PMS 2.0 1283 - UNC Football GM Michael Lombardi, Shams Charania, Daniel Jeremiah, Coach Chuck Pagano, & AJ Hawk

Hello beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode the Thunderdome on this Sports Thursday, January 23rd, 2025. This program starts now.
Football! It's wonderful and obviously we got Championship Weekend and Championship Sunday ahead in the NFL and there's so much to talk about happening around the NFL. College ball, we got signings, we got coaches, we got general managers, we got rumors, we got this, we got that.
We have a fantastic show today. Michael Lombardi will be joining us in about 20 minutes.
He's currently the general manager for the University of North Carolina Tar Heel football team. How's life in college? Eyes on.
But also, he is a guy that's pretty plugged in basically everywhere around the NFL. What's he hearing, especially about that Raiders job? You know, Michael Lombardi speaks about the Raiders a lot because that's where he got to start.
And I think he has so much respect and appreciation for the Davis family and everything that Al did for him and the Raiders as a whole. And what he's been seeing out of them the last couple years, he says, this is crap.
He says that. Raiders fans get mad at him.
I think they hate but now his guy uh Tom Brady is one of the owners and running everything so it's like I feel like Lombardi's gonna be pretty dowed in on what's going on there how about all the other coaching hires what about all the other general manager hires that need to take place what does Paizan say about any of it we will talk to him in about 19 minutes I cannot wait to hear from him last weekend his hair a little disheveled he did oh Looked like he was in the middle of it a little bit. Yep.
FaceTime with him this morning. Feels like he's okay.
Feels like he's found... Back in it.
Yeah, he's found air. You know, he's back because they have a lot to do in a very short amount of time as they try to, you know, kind of get used to the college football.
Lifestyle. We'll be joined by Sean Sharani in the second hour.
Okay, basketball's happening. Sure.
Yeah. Yeah.
It. Oh, Pacers are in Paris today.
Oui, oui. Aujourd'hui.
Bonne chance en Pacers en Paris. You know, like there's a lot going on here.
Tyrese Halliburton, king of Paris this past summer, as you recall. Didn't sweat one time, but he still walked out of there with gold medal.
Sure. No big deal.
He was having a blast. Happy birthday, fifth.
You know, the whole thing was happening for Tyrese Halliburton.

Taking on Wembe in his home country. I believe Netflix

is also having a docu-series

released at some point about the Olympics where

they go into the locker room of the French and the Americans

and Serbians and everything like that.

So I think basketball is kind of happening,

especially internationally today. 2 o'clock

on NBA TV. Everybody has

that. And I believe they're playing again

on Saturday, and I think that one's going to be on ESPN. But basketball's happening.
We'll talk to Shams Sharani about the drama. Yeah.
I have to. Jimmy Butler down in Miami.
Remember Shams came out and said, Jimmy Butler wants out of Miami. Okay, breaking.
And then Jimmy Butler's agent says Shams is the new guy on Block. He doesn't know anything.
Yeah. Try to discredit Shams.
Oh, yeah. Try to bury Shams.
Shams in a new location, a new network, at a new senior role. And this guy tried to bury Shams.
And all Shams did was sit in the pocket and say, nah, my sources are good. This has been triple stamped, double stamped.
Jimmy wants out of there. And as it kind of unfolds, Jimmy wants to hire her.
And it's getting ugly. He talked on First Take this morning about how it's like a divorce.
You know, right now it's just like, is this going to be a messy divorce or are they going to figure out how to make this happen? Jimmy missed the plane. Happens.
He was playing on showing up on his own plane. You know, it's nice of him.
Yeah. He's been suspended nine games over the last two weeks by Pat Riley and the Miami Heat or whatever.
So this is basically a Shams story from day one, even though his agent and everybody else, Pat Riley even, I think everybody tried to bury Shams. Shams just kind of, you know, stayed in the pocket, kind of taking it all and now only

elevated himself, which we're proud of Shams because we've known him since day one.

He'll join us in the second hour.

And then Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network, Mr. Move the Sticks, a draft analyst and scout

formerly in the NFL, now in the media world.

He'll do the play-by-play of the combine with Rich Eisen will be joining us in a second

hour. I'm going to ask him some questions.
Everybody's talking. Talks to you.
What's your head? Boss Connor, I tell you, man. One half of the hammer.
Cowboys, AP Tony's here. All the finalists for the awards that you voted on are up.
Yeah, they are. 36 years as a football coach, 18 in college, 18 in the NFL.
Chuck McGonis here. Chuck, everybody's talking about this Borgonzi quote and Brinker quote down there in Tennessee.
Now, Borgonzi has been brought in as the general manager. Brinker is the president of football operation.
Borgonzi is handling the draft and free agency. Brinker is the one that's going to cut it down to the final 53.
They're very tight. They're on the same page.
Brinker was on a local radio station with ramon foster and a few others and this is what he had to say about that number one overall pick that they have are you going to trade it or are you going to utilize that pick that you have down there in tennessee here's the president of football operations for the tennessee titans chad brinker yeah we got to look at all the options but the one thing i will say if there's a generational you don't pass that up. You can't pass that up.
And if we feel that there's a generational talent right there, what we call a blue player, a guy that is a franchise type player, the player that tips the field in your favor every time they step on the field, you cannot pass that up. But we'll also look at all the options, not only at the number one overall pick, but in all the rounds.
I mean, we got to see what the value is. We got to see what's on the table.
We got to, you know, do what's best for the Tennessee Titans and helping us build a football team that can sustain over time. And like, I mean, I've emphasized how important the draft is, that the core of this roster is going to be built through the draft.
So, yeah, we're looking at all those options. Very interesting.
You know, he was brought in in 2023. Callahan was brought in last year.
Now the GM, Borgonzio, out of Boston, has been brought in, you know, this year. So everybody's at different times.
Allegedly, Borgonzio and Brinker are on the same page. They'll be the ones creating the roster.
What's that mean for Callahan? We shall see. But a once-in-a-generation type generation type player potentially at number one now this is obviously sent ripple effects through it all and we'll talk to daniel jeremiah in a second was is that travis hunter is he talking about abdul carter who's the once in a generation player that we're potentially missing or not thinking about and how come every time they talk about quarterbacks it's cam ward shador sanders insert name of quarterback insert quarterback, insert name of quarterback, insert name of quarterback, and there's never a Will Howard.
What am I missing about Will Howard in this entire time? Ever since you told me to take a peek at him a week ago, 10 days ago, and I took a peek at him, and then I watched him, you know, watch you guys on the Manning Cat. You guys crushed it again, obviously.
The numbers speak for themselves, Pat. Amen.
But anyway, I know you don't like any flowers being thrown at you guys. Thank you.
Let's keep it moving. But yeah, he was absolutely just incredible in that game.
And he's played so well. And I don't know.
I don't see it. He just...
The metrics were all there, right? 6'4", 235, 240 pounds, mobile enough. He can get out of harm's way.
Quarterback runs. Certainly accurate.
Got the arm talent. Make all the throws.
Yeah, why not a big, smart, physical, I mean, and a dog. Yes.
A guy that apparently, like, all those studs around him, like, they love him. And they play for him.
So that's the biggest thing. Like, generational talent.
Brinker's talking about it. Like, I got very lucky.
No pun intended. You know, when I got the job here in India.
Andrew Luck. 2012.
Andrew Luck sitting there, right? Yeah, we're going to pass on Andrew. No.
Generational talent, to say the least, right? Yeah, so if there's a guy there, and this may be the guy after they do the vetting process, I don't see why this guy, I think AP Tone, you got him where in the fourth? I got him a couple times in the fourth. That's what I'm saying.
We'll talk to Daniel Jeremiah about this. So I don't know what I'm missing.
Me neither, and I've already set the table with Daniel Jeremiah like, hey, I just want to let you know there's some heat coming. You know, because all you draft experts have left this guy out.
I just want to know why. I just want to – he's liked by his teammates.
He's big. He shows up on the biggest stage.
And he was on our show just cool. He's one of the lads.
Awesome, yeah. He's one of the lads.
I don't fully get it. Now, granted, Shador can spin it.
And, obviously, his dad is one of the greatest football players of all time, one of the greatest athletes of all time. And we've seen him have to grow.
And he's been very mature for a while. I'm not saying anything against Shador.
I'm not saying anything against Cam Ward. He's played a lot of football, obviously, went down to Miami, changed their entire culture, and did a great job this season, and he led an offense that was very explosive.
Not saying anything about Cam, but just a lack of respect at all for Will Howard. I don't, it doesn't make any sense because he's being treated as somebody that's like 5'11".
He's being treated as somebody that's like 5'10". Maybe he doesn't have the physical stats to be able to keep up with all the stuff he's been able to do on the field, but he's huge.
He's gigantic. He can run.
I don't, this one doesn't make any sense. And I guess it's going to be because he's surrounded by talent, but when he was at Kansas State, his final year, he wasn't.
He was a Big 12 player of the year. And that's over Quinn Ewers.
That's over everybody at Texas. That's whenever, you know, Oklahoma's in a Big 12.
Obviously, West Virginia was in the Big 12. So somehow he won player of the year over everybody that was with the Mountaineers.
It's like, this guy's a good player. He's played a lot of ball.
Seems to be cool. I just want to hear it from Dan Jeremiah.
We'll talk to him in the next hour. Well, and it's trying to buy talent thing.
Like, sure, you can get that. But Shadur Sanders, they're talking about Travis Hunter being that generational player, number one, and Shadur played with him.
So I don't know why that isn't a conversation at all when it comes to him. And I believe some of the other wide receivers for Colorado, they're pegged to be draft, you know, second, third round too.
So they're great players. And then you think about Cam Ward, like sure, ACC, maybe he didn't go up against the best guys, but also he was thrown to, you know, Restrepo.
And Restrepo is considered to be. The greatest Miami.
He has the most yards, most receptions, most touchdowns, I think for a wide receiver in Miami miami history yeah and he's considered like one of the top slot receivers you know and we've seen how some of these slot receivers lap mcconkey have done in the nfl so it's not like he's throwing to slouches either so it doesn't really make sense but you know that just happens with guys like that who transfer and then have one good year and you know you can throw chip kelly into that too he had two good was that. At Kansas State, he was like, he had Kansas State in it.
And I guess the Big 12 doesn't get talked about that way. Yeah.
I guess it doesn't. Even though Arizona State took Texas to the wire.
It legitimately took them to the wire there. The champion came out of nowhere.
BYU, I think, could have held their own against a lot of different teams. Big 12 obviously loses Texas and Oklahoma, and everybody thinks that they're a weaker conference or whatever.
It's like, this dude was great at kansas state that's why miami wanted them that's why ohio state wanted them and then he goes into a system that is obviously um more conducive for him to be a pocket passer because all the weapons they have he has he hasn't even really showcased his running he started doing the playoffs there but like he i don't get i don't maybe that's the thing maybe because of the evolution of of the quarterback and the quarterback play. You see the Lamar Jacksons and whatnot, the type of offense that people want to run.
Maybe that's got a little bit of... But he can.
He can move. He can move.
But I don't see him moving like those guys move, like Lamar moves in some of these guys, running the RPOs and the read option, the zone read. I see some quarterback runs, some traps, some powers.
He's big. He can get the third and ones like Josh Allen.
Josh Allen's pretty good. Yeah, he is pretty good.
He's not bad. Not bad.
Wyoming. 6'4", 240.
You also said it. The whole Big 12 thing, he didn't play in that Big 12 that everyone's like.
Texas and Oklahoma were in the Big 12, and he was the Big 12 player of the year. and also for all like the talent you still have to show up they beat three top five teams in a row when he was the quarterback like that I don't know I mean I I still think I think he's going to go to the combine and just absolutely light it on fire not just in the interviews but I think it's going to come out that he's a much better athlete than people give him credit for as well I think so too I can't wait to talk to Daniel Jeremiah in the next hour about it all.

Big news today. All the finalists

for the awards have been

announced. Congrats to the AP getting

that done. Congrats to

AP Tone getting your votes in. Offensive

Player of the Year is obviously

a massive one because this

normally goes to the person that isn't a quarterback

because the quarterback normally

is going to win the MVP. We all assume Saquon Barkley is going to win this, but hey, could be anybody else.
Could be. Josh Allen not even being a finalist for the Offensive Player of the Year tells you a little something, something, too, about this entire voting process.
Lamar Jackson, finalist for Offensive Player of the Year, finalist for NFL MVP as well, which is Josh Allen, Saquon Barkley, Joe Burrow, Jared Goff, Lamar Jackson. These are not in any order.
These are just a list of the finalists. And then defensive player of the year obviously was announced.
Zach Bond getting in there. Shout out to him having a massive year.
Miles Garrett, Trey Hendrickson, Pat Sertain the second, and TJ White getting in there. And then comeback player of the year.
Also finalists were announced. And this this is a big one this is a conversation because joe burrow obviously injured came back jk dobbins injured came back christian gonzalez missed 13 games came back tomorrow hamlin i think we all know what happened with it within the last two years i guess it wasn't last season sam donald that was active believe, for 17 games last year.
So he didn't have any injuries, any sickness, any death, potentially, that is also on this list within the last two years. But he is on the Comeback Player of the Year finalist list.
Let's go to AP Tone. Tone, why do you think that is the case, and what do you think inevitably ends up happening with this particular award? So this, over the last two years, I believe it was Geno Smith

and then Joe Flacco.

Neither of those guys were coming

back from injury.

They were coming back from, you know, they just weren't

playing. Whether it wasn't good, they were old.

Circumstances, situations happened.

We all know when Joe Flacco went over DeMar Hamlin

there was a lot of people talking. Even Joe Flacco

said like, hey, not comeback

player of the year. DeMar Hamlin's comeback player of the year.
Come, come back from what? Ubering my kids around his best school. That's what he said.
So then there was the AP kind of put out earlier this year, you know, kind of how the war, the rule should have been taken. The spirit of the award is to honor a player who has demonstrated resilience in the face of adversity by overcoming illness, physical injury, or other circumstances that led him to miss playing time the previous season.
Now, other circumstances, I guess you can take that however you want, but a lot of AP voters took the spirit of the award, overcoming an injury, illness, something like that, not just not playing. But he's a finalist.
I see him as a finalist. So not as many AP voters as we had thought decided to put the guy who didn't play just because he wasn't the starter.
And then now he plays great into the comeback player of the year. You AP people, are you guys all on the same page over there? What's going on? It doesn't feel like it.
I'm not allowed to reveal who I voted for yet or the top five, i don't believe uh but you know i asked the ap about it um and this you know situation as far as sam darnold goes and they said you know everyone in the nfl is eligible for comeback player of the year unless you're a rookie because you weren't in the nfl last year um but we hope the voters you know take the spirit of the word as how it should okay so we should um we should assume with that message being sent multiple times from the AP that although Sam Darnold is certainly a finalist here and Tone won't give away his votes No, he won't. But as somebody who's been very lucky enough to ride alongside an AP voter, they've changed this this year.
This is a this year change thing. So whenever the sportsbooks had Sam Darnold as the favorite to win the entire thing because how he's playing they were going off what previous awards were like people were taking their bets sportsbooks were accepting the bets you name it and then once again had to come out and say hey what the voters are being told is it's not like you stink now you're good again correct it's like hey did you go through some and now you're back so we can assume that's what the award's going to be and who it's going to go to yeah and i tweeted it out earlier in the year when i saw that he was a favorite like i said i think the sports books this is kind of misleading to people um you know a lot of people reply with that other circumstances are that he was on the jets the jeff's draft him that's you know that's that's pretty big other circumstances things like that i mean yeah the more we learn yeah the more we learn it is tough circumstances argue that yeah agreed brick johnson comes in there tells is tough circumstances.
I can't argue that. Yeah, agreed.
Brick Johnson comes in there, tells you you stink. That's going to be tough to respond for.
Yeah, you go. It's like when you're playing Call of Duty and a guy in the lobby says something that hits a little bit too close to home.
That's Brick Johnson football. I think Brick Johnson is a motivator.
I think if we were to understand the story from the New York Times is athletic. He wants to celebrate people and everything.
I assume he didn't just crush Sam Donald. But I guess you could other circumstances into this guy was in a terrible situation.
You could, if, if you wanted to not pay attention to the spirit of the, of the award. Sure.
But you have to like, this is a two horse race. It's JK Dobbins and you know, Joe Burrow.
And I'm a Christian Gonzalez guy, but like JK Dobbins and Joe Burrow, unless I'm mistaken, haven't really won any all proPro or anything this year. So, like, I feel like sometimes with these awards, like they're almost, you know, rewarding guys when they don't get rewarded in other places.
Like, Joe Burrow had an unbelievable season. Is he really going to win nothing? Like, you would assume they're going to give him something.
There's a chance Saquon wins nothing. Yeah.
There's a chance. That's why, to that point, that's why it's like, hey, he's going to win Offensive Player of the Year because he can't just win.
Well, what if Josh Allen wins the MVP? Then Lamar Jackson wins nothing? Yeah, there's a chance. If Lamar Jackson wins the MVP, which all Pro Football Writers Association of America has deemed Lamar Jackson the MVP.
I didn't do enough research on how much that matches up with the AP. I should have.
First team all-pro quarterback, though, Lamar Jackson, which is voted on by the same AP people that are voting for the awards. So let's assume Lamar Jackson's winning the MVP.
So Josh Allen doesn't win the MVP again. He's not up for Offensive Player of the Year, right? He's up, yeah.
So Josh Allen has another 40-plus touchdown year, has led his team again. He won three rushing touchdowns, three passing touchdowns week 13 or 14.
He gets lines. First time ever that has happened to the quarterback.
Having the year he's having with the roster he's having, he's going to win nothing. You know, he's going to end up with nothing in this entire thing.
Maybe the Super Bowl. Bingo.
Which he'd say, hey, I don't need that other traffic. Well, just like Saquon would say as well, if the Eagles were able to do that.
100%. How do you feel about these particular games this weekend? We went to NFL Plus Premium, NFL Pro, and found some of the matchups and stats that they think are worthy of being a conversation.
Let's start with the NFC game here. Let's start with the Commanders taking on the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Commanders led the NFL in scoring with 34 points per game in the playoffs thus far, while the Eagles are only allowing 16 points per game in the playoffs. Both teams have an NFL best plus six turnover differential in the playoffs entering the NFC Championship game.
How do you feel about this? What does this stat tell you? It says commanders are scoring a lot, but the Eagles aren't letting people score. That's why they make it to the NFC Championship game, these people.
Yeah, but let's look at the last game, regular season week 16, commanders versus the Eagles down in Washington, D.C. Yep.
I think that was 36-33, the Commanders. High scoring affair.
And he threw five touchdown passes. Who? Jaden Daniels did.
Speaking of, Jaden Daniels is the first rookie quarterback to have multiple playoff games with multiple passing touchdowns, and his 116.2 playoff passer rating is the best by a rookie

quarterback in a postseason in nfl history this guy special man him and cliff kingsbury seen the field very well let's go to another one here this one's about saquon barkley saquon barkley is averaging 162 rushing yards a game in the 2024 playoffs which is the most by a player in a single postseason in NFL history.

Some historic players in this particular role.

