PMS 2.0 1275 - OVERREACTION MONDAY, NFL Wild Card Round Recap, Vikings vs. Rams Preview, Adam Schefter, Bill Belichick, Travis Kelce, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Speaker 1 Hello beautiful people.

Speaker 1 I am live in San Jose and the boys are back in the Thunderdome on this glorious wildcard over Reaction Monday, January 13th. Program starts announced

Speaker 1 football.

Speaker 1 It is wonderful.

Speaker 1 I'm live from the Shark Tank over here, AJ Hawk, and they're obviously piecing together the arena for an electrifying Monday night raw that is right around the corner live on Netflix this evening at 8 p.m.

Speaker 1 Eastern, but also tonight, the Minnesota Vikings will do battle with the Los Angeles Rams in Arizona.

Speaker 1 Vikings as a two and a half point favorite, they will be wrapping up this wonderful wild card weekend in a huge way as Sam Darnold, who has reignited his entire football career with the Minnesota Vikings this year, getting paid only $10 million in base salary, will battle the old grizzled veteran.

Speaker 1 Matthew Stafford, who has had like four or five different conversations about whether or not he was going to retire. He had a broken freaking neck.
He had won the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 He has all the money in the world. Staring down another concussion that could potentially pain him for the rest of his life with a litany of children and a wife that loves him.

Speaker 1 Does he want to continue to play? Oh,

Speaker 1 hell yeah.

Speaker 1 He does. Stafford's a football boy.

Speaker 1 So is Cooper Cup and Puka Nakua and this Los Angeles Rams team, after the trade deadline, came together in the most healthy fashion that they've been, that they might be the wagon that could maybe go topple the Detroit Lions who obviously be taking on the Washington Commanders next week in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Speaker 1 A lot happened over the weekend. We missed on Friday.
A lot happened in college ball. That's A.J.
Hawk. He's live at the Thunderdome back in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Speaker 1 He's a Super Bowl champion with the Green Bay Packers. He's the all-time leading tackler for that particular franchise, but also

Speaker 1 He is a national champion with the Ohio State Buckeyes who are back in the national championship. AJ, congrats to you, brother.
Great. I love you, man.

Speaker 3 Work's not done. You know that, Pat.
Work's not done.

Speaker 1 They still have four more quarters to go. Okay, first it was four more games after the Michigan game.
Now it's four more quarters that we got to get it accomplished.

Speaker 1 I appreciate the fact that there still is a massive amount of work to be done for both of these teams if they want to become national champions.

Speaker 1 Now, obviously, we've had the incredible opportunity to be on the sideline for these guys' journey to this particular moment. This Ohio State Buckeye team looks different.

Speaker 1 They look like they're better than everybody. They look like they on offense, obviously, have enough weapons to be maybe an NFL team.
And I'm joking. I don't mean that for real.

Speaker 1 And on the defensive side, they got dogs up front that disrupt the game.

Speaker 1 Old Jack Sawyer, Captain Jack Sawyer, takes a 98 or 92-yard strip sack and scored to seal a cotton bowl dub for this Ohio State Buckeye team with a high IQ defense that Knowles has been running over there.

Speaker 1 JTT, Jack, and them have been dominant. AJ, four more quarters for this team.

Speaker 1 It's going to be an honor to watch, but they take on former Ohio State Buckeye, Marcus Freeman, the freshly turned 39-year-old in the Notre Dame Fighting Irish that I have not had enough respect for all season, I might say.

Speaker 1 I didn't think they were going to beat Penn State. I didn't think they were going to beat Indiana.
I didn't think they were going to beat Texas A ⁇ M.

Speaker 1 I didn't think they were going to beat any team that they were on college game day to be picked about. But Mitch Jeter, with a little kiss maybe from Jesus Christ himself,

Speaker 1 blowing that thing back inside the upright, just like what maybe happened with old Gonzalez as he banked one home for the commanders yesterday.

Speaker 1 Jesus helps Mitch Jeter and this fighting Irish team get to the national championship.

Speaker 1 AJ, I know you said it's four more quarters of work to do, but you got to feel good taking on this Notre Dame team if you're Ohio State. And if you're Notre Dame, you're right where you want to be.

Speaker 1 Nobody thinks you can win yet again.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean, for Ohio State, obviously, we were talking on the plane ride home after these games Thursday and Friday.

Speaker 3 What a gauntlet you have to go through if you want to find a way to win the national championship game. You got to go win four tough games against unbelievable opponents.

Speaker 3 But I mean, this is what, this is like you said, this is why you lift all them weights. This is why you do all that stuff you don't want to do to get into this position.

Speaker 3 And man, Ohio State and Notre Dame, I think this matchup is beautiful. It's

Speaker 3 like there's so many different people that have ties to this game, to both these great universities. And I can't wait to be there, man.
It's going to be amazing.

Speaker 1 Nine-year NFL Vet is joining you over there in the Thunderdome. He's been on the sideline alongside us.
What a massively magical couple moments that we've got to have.

Speaker 1 Derek Stay Butler, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 1 Debus,

Speaker 1 they're testing the spotlights and such for the big show tonight.

Speaker 1 So if you see me turning to one of these numbers, that's because there's like a spaceship type light going right, a beam going right into my face tonight. It's going to be electrifying.

Speaker 1 But to AJ's point there, you got to win four straight big games.

Speaker 1 Now, the bye week was supposed to be something special. All the teams that got buys, they lost immediately upon it.
But that's four straight weeks. Your team has to show up.

Speaker 1 Four straight weeks, you got to beat a very quality opponent. Four straight weeks, you got to play your best game.
But Ohio State didn't even do that.

Speaker 1 They didn't even come close to playing their best game, and they still beat Texas by two scores. Do you think Ohio State feels good about this whole thing? Or whose position would you rather be in, D.

Speaker 1 Buck?

Speaker 4 Oh, I mean, whose position I'd rather be in? It's no pressure on Notre Dame.

Speaker 4 No pressure at all with Marcus Freeman in that squad, but I'd rather be on the Ohio State sideline with that talent, with those coaches.

Speaker 4 You saw how the game was back and forth with Texas, and it was, I feel like, probably three or four plays, especially

Speaker 4 this screen right here, right before half. This was huge, obviously, in momentum, and getting that seven-point lead back.

Speaker 4 And then Captain Jack at the end of the game with that strip sack coming off the edge, scooping and scoring and taking it to the crib.

Speaker 4 So they have those five-star players everywhere, and they're kind of hitting their peak.

Speaker 4 They hit their peak throughout this playoff uh you talked about all those different things you need clicking and going the right uh right way for you they've also been healthy you know in a lot of the main positions jtt got banged up a little bit he was able to come back cody simon got banged up he was able to come back jeremiah smith is still healthy all their playmakers their big-time playmakers are still healthy um so yeah i would definitely rather be on that buckeye sideline right now but Look, Fighting Irish, they're there for a reason.

Speaker 4 And, you know, nobody's giving them a chance up until this point. And I know that's going to be the message going into this game.

Speaker 1 Two great games for the college football playoff semifinals, both in the Orange Bowl and down there at the Cotton Bowl.

Speaker 1 But I do fear that the wildcard weekend was very similar to the first couple rounds of the college football playoff. One half of the hammer.
Da, dun.

Speaker 1 Cowboys AP Tone. I saw you put a tweet out there, brother.
It said, oh, isn't that interesting?

Speaker 1 Sometimes, even if you have the perfect system to find out who should make it into the tournament or into the playoffs, There's going to be blowouts because maybe there is just two different levels of teams each year.

Speaker 1 Not saying every team is going to remain at the same level that it's at each year, but each year it seems like there is a little bit of a separator, which is why we can deem chompions.

Speaker 1 Is that what you were pointing out? Yeah, it was.

Speaker 1 Whether it's a committee or we are just playing games and we're going based off of record and that's what gets you in the playoffs, there are levels to this shit, Pat.

Speaker 1 The first round of the CFP, 19 points per game was the winning margin.

Speaker 1 Through the first three games after I put that tweet out yesterday of Super Wildcard weekend, the winning margin there was also 19 points per game.

Speaker 1 It finished at 14.6 point per game for the Super Wildcard weekend, thanks to the game last night that was finally a close one between the commanders and Bucs.

Speaker 1 But no, there are definitely levels to this shit. You have to be good to really good to get in the playoffs, but there are also the great teams in the playoffs that show up and just trounce people.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and it feels like a lot of people are kind of bored with Super Wildcard Weekend. They said maybe that's why the NFL wanted to pull the word super from from it.

Speaker 1 Maybe they knew that it was about to be a dud for most of those games. Now, last night obviously goes into a thriller, meeting two big-time field goals late in that game to make it something special.

Speaker 1 And congrats to the commanders moving over there.

Speaker 1 And the NFC side, we'll talk about here in a matter of moments, especially because what's happening tonight with Adam Scheffter, but let's stay on the AFC side.

Speaker 1 Let's go to the talks at the table, have Boston Conner and Atai Schmidt.

Speaker 1 Con man, I know you remember the glory days, the good old days, where the New England Patriots were the topic of discussion when it comes to the AFC side of the playoffs.

Speaker 1 But now that we look ahead of the divisional round, same four teams from the AFC are being represented.

Speaker 1 And obviously, the Texans over the Chargers was a surprise by a lot of us because how the Texans ended the season. They beat the hell out of the Titans.

Speaker 1 But what the Texans defense just did to Herbert, four interceptions for Justin Herbert, who we have fallen in love with and we are a massive fan of.

Speaker 1 And I think hardball is about a year or two out, you know, putting that culture in. Great head start in year one over there.
But Texans get a massive win. Ravens look awesome.

Speaker 1 Buffalo Bills look awesome. Con man, my question is, the Chiefs are coming off a bye.
We'll be talking to Travis Kelsey.

Speaker 1 I think.

Speaker 1 Let's hope.

Speaker 1 I think. The last couple of times we've said this, it ended up not working out because of a scheduling situation.
But in the next hour, we'll be talking to Travis Kelsey.

Speaker 1 And I know, you know, older folks in the NFL, you know, grown-ass men.

Speaker 1 Guys that have been around

Speaker 1 a little bit. You know, the knees are worn down a little bit this late in the season, the ankles.
the bye weeks killed the teams in the college football playoff.

Speaker 1 Are we worried about the Chiefs having a bye week there, or do we feel like the Final Four are going to be playing their absolute best ball this upcoming week yet? Yeah, I think best ball for sure.

Speaker 2 I think with the NFL, especially with the Chiefs who've done this song and dance with the bye and having that time off, getting kind of fresh almost.

Speaker 2 Andy Reid goes back into his bag bra and maybe draws up a few different plays, especially after watching that Chargers Texans game. I mean, the Texans, they showed it earlier today.

Speaker 2 Last time they played the Chiefs in the divisional round, it was 24-0 Texans. And then they lost 51-31 to the Chiefs.
So it's one of those things, too, where Chiefs might start a little slow.

Speaker 2 Who knows? Probably a little different than the Lions on the other side, where the Lions have that buy and they got so many dudes banged up.

Speaker 2 But with the Ravens-Bills game, I think we should do a kind of pink slips almost where whoever wins gets the MVP.

Speaker 1 I think this is probably

Speaker 2 the game of the weekend at the current moment, moment, even after tonight's game. I think it still will be.
I think between these two, it's what we've all kind of been waiting to see.

Speaker 2 And also, I saw a theory on X where there's the whole 12-year theory with the Ravens. You know, every 12 years they win a Super Bowl 2000, 2012, and now 2024.

Speaker 2 There is also kind of an extension to that theory where the Ravens, the year before they won the Super Bowl, lose in heartbreaking.

Speaker 2 fashion after being the one seed, which happened last year with the Chiefs. The Ravens are the one seed.
Chiefs come to town. They lose in heartbreaking fashion.

Speaker 2 Ladarius Need punch out Zay Flowers right on the goal line. Then, in the year after that would happen, the Ravens have to go on the road and win two games to then go on and win the Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 So the stars might be aligning for the Ravens, but I do believe that this should be an MVP game. If Josh Allen wins, he can get the trophy at midfield right after.

Speaker 2 And if the Ravens win, Lamar can get the trophy at midfield right after and in front of all Buffalo.

Speaker 1 I assume they'll be able to get that done. You know, I assume the NFL will be able to kind of slide the MVP determiner into this particular game as opposed to the normal vote.

Speaker 1 Because we all saw the vote that came out.

Speaker 1 Lamar Jackson, first team all-pro quarterback, I think for like the last, what, 100 years or something like that, since a running back has won it or any other position has run it, won it.

Speaker 1 Any quarterback that has been the first team all-pro or AP quarterback

Speaker 1 has also won the MVP. Is that the right stat that I was reading, Toad? Yeah, you are correct for the last billion years, Yes.
Yeah, so it feels like Lamar Jackson has won that MVP. Congrats to him.

Speaker 1 Overseas.

Speaker 3 When did we find out who Tone voted for?

Speaker 1 That's a good question.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 3 muted. Oh, I think Pat got muted over there, Pat.
I don't know if you can hear yourself or not. I believe you got muted.

Speaker 1 Oh, we can't hear you. Oh, yeah, we cannot hear you.

Speaker 3 What if we were messing with him? What if we were doing what we do to guess something?

Speaker 1 That'd be screwed up. Yeah, it would be.

Speaker 1 But we are not doing that outside.

Speaker 4 We cannot hear you.

Speaker 1 It's another lyric at Baltimore theory. There you are.
You're back. Boom.
You're back. Hey, we are back.
That is great news. Great news to be back.

Speaker 1 So congrats to Lamar. And obviously, what he was able to do on Saturday, that ball to Bateman, that touchdown with your show, what a perk.

Speaker 1 The timing, the precision. Is that a third? The amount of sauce that you needed to have on that particular.

Speaker 1 And then obviously, anytime they're just handing a ball off to Derrick Henry and just continuing to run the rock, run the rock, run the rock. Like Lamar doesn't have to throw as much.

Speaker 1 And then when he had to step up and make a throw he did and it was like not just he did there were tough throws perfect throws he was running all over the place i think they had tj watt crashing on running back yep for every single rpo as opposed to maybe what they had done in the past i don't remember lamar having that much free access all the time on an rpo but that was fun to watch that was old school lamar so lamar showcased everything that he is and everything that he has become as a quarterback obviously the conversation with deion Sanders after he gets draft number 32 to the Baltimore Ravens was one that was awesome.

Speaker 1 Like, this dude's driven. They're going to get all I got.
They're going to get a Super Bowl out of me was exactly what Lamar Jackson said every single day. He comes into the NFL behind Joe Flacco.

Speaker 1 Then he takes over. The Baltimore Ravens invest in the Lamar Jackson style.
What was the Lamar Jackson style? Well, he's going to run a lot. Because when he has the ball in his hands, he's different.

Speaker 1 We all remember the highlights, the jumping

Speaker 1 spin moves on people in the middle of nowhere. I think it was against Cincinnati.
Then he's got something down the sideline. Then he's pulling away against people.

Speaker 1 And then every single year he went to work in the offseason, not only shaking and baking jet skis on beaches, but also throwing the ball all over the yard.

Speaker 1 What his arm has become in the moments that they've become him is special. I mean, he's making the right decisions.
His team is loaded. Mark Andrews, who is a friend of the program, is a monster.

Speaker 1 Likely is an absolute beast. Derrick Henry goes bananas.
They got a team in Baltimore. And then when they take on this Buffalo Bill squad,

Speaker 1 ooh, get off me there, likely said, by the way.

Speaker 1 Get off of me. Derrick Henry, to his former teammate, did he play with Minka in Alabama?

Speaker 4 I believe so. I think so, yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, that was first drive, wasn't it? That was first drive. Tough.
He went hand to throat to him. I mean, that was the Baltimore Ravens just,

Speaker 1 I mean, they pummeled the Pittsburgh Steelers. They just, they just met Pittsburgh on a street.
Maybe down there in the south side

Speaker 1 and just punched him right in the mouth. And then when the Steelers stood back up, they punched him in the mouth again.
And then when they stood back up, they punched him in the mouth again.

Speaker 1 They just physically beat the shit out of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tone Diggs, Minka Fitzpatrick, obviously getting tossed there by Derrick Henry.
I saw Bill Cower say, it wasn't that they lost.

Speaker 1 It was how they lost, is what Bill Cower said. And then I saw Billy Bones, you know, and his reactions on the internet.
And I think they echo a lot of Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 Was it because it was Baltimore that just manhandled you that was the problem?

Speaker 1 Or is it that it was any team that just manhandled you guys in the playoffs and you lose yet again in the postseason that is drawing this massive reaction of they're embarrassed by this Pittsburgh Steeler team?

Speaker 1 They want change with this Pittsburgh Steeler team. And obviously, we keep doing the Tomlin thing.
This ain't working for where we want to go. No, it was embarrassing

Speaker 1 is a light word. I don't know if embarrassing is strong enough.

Speaker 1 And the only thing I'll, you said everything perfectly, except for the only thing I'll disagree with you about is you said they kept getting back up. Nope.

Speaker 1 The first time they got knocked down, they never get back up. Oh, they fought.
What? They fought. No, there was, there was, it didn't seem to be much fight, especially on the defensive side.

Speaker 1 There was a

Speaker 1 fight. There's no fight.
Just look at the effort at some of some of the players here. I mean,

Speaker 1 that put me over the edge, that play right there. I mean, second and 22.
That's not the offense. That's not the Pittsburgh Centers offense there.
No. That's the defense.
Cam Hayward just got.

Speaker 1 No, that is the

Speaker 1 look at all the hooks.

Speaker 1 Everyone's jogging. No one's coming in hard.
We talk about rallying to tackle.

Speaker 1 I mean, just Cam Hayward.

Speaker 1 Cam fights. Cam's had a great year.
But no, it was the. We love Cam.
We love Cam, but I'm just saying that whole play, you go from start to finish. Oh, yeah, all of them.

Speaker 1 Every single player potentially has a moment where it's like, that's regret.

Speaker 1 I mean, Cam done deserved that there.

Speaker 1 But yeah, normally you'd see this from like an offense, not wanting to jump on a fumble or something where you kind of stand around and let it happen and that's not what the baltimore ravens do baltimore ravens with a pummel dared yeah i get a little injury maybe hey let's let's give an extra little shot here let's make sure they feel us you know because in the end this is a physical game this is a violent game we're gonna want to you know make them feel us as opposed to just sit around and watch in a playoff game ton you're right i did not love any part about it what do you think happens what do you think happens hey they're not gonna get rid of my tongue what no traded him no they're not gonna get rid of my tongue coach c 100 will be back back.

Speaker 1 Do you want him back? Well, they just gave him an extension.

Speaker 1 I believe it's a three-year extension.

Speaker 1 And it's about 50%.

Speaker 3 Do Steelers fans want him back, Tone? We know he got an extension, but there's all this talk of them possibly trading him, which I don't think.

Speaker 1 I would say, based on the internet, everything that I've seen, everything I talk to back home, it's about 95%

Speaker 1 would like to see major changes at that position. Wow.
It's not going to happen. There may be changes at the coordinator position or some

Speaker 1 offensive line coach stuff like that. But no, there is not going to be a change.
So I'll see you boys here at the same time, same place next year. We'll have the same conversation.
It'll be great.

Speaker 1 Okay, so we'll talk about who's going to end up with the Pittsburgh Steelers here in a matter of moments.

Speaker 1 But the point that I was getting to is the Ravens are playing their best ball, physically dominating people in Buffalo. I mean, they just,

Speaker 1 they were down 7-0. Oh, no.

Speaker 1 Oh, no. Uh-oh.
Is this going to be a Josh Allen again? Is this going to be a heartbreaker for Bills Mafia? Is this

Speaker 1 all for gaze up here in Western New York? Then they rattle off 31 straight, 31-7.

Speaker 1 The Buffalo Bills end up winning this particular game. And we watch Bo Nicks drop some in a bucket.
We watched them run around a little bit.

Speaker 1 We even watched them get some stops on Josh Allen whenever there was a little bit of a joust going on, a little bit of a spar going on.

Speaker 1 But inevitably, the Bills wagon would get rolling, and that wagon revolves around Josh Allen. Now, James Cook is a hell of a back that certainly is an asset for everything they got cooking up there.

Speaker 1 And Shakir can do it all. And Josh and Deion Dawkins in that offensive line can literally just control an entire game if they want to.
He's big, he's strong, he's fast. He's got an absolute canon.

Speaker 1 I don't know how he kept his foot up there. That was

Speaker 4 crazy.

Speaker 1 And big booms. We're doing booms all over the place.
I don't know if you see those booms. Ty Johnson doing the booms.
I respect it. A lot of people on the internet did not necessarily love this call.

Speaker 1 They said his foot clearly touches out of bounds. And we're just going to say that he secures the catch within, what, an eighth of a second of touching it?

Speaker 1 Gene Sterator came out and said, I am saying that. And then he doubled down and he tweeted it.
So I will go off of what Gene Sterator said.

Speaker 1 But if they didn't score here, we assume they would have scored in another fashion. It's like this Buffalo Bills team is playing their best ball as well.
AJ, Bills Ravens.

Speaker 1 I mean, this is dream matchup this year, especially with how the storyline has gone for the last two months about the MVP both playing their best football.

Speaker 3 Yeah, they're both playing their best football. I think it was good for the Bills to get down 7-0.
Obviously, it's not like a huge hole to dig yourself out of, but I think it's good. You're at home.

Speaker 3 All of a sudden, people might freak out a little bit. This team shows that, hey, we can handle it.
We'll find a way, like you said, to get 31 unanswered points. But Josh Allen's just different.
Like,

Speaker 3 he seems like he is super duper confident.

Speaker 3 To think of Josh Allen and Lamar playing this early in the playoffs almost feels like, hey, we need this one game later. Let's go to the AFC Championship.

Speaker 3 I would love to see that to get to the Super Bowl. But the fact that these two studs are going to face off here shortly, I'm juiced.
I can't wait. I don't know who's going to win.

Speaker 3 I know we'll make picks eventually later, but this game right here, this is the one you got to circle, I think, is this a special one that we might get to see.

Speaker 1 Very special. Debut, whenever you think about these two teams, which defense is playing better right now?

Speaker 1 Obviously, the Buffalo Beatles were able to hold the Broncos to just seven points, and Pittsburgh Steelers, especially had some long, explosive plays against the Baltimore Ravens.

Speaker 1 George Pickens had a few. Russ was able to drop a little, maybe bring Russ back, by the way.
Oh, he played pretty well, though. Like, Russ honestly played pretty well.
He didn't play bad.

Speaker 1 He didn't play bad. I agree.
Maybe bring Russ back. Give him like 45 a year or something, Tony.
Bring him back. Three year, 120.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I think so.
Maybe even 60 million one year. Go all in.
But nonetheless.

Speaker 4 You look around.

Speaker 1 How do you feel about the defenses there? How do you feel about the defenses there?

Speaker 4 Both defenses are playing well. Milano being back and being healthy for Buffalo Bills is big time.
Vaughn is healthy as well. But that Ravens defense, man.

Speaker 4 When they're clicking, when they're humming, when they're applying pressure, they're great against the run, and have big-time playmakers on the back end as well.

Speaker 4 That edge, I got to give to the Baltimore side on that defensive side of the ball. But both of these quarterbacks obviously playing phenomenal.

Speaker 4 That Steve Young comment kind of sticks in my head when I look at what Lamar has been able to do this year.

Speaker 4 Him saying, Look, we'll never get the best of Lamar until he's put in a situation where he's in a sophisticated passing game and he has to do it rep in and rep out.

