PMS 2.0 1289 - Peyton Manning, Shams Charania, Nick Sirianni, CM Punk, & AJ Hawk

Speaker 1 And welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome, on this Royal Rumble. Feel Good Friday, January 31st, 2025.
This program starts now.

Speaker 1 Football is wonderful, and obviously, the Pro Bowl games will continue on Sunday. And obviously, what started last night is something that everybody's saying is that's good.
Yeah, yeah. Woo!

Speaker 1 That's what we want the Pro Bowl to be. That's how we want to celebrate our greatest players.
That's how we want to celebrate the league, you know, a week out from the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 And everybody that was a part of it, I assume, while they were doing it, was saying, yeah, this is a home run.

Speaker 1 This is what we want to do. Here's the quarterback carnival.
All right. Obviously, it's nice to see guys who have incredible arm talent of the sort.
Joe Burrow, Jared Goff, Sam Darnold want bananas.

Speaker 1 Drake May performed yesterday. Obviously, he makes the Pro Bowl as a rookie.
I think two years ago, they had this thing figured out.

Speaker 1 I like that they continued to think on it and say, how can we change it? How can we change it? How can we change it? Don't think you had to.

Speaker 1 I think you had it figured out a couple years back, but nice to see the quarterbacks do their thing. The wide receiver catching thing, certainly, let's go back to the drawing board.

Speaker 1 Relay race is going to be what it's going to be. The spike zone thing, okay.
We're doing carnival stuff, trying to figure it out. And then the dodgeball was awesome.
It had a chance.

Speaker 1 It's Pro Ball games. Yeah.

Speaker 1 All hands, yeah. Yeah, and I think I don't know how much people know about what they're getting into whenever they sign up.

Speaker 1 Who knows if Justin Jefferson had to put those Hulk, if he knew he had to put those Hulk hands on until he got there about four minutes, five minutes before he had to do this.

Speaker 1 And then, you know, a diving catch is obviously beautiful, and Justin Jefferson might go down his greatest wide receiver of all time. We have no idea.

Speaker 1 Literally, when it's all said and done, there's a chance he goes down. So I appreciate him giving effort, and

Speaker 1 I appreciate this being on TV to celebrate all the great players. And thanks for the effort.
With that being said, we'll be joined by Peyton Manning in 13 minutes.

Speaker 1 Okay, we'll get his thoughts on what was supposed to happen, how it was supposed to go, what was potentially going to take place, what was the idea.

Speaker 1 This thing, I think we can continue to go back to the drawing board. The toxic tables here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt.

Speaker 1 Maybe you should just wear those helmets and get out there on the field and protect each other. Con man, you look awesome as a Pittsburgh Steeler player.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I know. I meant to cover that up right before the entire show.
But also, I mean, yeah, Pro Bowl games. We might be able to wear these during the season, brother.

Speaker 1 There's leather hits.

Speaker 2 Look at those things go.

Speaker 1 You know, I mean,

Speaker 1 they do not budge.

Speaker 1 They don't.

Speaker 2 It's incredible. But yeah, the Pro Bowl games were something.
I think if they called it maybe like the big stinking spike or kind of made it even more zany, it would have been better.

Speaker 2 But at the same time, you know, it's nice to see the best players compete.

Speaker 1 I believe Quentin Williams was. What were you guys doing? What were you guys just so back in the day? Hey, welcome to 1960, brother.

Speaker 1 that's what they used to do man yeah i mean

Speaker 1 trying to honor the games of the past could you imagine what the pro bowl games will look like in 1960 oh i bet beers and sigs everywhere yeah maybe we do that

Speaker 1 maybe maybe maybe that's what saves it uh I appreciate you guys doing that.

Speaker 1 I had no idea that was coming

Speaker 2 until it was 3-2-1 on the countdown.

Speaker 1 Oh, you guys were really feeling it. We said we were about to do it right before the show.
You got to smash some helmets a little bit. Like, Let's wait.
Let's wait until it starts.

Speaker 1 Let's wait until it starts. I mean, you guys are really getting after it.

Speaker 1 That was more intensity than what we saw last night's Pro Bowl. Without a doubt.
Oh, yeah. And that's part of the problem.
Yeah. You know, the issue here is,

Speaker 1 all right, I'm not even going to get it. Well, I will say.

Speaker 1 I will say. Because I can't just say the issue.
I think there's a lot of things that need to go into play here. I think the NFL was trying to save the Pro Bowl.

Speaker 1 Remember, the football game that we thought was terrible, whenever they were just hugging each other and it was 30%, maybe 15% effort, and everybody's saying this is a mockery of the game.

Speaker 1 I think we look back on those times and say maybe it wasn't that bad. You know, whenever we're watching some of the stuff from last night.
So I think they're trying to be creative.

Speaker 1 They're trying to create, you know, a celebration of the greatest players. They're trying to save this thing that has been a part of NFL history.

Speaker 1 I think some of it's just a little bit too Mickey Mas, no offense.

Speaker 1 But I think inevitably they'll fall in something that's maybe worth watching, I think, at some point.

Speaker 3 I think so too. And last night we found at least one thing that damn near saved the night.
The relay race was incredible. It was incredible.
I mean like that's why we turn on our TVs.

Speaker 1 I mean look at this.

Speaker 3 Look at this. You got two brothers leaving everything they got out there, you know, trying to win for their respective conference.
Handoffs, you know, the hand. I mean, it just, it was great.

Speaker 1 It was great.

Speaker 3 I'm getting to the point where it's like, hey, you're starting to lose me a little bit. But then, you know, we got some, we got some fumbles here.
We got, you know, you don't know who's going to win.

Speaker 3 Is it going to be AFC? Is it going to be NFC?

Speaker 3 Some of the, you know, who they decided to actually race each other, a little bit suspect. You know, it's like, okay, well, we're kind of stacking the box here.

Speaker 3 But, you know, I mean, this is the type of innovation that I'm looking for in the Pro Bowl games because we didn't have this last year. I believe this is a new event.

Speaker 1 Kyle Van Noy drops

Speaker 1 the handoff. A lot of fumbles.
A lot of fumbles, not a lot of practice, I assume, which is a whole nother thing.

Speaker 1 Like, how long are people there practicing, trying to learn what the hell they're doing? How many people know what's supposed to happen? Right.

Speaker 1 You know, because I guess while you're watching, there was a couple moments where it felt like nobody had a clue what was going on or what was happening next.

Speaker 1 Got a lot of money invested in this, a lot of brains, a lot of very talented football players here, a lot of great representation of the league possible. And

Speaker 1 yeah, we hope it all works out. Jonathan Taylor and Jameer Gibbs down at the end.
Oh,

Speaker 2 it's going to be a good finish, too.

Speaker 1 It was going to be a good finish. That was going to be a good relay race.
Anyways, flag football, the game, is on Sunday. That'll be the real pinnacle of the entire Pro Bowl games weekend.

Speaker 1 Eli Manning and the NFC are currently in the lead, I believe, over Peyton Manning and the AFC team. We'll see how Peyton feels about that this morning.

Speaker 1 You know, he's got half the points of Eli's got, and, you know, everything seemingly was going the NFC's way. Maybe on Sunday it changes.

Speaker 1 Now, with that being said, we don't have one half of the Hammer

Speaker 1 Cowboys AP Tone because he's at home being a dad. Hey, Sienna, he's in peace.
Get better. All your uncle's here.
And shout out to Dad Tone right now taking care of his daughter as wife is out of town.

Speaker 1 We appreciate him doing that. So instead, we got a backroom guy guy from Hammer.
God.

Speaker 1 Bruce. Brad.

Speaker 1 Bruce, you watched Pro Bowl games last night. Obviously got you zekeed up, geeked up.
And how pumped are you for this weekend?

Speaker 1 Not only the flag football, but the Royal Rumble here in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Speaker 4 I am fired up for both of those. The Rumble, especially, I'm pumped for Roman Reigns to, you know, remind everybody.

Speaker 1 Oh, you really?

Speaker 1 You think everybody's going to be acknowledging Roman Reigns? Yeah,

Speaker 4 I might leave if he gets eliminated, to be completely honest with you. I don't want any of the nonsense.
I just want Roman Reigns, maybe maybe one spear, two spears.

Speaker 1 Vlad,

Speaker 1 Superman Punch, right? What? Yeah.

Speaker 4 Superman punched John Cena into, you know, the whole thing.

Speaker 1 Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Speaker 1 Whoa, whoa, whoa. His last time is now.
Yeah. Yeah.
Your time is up. His last time is now.
Yeah. And people forget that.
We do have a pretty big announcement to make.

Speaker 1 Peyton Manning, obviously, joining us in about eight minutes. Excited to get his thoughts.

Speaker 1 On Pro Bowl games as a whole. Because back as the real Pro Bowl, back in White, like Peyton was like the the king of it.
He was like the mayor of it. He took a lot of pride in it, obviously.

Speaker 1 His family grew up in the NFL. So celebrating the greats, which is what the Pro Bowl is supposed to be about, those who actually carry the league, all the merch, all the eyes, all the needle move.

Speaker 1 That's what the Pro Bowlers are. That's what it always has been.
That's kind of the story. Peyton Banning took a lot of pride in that.

Speaker 1 So I think he has felt very invested in this iteration of trying to save it. We'll be excited to see his thoughts on how last night went.

Speaker 1 In the second hour, we'll have Sean Shirania joining us because I guess there's some basketball news. Oh, here.
There's some things happening with the Sacramento Kings.

Speaker 2 Yeah, DeAren Fox. He's one of the best point guards in the league.
He's on the move and allegedly wants to be traded to San Antonio. Team up with Wemby.
And then Jimmy Butler, that saga continues.

Speaker 2 He's been suspended indefinitely, I believe. So who knows what happens with him? But De'Aaron Fox kind of knew breaking news this week.

Speaker 1 February 6th is the trade deadline. We'll talk to Shams.
Obviously, if we're talking about on-court action, we'll only be talking about the Pacers.

Speaker 1 Who had the best record in January in the entire NBA? Take deal. That good.
You tell me, I don't know.

Speaker 1 Tyrese Halliburton is the star that was promised for the NBA, and Spicy P has made the all-star after we traded for him last year. He's been a great addition for the Indiana Pacers.

Speaker 1 We'll talk about them.

Speaker 1 Then we have Coach Nick Siriani joining us at 1.30 Eastern Time, the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, a man who's been through a lot of rough waters, turbulent waters, with how people talk about his tenure as the Philadelphia Eagles head coach.

Speaker 1 As recently as like week 13 of this year, week 14 of this year, people are saying that this guy ain't the guy to be leading the Philadelphia Eagles.

Speaker 1 Then whenever he wins, you got people saying, what does he actually do? The head coach of an NFL team is somehow in a position of never receiving any good praise or credit from some people.

Speaker 1 Not everybody, but some people. Excited to see how he has kind of shaped all that in his mind.
And then also do his players who are one and a half point dogs.

Speaker 1 And I think a lot of America's pulling for them to knock off the Chiefs. So, how do you feel as almost not being an honor?

Speaker 1 You are an underdog, but you're actually a favorite, and everybody's buried you, but now Philly's on your side heavily. Like, just the entire mental framework there.
How is Sirianni battling it?

Speaker 1 Cannot wait to see it. And then, to wrap up the show, 1:45 Eastern, because we only got 10 minutes with Coach Siriani, obviously, very busy preparing for the Super Bowl.
Uh, CM Punk will be here.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 CM Punk will be here.

Speaker 1 Chicago made punk, Chick Magnet, punk. Hell yeah.
See me,

Speaker 1 punk. Yeah,

Speaker 1 see him punk will be here. Let's go.
First time coming on the show. Yeah, he's been on every other show.
He goes on everybody's show.

Speaker 1 He always does all these shows.

Speaker 1 Never does our show, does he, Dy?

Speaker 3 No, he doesn't. It's interesting.

Speaker 1 What's that all about? I don't know.

Speaker 3 I don't know. I thought we all love punk.
I thought we were all, you know, on punk's side, but maybe not.

Speaker 1 Maybe there's some bad blood there.

Speaker 1 So, we can normally play all WWE entrance music because we have a relationship business-wise with the WWE.

Speaker 1 Can't play his entrance music, though, because it's not a WWE song, it's an actual song. So, that is the song that will be what we just did there.
Yep, yep, was a rehearsal for when he comes out.

Speaker 1 Exactly. Worked out too.
Yeah, I think we nailed it. Oh, that was perfect.
I hope we hit it on the same like frequency very close showtime

Speaker 1 too many

Speaker 1 you know people kind of get sick of us right barking and need to hear bruce how could you not get too excited though it's royal rumble weekend awesome downtown indianapolis is alive oh yeah i went down there last night for a nice dinner saw a lot of the folks from wwe nice old meeting nice old chat and uh

Speaker 1 60 plus thousand i don't know how many it's going to end up being biggest royal rumble of all time happening here in indianapolis and everything kicks off at 5 p.m.

Speaker 1 today.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And Cole and I are going to be hosting that. And then I believe there's a chance we

Speaker 1 maybe on, I don't know. We'll see.
And then tomorrow, obviously, six o'clock kickoff for Royal Rumble, four o'clock countdown start for Royal Rumble.

Speaker 1 It's going to be a magical weekend here in Indianapolis. We can't wait for the world to watch.

Speaker 1 And even if you're not a wrestling fan, this is a go-on, Royal Rumble is a go-on to watch, especially in the stadium. It's going to be very loud.

Speaker 1 There's going to be ridiculous moments that are going to happen. There's going to be people here from yesteryear that maybe you saw whenever you were growing up.
There's going to be surprises.

Speaker 1 There's going to be shocks. There's going to be dramatic.
There's going to be wild moments. It's going to be an insane show.
And we're incredibly thankful that they brought it to Indianapolis.

Speaker 1 And I think Indianapolis and the Midwest is going to show up in a big way. Speaking of showing up, back to the NFL.

Speaker 1 No coaches from the Buccaneers are going to be able to show up for Liam Cohen in Jacksonville. That's right.

Speaker 1 The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have denied requests by the Jacksonville Jaguars to interview offensive line coach Brian Petucci, who left Kentucky with Liam Cohen to go to Tampa.

Speaker 1 Jags were able to hire Cohen, but not Pachucci, teams have the right to deny interview requests for other teams. Also,

Speaker 1 offensive line coach Kevin Carberry,

Speaker 1 he is not allowed to do the interview with Jacksonville. I believe...
If we heard it accurate, Baltimore Ravens are a team that are like, hey, assistant coaches are under contracts as well.

Speaker 1 So like, hey, can we interview your coach? They're very apt to be like, no, they're under contract. I don't know if it's just the Ravens.

Speaker 1 I think there's many teams that do that and honor the contract. With the way things ended with Tampa Bay and Liam Cohen, I think we probably could have seen this coming.

Speaker 1 But normally it's just like, hey, if there's a chance to up your status or move up in your coaching ranks, teams will give you the ability to do that. I wonder what Liam's going to be able to do here.

Speaker 1 Because if they just joined this Tampa Bay Buccaneers team coming with Liam from Kentucky, they probably have multiple years left on their contracts.

Speaker 1 How many coaches is he going to be able to get that he knows? He's only been in the NFL or around the NFL like four or five years. So who's going to be his coaching staff?

Speaker 1 It's an NFL job, so he's going to be able to get great guys. But this move by Tampa Bay, I think, was probably rather expected.

Speaker 1 But I assume whenever Liam and Jacksonville hear about it, they go, oh, they don't want him to come to the great county of

Speaker 5 Duval.

Speaker 1 And he said, that's because they're scared of what we're building right here in

Speaker 5 Duval.

Speaker 1 Am I going to be able to fill a coaching staff up in the beautiful county of

Speaker 5 Duval?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I am because we're building a monster. But if they're scared of the team that resides in

Speaker 5 Duval,

Speaker 1 then to hell with them. That's what Liam's saying this morning.

Speaker 3 I think we can put to bed the whole like, hey, nothing really happened between, you know, there's a miscommunication between the Bucs and Liam Cole.

Speaker 3 Like, this is, you know, like you said, a lot of teams probably do operate under the, hey, these guys have contracts, so no, you can't interview them, but this is also the Bucs being like, hey, fuck you, buddy.

Speaker 3 Like, you're not taking any of the coaches that are on our staff. We haven't forgotten the way you left here.
He did just hire the Packers linebackers coach.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Tony Campanial,

Speaker 3 who had only been in Green Bay for one year as his DC, but the Packers ended up having a top 10 defense this year. So I think that's a pretty solid hire.
But we'll see. I mean, like you said, like

Speaker 3 who else is out there? We don't know. Obviously, there are a lot of good coaches in the NFL, but like the longer this kind of ticks on, the tougher it's going to be to fill a staff.

Speaker 1 Here's Coach Coppenil. I like that Liam Cohen is bringing this guy in this mindset into his building.
Here's from Hard Knocks when he was with the Miami Dolphins.

Speaker 6 It's going to stop you from doing what you want to do. Okay.
Everybody understands ass whooping. Okay.
I can go to Greece. And somebody started getting their fucking ass whooped.

Speaker 6 We all understand what's happening. Okay, we're all speaking the same language, right?

Speaker 6 We might not be able to communicate, but if somebody getting their ass kicked, nothing's lost in translation, okay?

Speaker 6 All over the world, they speak ass whooped, okay, to the day you die, okay? So here's what I'm saying. Let's eliminate that factor.
They can't outwork you.

Speaker 6 Eliminate that, and let's see what the fuck happens. Let the chips fall where they met.

Speaker 6 Let's all just commit to each other. That's the way we're going to do it.
Don't stop doing fucking punches. Don't stop attacking the ball.
Don't fucking stop finishing blocks.

Speaker 6 And then we'll see what happens.

Speaker 1 Hell yeah. I can't wait for Paison to get down to beautiful

Speaker 5 Dew Ball.

Speaker 1 That's YOC. Yeah.
That's DC. I'm excited to see what Jacksonville becomes.
Once again, let's reserve judgment. We think they're going to be great.
Joining us now live from Anatican, Ohio.

Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, AJ Hall. Yeah, Hawker.
Hawker, how you doing, brother?

Speaker 7 Doing great. I think Ty's spot on saying the relay race was the innovation that he needed to see in the Pro Bowl games.

Speaker 1 Did you watch Pro Bowl games last night? Yep.

Speaker 7 I didn't sit down and watch it from start to finish, but I've seen pretty much the whole thing now over the course of last night today.

Speaker 1 90 Minutes of Magic. Obviously, the clips are going to go on the internet.
Shout out to Terry Cruz hosting that thing.

Speaker 1 He had the trivia contest, which led into the quarterback carousel and then, you know, the new games, new challenges. They got rid of the egg toss and the water balloon toss.
They did.

Speaker 1 They did add some other zany things as they try to kind of get this right. AJ, if you were to sit and watch for 90 minutes, your big takeaway would be what, Mr.
Hawk?

Speaker 7 Ooh, I say, okay, honestly, like I try to, this is okay. The quarterback stuff is cool.
I like the stuff flying through the air.

Speaker 7 It's nothing, nothing is like the old school with the chalk on the end of the ball when it hits the targets driving by, like we used to see back in the day, 20 years ago.

Speaker 7 But they did make the big, what do they call it? The big spike, the great spike. This is actually a much better setup than we watched yesterday, correct?

Speaker 7 Remember that what we saw yesterday in the net? Like, you couldn't even see what was happening.

Speaker 7 Now, we might need some kind of like reference to like, okay, is that a good number? Is that a bad number? Like, we need to bring in like some civilians, I think, too, to throw the ball.

Speaker 1 Jack's Kim Deville just caught that on the other side. Yeah, maybe we should have a normal human spike a ball.
Oh, and somebody

Speaker 7 spike one. Have like the refs, and he gets like 120.
So then if someone gets 2,000, like, oh, okay, those guys are pretty strong.

