The Pat McAfee Show

PMS 2.0 1526 - Cooper Flagg, Chase Daniel, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, Dan Orlovsky, & Darius Butler

173 min
Apr 1, 202627 days ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

The Pat McAfee Show covered major sports developments including Jeremy Fowler's report on Jalen Hurts and Eagles drama, Cooper Flagg's NBA rookie struggles with the Mavericks, WNBA Commissioner Kathy Engelbert discussing the new 7-year CBA, and extensive coverage of college basketball's Final Four and MLB's opening week.

Insights
  • Anonymous sources in sports reporting amplify internal conflict without accountability, creating narrative damage that may not reflect organizational reality
  • Women's sports leagues require sustainable business models with corporate partnerships before salary increases—not the reverse—to ensure long-term viability
  • Young NBA talent like Cooper Flagg benefits from losing seasons early in their career as a learning experience, similar to how Wembanyama's Spurs struggled in year one
  • The NFL's shift from Monday Night Football doubleheaders to single-game broadcasts increases viewership quality and allows for à la carte game sales to streaming platforms
  • Coaches' camaraderie at league meetings suggests a stable, competitive generation of NFL leadership that understands peer dynamics and organizational culture
Trends
Women's sports investment accelerating: WNBA secured 7-year CBA with salary growth, new broadcast partners (NBC, Amazon), and expansion to 18 teams by 2030College basketball viewership surge: March Madness 2024 drew 19M viewers, highest since 1993, driven by NIL/transfer portal creating recognizable starsSports media fragmentation: NFL games moving to multiple platforms (ESPN, Netflix, Amazon, Peacock) enabling premium pricing for individual matchupsGlobal talent pipeline in women's basketball: WNBA international player percentage grew from 8% to 23% in recent years, mirroring NBA globalizationStreaming platforms competing for live sports: Netflix MLB coverage, Amazon/Apple NFL games, and Peacock NHL indicate shift from cable-exclusive broadcastingAnonymous sourcing in sports journalism creating reputational risk: Multiple quarterback controversies (Hurts, Wentz) driven by unnamed team sourcesVeteran athlete longevity records: Sydney Crosby (point-per-game over 21 seasons) and Alexander Ovechkin (30+ goals at age 40) redefining career arcsSports facility investment as competitive advantage: WNBA teams building new arenas/practice facilities to attract free agents and improve player experienceRookie quarterback learning curves: Cooper Flagg and Fernando Mendoza showing that elite college talent requires NBA/NFL adjustment period despite early strugglesCorporate partnership diversification in sports: Deloitte, Nike, Google, Ally, AT&T stepping into women's sports sponsorship at scale
Topics
Jalen Hurts quarterback controversy and Eagles organizational dysfunctionCooper Flagg NBA rookie season struggles with Dallas MavericksWNBA new collective bargaining agreement and salary structureWomen's sports investment and corporate partnership growthCollege basketball March Madness viewership recordsNFL media rights fragmentation and à la carte game salesFernando Mendoza pro day and 2025 NFL draft prospectsNHL playoff race and goaltender fightsSports journalism anonymous sourcing ethicsInternational talent recruitment in professional sportsStreaming platform competition for live sports rightsVeteran athlete longevity records (Crosby, Ovechkin)Coaches' culture and leadership at NFL league meetingsBaseball opening week and pitcher performanceSports facility investment as competitive strategy
Companies
ESPN
Reported Jalen Hurts story via Jeremy Fowler; gained NFL Network content; broadcasts college basketball and multiple ...
Deloitte
Former employer of WNBA Commissioner Kathy Engelbert; corporate sponsor of WNBA; major accounting/consulting firm
Nike
Corporate partner investing in WNBA; Cooper Flagg wears New Balance; major sports apparel sponsor
New Balance
Cooper Flagg's apparel sponsor; basketball and lifestyle shoe brand; sold-out inventory mentioned
Netflix
MLB broadcast partner; criticized for Wednesday Night Baseball coverage but praised for home run derby production
Amazon
New WNBA broadcast partner; competes for live sports streaming rights alongside other platforms
NBC/Peacock
WNBA broadcast partner; NHL streaming; NFL game rights; Versint spinco mentioned
McDonald's
Kathy Engelbert sits on board; mentioned in context of corporate partnerships and sponsorships
Ally Financial
Corporate sponsor of WNBA; part of investment group supporting league growth
Google
Corporate sponsor of WNBA; part of investment group supporting league growth
CarMax
Corporate sponsor of WNBA; part of investment group supporting league growth
AT&T
Corporate sponsor of WNBA; part of investment group supporting league growth
Fanatics
MLB merchandise partner; created 'Hoist the Cone' Pirates tradition; influences pop culture through sports apparel
Las Vegas Raiders
Fernando Mendoza's NFL draft destination; Mark Davis ownership; discussed in context of quarterback prospects
Philadelphia Eagles
Jalen Hurts' team; subject of major organizational drama story; recent Super Bowl winner
Dallas Mavericks
Cooper Flagg's NBA team; struggling season discussed; Luka Doncic mentioned as star player
Indiana University
Fernando Mendoza's college; hosted pro day with packed house; national championship program
Duke University
Cooper Flagg and Kon Knipple's college; Final Four appearance; strong basketball program
UConn
College basketball Final Four team; Caitlin Clark's former school; all-American roster
People
Jeremy Fowler
Reported Jalen Hurts story with anonymous sources about Eagles offense dysfunction
Cooper Flagg
Rookie sensation struggling with Mavericks; discussed pro day performance and adjustment to NBA
Kathy Engelbert
Negotiated new 7-year CBA; former Deloitte co-head; discussed league expansion and player investment
Chase Daniel
Discussed Jalen Hurts situation and Eagles quarterback controversy; former NFL player
Dan Orlovsky
Analyzed Fernando Mendoza pro day; discussed Jalen Hurts and quarterback evaluation; addressed internet criticism
Darius Butler
Discussed Eagles drama and Jalen Hurts situation; former NFL defensive back
Fernando Mendoza
Heisman winner; pro day performance analyzed; projected #1 overall NFL draft pick
Caitlin Clark
Rookie sensation driving WNBA viewership; discussed as transformational player for league
Jalen Hurts
Subject of major ESPN report about organizational dysfunction and play-calling conflicts
Pat McAfee
Show host; conducted interviews; provided commentary on sports developments
AJ Brown
Mentioned in context of Eagles locker room drama and relationship with Jalen Hurts
Nick Sirianni
Eagles coach criticized in Fowler report; discussed in context of offensive dysfunction
Dan Hurley
UConn basketball coach; 10-0 against spread in tournament; leading Final Four team
Shohei Ohtani
Pitching debut discussed; 36-game on-base streak; pursuing dual-sport excellence
Sydney Crosby
Approaching first point-per-game season over 21 seasons; veteran consistency discussed
Alexander Ovechkin
20th season with 30+ goals; all-time goal scoring leader; veteran excellence discussed
Jason Kelsey
Announced for Masters Par 3 coverage; former Eagles center; podcast host
Mike Vrabel
Dominated coaches photo at league meetings; bullied rookie coaches; alpha personality
Sean Payton
Engaged in physical competition with Vrabel at league meetings; veteran coach presence
Jeff Hafley
Rookie head coach; dominated by Vrabel at league meetings; first-year coach challenges
Quotes
"Jaylen Hurts stands at a crossroads. Despite his immense success sources say he is a hand in the Eagles offense becoming calcified and frustrations have grown."
Jeremy Fowler (ESPN)Early in episode
"I absolutely hate that. Like put your name behind it because these are people's careers and jobs and stuff like that."
Chase DanielMid-episode
"We needed to get it right for players, team owners, fans, the business. We want to set that all up for success."
Kathy EngelbertWNBA segment
"He's somebody who's only going to get better with more experience. He's 17 years old coming in here playing like a vet. No emotion."
Kevin Durant (about Cooper Flagg)Cooper Flagg interview
"I know and understand the seriousness of the situation. I find myself in today. I'm stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment and focus on my health."
Tiger WoodsLate in episode
Full Transcript
Hello beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode the ThunderDome on this April Fool's Wednesday. March? Nope, April 1st. It's just a now. Sports! Listen, April Fool's obviously something that some people fall for. Let's not be rude out there. I saw a couple guys announce their return to some professional leagues. Good luck to them if that's the case. It's April Fool's. I don't like that you put me in a position to be happy for you. And then now I gotta rescind that and actually be mad at you because you tricked me. Now on that note, hope you're all having a fantastic Wednesday. We're back here at the ThunderDome after two days in Phoenix, Arizona where there's a lot of NFL chatter in conversation. A lot of NFL people all kind of in one place. A lot of people shaking hands, kissing babies, telling secrets. And then all of a sudden reports coming out. Jaylen Hurts is the problem. Whoa! Now what? That's Mr. Fowler. Jeremy Fowler at ESPN reported basically is our latest at ESPN as he describes his entire article alongside Tim McManus. Jaylen Hurts stands at a crossroads. Despite his immense success sources say he is a hand in the Eagles offense becoming calcified and frustrations have grown. Uh-oh. Pull up the definition of calcified please just so we can do that. Hardened by deposition of or conversion into calcium carbonate or another insoluble calcium compound. Another toxic table at Boston Connor more specifically at Ty Schmidt who got into Harvard chose to go to Iowa because he wanted to be a big 10 angler. Okay, no big deal. What the hell does he mean by calcified? Basically saying that Jaylen Hurts has put the Eagles offense into a position where it can't go up or it can't go down. It's basically just here. And in the article they say he likes certain rods. He likes doing things. He likes throwing it out here. He doesn't like these things. He changes plays to be ass plays is what an anonymous source told Jeremy Fowler in a nutshell. Now you read that. Okay, especially as what we saw last year coming out of Chicago Bears Camp with how Caleb Williams was kind of being talked about by anonymous sources. You go here to Philadelphia see anonymous sources. You start thinking yourself, well, who would be saying play card for good? That guy was changing them to ask you can start pieces of things together or maybe this is fresh out of the league meetings. The overall narrative was like, hey, there's a bigger problem here. And it's not just AJ Brown opening up books on the sideline. He hates what's it become over there. Is everybody unhappy? Is Jaylen now the enemy? This is a wild article to have here on this April 1st fresh out of the league meetings. And I really don't know how to take it. Nick Sirianni is being called shut. Yeah. Yeah, because of how he looks. He looks like he's a little bit jacked, but he certainly doesn't have a six pack just yet. But now the Eagles even more drama, which is seemingly the case with this team all the time. Now all eyes seemingly are on Jaylen Hertz. That's crazy. This guy just won a Super Bowl two years ago. Yeah, based on the context clues, I assume that is what calcify means in this situation is basically that the offense is just stagnant because of him stays. The exact same doesn't change. But like you said, it is very interesting because this is the big thing we've kind of talked about with the Eagles. Even before they won that Super Bowl when they when they went a couple years ago, which is like, I mean, it seems to always be a new offensive coordinator. Is it this guy's fault? We know how the fans treat them. Fans hate every offensive coordinator that comes in then gets, you know, Sirianni kind of gets some of that backlash as well. But it does make you think because I mean, this stuff has come up before, but I think that's always been our response. It's kind of like, listen, this guy just won a Super Bowl. He cannot be the only reason that Philadelphia's offense kind of has looked like shite for the better part of the, you know, last year and a little bit. Before that, but it is very interesting that a couple people are kind of taking shots at nine year NFL vet. Darius J. Butler is here. 11 and six was the record. Okay. That's last year. Now we're going to be good for a lot of French. Yeah, it certainly would be now. Philadelphia fresh off a Super Bowl can have it. We got to look better. We got to look the part. We got to be the part every single week. We need to be better than what we're showing. And also when our star players that we have paid to be star players are coming out and say, I hate this. I hate all this publicly in the middle of the season. Obviously that's not good. Fans are expecting a certain thing. Team obviously wants to win every game. Jalen Hertz has won the entire thing and has played very well. I mean, let's not forget about what that is from Jalen Hertz, but that's one of the throws he likes. Oh, right. And he did call that play. He said he actually did call that particular play. But the drama seemingly never ending around Philadelphia. Is this a real thing of content here, you think with this Philadelphia? Especially with this article coming out, especially the timing of the article. Do you think this is going to be something that might affect the building in Philadelphia? Definitely, definitely real. I've been hearing these rumblings for some time now. As you know, I'm in Philly. I fly in the Philly every week during the NFL season to shoot at films, which is right in Jersey. So obviously fans talk. Fans talking to people who are in the building, people that are working in the building. So you hear these things about the quarterback. And in the quarterback position, it's always going to be a bunch around them. I thought, you know, usually people are a fan of the quarterbacks and the players who win, who win the big games, who win the big moments. As we know, the Eagles, they're one of my teams. Why, why became Eagles fans because of Jalen Hertz? I liked how he played. I like how he led. I liked all those things. Same thing on the other side of the country with Justin Herbert. And if you look at the narratives around these two different quarterbacks, everyone loves Justin. Hey, get some help around him. Get some things. He's got to get over the hump. Got to win a playoff game. And then you look at Jalen Hertz, you say, oh, he has a good offensive line. He has Seyquan. He has to get receivers. He has a good defense. Anybody who wins a Super Bowl in that situation. So there's different narratives around it. I'm sure there's some truth to it as well. But we know this about quarterbacks. A lot of times they do bump heads with people. They want to do things their way. And if you look at that list, the, the graphic that we had up with all those different play callers that's been in his ear since becoming a starter, like that's abnormal. And obviously even in league where offensive play callers move on, he has an offensive coach like this is abnormal. Usually these great quarterbacks, you have continuity with play calls for some time. Three out of five years, he's created a head coach. Yeah, true. Okay. He knows that. Yeah. Remember, it was right on the show. We were to my Baker Mayfield and the coaches that have gone on and coached him went on to be head coaches. And it's, it's a lot of narrative when it's Philly, it's going to be a big talking point because of their market, their team, their brand. And when you don't win, when you don't win at all, especially the team like that, it's going to be loud shit like this. In the article, a team source said poor body language. Always bought in, automotes, coach, boy. And players notice. I would like to say, I don't love that this is all anonymity. Okay. It's like these people's lives will not be jeopardized. I understand that there should be anonymous sources and things that are very real in the world and you need whistleblowers and all this type of stuff. In sports, this seems pretty cowardice. Yep. You know, this feels pretty cowardice. Will we cover it? Got to. We're a problem. Yeah, you do have to. We are certainly a part of the problem. And maybe this is how business is done, you know, to get things to happen. But that's a real quote right there. That's in the players notice. It's like questioning leadership, basically not being bought in. Other players notice and they hear the players speak during the season. It's like Philadelphia is such a fascinating place. And a head coach who's being called chud right now has also been called big dumb dipshit in the fast. That's right. And everyone is Super Bowl. Yeah. Everyone is Super Bowl. So good luck to all parties over there. Go ahead, Conrad. Yeah, but it's clearly not nothing. Like that's why we have to talk about it because this isn't the first time. If this is the first time we've heard like others, you know, some stuff going on in the Eagles locker room. Fine. I don't know if it was last year or the year before, but Brandon Graham on a radio interview basically said like, yeah, the locker room Jalen, AJ Brown, like they're not seeing eye to eye. And whether that was, you know, outside voice or inside voice on the outside, whatever the hell you say, that wasn't supposed to be set. And then Brandon Graham says it. And then all of a sudden, no, this is nothing. And then there's the whole entire, oh, they had a handshake thing. AJ, Seyquan and, you know, Jalen were, you know, they settled their differences. And then they asked AJ Brown about it. And AJ Brown's like, I don't remember that. That never happened. So it's not as if this is just out of nowhere. The timing of it is interesting right after the league meetings. That is fascinating. But like there is something within that locker room that isn't right. That has caused problems. And whether or not AJ Brown is there next year right now, he is. So if AJ Brown goes back and that they figure it out, that's amazing. But let's say AJ Brown leaves and then some stuff happens. It's like, then there are real questions about the Jalen Hurts thing. And if you remember it, it was either last year at this exact time or right before the season, there was another long ESPN article detailing how Siriani and Jalen Hurts didn't get along at all. And that was one big thing that they had to come face to face before the season started. And like, hey, we have to put our swords down. We have to make this work. So yeah, exactly. It might not all be true, but Jalen Hurts is at the center of all this stuff. Like in his name, continually gets brought up. So it probably is a little more than nothing. All right. I guess we have to pay attention to it. Now on that note, let's go to one half of the hammer. Done. Cowboys AP tone. What's Eagles over under? The win total is 10 and a half. Think about that. 10 wins is expected from the sports of 10 and a half. I think it's tied for the most in the league. It's either 10 and a half or 11 and a half. They're still favorites to win the East. But they have fallen like the last few years, they've been favorites to win the NFC as a whole. Their fifth right now be behind the Seahawks, Rams, Niners and Packers. So they fell a little bit in there, but they're still favorites when these 10 and a half is a very, very strong win total. So the books don't believe in the drop off as much as maybe the public is right now. Pittsburgh Steelers, eight and a half. That's classic. Seahawks, just one Super Bowl, 10 and a half. Philadelphia Eagles who have fresh out of league meetings, April 1st. We don't think it's April Fool's from Jeremy Fowler. We've tried to do like personality profiling. Sure. We don't think Jeremy Fowler would be an April Fool's type guy. He's an adult. Exactly. That is what we're saying. He is very, he's super adult-y. Seahawks. Yeah, we would see that. No, there was a time back where April Fool's Day wasn't a scary day and he stayed away from the phone. Yeah, definitely. You know, I want you to live in life a little bit. You know, you need to stay away from that. But we, you know, there's a little bit of that stuff. Just like, really? You know, a couple of those. And then you start conversating. Like, could it? Could it? Well, I guess. And then things got a little bit too real. You know, we always ruin things. I think April Fool's had a fun time. Yeah, I think it had a fun time. But now with AI and the internet and everything, Yeah. It's just gotten, every day is April Fool's Day. That's right. And then April Fool's Day now, has it potentially become like New Year's Eve where the amateurs are going? You know what I mean? Sure. And it's like, I don't know, but whatever the case is, we need to all agree that April Fool's should be something different. We should stop with the fooling around. Yeah. And how about every day we stop using AI to trick people into believing things that could be true? That happens. Every day is kind of April Fool's Day now. That Dan Hurley thing? Yeah. Thought that we thought that was- Thought there was a chance it was AI. Which I think is good of us to do that. Yeah. I mean, you gotta do everything. It's a question of everything. Everything. Not just on April Fool's. So I think our April Fool's messages now, every day is potentially April Fool's. Stay enlightened, cuz. That's right. On that note, Jeremy Fowler, I don't think he's April Fooling around. No, he doesn't seem like that. I don't think he is April Fooling around at all with this. And it's a pretty heavy story. He knew that was gonna be the case coming out. He's gonna have a good April, we think. Clicks. Yeah. He's on a good start. He's on a good start. We've obviously dove into that. We think we might have Cooper Flag in about eight and a half minutes. Okay. We think. We don't know. We have not gotten confirmation on a time. And they lost pretty bad last night. But they've been losing. They have. They've been losing. But there was a conversation that was had with Cooper Flag's folks that he would come on program. There's, you know, March is just not, it was not a good month for the Dallas Maps. So we don't know how this is gonna go. But we think we're gonna be catching up with Cooper Flag. He had 19-10 last night, double, double ho hum. Don't worry about it. They lose by 50. Yep. So that's what it was. That's been their season though. That's what it was. That's the norm. What was their record in March three and one? Three and 14 in March. I think they're 24 and 50 overall. So if he, you know, if we, if he's on a program in eight minutes, we will certainly let him know that that stinks, that that's your experience. But also that happens in every sport. Usually if you're a super talent, you're going to a team that isn't that great. Now the Mavs were better than most teams whenever you went to that team. And then there was obviously a lot of hopes and dreams and drama and tweets from Sean Charani that changed the entire trajectory of everything in that entire world down there. But Cooper Flag is a guy. There's some stats coming out about him. There's some stats coming out about him and some names that are being put up there. Teenagers who have averaged 20 plus points in a season. Cooper's doing it this year currently. Will he be able to finish with soon? Luca, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Carmelo, Anthony, all certified bucket getters. Cooper Flag obviously trying to cement his name on that list. And also try to turn around and franchise that boy. They've done some big old. And then just right down here at the foot. Then he'd get that thing back. And then they turn, turn that thing to the left foot. That's what they've done a lot. Mark Cuban sells that thing. Then they're accused of trying to move the team to Vegas by being so shitty that people stop buying tickets. You remember that? That was actual accusations that were kind of happening to them. Oh yeah. Then you know the move was made for the whole Luca trade. And Anthony Davis comes in there. If he's healthy, that's good. He's now a member of a Washington team in DC. And he's not playing until next year because there's tanking. So he's on his team. And Luca scored more points, I think in a month than maybe our team did a year or something. I forget what it was. Yeah. I forget what it was. So yeah, Luca's the guy right now. Yeah. Down 38 pounds, which I think Nico is probably trying to say, you know, when he was in Dallas, too good a cook and over there maybe is what he was thinking. But yeah, Luca has won this particular trade. The Mavs haven't. But with Cooper Flag, what we're saying, if we get a chance to chat with them in six minutes, is it seems like you're off to just a normal superstar start in a league. Wemby