Speaker 4 Obviously, it starts with that run game and being physical, but eight can sit back in that pocket and make big-time throws.

Speaker 4 And that makes a huge difference when you're going up against the Baltimore Ravens because the game plan for so many years was, hey, make him beat you from the pocket, make him beat you with his arm.

Speaker 4 And now he can do that. And then having Derrick Henry and then the threat of Lamar running as well.

Speaker 4 You saw Derrick Henry a wildcat with Lamar coming around, you know, been a wide receiver, taking the eyes of linebackers. Like they are so, so tough with what they're doing.

Speaker 4 So Todd Mockin and what he's doing with Baltimore in that offense. Then what Joe Brady is able to do with the offense in Buffalo as well with

Speaker 4 Josh Allen, where he doesn't have to be Superman every down.

Speaker 4 He can hand it off because they really imposed their will on the Broncos running the football and then Josh had to be special when he had to be.

Speaker 4 But yeah, this is going to be an absolute great, great matchup with two great ball clubs.

Speaker 1 Joe Brady and Monkin are both in their bags, brah. Okay.
I mean, I think that is very evident, and that's why they have made it to the divisional round.

Speaker 1 Now, congrats to the commanders getting a massive win. Congrats to the Texans getting a huge win.
We cannot wait to watch this evening as the Vikings and Rams play in Arizona.

Speaker 1 Joining us now is a man who might have more information on everything, senior NFL insider for ESPN, Michigan man. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Sheffield.
Yes, Shefty.

Speaker 6 Gentlemen, what's going on?

Speaker 1 Shefty, happy wild card overreaction Monday to you, brother, as

Speaker 1 we tighten you down a little bit. We squeeze you in.
You're like a panini there. You know, you started the sandwich, and then a panini kind of flattens the bread.
It was a Schefter sandwich.

Speaker 1 Okay, we had a little thin

Speaker 1 white bread. I wouldn't say it was Texas toast at all without small.
And I think the bread, boom. Now we found you right in the middle there.
Their sandwich is now double dipped.

Speaker 1 How you doing, Chefty? Good to see you. First things first.
I know it's been a few days and we're kind of assholes bringing this up, but we would be assholes if we didn't bring it up.

Speaker 1 Much love to you and your family for the passing of Benny. We apologize.
Okay, that is, we're all dog people on this particular show.

Speaker 1 We understand very much what you went through there, losing your dog. Know that Benny had an incredible life, and you were a phenomenal owner to Benny.
Okay, please from all of us.

Speaker 6 Thank you, buddy. I appreciate that.
Yeah, it was a rough week.

Speaker 1 Now, let's get into the NFL. Okay, let's get into the distraction from those types of things.

Speaker 1 Looking ahead to this evening, anything we need to think about before we pick tonight's game? Vikings, Rams in Arizona.

Speaker 1 We heard the contingency plans a couple of weeks ago, like a week and a half ago. This game could be played in Arizona if the air quality index is not proper.
It did get moved there.

Speaker 1 It has since sold out. Can you tell us about the behind behind the scenes on how that came together?

Speaker 6 Well, look, I think everybody recognized the tragedy unfolding in California and Los Angeles and people losing homes, the devastation everywhere.

Speaker 6 It's hard to imagine that you'd even contemplate playing a football game there at that time. And they made the decision officially Thursday,

Speaker 6 early evening on the East Coast, late afternoon on the West Coast to move the game to Arizona.

Speaker 6 I don't recall the league ever moving a playoff game in the postseason due to a natural disaster. I think this is unprecedented, as best as I can tell.

Speaker 6 And so the Rams, obviously 24 hours later, had over 400 people on buses and planes to Arizona, their organization uprooted there.

Speaker 6 And they've spent the last few days here. And the way it's been described to me for them

Speaker 1 is

Speaker 6 it's been like a Super Bowl week because you're in another city, you're getting ready, it's a strange feeling. But really, I think the Rams are

Speaker 6 a microcosm of that city and

Speaker 6 representation of the city. Everybody, many people in Los Angeles are going through it.
The Rams themselves are going through it. There are people in the organization that lost homes.

Speaker 6 And obviously, this is a distraction, this trip, this game. And then they'll go back to the reality of it all in Los Angeles.

Speaker 6 And you just hope that everybody there is okay.

Speaker 6 Obviously, the images, the pictures, everything that's going on there, it's unimaginable.

Speaker 6 And so they get to play a football game tonight and not have to think as much about it for a three-hour window before they get back to reality.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and obviously our positive thoughts and prayers, we said it last week, and we know it's not enough, but we are watching along with everything you're going through over there in California, down down south of where I am right now.

Speaker 1 So, so sorry. Massive shout out to the Cardinals, the Cardinals equipment managers, everybody in that particular building for making the magic happen.
And our source

Speaker 1 inside the Rams have said, obviously, it's been a very difficult, difficult week for our families out here.

Speaker 1 Arizona has been a net positive, an environment for players, staff, and families to get away, bond, and focus on football and not fires and or evacuations, which was all they could think about.

Speaker 1 I think even Pets, we were just talking about, made the trip.

Speaker 1 I think everybody's trying to make this as conducive as possible to try to make sure this game is as fair and on a level playing field as possible. We cannot wait to watch.

Speaker 1 And thank you to football for being a great distraction this weekend. Go ahead, AJ.

Speaker 3 Shefty, what's the latest with Mike McCarthy and his whole situation with Dallas? I know just as the show started, there's reports that Mike McCarthy is no longer going to be back in Dallas.

Speaker 3 Can you tell us what the latest is?

Speaker 6 Yeah, the two sides officially are parting ways. They met over the course of the last week and basically had discussions about football.
No business discussions. They never got to that.

Speaker 6 There were no contract discussions.

Speaker 6 And the longer it went on, the more apparent it became that clearly, with Mike McCarthy's contract set to expire, him eligible to talk to teams at midnight on Tuesday, there was no movement towards a new deal.

Speaker 6 Clearly, there was a direction in which Dallas wasn't going there. And so

Speaker 6 a short time ago, Cowboy official says the two sides are parting ways. Mike McCarthy is going to become a coaching free agent.

Speaker 6 The Bears and Saints are expected to have interest in him and to talk to him. The Cowboys are now going to be in the market for a new head coach.
So obviously a seismic shift. in the NFL landscape.

Speaker 6 That, by the way, Pat, would be the seventh team. What did we talk about all season long?

Speaker 1 Oh, you feel real good about it. Obviously, obviously, you said these guys all have families and everything, so it's sad and devastating, but it's going to be seven.

Speaker 1 Uh, quarterback spots are going to be up and seven, probably, coaching positions that are going to be open.

Speaker 1 Okay, so Mike McCarthy is now headed into not the firings, but not getting another contract with the Dallas Cowboys.

Speaker 1 If we've kind of been hanging in limbo, the Patriots have already given out their head coaching job to Mike Frabel, which I know Connor will want to ask you about here in a moment.

Speaker 1 But does Mike McCarthy say to Jerry Jones, hey, go fuck yourself for making me wait through an entire hiring cycle already, seemingly, for coaches that have already had interviews and chit chats and everything like that with Mike McCarthy, if he wants to coach again, would have been a part of, we assume, in some of those places?

Speaker 1 Or is this standard operating procedure and Mike McCarthy understands the business?

Speaker 6 I think Mike McCarthy understands the business. He's going to get to Chicago a few days later than expected.
It's not like the Bears have hired somebody.

Speaker 6 Ideally, you know, you would have liked to have fucking

Speaker 6 a coach.

Speaker 1 What if they had, though? What if they had, though? Like, what if, what if Patriots already hired their coach? Chicago already hired their coach. The Jets, we know, they interviewed 150 people.

Speaker 1 Shout out to the 33rd team putting that list together. Hey,

Speaker 1 this person's been around football before, potentially could coach. You should interview him.
Let's do 70 interviews. What if they hire somebody already? Like,

Speaker 1 is this common how this whole thing worked out? How there was an exclusive negotiating window for a week after his contract already ended? Like, is this normal?

Speaker 1 And maybe we just never see it because coaches never make it to the finality of their contracts?

Speaker 6 It's a little unusual. A little unusual.
You haven't seen too many situations like that.

Speaker 6 I don't know if it's ever occurred before. Certainly not in recent memory.

Speaker 1 It is unique.

Speaker 6 And this is kind of the way that it's worked out.

Speaker 6 I don't think it's going to hurt either side. And, you know, the whole thing with Dallas all along was this, the way I was thinking it.

Speaker 6 Okay, clearly they're not moving forward with a deal for Mike McCarthy. So what are they doing?

Speaker 6 It wasn't ever going to get to the point in my mind where all of a sudden Tuesday was going to come and all of a sudden Jerry Jones is going to say, okay, we're not doing a deal with

Speaker 6 Mike McCarthy. What am I doing? Like, again, my question.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he missed Vrabes. He missed out on Vraves, which could have been a possible perfect coach for them down there.
He's already already got, it seems like more Jerry Jones stuff, which is like,

Speaker 1 I'm going to do it my way, okay? And I'm going to do this how I do it and how I want to do it. And it's like, well, Jared, it might have worked back in the day.
Now things are

Speaker 1 moving. Vrabes may be perfect, Dallas Cowboys coach.
I mean, I don't know if that's the way they want to go, but you're right, Con Man, and Connor's going to ask about that.

Speaker 1 But it's like, I thought it from Big Mike McCarthy, Jenser Mike McCarthy standpoint, like you basically held me in purgatory for a week here when other jobs have already been given out that they want a coach like me at that place, culture builder, you know, tough guy from Pittsburgh, you know, that whole thing.

Speaker 1 A job's already been taken. I didn't even think about it from the Cowboys perspective.
Like, you don't even get a chance to talk to Vrabes. Vrabes is already gone because you didn't even.

Speaker 1 Wild. Cowboys are so different, Shefty.
Cowboys always operate such different factors.

Speaker 6 I think Mike Vrabel, having his history with the organization that he did, I think probably that that appealed to him being in New England, even more so than Dallas.

Speaker 6 And I think probably people in Dallas know that, although I think Dallas might have been an option for him if he were a coaching free agent, still out there, but he's not.

Speaker 6 So he's a patriot head coach, and there's one fewer option, one fewer coach for the Dallas Cowboys to think about. And so now we could start wondering about all the names.

Speaker 6 who could be in line to be the next head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

Speaker 1 Who, who, who, who? Who's the wish to talk about?

Speaker 3 Yeah, who's the top of their wish list?

Speaker 6 You know what? I do not know that factually. I really don't because

Speaker 1 Tomlin, huh? They're thinking about trading for Mike Tomblins. Wow.

Speaker 6 I don't see the Steelers trading Mike Tomlin. I just don't see it.
I don't see it.

Speaker 6 Now, again, things can always change, but I don't see them being interested in trading Mike Tomlin no matter who calls them and who checks in to see whether or not he's available.

Speaker 6 okay well that's just jerry jones doing hiring here right not not steven or anybody well it's jerry it's jerry's organization and obviously uh stephen assists him and uh we'll see what they decide to do but this is going to be a fascinating hire because now also by the way you missed out on the window to talk to some of these coaches like ben johnson

Speaker 6 if you want to if you want to talk to them you can't do that now

Speaker 1 I'm so confused by it all, but hey, that's Cowboys, isn't it? And the thing about Cowboys is the way they're run is because they want to work with their family.

Speaker 1 You know, when they're laying down on their deathbed, they're not wishing to see a couple more sons come up.

Speaker 1 They're thinking I did the right way with my family. You should be listening to this too over here, Slappy.

Speaker 1 All right. I'll see you guys later.
Jerry Jones needs to get into acting full-time and let his family maybe run his team. But that's my personal opinion.

Speaker 1 Let's go to Boston Connor because we just chatted all around it here.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Chef D, let's be real here. Vraibles going New England no matter what.
And guess what? The Patriots won the coaching cycle. Once again, this is a perfect higher.

Speaker 2 We're bringing Sigs, we're bringing Dips, we're bringing beers all the way back in New England. What are the expectations for his staff?

Speaker 2 Seen a lot of Josh McDaniels is going to come with them. I've also seen some other rumblings of different guys.

Speaker 2 Tommy Reese, because of the connection in Cleveland as well, because Rabel was there last year, and so was he.

Speaker 2 Is that probably going to happen with McDaniels, or is maybe Big Mike going to say, hey, I want in on that.

Speaker 2 I'm going to go up to New England, maybe call plays for a year, not be doing the head coaching and shit after how the Cowboys went this last year.

Speaker 6 Well, I think Josh McDaniels is an obvious candidate, and I would say potentially the leading candidate for that job, if for no other reason, he's got great success as an offensive coordinator.

Speaker 6 He's been with that organization. He knows Mike Vrabel.
He lives in Foxborough. The Raiders still own three more years of money.

Speaker 6 It's so illogical, but there is a process that you have to go through before you can hire a coordinator.

Speaker 6 But look, you know, Josh McDaniels is as obvious a choice for Mike Rabel's offensive coordinator as Rabel was for the Patriots head coach. So we'll see how that turns out in the end.

Speaker 6 But would it be a surprise if Josh McDaniels is the offensive coordinator there? No, that would not be a surprise in the end once they go through the process.

Speaker 1 Putting the band back together potentially up there in New England.

Speaker 1 I know Boston, Connor and all the rest of the Revolution region are going to be excited, especially with Drake May being as great, seemingly, as he looked his rookie year. Congrats to Vrabes.

Speaker 1 Cloud of you, bud. Half of you're back in the NFL as a head coach.
And it's going to be good to see him have to put a half a tin in his mouth to go coach the Patriots up there in Foxborough.

Speaker 1 Gonna bring back the mystique. He needs to do the half spat right there.
He wouldn't do the full spat because of a shoe deal. This guy knows business, has known business for a long time.

Speaker 1 Love everything he's about. Offensive player, defensive player, head coach, position coach.

Speaker 1 vrabe's been there done that as an ohio guy done good can't wait to see what the patriots become yet again and you know everybody in indianapolis and pittsburgh no fly zen vrabe says there everybody in indianapolis and pittsburgh and baltimore and the cities that had rivalries against the new england patriots i'm not saying the patriots felt like they were rivalries the other directions all these cities but all these cities that hated the new england patriots for all those years are like great Now they're back.

Speaker 1 I think that's just the common belief is that Vrabe's going to lead them right back to the promised land, AJ.

Speaker 3 Oh, no question. I wonder how

Speaker 3 Shefty thinks. With this whole Mike McCarthy situation, though, Shefty, I want to get back to it real quickly.

Speaker 1 This Bears job.

Speaker 3 Do you think he's the leading candidate for that Bears job?

Speaker 6 I think Mike McCarthy is going to be a strong candidate in Chicago and New Orleans, both.

Speaker 6 And that has implications on other teams as well, because to me, Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson are getting jobs in this particular cycle.

Speaker 6 Both of them are going to be head coaches if that's what they ultimately decide to do in the end. And Aaron Glenn is in play in a number of places, but most notably New Orleans and the Jets.

Speaker 6 So if all of a sudden the Saints are in on Mike McCarthy, and if he gets that job, then Aaron Glenn and the Jets would become a logical match down the line.

Speaker 6 Ben Johnson's going to get a job here, whether that's in Jacksonville or Chicago or the Raiders, but he's going to get a job too. So we'll see how that one works out.

Speaker 6 Mike McCarthy now gets put into this mix and he'll be in play in Chicago and New Orleans.

Speaker 6 So again, you're going through all this and waiting to see how it turns out, but that's how some of this is shaping up at this point. But again, back to the Cowboys.

Speaker 6 I said to you, Aaron Glenn, Ben Johnson, they're getting jobs.

Speaker 1 If the Dallas Cowboys wanted to talk to them right now, they cannot talk to them until their season is is over they can't you can't you can't you miss the window they missed the window uh aj i just i'm happy you didn't want to give vrabel a thought at all there during that conversation i'm happy we also went back oh well

Speaker 1 happy you went back and clarified some things on the big mike mccarthy you know job search because boy if you wouldn't have said that and then sheffer wouldn't have hammered home the saints opportunity can you think about big mike down there on bourbon street i was

Speaker 3 on staff before so he'd be coming coming back like he was there before.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. What are those cakes down there that they eat? What are those French, the

Speaker 1 babies? Yep.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 my. Big Mike McCarthy in New Orleans

Speaker 1 would be awesome.

Speaker 1 I just thought of that now. He'd be so hot.
Oh, my.

Speaker 1 It would be so hot. He'd be Brian Kelly's face all the time as he ends her down in Louisiana.
But we're excited to see where Mike McCarthy ends up at. Let's go back to some player stuff.

Speaker 1 Debutch has a question for you.

Speaker 4 Let's go up to Baltimore. Obviously, a big divisional matchup coming up with the Buffalo Bills.
Their Pro Bowl wide receiver, Zay Flowers, has been dealing with an injury since their last game.

Speaker 4 Any update on him if he'll be able to come up this week or the following week if they're able to win?

Speaker 6 I think essentially

Speaker 6 he's going to have a chance to get back for this game.

Speaker 6 I know the Ravens felt like if they could win this past week, that Zay Flowers would have a chance chance to be back for the divisional playout game. Now, it's a tough injury.

Speaker 1 It's a knee.

Speaker 6 No guarantees. Let's see how the week goes.
But on Monday, leading up to that huge matchup, Sunday night, 6.30, I would say that there's a chance that Zay Flowers is going to be back in that game.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 They don't need it, seemingly. I mean, if they were to get

Speaker 1 more weapon, this Baltimore Ravens team, fun to watch. That Bills Ravens game is obviously going to be hyped up immensely.
Tone has a question for you, Chef D. Yeah, I do, Chef D.

Speaker 1 Another game this weekend between the Commanders and Lions. Coincidentally, Ben Johnson is the OC for the Lions.
Tom Brady's calling that game.

Speaker 1 Tom Brady is reportedly trying to bring Ben Johnson to the Raiders. Is this

Speaker 1 a trial for Ben Johnson with Tom Brady in the booth? How's this all working out? Tampering.

Speaker 6 Well, what I would say to that, Tone, number one, is

Speaker 6 I think that Tom Brady is professional enough that

Speaker 6 he's not going to look to violate our scrutiny rules.

Speaker 1 And from Ben Johnson,

Speaker 6 Ben Johnson doesn't have to do anything to impress Tom Brady any more than he already has. Tom Brady is broadcasting Ben Johnson's game.
That's the way it kind of goes right now.

Speaker 6 We could come up with these scenarios, not allowed to have contact.

Speaker 6 And by the way, if the NFL hands out a memo, maybe it will, saying that Tom Brady and Ben Johnson are not allowed to talk, I can tell you this. I don't think Tom Brady really cares.

Speaker 6 He doesn't need Ben Johnson to speak to him to get ready for this broadcast on Sunday. The idea of that is absurd.

Speaker 6 But again, people get very sensitive and touchy. And so if there are rules that nobody wants to have violated, fine.

Speaker 6 Look, I think we're all adult enough to know that Ben Johnson is a primary head coaching candidate in multiple places, including Las Vegas.

Speaker 6 I don't believe that Tom Brady needs to recruit Ben Johnson any harder, and he's going to woo him on his trip to Detroit this weekend while nobody else is allowed to talk.

Speaker 6 And Ben Johnson's getting ready for his most important game of the season. Again, call me naive, call me silly, call me ridiculous.

Speaker 6 I think that everybody involved is professional enough to do this the right way.

Speaker 1 All right. Well, you're ridiculous.
No, you just told me to call you that

Speaker 1 silly shit. I'm looking at you.

Speaker 1 Ridiculous.

Speaker 1 I'm envisioning it now. I'm I'm envisioning it now.
Cliff Kingsbury makes a bad decision. Third quarter-ish.

Speaker 1 Tom Brady goes. And that's why Cliff Kingsbury, who's been a head coach before, is nothing in comparison to Benjamin Johnson.

Speaker 1 This Ben Johnson guy just serenades him over the air in front of 30 million people, 40 million people, whatever the number is, that's going to be watching that particular game.

Speaker 1 And then you start to wonder yourself, Ben Johnson's family starts texting them and say, hey, you know, Tom Brady was complimenting you. His mom say, hey, it was nice to hear the greatest of all time.

Speaker 1 Say what he said about you. And then they'll cut to the thing.
And maybe Tom Brady's wearing a Ben Johnson for president pin. Maybe he's even wearing one of those.
And they're like, You know what?

Speaker 1 Tom Brady really likes you.

Speaker 1 He seems like he has your back. He understands you.
He starts talking about Ben Johnson, the man, and the family. And now you got agents and family.

Speaker 1 There's a chance Tom Brady could sway this thing in their favor, even though Ben Johnson is picking and choosing which particular job he wants.

Speaker 1 There, I didn't even, I hadn't even thought of it until Tone just brought it up. Wow, it's a real conundrum the NFL is in, Schefter.

Speaker 1 It's a real conundrum.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it is. Yeah.
Isn't it ridiculous? There's so much ridiculous stuff that could happen. I feel like Tom Brady has done a phenomenal job getting better each week.

Speaker 6 By the way,

Speaker 6 I think Tom hears those comments and sees those comments and is laughing and is like, are you serious? Are you having serious? That's Tom's reaction. Okay? Let me speak for him there.

Speaker 6 Let me speak for him there, if you don't mind.

Speaker 1 Okay, good. Well, I'm happy that the greatest of all time is on the call, but they have been calling for conflicts of interest basically all year.
It's seemingly going off without a hitch.

Speaker 1 He's very hands-on in this hiring process. They've been reporting that a lot.
And then I saw somebody say that some GMs and coaches might not like that.

Speaker 1 It's like, well, who gives a fuck if you don't like what the greatest of all time thinks? Like, what are we talking about? Is that real, Schefter? There's some people saying they don't like that.

Speaker 1 Tom Brittany, who is that? Anything sweet? Was that Mike McCarthy? Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's

Speaker 6 well,

Speaker 6 people are very sensitive. No, people are just very sensitive about that, you know, rules and wanting things done a certain way.
And

Speaker 6 so, so Tom will listen to the rules, will abide by the rules. And

Speaker 1 I forget that. You missed it.
You were reading a text. I was asking you.
There were some coaches allegedly in GMs that said, allegedly, I forget who reported it. It might have been you.

Speaker 1 It might have been another insider that is not at your level. Obviously, Chef, you talk about that.
Somebody said that some coaches and GMs don't necessarily like how hands-on Tom Brady has been.

Speaker 1 Is that true? Is that real?

Speaker 6 Hands-on.

Speaker 1 i don't i don't think he's been very hands-on at all so far not in the interview process he's not tom brady's not involved in the interview process

Speaker 6 he is in the end he is he is involved in the but it just got underway how can we even say that he's too hands-on and by the way like isn't that why you brought in tom brady to be involved like i don't understand like that's why you included him in your ownership group and made him a part of the process is to have him involved and like when we're getting underway with an initial wave of it, he's already too involved.

Speaker 6 Like, what did he do in virtual interviews that he's too involved?

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 1 got it. So, he is, though, very involved in the hiring process.
Do we all agree?

Speaker 6 He is, he, yeah, well, very,

Speaker 6 he is involved. He owns a piece of the team.
He's Tom Brady. He's doing like he's doing work the way he would.

Speaker 1 I don't know. Who involved? Very involved.

Speaker 6 He's involved.

Speaker 1 He's Tom Brady.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 He's involved.

Speaker 3 You're too close to him, Chef. You know, you're two risky guys, two pals.