Speaker 1 That's like, you remember whenever they used to have the punching bag at the bars with the numbers on it?

Speaker 1 And you'd see some drunk go up there and swing, and it's like 222.

Speaker 1 And then you see a barbarian walk up there, and it's like 924. It's like, okay, there's clear difference on who's making real connection and who's not.
Similar situation potentially for the Big Spike.

Speaker 1 Joining us now is a man who might have more of the answers. Because not only is he a coach, I believe his company is a massive piece of bringing this thing.

Speaker 1 And I think he is very steadfast on trying to keep the Pro Bowl a thing. and a celebration for the NFL forever.
Ladies and gentlemen, GOAT Hall of Famer, Super Bowl champion multiple times.

Speaker 1 Peyton Manning. Yeah, Peyton.

Speaker 1 How you doing?

Speaker 8 What do you say, guys? Thanks. I'm

Speaker 1 just like

Speaker 8 Harold

Speaker 8 going to ride all the rides. But yeah, down here for the Pro Bowl.
And I agree, Pat. I think the NFL should have one weekend with the best players in the world come together.
And it's a good thing.

Speaker 8 And hopefully we can keep it going.

Speaker 1 Okay, so I talked about this a few moments ago before you're on. And thank you for taking time from Disney World.
Can't wait to see. You need to get on that avatar ride.

Speaker 1 That avatar ride where you're in the middle. Yeah, that's it's

Speaker 1 it's the one enjoy it down there. You've obviously earned it.

Speaker 1 So I talked about how whenever the Pro Bowl was back in Hawaii.

Speaker 1 And we obviously see the nostalgia clips, the quarterback challenge, the bench press, the running, and the resort was kind of all saved for NFL. It was like an NFL family almost out there in Hawaii.

Speaker 1 You were a big piece of kind of setting up what was going on. And a lot of people called you the mayor of it.

Speaker 1 So whenever there's this conversation about the Pro Bowl maybe no longer being relevant, I feel like you have tried to jump in and say, like, this is an event that needs to be saved.

Speaker 1 Where do you think we stand with the Pro Bowl games? How do you think this continues to evolve? And what are your thoughts on last night and what's going to happen on Sunday?

Speaker 8 You're right, Pat. I mean, the NFL does a good job.
Kind of like Hawaii. They have a hotel.
It's just the NFL players and their families.

Speaker 8 Of course, you know, to be able to go to Disney World and, you know, celebrate that with your families is pretty cool. But look, last night I saw Drake May

Speaker 8 having a conversation with Baker Mayfield. And to me,

Speaker 8 there's room in that in a young quarterback like Drake May learning how to be a pro,

Speaker 8 learning how to go through a coaching change, which Baker Mayfield has done several times, right? That's the value. How do we keep these

Speaker 8 players in each position learning from a veteran player. And look, I realize some of these guys work out together and you can play in a charity golf tournament together.

Speaker 8 Concentrated weekend where, like I said, the best of the best

Speaker 8 from some veteran quarterbacks. And that's where I saw Ray Lewis have a conversation with Patrick Willis.

Speaker 1 I saw...

Speaker 8 Lidalian Tomlinson have conversations with Adrian Peterson. That's how we keep the game strong.
And that's why I think it's important.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think so, too. I think that camaraderie camaraderie behind the scenes at the Pro Bowl of all the greats is a massive ordeal.
I think celebrating our greats is a massive ordeal.

Speaker 1 I'll be excited to see how it continues to evolve. Go ahead, AJ.

Speaker 7 Peyton, who are some of those guys, maybe some of those old, old school quarterbacks when you first got in the league that you used to bug at events like that, the Pro Bowl, or maybe when you see them before a game?

Speaker 8 Well, the first Pro Bowl that I played in,

Speaker 8 Rich Gannon was there, Mark Brunel, and just a couple of veteran guys. I mean, like I said, I had a chance to be around Dan Marino and be around Troy Aikman

Speaker 8 at a couple of other events. So anytime a young quarterback can be around a veteran, I think you annoy the heck out of him.

Speaker 8 You ask him as many questions as you can up until he says, all right, enough, kid. Leave me alone.
I got to hit this shot.

Speaker 8 So, like I said, it's important to pay it forward.

Speaker 8 I've always believed, whether it's through our football camp or anytime a young quarterback had a question for me, look, don't keep all all the secrets to yourself. Pay it forward.

Speaker 8 Teach a young quarterback, teach a young running back what it takes to be a pro. And

Speaker 8 I think it's good for the game and hopefully that'll continue. Now listen, like would I like to beat Eli in this Pro Bowl? Very much so.

Speaker 8 He's 2-0. He's talking about a three-peat.
That's annoying. It's offensive.
And I'm afraid if we don't win, they'll fire me and I won't get to come back. So,

Speaker 8 look, did I have 10 bud Lights with George Kittle last night? Yes, I did, but I'm still studying film and putting together a good game plan.

Speaker 1 Well, that, hey, I don't know if you've done that the last two times when you've lost. Maybe we up, maybe we up the number.

Speaker 8 No, no, I think you're right, Pat. I think the past two years, going to bed early, drawing up plays, watching film, that's out the window.
Bud lights with Kittle.

Speaker 8 I think that'll be my winning edge this year.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a smart play. And I can't wait to see the Super Bowl commercial.
You, Shane, Post Malone, and many others out there.

Speaker 1 The jean shorts shorts you had on Shane's social posts last night were phenomenal. You just pulled those right out of the closet.
We know that.

Speaker 1 I did.

Speaker 8 Yeah. It was a BYO.
BYO gene shorts. Yeah, I understand.

Speaker 1 Three-peat. Watch Eli.
He can't be selling any merch with three-peat. Pat Riley owns that shit.
Have you heard about this?

Speaker 8 That's right. He patented, right, with the Lakers, right? Genius.

Speaker 1 This guy's made money off of so many people. He's made, Pat Riley's just raking in money, and he'll do it for Eli for sure.
Listen,

Speaker 8 I hope Pat sues Eli just for using it, especially when it's not going to happen because the AFC is going to take care of business. Of course.

Speaker 1 Hell yeah.

Speaker 1 Hell yeah. You're down bad right now, but yeah,

Speaker 1 yeah, you're going to make it. You're going to make it happen.

Speaker 1 I like you getting George boozed up, too. He's on the NFC's team.
Maybe you need to drink every NFC player under the bar and just get it. Exactly.
Yeah, that's not a bad play.

Speaker 1 I like what you're doing.

Speaker 1 You talk about older players being with younger players, and you take immense pride in in the Manning Passing Academy.

Speaker 1 You know, that's been going on for a long time, I think, since late 90s or early 90s. And

Speaker 1 you've made

Speaker 1 a documentary about Buddy Tevens, who is a massive piece of the Manning Passing Academy.

Speaker 1 I got a chance to read a write-up that you did about Buddy and about why you chose to do this. Can you talk about this a little bit more in the buddy way, I believe, is what the special is called?

Speaker 8 Yeah, no, thanks for asking. It's funny.
All six of the Pro Bowl quarterbacks were counselors at the Manning Passage Academy. And Russell Wilson was actually a camper at the Manning Passage Academy.

Speaker 8 And it's a camp that my family started. And Buddy Tebens

Speaker 8 just ran the organization and logistics for all 28 years that we've had the camp. He was the head coach at Tulane Pat when we started.

Speaker 8 That was the New Orleans connection. He went on to coach different places, a longtime coach at Dartmouth, wherever he was, he came back and ran the logistics.

Speaker 8 Positive, just a high-energy guy. Look, it's an organizational nightmare for 1,500 kids in South Louisiana, 150 coaches, buddy just ran it as smooth as can be.

Speaker 8 One of the first coaches to hire women, one of the first coaches to get rid of tackling and practice, created this mechanical dummy by some Dartmouth students that he helped create.

Speaker 8 to cut down on concussions and head injuries. And so an innovative guy in growing the game

Speaker 8 lost his wife way too early and wanted to pay

Speaker 8 just kind of his legacy forward, letting people know who this guy was, what he did. And it's called The Buddy Way and it's out on ESPN Plus.
It's an inspiring, powerful story that I think everybody

Speaker 8 would enjoy watching and learning about him.

Speaker 1 Hell yeah, buddy. You've done good, buddy.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's beautiful stuff. Your write-up was powerful, man.
I read it the other day.

Speaker 1 It was a very powerful write-up, and obviously came from a place of a lot of passion for a human and obviously a lot of respect. So I can't wait to watch that.

Speaker 1 Now, we have some questions around the NFL about some burning topics. Connor has a question for you.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Peyton, obviously, this week with Josh Allen and Bills losing to the Chiefs and Mahomes again, the big narrative is, you know, will Josh ever be able to get it done versus Mahomes in the playoffs?

Speaker 2 Because obviously he's underfeeding the regular season.

Speaker 2 What is that kind of like as a quarterback who kind of can't get over that one team, that one player, every single offseason going in with the same feeling against the same team.

Speaker 2 How do you think the Bills and Josh Allen can kind of get over that hump?

Speaker 8 Yeah, look, I can relate. I mean, I lived that life, and I sent Josh a

Speaker 8 text voice memo after the game and just telling him how much I enjoyed watching him play this year and how well he competed and just to keep his head up, keep grinding, keep sawing wood.

Speaker 8 Look, I lived that life.

Speaker 8 You know, we Tom Brady and the Patriots beat us back-to-back playoff years, once in the AFC Championship, once in the divisional round. And that's all you hear about all offseason.

Speaker 8 Yeah, but had a great season. Yeah, but you can't beat the Patriots in the postseason.
And then

Speaker 8 two years later, we did it.

Speaker 8 We beat them in the AFC Championship, win the Super Bowl. So, what are you going to do? Are you going to go crawl in a hole and feel sorry for yourself?

Speaker 8 Are you going to just keep fighting and keep grinding?

Speaker 8 I would rather, and I think Josh Allen and Lamar feel the same way, have their hearts ripped out in the AFC Championship by three points, as opposed to finishing seven and ten. Yeah.

Speaker 8 And you probably smoke a cigar in that locker room after that last win because you're kind of in a good mood and you feel kind of good.

Speaker 8 You're so, the truth is you're a bad team and you're so far away. Would you rather be seven and ten or have your heart ripped out by being close?

Speaker 8 I'd rather have my heart ripped out because that means they're close. And Josh Allen's close.
Lamar's close. They will get there.
I believe it. It's just, look, they're not losing the bad teams.

Speaker 8 Last time I checked my homes and the Chiefs, there's a reason they're in the Super Bowl. They're a good team, right? We lost to the Patriots.
It sucked. I hated it, but they were the better team.

Speaker 8 And so

Speaker 8 I think Josh and Lamar will both get there. But until then, they have to own it, and they are doing it.
They're not hiding from it. And I think their time will come.

Speaker 1 You talk about smoking cigars after going 7-10 because you win the last game of the season. Jim Mercy told the Colts that they're undefeated in 2025.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Because they won that last game of the season. I don't know if you saw that.
Yeah, man.

Speaker 1 It was awesome.

Speaker 1 It

Speaker 1 It was really cool to see. It was really cool to see as a season ticket holder.
But on that note, you talk about them losing to a very good team in the Kansas City Chiefs.

Speaker 1 Patrick Mahomes, and obviously, I'm sure you've had to talk about him numerous times. We've asked you about him on this particular program.
He's already a Mount Rushmore guy.

Speaker 1 He's only 29 years old, obviously trying to accomplish something that's never been done in the modern Super Bowl era, win three straight.

Speaker 1 What do you think it is about him that he's been able to continue this and not get comfortable or content? His contract is is nowhere near what some of these dudes are. Never hear a peep.
He shows up.

Speaker 1 He had a kid a couple weeks ago in the middle of the season. Could be exhausted.
Still shows up.

Speaker 1 What do you think it is about Patrick that makes him so special and this Chiefs team as a whole that makes them so special, Peyton?

Speaker 8 Yeah, look, I'm not sure anybody can speak about Patrick about what it is except him because it is

Speaker 8 unique. It is different.
I think he could beat you in so many different ways. You know, people say you got to keep him in the pocket.
He'll shred you that way.

Speaker 8 Hey, you know, let's force him out of the middle. You saw some great runs he had against Buffalo.
He throws the ball on the run as well as anybody in the league.

Speaker 8 And he just doesn't really sweat out there.

Speaker 8 I think he likes getting behind and creating a little drama, good TV ratings, knowing he's going to lead you down for a two-minute drill.

Speaker 8 And their team has been there, and their team never flinches because they're like, hey, we've been here before. We were down to this team.
We can come back. And they've been that way all season.

Speaker 8 So look,

Speaker 8 they're the bully,

Speaker 8 and they've earned it. And everybody said they kind of had an off year this year.
They lost one game, and

Speaker 8 they got the home field, and now they're back in New Orleans. So they're the bully.
And until you punch the bully in the mouth, they're going to keep bullying you.

Speaker 8 And I think that's the case until somebody does it.

Speaker 1 All season, this team isn't that good. This team isn't.
They're not that good. What?

Speaker 1 Yeah, back-to-back Super Bowl champs. They're 15 and and one going into the last week.
It's like they haven't even played good football yet. It's like,

Speaker 1 okay, well, tell us when they play good football because all they do is win. Now, they're taking on a team that prides himself as a bully, though.

Speaker 1 I feel like we're going to be talking to Coach Siriani in about an hour, but that's their style of play. It's like a 1990s team.
Go ahead, Ty.

Speaker 3 Yeah, Peyton, his counterpart, Jalen Hurts, we've seen all the stats about guys going to the Super Bowl and then never making it back. You know, he's obviously done that a couple years after.

Speaker 3 But for you particularly, how much did you learn after your first Super Bowl?

Speaker 3 Whether it was handling the week and all that kind of stuff or like the game itself, like how much more comfortable do you think Jalen Hurts will be in this Super Bowl as opposed to the last one when they play the Chiefs?

Speaker 8 Yeah, like I think he'll be way more comfortable. Look Mahomes, you know, gets his mail sent to the Super Bowl every year because he knows he's going to be there.

Speaker 8 Hurts,

Speaker 8 I remember talking to him a couple years ago about kind of, hey, what's any advice? What's the routine? And like, he didn't call me for that this year because he knows it.

Speaker 8 And I think, yeah, the more comfortable you are during the week, the better you're going to play.

Speaker 8 And, you know, Sirianni, I talked to Nick about it and, you know, he said, do you have any thoughts? I'm like, Nick, you know what to do. You know,

Speaker 8 I think they'll kind of put the game plan in this week is that they were going to play kind of Sunday. And then, you know, next week you go down and review.

Speaker 8 But look, Jalen has probably won past interference from a couple years ago from being a Super Bowl champion quarterback. He is a championship quarterback from college.
So

Speaker 8 he thrives in these type of moments and I see him playing well. I think a lot of attention is going to be on Saquon as it should,

Speaker 8 including from the Chiefs and Spags. So I think Jalen and Brown and Smith are going to have to do some things in the passing game and he certainly can do that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, on your point about Saquon, AJ has a question for you.

Speaker 7 Yeah, Peyton, everyone expects Saquon to go off and have a monster day. I mean, I do, too.
Every time you turn on the TV and you watch an Eagles game, the guy's breaking another explosive run.

Speaker 7 Do you think the Eagles are going to need a huge game out of Saquon to even have a chance to win this thing?

Speaker 8 I mean, I think it's easy to say that, but look, Saquon's presence

Speaker 8 is the factor. The fact that Spaggs is calling, you know, run blitzes and

Speaker 8 defensive schemes to stop him, extra defender down there in the box, that means one-on-one coverage for Brown and Smith. And Jalen knows that.

Speaker 1 So, look,

Speaker 8 I mean, Saquon doesn't have to have a carry because they're going to try to have a guy down there to stop him. It's the presence, right? It's Edger and James next to you

Speaker 8 in the defense going, we can't let this guy run it down our throat. So we got to play one-on-one.
And now, look, one-on-one coverage is what you want as a quarterback, as a receiver.

Speaker 8 So, no, I think the answer is no. I just think as long as he's in uniform and standing next to Jalen, his presence.
can create some real passing game opportunities for the Eagles.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Jalen threw for 300 plus in the last Super Bowl he was in. And then in the NFC Championship, he had some of his best throws of the entire season.

Speaker 1 Obviously, you're going to need that to beat the Kansas City Chiefs. Not going to be able to make any mistakes.

Speaker 1 How'd you feel about the narrative all year that like you can't win with a great offensive line in a dominant run game anymore in 2025 NFL football? Feels like they're debunking all of that right now.

Speaker 8 Yeah, totally. I mean, everybody wants to, you know, establish some trend and just be the first one to say it.

Speaker 8 I remember when I was playing in the middle of my career, they're like, there's no more place, there isn't a place for the drop back quarterback anymore. I was like, God, I hope that's not true.

Speaker 8 I really like playing in the NFL. I'm out of a job.
Brady's out of a job. Eli's out of a job.
And it just wasn't true. Look, there's different ways to do it.

Speaker 8 And I think the smart coaches are the ones that design plays based around who they have playing. And that's what Andy does.
That's what Siriani does. That's what Sean McVay does.

Speaker 8 I mean, that's what it's about. So there's a place for everybody.
You just got to figure out how it works in that particular system.

Speaker 1 Yeah, what's best for your team with that offensive line? And then they bring in Saquon from the Giant. I mean, what a signing.
What a historic free agent signing there, I think, Payton.

Speaker 8 No, it was awesome. And, you know, look, obviously, if they win it all, you know, look, the fact that they're here probably was the right decision not to play them in that last game.

Speaker 8 I would like to have seen that record broken because it's NFL history. And like for all those offensive linemen to have that on their resume that I blocked for the all-time single-season rusher.

Speaker 8 And you can tell Dickerson loves that record and did not want it to be broken. And that would have been cool.

Speaker 8 But look, if somebody would have gotten hurt in that last game and they're not in the Super Bowl, that was probably the right call. But awesome year by Saquon.

Speaker 8 And like you said, awesome year by those guys up front.

Speaker 1 Okay, so my rookie year was completely undefeated year until the decision was made to lose the last two games to Jets and Bills.

Speaker 1 And obviously, I was way too young to have a thought and I'm a punter, so let's not do it.

Speaker 1 But I remember there being a lot of upset people in the building that that decision was made because the 72 Dolphins are still popping champagne for being the only undefeated team.

Speaker 1 Is that reading that situation right? You guys all wanted to go for that, right? Am I wrong in saying that?

Speaker 8 Well, look, I mean, look, it was, you know, it's easy to say that's what we should have done. But look, nobody got hurt.
We made it to the Super Bowl. We didn't win, but we got there.

Speaker 8 Like, I can't remember if it was the year before or that year, Wes Welker had gotten hurt in the last game for the Patriots. I want to say it was against Houston.

Speaker 8 I remember that was kind of just on our minds, like, you know, and that kind of affected them,

Speaker 8 you know,

Speaker 8 that year or whatnot. So, look, it's all about, you know, you make a decision, as General Patton once said, you make a decision and you do it like hell.
And you just go forward.

Speaker 8 And everybody's going to second guess or whatnot. Like I said, I wanted Saquon to go for it, but had, you know, him or Dickerson or Lane gotten hurt in that game, we'd be killing Sirian.

Speaker 8 He would be fired.

Speaker 8 How would you do that? That's selfish or whatnot. So, look, it was their call.
It looks like it was the right call, and here they are getting ready to go at it in New Orleans. So, good for them.

Speaker 1 Super Bowl obviously has great commercials. You're going to be a part of a few of them.
It does sound like one of them has our attention. Bruce Brown has a question for you.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Peyton.