He went for 150 and 146 in the games against the Commanders this year. His over-under on rush yards in this championship game is 130, which is the highest over-under rush yards a player has ever had.
And here's a big one. Great stat there from Tone.
The Eagles have the league's top-ranked scoring and total defense, including playoffs, entering conference championship week. Teams with the number one scoring and total defense entering a conference championship matchup at home are 4-0 over the last 20 seasons.
So it hasn't happened often, but when it does happen, normally very good for the team. You've got a good defense, you're going to win games, especially whenever it matters.
Absolutely. Excuse me, I didn't mean to interrupt, but pretty good formula this time of year is being able to run the ball, stop the run, and pack a defense, right? And Philly can do all that.
To Tone's point, I mean, Saquon had four touchdowns, two touchdowns in each of those games as well. Yeah.
Against the commander. Run the ball, stop the run.
That's what everybody says whenever it matters. Especially in Philadelphia this weekend, it's going to be cold.
Not that Washington isn't used to that, but it's going to be bad weather. Can you run the rock? You don't have to put it through the sky, especially in bad weather.
You can be able to run it. You're good.
When games matter, it's old school football. Always has been.
Yeah, and there are other stats about how the Eagles defense held the commanders to like 30-something rush yards or something along those lines. And when you think about Cosme, they're kind of starting guard in the middle of that offense going up against the best D-tackle in football, Jalen Carter.
That's a huge mismatch for them. Let's go to the AFC here from NFL Plus Premium Pro.
The Josh Allen-Patrick Mahomes playoff matchups have averaged 63.7 combined points per game. Five points more than any other quarterback matchups that have occurred at least three times since 1950.
They end up showing up in the biggest games these two. The Josh Allen stats, although he's 0-3 in the playoffs against Patrick Mahomes, very good.
He plays very well. This is like whenever people were bearing Kirk Cousins for so long in the primetime games and you look at his stats, it's like Kirk actually balling.
Just so happens to be playing against a great quarterback on the other side. Josh Allen, same situation here in the playoffs against Patrick Mahomes.
Is this the year? Is this the year? Speaking of Patrick Mahomes, Patrick Mahomes is looking to join Tom Brady, 10, and John Elway, 5, as the only starting quarterbacks in NFL history to reach the Super Bowl five times. He's 29 years old.
He's 29 years old. Crazy.
Unbelievable. Josh Allen, after recording a career low, 22 design runs during the entire regular season.
Josh Allen has recorded eight design runs for 35 yards and a touchdown in this year's playoffs thus far. Over the course of his career, Allen has averaged 3.8 design runs per game during the playoffs, up from his regular season average of two.
Allen has also recorded 6.9.6 success. Whenever the games matter, they start running this guy.
He's tough to stop. And the Chiefs have gone eight consecutive games without a giveaway entering the AFC Championship game.
That is the longest streak by a team without a giveaway since at least 1950 including the playoffs. Some historic stuff happening here in these playoffs this weekend, especially from the Chiefs as they look to do something nobody's ever done.
Obviously, win three straight in the modern era. Josh Allen's looking to do something they've never done in the playoffs which is beat Patrick Mahomes.
And Patrick Mahomes is doing shit that nobody's ever done by the age that he is. We were talking about history all over the place for the AFC Championship game.
Yeah, no question about it. Like you mentioned, 4-1 in the regular season.
Josh Allen is 4-1 against Mahomes, 0-3 in the playoffs against Mahomes. But to your point, you said, okay, he's got to go up against Patty Mahomes, Hall of Fame head coach in Andy Reid, right?

Hall of Fame defensive coordinator in Spags.

So there's Hall of Famers all over the place.

Who are you going to put your money on?

Who are you going to trust in a game like this at Arrowhead,

in those elements?

A.Q. Shipley says don't think about putting money on that offensive line for Kansas City.

A.Q. says this is Kansas City offensive.

This is what he's saying, not me.

I'm just telling you what AQ's saying.

Well, he also had Philly's whole line.

You know, one and then six all of a sudden.

Yeah, yeah.

He doesn't really know what he's giving.

And he has some teams that were ranked ahead, right?

I mean, he was off.

I loved the shot yesterday.

He was unbelievable.

Great shot.

Great shot.

30 people.

$500.

I mean, beautiful. Great time of year for it.
Taxes are coming. He was unbelievable.
Great shot. Great shot.
30 people. $500.
I mean, beautiful.

Great time of year for it. Taxes

are coming. All that shit.
Yep.

Agreed. But he's crying about the

flag that was thrown. You know, I'm talking.

About the chop and the snatch.

Well, his finger got caught in that.

His finger got caught in this thing. It wasn't a grab.

But you know how these refs are taught, right?

Did not do that.

Don't call anything against you.

Is that what you're saying? That's exactly that. Don't call anything against you.
No.

Is that what you're saying? That's exactly how.

It's a point of emphasis a couple years ago.

Offensive linemen, the coaches are teaching.

They're going to chop and snatch.

So what do the refs do?

If it comes anywhere, looks like it.

It's like roughing a passer.

If it even comes close and it looks like it, guess what?

They're going to throw it.

They're going to protect these quarterbacks,

and that thing looked like a chop and a snatch

when that guy goes down like that.

Guy's finger got caught in the chest.

You slow it down, and you have the angles that we have.

Who's we?

Who's we?

The refs?

I'm with you, Chuck.

Are you a ref?

You had a good angle.

I saw you talk about it yesterday.

He spent a year with the refs, so he's always doing this shit.

Oh, it's wee bullshit. It's hard.
It's hard. You guys give credit.
We get it. It's hard.
It's hard to play in the NFL. It's hard to coach in the NFL.
It is. It's hard to everything.
That's why it's the NFL. It's the highest level.
Great appreciation for how hard these jobs are. And we all know what we signed up for.
So there's going to be some criticisms at times. You're going to play really good at times.
You're going to get a lot of flowers. And then, you know what? You're going to play bad.
Things are going to happen. And some of these refs, we don't know if they're ever going to play good.
Yeah. It feels like every time they're on TV, they're bad.
Wasn't even the worst call. Some of them.
Not all the refs. Go ahead.
The Chiefs or that call wasn't even the worst call. The worst call of the weekend was on the Commanders when, you know, Dante Fowler Jr.
tackled David Montgomery by his shoulder, and they called a face mask. Yeah, by his chest.
That was crazy. Yeah, it's unbelievable.
Oh, that one, Chuck. That head.
It's all right. The refs are trying their best.
But here's the deal, right? Replay assist. We're at a certain point now.
This offseason is going to be a huge discussion with the competition committee and the coaches once they get to the owners' meetings. That thing will get improved.
They're going to add some things to that so that they can go in and look at, like Will Anderson's hit on Patrick Mahomes. Yes.
We all saw it slow down, right? It hit right here, and he did this. Where the ref is standing, he can't necessarily see no helmet to helmet.
Yeah. But it wasn't severe.
But the thing that replay assists can't do is they can't come in and talk about severity. Right now it's black and white.
Did them or not in the head and neck area period now they're going to take the next step and go okay let this guy get involved and say there was no contact to pick that up well we're hoping that that's what they'd be doing this year but i understand there's always steps to things the nfl is like the titanic not that it's going down but to turn that thing it takes forever you know and that is kind of the NFL's way. But this replay assist is a good advancement, I believe.
Yeah, but I also did read that, hey, they don't want to be doing replay assists in the playoffs because we need as many additional commercial breaks for, you know, advertising and everything. Oh, of course.
Greedy corporate fat cats. Exactly.
We can't have them just, hey, let's respot it right away and keep playing. We need that to kind of draw out, go to a commercial, get another big-time sponsorship in there.
So, I don't know how much replay assist. As we're watching, I think replay assist is only going to grow, hopefully, and hopefully that's not a part of the conversation because all anybody wants is them not to slow down the game, which is why replay assist is so awesome because it's happening in real time.
Like, hey, pick that thing up and you don't lose anything. How about that national championship game? 18 play drive to start that thing.
10 minutes. No commercial breaks.
I even said on air, like, hey, they are on their way. They are going to shove these commercial breaks.
And they did kickoff commercial. That second quarter was like an hour and a half.
Oh, my. It's a business.
I felt bad for y'all. I mean, I'm sitting there going, my God.
It was a lot of standing. It was a lot of standing.
Spanx had us, though. Yeah, thanks for that.
Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who's going to be trying to get his team, that he's the general manager of, to the national championship. Will that be next year, the year after, the year after? We don't know, but we assume it will happen because of how big this guy's brain is.
Multiple-time Super Bowl champion, current general manager of the UNC Tar Heel football team, Michael Lombardi. It's always good to be here with you.
It's always good. Great job on the championship game.
That was a long drive. You know, that drive proves that time of possession is meaningless in football.
You can have it. It matters what you do with it, right? You've got to be able to score.
Look, the Eagle-Washington game, I heard you talking about it the eagles had the ball 36 minutes in that game the last time they played them and yet they gave up 36 points to the commanders and they only had it for 23 minutes yeah and that's why you know like uh scoring defense matters how many points you give up it doesn't matter how many yards you give up red zone efficiency matters you're scoring touchdowns you're kicking field goals turnovers matter time of possession is just like uh hey dominate the game potentially but did you do anything with it who cares let's talk about that championship game we asked bill i think last week after the playoffs he said are you watching these playoffs as like a coach now trying to figure it out or as a fan he said just watching as a fan right now haven't really dove in what did you learn from this college football playoff as you're trying to build a college football team right now? What do you need? What do you think you love? And did you really learn anything that might have changed the way you think about the team you're building down there? No, I think it still comes back to can you win enough fronts? Can you have good offensive linemen? Ohio State with the injuries in their line, everybody thought the Tennessee game was going to be hard, or the Oregon game was going to be hard. And yet that offensive line really did a good job.
Credit Chip Kelly for what he was able to accomplish. And I think Notre Dame's too.
Notre Dame's offensive and defensive fronts, I think that's still the essence of the game. And one thing I do have learned from being in college football is depth matters, right? In the NFL, you only dress 46 players.
In college, you can dress 95 95 or whatever the number is and I think there's a lot of teams that are even to start a game but the depth and the overall talent on the second and third level teams as you're rotating becomes an issue and then teams take over and I think really you've got to have sound depth and so the concept of paying one player or two players or three players like we think in the NFL and then going with younger guys, that's not going to work in college. You're going to have to have really good depth to compete with those great teams from the Southeast Conference and the Big Ten and from the ACC.
I heard you put up massive money for one quarterback. Isn't that right? Didn't we hear that? Oh, yeah.
Yeah, like eight million or millions of dollars for a quarterback. Did you hear about that? No, we might have heard about it.
If somebody offered him, I don't know, maybe it was the janitor in this building who offered it. I have no idea because I didn't offer anybody that kind of money.
I think, to me, we're going to stick with the Patriot model. We're going to have a good team where everybody's going to be valued.
And I think more than anything, you know, you guys know this. You can't, the locker room has to feel a sense of contentment based on what you have earned.
And so if you bring a player in who's not really played for your team and paying more than some of the guys that have based on just on hypothetical, you run into a little bit of a problem. So this thing goes both ways.
You're going to negotiate contracts both ways. Sometimes you're going to give a guy a raise and sometimes because you brought other players in.
I mean, they'll did this all the time in new England. I mean, Julian Edelman got continued raises based on what other receivers they brought in because Edelman or Brady were the best players on the team.
Yeah. You don't disrespect your own players by bringing in somebody who hasn't done anything yet.
Not that anybody's done anything for your program thus far, but when it comes to payment, there's professionalism that is around the corner, allegedly. Chuck has a question for you, Pazan.
Yes, Lambo, you talk about, you know, putting a value on your players. So we got the salary cap coming with this revenue share.
I know in April there's going to be a vote. I know there's Title IX stuff involved.
I've heard somewhere like $20 million, $21 million, and then football is going to get the largest portion of that. Have you guys talked about that? Let's just say, hypothetical, it's $15 million.
How are you going to divvy that up, and have you placed a value yet on your roster? That's a great question, Chuck. I think you have to do it just like the draft.
You know, the draft is money, okay? When you say the guy is going to be an immediate starter and impact the team, that's a top 10 pick, and that top 10 pick makes X amount of dollars. And if you say the guy is going to be a potential backup player who could eventually start, that's probably a fourth or fifth round pick.
So that comes with a value. And so whenever you have a salary cap, you have to have a value.
And so if you're taking a young high school prospect who's very good, you're going to have to give them some money to entice them to come to your school. But there has to be kind of a ceiling on what you can give them.
You know, we're not like Jerry Jones. We're not in the oil drilling business.
We're not hoping to hit a well or a gusher. You got to pay for performance as you go, right? And so there's going to be a scale.
You know, you come in, you earn this. If you start to play, you're going to earn more.
And then you're going to earn more based on how you start. It's got to be, there has to be a rhyme and a reason to what you're doing.
But if you randomly just give out, I'm paying this guy $750, I'll pay this guy a million, I'll pay it. Then all of a sudden, you don't have any continuity within your program.
And so that's what we're going to try to do. We'll bring young players in that we recruit.
We'll pay them, but it's on speculation, right? And there's going to be a number. And then as they earn more based on their play time, based on their performance here at North Carolina, they will earn more.
My door is going to always be open for conversations because that's the way it is. The NFL, you know, we summer in the NFL how many receivers redid their contracts based on what was going on around the league same thing's going to happen in college football okay the more I learned about Notre Dame uh through this playoff run and Marcus Freeman and who they're trying to build what they're trying to become sounds awfully similar to you guys and do you sense that that Notre Dame and you guys are going to be in the same players pool? And how does it feel knowing that they made it to the national championship in that kind of same world that you guys are probably going to be in? Well, they've got such great tradition, but so do we here at North Carolina.
We've got incredible tradition. Now, we haven't won an ACC title since 1980.
But, man, we have a lot of great players. Starting with the greatest defensive player of all time in Lawrence Taylor and then going to Julius Peppers, not even talking about how many great players have been in basketball.
They've got won 23 titles in women's soccer. I mean, this is an incredible institution for sports, and we're going to follow that.
We believe we have a national footprint. I mean, what Michael Jordan has done for the school, what the basketball program has done, you see this emblem on people's chest.
You see our brand. It's a national brand.
And so we need to be a national school. So we're going to be foot to foot with Notre Dame.
We offer a lot. Now they've got a history in terms of winning championships and getting there.
We're going to have to increase our tradition there and get there. But we have a lot of great players.
We have a lot of first round picks. We might not have had great, great teams,

but we're going to fix that.

And we're going to recruit to our traditions.

You know, you can't build a team

without creating a sense of belonging.

And the only way you create a sense of belonging

is to look to your past.

So we need the Jeff Saturdays.

We need the Lawrence Taylors.

We need all those Quentin Copels.

We need all these great players that played here

and dominated to be part of our program. Dreigh all there's so many of them right yeah that have been here greg ellis that's right the all first round there's a lot of them first round picks we gotta we need them to build so we can walk into a home and remind players about north carolina's tradition of great talent here okay so you you took that a different way than i expected I appreciate you going through that.
What I was saying is the type of player, seemingly. Oh, yeah, no doubt.
It's going to be the same type of people. You guys are going to be recruiting a similar type of people.
I think there's a few schools that are looking to do the same thing. Notre Dame, obviously, national champion, finalist, and they're doing it the same.
It's like, wait, the type of guys of guys I think that you guys are trying to get.

No question, Pat.

We consider ourselves

a professional organization

and like Notre Dame,

we want smart guys that can get into

school. Notre Dame has the requirement.

Everybody thinks getting into school,

if it makes it tough on the

players, you're not going to have a good team. I think

that's nonsense. We want smart, tough,

dependable players.

For us, if you don't go to class and you don't work hard and you're other things, you're not going to be a good football player. You know, you're not good in one area and then all of a sudden be good in another area.
You've got to be a complete person like North Carolina, like Michigan. Those national schools, they recruit that.
And we want to be that kind of program. How you do anything is how you do everything.
And how do you find those right guys is certainly going to be a part of the job. How do you retain those guys? Obviously a massive piece of the job.
There is a full roster overhaul possibility in college ball. Ty has a question for you.
Yeah, Lombo, right now a lot of people are kind of complaining that the college football season has gone on too long. It just ended.
A lot of people saying, hey, this needs to end by January 1st maybe because we have all these different deadlines for the transfer portal. Now we're seeing a lot of guys, this last one here, Ohio State players and Notre Dame players entering the portal.
Will you guys still be aggressive for some of those guys, or is it difficult because you had to flip basically an entire roster, and then now you're kind of the odd man out because you don't have very many spots left, even though you are building this brain. A lot of kids do want to come to you, but you just don't have spots for maybe some of these kids from Notre Dame or Ohio State who would be interested in North Carolina? Yeah, we're always going to save room, whether it's our cap, whether it's our scholarship, but we're going to go to 105 this summer.
And once we go to 105, I think there's going to be a lot of teams that have to get rid of players at that point. Whereas we at North Carolina who are building our program, we don't have that many players at that level.
The teams that have been doing this and have a great bloodline of recruiting going on, they're going to have a hard time getting to 105. And we need to be able to be there to take advantage of that situation.
We have to look for all the areas of finding talent. I think that's part of what the NFL is about too, right? Bill Walsh used to say this all the time.
You know, during the season was the best time to find players because everybody was content. Offseason in March, everybody was looking for players.
So you were competing at a harder time. I think that's the same thing.
We've got to be able to take advantage of what our situation is. There's not a claiming order like it is in the NFL, but there's going to be a lot of schools that have to get rid of guys because they have too many scholarships okay so let's pivot away from college we're obviously incredibly pumped for you good luck there let's go to the nfl uh we are hearing our sources not you but our source says are telling us that tom brady very much a part of as you might be getting a call from him or maybe a recruit at this exact time that tom brady is running the show over there for Las Vegas for the hiring process.
That's what we're hearing. Are you hearing the same thing? And what do you think? Oh, somebody needs you.
You should answer that. Should you answer that? No, I'm good.
Don't worry about it. You got my full attention.
Trust me. Yeah, but what if that was a booster or a recruit? You never know, Lombo.
Committing. You never know, Lombo.
If you need to take a call, you certainly can do that. We don't want to hold you up.
We heard Bill Belichick signed his contract, too, officially. Hell yeah.
Put away all that nonsense about, yeah, we're going to go back into the NFL. Can we kill that for once and for all? We actually, I got a big shovel out this morning, and I buried that.
So that's a good thing. Okay, good.
So you guys signed your contracts at UNC. Things are good to go.
But let about you know one of the reasons why everybody thought you guys were getting back into the nfl is because tom potentially called you or bill who he's friends with and has a lot of respect for to ask him questions about this hiring process i don't think i fully i guess i should have kind of expected this i don't think i fully expected tom to be running that shit over there i thought like minority owner obviously he's going to be around handshake try to talk to the boys let's do some strategy but from what we're hearing uh in the interview process that's his meeting that is kind of happening throughout the entirety did you know that do you expect that and what do you think about the raiders job as a whole now that tom is very much involved well i think tom's never just going to put his toe in the water i think he's going to immerse himself into it as completely because he's so competitive. He's competitive to be the best broadcaster he can be.
He's looking for every way he can improve. And he's never satisfied.
The one thing about Tom Brady that I've learned is there's no mantles in his home. There's no place for his trophies because he's collecting more trophies.
And this whole instance to immerse himself into football, because his name is on this franchise along with Mark Davis. And look, Raider fans get upset when I say this, but they have not been very good over the last 22 years.
And they need somebody like Tom Brady who understands what it takes to win and what's the culture all about and how he can bring that. Now, obviously, John Spitek, who they just hired as their GM, he goes back to Michigan with Tom.
He was also at Tampa Bay with him. So there's some familiarity with him.
And then I think they'll hire a coach that gives them some, they need some credibility, right? I think sometimes everybody wants the new, bright, shiny object in the room. But I think a team like the Raiders, they need somebody who's got some experience, who can understand how they're going to navigate the next three years in the course.
And I would think Pete Carroll would have a hell of a chance to be the next coach there. Okay, we're hearing the same things around the coaching conversation cycle, is that Pete Carroll has a legit opportunity to become the Las Vegas Raiders head coach.
Ben Johnson is announced as the head coach of the Chicago Bears yesterday or the day before that. Gives a speech to the team, gives a speech to the building.
What are your thoughts on Ben Johnson going into Chicago? How do you think it works out? Is this the right pairing for Caleb in your eyes? Well, I think what Ben said is so true. Forget about analytics.
It depends on how your quarterback plays really more than anything on what you're going to do in the game I thought that was really an important statement and a smart statement look we know this he's done an incredible job with the Detroit Lions and how he's been able to bring that team together with balance with the ability to run and throw obviously the season didn't go the way it is but I think what he's got to do is prove he's now a head coach he's not an offensive play caller he. He's a head coach, and he'll get the right defensive guy.
Look, they've got a lot of good players. They need to repair their lines, and if they can do that, then they can close the gap on a very, very good division.
Kevin O'Connell got a huge raise, which he deserved. I mean, that's a good team.
They're going to bounce back. Same thing when you look at Green Bay.
You know, Green Bay got hurt a lot. It was interesting.
lot. It was interesting.
We're having so many rematch games in the playoffs, whether it's Green Bay played Philadelphia, Washington playing Philadelphia again. It seems like there's a lot of repeats, and that's a good thing because coaches can gain an advantage.
I hope Kevin O'Connell didn't sign his deal before Ben Johnson. You know, Ben Johnson allegedly signed for $13 million.
That's what the reports are. I don't know how accurate reports are of coaches' contracts normally are.
Kevin O'Connell, I mean, he could have won in there with a blank check. Yeah.
He is so good. And then MCDC, obviously, he's going to have to recycle.
Aaron Glenn gone. Ben obviously gone in the same division.
It's like NFC North football is problematic. I mean, there are very, very good teams in there.
And the floor is getting dunked on. I mean, Ben had leverage, Pat.
I mean, you know this as a negotiator. Ben had leverage.
I mean, so Ben could ask for it. And the Bears, you know, they needed to make a statement with their coaching hire.
I mean, they've been through this, whether it's been John Fox, whether it's been, you know, Matt Nagy, whomever it's been, you know, they need to make a statement. They're taking a risk paying them as much as they are on a first time head coach.
But I think Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles, I think everybody believes that Ben's the right guy for their job. So they've got to go all in.
Look, here's what I would say. The same thing applies to players.
You can't overpay a great coach. You cannot overpay.
You know, if you hired Bill Parcells or Bill, you can't overpay great coaching. The problem you get into, like the problem with players, you overpay a good player.
Then it becomes a problem. A great coach, great player, you can.
And I think Kevin O'Connell is great. I think Jerry Jones said everything that has ever been worth it, people have told me I've overpaid for.
So just whatever the case. Now, again, he's overpaid for a lot of other shit too yeah no doubt but things that are great keep them in your building i'm happy the minnesota vikings are doing that aaron glenn goes to the new york jets he played there uh i believe wilks is going to join him as the dc obviously there's early reports that he would be a fan of aaron rogers sticking around and then maybe getting a younger quarterback that all has to get played out but there's a AFC South conversation taking place Connor has a question for you yeah Lambo Mike Borgonzie gets hired as the GM and now a lot of stuff has come out I believe the president of football operations Brink will have final say Brinker Brinker excuse me well final say on the 53-man, but then Borgonzie will be responsible for the free agents and the draft process.
And then, of course, Brinker will report to Strunk, not sure with Borgonzie. What does this say, kind of, about the Titans' whole operation? And then where does this kind of leave Callahan, just because he is the head coach? What is his role? Is he going to be involved, you think, with the draft or anything like that? Or is this kind of a three-headed monster in Tennessee now? Well, you know how I feel about committees, you know, and they've never dedicated a monument to one.
So this sounds like a committee to me. Look, I think Brinker's been running the team.
I think even when Rand Cartham was there, Brinker was kind of in charge of pretty much everything, so he's going to remain there. And obviously, his background has got to have to find a way to utilize his skill set as a guy who can draft and develop a team.
I think the real question comes into what kind of team do they want to have? You know, they transitioned into a Cincinnati Bengal team, and it cost Rand Cartham his job, essentially. They got rid of the big power back they went to nickelbacks and spears and and pollard and so their offensive line couldn't really they couldn't run the ball and they're counting on will levis to be a good player there's a lot of calculations that need to come true for tennessee to be good they better make sure they're right about will levis and that's brinker's job to do because he was there when they.
He's been a part of it, and I think that's ultimately going to be tied to what Callahan does. I think Cincinnati, if you copy their offensive program, you better be damn sure the quarterback's good because Burrow makes that thing go.
It isn't the play design. It's the quarterback design and how he plays.
So the Tennessee, in terms of all the moves they made in the past, they can blame them on Rand Cartham, but somebody else was signing off on him. So it's going to be interesting to see how it goes.
Yeah, and what do you think about Callahan, Chuck? What do you think about Callahan, the coach's position in this entire thing? Yeah, anytime, you can tell right now, like these coaches are coming in together with the GM. Anytime it's one or the other, head coach in place, new GM, or vice versa, unless there's a prior relationship there, like whatever, just win, Callie.
Just win and win big. Yeah, you win quick, too.
Been down that road. Yeah, you have.
Been down that road. GM comes in, not with you.
New GM. Lose a quarterback.
Yeah. Don't have a cue.
Lost a few games, and that was that. Lame duck.
Chuck is what they were saying. Pat, we'll hear everybody's on the same page, but there's a difference between being on the – Pat, what Coach is saying is so true.
What you find is everybody's going to tell you in Tennesseeennessee they're on the same page until they lose the game as being on the same page is meaningless being aligned is what matters most and alignment can only come from the gm and the head coach being tied at the hip philosophically now they're going to argue and go back and forth but they got to see the game the same way and this is where i think most teams make many mistakes i mean brett veach does an incredible job in kansas city for andy reed and but he's tied to andy reed philosophically they see the game the same way and so that allows you to find players because remember scouting is not about finding scouting is about eliminating and so you eliminate players you don't want you find you don't find players you eliminate the guys that don't fit and when you're not on the same page you argue about who you're eliminating and that becomes a rift within the building look i think tennessee went through it they wanted to change to become cincinnati's offense i don't see how anybody can be cincinnati's offense unless they bring joe burrow with them yeah and jo Joe Burrow obviously is a weapon and we'll be excited to see what awards