first year at San Antonio, right? They weren't like the best somehow. Yeah, same thing. Somehow they weren't the best. Right now with what we know about Wemby, they weren't good. And he could have been good by himself as well. We're learning basketball basically. So we hope the same will happen to him. But it feels like there is a young generation in the NBA that are doing good. Right? I think that is a conversation. He's joining that group right now. Yeah, without a doubt. It feels like the NBA is definitely on the up and up. And for Cooper Flag, I believe he started the year at Point Guard. Like they've moved him around. So it's not as if he just kind of, you know, hit the ground running. It does feel as though he had to make some adjustments. But to your point, they fired the GM during the year. That's never a good sign as far as teams doing well. Jason Kidd's still there. But yeah, we'll see. A long, long way to go for the Mavericks. Once Kyrie comes back, maybe that'll help him. You know, Kyrie's been gone all year as well. So it is just one of those things where, hey, let's wait and see. I love that basketball is going to heat up into playoffs. And there's going to be a story about the NBA not being dead. Yeah. I do love that that's going to happen. But boy, with the haves and have-nots in the NBA now, it is tough to watch a lot of these games. But hey, things are going to heat up. Let's remember that. LeBron James is taking off from Foul on again. Something about it. They got a chance. I have no idea how he's doing, especially with the things that are being said about what's going on. We're watching this guy is a 40-plus-year-old taking massive oops from Arthur. It just going crazy. The minutes he's playing is out. We've been watching him do that since he's 12 years old. He's still doing that. And that team might be on a run. It's like the NBA, whenever it gets to the playoffs, when we get rid of all the have-nots, they're all ass at basketball. Some of them, Adam Silver's not going to like me saying this, are trying to be the worst ass, the most ass basketball team. Trying really hard. They're trying. They're trying their absolute best. With interesting little strategies, sub it out to six, six-minute mark, three-minute mark, who's going in, who's playing. Stars still playing. Stars still playing. When are they playing? How are they playing? Interesting moves being accused of these teams trying to be the most ass. But when we get to the playoffs, after that first play and thing, once we get to the playoffs, we should have all the good teams. So I think NBA is going to be in a good spot. Sucks at Cooper Flag is not a part of that. We will not start the Max Crosby needs to be traded type conversations. So they can play games with Cooper Flag at this point. But certainly, if this is two or three more years of this, we're certainly going to have to get into that. Yeah, it's hard to imagine that just because of how good he is. But I can't remember the last time all the teams that are eliminated from playoff contention is where it is. Basically, all the play-in teams for the playoffs are solidified. Whether they're the 7, 8, 9 or 10 seed, I'm not sure. But those ones are already out. But yeah, it is a very good young league, which is good. Like Wemby in the Spurs, that storyline throughout the playoffs is going to be unbelievable. And then even the new teams in the East, like the Pistons and even James Harden with the Cavs is sweet. The haters are going to be mad in which there are many. We will not just be talking NBA hoops today. No. No. We'll be talking college hoops as well. Always. You con. Shout out. You con. All five Americans. You see that little graph? Yeah. All five Americans. You see that little graph? Yep. All five Americans. We'll be talking college hoops. Obviously, we found a force here in Indianapolis. That's right. Coach K says, also talking WNBA today. OK. Every time we do that, it ends up really well. Yeah, definitely. Today is going to be another one of those. What's that? It's April Fools. See? Are you revving me? No. You can't. We just talked about April Fooling Around. What the heck was that? Just making sure. WNBA commissioner. Kathy Engelbert will be joining today's show. Hell yeah. Let's go. This is a big conversation for us. Dudes. We're very lucky and thankful to be doing it. I have a lot of questions. Yeah. And she, talent. We went through her history. She was co-at Deloitte, which I think is like one of the four biggest firms of whatever firm. Accounting. There it is. Big, big accounting. Mm-hmm. Normally associated with a lot of money. Yes. Yeah. Time. A lot of money, a lot of talking. Mm-hmm. A lot of moving. A lot of numbers. She was also a D1 athlete who's now a commissioner of a league, only commissioner across all leagues. It's a D1 athlete as well. So a little bit of a dog on the field while also becoming an absolute beast in the suit room and suit game. So we're excited. It sits on the board of McDonald's, D-Bone. So thankful for what you guys do. He's so thankful. I'll make sure I tell Kathy. I do as well. I grew up, I don't think I was doing the Kathy Engelbert McDonald's board time when I was growing up. Dollar menu, I don't think it fall into her. No. You know, particular world, but I'm sure there's other things that Bone has certainly done. Brought the McRib back. Yeah, potentially. So we'll talk to her about that. We're very, very thankful for the WNBA. Having that convo with us today, that'll be in the next hour. Is Cooper Flagg joining the show? I believe so. He's not joined the Zoom, but I've gotten confirmation that he is good for 12 times. Here we go. We didn't know. Made it back. We didn't know. We didn't know. We didn't know. We didn't know. We didn't know. We liked that. Okay. So on that note, NBA, we should chit chat about what College Hoops has been doing. So NBA convo all year has been teams are good, teams are ass. College Hoops having a better season than the NBA is what everybody said, which should mean that it's gearing up for a massive March madness. Well, the numbers are in. Everybody's watching this thing. 19 mil the other day is what the number was for the television rate. Most watched NCAA tournaments since 1993. 10.3 million viewers through the elite eight across TBS, CBS, TNT and true TV, shout out, true TV. It's great finding where that is every March. Man is there up 9% Yukon Duke and elite eight peaked with 18.9 million viewers on CBS for a thrilling conclusion game average 13.4 million viewers, which is up 15%. Sweet 16 early prime time window on Friday. Duke St. John's Michigan Alligator 14 million. That's up 38%. Most watchings 1992 College Hoops. Everybody was saying they're having a great year. Turns out March madness is doing it for him. NIL, transfer portal, older guys, no more Cinderella's. Okay, basically. I was closest thing this year to baby continuing Cinderella. But they're saying the whole what we used to watch from March madness, what everybody used to get excited about is the hire a two year old nun sister Jean with oil going on a run and us not knowing about it. And holy hell, that's the case. Now a transfer portal NIL any of those smaller school guys that play good either like for their first year or second year, because a lot of those loyal teams or younger teams, they're like third, fourth year guys who've been together and they kind of know each other. If you have a good first year or second year and you happen to get into March madness, or you just play well at all, all these big schools are just coming in and because if the ducks are quacking, you got to feed them exactly all those big schools are just quack quack quack quack quack quack quack quack. They are literally just taking all the small schools. So we thought maybe the power for would take over basketball would be bad for hoops. Turns out no quality of plays great. The games are battling. There's been a few blowouts. That certainly happened, but there's been a lot more exciting battles in this March madness. And in numbers are gigantic. Have we been winning and gambling in this thing as the public been winning? Because I know favorites did well in the first and second round. And then as we move into the sweet 16 elite eight, now the final four, how should we feel whenever we're gambling on this? Have the public been operating at a high clip against it? Or have the crowns never been ours? So the first weekend was good, obviously, because of all the favorites and the favorites dominated. And then that Friday, if you did a favorites parlay, it was undefeated. So they did well in the first weekend. And then the second weekend was going to be like, how was that? The favorites went six and two straight up over that weekend. There was only two upsets the whole weekend as far as the straight up money line goes. And then it was four and four against the spread were favorites in the second weekend. So, and a lot of people in these, the spreads weren't that big. So they were doing a lot of moneyline parlays and stuff like that. The one person who always wins always is Dan Hurley. He is 10 and O against the spread. Yeah. Sweet 16 and later 18 and three against spread overall in the tournament. If there is a, is a man that you want to follow into war, betting, it's Dan Hurley and the Yukon Huskies 18 and three in the tournament, his career and 10 and O against the spread sweet 16 or later is Dan Hurley and Yukon in his career there. So pretty incredible. Yeah. It sounds like Dan Hurley was letting their ref know potentially. And I appreciate both sides of that conversation afterwards coming out and saying, that was a great basketball game. It certainly was down 19 and one point down 15. They come back, not only cover, obviously get the win over the highly powerful Duke squad, which is a shame. Join us now. Oh, tough. This is tough transition. I didn't know this wherever we're headed. That's all me. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a Duke legend. Absolute icon, potential goat convo in the future when it's all said and done. Hembo has sent us stats about what this dude is doing during his teenage years. Remember he reclassified graduated high school early so he could get the Duke quicker to get to the NBA. Now I don't know if it was strictly to get the NBA or just for the good of Duke where he lost to the Final Four, made it to the Final Four, which is certainly fantastic. Ladies and gentlemen, Dallas Maverick star, the main event, Cooper Flag. How you doing? Hey, thank you for joining us. I listen, we are very thankful that you have joined us. I want to let you know that immediately off the jump. But I understand season's not going anywhere near what you expected. I looked up your record in high school, you want to state championship, then you go to Montferrey, you want a national championship there, you go to Duke, obviously you go to Final Four. Anytime you're a highly sought after person, especially in professional sports, you're potentially not going to the best setup. What has this season been like for you? Obviously you are getting numbers, you're balling, you're learning the NBA game, but what has this all been like is you're not getting as many wins. I assume you're a bit conflicted, living dream while it's not going exactly perfectly. Is that kind of a good way to describe it? 100%. Yeah, I mean, obviously it's been tough. Like you said, through high school, college, I mean, I only lost four games last year. So there's been times of the season where it's been really mentally taxing on me. There's not having the success that I would have hoped for. Obviously we've had a lot of injuries and a lot of unfortunate things happen throughout the year. But yeah, it's obviously not been ideal. And I mean, I've had growth along the way and I've had to get better and learn on the fly. But it's definitely not the start I want to look for. But I think, you know, hopefully eventually I'll be able to look back on it and know that I was able to learn a lot from it. Yeah, let's talk about you playing like point guard with kid there also helping. I think that was a big decision early in the year. Let's put the ball in his hands and see what it's like. You're a teenager. We put up some of the stats about the guys that you're next to. I don't know if you know this. Hembo sent this over to us this morning whenever he found out. Averaging 20 plus points as a teenager. You, Luca, Durant, LeBron and Carmelo. Okay. Not ass. Okay, so let's go ahead and finish this entire thing out. What has it been like as you transition into the men's league? Are you just, do you view yourself as a bucket getter? Have you had to develop? What do you think you've really changed in your game since getting to the Mavericks as opposed to college or high school? Yeah, I think I've had to change a lot. I think, you know, coming in, I wasn't expecting, you know, kinds to be thrown in the fire as much. You know, obviously, I was looking at, you know, AD, Kai, Clay, and, obviously with, you know, some of the injuries and stuff, it just didn't work out that way. And I was kind of just thrown out there, you know, a little bit more than I would have expected and had a little bit more responsibility. But I think overall, it's just helped me to develop. Like you said, you mentioned the point guard thing, like, you know, Coach Keter, giving me that confidence to go out and be a creator and learn the game in a lot of different ways. I think it's helped me to just get comfortable all around. Yeah. How do you feel about the handles right now? Better than ever? Like you think if I was to train for a month or two, I might be able to get a hand out there? You think so? How do you feel about the handles right now? I feel good. I feel great about it. Like I said, I've gotten so much more confident and comfortable out there, you know, as the years progressed. Um, so no, I don't think you could, but you could try. I'm fouling the shit out of you. You know that. Because first of all, I'm looking straight. How tall are you in real life? Six nine. Okay. So we're here. Okay. So that's not great news. But I'm fouling you immediately, but you're tough dude. You go hard. You go so hard to the end of paint. It is, uh, you're fun to watch, bro. That's why obviously the NBA is so excited about the future with you in there. Go ahead, con man. Yeah. Cooper, one of the reasons you could argue why you go so hard is you were basically training with, you know, the team USA Olympic team before you even got to college, you know, what was that experience like? How much did you learn, you know, just going one on one against, you know, guys on that list, Kevin Durant. And how much did that kind of carry into your development for that year at Duke, just knowing what was on the horizon and what kind of players you were going to be playing in, you know, 18 months? Yeah, it was incredible. I think for me, just having that experience before I even played in a college game, it just gave me a lot of confidence going into that season, like playing in social stuff with guys, just sharing the court with them. Like it showed me that, you know, I was right where I belonged and I was on the right path. So just giving me so much confidence moving into the college season. And, you know, I just took that confidence momentum with me and, you know, I had a great season at Duke. Yeah, they were talking about you and that you obviously you've been very good your whole life. I believe mom's star too. I think you're you've been great your entire life. When you hear the OGs in your eyes, there are contemporaries, but you're young ass. When's your what year were you born? Oh, six. Jesus Christ, man. You were in college? I was a freshman college. What month? What month? December. So pretty much on seven. Oh my God. Wow. We're having quite a time. We're having quite a time. December of six. Oh my God. We're having an absolute blast. You are so young. Anyways, when you talk about the OGs, I guess, who are younger than me and my age, coming out speaking about you and getting play against them. Is that is that a big deal, especially in this NBA now, whenever you travel around, are you talking to guys on other teams? Are they welcoming to you? Like, how do you kind of view that relationship with the older generation of the league as you are clearly in everybody's eyes the next generation? Yeah, for sure. I think it's been cool to interact with some of those guys that I grew up watching and the team USA thing. That was my first time sharing the court with any NBA players at all. So I was definitely a little star struck for that experience. And it was a little surreal. But I think now there's definitely a lot of guys that are welcoming, like the older guys. But you can definitely tell that a lot of them want to go at the rookies and the young guys and they don't want to let them play at all. So a lot of guys just attack and come at the young guys. So how do you feel about that? Yeah, you just know what a guy is trying to kill you. Hey, you're really good. Yeah, main event. That's cute. Okay, I heard about you. Kevin Durant said this about you at the team USA stuff. He looked like a hell of a player. He's somebody who's only going to get better with more experience. He's 17 years old coming in here playing like a vet. No emotion. So you're a stone. Hey, we are not talking about I'm not a fan of these guys. Okay, I'm not a fan of these guys. If I act soft, these guys are going to fucking kill me. Is it was there a full pre? Yeah, I assume there was for you going in there, like how we're going to operate. And obviously you impressed everybody. But have you been that way your whole life? Or are you always just like kind of made for the moment? It seems like because you young's because of money now are handling money. I think a lot better than us old's had to do it. But also like social media being a famous person. Do you feel like you've had to mature in that aspect of like how you handle your emotions in those situations? 100%. Yeah, I think, you know, it definitely helped me to grow up a lot earlier. I mean, I left, I left home when I was 15 to go to a prep school and live in a dorm. So I think I definitely had to grow up a lot quicker and things of those nature. But as far as like, you know, getting on the court and being nervous for me, it's just once I step onto the court, it just comes down to basketball. Like I've played so many basketball games at the end of the day have worked out so much. And so I just go back to that and trust all the work that I put in. And then I know that I don't really have anything to worry about, you know, when I'm out there. Yeah, but like, you haven't done that. You can't. If you've done it every moment of your life since you were born, which I know there had to be some days where you're a baby, you took a nap, right? Maybe. You had to be some day. So it's like the amount of reps that you've had compared to it, it's out ready. Just go ahead, D-butt. Yeah, I hope I know you're in the middle of it right now. But what's been the biggest adjustment on and off the court is now a pro. Like you said, you've been in left home 15. So you've kind of been doing this. You've been on the big stage. You've been under the spotlight. But what's been the biggest adjustment now, you know, been an NBA player? I mean, there's a lot. I think the first thing I'll think about is just the lifestyle change. It's a big lifestyle change, obviously. I mean, I've been in a new city, you know, living on my own. Worrying about paying rent, paying for different things, just figuring that stuff out. Everybody has their own family. Like a lot of the guys have, you know, children, wives. So nobody's hanging out. Like I'm going to practice, going to the games, and I'm going home and kind of just chilling by myself. So a lot of lifestyle things are a lot different. And then the other thing I would say is just the length of the season. Like, you know, 82 games is a lot. And you can't really prepare for it. So it's just been things that I've had to learn throughout the year of, you know, mentally, physically, preparing my body, preparing my mind just to be ready for 82. Have you had that kind of welcome to the league moment yet? We all kind of have had it in different ways. Have you had that yet? I had a couple. I think, you know, very early on in training camp and in practice when we were going hard at the start of the year. It was definitely a couple of moments. You know, when I talk about forward, like I tried to dunk on one of my teammates, PJ Washington, and it just didn't go very well. When you say you sit at home alone because your teammates are all adults, you play video games? I heard you're a big gamer. Yeah, I play video games. Which ones? What are we playing? What are we playing? I'm playing 2K a lot, FIFA, Rocket League, Fortnite sometimes, like whatever. I kind of just switch around and play whatever. You're a good gamer and do people know it's you? I'm okay. I wouldn't say I'm great. I'm okay. And the only game people know it's me is 2K because they give us a little logo so people can tell what it says. How are you in FIFA? FIFA pretty good or Rocket League better? Probably better at Rocket League. I don't play FIFA as much. Yeah, well, Team USA is just getting their asses kicked and softened. Yeah, nobody picks them on the game. We're just getting our asses beat, dude. We just got Portugal last night, dude. Yeah, good score. Ass beat. The other day, who did we play? Bolivia. Who was it? Belgium. There it is. Belgium. Belgium. Smack that ass. I mean, we need to get better. Cooper, why don't you take your six foot nine ass and go stand in net for us at World Cup? We're giving up a lot of goals. We're conceding a lot of goals. Too many. Could you imagine him? Oh my god, Cooper. Where are you at next? When's the World Cup? Summer. Yeah, July. All right, forget about it. See you in July. Skid's young. We don't need to be putting that much pressure on him, but you need to fucking think about it, Cooper. I think that's something you at least need to think about. That is one of the greatest nicknames I've heard. Go ahead, Ton, man. Yeah, Cooper. Being a New England guy myself, I kind of understand the layout. In Maine, I don't want to bury Maine at all, but there doesn't seem much to do in Maine, aside from skiing, maybe head on down to a gunquip. But what did you kind of do growing up? Was it strictly basketball? Did you play other sports? Like, what was kind of growing up? Or was your mom just on your ass every day? Like, you better go get 200 jumpers up right now so you can go to the University of Maine just like myself. Unfortunately, you were much better at what to do. Yeah, my mom was definitely on my ass every day, no matter what. It didn't matter what I was doing. She was always on me about something, but no, I played a bunch of sports. All the way up until high school, I played football, played soccer when I was younger, baseball, ran track for a couple of years. So I definitely did a lot of different things, just to keep my body in shape. And there was just kind of compete when basketball was in the season, but yeah, I definitely did a bunch of different things. Lobsters? Is that what's up with? Oh yeah, the best lobsters in the country. Fresh catch. You've never, he's never complimented Maine. I won't let you know that. That's not true. My parents go to a gunquip for many, many years over the, and plus I'm a North Shore guy. Gloucester is basically a stone's throw away from Maine. Oh, you're skipping stone up out of Maine? Skipping stone. Will you get back to Maine? When do you get back to Maine? And what is the plan for the main event? I feel like you should just go do shoot around up there, probably sell an arena. Is there? Yeah, maybe get traded to Boston, come over to Celtics like you know you want to. Stevens will get it done. I don't like what Tatum did either, fucking some miracle return whenever you play Boston earlier than anybody said, the main event can't even be celebrated up there. But tell me about your relationship with Maine and what it will be here as you continue to go. Feels like it's a lot of pressure. You're the, I mean, other than a lobster thing on Shark Tank, right? Yeah, legit. The lobster people. It's like you are what I think of when I think of that state as a whole. No, I appreciate that. But for me, it's less pressure. It's more of just love and support. And I felt that ever since I was 15 and I left home to go to Montverdon in Florida, like it was just an incredible amount of love and support from the state of Maine. And they've showed up for me in a lot of ways, ever since I left. When I played in high school, we went back and played a game in Maine and sold out to arenas two days in a row. When I played last year in Boston, it was hundreds of people that drove down to support us at Boston College. And then obviously, when we went up to Boston this year, I felt a lot of love and a lot of people drove up and supported me. So it's been really cool. And like I said, less pressure than anything. It's more just love and support and people just show me that love. What lobster should I buy if I want to have a good Maine lobster? Well, lobster, I'm going to be real. I don't eat lobster very often. And it's not my favorite. So I can't give you the greatest recommendations. But my trainer's wife actually makes the best lobster roll that I've ever had. So maybe I can get that for you sometime. Thank you. We will like you. Now, it's a long and good lobster roll. I mean, lobster roll from the trainer, too, make me taller, more athletic. Mm-hmm. You never know what's going on in there. It's a little bit. Yeah, your trip down to Duke, obviously talked about in a massive way. Everybody learned of you, but it wasn't just you that they learned about. And I think through the draft, another Duke guy obviously comes up and now rookie year going crazy alongside. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Cooper. Obviously, your Duke teammate, Conn Cnipple, and you are the favorites to win rookie of the year in the NBA. He set the rookie record for threes. Youngest player ever to hit 253s in a season. Did you know coming out of Duke that Conn had this in him? And then is there any competition as far as rookie of the year? How often do you guys talk? Yeah, 100%. I didn't have any doubt in Conn. I mean, I saw it all year long throughout the season last year. I saw his work ethic, and I just saw what he was capable of. I mean, he was my roommate. So we had a lot of conversations and talked about it a lot of our, both of our mindsets and what we were looking forward to next for this year. So, I mean, I never had any doubts in Conn at all, but as far as rookie of the year, I mean, we don't talk about it specifically. We've definitely stayed in contact throughout the year and checked in on each other and just kind of seen each other we're doing, but it's never been like, oh, did you see the newest rookie ladder around? Have you seen my game last night or anything like that? So it's more just been, love and support of each other. And we're just going to let whatever happens with that happen. Yeah, well, good for you guys. Obviously, you don't get a chance to see this because you're in the game, you're in the league. Let's make sure it stays that way until you're retired. But anytime two friends, two teammates are at the top of the odds to win an award, that's cool. That's cool. Yeah. That is a special story that you all will talk about for the rest of your lives. Ty has a question for you on that Duke connection. Yeah, do you have much contact with Coach Shire? Like, does he reach out to you guys during the year? Like, I know a big thing for you guys. And I don't know how, I don't know if Coach K was doing this too, but like the Duke brotherhood and all that kind of stuff. So not just Khan, but like, are there other Duke guys that are established in the league? Like, have you been able to lean on them? Like, do you guys interact at all? Or what's that been like? 100%. I think anytime we play somebody that has guys that want to Duke, it's always cool and a good experience for me to catch up and talk to them. But I think definitely my teammates specifically, every time we play or even in general, I've definitely stayed in contact with it from last year. And I mean, there was all five, our starting five is in the league now. So just staying connected with those guys and it's been really cool to have that experience. But as far as Shire, he's reached out a lot of times throughout the year and we've stayed in contact. Obviously, we've both been pretty busy, but I'll talk to him about it. All start break, all of us went back from last year's team and we were all back and watched two games at home. So we definitely saw that brotherhood and that connection and that would never go away. You should send him a text, I think. Yeah. It's going to be okay, coach. You want me to come back, coach? You should thank my coach. I'm going to go call. You should send him a, yeah, you want to go golf, maybe? Heard you're a big golf guy. I also see you wearing, is that a New Balance t-shirt? Or is it a sweatshirt? I don't know. You're a New Balance t-shirt. You're a New Balance guy. You're a New Balance guy? Yeah, here's New Balance guy. I love New Balance. Oh, yeah, everything about him, just like the logo, the style, the fit, the shirts, the shoes. Yeah, everything, everything. Yeah, shoes, the clothes, you know, the brand, everything about it. Yeah, what's your favorite New Balance thing other than the shirt you're wearing right now? If you had to just go through your entire mind, so like, oh, New Balance has so much good shit. But my favorite thing is when I... I would say my favorite thing is the lifestyle shoes. Obviously, I love the basketball shoes too, but you know, I like the lifestyle shoes. There's so many options and they have somebody good lifestyle shoes. Do we have any like sales on that going on right now or anything like that? I mean, his shoes have been sold out basically since they came out. It's kind of bullsh- I remember us trying to buy them. Yeah. I remember us trying to buy them. So that's kind of thanks to New Balance. Is there anything else? So the leisure shoes, maybe? That's why he said the leisure shoes. Ah. Basketball shoes are cool. Tough to get. But the leisure shoes, you can wear those right. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. I can get you some too if you need them. So... I want to support the best. I want to support the best. I don't. I'm size 12. Cooper, thank you for joining us, man. Continue strong here. This is going to be a huge year. Obviously, you know this. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but this year is going to be massive whenever they tell the story of your entire career. We can't wait to watch it all. And thank you for giving us your time. Of course. Thank you guys very much. Ladies and gentlemen, Cooper Flaaad. Yeah, Cooper. It's the main event, New Balance. They got a roster. She and they do. They do. Shohei, Coco, Cooper. Is it Kua? Yeah, I think Kua. I mean, we've Kua. Did you see, we got the TV on the back of the wall here. Backwards as well. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Classic. I saw both sides of my face right there. And I thought to myself, yuck, dude, too much of that. Shohei, speaking of Shohei in New Balance. Yeah. He made his pitching debut last night for the 2026. This would be a normal rotation too for like a starting pitcher, right? Yeah. So it feels as if Shohei potentially going to be one of the starting pitchers in rotation this year for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He threw in preseason. He had 11 strikeouts in four innings. Last night, six innings pitched. Six strikeouts, one hit. Massive success is what we would call this. And he also got on base as well, right? So this was a full Shohei evening. And this is what we should be expecting throughout the rest of the season, Taishman. Yeah. I have no idea how often he'll pitch. He might, you know, typically starting pitchers, they'll get four or five days rest and go again. I don't know if Shohei will do that or if he'll kind of, they'll sprinkle him in a little bit more just because he is doing so much like you mentioned. He played, you know, I mean, he had a single and also had two walks. So he got on base three times through six innings. But it's one of those things where if Shohei is out there and he's pulling the string on that sweeper, he's throwing six innings of one hit ball and striking out guys. Like, yeah. And if he feels good and wants to do it, like you need to have this guy out there every five days because not that the Dodgers aren't winning enough already. But if he's pitching like this, it's damn near an automatic win. Yeah. And on that note, we all think from our information that we have gathered about Shohei Ohtani, he views himself as a pitcher. So if he does not have at least one successful full season where they win a World Series as a pitcher, I think he won't fully, you know, feel as if he did it. He told us that he thinks he could strike himself out whenever we talk to him at the All-Star Game. Do you view yourself as a hitter or a pitcher? A pitcher, I'm a pitcher who can hit is how he views himself. So I think it's a very self-important mission that he's on as well. And I think the skipper, Dave Roberts has mentioned that too, like Shohei wants to go. So we're going to have him go. He seems to be one of the most driven people in history of sports as a whole. He's going to be talked about as one of those guys. If he accomplishes a full season of pitching and hitting though, this is a ludicrous venture that he's about to attempt here. Oh yeah, for sure. Because that would be the only concern is just like how much can the human body take of him going out there, throwing 100, throwing a bunch of pitches for six innings, also taking a bunch of the bats. And then because he's like, he's not going to get very many days off to begin with. A, because he probably doesn't want to be sitting on the bench, but he's also D-Hin. So like they need him in the lineup. If yeah, if he were to go through this entire season and have like a Sayung-esque season on the bump, we already know what he's going to do at the plate. And then if you know, they stay healthy and make a run to the World Series or win a World Series, like there is no question that he is already the best, most talented baseball player of all time. But yeah, this would just take it to another strat. Who would be the greatest athlete ever? Like greatest season athlete? Can I drop a stat just before you ever get into that? Slings on sports. This was tweeted by the MLB. Shohei Otani currently holds the longest active on base streak, which is hitting the best. Yeah, just getting on base. Which is most consistent. I mean, 36 games straight of getting on base is pretty good. Yeah, very good. It's obviously the longest streak. And then the longest active, score the sitting streaks as well. 22 and 2, 3rd sitting, bitch. That's what we're doing. That's baseball, right? Yeah, pretty much. Is that what baseball is? It's this one. Yeah, get it. It's this one. And then it's this one, right? This is baseball? Getting on base and then assuming guys are going to drive you in and then not allowing the other team to score. Like, yeah, that's a pretty good recipe to win baseball games. So yes, that kind of accent. That's crazy. And I don't think that I'm guessing that doesn't count playoffs. Like he had the playoff game last year where he went like 36 and then pitched to and it was three home runs. Yeah, exactly. Just like the craziest thing ever. So like every time he goes out there, it is kind of one of those things where it's Shohei could do something tonight that has never been done before. Creating history, which is always a cool thing to be a part of and we will continue to watch that. More history happening today as well. Who's on the bump for a Pittsburgh Pirates tone? Paul Skeens is on a bump today. Oh, really? Oh, man. It better go better. Skeen, it has to. Yeah. The last time Paul Skeens was pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates, he got pulled in first in it. 67 ERA. He is still yet to get three outs this MLB season. That's true. This would be a second start. Now there's some stuff that happened in that particular inning in which Paul Skeens was pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates like the center fielder. That guy couldn't catch a ball multiple times with runners in scoring position and potentially a way to get out of the inning. Good news. He'll never have to deal with that again. Paul Skeens had to have that on his first game and he won't have to do that ever again. Sure. Yeah, they're not. Why would they? Well, it turns out there's some salt. That's the question here. Oh, Neil Cruz. We got the same center fielder going out there for Paul Skeens today. Guy had two fucking home runs last night. Cool. Put him in another position. Guy can't catch a damn fly ball. I mean, that's where he's at. I don't know what to tell you. This is how we feel about Paul Skeens. He's just sticking. Don Kelly likes his gas. I respect that. And there's a lot of people that have knocked their gas for a long time. And listen, if that guy's going to hit him multiple dingers, everything we do is, can we DH in this league? Yeah, we have a DH that can't play in the field already. So. Yeah. And he just stays in the dugout and just hoists the cone all day long. The what? The cone. He hoists the cone. Hoist the cone. It's kind of the smokey. Come on. Don't play, though. Smoking in the dugout. Hoist the cone. Tony can talk about it more because I think this is like a pirate's tradition that goes. We were out of game. I don't know where it is. Hoist the cone. That's what they're doing. So why are they? Why are they hoisting the cone? You might ask yourself. If you're a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, you're probably wondering the same thing. Lil' Ed, you know we're all hoisting cones these days. And how did the cone make its way into the dugout for the Pittsburgh Pirates? Yeah, you'd be shocked to learn that buckles have not always hoisted the cone. What? Now we raise the Jolly Rod. We do raise the Jolly Rod. Not a lot. That's when a win happens. You raise this Jolly Rod. It's a buckle flag. You're supposed to raise it up. Cool. Yeah, it doesn't get up there a lot, though. A lot of very fresh Jolly Rods. Cannonball on deck. Cannonball coming. Yeah. A lot of these. So hoist the cone. Hoist the cone is new because shocker here. You're going to be absolutely shocked. Pirates this summer, Fanatics put out a shirt that said hoist the cone on it. I believe it was a misprint. But there's the buckles P right underneath that says hoist the cone. No one in Pittsburgh had any idea what that meant, but the team has decided to embrace it when we're hitting bombs. We are hoisting that cone, baby. We're still putting on the welder's mask, but we're also hoisting the cone. Yeah, so we got a welder's mask. We got a cone we're hoisting because it's a traffic cone. We can't be having too much traffic on the bases. There's the cone and a mask. So there it is. Hey, however many more of the buckles need to keep winning, let's do it. And Fanatics are saying, this is what we do. We influence pop culture. Yes, exactly. We give traditions to folks. And I like to say Fanatics, I think people would say, huge strikeout on the hoist cone at the beginning because nobody knew what it meant. You were just living in the future. That's Fanatics football. Exactly, because I believe the Marlins are actually the Miami Marlins Debuts team who are lightning hot so far. For what? Ruffle the feathers. That's what they're going with this year. Really? Yeah, ruffle the feathers. Ruffle the feathers. Did you see that on a shirt? I did. No, you didn't know. Same deal. No, it was the Marlins that had like the little fish coming out of there and ruffle the feathers. That's what they're running with. Really? No, we have feather. What are we talking about? Exactly. That's what you need to start doing. That's what you got to start wondering. And didn't you see another one in there? Yeah, I saw that the Reds were thinking about doing Break the Bulb. Break the Bulb? They're going to have a bunch of light bulbs in the dugout and then any time they get a home run, they're going to take that bat and bash a bulb just right in the clubhouse. I like that. See, this is what Fanatics is doing. Fanatics saying, we get involved in your league, we make your league better. We start traditions. We hoist the cup. We hoist the cup, yeah. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who's going to break down the situation in Philadelphia with their quarterback better than us. And to be honest, I learned of the situation through this man's Twitter account where he has certainly been active this morning on his thoughts. This guy played in the NFL for 14 years. He's Super Bowl champion with New Orleans Saints. Now, ESPN guy, and I think he has his own show as well. Ladies and gentlemen, Chase Daniel. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey, sorry we're hoisting. Sorry we're hoisting the cone there. Had to do it. I love it. What's the Padres one? I'm taking my son to a Padres game today. I'm taking him out of school. Does the Padres have something cool? We'd have to ask Ruben over there at Fanatics. I'm sure there's something that nobody's thought of yet that is certainly going to become a lucky charm on that note. Family forever. Love that. It's a good hat. It's a good hat. Yeah, love them. Love them. They're good people over there. I got about 15 of these hats every time I'm on them, trying to wear something like that. I love what they do as a company, man. Yeah, I hope they're good people because we give them a lot of marketing. If they're like serial killers or anything. Yes. And I've never met them. They're great people. Okay, good. Happy to hear that. Family forever. Good hats. We appreciate the hats you sent us. Chase, let's talk about family maybe not forever. Let's talk about a football team becoming a family. Let's talk about an organization becoming a family, especially with the amount of Piesons that are over-ish family over there. The story the Fowler reported this morning, fresh out of league meetings about Jalen Hertz. First of all, we talked about this earlier. We do feel as if we are a part of the problem as we are continue to amplify anonymous sources within a building. Don't love that anonymous sources happen in sports. Don't think your life is in danger. We understand where there is a need for anonymous sources in sports. It feels weird, especially with this type of shit that's coming out here. Chase, how abnormal is everything that's being said from Minus Building, especially for a guy that's won a Super Bowl? And why do you think it's happening and what are next steps? Kind of just take it everywhere in every thought that you have about the situation, Chase. Yeah, I mean, I'm with you guys. I was watching Yale's A-Block and Open and just the fact that the anonymous sources to me says it all. I absolutely hate that. Like put your name behind it because these are people's careers and jobs and stuff like that. On that note, when I read this article, it's like another Jalen Hertz hit piece. It seems to be coming out every single year and the timing is really weird. AJ Brown, trade didn't go through. Now we're back to talking about Jalen and everything. This is not normal, Pat. Like for teams, team sources, whatever it may be to be talking to reporters and getting this news out there, you want to protect the family. You want to protect the team. So when I see this, I'm like, well, do they not love them? Do they not do this? Like he's one of eight quarterbacks to go to two Super Bowls in the first five years of his career. But I think because of what's being said in this article, there are a lot of parallels you can really draw to his play. And that's where I take it is like the play on the field at times. He's known for his clutch gene. He's known for his winning. He's known for all this stuff. And I'm saying this and I'm probably the filled up Eagles public enemy number one. Like Philadelphia fans absolutely hate my guts because they think when I'm talking about Jalen, they think that I'm like criticizing him as a person. No, no, no, look, we're just talking about his play. And you guys saw last year, right? He's going to be on six different play colors. I think in six years, something's got to give. And I think the article hits on a lot of correct things when it talks to his time on the field. Because his time on the field, right? It's very vanilla. What Jalen Hurst does really well, he wants to sit back and shotgun. He wants to see everything. And he's really a half field type progression guy. You don't really see him. He doesn't feel comfortable going under center. You don't see him sweeping the field one, two, three, four, like other quarterbacks. And that's fine. But when you have an offense that is surrounded him like that with full of all pro-seq, home park like the best running back in the world, AJ Brown, you're talking about trading one of the better receivers in the NFL. It's just a really interesting thing. And so that's why just zone coverage, you know this better than anyone, zone coverage. It just makes Jalen sort of freeze up, right? You don't know, he doesn't know where to go at certain times when he's on time and in rhythm. It's good, but more often than not, it's not. But I'm with you guys. The anonymous sources drives me crazy. And we're amplifying once again. We are amplifying the anonymous sources. So we feel terrible, but it's a huge story. This is a gigantic story for the Philadelphia Eagles, especially because they won a Super Bowl with this guy. They've paid this guy and there's been drama seemingly surrounding him. Now you talk about the six different plate colors in six years, something has to give. He's made three head coaches too. So it's like a very, it's, it's, it's, Siriani obviously, Shane and then Kelly Moe in there, three of the guys head coaches still that have been his plate color. So it's like there has been some good. It's seemingly been way too negative though. And your point about the timing, people are just getting too comfortable talking bad about the starting quarterback. Like people are way too comfortable talking bad about the starting quarterback. And I think that's what we're acknowledging about the entire situation. But if everybody's this comfortable talking bad about it, they feel handcuffed, I guess, they can't move on. How would you move on? And what would you move on to? I mean, it's a tough spot to be in. Obviously being, you know, the quarterback of the Eagles, but back to on the field, Chase, do you see at this point in his career, those things changing or him evolving or him doing those things better at the quarterback position? Yeah. I mean, that's a great question. I think everyone can evolve when you have a guy with the talent that Jalen Hertz has, you can absolutely evolve into that guy. And with Sean Mannion, right? LaFleur guy, McVeigh guy, Kubiak guy, you're going to see this year's going to be a really good litmus test in my opinion for Jalen Hertz, because there is going to be a lot of under center, which he doesn't love to do, but he's successful when he does it. The run game is more successful when you do it because you have the play action pass. You have under center run, you have outside zone, you have inside zone. I think the quarterback run game is going to be brought in more to what's happening. And so it's going to be a good litmus test this year to see, hey, if you can fit in this mold, I'm not saying they should move on, but by any means. But when you have an offense and you have that type of defense with Vic Fangio, you expect better results. And it's just Philly. Look, I played in Philly in 2016. And that locker room is different, man. Like everyone is very aware of everything that is being said about them and about other people. And I've witnessed at times that locker room can be a little divided. I'm not that was in 16. That was 10 years ago. Right. Completely different head coach, completely different building. But Philly just seems to be like the negativity coming out of there is like at an all time high. Always too. It seems like there's always some negativity. 30 seconds or less in your answer. Fernando Mendoza throws today in Indiana. What do you think everybody sees the entire Las Vegas writers organization is out there? Yeah. I mean, clear number one pick. Like I really do believe this dude is a franchise guy. And you're doing that because I've talked to Dan quite a bit after his whole Ty Simpson thing. And we're, you know, we see it differently. And I think Ty is a great player. But when you look at Fernando, there's a lot of things that you can't teach. It's the intangibles, the heart, the poise, the interviews, the guys love them. He's six, five Pat. Like, come on, man. Like how can you not your hand in the ball to Ash and Gent? He's not bound. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen, Chase Daniel, I'm going to be excited. Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN unlimited as part of your TV package. For no additional calls, visit activate.espn.com to learn how to access your account or sign up then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Our fantastic, aren't they? Oh, yeah. The best. In this hour, we're going to be talking to a commissioner of a leak. A leak that just signed the new CBA, a seven year CBA that saw salaries for players grow exponentially. Ladies and gentlemen, Kathy Engelberter will be joining us this hour. She is the commissioner of the WNBA. People are wondering, you know, why would she come on this show? Who said that? Me kind of. That's fair. I think that's fair. But I'm pretty excited. I'm like, I've taken this as a huge honor, huge opportunity. And we've tried to do as much research as possible so we get some good answers out of Kathy, but also provide Kathy the opportunity to kind of talk shit about her league a little bit, you know, for her league, you know, for her, not about for her. Good shit. And what they were able to accomplish. I mean, this negotiation, I thought they had no chance, especially with what the projections were happening, how it was happening. They had pictures coming out from the negotiation with the players and the owners, governors. I don't know what names they use for the people that own the teams. Sure. I don't know if they use the name owner or not. I think it is governor. The governor of the, the governor who also owns teams in there while they're doing the negotiations and everything. Like I appreciate the way they've operated genuinely. I really, I have massive respect for it the way she's been able to guide the ship. I cannot wait for her to be, get a chance to put her league over a little bit. And in doing so, maybe us learn some things. Yeah. Maybe we get a new favorite team. You never know. Wow. Do you want to be a fan of maybe a dynasty in the making three out of the last four? The Las Vegas aces. With Aisha Wilson, who's going to go down as greatest player of all time until, until CC out here in a fever kind of do their thing. Got a new facility going up. So I'm excited for our WNBA conversation today. I think it'll be different than anybody else's. And hopefully this will be one that ends positive. Yeah. Talks to, right? Yeah. That would be cool. Of course. This is the one. That'd be so cool if that happens. I don't think I got anything to work with. Our time is now. Yeah. Your time is, everybody's time is up. Yeah. Our time is now. But our time also talks at the table at Boston Corner at Ty Schmidt. That's one half of the hammer. Cowboys, AP 10, looking like Cameron Young with the MLB. We love going right on your chest. I'm right. Is that because Paul Skeens pitching today and here's his biggest fame? It is because Paul Skeens is pitching because the buck goes are currently hoisting the cone. O'Neill Cruz hit another one. It's also because one thing that Netflix did do right on their MLB coverage is Burkreich's reward this hoodie out when he was announcing the teams. And I saw that hoodie and I went to the website immediately and bought it because I can be easily. Hold on. Good hoodie. Hold on. You were influenced by the Netflix coverage. Yep. See, that's what I'm talking about. Everybody's talking negative about what was going on there. Hey, it's baseball. Let baseball do baseball. Well, what they were thinking was big business. They were thinking, let's go ahead and sell some shit to Mark's. Boom. You know what, now that you mentioned it, you do kind of look like Bird in that hoodie. It looks good. What the hell, that's hell of a compliment. I think so. All right. Now take your shirt off. Then I would still look like Bert. So I don't, I don't take my shirt off. It's not. Let's go baseball. That was a good speech. The thought of Netflix getting absolutely crushed and crucified for that for Wednesday next baseball game. Never. Yeah. They have the home run derby in the middle of the season. Yeah, they do. Okay. I'll watch that. Yeah. I'll watch that. That'll be good. That is a spectacle. Eastpint doesn't have the home run derby anymore? No, Netflix does. But I think what Netflix is trying to do, it's in Philadelphia this year. I think Netflix is like perfect for the home run derby. I do believe that. I think a lot of the stuff they try to do, I anticipate this year's home run derby being very entertaining. Okay. There's been a lot of moving of assets. Nine-year NFL quarterback derby. Or could have been. I played a little quarterback. I played a little quarterback. I just played wire saver, played corner, played safety. You know, played a little outside lawnbacker if you need me ladies and gentlemen. There's your brothers. Oh yeah, D-Bucks. D-Bucks, we're talking about assets kind of moving around. Do you see what happened with the Monday Night Football doubleheader? I did. I like it. Yeah, Monday Night double-foot header no longer. Much of this chagrin of nobody, the doubleheader on Monday nights is over. This was something that was cool maybe one time as like, hey, we got a double thing here, but nobody really enjoyed it. It was tough to watch. March Madness much easier to watch multiple games or have multiple coverage on. But if one of the games was clearly better than the other, you had no interest in the other. And then you end up seeing less of that particular game than even whenever you do for Red Zone Channel on Sunday with Scott Hansen covering games. It doesn't matter. So I just think it was an interesting thing to try. I appreciate ESPN getting more NFL games out of it. So I appreciate and respect that. But I do believe during the negotiations of NFL Network coming over to ESPN, which is now official. Congratulations. Let's go. I saw there was some emotional conversations about the history of NFL Network. Now that it's about to enter a new stage with ESPN in control as the guide or as opposed to the league itself. They have brand new studios over there in LA that are beautiful. They obviously have a lot of technology, have a lot of assets. They have everything like that. But in doing so, you move some games around. Now they have five games that would have been Monday Night Football double headers that are now available potentially to new streaming platforms that they can sell What's that called whenever you sell something individually? As opposed to in a big package? Like a one on? It's like a Alucard. There it is. That was exactly what I was looking for. Now they can sell these games Alucard and that's where you can just start getting the bidding wars for absolutely absurd games. And this is how the revenue and the salary cap in the league will continue to grow. And once they continue to showcase that they can sell one off games, whether it's on Friday, Black Friday, or a Wednesday afternoon game, or a Saturday game, or a Christmas night game, or a super duper day in the week night game that happens on these platforms. Once they showcase how much money they can make out of that, and what the salary cap can become, and then they make their pitch to the players saying, hey, if you give us 18 games here and we're able to do this with others, the amount of money and what the salary cap can become is astronomical. I know we're talking to the WNBA Commissioner and Kathy Engelberg. They've been around for 30 years, the WNBA. I think it took the NFL a long time to become a mega profitable kind of operation. We're talking decades and decades and decades for most of these leagues to become mega profitable. The NFL is currently in its super duper profitable world. And if they're going to start a la karting games even more, with how much these streamers are looking for live events, streaming platforms are looking for live events, it's only up and to the right for the foreseeable future for this NFL. And I like this move as a viewer, even though ESPN is losing an NFL game, which technically because ESPN licensed this show, we should be bummed out about. I think this is good for the viewer. I think this is great for the NFL's pockets. Yeah, it's always going to be great for the NFL pockets. Any move that they make and then I think what you said more importantly though, for the viewer, because for the viewer, you would think more games better on the same night, but you have one game, you hopefully it's a good game. You got the crew that you're used to every Monday night. It's going to be that big game as a player too, even like you knew when you had that Monday night game, that was the day, the night that all your peers going to be watching, your family, your friends, your fans, wherever they were, your haters, everybody was going to be tuned in watching that one single game. And it makes that game huge just like Sunday night football. Sunday night football is huge. So now you have Monday night football and you have it with that one specific game. And in that field, they're going to always make the money. It's always going to help that bottom line. But for the viewer, I think it's more important. I think it's a win for them too. I think so as well. Thanksgiving Eve is being pitched by Ari. Obviously at night, everything's giving Eve. There's a lot of families gathered around just like Thanksgiving Day is the same. I've been pitching for a while to the NBA, Adam Silver, Christmas Eve, because the NFL kind of came in and took over Christmas. We just kind of, we, I'm saying we like I had anything to say with it. I didn't. But Raj, Gidell, he said we're taking Christmas and they did. And Christmas for the NBA used to be that day, right? That was kind of like the day for the NBA. So they need to move Christmas Eve. But if they won't move Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve, another great day for the NFL to go to strictly because everybody's off school, right? Christmas Eve is off school. And this year's a Thursday, so I assume they will have a Christmas Eve game. So they'll try it. This is what they did with Christmas. Christmas fell on a day in which the NFL sat Sunday, Thursday, Monday, whatever it was. Christmas fell on a day where the NFL was and they felt obligated to their viewers, obviously to deliver. And then once they saw it, they go, oh, everybody's home. Let's go ahead and we can total audience deliver, manipulate this thing a little bit. There's at least two, three people at every TV, right? Think about these families gathering. Yeah. We've got 275 million people watching this game. We can do a couple more of these things. We've got a couple more of these, couple more of these, couple more of these big events. Now all of a sudden they're doing their own. Christmas Eve could be one of those. Thanksgiving Eve night obviously could be one as well. But it's like you can get another day, I think, in on Christmas Eve if you really wanted to. And actually this year, because Christmas falls on a Friday, I believe yesterday at the league meetings, the owners passed something where teams can now play more than two short week games. Thursday night. Thursday night, short week games this year because of that. So yeah, I mean, the wheels are already there. It's really had the money. The money is, and they know it. You can tell that they know it. And you can tell that people are trying to buy NFL teams know what's possible. They can just start making up events. Yeah. I mean, Well, with duck quacks. Feed it. And I'll tell you what, pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered. But if that thing's quacking all day long, which we will. Yeah. Yeah. We will, we will wake up. If there was a 7 a.m. game, we'll do it. We will wait if it's a good game. That's going to have to be a good game. I think the whole world would wake up at 6 a.m. if it was a good game. And who's calling it? Volume that it terms the volume level. Sure. Who's calling the game? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We can't be mailing it on those morning games. You're trying to tell us it's primetime because it's all by itself and we're supposed to wake up to the NFL. Our first impression of the NFL is that game. Let's make sure we're fucking putting on a good show. Like over there in Australia, they're doing a 1035 game or whatever it is for their time. Night time. That's going to have to be a good presentation of the game. Oh, yeah. That's going to have to be a good game. 1035 a.m. And it will be. That's why they got such a good game going down there. I do love Shanahan going. You know what? I've been trying to look into it a bit. I haven't found one positive. It's good for the game though. And I like that he said, hey, when we're in Mexico, ramps. They're playing as Mexico because if we're doing two internationals, they're doing two internationals. Then you heard the little conspiracy work about how, you know, fans take over other stadiums. Oh, I'm going to move to another part of the world. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, sounds good. A lot of red and so fun. Interesting. Interesting. We're taking this thing to Australia. I like the way these coaches have been operating at this league meetings. Feels like they all know who the guys are. Feels like this generation of coaches all know who the head like feels like we're going to have this group of this a class of head coaches that we're about to live with, I think for the next 10, 15, 20 years. And I think they all know each other very well. That is my takeaway from the off the record camaraderie chemistry building thing that we got a chance to see. This is when they you would assume this is when they really get to know each other, especially when we got eight new hair coaches or what six or seven first time hair coaches. So this is their first time being in that element, being around the pool with Jay Glazer, holding court. And now you kind of see kind of the pecking order, the hierarchy in that world. I like that they're talking shit to each other. I like that they are confident and comfortable. I mean, even the Ben Johnson, LaFleur stuff. It's like they just had to be in the same place here a little bit ago, still carrying that on. Like I like this generation of coaches. I also appreciate the fact of rabble understands. You know what I mean? For able kind of understands during that coach's annual photo, we had to zoom in on it. Mike Carthy almost missed. He thought GM's go first. We had to send him on his way. And where he stood in that photo, you could tell that he almost missed it. He was just getting there late. I don't think many people were talking about that as context added to why he was standing back behind everybody looked away that he looked there as Vrabel sat down. We saw him. He was one of the first people to sit down for this photo. He knew exactly where he wanted to go. He put his left foot down, then he put his right foot down and he put both of his hands on his knees. This thing was an engineering feat to keep these legs locked into the dirt in which he was holding there. And then others sat down. Sean Payton sat to his left, half way to his right. We actually wondered how that was going to go. Sean Payton, Texas guy, football guy. From what we've been told, a little bit of a hard ass as well. Sure. You sit down in an airplane and you're sitting in A or C and B has done both arms with legs completely spread out. That's a decision that has to be made as soon as you say, how do we, are we just, are we, or are we taking this? Halfway sat back in the seat. So that's my first year I don't need to do this. Yeah. Crumble. Sean Payton tried. They're definitely needy-needy there. I mean, they are needy-needy there, but Vrabel definitely knew what he was doing. And then the New England Patriots tweet out today, big dog. So this is what's been going on. This is the attitude. This is the mindset. I don't like that. What do you mean? You don't like that. Oh, shut up. What do you mean? Shut up, butch. I love Vrabel. I love what Vrabel's going up. He's bullying Joe Brady. As he put on, he's a patriot. I came into the league as a patriot. But that's my head coach right there. That's Jeff Halfley right there. What are you talking about? And I don't like how the Patriots, you see how they kind of crop Sean Payton halfway. Well, he's still, because Sean Payton's got an alpha look too. Full body in there like this. Yeah. This is a, I can't say exactly what I want to say, but it's a great performance by Mike Vrabel. Jeff, come on, Jeff. Do you see Sean Payton cooking the, which is OG move? Jeff. He took a tip of his knee, something that he could feel, and dug that into his IT band, so that he had to feel that a little bit. It's a little bit of jujitsu style, because in jujitsu, you know, they poke you here and you're like, why are they poking me here? They can't do anything because that just moves you a little bit like that. And as soon as they get the, you are dead because you opened your neck this side. So Sean Payton went in with the tip of his patella, the kneecap, two IT band, just get a little bit of a reaction. And then once he moved a little bit, he had to stomp that in and he had to lock that in. Because Sean Payton said, oh, no, no, no. That's not how this is going to go. And I think Sean Payton's probably doing it in his own way with that left leg on the other side as well. Vrabel wore these glowing white pants because he knew he was going to do this. Uh-huh. He knew he, this was, he got in an early year of mission. Left foot down, right foot down, hand down, white pants, they're glowing. Surprised he didn't wear a kilt, so his dong was hanging out. Yes, see, that might be next year. We don't know what's going to happen. Then there was the AFC coaches meeting the morning after the whole big booze fest that happens. He went over and grabbed Joe Bray's name tag crumbled up fucking through his face. He was walking out of there. Nerd. Vrabel's just having quite a time out there at the league meetings and from my understanding, boy, the Patriots fans love it. Con man is flying high. Every time he reads one of these new situations, he gets excited. He saw him the other night do a thing and he was like, Patriots are going to win forever. That is genuinely how you feel whenever you see things like this. And what are your thoughts here on Joe Brady and Halfley, okay? Rookie head coaches in the division, kind of feeling the wrath of Mike Vrabel running rampant at the league meeting. And that's kind of the best part and that's kind of what I try to just pontificate and imagine is the conversations that Vrabel had, you know, when he was sitting down, or once Halfley sat down next to him. Now, as far as Sean Payton digging his, you know, knee into Vrabel's own IT band, metal doesn't feel rubber, okay? Old man Payton ain't making a budge on Vrabel. And when it comes to Halfley, what they did show is probably, you know, Vrabel standing up, giving him an elbow, maybe, you know, hey, what time is it? Boom, one of the face. Hey, what time is it again? Boom. Swirling. Yeah. How are your nuts doing? You think he's doing what's on the shirt, even the trick with the uppercut. I could see one of those. Yeah. Hey, do I have something on my knee? Boom. You know, how's your dog? I mean, that's two, Aaron Glenn's the only one that seemingly escaped the AFC kind of bullying that Vrabel had to do at the league meeting. We're on the street as he was very tired. I didn't take a couple maps. That was very easy to fall asleep in there. Yeah, it was very easy to fall asleep in Arizona Sun too. But yeah, the Joe Brady thing is really what gets me, because we get Brandon B on the program. And each time I went to Super Bowls, you know, they're talking about all this fun stuff. I don't know how many times first year head coaches have won Super Bowls. Oh wait, I think I do. Never. So that's one of those things where the expectation gets set a little bit. But the Brady and Vrabel thing does seem to be more friendly than the Halfley thing. The Halfley thing was like, hey, sit next to me. I'll make you look like a little boy. Okay, this can be really fun for me because you're going to look like a child sitting here. I would like to say, okay, Big Dog certainly did his thing. Okay, Vrabel certainly had a league meeting. I think people would say Vrabel's had a good league meeting. Okay, he had the Orange Juice moment. Yeah, uh-huh. Hey, we've seen him arrive and he's doing it. Vrabes won the league meetings. And I would assume that people would say without Vrabes in there, energy probably terrible at the league meetings. I assume he brings it. He's an alpha. If we could get a full photo though, Sean Payton played this game before too. Yes, he did. Oh yeah. Okay, both those seats were empty. We saw it as they were filing in. Do you see how the photo ended? No. Go ahead and zoom in. Can we zoom in down there or no? We can't zoom in. Can we zoom in on? Because if we zoom in on that, I think Sean Payton's right foot outside of his chair leg. Oh. I think Vrabes potential shoe turn in. Oh wow. Oh, they're like, Yeah. No. Oh yeah. You know, you see Vrabes, what are you talking about? Yeah. Now both of them, granted, both of them are outside the chair leg, but let's not act like Sean Payton isn't scared to even touch Vrabes foot. If Sean Payton had real Cajones, they would be, you know, kind of outside foot to outside foot. Vrabes foot is one in front. I mean, look how much bigger his feet are. I mean, top of shin, outside knee, certainly in there. And Sean Payton's heel is back there at the chair where Vrabes a little bit out because we know Vrabes did have to get full extension out there. We will say Sean Payton put on a good performance for the situation in which he was placed. We think. Oh yeah, for sure. And he notices that too. He held his ground. Sean Payton knows that as well. Sabi's fit. Because whenever he walked over and he saw what Vrabes was doing, there was an immediate, come on, Vrabes. We got to do this. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit of a kick over there. Open that thing up. I love it. It does feel though, like this generation of coaches are all kind of. A lot of blue. A lot of bros too. Yeah. There, there, there's a lot of, feels like this is a good group for the NFL. It feels like this is good for the league. I'm not saying everybody's going to be good. There's going to be ass coaches all over this place. How's Mentor going to do in Baltimore? We shall see. He's very happy. He didn't sit where Hathley sat. Yeah. Mentor is pumped that he did not have to deal with that. He did have to cheer. Hathley not thrilled that this is what happens this way at all. He can't even see his left shoe. His left shoe is in Vrabes shadow. This is how Hathley has to start this whole thing. Yeah. Right. We would like to let Hathley know and the people that are watching that are Hathley supporters, he really had no, I mean, he was, this was, this was checkmate by friends. Vrabes sat down early. Well, and that was probably a rib from all the other coaches. They just scrambled and be like, no, no, no, no, Hathley can sit next to Vrabel. Like we know what's happening here. Let's let the first year guy kind of, you know, have his shoes be in the shade the whole time. Do you think when people saw Vrabes in his white pants, they thought to themselves, oh, Vrabes is up to something. He's playing his song. He knows. Yeah, he is. He's up to something. Joe Brady actually great performance in the coach's photo as well. You know, just to give a little bit of light to him. He looks massive. I don't know if he's sitting next to somebody. He's a lot bigger than. Oh, is that Ford? He looks big. Yeah. Yeah. The Ford kind of did get a little sun a little bit. Kevin O'Connell once again, giant. He is a creature in the middle there. You were to zoom out a little bit back to the left. That is where Kevin O'Connell giant. Huge. Shane Steichen tall. Yeah. Shane Steichen Sonana chose to stand next to Kevin O'Connell. That who that is? We're not doing this again. Oh, man. Steichen. We're not doing this again. Todd Bowles doing his thing next to MCDC back there. Shotty good spot for Shotty to be right there. That's good. Good selection. Now next to MCDC, a little bit aggressive. He gave himself some space. See kind of space himself away from there. Nobody really turning lean and sideways, getting a full bodybuilder physique build. And Sirianni said, you know what? Just straight on. Maybe a wind gust on my polo to go on at me. That would be the best it could possibly be. Shout to the boys. Way to go. Congrats, Hank. Sala had the good. Yeah, he looked good. Wait, I didn't see a coach. Sala was square. Well, that's, I was going to say, Monkin had a plan, but he was sucking out a lollipop at the barber shop still after his fresh fink. We do not know if a lollipop was given or a sucker was given after the haircut. But Todd Monkin would have had best haircut in that photo. Certainly the freshest. He's allegedly getting his haircut at the time of the photo for the photo. So just classic misread. You know, Pacific time, mountain time. You know, you never really know Arizona. And then us on East Coast time. It's a different world over there, man. Legit. It's a different time. Like obviously we enjoy it, but I mean, like 5 a.m. on the alarm is 4 a.m. Late 4 a.m. on the alarm for like a 6 30 thing is vastly different because that 6 30 thing is actually a 9 30 thing. Yeah. So it's like you just have a different day over there. You know what I mean? What? The 12 o'clock is. We had time. Yeah. Different ball game. A lot of time wasn't good for a lot of livers, I think. Yeah, true. We certainly had to tie one a full on a couple of different days for the good of the league. Yeah. Yeah. For the good of ball. Celebration. And father was walking around saying, what do you guys think about Jaylen? Jason Kelsey will be doing coverage for ESPN for Wednesday's par 3 contest. We'd like to say congrats, Jason. Yeah. There you go. Congratulations. Jason did some TGL coverage. Obviously had the Hawaiian shirt on cut off the sleeves. Him and his brother were down there bombing it around during the TGL playoffs. Eli Peyton, I think also down there that particular evening as TGL was celebrating, you know, a playoff golf in a big way. TGL appearance allegedly