Speaker 1 Well, it sounds like Tom Brady, whenever he gets, when he, when Tom Brady gets involved in something, he's pretty like not all in. It does feel like that, doesn't it?

Speaker 1 I think he hasn't had sugar in like 15 years or something like that.

Speaker 1 If he's in there running that interview, though, and being an actual owner, I'd be excited to hear how he questions people, what he's trying to learn about people, who he thinks is going to be the next head coach.

Speaker 1 Like, I'm very intrigued if Tom Brady's making this decision on who he thinks would be the best head coach. Like, legitimately,

Speaker 1 I'm kind of pumped to find that out. Because does he want a good play caller, culture setter? What is he? Is Big Mike McCarthy in play for the Raiders? Oh, yeah.
What about that?

Speaker 6 Look, it just happened. I hadn't heard his name there until now, but it's certainly possible it could be.

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 1 Brady's like, we need a culture guy in here, and he brings in Big Mike, you know, and we can find a play caller anyway. Like, how Tom views it, I'm very, like, very intrigued to see how it works out.

Speaker 6 I think there are certain guys that absolutely have Tom's respect and curiosity. And look, he's had an unbelievable opportunity this year to go around each week and meet with people.

Speaker 6 Like, he gets to observe himself who's impressive and who's not. If you're in a different building and you're with two different organizations every week over the course of 18 weeks, that's 36.

Speaker 6 different weeks that Fox has paid you to get to know people around the league and to see who has and hasn't impressed you.

Speaker 6 Just by doing his job himself, he's been able to glean all kinds of insights and information into who he believes are the best coaching candidates out there.

Speaker 6 And now, when they're putting together the list, when they're going through the candidates, he can apply everything that he's seen from this year.

Speaker 6 I don't know, has Fox done, has Tom done, and I don't know the answer to this, a Lions game yet so far this year?

Speaker 1 Has he

Speaker 5 believe they did Lions Packers?

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 6 Did they do Lions Cowboys?

Speaker 6 I don't know about that.

Speaker 2 I'd assume at 425

Speaker 2 game of the week, probably.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Cowboys 425 on Fox. We'd assume at some point it was there.

Speaker 8 I think they did.

Speaker 1 Is Top going to be doing both?

Speaker 4 Going forward, he's going to beat his hands-on in Vegas. Is he going to stay in the booth with Fox?

Speaker 6 That's his call. I have no idea how he's going to work it.
But I expect him to be involved as the Raiders' owner, yes.

Speaker 6 As a limited owner.

Speaker 3 Sounds like he's kind of cheating a little bit.

Speaker 1 Well, I mean, this is all the conflicts of interest that everybody's been talking about.

Speaker 1 That's why a lot of people don't think the Tom Brady contract is going to end up being fulfilled by Tom because they think that's going to get too loud.

Speaker 1 But if he's an actual owner, I'm pumped to watch him. You know, whatever the case is, good luck, Tom.

Speaker 1 Let's talk about another coach that's name has been thrown into the NFL coaching search, even though.

Speaker 1 Chuck Pagano accurately predicted, feels like this might be a little bit of a business play by Notre Dame head coach to just sign a four-year extension. Go ahead, Ty.

Speaker 5 Yeah, Chefie, it seems like it is kind of a foogaze, but the Bears have reached out or expressed interest in interviewing Marcus Freeman for their head coaching job.

Speaker 5 And obviously, you know, with what Notre Dame's doing, I think it probably is more of a business play.

Speaker 5 But then also a couple of weeks ago, you mentioned, you know, keep an eye out for Steve Sarkeesian as well.

Speaker 5 And when you look at the Cowboys, because they are kind of so late in the game, it seems like a lot of these marquee coaches are almost already spoken for.

Speaker 5 Do you think the Cowboys potentially would reach out to like one of these hot college

Speaker 5 coaching names that are up? And ultimately, Marcus Freeman, like he's not even going to entertain that at all, correct?

Speaker 6 I have heard that Marcus Freeman is happy in our game. He did sign that deal recently.
I don't know whether that's leverage or not. I have no idea.
I don't have direct information beyond that.

Speaker 6 Steve Sarkeesian is a name that has swirled around out there in NFL circles for weeks now.

Speaker 1 His season's over.

Speaker 6 If there were a team that wanted to talk to him, they obviously could go do that. And we'll see whether or not he has interest in going back to the NFL.

Speaker 6 But that's a name that's been out there for a little while, that there would be NFL teams that would have some interest. So we'll see if that actually now happens.

Speaker 1 Okay, when's the first hiring? Who does the first hiring?

Speaker 6 New England today, Mike Vrabel.

Speaker 6 Boom!

Speaker 1 They're sent off a jet in here, Schefter. I don't know if you're hearing it.
I'm live at the S ⁇ P Shark Tank over here.

Speaker 1 It's been a blast. Good luck tonight.
Where are you at? Are you at the game in Arizona?

Speaker 6 Yeah,

Speaker 6 I am in Arizona right now. I am literally going over to the stadium as we speak.
As soon as I hang up with you, I only have

Speaker 6 26 missed texts and calls here. So we'll be on the phone here and getting ready for tonight's broadcast, Vikings at Rams in Glendale, Arizona.

Speaker 1 26 missed calls. Is that producer? Is that like Mike McCarthy's camp? Is that the Cowboys camp? Who would that be on this particular of Reaction Monday?

Speaker 6 That's Zito, Ty, Tone.

Speaker 6 Honor. Everybody wants to know about their own football teams.
A lot of angry fans,

Speaker 6 pissed off Steeler fans.

Speaker 1 Nice. Out of those.

Speaker 1 What's going on there? What ends up inevitably happening there, Pittsburgh?

Speaker 6 My guess would be, look,

Speaker 6 they're pretty easy to predict.

Speaker 6 They're a pretty stable place. So I think if you bet on things not changing all that much, you're probably going to be right.

Speaker 6 And obviously, they're going to have to make some changes.

Speaker 6 They've got two quarterbacks who are free agents, and we'll see how that works out.

Speaker 1 All right. We appreciate the hell out of you, ladies and gentlemen.
Senior NFL Insider from ESPN. We missed 27 text messages now, we would assume, because he talked about the Steelers again.

Speaker 1 Adam Scheffton.

Speaker 1 It's fucking wild in here. What are they doing? We got Pyro going on.
Lights are going.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 The Shark Tank is obviously the home of San Jose Sharks. It's a beautiful arena here, but they're testing everything as we speak.

Speaker 1 And, you know, I think last week at the Intuit Dome, there was like a day off of production beforehand, and the Intuit Dome is like so damn great.

Speaker 1 you know like the intuit dome brand new a lot of space so i think right now is the exact time where everything has to get tested so going forward you know we're gonna have to readjust you know that is that is kind of what life is did you see the um

Speaker 1 did you see the piece on justin her nope josh allen

Speaker 1 on

Speaker 1 NFL network game day morning maybe it was about he's from fireball california B-A-U-G-H there not fireball fireball

Speaker 1 California I think in farm he comes from a farm and farming country and everything I guess his high school coach who was also a wrestling coach, basically had this mantra, APO, which is adjust, persevere, and overcome.

Speaker 1 And that's kind of like his life mantra, APO, APO, APO. This was a good piece on him.
Talking about his work ethic, talking about how he comes from this tiny town, but he played every single sport.

Speaker 1 I guess he wasn't like, he was bigger and more athletic than everybody, but in high school, I mean, maybe as a sophomore, wasn't playing like the tough guy he was.

Speaker 1 So the coach, who was also a wrestling coach, took him into the wrestling room and basically they just played kill the man with the ball. I love that.
And Josh always had the ball.

Speaker 1 Like that is, and they told this story on NFL Network. They're like, basically, we took him into the wrestling, the mat room, and

Speaker 1 just told him he wasn't allowed to lose the ball. And then we threw everybody at him.
It's kind of how I took it.

Speaker 1 I don't know how they actually worded it, but then ever since then, it's like he takes a lot of pride in his toughness, is what his coach said, and everything. Josh Allen's special talent, man.

Speaker 1 We're watching, we're watching,

Speaker 1 we're watching a legend here.

Speaker 1 And the way he handles himself and the mocks he has with his teammates and the shit that he talks and the way they fly around in the city of Buffalo, it's like a perfect match.

Speaker 1 And then that Lamar Jackson and Baltimore marriage, what a beautiful one. I mean, what a beautiful one.

Speaker 1 That city, obviously, we see the videos coming out of training camp when the entire youth of Baltimore is at training camp and he's running down the line and slapping their hands.

Speaker 1 And the way he's going to work for them every single year, it's like two perfect quarterbacks drafted to perfect places that have gotten behind them in such a way that have led both of their teams to a position of, hey, let's go win the big one.

Speaker 1 And everybody obviously talks about Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen having a rivalry, strictly because they've met a couple of times deep in the playoffs. And obviously Patrick Mahomes is one.

Speaker 1 And Joe Burrow is another guy who's going to have rivalries on the AFC side.

Speaker 1 It's like Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson have become the rivalry that it is in the highly anticipated fight this upcoming weekend because we're both like, all of us are thinking, which one of these guys is going to be the next one?

Speaker 1 Which one of these guys is going to finally get over the hump? And I'm eager to watch it. You know, it took a long time for a lot of guys to win their first Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 And we obviously are in a world and a society and we're a part of it. Shit.

Speaker 1 We're on microphones every single day where you got to judge and you got to talk and there has to be something to say. And not all the time is it going to be positive.

Speaker 1 So both these guys have heard an immense amount of shit talk, but obviously have built up massive fan bases. What a perfect stage for the NFL to have next weekend, AJ.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it is. Was it always this way, like judging quarterbacks by Super Bowls? Like, you truly cannot get into that next level of quarterbacks.

Speaker 3 Like, when you're talked about, if you don't at least have one Super Bowl ring, I know Dan Reno's a big guy that everyone talks about. He never got a ring, but he was obviously one of the greats.

Speaker 3 I mean, now you kind of have to have at least one, don't you, if you're a quarterback, Ty?

Speaker 1 Yeah, without a doubt.

Speaker 5 I mean,

Speaker 5 that's the whole, that's the Rodgers thing.

Speaker 5 We talk about him being a Mount Rushmore guy, like arguably one of the, you two or three most talented quarterbacks of all time, but he only won one Super Bowl.

Speaker 5 And you look at the Packers and it's like, man,

Speaker 5 if he would have won three or four or whatever, then you're putting him right below Brady. And now it's kind of up for discussion because he only won one.

Speaker 3 Lamar and Josh. Yeah, what do you think, Pat?

Speaker 3 Lamar and Josh, are people not going to continue to, like, I guess, put them in that top tier, even though Lamar already has two MVPs, maybe a third coming up?

Speaker 3 Are they going to talk about him differently until each of those guys gets a ring?

Speaker 1 Yeah, definitely. I mean, that's just how it is.

Speaker 1 That's just literally the conversation because they always got to hold something against you you know what he's most valuable player like three times oh okay as that matters team sport base team sport they win super bowl or not then if you win a bunch of super bowls didn't win any mvps this guy stinks yeah this guy's revived on his defense in his run game no matter what he's brought it to the system

Speaker 1 he's brought it to the system brock purdy this guy stinks what are you talking about his team what that stinks so there's always going to be something to bitch about for these two guys i'm happy we get a chance to bitch about how damn great they they are on the opposite side.

Speaker 1 The NFL is cooking. Obviously, college football is on a buzzsaw-like run with how the Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl wrapped up as we wrap up hour one here.

Speaker 1 And this second hour, we'll have Bill Belichick join us and, I think, Travis Kelsey. Wow.

Speaker 1 You think? The actor?

Speaker 1 Zito just said yes, no, yes, yes, the actor, Travis Kelsey. Yes, the podcast host, Travis Kelsey.
Okay. Yes.

Speaker 9 Mount Rushmore, tight end of all time, Travis Kelsey.

Speaker 1 We'll be back. Be a friend, telephon, something nice.
It might change their life.

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

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Speaker 11 I am so excited for this spa day.

Speaker 1 Candles lit, music on, hot tub warm and ready.

Speaker 11 And then my chronic hives come back. Again, in the middle of my spa day, what a wet blanket.
Looks like another spell of itchy red skin.

Speaker 11 If you have chronic spontaneous urticaria or CSU, there is a different treatment option. Hives during my next spa day? Not if I can help it.
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Speaker 1 Hour two starts. Ma

Speaker 1 football

Speaker 1 is the greatest. We're so lucky we get to talk about it every single day.
That right there is AJ Hawk. AJ, how's the weather back in the Midwest, fella?

Speaker 3 It's not too bad. We had a little bit of a little snow, a little cold, but you know, this is what it is.
It's January.

Speaker 1 We're okay.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'll tell you what, it's cold as hell over here, too what really it's like yeah legit cold or like california cold uh california cold miami cold you know what i mean like like those types of things where it's a little chilly chilly definitely chilly yeah a little chilly down there in miami which is the home of a man who is a nine-year nfl vet and the founder of the all everything db team ladies and gentlemen derek j baller

Speaker 1 Debutch, a member of the all-everything DB team, Derek Stingley won ham ski for the Houston Texans. How was the weekend for you, pal?

Speaker 4 Weekend was great, great football. And yes, Derrick Stingley Jr.
did do his thing. Now, my guy on the other side, unfortunately, threw four interceptions.
So it's been tough defending him this week.

Speaker 4 But this defense over there in Houston, led by Will Anderson Jr., led by Derrick Stingley Jr., and then Lasser, even on the other side, like they did their thing.

Speaker 4 And this is kind of what I was talking about last week with his ball skills, never panicking, making great plays on the ball.

Speaker 4 But yeah, I'm excited to watch this defense obviously go up against Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelsey, and the boys up there.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I am excited to chit-chat there with Travis Kelsey.

Speaker 1 If you go back to the beginning of this dynasty for the Chiefs, I believe it started with the Texans. Is that right? It kind of started with the Texans in the playoffs? Or is that the Titans?

Speaker 2 That 2019 year. Yeah, the 19-0.

Speaker 1 It was the Texans, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah, that was their first Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 I love that the Texans, who are representing the AFC South, which everybody knows. Wagon.
Just wagging.

Speaker 4 Yep. That's Choo Cho.

Speaker 1 Choo Choo.

Speaker 1 Choo Choo, motherfucker. That's the AFC South.
Trains coming through. Don't get in the way because the AFC South will have it stay.
Okay, that's great. Listen to what I say.
Hey, Sway, come up.

Speaker 1 All these things. Texans are bawling.
And C.J. Stroud looked early, didn't look comfortable.
But then the reminder was put out. Nico Collins exists.
And he wasn't around all year.

Speaker 1 He went ham ski con man.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Nico Collins is fantastic. And you thought, too, like my big thing was, hey, of course, you know, the Texans did beat the Bills, but that was when they had Stephon Diggs.

Speaker 2 And that's when they had, you know, Tank Dell healthy, who were, who were both in the building, but obviously in street clothes. Nico Collins is unbelievable.
Joe Mixon also went off.

Speaker 2 He is a freak of nature.

Speaker 2 And you think, aside from the Packers, really, those teams that added running backs, Mixon, the Ravens with Derrick Henry, and of course the Eagles with Saquon, like they are making a huge impact as these playoffs have started so far.

Speaker 2 And the teams with those best running backs, you got to be careful, especially when you think about these guys going on the road.

Speaker 2 Like having Joe Mixon, when they go to KC, that's going to be massive if they're able to run the ball still.

Speaker 1 Remember Joe Mixon and Stephon Diggs, whenever they came over to the Houston Texans, said, we have reservations and we're late. And they were talking about for a Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 That's what they were thinking. Aziz Al Shair is back.
He punched a guy in the head. Debut, you see that?

Speaker 4 Yeah, I think he was going for the ball. You know, things move.

Speaker 1 Definitely going for the ball. Going for the ball.
Definitely going for the ball.

Speaker 3 People have lost their mind about that when I come up.

Speaker 1 Bushman is a dirty player. Yeah, well, you know, healthy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, anything Aziz does, they're going to be watching. I do appreciate that he didn't dial back at all.
He still threw that punch. Dog.
You know what I mean? He still swung that bat.

Speaker 1 He didn't even... I'm playing me.

Speaker 1 This is how Aziz Al-Shair plays football. And this is how this is going to go.
Now, I don't know. We talked about the Pittsburgh Steelers a little bit.
We certainly did.

Speaker 1 But let's go to one half of the talksy table at Ty Schmidt. Ty,

Speaker 1 the other devastating loss in the office

Speaker 1 was the

Speaker 1 Packers. Now, buddy, hey, pal,

Speaker 1 friend? Yeah.

Speaker 1 About a year away, right? Is that what we're thinking?

Speaker 1 Or is Jordan Love?

Speaker 1 You know what?

Speaker 1 You can see his brain working. No, I'll see.

Speaker 2 I'll stick with it.

Speaker 1 AJ. I talked to him a little bit during the game, after the game, the whole thing.

Speaker 1 And I don't know if he's still feeling the way that he was feeling during that conversation or if he slept on it here a little bit and feels differently.

Speaker 1 Ty, about a year or two out, we feel like we're going to be okay. Young team, young team.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I think year or two out is

Speaker 5 still what I'll stick with.

Speaker 5 The thing that's so frustrating, or that what stinks so much is for my entire life, anytime the Packers choke or get beat in the playoffs, it's when the offense is putting up, you know, 38 points or whatever, but the defense gives up 45 or 41, and they just, they finally fix the defense.

Speaker 5 Someone tweeted out all the metrics this year of how much better they were year over year since they hired Jeff Hafley.

Speaker 5 So they finally fixed that, but then when they fix the defense, and then now it's the offense that can't score. I don't think anyone was too surprised.

Speaker 5 I mean, with how bad they were down the stretch, like it, it would have taken a miracle to beat the Eagles in Philadelphia.

Speaker 5 But just the way that game started, I mean, they fumbled the opening kickoff. They were banged up, but that's no excuse.

Speaker 5 There are a couple key positions that they need to spend some money on this offseason, which isn't something the Packers typically do.

Speaker 5 But it just, you know, Love made a lot of stupid decisions in terms of the interceptions he threw. It's kind of the same thing that we've been saying all year.

Speaker 5 Like, he doesn't know when it's okay to just throw a check down and get six yards as opposed to on first down just feeling like, oh, I got to take a shot here. I got to take a shot here.

Speaker 5 And every time he did that, he threw a pick.

Speaker 5 It just, I don't know, it was one of those things, and it was kind of like every time they played a good team this year, I mean, the score,

Speaker 5 it was 16, 10 at one point.

Speaker 1 That was a punt right there. That was a punt.
Exactly.

Speaker 5 That's another thing, you know, two minutes left. Not exactly like, you know, they're in a great spot, but you go down there and score, kick an onside kick, who knows?

Speaker 1 And terrible pedigree. I mean, DeJean, you're supposed to be an exciting white.
At least wait for the move. Not a good pedigree.

Speaker 5 But the thing about them being.

Speaker 1 Great interception, no. Great interception.
Great interception.

Speaker 2 They're incredibly.

Speaker 5 They're just super undisciplined. Super undisciplined.
Same thing. A bunch of penalties, stupid turnovers.
Obviously, in the playoffs, you can't lose the turnover battle 4-0 and expect to win.

Speaker 5 But that's the thing.

Speaker 5 They only lost by 12, and it was a one-possession game for a good majority of the third quarter there. So there's a lot of things they need to clean up.

Speaker 5 Obviously, Jordan Love needs to play much better. And in these big games, Matt LaFleur needs to figure out how to not get out coached because that was kind of the story this year, too.

Speaker 5 They were 0-6 against the Lions, Eagles, and the Vikings. Those are teams that you're just going to have to beat if you want to win a Super Bowl.

Speaker 5 And they haven't really proved that they've been able to do that in this new era of the team thus far.

Speaker 1 Big deal. Got a couple wins against the Bears, though.
You know, that's good.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. You lost at the end of the season.
Yeah, I forgot about it. Anyways, Eagles, though, Jalen Hurts goes 13-21 for 131 yards with two tuds and then 36 rush yards to boot.

Speaker 1 Jalen Hurts, obviously, fresh out of the concussion protocol, hadn't played in a few weeks. Debutch, what did you see from Jalen Hurts in this particular game that says, yay, Super Bowl?

Speaker 1 Or nay, not sure if he's a guy that's going to be able to get it done. Saquon is going to have to be the house for that team.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I still think the Detroit Lions are the team to be on that side, but they would be right there next to him, in my opinion.

Speaker 4 Jalen, definitely a little rusty, you know, hasn't played in a couple weeks.

Speaker 4 Looked a little rusty in the past game. I think Dano put out some clips about maybe being more creative in the past game, helping getting these guys open.

Speaker 4 Now, you got absolute dogs on the outside, but this play right here was a huge, huge play.

Speaker 4 Seeing Car Zero, making the check, getting in Dallas Goddard's hand, and letting him do his thing in the open field one-on-one.

Speaker 4 So, he made the plays that needed to be made, and then you lean on that run game with Saquon. Jalen was scrambling when he needed to.

Speaker 4 Saquon did his thing, and then once again, Saquon just being the classy guy that he is, didn't take that all the way to the house.

Speaker 4 I know it probably killed some parlays at the end if he would have got all those yards and got that touchdown. But that was kind of the recipe, it seemed like, this game.

Speaker 4 To come in here, run the ball, control the ball, don't turn it over, and win this game.

Speaker 4 Green Bay, I think they wasted a great defensive effort, you know, because with all the turnovers and thing, they still had their team in a position to win this ballgame with how

Speaker 4 good that defense played. So they got banged up a lot on offense, too.
I feel like receivers were going down probably every five plays, it seemed like.

Speaker 4 So, in a critical situation, you're throwing the pass to Heath, who couldn't get two feet in and bounce to give yourself a chance.

Speaker 4 So, it was tough all the way around for the Packers, but I think the Eagles are still primed to continue this run to the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 I like this Eagles team. Saquon's so much fun to watch.
And also, we like promoting literacy around here. We had a book club.
Remember that Aaron Rodgers Book Club. We had a couple years back.

Speaker 1 People were saying it was like the second, maybe third largest book club on earth. Oprah, obviously, I heard book club.
Sure. And then there's somebody else big in the book club.

Speaker 1 And then we.

Speaker 1 Well, he put them in. So they would know.
They're two.

Speaker 1 No, they'd be number one over Oprah's then, right? Probably.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 2 Oprah's reach.

Speaker 1 I never want to doubt it. The Mormons got books everywhere, too.

Speaker 1 Reading Rainbow Hotel. Hold on now.

Speaker 1 Reading Rainbow is a show that showcased books. I don't know how their book club was.
That was a good show. I appreciated that show.

Speaker 1 That show broke things down enough for me to understand what the hell is going on in books that we potentially had to read for class that I wasn't able to get to. A.J.

Speaker 1 Brown read on the sideline was awesome. Then he comes out afterwards all the time.
What are you talking about? I do it all the time. Inner peace, you ever felt it? I'm trying to find it.

Speaker 1 You ever been a part of a football game? Yeah, it's chaotic. There's some doubt every once in a while.
So I go to page 147.

Speaker 1 You know, find my highlighting section and go to a different service. This is actually page two here.
And we've all had times when everything came together in perfect harmony.

Speaker 1 Sacred moments when we were totally immensed, immersed, the experience, and felt fully alive.

Speaker 1 When these moments, something we wish, even for a split second, we had the courage to, something the risky path, with all our heart, pursue, okay. And we can often, though.
The fuck these writers.

Speaker 1 And we can often, though, we're so hard on ourselves, amplifying all our failures and regrets that we neglect to see what's still possible.