he wins, if he wins any awards

at NFL Honors, up for Comeback Player of the Year,

and I believe offense, whatever the case.

Lame duck

down there is such an interesting situation

because you brought up Andy Reid and Brett Feech,

how they're on the same page. And Brett Feech, and obviously

the Chiefs front office, we have that here. Chris Ballard

came in from the Chiefs front office.

Andy Reid, Supreme Commander there?

Absolutely. Yeah, look,

and what Andy's so good at

Thank you. the chief's front office we have that here chris ballard came in from the chief's front office andy reed supreme commander there absolutely yeah look and and what andy's so good at everybody thinks when you hear supreme commander that they want to do everything no andy reed gets everybody aligned it's the most it's what bill walsh did everybody was aligned it's what belichick does everybody has to think philosophically this is where we're going doesn't mean't mean we're not going to disagree on things, but we're going to be aligned on how we're going to get there.
There's seemingly no Supreme Commander in Tennessee, right? No, none. But Borgonzi said he and Brinker have great relationship and admiration for each other since 2009.
Never worked together, but since 2009, they've had a lot of admiration for each other, right? Yeah, just through the circles and doing what they do. But this one has free agency and draft.
This one has final 53, and then this one's got to coach them all. Okay, that's a lot of people that have to get on the same page.
That's weird. Good luck.
I think it'll happen. I think it'll happen.
This whole notion about who has control of the 53 is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. I mean, it's so stupid, right? You can only dress 46 players, right? And so what Ron Wolfe did in Green Bay with Mike Holmgren is the smartest thing to do.
He told Mike Holmgren, look, Mike, you got 50 players. You dress whoever you want.
Joe Gibbs did the same thing with Bobby Beathard. But player 51 to the rest of the team, that's really for the personnel department to decide on who's got a future.
So we can develop talent, but you're not going to hurt your roster currently. Like, I control the 53.
I mean, seriously, that's just a power grab. I mean, those seven guys can't dress anyway.
All right. Sounds like it's going to go great down there.
Yeah. You know, Borgonzi is from? Everett, Mass.
Which is? Great football town. A lot of history.
A lot of great players have come out of Everett, Mass. A lot of Italians, right? Yeah.
Too many, some would say. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Hey. See your shirt.
Some would say. I didn't say I did.
I just want to let you know. You seemingly said that that was coming from your mouth.
I said some would say. Okay, last question here from an Italian.

AP Tone has a question for you.

Yeah, Lumbo, the last Jets playoff win was the 2010 season.

The OC at that time was Brian Schottenheimer.

I believe he was up for some head coaching jobs at that time, never ended up taking one, and now 15 years later,

it feels like if you read the tea leaves,

he may be the Cowboys' next head coach. How do you feel about that move down there in Dallas? If it is shoddy, I think Brian's a really good coach.
I think Brian comes from a great, great tradition of coaching. His father, Marty, is one of nine human beings who won 200 games in the NFL, and he can't get himself into the Hall of Fame.
It's a complete injustice. And so I'm rooting for Brian to get this job, to carry on his father's legacy, who was an outstanding coach.
I mean, Marty was able to win games, and Brian learned from him. And so I think sometimes when you kind of have this rise and all of a sudden you don't get a job, you kind of learn the essence of the job.
I'm sure he's more ready to be a head coach now than he ever was. And I think it would be a smart move for Dallas because it would keep Dak in line.

Plus, I know Brian understands how his father ran the operation.

Brian knows that Marty was running pretty much everything.

It was a philosophically aligned organization.

I think it would be a great hire for the Dallas Cowboys.

I really do.

You know, people get so caught up in, well, what was his offense ranked?

What was he doing?

Did he throw the ball on first down? We're talking about leadership here. We're not talking about play design.
I think Brian can be a great leader. We had Shoddy in Indy.
He was on your staff, right? Yep. I loved him.
Me too. What do you think of him? I think he'd do a great job.
Yeah? To all the points that Lombo just made, yeah. And I don't think Jerry likes major turnover.
There's a lot of continuity that makes sense in keeping a guy like Shoddy. Especially at the age of 82.
And, you know, Zimmer is down there on contract, we assume, for defense coordinator. Zimmer and Shoddy I assume have a good relationship, we would assume.
There was some rumor that Zim was contemplating, you know, going back to retirement. He's got a farm, I think, in Kentucky.
Chuck, they only signed... Everybody in Dallas was on a one-year contract.
Zim came in on a one-year deal. They all did.
So, you know, Jerry wasn't going to give more than – that's what took so long to hire a defense coordinator. So now, if he wants to bring Zim back, I think certainly he could.
But, you know, Zim's a good coach. There's other good defensive coaches out there that Brian could hire as well.
Got it. So we don't know – we don't necessarily know who's with who there.
How about Josh McDaniels going back with Vrabel? I think that's a great hire by Mike. You know, Josh does a great job with the quarterbacks.
He's been there. He's familiar with the surroundings.
He's won at New England. You know, I think if there's anybody else but Vrabel, I'm not sure Josh could go back there because the Vrabel program is similar different than to

the Belichick program and I think Josh

is most successful when he's working

in that environment. Alright

I got these cards

okay. It's called

Head to Head Football Trivia

Sam got me

these for Christmas. I may or may not have forgotten

that we got them until I opened a bag

and saw a bunch of Christmas gifts

in there. Okay, so you need to tell me

when to stop.

Okay.

Stop.

Alright.

What did

cornerback Darryl Green

stuff in his socks

claiming they made him run faster?

Oh, that's a

great question. I don't know

the answer to that. I thought when he was

Thank you. stuffing his socks, claiming they made him run faster? Oh, that's a great question.
I don't know the answer to that. I thought when he was coming out of college, he stuffed weights in his socks because he wanted people to think he weighed more than he actually did coming out of Texas A&I.
Tootsie Rolls. Coins.
Oh, Tootsie Rolls. Here, this is second question on here.
Super Bowl Sunday is the second largest food consumption day in the United States behind Thanksgiving. Is that fact or fiction? I would say that's fact.
Really? That is correct. Wow.
Over July 4th. Next question.
Over 67,000 high school football players in the U.S. suffer what each year? A concussion?

That is correct. Sounds like they're trying to build a nerve.

Yeah, hold on.

I don't like that one.

We don't want to.

I'm just giving you the answers.

I'm not giving it.

I don't like that it was in there.

What is the name of the position player

who lines up with the lineman but can also run out

to receive a pass?

What is the name of the orange markers in lines up with the linemen but can also run out to receive a pass? Died end.

What is the name of the orange markers in each end of the corner of the end zone?

Pylon.

The orange markers.

Who was the 2020 regular season NFL most valuable player?

We know that.

Come on.

During COVID.

Tom Brady.

Nope.

Aaron Rodgers, the king of COVID, was the MVP. We appreciate the hell out of you, Lombo.
Thanks, guys. Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Lombardi.
Yeah, Lombo. Some tough questions in here.
Those are some tough questions. Who's going to get that? D-Buts knew it.
He texted it. Did he really? He knew exactly.
Yeah, okay. Okay, that's too easy.
What was the nickname for the St. Louis Rams high-powered offense in the early 2000s? Great shot.
Who has the nickname Eazy-E? Edger and James. Final answer? Rapper from NWA.
Earl Campbell. S-Y.
Eazy-E. Oh.
E-A-S-Y-E. Eli Manning.
That's not true. Oh, because he's throwing a big easy.

Yeah, because he's New Orleans.

Exactly.

Have they got the snow cleared up, Donnery?

I don't know.

10 inches yesterday in Florida.

In what year did the NFL have a team on the West Coast for the first time?

Ooh.

1949.

Okay.

72.

Okay.

68. 35.
Okay. 1926.
Wow. I assume that's who, the Niners? That's why I said 1949.
I don't know. I don't know.
I have no idea. Who? Nope.
That one's tough. When a referee puts both hands on his hips.
Okay, just like this, and then points to the team playing defense,

what penalty has he just called?

That would be a neutral zone infraction.

Boom!

Offside.

Offside.

Who was the NFL leader in rushing yards during the 2020 regular season?

COVID.

Ooh.

COVID, COVID.

It was Josh.

Derrick Henry.

Bingo!

Donovan McNabb vomited in three out of the four games he played in the state of Florida. Is that fact or fiction? Fact.
Fact! Guy couldn't. He was too hot.
Too much soup. Yeah, too much Campbell's.
Also, the humidity can't do it. If all 256 regular season NFL games finished in a 7-7 tie, how would the playoffs be determined? Coin flip.
Coin toss is the answer. That's good work.
That's good trivia. That's good trivia.
Hour one wrapping up here on ESPN. Hour two, we'll have Sean Sharania and Daniel Jeremiah.
AJ Hawk, Coach Pagano, is here. Are you going to give picks for these championship games? Absolutely.
I hope so. How'd you do last week? Sucked.
Not good. No.
Absolute shite. No, I think he actually did do well.
He took the dogs, I think. Yeah.
And they all 3-1. So Houston.
Yeah, yeah. Houston, Washington.
Washington. The Rams and Baltimore.
Rams was a push. I want the opposite way on all of them.
I want one in three. I think I lost one.
Yeah, you did good. I did bad.
But next hour's going to be good. And I picked Ohio State.
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Let's get them over with. Football! It is wonderful.
That's 36 years as a football coach. 18 in college.
18 in the NFL. Chuck Pagano is here.
Chuck! The! The Talks at the Table is here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt.

Sweet sea turtles, pal. Hey, thanks, man.
I figure

you know what? It is cold out down there

in Florida and New Orleans. The sea turtles

are probably not doing too well. You know, you used

to just wear a t-shirt. Do you remember that, Ty?

It used to be like a t-shirt thing. Yeah.
Now he wears

these hoodies over top of these t-shirts. Hey, look,

it's cold out. I'm not afraid to say it.
It's not cold

in here, though. It feels pretty good.
Yeah, it feels

okay. I'm still, when you wake up wake up and granted 21 this morning felt like 50.
all the snow melting somehow fantastic even though it's still below freezing i don't know how that works get that sun out it's like the snow got sick of how cold it was and was like you know what it's it's not above freezing but it's definitely warmer than it was we're gonna disappear i looked out and saw grass and i'm like how the hell did i get grass did it go above freezing and i looked never no no it's still very much below i don't know how that works i don't know science but i do know it has been cold as i'm actually getting a little yeah because of the cold i think that time of the year i think it is no fight normally football season is when i get it this is the fact that college football i guess we're in football season but the fact that college football season ended and then immediately afterwards, I got to think, good timing. Shout out to my body for doing that entire thing.
But I woke up this morning with a little, you know, a little bit of that. And I think everybody's probably going to have to go through that.
Yeah, after December, we did have a couple colds running through here when it kind of started. Remember we had people showing up sick and spitting in everybody's drinks.
Uh-huh. Saying that they're going to quit soda and not.
Yeah, I remember. Oh, well, that's two different situations, but same person.
Yeah. We usually get the reprieve, too, of when we go do these games.
You go to Miami, and it's like, okay, we're going to get an 80-degree day here, and we're going to be good. Everywhere we went, the weather was shitty, and it was cold.
Woke up on my bus, 49 degrees. The generator died.
Exactly. That's how National Championship Day started.
That was 445 a. a.m.
Probably why. Legit.
Actually, yeah. I legitimately think that was the case.
I might as well have just been sleeping outside and it was cold as hell down there. It's been cold everywhere.
We hope everybody's okay. Also, Southern California still very much sending our positive vibes and prayers.
I don't know how the recovery is going to go there. And then also North Carolina.
Everybody going through just know that uh we love you yep we love you love you one half of the hammer cowboys ap tone is here tone what'd you learn in the first hour anything sweet i learned a ton in the first hour a lot of those nfl pro plus premium pro plus premium uh stats were unbelievable it's very disrespectful to do that to their dad as an afl or two yeah ap voters should have a little respect. NFL Plus is the Ridge.
Then you get the premium version of that, you get NFL Pro. So it's NFL Plus Premiums NFL Pro.
Which is worth it. The fact that the Chiefs haven't turned the ball over in eight games, I did not know that was a thing.
Oh, was it playoff? No. Eight consecutive playoff games, yeah.
Eight consecutive games? Oh, I thought it was eight consecutive playoff games. Yeah, they haven't.
Eight consecutive games without a giveaway entering the AFC Championship, so eight consecutive games, okay. Insane.
I believe if you go back to his playoff runs, too. Probably.
I know Pat hasn't. Yeah, in the division round, that was a thing, no picks.
But then also, we don't have it. Josh Allen's had the lowest percentage of turnovers in his entire career this year.
What an unbelievable run for these dudes. Josh Allen's going to win no awards.
He's going to win the MVP. I think.
So you think the AP voted Lamar Jackson first team, all pro, quarterback. And then they said in the same exact vote, in the same exact time, they said we're putting Josh Allen over Lamar, though, for the MVP.
I think he should win the MVP. I'm hoping that he wins the MVP.
Now, maybe he doesn't, but I think there would be enough people who maybe put Saquon one and then Josh Allen two because of the new ranking system. You think like a voter eating people's votes.
Exactly. The points.
The independent party has come in and really affected. Especially if there are some absolute doofuses voting for Sam Darnold to win Combat Player of the Year.
I'm sure that there were some. You're talking about people in the AP? Yes.
Completely not understanding the spirit of their own award. But, again, that is beside it.
And even DeMar Hamlin. I get it.
But this is the previous season. What happened to him was two years ago.
Unless we want to do a handout award again, that's also possible. It's to be named after him.
But I just personally think Josh Allen should squeeze it out because Lamar's team – I understand. You're saying if you had a vote, that's what you would do.
Yeah. Okay.
Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, we're trying to say what we think. No, I know.
That's what I mean. I think people might have put

Saquon 1, maybe Josh 2,

Lamar 3. And then they put

Lamar first team all pro quarterback

over Josh. Some people.

I don't know how those votes. How many are there?

50? I guess there can be

a lot of... That's what I mean.
If you get 30

people that have... You know

Vinatieri was in that top 100, first kicker ever

to get in there? I voted him the number one player. How many points kicker ever to get in there i voted him the number one player how many points did he get probably could be a bunch from the number one player like i went to the pro bowl first time i ever got to vote they're like put your top 10 players in the nfl or whatever for this top 100 i'm a vinatari at number one i said every time he walks on the field but one time this year he scored is that the purpose of the game i don't know you told me is that what we're trying to do are we trying? I think he's the best player in football.
So I put him as the number one player in football. I couldn't even fathom how many points he got off of that.
He ended up being like number 70 or something. I lost a lot of sleep during my six-year tenure, but it wasn't because of Adam.
Ever. Ever.
Yeah, we should have had that perfect season. That sucks.
They missed one against Tennessee. Week, second to last week, maybe.
Had a perfect season going. Extra points and field goals.
Rolling. Only been done once before.
Gary Anderson, I believe, in Minnesota Vikings. Then he ended up missing a kick in the playoff for them to lose a game.
That was his first miss of the year, and people wanted to kill him for it. Oh, yeah.
First kick. Get this guy out of town.
We still broke the points record that week, though, right? Down at Tennessee because we gave him a game ball, and I fucked it up. I said it was points was points for this, and you got, no, coach, it was like all-time leader in points.
Oh, yeah, that one, too. No, no, it wasn't all-time.
It wasn't all-time leader, I know that, because I wasn't around for that. I was trying to, I was literally thinking about just staying to be there for the all-time leading scorer record.
God, I wish you would have. I'm pretty happy with what the decision was made.
I think Vinny ended up making it out pretty good. I tell everybody, you mapped this out when you came in and said,

hey, I'm done.