potentially leads to also master's experience. You know, Jason Kelsey likes golf. He knows golf. He's obviously a goat at his position. Super Bowl champion. Hey, he's the biggest sports podcast on earth right now. I do believe, right? His new heights. Today when the biggest, them are pardon my take, whatever the case is. We apologize for the current rankings, whatever it is. One or two, gigantic. And we think he'd be good to maybe freshen up the coverage of the masters. Okay. That's potentially the thought as it happens. I like it. The internet was rude. Yeah. The internet was rude about this. Obviously the internet goes on to say like, we don't need Jason Kelsey at the masters. And that's probably a valid point if I had to guess. And I'm only saying that strictly because we have attempted to be a part of the Wednesday coverage of the masters at the part of three thing for three consecutive years now. And for the people that are mad about Jason Kelsey being a part of the masters, I got a good piece of news for you. They've told us to go to hell. So I think you should be happy about that, that they do try to preserve it as a whole. They have a certain thing that they are looking for. So I think Jason Kelsey, who's a dog, who's funny, who's relatable and is a very good athlete, and it's probably friends with a lot of these guys that are going to be golfing in there. I think he will provide a bonus for that part of three coverage. But to the people that were upset saying that the masters are the only thing you got left, know that they've turned us down very loudly numerous times, which I think should be good news for the state of their golf and the way they view it all. Well, the people who are upset too, it's like, Hey, this isn't Thursday. This isn't the opening round and Kelsey's going to be walking around like this is Wednesday when it is fun, when like the families are out there and the kids are taking putts. It's like Jason Kelsey should be there because it also gives other fans kind of like myself, who haven't been massive golf guys or kind of been around the golf culture to kind of bridge that gap. So for them to be mad about a Wednesday of masters is just absurd. There will still be a standard. Yes. Like that's what I think people still there will still be like a master's standard. And that's why the only reason why I'm saying they told us, yeah, right. A couple times because they're like still very much the people that are making those decisions are very like, we're not doing that, which we understand. We're spending masters for God's sake. It's down there in Augusta. We understand that as a whole. But I think he'll be a benefit. And I think golf growing, like I know TGL was a little bit of a whiff. I think is what people call it. So, you know, I drew some attention. I don't know if it was as big as they thought it was going to be, but I liked that they were trying it. Like I appreciate that golf is going to continue to try to grow and try to evolve because we all love golf. I think everybody loves golf that has ever played golf. More people golfing, the better, especially for if there's teenagers or younger people that Jason Kelsey might attract into golf. It's like learning the skill of golf. My daughter's going to learn it later in life. A lot of things happen with people that make a lot of decisions on a golf course. And if you are ass at golf, it's not good for anything. If you are okay at golf, good. If you are great, much better for all parties. A lot of big business done for the people that are really good at golf. But if you're ass, it's bad news. So like I think golf being introduced to people, however it gets introduced to people, is good. Which is why I like TGL, them taking a swing on that. I appreciate them trying to evolve this master's coverage, even though there will be a standard. Because I think golf is good for society. Yeah, golf is always, at least like growing up, it kind of felt like, oh, this is kind of for us, keep everybody else out. So this is another step and like kind of bridging that gap and post COVID. You know, you just mentioned it. Like the golf has boomed for younger people, for women, for all these different types of audiences. So I think this is a great one. I think it's be fun. I've never tuned into the Wednesdays, the far three thing. But because Kels, yeah, as a football guy, because Kels is on there. I've seen clips, I've seen like Fleetwood, Kid, you know, you know, skipping the off. Yeah, I've seen different videos on the internet. But even like YouTube golf, I guess so many different avenues of golf that the fan can kind of, because sitting there watching, you know, in the coverage of golf, I think it's great. Because it's always action. It's always a shot. It's always a storyline. Then Sunday, you know, Saturday, the movement, all the different parts of it. But I think this would be cool for the average golf fan, the people who are the avid, all masters, I wanted this, I wanted that way. They may not like it, but the day one or early golf is, I think it's be great. There's just so much other stuff you could be upset about that they should, they should just not crack the list. Like, like you guys mentioned it, I mean, I, I, I will check in on the par three. You know, you see, yeah, there will be like a hole in one from, you know, every now and then or like a great shot or someone skipping one over the water and maybe making it. But you're not locked into this like you are Thursday at the master. So like exactly why not, you know, and the stuff with Jason Kelsey, like that, that's just not going to go away. Anytime he does something now going forward, that's always going to be the responses. They're shoving this guy down our throat. Nobody wants him on this or that or whatever the case may be. But like, why not? You know, if you're given the opportunity to go out there and do this, at Augusta, like you don't think he's probably not like, you know what, that sounds like awesome. That sounds awesome. I'd like to go do that. I love that Jason Kelsey is getting an opportunity to do all this shit. He's been, he's been doing a lot of shit. Yeah. They've, they've had them do it. Remember they were dropping Marshawn in situations? Yeah. We should still do that, by the way. Oh yeah. That's kind of disappeared because he's doing like actual movies. Right. I think he's getting paid like real money to be being real movies. I think what we're going to see Marshawn in over the next couple, because movies take a long time. Acting and editing, it happens later. I think Marshawn's about to become a real actor. But if we can continue to drop him into stuff, let's do that. Jason Kelsey, they're doing the same here. I'm excited to see what his master's coverage is. I am excited to see what he thinks of Augusta, the whole thing he'll be on a microphone live in real time. I don't hate it, but boy, people get loud. And could you imagine if they would have said yes to us, how loud it would have gotten? Same reaction, yeah. Oh, probably loud. I have much louder. Jason Kelsey, much more after what was certain group people than us. There would have been a group people with us. I don't know. Oh, you think there's different groups? I'm just saying he gets a lot of baby face. And then so when that turn happens, it's usually big and usually loud. Yeah, but what if he gets a whole one on Wednesday? Everybody's going to have to eat shit. Oh, he's golfing? Crew. I assume he's going to swing a club. He's going to take a club. He's going to swing a club. They don't have a problem. Okay. What if he's very drunk? See, what are we talking about? He can go. He can call. He can announce it. He doesn't need to be swinging a golf course, a golf club on Augusta. Okay. Well, it's a part three course. It's not. It's still Augusta. Tony, what if a player asks him to take a shot? That's fine. That's fine. Yeah. What if a player asks him to take a shot and the shot? Yeah. Yeah. Well, that won't happen at Augusta. Starting semesters. It's Augusta. That won't happen. We're talking booze and then shooting. You know, I mean, maybe he does. Maybe he has a good time. I think it'll be good. But boy, that got loud quick on the internet. That got loud really quick on the internet. Hopefully it goes fantastic. Sorry, everybody has to eat shit. But then there's a chance also it goes horrendously. I don't know how that would happen. And they try something new maybe next year. You know, there's all these types of ideas and setups. Tiger Woods has released a statement since the accident that us saw. We saw him upside down a range of allegedly climb out of the opposite window for another time. And we're about done with seeing it. I think that was our entire take is like, Hey, I don't like knowing that you're potentially going to be dead anytime you get into a car. You need to stop doing it for what our take was. This needs to stop. Obviously how dangerous it is. We all have friends who have passed away from DUIs or from driving or getting hit in the entirety. It's in with the access that he has to things. It's like it's seemingly it is inexcusable to see. It was our take on it as a whole. Tiger get a driver way more pulled up right behind us. Yes, it did. A robotic car pulled up behind us. Tiger Woods understands it seems like I know and understand the seriousness of the situation. I find myself in today. I'm stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment and focus on my health. This is necessary in order for me to prioritize my well-being and work toward lasting recovery. I'm committed to taking the time needed to return a healthier, stronger and more focused place, both personally and professionally. I appreciate your understanding in sport and ask for privacy from my family, loved ones and myself at this one at this time. Tiger. All right, Tiger. Good luck out there, dude. Good luck. I'm Tiger. That's a big decision, dude. Big decision. Hopefully, you know, you go ahead and go on with that because none of us like hearing anything about any of that. College Hoops this weekend, final four. We got the right ones Connor, don't we? I saw a graphic now with where the starting fives were from. UConn, five American flags. One of them being right here in Indiana. Splash City, how you doing? Everybody else had a European infiltration of some sort for at least two of their starters. We all have been saying that it's good for the quality of basketball. Are we expecting a phenomenal final four? That seemingly all conversation is like, hey, this is about to be maybe greatest final four that we have ever seen, Conn Man. Yeah, we saw the numbers on the March Madness Tournament. Those are only going to go up. Like the two games feels as though they are the best possible matchups. Like UConn versus Illinois, you mentioned it. We've talked about it. The big itches from Illinois. That feels as though kind of like a new style, kind of sweet team. And then UConn, older school, Hurley, Carroban guys we've seen before. There's the kind of lineup there. And then Michigan, Arizona. That feels like kind of the one seed versus one seed matchup we've been wanting to see since the beginning. Arizona has been dominating teams. And then Michigan just beat Tennessee by like 30 points in the elite eight. It wasn't close for one minute. Lindenborg, I believe he's a graduate. And then Arizona has all these freshmen, you know, co-opied of course, our guy, Braden Burries. Tommy Lloyd is kind of hitting the snooze, you could say with the whole UNC thing. A lot of guys are saying, hey, Tommy Lloyd, Arizona, he's going to leave immediately after this season. But he's also come out and said like, I'm only focused on this team. So I'll be something to watch. Yeah, exactly. Pass and say that. But this game in particular, it makes sense why this is kind of the later billing game of the night. UNC is thinking about getting West Virginia's coach too, right? Russ Hodge? Yeah. If he's talking about it. If he can bring home the crown, I think that is kind of a little thing to have to talk about. If he was dying to get there and that Tar Heel blew, good things could happen. You know what I mean? I actually don't think he would delay his interview or any of the process for the fucking crown. What you're talking about right now? Yeah, he would go. Yeah. Well, we've got big time game tomorrow. Remember the super duper crown does begin tonight. As Baylor and Minnesota will do battle as will Oklahoma and Colorado. Tomorrow night, West Virginia and Stanford obviously find out who's going to do battle against Rutgers and the Blue Jays. I heard the president can't address the country anymore tonight because this is going on. So they couldn't take it off a TV. Is that true? I think there's a presidential address set for this evening is what I just learned. I thought I saw. I saw as well. Yes, there is. Is that true? That is true. I believe they're supposed to be launching to the moon around like 6.50 and then he I'm dead zero. We are actually first time in 50 years. I saw some photos. We're heading up there. Is that what's happening? We're doing a president. I just learned that right now. And once again, I know that's not good, but I just wanted to show that that's the type of human you're talking about here with me. I did not know that's whenever you attack me for whatever you attack me. Just know I didn't know we had a full presidential address tonight. April Fool's. So it's something. Exactly. You just don't know. You just don't know. But I'm going to be pissed. Okay. If I can't watch Baylor, Minnesota first round super duper crime, because I'm learning about going to moon. Couldn't agree more because I'm learning about going to moon again. Some people got to scout these games again. 50 years, dude. Yeah, what do you mean? I'm glad that's what do you mean? Let's talk about it. I think we know what's he saying. I don't think we do. I don't you know what this guy's uninformed. He's a moron. You know, I don't know if this is some sort of year. Me? I mean, uninformed. Check the tape, brother. Yeah, maybe the most informed. But what is that? Who knows? April Fool's. Exactly. April Fool's. Could be any day now with the way AI is. We really do have to stay on top of things. And what we should be doing more of is going directly to the sources of things. Now, these sources of things certainly get upset whenever we don't do that, but we assume that we can't get to source of things to correct these things. Whenever we have an opportunity to get to source of things, though, we got to make the most of it. Ladies and gentlemen, I have no idea how this happened, but we were pumped about it. Yes. Tighten up. Tighten up. Everybody lock in. We're not, you're not, you two need to stop with what you guys had going on. No, we're done. We're done. I mean, I don't know about that. We'll click pause. Circle back. Just like you got to do when you come out home from the moon. You got to go around the back. Yeah, slingshot technique. Yeah, slingshot. Right, I got to circle back. You know, that's what they said. Dark side of the moon. You got to, you got to go around there and use that centrifugal force to kind of, in the gravity lack of, kind of slingshot your ass back to earth. Right. And that was, do we still have to do that now? 50 years later, we still slingshot around the dark side. Do we know? It depends what, so. Well, it depends what kind of. What? This guy. We're not doing it. It depends. We thought we put a pause on this. We did. I thought we did too. I thought we kept talking about that. I thought we put a pause on this. I might ask our guest. Now on that note. Got bigger fish to fry. If you remember the mathematics side of the entirety of it all. And the numbers and accounting that took place for all of that historic amendment for the United States of America. Yeah. She potentially is one of the ones that would be representing former head of Deloitte. And if you know what that is, that means you understand how impressive that is. If you don't know what that is, it's unbelievably impressed. It is an absurd thing that is happening in the money world accounting world. She is that she's also the commissioner of the WNBA and just got done negotiating one of the fastest CBA things we've seen in some time, especially with how seemingly far apart all conversation was the commission of the WNBA, Kathy Engelberg. How you doing commission? I'm doing great. I'm doing great now. Pat. Hey, we are so thankful that you are joining us. We did not expect this opportunity, but we are thankful for it. And you say you feel good now. Let's talk about the negotiations. Congratulations on the new seven year CBA getting done. That is very difficult. There was certainly work stoppage conversations and it felt like there was a lot of posturing happening on both sides, both through the league and the players. And then we saw photos of you all working together and getting this deal done, which is going to see an increase in pay and seemingly very happy operation right now. How did we get to this point? And was there ever any sketchy moments where you thought maybe there would be a work stoppage for the WNBA? Well, it's interesting. CBAs tend to get done at the 11th hour. And I think this one was a function of how important and meaningful it was, not just for the WNBA and women's basketball, but maybe all women's sports. So there was so much passion and the players were amazing through it. And it was just a testament on how invested everyone is. We needed to get it right. I mean, when you're looking at this long-term labor piece, seven years, the process wasn't definitely not linear. And you have to do a lot of listening, reacting. Responding. And in some cases, you're totally pivoting from what you thought when you went into a bargaining session. But you're just trying to get it right for players, team owners, fans, the business. We want to set that all up for success. And that's why I think this was everybody thought this was so unusual. I think, again, because the WNBA has grown so much, I think it was now we're arrived as a major sports property. And it was probably a little more usual. But obviously, everybody likes to get things done sooner rather than later in this environment. But we had to get it right, number one. A lot of heat coming in. And anytime you're a league that's been around for 30 years and are projecting into the future, it can be hard to come to an agreement, especially with the players. And now everything is kind of gone. We did some research. Debut was looking into it. We tried our best to learn as much as the situation that you were in as soon as we found out that you were going to join our show. So we've been looking into it. So some of these numbers might not be 100% accurate. But we learned that the NBA took a long time before it became a profitable business. The NFL, like 50 years almost before it became like a super duper profitable business. You guys are going to be celebrating 30 years right now. Feels like we're close to making. It's like, how do you kind of project what the future looks like? How much money you can make? Because there was numbers coming out. And we don't know what side the numbers were coming out from where if you gave up 20% or 30% in a $10 million salary cap, the projections would be you'd lose 200 million or something like that. I forget all that. But the projections were all negative that were coming out about your guys' deal or potential deal. How did you end up falling on the $7.5 million salary cap for seven years and a percentage split that it ended up with the players? And how are you projecting this kind of to go over the next seven years of the WNBA's existence? Yeah, it's a great question. And obviously we grounded everything both sides in principles that we needed, significant increase in player salaries and benefits, but also balancing that with the ability to continue to incentivize investment in our league. We've had incredible investment in the league and practice facilities and player experience, et cetera. We've had incredible investment by our broadcast partners, including ESPN Disney. And we're bringing on NBC this year in Amazon and we have Scripps, ION, and CBS. So, and Versint now is the spinco out of NBC. So incredible investment into the game, into the WNBA, our corporate partners as well. So it was making sure we could balance all of that. That's the hard part, right? Because you do want, we're in our 30th year, by the way, the longest tenured women's professional sports league in the United States by double any other. So we took it with great responsibility that we're just not going to do this without a financial model that was sustainable for our owners, our board of governors, our team owners. So that was really important. And we were able to strike that balance. I think, I mean, not everyone gets everything they want. You know, there's a lot of uncomfortable moments when you're negotiating around these things, especially because you're looking for that long term agreement. And you want to make sure that though the players are going to, this is the first time the players are going to benefit every time we increase our revenue. They have a full revenue share on full league and team revenue. And that's a huge win-win for both them and the owner and the team owners. Congrats on all of it. And being the longest tenured professional women's league by double or triple, we're appreciative. We have a lot of baby girls in this thunderedome. And my daughter has been to three soccer practices now. First one just cried and watched the entire time. Second time we kind of got involved. Third time we had much better attitude, but there was numerous times where didn't want to use her feet, just picked that thing up and actually dunked it into the net. So let's continue that. Okay. For the good of money. And I think that's why it's so much interest in the business side of it and the sustainability of the league. I think we looked it up. We don't know what's 100% accurate, obviously on the internet. It is April Fool's. So, you know, there's a lot of that. But I think it's a 42% WNBA, 42% NBA. And then there's what 16% of other investors in the entirety of the WNBA. I think my natural thought was that the NBA was kind of owning this. How do you get everybody on board for this deal? How much is the NBA involved whenever there's negotiations and conversations happening? I know there's a lot of carryover for NBA and WNBA owners like here in Indiana, I think in Phoenix, I think Mark Davis is an owner out there in Las Vegas. They're in the middle of a dynasty run. But how much are you and the NBA kind of doing all this together? And how much expectation is on the NBA to continue to help WNBA grow? Yeah, absolutely. NBA and Adam have been so supportive. There's a reason why when I came in that we were the longest tenured league. And it's because, you know, we're tipping off our 30th season. The NBA has been a great partner. Cycles happen in the economy. And so, you know, when I came in, everything needed to be transformed from the player experience to stakeholder success to our fan experience. So, you know, one of the other things, you know, when I came in, one of the things was like less than 1% of all corporate partnership dollars were going to women's sports and less than 5% of all media coverage at the time was in sports was women's sports. So those percentages have gone up. Thankfully, we've helped grow those percentage. And, you know, when you look at how many hundreds of basis points, you would have to grow those to even get to 10%, 15%, given that there's billions and hundreds of billions of dollars going into sports. So the NBA has been a huge partner of ours, hugely helpful. And, you know, as have all of our stakeholders, I'll call them more broadly. And that includes, again, these media companies, these corporate partners, because without them, you know, companies like Ally and Deloitte and AT&T and Google and CarMax and Nike, they have stepped up in a big way. And that enabled us, quite frankly, to build a sustainable revenue model to pay the players what we're now paying them. You know, everyone's like, why can't you pay the players more? Well, you need a revenue model to actually fund the payment of these type of salaries. And we finally have it. And we wanted to be able to sustain it. So, yeah, the NBA great partner. And I think everybody's rowing in the same direction now. Hey, it feels like you're an absolute dog, Cathy, you know, because you hear the same thing we hear when they're like, pay the players, pay the players. This happened, and I don't want to compare the WNBA. It's been around for 30 years to the USXFL. Okay, I don't want to do that. Sure. I don't want to do that. But we got information from the USXFL. They were like, hey, Dwayne Johnson, friend of our show, lost $45 million last year on USXFL. Then our quarterbacks were like, we're holding out. We want more money. It's like, that doesn't make that like it's hard to really, I feel like when the WNBA, it's always talked about, it's like, lose money, lose money, lose money. Then we heard there was going to be a work stoppage. And I think everybody like wanted to pile on. But I love the fact that you took the mindset of like, okay, let's make this a business. Let's do what we have to do. And for those companies to jump in for the good of your league and for the future, and obviously broadcast partners, I mean, that's any of our businesses having partners that support it. Good for you, Cathy. Hey, good for you and the entire WNBA team for making that happen, because it's good for our society whenever that's taken place. Exactly. And I love you guys are girl dads and you see the benefit. And I think what happened is we had this investment from the NBA before we became as popular as we are today. And those other investors who came in, which by the way, half of them were NBA or WNBA owners already. So everybody doubled down on their investment. Because when I came in, the owners at the time were like, you know, we're going to go big or go home. That literally is what they went my first meeting with some of the owners where we're going to go big or go home. And you know what, we hit the pandemic right after. And that was like existential for us because if we were to be out of the sports landscape for 20 months, which is what it would have been had we not had that 2020 season. So we cobbled together the bubble in Bradenton, Florida at IMG Academy and held a successful season and that put us off to the races. So you kind of look back at all these turning points in kind of the trajectory of the league, at least since I've been here. And you know, you look back and say, thank God we had the resistance and the persistence and the resilience to like keep going because we could have hung it up there. And I probably wouldn't be sitting here today as the commissioner. We could have hung up this CBA when it became contentious, but we said, this is the right thing to do for the WNBA, for these players long term and for the owners long term. So again, it's all a balance. Yeah, it certainly is a balance, but I think the product on the floor also has to keep up with the business. You know, we've seen businesses where the business is good, but the product is kind of trash. Feels like you have stars. Obviously, Las Vegas ACs in the middle of maybe the best dynastic run in the history of professional women's sports as a whole winning three out of the last four. Asia, absolutely absurd. I think more people learned about her is that rookie class from a couple years back, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese who took over March Madness with LSU and Iowa come into the league. Now on that note, any business runs off of its stars and how their stars perform. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, I can miss. So obviously everyone's excited that this is done, but it kind of feels like now is where like the real work starts. How confident are you that the league can create new stars? Because I'm an Iowa alum. I watched all of Caitlin Clark's games, you know, while she was in school there. And then you're just naturally kind of curious when she gets to the fever and you guys definitely did catch, you know, lightning in a bottle with her. And obviously it wasn't just her, but the WNBA was, you know, kind of appointment television for a while there. So how confident is the league that you guys will be able to continue to kind of get these not only college players that are coming up, but current current, you know, players in the league and establishing them as like household stars? Yeah, and you bring up the point that I always say like you need household names. You need games of consequence. And that's usually, you know, because our season's shorter, you know, now we'll be able to play up to 52 games over the life of this agreement when I came in. And I think we were playing 32. So you need that and you need those stars. And Caitlin, without question, has been a huge part of the growth of our league. And she's not only an incredible player, but a great ambassador for the game you've seen her on. She's done some work with the NBA on NBC this year and couldn't be prouder how she's handling the moment for her because a lot of pressure on her. But as you said, there's a lot more stars. I mean, this year our draft is actually like 12 days away. And we have AZ FUD from UConn. We have Olivia Miles from TCU, Flage from LSU, Lauren Betts from UCLA, who's in the final four. We actually have two players from outside the U.S. And so we're becoming a more global player population as well, just like the NBA has done over the years. And we're catching up. I think when I came in the league, we were 8% players born outside the United States. And last year, we were 23% or something like that. So we're growing our global game too. So and we need to invest there as well. But it's going to be a great draft. I think there's going to be a lot. You think next year, you have Hannah Hedalgo. You have Juju, depending on she's red-shirted this year, obviously, because of the injury, Juju Watkins. And you have so many other great players, Kiki Rice at UCLA, that are going to be coming in. And I think like, I don't get to see a lot of the U18, but I'm told like, Kathy, wait till you see these U18 players, these under 18 players, they're going to be the next Katelyns, the next Juju's, the next Elia Boston's and Asia Wilson. So I'm excited. I think our broadcast partners saw the future even before, as we were negotiating, even before Katelyn was in the league, they saw the future of all this great talent coming in. Again, not just from college, but also internationally. Yeah, they also saw that you're bringing massive partnerships with you too. I mean, that's awesome. That's an incredible weapon to have. You know that as we have our show licensed, you know, so we much smaller situation than what you have as an entire league. But in negotiations, having businesses that'll be like, yeah, if he goes, we'll go. That's a huge, that is a huge ordeal. So the fact that you're able to gather that, they get a lot more confidence in what the future looks like whenever you're able to supply that type of shit. Kathy, you're a beast. You're an absolute beast, Kathy. That is for real. One of the moves was the roster size. I think that became a big conversation. Who wanted this? League or players? Because now there's 12 players with two like practice squad players that are allowed to play on the team. Is this more players on the roster than it used to be? And who really presented this one as something that seemingly needed to be a necessity? You are the players. Yeah, I think this was a collaborative effort. We knew players with a 12 person roster, we knew that we didn't need to stand up an entire kind of G League equivalent. But could we bring development? We're calling them development players in so that there'll be two development players per team. That's 30 additional opportunities for players. We also went from 144 players and now with expansion, we'll be up to 216 by the end of the decade and we'll be 180 this year, 180 players plus the 30 development players. So we'll be over 200 that we're taking care of giving opportunity and developing. So that was definitely a collaborative effort between the players association and the league and the teams to bring on these two development players. It's a huge investment. Don't get me wrong, but it's also a huge opportunity as well for more players to make this league because you know in the past like a second and third round pick in our league generally wouldn't make a roster. I think there's a lot more opportunity with both expansion and these development players to develop the next generation of talent. More roster spots, higher salaries, more teams, feels like everything's up and to the right, Kathy. Just need to see the hooping. You know, the hooping just needs to maintain. Now who's doing the hooping? D-butt has a question for you. Back to the talent in the draft. I'm a UConn grad so I've been following the ladies game for a long, long time. Has there been any conversation about changing the draft rules for the WNBA? I know I think we have to be 22 years old. We have to be a college grad for international. It has to be 20 years old, I believe. And a lot of times, you know, our stars, Caitlyn being one of them. Obviously all these girls that go to UConn, they're stars in college for four years before they can go to the WNBA. Any talks of changing those rules going forward? Yeah, there wasn't a lot of debate over that. I think we were all comfortable with where we were in the prior CPA with, you know, the 22 that you mentioned. You have to be 22 by the end of the calendar year in which you get drafted, which makes them mostly college graduates or a college graduate if you're younger. And go earlier, I guess. Obviously internationally, as you mentioned, it's 20. So we're consistently studying whether, you know, which option is better, should it be younger. I think in general, both the players association us thought, we have struck the right balance on that. It gives opportunity for players who maybe are either starting later or a little older or do a redshirt year to come in, you know, after their junior year, but mostly, you know, after you graduate. And again, it's provided an enormous amount of talent. And I think one of the things that's also these players are building their brands while they're in college. So the one and done is not going to work for us because they won't have built their brand by the time they come to the W. And so I think it's important that they have that opportunity to build their brand, get their NIL money also because the women basketball players, the stars have been really kind of at the top of the list from that perspective. And then they come in with big brands like Caitlyn did, like Angel did, like Leah Boston has built now that she's come in post her playing career in South Carolina as well. So again, the list goes on around that and the endorsement opportunities they have once they come into W with just not just a domestic national brand, but now we're going to be in Canada this year with the Toronto tempo, we're going to be in Portland with the Portland fire and then like kind of globally be able to build their global brands coming out of the university. So I think it's an advantage to have that four year career. But again, we're constantly studying it. Yeah, with social media too, the evolving building of brand will continue. And obviously colleges have helped, certainly have helped since the history of time in all sports colleges have provided a nice feeder system into professional sports. We've seen it in yours. Excited to watch that. Flo Jay, is she going to play good in WNBA? I'm a huge fan of hers. Is her big? Yeah, huge, huge fan of hers as well. Followed her since she was a freshman. I mean, huge success at LSU. Bars. Very confident. And just personality. And I can't wait to see her at the draft. And one of my favorite parts of the year is coming up, which is I get to call each of these potential draftees into the league and invite them to New York City to the shed on April 13th. And some of them have never been to New York City and some of them, they're so excited. And they say things like, thank you for making my dreams come true. And it's like truly the most inspiring part of the commissioner job for me is seeing that next generation of talent come in and how excited they are. And Flo Jay is definitely one of those talents. I love that. Can't wait to see how it all goes with her. She's a weapon. She is an absolute weapon. Anytime there's been a microphone around her, she's hit a home run. I think that's great for the league. You mentioned Toronto and Portland. I think we're at 15 teams now. Going to get to 18 by 2030. Go ahead, Conman. Yeah, Commissioner Pat's point there. Portland and Toronto being the two teams this year. How do you pick as far as cities to expand to? I think Philly is also on the docket and two others coming up here. But what is kind of the process in picking like, okay, that city would be great for the W. We'll head there next. It's a great question because when I first came in and we were only in 12 cities and not having scale, I was like, boy, and we didn't have one in the Bay Area and the Bay Area given the media market and the progressiveness and where the W stood kind of societally. I'm like, we need a team in the Bay Area. Then the Golden State Valkyries came in and killed it this year with Portland and Toronto. It's not easy to pick. Probably ran 25 different, down a bit of a data geek from my prior life. We ran probably 25 different metrics through 100 cities, both in the U.S. and Canada, and kind of looked at which ones we thought would be have the right demographics, psychographics. How many, like, do they have the right facilities? Because a free agency now is so important and we want these owners to be highly successful. So they've got to be able to bring in free agents. Do they have the right arena? Do they have the right practice facilities? Fandom. Are they already fans of the NCAA? Are they already fans of the W? We have a lot of data around that. So we put all of that together. And we came up with a process that, in the last process, we probably started with 25 or so cities that were bidding. It came down to about 13 cities. And that's when we granted. We were originally only intended to run the process for one, but we had 13 really viable bids. And we came up with Cleveland and 28, Detroit and 29, and Philly and 30. And so bringing in those three great cities, great basketball cities. I happened to be from Philadelphia. So no bias there, of course. Yeah, a little heavy pen on that. Yeah, we understand. 250 million per franchise there. Hey, keep going, Kathy. We appreciate the hell out of you. Obviously our daughters hope to all get a chance to play in the league that you are currently guiding. And congrats on a massive deal getting done for the future. And we hope, we hope, no injuries the entire year. That's right, none. None. Don't away, don't away. So hopefully our trainers and our physical therapists are all working on our players here in the off season and we'll tip off May 8th, as big tip off date. April 13th, we got a draft. May 8th, we got a start of a season. The fever are going to topple the aces. Even though it seems impossible, we appreciate the hell out of you, commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, WNBA commissioner, Kathy Engelberg. Thank you, Kathy. Have a good one. She's impressive. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Killer, you could tell. Yeah. Hey, we're wondering if you wanted to do a deal with the WNBA. I don't know if we can really relate. Deloitte, Nike, Baba. Yeah. Yeah, they're all here. We would love to do. She's a what she forced that deal. Oh, yeah. That's incredible. That's what a commission is supposed to do. We're back tomorrow. Be a friend, tell her something nice about change of life. Goodbye. Yeah, she that's. She's like, I got here. There's no scale. We got no business. So how are we playing on make the money around here? What are we doing? Tickets. Nachos, beers. Okay. Anything else? I'm sure there is stuff. All right. I just came from Deloitte. I'm sure there's some sort of calling Nike. Hey, don't you? Thank you. How about this? Don't you? Yeah, we get bundled. We'll get you. Yep. Don't you? Hey, with our players. Thank you. Yeah. She built a business, it sounds like. Yeah. And it's so much shit that goes into it. Obviously. Oh, so much negotiation. You were talking about the leagues earlier. NBA founded 1946. Didn't really become really profit. Until like the Magic Bird, the 80s, and then it went on. We saw the documentary with Jerry Busse and how he was going through a lot of shit to keep the Lakers afloat of all franchises. Yeah, like Stern too, to your point. Like that era of David Stern, he's considered one of the greatest commissioners because of that. NFL. NFL, 1920. They didn't get profitable until after the merger in 1970. We saw the letter from Lamar Hunt. That's it, in the Hall of Fame. And then they get profitable until 1970s is when they kind of became the cash printing machine that they are. It takes a while and obviously we're in a different landscape. And then it's women's sport too. So it was obviously very different. MLB probably had the fastest because they kind of had a monopoly on it. And it was just a different time. When was it? 18? Yeah, I mean, yeah. 1890 something. Like also all local media deals. Exactly. It took them like 20, 30 years to become really dominant in that space. So it takes a while. There's a lot of different moving parts, but it feels like they got the right people in there. Yeah. Kathy seems like an absolute beast. Like actually. And he looks for their resume and it's like, this is fucking killer. This is, oh, we didn't ask the McDonald's question. Fardeba. Sa-gun. Is it, what was the question? Is it safe to eat McDonald's for six straight days? Because he was. I would go to breakfast lunch. And super dinner. Yes, he likes to call it early morning. Yeah, sleep dinner. Second dinner. Fry's on chest dinner. Getting more fat dinner. The Glast. Well, that technically doubles as a midnight snack too. Because he falls asleep, then wakes up and eats all the fries that are all over him. Really? Blackberries. Yeah. Good for his skin. Yeah. Cold pizza. Yeah, right. Have you ever tried Harry cold fries in the morning? D-Bone special. Gut McDouble. His lady, the Gut McDouble. Keep it warm. Ladies and gentlemen, the Indiana University Hoosier football team, the reigning national champions who have the Heisman winner as their quarterback, has their pro day happening today. We have eyes on Fernando Mendoza. Boots on the ground. Anthony Calhoun of Wish TV here in Indianapolis has sent me 14 text messages since he's got down there. He said Fernando looks bigger. Looks huge. Looks like he's put some muscle on. This guy's ready to go. He will be swelling with the boys. He said he wanted to. Obviously one last sesh with Elmar Cooper Jr., who could potentially be first rounder amongst other guys. It will be out there. So eyes will be on. The number one overall pick, Fernando, today. We'll take a break. On the other side, he might be working out. And we got some other sports stuff that we definitely need to cover on this beautiful April. Don't be fooling around. First, 2026. I don't like that. Take that off the screen. Take that off screen. Uh-oh. Oh, jeez. That was bad. That was bad. What I meant? That was bad. You're not a scout, so. Oh, the. Didn't even notice. We talked about it to Dan Morgan. You want his hands to get wet before your biggest day of his life? It uses that lotion on his hands. He's probably covered it. That's not good. I believe I still believe. I still believe if this goes in, it's okay. Let's take a break. Tell him I'm not in your shirt. Why is it different? I mean, different ball. Which why is that? Oh, it talks about that. Let's take a break. Being a friend, tell a friend something nice might change your life. It's a lower room. That's a flay. Oh, that's for you, boy. That's for us. That game hasn't been played in a long time. New champs kind of killed the game. Killed the game. Nobody want to play well. That beast you guys are talking about is a dominant force in the paint. Thank you, D-Bone. He hasn't moved in the pain in six months. There's a trophy that's been sitting there just waiting to be won. Collecting dust. Everyone knows the fans favorite. Look, that fits awesome right on top of the cup. The fans favorite. I wouldn't. Just a quick. Let's get to a break. Kathy, I think she's gonna figure it out. I think Kathy's gonna figure it out. I don't like how all they talk about is how much money it loses all the time though. Yeah. It's not fun. That's like a direct counter all the time. WNB is cares how many millions they lose in a night. It's like, whoa, Jesus. What about this arena selling out? Yeah. Katelyn sold this place out. Mm-hmm. Every night. She was the Beatles. Outside viewing parties because people couldn't get tickets in. She single-handedly changed downtown Indianapolis a bit. They got a facility now. They got different areas being built up. Not to jail down for it too. Like helped out the city greatly when that thing. Yeah, freed all the prisoners. No, they didn't. It was old school. But right there where it is, it's right by Gainbridge. I believe it's across the street from kind of the bus stop area, hotel, Indy area, and it has genuinely helped the city immensely. Ishby has done it in Phoenix, built a WNBA facility. Davis, Mark Davis and him in Vegas have built the ACES facility. They're in the middle of a dynasty. The Simon family has been very open about how thankful they are that Katelyn Clark has joined the Fever and how they are going to try their best to make sure everything is as good as possible so they can get as much success as possible with her on the team. It's been fun to watch. It's been very fun to watch. Hopefully WNBA can tell you this is a go. Congratulations to Kathy Engelbar. We appreciate her. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. Might change her life. We have updates from a pro day and from the sports world. Mm-hmm. Sweet hoodie. Tom, yeah, you're telling me. Let's play ball. It's game day. For Paul Skeens. What time is that game? It's already started. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Your cruise hit a home run. Yeah, he was. He hoisted the cone. Boom. He hoisted the cone. They're currently up three one. They are in the top of the six. Skeens has five Ks through five. Five Ks through five. That's O'Neill Cruz hitting the ball. Bye-bye. A lot of people there. And you're about to see the coin. Hoist the cone. Hoist the cone. Hoist the fucking cone. Hoist the fucking cone. Hoist the fucking cone. Hoist the fucking cone. That's what they're doing next. Paul Skeens' R.A. is down to 9.53. K is at 67. 