PMS 2.0 1270 - College Football Playoff Recap, Sugar Bowl Preview, NFL Week 18 Preview/Picks, Nick Saban, Laura Rutledge LIVE From The Sugar Bowl, Chuck Pagano, & AJ Hawk

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome, on the Sugar Bowl Thursday, January 2nd, 2024. This program starts now.
Football! Hey, it's wonderful. We've been celebrating it, obviously, for the last two weeks in a big way.
Fresh off the field over there in Pasadena, Rose Bowl, right here to Indianapolis, Indiana, as the Sugar Bowl will kick off down in New Orleans at 4 p.m. Eastern.

Obviously, that was scheduled for last night after the heinous terrorist act that took place yesterday morning.

That was moved to today.

We will be chatting with Laura Rutledge in the second hour, who has been boots on the ground throughout the entirety of this.

She will actually be on the sideline down there in New Orleans at the Sugar Bowl to break down everything that we need to know that has happened over the last 24 hours. And who does this favor? Does it favor the Georgia Bulldogs, who have already had a break? Or does it favor the Notre Dame team, who gets an extra day after having a tough one against Indiana in 10-degree weather up there in South Bend? Now, they are trying to punch the final ticket into the semifinals of the college football playoff.
Ohio State just beat the hell out of Oregon. Arizona State gave Texas everything they could handle, and I can't wait to see Cam Scadaboo in the NFL.
He was a leading passer, receiver, rusher. I think he had a couple tackles, too, somehow.
And he puked more than anybody. He put on an absolute show in a double overtime thriller that saw Texas inevitably get a big-time win.

And then obviously Penn State beat Boise State to kick off the entire round of quarterfinals.

Now we just wait on Notre Dame and Georgia.

Cannot wait to see how this fares.

Now, you look at the first semifinals that's already been made.

Down there in Texas, it's the SEC taking home the Big Ten.

Then you look down there at the Orange Bowl. It's currently the 10 waiting who is it gonna be an sec team or is it gonna be an independent team all the teams that have had buys got their asses kicked early arizona state was even down a bunch going all the way into the fourth quarter they come back scrap and claw and show that big 12 grit to make that a game to take it into overtime oregon just got gobsmacked early.
It was 31-0 coming off a bye week. You won the championship.
Congrats. You get a bye week from the first round.
What do you get? Oh, Ohio State playing their best ball, fresh off an ass-bitting in Tennessee, ready to roll. You kind of got to gather your thoughts.
This game's already over. And then you think about what happened with Penn State.
Boise State early. Boise State had two fumbles in the first quarter.
I think there was another turnover. Penn State came out flying after their massive win at home about a week before that in the freezing cold.
It's like the first-round buys, I think, are going to be reallocated, rechatted about whenever we move forward in this 12-team playoff. But nonetheless, college football playoff football is better than no football, and we're lucky to be a part of it all.
Then obviously, as we forecast ahead into massive nfl games big time implications there's playoff implications on the line there's number one overall seed implications on the line on the nfc side so football is buzzing and we're lucky to talk about it all we'll have coach saban joining us in about seven to eight minutes to kind of gather his thoughts on how it's all going uh the toxic table is here at boss connor natai shaman one half of the hammer down cowboys ap tone is here a man who's coached football for 36 years of his life 18 in college 18 the nfl man that i called head coach one time absolute honor of mine not his ladies and gentlemen chuck pagonas yeah chuck uh the bye week has kind of become something here you know it's kind of become a talking point as it should be they say is it rest is it rust some of these teams wait like three weeks before playing ball that's a long time while another team is kind of gearing up you can get healthy Isaiah Bond comes back obviously for Texas and I know they had to play in the first round but you can get healthy and get guys back for this entire thing but you can also get a little bit too comfortable you can also kind of fail on your fundamentals and techniques you can also have to get like woken up in the first quarter which all these teams have had to do thus far is georgia going to be able to handle it better than others you think because they've been in this situation before i i think so there's such a fine line and kirby's done this for for so long and been in these games uh you know so so many times he knows the right balance it's always trying to figure out like with the buys and, and you've got two and a half, three weeks, you know, how much do we practice? How much do we rest? How much is walk-through? How much are we going to tackle? How much ball security? All those things that you listen to. Every head coach that we talk to, you guys talk to on the side of what's the biggest concern with, you know, having a couple weeks off.
It's our ability. Are we going to be able to tackle? Are we going to be able to take care of the ball? And you mentioned Asin Jenny, and I was there for that game, you know, in Tempe there for that game in Phoenix, the Fiesta Bowl.
He fumbled, what, twice? All season. All season, right? And he's got two fumbles, you know, in the first quarter, first half of that game.
So you're always worried about knocking off rust. You're always worried about, you know, your guys.

And just the, excuse me, the distractions, you know,

and the period of time and listening to this, listening to that.

To maintain focus, Kirby and them, his boys will be focused.

He's had delays before, and obviously bowl games have had delays.

There's been like month and a half delays for like some teams that end up playing in the semi-finals or in the national championship before alone this season but it has become a little bit of a despair you talk about russ holding on to the ball hitting people it's also like game speed you know we saw oregon watching jeremiah come across and then like eye candy and you haven't been like in a season it's like back-to-back weeks okay so you're kind of in it're out of that, you can try to replicate it in practice. You can try your best to replicate it.
But whenever it's all happening and then like check, that's your guy, my guy, what zone am I in, what am I doing? Having to get that all back in in the first quarter of a college football playoff game. And the other team knows that you got that shit to deal with too.
So they're coming out trying to kill. And Chip Kelly and the Ohio State Buckeyes, I think their plan, their their strategy and taking advantage of the break was evident i i think that was very very evident and also if you got that guy yeah on your team i mean triple coverage double coverage behind the line of scrimmage down the field on a sideline in the middle of the field i mean where's number four let's go and give him the rock and then abuka obviously is able to eat as well he's the number one wide receiver on a lot of teams.
Tate, a number one wide receiver on a lot of teams. But I think what I've seen from this Ohio State team with these eyes, these last two games, that was filthy.
I was right there doing it with him on the side. I couldn't help.
We get excited for the entire thing. Watching him jump, almost hit his head off the crossbar.
He almost hit his head off the crossbar there while he was jumping and turning and doing his thing. He a freak show all season though there is a chance now this is chip kelly's first season as offense coordinator over there but chip kelly obviously knows the game there's a chance that like the way you run your offense you have to take care of a lot of people you know with the new transfer portal with the nil with how people feel like you can get a lot of players pluck especially if you're in there so maybe chip kelly was trying to make everybody happy for a long time.
Maybe. I'm not saying this is what he was doing, but these last two weeks, there has been an obvious effort.
We are going to – Jeremiah Smith is going to get the ball. Yeah.
And I think that is – Everybody okay with that? Yeah. Hey, guys, we're going to throw to number four, Jeremiah.
Everybody go with that? Yes, coach. Yeah, we'll go with that.
Okay, good. That's where obvious.
In the Tennessee game, it was like as soon as Will Howard saw Jeremiah one-on-one, it was like, I don't care what this play is. I'm going his way.
And that happened last night a bunch of times. It was like, I don't know what the play was supposed to be, but I do know Jeremiah Smith is on the field, so let's go ahead and try to get him the rock.
There was a couple plays where he wasn't in, and then as soon as he gets back on the field it's like we know what yeah is going to happen here he's unguardable and it don't matter it does not matter and also i like the fact that this ohio state team is just trying to do whatever they can to dominate people it's not like hey we're not going to try to prove we're tough we are you know how we know we're tough we're up 31 nothing on you we're not going to try to prove that everybody else on the team is just as good, which they are. They got weapons everywhere.

We got something that's different than everybody else,

and he's a 19-year-old freak show.

And he's seemingly work ethic, insane.

Coming out of high school, I guess he wanted to be coached.

I think you talked to Heartline.

Heartline, like, breaks it down.

He's like, hey, all these guys that come through here, the wide receiver corridor, Heartline's guys,

they're all told, like, hey, we're going to work.

This is how we're going to do it. The buy-in from that wide receiver room over there in Ohio State has created just greats through it all.
Marvin Harrison Jr., we're like, this guy. How are you going to get another one? Best ever.
Jackson Smith and Jake, he goes for 347 in a row. How are you going to get another one of these guys? Chris Olave, how are you going to get another one of these guys? And it's like, oh, well, here it is, the youngest one that has ever come through here, and he might be the best one ever.
It's like what Hartline's doing over there in that wide receiver room, co-offense coordinator, it's like, what a dog. What a recruiter, what a coach, and what a team understanding what they have value.
This Ohio State team is by far the hottest team in football. No doubt.
Right now, in all of football. You know, I guess you could drop in like Cincinnati Bengals, what they're doing, but their defense hasn't been as hot.
Ohio State's defense is saying, you're not really playing either. Did you see that last night? What's that? Like every time a guy caught the ball, bam.
Like D-Buds said it stapled to the ground. I mean, they knocked the living shit out of this team.
They were so physical. and nobody, there was no run after, there was nothing.
Nobody had any room to breathe. And Chuck, you know this, if you can get to the passer with four, you got seven dudes sitting back watching.
And with the way Oregon operates, which is a lot of misdirection, a lot of quick, yak were going to go do this, they just swarmed. They had four dudes on everything seemingly on both on both sides.
And then Ransom and Caleb Downs. They were, hey, Ed Reed, Troy Paul Molle type plays out of Ransom last night, down in the box, blowing people up.
Then you're talking about Caleb Downs just having a vision for everything. They got high football IQ.
They got all the speed in the world. They got NFL guys at every single position.
Obviously, they've spent the money to get this team to bring in Chip Kelly's offense coordinator. But everybody they're playing against has done the exact same thing.
They're all buying in. And that Michigan loss is the greatest thing that happened to this team.
Because we talked about this last night with AJ and D-Butts on the sideline. Whenever you look around and go, what's the worst thing that could happen to us? What is the absolute worst thing that could happen to us?

Well, I guess we could lose to Michigan this year.

Okay, so when that happens, that's the worst thing that could happen.

You hit rock bottom.

Okay, what's the worst?

Our entire state, not our entire state.

I apologize for lumping all Ohio State fans in there,

but it certainly felt like that for a majority.

The entire state is bummed out about the team.

This is a waste of talent, waste of money. Another year of not being able to all the things are being said about them they felt that too they felt that in there and then also what we still got an opportunity yeah so let's just go ahead we've hit rock bottom let's be free and let's go hunt and that is exactly what that team does on the offense defense and special teams they're kickers hitting that ball over the net yeah every single kick is going over the net pure.
We're talking right down the middle. You talk about Texas missing a couple kicks.
This Jaden Fielding kid who's kicking for Ohio State in four-degree weather in Columbus, he's hitting that ball pure. I like where they're at on all three phases.
Yeah, all three phases. They are so talented, but you talked about it with Heartline and then recruiting.
So Jeremiah Smith, five-star, number one wide receiver coming out. Embeca Buka, five-star, number one wide receiver coming out.
Carnell Tate, five-star, number three wide receiver coming out. And then Brandon Ennis, or Ennis, depending on how you want to pronounce it, he was also a five-star, number five wide receiver coming out.
So if you're a wide receiver, right, what they've got going on, anywhere in the country, the first place you're looking to go,

oh, that place. I'm going to have that guy coach me and develop me because it's going to

get me right to the NFL. Isn't it crazy, too?

Because it's cold. Normally, you would think

SEC climbing. Now, joining us now, ladies and

gentlemen, is the greatest college football coach of

all time. Superstar on TV.

Legend. I assume

he's about to win some hardware for TV as well.

You know, I assume. They're going to be lined up.
I think so. As they should be.
Ladies and gentlemen, legend i assume he's about to win some hardware for tv as well you know i assume they're gonna

be lined up i think so as they should be ladies and gentlemen west virginia man college football goat guy who loves a good meal you love he will love a good meal Nick Saban.

Look at this guy.

How you doing, Coach?

How you doing?

How we doing today man okay so we saw ohio state beat the hell out of the sec's tennessee in freezing cold at home and i i didn't know if that was tennessee not showing up or ohio state playing just unbelievable football so i picked oregon to beat ohio state what a what a what a interesting decision that was because I actually watched the Tennessee-Ohio State game and I saw how dominant they were. And then last night, what they did to Oregon was just all three phases smothering.
What did you see from them? And by far the hottest team in football right now in your eyes, clearly? Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head, though. I think that having teams that had high expectations externally, like we sometimes did at Alabama, you know, creates an anxiety, you know, on your team that, you know, players play tight.
They play not to lose. I actually think you hit the nail on the head when you said, when they lost the Michigan game, what's the worst thing that could ever happen? Now these guys are just playing free and easy and going out there to play to win.
Everybody's making plays. Quarterback's playing better.
Everybody's relaxed, playing with confidence. And I actually picked Ohio State because, you know, when I saw the way they played against Tennessee, which was a dominating performance in all three phases, I said these guys are going to be hard to stop if they continue to play that way.
And I thought they would gain that momentum in the playoffs. So I'm in 100% agreement with you in terms of how this team's playing right now and why.
What about that guy right there, coach? Jeremiah Smith, they threw it to him in triple coverage. They threw it to him when he had six eyes on him.
They threw it whenever there was one guy.

Chip Kelly clearly said over the last couple weeks,

hey, number four is on our team.

Let's make sure we're utilizing him.

Will Howard's best tag team partner is Jeremiah Smith.

Now, granted, they have a run game,

so you can't have too much outside the box,

or Judkins and Henderson will kill you.

But this guy's a freak coach.

We talked about all the wide receivers that have come out of this Ohio State wide receiver room. This guy might be the best of them all.
Can you ride a wide receiver to a national title? I don't think there's any question about it. You know, when you have a mismatched player like that, you know, Chuck knows this.
When you're a coach and you know you've got a go-to guy and they can't guard the guy from a quarterback standpoint, I mean, who makes who better? The receiver makes the quarterback better, the quarterback makes the receiver better. And you know when you've got a mismatched guy like this that he's going to make plays in critical situations.
I mean, we had Julio Jones, you know, back in, what, 2009 or whatever, and he was that kind of player. And we had lots of first of first round draft pick wide receivers but he was the one guy that you knew if you threw him the ball in a critical situation he was going to win and he was going to make the play and I think that's what they got in this guy number four okay he advances obviously to the semi-finals cannot wait to see what Ryan Day and that Ohio State Buckeye team continue to do.

Texas also gets a massive win over Arizona State.

Now, the first round buys have proven to be a bit of a detriment for the first half of these teams

that didn't play in the first round.

Same thing happened with Arizona State.

Texas comes out and beats their ass early.

They're down big.

It was like a baseball score there for a bit with a safety and a field goal for Arizona State. And then in the second half, Arizona State and Cam Scadaboo came alive.
I mean, this Arizona State team showed fight, represented the Big 12 in a beautiful fashion. Scadaboo even threw a 40-yard touchdown in the entirety of it all.
It's just like, what happened with Texas? Are you worried about this or is this more of a celebration of uh cam scadaboo and what this arizona state team is well i think arizona state you know i think psychological disposition is really important in terms of playing in big games and you know these guys talked a lot of smack going into the game so they had high expectations and they thought they were going to go out there and just dominate this game in the beginning it didn't happen they got frustrated but once they regained their poise in the game. So they had high expectations and they thought they were going to go out there and just dominate this game.
In the beginning, it didn't happen. They got frustrated.
But once they regained their poise in the game and just became who they were. They were a physical team all year.
They ran. Scatterboose, physical guy.
Quarterback took advantage of their ability to run the ball and then make plays down the field even though they don't have great receivers. But as soon as they became who they are, they competed and really almost, you know, kind

of physically kicked Texas ass a little bit, you know, in this game.

So, and that's why I think it's so important for whoever's playing in these games to be

able to stay who you are, you know, control what you can control.

You control what you do.

The game's always going to be about what we do.

Thank you. Yeah, Coach, I feel like before Will Reichard, you kind of went through this with some kickers.
And Texas' kicker, Burt Auburn, he was first team all-conference last season. So it's not like he is a bad kicker, but this year he has kind of hit a cold streak.
And then there was a video of Sark, you know, kind of talking to him before that final miss,

kind of, you know, giving him a pump-up speech.

In that situation, when you've dealt like kickers in the past, I know coaches either have, well, I'm going to talk to him, or I talked to Coach Pagano this morning.

He was like, I just tried to stay as far away as possible.

What was your mindset dealing with kickers when they were either going through a situation

like this or not? You can verify this for three savers but when i saw that happening i said i never talked to these guys yeah amen i said the same thing yeah yeah i didn't i didn't want to think it was a different kick than every other kick they had to make you know and and be so concerned about the outcome of making the kick that they didn't just you know kick with confidence and go through their normal rhythm of how they do what they do um you know i mean i always go back to golf man as soon as you think you've got to make a shot you're going to make a bad shot so you got to be in the right mindset all the time as a kicker i didn't like you know i didn't mind him going to talk to him for how long it was and how focused it was okay here's something but if a if a coach wants to come up to a kicker and say like hey we believe in you brother and then just as you're going out there like i don't think that's bad but that was clearly not what his normal pre-kick routine is right like vinatari if there, if there was a timeout, he's going back to the net,

he's hitting a ball into the net,

and then he's jogging onto the field about the same amount of time

that would be a normal kick.

So like you ice him, did you really know?

He's also not staring at the upright.

Like this guy's staring at the side

that he's going to kick at the entire time.

So I think like the pre-kick routine,

whether it's Sark talking to him or not,

I think was kind of bobbled there. I think that was kind of a mismanaged situation.
And normally you'll see guys just try to, okay, you're taking a timeout or whatever. Let's go ahead and get back.
And then bang, same kick. Let's go out there and do it.
So if he makes that kick, I think people would obviously celebrate the shit out of Sark. But what you said to Reese Davis was the same thing that Darius Butler said as we were watching it on the side.

No shot.

He's talking to him way too long.

Obviously making the moment bigger, which it is.