I said, what?

And I said, you could kick for another 20 years, Pat?

Yeah.

And you go, here's what I'm doing, Coach.

Bop, bop, bop, bop.

And lo and behold.

Lo and behold.

It didn't have a church in there.

It didn't have the Thunderdome in that particular idea.

It was pretty close to what you told me.

It felt like there was an easily seeable

kind of path.

You had it.

A lot of work

was going to have to happen.

But with that being said,

I almost stuck around

for Vinatieri

to be your all-time leading scorer.

So I wasn't there for that.

So there was probably

some other record

that he broke.

I also do appreciate

and remember

you panicking one time

because Vinny didn't even

get on the field

one game.

So like consecutive starts. Yeah.
Vinatieri had this consecutive starts record that was just like whatever it is you know like numbers that will never be eclipsed one game we got shut out completely so Vinny didn't get on the field so Chuck like with a minute left in the game I think he's talking to Conte he's like do we need to put do we our appearances in game do we need to put Vinny in game? Like, just at some point, do we mess something up? They're like, no, since he never went on the field, it doesn't count as a game or something. When you guys came up to me with that, it's like the game.
Yeah. It was like a minute left.
Thank God. Okay, we got beat, whatever.
At least Vinny's good. At least his record's Yeah.
I may get run out of town for this loss, but Vinny's good. Yeah, that was – those things are – I mean, when you're talking about history, there's a lot of ways to handle that, and coaches are right in the middle of it all.
But Vinatieri was so sweet. He's going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer.
All right. Hell yeah.
He should be. Isn't that crazy? As a kicker, he's going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer.
There's some people, I guess, that do the voting that don't think a kicker should ever be a first ballot hall of famer so they'll be battling against it in the quiet rooms or whatever the case is but it's like if anybody was ever to be he would be the one and uh we're pulling for him joining us now ladies and gentlemen is the all-time leading tackler for the green bay packers ladies and gentlemen national champion aj hawk yeah hawker hawker how you doing How are you guys doing? Yeah, fantastic. You know, we're chit-chatting about all these awards.
Obviously, you and I both are guys that didn't win a lot of these awards. So, throughout our, I mean, maybe throughout your life, you did.
I did not. I was runner-up for male athlete of the year at my high school.
I think I was the only person that could have had scholarships in three different sports. Didn't win it.
You know, Mike McKee who I have a massive respect for he went to Kent State to play basketball guy had a silk McKee 4 3 I mean he was awesome I love Mike McKee have no beef with Mike McKee but certainly could have had a scholarship in three different sports Plum isn't like a factory of things I think I probably should have been male athlete of the year kind of forced me to go to this thing didn't win all right fuck these people you know that inside go down uh senior year of college come down this award show in orlando you're gonna win the right guy award you know do the whole song and dance go get a suit that you can't afford do the whole have your dad miss work your mom miss work it's gonna be fun come down here some guy that only had like 15 punts on the season wins right guy well it's like okay it's bullshit i hate this thing then there's numerous other times where so i'm an anti-awards guy strictly because of my life with awards but with that being said these things mean a lot to legacy these things mean a lot to the future of how people are viewed in their time what are your thoughts on all the finalists that have been mentioned and what are your thoughts on awards as a whole aj hawk man that's a good question i guess it always how many people are voting on him i think it's a big thing some awards there's like 20 people that vote for him i think in college and different different things which seems crazy to me i think 50 is a decent number for uh like tone and the ap voters but you're right like if lamar is ap first team all pro right from the ap how would he not be the mbp voted on by the same people well what connor's saying is that saquon barkley might steal some of the votes you know independent party in here coming in to eat up some of the votes from the one particular party uh so he's saying maybe that'll benefit or help out josh allen in this entirety what has been proven over the past is the quarterback that's first team all pro is normally the mvp that is normally they go hand in hand but because saquon had such a great year they're thinking maybe there'll be other votes going other places is what connor's kind of spinning yeah exactly and i don't know if this is the first year tone maybe you can say even though it was your first year is this one of the first times they've done like the list one through five who the mvp is instead of just write in one name i believe it isn't the only way i know that and we'll say this because jj brought it up on our show and said it was one of the first i don't know to be honest i don't know i could ask and find out and so because of that i think people might have put like saquon one and some people would have josh two and then lamar versus having like lamar have the most because if it was just one name yes i would think lamar would win it but just thinking about especially after seeing who some people voted for for the comeback player of the year like i would assume there is going to be some final tally very close race to maybe if josh allen is asked to donate like a weight room back to the n someday, he can say almost MVP weight room. Like I was going to do a poem.
They asked me if I could donate a weight room. Do I want to title it? I said, call it almost male athlete of the year weight room or whatever.
And they're like, uh, really? Like, yeah, put it on the wall. They're like, okay.
I'm like, don't do that. But just know that I've never forgotten.
You know, I've never forgotten. It's not the kid's fault.
But it is something I think about. The awards are so interesting, man.
Because then you have to take into account who's voting. Like, do I want to put enough stock into this person's opinion to actually care about it? But players do, mostly because whether or not you're going into the Hall of Fame, whether or not you're being talked about as one of the all-time greats.
I mean, old buddy there is still pissed at Brett Favre for laying down for Strahan. He wasn't able to sign autographs and make money.
I mean, these awards mean something. They actually do.
I hate that they do. I think it's good that we celebrate people, but they legitimately matter whenever you're talking about who matters in the history of the league.
Yeah, and I tried taking it as seriously as one possibly could because I know it means so

much and I tried using, like I

used every single resource that I could. I talked

to all players at the positions

with the voting and coaches and things like that.

So, you know, hopefully you take it right and if you

don't take it right, if you don't do it right,

kick you out. Thanks for your service, Tony.

Hey, Tony.

Are you on a one-year deal? Sorry, are you on a

one-year contract? If you don't do a good job, they boot you? I believe so. Yeah, we had a conversation with the AP this morning.
Turns out not everybody was thrilled that Tone got an AP vote from what we've been told. But what Tone has exhibited this year is nothing but full-on research and effort to get it right.
So we appreciate your representation of this program, Tone. Yeah, and hopefully I'll be back next year.
Hopefully you will be because you know what? They need you. Bingo.
Especially because putting sam darn on comeback player of the year whenever they're like no that ain't the rules anymore so i i don't i don't want to hear it from these ap people yeah same with tomorrow yeah bingo like tomorrow and he's up there because they knew they messed up a year ago with joe and joe was the first one to say flacco i don't deserve this it should go to look it should go to tomorrow you know and so damar's up there now so okay we up a year ago. So, two years later, can we make it this year? A lot of AP people, they don't like the grandstand, right? That isn't like the thing.
That's not like the Associated Press or Medias thing, right, to do that? Sure. I don't think so.
Remember the Pro Bowl? Breakthrough player of the year. It's just a popularity contest.
Which one? Pro Bowl back in the day. Well, Pro Bowl still.
You get grandfathered in. Once you get grandfathered in it, you could miss half the season and they'd still put you in.
Especially at offensive line positions, which we can ask AQ Shipley his thoughts on it all. I mean, he would probably echo my sentiments on a lot of these things.
But nonetheless, congrats to you. Thankful for you.
Congrats to the NFL as well. It is a powerhouse.
Have you seen what the projected salary cap is for next year, AJ? I have not. No, what is it? Projected salary cap next year, $275 million.
Now, here is the salary cap growth since the year 1994. Okay, not that long ago.
1994, I was seven years old. $34.6 million is how much you were allowed to spend on your entire roster.
Then obviously you see the growth. 2010 was an uncapped year because there was a CBA lockout.
There was no agreement. So they could have spent whatever.
That was an uncapped year. 2020, obviously, you see it go down.
That's because they weren't able to have anybody in the stands. But if you look from 2013 to 2025, the growth of this league is unbelievable.
The amount of money going on to players, significant. Now, how will it continue to grow? How do they continue to expand? Well, if they add a game and add a bye week, that's two more weeks of primetime games that they can sell to these new streaming devices.
That's two more weeks of concessions. That's two more weeks of merch.
That's two more weeks of ticketing. That's two more weeks of money, which is probably what they're going to sell.
$275 million is the projected cap for next year. And in 1994, it was $34.6 million.
Big shout out to all the players and coaches that have put this league on their back and, you know, made it a very profitable business. We appreciate the hell out of you.
Hell yeah. Chuck, what do you see here? Because in 2013, $123 million salary cap was huge.
People are like, holy shit, $123 million in a salary cap. Now, $275 million is the projection.
That is absolutely insane. Now, the 2023 to 24 jump, $224 million to $255 million, they're saying that's like a make good from the 2020 jump.
You know, 2020 had a downfall because there was no tickets remember they had the uh cardboard people in the stands and they said there's gonna be 30,000 uh cardboard uh members in the audience and there's gonna be 10 actual members in the audience so there's gonna be 30,010 people at this particular game it's like that's not how that. So Sally Capp drops a little bit, but then he finally catches up in 2024.

Now it's off to the races.

What a league, Chuck Pagano.

What is your biggest takeaway as you look at this graph?

You'd look at, I mean, it was just, what,

eight, 10 million a year, pretty much.

I mean, then you talked about COVID where they missed

and then these huge jumps, even 2024 to 2025.

What is that?

20 million.

20 million dollars, right? Yeah. I mean, it's incredible the way this leads.
We didn't know any better. Like in 2011, when I was at the Ravens, like $120 million.
And again, we weren't paying quarterbacks $60 million a year or what we're paying them now. Yeah, but as that salary cap has gone, that's where quarterback contracts have gone as well.
Bingo. You know, and the new CBA that was negotiated there during that lockout and then obviously post that the new cba uh had like a veteran men if you've been in the league for at least five years here's what your veteran men is rookie men is like half of that and what ended up happening is quarterback money went up and then the veterans actually started getting cut because all the rookie men's would be the case so there was like some backwards effects that they thought it was going to be so much money aj so much money now granted players are always going to want more which i hope happens i hope players are going to continue to get more the league's obviously going to want more but 275 million split 50 50 amongst the nfl and the players for the salary cap you can build a good team marriage you can build a good team down there yeah i can imagine you could you you better be able to build a good team with that much cash but do we know how much or what this chart would compare to say like the nba and their salary cap or other professional sports interesting we have not there's i wonder how like are theirs trending in this direction as well yeah and obviously we have 53 man rosters and everything like that versus the nba who has what 15 yeah so per player I think we would have to do a lot of you know like kind of get it accurate or to see if theirs is going up as much as the NFL like each year after year or to continue to grow yeah theirs is definitely on like a per year basis like Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown same team they both signed damn near three or one of them did sign a 300 plus million dollar contract The other was right on the line.
And then they're talking about SGA, Oklahoma City star, who I don't believe has had his super, super max yet, but they're saying he might be the first ever like $80 million a year player. So I think as far as money-wise goes, they're close just because, like Pat said, 15 players.
But I guess here it is right here. Guaranteed as well, though.
That's a big difference. Guaranteed is a massive difference.
Yeah, and I mean. These were the luxury tax in the NBA.
I set a graph in. Yeah, 58 million there.
It's 140 million now. So it looks like it's going up.
You go down to 2010 to what it is, 2024. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who might know, senior NBA insider for ESPN, the ever-handsome Shams Sharani.

Yeah, Shams, you look super.

We bring the boom.

That's all I got to say.

I saw the video that you did.

Shout out to them.

Come on.

All right.

I'm happy you got your gimmick in.

We reset this.

All right.

I'm happy you got your gimmick in.

I like the leather jacket.

Hey, you know, I like what you're doing here, Shams.

We just did a graphic on the NFL salary cap and how the projected next year is $275 million. The only thing we ever talk about with the NBA is the fully guaranteed contracts and how seventh man on the bench is making more money than starting linebackers in the NFL.
Is the NBA salary cap climbed like this, or how does it work each year? Yeah, I mean, I think next year is projected at around 154 salary cap i mean luka donchich this offseason is going to be eligible for we have a five-year 350 million dollar supermax contract extension chay gills alexander similarly is going to be eligible for a massive uh supermax as well nikola yokich i mean there, there's going to be a point in time here where $80 million per year, $90 million per year, and dare I say $100 million per year at some point. I'm not saying that's going to happen in this decade, but the way the numbers are escalating, I just remember when guys like Eric Bledsoe, Derek Rose, players, you know, 10 years ago,

8, 10 years ago were signing max contracts.

Their deals were 70, 80, $90 million.

These super max, max contracts are much higher now.

So I think we're only going to see it escalate.

And obviously the TV money is going to be flushing in as well.

Especially with the TV rights doing what they're doing.

Now they're going to have to get the ratings back

and maybe when football ends, it'll go through the roof.

But also seems like there's a fascination with the NBA right now,

Thank you. especially with TV rights doing what they're doing.
Now they're going to have to get the ratings back and maybe when football ends, it'll go through the roof.

But also seems like there's a fascination with the NBA right now,

especially revolving around a story down there in Miami that you reported on early into your tenure at ESPN, your senior NBA insider.

You have to go into another team's world.

Okay. Woj retires.

We know the Woj bomb, Shams bomb history.

We understand all that.

You come into ESPN, senior NBA insider. You have news on Jimmy Butler.
You say, hey, Jimmy Butler's trying to get traded out of Miami. Everybody tried to kill you.
Jimmy Butler's agent tried to kill you publicly. Pat Riley tried to kill you publicly.
Other insiders tried to kill you publicly. And here we are about a month later, six weeks later, and it seems like it's at a boiling point with Jimmy Butler in the Miami Heat.
What's happening down there? I know you talked about it earlier on First Take where you said it's basically like a divorce. Is it going to be messy? Is it going to be quick? How's it going to work? What inevitably happens with Jimmy Butler in the Miami Heat? And also, congratulations, Shams.
Sitting in the pocket as everybody trying to tear you down in this thing. You stick to the facts and you trust in the reporting.
And I knew the truth of the situation and sometimes you can't fully report what you know you you can you can go with what you have right now and and then you let things play out the way they're supposed to because this stuff is all fluid at times and things can change things can move quicker uh the heat there was a world the heat could have when they initially started listening to trade conversations in December They could have eventually traded him But as his trade desire became more known with the heat we saw pat riley come out with a statement We are not trading jimmy butler And that was at a point where I think the heat were still trying to figure out a way How can we get jimmy butler back engaged with this team? He had taken about two weeks off from play in mid-december for an illness and reconditioning, as they called it, quote-unquote. But he made it back, and there just wasn't that same level of engagement.
And the stats, there's some stats that you can point to that show that his touches, his dribbles, the amount he's running, it's just not the same same like something is off with jimmy butler he's not trying he wants out of there he requested a trade nba this is classic nba this is what it is right he he requested a trade earlier this month he told pat riley to his face i don't want to be here uh he told mickey arison and and nick arison the heat owner and team ceo to their face that he wants to be traded. And still, the Heat are listening to trade conversations.
They are engaged with multiple teams. There is no Jimmy Butler deal yet.
So when two people are in a relationship that they probably don't want to be in, what we're seeing play out is a divorce in real time. And the longer it continues to go, I think the nastier it gets, the uglier it gets.
But the Heat also can't just trade Jimmy Butler to say we're trading him. They want to get some value for him.
This is a guy, five years in Miami, Jimmy Butler has spent there. And this is after LeBron James is gone.
It's after Dwayne Wade is gone. And he leads them to two NBA Finals runs, another Eastern Conference Finals berth over the course of course of five years they had tremendous postseason success and obviously he was behind a lot of that he did not get extended in the offseason he didn't get the respect i think that a lot of people in that position probably do get and we're seeing right now how the season is playing out pat riley called him out after the season and i think everything has kind of escalated since that point pat riley kind of called out everybody down there right durability is question and jimmy brother's leadership i think like everything kind of got called out publicly by pat riley who's known to run a tight ship that's kind of the way the miami heat are known about so will they handle this like other teams have handled in the past when their superstar wants out let's make a deal done by any means necessary i know they suspended him twice within the last two weeks for like nine games he missed the flight i assume he was going to take his own in this entirety how does this end between jimmy and miami and how easy is a deal to make because we've seen shit like this in the past superstars won out bang let's get him out of here no matter what the cost is is that how this is going to go in miami i mean listen there's uh two weeks before the NBA trade deadline on February 6th.
And until that point, I mean, usually deadlines create urgency. And right now the heat from the teams I've spoken to, they're not operating with tremendous urgency, but they are engaging with teams.
But they have a price, too. And they have a price that they want to trade Jimmy Butler for that hasn't been met yet.
I think they're going to continue to be active because this is the reality of the situation eric spolstra tyler hero bam out of bio this whole situation has really turned into a a battle a war whatever you want to call it between pat riley and jimmy butler they're two massive alphas in that heat organization probably two of the biggest alphas in the nba when you think about the legend that Pat Riley is, and we know Jimmy Butler, he's come from nothing. He's come from a player that was unranked, played at Juco, went to Marquette, got drafted in the first round, came up as a really, it was supposed to be a utility 3 and D player, turns himself into a max contract player, an all-star player, a player on the verge of championships in the NBA, leading teams to NBA finals runs.
And so they're both very prideful. And, and this, this relationship is, is, is over with as far as where they're at.
I don't think you're going to put the genie back in the bottle, but the reality is the reality. He's under a $49 million contract right now.
He's got a $52 million player option for next season. And so if they can't get what they want, what do you do? And that's the question Pat Riley's going to have to wrestle with.
Well, the only reason why I just assume it's going to get taken care of because the NFL conversation about the NBA is we're not turning into the NBA. Guys sign contracts.
They don't want to be here. Too bad.
They got to be here. The NBA, I think, james harden obviously the fat with his moves yeah fat suit going to vegas doing his thing and he had a hamstring in brooklyn or whatever then he goes over to philadelphia then he hates that guy gets bottle service he hates that and james harden just want we're talking about a lot of superstars in the nba have kind of forced moves he did something very similar it was very similar the way it happened in Houston, where you never want to say a guy's not trying because you just don't know for real, for real, but you know what you, what you saw from the guys before.
And, you know, James Harden in Houston, I, but, you know, I think there is something to say. If a guy isn't fully engaged, if he's not happy where he's at, it's hard to put forth that level of effort.
It's hard to be fully engaged with the team. And I think that's what we saw with James Harden in Houston.
I think, to an extent, that's what we're seeing here with Jimmy Butler. And by the way, that missed flight that he had yesterday, he had let the team know beforehand that he was going to do that.
This is not the first time that Jimmy Butler was planning to fly separately from the team. This has happened before.
It's occasionally happened with other stars across the NBA.

But this is the heat in a lot of ways.

Like literally no tolerance policies right now with Jimmy Butler.

And they are nine games worth of suspensions just in the last three weeks.

So uncomfortable in the moment.

You know for Jimmy Butler and the team.

Like hey I'm going to this practice.

I'm going to be an asshole.

Okay.