9. Before today. What do you want from the guy? Want from 67 to 9? It's quite a climb. What's up, Pat? Landamot. Be a friend, tell friends something nice. My change of life. Take fight. Fight. Fight. As we peek in here to Fernando Mendoza's pro day, number one overall, Pato Las Vegas Raiders, Cone Out Routes, London Boys, Oh, he's shredded. Shredded. OK. Six pack as well. Wow. What do you look? Getting another quick score to ice cold water. For all little things, you know, we know he could spin it. Can't have slippy hands. He's been obviously throwing beautiful balls here. We've had zero balls on the ground since we've been watching. Going to the left here. Adidas athlete. So, oh, that's good. Five step. On top. All right, you got to eat. You got to eat. Cut the fuck off. That's all I'm looking at. That's all I'm looking at. That's all I'm looking at. Mendoza. Mendoza. Well, Tanner Lofsky is going to count that. He will. Packed house down there for the Hoosiers. This is very abnormal. A pro day looking like this for the Hoosiers. Play action. Take this. Oh, yeah, he likes it. It's rotten. So, for NATO, six foot five, you forget about that when you're watching this. He is towering above the competition. Fighting to the left, two different colors. Sleets. Cooper. Oh, Mark Cooper Jr., first round pick. Hey, he's smooth. Oh, oh, the guys get caught up, found his feet. Fernando waits for him. The leverage is down. Wow. Stays in bounds, finishes upfield. I'll tell you what, it's a little bit of a showcase, isn't it, D, but of everything we like. Yeah, absolutely. You saw the dig ball, believed to serrat, and obviously a little post corner right there. But those are the passes, especially those intermediate routes that these scouts, these coaches, everybody. Oh. Because everything you hear is the RPOs, the back shoulder phase, the shots. We saw them do that a thousand times. But NFL, we always talk about even with the Jalen Hurts conversation, the intermediate passes, layering the throws, being on time, being on target. So that's what everybody's looking for now. No, Kasky out of the backfield. Beast. Mr. Everything. Let's go ball right there. Feels like he's in complete command, which is what we're looking for. One ball on the ground, that was a drop. Do they normally call it the quarterbacks in these pro days? Do we know? He's saying, he's telling them all around what to do. Even that ball right there, what you're wrong with that? To run or spoff. We can run with that. Perfection. And I think I saw him break down the coverage too and find out that was the most possible. Or lost. He's going to be sick to his stomach. So pissed. I'll showcase him in his stomach by Fernanda. Once people know he's a little bit bigger, but still not a fatso. I'm also pretty sure I saw Clint Kubiak's jaw hit the turf. Just loving everything he's seeing here. Mr. Black in the backfield. I don't know what's going on here. They're going back to a previous throw to... Embi mate? I don't know. I'm thinking the underclassmen don't have numbers. Is that what... Because they're just there strictly for Fernanda. Wheel route to the crib. You see that with Ashton Genti potentially. Over there in Las Vegas. Unless they're keeping their cards. Hair line looks magnificent. Hair's flowing in. It's a white slot. Yeah. That's why I can't hold the water ball. Oh, I don't necessarily love the whole squirtsy in the mouthy, but I mean, I might be as old as Stutter and Go from Sarat. Oh, it's a good ball, Nando. Catch her ball. That's a touchdown. That's got to be a touchdown. Are they got a wide receiver over there? Vegas? Yeah. Thorton. That's super fair. Trey Tucker. Trey Tucker. That's a super fast one. Oh, the ball. Brock Bowers is there. Brock Bowers, obviously a tight end. Top pass, catching. He's why I'd be super warm for them. Who's going to be catching that Go ball, though, that he just... Who was the rookie out of Tennessee they took last year? Thornton was the kid out of Tennessee. Trey Tucker was the... Oh, here's another one. Oh, Martin, a crib. That's so down a little bit. That's so down a little bit. He was wide open. Hey, that's because the last guy you overthrew by a yard and a half. Walk in, Nando. Nando's locked in. It's not about Nando. Well, we got to lock in that. No, Akowski got a little bit of an east sleeve. And a limp. Who cares? I mean, what? Catch the goddamn ball, boys. Orlowski's watching. This is bullshit. Speaking of, ladies and gentlemen, joining us now. Oh, great. Oh. Dan Orlowski. Dan-O, what are you seeing here from this project? Dan-O. Love you, Dan. Miss you, Dan. We love you, Dan. A lot of balls in the ground, huh? Dan-O. Yeah, I mean, I'm not a massive pro-day person. These guys should look good. I mean, I've seen them throw the ball well, but... Man, there you go. Let's go see you, Dan-O. Good to see you guys. Is it? Okay. Still bummed out. Okay. We miss you, Dan-O. Listen, the internet happens. We're a part of it. That was good ball. That was good ball. That's Brock Bowers right there. Exactly. You see that one? You see Brock Bowers right there coming across. Bang, breaking the front. Let's go get some more yardage out here. That's what he's doing. Yeah, it's a good throw. Okay, good throw. Let's check the box there for Fernando. Did you see somebody else squirt the water? Again? That's honestly kind of him to let those people be out there and work. Being a part of the moment. Because they work their ass off all year. Exactly. Now... They deserve to be here, too. We don't even know this. This is maybe a pro day for also the athletic trainers and equipment. Yeah, they're trying to get their own tape out there to Mark Davis. Mark Davis might see one of them and be like, we need that guy at the Raiders. That's a good squirt. Yeah. Dan, you don't think about that much, do you? I do not think about that. I don't think that's a real thing, so... Oh. All right, dude. Yeah, chalk. I think I know what it is. He's a big sweater. Oh, you think he's a little bit of a... Big sweater. Big. What's that, Dano? He's used that towel. My guess is, yeah. That's why he's doing that, because he doesn't want to put moisture on his hands. Okay, I like that sticking up for Fernando there, Dano. I like what you're doing there. Thank you for doing that with us. What should we be looking at at this pro day, Dano? Even though it's hard to kind of see a... Yeah, I mean, again, I'm not a... I think there's most people who have played quarterback could probably go in a pro-doing throw well. So you expect those guys to look good. It seems like he's throwing the ball down the field, which is the strength of his. There's a couple drag routes we just saw. We just saw a couple. Yeah, he didn't do a lot of this under center stuff, so that's going to have to be something he gets comfortable. Okay, pretty comfortable. Okay! Grab him a pillow, and his dude's comfort level is elite. Right now with the bucket. Sorry, Dano. I think he's a good player. Yeah, he's a good player. No one's ever said he wasn't a good player. Hey, listen, you don't have to get so defensive. Yeah, good. First half of the time we're watching pro day, we're past what happened last week. Oh, Mark Cooper with an eye. What a throw! Nando on the face. No big deal right there on the face, man. That's a creep, Cole. For the other team. Yeah, for the offense. For the other team. Oh, now you're laughing at us. Oh, now, yeah. Just like we thought. How come you guys... You guys can joke, but I can't. We didn't know you're still joking. Yeah, we thought you were potting, maybe. Oh, wheel. Wheel to Rokosky! Touchdown! Touchdown! What's that, man? That doesn't count. Did you see on the back there? Nando! That was an RPO that does not count. I like a little play. That was a penalty. That was a penalty, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, penalty. Oh, look at this one. You like that one, huh? Those were easier throws for him, he said. What's that, D-butch? D-butch. D-butch say love with your soul, right there. D-butch, Pipe Dyer. I mean, look, this is the thing to watch. But all these routes, just watch the receiver. If he slows down, if he's not out in front of him, like that, boom. Oh, perfect. See, you saw how he caught that and had to turn back. Oh, he settled in his zone. Settled in his zone. They were setting the cover too. Setting cover too, you wanted to... He threw him into a spot. You want to throw him right into the flat defender? I'm just saying, this is what... Have you played ball? This is what they would be looking at. The deep balls, the toes. Feels like the U-Con pro day. You didn't hear the coach yell out cover too. I'm just watching the tape. I love Fernando. He's going to be the number one pick. But that's what I'll be looking at, especially... Oh, that's good. Oh! It's a good ball. See where he put it, though? It's a good ball. Perfect. Right here in front. Right here in front. Dan, though, did you see that? Right here. You don't know what coverages are, right? That's true. It's top of the judge's field. Oh, oh, you're so tricky. What an action, beautiful. Wow, we love that. Dan, are your thoughts on that perfection right there? It was a nice throw. It was a nice throw. Bumped out. Are you bummed out? It was a nice throw. Still, I thought you were bummed out. I thought we liked all quarterbacks. Not at all. Oh, one more. Little stumble. Who cares? We found it. Bang. Oh, perfect. I mean, what a game. All right, Dan, though, now that we have you, as we continue to watch, number one ever all-picked, Fernando Mendoza do his pro day. Dan, though, blooming to Indiana with a packed house, which is very abnormal for Indiana. This man won a national championship for that team. Won a Heisman down there. Mr. Heisman is currently standing in Bloomington still, which is crazy to think about, especially for Hoosier fans, what he's done for us. Oh, roll out, athlete, on the move. Perfect. I mean, Sigg is there with a fishing rod or? Well, did you see what happened with the fishing rod story? I saw it, Dan, yeah, explain himself. What do you mean explain himself? He explained the situation. Yeah, okay, explain. He was motivating. Even as the guy wouldn't be able to play for the Colorado Buffaloes, he's still motivating somebody. We may be wanting him prime fishing rods. I do like that he got a little bit of an added in the entire announcement. But, Dan, let's talk a little bit about what's going on around the NFL. Jalen Hurts' situation and story. How do you feel about it? This feels like a big deal. Jenny only feels like a big deal. We had Chase Daniel on earlier strictly because I learned about the situation through Chase Daniel. He basically, I mean, that was strike right down. It's timing. That was right down. I mean, unbelievable. That guy's got a sleeve on, not running full weight. What do you think about the Jalen Hurts situation? Is this all a bunch of bullshit coming out of league meetings? Or what do you think, Dan? Oh, no, I mean, I think my first reaction is this is the second time they're starting quarterback in what, six years has had some stuff like this come out about them. We heard it with Carson Wentz. Now we hear a little bit. I'm not saying it's apples to apples, but it's the second time there's some level of disconnect between the organization and or the starting quarterback. You heard Wentz was empowered too much or given too much power. Now you're kind of hearing some of the same stuff with Jalen of changing of plays, disliking or doing too much of the play calling, change at the line or in and out of the huddle. So it's odd that that happens at least two times in a row with their starting quarterbacks that were, you know, MVP championship caliber. Obviously Jalen won it. You know, so that's, that's different. I think the second thing is like, I don't know the why. I think anybody can be honest about Jalen Hertz and sit there and say, if you just took him out, and I would tell you, I was probably the most critical person of Jalen Hertz when he came out of school and in Philly. If you just took him and threw on the field with all this 32 starting quarterbacks in the NFL, he would not be a top 10, probably top 12 guy. He just, that's not, he wouldn't pop that way. But I just think it's ridiculous to take a quarterback that has gone to three, two Super Bowls in the span of three years, been the best player on the field two times, won MVP once and the Super Bowl, and be like, yeah, it's just not really that good. That's hard for me to wrap my head around. I understand the fascination behind it. So you hear stuff like this throughout the year. You hear a lot of rumors and hear say what not, but it's interesting that it's happened twice to their starting quarterback in the last five or six years. That's a struggle. I agree. People way too comfortable talking bad about the franchise quarterback over there in Philadelphia. Seems like. Yeah, that's true. It's just, it's weird. It's odd to me that two times in a row this has happened and for a guy that has won as much as he has. Oh man. Just, Daniel. Just carving this indoor facility up right now. It's like a Easter hum. It is. That you're kind of experiencing right in front of us. A sprinkler system in there because he's catching fire. Yeah. Well, I think his sweat can help if they need it. He is on fire right now, Daniel. And he'll go on to be the leader of the Las Vegas Raiders franchise. That team invested heavily in free agency. Allegedly, they've already given him, oh, we're doing it again, aren't we? Yeah. Yeah, we are. Yeah, we are. Oh, that's perfect. That was a delay. That was a delay. That was a delay. That was a delay. Damn, yeah. Do a backflip now, Nando. That was the last one? Do a backflip now, Nando. Yeah, this guy's the best. Maybe a high five? Yeah, backhand. It all is all on us. Yeah, I shouldn't be here. For the best teammate ever. Yeah, you want to make sure the boys are there first. That's good leadership, honestly. Actually, the guy just ran deep balls here. Yep, thank you. Hey, so let's stay down here, boys. Let's go ahead and do our thing. Yeah, see you leadership. Hey, boys, I'm in. Hey, let him in there. Yeah, we are. Well, he's just kind of, yeah, he's in. Look, he just wants to be one of the guys one last time. I like it. That's good work, boys. Good show. Good career. Just flawless. The future. Dan, I'm bummed we weren't able to have you on door in a Thai Simpson one. I know what that would have sounded like. Look at that. I don't like that. You guys. I would like to let you know that we are happy you're back on here. And I did think you didn't like me there for a while. I did think you were pretty mad about it. You thought that I didn't like you? I thought you were pretty mad about it. Oh, yeah. I was pretty, I FaceTimed you didn't answer. No, I'll tell you. I wasn't in a good space to answer that FaceTime. I know that's. That's why I sent you the. Yeah. We love you, Dan. We love you, Dan. I want you to know that. I was pissed off. The internet's when it's on you, it's on you. Like it's I've had a couple of times over the past couple of years. It feels heavy and I don't know why I pay attention to it. When I know I'm like fudge, it's I'm in it. I would tell you that I'd prefer you not to maybe say that I'm getting paid for my thoughts on that. No, I didn't say that. I didn't say that. I said this is why people are saying Internet was saying. I said that's why this is why people are saying it. Because then what you say for an end of what big games has he played and when you got like really defensive as. Can I can I clarify that, please? Do I have the opportunity to clarify that? Absolutely. No, no, we should just. We should just move along. But on that note, you were talking to me as if we were in like a living room in like we were that's how you were talking. You were talking to me as if we were in a living room, as opposed to on TV with people watching and like it. I think because that would be something like we would say if we were trying to debate a point with a friend somewhere. Like, yeah, but tell me the thing. So then people. Well, I was that. Yeah, I didn't know people are going to kill you for that though. In real time, I did not know that was going to be the one that got you, but it certainly did. It certainly did. I did not. I mean, I was asking the big game thing is a literal question. Okay, what game are we talking about? Because I obviously go into the time with you prepared to talk about Iowa on the road, Penn State on the road. Like so it was a literal question, not a like a jackass question type of thing. Oh, you are not. You aren't saying like, what big games is this guy played? But I'm not. All right, we're not going to do what we did because that's how it sounded when you watched that. That is good clarification. We miss her. I miss her to that. We all miss her. Um, we appreciate you. But I would never, I can never be mad at you like that. I value our friendship too much. Good. We love you too. And then I liked that you did this. This was a good play. This is a good play. I did it all. I stole that from D. But D. But was the first one to do it. And then I wrote to him like, hey, do what you had to do, but it's got it off. You killed it. Got a fucking job. That's a good teammate. It's got teammate to D. But it's my quarterback. Give me an idea. Say, hey. On water bottle. Yeah. This one's for you. Here you go, Dana. Get behind you. Well, good job, D. But, but yeah, it was good. It was a good 72 hours. He got a lot of text messages and phone calls. Just saying, hey, we love you, man. Just keep fighting in there. A lot of that. I got a text message or a phone call from someone you know. I don't want to say his name because it, but you know, um, you know, like, well, work with work. And he was like, it's been, been an interesting 72 hours for you. Hasn't it been like it has been. Dude, I can't believe coach JB called you like that. Yeah. It's crazy. Wow. No. Oh, okay. Big pop. What the hell? What a pop. Mitch is done. Yeah. Dan, we're happy everybody called you to love you because I felt obligated to do it. I'm being glad I said that. We all felt obligated to do it. But you know, hey, that's the game. I didn't get a phone call or a text from tone or. Ty or Boston. Well, he said we all felt obligated to do it. I said, I love you, Dan. Yeah. And I said, I actually don't. So we, I don't have your number either. So, and if, and if I did, I'd lose it. All right. Anyways, Dan, we love you, buddy. We appreciate you. Thank you for coming on and watching Nando do that during his program. That was a fun time, wasn't it? That was. Yeah. Dan is going to cook for Nando tomorrow. Because of that pro day. Oh yeah. So a couple behind the back. I know he's going to do a whole thing. Yeah. Dana, remember there was a couple deep ones in there, right in the bucket. Yeah. Back shoulders. Those out routes. Come on. Yeah. Yeah. Why weren't you at the league meetings? Dana, was it because the internet was cooking you at the time? Is that what happened? No, I was, uh, I was told you're not needed. So. Oh, man. Tough week. That's bullshit. Yeah, you were needed. Tough week. That ball. We didn't know that was the case. I asked. I asked to go. We would have brought you. Oh, good. Well, actually, I don't know if we would have at the time, we thought what was happening. I don't know. I got work tomorrow. I got work tomorrow. I got work Monday. He's got a lot of receipts right now. Oh, cool. Rent's due every week. She's ready. You should not be invited to meetings and now we're on the rooftop. Yeah, absolutely. Dana loves you and taking selfie at next year's league meetings. What? I'm the fudging man. Started from the bottom, now we hit. So we're talking about Dana. We love that. From the bottom, now they don't love you. Dana, I want to let you know we have Brett Michaels on the show tomorrow. What? Brett Michaels. Every rose. Brett Michaels, Brett Michaels. Only one Brett Michaels brother. That's right. Every rose has its own. That's some time. He's on 140, 145 tomorrow, depending on. Is there being respectful here? He's a legend, but is there a tie to him coming on? Is there something going on? Yeah, there is. You didn't hear? I'm interested to hear too. What? He's going to be live from the moon. Is he on the moon? No, he's the biggest fucking Steelers fan there is. That's why he's coming out. That's not the only reason. We never had Billy Gardell on. That's a good point. I think we have put a request in for Billy Gardell. Couple times. Multiple times. What was the answer? Well, we would like to say we do that for a lot of folks. And even though people turn us down and don't come on numerous times in a row, a lot of them, doesn't mean they hate us. And I guess I found that out yesterday. Yeah, sure. Sure. Happy to know Troy Aikman does not hate us. We would like to let you know, Troy, we appreciate you coming on our show back in the day. We'd love to have you back on again. Classic mix up. I don't know. There's a lot of those, but I would like to say I'm happy he doesn't hate us. Maybe he does now. We love you, Troy Aikman. And we cannot tell you why Brett Michaels is coming on. It's actually not a lot to be announced. He's been embargoed until... Being surprised. Yeah, we got breaking news tomorrow. Dayano, how about that? Maybe you'll talk about it on your show when you're back to work. You should have been out the league meetings, I think. We got a chance to meet Shregs, Ms. Laura, Shefty was out there, obviously. We got a chance to kind of experience the NFL Live folks for a little bit, because we're all kind of in the same world. Not just them. All the media people were there. All it was, you know, getting to see kind of the entire operation. Your suits that were there, the executives that were probably the ones that sent you the email telling you not to go, they were there. We didn't talk to them much. We saw them, though. Saw them, had eyes on them. Had eyes on them. You guys going down to Augusta next week? So we tried last couple... We talked about this earlier to show you're not watching, because we're finally past this. You didn't like us there for a bit. We know you didn't. I was running errands, dude. We understand. For the last week and a half, you've been running errands. More tissue. We understand. We... Oh, geez. There's no reason for that. Did you hear what he just said? I hear, missed. Good. What did I say? You didn't say anything. Conner said more tissues. And I don't like that at all. Like, that was very rude of him to say that, because we're out of stage now. We're obviously... Look how happy this guy is. He doesn't need tissue. Maybe tears of joy. I see through. I'm not going to run from it. I was in it. Dude, I've been in there before. Believe me, we've all... I've been in there before. I think Conner's been in there before. Oh, yeah. I cry and pat, but... I live in those. You got Glazer's number. Shoot Jay. Jay Glazer's what you need. He'll fucking pull you out. Jay Glazer walked over to me and gave me a motivational speech at about 10, 30, 11 p.m. at night. That didn't lead me to anything. When I was, what, four or five cones deep at that time? Oh, yeah. I was hoisting the cone. You were hoisting the cone. I was lighting the cone, hoisting the cone, smoking the cone, enjoying the time. I was having a blast there. You know, I didn't head to the booze as much as I headed to the sky. Jay Glazer walks over right into it. Oh, yeah. Hey. With your dober down, did you need motivational? Like... I thought I had pretty good vibes. I thought at the time... Something you said. I said something. And he was like, you don't have enemies. And then he was like, I think I do. No. And then right into a five minute sermon about everything about life. Jay knows. And I was like, hell yeah, Jay. Jay said it was. It was awesome. Yeah. It was really... That's awesome. Good on Glazer. I was getting a little tired too, wasn't I? I think at the time we were kind of, we were kind of one way or the other there. We ended up being the last couple of people there. That was 130R time, East Coast time. I was like, yeah. I was in it. Some of these guys didn't make it though, did they? Didn't make it or not? Chose to leave. I understand you're an adult. I understand you're an adult. Tanner Lofsky would have been there. And if Tanner wasn't, we would have said something. And then we would have been reminded immediately. People often forget the kindness is free. Let's take a break. We agree. That was outside of tennis... Tennis racket place. I was taking my son to practice. I'll tell you what, sometimes the universe and God drop things in your life when you need it. At that moment, it felt like you needed a nice reminder that it is, isn't it? And you send it. I think what bothers me is... I think the competitiveness of the job and wanting to be right. And then saying something and people think there's... I think that's the thing that bothered me the most. We appreciate your competition. Your competitive fire at what you do. How much you want to be respected as a opinion giver. And we like that you will throw yourself right into a fire anytime you want to. I appreciate that. Don't we? Not a lot of people have that trait. So you need to find a sign that says, hey, if not me, then who? And it seems like you do. So we appreciate you. I didn't think it was that big of a thought. Like I really didn't. Still not. Hey, tie Simpson being good in the NFL. Could all be possible still. You know, this could all be very possible. Yeah. What big game. That's the whole... Because it sounds like you're just... Oh, he's really... He's really... How about this? I thought that was an easy thing to like, oh, he doesn't mean that. He probably means which one. We're happy to hear that now. Yeah. Aren't we? Yeah. Aren't we? Yes, absolutely. Certainly. No doubt. And just like we said to you, well, I said to you, I assume D-Butday, but these guys did not. We love you, Dana. Oh, yeah. Can't wait for the rest of the draft season with you. Have you moved any other positions other than quarterback? We got any other big takes, big swings on any other positions? I'm fishing for something. No, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. No, I still feel the same way about the quarterback position. I still feel the same way about Jeremiah Love. I still feel the same way about the wide receivers. So, no. No. Status quo. That's why we love you. Ladies and gentlemen, he's back on TV tomorrow. Yes. Let's watch. Mm-hmm. You know what tomorrow is? Do you know what today is and do you know what tomorrow is? Today's April Fool's and we're done. If you were a great friend of, if you were, if you love me the way you say you do, you'd not. Maybe you'd know. Let's Holy Week, obviously. We know that. Kelly, we understand that. Right. Good Friday, so that doesn't come into play. I think Passover was last night for people, maybe last night or tonight or tomorrow. April is also Autism Acceptance Month, obviously, which we like to push in Advocate 4, especially with our friend Orlovsky. Good job. Tomorrow's World Autism Awareness Day. Are we getting, is he back designing the set tomorrow? That dude has been, he'll be there and it'll be all over the place again, man. I can't wait to watch that. He just sounds differently this year than he did last year because the old P word is in play for him, so. What's the P word? He's got a little P wordy going on, so he doesn't sound like the little kid anymore. He's got, he sounds a little deeper voiced. Really? I like, is he gonna sun you maybe tomorrow until you sit your ass down? Shut up, dad. As he goes through. Is there any of that happening tomorrow? We'll be excited. No, he's too good, he's too nice of a kid. We all got pretty emotional watching you experience that because you were experiencing his true happiness happening in a moment that you don't get to provide as often, right? I think is how you viewed it. I don't want to speak in the pocket for you. That's awesome. I'm happy for you. All right. He's back in the saddle tomorrow. Oh, like Luke Cohn's new album. You listen to that? Great. I haven't heard the whole thing, no, but I've heard some of it. It's awesome. Yeah, Luke's back. It's Luke Cohn's. Yeah, I was hoping that Luke would maybe drop a long neck as cold as you. And you never broke my heart. And that Saturday night song, I think he could have got it in there. He could have paid tribute to himself creating one of the most awesome things of all time in there. He did not. He just made another banger, but it's great to see you back, Luke, the way I am available now. Hell yeah. In a way you are something that we love, Daniel. And that's just the way we are. Ladies and gentlemen, ESPN NFL expert guru, super genius, Dan Rolofsky. Dan Daniel. Just going to see Daniel. Great. Always a pleasure. He was a bum dot beginning. I think he was trying to play a little bit of a character. OK. Thank you. What kind of character would you call it? Bum dot. B-O-B-A Daniel. Yeah, bum dot. Bum dot. We call it something else. Yeah, that's what I was doing. If we were in the locker room. Bitch ass, Daniel. What? No. You don't deserve that. I thought that's what he was looking for. Badass, Daniel. That's what he's talking about. Geez, Louis. Let's get to a break until tomorrow. That's what you say. Let's get to a break until tomorrow. How are the Pittsburgh Pryves doing? Paul Schienji? We are in a close one. It's 4-3 heading to the bottom of the 7. Paul let up three runs? No, no, no. He got taken out. And then you, Henio Suarez hit a two-run jack. He's a good player. All right. Skeen are responsible for those runs or no? No, he did not start the inning. OK. So he's only responsible for one. Yeah, just the one that he gave up earlier. So his yard probably dropped even more. Back to nine. Maybe. 