You hit this kick, we move on to college football playoff.

But I thought that was interesting.

Burt's a good kicker.

He's missed a few now, though.

There's two yesterday, and they missed one against Michigan.

I think he's a good kicker.

Going to need to make him going down,

especially with how these games are going to get, I think, Coach.

So if you were a kicker on our team and i was the coach i'd be scared to death to talk to you before you kicked out i'd be afraid you'd tell me to go kiss off so yeah it depends on how i feel you know it depends on how if i just missed one he just missed one before that right yeah he had one. So then you come up.
If a coach was to give me like a, hey, all good, ass slap, keep it moving, I think that's A-OK. But doing the full on, that's an interesting moment.
Yeah, that's an interesting moment. That's a very interesting moment.
Now, speaking of interesting moments, we have one down in New Orleans taking place right now. Chuck has a question for you, Coach.
Yeah, Coach, based on the horrific and tragic events that happened down there as a coach, you know, this thing, your team's geared up, you're geared up, everybody's geared up to go play, and all of a sudden you're postponed for a day, 24 hours, whatever it's going to be. How would you handle that situation? Well, you know, it reminds me of way back when, when we got a call on March 13th and we were in our first day of spring practice and they said school's closed, COVID's in, season might be off.
You know, we don't know when we're going to play. So in the team meeting, first thing I said to the players was whoever handles this disruption the best is going to have the best chance to be successful.
So I don't think anybody has any experience handling a situation like this that involves so much public safety and, you know, how are we going to make the play safe so that we can play and postpone in a game. But I do think that that same concept works here.
You know, whichever coaching staff can handle this disruption the best with their players and keep them focused on what they need to do and not be concerned about when we play, what time we plan. It's in the day, it's in the night, it's in the parking lot.
I mean, I used to tell the players, you know, the field is 53 yards wide and 100 yards deep. So no matter where we play, that's the way it's going to be.
And no matter when we play, that's the way it's going to be. So let's stay focused on what we're going to do when we get inside the rectangle and see what happens.
When you told your team whoever handles these distractions is going to win, did you guys win or no? Yeah, we won a national championship. But hey, we gave them all a scale.
We gave them all an Apple Watch. We knew when they were working out.
I mean, we got turned in by the NCAA by 52 different teams. Shane Gillis was out there saying, see what this guy is doing.
The way you motivate and talk and coach and simplify everything, it makes sense whenever we hear Bill Belichick talk, too. It's like you and he are speaking from the same exact point of view but you and he also win on a regular basis feels like you know you got a lot of guys from your camp that are out there trying to do the exact same thing today's no different and this first round has been a problem our first round bye has been a problem for a lot of teams good comment yeah coach after you know the first three games of the second round basically every team on the bye has come out slow and aside from arizona state most of them have been gotten absolutely slaughtered during the game is there any real way to kind of keep your team hot when you do have this massive you know time off because it wasn't just you know a one week bye obviously most of the teams hadn't played since championship weekend.
And do you think Kirby did anything different because of the fact that he has dealt with, you know, a little bit of a break before on his national championship runs? Well, I think there's two things that you worry about. First of all is ball security because the ball handlers haven't been hit.
And then how are you going to tackle on defense? Because, you know, when you practice, you don't want to tackle and take people to the ground. So you got to do a good job of trying to thud up and all that type of thing.
But my thing was, the first years that I was a head coach at Michigan State, we lost five straight bowl games. And I tried to practice the team to the game, if you know what I mean.
Carry the momentum of the season all the way to the game. And we got our ass kicked in every one of them.
And then when I got to LSU and other places, you know, I said, we're going to treat this like a one-game season, and we're going to back out from when we play to have 11 practices, three or four of them camp practices, the rest of them, you know, preparation for the game and go play the game.

And we had a lot more success that way because emotionally, you know, the players didn't have to worry about the game for three weeks.

But this is different because it used to be in college.

Everybody had a long time off before they played.

So we had a 14 playoff.

You play December 6th in the SEC championship game. Then you played January 1st in the first round of the playoffs.
The other team was off, too. So there didn't look to have a difference in how people played.
But now you've got people that are being able to play continuously with maybe 10 days in between games. And then you've got somebody that's been off for three weeks.
And I do think how you manage that is really, really important. But I'm telling you, you need to go from wherever the game is and take it back like it's a one-game season and you're getting ready for one game and just have the players work out, condition, do seven-on-seven on their own, coaches not in their face telling them what to do.
I mean, not worrying about the game, not worrying about the game plan because you can practice too much for a game. And you can lose a lot of fundamentals if you don't practice the right way.
And that's why we always had three camp practices, just like we're in fall camp. Do you think Kirby understands that? I feel like Arizona State, Dillingham, he's 31 years old.

This is the first time his team showed up for him, too.

And his speech last year, I think, at the end of the year, how close they were,

he said, with everything we're doing behind the scenes,

it's almost like what Coach Dan Hurley did with UConn.

But obviously UConn goes on to win multiple national championships.

But Coach Dillingham over there, he said, we're close.

I see everything we're doing behind the scenes.

I think we're close.

They come out. They do.
They put up a fight against texas almost win that game should have won that game i mean helmet helmet helmet that's game over that's first down that game's over nonetheless it's not called then you think about what happened with boise state they've never been in that situation this particular boise state team never been in that situation before oregon you would think like okay lanning's been around's been in, but they haven't had to deal with it. Kirby has had to deal with this type of thing before.
You would think the Georgia team would be ready. How do you feel about this four o'clock game? And how do you think Notre Dame takes advantage of maybe Georgia not playing for a while? Are they going to try to do what Chip tried to do to Oregon? I think Chip Kelly knew, hey, if we come out and bomb them early, they're going to be in a whirlwind because they haven't played in a while.
Do you think Marcus is thinking the same thing for Notre Dame, or how do you think this thing goes early? I think Georgia, because of the experience they have playing in these games, and they've had to play games, playoff games, lots of playoff games where they had a significant amount of time off. I think Kirby's got a lot of experience managing that situation,

probably do it fairly similar to the way we did it.

So you never know if time off is a good thing, just like bye weeks.

People talk about bye weeks during the season as being a good thing.

Sometimes they're a good thing, Sometimes they're a bad thing.

You know, when your team has good momentum, you just want to keep playing and roll on. If your team's beat up and hurt and tired, you want to have time off to get them to rest and recover.
But I think every one of those things is circumstantial. And I think in Georgia's case, they had a lot of guys injured, you know, toward the end of the season so they they probably um will benefit from having some time off actually i'm excited to see what notre dame tries to do early because they have that 98 yard touchdown run what the first quarter against indiana which set the tone for it basically now indiana was able to tighten it up they were able to tighten it up 27 17 is that game but like they're very focused on the run on the run on the run you would think that physical could maybe beat down georgia if they're trying to find their bearings yet again but to your point georgia knows that they're going to run the ball so that kirby's had a few weeks here now knowing that the run's coming and i think that i'm excited for this this game at 4 o'clock.
I think we've got another really good one on our hands, and obviously it being delayed another day helps up. Go ahead.
I think two things for Georgia. Number one, they've got to do a good job up front building a fence on these runners and stop the run, which means they've got to tackle well, and they can't put all the pressure on the secondary making tackles in space because that's going to gonna be a problem and the second thing is is can they keep Gunnar Stockton out of long yardage situations where this guy has to make plays if they can keep him sort of on schedule where the down a distance is in his favor you don't know if it's a run a pass a bootleg whatever that's how he'll operate the best but if they have a lot of self inflicted wounds and get behind the then he's probably going to have a tough time and that's when Notre Dame is going to dial it up on him and give him some looks that he's probably not ready for and what happened in the Texas game when he threw that bad interception may happen again okay so if you look at all these teams that have made it already Quinn yours and they talked about his check on fourth and 13 with the blitz coming and telling that he can spin it if he has to.
Drew Aller, Penn State, he can spin it if he has to. Will Howard can spin it if he has to.
I'm not saying Riley can't spin it, but he hasn't been able to prove it to be able to be a passing quarterback to win. Now, he can run better than all those guys, and what he has on the ground is certainly impeccable.
Gunner also, the big conversation is like, hey, he can run in this entire this entire thing to win it all are you going to have to be able to spin it in the nfl for instance there's always you know the conversation about the drop back passer is dead the pocket passer is dead you're going to have to be able to extend players you're going to have to be able to run but at some point during your playoff run quarterback is going to have to hit a third and 12 ball that is going to have to be right here to extend a drive in the fourth quarter you're going to it's going to show up at some point you're going to have to be able to spin it riley or gunner at this point do you think is the right guy that's going to be able to do that because we don't know shit about gunner does he have that in him and then riley do you think he has that in them as well well i i don't think riley's a great sort of down the field passer i think he's a smart guy that'll throw the ball to the right guy and take the check down take what the defense gives i don't think he's that guy that's going to drop the ball in there in a critical situation he does have more experience so he's probably got a better chance to make the plays than gunner but um you know nobody knows what gunner do. Nobody knows, you know, how he's going to respond to this situation, if he's going to be able to go out there and play with confidence or not.
But I think if Georgia wins the game, it's going to be because they're the more physical team. That's going to be the key for them.
They're going to have to run the ball. They're going to have to stop the run.
They're going to have to win on the line of scrimmage. And I agree with you 100%.
it's hard to win in the nfl if you don't have a quarterback i lived through that several times all right in cleveland in miami i i i get that i understand that part of it and i think that's true in college football to a larger degree too um so hard to win if the quarterback doesn't play well and the people around him have to play so he can play well. And I think that's probably more important for Georgia than ever.
Okay, playing tough. You know, like nice Ram truck football.
Hey, there was a couple Ram trucks yesterday. Ohio State had like three of them on one drive.
Ransom. Hey, wait.
When he cleared up. I mean, they're thumping people right now that Ohio State's playing free.
Everybody's playing. Caleb Dons, him and Ransom, they're a problem.
I don't know if they're making their own checks, too, to come down and kind of playing their own ball, or if Knowles is telling them or he's giving them the freedom to do that. They're everywhere.
They are everywhere. Ransom and Caleb Dons.
It's old-school safety play coming out of that Ohio State. They're obviously very, very well coached, because they were on everything to your point there was like no rack no yak no nothing when guys caught the ball guys you know took a handoff they had multiple bodies around them and there was no rack or yak like i said and they were stapled to the ground i could tell you there was a couple times where caleb was not happy with how quickly the defensive call was getting in because he was then looking to yes make his own checks and calls yeah caleb obviously going hold on let's see please can we wait to see what they want to do caleb's a genius right super genius football guy yeah but he he's not a very patient guy and if you don't get to call him quick i've got a couple bad from him last year based on that and i wasn't calling the defensive so but he knew i was the guy getting on the defensive caller's ass so hey can we hurry this thing up he wants to know he wants to know what's the call what am i supposed to do what can i look at so i can anticipate what's going to happen in this formation with this motion and all that type of stuff because he's that kind of player a lot of guys aren't that kind of player player, but he is.
But the one thing they're doing a lot of, which is helping these safeties, is they're buzzing these safeties down inside the box a lot more than he did early in the season. And I think that both those safeties are making a lot more plays because of that.
Open field tackling out of those two. Fun to watch.
Because there's a lot of plays that could have been made last night that ended up being like three-yard gains.

But if you break one tackle, you're talking about rack and yank.

That's an eight, nine-yard gain.

Now, all of a sudden, you're on schedule.

You can continue to move.

Instead, Caleb sets his feet outside thigh board, saws it out, gain of two.

He's the one putting the four up as opposed to James going, and then ransom.

I didn't know he had it like that.

I had no idea he had it.

We're talking about Jeremiah Smith, freshman. Caleb's a sophomore.
Caleb's a true sophomore in this entire thing. They're young over there, still playing great.
Now, tonight's winner, 4 o'clock game winner, will take on a Penn State team that is very good. Ty, has a question for you, Coach.
Yeah, Coach. So a lot of people talking about Penn State, you know, kind of for the last couple years here, it's been, hey, James Franklin's record against, you know, top 10 teams or top five teams.
And then a lot of people were bitching about their path to the semifinals now, you know, whatever you want to say about SMU and Boise State. But they've looked, you know, pretty solid.
Do you think there's something to them maybe like exercising those demons? And now that they've won two games in a row that it doesn't necessarily matter who the next opponent is they have the you know they actually feel and believe like they can win this whole thing yeah i actually think that um because and i know penn state hadn't played the same level of competition in two games although those teams are very good um their offensive line though those two running backs they have, these guys have been able to run the ball effectively in the last few games very impressively. And then to have a quarterback that can play behind a running game like that with play-action passes and staying out of long-yardage situations, I think they're for real.
And their defense is is playing really well too. So if you just go on how well teams are playing right now, Penn State and Ohio State are probably playing the best.
That doesn't mean they're necessarily going to win or that Penn State's going to win, but I do think they're playing extremely well. The quarterback's playing well.
They can run the ball well. Look, I was worried about Oregon because you guys saw that film I showed yesterday.
They gave up 15 explosive plays to Penn State in the Big Ten championship game. Now, Oregon won, so people never paid a lot of attention to that.
And I was really, really concerned if their defense was going to be able to hold up against Ohio State. And obviously, they weren't able to.
And it really, really showed. But I think Penn State is playing well on both sides of the ball.
And I think, you know, they're a very good team. I'm a believer.
I was not a believer in Penn State early on. I'm a believer right now.
Yeah, and I think the more I learn about what Penn State is doing behind the scenes, it's like everybody's talking about, you know, Texas has a bunch of money oregon has a bunch of money ohio state has a bunch of money obviously these michigan has a bunch of money especially now larry a michigan guy because of his he's like it's like penn state is they're all in right now i'm trying to win football they're deep too they they nobody talks about it because penn state has never it's always ohio state or michigan in the big 10 So Penn State's kind of like the cast aside, like, yeah, they're going to be good, but they're never going to be able to really make it. It's like their athletic director, Pat Craft, he's a former linebacker, football guy, and he's doing business up there at Penn State, shaking hands, getting everybody to rally.
They're spending. They are trying to win it all up there.
And Haller, if he was up for the draft, I think this year, with how tall he is, the moxie he has, and his arm talent that he has, and he can move. I mean, this draft process would do him very well, I think, if he was to sit down and have these meetings.
You're talking about maybe number one overall pick in this guy. He's coming back.
He's got another year. It's like Penn State's setting themselves up here for the long haul.
And allegedly Singleton and Allen, who are both juniors, they're going to be coming back too, allegedly for the running back. It's like Penn State's setting up here.
You could talk about the teams they played, but both those teams that they played were ranked very high in rushing defense. And they've been like their man, his man meted over the other two teams.
But they need to get Abdul Carter. He needs to make sure that he is healthy for this one because he is absurd.
That was a first quarter situation, right? You ended up on the bike in that time? Being on the field for that game, TV doesn't give you an appreciation on just how big and physical and athletic a team is. Penn State has got to...
I've walked in some stadiums. When we went to go play Pittsburgh one year, and Coach, we were going through warm-ups.
You know, sometimes you look at the other team just going through warm-ups. I said, we're in freaking trouble today.
They look so much bigger and better than us and more physical and more athletic. Like, and give Boise credit, they had a hell of a season.
Hell of a season. But that Penn State team, I mean, that tight end, Tyler Warren, he's like 6'9 and 357 pounds.
This guy is an athlete, man. They are a good-looking team.
So what you just said, though, Coach, I think that's whenever you have the alumni and boosters, that's how you get those guys. You know, like Tomlin told Chase Young, he said, hey, I ain't never going to lose enough games to get guys that look like you.
In college, to get guys that look like that, you're going to have to be active. And Penn State certainly is.
They talk about behind Warren, there's a freshman who is watching. The whole team looked like that.
He got the same hair. He got great hair, too.
That was kind of my argument, Pat, about the committee going to watch some games. Because what Chuck said is really true.
When you stand on the sidelines and you look at a team, you see how physical they are. That goes a long way in football.
You know, Parcells used to say the heavyweights don't fight the lightweights in boxing for a reason. It has nothing to do with skill.
If they have equal skill, the 139-pound guy is not going to beat the 215-pound guy. So that's why we always had big physical teams.
That's what we recruited. That's what we look for.
Belichick's the same way. Now, they've got to be players, don't get me wrong.
But those guys have a hard time beating big guys. Yeah, and that's how football is always going to be,

and that's why it's a beautiful game, beautiful sport.

Cannot wait to catch today's 4 o'clock Sugar Bowl.

Coach, you've had a hell of a season.

Can't wait to see you next week down in Miami.

