The Pat McAfee Show Live | Monday April 7th 2025

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[Music]. The following program is a collection of. stooges talking about happenings in the. sports world. It is meant to be comedic, informative. The opinions expressed on. this show do not necessarily reflect the. beliefs of their peers, their boss, or. ESPN. There may be some cuss words.

because that's how humans in the real. world talk. If you are a young, please. seek permission before watching any. further. Hey, let's go. This show sticks and the fact that you. listen, we are very, very thankful for. the line with a gorgeous assist. The. alltime leading tackler for the Green. Bay Packers, you pick.

Damn it. Your friend, tell your friends. something nice could change their life. [Applause]. [Music]. Hello, beautiful people and welcome to. this program on a glorious national. championship Monday, April 7th, 2025. This program starts right now. sports are happening in a big way and uh. we're so incredibly lucky that we get to.

cover it, especially on a national. championship day, especially on the. first day in which we get to talk about. a record being broken that nobody. thought was going to be broken, especially on a day where there's. numerous sports that are rising to the. occasion to make sure we are all. entertained with competition night in. and night out. And I am live here at the. Target Center in beautiful Minneapolis, Minnesota for tonight's Monday Night. Raw, live on Netflix. First Raw back in. America. It's going to be glorious. It's. 8:00 p.m. Eastern. A lot of magic will.

be happening here. And then on Wednesday. night, we have Big. Night at. uh had a chance to do a little bit of a. rehearsal for that yesterday. Kind of a. stage run through. And uh it's going to. be a magical evening. uh 8:00 p.m. Eastern on YouTube, uh Tik Tok Live, and. also streaming on X. Big surprises, big. singalongs, big laughs, and uh massive. giveaways. I think Wednesday night is. going to be an electrifying evening, as. will be tonight when the national.

champions of the men's college. basketball world will be crowned. Will. it be Houston who somehow with less than. a minute left were down six against Duke. team that was supposed to be untoppable? And some people are saying that the Duke. team tricked this one off. And I believe. you're going to hear some people back in. the Thunderdome that are going to say. that. What I would like to say is this. Houston team showed up in the biggest of. times. Their defense is what anybody. would talk about. Their defense was what. people said that Kelvin Samson does. differently. In his practices, he.

actually has his boys basically do. football practice. If you're going to. play Houston, it's going to be a long. damn game. And obviously Cooper Flag. couldn't buy a bounce at the end of that. game. I mean, he was rattling out. Bank. shots were banking out. Everything was. happening. But Houston got fire and. Houston's defense took over. That was an. electrifying finish to a final four in a. madness of March that hasn't had much. madness until this moment being. certainly the largest. Good luck and. congrats to Houston who takes on a. Florida team that Seth Greenberg from.

SECBN has been saying has been the team. all year long. They got a guy named Mark. Clayton Jr. who's doing [ __ ] that hasn't. been done since Larry Bird averaging 30. points basically throughout the biggest. games of the season here down the tail. took over at the end of this game. against Auburn. It was literally him. verse Auburn at the end of the game. Florida pulls away. Florida goes on to. the national championship to take on. Kelvin Samson's team. Now, will Kelvin. Samson's team foul the [ __ ] out of.

Walter Clayton Jr.? I would assume I. would assume that that is going to be. something that they will do. But they. try to do that to everybody. This. Clayton Jr. guy is electrifying. He's. able to make his own baskets. He. transferred. He is a veteran and uh. Florida team's fun to watch as is. Houston. Now back to the boys in the. Thunderdome. One half of the hammer. Cowboys AP Tone. Tone, whenever we look. at tonight's game, what are some of the. B uh gambling things we should be. thinking about before we lay our shekels.

on one of these squads? Yeah, before we. move forward, we must go back. And. what's been the story of the tournament. the whole tournament? It's been the. favorites. Uh the favorites just ripped. out Boston Connor's heart in the. first couple rounds because he was. betting on all the underdogs to win on. the money line and they did not. And. that that trend did not stop Pat. For. the first time in history, favorites. went 12 and 0 straight up in the Sweet. 16 and Elite 8. Before the Duke loss, before that Duke loss, um there was 15.

straight favorites that had won straight. up. Before that Duke lost, they were on. a run that they could not lose. So story. of the tournament has been of the. favorites winning. Now Florida is the. favorite tonight. If Florida were to. win, they would be the greatest against. the spread champion of all time. What? 29. Thank you for what you've done. Yes, they would be 29 and 11 against the. spread. Would the Florida Gator be this. year? Now, if you want to look at that.

Florida favorites, that's where you go. tonight. if that's if that's how you. want to take this. Now, if you want to. go the over under route, we know how. Houston plays. We know how hard they. play. We know the tempo they play at. We. know the defense they play at. Houston. uh unders this tournament have gone 4. and one. This just kind of how they play. ball. It's just kind of how their ball. games go. Um but on the other side, Florida's 4- one to the over. So, if you. think Houston can control the game. tonight with their tempo and with their. defense, maybe lean to the under. But if.

you think Florida's going to have your. way, then it's a potential over game in. that scenario. But the way the. tournament has gone, favorites and. unders have actually been uh the way to. go this tournament. So, we will see. tonight. Okay. Hell yeah. No, no, not one more. Nope. Nope. Nope. One more. There it is. Can. you hear me? Okay, that's on me. I I got. a new keyboard over here. I got a new. keyboard over here that I'm trying to. work with. And I think I'm potentially. freezing up as well. If that ends up. happening, we'll just reconnect this.

Zoom call. But whenever you talk about. this Houston defense and the under would. like that for the first half. Winchuk is. national championship maybe get a little. bit tight especially if you're a. shooting team. Let's go to nineyear NFL. vet and host of everything DB good D bad. D from Yukon. Obviously he didn't play. basketball up there but they're. certainly tatting their greatness at. this moment. What are you looking at for. tonight's game and congrats to your. Yukon Husky women winning their 12th. national game. Is that what the number. is? 12. 12. First one came back in 1995.

and now obviously 2025 another one just. utter dominance from Gino Orium in the. squad. Uh Paige Paige Buckets it we this. was for her you know this this was to. kind of put that that cherry on the cake. icing on the cake. All that good stuff. man she's been an absolute dog. Had a. phenomenal career and now she can go. amongst all the other greats that play. at Yukon. You saw Terasi Sird they had. the show obviously and all the legends. that were in the crowd. Bree Stewart, Maya Moore, and many, many more. But. absolute do, absolutely dominant run,

belt to ass over South Carolina. defending champs. Uh, but this was great. to see Paige go out like this. Uh, Big. Sarah Strong, dominant, dominant, best. freshman in the country. So, we we'll be. on her back for the next three years. Fud as well put on the show. The big. three did their thing. But, uh, tonight, you talked about it. Houston, you know, they're they're dominant dominant. defense with Kelvin Samson, the other. coach, a big 30-year gap between these. two coaches, but Walter Clayton Jr., I. don't know where he was ranked, where he. is right now on the big draft board, but.

backto back 30 balls in the biggest. moments of his career, betting on. himself, getting the floor. I think he. was like the 69th ranked uh guy in the. transfer portal a couple years ago. So, betting himself, sticking to the script. Uh, this game should be a banger. tonight. I can't wait for it. Yeah, I can't wait for it as well. And. uh the one shining moment video should. be great. And we'll talk more about the. national championship with uh Jay Will. who will be joining us at about 12:40. Eastern. And then Seth Greenberg will. join us in the second hour. And then.

we'll have Moose Captain Mark Messier. join us in the second hour as well to. chitchat about history being broke this. past weekend. And the chase by the great. eight has been happening for the better. half of the season this year. And nobody. really expected this particular record. to ever be broken. Actually, in 2016, Alexander Vetchkin said that the goals. record set by Wayne Gretzky back in the. '90s was never going to be broken. because it sounds like a number that is. absolutely ludicrous, which it was. You. know, there's a lot of records in uh. sports that a lot of people assume are.

never going to be able to be caught for. one reason or another. Whato had been. able to do throughout his career was. unprecedented, obviously, and heralded. as the greatest of all time, which is. why he's the great one. Then this. Russian goalc scoring machine came over. to the NHL and all he has done literally. since landing here is score goals rip. net clap bomb city he'd sit in his. office bowl come or puck will come over. how's it going stick to net guaranteed. I'm Pittsburgh Penguins fan so Sydney. Crosby Gino Malcin Chris Leang Mark.

Andre Flurry and the boys they were. winning Stanley Cups at the beginning of. O's great career but he was the biggest. rival will he ever be able to get it. done well he did. He wins a Stanley Cup, celebrates the hell out of it, becomes a. baby face, and now he's a man who's. going to be remembered as the greatest. goal scorer in the history of hockey. Congrats to him because not only is he a. goal scorer, not only has he been uh. around and putting the NHL on his back. for a long, long time, decades and plus.

almost two decades in this entire thing, but he is a dog. You're talking about a. guy who's willing to fight. You're. talking about a guy that was willing to. stand up for his teammates. You're. talking about a guy that has been loyal. to the Capitals. You're talking about a. guy that his teammates love and you're. talking about a guy who will crack open. an ice cold beer after having a great. night. This guy is everything that you. want to think of whenever you think of. hockey, you know. And does he have the. greatest smile? Maybe not. Is he the. most handsome guy? Maybe not. Does he. have a dad bod? Yeah. Will he house a. couple vodkas if need be? Yeah. You get.

him on the ice, he's able to put the. puck in between the post better than. anybody in the history of the sport. Weno was there obviously to celebrate. him. And Wayne said that anytime. somebody was to break this record, he. wanted to be the first person to. congratulate him. He obviously wasn't. able to do that because his entire team. celebrated with him on the ice, as did. the New York Islanders fans in the arena. at this away game. And it was such a. perfect goal for OV to break the record. on in his office. Little bit of touch. Absolutely electrifying. And what the.

