PMS 2.0 1297 - LIVE from the NFL Combine, Tyrese Haliburton, Daniel Jeremiah & Rich Eisen, Ian Rapaport, Field Yates, Molly McGrath, & Visit Indy

Speaker 6 Hello beautiful people and welcome to Lucas Oil Stadium in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana, the forever home, hopefully, of the Combine.

Speaker 5 Day two here starts right now.

Speaker 3 Combine

Speaker 5 is what the topic of conversation is, not only here in Indianapolis, all around the NFL, but also on the internet.

Speaker 5 There was an altercation at a Starbucks here in Indianapolis yesterday that has certainly caught some headlines.

Speaker 5 We'll address that and let you know what we have heard between two insiders who both wanted the same coffee. One of the insiders owns the coffee.

Speaker 5 The other one was merely there having a meeting supporting the other's father. And allegedly there's some disagreements that all the way

Speaker 5 led up to a call to NFL security. So there's an investigation happening currently about a Starbucks that happened with a couple media members.
But that's what's Combine is, baby.

Speaker 5 It is an NFL spring break where so many things happen.

Speaker 5 Not only with the D-line and the linebackers that are going to be working out on the field today, or the kickers and punters and snappers that worked out on the field yesterday that was not to be televised, even though I was told it was televised.

Speaker 5 I ended the show early to go host it on television, I thought.

Speaker 5 That seemed to be a miscommunication somewhere. It wasn't findable, but there is clips everywhere,

Speaker 5 which is...

Speaker 5 So cool to be able to talk to future punters and kickers and holders.

Speaker 5 I very rarely get to do that.

Speaker 5 I don't go to a lot of kicking camps anymore, although I have friends at like the Kohl's and Nick Novak, I believe, out in San Diego, former NFL great, he does these kicking camps.

Speaker 5 I don't really get to hang around the kicking community much anymore. And going to those kicking camps is always fun because you're just watching these dudes hit these bombs.

Speaker 5 You know, it's a home run derby, basically, and guys are competing against each other. You're able to go there.
I think it is a spectacle or it could become a spectacle.

Speaker 5 And the NFL agrees, and they've had this showcase together the last two years that pins kickers against each other and punters against each other. It was a great day.
I was lucky to be a part of it.

Speaker 5 Certainly thought I was going to be hosting the thing. Sure.

Speaker 5 And when I got down there, that was a piece of information I was finding out in real time.

Speaker 5 So instead of like having to host or do any of that, I just got a chance to enjoy it and chit-chat with these guys and try to give some game and maybe some motivation and some help.

Speaker 5 So the Combine is a beautiful place. A lot of things happen.
A lot of information is learned. A lot of players change their careers.
Maybe even franchises change a trajectory of their entire city.

Speaker 5 And we're so incredibly lucky to be here. We got great guests throughout the day.
Rich Eisen, Daniel Jeremiah will be joining us here in a matter of moments.

Speaker 5 They are obviously the hosts of the actual combine on the field.

Speaker 5 The two people with microphones, DJ now, the previous person that held his seat, went on to be a general manager in the NFL because of how much work and effort and intel and intelligence you have to have to have that particular role.

Speaker 5 We'll be excited to pepper him with questions. It's not just, you know, the show today, and we are incredibly bummed that one half of the toxic table is not able to join us today.

Speaker 5 We would like to send our love to Ty Schmidt. Cheese and peas.
We'll see you hopefully.

Speaker 13 Wish you Ty.

Speaker 2 Love you, Ty.

Speaker 5 Love you, Ty. But let's go to the toxic table, ladies and gentlemen, at Boston Connor.
And Magmel Kuiper making an appearance.

Speaker 5 Thank you for stepping in for Ty, who obviously had that late thing this morning. You look great.
You look like you're in maybe

Speaker 5 mid-season form right now.

Speaker 14 Yeah, I appreciate it, Pat. You know, always great to join you guys.
Combine week. I want to go out and say, you know, it's kind of like my conference championship weekend.

Speaker 14 Obviously, the NFL draft is going to be the Super Bowl, but conference championship weekend, nothing better than, you know, weekend at Indy.

Speaker 14 Not only do we have fights between insiders, you know, which we'll talk about.

Speaker 18 What are your thoughts on that, man?

Speaker 19 Because you've been coming here a long time, so you understand.

Speaker 15 Absolutely a long time.

Speaker 14 Well, you know, you get a young pup like Jordan Schultz, who, you know, he's trying to really put his stamp on the game.

Speaker 14 Apparently, Ian Rapport, you know, well-respected in the industry, has a lot of sources, you know, a lot of people.

Speaker 14 He's trying to talk to, tried to talk to an agent, goes up to a counter, local Starbucks, had like a Venti, caramel, macchiato, or, you know, I believe is what he ordered.

Speaker 21 With Splin diabolic.

Speaker 14 Yeah, with spled, a couple spled. It could be a sweeten law.
Can't exactly remember what kind of, you know, zero-calorie sweetener he decided to go with.

Speaker 14 Jordo Schultz steps in and says, no, he won't have a Fenty.

Speaker 12 So Rapsheet says, okay, I'll have a Grande, you know, Caramel Macchiato. No, he won't.

Speaker 24 No, you won't have one of those.

Speaker 16 All right, I'll take a tall, and you know, we'll be done with this. I'll get out of there.

Speaker 14 Jordo Schultz, again, this is according to my sources, I wasn't boots up.

Speaker 25 Allegedly, allegedly.

Speaker 5 Much like what's going on at a University of Mississippi.

Speaker 5 Just like we said yesterday.

Speaker 2 Well, sadly.

Speaker 5 There was a grandstanding police hopped out on their high horses. I don't know if you're going to get it.

Speaker 26 Dad saw that. Yeah, it was good to see you.

Speaker 5 We weren't even a full show back, and we called them out

Speaker 5 almost for them an hour and a half into the program yesterday. It was great.
But what we're saying is this is all alleged, but certainly with some people talking about some realities.

Speaker 14 Yeah, without a doubt. So he said, no, you're not going to have any coffee.

Speaker 2 Not in my house.

Speaker 29 Okay.

Speaker 14 You've been saying a lot of shit about me. You've been refuting a lot of the stuff that I've been saying.

Speaker 16 He said, water only for this guy. Rap sheet gets a small, you know, plastic cup of water.

Speaker 5 Because Jordo Schultz is dad, obviously.

Speaker 12 He owns Starbucks.

Speaker 14 Jordo Schultz is the heir to the Starbucks empire, if you will. He smacks the water out of his hands and says, fucking do something about it, Rap.
Do something. Get in my fucking face.
Do it.

Speaker 14 According to Pro Football Talk, he said fuck about 15 times

Speaker 4 in his dad's cafe.

Speaker 14 Well, you know, dad's cafe. You could.

Speaker 32 Well, and then he refuted that report.

Speaker 31 Well, he did, but, you know.

Speaker 5 I wouldn't swear in my dad's passion project.

Speaker 14 His dad's cafe, or you could even take that as far as say, I mean, Rapsheed basically disrespected this guy in his own living room.

Speaker 12 Okay, yeah.

Speaker 14 You know, you're going to come in here with mud on your shoes and walk through modeling.

Speaker 34 He's got balls on his table.

Speaker 14 Exactly.

Speaker 12 Jordo Schultz smacked him around a little bit, allegedly.

Speaker 5 He's in his kitchen making pancakes.

Speaker 2 Yeah, cooking bacon in his underwear.

Speaker 24 Underwear.

Speaker 21 Yeah, there it is.

Speaker 21 That's basically what was happening.

Speaker 14 Shout out to Danny Santosucci or whatever it is.

Speaker 2 Still bringing it.

Speaker 14 Yeah, still bringing it. And then obviously, Rap Sheet, you know,

Speaker 14 he said, listen, enough is enough. I feel threatened here.
This guy's got crazy eyes right now. I'm going to have to call NFL Security.
NFL Security came up.

Speaker 16 I don't know what eventually happened.

Speaker 14 I think they took Jordo Schultz out, back beat the shit out of him with a couple lead punches.

Speaker 17 Behind his dad's house.

Speaker 36 Exactly. They called him Big Dom.
They called him Big Dom, yeah.

Speaker 9 Well, man.

Speaker 2 Big Dom don't do that.

Speaker 37 The arrow.

Speaker 5 Big Dom is a handshake. You ever know? He's not an ankle breaker.

Speaker 14 But I don't know if this is breaking news or not, but I believe today, after

Speaker 14 the men kind of go through the drills on the field, Jordo Schultz and Ian Rappenport are going to fight to the death at the fifth yard line.

Speaker 2 That's Kalmbine.

Speaker 38 That'll be fun.

Speaker 5 That's Kalmbine. And for those that are new to the show, we're not 100% sure if that's going to happen.
That's just all being

Speaker 9 alleged at the moment.

Speaker 22 Yeah.

Speaker 5 There's a chance one of these people clipped the end of that.

Speaker 14 Sure.

Speaker 5 Say, on ESBN, it is being reported by a man wearing a purple suit.

Speaker 34 Great suit.

Speaker 24 Saw Nick Casario wearing purple yesterday.

Speaker 14 He said, God damn, that looks good.

Speaker 12 I'm going to wear that tomorrow.

Speaker 5 We don't know if they're fighting to death, but should.

Speaker 20 We don't want them to die.

Speaker 5 We don't want either of them to die. We want them to shake hands.

Speaker 40 One half of the hammer.

Speaker 5 Cowboys Ton Diggs is here. And ladies and gentlemen, the face of the Indiana Pacers, you just had to sit through all of that.
Sorry.

Speaker 22 I'm just learning about it.

Speaker 5 It happened at Starbucks here in your town. Ladies and gentlemen, Olympic gold medalist, face of the NBA.

Speaker 24 Well, well.

Speaker 9 I put you in a terrible spot.

Speaker 4 Tyrese Albert.

Speaker 19 We are going to the face of the NBA conversation.

Speaker 24 Yeah, no, no, we are not going to do that.

Speaker 5 That is earned, obviously. That happens naturally.
That is not something you give to yourself. Tyrese, fresh off a 33-11 in three night.
Obviously, the 11 assists, three rebounds.

Speaker 5 Need to get those up a little bit. I think you could probably had a triple-double if your groin was healthy.
You went into the game questionable.

Speaker 41 Hurt groin.

Speaker 5 50-50. Questionable going into the game.
Everything we know about NBA is what?

Speaker 42 They're going to sit out.

Speaker 5 Mad Mel?

Speaker 12 They're going to sit out.

Speaker 13 Convan? They are going to sit out and get paid.

Speaker 5 Especially in the middle of the season. How much money they're getting paid?

Speaker 5 82 of these things. Hurt groin.
Tyrese Halliburn says, I'm playing. Big game.
We're in the middle of a hell of a stretch. We're top four hottest team in the NBA right now.

Speaker 5 One of the best records in 2025. Oh, must I remind you, Eastern Conference finalists finalists last year as Tyrese pulls up from the other side of the court.
How do you feel about the team?

Speaker 5 And thank you for playing through a groin injury or groin, whatever you had going on. You're the man.
We appreciate you here in Indiana.

Speaker 35 Yeah, we're playing well right now.

Speaker 44 You know, we're just fighting to get home court advantage in the playoffs in the first round. So every game is big right now, so we're trying to win every game.

Speaker 5 Okay, so a lot of people watching our show right now are going to say, you're at the NFL combine, why are we talking about the NBA? Do you think

Speaker 5 that that is a natural conversation that's happening? Like, do you guys talk about the NBA where it sits in the zeitgeist of professional sports? Do you have any of those combos amongst each other?

Speaker 44 No, no, we know who we are. We don't really trip off that.
I mean, we understand. I understand I'm here at a football program.
We talk about a lot of sports, but a lot of sports programs.

Speaker 22 It is a sports program, but.

Speaker 5 No, no, we're a sports program.

Speaker 2 Remember that?

Speaker 1 Sports program, heavy football.

Speaker 2 Yeah, football.

Speaker 3 Heavy football football first.

Speaker 2 Maybe a little bit of hockey.

Speaker 5 Okay, we do like the hockey.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we do like hockey. Maybe a little bit.

Speaker 9 Hockey is awesome. Yeah, because they try.

Speaker 22 See, that's the narrative.

Speaker 5 Why is that the narrative?

Speaker 24 PK Suban.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I think it's Suban, but

Speaker 11 Suban plays me.

Speaker 2 Whatever.

Speaker 5 I did see that he put over the NHL in a big way, and it got a lot, a lot of views. And he was talking about the NBA's potential culture issue that they have.

Speaker 5 You guys obviously all saw that. He was putting it over his sport, but I think he said a lot of things that maybe other people potentially think, which is why he went so big.

Speaker 5 How do you feel about the narrative that is about the NBA? Because you just, I mean, groin, whatever. I don't want to know what your injury was.
Groin strain, can I say?

Speaker 44 I was supposed to say groin soreness more than anything.

Speaker 5 Yeah, but don't just get sore in your groin without it.

Speaker 44 Strain makes the narrative better, so we'll go with strain.

Speaker 5 Well, it has to be a lot of it.

Speaker 2 It has to be torn off the bone and you play through it.

Speaker 24 Correct, yeah.

Speaker 45 33 through it.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I can't believe this guy's got one half of a groin now. Lance Armstrong of groin, because he lost one half of his groin, which is crazy to think about, played through it last night.

Speaker 5 But why do you think the narrative is that? Like, legitimately, because you disagree with that wholeheartedly, I think. Anytime we call you, you're like, that's not true about our league, though.

Speaker 10 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 I think there's a lot of things maybe misconception about the league that you disagree with.

Speaker 21 Oh, 100%.

Speaker 44 I mean, people are just allowed to get on there and say whatever they want about our game and it just takes one or two people to agree, hit retweet, and it's like the cool thing to say the NBA has a problem with what we do.

Speaker 12 But, you know,

Speaker 44 we're doing pretty well for ourselves, I'd say.

Speaker 5 I would say as well. And I think

Speaker 5 that is what people are saying. It's like this much money and then we're not going back-to-back nights.

Speaker 5 And then obviously back in the day, these guys used to play, and then there's the nostalgia speech that's happening, too. You're hearing all these things.

Speaker 44 Yeah, for sure, for sure. And I'll talk about what the all-star game has become and how that's such a problem.
And, you know, guys, you guys love the sitting back-to-backs.

Speaker 44 I don't think that's as true as LeBron put away.

Speaker 2 Oh, so

Speaker 5 I think what Tyrese is saying is, like, that gets a couple people are doing that, and everybody assumes that that is a crime.

Speaker 9 It's generalized.

Speaker 47 Yes, it's like the whole league's doing it.

Speaker 21 That's not the case.

Speaker 44 Yeah, 100%.

Speaker 22 We talk about this all the time.

Speaker 44 I agree with that 100%.

Speaker 44 Guys want to play. We want to perform.

Speaker 44 We got older guys who are towards the end of their careers, high-level high-level Hall of Fame guys We got a lot of young guys coming up in the league, too So I think I think we all want to play How's quality of play right now?

Speaker 5 Obviously all-star game is what it is Pro Bowl is what it is too.

Speaker 5 I mean there's Pro Bowl state the NHL got it right with four nations It just so happened to be at the exact same time as yours So it went absolutely bonkers an entire thing But whenever you talk about quality of play, how do you feel about it?

Speaker 5 Because like football guys are throwing the ball better catching the ball better running the ball better seating the ball better blocking the ball better tackling the ball like everything is better.

Speaker 5 That's sports kicking the ball better. I mean you evolve through everything.
Do you feel like that has happened with the NBA?

Speaker 5 Because my argument about LeBron Jordan is always that they play two different sports. I'm not a basketball guy.

Speaker 5 Football stooge.

Speaker 5 Watch the lake show growing up because I was an Insomniac kid. They were on late night.
Kobe, Shaq. I mean, it was an entire thing.
Don't know the league inside and out.

Speaker 5 But when I watched that last dance with Michael Jordan and I saw some of the highlights that were happening, I was like, hold the phone though. Like, I didn't watch basketball back then.

Speaker 5 I'm from Pittsburgh, okay? Wasn't like all the way in on, it's like the sport has evolved so much, it's tough to compare. I think both would play well in both eras if they were to be talked about.

Speaker 5 But how do you feel about the current state of the game in the NBA?

Speaker 49 Well,

Speaker 44 that conversation is interesting, right? Because when you compare arrows all the time, I feel like football, you don't really do that.

Speaker 44 Like, you guys don't really talk about how this guy would fit if he played in the 90s. Like, that doesn't, that's not a conversation.

Speaker 9 It's not a normal convention, but like Dan Marino modern day would be

Speaker 22 outrageous.

Speaker 44 But the same in any sport, top guys are going to continue to be top guys throughout eras. But, I mean, time travel doesn't exist.

Speaker 35 And I'm well,

Speaker 3 maybe.

Speaker 37 We don't know.

Speaker 2 Not that I know of.

Speaker 44 It's portable that I haven't been, not that I've been in front of yet.

Speaker 2 You know, hopefully one day. Yeah, amen.

Speaker 44 There's a lot of old heads I guess that have things to say about me.

Speaker 39 After your next contract, they'll introduce you to it.

Speaker 2 I heard about that.

Speaker 5 I think that's a potential Halliburton thing, not just Tyrese, right?

Speaker 21 That old heads that have a lot to say. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 Family business, if you will.

Speaker 4 Mad Mel.

Speaker 19 Michael Miss.

Speaker 5 Mad Mel, do you have a question for Tyree Shaw? The quality of play, though.

Speaker 35 I think it's up.

Speaker 44 I think, just like any sport, I think guys make shots at a higher level. We got so many guys who shoot the three well, can do so many different things well.

Speaker 44 But it's just, again, it's easy to create a narrative that we all play the same. Everybody shoots too many threes.
You do?

Speaker 2 That's not true.

Speaker 46 That's not true.

Speaker 34 The league is a copycat league, right?

Speaker 44 Just like the NFL is. When a team wins a championship,

Speaker 44 teams are going to start to play more like them. So

Speaker 44 in the last decade, the Warriors won a championship. How'd they do that? They shot a lot of threes, made a lot of jumpers.
So, teams want to do that. Now, Boston's win a championship.

Speaker 44 They got five guys on the floor at all times that can shoot threes. So, more teams, we got to shoot more threes to keep up with what they do.

Speaker 5 So, you think that this is actually a decision trying to win? Like, competitive juices are making these decisions, just like in the NFL. Like, right now, the Eagles just won.

Speaker 9 Pounded. Pounded for all.

Speaker 5 Saquon is the show. Like, AJ, obviously, incredible.
Devontae, phenomenal. They help with the box, obviously, because you can't bring absolutely everybody.

Speaker 5 But it's ground and pound football over there. Yeah, that's how they play.

Speaker 44 People are trying to win championships, so it's the same.

Speaker 5 But the amount of people that are going to now do that because of the success they're having.

Speaker 46 But like in the early 2000s, right?

Speaker 44 Like in Shaq's dominating, teams are trying to get three, four centers because they know they're going to need all of them to go foul him and try to stay in front and do their best.

Speaker 44 You got to try to keep up with the championship team. So Boston wins the most.
They won a championship last year. They shot plenty threes.

Speaker 44 You can't play them and shoot all twos and expect to win that game. It's just math is not going to, it's not going to work there.
So you got to shoot more threes. That's how it's going to be.

Speaker 5 So everybody's trying to chase the top, and that's how I kind of get to that point. And he caught up Boston, so I know Connor will get to his point.
Mad Mel, eager to ask a question.

Speaker 14 Yeah, just curious, do you think, you know, we talk about everything with the NBA right now and how guys are maybe, I don't want to say entitled, but you guys make a shitload of money.

Speaker 23 And I'm like, listen, you earned that money.

Speaker 21 Plenty of tiredness. Absolutely.

Speaker 14 Do you think, though, when Luca gets traded, is that kind of a wake-up call for the entire league? Like, hey, maybe shit ain't sweet, okay? Like, this guy is

Speaker 14 a future, you know, a top five player in the NBA, and out of nowhere, literally out of nowhere, he gets traded. Did that send kind of a shockwave across the league? Like, okay,

Speaker 14 maybe I can't be sitting out back-to-backs anymore.

Speaker 14 If this guy can get traded, I sure as hell can get traded as well.

Speaker 44 I mean, I feel like we all operate that way on a daily basis.

Speaker 44 I think the Luca thing might have been eye-opening that

Speaker 44 nobody's really safe. You know, everybody

Speaker 44 can be traded. And,

Speaker 44 you know, I think you see trades happen every year, but you don't see them to that magnitude where a top 10 player gets traded for another top 10 player. You know, like that's very uncommon.

Speaker 44 So definitely came as a surprise to the NBA world. But

Speaker 44 I think people understand what comes with the business, and everybody's going to be fine where they are.

Speaker 5 You've been traded, and we're very thankful for it. Like here in Indianapolis, I will say.
The way you go about leading the Pacers is so good for this city. Like, I think you're perfect for this city.

Speaker 22 Do you agree with that?

Speaker 2 I appreciate it.

Speaker 44 Yeah, yeah, I love it here.

Speaker 44 You know, I'm a Midwest guy, so I feel like I fit in very well here.

Speaker 5 Yeah, but you also got the flash, too.

Speaker 5 Flare? Yeah, you do got the flare, too. I like it.
You're a showman.

Speaker 44 I appreciate that. I appreciate it.
It's good. I'm a fan of small market teams being good.

Speaker 44 I think that's good for the league. It's cool.

Speaker 21 Yeah, it is.

Speaker 5 Yeah, it is. Now, let's on the complete opposite end of the spectrum.

Speaker 9 Boston Connor has a question.

Speaker 26 Yeah, Yeah,

Speaker 13 you mentioned the NBA champs, Boston Celtics, and I think we can all agree no one's beating them in seven again. You know, they're looking at the same thing.

Speaker 2 I don't agree. I don't agree with that.

Speaker 13 Well, I think most of us can agree that that's probably the case. And one of the biggest things we've talked about here is kind of the face of the league.

Speaker 13 And Jason Tatum, who, you know, is turning 27, I believe, already an NBA champ.

Speaker 13 He's the only American last year who was first team all NBA, and he gets the most hate by far out of any of the superstars. It feels like who doesn't really deserve it.

Speaker 13 Obviously, there are some guys that, you know, people have problems with Embiid and things of that nature, but that's mostly because they don't play.

Speaker 13 Tatum's one of those guys that does not sit out back-to-back.

Speaker 5 He didn't play, right, in the Olympics?

Speaker 13 And yeah, to the Olympic point, you know, I kind of think the reason that Jason Tatum doesn't get that much love is because Steve Kerr.

Speaker 13 And Steve Kerr is the problem for many, many reasons, the things that he does and talks about and appears on, but mostly, I think, because Tatum didn't get that USA push.

Speaker 13 You know, we just saw with the Four Nations Cup. The Kachuck brothers are two of the faces of the NHL now.
And I think a lot of people didn't like them before the Four Nations.

Speaker 13 Now they're kind of the golden boys of the NHL. And Jason Tatum didn't get that opportunity.
So Steve Kerr, thanks a lot.

Speaker 13 But there's a graphic that was pulled up about Jason Tatum versus some of the greats. There it is.
LeBron, MJ, Kobe, KD is on there. And he's the only one with all of those accomplishments.

Speaker 13 But for some reason, he gets so much hate.

Speaker 10 Who made this graphic? Who made this graphic?

Speaker 13 I want to say it was the NBA Muse that got.

Speaker 31 Not Centel.

Speaker 4 Not Centel.

Speaker 26 Rest in peace.

Speaker 26 Extra underscore Muse.

Speaker 5 Extra underscore Muse. Great graphic here.

Speaker 27 Fantastic.

Speaker 5 Well, with that being said, rest in peace to Sentel, dude.

Speaker 22 We're going to miss you.

Speaker 33 We're going to miss you.

Speaker 13 And for the people that said that was a bad account, you're completely wrong.

Speaker 28 But why do you think Jason Tatum gets so much hate?

Speaker 13 And why do you think people don't like him? Because he is one of those kind of perfect guys. even though he doesn't do that much media.

Speaker 22 Yeah, I mean, I think it's unwarranted.

Speaker 44 You know, he's obviously, like that graphic you saw, he's an elite player in our league.

Speaker 44 Coming off, he's the best player on the best team in the NBA, you know, off a championship. So I feel like

Speaker 44 it's not right for the hate that he gets. I mean, I think part of it could be he went to Duke and he plays on the Celtics teaching polarizing polarizing teams.

Speaker 9 But

Speaker 44 I mean, Jason's a good dude.

Speaker 44 He's

Speaker 44 got a shoe.

Speaker 46 He's elite.

Speaker 44 Like, he's got everything, you know? So I don't really understand it.

Speaker 44 I think us as players, I think he has the respect from his peers. And I think that's what means more than anything as an NBA player, the respect you get from your peers.

Speaker 44 And we know when we play Boston, you got to be ready and game plan around Jason Taylor.

Speaker 5 He mentioned the Olympics. You and he were the two guys that didn't see time.
He got in, but he wasn't like, you didn't play.

Speaker 5 And the way you handled it was like maybe the greatest NBA superstar led his team to the Eastern Conference final.

Speaker 17 Perfect.

Speaker 5 Like is the perfect, is

Speaker 41 king here in Indiana.

Speaker 5 And then you get on Team USA and it's like, all right I understand my role here you're gonna be a vibes like literally a vibes guy like that is literally what you became for that particular team and everybody talks about doing that saying if I was put in a position I would do it you actually did it I did you become tight with the guys on the team because of that like what do you think was a benefit of the way your Olympic experience went if that makes sense yeah I think my favorite part was just being able to to to be around the guys go to practice and and see how these guys work on a daily basis see their habits and be able to grow relationships you know ever since then I have relationships with all those guys.

Speaker 44 When Golden State was here, I went to dinner with Steph. And before we, before the Olympics, me and Steph had no relationship.
I actually think he, I thought he didn't fuck with me.

Speaker 2 And then

Speaker 1 I was like, yo, are we cool?

Speaker 35 And he was like, yeah, of course.

Speaker 44 And, you know, Steph's like the best guy ever. But that goes down the line with all those guys.

Speaker 44 So just being around those guys, getting to grow relationships and getting to learn from them. That was my favorite part of the shit.
I was there. I'm 24 years old.

Speaker 44 So just trying to learn as much as I could and, you know, how that can help me, you know, be a good player in the NBA.

Speaker 5 You're you're a great teammate thorner brother yeah go American great American

Speaker 5 great American all right Tyrese we appreciate the hell out of you we know you have to travel you're in the middle of a season right now uh we thank you for stopping by hanging out if our show has shifted an hour earlier window you would have been able to hang out longer instead you're heading out right now actually so um you're the man and the puma fit is sweet i appreciate that says who yeah says pat f1 race tonight in miami no actually he's hoping the racing jacket no any car you're getting what he's hopping

Speaker 5 he's hopping in that one right there, that funny car that's up there. You're rolling in the wrong place, Tari.
He's right here. Right here.
Right here. That one that's kind of diagonal.

