PMS 2.0 1543 - Mark Schlabach, Philadelphia Flyers Head Coach Rick Tocchet, Danny Green, Pete Thamel, & AJ Hawk

Hello beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdown on this Thank You Pens Thursday. April 30th, 2026, this sports program begins now. Sports are fantastic and obviously a unifier in something that brings happiness in everybody's lives, especially when your team is winning. And that is why this particular Thursday is called Thank You Pens Thursday, you know, because the Pittsburgh Penguins led by these three icons of sport, these three, three time Stanley Cup champions, these three who played 3,924 games together accruing 3,974 points with 1,365 goals, three conspires, three hearts, 20 years together, longest tenured trio in North America pro sports, and if it's over after what happened last night, I just want to say thank you to them. Obviously we've developed a little bit of a kinship with them here over the last year or so of this entire run, both for the Penguins and our program. Always fan from afar, never got a chance to really meet them. And last night they're saying it might be the last time that they play. And the people that did it to us were the Philadelphia Flyers. It was a great game. Phenomenal game, fully standing on their heads. Back and forth we went. The boys battling. Geno Malkin, whenever he gets off the bus to arrive at the arena, actually takes two steps and some little John over there says, you suck, J.I. You look so dirty. It was war. They were battling on the ice. The pens had a chance to do something special, but instead, in overtime, a perfectly sauced Cam York shot goes pink and in. And the Flyers send the Penguins the Cancun. Now, I don't love the immediate reaction from everybody that is associated from Philadelphia. This was late. Obviously this was late. Long night for me and the family yesterday, but obviously watch pens, Flyers, especially with Sidney Crosby about to accomplish something that only four teams had done in the past, which has come back from being down 3-0. The boys showed fight. The boys showed grit, but this Philadelphia Flyers team did as well in last night in OT, Cam York. Late night. Okay, this is late. Not as late as other games that are late. Sports are really doing a number for third shifters. It's really kind of moving along. Face time immediately from Shane Gillis. Come on. My wife's sleeping in my answer that. Right. Then I get texted immediately. Coward. Okay. Coward immediately because I don't answer the call. Hadn't heard from Doran and Sidney Crosby come back here this entire thing. Then I get text from other Johns. Ha ha, bum gritties, dumb ass face getting sent to me. Different AIs of gritty doing stuff. Oh, come on. Yeah, gritty doing stuff. Not just the Penguins, by the way. Pittsburgh heroes. Can't have it. I don't even want to tell you what they're doing, Mr. Rogers and some of these photos. Seriously? Yeah, it's a pencil of anything. These people know us. They know stuff about us. Gardell. Don't you leave him out. There is no Billy Gardell slander. And quite surprisingly, no Brett Michael slander. Really? Which I would say that's Brett Michael's. University of love. Yeah, you're right. That is all it is. But it got loud. And then the Philadelphia Flyers let me know that they've been listening. Yep. Yeah. They quote three to me saying, Sine Crosby and seven from days ago before Sid started cooking and coming back and the boys started going crazy. Dying and out. They even take our shit in there. And that was a good job putting the jersey on. Classic chat GPT operation. It does appear right there. So I got massive respect for the play. And now Governor Shapiro is going to expect me to wear a suit. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Got to get one of those. Right. They got to get one of those. Certainly once I do, I will wear it and I'll do the entire. I'll even do a gubernatorial address. Okay. Yes. That's good. I will do one of those in the entire. Maybe enter the race. But I would like to say as a person that was saying the flyers are ass and as somebody who has always gotten the opportunity to go on a microphone and celebrate the flyers being asked and the pens being great. I would like saying in this moment of Hassan, some humble pie and in this moment of getting a chance to get eyes on your guys's team last Monday when we're. They got some dogs on this team. Yeah. They're cold blooded. They're big. They're strong. They're fast. This 74 character, he doesn't get talked about. I never heard this guy. I didn't know this guy existed 74. Okay. Tippets his name on the score. And every time almost did a lot of things. I guess he was the number one overall pick way back in a day was with the Florida Panthers gets traded up to the flyers. Obviously the Panthers have success. Okay. After he leaves, he sees all that. Right. This is 27 years old. He's the fastest guy on here. I've never seen somebody be as fast as this guy is and he's orange. He looks like the who's old buddy in the back of the Santa Claus. I'm not Santa Claus. A Christmas story in the back hall. Chris. Scottie Farkas. Scottie Farkas. This guy's Scottie Farkas. Okay. He is Scottie Farkas, but he's faster than everybody. He's unbelievable. They got a 19 year old kid that was just playing college hockey a month and a half ago. Hell yeah. He almost scored an overtime last night. Then he got Sanheim. This guy, he looked mean. He eyes. I feel like I was looking at the eyes of a killer. Sure. Goalie upside down on his head last night. Outrageous. And then the coach talk it. He's a Pittsburgh penguin hero. Yeah. Okay. So I don't know how now. I don't think we should just be hucking sticks into a crowd. That's fair. But the Flyers haven't had a lot of success. And that's filled. And I would assume the Flyers fan that almost got. Decapitated. Grab that thing. I bet you I think was snapped in half multiple people taking pieces at home. I assume that is going to be a celebratory piece. They just knock out the penguins, maybe break up the longest tenured trio in North American sport. History from the other side of the state. And they continue on their journey to Lord Stanley Cup. So I would just like to give a shout out to the Philadelphia Flyers for being a good team. Being a great team too. Oh yeah. I mean I'm pretty great. A lot of face washing. Sure. There's a lot of shenanigans which there should be coming out of Philly. Head coach of the Flyers, Rick Talkit will be joining us in about 34 measures. Oh, okay. Is he running our social media? He might be. Hey, you got your Twitter fingers on that thing, Rick? Is this from your back pocket? Just so I know. And also, hey, you know everything about the pens. Okay, coach these boys play. You know everything. Do you think that potentially helped? And is that cheating? Should you be allowed to do that? Sure. These are all the things I have to ask. But also NHL playoffs right now, five series are left after the Flyers punched their ticket last night. The other two series that are over were sweeps. Everything that's happening from here on out, very, very important games both in the NHL and the NBA. Tonight, there'll be five games. All of them have go on implications or get your ass home implications. The NHL, any game that's happening, go on or get your ass home implications. This is when playoff sports are at its absolute finest or worst if your team gets booted and then you get called a card for not answering your phone immediately upon somebody wanting to celebrate in your face. This is what sports are for. The NFL is always cooking. They have things happening. Major League Baseball is doing its thing. And don't look now. Major League Volleyball taking over. Hell yeah. We got delivered a gift package today by the NBA Ignite. They're in the Major League Volleyball League. It's over here in Fishers. Number one league. No big deal. They got a mascot named Pepper. Okay, because in volleyball, you have Pepper. I think Baseball, you guys, Pepper as well back and forth. I guess we got number one team in league. They got eight teams. Going to have 11 teams. Each the salaries range from 65,000 to like 125,000. 16, 15, 16 women on each roster. It's like not bad. Pretty legit. Yeah. And then we look at what's going on with Nebraska. I think the the attendance at this is real. Oh yeah. So I think they're I appreciate them coming through here and giving us a gift package. But also yeah, there it is. Hey, congratulations. Here we go. Keep it going. Go into the off. That's Pepper right there with the orange hair. That's the mascot. Everybody else on there. So good. Yeah. Boom. Bomb set, Spike it. Sports are the great. Sports are the great. Yeah, that's right. Bomb set, Spike it. That's the way we like it. Certainly the talks of the tables here at Boston Connor at Ty Schmidt. Boston obviously in the middle of it all. How do you feel, Powell? How do you feel about the playoffs? And also whenever you're looking at games or parlays to potentially hit, what do we need to be seeing at this point? Because Philly in pens, little KG affair last night. Oh yeah. Very KG, you know. No, let's not make too many mistakes. Let's not go ahead and lose this one. It's a big one. Felt a little bit tighter for the pens earlier than it had the previous two games. Previous two games when the pens are mounting a comeback, felt a little freer through the entirety. Last night, I felt like it was kind of tense. All these have playoff implication, go home or go out type stuff. What would you be looking at, Con Man? And as a gumbler and a fan at the same time, what are your worries as you go ahead? I mean, with the NHL, I feel like especially because all these series are 3-2, your best bet is damn near, hey, overtime. You know, two of the three last night between the Golden Knights and the Mammoth, they went to double overtime. Great game. Obviously Philly versus Pittsburgh, they go to overtime. The Canadians versus the Lightning, they have their fourth straight 3-2 game. They probably could have went to overtime. Three of the first five have gone to overtime. So overtime in the playoffs, especially in these series that are so close, everyone's battling so much. That's probably the best bet in hockey because you could say, hey, we'll just take the home team. What are we talking about here? That kind of seems like the simple bet. No, it's not. Not in hockey. Basically, every single series has had a victory on the road already. And then with the NBA, it's damn near the complete opposite. For the NBA, you think every other night, do you take the heavy favorite or do you take the underdog? Last night, every single underdog covers. Only one underdog actually wins outright with the Lakers losing, which is pretty nuts. But it is very difficult to navigate these gambling waters. The NBA has six series is left. Obviously, last night, the underdogs all covered. There are some wild spreads yesterday. We had been chatting about how crazy the spreads were for the playoffs. Let's go to one half of the hammer. Dad. Cowboys, AP Tone, you said yesterday that feels like the lines were set up for how the regular season was for these teams as opposed to what the postseason had been. What did you see last night? Congrats to the underdogs. We love when the dogs are barking out there, brother. Yeah, we were talking about it yesterday. Just like the calves in Toronto before last night was 2-2. And then obviously the Pistons were down three to one going into that game and they were double digit favorites. Cavs were almost double digit favorites. I think it closed at nine and a half. So it just felt like it was crazy in Toronto was leading that entire game. Cleveland was was lucky to get the win in that one. The Stones was was an absolute battle in that one between Kate and Paolo Boncaro. The Stones are the Detroit Pistons. Nobody other than Evan Fox and maybe five of his friends know that the Pistons are called this. Whoa, Pistons are called them that. I just learned that this week. Yeah, so but when we're talking on a show where people are listening, I think we should explain to them that the Stones are not the rolling ones. Okay, okay. The Stones are what I guess we don't know if this is true. So we don't want to speak for Detroit people. I guess this is what the Detroit people call the Pistons, you know, because you can see Stinn right there at the end. Stinn, Ston. So they get the Ston. Ston, I don't want to spell up there. Ston, which is a little bit harder, I think, than Stins. Let's go. You know, so you probably dropped into Stones if I had to guess. So we're just letting you know the Stones last night were a part of history and two Young Bucks getting at it in a big way tone. Yeah, that was awesome. Them going back and forth last night, the first time that's happened since Shack into AI. That was unbelievable. But tonight, tonight feels a little bit different. Tonight's one where it feels like the favorites just might go ahead and get things done. And then Connor was talking about the NHL. It's so up and down. I started looking at maybe overunders. Overunders normally five and a half in a hockey game. The two games tonight, four of the five games in each series has gone to the over. I'm not saying it will tonight. Just something to look at. OK, so we will certainly keep an eye on that. I think what's so great right now is sports are clearly in a huge uptick. OK, ratings are coming out for everything. Sports are up for everything. NBA most watched NBA playoffs in 33 years. It's crazy. Congratulations. Let's go. Adam Silver obviously negotiated a deal with so many different platforms. OK, some people are calling it maybe the greatest deal that has ever been done because the amount of money that was obviously had and then what the ratings were saying verse maybe some other leagues and what had been happening in history. Adam Silver obviously able to get the deal done because he is maybe not from here. We've seen him. Yeah, might be an alien. He is seemingly very, very relatable to the players. Very good at business, very forecast type leader in this entire thing. He gets his deal done. There was a lot of people chirping about people overpaying, overpaying, overpaying. Everybody was saying that about the deal. Most watch playoffs in 33 years. Congratulations to Adam Silver saying, hey, we got it. Congratulations to the NBA figuring it out. All the teams, all the players. I know the 65 game rule was certainly a big conversation piece around it all. I know the tanking during the regular season was a massive issue. We had like a 24 point spread a couple of different times throughout the end of the season can have that in any professional league obviously. And when teams are trying to lose, which they're trying to take care of now, people thought maybe the NBA was dead and gone. Dead and gone. But instead they got the biggest deal in history. So good that people say it was a bad deal. And then now they're putting up the biggest numbers they've ever put up. Good for the NBA. Good for sports and shout out to everybody over there for getting that done. Yeah, and all the stars are showing up. Like that's the biggest thing. I mean, we just saw last night, Kate and, you know, Ben Carrow, they both go for 45. But even LeBron, him carrying the Lakers on his home without Luca and Reeves. Reeves played last night, but still getting that three one lead SGA with a sweep. Wemby, like the biggest names are also showing up. Very surprising too with the whole streaming conversation. Like people were pissed going into these playing games, playoffs. Like how the hell are we supposed to watch all these games and, you know, pay for all these streaming services? Like at the end of the day, people are and they're still going to watch it. And mostly because most people have them to begin with the sports being on a different streaming platform every single night gives them something to bitch about. And people love to bitch. Absolutely. But us include. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Why not? We are a human. Yeah. And it's fun most of the time, especially when your team's losing. But it has been an incredible playoffs for both sides, which I think we all kind of we and I'm not saying we created this theory or thought, but we were projecting that the playoffs are always going to be good for the NBA because the playoffs is where it's a whole second season and that is literally where the stars are born. If you're a big time, big name player, we don't know about you. If you're only playing in the regular season, you have to play in the playoffs because everything's prime time. That's when everybody starts watching. I know it used to be like NBA starts on Christmas, which it certainly did for like hoop fans, I think, and people that like tubes. NBA doesn't start until playoffs for a lot of people that aren't hoop fans and the numbers that are only getting bigger is good for all parties. This whole lowest three get the three to four. The dumbest thing ever. Just think about how much thought went into that. We we respect that observer a lot. And we like the people that Adam Silver brings in to do his think processes, but like to get to this point, the amount of shit that had to, I mean, so many drier raceboards just getting burned through. Yeah. I mean, just so much, so many math equations. I couldn't even imagine. Hopefully this will help. You know, hopefully this only helped the product that is seemingly doing better than it's ever done. And then for the NHL, their numbers are up and to the right as well. New deal for them. Betman's got to be incredibly excited about his league and two million viewers for the Flyers and Penn the other night, plus 190 percent year over year over the game five. Okay, from a previous. So it's like Miss Pittsburgh. Certainly are going to miss them big time in the playoffs. And we're still going to. He locked in. Yes. I mean, I was on puck every night. Sports. Why would we go? Of course, sports are the greatest. What we're saying is sports are the greatest. Okay. And we're incredibly thankful and we appreciate the fact that it seems like only more and more people are getting into sports. It's a good time. Go ahead and release for a while. Go ahead and go ahead and put your entire happiness on somebody else's shoulders. And then when they let you down, go ahead and feel that misery. Yeah, take a week. And then guess what? You got another one coming. That's right. Hey, we got to get back up for the next one. Now we got to put our hope onto somebody. Then they're going to let us down. Then guess what's coming? Another one. Let's do it again. Then they're going to do good. Now we're riding the wave. Okay. That is what sports can do for you. We're appreciative of everybody buying in. Now sports can also divide. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Every once in a while, it can kind of divide parties into two, especially when a competing league comes through and seemingly has a bottomless pit of cash. Now over the last 24 hours, that bottomless pit of cash we have learned is reportedly around $5 billion to create a golf league that could potentially rival the PGA Tour or at least provide an alternative to the PGA Tour while poaching a lot of massive names with massive paychecks to kind of launch their league and start their content company, which is what I think live was trying to be. It was golf, but louder. And it felt like it exposed a lot of things that had been happening in the PGA or in the professional golf world that maybe us as noobs or casuals didn't fully know. I had no idea that players were losing money every single week when they're playing in these tournaments because they don't get any guaranteed money. I had no idea that there was no real contract. I had no idea about a lot of the things paying for your own this, paying for your own that. You don't really have this. This is what you've got. You're not guaranteed any money. There's no con. It's like we learned a lot about the PGA quickly whenever this live got launched. We also learned a lot about how pissed off the golf purists were going to be about the best golfers not golfing in the same place. Well, it turns out we don't got to worry about that. We don't. Live is dead officially. They lost the power for seven hours down here in Mexico a couple of weeks ago, less than 24 hours after an announcement was made basically that, hey, this is probably going to be done soon. Then they lose power. I thought that was how they were going out. I thought it was like one of the most legendary moments in the history of something. How you going out? We're going to get everybody there. We're going to start a tournament. They were actually just going to pull the plug on it. Like actually just pull the plug. That thing was like seven hours. They get back out there. They start golfing. I was surprised. I'm like, holy hell, we're still doing it. Then their statements come out. We're still doing it. We're still doing it. Now it's beneficial that there will be no more. PIF Saudi Arabia PIF funding after this season. They've assembled a new board. That's got ideas and they certainly have been in this type of situation before and they're going to continue to try. But I think a lot of us wanted to give me not a super golf purist guy can score anywhere from I'd say 82 to 102. Sure. On any given day. Good range. Light golf will watch. Wanted live to have success because I wanted athletes have more money. I also like the fact that it seemed like it was helping the PGA maybe evolve how it's treating their particular athletes. But it wasn't until I started watching that I think I got bummed out about them not competing against each other because then you know the the the leaderboard. Yeah. Just missing names for a while. Yeah. Not great. I realized that matter. Big time. And then I try to watch it. Where is it? I don't know. CW sometimes spending five billion dollars. We can't even find what this thing is. Is there any ideas or strategy in this entire thing? And then you watch it. You find it and it's like DJ Khaled who I love is really screaming. Hey, bye. Put your hands up. Rambo. The knee knocker to win a tournament. I just don't know like Teddy Payne. I'll tell you what. I don't think I've ever been in a bad mood when Teddy Payne is playing ever. Any of his music is playing. Any of his streams are playing. I'm in a good mood. I'll need to hear him on the 18th T-Box. No. When somebody's trying to win a tournament. And then I look at this person. They're wearing shorts. Looks like it is like us out there. Yeah. We just ran a thing. It's like golf has been figured out on how you run how you air it. I think and I appreciate you guys trying to make it a party. You're allowed to have part three's down in Australia. Everybody goes crazy. Bird Cracers there. They got to waste man. You're allowed to do things differently. But I think the way they want about it was poor. I think the way they planned exposure for it was terrible. I don't think anybody really knew about it. And I think the tournament's not mattering was a big part of golf. So like whenever you turn it on and it looks like you're just watching like I don't I'd rather watch Bob. Does sports or does golf. I'd rather watch Djambo break on YouTube. Yeah. As opposed to that because that's like good content. Like and then I don't have to watch the people that I don't know playing in between. I can watch like a 20 minute thing with the good good. Yeah. Like I can for I can watch all those. I'd rather watch those than having to watch live the product itself was bad. And if you have a bad product it's not going to work let alone all the other stuff. The broadcast television product was no good. Joining us now ladies and gentlemen is a man who has a lot more information on it. And I'm excited to actually hear his thoughts on it from the very beginning till now. Yeah. This guy's become our golf authority. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen from ESPN go dogs. Mark Slavoff. Yeah. Slavoff. Guys. Okay. So I gave my views of live from the very beginning. I loved that there was a massive amount of money going to athletes. A lot of people are like where the money's coming from is not good. It's like well that money's in a lot of things. I think we're much more educated on that now versus whenever this whole thing started. But it did get very loud in that entire department. I think they had a chance to maybe make things better. Feel like they executed poorly and inevitably for the golf purists. They also kept the best golfers away from each other. Is there anything that I missed in this entire thing and that I should be thinking about whenever I look back on the live experiment that was? First of all let me commend you on the transition from record ratings to a league with no ratings. Thank you. Cheers to you Slavoff. Thank you bro. Go dogs. Now I spent much of my morning walk pondering how to refer to it because you got upset when I called it the Saudi League and obviously I can't call it that anymore. So now I think we'll just call it the barely living tour. Okay. Now I mean you hit it. Look a bunch of guys got a bunch of rich guys got richer. Their agents got richer. They disrupted the game. I think their legacy will be that they made the PGA Tour of all to bigger purses. You know signature events with with more elite fields. But you know they tried somebody said this morning they tried to reinvent a 200 year old sport with a checkbook and you know the way they went about it. I think Greg Norman was the wrong guy. I think he was too arrogant and how he did it. The fact that a bunch of its players sued the PGA Tour didn't help. And the fact you know frankly I think those guys are still the guys that are still there starting to figure out you can't prepare for the Masters in the U.S. Open by playing in a city park in New Orleans in a municipal course and bowling broke Illinois. Well the New Orleans one actually got canceled. So please have a little bit more respect for that one. And we love the city of New Orleans and Governor Jeff Landry does great work to welcome it in the PGA who had a fantastic weekend last weekend. We regret to inform you that the live one will not exist. Okay. So you say they tried to change a 200 year old game with a checkbook. The devastation to splitting the players away from each other to your point about not play. I think was on display when what the champions Tour had a better performance than lived it at Augusta right. And we very rarely saw any of the live guys go. So it was like clear that they got paid massive amount of money and it's like you're not working as hard or you don't have to be as good. So it affected the best some of the best in the world's game. Now we talked to Brian Rollap new PGA CEO formerly of the NFL and we said hey what's the transition process back into the PGA. And this is what he had to say. Mark talked about some of the rumors with the other tours and now a big game Brooks coming back to PGA Tour. We saw some of the stipulations I guess with his deal. Is there like a defined path for players to come back to the PGA Tour. And is it kind of I guess situational situations are situational with a player by player situation. How is it. Yeah I think we're thinking about it. Listen we're reading all the same headlines you're reading. We don't know what's going on over there. We don't know. We know those guys are under contract. We'll respect that. Brooks came back on to the tour because he made a phone call and said look I'm out of my contract I'm ready to come back. So we're thinking about it. We know we're we'll react when we have an opportunity to react. But right now we're focused on the make the PGA Tour better. But listen I've said it publicly and I'll say it again. I'm interested in whatever makes the PGA Tour better. That's what that's what my job is. That's what I'm interested in doing and and that has no limit. So that's that's how I'll focus on it. OK Mark. So obviously situations are situational and he's thinking about thinking about it in Brooks calls and he says you're good. Patrick Reed allegedly a year. I remember there was some real heat though like potential lifetime band roll up was not there at the time. Obviously that was the person that was before him that he is now filling in the role of. How do you see it kind of all unraveling. Will it be situations or situational like hey Rambo. Yeah we'd certainly love to have you come back because you're so good at golf like how do you kind of view it Mark. Yeah I think the PGA Tour obviously has all the leverage right now. I think there's still some hard feelings on that side. You know I had people in the last 24 hours tell me screw those guys. I don't care who they are. I think Brian roll up coming from the NFL is all about the bottom line. If Bryson DeShambo and John Rom can can make his product better for television contracts and those sort of things. He'll figure out a way to get it done but I think it's going to hurt. I think it's going to sting. I think there are some guys who won't want to come back to the PGA Tour. I think there are some guys like Lee Westwood and Ian Polter some of the older guys will just go back to the DP World Tour. Some of their younger players who never played on the PGA Tour are going to have to go to the corn fairy tour to try to get a PGA card. But there's going to be some guys walking back with their tails between their legs because I mean this is the equivalent of Lane Kiffin showing up in Oxford Mississippi saying I'm sorry I was wrong. Please take me back. It's like the 19th Eagles reunion Pat. When hell freezes over will come back. It's pretty damn cold when you don't have the Saudis money. Thank you Mark. Good line. Thank you for all of it. The football metaphor for the doofuses like us that can maybe feel what is happening over there. And then also it's cold world out there. And just one last. Hey remember what you did from slot. I had a four hour walk four mile walk after I got your text. So I thought about some things. This is the best thing about four mile best thing about a four mile walk Pat. It's only six widespread panic songs. Oh that's not bad. Is that every morning. Do you do that every morning every morning. So you're listening to widespread panic going the Saudis ruin golf. Saudis ruin golf. It's like with the barrel barrel over the water for you. That's good. All right. Can we ask some questions about golf that's happening now as opposed to just a. Yeah. I do got to tell you. I got to play the patch in Augusta. I was glad to hear you made it to Augusta National but I played the patch the new Muni that the Tiger redesigned and I played with this kid from iron. I mean it was first trip to the Masters and I said what was the highlight. He said I saw Pat McAfee on the 14th hole or something. I was like oh my God even over there. I was like this is insane but I did learn something about the Irish this kid had never played golf before. Ten yards hits it again. Ten yards hits it again goes on and on for like three hours. The Irish never pick up. It was miserable. But he got in his highlight was saying you but I did get to play the big course last year. I finally won. I was 0 for 9 in the media lottery and I got to win. And I tell me about the media lottery. Tell me about the media lottery. Do you actually lottery lottery. You get to play it once. Once you once you win you can't play again for seven years. So I finally win last year. They pick like 1815 18 people to play against a national. I'm the only dude that ever rolled down Magnolia Lane with a Weber girl on the back of his truck playing widespread panics. Ain't life grand getting ready to play against a national. I know you did. It was it was amazing. And life was grand but I played terrible. I'm not going to tell you my score. No. So we had a we had a caddy in our group who was Peyton Manning's favorite caddy your guy. And he said the last time he had been out there he hit it in the ball hit it in the race Creek three times on number 12. And he said finally the caddy turned around and said damn man it ain't the freaking Mississippi hit it on the damn green. I think I've golfed with that guy actually in that particular golf course before he's good at reading greens that guy. Yeah he is that guy's great at reading greens. I thought you were going to say that they told you that although it's only seven years that you can't win again with the lottery you got a lifetime ban for the fucking grill in the whole thing but no instead they said that's a football that was a cover. They said that's a lot of football that's smart. OK let's talk a little bit more about golf. Huge news especially in this Thunderdome. Go ahead Connor. Yeah. The goat is back. Michael Block a.k.a. blocky a.k.a. the guy that probably will be the number one golfer in the world if he could drive a 20 yards further will be playing in the PGA championship. What do we think does he have a chance here to take home a major title. It feels like now that he has one under his belt that this could be the year that block he gets it done. Yeah this is a pot here. One of the goats of the greens. He never misses. I don't know if we have it but he actually had a message to some people that maybe don't believe in him. I don't know if Ty even