9-5-3. 9-5-3. What's up there in the Marlins game? Eight nothing. Marlins are a wagon. That's a good ball club. Hey, that's a shout out to you boys for playing that video. Let's play ball. It's game day. Yeah. See, if you wouldn't have said it right there, it's over. Some hockey news real quick. Quintzauck hockey real quick. Yeah. Sydney Crosby about to do something nobody's ever done. He's been great forever. Going to continue to be great forever. He becomes potentially the first guy to ever have a point per game NHL season over 21 seasons. Unbelievable. Great. How great he's been. There's been some injuries obviously. That's why they say point per game. He maybe hasn't played an entire season a couple different times. But anytime he has played, he has contributed. This guy is the picture of perennial consistency at greatness and loves Pittsburgh. There's been multiple times where he's potentially going to leave. And he's just said, nah, I'm not doing that. I'm going to ride the wave here. We got new front office, new ownership, new head coach, new team, same legends. Him, Gino and Chris LaTang still together, still around. And they're making a run in it this year. And he's about to accomplish something that nobody's ever done again, which is kind of Sydney Crosby hockey. Yeah, those three have been together forever. And they are hot right now. The East playoffs race has been insane. But the pence of kind of, I don't want to say secured their position, but the chances of them making the playoffs over the last two games have jumped immensely. They've dominated the last two games last night against the Red Wings, who have crumbled the last three seasons been the worst hockey team. Last four seasons. Oh, sorry. My bad. Four seasons. Their march has just been absolutely horrendous. But the pens are on fire. The East race is insane. The West is not as insane, but the East is. And it's going to be an incredible NHL, NHL playoff. Yeah, the NHL playoffs are always special. How's Washington doing? Are we going to watch them make a run in it? Because OV is about to accomplish something that nobody else has accomplished either. Sydney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, both the old guard of carrying the NHL over the last two decades. Nick, what is OV about to accomplish? He just hit his 20th season with 30 plus goals. Jesus. I just, you know, we talked at length about how he broke Wengeretsky's all-time career goal record. Now he's just adding to that. And he's just the epitome. He is goal scoring defined. He may not be able to do all the things he used to do, but to still be able to put the puck in the net at 40 years old, 30 plus times a season is unbelievable. And it just seems like he's never going to slow down. I love that OV is still doing it. And they've been protecting him a little bit here at his older age. Nick, what was the stat you told me? Something about last night was his first faceoff that he was on the ice for in the defensive zone, as opposed to in the offensive zone. Yeah, it wasn't last night. It was one game ago. It was the first time he started a shift in his own defensive end. So they had been deploying him in the offensive end pretty much 100% of the time in his usage. Now that drops to about 99.9%. They were saying, hey, listen, if the puck's near the other team's goal, let's get his ass out there. If it's near ours, let's not be wasting any skate timing for OV. He is special with the stick, special with the puck. Those two have done special things for the NHL. Now it's the next generation's turn. The next generation was Florida Panthers, but... Sorry. Sorry, back to back. That's it. Forever will be. Yep. In times. Who's the team that's going to win it all this year then? The Aves are the favorite. Well, the hottest team right now is the Boston Bruins. I thought the Penns just did some historic thing about beating people's asses. No, no, they beat the Poopy Red Wings and the Islanders. The Bruins beat the One Seed in the East. Let me check. Yeah, the One Seed in the West. And then what did they do? They came back down 3-0 in Columbus, took over Ohio. And then does it stop there? It has to stop there, right? No, they actually won. Again, last night against the Dallas Stars with our backup Corpusallo in there. Pittsburgh Pranglins do have better odds than the Boston Bruins to win it all this year. What are the sports books now though? What are the sports books now? And hockey nothing. Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning, maybe Florida remains the hockey state of this entire thing. If they're able to get back to the top, they were phenomenal just about four or five years ago. Carolina Hurricanes, the Caneans obviously always running wild. They are. It's a hard place to play. The Dallas Stars, congratulations, Texas hockey gumpy doing your thing. It's good value right there. Edmonton Oilers, is McJesus still having a hell of a season? Is Edmonton ever going to get the job done? And that's always the question, I guess, huh, gumpy? Is that what people are saying? Yeah, dry sidles banged up too. They're hoping he's back for the playoffs, but we'll see what happens there. Congrats on your Texas hockey team being at the top of the shaft here or whatever, being close to raising the cone. Yeah, we're always in the mixer. It's going to be tough. We got to go through the wild and the avalanche to even get to the Western Conference Final. But the boys are built for a little more tougher. Glutons boys are a little bit different than Du Bois boys. It's fascinating. They won't put hoist the cone for hockey, right? Because we all know it's a cup. Yeah. Maybe. You never know. You never know. With the let go, you know, a couple of years removed after winning the cup. So I'd be very curious if torches mother fuck those guys up and down the change room yet. I'm sure that's coming. So we're almost here, boys. You know, it's almost time for me to really lock in on the Golden Knights. Like I said, you know, those 11 p.m. midnight puck drops on the West Coast are a little tough to, you know, kind of. So you're checking a lot of box scores, but I'm very excited, you know, for the playoffs. The Penguins being back in the NHL playoffs is good news for our show because we'll certainly get a chance to chat about it a little bit more. And the NHL playoffs, much like the NBA playoffs, a must watch. And what the NHL does whenever it comes to crunch time so fast, so beautiful, so physical, so fantastic. And the fact that the Penguins are probably going to win it all again. That's a beautiful thing. Yeah, it is. I like that a lot. Pulling for everybody to do the do good, though. Honestly, this show, if everybody's teams are doing good, yeah, feels like we pay attention to a little bit more. Come on, boys. It's your turn. Here we go, boys. Thank you, Batsu. You carried the crown. You carried the torch proudly. Yeah, you did for a couple years. I feel like you did represent NHL well on the program as back to back Stanley Cup champion three years in the Stanley Cup finals. But I think hockey kind of holds its own if it needs to. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, we got goalies fighting each other. Incredible. At the end of March. I love everything about that. Come on, man. They got after last night a little bit. How long they dropped the blocker, dropped the stick, dropped the mask and said, let's go ahead and have one here, fellas. Oh, yeah. Igor Shisterkin and Jacob Markstrom, maybe Haka Markstrom, depending on where you are. But I mean, it was a full blown throw down. Yeah. As New Jersey Devils versus the New York Rangers, bit of a rivalry. Let's make it even more intense. Let's get these goalies fighting. I believe Igor Rangers goalie took a couple shots. Markstrom skates all the way down the ice. He says, no, no, lad. You take those mitts off right now. Igor and let's throw it down. And they did. Oh, I tell you, Shisterkin made him regret skating all the way down there. It feels like he did the win. And I'm not his first fight, by the way. Who? Both of them? Igor. Yeah. Shisterkin's first fight. First. Yeah. Yeah. So he's been waiting for this. He's been practicing in the mirror. Oh, God. The amount of grab bang bang and big haymakers. Now hockey players know this. Obviously you can get God out there very bad. There's fists flying at faces. So you can get buttoned. You can get bled. You can, there can be color. I mean, that can happen. But also he who looks like he's throwing the most punches, normally the one that is assumed as the winner. It's kind of like the Rockham Sockham robots. It used to be. If you just kind of went in there just throwing, I don't think you would ever really lose. But people would get tired from pushing a button. So then as soon as they put it down, bang, you counter and hit that. Shisterkin's been waiting for this. He knows the deal. I'm throwing at all times. This one too is a big one. The left hand on the sweater. Yeah. Jab with the jaw a little bit. And then bang. Those who have long arms, certainly an advantage. Certainly an advantage because they can just kind of schoolboy over here. Just kind of keep you out here. He's huge. Yeah. Goalie's most gigantic. But the goalie's very rarely battle. I'm happy to hear they're already throwing it down. Shout out. Get the glove out of here. Get the blocker out here. Yeah. You can tell Igor's been watching Rempe tape. You know, we last year, I believe, or the year before we watched Rempe throw down time after time after time and Igor took notes. You're talking about the Empire State Building. There you go. Is he still play hockey? I don't know. That's a great question. Okay. You're the key. You're the ranger. That's great. I'm fired up watching you jerking. Fuck. I saw a lower third that said the Knicks are dead. What's going on? Are you guys okay? Yeah. Three straight losses. So the morning show's got to hit the Cowboys notes. Do the Knicks are dead angle. I think they're going to be okay. You know, tough West Coast trip. It's coming home, gentlemen. So where? Do you know where? There's a reason this thing hasn't left. We'll see. Because it's coming out. Maybe they should trade for Cooper flag. That would help. I just said it's the last name like that. 2G's. Flag. Yeah. Why don't you say his name fast? 10 times. I just call it Coop. What's that? Coop. Coop. No, no, but. Mave it. Boom. You got a nickname like that. And you can also abbreviate that. Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. For a main event? Yeah. I don't think you can. I think you can. I don't know if anybody will know who you're talking to. What up, me? I think you can. Go, me. Go, me. Go, me. He will come home. Hey, there isn't me in team two, isn't there? Yeah. And meet. Dallas. That was a fucking full on failure like everybody said it was. Oh, yeah. Big time. Even us non-MBA people. Anthony Davis isn't even there anymore. And Luke is the best version of himself. They got rid of Luke. I mean, I guess they ended up getting the number one pick out of it. But that was up. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, they basically just gave up Luke for nothing. Was it? Shams got 100 million. What's that? Was it just that? Was it? We're going back to the moon today. God damn right. That's the big word. You know the Pelicans traded Anthony Davis to the Lakers two ones, right? Do you remember who they got in the draft? I said no one. Zion Williamson with the first overall pick. It's weird how that works. Well, Anthony Davis is worth a big time prize possession. No doubt. That's what Washington did, what Washington did. That's right. No doubt. Yeah, they traded like a fourth pick. Are the Lakers OK in this? Ah, I thought you had a nickel guy. Michael Don is the worst. The Lakers are. Yeah, there was that video or picture servicing to him, you know, just waiting to board with the C-group at some airport. And then I just. Cuban crew can't reach with it. Yeah, this guy was just flying private a couple weeks ago and I'll look at him. He's fucking boarding at C-29. That's penthouse to outhouse there. Yeah. Think about how bought in everybody had to be in that building that he had. Hey, it's not us. It's this fat. So we got to get him out of here. The guy that scores all the points for us. Yeah. Yeah. The guy just took us to the finals. His fat, isn't he? His transformation has been incredible since. And I assume that would really rub you the wrong way. If you're him, it's like, yeah, that's what I said. He needs to lose 40 fucking pounds and then he'll be unbelievable. And he. Yeah, but he. And he did just not just not with them. And he is. Yeah. He's phenomenal in LA. What a perfect place for him. Mm hmm. He's going to be those 77s are going to go every if they win, which I know people don't like. Hey, plus 3000. And now he's dunking. See, I take that patch. We're homes dunk. We talked about that before. Did you say high school? How he had terrible shorts on. I don't know what era that was. How old is he? 30. Yeah. 30, 20, 20, 20, that was a bad era close. I think the those shorts look terrible in that basketball court ball. No, because there used to be like the baggy shorts. I like those after the five era. Those were fun. But he had like a tighter, longer short there that I don't really know. What it was almost like a baseball like a capri. It's what it looked like in the high school highlight of him. But all I know is the first one I saw was him fucking going up on something. Homes. I wonder if he saw the clip from the other day whenever we remind him that everybody thinks he's ass. Probably. I saw a bunch of chief fans doing. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Did they win at all? No. This upcoming season. Yeah. I mean, you got a shot. I like that. You say no. I think they got a shot. I think if for she writes plays, yes. That's. They also just traded Trent McDuffie. So if they draft the number one corner, you know, that as well, then definitely. Got a Super Bowl VP. Can you walk her? A cold solo on this fucking thing. We paid everybody. Yeah, but all the guys you paid have torn Achilles's. One guy had one. Oh, yeah. You only paid two people. Look at us together on there. Danny Dimes old home and his new home. That's crazy. That's disgusting. Yeah, but at least your team got rid of everybody. Let's get out of here. I don't like that. I don't like to work right next to the Giants like that. Yeah. Giants are the trendy pick this year. I like the G-man. I know, but they're literally rebuilding again. Hold your culture. So are you guys? No. We are really deep in this one. We're a decade into this thing. We're a day. We haven't won the FC South in 11 years. Yeah. And we're still doing it. Where are Redwood? How long is. How long? Stevie eyes. We already covered hockey. Okay, we're past hockey at this point. TJ Lang told me specifically do not call him today. He's on vacation. He does not want to do anything. Like you guys are really loud with what Stevie why was about to do. The why is back in the red. Yeah. Everyone. He's like us. Yeah. He's like us at the Colts. Sick of the Iser plan at this point. It's a bummer. Whoa. All of my guys. So the. Legend. Is it Redwood? Legend. Let's end with legend. No, I love Stevie. Iserman. We're sick of the Iser plan. Two different things. The Buffalo Sabres currently have the longest drought to make the playoffs in the NHL. The Redwings are number two behind them. And at like 11 years, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, the Sabres will make the playoffs this year, which will put us at the longest drought to not make the playoffs. That can't happen. You know, do you know how Buffalo turned around? How? This season they fired their GM and went on an unbelievable run. Well, maybe Stevie wise, just like an ambassador of hockey. Oh, it's like hockey town is really up for grabs. The only cane they're talking about in Detroit is the one Patrick's using to get to the ice. No. Listen, Dylan Larkin won the United States of America, a gold medal. You guys should all be thanking him. But because of that, he got her and now we stink. Oh, is he the one? Yeah, I am proud of Larkin. Yeah, I am thankful for that. For sure. He represents the United States of America very well. But I remember when COVID happened and you guys weren't even invited to the game. Yeah. Do you remember that? Yeah. Yeah. And you guys. There's only like two teams. Yeah, exactly. That is real. We can't house the entire league. Two of you aren't going to be able to make it. And it was the Red Wings and maybe Phoenix. Yeah. Kyle. Yeah. They are now Utah members. So I'm bummed out about that for you, Foxy, because I do think your city loves hockey. Yeah, we do. I mean, even when the Red Wings are bad, people still show up to those games. That'll tell you everything. But on the flip side, we were just talking ball. The Pistons are still the one seat in the Eastern Conference. Just need Cade Cunningham back. Something just happened though. TJ listed it all out. He said it's been a bad fucking couple of days up and oh yeah, you guys aren't giving a guy the money. Yeah. Yeah, he was holding the Lions water on that one though. Was he? Yeah. It's their policy. And they're all linemen. Tigers were up 5-0 in the eighth. Oh yeah, we lost last night. Yeah, we lost. Pretty big collapse. Incredible. Yeah, I mean, there's 162 games. It's not a big deal. The Pistons being the one seat. You just know that has with Cade with the Devastation written all over it. Cade with his lung. No, we like the head coach. Is Cade going to be back for the playoffs? They're saying he might be, but I haven't gotten any updates at all. Did you get a chance to chat with MCDC up at the league meetings? I did. That was the first time I've met MCDC in person. It was awesome. It was everything I wanted it to be. And he's the man and he just said, he basically just said, well, be okay. Everything's going to be all right. And everything happens for a reason. So we're going to be back. Does he still man it? We haven't talked to him in a while. Oh yeah, it basically was everything you would expect in a combo with MCDC. A lot of man. I love that. Yeah. He's slugging really hard on like the arm at any point. No, he didn't slug me, but we dapped up and it was just like, I'm dapping up an absolute fucking monster. Yeah, you are. Yeah. Yeah, that's MCDC football. Yeah, it is. I'll tell you what, some of those coaches weren't getting physical at that, uh, the little reception thing. There was some physicality out there. There wasn't. It makes sense. Booze is flowing. Oh, Alphas. Lot of Alphas, lot of Test Toss, your own one stands above all. I will say I had to do, um, the sprawl technique. Sure. To make sure I wasn't lifted into the sky in front of peers. People. Oh my, yeah, in front of peers. Yeah. So, so I, Jack and diet here. Okay. Jack and diet here. Very nice. I believe Zeta was the one that bought the first round or got the first round for everybody up there. Jack and diet here, having a conversation. All of a sudden I feel massive myths on both of my hips. Okay. And, uh, I know next move is why somebody's trying to lift me up right now. So I squat ass down. Okay. Go hands on this one here. Even though somebody's getting me with this hand here, sprawl. And then there's a, a punch almost to. A re-grab. A re, yeah. You think it's going like that? I don't think so. Punch, boom. Butt, uh, escape. Now he's got, yeah. Escape, escape. Spill of Jack and diet. Got to go. Still don't know who this is. Turn around. Jesus Christ. Obviously. Big laugh. Okay. That was like, oh, we're having a good time here on. We, yeah, we are. So then that person kind of leaves, goes over, the bar was good interaction, good time, cheers that we're having fun. Then I'm staying there. Remember somebody said there a big show 2.0. Yeah. Big show 2.0. Back. Same exact situation. Back having a conversation this way. Boom. I'm trucked. Turn around. Big show 2.0, baby. Holy shit. What a lie. What he was not. Guy is a monster. Monster. An absolute monster. And I turn around like, oh yeah, you are. Shand shake. He said, I'm getting out of here. He left. That was my only interaction. I don't know if I'm getting, am I the only one getting my ass beat this fucking place? Physicology. There was a physicality. What was physicality? I looked around there. There was some other. Physicology. Physicology. I saw some people in the sky. There was somebody that was lifted up like a baby Bjorn, you know, with their legs out like this. Oh, sure. Over here, right. One of those I get. Yeah, the floor picked up. Put me down. MCDC. Let's get to a break. We'll be back tomorrow. The show's the worst. We're thankful we get to do it. Thank you all so much. What is the launch? Hmm? Launch? Launch. To the moon. That's good. I believe 649. We're damn near already there, I guess. I'm trying to get there, if you know what I'm saying. They're just circling the moon also, allegedly. They're not actually. Well, well, well. I don't know. We talked about it. They're perfecting the slingshot technique. So when we go back, it's there's no fucking horse play. The schedule, the crew is scheduled to lift off as early as 624 from the Kennedy Space Center down here in Florida. Is it a NASA SpaceX combo? Is that what this is? I don't know. I assume. Hopefully just NASA. Bada was NASA, yeah. Yeah, but didn't NASA take SpaceX's? Kinda. And that they're renting them? Mm-hmm. Hmm. Might be using the jet. All I know is SpaceX is an American. A bureaucratic red tape involved. So. Call me when we fucking land on the moon. Hopefully just NASA. We ain't even got a chance to get there. We ain't even got a chance to get there. We ain't even got a chance to get there. We ain't even got a chance to get there. We ain't even got a chance to get there. We ain't even got a chance to get there. What you say about SpaceX? I know it's not American, so. What is it? Oh, it was. Elon's South African, I believe. The- It's made in America. The astronauts right here. I still don't- Yeah. Not I care about. Tony. We're going to space, dude. We're going to moon. These colors don't run. Apparently they do for all of you. The colors of the MOB logo? Red, white, and blue, brother. They don't run over here. It is a SpaceX collaboration just like I fucking said it was. I thought it was. Great. It's- He's making them for like much cheaper and they're much better. Yeah, be safe, gentlemen. Don't let them see you, Tony. All the way for the U.S. or Z. Send it to all the nations. Be a friend to all friends. I'm nice. Might change your life. We're gonna send them together. I assume he's only doing ours. And allies. I'll change my tune then. But I did see somebody on 60 Minutes who's making these massive drone weapons things. Mm-hmm. And I don't think it's only kind of America. I don't think it- No. A lot of those are. That kind of scares me a little bit. It was right after a game was on. Game was on and all of a sudden this interview started and I'm like, I maybe woke up from an app or something. Where's the send of those things? Everybody that hates your guts is gonna get one of these. I'm making it right over here in whatever state. I'm like, pfft. Can we stop doing that? Let's go to space. Let's go to space, baby. Let's go shake their hands. Let's go shake their hands. From what we're hearing, we're doing maybe a little more and shaking hands. Shaking more than hands. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. We might change your life when we sit together. Team on me, team on three. D-Buck, great work this week. You too, brother. Good luck to the team. Hell yeah. Good luck, Parsi. Both of them. All of them. All of them. This team too. Hell yeah. Which counts, all of you. You. You. And. You. And. You. And also. You. You. Even you. Team on me, team on three. One, two, three. Team. Good bye.