Speaker 27 Indy car.

Speaker 17 Indy car.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah. Indy car, yeah.

Speaker 22 Big Indy Car guy. Mario Andretti.

Speaker 5 Joseph Newgarden, you were talking about earlier.

Speaker 2 Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 13 I'm actually trying to be a dork for Halloween, so could I get this full outfit?

Speaker 3 Look at you right now.

Speaker 2 Got you right now. What are you talking about?

Speaker 26 Look at me. This is what every NFL team's looking for.

Speaker 37 This is a fucking player.

Speaker 7 I'm not even looking for.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 37 You have no idea, pal.

Speaker 3 I don't know.

Speaker 9 You guys need to figure that out.

Speaker 44 How can we get you to do the combine?

Speaker 5 Yeah, I think we can probably make that happen.

Speaker 2 I mean, we're in here in the morning.

Speaker 5 We're here in the morning, and I think we could just kind of mosey down.

Speaker 5 You got to work the security people, just like you have to at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which you're talking about the Indy 500.

Speaker 5 You got to have a lot of confidence when you're walking by these security people. Because once you get in the building, I think everybody thinks you're okay.

Speaker 5 Getting into the building, impossible, as you found out this morning.

Speaker 1 It's a doozy.

Speaker 2 There's a lot of people there, though.

Speaker 44 It's the biggest single-day sporting event in the world, isn't it?

Speaker 5 Well, you're talking about Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Speaker 10 Indy 500.

Speaker 5 Yeah, Indy 500, yes.

Speaker 5 absolutely it is for this though for the combine getting into the building tough i think we could get on the field i think we could we could get you on the field i would love to and if i tear my acl i can finally sue this place and get my money back

Speaker 2 it'd kind of be the perfect you deserve it day you know all those taxes to build this hole just for them to you know shithole this place is beautiful yeah it is too stadium this is a great stadium it is beautiful thank you and you come to all the colts games which is very cool i'll be at the colts games yeah i came from we came from morgan walling that's right we're here for my mom came here for T-Swift.

Speaker 3 She's doing here for Swift.

Speaker 2 It's a great show.

Speaker 39 Yeah, it's a great concert stadium.

Speaker 5 It's a great stadium.

Speaker 22 Royal Rumble?

Speaker 2 Great.

Speaker 2 Why weren't you in the Rumble?

Speaker 46 That's a great question. That's a good question.

Speaker 7 I don't know.

Speaker 44 You know what? I'm going to tell you the truth here. I've wanted to be in the Rumble, and me and Triple H talked about it.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 44 he was like, kind of, he was just like, yeah, a lot of people asking if you're going to be in the Rumble, and I just laugh in their face.

Speaker 46 And I'm like, what the fuck?

Speaker 2 Middle of the season, bro.

Speaker 44 And he's like, because I think he's a little scared about me doing the middle of the season.

Speaker 2 He didn't want that, Brunson.

Speaker 44 Remember when Brunson, we got in there and he pushed himself up with the broke hand and Triple H kind of had a heart attack.

Speaker 5 Well, it's not just Triple H. Triple H also hears from a lot of people immediately afterwards, like, hey, what do we do? What do we, can we have a little bit of...
Well,

Speaker 44 SummerSlam's supposed to be here in the next five years, right?

Speaker 5 And I believe WrestleMania is.

Speaker 44 Well, WrestleMania is during the playoffs, so that definitely is.

Speaker 46 That'd be worth it, though, right?

Speaker 2 I mean, you can't get it. WrestleMania stage.

Speaker 21 Now you break your back. But

Speaker 44 how would I have gotten eliminated from the Rumble?

Speaker 9 Bring in Jason Tatum.

Speaker 51 You think I was taking that Braun Breaker's peer.

Speaker 5 Exactly.

Speaker 27 Watch your mouth.

Speaker 22 What did he say?

Speaker 5 He said, bring in Jason Tatum. Listen, not in this city.

Speaker 26 No, it was in this city, actually.

Speaker 2 This guy, bro.

Speaker 44 Are you trying to bait me to say something negative?

Speaker 2 No, not at all.

Speaker 37 I'm going to hate you last year.

Speaker 24 Hey, it's a Jim Everett, Chris Everett situation going on here.

Speaker 43 He has to leave.

Speaker 21 Literally, he has to leave.

Speaker 43 What time is it, Chris?

Speaker 5 123.

Speaker 22 Oh, yeah, I got to go. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 Hey, Tyrese, we appreciate the hell out of you. Appreciate you.

Speaker 5 And I think the Puma looks cool.

Speaker 22 Yeah, enjoy the rest of the night. Yeah, I know.

Speaker 24 I love it.

Speaker 11 You had a plum suit over there.

Speaker 2 Hey, I've seen you. Hey, do you know shit on Pumpkins?

Speaker 2 You can never wear Puma Gaddafi.

Speaker 2 What you mean?

Speaker 53 I know exactly what you got.

Speaker 2 You make some, you win some, you lose some.

Speaker 44 You have some.

Speaker 44 Not every outfit you put on is like, that shit was hot.

Speaker 46 This one is.

Speaker 26 That's his week.

Speaker 52 That one is. This one is.

Speaker 5 How do we feel about this one today? You looked in the mirror, you said, you know what? I'm killing them today. Shout out, Puma.

Speaker 11 Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 44 And I'm getting on the plane cozy while the wire goes to sleep.

Speaker 7 Oh, great show.

Speaker 2 Great show. I'm on season five.

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 2 you're talking about an all-star break.

Speaker 44 Yeah, I'm on season five right now.

Speaker 9 Elite television.

Speaker 12 Without a doubt.

Speaker 46 Which severance?

Speaker 33 What show you think I should go to next?

Speaker 46 Severance.

Speaker 24 Severance is really good.

Speaker 2 It's slow, though. Severance.
Severance kind of sucks. Slow, right?

Speaker 46 It takes a little to build.

Speaker 5 It's very slow, but I like it.

Speaker 5 I watched three episodes. I got it.
I understand. It could be great.
Too slow for me. Too slow for me.
But you could see why it would be great. Like, it is a very yeah.

Speaker 13 Nine apps in the first season. It takes six to build the place.
It takes six to build. Seven, eight, nine.
It's a crazy concept.

Speaker 5 I'm not a series guy. He is a series guy.

Speaker 5 I would not watch series. I don't do that.
But that one watched a couple on his recommendation. You could see how it would be great.

Speaker 5 Again, I watch wrestling and football.

Speaker 22 Something. And basketball.

Speaker 35 And basketball.

Speaker 22 I was like, calm down a little bit.

Speaker 2 Of course. Something a little quicker.

Speaker 24 Black Hawk Down documentary.

Speaker 22 Watch that. Unbelievable.

Speaker 2 Lioness.

Speaker 19 Watch Prison Break.

Speaker 14 You'll love it.

Speaker 44 I heard it's a good show.

Speaker 26 You'll love it. I'm going Sopranos.

Speaker 24 White Collins. Someone by the Melt.

Speaker 9 I mean, if he's by the bell.

Speaker 2 White

Speaker 5 That was a very loud pop right there. I don't know if he mics.
That was another one.

Speaker 2 Good luck, Max.

Speaker 5 Mouse kind of dud.

Speaker 5 That was a good one, too.

Speaker 22 Hey, good luck.

Speaker 2 Head on Twitter.

Speaker 49 Head on a swivel.

Speaker 2 Be careful. Stay out of those places.

Speaker 5 Head on a swivel at Starbucks, please.

Speaker 14 Hey, don't throw your backout loading baggage onto the plane wearing that gear.

Speaker 3 Good point.

Speaker 5 He walked in with that jacket. We have a

Speaker 5 very kind of the people here. We got a suite upstairs.
Shout out to Foss, shout out to the SPN. and then Indianapolis, which is funny because the Colts don't own a stadium.
So the NFL.

Speaker 22 Yeah, we do. Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 5 Indianapolis does.

Speaker 5 Colts Nation. The NFL has to work with the actual city, like people that work for the city.
The people that work for the city all,

Speaker 5 they're pretty on board with our particular program.

Speaker 5 Everybody else kind of, you know.

Speaker 19 Not as much.

Speaker 5 Not as much, you know? So it's like the people that have the place are our people. And Tyrese is the same exact, he's treated the same exact way as the people, like he is beloved in this city.

Speaker 5 Tyrese is great for this city.

Speaker 26 Perfect.

Speaker 5 But he walked in in that jacket earlier in our suite, and everybody was like,

Speaker 48 That's a big jacket. Well, I thought he'd help.

Speaker 34 He drove his Ducati here.

Speaker 5 Well, he could have. That goes back to your point.
The NBA players make a lot of money.

Speaker 5 Ladies and gentlemen, men who host this. Yeah, you're driving on a moon.

Speaker 13 Yeah, I mean, you just can't do it. You can't own a nice car like that.

Speaker 20 We haven't talked about it in a while

Speaker 5 because we hammered it for so long on our show whenever we weren't on ESPN. But, like, like the potholes in Indianapolis are moats.
Like that is what they are.

Speaker 5 And I know there's other cities that have bad potholes and other states have bad potholes.

Speaker 5 Because I'm from Pennsylvania.

Speaker 5 Any four-season climate normally going to have bad roads and everything like that. And everybody thinks theirs are the worst.
And I just, I think I've lived in West Virginia.

Speaker 5 I've lived in multiple states. Indiana's roads are by far the worst.
I mean,

Speaker 5 these things are so deep. They're like three, four feet deep.

Speaker 32 We went on vacation, came back.

Speaker 39 I thought there was a small mortar war.

Speaker 5 Yeah, a pond, baby. Oh, a pond just started.
Or like, you know those videos where the...

Speaker 9 Sinkles?

Speaker 29 Yeah.

Speaker 5 Like, you think that is in the middle of the road.

Speaker 5 And there's so many of them that kind of hit, you can't even

Speaker 5 crash 218 wheelers on the.

Speaker 25 Exactly.

Speaker 14 I was going to say they're making their way onto the highway now, which is great because it makes it very safe, you know, when you got a shitload of semis going by and everything. It's awesome.

Speaker 41 It's phenomenal.

Speaker 5 Crashed a semi into another semi, I guess, these bottles.

Speaker 30 I saw one this morning. They were giving donkey tours to the bottom of it.

Speaker 5 That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 50 It's messed up. That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 It's like driving on a moon. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is two men that have already been to the moon and probably been back.
They host the NFL Combine.

Speaker 5 They host the future of the NFL, ladies and gentlemen, from NFL Network

Speaker 5 and from the Rich Eisen Show.

Speaker 5 Hey, we can move some sticks. Rich Eisen, Dan Jeremiah.
Yeah, baby, my job, boys.

Speaker 5 Michigan Man's going to bring in a ball.

Speaker 37 Well, well.

Speaker 9 Well,

Speaker 9 no, he's a mission for him at heart.

Speaker 50 How are you doing, Rich?

Speaker 24 Whatever you want to go. Come on, DJ.
Mr.

Speaker 45 Eisen of of the game?

Speaker 24 Hey, Doing, DJ?

Speaker 32 Mr. Sticks.

Speaker 32 Yeah, there we go.

Speaker 24 There we go. Get this mic.

Speaker 2 Thank you.

Speaker 5 God, it's good to see you guys.

Speaker 34 It is great.

Speaker 2 Hey.

Speaker 5 Let's do it. Hey, the Combine's here.

Speaker 42 It is here. Let's go, boys.

Speaker 52 Let's go, boys.

Speaker 2 Let's go, boys. We're ready.
We're ready.

Speaker 5 This is Daniel Jeremiah Super Bowl. This is all eyes on DJ.
This is, hey, Rich Eisen. Let's go ahead and run run that 40.
Let's be smooth as hell.

Speaker 5 Let's compliment everybody that's out here because there's a chance that there's any Hall of Famer at any time walking onto this field.

Speaker 5 And this is you guys on TV for what, 45 hours straight calling people do exercises, right, Rich?

Speaker 55 We should raise money. It should be a telethon.
It's funny, anytime

Speaker 55 a large man runs really slow, I get a text from Warren Sapp saying, there's your pace, car.

Speaker 21 I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 You've been under 6.0 four times. I think we did the the history.
Is that right? 2016 is your fastest. I think if we get the,

Speaker 5 if I read the stats right, you've been under 6.0

Speaker 5 four times throughout the history. A lot of times you've run, I mean, like 20 times, it feels like.
Do you know how many?

Speaker 10 I always tell you.

Speaker 56 There it is.

Speaker 55 There's the, let me see.

Speaker 55 I see five beautiful fives up there. Really gotta be.
Up to the left of the decimal point. That is fantastic.
Look at that form.

Speaker 2 What do you think of the form? It's really good. Is it?

Speaker 26 Yeah, top

Speaker 13 being in a suit, too.

Speaker 5 Hey, it's four under 6.0, right?

Speaker 55 That's four under under four under 6.0.

Speaker 5 Okay, I thought you said five. I was talking

Speaker 9 math.

Speaker 55 How many of those did you time, DJ?

Speaker 57 Just a couple, but I did get one under

Speaker 57 6. So I don't know if that's 2018.
It might be 2018. Yeah, it sounds about right.

Speaker 55 He's got a nice trigger finger.

Speaker 5 I was giving the punters yesterday, and the kicker's good. Like, I got my stopwatch right here.

Speaker 5 You could just delay a little bit and give a guy a 0.1. All of a sudden, he goes from 4.6 to a 4.7.
That's a good punt. Let's keep this guy around.
But what you've done for St.

Speaker 5 Jude with this run, Rich Run, cool thing, bro.

Speaker 22 Thank you.

Speaker 55 Indianapolis is very lucky that you choose, oh, you get to do it here, I guess, because let me tell you, it's been, it was like anything else born out of, on television, born out of complete boredom, sitting in the old RCA dome two and a half hours before shooting Total Access, back when you were probably a scout or something like that.

Speaker 30 Where were you in 05?

Speaker 24 Yeah, I was.

Speaker 26 I was 05, I was with the Ravens. You were with the Ravens.

Speaker 55 So it's me, I'm sitting up in the stands, Terrell Davis, who was thinking about doing TV at the time, sitting next to me.

Speaker 55 Oh, this is great. I get to tell the story the way normally I have to clean it up.
Now I've just realized where I am right now.

Speaker 3 Welcome, Marshall.

Speaker 5 We never get to see yours, you never get to see ours, but you know the vibe.

Speaker 55 I do know the vibe.

Speaker 55 So

Speaker 55 I'm sitting there and I'm just totally bored, hearing the hum of the air conditioning and the lights and the old RCA dome.

Speaker 55 Just stared down at the 40-yard dash, and I don't know why I popped in my head about running it. So I turned to Terrell Davis.
I say, TD, how fast do you think I can run it? He laughs.

Speaker 55 He goes, you can't run for shit.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 55 I swear to God, I just said, go fuck yourself.

Speaker 3 Watch me.

Speaker 21 It was a spite run.

Speaker 55 It was a spite run. And

Speaker 55 I went down and I was just, you know, dressed suited and booted, lace up, you know, dress shoes. And I went and ran it and had no idea that the crew that was on break was actually recording it.

Speaker 55 And they surprised me with it that night. And then the next day,

Speaker 55 you know, we had Joe Gibbs on and

Speaker 55 a whole bunch of other coaches came in.

Speaker 35 Judging, evaluating.

Speaker 55 And they said, did we see you running a 40-yard dash last night? So right away, they immediately popped the 40-yard dash up and they were all making fun of me and having fun with it.

Speaker 55 And I just thought nothing of it. Next year, I show up, and the first person I see at the RCA dome is

Speaker 55 the freshly minted NFC champion coach of the Seattle Seahawks, Mike Holmgren, who goes, are you going to run it again? And I'm like, no.

Speaker 56 And he said, why not?

Speaker 55 And I'm like, I don't know. He goes, well, you got to beat your time.

Speaker 55 And I'm like thinking to myself, here is the NFC champion, head coach, just coaching the Super Bowl, like questioning my sense of competition. I have to run it.

Speaker 55 So I...

Speaker 40 I got to prove myself. I did.

Speaker 55 And that's why I ran it again because of him. And I just remember him also saying, just don't wind up there.
And he pointed at the training table.

Speaker 55 And so I just kept doing it over and over and over again. And, you know, now it's 20 years later.

Speaker 22 Come on, dude. That's awesome.

Speaker 24 Hell yeah, Rich.

Speaker 5 You've done so many good things, too, with that, obviously raising a shit ton of money because I don't know the exact amount for St.

Speaker 55 It's over $7 million for the life of it.

Speaker 5 Much more than a shit ton.

Speaker 21 That is

Speaker 2 amazing as many shit tons.

Speaker 5 It was a spite run to begin with, and Coach Holmgren

Speaker 5 kind of motivates you to continue it. And then he points at a training table.
Have you ever hurt yourself doing it?

Speaker 58 I have, as a matter of fact,

Speaker 55 because, you know, running it, and, you know, my wife is always sitting at home hoping that I don't embarrass myself and the family name.

Speaker 55 And then Deion was always part of our crew, and I didn't want to embarrass myself in of him.

Speaker 55 Leon Sandcastle. As a matter of fact, he did run the 40 with me one year as Leon Sandcastle and was step-for-step

Speaker 55 with me in the Leon Sandcastle afro, running backwards.

Speaker 2 That's tough.

Speaker 9 That's a tough look.

Speaker 51 It's a tough look, but, you know, for comedy, Pat.

Speaker 10 You know, anything for comedy. And also for Deion Sandcastle.

Speaker 55 Yeah, it was good for the brand on everybody's part except for me, but it's all good.

Speaker 20 No, no, no. Good, good, good.

Speaker 55 But so one year I ran it so slow twice and I ran it a third time because I just wanted to run it faster. And I popped my hamstring in the middle of it.

Speaker 22 Not good.

Speaker 55 And

Speaker 55 I thought to myself, well, we're just not going to air it this year. And Mike Mayok

Speaker 55 said to me, you've got to air it. You've got to air it.
And I'm like, why? And he goes, because it shows, you know, you're just like everybody else.

Speaker 55 You're just, you're running as fast as you possibly can. Who cares if you got hurt? And just show it.
I'm like, okay, you're right. So we did it.
And

Speaker 55 as soon as it airs he goes hey looks like there was a sniper in the dome

Speaker 51 and he goes Bill Poleon was up there with a rifle

Speaker 57 I'm like well wait a minute you told me to show it

Speaker 51 just to set me up like what the hell

Speaker 5 that was that's everybody's had that happen in football in sports you know so I think you stepping up to prove yourself that I'm not just a TV guy thank you it's such a good mentality to start that entire thing hell yeah we appreciate you

Speaker 5 now let's talk about some 40s that are going to be happening here this week and I legitimately can't wait to watch you guys. Spend a weekend with you.
It's like a weekend watching a golf tournament.

Speaker 5 That's, I think, how you should view it, probably. I assume you already do as a host, but that is how I view it.
Something great happens, there's some noise. I'm going to go ahead and look.

Speaker 5 Other than that, got some background noise with the wife, with the daughter doing a thing. What do we need to keep an eye out for this week?

Speaker 5 What is like the most spectacular, jaw-dropping thing that you project to potentially take place this week?

Speaker 57 Well, I think there's going to be some 4-2s. So we had the runner last year with Xavier Worthy ripped off the record.
I think that's probably going going to be safe, but I think

Speaker 57 there's three guys that have a chance to get close. Maxwell Harrison Corner from Kentucky is kind of my favorite.
Keep an eye on him as somebody that might run that thing down.

Speaker 57 Bond from Texas, the wide receivers, crazy.

Speaker 5 If they go Xavier Worthy from Texas, 4-2-1.

Speaker 5 To Isaiah Bond, 4-2-whatever from Texas, it's like,

Speaker 5 what's the training going on down in Texas? These guys are just faster than any humans that have ever existed.

Speaker 57 Well, I think also you're just looking at the track programs in high school, how much better they've gotten and the resources and track clubs, and these guys are, they know how to run.

Speaker 57 You know, it used to be football players, and you're trying to train and learn how to run a 40.

Speaker 57 These guys have been, you know, coming out of a stand since they were eight, nine years old, and they're legit fast. So those guys are fun.
And then defensive line,

Speaker 57 it's a stat class. You know, defensive tackles is loaded.
Edge rushers is loaded. Linebackers today, Jihad Campbell from Alabama,

Speaker 57 he can rush off the edge. He can play off the ball.

Speaker 23 He's going to run low 4-4

Speaker 42 at that size.

Speaker 5 It's impressive. It is impressive.
And if we got good D-tackles, that means we got a lot of big meat moving fast.

Speaker 5 Always create good moments for NFL Combine clips. Now, Mad Mel obviously dialed in, has some questions.

Speaker 33 Yes, yes.

Speaker 59 Yeah, dude, DJ, obviously,

Speaker 14 this time of the year, the reason I love it so much is it just kind of gives me an opportunity to put my nuts right on the table. Let everybody know, hey, I know this shit inside and out, okay?

Speaker 14 I assume you're the same way, maybe not as colorful, you know, as the way I do it.

Speaker 14 But Adam Schefter was on the show yesterday, kind of talking about the athletes in this class, and basically said, hey, listen, a guy, the top 10 here.

Speaker 5 Rich,

Speaker 5 please.

Speaker 59 Rich scoring.

Speaker 15 He's gay, what's five?

Speaker 14 I mean, I get it. You know what happens.

Speaker 8 This guy's trying to do a little scouting there.

Speaker 14 The difference between 10 and, you know, maybe the guy who goes with 10, the guy who goes with 35 is, you know, very minuscule, if you will.

Speaker 14 He said, you know, listen, a guy you get in the third round might be just as good as the guy you take at 11. Do you agree with that sentiment?

Speaker 14 Do you think this class itself maybe isn't as deep as classes in the past? Or is it kind of one of those things where, you know, personally, I believe, hey, not as great of a quarterback class.

Speaker 14 So, a lot of people are, you know, not going to get as excited about it. But do you buy that?

Speaker 14 That maybe there's 10 guys with a true first-round grade, and everybody else you might be able to find, you know, day two, day three.

Speaker 14 What's your take on that, DJ?

Speaker 57 First of all, have you had your pumpkin pie yet today?

Speaker 14 Obviously, start every morning.

Speaker 16 You know, a lot of people, and listen, I want to get this out of the way.

Speaker 2 No, allegedly.

Speaker 14 That whipped cream upside down. Whipped cream, not whippets.
All right, I'm not emptying a whipped cream bottle and then sucking the CO2 out of there and getting all jacked up on Google.

Speaker 2 Nobody should be doing that.

Speaker 14 Yeah, I'm not doing that, okay?

Speaker 31 So, yeah, okay, assume me.

Speaker 14 I had half a pumpkin pie and about two cans of whipped cream.

Speaker 2 I guess we're going.

Speaker 56 I don't mean to evaluate.

Speaker 55 I don't think that is the actual chemistry of what you suck out of a whippet.

Speaker 26 What?

Speaker 2 CO2. No, yeah, but if it's.

Speaker 7 How do you know, Rich?

Speaker 55 I know carbon dioxide is not in that.

Speaker 26 Well, no, it's not.

Speaker 14 But if that's all you got, is an empty, you know,

Speaker 9 whippet can.

Speaker 2 I know my chemistry, Boston, okay?

Speaker 52 Fair enough, fair enough.

Speaker 37 Back off.

Speaker 26 Michigan guy, I forgot about it.

Speaker 5 Anyways, anyways, pumpkin, a lot of pumpkin, and then 10 to 35 levels.

Speaker 57 The way I phrase it is it's a starter draft, maybe not a star draft. So there's a bunch of guys very evenly graded.

Speaker 24 I like that.

Speaker 57 So you're going to find, you know, there's going to be... a lot of similarity.

Speaker 57 I think I would push it back maybe more towards like 15, then you could probably even go further down the line, like 15 to 50. You're going to see a lot of, you know, similarly graded players.

Speaker 57 That's why on the media side of things it's hard to it's hard to stack your board because you're not with a team and so every team's gonna have the same grades on these guys but i'm gonna prioritize the needs that i have so i i think you'll see players get picked it'll be wildly different than where they are on boards so who do you think are the stars then like if you're if you're saying you know it's a lot of stars who are like the the top guys like the blue chip dudes who are going to go in and be immediate you know huge factors for teams i mean i think there's two stars in the draft i think it's abdul carter and i think it's travis hunter i I think those are like the blue chip elite players.

Speaker 5 Tyler Warren, no?

Speaker 17 I love Tyler Warren.

Speaker 57 He's my fifth overall player.

Speaker 57 Gentee too.

Speaker 55 You got Genty.

Speaker 51 Gentee's my third player.

Speaker 40 That's what's so weird about you.

Speaker 26 Do you lovely graded the same as I have the same grade on Warren and Loveland again?

Speaker 57 That's three of my top seven players, two tight ends and a running back.

Speaker 55 Why isn't Travis Hunter being just what we're previewing this? I hope you don't mind us using the Pat McAfee Show Real Estate as sort of a rundown meeting here.

Speaker 56 Okay, very good.

Speaker 55 Why isn't Travis Hunter number one overall? Because he is a unicorn. And by the way, he just came up with a sound bite of the week as far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 55 He was asked at his press conference, I think while you were talking to Tyrese here, that, you know, are you going to return punts and kicks? And his answer was, I already have two jobs.

Speaker 2 Beast.

Speaker 5 That is a sick bar.

Speaker 7 That is.

Speaker 55 I already have two jobs. Like, everybody back off.
I'm a friggin unicorn. So

Speaker 55 why isn't he considered first overall?

Speaker 57 Yeah, he's second for me, and that more is about how special Abdul Carter is and the position that he plays.

Speaker 57 I just, I'm going to value somebody who can go get the quarterback in a league where I rank at quarterback, pass rushers. That's one in two of the most valuable assets you can have.

Speaker 57 And we're coming off of a Super Bowl that we just witnessed what happens when you have dominant defensive front players. Now, he's unique in terms of all the different things he can do.

Speaker 57 I'm not convinced he can run it out there 100 snaps a game in the NFL playing against that competition for a long, you know, prolonged season.

Speaker 57 I think he's going to have to major and minor, and you've got to figure out which one of those he's going to major and which which one he's gonna minor.

Speaker 5 So I think if you were to like Chuck Pagano for instance, he said if you can get a lockdown corner, a guy that can go on an island, you go ahead and do that and then give him a couple plays on offense to take advantage of his skill set, especially with the game coming back to being a physical one.

Speaker 5 If you can go man on the outside, which I think obviously everybody wants to be able to do, but if you can go man or have a guy that can go man, I mean, that's a game changer for the rest of the box to try to stop the run, which I think is where the game's headed.

Speaker 5 I'm very fascinated by Travis Hunter because, you know, you ask these people, is he a wide receiver? Is he a cornerback? And you ask him, obviously, he says, I'm different. He said, I'm different.

Speaker 5 People say never been done before. Nobody ever done it like I do.
It's I'm just different. A lot of good bars coming out of Travis Hunter.
And I think he's uber competitive.

Speaker 5 Everybody says all he does is like ball.

Speaker 9 Doesn't really go out. He's supposed to be a great kid.