Speaker 4 So, obviously, Eli has kind of had the jump so far in the Pro Bowl games, but how are you feeling about the field goal kicking deal during the the Super Bowl?

Speaker 4 Do you think you can get him there or what do you think?

Speaker 8 Not great. Yeah.
Not great as far as how I'm feeling. I'm sore, Pat.

Speaker 8 I've been practicing. I've been practicing.
I can't tell you how sore I am. Yes,

Speaker 8 the inner growing. Eli pulled a quad.

Speaker 1 Eli pulled a quad.

Speaker 1 Oh, he's going in there injured. Oh, boy.

Speaker 8 I think that should be out there

Speaker 8 on the report.

Speaker 8 He's recovering, but

Speaker 8 much respect because you kick. And of course, you go in there and say, I'm going to kick 15.
When you go 0 for 15, you kick 25 more and you're more sore and you can't practice for another week.

Speaker 8 I was going straight on for a while. And Lutz, who's kind of been my consultant, he don't want anybody to know that based on how I kick.

Speaker 8 If I kick poorly, he's like, don't tell anybody I've been helping you. But I was kicking straight on with the square toe.

Speaker 8 And he's like, I got to tell you, Peyton, you don't kick well like that and you look like a fool they're gonna kill you on social media so at least now i've gone soccer style i look better i'm not saying it's great yeah but i don't have to be great i just got to be better than eli and that's the key okay so um i've been working at it though i have been working at it how long is the field goal 20 yards 25 yards make make kick again miss miss go up to the 20 first one to make i think we have about a 45 second window.

Speaker 8 So

Speaker 8 I think it needs to be done quickly. Gronk said there was wind last year for him.
I've been kicking indoors at the Broncos. I don't want anybody to see me.
So

Speaker 8 they said I could kick it down here at the Pro Bowl. I'm like, no chance.
That means people can watch. I'll wait for my live event in New Orleans on Super Bowl Sunday.

Speaker 1 Yeah, 130 million people get to watch it. Yeah, first time I'm seeing it, I want the whole world to watch this.

Speaker 1 As soon as I heard you were doing it, I sent you the boot, the front, the flat boot because I do that field goal kick on game day every single weekend and these people that have never kicked a soccer ball before they have these boots on I'm like you just need to go straight on and just swing as hard as you can so I wanted to give you that and you said yeah I tried that it's not good so I'm going soccer

Speaker 8 hey Pat let me ask you because like I'm bringing my own balls to the kick footballs uh that is If somebody wants to bring their own football to game day, are they allowed to?

Speaker 8 Are you giving them a football? It's It's got to be this one. Interesting.

Speaker 1 Interesting. We do not have any ball regulations.
I think if somebody was to show up with their own ball, as long as it was at least a college ball, can't be like a small niche ball.

Speaker 1 If it was at least, what are you taking? NFL balls?

Speaker 8 Oh, yeah. I bring them out.
Yeah, I bring in my own, you know, bringing my own. They keep saying, hey, we'll have some.

Speaker 8 I'm like, no, I'm, you know, I have lines drawn on them, like where my foot's supposed to be placed.

Speaker 8 Is that legal?

Speaker 1 Is that legal? Yeah. Yeah, it is.
I don't think they made any rules rules against, as long as it's beat up. The beat-up ball is a smart play.
That's a vastly different than a brand new ball. Yeah,

Speaker 8 I got, you know, I got my Broncos equipment guys. I got Frog and Colts equipment guys giving me feedback.
So, look, if I don't make this, it will not be from a lack of

Speaker 8 full preparation.

Speaker 8 And so, anyway,

Speaker 8 I'll be ready for it, I guess.

Speaker 1 All right, rip that hip flexor off the bone, brother. It'll be worth it.
It'll be worth it. We appreciate you.

Speaker 1 Good luck on Sunday beating Eli so he doesn't just have a full sweep of your ass in the Pro Bowl games.

Speaker 8 Hey, I got Joe Burrow. I got Brock Powers.

Speaker 8 Burrow likes the pressure, so

Speaker 8 I feel good about it. All right.

Speaker 1 I appreciate it, boy. And you got Drake May.

Speaker 1 Yes, you do. Got Drake May.
Never forget

Speaker 1 young stud. Yeah, he should be picking your brain.
I assume he already is. Ladies and gentlemen, coach of the AFC, Hall of Famer, a man who's going to kick a field goal on Super Bowl Sunday.

Speaker 1 Peyton May. Thank you, bro.
Yeah, Peyton.

Speaker 1 Just with the hat and the headphones. Okay.
Driving around Disney World. Sure.
Just so dad right there. Yeah,

Speaker 1 Dad Manning just rolling around Disney World. I did have 10 beers last night

Speaker 1 with George Kittle.

Speaker 1 I hope you don't think anything of it. I love that he's there.
That's what the Pro Bowl used to be, though. Like, I don't want to, you know, say...

Speaker 1 Like, hey, everybody just got shit-faced out there, but that's what. It's a good time.
That's what the Pro Bowl was. The Pro Bowl was,

Speaker 1 and you know, I've always said this, I think a team comes together much better around a Keg than they do Kale, you know, and I think that is a part of like just having a good time with each other, get a little loose, a little comfortable, have a good time, you know, hey, hey, you want to, yeah, cheersing, here's twoing.

Speaker 7 I mean, that is like out of your element, something other than the normal element that you see each other in every single day.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and they're all normally positive. Now, obviously, that can all go too far.
Yeah. Yeah, we've all seen it.
We've all done it.

Speaker 7 So that's what makes it fun as well.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's the crap stable of it all. You know, at what point is this thing? Seven,

Speaker 1 okay, everybody's a little bit too hammered. But it is,

Speaker 1 that's what the Pro Bow is, you know, and I think the more that that happens, I think the more they'll try to make it an entertaining show because they're in there together, they're with their friends, and it's, that's how bonds get made.

Speaker 1 But they're going to have to figure out how not to do so much zany stuff.

Speaker 3 A lot of zany stuff, but you've talked about it too.

Speaker 3 Like, that's why it's so important that, and Peyton mentioned it like hey they rented out that entire you know hotel because like when you went it's like you have like a business conference and like guys guys can't be themselves they can't feel comfortable because you got people coming up you know hounding you for autographs and heaven forbid like a player you know kittle and payton are there and and they're drinking 10 15 beers at the bar and then kettle punches guys yeah some point dexter comes up and starts ruffling some feathers so like you know i mean because what it was it was one of your pro bowls right where it's like

Speaker 3 you can't even be yourself And then it's like, you can understand.

Speaker 1 And it flooded the lobby.

Speaker 3 You can understand why guys would be like, yeah, I'm never coming back.

Speaker 1 Flooded the lobby, jerseys, the whole thing. Sat down at, like, I think it was,

Speaker 1 I think I sat down with one of the Bennett brothers, one of the Bennett's, Martellis, maybe? Sure.

Speaker 1 I think Kelsey was there and Connor Barwin was there. And we were sitting at the bar.
And I was like, this is what we're here for. You know, like, this is first night.
Like AQ was there.

Speaker 1 We're like, okay, we're having good. This is what we're here for.
And then just four random marks just sit down at the bar and you see everybody just get like shelled up. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And it's like, I'm not going to do anything. And then you start realizing like, oh, this isn't just an NFL hotel.
It's like, oh, there's other conventions going on at this hotel.

Speaker 1 And these people are able to just walk around. And then you automatically get like mad.
It's like.

Speaker 1 Everybody wants the players to take it serious. Well, what about the NFL taking it seriously? Like, what do we even...

Speaker 1 These guys make all the money for your league and you won't even get the whole hotel for this.

Speaker 1 So then obviously they've had to go through some things to get back to the point where they get the whole hotel, but it's like, I think all parties are going to have to come together and decide whether or not this is going to be worth a fuck, you know?

Speaker 2 Yep.

Speaker 1 Because I think a lot of people are watching this stuff go and they say, what do we?

Speaker 7 I'm sure it still got good ratings. I'm sure they had big numbers.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you know. I don't know.
And that's just like whenever social media people say, I got big numbers. We need people that know ball.
In there making decisions. That's all we ask.

Speaker 1 People that know ball offering ideas and making decisions.

Speaker 1 That's all we ask. That's not too much.
No, not at all.

Speaker 2 Because you see what they're trying to do.

Speaker 2 Like, you kind of get the, you know, they're trying to still do football games, the big spike. They're keeping it all ball.

Speaker 2 They're doing the gron or the Hulk hands catching and the relay races with the football as the baton. Like you get they're trying to do different types of stuff.
It's just not working.

Speaker 2 And it hasn't been working for a few years.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's real.

Speaker 2 It just hasn't been working for a few years. And then you even look at the quarterback challenge.

Speaker 2 I know, you know, the LED boards and the tech is sweet, but like last year was way cooler because they had targets and the ball would go through the actual target with the, you know, number of points on it.

Speaker 1 And then smoke would go off. We need smoke to shoot out.

Speaker 7 We need smoke to shoot out, just like American gladiators back in the day when they got, you know, when you were shooting at the obstacle course or whatever.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but once again, we're happy for all the greats. Celebrating ball.
No doubt. Without a doubt.

Speaker 3 You can see why they changed it because it used to be that whole end was closed off. And they're like, all right, well, we could sell 500 more tickets if we kind of get these LED boards.

Speaker 1 I did see some people potentially get sniped.

Speaker 1 Whenever Justin Jefferson had those Hulk hands and that ball went right through his hand. Oh, yeah.
It's like, that ball's coming hot. And then they were throwing a deep ball.

Speaker 1 It's like, is this ball going to smoke some people in the back? Great energy out of the crowd. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Great energy. It's added to it.
It's like a TGL crowd. It is.

Speaker 1 It is. Enjoying the experience.
And I assume live, it's a little different. Let's talk about some news happening around the NFL.
The Justin Tucker story is very serious. Obviously,

Speaker 1 serious allegations coming from multiple massage salons in multiple massage therapists about sexual actions from Justin Tucker.

Speaker 1 Kicker, everybody assumes, future Hall of Fame kicker for the Baltimore Ravens from 2012 to 2016. Pretty wild that it is

Speaker 1 2025, and we're hearing about this, especially with everything that happened with Deshaun Watson in a very similar vein of conversation.

Speaker 1 Now, I don't think it was 30-some people around the country, which is what the Deshaun stuff was. This is all Baltimore-related.

Speaker 1 They've gone back and found some tweets from like 2021 when people were alluding to this.

Speaker 1 I have no idea how we're just now hearing about this, but we want to let the world know that if this is happening, we are vastly against it. And whatever the punishment is, he deserves.

Speaker 1 He has come out and said that this is completely false. I have done nothing but be a professional, and I I have zero other things ever said about me.
This is not real.

Speaker 1 And I assume he will fight it as much as he possibly can. Interesting.

Speaker 1 timing, crazy allegations, and obviously all very serious AJ in the world of professional sport because massage therapy is a massive piece of professional athletics.

Speaker 1 Lactic acids and getting a recovery and everything like that.

Speaker 1 They go hand in hand, which is why when Deshaun Watson's stuff happened, it was hard not to be like, this doesn't mean that massage therapists, like, I think people are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, like people, contrarians are talking about it.

Speaker 1 Like, this is a big piece of professional athletics. And it will always be.

Speaker 1 And I hope it, you know, doesn't continue to have situations like this that kind of soil the conversation or the relationship between the profession of massage therapy and professional athletics, AJ.

Speaker 7 Yeah, I don't know what the answer is like when it comes. I guess it's always going to be.
Yeah, it's just such a weird situation. This happens in 2012 to 2016, they say.

Speaker 7 And then when you bring up these old tweets, and then, of course,

Speaker 7 he's denying it.

Speaker 7 What did happen? Do you ever, can we ever figure out exactly what happened? No, because there's not cameras and there's only a couple people there, I guess.

Speaker 7 But how long has he been dealing with this, too? I know in his thing, he's talked about how he was going back and forth trying to, like,

Speaker 7 before they actually published this piece, I guess, he knew about it. But going how far back?

Speaker 7 Because this would be, can you imagine you know this is on the horizon coming out and you disagree with it and you know like that would definitely be a lot to handle.

Speaker 1 Had his worst year that he's ever had. I assume there was some information potentially found out by him this year.

Speaker 1 Because, I mean, in kicking, you're this is the difference between being a Hall of Famer and being never in the NFL. Had his worst year by far this year.

Speaker 1 Obviously, probably the mind with that heavy, I mean, that's very serious. And we hope the truth is found in the entire situation.
And

Speaker 1 yeah, that's

Speaker 1 it's just weird. It's

Speaker 1 just weird. Yeah.
Yeah. You know? Oh, it's weird.
Because you're getting the massages for a reason. Like, you know?

Speaker 1 And a lot of these massages that guys are getting, like, it's not, I don't want to get into it. It's not like a feel-good.
Like, these massages. Usually, yeah, the good one, like, it hurts.

Speaker 7 It usually hurts. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So it's like such a weird dynamic in it all.
Nonetheless, we will follow along with that story as the truth is hopefully found. And obviously, very serious allegations.

Speaker 1 Doug Peterson, former head coach of both the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Philadelphia Eagles, former quarterback in the NFL, and also the guy who called Philly Philly after Big Richard, Nick Foles, said, hey, I want to run.

Speaker 1 And he goes, all right, okay, okay, yeah, let's go, let's do it. In the biggest moment, numerous teams have reached out to him about being an offensive coordinator.

Speaker 1 Remember, he was not calling plays for the Jacksonville Jaguars, which was a massive piece of the conversation. Like, why you...
You got the head coaching job because you're a great play caller.

Speaker 1 Why aren't you,

Speaker 1 why aren't you calling plays? And then he would be asked about it. He goes, I wish I could tell you

Speaker 1 the whole.

Speaker 1 What's he going to do?

Speaker 1 Last time he ended up leaving the Eagles, he took a year off, took a tour around the NFL, kind of went and saw some old friends, learned some new things, gets a head coaching job at Jacksonville.

Speaker 1 I assume he'll probably do something similar as he's done in the past. Obviously, he hasn't taken anybody up on their offer yet to be their OC.

Speaker 2 Yeah, maybe. Also, the Saints.
Like, you wonder if Kellen Moore is kind of the leader in the clubhouse there, bringing in another offensive guy who has also had head coaching experience.

Speaker 2 It feels like the Saints are maybe going to have to spend a little more money to get some guys in there because of the fact that they're going to be so late in the process hiring all three, head coach OC and DC.

Speaker 2 So that would kind of make sense. But even a place like Houston, like, you know, after all the way everything went down in Jacksonville with, hey, who told the owner this was the best team ever?

Speaker 2 You know, that type of stuff, you know, a great way to get back at him, just head on over to Houston, you know, coach up CJ Stroud and beat the hell out of Jacksonville.

Speaker 3 Really, any of these openings, because you look like the the Raiders, too. You know, like Pete Carroll, no one really knows what he's going to do with his staff.

Speaker 3 Now, I don't know if they have any prior relationship. But, I mean, it is one of those things, though, where these guys who are kind of always in the cycle, like

Speaker 3 if he does just wait a year, like he is going to get head coaching interviews next year because we don't know how many openings there are going to be.

Speaker 3 So it's really whether or not he wants to get right back into it.

Speaker 1 Doug Peterson, we love his style. He's the mother.
Oh, yeah. We love Doug.
We love Doug. I love Doug.
The man. Yes.
That press conference where he was just.

Speaker 1 Oh, I don't know who told you that. I don't know.
Was it me? I don't know. Who said that the owner had the greatest roster? I don't know.
I didn't say that. I don't know.

Speaker 1 Have you seen our roster?

Speaker 1 How come you're not calling plays?

Speaker 1 I wish I could tell you, though.

Speaker 1 I'll think about it.

Speaker 1 Just like everything

Speaker 1 about that one press conference is like, all right, Doug, we heard all we needed to hear from you. I assume he's going to take a tractor another round.
Yeah. You know, I think he's...

Speaker 2 Big Mike.

Speaker 1 I think he's probably.

Speaker 7 How nervous are you like? Not nervous, but how, I would assume some coaches are worried to get out of the coach. Like they want to stay in that head coaching cycle.

Speaker 7 So do they think, hey, I need to be an OC to stay in that and keep my name out there?

Speaker 1 Maybe. I mean, maybe he does want to like get back into good football too, you know, and I guess that's all up for him.
And he's earned that situation. So good for him.

Speaker 1 Speaking of earning a situation, when you get to to play in the super bowl you get a chance to buy tickets for people here's justin reed of the kansas city chiefs chit-chat about these super bowl tickets that i assume everybody's expecting him to hand out tickets are prices are running up man it's like i got 30 of them

Speaker 7 yeah so I mean, we got to make sure. I mean,

Speaker 10 we're excited to go play and, you know, we're chasing glory, but we got to win just for me to break even.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 30 of them. Let's go to the SeatGeek graphic that we have for the average resale price currently for this particular Super Bowl.
It's over $10,000 right now. $10,417 average resale price.

Speaker 1 Obviously, there's tickets that are vastly more than that. There are a few that are less than that.
This is just the average ticket price currently. You can use code PAT250 for $250 off.

Speaker 1 We know that that does not make much of a dent on these Super Bowl tickets, but at least it helps. At least it's $250 off.
Everybody's kind of confused.

Speaker 1 They think the players get free tickets and free jerseys and all these things. Home games don't even get really more than two tickets.
Away games, you don't get any tickets.

Speaker 1 Super Bowl tickets, I think you get five or 10. I forget the exact number, 10 maybe.
Everything on top of that, you have to buy. Maybe it's four.

Speaker 1 I forget what the number is, but you get a couple and then everybody's like, I want guys, you playing Super Bowl. Remember, we

Speaker 1 remember how we talked about these days when you were a kid, you could play Super Bowl. I'm going to come watch.
It's like, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's $11,000 to give a guy I haven't talked to in 10 years

Speaker 1 to the Super Bowl. That's real.
I don't think think people truly understand that, AJ.

Speaker 7 No, it's absolutely real. And the fact that Justin Reed said he's got 30,

Speaker 7 he had to absolutely work his ass off to find 30. He had to buy them from teammates.
You can't.

Speaker 7 I think when we went, you got the option to buy four that were actually decent down like in the first level, and then six more that were the top row, very last row of the whole place.

Speaker 1 I was a rookie when we played in the Super Bowl, so the McFees were and Nick Meraldo were up in the.

Speaker 1 Those are great seats. They're up in the top.
That's in the roof. Brookie Potter, yeah, you can.
Yeah, sure. We got a couple.

Speaker 1 You'll be here.

Speaker 4 You saw us pregame, though. You wave.

Speaker 1 I did. I did see you guys.
You know, the Miami Stadium is pretty nice down there. Pretty nice little place.

Speaker 1 But yeah, it is fascinating that people think the players are getting a benefit of the doubt. They are not.
They just maybe have more cash to spend it on these tickets.

Speaker 1 And the NFL doesn't mind that either. Yeah.
Buy the ticket. Give it back.

Speaker 1 Now, granted, the NFL, unless they're running a secondary market scheme, which we do not think they would because they would get.

Speaker 1 The resale price is not what the NFL makes. Obviously, the resale price is whoever the person that buys the ticket makes.

Speaker 1 There used to be a little bit of a racket of players, you know, getting a chance to buy four tickets

Speaker 1 and then maybe moving those four tickets. Really? Yeah, that weren't in the Super Bowl.
That was a thing for a long time. And then, boy, they tried to crack down on that heart.
Do you remember that?

Speaker 1 They were telling players, like, the IRS is going to get you. What you're doing is fraudulent.
You're not allowed to do what you're doing. They would like send out memos.

Speaker 1 They had people come speak to teams. Like, we heard you guys think you have it figured out, huh? We heard you guys think you have it.
You can't do it anymore.

