The Pat McAfee Show

PMS 2.0 1303 - Andrew Whitworth, Daniel Jeremiah, Supercross Legend Colt Nichols, & AJ Hawk

March 07, 2025 2h 50m
On today’s show, Pat, AJ Hawk, and the boys chat about other players being released today as massacre week continues before the free agency tampering period begins on Monday, as well as everything else happening around the world of sports including what the Lakers have been doing moving up to the #2 seed in the Western Conference. Joining the show to chat about the Bengals situation with Trey Hendrickson, the Bears revamping their o-line, his career as a whole, his story about Derrick Barnes at the NFL Honors and him now signing a big new deal, and his thoughts on some of the top prospects in the 2025 NFL Draft is Super Bowl Champion, Walter Payton Man of the Year, 3x All-Pro, 4x Pro Bowler, and analyst for the NFL on Prime, Andrew Whitworth. Next, former scout for the Baltimore Ravens, and NFL Network Draft guru, Daniel Jeremiah joins the show to wrap up the combine and give his thoughts on how things will shake out, how he see’s the QB market wrapping up, and which trades make some sense. Lastly, 2021 AMA Supercross 250cc East Champion, and competitor in the AMA Supercross and Motocross Championships, Colt Nichols joins the show to chat about this weekend’s races at Lucas Oil Stadium, and educates everybody about Supercross as a whole. Make sure to subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow or watch on ESPN (12-2 EDT), ESPN’s Youtube (12-3 EDT), or ESPN+. We appreciate the hell out of all of you. See you tomorrow. Cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Full Transcript

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our Humble the Bone, the Thunderdome, on this Feel Good Friday, March 7th, 2025. This program starts right now.
Sports! Our awesome, we're lucky that we get to talk about them every single day, and today will be no different. We have a stacked guest lineup from, you know, the football world, and then also Dirtbox.
Whoa, what? Yeah, We got Andrew Whitworth joining us in about 13 minutes or so. Obviously he is very familiar with everything happening in this time of the league year.
Also can't wait to catch up with him about his TV gig with Amazon on Thursday nights alongside the entire team. And then also a kid that he helped mentor in the big brothers, big sisters program as he was growing up in the league in Cincinnati, Derek just signed a massive deal with the Detroit Lions if you do recall uh whenever Andrew Whitworth won the Walter Payton Man of the Year award he gave a speech and a part of his speech was talking about this lad running up to him after a game acting as if they had known each other forever and Whit had no idea who it was and just so happened to be a kid that he talked to in Cincinnati whenever he was uh donating his time at the Big Brothers Big Sisters program there and uh he ended up making the NFL he didn't just make the NFL now he's getting paid 25 and a half million dollars congrats to Derek Barnes you cannot wait to talk to Andrew Whitworth because obviously everything going on with Trey Hendrickson and everything happening in Cincinnati another meltdown from Bengals fans understanding that they're not going to be able to pay everybody although the Philadelphia Eaglesadelphia eagles were able to not everybody's going to be able to and certainly not the bangles with their trajectory daniel jeremiah will join us in the second hour first time talking to him since combine remember he's the voice of the combine he and rich eisen are the ones that are kind of delivering the goodness alongside you know many celebrities i had a chance to sit down in there uh david spade was in there obviously they're taking a lot of time trying to do the entertainment because it is a golf event watching guys work out.
What is Daniel Jeremiah's big takeaway? We can't wait to chat with him. And then, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to get dirt.
Come on. Hell yeah.
If it's raining a little bit, we'll go to the mud. Supercross is in Indianapolis this weekend in Colt Nichols.
He's the 2021 AMA Supercross 250 cc east champion and in 2023 he was the 450 cc rookie of the year he's won in indianapolis twice this guy's got to be the odds on favorite down at lucasola stadium this weekend and uh we'll be chit-chatting with him and did i say absolutely would love to do this without a proper amount of information certainly is it going to be a great show this weekend in the stadium definitely and am i getting on a dirt bike for the first time in my life today i think so okay ever since i watched that rough riders anthem music video quads atvs wherever you whatever you call it. Dirt bikes going through the middle of town.

You know, you see those videos, it's like, oh, that looks like a good time.

I've rode heavy bikes for about the past 15 years or so.

Both Harley and Indian motorcycles.

Heavy bikes, you know, a little bit of metal on those things.

Hydraulics, you know, that thing's dropping down whenever I get out there.

Now, a little bit lighter, these dirt bikes bikes a little bit less CC but all the back back back back back back possibilities yeah and I don't know how it's gonna go but I asked him guy ride one of these dirt bikes and they said we'll bring one up for you I said boom all right so I think there's gonna be uh some content coming from that it's gonna go one way or the Yeah. And I want to let you know I'm going full bore out there.

Hell yeah.

Okay, I'm going to be wide open on that thing.

Can't wait to talk to Colt.

Cannot wait to chit-chat about,

you know, their sport

that is electrifying

and travels around town to town

and fills up

and sells a lot of seats.

A lot of people enjoy the shit out of it

and it's obviously a great show

because those boys are flying.

And those boys are rubbing.

Oh yeah.

And those boys are putting leg down

and heeees.

Sweet. And they commit their life to this shit.
Colt Nichols' first race was when he was four years old. Crazy.
Four years old was his first time getting on a bike. And he's just committed to it ever since.
And can't wait to catch up with him in the third hour on YouTube, ESPN+, Disney+, and TikTok Live. Currently on ESPN News as well.
Okay. We did it.
The Toxic Table is here at Ty Schmidt and at Boston Conner. Sweet helmet, brother.
What's going on here? Thank you very much. Yeah, look, I mean, this is your typical lake trout.
You know, I actually caught this thing, took it to a taxidermist, said let me get this thing on a hat. You know, make it look like it's still swimming.
Kind of get the tail, get the tail in there with the head still going. Take me to the river.
Yeah, that's what it looks like right now. Yeah, exactly.
Kind of one of those. You want to frame a fish like this.
And I said, you know what? No better place to frame it than right on the top of my head. So it's one of these nice little things that I have.
And, you know, it's Feel Good Friday. Why not make it a Feel Good Fish Hat Friday? I don't know if anybody's ever mounted a fish on their forehead.
Let's go to Ty Schmidt, Big Ten Angler at one point. He said he caught that thing.
What do you think he was doing? Was he doing any tricks? Any slips? Any sleeps? What do you think he was doing to pull this trout out of the lake? I doubt it. I mean, he says lake.
I'm thinking this could have been a stock pond somewhere. Really? Yeah, yeah.
Really? Really? Because we're not exactly, I mean, this isn't, you know, for the layman, this isn't primetime fishing season yet. Still really cold.
What, that is soft. I hate the layman.
I hate the layman. You're only going to see the diehard anglers out there.
What kind of bait do you use to get that thing? You know, a fish hook. Yeah, that's there.
A fish hook on top of another fish hook? Okay. He actually quadrupled it.
He was just dragging it around in water. And he actually, it was like a net almost of hooks that he got that particularly.
He had some hot dogs, you know, a little bit, a little hot dog, but spit in the water. You know, people don't know you spit in that water.
Here comes the trap, you know. What hole did you find out? You knew the spots on the lake? Yeah, you know, you do some research, you know, fishhole.com.
Make sure you spell that right, folks. Don't spell that right at home.
You don't want't want to spell that wrong but that's the thing that fishermen do is as soon as they find a hole they do what they want to report it for everybody else to know yeah big away it's deep dark web another thing you want to spell correctly when you get on the internet but do you want to buy fishhole.com i think you could right now we just searched it is available on go daddy if you would like to spell it wrong it may be for sale fishhole That's good. You spelled it wrong and I'm not going to say how to spell it because if I did then all of a sudden I'm giving out all my best fish holes.
It's our tea in there. Yeah okay so nonetheless the fish looks absolutely uh very normal.
Thank you. And then you got an octopus down there as well.
Yeah yeah that just kind of came together. You know the shirts are typically.
You're a real Aquaman today huh? Well to be honest the the octopus shirt that just came together. holy shit i'm wearing an octopus shirt and i grabbed a fish hat because closet you know i didn't turn the lights on this morning i just grabbed a shirt and let's let's hit the road you know let's get in there now lake obviously is where you pulled that trout of and uh i can respect the work that you have to do uh to get that they're probably good fight from that it was that trout right there it was tough it wasn't just this trout you know that's an alien though in your chest yeah no doubt about it the more we learn about these things yeah the more documentaries and things.
That trout right there. It was tough.
And it wasn't just this trout. That's an alien, though, in your chest.
Yeah, no doubt about it. The more we learn about these things, the more documentaries and things, that feels like that is not from here.
And that might be one of the most sophisticated things that we have, beings that we have. They can go invisible.
They can change. I even saw one put eyes out there.
I mean, it is. Morph.
One became friends with. Yeah, morph.
They go flat into... They're shapeshifters.
Yep. That's an interesting creature down there.
Yeah, not as interesting as the man in My Octopus Teacher, to your point. Yeah, he was trying to bow in that octopus.
There is a chance. He felt like he caught some real feelings.
But finding out that an octopus could be sentient was another completely added... That was a whole other element of these things.
We should be taking care of those. Yeah think those things uh i think they have some powers i try to get one in a can't oh they're smart they're smart enough i get out yeah what if i get big what if i get a massive tank and give it the best life it's ever let's just say i don't i don't even want to ask how expensive it is but let's just say i get a massive tank biggest tank possible can i get an octopus in there what are the chances you get an octopus because these things are sweet and uh they say yeah the octopus will just figure out how to fucking open it will watch you and uh then it'll figure out how to open it and get out it'll be a it'll be a uh it's an uncontam uh can containable uh species is how they sold it to me what? I mean, you can always make the roof electric.
Good luck. Yeah, but it is also.
I mean, you don't want to kill a thing. Well, if you want to teach it a lesson, show it to its friends.
I want to take care of this. Nonetheless, I don't think you should harbor octopi.
No. Is what I've been told.
But if. Tell that to the people in Detroit who are clubbing them over the head and killing them and tossing them on the ice.
Yeah, they need to stop doing it. Believe me, they haven't done it in a while.
No, they need to start doing it so we can win some damn games here. No, you need to take care of those octopi.
Every time I've seen these aliens just get caught through the air and then boom on some hard ice, it's like, does that make your hockey team? People throw hats out there to celebrate a hat trick. I get that.
People throw other things out there. You guys are throwing aliens out on the ice.
Greatest tradition in hockey. That's not true.
Greatest tradition in hockey? What about the handshake line after a playoff? Playoff beards? I don't like that. Playoff beards, though, yeah.
Minnesota State playoff? I hate the handshakes, man. What are you talking about? It's only one time.
Yeah. Don't need it.
Other sports do it on a very regular basis. Hockey's like, in the end, we will shake their hands.
And that's like the tradition, isn't it? Yeah, I guess. I don't eat it.
Other sports do it on a very regular basis. Hockey's like, in the end, we will shake their hearts.

And that's like the tradition, isn't it?

Yeah, I guess.

I don't like it.

That's just me.

Playoff beards, great.

Minnesota high school hockey flow.

Oh, man.

That's a good hockey tradition.

State of hockey.

There was a massive game last night. Pittsburgh in Minnesota?

Yeah, oh, yeah.

And in Pittsburgh, you know, they win.

That's what the hockey team does.

Well.

That's what they do.

That's what they did. One half of the hammer.
Dad. Cowboys.
Tone. Wait a minute.
Wait. What's going on with the cowboy hat, brother? It's Friday.
So it felt good. It felt right.
And like I said, I reserve the right to put this hat back on whenever I want. Okay.
So the first couple days didn't go as well as you wanted to no i thought they went swimmingly uh shout out connor yeah um not like this i was going swimmingly until it all ended quick with a hook on top of a hook on top of it a couple hot dogs come on yeah but no i felt like that's what i used everyone going into the weekends you cowboy up a bit and i needed that in my life so you're a feel-good cowboy i i can respect that boys in the back great work this week thus far let's have a good show today okay big news coming around uh the nfl jordan allen has been uh jonathan allen sorry has been released from the washington commanders obviously captain for that team they're in the middle of a fast rebuild with new ownership new leadership new everything including a new quarterback in jayden daniels jonathan allen now which we thought was going to be one of the pillars of this team for a long long time is now available after being released from the commanders he is just the latest in a lot of dudes around the nfl that have been released this week and uh it'll continue all the way up through monday and even until next wednesday as teams try to figure this out before free agency starts and uh ladies and gentlemen we don't want to do this but it does feel like we are directly in the center of uh massacre week uh AP Tone Jonathan Allen's the most recent one who are some other guys that have been released this week that maybe we forgot about or should definitely know about yeah we thought massacre week may be a little more quiet this year because of the salary cap going up but uh but no it's been an eventful massacre week uh i got a list of guys you know just some of the notables that have been you know part of this massacre week um raekwon davis george fant roy robertson harris davante adams oh no you know then you got you know ray sean jenkins Duvall, Joey Bosa. Oh, no! Jamal Williams, Javon Hargrave.
Evan Ingram. Oh, no! We can't forget Draymond Jones.
Darius Slay, Super Bowl champion. Oh, no! Same team, James Bradbury.
You got Gardner Minshew's out there. Tyler Lockett.
No! No! So, yeah, those are just some of the few to mention. It's been an eventful massacre weekend.
We say, oh, no, because this isn't just a player getting fired. This is a dream potentially ending.
This is a family having to get up and move. This is somebody giving their all to an organization and them being told, we don't want you back next year.
These are tough times. Now, it is the business.
This is the NFL. This is how it goes.
And I think, I forget who was on the show earlier this week that talked about the amount of turnover in a locker room regardless, let alone if it's a big turnover year. It's at least 30% to 40% every single year.
Your roster is going be different because you know the pillars that we know about the big time names that tone stopped on there are going to be there year to year and obviously the team is going to try to build around their brands their images they're going to be the ones that are associated with the team but this is 53 dudes and it is changing on a very regular basis especially at the bottom half let alone what practice squad is now because they were able to open it up to more people and older folks as well so when you talk about people getting cut very normal in the nfl sucks it's part of the business a lot of these guys for the first time in their lives they've been told they're not good enough to make a football team that is obviously a mental thing that can uh weigh on some guys but also it's uh maybe an opportunity to start anew maybe uh go have a fresh first impression in a place maybe try to reproverove yourself. Maybe get into a different system, a little different system, maybe a different building, and have your best football that you've ever had in your entire life.
I saw Evan Ingram, tight end from Jacksonville, who got released. He said, there's no offense to Jacksonville, they just released a dog out into the free agency.
So he's motivated by it, obviously. Jacksonville also made a play by sending Christian Kirk.
Yeah, here he is. It's all love, Jax, but they just love motherfucking dog lists.
Sorry for what's next. Hashtag be easy.
Easy Evan Graham tight end for the Jacksonville Jaguars now available. Christian Kirk from the Jacksonville Jaguars was traded yesterday to the Houston Texans.
Now, it was announced that he was going to be released, and then they do this game where they say, yeah, we're getting rid of him. And unless you want to kind of catch and beat free agency, then you're going to have to do your own thing, do your own deal.
So Christian Kirk out of Jacksonville to Houston and Evan Ingram out of Jacksonville to the free agent market. And there's a lot of big names, a lot of big names that are now available.
It feels like next week's going to be heating up. some of these deals have already been completed uh at the combine so whenever monday opens up and it's the you know the launch of the tampering period and then wednesday is the new year and yada yada yada all that stuff happens there's gonna be deals that are already announced those things are already done whenever new guys get released like jonathan allen how much does that change how much does it rattle some things would love that d tackle on my particular squad yeah trout man Boston Conor yeah that'd be awesome and I feel like because of the d tackle kind of like expectation I think it's Milton Williams from Philadelphia is expecting like an 80 million dollar deal and obviously we just saw Osa get a massive payday so you'd assume something like that might affect the Jonathan Allen but yeah he becomes one of the premier players Oh no master week continues dig just sent in from schultz uh starbucks air sure uh the texans have informed starting guard shack mason that he's being released he started 15 games this past season okay so shack mason goes into the free agency market i mean massacre weeks real yeah yeah we did think with the way salary cap was going up, we didn't think the masquer week was going to,

you know,

be as heavy,

maybe.

We didn't think it was going to be

as many folks,

but instead we're finding out

more money,

yeah,

and we got different ideas

on which way we're going to go.

Joining us now,

ladies and gentlemen,

Super Bowl champion,

Walter Payton Man of the Year,

three-time All-Pro,

four-time Pro Bowler.

He's obviously a national champion

from college.

He had five years with the Rams,

11 years with the Bengals, was the second rounder out of LSU. Ladies and gentlemen, big handsome from Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime and the Witt & Fitz podcast, Andrew Whitworth.
Yeah! Appreciate you, baby. Appreciate you.
I like your wording there, Witt & Fitz podcast. That's correct.
Is that what it is? Is that what it is? It's the Fitz & Witt podcast, but I'm trying to get it changed, Pat. We're in a Yes, baby.
Appreciate you. How you doing? I like your wording there, wit and fits podcast.
That's correct. Is that what it is? Is that what it is? It's the fits and wit podcast, but I'm trying to get it changed, Pat.
We're in a disagreement. That's on me.
Every week I argue with him. We should flip it.
Well, see, if it means anything. You're on my team.
That's what I like. Okay.
Unbeknownst to me, I'm on your squad. To be clear, in my head, there was an eeny, meeny, mony, moe situation happening while I was talking about you.
Is it Fitz and Wit or is it Wit and Fitz? And then in my head, I thought I saw Wit first, but maybe that means I am on your side completely. Yeah, maybe the natural thing is to say the non-plural sounding name first and then Fitz second, you know, because of the Z at the end.
Fitz and Wit's a good name, though. Great show.
Great show, too. Thank you.
You guys have gotten great shit out of there in such a short amount of time. How do you feel? You look amazing.
I appreciate it, brother. You know, just trying to keep it moving, Pat.
You know, I spend my offseason still training like I think I'm playing, I guess. You know, it makes me feel young at heart.
I got four little kids to chase around. So, you know, I can't ever let these boys feel like they're hitting that teenage stage.
They can't feel like they can take pops down. I've got to stay in a dominant position.
You've got to be alpha. If you have a pet orangutan or something, be careful.
Anytime that thing thinks it is the alpha of the house, now you've got to do dynamic. I don't have it as many boys, but I would assume it is a very similar feeling on your end.
Can you tell me about these workouts a little bit? We talked off air. I don't want to air out your laundry.
You can say whatever you want, but these workouts are every day at 6 a.m.? Yeah, yeah. Me and Sean this year decided this offseason we were going to try to connect in the mornings, get some training in.
Sean McVay is trying to, you know, I think he's trying to relive his Miami Ohio days a little bit. He still thinks he can get out there and make it happen out there on the field.
We've been training every morning at 6 a.m. at a gym I have here in Westlake Village.
We actually call it the Village. It's just kind of a mixture of the people in my life and my trainer that I trained with while I was playing.
We've got a lot of guys there. Cooper Cupp and Puka Nakua and a lot of those guys trained still.
Tyler Higbee, Jordan Whittington, we've got guys coming in. So it's fun, man.
I get to be a part of the locker room a little bit still. That feeling you love, man.
Yeah, and they get a chance to train at a place that isn't the facility. You know, you're there all the time, but you get to train with the guys without having to go anywhere else.
That's an excellent opportunity for all parties involved, especially with the camaraderie building that needs to happen for a team to be great. It happens in the offseason.
You said Cooper Cup in there. How's that going with everybody? He's cool with everybody because he understands the business? Yeah, I think obviously it's nothing.
In your career, man, anytime you kind of see a door closed and you feel like something's going to change, I think it gets emotional. Obviously, what Cooper's meant to this franchise will never change.
He's made all our lives better and brought a freaking Super Bowl championship here in an insane season he had. But Cooper's also driven in the passion of who he is every single day.
So he trains, you know, I watched him yesterday with Puka Nakua and Jordan Whittington and those guys, you know, giving them some insight of route running and some of the things that he, you know, emphasizes when he's doing things. It's not just about the football the football field to him man it's about the legacy of who he is as a man and the impact he has on guys around him and uh he's always been wired that way so i can imagine whatever team gets him they're going to be excited to have a guy who's not only going to be a great football player but what he's going to be able to teach and bring to a locker room and a group uh is going to be really special because he's like having a coach on the field from his ability and really from the mental part of the game what he understands.
Okay, so he's training, you said, as of today. So he's in good shape, body feeling good, everything, all systems go.
He's shirtless in there every day. He's just letting the guys know, I still got it, baby.
He's showing off the six-pack. I think he's a little shot at Puka.
Like, you better stay in shape because this is the kind of shape I'm in, you know. Puka's known for throwing up in the trash can.
Coop wants to show off the six-pack. That's what it is.
Puka getting after it all the way to the point where he throws up. Respect, dog.
Absolute dog. What an ooze in there.
And then Cooper Cup definitely has spray tan, though, right? You're not going to be that white with a shirt off unless there's at least a little bit of a tan. Is he down there at the beach maybe toning that up a little bit? I don't think Coop puts any chemicals on his body, including deodorant.
So I think he's an all-natural guy. Okay, we got a hippie coming to your town.
You got a hippie coming to your town who's an incredible wide receiver, especially could be a great addition to a locker room. Let's talk about you.
You obviously were synonymous with the Bengals for long time and i remember when you left the bangles there was some sort of something i don't remember the exacts of it and then you end up with the rams yeah some sort of something yeah i don't i just it feels like there's teams that are getting in that position now obviously not just the bangles who trey hendrickson is allowed to go look for a trade sam hubbard just retired we thought that might open up some money for trey hendrick, but they tell him he can go seek a trade because they got Tee Higgins, Jamar Chase, a lot of people they have to figure out over there. San Francisco 49ers seemingly have to deal with it every single year.
Whenever you're talking about, we don't have to just talk about the Bengals, but obviously they're a part of this conversation as a whole. Whenever you have to pick and choose who you're giving money to and how much money you're giving to people, how uncomfortable does that actually get behind closed doors, do that we don't talk about i think it's really uncomfortable i think it's one of the things maybe the fan bases sometimes don't understand this week isn't just about who's getting acquired or who's leaving and who we're cutting there's a lot of emotions involved and a lot of nerves because you're hoping that a lot of these decisions or quality decisions you're making as a personnel group and you're saying hey we feel like we want to move money this direction or we want to add money here to our team.
And you look at the Cincinnati Bengals situation, which is a great one. You know,

obviously Joe Burrow has been very outspoken about wanting T. Higgins and Jamar Chase back.

