaker 1 Sports. Sports.

Speaker 1 How to baby AJ? Welcome back from Mexico off a spring break. It's great to see you.
That's AJ Hawk.

Speaker 1 Toxic Tables here. Bruce Brown sitting in for Boston Connor.
Send your love to he and talk. They'll be back next week at Ty Schmidt sitting next to him.
Sweethead.

Speaker 2 Hey, thank you. You know, anytime you can put on for the Rose Bowl and, you know, those beautiful San Gabriel mountains and the cotton candy sky, you kind of just have to do it.

Speaker 1 How about just that B-52 bomber flying? Oh, sorry. Oh,

Speaker 1 that thing kicking off with the sun setting in the background as we're sitting on perfect grass somehow, able to call two of those from the sideline. What a place.
Yeah. Unbelievable.

Speaker 1 Getting in and out, it's not there.

Speaker 1 It's going to be tough getting in and out of there. But what

Speaker 1 anything worth getting to is probably not easy to get to. Well said.
And I think that is probably the Rose Bowl in a nutshell. Because if it was easy, everybody would be able to get there.
Exactly.

Speaker 1 And if everybody was able to get there, it wouldn't be a Rose Bowl. Because you got to really earn your way down into that beautiful valley.
Oh my God. One lane in, one lane out.

Speaker 1 Just get all the way down in there. Nestle down in there.
Okay. But once you get down in there,

Speaker 1 it's beautiful. Paradise.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Para, para,

Speaker 1 paradise. For football.
Yes. Yes.
Should go to one half of the hammer. Done.
Cowboys, AP Town, saw you pandering to Tyler Hansborough with your sweatshirt.

Speaker 4 I was. I did have a change of clothes today, but as soon as I heard Psycho T was on, this sweater was

Speaker 1 high T.

Speaker 5 High T, Tanaki S T.

Speaker 1 You're right.

Speaker 4 Yeah. As someone with low T, I do respect the high T nickname.

Speaker 1 You can get that back, they say. We're working on it.

Speaker 1 You got to,

Speaker 1 I'm not getting into it.

Speaker 1 I believe they're saying things boost your testosterone. Oh, yeah.
And I'm like, really? Sounds like you guys are making an excuse for your potential nicotine habit.

Speaker 1 You're like, yeah, but side effect of nicotine actually boosts your testosterone. No way.
Allegedly.

Speaker 1 You would would have to do your own research. You'd have to do your own research.
Is that true?

Speaker 3 I don't think, based on my anecdotal research, I don't think so.

Speaker 1 I have done a focus group of one is what Mr. Brown just said and doesn't feel like.
That whole low-tee thing is real, though. And,

Speaker 1 you know, the science nowadays where they can actually get it down to an exact amount you're supposed to have. That's a lifetime commitment, though, I think, once you start it.

Speaker 1 People need to know that. Once you pop it,

Speaker 1 no, I don't know. Allegedly, I think that's being alleged by companies that are trying to profit off.

Speaker 1 So, so you know, you never know what's real, but it is, they, they start putting that on stuff, you know, like, hey, you can buy that, like, I think meat, you eat red meat, this is booster, testosterone.

Speaker 1 You eat this, it's booster, testosterone. It's like that has become a conversation, I think, in the zeitgeist over the last three to five years, probably.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 When people have like kind of understood it a little bit more. I've looked into it, obviously, and that's a lifelong commitment if you really want to do that.

Speaker 4 I don't think Doug Flutier, the big hurt, would lead us down a road at any one of us.

Speaker 1 Come on. How about him in that commercial?

Speaker 7 Yeah. Yeah, he stole that lady's, that guy's wife right on camera.

Speaker 1 Just do one of these, too.

Speaker 1 With an actual battle.

Speaker 1 Was that a bat he threw on his shoulder? Yeah, he's a baseball player. Oh, oh.

Speaker 1 Can you throw it on your shoulder?

Speaker 1 He did. Right on that commercial.
Anyways, baseball happened. AJ, do you know that?

Speaker 7 I do know that, yeah. Opening day.
I know. Shohei, obviously, he lives up to the moment always.

Speaker 1 Certainly, and has. I think them having an opening day eight days ago or nine days ago now, good for them to get the jitters out.
You know, like first game jitters, I think is also good.

Speaker 1 Not that Shohei didn't do great in his first game. I don't think he hit a home run in his first game.
Second game, he hit a home run in. Third game, he's now hit a home run in.

Speaker 1 But to get that opening day vibe kind of out, especially whenever he had to go back to Japan to experience it, what that was probably like for him, I think they're, I don't want to say mid-season form, but they're, I think they were in a better position yesterday than maybe any other team.

Speaker 1 Cobbs, you lose a couple games over there. Is that good or bad?

Speaker 1 Start the season 0-2, okay.

Speaker 1 You can be behind the eight-ball. Shout out to Chicago doing that.
But

Speaker 1 everybody else was kind of, you know, yeah, which, by the way,

Speaker 1 got the Jitters out on opening day.

Speaker 1 Travel to Japan. Okay, who knows what's going to happen, but.
Probably going to win opening day because your team will already have it. Big storylines from opening day, Ty Schmidt are.

Speaker 2 Shohei, obviously going yard. Dodgers starting 3-0.
Tyler O'Neal for the Baltimore Orioles hitting his sixth consecutive opening day home run, which, yeah, that is ridiculous.

Speaker 2 You can almost set your watch to it at this point.

Speaker 2 You know, again, not to grovel, but a lot of Mets fans saying, hey, did we overpay for Juan Soto?

Speaker 2 Is this the guy we want carrying the torch for our franchise for the next 15 years as he strikes out to end the game with two runners on base down two in Houston?

Speaker 2 Yankees get a big win at Yankee Stadium. Austin Wells, leadoff hitter.

Speaker 1 You don't have to do the Yankee stuff right next to the Mets stuff. No, it just

Speaker 2 it's coincidental, really. You know, the New York teams kind of go hand in hand, so it kind of just, I mean, the way it comes out is kind of crazy.

Speaker 1 It is.

Speaker 2 It is. And a lot of Yankees yesterday, Carlos Rodon, the starting pitcher, he looked great with a beard.

Speaker 2 He looked so bad last year, clean shaven. And now it's like, okay, thank God

Speaker 2 we paid a lot of money for this guy, and he looks like a Yankee with a beard. He just looked weird last year without one.
So Yankees get a big win with beards and all.

Speaker 2 And outside of that, you know, it was

Speaker 2 pretty solid day of baseball yesterday.

Speaker 1 All right. Well, I appreciate the fact.
Paul Skeens will be joining us here in about 25 minutes or so. He was scheduled to join our program because, you know, he's on the cover of the show.

Speaker 1 This guy, obviously, last year wasn't even in the majors yet. Now he's opening day ace for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
And such a young career, he's already on the show 25. Okay.

Speaker 1 Which is a great thing. I believe this is a good video game.

Speaker 2 This is, yeah, again, talking about being able to set your watch stuff.

Speaker 1 Like, this is one of the few things, you know, Madden gets killed because it just it sucks every year kind of but people still buy it this game is incredible year after year like it it's it's one of the the last really like elite sports franchise video games out there yeah speaking of elite that's uh pnc park right there you see that view in the back yeah you think to yourself damn that looks nice you see in real life especially whenever it's dark and the Zambelli fireworks are over top of it I mean you're talking about beautiful ballpark Pittsburgh Pirates have it all including a fan base that's ready to go crazy a starting pitcher that is the next one and hopefully a team that doesn't just lose games for.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You know, I think they need to get invested.
What Jet Passen said yesterday was, it's a travesty, the ineptitude at the Pittsburgh Parks. They have the guy.
Everybody knows they have the guy.

Speaker 1 Even people that aren't in baseball, like us, know that they have the guy. The guy knows he's a guy.

Speaker 1 Could you do something with it?

Speaker 1 AJ, all they care about is the bottom line. The bottom line could be a lot higher.
Could be. Could be a lot higher.
If you like have a winning team, AJ, you know?

Speaker 1 And from what Jet Passon said yesterday, the days of potential ownership being lazy and like not active owners, I think are potentially going to get voted out.

Speaker 1 Jet Passon had a little bit more fire yesterday than I had heard him talking about these ownership situations. He's basically saying other owners, I assume Cohen, who's spending so much money.
Yes.

Speaker 1 He's like, why am I the only one doing it? L.A. is probably thinking this.

Speaker 1 The places and the owners that are very active. From what Jet Passon said yesterday, fed up with the ownership that is not, they think it's bad for the league as a whole, seemingly is what Jet said.

Speaker 3 Definitely. I think Hal Steinbrenner would probably be a big piece of that, too, because he's one of those guys where obviously he inherited the team from George.

Speaker 3 And he's like, you want the Yankees to suck? We could just have them suck. And I'll print money hand over fist, too.

Speaker 3 Like, can we put some pressures on these guys to, you know, build something and compete?

Speaker 1 So, what the other owners are saying, what you're doing is easy. Any of us could do.
Yes. Okay, got it, got it, got it.
So I didn't even think about that angle. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I thought about like, hey, our whole league like stinks because you guys stink.

Speaker 7 Big teams have to take care of the little teams, teams, right? Didn't the revs share? Don't the big teams have to take care of the guys that aren't spending money?

Speaker 1 Yeah, certainly. And they have to share money with them.
You're right. So I couldn't even imagine that aspect of money leaving our pocket.

Speaker 1 We're spending a bunch trying to make this league, trying to make good teams, trying to get a winner.

Speaker 1 The ones that are going to be on whenever everybody's actually watching baseball, our teams are going to be. And we have to give money elsewhere.
I didn't even think about that. But also saying, like,

Speaker 1 yeah, we could just sit here and collect the check too. Certainly.
Like, we all could do that. That's an easy thing.
You're not a genius.

Speaker 1 I appreciate that aspect out of it as well from ownership.

Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah. It is all so ridiculous.

Speaker 3 On the one hand, you're chasing Guggenheim and Steve Cohen, like the biggest hedge fund billionaire in the world on the top end, you know, with the Dodgers and the Mets.

Speaker 3 And then on the flip side of it, you have owners like even with the A's getting out of Oakland, like they're playing in a minor league ballpark this year. It's just, it's all ridiculous.

Speaker 3 But hey, it's going to be helpful.

Speaker 1 They got guys this year, though. Shohei.
Is Tratt back? Yes. Yeah.
He is the worst luck.

Speaker 2 Yeah, he got hit in the hand yesterday.

Speaker 3 It was either first or second at bat. I don't know if he left the game, but it's just like, what the hell's this guy got to do to stay on the baseball field?

Speaker 3 He just fucking nailed right on the hand, shaking it out, going to going to first base.

Speaker 1 Are you shit? First game. This is what? First at bat? Yeah.

Speaker 3 It's either his first orchestra.

Speaker 1 Yeah, first at bat.

Speaker 1 Third pitch. Yeah.

Speaker 1 This guy. Just can't get it.
Unbelievable. Hey, Trot.
We're sorry about it, dude.

Speaker 1 We're sorry. We are sorry about it.
We do love you, Mike. I mean, that guy dog.
Oh, yeah. Long, long time.
And then he's run into a little bit of an injury bug,

Speaker 1 unlucky bug. And shout out to baseball.
We'll cover it all 162 games, won't we?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 7 Can't wait. They're not overreacting after one game at all with the Mets at one set.
He only has 161 left.

Speaker 1 Michael Cole is very casual. He is.
He's seeing the big picture.

Speaker 7 Is that fun? I don't know.

Speaker 7 When you see Cole's reaction, is it fun to be a Mets fan when you're a Cole?

Speaker 1 I think Cole does enjoy our reaction to his reaction, but inside his body, I think he's not hat. Like, I think it's a miserable, I think he is a miserable fan.
Like, that is kind of his M.O.

Speaker 1 I'm a Jets fan and a Mets fan.

Speaker 2 He was spot on with the Jets, too. Everyone else was going crazy saying Super Bowl when we got Rodgers.
He said, this is the Jets.

Speaker 1 They're going to screw it up. What are you talking about? No questions asked.

Speaker 2 And look what happened.

Speaker 1 It did get messed up. And it wasn't obviously anybody's fault the first one.
No. Nope.
But it does end up not going right. And then obviously the next year it doesn't go right.

Speaker 1 And it's like, yeah, everybody,

Speaker 1 I don't even get my heart rate up whenever he says things happen. And that's just like, he expects that, I guess, forever.
I guess he expects that forever with both teams.

Speaker 1 So the day that he dies, which is hopefully another 100 years from now, he's going to be able to say, I told you so.

Speaker 1 My whole life. I knew they were going to stink.
And then he goes to bed. I think that is his angle.
I think that is his style of fanhood.

Speaker 3 The Mets love to be miserable all season and then September rolls around and they, you know, have a couple big walk-off wins, and then all of a sudden, it's the Miracle Mets are back.

Speaker 3 Look at all the magic at Citi Field. We're having so much fun.

Speaker 3 We got a guy, Iglesias. He's doing the OMG song.
Look at us. It's awesome.

Speaker 3 And then, you know, it crash and burns and then go back at it again, be miserable all season, and then they'll probably do the same deal in September.