Islanders fans and the Capitals fans. that are in that building did. immediately after it went in, just a. superior moment in sports. And uh let's. go to a man who used to host a show. called That's Hockey Talk. Frankie. Skates in the Back. Nick, obviously this. was a record nobody thought would be. able to be touched. This dude's special. and uh I think we're lucky that we would. never be touched. Obie himself, as you. mentioned, said it was untouchable and. he didn't think he'd get there. The. ability to stay healthy for this long. and play at a high level is crazy. I.

mean, we're almost 20 seasons into this. thing. He broke his leg earlier this. year. That's not talked about enough. and he only missed a handful of games. with a broken tibia and he comes back. and he just keeps scoring 40 goals at a. uh. 39year-old at that pace is unbelievable. And for him to still be doing this at at. this age and have and not this is not. just a a player hanging on to a team. like this team is in first place. They.

are dominant and he is a massive piece. of it. So, it's it's awesome to see it. happen in real time. It's history in the. making. It's great to see everyone come. together and celebrate it because for a. lot of his career, he was polarizing in. the sense that, you know, he wasn't the. best defensive player. He was one of the. most dominant players in the game. And. it's absolutely awesome to see what this. has turned into. There's an old saying. about the Mount Rushmore in hockey. It. was Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Gordy. How, and Bobby Y. And now they're you. can't take any of those guys off.

They're just going to have to carve. another mountain. And it's going to be. Oie. It's going to be Sid and maybe Nick. Lidstrom and you talk about like guys. who have a chance to earn that fourth. spot like uh Mc Jesus, Conor McDavid or. maybe a Kale Mar, Nathan McKinnon, someone like that. But uh it's. absolutely awesome to see and it's. incredible for the sport. Yeah. And I. saw Weno right after saying uh you know, hey, you get to 900, I'll buy you a car. So maybe uh Ovesian keeps going. Do you. think this is it, Nick? Like is he done? Has it been talked about as him kind of.

retiring, sailing off into the sunset. after this run or do we think maybe, you. know, Obie runs it back one more time? I. think I don't think he's done. I think a. while ago maybe this might have been it. This might have been the only thing to. play for, but now the Capitals are a. good team again. They kind of went. through a mini rebuild a couple years. ago where they were not playing well and. now they're back on top. They're poised. to make another cup run. So why walk. away now? I mean, at the pace he's. going, you play two more seasons, you. got a shot at scoring a thousand goals. and making this record almost absolutely.

untouchable for certain. And there. there's no one else like him. He doesn't. he's not the hardest trainer. He's not. the hardest worker. He look at him just. pounding a brew. Got to love it. Allegedly drinks, you know, Diet Pepsi. on the bench, eats his Flaming Hot. Cheetos, and, you know, just still goes. out there and crushes and dominates the. game. He's one of one. There'll never be. another like him. He does it his own. way. He takes all the criticism and just. keeps going through it. He's been. healthy his entire career. Like I said, that that just goes to show the breaking.

the leg thing earlier this year. Absolutely insane to come back and play. through that and recover from that so. quickly. And it's uncanny. And I don't. know. I don't know how you match it. I. don't know. He's a unicorn. He's one of. one. The great eight. Yeah. If he was. done, him and beer league would be. pretty sweet. I mean, if if he's just. going to call it, maybe he goes back, you know, KHL in Russia or, you know, hangs around Washington and just crushes. a few beer league hockey games. Who says. no? You know, why not? Any other records. in in reach for? Uh, I'm sure there's.

like some power play goal records and. things like that, but this was the main. one. This was the focus. And you could. kind of like the Capitals haven't been. winning a a lot of games lately, and I. feel like this may be something that was. hanging over the team's head. I'd look. for them to go on a bit of a run here. now that we got what four or five games. left down to into the playoffs because. now that this is over, I feel like. everyone can breathe a lot easier and. just go out there and have fun. This was just like whenever Steph was. trying to break the alltime made threes.

record. Do you remember that? They're. like kind of forcing it. Steph was kind. of forcing it a little bit. Not as many. were falling. And whenever they they. literally had a tracker just on. Ovetchkin and he even when he was. sitting on the bench, I tried to watch. the game and it was just an Ovenkin. Ovetchkin cam and then the game cam and. I appreciated it because obviously I. love greatness and I love whenever. people make magic and whenever history. is broke and records that are seemingly. untouchable become touchable and become. like almost human. But it was the entire. focus of the NHL was seemingly on Oie.

breaking this record. And if you're a. teammate of his, you got to feel that. pressure too. do the puck. Not that you shouldn't be. getting him the puck, but I'm just. saying like we're in the middle of a. moment that's going to be remembered. forever. And I don't want to say the. attention gets taken away from the games. itself, but they definitely did. I mean, they're losing these games. Obie scoring. two goals and it's still like a happy. night for hockey fans cuz it's like O's. about to get there. This Capitals team. can win another cup this year. And since. they got this out of the way, what a. weight lifted off of their pads. What a. what a relief I assume uh to get it out.

of the conversation before the most. important part of the hockey season, which is obviously the playoffs. As you. see Bman out on the ice with old Wayneo. uh all the hockey greats obviously. celebrating. We'll talk to Mark Messier. uh in the next hour about it. It's just. like what a perfect dude for it and what. a perfect time for it. Good for hockey. Hockey is awesome. Now, not only hockey, not only college hoops, and we'll talk. NFL here in a matter of moments with Ian. Rapaort. But there's a uh there's a. sport that's called a pastime that might. be our new time. Baseball's happening.

Let's go to the talks of table at Boston. Corner and at Ty Schmidt. Ty Schmidt, baseball had an electrifying weekend. Is. that what I heard? Yeah, absolutely. There were uh five walk-offs yesterday. Five walk-off wins, which again, you. know, what? Yeah, massive. Massive. You're especially early on. First one we. got here, uh, Wilmer Flores walks off. the, uh, the Mariners for the the. Giants. A lot of people, you want to. talk about the the Dodgers, and. rightfully so. The Giants have only lost. one game this year. That NL West is.

absolutely ridiculous. So, you know, a. single, not not, you know, we're not. talking about a 800 ft walk-off homer, but anytime you're ending the game in. the last inning, it's it's, you know, it's absolutely phenomenal. Next one. here, Jonah for the Texas Rangers. They. walked off the Tampa Bay Rays in the. ninth inning. Same deal. Walk-off. single. The uh the Rangers, another one. of those teams not a lot of people talk. about, you know, they made it to a World. Series a couple years ago, 1-1. They. have the best record in the AL right.

now. So, uh we we when we stayed down uh. for the national championship, they're. brand new ballpark was right there. It's. beautiful. They got a fun team. Uh, and. then, you know, this is gonna make uh. this is gonna make Connor kind of come. back into the fray. Uh, Willard Abrau. with a walk-off single off the green. monster. This one was in the bottom of. the tenth. This was the first of a. dayight double header that the Red Sox. and the Cardinals played. So, again, you. know, we're not not a whole lot of.

walk-off bombs, um, which could be a. little bit more exciting. But then you. got, you know, something like this. the. Detroit Tigers. Spencer Torqulson, former number one pick, who's kind of. been trying to find his way and solidify. his place in the MLB. The Tigers scored. three runs in the bottom of the ninth to. walk off the White Socks. Uh, and I. mean, you just see, look at that. You. know, I don't know if they're throwing. like baby powder. That didn't really. look like water, but the Detroit Yeah, exactly. It's Detroit. The boys get. really juiced up. And then obviously the. last one. Uh, unfortunately, we knew.

this. Yep. We knew this was going to. happen when Roberto Clemente Jr.'s son. basically said like, "Hey, if you guys. don't put my dad's number back on the. outfield wall, uh, we're going to. disgrace and uh, ruin the Pirates." And. then like moments later, Tommy Fam uh, w. with a walk-off single to send home the. Yankees and salvage potentially getting. swept. So again, you know, we're not. talking about it's not like the torpedo. bats and we're not getting a bunch of. like the 500t home runs, but having five.

walk-off wins in one day pretty solid. for baseball when you got the ovetkin. stuff going on and the final four in the. national championship like baseball kind. of, you know, I'd say they held their. own this weekend when, you know, a lot. of the other sports had, you know, pretty pretty big storylines happening. Baseball hasn't sucked this year. I know. that. No, I'm I'm like very happy about. that. You know, I was talking to um. Michael Cole about it. Sure. And you. know, Cole loves baseball, but it's.

pretty simple is what it kind of bared. down to. When your stars perform Y, your. league's in a good spot. Like that. That. is any league. Like if you have stars. better. If your stars perform well, best. case situation. Baseball right now, there's stars. There's stars in New. York. There's stars in LA. They're stars. on small uh small market teams. Even the. bats have become stars, these torpedoes. And all of them are showing up. You. think about like Paul Skins, he shows. up. I think his next time pitching is on.

Tuesday. I think it's going to be. 38°. I think it's going to be I think. it's going to be 38 degrees or whatever, but he's going to show up. We know he's. going to show up. Show Otani. He's going. to show up just like whenever it's the. bottom of the ninth and it's a tie game. Show Otani is going to walk right into. the batters box and he's going to do his. thing. when you're start Aaron Judge is. going to show up. Juan Sodto, now I know. Yankees fans don't want to hear this and. I saw a cut of him playing out in the. outfield. I guess they say he doesn't. show up. They're not very fair to his, you know, his his defensive prowess, but.

at the dish, you're right. He is always. going to show up, but that's a big deal, I think, for your sport, you know, just. like the NHL stars. Alexander Ovuchkin. star showing up in a big way. Conor. McDavid obviously running through last. year's playoffs to get the Stanley Cup. and not winning shows up. You know, Kachchuck and the boys show like when. your stars are showing up for your. sport, I think you have a great sport. It's whenever your stars like kind of, you know, don't play or, you know, do. some things that make people hate them.