qualifies that anymore. I mean the support's insane like ridiculous and I mean I can't thank everyone else out there and not for the support and for all you haters or whatever. Behaviors. He's talking. He's talking. He's talking to you. Ty. Go to you. He's talking to you. Ty. Go to shit. Frick. But anyway is this blocky going to win this thing. Yeah. And how much more block I like blocky. I met blocky blocky was a good man to me. No. Ty hates that he went on a podcast and said if I can't I wrote I'd be the best golfer in the world or whatever. He was just he was getting gassed up. He was just having a time. He was just back. You know I'm very interested to hear Mark's take on blocky. Very interesting. Yeah. He flew a little close to the sun that first time. He's a little got a little too arrogant too little big for his britches. But look it was great. You know I think kept going up there in Rochester when he played and he had the hole in one. But yeah it doesn't make PGA tour players happy when a when a pro shows up and kind of steals the spotlight. But good for him. He does steal the spot. Band and doons. He's got what I was there like I was at band and doons last week and I was about 30 shots worse than him. I'll tell you that. OK so you you think he's got a chance to see him a little bit. He's playing good right now. You're thinking he's playing pretty good. Yeah. He's playing well. He won't contend. He's maybe lucky to make the cut. You don't know that. All right. My haters. Yeah. Yeah. He's talking to you. Martin. And by the way Ty knew what you were going to say. Ty knew it. He was so excited. I want to let you know Mark you within the first 15 seconds of you being talking on this show one over the entire ThunderDub. I forget the exact conversation was but you murdered 15 people within the first like 20 seconds and everybody in the ThunderDub is like yes. Right fastest ever. It's fastest. Yes. We've ever got. So you are in high regard sir. I just appreciate it. Oh yeah. I'm just not very I'm not a subtle guy man get to the point. Yeah. But the way you get to the point is also part of the China you got that accent. Go dog. Yeah. Very go dogs at all times it feels like so life is good. Go ahead. Tone. Yeah Mark I was I was looking at it. I was looking at the Cadillac championship this weekend. It's an elevated event and I was looking at this odds. Rory's not there. Feels like Rory has not played much golf this year. I think it's five times maybe in three or four months. I was I'm confused. I thought they had to play elevated events or is Roy going to pick up his schedule through the summer. I just didn't know how they work because I saw there was a lot of talk about online how they have people haven't seen Rory a ton besides the players and masters this year. Yeah. I mean he was part of that group that came up with the signature events to get all the good guys in the fields more often and you know and then he ended up skipping the one after he blew the late lead at Augusta National and got fined for it but they've kind of done away with it. You know I don't know. It's I think it's the new Rory maybe we saw it a little bit last year after he won its first green jacket. He took some time off probably celebrated a little too much. He'll tell you but you know didn't win again but he's playing well. Yeah he's been playing a little bit more around the world. Maybe if Liv stays together Pat he'll find a home over there. Well that's the thing we have yet to reference is the global impact that they had on golf. Look I don't I don't think it's dead yet because I think there are enough rich guys really rich guys that have a lot of money love golf but it's going to be anything like like its current form. But I think if you love golf they won't want to do that right in that kind of the love golf people's thing. They love money more than golf. If they can figure out how to make money off the golf then it's a perfect world. I think there are some answers there in the content world. I don't think you should ever be trying to market yourselves as a PGA competitor going forward though. I think that is a I guess like they got the what's that the Grass League. Yeah they're playing like at night or something like that was part three part three. Part three. I don't want to say the YouTube content golf people but they're doing a lot of content as well. If you viewed live as like like when live was about to was there a time where they're about to be together PGA and live it felt like there was a time where they were meeting a little bit more. Strategic Alliance Framework Agreement June 2023 June 6th 2023. Yeah 2023 they signed an agreement to form an alliance with the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour and could never come to an agreement. And I think it was probably because of the Saudis thought live golf was worth a lot more. I couldn't get into their head that nobody cared about the range goats or Ripper DC. Whoa. I got a raise. I got a raise. That right here Mark. Yeah. Yeah you're the guy. Mark. Bob a gift. Yeah. A gift. Shout out to aces too. Got dogs. Got dogs. Yeah. This dog driver head here. You know you don't go. Go. What happens to the range goats? They're done. I'm worried about it. Yeah. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. They're done. I don't think many people that love golf are gonna wanna go against PGA again, maybe. You can find some of those heels out there. But if they turn to live into like PGA guys doing scrambles or like two on two or like gimmick golf. Like if you took the PGA guys and turn to live into what gimmick golf could be. So that basically their YouTube portion of it, I think that would have been good. If we could have saw four PGA guys battle against each other in a scramble and like what would they shoot? How would that old thing go? If you hosted it right? Like I thought they were gonna do that. I thought live was gonna become like gimmick golf. And I guess that's not the case. Sounds like Saudi Arabia wanna them be the masters. Man, it was supposed to be louder though. But DJ Collin was always showing up in big putts cause he's such a good time. It was hard for me to take it serious, Mark. I tried, I tried my best. It was fucking ass. Yeah, I mean, the sad part is you don't get to see Sergio Garcia play six more times. I wish. Boom boom couples. All right, let's, Sergio, Sergio. See, I think the big thing, Sergio, whenever you did what you did at the masters to the thing, like did you think you were gonna win? So I think that's the thing. Like at some point there has to be a look in a mirror and it's like, hey, probably not gonna win today. So if I miss it a shot, let's just roll with it. You know, like when he was younger, bashing a thing, maybe you thought you were gonna win. This stage of life, I don't think anybody's thinking Sergio Garcia is one of the masters, right? So everybody just kind of looks at you and goes, but, but. So Spaniard golfers run hot. Thank you. I think he's made the cut there twice since he won. When was that? He won like 20 years ago. It was a long time ago. All right, let's talk about. I haven't thrown a golf club in like 25 years. Almost took a guy's head off one time and that was the last time I threw one. What was it? Helicopter, three wood off the fairway. Did you doff it? Wasn't bad. It's my dad, it was my buddy's dad too. That would have been bad. Did you doff it or what happened? Top it? Oh, I'm sure I hit up. Warm burner down the middle of about 30 yards. Like I usually do. And then you turn directly to your side. I am. Oh, no. Landed on the top of his golf cart. Oh, that is close. Yeah. So close. I mean, that's pretty good. Yeah. Did you go? Yeah. Did you? Let's put it this way. The club went further than my damn ball. All right, Pat. Hey, that's cause you hate good dogs. Yeah, good dogs. Good dogs out there. Let's talk about good golf, shall we? Maybe the greatest of all time when it's all said and done. Go ahead, Ty. Mark, obviously the elevated events are nice. And we know Scotty a lot of times will go out there and maybe not have his A plus stuff, but end up grabbing a top five or a top 10. But what do you think of his form going into the PGA? And then also just a little sidebar. Have you been doing any digging on the Brendan Swarzeby situation? Oh. No on Swarzeby. Pete Thammel's handling that and doing a fantastic job on it as he always does. Yeah, Scotty, look, the iron play had been great and we've talked about it ad nauseam, but he had his B plus game at Augusta and finished a second. So he can still put it together. I don't think he's had a finish outside the top 25 in like two years. So his bad golf is a lot of guys' best golf. So I think he'll be in contention. I think he's gonna win the career grand slam at the US Open. I called that. Hell yeah. I think it's the beginning of the year. I think he'll win at Shinnokok in June. Tell me about the Fitz boys down in New Orleans. Little brother punching the ticket and the older brother having what? The season of his life right now? Yeah, Matt had really struggled about 18 months ago and was one of the best iron players in the world when he won the US Open at Brookline up in Boston, but had struggled for a while and found it again. And I mean, my God, to win with your little brother and secure his PGA Tour card and a spot in all the signature events the rest of the year and the players next year and the PGA Championship next month, I mean, I don't think it gets any better than that. And I think he's expecting his first child here shortly too. Wow, what a run. Atta baby Fitz, hey. Hell yeah. And that. Northwestern hasn't won this much in about 30 years. That's right. Amen, brother. Amen. Hey, what do you know about this, Slawbuck? What is that? Do you know what it is? Come on now. Spider? Yeah, he knows. Last time I won't go for it. I got a 3D printed one. Does it work? Michael Collins gave me. Comedy? Caddy, ESPN Caddy? ESPN Caddy, Caddy, yeah, he sent me a whole set. Don't tell anybody. Somebody accidentally sent him a right-handed set and forgot he was left-handed. Okay, so that's not a bad place to be right there on side card of ESPN Caddy's golf cart. Good for you, Mark. Yeah. ESPN Caddy everywhere. Yeah, he's a beast. Crushing everything. Just like you. Thank you so much for joining us. And how many tournaments are left now in the golf season? 17 on the PGA Tour season. We still got three majors though. A lot of golf left. Man, we can't wait to see you again. 20-plus. Yeah, two weeks. We appreciate you taking time. See you, we'll see you in Philly. PGA. Yes, you will. That's what? PGA. Championship. Oh, I thought it was a home run derby July. That they do have that too. Philly's got everything. They do. Yeah, and the UFC fight. Yeah, that was kind of the big. And I gotta put that suit on. Yeah. Just saying. Perfect place to go when the PGA wants to clean up fan behavior, Pat. A lot of mashed potatoes, huh? You're the best. Ladies and gentlemen, good dogs. Mark Slavak. Slavak. It's funny we talked about that earlier. Oh, Slavak, you on? Yeah. Can we get a ranking on these SEC coaches swinging? Sabin obviously plays all the time. Shot his age last week or two weeks ago, 73. Kirby smart go dog. Awful, okay. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Oh, Nato's. Who's that? Nato. That's my grade. Pete Golden's got a little baseball swing done. He taught me top reverse. Senator Tubbs. Is Tommy still coaching? No, no, no. Who do you got? Kailin DeBoer? Uh. Ooh. Not that one. Not Oates. Uh, I'll go, uh. Pete Golden? Pete Golden is not bad. He gets through it pretty good. I mean, Tuberville's got the smoothest. Not there. I'll go with the goat. He's got that little, he's got that little hitch at the top though. Yeah, that's good. I mean, Sabin should play well. He owns about four damn golf courses. He owns everything, I think, brother, including a resume that says he's a goat of everything. Just like you, we do believe. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, Mark Schlaboff. Yeah, Mark. I mean, I didn't know he owns a bunch of golf. Yeah, he owns golf, of course. He's the best. Guy owns everything. Guy owns everything. We're just moments away from talking to a guy who, ladies and gentlemen, join us now. He's a man who, he's an 18 year vet in the NHL as a player. He was drafted by the Flyers in 1983. Played for the Flyers for 11 years. This is his first season as the head coach of the Flyers. Penn's taught him everything and he's, no, the last night he sent the Penns to Cancun. Ladies and gentlemen, the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, Rick Talkin. Yeah, Ricky. Congrats, coach. Thanks, boys. Hey, Penn, I want to be your friend because I know you pay big bar bills, man. Yeah. You're the man. Hey, USA hockey, hell, you're a, hey. I know they be, I was on the Canada staff. I mean, we, I had to, I had to watch that, that party where you paid the big, big bill. We lost. Yeah. We got the silver medal. So thanks, man. Was that you guys? Yeah, Canada, buddy. Oh, was it? Oh, I didn't know. Take me back to that day. Cause I don't like this day at all. I love that day. That are you right? Oh, Jackie. A little payback, a little payback, a little payback. Yeah, a little bit. Obviously, we appreciate you joining us and everything that you've done for hockey. I would like to talk about your team here and very rarely will I ever pay the Flyers compliments. I think you understand that you're a Flyer and also in a Pittsburgh very, very, very well. It's been one of those things where we have been successful and the Flyers have not, you know that you understand that. Flyers fans understand that, but always been a good team and a town that cares about hockey. So it's a good thing for us to talk shit about cause you people care and we're definitely have better run than you. So it's been a good run for us. So then we run into this team. I'm expecting Crosby, Tanger, Gino, guys that you know very well, the rest of that team to kind of do what they do, especially against the Flyers. Then I'm there watching your team. Holy shit, you got dogs all over the place. These guys are big, strong, fast, mean. Obviously, grit is a part of the Philadelphia way, but can you tell me about your team and why did you know that you guys are gonna beat the pens in this series with how much knowledge you have of this Pittsburgh Penguins team? Well, first of all, you know, I feel about the, I've been there as a coach or a player in Pittsburgh six years and won three cups there. So there's a, Pittsburgh Penguins are dear to my heart, but now it'd be in a, you know, obviously on the other side, being part of that rival, I knew you'd have to put the stake in them to, you know, to kill them type of thing, because Sid doesn't go in a way. Tanger, who I thought was great the last three, four games, they don't go away, obviously Gino. So we have a young team, you know, inexperienced, but a team that bought in right from training camp. January is probably our worst month. And I think for us, Pat, the West Coast trip, when we were, you know, I think we were five games, three games over 500 and we swept the West Coast trip. The guys went out, they had a lot of dinners together. They bonded, you know, bonding and sports. And after that road trip, we started to believe, hey man, if we start stringing some games together, we can get back in this thing, you know, our big tagline at 3.8% chance of making the playoffs at one point. And that's a big thing we always talk about, you know, so 3.8% chance and all of a sudden now we're going to the second round. So gotta give the young guys, and our veterans too, that have bought in for our team. Yeah, congratulations to you guys. And I saw the 3.8% chance marketing and I had not followed your guys this season as closely. So yeah, I was 100% sure we were gonna beat your guys. I was like, these guys, 3.8% chance of getting in, these guys are living on a miracle, okay? Miracle was whenever we beat the Soviets. That ain't happening. Wait, that was what my thoughts were, getting to watch your team, man, I love it. I really do. The culture of your team, and obviously hockey isn't incredibly physical and tough and everything like that, but it does feel like your entire bench is tough guys. Is that how you feel? And is that what you have to have in hockey? And how many teams are built that way? Are all teams built that way nowadays? Yeah, I think the games change a little bit than when we played. Yeah, you're right. Physicality always is important in hockey. It's probably a different than it was 10 years ago. For me, it's intimidation with speed, control in the puck, wall