And the Bengals have always done things financially a certain way. And so it's kind of one of those

things like maybe, hey, listen, Joe, we're going to try to do this, but these are the people that

are going to have to go. And there's going to be people that aren't going to be a part of this team if we're going to do it that way.
So you look at Trey Hendricks' situation, I think it's the Max Crosby deal that really probably sent this to this point. Because now they go, wow, if that's the asking price, you know, you probably need to go out there and see if there's another team that would offer you that and then give us some compensation to really make it worth our while to move on.
106.5 million dollar extension from Max Crosby. Completely earned.
We're not saying... He deserves every bit of it.
Every play this guy plays. Just like Trey Hendrickson.
It's crazy, man. I mean, it is.
The engine is obviously absurd, but the impact on the game that a pass rusher has, especially for Trey Hendrickson, the past sack king last year, and then last three years, most sacks out of anybody, it's like, I assume somebody will be like, yup, we will make that play for Trey Hendrickson. And the Bengals are going to be back at a spot that they're always in, which is get talent, can't keep talent, business always gets in the way because there's a lot of stats floating out there about paying Joey Burrow and then obviously the Eagles pay Jalen Hurts.
And somehow the Eagles are able to keep everybody and the Bengals are very rarely ever able to keep anybody. So how do you view the situation as somebody that's been so close to it in the past? Well, the issue is the Bengals are never going to issue out lots of guarantees and contracts.

And unfortunately, they've just continued to be way behind times in that spot because

it's like that's the part of the business now.

And eventually, you may have had an old way of doing things, but if you don't ever change,

you're going to always get left behind in these situations.

Continuously, they've let big free agents leave.

Now, it's not that every team hasn't done that, but then they've also not been able to replace them. You look how many draft picks they've spent on the defensive side of the football since they lost Jesse Bates and DJ Reader and now possibly Trey Hendrickson, and they just haven't been able to find guys that match up to that standard of play.
So if you can't pay them to stay and you also don't draft their replacement, you're living in a world where we just keep spinning in the circle and you're going to keep putting yourself in this position where you're going to have to overpay to keep some talent. And right now, you look at it, you've gone this long with T.
Higgins being upset with his contract. Jamar Chase obviously needs to get taken care of.
Those are the things I just hate to see teams do to continue to allow it to fester. Make a decision.
Pay the guy, move on from the guy, but stop letting it just linger in the locker room because to me, that's what you really see start to have an effect. Like what the Cowboys did with C.D.
Lamb and Dak last year, it just continues to fester your team and it affects your locker room because you create a bad vibe every single day about who's going to get paid that's deserved the opportunity to get paid. You've got to make those decisions and make a clean cut of what we're going to do, and let's move forward.
Andrew, stars get jaded towards the organization. And once again, the Bengals aren't the only team that does this.
Historically, though, they've been a team that's been in the spotlight of doing this because they get so many good players and then can't keep them. And it's like, have a guy right now.
Are they going to be able to figure out the business to keep these talented gentlemen in cincinnati you know whenever you uh provide a guarantee for somebody ownership has to put that money up into a fund so they actually have to have that money right now you have to be able to put that in there so that's obviously a question with the brown family would they be willing to put that amount of money because the bangles are their only business. It's, it's crazy.
Cause there's other owners that,

uh,

like 106 and a half million dollars,

not that Mark Davis is this way,

even though he sold to some,

uh,

uh,

funds,

I think some venture to 10% he sold.

There's some owners that can literally just 106 and a half million dollars.

Just be like,

Oh yeah.

Fucking whatever.

We don't care.

And then there's some ownerships that the team is all they got.

And it's like fluidity of cash is not necessarily in abundance i'll be excited to see how that kind of continues to work itself out and you talk about taking care of guys early jj watt literally just said that yesterday it's like it's good for all parties to take care of somebody early uh saquon barkley's deal how about that shit just awesome right you talk about another one just like max crosby like that that's what you want to see you want to see this relationship with organizations where when a guy plays to a certain standard and you go hey you know what this is what we want to encourage a guy comes in here the character he plays with the style he plays with how he achieved we're going to make sure these kind of guys get taken care of early that also helps us make decisions down the road and that's what I think is the issue is sometimes the cat and mouse game of the team and the

player and trying to figure out, all right, do we want to keep leveraging and holding

off paying them?

Like the sooner you can make a commitment to guys, and that's really what the Eagles

have done great.

Hey, let's pick our five, six, seven guys that we know without question, the character

they are and the football player they are, we're going to commit to them to move forward. And now that gives us the space to go, all right, when these other situations come up, can we make a move? Can we not? And that really is what, to me, separates what Howie Roseman's been able to do.
It's not just these ghost years and these contracts people are talking about how they put them together, but he commits to guys that he knows, this is a guy that I'm going to want in my organization no matter what. And it's the same thing that's been the criticism of the Giants with Letting Saquon Leave.
How do you let talented football players who are also great characters, awesome for your culture, ever walk out of your building? To really validate what that number is that you say is too much is crazy to me because you want good character people who are great football players. That what you're in the business of acquiring you don't let those people walk out of your building yeah and we watch it all unfold on that hard knocks off season and boy that was a that is all just come back completely the other way and mara the owner has to feel like a super genius yeah he's probably whenever he's going around conversation you seen hard knock i know ball I know I I know ball.
I told him, I tried to give him a hint. I tried to give him a tip because remember it was said back in the day just a few years back that Mara was sick of telling his friends why his team sucks, which is why he invested a bunch of money, invested a bunch of money, and then this whole situation happens and Mara's like, I fucking know it.
They don't let me. The craziest comment, Pat, to that whole

situation was when Sheen said that

you don't pay a running back

$12-15 million and

have your $40 million quarterback hand the ball

off to him. I'm like, wait a minute.
Isn't

$55 million what all the great quarterbacks

are getting paid? Wouldn't

you pay your quarterback less and

then your running back more and then that adds up

to what the great quarterbacks are?

The math actually adds up to

that would be the equivalent of what those guys actually get paid and that would be the dynamic if you have a quarterback for 40 million dollars and you look at the so to me it just never made any sense and you look at the picture right next to your head right now it's like the philadelphia eagles they paid a guy yeah not a quarterback yeah and yeah he did hand the ball off a lot they handed ball off more than they threw the ball. And they're still A-OK with paying Jalen Hurts the amount of money that they're currently paying him.
It's a wild time, you know. And it's crazy how this all works.
But, you know, maybe the Bengals, maybe the Giants, maybe all these teams, they figure it out this offseason. Let's go.
Let's go. The one team that I don't even think their fans have any hope,

and maybe even the people in the building,

the Cleveland Browns.

Interesting situation as we stay in.

Yeah, they're in it.

They are in it right now.

Miles Garrett has requested a trade.

He also requested, allegedly, a meeting with ownership.

I assume he was going to go up to Haslam and just say,

yeah, I'm never coming in this building again.

So the right thing to do is just to get me out of here.

Haslam allegedly declined the meeting, so they were not able to catch up, is what's being reported at this exact moment. Andrew Barry has done a media round, the general manager for the Cleveland Browns, done a media round saying, Miles Garrett's going to be a Cleveland Brown.
Miles Garrett's going to be a Cleveland Brown. Now it's being reported that Miles Garrett is willing to miss games because he said he wants to go and play meaningful football.
What are your thoughts on how this works out? where do you rank miles garrett as a guy amongst the defensive end pass rusher is this a mount rushmore player already well there's no question he's a mount rushmore type player he's also like the win the game off the bus guy every time i mean i don't every time you see this guy it's impressive just the physical stature he has but you look at this situation pat it's crazy crazy to me because as much, you know, hard time I give the Cincinnati Bengals some of these decisions. Obviously, I loved playing there.
But one of the things I respected the most is every time a contract situation came up or I was upset and my agent and I talked, I would go upstairs and Mike Brown was an open door policy at all times. Anytime you want to meet with me, you want to talk about these things, we could sit down and have man-to-man conversations and disagree.
And that'd be okay, but we're going to talk about it. You can feel better about the fact you communicated in my face about it.
And I just, I hate the idea that you would turn down that request because regardless of what you're going to do, and just from, I tell this to players all the time as a leader of a locker room, you're a man before you're anything else. And always live your life that way and make decisions that way.
Stick true to who you are. And so to reject an opportunity to sit down with a guy, I don't even understand that.
That doesn't even make any sense. Allow him to come in and tell you how he feels because maybe you would understand him a little better.
Maybe you'd understand the situation a little better. Or maybe even for him, if you got a chance to convince him why you feel this way, why we'll never trade you, maybe that convinces him to stay a little more.
I just think it's a bad way to do it. And unfortunately, they have put him in situations in his eight years he's been there to where you've got to say, hey, Miles, we haven't done a very good job of giving you competitive teams and making good decisions.
But at the same time, you know what? You're an unbelievable football player, and we're not in the business of getting rid of great football players who are also great people, like I just said about Saquon. But those conversations have to be had.
That man-to-man conversation will matter to Miles Garrett. Either way, it shakes out.
Because I still, even though my Cincinnati end wasn't great, left with a great appreciation for the man Mike Brown is. And I actually have the letter he wrote me when I left in free agency on my wall right here behind me because it meant so much to me that we always had that relationship, no matter how it ended.
That's awesome to hear that. And that's business, you know.
The reason why all this is happening is because it is a business. The way you go about doing business is your side like that is and then you're negotiating miles could go in there and be negotiating with haslam and haslam will be negotiating with miles now it might just sound like a recruiting conversation but that's negotiating getting a guy back or why you're back or how much you're worth and everything like that maybe haslam explains why he pulled the trigger on the sean watson and gave the contract that he gave miles i did that to make to make a team for you.
Like, that is what I try to do this for because I saw Joe Thomas sit here forever. I'm watching Joel Batonio now sit here forever.
I'm watching you sit here forever. So the reason why I did this with Deshaun is because of you.
So it's like there is a sell that you can do in there in that conversation as well, both sides, you know? And maybe even Miles goes in there and goes like, Mr. Hazl to be a brown it has been i love the city i've loved playing for you but you guys have no avenue to success over the next three years and who knows how long i have so i'm just trying and then maybe hasham's like all right you got it and then shake hands and he's on his way out it's like those things can happen and probably have happened in the past i would assume yeah i mean you think about it what if mal says listen my heart's just not here anymore it's not a place i want to be do you want to be in the business of paying a guy who's that great who you're obviously paying a lot of money to that just doesn't want to be there i mean i think that yes two teams do have the right to own you and possess you if they want to and keep you there but you know mike mike tom Mike Tomlin has said it best, right? We want volunteers, not hostages.
Like, you got to think about your culture as well when you make these kind of decisions. And it's not like Miles Garrett just angrily sent out a tweet and said, I want out of here.
The guy wrote a freaking letter, like an address, like he's retiring of, I'm basically retiring from being a Cleveland Brown and I'm ready to move on. And I think back to my situation in 2011 in Cincinnati with Carson Palmer, who did basically the same thing with the organization and just said, listen, I'm not done playing football, but I am done being a Cincinnati Bengal, and I will retire before I ever play here again.
And he did. He sat out most of that season until about week eight when Hugh Jackson, who had been here with us, was able to call Mike Brown and convince him not to let Carson go out that way, trade him to us in Oakland with the Raiders, and that really extended his career.
But Mike Brown was going to put his feet in the ground and allow Carson to just walk off and retire. And so they had their head-to-head.
But eventually, I think you've got to ask yourself if you want that in the building, if Miles really genuinely never wants to be a Cleveland Brown again. That's a tough culture.
And, you know, there has been money that has obviously soothed over these types of fractures and relationships in the past. Maybe we'll see that.
But, yeah, let's go shake their hands, boys. Let's go shake their hands.
And nobody's scared to go in there and be combative. Hey, that happens.
Yeah. Especially, like, but at the end.
Yeah, exactly. You need to go represent in there.
Now, let's talk a little bit about another team that has been notoriously terrible, but making some moves that don't look bad. Ty Schmidt has a question for you.
Yeah, Whit, what do you think about what the Bears have done so far this offseason? Obviously, it seems like Caleb Williams got sacked like 500 times last year. Some people think, you know, part of that was on him.
Part of it was definitely on the offensive line, but then Ben Johnson right away goes out and trades for Jonah Jackson, who he had in Detroit and was great in Detroit. And then they kind of shock everyone and go out and get Joe Tooney.
How big of an impact will this have almost immediately on the Bears next year? I think it has a huge impact. I mean, you really look at what Ben Johnson came from.
I mean, we talk about all the weapons and all those type things, but let's not forget where the Lions really get their bread and butter in the sense that they are built up front, and that's who they were and have been. And protecting Jared Goff was obviously the number one priority for them.
And then all the pieces could come to life because of that. And you really look at the great coordinators across the league, you'll hear them talk about how the quarterback's number one, the offensive line's number two, and that can flip just depending on who can do what.
That's got to be the priority of how I call a game. And when I'm making a play call every snap, it has to do with those two things.
And the Chicago Bears had to find a way to protect Caleb Williams. And if we think he's similar in style, possibly to a Mahomes or some of these guys, it's going to have an ability.
Yeah, we got to get to playing in time and a rhythm better, but also going to have that opportunity to extend plays and make plays. Then I want to provide him an interior offensive line that's going to give him time to have those opportunities because you really look at Patrick Mahomes.
A lot of his success has been because of having Trey Smith and Creed Humphrey and Joe Tooney in that interior three. And really, we've seen guys coming in and out of the lineup at right tackle and left tackle.
So adding a Joe Tooney and a Jonah Jackson, a guy I've been familiar with who already is going to know his system, this just adds another layer of, hey, Caleb, we're going to make you a little more comfortable in this offense, and we're going to be able to do some things. Run the football, use athletic guards that can pull and move i think those are things that are going to give confidence to ben johnson as a play caller and then also going to provide some space to the quarterback to be able to stay in that pocket and make plays hey how much is confidence in the offensive line from the quarterback paramount in the success of everything because i think there's some conversations about some of these younger quarterbacks and not not all of them, obviously.
And Caleb, he has never said this.

We're just kind of looking.

Whenever you think you're going to get your ass beat on every single play,

there is a chance that there is a lack of going through your progressions

and just trying to survive.

Now, that can't be how you play your entire NFL career.

You have to grow out of that.

You have to be able to just stick in there and have faith

that the people in front of you will do that.

But it felt like Caleb got that. Caleb was very uncomfortable.
I think even Bryce Young if you go back to before he got benched to after he got benched it's like it feels like he had a lot more confidence in the boys in front of him maybe that's because Andy Dalton but if you lose that confidence middle of the season that's gonna be hard to get back so hopefully this will help bring back Caleb with some confidence with the O-line yeah that's the thing you really look at I was say that, Pat. You look at the Carolina situation.
A lot of times when people say, what is it, sit the quarterback early or not, when I think you see these young guys, really what they need to see sometimes is a veteran like Andy Dalton that Bryce Young got to watch. Go in there and ball's coming out in time and rhythm.
The offensive line gets more confidence because they can trust that this quarterback, he's going to hit his back foot and he's going to let it go. The receivers get more confident in their route and what they're doing that, hey, I'm going to get a ball on time.
I got to be ready to catch it. So they speed up.
And now the offense starts to move in a faster pattern with everybody having a trust and belief of how we're going to operate. Oh, and then Bryce Young comes back in and he kind of sticks to that script.
And it's like, oh, man, I'm starting to have some success. Then he starts to get confident.
And then you start to open yourself up. I mean, Pat, I know you play golf.
You know what it's like when you hit that one great shot, and you're like, oh, uh-oh. Wait a minute.
Today's my day. Then what do you do? You feel like you can start opening up all the options.
I can draw it. I can cut it.
I can start to play the different things. That confidence is real in sports.
And so I think you saw that with Bryce Young this year. And I think think that's what the bears are looking for and the other thing that i think is really important to the bear situation pat i was with andy dawton when he was a rookie veteran offensive lineman he had a couple other vets with me that we could be around for him and help him you look at it when i came to la with jared goff he had a struggle his rookie year and then his second year with sean mcveigh and us john sull, other vets in that group, Roger Saffold.
We were able to kind of be there and give him, man, we got you. Trust us to protect you.
I think adding two veteran guards who've done it at a high level that you believe in, it's not just how they play. It's those little moments in the huddle of, man, it's third and eight.
Hey, we're going to give you one more tick, man. We're going to give you another second to get this ball out.
You do your thing, man. just being able to have that veteran presence in the huddle of man it's third and eight hey we're gonna give you a little more tick man we'll give you another second to get this ball out you do your thing man just being able to have that veteran presence in the offense think of what you had last year he didn't have a veteran backup he didn't have a veteran lineman in that group that had really played and had a lot of experience over time so this is going to be something that's not just about their play it's also about who they are as human beings it's a success they've had a pat on a helmet hey we're good you know like that type of that's a big deal hey stay your ass up in the pocket hey i'm not holding on for 20 seconds yeah all that type hey listen i tell jared golf every play go hey what's this one seven step five step hey eight yards nine yards don't you dare get deeper than that hey jared i'm running hell no hey jared i'm running them okay so you're back there this is on you okay we need you you're back there it's on you baby that is a big deal you forget about the human side of this whole thing you know and it's like caleb i don't know if he felt like he had to project as if he knew everything but he did have to project as if he knew everything and it's like you look around that team there wasn't a lot, hey, also this.
Hey, also this to work alongside of him. I think he has that confidence to be a leading man.
Like I think he does. I think he has the ability to do it too.
I think if they put the right people around him, why not Chicago, Zito? Why not Chicago? Why not? Let's go. Well, history tells us it won't be.
Don't forget, Jonah Jackson's also training at the Village, baby. So, hey, we're going, baby.
We're Team Bears over here, too. I did not know that.
We got a factory happening over there with Whitworth. Now, let's talk about, you said Jonah Jackson training over there.
We're talking about Tooney going over there. We're talking about teams rewarding certain things.
How about whenever the world champion rewards the offensive line and the running back? What does that mean? Connor has a question for you, Whit all those things about the old line in the past game are great but it does feel like the running game the trenches are all the way back and that has kind of become a you know the new thing once again because we always talk about how the nfl is cyclical what do you think about kind of that structure to a team do you think more teams are going to try to do it like philly both in the draft and bringing in you know elite running backs and some of that you know offensive line talent you think those two positions all of a sudden are a much bigger deal and also do you think kind of the strategy that cincinnati and some other teams are going with with kind of the you know high power to throw the ball all over the yard is kind of becoming old news almost and that isn't a real way to win. Yeah, I think that's my biggest concern for Cincinnati.
I'll answer the second one first, is that yes, you can put up a lot of points, and they got on a roll at the end of the season, but look how they've started every year. And it's like if they don't start successfully, then it's like they're always playing this game where, yeah, you're putting up points, but just because you're down in a lot of games and you're not controlling the time of possession and you're not dominating the other team, you're just able to put up a lot of explosives.
I think we're starting to see a switch in the league now back to time of possession, running the football, being able to sustain drives. And we know it's a copycat league.
So I think it's going to be really interesting to see this offseason. I look at a guy like Ronnie Stanley.
Some of these guys, Shaq

Mason now just getting released. Some of these better

in linemen. What's the market going to be?