Like that is when I What's that? It's a. little tough. I I think I know what. sport you're going to, but it it it does. make the sport. I I you know when you. say those things maybe you weren't but. kind of a you know a light goes off in. your head like oh the NBA of course yeah. I think that I think that's what. everybody kind of all the stars are. showing up in the NBA the NBA had a. for the most part for the most part I. mean look a lot of people are talking. about OKC now last week you know OKC I.

heard Mike Greenberg talking about a. ball they're great they're one of the. best teams ever possibly one of the best. regular seasons of all time yes he did. he said the 85 Lakers said one of the. Lakers teams said the 96 fo then he said. the OKC Thunder cuz OKC Thunder's point. differential is over plus a thousand but. then the Lak show comes to town they go. to that tiny [ __ ] hole Oklahoma City and. oh guess what LeBron and Luca Donic are. doing no look passes all over the yard. and they beat the piss out of the. Thunder and I know if you're a Thunder.

fan you're going to say what we're going. to win 70 games then you guys are only. going to talk about when the Lakers come. to town and kill us that's kind of. unfair that's also not true cuz we. talked about when the Thunder beat. Celtics. So, I completely get that. But, no, basketball's also in a in a pretty. good spot, Pat. I mean, the the Western. Conference, we're talking about a playin. game, I I believe, happening this week, and those playin spots right now. I. mean, between the eight seed and the six. seed, I think there's half a game. difference between those teams. And some. of those teams are very legitimate. I.

know the Clippers are right on the edge. there. The T- Wolves and Ant right on. the edge as well. And then some of those. matchups already in the first round in. the West are incredible. We're we're. kind of moving towards the uh the. Warriors Lakers again, not so much the. 5-4 spot, but you know, 36 now. And then. the Nuggets Clippers, that would be. another incredible uh little matchup. there. And of course, OKC still still. very very well ahead of the pack. They. kind of locked in to that one seed. But. uh the basketball's heating up. And also.

on the East, you know, I have to say, yes, the Celtics covered a 19-point. spread last night. No big deal. 19. points. Who cares? We got it. Celtics. also broke the record for most. three-pointers in a single season. But, uh, look, this is Indiana, baby. This is. the state of basketball. The Pacers went. over to the Denver, you know, and who. knows if the altitude helped them. I. assume it did, but uh, they got a. massive victory over Joic and the boys. Russell Westbrook actually almost. murdered a kid on the uh on the court.

because he dove over trying trying to. get a loose ball. Uh gave the kid a. swift swift elbow to the jaw, but it. didn't really matter. Kid was a true. champion about it. He was unfaced. But. seriously, the Pacers, Halbertton, all. the boys, they're kind of playing their. best basketball at at the perfect time. Obviously, Denver's one of the better. teams in the league and they kind of. took care of business, especially in the. fourth where you thought, okay, here. comes Denver. Maybe, you know, the.

Pacers kind of let this one go. No. thanks. They hung on one by five. Uh, and if you are a Pacers fan right now, you are kind of getting that feeling of, you know, 2024 like last year, they got. very hot and, you know, the matchup. there, them versus the Bucks, the them. and the Bucks have had some bad blood. So, it would be a a fantastic time uh. for the NBA to have those kind of. matchups in this first round. Well, listen, I appreciate the breakdown.

there. Great work, Connor. Um, we've. been saying since the All-Star break. that the Pacers are the best team in the. NBA now. Were they? Maybe not. Maybe a. couple other teams up in there, but the. Pacers have been bowling. Tyresese. Hallebertton is on like a. record-breaking streak right now. Something like 200. Yeah, here it is. 201s, only 20 turnovers. Mogy Bogu's dog. is the only other person to do that. since 1983, 1984. Tyrese Hallebertton is. the man. And look at his perfect Puma. shoes. You know, he's so clever. Uh I. love everything that Tyrese is doing.

What a win against Denver. You go back. to that OKC game. ESPN research sent. over uh the Oklahoma City Thunder have. spent um all season long 12 minutes and. 17 seconds trailing by 20 plus all. season. And then against the Lakers, they spent 28 minutes and 54 seconds. trailing by 20 plus. So to talk about a. oneame anomaly and an ass beating of. this Oklahoma City team, the Lakers. certainly did that. And now is Lucas. still done for? Is he still a waste of a.

pick or are we okay with him now? So I. think he's good now. I think he's pretty. good. Saw that no look pass. It's. ridiculous. You're all right. I love. Austin Reeves and LeBron James talking. [ __ ] to each other afterwards in the. locker room. I mean I I really like how. this team has seemingly come together. I. like how. LeBron and I mean maybe I'm paying. attention to it more maybe because we're. a little bit closer to the whole. situation. Feels like since the LeBron. conversation, he is uh he's been a lot. more loose. Feels like him talking [ __ ]. to Austin Reeves, him talking on the. sideline, him chitchatting with.

reporters, him laughing, him I've really. enjoyed watching Braun since the LeBron. conversation. And I'm not saying. anything has changed, but I'm just. saying it feels like there is a vibe. shift for that Lakers team from my. perspective whenever we watch him. I. think they're not I think they're. likable. What happened with Dallas with. Luca? Obviously Braun for what he did. for us, we like him. Austin Reeves. talking his [ __ ] and doing his thing, dressing the way he's dressing. It's. like JJ Reic is is an animal. It's it's. a likable team somehow in LA. And uh. yeah, we'll continue to cover the NBA.

season. We're lucky to be doing it. Shout out to the NBA performing and once. again stars showing up. That's a big. deal. Joining us now is a star from NFL. Network, senior insider for the NFL, friend of the program, ladies and. gentlemen, Ian Rapaore. What's up, Rappy? Thank you for joining us. Bob, I. know you're super busy. Uh, we just. talked about all the other sports that. are happening. What's the big news. around the NFL? Shador and the Titans. cancing their workout. That feels like. that's the big news. A couple. retirements. What is the big NFL news of.

the day here, Rapshi? It it kind of. feels like the Shador thing, right? So, obviously on Friday, Colorado had its. showcase, not a pro day, but a showcase, which it was awesome. I think it was. pretty awesome. I would agree with that. Yellow scouts. Dion yelling at scouts. telling them, "Hey, you don't tell my. guys how to run a quarter. Okay, you you. just got here. Get the hell out of the. way." I think Shador did a great job. I. think Travis ran some great routes with. no gloves on his hands. I feel like it. was a win for everybody at the showcase.

Go ahead. Yeah. No. Well, there's a lot. on Travis Hunter and I want to get to. that in a second cuz him deciding to run. routes but not doing DB drills is. interesting, but hold that for one. second. Um, the Shador Shador Sanders. look good. Uh, and if you're someone who. wants to draft him at two or three or. early, you saw enough where you're like, all right, like obviously the talent is. there. The arm strength is I don't know. who said he couldn't throw deep. They. were all angry about somebody saying. that. I have not yet found the culprit.

of such accusations. Um but he has. proved that that is not the case. U and. then you know you sort of get word that. the Titans mutually canled a visit with. Shadore. Um which I would say to me. makes sense because it looks like the. Titans are going in one direction. They. haven't officially confirmed or. announced but it looks like they're. going in one direction which would be to. select Cam Ward at number one. And then. if that's the case, then I'm not sure. what the point of a shador workout. anyway is, especially when it worked out.

for the whole world like three days. before. So that makes sense. But in the. context of like giving us an idea for. what the Titans want to do, I think. that's why it kind of stood out to. everyone as maybe the biggest news of. this weekend. Cam Ward going number one. to the Tennessee Titans, seemingly. signed, sealed, delivered. Uh big convo. around NFL players was Shadore Patton. the ball. you know, patting the ball. Obviously, that is fun on the internet. And if you follow the internet, a lot of.

things are going to become storylines. Darius Sllayton in there, Mike in there, numerous others chitchatting about. Shadore. And that is kind of what. Shadore is. He is a lightning rod. Anything he does, people are going to. talk about. He actually said that in the. press conference. He goes, "Uh, anywhere. I go, there's a spotlight. I've been. kind of followed through it all." Uh, and Andre Cisco says, "Boy, better stop. that ball. We breaking on it.". Come on. And uh I like the way he types. out his words. I appreciate that. Then. Darius Sllayton of the Giants. Okay. Potential teammate here of Shadore. I.

promise he can pat the ball me just. fine. Okay. He throws me 15 20 balls a. game. There's going to be no problem if. he's patting it before it leaves his. hand. But him Shador even mentioned it. like everything he does gets followed. Everything he does get clicks. I mean. he's got people talking about his pro. day and whether or not he's patting the. ball. I just saw a video of Drake May. working out. I think he patted the ball. a couple times. I think a N I think. Aaron even every once in a while will do. that. But is he doing as much as Shadore. is doing it? You know, like this is like.

Shador Sanders football. Teams know that. they're signing up for a lot of. attention. Teams know they're signing up. for, you know, all eyes on their brand. What do you think happens with Shador. after the proday? And what do you think. he I don't want to say kind of earned. after his proday or what is the combo. about him? I thought he looked good. While I was watching the pro day, I. actually thought to myself like, you. know, they say open competition at. quarterback here in Indianapolis. I. mean, why don't we uh why just I like. the way he looked at the pro day. But. what is the kind of the convo now with.

him? Well, a couple things. Uh I would. agree with what Shador said afterward, and he's talked about this publicly. before, like he is in the spotlight. everything he does, no matter what, more. than any other draft pro. It's not like. unprecedented. There's a couple of these. draft prospects every year, but it does. seem because of his last name that it's. ramped up a little bit. So, I want to. tell you guys a quick Shadore Sanders. story, and I I mentioned this during our. combine coverage on NFL Network. So, the. leadup to the combine, I was trying to. figure out what Shadore was going to do.

at the combine. Was he going to throw. there or was he going to wait for his. proday? So, I contact someone who kind. of works with the Sanders family and I. say, uh, you know, who's the point, man? Like, he doesn't have an agent. who's. kind of the person that media talks to. so I could figure out if he's throwing. And the response I get is coach will. contact you directly. And I'm like, coach. Okay. Well, there's not that many. coaches. I'm like, would probably be. Dion, but that's kind of strange, but. okay. 5 minutes later, I get a FaceTime. from a number I don't recognize. I.

answer it, obviously. Deion Sanders. Uh, which was fun cuz I had my kids in the. car and they got a big kick out of Deion. Sanders facetiming. Um, oh, Dan's. famous. He's got Coach Prime calling. By the way, Max then told people at. school and they were like, "Yeah, sure, Max.". Pretty funny. Um, but anyway, so he's. like, you know, what do you like, what's. going on, rap, what do you need? And I'm. like, I want to know what Shador is. doing. He goes, hold on one second. Gives the phone to Shador and he goes, talk to Rap Sheet. And so we talked,

told me what he was doing, told me why, explained the plan, and talked about a. couple other things that he was focusing. on the next couple weeks. Hands the. phone back to his dad, and he was like, "You good?" I was like, I'm good. And it. was just an. unbelievably mature, levelheaded, grounded way of handling what could have. been a huge issue, but like Dion wanted. to make sure that Shador handled it. himself. And I was like, this is not. normal. And so, like, whatever comes at. him, like this is someone who really is.

trained to handle all of it. And I was. pretty impressed by that. Yeah. And. there's a lot of people bringing up, you. know, well, how many wins did they have. in Colorado and yada yada yada? And it's. like they they literally rebuilt a. program over there. Like they And now. granted, did they have a reality TV show. happening at the same time via social. media? Yes. Did they have a documentary. happening at the same time? Yes. Coach. Prime, is he one of one? Yes. There's. like a lot of outliers. Travis Hunter, Heisman winner, obviously might be the. number two overall pick, which is what. everybody's saying. It's like that. certainly helps, but they had to rebuild.

an entire program. His toughness. obviously shine physically and mentally. It's just whether or not Shadore is the. guy for your team, I guess, comes down. to a couple people enjoying his. personality. Is that kind of what it is. now? Like because that was like a little. bit of a chat or what do you think it is. at this point? And it might have been. Orlavski that they were getting mad. about saying because Orlavski said he. wanted to see him step on one. Of. course, that's what he want. He said he. wanted to see the ball come out of. Shador. Remember that he said that on. our want see pop pop out of his hands.