Speaker 1 Two Yankees fans are sitting next to each other there giving those takes. And we need to remember that with everything that is said.
Sidney Crosby and the NHL broke a record. Congrats to Sid.

Speaker 1 We appreciate Sid and Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 Sidney Crosby has brought a lot of happiness alongside, you know, Gino and Le Tang and Mark Andre Flurry, who had that massive night last night, and the boys and Solly, who's been the coach for a long, long time.

Speaker 1 They brought a lot of happiness to Pittsburgh and a lot of great times.

Speaker 1 Obviously, we're on the tail end of that, seemingly, with this particular group, but Sidney Crosby is still playing at a level that nobody could have expected this late into his career.

Speaker 1 This man was hyped up to be the LeBron James of hockey coming out of Canada. He gets drafted to the Pittsburgh Penguins, number one overall.

Speaker 1 He's been a dude, and you don't know him because he's done absolutely nothing wrong. All he's done is committed fully to hockey, fully to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Speaker 1 He rarely talks to anybody, doesn't do any interviews, never says anything wrong, never does anything wrong, just shows up and balls. 20 seasons now, he's averaged at least a point per game.

Speaker 1 Yes, that is absurd. They play 80-some games a year.
How many games is it exactly, Nick? 82. 82 games a year, just like in the NBA.
And he's averaging a point per game at this stage.

Speaker 1 With the record that they have, the team that they have, he's still playing his best hockey. And this is the type of reason why that he'll be remembered as a great of all time.
Because he wasn't,

Speaker 1 he's a lot, and I don't want to make too much of a comparison here because I think LeBron's like the all-time leading point scorer in the history of the NBA as well. But he was like a playmaker.

Speaker 1 LeBron was much more of a playmaker, an assister than potentially Michael Jordan ever was, a facilitator. Yeah, different styles of basketball, different styles of people, I think.

Speaker 1 And that's the way he played. But everybody wanted him to be like Michael Jordan.
Like, we want you to not pass the ball in that moment, even though the the person's wide open.

Speaker 1 We want you to take it, be a dog, yada, yada. Sidney Crosby's always been a playmaker first, not worrying about scoring, always wanted to just make the play, pretty much.

Speaker 1 So, him, his assist, his playmaking, his goal scoring ability, obviously, all elite, but just scoring points and showing up every single game is what he will be known for forever.

Speaker 1 And obviously, Wayne Gretzky is unbelievable. Ovechkin's going to go down as the greatest goal scorer of all time and all of that.
But concurrently with Ovie's career, Sidney Crosby's been there.

Speaker 1 And you're talking about two greats that are near end and near a lot of records being broken. So I think this is going to become a very common thing for both of these guys.

Speaker 1 Nick, what did I miss in that entire thing?

Speaker 9 Well, you made an excellent point with the LeBron MJ comparison in the sense that like Sid is a playmaker and you mentioned Ovie chasing down Gretzky's all-time goal record here.

Speaker 9 It's fascinating that two of these records could potentially be broken in the same season, two of Wayne's all-time great records, because Sid being known as the playmaker, he captures this based on his assists, his playmaking ability, his point-per-game status, 20 straight seasons, unbelievable.

Speaker 9 Now, Ovi's got 11 games left to score six goals. Sorry, 10 games now to score six goals to tie Gretzky's all-time goal scoring record.
Ovi, known much more as the pure goal scorer, the pure sniper.

Speaker 9 So these are two guys who came into the league after a lockout when the NHL was dead and buried, revived the league, saved the league, and now here they are both breaking or potentially breaking Wayne Gretzky, the all-time greats records in the same time frame.

Speaker 9 It's kind of unbelievable when you look at it from that frame of view and lens. It's just awesome.
Historical context.

Speaker 5 It's amazing.

Speaker 1 Good for hockey, baby.

Speaker 1 Good for hockey. You talk about that lockout.
They weren't dead. Yeah.
And I think the owners were willing to just sit for as long as possible. I think they made some rule changes too.

Speaker 1 I think they changed some rules of hockey. A lot of them.
During the lockout, they changed the style of hockey that people were watching.

Speaker 1 And then obviously you get a couple of superstars and get some teams and get some runs. And it's like now hockey is strong as hell.
And they're looking for expansion teams, I think.

Speaker 1 And you got teams like Florida winning Lordo, which obviously only grows the game. But it's like there's a lot of good shit happening on the ice right now for hockey.

Speaker 1 And even though the Penguins haven't been in like the Lordo combo for a couple years, you know, which has been difficult, especially with Boston Conner sitting over here. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, and then Darius J. Butler sitting over here.
Yeah, and then Foxy, yeah, Hockey Beach, exactly. And then Foxy just talking about the 50s and the 30s.
We saw it. and things like that.

Speaker 1 He's a night super fan. Yeah, and then you got a Las Vegas Golden Knight Super fan, and they've been very good.
Obviously, expansion draft helps with that.

Speaker 1 They get a lot of high-profile guys that some reason weren't one on their team. Then they come together like an island of Misfit boys.
Misfits, baby. And then they absolutely crush it.

Speaker 1 So it hasn't been the most fun time to be a Penguins fan, but I do appreciate the fact that Sidney Crosby is going to be getting a lot of flowers, you know, over the next probably season or two for a lot of things.

Speaker 1 Same with Ovechkin. I'm happy Ovie's getting all the flowers that he's getting because anytime the Capitals were playing for what, the last 15 years probably, must watch because Ovi's playing.

Speaker 1 And Penguins, same thing. You might not even know hockey, but you'll see 87 flying around.
It's like, hey, that guy's fucking everywhere.

Speaker 1 And Ovie and Sid both would fight, you know, not scared to actually scrap, which I

Speaker 1 absolutely love. Hockey's in a good spot, AJ, even though the Penguins are not.

Speaker 7 I mean, just to play for 20 years in the NHL is unbelievable. And then the fact that he's averaging a point per game over that whole time, like, yeah, the guy, what do we talk about?

Speaker 7 Like, consistent success in professional sports is like the most difficult thing to,

Speaker 7 I think, put together, especially as a team, as an individual, and what Sid has done. Yeah, like, there'll never be another like him.

Speaker 7 Like, how he carries himself, everything about him, it seems to be pretty special.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I got massive respect for the way he's operated. Fully committed to hockey.
Fully, fully committed to hockey.

Speaker 7 And any hockey dude you ever ask, though, sorry to cut you off.

Speaker 7 I'm the hockey mark.

Speaker 1 If I meet a hockey guy i'll ask him like is sid really that good and every one of them is like he's probably better than what you think like he is that good aj's brother-in-law jack johnson stanley cup champion uh i think he's his hockey career nhl career how long how many years he's he's with the columbus blue jackets still i think his 20th year yeah exactly so and he went to he went to shattuck with sid and he's like no sid from day one has always been the man yeah professional i remember he got drafted to the pens and then they had him walk around la or whatever and he's 18 years old and they're doing like an interview like showing a picture of every other sports like for you know like I think they showed LeBron James I think they showed like maybe a rod or something like that I think they showed a couple other and then Sid was standing there and then he'd be like you know this is

Speaker 1 no

Speaker 1 hi i'm sydney crosby number one overall pick i'm supposed to be the next lebron james and then the mother he does you know he actually lives up to it and uh what a good lad for pittsburgh we appreciate you sid

Speaker 1 good for hockey uh Speaking of sports that we don't normally get the opportunity to cover as well, you know, the NBA has been very good to us, AJ. The NBA has been very good to us.

Speaker 1 I think our friendship with Tyrese Halliburton has obviously escalated that because I have felt very invested in the Pacers, okay?

Speaker 1 I have enjoyed watching the Pacers have success because I would like to see Tyrese Halliburton, TJ McConnell, Pascal, Coach Carlisle. I'd like to see those guys have great success.

Speaker 1 And the city loves, the city shows up for them. And they went to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Speaker 1 So I'm like very invested in the Pacers having success, which has brought us into the NBA, I think, a little bit. And then obviously a little conversation happens.
Sure. Okay.

Speaker 1 Just so happens to be coming into town to play the Pacers. He comes in, does his thing.
We appreciate the hell out of him. I am a Caucasian.

Speaker 1 I am a Caucasian male. It was an honor to talk to him as a Caucasian male.

Speaker 1 That was a very cool thing. Thankful he came on our show.
Obviously, the conversation has had a lot of reactions and everything like that.

Speaker 1 And we're thankful for everybody chit-chatting about something we were a part of. But mostly,

Speaker 1 LeBron was the man. He was the absolute man.
So nice to us. Blessed us.
We're very, very thankful for that. But he had to go play the Pacers then that night, you know?

Speaker 1 And so now

Speaker 1 I'm in an interesting predicament. I'm like, wow, probably a billion views if you're just to count everything that has been ripped, clipped, sealed everywhere.

Speaker 1 Okay, probably one of the biggest biggest thing we've probably been a part of, you know, in this whole thing happens and uh that night playing against our friends like our uh our team and he has two points in the first half and they're talking about worst game since 2010 for him and i'm thinking to myself oh no we are going to be known as an nba curse he's coming up on 2000 straight 10 point games so that was on the line as well and tyrese halliburton earlier in the year comes in here does a shooting thing goes on like a month through yeah so i'm sorry oh no literally the guy who's called the king we just talked about he for the first time talks some of his shit he's having the worst game he's ever had this is not good good that he gets a game winner against the Pacers.

Speaker 1 So I'm a little bit torn. You know, I'm a little bit torn.
I'm like, thank God. He got a double, double and a game winner.
That's the only thing that needs to be said. Double, double, game winner.

Speaker 1 Day, his, his conversation. Then I felt bummed about that guy because I saw that shot and he just hit a game winner and it was a whole thing.
So then the next night comes around.

Speaker 1 Complete opposite takes place. You know, basically Pacers go crazy.
They're playing in DC and the Lakers lose to the Chicago Bulls on a last second shot from an Australian guy.

Speaker 1 But whenever you talk about bouncing back from a walk-off happening against you guys in your house and then having the greatest game that the franchise has ever seen, most points in the history of the Pacers last night, 162 points, most assists in the history of the franchise last night.

Speaker 1 And then obviously most points scored in this season of the NBA. That's an all-star game number they put up against Washington after the LeBron James walkoff.

Speaker 1 So this morning, I just asked Tyrese Halliburton if he could send a video about the last couple days from his perspective.

Speaker 14 What's up y'all? Pat asked me to record a video. I don't know why I'm doing this at this point because I don't know if he's a Laker fan or a Pacer fan but it's still love.

Speaker 14 Past couple days have been pretty crazy. Laker game was crazy.
The crowd, the environment was awesome.

Speaker 14 Back and forth game. We came back from a big deficit.

Speaker 14 You probably blame me for the jinx a little bit. I've been saying all year that I have yet to be gamed in the NBA.

Speaker 14 And of course, LeBron's the guy to do it. And of course, it's the same day as the LeBron Versation, which is good for the program.
Congratulations to you fellas. Thank you.

Speaker 14 And then the next day, I have to go to Washington on a back-to-back, set the franchise record for points, set the franchise record for three-pointers. The rim was just big.
Guys couldn't miss.

Speaker 14 First, second, third unit all played well. So it's pretty crazy.
And that's just the great part about the NBA.

Speaker 14 When you have a tough game and you have a back-to-back, you can kind of wash it off and get ready for the next one.

Speaker 14 So we'll take it. And now we got to get ready for OKC.
And those guys are really good team. So, got to be ready to go.
Hopefully, Pat and the boys are still Pacers fans. Appreciate you guys.

Speaker 1 Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Speaker 1 We are. Okay.
And he said, first time I've never been gamed before. That's walk-off, buzzer beater, calling game, you know, which is what Braun did to Tyrese.
Never happened before. He actually,

Speaker 1 I think, said that in a press conference afterwards. What was going through your head? Well, that's the first time that's ever happened to me.
And

Speaker 1 of course, it's this guy and uh i

Speaker 1 the reaction to the lebron versation from the basketball world and from the media world and from the fans world was so cool watching the game winner happen you know literally that night was like okay we're not a jinx okay that's good news we are not a jinx that's good news bad for the pacers but then for like Tyrees and the rest of the NBA, I think everybody watched the convo.

Speaker 1 And I think everybody was like kind of pumped about it. Like, thank you for talking about the NBA in the way that you were talking about the NBA and Let Us Do us.

Speaker 1 And then Tyrese and the boys go bananas the next night. And then LeBron James is on the complete opposite side of it.
Yeah. Where a couple of mistakes late and then a half court shot goes in there.

Speaker 1 It's like, wait a second. Maybe the NBA is awesome.
You know, maybe the NBA isn't the shithole league that some people think it is. You know, maybe the play on the court isn't a nightmare.

Speaker 1 Maybe the players aren't all prima donnas. Maybe the guy who has been talked about that way after our, I mean, hour and 15 minutes is a long time.
Yes.

Speaker 1 That is a long time to chit-chat with people you don't know. Like he doesn't know us.
And we're coming from a different angle. A lot of people say, we're not in the basketball world, yada, yada, yada.

Speaker 1 It's like, exactly. We're coming from a complete different angle of conversation.

Speaker 1 I'm sure he got to relive some stuff, but it's like, he was incredibly cool to us, like very nice to us, chit-chatted with us, open about us.