Speaker 1 And then as soon as you leave from that meeting, somebody would be like, I got a guy who's paying $7,500 a pop, $7,500 a pop. You want to get rid of this? He's like, no, I don't want to do it.

Speaker 1 Obviously, we're not doing it. It's illegal.
It's illegal. It's not illegal.
You have a ticket. You're allowed to sell the ticket.
Well, then how come they just told us?

Speaker 1 Because they're trying to scare the shit out of you.

Speaker 4 So that's kind of. Wasn't it Mike Tice, the former Vikings coach? He got in a lot of trouble for scalping.
his tickets.

Speaker 1 So then they started saying that you weren't able to sell. You had to pick up your tickets at the thing with your, like, they really have been been combating.

Speaker 7 You used to be able to sign up.

Speaker 7 Yeah, when I first got in the league, there'd be one guy who on the team who was like a broker who was trying to put tickets together, and you could sign your tickets away to him.

Speaker 7 He's like, okay, we're good. But then they made you go in person, pick him up with your ID, all that stuff.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the NFL wasn't happy that the players maybe having a run a little racket in Ishentires there.

Speaker 2 Isn't Thomas Morsay giving them away for charity? Isn't there a way to do it like that as well?

Speaker 1 There is giving, but he's going to have to go get those. Go get them.
I mean, it is. They've really, they've made you have to jump through hoops to get these.

Speaker 1 Oh, these players think they're going to pull one over on us? I don't think so. You buy the tickets, you assholes.

Speaker 1 You don't sell the tickets.

Speaker 1 The IRS is going to get you. Hope you're happy.
You want to go to jail? Wesley Snipes. Is that what you want to do? Whoa.
Keep selling your tickets. Dare you.
It's like, we won't. We won't.

Speaker 1 They walk out of the room.

Speaker 1 I got a guy 7,500. I got a guy 8,500.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, who's that?

Speaker 1 Is that cash? Is that happening right now? Obviously, I'll write it off. I will report the earnings.

Speaker 11 I've never felt like this before. It's like you just get me.

Speaker 11 I feel like my true self with you. Does that sound crazy? And it doesn't hurt that you're gorgeous.

Speaker 11 Okay, that's it. I'm taking you home with me.

Speaker 11 I mean, you can't find shoes this good just anywhere. Find a shoe for every you from brands you love, like Birkenstock, Nike, Adidas, and more at your DSW store or dsw.com.

Speaker 12 Get Popeye's scary good Freddy Fazburg box with garlic palm tenders and cheesy bites with marinara sauce.

Speaker 12 Or try the deluxe box with a cupcake cup and a 20-ounce drink and see five nights at Freddy's 2 only in theaters.

Speaker 1 Love that chicken from Popeyes.

Speaker 12 Limited time at participating U.S. restaurants.

Speaker 1 It's wonderful. That's AJ Hawk, the Toxic Tables here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt.
Are you guys okay?

Speaker 1 They're saying you maybe got a concussion from the first hour when you guys are bumping leather heads. Hear this guy? Yeah.

Speaker 1 We go all day. We're fine.
We go all day. Good.

Speaker 3 These things are probably honestly safer than current helmets. No doubt.

Speaker 2 This is basically two Guardian cats.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Just think about all those people, okay? That hate that we have a show on this this particular show.

Speaker 1 Hate it. We're taking up their friend spots, you know, two hours.
You got a lot of people in a building up there in Connecticut that prestigious sports media, you know, that whole thing.

Speaker 1 Was that last week we have the Hulksters press conference? Yeah. A-block, hour one.

Speaker 1 And we got coach Tyreeani. Yeah.
And then now we got you two bumping heads, screaming, hunt, hunt, hunt, for 30 seconds. I want to let you know, it's a nice reminder of what football used to be.

Speaker 1 That's right. They don't mind.
We're a throwback. Yeah.
Nobody ever says that. They don't.
This is a feel-good throwback Friday. It is.
Yeah, it's a Wayback Friday, if you will. Boom.

Speaker 1 Maybe this is what they should do in a Pro Bowl. It's not a bad idea.
Maybe you shouldn't tackle football with leather helmets. Yes.
And then we can just kind of see if that's the right answer.

Speaker 1 Because there's still people that believe you want to get the concussion in the head out of the game, keep it as tackle, have them wear terrible helmets.

Speaker 1 Because players, whenever they have those helmets on, like this meat head right here, they view it as a weapon. Ain't nobody thinking that's a weapon, right?

Speaker 1 No, no way, just your own skull is the weapon. That's right, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 And to be completely honest, I think you could still play normal football with these and you'd be fine.

Speaker 1 Well, that's what they're saying, yeah.

Speaker 1 That's the entire thing. With no face mask, with no face mask, changes it, don't need it.
Yeah, that's the entire thing.

Speaker 2 And you can still use your head. I think you'd be fine.

Speaker 1 Oh, you're saying still same mask. Yeah, same game.
Yeah, same game as

Speaker 1 well. Same game.
I think you'd be okay.

Speaker 2 I truly do. I don't think you need face masks either.

Speaker 1 It looks like Ty's fits a little better than yours. Really? Yeah.

Speaker 1 I thought mine kind of fit like a glove. I don't know.
I don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 2 I think Ty made the comparison.

Speaker 1 Almost look like a 1610 Celtic warrior. Oh, I think it's a good thing.
With this thing on a little bit.

Speaker 1 I was thinking you look like the Czech, the goalie.

Speaker 1 Peter Peter Check. That's a check.
Wow.

Speaker 1 There's like the soccer goalie helmets that they used to have to wear in indoor soccer as a child.

Speaker 1 And then Peter Check said, I'm wearing this for the rest of my life. And he looked awesome.
This is a smart move.

Speaker 1 I'd show up at an indoor soccer tournament and I'd see these kids wearing these helmets and it's like, I want to

Speaker 1 win. Target acquired.
I want to blast a ball through this guy's helmet. But these kids would just be diving into these

Speaker 1 posts. Into the things.
So they said, you're going to wear these helmets. It's going to save everything.
Just made them look like assholes. Sure.

Speaker 1 But I assume it saved some CTE from some of these soccer goalies. But I appreciate you guys really going all football today.
No, yeah. We needed it after last night.

Speaker 1 Last night was the future of football.

Speaker 1 You guys remember what it used to be. Exactly.

Speaker 3 Exactly. When it was a Royal Rumble every Sunday.

Speaker 3 Well said. Well said.
Now, again, I will say the tech innovations in the Spicometer.

Speaker 1 We're getting close. We're getting close.

Speaker 3 The relay race, great. On Sunday, we get the great football race, you know, before the flag game.

Speaker 3 So we still have a couple opportunities here to kind of save the weekend, save the Pro Bowl in general.

Speaker 1 They're going to have to follow the Royal Rumble.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's going to be a tall task. That's going to be tough.
That's going to be tough with what the Royal Rumble is going to be tomorrow.

Speaker 1 Starting tonight with SmackDown, and we have a kickoff to the Royal Rumble weekend starting, I believe, at 6 p.m. Eastern time on Peacock and on all the social media platforms.

Speaker 1 5 p.m. Okay, of course.
5 p.m.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think someone said the Rumble actually starts at 6 p.m.

Speaker 1 Tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow.
I'm talking about the kickoff show. Tonight, yeah.
Tonight, it's at 5 p.m. It's a little early.
Yeah, per day. Per Debo.
That That show's at 5 p.m. tonight.

Speaker 1 Just learning that, I believe me and Cole were a part of hosting that. 5 p.m., that thing is starting.
Okay. Tonight, let's.

Speaker 1 You got a police escort. Dude, I cannot wait.
I cannot wait to kick off Royal Rumble Roll.

Speaker 4 Are you doing a three-hour show? Are you doing a kickoff show that's longer than the actual show?

Speaker 1 That's what it sounds like.

Speaker 1 That's what I'm kind of looking at right now. And I just realized that, baby, but I'll tell you what, we got a lot to talk about.
It's Royal Rumble weekend. Anything can happen.

Speaker 1 Surprises are in store and legacies are going to be changed forever. Let's go to the back room of Hammer Don Bruce Brown.

Speaker 2 I think you meant back room, Hammer Don

Speaker 2 Cowboy.

Speaker 1 You might be. Yeah, that's tough, huh? You might have.
Oh, no, I mean, rattle your cage a little bit. Not even a little bit.
The brain might be bouncing around.

Speaker 1 Not even a little bit. Yeah, a little rock brain in there.
It might be

Speaker 1 with you going.

Speaker 1 That might be happening right now.

Speaker 2 To be clear, honestly, when you started talking about the rumble, one song kept playing in my head over and over again a little bit. So I'm just very excited about the possible banana.

Speaker 2 Which who knows might happen.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Don't get too excited.

Speaker 1 I know, I know. I won't.
I won't. I'm just saying.
You're talking about Hardy Boys.

Speaker 1 Look, perhaps they're in the city. Okay.
Well, everybody's in the city for WrestleCon that is happening down at the convention center.

Speaker 1 It is really treated, and it feels like a WrestleMania weekend in indianapolis indiana and maybe i have no idea but that's what the rural rumble is exactly anything can happen including toxic table maybe making an appearance

Speaker 1 video game yeah i got somewhere to be tomorrow at six i'll just say that oh yeah it's at lucasolo stadium maybe wow

Speaker 1 let's go to the back room of hammer

Speaker 1 bruce

Speaker 1 bruce how you doing bub i'm good how are you it's not bad you know the pro bowl games yesterday uh were fantastic really kicked off this weekend in a beautiful beautiful fashion.

Speaker 1 And thanks for asking. You know, nobody really,

Speaker 1 nobody really sends it my way. It's a staple.
Yeah, it's Bruce Brown. That might be like his shirt.

Speaker 1 Good. How are you?

Speaker 1 And just send it on back. I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 There's some NFL news.

Speaker 1 Brandon Bean, the general manager of the Buffalo Beals, had his postseason presser. We love Brandon Bean.
Absolutely love him. He's been very good to our show.
He's been very good on our show.

Speaker 1 He is a guy who actually speaks. You know, I think he's an actual human.
Here's him chit-chatting about the end of the game, having Josh Allen as his quarterback.

Speaker 13 Yeah, it's frustrating.

Speaker 13 You know, there's only so much I can say.

Speaker 13 You know, I don't,

Speaker 13 you know, we work with the league to try to get clarity, and I'll give them credit.

Speaker 13 They've taken our calls, they've sent video and things like that.

Speaker 2 I just,

Speaker 13 you know, I wish,

Speaker 13 you know, if you're talking about like the fourth down play, that was, you know,

Speaker 13 I feel like he, you know, he got that. I feel that.
I still feel like he got that. I felt that in the moment.
And nothing has changed my mind on that.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 13 You know, and,

Speaker 13 you know, the... the play that we challenged I thought was a good challenge.
I think I'm not sure either player had possession

Speaker 13 on the Bishop Worthy play when when the ball touched the ground.

Speaker 13 You have to have possession. It's like, what is possession? And

Speaker 13 what Matt says is possession

Speaker 13 might not be what Elena says is possession. You know what I mean? It's a little bit, but when the ball touches the ground, someone has to have established possession.
And,

Speaker 13 you know, again, they've given how they see it, and that's their job.

Speaker 13 But it is what it is. I mean,

Speaker 13 those are just like plays plays we didn't make in the game, too.

Speaker 13 So by no means are we saying that's why we lost the game.

Speaker 1 He's saying, hey, listen,

Speaker 1 they've sent us a bunch of angles and they've answered our calls.

Speaker 1 In the moment, I thought he got the first down. And

Speaker 1 I haven't seen shit that has made me believe that we don't. I appreciate him saying that because his fans are going to want him to say that.

Speaker 1 And I appreciate him not just taking like the corporate, yeah, they said daddy, they weren't able to overturn it and the call on the field, yada, yada, yada. Bean's living and dying with this, too.

Speaker 1 We talk about Josh Allen, obviously, having to lose to the Chiefs every single year and how he is going to have to deal with it.

Speaker 1 We talked to Peyton in the first hour about Josh Allen having to continue to go. Brandon Bean, too.
He knows he's staring down Veech in this Chiefs team until he's done. That's just kind of how it is.

Speaker 1 And I respect the hell out of him. And I think all of us who know him hope at some point he's able to get to the confetti.
But that's going to be a tall task, Age.

Speaker 1 And I think everybody kind of understands that.

Speaker 7 Yeah, they do. And I think he handed it well where he didn't use it as a cop-out, didn't say, like, you know, didn't freak out and say, this is why we lost the game.

Speaker 7 Didn't really use it as an excuse, but he definitely let us know that, hey, I completely disagree with what the league is telling me. Yeah, they're communicating, but they're wrong.

Speaker 7 And I still feel the way I feel. But yeah, what do you do? You got to move on.
Like Peyton said, what are you going to do? Sit there and feel sorry for yourself?

Speaker 1 Bishop Worthy situation, he said nobody had possession of it at the time, but somebody had to be in control of it enough for the ball not to move when it hit the ground.

Speaker 1 And I assume that's where the NFL is coming from: is like, even if they were both in possession of it, the ball didn't budge when it hit the ground, which is what the modern ruling.

Speaker 1 I don't know when they changed that, because obviously, what's a catch, what isn't a catch, has been debated ad nauseum over the last 10 years. Calvin Johnson, Des Bront, you name it.

Speaker 1 There are so many of those moments.

Speaker 1 But I think the common understanding now is if, as long as the ground doesn't affect the ball or help the catch at all, they are not going to overturn it or say that the ground, it's down.

Speaker 1 So when that ball hits and it doesn't move, even though it was very clearly who's in possession of it, I think the NFL can say, well, we don't care. It's about did the ball move or not on the ground.

Speaker 1 And Brandon Bean doesn't want to hear that. Brandon Bean doesn't want to hear, well, nobody's in possession of it.
It hits the ground, shouldn't it be? Isn't that dead?

Speaker 1 If somebody's, if we're touching it, we're out of bounds, it's dead. This one touches the ground, nobody says it shouldn't be.

Speaker 1 So I can see why he's upset, you know, and all the things that the internet's conspiring about their chiefs getting the refs call. Think about what Bean and the boys behind the scenes are going.

Speaker 1 You know, they're kicking. Yeah.
I assume every aggregated video of every call that has not been made or the bill is getting screwed. They've watched that in the building a thousand times.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 At least people are going to bed. Thank you for doing that.
Brandon Bean had to rebuild the team. Josh Allen is going to have to rebuild a team again.

Speaker 1 They're going to have to go in and try to start at the bottom of the mountain to get all the way back to the AFC championship next year.

Speaker 1 And I think we all believe in Bean and we all believe in Josh Allen.

Speaker 1 Stinks for Bill's Mafia that you continue to have to go for this, but at least, like Peyton said, it happened at the end of the season as opposed to, or at the end of the playoffs, as opposed to at the end of the regular season.

Speaker 3 Yeah, Josh is starting to get into that point now where, like, you know, Rodgers was for a long time where Mahomes is, where it's almost like no matter who they bring in receiver-wise, Josh is going to elevate them and make them much, much better.

Speaker 3 But you also have to wonder.

Speaker 1 Excuse me. Wow, no.

Speaker 3 I know. I just got a little swallowed bug.

Speaker 1 Choked up. Yeah.
Getting choked up. Choked up by old school football.
Exactly. And Brandon Bean having a.

Speaker 1 All the above. Yeah.

Speaker 3 But you have to wonder if they did bring in like a high-end wide receiver one, like how much that would help just open up the entire offense because

Speaker 3 the team was better overall, and maybe, you know, like some of the stuff, like the locker room stuff with Diggs, like they kind of avoided that and didn't have to deal with that this year.

Speaker 3 But it's also no question, like, if Diggs is out there, you know, does he make that catch on third down?

Speaker 3 Not to throw, you know, Dalton under the bus, but like they need a guy that when you absolutely, like, like the Chiefs going out and getting,

Speaker 3 God, what's the, who they traded for? D-Hop.

Speaker 1 Yeah, D-Hop.

Speaker 3 Like, getting a guy who you know, hey, third and eight, like, we can go to this guy. He's going to catch it.
He's going to move the chains.

Speaker 3 Like, I feel like the Bills still need a guy like that for Josh Allen, so he doesn't feel like he has to do everything on his own.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Kincaid was almost going to become that guy for them. I think they're still trying to Shakir became a great weapon for them, and it'll continue to grow in that particular role.

Speaker 1 You lose wide receiver one, Stephon Diggs.

Speaker 1 They said it got better as a whole, you know, and then obviously a conversation as soon as it's over is like, well, if you had a number one, and they're going to find things.

Speaker 1 You know, you're going to find things to kind of throw at the rust of construction. If you don't win a Super Bowl, that's certainly when it's getting brought back up.

Speaker 2 Yeah, also kind of not being touched by like, what happened to Amari Cooper? You know, like Amari Cooper, when he got traded to Buffalo, obviously was known as that guy.

Speaker 2 guy, you know, and kind of everything. Did he not play as much? Like, to be honest, I don't really remember him being on the field.

Speaker 1 ball early. I think.
Didn't he get targeted early on, like, a little quick? Yeah, but

Speaker 2 it feels like he either never got fully used to the offense or something because he is that guy. Like, he is someone you can rely on on an every-down basis.

Speaker 2 And, you know, we heard Saban talk about him. Like, all the guy does is work.
So it was just weird kind of how they used him or how they didn't use him.

Speaker 2 And I wonder if there is more to that just because, like, Mac Hollins kind of became their deep ball.

Speaker 1 He had the most touchdowns of the wide receiver room for the Buffalo Beals. The animal costume,

Speaker 1 he had a great catch. Yeah, he did.
Who, Elmo? What do you mean? I think it was him. Was it Animal?

Speaker 2 I thought it was Sesame Street.

Speaker 1 Was it?

Speaker 4 Why did he go back on the field with the animal suit on after I saw that? Was that real?

Speaker 1 I didn't, I don't, like, how does he exit these games?

Speaker 2 You know, like... Same way.
Just with his head down, just a little more embarrassing. Yeah, just last.

Speaker 1 Okay. Well, hey, I respect it.
He is who he is.

Speaker 4 I think it's like a TikTok gimmick, and he does a lot on there. Oh, no.
Dressed in those costumes.

Speaker 1 Oh, no. Well, they need to figure that one out.

Speaker 1 They need to figure that one out.

Speaker 1 Hopefully, the Bills are able to continue to be great with Josh Allen as quarterback. We assume that'll be the case.
Matt Collins, obviously a dog, walks around barefoot everywhere. Good for them.

Speaker 1 Only one team is going to be happy at the end of the year. Only one fan base is going to be able to say we had the best team in the league.
So no matter when you lose, it's going to suck.

Speaker 1 And people are obviously going to throw, you know, accusations on what's good, done, better. Joining us now is a man who does his job perfectly.

Speaker 1 Senior NBA insider for ESPN, friend of the program, ladies and gentlemen, Sean Shirania. Yeah, Shami.

Speaker 1 Shami, we talked about the Buffalo Beals, you know, and they made some decisions and they felt like they had a better locker room culture, environment, team aspect of that all.

Speaker 1 You know, that's a conversation around the NBA a lot. Where do we stand on the Jimmy Butler Miami Heat saga? Because I did see Jimmy Butler's card got declined because he was unemployed.

Speaker 1 Because he started suspension. So he's acknowledging that it's an interesting situation.
Where do we sit currently with the heat in Jimmy Butler?

Speaker 1 And how likely is it for him to be moved by February 6th?

Speaker 9 Yeah,

Speaker 9 he's definitely not unemployed. He might be unemployed right now because he's suspended.
But between now and the February 6th NBA trade deadline, by the way, big week.