What are some teams going to say, hey, we have

to get better up front so that we can run the football?

I think it's going to be interesting to see how many

teams try to copycat. The only problem

is, to me,

it's like when you have three great

players on an NBA team, you know those three superstar

teams. Saquon Barkley should not be behind that offensive line.
It's absolutely crazy that this even happened because of how good they are up front and now Saquon. But if you want to copycat the Eagles, it's real simple.
You need a bunch of second round picks that get a chance to watch Jason Kelsey and Lane Johnson, tremendous football players play. You need a guy like Lane Johnson the last, over a decade and play at a super high level.
You need a rugby player who can come over after playing rugby and be an absolute freak at left tackle. Oh, and then find you a top 15 pick who's a bust, who can come in and move to a position he's never played in his life and be dominant.
So if you want to copycat it, go for it. Have fun, guys.
Yeah, and get get saquon get a running back that can jump over people backwards uh saquon did say that he took less money to go to philadelphia because of the big guys up front he thought exactly what you said exactly what a lot of people were thinking at the end of the year it's like that pairing greatest in history he broke the record for obviously including playoff runs and playoff yardage most yardage by a running back in the history and then his yards before contact was like a top five running back this year let alone his total yards but his yards before contact like that one wasn't even touched there his yards before contact living by itself as its own running back top five running back in the in the entire league so it's like that's directly to scheme and offensive line and then i think think his yak, he's like top 15 or something. It's unbelievable.
It is unbelievable. And Howie and Sirianni and everybody in Philadelphia is like, yeah, we want to do that again.
Yeah, we would like to do that. Let's see how many times we can run that.
Yeah, no shit. Mekhi Becton, what a story.
Yeah. Is that not unbelievable? What is he, six foot seven? It is, man.
Yeah, when you see these guys get a chance like that after the Super Bowl to reflect on the journey and even to watch him, how emotional he would get to just being a part of a winning program, being a part of something just bigger than yourself. I think that feeling, you guys know this was a success y'all have all had together.
It's like being a part of something bigger than just you, that all of a sudden you have all this success and it's going in the right direction and yeah you believed it but you didn't really know if it happened and then to sit there and be in those moments to watch a guy like mccallick it's tough man when you get in the nfl you have this expectation at one place that you're going to come in and be dominant i can remember him running the 40 and we all freaking out about it which is a huge freak athlete he was and then to have the injuries he had which were real stuff right that it really a struggle to get through and then to be labeled a bust and you know what when you say that about a top pick it's like we say man your career is over like you were a top pick and now you can't make it it's over and you get to a place you play a position you never played in your life and you get around an awesome group that all of a sudden gives you confidence to believe in yourself it's what's so freaking awesome about football man that you get that belief and now there's a new new fragrance to you man you feel like you smell good you look good you play good uh that to me is the beauty of this game statlin university over there does it again with sirianni putting him at guard is obviously something that not a lot of people would do.

And for him, going from being a top

15 tackle to go to guard is like

a cornerback being told you're going to

go to safety, like you don't have it anymore.

So for him to put his ego aside and be like, yeah,

I just want to play ball, that's awesome.

Now let's talk about the tackle coming into

this year's draft out at

LSU.

Hey!

Hey!

Death Valley. Yeah, you're right.
Don't say it. Tone has a question for you.
Yeah, talking about top 15 tackles having to go to guard. I assume you know Will Campbell since you guys, I believe, went to the same hometown, same college, same position.
He's the number one tackle on the board, and then he goes to the combine, and he has the shortest arms in 10 10 years or whatever it is and now all the draft guys and all the stack guys are saying he can't play left tackle in the NFL. How do you feel about teams saying that guys with shorter arms can't play tackle and moving them to guard? You think Will will be able to play out there and just in general that whole situation going on with tackles moving to guard? Yeah, I mean you look at his tape and really how he played in college.
I mean, there's nothing that sticks out and says, oh, he can't play tackle. Sure, you can go find you some clips of a guy long-arming him or something, but guess what? Every tackle in the entire group has got some play like that out there.
But you look at really the physicality and the strength he has. I think he has a demeanor to play this game.
And I say this all the time, man, never let people's opinions of you become your reality. And so his really willpower, who is he made of? What's his metal as a man to say, you know what? Give me that label that I can't play this position.
I'll go show you I can. Because when I came out for the draft, not because of arm length or anything else, but because people thought I wasn't athletic enough, different than him, It was, hey, he could only play guard or possibly be a right tackle that could start for you, but he'll never play left tackle.
So to this day, I can list you anything about any left tackles that ever played in my time, not because I hated any of those guys, but because some scouts said this guy won't play left tackle. I can list you the stats of who started the most games, played in the who was it and won a super bowl division championships you name it all right you want to list the stat let's talk about it but it's still something that lives in you man and so his drive and will to prove them wrong that'll be a separator and maybe it'll be at left tackle maybe it'll be being an all-pro guard who knows but i think will's wired right i see his journey.
Willpower Campbell. Boom.
I have good willpower down there at the offensive line. If you're an offensive lineman down there in the bayou, I'm impressed because of how hot it is carrying that weight around, which leads me to this.
I was reminded of a part of your Walter Payton Man of the Year speech this morning. Got sent back in from Foxy, who's a Detroit Lions fan.
For those that did not hear it or see it, here's Big Wit after winning the Walter Payton Man of the Year at the NFL Honors Show. In our game against the Detroit Lions, I had a young player from the Lions run up to me as soon as the final horn went off.
And I saw him sprinting over, and I didn't know what was going on. Like we'd known each other forever.
I couldn't place it. It made me so nervous.
Had I actually played long enough that like a coach's son or player's son is playing against me? He stopped that. He said, Hey man, you're not going to remember me.
I'm Derek Barnes. You spent time with me when you were a young player in Cincinnati at the Boys and Girls Club.
And it meant the world to me. You used to sit with me and talk to me about life.
And I was just a little kid. I want you to know how much it meant to me.
I said, man. He goes, you know what? The main thing I wanted to say, Whit, I made it.

I made it to the NFL, Big Whit.

Hey, getting choked up just watching it again.

I couldn't imagine your feelings.

He just signs a massive deal.

Not only did he make it to the NFL,

he just changed everything for him in the next generation of his family,

25 and a half million. I said, big brothers, big sisters.

It was the Boys and Girls Club in Cincinnati. Hey, that had to be so cool to kind of experience that and see that and uh also for somebody to come up and say that whenever you decided to go do something to make the community better you did i'm happy you got your flowers in real time legit i'm happy you got your flowers i appreciate that brother i appreciate i was a little hot and bothered right there.
I was doing some sweating. Yeah, what were you, 340 there?

What were you? I was 340, Pat. I'd come

straight from practice. We'd been practicing

for the... We were actually playing in the Super Bowl, so

I came straight from practice, got a

car service. Believe it or not, they actually forgot

the car service, so we had to drive.

I believe it. We got a police

escort, me and Cooper Cup. Cooper Cup got

Offensive Player of the Year, and I

won Walter Payton, but we were hauling butt down the 101 the 405 trying to get to practice I mean trying to get to the honors and it was an amazing night. You know Pat the cool thing about that speech that I will say real quick is you know obviously you get put on the timer.
We watch the award shows. The music's going to start playing.
You only got so long. Hey Whit don't talk too much but we want you to talk a little bit.
And so I gave that speech. And the only part I didn't get to finish it up with is obviously people walk away from that and go, man, you made an awesome impact in this kid's life at Boys and Girls Club.
You were a rookie in the NFL, spending your Tuesdays, hanging out with these kids, throwing the football and developed a relationship. But I want to make sure people understand something that that that act of service sometimes is as much for you as it is for them.
And so what I really wish I could have buttoned it up with is that Derek Barnes changed my life every bit as much as I changed his and his mind. Because the real truth is, I was a Louisiana kid that had moved to Ohio.
I was lost. I'd just gotten out of a long-time relationship.
I didn't know who I was or what I was going to be, but the only thing that made me feel right is going to remind myself, playing with these kids, man, that I started playing this game because I loved playing the game. And I loved being around people who just loved playing it as well.
And it just got me back to reminding myself who I was and what I came from. And that filled my heart and gave me the passion to go chase it every single Sunday that I'm going to change my family's life.
So to see Derek Barnes now, get this contract, have the opportunity that the game not only changed his life, but he's going to be able to change everyone around his life because of what he's achieved, that's the coolest freaking part of it, man, and he deserves all the credit in the world. Hell yeah.
Hell yeah. Yeah.
Hey, fulfillment's a real thing, isn't it? Isn't it crazy? It is, brother. Fulfillment is really the only thing worth getting or chasing.
And those Community Tuesdays did a lot, not just for you, but across the league for young players. And I'm happy to hear that about Derek.
What a story. I'm happy he remembered, too, you know, because every once in a while those things just kind of come and go.
He obviously, great dude, as are you. Connor had a question he wanted to ask you.
Yeah, Big Witt, we've heard this story a couple times from one of your buddies, Jay Glazer. Is it true that when you guys were down in Cabo, you were all hanging out in the pool, and Drew Brees gave a big old cannonball, and then somehow, someway, you and Sean McVay and all the guys recruited Stafford on that trip to come to the Rams.
Got him boozed up. Got him boozed.
Jay Glazer's out there serving booze. Right.
Drew Brees is doing cannonballs. Right.
And Big Witt's like, hey, why don't you come meet my friend Sean McVay? He's younger than you, but he's fucking ready to go. Is that what happened? Were you the mediator there? You know what? We had a good time in Cabo.
That's for sure. That I will say.
We had a good time. a lot of good people, and a lot of those same people were still intertwined, man.
It's been an awesome ride, that's for sure. But that was a cool moment, honestly.
Drew Brees did cannonball in the pool. I don't remember us being in the hot tub part.
I don't know where Jay got that one. He may be kind of a little romantic at heart or something.
I don't know. I remember there was bubbles.
Yeah, classic place. There was bubbles coming out.
It was warm. It was heat.
Yeah, you know, I think that's the salesman in him a little romantic at heart or something. I don't know.
I remember there was bubbles. There was bubbles coming out.
It was warm. It was heated.
I think that's the salesman in him a little bit. But I do remember Drew Brees cannonballing in the pool and splashing us with water while we were actually sitting there having a dinner.
It was Sean McVay's birthday, actually. He cannonballed us.
I thought I got a lot of respect for Drew for that. Absolutely.
That doesn't sound like a Drew Brees game. I respect the Drew no.
I respect the Drew Brees. I think he'd had a dinner and had him a couple too, Pat.
He was feeling good. What? Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, he was feeling good.
Like, hey, you know what? Yeah, I think he remembered the NFC Championship, the non-call. And he said, you know what? These guys are a little too dressed up for me.
I'm going to give them a cannonball and make sure they remember. That changed football there for like a year.
The past interference was reviewable, and then it wasn't then now it stinks and now it's back in. Who knows? That was a massive game.
Massive year for you guys. Fun to watch and you're great, man.
This is an incredible conversation. We can't thank you enough.
Anytime, brother. Appreciate you guys.
Wit and Fitz. Wit and Fitz.
Let's go do this. Wit and Fitz.
Wit and Fitz. Let's go do all of this.
I got the mug, baby. Oh, you already got the merch.
Fitz and Witt. Yeah.
Wow. Oh, wait, I'm holding it the wrong way.
Yeah, yeah. I'm holding it the wrong way.
Sorry, man. Just flip it up.
Sorry, man. Ladies and gentlemen, Thursday Night Football Home Prime, Super Bowl champion Andrew Whitworth.
Yeah, Witt. That Derek Barnes story.
It's awesome. Awesome.
So cool. And he has one of the biggest plays in Lions history.
Two years ago, divisional round, picks off Baker Mayfield, sends us to the NFC Championship. MCDC guy through and through.
It's awesome. Yeah, he's, you know, Walter Payton man of the year.
They don't just hand those out. No.
Right. You know, that is something you've got to give back to the community in which you call home.
And there's a lot more good around the NFL happening than bad, although the negative headlines are always the ones that are going to be chitchat about the most. Those Community Tuesdays are awesome.
I got a chance to meet a lot of people. You know, Children's Hospital, it's how I got hooked up with the military group, Wish for Our Heroes that I started working with.
I built a house at one point. I stopped by, you know, a food.
I don't know if it was, it wasn't a pantry. Bank? It was like a food bank, but it wasn it wasn't it was like serving food got a chance to be a part of that it's like it's really cool to kind of get in there in the feeling that you get you know and i started this uh i got lucky to start doing this type of thing in college with bill stewart bill stewart sent us over to the hospital which was across the street from the stadium rest in peace to coach bill stewart and it was like the first time going to see like sick kids like families going through it.
It's not just the kid or the patient that's going through it. It's also the family, the mom and the dad and the brother and everything that has stopped completely to try to hopefully save the life or fight through something that's very devastating.
That type of fulfillment is awesome. If you get a chance to go and give back, I would recommend it wholeheartedly.
It is a cool feeling, cool experience. And to Witt's point, you're getting a lot more out of it than you could ever expect whenever you're doing that.
So, shout out to Witt being a good dude and great. That was good football.
Yeah, absolutely. That was really good football.
Great insight. We could have continued to go.
We had, what, 45 more Jay Glazer questions? Without a doubt. And actually, I believe Glaze was working out at the Village just yesterday with Chuck Lotto, so he's there.
Well, he has that unbreakable performance. He does.
Glazer has that gym in L.A. I believe it's in Hollywood.
Above the Pink Taco. Correct.
It's up the hill from the Pink Taco. I've worked out in there.
And that's the Village right there, huh? Yeah. Jay Glazer's been traveling overseas to get injections so that he can continue to roll with these guys.
Good beard on him, right? You can kind of see Whit in the background, I think. Is that the big bald-headed guy in the background? Way back there? Yeah.
You can do the door? Maybe not. Maybe not.
That looks like a warrior. That's a massive dude taking the photo there, though, I will say.
The guy with the hat. Another UFC guy.
Yeah, I was going to say, you see those ears. Shout out to Jay.
Shout out to Chuck Liddell. What the fuck's with Chuck Liddell? Shout out.
Great Entourage episode. Shout out Johnny Drama.
Hour one wrapping up here on ESPN News, YouTube, ESPN+, Disney+, and TikTok Live. We will continue next hour on ESPN2.
Nice. Okay.
Moving on up. The deuce.
Did we do it? How about it? We'll also continue on YouTube, ESPN+, Disney+, and TikTok Live. And then we'll propel into the greatest weekend of all time.
Why? Because it's the next weekend. Be a friend.
Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life.
Remember, we might be riding dirt bikes today. Look out.
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We're so incredibly thankful that we get to talk about them every single day. Thank you for watching, listening, wherever the hell you may be uh just a little uh housekeeping here uh big night at in pittsburgh date will be announced on monday and then ticket sales will begin shortly afterwards this is within the next uh couple months this will be happening rather quickly and uh big laughs big sing-alongs big give big night out.
More info coming on Monday. We are so incredibly pumped to do this.
It's like, it's nothing like this particular program. It's nothing like any show, I don't think, that has existed in a long, long time.
The giveaways are going to be gigantic. Millions of dollars are going to be given away, both in the arena and maybe a couple hundred thousand dollars for potential people watching at home and maybe we'll see if that whole thing goes the big laughs yeah we got some funny there's some there's some very funny things that'll be happening we think you know you never know if anything's going to hit but there is some hilarity and then-alongs, get ready.
Let's get those pipes ready to enjoy the hell out of a night at in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I think you'll walk away from the show saying, wow, I could have never guessed what that was going to be.
I can't believe insert name was here. And what a night.
And I'm truly, truly excited and pumped for the opportunity. And Pittsburgh's the right place to do it at, too.
You know, because the setup, the people, and the amount, it's just going to be great. So big night out information coming on Monday, when it will be, and then announcement of when ticket sales will be shortly after.
We can't thank everybody enough for allowing us to be in a position to be able to do this. uh the boys will be a part of the show but it is not this show that needs to be stated it is not this show but the boys will be a part of show throughout the toxic table is here at boss connor and at tashman i don't think that lake trout will be making an appearance you never know don't sleep on the fish look i'm not going to say that it is i'm not going to say that it isn't and you know who knows maybe you guys want to buy one of these things after.
I don't know. I thought you caught that fish.
No, I know. You would have to buy the hat to make it.
That's a good call. That's one half of the hammer.
Feel good Friday cowboy. AP tone.
Yeah, did you buy that? No, no. Well, you have to buy the hat and then catch the fish.
I just assumed you guys So that, once again, that's a real, that used to be a fish. You took it to a taxidermist.
Yeah, taxidermist, you know, hauled that thing out. And I told him, like, hey, can we keep the side, the fins? Did you put in weights or lures or extra fillets inside of that trout so it would weigh heavier like those dudes in Ohio did that are currently in jail, I think? No, no.
Federal penitentiary. Yeah, for federal.
I wasn't competing. Normally, if I was competing, that'd be a catch and release.
You know, this is just more so fun fishing, which I do all the time. Yeah, you're just like, show me your fish.
Yeah, bingo. Yeah, that's one of the better fishing songs out there, you know.
I'll listen to Hootie as well just to get into the fish. Yeah, of course.
and the blowies. Hootie and the blowies, not just Hootie.
No, no, no. They're a blowfish.
Fish. Yeah.
We're talking about those. Exactly, exactly.
But no, I wasn't listening to anything like that. This was just a little casual.
Oh, so you were just out on Tuesday night. Bingo.
Just hanging and banging. Getting away from the family.
Yeah, exactly. Getting away from the world.
Yeah, yeah. Just going out there and angling a little bit out on the water.
Screaming fish on solo. That's how I like to relax.
Ty, you were a Big Ten angler. That's right.
When do you get out? When do you find time to get out? And how come we don't have any fish hats from you? Well, because if you're a real angler, you ain't doing Mickey Mouse bullshit like this. What? You know what else you're not doing? You're certainly not baiting your hooks with hot dogs.
That's because i'm old school so that's because i'm old school sorry i'm an old school guy oh that's what did you use a rod or i mean look for some of them but not not not for all this was a rod catch but i mean yeah i was somebody gave me you know because um throughout college game day you get out of south you go to a lot of different places experience a lot of different things somebody gave me this fishing contraption that was just like basically a hand they're just pulling it out like their suitcase or out of their bag and it's just like a handheld thing like for a small little i got one of those yeah i'm sure you do i got i got one yeah that's a good little thing that is more so the pond fishing you know i'll break out the hand if i'm going to a pond this was a a full rod situation. Did you have a boat? Did you have a fishing boat? No, no.
I like to stay on the shore. So you went to the lake and you fished on the shore? Well, I mean, it depends on where fish is.
Got it. I understand, yeah.
Yeah, I like it all the time. Yeah, you can fish.
I mean, you've got to find the peninsula of the lake. But, I mean, look, the fish hole that I was looking up that I found on the internet, it did not require a boat or a kayak.
Now, I typically use a kayak. I'm not a boat guy.
I don't want all the fish to know where I'm coming in from. Kayak, I can kind of disguise.
Oh, you sneak up on them. Yeah, I can disguise a little bit.
Canoe? I can get into those tight holes, you know, that are in the corners. We know you're able to get into real tight holes just by looking at the hat.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know that.
I don't think I've seen those in a while. We're joining us now.
Ladies and gentlemen, he's a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Ryder Cup winner, I assume not an angler. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J.
Hawk. Yeah, Hawk.
Hawk, are you an angler? Yeah, you'd assume right. I'm not an angler.
I'm not scared to fish you an angler? Yeah you would assume right I'm not an angler I'm not scared to fish but you know I've said on here if I'm not catching anything in the first 5 to 6 minutes it's going to be tough to keep me around Some of the worst moments of our entire professional career for me at least was when we were out on Lake Minnetonka and we were ice fishing in a shed and I didn't catch anything two hours, and everybody literally was catching fish all around me. Now, it was cold out there.
We walked past some wolves, I think, to get out to the hub that we were at in the middle of Lake Minnetonka. I was promised to fish.
I pulled a swordfish out at the end. Yeah, huge.
With about four and a half hours into this thing, we were supposed to be there for about an hour and a half. I couldn't catch a fish.
And it could have been worse, I guess. Remember, Ty Schmidt was shitting in an outhouse that had no roof on the frozen Lake Minnetonka.
Yeah, that was an awful night. An awful night.
Not only that, we did a podcast from inside the thing and went back to edit it when we got back. And boy, all you could hear was the wind.
So that was a lot of fun doing that. Yeah, that is something.
Ice fishing, more power to you if you like doing that, because we did it like the creme de la creme. We had a little TV monitoring.
Exactly, but boy did that fucking suck, and I will never do that again. That is for sure.
Ice fishing is just ice fishing is, hey, let's go drink 35 beers in a tent and catch a little baby fish every once in a while. Yeah, in a shed on ice.
Yeah. I've gone, I want ice fishing with my dad when i was growing up tim big angler tim's walking creeks he's got the waiters he's doing the entire i mean he's out there has no idea that there's potentially holes that he should maybe try to find where there's actual fish but he's gonna snoop around you know he's gonna he's gonna cast around he took his ice fishing and uh there was no shed or anything it was just open lake you know open lake and uh you know you cut the fucking yeah you do the entire thing to cut the hole and me and my brother and dad are all in the same hole there i guess i got fed up with it i'm done with it i head back to the car i find a uh thin piece of ice i go in i go into lake into lake keep keys though for tim's car up above because boy you lose keys you're in a real bad spot especially after you're in lake tim back if he comes sprinting across the lake grabs me like one-handed pulls me out gets me wrapped up in blankets tosses me in the car turns it on everybody on the lake is worried coming over check on me i look like the biggest asshole of all time so it's like me and ice fish i've gone twice i've gone that time and then the menedict time and it has been absolute failures both times fishing's not easy that's why you need that van damme wrist or you need to be able whenever you catch a trout you put it on a hat yeah when you lock eyes with that trout you know if it's meant for a hat or not and i just knew had no idea you were a bass fisherman as well.
We got pictures of Connor on the weekend competing. Nice.
Boom. Con, man, that's unbelievable.
I didn't want to bring this up, okay? But yeah, I dominated this weekend. It wasn't even close.
Those guys with weights, I wish they were around still because I would have kicked their ass too. But yeah, it was a good weekend.
I appreciate getting some Nitro ZS or Z5 in there. One of my favorite brands.
And of course, as always, I wouldn't be fishing without Bass Pro Shops. Go visit your local one today.
And naturally, I was driving one of those beautiful whalers out on that deck. And if we could also give a little love to my favorite shades.
Of course. Look out in the fucking chest.
Toyota, GoPro. I can't see it.
I can't see it. I used to be a Toyota.
There it is. Yeah, mustard, of course.
I had a GoPro. I'm a...
Don't forget Bushlight. Bushlight.
Bushlight, one of my favorite pints always. And GoPro, yes, I will be releasing a series with them.
And naturally, a quantum. Quantum fishing.
Love working with them as well. But, yeah, Toyota Corolla.
That's the vehicle I drive, and that's the vehicle you should ride. Yeah, absolutely.
And that Mercury boat is the one. You think they only make Corollas? Mercury boat.
Go get yourself Mercury today. They also make kayaks as I mentioned earlier.
That's right. And I believe this is actually Van Damme.
This is the greatest of all time that we put your face on. That's why there's 30 sponsors.
That was me. Van Damme, his time's done.
It's my time. Okay.