Speaker 1 I assume there's situations out and about where he's not necessarily as kind.

Speaker 1 Like maybe in public, like things have happened where he hasn't been perfect in the last 27 years, but we talked to Tyrese. Love Tyrese.
Braun came in here. He was awesome.

Speaker 1 Maybe there's a lot of perceptions about the NBA that aren't necessarily true. Maybe is what I'm saying.
Maybe just from my experience. And are we living a different experience?

Speaker 1 Yeah, LeBron James watched me here the other day, of course. But like four hours.
We were all very surprised. I think we were all very surprised about how he was.

Speaker 1 And I try to tell that to Tyrese every single time. I'm like, well, you're league, you guys.

Speaker 1 Soft as shit anyways. He's like, no, what do you, no, we're not.
Like, we are, that is not true. I'm like, yeah, it is.
I've been told it's true. That's what I've been told.
You're soft.

Speaker 1 Well, Well, you got pinky. And he was like, well, actually, finger and hand injuries are a big deal.
Okay. For mascara.
It's like, okay, all right. Okay.
Okay. Okay.
Okay. You know, so it's like,

Speaker 1 I'm pretty excited that we're potentially a part of a time where we're learning like,

Speaker 1 maybe this league isn't just what we. potentially thought it was or have heard it was.
And if it wasn't, maybe they're trying to change into a being. And like, I appreciate what they've done for us.

Speaker 4 The NBA is awesome. The NHL is awesome.
College basketball is awesome. Golf is awesome.
All these things are awesome. It's just from August to February, there is something more awesome.

Speaker 4 So during those times, we look at them differently.

Speaker 4 But then when you get it into the scope of light when football is not being played and all we're watching is NBA and college basketball and stuff like that, we're like, oh, these things are awesome.

Speaker 4 It's just, you know, from August to February.

Speaker 1 Football is king, baby.

Speaker 1 And the numbers say that. The ratings say that.
I think the sport itself is always going to have that because what the sport is.

Speaker 1 You know, introducing our sport to new people, like Scottish people who have fallen in love with another sport, this is their second sport.

Speaker 1 Like, maybe it takes a little bit for everybody to fall in love with the sport, but I think they're seeing growth, especially after how much time has been in there, more exposure, learning the rules, learning the pace, learning what's possible in places.

Speaker 1 Like, in America, that's already all built in. So it's like,

Speaker 1 I think the sport is a great sport, first of all, for entertainment and to pay attention to. But it's like, you're right.
NFL is king. And I think we always come from that perspective.

Speaker 1 and then uh we might say some things that aren't necessarily as good about these other leagues at times get caught up in the moment yeah get caught up in the moment but what we're learning the more we learn about something the more we like it that's weird it's weird isn't that weird it's still like with the nfl like you guys you guys have connections with damn near every team you know and we are an nfl show so like by this point like you wouldn't get a player that would be like oh i don't know what the pat mcvey show is you know like everyone is aware of what we do.

Speaker 2 And you guys know a lot of these guys. Like, that was always the big thing.

Speaker 2 It's like, we need to hear from these players because anytime we get a hockey guy on the show, which is far and few between because they don't do a whole bunch of media, those guys are always awesome.

Speaker 2 And you said the thing about the bubble where it was like they were deciding whether or not they were going to play or what was going on. And, you know, it was basically like, hey, is LeBron playing?

Speaker 2 Yeah, he is.

Speaker 1 Okay, we're all playing.

Speaker 2 So I wonder if a situation like that where LeBron comes on and he does an interview with us where, you know, like we don't know him at all. He doesn't know any of us like, and he was very comfortable.

Speaker 2 You wonder if it does kind of trigger something in a lot of these other guys to be like, hey, maybe I can do, like, I can sit down and do an interview with someone.

Speaker 2 Like, and I can let people know a little bit about more about me. So it's not just the only thing they're seeing is, you know, and again, I think the back-to-back stuff gets blown out of proportion.

Speaker 2 But like, oh, this is a star in this game. And he played tonight and he's not playing tomorrow night because of load management.

Speaker 2 Like, hopefully that opens up a lot of guys' eyes eyes where it's like, hey, I can go sit down and do an interview and let people know a little bit more about myself.

Speaker 1 And what I've learned with our show, AJ, and it's not great, is you're going to get killed if you come on our show.

Speaker 1 There's going to be people that are going to kill you because you're going to say stuff on our show that's probably hasn't been said before, you know, because we're asking questions from an angle that probably haven't been asked before.

Speaker 1 So there's going to be some people that hear some things potentially in a manner or

Speaker 1 context that they've never heard before. So there's going to be times to bash.
Like there is that side of it. But the reactions I saw, a lot of people like, you know, I didn't know LeBron.

Speaker 1 I might, I didn't like LeBron, but knowing a little bit more about him, it doesn't seem like that bad. I understand where, like, that type of stuff.

Speaker 7 He was super likable.

Speaker 7 I told you, like, he was very likable, very comfortable. And also felt like he's at the point in his career where he's not worried about everything surrounding.

Speaker 7 Like, Kobe got to that point where Kobe was just, he was just honest, I felt like towards the end of his career where he was, when he would talk. And I appreciate it.
I loved it.

Speaker 7 I thought it was great.

Speaker 7 And some people might not like that but i think the majority of people that actually listen to be like yeah i at least respect for this dude is coming from and i respect what he's doing yeah he's a human i think you know i think that is uh

Speaker 1 that's what you need to know you need to know they're a human and that they're related i think he was very relatable too yeah and obviously there's gonna be people who say nah he was it and i saw i think i'll kick had i'll kick had a headline that said uh some four swear words or something something in unfunny interview it's like okay so you put unfunny in a headline okay I'm sure we go back in there and find some things that are laughable.

Speaker 1 Definitely. I like that, but I appreciate that you have to put it's unfunny in there so we all understand your thoughts.
We get it. Okay.

Speaker 1 Like, so there's been a lot of people, obviously, in the media that didn't appreciate some of the things. And they,

Speaker 1 hey, as it was happening. Yeah, we kind of knew that might be the case.
We understand that. And if we were on there, we understand that.

Speaker 1 But it was like, also, we learned a lot about LeBron James, I think, and the way LeBron James operates. And I don't like to toot our horn much.
Okay. I don't like to do that.

Speaker 1 I think this show show stinks. But there's a lot of people like kind of upset at LeBron for doing it on our show.
If other shows could have done that,

Speaker 1 would have happened. Right.
So like maybe we are good at some things. Like maybe we do have an ability at some.
Not everything, obviously. Obviously, not everything.
I completely understand that.

Speaker 1 But like we're pretty good at talking to people. We enjoy talking to people.
Like it is kind of, it's kind of the whole essence of this show is we enjoy talking to people. So it's like,

Speaker 1 hopefully there'll be a chance for that to kind of be understood that LeBron walked in here with no teleprompter, no scripted questions, which is how we operate, always will be, always

Speaker 1 have. That's kind of, that's just how it goes.
And we had no idea where that was going to go. No clue.
But as one thing leads to another,

Speaker 1 it's like, as we're in the middle of it, we're like, it feels like LeBron's just having a conversation with us here. Like this just feels like he is very comfortable.

Speaker 1 And in the middle of it, it was so cool. It was just like a cool feeling to have.
And then he takes a picture with us and he's 14 feet. Yep.

Speaker 1 So tall. Yeah.
So

Speaker 1 right? I saw a lot of people say they like LeBron now.

Speaker 2 Yeah, there was quite a bit of that.

Speaker 1 A lot of people saying they like LeBron now. And I feel like we did, like, I think that's good for sports as a whole because this guy's been famous for 30 years.

Speaker 1 And I feel like we learned a lot about him.

Speaker 2 And I did see a lot of, maybe not necessarily like, oh, I like this guy now, but like, I used to hate this guy and be a hater just to hate. And like now I at least respect him a little bit.

Speaker 2 You know, like I might still be a fan of another team, but I respect him now.

Speaker 1 And with that being said, you're allowed to feel that way. Yeah.
Like you're allowed to change the way you feel about something.

Speaker 1 If there's new evidence given, you're allowed to, oh, and evolve your opinion. Let's go, society.
Let's go, society. Ain't that right, AJ? Feels like we're there.

Speaker 7 Yeah, I think truly smart people do. When they're presented with new information about certain things, they are able to change their opinion on things.
Okay, good.

Speaker 1 Good news. You want to know my opinion on this guy that's joined us?

Speaker 1 Goat.

Speaker 1 Already. It's going to happen.
It's only his second year in the mages, but he's already on the cover of the show, one of the greatest video games in the history of video games.

Speaker 1 Yesterday, he struck out seven.

Speaker 1 Obviously, he had a no decision against the Miami Marlins on opening day, but he was the opening day ace for the Pittsburgh Pirates, former national champion with LSU.

Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, stallion Paul Skeens.

Speaker 1 How are you doing, man?

Speaker 15 Doing well. What's up, guys?

Speaker 1 Hey, sorry about the loss, the no decision.

Speaker 1 Legitimately, I know there's a lot of games left, so you can't get caught up on one particular game, but opening day is a big deal, especially for you.

Speaker 1 Sorry the game ended that way, but how did you feel?

Speaker 1 And is there a different feeling now as an opening day starter as opposed to coming out of college, doing triple-A, then getting caught up middle of the season? How does the body feel?

Speaker 1 How's the arm feel? And where are we at as this season starts, brother?

Speaker 15 Yeah, I mean, body feels good.

Speaker 15 Definitely good to get back out there, get in front of, you know, full stadium again.

Speaker 15 At the end of the day, it's just baseball. So,

Speaker 15 you know, AAA, college, the big leagues, like, it's kind of all the same.

Speaker 15 Hitters change a little bit, but execute your pitches and they're out. So

Speaker 15 it's kind of how I'm looking at it.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's talk about your pitches. You added some pitches this offseason.
It was a big topic of conversation. Paul Skeens got better this offseason.
Oh, yeah. Look out, okay.

Speaker 1 The big throw the ball hard guy has added some more shit to his arsenal. How much of that did you get to use yesterday? And how confident are we with every single pitch?

Speaker 1 And will we add pitches during the season?

Speaker 15 Yeah, I mean, confident with everything. We didn't really use any of the new stuff yesterday.

Speaker 15 But yeah, feeling good with everything. Maybe, maybe we'll add some stuff.
Maybe we'll take some stuff away during the season. We'll see.
It's kind of just the game will us.

Speaker 1 Yesterday, when you're down in Miami and you said Fool Stadium, and it's just baseball, it's just in there. That game ends.
Are you thinking about that game at all? Do you watch film of that game?

Speaker 1 Do you like what is the process whenever there's 162 of these things and you literally just wrap up number one of the season?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 15 Really got to figure out something that works over the full 162.

Speaker 15 Not just when it's going good or bad.

Speaker 15 I haven't watched film yet. I'll I'll do that today.

Speaker 15 But I got basically a day to

Speaker 15 think about

Speaker 15 the game yesterday. And then the next few days

Speaker 15 I'm going to prepare for my next scouting, basically.

Speaker 1 Go ahead, AJ.

Speaker 7 Do you have a, when it comes like scouting your your future opponents, do you have a book of all the the hitters that you may be facing? Do you like how do you consume all this information?

Speaker 7 I would assume the coaches are giving you about each individual batter you'll be facing.

Speaker 15 Yeah, I mean, at this point, it's kind of cool because I've faced a fair number of

Speaker 15 the guys that I'm going to face before. So there is a little bit of a book on what I've done in the past, but also, you know, like I said, there's a few-day process to prepare for the next game

Speaker 15 and kind of take it slow, do chunks, you know, each day, look over the hitters, all that.

Speaker 15 And then go out there and pitch my game, basically.

Speaker 1 Okay, so quarterbacks like recall blitz packages or disguises from earlier in their career. Obviously, you're very early in your career right now.

Speaker 1 But as a hitter's coming up or in the middle of an at-bat, are you thinking about a previous time that you faced this guy? Or is that all pre-pitch with that guy?

Speaker 1 Is there anything happening in the middle of a at-bat where you're audibling or changing or seeing something?

Speaker 1 Is that something that takes place in pitching? This is literally coming from somebody that has no idea about baseball.

Speaker 15 Yeah, I mean, all the time.

Speaker 15 Because

Speaker 15 you can

Speaker 15 look at getting guys out, or I look at getting guys out, you know, the first time through

Speaker 15 and trying to save pitches for the second and third time through a little bit.

Speaker 15 It doesn't always work out that way.

Speaker 15 So

Speaker 15 you don't want to show them all your stuff all the time, but you know, you're going to, I faced, I faced the Cubs four times last year.

Speaker 15 I'm going to have to figure out how to get those guys out, you know, three to four times a game, all four times I pitch against them. So there's definitely going to be some overlap there.

Speaker 1 Okay, so let's talk about a thing that happened yesterday. I think there was somebody on first and third,

Speaker 1 one out, I believe. It was 0-0.

Speaker 1 The one score ended up happening on this at-bat, I think. You were throwing, because Ty is sitting right next to me.
Ty loves baseball. We're watching it.

Speaker 1 And Ty thinks you're going high heat just to blow it right by the guy. Like, he's going to go high.
Instead, you were throwing some breaking shit, I think, to try to pull a double play there.