battles, wall work. You look at, look at city Crosby. To me, he's tough, right? Oh yeah. He's fought the odd time, don't go to me. He's tough, he's a mentally tough guy. That to me is the new age toughness. Connor McDave, Jack Eichel, all these guys, do they drop the gloves once in a while? Maybe once in a blue moon, but they're tough, they're tough every shift, whether it's with puck possession, body position. So that's the new age hockey player. Tell me about Gritty in human form. Tip it, number 74. Tell me about this guy. Okay, that was my takeaway after watching your team. Sanheim might be a serial killer, because I looked him in the eyes, and blinked, and he appeared to not change his face one time throughout the entire game, which was wild. And 74, this guy was faster than everybody else on the ice. It was very clear, and he was also built like an ox. Almost has the game winner last night, and over time, obviously an incredible player. I should know of him, obviously. I feel like you've got a lot of people that maybe the world does not recognize, if that matter when I talk shit, but. No, I'm glad you said it, to give props to those guys, because Tip wasn't on the radar last year. This year, he's put himself on the radar. He's one of the, listen, I coached with Connor, Dave, and Canada. He's almost got that kind of speed. Like, you saw it, you just mentioned some of the games where he had the speed through the news zone. I think he had 11 hits one game. I mean, that's tough to do. So he's a power forward, and then I thought Sanheim and Rislane were terrific. We matched them against Sid, most of the series. They played 25 minutes a night. I gotta give them a lot of credit. The Twin Towers, they were great. And you're right, Sanheim notched his game another level. And you're right, his demeanor, he is right. It was like flat. I don't know if he was happy or sad half the time, because he has that stone face, which is great for me. Great for you. I was a little intimidated. I had a neck brace, obviously. We didn't know if I had a broken neck at that point. Sure. Now I was sitting around on the glass. I didn't know what, I know if you boys wanted some. And just let them know, because of my neck, I would not have been able to fight them. Just like that. That is the only reason. That is the only reason. Yeah, right. Okay, let's talk about standing on head, shall we? You guys saw it in the gold medal game against Halibuck. Go ahead, Tom. Yeah, Taco, obviously a scoreless game through three when you go into overtime. It's not like there was a lack of chances. It was up and down. Hockey was awesome game to watch. Bladar has 42 saves in a shutout. Could you just talk about him a little bit and how huge that was last night? Yeah, you're right. Most of the game was back and forth, but I think overtime, let's call it as is. The Penguins had the puck a lot. We had the pre-vent. Yeah. Pre-vent. We had it, the pre-vent defense, and that's when you need your goalie. And that's when, I mean, Valdez was great all game, don't get me wrong, but he went to superhuman lengths in overtime. Like he was, you know, I think Mantha had something on the doorstep who's had a really good year for him. And I think Valdez stopped him. There's some saves there. Like Sid said after the game, they're one shot from going to game seven. So yeah, we, whether you want to say we're lucky in overtime or resilient or bend or don't break defense, the guy behind, the guy with the mask on really was the key for us, especially in overtime. I think that's my favorite thing about hockey actually, and it was kind of showcased on a global stage there in the gold medal game. Every single play-offs, if your goalie gets hot, you can win. Like that, it is, if your goalie decides you're not going to lose, you can win. We got a chance to do it in Pittsburgh, obviously. You were there. We got to experience that with Matt. There was a couple of times, Matt just decided, yeah, we're going to go ahead and went Jari actually his first introduction to Pittsburgh. He stood on his head throughout the entire run. It's like Matt Murray, sorry, Matt Murray went on the run. And I remember that from Tommy Barrasso. Before, before. That's Tommy B, yeah. Yeah, so it's like a goalie can decide basically for you. Like I go back by memories, like when we won the cup one year, Flurry was a net against Washington, game seven. And they were, we were in their building, they were all over us. Like they were, like I'm behind the bench and it was like they put on a clinic and we come out of the, we come out of the, the first period is zero, zero. And I said to Mike Sullivan, we're going to win this hockey game. And our team went, you know, we were on our heels and Flurry stopped, I don't know what he, 18 shots and he was terrific. And then we took our game and we beat him. And that's what a goalie can do for you. You know, just give you that one period of, oh my God, this guy's going to, he's saving us. And now then the players wake up and then, you know, we took over the game. I love that. I absolutely, because it's like a pitcher, you know, it's like when a pitcher has a team that can't hit for shit, it's like the pitcher can decide, hey, we are going to be in this thing forever. In goalies, those who get hot are the ones that kind of win. It feels like in the playoffs, obviously you have to have a great team, but you're in the playoffs, you're already a great team. That's kind of the deciding factor. Good luck to you having to make all decisions. When do you play them? Especially a hot goalie. Got to give them some rest, can't strain the odds. Is that kind of the thought? Is that always the thought? Is the strain, what is it? Well, the, well, regular season playoffs, you know, you put your throttle on down, unless something, you know, injury wise, you know, listen, you got to ride your guy. But you know, regular season, obviously, you know, you're trying to give the guy a little bit of rest, but playoffs is pretty well, you know, war of attrition, man. You're all in. And I mean, like Pittsburgh, they had guys banged up. We got guys banged up. You know, people are playing with broken stuff in the playoffs. And usually at the end of the year, on the media day, you find out, hey, man, this guy, you know, this guy had a fractured foot. This guy's got, you know, a cracked rib. Some guys are, you know, taking some tort all to get through stuff. So yeah, that's what the playoffs are. It's playing hurt. Yeah, that's hockey as a whole. That's why there's always an excuse basically for every hockey player at any moment that they don't play well. And then it comes out later through a memo. The player doesn't even say it. That guy had a fractured back. Oh, it makes sense. He's playing hockey. What does that even mean? Hey, this guy was a little slow. What a bomb this guy was comes out later. Tibula, Fibula and C4 fractured off. He's out for how long? Two years. He was just playing. That is hockey as a whole. Okay, let's talk about a 12 year old you have. Go ahead, Connor. All right, it feels like another thing that Stanley Cup teams have is just some young sensation coming out of nowhere. And you have that imported martin. What does he kind of meant to the boys as he's basically taken the world by storm? I remember after game one, we're all like, who is this 15 year old who is basically gonna carry the flyers past the penguins? And how do you handle something like that? Where a guy comes in late from a college season and kind of get him in with the boys while also knowing like, hey, this guy's gonna be a huge contributor to our team. Yeah, I think obviously it started a draft date for me was and I didn't know a lot about him. And usually, you know, the coaches aren't really involved in the drafting part. We don't really see the prospects. But when he fell to us and I was in that war room to see all the, our guys being so excited, we picked them, right? And then his development at Michigan State was incredible, getting stronger. Honestly, we didn't know he's gonna have this impact. You know, we were gonna give him a game. You know, you give him that token game. You see how he's gonna be and all of a sudden, I think he scored his first game and then he gets an assist, a big assist. He gets another goal and all of a sudden, he's a 19 year old kid playing in the second round of the San Diego playoffs, you know, playing an average of 15, 16 minutes and playing on our power play. So that's amazing. That doesn't happen very often in hockey. Yeah, fighting, tanger, almost scornin' over time. I mean, he didn't look scared at all. Once again, here's another thing I saw from being on the ice because Nick was like, hey, that kid was just in the frozen. He literally, he was just playing college and I was watching him all, he gotta be a little scared, maybe. He's big and he was not scared at all. I mean, it felt like he was wanting more. See, you guys are gonna be good for a while now. Come on, man. Come on. Cause this shit's happened on your side. Is this you? Did you do this? That's you, coach? Huh? Is that you that did that? Yeah. Oh, I didn't do that. Look at that, holy geez. Yeah, that's Nick. Was that after the game? All right, enough. Okay, now I gotta wear a suit too cause the governor was pulling for you guys. A lot happened in my life, but what I did come to realize is... Yeah, what was the bet? What was the bet, by the way? I forgot. I gotta wear a suit. What do you gotta wear? You gotta wear something? Okay, coach, I gotta wear a suit. Yeah, I gotta wear a suit, full-wong suit. Guberna-torque. Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's like me selling everything that I have, coach. I mean, come on, you have to make a legit bet. You have to walk the Philly in a Speedo. Whoa. You win the Stanley Cup? That's a real bet. That's a real bet. You win the Stanley Cup, you got it, pal. How about it? Okay, you win the Stanley Cup. Now, if you don't, we'll see you in the Thunderdome. It was in the Thunderdome, okay? You have to make a visit. You won't have to walk in a Speedo though you're a head coach of a team. But I will walk to Philadelphia. You guys win the Stanley Cup. Yeah, man, that's, yeah. Yeah, that's a good incentive. The boys will love it. You know what? They'll pay the bar bills all summer. All right, forget the walk. One weekend, okay? One weekend, but there will be a cap, okay? Because I did this at a media event. Yeah, yeah. And some of the assholes found out I was paying and they went through the top of the top shelf. We're not having that with the Flyers. But on that note, I'm a fan. I appreciate you, ladies and gentlemen, Coach Rick Tocque. There he goes. We're back on the other side. We'll see you then, goodbye. 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. Sports. Up there on the wall over there as we zoom in every single day. In the middle, there is a picture of a dog. That is Valerie Ann. She is a pit bull, sharp-paved mix that my wife got from one of the shelters, Dantan. Used to be a street dog whenever she was young. Sam adopted her. And then shortly after the adoption, a couple of two years after being adopted, being Sam, get together, and Sam just kind of moves into the house, just brings this dog, first dog ever, that I had a relationship with. And she's the greatest dog of all time. Had to put her down last night. It was one of the heaviest experiences I've ever had in my entire life. I don't know if I could compare it to anything that I've ever had to do. There was this incredible company that they did at the house. So instead of having to go to the hospital or a vet. And so many great memories kind of reminisced about with Valerie. Just want to let her know, I absolutely love her. There was a little rainbow up in the sky. Shortly after she left, like right outside of our window where we were looking. And for us, it was just like a, hey, see you later. For Mackenzie, our daughter, this is the first time she's had to experience anything like it. She was not around whenever it happened. But immediately upon coming upstairs, she goes, where's Valerie? Cause she hasn't been very mobile for a while. So yeah, it was just heavy night and sports immediately afterwards, wife and I and daughter got a chance to watch and kind of just escape from everything. But Valerie was an incredible dog. And I would say greatest of all time. I know a lot of people feel that way. And we started a charity because of Valerie's battles with cancer. She had five bouts with cancer. She died with cancer. First four got treatment, got surgery for. It was so expensive. And we realized and found out how expensive it was that Sam and I thought about if we were kids growing up with our parents with how much money was available for everything. If we were told that that was how much it was gonna be to save our dog whenever she was like six years old, seven years old or whatever. There was no way that we would be able to say yes to that. So we started a foundation to raise money for families to be able to get surgeries, to take care of their animals. Hundreds of dogs went through it all because of her bad assness. And it's like, yeah, it was a heavy night last night for the wife and I as we bowed our eyes out for hours and just kind of reminisced about it. And I would just like to say thank you to Valerie. More tears this week than any maybe in my life. And it's a perspective, you know? We gotta enjoy the hell out of what we have right now. We gotta enjoy the hell out of the moments because at some point we'll just be looking back on these moments as memories. And I hope we all get to say that in the moment we enjoyed the hell out of them as much as we should have. And that's why we're so thankful we get to do this every single day. And that's why we're so thankful that we get to do sports. And that's why I genuinely, now outside of a WrestleMania run. Sure. Well, I was not trying to bring people together. Trying to fix a business. Mm-hmm. Go ahead, say what you're gonna say. I'm not saying anything. But life is good. Let's never forget it. Because when it's gone, we'll never be able to say I wish. Talks to Tabith here at Boston Conner, at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer. Cowboys AP Town is here joining us live from Anatica, Ohio. Ladies and gentlemen, a college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hawke. The Gahogle. Hawke, how you doing, Paul? I'm doing good. Coach Taco was great on here actually. He dealt with all of your guys. It's kind of shenanigans very well. Shenanigans. Any questions? Well, I mean, kind of like he would, you could take it as like not disrespect, but you know, you're angry that he beats your squad. Oh, you couldn't tell you. I think they did take some of it as disrespect. Just from the feeling that I had being on the glass of one of those games, it was in the moment when they're inches away from you where you go, wow. I've said a lot of stuff about this team in like a pens fandom way. That a lot of Pittsburgh people have certainly told them in their past, but they know that I said it. They definitely heard it. That's kind of the world we're in right now. And I'll tell you what, I think they would have done that to me. I think that stick throw would have been done to me at one point, but instead the Flyers move to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs after a massive win over the Pittsburgh Penguins last night. Taco was awesome. I can't wait to watch them and they're a good team. And if their goalie's gonna do what the goalie did last night, they got a chance to win it all. Hopefully the pens big three get figured out and play 10 more years. That's what I would like. Five of eight series are left now in the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. Six of eight NBA series are still happening right now. Two out of the West gone. Okay, so the West is Oklahoma City sweep the Suns and then the Spurs beat the Blazers for one. And the Spurs might be the real deal, brother, with Wemby. We shall wait and see if they can get past the OKC test. The Lakers were up three-oh behind LeBron James. Don't look now that Rockets team has won two straight-up people wondering, is this the big collapse? Is everything that's going on with this Lakers team just become too much and they won't be able to keep up with the young Houston Rockets team that has maybe figured out how to attack this Lakers team without a Luca Donczuk playing. Austin Reeves returns. He gets more than 12 points, I'll have you know. LeBron didn't get a double-double though. I don't know if you knew that. You pair LeBron double-double with a win last night. You get pretty good little