Speaker 5 Yeah, he works his ass off. Like, he's 113 snaps a game, I think, or is some sort of record in this entire thing.
So his durability has been fantastic.

Speaker 5 The way he's come through, you know, the prime university to be a professional athlete, it's like, feels like he is a can't-miss type of guy.

Speaker 56 100%.

Speaker 45 At one of the positions.

Speaker 56 Right.

Speaker 9 And at one point in his career.

Speaker 22 He's the best, too. Right.

Speaker 55 And at one point of his career, you'll figure which one he's going to major in specifically. And then, you know,

Speaker 56 that's why I don't know how you pass up on him.

Speaker 55 Like, period. End of story.

Speaker 57 I just, the only thing I would push back to.

Speaker 10 Hey, DJ, listen.

Speaker 5 Listen to us.

Speaker 2 Okay. Yes.

Speaker 3 Oh, no, no.

Speaker 2 By the way, we haven't even got to Will Howard yet.

Speaker 57 But I had that on my bingo card. It's already coming up with Pat.
It's coming.

Speaker 5 I'll give you a short amount of time so you can't explain it.

Speaker 2 Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 45 Those are strategies.

Speaker 16 Abdul Carter, we watched him with one arm

Speaker 57 in the playoffs dominating. We were there.
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 2 Dominic.

Speaker 5 I got some Hembo stats on Abdul Carter.

Speaker 57 You want to know something crazy?

Speaker 59 And this is fully

Speaker 57 recognizing Travis Hunter and his greatness.

Speaker 57 I'm not so sure if they raced that Abdul Carter wouldn't win.

Speaker 24 Really?

Speaker 57 Abdul Carter, I was told when he has a full runway to get healthy and run, that he'll run in the four threes.

Speaker 5 Unbelievable as a pass rusher.

Speaker 5 So that makes sense for what hembo sent over uh most pressures versus ohio state last season abdul carter with five most pressures versus oregon last season abdul carter with six most pressures versus notre dame last season abdul carter with seven that was when he was injured or whatever okay then most pressures in 2024 inside two and a half seconds Okay, so you talk about his speed.

Speaker 5 Inside two and a half seconds, Abdul Carter had 37 of them. James Pierce Jr.
had 29. Inside 2.25 seconds.

Speaker 10 Now, we're getting, this is

Speaker 5 turnstile tackle type thing happened there. He had 29 of those.
So basically, only eight of them were between 2.25 to 2.5. And the next closest was Jane Pierce with 19.

Speaker 5 So he has as many in 2.25 seconds as Pierce had in two and a half seconds. You're talking about just getting to the quarterback immediately.
He's running a 4-3, this guy.

Speaker 36 Yeah, but we're not going to see it here.

Speaker 51 We'll have to wait until it's pro-day.

Speaker 59 No, but just in line.

Speaker 57 That's how explosive he is. That's just how dynamic is.

Speaker 5 And he plays through pain. Now, I got the foot thing now, right? What's his foot thing?

Speaker 57 So I guess they thought he might have to have surgery. Then the latest we heard today was that he's going to put that out.
He doesn't need it. He's going to be able to go with the pro day and

Speaker 56 full go.

Speaker 5 Eight weeks, like if Schefter's report is accurate, which we assume it is, Schefter said he had two options. Yeah, option one is get the surgery, get a bolt.
Here it is, right here.

Speaker 5 Option one for Carter would be to have the preemptive surgery, have a screw insert in his right foot, and be expected back in eight weeks.

Speaker 5 Option two for Carter would be to bypass the surgery, conduct his pro day, and prove to NFL teams that he doesn't need it because he's probably had this for a long time without even knowing it.

Speaker 5 Maybe they checked it here in medical. And my first reaction is like, eight weeks, brother, it's February.
You go ahead and get that thing done.

Speaker 19 Who cares?

Speaker 5 And then you go into a season, especially if you're a top, let alone a top one guy, but if you're like a top five guy, like obviously there's a difference in money, but what you're about to do in the NFL is about to be a difference in money.

Speaker 5 I'd get healthy, but I feel like they probably just assume that it's not that big of a deal. Is that what's happening?

Speaker 55 Well, apparently option two was chosen this morning, right?

Speaker 10 Yes, that's what I heard, yeah.

Speaker 5 So do you know anything about that, DJ?

Speaker 57 No, it just said that this morning the information that was, it wasn't as serious as they saw yesterday. I don't know how that information changes from one day to the next.

Speaker 5 Different doctors, right? Isn't it different medical? Or different imaging, I guess.

Speaker 51 Really?

Speaker 9 Isn't that the thing, Rich?

Speaker 56 Yeah, Yeah, and then that's what this is all about.

Speaker 55 Like, I remember back, again, back in the day at the RCA dome, and I was just strolling around the combine for the first time, and they used to split up the medical rooms by division. Like, you know,

Speaker 55 AFC East doctors were in Run Room, and Central, and what have you.

Speaker 55 Central. Anyway, long story short is, long story short is,

Speaker 55 I went in there, started talking to some doctors, which probably wouldn't

Speaker 55 happen today.

Speaker 55 One guy told me that he, in previous combines, saw an x-ray and told a guy, you broke your leg back in high school. And the guy's like, no, I didn't.
And he showed it to him. He goes, yeah, you did.

Speaker 2 You just didn't know.

Speaker 55 I'm like, they find stuff that other places just don't.

Speaker 2 Wasn't there somebody's heart?

Speaker 5 There was a heart thing somewhere. Wasn't there?

Speaker 57 I think Maurice Hearst out of Michigan, they found something with him that, you know, heart-related. And fortunately, he's had a long, long career here.

Speaker 5 Yeah, like one team deemed him no. And then other teams were like, yeah, we'll take this guy in top 10.
Like, it's an interesting philosophy from doctors.

Speaker 13 Happened with Kansas City with Trey Smith.

Speaker 41 There it is.

Speaker 2 That's why he fell to the sixth round.

Speaker 13 Yeah, his knee was all screwed up, and some of the doctors said this might be a problem. And obviously, he's been

Speaker 13 fantastic.

Speaker 55 And I guess just to bring this conversation full circle, Mad Mel, you're the first person to talk about nuts on the table at the Kanban since Chris Jones.

Speaker 2 That's on the field, brother. Like on the field, brother.

Speaker 59 That was us sitting there watching and go, oh man, he pulled his nuts.

Speaker 57 That's not his hamstring.

Speaker 6 Let it fly, DJ.

Speaker 5 You need to do that in there. You talk about quarterbacks.
Yes, sir. Okay.

Speaker 5 46 minutes into the hour, got an out at 57, so I think you have more than enough time. We're good.
To explain. Yep.

Speaker 5 I looked at your. Can you put his mock first round up there again?

Speaker 5 There is a name that I

Speaker 5 don't know if we have exact control.

Speaker 5 Yeah, there it is.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I don't see it.

Speaker 5 Do you guys see it?

Speaker 2 Am I missing anything? What are you looking for?

Speaker 5 A national champion.

Speaker 26 Or Ohio State guy.

Speaker 13 I see, yeah, I see

Speaker 13 Abuka on there.

Speaker 5 I see Henderson. I see Donald Jackson, Dog.

Speaker 24 This is the Will Howard show of record.

Speaker 56 Oh, I'm yeah. Okay, he's not up there.

Speaker 5 He's not, isn't he, Rich? I don't see him. What is the deal?

Speaker 9 Like, I love Shador, by the way.

Speaker 5 Incredibly tough. I like Shador up there.
Cam Ward, I like Cam Ward up there. Like, I am not, this is not taking away from them.

Speaker 5 This is just saying Jackson Dart, number three in this draft, is what's kind of being talked about. And then Will Howard, how do you have him viewed?

Speaker 57 He's right in there.

Speaker 57 He's not far off from Jackson Dart on grade-wise for me. And I'll give you some good Will Howard news because

Speaker 57 I knew I was going to see Pat and I knew

Speaker 2 where we were going.

Speaker 57 So I talked to teams that have interviewed Will Howard this week and said he's been exceptional, that he's been awesome in the room.

Speaker 57 And I went back and I wanted to watch kind of the last tail end of games because that's when he caught fire.

Speaker 57 So after you get through the process, you watch all 330 guys we have here now you have time time to go on a little deeper dive. And the first one I started with, because I want to start with Michigan.

Speaker 57 I know didn't go, it went the way you wanted it to go.

Speaker 56 Oh, very much so.

Speaker 57 Yeah, did not go to where Ohio State wanted that one to go.

Speaker 7 But

Speaker 57 watching that tape, he took a vicious hit

Speaker 57 early in that game.

Speaker 32 He was running on the sideline.

Speaker 57 And he was not... He was not the same later on beyond that.

Speaker 16 I thought he was a Kansas State still.

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Speaker 56 It was a wildcat.

Speaker 57 So seeing that, I kind of excused away some of that performance because I don't know that he was all right in that game. And then he got hot and played exceptionally well.

Speaker 57 My only concern with him really is just I want to see a quarterback throw live and see the ball come out of his hand just to see if there's enough pop and there's enough juice because these receivers at Ohio State create so much separation

Speaker 57 that there's not really those tight window throws. There's no need for them.
You don't really have to make them. There's a couple strikes.

Speaker 5 There's a couple strikes. I mean, we were on the field watch our last four games.
Rob Play was a person.

Speaker 17 Unbelievable.

Speaker 56 He's eyeballed.

Speaker 5 Well, that's the thing.

Speaker 5 So we, and I'm not saying you had the same thought as us, actually, on CJ Stroud, but like when we do these field pass games, me, AJ, Darius, a lot of other people, and I'm very lucky at the punter position, I've watched a lot of football from the sideline.

Speaker 5 Like I've literally watched a lot of football. So you see some of these guys and you look like, oh, that's a Sunday guy right.
Like that is clearly a different guy.

Speaker 5 We saw CJ against Georgia and he had ran more than he had for the rest of the season. It was like.
That's the guy right there. That is the guy.

Speaker 5 For Will Howard, it was just like, as we were watching him, I'm like, nobody's really taught. He's 6'4.

Speaker 5 He's got the size, 240. He's got it all.
The boys love him.

Speaker 5 And whenever things go south, especially with a transfer guy that got paid a bunch of money, especially with all the egos that could potentially be in that building, they could have turned their back on him.

Speaker 5 Instead, he had touchdown celebrations with dances with all of his skill. He was able to handle personality.
And then he was making these throws. Now, granted, that guy's unguardable.

Speaker 5 So is everybody else, except for against Michigan, right, Rich?

Speaker 56 Oh, well, no, I mean,

Speaker 56 at that point, listen,

Speaker 55 he bawled out in the playoffs.

Speaker 55 There's no two two ways about it. And there's no two ways about it.
He was hurt.

Speaker 55 Michigan really hurt him in that game. And C.J.
Stroud had the best workout of a quarterback I think I've ever seen at a combine.

Speaker 2 He was here, right? And he threw. He was unreal.

Speaker 55 He threw every throw. He was dynamite.
He was amazing. My only question is, Will Howard, when he throws here, is it going to be really weird for him?

Speaker 56 Because I don't think he's played in this building.

Speaker 2 Okay. Wow.
All right.

Speaker 2 That's true.

Speaker 56 This is the home of the Big Ten Championship, and I don't know.

Speaker 30 Is this going to be the first time he throws in this building?

Speaker 5 Okay, so let's stick on that note. Shall we? Sure.
Let's stick on that note with Michigan. How many did Jim say yesterday? Maybe four?

Speaker 32 So it's Mason Graham, it's Kenneth Grant, it's Colston Loveland, and

Speaker 10 Will Johnson, yeah.

Speaker 5 Okay, so are we going to be able to continue to replenish all these guys up in Michigan? Are we a little bit worried?

Speaker 55 When you say we, what do you mean, like collectively, we?

Speaker 9 No, I'm just saying, are we, if I was a business?

Speaker 58 Why would I be worried? You gave millions for pressure.

Speaker 26 I was going to say,

Speaker 55 well, when you say you, I didn't give money.

Speaker 56 Oh, I thought it was you personally.

Speaker 58 No, no, no, it wasn't me.

Speaker 2 You own Oracle, right?

Speaker 56 No, no. You know, I own something that Oracle, I think,

Speaker 2 created.

Speaker 2 200 billion.

Speaker 5 What is that? What is Oracle?

Speaker 10 Database.

Speaker 31 Cloud computer.

Speaker 55 It's a great company. It's outstanding.
And

Speaker 55 it's a revenue generator, Pat.

Speaker 55 But yes, Michigan did splurge, and it's fantastic.

Speaker 55 And they finished awesome. That was great.

Speaker 55 You You know, January 1st, 2024, beating Alabama in the Rose Bowl, and December 31st, beating Alabama twice in the same year, around beating Ohio State.

Speaker 55 And it was just, those were just great days in my life, Pat.

Speaker 5 Yeah, you guys beat Alabama twice and Ohio State twice in the same year. I mean, that's a.

Speaker 55 Well, yeah, I mean,

Speaker 55 in an actual calendar year, the first day of the year and the last day of the year was beating Alabama.

Speaker 56 Oh, twice, yeah.

Speaker 55 Yeah, and then Ohio State with, you know, a walk-on quarterback and five losses.

Speaker 56 And it was just, honestly, I'd rather talk about all that.

Speaker 2 Can I ask Pat a local question here?

Speaker 56 I think that's a great idea.

Speaker 58 Whatever it might be.

Speaker 57 Do you guys have a recommendation for a good smoothie spot?

Speaker 5 Tropical smoothie cafes are right now.

Speaker 57 Because I've heard coffee shops not safe these days. So if I want just a little something to reflect on,

Speaker 5 I would love a smoothie.

Speaker 21 Stay away from Starbucks.

Speaker 5 Speaking of, holy shit.

Speaker 52 Holy

Speaker 52 shit.

Speaker 53 Oh, my gosh. Let's get him on guys.

Speaker 53 Yes.

Speaker 53 Oh my god. Come on.

Speaker 7 Come on.

Speaker 49 Come on, though.

Speaker 2 Ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 51 NFL Network's greatest Americano.

Speaker 55 Ian Rappaport.

Speaker 63 All right, let's go to the table.

Speaker 2 He's gonna eat lightning and crap thunder in order of Venti.

Speaker 5 All right, so let's go to the tail of tape first here, real quick.

Speaker 5 We do have one of these just so we know exactly who we are.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God.

Speaker 16 Who we are

Speaker 21 chit-chatting with you.

Speaker 22 Growing.

Speaker 64 Offensive, but not that far off.

Speaker 2 Yeah, okay.

Speaker 5 Okay, nonetheless, Starbucks standoffs captivated the world. Allegedly, you know, had a little face-to-face disagreement.
Rapaport, one of the participants.

Speaker 6 Rap sheet joining us now.

Speaker 2 Unknown.

Speaker 7 Unlimited is the other one.

Speaker 43 Yeah, okay.

Speaker 5 All right, we see it.

Speaker 17 Rap.

Speaker 24 Okay, rap.

Speaker 5 We wake up this morning.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah. Okay.

Speaker 5 We know that the whole world knows about everything that has taken place.

Speaker 22 What's the mindset like, and where do we go from here, Bub?

Speaker 61 Okay, so last night, when Stand more to your left.

Speaker 54 Thank you.

Speaker 9 Good team.

Speaker 9 And back up a little bit.

Speaker 5 Yeah, it looks like you're in a mug show.

Speaker 21 By the way,

Speaker 51 that's why you didn't get touched.

Speaker 9 Did you see that black? Did you see that move back? Yeah, that was

Speaker 41 a shoulder roll in there, too.

Speaker 5 All right, go ahead, Sarn.

Speaker 64 So last night when it all broke, everyone in the world text me

Speaker 64 wanting to know details, and it was all out there. Florio basically wrote the whole thing, so there's not much to add.
Wow.

Speaker 64 And then woke up this morning, and everyone in the world has texted me.

Speaker 5 Yeah. Well, we all are happy that you're both okay.

Speaker 10 Would We'd like to let that be known.

Speaker 5 With that being said, what is next? Are you guys going to shake hands before you get out of town or what do we do?

Speaker 63 I mean, I

Speaker 3 hate shakes.

Speaker 3 My hat shakes.

Speaker 51 He's going to the coffee bean and tea leaf from now on.

Speaker 2 Absolutely safer.

Speaker 17 Not another penny.

Speaker 64 There's actually a lot of great coffee brands at Duncan. Duncan.

Speaker 26 Hey, we're happy you're okay.

Speaker 5 We love you. Are you all right, man?

Speaker 12 You're going to be okay?

Speaker 5 I'm okay. We miss you.
You had a great season. We were watching.
Miss you guys, too. Ladies and gentlemen, rap sheets.

Speaker 7 Love your rap sheets.

Speaker 5 I wish you would have a neck race on today when you walked off.

Speaker 2 All right, boys.

Speaker 55 Don Caccino.

Speaker 5 This first hour is wrapping up, and we'll be heading into a hard out. And you guys will probably go off into the world that you are going to do.

Speaker 5 Rich, we'd like to wish you absolute best of luck, as you call 45 hours of all this. Legitimately,

Speaker 5 we appreciate you doing it let alone during the season okay so obviously I'm on TV a lot I do a lot of shit during the season boys and I do a lot of shit we're very lucky to do it you do the same exact shit and you have NFL game day morning on Sunday which is like a four-hour show I think it is indeed so the way that you go about doing what you do and your work ethic is something that I admire massively right back at you and what you're doing here every single year does not go unnoticed about like how the length of it and everything about it they got it right with you as the first hire for NFL now just want to let you know

Speaker 5 how is the mindset going in I'm fired up.

Speaker 55 You're 22.

Speaker 56 I heard you're coming on tomorrow, right? Yeah, 3.15. Fantastic.
Very good. Right.

Speaker 5 I hope they got a camera.

Speaker 22 No, dude.

Speaker 24 We will have a camera for you. I'll make sure.

Speaker 5 Especially the showcase was not a show. Just learned that on the fly in the moment.
But it was lucky to be there. Rich, I appreciate you.

Speaker 5 And DJ, I can't wait to watch all of the preparation and hard work that you put in over the last few months kind of be on display throughout the entire combine. You're the man.
I appreciate you guys.

Speaker 5 Yeah, somebody's running a couple 4-2s, he said.

Speaker 26 Yeah, that's crazy.

Speaker 32 Dragon Smith, the one the one they muted in.

Speaker 56 I won't be one of them.

Speaker 57 He's one of the three.

Speaker 5 John, quick, we got like 20 seconds for DJ. What does he need to look out for, maybe from your standpoint?

Speaker 32 We talked about Kenneth Grant and then Shamar Stewart. There's a couple others.

Speaker 42 Shamar Stewart is going to work out. And Javad Campbell, too.

Speaker 32 Yeah, we talked about this.

Speaker 5 Yeah, anybody not going to work out?

Speaker 2 Mason Grant. How much time do you have?

Speaker 28 No.

Speaker 56 Oh, my God. We're out of here.

Speaker 3 It's going to be a great combine.

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Speaker 67 Come on, boys!

Speaker 5 It's magical for the city of Indianapolis, and obviously there's a lot of news that comes from here. There's a lot of dreams that come true.
There's some nightmares for some teams and some players.

Speaker 5 There's medical reports, there's conversations, there's mingling, there's tampering, there's magic in Indianapolis this week, and we can't thank you enough for joining us here on ESPN, ESPN Plus, Disney Plus, YouTube, and TikTok Live.

Speaker 5 We are the dumbest group of humans that get to do this every day, and we can't thank you enough.

Speaker 5 Now, one of our guys is missing, and it's a shame if you he could send out your T's and P's to Ty Schmidt, we'd be incredibly grateful for that. We think he'll be back soon, but we're not 100% sure.

Speaker 5 The Toxic Table is representing still at Boston Connor rocking an Undertaker hat and a Tim Robinson t-shirt. You look amazing here for day two of Combine, Pal.

Speaker 50 Yeah, thank you very much.

Speaker 13 I'm glad we had Tyrese on so I wasn't, you know, the worst dressed person here, but this is, yeah, this is my favorite shirt.

Speaker 13 You know, it's got kind of the everything you want in one person. It's kind of exactly what you're looking for when you're coming to the Combine.

Speaker 13 You know, you you want someone who can pull off all these looks you know the the what the hell with the fantastic fedora flap the the hot dog we got to find this guy the i don't want to be around anymore guy i mean there really is the dangerous drive there's no uh coffin drop i don't i don't think coffin drop and drop is not core cop tv we are still trying to save coffin flop but uh no it's just got some of the most iconic ones we don't have all of them But it's impossible to fit all of them onto one shirt.

Speaker 31 I mean, you got everything.

Speaker 42 You got the sloppy stakes or wherever it is on

Speaker 31 Slop them up, you know.

Speaker 13 But yeah, it's one of my favorite shirts. I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 Yeah, no problem. You look great, and obviously, any Tim Robinson gear is welcomed on any particular program that we have.
If you have a Detroiters thing coming up next, we can't wait to see it.

Speaker 5 Now, joining you at the Talks Table, not Ty Schmidt per Huge, it's actually Madmel Kuiper.

Speaker 5 Madmel, what are your thoughts on Rich Eisen, Daniel Jeremiah, and the combine as a whole here, pal?

Speaker 15 You know, just, again, absolutely unbelievable being here in Indianapolis.

Speaker 14 It's just great being around a bunch of people who look up to you and, you know, have said, you know, man, this is the reason I kind of got into this.

Speaker 14 Guys like you really pave the way for me to be able to kind of break down the combine, look at all the different prospects, and go through their intangibles, their athleticism, all the requisite abilities are going to need to perform in the NFL.

Speaker 14 So it's nice, you know, kind of coming here.

Speaker 16 And

Speaker 14 I mean,

Speaker 14 I don't want to pat myself on the back too much, but basically being the king of the city for a week.

Speaker 5 Yeah, and you're the king of every city, we think. And speaking of, there goes rap.

Speaker 10 Rap. We love you, rap.

Speaker 22 Careful, rap.

Speaker 2 What a couple days for that guy.

Speaker 23 Careful.

Speaker 9 That's not not a Starbucks Cup.

Speaker 5 Yep, and I don't think there will ever be another Starbucks. We love you, Rap.

Speaker 33 We love you, Rap.

Speaker 28 Great job, a house, rap.

Speaker 5 One half of the hammer.

Speaker 10 Done.

Speaker 5 Cowboys, Tone Diggs is here. Tone, big day today at the Combine.
A lot of things are going to happen here.

Speaker 30 Yeah, a lot of big human beings moving quickly today.

Speaker 32 There was a couple guys that I picked out that are going to be working out today that are going to work out really well.

Speaker 32 Starting with Kenneth Grant. He's a D-tackle out of Michigan.
He's 6'3, 342. He actually said yesterday that he dropped to 330

Speaker 32 for the combine so that he could run in the 4-7-4-8 range at 330-340. So he's going to be a huge people mover to watch today.

Speaker 32 Another one is Jalen Walker, who was the Bucus award winner. He actually won that over Abdul Carter for the best defensive player in the country.

Speaker 32 He's 6'2 ⁇ , 250, and they say he could probably run like in a 4-4 range.

Speaker 32 Linebacker out of Alabama, Jihad Campbell, who is an off-ball linebacker, but he came out of high school playing edge. He is 6'3 ⁇ , 250, who's also gonna run in the 4-4s today.

Speaker 32 And his take, like, when he sees the ball, he just go gets it. He's awesome.
And then the last one out of Texas A ⁇ M, Shamar Stewart, who is just a freak.

Speaker 32 He is 6'6 ⁇ , 280, and they think he's a five-star coming out, and he thinks he can run in the 4-5s today at 6'6, like 270, 280.

Speaker 32 So, yeah, there's a lot of freaks, a lot of them out of the SEC coming out today who are going to run well.

Speaker 5 Well, of course, you're on ESPN, so you're going to say that.

Speaker 2 Well, this guy, man.

Speaker 19 That makes sense.

Speaker 32 One was from Michigan, though. But no, there's going to be a lot of big dudes running fast.
And that's kind of been the tradition, not tradition.

Speaker 32 The way that the draft has gone, a lot of guys getting bigger, and a lot of guys getting faster.

Speaker 5 A lot of workouts, a lot of meetings, a lot of medical, also a lot of people speaking to the media. We heard Brett Veitch speak on the Travis Kelsey future conversation and speculation.

Speaker 5 We heard Coach Andy Reid speak on the speculation of Travis Kelsey's future. And I decided to reach out to source

Speaker 5 who know and say,

Speaker 5 hey, what's are we still?

Speaker 5 are we,

Speaker 5 are we playing next year? To my source.

Speaker 5 And message was, my dog.

Speaker 5 Exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point. Three.

Speaker 5 Source

Speaker 5 says, I'm coming back for sure.

Speaker 5 Gonna try and get to the best shape I've been this offseason and get back to the mountaintop.

Speaker 5 Got a real bad taste in my mouth with how I played in that last game and how I got the guys ready for battle. I can't go out like that.

Speaker 5 Exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point, and guess what?

Speaker 2 One more exclamation.

Speaker 37 Wow, huge.

Speaker 5 Okay, so that's the Travis Kelsey future conversation.

Speaker 32 So he's probably coming back.

Speaker 5 I think he'd say Travis Kelsey is coming back to play football yet again.

Speaker 5 And I think, you know, he had that idea, I would assume, before the Super Bowl, whenever he did Media Day, he he said, in three years, I see myself playing football yet.

Speaker 5 But then with the way that game goes, knowing that he is an Ohio guy who's a football guy, with how everything has gone and what his career has been.

Speaker 5 Remember, the Chiefs weren't always good when he was on that team. He had to persevere.
He had to continue to grow, evolve.

Speaker 5 He got better as a player, as a human, I would assume he would predict, as a professional, everything.

Speaker 5 And then he's gotten to the point now where he's in GOAT conversations with anybody that's talking about tight ends. That's a situation that doesn't happen to many players in the history of the game.

Speaker 5 And obviously, he has represented our sport fantastically while dating the most famous person on earth.

Speaker 5 We love Travis. Now, obviously, whenever you're in the public eye, there are going to be things that are going to come out from people's mouths that aren't as positive all the time.

Speaker 5 There's going to be reasons for people to find to hate Travis Kelsey. There's going to be reasons for people to find to hate the Kansas City Chiefs.

Speaker 5 There's going to be reasons for people to hate Taylor Swift, even though... A lot of it makes no sense to me.

Speaker 5 Sometimes if you're just on the top of the mountain, people are going to throw rocks at things that shine. Shout out Taylor Swift for that particular quote.

Speaker 5 But what you can't deny is the greatness of Travis Gelsey. You can't deny that he is one of one.
You can't deny that he is an anomaly. You can't deny that the guy loves ball, fully committed.

Speaker 5 And in the Andy Reid accountability-driven type building, I don't think enough credit is given about this guy being an absolute dog, day in, day out, showing up to work, already great, already rich, already has a resume, already in the Hall of Fame.

Speaker 5 And it's like, he's a guy that loves ball. And we love Travis.
And I'm excited to see him get back on the field, get in the best shape that he's been.