He said he wants to see the ball come. out of his hands and he wants to see him. like step on one, really drive one, you. know, like Orlovski said that. So, I. don't think he was saying he didn't. believe it. I think he was just saying. 55% of Shador's passes in college were. within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. He wanted to see him open it because Dan. Olowski is super, you know, analyst, you. know, super analyst. So, like I I think. that's what Olavski said. But I do. appreciate if they got pissed off about. it. Could have been others, but like is. that what it is? Is it like are you. ready for like kind of everything else.

that comes with it that teams are trying. to figure out or is it whether or not. teams are trying to figure out they want. a quarterback early still? Well, I there. are teams that need a quarterback no. matter what. Like the Browns need. another one from somewhere. The Giants. don't need another one because they. signed Russell Wilson, but they don't. have a quarterback of the future. They. could definitely have one. There's. there's plenty of others. It's really. just is it worth the selection, right? or or or like if you take Shador Sanders. and you you let's say you think he's a. mid-irst first round pick. Let's just.

say pick out a random evaluation. Let's. say you think that but you take him at. two or three or six or wherever the. Saints pick or whatever it is like is. that a reach or is that worth it? And. are you passing on a generational talent. like let's just say Travis Hunter? I. mean these are the conversations about. the value and what it's worth. Um, I. don't think it's like like as far as the. personality goes, there's a lot that. goes into drafting a quarterback. And. I'm now I think going into my 13th year.

doing it. And I really have no idea what. differentiates a great quarterback. prospect who's going to succeed and one. who does not. Like I it's been and. obviously like team there's a lot of. bus, brother. There's a lot of bus. Nobody's there's a lot of bus. Yeah, agreed. You got to figure out the mental. makeup. That's why you would think a guy. who's been a professional since he was a. child would be good. But nonetheless, let's let's move past Shador. Let's move. past Cam Ward. Let's move past Travis. Hunter. There's been some news about.

somebody attending the draft. Debut has. a question for you. Yeah, you're talking. about these quarterbacks coming out. We. pretty much uh got a good grip on who's. going to be the top two, but what are. you hearing as far as Jackson Dart? Then. Jaylen Miro taking the invite, accepting. the invite to go to the draft in Green. Bay. I know Green Bay, I know that. surprised some people. What are you. hearing about his stock as well as the. draft gets closer? Uh uh so first of all. on on Milro uh I have not confirmed. anything about a draft invite. Uh and at.

Network that is those will get announced. when they get announced. Um whoa. Oh no. Yeah. Here we go. We got a little. source off. All right. I will not I will. not confirm. I mean it makes sense but I. will not I do not touch them. Does it? Those will get announced. Um, okay. If a. player if a player gets invited, let's. just say if a player gets invited, it. doesn't necessarily mean that they're. going in the first round. It means. plenty of teams view him as a. firstrounder or whatever it is, right?

Like cuz every year there are players. who get invited and then don't get taken. in the first round. You said, "Oh, well, this is a first round pick, but this. other guy fell to me. I'm going to take. him instead." And a guy falls falls out. of the draft. So, like it was. interesting to me when I saw the report. I don't necessarily know that that means. Jaylen Milro is definitely going to the. first round, but it does seem to mean. that he's in that conversation, which. like like you're saying, Debbut, does. that make us kind of go like, all right, hang on. Like, is he in contention to be.

the third quarterback taken? Sounds like. he is. So, it' be like Jackson Dart who. could potentially be the third. You have. Jaylen Milro, you have Quinn your like. the evaluations are all over the all. over the map. And that's why like I was. I was not surprised when I saw the. report, but I was like, "All right, like. this really is more all over than I even. realized." And was going to lead to an. unbelievably wild first and maybe second. round of this draft. Yeah, the draft. spectacular should be just that. And you.

know, maybe we'll see you out there in. Green Bay cuz all branches, which are. happening all over the place, I would. like to say in my life, even though you. know, some happening sooner than later. Uh but yeah, draft night should be. incredible. And the reason why the. college conversation about quarterbacks. coming into the draft is so big is. because what is the veteran quarterback. market? Well, it's kind of already. settled in a little bit except for one. guy. AP Tone has a question for you, Raph. Yeah, Ian. A um a local Pittsburgh. Steelers accumulator account took your.

video from this morning on the latest on. Aaron Rogers and said that you said if. Aaron Rogers is going to play in 2025, it's going to be for the Pittsburgh. Steelers. So, does that mean um things. have changed where the Vikings are now. 100% out instead of 99% out or what what. what's the latest on Aaron? Um I I appreciate that. Um I would say. the Vikings are as out as they could be. right now. Like if Aaron is not signed. by like August and something terrible.

happens to either the Vikings or someone. else, he would be the top guy available. by a lot. I think Ryan Tanhill was in. the situation last year. Tan Hill ended. up not signing and kind of that's where. it stays. Um, well, I don't I would be. very surprised if Rogers waited till. after the draft. I'd be very surprised. if it wasn't the Steelers if he plays. What I have not 100% been able to nail. down is is he absolutely definitely. playing. And I think that's why this.

conversation is sort of still ongoing. Plus, like as you guys know, unless I am. inside and Kyle Brand actually asked me. a great question on Good Morning. Football was like, "How do you report on. Aaron Rogers because his circle is so. tight?" And it's like the you do it by. sticking to what you absolutely know. And so like what I think about Rogers, what he's doing isn't really as. meaningful as what I know. And what I. know is he had a good visit to the. Steelers. And what I know is that he has. not signed yet. That's basically it. And.

so that's kind of why I said what I. said. I still believe that it's probably. headed in that direction, which is what. Art Rooney said. But until Rogers comes. out and says it in whatever form, in. whatever show or format broadcast rap, why don't you rap, why don't you give. Aaron some opinions or your advice? Why. don't you do that? I'm sure that'll work. out too. You know, you talk about. knowing or opin opining on upon. Why. don't you tell him like exactly what you. think he should do? Go on. You think. he's watching right now? Probably, right? No, but a clip will get to him.

for sure. He He might be Yeah, he's not. watching right now, but the clip will. make it to him. Not from us, but from. somebody, I would assume. Why don't you. just tell him? Tell him what you think. he should do. Tell him exactly how he. should handle, you know, his career, his. legacy, his You really want I have. opinions. Do you want to know my. opinions? Yeah. Yeah. Quickly, cuz we. got to get to Jay Will the national. championship here soon. But yeah, what. what are your opinions? You think you. should go to Pittsburgh? You think you. should sign with Pittsburgh? You think. they should have a hell of a team next. year and go on a run? Take as much time.

as you need talking about it on TV. Okay. All. right. Complete opposite. That's a good. play. That's a good play. All right. Last questions here coming from the. toxic table back to back. Uh go ahead, boys. Hey, Rap sheet. We had Trey. Hendrickson on the show last week and he. basically just said like he was kind of. surprised by Katie Blackburn's comments. He thought it was like a April Fool's. joke essentially about her saying, "Hey, like he at some point he just needs to. be happy with what we offer him." Do we. see there being any kind of resolution. with this uh in this in like the near.

future? Like is it is there a potential. that something's going to happen before. the draft whether he gets a deal or he. gets traded? Uh first of all, great. interview. I thought that whole thing. was like very very compelling and. excellent. Um thank you. Thank you. Uh. it got weird. Not not your interview, but the the hearing Katie Blackburn, who. really does media, say that was was. really interesting. I mean, I was like I. kind of thought the same thing. Not. April Fools. I hate April Fools, but. like I was like, "Wow." Um, look, it's.

it's been a little spicy. There's been. two trade requests, one last year, one. this year. This year actually has. permission, but no trade has happened. So, like, yeah, it's a little messy. I. believe the Bengals would like to keep. him and pay him and make it work. They. are not in the business of letting good. players go. So, even when they granted. him permission to seek a trade, I. believe their best option was to sign. him and pay him. We'll see if that. happens. I still think it is very very. possible. And if that happens, despite. all the mess, it'll be a really, really.

good offseason in Cincinnati. Absolutely. And uh you know, Kelsey. Conway, incredible reporting there with. Katie Blackburn over in Cincinnati. Trey. Hendrickson seemingly does love the. Bengals and he said he was told last. offseason that they'll get a deal done. this off season and he understands Jamar. Chase, T. Higgins got to do what they. got to do. But I think he's like, "You. guys are telling people that you're. going to get a deal done. You told me. you're going to get a deal done and then. we haven't even talked." So, I don't. know how that works out. Hopefully, it.

does work out cuz Cincinnati has a stud. sack. King, last question here from. Boston, Conor. Yeah, Rav Sheet. Another. guy who's kind of been floated out. there. It's being traded. Tyreek Hill. Uh, what's going on in Miami with him? Is there a chance he actually does get. moved again or are they probably going. to come to some sort of agreement? because I believe it was Mike McDaniel. who said last week at the league. meetings like, "Hey, Tyreek's been in. the uh facility more than any other. offseason uh this year." Yeah, I saw he.

posted something where it was like. mimicking a phone call. Then it was. like, "Yeah, this one." And I'm like, "Are we still doing this?" I would not. be nothing that would happen in the NFL. ever, ever, ever. Got to make your bed. before you make you do this social. media. I mean, you just got to make your. bed. I'm just saying. You know what I'm saying? Like at least. like do the thing where you fold over. and like the pillows are there. Whatever. I'm a big bed maker. I make my. bed every day. Yeah. I bet you do. Yeah.