odds. You can have a nice little return to your draftings kind after losing a massive amount of money on flowers beating the pens and everything like that. But instead, Austin Reeves, LeBron James and the boys aren't able to get to home win. Houston Rockets now are on two-game winning streak. Do they have all the momentum? And if the Los Angeles Lakers don't win this, is LeBron James nowhere near the goat? Oh, no. That's what people are going to say, AJ Hawk. It's amazing how quickly things can change. So now LeBron is washed and he's run out of steam. That's what I've been hearing on the headlines this morning. What I do love about what we do for a living, and I just talked about enjoying a moment, I don't think anything on earth does that more than a daily sports show. And you can pull some takes that end up not being good from a daily sports show anytime you want. Because we can only go off the information that we have right now. When LeBron put the cape on, then put the entire Los Angeles Lakers team on his back at this age of 41, after the amount of minutes he had all season, after the amount of minutes he had all season, and just starts cooking this Rockets team with or without Kevin Durant. It was hard not to just immediately go, that's never been done before, that's never going to be done again. That's the greatest of all time. People got loud. Evan Fox in the back got real loud. People in Chicago are getting louder. They're on microphones getting louder. Ah, what's not? Let's show them respect for sure. But let's make sure we remember that's what was happening. And now they couldn't wait, could not wait for a, it sure never. This is weird. Was your never up 3-0 and then lose the best of, ah, we certainly showed him his respect, but there's a chance that happens. And LeBron knows that, and the sports world knows that, but that would be a massive story, especially with where we were just a few days ago, AJ Hawk. Yeah, but do you think it's actually going to happen? You think they are going to collapse and not win this series? Force game seven after trailing a series 3-0s only happened four times. Celtics versus the heat, Trailblazers versus the Mavs, Nuggets versus the Jazz. In 1951, we all remember the Knicks versus the Royals. Good team. That was one sided. Royals were just smacking around. They got hot. Everybody in New York was like 1951. I'm sure they had, what do we, or we have, definitely have good pizza, but. Good pizza. Those were good times. Do you have, was it black and white television in 1951? A lot of babies were written made in the run. I don't know if it's there yet. Is TV happening? 51. TV's happening. I don't know. There's not color TV. Well, definitely not color TV. How many channels? Two. Most. So many. Two to three. If you have the Oval Team here, we're doing Oval Team. Oval Team, yeah, on the radio. Stake, yeah, the Dakota ranks. And they were like, the Royals, problems. People were walking and getting on a, what type of vehicles did we have in 1951? Model T? No, that was 1951. We had colors. We had some hiring cars, right? 50s? Yeah, oh yeah, definitely. I love losing. I love losing. It was the most popular show. What's that, AJ? Did you think they were still riding horses in 1951? Some people. I thought they did get a buggy there to go to New York to tell them how ass they are after they go down 3-0. They're still doing horse and buggy in New York. They're definitely doing it then. First televised beer commercial for PAPS was in 1951. BBR, Trail Blazin'. I can't believe it. I wonder what that commercial was. Have one. Probably. Hank Williams was your number one country. Oh! Is that the Studebaker? I like what we got here. Cars were a massive mercury. 1951 mercury. I'll tell you what, I don't know how they drove those things at all without small the roads work. Booze done. No power steering. Obviously the gears definitely. Yeah, a lot of protection. A lot of metal on those. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of metal. I don't know if it gives at all. I don't know. When did the fender come in? The rubber fender, because that was a game changer for the Jackson Schubert. Got conned, where's the con? Jackson with Jack one. Kind of changed the entire thing. Anyways, it doesn't happen often is what we're saying, where the Rockets would be able to come back. And it's never happened where they've come back and actually won it. If that was to happen against LeBron James, people go crazy. Now, there are certainly the Bron post-game interviews coming like this. You feel like obviously the Rockets was better. It was the best way to respond to a group that obviously has some confidence growing over there. I don't care about shit like that, bro. The game is one in between the four lines. I don't give a damn who cares. I mean, of course you say it. Why would you say it? Don't bring up the better team. But I don't ask when I'm young guys that question. I'm too old for that shit. What was he supposed to say? What was he supposed to say his team wasn't better than our team? Come on. Get out of my face. How about that guy thinking, I'm going to get LeBron here. Does he think his team? This guy said his team's better than yours. Go ahead. Anything? Yeah, that is a wild question. Get out of my face, bro. What an answer by LeBron. You can see he's obviously a little frustrated, though. Oh, yeah. You can see that he's not exactly thrilled with what's going on. Now, I do appreciate the fact that everybody in the NBA seemingly understands that people have to answer questions in a certain way. Because remember when Joe Flacco was asked if he thought he was elite? And he said yes. And then all of a sudden it was this dipshit thing. He's in an elite quarterback. What are you supposed to say, AJ Hawk? I like how passionate Bron-Bron is, though it appears. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I think it's wild. If he actually does engage in all of the talk that is about him after every single thing that he does, like I hope he doesn't engage in a lot of it. Because it would be a roller coaster trying to figure out, one day he's obviously the greatest of all time. The next day he's washed. He's terrible. And he's not in the top 25. So it's just, it's crazy. You know, I think he does hear a lot more than we can imagine. I think he's very knowledgeable of the conversations that happen. I think whenever he talked to Dave. McMataman. McMataman. I think that one where there was a lot of conversations about the goat debate with him and Jordan. And then he even came out and said, he hopes he did Jordan Prowell with the number 23. Like I think he showcased some humility in there. While also saying like, hey, I do hear a lot of people shitting on me. It's like, why do we got to do, why do we always got to do that? Like why, I think he understands what's going on. But I'll tell you what, the Lakers currently minus 3-30 to win the series. Nobody's done. You think LeBron's going to lose the series? Yeah, right. I heard some LeBron fans earlier this morning really bitching and moaning about the fact that LeBron ain't brawn no more. We will get back to some NBA conversation with a former 15 year NBA vet. Let's do some NFL quick hitters here, shall we? George Pickens has officially signed his $27.3 million franchise tag. Edmund George. It was reported last Thursday before the first round of the NFL draft by every insider that George Pickens had signed his franchise tag. Then Sunday came and went. And on Monday, we were talking about that being an indicator of something happening on our show. And then during our show, Mr. Todd Archer puts out a tweet into the oblivion that says, hey, just a heads up. Pickens has not signed his franchise tag. To get traded, Pickens would have had to sign his franchise tag. For anything to happen, he would have had to sign the deal. It was reported that he signed the deal. But then we asked the same insiders, both of them, we go, well, what happened here? He's intending to sign. He's going to sign. They just know he's going to. We thought maybe there was some gamesmanship out of George Pickens saying, yeah, no problem just in case a trade was come through during the draft. Now the draft is passed. Maybe he won't sign his franchise tag. He has as being reported now by Mr. Archer, signed his franchise tag. Nothing else can happen until he does this. What does this tell you, AJ? He's a cowboy for the year? I still don't feel super confident he's a cowboy for the year. This obviously opens it up for him to be available to be traded, I guess. But you know what? I think it's 50-50 now. I thought the other day, I don't think there's a chance he's playing for the Cowboys. I think he still could play there. He literally came not he, I'm sorry. People came on the show back to back. It was Tannenbaum and it was somebody else. Oh. I forget who it was. Rapsheet. Rapsheet and Tannenbaum back to back come on the show and go, George Pickens probably playing for the Cowboys this year. And I'm like, that's the first time I've even heard somebody with conviction say that. Because going into a franchise tag here as a number one wide receiver with Mola Getta as his agent, with what has happened in the past, it feels like that would be a no-go for a one-year contract with no future guarantees. And a potential another year of franchise tagging coming on the other side of that. That just feels like a no. But then you start thinking about it from George Pickens angle where he's getting 27.3 million. He's got another proven year. He probably enjoys being in Dallas versus what was going on in Pittsburgh. Him and Dak have a great relationship, obviously. Maybe George Pickens does this year, one year, 27.3. We get to watch another bag chasing show for a year on prime time every single week. And then it gets a huge one after the season. I don't think any of us truly know, but maybe he is a cowboy. And that would be a blast because last year watching him on a cowboy was a great time. I will say. He was all over the place all the time on national television. Especially when they're playing at 425, kind of prime time. Brady and Burkhart, I want to say. Yep, OK. They are amazing with George Pickens. Think about how much more fun they are to watch. And if it wasn't for T. Higgins and Jamar Chase already doing it, I would say there's no way this is going to happen. But because of that brand of football, and maybe the Bengals go out there and absolutely dominate this year and Joe Burrow stays healthy. Big Dexy coming over there. Yeah, Dexter Lawrence comes over, which is kind of what the Cowboys already have with Kenny Clark and Quentin Williams and Rashawn Gary. Like there is a world that feels like where after this season, after the franchise tag, they could pay him upwards to $35 million a year. OK, so George Pickens signs this franchise tag way to go. Is Aaron signing anywhere? Well, Rooney, owner of Rooney. He says about the Oofa Tender that they put on Aaron Rodgers. We alerted Aaron and his representatives that we were going to do it. Answering all real big deal. Just something that in the unlikely event he goes somewhere else. We were eligible for a compic. Signed business. That's right. Yeah, it'd be stupid not to. We move forward, though. Is that what you read there, Tom? Yeah, that is exactly what I read. Because if you don't do it and it goes somewhere else, you look like idiots. Everyone's saying you guys are idiots for not getting a compic out of this. Oh, they're laughing at guys' face. Yeah. Oh, now you want them. Oh, not so. No, that's not what I said. I never said those words at all. Oh, yeah. What's going on? Tony hates this guy. It's not. It sounds like. I don't think Tony hates the guy. I think Tony likes the guy. Not the person. I like the person. We all like the person. I just don't like that for the second straight year. He's just stringing us along like we're his little lap dogs. Like you're not the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bingo. It's the Pittsburgh Puppies. See, that's what. Oh, man. I wish I didn't even think of that. We're not. What's his. Don't do that. Don't be doing what you're doing. Hey, did you hear this is how Pittsburgh people, I believe, because Tony has come back from the draft where there was 805,000 visitors, most of them from Pittsburgh. Talked to a lot of people. Tony was around a lot of Pittsburgh. Tony sits down in his chair and he goes, you know what? Now's the time actually to say it. We're done with this guy. It feels like Tony went and did a little focus group, a couple of them. Yenzer group. How you doing? I pulled the city. Different ages, different groups, different cities, different parts, different events, different everything. How we doing? We, we're all. Yeah. All done with it. Okay. Thought so. Just wait till you hear me on Monday and note. First thing came out of his mouth is, hey, we're done with it. It does feel like that is how Steelers fans are because it is two seasons in a row now where they are being told like, hey, maybe, maybe. And it's like the Steelers fans are like, get this guy the fuck out of here. If he does not want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler. And now from the other side of it, okay, that is just me reading tone who was talking to everybody and me potentially talking to similar people that tone was talking to. You read me well. Me as Aaron Rodgers. Okay. Person that understands Aaron and has massive respect for who Aaron Rodgers is in the history of ball and currently in ball in this entire thing. The guys allowed to figure out what he wants to do with his life. Yeah. Don't. Okay. Okay. Some respect. Coach changed. Life changed. Yeah, you bet. He's living. He's in shape. Yeah. What? Okay. He signed in early June, I believe last year. Tone, is there a deadline in June you have? Like what if he signs here in two or three weeks? Are you going to be happy all of a sudden? So he signed in June because there's something going on, right? Last year? When there's something, was that last year? Yeah. I had a personal situation. He said that he left. Yeah. Yeah. So I think everybody knows that agent. Okay. So like that kind of happened. And then now this year it's like, I don't know. Don't you and McCarthy fucking know each other? Yeah. Pango. He's a newly wed. A guy can't enjoy his new wife for a little while. There's a lot of newly weds in the NFL that are on teams. They know they want to play for that team. Not ones that are goats. What about ones that are 22 years in trying to figure out what they want to play? Yeah. Well, if it's not, if you can't figure it out already, it's not in your heart to play. You don't know that because he didn't find every part of his heart yet. And I don't know how I'll react to AJ until that day comes. Okay. He's a talent. I'm sure I wouldn't change my tune. AJ, I'm sure Pittsburgh won't immediately go. Never would. Got a goat back. Yep. So I'm telling you, he better play good now. He kind of strong as long. The future's here. Maybe we'll hire. Maybe Drew Hower. You know, Mike McCarthy. Sure, Lord, Super Bowl wouldn't come out of my mouth. Yeah. Exactly. As soon as Aaron gets back. AJ, what do you know in that situation? What has Aaron told you? Honestly, I don't have really anything for you on that situation. You have. Make Derby weekend. I don't know what the thing would be. Yeah. I don't know what. There's no deadline. I don't know anything. When you get down there. Are they? Are they in Derby this weekend or no? No. I'm not going. Really? Don't lie. Oh, smart play by you to act like you're not going if you are going. Is he going? But if you're not going also, smart play to get that public because we will be peppering you with questioning. Certainly. On that, the NFL has distributed crew assignments to referees this week amid indications of continued progress toward a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement with the NFL referees association. Sources have told Seaford over at ESPN. Now there are some numbers and stats coming out that we found pretty interesting. At the time of talks, Stale made it this spring. The NFL had offered the NFL RA, the ref association, a six year deal with the average annual raises of 6.45%. That's more of a raise than the players get percentage wise. Yeah. The average NFL official earned $385,000 in 2025. Now refs in other leagues, professional leagues, get paid more money. Obviously a lot more games in those other leagues. I believe there are also full time referees as opposed to NFL refs that only have 17 regular season games. And if you're not asked, you also get playoff games in this entire thing. And then you're done for an