Speaker 5 I'm excited to see what that means because a lot of people think he could potentially get distracted by Taylor. I think he gets motivated by Taylor.
Yes.

Speaker 5 I think like those two being together makes them both want to continue to grow and get even better. I'm excited to see what he looks like coming back next year.

Speaker 13 Yeah, and look what they do every offseason, the Kansas City Chiefs. They reload.

Speaker 13 I assume after the game, there are probably some thoughts like, hey, if Rashee Rice is out on that field, if we are fully healthy, and no team by the time they get to the Super Bowl is fully healthy, but I assume those thoughts creep in.

Speaker 13 He just started kind of coaching Rashi Rice up. Like he was off to a historic start for the Kansas City Chiefs, Rashi Rice, before he was out for the season.

Speaker 30 Then even just look at his brother.

Speaker 13 You know, when his brother, Jason, lost the Super Bowl to the Chiefs, he came back for a year. Obviously, last year the Eagles lose to the Bucs in the first round.
He ends up retiring.

Speaker 13 I bet Jason Kelsey probably wish he didn't retire. He's open about it.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So it's one of those things, too.

Speaker 13 And if you were to talk to the closest people around him, I bet their advice would be like, hey, why the hell would you retire? You guys are still in prime position to go back to the Super Bowl.

Speaker 13 It's not like after that loss, you know, they're going to completely crumble. They still have Mahomes.
It's still Andy Reid. Their team is still unbelievable.

Speaker 13 Guys still want to go to Kansas City and, you know, ring chase and kind of be in the conversation. as one of those top four teams in the league.

Speaker 13 And it feels like the Chiefs are going to be right back where they were last year.

Speaker 5 And Kelsey being in the best shape of his life I'm sure they're going to be even better and they were the one seed so who knows we talked about how you know everybody said they were playing bad as being the chip on this team that's in the middle of a dynastic run back-to-back world champions and then people are saying this team's not good this team's not good all that does and I think AJ brought it up when he was there Super Bowl week at Radio Row He is on a cruise right now for Ohio State in the middle of the Caribbean.

Speaker 5 He'll be back next week. week.
But he chit-chatted about how, you know, all you people that are saying you hate the Chiefs and you think they're bad and all that stuff, like you are their motivation.

Speaker 5 Like, when those guys get to the top of the mountain, they're trying to find chips to put on the shoulder.

Speaker 2 So now getting your ass beat

Speaker 5 in your stage, that is your state. The Super Bowl has become

Speaker 5 your residency. And play bad, get your ass beat.
People chirp loud. It's like, there's almost like, I assume, a resurgence that's about to happen in that Kansas City building.

Speaker 5 Do you feel the same, Mad Mel?

Speaker 14 Yeah, without a doubt. And then also people, you know, on top of it are cherry picking plays, you know, from the game when they're getting killed and saying, oh, this guy doesn't care anymore.

Speaker 14 You know, this guy doesn't want to play hard anymore. And I think a big part of it, too, is they talk about the media aspect.
He's going to be able to get whatever job he wants.

Speaker 14 He's going to be on whatever pregame desk he wants. He's in the next Happy Gilmore movie, all that kind of stuff.
So why would you play? You're going to be one of the biggest stars on the planet.

Speaker 14 All that stuff's still going to be there, okay? This guy isn't going to wake up tomorrow and all of a sudden, not be able to play football anymore, not want to play football anymore.

Speaker 14 I think you mentioned it. It's a big part of it.
You date someone like Taylor Swift, like, you're not just riding coattails and saying, oh, well, you know, she's a billionaire.

Speaker 14 I'm going to be able to do nothing. And you know, he's very wealthy on his own, but you see how hard she works, touring everywhere, having 150, 200 shows a year, going to every single continent.

Speaker 14 If you're in love with someone and you're around someone all the time, like, guess what?

Speaker 14 That's reigniting that fire in your own body to say, hey, you know what?

Speaker 48 Like Connor Man, I could be a better me.

Speaker 2 I could be a better me.

Speaker 14 I'm going to get in the best shape of my life, okay?

Speaker 16 We're not that.

Speaker 14 We just lost in the Super Bowl.

Speaker 14 Listen, the Chiefs are going to be around, okay they're gonna have an opportunity to win another super bowl next year it makes sense i mean kelsey's gonna play until the wheels fall off madmel you do love love don't you who doesn't how can there are people out there that want the devil

Speaker 5 satan satan i bet he does i think he does love love actually with himself so there is yeah i guess that'd be more of an infatuation some people yeah yeah lust i suppose you could say but a lot of people said that their relationship was all bullshit but it turns out that the relationship might be the greatest thing that has happened and like the zeitgeist of the the most famous people on earth and then also for Travis Kelsey to be like, oh, I can, because you watch greats, he is one in the NFL, how they work, how they go about doing their thing, how you can continue to learn and evolve and get better as you go through.

Speaker 5 People are always trying to take shit from other people.

Speaker 5 Tyree said the biggest thing about the Olympics was watching the other guys work and how they go about doing their things.

Speaker 5 Like whenever we get to go watch the WWE do their thing and we see them do stuff and it's like, hmm, you can learn from that.

Speaker 5 I'm assuming that Travis is learning a lot of shit about a lot of shit from Taylor because she is, hmm, we're talking about the one here.

Speaker 5 And her work ethic, and I've heard some songs, you know, through my wife, and

Speaker 5 she's dated some bums. It has not worked out.
Without a doubt, I think the reason why this is going to work out is because Travis is not a bum. He's an Ohio guy, a football guy.
It's got a work ethic.

Speaker 5 You know, and he wants to continue.

Speaker 24 So I love everything about it.

Speaker 32 Let's not forgotten Mahomes is in his revenge hair era as well.

Speaker 18 He's been waiting to cut that hair.

Speaker 27 For years.

Speaker 26 He said it last year.

Speaker 5 He said in a quarterback documentary he said uh i don't want to be the dad with a mullet you know i kind of i want to cut my hair but we're winning so i can't it's hard for me cut it pretty quickly yeah he couldn't wait as soon as that game was over he looks a lot younger too yeah he looks good like i think this is exactly what he potentially thought like maybe sometimes he pulled his hair back and was like i i can look like like an adult if i really want to do it and that was the his words not ours correct and he did he pulled the trigger now texas tech that kid buried that putt did you say that full court putt that was sweet patrick jumped up with the thing looks like he's obviously

Speaker 50 shiny.

Speaker 2 He loves the dress on, too.

Speaker 5 He does. He's good.

Speaker 22 Hey,

Speaker 5 the Chiefs is still the Chiefs, I think.

Speaker 2 Even though the Eagles is definitely the Eagles.

Speaker 26 Without a doubt.

Speaker 5 Yeah, we need to remember that the Eagles is definitely the Eagles.

Speaker 32 I bet you the Chiefs probably take a couple overlinem in this draft.

Speaker 5 Yeah, that's what Andy Reid did the last time they lost in the Super Bowl to a team that got a lot of pressure and were able to do their thing to an offensive line. They reloaded the offensive line.

Speaker 5 So let's assume they'll do the same this offseason.

Speaker 5 Coach Matt Ruhl from Nebraska, formerly the Carolina Panthers, Anna Baylor and Temple, will join us in about 25 minutes or so.

Speaker 5 Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is ESPN fantasy expert, draft guru, football genius. Ladies and gentlemen, Field Yates.

Speaker 52 Yeah, Phil Yates.

Speaker 13 Good to see you.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 5 What up, dude? Good to see you, dude. I was clean.

Speaker 14 All right. Yeah, good dap, huffs, all the way around.

Speaker 5 Yeah, it was pretty clean. That was pretty clean.

Speaker 30 That's a good shirt.

Speaker 24 big.

Speaker 12 That was big.

Speaker 5 The dap?

Speaker 24 Yeah, worthy.

Speaker 30 I knew Madden Mel was going to be here.

Speaker 5 I couldn't let him down. All right, so we need to

Speaker 2 pull this up. Pop up the cord, the cord, the cord.

Speaker 24 No, other way.

Speaker 2 There you go.

Speaker 5 We kind of set you up to fail there. It's okay.

Speaker 2 That was rich.

Speaker 10 And you got to lift that.

Speaker 5 Yeah, and you can tighten if you need to. There we go.

Speaker 2 That was good. We good? Better? Field, you look great.
Thank you.

Speaker 42 I appreciate that.

Speaker 30 Means a lot.

Speaker 5 Field, somehow you look younger this year than you did last year. Doesn't he, Madden Mel?

Speaker 31 He does.

Speaker 14 He does. Clean shaven.

Speaker 22 Yeah, you look shaven. That's what it was, right?

Speaker 30 I haven't shaved in a while, so it doesn't doesn't make much of a difference, unfortunately.

Speaker 5 Yeah, that's actually a two-week, five-hour show.

Speaker 9 That's fine.

Speaker 30 Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day.
I shave right before the big night out.

Speaker 5 Okay, so let's talk about this time of year. Obviously, very exciting for you, draft boards,

Speaker 5 you know, potential draft picks, combine scouting. What is your big takeaway? What are you into right now? What is the big conversation point around Field Yates rating?

Speaker 30 I mean, I love the Combine wiggle, not just because it's here in Indianapolis, but also because it allows you to fill in some of the blanks on some of these prospects.

Speaker 30 You know, players that are further down the board, I don't think are going to move as much for me, but some of the players at the very top, you're trying to get a great feel of, hey, I might think this guy is the 10th best player in the draft, but maybe some people around the NFL think he's closer to 15 or 20.

Speaker 30 And

Speaker 30 in some cases, as ridiculous as it may seem, you guys all know this now, like there are some positions and some players that the difference between a 4-4-840 and a 4-5-240 could be the difference between going 10th or 20th overall.

Speaker 30 He's not going to work out this week, but Will Johnson, cornerback from Michigan, is like a good example of somebody that I'm thinking of when I talk about the difference of a, you know, five, one-hundredth of a second that this guy who was a great player for his entire college career, but if you just look at historical trends, there aren't that many four, five, or slower corners that have gone in the first like eight, 10, 12 picks.

Speaker 8 So again, you got to move him to safety in there.

Speaker 30 Which is a ridiculous thing to do, truthfully.

Speaker 30 Like the guy was such a great player at Michigan, but the league has told us, and we see it every year, guys slide down just a little bit because of a 40-yard dash or, you know, a three-cut, whatever it might be.

Speaker 5 Xavier Worthy just ran a 4-2-1. They're saying two more guys are about to run 4-2s, including another wide receiver.
That's why the corners have to be.

Speaker 30 Got to be fast, yeah.

Speaker 45 It's like,

Speaker 5 it is a unicorn island out there.

Speaker 5 You got to earn... Now, I'm not, this is not me downgrading anybody's football ability, especially old buddy Will up at Michigan.
I'm not saying that. But having enough.

Speaker 5 Being able to put your ego aside enough to move positions to go to the NFL is a big part of this whole thing as well.

Speaker 5 I think learning about the guys personally is what a lot of these coaches kind of want to find out about here at the Combine. How have you heard about those things going?

Speaker 30 I've heard more feedback already this week about the interviews than anything that's taken place or probably anything that will take place over these next few days.

Speaker 30 And usually it's not like the average, it's usually the guys that you sit there and you say to yourself, I don't know if that guy's that great of a player, but at least I know the floor is high because of the human that he is.

Speaker 30 Or there's a guy that seemingly has all the talent in the world and you just don't feel like when you make this guy, well, maybe not, with with the NL era, some of these guys already are extremely well paid, but like for some of these guys, they're going to become overnight millionaires.

Speaker 30 And listen, we all, at a certain age of our life, 22, 23 years old, if you handed me a seven-figure check, it'd be hard to keep your focus and motivation.

Speaker 5 Anybody that's going to get a seven-figure check from this draft is already a millionaire.

Speaker 24 Yeah,

Speaker 30 that's probably true.

Speaker 2 Very good point, right?

Speaker 24 That is, that's the world that we're in right now.

Speaker 50 It's true, yeah.

Speaker 5 But which goes back to the people, hold on though, that goes back to like trying to find people that still are dogs, still work hard.

Speaker 19 Yeah, totally.

Speaker 5 Still want to to go and get it, you know, because they've been rich for a while. Caleb Williams was trying to start an investment fund

Speaker 5 before he got drafted. It's like this guy has enough money to start a fund before he even gets drafted.
It's like, how's he going to continue to maintain motivation?

Speaker 5 It's like, well, he's chasing greatness. It's like, not everybody at every position is doing that, though.
And you got to find those guys.

Speaker 30 Totally. You know, I actually used a couple years ago, and I wasn't doing this role for ESPN, so I wasn't as deep in the weeds on the draft coverage.

Speaker 30 But Puka Nakua obviously becomes this unbelievable fifth-round pick. And so what I told myself going into last year's draft, draft, you know,

Speaker 2 allegedly. Guy does it all.

Speaker 30 I said, I need, I'm going to start surveying scouts and just say, like, give me a player that fits the Puka Nakua mold, not in the sense that you think he's going to become an all-pro right away, but regardless of how talented or not talented he is, you're betting on the person.

Speaker 30 And you're just saying to yourself, like, I'll take 22 of those guys and feel like I got a shot. And so I started to do that exercise this year as well.

Speaker 30 And I'm not talking about guys that are going to go necessarily in the first round, but it is interesting when you hear the guys that are going to go in the first round.

Speaker 30 Like Like I just got a case, he said the first name that comes to mind, he goes, Travis Hunter. He goes, no doubt.

Speaker 30 He goes, do you understand the discipline it takes to not just play 115 snaps a game is ridiculous. Literally nobody else does it, right?

Speaker 30 But twice the physician meetings, twice the film study, like just the conditioning is a huge aspect to it. And he was like,

Speaker 5 I don't know if you're going to be able to do it. You can't be putting any bad things in your body.

Speaker 5 There's like a level of professionalism that has to be there. Totally.

Speaker 5 Every human body would break down.

Speaker 30 They almost said, like, you know, he,

Speaker 30 maybe maybe this isn't the perfect word, but it's almost like he's almost boring in some ways in the sense that it's ball and more ball, right?

Speaker 30 Like, there's not a lot of distraction in Travis Hunter's life, which with the amount of money that I'm sure he's making and the amount of people that I'm sure want a piece of him, for him to avoid that distraction, I think, only reinforces why not just one of the best prospects in the draft, but also probably one of the best people in the draft that you can count on, whether he goes one, probably somewhere between one and four by the time it's all said and done.

Speaker 5 Okay, so this is

Speaker 5 a question for what you guys do.

Speaker 12 Yeah.

Speaker 5 Okay, the whole draft mock thing.

Speaker 5 Why are people saying this is a deep three to five draft class? If it's a deep three to five, why aren't they two or one? Like, I don't know what that means.

Speaker 5 I don't think I know exactly what that means. Like, hey, the fifth rounders, really good this year.

Speaker 18 Well, why aren't they fourth rounders?

Speaker 5 You know, I don't think I fully understand it. So can you understand the framing whenever that's said, as opposed to what my mindset is? Like, well, if if they're bet, then why aren't they?

Speaker 30 Right, why don't you just move up the board? If they're so good in the third, why don't they just become seconds or first? It is a good question. And I thought about this because

Speaker 30 I was going through, I keep like a sort of a running document of these guys because the process begins for the draft really basically like May of the preceding year.

Speaker 30 So guys like Travis Hunter and Shador Sanders, who you knew were going to be highly regarded prospects this year, you start looking at them initially, not doing every last bit of homework you're going to do on them, but you start to get a sense.

Speaker 30 And I think, like, I was realizing, like, I called a lot of guys when I was looking at, like, you know, has the look of a third-round pick, and you're like, what does that even mean? Yes.

Speaker 30 And it's like, I think where I landed was a slower 40, a little slower wide receiver, but has great, you know, has great hands, right?

Speaker 30 Or like, you know, he's a smaller guy, but he's tough and he blocks. And you're just sort of like, is that...
Is that the spectrum you should be evaluating these players on?

Speaker 30 Because it does feel like that has become the theme of this class: is that you'd much rather have a bunch of bites at the apple apple from call it 75 to 150 as opposed to the team that has two first-round picks, which interestingly enough,

Speaker 30 there have been no traded picks for the first time in a long time in the first round. There will be at some point, but it's a very clean draft in terms of the order to begin.

Speaker 5 Well, you trade whenever you're desperate for a certain position, and that position has not been talked about in high regards, which leads to Mad Mel, I assume.

Speaker 9 Yeah, that's what I wanted to ask you about, Field.

Speaker 14 Obviously, you know, in your most recent mock draft, you didn't have any trades in there. Yeah.
You know, didn't have any trades trades in the first round.

Speaker 2 But you made that rule, Mel. Well, I had to, you know,

Speaker 13 because we don't know.

Speaker 14 But when you look at this draft, and everyone's talking about, hey, what are the Tennessee Titans going to do with the first pick?

Speaker 14 Do you feel like we're going to have next to no trades in the first round because teams just aren't going to be as desperate to give

Speaker 14 an absolute ransom to move up when we might only have 10 to 15 guys with true first-round grades?

Speaker 30 I think we'll end up having some trades at the top for this reason. It kind of reminds me of where we were from like picks nine through 12 last last year where

Speaker 30 at 10 the Jets end up trading back to 11 with the Vikings and you're like, why are you moving up one spot? It was just to beat the Broncos, right?

Speaker 30 It was to ensure that Denver didn't move ahead of the Vikings and potentially draft JJ McCarthy, who, as we know, was Minnesota's preferred target there. Like that could happen at the top.

Speaker 30 If you look at the order there, like if the, let's imagine a world in which the Giants and the Raiders don't land a veteran quarterback, they need to draft the quarterback early, right?

Speaker 30 Well, the Jets may be in in the same boat.

Speaker 30 Like if they go into the draft with only Tyrod Taylor and Jordan Travis, who was their fifth round pick last year, they're probably saying to themselves, we'd like a young quarterback too.

Speaker 30 So if the Jets call the Jaguars and say, we're trying to get ahead of Vegas, that might cause a chain reaction that might lead to Vegas calling the Patriots and saying, we're trying to get back ahead of the Jets.

Speaker 30 So I think we'll see some tinkering there. And because you're right, like...

Speaker 30 And now I'm starting to wonder whether I should even use this construct anymore. There's not as many guys in every single draft class who would be regarded as clear-cut first-round picks.

Speaker 30 You might see some movement there in the 20 to 32 range.

Speaker 5 Ah, just because.

Speaker 30 Some of it's just because, but like a few years ago, like the Bills moved up to get Dalton Kincaid and the Jags moved up to get Anton Harrison.

Speaker 24 Like you start to see those.

Speaker 5 But also the guys, the teams that are on the earlier picked side of that particular trade are like, yeah, we'll take a little bonus because we're not 100% sold on somebody.

Speaker 5 So it's an easier deal maybe to get done in this particular draft class if you start listening the way it is.

Speaker 30 So maybe there is more action than we expect because it's easier to kind of finangle around i do think it's one of the best parts of the draft too like i just i find it always like exciting when you got travis going one there yeah i do yeah you got travis going one which then would lead cleveland saying we're not passing on abdul carter yeah i know though this mock was before shefty came out and basically said like the browns are taking a quarterback at number two you might as well i wouldn't go as far as sharpie but like we're thinking about like

Speaker 30 The Browns and Cam Ward might be the fit there. You know, I feel like the two players, the two non-quarterbacks are the two best players in the draft.

Speaker 30 Obviously, if the quarterback hits, it's more valuable. I just, I haven't had the same level of confidence in these two quarterbacks as I had with the three at the top last year for sure.

Speaker 30 But even, I think J.J. McCarthy would be like a healthy debate with these two players.
J.J. obviously was the fifth quarterback taken, but I viewed him as the first one.

Speaker 5 I mean, you're talking about a number three overall pick right here. Like whenever he's saying, I don't feel as good about

Speaker 5 as last year's quarterbacks or whatever. Like people are going to say he's talking down on these guys.
Still the number three overall pick.

Speaker 10 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah, like this is not it. Yeah, this is not it.

Speaker 30 Yeah, and they're gonna go high.

Speaker 30 Like, I think the floor for either of these guys is probably like, I just can't imagine both of them don't end up in the first seven to nine picks, and it could end up being first two out of three picks.

Speaker 30 And the reality is that, like, in the case of a team like the Giants, I say this all the time.

Speaker 30 When the owner comes out and says, after the season, we're keeping our head coach in our GM, it means they got to get something done the next year or else they won't be around beyond that season.

Speaker 30 So if you're the Giants and you don't swing a trade for Matthew Stafford or find somebody on the veteran market, you're not going into next year with, they don't have a quarterback on the roster right now, but you're not going back on it, you're not going to like re-sign Drew Locke or Tom DeVito.

Speaker 30 Yeah, Tommy Cutlitz and say, hey, what are we going to say?

Speaker 2 How many jobs are you?

Speaker 22 So yeah, how do you feel about Italian?

Speaker 30 I love them. Yeah, how do you get on?

Speaker 2 Dude, I don't know how you could. Connor has a question.

Speaker 24 You know what?

Speaker 30 I had some good meals down in

Speaker 36 Epcot.

Speaker 30 I know you were at Disney last week, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Italy and Epcot, they've been the best food offerings of the entire place.
Did you get there or no?

Speaker 5 No, I just, I didn't make it to the whole world thing.

Speaker 22 Ah.

Speaker 5 I should have, but we were there with a daughter.

Speaker 10 Yeah, around the world.

Speaker 2 I want to do the

Speaker 2 drink around the world. I've got to drink around the world.

Speaker 24 A little boozed up.

Speaker 22 Got to do it.

Speaker 5 But then if, yeah, I think Mackenzie's going to have to be a little bit older. Yeah.
Probably have a couple friends.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 30 That's what we did. Our three-year-old was, I mean, she was in her happy place.

Speaker 5 It was great. Dude, it was awesome.
The best. I had such a good time down there.
Oh, it's awesome. Watching her just lose her mind was crazy.

Speaker 5 And then I just cut everybody at Guardians of the Galaxy and looked like the biggest asshole.

Speaker 24 How did I go? It worked?

Speaker 5 Nah, I looked like the biggest asshole of all time.

Speaker 2 But when you got on the ride and then

Speaker 31 when you cleared the room, you forget pretty quick.

Speaker 52 This is awesome.

Speaker 28 Go ahead and Connor Guard though.

Speaker 13 Yeah, so obviously right now everyone's kind of waiting to see what happens with Stafford and Rodgers and some other guys.

Speaker 13 Do you think it is possible where if there is none of those quarterbacks sign in those first three picks between Cleveland and the Giants in Tennessee, who I think we all consider teams that are looking for quarterbacks, that there's a trade-up to one where, let's say, Tennessee Tennessee ends up being, you know, a Stafford or a Rodgers destination, where they might end up moving the first pick.

Speaker 13 Or do you even see where, you know, even if the Giants were to get a Rodgers or something along those lines, that they still might just take a quarterback because they don't want to be or expect to be up there in the next few years?

Speaker 30 I think what's interesting for Tennessee is that they might be able to drum up a bidding war between Cleveland and the Giants.

Speaker 20 And

Speaker 30 not that either one of them would for sure make that move up there, but just because, you know, you'll hear this often, I think DJ may have said it just a few minutes ago as well.

Speaker 30 Like, I think the league on average views Cam Ward as a higher-rated prospect than Shador Sanders.

Speaker 30 But if the Giants say, hey, listen, we're bigger Shador Sanders guys than Cam Ward guys, or we're bigger Cam Ward guys than Shador Sanders guys, and Cleveland might see it the same way, then you're not going to settle, right?

Speaker 30 Teams view quarterbacks. It's almost like, it's like house hunting.
Like you got different preferences than other people do, what you actually want in that player.

Speaker 30 So Tennessee might be able to say, hey, if we think Cleveland and New York are both, you know, they would both take Cam Ward without a problem, but would bypass Shador Sanders, might be able to create some leverage there and potentially move down.

Speaker 30 The difference that Tennessee has in those guys, they both, all three teams headed quarterback, but first year GM, second year head coach and Brian Callahan, they don't need to solve the quarterback situation right now to make sure that they're still going in 2026 and beyond.

Speaker 30 And while Will Levis, you know, there's more questions than answers so far, still young enough and it was a highly drafted enough player.

Speaker 30 You could probably talk yourself into another year of trying to develop him a little bit further.

Speaker 5 I'm fascinated by, you know, like if the Raiders draft a quarterback, which everybody's assuming, or maybe they get a veteran quarterback, depending upon who's skiing where. Yeah, they go.

Speaker 5 When, and all that type of stuff, it's like... You go to a team with Tom Brady as one of the owners, that's a pretty good spot, seemingly.
Even though you wouldn't expect that.

Speaker 5 And the Raiders are like, we need a quarterback. We need a quarterback in this world.
It'd be nice to go to a place with Tom as a potential mentor automatically.

Speaker 13 Yeah, and everyone wants a young quarterback, and Sam Jarnold's sitting there at, what, 27?

Speaker 9 Yeah, 28.

Speaker 26 It's not like he's 35.

Speaker 13 Like, you can get him for 10 games.

Speaker 9 One game that last game.

Speaker 2 One game.

Speaker 9 Last two games. Last two

Speaker 2 games.

Speaker 30 Influential couple of games. Yeah, Sam came out really young.

Speaker 30 I think he was the youngest of those five quarterbacks that went in the first round back in 2018.

Speaker 30 So it seems weird to think that he's still, whatever, very much in the prime of his career, whatever you define his prime as. But Sam will do well for himself in a couple weeks here.
Go ahead, Tom.

Speaker 32 Yeah, while we're talking quarterbacks, I wanted to ask you about Quinn Ewers because this time, not this time last year, but let's say after the draft last year, he was basically a guaranteed first-round pick.

Speaker 32 And then it came up, we thought he was playing all season long with a sprained oblique or whatever it was. Comes out he was playing all season with a torn oblique.

Speaker 32 People you're talking to, does that make a difference? Like, are they watching his 2024 tape differently and maybe reverting back to 2023?

Speaker 32 Is his stock going to rise because it came out that he was playing all year with a torn oblique.

Speaker 30 Yeah, I think some people that I talked to had a general sense that that was what Quinn was dealing with. And they admired the tough, I mean, the playthrough that

Speaker 49 was Texas more.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and

Speaker 30 you know, like, Texas had somebody, we all know it, they had Arch waiting in the wings. It wasn't like he played because the only option Texas had at quarterback was him.

Speaker 30 And if, you know, he's letting his entire team down if he doesn't play, and they're going to go, whatever, five and seven or something. Quinn had an interesting year this year.

Speaker 30 The Michigan game back in week two of the college football season looked great. We're in this time of the NFL.

Speaker 30 We're not all, but so many of these quarterbacks have the ability to impact you with their legs, right?

Speaker 30 These guys are probably better athletes now than they ever have been, with some exceptions, Stafford types and a few others.

Speaker 30 But for the most part, you think about some of the best quarterbacks in the AFC NFC Championship games.