I'm going to this game. I'm not playing hard.
And he hasn't even done that yet that's the crazy part we saw that in minnesota okay so we're not saying yeah and he took over the team remember he ran the thing and then he left and said i just cooked all these guys that's jimmy butler's a dog it was on espn i think he was doing an interview afterwards i mean jimmy butler's a dog but in the moment when you're trying to get out of there it has to be so uncomfortable locker room you know walking up the front office i don't like you ownership i don't want to be here in the moment so uncomfortable but then as soon as you get to a new place it's a parade welcome in welcome aboard we can't wait to have you so i guess they view it as a necessary evil that uncomfort uh in the middle of it but we hope it all works out for him good luck jimmy good luck it good luck miami we're pulling for you go ahead aj sean staying on jimmy real quick when could we have seen this coming when did everything start with them does it stem from them not extending him

this offseason and also can you remember a time in pat riley's career where he don't he had to

deal with a situation like this where a player really doesn't want to be there and he has to

figure it out i think where this probably turned was in the offseason aj when pat riley made the

I'll see you next time. like this where a player really doesn't want to be there and he has to figure it out? I think where this probably turned was in the offseason, AJ, when Pat Riley made the comments, essentially telling him to shut up and play basketball.
Like, you know, if you're not going to be on the court, you don't need to be mouthing off about whether you're going to get by the Knicks or the Celtics. Play basketball.
And that was one thing. They didn't extend him.
You know, you see this team is really going in on bam out of bio tyler hero they're rising young core and both players i mean tyler heroes look like an all-star this year so you you kind of see the tide turning a little bit in miami the offense more geared toward those two guys and then as the season goes on i think the dissatisfaction that that existed there was just something off between jimmy butler in the last year of his deal, a veteran at his age, 35 years old, usually guys like that, they want to have their futures settled out. I mean, we've seen it guys, when a player's entering the last year of their deal, they want to figure out where am I going to get the next long-term, not just money, but commitment.
Where am I going to spend my next three to four to five years? And clearly this is not it as far as Jimmy's concerned. And that's where we saw this really escalate.
Are the landing spots still the same that you reported early? What was it? Phoenix? Where else? There was a couple others. Cleppers.
Is it maybe Los Angeles? Tone has a question for you. Yeah, I do.
About the Lakers. I feel like I missed one of AJ's questions i think i just now has pat riley ever dealt with this before oh i i no i i don't i don't think not to this extent i mean obviously duane wade uh left him as a free agent lebron james left him as a free agent and that was in a very public way but from a player there internally uh as much as jimmy butler is meant to that organization i i think this is something we have never seen before when he was coaching the lakers with that team on the show on that showtime show there's a couple guys like that yeah when he was getting started yeah and what was real in that showtime show and what wasn't that was kind of the issue him smoking cigs in the locker room was real yeah but i was watching that as a documentary and then everybody that was in it came out was like this ain't right this ain't real good show, but then it wasn't.
Yeah, that's just because they didn't like the accurate depiction of it. Oh, the portrayal.
Yeah. We gotta bring that back, though.
We gotta bring that back. Portrayal of Pat Riley is that he's a dog.
Been there, done that. Worked from the bottom all the way up to the top.
Obviously, a lot of respect. Him and Jimmy Butler on the outs right now.
I think that's a big deal. Where's Jimmy Butler end up? And also in the trade market.
Go ahead, Tom. Yeah, could it be with the Lake Show? Because I know there's been a lot of talk about what what they're going to do before the deadline I know Rui Achimura's name has been thrown out there but it feels like maybe that's not going to happen are they going to land a big star this year at the deadline yeah I mean the Lakers are are doing their due diligence to see what's out there the problem is is in terms of the trade market who there can make that difference and I think James, Anthony Davis, your two-star players, I think they want to see some urgency, some activity with the Lakers in their front office to go out and go get another piece or two.
And from my understanding, both LeBron James and Anthony Davis feeling that this team with the Lakers, which is now a certified playoff team, they're not as of now, a play-in team. They're in the sixth seed, six games over .500.
They feel like if they get another piece or two, that they can really be legitimate title contenders. And when your best players feel that way, I think the Lakers will be active.
They'll continue to do their due diligence. They have two first-round picks they can play with, and those picks so far out, 2029, 2031, the value on those picks is immense.
Yeah, that's 2029 class. They got a couple eight-footers coming through.
That middle schooler right now is going to be ready to go. I think they're ready.
We just saw the Suns trade their 2031 first round pick the other day for three first round picks. That's potentially a part of the problem with the, and I love that Matt Itchby is going to do whatever the hell he can do to win.
Fuck it, 2031, yeah. You can take whatever you want.
Send it. I don't even know if I'm going to be the owner then.
I might not want to be the owner if we don't win now. But that is a part of the problem with the NBA, I think, for us taking you guys serious.
Correct. Yeah, I think it is.
And by us, I mean, like, people that aren't diehard basketball people. It's like, you're trading to 2031.
Why don't you trade to 2051? Like, why don't you just go ahead and get rid of everything? Well, there is parameters I want you to get. Okay.
Doesn't sound like it. And then Jimmy Butler, superstar for Miami, right? He's with the Heat.
He's undercut. He's going to be going.
It's like, so

is it a... What is it? What is going on?

I think that's the big conversation around

the NBA. Did you just give us some breaking news right there?

Did you give us some breaking news right there?

Not yet, but we might have something on this show.

Not yet, though. Not yet.
Oh, really?

Does it involve this potential...

Is that what you're talking about?

It might.

It might.

But we'll see if we get it.

We'll see if we get it.

Him and Hawn around here.

We're able to get that.

Connor has a question for you, Sean.

Yeah, Sean.

Is there reports that Maverick Carter was going to basically make a rival NBA league with Saudi Arabia, I believe, like an international type league?

Is that really happening?

And is the NBA screwed because if Maverick Carter does it, LeBron gonna go and then everyone's just gonna watch LeBron over there BC I hate to say it I hate to break it on this show but LeBron James is 100% not involved in this endeavor Maverick Carter is an advisor for this group that's putting together a league trying to get funding five billion dollars for this league that international league that's supposed to rival the NBA you know the NBA is also working on a league itself internationally in Europe from my understanding Adam Silver spoken about it actually while he's been in Paris talking about how they can build a league in Europe that's kind of going to be around, you know, the Euro League and really be able to compete there. But eventually, potentially, I mean, he didn't close the door, but eventually having maybe a team, an NBA team over there in Europe as well.
And he said, you know, we'll need to figure out how the travel would work in that situation. But the NBA is also expanding in Europe as well.
So there's going to be competition for whatever this international league is okay so maverick carter is an advisor not a bad person to have in there obviously been there done it with everything lebron james not a part of the international league he still wants to own a team in the nba i assume at some point 100 and he's been very vocal about las vegas and whatever team they get i mean the nba i don't sense the expansion front is front of center exactly right this moment. But of course, two, three, four years down the line, I think it is something the NBA is going to continue to take a hard look at.
And you think about Seattle, you think about Las Vegas, Mexico City is another place that has gotten some consideration. So the NBA is going to continue to be mindful.
But of course, Las Vegas and Seattle are front and center. Okay, I'm excited to see how it all works out.
$5 billion is a lot of money, but to who? To people allegedly potentially behind that, that ain't nothing. You can accidentally just lose $5 billion, allegedly.
Trump change. And Adam Silver knows that.
He'll be able to make it happen. We love Adam Silver here.
Legend. Very tall.
He's like Scott Van Pelt tall. Yeah.
He just kind of walks in and you go, holy shit, did not know you were that tall. He's been very good to us.
We appreciate him. We hope the NBA continues.
You talk about expansion. I know there's one player in the expansion draft that everybody would want because of the superstar, the branding, the name, the opportunity.
Ty has a question for you. Shams, can we get an update on Zion?

I think he's back. He's looked

great. He actually looked like he's in

shape, which is huge.

Are we hopeful that this is

going to be like a rest of the season thing?

Are we kind of penciling in

him getting hurt again and missing the most

important games of the season? Or do we not

have to worry about that anymore and this is the

Zion we should come to expect for the rest of this season and future years here? Schmitty, listen, we of course need and want to see Zion Williamson play and play for extended periods of time. I'll be honest, I don't know how many important games the New Orleans Pelicans are going to have for the remainder of the season just looking at the record but having Zion Williamson on the floor is the biggest thing that they need for the rest of this season and they need him to continue to build on it from everything I hear and you know people might think it's crazy but Zion Williamson really is in the best shape of his career since his rookie season he hasn't been as light as he is he He's listed at 284.
He's below that right now. I can report that.
So Zion Williamson is in shape. His conditioning is right.
And I think over the last few weeks, getting a sense on where you need to be basketball shape, your nutrition, your hydration, all the factors that keep you on the floor when it matters, I think he started to hone in on that.

And, you know, the Pelicans know how important he is when he's healthy.

He can really, Pat, he can change a franchise's fortunes really quickly.

He needs to get traded to Indiana.

Come over here to the Pacers.

They're playing in Paris.

Pacers are taking on the Spurs.

Wemby's back in Paris here in about 22 minutes.

The Pacers are going to win the entire thing. Is that where we're at right now? Give us an update on who matters and who doesn't in this NBA.
Yeah, I mean, the Indiana Pacers certainly are finding their stride again, which is good for you guys. I mean, what's the feeling, Indy? I mean, that was a slow start.
Tyrese Halberton, your guy, Pat, he got off to a slow start this year. What can you report on why he got off to a little bit of a slow start? There's a blizzard in the locker room is what I heard.
Was it fifth? Was it fitty? A lot of people are saying a lot of things in the Instagram comments whenever they posted all their relationships that they're in over there in Paris. There's a lot of things said about this particular team.
I think they've taken that in stride. I believe Tyrese Halliburton, we were very much in contact with him throughout the beginning of the season.
He looked like he was pouting. Oh, yeah.
He looked like he was pouting. He knew that he was letting everybody down.
He knew that he was not playing great. But all it takes for a guy like Tyrese is just a couple showtime.
A couple shaking bakes. Yeah.
A couple shaking bakes, baby. No look passes, and then he's back in it.
It's like the feel around indies we're just fine tyrese and the boys are gonna show up that's fuel running yeah i've heard the feel around indies more so like hey does it really matter because no one's beating the calves or the south well just real quick we beat both of them and also um caitlin clark won 50 of 54 from three on her birthday i saw that i saw that that's good so tyrese halliburton caitlin clark indiana basketball is doing a-okay all right that is that is how we feel around here and we know when the playoffs come around they're gonna play their best ball just like you shams we appreciate the hell out of you brother thank you for staying i i i do have one thing before i leave i will say i will say this uh slam contest in the NBA. Andre Jackson Jr.
of the Milwaukee Bucks has committed to the NBA slam dunk contest at All-Star Weekend. So now it's Maras Bozelis of the Chicago Bulls, Stephon Castle of the San Antonio Spurs, and Andre Jackson Jr.
of the Bucks. Those are three of the four commitments of the All-Star weekend.
Mack McClung, we'll see if he performs in this slam dunk contest in San Francisco. Andre Jackson Jr.
He has had a standing invite. Mack McClung, obviously.
Back me up. Coach knows he's a starter.
Here's Andre Jackson Jr., number 44 for the Milwaukee Bucs. It's not just this photo.
We have a highlight of this guy going up again. Look at him.
Watch him. He's coming into the frame.
Hey! That's who's... Come on now.
Come on, Pat. Come on, Pat.
His face is like a good high stand corrected. Two inches above the rim.
He's got to go dummy. Yeah, the guy's got some bounce, but that white boy, Mac McCung, he also soars through the sky.
We'll see if he does it. If he does it, a show.
Well, we know Mataz Boozelis is coming in with the real shit. And then Stephon Castle II is coming in for the real deal.
And then Andre Jackson Jr., not to be confused with Andre Jackson Sr., who also hit his fucking head off the rim, is going to be there. This could be the greatest dunk contest of all time.
We appreciate you. Shout out to Andre Jackson Jr., champion at UConn.
The Bucs have played very well with him as a starter. He's emerged as a starter.
He's started most of the games with the Bucs this year, who have turned around. They play the Heat tonight.
We knew that, and all eyes are on the Heat. What are they going to do at their Superstore? That's how you bring this whole thing for a while.
We appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen, Sean, I'm sure I'm going.
Don't you be saying that. You don't know who Stephon Castle is? Come on, coach.
I mean, unless you're watching on the day that, I mean. Buzellas, coach? He's one of the goats.
Where's he from? Buzellas. From Buzellas land.
What, are you a country of origin? Jeez Louise. Czechoslovakia.

Buzakistan.

Is he a Czech?

The way you're saying that is a little bit aggressive.

Yeah, I don't think it's a state like that.

I got some Czech in me.

I want to know.

No, you don't.

Oh, do you?

Paisano?

Okay.

Andre Jackson Jr.

That guy flies.

Holy hell.

Did you see him?

Look at him.

Watch him.

This guy's in...

I hear.

Give me that.

Going stupid.

He's going dummy, dude. Mad dummy.
And then Mac McClung. We know who that is.
Yeah, of course. That's Milk Boy that goes through to Scott.
You guys went last year, right? You said it was awesome. I wasn't there for the dunk contest.
You were. I was.
It was sick. What was the favorite dunk? The big one? Duh.
They need to stop with like 10 tries and act like it matters.

This is kind of the trick shot generation.

And I guess we do it every day.

Every day.

Bingo.

This first attempt, yeah, if you make a shot, 30 people, 500,

boom, shot number seven.

But if you make that on the first one, it's much better.

Sweet.

The dunk contest, you see guys miss like three dunks, and then they still do it, and we're supposed to act like we're impressed. And the internet's like, this is impressive.
It's like in real time, it wasn't though. We also need the stars to do a dunk contest.
But why would you if you're the star? Why would you risk getting injured? Why would you do something so explosive? You know, until the superstars say they want to do the dunk contest again, nobody's going to take it serious. Yeah.
And that's just a matter of fact. got an issue with the Pro Bowl in the NFL.
Every time I talk shit to the NBA people about their All-Star game, I'm always like, your guy's a fucking All-Star game. Such a joke.
Tyree Salabert will come in here and be like, you guys are going to force people to watch your fucking All-Star game again? And whenever he goes, how's the Pro Bowl? It's like, valid. Yeah.
That's a very valid question. So I think the all-star games all mean something.
I think the title matters, but it is tough to get into them nowadays. Back in the day, NFL-wise, stars playing.
All the studs are playing, trying to prove something. Quarterback challenge, I mean, it was like Peyton, Brett, I mean, Dan, I think all the big names were trying to throw their arms out.
They were trying to throw their arms out. Nowadays, if somebody was to do that, they'd be like, you need to get out of that.
Same thing's happening in NBA and everything like that. So we dunk on the NBA All-Star Game a lot.
I think All-Star Games as a whole have just kind of not figured it out. They're never going to fix the dunk contest either because, like you said, the stars need to do it.
These guys make way too much fucking money. So, like, it's like if they put up, even if we always talk about, you've got to put up some prize money.
If they put up, like, 500K or, like, a million to the winner, these guys will be like, fuck that. I'm making, like, $8 million a game.
So why the hell would I? Yeah, so when Stephon Castle steps up to jump from the free throw line, let's not say. He sounds like he's out of a movie.
What was it? He's a UConn national champion. This man is a rookie.
No, that's Andre Jackson Jr. Castle also.
Oh, of course. Yeah.
Of course, I knew that. Oh, that's right.
I mean, the three-point contest has become the best one. Like, now the three-point contest is the best.
Especially if we got Sabrina and somebody and Caitlin and somebody and they start doing it. That's how you really bring it together.
Caitlin's not missing this year. No, she's not.
So while they're all playing in three-on-three league, she's hanging around Taylor getting some ideas business-wise, and then she's in the gym. That's what Caitlin Clark's doing.
They did change the game now. There's multiple teams.
They're more so doing like an NHL-type all-star game. Who, on dispute? And there's America, and then there's Europe.
Don't they have that type of thing? Yeah, that whole thing going on. Also, for the dunk contest, no disrespect, but Booze Ellis can't be in the fucking dunk contest.
Dude. Can't have that guy in the dunk contest.
Have you seen Matt Dunk? That's different. He's a short, white guy who can fly through the air.
I don't need to see a 7'2 Croatian guy in the dunk. Why not? What if he's fucking tall? He's not going to do that.
He's 7'2. He's great.
He's very tall. I want to see some explosion.
I don't want to see... What if this guy kisses the top of the backboard? The very top? Yeah.
He's smooching the top of the backboard. Then I will rescind all comments.
Wemby Wemby needs being a dunk contest. He needs to just walk up to it.
That would be sick. And not even jump.
Dribble full court and just fucking... Slow though.
Slow. Just one of these.
Yeah, that would be awesome. That would be awesome.
10. But Zelellus might be able to do that.
Hit Edie. Maybe throw Edie in there.
Have him do the same thing. Yeah.
Okay, so we're brainstorming. We'll continue to do that.
Let's get away from the NBA. Let's go to the NFL.
The future of the NFL. The NFL all-star deals, like Pro Bowl.
Stinks. That is so bad.
Dodgeball! Like, we have an egg toss again and water balloons

and, yeah, it's fun. We were

approached with

helping be a part of the NFL Pro Bowl,

like being on TV and everything.

I don't think we're going to be part of the

brainstorm for the games,

so we turned it down. Sure.

But there was a couple Mickey Mouse games

they were doing that I did not think we need to be putting

our superstars through in the public. You know, we don't need to make these people look like idiots.
But I like that it's competitive. You know? Dodgeball is fun.
Longest drive. Yeah.
That one was maybe the worst one. What? That's like PGL or whatever that is.
The coolest catch. Coolest catch.
Also cool. But then when you drop one, it's not a...
And they were dropping a lot of them. Yeah.
They were going back and... The thing Dano did was cool.
Off of Jeske? Dano. Dano was the highlight.
Dan Orlowski doing the quarterback carnival was the highlight. Yeah.
Let's talk about the future of the NFL, although we're talking about the greats. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who is a former NFL scout, but now he does it on television very well.
He hosts the Combine alongside Rich Eisen. He also hosts podcasts.
He's also the color commentator for the Los Angeles Chargers. Ladies and gentlemen, Move the Sticks with Daniel Jeremiah.
Yay, DJ! DJ, how you doing, bub? I'm doing great, man. I've got my phone kind of acting sideways here, so it doesn't pick up my computer.
I don't know. I don't know why that didn't work.
That's okay, DJ. tech is obviously something we're all trying to figure out we were just talking about great the nfl pro bowl and the nba all-star game being absolute shite i don't know if they're ever going to be able to fix it again with how much money and the analytics we have but hopefully we'll be able to celebrate great players forever let's talk about great players coming in this draft i heard um brinker talking to ramon foster and another local radio show down there it said if you have a once in a generation talent number one you have to take that player blue players what we call them like once a generation got there because they have the number one overall pick but then also we'll listen to everything else who's he potentially talking about there is that travis hunter is that abdul carter and whenever it comes to quarterbacks everybody's still talking shador and cam ward really are the only first round grades how do you kind of see it all operating? Yeah, for me, Abdul Carter is the best player in the draft.
So when I heard that and just like blue player, you know, an elite player, someone who's going to step in, be a pro bowler, like right out of the shoot. That was, that was what I heard.
And to me, Travis Hunter is so unique in how you can use him and all the different things he can do. So that was at least perked me up a little bit that this might not just be, you know, whether it's Cam Ward versus Shadour, they have a needed quarterback.
It's going to be one of those two guys. That perked me up a little bit to say maybe they're taking a long-range view and just taking the best player.
To me, Abdul Carter at a premier position, I would argue the second most important position on the field. To have a guy at that level of a i'd be all in on that and he played through an injury playing the orange ball which i respect and appreciate too dominated yeah yeah he's warm and drew rosenow said i would have been disrespecting him and his family if i would told him not to play for the good of business so it feels like he's a guy let's talk about the quarterbacks now because obviously there's a lot of quarterback needy teams.
Shador Cam Ward, the only guy that's being talked about. Is that because their talent, their skill, and why? Okay, you know what's coming.
Why are you draft pundits leaving Will Howard out of the conversation of being a first-round guy? It's because he has talent around him? Okay, that's his fault that he has talent around him? Somebody has to, on third and 11, somebody has to get the call,

know that he's going to throw a deep shot, go out there,

put his bang on the table, and drop one into him.

Even if Jeremiah's open, you still got to spin that thing

and drop a 30-yard ball to win the national championship,

which he did time and time and time again.

What am I missing from you draft pundits?

Why is he ranked so damn up?

Fourth round, people got him as. Fourther six four two forty what are you guys doing what do i not see dj in this entire thing first of all dude you're you're like the teacher that calls me and tell me i've failed the test that i haven't even turned in yet yeah i have to let you know i already know i already know i't even posted anything.
It comes out next week, Top 50,

all that stuff.

Here's the

Will Howard discussion.

He went on an epic run

and I'm excited to get a chance

to go through all the All-22 stuff

in these playoff games because he played great.