entire off season. So the negotiations fascinating. That felt like a lot of money. If you let players know that that money was available if they got into a pipeline to become officials, I think a lot of players would be excited to do that to give back to the game. But I do think it's good news that we're kind of making progress with the Stale made that has potentially happened over the past couple months with the referees association because the last time we had replacement refs, it was ass, AJ. Yeah. And I think people may like it's easy to overlook this and think it's not that big a deal. But if you were around for the old situation with the replacement refs, I was on the field when the fail-marry situation happened with replacement refs. I saw the impact it could have. So I think it's a lot bigger deal than people think. So the fact that there's progress and they're not, both sides aren't killing each other publicly through the press, I think it's a good sign. They were there for a bit though. They were killing each other publicly, which was a lot of public, let's try to win the mob here, let's try to win room. And then I assume there's a conversation like, hey, it's not good for any of us here for people to think our refs are ass. But we do need a little bit of accountability. We do have to be able to say that we can get rid of people that stink. Like I think for the good of the league, for the good of integrity of the game, we have to be able to do that. That's where the NFL is coming from. And the referees association says, we've always had the greatest deal in all of sports basically. We don't have to answer for anything that we ought to be. All season we don't have to train, we don't have to do anything. You pay us. And guess what? Never fired. So if you wanna get off of that contract a little bit, if we wanna start there, which is where we have negotiated the last 100 years, we can certainly do that. Both of them have a good stance because if the replacement refs come in again, the referees association will have leverage pretty quickly, which is why the NFL was like, we'll have New York make the calls. And it's like, all right, well, that's gonna piss people off. The refs are gonna get some leverage there. Something terrible is gonna happen. The refs are gonna be able to get you just like they did after the failed Mary. And I think because you're on the field and because I had a chance to, you know, ride alongside some teams, I think we care more about the ref thing than anybody else. And if it becomes a big deal, I would like them to say we did journalism. Okay. Yeah. They won't, but. We've done some journalism. Yeah. Every day. Is there any chance though that the replacement refs come on and they've done this vetting process and they've worked them out a little bit to where it kind of goes off without a hitch and they do a decent job? Maybe. Yeah. And it did say in that article that there were some college refs from, you know, the NCAA obviously that were willing to go up. So it wasn't like a unanimous, hey, we're not doing this because of the union. It was kind of like a, there were a few that would come along, which would be massive. Is it? I sure hope so. Is it Vander? What's his name? VanderVeld? There's no way that guy's a scab. Him and his crew are not scab. VanderVeld and the boys getting a call up to Sundays, Thursdays and Mondays could certainly be something. And then they're so good that the refs association and the B4C, eh? B you can afford to be, but I don't think VanderVeld will do it cause he's so close. Yeah. So close. It's fascinating. Okay. Let's go to the NBA, shall we? In the middle of the playoffs. Obviously the six series that are left all have go home implications happening in the NBA playoffs. There will be three games this evening as the Knicks play the Hawks at seven. Celtics take on the Sixers and the Nuggets take on the Wolves after a two day break. Fascinating to see how that all affects everything. Joining us now, 15 year NBA vet, three time champion. Ladies and gentlemen, former NCAA champion, McDonald's All-American, Stadi ESPN NBA analyst, Danny Green. Yeah, Danny. No, no, hey, hey. Uh. Appreciate you guys having me, man. I'm one way to two ESPN now. It's the biggest job, but it's the most important job that I have now. So I'm heading to the studio. Okay. Are you driving right now? Like actually are you driving? Danny. No. I just have my seatbelt on in the back. Okay. Cause it looked like you put your hands onto a wheel there after you gave the double deuce and then went to the wheel. We just want to make sure you're not doing anything stupid, Danny, you know what I mean? Don't be stupid. No, not at all. Not at all. Did you just turn on a turn signal? Did you Daniel? I did not turn on a turn signal. Why'd you stop driving? What do you, do you have a hand? Cause I guess you NBA guys, you could reach from the back seat, I guess. Put her on the steering wheel. And just kind of drive from the back seat with sunroof. You guys, I got you guys, you guys are hands free. We got you guys magnified in. We got stands, you know, when you do, when you do media stuff, you got to have stands to make sure that your phone is stable. Okay. I want to let you know, I don't love what's going on here. I don't like, I don't like that you're, we cannot be a distraction. You understand. You are a, Yeah. A very, see, now you're in a red light right now. Now you're in a red light right now. Yeah. I can tell. I can tell right now. We're totally safe here. We're totally safe here. Okay. Yeah. All right, let's make sure we're doing that. Let's be smart about it. Nice car, by the way, 15 years in the NBA. It does certainly have its perks. We appreciate you joining us. Let's talk about some of the stuff happening around this NBA. You obviously won a championship as a spur back in 2014. Very different team now with Wemby. Can you tell me about this spurs team? And can you tell me about Wemby a little bit from an ex-player with obviously still connections around the league? Yeah. I mean, their team is very, a really good group. Wemby is a special talent. It's something, things you can't teach. You know, him being 7-4 and that wingspan, I was lucky enough to play with some really great big men like Tim Duncan, like Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard, even Marcus All, you know, Sergey Bakka, like guys that I could play defense and not have to worry about, you know, the rim because they're going to protect it for me. He's just another level of that. Like a lot of guys go in there deterred and scared to shoot the basketball because of him. And he still gets four or five blocks a game with guys knowing that he's there and scared of him. So I could imagine, you know, where his blocks for game would be. Have to try to challenge him more often, which if you're smart, you wouldn't do that. So yeah, this is a really good special group. They're young. They showed some of that in the first round. So if I gave them a grade for round one, it would probably be like a B plus because they, there's a Portland team, don't respect them, they're really good. But if you want to put yourself in the same conversation as Oklahoma City Thunder, you know, that team and a championship contention, you shouldn't be playing behind in the series. And I feel like in that series, they're playing from behind a lot. But I think they learned a lot from it. I think they grew from it and it'll make them better and more prepared for whoever they face in the second round. That could be the Denver Nuggets. It could be the Minnesota Timberwolves. We don't know. I hope Wemby does the dunk contest next year that bounce in between Treblebund. That'd be a winner if it was to happen. Spurs trailing in games, but obviously won the series 4-1 over to Blazers. Oklahoma City, reigning champs, they swept the sun's 4-0. Hey, Danny, call us when you get to the place. I'm getting anxiety. You're the man, ladies and gentlemen, stay great. I'm getting excited, I can't do it. I can't do it, I can't do it. We're good, we're good, we're totally safe here when he's at the red light. How about he gets the red light? Look, both hands here, I'm like, yeah, right. I can't do that. I gotta get, no, no, no, no, no. Tell him to hang up. Okay, he's still talking. Then call us whenever, this has always been a thing with the show. Oh yeah, I'll get to it. No one's ever wanted to be on the show more than Danny Greene right there because that was the most unsafe thing I've ever seen. Ever, I don't know what he's doing. That was, cause then I did think, oh, he is in a backseat maybe. And I saw him literally turn on the turn, so I had to check the traffic. It's like, yeah, right, can't have that happening. I'm not going to be associated with that. I'm also a motorcycle driver. He's driving in LA too. I'm pretty sure he's- No, he's- He said he has to be on, but don't they do NBA today from LA? Maybe they don't. That's immediately what I thought was Jesus Christ. He's on the 405 right now. Looking down. No, no, no, can't have it. I hope that's not the case. I hope that's not the case. I would like to say that that has always been a part of this program. AJ, we, I have always, AJ probably not, I guess AJ's like, yeah, we roll that, Mike, a little action out. AJ watches movies on an iPad when he drives. Yeah, how close his eyes for two minutes. But he's the shit, he drives. He's supposed to see what happens. 30 minutes, if you will. Yeah, 30. Absolutely not, Ty. He is an ass driver. Uh-huh. Documented ass driver. That's very subjective. It's very subjective, but you can, yeah, we're talking Wemby, I think, some kind of sports. No, we're talking about all the time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers being on the record is saying, when the sun's going down, it's tough for me to drive. I just fall asleep. Yeah, that doesn't mean I'm a bad driver. That means I fall asleep when I'm driving into the sun as it goes down. Okay, so falling asleep while you're driving would be a trait, I think, that would say you're a bad driver, no? No, like a bad driver would be like a lack of awareness. Like you can't figure out when you're asleep. You have no consciousness. You are asleep. Well, I'm aware of it so I can beat it. I already know going in, hey, this is where I get tired. I gotta find a way to stay awake. Okay, and we're appreciative of the fact that you beat it now, but there was a time in your life where you're just out there falling asleep behind a wheel waking up with two feet on, right foot on the gas, left foot on a brake, brake lights on the entire time while you're falling asleep. I mean, that would be considered a bad driver. Okay, I just wanna let you know. That's been a tough situation, but yeah, I've never been in a situation as dangerous as that, I promise you. Oh, that is. Okay. That is how you describe it. I don't like that that happened at all. What I do like, I like Steve Bishotti saying I want a draft pick. For the first time in his relationship with the cost that I do believe, first time maybe in his ownership of the Baltimore Ravens, our favorite owner on a microphone, Steve Bishotti, the Baltimore Ravens, said he negotiated with his GM to make a pick. What unfolded? Cinema. Hello? Hello? Hello, is this Adam? Yeah, it is. Adam, this is Steve Bishotti. I'm the owner of the Ravens. Yes, sir. Well, I'm good friends with your coach, Dabo. And, my GM, this is the first call I've ever done because my GM and I negotiated something this year for the first time and that was that I was gonna get a pick that I get to pick by myself. So, I started working with Dabo a little while ago and he told me that you are the highest character player he's ever had in his program. Yes, sir, appreciate that. Well, that's how highly he thinks of you and so I started watching you and I found out your whole story about conceding being a wide receiver and doing what Dabo needed you to do most. And you've got a lot of growing to do and to become a good running back, but with your character and your past catching skills, I believe we just got you a year earlier than everybody else is gonna find out how good you are. So, we are about to put you in as the newest Baltimore Raven. Yes, sir, I appreciate y'all. It sounds good. Where are you today? I'm in Myrtle Beach at home. With who? Your family? Yes, sir. So, they're gonna be excited that you're gonna be taking handoffs from Lamar Jackson? Yes, sir, they are. All right, good. I'm gonna let you talk to Ed Coach Mentor, okay? Okay. Welcome to the Ravens. Hold on. Appreciate it. What a moment. That's beautiful. I like the behind the scenes stuff of this and how about first time ever the owner, Drafts Adam Randall, Drafts Anybody? That guy's gonna get a lot of opportunities. Yeah. Jesse Mentor, first year head coach. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. He said, how's it going? Tell your family. You're gonna be taking handoffs from Lamar Jackson. He's gonna be doing that. Okay, I think he sounds like the person that Bishotti would build a team around. For that to happen, I hope Adam Randall understands how special of a moment that is. And I hope this works out because we love Bishotti now that we're learning of him over the last couple of months only. Yeah, I didn't. That's the first time I'm seeing that video too. That's really cool. I like how Bishotti says, with your like what your high character and your past catching ability, you're gonna have a good chance here. Like you, it's not, it's not like a charity case because you're a good dude. It's because you're a stud on the field as well. That's why I like that you have both those. You can see the fact that you're running back to go play wide receiver. I think we're a year ahead of everybody knowing that you're supposed to be a running back. It's like Bishotti might know ball a little bit, huh? And how about Dabo? Dabo still got the fast ball with the mouth, huh? Oh yeah, Dabo, I mean, he's the goat obviously still. Part of me when I'm seeing these, cause I feel like maybe it's just recency bias. I feel like this year we're getting every single one of these kind of like behind the scenes looks at when these guys are getting drafted. And part of me is kind of like, I don't love that cause this is, you know, one of like the more personal, a lot of these guys are crying, but the more you do get to see these, like it is just such a cool moment. And that is one thing that I really do appreciate that all these teams put out because, you know, I mean, we see everything in the first round with the Dapp Ups with Raj and stuff like that. But like this is the stuff that's really special when you see a fourth round pick or like a late round pick. And it still, I mean, it means this, they might as well be going, you know, first overall. Yeah, look at the family, look at the mom. I mean, the whole team, the community, everybody's been working for that their entire lives. Draft is still so special. We're very lucky that we get to be a part of the coverage. I think a lot of people watch the draft. Oh, sounds good. Yeah, it feels like a lot of people. The draft has officially become a massive spectacle as it should. A lot of things happening around the NFL. It's also announced out of the Buttsmore Ravens they have signed, Klaes Campbell. Oh. Oh. We'll be his 19th NFL season. We got a chance to see this guy whenever Miami, we had their run during the college football playoffs. He was on the sideline towering over everybody, in better shape than everybody. One of the greatest teammates of all time and a man who's obviously wrecked shop on a football field at defensive line position, not only getting to the quarterback, stopping the run, disrupting an offensive line, special teams, this guy blocks kicks all the time. He's an avatar. This man's a monster. 