Speaker 9 You got WWE, you got Super Bowl week next week, and then the NBA trade deadline, February 6th. Miami and Jimmy Butler,

Speaker 9 they have the same goal right now between now and next Thursday, and that's finding a trade for Butler out of Miami. They are an active conversation.

Speaker 8 And tonight, actually on ESPN, I would call it the Jimmy Butler Bowl.

Speaker 9 I know we got the Super Bowl next weekend, but this might be the Jimmy Butler Bowl tonight between the Warriors and the Suns.

Speaker 9 They're both two of the teams that I would look at right now that are shaping up to be likely landing spots for Jimmy Butler.

Speaker 9 The Warriors, we know all season, they've been trying to get a star player to go with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green.

Speaker 9 And now when you think about Jimmy Butler and the motivation that Miami has, I think a lot of people are looking at the Warriors right now in a potential situation. Do you strike right now with him?

Speaker 9 And we know Phoenix, we've been talking about Phoenix for the last month and a half, two months regarding Jimmy Butler. That pursuit remains strong.

Speaker 9 It might be a deal that takes three, four, five teams, but the Suns are trying every avenue to potentially get a deal done. He has been suspended indefinitely.

Speaker 9 I think, you know, the Miami has done a little bit to kind of poke him, you know, to an extent.

Speaker 9 You think about it, he comes back to the team after a two-game suspension, suspension, shows up to their shootaround earlier this week, and basically Eric Spolser, from what I'm told, in front of the entire team, tells Jimmy Butler, tells the rest of the roster that Jimmy Butler will be coming off the bench moving forward for the heat this season, that Haywood High Smith will be their starter.

Speaker 9 And from that point on, Jimmy Butler, I'm told, just exited stage right, stage left, whatever you want to call it. He left the shoot around,

Speaker 9 and that might be the last time Jimmy Butler is going to be around the heat. But Miami wants shorter-term contracts.
They want draft assets, and we'll see if they're going to be satisfied with that.

Speaker 9 Uh, between now and Thursday, boys, how are we doing?

Speaker 1 Welcome to Shoot Around. Uh, as we all have talked about and agree, this guy sucks, and uh, yeah, you're not starting for us anymore.

Speaker 1 This guy's going to you'll be coming off the bench, and where you're sitting on the bench, all the way at the end, get away from everybody.

Speaker 1 We even want trainers, physical therapists, and security people separating you from the rest of the team. And if you get some minutes, you'll get some minutes, okay, Jimmy.
Is that okay?

Speaker 1 No, it's not okay. Well, are you gonna leave? You're gonna leave?

Speaker 9 He walked right out. Pat, the last time Jimmy Butler played in a legitimate game, I think he had 36 points, 19 rebounds, 10 assists.

Speaker 1 So Jimmy Butler

Speaker 4 can play.

Speaker 9 We haven't seen him play much for the Heat, though.

Speaker 1 The NBA is the greatest.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's talk and continue to talk. Trade deadline.
Connor has a question for you.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Sean's a guy that kind of popped up this week, DeAaron Fox. Allegedly, I believe you said, or maybe it was someone else said, that he wanted to go to San Antonio, possibly team up with Wemby.

Speaker 2 Is that still where we stand with Fox? Or have there been other teams kind of sliding in there trying to get him?

Speaker 9 BC, De'Aaron Fox,

Speaker 9 from sources that I've heard around the league,

Speaker 9 he wants to play in San Antonio. That is his...
targeted preferred destination. He's a free agent in 2026.
So theoretically, could the Kings just wait until the summer?

Speaker 9 Could they just wait until next season? Of course.

Speaker 9 But I think what we've seen here is the Kings getting out ahead of the inevitable and the inevitability of a trade around De'Arn Fox happening in the summertime. And they are

Speaker 9 engaged in conversations.

Speaker 9 They've gotten dozens of calls, offers over the last 48 hours on De'Aaron Fox. They're in conversations with multiple teams, including San Antonio, from what I'm told.

Speaker 9 So I expect them to continue these conversations with multiple teams on a De'Aaron Fox trade between now and Thursday.

Speaker 9 Another guy with a potential likelihood to get traded, he completely jumps to the top of the available market.

Speaker 9 You know, unless there's another guy that pops up between now and next Thursday, I don't know if we're going to see an in-your-prime superstar player that's a max contract guy pop up like we have here with De'Aaron Fox.

Speaker 9 He changes the game. He's a prime-time player.
And you pair him with a Victor Wemanyama. We've been talking for the last year.
When are the Spurs going to get Wemby some help?

Speaker 9 When are they going to get him some help? Here is their opportunity. Here's their chance.
And we'll see if the Spurs sees it.

Speaker 1 What would that mean for Chris Paul?

Speaker 9 I mean, Chris Paul, I think he has a role with the Spurs organization. He's shown as a leader.

Speaker 9 I have not heard whether he would be a part of these conversations. I mean, theoretically, if the Kings,

Speaker 9 if the make-or-break part of the deal were Chris Paul, I don't know how San Antonio would react.

Speaker 9 My feel for the situation is Stefan Castle, Devin Vessell, all the draft picks. They've got up to nine first-round picks.
They've got dozens of second-round picks. They've got all their pick swaps.

Speaker 9 So San Antonio has a ton of assets and players that they can send to San Antonio.

Speaker 9 This could be a salary-lacing deal with a bunch of picks. This could be a young player or two with a couple picks or maybe one pick.

Speaker 9 But that's what they're trying to figure out here in these negotiations.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the Spurs have something special in Wemby. Now, granted, they can't beat the Pacers in France.

Speaker 1 Okay, what have you done with me lately? They lost. That's what they did.
They lost.

Speaker 2 They played twice.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but the last time...

Speaker 2 They lost. They lost.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so the Pacers flew out of France victors as the Americans fly back to Indiana.

Speaker 9 I think you've got to flush both games. I think both teams have to just flush both.

Speaker 9 That's what I think.

Speaker 1 The Pacers walked into Wemby's hometown and said, bonjour, sava, and then handled it. Gama.
Ain't flushing that. Wemby's special, right? He's a special, special guy.

Speaker 1 When will that team have a chance to actually compete? Or is it right now because they have him?

Speaker 9 Well, if you get Darren Fox, then you put yourself in position to compete for a playoff berth.

Speaker 9 And I don't think you look at a situation where you're going from point A all the the way to championship. It takes steps, right?

Speaker 9 Even Oklahoma City, the last few years, they went through a couple years of tanking, gradually got better and better, make it to the playoffs, get bounced.

Speaker 9 And then now you're looking at them as a perennial title contender. And we'll see Chet Holmgren, hopefully back second half of the season.
But I think San Antonio is looking at it as gradual steps.

Speaker 9 You bring in De'Aaron Fox potentially at point guard or another point guard in the summer. And then probably the next area of growth or potential add would be the wing position.

Speaker 9 They have Harrison Barnes right now. I I think they're very content with him

Speaker 9 as a veteran. But how can you continue to surround Deeron Fox with players? I think that's what Deeron Fox or and Wemen Yama, if you have De'Aaron Fox, how do you surround them?

Speaker 9 But this would be a step 1,000%.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's stay in the Western Conference. AJ has a question for you.

Speaker 7 Shams, what about the Lakers and JJ Reddick's first year as a head coach? Are they going to be active at all before the trade deadline? And what's the outlook like for the rest of this season?

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's every year. Need a center.
Yeah, every year.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it is.

Speaker 9 Anthony Davis told me a couple, it was a week ago, a week and a half ago, that he wants a center and he wants a guard potentially as well, but that he feels more comfortable playing the fourth spot and having a five.

Speaker 9 Well, I will say they have two first-round picks they can trade.

Speaker 1 They got one in 2029. They got one in 2030.

Speaker 1 I want a coach. Give me a wing.
I want to win a Royal Rumble. Ownership of the team.

Speaker 9 Well, listen, listen. I think if the priority on the priority list, I think the center spot is probably top of mind for Anthony Davis.

Speaker 9 I think Anthony Davis and LeBron James, from my understanding, they don't want the Lakers to go mortgage their future. That's not what this is about.
But it's how can we be aggressive?

Speaker 9 How could we be active before the trade deadline to go get a couple pieces? Anthony Davis told me, I think we're one or two pieces away from a championship.

Speaker 9 And when you're a player who's in the prime of his career, 31 years old, he just had a 40-20 game the other day.

Speaker 9 He's going to be out some period of time next week. He's going to be re-evaluated with an abdominal strain,

Speaker 9 which was a tough setback. But you get him back in the lineup before the all-star break, and he obviously wants a center.
We'll see if they'll be able to do it.

Speaker 9 But they have two first-round picks they can play with. They have some tradable contracts as well.
So I do think the Lakers will be,

Speaker 9 you know, active. I think the Lakers are doing their due dots right now.
I think Rob Palinka in that front office are trying to see what they can get in the market right now.

Speaker 1 I saw Brawny with a nasty and one. Are they thinking about trading Brawny, James? Are they thinking about maybe

Speaker 1 picking up a first round or any other pieces

Speaker 9 yeah Pat you know I've I said on the show in the spring LeBron James to my knowledge is gonna play one more season maybe two LeBron James then went went on the record about that and said he probably has one or two more years left I don't see them doing anything with Bronnie James I hate to break this news I don't see the Lakers doing anything with Bronnie James while LeBron James is on that this was a part of the entire process right this is why he's on the Lakers like hey this is, there's going to be growth.

Speaker 9 He has played a lot better in the G League. You know, that's

Speaker 4 that was a part of all this.

Speaker 9 That is a part of all this. And honestly, when I watch him play,

Speaker 9 I think playing the point guard spot, I think seeing him handle the ball more, he's able to do that more in the G League. We saw him do it a little bit in summer league.

Speaker 9 I really think point guard is a spot that, you know, he has to continue to

Speaker 9 be comfortable with and embrace. And I think that is the maturation.

Speaker 9 That is any type of maturation with a player that came up really as a combo as a two guard How do you define yourself at the NBA level?

Speaker 4 Love that.

Speaker 1 Can't wait to watch him continue to develop because you got people on our channel on ESPN saying LeBron stop doing this to your kid. Yeah this week

Speaker 1 as a parent.

Speaker 1 What are you doing? Yeah, stop it. It's like I don't think LeBron feels that way at all.
No, no.

Speaker 1 I think LeBron feels the complete opposite and they probably assume in a year from now everybody's gonna have to eat their words. Maybe that'll be the case.
Lakers always looking for something in it.

Speaker 1 Always. Lakers are always looking for something.
Hopefully they're able to get it this year. Uh, speaking of get it this year, we're getting some superstar down in New Orleans.

Speaker 1 Ty has a question for you.

Speaker 3 Yeah, you know what's coming, Chammy. Um, what's going on with Zion? Now, listen, he, you know, he's taking a lot of shit for being hurt and sitting out and everything.

Speaker 3 Actually, I okay, yeah, we have the clip. Can we just please run this?

Speaker 4 Let me make this clear to everybody out there.

Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 4 if I can play in the back-to-backs,

Speaker 1 I would.

Speaker 4 I physically, yes, I can,

Speaker 1 but oh,

Speaker 4 I work for the Pelicans. They have decided that based off the numbers, you know, it's not smart to do that right now.
So, you know, if that's what they feel, I'm rocking with them on that.

Speaker 4 But yes, if I could play in a back-to-back, I would.

Speaker 3 Okay, so with that in mind, first of all, Zion looks jacked.

Speaker 1 Yes, he does.

Speaker 8 I've been saying, I've been saying on this show for a really long time, he is in the best shape.

Speaker 9 He is the lightest he's weighed.

Speaker 3 He weighs to it he lists at 284 i'm telling you guys he's a zion pick so yeah exactly but oh oh zion pick i love that he looks good out there dude the question though is is the rubber gonna meet the road at some point here because it sounds like he he wants to play and the pelicans are still saying like hey listen pal sit down and shut up and maybe eat a couple more beignets give him that again so that you know this can be your fault and not our fault

Speaker 9 so let me translate what zion winson is saying he's basically saying

Speaker 9 him and the performance staff, the medical staff with the Pelicans, they have a plan in place on how they want to see the second half, the final stretch of this NBA season playing out.

Speaker 9 He just came back from a hamstring injury here. He missed almost two months with a hamstring injury.
That hamstring of his, both legs, it has been something chronic.

Speaker 9 He's been having hamstring injuries throughout his NBA career. He is in the best shape.
So it stinks in a lot of ways that he had this hamstring injury this year.

Speaker 9 Because in the past, you could say maybe his conditioning was right, whatever. But now to have it when he's in the best shape of his career, it is difficult.
But they have a plan in place.

Speaker 9 Of course, Zion Williamson wants to play back-to-backs. But you look at the plan that they have in place for him coming off a hamstring injury.

Speaker 9 And then the fact, like, let's look at it, where the Pelicans are in the standings.

Speaker 9 If you have a player, a franchise player, we have already seen evidence when Zion Williamson is healthy, He is a game changer for an organization. They really believe that in New Orleans.

Speaker 9 So why throw him out there after two months of hamstring injuries? I mean, just logically. This is just me talking logically.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you've been talking logically for the Pelicans for the last three years.

Speaker 1 I'm tired of it.

Speaker 1 That's their protocol.

Speaker 1 That's their protocol. It's like putting the guy on the damn court.

Speaker 3 Let the guy.

Speaker 9 I will say, though, this is interesting that he spoke out like this.

Speaker 9 And I think he wanted to make it very clear that me potentially not playing back-to-backs, me, you know, a couple years, I think it was a couple years ago in the playoffs, his, his stepdad went on the radio in New Orleans and said, my, you know, my son can play.

Speaker 9 They're just not throwing him out there.

Speaker 9 Like, you know, I think we saw a pattern, right, where it's like, oh, he's ready, or he might be physically there, but the Pelicans want him to go through X, Y, Z.

Speaker 9 I think this is the first time we've seen Zion speak up. So that part is very interesting.
But to my knowledge, these sides are on the same page on his quote-unquote protocol.

Speaker 1 All right, Shams, we appreciate the hell out of you, man. Keep doing what you're doing.
Have a great weekend. Happy Royal Rumble weekend, ladies and gentlemen.
Sham Sharonyak.

Speaker 1 Can you feel it? Can you feel it, AJ?

Speaker 7 What am I feeling?

Speaker 1 We have maybe the greatest coach of all time about to join us. Oh, yeah.
In a matter of seconds.

Speaker 7 I can feel it. You're right.
I can feel it.

Speaker 1 Two Super Bowls in his first four seasons as a head coach. Maybe he's not.

Speaker 3 Some big, dumb dip shit.

Speaker 1 Guy's been chastised for everything he has done. Maybe he's not.

Speaker 3 Some big dumb dipshit.

Speaker 1 Guy who ended up with home field advantage in the NFC championship game somehow. Maybe he's not.

Speaker 3 Some big dumb dipshit.

Speaker 1 All people wanted to say all years that this guy was definitely.

Speaker 3 A big dumb dip shit. Lower thirds were saying, this guy's a big dumb dip shit.
Then the next week he would say, still a big dumb dip shit.

Speaker 1 Then he'd win again

Speaker 1 and it would say, may have won despite the big dumb shit

Speaker 1 ladies and gentlemen joining us now is a guy who might not be

Speaker 3 a big dumb dip shit

Speaker 1 paisano head coach of the philadelphia eagles nick sharian

Speaker 1 coach how you doing man

Speaker 1 good how about you guys good hey so as we were trying to fill time there as we were connecting with you we had to relive the entire season that was that you were getting talked about all year and all you did was continue to win games games, win games, win games.

Speaker 1 And all anybody wanted to talk about is, is this guy a guy that can lead a team? And then whenever your team starts winning, now everybody's saying, what does this guy even do? It's like a head coach.

Speaker 1 You get next to no credit for anything. Do you let that into your world? Have you let that into your world? How are you framing everything at this standpoint?

Speaker 1 Because two Super Bowls in your first four seasons, historic shit, brother. You're doing great.
You're doing great, Coach. Thanks.

Speaker 14 Yeah, yeah. Thanks, guys.
You know,

Speaker 14 you try not to let outside noise in and listen. Obviously, you got to hear some of it when you go through the media circuit and everything like that.
But, you know,

Speaker 14 I find it a moment where I can kind of connect with the guys

Speaker 14 that are going through things, right?

Speaker 14 You know, going through criticism, going through things like that.

Speaker 14 So I really look at it as a positive in that aspect that, you know, I can relate with guys that are going through some of their own things that they go through.

Speaker 1 Okay, so let's talk about that. And I'm sure the boys don't mind, you know, sharing that moment with you.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts, he's talked about a lot, everything he does.

Speaker 1 He looks too cool, he acts too cool, he sounds too cool. He's had too much success in his life.
He has haters for those reasons. Then people start to question his arm.
He can't break down a defense.

Speaker 1 He doesn't know what he's doing. He's coming off his best game of the season, I think, in the NFC Championship.
How do you feel about Jalen Hurts being your team's leader?

Speaker 1 And how do you feel about the mentality of Jalen going into another Super Bowl?

Speaker 14 Yeah, I think Jalen and I go through a lot of the same things in that aspect, which we can relate with each other on that.

Speaker 14 All I know is all he does is win and he puts us in positions to win. He's selfless.
He doesn't really care how we win and

Speaker 14 just goes about his business every day. And so I don't think that's talked about enough about

Speaker 14 how well he's done as far as just leading the football team, playing quarterbacks more than

Speaker 14 the stats that show up on the paper at the end of the game, right? It's getting in and out of plays.

Speaker 14 It's taking care of the football. It's making the right throws and the right reads.
And then the, you know, knowing the right time to run.

Speaker 14 But he's just been in complete control and comes to work every day, unfazed by anything. And yeah, I can't say enough good things about him.

Speaker 14 I said what I said about him at the, you know, after the post-game last time on the podium there.

Speaker 14 You know, I just think he's a stud and

Speaker 14 wouldn't want anybody else leading this football team.

Speaker 1 He wins all the time. He also has to deal with another offensive coordinator in Kellen Moore this particular season.

Speaker 1 Kelly Moe, if you go back to whenever he was at Dallas, he was blamed as a guy who's a quarterback who wants to run up the numbers and throw the ball all over the place.

Speaker 1 This year, you guys get maybe the greatest free agent signing in the history of the NFL with Saquon Barkley.

Speaker 1 You have the best offensive line in the league, and he has been very comfortable relying on that, even though it got really loud. How has it been watching Kellen Moore work?

Speaker 1 How has it been knowing that your team is a run first, even though you have the ability to throw offense in 2025, which is very abnormal.

Speaker 14 Yeah, I think obviously hats off to Kellen to be able to adapt and our coaches be able to adapt to whatever we need to do to win.

Speaker 14 Again,

Speaker 14 we don't get enamored by what everyone else thinks it should look like.

Speaker 14 Our job as coaches, our job as players is to win football games. And so, yeah, I really admire how Kellen has called the games and

Speaker 14 how he's led the offense. He's done a great job.

Speaker 14 And again,

Speaker 14 this is why you block out anything that things that you can't control. Because at the end of the day, all our job is to do is to win by any, if we throw it 50 times and run it once, great.

Speaker 14 If we throw it, if we run it, vice versa, whatever, run it 50 times and

Speaker 14 pass it once, we don't care as long as we are doing the things we need to do to win. And that,

Speaker 14 you know, again, I know a lot of people have an opinion after games and this and that, but that's not our job to listen to that.

Speaker 14 Our job is to make sure we're doing everything we can do to put this team in a position to wing football games.

Speaker 1 You guys are a run first team. The stats say you have like 700 and some rushing attempts, 500 and some passing attempts, but you have two absolute star.
wide receivers.

Speaker 1 They were the ones that dumped the Gatorade on you. Devontae and AJ were the ones doing the bath.