Yeah. I bet I bet it's definitely you. Yeah. Does everything for you. We No. No. We know. No. I No. I fold the. laundry and I make the bed every day. That's it. I have very few other chores, but that's what I do. She's If it were a. little close never be made. It's. ridiculous. Mess. Okay. Nonetheless, nonetheless, I appreciate the fact that. you're watching this just going, "What. is this about? I thought we were already. past this and now we're potentially. right back in it and he needs to make. his bed in the hotel that he's in.". Yeah. I mean, that's basically sums up.

my thoughts. Like, I would never say. never on anything. Um, I would be. surprised. And also, make your bet. All right. Hey, we appreciate the hell. out of you, man. Thank you for keeping. us updated. You're the man, ladies and. gentlemen. Ian Rapaort. [Music]. So, not a lot happening in the NFL right. now. Julio Jones announces his. retirement. Congratulations, Julio on a. hell of a run. You know, Coach Sabin uh came on the. show and talked about how Julio reset. the standard basically at Alabama. Told.

people like, "Hey, that's not how we do. it around here." Everybody that talks. about him says how great of a teammate. he was, how great of a leader he was. Obviously, he is a guy that is built. differently than everybody else. could. have one of the greatest catches in the. history of football, but his team gave. up the biggest lead uh in the history of. the Super Bowl. So, whenever you talk. about Julio Jones, you talk about a. physical specimen that changed games. that everybody loved. And uh I. appreciated the fact that he was just so. damn dominating and 2011 got to see it. up close and personal. And uh I don't.

know how he caught that. Still to this. day, I have no idea how he caught that. Uh AB right there on the coverage. Great. work out of him. And I do appreciate. that throwback YouTube decided to have. Colts highlights on here and uh that was. the one we went with. But yeah, watched. him go bonkers one day in Lucas Oil. Stadium. Uh Debbuck, he was different, man. He was just a different athlete. You could obviously speak to that more. than anybody else. Yeah, he was a. different dog. He was absolute the. epitome of a game record. like his size,

you know, whatever the Falcons, I. remember they traded a bunch to jump up. in the draft and go and get him early in. the draft, but his size, speed, quickness, combination. Then you can see. here his ball skills, uh, actually being. able to go up and catch that ball. So, week in and week out, he's a game. record. I believe the most games for a. wide receiver over 250 yards, an. ultimate separator, an ultimate game. breaker, and then a great guy, a great. character guy in the locker room and and. off the field. He never really caused. any any problems or real big concerns. off the field for his team uh teams that.

he played for in the NFL. But uh yeah, Julio Jones, he's right there in the top. tier of wide receivers when it's all. said and done. And we know how tough it. is, you know, when you start getting the. Hall of Fame conversation with wide. receivers especially, he will definitely. be in there and it'll be a conversation. about if he get it see first ballot or. not. But uh congratulations to Julio. Jones on a phenomenal career. What was the platform he announced it. on? Great question. Something with an S. Something I never heard heard. Squad.

Squad. Squad. Maybe is that what it was? Whatever the case, if he's a part owner. of that, congrats to him doing it his. way legitimately. Okay, let's pivot away. from the NFL. Let's go to the national. championship happening tonight. Joining. us now, national champion, Duke legend, obviously a host of college game day uh. basketball version and all over ESPN. during basketball season. Ladies and. gentlemen, front of the program, Jay. Will. Yeah. Yeah. What's up, boys? What's up, boys? I missed you guys. Hey, I know you have a big production meeting. that's currently happening, and the fact.

that you're missing it to chitchat with. us, we are grateful for. Big day for. college hoops. Let's talk about it. Your. Duke Blue Devils had it. Your Duke Blue. Devils had it. And I know Cooper Flag. couldn't buy a damn bounce at the end. I. mean, his last shot wasn't his best. shot, but before that, we're talking. about out. We're talking about bank. shots out. It felt like the tide turned. the basketball gods blessed Houston, but. that's because their great defense and. obviously been on top of it. What are. your thoughts on the Houston comeback. win? And how do you describe it? Because.

a lot of people were saying Duke choked. it away. I think Houston won it. What. are your thoughts on it all, Jay? My. first thoughts are I was on the court. before the game and I saw the referees. and I I tried to hand them something. I. was like, "Hey, maybe I should offer. more." Oh jeez. Maybe I should offer. more, PM. That's you know, that's uh. that's the first [ __ ] up on my part. Uh. but lesson learned. Lesson learned going. on next time around. Um, you know what. is crazy about it? The the one worry and. I'm talking subjectively to you guys. because you guys are my boys, right?

Like and obviously I could do the whole. objective thing and like break down. basketball. We all know. Um, I was. worried about my squad not having real. game pressure experience. And like PM, all you guys know this, like there have. been moments in games where we have all. gotten tight as hell, like really tight. And if you don't have real game pressure. experience over the course of the. season, all of a sudden to be on this. stage with 55,000 people, everybody.

going wild to like they they didn't. throw inbound passes, they tried to. place the passes, right? And all those. are little things of like a a young team. with a young finish or a lack of. experience. And Houston just has dogs, man, that stayed in it that didn't quit. Cooper's still dope. He's still great. You wish he would have made the shot. That would have immortalized him. I. still think he's on some of the greatest. players to ever play at Duke. But man, it was just I was sick. I I literally I. was with Ken Jong the whole time. We.

were both sick the whole game watching. it. Dr. Ken Jong obviously massive Duke fan. Coach Kay was in the building for it. all. I saw him walking through the back. and this Duke team was supposed to be. unstoppable and it felt like they were. going to be that way and Kelvin Samson. and the boys just so much grit and I. can't help but respect the hell out of. it. They're taking on a Florida team. that might have one of the best college. hoopers uh what the last 10 years of. Walter Clayton Jr. This guy makes shots. whenever he has to. Took over the game.

late against Auburn in the final four. does something that hasn't been done. since Larry Bird did it. What are your. thoughts on this Florida team? And are. they gonna be able to handle Houston's. pressure? Kelvin Samson's doggness that. Houston has. Look at that life. You see. that? Ah, pretty. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, "Yeah, I. I I said I said this uh a couple of days. ago with my friends and like once again. like you always got to put this caveat. cuz people start running away with. things like I'm not saying he is these. two players and their pinnacle cuz these.

two players are the best players in the. league. His game reminds me of elements. of what they have. Think about a. marriage on the college version of Steph. Curry and Dame, right? Like there's a. shiftiness that he has. uh he can move, he gets his shot off and. also like he does we were talking about. Steph the other day. He just does [ __ ]. on the court where you're like that's. how did you do that like or why did you. try that you know and he has a lot of. that to him and I he's on a Kimble.

Walker-l like run better though his. numbers are better than what Kimble. Walker did in 2011 where he took them. through the Big East and then obviously. to a national championship and what. Houston has to do PM is look anybody can. beat you but this dude this is the one. cat get the ball out of his hands blitz. him on every ball screen and Houston has. the dogs and the discipline mentality. wise to stay in his pocket. Like you. keep your cash in your pocket like they. have to stay in his pocket like that 24. cuz you can't allow him to get a breath. cuz he just pops off for like 10 15.

points out of nowhere. If they can do. that and they can have a good offensive. game, they have a legit chance to win. But if they can't, Florida's going to. walk away with it. Yeah. And the. question about the Duke Houston game was. if the ref is calling it tight, it'll be. for Duke. If it's not, you know, it'll. go for Houston, which is kind of like. the way you talked about it. And then. Cooper flag gets called for the biggest. foul of the entire game. Interesting. little dynamic there. With that being. said, uh, Debut has a question about. that Houston tactics. Yeah, we're going.

to talk obviously big match up to come. down to them, but how abnormal, you've. been around the college game, you know, forever now. How abnormal is Kelvin. Samson's approach and his practices? We. we've seen some clips of his practices. We've seen pictures of the team. Damn, they look like a football team. They're. mile. Uh, you know how fast they all run. the mile. Like, how abnormal is that. from what's typical on the in the. college realm? Damn D, I don't know if. I've been around forever. You make me. feel like I'm over here like Benjamin. Button, man. We on status right now.

Okay, I'll be OG status. You like uh. I'll tell yo you know what it is. I uh. in in a day and age in which everybody's. getting paid like All right, the story. about he told about Joan Roberts. I love. this [ __ ] so much, man. It's so. obviously he's he's not a good free. throw shooter, right? And he told him. that last year, every day throughout the. summer, we have to make 150 free throws. daily. 150. And I don't know if you guys. caught it. If you guys got video of the.

free throws that he made, like you're. talking about a 55% free throw shooter. Like I was above that and I was tight. when I went to the free throw line with. the way my college career ended. When. this dude made the first one, here's a. sign of a bad free throw shooter. Even. at that mark, like you make it, you you. still trying to take a second back like. you're nervous. This dude when he made. the first free throw, he told everybody, "Yo, calm down. Calm down." I'm like, "What? Bad free throw shooters don't do. that type of shit." They don't tell. everybody else to calm down. You're the. one telling them, "Yo, calm down. You.

got this." He's telling And that's a. that's how Kelvin Samson gets these. dudes. He um there's some real life. He. talk about being born in the 50s and. dealing with like racism and real. things. Like there's real life. experience and and dog that he brings to. the table that I I'm glad to see has. risen to the ultimate platform of the. national championship game. I appreciate. their practices just as football people. watching those videos of how they kind. of go about it. There has to be a mental. toughness that is built up and obviously.

it showed up in the final four. Will it. show up in the national championship? We. shall see. Let's talk about that Duke. team a little bit more. Connor has a. question for you. Yeah, Jay. Well, obviously there's been some fodder. around Duke, you know, in the last 10. years with Coach Kay and John Sh and. just not being able to kind of win in. the final four and they ranked him. against all the other teams that have. With that being said, do you think the. way Cooper flag is, the way, you know, his relationship is with John Shy, just. kind of the bond that this Duke team. seems to have, do you see a reality.

where any of those guys come back? Or do. you think this is a lot of oneandd on. this team? Or do you think maybe, you. know what, Cooper Flag still going to be. the number one pick next year? Washington sucks. Who wants to go there? Maybe we just run it back and hang out. and, you know, kind of do this whole. thing again and maybe get the job done. I mean, as much as I wish that was the. case, I I I I just can't see it. I mean, first off, any team that's going to be. up in the lottery is going to suck. Yeah. Right. I mean, that's how they're.

in the lottery. And ever since they put. in the salary cap, it's hard for me to. tell anybody not to come out cuz I just. economically, right? See, I Yo, how soon. can you get to your next contract? Mhm. Do you get like think for Cooper flag, think about how many max contracts he. can get. So many, right? So if you're. getting to your next contract, three. years, fourth year team option, he's. going to be 22. And if you sign another. four-year contract, you're going to be. 26. You sign another max contract, you'll be 30. You'll be in your prime.