Speaker 1 After he fouls off like four or five of them, is there a thought like, okay, now we bring that, like, are you playing that with the catcher in the middle of that, like to keep him guessing?

Speaker 1 How are those decisions made? Is it you signaling to him, him signaling to you? What is the kind of breakdown? Because that at-bat was fascinating.

Speaker 1 It was like a very, it was a good joust, it felt like, between you, the catcher, and the batter at the time.

Speaker 15 Yeah, I mean, we both, the catcher has a pitch comm and I have a pitch comm, so I can basically tell him what I want.

Speaker 15 And he, you know, tells me what he wants.

Speaker 15 So, and then, and then we have a lot of conversations before the game. Uh, you know, Joe's catching me yesterday.
He knows me really well. I know how he thinks.

Speaker 15 Um, and so we can kind of, you know, skip some of the like intermediary steps of like, you know, okay, this is, you know, what we're thinking.

Speaker 15 And we kind of just know what each other's thinking a little bit, a little bit more than,

Speaker 15 you know, probably you guys watching at home, basically.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'd hope so. That's good chemistry, I see.
That's good chemistry because you're playing like poker. You're playing poker with that batter, right? The batter's trying to guess what's coming.

Speaker 1 That is what's happening in there. As I'm trying to learn about baseball, I'm trying to figure out like the app, the batter is trying to figure out what pitch you're throwing, right?

Speaker 1 That is kind of the reason why tail is such a big deal, and the garbage cans are such a big deal. That's kind of the game, you not giving it away, and them trying to figure it the fuck out.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 15 yeah, I mean, yeah, that's a that's a really cool, good way of putting it.

Speaker 1 I'm going to get a read on you by the end of this season.

Speaker 1 I'm going to get a read on you. I'm going to try my best.
Ty has a question for you, Paul.

Speaker 2 Paul, going into the season, a lot of analysts are picking you to win the Cy Young and bringing up the question of, hey, could this guy set the single season strikeout record?

Speaker 2 Obviously, last year you had 170.

Speaker 2 383 is a lot, and you were dealing with limited pitch counts in certain games last year. Is that something this year?

Speaker 2 I'm not saying you go into the year thinking like, hey, I'm going to set the single season strikeout record, but as you kind of get into things more, are you still hunting strikeouts?

Speaker 2 Or are you trying, like in that situation Pat's talking about right there?

Speaker 2 Like, are you trying to maybe think about like limiting your pitch count more and like inducing more ground balls and stuff like that, as opposed in years past where it might just be like, hey, I'm going to try to set this guy down so that you can go deeper into games?

Speaker 15 Yeah, I mean, the strikeouts will come.

Speaker 15 I think

Speaker 15 because you look at my game yesterday, I think I was in two strike counts like 14 times, 14 or 15 times, maybe 13, and I had seven strikeouts. So

Speaker 15 you get into two strike counts, you're going to get strikeouts.

Speaker 15 Those will come. We were, you know, that first and third

Speaker 15 situation with one out. A strikeout's great.
A double play is even better because it saves you pitches.

Speaker 15 I think that's all, you know, the art of pitching. So

Speaker 15 the single season strikeout record is great.

Speaker 15 Making the playoffs and winning a World Series is even better. And that happens

Speaker 15 from throwing more pitches and

Speaker 15 being on the mountain for a longer period of time.

Speaker 1 Okay, so let's talk about that, what you just said there, because winning a World Series as a Pittsburgh Pirate is a hilarious thing to hear if you're from Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 But your entire preseason messaging here has been the complete opposite of that. AP Tone, Jens or Legend, has a question for you.

Speaker 4 Yeah, Paul, I appreciate you kind of had some comments about the 2013 wild card game against Cincinnati.

Speaker 4 PNC only holds 40,000 people, but I think 500,000 people were there that night, according to stories that everyone says it. And you gave respect to the guys that were on that team.

Speaker 4 And Kutch is obviously still one of your teammates, was probably the only one still left on that team. But you said, like, that should not be the bar or the standard for this city.

Speaker 4 The standard should be World Series.

Speaker 4 Is that the messaging kind of going into the season? Or what is the message in the locker room to start the year?

Speaker 15 Yeah, I mean, that's obviously something we look at because that's,

Speaker 15 you know, what I basically meant when I said that was,

Speaker 15 you know, if this is, if this is what they're going to show up for a wild card game, like imagine how they'll show up for a World Series game

Speaker 15 in Pittsburgh. So that's kind of the

Speaker 15 mindset behind that. And,

Speaker 15 you know, it's, it's.

Speaker 15 to win the division.

Speaker 15 That's, that's, that's been the messaging all spring and that's the messaging now. And,

Speaker 15 you know, we have the opportunity to do that.

Speaker 15 You know, got to win today, got to win tomorrow, and, you know,

Speaker 15 win each day after that. But

Speaker 15 it's a cool opportunity.

Speaker 1 You guys are going to be 161 to one. We get it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I understand. Open in Miami got to take an L there, I guess.
Let's win 161 straight as we head into the playoffs as the number one seed, and I'm sure that matters in baseball. I would assume that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, home trade field advanced. Home trade advanced.
Okay, good. It does matter.
I know a lot about baseball. I get it.

Speaker 1 I understand the the ins and outs of it the day to day but what you just said there about the world series imagine the boats oh behind pnc park there in that river just bopping over dead bodies to get back there i mean at that thing you wouldn't even it would be it would be packed up people on the bridge i mean the city would be upside down and i think the city just appreciates the fact that you're like hey the city like deserves it like no pirates say that you know going into the year the conversation around the pittsburgh pirates is always like another year ownership's just going to try to make money and our best players are going to traded away.

Speaker 1 You're the first person and you are the first person who's been there who's a guy. And I know you don't like to hear that and all that, but you are the guy.

Speaker 1 And for you to say like, let's go win this thing, that's a

Speaker 1 rally cry, brother. You should be, Pittsburgh loves you and for good reason.
Bruce has a question for you.

Speaker 3 Yeah, Paul, I know there was a lot of offseason talk about the addition of the Mariano Rivera Cutter, and we didn't really see a ton of that on opening day, but the two seam 98, 17 inches of horizontal break, absolutely spicy.

Speaker 3 Have you made a conscious effort to focus on adding movement with the velocity instead of just, you know, cranking that four seam up as fast as you can?

Speaker 3 And, you know, what is going through your head while you're painting that thing fucking high outside corner like that? It's got to be the best feeling in the world.

Speaker 15 Yeah, I mean, my four seam naturally runs. So some of the pitches you guys saw might have been four seams that got tagged as cutters.
So

Speaker 15 sorry, sorry to ran on the the parade there but uh did throw a couple

Speaker 15 good question though good research good question did throw a couple two seams uh and and uh it has i mean it it's been good um

Speaker 15 splinker was really good yesterday so i didn't have to throw a ton of of two seams but uh

Speaker 15 yeah i mean it's you know constantly just playing around with everything um and and when it goes right it definitely feels good So when you're in warm-ups and you're doing that thing with the fucking

Speaker 1 thing, you know, and then you're doing the things with the thing.

Speaker 1 Fucking footballs yeah and then you're throwing footballs corn maw all that and then you you you finally queue country roads still are we still queueing country roads yep yep always

Speaker 1 hell yeah hell yeah banger when you're going out there and you're starting your first pitches I assume you know what's good that day. Like, is there a reason?

Speaker 1 Like, if there's more humidity in the air, like you might go to another pitch? Like, when do you find out what is your shit?

Speaker 1 Like, you said the Splinker was working pretty good right there, so we didn't need a lot of twos. When do you find that out? In mid-game, or is it like warm-ups?

Speaker 1 You kind of know what it's going to be and who's going to show up in your pitch count?

Speaker 15 Yeah, a little bit of both. But funny thing about warm-ups, sometimes you got to just get the bad ones out of the way early and then it ends up being really good.

Speaker 15 So can't put too much stock in warm-up, in warm-up throws. But I mean, really the first inning of the...

Speaker 15 first inning of the of the game um and the hitters will tell you what what's working or not when you hit that little

Speaker 1 you because you're super humble

Speaker 1 but you do have a little sauce whenever that thing hits the whenever that thing hits the mitt and uh you're fun to watch brother you're donating a hundred dollars for every strikeout yet again to the gary sinese foundation like you did last year last year you had 170 strikeouts it ended up being 17 000 from you others joined along myself included raised over a hundred thousand dollars i do believe doing it again this year uh a hundred dollars per strikeout you can match Paul Skeens like we will be doing yet again.

Speaker 1 Why the Gary Sinise Foundation and why are you choosing to do this again, brother?

Speaker 15 Yeah, I mean, for one, it's a veteran and first responder

Speaker 15 charity, a charity that helps veterans and first responders, which is,

Speaker 15 you know, basically being an Air Force guy

Speaker 15 and seeing the impact that it's had on my life and my family's life.

Speaker 15 You know, it's

Speaker 15 it's something that I feel I have to do. So

Speaker 15 that and it's a good foundation where, you know, the money that you donate to to the group is going to go toward toward helping people. So

Speaker 15 there's not a not a ton of pluff. Yeah, that's a

Speaker 15 that's a that's a big smile there, huh?

Speaker 1 Yeah, but that fireman, firefighter stash. Oh my God, you look right at home.
Yeah. A little taller than, I think most, you know, because that's why your head's up there at the roof.

Speaker 1 But boy, you look, you look right at home there in South Baldwin.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 15 Yeah, South Baldwin.

Speaker 15 took a visit over there and uh got to toot the horn everything it was uh it was a good time did you get the hose out you get to use the hose you get to use the hose i didn't no they they you got to draw the line somewhere with that kind of stuff you can't you can't give a ball player a hose yeah but what if you got those uh remember those firefighter races those ladders yep where they're sprinting yeah threw those ladders

Speaker 1 they climbed it up then they pulled it did it again we need to see you do that i mean you really want to commit to this we need you on the speed ladders with the firefighters and uh we appreciate the hell out of what you're doing for the city and how you're giving back through success.

Speaker 1 170 strikeouts, about half a season with a pitch count where he had a perfect game, I think, going.

Speaker 1 Is that no hitter or perfect?

Speaker 15 No hitter.

Speaker 1 Okay, you do remember. If it was perfect game, you would be like, it's not.
I'm going. Yeah, really.

Speaker 1 Ball stays in my hand, bro. But it's the MLB.
We can't wait to play with you in the show as you're a cover guy now. And thank you for everything, Paul.
We'll see you soon.

Speaker 15 Awesome. Yeah, I appreciate y'all.

Speaker 1 Hey, tell the lady we said hello. Tell the family we said hello.
Tell Pittsburgh we said hi. And let's go 161 straight here.
Here we go. Okay.

Speaker 15 Yes, sir. Love it.

Speaker 1 Love it. Ladies and gentlemen, Paul Ski.
Hey, Paul.

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Speaker 1 So pissed they lost yesterday, I said. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So mad that that was scheduled ahead of time.

Speaker 1 I bet.

Speaker 1 We did send over a, hey, don't have to.

Speaker 1 He's like, no, no, no, we're good. We're We're good.

Speaker 2 It could have been different if he would have got like shelled, but like he pitched good enough to win.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he uh he's got a little sauce. Like when that thing hits it, you see a little pot.
There's like a little, how you doing? There's a, you know, I, I, it feels good.

Speaker 1 He's not a complete robot, is what I'm saying. He does have enough robotic qualities that are great to be, uh, you know, front man, organization man, number one guy in the entire league.

Speaker 1 He has enough of those robotic qualities. Like, hey, what are your hobbies? Uh, napping, I guess.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 in between

Speaker 1 baseball stuff

Speaker 1 what do you uh

Speaker 1 what do you think about baseball it's the greatest sport of all time okay uh how do you feel about working love working yeah i love working getting better i think i owe it to everybody to work my hardest and become the best i can possibly be okay you sound like a robot that was kind of planted here to be a baseball pitcher that is what you're thinking and then you see him do a little shit and it's like hold the phone down in there there's a dog and there has to be and i think at the pitching position, what a perfect guy to lead baseball kind of going forward, Ty.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, same deal. His, his stuff is, you know, there, I wouldn't say there's a whole bunch of guys who, if you're not a fan of that team, they're like must-watch in terms of pitchers.

Speaker 2 He's definitely one of them. And even, you know, like Diggs has said, like, the Pirates, and that's kind of, that's, that's what they do.

Speaker 2 They did that a lot yesterday where he pitches great through, you know, six innings or seven innings, and then somehow the bullpen comes in and blows it.

Speaker 2 But when you have a guy that throws that hard and his stuff moves that much, like he's one of those guys where it genuinely does feel like if I watch him pitch today, like he might strike out 20 guys.

Speaker 2 And there are very, very few, maybe, maybe like one or two guys who are like that in the majors.

Speaker 1 What an absolute dream for the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. Hopefully we take advantage of it.
Ladies and gentlemen, Johnny Snow is a friend of the program. He's from Indianapolis.

Speaker 1 He currently plays for the the Bengals. He won two Super Bowls with the New England Patriots.
Ladies and gentlemen, fresh off of the Cincinnati Reds' opening day parade,

Speaker 1 Daddy Cairis.