I'm excited to get a chance to

dig in on that. The games I'd watched

earlier, I'd watched, I'll just tell you, I got my notes in front of me. It was Oregon, Penn State, Nebraska.
The first Oregon game. So the first Oregon game made some nice throws.
He had a couple that got away from him down the field. On the whole, I thought he played well.
But then at the end of the game, you know how it ends. He takes off kind of a little bit of a brain cramp and slides, and it goes zeros, they lose the game next game i watch is penn state again there's a lot of good to take from that in terms of you know throwing on balance uh you know some up and up and down throws over linebackers under safeties but the first play of the game predetermines pick six he's running in the end zone fumbles out of the back of the end zone um then so then i to Nebraska.
So, again, I just watched three games early in the process. And Coach knows, you know, you start with three or four of these games, and then you get a chance to circle back and watch some more as we go.
And Nebraska was the last one. He had a sack fumble and a ball took off on him for a pick in that game.
So the size, he's 6'0", 3'7", so he's just at 6'4", 240 pounds, pounds as you mentioned he can move around um he can make all the different throws and he got on an epic heater at the most important time and i'm i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm excited to dig into those pat he's right on the borderline of a top 50 pick for me at this point in time but i'm telling you that because i haven't had a chance to watch this playoff okay so you're saying that i'm coming at you sideways i'm not putting him in the fourth round you got him a little bit higher because oh he's much higher he's higher than that he's a day two guy for me as we sit right now and we'll see go through the rest of the process i was a little bummed because i'm going to be at the senior bowl next week and right and understandably so he's played 16 games he pulled out of the senior bowl at the last at the last minute so i was excited to see him in person because i've never stood next to him and get a chance to see him throw but off the way to the combine so on that note he also carried the ball i think 16 times in national championship 11 16 games he said on our show senior bowl next week i'm pretty banged out i don't know if that yeah understandable the best usage of his time he's had you know four senior bowls in the biggest moment he's had an an incredible game. Speaking of Senior Bowl, Chuck has a question for you, Jeremiah.
Yeah, so DJ, with NIL and all these players deciding not to declare for the draft and stick around because of the money that's available to them, what's that doing to your pool? We got the Senior Bowls February 1st, I think. Yeah.
Are you missing out on a bunch of guys to the point you were just talking

about the kid at Ohio State, but

these guys that are staying in school, what's

the pool look like? And then the second part

would be, back to Travis Hunter,

put your GM hat on,

where would you take him as? Would you take him

as a D-back, a corner, or a

wide receiver? Well, I want to start

with that one because I want to go back to you quickly on that, Coach,

because most times when you have guys that can do the

two-way thing, and it goes

back to Champ Bailey and

And wide receiver? Well, I want to start with that one because I want to go back to you quickly on that, coach, because most times when you have guys that can do the two-way thing and it goes back to, you know, Champ Bailey and Woodson, all those guys, they major in defense and they minor in offense. It's just a lot easier to sprinkle them in on offense than to sprinkle them in on defense.
The challenge for me, coach, I actually like him better at receiver than I do at corner. And he's, you know, he's not big.
He's going to be a little over, you know, 170, 175 pounds. So asking him, you know, even though he was able to do it in college, I think in the NFL, where they're going to pull him into the run game a little bit more.
I don't, you know, I prefer him on offense over defense. I'd like to sprinkle him in, but coach, I'd love to know your take.
Can you do that? Can you go the other way and major in offense and minor in defense? Okay. And Chuck his take on that daniel jeremiah will continue to break down the draft boards on youtube espn plus disney plus and tiktok live we'll see you tomorrow on espn goodbye okay with that being said travis hunter easier to be offense defense guy or do you think you're gonna see both hembo sent me a stat that he has been i think pushing throughout a lot of the folks.
You know, average top 10 wide receiver at this point, top 5 wide receiver, $30 million. Average top 5, top 10 corner, like $20 million.
There's a chance this guy's a $50 million player if he's able to be top 5 at both positions. I think that's going to be incredibly difficult.
I think everybody that's been in the NFL thinks that's going to be incredibly difficult. There's a chance he's different, though.
Is there a chance that Travis Hunter is different as a guy who grew up in Boulder and loved the Colorado Buffaloes? Yeah, I studied him, DJ, earlier this year, watched all his tape as a corner. And then Jay Gruden, we do a deal on the 33rd team.
He broke him down as a wideout. This guy is a rare, rare, rare elite talent.
I mean, what I saw him do on the defensive side, they weren't real complicated. He played, you know, obviously a bunch of press man.
They sprinkled in some two deep here and there. So from a coverage standpoint, quarters, this, that, and the other, he's got some learning to do.
But he's rare. And don't you think, I just think it's harder to find corners than it is to find wide outs.
And I think you can find wideout, but the true cover guys, like if you want to be a pressure team and you want to get after people and you want to get locked down corners and take away, uh, you know, the, the wideouts and, and play press coverage. I just think those guys are, are so hard to find.
And to me, it would be like, go that route, put them on defense and then, you know, have a, have a package on, I think it's easier because a red zone, a third down. Whatever that is.
We've seen it go the other way. We've seen Belichick use some guys that play nickel corner in a pinch if guys are injured and things like that.
But the guy is rare. Wherever he goes and whatever side he plays on, I think he's going to be spectacular.
Yeah, Coach's, he's coach. I, I love that viewpoint.
And I think that's kind of the, you know, that's been traditional, right? Is that you, you, you're going to play defense. It is harder every year.
We always, I always send out a tweet every year and it's free PSA for high school kids. I said every year in the draft room and every year I've been doing this on the media side of things, I'm trying to trim my receiver list and I'm trying to find corners.
So if you have a chance to do one or the other, you got better odds if you go to corner of making it to the next level. So I'm with you on that.
My only thing is I think of guys slender frame corners just has that's, you know, Jason Verrett, I go back to him, was a great, great player, just couldn't stay healthy. Denzel Ward has been beat up a lot who had a similar type frame for Cleveland.
This is not Pat Sertan. This is not a 200-pound, big, sturdy, physical guy.
And I just feel more in the college game where you can kind of be removed from the action a little bit more, and he can cover like a son of a gun. But I feel like in the NFL, with so many of these condensed formations and bringing these guys into run fits, that's where I just worry about him holding up over the long term.
That was my concern. Hey, forced fumble to win a game.
He has like three forced fumbles on the year. Travis Hunter is an absolute dog.
Can he maintain being that Ferrari for an entire NFL season against adults? We shall see special talent. Go ahead, AJ.
Daniel, what about Shadour Sanders? What do you think his outlook is? Do you think he does anything at the combine?

Does he need to? And I guess where do you see him?

Where do you see a good fit would be for him?

Well, he's, he's, there's pretty split opinions around the leagues,

pretty polarizing actually.

But to me, when you watch him, the things you can't,

they're irrefutable.

He has got just a pure, pure throwing motion.

He is a natural thrower. It is real pretty the way the ball comes out of his hand.
He's extremely accurate. He's incredibly tough.
He got the living, you know, tar kicked out of him over the last few years there at Colorado. Those things you can't refute.
Now, the people that aren't as high interested are going to say, well, he doesn't have elite size. He doesn't have an elite arm.
And he's not an elite athlete. So it's like everything he does is is right here he doesn't do those other things over the line so that's where some of the you know disconnect comes around the league i think he you get him in the right place you protect him he's a point guard um he can be very very efficient so i think him and cam ward that's going to be a fun discussion i have cam ward right now over him uh but i have both those guys it's a clear-cut top two guys and there's so many quarterback needy teams um that are going to have opportunities there in the top 10 i think they both go up there in the top 10.
cam ward's number one guy why he's just got more he's got more life in his arm he's a little bit more explosive as an athlete when he takes off and goes um i just think he can expand your playbook a little bit more. Both of them have played a ton of football.
I just think I give him a little bit of the check. He's about 25 pounds heavier.
He's just a bigger, sturdier, stronger dude. What the fuck, dude? You know who I'm going to bring up right now? Who we got? Fucking Will Howard.
You can look you can look and we're lost to syracuse no offense no offense it was a shit defense okay so so will hard he fumbled a ball i heard jeremiah say well he threw a bad pick it's like you look at anybody's tape looking for shit bad you're gonna find it you know on anybody i mean pat i mean i don't have in front of me pat but i'm pretty sure miami had like the number one scoring offense number one passing offense in the nation like they they he he's pretty good yeah playing in the acc they stole a win against virginia tech they stole a win against cal they stole a win against i mean i don't i love cam ward i'm not saying that cam ward is not a guy that i want on my team but just acting like there is because – because you guys are the ones – and once again, you didn't put your test out yet, so I guess I shouldn't judge you. But all these draft people are like, this is a bad quarterback class.
This is a bad quarterback class. The motherfucker that just won the national championship, who's 6'4", 240, now we're here, hey, he's not a good one.
He's not a good one. He can run all over the yard.
Yeah, he did it whenever he was at Kansas State. Was the Big 12 player of the year there he has too many weapons so it's like what the fuck he gets the nfl is he gonna have i don't he's smart he figures things out he's in a new offensive system with chip kelly and ryan day he's only gotten better pat we got a long way before the draft you gotta pace yourself man i'm not happy about it i think disrespectful to this guy.
And he's got friends with the boys. So here's an interesting one.
So if you took, did you see Ole Miss at all this year? Jackson Dart? Are you talking about Jackson Dart? I'm saying if you took Jackson Dart, does Ohio State, and then AJ, I'll get your take on that as someone who's a Buckeye and watches the Buckeyes. If you took Jackson Dart and he got to throw to Jeremiah Smith and Tate and Abuka and had those two running backs behind him and had all those NFL lines, do you think Jackson Dart would have won the national championship? That's cute.
That's very cute. We're doing that with Brock Purdy in the NFL too? Or does brain matter in this? No.
No, no, no. No, I'm just saying.
I'm just saying. Look, I'm just asking a question here.
That's all. Yeah, okay.
Yeah, it sounds like you're a fucking hater. I think Jackson Dart's pretty good.
I think he's pretty talented. I like him too.
I like him too. I like Jackson Dart as well.
I think a lot of the other stuff people are going to wonder about if he's the face of a program, face of a franchise. Any other stuff is not stuff that I don't like.
I love that he went out on Halloween and then two nights later threw for 500 yards or something like that. that i like that he's all tatted up in the whole thing i'm just saying there's some teams that are probably gonna be like that's not what we want for the face of our franchise i'm not saying that's right i'm just saying whenever you're projecting is this because the eye black is this because the eye black yes i think that is a part i think that it is not a tattoo by the way pat that is that removes itself like that's he doesn't have like the mike tyson almost kind of wish it was full-time.
So now I don't know how to judge. But I'm just saying, I'm not judging Jackson Dart for that.
I've gone to bat for Jackson Dart. But I'm saying NFL teams will, which leads back to Will Howard.
This guy's baby face, fucking just... All-American kid.
Everything about him is just like, I don't know. I don't know.
Pat, or pat what state are you from pennsylvania where's will howard from yeah downington motherfucker yeah yeah i'm just trying to get i'm just trying to get to the core of this thing hey if you can go down why don't you do some research do a little homework project who has the most hall of fame quarterbacks just go through what a state has it and then circle back to me whenever you get a chance and uh that'll be a great convo once again love cam love shador i mean if we're gonna throw jackson in there sweet love jackson but i just feel like this guy with we seen it we we watched it live and that tennessee defense was supposed to be you know like thumpers were fast freezing cold it's a different game we're making excuses for everybody but will howard obviously but in that particular case he just he looks the part like everything about him just looks the part if he was 510 if he was like 511 i would understand them saying you're like a fifth or sixth rounder because like oh he's a stud but you know he might not probably don't have the height for the nfl game but instead he's fucking gigantic he's a huge yeah but i've never said that fifth sixth round like that's that's crazy talk to me like i i think he's he's gonna be a day two pick which is a second or third round and then if he aces it like teams meet with them and fall in love with him and everything then sure who knows uh how high he can go but i will say when i'm watching when i'm watching him guys real quick and i'm watching god i mean i can't take my eyes off four i can't take my eyes off traev I can't take my eyes off Travion Henderson. That Penn State game, Travion Henderson on one of Will Howard's touchdown run, he puts the freaking corner from Penn State, he just puts his face in his chest and puts him on the ground.
Like, that is a bad dude. That's what I don't understand.
I'm looking, like, some of this stuff has come out. I haven't seen everything but just some of the buzz.
And I like looking i'm like where's travion henderson in the first round of these things what am i missing on him yeah and if he's not there's another problem why is everybody because they got jeremiah smith on it and judkins won forever a thousand as well in the same bet it's like that's their fault that they got put on a good roster that they put together a good roster it's like they all rallied around will too which is a whole nother And Trevion Henderson, I'm cool with Judd coming in here. It's like the human aspect thing.
You guys seemingly get lost in a little bit, I think. Well, look, it's hard to separate someone from their situation.
I will say, and this will be a point that is on your side of the fence for sure on this, is that there was people, it wasn't me, but there were people that with Burrow, he's got jamar chase and he's got justin jefferson like how much is this burrow how much of this is the supporting cast we saw it last year with jayden daniels with malik neighbors um and the other freak who went to jacksonville um yeah but yeah it was at brian thomas jr so like these these things are this is the way it works most of the quarterbacks especially in the nil era where you can move around, guess what? They're going to gravitate toward where all the receivers are so they can play with them. Yeah, and those teams are going to have the money, you know, and that money is going to be spent on probably receivers and running backs.
So, I'm excited to see how it all turns out. They're not the only quarterback, so there's more.
Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, DJ, obviously this is a very quarterback needy draft for a lot of teams.
Before the college football season started, both Jalen Milrow and Quinn Ewers, you know, in a lot of mock drafts, hey, these are top ten guys, maybe top five guys, and then as the season has went on and the process has went on, both of these guys are kind of just sliding down best available, sliding down draft boards, and now we're looking at, I don't know, is Quinn Ewers going to be a third-round pick fourth round pick same with Milrow why have those guys dropped so much and do you think there is a world where one of these teams panics who needs a quarterback and we end up having you know four quarterbacks taken in the top 10 well I can't see it being in the top 10 but I could see you know maybe you know in the first we'll take those individually. Like you were, as I watched him over the summer, I was excited about him coming into this year.
And I felt I was higher on him than a lot of people, but I saw some good things from his tape. I saw someone who I thought had some twitch to him and, you know, quick eyes, quick release.
And, you know, I was hoping he was going to take that next step. Now, he got hurt.
And one of the things that I've got to try and, you know, figure out and get information on as we go through the spring is, you know, how much of that impact him? Because he didn't play as well. He wasn't as urgent and quick as he played, but then he's got the oblique, you know, that bothered him.
He had a high ankle sprain. So how much did that impact it? But he didn't play as well as me and some others had hoped he would based off where he was last year.
And then when you get to Alabama and you watch Milrow, you want him to be good so bad because everything you hear, he's a great kid. He's freaking jacked.
He's a big, strong, physical kid who can run like crazy and just like can he just take the next steps as a passer? And then just some of the decision-making. Oklahoma game is one that jumps out.
Just kind of got away from him. He's got a huge opportunity at the Senior Bowl next week.
He's going to be down there. We'll get a chance to see him.
I think just the traits. We've seen that go sideways as of late when you just kind of go all in on traits and, you know, some of the quarterbacking stuff isn't there.
And you're like, okay, well, we'll just, that's going to come. Sometimes it doesn't.
So that's going to be what, you know, he's a little bit of an enigma, but somebody will do it. He's going to go on day two just because the tools are so interesting.
Yeah, he's electrifying whenever he's playing great. Yeah.
And that is certainly something you would like to bet on potential and potential get your ass fired, you. But potential is a massive piece of the entire draft process.
Now, you mentioned the senior bowl there. Chuck mentioned it, but Tone wants to hammer.
Yeah, I wanted to circle back on it, DJ. I saw a stat.
I think 70 underclassmen are coming out this year, and then pre-NIL, I think the last year, like 130 underclassmen came out of the draft that year. And Chuck kind of touched on it earlier.
What has that done for the draft process in general with the NIL? Yeah, I'm glad you brought that back because I forgot to answer that part of the question. You know, it's interesting.
I think we've caught up a little bit. So what's happened is, yeah, we don't have as many kids coming out, but we also now are getting the benefit of having some seniors that would have been in last year's class that decided to stay in last year.
So I feel like from a talent pool standpoint, I still think it's deep. I think especially like defensive lines loaded, tight ends loaded, running backs loaded, offensive line is solid.
It's just kind of a weird year because we've had so many years of these just incredibly deep receiver groups. But for some reason this year, it's not, you know, it's not as star studded, but I don't think that's NIL based because, you know, most of these top guys, they came out.
The problem is just the weird part of college football, the best receivers in college football right now are all freshmen and sophomores. They're all like that big wave is coming in the next couple of years but i i don't think it's as impactful now because i think we finally caught up so where we might miss a couple kids that stayed in and took the money to stay in school but we're getting the benefit of the kids that stayed in last year all right well there's also the guys doing seven eight years college ball sure congrats to them becoming doctors while playing football through oh dude so here's one that i heard the other day by the way was that these think about the quarterbacks with nil and when it was talking about um some of the movement that we've seen and it said people don't know like okay they might be getting three or four million bucks like the top top guys and maybe that's you know georgia kid that goes to my like he could be get three you know million bucks around there but these people don't know is a lot of the trading card agreements that they do

with either Panini or Topps or whoever they're signing their deals with,

they have clauses in there that if you are a first-round pick,

the value of your signature goes through the roof.

So you're talking four, five, six million dollar kickers

if you end up being a first-round pick.

So if you're a quarterback and you don't have a great year,

you're like, I don't know, I'm maybe a second-round pick. Okay, I can stay in college.
I can get a guaranteed three or four. If I go in the first round, I might get a $5 million or $6 million kicker on this trade deal.
It's insane, dude. Yeah, Domo Regato, Mr.
Roboto, through the end there, that was fantastic. I don't know what's happening with your audio, but I love that because that's potentially Drew Aller, right? Drew mean, Drew Aller goes back at Penn State, could have left once the NFL, has the game end the way it ends where he throws a pick and then they kick a field goal, obviously against Notre Dame.

It's like you're definitely going back to school.

He can continue to grow and ascend and do his thing.

I'm excited for everybody.

College football is in a great place.

Daniel Jeremiah, we're in a good spot with you breaking down players.

I still think you're fucking full of shit with Will Howard, but I'll be excited to see where you land on him. Legitimately, I will be excited.
You're the best, man. I love you guys.
I'll see you guys later. You too, ladies and gentlemen.
Move the sticks, Daniel Jeremiah. Yeah, DJ.
I called him this morning and just as soon as he answered. FaceTime.
I haven't talked to him in months. Answers it.
What the fuck's your guys' problem? He goes, what? I go, Will go will howard a fourth rounder this is unbelievable you guys don't know ball anymore is it what we don't watch film we don't want look for good players what are we even talking about he goes i don't have him as a fourth rounder just so we have that clear i'm like so he's the first rounder he goes i don't have him as a first runner either i'm like what am i missing i did the entire thing he obviously answers anytime we call him we appreciate him but he's like in those rooms you know has been he's been very accurate too whenever he makes his projections for drafts so whenever he's speaking we will certainly listen we appreciate him taking time and i understand jeremiah smith's a real deal he is i think buka's a real deal he is carnell tate he is judkins is henderson is offensive is. But that's not his fault.
That's what this is going to become whenever you're a quarterback that transfers and gets paid a bunch of money because you're not the only position they're paying a bunch of money to. Ohio State's paying every position to try to be as good as possible.
Now they're not the only school. Obviously we just learned Miami's paying $3-4 million down there for Carson Beck.
How much you guys spending on defense this side down there, Gumpy? How much are you spending down there? Zero? No, no. Not with that D.C.? Who's the new D.C., Gumpy? They got him from Minnesota.
He's actually very good. Stoked for that because the last guy stunk.
You're a Miami guy? That's a positive. They need it.
Defense? Oh. Yeah.
That was tough to watch. Which is weird because Cristobal was supposed to be a defensive guy.
Yeah, but he speaks Spanish. So he's a good fit down there.
Yeah, it won't matter either way. Cam Ward's a real deal, though.
Cam Ward almost went to Florida State, right, and instead goes to Miami. Think if Miami would have got DJ Uliunglo away.
That would have been a little bit of a different situation, we assume, going forward. Cam Ward flips that entire program down there.
Then the football gods start blessing them. They were getting lucky in You know, win, win, win.
Defense wasn't able to stop anything. Cam Ward in that offense, electrifying.
I'm not saying Cam Ward isn't a great player. I'm not saying Shador isn't a great player either, but it's like you can't just play the game.
You drop Jackson Dart in that. You think they turn on Jackson Dart after the losses? You think he motivates the boys? You think he gets along with the locker room? You think he has celebrations with everybody? Maybe.