Shout out to UConn, man.

You out on the water, your Aquaman day with that octopus. That's next, right?

There's Mr. Van Damme.

He's the greatest of all time. He photoshopped.

They photoshopped Van Damme on there.

What's his name? Kevin or Keith? Kevin.

Kevin. Kevin Van Damme.
Mission legend.

He's invited me to go fishing a couple different times.

You should do that. He's awesome.
No, but I want to tell him buddy, I'm not the guy, pal. He is the guy, though.
Six minutes with Van Dam. Mission legend.
He's invited me to go fishing a couple different times. You should do that.
No, but I want to tell him, like, buddy, I'm not the guy, pal. He is the guy, though.
Six minutes with Van Dam, you're the guy. He's got some Lee fit in him.
He does have a little Lee fit in him. I see a little Lee in there, a little handsome Lee.
No doubt. My thing is, like, this guy always pulls fish.
Always. Yeah.
I get out there on this guy's boat. No, not with Van Dam.
Those fish know I'm there. I don't know if they get smarter when I'm around.
I don't know what the case is, but getting out on Van Damme's boat will certainly be a dream come true. Yeah.
And shout out to Toyota getting us out there. I love Toyota.
And Mercury boats. Corollas.
I was trying to tell him while he was talking, I'm like, look at the fuck. I couldn't.
I'm trying to look up there, but the fish head. So big.
Fully loaded. Big news.
Big news around the NFL, not just in the fishing community. In the NFL, there's some big news.
DK Metcalf has announced to the world that he would like to be traded from the Seattle Seahawks. Obviously a pillar of the Seahawks program for a while.
John Schneider, the general manager of the seattle seahawks the man who is being tasked

with rebuilding the seahawks in a new image of mcdonald as the head coach the post p caro era was on with local espn and this is what he had to say about dk metcalf's trade market it's everything's in a i think it's in a very cordial you know professional place uh you know Obviously, DK has requested a trade.

I'm wrong, man.

We are entertaining that. We are talking to a ton of teams, taking offers, seeing what that looks like, and yeah, here we go.
I mean, you know, you always have to do, the thing to understand here is that our responsibility our responsibility to you know jody allen you know the the the 12s you know first and foremost is doing what's absolutely best for the organization a and then b what's best for the the player hopefully you know both those things merge and it's an ideal situation sometimes it happens sometimes it doesn't Hopefully in this situation it does and that'll be great but worst case scenario i mean we have a amazing explosive powerful athlete playing receiver first again in 2025 so we'll we'll see where this goes okay so schneider leaves the door open on the john schne Show, brought to you by Pizza Hut out there on Seattle Sports Network. He alludes to maybe DK's back next year if we're not able to find a partner, but we are certainly fielding offers.
And he did what most GMs will do is like, hey, my job is to make this team as good as possible to ownership, to the fans. And if that involves moving on from DK, if we get a first rounder and a third rounder, or we get a second rounder and a third rounder for DK, and we think that's going to make our team better, we'll do that.
You know John Schneider pretty well, right? What do you think the takeaway from what he just said was about DK? I thought it was a very honest way to go about it. Yeah, of course, DK requested trade.
You can't sit there and claim that he did not. But I think he does a good job, too, of saying, yeah, we're feuding calls, lots of calls, lots of offers all around the league.
That's a good job negotiating. Obviously, if a team comes out to get them, you want them to know that, hey, you're bidding against a bunch of different teams, so you better throw us some good compensation if you want this guy such a stud player.
But, yeah, I mean, I guess there is a chance that he can come back and still continue to play for the Seahawks. I think it feels like it's not, like, personal.
They're not letting business get in the way with, like, personal feelings or whatever. They know DK, what, he wants to go to a contender.
He feels like they might not be there yet. And the Seahawks aren't really, like, taking it personally.
It's kind of like a business situation. I respect him for that.
Yeah, that's what he's saying. Now, there's a chance DK puts out a tweet of a baseball cap, which has happened in the past whenever a GM talks about a wide receiver situation.
Just a few weeks ago, Tee Higgins was the one to tweet, that's cap, everything he just said is a lie even though we're negotiating. And yes, to your point, Schneider definitely wants people to think there's a lot of teams that are looking to get DK Metcalf.
Want that to be the narrative even if there's only one team. Even if there's no team, you would like that to be the narrative at this juncture, even though from what we know about GMs, if they hear that there's trouble, they're going to call and snoop around.
So is that what he's hearing or is he hearing actual negotiations? I guess TBD on that front. You know, Brandon Bean would be a guy that would be immediately on the horn to Seattle as soon as he heard about him, potentially, just from what we know, I'm not saying he's the only GM in the NFL that would do that, but from what he's actually told us, it's like, hey, I got guys monitoring stuff.
We have people checking stuff. If somebody says they want to be traded, we will definitely call if it's somebody we're interested in and snoop around.
I know Bean's not the only one, but he has told us that. Could you imagine DK going to Buffalo? No.
Getting 30 million a year is going to be tough. Getting 30 million a year is going to be tough getting 30 million a year is going to be tough but that would be on being in the buffalo bills to sell like hey we're not going to be able to do that but we definitely are able to you with what shakir has become with what dalton kincaid is with what john we had josh allen yeah we have josh allen that's got to be your biggest sales pitch right away like who wouldn't want to go be a receiver for j Allen? And they just signed Bernard this morning.
They just got a deal done, so they're in the middle of negotiating deals and figuring out what their salary cap is going to be. So congrats to linebacker Terrell Bernard on getting a deal.
Four years, $50 million. And for the Buffalo Bills, Kyle Brandt broke that this morning live on Good Morning Football.
Great insider stuff out of Kyle Brandt. But Ben's got a call, and he's not the only one.
I don't think he's the only one that would certainly be snooping around. Yeah, I think I read this morning Mike Garofalo reported that there have at least been five teams that he knows of that have already reached out to the Seahawks about DK.
So it's tough to think that he would go back just because they might not get a first and a third, but if there are five teams that we know of, potentially upwards of like 10 teams who are calling him, you would think that someone is going to end up getting closer to what they want in return. And then, yeah, it'll just come down to is someone willing to give him $30 million a year.
Now, the Bills would not be able to do it with their salary cap situation. They would have to do massive salary cap gymnastics but it's like if you're a team that feels like you're close you got to call dk and sell dk on like not going to be able to give you 30 million a year if he wants 30 million and to go to a contender obviously that widows away that is like guess who does he have a mustache sure they all kind of knock around there but with that being said can there is there happy medium where he ends up with a contender, gets $25, $22.5 million a year? Is that what he's really looking for? Is he looking for the biggest check? I think we still don't know any of that information.
Yeah, because the biggest check thing. He could just be wanting to be one of those top guys.
If he were to be offered $35 million, but maybe it is more of a rebuild situation. Of course, I about new england of course that is what i would want and you know although it is known as taxachusetts a few of those teams at the top there are like la obviously we know the la tax situation is brutal they're one of those teams he's in washington now he understands yeah okay the the washington taxes are terrible i would just assume just my natural assumption assumption is it's probably pretty good up there.
The taxes are probably pretty solid in Washington. Okay.
We should look that up. But my first thought is the state of Washington probably has pretty good taxes.
Yeah, but aside from, you know, with that situation, maybe that is good then. But, like, you can probably take off the Cardinals.
You can take off the Rams. Vikings with a quarterback situation, you know, who knows.
And then, you know, aside from that, like, the Chargers and Commies when it just comes to strictly money and the opportunity to do well. I just got information Washington is maybe no income tax.
Really? Never heard that. You're in Tennessee? Just so far out there, we don't hear people Florida and Texas, but yeah, I guess.
Tennessee, Florida, Texas. You never hear.
Nevada. Nevada.
Yeah, you never hear about Delaware. Income tax, 0%.
There is zero personal income tax in Washington. Holy shit.
Let's add Washington. I apologize for my natural assumption being that Washington has massive taxes.
Sales tax 9.38%. Sales tax rate is 6.5%.
But some counties, local sales tax up to 4.1%. I don't know.
Wow. I did not expect that at all.
At all. Sorry about that, Washington.
I legitimately did not know that that was a case. And shout out.
Yeah. Shout out.
Hey, shout out. Pretty cool.
Yeah, that's very cool. And we will certainly add you in there.
So, yeah, I guess Texas is going to have to do a pretty good little sell there. Yeah, a few of them, because I assume the D.C.
area as well. That would be an assumption I have.
Like, their taxes must be an absolute number. The commanders with D.K.
Metcalf. And Ebo.
And Terry. Yeah.
That kind of seems like an embarrassing minute of riches. I don't know if they're going to be running.
They got $95 million. I mean, I guess they did just get rid of Allen today too, so who knows.
And they got rookie quarterback salary right now, which we talk about if you have a rookie quarterback contract, you can build up a round. He's not going to want money until probably after next year, right? So you got at least a two-year run.
Maybe after this season he wants to redo it, but I don't think the commanders would feel obligated to do as such, especially after a second-year quarterback, unless he just goes bananas and maybe they do reward him, which is what teams can and have done in the past. But they probably got two years here at least where they don't have a lot of money at the quarterback position, which is quite a weapon whenever you're building a team.
DK, Terry, Debo. And then Robinson running back? Yeah, good luck.
Brian Robinson. Another one that would be – Is Zach Ertz still the tight end? Yeah.
Or is he a free agent? I think he's got one year left, I believe. A cool team just looking at that board too, depending on who they have to pay still, would be the Lions.
Because Lions have 51 mil. Who knows if they're going to pay Hutch right now because he's coming off an injury and the money is so absurd.
but a team like Detroit would be sweet. And obviously Pittsburgh as well, Tony.
Detroit style of play would welcome DK, I would imagine as well. I see these clips going around the internet too of DK just blasting dudes all over the field.
They got 51.3. There was a little bit of room.
He is. I thought I saw his name on something.
But they could probably get him back. I mean, he had a great year.
Yeah, I would assume that he'd be happy to go back and play with Cliff for another year. Yeah, offense he knows.
Jaden Daniels he knows. Also became like a leader feeling from looking from outside in on that particular team.
Detroit Lions with $51.3 million. What are you guys going to do with it? I would absolutely love it because I don't think Tim Patrick has been signed yet for the next coming year.
He'd be the perfect. We'd have J-Mo, St.
Brown, and D.K. Metcalf.
D.K. loves the block.
He'd fit in there perfectly. I personally don't think they will do it.
I think they're going to focus on the defensive side and focus on getting their guys that they already have paid just like they did with Derek Barnes. How about we just mention the Vikings? Imagine the Vikings with Justin Jefferson and D.K.
Metcalf and Jordan Addison.

I mean, these are the teams that have just a shitload of money right now

where we're sitting.

And now, granted, Vikings need to pay a quarterback potentially.

Yeah.

I don't know.

There's a lot of names being rumored back to the Vikings as a veteran quarterback

unless J.J. McCarthy is just the guy.

Kirk Herbstreit said the other day on the show,

team's going to get better with J.J. McCarthy as quarterback.

They won 14-3 last year.

Yeah.

Said they're only going to get better. Yeah.
He said they might not win as many games, but whenever the time comes, J.J. shows up is what Kirk Herbstreet said.
He's not the only one. I think Herbstreet sent me somebody else saying something like very overwhelmingly positive about J.J.
McCarthy. Yes.
I forget who it was. I do not think we could find that statement from the original source.
Okay, that's how it all came about. He got a Cockner potentially.
It was Brady. Yeah, oh yeah.
It feels like I'm talking to myself. Yeah, I heard he said that over.
I'm not the only one who likes J.J., but it does feel like there is a lot of positive convo around J.J. Is that because the Vikings are ready to go with him and they need it to be positive around him or is it because you know that team should go so like whoever's that quarterback position is very important they're talking about if sam donald doesn't go there maybe sam donald there's rumors of him going to pittsburgh yeah tj said maybe kirk cousins goes back to minnesota on a cheap deal because he's getting paid by Atlanta.
What if Aaron Rodgers goes to Minnesota on a one-year deal to lead J.J. McCarthy or something small? The world is literally seemingly wide open at the quarterback position for the Minnesota Vikings, and I think they've got a lot of great opportunity to be great.
Joining us now is a man who has opinions, a man who studies the NFL, studies all the draft prospects. He just got done with a four-day combine where he talked about every single player that is potentially going to be a Hall of Famer and every single player that's potentially going to be a bust and every single player that is potentially going to be insurance salesman.
Ladies and gentlemen, Daniel Jeremiah. Yay, DJ! How you doing, DJ? I'm doing great.
AJ's face when you said that I correctly identified all the Hall of Famers was pretty fantastic, by the way. Well, yeah, he probably thinks that.
I trust you. Nobody can do that.
But if anybody could, it would be you. You were the one that Tone quoted as saying maybe Kirk or Sam Darnold to Pittsburgh or Kirk to – He said both.
On the 40s in free agency show, I believe it was. I was listening to it this morning.
He said, you know, if the Steelers don't sign Justin Fields and Sam Darnold doesn't go back to the Vikings, Sam Darnold to the Steelers. And then he was the first one to talk about Kirk potentially back to the Vikings.
Which would be insane, especially after he goes and gets his back. The Vikings didn't want to pay him, allegedly, because they had to pay Justin Jefferson and everybody else.
Then he's able to go back to the offense that he knows has done very well. And he also got paid and the Vikings don't have to be the one.
That would be the best case scenario for the vikings i feel like in their mind with the kirk cousin situations how do you see it working out especially after the combine with qbs yeah i think the quarterback here is fascinating you know let's start with pittsburgh there pat i i just feel like the pittsburgh steelers when we get to monday when this whole thing kicks off that they have to have either justin fields or sam darnold in the fold to me those are the two guys that make the most sense for the Pittsburgh Steelers now whatever way they go we'd have to wait and see and then with Sam in Minnesota you know I think it's tricky because it makes sense for obviously the year he's coming off of Minnesota try and bring him back but I don't know how long the commitment would be so if if if everything's equal, if you have Minnesota with a one-year offer and say it's Pittsburgh and whoever else is in the mix there, if it's all one year, even for less money, I think you stay in Minnesota if you're sitting there as Sam Darnold. But if one of these teams is wanting to commit to you longer than that, I think you have to take it.
And then it leaves Minnesota with, you know, I think people misinterpreted the Cousins thing. Like, why would he bring back Kirk and then not let J.J.
go? No, no, J.J. is going to be the starter.
But you have to have some veteran insurance there. First of all, the guy needs to stay healthy.
And with Kirk Cousins, I just thought it was a unique opportunity of somebody who, as you guys were mentioning, knows the offense inside and out. Atlanta's foot in the bill, so it's going to cost you next to nothing.
He can literally play for the league minimum like Russell Wilson did last year. That's why I thought that was a fascinating one.
Some people thought that shadow maybe would be too big for JJ, but Pat, you go to me on that one. Anybody that's met Kirk Cousins or been around Kirk Cousins, that's not really who he is.
I don't think that would be the case at all. He had a lot of success in Minnesota.
Would he want to go from being a backup to Michael Penix Jr. to a backup to J.J.
McCarthy? Kirk Cousins would have to have that discussion because who knows what the market looks like for Kirk Cousins. And aren't people saying that maybe he's back with Atlanta as the backup quarterback for Penix Jr.
Anyways, you're saying no from what you're hearing? Yeah, I mean, I know that's been out there, but that's in the Falcons' best interest to put that out there. Hey, no, we're comfortable.
Nope, we're not going to cut him. We're going to hold on to him.
So if you want him, you've got to trade for him and then you're going to have to eat some of this money. So I don't really read too much into what's coming out of Atlanta on that point.
Okay, so on that note, let's assume Kirk is available. There's probably some teams like, what about theiders you know what about the raiders that potentially would like a kirk cousins you know maybe tom brady says you know kirk has played a lot of winning ball he's obviously very quick at learning things he's fast he's smart and even if we get a young guy watch kirk work for like a year or two kirk is another like um stopgap quarterback almost and he can maybe win some games kirk will win you some games now are they going to be to be able to win a Super Bowl? Who knows, but I'm excited to see who ends up where.
What about Aaron Rodgers for the Minnesota Vikings? What about Aaron Rodgers for the Minnesota Vikings? Kevin O'Connell, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Anderson. It would only be a one-year deal, we assume.
So J.J. McCarthy gets to watch, gets to see how Aaron would operate.
You know, for one year, it's not a long-term investment. I don't know if Aaron's looking for a two-, three-year investment.
A.J. Hawk would be the one.
They'd be able to give that type of information. But as you think about the Brett Favre path here, it's like you go to the Jets, it doesn't work out.
You go to Minnesota, it did, though. Big time.
You know, especially now, it looks like it could work out, especially if you're an accurate quarterback who knows where the hell to go with the ball. That is seemingly what matters in a Kevin O'Connell offense DJ well can you can you just just repeat it and say it again with Minnesota and Aaron Rodgers I wasn't looking at AJ I want to look at AJ's reaction and to see if I'm a good poker player if I can read it and get a good feel for whether what this looks like AJ all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers I think he would be okay with Aaron finding a good good home.
Right, AJ? Isn't that kind of how you would view that? But Packers fans would not be thrilled, obviously. Yeah, no.
I mean, the Favre thing was one thing because he played with the Jets and then obviously he came in and kind of beat the Packers' ass when he was with the Vikings. But this one would just be – I mean, I lived it once.
I don't need to live it again. And this Vikings team, kind of like that Vikings team with Favre, there's a chance if he plays the way he did at the end of last season, yeah, they could win a Super Bowl with him, which would be just the worst thing ever.
And could you fathom Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, TJ Hawkinson, Devontae Adams, Aaron Jones back. That would be bad.
Jordan Nelson coming off the farm. He would never.
AJ, what are your thoughts on all of it? Obviously, speculation and who knows how much you know. Legitimately, who knows how much you know from that side of it.
But these are all potentially possible right now with this current quarterback carousel, AJ. Yeah, I guess they are.
Like, Minnesota seems weird for me for that to happen. I feel like with J.J.
McCarthy, why would you want Aaron in there? I feel like you want jj to come back and start and have like a maybe a vet backup that would you know you would feel good about if jj has a hiccup you had to help him out aaron is going to come in and be a starter wherever he goes i would imagine that's what he plans on doing but dj like where do you think is actually a good fit for aaron like coach-wise schematically where do you think you like are legit possibilities well i mean the one that was number one on the list was uh was the rams until stafford and that got all worked out that was the one that made the most sense are the giants going hard at him dj we heard yesterday that was that art was telling us art stapleton said they're negotiating right now he covers yeah that i have not heard the giants connected with any of the veteran quarterbacks other than Aaron Rodgers. And for a team that feels like when you look at the situation there with coach and general manager, there's some urgency here.
We need to get ready to go. We need to win right now.
So who's the win right now quarterback? It's Aaron Rodgers. So that one, to me, seems like there should be some urgency on their part.
I felt like with the Giants, if they had two tracks, they either trade up to one to get Cam Ward and ensure that they have Cam Ward, and then maybe they shop in that second-tier veteran backup market for just some insurance there for Cam to help him maybe buy him a little bit of time. But if they don't have a deal done as we go into free agency, then to me it's like they got to, I mean, I don't know who else is in on Aaron Rodgers, but it would seem to reason that nobody should outbid the Giants.
They would have the most to gain there. Allegedly, the offer they made to Stafford was very big, and the comp for the Rams was worthy of a trade in Lesnead's eyes and Sean McVay's eyes.
And then Matthew Stafford met with them on Friday morning of the combine and decided he was going to stay with the Rams.