You could probably sign, you could sign. four max contracts. So like I I'm trying. to start that that process as soon as. possible. And you know, if that means. I'm in Utah, that means I'm in. Washington. We've all seen this before. with Eli Mann and like you could try to. force different things. That's why you. have an agent. He has CIA boy. Shout out. to my boy Vino. He probably could do. some of the best things they could do. with it. Um and that's what you have to. do. I I don't see anybody coming back. Damn. Shout out. Shout out Bino. Shout out the.

best. He's the best. We say that too in. football. If you especially if you're. projected to be the number one overall, like let's go ahead and do that. Uh. hell hell yeah. an NBA question yours. coming out right now. Let's go. We got Monday Night. All right. Uh Tone has a question for. you about the NBA before we get out of. here. Hell yeah. Yeah, Jay. Well, when.

you were on last week, what up, Keith? What up? When you were on last week, we. uh we talked about the Lakers demise cuz. Luca went 0 for six and he can't play. defense. Well, guess what? They just. blew out OKC. So, is is OKC dead? Are. the Lakers going to win a championship? Now, what what realistically cuz a lot. of people were talking about OKC and the. Cavs cuz they, you know, they were the. best number one seeds in both, but now. they're kind of, you know, after that. loss to the Lakers and the and the Cavs, I believe, are six and six in the last. 12. Are you worried about those teams at. all or is that just one loss? No, man. I. mean, it's the same thing I said the.

other day with the Lakers, right? I was. like, yo, man, like Luca, obviously, I. know who he is defensively. I just said, "Look, if he's going to be marginal. defensively, he has to be prolific. offensively to give him the best chance. to win, right?" Most people like, "Oh, you're jumping off the bandwagon." I'm. like, "Come on, man. We just talking. real basketball here." The dude was. prolific the other night. The dude had. 22 points in the first half. And I I. highly doubt OKC is going to keep. switching. Poor Hartinstein. Remember. that moment I told you guys about the. other day when I was guarding White. Chocolate? I was like, "That's a real. Jason Williams. He had so many. possessions defensively like that [ __ ].

where he was just on an island by. himself." But this is who the Lakers are. when they make shots. They shot 63% in. the first half. They're they're killers. Now, I don't think they're going to. shoot 63%, you know, for the whole game. from the field if they were going. against OKC. And also, guys, like OKC is. kind of in cruise control a little bit. here. Like, they got number one seed. locked up. They're not stressing, but. still like this shows you the ceiling. for the Lakers. So, I I'm not concerned. about OKC, but I like seeing Luca play.

this way offensively down the stretch. going into the playoffs. Thank you, Jay. Will Pat Fro, so we got to get him back, but we're coming up on a hard out. We. appreciate you, man. Hell yeah, J. See you guys. We will be back in three. Come on back. Hi, how's it going? My name is Pat McY. Used to hold for Adam Benitary. Now I'm. in his home state. College game day is. absolutely electric and. Brookings.

[Applause]. South. College Game Day has made the. voyage to Brooking, South Dakota to. experience a game with the best fans in. college. [Applause]. football. I unfortunately cannot attend. because I have a game this Sunday. So, I. sent a man I trust to make my picks. A. man who was my holder for almost a. decade. Please be nice to him. Welcome.

this week's celebrity guest picker, Pat. McAfee. Now, go big, go blue, go. Jacking Auburn. Yes, everybody saw this. The best fake punt in the world. What do. you think, Pat? I absolutely loved it. all the way up until execution time. That is not one we like to show in the. brand headquarters and fighting and. kicking world. Oh, dance off. Let's get. weird. Yes. Duck that. Huh? Bang. Right. off the top of the dome. That makes it a.

lot easier when you got a dummy standing. right in front of you like that. Running. Running. He's Oh, Daniel Russo. Wax on. Wax off. Knees to. the face. Serious. Go. Go. Yes.

But I'm going trade. Please excuse my dumb friend Kirk. [Applause]. Look at this crowd. They've been out. here since 400 a.m. When college game. day comes to town, they lose their mind. The population of this state is about.

800,000. And when the Jack Rabbits take. the field, they're alongside all 800,000. South. Dakota. The Dakota was in Fargo for far. too long. Today 5:00 local time, the. Dakota marker is back in. beautiful South. Dakota and Terry School. They might be. the Jets, but they're the goats today, ladies and gentlemen. South Dakota State.

with the. [Applause]. win. Give me that person. No, don't do. that. No, no, please leave. The following program is a collection of. students talking about happenings in the. sports world. It is meant to be comedic. informative. The opinions expressed on. this show do not necessarily reflect the. beliefs of their peers, their boss, or.

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Damn it. Your friend, tell a friend. something nice could change their life. [Applause]. [Music]. Hello, beautiful people and welcome to. our humble little program on this. national championship Monday, April 7th, 2025. Hour two of the program starts. now. sports. are happening in a massive way and uh.

we're so lucky that we get to talk about. them mostly uh every single day. We'll. be off uh the rest of the week after. today. Obviously, the Masters Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, big night, Wednesday night, uh 8:00 p.m. Eastern on. YouTube, Tik Tok Live, and X Reair on. Hulu with behind thescenes footage on. Thursday, April 10th, and then obviously. tonight, the national championship. between Houston in Florida is going to.

be exhilarating and magical as somebody. tries to chase a shining moment. Kelvin. Samson, an absolute dog with a team that. is gritty and it came back from six with. less than a minute left in the final. four against Duke taking on Todd Golden. and the Florida Gator and Walter Clayton. Jr. who is, you know, he's a mix of. Steph Curry and uh Tyrese Hallebertton. and Luca Don and everything good. basically in this basketball world.

We'll talk to Seth Greenberg here in a. matter of moments to chitchat about. tonight even more after our convo with. Jay Will. He looks super cool. Uh. obviously he was heartbroken because of. what happened with Duke. And then we'll. talk to Mark Messier at the tail end of. this particular hour to chitchat about. the great eights chase and inevitably. catching of Wayne Gretzky's goalc. scoring record that nobody thought would. be broken this past weekend in New York. on Long Island. It's a beautiful time in. sport. Uh the toxic tables here at. Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt boys,

how you doing? Start with Yukon man. Sweet shirt today, pal. Yeah, thank you. very much. Uh it's a Red Sox shirt. Everyone here knows, you know, I'm in it. for all 162. I've been a baseball guy. since day one. I I love baseball, but I. am all in on the Red Sox. Last night, Sunday Night Baseball, Tai mentioned the. walk-off in the first game of the double. header. The second game, I mean, the Red. Sox socks scored 18 runs. I I don't. know. Is that entertaining? Yeah, it is. Not to mention, they had a pitcher get. called up. Hunter Dobbins in his first.

ever uh major league start. And you. know, the camera kept cutting to his. parents. His mother and dad were in the. crowd. She was crying after his first. career strikeout. It was just a full. spectacle of baseball. But yeah, I'm a. baseball guy now. You know, this is me. This is the life I live. I'm going to. start carrying around a bat and a glove. and, you know, just probably have a. bunch of catches with all the boys who. love baseball just like me. So, Sunday Night Baseball was a good. watch last night, you're saying? Yeah, it was great. Uh, Ravi and the lads uh. crushed it in the booth and they are.

still doing the cool like mic up the. outfielder while he's out there. They. actually had the guy miked up during one. of the Red Sox massive innings. So, it. lasted like a half hour. This guy was in. the field talking. He actually turned. out he got like two or three uh kind of. like grounders to right field, a couple. singles that he had to rally while being. miked up. Devers is coming alive. And. Bregman, um the guy who came over from.

the Houston Astros, and may I add there, I can't confirm Bregman was not part of. the cheating that went on in Houston. He. never did anything. No garbage cans. No, he didn't do any of the garbage cans. The boys asked him, "Hey, do you want. the garbage cans?" He said, "No, no. I'm. an honorable man. I play baseball the. right way. He's still great." He hit a. moonshot to center field. Actually, huge. for the people who bet on him to hit a. home run, which some which some of us. did. So, uh, so Socks back hopefully. hopefully the Yankees uh, in the Socks.

That rivalry heats up. Going to need. Jiren Durant to use his frugal language. a couple times at the Yankees perhaps. And also going to need maybe a couple. guys to get beamed in the head. Judge, you know, I'm putting the hit out on. Judge. We're going to need that to. happen. I don't care. Middle finger fast. balls that Aaron Judge's head. Yeah. Middle of the back. Yeah, sure. Head uh. calf. You know, let's get this guy where. it hurts. Jazz chisel him. Hope you're. wearing knee guards, buddy, cuz you're. getting a fast ball to the kneecap. Cuz.