19 years at D-Line in the interior, AJ. Klaes Campbell going to Baltimore. Love that Jesse Minter said, yeah, I think we could have a Klaes Campbell in the locker room for the first year around here. You know what's awesome about him? Like he can still play at such a high level. He's not like, hey, we got the old savvy vet in here to teach the young guys how to go about it and you know the process and how to prepare for games. Like, no, this dude is still making plays. Like just what a unique outlier. Like he's going to be 40 years old on September 1st. Can you imagine being out there? I mean, he's been in the trenches for so long and the dude continues to do it. Yeah, I hope he plays for 10 more years. Yeah, I think it's a cool thing. Jesse Minter we believe in, right? I think so, yeah. I believe in Bishadi. Definitely. Lamar. I believe in Lamar. I mean, Matt Abike, their other stud, D-Tackle, he apparently is cleared. So now it's Klaes Campbell, Matt Abike, Trey Henderson and then their second round pick Zion Run, who's like 6'6", 270. How's free agent James? I know, I think I've recited him, that's what I'm saying. I know they bring in Klaes Campbell, that kind of scares me. Actually was my thought while I was watching Klaes Campbell kind of do his thing. And then I thought about who Klaes Campbell is as a teammate and how much of a leader he is. Remember Tyreek was going through, Karlie Poldova was Klaes, I mean like Klaes is the epitome of an NFL teammate. Like that is not always, he's forced to be listened to because anytime somebody that large talks, everybody's gonna listen. You know, it kind of comes with the care. And think about like there's never gonna be any like foolishness on that defense. Like if you are, say you're gonna walk through and guys are jacking around like Klaes is in the room, it's not gonna happen. Remember Lamar took all the TVs off? Yep, yeah. The walls, all the games. Yeah, there was, yeah, cause he said he would have taken the TVs off the wall if he could too, but Mr. B paid for all that or something like that. Cause Lamar I think was having a little bit of issues with maybe some Tom Fullery happening around that team last year in the locker room. Now obviously hardball moves on, it's a new coach. I think Klaes Campbell is a good signing. I'm a huge fan of his. And every time his name comes up I bring it up. You walk into an event and you look, scan the crowd and events aren't really your thing maybe. Let's say I'm talking directly for me. Hate events, don't like anything about them. Live in Indiana, so we don't have to go to events. Every once in a while I go to event, good time though. Always dependent upon who's there. Who do you get trapped around at set event? There's always like a trapping that kind of happens at these events. Anytime I walked into one and you just scan and you see fucking big Klaes at the back, it's like that's where I'm headed. Okay, head down straight to the massive guy. And that's happened numerous times. Every time, good time. Every time so nice to everybody. Every time like just complete, like the energy, the juice, the whole, it's just like he's, he's a special individual. 19 years at D-Line out of the U is something that'll be first ballad hall of fame worthy. And for him to continue to go, I hope we do chair shit. I think it was the Miami Hurricanes old miss game in Arizona where he was there on the sideline for the U. And it was the same exact thing. He sticks out like sore thumb and you walk right over to him and he's like the nicest guy of all time. Yeah, definitely sounds like he looks. No doubt. Definitely he, it's not a different voice. Like where was I at Raw where that guy recorded me there? Was that San Jose? St. Louis, I think. Or St. Louis maybe? Yeah, one of the two. San Jose. Sort of San. I think it was San Jose. Yeah, guy had a camera, kind of a bigger guy. And he was like, you suck. And I'm so, is that your actual voice right there? Like that was a genuine wonder. Kaleis Campbell opens his mouth. It's like, that's how a six foot eight, 19 year NFL detact was supposed to, deep. Yeah. He's got this deep air tone. And he's done good. Congrats to him. Speaking of doing good, let James Cook graduated. We'll walk on May 8th from University of Georgia. Go dogs. Go dogs. James Cook will walk at Georgia's graduation ceremony on May 8th after completing his degree. Congrats to him. Obviously, this is something he wanted to get done. The NFL does a very good job of getting you in contact with the people to make these types of things happening. With e-learning now, who knows how many classes he had to show up for, how many he had to do at home though. Certainly, mightily he earned this. They didn't just hand this out. They don't just do that because investigations happen and they could lose a bunch of stuff. He had to have done something. I hate whenever people immediately say, like, oh, yeah, cool, James Cook bought a degree. It's like, if that was, if it was as easy as that, I'd have a degree. I do not have a degree. I got a lot of buddies that would have them. Yeah, if it was that easy. They try. People do try. They definitely try. Certainly. I thought about hiring a team to get me a doctorate. And I guess that's just not how it goes. So congrats to James putting the effort in to make this happen. And I know his family pumped up. AJ, did you graduate? Yes, I did graduate. Post getting drafted? No, I stayed. I was still in school when I got drafted. Like I didn't finish up till that May sometimes. Did you read Scherderly Verly? No, I was just there all four years, played special teams, mainly my freshman year. And started those games in like 15 tackles. Got a tiny pick or whatever. I backed up C Grant. He rolled his ankle, so I got to start a couple of times. Shout to him. Shout to you. Who knows how many hours I am away now. I was at 1.13 hours away. Can you imagine going to Sydney? What if someone gave you a schedule and they said, OK, for the next three months on Monday, Wednesday, you got to go to class from you have a 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Just that one class. I don't know if I'd be able to do it. I wasn't able to do it in college. So that was kind of my big issue. It'd be impossible now, I feel like. Yeah, the e-learning, I think, kind of opens some things up for people to maybe get back in there. But it's going to be hard for me to take anything serious at this stage. Yeah, because even the e-learning now with Zoom, it's like that's still kind of a classroom. Like you're not just scrolling through. Like there's a teacher and you guys are all in a little box. Like we've seen those videos of people. But that was the whole thing with JR Smith, too, when he went back. Like, JR Smith was like, yeah, I'm going to class every other day. Like this is very difficult also doing this while playing golf. Yeah, they tried to give me to go back numerous times. Like, do you have any idea how much you have left, though? So they wouldn't release. They wouldn't release. I had 100 parking tickets for my scooter. Sure. Oh, yeah. OK, my scooter had 100 parking tickets. So they would not release my. Diploma? No, not my diploma. I didn't graduate. Your. My files. Yeah, right. So the NFL was trying to get my files to see how many hours it was. And they were like, we're not releasing it. You guys got 100 some parking tickets or whatever. Like for my scooter. I didn't know they could tie my scooter back to me. I guess they, like everybody else knew it was my scooter because that thing was never registered to anything. So I kind of did a couple of different times say, uh-uh, that's not mine. Those aren't mine. And then they came back. Yes. So pay that bill. Get the file. I think I had one semester at one point. That was early in my career. They were trying to get me to finish it. I think it was DT David Thornton, who's director of player development or maybe Rich at the beginning. They were trying to get me to go back and do it. Now it's got to be those hours have to be just multiplied, I would assume. Who knows how many of my classes that I actually went to and graduated from still count. Yes. I don't know if any of those things will count now. It's a whole different world now. I don't know because you didn't transfer. So if you only had 13 hours or like a semester left, I don't, I don't really know how they could fudge that and change that. I think that's pretty steadfast. Maybe James Cook motivated me here to walk across that stage. That'd be cool. Yeah. Yeah. What? Is anyone graduating? Is anyone that goes to the league graduate? I said, come on. Now, you really think you're going to go back to college now? Let's come on. You got a lot of time. You're not doing that. We can move on from that. We know that was quick. That came and went pretty fast, I think. Yeah, you're right. We are passing. But go on. What were you saying? Any of these guys that are in the NFL right now that are transferring? Does anybody graduate? Yeah. Does anyone graduate? I know it's like a common thing. If you're a big recruit, you graduate high school early and you go enroll and you take part in spring ball. But then if you're going to go to the league, how many people are graduating? You just have to count on all the guys that don't play to keep your graduation up. How about Coach K? Coach K was like, they don't really do school anymore. So I'm like, was that Coach K that told me? Yeah. Because the NIL? Because I have that question. Do these guys have to show up at class? Are we still worried about them showing up at class now that we're paying them actually to do football? What takes precedence? What takes? I mean, I don't know. A lot of guys are strictly online now. Yeah, but are they even doing that? They have to be. You look at some of the big 10s. It'd be during basketball season. And teams from the Midwest would take their West Coast road trip where they'd play Oregon, UCLA, and USC. And they stay out there. They're out there for two weeks. But is everybody just eligible now? Yeah, I mean, maybe. Yeah, I don't hear anyone being ineligible, do we? I feel like you really don't hear that. Because if I'm ineligible, I can't. It just be a thing. So I could sue the school for taking away money from me because you are deeming me not able to get my money here? I assume there's some. Well, don't they take teachers or guidance counselors on the road with them so that they have some sort of study guide? And then during the summers, don't they take classes? Are these guys called P-Famil? We didn't know if they're doing this school. Is anybody doing this school? I think so. When we get these guys who come on and commit, it's always for the next two to three years. Like, there is no thought or three to four. But even that, it's not. Because football, you have to do three. And if you're doing a summer semester plus your two actual semesters, you only have to be there for three years to get your diploma. That's why Coach K was like, hey, look, they're here for 180 days. And then they're gone forever. Oh, yeah. Because one and done actually will. Yeah. Yeah, basketball. You used to hear that. That used to be a thing where people were ineligible. Andy Katz, one of the greatest linebackers ever in Ohio State, he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and said, Ohio State is number one asterisk if the big cat is eligible because of this whole school situation where he didn't have enough credits or something. Yeah, eligibility really mattered whenever we were going through school. That just stopped happening, I feel like. You know what? These kids are smart. They're smart. Think after COVID, they kind of just like. Stopped caring. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is the authority on college sports, Pete Fammle. Yeah, Peter. Everybody in the 3-1, Pete. Hey, we appreciate you for joining us, Pete. Do they do school anymore, college athletes? So, Pat, most college athletes, I would say, and we certainly don't have a holistic percentage on this, take classes online. Yeah, but do they do it? We were talking about we haven't heard of somebody being ineligible, and then would they even be allowed to be ineligible? Because then they could potentially sue because you're affecting money in gains if you were to deem them ineligible from something that wasn't their actual profession, which is football. Has anybody been ineligible because of academics since money has started flowing towards football players and athletes? I would say rare, rare, rare, rare. I'm sure somebody has. I can't think of anybody off the top of my head, but that was an annual thing, like he's not gonna make it or is missing games or didn't go to class. But ever since everything has shifted online and Reese's joked about this, yeah, there's been virtually no academic issues. This kid's all smugger, I'm happy about that. Hey, what's going on with the Swar'sby stuff? Do we know anything now that we didn't know maybe a couple of days ago, and what do we think the fallout's gonna be inevitably? I don't think there's anything particularly new. I think that the scope of how much he gambled to some of that has unspooled. He's one of your favorite words, Pat, in the past few days. And I think before there's any definitive action on what happens next, I think he has to leave rehab. And it's pretty simple. Do they take an uphill fight to try to regain his eligibility, which again, precedent would tell you is something would have to radically change, be it an injunction or a rule change for him to get eligible if, you know, then see enforcement finds everything as it has been reported or he goes to the supplemental draft. My understanding of the supplemental draft, which is a bit of an opaque world, is that you have to declare by June 30th. We haven't had, I believe, a supplemental draft the last two years, and I don't believe anybody has been taken in the supplemental draft since 2019. If Brandon Swarovski did indeed go to the supplemental draft, he would certainly be the most prominent player since Josh Horton, which was maybe a dozen or so years ago coming out of Baylor. But ironically, Pat, the reason you do end up in the supplemental draft is you don't have eligibility. That I believe, without looking at the rules in front of me, is one of the tenets where this sort of loophole emerged because you weren't gonna be able to be eligible to play at your school, you could then use this, you know, use this exit ramp and go there. So I have a feeling if it goes that way, we'll all be learning a lot more about the supplemental draft because it would be a, you know, look, he's a first round talent order back who was trending that way, certainly, and may have even been this year if he went. It's hard to say in a hypothetical, but he was certainly in the conversation, would have been studied by everybody and would have been in the QB2 slash three conversation. So we know a decision will be made by July then with the NCAA, that's never happened, right? That would have to be a big part of it. No, that would mean he would have to declare by then. So this is the process. Yeah, but he would definitely declare right after an NCAA investigation and punishment came that deemed him ineligible or... So we can always count on the NSA working slowly, Pat. Exactly, that's what I'm saying. This is one thing we could do. The unique part of how the gambling situations work is, he has not technically, I believe, been declared ineligible yet, but he will be declared ineligible. If you have a gambling violation, a gambling allegation that arises or that's found, you are declared ineligible, and then the process proceeds through a reinstatement process. But before that goes, they have to obviously investigate everything. So that would all be lengthy. It would be surprising to me if there was an NCAA clarity by June 30th, and that's not knowing anything insightful from this case, but rather just covering these things for 25 years and how they tend to work. Got it, okay, and I agree with you. I haven't been covering it for 25 years, but I've been around watching the NCAA operate. Us having an answer by July would be... Just, it won't happen. So he would potentially, okay, what if he did this? It's been done in the past. What if he said, you know what? I'm done, actually. I'm done. And they say, well, we wanna look into your stuff. Sorry, I'm actually not an NCAA person anymore. I'm gonna leave. He gets banned, but he could enter the supplemental draft, and then the NFL people would have to worry and do the investigation. Because if it's not any legal stuff, and it's just NCAA stuff, and he chooses to no longer do college stuff, is there an investigation happening? Like, is that his out, actually? Just to say, the whole thing. I don't know. You would tell me more, Pete, I guess. Yeah, I think it would make sense to explore all possible tracks. Coaches have gone to the NFL before whenever there's about to be an NCAA thing, right? Correct, yeah, no, that John Calipari sort of invented beating the policy. We saw Pete Carroll do it. It's happened quite a few times. So this would be a player doing it, right? Investigation's about to happen. Actually, I'm gonna go to the NFL. That would be the first time. So if there isn't a legal investigation, then we never really get... Yes, yeah. My understanding is the only legal things that could emerge from this is like underage gambling, which is parking ticket stuff. That's not anything that's gonna... So Sors, he could potentially, if he