Sean McVay has described that deal as being very selfless.

So we don't know the actual numbers, but we think it's going to be a lot less

than what the Giants were offering.

That's kind of seemingly how the story was going.

Would Dayball and he be a good fit, you think?

Yeah, I think so.

Look, they've got some good pieces in place, so they need to get a couple more offensive linemen um I mean obviously with with Saquon leaving it you know everybody's gonna focus on that but you know Tyron Tracy is nowhere near Saquon Barkley but he's a good player like he's a good back Neighbors is a legit number one wide receiver with New York um so they've got a couple interesting pieces in place, and they need to be active here upcoming in free agency. All these teams have money, and to me, I think you're going to see, a lot of them are actually going to be kind of patient and wait for the second wave.
The Giants, to me, would be one of those teams that would serve to be a little bit aggressive here, come out to shoot and get something done. Yeah, come on, Giants.
You know, because last off last offseason we saw you know this offseason let's do something different yeah exactly good luck out there we're pulling for you let's stick with the quarterbacks especially with the veteran ones the the conversation that's looming with all the vets these young guys trying to make a name for themselves connor aquaman has a question for you yeah dj it feels like those top five picks are huge especially those first three just kind of shaping the rest of the draft and kind of free agency do you see two quarterbacks going in the top five picks you mentioned the giants trading up there and from reports that we've heard the browns are definitely taking a quarterback and we saw mary k cabot report that you know they love shador that one man's brash is another's treasure is what was in the article she wrote about how they feel about shador do you see the giants and browns definitely going quarterback here do you think that's possible and then is are the titans definitely not taking a quarterback is that completely out of the question there's no way they're taking a qb they're definitely going to roll with levis uh for another year or sign one in free agency. I would say up in the air on the first pick with the Titans.
I wouldn't rule out Cam Ward there. I think that's still a legitimate possibility.
The interesting thing would be if Rodgers gets done with the Giants. If Rodgers gets done with the Giants and you're in a kind of all-in right now, we need to win to survive, so to speak.
To me, if you're sitting there and Travis Hunter's there and you're the Giants, and I've got a chance to have Aaron Rodgers, and I can go out on one side with Malik Nabors, and maybe the first year, maybe we want Travis Hunter to just kind of focus more on offense. Man, that changes that offense real quick, And they become very interesting and very exciting.

So that might pull the Giants out of the quarterback market, even at Aaron's age.

I just think there's an urgency there.

So that one is TBD.

The Browns, I've been saying all along,

made the most sense as a team that needed to take a quarterback.

Now, talking to people around the league,

there's some that say, okay, yeah, no,

they're going to take a quarterback,

but I wouldn't necessarily make it a lock that they're going to do with their first pick. They've done their homework on the second tier quarterbacks as well, so don't rule that out.
On who? On who, Daniel Jeremiah? Because I read a Kurt Warner tweet. I don't know if you guys saw this.
Kurt Warner, poor eye tweet, he's watching all the film while the guys. As you know, Kurt Warner, he does all his work.
He's due diligent to a T in everything that he does talking ball. Been watching the last four games for top NFL draft QBs, and Will Howard had the best four-game stretch of any quarterback I've watched so far.
And he really wasn't even that close. Great throws, consistent accuracy, downfield throws, good reads, multiple concepts, etc., etc., etc.
He'd continue to go on with etc. if he could.
He ran out of characters in that entire thing and he saw the same four games that we saw live in person which is why i felt the way i did going into the comment he had a bad day huh throwing its combine dj that's what they're saying he had a bad day out there what's the takeaway will howard and is jackson dart solidified as the number three cubino well? Well, first of all, Kurt sent me that text.

I was going back through it to pull it.

Yeah, because he knew Will Howard going back to K-State

because his kid played with him at Kansas State.

So he's known about Will for a long time.

But, yeah, look, I agree with you in terms of that four-game stretch.

It was a really nice run.

You agree with Hall of Famer or Kurt Warner?

You agree with Hall of Famer or Kurt Warner? You agree with Hall of Famer or Kurt Warner?

I'm sorry, not just me.

Yeah, no, but I mean, you got to do more than just the poor MVP.

Former Iowa barnstormer.

Hall of Famer.

Kurt Warner.

You name it.

Who's star?

Guy knows ball.

You agree with Kurt Warner and myself.

America's underdog.

And many others.

I'm sorry, go ahead.

He is America's underdog.

You know, look, the thing when you look at him and will howard is just you know do you have you know can you drive the ball do you have enough just pure velocity and and can you fit balls and windows that you didn't necessarily have to do much of uh there at ohio state that was the question the combine look patty he didn't throw it great there i don't i don't i think you can help yourself with the combine in the throwing i don't necessarily ever punish anybody for what you see us neither we like that it's just it's you know come on you're throwing to guys you don't know it's a weird it's a weird atmosphere um so i don't i don't hold that against him you get a chance at his pro day to throw to guys he knows and he's familiar with i think you'll see him throw it better i think he's in that conversation conversation for the third, fourth quarterback, the names you hear the most. I have Jackson Dart is the third.
Tyler Shuck is in that conversation with a lot of teams who are high on him. And then there's Will Howard.
If you're looking for a place for Will Howard, it's pretty easy dots to connect. If the Raiders aren't super active in addressing the veteran side of things and they just get a stop-back quarterback, who knows Will Howard better than Chip Kelly? So why would that not be an opportunity for him somewhere on day two to land with a coach that he's very familiar with? They have no quarterback in Las Vegas currently, although Max Crosby has come out and said, we'd love Aaron Rodgers as a Las Vegas Raider, which adds a whole nother, because maybe Will Howard does come in behind Aaron Rodgers.
There's just like so many situations where it sounds like signing the veteran free agent doesn't necessarily change the mindset of the team trying to get a young quarterback. And you know who's been doing this consistently? The Green Bay Packers.
Yeah. You know, like it is, it's almost just like a, yeah, this is what you need to do with the current model of nfl that we're in right now well if you know what we need though that's what we need though guys sorry sorry about me connor we got to get we got to get a a deal that we don't even know about we we are talking about the same names right the veteran names the draft names we've been talking about them forever we need the nfl needs to come through for us early next week and we need a quarterback trade that just just shakes the to the draft names.
We've been talking about them forever. We need, the NFL needs to come through for us early next week, and we need a quarterback trade that just shakes the whole thing up.
Luka to the Lakers! Yeah. I'll take that.
I don't know that we're going to get to Luka level, but who's like a mid-tier 12-6 game? Maybe. There's big names on the potential trade market.
Might not be a quarterback, but Tone has a question for you. Yeah, DJ, I wanted to ask about the Chargers since you cover them.

You do their play-by-play.

You know, it feels like we were talking about it.

They could be a wide receiver away from a deep playoff run.

Obviously, they hit on Ladd McConkie last year.

They have Quinton as well in there.

Is a guy like DK, do you see them potentially going after a guy like DK or Devontae who said he's wanted to play out on the West Coast? Do you see them making a big splash in the wide receiver market, this free agency? Those are interesting names, and Godwin would be another kind of veteran that's out there that would really help. To me, if you're looking for the complimentary piece, like DK would be, he fits because of the, he's like a jumbo-sized Mike Williams who Herbert had a ton of success with, the big physical wide receiver on the outside would compliment Vlad McConkie a lot I also think you can look at Devontae Adams you know Devontae Adams skill set wise like the way he plays is similar to the way Keenan Allen functioned with Herbert and Keenan Allen's numbers when he was with the Chargers were off the charts so that one would make make some sense as well um so i i think they'll joe ortiz loved draft picks and i was with him and worked with him in baltimore and i've known him forever i know he is uh he's a big fan of of holding on to his picks so that would be the one thing on the dk side of it that you know depending on how much that costs in terms of draft picks now maybe that pushes him towards one of these other free agents that you can go out there and just pay.
I do wonder where DK's going to head to. Where's Miles Garrett going to end up? There's some big names.
Everybody's saying DK to New England, man. Everybody in the league thinks that.
I like that. I like that, DJ.
Keep spinning that wheel. What do you mean in the league? What do you mean? You're getting texts from people around the league saying...
Yeah, DK comes available. You just talk to a bunch of buddies around the league and they're like, that just makes too much sense.
They have all the money. They have all the space.
They have no weapons. The high second-round pick, what are they picking? Like 38, something like that? Yeah, and they got two-thirds.
So they're going second-round pick, DK Metcalf. Boom, second and third, two-thirds.
$35 million. Get your ass over here.
You can't spell Metcalf without May. Boom.
You can't spell Metcalf-y without May. Yeah, there's a Y in there.
There's a Y in there. But the quote of Vrabel saying, we got compensation, we got opportunity up here.
And he's trying to shift that culture. You get DK in there, bought into.
Not a bad person for Drake May to be able to talk. What if Drake May, like if you're the Patriots, and I think that they would competition here from from the chiefs because of the moves that the chiefs made the chiefs now have a hole at left guard left tackle ronnie stanley makes a ton of sense for the chiefs to kind of be aggressive in free agency i would also say new england should be at least having the ronnie stanley conversation you go out in the first week and you you give drake may a left tackle and a number one wide receiver now we're cooking yeah.
Yeah, Ronnie Stanley is reportedly the number one free agent target. Who's saying that? Stutz and Putz? I don't know about Stutz and Putz, but I do know that there are people in the area in the know that are saying Stanley is the top guy for them and then a couple other names, of course.
One of them up there said something terrible about me. Josh Pate went the bat for me.
Appreciate you, Josh. Good boy, Pate.
Appreciate you, Pate. Appreciate you, Pate.
Let's get back to some college conversation. Ty Schmidt has a question for you.
Yeah, DJ, you put out your top 50 again today, and there was actually quite a bit of movement post-combine. Is that more so guys that didn't perform well at the combine, or is that guys who performed very well and just, you know, by happenstance, other guys fell? And how much is that going to actually change by the time the draft gets here? I think that's a great question, Ty.
I think there's a bunch of clumps in this draft. Like, if you look at different points in like the top 50, I have, you know, the receiver clump.
I think all three of those guys are evenly graded. For me, you've got Matthew Golden, you've got T-Mac at Arizona, you've got Abuka at Ohio State.
They're all slightly different. I gave them the exact same grade.
So at this point in time, I'm like, you know what, I'm going to clump them together. I've got a lot of time between now and the draft.
Now I can just do a project where I'm just going to watch those three guys one after another, go watch them against press, go through all those different,-ups you can, and try and figure those three out. So it's kind of put those clumps together.
We've got the edge rushers, Mike Green, James Pierce. You got Izuraku from Boston College.
Those guys are all kind of similarly graded. So you're kind of identifying these little clumps.
But guys that moved up, I'll give you a couple examples. You look at Max Harrison from Kentucky.
We talked about the fact he was going to run really well, which he did. So that wasn't a surprise.
That's not why he moved up. My thing was the tackling was a little bit inconsistent.
When you're at the combine, I got more information on him and talking to teams that had visited with him and medical stuff. And like, dude, he was playing with a messed up shoulder.
So that's why the tackling wasn't as good. So I'm like, okay, I can forgive that sin.
Move him up a little bit. Trey Amos, the corner from Ole Miss.
I loved everything about him except the LSU game. I thought they kind of ran away from him a little bit.
And it caused me to question his pure top end speed. Everything else is really good.
Fluid, instinctive, can play the ball.

I think he goes and runs 4-4-3.

So I'm like, okay, well, that answered the question I had on him.

So he moves up a little bit.

So that's just kind of a look into the process.

And sometimes you see a guy slide two or three spots,

and people are like, what the heck did he do?

Why did he fall?

I'm like, he didn't fall.

There's a couple guys behind him that answered some questions

and ended up moving ahead of him.

So that's what it is.

Your top 50 prospects are based on these are the best 50 or this is how you think they'll go just mine just how i rank them how i stack them so nothing to go with where you know how high they'll go i have two tight ends in the top six players in the draft those are two of the highest graded players in the draft now i don't think when it's all said and done they're both going to go there in the top six but for me i think they're the two of the six best players so you got tyler warren up there oh yeah yeah tyler warren's way up there and then i have loveland right behind him uh loveland is going to be cleared for action i do believe uh i think he has a pro day or something like that some doctor came out and said that was like a big deal this year for the combine this doctor has sent a note to all the teams letting him know he's not healthy enough to compete at the combine, although he'd want to. He will be back at a later date.
That felt more prevalent this year than ever before. Lovell and a dog.
Tyler Warren, a dog. Arroyo right down in Miami.
Then there's a Western Kentucky guy. Bowling Green guy.
Bowling Green, yeah. Fannin, yeah.
So this tight end position is becoming more prevalent, you think, as the years go on, or just this class? This is a really good class. It's as deep of a class.
Mason Taylor's going to be a stud, too. Oh, that, hey, that gauntlet drill.
He's so smooth. He didn't vary off the line.
You literally, he just drew a perfect line right down. That's like titch tape, right? Like, hey, this is how the drill is run.
And I saw 25 miles an hour at one point. I think that was maybe the ball that came in.
Yeah, I was picking that up. But nonetheless, he was still at like 20, tight end, 19, 20 miles an hour, while just poom, poom, poom, poom.
So my uncle's growing up, Pat. My uncle's growing up.
One of them was a pastor. One of them was— God bless him.
Drove a cab, right? His uncle, his dad, Jason Taylor, is Uncle Zach Thomas. So I think there's a little bit different upbringing in terms of the football side of things there yeah but what you did at app state we'll never forget we'll never forget up there on the rock i do believe is the way it is uh described back to the nfl aj has a question for you yeah quasi nfl thing dj we pop those quarterbacks up there and they're going to be throwing in it me thinking of these pro days that are coming up.
Is there a chance any of these young quarterbacks go to these pro days, and something happens, and someone jumps up the board, or a team falls in love with maybe a guy other than Cam Ward, Shadur, we know Jackson Dart is up there. Is anyone on this list you think someone could fall in love with after their pro days? And can you actually gain something when you go and you watch a guy throw at his pro day? Yeah, I would say more the private workout, you know? So if you're a team that's in the quarterback market, you'll go to the pro day.
You'll watch him throw there, but you're going to see, you know, more impact based off of a private workout. We're going to go, we're going to ask you to run, you know, throw the routes that we like to feature in our offense.
Maybe there's some holes in your game that we have questions about. So in our workout with you, we're going to put you through the paces and see if you can fill those gaps.
And when that happens, that's when you see teams fall in love with them. And to be honest, usually when you have those private workouts, they're accompanied by a dinner.
You're spending more time around the guy. You just get more comfortable with him and kind of what he's all about.
So yeah, I think you can absolutely fall in love with a quarterback from here towards we get to the draft. I think there's absolutely a chance that happens.
Kyle McCord, by the way, we didn't mention him. He threw it well.
He threw it really well in Indy. And, you know, he kind of gave me like Derek Carr vibes coming out of Fresno State.
And, you know, Derek started a long time in this league. So he'll have some sponsors.
Yeah, Kyle McCord, a lot of football. Yeah, man.
He's played a lot of football. That's a big stat, I think, especially here in Indianapolis.
People are starting to respect a lot more. Dude, experience, man.
It's tough to develop these guys in the NFL. So the more experience, that's just more opportunity, not only on the game field, but on the practice field.
You're seeing different coverages. You're making different throws.
Those that those reps just stack up and responding not only on the field to to different things happening but in life and as a teammate and as a leader like knowing how to respond to situations or how not to respond to situations because you've done it in the past or you've experienced all those there's a lot of things happening for the first time with anthony richardson like first time this happens first time you actually take a big time shot from an adult okay first time ever taking one of those and then you feel that for the first time how do you respond you know tapping out making an ass of yourself basically you know tapping out because you're tired how do you respond to that being a professional being a teammate first time how do you respond to that so it's like he didn't have a lot of football so he didn't have a lot of like learning curve obviously now we're hoping we're getting to the point where he can start kind of cracking into his potential because obviously he can be a superstar. But these guys that are having success, a lot of football.
A lot, a lot, a lot. Jaden Daniels, a lot of football.
Cam Ward, a lot of football. All of them have experienced multiple places too now.
So I think that kind of helps. CJ Stroud, I guess, only Ohio State Buckeye, but he played a lot of football.
It's like Cam Ward, ward shador a lot of ball dylan gabriel jackson dart a lot of ball dylan gabriel a lot of ball kyle mccord a lot of ball quinn ewers a lot of ball it's like jaylen milro obviously played a lot of ball it's like uh there's a lot of ball on these guys even though i guess the high top end conversation about a majority of these guys isn't there it's like a lot of experience a lot of uh success which i think and they've been through it i think the most important point is they've been through some adversity you know like that was always and i was in baltimore that was ozzie newsom's first question every player that came through was give me an example of some adversity you've been through and and tell me how you got through it and got on the other side of it and like bo nix should be the poster child for that like he got run out of the state of alabama i know the the grief that he took uh from his time at Auburn and then he gets on the other side of that goes to Oregon and uh and takes off like a rocket ship man so that shows you somebody that's that's dealt with real adversity is overcoming in the NFL that day's coming for everybody where you're going to have uh those moments so how do you respond to it I think a lot of guys that have failed not just at the quarterback position but at other positions man they're they're a five-star kid all the way going up through high school they're highly recruited they don't know how really have any struggle on the college field they're playing against guys they're always better than each and every week and then all of a sudden some adversity hits and it's like they don't know it's like it's like a shock to them they don't know how to handle it yeah and then the ability just to transfer anytime something maybe is mean said to you you know that adds into the whole by the way if you're a high school player or in transfer portal or want to get in the transfer portal we're looking for dogs at west virginia okay there you go we are looking for dogs at west virginia just just know west virginia open this next spring by transfer we're just selling opportunity at app state You go get your money elsewhere. We're about opportunity at our placement.
Clyde Cushinson's up there, I think. Yes, he is.
How about that? Put that on the sales pitch. You want to get coached by somebody who's coached Peyton Manning and Tom Brady? Come on up the hill.
And Andrew Luck. I mean, you're talking about that is a weapon.
He was at North Carolina, obviously, alongside Drake Main. He said, Drake's the guy.
Right? You pass on

Drake, you pass on a Hall of Famer. And he was right.

This guy's smart. He's athletic.

He's fast. He's fast.

Good kid. Have you ever had...
By the way, I think you

slipped a little Trump in there. Have you

seen... Have you ever

heard anybody say anything bad about Coach, by the way?

Ever in your entire life?

He's like the best human being. He owed me

five bucks for a couple weeks.

There were some terrible things to say.

He doesn't pay his debt.

No, he does.

Fast pay, fast friends, right?

That's his kind of his MO.

I was on his board for a while

because he would have a putter

and then obviously have a hole in his office.

So he'd walk by,

like you're walking past a game show.

And he'd be like, two putts, two putts.

You think he'd go out in the hallway?