Speaker 30 It's Jalen Hurts and Jaden Daniels and then Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, four guys that can really impact the game with their legs. So Quinn's not really going to do that.
The arm strength is

Speaker 30 the part that's come into evaluation

Speaker 30 with that context because like...

Speaker 34 It's hard to throw with.

Speaker 30 Yeah, it doesn't look like a cannon arm, but when you've got really little ability to kind of torque your frame and drive footballs, it's going to look like it did for much of this past year.

Speaker 30 So I think this week, we were talking about the interviews at the beginning of this segment. This would be a good week for Quinn in that regard, right?

Speaker 30 Like he's got some natural leadership skills, and he'll do well in terms of meeting with coaches and getting a better feel for the kind of person he is.

Speaker 30 If I had to guess right now, probably feels like round three for Quinn, but that could be influenced a lot by not just the interviews this week, but also the medical evaluations.

Speaker 30 The doctors say, hey, I know you're playing through it for the past four months, but it's not going to be an issue come OTAs or minicams.

Speaker 5 I'll tell you what, if you're looking looking for a guy that loves ball, especially at the quarterback position, which you're going to want, playing through a very significant real injury, especially at the quarterback role, would be a good place to start the conversation.

Speaker 5 He's been a star since, what, high school?

Speaker 2 So I remember with that mall getting millions of dollars.

Speaker 5 He hadn't traveled up to Ohio State.

Speaker 33 Skipped a senior year.

Speaker 22 Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 He originally got a hill, right?

Speaker 30 He was the first guy that put it on the map, really.

Speaker 5 And he evolved from the 17-year-old into this 22-year-old that he is or 21-year-old, whatever.

Speaker 5 he is with you know dieting and life happening and football happening and everything it's like you got a lot of of guys that I think could be great.

Speaker 5 Like Cam Ward, every time I see a video of him and the way he operates, it's like, it feels like he's a good leader.

Speaker 2 Awesome. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 5 And then Shador Sanders' toughness and that in itself of leadership and then everything he's been around is like, he could be a great pro.

Speaker 5 You know, I think there's a lot of guys where it's like, these guys could be great pros, as opposed to each year, there's a conversation like, this guy will be a great pro, right?

Speaker 5 That's kind of the difference.

Speaker 30 Yeah, and I think that this year too, like, and we should probably remind ourselves of this more every year, but like, where you end up and who you end up with can influence your outlook so much.

Speaker 30 I'm not, like, I think Jaden Daniels, you know, the best recent example. Like, I think Jaden was probably due for success probably anywhere he went.

Speaker 30 But I think that his success somewhere else might not have been quite to the level that it was in Washington last year with a, you know, a coach that had been there and done that and a coordinator that had been the head coach and called a lot of plays and some good veterans around him.

Speaker 30 And so I think this year, like, the fit for these guys will influence the outlook so much more. Probably the best example from last year's class, truthfully, is Bo Nick's because Bo had a ton.

Speaker 30 I mean, he played forever in college, had a ton of experience, and it wasn't that Bo didn't have a lot of good tape. It was the question was,

Speaker 30 did Bo do enough things during his time at Oregon that if that was all he was capable of doing at the NFL level, would they travel, right?

Speaker 30 Like the average depth of his targets at Oregon last year, a lot of it was just dink, dunk and let the guys do the hard work after the catch, right?

Speaker 30 But the reality for Oregon was that they said, like, why will we bother?

Speaker 30 Like, do we need Bo to go bombs away when we're crushing teams every single week, putting up 45 points and throwing them for 450 yards.

Speaker 30 And then in Denver, he showed like, you know, he had a couple of ropes this past year. Like, him and Marvin Miller.

Speaker 5 And Sean Payton's offense was perfect for it.

Speaker 30 Perfect. He had, you know, the offensive line was amongst the best in the NFL.
Like, that was.

Speaker 5 You talked about Bo playing a lot of football, which I think is a big deal. That's becoming the new talking point for some of these quarterbacks.
Who played a lot of ball? Cam's played a lot of ball.

Speaker 5 Five years ago. Shador's played a lot of ball.
Five years ago. Jackson's played a lot of ball.

Speaker 5 Will's played a lot of ball. Yeah,

Speaker 30 a lot of experience. Really, like, if you think about the guys that probably have a chance to go early amongst at least in terms of the quarterback construct like

Speaker 30 jalen milro like a two year two-year starter is probably the least experienced

Speaker 30 but that's but that's still i mean two years that's you know we've seen guys in recent drafts one season and they're getting taken um tyler shuck's been there for eight years yeah tyler shuck who man that guy's interesting he's gonna have a good week out here throwing the ball like he

Speaker 30 really it's really natural for him he was a highly regarded recruit coming out of high school way back in the day he ended up at oregon texas second then finished up at louisville this past season.

Speaker 30 26 on, I think, September 28th, so the age will be a factor there. But I don't know, I tend to think of it with these quarterbacks that are playing until 35, 36.

Speaker 30 Like, you could have a decade of Tyler Shuck if you believe enough in the player.

Speaker 5 Yeah, Whedon came in 27.

Speaker 9 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 14 Pitch for the Yankees.

Speaker 14 When you look at a guy like Jalen Milro, who maybe didn't have the greatest senior bull,

Speaker 14 how much can he kind of erase that this week of the combine? Or is that kind of, hey, hey, he's in the barn. This guy's got tiny hands and he played like shit at the senior bull.

Speaker 2 It is what it is.

Speaker 5 That's that last man, Mel.

Speaker 2 What do you think? Well, you know,

Speaker 16 his hands are small, very small.

Speaker 14 So guess what? He better be going to a warm weather city. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 31 And I don't know, you know, do you want to

Speaker 38 draft a quarterback?

Speaker 5 He's faster than everybody.

Speaker 14 He is, but do you want to draft a quarterback in the second round who your game plan is going to be, all right, hey, listen, we're going to give you 40 carries today.

Speaker 12 Maybe. And we're not going to throw the football.

Speaker 5 Hey, it's Power Football World.

Speaker 50 I'd like him, I would, and

Speaker 30 this takes the right starting quarterback ahead of him who's willing to let somebody else take a package of plays away from him.

Speaker 30 But I like Jalen right away as getting almost like a platoon role for a team at quarterback because you're right, the passing down in Mobile was inconsistent. It was inconsistent this past season.

Speaker 30 If he runs, I don't know if he will run, but it's going to be amongst the fastest times of any player here this week at the Combine.

Speaker 30 And if you get an offensive coordinator, and I tend to think right now we're sort of seeing the haves and the haves-nots in the NFL.

Speaker 30 Like, you just watch a game and you know if the coordinator knows what he's doing.

Speaker 30 One that knows what he's doing with this guy will find a way to take advantage of this speed because, you know, again, I know I just mentioned we're in this era of like incredibly athletic quarterbacks.

Speaker 30 He'd be on the short list for most athletic the minute he walks into an NFL.

Speaker 5 I think every coach that either coached in Alabama or played against Alabama, I forget, said he would be the best running back in the SEC if he was a running back.

Speaker 5 I mean, it's like not even a question.

Speaker 21 Yeah,

Speaker 5 Bill O'Brien tried to make it happen, which actually gave a spite to Jalen Milro. And obviously, Alabama was able to win a lot of games with Jalen Miller, a quarterback, and that is a good thing.

Speaker 5 But in college ball, in NFL ball, it is different. I mean, that's just a matter of fact, the way it operates, the way it goes.
It's like Jalen gets on a team, put him as an ex-back.

Speaker 5 Have him take some snaps, have him do a tush-push if you want to do it. He's incredibly strong, and he is loved in that locker room.

Speaker 2 The boys love Jalen Milro.

Speaker 30 Yeah, spent a little time around him, both at the senior bowl and prior to that. He's an easy guy.
I mean, he comes from a background, military parents, super disciplined.

Speaker 30 Like, the guy is a great leader. Like,

Speaker 30 I really do believe the right team will have Jalen Milro not just find success, but like sooner rather than later.

Speaker 30 Like, I just, if you look at all the singular traits that the various players in this class have, his rushing ability is one of the more undeniable ones. And he's got a cannon down the field as well.

Speaker 30 He's got to totally refine the short, intermediate passing game work, but he can chuck it down the field.

Speaker 30 And you can just imagine some Mad Scientist offensive coordinator who runs the ball with him 12 straight times. And the next thing you know, fake the run and just bombs away for a 50-yard touchdown.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I can't wait to watch how it all pans out. You know, there's going to be a lot of guys that get drafted that suck, too.

Speaker 9 Let's never forget that.

Speaker 3 Most of them work out.

Speaker 13 Most of them, you see.

Speaker 5 Yeah, percentages tell us a lot of these guys right out here, they're going to be selling insurance.

Speaker 19 They're going to be doing very well, though.

Speaker 5 Strength coach. There's going to be a lot of strength coaches out here.

Speaker 47 Yeah, some big boys.

Speaker 5 Coaches, future coaches.

Speaker 9 Out here, too, there's going to be Hall of Famers.

Speaker 24 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 30 That's the beauty of it. Like, there's been probably less buzz around this draft class in total compared to last year's just because the talent of the top is not regarded as the same way.

Speaker 30 I think this is a great draft for scouting departments that know what they're doing, man. Like, I bet the Rams have done a great job.

Speaker 5 You're a former scout, right? Is that correct?

Speaker 30 Yeah, but I can't take too much credit for, you know, it was the Chiefs before they were what they are now.

Speaker 5 But you are a scout?

Speaker 30 I worked, yeah, I worked for the Chiefs for a couple of seasons, and then things got a lot better. So maybe I was the problem, not the solution.

Speaker 24 Okay.

Speaker 32 But Bill, last season during the draft, Bill Belichick trusted you.

Speaker 30 Yeah, yeah, Bill, who I worked with the Patriots prior to the time in Kansas City, and that was very, very cool to see Bill take a look at that top 50 and use it during the extravaganza, which Green Bay doing it again.

Speaker 24 Spectacular.

Speaker 30 Spectacular, excuse me. That was a bad one there.

Speaker 2 You were in the right word.

Speaker 37 You were there, yeah.

Speaker 28 In the right word. Type of word.

Speaker 30 I was too busy thinking about this great point I was going to make that probably won't be that great.

Speaker 30 This is a draft that I can imagine the teams like the Rams, who have nailed the draft in recent years by just finding guys in all parts, like all corners, right?

Speaker 30 Like the first round pick, Jared Verse was great, but like second round pick, Braden Fisk, and then, you know, two years ago, Puka Nakua in the fifth, like Cam Kens in the third round last year.

Speaker 30 They're probably sitting there saying, that's a good point. You guys don't like it? We'll take rounds three for five and just feast.

Speaker 5 Hey, that was a good point. You said it wasn't going to be a good point.
That was good.

Speaker 2 That was a great point, Phil.

Speaker 7 That was a great point.

Speaker 2 Mike Rabbit's team now. Yeah.

Speaker 9 They're going to have a great draft.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 24 I think Pick Four is looking good right now.

Speaker 30 I think those two quarterbacks could end up, like, if you end up, if you have to settle for one of Abdul Carter or Travis Hunter,

Speaker 30 sprint that card in. Yes, please.
I'll let you do the honors of sprint it in.

Speaker 28 Oh, that'd be fantastic.

Speaker 26 I want one of those two, so bad.

Speaker 5 What do we got? Compensation and opportunity, they say.

Speaker 27 That's right.

Speaker 2 That's a frable.

Speaker 13 Yeah, there was a new update about T. Higgins, though, that they're not going to rush to T.
Higgins, allegedly.

Speaker 5 Well, that's because T. Higgins allegedly not going to be let out of the building down there.
So, why would you, you know? True. Yeah.

Speaker 5 That's an interesting leverage play there, probably, by all sides. Excited to see how it all works out.

Speaker 5 Draft season is the greatest, and that's when we get a chance to watch this big brain on this baby face operated at science level. We appreciate you, ladies and gentlemen.
Field gaze.

Speaker 3 Yes, please. Thank you.

Speaker 62 Thank you, Elon.

Speaker 62 Appreciate you, man. You look really cool.
You look really, really cool.

Speaker 33 Really, really cool. All right, Phil.

Speaker 2 Appreciate that.

Speaker 53 I look really cool. I always love that.

Speaker 14 Always do. Always a pleasure, Phil.
Good to see you, man.

Speaker 9 Yep. See you soon.

Speaker 26 Belmont Hill guy, cookies and milk.

Speaker 19 Thank you, Phil.

Speaker 24 No more milk and cookies anymore.

Speaker 31 Yeah, yeah, they're getting tougher.

Speaker 18 What do you mean? I got rid of it?

Speaker 49 Wow.

Speaker 32 Yeah, Elon got rid of it.

Speaker 2 No, I believe.

Speaker 2 Yep.

Speaker 5 The milk's fine.

Speaker 4 The cookies getting a little pricey.

Speaker 32 I was listening to you and Field's podcast earlier earlier on the drive-in.

Speaker 24 It's pretty good.

Speaker 14 First draft.

Speaker 34 Great show.

Speaker 5 Madmo, Ewan. Of course, I remember.

Speaker 12 Yeah, I know that that happens.

Speaker 26 Fantasy focus?

Speaker 34 First draft.

Speaker 14 Please. Not a fantasy guy, okay, not doing that bullshit.
I wasn't sure much part of it. Yeah, first draft, you know, twice a week, I believe.

Speaker 5 We got a potential

Speaker 5 far of sitch brewing with the program.

Speaker 37 Oh, no.

Speaker 26 Oh, no. What?

Speaker 19 Allegedly. With what?

Speaker 5 Which, if you check the tape, I think we're...

Speaker 5 I mean, we got to cover the biggest news.

Speaker 3 Oh, no way.

Speaker 2 Serious?

Speaker 52 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 Potential. I mean, it's being, yeah.
And I, hey, been down this road before.

Speaker 5 Got to talk about everything that's being talked about.

Speaker 24 It's all out there.

Speaker 5 Especially if the whole world's being talked about it. Especially if you don't use any names.
No names. No names.

Speaker 21 Just like that.

Speaker 5 Obviously, situation, if real, allegedly, not a good one, which we said.

Speaker 5 We tied it to the football. I mean, that's, hey, when you're talking daily sports world and you're talking daily topical pop culture stuff, I mean, that's going to happen.

Speaker 5 We're okay in the kitchen, though, by the way.

Speaker 32 Yeah, the favor when we said some things.

Speaker 21 We didn't say anything. Yeah, we feel good in the kitchen.

Speaker 5 I just would like that. That is our.

Speaker 5 This is happening.

Speaker 21 This is,

Speaker 24 allegedly.

Speaker 5 The reporting, though, is everywhere. So we feel A-OK joining us now, ladies and gentlemen.
He's a man who...

Speaker 5 Had his time in the NFL, did not work out.

Speaker 5 Came back to college ball. We assume it will work out.
Because when he's coaching at college, he has success. Has done it everywhere he's ever been.
Now he's at Nebraska.

Speaker 5 Ladies and gentlemen, the head coach,

Speaker 5 Coach Matt Ruh.

Speaker 7 Yeah, coach.

Speaker 6 Good to see you, coach.

Speaker 9 Coach, how are we?

Speaker 24 Nebraska.

Speaker 5 Nebraska's an Adidas school. I'm looking.

Speaker 5 Nebraska is an Adidas school.

Speaker 5 Always got some clean shoes.

Speaker 5 Right behind you. Good work, Connor.
Boom.

Speaker 22 Connor, good work.

Speaker 6 Hold on, the wire's in there.

Speaker 9 The wire's wrapped around the thing. Dang it.

Speaker 5 We got to fix it. No, it's ours.

Speaker 24 Steals did that.

Speaker 5 Yeah, it's happened the last three times. Coach, good to see you.

Speaker 22 Coach, good to see you.

Speaker 5 Okay, how do we feel? Now we're all the way back into college ball, full-time. Last time we chatted with you was transition going into Nebraska, I do believe.
How's life?

Speaker 5 You're giving a lot of great takes on the state of college football and what has changed since the last time you were in college football. How do we feel now?

Speaker 5 Where are you at right now with college ball and the Nebraska program?

Speaker 63 Well, Nebraska's in a great place.

Speaker 63 You know, it's winning time. You know,

Speaker 63 we broke the nine-year bowl drought. You know, not what we want, but we made some progress.

Speaker 2 Okay, okay. Here we go.

Speaker 34 Here you go. Let's go.

Speaker 34 It's always been year three for you.

Speaker 2 It's been year three, so a little pressure on me right now, right?

Speaker 63 My wife's already planning some different things. I'm like, honey, let's wait till we win before we start spending all that money.

Speaker 5 It happened at Temple, happened at Baylor. You know, you get your culture in there, get your guys in there, have to flip over.

Speaker 5 That's why you get hired as a head coach at a place, is to change the culture and do your thing.

Speaker 5 What is it about this particular year, or maybe this particular team where you're at where it's like, yeah,

Speaker 5 we go to a bowl game last year, but it's winning time now. Why do you think that with this spot?

Speaker 63 You know, because we played the best teams in the league last year. We played Ohio State, great team, lost 21-17,

Speaker 63 lost a bunch of games at the wire.

Speaker 63 And people start talking about a curse and all these different things. I told the guys, I said, forget that.

Speaker 63 It's more talent. It's us being bigger, stronger, better.
So year three, young quarterback,

Speaker 63 he's going to be really good next year. Really Really good defense.
Got some weapons.

Speaker 24 Portal's been good to us.

Speaker 10 So I think we'll be pretty good.

Speaker 5 What are you in the middle? A spring ball right now?

Speaker 63 Matt Rills. Matt Rills.

Speaker 2 So I'll be here tonight.

Speaker 14 I flew here today.

Speaker 30 Support the boys.

Speaker 63 Flyback tonight. 5.30 tomorrow morning on the mat.

Speaker 2 Let's go.

Speaker 52 Let's go.

Speaker 20 Old school.

Speaker 5 Matt Rill is like

Speaker 5 the, I don't want to say death camp.

Speaker 5 Pretty close. 5.30 a.m., though, is a, the boys aren't sleeping the night before because they're scared they're going to miss the alarm.
And if you show up late to this, it's over.

Speaker 10 That's where you're at right now.

Speaker 63 Yeah, That's not good. But it's a, you know, I told the guys, I've talked to a couple of guys when they come out here, they're like thinking about running the 40.

Speaker 63 They're nervous, like, man, what if I run this? What if I run that?

Speaker 63 Sometimes you just got to go do it. So early on in their college career, man, twice a week, show up, matt drills, lay it on the line, show what you can do.
It's hard. Embrace hard things.

Speaker 63 You know, kick the drill's ass and see what happens.

Speaker 5 I should have done the research, but obviously didn't even know you were out here until you sent me a message, and I'm like, yo, we would love to talk to you, Coach.

Speaker 2 I saw Coach Pagano right there.

Speaker 63 I said, Coach, thank goodness you're back in coaching. Football needs men like Chuck Pagano.

Speaker 5 Well, I love that, and we agree. And he is all the way back in.
He's excited. You can see a little glow and a little bounce about him that he's back in the world.

Speaker 5 You football guys are certainly a different animal, a different breed, and everything like that. But getting you to come on here, I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 Your guys, how many guys, I should have done more research, do you have out there? And what do you think is going to happen with your dudes during this combine experience?

Speaker 63 Yeah, we have four guys at the combine.

Speaker 22 Ty Robinson,

Speaker 63 our great defensive tackle, is going to run today. I mean, he's one of your kind of guys.
Like, you would love this guy. The guy's tough, hard-nosed, blue-collar, great athlete.

Speaker 63 Going to go to medical school when he's done.

Speaker 3 I don't think so.

Speaker 17 Maybe Donald Park.

Speaker 63 I don't think so.

Speaker 63 But a real guy. So, and you know, we have Thomas Finoni, tight end.
We have Isaiah Newar, a receiver, and we have Tommy Hill Corner.

Speaker 63 So, we have four guys here, a couple other guys that maybe should have been here. So, first time in a long time to have this many.
So, we're starting to get the thing up and running.

Speaker 5 That's awesome.

Speaker 39 Tony has a question for you.

Speaker 32 Coach, Coach, you are in the news recently, you in Texas for the spring game, whether you guys are going to do the spring game or not. So I got to ask you about that.

Speaker 32 Was it because other teams looking at the film of your spring game, guys not getting enough time in the spring game, so they want to transfer in that spring portal window?

Speaker 32 What was the thinking behind the spring game?

Speaker 32 I don't know if the announcement's been made or what has been happening with your spring game, but you're definitely in the news for maybe not playing the spring game this year.

Speaker 9 Yeah, what the hell's going on?

Speaker 5 Yeah, I was kind of the first guy that said it.

Speaker 43 Yes, it took a little bit of heat.

Speaker 63 And then all of a sudden,

Speaker 63 everybody starts coming in behind. Hey, that's a good idea.
So

Speaker 63 I think it was two things. Last year we had our spring game, Big Ten Network.
Everyone's watching. It's re-aired, re-aired, re-aired.
And all of a sudden, I got a line outside my door on Monday.

Speaker 63 Hey, Coach so-and-so called me from here, so-and-so called me from there. So, you know, what advantage is it for me? I love our fans.
We're going to do something for the fans.

Speaker 63 But what's the advantage of showing all my young talent and letting other coaches come in and try to tamper with them? And to be quite honest,

Speaker 63 I'm not a perfect guy. I sat there watching the FCS playoffs, watching those great teams at Montana State.
And some kid makes a play, and I'm like, who is that guy?

Speaker 2 Sales quarterback that Iowa.

Speaker 63 So I'm like,

Speaker 63 why would I put my guys out there? I mean,

Speaker 63 I want my guys to be taken care of. But that's a tough time, April, May, man.
We've got to get ready for the season, so we'll make some changes.

Speaker 5 The two portals is crazy. And I'm experiencing this right now with Rich Rod going back to West Virginia because these guys come in the first portal, then they get a spring with Rich now.

Speaker 5 Now they get a spring with a, it's gonna be run a little bit different, I think, than what it had been being run like around here for a little bit.

Speaker 5 And then right after spring, you're only a couple months out from the season, guys can hit again, and it's like, that needs to be, what is your thoughts? How do we fix this?

Speaker 5 One portal time, one transfer window?

Speaker 39 One portal. Think about it.

Speaker 63 Basketball has one portal. So why would basketball have one and we have two? It's because our season's different.
I get it. But

Speaker 63 whether it's in January, December.

Speaker 2 April, just keep the April one.

Speaker 43 But then you're a couple months out.

Speaker 63 Yeah, I mean, how many people leave in April and have a lot of success two months later?

Speaker 63 Like, I literally could, if I wanted to, I could say, who am I playing week one and see who goes in the portal from them and take them and then know what they're going to do against us?

Speaker 63 But I'm with you. Whatever's best for the student athlete, but I think we should pick one.
I don't want to negotiate a contract with a guy in December and then renegotiate again in April.

Speaker 63 Like, you sign up with us, you should sign up for the year. Coaches sign up for the year.
And so let's do once a year, whatever's best. If it's April, if it's December.
I will say this.

Speaker 63 I thought it was terrible

Speaker 63 for the young men. Not just for the teams, but for the young men, the guys had to make a decision.
Do I play with my team in the college football playoff or do I

Speaker 2 go in the playoffs? Or do I go in the portal?

Speaker 63 Because that's what's best for me. So I think one portal window would be way better.

Speaker 5 Hey, that college football playoff, timing of the transfer portal window, being in there was weird. And then some schools were letting their guys be in the portal and then also in the team.

Speaker 5 Some places weren't available.

Speaker 5 That was a weird scene popping out there because, you know, whenever people stop playing in the bowl games, it was like the, we're going to go to the toe to the toilet bowl out here.

Speaker 5 Guy's not playing because you don't want to get hurt. College football playoff game, it's like there was conversations of people not playing there.
It's like, come on, man.

Speaker 5 This is what we're here for. No doubt.
It's literally what the entire year is all about.

Speaker 5 You and I, and I think anybody that watches college bowl, excited that the players are getting compensated. But there's a ruling coming, right, that's supposed to put some guardrails on it.

Speaker 5 Have you heard anything about that? And how do you think of that, like, how many years until we get this thing kind of

Speaker 5 straighten out because you are old college football guy you know who's been around a long time and also professional guy who's been around the professional operation which I think is good for you especially how Bill and Lombardi feel going back to North Carolina they feel like having the NFL experience is a good thing not a bad thing I assume you feel the same way but how many years do you think until there is some sort of like what the hell's going on I think I think this this winter is the first time that I feel like you know what we might get a handle on this I think you know Commissioner Sankey in the SEC, Tony Petiti at the Big Ten, who obviously comes and talks to us.

Speaker 63 I want the players to be taken care of.

Speaker 63 What I don't want is guys playing at four colleges in four years. Because, you know, hey, I'm the highest bidder.
Now I'm the highest bidder.

Speaker 63 The one thing in football is the desperate team sets the market.

Speaker 63 And so if a desperate team comes in and they're trying to steal you away from me and, hey, I'll give you $100,000 more, but it's not a good situation. Like, there has to be some guardrails.

Speaker 63 And I think we're starting to figure out...

Speaker 63 We're on the precipice of it being the right where, hey, we can sign some contracts, multi-year deals maybe, but if you do want to leave, like a coach leaves, they pay a buyout.

Speaker 63 Maybe there's a buyout. I don't know if that's going to happen, but I'm feeling better that it might happen.

Speaker 5 Big Ten kind of running shit.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 5 Mad Mel has a question for you.

Speaker 14 Yeah, speaking of that, you know, early in the season, you said how, hey, listen, the Big Ten is best conference in college football.

Speaker 14 Paul Feinbaum, obviously, you know, mouthpiece for the SEC, he kind of takes a pot shot at you and says, hey, you haven't done anything yet. Why don't you just focus on winning at Nebraska?

Speaker 14 And then I loved it how you came back and you dunked on him pretty good after, I think it was after Ohio State won. But like Pat mentioned, the Big Ten kind of dominated the college football playoff.

Speaker 14 When you look back at the last season in the new Big Ten, you know, different travel, all that kind of stuff, do you guys feel like you're where you're at, where you need to be in order to compete, you know, with Oregon and USC and Ohio State and Penn State and kind of all these other places who have basically said, hey, listen, we're all in.

Speaker 14 We're going to, you know, boosters, all that kind of stuff. We're going to put as much money as we need to to kind of get this thing going in the right direction.

Speaker 63 Yeah, I think this will be the first year where we're on a level playing field, and it's this new settlement, right?

Speaker 63 So we're going to be spending the same amount of money on our roster that everyone else is. You know, Ohio State, Oregon, they made huge investments last year.
Good for them.

Speaker 63 We've been making big investments, but not at the level they were making at because they were just ahead of us. This new thing now will kind of even things out.

Speaker 63 And I will say this, kudos to Arizona State, places like that that won at the level they did out.

Speaker 63 I mean, Kenny's a coach now.

Speaker 39 He's a real coach. High respect from all you, I assume, huh?

Speaker 5 100%.

Speaker 63 100%. Like, that team played really well.
But long-term, I mean, if you want something out, you got to invest something into it. And so we're at a point now in Nebraska.