Yankees pitch. You're saying you want. this to get a little heated, huh? Yeah. Yeah. We need it. It'd be the best thing. for baseball. I think everybody would. agree Yankees Red Sox is one of the best. rivalries in sports baseball especially. So if they were to get, you know, maybe. a Pedro Martinez, you know, DZ situation. where the oldest fattest man in the. Yankees dugout runs out in a, you know, benches clearing brawl. We can have. Raphael Devers, who's just dhing now,

maybe hit him with some sweet chin. music. you know, maybe a uppercut to the. gut of one of these fatsos that works. for the Yankees. It feels like that. rivalry can kind of be back early in the. season for all that to happen would be. pretty wild if that's how they treated. game 11 of a 162 game seasons. Baseball. is doing it and uh I think it's good for. our program. I got a text from Michael. Cole just a few moments ago. You guys. really talking baseball. Ty, you've been. wanting this for a long time. I don't. know how long it'll last, but it feels.

like we are a little bit of a baseball. program right now. Yeah, I mean it's one. of those things where like especially. right now, I don't know, maybe it's just. recency bias because it's going on right. now, but it seems like stuff in the. football world has has kind of like. slowed to a stop. Maybe it's cuz free. agency wrapped up so quick and like this. year with the draft, it seems like. outside of Shador Sanders, like there. aren't as many question marks in the. past. So like in years past like when. the baseball season starts we may. mention it but it kind of it just.

whimpers away because then we have so. much to talk about with football and. everything there are still guys out. there but like you said like when the. stars are actually performing and for. the most part like guys like show and. Judge and Sodto guys like that are. always going to perform but what really. helped baseball this year was the. torpedo bat stuff in like the the early. running cuz I don't want to say it kind. of like took over the sports world over. opening weekend. But like that I mean we. talked about it a bunch that following.

Monday. Everyone was kind of talking. about it like, "Wow, look at this, you. know, offensive outburst that all these. teams are having where we'd kind of been. talking about in the past, like one of. the issues with baseball is like you're. going to get the big-time home runs from. a lot of these teams, but like pitchers. were just dominating. Guys strike out so. much and then boom, first weekend of the. year, we got, you know, like the Yankees. hit nine homers on the second day of the. season. We got all these other teams. that are scoring a bunch of runs. like. big time players are are moving cities.

I mean, the second weekend we have here, we have five walk-off wins. Like Paul. Ske with the Pirates and some of these. other small market teams. Like there are. stars everywhere. And it's one of those. things where if there's really, you. know, like there there's there's still. good basketball games on right now. obviously as like the playoffs get. closer, but if if you're in the middle. of the week and there really is nothing. else to watch and you want to watch. sports and you don't want to watch one. of these [ __ ] TV shows that like are. on basic cable that, you know, some.

people just can't, you know, can't get. excited about. Like there are baseball. games every single day and we've been. lucky enough now through the first week. and a half, two weeks of the season. where like at least one or two awesome. things has happened every single day in. baseball. So I I do hope we keep talking. about it. Now granted the Pirates need. to keep winning cuz I think that will. kind of fuel and like fuel your interest. a little bit more which certainly will. help. But um but again it's tough like. you you mentioned it like yesterday. Pirates.

Yankees there were I think there were. like 21,000 people there. It looks so. [ __ ] cold. It was like 32 degrees. Everyone's wearing like sweatshirts. It's like so yeah Paul Ske is going to. go out and pitch like he's going to be. absolutely miserable out there. So like. as long as we can kind of just he will. be man. It's it's rid It sucks playing. baseball when it's that cold. It just. absolutely now it's going to suck. It's. going to suck to have to try to swing a. bat at Paul SK's pitch at 38°. I have. some good authority after just looking.

and talking uh looking at and talking to. Paul Sk. He's going to say it's 38° for. everybody. Now, if that's 99 100°, is it. easier to get a little loose? Stay. loose. Kind of let the arm do its thing. Certainly Paul SK is built for it, which. is why he wants to take the Pittsburgh. Pirates to a World Series. He said it on. me. He said it on me. Okay. He said wild. card not enough. But it does appear. Yeah, to Connor's point, it does appear. some of these teams certainly uh a. little long back end a little bit more. than maybe the Pittsburgh Pirates. Have. you seen all the clips that came out of.

the Pittsburgh Pirates opening day? You're talking about the ownership. walking through the stadium saying, "You. know what? I want to come. I want to be. a common man. I want to go walk out. there." And as soon as anybody. recognized his face, which is very. recognizable and a sell the team chance. started. And then there was a Paul Ski. New York Yankees jersey, which everybody. in Pittsburgh was like, "Yeah, that's. kind of what is probably going to happen. here in a couple years." So, I think we. all kind of understand, but I do. appreciate the fact that you understand. that the reason why I'm talking about it. specifically is because Pittsburgh. Pirates are in a part of a convo with.

Paul SK, the next great one. So, I can't. wait to continue to talk baseball, especially if baseball continues to show. up. But this week is different than any. other week. This is Masters week. Let's. go to one half of the hammer. down Cowboys AP tone. Masters is. obviously something different. It's. special whenever they go down through. Augusta. It's so beautiful. It's so. competitive. It's a nice weekend of. listening to the birds chirp. Jim Nance. do his thing and all the golfers from. all the different brands of golf.

competing. That's a big story line here, right Tone? Yeah, it is. Uh, and you. talked about the birds chirping and the. Aelas are blooming and we'll go down. Aelia Lane and Magnolia Lane, sorry. And. we'll uh tee off Thursday morning with. Tom Watson, Gary Player, and Jack. Nicholas. Those will be the honorary. starters on Thursday. And you see the. odds on favorites to win the tournament. Scotty, Rory, Morawa, Oberg, Schoffley, JT. Yep. And there's the other ones. Bryson Day Shambo, John Rom, the live. guys will be here. All of the greatest. golfers in the world are playing.

starting Thursday on ESPN. Yes, it's. time to download your Masters app. So, you can watch that on Thursday morning. And I just looked, John Rom, we were. we've been talking in the office like, is John Rom playing golf? We weren't. sure. Yes. What do you mean? Yes. Yes, he's playing golf. his results his. results he has not finished worse than. ninth in live this year in five events I. don't know how many guys play I don't. know if it's 10 to 15 to 20 uh but he. has not finished lower than ninth on so. I'm I'm pumped to see Rom out there well. I think he was I think he was 10th once.

and then they did a super cool coin flip. on the 18th green and he ended up in. ninth I think there was a lot of people. talking you don't think so okay there's. a lot of people talking about Liv this. weekend by the way it was on Fox I think. 1 p.m. I think some people watched it. I think. some people saw it and then obviously it. was a stacked leaderboard and you said. John Ro a little bit hot in his live. golf seasoning is what you're kind of. alluding to here. Yeah, I looked it up. So this year he has finished second, sixth, sixth, fifth and ninth. Hasn't. won an event. Um but you know top five.

of top 10 in in every single event. So I. assume he's coming in hot. Bryson's been. like top 15 in all the events. Once. again I don't know if that's good or not. on the live tour. I assume it is. U. waiting for someone to correct me if. it's not. Obviously Patrick Reed always. plays well in the Masters. W Neman's. coming over. Um like all the big dogs. are going to be there and that's all. we've ever wanted. All we want every. week is be able to watch the greatest. golfers in the world compete against. each other and for the first time this. year we're going to be able to this. week. Hell yeah. Nine-year NFL vet and. live super fan. Uh Darius J. Butler.

obviously in the Thunderdome. Debbut, you can wrap up the live combo with the. boys and how they're going to do at the. Masters, but also you should pivot to uh. college hoops. Obviously, Yukon. something special. I don't know if we've. ever paid enough uh attention to the. women's college basketball, men's. college basketball season or the women's. college basketball season, but I always. expect Yukon to be great. Then they. weren't there for a little bit. You guys. are back on top. What a storyline. Is. this all because Paige Buckets is an. absolute dog? Is it because Oramma is.

all the way back in his bag? Here's a. stat uh Hembo sent over to me about this. Yukon team and uh Gino Ora 20 point wins. in national title games. Okay. John. Wooden has. three. Gino has five. Damn. No other D1. coach has done it more than one time. So, when you're talking about just. dominating whenever you get to the end. of the road, whenever you beat the hell. out of everybody and you have your last. opponent, this is the one that's.

supposed to be your biggest challenge. This is the one who has earned their way. to the championship. This is the one. who's also been dominant all year. This. Yukon ladies team just did what we've. seen them do in the past and just beat. ass. What are your thoughts on that, Dutch? Are you guys all the way back or. is it over now cuz Paige is leaving? No, I think as long as Gino is there, we'll. we'll be all right. And and look in the. early parts of the dynasty you know we. got you know the a lot of people say hey. they just got the best players year in. and year out and think about women's. college basketball is those best players. are going to stay there for four years.

but over time you know the Tennessee's. the LSUs the South Carolina Notre Dame. Stanfords all these different programs. have grown got top tier talent in but. what Gino has done from the top Gino and. CD like I said their first championship. since n 1995 and all of the greats over. all those years whether it's Rebecca. Lobo So, you know, Barbara Turner, uh, Terasi, Sue Bird, Maya Moore, Brie. Stewart, who wories in a row. Like, this. was huge for Paige. We know she's been. through injury-wise. And I saw on the.

internet, I'm sure everybody's seen at. this point that class that came out with. Paige, uh, Andrew Reese, Caitlyn Clark, Cardosa, I believe Cameron Brink, they. all, you know, pretty much all either. played the national title or won a. national title. So, this was huge for. her. I think Terasi when they was on the. show and they put you know three time. Biggies player of the year, three time. you know first team all-American and the. last thing was 2025 national champ and. Terasi was like that's the only thing. that matters. So that is a standard for. Yukon and everything Gino uh does for. that program is especially starting with. the best player. The best player is.

always you know the hardest worker. The. best players are always leading. They're. always the tip of the spear whether it's. practice, whether it's playing, running. off the court to the bench, running into. the tunnel, you know, not over. dribbling, bunch of pass, and playing. great team basketball both ends of the. court. So, u just impressive 12-1 in. national championship games as a. program, men's and women's, 18-1. overall. So, once we get there, we're. going to get the job done. Uh, once. again, just showing why we are the. basketball capital world up there in. Stores, Connecticut. So, congratulations. to the ladies once again. Yeah, I saw.

coach Hurley talking his [ __ ] too. You. know, I saw that. I I obviously Yukon. celebrating this is a magical thing. Congrats to the ladies winning and uh. can't wait to see what Hurley does with. the squad next year. Who will be the. men's national champions? We'll find. that out tonight is Houston and Florida. play. Joining us now is a former college. football national champion, a Super Bowl. champion, a RDER Cup winner, ladies and. gentlemen, AJ Hawk. What's up, Hawker? How you doing? What's.

going on? I'm doing great. Hey, what was. 8259 in the national championship? I'd. say that's pretty damn good for for Gino. and the girls. So, yeah, congrats to. your your squad, Dud. That's impressive. Appreciate you, AJ. Five of those 12. he's won by 20 or more points in the. national championship, which is uh. pretty dominating. And I saw some people. on the internet saying um pretty crazy. that Iowa was even in this conversation. for a few years there. Yep. I agree. you. know, and I like to see what's that. I. don't know if you remember last year. though, Pat, uh, Gino actually couldn't.