Yeah, well, I'm looking forward to it, no doubt,

but if I was an Oregon fan, I have to say this

because this kind of bothers me,

and you're the 13-0 number one seed, and you've got to play Ohio State in the first round. Yeah.
I'm not an internet guy, but if I was an Oregon fan, I'd be on the internet screaming about that. Would you be in your basement in your underwear too doing it? Is that what you're doing? I know you love those internet people.
Yeah, living in my mother's basement. They are.
Mr. Harry's basement is a beautiful thing as well as well hey we appreciate you so much coach all right man you guys have a good one ladies gentlemen happy new year happy new year ladies and gentlemen coach nick c yeah coach yeah he i don't know if it was on our show or on game day he did a full speech about how this committee's always in like a conference room every time we see him they're in a conference room in a conference room just go on a sideline go watch a game go see who you're actually picking to go against whoever and obviously arizona state shows up in a big way before the college football playoffs as a whole but how it has been thus far is like hey the teams that have been favored are favored for a reason and the teams that have been seated seeded higher have been seeded higher for a reason.
And they have won. And that might just be how college football is every single year.
And I'm not saying it's the same teams that are going to be dominant, but there might be a line in the sand of like, hey, these teams are great this year and these teams not so good. There's also a situation that happened yesterday.
I don't think Oregon played their best football. And that happens in football.
Sometimes you just don't show up on a certain night. Dan Lanning said it.
He was like, that Ohio State team, I don't think they played their best against Michigan. We obviously did not play our best tonight, and we got taken advantage of.
That's football in a nutshell. I don't know if they'll ever be able to get it right, but he was pissed that we were going to lose out on Ohio State or Oregon in the Final Four because if it was just four teams, if it was just a four-team playoff, Ohio State and Oregon would have both got in.
Now only one of them's there and he's like, is this how we want this to be? It's like, I don't know how you get it right in the future, but if you're an Oregon fan, I can see how you'd be upset about the setup. It feels like it's not going to be that way next year.
They're already reporting that they're looking at the conference winners, not an automatic buy, but an automatic bid. So that'll take away from that, hopefully.
But to your point about some teams, some programs, there was a 10-year period there where we knew every single year it was going to be Georgia, Bama, Clemson, or Ohio State winning. They get the best recruits.
They have some of the best coaches. That's just how it's going to work.
More schools get a shot to shine, though. Yeah, they do.
Bingo. You know what I mean? More schools get a shot to shine.
No doubt. Quarter finals.
Certainly. I like that idea about if they could actually go see these teams.
Well, they should. I mean, that's a whole other.
I mean, just because you know, Coach is right. I mean, you're just like, okay, this is.
But then Arizona State would have never been considered having a shot against Texas. You know, because if you look at the size of those two, like it's going to be a vastly different thing.
Our West Virginia, I always think back to our West Virginia team too, about how I think we could have played with anybody, and we did. We beat like damn near everybody except for Pitt on one particular night.
But we beat Georgia down in Georgia. We beat Mississippi.
We beat a bunch of these big-name teams, Oklahoma, like, we beat the big names. But I think if you're just a look at our roster and the amount of stars that everybody had and the size in every single position, I don't think you would put us up to have a chance against those teams.
So, like, some teams are just built different. Like, that Arizona State team, I think, had a bunch of dogs.
They do have dogs. They had a bunch of dogs that can outplay what the visual optics are.
But a majority of the case in football, bigger, stronger, faster team is going to have quite an advantage. And that's just kind of how it is.
And some of these teams have those dudes. So it certainly should be brought to the conversation.
But with the way the college football season happened this year, it was like Vandy beats Bama, Oklahoma beats Bama. This team beats this team.
This team's supposed to win. They have such a better team on paper than this team, but they didn't show up that day.
It's like, I don't know how you ever get it right. I don't know how they're ever going to.
I don't think they ever are. You could open that thing up to 64 teams.
I think people would still be pissed. No doubt.
Because football, you never know who's going to show up. Matchups are a problem.
All you need is one good matchup. If you get a defensive end that has a tackle's number, he could wreck the entire game.
It doesn't matter who's on what side of the thing. That's why football is great, but it's also why it's hard to project who the best teams are without seeing them actually play each other.
Yeah, and I think that's why it was like a massive feather in their cap that the Arizona State-Texxas game ended up the way it did because if it would have you know like when we went down to the field i mean like we were all gobsmacked when we heard like oh they just tied it like this is about to go into overtime like this would have been another blowout then i think it would have been a lot louder but also one of the things like we're talking about with the sec if you do the you know just going down to the sideline and like that would skew very heavy SEC because like the games we've done, you go down there and it's like SEC, Penn State. Yeah.
Penn State, Ohio State. It would be all the teams that have, once again, that are getting all the five-star recruits.
Yeah. Massive backing.
The reason why those dudes are five-star recruits is because they're bigger, stronger, faster than everybody. You know, Cam Scadaboo has been doing this since he was a toddler, but because of how tall he is, you're going to San Jose State or whatever it was.
The big-time recruits are the dudes who are gigantic, and they're the ones that are fighting for this big-time NIL money whenever it comes to signing day and everything like that. So if you were to look at just size, all the teams with the most money are going to be the ones that are going to have it.
That's just how it is. But there's a reason in football why that works.
That is a benefit in football. But if you don't show up every week, how can you trust it? How can you trust it? I don't know.
Yeah, and even Boise, though. You think about that Boise State game, and obviously they ended up getting killed.
But it was much closer, it felt like, than the actual score kind of showed. That first drive, they drive down the field, they shank a field goal.
Okay, obviously. Shank's an understatement.
understatement. Stadium pressure was very high, if we're talking about NCAA 2K28.
It was moving. And then they threw, what, three picks? They had the fumbles that basically never happened during the season for Jinty.
A lot of things, basically everything went wrong for Boise State. So they still were able to hold their own, but it's like those high-pressure moments that those guys, those five stars, those bigger schools, it feels like are used to versus like a Boise State-type school.
Yeah, so that game's going to be 24-21 in the third quarter, and they get that penalty. They throw a touchdown.
It's a number 17, Strachan, and they got a hands to the face, and they bring it back, and they end up getting no points on that. Otherwise, it's a three-point game.
And it's a little bit like Texas and Arizona State. Texas let them hang around.
They let them hang around, hang around at 17-3. Then at 17-5, they get a safety.
They don't run the ball for whatever reason. I was going to ask Coach if he was surprised that Sarkin at Texas with the running backs that they have didn't commit to running the ball especially with the size you have they let them they let them hang around just long enough and dillingham though they don't care the way they talk and they do have dogs and they got swag and they got scataboo and that next thing you know it's 24-8 and then that's fourth and two and he throws a halfback pass for a touchdown and then you're in a dog fight now and also clearly helmet to helmet yeah big time i mean that was clearly that's game over yeah i think and that's another part about it like do you think the conversation is how are they going to call that if the if the game's on the line yeah well and once again you got a that's first down you're driving in to kick a field goal at least arizona state's kickers you can be able to knock one day you already did there but like that's clearly held down we saw this we saw this down on the field because we had already left and i'm like oh what happened here first down they go down like no no call i'm like what do you mean no no flag no nothing i'm like what how does that even happen so that may be to your point like in college football like because it's not targeting and it's not an ejection there's they don't have the 15 yards like in the nfl that's 15 well gene nobody out gene territory tweeted this morning yep every single part of the rule yeah uh was broken here this should have been a penalty but to this yeah here's gene territory paisan legend nfl ref college basketball ref now cbs is authoritarian on the rules my phone has been burning up all morning.
Yes, it should have been a flag for targeting in Texas A.C. It meets all the criteria of targeting.
If you want to check me, it's rule 9-1-4. You can get through it all.
But they didn't call one earlier too on Texas. Isaiah Bond during a pick.
He takes a massive shot down the middle of the field and they didn't call this either. I appreciate that the refs kind of state like this, bang, that gets called all the time.
That gets called basically every single time in modern football. That's just kind of a call.
They didn't call this one. They didn't call the other one.
I think the refs will say we were consistent with it, but whenever you take that highlight, minute some left, Arizona State

driving, and Texas goes

in and goes helmet to helmet, and they

say, nope, I don't

know what you're talking about.

Because then people say, well, what if Texas

is on the other side of this? If Texas was on

the offense and Arizona State did this against

them, everybody just automatically assumes

they would have called that. They would have called that

for Texas. They don't call for Arizona State

because they don't want the Big 12 team to win.

I think the refs would say, hey, there was one

I'm not going tos calling their game. Just like Oregon and Ohio State.
Those refs were hands off. Yeah, it was awesome.
Hey, we're out of this thing. Five penalties.
I love that. I think the first one came in like third quarter.
Yeah. The last thing you want is a bunch of rags on the field.
Exactly. And if they're going to call it consistent, though.
Like, if you're just going to be consistent. And it's just like offense and defensive pass interference, right? Like, at the end of the game, you've got to believe that the moment, you know, late in that game, there's, what, a minute left, and they're going to win that thing in regulation, that you don't think that comes in the back of those officials' minds? Oh, definitely.
Do I want to win this game? Because it's game over. I think they're going down, kicking a field goal.
They'll burn all the clock. Arizona State, now do they hit the field goal? That's all the other question.
Texas obviously. Well, they had a kicker that struggled as well, 26.
I think here's the thing about kickers. Kickers are a big mental thing.
Kickers is a massive mental thing.

That's why you talked about before Will Reichert at Alabama having a kicking issue.

It's like when every game is a big game, every single game is for national championship.

On kickers, that is literally the thing is mental and can you execute in the biggest moment.

A lot of these big time schools, people are like, well, how come they don't get the't get the best kicker it's like well this dude probably talent wise is the best kicker but he has to deal with the pressure every single kick that this point matters this point matters this point matters this point matters so the guys that can withstand that through a college career mentally ready to go to the nfl that's why whenever you get a kicker from one of these smaller schools and i'm not saying there's's been a lot of, I mean, Adam Vinatieri is my guy. He comes from South Dakota state.
You never know what they're going to be like whenever it matters. Like, what is it going to be like whenever every single point matters, especially in the NFL when there's money on the line.
So like Auburn, I think he's going to bounce back. I think he's had a lot of massive moments for them, but that, those are big kicks.
And mentally, if you just get a little doubt, I mean, it's going to be hard to find. He was first team all-conference last year.
Good kicker. I just looked it up.
He was 85% his entire career, and now he's 65% this year. That's mental.
That's all mental. All it takes is one little smidgen of self-doubt.
At all. It's over.
And then you're trying to find it. And then Sark, no, that ain't going to work.
Well, they love that he was doing that at the time. Then he missed the kick.
But he missed that first one right. Go back to the first one that he misses to the right there.
Watch his stroke. He stands up tall.
Doesn't lean at all. Obvious push.
Trying to force that one in. He's trying to force that one in.
Doesn't want to pull it. Then this one, watch him.
He falls off of the second one please then the second one he falls off of it missed to the left two very clearly different swings yeah like it's just those are two different that's and that's whenever and mentally it's like he's hoping this game gets over yeah all over get me out of here get me to a practice get me to a practice field so i can get back to this because once you start battling that and once again this is going to be good to be good for Auburn going forward, I think. Mentally having to deal with it, even though it seems like it's a nightmare.
You still win the game, so people are going to forget about it hopefully soon. What have you done for me lately? You're going to hit a big kick.
But he couldn't wait to get to the practice. I assume he's kicking today.
Thank God they won. Exactly.
Can you imagine? No. Especially with all the money and everything.
Oh, no. In Texas? Oh, my God.
Throw your phone away. Yeah, and also, he's a senior.
Go ahead and disappear, too. That's one of those ones where you try to get out of the way.
Yeah, you can't go down and get any barbecue down at Blacks and Wall Street. You can't.
With the next game being in Texas, could have been in that, too. Cotton Bowl.
Which is interesting here. Ohio State has to travel down to Texas to take on Texas.
Very much so. Fascinating.
Very, very fascinating. Now, with the Buckeyes travel.
Yes. They're massive favorites.
I think Buckeye faithful will travel down there. Oh, yeah.
Because they know that this is potentially Texas at home against Ohio State in the semifinal game. So I think the Buckeye, the Ohio folks, will want to show face and make it happen.
But that's an interesting setup for this particular game. Well, you said everyone, you know, it kind of feels like everyone's back on Ohio State after everything with Michigan.
And I think if there was anyone left who was kind of just like, we still got to see, like, after they beat the shit out of Oregon, now everyone's like, okay, this is a national championship team. So, like, if we can go down to this game, like, let's go.
Fill it up. Yeah.
We'll be doing our field pass again for both these games. I mean, we don't know why.
We don't know why we get the opportunity to do this. We are very powerful.
They're so fun. We enjoyed it.
We really do. And I realized in the moment there, and I've said this before, a lot of the things we do are for the people that watch the show.
Like, we're trying to give you guys a good time. We're trying to give people an escape.
We're trying to give people comedic, informative sports stuff every single day. We're trying to have fun, trying to have some laughs, trying to have formula what's going on.
That's what our show's mission is. Do we always hit the mark? No.
Do we miss? Sometimes, of course. Do we hit more than we miss? Definitely.
That's why we're fucking who we are. But those games, those field pass ones, those are for us.
We have a blast. I have so much fun out there.
I think there's, you know, people that watch it and enjoy it. Boy, there's some people that really hate us on that sideline.
Do they know there's 12 other casts if they want? Well, we have it on the screen at the same time, but I don't think people see it. I don't think they know the Herbstree Fowler out there, the Skycasters out there.
There was a blimp cast out there. I'll tell you what, that blimp, I appreciate what it is in the history of Sports Americana, the Goodyear blimp and everything.
Sure. The more I think about it, why is anybody getting on that thing? Like, Jen Lada got on that? And I was watching it, and I'm like, don't.
What are we doing? Would you get in a horse and buggy right now? That was like, that was a way to travel through the sky, what, a hundred years ago? We don't need to do it anymore. Not see the movie? Hot air balloons? Did you not see the movie? Which one? Hindenburg.
Oh, what i'm talking about now hopefully silent film era the good exactly the good year blimp is obviously better than that we would assume yeah it has a success rate and it's very safe jen got in that thing that thing was pointed like this she's taking that thing off going straight up to the sky it's like she's got a lot more courage than i do they would show me me that thing, you go, hey, how about you get on the iconic Goodyear blimp? Congratulations.

I go, hey, how about you go fuck yourself?

I'm not getting on that. She talked to us

about it. We were talking to her while you guys were doing

game day. She wasn't thrilled about the idea at first

either, but then she said once she got on, it was kind of nice.

Yeah, it was kind of cool. Yeah, but Jen's a dog.

Jen Lada is

a dog. She tells phenomenal stories,

man. She'll have me crying every single week, basically.
And got on the blimp, and I'm like, don't. Jen, we need you.
We got a good playoff push going on. We don't need to be getting into something.
Hard to see down there. What's that? On the field? Hard to see the game? Yeah.
Yeah, we have no idea. Is that a gain of four or seven? I mean.
Very important. Or 20.
I have no idea. Or maybe 13.
You get a great perspective on how good looking a team is in this one. Oh, yeah, yeah.
But trying to follow a game? Impossible. It's tough.
It is impossible. Blocking schemes and figuring.
See, we actually do have some good, like, angles on that stuff. Like, D-Butch and AJ were able to see, like, some checks that were happening at the line because it was happening right in front of us, which is good.
But you have no idea if that's a sack a loss or a gain of four yeah whenever a place happened because you're looking at the end so that's either massive win for the defense uh kind of a a stalemate or a big win for the offense and you have no idea what just happened so you gotta look up at the jumbotron and you look at jumbotron and they're showing like a big plate and you don't know who it's on.

So we got to wait for it.

And then you go to the, we have a little monitor.

The people that were working for us this time were awesome.

Yeah, they were great.

Cameraman.

Great monitor holder.

Great audio people.

Great.

That was the best Ben Ward dish.

Great.

That was the best we've had.

That was the best we've had.

I think.

Don't you think?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm not sure.

Uh, your, your guys are, our, uh, camera guy.

Murph was the man.

Okay. So you had to say exactly this, this Murph, was the man.
Okay, so exactly.

This time, I think, was the best crew of people that we were working with.

I think everybody kind of understood what was going on.

Every once in a while, they'll drop a new person in, super genius.

They need to figure it out.

Like, just please, come on.

Come on.

This time was the best.

I think it's going to be the same crew going forward, which is good.

And by I think, I mean, it is going to be the same. Yeah.
But we have fun. What's up, y'all? It's Joe Budden here to talk about PrizePix.
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Football!

Hey, it's wonderful.

We're lucky to talk about it every single day.

The Toxic Table is here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt.

One half of the hammer.

Cowboys AP Tone is here.

36 years as a football coach.

18 in college, 18 in the NFL.

Chuck Pagano is here at Beck. Hey, your Thursday night picks against the spread this season.

Thank God there's not one tonight. My bank account can't take it.
Amen to that. Okay.
It was a tough year. Now, granted, let's go ahead and put that sugar bowl right up in there.
Let's put that sugar bowl there today right into it. We have a chance to get back.
We'll count this one as two because it's kind of out of yeah you know your bingo we can get back to 500 on the year we go big today joining us now ladies and gentlemen live from an attic in ohio he's a man who we're all incredibly lucky to be around over the last 12 hours or so his son ended up in a hospital yesterday in southern california because he puked, in his words, all over an entire section at the Rose Bowl.

This man had his name chanted out by half of the stadium in Pasadena. He's a national champion for the Ohio State.
Will these boys at Ohio State become national champions? He believes yes. The all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers.
A man who has a tree on the Ohio State University campus. Never seen it.
Never watered it. But it's strong.
Ladies and gentlemen, a terrible flyer, but a man who loves being a sky. A.J.
Hawk. Yeah, J.H.
Good to see you, A.J. Good to see you.
I'm with you. The blimp would be kind of scary.
I saw that takeoff when you're going straight up and you're leaning back. I want no part of it.
Yeah, and then you're looking up. It's like, is this a jet engine? What is it? Nah, it's just you know those balloons you get for the holidays? They have helium in it or whatever? It's just a bunch of those.
You know what I mean? It's no big deal. It's like, okay.
What happens if... Do we have any other options? No, you're dead if that happens.
Oh, okay. Well, it's a good view, at least going down.
We're seeing all windows out there. But I appreciate everybody that goes up there.
Much more courage than me. Speaking of going up there, Chip Kelly, Ryan Day, that entire team, when they're going up in front of the squad and chit-chat, what are they saying, H? They're saying we're the best team in football right now.
They have to be. I mean, no, I think they're definitely not satisfied.
I guess they're happy that they, you know, the plan that they felt like they were going to, you know, going into this playoffs, they're starting to execute. And I think they probably even think that they can play much better.
So I think they know they have two more games left. Have you talked to anybody in that building since the game? Yeah, I talked to some guys because, you know, pregame I like to go and see my guys.
I see James Laranitis, linebacker coach, different guys. Mark Pantone, the guy that's crafting a lot of things behind the scenes when it comes to recruits.
I get to chat with them before the game. Then after the game, let them know, you know, here we go, two more.
And they seem to all kind of be on the same track. Yeah, excited, happy with how they're playing.
But they know they can get much better. Yeah, I think we heard something out of the Ohio State team.

They had like a senior or something, and all they kept saying was four more games.