Speaker 63 We have the best facilities in the country, elite fan base. Being in the middle part of the country now in the Big Ten is a good thing.
Like, I don't have four-hour flights.

Speaker 63 I have a two-hour flight to L.A., a two-hour flight to Penn State.

Speaker 5 I feel pretty good about what I'm doing. Two hours to L.A.
from Nebraska? 215.

Speaker 1 That's what plane was.

Speaker 4 Hey, that's a...

Speaker 5 You don't got a heavy jet stream coming.

Speaker 2 You know what I mean? Going this way. Going this way.
No, no, going this way. We're coming back.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 39 215. Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 5 Gumpy and I did a six-hour flight from here to San Diego because we had a 4,000-knot headwind, I think, is what they told us. We were just sitting in the sky.

Speaker 5 Just sitting in the sky, it felt like forever. I believe we're coming up to a hard at here, like here in a matter of moments, like right now.
Did that just happen?

Speaker 30 I thought it was 55, 54.30.

Speaker 5 53.25. Okay, so we got 15 seconds here.
I thought we

Speaker 5 54.30. Got it.
We've been a two-week break, Coach.

Speaker 22 Yeah.

Speaker 5 Coach, two-week break. And I didn't want to cut you off because you're giving such a great answer.
I was actually looking at the clock. I was thinking to myself, we're in trouble.

Speaker 5 But whenever we continue this program, After the Heart Out, we'll still be live on YouTube, ESPN Plus, Disney Plus, and TikTok Live. How much social media have you been doing?

Speaker 5 You've been doing the dances? You've been doing the TikToking, Coach Rule?

Speaker 63 So

Speaker 63 I walked in the training table the other day, and Harper Murray, our all-American volleyball player, was sitting there with my nine-year-old.

Speaker 39 She said, Coach Rule, we're going to go do a TikTok.

Speaker 63 Now, I'm anti-TikTok. I won't let the kids get it.

Speaker 52 Call it, smart.

Speaker 2 Have it.

Speaker 52 You get it.

Speaker 63 And my nine-year-old's like, what are you going to say to Harper? And I was like, oh, have fun. So I've had to download TikTok, and I found my daughter

Speaker 2 all over.

Speaker 63 She finds people in the facility.

Speaker 63 I saw 35 of my football players doing TikToks.

Speaker 10 How'd you feel?

Speaker 63 Well, one of them did it in the facility, which is a hard no. So our strength coach did a TikTok workout this morning with the freshmen.

Speaker 63 They were pushing plates, pushing plates with their bios and all their cool stuff on there that they love to post everywhere. They're pushing the plate with their bios.

Speaker 4 Ah, that's amazing.

Speaker 63 I got to tell you the last part.

Speaker 39 I know we have a heart up.

Speaker 63 They were doing wall sits at the end and every freshman had to get out and do a 10-second TikTok dance while the rest of the guys did the wall sits.

Speaker 8 Welcome to old school.

Speaker 18 That was literally, hey, you ended that answer.

Speaker 5 You ended that story right at the end and even got our pop in there. Hey, that's good TV work.

Speaker 5 That's good TV work right there. Okay, we're still live, obviously, on the internet and everything like that.
You said, welcome to old school. Yeah.
Coach Rod, I'm talking to him, same exact thing.

Speaker 5 I think a lot of people are kind of scared to go that way. A lot of the old school coaches and a lot of the good teams aren't.

Speaker 5 So how have you stayed committed throughout all of the, because I'm assuming there's a lot of people that have said, you know, maybe you do this, maybe you don't do that.

Speaker 5 And you say, yeah, we're doing TikTok workouts this morning. You think it's cute?

Speaker 21 Okay, that's cute. Oh, that's funny.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I gotta read the entirety of the entire, as we roll in there. How have you been able to maintain?

Speaker 5 that and don't you think that's a necessity to win a football like I think at football you need to be disciplined you need to be tough and you need to be bought in. Like, I legitimately think that.

Speaker 5 And they're trying to change it, it seems like. And if you change it, you're not going to win.

Speaker 63 They're trying to change it everywhere.

Speaker 63 I think a couple of things.

Speaker 63 I think back to all the great players I've coached. Christian McCaffrey, Stephon Gilmore, Deion Dawkins in college, Hassan Reddick.
Those guys all wanted that kind of stuff.

Speaker 63 Like, they wanted to get coached.

Speaker 63 Like, when you coached Christian McCaffrey, you'd sit there and watch a play, and you were so locked in because he's going to come over and say, hey, did I read that wrong?

Speaker 63 Like, he wanted real feedback. So all this soft stuff,

Speaker 39 all the research says it's wrong.

Speaker 63 You know, the best people in the world don't want it that way. So

Speaker 63 I think it's my job to do what's best for the players. And if they don't want it and they want to transfer, you know, so be it.

Speaker 63 But, you know, we always say, hey, I'm going to treat you like my own son. When my son comes home with a C, Julie Rule comes across the couch and swinging on him.

Speaker 2 So like, like, we're going to treat our players the same way.

Speaker 8 We're pushing sled with a big C on top of it.

Speaker 5 Wow, that's pretty heavy sled you got here. Yeah, I think that's, I mean, I think it's it's a necessity in football.
I legitimately think it is.

Speaker 5 And if you don't have it and you lose it, it's gone forever. So you're trying to set your culture, that makes sense why year three potentially becomes the time.
Go ahead, Con man.

Speaker 13 Yeah, a new necessity, too. And I should have done more research and I should know this, but you know, like the GM role in college is now becoming a thing.
Andrew Luck is back in Stanford.

Speaker 13 You know, Pat mentioned Michael Lombardi with Belichick at UNC. Do you guys have a GM? Is that something where you guys have a working relationship? And what exactly is on his plate versus yours?

Speaker 13 Or is it very much so like a working relationship? You're giving him stuff like players from Montana State, hey, go and call this guy immediately. How has that relationship been?

Speaker 63 Yeah, when we came back in,

Speaker 63 Sean Patton, who's been with me forever, took over as the GM.

Speaker 63 Brilliant, smart. And Mike Lombardi's always been a great friend of ours, a resource.
His house down the shore is like two towns up from mine.

Speaker 63 We always go to see Mike, and he's a great, great man, has helped me for years. Sean recently moved into a new role where all he's doing now is like contracts,

Speaker 63 because it's a big role now, dealing with the agents.

Speaker 26 I'm here,

Speaker 63 he's in the hotels here talking to agents. They're talking to NFL guys and college guys at the same time because that's

Speaker 63 the new normal. And we just hired a guy named Pat Stewart from the New England Patriots, was with us at Cleveland, excuse me, with us at Carolina.
He'll be our new GM.

Speaker 63 So we're just taking our personnel department, which used to be four guys, then it was eight.

Speaker 63 Now it's the NFL in college.

Speaker 63 And it's what you need to have a chance.

Speaker 5 Rich said that yesterday. Like everything you're saying, Rich Rod has been saying like for the last, you know, since he's got back to West Virginia, we're hearing him at the press conference.

Speaker 5 He said, Rock Hale, my daughter, and I were looking at the guide or whatever it is. I don't know if you even still have that from 2006 whenever we were here.
He said, I had 10 members on the staff.

Speaker 5 He said, we had two GAs on offense. I think we had two GAs on defense.
We had one equipment manager guy with everything else. And we somehow were able to do it then.
So I assume we're able to do it.

Speaker 5 Now it's like 50. You got a consultant you got advisors you got these people you got this expert you got nutritionists ours quit

Speaker 5 we'll get a new one we'll get a new one in there but it's like Nate's big big operation now big business obviously I think is probably the reason why right that's right that's right

Speaker 63 we had the same statement the other day we were sitting in our mat drills and the players hadn't run in yet and there might have been like 90 people in there and Phil Snow who's like my mentor and coaching you know he's 68 DC DC DC for years and he was like Matt you know know, we used to have 12 people out here.

Speaker 18 What the hell? Why do we have all these people?

Speaker 63 But it's a new world, right? And everyone wants to get involved in it. People will work for not a lot of money to get their foot started.
And

Speaker 63 it is big business, and we're spending a lot of money. We're spending $20.5 million on athletes this year at Nebraska.
I mean, just think about that now.

Speaker 2 Hey, let's go, Nebraska.

Speaker 63 So you need to have the best.

Speaker 26 Volleyball players? Volleyball players.

Speaker 63 I mean, they are.

Speaker 14 Real deal.

Speaker 63 I wanted to fly here yesterday and come here last night, and they're like,

Speaker 63 we have a new coach, Danny Busboom-Kelly from Louisville, elite coach, former player there. They're like, nah, Coach Rule, Danny has the plane.

Speaker 54 You'll get it tomorrow morning.

Speaker 51 And I was like, I get it.

Speaker 18 I get it.

Speaker 24 Volleyball is volleyball, Nebraska.

Speaker 5 Selling on stadium. Yeah.
That's right.

Speaker 5 Last question here from Tony. We appreciate you, Coach.

Speaker 32 Yeah, Coach, you made some coordinator news kind of at the end of last year, bringing in Dana Holgerson, and now I believe he is going to be your full-time OC.

Speaker 32 Is it nice having like a former head coach on the staff as well? And then how has him and Dylan Riola's relationship been through the offseason?

Speaker 63 Yeah, I think, you know, we lost our, we beat Wisconsin week 11 to go to, you know,

Speaker 63 we hadn't beat him in 12 years to go to the bowl season, which was awesome. The next week we lost to Iowa, and it was like a gut punch, you know, the way we lost.

Speaker 13 Through that.

Speaker 63 Yeah, so, which I respect. Trust me, I respect.

Speaker 63 But the next day, Dylan was like, coach, I'm all in. And Dana was like, I'm all in.
Okay. And they both were kind of like, hey, if he's in, I'm in.

Speaker 16 It wasn't anything about me.

Speaker 63 But that felt great because I think they have a great relationship.

Speaker 63 Dana's what I'm not Dana's aggressive offensively he wants to I mean there's sometimes he calls things and I'm like oh my Lord are we doing that Dana and he's like but it works so I love it so I was so happy to get him and you're right you know when you're a head coach I can't pick up the phone and call up coach Ferrance and be like hey coach you know what do you think I should be doing here so to have someone else who's been there who knows what that feels like is a

Speaker 5 is a great resource he's electrifying too yeah he's electrifying we got seated at uh obviously at West Virginia and then we goes down to Texas Tech I believe and does his thing it's it's like watching him chatting with him loves ball god he loves ball raol is gonna be a guy huh he's gonna be a guy yeah he'll be a guy already is i guess

Speaker 63 is he cutting his hair now that mahomes cut his hair no no it's funny i you know if i'm being honest i think he was gonna cut his hair anyway and then when mahomes didn't i was like i can't do enough

Speaker 2 okay oh no

Speaker 5 that's the whole situation hey listen if this guy's in your culture in your building i got respect for him you know a lot of things to be said about him because he is very popular and obviously he was committed somewhere and then he goes to nebraska family ties and everything like that.

Speaker 5 But he went out and played. There was a ball.
I think I did it on game day.

Speaker 5 There was a throw where a guy's coming.

Speaker 5 A guy is running right in his face. Okay, just running right in his face.
And he sits in there, takes it, and delivers a go ball down his side, and it's in the bucket. And he's a freshman.

Speaker 5 It's like, this guy's got it. Like, that's the thing you don't know if a guy has or not, especially if he's highly recruited or getting the money.

Speaker 5 It's like, I think there's a couple plays that I saw where I'm like, this guy's going to be a guy. And it's because I think TOF, and you get to see more of it.

Speaker 5 But if you're able to sit in a pocket and take a big-time shot and deliver a ball, it's like, that's a separator. I think, you know, we're here in Indianapolis, racing is the thing.

Speaker 5 Indy 500 is a big deal. There's a lot of drivers that can go 198, 199, can't go over 200 miles an hour.
So that's like the separator. Like, hey, over 200 miles an hour, how do you feel?

Speaker 5 Are you comfortable? Are you not comfortable? Are you going to get in here? They're going 230 here at ND500 and everything, like 225, whatever it is. So it's like a separator.

Speaker 5 I think the separated quarterback position is, can you take a shot and deliver the ball? Like, do you courage, can you do it? Physically, can you do it? And then, once again, play clocks running.

Speaker 5 Can you get back up and go deliver again? I watch him do that a lot. And with the way you talk about old school football, you have to love that about this highly recruited guy, I would assume.

Speaker 63 I love the kid.

Speaker 63 And he came there. His parents trusted him to come here, and he came there not because of my offensive philosophy, because I'm not renowned for that.
It's the other part.

Speaker 63 Like, I do not want him showing up someday as the first pick and going to some team in New York or some team in L.A.

Speaker 63 and all of a sudden, for the first time in his life, experiencing adversity. So, yeah, he has fun, he runs around, he celebrates, he does other things, but he's in there every morning at six.

Speaker 39 And when he doesn't do something right, he's hearing about it from me.

Speaker 63 And if he misses a nutrition appointment, he wants to show up the throwing, and I'm like, no, you're not allowed to throw today because you missed your nutrition appointment.

Speaker 63 So he's getting all that stuff. So whatever team gets him in three years, they're going to get a guy.
And so, yeah.

Speaker 18 You would hope that that would happen everywhere.

Speaker 45 In most places, it does.

Speaker 63 But I'm just saying, be 19 and be famous, right? Be 19 and be famous. He's 19, he's famous, but I'll say this.

Speaker 63 When my two daughters walk in the building, like he stops whatever he does, he's like Vivi Leon. And when he sees the AD son walk in, he knows their names.
He sees my wife, Miss Julie Haiti,

Speaker 63 he's a great kid. Social media paints people different ways.

Speaker 63 I wish all of our kids were like Dylan is. And you know what?

Speaker 63 We're all works in progress. But if tomorrow morning, the matural isn't good,

Speaker 63 he's going to hear about it, and he'll do it again the next day. So don't worry about him.

Speaker 40 He'll be fine.

Speaker 5 Okay, that is awesome news. And I'm thankful to hear that there's dogs out there still.
And it sounds like there's going to be a lot of them coming from Nebraska. Can't wait to watch how you guys do.

Speaker 5 Thank you for making time for us. And we can't wait to watch year three with Nebraska.
Like we've seen year three at Baylor, year three at Temple. You know, there's a chance what?

Speaker 5 Is Game Day make an appearance out there?

Speaker 63 Last year I said you'd be there and I didn't quite pull my weight.

Speaker 40 So just give it time.

Speaker 26 Okay, I feel good.

Speaker 22 Love to go.

Speaker 5 That river in Brazos.

Speaker 63 You do that thing on the side. You do that thing on the side where you're in the end zone.
You guys.

Speaker 2 A simple cast.

Speaker 39 Has a coach ever walked over and talked to you in the middle of a simple cast?

Speaker 5 No, I don't think so.

Speaker 32 You ran by Sabin.

Speaker 2 Sabin, Sabin.

Speaker 37 The O-line coach.

Speaker 39 Yeah,

Speaker 2 Justin Fry.

Speaker 16 Fry yelling shit at you. But Fry's an old Temple guy.

Speaker 63 Fry and I work together.

Speaker 39 So if you're from Temple, you don't care about anything.

Speaker 8 Dude, he was tough.

Speaker 5 He was giving me this. I was standing because I picked against Ohio Standing College.

Speaker 63 Oh, that's different. I'm talking about right coming over and say, Pat, what do you think, bro?

Speaker 2 What do you think? Should we go for a rebound off that win? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 We would certainly love that.

Speaker 21 That would certainly be.

Speaker 46 I'll just write that down.

Speaker 37 Just remember that. Remember that.
When the time comes.

Speaker 5 That's college football playoff. Actually, that contract is up.
Actually, we don't know if that's ever going to happen again.

Speaker 22 It was a great time.

Speaker 28 Hell of a run.

Speaker 50 We got to see a lot of iconic games.

Speaker 5 Bro, we're just there. Obviously, you get to do it all the time.

Speaker 5 But, like, just being there, feeling the college world is just different.

Speaker 5 It's great to be back in the college roads.

Speaker 10 I love it.

Speaker 63 I love everything about it.

Speaker 5 Out of Nebraska, they fill up, what, like, hours before the game kicks off?

Speaker 63 And here's the reason why. They show up an hour before the game to watch the kids that might not get in the game, but they're still Huskers.
That's a loyalty unlike anything else.

Speaker 63 Like, they show up to watch Johnny and Steve and whoever goes.

Speaker 19 Just watch

Speaker 63 Patton go and give a cheer. I mean, that's just a different level of loyalty to their team.

Speaker 5 Well, sounds like it has the makings to be great. Now, Iowa is certainly lurking.

Speaker 14 Listen, I will say, because I was one of the big, like, hey, this

Speaker 12 Nebraska, Iowa, like, this isn't a rivalry.

Speaker 14 Okay, we can play it the day after Thanksgiving. That's horseshit.

Speaker 16 It's a rivalry now.

Speaker 3 It is.

Speaker 2 I'm bought in.

Speaker 63 If I may say two things, one of the best moments of my life as a college football coach was at the end of the first quarter looking up and waving at those kids. I'm telling you now, that was.

Speaker 2 That was cool, isn't it?

Speaker 63 That was...

Speaker 63 That was as powerful a thing as I've ever been through in my life. And thinking about, like, what are they going through? Like, I'm sitting here, like, in pain about the third down call.

Speaker 63 And I'm like, what are we talking about? So that was amazing. And I have a lot of respect for Iowa and Coach Ferrins and all those things.

Speaker 63 And, you know, I know it's a rivalry, but I never talk about rivalries. I'm like, hey, this game, this game, this game.
But after this year,

Speaker 49 after everything happened,

Speaker 46 North Philly, Matt Rule might be back.

Speaker 2 Okay, okay, we like that.

Speaker 5 Them Johns, they defeated everything.

Speaker 35 That's right.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 5 when you think about the hospital, because I was very lucky here to be a cult, there's a lot of community work.

Speaker 5 You know, this hospital is, and the kids obviously going through it, but the families, like the families, the anxiety, the amount of time, everything that they're not able to do because they're fully focused on their children, let alone being scared at all times that it's over.

Speaker 5 So like when I see that wave and they show the thing and it's obviously the kids, the parents watching the kids be happy and have that moment like legit.

Speaker 5 I get, just like you, like the first time I saw it, I was like, it's interesting. And then you're like kind of really starting thinking about it.

Speaker 5 You're like, and now that I'm a dad, it's like the chills that you would get probably in that moment. Iowa's a beautiful place, creates beautiful people.

Speaker 5 Well, I'll tell you what, they're in it now against Nebraska because there's a little sauce coming from North Philly. We appreciate the hell out of you, Coach.

Speaker 9 Good luck out there.

Speaker 5 You're the man. All right, we're gonna take a break.
Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. It might change their life.
We're in this thing together. Thank you, Coach.

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Speaker 5 It's not about what you do. It's about how you bounce back and get better.
Scott and this jib have been nothing short of magical.

Speaker 5 He's from Louisiana, so each evening he's used to eating a little gator. Okay, you have a little gator nugget, a little gator pasta.

Speaker 5 He's come up here to Indianapolis to help us out and run this jib, and he's done a fantastic job. Whenever Foxy cuts to this shot right here, boom, that is coming from Scott, Louisiana.

Speaker 5 Coming from a jib that is in the lobby of Lucas Oil Stadium that is currently the host of the NFL Combine and hopefully will be forever. This place is electrifying.
This place is alive.

Speaker 5 It is the second on-field day of workouts for this year's NFL Combine. We're lucky to be here.
The toxic table looks a little different as Ty Schmidt is out with something.

Speaker 5 Hopefully he'll be back soon. We send our best wishes.
The toxic table at Boston Conner at Madmo Kuiper. Madmo, how you feeling about today, pal?

Speaker 14 Absolutely fantastic. I'm ready to get down there and get some measurements that maybe not everybody else is going to be looking at.
You know, we'll just leave it there.

Speaker 14 I don't necessarily need to go in, but we got a lot of beef down there.

Speaker 5 So we're going to, you know, well guys take the field in about 30 minutes here we're gonna get down there and kind of you know get the tape measure out and be looking at some things that maybe not every scout maybe not every draft nick is gonna be looking at that's what I'm gonna that's what I'm really interested well yesterday I saw you had your eyes on the punters kickers and snappers as I walked down there ended the show early went down there to host the specialist showcase that I thought was gonna be on television should have been on television very electrifying was nowhere to be found but we did get some clips out of it all and I got a chance to be back around kickers punters, and snappers.

Speaker 5 I had a blast down there, and I know you were evaluating with a keen eye.

Speaker 14 Walls and maybe, Pat, you could dive into this a little bit more.

Speaker 14 I think the biggest takeaway, especially when you talk about the IPP, the International Player Program, had a lot of guys from, you know, different countries.

Speaker 5 Pathway, I think it's International Player Pathway.

Speaker 23 Pathway, IPPP.

Speaker 14 Well, I always call it the program, okay? So they can call it the pathway if they want. Back when I, you know, kind of mentioned to the NFL, hey, we need to grow the game.

Speaker 14 We need to make this thing more global.

Speaker 6 I called it the program.

Speaker 14 Now it's the pathway. Either way, guys need to learn how to catch the goddamn football.
That's kind of my big takeaway.

Speaker 14 Maybe you, you know, but well, listen, I'm just saying, hey, growing up in America, you know, you're playing in the backyard with your buddies.

Speaker 14 There's certain athletic maneuvers that we all do growing up that we're comfortable with.

Speaker 16 These guys aren't doing that shit.

Speaker 21 They got different sports.

Speaker 14 They do. They're playing Gaelic football.
You know, hey, let's go have a kick.

Speaker 16 They're not having a catch.

Speaker 14 They're not doing any of that kind of stuff. So, obviously, catching the football, that's a pretty big deal if you're a punter.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I agree. And a couple of the international pathway, player pathway guys program, IPPPP.

Speaker 5 Those guys, perfect practice, per dicks, or you get it in the interior.

Speaker 2 TIIP or

Speaker 47 TIYP.

Speaker 5 Yeah, yeah, whatever it is. There was a couple international kickers.
Kid from Germany, Lenny Krieg, I believe his name, didn't miss a kick.

Speaker 5 Kid named Johnny from Italy missed like one kick, I believe, throughout the entirety of the day. So the kickers are doing a good job, I believe, in the international pathway.

Speaker 5 The punters, I think the biggest thing is catching the ball. because when you're a punter you have to catch a snap and then you also have to hold.
So like that is a big part of the gig.

Speaker 5 If you're not a good holder you're not going to make a team if it's anywhere close whenever it comes to punting there. A lot of big legs yesterday.
I saw some bombs.

Speaker 5 It was awesome to watch the guys kind of have to perform with maximum pressure on them in front of a lot of NFL legendary coaches. There's legendary special teams coaches there yesterday.

Speaker 5 Bones is there, formerly of the Cowboys, formerly of the Rams, like one of the most famous special teams guys of all time.

Speaker 5 Darren Simmons, who's been with the Cincinnati Bengals, I think, for 22 years. Randy Brown has been with, I think, the Ravens for like 18 years, was there.

Speaker 5 This guy named Henry, who I just met yesterday, who's been with the Dallas Cowboys for 100 years. He was there scouting out.

Speaker 9 Did you see Riz down there?

Speaker 5 Riz was down there. He just changed the kickoff rule.

Speaker 9 It's like he's the special.

Speaker 5 Danny Smith, I think he was just watching.

Speaker 10 I think he was just watching.

Speaker 5 These guys were running the drill and thought of these drills for the specialist showcase, so I was honored to be a part of it. But yeah, watching the balls go was awesome.

Speaker 5 There's some pressure kicks that took place for some of these kickers. Some guys stepped up.

Speaker 5 Borrelles down there in Miami, he started out a little slow, got hot, hit a ball yesterday on the track, man. They were covering that.

Speaker 5 That would have been good from like 66 or something like that, or 65. Kid named Luke, I believe, who's maybe from Michigan State, he did great.

Speaker 5 Kid from Florida State hit a 62-yarder to win it or 61-yarder to win the showcase yesterday. So I think there's a lot of great things there.

Speaker 5 The punter from Alabama, who is an Aussie, Burnip, he was by far the most consistent and best performer.

Speaker 5 But there were some other guys that, like, whenever they're just spinning the ball to themselves and hit it, it's like, wow Those guys are hitting a ball further than I could ever imagine hitting a ball But with the snap especially and the snappers did well I thought there was a couple misses, but they snapped like 400 snaps or something.

Speaker 5 I forget the number, which is an insane number. They were just out there doing it, but the guys look like they were scared of the snap.

Speaker 5 And if you're thinking about the snap, most some of the guys, not all the guys, but most of the guys, if you're thinking about the snap, you're not thinking about the punt.

Speaker 5 And if you bobble the ball, you're not able to get the punt in a position to punt it. So then you have less time.
And it's like, I think they just all need to to work on their hands.

Speaker 5 Like, if you come over here to America to be a punter, we understand that you probably have kicked a ball before, you have a strong leg, but your hands are going to have to sink up a little bit.

Speaker 5 You're going to have to catch up a little bit on catching a ball, which you can, with the Jugs machine.

Speaker 5 So I think there's a lot of promise out of the guys over there yesterday, but I think there is some things they're going to have to work on before they become NFL guys.

Speaker 14 And Burnett makes sense.

Speaker 16 Obviously, he's an Alabama American, you know, so he's

Speaker 16 been in America.

Speaker 14 He's been in an American locker room where, you know, he's maybe not playing hacky sack with the boys or whatever.

Speaker 24 Listen, I love hacky sack. I mean, who doesn't love hacky sack?

Speaker 14 But I'm just saying, he's had to kind of be a little bit more of an athlete. And you mentioned it, you know, on top of it,

Speaker 14 if you're focused on, you know, the snap and you can't catch it, you know, we don't have a rush out there. You know, then you put...

Speaker 36 eight, nine guys who want to take your head off and kill you on top of it.

Speaker 14 You better be very confident in your ability to catch the football and get that thing off.

Speaker 10 It was fun to watch some bombs, though.

Speaker 5 It was fun to watch some of these guys do their thing. And like that Alabama kid looks so calm, so big, was able to catch.
He's an Australian guy. He looked very comfortable doing it.

Speaker 5 I think that's the big separator right now, these international guys. And then obviously there were some American boys that held down everything out there.
So I'm thankful to be a part of that today.

Speaker 5 D-Tackle linebacker, right, Tone Diggs?

Speaker 32 Yeah, D-Tackle linebacker is going today. They just got done, or it looked like there's a lot of stuff coming in on Twitter right now of the measurements.

Speaker 32 So I assume right before they come out to the field, they're doing all their measurements. So all the guys were getting their measurements done today.
Mason Graham came in at six foot 300 pounds.

Speaker 32 He's only going to bench.

Speaker 32 He's got those 32-inch short arms, so he's gonna be great on the bench, but he's not running or anything like that today. But there are going to be some freaks out there today.

Speaker 32 We talked about Kenneth Grant from Michigan, the big 6'3, 240-pounder, who said he's gonna try to run like 4'7, 4'8 today.