Speaker 1 A life of freedom filled with deep contentment, joy, and confidence, independent of circumstances. We're all human with the same deep desires and concerns.

Speaker 1 You drop a ball, you read that paragraph right there, you're right back in the damn game.

Speaker 1 In the pursuit of extraordinary performance, it's easy to make it a full screen again, to succumb to anxiety.

Speaker 1 I don't know if that was in the book or not, to anxiety and pressure, because so much is out of your control.

Speaker 1 When you learn to live a life that is fully engaged, however, then you can perform your best and love love the challenge.

Speaker 1 Every performance, presentation, or problem you face is an opportunity to learn and grow and vividly experience each moment.

Speaker 1 You will find as you take this journey with me that your best moments always come

Speaker 1 from a clear mind and an unburdened heart. Hell yeah, Jim.
Hell yeah. Hell yeah, Jim.

Speaker 3 That's James.

Speaker 4 Number one, that seller now.

Speaker 2 Yeah, hey, man, I got one catch for 10 yards, so I need to do something, bro.

Speaker 1 It's the best marketing situation ever. Yeah, back to the bottom of the bag.

Speaker 1 I like this warning

Speaker 1 i just had a drop let me go to page let me go to page two real quick no i just had a drop what i need to go to jim murr

Speaker 1 45 paragraph two yeah let's get to this one this one's good sometimes you're going to drop a rock a ball a fumble you're going to stumble on an opportunity I like that messaging, though.

Speaker 1 And you're right, Debutch. Notes have been taken.
Things have been highlighted. He's going through that on a daily basis.
He's working on him. I respect it.

Speaker 4 I respect it. I've never seen this during the game.
I've seen guys read books maybe before the game. We always get clips of like LeBron after the game.

Speaker 1 He reads

Speaker 4 on the

Speaker 4 first page.

Speaker 4 I like the fact that he's actually reading that thing. It's worn.
He's got highlights. He's got underlines.
I like that AJ is locked in. He knows.

Speaker 4 He's aware that the cameras are on him, on the sideline. So not losing it, not cussing somebody out about the targets.

Speaker 4 And people are still running with, hey, he's reading a book. He's not engaged.
He's not this. I like it.
I like where AJ is at right now.

Speaker 1 Team guy.

Speaker 1 He didn't read page two on the sideline.

Speaker 1 He looked to be a little bit deeper in there oh yeah i don't know what page 47 or 100 whatever he was on is saying page two sounds like an okay thing to be reading on a sideline maybe kickers need to do more of that you know maybe kickers need to be like listen you're not the worst person on earth yeah i'm not turning the page you're an okay human being actually and then all of a sudden somebody two feet away from you you're not

Speaker 1 it's good little battle i love reading on a sideline promotes literacy everybody should be reading find your own inner peace maybe Maybe he has found his.

Speaker 1 Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is the greatest NFL coach of all time and the greatest general manager of all time. He is currently the head coach for the

Speaker 1 University of North Carolina Tar Heels football team. Ladies and gentlemen, Bill Belichick.
Yeah, Belichick.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 that looks cool. You look cool, coach.
You look cool. How you doing? Good to see you.

Speaker 1 Hey,

Speaker 1 good to see you as well. What are you doing? Are you on the road recruiting again? What's life bringing Bill Belichick on this particular Monday, Coach?

Speaker 14 We can't recruit for these three days, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Those are dead days during the NFL or the

Speaker 14 AFCA convention. So no recruiting, but out taking care of some other stuff.

Speaker 1 Okay, so the AFCA, the American Football Conference of America, I assume. Is that what that's? Coaches Association.
Yeah. American Football Coaches Association.
Yeah, there it is. Okay.
Okay.

Speaker 1 I remember the Fired Football Coaches Association. Gruden was always watching film.
The American Football Coaches Association is clearly what Gruden was mocking during that entire thing.

Speaker 1 Okay, it's all coming together. Maybe get that guy back in the league for more reasons than not.
Let's talk about you down to UNC. How do you feel about where the team is?

Speaker 1 And are you watching these college football playoffs and trying to see how you can build a team that can compete and beat these squads? Orange Bowl was awesome. Cotton Bowl electrifying.

Speaker 1 Four best teams on display. Are you watching and judging, or how are you treating all this for college ball right now?

Speaker 14 Yeah, well, I've watched the college games, you know, kind of as a fan from the outside, but we'll take a closer look at them and break them down when we get to the film and get into the all-season program.

Speaker 14 Most of my focus now is on recruiting at North Carolina.

Speaker 14 January is the one month when the head coaches in college are going to be on the road. And so I'll be out on the road most every day in January to do that.
Other than these three days here that are,

Speaker 14 you know, days we can't be recruiting.

Speaker 1 Okay, so you're just casually watching our game.

Speaker 14 Trying to get things organized. Yep.

Speaker 1 Okay, how do you feel about putting a staff together? Because now you're competing with Vrabel for guys.

Speaker 1 Have you heard the news? I know you've been on the road here in January. I know you've been recruiting, trying to put everything together.

Speaker 1 Mike Vrabel is now the head coach of the New England Patriots. That was announced officially.
How do you feel about the move?

Speaker 1 And what are your thoughts on Mike Vrabel since he has become a coach after leaving as a New England Patriot a multiple-time Super Bowl champion?

Speaker 14 Yeah, I think Mike's done a great job. Certainly his entry into coaching was no surprise to any of us that knew him and,

Speaker 14 you know,

Speaker 14 coached him at New England.

Speaker 14 You know, I talked to him when he was at Ohio State and then when he went to the Texans and then, of course, at Tennessee, and we practiced against them and, you know, stayed in pretty close contact with Mike.

Speaker 14 So I have a ton of respect for Mike. I think he does a great job.
He prepares his teams well. They're very good in situational football.
They're tough. They're competitive.

Speaker 14 They're smart, just like he was as a player. I think the teams that he's coached and the position he's coached follow very much in his playing style and his preparation style.
So,

Speaker 14 you know, I love Mike. I love everything that he stands for as a football coach.
And, you know, I have a lot of respect for him. I'm sure he'll do a great job.

Speaker 1 There's the clip running around of whenever he ran those delay of games with more than five minutes left in the clock. He kind of pulled a Belichick to you.

Speaker 1 And I think that was the moment that I think the whole world was like, oh, we get not just a meathead who loves a little nicotine. This is also a football genius.
Do you remember that moment?

Speaker 1 And what are your first thoughts when you think back on it?

Speaker 14 Yeah, I remember the moment. And the way the play was explained to us prior to that by the office, the league office was...
a little bit different than the way that I thought it was officiated.

Speaker 14 Yeah, no, I understood the role.

Speaker 14 We did the same thing earlier that year, but it was kind of between me, myself, and what my understanding understanding was from the officials on the way that was going to go.

Speaker 14 But yeah, no, what he did was completely within the rules. As I said, it's something we had done.
But that's Mike. Mike does a great job.
You know, he changed the game

Speaker 14 in the Colts on Vanderjet's miss in the opening, you know, started the season, opening game when he called the second time out and Vanderjet missed.

Speaker 14 And then, you know, Paulian and the competition committee changed the rule the next week. So Mike's always been the one to take advantage of those situations.
He's a heady, smart player and coach.

Speaker 1 I think so too. And, you know, we're all happy that rule was instituted.
You know, we don't have time just to be calling timeout 10 constructive, sorry, three consecutive plays.

Speaker 1 Nonetheless, love the way Vrabel operates. Taylor LeWan, he put out a video basically as a heads up to all the Patriots players on what life is about to be like with Vrabel.

Speaker 1 And in there, he mentioned, hey, you need to know, obviously, the three keys are the keys to the defense, offense, and special teams. Does not matter what side of the ball you're on.

Speaker 1 You need to know the janitor's name, okay, because in team meetings, he's going to pop somebody up there and he's going to put your ass on the spot to know everything that's going on.

Speaker 1 He said, your life's going to suck. Okay, boys, it's going to suck for a while, but you are going to be better because of it in the end.
Is that similar to how you ran?

Speaker 1 And why are those little things you think so important to running a successful operation, Coach?

Speaker 14 Well, certainly it's important to know the people that are in your organization, whoever they are, not just your teammates, but the other people who support you.

Speaker 14 And, you know, just to know the history of the franchise or the team,

Speaker 14 whatever it is. But that just

Speaker 14 makes communication and

Speaker 14 respect for each other flow much more smoothly. But again, we've always been big on preparation.

Speaker 14 Mike did that as a player. I'm sure he'll continue to institute that as a coach.

Speaker 14 And that's part of the player's job, just to be prepared for the opponent, but also to know everything that you do internally so that you can take advantage of of all the opportunities that you have on your team with your teammates, your playbook, and so forth.

Speaker 1 I can't wait to watch. I think we all just assume that the Patriots are about to be all the way back in.
Of course, they are. AJ has a question for you.

Speaker 3 Coach, I'm sure you've been watching, obviously, the NFL playoffs and everything that's been going on this past weekend.

Speaker 3 We've heard people talk about, hey, just don't beat yourself. Try not to, let's not do things to lose this game.
Do you see that playing out when you watch this first round of the playoffs?

Speaker 14 Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think a couple of these teams, you know, got to feel terrible today.
You know, Green Bay, I mean, you fumble the opening kickoff, spot the Eagles seven points.

Speaker 14 I mean, that's really hard to do on the road against a team like Philadelphia. Then, you know, they miss a field goal, which has been a problem for them all year.
That showed up.

Speaker 14 Tampa, you know, they fumble a handoff on a jet sweep action play. That didn't really have anything to do with the defense.
Then they fumble another.

Speaker 14 uh short yardage play and screw up the handoff and get stopped and get held to a field goal um you know that didn't really have anything to do with Washington's defense. It was just bad football.

Speaker 14 And those are the kind of plays you look back on when your season ends that you say, well,

Speaker 14 we really messed those up.

Speaker 14 Pittsburgh, trying to get their guys on the field on a fourth and one, end up with, you know, struggling to get lined up on a short yardage play and give up a conversion to Baltimore on that.

Speaker 14 You know, those kind of plays where you feel like you beat yourself.

Speaker 1 And,

Speaker 14 you know, they're just really hard to overcome when your season ends that way.

Speaker 14 So I think that the number one thing is, as you said, is to make sure that you're doing everything that you're doing right and

Speaker 14 that you execute what you can execute and make sure that you don't just hand the game away on something that isn't a great play by the opponent. It's just more of your inefficiency or

Speaker 14 just screwing something up.

Speaker 1 Feels like that's the difference between great and good. You know, and ball always has been, always will be, especially in the NFL with the amount of parity.
parity.

Speaker 1 The team that doesn't fuck it up more is normally the team that goes on to win it. Now, speaking of those, there's multiple things that popped up in college football with the bye week.

Speaker 1 Connor has a question for you.

Speaker 2 Yeah, coach, obviously, the college bye weeks did not bode well for the teams on the bye, but for the NFL, the Chiefs and the Lions, what are their weeks like this past week and now, you know, leading into game week?

Speaker 2 Are they watching all the games? Are they watching the potential teams they're going to play?

Speaker 2 And are the coaches, like is Andy Reid and Ben Johnson, obviously been at interviews, but but is Andy Reid drawing up a bunch of new plays? Or what are those bye weeks like for the one seeds?

Speaker 14 Well, look, it's great to be a one seed, and congratulations to Kansas City and Detroit for winning the playoff game last week because that's effectively what happened.

Speaker 1 They move on to the next round without even having to play. And that's a great, great situation.

Speaker 14 But I'll say this, when you're the number one seed,

Speaker 14 like those two teams were, you have the least amount of predictability on who you're going to play. So if any of the wildcard teams win, you could play them, whoever the lowest seed is.

Speaker 14 If all the wildcard teams lose, then you play the lowest

Speaker 14 division seed, right?

Speaker 14 So you could end up playing a four, five, six, or seven seed based on, you know, how the weekend comes out. And so

Speaker 14 I'd say from that standpoint, there's less predictability on who you're going to play when you're the number one seed than when you're at other positions.

Speaker 14 Certainly when you're at the bottom, you know, if you win, you pretty much know how those games are going to match up going going forward.

Speaker 1 But,

Speaker 14 you know, I think it was interesting when you looked at the Eagles game, the Philadelphia game against Green Bay, you saw the Eagles run three or four plays offensively that were really, I would say, playoff plays.

Speaker 14 You know, they faked the tush-push, you know, tried to launch a post down the field and hit a big play on third and inches.

Speaker 14 They ran a couple of deceptive plays, quarterback runs with Hurts off of, you know, off of action to Barkley, knowing that, you know, the defense would be keying heavily on Barkley,

Speaker 14 at this point in the season. So I think that

Speaker 14 Detroit and Kansas City probably would be working on a couple of plays that

Speaker 14 they've probably been working on all year, but now saying, okay, here we are coming down to critical games. What plays can we maybe use that are a little bit different, a little bit of a deceptive?

Speaker 14 Maybe it's a new blitz from Aaron Glenn or Spaggs that they've kind of cooked up, maybe some look that they've been giving, and now they can give that same look and run some type of different pressure on it.

Speaker 14 Or maybe it's a punt rush or a fake kick, something like that.

Speaker 14 I think those kind of plays could come

Speaker 14 into the action here for those teams because they do have a little bit of time to work on them. And honestly, those are the kind of things that keep your players interested too.

Speaker 14 You do something that's a little special, a little bit different,

Speaker 14 another handoff, this tool or whatever it is. And it keeps the practice energy up a little bit.

Speaker 1 Hey, how come everybody said like the Patriot Way, Patriot Way is so hard, so tough, which it is, and it was, obviously. But you pulled out trick plays all the time.

Speaker 1 Is that because of the players you had, or is it a part of like keeping players like kind of interested and also adding little wrinkles for maybe other people have to deal with?

Speaker 14 Yeah, well, look, I think those plays, Pat, what I always said to Josh, and Josh did a great job of it, Josh McDaniels did a great job of it. We said, you know, look, going into the playoffs,

Speaker 14 let's get a play that can either score points, you know, so maybe a goal line pass or something on the two or three yard line, a red area pass, or something that's going to gain a yards, gain, you know, a chunk play, a yards, 20, 30 yards, something like that.

Speaker 14 You know, I don't want to work on another run that's going to gain three yards. Let's work on something that could really, you know, impact the game.

Speaker 14 And so, you know, that came up in the Ravens game in 14 where we ran the double pass, ran a couple of oddball formations.

Speaker 14 We were down by two touchdowns in the third quarter, and we're able to come back and tie it and eventually win the game.

Speaker 14 So Josh and I always thought about plays that would really, we thought, could make a difference in the outcome of the the game or could actually score points, you know, get a touchdown instead of a field goal in a close game like that.

Speaker 14 So,

Speaker 14 look, Pat, when you say patriot way, I don't know what that is. I don't know what the patriot way is.
That's kind of a buzzword that everybody else uses.

Speaker 14 You know, to me, it's about preparation. It's about being a good teammate, team building, and then performing well under pressure.
That's what winning football games is.

Speaker 14 I don't, you know, the tag that goes with that is really, you know,

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 14 That's a big marketing tool. I don't know what that is.
I believe in preparation, performance, discipline, and consistency.

Speaker 1 And that's the Patriot Way. Boom.
I appreciate the hell out of you, ladies and gentlemen. The greatest of all time, Bill Belichick.
We appreciate you, coach.

Speaker 1 Thanks.

Speaker 1 See ya. Can't recruit these three days, Kay.
Don't be putting me into any jackpot shit here, Pat, please. Jeez, Luis.

Speaker 1 He was going in, when we talked to him last week and he was traveling around the high schools. I was like, so are you walking right in that front door and just like,

Speaker 1 hello, insert name of high school? Bill Belichick's here. Are you causing a little bit of a scene, a little bit of a buzz, a little bit of a stir that you could cause whenever you go places?

Speaker 1 And he goes, no, that's not really my style. And also, it's not legal.
I'm allowed to take pictures with anybody that is underclassmen.

Speaker 1 Anybody that could potentially be a college football player, which could be anybody, I guess. Could be anybody.
2025. Could be anybody.

Speaker 1 Not allowed to take photos with because then that could be considered or construed as recruiting somebody that they're not allowed to recruit. That was literally what was said.

Speaker 1 He was like, there's rules for everything. We're trying not to fuck up anything.

Speaker 1 We're just trying not to, we're trying to not get in the dog ass with anything, especially now because I think those little tedious things are potentially the only thing that some people at the NCAA are allowed to attack because everything else is kind of wild, wild west.

Speaker 1 You know, the wild, wild west.

Speaker 3 Imagine him walking in. Imagine it's the teachers.
It's all the other teachers and principals. That's who wants.

Speaker 3 That's who's going to take his time wanting pictures because word will spread very quickly. You know, when Bill, I'm sure the word spreads before he gets there.
Hey, I think Belichuck's coming.

Speaker 3 And then once he's there, everyone's peeking out their doors, looking, checking around.

Speaker 1 And Steve's wearing that Car Hart black long-sleeve shirt.

Speaker 1 Bill's wearing

Speaker 1 a

Speaker 1 trailer right there. He was shooting a commercial right there.
Yeah, what is that? I don't know. It was a nice jacket.

Speaker 1 Is that Aflak? He probably had Michael Jordan.

Speaker 3 They're probably doing something with Jordan.

Speaker 2 Yeah, maybe a new billboard at UNC, a bill on it with MJ.

Speaker 3 Bench Press and he's benching or something and Jordan's spotting him, possibly.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, maybe, maybe Jordan is. Maybe they're golfing in the cold.

Speaker 1 I don't want to have that jacket on.

Speaker 1 Maybe it's, maybe it's, what are the biggest college sponsors? Dr. Pepper? Maybe it's, because he's in college now, so all the college companies are going to want him.

Speaker 1 Aflak, that has Aflak written all over it, especially with Sabin. Yeah.
And Prime, who, you know, might be the new head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

Speaker 1 I saw that. People are talking about maybe even Shadur going down there because you got a quarterback on a big contract in Dak.
You get Shador on a rookie contract.

Speaker 1 Then you got Coach Prime coaching back in Texas, obviously, as a former Cowboy legend. Now we're talking, are the Cowboys back off of him?

Speaker 1 You know, and the way Coach Prime coaches, a lot of people don't give him credit for it. He's a hard ass.
He's a bit of a hard ass. And obviously, the team overachieved this year.

Speaker 1 They had a lot of talent, but I think they were only scheduled at five and a half wins. What was it going into the year, Tone? It was probably four and a half or five and a half.

Speaker 1 I can't remember exactly. It was really long.
They end up putting what? Nine or ten? Yeah. Whenever it all said done after winning the bowl game? Yeah, nine.

Speaker 1 So.

Speaker 4 Yeah, not.

Speaker 1 Yeah, BYU either. Bad, bad, bad.
And remember, we picked Colorado because everybody was playing.

Speaker 3 We said,

Speaker 1 them boys ain't going to want to go out like that. Sorry, Mormons.
You know, the prime time crew is coming through. And they did not.
Instead, it was BY Jew, Jake Retzloff, the Jewish quarterback

Speaker 1 in that BYU team. They overperformed overperformed this year as well.
College ball has been awesome this year. So good.

Speaker 1 College ball has been absolutely awesome this year. I mean, first round of college football playoffs, I think everybody would say kind of crop.
Yeah. Kind of crop.

Speaker 1 All the home teams did their thing, kept it moving. But boy, Orange Bowl Cotton Bowl delivered, I think.
Orange Bowl Cotton Bowl delivered in a huge way.

Speaker 1 Bowl season, without the college football playoffs, the bowl season delivered in a massive way. Like, I think there was, I think college ball was fantastic this year, AJ.
Legitimately. Legitimately.

Speaker 3 The level of play is only getting better and better because the players are getting better and better.

Speaker 3 And I guess, although people don't love it that they can transfer and pop around teams, more guys are getting opportunities that may be stuck behind some studs at other schools in the past, I think.

Speaker 3 So more guys are having opportunities. Some guys, there's less opportunities as well.

Speaker 3 Say you're a solid starter, transfer in a couple of guys, boom, your starting job is gone. You might have to find a way to play somewhere else.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 Connor, I think what AJ is saying is more players are getting shot to shine. Ain't that right?

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's pretty awesome. We started with 12 and we're counting down to two now.
It is a huge bummer. Like, I feel like that kind of set in this weekend.

Speaker 2 We're just like, oh, shit, like, we only have one college football game left. We really only have, what, five, six NFL games left.
Like,

Speaker 2 this time is the best because of how awesome the football is. And it's the best teams.
Like, we're talking about the Bills playing the Ravens next week. That's going to be unbelievable.

Speaker 2 But it just blows because we are also staring down like, hey, where's this free agent going to sign in a month? And that is kind of what the reality of the situation is.

Speaker 2 It's sweet for me because when you have a poopy team that is looking to get better, this is kind of where your season starts.

Speaker 2 But when you're just talking about actually watching and, you know, football ending, it's tough. It's bittersweet.

Speaker 1 Boy.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 to look ahead to the offseason, not that we need to do that or want to do that. I think we're going to be in town for the combine this year.
Hell yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Remember that age? I scheduled our vacation right around the only thing that happens in our city.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'll start the game. Well, we planned ahead this year.
We planned ahead, all right. That's right, that's right, we looked ahead, and I don't know if it means anything to be honest.

Speaker 1 A lot of unanswered emails

Speaker 1 going from our end

Speaker 1 to their end.

Speaker 1 I don't know how it's going to go at Calmbine. I know we're in the same city as the Combine, so I think that is,

Speaker 1 I think we will certainly be able to breathe the same air. I think people will stop by.
I don't know if we're going to be at Combine, though. Just as a

Speaker 1 age, we're pitching

Speaker 1 to be at Calmbine.

Speaker 1 up there on the terrace. Would we have to whistle right behind?

Speaker 3 Would we have to be quiet and speak like we're at a golf event?

Speaker 1 No. No.
Yeah, I mean, that's normally what I do, right? In the context,

Speaker 1 it's kind of normally how it goes. I think they know what's coming, you know, if we're, if we're coming in there.

Speaker 1 But with the action behind us, you know, all the NFL teams, they just have all their suites there. So we could potentially just get a GM just to accidentally wander right over to the set.

Speaker 1 Like, I think Combine Week, with where we are now, with the relationships we have around the league, if we're able to just get in there, I think it could be awesome. And I still have hope, but.

Speaker 1 Who's not answering emails? Who do we need?

Speaker 1 Hmm. Who do I reach out?

Speaker 1 Town, here's the thing.

Speaker 1 And we've talked about this being a problem with our particular business with the way we run.

Speaker 1 It has allowed us a lot of freedom to say and do whatever we want.

Speaker 1 But whenever you do that, every once in a while, there's a stray go fuck yourself to this person or

Speaker 1 one to this person directly to their face.

Speaker 1 And then those people all of a sudden, guess what they do throughout their careers?

Speaker 1 They move on up into positions of power.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 all of a sudden, you wonder how somebody that dumb could get put in that position. That's what you're thinking.

Speaker 1 But on the other side, they're thinking, hey, this is the person you're going to have to.

Speaker 1 And it's like, well, we ain't going to be able to do that because four or five years ago, I typed up an email that I thought was one of my best laying out potentially, you know,

Speaker 1 all the faults. Obviously, Reddit to crowd, you know, good pop, good good pop from crowd, I think.
Basically, every time, is that true, boys?

Speaker 1 You got to do that, though, Age. I don't love doing it.