comes out of this rehab, not wanting to gamble ever again, which we hope happens for him, by the way, it sounds like. Sincerely, yes, sincerely hope that. We genuinely hope that happens again. And then they just shut down this investigation because he decides to go to the NFL. He could basically get a brand new, right? He could kind of get a brand new thing here with an opportunity. He misses out on five million from Texas Tech, but this could actually be a... Coaches have done it with the NCAA. They'll say, he come back, he can't show claws, whatever. But then this could actually... That's interesting that that could be the outcome here for Mr. Sors. Sounds like that should be what he does because regardless, if he's gonna get suspended, like he's not ever gonna see that five million dollars from Texas Tech, right? Like that's not happening. So why wouldn't you? I don't know, yeah, I'm very fascinated. We're all talking about this live. Obviously, this is not how most shows work, but on that note, that feels, Mr. Sors be, sounds like there is an ability and a chance for you to change your life here, you know? And that very rarely does that happen. We hope you are able to do that. But if you bet on your own teams on a regular basis, we would like to say, you can't fucking do that to us. No. You can't do that to the sports world. And a lot of people obviously attacking the coverage of sports, having sports gambling being prevalent, that's two different, this is a two different world. In the sport, take it from us, two ex athletes, you know, it's just two different things, like talking about sports and knowing that lines exist and where money is and everything like that. That is where we are as a society with sport. And that's how some societies have been talking about sports for generations at this exact point. So I just think athletes have to continue to be very disciplined. I don't necessarily think it's fair, but for the good of fucking everything in sport, we have to keep the integrity of the game. I think we all kind of understand that, which is an interesting, the Sors be things an interesting thing, because like if he gets another chance, the NFL teams are gonna wanna know a lot, but how are they gonna get to know a lot? If the NCAAs doesn't get a chance to investigate, because didn't coach Harbaugh just say no, they just want them to charge us. He's got to be close. Fascinating. Okay, last question from me, Pete, before we get out of here. And once again, anybody that's going through anything, any type of addiction, definitely gambling addiction, we hope you get to a point where you wanna help yourself, just like Sorsby did there, and we hope that helping yourself sticks. As somebody who's been a part of a lot of different interventions for a lot of different things, it isn't until the person really wants it, and obviously you can motivate them. But if you're in a spot, you know that you can get help and people love you. And that should be something I hope Sorsby's hearing, even though it probably feels like his life is spiraling out of control. Last question right now from me about college, everything. Wasn't March Madness good enough? Why are you changing it, Pete? Why are you adding teams? Tell them, Pete, why are you doing this to March Madness? I don't think I understand why you would, I thought you liked college sports, Pete. I thought you liked March Madness. Now you're gonna make what? March surplus? Turn it into a March Mockery kind of. It is kind of a little bit of a March Mockery. Yeah, we don't need any of this, sir. Why'd you do this? Apologies if I offended you by something I clearly didn't do and just am reporting on. I would say this is something, Pat, that there's been a drum beat for this for a while. And as much as some people have cast this as a money grab, and there's certainly money involved, no one's naive to that, this is really an access grab in a byproduct of these leagues ballooning to the size where they are. Right now, I believe off the top of my head, it probably says something, I don't know all this cold. We have 18 in the Big 10, I'm confident in that. I think we have 17 ACC schools, 16 SEC, I believe 16, big 12. When this TV contract for college basketball was enacted, or you can go all the way back, these leagues, well, there was a Pac-12, right? And these leagues weren't nearly the size that they were, and the money, obviously, that the power conferences can pay their players has created this huge separation, right? Between the power leagues and the non-power leagues. And we can throw the big East in there for basketball chat at this point. So the power leagues that now control the voting and have a big say in this, they want more of their mid-tier teams in the tournament. I'm sick of it, sick of it. You know, we don't need all these. That is a lot of the reaction, Pat. I mean, you are not on an island, you and Ty and Connor were intimating there, obviously, there's been a strong rebuttal to this publicly, but- We'll watch. You tend to follow the money, just like Woodward and Bernstein taught us, big J journalists a long time ago, and you follow the money, and you tend to get your answers. And there hasn't been a significant expansion of the anti-term as it's 1985. So things grow, things evolve. Basically Tuesday and Wednesday now, the NSA tournament are going to have 12 total games, six each, one set of those, and the great state of Ohio. It's a good week. Nice looking week. Yeah, it is. So just like I was gonna say to you, my reaction, everybody's reaction is everybody's reaction, but then when it comes on, guess who's gonna be paying the bill for all of it? Me and us. Now we get to shut it down for more days. Okay, we like that. Go on boys, we never heard of. Go on 500 team from the Big Ten. Good luck out there boys. Maybe you strapped gold here in this March Madness that has been blipped up a little bit. We have a minute left here on ESPN before we continue digitally. I'll let Tone ask you the question, but if I cut you off in the middle of your answer, it's because I gotta send people to Sports Center. Go ahead Tone. Yeah Pete, big news yesterday, the Big 12 approved the deal with Redbird Capital, private equity, I believe, company. So now if schools opt in, believe they get $30 million, is that on top of the 20 some odd million or whatever they get revenue sharing already? And why would a school not opt in to get the $30 million? Yeah, actually Tone, very few it feels like from the Big 12, the early feel is very few will do this. It'll get paid back, that's why you don't do it, right? Like it's just not, there's no free money anywhere. Other than the field goal kick pat, there's no free money in America. Oh, you think that's free? Yeah, that's expensive, yeah. Somebody's paying to do it on gang pay every year. Random sophomore in Athens, right? So yeah, the PE is on its way into college sports, we're feeling it and seeing it in different ways. It's manifested on the campus side, it's now manifested on the conference side, and there will be more of it, not less of it as things go on Tone. 30% or 30 million, I wonder what percentage of revenue they're looking for, for how long? Are you signing one of those 20 year deals then with Redbird Capital? How many people will be in charge whenever this bill actually comes five to 10 years from now? Will there be people that are looking out for their asses right now? We can get an extra 30 million right now. Who cares who's gonna have to pay the bill 10 years from now? There'll be some of those types of decisions made. I assume Kamish, who is the one who probably negotiated this deal, would like to see some of his teams use this. Remember we had an LED basketball court, he obviously changed that. He does like to think, this guy is a forward thinker, I think we have a lot of respect for your check. Your mark. Hunter. Sorry, your mark. No, Hunter, your check, ret your mark. D. Hunter, your check is the Arkansas AD. Ret your mark is the forward thinking Big 12. And I would like to let forward thinking Big 12, Kamish, your mark, no. I got respect for him, A's twin brother. They are good business people. And West Virginia women's basketball team and our rifle team are their Big 12 champs. So I would be interested to see if WVU decides to do this. Very interesting. I don't have, yeah. As well, my hunch would be no, but I'm not sure. Yeah, but who would be making that decision? The president, the AD? Yeah, what if Rich Rod wants to do it, but the president AD don't? Sorry. I think those would be, you know, board decisions, high-end decisions like that. If you will. High-level. That is legit though. It has to come from somebody that's potentially gonna be there when this shit has to get paid. Cause there's everything so cyclical, or I'm not cyclical, what that being, revolving? Everything's so revolving at some of these Big 12 schools, like Ren Baker, we thought we were gonna lose Ren Baker when any AD job leave. So if AD is making this decision to check into one of these private equity things, it's like AD, is he gonna be here in 15 years? Does he care if we're fucking paying 15% of revenue, 15 from years from now, whatever the percentage is, for 30 million right now? I don't think so. And some of these people might be big risk takers. It's like, hey, if we take this 30 million, we can compound it, pay this thing off quick, and then we should catapult ourselves into a monster spot. Presidents too, they change. We've had a president change the last couple years. It's like, who's making that? That's a big decision. Huge. It's like high school kids signing these deals that are like, hey, we'll take a percentage of this for this long. It's like you're kind of weighing everything in the future. And how much striking gold now helps, you know? Deferred payments are good cause you know you got something coming later, but what if you strike fucking now? Then you don't worry about what the payment is later cause it's only gonna grow. Good luck out there, 30 million being available. Pete Thamble, we hope you would take it because if we put a 30 million dollar rocket on your back, you'd be at fucking Mars pal. You're the man, we appreciate the hell out of you, Pete. Thank you, good to see you guys. Goodbye, Pete Thamble. Goodbye, Pete. You get 30 million dollar rocket basically for your organization. I wonder what you have to give up for that 30 million. Yeah, what percentage of revenue later in life? Well, you go on to win though. You get all that money from the CFP and all that stuff. That's what I'm saying. Like you would, it will. What if you don't win? If I. Then you leave. I think you heard me explaining there. That's true. Okay. The downfall of this is the people that are potentially not gonna be there are gonna be making decisions for future generations of whatever that are gonna have to put the bill. What is the bill? We don't know, okay? We have not seen that detail yet. We probably get it from your market if I had to guess. I'm sure we could probably find that out before tomorrow's program. We could do some journalisming. But if I'm a dog and I'm in one of these powerful positions, I get, what are we all looking for? All fundraising, right? We're gonna get $30 million to do whatever we need to do right now. I think I'm betting on the boy. I think I'm betting on the team. I think I'm betting on us to use this $30 million to put us into a different stratosphere. Now, if it doesn't work, I'm getting fired. And I'm not there. Which I don't have to pay the bill. So of course you're taking it, yeah. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. He said he doesn't think a lot of schools are gonna do it. It's like push comes to shove. You get people in a room. Hey, do you want 15 maybe? You can get up to 30. Do you want $15 million to maybe help here? This is what you're giving up. It's like, that's like a reality show. They need to be filming this shit. You gotta present that to the board or the chancellors, those people that are there, that will be there 10 years from now. I guess then you gotta talk them into it. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see who does it. They should be filming that to make the money back. Yeah, there you go. That's what they should be doing. Cause that's a huge decision. You're, obviously this is every negotiation, you're leveraging the future for the moment. Can you create the moment to be bigger than what the future would be? If I'm there, Mountaineers, will you get 30 million right now? How much does Cody Campbell give another fucking deal on? Yeah, exactly. 20 million? Okay, I guess we'll beat Cody Campbell for a year. Let's go ahead and try that out. And I guess that will be the tough sell because the board of regents are all people who have either been there for like 10 plus or will be there for the next, so you can't just do like, well, you know, hey, yeah, this doesn't work out. I'll just make a lateral move to a different big time conference that's kind of down there, you know, lower towards the bottom. When they fire their GM, I'll just leak to my agent. Hey, you know, it's just, I need a fresh start. I think I want to go to, you know, Colorado instead. Bruce just said that the media rights deals are up in 2031 as well. So if you're deciding to get this money, you can always sell a fake number coming in 2031. Yeah. You can always sell, especially with some of these deals that are happening around sports, you can just say, oh, we're going to get a fucking 75 million of school. This won't even matter. We're probably going to join maybe even the big 10. Yeah. I mean, there's, you know, so this money, I'm thinking more people are going to use it than less people. Texas Tech, they're definitely going to take it. Yeah. Do they need it though? Yeah. Which schools need it? No. Oh, they're not going to give up 15% though. Yeah, exactly. What is the percentage? We need to know what the percent, what's this guy? I'm calling him. Cody Campbell. He could just cut a check for the return right away. He can get 30 million. Yeah. What the fuck is this guy's number? This is not 100. Something else. We'll find out about the big 12 going forward. I have some breaking news, I do believe. Okay. Wayne Gretzky has texted us. Wayne O. Great interview with Rick. Yeah. Thank you for promoting hockey. 99. Wow, Wayne O. Love you, 99. Sons at 99. He gets it. Oh my God. Your friend, tell your friend something nice. That's pretty cool. It might change our life. We're in this thing together. We got hockey, we got NBA tonight. Wayne O. There's no way he's watching now. What a walk off. Wayne O. Love you, 99. Wayne O. Fuck yeah, that's a great one. Isn't it nice to feel that? Yeah, it is. That's nice. We need that, especially after Valerie, rest in peace, I love you dog. Bob, rest in peace, I love you dog. Fucking Wayne O says, hey. Pretty good little sausage there, we're fucking talking. We got you, Patty. That's fucking good. Hell yeah. Yeah, I bet. No universe, ball, universe just called. Yeah, universe, fuck, bye, way, way. We gotta figure out what Big 12's got going on. Yup, on it. And then who knows? We'll see you tomorrow. Big guess tomorrow, I think. Huge couple. I think so. From what I'm hearing. Let's remember we're lucky to be alive every day. You wake up alive. Good. Yup, yes. Is there things that you can find around you that are ass, certainly? Should we try to move on from those things? Yes. But remember, life, good, death, alternative, not great. Let's enjoy it all. Thank you for being the best dog of all time, Bob. I fucking love you, girl. Gotta get a tattoo, I think. Okay. Yeah, I think I have to. I don't think it's gonna be big, cause you know. Your whole back or what? Did you? I think cause I already got this one for the daughter. Yeah. I think it's already got that one. I think the tattoo community knows that if I go under, if they put me out, then I get a whole sleeve in my bag. Like I pay my respects. Yeah, you're certified now. Yeah, certified right here, bro. Boom. Right here. That is a painful spot. Exactly. It looks like it for real. I'm gonna wake up someday double sleeved, take it off, hold back. What's up, boys? I've been under for fucking 28 hours. Four artists. Oose sleeve over here. Yeah. Oh yeah. I'll be so much of this. So much of this. So much mono. Let's enjoy life. A lot of mono. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice and might change our life. We're all on this thing together. We have no idea what everybody's going through. Never forget it. So maybe make somebody smile. Could be a benefit for all lives, yourselves included. Team on me, team on three. One, two, three, team. Goodbye.