I'm not it into his office, see if he can make it, and it'd be five peanut M&Ms, wouldn't be actual money, of course. And if you missed it, you go on the board.
And then the next day, if you walk by, he goes, still on the board, you know, it's like a reminder. You know, and I'd been up there for a little bit.
I've been up there. He's a legend, man.
Great coach. Great man.
He's a good man. Good man.
Him and Frank Reich were my quarterback coaches. How about that? I have a lot of respect for him.
A couple of legends. Frank Reich, I don't know how that all ended with him.
I hope he's okay. He's got a raw deal.
Him golfing. I hope he's okay.
I genuinely hope he's okay. If there's anybody you know is going to come back, it's Frank Reich.
Two biggest comebacks. One in college, one in the NFL.
There you go. What a legend.
All right. We appreciate you, DJ.
Enjoy the trip. Congrats on 25 years.
Quarter of a century is a long time in love, brother. Appreciate you, man.
Appreciate your friendship. Appreciate you guys.
Good to see you. Happy anniversary, DJ.
And thank you, Daniel Jeremiah. Happy anniversary, DJ! 25 years, he and his bride.
That's awesome. Congratulations.
That's a long time. Long time.
That's love. He's a pro.
He's a true pro. I was wondering about his pull away speakers against Ole Miss, you know.
They're pulling away from him. It's like, damn, DJ, how much he, when he gets to the combine, he is excited to unload all of the information.
He has watched 300-some guys' games. I don't know if he has an Excel spreadsheet or whatever.
So I was listening to his podcast, and they talked about a guy. He was like, what draft is that, 2021? And then he pulled him up real quick, and he had three quick hitters, what he does on the draft about that player and what the prospect is.
He has so much information on every single thing. Yeah, so I got to sit you know whenever i'm doing the combine and he does he does have like uh and he has like little code things too because he can't have it all so there'll be like uh like a letter and that'll mean something and then it'll be a comma and there'll be something else and there'll be something else color yeah it's like it's pretty wild because it's all like it's pretty because there's so many so it can't be like something that's too big so it's just like one line with the person and one line with the person and the person will go and he would like literally you see him and he'd be like, it's pretty, because there's so many.
So it can't be like something that's too big. So it's just like one line with the person and one line with the person.
And the person will go and he would like, literally, you see him and he'd be like, oh, yeah, yeah. And then he'd say, this guy.
And he would get right into it. It's like 300 dudes.
That's so many. New every year.
New guy always turning out new dudes too. You got to go, man.
It just seems like overwhelming to think of, to have that job. And then as he's watching the film, he's like, this guy's got no shot, but gotta know.
Yeah, because there's a chance he's gonna get drafted, so I have to be in the middle of it. We're very appreciative of Daniel Jeremiah showcasing his intelligence with us every single year, legitimately.
He also called Houston Texans going back-to-back 2-3 with C.J. Stroud and Will Anderson before anybody else.
A lot of people said, okay, we're just throwing shit at the wall these days. And then it ended up working out that way, and we forever said, DJ knows.
Schrager does too. Schrager, yeah, right before his last mock draft he releases the week of the draft is typically very spot on.
Like 20 to 30 correct things in there yeah because he's just he's talking to everybody what are you doing what are you doing okay and he puts out like day before it yeah it's right before it might even be morning of i forget you know what the draft is a good time isn't it so much storyline especially with these veteran quarterbacks aaron rogers with the vikings holy shit excuse me yeah seems crazy Whoa, what was that? You tell me, bud. I don't know anything.
I don't think anybody knows anything. You thinking about ice fishing on Minnetonka with your friend Aaron this year? We shall see.
Getting a big old swordfish like you had, that monster you pulled out. Thank you.
We were all there. It was an honor.

We'll be back on Monday. Great show coming on Monday.
Holy shit.

Have a phenomenal weekend. Hour 3

will be on the digital version. Be a friend.
Tell a friend something

nice. It might change your life.
Goodbye.

I think we hit it.

I think we hit it. Yeah, you did.

Masker week continues. The Tennessee Titans are releasing

pass rusher Harold Landry III.

Great player. Pro source.

I just saw Connor

celebrate, so he's hoping that he goes

I'll see you next time. week continues.
The Tennessee Titans are releasing pass rusher Harold Landry III. Great player.
I just saw Connor celebrate

so he's hoping that he goes up

to the New England Patriots it sounds like.

Yeah, I don't even have to hope. This is a Vrabel

guy through and through. He will be

living in New England this year, boys. That is interesting

to think that Vrabel kind of built that place down

there at this moment and they're going through

a turnover and a transition into what they want

the Callahan team to look like. So a lot of those guys Vrabel knows a lot about.
Everything about. And Landry's one of those guys to a T.
I believe his best years were with Vrabel. I'm not sure if he got his contract during Vrabel's last year.
I believe he did. Yeah, I thought he did.
He was drafted during the Vrabel era, so it does feel like that is an easy connection.

Over 30 sacks the last three years.

Okay. That's pretty good.

That's very similar to how

DK to the Raiders is becoming a thing

because of Pete Carroll. This, when he first

was granted his ability

to seek a trade,

immediately it was a

New England situation, but him getting

released is even better for the Patriots. Alright, well, hopefully your Patriots get better.
But also, maybe somebody else will drive up the price so that compensation and opportunity thing gets whittled away a little bit. Whittled away.
I don't think that's going to happen. Put that salary cap back up.
Look at how much money the Patriots have. It's crazy.
This is a culture-changing amount of cash in one offseason. Yeah.
Especially with the variable coming in there. 126 million.
125.7 available. Yeah.
And then you look down at like the Saints. Negative 38 million available.
So they're going to have to do salary cap gymnastics yet again. This is the annual New Orleans Saints operation.
We've got to figure out how to become cap compliant. They'll redo contracts.
They'll do – this is New Orleans Saints football. They chew loudly in the microphones with their gum, and then they're always behind the eight ball whenever it comes to the salary cap.
That's because they've gone all in a few different times, even though they haven't been able to win. The Bill's in that situation.
You look at the Falcons. You look at the Texans.
And then look at the New England Patriots. With a great pick and a lot of money, we've got compensation and opportunity, says Mike Vrabel.
Yeah, there's like a real world, because granted the Commies have to do the Debo Samuel deal and then that might be a little less. There's a world where if T.
Higgins were to be available, that the Patriots could pay T. Higgins and still have the most cap space.
So it really is one of those things where if you can get over the fact that it is going to have to be this new era turnaround,

come here, win some football games versus right away going into the preseason

knowing you're competing for a Super Bowl,

I still think there's a chance because of Rabel,

because of the guys in the pieces, just some of those premier positions,

left tackle, pass rusher, wide receiver.

Going to have to get the Eagles.

The Eagles are going to be a tough team to catch. We talk about the Chiefs.
We talk about the Chiefs for the last few years. Like, can you beat the Chiefs? Now the conversation has shifted to can you beat the Eagles? And it's like, that's what everybody's hoping for.
Vrabel has a style of football that might be able to at least keep it close and get a win in the fourth quarter. That's why I think if you're one of these teams in the NFC who's not in just like a terrible position, like you have to be a spender.
You have to go out and try to get like the Packers, like not something they typically do, but they have more money this year than they ever have. Like they should check in on trading for Trey Hendrickson.
You know, like they should try to get DK Metcalf because we know how good the Eagles are. Like you can't just stand pat and expect like, hey, what we did last year is going to be good enough next year when realistically it's probably not going to be.
Trey Hendrickson's coming to the Colts, brother. Yeah, but he wants to win.
Whoa! But he loves Lou Ann Arubo. Whoa! He actually was at the Saints when MCDC was at the Saints, so he'll be at the Lions.
Whoa! Colts are just a play away, brother. Remember two years ago we almost went to the AFC South.
He was at the Saints when Dennis Allen was at the Saints. He might be a bear.
Lions make sense. It would be perfect fit.
Let's all. You're going to put $80 million into him and Hutch? Yeah.
I don't know. Winning in the trenches like the Eagles.
That's how it works. I don't know.
Calvin Shepard would love that. Release the hounds.
O-line, D-line, Howie. If we can get home with four, we can just sit like the Eagles do.
Seven, 14 eyes. Hopefully everybody's got two eyes.
That was the whole thing with the Commanders. Or Brady, when the Commanders came out at halftime against the Lions in the playoffs where he was like, maybe they mix it up.
Don't blitz this half. And then first three plays, they blitzed every single play.
It was awesome. Let's get to a break.
On the other side, we'll wrap up all the storylines of the week, and then we're talking dirt biking. Yeah! Yeah! Supercross, Supercross.
Who's the boss? It's Supercross. Go get lost if you don't like our friends at Supercross.
Is that the theme song? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Supercross. That's sweet.
You guys didn't go jump? You got bikes out there and go jump somewhere? I don't know. That's the thing.
Imagine if they brought in. Wait, Zebra.
Matt, I was actually thinking where like Zeet and Nick and Bruce Park, that hill, easy, perfect jump. Yeah, so I used to, you know.
Get some air. All I want to do is bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
That's all I want to do. That's all I want to do.
You could actually probably go over the greens. You know, that'd be a little...
And then on the other side. We'll just get those things treated later.
We've got gravel, though. That's a tough gravel.
Yeah, but you've seen the tracks out there. They've got crushed rock and stuff like that.
You don't want loose rocks. They handle it.
I mean, definitely handle it. I don't think that's necessarily where you're heading to first.
Hey, where's all the loose gravel at? Let me fucking. Oh, it's tightly packed.
It's tightly packed out there. You don't got to worry about it.
Yeah, right. Foxy's been plunking golf ball.
Those rocks are everywhere. Yeah, they're tight until 250 CCs hit it.
Yeah. Quank, quank, quank, quank, quank, quank, quank.
Quank, quank. Maybe Colt just does it.
Hey, jump the thing. Go on, do it.
Oh, I think one just pulled up. Oh, a good point.
Maybe Colt just does it.

Hey, jump the thing.

Go on, do it.

Oh, I think one just pulled up. Oh, I see him.

Oh, hell yeah.

Maybe turn Jabba around, shoot right at the front door.

I don't know if we're able to get to the front door or not.

Go on, dance, Jabba.

Go on and dance.

Bag it up.

Bag it up.

I think I went the wrong way. No, pause.
Zoom. This is as far over as I can get.
Oh, no. Java.
Never going to work, Foxy. What's the track for? Never going to work.
There we go. Yeah, move it a little bit.
There you go. Oh, oh, oh, oh.
You see him? Coming in. Wham, wham, wham, wham.
Wham, wham, wham, wham. That right there, ladies and gentlemen, is Colt Nichols.
Oh, the old 4-5. The big 4-5.
Hey, let's hop some fumes, boys. Bring those boxes into the...
Bruce, hold that board. Get Bruce on me.
Bruce can ride it. Bruce, ride that thing in.
Bruce is supercrossed. Yeah, come on, Bruce.
Get over it. Get over it, Bruce.
Why don't you bang? Bruce? Number 45. The Suzuki.
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A real person. Yep.
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Sports are happening, and that's A.J. Hawk.
He's a football player. The Talks with Tables here at Boston Corner and Ty Schmidt.
They're anglers, clearly. One half of the hammer, done.
Feel good Friday. Cowboys AP Tone is here.
Bailey McComas is on the court. And right now, ladies and gentlemen, we got a 450cc absolute weapon that Colt Nichols flies around.
And then the trophy right next to it is the SMX World Championship Trophy. It is currently owned by Jet Lawrence.
Yeah, Jet on the dirt is a problem. And that's what they're racing for.
Okay, that's what they're... That's what they're...
That's what they're... Trophy.
Okay, that's what they're leaning for. That's what they're rocking for.
That's what they're jumping for. Ladies and gentlemen, you're looking for the...
You're trying to zoom in on the name? Rating? Yeah, I was. That was quite an aggressive move on technology.
If that would have worked, I would have been very impressed, especially with the lack of lighting that we have out there and everything. Nonetheless, that's the SMX World Championship.
That's what it's all about. This weekend, they have an event down at Lucas Oil Stadium.
And shout out to Supercross. Supercross.
Who's the dirt boss? Supercross. Supercross.
You don't like it, you can get lost. Supercross.
Supercross. Also, in the city, the NBA is happening.
Indiana Pacers don't look now, they're the team. In the entire NBA.
Well, maybe except for one particular team. Over the last 10 games, a team in Los Angeles has come alive.
A fan base has been awoken, and a GOAT is obviously feeling better than he's ever felt. The LeBronchic era for the Lakers is very real and very exciting.
Just last night, they were down 10 against the New York Knicks in the fourth quarter. It was electrifying.
Big-time shots from LeBron James. Big-time plays from Luka Doncic.
Massive shots from Austin Reeves. And on the other side, Jalen Brunson gets hurt a little bit, but it is still a game that was must-watch.
It didn't end until like 1.32 a.m., so a lot of us missed it over here on Eastern Time. But just know that this Los Angeles Lakers team, if they're on TV, they worth a watch right now luka donchich and lebron james have become a duo that has worked so perfectly together so quickly i think it has a lot of people wondering why and how can this happen in 2025 in the nba i think luka grew up a massive lebron james fan i think lebron james has always been a massive luka fan so when they're put on the team together, you can showcase the respect that they have.
LeBron will sit his ass in the corner. Luka will do everything.
And now all of a sudden, LeBron is having an opportunity to have wide open threes like he's Ray Allen at 40-some years old. He's already scored 50,000 points the hard way.
Now he's going to have an opportunity to do it whenever somebody else is controlling the ball and controlling the defense. They're fun to watch.
And I know Charles Barkley doesn't like this particular network talking about this Lakers team, but Luka and LeBron have been magical together. And the way that he exited Dallas made him a must-like player, in my eyes, in Luka.
And this is really good, I think, even though Charles Barkley doesn't like this, and we are friends and appreciate Charles Barkley and everybody over there. It is great for the NBA that this Lakers team is playing phenomenal basketball right now.
Yeah, I love Chuck. And just the trade in general, I feel like the players in the NBA were like, holy shit, because Luke is getting traded.
I do kind of have to be a little more personable, maybe. Who knows? That could have been a factor to it because clearly being liked does matter when it comes to both the organization and fans but yeah you can tell luke is jacked he he did the james harden get me out of here kind of situation and now he is a yoked up guy he went he did not do it get me out of here so he got kicked out no no uh body transformation rather he not not the on purpose you know let me get james harden has done that a few times.
James Harden? James Harden is the hammy. We win.
Yeah, oh, look, I'm fat. I'm fat all of a sudden.
And then the next week. 50.
Yeah, he's dropping 50. I don't mean to get me out of here like that.
I more so just mean the body similarities. Luka is already in great shape.
Obviously, he's playing out of his mind. The big one is going to be tomorrow night.
Lakers-Celtics. This is kind of the first massive test for the Lakers, I would say, during the LeBronchic era.
The Celtics are playing very good basketball, as they typically do. And this is a game, I think, for Celtics fans as well to kind of look forward to just because it's like, hey, the whole Cavs thing, you're up 23-2.
That was a tough loss. You kind of let your foot off the pedal now.
LeBron, big dog. LeBron, Lakers, Celtics rivalry coming to town.
But, yeah, it has worked out for the Lakers. Obviously, the Mavs injuries, it sucks for them.
And, you know, Mark Cuban actually, he just did an interview and basically talked a little bit more about it, opened up about it a little bit, and just said nothing against Anthony Davis, but if this trade is going to happen, which he said he had no idea was happening, you need to get more. Anthony Davis is a great player, but when you look at his age, when you look at the injuries he's had, a player like Luka, you'd assume, is going for eight first-round picks.
For them just to get

a player in the pick is

kind of asking. He drank beer, though, and he smoked

hookah. Which got him to

the finals, which we've hammered home. I couldn't even imagine

hookah in L.A.

He's probably got some great hookah out there, AJ.

We went to

a hookah place. Where was it?

D-Butt set us up with.

Houston.

That was my first experience in one of those hookah spots. It was pretty cool.
I understand where Luca goes. Yeah, good vibes, obviously, at any hookah spot, and obviously the taste and the flavor.
And, you know, this guy will just smoke just tobacco wraps from the street if you gave it to him. You know, this guy will smoke whatever with his cigars.
Get a little hookah in there. Enjoy life.
Have a beer. Enjoy the success and all the hard work that you've put in to get to this point.
Luke will like, do it. Sue him.
Well, Nico said, I'm not going to sue you. I'm going to kick you out of town.
And L.A. saying, thank you.
Thank you. It happened quicker.
Didn't it happen? The fact that they were playing so well together happened much quicker than I thought could happen. 10-2 since the trade, yeah.
And they're now second in the West. They were seventh, I believe, like a week ago.
Now they're second in the West, 10-2, and nobody wants to play them. So I think that is a good spot to be.
And J.J. Reddick was getting crushed, murdered whenever he took that job and how bad they were at the beginning.
Now there's like inside clips coming out of him coaching and his strategy and obviously being able to get this team to coexist and work together and all their pieces and their bench is great it's like lakers are a real deal and at halftime i got one hundred thousand dollars because he made a half court shot i like that this is a hundred racks you know real pressure real life changing stuff as opposed to like let's say 19 grand but what a make out of cuz mg he sold his chest you know to mgm for the halftime shot, our half-court shot. And congrats to him.
Everything's going right for the Lakers right now. Yeah.
Everything's going right, including halftime shots. Celtics, great.
Cavaliers, great. Oklahoma City, great as well, right? Yeah, those are kind of the top four.
Pacers. No, if we're going great, we're going top of the league.
we're going up four. Well, you know who's back?

Who's that?

Just like the Kansas City Chiefs.

Don't do it. Just like Kansas City Chiefs who have had massive success

and they hadn't been playing good football all year even though they've been winning.

Whenever the lights get the brightest, they show up.

Say hello to Steph Curry in Brooklyn, New York last night.

Just vintage Steph Curry bullshit here.

Just, you know, second quarter going into halftime, buzzer beater, and fade away, walk on off. Buckets.
So Draymond Green's got a lot of moxie right now. He's doing a lot, saying a lot.
He's not backing down either. He's saying, well, I apologize for that.
The Draymond Green show rolls on, though. That's not what I meant.
Yeah, you know that that's not what I meant whenever I said it. I did not know that.
I was talking about something else. Tease a piece to all parties, but the Draymond Green show rolls on.
Jimmy Butler, obviously a weapon for this Golden State Warriors team. Feels like things are kind of shaping up here towards the end of the season, Con, man.
Yeah, they're just like the Pacers, kind of hitting their stride right at the right time. I guess different in the sense that they got Jimmy Butler and that made them much better.
But, yeah, that's another team, another dark horse, just like Indiana, if you will. And then there's still some teams in the middle there.
Milwaukee is still, you know, Giannis. No one really talks about them.
Small market. That's a conversation for Charles Barkley to have.
And then, you know, also the Knicks,icks of course who everyone says can't beat a good team

and last night we kind of proved that but uh there's still 10 in the fourth yeah there's they're still hanging around so we'll see what happens but if history tells us anything you know typically it is kind of the cream at the top that uh we'll get the job done but Dallas was a five seed last year and they made it all the way to the final so who knows why did do that uh do that? Luka Doncic kind of did the entire deed, if you will.

And now he's where?

And now he is with the Lakers.

With who's on his?

With LeBron and Bronny, which I don't know if you're allowed to say.

You're allowed to say Bronny's a professional athlete, obviously.

Okay.