Speaker 32 And then you have Jalen Walker from Georgia, who won the Bucus Award out there today.

Speaker 32 He's gonna be awesome. He's an athletic freak.

Speaker 32 Shamar Stewart from Texas A ⁇ M, he just measured at 6'6 ⁇ , 270.

Speaker 5 Okay, so he's listed 6'6'290, so he's in best shape he's been in a long time. Look for him to run real fast.

Speaker 32 Yeah, he was a five-star coming out, one of the top D-line coming out. He's an incredible guy.

Speaker 5 Madmel, you lose 20 pounds. You can jump higher and run a lot faster.

Speaker 26 Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 14 A lot of people were saying, you know, hey, this guy, you know, his production wasn't the best in college, not big, gaudy sack numbers.

Speaker 16 But if this guy goes out and runs a 4-4, you know, yeah, I think there are going to be a lot of teams interested in it.

Speaker 5 You lose 20 pounds. You take a 20-pound weight off of your back.
You're going to be able to run faster and jump higher. I don't know why maybe he didn't do it in college.
Maybe it

Speaker 5 different. He was getting different information or whatever.

Speaker 32 When you look at his tape, he doesn't look 290. So I don't know if that was like a program thing.

Speaker 9 They were lying about him being bigger.

Speaker 31 Potentially being heavier.

Speaker 32 Because when you look at his tape, like he is like, he looks fit. He doesn't look overly fit.

Speaker 32 But Kenneth Grant from Michigan, he did say he dropped like 15-ish so he could run a 4-8 and jump higher at this program.

Speaker 5 All right, joining us now is somebody that has obviously covered all of these guys in college ball. Absolute legend in the sport of college football.
Now becoming one quickly in the draft world.

Speaker 5 Ladies and gentlemen, Molly McGrath.

Speaker 3 Thank you, Molly Molly.

Speaker 62 Molly!

Speaker 6 Molly!

Speaker 5 Good to see you, too. Hold on, Connor will get you the app.

Speaker 16 You do yourself. Pros, pro.

Speaker 5 I just want to let you know, Connor got that for everybody else's budget. Yeah.

Speaker 43 You take that high.

Speaker 26 I was standing there.

Speaker 2 I'm a pro.

Speaker 66 I can mic myself up.

Speaker 40 I do this for a living.

Speaker 5 Ladies and gentlemen, Molly McGrath.

Speaker 26 Thank you for having me, guys.

Speaker 66 This is quite a sweet set you have.

Speaker 2 Not bad, right?

Speaker 66 No.

Speaker 5 I had to come down here and do an actual site survey, me and a tape measure.

Speaker 41 Right.

Speaker 5 That's a factual statement.

Speaker 66 Well, I mean, this is a home assignment for you. This is pretty sweet.
This is the house that Pat McAfee built.

Speaker 17 Molly, Molly, you saw the wall.

Speaker 5 This actually says the building or the house that was built by these guys. These are the guys, you know, Tony Dungy, Peyton Manning, Joseph of Dynamoys.
I was very lucky to be in Indianapolis Colt.

Speaker 5 But yeah, to your point, the people of Indianapolis run this building. So when I came down here with a tape measure, the CIB, the city improvement board was like, why are we doing this?

Speaker 5 There's enough space for your show. And they're the ones that said I should do it right here.

Speaker 17 So we are incredibly lucky That's awesome.

Speaker 10 And I'm thankful to be here.

Speaker 5 Why are you here now? You're part of the draft coverage, obviously, for ESPN. Yeah.
But we assume you know everything about everybody because all the college football stuff.

Speaker 5 What do you have going on this week?

Speaker 66 It's such a great assignment. So last year was my first year covering the NFL draft for ESPN.
So the guys go on stage, their names are announced, they shake Roger Goodell's hand.

Speaker 27 Yeah, they dap him, hug him.

Speaker 66 Yeah, they jump into his arms.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, hell thanks.

Speaker 66 And it's like the best moment of their lives, their whole career has come up to this moment. And I'm standing there ready to interview them.

Speaker 66 And it's like the most electric interview that you could ever do. And so it's such a cool moment to be a part of.
I did that for ESPN, doing it again this year.

Speaker 66 So it's an honor to be a part of such a special moment. And I know these players so well.
You know, I know their families and their moms and their girlfriends. I know, you know, certain things.

Speaker 66 A big part of me being here this week is meeting with GMs. I'm just kind of networking.
And I have a lot of great conversations with you.

Speaker 66 I'm trying to get their information for coverage leading up to that moment, for coverage leading up to the draft, to do reports for our crew.

Speaker 66 And it's kind of a give and take relationship with GMs where it's like, hey, I can tell that this locker room doesn't love this guy.

Speaker 22 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 66 I can tell that his teammates really love him. I can tell that this guy's really tough.
Hey, coaches say he doesn't watch a lot of film.

Speaker 66 So in being like with these players week in and week out with College of the Committee.

Speaker 4 Collie's become an insider.

Speaker 3 I'm a little bit of an insider.

Speaker 66 But it's like off-the-record conversations with GMs. And so it's like a little bit of give and take.

Speaker 9 Don't go to Starbucks.

Speaker 5 Insiders are brawling at it.

Speaker 66 I saw Ian Rappaport at a coffee shop a couple hours back, right before he came here.

Speaker 24 That was not a Starbucks.

Speaker 24 It was not a Starbucks.

Speaker 66 It was at the Westin, and I wanted to ask him if he felt safe.

Speaker 2 You know, but he looked safe.

Speaker 5 Oh, what if you would have walked up to him and been like,

Speaker 2 I got something to say to you?

Speaker 5 That would have been amazing. Well, I appreciate your professionalism and your due diligence that you're doing.
You feel like you know the college players very well. How versed were you with the NFL?

Speaker 5 How versed were you with the NFL and everything like that as you you dove in last year? And how do you feel now?

Speaker 66 I think that last year I was a fan of the NFL and then when I got this assignment, I was like, all right, I need to get up to speed on team needs, GMs, coaching changes, like what these teams are looking for in the draft.

Speaker 66 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 66 And now, with a second year under my belt, I feel so much more well-prepared because I approach the college football season completely differently.

Speaker 66 Every week as I'm like requesting players and talking to guys on the phone, I'm talking to all the draft prospects that these teams have.

Speaker 66 And then I'm at the games, and you look, you go to college football games, they're GMs all over the sidelines.

Speaker 66 That's a time to really pick those guys' brains and to give them that information, you know, and say, like, hey, this guy's legit, and this guy, his teammates don't love him, he's a little full of shit.

Speaker 66 Like those kinds of moments that you can establish a relationship. Paul, you're a weapon.

Speaker 21 Absolutely.

Speaker 5 You are. And the amount of time that you put in and the amount of travel, because where you live

Speaker 2 to everything. It's a crazy decision.

Speaker 45 It is a crazy decision.

Speaker 66 Yeah, I make some terrible decisions

Speaker 5 I truly do before the boys have their questions for you oh I love it I need to ask about good good decision great decision okay since I think last time we really seen you you become full mama oh yeah oh my

Speaker 66 since we last worked together I've created two humans

Speaker 53 yeah congratulations

Speaker 66 and they both speak and walk and talk and it's it's crazy I have a two-year-old and a four-year-old two little boys I don't know if they're watching this but when I like have my makeup done I'm mama TV and then when I'm home, I'm just like mom because I'm a different you.

Speaker 66 You love it.

Speaker 5 So for me,

Speaker 5 it's the greatest. Like watching my wife mom is so cool.

Speaker 22 Yeah.

Speaker 5 And I heard, you know, you, I think we're talking about at the beginning of with your work schedule and being a mom, we want to let you know we think you're a badass and we think it's a good thing, not a bad thing.

Speaker 5 So you need to never even, never even let that cross your mind. You kill it.
And how you're momming from afar, at least, I've never met your kids. Your husband, great dude.

Speaker 5 But like, you're crushing it, Molly. And you should be very, very, very, very proud of yourself.
Now, with that being said, let's turn to the conversation. Mad Mel Kuiper has one for you, Molly.

Speaker 66 Oh, Mad Mel.

Speaker 14 Yeah, Molly, just curious. You know, obviously, you know, this, you haven't been doing this a whole bunch of years.

Speaker 2 I have been doing this for 30 plus years.

Speaker 14 So if you need any tricks of the trade, be happy to share those with you. Have you noticed when you're trying to get this information, have you been going to the restaurants? Everyone says, like, hey,

Speaker 14 nothing is figured out or no one, no information has passed unless these GMs and coaches have a couple booze cocktails in them

Speaker 14 laid at St. Elmos.
So have you been doing kind of that aspect of it or have you been over at the convention center kind of bebopping around trying to get information that way?

Speaker 40 It's a little bit of both. I don't know if you can tell.

Speaker 66 I'm exhausted because I was up until like 2 a.m. last night.

Speaker 1 That's in Indianapolis.

Speaker 66 Closing down the bar. But that's where those relationships are established.
You're having a drink and you're just getting to know people as...

Speaker 66 parents, you know, and as professionals and those kinds of things. So I'm exhausted.
It's been already a long week and we're, I don't know, like not even halfway through it.

Speaker 66 So it's a part of that and then it's going through the convention center, grabbing people, going up to them, saying, hey, I coverage college football. I know these guys intimately.

Speaker 66 If you need to know anything, like feel free to reach out to me. It can be a mutually beneficial relationship.

Speaker 5 So we're literally watching you blossom your NFL career right now. Like this is happening.

Speaker 66 It's a great segue. And you know what? Like I covered a college, or I mean an NFL game, one of the Monday night football games earlier this season, the Cardinals Chargers game.

Speaker 66 And it's amazing how many players remember you from their college careers and they feel like a bit of sentimentality with it where they're like, hey, you covered me in college. How are you?

Speaker 66 I remember you. And so you kind of already know all of these athletes so well.
So it's really cool. It's a great segue into covering the NFL.

Speaker 66 I think that's something I want to do eventually in my career. I love college football, especially with the playoff.
Like there's no better assignment.

Speaker 66 assignment in the world than covering college football for ESPN right now. But eventually I want to start to work more in the NFL because I know these guys so well.

Speaker 5 We'll dive into college ball at the end of this because what an electrifying season. Yeah.
Legit.

Speaker 66 So much fun.

Speaker 5 So many top five matchups throughout the year with the realignment and the players and more teams going in there.

Speaker 5 Herb Street, whenever he got the Thursday night job, obviously he's one of the faces of college ball, if not the face of college ball over the last three decades.

Speaker 5 He thought that maybe, you know, they wouldn't take him as serious enough because he's a college guy. And I and everybody else that played in the NFL were like, Herbie,

Speaker 5 we watch game day every Saturday in every single building. We all know you from college football, we're all in there.

Speaker 5 So, I think there's even more of a respect for the people that covered college get into the NFL. And I think Herbie didn't believe that at the beginning, I think you should think the same thing.

Speaker 5 Like, a lot of respect for everything you've done, because you've been there since they were like kids to becoming men, you know, and you've told their stories, you've helped a lot of people.

Speaker 5 And Herbie did the same thing. It's like, I think the players actually have more of a trust and you said a sentimental value with you than maybe others.
I think it's a great transition into the NFL.

Speaker 66 Yeah, and the coaches and the players are all fans of football, so they all watch a ton of college football.

Speaker 66 So, when I came to the combine last year, the first person I see as I walk into the convention center is Andy Reid. And he points to me and goes, no, you cannot leave college football.

Speaker 2 And I was like, don't worry, coach, I'm not leaving, but thank you.

Speaker 66 And he's like, I'm a big fan of your work. And I'm like, I'm a big fan of your work.

Speaker 26 That's awesome.

Speaker 66 Yeah, it was one of those cool moments where I was like, how the heck does Andy Reid know who I am? Molly.

Speaker 10 That was sick.

Speaker 9 Molly, Bengali. That was a cool moment.

Speaker 5 Every year for like the last, I don't want to do that whole thing.

Speaker 66 Since I was with you. Bingo.

Speaker 66 You launched my career, those Thursday nights. Thursday night Remys.
The Remys.

Speaker 66 Yeah, we grew through that.

Speaker 5 Adam Amin, Matt Hasselbeck, myself, Molly McGrath.

Speaker 66 We had a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 It was. They were a lot of fun.
They were. They were.

Speaker 32 When the lights go out, was that Tulane or Memphis?

Speaker 5 When the lights...

Speaker 2 The power went out.

Speaker 25 East Carolina.

Speaker 4 East Carolina. And East Carolina.

Speaker 9 Yeah, that's what it is right there.

Speaker 5 Yeah. And they had a gymnast, like a cheerleader gymnast when the lights were out that was doing 100 yards worth of back handsprings and backflips.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, I remember.

Speaker 5 And we're like talking in the booth, like trying to kill time. And I'm like, I don't have enough say at this point, but we need to be showing that dude.

Speaker 51 This is good television.

Speaker 5 That dude down there in pitch black while lights are coming back on. He might have just done a thousand backflips, but I feel like I learned a lot that season.

Speaker 5 And you were ready to be the star way before we got there on that Thursday night. I'm excited you've gotten all the recognition you deserve.
Connor has a question for you.

Speaker 13 So you saw a rap sheet this morning. He was, you know, probably pouting a little down.
Have you been able to talk to like Schefter about kind of the insider game?

Speaker 13 And have you you also just been on your phone for like 20 hours a day to practice kind of how much you have to actually do that?

Speaker 66 You got to get the screen time.

Speaker 2 Exactly.

Speaker 16 Yeah, yeah. You wing her on, all those types of things.

Speaker 66 So I'm not trying to be an insider where I'm trying to break news. I'm more trying to be an insider for context because I want these coaches and GMs to trust me inherently.

Speaker 66 And that's a part of covering game broadcasts, right?

Speaker 66 Like coaches tell me stuff every week that's off the record that would be breaking news if I were to tweet it out, but I want them to know that they can trust me.

Speaker 5 Journalism.

Speaker 66 Yeah, capital J journalism. So these are the kinds of conversations I'm having this week where I'm being told things that are off the record that would be breaking news, but I'm not revealing it.

Speaker 66 I know it for context. I know it for how to approach my conversations with players, with other GMs, and what the teams are looking for.

Speaker 66 And then there's a lot of stuff that I'll like embargo until draft day.

Speaker 26 Hey, are you cool if

Speaker 66 I don't use any of this until our draft coverage begins and then I can reveal what you're really starting to look for? And some of them say yes, some of them say no.

Speaker 66 But it's establishing the trust. I just want them to trust me and know that I'm not going to spill their secrets or tweet anything out.

Speaker 66 I think that's the biggest value that I can bring is just to be trusted.

Speaker 5 That's not just a big J, that's also big earnelism as well.

Speaker 9 That's right.

Speaker 2 That's Big Sarity.

Speaker 5 And refresh my memory here, and boys, you might remember. remember this.
Didn't she start like sports media school at Boston College?

Speaker 66 I did not start the sports media school. Yeah, you did.

Speaker 28 Basically, you did something.

Speaker 2 I started a role.

Speaker 66 I started a sports reporter role.

Speaker 66 I was the cheerleading captain, so I was sassy as hell and went into the athletic director's office.

Speaker 5 So, what does that mean? Sassy as hell.

Speaker 21 No, I want to.

Speaker 66 No, well, I just, I knew what I wanted to do in my career.

Speaker 66 Like, I went to the athletic director, I went into his office, Gene DiFilippo, at the time, and I said, hey, these are my goals, and this is how I need you to help me get there.

Speaker 66 And I'm going to create a student reporter position, and I just want your, like, you to sign off on it. I'll do all the extra work.
And I had people help me get there, right?

Speaker 66 None of us got to where we are without help from other people and support. So he supported that, and I created that role, and I think it exists to this day, which is so cool.

Speaker 2 Hell yeah, that is cool.

Speaker 5 And also, it takes a lot of,

Speaker 5 you know, courage, confidence, intelligence, foresight to go and create that role. And then for the execution part of it, you've crushed it.

Speaker 5 Now, speaking of college football, Andy Reed never wants you to leave. Tongue Diggs has a question for you.

Speaker 34 Yeah, I do.

Speaker 32 So we always talk to Shefty, and I'm wondering about the difference between the sideline and then this kind of the draft role. We talk about with Shefty, like

Speaker 32 how transactional all his relationships have to be with all of his sources and all these GMs and coaches and stuff like that.

Speaker 32 What is the biggest difference between those relationships? And then when you're talking to the college coaches, gathering information for the game, is that more of a relaxed situation?

Speaker 66 I think they're similar. Yeah.
I think it's all about people that you're working with liking you, trusting you, rooting for you, trusting you with certain information.

Speaker 66 With the draft, it's obviously a little more sensitive

Speaker 66 because with these picks, there's money on the line and jobs on the line. So you want to be really sensitive.
And with that,

Speaker 66 like I go into conversations with GMs and I say, hey, this whole conversation can be off the record if you want.

Speaker 66 But with the coach, you don't start a conversation with a coach going into a production meeting saying, Hey, this is all off the record.

Speaker 66 Usually, it's all on the record unless they say, Hey, don't say this.

Speaker 66 You know, so it's a little stricter and a little tighter, I think, with the NFL, and you don't want to like piss people off because you want to keep those relationships.

Speaker 66 In college football, it's a little more fair game unless you're instructed specifically not to say something.

Speaker 5 Let's talk about college ball this past year: 12-team playoff.

Speaker 10 It was started with 12.

Speaker 2 County crown a CFP national

Speaker 3 champion.

Speaker 66 I didn't sing long, but yeah, it was awesome.

Speaker 5 Why didn't you pay attention to the song?

Speaker 2 Do we have?

Speaker 21 I don't know if we have it.

Speaker 2 I deleted that one. Oh, tree! What the hell, man? That's it all.
You keep that

Speaker 5 more schools, get a shot.

Speaker 52 Shot to shine.

Speaker 2 It's a more games and a lot more fun.

Speaker 52 Starting with 12, count down to one.

Speaker 35 That's how we

Speaker 2 crown a CFP national champion.

Speaker 37 That's how we crown a CFP national

Speaker 2 champion.

Speaker 70 Good job.

Speaker 2 We didn't create that. We didn't create that.
No, if only.

Speaker 2 God did.

Speaker 5 Sounded like AI, maybe health, but I think there were some people

Speaker 5 in Nashville. 12-team playoff.
Obviously, you've been covering college ball for a long time. Your thoughts on what it added to it?

Speaker 66 It was incredible. The 12-team playoff was so much fun.

Speaker 41 Blowouts.

Speaker 5 I still thought it was awesome.

Speaker 2 Okay,

Speaker 66 like some blowouts round one, but then the quarterfinals and

Speaker 66 the semifinal games were

Speaker 2 electric.

Speaker 66 You know,

Speaker 66 it was so much fun. It was a grind.
It was a grind to cover every round. And you know, when you're on site for these games, like for college football, we get there.
You're there for almost a week.

Speaker 66 So I just wasn't home for like a month and a half.

Speaker 66 But, you know, there are other people taking care of my children. My husband is, he's fully capable.
I am a mother, but it was fantastic because the games were awesome.

Speaker 66 and it was so unique because I covered Notre Dame from the first round all the way to the national championship game.

Speaker 66 And when else do you get a team four games in a row and you get to follow them through the course and through a run like that and get to know the coaches, the players intimately?

Speaker 66 I basically knew every player on that team really well. I'd interviewed all of them at some point.
So it was really cool to be able to experience that.

Speaker 40 Yeah, we agree.

Speaker 5 Like, we got a chance, obviously, with our simulcast field pass operation to be there for all the games, except for one we didn't

Speaker 5 we had all Ohio State's games it was Boise Penn State yeah we had festival but you're right each week it was yeah we did Ohio State we were right we do you guys sorry we were right in the middle we were right in the middle of all of it and the reason why you're gonna do so great at the NFL and why you do so great at college is because you do spend a week at all these places yeah we fly in there day before yeah we no we're going to practice I'm not doing games yeah we're not doing games uh we do the field pass but we in the booth and on the main broadcast, what was the numbers that were coming in for some of those games?

Speaker 5 28. 20 plus million, I think.
Just so many games. And I think viewer, I don't want to say fatigue, but maybe viewers being new to the flow of college football in the playoffs.

Speaker 66 And how late the games were going into January.

Speaker 5 Bengal, yeah. So I think there's still some things that can get worked out, but man, we loved it.
And it was electrifying.

Speaker 66 And those games felt larger than life, especially on campus. The on-campus games were my, that was my favorite.

Speaker 2 Cold.

Speaker 66 Cold, cold freezing cold at Notre Dame. But that was so cool to be a part of something like that.

Speaker 18 Agreed.

Speaker 5 And the people, that's college football. The pageantry, tradition, and environments are a massive piece of the product, I think.
Yeah. Like, obviously, the football is being played on the field.

Speaker 5 The football does matter. And if you're good, it's going to be better.
But the environments are what make college football college football. Yeah.
So them showcasing that, I think, was a big deal.

Speaker 5 Boy, it was cold, though. It was snowy.
We were pitching hard.

Speaker 66 Don't be soft. It's fine.

Speaker 26 No, it was.

Speaker 5 Were you at Iowa State, Tennessee?

Speaker 66 Well, I was at Notre Dame, and it was

Speaker 66 single-ditched.

Speaker 2 It was pretty cold, but I had an electric jacket on. Oh, you have to, like, get with the program.

Speaker 52 Yeah, I know.

Speaker 66 This is sideline reporter info. I had an electric vest.
I had electric gloves. Because you're holding a mic.
Your hand gets cold.

Speaker 2 Pat didn't have gloves at all. I didn't have gloves or a head.

Speaker 66 No, he's a tough guy. He doesn't wear sleeves either.

Speaker 5 Sure. We're in the stadium.

Speaker 29 Lucas Williams.

Speaker 43 It's nice to have that.

Speaker 5 It is a beautiful time. And also, spring is cracking, seemingly, here in Indianapolis.
You tell Punks at Tawny Phil to eat shit. Sure.

Speaker 5 You didn't think that was coming.

Speaker 10 It's the coldest winter we've had.

Speaker 5 Coldest. We're talking about how far you travel.
You live in Washington.

Speaker 54 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 12 I do.

Speaker 66 I live in Seattle. I'm crossing time zones every like three days.

Speaker 50 Yeah, what?

Speaker 2 It's wild.

Speaker 66 Very wild. Yeah,

Speaker 66 that's been tough. I think the time change is the toughest part because sometimes I'll have 7 a.m.
Eastern meetings. So I'm waking up at 4 and I'm on Zooms just like trying to keep my life together.

Speaker 5 Well, you're doing a great job.

Speaker 66 Yeah, it's fine.

Speaker 2 We're dealing with it.

Speaker 66 There might be a move in my future with my family, but it's not.

Speaker 5 Just as a human that

Speaker 5 not as much as you, but travels and works a good bit, convenience in and out of these places is

Speaker 9 the name of the game.

Speaker 5 That is you traveling back to Washington every single week is just absurd to think about, but there's only one person that can pull it off, and that's the person that walks into Boston College, says, we need this to happen, change everything, and then change the course of football coverage and your life.

Speaker 5 Molly, you've absolutely crushed it. We appreciate you so much, and thank you for stopping by.
Good luck with the draft coverage.

Speaker 59 Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 66 So good to see you guys. So good to see you in person.

Speaker 2 Dude, yeah.

Speaker 5 I mean, only on TV and on the internet throughout this entirety.

Speaker 66 That's our lives. It's fine.

Speaker 5 All right. That is our lives.

Speaker 2 Love you guys.

Speaker 5 And if you watch ESPN draft coverage, you'll be on it.

Speaker 66 Yep, I'll be on the ESPN draft coverage. I need to find, like, if anyone wants to sponsor me, I need to find like a sick little like chinchilla coat, like a fur coat.

Speaker 26 We're going to be in Green Bay.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 26 It was cold in Detroit last year.

Speaker 66 It's going to be cold. I was wearing like extra layers.

Speaker 2 It's going to be cold.

Speaker 66 You have to embrace the place, right? So I have to have some.

Speaker 5 Put a cheese head on.

Speaker 5 Put a cheese head on the head.

Speaker 22 Yeah, that'll be a good idea.

Speaker 25 Like, what's his name? Overalls?

Speaker 2 Aren't there a lot of overalls out there?

Speaker 24 American gangster?

Speaker 24 Yeah.

Speaker 9 Yeah, a lot of Gangsta. Frank Lugas.

Speaker 32 You can get the Frank Lucas coat from America. And the hat.

Speaker 9 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Look into it.

Speaker 66 That's one way to, like, be trending on the internet. That or getting a fight in a Starbucks.
So it's like, I'd rather be all.

Speaker 26 there.

Speaker 6 Absolutely.

Speaker 5 Ladies and gentlemen, surviving the fight is Ian Rappaport. Good to see him walking by here.

Speaker 5 Licking his wounds. All right, so you're going to be in the lead up to the NFL draft coverage as well on ESPN.

Speaker 5 Where will we see you talking about what you're learning here today and everything like that?

Speaker 66 I have no idea. I'll be on ESPN.
They'll send me out before the draft, and maybe I'll do some stuff ahead of that. Some pro days, things like that.

Speaker 66 I'm also doing college basketball coverage right now. Really? I was just in Birmingham.
Alabama? Alabama, Tuscaloosa. Sorry, I flew out of Birmingham.

Speaker 51 I know, there's a couple. I think think there's a couple.

Speaker 2 I was in England.

Speaker 2 That's one.

Speaker 7 That's the only one I can think of.

Speaker 24 Yeah, I just got back from Europe.

Speaker 2 I just came back from Europe.

Speaker 66 I was in Tuscaloosa on Tuesday night, came here.

Speaker 66 And now I'm going to Knoxville for Alabama at Tennessee on Saturday. That's a really big one.
So with my travel schedule, I just don't go home.

Speaker 40 No, we'll keep your eyes.

Speaker 5 It's fine. It is admirable and it is awesome.
You're getting to the top, Molly. You're already there.
You're the best. Ladies and gentlemen, Molly McGrath.

Speaker 66 you guys are the best thank you molly thank you

Speaker 13 what other birmingham popped in your head there i i just know there's more than one see yep you know what i mean

Speaker 2 i guess but like birmingham college basketball birmingham new york hey watching her operate

Speaker 5 she a dog that thursday night football thing was crazy

Speaker 5 because

Speaker 5 you know she's telling stories for different college football shows that are happening and interviews and sit down and do that. But then on the game,

Speaker 5 she's not only like doing the drops before halftime and at the beginning of the game, which I think a lot of people just expect, she's working. Constant movement.
Constantly working everything.

Speaker 5 And she knows every storyline for every player. And if anything happens, she drops like reminders.
Hey, remember, blah, blah, blah. Like, she's like a producer while also it's

Speaker 10 Molly's a beast. Dog.

Speaker 5 Molly's an absolute beast. The NFL is calling, though.
Oh, yes. Andy Reid going, don't.
Oh, no. Sorry.
Don't you?

Speaker 20 Not now.