Speaker 1 But every once in a while, you got to tell somebody who's terrible at their job, that they're terrible at their job and that you don't want to work with them ever again, strictly because they are terrible at their job and that you think they're a disrespectful frick.

Speaker 1 And the way they talk is not the way you should talk to anybody. And then you re-edit that and you Google some other words that are synonyms of words.

Speaker 1 So then you really start typing up an email that at the end of it basically gets the point across. Go fuck yourself.
You are a piece of trash.

Speaker 1 And then you find out three, four years later, wow, that is actually the gatekeeper for anything you potentially need to do. And they did read the email.

Speaker 1 And it probably was warranted, but they don't see it that way. And that's just, that's life in the game.
You know, that's kind of been our business since the beginning.

Speaker 1 And it'll continue, but it has affected us. It has affected us.
On that note, I would like to let the world know, I was not trying to murder Kyle Brandt like that.

Speaker 1 I think whenever they put us on a split screen, it looked a little bit more combative than if I was just speaking to the entire thing.

Speaker 1 But Kyle Brandt, not knowing who Lil Wayne was, and then talking to Lil Wayne like, you got talent, man. I was impressed.

Speaker 1 I couldn't take it.

Speaker 1 As a fan of Kyle Brandt, as a,

Speaker 1 I don't want to, I don't think we're technically friends because I don't know if we've ever hung out before, but like as somebody high energy white in the football world watching I have a lot of sympotico with Kyle Brandt like when I watch him do his stuff I'm like this dude is a talent when he was talking the way he was talking to little Wayne I like I just couldn't take it so I had to you know I had to let him know that that was absurd and we can't be doing he didn't know he was talking to like Metallica or like Guns and Roses or like the Beatles of her yeah he was at he was acting like little Wayne hey a couple

Speaker 1 oh you dumb when did did he talk to Lil Wayne?

Speaker 3 Because I saw you.

Speaker 1 I didn't see the Lil Wayne. He interviewed Lil Wayne.
It was earlier with Colleen Wolf. They were doing a pick segment.
Lil Wayne's on every week on this show. Kyle Brandt is not.

Speaker 1 Lil Wayne's on every single week, seemingly, on the show.

Speaker 1 They do like

Speaker 1 game, they do a game, like a late night show game. And then he also makes pics or whatever with Colleen.
And this time, Kyle Brandt went in there, and Kyle put out that tweet.

Speaker 1 He was like, getting to work with Lil Wayne? What song shall we see? It's my first time here. He was like, oh, your fans are rabid.
It's like, Kyle, Kyle, come on, man. Come on, man.
Come on, man.

Speaker 1 Was all I was thinking. So then I just kind of went with it.
And as my brain was rolling, it was like, I can't believe this is happening.

Speaker 1 I feel like somebody's got to stick up for Lil Wayne here a little bit. And not that Lil Wayne needs it, obviously.
26-time Grammy nominee has a couple songs with over 600 million streams.

Speaker 1 A billion streamer on Spotify. So just somebody being like, I was impressed.
You

Speaker 1 got some talent, man. I was, all right, can't have it.
But I love Kyle Brenton. I'd like to let the world know that.

Speaker 1 Legitimately, I just thought I had to speak up for an era that got a chance to experience the Wayne Train on every single song from about 2004 to 2010. Now, joining us now, ladies and gentlemen,

Speaker 1 is an icon. Okay.

Speaker 1 Not just in the sports world, but in the world world, because how he has represented our sport and gentlemen around the world with his chivalry and excitement and loyalty to to his partner has been nothing short of fantastic.

Speaker 1 You would think, how can this guy get any better? Oh, yeah, he's a Mount Rushmore tight end. Gonna go down potentially as the greatest of all time.

Speaker 1 He has won Super Bowl after Super Bowl, looking to win three straight for the first time in the modern era from the Kansas City Chiefs tight end.

Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, host of the New Heights podcast, Travis Kelsey.

Speaker 7 Gang, it's been a while, baby. We miss you, man.

Speaker 1 We miss you, man. We've been watching, though.
You've been dominating. We miss you.
We love you. How are you doing?

Speaker 1 Walter Payton, man of the year for the Chiefs, continuing to make the world a better place while breaking records. How are you doing, bro?

Speaker 7 I'm doing good, man. We're fired up, man.
We got the Houston Texans coming into Arrowhead this weekend. And, man, ain't nothing better than NFL playoff football, baby.
I've been fired up all week.

Speaker 1 Okay, so let's talk about it. In college football, have you been paying any attention to the college football playoffs?

Speaker 7 Of course I have, baby.

Speaker 1 Come on now.

Speaker 7 this football is going on i'm i'm watching it man especially when the buckeyes are making a run at it you know what i mean

Speaker 1 ohio guy

Speaker 1 man i'm cheering for all ohio football baby Obviously, I think we all are because how cool that team is and in the moment that they were in.

Speaker 1 But the college football playoffs, every team that had the buy ended up losing. Now, granted, it was like three weeks before their first game.
You're coming off a buy.

Speaker 1 You guys are no stranger to that. How did you spend the buy? How does the team feel? And how does your old ass feel at this moment going into it? I'm fired up, man.

Speaker 1 I'm feeling 22 all over again, baby. Let's go.

Speaker 7 Hell yeah.

Speaker 1 Fire me up.

Speaker 1 How about you?

Speaker 1 I'm feeling 22.

Speaker 1 Hey, she had us do this thing, Trav. She had us do this thing right here.
I was hoping you caught the reference, baby.

Speaker 1 Man, I'm ready to rock and roll, man.

Speaker 7 The biggest thing for me is trusting Coach Reed. He's been doing this a long, long time.

Speaker 7 And when it comes to getting the bye week, we've had a few of them over the course of my career. So

Speaker 7 for me, it's just making sure we put the pads on at least one time throughout the week. Make sure we get our physicality in and get that in check.

Speaker 7 Play with some low pad level throughout the week. And then on top of that, put your feet up, man.
Watch some football and get ready for

Speaker 7 some playoff action.

Speaker 3 Go ahead, AJ. Does it matter who you play, Trav? Obviously, you watch the games and playoff games.
Do you ever think about, okay, we match up better with this team, with that team?

Speaker 3 Did you ever do that any time in your career? I would assume you don't. And also, are you going to be punking some kickers out of their warm-up situation again

Speaker 1 if that happens again?

Speaker 7 I don't know what you're talking. I feel like he was trying to punk us.

Speaker 1 He was.

Speaker 1 You were punking us. Hey, you were in the back.

Speaker 7 And I was just defending my guys. I was making sure Pat's ankle was good.
I was making sure my guys had some space.

Speaker 7 No,

Speaker 7 I think I've never really... gave it much of a thought in terms of who we should play or who I want to play.

Speaker 7 I just want

Speaker 7 whoever we got to give us their best effort, man. I love going up against the best in that challenge week in, week out, man.
So I know we're going to get Houston's best, man.

Speaker 7 It's a hell of a football team.

Speaker 1 Houston's obviously had a year that's been like this a little bit. Then last game of the year, they beat the hell out of the Titans and they get a massive win over the Chargers.

Speaker 1 Your guys this season, even though you're the number one seed in the AFC, number one seed in the best record in the entire league, again, as back-to-back Super Bowl champs.

Speaker 1 We haven't got a chance to chat with you much. Obviously, we've watched New Heights.
All anybody who said is, this team ain't good. This team ain't good.

Speaker 1 This ain't the same Chiefs team undefeated at one point, 15 and one at one point, number one seed in the AFC. Have you heard all that noise? And what is this year's team like versus maybe years past?

Speaker 7 Well,

Speaker 7 we're finding different ways to win and more ways to win early on and throughout the season. I think last year we dealt with finding ways to lose.
And, you know, you can learn from both, but

Speaker 7 learning learning from the games you win is is a whole lot more fun and I think we got a lot of a lot of confidence in this team and a lot of guys that are willing to go that extra mile man and we've definitely heard all the all the chatter and guys like you know Rex Ryan saying that you know this team can't win in the playoffs and he's seen it before and

Speaker 7 you know we hear everything but at the same time we know what's real and what's in this building and that's that's guys that that want to be accountable for the one next to them and are going to keep finding ways to be accountable week in, week out.

Speaker 1 Rex pissed off the Texans too last week. He said

Speaker 1 the Chargers had a bye week playing against Houston. Rex also pissed off the Chiefs.
Rex, keep doing it, Rex. Hop fast.

Speaker 1 Keep doing it. Great work.

Speaker 1 Let's talk about your team before the boys have their questions as well. Patrick Mahomes, obviously, another year.
He's cemented as one of the GOATs, just like you.

Speaker 1 What have you seen from him this year that's different? Or has Patrick Mahomes now found exactly who he is, leadership, playing style, everything like that?

Speaker 7 Well, I've seen him weather the storm. You know, everybody's mentioning, you know, the protection and who we've had up front.

Speaker 7 I think we figured that puzzle out. And on top of that, I've seen Pat, you know, weather that storm and become better because of it.
I think,

Speaker 7 you know, when

Speaker 7 When the team needs him the most, he steps up in ways that he hasn't before. And it happens year in, year out.

Speaker 7 And it's just so much fun to of, be a part of the team with him because he's always going to take the bull by the horns and be the most accountable, be the one that puts it on himself more than he puts it on anybody else.

Speaker 7 And that's true leadership right there, man.

Speaker 1 He's awesome to watch. You both are.
When something needs to happen, he's going to do something absurd. And then he's going to find that big, handsome bastard from Ohio, wearing 87,

Speaker 1 who's running a Travis route. Debutch has a question for you, Trav.

Speaker 4 Yeah, Trav, we got Mount Rushmore guys all over the place up there. Talk about you, Pat, Flake, Spags, Dave, and then obviously Andy Reid, your head coach.

Speaker 4 What separates Andy Reid from the other guys? I feel like he always has you guys prepared for every situation. Is it the competitive practices?

Speaker 4 Like what goes on into the preparation with you guys week in and week out that you're always prepared in any moment to win a game in any type of way?

Speaker 7 You know what,

Speaker 7 I think you're on to something.

Speaker 7 His competitiveness and his ability to challenge guys. And that's not an easy thing to do, is to challenge grown men in a way that's that's respectful and a way that you can get the best out of them.

Speaker 7 I think he relates to everybody in such a way that he gains that respect

Speaker 7 as you come into the building just by being relatable. And with that being said, I mean, we were in full pads and going ones versus ones last week.

Speaker 7 And that's the type of competitive practices that are going to get you ready for the playoffs, knowing that every single week of the playoffs, it gets a little more physical, gets a little bit more faster as you get deeper and deeper.

Speaker 7 deeper.

Speaker 7 And it's just,

Speaker 7 I love the guy for so many reasons, but his ability to challenge everybody week in, week out just makes everyone that much better.

Speaker 1 Do you guys tuck in every, right? We always chat about how like Andy Reid's an accountability-driven coach.

Speaker 1 It's like at practice, it's always just gets said, but I don't think I've ever actually heard it or not. We're tucking in jerseys.
We're doing the whole thing around the building.

Speaker 1 Like that is Andy Reid, old school type.

Speaker 7 Oh, yeah, old school, old school mentality, kind of a military feel to it. You're going to look sharp as you go to it, but he's kind of gotten a little,

Speaker 7 he's kind of relaxed a little bit on that. I think

Speaker 7 he might be prejudiced towards skinny guys because he gives the big boys the ability to keep the shirts on tuck.

Speaker 1 Well, he knows. Big guys, let's just get them to Sunday.
Let's just get these dudes to Sunday. Let's win.
Ty has a question for you about that beautiful city you play football in.

Speaker 5 Yeah, Travis, a lot was made last year during the playoffs against the Dolphins about how fucking cold it was. You know, you had had people getting hypothermia in the stands and stuff like that.

Speaker 5 And obviously the Dolphins couldn't deal with it. We have a winter storm ripping through the Midwest right now.
What's it supposed to be like weather-wise? Do you know this weekend?

Speaker 5 And would you prefer a situation like that where you're lining up out there with a stack of dimes, but you know, you got a team, you know, from Houston or from a warm city coming in that's probably not going to be able to handle the climate the same way you guys are going to be able to.

Speaker 7 I'm not going to lie, man.

Speaker 7 I'm an Ohio football guy, baby. I love it when it's just cold and snowy and you just get all the elements, all the elements mixed into one.
And

Speaker 7 I'm not going to say that I'm hoping for that, but I definitely love it when it's because it adds a little bit more to how dramatic the game can be

Speaker 7 or at least feel.

Speaker 7 But at the end of the day, I don't care if it's raining, snowing, if it's at Arrowhead somewhere else in the Walmart parking lot, you can put the roller balls out and let's play some football, baby.

Speaker 1 Is there going to be an aura in that place, a little extra? You know what we're talking about you know

Speaker 1 oh yeah

Speaker 7 you know it baby you know it's playoff football man

Speaker 1 hey she's is she undefeated hey she rolls in that stadium i just want to let you know what live bettors do i just want to let you know what live bettors do they see her walk into that stadium immediately open the phone it's like yep uh chiefs you're about to win i mean that is just literally the feel what you two are hey You're a gentleman, pal.

Speaker 1 You need to know that you continue to represent football in a beautiful way, Trav. We appreciate you.
Legitimately, trying to represent the boys, man.

Speaker 7 Just trying to represent the boys.

Speaker 1 So many fuckboys out there. I've heard about them all because my wife now, I've listened to all the albums.
I've heard about them all. I appreciate you, dude.

Speaker 1 And also, I think there's one coming where it's like going to be great. Like, hey, guy, good thing.
You know, like, that'll be great in my house.

Speaker 1 There might be a few. I don't know.

Speaker 7 There might be a few.

Speaker 1 Have you heard any? Have you heard any? Do you get

Speaker 7 a text here? You know, I can't say any of that.

Speaker 1 You know, I can't say that. I don't.

Speaker 1 I hear music everywhere.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's just say you're hanging out. Say you're hanging out, having a little dinner.
No, we're having a little dinner.

Speaker 1 All of a sudden, the creative juice sparks in the absolute beast that you're sitting with, who is going to go down as maybe the most famous icon in the history of music.

Speaker 1 And she starts thinking something, and you go, oh, I like that.

Speaker 1 Are you a motivator at every single time?

Speaker 7 Come on, now you know it. You know it.

Speaker 7 I'll never chime in, but you already know it's full.

Speaker 7 I'm here to support it. I'm here to see where it can go.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 And I'll tell you where it went. That stadium was bananas that we were in.
Lucas Oil Stadium. We were talking about it earlier when you said you were feeling 22.
They had those lights on their arms.

Speaker 1 She had every single person in there. It felt like it was moving the actual state.
It was electrifying, Trap. I mean, I can't.
It was awesome. I know you have a crowd.

Speaker 7 I thought the European crowds were crazy, man, but I'll tell you what, man. Lucas Oil, I got to go to the last night over there in India, and

Speaker 7 they were going nuts. They were more, they were, I mean, I think I've seen that thing rocking when the Colts are playing.
They might have, they might have had that thing rocking even more.

Speaker 14 Might have.

Speaker 1 I mean, okay.

Speaker 1 I don't say by definitely

Speaker 1 question that. I think you can say definitely.

Speaker 1 Speaking of off the field, before we let you go, we know you have a lot of work. Connor has a question for you.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Travis, also representing on the silver screen, Happy Gilmore too. You are now part of the Sandman squad, I assume.
How was that? How was working with Sandler?

Speaker 2 And how many lines are we working with here after your incredible debut on FX as well?

Speaker 7 Man, I appreciate that. I'll tell you what, man, that was a dream come true.

Speaker 7 I thought SNL was going to be, you know, the peak of my acting and showman or entertainment career.

Speaker 7 Working with... you know, Happy Gilmore himself, the Sandman and Happy Productions,

Speaker 7 it was off the chain, man. They're so professional and yet so fun to work with.
I felt like I was working with like the Andy Reid of the acting world, man.

Speaker 7 And he is every bit as cool off the screen as he is on the screen, man. And that was a dream come true, man.
That was awesome. I'm in, I believe, a few scenes.

Speaker 7 I got a pretty hefty load in there.

Speaker 1 Oh, hefty load.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 Oscar? Okay. Yeah, maybe.
Hey, are we up for any awards in this entire thing?

Speaker 1 What is that called i don't know

Speaker 7 best new actor maybe well i don't know i haven't i don't i don't think i'm i don't think i'm up to the up to those uh i don't know that caliber of acting yet um and i don't even know if i'm in that much of uh happy gilmore to even be uh you know hefty loads offering awards

Speaker 1 hefty loads get awards hefty loads that certainly did you guys play any hoops in your downtime yeah in your downtime did you take any oops from the sand man

Speaker 7 man i wish i wish i was only there i was there on the bye week so I wasn't I didn't get too much time to really hang out but you already know we got to get on the court with the sandman hey the chiefs are still the chiefs we can't thank you enough for being awesome and thank you for swinging by brother keep crushing life always love coming on here with you guys man you guys are the best we'll catch you how's new heights how's new heights i didn't even ask how's new heights we love we're rolling baby you guys are great rolling we just had we just had another uh great will farrell uh on there last week man it was cool as hell just chopping it up with him talking about frank the tank and uh Anchorman and everything, man.

Speaker 7 It was awesome.

Speaker 1 And then Walter Payton Man of the Year giving back to the world, making the world a better place. Wow, growing a fantastic beard right now.
He's just a playoff beard here.

Speaker 7 Just a little playoff beard.

Speaker 7 It's going to get real ugly if I make it to the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 Like your brother, do you have like your brother's beard too there if you wanted?

Speaker 7 Oh, yeah. It gets a little, just a little, I don't know, different shades right there.
Just a little flavor savers right here.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it looks great. Can't wait to watch it all the way through.
Another Super Bowl, I hope. You're the man.
Ladies and gentlemen, Travis Kelsey. Yeah, Travis.

Speaker 1 He's feeling 22, dude. Hey guys.

Speaker 3 When's the new Happy Gilmore come out? We should ask. I think it's this year.

Speaker 5 Summer? Definitely. Yeah,

Speaker 1 July 4th.

Speaker 1 Do summer movies do well? This one, is it going straight to streaming, or is this going now?

Speaker 5 Yeah, as far as I know, it was made for Netflix, but I could see that being the kind of thing where it's in theaters for a couple of weeks and then Sandman Sandman sound like a 10-piece Netflix deal or something?

Speaker 1 He did. Yeah, because if the movie theater gimmick, we don't need it.
You know, like, hey, I appreciate it. Just make me upcharge and then send it to the movie theater.

Speaker 1 Make me pay an extra ticket worth 12 bucks, 15, 20, whatever the hell it is on top of it so I can stream it at my house and send it to the theater. Let it count as the box office.

Speaker 1 There's no reason that I got to leave my house in 2025 to watch any of these movies. Amen.

Speaker 1 Tom,

Speaker 1 whoa, Nick, I still want movie theaters to exist, though. No, you got a great idea there.

Speaker 4 That's a good compromise for everybody.

Speaker 2 They do it with the rentals now where it's like you can rent a movie that's still in theaters, but it is like 20 bucks, but it's not immediate.

Speaker 1 I think Happy Gilmore 2, sure, it could go straight to Netflix. Okay, some of the Tom Cruise is starting in, that's made for the big screen.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you need to go see that on IMAX.

Speaker 1 You need to go see that on IMAX. If Bradley Cooper's in it, we're going to watch that on the big screen.
Bingo. You know, because Coop's in it.
If our guy Glenn is in it,

Speaker 1 probably if it's streamable, going to watch it. If it's meant for streaming and it's a series, going to watch it.
But if it's a movie and it's in a movie theater, going to go there.

Speaker 1 But Nick, you want to kill all movie theaters. I don't want to kill movie theater.

Speaker 1 I like a good little date night. A lay down seats.

Speaker 3 Full lay down seats now. It's way better than it used to be.

Speaker 1 Full lay down? I can't. Oh, yeah.
I'm asleep. I'm asleep.

Speaker 1 I do fall asleep. Yeah, I do.
It's great. Take a nap.
I don't need

Speaker 1 date night. I'm on a nap.
You watch a movie you like. Yeah.
This is perfect. We're up.
We're doing it.

Speaker 3 I guess not date night. I'm talking about my kids.
I take my kids to the kids' movies. I'll take a quick 40-minute nap.

Speaker 1 You don't like watching the movie? I love it.

Speaker 3 I can fall asleep through my own. If you show me a video of my own death, I could still fall asleep through it.

Speaker 1 Excuse me? What? Yeah, like I can.

Speaker 3 People would say, oh, how'd you fall asleep? I could fall asleep through anything.

Speaker 1 How long is your death? Through your own death, though? Why would somebody, what do you, what is that even? I don't think I fully.

Speaker 3 I mean, if they show me a video of like, hey, this is when you're going to die and how you're going to die. If I'm tired, I will fall asleep at some point throughout that video.

Speaker 1 So they can't capture your attention if they're telling you exact information that you're going to need to know.

Speaker 9 I love that about you. That's why you should never drive.
And the fact that you drove over to Indianapolis today to be in a Thunderdome, we're very grateful for.

Speaker 1 This show will continue on ESPN Plus, Disney Plus, YouTube, and TikTok Live, which is still going. Still going.

Speaker 1 And we'll continue over there. We'll see you tomorrow for Aaron Rodgers Tuesday.
What's he going to say? We shall see. Raw on Netflix tonight.
Wild card tonight. Have a good one.

Speaker 1 I think I really nailed that one, boys. I feel like well done.

Speaker 1 In the history of those things, I was in the middle of that one. I'm like, this one's a one, you know? And then I finished it with a little less sauce than I could have hoped for.

Speaker 1 So I dropped it probably seven, probably seven out of ten, you know. But those things are all happening in my head while I'm speaking.
I hope everybody understands.

Speaker 1 You reminded me that there was a playoff game tonight. I completely forgot.
So that was a nice little reminder on your sign-off. You want to know something that was fun? Fun little game?

Speaker 1 I can, but I can take a guess.

Speaker 1 Go ahead. You also.

Speaker 1 Wait, you either didn't know it was Monday

Speaker 1 or you also didn't know there was a game tonight. Well, I know it's Monday because it's Monday Night Raw, brother.

Speaker 1 Okay. On that please.

Speaker 1 I obviously knew that last night and yesterday, what days of the week it was as we had football just non-stop, completely forgot about that wild card game until eighth of a second before it came out of my mouth, obviously.

Speaker 1 Because this is a big deal. Vikings Rams is a good game.
this is a very good game, especially with where this Rams team is. I think a lot of people are thinking that maybe

Speaker 1 the Rams have a lot better chance to win this game than a lot of people are giving them credit. A lot of people are saying, Wait, Stafford, Puka, and the boys are healthy and rolling.

Speaker 1 And we know the Minnesota Vikings have been electrifying.

Speaker 1 But if that defense for the Rams is able to get a few stops, and Matthew Stafford is able to be opportunistic on the offense, go score some, hold the phone.

Speaker 1 And it happening over there in Arizona, I know that takes it out of being whose house.

Speaker 1 Rams.

Speaker 1 But I don't think anybody thought it was going to be Rams' house anyways. Minnesota Vikings fans

Speaker 1 infiltrate that place probably very quickly, and that becomes a skull chant quick in L.A. Now it's like understood that this is probably going to be a lot of Minnesota Vikings fans.

Speaker 1 I think the Matthew Stafford-led L.A. Rams understand what they're doing for the city in which they represent and everything that's going on.

Speaker 1 I think this is a nice getaway for them away from the chaos that's been taken away in L.A. It's almost like a bowl week.