I think you just, you know, maybe if you have an interesting scene there. Yeah, that was the last thing we didn't really touch on that game.
Interesting scene there at the end. LeBron coming over, staying on business.
SOB. So, listen, next time I see that guy, I'm going to let him know.
I do not like the way he is operating. And he certainly did that right after the game.
Stephen A gets announced. He just signed a new deal with ESPN.
Congrats, Stephen A. That has obviously been lingering overhead for a long time.
He goes to the game, enjoys it, and, you know, LeBron comes over to him and says, let's not be talking about my kid the same way you've been talking about me for the last two decades. How about that? Stephen A obviously answered this morning his response.
I'll be excited to see how it is received by LeBron and LeBron's squad. we will say this rich paul will be on our show next week nice we can't wait to see how that uh kind of all ends up working out but obviously in a public place never want to see this hopefully they're able to go shake their hands but a lot of things have been said and i know bron said this is about brawny not about me but like i assume with a lot of things that have been said over the years you know there's been a lot so hopefully this is the let's go shake their hands moment between the two aj hopefully yeah i mean i think it'd be tough for anybody to read or watch people talk about your kid let alone if you're on the same team as him and you're still in the same league like it's such a unique situation yeah i get it i understand like i'd be pissed if people are talking about my kids not only kids you gotta think but i get the situation i understand bro I understand Bronny.
It comes with the territory. I get all that.
But I understand being a human and reacting. Yeah, and LeBron saying it's about Bronny for sure.
Okay, it definitely is. But also there's been a lot of things said about me and my game and my craft and everything like that over the years, not just by Stephen A, by a lot of people in sports media, comparing him to Michael Jordan, what, since like year two or year three? It's high school.
So I think there's a lot of things potentially that lead into that. And then whenever it goes to his son, he's like, enough, I'm going to, and Stephen A is obviously the most famous guy in sports media, especially whenever it comes talking day to day and basketball and everything like that.
So, you know, hopefully they get past it, you know? And hopefully the conversation and dialogue about LeBron has been able to accomplish throughout his entire career potentially changes a little bit as well, as opposed to just saying, this guy ain't Jordan. Jordan would chew more gum.
This guy ain't chewing any gum. I don't see this guy doing any of that.
Oh, Jordan wouldn't have taken a piss during the first half. He would have had his bladder under control.
Like, that is basically what this guy's entire career has been. So now that he has 50 000 points in the nba and maybe the best team he's had in a long time right now maybe there is a little bit more of a uh hey this guy pretty good for a long time maybe this guy pretty good pretty good at basketball yeah and all the stuff that people have said like you know that that was one big thing steven a was saying was like hey he could have he could have called me and we could have had this conversation man-to-man.
I'm sure LeBron's like, well, you've been saying this on national television. So that is calculated.
I'm going to go ahead and dress you down in front of all these celebrities and all these people and maybe give you a little taste of what I've been feeling for the last two-plus decades. Stephen A.
signs an NBA deal and LeBron says, now you're going to get traded like an NBA player. Yeah.
Hopefully's the way it's going to go. Hopefully they settle that and figure it out.
Two very important people to the sports society, obviously. And congrats to Stephen A.
on the new deal. I know that has been talked about for a long, long time.
Our names. Now, granted, when I sign a deal, it's for like a 15-person company, which that kind of gets lost in the conversation a lot, you know.
But like my name was getting projected into his negotiations a lot by a lot of people. And I just wanted Stephen A to feel as if he got what he has deserved.
The guy works his ass off. He's on TV all the time.
He's been doing ESPN stuff for, what, 13 years now? 14 years full-time. So I'm happy to see he got paid.
That's good news for all parties. And congratulations, Stephen A.
he says he's not running for president. Okay.
So he's taking with sports there for a bit. For now.
Not now. He's been doing politics though.
He's been dabbling over there. Oh yeah.
Every night there's a new clip of Stephen A just cooking some politic conversation. And it's like, yeah, this dude's been doing debating and talking for a while now.
He has been jousting. You know they say 10,000 hours makes you great.
It's like Stephen A has 10,000 hours of debating. Yeah, sure.
And if... That's interesting.
That feels like a pretty... I'm not going to say it.
What? The political world, anything you say in the political world does massive numbers, you know? Like it is because people very genuinely care. But a lot of the people that are doing the...
And once again, I don't pay attention close enough. I don't feel like there's a lot of good talkers over there enough i don't feel like there's a lot of good talkers over there i don't feel like there's a lot of good talkers over there you know so steven a having a passion and also having an incredible ability of what he does and obviously intelligence to be able to understand all that shit which i am nowhere near but then his ability to speak is in real time on camera like when stuff is brought up that you might not be super informed on like be able to do that is yeah the people that are great at it they make it look easy yeah and sports people i think are good at it because kind of have to every that's kind of what the whole entire model is so like steven a potentially dabbling over there i've only seen a few clips of him and people and it's like oh they have no idea they have no idea what's going on and if they counter he's going to have a counter i mean this is not a this is not just a oh yeah you're right type situation it's like uh let me explain to you why you were wrong and then a great promo and then just kind of leave it at their desk and it's like i don't know if any of these people expect that to be coming back from stephen a it's like might be a whole new world over there in political commentary if stephen a takes his uh takes his talents over there which it seems like he's dabbling but at least we know espn's gonna happen for what five years yeah congrats to him ladies and gentlemen it is time for us to talk about something that we don't know a lot about but hopefully we'll learn this weekend a massive event is happening at lucas oil stadium there's an annual event that always brings a ton of people to downtown Indianapolis,

Indiana.

Ladies and gentlemen, a man who's won twice here in Indianapolis,

Supercross legend, racist for the Suzuki team.

He's a former 450cc Rookie of the Year, ladies and gentlemen, Colt Nichols.

Hey, Colt!

Hey, Colt!

Hey, Colt! Hey, Colt! Out. Everybody's cold.
Everybody's cold.

Out of Oklahoma.

This guy's from Oklahoma.

If you can feel it.

Pleasure's on mine.

How we doing?

How we doing?

How's it going, man?

Pleasure.

Oh, you got the Tyrese Halliburton's on.

Oh, no.

As long as it wasn't.

He knocked over at least.

He broke me.

Oh, no.

He broke me.

The blue in her?

What the fuck, man?

That's not a good start.

That's not a good start, Colt.

At least it wasn't Earnhardt.

I got to take a seat.

I got to take a seat.

Oh, my God.

Tell Lisa, though.

Oh, my God.

You're going to have to give him your back.

Colt, let's see it, Ty.

The head come off?

No, the feet.

Goddamn legs broke off.

She got no feet.

LeVar Ball.

That is my bad.

That's a party foul.

That's my bad. I apologize.
It is your bad? It's 100% my bad. But we'll move past it.
Well, you got a big weekend. I don't want you thinking about this when you're riding your bike.
Fair enough. Fair enough.
Oh, no. Whoa, what a catch, Mike.
That was. That was out of emotion.
He caught Lisa Bluter's torso and her head over there.

I'll tell you, it was done because you wanted to show respect.

Yeah.

That's all it was, yeah.

That's all it was.

You wanted to show respect to Ty.

Yeah, it had to be done.

We got some super glue, too.

We'll be able to put her legs back on her.

We'll get Chris Angel in here.

He'll be able to put those legs right back on Lisa Bluter.

Don't you think about any of that.

Colt, how old are you?

I am 30. Okay.
We're getting old, dude. We're getting old for our sport.
Okay, what is average age? Actually, it's getting older. Now top guys are going until 30, 35 range.
It used to be late 20s. Physically demanding, right? Very.
It's a really, really tough sport. We get injured a lot, hit the ground, it hurts.
That's what makes guys retire early. But a lot of guys make enough money and be able to retire by the time they're 30.
Love that you're able to turn something you love into a full-time profession. You're a two-time Indianapolis.
Just Indianapolis. At the time, I was racing the 250 class.
Now I'm in the 450. Won here twice in 2021.
Almost had the third one. Crashed out on the first lap.
Tumble, big explosion type deal. But yeah, love this place.
Good vibes here. Love this place.
Big explosion. Is that, are all tracks similar? They all have the same shit in it, just different designs? Yeah, same obstacles.
Whoops, triple, finish, all this kind of stuff, just configured it all differently. The dirt's different every weekend.
Like Indy's notorious for like softer, really ruddy conditions. Some of the tracks really hard pack.
So it just depends on where you go. But this place is something special.
So you're a rudder. You enjoy the thick mud.
Oh yeah, I love that. How come? It's like it's a damper? It's more damp? I guess.
I don't know. I don't know if the dirt's frozen from outside.
It rains a lot. They store the dirt usually some places.
Some places it's outside, and this place just ruts up a lot. It's like what it's known for, but it's awesome.
I love it. Okay, so the out-to-shoot is the big deal, right? Big deal.
You got 22 guys lined up. We're all going into the first turn, and everybody there thinks they're going to get there first.
So it's just chaos most of the time. Surviving first lap, big deal.
Yeah, big deal. First turn, I guess.
Yeah, you've just got to position yourself good. That's literally half the race.
Getting out of the gate good, putting yourself in a good spot, and then after that, trying to make moves. How many laps do we have? We've got 20 minutes, 450 class.
250 class is 15 minutes plus one lap. 450 is 20 minutes plus one.
So it's demanding. Like your heart rate is probably 185 the whole time, kind of peaking right there.
And it just gets really, really hard. You're up and down a lot, standing, sitting, pulling, pushing.
It's tough, man. So Buffalo Wild Wings went from like 12 wings to like a pound of wings.
You could get like to 13 or whatever. It's one of those.
It's not laps anymore. It used to just be 20 laps, 15 laps.
Now it's 20 minutes. They just wanted the racing to be a little longer.
Some of the tracks are high 40 seconds, low 50s. So the racing was done really quickly.
So we want to have these guys out there, the premier guys out there, for 20 minutes so everyone can see a show for at least 20 minutes. What's the week look like? You got practice leading into the weekend? Yeah, we got practice.
Qualies? When are qualies? No, we usually fly on Friday. We start in the morning with an untimed practice, so you can just go out there, learn the track, see how it's all pieced together.
Got to bop around. Yeah, sure.
Pretty much. And then we have two time sessions after that.
That depicts your gate pick for the night program. Where do you want to be? Inside? Typically, you want to be closer to the box or inside.
There's usually a starting house, 12 gates, 12 gates, or 11 and 11. Depends on how long or short the start is, the strategy will change on where you want to be.
But you want to get a good practice time so you can pick the best gate. They usually have these big ruts coming out of the front of them, and they're all jacked up.
So you want to pick the best best one and you can only do that by getting a good uh good gate pick okay so that's what the qualities are for yeah and when are the final sunday uh no all saturday night so we get done qualifying you have a little break you get out of your gear uh usually sign autographs meet the fans do stuff like that a lot of fans by the way i think that was that was a big i don't want to say surprise no offense i did not grow up in a dirt bike community but out racing is king, obviously, in Indianapolis and Indiana. I think the first time you guys came to town, I did not expect the amount of human traffic.
There's a lot. A lot of people come to town.
I mean, we'll sell out Lucas Oil Stadium and every stadium that we go to pretty much sellouts. 40,000, 50,000 people every night.
TV packages have grown. The Peacock deal that we signed for Supercross is huge.
And honestly, just the amount of money like the guy that pretty much won everything last year is the kid on screen jet lawrence jet lawrence he's the uh smx world champ yeah smx world champ i mean that dude made i mean anywhere from eight ten million dollars last year it's a big uh big money deal you know if you're winning races and doing good so i don't know you're from oklahoma so i'm not 100 sure if you're a country fuck can you move that that mic a little bit? But country fucks love the dirt bikes. Oh, we absolutely love it.
We dig it. That is the people that I know.
Oh, we love it. I've had an opportunity now to meet a lot of people with football and sports and traveling and everything.
Oh, yeah. And I've always rode, you know, heaven box.
Okay. You're hopping on a Harley.
Indian and Harley. Yeah.
Yeah. Heaven box.
You know, we got hydraulics whenever that thing parks. It goes on down there.
Oh, yeah. Do you guys, you kind of start with dirt bikes as like kids, it sounds like, in ATVs, right? I mean, you start on like a PW50, which is made by Yamaha.
It's pretty much the bike that everyone started on. It's the smallest bike they make.
Everyone started at three, four years old, probably. We start from there.
Then you start going to local races. Then you go to these bigger amateur events that they have scattered throughout the country and try to get sponsors and things like that.
And it just grows and grows and grows. And eventually you can turn pro at, I want to say, 18 years old now.
You can turn pro. You used to be 16.
Now it's 18. And then as soon as you do that, I mean, there's a lot of kids now that will sign contracts at 13, 14 years old.
And they're making $100,000, $200,000 a year as a 13, 14-year-old kid. A lot of that's going into the bike though, right? Because you guys have to build your own bikes and shit? It uh depends like some of those kids like uh all that's taken care of you know the bike stuff it's taken care of from the team this is pretty much money to go stay committed yeah go all over the country most of these kids go to training facilities you know they they'll probably go home schooled and they live at a training facility full time all they do is train like dirt bikes all day every day that's all eight to ten million dollars available you know at the end of the road yeah so that's like the goal i mean that the guy that's winning everything now they're from australia you know they're not even from the states they had like this big move over here all to chase the dream to race supercross and be a supercross champion so it is uh it's a crazy sport it's exciting like we're in a really really good time period for our sport it's growing like crazy like i said selling out stadiums uh big tv packages and the

racing is just insane it's a lottery on who's going to be at the top step of the podium every

weekend so it is just man it's a really really good time to be a fan of our sport okay so you said australia there how many other countries are really into dirt biking in my head i'm trying to think of like country places oh i mean america i mean america number one yeah hey don't forget Hell yeah!

Candid don't even got dirt bikes!

Ain't that right?

But the guy that is winning everything right now, he is Australian. We have a rider from Japan, a rider from Germany.
There's guys all over, but they all come here to race Supercross. Supercross is by far the premier thing.
It's, you know, for you guys, NFL, top tier. For dirt bikes, Supercross is it.
Okay, so what's the furthest jump we're doing in any given race? Is there a certain track that is known for having a massive jump or are they all pretty much regulated? More on the outdoor circuit. Outdoor circuit is all tracks that have been there for years.
Kind of carved out through the grass. They've got hills.
A bunch of stuff. There's huge jumps where we're jumping 130, 140 feet.
In Supercross, it's all regulated. Not with a heavy bike.
You're jumping with a dirt bike. Yes, this guy right there.
Yeah, that 450cc. That 450, I think, will bark.
It can take off on you. You've got to be careful with it.
I think it'll bark. Yeah, Supercross, all regulated.
All the Supercross triples are 65 feet. The finishes are usually 50, 60 feet.
They're all usually somewhat the same, just so that whenever you build your track at home

or wherever you train at, you know how to build it.

So it's all kind of a spec.

Being regulated seems smart.

Yeah, it does.

We're inside the stadium. It's a good move.

Especially if we're making $8 million to $10 million,

this feels like a blossoming professional avenue

for a lot of people.

Go ahead, Con, man.

So how are the vibes on tour?

Does everybody hate the Jet guy

because he is wearing everything and he's Australian? Have to get along get along right yeah yeah like are you flying in just on fridays like do you have a lot of time with the other people racing like how does that work when it comes to everybody who's racing yeah so so so like some guys will train together during the week you know like we stay at some of the facilities some of us will train together ride together during the week uh most of the time though everyone tries to do everything separate because you don't want to give away any of your secrets, any stuff like that. But when we show up on the weekends, we usually fly in Thursday, fly in Friday.
It depends on if we have press or stuff to do on Friday. But, yeah, I mean, for the most part, you have your rivalries like you would in any other sport.
You know, like this guy hates that guy or, you know, that team hates that team like in football. You definitely have that.
But for the most part, we all have like really big respect for each other because this sport's tough, dude. It's hard.
As soon as you've got it figured out, you end up crash, get hurt, then you're knocked out for the whole season. Like Jet Lawrence, he just tore his ACL a few weeks ago.
Nice! Out for the whole season. One more spot! We're not looking for that.
You know, you're competitive. Come on.
Get up there. We're obviously teasing peas to an Australian ACL.
Shout out Jet. Love Australia.
Jet honestly is a really good dude. I was teammates with him a few years ago.
Good kid. He's so young and he's kind of taken the sport by storm just because he's so young.
He's came in and done some incredible things at a really, really young age that's not normal. Normally it takes guys five, six years to get into it and he did it first year out.
He was a 450 champ. His very first try, that's kind of incredible.
He's a badass. Like, he's a sick kid.
A lot of us, though. I mean, all of us, we've been doing this for a long time.
A lot of respect. But, yeah, you definitely got the rivalries.
You got your beef, you know, on the weekends. Guys taking each other out, and then you're pissed off.
You guys all know each other, right? Because you've been racing throughout your entire life. I feel like with, like, the car racers or the IndyCar racers, they were go-karts against each other.
They kind of know each other. Indy lights, they came up against each other.
You guys are probably similar, right? Same exact thing. I've been racing the same guys that I'm still racing now in the 450 class.
I started racing when I was 10. You know your tendencies about some guys.
You know who they are, what they are, because you've been racing for so long. What's your style? What would they say your style is? Probably a little more finesse, I guess you would say.
I don't really know how to describe it. You're reading.
Yeah, trying to. Skill.
A lot of guys, like you would describe, they just are on edge all the time. You never know if it's going to be good or bad.
It looks really sketchy while they're doing it. Some guys are really calculated.
Honestly, it's poetry and motion, though, what we do. There's a million lines everywhere everywhere the bikes are so fast and it's just all so calculated just like anything else the more reps you do the better you get the better you get but our sport is uh like i said it's insane i hope you guys can come out tomorrow because it's it's gonna be a hell of a couple years ago we were gonna go it was on st patrick's day too we all got two hammered oh yeah that'll happen yeah yeah i was talking to sean brennan i believe he's your PR guy.
It was a great text conversation because we were downtown.

We came downtown to go to the Supercross thing.

And then it happened.

The showcase is amazing.

I mean, what a spectacle.

You guys are piecing together, which is fantastic, which is part of that TV deal.

And I assume licensing deal and everything like that.

But we came downtown to do St. Patrick's Day to end up at the Supercross.

And then one thing led to another.

Had to get home. Had to get home.
Don't know how. A little bit too old.
No, I took an Uber home. It was a two-hour ride, and I was also very, very confused.
But you guys, and we just showed it there, a little bumping and rubbing his racing. That'll piss you off when that stuff happens.
That's what gets the rivalries going. Fans love it, though.
When you get low cut. Oh, yeah.
Low bridge. Yeah, get hit right in the leg.
Just barely the front wheel that'll make you fall down then you're pissed and you got to come back try to catch everybody again ooh uh makes it chaos what was it last year or two years ago we saw that guy oh yeah was that last year i think it was last year it might have been yeah maybe we saw the video last year somebody went full been there done that it ain't fun i'll tell you that right now that. Oh, yeah.
Full speed. We're talking lose control.
Oh, yeah. I've broken myself off way too many times.
I mean, like most of us, I mean, we've had, you know, just myself, shoulder, knee, you know, hip, femur, humerus, wrists, arms. Gee, femur.
Like an orthopedic surgeon's dream. I mean, some guys, that's kind of like the hard part of our sport is literally just staying healthy.
That's like the hardest part is being there every single weekend. The guys that can do that usually are, you know, just a lot of steps ahead because then you get hurt, you miss races, you miss training, you're that much further behind.
That's like it's a really, really hard thing to do, and, yeah, it's tough to keep getting back on that horse. Who's taping code up this week? Yeah, literally.
I'm about to take my shoulder up this weekend. It's a little dinged up, but that's all right.
Where are we in the season right now? We're round, I think this is round eight in the season. Either round eight or nine, I keep losing track of where we are.
So we have 17 rounds total. Okay, we're mid-season right now.
Yeah, mid-season form, trying to get ourselves going a little bit. Then as soon as this ends, we have one weekend off, and then we go to the outdoor circuit that I was talking about earlier.
That's spread out all through the country as well. There's 11 races in that, and that's considered like our regular season.
As soon as that's over, two-week break, and then we're into the playoffs, SMX playoffs. It's essentially the same thing as football.
So we'll start out if it's like, normally it's all the same as far as like your point system on how it works. As soon as you get to the playoffs, the first round is the same standard points.
The second round's double points. Third round is triple points.
And then at the end, a million dollars is up for grabs on whoever wins the SMX title.

Oh, shit.

Just for those three races, a million dollars.

Just for that one.

Pre-tax?

Pre-tax.

Real bummer.

$650,000.

$630,000.

God, they're really cutting us on that.

Everybody, AJ has a question for you in Ohio.

What you got?

Yeah, Cole, I believe, speaking of injuries, I believe a couple years ago you broke both of your arms at the same time. I'm curious.
Oh, is that you? That was me. Yeah, how do you handle it? What did the cast look like, and how did you operate day to day? Bad situation, let me tell you that.
Big fan, I'm just going to say that. But, yeah, it was not good.
We were double cast. I couldn't even wipe my own ass.
It was a whole deal. Who did it? Luckily, I had a girlfriend at the time, or still the same girlfriend.
She was handling it for me. Thank you, lady.
Doing your wifey stuff. God bless her.
Yeah, she was handling it. Yeah, God bless her.
Yeah, God bless her soul. But that one was tough.
I had to end up having the wrist redone again because it was all messed up from the first surgery. That was like a five-and-a-half, six-month rehab.
And then as soon as you're done with that, you're just trying to get back on the bike as quick as you possibly can. But same thing as you guys.
We're trying to figure out ways, hyperbaric chambers and C-VAC and cold plunges and everything that we can do to get the body ready to go again. And, yeah, that's where our sport's kind of taken off from the athletic side.
Recovery, everything like that is getting pretty advanced with what we're doing. But that one was tough.
That was a really hard injury to come back from. But yet, here we are.
Did you have this one? Is this what the cast looked like? Were you literally like... I was stuck like this.
Luckily, this one was just here to the elbow. I think actually both of them were here to the elbow, but I was stuck.
Couldn't do nothing. That's terrible.
Yeah, I mean... It's a bad deal.
But you're a tough guy. What if your girlfriend wasn't around? What if she wasn't around or you had to, you know...
What do you do? You got to pull someone off the street? What do you do? Not wiping. What do you mean? I mean, it would have been a bad deal.
We have a bidet installed in the house. That was a help.
Nice. It was going to be a bad deal either way.
It was going to be a bad deal. Yeah, but you got to dry off the bidet, too, because if not, you're just walking around with, you know, moist cheek.
Wet butt. Yeah, that's not good either.
That ain't good. I'll take that, though.
You want to make shit out of love? Yeah, I'll take that over the alternative. That's for damn sure.
Of no a bad, bad deal. Luckily, she was there.
She saved me. We ended up getting through it, so it was good.
Thank you, lady. God bless her.
Why didn't you just tell us that was your crash? You said been there, done that. That's definitely the crash that we watched.
I don't know. There's been a few big ones over the years.
Mine was not good. Broke both arms? Yeah, I'm assuming that's the one that cracked into our algorithm.