I'm just saying we can't just do that

that game. It's not Will Howard's fault.

Well, when

I mean, go ahead. Sorry, AJ.

No, Chuck, you go, please.

No, so like when we draft a quarterback

to one of these clubs, all we talk about is surrounding

them with what? Weapons. Okay.

So we're not supposed to give

a kid in college or the NFL

weapons? Speaking of weapons.

So he has a couple weapons.

Speaking of weapons.

Whoa. What timing.

Sorry, AJ. Tone Diggs

on a diet. He's eating baby carrots for

snacks. Yep.
And he's almost got

me to join in. Then Chuck

today shows up with some of these apple

fritters things. Oh my God.
Oh my God. And then this is going to show up after the show, I know.
Fat Pat's continuing for at least another week, it appears. Add some mac dough.
Yeah, but I took off half the muffin. Oh yeah.
It's just protein. You're good.
Yeah, just egg, Canadian bacon, cheese. I'm okay.
It's actually super healthy.

It's keto.

I'm trying to get better.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

People would say that that was a smart play about me, a healthy play about me.

It's like eating a kale shake almost.

Exactly.

And maybe I'll take just the top of the pizza off.

It would just be cheese and pepperon.

Sure.

And I'll just eat that.

Just eat the cheese and the pepperon, a little bit of sauce.

A little solid tomatoes.

Take an apple out of it. It's a tomato.
It's a fruit. So I don't eat that.
But I'll tell you what, team pizza or team wings? How about team both? How's that sound? How about I'm on both sides? And if we're going to pick, I'm definitely on team bone in wings. Then team chicken nugget with sauce on top of it.
But mad respect for all parties. It's all the goat.
What's the score of the Pacers-Spurs game currently taking place in Paris, France? Bonjour. Merci beaucoup.
Oui, oui, Thierry. Halliburton.
I don't know if you saw that. They took their families over there.
Yeah. Significant others.
Pretty cool. They took photos, posted on Instagram.
Obi Topping got engaged. Nobody congratulated any of them from the comments I saw.
The fuck? Yeah, I didn't know. Who are they playing over there? Spurs, Wemby.
Wemby's back. Did they bring their families? I saw.
So is this just a circus trip? Obi Toppin got engaged down there. Congratulations.
He's in luck. I haven't been paying attention,

but have we won 10 or 12 in a row or whatever,

so we're good with just going over and having a field trip and having fun going on.

They're playing a game.

What do you mean?

It's mandated.

You know how the NFL, you have to go play in London?

Did you have to go play in London?

Yeah, we had to go play Jacksonville.

We didn't leave the hotel.

No, we had curfew, bro.

We're over there to win a damn game.

I got a massage with Joe Philbin, remember? Yeah, god damn right. You didn't sneak out to have a pint, Chuck? Fish and chips? Yes.
See, look, you did. Yeah, I do.
No wonder you got canned. I didn't.
I want to let you... You know what I was about to say? Please.
When I looked over there a minute ago, and I'm just looking at how sweet his hair looks right now, and I'm picturing a lot of blue paint on his face. Okay.
Yeah. Hold.
What do you think? He looks like William Wallace. Oh! Braveheart.
I watched Braveheart last night. It's funny you mentioned that.
Did you really? I did. Every time you turn TNT or one of those, I mean, it's on.
dozen times a year. How do you watch all these things? Because I've seen it like a hundred times and I just know like, okay, I'm going to watch the start where Mel Gibson kills like 50 people very violently and then I'll kind of just zone out.
I'll be in bed by 930. Got it.
Do you watch it on like 2x speed? No, just normal. I know where all the good parts are.
We need to go back and watch that last 44 minutes of Top Gun. Boom.
I need to go watch that. Good call.
That's good. Have you seen it? Yeah.
When they're taking off the carrier. Yeah.
From them taking off the carrier all the way to the end. Yep.
Worth it. Just so much fucking America.
Yeah. So much Tom Cruise, Mai Tai doing his thing.
Hangman saving the day. Oh, you're welcome.
Man, I kind of want to watch it right now I don't believe you they've not tipped off yet in Paris you know how that go it is 2-0 the Indiana Pacers so maybe the field trip was worth it Chuck as you continue to question the Pacers motives motives. Wemby.
Uh-oh. Cross

up. In the paint.
Dish.

Kick. Great D.

Smack the floor. This American power.

What a shot over Mathur

in there. 2-2

in Paris. So

one game and then back home. They got a game on

Saturday as well. I don't know if it's in Paris or if it's somewhere

else. I believe it's in Paris.
Yeah.

And they play the Spurs again, don't they? Yeah. Salabrion comes off a pick.
He needs to pull up from right there. We saw him in the Thunderdome shoot from there.
And he didn't miss. Shoot that! Bucket! Don't like the board.
We didn't have anybody, really. That is Castle, I believe, right there.
The dunk contest. The guy just dribbled out about him.
Bingo. Tell you what, hard to watch here.
Yeah. This stinks.
It's in France, so it's a little different. These guys ain't locked in.
They are! Tease and peas to Greg Popovich. Welcome to watching the NBA code.
It's the best team in the city code. Tease and peas to Popovich.
Load management. Load this.
No, they're different. Not just Pacers.
These Pacers teams play. They play.
Carlisle has the boys running. Bingo.
There it is. Pop that, Tyrese! Miles! Yeah, right.
I don't know why you're doing that in Wemby's time. I don't know why you're doing that.
Take a shot. Is that Harrison Barnes? Yep.
Still still? What'd you say, Edge? Earlier you said, it's on NBA TV and we all have that. We do.
Where do you find that? What streaming device is that? I'm not 100% sure, but I know that that is not where we thought this game was going to be. Step back.
Oh, my God. Let's not watch it.
Let's get to it. It looks like AQ shooting.
It does look like AQ shooting. That might be a part of the NBA's issue right there.
I can't find it, and when I do turn it on, it's crop. It's absolute crop.
Tyrese needs to be shooting that fucking ball. Why is he passing it? We'll be back on the other side.
Chuck's going to make his picks. Pacers will take the lead.
We're an international show all of a sudden. Boom.
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Football!

Today is awesome.

That's AJ Hawk.

The Talks of Tables here at Boston Corner,

not Ty Schmidt.

One half of the hammer.

Done!

Cowboys AP Tones.

You're wearing a Duquesne football hoodie. I saw you got a ring.
Yeah, I'm an A-10 champion. Wow.
Where'd you put the ring at? It's still in my house, so I'm going to bring it in here. Okay, so Duquesne sent you a championship ring, a hoodie, and a helmet? Yeah.
Wow. Go Dukes.
Yeah, great people. Great day to be at Duke.
It is a great day to be at Duke. You're a champion.
36 years in football as a coach, 18 in college. 18 in the NFL.
Chuck Pagano is here. Baby, Charles.
Chuck, we got a chance to watch some NBA there during the break, obviously, over there in Paris. Wemby has gone apeshit since we turned the game off.
Hit a three and then followed up with a two. Tyrese has also hit a step-back three.
We need more of that. Has it been an electrifying day in your mind talking about this NBA, the association? What a sport.
What a game. What a league.
Jeez. What the hell? Chuck.
Jeez Louise. I don't know how anybody.
Until the playoffs, I will not watch a game. Okay.
Listen, that's Chuck Pagano. And to you basketball people, there's a lot of people that feel that way.
There you go. And I think you shouldn't be mad at Chuck.
I think you should just understand that's reality of the situation. But if Tyrese Halliburton starts cooking, and Miles Turner starts doing his thing, and Spicy P, and Carlisle, the coach, starts doing more press conferences, this Pacers team's going to be must-watch.
Must-watch. And you know why? We only got three football games left.
Yep. Two of them on Sunday.
That's so depressing. Agreed.
That's why we're starting to do this whole song and dance here about the NBA. We're trying to...
Zion! The Celtics! OKC! Cool story! Jackson Jr. That's what we're starting to do here, Chuck.
You can sense it. Hockey's cooking.
Hockey is awesome. People need to talk about it more.

Pittsburgh Penguins on fire right now. Bingo.

Fire sale.

They're not very good, are they?

What?

Hey, big win against the LA Kings the other night.

Boom!

How's Jocko doing?

Who?

Jocko.

Hmm?

It's Sacco, you bag of bones.

Did you hear about D?

Jocko.

Did you hear about D?

Is he still the head coach?

Is he still the head coach? Yeah. Are they on a runner? They just lost 5-1.
Yeah. Let's not talk about just the boss of Bruins.
Did you hear about D over there? About what? D. D.
D's not. Almost had him.
Got Coach Saban. Got Coach Saban during a commercial break at game day.
Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.
Yeah, I completely forgot about it until it came into my mind during a commercial break. And I was like, hey, D wanted to talk to you.
He goes, D who? And I go, and I just look away. And it was like two minutes later, fuck you.
You got it. Coach Saban's the man.
Did you see him on the pivot? Oh, I did, man. I love that crowd.
I mean, I love crowd and what he does. Yeah, the bathroom stories is pretty awesome.
Yeah, Channing Crowder saying it was, oh, yeah, here, this clip from The Pivot about Coach Saban is a great depiction of who he, he's a football guy through and through, who happens to become the greatest of all time in college coaching, one of the greatest leaders of all time, one of the greatest teachers of all time. But at the end of the day, he's a football guy from West Virginia.
Here's him on The Pivot talking with Channing crowder about their times at the miami dolphins speaking of terry i don't know if you remember this interaction in the bathroom i was in the bathroom at a dolphin facility and i was playing on my phone that little bathroom right by the front door by the team meeting room and you walked in and i saw you through the crack because i was in the store and And I knew it was you and I said, I have to go out here and I walked in and I saw you through the crack because I was in the store and I knew it was you and I said I have to go out here and I walked out and I went to the sink and I started washing my hand I looked over and I knew I had to say something to you the head coach of Dolphins your nickname savings and my first thought but in all the meetings you used to talk about Miss Terry you talked about your wife and she brought us cookies she brought cookies to the team yeah and coach I looked over and this is about 10 games into the season and I think it was I forget it was Buffalo running back but I end up giving up a third down catch to the running back on the option route and this is Wednesday at practice and I'm washing my hands I look over I say hey coach how's? And you looked at me and said, she'll be a lot better if you can cover her fucking back on Thursday. That's right.
She wanted to win. It always blows my mind.
When you saw me, I was had to be three days later. That's what you thought about me giving up that third and seven when I asked you, how's Miss Terry? Yeah, you got to get off the field on third down.
What an answer. What a response.
I'm happy Channing and he had that moment, obviously. But after getting to hang out with Saban every single week, dude is awesome.
You can see why he was so successful. What a run he's been on.
I hope he talks more. I hope he does more leadership stuff.
Well, Miss Terry, too, like, yeah, she knows. Got to be able to get off the fucking field, bud.
Life would be a lot better for all parties. We win there.
That's the whole thing about families and coaches. It's like they ride the – of everything, right? They try not to.
They say, hey, we don't. We're not going to.
But we're not gonna but hell yeah they do have to have to yeah but there's no way around it miss tina's awesome now granted you've said some things on this show about her this year that i don't think is necessarily great but you know we're talking fast that well we can bring her right back up we won't though that's not what our show does but what i think she just she forgot about it to i mean we don't need to bring it up. Well, you're calling her...
I don't think you're forgetful, Miss Tina. No.
I think you've got a great brain. I think you're very happy.
I think you understand what Chuck did this year while giving out picks, waffling with the syrup and everything like that. But I do know that your championship picks are about to be the best you've ever had.
How'd you do this past weekend? 3-1? I believe so. Chuck Leona, it was 3-1 this past weekend? You're seeing the board.
You're seeing it clearly. Let's talk about these championship games and what your expectations are, Coach.
Yeah, so Philly and Washington, they split in the regular season, right? I just think Washington is playing so much better team football right now. I think Philly, obviously, they can run the ball.
They've struggled. Who'd have thought that they would have beat the Rams, right? And A.J.
Brown and Devontae Smith would have six catches for 35 yards between the two. Like they just, and Jalen's holding the ball and holding it and holding it.
And there's nobody getting open. They know each other.
So there may be a wrinkle like they talked about. A wrinkle here or there on both sides of the ball.
Some little gamesmanship, whatever. But I like and again, Washington 30th and run defense throughout the course of the year.
This guy had almost 300 yards rushing and four touchdowns in two games. Saquon did on these guys but I like the commanders and the points in this one.
You continue with the dogs. Because I just think that all the pressure is on Philly.
They're at home. The expectations with Sirianni, and I love coach Joey Penanzio, Mike Bison from home.
Penanzio, Sirianni, big Dom, Boots at that. Are you kidding me? But all the pressure's on them.
And Washington, they're playing with house money. They've exceeded expectations by $2 million to this point.
And that'll change next year, obviously. But this kid's playing so free.
He's mature beyond his years, Jaden Daniels. Yeah, Lattimore, he's going to go shadow, you know, A.J.
Brown and all that stuff.

So they'll make just enough plays.

Lou Vu.

Oh, dog.

Killed Jared Goff.

What he did to Goof.

I mean, not.

Goff.

His name's Jared Goff.

Turned him into a Goof.

No, turn him back.

Yeah, turn him back.

It should have been called.

Commanders beating the Lions.

I assume that was on your ref call, the one that you're on every week saying,

how do I stick up for the refs every week? I appreciate you doing that for them. It should have been called, obviously.
Defenseless player, even though he's trying to make a tackle. They missed that.
Them beating the Lions gave me a thought that Notre Dame could beat Ohio State. I was like, you know what? Commanders just beat the damn Detroit Lions.
Detroit Lions more healthy than have been for a long time. Detroit Lions the most dominant at home.
They got Emin&M there. They got wool, wool, you know, jello ball performing up there.
They got it all. I didn't think there was a chance the Commanders were going to win that game.
I didn't think there was either, and I didn't think the Lions would turn the ball over as much as they did. That was the key to the game.
They did not take care of the ball. Five turnovers, obviously three interceptions from Jared Goff, one interception from Jameson Williams, then add in fumble on that.
That's impossible. But also, the commanders out-physicaled the Detroit Lions.
They showed up. They keep it really, really simple on the defensive side.
They don't do a whole lot. They're going to play a bunch of middle field closed, single high, mix in some two here and there, little fire zone, three under, three deep.
But them sumbitches play hard and they play fast. You know who else feels the same way you do, I think? He was leading towards it hard as soon as the game was announced.
AJ Hawk. Six points.
The six points definitely has me curious about this Commanders team, no question. He's a big fan of the Commanders squad.
I mean, how could you not be after the wins that they just got right there? And is it a team of destiny? Yeah, if they win win they'll be the third ever team to win against the three seed two seed and one seed uh the other two being the 2005 Steelers and the 2010 A.J. Hawk Packers and what did they do they all won the Super Bowl interesting history says if the boys are able to get a win here in Philly which is going to to be tough against the Johns, especially with the 30th rush defense, that's not good,

especially with what Philadelphia is, and they know what they are. It's like, this Commander's team can beat

anybody. They proved that last week, and obviously

that's football any given Sunday,

especially Championship Sunday. Now, let's go to the

AFC. Patrick Mahomes taking on Josh

Allen. How do you see it going, Chuck

Pagano? Yeah, I mean, everybody would

love to see Josh Allen and this Buffalo

Bills try to get over the hump, but like like, I'd take Kansas City. Wow.
Until somebody knocks them off and beats them. It's the first favorite.
They had 212 yards. They lost the third down battle.
They lost the rush battle. The only battle they won against Houston was the penalties.

But anyway, I'm not going to... What are you going to say?

You want to jump mix in this thing real quick?

212 yards. I mean, it looked like

nothing. And they win by eight or nine points

still. You know what I mean?

So, until somebody goes in there

and you knock Pat Mahomes off and

Kelsey's hit his stride, when he came

on your program and he said, I feel like I'm 22 again, by God, he looked 22. We didn't know Caitlin was going to be there too.
22. Yeah, who's number 22? She might be there again.
Yeah, maybe. We'll see.
Here's some stats from Hembo. James Cook in his four playoff games with Joe Brady as offense coordinator.
He's averaging 92 scrimmage yards per game on 22 touches and 53 out of 87 total touches are on first down. James Cook, let him cook first.
Highest touchdown interception ratio in playoff history, minimum 300 attempts. Number one all time, Josh Allen.
Number two all time, Patrick Mahomes. Chris Jones has only sacked Josh Allen once in their seven meetings, but he's pressured him 25 times and created 20 incompletions while being doubled 55% of the times.
Check 95. Mike's 95.
Chris Jones is an absolute dog. Hollywood Brown was targeted only twice, had zero catches on 20 routes against Houston.
Going to have to get him back in and everything. Amari Cooper just gave an interview for the first time yesterday did you hear that yeah it was impressive it was he was talking about the last game of the season here the win or lose he was talking about the finality a championship he said i've been a part of it two times maybe three times amari cooper's won a lot remember nick saban told us that throughout his entire time with amari cooper as an alabama uh football team member we talked we had zero one conversation He never talked.
Super quiet guy, which I think has led some people to believe he's checked out. And Nick Saban's like, he's not checked out.
He's very much locked in. He's just quiet.
He gave an interview, and he talked about championship mentality and what it takes. He's a full-team guy.
Amari Cooper in the Buffalo Bills, perfect. Seemingly a perfect marriage up there.
Amari Cooper has been targeted nine times on 60 routes run across his last five games. What's that all about? I don't know.
What's Josh Allen doing? Give him a ball? Well, I mean, last week offensively, you know, I mean, Josh Allen only threw for, what, 124 yards? Like it, you know, they... Just like Pat.
Yeah, exactly. Just like Jalen.
Right. Not a lot of pass yards, you know.
You win the turnover battle, you know, turnover battle 4-0 and don't expect it because if they stay in base defense McDuffie will travel and I think he'll line up across from Amari and take him out when you go to nickel then McDuffie goes inside the slot and that'll be a good one to watch him and Shakir because. Because I love Shakir.
I mean, he's a Boise State Bronco.

This son of a bitch is a war daddy.

Yeah, he is.

Came out of nowhere.

I mean, he catches a ball, and guess what he does?

What's that?

North and south.

Turns up field.

He doesn't go sideways and get...

Is that because he went to Boise State, you think?

What's that?

It's because he went to Boise State.

I know he loves Jesus.

I don't know what it's become, but the guy's a dog. Have to love Jesus at Boise State.
Amen. Facts.
Who's the coach over there? Spencer Dannerson. Hell of a coach.
Hell of a program. Young guy, right? 30 what? 37, 38.
I mean, very young. How old's buddy at Arizona State? 30 what? Oh, four.
So he's young, right? Dan Lanning, what's he? 30 what? 38, too, I think. Marcus Freeman, what's he? 39? 39.
Ryan Day's 45. I mean, there's a youth, and then you got Bill Belichick coming in.
Coming in 70-something. Walker.
Whoa! What the fuck? I'm just, Josh, and you know I love coaches. Yeah, absolutely love them.
Respect them. Appreciate them.
That's Appreciate him. That's the first favorite you've picked is Kansas City Chiefs, you know, for the last two weeks.
You went dog, dog, dog. No, no, no.
I took Baltimore. Oh, Baltimore.
Oh, yeah, you're right. That was your one loss.
Yep. That's just because you're home.
Oh, so, yeah, you just hate the Bills. Makes sense.
You don't believe in the Bills. Well, and the Pagano family is on the Baltimore Ravens and the Washington Commanders.
Why is that? Well, you coach for the Ravens then. Doesn't your brother coach for the commies? Mm-hmm.
Oh, isn't that interesting? We thought we were running a fucking... No, anytime he does this.
You remember during the season when I was sitting right over there? And you know who was sitting right here?