Speaker 1 There were some times during the season, which is going to happen, I think, especially with a team that you're leading, where they were trying to drive a wedge baby.

Speaker 1 Like, hey, what do we have these stars for if we're not going to throw the ball to them? This is 2025 and we're running the ball. Them being the ones to do that, I think was a big message.

Speaker 1 How have you communicated with your team this year, with those guys in particular, knowing that they're going to have to make a huge play in a huge moment regardless?

Speaker 14 Yeah,

Speaker 14 yeah, I noticed that too. And I really am close with Devontae and AJ.
And I think it's my past of coaching and playing wide receiver.

Speaker 14 I always take a liking to those guys that are out there on the perimeter.

Speaker 14 And, you know, for them and i said that to them for those guys to be the ones that you know dumped the gator eight on me at the end of the game that meant a lot because of the relationship i have with those two guys um and uh yeah they're studs and um and how selfless they've been throughout the entire season of because they know they can take over games and and jalen knows he can take over a game and and saquon obviously can take over a game and um you know it's it's this is the way we've won and the and the way games have played out and if if you watch the tape when you when you watch the tape right you're you're seeing some of those saquan runs like i don't know i saw some stat about saquon having uh 60 you know seven runs over 60 yards which is some sort of record well that doesn't happen unless you get blocks downfield from the wide receivers right it gets past the first level with the offensive line and the tight ends and jalen holding the back side uh but those those big ones turn into uh even bigger ones when uh those receivers are blocking down the field or running off down the field to run their man out of there.

Speaker 1 Everybody's bought in.

Speaker 3 Maybe this guy isn't a big dumb dip shit.

Speaker 1 Maybe. Maybe.

Speaker 1 Maybe not. I don't know.
Maybe not. Go ahead, AJ.

Speaker 7 Coach, you guys brought in Vic Fangio as a defensive coordinator this year.

Speaker 7 And your defense is, like you said, when you watch the tape of these guys, it's fun to watch them attack the football and seem to be such disciplined tacklers and just a great defense at all three levels.

Speaker 7 What kind of confidence, I guess, has Vic Fangio brought to you and the rest of that team?

Speaker 14 Yeah, a ton, a ton of confidence, just his experience.

Speaker 14 He's been an experienced coordinator in this NFL, a successful coordinator in the NFL for a long, long time, you know, decades, not years, decades. And so you have,

Speaker 14 that's so comforting, you know, on my end. And he just does a great job of calling the game, leading the defense.

Speaker 14 Can't say enough good things about him. And, you know, I think that exactly what you said, the first couple of things you said is

Speaker 14 I'm happy you talked about the tackling first because I think we can get so enamored with, oh, look at this scheme and look at that scheme and look how this happens here.

Speaker 14 But at the end of the day, the truce of football from when we played as little kids to high school to college to professional level, the truce of football is did you tackle better than the other team?

Speaker 14 Did you block the struct better than the other team? Did you take away the football better than the other team? Did you protect the ball better than the other team?

Speaker 14 Did you catch the ball better than the other team? And

Speaker 14 did you block better on the offensive side than the other team? Like, that's where the big plays happen.

Speaker 14 That's where the explosive things happen that are set up by the fundamentals of the talented players that are playing the game.

Speaker 1 What did Coach Siriani's dad say was the most important part of the team?

Speaker 3 O-line, D-line, Holly.

Speaker 1 So we talked about your O-line, your run game, your D-line. I mean, obviously, you got dogs across the board.
This Jalen Carter guy, he might be superhuman. They're talking like 98% of the snaps.

Speaker 1 And I know the rest of the group is great. Can you talk about that front and how important that is to the rest of the team?

Speaker 14 Yeah, like you said right there,

Speaker 14 you got to be in great. You guys know

Speaker 14 you got to be in great shape to play that percentage of plays. There's not a lot of defensive linemen that are playing that percentage of plays.
And,

Speaker 14 you know, because the coaches will take them out if they feel like they're gassed a little bit to put them in. So what a, you know, we all see the.

Speaker 14 We all see the film of what Jalen Carter can do, right? And all the things that he's shown. This is why we're talking about him right now.

Speaker 14 But the off-the-field things that he's worked so hard on to being in great, you know, weighing what he's supposed to weigh, being in great shape, practicing his butt off, you know, working on the fundamentals.

Speaker 14 I mean, you talk about a guy who knows how to take away the football. He's got a knack for taking away the football.
And again,

Speaker 14 some of the plays that you're seeing, it's him defeating blocks, getting off blocks, and then being able to take away a football. The way we kind of see,

Speaker 14 you know, DBs take it away, you know, to be quite honest with you, is how he kind of comes after the ball.

Speaker 14 So can't say enough about Jalen and his work ethic to put himself in this position where he is playing 98%. And then, you know, the D-line, as you guys know, has to work as one, right?

Speaker 14 It is such a, you know, those, those guys have to be one, right? It's a group rush mentality. And I think our guys have really embraced, you know, not caring who gets what,

Speaker 14 group rush this quarterback, however we need to, to make sure we're getting the pressure we need to get and letting the secondary do their thing in the back end.

Speaker 1 Everybody's all in. Maybe he is in some big dumb dip shit.
Maybe not. And Brandon Graham tears his tricep week 12.
We saw that you guys opened up the practice window yesterday for him.

Speaker 1 And obviously you don't want to give any competitive advantage away, but that would be a huge story if he was back for your team.

Speaker 1 I assume back in the building active is already a big boost for the boys.

Speaker 14 Yeah, you know,

Speaker 14 he's never really left. He's been here through the whole the whole time and he's been at every meeting, every practice,

Speaker 14 in here getting rehab to see if he could put himself in a position to be able to play again if we got to this point. And here we are.
We'll see. You know, we'll see.
Had a good run yesterday, and

Speaker 14 we'll see where that goes. I don't know yet, but I know the guys and myself and the coaches are really excited to have him back because he's a great leader and a great teammate.

Speaker 14 You can't, I don't know. I don't know if y'all have talked to BG, but you can't have a bad day when you talk to him.

Speaker 14 He's going to bring everybody up with him, and that's what you want from one of your captains.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, he's all in. Maybe he is in some big dumb dipshit.
Maybe not. Maybe not.
I mean, I don't know. Maybe that's the case.
He did something that was massive for the turn of the season.

Speaker 1 Connor has a question.

Speaker 2 Yeah, coach, after you won the NFC championship, a lot of people were pointing back to the beginning of the season and said, hey, when this guy shaved his head, everything kind of came together.

Speaker 2 Maybe he has to do that every single year. Do you feel the same way about that? Was that some sort of kind of ritual for you in order to turn the team around? And did Big Dom shave your head?

Speaker 2 Is that who kind of put this whole thing together?

Speaker 14 If I felt that that had anything to do, like I'm the last person who's superstitious. And in fact, my superstition is to break everything that I, what did I do last week?

Speaker 14 All right, I'm doing the opposite. Nice.
Nice. And so if I thought that was something that helped, I would definitely do it.
But I don't think that it didn't really.

Speaker 14 I don't think that had any effect on anything.

Speaker 14 You know what? At that point, you know, Fridays are the days we usually get haircuts here. And I had a busy Friday and I did what I did.
Yeah, you got to do it.

Speaker 1 You got to do it. Take it off.
Hey, good-shaped head. You got a good shaped head for the future if you end up losing that thing.

Speaker 1 You know, if that thing becomes a convertible and they just want to take it all off, I think you're in a good spot, Paison. Now, obviously, we appreciate you taking time out of your schedule.

Speaker 1 Biggest game of the year. You've done it twice now.
Ty has a question for you.

Speaker 3 Yeah, coach, first and foremost, just keep winning. And you can just shove everything negative people say right back down their fucking throats.
You know, so they'll give you respect eventually.

Speaker 3 But I am curious, is there anything that you can take away from that first first Super Bowl? I know, obviously, the rosters are different, but some of the key components are still the same.

Speaker 3 Is there anything you can take away from the first time you played the Chiefs in the Super Bowl to now that you think will set you up for success this time around?

Speaker 14 You know, that's a good question. And every time you go through a different style of game,

Speaker 14 you kind of look back and say, hey, what are the things we did well? What are the things we didn't do well? And I'm talking about the stuff off the field.

Speaker 14 You do that with

Speaker 14 every time you play.

Speaker 14 And what can we do better? And so that was definitely a conversation we had two years ago, you know, and we got back.

Speaker 14 And there are some things that we're doing, you know, without getting into them really.

Speaker 14 There are some things we're doing differently, you know,

Speaker 14 you know, based off some schedule things, some

Speaker 14 travel things. And,

Speaker 14 you know, because at the end of the day, getting back to it, right? We got, when we got to the playoffs, you know, we talked about what's going to be important for the playoffs.

Speaker 14 You don't get to the playoffs. I'm talking in-game now.
You don't get to the playoffs or get to the Super Bowl and say, okay, here's what we're going to do now.

Speaker 14 It just doesn't, it doesn't work that way. You do the things you've done well.

Speaker 14 You try to continue to get better at your fundamentals, your tackling, your ball security, all those things that I mentioned.

Speaker 14 And you just try to get a little bit better, get little increments of getting better each day to put yourself in a position to succeed on Sunday. And so that's what we're doing.

Speaker 14 But there are definitely some scheduled things that we tweaked and some travel, a couple of travel things we tweaked as well.

Speaker 1 coach sabin uh whenever the coaches would call him before these playoff games he would say at dinner and on game day he'd be like if there was a better way to do things shouldn't we be doing that every week shouldn't in that don't you think don't only don't you think we should maybe do that at the beginning of the season then we we kind of have it all scheduling though itinerary for super bowl vastly different and dealing with all the bullshit that comes with the super bowl ten thousand five hundred and forty seven bucks average resale ticket price right now it's going to be a zoo down there, Coach Siriani.

Speaker 1 Last question here for you from AJ.

Speaker 7 Coach,

Speaker 7 on the lighter side, what have you got your ticket situation all settled? Do you have your family and everyone all on board?

Speaker 7 This is obviously not your first rodeo, so you understand, but have you gotten that squared away yet?

Speaker 14 Yeah,

Speaker 14 we tried to take care of everything early in the week. And then what I said to the guys, like, again, I'm big.
And like, if I'm saying something to the guys, then I better be doing it myself.

Speaker 14 And so early in the week, we had to get everything taken care of. And then if you have to do anything past Wednesday, you pass that thing on to your to your wife.

Speaker 14 You know, you pass that thing on to your girlfriend.

Speaker 14 You pass whatever you need on to your mom. You pass it on to the people in this building.
All our mindset should be is focused completely on the game.

Speaker 14 And if I'm telling them that at all times and I'm scurrying around trying to get a ticket for my buddy, then I'm full of shit. So that's not, I'm not doing that right now.

Speaker 14 I've passed all that on and yeah, they're handling it now.

Speaker 1 Last question for me, and I know you're very busy. Once again, thank you for the time.
You guys are like favorite.

Speaker 1 You're underdogs in the game by one and a half points, but America's like pulling for you. This is very abnormal for, I think, Philadelphia Eagles and for a Nick Siriani-led team.

Speaker 1 Have you told the boys, have you talked about it? They're saying like the percentage of tickets sold, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, the percentage of bets, Philadelphia Eagles.

Speaker 1 Like it is the world's kind of rallying around you right now because you're going against the Chiefs, obviously. Have you talked about that with the boys? And does it feel weird?

Speaker 1 Because that's never the case for you guys.

Speaker 14 Yeah, we have. I haven't talked to them about that.
But, you know, I know Philly fans travel and I know they travel well.

Speaker 14 It really doesn't matter where we've been all season.

Speaker 14 We've had so many fans there. So just because, you know, it's the Super Bowl, I wasn't expecting anything different.

Speaker 14 So it's going to be exciting to have, you know, our fans there making sure it's loud in that game for the Chiefs to be able to handle.

Speaker 14 And so that doesn't surprise me one bit as far as about being the favorite. You know, I don't know.
We don't care about that. We don't care about that.
Sometimes you like being the underdog. So

Speaker 14 we'll just pretend we're the underdogs.

Speaker 1 Well, you are by one and a half points, but America's pulling hard for you. So good luck.
We appreciate you. We'll see you down in New Orleans, Coach.

Speaker 14 All right, guys. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, a guy who might not be a big dumb dip shit, Coach Siri I.

Speaker 1 Coach.

Speaker 1 he's the man yeah the man he's the absolute every time we said that his face was over here just like like because he would like to oh yeah he would like to say this i think you know like i assume he watches coach tyriani and there's some things he's like oh okay i wouldn't say that okay that is not how i feel then there's some things you're saying he's like thank you somebody

Speaker 1 yeah somebody saying the guy is a damn good ball coach and his team's all in around him you know he's talking about jalen carter there's questions is this guy going to be able to commit full time to being a professional it's like he's all why is he all in?

Speaker 1 Devontae Smith, A.J. Brown, they talk about the pass game needs to get big.
Oh, they're trying to splinter, they're going to be fractured.

Speaker 1 It's like they're the ones dumping the Gatorade bath on Nick Siriani. It's like, well, how do you think he manages relationships? How do you think he gets everybody? And that's a head coach's job.

Speaker 1 He's done a great job creating a culture.

Speaker 1 Speaking of a culture, ladies and gentlemen, a man that oozes aura,

Speaker 1 he's looking to win the Royal Rumble

Speaker 1 to main event WrestleMania for the first time in his career. Ladies and gentlemen, the second city saint, CM

Speaker 1 Honk.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 What an honor.

Speaker 1 What an honor.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 4 yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Clap it up, Hawk. Clap it up, Hawk.
Come on, Hawks.

Speaker 1 Clap it up!

Speaker 1 Let's see.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 Gooch Porter.

Speaker 1 That's my little volume.

Speaker 1 The cult of personality.

Speaker 4 Oh, did you know I was coming with your little Stanley Cup?

Speaker 1 Chicago hasn't had one of those in a long time.

Speaker 4 I mean, we won three in 10 years, so you know,

Speaker 4 we're paying the bill right now still.

Speaker 1 Brother, you're talking to a Penguins fan.

Speaker 1 We are in a terrible position. Good at all.

Speaker 1 Hey, welcome to Indianapolis. Thank you.
Happy Royal Rumble. Happy Eve.
Happy Royal Rumble. Eve.
Thank you for making time to stop by. How do you feel? How's the body?

Speaker 1 You look like you're in the best shape of your life. I've said it a couple times whenever you come out on Monday Night Raw.
Do you feel like you're in the best shape of your life?

Speaker 1 And how do you feel going into tomorrow?

Speaker 4 I think I was in the best shape of my life when I was like 26. I makes

Speaker 4 science.

Speaker 4 When I set out to get this job, when I was like, I'm just going to bust my ass so hard that they're not going to be able to deny me. I was probably maybe in a little bit better shape back then.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but you look good. I feel good too.
Yeah. Yeah, I do.
I do. What's planned for Royal Rumble tomorrow?

Speaker 4 Beat everybody,

Speaker 4 win all the belts, make all the money.

Speaker 1 Boom. That's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 Everything.

Speaker 4 Everything across the board.

Speaker 1 What did you learn from last year? Obviously got injured. That's no fun.

Speaker 1 Drew McIntyre danced on your grave afterwards, everything like that. Do you take anything from last year's Royal Rumble?

Speaker 1 Do you take anything from this last year's voyage to this moment that can obviously change everything?

Speaker 4 Yeah, absolutely. I think

Speaker 4 sometimes we fly so close to the sun and you fall and you realize that like, oh, here's this.

Speaker 4 Me tearing my tricep in the Rumble wound up being like a huge gift because look what we did with it.

Speaker 4 You know, to me, I've done the best work of my career when everyone else is maybe assuming that I'm like winding down. I feel like it's cliche.

Speaker 4 I'm just getting started, you know, and I draw inspiration from like a great many different sources. But like, I felt like that was a moment where

Speaker 4 I can be inspiring to myself. You know what I mean? Like, I could turn the worst thing that's ever happened to me, you know, like this big return and this, we're going to, you know,

Speaker 4 rocket ship.

Speaker 1 And, you know, and and it all got halted in the in the blink of an eye so what I learned from that is you know the hell with it like nose to the grindstone bust your ass like come back better stronger and you know I think I did the best stuff of my career in the last year yeah it's been fun to watch it's been fun to have a front row seat to watch you work and do your thing and I'll say I made this up hashtag stat that I think your name chanted the most in the history of any name in arenas you know because even for 10 years whenever you weren't around your name was getting chanted in every arena basically every single night.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Now, every arena, every single night.
Three syllables, one name, C, M, Paul. Get chanted.
Yeah, that's you everywhere. You started that.
Is that a lot of pressure?

Speaker 1 Is that a lot of pressure to live up to the hype knowing that every city is eagerly awaiting your arrival?

Speaker 4 I think it is, but I love it. Like,

Speaker 4 there's still a huge part of me that's just like, oh, oh, yeah, they remember me. That's...
strange. It's weird.

Speaker 4 I still have that, you know?

Speaker 4 And when you're gone for 10 years, even though they're still chanting your name you know you wonder if like the stuff you did prior to all that does that matter do they does it is it relevant did i resonate that i do you know like and we're in the business of making people feel something so i obviously i i made people feel something yeah you certainly did and then when other superstars are in the ring and your name's getting chanted i i don't want to say i can see just joy being sucked out of their bodies.

Speaker 4 No, say it. Yeah, they hate it.

Speaker 4 They hate it. And for the longest time,

Speaker 4 you know, like, it's probably honestly why a lot of them don't like me is because they were here holding it down for so long.

Speaker 4 And they're just like, every time we go out there and we're busting our ass and they're, they're chanting for some guy who's not even here. Like that's...
That's got to suck, man.

Speaker 4 That's disheartening.

Speaker 1 That's been talked about a lot. You're the guy that left every single promo that you get into with somebody.

Speaker 4 There's a bunch of sensitive folk around.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they always say that.

Speaker 1 But I mean, that is the reason why they're saying that is because that is like, you know, I mean, there's a lot of context that needs to be added to the entire conversation, but certainly we're not there for a bit.

Speaker 1 You come back. Feels like you're back at home, though.
Yeah. I think so too.
I think the way everybody feels is like, I obviously was not here during the time where you decided to leave.

Speaker 1 I've just always been a fan. Yeah.
So whenever I see you come back, I get excited. Like I'm pumped to see you.
I think everybody is. Do you get pumped to be back every single time?

Speaker 4 Every single time. Like I hate traveling and I don't like not spending time with my wife and my dog, but it's literally

Speaker 4 dealing with that, but also being like, Man, I get to go to Raw today. I get to go to SmackDown today.
I get to stop by NXT and do all these fun things.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we'll be back on Monday. Yeah, we missed the hard hour.
That was pretty good, though.

Speaker 1 You did great there. That was a professional out of you.

Speaker 1 On a microphone, you crushed it. You didn't even know.
You heard the music and you said, you know what, we got a problem.

Speaker 4 I did. I just figured that was your cue.
I'm just a guest.

Speaker 4 You're the professional here. No, I am not the professional.
So we're not on the air anymore?

Speaker 1 Still live. Oh.
ESPN Plus, Disney Plus, YouTube, TikTok Live. Okay.
I would say this, this is

Speaker 1 more people are watching this.

Speaker 1 More people have seen TVs that have the ESPN on. You know, it's kind of the interesting thing.
Every airport has ESPN on. Yeah.
Every cafe has ESPN on. Fascinating.
You know, all the restaurants.