Speaker 1 Thanks for having me on, man. Thanks for coming, dude.

Speaker 5 An Indy landmark.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you'll be sitting over there if you want. Sorry about the close quarters.

Speaker 1 Good air forces. See you.

Speaker 1 Great Air Forces. Sick chests.
Let us there. Oh, thank you.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I do like the gold and the hair. Yeah, it's a good idea.
Let a little cheese out, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, let them know you still got it.

Speaker 4 Heck yeah.

Speaker 1 Microphone's muted, I believe. I hope.
Unless you just can't speak. You look great.
Thank you. There we go.
So do you, playing weight? Is this playing weight? Is this playing weight right here?

Speaker 5 I'm like probably 304 right now, so probably about 10 more pounds.

Speaker 1 You look unbelievable. Thank you.

Speaker 1 I mean, you look great.

Speaker 5 We're a little lighter in the offseasons, offseasons, you know.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we remember the milk story. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, you got to put all I get a lot of questions about that.

Speaker 5 People think I can't actually do it, but I did do it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but that's kind of the thing. We learned immediately afterwards.
And for those that don't know, Teddy in high school, I think ninth grade, 10th grade. Yep.

Speaker 1 Ninth grade and 10th grade drank a gallon of milk every single day because he needed to get bigger.

Speaker 5 You need to get bigger. I was too slow.

Speaker 1 Your dad said this. My dad said this.
Yeah. Yeah, your dad, NFL guy.
Yeah. Football guy.

Speaker 1 So dad in NFL looked at old Teddy, freshman, sophomore year of high school, and said, but I don't know know how to tell you this.

Speaker 1 You're too slow and you're too small to play any other position other than offensive line. That's it.
And to do that, you're going to have to gain weight.

Speaker 1 So you chugged a gallon of milk every single day for two years straight, right? And then we asked you if you think it worked and if you needed to do it.

Speaker 1 And I think your immediate answer was probably not. I think puberty would have helped out.
Do you think it is a big piece of your story, that entire thing? And do you still carry it into today?

Speaker 5 I don't drink as much milk. I do think it was fundamental in that crazy amount of weight gain in that period, but I don't think you would need to do that to gain that much weight anymore.

Speaker 5 Just protein shakes. Protein shakes, just a lot of calories.
I mean, that's when I turn it on, you know, we got work in a month. You know, I up the calories, get up to 315, and then report to work.

Speaker 5 What do you do?

Speaker 1 Are we doing a lot of protein there?

Speaker 5 Are we just eating? A lot of protein, a lot of like, you know, late-night snacks. Try to get a thousand calories in before bed.
Uncostables. Yeah, I got like...

Speaker 5 They got these beef patties at Costco, Frozen, money.

Speaker 1 What do you do?

Speaker 5 You just microwave it up.

Speaker 1 And then we're just housing those right there.

Speaker 5 Housing those right there.

Speaker 1 We putting cheese? What about a sweet tooth? You got a sweet tooth?

Speaker 5 You know, I I don't.

Speaker 1 You don't have a sweet tooth?

Speaker 5 Not really. I mean, maybe some candy every now and then, but yeah, that's probably would help me if I had more dessert.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but whenever you're done,

Speaker 1 not having a sweet tooth is good news, not bad news. That is, that is.
I have a sweet tooth, so anytime I try to lose weight, any diet I'm on, that is always the problem.

Speaker 1 Because I'll get late night, 11 o'clock.

Speaker 5 Late night night.

Speaker 1 Maybe we're touching the clouds a little bit.

Speaker 1 Hold the phone.

Speaker 1 Are there any cookies here? No, but DoorDash actually can bring me McDonald's soft-baked cookies. You can get three of them, six of them, maybe even a bucket of them.
That's 11.30.

Speaker 1 This is seven minutes away. Express order.
Do I want that? Yeah, I do. That's my issue.
You don't have that issue. You're going to be like Marshall Yonda when you retire.

Speaker 5 Hope so. Or Joe Thomas.

Speaker 1 Beast. Beast.
Or Andrew Whitworth.

Speaker 5 Whit looks great.

Speaker 1 He does.

Speaker 1 Okay, so before we get into a full conversation with Teddy about the Cincinnati Bengals, his life, and these hat sales to raise money and to make the world a better place, we have to send you off of ESPN.

Speaker 1 We'll continue on ESPN Plus, Disney Plus, YouTube, and TikTok Live. TikTok's still going.
Did you know that, Teddy?

Speaker 5 I did not.

Speaker 1 They were going to have to sell it, and they were going to shut it down. That thing survived.
It did. Thrived, some would say.

Speaker 5 A lot of people are making money off it. Good for them.

Speaker 1 Will you watch any of the college hoops tonight?

Speaker 5 I'm going to Tennessee, Kentucky tonight. Okay.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So are we.
Let's go. We'll see you down there.
We'll see you down there. Let's enjoy the hoops.
Let's enjoy the NBA. Let's enjoy the NHL.
And we'll see you back here for Overreaction Monday.

Speaker 1 It's going to be spectacular. Have the greatest weekend of all time.
Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice and might change their life.
Okay, they're out of here. Let's talk about your team.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Everybody's good money. Yeah.
How do you feel about it? You got to be pumped about it. This is what Cincinnati Bengals fans, I think, have been hoping for forever.

Speaker 1 A team that spends, a team that's all in. Now we got T, Jamar, Joey, and then Trey Hendrickson.
They're saying they're going to try to keep him around there as well.

Speaker 1 You enjoy what's going on, I see.

Speaker 5 Heck yeah. I mean, we're keeping our best players in-house.
I mean, that's a big strategy for winning in the NFL is developing high picks into good players and then retaining them.

Speaker 5 And I'm really happy for those guys. Those guys work hard.

Speaker 5 Those top three, I mean, that makes us a very serious offense.

Speaker 1 Okay, so let's talk about the amount of drama, controversy potentially around these contracts. Feels like Cincinnati has had in the past these types of situations, and they've ended differently.

Speaker 1 I mean, you can go the way back to Carson Palmer. Carson Palmer said, I'm going to quit if you don't get me out of here.
Instead, they keep the team.

Speaker 1 How much of the chatter in the locker room is like, what does the future hold for us? Or do you guys just worry day to day?

Speaker 1 You can't really focus on like T's situation or Jamar's or Trey Hendrickson's situation?

Speaker 5 I think it's going to be a huge plus that we're not having like the hold-in with Jamar and just, you know, so there's not that periphery distraction. Overall, it's not a big deal.

Speaker 5 I would say in an NFL locker room, but it can, when it, when it builds up like that, it can be a negative.

Speaker 1 It got real loud every offseason. Yeah.
And yeah. This was the first time Joe, I think, was healthy during training camp.
Yep. And you guys still started a little slow.

Speaker 1 And then you obviously make your run, you're lurking. How do you describe last season? And like, what is kind of the mentality going into next year?

Speaker 5 Well, I think not making the dance two years in a row. I mean, the pressure's on us.
I think everyone knows that and is taking it very serious. I was, you know, checked in with them yesterday.

Speaker 5 A lot of guys in there grinding.

Speaker 1 Okay. Yeah.
Yeah, because you were over there for the parade. For the parade, yeah.
How was that? It was awesome.

Speaker 5 Since he's unbelievable. It was funny because we sell hats and, you know, started at one and everyone was together, really energetic.

Speaker 5 And then just in Cincy just got progressively a little bit sloppier and sloppier throughout the day. By 4 p.m., it was a pretty funny crowd.

Speaker 1 A little bit of a runaway. A little bit of a runaway over there.
Yeah. You guys had a little bit of a,

Speaker 1 you tied one on a little bit yesterday, maybe. We had a night, yeah.

Speaker 5 We had a great night. Cincey's fun, man.

Speaker 5 Good people. Great people.

Speaker 1 Great fan base. Unbelievable.
They're expecting you guys to win, I think. Always.
Everybody outside says, can you build a roster with paying that much money to those amounts of players?

Speaker 1 Do you think so?

Speaker 5 I think so. I think if you look at the Super Bowl Champion Eagles, have a lot of money out to a lot of different positions.

Speaker 5 So I think, you know, obviously it's going to come down to managing cap, which I, you know, kind of confuses me overall. I wouldn't say I'm a cap scientist.

Speaker 5 Because some of these teams is like, does it exist for them? So

Speaker 1 I'm not a cap scientist.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 5 You have to, you have to maneuver that with that. But I think, you know, we have a lot of good players in the building, and hopefully we get some get some good rookies that contribute.
And let's go.

Speaker 4 It's a big year.

Speaker 1 Big year. AJ has a question for you.

Speaker 7 Yeah, Ted, what do you think camp's going to look like this year?

Speaker 7 I know you guys have struggled getting off to a hot start, and they always talk about what you can do to change up camp to try to, you know, switch things up in your favor.

Speaker 5 do you have any idea what that might look like i don't yet i think that obviously we have to change something though uh with you know these 0-2 0-3 starts so i think maybe spring might look a little different too i don't know um you know what that's going to entail but i know that probably some more playing time perhaps in the games uh these preseason games for the starters

Speaker 5 um just to i mean that would be like probably the easiest thing to change and try to try to switch up that early season mojo how do you feel about preseason activity?

Speaker 1 That's such a, every single, it's not a conversation in reality until we get to it. And then whenever we get to it, there's always the debate.

Speaker 1 Well, are they going to start, is it rust or is it rest with the players? And then there's different strategies.

Speaker 1 Obviously, there's teams that are top heavy with their money and they can't risk an injury, which could potentially be the situation you guys are in.

Speaker 1 So they kind of, and then there's teams like the Chiefs. The Chiefs spend a lot of money on the high end and they play as well.
And then there's teams that opt none of it.

Speaker 1 What are your thoughts on it? You've been in the league a long time now.

Speaker 5 Yeah, so I mean, I have kind of interesting perspective because, you know, early on in my career, first four or five years, that preseason four, PS4 was basically my last chance at a resume.

Speaker 5 I was, you know, had to go make the team in this game. So I would play, you know, 85 to 100% of the snaps.

Speaker 1 No tapping out.

Speaker 5 No tapping out. I mean, that was like, you know, the, obviously.
Preseason three was traditionally like the dress rehearsal and then every fringe guy, all the starters rested.

Speaker 5 And then that was our game. So, you know, I do appreciate what the preseason means to a lot of guys going out there and fighting for a job.

Speaker 5 It's been nice to sit down for a few later in my career, but I'm a football player, though. So if coaches tell me to go play,

Speaker 5 we're lacing them up.

Speaker 1 Is there something to the first time seeing full speed, even if it's not reality? I guess in joint practice, do you guys do joint practices? Yep. Who'd you do them with?

Speaker 5 We did them with the Colts this year. Okay.
And the Bears.

Speaker 1 Have you done them in the past? Yep. Fight every time?

Speaker 5 You know, I think the second day. So I think a good rule would be one day of joint practices because I think it's good work.
That second day,

Speaker 5 it gets a little sloppy in my opinion.

Speaker 1 You think it's because people watch film and think, oh, that was a little on buddy? Or do you think it's they're sick of hitting the same person?

Speaker 5 I think it's a little bit of both. Obviously, you might have a vendetta from a one-on-one the day before.

Speaker 5 You know, it's hard practices too. So guys are tired now.
And I mean, I think some guys probably start fights sometimes to get kicked out.

Speaker 5 I've seen that happen a few times. You know what?

Speaker 1 This is a long week. What period are we in right now? We're in period four.
This is a 20-period practice. It is 100 degrees.

Speaker 4 100 degrees.

Speaker 1 I'm on the team. I know I'm on the team.
Yeah, why not a little one-two?

Speaker 5 Hey, bud.

Speaker 1 A little one-two. Go to the shower.
Hey, bud, we want to work here a little bit? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right.
I'll keep my helmet on. You two.
Bye. Boom.
Bye. And then all of a sudden, it comes in.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, you're right.
I didn't even think about the gamesman ship happening in that.

Speaker 5 There's a ton of it.

Speaker 1 And you can handshake afterwards. Good work.
Hey, nice job. I'm good.

Speaker 5 The worst is, though, when you don't get kicked out, and now, I mean, we're completely exhausted.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, fighting.

Speaker 5 From fighting, and we're going to line it right back back up.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's. Oh, you think you're getting?

Speaker 1 No, no, no, no, no. Red zone.
That's awesome if Zach does that this year. Ted gets into a fight day two.
It's 105 degrees. I heard you.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I know what he's doing.

Speaker 3 Logan Wilson last summer, right?

Speaker 5 Did you two get into it? We did get into it.

Speaker 5 And that's, you know, I think there's a certain amount of healthiness to that on a team, just some chippiness and edgy in camp because camp is a pretty insane month of your life.

Speaker 5 I mean, you're either going to have a job at the end of it or not. And everyone's fighting for, for, you know, 50 spots out of 90 guys.
So I think it was good.

Speaker 1 But it was.

Speaker 1 I think I'm a little bit more worried if nobody on my team fights. And we say that every year.
AJ, isn't that kind of our big takeaway?

Speaker 7 Yeah, it's got to be a couple of them at least.

Speaker 1 Because there is, and you can tell us if we're right or wrong, but there's a lot of media that cover the fights. And they're like, we want charges pressed.