Who?

Jelly.

First name Jelly, last name Roll.

Roll.

Bubba.

Who's down like a 200-pound.

Looks amazing.

Way to go, Jelly.

He's been doing up-downs on the stage.

Proud of you, Jelly.

Shout out, Jelly.

Hell yeah.

I don't think Jelly's watching.

Remember when we were talking, and then all of a sudden you said, hey.

And I said, wait a sec.

You go, oh, what?

Remember when I switched?

Yeah, I remember.

That was when we almost got to the whole licking of the butt thing. Yeah, I remember.
That was a bad flop. I got chewed out after that one.
Yeah, okay, I like that. I bet you loved it.
Yes, you did. I was gnawing on that thing.
Oh, my God. Yum, yum, yum.
All right. Shuck.
What the fuck's wrong with you? On that note. Pizza Hut's coming.
That's all I'm thinking about. Yum, yum, yum.
Is it God? I can sense it's on its way. I had a bone to pick from last week.
Guess what? What's that? No garlic pepper. Bunch of them soggy.
Lemon pepper. Lemon pepper.
They weren't soggy, old man. Jesus Christ.
Okay. Now you're going to start.
Hold on. Well, you're taking a shot of pizza.
Yeah, exactly. I mean, there were some derogatory statements about my nationality earlier.
What did he say? What did I say? Call me a guinea fuck. He called you a guinea fuck.
I did not. Yeah, I heard it.
That was egregious. I did hear that.
I did not. Hey, guinea fuck, shut the hell up.
Yeah, I did. He did say that.
You can't lie. I heard it.
You can't lie. I said, excuse me? You said, am I here? What is this? My ears are in.
I can hear. That's a lie.
That is a bold-faced lie. You said it, though.
And I still come out. I didn't say shit to Chuck.
Tell him he looks just like Bruce Willis or whatever his name is. Mel Gibson.
Mel Gibson. Mel Gibson.
Jesus. William Wallace.
You don't even know. Hold.
Hold. This guy's lying through his teeth.
I never said that to him. Oh, my God.
All right, anyways. Yeah.
He wasn't talking about you. He was talking about others, I believe.
Those words never crossed my lips. Okay, all right.
All right. I'd like to fact check that.
A couple of your whole voice. Was he talking about guinea pigs? I think you said something about guinea pigs.
No, I was thinking about vacationing in Papua New Guinea. Oh, yes.
He thought that I was, yeah. I did hear him say the word.
I didn't know what context it was, though. So I just trusted what Chuck said because Chuck didn't do an excuse me.
Am I not here? Right now? Am I not right here in front of your face? Like, really? That was unbelievable. That's the name of the country.
And Italian of the year? Coming on the hill for now? At the Italian Festival. The Italian of the Italian Festival.
I mean, we were in Lake Geneva not six months ago. Unbelievable.
And then this guy right in your face, talking to Papa New Guinea. And all of a sudden, he pops me with that.
I don't like it. I'm not having fun.
I'm thinking about going. To Papa New Guinea? Yeah, what do you offer me? Or that other country in the Olympics.
Just Guinea. Yeah, that was a country.
You remember that? We all learned that together. That that is a country.
Go see what all those Guineas are about over there. What's that? You know what? You're the people of the country.

Keep it up.

What?

It's the name of the people who live there.

It's their nationality.

Keep it up, William.

What?

It's a country.

It is a country.

Yeah.

Papua New Guinea, and then there's another country.

People who live there are Guineas.

Guineans.

Yeah.

I think it's just Guineas for sure.

No, I think what you're doing right now is taking some liberties in the entire country. Look, I can't confirm or deny it.
I want you to know I'm sick to my stomach. Not over this, but just to the fact that, like, it's 2.45, and we got three games left in the national football.
Three games. Three games left.
Three. Bullshit.
Two on Sunday, one, two weeks from then. My last trip to Indy, I'm sick.
This is your last trip? I have no idea. I'll see you in New Orleans, but unless we have an epiphany or something, but I'm sick.
I don't know what to do in the spring. The season's over.
I know me neither. Neither do we.
Honestly, that's why we're here. What do you do? You know what I'm not watching.
What do you do? You know what he does. Breakdown draft.
Wait, ride your bike? Ride your bike around Italy with Ray Lewis again? That was fun. I'd like to do that.
I think we're going to go to Mallorca next. Oh, wow.
I was just there. It's awesome.
Spain's beautiful, yeah. They have that food, right? Mallorca's like a certain type of food.
The best steak I've ever had in my life. Paella.
Yeah, I think they do. It ain't better than Elmos.
You ever had a good paella?

I don't think so.

I went to a Brazilian place this weekend, though.

Fogo de Chao?

Terra Gaucho?

Similar.

It is.

Similar.

It's got the Brazil green light, red light thing.

We did it in the afternoon, the wife and I.

We went to go to a brunch place.

Packed.

Couldn't get it.

I don't know what everybody was doing this weekend.

It seemed like everybody was out of the house.

Then there's this new Brazilian place up north. Terra Gaucho, I believe is what it's called.
It's a Brazilian steakhouse one in there. Great.
It was phenomenal. They don't do like hibachi style, is it? No, they bring out the swords.
They do. They bring out the meat and you kind of grab it or whatever.
You know what I'm talking about? With the tongs? Yeah, and you have the green light, red light. Kind of do your thing.
They walk out there. Spanish food is what paella you're saying brazilian food they had good it was like super brazilian stuff what's spanish food i was eating steak the whole time spain yes don't they have that don't they that's race it's rice basically got it got it empanadas empanadas i don't know if if that's spain is it from spain spanish the language spanish is spoke by a lot of people i think right correct i don't know i'm not gonna get i had empanadas there as well okay so that is a spain thing yes i always get so confused because like the spanish language can i say something's hispanic right is that what that There's Hispanic food in the grocery language.
Can I say something's Hispanic? Is that what that is? There's Hispanic food. There's a Hispanic food aisle in the grocery store.
Is that Central America? It's tough. You see those families from Cuba? I don't know about that, to be honest with you.
Hispanic is a... Interesting.
Hispanic is a term used to describe people who are descended from Spanish-speaking populations.

Okay, so Hispanic counts everything.

Yes, it does.

Got it.

So empanadas are Hispanic.

Okay.

Bingo.

That's what they would say.

Got it.

Solved that one.

Hey, same with...

The Mexican grilled cheese is so much better than ours.

Quesadilla?

Yeah.

Sure.

That's all. The American grilled cheese? Cool.
Two pieces of toast. We do the whole thing.
Also good. Also good.
Solid. What kind of cheese? American? No.
You ever done it with Velveeta? Velveeta cheese? Yeah. Charles.
Where do they serve that? Singles? Diamond home? You guys know what Velveeta is. Oh, yeah.
Are you talking about Velveeta singles, or are you talking about... The block of Velveeta? No, the big block.
Yeah. Then you got that little cutter with the wire on it.
Sure. Put it on there, butter at the bread.
Put it on the other. Oh, my God.
Put it on the thing. Are you using Texas toast? What type of toast are you using? That's a lot of toast.
Agree. It's wonderful, but it's a lot of bread.
Yeah. I can't.
Have some Ovaltine right there next to me. Yeah, there you go.
A little applesauce. Ovaltine's good.
Oh, my God. What is Ovaltine? Chocolate? Yeah.
Chocolate milk. I used to drink Ovaltine chocolate milk in high school a lot.
Yeah. Chocolate milk used to be the big thing.
Remember, chocolate milk had a big push. Like, you got to chug one of these after a workout.
You got to do this entire thing. I don't know.
Are they still pushing chocolate milk? I don't know if they're pushing it, but it still hits. No.
So good. So good.
I love chocolate milk so much at one point in my life that I said I could do the gallon of milk challenge if it was chocolate milk because how much I love it. And I took it all down, and then I puked up cold chocolate milk.
I bet it was awesome. Tasted, yeah.
I got to enjoy it twice. You got double.
Yeah, it was still cold coming out of the mouth that's how it oh so good it don't last very long but that's that's how much i love chocolate milk at that particular time i'm with you i'm not in that point anymore it sounds like you were still there i'm not still there where i'm like going in the fridge and i got it but on like a sunday you're a hot coffee guy now yeah exactly exactly this whole week i've been hot coffee first time really because how cold. Normally cold ice coffee.
I'm an ice coffee guy through and through. But this week, I kind of dove into the hot coffee, and I've loved it.
You know what my wife has brought back into my life here? What's that? Hot tea. She likes hot drinks, but she doesn't want to drink as much coffee.
She just hammers coffee because she likes hot drinks. She's like, this is too much, though, caffeine.
Then you get the decaf coffee, and it's like, all right, too much of the same flavor. Now she's making hot teas at the house.
Tea's good. Tea's great.
I love tea. I'll drink tea.
Vanilla chai tea? No. You ever had it? Green tea, black tea.
English breakfast tea. You like the matcha? Yeah.
Matcha tea? The matcha, hot matcha. I don't know.
What is it? Green. It's like green, right? Is that green? Yeah, it's green.
Yeah. No, it tastes like grass.
You basically all tea comes from... Yeah, if you put sweetener in it.
Yeah, Nick, you're doing it wrong. I don't want sweet grass.
You put a little maple syrup or honey in that thing? You know what you think? In the matcha? Vanilla chai is delicious. Yeah? Yeah.
Is that... I might as well just go to Dairy Queen.
I don't know what's in it. I thought we were just talking tea.
We're talking blizzards? You're the one saying, add sweetener Cause we're talking hot stuff But if I'm going to blizzards Hot eats, cool treats I would go with a blizzard I would never get a tea from Derek Queen I'd maybe try it Yeah I'd try it DQ doesn't make anything bad on the menu Agreed I agree with what're saying. But I don't know if they'd ever open a hot tea thing.

I don't think you could get a hot tea there.

But if they did,

it would be good. Like

Pizza Hut. Exactly.

If Pizza Hut did a hot tea, we understand it'd be good.

Just like when they did the wine.

Yeah, that was a hit.

It was? It was a hit.

I finished it.

Pizza Hut wine glass right here.

Is there any left in there?

I wish.

I keep the bottle opener just to smell it sometimes.

The bottle opener smells?

Yeah, this is the Pizza Hut wine bottle opener.

Yeah, and you can smell it?

Yeah.

Just like Tuscany.

Yeah.

Does smell like Tuscany.

Speaking of Tuscany, a man that was born and raised there.

He's going to attempt to win. Now Tuscany, where's that at? Italy.
Yeah, Italy. Bingo.
Here you go, Charles. The place you're driving in an Italian man is going to attempt to win 30 people $500 on this glorious sports team.
Come on, Chuck. Here we go, Charlie.
Chuck has buried basketball all day today whenever he's gotten the opportunity. Now all he has to do is bury a football into a basketball hoop, and 30 people will win $500.
Chuck, how do you feel wearing the Sean Cafferty construction? We know that you worked a deal with this guy to do something around the house. Now you're wearing his hoodie.
Is he going to lead you? The job's already done. He built our home.
Thank you, Sean. He's the best home builder in all of Idaho.
He's out of Boise. Built our home.
He's unbelievable. And I just got a new kitchen.

And guess what, Guppy? He just

turned 66 a couple days

ago. Happy birthday, Sean.

Shout out, Sean. Thanks for your work, Sean.

And you guys, when you guys come to Boise

and you stay with me, because I have plenty of room.

I can't wait.

Come, you got your own. You'll love it.

It'll be in Sean Cafferty's house?

It'll be in Sean Cafferty's built home. And I do appreciate it.
It's the last week. Got to get this in.
I owe Sean the hoodie on the show. I'm going to wear it.
Told him all season. I was going to wear his hoodie.
I got this SEC hoodie. It's his birthday.
And look at the house. Look at the building.
It's cool. The SEC.
I mean, it's a good logo by Sean Cafferty. It is.
The guy builds a good estate He guy builds a good estate. And when they do the insulation,

you got to be around when you build a home.

Okay.

Every step of the way, right?

Got to keep eyes on these things.

Like the foundation.

That's like these programs,

these new koshers.

They got to make sure on the front end,

that culture, that foundation,

it's got to be built on rock.

Yeah.

Not sand.

Not sand.

You put one up on sand, you see those places on the beach? He needs to be built on stone. Strong.
That's right. There's a Bible verse.
And then the insulation. Those guys were there for like two weeks.
That spray foam, Chuck? Yeah. That, yeah.
That foam? Oh, yeah.

Oh, my God.

Sean Cafferty's boys, they know how to spray.

Let me tell you something.

It's not cheap.

They spray their foam everywhere.

It's not cheap.

You're right.

No, it's not.

It's worth it.

You know what it costs to build a house these days?

A little cheaper when you wear a hoodie on a show.

No.

What's that?

No.

This guy's the most humble guy.

If he knew I even had this on, he'd be pissed. No, Sean.
You earned this. Sean.
No, Sean. Eight brothers he has.
Holy shit. That's an Irish name? Cafferty? Yeah, probably.
That sounds like it. Sean Catholic? I feel like I know him Mick Cafferty.
So Cafferty, Sean's an Irish name. Yeah.
So it's an Irish family? Coming in there, working for you? Good people. That is good people.
You're welcome. Horse guy, too.
Horse guy. You want to go ride a horse? Oh, he's definitely Irish.
Take you through the mountains on a horse. That's so much money if he's a horse guy.
Holy shit. Congrats, Sean.
Way to go. They're not race horses.
They're like just... No, just horses in general are an expensive hobby.
Got to take care of those. Got to hire people to take care of.
I'm glad he's on an Irish gypsy. He might be.
I mean, don't write it in this. What's that? I think I can bury it from right here.
Whoa, in that Sean Cafferty hoodie? 30 people, 500. All right, no, you can't.
How about that? Came out a little wobbly. What's that all about, Chuck? It's going to feel good.
Is that the new one? No, that's the OG. That's the OG.
We couldn't find enough supplies to get the new one. That's the new one, yeah.
You want to throw that one? Yeah, yeah, this one's good. Yeah, smart.
You got this one waiting for you. This one wants to find a home.
You're going this way. I don't know.
All right, 30 people, $500. Connor has something nice to say about you.
I don't, actually. I said this last week.
This whole gimmick is getting old. Okay, brother? Which one? The whole, hey, Chuck might win.
He might make it this week. It's like, dude, just shut up.
Get through these balls because you fucking stink at this. What? Just try and make one.
I don't like that. That's not the type of vibes we like.
You just got to fire that thing. You think too much about it.
How would you like to be a ball player? You have an opening and all of a sudden you hear, hey, they just hired Boston Connor. He's the most positive.
He'll build you up. I'm not a Coach K.
I'm a Phil Knight. So sue me.
That's my style. Bob Knight.
That's what I meant. Phil Knight as well.
Billionaire. Phil Knight too.
Billionaire. Accountability.
Yeah, we're talking about Nike. Getting used to being uncomfortable? Is that your No, that's a Ben Johnson thing.
Get comfortable being uncomfortable? I'm going to make you uncomfortable, motherfucker, and see how you perform. Jeez.
This guy's a militant. Yeah.
Nonetheless, what he's saying doesn't replicate how we all feel about you. We have nothing but love and respect for you, Chuck.

That's why we know when that ball goes in a hoop right over there,

30 people are going to be so happy to win $500.

Okay, when the 30 – okay.

See what I'm saying?

He's waffling.

Can't win with this guy, man.

Can't do it, won't do it.

This is tough.

Can't do it.

This is tough.

My nose is running.

I'm dying slowly in front of everybody. 30 people! Close again.
That was Baby Duke 2.0. That one.
That was Baby Duke 2.0. That's a good ball.
Yeah. I think this one right here, A.J.
Hawk has a message for you, Coach. Chuck, just take everything Con Man says.
You're just stacking chips on your shoulder. You know.
You want to prove him wrong. Let's see it.
That's right. Playing that right.
Some players are like that. Hey, you're rubber.
I can't hear you, Chuck. I can't hear you.
Chuck, you're rubber. He's glue.
Okay? Everything he says bounces off you. You got me.
I said I'm collecting receipts. That's right.
Hey. Okay.
I hope so. Hey, they tried to write you off.
You didn't write back, Chuck. No.
All you got to do is put that football into that hoop right over there and 30 people win $500. I'm going to do UConn, man.

What?

Just like Big Ben's going to do LeFleur next year.

Jeez, Ben Johnson's who he's talking about, obviously.

Jeez, old man.

Keep your pants on.

Oh, okay.

Oh, close again.

That would have been the best one of the year.

That would have been the best one of the year.

Guys, always so close.

Close counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and bocce.

And bocce is obviously a sport that this man is very good at.

I'm assuming.

I've actually never seen him play.

That's kind of on me.

He's super Italian.

I assume he's good at bocce.

A guy can roll a bocce ball.

Is that accurate?

We took second.

Okay.

Amongst two.

Italians or just normal folks? Big bocce fest that friday up there in italy town lake geneva yeah this guy man uh won the italian man of the year at the italian festival uh took second in the bocce competition prospero family took first well uh ciao to the Prospero family. The Prospero family.

They roll a good bocce ball. The Prospero is prosper.

They pass it down through the entire family.

We lined up against them.

We knew.

They had no chance.

They got a goal on these shoes.

These shoes?

You talking about these shoes?

These shoes.

Chuck, 30 people, $500.

I could just put the ball into that hoop right over there.

You're the Italian man of the year.

Will you be the man of the year for 30 people who win 500? We knew this one was coming. That was the one.
Last shot. We knew this one was coming.
Last shot, Charlie. Ty Schmidt has a message.
Schmitty has a message. Here you go, Schmitty.
Schmitty. Schmitty.
Yeah, shout out Shams for that. Charlie, listen.
uh a had been the... You and him were kind of neck and neck for worst at this all year.
Don't forget me. Yeah, but you're not doing it weekly.
They are. They are.
And AQ finally kind of broke the seal yesterday. So if you miss this, you're officially going to go down as not only did you have shitty picks all Thursday.
What? All year long. He had some good ones? He had some good ones early on.
You were hot. And then quite the schneid.
Lost a lot of people. A lot of money.
And then now you have a chance to kind of win that money back. But if you don't make this, we're looking at just an astronomically bad season.
What? I don't think that's it. I think you had a great year thus far, no matter what happened.
And I love you. That's Schmitty's thoughts.
You know that. That's big Schmitty's thoughts.
Come on, Schmitty. You know how good I'm feeling about myself right now.
Absolutely. Walking on air with this guy.
I hope. He's got a pocket full of sunshine.
30 people, $500, Chuck.

He might have gone 2-0 in championship picks.

We don't know.

He might have.

He might have.

We'll find out right here.

30.

Never got above the hoop.

Going right at it.

Nice try, Charlie.

You lose again.

Nerf ball.

Okay.

Didn't even have to put out how many winners. So close.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Pro Bowl games Duke. Hell yeah.
Wow. Officially certified by Roger Goodell, NFL ball.
Chuck Peccano is an NFL guy. 18 years of college, 18 years in the NFL.
But he consulted for the NFL, for the officials, and obviously is part of the 33rd team of the NFL. All he has to do is put that ball into that hoop right over there, and 30 people win $500.
Tony, how do you feel about it? Great. You should.
30 people! Suck it, Connor! Yeah! Yeah! Make him suck you up, Chuck. Boom! Boom! Bang! Suck it! Boom! Bang! Yes! 30 people, $500, and they should all say grazie to Paisano, Chuck Pagano, who is on the Commanders, plus six against the Eagles, in the Chiefs, minus two in the AFC Championship against the Bills.

And he just won 30 people, $500.

What a season.

What a day.

We appreciate the hell

out of you, Coach.

I love you guys.

Thank you for allowing me

to be part of this.

We love you too.

All you got to do

is repost this post.

Say something nice

to somebody on X

and you could potentially

be a winner

if you put the easiest way

to pay you digitally.

30 people, $500.

What a great way to end this.

All right.

Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice that might change your life.
We'll just sing together. Team on me.
Team on three. Chuck, we appreciate you, buddy.
Love you, Chuck. Good work, Charlie.
Love you, Chuck. Love you, Chuck.
One, two, three. Team.
Goodbye. Hey, I'm Brad Milkey.
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