We got a four-game season, four-game season, four-game season, four-game season.

Now they're at two-game season, two-game season.

Everybody seemed to be focused on the task at hand.

Everybody in Ohio understands, too, we can win this thing right now, right?

Everybody in Ohio understands this is a national championship team.

Oh, yeah, a lot of optimism, no question. But we know, like, look at Oregon, they're undefeated, everything's going great, and then boom, the season just ends so quickly.
It's just like the NFL playoffs, where you have all this build-up, all these expectations, and you know in these win-or-go-home games, like, it ends so quickly. I think Ohio State's very aware of that, and they know that they don't want that to happen.
And shout to Oregon, hell of a year. Yeah.
It's been a hell of a year. It really was.
And I had some Oregon people that weren't happy in the mentions of DM saying we were being disrespectful. It's like, well, Ohio State was being disrespectful to you, okay? We had to call what was happening out there.
I love Dan Lanning. I love the Oregon Ducks.
I picked them to win this game because I thought they were going to be able, you know, to maybe slow down this Buckeyes team. But I think what my eyes are telling me now is like, we ain't picking against Ohio State ever again.
Nope. That is not.
This team is more motivated. This team seems to be locked in.
Chip Kelly's doing his shit. And then Justin Fry, that offensive line coach, I mean, I don't necessarily.
He's pretty jacked up on the sidelines. We got a great glimpse of him instantly as he is doing this towards you, telling you to keep talking, all this stuff, fist pumping.
He was trying to find you every single time they even had, not even a score, an explosive game. He's looking for you to let you know what's going on.
I think some of those Ohio State Buckeye coaches were like, I thought we were, okay. We had hospitality.
I thought we were very nice to you. We were very nice to you.
We watch your show. You know, AJ's on the show.
Feels like we are a part of it. And then you just go out there and say, yeah, the Oregon Ducks.
I felt it. Chip Kelly, pregame.
I mean, that was an immediate. Saw what you did.
Oh, no. Justin Fry, the line coach.
Oh, okay. Is that how it...
Okay. Laurinaitis even.
Huh. You all right? Okay.
Heartline. Ducks.
Okay. All right.
And everybody. And then as soon as that thing started rolling, just accidentally glimpsing over to the Ohio State Buckeye thing, and they're all basically...
Yeah basically to me. As they should.
To me. I mean, I'm like, okay, alright, let's get to a break here.
Alright, this isn't about this entire thing, but I love, they're finding everything, obviously, to stay motivated, and I do appreciate the fact that they felt like I betrayed them. Like, I betrayed them with my pick of the Ducks.
I just thought, you know, that Dan Lanning and their team was cut from the same gym. Like, I thought this was going to be a fist fight in this entire thing.
I think that first-round bye, man. I think that needs to be chatted about a lot.
I'm not saying that Ohio State wasn't clearly the better team. I mean, clearly the better team.
It wasn't even no questions asked. But did they face the best Oregon that we've seen all year? I don't think so.
But we definitely have seen the best Ohio State. And that's all that can matter is who shows up on that particular day.
Ohio State definitely did. I still love Dan Lanning.
He is the man. Throughout the entire game I think we all thought, hey, Dan Lanning is going to figure this out and get these boys back in it.
But that even, all the coaches doing that to you, that just adds to the fact that they're the most skilled team and now they have the most chips on their shoulders. They are continuing to stack them.
It's impossible to think of a different team coming in and beating them somehow. God, I would have been chopping them too.
So we owe you too. You get part of that victory for doing that.
We're literally standing there and Tra Travion Henderson has, what, a 66-yard touchdown. So we're just kind of watching him just cruise over there.
And then the first thing we see is that O-line coach just being like, on your mouth, you! And I'm like, he ain't talking to me. You! Yeah, it's like, AJ, you! Yeah, keep talking.
Ducks, huh? Okay. And then basically just like a full on, boom, boom, boom.
And the thought of Chip Kelly right now, it's a master class what Chip is doing. This is why Chip Kelly was Chip Kelly at Oregon.
This is why Chip Kelly got like the Philly job. This is why Chip Kelly was the future.
He has all these pieces that are more talented than you have. And he's using, he's's dialing up all the shit.
This G. Scott Jr., this is the first play.
This is the first play. He was lined up at running back.
Everybody talks about Henderson, obviously. Judkins, who's going to be a starting running back? Oh, we got our tight end out here.
Let's put him out in a wheel. Oregon hasn't played a real snap in forever.
Eye candy this way. Nobody even thinks about G.
Scott Jr. Wheel, bang.
That's a gain of 25 to start the thing. I mean, it was from jump.
Chip Kelly just had them on their heels, and the boys executed. The boys executed everything they possibly could.
And maybe has his best weapon ever. Like, I know we've talked about it ad nauseum, but, like, seeing Smith in warm-ups and looking back, and they're like, listen, Oregon's defense has been very good all year, but seeing their cornerbacks, it's like no one's going to be able to stop this guy.
This guy is just ridiculous. Who is the tight end? Masarok? What was his name? What's his name? Kazmeric? Kazmeric, there it is.
Oregon? No, Ohio State. I didn't even know who this guy was.
I should have, obviously. And I'm sure he's made a lot of plays.
Kazmarek is his name? Yeah, I believe that's how you pronounce it. They had him flanked out to the right.
He's 6'6", 6'7". He's tight end for this team.
They had him flanked out to the right. They got corner 5'9", on this guy.
And then you got Jeremiah on the other side, 6'4", whatever he is, 6'5". And they got a 5'10 guy on him.
Then they got G. Scott Jr.
That guy has a freight train right there. He's lined up out here.
Then you got, I think they had, I think Ibuka and Tate, like, stacked. And it's like, how do you...
I don't know how you start. You're going to win some of those matchups, you feel like.
If you're Ohio State, you're like, hey, we're going to win a couple of these matchups. If we just put a good ball in the air, we're going to be okay.
And they even had Will Howard go under center a couple times. You know, everything's like kind of shotgun.
They did a couple pop passes too. Classic Chip Kelly.
Yep. Classic old school.
Let's just get the ball in the guy's hands as fast as we possibly can. But then at the end of that game, they even went under center.
23 different offensive line combinations. They're going under center.
We're running power to take this thing out. Easy.
Just hand off to henderson bang they're hitting it for four or five like if they needed to do that all game they could have done that they could have just done that they got four different game plans that worked yesterday all at the same time they're humming man and they feel good all right let's pivot away from college ball obviously we've got a big one at four o'clock we'll be joined by laura rutledge in about five ten minutes down there let's talk about the nfl huge weekend obviously it is you know the topic of conversation is the number one overall seed for the nfc coming out of the nfc north lions vikings in detroit how do we think that one's going to go age obviously the nfc north is stacked we all know that chicago bears trying to figure it out of course chicago bears trying to figure that. But we have two 14-2 teams out of the NFC North right now, and they're battling on Sunday night, and we're going to be waiting all day, aren't we? Yeah, I will be waiting all day for Sunday night this week.
Normally we're not, but this week, to be honest, I'm going to be waiting the rest of the week for Sunday night. Okay, me too.
I think this is a huge one. How do you see this one kind of fairing, AJ, as we look out at this and try to project a little bit? I mean, my early thoughts on this game, I feel pretty good about the Lions at home.
I love what the Vikings are doing. Obviously, Sam Dorn, I think they're awesome.
But for this one, I feel like Dan Campbell and the Lions, this feels like a game at home. It's like a defining game in the Dan Campbell era, I think we could see happening on sunday the first playoff game of the year we'll call this you know obviously it's a big deal loser goes down to five uh you have a five seed in the nfc and that's a different road than having home field advantage throughout the entirety both of them dome teams so obviously it's good for the entire nfc that you get a chance to go in no matter what and experience 70 and sunny no matter how it ends up shaping up what do you think both these coaches are saying obviously Kevin O'Connell is a young wizard and watching that locker room with Sam Darnold last week was so cool and Kevin O'Connell taking it all in we know he can drop a play for anybody Ben Johnson can do the same up there MCDC has been singing the same exact tune since the very beginning we're tougher we're all bought in if you coach, which team would you rather be coaching right now? And what do you think the messages are? I would rather be the home team.
I'd rather be Detroit. I love KOC.
I think he's by far head and shoulders above everybody else. Coach of the year this year.
I know AP's got a vote on that. But I would pick KOC as coach of the year.
What they've done with this offense, Sam Darnold, you know, this defense, B-Flow, they're cooking, but there's just something about this Detroit Lions team. Like, I didn't think there's no way in hell they'd even go to San Fran, and San Fran's got nothing to play for that they'd end up winning that game.
But they'll find a way to score one, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten more points than you. The defense is totally depleted.
They've got a massive chip on their shoulder. They play that way because everybody's saying you've got no defense.
You've got no players. You've lost everybody on that side.
There's no way that you can win. And all they do is they keep winning.
And, you know, Sam Darnold's had a great year, but he's also thrown, I think, 12 interceptions on the season. And this Kirby Joseph, I mean, he's got nine interceptions on the year.
He'll find a way to come up with one. Branch may come up with one.
They'll make a play, make a play here or there. Trick play.
Ben will get in his bag. You know, I wouldn't bet against the Lions for nothing.
Anzalone's back for the Lions, or what's the story there? Yeah, he practiced yesterday. It looks like he'll be a game-time decision.

But, yeah, they're expecting hopefully he can be back for this one.

And then Aiden Hutchinson's back for the Super Bowl.

Oh, yeah.

Especially Carlton Davis in the playoffs sometimes,

potentially Montgomery at some point in the playoffs.

So, yeah, things are starting to align a little bit here.

But there's obviously some other games that have playoff implications in the AFC involving Denver, Cincinnati, and Miami for the number seven overall seed in the wild card. Denver wins, and they're in.
Miami wins, and Denver loses. They're in.
Cincinnati wins, and Denver and Miami both lose. Cincinnati is in, which is obviously a phenomenal thing for this Bengals team.
That was, what, 1-5? Yeah. 1-5 to start the season.
Joe Burrow having a potential MVP-like year, especially if they find a way to make it into the playoffs with this whole thing. Broncos will be taking on Carl Wentz in the Kansas City Chiefs as Patrick Mahomes gets healthy for a playoff run as the number one overall seed.
The Dolphins, without Tua, will take on the New York Jets, who just had their worst performance of the season last week somehow. And then the Bengals take on a Pittsburgh Steelers team, who are very much still trying to figure out what team they are, fresh off of a few losses.
Yeah, and that game is also huge, because if the Steelers lose, then the Chargers can jump you, right? Steelers need a win, yeah, because they want the 5-seed. They want to go down to Houston, I would assume.
Because if they lose, they go to Baltimore. And one of the Chargers, the Chargers play the Raiders.
They're either 5 or 6. Correct, yeah.
So if the Steelers lose and Chargers wins, they jump up to 5. And when we went to the Chargers facility, a beautiful facility, made sure I told everyone in there, hey, you're going to Baltimore.
Steelers aren't losing. Oh, you said hardball bowl back again in the playoffs.
Congrats to you guys. NFL wants that.

And so do Chargers do too?

They don't care. Big facility.

I love that Chargers team even more

now. Awesome.
Happy mission, AJ.

We're on a happy mission. Everybody in that

building was happy. Everybody.

Yeah, I mean, just look at the

facility. First off, it looks beautiful.
I wasn't able to

go there with you guys, but it looks

awesome. I mean, what Hardball has been able to do in one years.
Your name was on there. I see my name.
I appreciate it. Kyle Cathcart.
Yeah, that's Kyle. Yeah, because I was there.
And also Jose. Full names.
Where were you? Shitehead. Yeah, you were invited.
You were a part of the... I saw some people, they were coming after me a little bit.
They couldn't come. They gave the invite.
Yeah, this is just like when Rap Sheet wasn't able to come on the show. I talked to Heat for this entire thing.
Just would like to let everybody know AJ was clearly invited. AJ's name was cleared by the Los Angeles Chargers.
But that would have been 12 people instead of 11. And Harbaugh would not have liked that.
He would have to roll around with only 11. He said 11.
That's a perfect number. That's the way it should be.
You've got to start offense, start defense, start special teams walking around with you. That's how it should be.
That was his first reaction. He was like, wow, you guys are rolling deep.
Nice little entourage. I was like, yeah, you guys had to clear 11 of us to get in here.
That was awesome. He's like, 11.
Perfect number. Perfect number.
That was literally his first reaction. Everything he did was just, I don't want to say beautiful, but it was.
It was. As advertised.
Everything he did was awesome. That entire facility.
He tried to get a handshake to that particular high five trophy. Did break the hand off.
We had to put it back on. He said, I want to shake the hand.
I want to shake the hand. It's a high fiver.
It's not a handshaker. He goes, let me try it.
He takes it off. I think that's going to live in his office.
I office i hope so he seemed to be pretty pumped up about it they were very kind to us yeah the ice cream in that place they got cinnamon toast crunch soft serve yogurt oh coffee soft flavors every single day god i'd be 260. yeah they also had pizza oven yeah which Which was just a smidge below.
So good. It wasn't pizza, but it was.
It was phenomenal.

Very good pizza.

Very good.

It wasn't pizza, but it was

very good pizza.

Very good pizza. Then they had

I think there was some tacos and shit.

Tacos. They had everything.
It was like a mall.

They had all the different bars. Sun chips.

They did have sun chips.

Falk garden salsa and harvest cheddar.

You're right. They did have all that.
This building.

Golf simulator. Did you see Ortiz? Oh Joey or Oh yeah, we saw Joe.
He came in and obviously I thanked him for everything. Matlock is huge.
Matlock's head is gigantic. I mean, that thing is real.
Anybody get a workout in? You go in that weight room? We were in the weight room. Not the VIP club.
Silver Bells Club. Excuse me.
Yeah, we're not in the Silver the silver bells club which is they got these old school dumbbells that are just metal you know they're not they're old school they're huge and i i think the way the story went is one of their offensive linemen during the holiday season or at the beginning of december was over there lifting in their silver so he was saying silver bells and then he was better and then And then he was doing silver bells, doing the entire thing. So then Coach Herbert, who is a Pittsburgh guy, who was at Wisconsin, and I think he was at Baylor.
Then he went to Michigan, and that's where he met Harbaugh. Now he's over there.
Great. He's a strength coach.
Great energy. Pittsburgh guy.
As soon as you heard the silver bells thing, he was like, wait a minute, I think we can do something with it. They made a VIP club.
They put red velvet ropes around two of the benches or whatever. And then it's all the silver belts.
And then if you get in the club, obviously, they open you up to come on in and then put you in there. Khalil Mack, 200-pound single arm bells, 200 pounds.
200 pounds. He's the biggest one.
It's the biggest one in there. Justin Herbert, I think, has a 150.
Yep. The 150-pounder, it's for a one-arm bench over there.
It's like they all commit and love what's going on in that weight room. They all commit and love what Jim Harbaugh is preaching.
And everybody in the building is happy. Everybody is excited to be there.
It is infectious over there, what they got going on. And how many owners are spending $300 million on a new facility? Just for a practice facility.
Especially in LA, the placement in that, the location itself had to be so expensive. But then for them to do it upright for the last couple, it's like, look out for the Chargers, dude.
Look out for the Char the chargers talk about getting a hiring right and we've chatted about this a little bit for a while it was we need the new offensive guru okay sean mcveigh comes in we need new offensive guru we need the offensive guru then you see guys like harbaugh mcdc having the success that they're having and it's like are we getting back to a time where it's like hey we need somebody that's able to build a culture a time where it's like, hey, we need somebody that's able to build a culture. We need somebody that's able to lead people.
We need somebody that's able to bring people together. I think so.
And that's good for football, I think, Chuck. Don't you agree? As a man that was that type of guy.
100%. Can you imagine you're just talking about the – because a great culture, you guys walked in that building, you could see it.
Feel it. You could feel it.
You could taste it, right? And then you could walk into another building, something we know. Like, this stinks.
Yeah. This is nasty.
This ain't got no feeling like that. Like, it matters.
And so bringing a guy like Jim Harbaugh. Think about these coaches, like Dan Quinn, what he's done in Washington, right? Second time around.
Jim Harbaugh, like second time in National Football. And he won big in San Francisco, right? He's having great success.
So these guys, Raheem, he's still 8-8. He's better second time around.
MCDC second time around. MCDC.
You know, at Miami, I think he was the interim or whatever. Yeah.
So if I was to go back, like, what I know now compared to what I thought I knew back in 2000, because there's no manual for this job. But the one thing we all do know is like culture matters.
And so what you're talking about, that building and that infectious, like the energy that he brings, like why wouldn't you want that? You know, and everybody in that building, and then a guy that they actually come in, you can feel him and like, okay, this is a guy I want to follow. And you get everybody to buy in like that.

I'm talking front office, locker room, ownership.

Because you just sit around and watch after those games

and you watch everybody standing there waking to call up in the locker room.

And Spanos, both of them.

For he's a jolly good fan.

For he's a jolly good fan.

Now, granted, winning helps.

Yes.

But do you win because of the culture? But think about MCDC, right? How he started out, oh and whatever, and then the next season, oh and whatever, and then finally it clicks in, and you start to get a taste of winning and how to win, and that team learned how to win, and they drafted like crazy, and they got really good players, but they stayed with it, and there was continuity. It wasn't one of these owners like Tepper down in Carolina like,

oh, pssst, out, pssst, out.

You just can't buy that.

You got to be able to figure that out.

You got to be able to get a guy in front of you like, okay,

this guy's the real freaking deal.

And whatever that is, however you're going to go about that selection process,

like they haven't figured it out down there.