Speaker 1 But digitally, massive numbers, and these people had to get here. So I think actually listening.
So it's a nice,

Speaker 1 it's an interesting dilemma on what matters more. In my eyes, it's the digital team.
But we come from the internet you know so it's a little different era does that make sense no

Speaker 1 all right i don't understand the internet really i don't you run the internet yeah i do i understand you don't are you on there how much are you on there i just i just have instagram so i can look at dogs do you read comments no you ever get on x never get on x no never read mentions on x can't do it i stopped because of all of that like that's too much when did you stop doing that uh i mean it two three years ago i think life much better yeah

Speaker 4 not having to hear it no just just drop out like why do i need to hear a bunch of people who don't like me say what they think about me why do i care dude yeah i read that all the time it's

Speaker 1 it's a lot

Speaker 4 it'd be so cool not to read it uh maybe i'll have enough women you can't make everybody happy there's always going to be somebody who's like you know entire identity is like ooh i hate this guy and it's just so strange to me somebody's yeah

Speaker 4 i can understand like hating a sports team like the penguins or something like that but you know like individual people people, nobody hates the Penguins, except for maybe Ron Francis.

Speaker 1 Okay, don't you even start talking about it.

Speaker 1 And if you want to get into Yarmou Yager, Ron Francis, Mario Lemieux, Cam Ragged, the entire crew back then, okay, Tommy Barasso, goal used to stand on his damn head.

Speaker 1 Okay, if you want to get into the greats, we can certainly do that. And if you want to get into the next iteration of our team, we are great then as well.
Blackhawks, you guys are good.

Speaker 4 The first monetary bet I made my entire life was, I think it was like in the fifth grade, whenever the Hawks and the Penguins were in the finals. And I bet this kid five bucks.

Speaker 4 I was like, the Hawks are going to win. And we got swept.
Yeah, of course. So I hate Ron Francis to this day for $5.

Speaker 1 Ron Francis, a dog.

Speaker 1 Ron Francis is an absolute dog. All right, let's talk about Chicago sports.
Connor has a question for you.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you probably didn't see it then, but when you were on Netflix on Christmas and you said that the Bears had to sell the team in order to turn it around, that went huge.

Speaker 1 Huge.

Speaker 2 People loved it. People were, you know, kind of singing your praises about it.
How do you feel now? with Ben Johnson kind of at the helm? He turned his back on Detroit and now he's all in on Chicago.

Speaker 2 Do you feel like the Bears are finally going to make a little run at this thing with Caleb Williams?

Speaker 4 No. I feel like it's great.

Speaker 4 I feel like it's Groundhog Day. We've been here before.
Lovey Smith. Oh, we're going to get this great coach.
He's going to write the ship. He's going to correct everything.
No.

Speaker 4 Like the Blackhawks in the 2010s were the model for all these teams that actually want to win.

Speaker 4 If you want to win, look at what the Hawks did.

Speaker 4 Unfortunately, Bill Wertz had to die for things to change, but

Speaker 4 you got to get rid of the McCaskies. I'll buy the team.
I'll offer right now $100.

Speaker 1 Wow. There we go.
RT3 was doing something like this when Washington was up for seasonal.

Speaker 4 I will buy the team. And I will be a responsible owner that doesn't care about where they play or what cut of the concessions we get, who owns the stadium.
I just want to win.

Speaker 1 That's kind of your thing. That has been your thing.
It's about doing right. You don't care about the bottom line.
That's what I'm saying. Well, I'm a sports.

Speaker 4 Well, I'm a sports fan, and I'm a Chicago sports fan. So it's been a painful life and a painful existence.

Speaker 4 But it's just like you look at all these other sports franchises, the ones that just want to win, you win.

Speaker 4 You do what it takes to win. And I understand there's politics and people's feelings get involved and there's big money deals and all these things got to

Speaker 4 go on.

Speaker 4 But if you're an owner, power yeah if you're an owner well i mean there's power come on the bear the 85 bears should have been a dynasty and we weren't because of you know feelings and politics and and all that other bs and like do you think because you're from chicago it has helped create you as the guy who uh is going to be the one that's going to say something when nobody else will say something why do you

Speaker 4 i mean i definitely think i'm a product of my environment so that probably has something to do with it and just in my in my in my my old age i've just tried to bite my tongue a little bit more why you know just because i i just i just don't you don't need to fight every war i don't i don't want to i don't want to deal with people i think yeah i don't want to engage no reason to fight everything no you tell me you know four plus four is equals five i'll just go yeah all right you're right there you know i mean i don't know how you got there cross you off the christmas list

Speaker 3 guys a dip shit ty has a question for you going back to the rumble so you've obviously been to damn near like every arena all over the world been in front of huge crowds but they're saying there's potentially going to be you know 70 000 plus out there biggest rumble ever when you come down that ramp like how how much can you feel that is that palpable like will you know right away like holy shit like this is a really hot crowd like yeah i'm not used to this like it's it's like if you're in a building that has 10 000 people or in you're in a building that has 15 000 people uh you might not be able to tell but like it's so exponentially bigger 70 000 people that's a lot of human beings yeah you know that's a lot of hot dogs.

Speaker 4 That's a lot of spilled beer.

Speaker 4 It's just,

Speaker 4 it gets pretty crazy. And the first time I ever experienced something like that was like at a WrestleMania.
And now we're packing 70,000 people in for a Rumble. It's pretty impressive.

Speaker 1 Well, that's why you say, look in my eyes.

Speaker 1 What do you see?

Speaker 1 Coat of personality.

Speaker 4 I feel like I'm blushing.

Speaker 1 So when you were riding over here, is that the only song you listen to? Like when you do Spotify rapt, your number one song, Call to Personality?

Speaker 4 I don't have Spotify, so I

Speaker 4 can't do a Spotify rapped thing.

Speaker 1 Apple? Yeah.

Speaker 4 You do Apple music? I have Apple music, but I also still have an iPod.

Speaker 1 And it just has one song? No. No.

Speaker 1 It's got a lot of songs.

Speaker 4 It's got a plethora of stuff. I actually, it's an

Speaker 4 old iPod, and I shattered it. It was destroyed.
It looked like it got run over by a car.

Speaker 4 And I remember I was in Chicago and I walked down the street and there was a place that said like we repair whatever iPhones. Crack screen.
Yeah. And I walked in there and I threw it on the counter.

Speaker 4 I go, is there anything you can do? And the guy looks at me and goes, I can't fix that.

Speaker 4 And then he looks up at me and he goes, are you CM Punk?

Speaker 4 I was like, yeah. And then he just picks it up and he goes.

Speaker 4 Give me two weeks. And I said, all right.

Speaker 1 And he fixed it. Hey, I said anything for CM Punk.

Speaker 4 It's the only time me getting recognized actually led to something like positive.

Speaker 1 When you were away from the business,

Speaker 1 were you still getting recognized everywhere? Yeah. You were still every moment of your life.
And how long has it been that everywhere you go, at least one or multiple people know you?

Speaker 1 And how do you deal with it?

Speaker 4 Like, how often do I get spotted?

Speaker 1 No, you're seeing, everybody knows you. How long has it been that everywhere you go, people know you? And how do you deal with it? Do you talk to people? What is your kind of...

Speaker 4 Every single interaction is its its own little

Speaker 4 special universe.

Speaker 4 It all depends. Like if I'm at an airport, chances are, unless you're super polite, like you're not going to be able to get my attention because my job is to, I'm trying to get somewhere.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Glasses, headphones?

Speaker 4 No,

Speaker 4 just the earbuds, you know, hat, whatever.

Speaker 1 My hair looks very good. Yeah, completely.
Thank gosh.

Speaker 4 My hair plugs are holding up. Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's what they're saying on the internet?

Speaker 4 I think so.

Speaker 1 I think it looks good.

Speaker 1 I think it looks very good.

Speaker 4 I'm the greatest professional wrestler of all time.

Speaker 4 I've made people so angry that I've tricked them into thinking I got fake hair or something like that.

Speaker 1 You are the best in the world.

Speaker 1 The best in the world. Maybe that is a part of the gimmick.

Speaker 4 I love seeing people. I love great fan interactions.
And a lot of the times the best ones are just walking down the street and somebody's like, yo, punk, big fan, fist bump.

Speaker 4 Like, that's amazing to me.

Speaker 4 Like, but if I'm walking my dog, I have learned learned to i have to set boundaries like you know because my dog's gonna try to bite you if you get close to me yeah protect and people yeah like people you know people get wild in the streets but i get it too like i just met tina fey for the first time the other day and you know what i mean like i was just like so thrilled and i was just thinking i'm gonna be murdered by my wife if i go home and i tell her like yeah i was in a room at tina fee and i didn't say anything you know

Speaker 4 so i i like you know hunch my shoulders and i try to look smaller than i am and i walk over and i was like excuse me Ms. Tina Fey.
I'm a really big fan. And, you know, and she was nice as pie.

Speaker 1 It was great. So you marked out a little bit for Tina Fey.

Speaker 4 Oh, 100%. Hell yeah.
Yeah, why wouldn't you? Absolutely.

Speaker 1 Absolutely. You don't have too much ego to mark out for Tina Fey.

Speaker 4 And I will be very contrarian now. And I'll say, like, fans, if you see people, like, yeah, you have to, I understand, like, you have to take your shot.

Speaker 4 But, like, also, like, if you recognize the situation where in, like, oh, he's over there eating. Like, maybe we shouldn't.
Read the room. Yeah.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Yeah. So when you look back on your career, any,

Speaker 1 obviously, everybody thinks about the pipe bomb being the big moment.

Speaker 1 Do you have a favorite

Speaker 1 Mount Rushmore moments of CM Punk's career? Do you think about that ever? Do you do a lot of reminiscing on everything you've accomplished?

Speaker 1 Because you said, greatest professional wrestler of all time, best in the world. They changed your name for 10 years whenever you weren't around for good reason.

Speaker 1 You've been there, done that with a lot of things. Do you have like many moments you look back on, or are you like in the moment, move forward?

Speaker 4 No, I've been super fortunate to like have this long career.

Speaker 4 I think there's a lot of, even some of my devote fans don't realize how long I've been around, how long I've been doing this. So it's always cool to see

Speaker 4 you've made a new fan by coming back, but then there's people who talk about this. And to me, my favorite moments are the ones that most people have probably never seen.
They probably never will see.

Speaker 4 As far as stuff that's been like on TV and with WWE.

Speaker 1 Wait, you're talking house shows and behind the scenes?

Speaker 4 Just house show stuff, stuff when i was on the indies like getting to work with uh like legends like terry funk uh eddie guerrero

Speaker 4 um tracy smothers like all the people that wound up being so nice to me when i thought that they were just you know like not necessarily they were going to be dicks to me or anything like that but just like they didn't have to be as gracious to me as they were you know like so like that I guess kind of being accepted by like this group of old school guys.

Speaker 4 Like Dusty always loved me. Harley Race loved me um i can tell stories about being on harley's boat like

Speaker 1 might actually get us kicked off espn no no we're on the internet we've pushed it up yeah yeah yeah we've we've uh we've attempted to do it all so you think as you were breaking in as you were coming up all the ogs welcoming you into their world and their fraternity was a massive piece for you oh that's the biggest that's the coolest thing i've ever done you know because when i was a kid um

Speaker 4 like you know 1993 my first year of high school, like, I tried out for the football team. I tried out for the wrestling team because I knew I wanted to do something.
I just didn't know what it was.

Speaker 4 And both times, like, I made the teams, but it was still very much like a jocks versus punk rockers kind of situation where I was from.

Speaker 4 And I had like a purple Liberty Spike Mohawk, and the coach was like, you got to cut your hair. And I was like, I will.

Speaker 4 Fuck you.

Speaker 4 Punk rock. Yeah, I was much more interested in being the opinionated punk rock kid.
I was like, I can't cut my hair.

Speaker 4 And all the jocks would, you know, call

Speaker 1 names and slurs and all kinds of things. 1992.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 Some hard Fs, you know.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 we've been around jocks.

Speaker 4 Yeah, sure.

Speaker 4 So it was, it was always, I just kind of always like assumed that like that's the way everything was going to go.

Speaker 4 Like this weird, odd punk rock kid with a big mouth wasn't going to get accepted into this, you know, this man's world.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Well, they love you. I was pleasantly surprised.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It's well, it's because you had talent, Kate.

Speaker 4 I had to fight a little bit, you know, but it all worked out.

Speaker 1 You had talent, kid, I assume, is what the message was through, and you still do at this age. How many years are we into the business, though?

Speaker 4 I don't know. Do you count when I left? I don't know.

Speaker 1 Sure. Let's just say from when it started.

Speaker 4 God. I mean,

Speaker 4 I don't know. I'm going to write a book someday, you know, and I don't know when.
I'm just going to tell the story. So, like in 93, I started rolling around in backyards with my friends.

Speaker 1 Trampolines?

Speaker 4 No. No trampolines? No, we weren't that smart.
We also weren't that rich. We had no trampoline.
We just used the ground and then we would maybe,

Speaker 4 one year we borrowed some materials from various construction sites in and around Chicagoland area and built a ring.

Speaker 4 You know, and at about 90, like 96, 97, 97,

Speaker 4 I went and I think we bought a wrestling ring. Bought like an old wrestling ring from some guy in Texas, you know,

Speaker 4 and started running shows. And we were very, we were very outlaw, as our friend Jim Cornette would say.
And I think around like 90, 98, 99, I went and I

Speaker 4 was introduced that there was a wrestling school. And I was like, oh, you actually have to learn how to do this?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I thought it used to be interesting.

Speaker 4 It was shocking to me because it's not like there's a pro-wrestling program in school. You know, there's football, there's wrestling, there's all kinds of sports.
But yeah.

Speaker 4 And then the rest is history, they beat the crap out of me for being a a backyard kid and I earned my

Speaker 1 stripes. So it was like your whole life pretty much that you've been doing this at least since you have make me feel old man.
Adult memories, but then you disappear.

Speaker 1 How many times did you just want to get back in the ring? I assume that's a real thing that happened whenever you weren't around.

Speaker 4 When I was out, no, I was out and I was out.

Speaker 1 Oh, there was no like yearning or missing?

Speaker 4 No, no, no.

Speaker 1 Because of how it ended?

Speaker 4 I think definitely because of how it ended. It just really didn't seem like there was even an avenue.
And I'm a guy that's not going to dwell on, you know, anything from the past.

Speaker 4 I'm just going to keep moving forward. And that's what I did.
Okay.

Speaker 1 I didn't know if there was a CM Punk chant that happened. And you're like,

Speaker 1 man, it would be nice to maybe get back in there.

Speaker 4 Dude, my wife would wrestle on TV.

Speaker 4 She was at the company for like a year after I left. And like,

Speaker 4 I think sometimes me and her probably got into arguments because she was maybe a little bit mad that that was going on. And like, you know,

Speaker 4 but I get it. I get it.

Speaker 1 Speaking of your wife, hot topic for the Royal Rolling. weekend.

Speaker 1 Whoa, you've been dropping clues.

Speaker 4 No clues.

Speaker 1 No, I've heard them.

Speaker 1 I've heard them all. All right.
You said big surprise. That's what you said.

Speaker 4 That's not what I said. Yeah, I heard words.
That is not what I said.

Speaker 1 Oh, huge surprise. Only me and a couple people know.
Wait, wait, wait. Liar.

Speaker 4 And that would be liars.

Speaker 1 No, that's what I heard. That's what you said.
You never know who's going to show up. Huh? No.
You're Royal Rumble.

Speaker 2 Look out, Lucas Oil. Huh?

Speaker 1 Could be

Speaker 1 significant others or people.

Speaker 2 On a Saturday, maybe? Huh?

Speaker 4 She's at home watching Larry.

Speaker 1 Chicago's very close.

Speaker 2 Today's Friday, though.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Rumble's on what day? Saturday. Three-hour drive.
Uh-huh.

Speaker 3 52-minute flight.

Speaker 2 70,000 people.

Speaker 4 Hey, how are you getting to Cleveland on Monday? Flying.

Speaker 1 Okay. You want to come with? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Huh? I do. It'll be after the program.
So it'll be a little later in the afternoon. Oh,

Speaker 4 I might have an earlier call time than you. I'm not fancy.
I don't get to walk in late.

Speaker 1 I don't walk in. I walk in right on time.

Speaker 1 Right on time. Perfect time.

Speaker 1 Every time. Every time.
Yeah, Michael Cole is going to be traveling with me on Monday.

Speaker 4 Oh, man. We can't have a show without you two.
You guys better get there.

Speaker 1 Thank you. Thank you.
I agree. We will.
We're going to try. We're going to try to get up to the next one.

Speaker 4 Who are we going to put on you? Oh,

Speaker 4 you'd be a great commentator. Not again.
I miss. You'd be fired within the first 90 minutes.

Speaker 1 No. Yeah.
You get promoted.

Speaker 4 Oh, well, maybe. Michael Cole might get fired.
Like one of those promotions. Like, we're going to send you over to the New York firm because you've caused too much heat here in L.A.

Speaker 4 And we're just, we're going to give you a raise and we're going to shuffle you over here.

Speaker 1 AJ has a question from Ohio. He's been eager.
About time. Wanting to ask, yes.

Speaker 7 Yeah, I got a question about the rumble. So yesterday, Seamus was actually sitting in your seat and Pat tried to give him some advice.

Speaker 7 He said, what if you laid face first and just kind of held onto the turnbuckle?

Speaker 7 Do you think they may not even see you and possibly all of a sudden you stand up and it's it's you and one other person you get to battle.

Speaker 1 I didn't think you would be disguising yourself. I just said if you're laying down down and then holding on to the bottom rope, that feels like a good idea.

Speaker 4 I think it might be a good idea for anybody but Seamus because he's so white. Like you're, you know, like, I mean, do you think you're just going to be invisible?

Speaker 1 No, I didn't. He added the camouflage.

Speaker 1 I said you're going to be seen, no problem at all. But you're just, you're willing to take it and you're just laying on the ground and you're around that bottom rope, just like this.

Speaker 4 Well, when you get in, why don't you try that and then we'll see how it goes.

Speaker 1 Whoa.

Speaker 1 Whoa, Whoa, you're getting in there. I'm in a real rumble.
You're getting in? I don't know about that, Mr. Punk.

Speaker 4 Or I feel like maybe don't give this advice to, like, you know, I don't know.

Speaker 4 I don't know who's in the Rumble, but say, like, say, Tyrese Halliburton isn't, you know, because that'd be something, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, what if he did go in there? You know, that'd be sick. Hold on,

Speaker 4 he'd be getting a phone call from Adam Silver, wouldn't he?

Speaker 1 Yeah, middle of the season.

Speaker 1 And they've got a game at 5 o'clock tomorrow.

Speaker 4 Do they really? Yeah, 5 o'clock tomorrow.

Speaker 4 So he can make it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, well, that's the... Ooh, buddy.
Depending upon how the show is set up, none of us know, obviously. Nobody knows what matches or when.

Speaker 1 But yeah, there's a whole, there's a lot going on in that moving pieces.

Speaker 2 Fade the Pacers tomorrow.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 2 Yeah, without a doubt. Hawks are going to win by 20 because all Halliburton is going to be thinking of is

Speaker 4 he's going to be Royal Rumbling in his head.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, bingo.
No, he's going to be trying to get that game over with quicker. So he's going to hang maybe 50 in the first half.
So we got to run a clock in the second half.

Speaker 2 Too many timeouts. See, that's a good point.
I'll take his under instead of the hawk.

Speaker 1 No, he's going over.

Speaker 2 Because if he keeps missing, that clock keeps rolling.

Speaker 1 No, he's going to make every shot.

Speaker 1 I don't know. And then he's going to go in there and he's going to hang on to the bottom rope.
And when somebody does it, I want to let you know we told you. We told you about the idea.

Speaker 1 You want to go main event WrestleMania or not? Hang on to that bottom rope.

Speaker 4 I mean, it'll probably work for a little bit, and then you're just going to get stomped in the face.