Speaker 1 There's people that are like, this is disgusting. And yada, yada, yada.
That's actual how some people feel about it. Really? Yes.
That is actually talking about. We then we come on.

Speaker 1 These people are, you know, in the same world that we're in, sports media, and they're talking about all the things that could happen.

Speaker 1 And obviously, you can't be throwing helmets and yada, yada, yada. And then our dumbasses come on and we're like, this is going to happen.
These are, actually, kind of want it to happen.

Speaker 1 If nobody on your team does it, then you almost have more fear about your team going into the season than if everybody was to fight. You want to say, whoa, more so than go.

Speaker 1 And we talk about that and people think we're the dumbest people on earth. But I think that's real.

Speaker 5 I do too. I think if you believe that you're totally missing a huge context and cultural part of football, I mean, this is a violent game and guys are out there.
We're hitting each other.

Speaker 5 It's four weeks straight of just us. And like you said, it's better to want to hold your athletes back than to have to rally the troops every single day.

Speaker 1 Do you think enough dogs coming through society for football to continue to be?

Speaker 1 How many years have you been in the league?

Speaker 5 10, going on 10.

Speaker 1 Congratulations. Thank you.

Speaker 1 Thank you. Pretty crazy.
Very good. Frank ahead and Chud and Callan's a little bit.
Yeah, big time dreams, obviously. It's in the family.
But do you think there is

Speaker 1 a dog, a supply for the NFL to continue to go the way it is?

Speaker 5 I do. I think a lot of kids are playing good.
I think the seven-on-seven culture could get a little bit interesting.

Speaker 5 I think that youth football could use a refresh as far as, you know, maybe no pads or helmets till seventh grade. Let's let everyone touch the ball.
You're a bigger kid in second, third grade.

Speaker 5 They just put you at right guard. I mean, of course the kid doesn't love football so much.
He's just grinding at right guard.

Speaker 5 Why wouldn't he want to go play basketball or something else, rugby, to touch the ball, be part of the offense?

Speaker 1 Interesting. I didn't even think about scaring people away from being offensive linemen.

Speaker 1 Maybe just let them happen to figure that out through a little bit of a development of the sport.

Speaker 5 Everyone, you know, like a rotating flag football type thing where you can, you know, you get a couple rips at QB in the game.

Speaker 1 You can spin it. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 5 Yeah. Oh, yeah.
I won Sam Hubbard's foaling tournament two years ago.

Speaker 1 Oh, really? When he's throwing the football at the pins. At the pins.
How far of a throw is that? 10 yards? 15 yards?

Speaker 5 Yeah, I think probably closer to 20.

Speaker 1 Did you roll it or is it a throwing? No, you throw it. Yeah.
Are you trying to find a pocket? Are you trying to, is it like standard?

Speaker 5 I mean, yeah, standard bowling, trying to go right down the middle, really.

Speaker 1 Sure. Chain reaction.

Speaker 5 And the owner of the Foaling Warehouse has a really interesting technique. He like launches it up like a pop shot and he's really hard to beat.
He's very good player.

Speaker 1 So he backspin?

Speaker 5 Yeah, he like launches it up almost like a cornhole, a really high cornhole toss.

Speaker 1 And he hits the front or the middle?

Speaker 5 Hits the middle and just like bounces around and knocks pins down. That's changed.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 yeah. You ever do duck pin bowling? We did done at Pins, Indie Pins Mechanical.
Oh, yeah. Have you ever done that?

Speaker 5 Oh, yeah. I've been to Pins many times.

Speaker 1 This might be my new favorite place, to be clear. It's a cool spot.
Very cool. I mean, when you have the whole place,

Speaker 1 it's awesome. It is awesome.
All the pinball. What is it? Pinball.
Pinball, yeah. Yep.
Pinball machines, the jam. Jenga.

Speaker 1 Every game, a little sit-down soccer thing that I busted Gumpy's beer, you know, like just so many of these little games. It was a good time.
The duck pin bowling really had Ty on the ropes. Big time.

Speaker 1 Ty was pretty boozed up trying to figure it out. Tough to figure out.

Speaker 2 I'm going to figure it out by the end, but you know what I mean? It's all about the chain reaction.

Speaker 1 You got to just throw it as hard as you fucking can and hope every pin will

Speaker 1 pins. Yeah.
A couple of the employees, we were asking for tips because they had more employees than we had people there. Okay, because we ran the whole place out.

Speaker 1 Normally it's massive events, and they didn't really have to do anything. We were like, We'll just come here.
We'll just kind of sit right here. We got this whole place.
So we started asking them.

Speaker 1 They were a friendly group of people. And we said, like, what is the, what's the thing with the thing? And all the guys said was chain reaction.

Speaker 1 And that's all Ty needed to hear. Yep, that's right.
So Ty, for the rest of the time, was just fucking throwing this ball as hard. Where's his chain reaction? For two hours, it was unfixable.

Speaker 1 Fouling or folding, I've never done before.

Speaker 5 It's really fun. I actually really like it because I think it's a good...

Speaker 5 barometer for some of your like guys you know like can you throw a football like let's see you throw it in front of everyone it's a good barometer

Speaker 1 how should we be talking to you going forward can you throw a ball or not? You don't have to catch it all either, right? Nope.

Speaker 5 But you have to play defense if it bounces and you have to, other people's balls can also knock your pins down. If there's a wild game going on down there and it flies in, you got to keep your board.

Speaker 1 Wow. Wait till you get introduced to Thunderbucks out here, buddy.
All right. It's a pretty active.
This is an active game. Got to play defense.

Speaker 5 I like what you've done. A couple changes since I was here two years ago.

Speaker 1 Yeah, is there? Has there?

Speaker 5 Your dad came up outside. He was like, what are you doing here? I'm like, oh,

Speaker 1 he's building a deck. Yeah, he's building.

Speaker 5 Yeah, he's building a what, a gazebo out there?

Speaker 1 Yeah, on top of the deck. Yeah.
Obviously, it's small enough so we don't have to license it. He looks good, man.
Dude, he's a bloodhound.

Speaker 1 You know, they said, like, those dogs, those bloodhound dogs, if you put them on a scent, they'll go until they like die. Yes.
Like, that is just like what they are. That's Tim McAfee.

Speaker 1 Soon as we decided that we were going to try to maybe put somewhere right outside that we could sit that isn't just grass that kind of gets all muddy. He was like, I do a deck two days.
What's that?

Speaker 1 I can pull a deck up in two days. He's drining out there.

Speaker 1 He is grinding. He's a bloodhound.
This guy almost died out there yesterday. I think I got to take him on water.
I'm like, why don't you sit down?

Speaker 1 Sweat dripping all over him, limping because he pulled his calf on St. Patrick's Day.
He's like, nah, I'm good. He's pouring concrete for 10 hours yesterday or two days ago.
Unbelievable.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's a weapon. Absolute weapon.
I do appreciate the fact he came off to your car and was like, what's going on here? What are you guys doing here?

Speaker 5 Yeah, like, I'm on the show, man, but you must be Mr. McAfee.
I mean, you guys are almost indistinguishable.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 he's awesome. Yeah.
He is

Speaker 1 jocked too. He's in here one day.
He is. Yeah, he's absolutely jacked.

Speaker 5 He's moving the wood around out there. I'm impressed.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's got three guns on him, too.

Speaker 1 You're lucky. You got the answer right.
Yeah, I got you. You got the answer right.
Ton has a question for you.

Speaker 4 Yeah, that you guys have had some kind of movement on the O-line with guys leaving and coming in the last few seasons. And now you have it again.
Kappa's leaving.

Speaker 4 I mean, Trent Brown, I believe, has gone as well. But at least all five projected were on the team last year.

Speaker 4 Does that make it a little bit better than a guy coming from the outside and trying to join you guys for this year?

Speaker 5 I think it's always, always, you know, O-line is such a continuity position. So, whenever you can retain guys that have worked together and had a lot of reps together is a positive.

Speaker 5 You know, I'm excited for Lucas Patrick coming in. I think that's a great signing.
He's another year 10 guy, been solid everywhere he's gone.

Speaker 5 And, you know, I think it's going to be great, healthy competition for a couple of guard spots. I think there's a lot of guys who could take it.
I think that's healthy for a team.

Speaker 5 And I'm excited to work with, you know, the guys that are there.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Who's so you lose Lou and arumo any other members of the coaching obviously the entire defense a lot of defense yeah anybody on the offense or um we got a new online coach scott peters okay how do you feel feel great i've talked to him i haven't met him in person yet um

Speaker 5 was gonna was gonna call him and meet him up last night but i was like ah i'm gonna we're just hanging after after after

Speaker 5 after opening day but no sounds great man i think that'll be that'll be great for everyone to get you know a new a new voice a new you know way of working i think that's always a positive or can be um you know i had a lot of respect and love for Frank Pollack, but and then lose in town here.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
DC pumped that. Very pumped.
I was happy for him. Yeah, me too.
I don't, your guys is, that was an interesting storyline of last year because we all have respect for Louis Anarumo.

Speaker 1 We all know that Louis Anarumo is a good DC, but it felt like the defense was potentially, you know, and now you have the sack king on that defense as well.

Speaker 1 It's like, how much better can the defense get? I guess that is the big question mark. I guess that is the big deal over there.

Speaker 5 I think it'll be great.

Speaker 1 I mean, was it injuries we didn't pay attention to on defensive defensive side?

Speaker 5 I think there's always an element of that. I mean, obviously,

Speaker 5 you know, we were in some high-scoring one-score games. I think the narrative is a little different if we pull out at least three of those.

Speaker 5 So, you know, that's really what it comes down to is just wins and losses. So, I mean, I think that the defense would have taken less heat had we been able to pull out some of those one-score games.

Speaker 1 In-season hard knocks.

Speaker 1 Not bad. Okay.

Speaker 1 I mean, first time ever on it? Yeah. Not bad.

Speaker 5 Barely noticed. Well, I don't know.
And we had the quarterback thing, too, and barely noticed that. I think those guys they did a great job i mean it really was not infringed at all congrats nfl films

Speaker 1 oh i thought it sucked i think it was good too to show everyone i think yeah i thought it was good well-produced show i thought so too whenever they were showcasing how i think you guys were playing steelers it was a first episode and they were literally going from tomlin's messaging on wednesday morning to zach's messaging on wednesday morning and it was crazy how much they mirrored each other but then also like oh this is what they're thinking this is what they're thinking going in yeah and then the studying of the players and then Tomlin, I think, says the GP, like, what they're saying about you right now is this.

Speaker 1 And then Hilton was like, this is exactly what it is. It was, I think that was a view that nobody's really got to see before.
Just like the offseason. Did you watch the offseason one of Giants?

Speaker 1 I didn't.

Speaker 5 Poor, poor Giants for that one. But

Speaker 5 I don't think anyone, no one wanted to do it this year.

Speaker 5 No one was, everyone was like, no, we can't have that.

Speaker 1 Yeah. What you guys did.

Speaker 1 Career assassination. Yeah.
Potentially for two guys. But that's also the first time we ever got to see it.
Just like it was the first time we ever got to see two teams preparing for each other.

Speaker 1 Watching Zach work was interesting. Has he always been like that?

Speaker 1 Has Zach changed since you've got to know him? Because obviously he was a young head coach when he gets the gig over there, but it was a showcase of the head coaches for a lot of that hard knocks.

Speaker 1 I don't think he's changed much.

Speaker 5 I mean, he's obviously, I think he's delegating a little bit more now and being more of a head coach and involved with the, you know, in all facets.

Speaker 5 But yeah, it was great to see. I love the division aspect of the show.

Speaker 1 Did you expect the Ravens to have that castle that they had? I did not even know. No, I didn't know.
I did not.

Speaker 1 That thing showed up on a drone. I'm like, so sick.
That thing looks really cool. That's a country club.
Yeah, it did.

Speaker 5 That's an underrated part of the NFL, though, is how cool the facilities are, I would say.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's talk about yours.

Speaker 5 See, I love our cozy facility. I love it.
I think for me, it's been really cool in my career. This is the first time that I've got to work downtown.
Because New England was an hour south of Boston.

Speaker 5 Miami was about 45 minutes north. So, I mean, you're pulling up downtown early morning, people in their pea coats smoking sigs.

Speaker 1 And I just love the coffee in hand.

Speaker 5 Yeah, just driving downtown for work like everybody else. Okay.

Speaker 1 Do you like walking across the street to the practice field? I don't mind it.

Speaker 1 Did you see that one video? Was it a Hyundai? Yeah. Oh, that came close.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 5 I know.

Speaker 5 Watch it. Watch it.

Speaker 1 I know. You need to watch that.
Especially we got a $40 million wide receiver. Let's make sure we're.

Speaker 5 No, they got on the traffic detail pretty hard after that.

Speaker 1 Tighten it up. Tighten it up.
AJ has a question for you, Ted.

Speaker 7 So, Ted, I see that you are on the executive committee with the NFLPA. Like, what's your expanded role? And is there any kind of changes you're going to try to implement?

Speaker 5 Well, I was very grateful for my peers to elect me as

Speaker 5 an executive committee. Thank you.

Speaker 1 Congratulations.

Speaker 1 For he's a jolly good fellow. For he's a jolly good fellow.
For he's a jolly good fellow.