Speaker 1 You know, Schefter said like a Super Bowl, but obviously nothing compares to what a Super Bowl week is like for teams, but it is like a bowl game.

Speaker 1 Whenever you take a trip away and it's only you and maybe your close family and there's no distractions, and although the world is potentially in a much different place outside of that building, inside, you're just locked in on ball.

Speaker 1 I think moving again to Arizona actually helps the Rams more than it hurts the Rams.

Speaker 1 But that doesn't mean I don't like the Minnesota Vikings tonight with Van Ginky in that B-flow defense able to absolutely cook aj yeah speaking we see a helmet right there with the guardian cap fall off and i don't want to detract from the game but you see yesterday a guardian cap concussion we had happen what unfortunately

Speaker 1 i don't know about concussion i don't know i can't i can't uh say exactly what happened but concussed wait that can happen that was scary that was very scary for real Yeah, it was very scary.

Speaker 1 It was very scary. A very different game than the game that's happening tonight that I was just talking about, but I do appreciate it popped off.

Speaker 1 In that clip, you see it pop off the helmet. I don't know if you can see it or not.
It got me. Dude, the the Tampa Bay guy, the big offensive lineman that has it, it's always so obvious.

Speaker 1 The Guardian caps are always so obvious. What's that tone? I said that one blends right in.
The Tampa Bay Bucks guardian caps are some of the best.

Speaker 1 The helmets look like they're your cowboy hat on top of a helmet, the guardian caps.

Speaker 1 It's just like, you want me to look at it. It is a zoom in

Speaker 1 feel to it. But B-Flow in that Vikings defense could potentially have a day against this Rams offense.
D.

Speaker 1 Buch, how does B-Flow's defense, you know, kind of match with what Matthew Stafford and Rams have cooking?

Speaker 4 I mean, they mix it up now with that offense is Puka. You know, Puka is the guy that you have to stop.
He is the game record. They do want to run the ball to.

Speaker 4 But B-Flow mixes it up, and they intercept the ball at a higher clip than anyone else. So if it's one, I guess, throwing aside for Matt Stafford is throwing interceptions or pick sixes on this stage.

Speaker 4 But if you look at this game, you look at the head coaches, two very, very good head coaches, especially on the offensive side. Two good defenses.

Speaker 4 I think the Rams defense is a lot younger, great up front against the run, but probably could be exposed a little bit in the past game.

Speaker 4 And I don't see him blitzing as much as we saw like Aaron Glenn do and makes Darnell very, very uncomfortable. So I don't know which way this game's going to go.
I think it'll be a great one, though.

Speaker 1 I do too. Like, I'm legitimately befuddled about how tonight goes.
I don't think I've even made a pick yet.

Speaker 1 Ton, where's all the money at for this particular game, old Vikings and Rams Monday night wild card game, which a lot of people aren't happy about.

Speaker 1 I've seen ex-players talk about how stupid the Monday playoff game is.

Speaker 1 It's like, I understand the broadcast is going to be amazing and it's a primetime game and it's Monday night football and it's a part of a deal. We get it, we get it, we get it.

Speaker 1 But even if you move them to Sunday instead of Saturday early game on Sunday, whoever wins this, it's like, why would you risk a less ah, people aren't throwing about the Monday night, but I'm excited there's a primetime game on D-Much.

Speaker 1 I'm excited. People aren't pumped, though, about the scheduling and the rest and everything after that.

Speaker 4 I can see why. It makes sense.
You put it at a disadvantage, and then you got to go up and see one of the best teams in the next round. So, yeah.

Speaker 1 At least have them play on Sunday.

Speaker 1 They're playing on Saturday. Right? Aren't they? Isn't the Vikings? Oh, you know what? No, not

Speaker 1 Sunday, 3 o'clock. Oh, okay.
I think. Okay.
I think Sunday.

Speaker 1 That's correct.

Speaker 2 They already played two earlier in the year. This was the Darnold face mask and the game Vikings ran.

Speaker 1 Thursday night.

Speaker 2 Thursday night, yeah. And then also, I believe there was a report that the Rams have a photo of MCDC telling Kevin O'Connell after last Sunday night's game, hey, we'll see you in two weeks.

Speaker 2 So the Rams are very pissed off, too, getting counted out. And granted, now that the Commanders won, even if the Vikings were to win, they wouldn't see the Lions actually.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, but I guess MCDC did say that Rams, you got no chance.
Tone, what are the betters saying? Who's winning? 54% are on the Vikings. Hmm.
It's close. All right.
So

Speaker 1 let's make our picks, shall we? And this week's toxic table. I'm sorry, go ahead, Tom.
I was just going to say this weekend,

Speaker 1 favorites were 3-2 against the spread. The under was 4-1,

Speaker 1 and the public went 4-1 for the majority of those picks.

Speaker 1 Public went 4-1 for those picks. AJ and I both went 3-2.
Ooh, bro, I think they said you went 4-1.

Speaker 1 I did not see the updated graphic. I went 4-1.

Speaker 1 I can't believe I picked it up. I'm seeing the board.

Speaker 3 I picked the Broncos, I guess, to cover.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
It looked like they were going to early. 7-0, brother.
7-3. They even had the lead.
Made Tyler Bass come out and get the field goal. Hold a second.

Speaker 1 Are the Broncos going to be able to do this thing? Bo Nick's connects for a long ball. Oh, my God.
The Buffalo Bills. We knew they didn't have enough talent.
They shouldn't have traded everybody away.

Speaker 1 They should have fucking paid somebody. The Bills losing it.
31 straight points. 31-7.
Everybody shut the fuck up, please. Yeah.
That's what the Bills said. That's literally what the bills said.

Speaker 1 Awesome. What did Debutch go? I didn't see down there at the bottom, Debutch.
What did you

Speaker 1 sound bad, boys? Everybody above 500. We'll make a money.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. Stamp Steve on 3-2.
Hey.

Speaker 1 I'll tell you what.

Speaker 1 That's still good to be me on this graphic, but I am happy that we're all above 500. We're all above 500.
You know, because them Utter shows, ain't that right? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 Well, and he was kind of flip-flopping. He almost went to the other side on a couple of those, so I'm glad he, you know, stood pat and three and two, not bad, not bad.

Speaker 1 Everybody over 500, you kidding me?

Speaker 5 Good. Seeing the board at the most important time of the season?

Speaker 1 Love that. Let's have a nutter night like that.
Yeah, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, let's have a nutter one of those. Vikings, Rams, Vikings, two and a half-point favorites in Arizona, taking on Matthew Stafford and the Rams.
8 p.m. Eastern on ESPN and ABC.

Speaker 1 Peyton and Eli will be doing a Manning cast. On ESPN, too.
Who are the guests? Have they announced the guests yet, boys? Where's the new guest to play?

Speaker 4 Still, and

Speaker 1 it's only two guests which is good jared allen will be on hopefully he's on a horse that'd be sweet bill belich will obviously be on for the first quarter he's prepared he's on a seemingly in a movie trailer set right now either shooting a commercial or

Speaker 1 just maybe that's what his house looks like maybe he lives in that

Speaker 1 could be down there maybe it's grinding yeah just like jim harbaugh Just like Jim Harbaugh lived in an RV out there in L.A. Remember whenever he became a Chargers head coach?

Speaker 1 Rough ending to the Charger season, by the way. Rough ending.
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 People are killing Herbert right now. Boy, and I heard you say it earlier, Darius.
It's tough to stick up and be a Herbert guy right now for the last few days.

Speaker 1 Let's not look past the incredible year that he had. He had a bad game.
Okay, that's going to happen. He had a bad game.
That's going to happen, right? That's why we need to be viewing his D-Buffs.

Speaker 4 That is correct.

Speaker 4 And you also need to view it as, hey, let's get... Let's get some more talent on the outside.
I think that was the conversation coming into this game.

Speaker 4 And all year long, even though they were winning games, it was kind of like, hey, you know, they haven't beat a ton of good teams yet.

Speaker 4 But yeah, I think nine of his 14 completions with the Lab McConkey, who almost had 200 yards receiving. So get some more weapons for him on the outside.

Speaker 4 But I think they will be just fine going forward in the hardball era.

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Speaker 1 Rules and restrictions apply.

Speaker 1 Congrats to Lad McConkie. He ended up with the most receiving yards a rookie has ever had in the playoffs, I do believe.

Speaker 1 So 197 yards, including a very long one one there in the fourth quarter, but then blocked extra point, two points go the other way, never seemingly had any momentum or any thought that, yeah, we're going to win it.

Speaker 1 Gumpy, not a terrible year, though, for the Chargers. No, better than a lot of people thought they would.
Yeah, they're behind schedule. They haven't really

Speaker 1 ahead of schedule, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 Some of the team is, yeah, for sure. What do you mean? Gumpy was talking about.

Speaker 1 There's a lot of comparisons between Tua and Herbert all the time. And, you know, if Tua had a game like that on Saturday that Herbert did, Twitter would have fucking exploded.
Are you doing the,

Speaker 1 hey, let's make sure we act the same towards all parties, no matter who they are thing? Is that what you're doing? Yeah, exactly. T-Buch knows.
Oh, yes.

Speaker 4 I was watching that game with Gump on Saturday. He was,

Speaker 4 trust me. What was the name? Who was the last quarterback for the Chargers throw 40?

Speaker 1 Stan Humphreys. Yeah, okay.
San Diego Chargers legend.

Speaker 1 Didn't Tua throw three picks against the Texans this year? He did throw three, yeah. Did he throw four? Are you defending the Tua or not here?

Speaker 1 How many turnovers? Chargers forced eight turnovers and two playoff games. They win either of those games? Jeez, Louise.

Speaker 1 Did they? Did they blow? What were they up on the Jacks the first couple? What's your problem?

Speaker 1 Who are you mad at? He's fired up. What is your deal? Well, I take it on the shins every day for Tua.
Remember how good those Chargers are? Yeah.

Speaker 1 The Chargers are ahead of schedule. They're a good football team.

Speaker 1 Justin Herbert should be held accountable for playing like shit. What do you want him to do? What are they supposed to do to him? Not throw four interceptions.
Kill him.

Speaker 1 You're holding him accountable accountable.

Speaker 1 Way to hold him accountable. Thank you for doing what you're doing.
No problem.

Speaker 1 We appreciate you doing that. It's going to make

Speaker 1 Herbert better. Dumpy's holding him a common boy.
Yeah, Sean's going to do it. Nobody else wants to.

Speaker 1 Shout out to the Chargers. You know, there was a couple of times where I thought to myself, man, if Keenan Allen was on this team.
Yeah, sir. Might have.
Maybe.

Speaker 1 You know, just, and they'll be able to do that going forward. All right, let's make some picks, shall we, here on this lovely wild card Monday.
There's one final game of wild card weekend happening.

Speaker 1 Vikings and Rams. Gumps, did you see all the records? Did you see mine?

Speaker 1 AJ's debutching the other guy, Stanford Steve's record on the weekend? The other guy, yeah.

Speaker 1 4-1, pretty good. Thank you.
I feel pretty good about it.

Speaker 1 I can't believe the Bucs lost that game. They threw that thing away.
What happened?

Speaker 1 What was their center doing? Yeah, what happened there? Seemingly the center.

Speaker 1 Timing was off out of nowhere. And there was somebody yesterday, too, that was a guard for the silent count, forgot what the count was.

Speaker 1 You know, we always talk to like AJ or AQ, I mean, where he's like, here's the center's job. Got to get the play call, got to get everything like that.

Speaker 1 But also, there's a fumble, obviously, in the fourth quarter that was one of the massive errors that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made late in this game and the Washington Commanders took advantage of.

Speaker 1 But like having to remember what the count is on is a massive part of the center's job.

Speaker 1 Then when they go to silent count, the guard has to remember what the count is on while also remembering the play. And I forget what game it was yesterday.

Speaker 1 Guard looks back, does the arm thing, and then the guard literally falls backwards and nobody else moves. And I just thought to myself, like, oh, that's a whole nother added.

Speaker 1 Like, hey, we're going on three of me's as opposed to also having to do it. The silent count changes games.

Speaker 1 What happened there at the end with the Tampa Bay and the center snapping it and Jess Baker and everybody else? That's... Being at home, too.
Can't have it.

Speaker 1 On the road would be one thing, but it happened twice at home. Can't have it.
But commanders, five straight wins, last possession of the game. Last play of the game.
Dogs. Pretty impressive.

Speaker 1 Jane Dave. I like.
Unreal. So good.

Speaker 1 So good, D. Buck.

Speaker 1 Lions don't like playing against mobile quarterbacks either. Foxy knows.
What do you mean?

Speaker 8 100% facts. My favorite bet of all time for the last probably three, four years has been opposing teams, quarterback, rush yards.
And I'd say it's hitting at a pretty good clip.

Speaker 8 And I'd say Jaden Daniels is the most mobile quarterback we've played all year. So this is going to be very, very interesting on Saturday nights.

Speaker 1 Jaden Dana was a real deal, brother. I mean, he is de-budged.
There's a couple times he was making decisions where I'm like, damn, what a decision.

Speaker 1 And then there were sometimes he was getting the edge, like in the fourth quarter, to seal the game pretty much. It was third down.
Tampa still had a timeout.

Speaker 1 He gets the edge, picks up the first down. This thing's going to end on on a banked in field goal.
I don't think they were expecting banked in field goal, but he gets this edge here.

Speaker 1 He's supposed to be tackled down, supposed to be down, gets the edge, gets first down, heady plays, stays inbounds, and understands, just won it with his moxie and his confidence.

Speaker 1 Malik Neighbors was there celebrating alongside of him. It feels like his teammates love this guy, you know, like he is, he is everything.

Speaker 1 And for Gonzalez here, I saw a lot of people talking, you know, obviously he stands like Cristiano Ronaldo before his field goals, which is excellent.

Speaker 1 I love that he does that a little swagger, a little moxie for a lineup. He bangs someone home.
Obviously, how you doing? Keep it moving. We win the game.
Great snap, great hold there by Tress Way.

Speaker 1 A lot of people talking about all his nervous ticks, seemingly, before he does his kick. He has the helmet in the fix of the hair one.
He has the socks where he fixes his socks and his cleats.

Speaker 1 I don't know if he does this on every single attempt or if this was just this particular attempt because of how big of a deal it was. How often are we paying attention to Gonzales? his actions there.

Speaker 1 And then the helmet one was the one that really drew a lot of attention because he doesn't have a lot of hair that's fixable so every time he would touch his helmet then do this and then he would uh do it again is it time nope not time yet let me go ahead and do this and then he i think he gives it one more go yeah and then

Speaker 1 then he kind of

Speaker 1 almost one more

Speaker 1 They caught it all

Speaker 1 and they captured it all and then they put it on. All right.
So I think what he was trying to do, I think he probably does something of this nature before every single kick.

Speaker 1 And I think as he was walking timing wise, was trying to figure out the perfect timing on when he thought it was right he's not the only one though that has built up these things to do before a kick because you got to remember like kicking is such a mental thing you're trying to get yourself into the same exact mental frame and mindset every single time so you can execute something that you know is dependent upon you being this accurate while you're hitting a ball so people develop a lot of these things I used to lick my fingers before I punted because I didn't want to drop the ball and I guess it was kind of a nervous tick because I would feel if my fingertips were dry and if they were dry at all, my immediate thought was like, oh, fuck, I'm about to fumble this ball.

Speaker 1 So I'd lick it. Then if we didn't snap the ball quick enough, I lick it again.
There's videos of quarterbacks, I think, licking their fingers a lot. Could be considered a nervous tick.

Speaker 1 Could also consider being, I want to feel perfect before this particular rep. It's not just in football.
It happens in other sports as well. Obviously, golf.
We have the video Harmon.

Speaker 1 He does the waggles, which really became a part of the conversation whenever he was becoming like a top three golfer in the world. And we were trying to watch it on TV.
and it was impossible, Gumps.

Speaker 1 It was tough to watch on TV because all you keep thinking is hit the fucking ball, guy. But all he's thinking is he's trying to feel exactly perfect at a moment.
He has no idea how many waggles.

Speaker 1 He probably knows that it's going to be a good bit. Hopefully it's not 12, 13.

Speaker 1 And then hits it pure rate there. Look at the whole thing.
Score you have to get it pure after all.

Speaker 3 Imagine if you scold that thing off someone's head after doing all that.

Speaker 1 Well, that's what the Miz does, which

Speaker 1 for these people that are able to execute at a a very high level, it's, I think, in their head, they're just trying to get to like the perfect mindset.

Speaker 1 And obviously, we all remember what Jason Kidd used to do before every single free throw, where he would have his routine and then he would do the kiss.

Speaker 1 I don't know if we ever shook up from that, if he didn't feel like the kiss was delivered properly. It's also in baseball, I think, before guys enter the batter's box.

Speaker 1 There's a lot of stuff with like the gloves and the tape and everything, just trying to make sure everything feels perfect for you to go and execute your job. Who's this lad?

Speaker 1 No, Mark Garcia Parr of Red Sox Legends, Me and Ham's husband. Yeah.
Oh, I know, Nomar. Yeah,

Speaker 1 Sean Casey had his routine after every single pitch.

Speaker 3 Sean Casey's boom, boom, unstrapping, unstrapped and stretch, stretch, do his whole routine between pitches?

Speaker 1 Between pitches. Oh, yeah.
So, no, Nomar did it. No Mar was between stretches, too.
Oh, shit.

Speaker 3 It's more like it's like a routine for a lot of these guys where they're doing the exact same thing.

Speaker 5 That's why they started the pitch clock, so guys, stop doing shit like that.

Speaker 1 Legit, and pitchers, there's another thing. Pitchers have some of these too.
There is routines that some guy get into, and I think it's a form of OCD. I believe it is a form of OCD.

Speaker 1 I'm not a psychiatrist. I just saw a lot of people talking about that.

Speaker 1 It's like, but whatever makes you get into the proper frame of mind to execute your job that's going to be able to feed your family and help your team, I'm okay with.

Speaker 1 But boy, TV people can help by not showcasing the entire thing.

Speaker 1 You know, that would, because I assume he's pretty embarrassed that the whole world witnessed what he has to go through. It was the helmet touching his head.
It kept going back.

Speaker 1 That was, that was the killer for me. Like the hair thing's one thing, but he let the helmet touch his head like five times.
Yeah, there's four right there if we keep it dry.

Speaker 1 We don't have to show that.

Speaker 1 Next game, they're going to find it.

Speaker 1 You know they're fighting it next game, no question.

Speaker 1 I know. But for the golf, they stopped with Harmon.
They stopped showing all the waggles.

Speaker 1 They started catching him a little bit later in his routine so we didn't have to see it because I think they thought about that. But it's like

Speaker 1 in these sports that are so like,

Speaker 1 you know, you got to execute down to the eighth of an inch or whatever.

Speaker 1 There's some people that overthink it i would say and have to feel absolutely perfect i'm just i'm so thankful that that went in because somebody that is will has that in their mind of perfection that type of miss could be you hit a game-winning field goal to go the next round of the playoffs you do whatever the you want brother bingo you know what i mean

Speaker 1 as long as it goes through the uprise who gives a like adam vinatari didn't have much in it before pregame matt stover had a few things that he had to do before every single kick you know he had to do a couple things then vinatari had nothing.

Speaker 1 Nothing. He would just walk in like a damn zombie.
Yeah, I have no idea. Those big ones, you know, because like, I don't want to say normal kicks, but let's say first three quarters kicks.

Speaker 1 Games still undecided. We don't know how important every point's going to be, but we do know have to make the kick.
He was a little jovial.

Speaker 1 He was a little upper. He was joined.
We were jogging on the field. Hey, let's go, old man.
You know, point at somebody in the crowd in between the uprights.

Speaker 1 If there's a little right to left wind, you know, know, maybe we go right center. I point out somebody in the crowd.

Speaker 1 Just a little give and take, you know, could be something as easy as, how about Fatso right there and whatever. I think that's where we want to keep it, right?

Speaker 1 Or he would say, I think we're going to give it up a little bit. I'll go, all right, perfect.
I'm on your side here. I'll deal with the little bit of lean.

Speaker 1 I'll try to do my job and get the hell out of your way. Normally it was a nice little jog on the field, you know, a nice little jog on the field.
That first time when it was,

Speaker 1 I think it was a game tire was the first one. We're jogging on that field.
Like, all right, old man, we'll find something. We'll find something.
Just fucking nothing. Just like, wait a minute.

Speaker 1 Am I out here alone right now? Yeah. It does feel like there are certainly two bodies, but only one soul at the moment.
Okay, that makes sense. That makes sense.

Speaker 1 And then I get down, you know, and every single time was, you ready, old man? And he'd nod his head. Yep.

Speaker 1 You ready, old man?

Speaker 1 You ready, old man? Nothing. Staring right through my soul.
Just we're talking about,

Speaker 1 I almost wanted to stop in real time, look at him and go, holy fuck, this is it. This is the snow game.
This is the Super Bowl. This is the reason.
Like,

Speaker 1 this is why this happens. And then obviously, boom, bang, pow.
Next thing you see is this one right here from Adam Veriterry.

Speaker 1 And it's like, wow, I was just in the, I was just in NFL films right there.

Speaker 1 I was just, I was in the Super Bowl kick. I was in the snow kick.
I was just in like the most clutch person, I think in sports. I think people would consider him in the conversation up.

Speaker 4 At least that's on the Mount Rushmore, for sure.

Speaker 1 And it's like, yeah, I just witnessed why, because he had an ability to go to a place that I could not.

Speaker 1 I could not get to that point right there. And he was a machine, so he had no real pre-kick stuff.
It was very different. Just wanted to kick a ball into the net.

Speaker 1 Then he wanted to jog out, strap it up, and kind of do his gig. But then there's some guys like Zane who have a lot of things they want to get to to feel perfect so they can execute.

Speaker 1 You make a kick, who cares? Fourth kicker of the year for the Commanders, too. Like they went through some guys as well.
Need them. Yeah.
Number 47. Don't love that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, get him a new one. The late edition.

Speaker 1 What's that all about, Age?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean, like said, fourth kicker of the year, correct? I'm guessing he's not, they're not going to slide him with prime numbers. He's not getting any single digit away from a DB or something.

Speaker 4 See, you know, you're not changing it now.

Speaker 6 You think he walked in?

Speaker 1 Here's the equipment room. Hi, yeah, I'm the new kicker here.
Equipment room turns around, just throws the jersey at him

Speaker 1 47

Speaker 1 47 i think you guys threw the wrong number nope that's your number i'm i'm a kicker

Speaker 1 47 is the number yeah that's it all right thank god i got a job you guys got a helmet i guess can i get this can i get this thing bring your own he had no options he had no options there 47 that's what i heard but he can earn himself a lifetime job think about that think about that for a moment that is the kicking world they're on their fourth kicker right now He just hit a game winner.

Speaker 1 Let's say he hits another game winner on a miraculous playoff run. Then he has a great game.
Let's say they don't win it all, but let's say he has a phenomenal game.

Speaker 1 This guy might have a job for the rest of his life. Hit a 52-yarder earlier in that game, too.
Like he was three for three in the game. And they don't ever, they go for it on fourth every time.

Speaker 1 Like the commanders refuse to punch. That's insane.

Speaker 1 And they literally Dan Quinn at the start of the year, he literally said, my biggest fear is not going for it is what he said at the start of the year. And who are they playing against?

Speaker 1 Who did they lose that game to? They got the Dan Campbell-led Detroit Lions.

Speaker 1 No punt.