Speaker 1 So what? You go unconscious. What are they going to lift your carcass up? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they will actually. Yeah, they will.

Speaker 2 Make it happen.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 Final, like tonight. Yep.
What will be... What is tonight?

Speaker 4 Today is SmackDown, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, Friday at SmackDown. Gonna be great.

Speaker 4 I'm shot. I flew in on a red eye and I'm just, you know.

Speaker 1 Brother, me too.

Speaker 4 Haven't had my coffee yet today.

Speaker 1 You want this one?

Speaker 2 You want a Mountain Dew?

Speaker 1 Yes, Mountain Dew. No, man.
No, thank you.

Speaker 1 All right. I'm good.
We got Diet Dew, too. Yeah, Diet.
It's a Dew Zero. And did you see the, we have four pallets of Gatorade Glacier Freeze Zero.
If you let it know on the way out, showed up.

Speaker 4 That stuff's delicious.

Speaker 1 That is the best. Yeah, showed up at an 18-wheeler.

Speaker 4 Do you want an ice-cold real American beer? That's right. I certainly do not.

Speaker 1 Wow. That's certainly a back row.

Speaker 1 That's in the back. That's in the back.
Back row back there.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I was like, it's a voice of God.

Speaker 4 Yeah. Why would you ask me that?

Speaker 1 Well, because we heard what you said.

Speaker 2 Now, wake you up quick.

Speaker 4 It's not the he's straight-edge thing that we're going to offer him a beer. It's just because.

Speaker 1 We got some weed, too, don't we? Yeah,

Speaker 1 big note of that, too.

Speaker 1 We don't have it, by the way. It's Indiana.
We would never,

Speaker 1 we would never have it. Just joking.

Speaker 4 Oh, that was just a skunk outside that I smelled.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of skunks here in Indiana.
Skunks back again.

Speaker 1 You said if Hulk Hogan got his old ass in the Rumble, you'd throw his dusty ass over the top rope. Tonight, when you go to bed, night before the Royal Rumble, you win the Royal Rumble.

Speaker 1 Main event in WrestleMania. I know that is something that everybody holds over CM Punk's.

Speaker 1 They really do. Tonight, what is the last thoughts? And then, whenever you're heading in, walking down the ramp to join the Royal Rumble, what will you be thinking? What will you be saying?

Speaker 4 So, Rumble is what, the 1st of February. That is going to be exactly 365 days from my surgery on my elbow.
So, I'm going to be thinking a lot about that.

Speaker 4 Trying not to dwell on it because, you know, I don't want to live in that negative headspace. Because anything can go wrong at any time.

Speaker 4 Skylight could fall on me right now. You know, it could be all over with.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I

Speaker 1 look back to my list of fears.

Speaker 4 See, now you're paranoid because of all the skunks now. It's okay.
No, no.

Speaker 1 It calms me down, actually. The skunks.

Speaker 4 Every time I lace up my boots and I'm in front of a crowd,

Speaker 4 even if it's just like, you know, microphone, I got my hokas on or some Jordans or whatever, like, I

Speaker 4 am so beyond, like, I'm overly

Speaker 4 to like a cheesy point, like, so grateful for every single experience, you know, getting to come back

Speaker 4 uh and kind of proving myself right this last year and just doing box office stuff and having fun while doing it uh i'm on top of the world so like you know when i'm when i'm walking into the rumble like i feel like i'm the luckiest kid in the world you know that's that's what's gonna be going through my head in there and then when i get in there i'm just gonna start punching people in the face and throw them all over the top rope.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. Hell yeah.

Speaker 4 It's gonna be fun.

Speaker 1 Yeah, an attitude of gratitude is a beautiful thing. Yeah.
And then whenever whenever we get in that ring, maybe you say, look in my eyes.

Speaker 1 What do you see?

Speaker 4 He's the only one that's singing.

Speaker 1 Well, that's the problem. He doesn't participate with it.
No, never. He doesn't, Mr.
Bill.

Speaker 4 He'll be like, oh, well, there's a lag in between.

Speaker 1 There you go. That is what he said.

Speaker 7 We knew you were smart. We knew you were smart, Punk.
There is a little bit of a delay.

Speaker 8 I would ruin the whole thing. No.

Speaker 1 That is it. That's his excuse every time.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I think when it comes to singing, it might be right.

Speaker 1 No, he's not. He just doesn't want to participate.
Wiz Khalifa told him, put his hands up.

Speaker 1 Put your hands up. He was two feet away from him.
And he looked at Wiz Khalifa and he said, how about this? Hands in his pocket. Everybody else in there is going to want to be.

Speaker 1 He says, I'm not your puppet. That's what he says.
All right, well. That's why he's a big CM Punk fan.

Speaker 4 You got to respect that.

Speaker 1 We have one of your biggest fans here, actually. He's a 355-pound

Speaker 1 D3 national champion.

Speaker 1 Debone.

Speaker 4 He looks good. He's been doing the Celtic work of 355.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's been.

Speaker 1 Boom!

Speaker 1 He's here. Hurry up.
Did you get a chance to say hello to Mr. Punk?

Speaker 4 I met him when I walked in.

Speaker 1 Did he mark out?

Speaker 1 I don't think so. When he found out you were going to be on the show,

Speaker 1 he got a little bit of a zipper burn.

Speaker 1 He's talking it right now. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah.
Do you have any words of advice for CM Punk, the man that you would like to see win the Royal Rumble tomorrow?

Speaker 2 No, man. Just go kick some ass.
Do what you do.

Speaker 4 That's right. I'll do the best I can.
That's all I can.

Speaker 1 As a D3 national champion football player.

Speaker 4 For where? North Central College in Naperville.

Speaker 1 Okay. Oh, I think it's a good thing.

Speaker 4 Biggest Cena market in the war. You did say, really?

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 so there's a little bit of a conflicting thing here. CM Punk, look in my eyes.

Speaker 1 What do you see?

Speaker 1 But he will every once in a while. You can't see me.
So, like, that's the thing.

Speaker 1 Thank you.

Speaker 1 How do you feel about Mr. Cena?

Speaker 4 I love him to death.

Speaker 4 I feel spoiled that I get to witness

Speaker 4 whatever journey he's about to embark on. I think it's exciting.
I selfishly am looking forward to Saturday. Hopefully there's a moment where me and him

Speaker 4 can have a moment, you know?

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 4 there's so many guys, so many bodies. I don't know if it's in the cards, but we'll see.

Speaker 1 You did a wink-wink-nod-nod to him two weeks ago, maybe during a promo, or three weeks ago during a promo about him having his last time is now and his run and who he's going to go with, and yada, yada, yada, everything like that.

Speaker 1 The world obviously exploded just at the thought of it. He certainly

Speaker 1 exploded just even thinking about it.

Speaker 1 He's special, though, man. There's a lot of those guys.
You're obviously talked about in that same air as those legends.

Speaker 1 And I assume you don't view yourself as that, but there's a lot of legends in the WWE right now. And obviously, it's at an all-time high.
Cena coming back, Rock coming back.

Speaker 1 Obviously, you guys had a moment at the Vegas press conference last year, which I enjoyed.

Speaker 4 I mean, you talk about legends. You talk about me being just stoked at where I'm at and like just grateful and enjoying myself.

Speaker 4 It was raw.

Speaker 1 Was it raw?

Speaker 4 I think it was raw.

Speaker 4 Where were we at Monday?

Speaker 1 We were in Atlanta.

Speaker 4 Yes, we were in Atlanta. And I remember I was just, I like walked into one of the locker rooms or something like that.
And there's Rey Mysterio. You know what I mean?

Speaker 4 And I just, every time I see, like, every time I see Ray,

Speaker 4 it could be like an old guy thing.

Speaker 4 Cause every time I see Ray or every time I see Truth, like in the hallway, we all just look at each other and we just grab each other and just give each other a big hug.

Speaker 4 Like, hey, man, like, look at us. This is crazy.
Can you believe this? Because I've known those guys.

Speaker 1 Not just doing it.

Speaker 1 Knowing it.

Speaker 4 Yeah. I think I wrestled.
I wrestled Ray 2001.

Speaker 4 I've known him a quarter of a century. You know, truth, same thing.
Like, you know, I knew him when I was doing Wednesday night TNA pay-per-views at the Nashville Fairgrounds.

Speaker 4 Like, so there's, there's a bunch of us that it's just, it's cool to look around and kind of go, hey, man, look at us. Yeah, we're still here.
We're still doing it, too.

Speaker 1 Yeah, absolutely. And you talked about, you know, you created your own promotion there in Chicago in high school as a punk rock kid.
You had some Ring of Honor times.

Speaker 1 Obviously, you just mentioned TNA there. We don't have to get into the, you know, the drama at the elite place.

Speaker 1 But how do you feel about TNA, WWE working together? It feels like the forbidden door that there had been for a long time is much more open now with Mr. H in charge, I think.

Speaker 1 Is it for the good of wrestling?

Speaker 4 I think he's receptive to other people's ideas,

Speaker 4 whereas maybe, you know, Vince wasn't. You know, like he was like, I'm the boss, we're doing this, and this is how we're doing it.
And that's great.

Speaker 4 Like, yeah, if you run a company, you need somebody who is the yes and no man and the final say.

Speaker 4 But I think Triple H thinks he's surrounded and oftentimes is by a lot of really, really genius wrestling minds.

Speaker 4 And if he has an idea or sees something one way, like he'll look at Michael Hayes and be like, what do you think? Legend.

Speaker 1 He'll turn and

Speaker 4 look at Paul Heyman.

Speaker 4 And these are people who have

Speaker 4 bona fide resumes. They have literally done everything you possibly could do in the sport.
And I think their voices should be heard.

Speaker 4 Not a lot of time, you know, everybody's going to have this. dynamite idea, but I think

Speaker 4 the best idea always wins in today's WWE.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think it's awesome. Everybody's happy, too.
Yeah. Feels like the vibes are immaculate.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I hate, I actually don't like talking about that. And I, like,

Speaker 4 because it sounds stupid to say. Well, it just sounds like bullshit.
It sounds like it, because it's the same, because I've been in situations where everyone's like, oh, everybody's happy here.

Speaker 4 This is great. And I'm like, and then you're choking people off.

Speaker 1 You guys are an occult.

Speaker 4 Like, what are you talking about? Like, everybody hates everybody. Like, it's just super clicky.
Like, so, you know, and also, like, I'm very, I try to set the the boundaries of like, this is work.

Speaker 4 It is a job. It is a corporation.
So, you know, but

Speaker 4 I can't lie. I come to work and I'm stoked every day to see everybody.

Speaker 1 And you're not the only one.

Speaker 4 Stoked to see you on every Monday, you know, like it's, it's great.

Speaker 1 I show up on time.

Speaker 1 I'm there early. I'm sure you do.
Yeah, I'm always there early. It is great to see you every time because I'm amongst, you know, legends.
You talk about Rey Mysterio.

Speaker 1 The first time I went into TVL and Rey Mysterio is getting changed in there. I was like, oh, I should get out of here.
And he's like, no, no, no, all good.

Speaker 1 And I'm like sitting two lockers down from Rey Mysterio. And it's like, man, I got a thousand questions right now.

Speaker 1 You should ask him. Well, yeah.

Speaker 1 It always starts with like one. Like, hey, you remember when Brock like just did the and he goes, yeah, the funny thing about that.
And he'll get into like a full one.

Speaker 1 And then it's like, oh, he doesn't mind at all. Like the OGs don't mind sharing the game at all.
And you talk about those genius minds. You mentioned Paul Heyman.

Speaker 1 You're one of the first Paul Heyman guys. I believe the first Paul Heyman guy.

Speaker 4 I mean, I'm the one who labeled it. Yeah.
I mean there was there was amazing Paul Heyman guys before you know

Speaker 4 my for my mouth you know like labeled it and gave him a bunch of merchandise money.

Speaker 1 Sounds like you're pumped about it. It sounds like you're pumped about it.

Speaker 4 I never got my cut.

Speaker 1 We'll figure that out in the way.

Speaker 4 I'm a giving he owes you?

Speaker 1 No. No, he does, doesn't he? No.
Oh, he doesn't?

Speaker 4 No, Paul doesn't owe me anything.

Speaker 1 Well, aside from the shirts, but in he definitely owes you.

Speaker 4 Oh, the favor?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I suppose. Oh.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 4 We don't got to get into it, though, you know?

Speaker 1 I'm all about good public pressure.

Speaker 1 I'm a mouthpiece if you want me to go ahead and apply a little bit.

Speaker 4 I won't fold. No.

Speaker 1 Let's go all in, then. Don't fold.
Yeah, don't get bluffed either. Cars on the table.
He owes you. Don't ever forget it.
I won't let you forget it.

Speaker 4 Oh, thank you.

Speaker 1 Paul Heyman owes you. Now, I do acknowledge

Speaker 1 my travel chief.

Speaker 1 Good for you. As we all should.
Do you? Do you? Do I? Do you? No.

Speaker 2 Oh, shit.

Speaker 1 What are you talking about? We acknowledge our tribal chief.

Speaker 4 I'll just do one of these.

Speaker 1 Oh, geez, Christ.

Speaker 1 He didn't acknowledge. Let the record state he did not acknowledge our tribal chief, which was expected, but would have been a nice little pleasant surprise here on Royal Rumble Wee.
Dangerous.

Speaker 1 If you would have maybe put that one to the sky, Paul Heyman owes you. Don't ever forget it.

Speaker 1 And speaking of, Owen, we owe you for making a stop all the way out here, especially on such a busy weekend after a red eye before the biggest day of your life tomorrow. Woo! Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Biggest, biggest, biggest day of my life. Yeah.
Well, I mean, second to marrying my wife. I don't think anything else really compares to that, but you know.
That's greatest. Biggest match of my life.

Speaker 1 Greatest day of your life.

Speaker 4 It's the biggest match of my life.

Speaker 1 Biggest match of your life. Yeah.
Biggest Royal Rumble.

Speaker 4 That's the cool thing about where I'm at right now is like every match is the biggest match of my life. Yeah.
It's super neat.

Speaker 1 But definitely tomorrow.

Speaker 4 Yeah, 100%.

Speaker 1 All right, we'll talk about it. Thank you so much for joining.
Good luck tomorrow, Lydia.

Speaker 4 Luck is for losers, boys. What's that? Luck is for losers.

Speaker 2 Love that. Hell yeah, punk.

Speaker 1 You're so punk, Rock.

Speaker 4 Come on now.

Speaker 1 Hey, just real quick.

Speaker 1 Look in my eyes.

Speaker 1 What do you see?

Speaker 7 Delay kills it. Delay.
AJ. Fuck, you know that.

Speaker 1 AJ?

Speaker 1 I came with a delay. You know that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's what he's waiting for.

Speaker 4 AJ wish Cena was on the show instead of me.

Speaker 1 No, no. Bob Backlund, actually.
Yeah, yeah. Bob Backlund's my guy.

Speaker 1 Eugene, maybe.

Speaker 2 Nice. Yeah, he loves him.

Speaker 7 Either one.

Speaker 4 Well, he's just a hop, skip, and a jump from here, isn't he?

Speaker 1 Bob Backlund? Eugene.

Speaker 1 I think so. He's everywhere.
Yeah, I think he's everywhere.

Speaker 4 He's around here somewhere.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he always will be. Don't even get him going on Gilbert.
I don't know. All right.

Speaker 1 We're going to get the hell out of here as well as we let CM Punk continue to prepare for the biggest match of his life at the biggest Royal Rumble of all time, which kicks off tomorrow at 6 p.m.

Speaker 1 Eastern live from the beautiful city of Indianapolis, Indiana at the Loudhouse Luke Zoe Stadium. For myself, AJ, all the boys in the back,

Speaker 1 and to,

Speaker 1 hey, Nick, happy birthday, buddy. Happy birthday, everybody.
All right.

Speaker 1 Is that today? How old are we, Nick? Tomorrow. 39.

Speaker 4 39.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 4 Do you remember 39?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I haven't been there yet, but

Speaker 1 I know it looks like I have been.

Speaker 1 Thanks, CM Punk. Maybe I should live a little more straight-edge, you know, so I don't age like milk.
But happy birthday, Nick. It's an honor to, you know, experience life alongside you.

Speaker 1 And you become a phenomenal dad, a great husband, and on the ones and twos back air, so damn good. We appreciate you.
Happy birthday, buddy.

Speaker 4 Thank you. Appreciate that greatly, folks.

Speaker 1 How about CM Punk? Just happy birthday to you. That was pretty sweet.
That was huge.

Speaker 1 Thank you, Mr. Punk.
You missed 38 of his birthdays if you'd like to. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 Well, I mean, what do you want?

Speaker 4 39 chops? What are we doing? What are we?

Speaker 1 Okay. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Get your ass out of here, dude. Maybe.
Haven't even thought of that. Get your ass beat for your 39th birthday.

Speaker 4 Get Seamus back here and we'll have Seamus.

Speaker 1 Seamus comes in and does the whole headline number.

Speaker 4 He's a stiff prick, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's what I'm saying. There's guys you know going in, like, hey, this one's going to be.

Speaker 4 Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 Is he at the top of one of those?

Speaker 4 Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1 You got JBL'd closed up?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Yeah, nightly for, I don't know, like six months straight.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there's people like as a fan that I've watched and I'd be like if i'm ever lucky enough to become a professional wrestler and i get into the wd i'm gonna try to steer clear of that particular human nah you can't avoid it yeah it's gonna happen yeah that's why i don't get in there yeah every once in a while i'll get in there and i realize wow this really hurts all of it and that's the secret that is the secret of terry funk's punches i found out the first time i ever wrestled them you watch terry funk you're like man this guy's these guys punches it's a work of art and then he punches you in the face and you're like oh oh it's a real work that's why they look so good oh got it.

Speaker 1 All right. Well, we're going to get out of here.

Speaker 4 Again, we're leaving. Again, we are.

Speaker 1 You got anything to say?

Speaker 4 No, I got nothing to say.

Speaker 4 I got to head over to, I don't know, Fanatics Fest or something.

Speaker 4 I'm shaking babies and taking pictures and smiling.

Speaker 1 Shaking babies. I don't think you should shake them.

Speaker 4 Oh, yeah. Sorry.

Speaker 4 Kissing babies. Yeah.

Speaker 4 You know what?

Speaker 4 I don't want to do that either.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 A lot of sicknesses going around.

Speaker 1 Nora butter. Yeah.
Maybe you should just, whenever they show up, you should just say,

Speaker 1 look in my eyes.

Speaker 1 What do you see?

Speaker 4 I'll see you in the Royal Rumble.

Speaker 1 I'm not in it, brother.

Speaker 4 Yeah, you are.

Speaker 1 Well, is your wife? My wife? Is your wife in the Royal Rumble?

Speaker 4 Why would my wife be in the men's Royal Rumble?

Speaker 1 Well, that's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 Maybe not the men.

Speaker 1 Don't be giving anything away, please.

Speaker 4 It's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 Not on this show.

Speaker 4 We don't like it. Grow up, guys.
All of you. All right.

Speaker 1 Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. It might change their life.
Have an incredible weekend. Royal Rumble tomorrow.
Kickoff show for the entire weekend. Starts at 5 o'clock.
Then SmackDown.

Speaker 1 Then we go to Pro Bowl games on Sunday. Yes.
It's a massive weekend of sport, and this is going to be awesome. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living.

Speaker 1 We're going to try to enjoy it all. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice.
It might change your life. We're going to sing together.
Team on me.

Speaker 1 I like that. Hell yeah.
Any final thoughts? It's kind of jockey if you want to speak to the group here.

Speaker 4 Every day above ground is a good day.

Speaker 1 Boom. Team on three.
One, two, three. Team.
Goodbye.

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