But you got to – Because nobody – I think Coach Belichick talked about patience. Like, there isn't patience anymore.
Yeah, but what if you're patient with the wrong guy? That's like the biggest issue, which is what ownership kind of fears, is you see red flags potentially, and it's like, is this guy ever going to be a leader, or is he not? And then waiting and waiting and waiting. What if you wait three, four, eight years to find out if the culture that you were hoping was going to settle in never settles in? Then you just completely wasted an era, which is, I'm just saying that's a counterargument.
I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying that is what the counterargument is to all these things about patience, patience, patience.
What if you're patient with the wrong guy? Then you're in a bad spot. Then you've sent an entire fan base, a generation of a fan base back.
That's why we love Ben Johnson. We all have faith in Ben Johnson being a head coach, I assume.
But this far out, and what is it? It's January 2nd. The head coaching cycle hasn't started yet.
But it feels like Pete Carroll and Mike Vrabel are both locked to be guys like this who can turn around. And this wouldn't be Pete Carroll's second time know Seattle was his second time because New England he was the head coach but like Vrabel Vrabel was in Tennessee that was his first head coaching job I assume what he's learned over the past or over this past year being in a place like Cleveland and what he can bring to a team now would be exponential compared to you know some of these places well that's what I was going to say like do you think now and it's not the case it's not the case everywhere but if you want a guy who needs to completely change the culture of a place like look at all the guys we just mentioned mcdc harbaugh you know vrabel like do you think it needs to be a guy who played in the league for a while because it seems like all these new guys that are getting like they are the gurus they're the x and o don't necessarily.
And, you know, I assume, like, I look at a guy like Matt LaFleur who, like, now, however many years into this, like, he's starting to get his culture in place. But the first couple years, that was always the knock is, like, this guy's a play caller.
Like, he can't necessarily do that. He was up against it, too, with, like, an old generation of a team, I think.
Like, I feel like LaFleur probably feels like he has his guys. Gutz feels like he has his guys.
For sure. And I agree.
He was just a play caller, I think, as opposed to being a leader. But you don't continue to win like that without having some good leadership.
Definitely not. Behind closed doors for him.
It's like the culture people are starting to come back, I think, into fashion. I think it's starting to become a good thing.
And that's good for ball. I think that's good for ball, AJ.
Do you agree with that? It's great for ball ball i don't think you have to be a former player to like have that command of the room or have control but it sure as hell doesn't hurt like especially early on i think if you can have success early on it just kind of springboards you and you it gives you a jump start where you might not have to have those one or two you know kind of terrible seasons while you turn over the roster and try to figure out who's the right person to be here zach keifer who we all have immense respect for used to write for the indie star now he's at the athletic uh which is obviously owned by the new york times he wrote an article today i was like yeah cultures have no culture pretty much and uh we're eight years into chris ballard's uh tenure as a general manager and i think he's a great man i think he's been great for the city of indianapolis and like that. But some of the things that are being said in that article by Zach Kiefer, who, you know, did his sourcing and getting inside of it more than I know, even.
He's like, there's no vision in this building. It's like, what do you mean there's no vision? What's that mean? And then you start watching it.
It's like, that makes sense that there's no vision and there's no accountability and there's no this, there's no that. But Shane drop a hell of a play and was he cut off at the knees whenever he got here already it's like there's so many questions about just what's happening at the colts and they're not the only one there's a lot of nfl teams they're trying to figure out what the hell went wrong this coaching cycle should get electrifying and you said if i went back is chuck thinking about going back are you thinking about going back in the coaching no unless you're firing me if unless you're firing me.
If that means you're going to go back and coaching. You're fired.
You're fired. I've got a pretty good gig.
All right, let's pivot away from the NFL a bit and do some journalism. Joining us now is a sideline reporter for this afternoon's Sugar Bowl.
She's also the host of NFL Live. She's one of the prominent faces around ESPN, both for college ball and the NFL.
Friend of the program, ladies and gentlemen, Laura Rutley. Yeah, Laura! How you doing, Laura? Hi, guys.
It's good to be with you. Hey, it's an honor to be with you as well.
I think there's a bit of a delay on the video, so we will certainly figure that out on our end. It's definitely not you.
But let's talk about the last 24 hours down there, Laura.

Obviously, you've been down there.

You've been the one that has been breaking the news to the entire world

about what's taking place in the Sugar Bowl.

When this is about to get delayed, what was the conversation like?

Were they worried about potential bombs at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium,

Superdome down there?

What was the kind of the – how did we get here is the right question, Laura. Yeah, I mean, Pat, it's been really wild, and there's just a heavy feeling for everybody here, certainly, as we all think about these victims, their families.
That's been a sentiment echoed by the teams as well in Georgia and Notre Dame. And yet here we are, you know, preparing to play a football game, which certainly pales in comparison to everything that's happened here with these terrorist attacks here in New Orleans.
But when it came to the actual decision-making process, there was a meeting that happened yesterday midday between the FBI, between the college football playoff officials, Sugar Bowl officials, the teams, many other people, government officials here in New Orleans. And they said it was a really difficult decision to make to postpone the game.
Initially, they said it would be 24 hours. And, you know, as we were finding this information out, Pat, I was over at the hotel.
Like, I was getting ready to come over, do the game. We had just done our game production meeting.
And then all of a sudden, I'm starting to kind of hear some rumors like, hey, this game might be postponed. We start reporting.
We start calling sources. We start figuring things out and realize that that was, in fact, true.
And I think it's important, you know, as you do look at the football side of this for both these teams, the coaches and people involved, we're pushing for an earlier start than 24 hours, just gaining even a few extra hours when it comes to what will be a really quick turnaround for the winner of this game for that Orange Bowl against Penn State. Okay, so obviously RTs, P's, positive thoughts for everybody in New Orleans.
What a phenomenal gift to the world the city of New Orleans is. And obviously, we've all had time down there.
We've all spent time down there. It was hard yesterday not to be like, man, that's something I could have very easily been.
So a terrible act. Obviously, football is a good thing to get back.
Sports are a good thing to let them know, hey, you might take it to shop, but you didn't beat us. I'm happy this game is happening.
You talked about hotels and having a meeting. What do we think is happening with the fans here? Because obviously a lot of travel, ticket, everything.
What do we think the stadium looks like today for this game, Laura? That's interesting. In fact, we were told by the mayor here that they're reopening Bourbon Street around 2.30 local, so 3.30 Eastern.
And we've seen a lot of fans milling about. I mean, there were even fans yesterday that had planned to fly in day of the game because the game was supposed to be later.
They still got on those flights, still came in. And there has been major security advancements here at the stadium.
Now, they already have security planned, right? But they're doubling that essentially. And we were told that basically it's the same amount of security that you would see for the Super Bowl, which of course is going to be here in February.
So all of those precautions that they would take, they're doing that. You've got to go through a secondary level of security to get into this stadium.
They did have the police dogs come in here yesterday. They were looking for explosives.
They didn't find any. I have seen some of those police dogs here today.
So that security presence, you see the law enforcement here, and I would just shout them out because they have had to go through so much here. Many of them that were responding to what happened on Bourbon Street, but then in the aftermath of that as well, they've all come.
They probably haven't slept. They've been putting so much here many of them that were responding to what happened on bourbon street but then in the aftermath of that as well they've all come they they probably haven't slept they've been putting so much into making sure that people are safe here and in somebody a law enforcement official told me that the superdome is actually probably the safest place in new orleans right now hell yeah hey shout out to law enforcement heroes walking amongst us obviously in the middle of a lot of lot of devastating chaos that took place yesterday in New Orleans.
Got a football game at 4 o'clock. Go ahead, AJ.
Laura, how do you feel this is going to affect the gameplay at all? We know these are young kids, and they can kind of handle whatever is thrown at them, different schedule changes, things like this. But do you think the game is going to feel normal, like the rest of these college football playoff games at kickoff? Like, do people feel safe? Like, what's the vibe, I guess, around that stadium? That's a great question.
I'm honestly not sure. It does feel a lot different being in here today than it did yesterday.
Yesterday was certainly eerie and extremely sad. And obviously, we still feel that sadness today.
But there has been more out here. We've seen the bands out on the field.
The teams are heading over here shortly. Georgia is supposed to get here around 1245 local.
And I do think that you'll see a sadness around it, but then hopefully some hope about college football. I mean, as Pat said so well, certainly football can be something we can point to as something joyful and something to give us a little bit of hope.
They are going to do a moment of silence before the game. I just saw them kind of rehearsing through some of that in and around the national anthem.
And, of course, we'll cover that on ESPN. You can see it as it's happening.
So you sort of feel what the vibes are going to be. And when it comes to the players, you guys, Marcus Freeman said yesterday that they actually mourned the victims as a team.
They spent some time on that and really did also then turn their attention to planning for the game, but they wanted to talk through a lot of it. And Georgia did actually come over here yesterday around 6 p.m.
and practiced on this field, just a light run through. But I think it is about trying to keep it as normal as possible for these players while also being aware of the tragedy that happened here.
On that note, Coach Pagano has a question for you. Last one here, Laura.
We appreciate your time. So same thing, Laura.
You just mentioned that Kirby and Georgia went over and did a little walkthrough. Were these guys sequestered into their hotels and weren't able to get out because of security issues? And what have you heard how they spent these extra time at the hotels? And did Notre Dame get out and do a walk through themselves Yeah, so Georgia told me around 11 local that they had a shelter in place that basically happened as soon as they figured out something had happened The the places that the teams are staying are less than a mile from Bourbon Street very close to where these attacks occurred So they were sheltering in place Notre Dame was sheltering in place for much of the day.
Probably around 4 p.m. yesterday, they started to loosen some of those restrictions where people could come into those team hotels who were staying there, some fans and family members.
But they didn't let the players leave. Notre Dame never left.
They stayed in their hotel, did some practices and meetings in ballrooms there. And Georgia did, of course, come over here and do that light practice.
But it was a very brief time that they left their hotel. Otherwise, the players were just there.
I talked to some who said they were just kind of going over film and doing everything they could to use that additional time to prepare for the opportunity that now they have today. How do you feel preparing for the opportunity? Obviously, chaos comes in in the last 24 hours.
You've had to be a, hey, shout out to you. We're talking real journalism out here, Laura.
Real world stuff. We do sports stuff.
We're lucky to do it. But there's some really real world stuff that's been taking place.
How do you feel going into the game? And what do your commentating team feel about the energy from both these squads? Yeah, you know, it's about trying to strike the right tone, right? We want this to be about the players who have earned this opportunity to be here, and we want to celebrate them. And yet you're thinking about families that are never going to be able to forget what's happened to them and what they saw.
And, you know, the pain of losing somebody that you love never goes away. It's not like something that all of a sudden you wake up the next day and you feel better about.
So just our hearts are with them. My heart is with all of them.
I can't shake what it must feel like for them to be dealing with all of this. And yet it's our job to celebrate football and to bring the product that we always bring to the table on ESPN, which will be great today.
And we have so many great stories in this game. Gunnar Stockton getting his first start ever in this environment on this stage.
He's waited so long for that. Notre Dame has so much to prove on this stage.
And we'll celebrate that while also doing our best to just be sensitive to what's happened here. We can't wait to watch.
We appreciate you joining us. And we know college ball is something that you cook on for the entire year, but the NFL as well.
Minnesota or Detroit Sunday night, Laura? Minnesota or Detroit? You know what? I'm going to go with Minnesota. Okay.
Don't tell Orlovsky I did that. Orlovsky's going to kill me over that, but I just think the Vikings have something super special going.
There may be a slight bit healthier, and that game is going to be one that I can't wait to watch. We'll also be on that Ravens-Browns game.
That's where I'm going next, and I got Danny in the booth for that one, so prayers up for me getting through it. Yeah.
Yeah. A lot of prayers.
that sucks. Yeah.
That is certainly something you'll have to deal with. Great work on Christmas.
Great work down here. We can't wait to watch you finish the season incredibly strong.
Thank you for joining us and great work. Thanks, guys.
Appreciate y'all. Ladies and gentlemen, Laura Rutley.
Yeah, Laura. So, what happened at the beginning there? We just what was the...
What was the way? Two different feeds. Okay, cross-feed.
We got two feeds. Cross-feed.
Cross-feed. It's like Ghostbusters.
Good information. She was...
We were lucky to be in a trailer yesterday that had just like a feed TV into it, just what was being filmed. Laura was like on the beat.
Oh, yeah was all of a sudden we're doing nbc nightly news laura's like in these meetings with the fbi and then she's coming out basically saying this is what i'm hearing and then obviously there's a terrorist attack that just happened so it's like for being a sports person to be able to have to jump into that and then get back it It's like that was... Biggest story in America.
World.

Yeah.

Especially with the college football playoff thing taking place.

And then everything else that happened yesterday too.

Yeah.

There was some other...

Other stuff, yeah.

Day one of 2025.

A cyber drug explodes in front of Trump Tower.

And then there was fireworks in that?

That was part of what he used to blow up the...

And then there was New York, right, when there was something that happened in New York?

Nightclub.

Yeah, he done beat us. Okay? No.
You ain't gonna beat us. So sad, all those things, whenever they happen.
It's hard not to just be completely devastated when we should be. And you should have those moments of thinking like that.
But inevitably, I believe the same thing that I believed for a long time. There's a lot more good, way more good than there is bad.

And I think we're at a time where the way more good people

are starting to be like, nah, we're done with it.

We're done with it.

We're done with it.

We're done with it.

And I think that's a good thing.

I think football will be something that's celebrated,

especially down there in New Orleans.

Louisiana loves ball.

Oh, yeah.

Louisiana loves having a good time.

New Orleans likes hosting people too.

So it's like, you might be able to sneak by, you know,

and do something terrible.

But in the end, we got you.

Thank you. And I firmly believe that forever.
Shout out to the United States of America. Let's fucking go.
Shout out to football. Georgia Notre Dame is going to be a good game, too.
Two and a half hours until kickoff there. I believe after we get done here on ESPN, SportsCenter with Matt Berry will be a kickoff show.
I'll kind of lead into that. I don't know if Matt Berry knew he was doing that as of yesterday.
Really? Yeah, but I think he's prepared. He's always ready.
Matt Berry's always ready. He is always ready.
Golf, football, anything you need. He is a teamer.
He puts his left hand up. Yeah.
You say you need somebody? Sure, I'm a little boozed up right now. I was at the station.
Who is it?

Sure, I'm having a good time. Yeah, I'm nowhere near the set where you need me to be.
I'll

find a flight, I guess. Yeah, I'll get in there.

So shout out to Matt Barry. You need

more Matt Barry's in this

entire world. He doesn't give a shite.

About anything but

giving his job, which we appreciate.

A lot of shites on that program.

So many shites. Well, it got

the game got away from the game

and then shite happened.

Shite happened all over the place.

Yeah. Speaking of shite happening

out of the mouth,

how's Axel? Are we okay? What's going on with the kid?

Yeah, he's doing better.

He's not as pale as he was and he has stopped

puking. So he's en route back to

Ohio. For those that don't know what happened,

here's literally from last night's watch-along field pass.

Ladies and gentlemen, being serenaded by Chance.

AJ, Chance.

I see you at the 47.

Unfortunately, my youngest son puked all over himself

and went to the hospital,

so my whole family's not here anymore to hear that.

But I'm getting some updates every once in a while. He seems to be doing not much better He puked over the whole section Gee instant urgent care instant hospital.
No, what type of shite was he? Someone making salmon down here I'm not gonna lie I'm so sorry to hear that about your kid. I want you to know I'm so sorry to hear that about your kid.
I'm so sorry to hear that. That's a real story.
Very anxiety riddled. Yeah, hopefully.
I think we're doing better. I would immediately ask the duck what happened, but that was the first we had heard about any of that.
Yeah. What he said right there.
And you just, the way you delivered it, I couldn't hold it. Yeah, it'd be cool if my family was here to hear this.
It be good for the boys to be able to hear this but it turns out they're actually in a hospital down the street uh because my youngest lad just puked all over everybody he's and then he said i'm getting updates turns out he's not much better it just kept going said that's so nonchalant kids in the hospital i'd be out of there dude and that's why i wanted to apologize uh because obviously i think you did it to make us laugh but then as i was laughing i was just thinking about like if my wife had mckenzie and we're in southern california at a game and she has to go to a hospital while i'm on the side it would be the amount of anxiety that would be felt inside of what's wrong how do we get there how to get out of here rose bowl is impossible to get in and out of oh yeah couldn't even imagine the amount of of stress that be felt inside of that. What's wrong? How do we get there? How do we get out of here? Rose Bowl is impossible to get in and out of.

Couldn't even imagine the amount of stress that was happening in your phone.

So that's why I want to apologize before we dealt with the salmon situation.

I never smelled the salmon.

As soon as we got down towards that end, it smelled like fish.

I'm not joking.

I didn't know the duck was behind me.

I had no idea.

It wasn't about the duck.

It smelled like fish from the jump.

I just had to mention that.

You almost started puking just like Axel.