Speaker 5 We need you in college ball. It's like, like, certainly, we do, but she is a G.
Molly's an absolute G. Speaking of, I believe Indianapolis, Indiana has brought some things

Speaker 10 through for us.

Speaker 5 And this might be the Visit Indy people. Yeah, I believe that's Chris Gall of Visit Indy.
Don't know this guy's name, but I should.

Speaker 21 Hey, how you doing?

Speaker 3 How you doing, man?

Speaker 52 Hey, I'm back. Whoa.

Speaker 53 Wow.

Speaker 3 Cocktail, you got him.

Speaker 2 You're kidding me, man.

Speaker 4 Chris, thank you.

Speaker 5 Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 5 Do you want to sit down and put a headset on? Thank you so much.

Speaker 30 Thank you so much.

Speaker 49 Sure,

Speaker 5 please, India would be great.

Speaker 5 What we got here? We got some steak sliders here.

Speaker 24 We got the filet sliders.

Speaker 70 You'll find those at Harring Dizzy's San Omo Steakhouse. This famous, iconic San Omo shrimp cocktail.

Speaker 47 You're not going to cry when you have it, are you? I'm not going to breathe.

Speaker 5 I'm not going to breathe. Listen, I've been around the game.
Whenever you eat this, you can't breathe. When you breathe while eating it, it shoots up into the nose and it's game set match.

Speaker 5 But the flavor is something you can't get anywhere else, which is why people come. They love it.

Speaker 70 Yeah, and it's been synonymous with Indianapolis. Just like the NFL Combine, we're glad to have it here in Indianapolis for another year since 1987.
So we're glad to have all the NFL folks here.

Speaker 5 We appreciate the hell out of you, man.

Speaker 8 All right, Chris, let's get you to ground.

Speaker 5 Thank you so much. Great service.
Thank you.

Speaker 2 Thank you. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Speaker 47 Yeah.

Speaker 5 Thank you so much. Yeah, no problem.

Speaker 47 Yeah, no problem.

Speaker 5 That was a good serve. That was a good service.

Speaker 5 Okay, so that guy owns St. Homos, obviously.

Speaker 30 He owns St. Homos, yep.

Speaker 5 Chris, we should have known that. I felt like a a big-time asshole.
I say, here comes Chris from Visit Indy, and guy I should definitely know, but I don't.

Speaker 9 He owns St. Elmos.

Speaker 2 He owns St. Elmos.

Speaker 5 Hey, sir, thank you. I didn't know who the hell you were when you came up here.
Thank you so much for what you've done for Indianapolis, man.

Speaker 24 Thanks, Alvin.

Speaker 2 Thank you.

Speaker 21 Thank you, Chris.

Speaker 68 Is there a more iconic restaurant?

Speaker 5 I don't think there isn't a more iconic restaurant synonymous with a city. Anytime anybody comes to Indianapolis, Mad Mel's already crying.
Yeah, hot, but zoom in on those eyes. Get those eyes.

Speaker 14 Well, that's the thing. You got to dive right in.

Speaker 32 Once it gets in the nostrils.

Speaker 14 You got to dive right in.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 8 Go back for some more.

Speaker 22 Go ahead.

Speaker 31 So good.

Speaker 22 Not like you're pumping goodbye, huh?

Speaker 5 You can't breathe while you're eating it.

Speaker 5 You guys are making massive mistakes, I feel like.

Speaker 2 Oh, no.

Speaker 61 I think it's like 24 pounds of shrimp cocktail sauce they serve up annually.

Speaker 26 Geez, Louis.

Speaker 2 Annually or? Or weekly?

Speaker 22 Weekly, excuse me, weekly.

Speaker 2 Yeah, weekly, weekly.

Speaker 5 Annually be a lot. 52 tons eating one right now.
He's having a moment right now with a shrimp cocktail.

Speaker 33 Part of the experience. Love it.

Speaker 5 Clears you out. Madmel's trying.
Connor, I don't know if he has

Speaker 17 any feeling.

Speaker 3 It is so good.

Speaker 52 I got you.

Speaker 2 I love this shit.

Speaker 5 All right, Chris, let's talk a little bit.

Speaker 10 You're,

Speaker 5 I don't know, official title, head of Visit Indy.

Speaker 61 Executive Vice President.

Speaker 5 Okay, Visit Indy. We appreciate what you're doing with Indianapolis.
You look very, very cool. Thank you.
Thank you for this. This is a part of the Visit Indy.
Obviously.

Speaker 5 We thought it looked good on your desk. It does.
It looks amazing.

Speaker 5 And obviously, people walk in, they're the eye in Indy, because Indy is such like a collaborative thing and we are such a welcoming city.

Speaker 5 Whenever the Combine comes here, what does it bring to the city each year? And what is the goal? Is the goal to keep the Combine here forever, I would assume?

Speaker 28 It is.

Speaker 31 We had meetings with the league this week.

Speaker 61 The Combine has been here since 87. We have them on the books through 26.

Speaker 61 This week,

Speaker 61 $10 million in economic impact for our city. Okay.
We want to keep them. We believe there's no better city in the nation.

Speaker 61 You've got IU Health expanding, the Convention Center expansion, all under one roof. These prospects seamlessly walk.
The media seamlessly walk.

Speaker 38 Why move this?

Speaker 5 It's not broken. Starbucks gets a little hot sometimes.

Speaker 9 I don't know if you're thinking about this.

Speaker 9 Starbucks, everyone says

Speaker 9 there's a little bit of a.

Speaker 5 I saw that.

Speaker 9 I didn't.

Speaker 47 Yeah.

Speaker 5 It was real, but that's not normal here.

Speaker 2 Confirmed.

Speaker 5 Hospitality is the Hoosier way. We host events and conventions literally weekly.
The city's used to it. The Indy 500 is the biggest sporting event.

Speaker 9 Connor, it got Connor.

Speaker 2 It got Connor. Connor.

Speaker 7 It got Connor.

Speaker 5 He thought he had it. This is the best.

Speaker 2 He thought he got me. He got him.

Speaker 11 It got him.

Speaker 26 It feels good. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 52 It will.

Speaker 53 Oh, man.

Speaker 61 We got you a napkin if you need it.

Speaker 37 No, no, no. It got him.

Speaker 5 That's Indiana looking out. But the Indianapolis 500 is the largest sporting event on earth every single year.
Period. Why do you think this place is built?

Speaker 5 You said a convention, everything like that, but I think it's the people, too.

Speaker 5 I think the people are very, very used to outsiders coming in, taking care, and then saying, hey, we'll see you next year or something like that, don't you?

Speaker 61 We're sometimes an underdog city. We don't mind that.
We like to, you know, achieve higher, higher, higher. It's the people.
People make the place, Pat, the infrastructure.

Speaker 61 We're literally built to host major sporting events and conventions, but it's our people, it's our residents. They're hospitable.
It's part of our DNA.

Speaker 61 And so when that visitor comes, whether it's an international media member, a prospect's family, we welcome them. 2024, busiest year in tourism history in the city of Indianapolis.

Speaker 2 Welcome back.

Speaker 3 Welcome back.

Speaker 5 People won't talk about it

Speaker 5 nationally, but like COVID, whenever the world stops,

Speaker 5 cities that host things really, really took a shot. Like we took a devastating blow from the world stopping, not being able to host and not having all these things.

Speaker 5 So us being all the way back, congratulations to you, your team, and everybody.

Speaker 5 Thank you.

Speaker 61 Thank you. You know, when you have Pacer Sports Entertainment and the Colts, when you have the NCAA headquartered here, there's a lot of trusts.

Speaker 61 And the oldest sports commission in the nation, the Indiana Sports Corps, we just keep picking away at what events we want. By the way, we'd love to have the draft.
We're in conversations.

Speaker 4 Let's have

Speaker 21 that one done.

Speaker 2 Why not? Commission, let's get that one done.

Speaker 61 We'd love to have another college football playoff national championship.

Speaker 61 And with the WNBA All-Star game, bouncing here, could not pick a better year and time in Indianapolis history to have that event.

Speaker 5 Yeah, especially with 22.

Speaker 5 Yeah, yeah, she's pretty good. She's pretty good.
Mad Mel has a question for you, Chris.

Speaker 14 If you were to bring one restaurant to downtown Indianapolis, then we don't have to.

Speaker 16 Because everyone knows, you know, Elmo's is iconic.

Speaker 14 If you don't want to get super dressed up, maybe you go to Harry and Izzy's instead. If you're a scumbag like a couple of the guys we work with, you're going to go over to Hooters.

Speaker 54 Out of Bears.

Speaker 18 Rescue Beast.

Speaker 24 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 14 Rescue Beast.

Speaker 14 But is there one restaurant or attraction, let's say, that you're trying to bring to the downtown area?

Speaker 61 That's a great question.

Speaker 30 You know, we'd love to get,

Speaker 61 there's this technology called Cosm.

Speaker 24 It's like the sphere in Vegas.

Speaker 61 Okay, we've been eyeing that.

Speaker 56 Those are awesome.

Speaker 61 We're a sports-minded city. You could sit and watch these major sporting events.

Speaker 5 And we've got buildings down here that will certainly be able to, that could feasibly

Speaker 42 get that in there.

Speaker 33 Exactly.

Speaker 19 If I had to have a restaurant concept, though, I'd call it Reggie's.

Speaker 61 Reggie Miller, Reggie Wayne's. You'd have a restaurant in downtown Indy called Reggie's.

Speaker 33 They'd cook, they'd serve things up.

Speaker 61 Iconic Reggie across the board. I think that would do well here.

Speaker 5 Yeah, the name Reggie gets chanted at basically any sport that happens here in Indianapolis. Need the Colts to get good again.

Speaker 22 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 37 I hear you.

Speaker 2 I hear you.

Speaker 2 I hear you.

Speaker 5 He's from Boston.

Speaker 21 Well, I also just watched a game.

Speaker 5 Yeah, but he lives here in Indianapolis, loves the city. Yeah,

Speaker 33 well, pay taxes for us to come here. Thank you.

Speaker 2 No problem.

Speaker 9 Go ahead. Are his footballs inflated or deflated?

Speaker 2 Goddamn.

Speaker 2 That was proven.

Speaker 3 Paul, the article.

Speaker 2 That was proven. Bill Knight is a science guy.
He's a model.

Speaker 3 I'm glad to see him doing models.

Speaker 2 He is a model.

Speaker 5 He is. Okay, Chris, what's next for Indianapolis?

Speaker 61 Well, I tell you what, we're expanding the city. We want that WNBA All-Star game to be the best ever.
We want that to catapult us into the future.

Speaker 61 As I mentioned, we're putting about $3 billion in new tourism-related infrastructure downtown, making it bigger and better.

Speaker 61 We want to hold on to the combine, we want to attract the draft, and we really, really want the college football playoff national championship to come back.

Speaker 24 Is there an MLS team coming?

Speaker 61 Not yet. We're in discussions.

Speaker 5 Hey, that's a big deal, right?

Speaker 26 Yeah.

Speaker 61 The mayor of Indianapolis has led those discussions discussions with the idea that we could have an MLS team.

Speaker 61 And it was reported this week the commissioner was here, MLS commissioner, to kick the tires and see the city again.

Speaker 61 So we believe sports is in our nature and our culture, and we could do well with an MLS team.

Speaker 5 Okay, so as the executive vice president of the tourist group. You got it? Visit Indy.
You got it. What are you running for mayor next?

Speaker 5 What is...

Speaker 5 No. You just like helping the city?

Speaker 5 How'd you end up here?

Speaker 61 Hike High School, Butler University. Was in Hawaii for a couple couple years helping Hawaii tourism.

Speaker 2 Tough job there.

Speaker 9 Which island.

Speaker 5 Oahu.

Speaker 2 You're on Oahu.

Speaker 24 Oahu.

Speaker 61 That's where my mom's side has been. And we have family there.

Speaker 5 You're an ooze? I didn't know you were an ooze.

Speaker 12 Yeah, I got

Speaker 61 raised here summers in Hawaii. Raised here, summers in Hawaii.

Speaker 5 Guys, an ooze, obviously.

Speaker 32 That's why you should have spent summers here and maybe winters in Hawaii.

Speaker 2 That's true.

Speaker 33 Football, though.

Speaker 68 Had to go to school and football.

Speaker 61 But Indy's my home.

Speaker 28 Forgot about those things.

Speaker 61 I love being an underdog and competing with other major cities to try to get these events like the Combine and

Speaker 5 proving what we what we've built here so you love repping for the camera love it love it it feels like a lot of people do I got a chance to

Speaker 5 obviously there's visit indie then there's the Indy 500 festival folks yes yes I just learned of the CIB yep I just learned of that they own these facilities they do an incredible job incredible the guy yeah Craig my dude I don't know if he's here or not I think he has oh yeah Craig oh Craig's the man

Speaker 5 helps run this place yes he does make sure it's sparkling sparkling. So the NFL and the NFL network people, obviously fantastic folks,

Speaker 5 forced me to do a site survey, even though we had agreed that we would be able to do our show from here. So I come down and do a site survey, and Craig from Indianapolis is the one showing me around.

Speaker 5 It's not somebody from the NFL. I'm like, Craig,

Speaker 5 who do you work for? That's literally what I said to him because if it was NFL people, I was about to be like, come on. Like, what are we even doing here? We already agreed to be here.

Speaker 5 We're in a stadium. There's enough room for us to set up some seats wherever it is.
Craig's like, I work for the CIB here in Indianapolis, which is the city improvement board or whatever.

Speaker 5 I said, you're an indie guy. He goes, yeah.
I go, is there going to be a spot? Like, why were they acting like there wasn't a spot? He goes, yeah, we got enough room. We got enough room.

Speaker 5 No problem at all. And he was like, we walk up here and he goes, do you want to just use the horseshoe set or whatever? And I'm like, is that available?

Speaker 48 He's like, absolutely.

Speaker 2 And I was like, yes, we would.

Speaker 26 We would like to do this.

Speaker 5 Quickest site survey of all time. And it got much better.
I think we would have been somewhere.

Speaker 68 This is Prime.

Speaker 5 Prime. We are so lucky.
Beautiful stadium, perfect stadium, perfect place, and perfect people, I think, is why I love the state so much.

Speaker 61 Listen, and thank you for all you do.

Speaker 30 You've spent a lot of time in this building

Speaker 61 in the last couple of weeks, months, years. Yes, yes, yes.
And you're an advocate. You're not bashful about being from here.
In fact, some of your colleagues have relocated here.

Speaker 2 All of them, yeah.

Speaker 5 All of them have, which is why he's so happy to pay taxes here.

Speaker 42 And

Speaker 61 we'll take those taxes and make sure that we keep growing the city and restaurants and museums and more sporting events. So

Speaker 61 you're a big indie booster and you carry a lot of influence. And when people hear that Pat loves Indy,

Speaker 20 how could you not, brother?

Speaker 18 Literally, how could you not?

Speaker 5 I'm very lucky to be here.

Speaker 2 And you're raising your family here.

Speaker 5 And my wife's from here. My baby girl was born here.
A lot of our families have started here. A lot of Hoosier babies around our business.

Speaker 20 We can tell them though.

Speaker 5 And we're lucky and thankful for that. Yeah, absolutely.
Well, he's just completely said the opposite there.

Speaker 42 My daughter was born here, but I'll tell her she was born in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 10 Yeah.

Speaker 5 Okay, he's from Pittsburgh. A lot of pride in Pittsburgh, very similar type people, but obviously Indianapolis is fantastic.
And Chris, great work.

Speaker 8 We've appreciated it. Thank you, Pat.

Speaker 33 Thank you. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 61 Guys, enjoy this shrimp cocktail.

Speaker 3 Oh, hell yeah. Great.

Speaker 31 Delicious. Keep doing it, Chris.

Speaker 6 Keep doing it, Chris.

Speaker 24 Thank you for everything, Chris.

Speaker 48 Thank you, man. Palate cleanser there.

Speaker 24 Come on.

Speaker 5 Appreciate you, Chris.

Speaker 19 Yeah, no problem, dude.

Speaker 26 Cock delightful.

Speaker 5 Hey, Chris, the real deal.

Speaker 10 He looks cool.

Speaker 5 He's the one that's doing,

Speaker 5 like, when we're pitching for the Super Bowl, he's the guy that's,

Speaker 5 you know, when we're making pitches for the NCAA, he's the guy that's a part of the.

Speaker 24 On the pavement.

Speaker 5 Yeah, he's the guy.

Speaker 22 He's cool, dude.

Speaker 5 I don't think I've maybe met him one time before at an event because he's like,

Speaker 21 he's on a move.

Speaker 2 I mean, that's Chris LeBall.

Speaker 22 Yeah, bingo.

Speaker 5 Loves the city of Indianapolis.

Speaker 2 Cosm down here?

Speaker 24 Cosm was so cool.

Speaker 14 I don't know how he's going to get it done, but get it done, Chris.

Speaker 32 I don't know if it'd be down here, it'd probably be up north.

Speaker 5 All you would literally need is just big space with a bunch of LED boards, right?

Speaker 24 Correct. I think so.

Speaker 5 You know what it is? Technically, should we try to turn this into a COSM

Speaker 5 before tomorrow?

Speaker 13 Yeah, just relocate the team, use the whole entire thing.

Speaker 10 What's that?

Speaker 31 Put 15 COSMs in this building.

Speaker 5 Oh, you're saying this is the space to do it.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, why not?

Speaker 5 No, there's buildings right down over there that need to be repurposed.

Speaker 31 You can be having a bunch of them.

Speaker 5 All right, hellvid today, boys. A lot of guests.

Speaker 6 A lot of conversations. Oh, that's Conbine.

Speaker 5 That is Kanban. Somebody in a suit over there.
They look very important. How about the owner of St.
Elmo?

Speaker 31 Yeah, what a beast.

Speaker 22 Craig, yeah, you got a little fla sleep.

Speaker 32 Yeah, I wanted to shake his head. I go to his Northside location all the time.

Speaker 5 Yeah, Harry and Izzy's?

Speaker 32 No, 1933.

Speaker 5 Oh, yeah, which is another great army.

Speaker 26 Fantastic.

Speaker 5 All these being available on DoorDash is crazy, too.

Speaker 13 Can't wait to eat one of those.

Speaker 5 One of these? Yeah. Coming at you?

Speaker 5 There's a toothpick in it.

Speaker 22 Yep. Set hut.

Speaker 37 That one's good. Set hut.

Speaker 16 That had some cheese on it.

Speaker 2 Toothpick on both sides. Oh, no.

Speaker 24 Yeah, both sides.

Speaker 14 It's better because my bum fell off.

Speaker 29 Are they exposed? Yeah.

Speaker 5 I don't think I should do that.

Speaker 22 Oh, it's so funny.

Speaker 54 He's just fucking

Speaker 54 awesome.

Speaker 45 That's all we needed, anyways.

Speaker 21 Oh, my God.

Speaker 5 It's a fillet right at the guy. Great catch.

Speaker 22 Great catch.

Speaker 5 How is that fillet?

Speaker 5 St. Elmo's steak we just caught.

Speaker 5 You go to steak places?

Speaker 5 You know, I think the first time I went to a nice steakhouse, grew up on Texas Roadhouse. Sure.
We're going to Texas Roadhouse. That's a big night.

Speaker 2 Don't forget Ponderosa's. Boom.
Ponderosa.

Speaker 5 You're 100% right. Hauses, even, if what we're going to get.

Speaker 22 Yeah, don't forget horses.

Speaker 21 Yeah,

Speaker 5 that's big night out. Okay, we're having a, we're having, we're going to, we're going to Ponder Rosa, Texas Roadhouse.

Speaker 2 That was the triangle.

Speaker 9 That was it.

Speaker 5 Hey, birthday. Where are we headed? Well, Texas Roadhouse all booked up.

Speaker 48 We're going to go to Pawn Rose.

Speaker 5 Paul and Rose is booked up.

Speaker 21 We're going to go to Austin.

Speaker 34 Maybe even the ground round if we're feeling

Speaker 2 spicy.

Speaker 5 So then college at Morgantown, I'm going to go to Cheddars, you know, and there's not really a steak place. So I get in the NFL, my rookie year.

Speaker 5 I get invited to go to a dinner here in Indianapolis at Harry and Izzy's, which is St. Elmo's, like brother-sister restaurant.
I don't know what it is. Same exact ownership, same food.

Speaker 27 Same kitchen.

Speaker 5 Just different vibe. Same exact kitchen.
Yeah, like just next to each other. Connect to it.
It's just a different vibe. It's like a sports bar, a little bit more young.
And then St.

Speaker 5 Elma's is like historic.

Speaker 5 You like walk in there. It's like you're a part of something, you know? And that's why everybody comes to Indianapolis.
Like, do I need to go to St. Elma's?

Speaker 5 It's like, if you've never been, yeah, you definitely have to go. It's an experience.
It's part of the city.

Speaker 5 But also, Harry and Izzy's, same food, a little bit, you know, I think Peyton, part of Harry and Izzy's as well, potentially. So he was the one that was hosting it.

Speaker 5 So we go in there, we walk down this back room, and I'm getting like my first taste of like these

Speaker 2 real steaks.

Speaker 5 and I'm like this place is awesome and then the shrimp cocktail comes out and I've only seen this in movies like oh shrimp cocktail you know like going to a moment here and you get like grocery store ones where it's a plastic dipper in there and you get the little thing so everybody all the rookies that were invited to that thing and it's a reason why we're invited

Speaker 5 looking back on it. The only reason we're invited was to get this and just take a big chunk and just and then everybody just cry their eyes out.
And it's like, it's so good, but it'll get you.

Speaker 21 I mean, it'll get you.

Speaker 5 And you go back again. It's almost like

Speaker 5 like an intoxicating feeling almost like it's like an adrenaline rush and then you eat it again I love crying when I eat it legit that's part of it all right Mad Mel big takeaway as we wrap up this glorious Thursday from the NFL scouting combine presented by Microsoft co-pilot which is Microsoft's AI

Speaker 14 biggest takeaway very excited to see you know what the athletes do out here on the field but I'll be honest, biggest takeaway is I could eat a hundred of those fucking filet sliders.

Speaker 32 Yeah.

Speaker 14 Not even kidding. I I mean, cooked perfection.
Set hot.

Speaker 15 I get it.

Speaker 13 I mean, medium rare. I don't know if it's medium rare.

Speaker 26 It's medium rare.

Speaker 31 Medium, medium plus. Yeah.

Speaker 9 These are fucking delicious.

Speaker 32 And if you just eat them just the fillet, like you could eat a thousand of those and gain a piece.

Speaker 14 What do you think?

Speaker 23 Two out two ounce piece here? Yeah, two ounce.

Speaker 31 Two ounce piece of steak?

Speaker 50 Aim high. Aim high.

Speaker 37 Hut.

Speaker 37 Oh,

Speaker 59 I had it.

Speaker 22 It dropped down and tried to come forward for it.

Speaker 2 At least it didn't hit the ground.

Speaker 50 No, no, I'm saying I couldn't.

Speaker 5 All right, we got to get out of here. We literally have to turn off the lights.

Speaker 10 Oh, because

Speaker 5 the things going on. Remember, the NFL was like, hey, make sure those lights are off by 3 o'clock.
We don't want any scouts getting any lights in our eyes. Sure.

Speaker 5 And I thought they were being dramatic, like everything else with this network over here. And then I got here and I saw a thousand lights, and I'm like, oh,

Speaker 2 exceptionally bright.

Speaker 32 The scout suites are now full. They were not full yesterday.

Speaker 9 They are now all full.

Speaker 5 Fans have also filed in. We're about to have a damn show here on NFL Network and NFL Plus as Rich Eisen and Daniel Jeremiah will officially kick off the on-field exercises of the future of the NFL.

Speaker 5 We'll be back here tomorrow. I think we got a good one tomorrow.

Speaker 48 I think we got a good one tomorrow. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 5 I believe Brandon Bean of the Buffalo Beatles will stop by. Boom.
I believe there's a few others that are going to make their way over here.

Speaker 5 You know, it's an interesting time that we're on because they're in the middle of interviews and medical while practices taking place.

Speaker 5 So anybody that's able to make time to chat with us, we're incredibly grateful for. And also, we'll feel like we'll try to do our due diligence in getting the most out of of it.

Speaker 5 Yeah, yeah, that's right. Because we got a lot of questions for these guys, too.
Tods.

Speaker 12 Not a doubt.

Speaker 5 Mad Mel, are you going to be back tomorrow?

Speaker 5 Have you kept has Ty texted you at all? Do you know?

Speaker 9 I haven't got any text or anything.

Speaker 14 You tell me.

Speaker 32 He only has a landline, so it's tough to get texted.

Speaker 2 That's a good point.

Speaker 5 We'll call you. They didn't bring a pumpkin pie up here.

Speaker 14 Yeah, it was kind of horse shit, but you know, I mean, like I said, those steaks.

Speaker 22 Holy fuck.

Speaker 22 Very good. Yeah.

Speaker 14 You know, I appreciate Mike Foss. I think we got a McAllister's on the way.

Speaker 17 Guess what?

Speaker 16 You're playing second fiddle, pal.

Speaker 14 Okay.

Speaker 46 Thank you, Dan. Thank you, though, Mike.

Speaker 41 Dan Morgan,

Speaker 5 general manager of the Carolina Panthers, right over here.

Speaker 13 Just stacked.

Speaker 5 Just absolutely jacked. Talking to Bucky Brooks, obviously.

Speaker 12 How you doing?

Speaker 5 Hey, how you doing, Dan?

Speaker 5 Great work down there, dude.

Speaker 5 I don't know if you can hear us.

Speaker 26 All right, dude. All right, Dan.

Speaker 9 I'll go fuck myself, Dan.

Speaker 9 What up, big dog? How you doing, man?

Speaker 5 Somebody thinks on this side now, I'm talking to him. What up, dude? I can't see it because of the lights, but what up, dude?

Speaker 34 Can't see that's tough.

Speaker 2 Dapping in for some more.

Speaker 34 Oh, we.

Speaker 5 I can't see it because of the lights. That's all right.
That's all right. I see you're up.
Hey, you got it. Good to see you, man.

Speaker 20 I don't know who it is.

Speaker 5 I can't see anybody.

Speaker 5 Good vibes. Good vibes, though.
Great vibes.

Speaker 21 Great vibes out of you.

Speaker 5 I appreciate that. All right, let's get the hell out of here.
All the boys in the truck, how you work today, boys?

Speaker 52 Today, boys.

Speaker 5 I think today much smoother than yesterday, huh?

Speaker 36 Second day normally is.

Speaker 26 Lights, LED board here. Everything.

Speaker 5 Setup, or easy in. And you talk about Mike Foss with with McAllister's.
Mike Foss let Tyrese Halliburton just sit outside for about 20 minutes earlier.

Speaker 45 Crazy.

Speaker 22 We did.

Speaker 5 Foss, way to go, Bub.

Speaker 24 What's up, baby, Mike?

Speaker 5 All right, let's get the hell out of here. Be your friend, tell a friend something nice.
It might change their life. We're in this thing together.
Never forget it, okay?

Speaker 5 Team on me.

Speaker 5 Team on three. One, two, three.
Team.

Speaker 37 Goodbye.

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