Speaker 1 What'd you know about it?

Speaker 1 That's what they said when they elected you.

Speaker 5 we didn't quite chant. It was the fourth day of our Maui conference, so I think everyone was getting a little.

Speaker 1 Oh, you guys are in the four seasons out there at Maui? You were at

Speaker 1 Grand Wailea. Okay, yeah.
Really nice spot.

Speaker 5 We're keeping it stateside from now on.

Speaker 1 Oh, really? I think so. I didn't know if we were upping the fees and then maybe taking the trip to fucking Japan.

Speaker 5 It's been a standard fee, and I've been, you know, I told the guys too, I've been really impressed since how, when I joined the union about year two, when I really started getting involved, the player perception of the NFL PA is much more positive now.

Speaker 5 Come on.

Speaker 5 I think Lloyd's done a great job. Obviously, JC Treder has really fundamentally elevated our union, and Jalen Reeves-Mabin has done a great job as president now, too.

Speaker 1 Okay, so we're saying that morale is high amongst the members.

Speaker 5 Felt high in Maui.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 5 we had a productive meeting, though. And, you know, to be fair, we are in the middle of a 10-year CBA, so it's not, we don't have too many pressing issues.
But to get to

Speaker 5 AJ's question, you know, I think that they've been onboarding me. I've been in a few meetings with them.

Speaker 5 You know, I think, you know, what we're going to do on the EC is kind of delegate roles that people are interested in and just kind of do a light investigation into things and kind of see if we can expand some of our processes.

Speaker 5 How are the guys feeling? My big thing is I'd like to educate.

Speaker 5 our membership more on like just the just just just the standard things so that you know big FAQ packet that you get in your locker like a little almost like a pocket constitution but for our CBA and our rules and policies, just so everyone can reference it.

Speaker 1 CE, chief executive committee, and then

Speaker 1 FAQ frequently asked questions

Speaker 1 down there. Get those out there.
Guys, we'll read those, I'm sure. And I think that is right, AJ? The only thing that is exactly how long is it? Every one of them.
You'll never read

Speaker 1 everybody, which you very much like.

Speaker 7 Make it like 10 pages. Make it 10 pages.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's going to be very small.

Speaker 5 But I think there's just, I get a lot of repeat questions just on a couple, you know, fundamental things of our union.

Speaker 1 So I think if we just you know put it in there can i pitch some ideas yeah let's see them so you guys need to have a public speaking like

Speaker 1 instruction okay because everybody's story is worth money whenever they retire like no matter who they are they can make maybe a little bit of money speaking or turn it into a full-time career where they make a bunch of money i think like providing ideas that can profit like guys can profit off of is like uh something that the nflpa has an obligation to do okay you know because the lifetime insurance feels like that's going to be difficult to figure out you know who's going to do is the nfl going to give that up ever in a cba negotiation hopefully one day they figure out how to make that a marketing thing will the nflpa ever fight enough for that because of all the other shit that'll potentially go against it you scratch you know that's kind of how negotiation goes but i think the nflpa should take time trying to figure out how guys when they retire can continue to profit and not just some guys like i know there's a broadcast boot camp i was denied to it three times shout out to them really yeah i think i'm the first person What a miss.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no shit. Fuck them all.

Speaker 1 Why is that guy kind of contentious towards some fuck you? Okay. The whole thing.
But nonetheless, like, I understand that's an avenue. But, like, public speaking is an actual

Speaker 1 in like content creation. Like, there's.

Speaker 5 I think that that works for every industry, too. If you can be a good communicator, I mean, you can go into any industry and tell your story.

Speaker 1 That's a success. Yes, I think so.
I think that should be something that is.

Speaker 5 So do you think this would be more like a rookie onboarding workshop?

Speaker 1 Or

Speaker 5 anyone can do it at any time.

Speaker 1 But I think it should be something like people sign up for it. You can bring in different like public speakers.

Speaker 1 Like I would probably go whether I'm a public speaker or not, but you could probably pull anybody you wanted to if they were able to work with NFL players and then just set up like seminars on how to set up a speech, how to tell a story, like when you should, how you should approach these speaking fees.

Speaker 1 Because, you know, there's that old adage about the 80% broke, right? That was the 30 for 30. Broke is what it was called.
I believe 80% of professional athletes were broke.

Speaker 1 With the way the world is now and content being king and stories mattering more than ever, if somebody's able to make it to the NFL, their story somewhere is valuable, has some sort of value for it.

Speaker 1 So I think that'd be a cool thing.

Speaker 5 Even maybe like have like a standard studio that you could go and use it in.

Speaker 1 Record it. Yeah.

Speaker 5 Free time. Content creation area.

Speaker 1 Boom. Yeah.
Because I think that is money. Like I think guys can make money on it.
I love that. As opposed to like, hey, we want free insurance, which is always the thing.

Speaker 1 always the thing from like retired guys yeah we want money we want free insurance which by the way should get it We appreciate that.

Speaker 1 But if you can figure out ways for them to make fucking money, I think that could be a.

Speaker 5 I think that is a, that's truly a responsibility. One thing I encourage guys to do, especially young guys, is take advantage of the tuition reimbursement program.

Speaker 1 Definitely.

Speaker 5 I got my MBA while I was playing in the NFL through IU and through our tuition reimbursement program. It took me five offseasons.

Speaker 1 So these are FAQs. These are FAQs.
These are.

Speaker 5 And then I want to, you know, I have like who you call for that and who will get information because we had great people at the PA. You got to submit your forms.

Speaker 5 You got to get a C or above to get your class paid for. I got one F.

Speaker 1 I know. Yeah, but

Speaker 5 accounting. It was.

Speaker 5 Man, and Kelly's hard. Kelly's School Business is not.

Speaker 1 It was not a slouch. It's Mark Cuban month or there.
Yeah. So yeah, I do believe.

Speaker 1 Accounting is effort, too. A lot of effort.

Speaker 5 A lot of effort. And really.
The thing that killed me was some of the accounting equations, they have like the same value, but on both sides of the equation. So that didn't make any sense to me.

Speaker 5 Why wouldn't they just cancel out?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think I could actually teach you guys some things. Yeah.
Yeah, there's some flaws flaws in your system here.

Speaker 5 Better be good at Excel, too.

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah. Better be good at Excel.

Speaker 1 This guy quite a spreadsheet. Phil, yeah.
You're a CFO Phil. He is a Excel spreadsheet fucking guru.

Speaker 5 It's a good trait to have.

Speaker 1 Hey, what is blah, blah, blah, a blah, blah, blah from blah, blah, blah. Then bang, bang, boom, boom, boom,

Speaker 5 right there. Just info.

Speaker 4 In college, I took an Excel class. It was the best class I ever took.

Speaker 1 Really?

Speaker 1 You still, yeah, because you utilize it a lot. Yeah.
It is a great app, I guess.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a beast.

Speaker 5 It's a good program. It's, I mean,

Speaker 5 span the test of time. What's it been around? 25 years? 20 years?

Speaker 1 Yeah, technology's changing. How do you feel about technology in sport right now? Do you wear a Guardian cap?

Speaker 5 In practice, smart?

Speaker 5 You know, I don't think I would wear it in a game.

Speaker 1 I thought they didn't look horrible, but I mean, some of them did.

Speaker 5 You're just kind of raising your hand, like, you know,

Speaker 1 I got it, you know.

Speaker 5 So, but, you know,

Speaker 5 one thing that I'd like to

Speaker 5 maybe test on the Guardian cap would be, you know, it does definitely take away a lot of the impact.

Speaker 5 Now, does it affect your neck differently if two guardian caps hit and then it doesn't let the helmet slide off? Like, it does it catch it. Watch it longer.
So now it's like a drag

Speaker 5 hit to where like, you know, two helmets hit and usually just bounce off or like ricochet.

Speaker 1 Do you feel do,

Speaker 1 okay, so you don't want to say too much about yourself, obviously, in the world that we're in with concussion talk, but let's say after a practice, would you normally have like a soreness or a buzzing or something in your head?

Speaker 1 And then with Guardian Cap on, you feel less of that? Like, how do you judge if the Guardian cap is working?

Speaker 5 I think, you know, the early days of camp is when you really feel like when you first start hitting and those long hitting days when you come off, you know, your head could be ringing a little bit or you're sore and you've taken some hits.

Speaker 5 I think the guardian cap did eliminate a lot of that, I would say.

Speaker 1 Okay, so a benefit we're seeing. It is.

Speaker 5 No, I believe in the product. I think that, you know, we should, I'd like to see with like the drag test or something, but I think overall it's been a net positive for our players.

Speaker 1 AJ, any questions?

Speaker 7 As far as the Guardian cap situation, I think that's very,

Speaker 7 it's true. Like all these New Age helmets, Ted, they build them to look like horrendous, you know, in my opinion, I guess, because they want ricochet shots, right?

Speaker 7 They want you to, they don't want it to, I guess, have like sustained, you know, contact.

Speaker 7 But when it comes to those guardian caps, what if you ever strap two of them on and say, hey, I'm wearing two guardian caps, you're wearing one.

Speaker 1 Two condoms.

Speaker 7 My head's much better. Yeah, just like the two condom thing always works.

Speaker 7 Are you saying we're double wrapped guardian caps yeah yeah what if you what if you double wrap and yeah you're double wrapping he is only a single wrap are you better are you not gonna get cte no that's 60 right so what is they were saying it was 20 yeah yeah like i said so if it's three caps one collision reduces 60 of the impact yeah I'm was it weird though was it it would I think it would look weird but if they had like a supplement for even more I guess I mean was it weird though coming coming out of the guardian cap when you got to the first preseason game whenever when you actually had like oh this is the the contact I am used to like minus the guardian cap was that an adjustment I just I think no not really the guardian cap is really light

Speaker 5 Ours are black though, so it kind of gets kind of hot on your head. I just think I think the film looks better without them because kind of like we look kind of goofy.

Speaker 5 Like my head's so huge and I'm, you know, practice film look that was like the biggest adjustment I had to be. I was like, this kind of looks kind of goofy here, but it works.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but you're saying it works. So that's the only thing about it.

Speaker 5 I mean, you can even feel though, like my helmet from 2016 and to now, I mean, it's a much different weight. Our helmets now are very different.
You like them lighter?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 7 Heavier or lighter.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Heavier.
You like it? It's heavier now?

Speaker 5 Heavier now.

Speaker 1 What? I like heavier.

Speaker 7 I think heavier is better, but I thought they were going lighter for all these new age.

Speaker 5 When I hold mine too, I think it's a stark difference of just like, you know, those...

Speaker 5 rubber square, not rubber square pads, whatever those faux leather pads in the helmet, you know, they wore in 2016. Now I have like the form-fitted, scanned mold

Speaker 1 of thick whatever material that is i i feel that it's much heavier so you got a nice girthy material surrounding your head inside of the helmet scanned to your head you put a you put a sock on your head and then they put you in a head scan what and then your helmet has like your signature on it's pretty cool that is very cool yeah i think that's like racing helmet that sounds like it is like a racing helmet almost because you get form fitting in there form fitting heavier but it feels better more comfortable than the 16 helmet i'd assume yeah definitely not you know sometimes you know when you get really hard, you hear that like sharp ring.

Speaker 5 I don't know if I make sense to anyone, but

Speaker 1 kind of, yeah,

Speaker 1 took that away.

Speaker 5 I haven't knocked on wood, haven't felt that in a while.

Speaker 1 Haven't got a concussion

Speaker 1 in a while. Ty has a question for you.

Speaker 2 It hasn't happened yet, but there's been talks about them outlawing the tush push.

Speaker 2 Now, I'm not going to ask whether or not you think they should, but as a guy who's right in, you know, like kind of the line of fire there, and granted, you guys don't do it a whole bunch with Joe, but what is just your opinion on that entire situation about whether or not, you know, because like a lot of teams are very successful at it, a lot of teams aren't.

Speaker 2 And I think that's one of the reasons they're trying to outlaw it.

Speaker 5 Well, I think that point, with only, you know, one team really being elite at it, kind of validates the point why it would be a good strategy.

Speaker 5 And I have a lot of respect for Jason Kelsey and now Cam Juergens that they do it so much. I mean, that is a brutal.
place to be and they are very effective at it.

Speaker 5 The Eagles obviously train that a lot.

Speaker 5 I don't think that, I mean, mean, I think that would be kind of

Speaker 5 weird to ban something like that.

Speaker 5 No one's been hurt so far, I guess. I mean, knock on wood again, but not too hard.

Speaker 1 You don't have a Guardian kill. Yeah, true.

Speaker 5 But,

Speaker 5 you know, they're so effective at it. I mean, other teams have tried it.
I'm a big believer in just the traditional QB sneak.

Speaker 5 I think that that, you know, is an effective play and obviously an important play to be able to execute. And they've taken it to a new level.
So

Speaker 5 I wouldn't want to see that banned. You just draft that kid from Florida that's coming out.

Speaker 1 Yeah, 370 or 380 or 40. I thought it was 460.
He started at 370, 380, whenever he was a freshman. Now he's 460.
I remember him coming to Florida.

Speaker 1 I did not know that he is already eligible for the draft. They've given him the ball.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. They've given him the ball before.
He's 400 pounds. Good luck.