He continued to follow up. Sprayed an yeah i need to apologize section 3c i believe uh shout out foss for helping out with the tickets but i believe he got a lot of people in that area but some people ran and got towels my wife said and helped out a couple oregon fans in the section she believed were not very excited about axel puking all over the place, but everything is good right now.
We're on the mend. Didn't this kid on one of your road trips to see these guys somewhere in the Winnipeg or something, wasn't he sick in that one too, AJ? Sprinter van.
The window got blasted out, but yes, on the ride down, he puked all over that. Axl's a problem.
I like puking. Axl's a dog, dude.
I'm very excited to watch what Axl becomes. You know, because he's puked all over the Rose Bowl.
He's puked all over that axel's a problem axel's a dog dude i'm very excited to watch what axel becomes you know because he's puked all over the rose bowl he's puked all over uh the peach bowl yeah he is puked all over everything and guess what comes out the other side stronger yeah it does that's the type of adversity that ohioans and hawks love right age oh yeah that's going back to what we're talking about you cannot defeat us the uh the doctors they hooked him up to make sure he had nothing wrong early on and they said where are you from he said america so nice that's my wife wanted to make sure that i knew because she was proud of him how old is he how old is he he's seven years old right now seven years old just got done puking everywhere white as a ghost just like body just kind of like straining doctor comes in hey listen we're gonna take care of you all right where are you from just so i know that you have your bearings america he's gonna be just fine doctor said over there did he give him iv seven-year-old you don't get an iv right seven i don't think he got ivs They're trying to figure it out, yeah. But he's all right.
He's doing okay. My wife carried him up like a mile up the hill to a rickshaw, rickshaw to an Uber with the other four or five kids.
My daughter's friend was with him. Yeah, they figured it out, man.
Like I said, it's all part of the story. It's all part of the process.
The Hawks love adversity. That's AJ's first response always.
Yeah, our Sprinter van got the windows busted out last night. Don't know how we're going to drive home.
Man, that sucks. No, Hawks love adversity.
That's what we love. Hey, kid puked all over an entire section.
Had to get carried up a hill to a bike rickshaw to a hospital. Oh my God, I'm so sorry.
You need to go anywhere? Hawks love adversity. That's just what we do.
And that Ohio State team feels like their adversity has led them to where they need to be. Exc watch college football playoffs wrap up when you think about businesses that are selling through the roof like aloe or all birds or skims sure you think about a great product a cool brand and brilliant marketing but an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business making selling and for shoppers buying simple for millions of businesses that business is shopify nobody does selling better than shopify home of the number one checkout on the planet and the not so secret secret with shop pay that boosts conversions up to 50 percent meaning way less carts going abandoned and way more sales going so if you're into growing your business your commerce platform better be ready to sell wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling.
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Sergeant and Mr. Smith, you're going to love this house.

Bunk beds in a closet? There's no field manual for finding the right home,

but when you do, USAA Homeowners Insurance can help protect it the right way. Restrictions apply.
And then for us, since we're going to be off tomorrow, we need to make our picks. Yeah.
AJ, let's look at the slate for the NFL. And let's go ahead and do this thing.
And Chuck will obviously join us during the picks, but let's remember this guy can't pick shite in the NFLfl true so we will take that into account saturday double header shout out to the nfl both on espn browns at ravens laura rutledge dan orlovsky on the call in baltimore i don't believe anything is on the line here for the ravens or the browns browns go ahead ravens have to win to win the division okay so ravens could win the division they're favored by 18. 18? Yeah, and his Browns team actually just reworked Deshaun Watson's contract, so he'll be there for at least another two years.
Shout out to Mulageta having a locked-in deal that just like we thought it was while people were trying to tell us, no, it is navigatable. It is not because Mulageta negotiated it.
With that being said, 18-point favorites at home. Who do you like, Chuck? I love the Ravens, but 18 points? That's a lot.
My God. It'll be 35-10.
Give me the Ravens. Okay, that's a 25-point win, obviously.
Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, 18 feels like a bunch, but give me the Ravens.
I will take the Ravens as well. Bengals, Steelers.
Now, this is a massive one. Bengals obviously need to win.

Steelers need to win because they could still potentially win

the division. Yes.
Well, they'll know

if they can win the division

based on the Ravens game before them, but

they want to win, so they go to Texas and probably

not Baltimore, I would assume. Okay, so

Bengals favored by two

in Pittsburgh. Whoa.

That's wild. Steelers

can win the division that the Cincinnati Bengals are in. Steelers can decide whether or not they're a five or a six seed.
The Bengals are still hoping and praying to get in. Steelers are at home in Pittsburgh.
Oh, mama, I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the law. Boom.
Boom. Bengals favored by two.
Tell them how do you feel about that? I assume it has some to do with the books, assuming that the Ravens are going to win. And then there is some speculation, which I doubt Tomlin would do this, that they rest some guys because they know they can't win the division.
Because they were two-point dogs, I believe, going into Cincinnati when they won that game. So I think it has something to do with the Ravens, maybe potentially win the division in the game before that, but I don't know.
Okay, AJ, who do you like? I like the Bengals here, man. I just love what Joey B and his offense is doing.
I think the defense is getting better as well. The Steelers have been absolute shite.
They've been shite. But they've taken on some very good teams.
Well, here's another one. Here's another one.
Can Tomlin put the fire out, you think, Chuck? I don't know if you can figure it out. Ten days they've had to figure it out.
And Cincinnati, like Joey B, 42 tuds, only eight interceptions. And Jamar Chase is going to, you know, they're trying to get him to triple crown.
He's got 117 catches, 1,617 yards, and 16 tutties. He has more yards and receiving touchdowns, I believe, than the entire New England Patriots.
Okay, probably other teams as well, if I had to guess. Give me those Bengals and T.
Higgins and Jamar Chase, Joe Mix. Yep.
All right, I'll take the Pittsburgh Steelers. Plus two at home.
Respect that, thank you. Lose four straight? We think Tomlin's going to lose four straight games?

But here's the thing.

We think Mike Tomlin's going to lose four straight games.

Just as a thought.

I know the Bengals have a lot to play for.

They need to do that entire thing.

Mike Tomlin's going to lose four straight?

But they're in the playoffs, so Baltimore plays first, right?

So Baltimore's going to win.

So they know they got no shot.

So they're going to rest guys.

They ain't going to even try.

Mike Tomlin is just going to rest guys, you think?

Even if it's between playing Houston and Baltimore?

Yeah.

I don't think now us as fans don't want to go to Baltimore.

I don't think they care about going to Baltimore.

I think you'd rather play the Texans.

And I don't think you want to go into the playoffs. I agree they'd rather play the Texans,

but they just won 8 out of 10 against the Braves. I'm saying,

as a team, when you were in the NFL, did you

care about who you were going to play the next week? Me?

I was trying to pin them inside 10 every single time.

Bingo. Chuck, though? Small rectangle.

Yeah, that's how we're trying to play. Come on.
We're trying to

play full-court defense, half-court offense.

That's what we're trying to do for me. That is what I'm trying to do.

Thank you for that. That is how I'm being.
Thank you.

Thank you for that.

Chuck, did you think about that? Did you care who you were going to play next week? No. I should have thought about that maybe a little bit.
Yeah. Excellent.
It might be still working. I think we should have thought about that a little bit.
I'll take the Steelers. Okay.
Four straight losses? I don't know, man. That would be crazy if that happened.
It would get loud in Pittsburgh. Yeah.
Four straight losses, Danny, and then losing the first round of the wild card. They would get very, very, very loud.
Not saying not for a reason. I'm just saying that would get very loud in Pittsburgh.
Did you see the latest TikTok that Sierra and one of Russ's sons put out? No, what was it? Reenact it. Are you on TikTok? Something on a hotel.
Just make sure you might want to hold off on your pick for you. What? Oh, wow.
No, it's pretty good. I mean, they know what they're doing.
Can you show us a little bit, Chuck? I can't. You were starting.
It looked like they were doing this. Are they doing this? Was he doing that? Yeah, he's rushing.
He's rushing. Because, hold on.
That's winning. That's been winning as of late, if that's what you're talking about.

All right, Steelers plus two.

All right, let's roll to Sunday now.

Panthers, Falcons.

Falcons can steal, right?

Yeah, Falcons have to win because if Tampa loses and Falcons win, they are in.

Okay, so Falcons favored by seven and a half at home

against a Carolina Panthers team that we think is going to be much better next year

than they were at the beginning of this year. Chuck Pagano, who do you like? Lana.
AJ. Carolina Panthers.
Plus 7.5 B as well. Buffalo Bills playing Mitchell Trubisky is the conversation other than Josh getting a start, right? Yep, yep.
Bingo. Josh is getting a start, but everybody's assuming Trubisky is going to get a lot of playing time.
He's favored by two and a half, taking on Coach Mayo in the New England Patriots. Conman, how do you feel about this matchup? I mean, it's a must win for New England.
I don't see why you wouldn't take the two and a half, and the team is still bought in on Gerard Mayo. Chuck, who do you like? Why do you say that? Just, you know, a couple videos, stuff that the players are saying.
They're definitely – there's none of that. Maybe we need some of that.
But, no, the team, the boys still seem to be believing in the direction that they're going. Okay, and do the fans? No.
How upset will you be if they win? Have the number one overall pick right now in the New England Patriots. I'll be pretty upset if they win.

But, again, we need to – it wouldn't be terrible to show the world

and possible free agents like, hey, Drake May is still a guy.

Okay, so you got the bills?

Well, do we know how many players are resting, the bills?

Yeah, I believe a majority.

The whole conversation with Josh Allen starting is because of like –

Start streak.

Yeah, start streak and percentages.

Give me New England at home and the points in.

H, give me the Bills.

Minus two and a half.

Thank you.

Mitch can play, bro.

Mitch can play.

Yeah, at a 69-yard touchdown.

I mean, look, I'm getting a Trubisky jersey if they win.

I'm just going to say it. I'll take the Bills.
Give me the Bills minus two and a half. Tough week to pick games.
I mean, redeeming quality Drake May. And you think to yourself while you're watching the game, wow, Drake's pretty good.
And then you look at the score, they're down 30. Yeah.
What happened? He does look good, though. He does look good.
They did lose 40 to7, right? Yeah. Receivers are last in separation, and the O-line is last in protecting the quarterback.
All right, give me the Buffalo Beals. Give me the Buffalo Beals.
That was a real fact. Jacksonville Jaguars taking on the Indianapolis Colts.
The Colts, I mean, what is, you know, the Colts are a lot of things right now. Everybody's saying it sucks, including the people that are there.
So that's not great news.

Who knows what the future looks like?

But know this, the Colts are going to be back in a relevancy conversation.

You know, there's playoff chatter with a few teams in the AFC.

The Colts could have been that.

You know, but instead they tricked off a loss to the Giants,

which then led to everybody exposing everything going on in that building.

That's good news for the future.

Sometimes you've got to have those uncomfortable conversations

to get to a better place.

Now, what do those uncomfortable conversations lead to

for this particular week?

I think a loss at home to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Give me the Jags plus five.

AJ?

AR's back injury does worry me a bit,

so give me Jacksonville plus five.

Chuck?

He's not starting.

Well, he's had back spasms since eighth grade.

It's not good.

It's what he said. I don't know if anybody...
They're better. He's not crawling around anymore.
Matt Jones is hot. Jacksonville has the Colts number.
So here's what I researched. Joe Flacco's going to start.
Jacksonville's 32nd in pass defense. We got a quarterback that can sling it in Joey Flacco.
And we got some receivers that can catch it. Pittman and Pierce and JT can run.
Yeah. I'll take the Colts.
I'll take the Colts minus five. Oh, come on.
They're going to take the tractor another round. I think they have a chance.
Flacco's last game possibly. And a lot of people on that Colts team hopefully last game as Indianapolis Colts.
That's kind of my hope. I wish we could transfer portal the whole

fucking team. Just take Ohio State.

We had like 70 guys to hit the portal.

Can't do it, though, in the NFL, I guess.

I've been trying to research it. Thank you for your

services. Just in case I wanted to go

pitch myself as president of the Indianapolis

Colts. Not that I ever would, but I put a plan

together. How do you get rid of this entire fucking

roster? Except for Pittman. I want

Pittman here. I want Pierce here.

Let's keep Quentin Nelson. Let's keep

DeForest Buckner. Let's keep Kenny Moore.

I like Kenny Moore. Other than that,

see ya. Every

one of them. Goodbye.
Take

a hike. Thanks for coming.

Jonathan Taylor, trade his fucking

ass out of town. How do we go about doing it?

You got a second round pick? Sweet. First

would be better. We'll do this for the good of the program.
Anthony Richie was a good project. Get him out of town.
How do we go about doing it? You got a second round pick? Sweet. First would be better.
We'll do this for the good of the program.

Hey, the Richie was a good project.

Get him out of town.

Fourth round or whatever the hell you got.

See ya. That's what I would do if I was going into this

place. Need a full

reset of this. The more that

comes out, the more I feel like.

Podcast.

Guys, great tackler. What are we saying?

Guys, great tackler. I think he made a Pro Bowl.
He did. You guys want him? Third, second round.
That's what I would do. That's why I would never be a president of a team.
Do you think the Giants played that? Obviously. I want to play a terrible team in a big market.
Okay, thanks for being a champion. Okay, that's what, you know, that's what playoffs are, you know, just terrible teams at big markets.

Got you a 45 burger. I'm so sick.
Just get them the fuck out of the city. I can't do it.
Legit. But that's also why I'm all president of GM.
I think there's a couple moves you make. You can get your culture back.
I think it's going to involve trading some big names, though, and saying, hey, that ain't how we're doing it anymore. Now, will they do that? I have no idea.
We'll continue to make these picks on YouTube, ESPN+, Disney+, and TikTok Live. Okay.
We're off tomorrow. We're back on Overreaction Monday.
Should be electrifying. Next week, we'll be down in Miami.
We'll also be in Dallas for the Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl. And then, obviously, the playoffs ramp up in the NFL.
Black Monday is right around the corner. Who's going to have a job? Who's not? There's a lot to be thankful for.
We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this. Be a friend.
Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life.
We'll see you on Monday. Goodbye.
I think we got it. I think we get it.
30 seconds earlier because Mike Foss sold a 30-second ad clip at the end of the show. Atta baby, Mike.
Hey, 24 bucks. Okay.
Those 30-second ads are really the ones that are doing damage in 2024, 2025. I'm not going to get into it.
Buy you seven gallons of gas. What do they cost? I assume people are paying upwards $36 for those.
At least $37. Who's negotiating these deals for? Mike Foss.
I think it's actually Mike Foss.

Mickey Mouse.

I think it's Mike Foss.

Mike Foss and Mickey Mouse saying,

hey, remember these 30-second ad rates?

They work.

Yeah.

Right?

Always have.

Last 60 years.

These ones are the ones.

Yeah.

People don't just immediately go to their phones

or a different channel or something else

whenever these come on. They still matter.
Yeah. They don't just immediately go to their phones or a different channel or something else whenever these come on they still matter yeah they don't most of them stink shite there's some shite you put a little pizza though on the screen and it's got a little smoke on it is that pizza.
I forgot. I do like pizza.
30-second ad reworks.

Yeah, exactly.

You put a couple of these.

You put a couple of these.

I don't love.

No, I'm not getting into it.

No.

Still delicious.

It's been a whole season of these boneless wings.

Can we get an actual wing deal with pizza?

We've been trying our best, have we not?

What do we have to do here?

Well, the boneless ones are able to bundle, and they can do this entirely. it's a great deal this is not a 2024 this is a 2003 deal this deal right yeah it's not an inflation 2025 2024 deal so I like that the pizza people are like we gotta peacock this thing a little bit well that being said the bone-in wings are phenomenal so good the pizza so damn fucking good.
They tried at that Chargers boat facility.

They tried real hard, valiantly.

Had a paisan outside of a pizza oven thing with the stick.

Didn't they say that was, and I'm not being sarcastic here,

because it'll come off like that.

Didn't they say it was Emerald's pizza oven that had shipped from Italy?

I think you guys said that.

Wolfgang Puck, I believe.

Thank you.

Oh, yeah, I was not being.

That was Batali. No, no, for shooting.
That's it right there. Oh, we missed it.
Yeah, that's that one right there. Oh, that's sweet.
Yeah, super Italian. He's super Italian.
Yeah, they were super Italians cooking it, and I would say the pepperon was crisp. Oh, it was delicious.
It was some solid pizza, but once again, no one. And we mean no one.
Oh, pizza's the hut. I don't care if it's coming out of out of a helmet oven.
I don't care if it's coming out of Los Angeles. I don't care how paisano seguito is that's cooking the pizza.
No one. There's been a couple places I've been to, but it's hard to get.
You know, they're not national. You sure? You walk into some of those little places and get that thing.
It's just properly. We're talking national.
Oh, yeah, for sure. Blind taste test, though.
You put both those behind. Boom.
Holy shit. This is fucking divine.
Slice of heaven. And then you go.
That was Pizza Hut. And that's why no one.
And we mean no one. Now, Pizza Hut.
I think there are some people that are close in the Boneless Wings department to Pizza Hut. You know, because chicken nuggets with flavor is certainly done by a lot of people.
The difference with Pizza Hut is they have actual fryers in there. So they're making their chicken nuggets with flavor.
Yeah, the bone-in wings are, I mean... Unbeatable.
So good. Yeah.
Top flight. Why don't you get you some bone-in wings and some pizza for the Sugar Bowl kicking off in two hours.
Good idea. Can you imagine? Smart move.
What a time. You want to have a great year.

Start it right. It's been a

hell of a year.

Let's call Parker.

He didn't have good service when we talked to him the other

night, didn't he? He might still be on TV. Did you guys start

your resolutions? Yeah, I worked

out this morning. I did 14 push-ups.

Thank you.

I'm on it. Parker, we're live.

We're live. We're live.
We're live right now on the Pat McAfee Show? Yes. Yes, we're live.
I'm eating chips? You're eating chips. Let's put the chips away for a second, please.
Please. No more chips just for now, just for you.
Can you tell everybody what 2024 was like? Was it a hell of a year or no? 2024 was a hell of a year, man. Very blessed.
A lot of good things. Got to go on the Pat McAfee Show we need to hear it we need to hear it we need to hear it 2024 was great for me man and you know i'm the only person that can make 2025 great for myself and even better than 2024 so i like that i like that i like that but 2025 whenever it's all said and done because you're taking accountability for yourself and only you can control your happiness i like that mindset that is a good one for the world to hear but on new year's eve going in 2026 we're gonna say 2025 man that was uh better no no you're still doing it wrong you know what we.
You know what we want. What type of year was it, Parker? What type of fucking year was it? It was that kind of year.
Oh, my God. Play the hits, damn it.
We need to hear it. You described the year perfectly.
Piece of shite. This is shite.
I have to do that in the grocery store all the time, man. It's been a hell of a year.
I'll say it just for you. Yeah! Don't sing it.
Hold on. Let us say it for you.
Let us say it because we've been working on this. It's been a hell of a year.
Okay, now, is that good? I remember from last time you guys could sing. Y'all got a little something going on there.
It's special over there. Listen, we'll turn the auto-tune on if you want us to.
I would say 2025 has already been a hell of a year. I don't want to speak too soon, but it's been good.
What kind of chips is it? It looks like it's Pringles right now. I think it looks like you're eating a Pringle.
Regular Pringles. Wow.
Nice, OG. Is that your favorite, or is that the only one available at this moment? We got a lot of chips here.
We had a great 2024. We got some good chips.
What'd you have? What'd you have? You had a... We got all the good stuff.
These are regular Pringles, though. These are the OGs.
And? That's it. That's it.
You had a hell of a year, man. I'm proud of you.
It was a hell of a year.