It could have.

Yeah, it certainly could have.

Hey, look at this dirt bike racer, Supercross guy.

He broke both of his arms on this.

And then the follow-up is, as soon as he could, he got right back on.

Well, that's what I'm saying.

We have an intense love for what we do.

Maybe it's a little bit of stupidity as well.

I'm not sure.

Because most people would be like, no, I'm not doing that no more.

But same thing.

I mean, I broke my leg when I was six. And as soon as I could ride could ride again i was riding again so i'm like i don't know why that is but that's the difference that's a separator brother that's a talent in a trait not a bad thing ty has a question for you you talked about this kind of being like a young man's game and how you're getting a little bit older at what point are you in like the prime of your career and like how long will you be able because now we're seeing football players like play until they're you know 43 45 obviously that's an exception it's not the rule but like when are you in your prime and how much longer do you think you'll be able to do this and is there anything else over here that you'd like to throw on the ground i'm gonna have to go look at that desk a little bit more inside here but i hope not honestly but honestly for us i'm not sure dude as far as how long we can go like i said i think it's just advancements of um you know how we recover how we can come back from injuries that's kind of changing the game and uh making it to where it's kind of like football guys are just going longer like you can because you can take care of yourself better and uh perform better and for longer at a higher level so uh the guy that's won a lot of titles in our sport he just got hurt hurt to right around the time that Jet did.
He's 32 and he's still winning races and that's been unheard of, you know, 10 years ago. So I hope I could go another like three to four years if I could, that would be cool.
But I would say your prime prime for our sport is honestly anywhere from 24 to 30. Like there's been guys that just do it at different times, but that was usually like the rule of thumb..
There's been a lot of guys that never even won races, and to win past 30 was literally unheard of until the past three years. Who's GOAT? Ricky Carmichael.
The king is Jeremy McGrath. He was my idol when I was younger.
He won 72 Supercross races. He's just a legend, but Ricky Carmichael's the GOAT.
Yeah, Pastrana was in this one. I thought Pastrana was in this too.
this too oh pastrana was like he won an outdoor title whenever he was super young but he was uh he was too busy going here doing everything he was literally doing everything yeah he was damn good talent but he just didn't have enough of like i'm doing this only do you uh do you have the uh the flip into the hell no no no we're not going upside down we're on speed only. I'm not trying to flip myself off or do anything.
How come? Going through the checker line? Yeah. You're in lead.
There's that big jump. Go ahead and take that son, bitch.
I mean, if you won and did a backflip as you're winning, you would be... I mean, that'd be some legendary shit.
Pastrana did that at a Supercross years ago, back in like 2009. In practice, he did a flip over the finish, and it was like the craziest thing we'd ever seen.
So you guys aren't the flippers at all? No, no, no, no. No flips, no tricks.
We're just working on speed only. Like how can you go from checkered to checkered faster than the other guy? Tom has a question for you, Cole.
Yeah, you won the 250 back in 2021, I believe, and now you're doing 450. So it's like 250, is that like a minor league? And then you, are the more talented racers going up to 450 or how does that work? I wouldn't say minor league or talent or anything.
It's all just usually just age. Like the 250 class is strictly, not all the time, but usually that's where you start.
Everybody that's gone through the professional ranks, you ride 250 first. Guys graduate and go to the 450 class at different times, but it's always 250 first.
So for me, I raced 250 class for, I want to say seven, six, seven years. Some guys, it's two years.
Some guys, it's five. It just depends on when you want to move up.
And our rules are changing where guys are staying longer and things are different. But same thing, like there's some guys that are like, why would I move up to the 450 class when I can stay in the 250 class? The competition's not quite as fierce, and I'm making six figures still.
Why would I do that? So it just depends. Every guy's journey is a little bit different.
For me, once you win a championship, you can defend the next year. And then as soon as you defend, you're out no matter what.
So as soon as you win, you got one year, then you're gone whether you want to stay or not. So that's what was tough for me in 2022.
That was my year to then i crashed both my arms i'm like back to the couch for a little bit so that was a bummer i really wanted to defend that year and uh show those guys that you know i i earned that championship the year before uh but i didn't get a chance to do it so that was a bummer but uh yeah into the 450 class now my first bike was a titan chopper 1700 cc damn talk to him let's go let's go off the side of the road had a lot of juice had a lot of pizzazz top end speed was up there only did it one time and thought to myself we should not go that fast ever again without it what is top end speed for the 450 cc and then the 250 cc what's the biggest difference i mean they're probably pretty close 450 weight it's a lot heavier a lot more torque um obviously 200 more cc's and it's just it it's got more bang for your buck on that thing. But, I mean, top speed is hard because we don't really ever just, like, straight lines take off.
But you're probably, I don't know, if you wanted to go 60, 70 probably down the road, you could. But for us, you're never really hitting that.
Outdoors, you will because, like I said, those tracks are so spread out and big. So you're wide open.
There's a long straightaway. You'll go wide open a lot in outdoors.
But Supercross, it's so methodical, and you're kind of just hopping and jumping around the track and a lot of obstacles. Like Supercross, there's just a lot of obstacles.
Outdoors, it's more natural, rolling hills everywhere. But, yeah, Supercross, it's pretty tight.
We're confined. Is that your steel pony right there? That's my steel pony right there.
We're set up for the – we've got the St. Jude graphics on for this weekend.
Pretty cool thing Supercross does with St. Jude every year.
So it's pretty cool getting to do this and change the bikes up. They usually don't look like that for the weekends, but yeah.
How many bikes do you have? How many will you have for the weekend? For the weekend, we just have two. You have this one.
They're fickle, right? I've heard dirt bikes are very fickle. Yeah, very fickle.
But then we all, everyone will have a backup bike at the truck just in case something crazy happens. You got to switch out real quick uh but the mechanic uh they're on top of it something happens something crazy from race to race they'll be able to change it and get it going and uh that will be my one bike i'll ride all weekend well good luck let's go hell yeah i think gold rims twisted t all big on the side damn thing looks good yeah gorgeous look at you fine yeah we said twisted twisted t saint jude's who are the big sponsors for Supercross? For Supercross this year, it's- Monster Energy, I assume? Yeah, Monster's the biggest one, I would say.
But they're just, every year, it seems like they gain more and more and more. This team in general is the title sponsor of Twisted Tea, Progressive Insurance, X-Star.
Let's go. Yeah, a bunch of stuff involved in Moto, a bunch of other Moto sponsors that, you know, tires, pipes, stuff of the engine the engine bars uh everything like that so it's pretty head to toe um i'm not gonna ride that one right is there other bikes out there have you get on that damn thing i'll start it up come on take off right i don't know in here i don't want to huff any of that oh we got it but i would like to ride i would like to ride a dirt bike i see a lot of bikes out there is it yeah is there they've brought a crew right two yeah this one, and then the backup bike is outside.
We've got two. Any other takers? We hop on this damn thing.
Well, we need you to go do your thing on it. Don't break your arms here.
I don't want to fucking... Hey, we can just rip around the park a lot.
We'll do a quick little circle and come back. There's light poles.
If I was to bring you my dirt bike that I got for Christmas like three years ago that was never able to be turned on, you guys would be able to fix that? I'm sure. I'll give it to my mechanic, Joe.
He's in there right now. He'll probably get that thing fixed up.
Joe seemed to, all right, we'll start. Yeah, it's down the street here.
We'll actually bring that over. Joe seemed to be thrilled to be here.
Is he the one with the big beard? Joe has the beard. Yeah, he was very, very excited.
All of us were excited. No, Joe was not excited.
Complete opposite. No? Joe was here to work.
Joe was, I know, he's fucking biked on this goddamn thing. Yeah, he was.
He's a workhorse. He was locked in.
I mean, he was good beard. He was locked in.
Yeah, well, he said, it was a little bit last minute. I had no idea.
I'm prepping the bike, getting everything ready, and they told me we got to load it up and take it up there. He was like, it's great.
It was awesome, but man, it was so stressful. I was sprinting through the airport this morning because my plane got delayed and I'm like, son of a bitch, I got to go.
I got to get there. Well both you and joe we appreciate that oh yeah we made it happen it was awesome i was very excited this is an honor to be here with you boys i'll be i'll be honest it's really cool really really cool we don't have any dirt bikers that's i've never encountered a professional dirt biker uh biker first for everything i am just blessed how's the culture culture is good culture you guys got good incredible yeah incredible man everything about it like i said the sport in general is growing a lot uh what we do is is i I.
How's the culture? Culture is good? Culture, you guys got good lads? Honestly, incredible. Yeah, incredible, man.
Everything about it. Like I said, the sport in general is growing a lot.
What we do is, I think it's the greatest sport in the world. It's just awesome.
Like every weekend, you never know what's going to happen, and that's what makes it so fun. Do you play any other sports? Yeah, I played basketball in high school.
Are you pretty good? Yeah. You got a koozie? No.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, calm down.
Yeah, yeah, no one is koozie. Calm down.
No. No one's cozy.
Easy. All right, Cole.
We appreciate it. How tall? What's the tallest, biggest rider? Probably smaller, right? Tallest rider? You got the smaller.
You got to be usually kind of small. Like, my size is very average.
There's a guy that was probably like 6'5", 6'6". Jesus.
Oh, shit. He's a unit.
Yeah, he's a big boy. That's very bad for him, though, right, isn't it? In some ways.
Like, he's got more leverage. That's good sometimes, but sometimes it can be bad.
It depends on the situation. He's heavier on the back.
Oh, yeah. So more weight is slower.
Hey, you've got to be light. Power to weight ratio, man.
That'll help you. No doubt.
God damn it. Like a jockey.
I like the cut of this guy's gym. Yeah, me too.
He busted down my shit. She's retired.
Won us over. What part of Oklahoma? Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Closer to the Arkansas side, right off I-40.

Nice.

Do you pay attention to other sports?

Oh, yeah.

Big Thunder fan.

How could I not be?

Hey, they're rolling right now.

One in the West.

We're chilling.

We are chilling.

I'm very excited.

SGA is just like, I'm a huge, huge fan.

I think he's awesome.

He's just balling.

He's MVP this year, no doubt.

Yeah, well, SGA's name is actually MVP.

Oh!

That's Michael Greenberg.

That's not me.

I cannot take credit for that.

That is Greeny.

Oh, 100%.

Thank you. MVP this year, no doubt.
Yeah, well, SGA's name is actually MVP. Oh! That's Michael Greenberg.

That's not me. I cannot take credit for that.

That is Greeny. Oh, 100%.
Yeah,

the other day. Alright, Colt, well, good luck this weekend.

Good luck the rest of the season. Yeah, thank you guys.
Thank you for stopping by and making us much, much smarter

in this entire thing. We'll pay attention to the clips

and we'll watch. It's on Peacock? Peacock.

Yep, live on Peacock every Saturday. Okay, we will

watch that. And I can't wait to hop on

one of these bad boys outside. It's cold out there, huh? Is it cold? You might need a hoodie or something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You guys wear gloves out there, right? Oh, we're full geared up, no doubt.
Gloves, helmet, goggles, jersey, pants, boots. You wear a cup? Shoulder pads.
No cup. That's the one thing that'll get you.
No shoulder pads, but usually like an under protector or something like that. Well, no cup, you just want to let the balls...
How good was Robbie Knievel? My boy Robbie Knievel could jump some jumps. They were jumping heavy bikes, right? Heavy bikes! He could jump heavy bikes.
He would jump heavy bikes. That's what I'm saying, heavy bikes.
Evil Knievel and Robbie, they're jumping heavy bikes. That's unheard of now.
He's jumping a Harley. That's not meant to be jumped.
That's not what you want to do. Is he just strong or is he crazy? What is he? How would E-Boy and Robbie be able to do that? Honestly, both.
Yeah, I think he's just nuts. I would never try to jump a Harley over a bus.
Robbie Knievel's a dog. Absolute dog.
People forget about Robbie. I try to remind them.
They don't even think about Evil. Everybody thinks about the Evil.
They don't ever think about Bob.

Nope.

Come on, man.

Here's Robbie Knievel jumping over the Grand Canyon.

No problem.

That looks like a dirt bike.

Yeah.

Light work.

That's a small jump.

Oh, my God.

He's got two Grand Canons.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

Robbie sent it.

That's possible.

That's possible.

Got it done.

Hey, that's Knievel football right there.

That's more of a proper.

That's got suspension.

That's a proper bike back in the day to do this with.

Evil Knievel, no suspension, and animal.

He was jumping like, I'm going to break myself off, no doubt about it.

I don't give a shit.

That was his attitude.

That's impressive.

Hit the brakes, brother.

He didn't have any.

He didn't want any.

Hay bales are for.

What are you talking about?

Todd Hanson said, Robby could have hit the brakes. He just thought to to hit a couple bumps.
What do you call them? Whoops? Whoops? Whoop-de-woos. Yeah, those are just supercross only.
So there will be a stack of nine or 11 whoops. They're just spaced out different.
And that's the thing you're doing? The bop-ba-bop-ba-ba-ba-ba-bang? Oh, yeah. All right, so let's pull up.
This is the track, I believe, for Lucas Oil Stadium that has been on this graphic here in front of me. There it is, yep.
This is the track. Okay, so what do we work? Those quick whoop-de-woos there in the middle, that's the one that's going to be the most difficult? Yeah, probably so every weekend.
That's usually the most challenging. That'll catch the most guys off.
They're just hard. It's a hard obstacle for Supercross, but like I said, really wide, long start going to the first one.
You ever get lost? Because there's so many different ways you could go. Is that why the practice is obviously so...
Not necessarily lost, but every now and then you'll come around thinking you're, you know, hit a jump that's blind. You're like, yeah, I'm supposed to go left.
Nope, it's right. You know, so you kind of forget sometimes.
But for the most part, we do so many laps that it's just, it's so easy. You have it down like science.
What's the average lap time here in Indianapolis? We're probably closer to 50 seconds, a little under a minute, 50 seconds, somewhere right there. But the track will deteriorate so much, the lap times will go up, and it'll get more difficult to go around the track at the same speed.
It slows down just a little bit as you go. And then whenever there's an accident, yellow flag? Yellow flag.
You can usually still race. You can still jump the jumps on a yellow.
Red cross flag comes out. That means somebody pulled a Robbie Knievel.
They're down bad. Yeah, he actually broke his leg and a lung there, or punctured a lung at night.
Yeah did not do good. As soon as you see a red cross flag, you're rolling.
You've got to roll the obstacle. You can't jump it.
You can't race, so you can't pass anybody. Do they stop the clock, the 20 minutes? No, it doesn't stop the clock, but if they pull out a red flag, that's whenever you stop the clock.
The race either restarts completely, you do a staggered start, or the race is over, depending on where you're at in the race. So we're going to have 20 minutes of racing.
Yeah, we're going to have 20 hard, tough minutes of racing. Let's go.
It's going to be sick. Who's got to watch? Who's got to watch? That I don't know.
Guy sitting in the – probably the flagger that's sitting there. As soon as the gate drops, time goes, and we take off.
Can you see a clock as you're going around the – There's usually like a big scoring thing, and it usually has just like the top five riders, and it usually has a clock there so you can kind of see the time. Do you have communications to your pit? No communications.
That's something that's been in our sport like talked about for the past few years to have like inner helmet stuff where you could talk with your team or something like that, but we don't have it yet. Not for what we're doing.
Sounds like next year. It's going to be hard to know the time just because those jumbotrons are so small.
Yeah. Just just.
All right. Every now and then you can jump up, look up, see a time.
I'm like, all right, I got five. Just this weekend.
Just this weekend. They're making fun of Lucas Oil Stadium, and they got a little baby jumbotrons are so small.
Every now and then you can jump up, look up, see a time, and I'm like, alright, I got five.

Just this weekend.

They're making fun of Lucas Oil Stadium and they got a little baby jumbotrons.

It is tiny, though, I'll be honest with you.

Oh, yeah, you would know. You travel

17 weeks indoors.

It's part of Moat's career, actually. I need to see those in there a little bit smaller.

But hey, that's the added value of Lucas Oil Stadium.

You gotta experience it live more.

You don't get tempted to look at the

jumbotron because... What the hell? Eight or nine.
They got that window, too, just sitting there. There is a window.
Blinding you, for sure. It might blind the racers.
There's already a race at night, though, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, all the lights are on, obviously.
Everything is super, super lit up in there, just like it would be for any other event. Lights out.
Pitch black race. That'd be cool.
We'd like to do one of those in here, actually. Glow in the dark.
We won a 450 cc inside the Thunderdome pitch black race. 20 minutes.
I don't know if any of you are going to make it. Donuts.
I don't know if I'm in for that one. I'll watch you boys participate in that one.
Oh, well, fuck you, Colt. You're supposed to be your guy.
We got it outside. Do it over there.
Okay, Colt. Good luck this weekend.
Good luck the rest of the way. I can't wait to see these things in action, both outside and at the stadium.
Whether it's this trip or the next one. You guys are here all the time.
We are lucky to host that. Know that the city of Indianapolis is very thankful that you guys come.
Just pack downtown. It's wonderful for the city.
Obviously, it's electrifying. Why don't you go win that thing, Colt? Come on, Colt.
Let's do it. I would love to.
I would love to. Thank you, boys.
One up by Saturday night. Yeah.
Let's do it. You do it.
Yeah. Let's do it.
Oh, sweet. Hey, you stay right there.
Hold on. Hold on.
Don't leave yet. Fair enough.
It's a team sport thing. I don't know if you guys do this.
We're not going to do that. No.
Come on. We had a great week.
We hope you did as well. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living.
Boys in the back, great work this week. Graphics department, way to go, boys.
Mitt's really been picking up some jobs here. Mitt's been picking up some jobs this week, which we appreciate.
Talks the table, way to go this week. You too, you angler.
You too, man. I'm going to get back on that leg.
Yeah, you taught that. You taught that on us.
I love that. Can you touch that, Colt? You an angler? You're from Oklahoma? You fish? Every now and then.
You know what I mean? When in Rome. Hunt, fish.
A little bit of hunting, a little bit of fishing. I don't go back to Oklahoma very often.
What do I do? My buddy, that's all he does. You're still a country fuck.
This is the man you're sitting with. I don't know if you do that.
Yeah,. That's called a championship right there.
Toyota. Shout out.
He did not know that. Got my Corolla outside.
I love it. That's actually Mr.
Van Dam, the greatest fisherman of all time. Great work this week.
Talks to the table. You too.
One half of the hammer. Ballpark boys.
Ballcap boys. Boys.
Boys, maybe. AP Tone.
Hey, great work this week. You debuted a new you.
Yeah, baby Tone. Thank you.
He put a cowboy hat in the middle of COVID because he was a COVID cowboy. And this is the week he decided not to wear it every single day.
So then he decided he needs to throw it back on for Friday. I think mostly because he did not love having to be a ball cap boy there for a few days.

I think he's falling in love with the cowboy hat.

It looks good on you.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

I mean, damn.

That's an Oklahoma thing?

Yeah.

Why don't you wear a twisted t-shirt?

I wear it.

We got a guy that runs a cowboy hat 24-7.

It's like his thing.

I saw it.

He knows a cowboy.

Aaron Plessinger, he rocks the cowboy hat.

He's a dog.

Great mullet.

Great.

I think I follow him on socials. Yeah.
He's a good dude. He's the man.
So you don't want to bite his gimmick? Yeah. You're from Oklahoma.
They fucking wear cowboy hats. I know, I know.
He already had that thing, though. Where's he from? I can't just come in throwing the cowboy hat on and feel like I'm copying AP.
I understand, I understand. You're trying to build your own brain.
I'm going to break both of my fucking arms. Aaron doing that? I don't think so.
New friend of the program, Cole Nichols. Thank you, guys.
We're going to get the hell out of here and enjoy the weekend. We'll see you on Monday.
It's going to be a great show. A lot of shit is about to happen.
Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice.
I might change their life. We're in this thing together.
Never forget it. Team on me.
Team on three. One, two, three.
Team. Team.
There it is. Okay.
Goodbye. I was late.
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