Speaker 1 Do you know how many balls are going to be punted in that particular game? Zero. Zero.
If I'm Jack Fox, I'm potentially showing up with my tennis shoes on.

Speaker 1 Maybe sweats, whatever makes me most comfortable to get down and hold for an extra point, and that's it. Maybe a 70-yarder.
Hey, we might try a 70-yarder. Hey, Jake Bates, good luck out there.

Speaker 1 And that stresses even more. The teams that are like that,

Speaker 1 and people people are going to think this is ass backwards.

Speaker 1 The punter and kicker for those teams that never punter, never kick have to be good. Like they have to be very, very, very, very, very, very good.

Speaker 1 Because if you only punter kick every once in a while, it's probably whenever you really need it. It's probably only when it's a necessity.

Speaker 1 And if you have somebody that's not good trot out there, they're going to be cold, haven't really repped much, no idea what they're doing, and they miss, that's catastrophic. Got to have good dudes.

Speaker 1 Just ready for one again. That's like Jack Fox for Detroit Lions.
He might be the best in the game. He might be the best in the game, but he only punts, what, once a year, a game, twice a game.

Speaker 1 I think he's had four games.

Speaker 8 I think he's had four games where he didn't punt at all, and he was still first-team all-pro. And I want to say he broke the record for net average of punts this year.

Speaker 8 Whatever that means, you would know more than me, Pat. But yeah, he's outstanding, and he only gets a couple tries a game.

Speaker 1 So gross average is how far you kick the punt whenever the person catches it, the returner catches it.

Speaker 1 So from line of scrimmage, even though we're punting it from 11 yards, 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, we only get credit from line of scrimmage.

Speaker 1 Field goal kickers get credit from where the ball spotted. Okay.

Speaker 1 Okay. Sounds like bullshit.
Line of scrimmage to where returner catches it. That is just your average, gross average.
Net average is after return, where it ends up at from line of scrimmage.

Speaker 1 And net is the one that matters. Net is the one that matters because that's how much you actually gain for your team.

Speaker 1 Now, granted, if you have a high inside the 20 number, that's potentially because you don't have a lot of full fields to work with. That could mean your offense stinks.

Speaker 1 So you're able to pin, then you're able to stop, then they punt back. Your offense isn't able to move.
So now you're punting into a short field a lot.

Speaker 1 So your gross average can't be that great and your net average can't be that great, but your inside the 20 number should be gigantic because you don't have a full field.

Speaker 1 Like there's a lot of guys who have huge gross averages, like punting to the returner, and then their net average is crop.

Speaker 1 That probably tells you that either their coverage team is shit which could be the case or they're hitting balls that are out kicking coverages which means not a lot of hang time low liner

Speaker 1 low liner yeah yeah yeah anybody anybody in the nfl can low line one like 60 yards if they wanted to that is just like sometimes you'll see punters do that and uh

Speaker 1 Like even in training camp, there'll be guys trying to get jobs or whatever, and they're like low-lining balls, and you'll see it a preseason game, and they're trying to get that number up, but everybody sees it and is like, that's going to the house.

Speaker 1 That's going to the house. that's going to the house in the NFL.
So, those guys that can boom it, hang it, and get big net like Jack Fox. That's why he's first team all pro.

Speaker 1 I remember Tony and I were looking at the numbers. It was hard.
He didn't have, he didn't have anywhere near the amount of punts as everybody else.

Speaker 1 So, I didn't love that because he didn't have to showcase it. But all the punts that he had, he made most of.
And it's like, that's even more pressure. That's even more pressure.
So, he's a dog.

Speaker 1 He won't have to pun much. Let's go to tonight's game, shall we? Let's make our picks.
Gumpsh, who do you think, how do you think this particular wild card game goes?

Speaker 1 Everything to me says Vikings, but I worry that Flores won't be able to confuse Stafford the way he confuses other quarterbacks.

Speaker 1 Give me the Rams plus two and a half.

Speaker 1 Oh, man.

Speaker 3 Gump is so confusing.

Speaker 1 Okay. Gumpsh likes.
I think

Speaker 1 I'm off the Sam Darnold wagon after what happened.

Speaker 1 One game. That was bad, dude.
It was bad. It was old Sam Darnold.
He was overthrown. He got the jitters.

Speaker 1 I'm worried about that. I'm worried about it.
I think the Rams, I think Stafford, I think Stafford has a big game. I think the Rams defense does enough where they can get this done.

Speaker 1 Connor tell Gumpy, he was waiting all day for Sunday night.

Speaker 2 I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 2 I've seen a lot of Sam Darnold since

Speaker 2 his time with the Jets. And now I also...
Definitely think the Rams and just the McVay KOJ.

Speaker 2 I do. I mean, their D-line is awesome.
I can't wait to watch Jared Verse tonight. He is such a dog.
But no, I would go Stafford and Puka. I think I trust them a little more than Sammy Ghost Darnold.

Speaker 2 I just don't.

Speaker 1 I just don't believe that.

Speaker 1 Sammy Ghost Darnold is not back in one night for the NFC first overall scene. He was overthrowing some guys because he was zeeked up.

Speaker 1 Sue him, but you guys are. You're holding this against him.
D.Butch, how do you see this one going?

Speaker 4 You know what? I've been on record in the past saying Sam Darnold absolutely stinks.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 those years have gone on.

Speaker 4 He's gone to other places. You get around a guy like KOC.
You get the talent around him. You get

Speaker 4 the road that he's went and he's matured. I'm still in on Sam Darnold.
Now, obviously, the last time we saw him, it was bad.

Speaker 4 I think that was more so over Aaron Glenn absolute masterclass, which I don't anticipate the Rams will give him tonight.

Speaker 4 So I'm going Sam Darno and the Vikings, minus two and a half over the Rams are nice.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Sam Darnold absolutely stinks is what Darius.

Speaker 4 In the past, and that was true at that point.

Speaker 4 Now we got new information. He's a new guy, he's a new quarterback.

Speaker 1 I like him.

Speaker 4 First 14-win team on the road, I like him.

Speaker 1 I think Sam would say that, actually, right? Don't you think about who he was? Don't you say I was playing bad football? I was a crop football player back then. You think he would say, I think so.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think definitely.

Speaker 4 I think we know as players before anybody else knows. And we hear it in the meeting rooms, we see it on TV.
And then, shit, you got to respond, you got to react, you got to learn from him.

Speaker 4 And that's what he did.

Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 1 Debach is with the Minnesota Vikings.

Speaker 1 Darius is very loudly with the Rams.

Speaker 1 So is Conman.

Speaker 1 Ty, who do you like? I'm sorry, Gumps is very loudly with the Rams. Ty, who do you like?

Speaker 5 Seems like everyone was on the Vikings and now it's kind of starting to turn towards the Rams.

Speaker 5 Vikings are very good. I saw it firsthand a lot of the year.

Speaker 5 I think, you know, it'll be a good night for Sam Darnold to kind of put last week to rest and let every know, hey, I am going to be a $55, $60 million quarterback next year.

Speaker 1 I like $60.

Speaker 1 I think there is a lot of money to be had for Sam Darnold, who's about to be a free agent. Will he return to the Minnesota Vikings, maybe with a franchise tag? Or will he test the market?

Speaker 1 Tone Diggs, are you rolling with the money or are you picking

Speaker 1 the ROMs? I'm going to go with the Vikings minus the two and a half. And I'm probably going to ult spread it to Vikings minus 12.5.
I don't know if it's going to even be close tonight.

Speaker 1 Jeez, Tone feels good.

Speaker 1 AJ, there's been a lot of different opinions on how this game's going to go tonight. You are 3-2 on the weekend thus far.
Congratulations to you and to Debutch and to that other guy.

Speaker 1 Stanford Steven.

Speaker 1 Do you go to 500 on wild card weekend or do you go to 4-2? AJ, who do you like? How do you like it?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I plan on going to 4-2 on Wildcard weekend, and I am riding with the Minnesota Vikings, minus 2.5.

Speaker 3 I think Flores, you know, throws some exotics at him, even though I know Matthew Stafford's awesome. He's seen everything he can make every single throw.
I love what he can do.

Speaker 3 I think Harrison Smith maybe gets a pick tonight. I think Sam Darnold gets back on track.
I don't have the recency bias as much.

Speaker 3 I'm not worried too much about what happened last time he took the field. So give me the Vikings.

Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 1 I love that.

Speaker 1 I also love the fact that this game's being played in Phoenix. Glendale? Is that where it's at? Is AQ going? AQ should go.
Do the coin toss, maybe. They might do the coin toss.

Speaker 1 They said the the tickets were going like hot cakes if D-Bone was in a drive-through. Wow.

Speaker 1 That's fantastic.

Speaker 1 They said these tickets were flying out there. And I don't know if it's just Los Angeles people who have had to evacuate.

Speaker 1 And once again, we can't stress enough how sorry and devastated we all feel for what you guys are going through. That is.

Speaker 1 Some of those pictures, before and after pictures, are just like devastating. I don't even know how you even get back or what is the even thought of potentially getting back.

Speaker 1 But Phoenix hosting that is going to be wonderful. And remember, the turf is going to be pristine because that thing rolls itself outside and then it comes right back in to get Walter.

Speaker 1 It's going to be a magical night in Phoenix for this last game of the super wild card weekend. But I disagree

Speaker 1 with Baba Gampino. I think Sam Donald spins it tonight.
I think Justin Jefferson goes crazy.

Speaker 1 I think he got the jitters out at the right time, which is the last game of the season for the Minnesota Vikings.

Speaker 1 There's some Minnesota Vikings fans, you know, that I've talked to that have given up hope on this Vikings team. They said, this is the team.
We knew this was the team.

Speaker 1 Even though they won 14, I don't love that at all. I will take the Vikings minus two and a half, even though I love Matthew Stafford.
I appreciate Matthew Stafford. I love Oost too, Puka Nakua.

Speaker 1 I love Cooper Cup. I love that young D line.

Speaker 1 But I like the Minnesota Vikings tonight to win.

Speaker 1 I think they're going to get it done. And boys, I believe,

Speaker 1 I believe that is,

Speaker 1 if you can see what I can see.

Speaker 1 All right, it's a little bit of a dark arena, you know, so there's people peering out of shadows.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. Can you show that? Can you show what is just baffling at us right now?

Speaker 1 Look at that. HJ Sharky.
Holy shit. Yeah, right, right, right.
Kind of a horse head.

Speaker 1 Thank you, Sharky. What's he got? Oh, whoa.

Speaker 1 Oh, good. HJ Sharky ceramic mug.
We got a sharky

Speaker 1 mug. Be careful.
He looks hungry. Holy shit.
That's a hungry shot. That's a hungry shot.
Oh, look at that coat.

Speaker 1 This is pretty nice.

Speaker 1 They got an incredible Paison, young Paison, playing for that team. Good at that chat.
Yeah, but

Speaker 1 they stink. Not as bad as they stunk last year, though, right? Got some young guys.

Speaker 9 You guys are back. You're back.

Speaker 1 This year?

Speaker 1 Put that on, guys.

Speaker 1 Why does his mouth move? He's not.

Speaker 1 It's kind of like a horse head.

Speaker 1 Do you have a very much so? Two bricks. Where's the

Speaker 3 teeth sharp?

Speaker 1 Can you feel those gum? Oh, it's in the back. It's in the back.
I forgot. That's where.
His fin? I think you said he's going to eat. Oh, you kick.

Speaker 9 You kick good.

Speaker 1 Field goal. Okay.

Speaker 1 You guys need to be scoring goals, though. Buzzers.
That's what you need to be doing.

Speaker 1 Whoa.

Speaker 1 That's clear. Whoa.

Speaker 1 Gordon Bomb.

Speaker 1 Holy cow. Oh, he's making it rain on you.
Thank you, Shark.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, Shark.
Hey, oh, that was sick. He's very nice.
You sharky. Thank you, sharky.
Holy shit.

Speaker 2 They suck. Tell them we said they suck.

Speaker 1 What's that, Sharky? These guys say you suck, Sharky. No.
You want me to put the jersey on? Sharky. I don't think so.

Speaker 1 What's the record? What's the record again here for the sharks? I'm not good.

Speaker 2 Pure shite, yeah.

Speaker 1 Golden Knight could beat him like 10 times this year.

Speaker 1 It's 10 shit and more shit.

Speaker 1 At like plus 200 on the money line, you'll see. They're saying that sharks are shite.
That's what they're saying in my ear right now. Yeah, you don't have ears.
Okay. Got it.
Holy shit.

Speaker 1 You see that muscle, boys? Jeez.

Speaker 1 That's a nectar mentality, bro.

Speaker 1 I will say, I mean,

Speaker 1 even though they are shite, unbelievable.

Speaker 8 This is a zany mascot. I'm a fan.

Speaker 1 He is a shark. He's got the mask.
He's very zany.

Speaker 1 He's got the gears.

Speaker 4 The merch is...

Speaker 1 The gear is clean. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 4 Needs to be because his mouth fucking sucks. Yeah, go for it.

Speaker 1 Nice. Oh, what happened to his mouth? Oh, okay.
What you did. Oh, there it is.
It's funny. I don't like the Finn logo.
I'll be honest. I I like the old shark logo like he's got on his chest.

Speaker 1 The old one. Which one?

Speaker 1 I don't love this. This is like a whale.

Speaker 1 No, the one on sharky. Thank you, Sharky.
Thank you, Sharky. Thank you.
That was very kind of you, Sharky. You're a good man, Sharky.
Team might not be good, but you're great.

Speaker 1 The Zanius Sharky.

Speaker 1 I like the fin on the back. No number, though, because of the fins.
This reminds me of going whale watching. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's the old orca. Hartford Williams.
This looks like an orca.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 3 It does, right? I mean, they've changed that, haven't they?

Speaker 2 Yeah, no wonder they're shite.

Speaker 1 They're not that bad. They're getting better, boy.
The whale tank. They got some good young talent.

Speaker 1 I heard about a Pisana, they said. Sharks are like plus 200 to plus 300 every night.
You bet them on the money line. You'll make some money.
Thank you, Sharkies. This is what Sharkies do.

Speaker 1 That's a hungry, hungry shock. And they gave me a jersey.
This is very condominium. They even gave me a strap.
They even gave me the strap thing. Oh, shit.

Speaker 1 Legit, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't think it's going to fit. It's a game jersey.

Speaker 4 It is a good tart.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. I'm in a good spot, boys.
I'm in a good spot. What was the coach of the guy that went against Gordon Bombay? Wolf the Dennison.

Speaker 1 Yeah, this is the coat he used to wear. Yeah, Team Hockey.
See on the side here. SJS.
That's real sick.

Speaker 2 Shite Jr. Shite.

Speaker 1 Jeez. Is that what it stands for?

Speaker 1 I don't think that's what it was. San Jose Shite.

Speaker 1 It's a good coach. Could be the San Jose boys.
Would they beat Utah Hockey?

Speaker 1 Yeah, sorry. Oh, yeah.
Utah Hockey Shite. what

Speaker 1 are you sure they actually just lost like three nights ago they lost two to one to Utah yeah you want to talk about shite oh Utah one Utah oh yeah what about the pens are the pens still shite or no pens are playing decent they were they had a bad weekend but they've been playing good lately before that

Speaker 1 what

Speaker 1 they're good they're in the playoffs you know who's is like they're in the playoffs they're lurking they're in the hockey teams in hockey is the uh

Speaker 1 the Broadway Blue Shirts. The New York Rangers absolutely stink.
Oh, sorry about it, Bruce.

Speaker 1 That's over.

Speaker 1 Hey, Bruce, a lot of Giants shout-outs this weekend from the field pass. I don't know if you got a chance to hear any of those.

Speaker 15 Yeah, no, I did. Yeah, it's tough times.
Michael Straham is taking shots now, too.

Speaker 15 But, you know, we've turned the

Speaker 1 Xavier McKinney.

Speaker 15 Yeah, he was saying, like, oh, we let Xavier McKinney walk and Saquon walk, and they're, you know, lighting it up on us on Wild Card Sunday.

Speaker 15 But, you know, I'm kind of over it. Happy for Saquon now that he gets to live with a creature.

Speaker 1 You guys are the Pittsburgh Pirates. You guys are the Pittsburgh Pirates.
It's cool, isn't it, to watch your guys go succeed?

Speaker 15 No, it sucks.

Speaker 1 No, yeah, it's fun. It's fun.
Come on, Malik Neighbors was having fun watching the Commanders. Yeah, he's watching his guys succeed.
It's fun.

Speaker 15 He was like dapping them up mid-game while the Giants are down like 21 points. So, you know, yeah, it's great.

Speaker 1 It's all good. It's great.
Tell me how that LSU team didn't win with neighbors Thomas and Jaden Daniels. Yeah, Jesus.
Riddle me the firecourt. There's an answer.

Speaker 2 Yeah, two words.

Speaker 1 And it's why Notre Dame's in the national championship. Marcus Freeman.

Speaker 1 Somebody said,

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 I got to get this out there. Somebody tweeted yesterday that he's barely a good college ball coach.

Speaker 1 Come on.

Speaker 1 Marcus Freeman. Who said that? Who? Yeah.

Speaker 4 One of the last two coaches coaching?

Speaker 1 What was said? What was said? Omar Kelly. So there was.
Oh, this is Miami Dolphins beat report about me. Yeah, this is Omar Kelly.
So the Chicago Bears report came out about Marcus Freeman.

Speaker 1 Omar Kelly quote tweeted and said he's barely a good college ball coach. I mean, the guy, Marcus Freeman's unbelievable.
Notre Dame's in the national championship.

Speaker 1 He's only been a college coach for a little bit, though, I think, is probably what he was talking about. Like he just started in his entire career, potentially.

Speaker 1 Omar Kelly has given us a lot of information. I know I agree with what you're saying, Debutch, but I think he's probably saying just started in this entire thing.
Guy has no idea what a head coach is.

Speaker 1 I'm not agreeing with him at all. I just think, you know, Gumpy potentially reads tweets as if they are personally attacking him.
And sometimes

Speaker 1 that's not. I'm not a notre damn.
Well, Debutch actually sent me the tweets.

Speaker 1 Debuts knew what I was doing.

Speaker 1 You're the one who's going to do it. I just sent it to Coach.

Speaker 1 I had to send it to him. Is this real? I had to

Speaker 1 play it real.

Speaker 1 It was real. We get on these planes.
We get on these planes for four and a half hours, and I'll tell you what, the is this question is gone. It's just everything is real.
And it's like, boom.

Speaker 1 This morning, by the way, on the flight, 48 degrees in that plane. Yeah, it was an ice bar.

Speaker 1 Absolute icebox. So cold.
I had three blankets on.

Speaker 1 Three blankets on. Couldn't go up to the front, though, and ask them to turn it up because this has been a little bit of a thing between me and the pilots.
It's a little bit of a thing.

Speaker 1 Because the pilots all live in Florida. Okay.

Speaker 1 So these pilots, you know, when they come up, pick us up in the cold, they want to heat up this plane because of how, you know, they don't like the cold at all.

Speaker 1 You know, Tennessee going up to Columbus. But I get on the plane, I'm sweating.
I'm like, hey, excuse me, can we cool this fucking, can we cool this thing down? And they're like, it's really cold.

Speaker 1 I'm like, I know, but we need to, you know, I'm sweating. I don't want to be sweating.
You know, there has to be a happy medium. So now there's a little bit of a standoff.

Speaker 1 So I think today was like, is that right to us? I think that's what it was.

Speaker 1 I could not adjust it. I pressed that button a hundred times.
It did not budge.

Speaker 1 So there's no, there's no way I was going up there to, you know, because there's, I can't give up any leverage right now.

Speaker 1 I can't give up anything. It was so cold.
You could see our breath in there. You could see our breath in the plane.
It was awesome. It was great.
I slept like a first time ever sleeping.

Speaker 1 Just passed out. Whoa.
Three blankets on top. Foxy, three hours.

Speaker 1 It was nice, wasn't it? It was nice. Wasn't it? Good, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I watch you bums sleep on the plane all the time.

Speaker 1 And I'm always like, it's nice. It is nice.
You guys are so fucking entitled and spoiled. They get on a private plane.
Let's go to sleep. Let's not enjoy this at all.
One time.

Speaker 1 And then all of a sudden, I I did it.

Speaker 1 Connor, I want to let you know, snoozy mixers. So you were two feet away from me.
You were snoring in my ears.

Speaker 1 I knew that's what it was.

Speaker 2 I was like, fuck, I was definitely snoring.

Speaker 1 I knew it. Right in the ear.
It was awesome. No, it's been fantastic traveling around, but yeah,

Speaker 1 I think I might have been exhausted this morning. I think there's a chance, but I'll tell you what, I need to start doing that more often.
You guys are right. It is pretty good.

Speaker 1 It is pretty good to wake up on the other side and be like, we're here. Holy hell.

Speaker 1 It's like a time machine. It was like a time machine this morning.
Skip all the curve.

Speaker 2 It's like blocking out without boots.

Speaker 1 Bingo.

Speaker 1 No, hang on. Well,

Speaker 1 time drop.

Speaker 1 So let's keep that thing at 47 degrees.

Speaker 1 Maybe. I'm just going to let him.
No, he's fine.

Speaker 1 It was so cold. It was so cold.
Walked in.

Speaker 1 Couldn't give it away, though, to the pilots. Could not.

Speaker 1 It's a good group.

Speaker 1 Okay, we'll be out of here. We'll be back tomorrow.
Raw tonight on Netflix. Wild card game on ESPN.
I can't wait for all of it. We'll be back tomorrow with Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 1 What do you think he's going to say, H? What do you think he's going to say?

Speaker 3 What's going on? Yeah, I mean, I know he's going through situations out there with the fires, everything. I don't know.

Speaker 1 Who knows where he's

Speaker 3 what he's doing?

Speaker 1 Sounds like everybody's evacuated. Is that

Speaker 3 there's like mandatory evacuations in a lot of areas.

Speaker 3 I don't know like who is like, is there, there's got to be certain spots where it's voluntary where some parts of the neighborhood leave and some don't. I don't.
Has anything contained yet?

Speaker 3 Have we heard anything?

Speaker 1 I don't know. Every time they show a map, I just think it's the whole, like, what hasn't been hit almost is like more of a question.
They're showing entire

Speaker 3 helicopter footage of like picking up the big buckets of water from people's pools and stuff.

Speaker 3 Like, have we gotten water there yet? Have we figured any of that out?

Speaker 1 I have no idea, but and hopefully, and I know that's a big, that's a huge thing. It can't be happening in our United States of America in 2025.
Who are we? What are we?

Speaker 1 Let's make sure we're taken care of all of that type of stuff. But those helicopters turn that some bitch sideways, spraying that water.

Speaker 1 How about those planes, the Canadian planes that are on top of water and they're scooping up thousands of gallons of water?

Speaker 1 They always use for those forest fires in Alberta. They're incredible, man.
Because you can't go too deep in there. You crash.

Speaker 1 But you got to skim enough to grab water. It is like water.
How did this become an idea? Think about it.

Speaker 3 All of a sudden, you're what, 40,000 pounds heavier, too, and he's trying to get back out of there. Like, those dudes, I would not want to ride on that.

Speaker 1 Incredible work by all of the first responders and firefighters, although we're not seeing it all. But yeah, here was the,

Speaker 1 I think that is the Canadian, oh, I forget the number, see something Canadian, where it just scoops up water on the bottom of it. And if we're using ocean water from the beginning with,

Speaker 1 don't.

Speaker 1 I don't think I understand any of it, but I hope it gets taken care of for the sake of everybody. We'll be back tomorrow.
Can't thank you all enough for allowing us to do this for a living.