It was a hell of a year. I'm out of a can.

I'm to that point of a can.

Hey, I don't like those people saying you used auto-tune, by the way.

We weren't happy about that because we saw your ass stand right here.

Terrible.

He cut his teeth in Nashville.

He wouldn't do that.

He did cut his teeth in Nashville.

His since moved back to the ranch, though.

He's on a horse, this motherfucker.

You know, we see the whole entire thing.

You had a hell of a year, Parker.

We're proud of you, buddy.

Thank you. Love you guys.
Appreciate y'all calling me and seeing what I was doing thing. You had a hell of a year, Parker.
We're proud of you, buddy. Thank you.

Love you guys.

Appreciate y'all calling me

and seeing what I was doing.

It's been a hell of a year.

Boom.

Thank you, Parker.

Still got it.

Thank you, Parker.

Thank you, Parker.

That was kind of shite.

It was a bit shitey.

It was kind of shite.

To be fair,

that was classic, Parker.

That was cool.

Probably had to do

the hell of a year gimmick

for 100 times in the last 24 hours.

I mean,

these are the worst three days for him. Hey, make a great New Year's song.
You know, they said what they didn't say was, everybody now is going to ask you. Keep your schedule open the first fucking three days of the year, okay? You're just saying that a lot.
Just like Shaboozy. Yeah.
Sing the Tipsy song. I got five other heaters.
Shut up and sing cares, Tipsy. Parker, what type of years have you been? It's been a good year for my family.
Don't care. Don't be a fool.
I was calling him on New Year's while we were pretty boozed up at dinner. Him just getting off the stage, sweating.
Parker's been a it's all right okay all right i got a bunch of drunk guys at a restaurant right now singing to me parker can we hear a little bit then he lost service couldn't see him yep they're like whoa whoa whoa we don't know if you're just saying i did not okay do it now why aren't you singing right now i've been on tv since 7 p.m okay yeah we it. No TVs there, as you can see.
No TVs. Hey, Parker's been a hell of a year.
Assholes, all of us. All right, let's get back to picking a game, shall we? So who's on the Colts? You and Chuck.
Yep. Age, you're on the Jags? Yeah, I like what Mac Jones is doing.
Give me the Jags. I'm excited to see what the turnout is for that game.
It feels like a lot

of Colts fans have gotten to the point where we're done with this.

You know, kind of done

with this. Colts need to get to a hot start, I

think, in that one. Yeah, it'll be good momentum.

Take track to another round, boys.

I don't know if the transfer portal

is available for all of you, but you should give

it a shot. They should give it a shot

this offseason. They got a shot.
After getting

embarrassed like that? They don't care. That's the thing that's the problem, is this group does not care.
This will be very, like, we know a lot right now, but this will be very, very telling then. They didn't show up when the playoffs were on the line, Coach.
Do you think they're showing up for this? What are you saying? They don't give a shot. This team does not care.
They get a check to be in the NFL. They get to say they're NFL players.
And if you have a couple of those guys on your team, you can hope they're like, hey, it's not just about being on team. It's about being a part of the team and being a good team and being a good pro.
It feels like 87% of their team is just the guys that you don't want on your team. And that's not good.
Talent everywhere. They've talent damn nearer.
They've paid guys

everywhere. And now

it's just, we're lucky

that they're wearing the uniform in the city. You're

wrong. And I can't wait for you all to be

gone. And I don't know if that's

even possible. But I'm hoping for it

legitimately. And the more I read,

Zach Kiefer, the more

I read, the more I hate. Because there's a lot of good

people in that building, Chuck. You know them.
Absolutely. A lot of great people in that building.
A ton. That's sacrificed a lot.
Long time. Long hours.
Building stuff. Doing all the shit you don't want to do.
Like, just to, you know, put a left hand up. Selfless for the Colts.
Since they got here from Baltimore in 1980-something. So, like, seeing all the different iterations of the Colts, they kind of have a good feel on what's gonna work what's not gonna work and then you talk to them and it's like they're wondering what the and then you hear this stuff going on it's like what the what are we doing here it's just even a fucking professional outfit or what are we just we're lining up 11 guys to go play football for a movie every single week that's what it feels like I don't like it't like it one bit, Age.
You know Mr. Ursae, and you know how much he loves and cares and what he'll do for his players, right? And for that, to give back to, like, that's a slap.
Yeah, not to mention Mr. Ursae.
There's no better me. I like the way he loves and cares about these dudes.

Come on.

Yeah, we'll see if he loves and cares about the city

because the clock's ticking.

What?

We need two Super Bowls by 2030.

So he better get this thing going.

He better trade for Josh Allen or something.

What are you saying?

Two Super Bowls in a decade?

That's what he said.

And guess what?

If it doesn't happen, I want a piece of the fucking team then. Because he guaranteed that to be happening.
Your taxes are going towards that, aren't you? My taxes are going down the shiter because nobody is playing ball in this city right now. What was it, Connor? Two Super Bowls in the last decade, but every other team in the division has at least two division championships and the Colts don't have one one.
Yeah, so fuck that. It feels like a lot of you are piling on right now.
Sometimes. Sparks are coming off the top turnbuckle.
It's all there. It's always there.
Yeah, I mean, if it looks like shite and it smells like shite, guess what? It might be shite. I thought about running into an event to one of these guys on the Colts, but they don't do community stuff, so they wouldn't be at any event.
And if we see Blue, yeah, and if we see him, we're going to fuck his shite up. No, we like Blue.
We like Blue. I'm done with Blue.
Did you see what was in that Kiefer article? What do you mean you're done with Blue? What's that? Done with it all. They're calling him shite stinking instead of Shane stinking.
No, they're not. I know that's not true.
I know that's not true. Stop it.
There's a lot of smoke coming out of that team, though, about, like, who's doing what, what's going to be. Nobody knows except for one man.
His name is Jim Irsay. That's a nice piece of information to have.
I didn't know he was still making, like, end decision because I don't think he's in there every single day. I think the daughters are in there every single day.
So I thought maybe they're the ones that were going to have to make the decision. But from what we've been told, right, still jim making all the decisions for the program hopefully he takes a nice hit of that vape and thinks to himself this place is shite brother besides making change that's what i'm hoping i legitimately because it's like you know in a lot of these cities the football team is like what you do during the fall like Like that is what to do.
But everyone cares, bro.

People talk about like you're in LA or Miami.

There's a lot of distractions.

There's a lot of other shit to do.

It's like in the fall, in a lot of places, football towns,

it's like the football team is it.

So whenever you watch shite and just can clearly see it

and then they're not a likable bunch.

It's like, so we're just going to have another miserable fall

with this group of people? I don't know. I don't know.
is i don't know seemingly everybody top down i mean no disrespect to indiana or notre dame or whoever else but like you can't have the nfl team in your city be like the third most talked about or third most important team or third most exciting team like that just can't happen especially when you're not an also ran franchise and you and you had Peyton Manning and you know what I mean? A lot of football here. A lot of football people here in Indiana.
A lot of football people here. They also have a lot of old-school people here.
A lot of old-school. That's why Sigmundi comes in here and it's like, we're going to work hard.
I don't think they loved him talking shit to Notre Dame because a lot of Indiana people are also Notre Dame fans. I think that was a miscalculation potentially by Sig.
But the way he operates, old school, work hard, like chip on shoulder, like that's Indiana people. This is a very military place too.
So whenever you got these, if you're winning, it's fine. But if you don't represent the state, the city, in the fashion in which they would like it to be, and then you also suck and continue to suck, it's like, why do you get off thinking you can be the...
I think you'll get a little bit of a pass. Everybody knows you're going to have a bad day here and there.
And if they know you are dying and killing yourself to do everything possible to make sure that you show up for these people week in and week out, then it's like, okay, we'll get it next week. But they got to know that, that you're freaking going to die on that treadmill before you let somebody else beat you.
Yeah, and that's the thing. I don't know if these guys even I turn a treadmill on you know, and that's that's seemingly the problem

Just from my outside looking at just from outside looking at

Thank God I'm not on that team, but also if I was on that team, it's like the locker room can police themselves

And if I have to none of that they're in blue winning the salute to service award

Congrats

I don't even know. Congrats.
Congrats on Blue. That's what's saving his ass right now.
Blue's a good mascot. Is Blue the one that ate Foxy? That's Air Blue.
I don't think Air Blue won the Salute to Service Award. There's multiple mascots though for the Colts? There's Junior Blue, Air Blue, then there's actual Blue.
Marvel Super Heroes. That was potentially...
That's when you should have known. That was kind of the Turner, wasn't it? Remember when we had New York Times Square Spider-Man fighting off against Captain Americana in the middle of the thing? The Spider-Man couldn't fit in the fucking...
and they were running across the field. I just saw that guy, actually.
We took my kids to Madame Tussauds the day before the game out in L.A. We saw the slightly overweight Spider-Man jammed into a Spider-Man costume trying to get pictures with my kids.
Well, he was a halftime show for the Colts last year. I should have told him, hey, good work last year.
He needs your back, brother. He brought the house down.
He the house down. Hand himself.
When he passed out, almost had a heart attack at the 50-yard line because he ran 20 yards. Come on.
Trying to catch up. He was doing this one.
It wasn't working either because I think you got to have a little bit of energy to get out. I don't know what he's doing.
He's doing this. Ah, fuck it.
I'll run and catch him. And then he, didn't know he hadn't run in a while.
We could tell by looking at him, but he didn't know. Yeah, Captain America had to give him CPR on the 50.
Oh, no. What's the name of Spider-Man in real life? Pete Parker.
So embarrassed by the Pete Parker that they chose to put out there at the halftime show. They'll figure it out, the Colts.
They'll get it all figured out. Transfer portal.
Need it. Just fall to the island of irrelevancy.
Either way. Been there for a while.
Yeah, but we're still talking about it.

I mean, like, hey.

Only reason we're talking about it, though,

is because this show happens to be from Indianapolis.

Which isn't forever.

Although I love this place.

I do love this place.

I enjoy this city.

I do love this city.

I don't like the rich class here in this city. Sure.
I don't get along with any of the suits of this city. But the people.
I like the actual people. You know? I like Tyrese.
He's the best. I like Tyrese Halliburton a lot.
I like the Pacers a lot. I think the Fever are going to be able to continue to do their thing if the WNBA remains a league, even though they're trying their fucking best.

How do we get everybody to fucking hate us so we don't have a league?

They're trying their best every day, it seems like.

Let me open my phone.

Oh, okay, they're still trying to ruin their league.

That's good.

That'll get figured out.

I think they'll figure that out.

And the Fever are going to go on and win that.

That's good news.

The people here, local business owners,

the people that call this place home, phenomenal people.

But the Colts are the biggest representation of this city in this state

And they got a lot of bum tendencies all over the place

They'll figure it out though. Good luck boys

Tough Jags team tough Jags tough Jags tough Jags team

You saw in the Colts everything what you said Colts gonna beat the shite out of the Jags team. Tough Jags.
Tough Jags team. You still on the Colts after everything you said? Colts is going to beat the shite out of the Jags.
Well said. I'll take the Colts as well.
Last game. This is something they would do.
Let's fuck up the draft pick at least. Let's do one last.
How can we say fuck you to the city? That's what this Colts team is going to do. And we're thankful for it.

Bears, Packers.

Packers favored by 10.

Ty, anything you think about for this game?

Not a whole lot to play for.

I think it's kind of out of their hands.

Obviously, they need to win.

They could still be the fifth seed, or excuse me, the sixth seed,

but that's as high as they could go.

Right now, they're currently slotted as the seventh seed Okay, awesome Love that, Jordan loves a dog Yeah, he didn't play great last week But I don't know if that's necessarily all on him So we'll see He's still been good They need to start fast Bears stink They do, but the Bears played the Packers Very tough last, I mean Pack Packers blocked the last second field goal to beat them. Packers can go up to six if the Commanders lose to the Cowboys.
And, Z, you wore that Chicago Bears hat into the Chargers facility. I noticed that after we left.
Yes, sir. You've been riding alongside of them.
You have no idea who the coach is going to be or the GM or what the future is. How do you feel about this particular game against the Packers to wrap up this horrendous 2024 NFL season for the Bears? I think we would in Lambeau.
I'll take the Green Bay Packers. Favored by 10.
Jair's out, right? Yeah, for the rest of the season. What's that mean, Ty? Nothing, because he hasn't really played at all the last two years.
Love Jair, though. Give me the points.
You like you like the bears a.j fucking homer give me the packers minus 10 zito did not uh zito's enthusiasm did not uh sway me over to the bears i'll take the packers favored by 10 big win going into the playoffs get that mojo back i feel like jordan love is a swagger guy it feels like a good one speaking of what you just mentioned commanders taking on the dallas cowboys commanders favored by five going into Cooper Cush's down. Cooper Cush is sitting at 52.5% of the snaps played this particular season.
If they get to 55%, he hits a $500,000 incentive. Congrats to Cooper Cup or Cooper Rush potentially getting to that.
We assume he will. With that being said, I like the Commanders by at least a touchdown.
AJ, your thoughts? Yes, with all that being said, I like the commanders as well. I've been a big fan of what Dan Quinn has been doing, and I think they might make a little run in the playoffs.
Chuck? They're riding high. Give me the commander.
Saints getting 13-and-a-half against Tampa, who needs the win. Tampa needs a win for the NFC South.
I like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to get the job done here and cover. Don't love what has happened with this New Orleans Saints team.
Ooh, should we think about what just happened in New Orleans? That's what I was going to say. I feel like that kind of thing can really galvanize a team, especially when their season has kind of largely been shite.
This could be a nice little send-off. Okay, so I'll take the Saints plus 13-and-a-half to take the Saints plus 13.5 just because that is bigger than the game there and a lot to pull from, especially if you're a citizen and a member of that community.
How about you, AJ? Who's playing quarterback for the Saints? Spencer. Oh, right.
Okay. 13.5, yeah, I think the Bucs probably win, but give me the Saints plus 13 and a half.
Chuck?

Yeah, I love Darren Rizzi when he came on and talked about this, you know,

tragedy that happened down there.

They got so many injuries, though.

They will gavinize, and they'll fight for a minute.

I just don't think they have enough.

And Tampa Bay's riding high, and this is for the NFC South title and, you know, get a home playoff game, all that stuff.

Give me Tampa. I'll take the Bucs as well.
Houston favored. No.
Houston going into Tennessee as a dog. Believe they're arresting everybody.
Yeah, because they're locked in. Tennessee's got the number two ranked defense in the league, too.
Nobody talks about it. Everybody thinks Tennessee stinks.

They do.

They do.

They need a quarterback this offseason.

They're going to continue to build in that Callahan system, you would assume.

Tennessee fans, I think, are kind of distracted by the country music scene,

what's going on.

But if that Titans scene gets good, they rally behind that team.

I mean, that's a good football city if they're worth a damn. New stadium on the way, too.
Yeah, so hopefully next year they will be worth a damn in this entirety. CJ Stroud not playing, is that what you said? I believe he is not.
Yeah, I think it's like a defense as well. Kind of resting.
So they resting some offensive linemen, too? You only rest your quarter – like, you quarterback's playing, your starting offensive line is playing, are they going to pull a couple of linemen out? What's that? That's dumb. What? As bad as they've been playing, they need to play to get some mojo back.
I think so, too. Give me Tennessee, but that's dumb.
You don't like that we're resting, not risking any injuries? That's like the Steelers. They've been resting for the last five weeks.
That's like the Steelers, too.

The Steelers cannot have a four-game schneid going into the playoffs. They need to win

a game no matter what's on the line, whether they're looking

at the next week or not. It's like the Texans,

same exact thing. You need to figure out how to play good ball again.

I think you would want to go do that.

What are you saying, Tone? I haven't seen anything

yet that he's officially out, but I think

we're just judging based off the line. I'll take

the Texans. I'll take the Texans who need

one down here in Tennessee. Beautiful city of Nashville.