Speaker 5 Yeah,

Speaker 5 hopefully he's slow.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 1 he ran up real slow forward.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but if he's on your team, he's also running right over your back. That should be a good, yeah, that'd be a good time for a nice center in the middle.

Speaker 5 Another thing, like, how Philly does it, too, is, I mean, obviously they have a lot of great players, but if you watch their tush push, like, Maelata is like coming a little bit behind and then adding his big self in there, too.

Speaker 5 They've strategized it out and made it into, you know, something that has been kind of unstoppable.

Speaker 1 They're saying the momentum currently is that they're going to ban the tush push. That is, as a report coming out of the NFL league meetings down there with the competition committee.

Speaker 1 And I think there's a chance that they ban it on the precedent of like former special teams field goals. Remember, they used to push? Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 The linebackers used to go get the D-tackle, and then they banned that for that particular play. And I think back in the day, there used to be pooling and pushing a little bit more that they banned.

Speaker 1 I don't know. It feels like that plays.

Speaker 1 I'm worried about that play's existence after next week's meetings. Like, legitimately, I think it's probably.
Okay. They can do whatever they want.
Well, look what they did with that extra point.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Look what they did with the extra point.
Yeah. Whenever that became like a night.

Speaker 5 I thought that's been kind of successful, though, to move it back.

Speaker 1 I think so, too.

Speaker 5 I think we probably hit a little bit of a kicking regression this past couple years as far as percentage-wise, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, the kickers are doing just fine.

Speaker 5 I know they are, but I think we went on it. We went on a run there for a while of like really expecting all kicks to go in.

Speaker 5 I think a lot of kickers took some heat, really just regressing back to the mean of what a professional kicker does.

Speaker 1 I think that's good analysis. I think it's not easy to do that.

Speaker 5 Not easy to do that.

Speaker 1 You're not on field goal team anymore, right? No, always on field goal team. Is that the worst? That's the worst kick?

Speaker 5 No, I scoring points, and it's another snap for player performance.

Speaker 1 Chat the NFL PA on the player performance negotiation. Way to go on that.
A little bonus money at the end. Actually, make up for how much you played versus how much your contract value is.

Speaker 1 Offensive linemen eat normally off of that. I believe anything.

Speaker 5 Young DBs do a lot of good on that. I think we have our first million-dollar PP bonus coming out this year.

Speaker 1 Really?

Speaker 5 Yeah, so congrats. I don't know who it is, but congrats to that young gentleman.

Speaker 1 Congratulations.

Speaker 1 How does that go against the salary cap? It doesn't?

Speaker 5 It does not. No, that's a bonus.
That is out of a different pool.

Speaker 1 So explain what this is. For people that don't know what this is, there is a bonus fund that has been created.
I don't know how long it's been around.

Speaker 1 It's been around since I've been in the league where it matches up what your contract is versus how much you actually contributed. And then they try to make up the value for that in a bonus.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 So it's all snaps-based. It's

Speaker 5 how many snaps you played, what your contract ranks amongst guys in your position, like playing. Um, and that's that's really just about it.

Speaker 5 It kind of, it's a way to incentivize guys who aren't making on a rookie deal to, you know, that contributed 95% of snaps, they get a nice bonus at the end.

Speaker 5 Where the guy making you know, 25 million, playing the same position, same amount of snaps is way less. His whatever weight is in the equation is way less.

Speaker 1 I made like an extra 80 grand my first couple seasons. It's a big check, too.

Speaker 5 Like right in the middle of the offseason, March 15th, like

Speaker 5 saved me a couple times.

Speaker 5 Yeah, bingo yeah yes because we've had a pretty good offseason saved me a couple times early on you don't have you know that much saved up and you know you don't get a check for four months now we get now we get paid on 34 weeks really yep i did not know that that's league-wide yeah i'm pretty sure yeah

Speaker 1 You're pretty sure you're the fucking executive committee.

Speaker 5 Well, I know.

Speaker 1 Well, I don't want to speak for every team.

Speaker 5 I actually voted against it because just because, you know, I just,

Speaker 5 it's my money and I want it now.

Speaker 1 But exactly.

Speaker 5 Then I forgot about it and we had passed it and it was like, you know, mid, you know, early April. And I was like, oh, man, you know, you got a check.
I'm like, oh, nice.

Speaker 1 Yeah, this is not a bad thing.

Speaker 5 We got some cash flows coming in. I thought it was, I was like budgeted out of what I had for the year.
And oh, we get

Speaker 1 another half coming? There's more on the way. Let's go.
That's good news. Yeah.
A.Q. Shipley used to eat off of this performance.
Oh, yeah. Like $200,000, $300,000.

Speaker 1 He used to be so pumped, as he should be. Yeah.
I mean, that was...

Speaker 5 It's life-changing money.

Speaker 1 A million dollars going to somebody else.

Speaker 4 Yeah, sure would the Jets linebacker. Got 1.1.
There you go.

Speaker 1 So you'd wonder, like, Purdy,

Speaker 1 you know

Speaker 1 definitely gonna how did he not get a million bucks yeah what are you guys doing you don't like purdy either qbs must be a little bit i don't know though i uh yeah i like purdy though i'm rooting for him okay i didn't know if you were he sounds like the flpa doesn't want to give any bonuses that's what it sounds like to me no it doesn't yeah it does yeah it does sounds like you're getting downloaded the wrong information right now uh teddy we appreciate you man we'll see you at the game tonight thank you so much always great coming in this is an indie landmark man a lot of guys appreciate that you do the show here in indianapolis so thank you so much.

Speaker 1 Come on, come on.

Speaker 1 10 more pounds until when's everything get started back up?

Speaker 5 April, April 21st, day after Easter.

Speaker 1 Yeah, 4:20 is when the testing starts, right?

Speaker 5 No, no, that's changed now, too. That is uh, you first week of camp is the only time you can be tested for marijuana.

Speaker 1 That's it, it's it all year.

Speaker 5 It's it stop after July 4th, and you're good.

Speaker 1 NFLPA, NFLPA coming through, FAQ,

Speaker 1 Yes, that is. Yes, that is.
Yeah, that's right there at the bottom. Yeah.
Nice little ash fish. By the way, Celebrate America.
Go ahead and light a couple up.

Speaker 1 And then we are done until the end of the first week of training camp as a team.

Speaker 5 Usually put the pads on and you can enjoy a chill evening, fellas.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because

Speaker 1 that becomes an intelligence and discipline test as opposed to anything else. Good work by you guys making that happen.
And good work with Cincy Hat Company.

Speaker 5 Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we Still raising money? Oh, big time.

Speaker 5 Big sales day yesterday.

Speaker 5 You know, we've done stuff in Indianapolis. Right down the street in Lawrence is the village of Marici, and that's where most of the funds have gone.

Speaker 5 And they built a brand new condo building for adults with disabilities. And then, you know, our big goal this year is we're going to bring infrastructure into Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 5 you know, I can't wait to

Speaker 5 announce some of the things we're doing. We're developing right now.
The dev team is rolling, and can't thank the Cincy fans enough for all their generosity.

Speaker 5 Want to make sure there's things in the Cincy community for these people.

Speaker 1 FAQs for the dev team would be

Speaker 1 how long has this been the vision? You know, like you becoming a gap pretty much between two states doing something for a foundation and a mission that you obviously care a lot about.

Speaker 1 Having one built over in Cincinnati is awesome. That has to be dream come true whenever it comes to this type of philanthropy for sure.

Speaker 5 Unbelievable how this has unfolded. I think one of the things that makes it so special is how organic it was.
I didn't didn't set out to sell any hats. I made this hat and people loved it.

Speaker 5 And the volume of hats we've sold has been able to do real fundamental infrastructure change for these people. So

Speaker 5 we're going to go hard forever at it.

Speaker 1 I saw you had a news reporter asking you a question yesterday about your hat. And then he said, you get emotional about, you know, how much you have found, you know.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I get emotional for the Reds. Let's have a

Speaker 1 float in a parade.

Speaker 5 My emotions are flying high right now, brother.

Speaker 1 That was awesome. All right.
Well, I'm sure the Bengals fans are pumped that they have you in the city. Congrats on all the success thus far.
Thank you for making the world a better place.

Speaker 1 Thank you for stopping by. Do you want to do a giveaway of some sort? I don't want to put you on a spot.
You know, you said you could throw a football well, though, because you're. Yeah, let's go.

Speaker 5 I brought you guys a bunch of gear, too. Got you some tanks.
Got you a bunch of hats in the green room.

Speaker 1 Scentsy hats? Oh, yeah. All right.
Well, I mean,

Speaker 1 I'll wear them.

Speaker 5 I'd like to see one on the desk maybe a couple times.

Speaker 1 I will throw it it on there.

Speaker 5 It doesn't have to be a mainstay, but throw it up there.

Speaker 1 You saw the Bengals social media team dunk on me. You see that? I did.
I did. I did.

Speaker 1 That was good internet. That was good.

Speaker 1 They're pretty good. That was really good.
Yeah. That was really good internet.
Now, I will say, the Cincinnati Bangladesh fans, yeah, they're passionate. They are.
I love them. And they love you.

Speaker 1 They'll love you more if you're able to win them some money. Is there footballs down here? Yes, there are.
All right. Teddy, let's do this.
We appreciate the swag that you're going to give us.

Speaker 1 Are you connected over there, your headphones?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 no no no you can get up and move yeah okay why don't you grab one of these balls okay teddy where do you want to throw it into do you want to throw it into that hoop do you want to throw it into that hoop you want to throw it in the net in front of the bear do you want to throw it into a trash can and uh thunder buckets where would you like to put that particular duke that is in your hand right now let's drop it in the bucket in uh in one of these buckets

Speaker 1 i get the whole beer pong i think you should have to call a section of at least is it like the back three

Speaker 1 the front three i'm going to try and hit this front middle one front middle one okay from us so if you're looking at it straight on it would be the left one right behind the front cup if you were looking at it from the front i'm looking at it right in the middle here the row of three the middle one yeah sorry got it yeah this one closest to us right in the middle if teddy Karis is able to bury this ball into that particular bucket right over there we'll give 30 people $500 who repost this say something nice to somebody and put the easiest way to pay them teddy in a sense he hat raising money for a good cause.

Speaker 1 Can he spin it? Too strong, way too strong. Missed all the buckets.
Missed all the buckets. He lifted today.

Speaker 2 Missed all the buckets. Recalibrate.

Speaker 1 Recalibrate. Did you lift today? I did not.
You look jacked, though. Thank you.
Yeah. Are you working out all year round? Do you take downtime?

Speaker 1 No, I mean, I do, like, the start of the offseason, I'll do light lifts, but now I'm grinding in my garage in Florida. Hell yeah.
Yeah, it's fine.

Speaker 1 Hold on.

Speaker 1 Same bucket? Same bucket. That was way too strong.
Recalibrated. 30 people, $500.

Speaker 1 Once again, he overshoots. He recalibrated.
Recalibrate. Sorry, guys.
Sorry, is there any more balls down there? No?

Speaker 4 Yes, there are several.

Speaker 1 Several dukes.

Speaker 1 Let's do a different target.

Speaker 1 Let's do a different target. Same one right here.
Okay, same one on the right side. All it has to do is hit the middle one closest to the stage.
If he's able to do that, 30 people, $500.

Speaker 1 Take a little off or move back, maybe.

Speaker 1 I'm not playing your games.

Speaker 1 I'm done.

Speaker 1 I respect that.

Speaker 1 I do respect that. Good work, man.

Speaker 4 Thanks, fellas. Good luck with everything.

Speaker 1 We appreciate the hell out of you. Thank you for stopping by.
We'll see you tonight. All right.
Have an incredible weekend, everybody. No, hold on.
We're going to hold. Just hold your horses.

Speaker 1 Mike embarrasses now from my throat.

Speaker 1 You play hoops?

Speaker 5 No. Marginally.

Speaker 1 Marginally. You think you can put a basketball in a net hoop right now?

Speaker 7 I bet he does. He does.

Speaker 1 From right here. Stay.
Let's try it.

Speaker 1 All right, Teddy. If Teddy Garris is able to put this basketball into the hoop to his right,

Speaker 1 40 people waiting $500.

Speaker 1 Shot in my life. Come on.
That's right.

Speaker 1 Oh, my gosh. Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 All right, all right, all right.

Speaker 4 It's great because AQ did the same exact thing.

Speaker 1 We knew you were done, and then we got you to do another one so now

Speaker 1 we're just now we're just making fun of me that's that's gonna be a horrible clip

Speaker 2 you almost broke your ankle it's even better you said shot of my life right here

Speaker 1 you're a legend man appreciate you coming by thank you guys all right have an incredible weekend let's enjoy these sweet 16 games tonight let's enjoy the weekend of sport i believe golf is happening scotty scheffler was like 700 through seven yep i don't know where he's at right now houston open houston open so scotty's golfing.

Speaker 1 That should be electrifying to check out as well. We will see you on Monday.
Be a friend, tell a friend something nice that might change their life. It was great to see you, AJ.

Speaker 1 We're in this thing together. Never forget it.
Team on me.

Speaker 1 Team on three. You got anything to say, team?

Speaker 5 Let's go. Big year.

Speaker 1 One, two, three, team. Goodbye.

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