Speaker 1 We were talking about that a lot with the field bass. We were able to stand on the sideline of these games, these massive games.
It's the dumbest life of all time. We're lucky to do it.

Speaker 1 Gumps, you look so cool. It's good coat.
You look like a sharky, pal. Awesome.
Yeah, fabulous. That was really cool to see the, that's the most emotion I've ever seen out of A.J.

Speaker 1 Hawk on the touchdown at the end. That was awesome.
Pure joy from A.J. Hawk.
It was. Legitimately.
H, and then Jack Sawyer throwing up your hand signal right in your face. That was cool.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I texted with him about that a little bit.

Speaker 1 The hissle celebration. Was you texting jack sawyer whoa this guy's little

Speaker 1 i didn't know he knew

Speaker 1 it's an old school throwback that he threw out throwback i haven't seen in a long time so yeah right i haven't done it in a long time he is a throwback what was he two years old when you were doing that in ohio zero he wasn't born no way

Speaker 1 but that's the thing about him he feels like he would have been you know if he was dipping ripping man they were dipping ripping the edge all night oh yeah they were

Speaker 1 calling jtt like their d line yeah their their defense is humming yeah aj talk about the blocking you lost your mind for the boys blocking back here. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 I had a whole conversation with all of us. But yeah, how his guys had the awareness to turn back and look because, look, there's one guy that could probably catch him.

Speaker 3 And you see Sonny Styles right there, puts his arms up. I'm not going to clip him.
Oh, here we go. Just continue to get in his way and know that somebody is back there.

Speaker 3 There's always like a little, there's always a wide out or a running back chasing that's going to probably catch a D-lineman or whoever has the ball. Have some awareness and just set a pick.

Speaker 3 That's all you got to do. Don't just,

Speaker 3 you see four guys run and none of them look back. And all of a sudden a a guy squirts through them and tackles the guy in the 10.
Everybody just celebrates.

Speaker 1 And there was a moment where you've done that before, right? And you felt pretty proud of yourself, if you would like to elaborate.

Speaker 3 Will Allen, whoever, yeah, one of my favorite moments of my football life. I just blocking for one of my teammates.
I turned around.

Speaker 3 I was running, running, can't keep up because this guy, Will Allen, who I forget whoever it was, was so fast. And I sit there and I turn around.
I see somebody, give them a little point.

Speaker 3 And then I get, as I push him, I like fall into the end zone as I'm pushing a guy. And I thought, man, that was a heady play by me.

Speaker 1 I'm glad I did that.

Speaker 1 a smart player. I'm glad I did that.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Hey, look, there's no way I was going to catch him, but he might have. But I could get it.
This little guy would have definitely outran me and got up there. So I'm glad I turned around.

Speaker 1 That is heady football. That's heady football.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's do these overreactions and let's hit the road, shall we? Every single morning on Mondays, I put out a tweet. And we don't have many of these left.
So let's make sure we enjoy all these.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 I said, hey, listen, fans, football fans, not just NFL fans, because the CFP semifinals were so electrifying and so many decisions were made, just football fans as a whole.

Speaker 1 Why don't you utilize this tweet as a therapy session? Why don't you go ahead and put a tweet out and air some of your grievances or maybe your thoughts, whether they're good or they're bad?

Speaker 1 All you're going to have to use in the tweet is... Hashtag, I don't want to overreact.
But.

Speaker 1 All right. We don't want to overreact, but let's ride the wave of football fans from around the globe.
This one's from Con Man. Hashtag, I don't want to overreact.
But

Speaker 1 football this weekend made me miss watching my team in meaningful playoff games so much. That's exactly why Mike Frable being hired to New England is such a monumental day in Patriots history.

Speaker 1 Hard hats, lunch pails, and sigs are here. Pats are back.

Speaker 1 Pats are back.

Speaker 1 Pats are back.

Speaker 1 That's how you feel, huh? I think that's how all of us feel, Connor.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it feels fantastic. And obviously a lot still has to happen.
All that free agency bullshit and combine stuff that, you know, will be needed for the team to be better.

Speaker 2 But just Vrabel in general being the coach is so much hope. Like the press conferences that were being kind of recycled from when he was with Tennessee, so awesome.
He just takes no shit.

Speaker 2 And then like you referenced the Taylor Laund video. Like they're just going to be a tough team.
And that's something you can get behind.

Speaker 2 And then seeing the games this weekend, it really did kind of remind me of when the Patriots were playing in games like that. And not even wild card weekend.

Speaker 2 Usually it was divisional or conference championship, but just wanting to have your team be in the playoffs again is something that I think Mike Vrable gives a lot of hope for for all of New England.

Speaker 1 Congratulations, CDOT. Yeah, hell yeah.
Hell yeah. We're bumped out when you didn't get to enjoy it for what, three years.
Okay. Let's go to the next one, shall we?

Speaker 1 This is from Ton Diggs. Hashtag, I don't want to overreact.
But

Speaker 1 I'd commit war crimes for Josh Allen to be my quarterback. You name it.

Speaker 1 I'll do it. Ton, I don't think you're the only one or only team or only city that feels that way, pow.
Yeah, I mean, waterboarding, dirty. You want to drop a dirty bomb on a small town? I'll do it.

Speaker 1 It's fine.

Speaker 1 Chemical weapons, I don't care. Because if you don't have a quarterback in the NFL, you're fucked.

Speaker 1 You certainly are.

Speaker 1 You certainly are. No doubt.
And starting to realize that pretty heavily, pretty hard. And, you know, Josh Allen is just my cup of tea.
You know, he's got some seven in him.

Speaker 1 He could also run like a son of a bitch.

Speaker 2 Something about him that you trust, right?

Speaker 1 I would love to have Josh Allen on my football team, but, you know. All right, you're not the only one.

Speaker 1 We'd all love to have Josh Allen as our quarterback, I think, as we go forward. Can Buffalo win one with him? We shall see.
Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, do battle next weekend.

Speaker 1 Let's go to the next overreaction, shall we? This one's from Buddy McGuire.

Speaker 1 ENR. Hashtag, I don't want to overreact.

Speaker 1 The entire city of Pittsburgh is disgusted, embarrassed, but not shocked. This entire Steelers roster needs drowned in the mud and left to rot.

Speaker 1 Some say if you listen quietly, you can still hear Derrick Henry clapping the Steelers' defenses cheeks. Jeez, Louise.

Speaker 1 Today, it sounds like McGuire was echoing your mixed sentiments. Yeah, I think that's the sentiments of basically every single Steelers fan in the country.

Speaker 1 You guys were telling me, hey, you know, beat pause if you guys are in the playoffs. We knew.

Speaker 1 We knew what was going to happen because it's the same fucking thing every goddamn year. And we'll do it again next year because, like I said earlier, nothing's going to change.

Speaker 1 Just the effort. The effort was the most surprising and shocking and disappointing and embarrassing part of that football game.
Old Buddy said he's packing dip tins and sigs on you guys.

Speaker 1 That's what old buddies said Derrick Henry was doing to your defense, man. That's what he said.
He was. He was clapping them.
He did. Jeez.
Could have done whatever he wanted, they said.

Speaker 1 He was. Right up the middle.
He could do whatever he wanted because we decided, hey, you put three, four guys wherever Derek's not. I don't work.

Speaker 1 Pittsburgh Steers fans excited that their team has made the playoffs yet again.

Speaker 1 In the dance. In the dance.
In the dance. One more week of football.
One more week of joy.

Speaker 1 A lot of people go to this. One more week of football.
Ten more double yoys is what's happening

Speaker 1 in Pittsburgh. Let's go to the next overreaction, shall we?

Speaker 1 Kevin Davis at Kevin underscore underscore underscore Camacho because Kevin underscore Camacho was taken. Hashtag, I don't want to overreact.
But

Speaker 1 but should have been disqualified there. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Double butt. The way the Eagles played yesterday, they will be gone next week.
All right.

Speaker 1 Hurts sucks, please, for the love of football God's bench, Jalen Hurts, and put in that dog Tanner McKee. Oh, by the way, this is a better cheese head than that fucking yellow shit the Packers wear.

Speaker 1 Ty, what was this all about? Where did this come from? And did a lot of people call for Tanner McKee to be playing football next week?

Speaker 5 Not a lot of people called for Tanner McKee. A lot of people saying Jalen Hurts stinks, though, and that the Eagles can't win any more games because he just isn't the guy.
And

Speaker 5 I was rather surprised by that. Because Hurts looks pretty good at the start of the game.
He didn't play great in the second and third quarters, but

Speaker 5 I was shocked as many fans were saying, hey, this guy stinks.

Speaker 1 we're fucked because he's going to be starting next week they're calling him jalen stinks that's rude wow i think i think he's a guy who's won them a lot of games i think throughout his life he's won a lot of football games keep doing your thing jalen good luck out good luck out he's got dong in the head he's coming off a concussion

Speaker 1 yeah bingo so big dong in the head two-week dong in the head 16 day dong in the head i mean that's that's a little different he's worked the rust out obviously they're gonna do their thing going forward the eagles are such an interesting team because if they don't win a super bowl it's gonna be loud regardless.

Speaker 1 They win another game, who cares? They win another game, who cares? They lose in a Super Bowl. Philadelphia is going to be loud about that team as a whole.
Jalen doesn't have to do much.

Speaker 1 Their defense is unbelievable. Lights out.
So good. Lights out.
Blanketship flies around. We were talking about that.
Sure, tackling. Yeah, sure.

Speaker 1 He is exciting. Isn't it a big button?

Speaker 4 He is very, very exciting white, but they lost to Kobe Dean for the rest of the playoffs. I think he had a patella injury, and he has been a dog this year alongside of Zach Bond.

Speaker 4 They had some tackling issues once he left the game, too, as far as leverage-wise go.

Speaker 4 But I think definitely overreaction with Jalen Hurts, but losing a key contributor like that on defense, still a bunch of dogs over there. But I think the Eagles will be just fine.

Speaker 1 Any exciting whites creeping their way into the all-everything DB postseason team?

Speaker 4 You know what? Cooper Dejine, he hit the ground running next year, like he did from

Speaker 1 five. There's not a postseason team, playoff team.

Speaker 4 You know what? There will be a postseason team. Yeah, it's only one game.
So I guess the guys who continue to play, because Derwin James, he had a great game, but they're out.

Speaker 1 That's

Speaker 4 maybe we'll do that. Sertan didn't have a goal.

Speaker 1 He didn't have a lot of people. Maybe Gonzo should have been the first team.

Speaker 4 Gonzo,

Speaker 4 Cabo, right now, but

Speaker 1 postseason. I like that.
There's a lot of teams in Cabo talking shit this week. I wasn't there.
Yeah. Well, everybody's paying attention to football.
I like that.

Speaker 1 Let's go to another overreaction, shall we? This one's from Absolute Scoundrel at

Speaker 1 Bengali card. Is that how that would be?

Speaker 1 Good name. Hashtag, I don't want to react.

Speaker 1 Todd Munkin better enough fuck this up like last year in the AAC Championship. Run the ball.
Derrick Henry's the X Factor going in the next round against the Bills.

Speaker 1 The Ravens don't need Lamar Jackson to prove he has to outduel Josh Allen. Hashtag, run it.
Remember against the Chiefs last year, that was the big flaw. Baltimore Ravens refused to run the ball.

Speaker 1 Also, ball got punched out at the half-yard line in an incredible play by Justin Reed. Now, I think they understand that lesson.
I think they've learned that lesson debunch. They're running the rock.

Speaker 1 At the beginning of the year, I don't think they were believers. Remember, Hardboss said, you don't run the ball with Derrick Henry at any time's a game at this stage to win it.
Yes, you do.

Speaker 1 This dude's unbelievable to watch. And him and Lamar Jackson as a tag team with Ricard out there and likely and Andrews.

Speaker 1 And the amount of meat they got on that offensive line, let alone the outside weapons. That offense is tough to stop, but they got to run the rock.
Old buddy's right.

Speaker 4 Got to run the rock. And I think what's, I think, Lamar, I feel like he's hit the over on his own rushing prop every week since his mom cussed him out.

Speaker 4 So I think Todd Monkin, Todd Monkin will get it right. He'll run the ball.
But also, you got to be a passive ball, especially down in this time of year.

Speaker 4 I think it'll be an all-hands-on-deck situation when you go into battle with the Buffalo Beals, and then you would assume probably the Chiefs in the next round.

Speaker 1 Okay, I love that they'll be able to continue to run the rock, hopefully. And you're right.
Lamar's mom said, hey, listen, let's start running the ball.

Speaker 1 But speaking of running the ball, Tona, how come that RPO hasn't worked like that every time the Ravens play against you guys? Why don't they do it like that all the time?

Speaker 1 I mean, traditionally, the Steelers would just run TJ Water, whoever's the end directly at Lamar, and then make the running back do something. Now, in the past, they didn't have Derrick Henry.

Speaker 1 So, that's probably the biggest difference now in these games, the last couple of games, where they have had the success because I believe Derek has gone over 170 in the last two games against the Steelers.

Speaker 1 He's the X Factor at his Bengali card. So, let's get to another reaction, shall we? Ty, it was a lot of them.
One up to the number one trend in the United States, right?

Speaker 1 If I'm not mistaken, yes, it did.

Speaker 5 Yeah, today was prime, prime time. I mean, it's the playoffs.
You know, everyone was geared up and ready to go. There were a lot of good ones today.

Speaker 1 Here we go. This one's from Josh Zimski at Josh Z1151.
This guy will do some fucking landscaping. Yeah, it will.

Speaker 1 And some killing. I don't know if he just got done hunting or fucking murdering bushes, but Josh will go out there and get the job done.
That's either a big old rake or something special.

Speaker 1 We appreciate Josh and his hard work ethic. Hashtag, I don't want to overreact.
But

Speaker 1 the Packers stink. Gut the team.
Fire LaFleur. Trade love.
Eve Willis. We would have been better off fielding a team using kids from the Green Bay Area Technical College.

Speaker 1 They showed no heart and no fight last night. Hashtag rebuild 2025.
Ty,

Speaker 1 you picked these. It's about your team that you own.
Is this how Packers fans are feeling? I thought we're about a year away.

Speaker 1 I didn't know we were getting the whole thing and starting over again with Malik Willis.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen. They just paid Jordan Love $55 million.
So I think it's safe to say he will be sticking around. A lot of people want him to be traded or cut or whatever.

Speaker 5 The floor thing is interesting because all year we were talking about how good he was doing, you know, scheming up the offense and especially winning with Malik Willis when Jordan Love wasn't healthy.

Speaker 5 But he just, he kind of just doesn't show up in big games, hasn't in the last couple years, seems to get out-coached quite a bit. And again, I said it in the, you know, the first hour.

Speaker 5 Like, you just, it sucks when they waste that good of a defensive effort from, you know, because they just, those are so few and far between.

Speaker 5 But, yeah, I mean, there's three or four position groups that they need to spend some money.

Speaker 5 They're going to have money for the first time in a long time because Rodgers' contract is finally off the books. So

Speaker 5 I don't think they're going to be gutting the team. You know, I think it's safe to say that they're probably just going to, I mean, again, you can make as many excuses as you want.

Speaker 5 They're still, you know, the youngest roster in the NFL. So hopefully one more year and love

Speaker 5 not thinking he has to throw a 90-yard touchdown every single time he drops back to pass. Like that probably served him pretty well next year.

Speaker 1 All right, all right, good. That'll be maturity, maturity.
That happens as you go. Last time Packers won the Super Bowl, what, they had a top five defense or something like that? That's the stat.

Speaker 1 Currents, last time they had a top five defense as well, I think. Hawker.

Speaker 1 That guy was leader of the

Speaker 1 Hawker. That guy was leader.
Had some monsters.

Speaker 3 That's monsters up front, some monsters in the back end.

Speaker 1 That guy gumps. Yeah, dead in the middle.
Blue dog. Point at him, gumps.
Jack Sawyer. I'll point another one.

Speaker 1 There you go. No, yeah, there you go.

Speaker 3 There we go. You gumps got it.

Speaker 1 There we go.

Speaker 1 Nailed it.

Speaker 1 Yep.

Speaker 1 All right. All right.
You did it. You did it.
You nailed it. You nailed it.
It was that guy, though. It was Hawker.
O-H. IO.

Speaker 1 Cork.

Speaker 1 Remember, he left one.

Speaker 1 He circled back. I circled back to him.
I circled back. Yeah, smart.
We're in the middle of a fucking national championship, bro.

Speaker 1 Let's not leave it, four more quarters. Four more quarters.
That's right. Four more games.
Now we're down to four more quarters. Where are the boys? God, Captain Jack and boys ready to go.

Speaker 1 Let's go to another of reaction. Shall we? It's from JTB at JTB 1012.
Looks like he's a Texans fan. Hashtag.
I don't want to overreact.

Speaker 1 But I was wrong. CJ Fraud?

Speaker 1 Nah, dummy. CJ Stroud.
He is the next big thing. And this Texans defense swarming.
Herbie had four interceptions, four. His worst game of his career.
Hey, we coming for the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 We slaying the dragon, says JTB.

Speaker 1 I'd like to have a conversation with him in real life. Sounds like he's a bit electrifying.

Speaker 1 We doing this. We doing that.
Do we feel like that's accurate, H?

Speaker 1 We think the Texans maybe have a chance to go on a run, maybe go slay the dragon that is the back-to-back Super Bowl champions over there in Arrowhead?

Speaker 3 Well, I would imagine if they would find a way to beat the Chiefs in the Chiefs' house, then yeah, that would give them the momentum, the boost, the juice that they need to make a run.

Speaker 3 But I just don't see them beating the Chiefs here. I think the Chiefs coming off the bye.
We had Trav on earlier, like those guys seem to be doubting.

Speaker 3 They were in full pads last week, they'll be in full pads again this week. Like Andy Reid, I don't think we'll let those guys relax or feel comfortable ever.

Speaker 1 Okay, we're excited to see if that's true. Let's go to another of our reaction shall.
This is from Christian Boy Hamilton at Hamilton Pro 4. This guy's a fucking pro.
Bolts.

Speaker 1 Go Boat. Go Boats.
Go Boat.

Speaker 1 Go Boat. Go Boats.
Hashtag I don't know if React. But

Speaker 1 Liam Cohen should be named Bucks head coach by the time the program has gone live. He brought this team back to life while Bowles has been slowly killing it for years now.

Speaker 1 We narrowly win our shake division every year just for that mindless idiot to fucking up.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 1 What is he talking about? A couple fumbles, a miscommunication between the center and quarterback. Mike Evans won ham yesterday.
It's fun to watch him kind of do his thing.

Speaker 1 But yeah, they lose a playoff game at home, the only one

Speaker 1 of the weekend. Gumps.
Third and sixth, game on the line, only sent three.

Speaker 1 Bulls always die, sending the blitz. And I don't know what happened there, but he was wide open across the middle.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I would like to be the person that

Speaker 1 states the obvious, which I think Kyle Brandt was trying to do yesterday with Lil Wayne.

Speaker 1 You think he could have done it a little different way, but the way he did it is I've not watched enough of the Tampa Buccaneers this year to understand if Todd Bowles has fucked this one up or not.

Speaker 1 But Mike Evans got 100,000 yards.

Speaker 1 His halftime interview didn't do him any favors. What did he say? He was talking about left and right, and he didn't really know what was going on.

Speaker 1 It was tough. It was a bunch of gibberish of clock management.
It was a bunch of gibberish. Oh, they're saying they're the succineers? Is that what they're saying? That's what they're saying.

Speaker 1 Man, that's not cool. I like the Buccaneers.
That's a good name. Todd Baker

Speaker 1 ram truck. What? Baker did ram truck Bobby Wagner.
Yeah, legit. He ram trucked Bobby Wagner.
Baker did.

Speaker 3 What Collinsworth call him all night a disruptor or a Collinsworth continued to come back to what he called Baker a disruptor, I believe, or something like that.

Speaker 3 And he kept, he made, he actually made Tarico say it one time. He said, because he is the, and they paused for like three seconds.
Trigger said, disruptor?

Speaker 1 Like, or I don't know if it's disruptor or not.

Speaker 3 It was a word like that.

Speaker 1 How about Terico losing his shit when that kick goes in? I mean, he was, he was going bonkers.

Speaker 1 Hey, way to show that we like that, Terico. We like a little emotional.
Oh, yeah, Mike. All right, let's go to the next overreaction, shall we? Got two left.
This one's from Matt GJN at GJN C15.

Speaker 1 Hashtag, I don't want to overreact. But

Speaker 1 this Chargers team got exposed. Sure, Herbert had the worst game of his career, but it doesn't help when a supporting cast are a bunch of circus clients.

Speaker 1 And get that spat so Greg Roven off the team. Wow.
On the next year. Hashtag bolt up.

Speaker 1 I think on the next year is the right idea. I think they were ahead of schedule here.
They got rid of a lot of people. Culture is implemented.

Speaker 1 I love what they are doing down there in Los Angeles, legitimately for the Chargers. Can't wait to see what they do next year.
And last overreaction here from Jack Lau at La Jack.

Speaker 1 6. Hashtag, I don't want to overreact.
But

Speaker 1 the Commanders are a team of destiny this year, and the doink heard round the world, encapsulated it. Commander in clutch, Jaden Daniels, put the cape on again last night and showed why.

Speaker 1 He's the rookie of the year. Time to bite kneecaps on Saturday night, man.
Hashtag Ray's hail. You think about the Hail Mary deflection?

Speaker 1 You think about the doink in to win in wild card weekend? You think about the change of ownership? Maybe it is the football god saying, hey, this team has been starving.

Speaker 1 This fan base has been yearning for this since they were named the

Speaker 1 football team?

Speaker 1 No, since

Speaker 3 I don't remember before that.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Redskins.
This team has been yearning for that, and they're getting it. They are fun to watch.

Speaker 1 Jaden is immaculate, and the new ownership seemingly representing in a fashion of, we're going all in here to win, and their fans deserve it. All right, we're going to get the hell out of here.

Speaker 1 Cookie and Magic are going to be there on Saturday night as well. And Detroit's going back home.
Yeah, back to Michigan for Cookie and Magic. Heard the announcement.

Speaker 1 So that's going to be taking place. Commanders are rolling, as are any team that is still alive in the playoffs, both in the NFL and college.

Speaker 1 And tonight, will it be Minnesota or will it be Los Angeles? We shall see. All right, we can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living.
You're the greatest people on earth.

Speaker 1 Thank you so much. We're living a very dumb life right now.
We don't know what day is which. And I'm saying we because I'm acting like I'm speaking for everybody.
I'm definitely speaking for myself.

Speaker 1 If I'm not speaking for you boys, go ahead and say something.

Speaker 1 We don't know what day of the week it is, we have no idea what is next, but we do know that in the moment that we're in, we're the luckiest group of dumbass motherfuckers on earth.

Speaker 1 Thank you all so much for allowing us to do this for a living. Let's continue to enjoy the ride because we have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow.
Be a friend, tell a friend something nice.

Speaker 1 It might change their life. We're in this thing together.
Boys, great work. AJ, thank you for traveling.
Debuck, see you tomorrow. Boys, see you tomorrow.
Hell yeah. Good luck tonight.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Crush it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Raw Raw on Netflix, 8 p.m. Eastern.
Vikings, Rams, ESPN ABC, 8 p.m. Eastern.
You got a tablet. You got a phone.
Let's enjoy it all.

Speaker 1 Be a friend, tell a friend something nice that might change your life. Team on me, team on three.
One, two, three. Team! Goodbye!

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