Who do you like, AJ? I like the

Thank you. yet that he's officially out, but I think we're just judging based off the line.
I'll take the Texans. I'll take the Texans who need one down here in Tennessee.
Beautiful city of Nashville. Who do you like, AJ? I like the Texans as well.
Giants, Eagles, everybody's resting in Philadelphia, including Saquon, who is 101 yards away or what is the number? 101 yards away from the all-time leading rushing record. Here's what Saquon had to say about the decision.
Coach asked me, you know, what I like to do. We had a conversation.
And, you know, he called me back and let me know that we were probably going to be resting. And my reaction was kind of like I told my family.
Obviously, my family, wanted a little bit more than me but at the end of the day the most important thing is winning football games and winning the playoffs so I got a bigger goal in mine anyway I mean he asked me if I wanted to play if I want to go for it I said on Sunday you know I probably didn't care too much for it. When I slept on it, it was like it was an opportunity to implant my name in football history.
I may never get another opportunity like that again. So I'm down, but at the end of the day, I don't care for putting the team at risk.
He's the head coach for a reason. He makes his decisions, and whatever decision he wanted wanted to make I let him know if you want me to play I'm gonna

go out there and make sure I get it and if we don't

I'm okay with that too. Isn't it crazy

that if that's 50 yards

they're going for it right because he can get that in the first quarter

101 yards that's like that's a

full game going for 101 yards

so Sirianni literally has to sit

there and just be like

if I play him

and he gets hurt let's say it's 30 yards

into this thing somehow rolls an ankle

or yards so sirianni literally has to sit there and just be like if i play him and he gets hurt let's say it's 30 yards into this thing somehow rolls an ankle i'm not saying that saquon isn't built ram truck tough okay i'm not saying that that isn't the case but i'm saying if you play him and he gets it and nothing happens to him huge success way to go we did it we're we're in it we're in the history books forever this is going to be one that's going to be tough to ever get especially with the way football has kind of changed but if he plays when he gets hurt he's fucking fired sirianni's fired gone gone no questions asked gone see ya get this goofball the hell out of the city we said this john was going to make a decision that was going to ruin our season oh oh, for a running back record. Okay, well, he did it in 17 games anyways.
He won 16 games. That's how people would react.
Now, granted, he doesn't play him, doesn't give him an opportunity. This guy doesn't like his players.
This guy, he sees a – I know we've talked about Sirianni a lot this year because everybody else has talked about him. They're on a winning team, and the reason why they're not playing is because they've already figured out what their playoffs look like and everything.
They're in there. They're a very good team.
But a decision i'm happy that i would ever have to make i am very thankful no you don't want any part of it it's a no-win deal but you remember earlier in the year when sirianni went down to saquon they're sitting on the bench and he had that that monster game i forget the giants yeah i met my life yes okay so he's at 170 180 yards right against the giants and he said no let them other. Saquon did.
So he's very selfless in this. And it's a huge, you know, it's a really, really tough decision for the head coach.
But he's doing the best thing. I like that his family, Saquon's family, was like, yeah, you were real nice, what you were saying.
It doesn't matter. You know how long Dickerson's had this fucking record? There's a reason this one is a long one.
Who knows if you're ever going to get back into this situation to go get this thing and i am speaking as a person that was a very small part of a member of a team that was undefeated and chose to lose the final two games basically by resting all the players going into the playoffs and we lose in the super bowl to the new orleans saints and reggie bush who was great on the field pass yesterday yeah he was congrats to him high fashion had to figure it out because they gave him a jacket too big. But the older players, I think as they look back, obviously regret losing to the Saints, but obviously didn't like that they weren't given the opportunity to maybe have a perfect season.
But if they play in those last two games and somebody gets hurt, we lose because we're a very not deep team. We're a very high-end team.
You lose Dallas Clark. You lose Reggie Wayne.
You lose one of the offensive linemen. God forbid, fucking Peyton gets hurt.
Any of those situations, it's like you were in massive jeopardy, and Bill Pullian made that decision, I think, for everybody. Jim Caldwell didn't make that.
I think it was Bill Pullian was like, nope. We are looking forward to the playoffs.
That's not a fun position to be. Saquon, we assume you'll get it next year.
Oh, yeah. Saquon.
Do you think if he wins a Super Bowl and gets a ring this year, if he didn't, like if he got the rushing record, Hall of Fame, one way or another, affects his resume? Saquon? So if he doesn't win, got the record but didn't win a ring, or vice versa. Record automatic into the Hall of Fame.
Record automatic into the Hall of Fame. I think Saquon's at the point now where he's going to end up.
He's only the ninth

guy, right? Only the ninth guy to get 2,000

plus rushing yards? We just put up the list

over here about...

It's a huge deal. Yes, huge deal.

Obviously. Adrian, Jamal, you're talking about

the who's who of this entire thing.

Mile high salute. Do you think he's in already

regardless then? I think he was

also what? What pick was he?

Two. Yeah.
I think if you're

that highly touted. And then what

he's going to do in Philadelphia. I think in Philly he's going to have

Thank you. regardless then i think yeah he was also what what pick was he two yeah i think if you're that highly tatted and then what he's gonna do in philadelphia in philly he's gonna have to go here i think he's gonna have to have multiple years like this because how bad the giants were but i think he is on a path to all fame i think everybody kind of can see it the reverse jump over backwards guy it's just like this thing is different but you get the rushing record automatically in if're a running back, I think.
What would you do? I'd do it. Sirianni wouldn't play him.
And you're going against the Giants, too. And last thing, they're going to allow him.
They'll put 10 guys in that box and just let you throw touchdown passes before they're going to let this guy. Who says that that's what the Giants would do? Or that that would work.
I guarantee you. Mr.
Mara? mara it doesn't matter what mr mara said we've already seen him say a lot of things and just completely backfires yeah i wouldn't throw him i wouldn't throw him out there 101's a lot of yards i wish he was playing no i thought it was i thought it was gonna be much i thought it was gonna be you know 150 160 and then i still thought maybe they'll give him a shot when i 101, I'm thinking Saquon might do that in a quarter and a half and then get him out of there. Yeah.
I'm okay either way. I would like to let everybody know I'm okay either way.
If he goes for it and gets it, legendary. If he goes for it and gets hurt.
But then you've got to play all those great offensive linemen you have as well too, right? If he's going for it, they're going. Yeah, they all have to.
They want the record too, as D-Butt said. That's not just a running back.
If he breaks it, I mean the 2000 is already a testament to the O-line, the O-line coach, everything offensive coordinator, but it is kind of an offensive team award when a guy like that breaks that record. Can't live in your fears either, right? What if your fear becomes your reality and then all of a sudden it's, oh no, this guy's a big dumb dipshit and he's yelling at the fans again.
Why'd you put him out? Oh, that's cute. Oh, that's real cute.
Put him out there. Somebody's got to be an adult in the room.
Sirianni. What do you want from me? How would you like to go up to that podium? Oh, if he gets hurt? Oh.
I always go for my guys. I fucked up, okay? Just like...
What do you want me to say? Why'd you do it? Do we not want... Are we not trying to break records? We're trying to win Super Bowls, right? We're trying to win Super Bowls, too.
Breaking records is nice, isn't it? Well, is it? I don't know. Is it nice whenever you lose a guy? Well, yeah.
And I guess now that Saquon's out for the rest of the season, it's maybe not so nice. but we'll be okay.
We'll be just fine.

I don't think he has to be okay.

We looked at the percentage of the offense that runs through one guy versus everybody else, and now you've got to go to your most important game

and you're without your ace because he played.

Well, at this point it doesn't matter

because I'm going to get fucking fired after a season anyway.

Okay, Coach.

That's the reality of the situation that Sirianni has to figure out.

All right, let's go to the next game here.

Do we like the Philadelphia Eagles? Favored by two and a half? Giants are kind of hot. They are very hot.
Drew Locke. I'll take Drew Locke.
I'm going to take Drew Locke in the New York. What a fucking horrible thing to come out of your mouth.
I like the New York Giants against the Philadelphia Eagles. That's so bad.
Bruce, it doesn't sound good coming out, but what you guys did to the Colts makes me believe you guys maybe got a shot. I mean, we win and we fall to ninth looking for our franchise quarterback in the future.
So I'm hoping Malik Neighbors goes out there. I think he needs like probably three, four, five catches.
I forget the number to break Puka Nakua's record. And then, you know, yank him and hopefully lose this game on purpose.
Okay, so they're trying to lose. Eagles aren't trying to win.
Who do you like, Chuck? I'll take Philly. Okay, just because of the amount of talent.
AJ? Yeah, I'm going to take Philly here. I will as well, just because it's impossible for me to even...
I tried to say it. I tried to say Giants plus two and a half.
Almost had it. I just couldn't do it.
Chiefs, Broncos. Broncos favored by ten 10.5 with the Kansas City Chiefs arresting everybody.
Similar situation to when Patrick Mahomes actually got his first time playing in the NFL. Kansas City Chiefs with Alex Smith has already secured whatever their playoff spot was going to be.
Last week of the year, they're playing the Denver Broncos in Denver. Patrick Mahomes comes out and wins for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Didn't need to win. Did win.
They would then trade Alex Smith to Washington. Patrick Mahomes would become the new quarterback, new franchise quarterback for Kansas City and then that's all she wrote.
Then it became a whole new era of NFL dynasty football. Will Carson Wentz be able to do the same thing and keep it within 10.5? How many people are not playing? Patrick Mahomes is not playing.
That means Travis is probably not playing. Chris Jones is not playing on the defensive side.
How many more people do we know? You would think Hollywood because he's been banged up all year. Pacheco.
Pacheco definitely not playing. Is Tooney playing out there? I don't know.
Can't afford to let him get hurt. Where's Joe Tooney from? I believe he's from Centerville, Ohio, Pat.
Did you know that? Joe Tunley's from Centerville? He's an elk. Did not know that.
No, he didn't go to Centerville. He went to the Catholic school.
He went to Alter where Nick Mangold went. But yes, he's from Centerville.
Okay, so he's got Centerville water pumping through his body. He doesn't have elk pride, though.
Legend. He could have, though.
He could have been an elk, for sure. I don't know.
Putting that elk helmet on, you're going to have to earn that. I don't know if Joe Tooney would have been able to crack the starting lineup over there, which is probably why I wanted to hang out with the Catholics out there.
I did not know he was an Ohio fuck. Makes sense, though, if he just says, put me a tackle.
You need to put me a tackle. Not give up anything.
Unbelievable. Shut down everybody.
He's not playing, I assume, right? Doubt it. Patrick Mahomes isn't playing, I assume.
You only got 45 guys on the roster now, guys. Remember that.
That's not true. It's not like you can...
You got 53 and then you got to sit. No, now with the...
They got 18 on the practice squad, right? COVID. Yeah, but you can't just sign all those and cut everybody and bring those guys up, Tony.
You got to play people. So who do you like? Ten and a half? Yeah.
Pick Carl Wentzz and the Chiefs give me 10 and a half.

Wow.

Andy Reid's still coaching?

That's what Chuck just said.

Is Spagg still coaching?

Is Tobe still coaching?

Are the coaches taking the game off or are they still?

I think they get to rest bad.

No, no.

They wouldn't want it any other way.

That's like fourth quarter of those preseason games.

They get shot on those head coaches and they're still like dialed in.

And imagine this. The young players that are getting an opportunity, you know how big this is for them? Huge.
They freaking go off. What do you think, AJ? You like the Broncos, who are in a must-win situation? Or do you like the Kansas City Chiefs, who are kind of saying, you know, let's mail it in? Obviously, I love what the Broncos' defense does.
I like Bo Nix, but I'm taking the Chiefs here.

This is Carson Wentz, another coming out party.

He gets to reintroduce himself to the nation as a great quarterback.

Allow me to reintroduce myself.

My name's Carl.

I'll take the Chiefs plus 10.5.

Wow.

Seahawks, Rams.

Seahawks favored by 6.5 going into Los Angeles.

James Garoppolo at quarterback for the Rams. I'll take the Seahawks.
Same. I'll take the Rams.
They're resting. Jimmy G? They're not playing anybody.
I don't remember Jimmy G enough. You know, that was just a few years ago.
He wasn't. Went to a zero ball.
He was shite in Vegas. Good looking.
Geno Smith needs 185 passing yards for a $2 million incentive. Okay, give me the Seattle Seahawks.
That means they're going to hand it off to his Walker back. You think the Seahawks are going to just F him? You think so? No.
They're going to run the ball 45 times? They're going to have a jet sweep to DK Metcalf. They're going to have a jet sweep to a lot of these, a lot of these, a lot of these.
Let's go, boys. $2 million.
That's a big, that is a massive payday. What's another incentive that's huge? Mike Evans needs 85 yards and a touchdown for $3 million.
Is that what I saw? Yes. 85 yards, five receptions, 85 85 yards no touchdowns needed three million dollars that is a gigantic a gigantic incentive normally it's like 250 000 what you're seeing down here 500 000 is a big one three million dollars for a five reception 85 yard game for mike evans congrats to him.
I up a quick three mil that's fantastic geno smith two million dollar incentives these are huge this is when you sign a deal there and you give a team a friendly discount and then everything's like incentive laden three million dollar incentive later is being nice to the tampa buccaneers but now that you're on the precipice of it i believe biker's probably gonna be looking for mike evans a lot. That 3 million is also, I believe, for him to get 1,000 yards, which I think is his 12th straight season getting 1,000 yards.
First ballot, obviously, another 3 million in the books. Dustin D-Hop, DeAndre Hopkins, not Dustin Hopkins, kicker for the Browns.
D-Hop, a touchdown, six receptions, 140 yards, which could happen with Carl Wentz, 750,000. Kyler Murray, a rushing touchdown, plus 50 rush yards, $750,000.
Derrick Henry, Cortland Sutton, Tony Pollard, Joe Mixon, Veltas, Scantling, and Dobbins all playing for a little bit of cashola. Good luck to all you guys.
We hope you secure it. Carl Wentz, we like him.
Seattle Seahawks, minus 6.5. I like him.
AJ, who'd you take? I'm taking Jimmy G and the Rams here. Okay, Niners cards.
We just talked about Kyler Murray has the ability to win some stuff. Favored by four at home against his Niners team that fought valiantly against the Lions.
That was a hell of a Monday night football game. Great game.
We were just catching it in clips because the Wi-Fi on a plane, obviously not as great as you could imagine. New quarterback.
For who? Sam Brown. Who is it? The Pastronaut.
i would take the arizona cardinals favored by four at home me too chuck will as well aj give me the cardinals dolphins jets dolphins are huntley played his best game that he's ever played as a miamiphin last week. Two, his injury pops up out of nowhere, and now he's missing again.
So that sounds very – that feels serious. Yes.
Definitely. This one feels very serious.
Don't know what it is. It's the same hip they said, but they haven't really – right? They haven't fully put out what it is? No.
Yep. Jets fresh off their worst game of all time.
Now, what does Aaron's future look like? Nobody knows. He said open everything attached to nothing.
That includes playing again. That includes playing for the Jets if they want to keep him there in the new regime, which we all assume not going to be the case.
But there's going to be a lot of teams that potentially need a quarterback. Will Aaron Rodgers test the waters to go elsewhere? Will he be a Jet? Or will he just not play football and sail off into the sunsets? Are we looking at potentially last hoorah here for aaron rogers who's a mount rushmore football player of all time aj who do you like how do you like it here in met life are they gonna put fireman ed up on the jumbotron i don't know if that will happen or not but man dolphins traveling to new york not sure what the weather will be like to being out give me the jets Jets here.
I think so. I think Aaron understands,

and this is not from information he's told me,

but Aaron understands what's going on around him.

There's a chance this is the last time here.

There was a,

it was like an article or something came out that said,

like,

he is very aware that this is,

this could possibly be his last.

Devante is going to have 48 targets.

How about Gary Wilson?

You going to get him to the wall or not?

I don't think so.

Jeez. Maybe.
There's a chance. Yeah.
I like the Jets as well. Give me the Jets.
How about that? That's just as hard to say in the Giants there. That's just as hard to say in the Giants.
I'll take the Jets plus one, take it on the Miami Dolphins coming into the Colts. First must-win team you guys didn't take, I don't think.
Yeah, well, listen, we watched what the Colts did last week. Now, Broncos.
They all took the Chiefs. Yeah, it's ten and a half.
Yeah, it's true. It's like a money line spread.
Chargers, Raiders. Raiders getting five at home.
I'll tell you what. We all know which way we're going here.
I know. I wasn't even with you, and I know which way.
Exactly, and I kind of got a glimpse into what Harbaugh's telling the team this week. I think he's going to have the boys ready to go.
Go message. Yeah, I like the Chargers favored by five here in Week 18.
Go ahead, H. Yeah, Justin Herbert, Jim Harbaugh, give me the Chargers here.
There is some playoff implication seeding here in this particular. They will know.
They'll know if the Steelers lose, then they can have something to play for. But if the Steelers win on Saturday, they will have nothing to play for.
And then it all comes down to this. Vikings-Lions for the number one seed in the NFC.
Two NFC North teams battling at 14-2 for home field advantage for the rest of the way. What a phenomenal season by both of these teams.
Congrats to the Vikings rebuilding, becoming who they are. Congrats to the Lions getting out of the depths of hell from professional sports franchises to get to this point that they're in.
So many injuries all season long. They've been able to continue to stack dubs because the pillars of that team are all in on being tough, a high football IQ team, having fun while doing it, and winning games.
AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? So I told you earlier in the program I was leaning towards the Lions here on this one, and I stand strong with that. I love the Vikings, what they do.
But give me the Detroit Lions at home. I think they find a way to get it.
Make it happen, I guess. Chuck Pagano? Shootout.
Shit ton of points. That's the over.
I'll take the Lions, too. I would take the Lions as well.
Congrats to the Vikings having to go on the road. You know, take the long way home, at least for one round of the playoffs.
I think they'll do that. Let's enjoy the hell out of this weekend of football.
Let's know the college football playoffs will continue next week and also in an hour and 25 minutes. Let's know that Pizza Hut is always there for you, okay? And no one, and we mean no one, out of Pizza Hut.
Well said. Hop in your Ram truck.
Utilize DoorDash, okay? Shout out to Seeky, giving us tickets to everything we need. Let pizza's the HUD.
Well said. Hop in your Ram truck, utilize DoorDash, okay?

Shout out to Seeky,

getting his tickets to everything we need,

and let's enjoy the hell out of Pizza Hut.

Let's have a great weekend.

We can't thank you enough

for being such a dedicated crew of people

that follow us.

You know, I know there was a lot of people

watching that thing on ESPN2 last night,

even though it was a completely crap game,

because people, for some reason,

really enjoy spending time with us.

Well, we want to let you know, we enjoy spending time with us. Well, we want to let you know,

we enjoy spending time with you.

Thank you for allowing us to do this for a living.

We hope you have a great weekend.

From AJ Hawk, all the boys,

Chuck Pagano, great work this week.

Thanks, Coach.

Chuck.

Be a friend, tell a friend something nice

that might change their life.

We're in this thing together.

Team on me, happy 2025.

Team on me, team on three.

One, two, three.

Team.

Goodbye.

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Let's Texas. Rapper Sean Diddy Combs was a kingmaker.
He had wealth, fame, and power. What's up? Welcome to New York! Until it all came crashing down.

Federal investigators raiding two homes owned by hip-hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs.

I'm Brian Buckmeyer, an ABC News legal contributor.

As Diddy heads to trial, we trace his remarkable rise and fall

and what could be next.

Listen to Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy,

a new series from ABC Audio.

Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.