get it done against the Hawkeyes. So, you know, that's what I'm saying. I. know. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You. know, so because there's a dominating. force couple No, but you know, I mean, and what we're not talking about either. is Gino, you know, whether this is true, whether it's been confirmed, that guy's. absolutely cheated. No question about. it. No question about it. You don't. can't say. that. I'm just saying that you don't you. don't win that many national.

championships by 20 plus points without, you know, bending the rules or cheating. a little bit here or there. So, listen. You're saying this guy's too good. This. guy's too good at what he does is what. you're saying, Ty. That's That's kind of. what I'm saying. Exactly. So, you know, again, I won't give him his flowers. today. Hey, that that's an unbelievable. Didn't sound like it. Didn't sound like. it at all. Unbelievable. I'm just. saying. I'm just saying, you know, and. and that's not something we need to, you. know, look forward today. We don't need. to, you know, dig into his past and his. recruiting or anything. We don't need to.

do that today. History will do that down. the line. So, you're right. You know, hats off to Paige Buckets. I'm I'm glad. she's she's kind of finally got that. notch in her belt cuz she needed that. Gina wasn't able to get Kaitlin Clark, huh? Wasn't able to land Caitlin Clark. as a as a recruit is in and Iowa. Iowa. being a part of it while Caitlyn was on. her run after what we're watching now. with, you know, Mali, I guess she had. quite a performance. There was a lot of. things said being said there, not a lot. of people talking about that. Don Staley. obviously very animated during the.

championship, but she had her team back. in the national championship yet again. Gino has kind of done his thing. There. is like levels it feels like to the. women's college hoops and Yukon. obviously at the very top has been for a. long time. AJ, as you look forward to. tonight, you're a guy that was able to. win a national championship obviously. uh you were young, but you were. certainly able to show up in a big. moment. The defensive dominating team. feels like they have quite an advantage. in a national championship because. anytime your nerves are making you. tighter or whatever, you can always give. effort. You know, you can always give.

like maximum effort. It normally shows. up on the offensive side. I'm not saying. that Walter Clayton Jr. hasn't had a lot. of pressure and isn't prepared for the. moment, but I'm saying national. championship, biggest moment of your. life. Defense seems to travel a little. bit more. And this Houston team has that. in spades. Not the Florida doesn't, but. it's like the Houston culture basically. AJ. Yeah. Think about it. You don't have. to count on like if you're a great let's. say you're counting on a three the three. ball like that's what your team has. count on all year. You don't have to. worry about hey are we going to are we. going to have an off night or is a. defense going to force us into an off.

night. Like coaches the old cliche you. can you can only control your attitude. and your effort. And I feel like that's. kind of what defense is when you talk. about basketball. And I mean like I you. know I've told you before I grew up a. Duke fan. I wanted Duke to win this. game, but man, like I have a hard time. not having a ton of respect for this. Houston team and Kelvin Samson, obviously with all the the stories and. you see the clips of how he has built. this whole thing since what, 2016. Like. it's it's pretty awesome what Houston's. been doing, I think. Yeah, absolutely. And the culture, you know, I heard him.

give a press conference about all of his. assistants have basically been within. his program forever. He doesn't hire. outside. He keeps all the guys within. He said there's only like one word that. they have around the building. And it's. just culture. That's it. Just culture. The word culture is out there. And it's. like that stays for what it what it is. You how you do anything is how you do. everything. Feels like he's old school. guy and uh everybody that coaches with. him old school. Everybody that's manager. for him old school and his team plays. that way. You got to find the right. players. Joining us now is a guy who.

coached college basketball for a long. time. 100 years we'll say. Now he's on. college game day, front of the program. and he is basically the face of college. basketball coverage throughout the. entirety of this tournament on ESPN. because of how he's gotten it right. He. loved this Florida team from the very. beginning. We can't wait to hear what. his thoughts are about tonight. Ladies. and gentlemen, Coach Seth Greenberg. What's up, boys? What's up? What's going. on? We got a big game here today. I. think a little game, little hoops going. on today. Yeah, I think I think there's.

a there's a little bit of a uh. throwdown, if you will, on a basketball. court happening this evening. uh this. Florida team, you've talked about them. since immediately upon the bracket being. announced and we didn't follow the. college basketball season as a whole, but whenever we heard the SEC drama and. how many teams are getting in and. obviously the bubble madness and the. conference championship stuff, we tried. to pick up all the information we could. as quickly as possible. You came on our. show and like Florida, Florida, Florida, Florida, Florida's the team. And as we. watch them go through this, you know,

March Madness run that they're on. That. guy right there has been so much fun. Walter Clayton Jr., you talked about him. from the beginning. He shows up in big. moments. He seemingly leads the team in. a great way. They got athletes all over. the court and they're dogs. I assume. that's why you liked them. Taking on. this Houston team, are they a good fit. for Houston? Do you think it's a good. matchup for Houston? What are your. thoughts on your Florida team? And I'm. saying yours because you've loved them. since the beginning. Taking on this this. Kelvin Samson style team. What is the. matchup that needs to be kind of. watched? Oh, look. When you play against.

Houston, you got to take care of the. basketball. You got to rebound the ball. Now, people don't understand like this. Florida team is a league defensive team. And they are actually even a better. offensive rebounding team than Houston. So, you that's going to be interesting. Who's going to win the war on the. boards? Uh, can Florida get to the. offensive glass and get extra. possessions against the best rebounding. team people think in college basketball. So, that's one. And then the battle of. the back courts. Uh, you saw what. happened against Duke. 10 threes made in. that game. If Houston makes 10 threes, Florida's not winning. You've got to run. him off the three-point line because. they just don't have a lot of other ways.

to score. Jawan Roberts can get some. putbacks. He can finish around the. basket. But what those guys really do is. offensive rebound, kick it out, throw. open threes. So, I still like this. Florida team. Obviously, Clayton's been. just phenomenal. You know, he's a former. football player and I I I always talk to. my teams about next play mentality. Uh. that's what that dude has. He's got a. next play mentality. Get back to that. huddle. Let's talk it over. Let's come. back out. Get to the next play and make. a play. And that's kind of how he plays. in the biggest moments. The dude has no. fear. Kelvin Samson's gonna take the.

ball out of his hands or he's gonna try. I think it's going to be hard to do. that. Yeah. And you talk about no fear and. former football player and next play. mentality. He took over down the stretch. against Auburn and I assume he's done. that in a lot of games. He goes backto. back 30-point performances this late. into the tournament. First time since. Larry Bird. Special special player. Fun. to watch. AJ has a question for you. Yeah, coach. You mentioned this Houston. team is going to try to keep the ball. out of Clayton's hands. That's like we. hear about in football like Bill Bich.

always does a great job of taking away. your number one option when say make you. play left-handed or whatever. How is. Houston like what should we watch. tonight when we see this Houston. defense? How are they going to attack. him? And are you able to find a way to. to kind of slow Clayton down? I think. the first thing you got to do, you got. to make him guard. I mean, you got to go. at him and make him guard. I think one. of the best ways to defend someone is. make them guard. So, what does that. mean? Screen the hell out of them. put. him in ball screens. Uh, attack him, attack him, attack him. And you know, one thing about these Houston guards, they can beat you off the dribble. Be.

interesting to see how Todd Golden. matches up. Does he match him up on. Crier? Well, you know, Crier's more of a. jump shooter or does he match him up on. on U Sharp cuz Sharp will take it down. the lane if you start at the end of the. Duke game. Sharp took on Cooper Flag and. took him right to the front of the rim. So, I think the first thing you got to. do is make him guard. Second thing you. got to do is you got to meet him in. transition. Like, you've got to get good. shot selection. So you're you're. balanced defensively. So you your point. of picker has got to be a little bit. higher. Got to get the ball under. control. And then any dribble handoff or.

any ball screen, you're going to blitz. the crap out of him. I mean, you're. going to blitz the crap out of him. And. then you're going to what I call top. side, not let him get the ball back. Like you're going to extend catches out. So the further he catches it from the. ball, now you can build your defense. behind that. So I I I think those are. things. Make him guard. Screen the hell. out of him. anytime he comes up in. transition, meet the ball early, but any. ball screen or any dribble handoff, boom. You got to trap him, get it out of. his hands, and then extend that next. catch. You got to wear him out trying to.

get open. Coach, uh, I don't know if you know. this, but you might be a sharp. You. know, when you came on the show the last. time, you said, "I like this. I like. this. I like this." AP Tone, what's the. overunder for tonight's national. championship for these boys? The. overunder tonight is, let's me see if it. moved. 140 and a half. Mhm. 140 and a. half. You know, 7170 uh is the score. that would obviously beat that. So, in. your mind, that's kind of how I look at. it at least whenever we're trying to. pick that. It's Are they going to be. tight here? What do you think that 70.

points a lot for this college basketball. season? It's like some games yes, some. games no. And I I genuinely don't know. What are your thoughts on national. championship with these two squad? I. think I think it's I think it's over. I. think it's over. I'll tell you one just. people don't understand the force and. the pace that uh Florida plays with. Florida brings it at you so fast. So. they don't give you a chance to set and. they kind of flatten the defense out a. little bit. If you watch the game the. other day, how many times did Clayton. just come down navigate in transition. and get to the front of the rim against. a good Auburn team. So the pace that. they're going to play with, I think.

there's going to be more possessions in. this game than people think. So my gut. feeling is this thing's going to be. over. Even though they're two elite. defensive teams, I think both teams are. going to be forced to play and and and. make plays. And uh I also think that the. three-point shots going to have an. impact in you talk about a Florida team, they get over 64% of their points from. the perimeter. A lot of those points are. obviously threes. Uh, you know, to me, the number of guys. that can make shots on the perimeter of. both of these teams, whether it's Crier, whether it's Sharp, uh, you know, on the.

other side, obviously you've got, you. don't just have, uh, Walter Clayton Jr., you know, you have Elijah Martin who. come back shots. Will Richards didn't. make a three the other day. The boot's. going to make threes. I mean, that's. just that's just the way it is. And then. Milo Yuzan, he didn't really play well. against Duke. He's going to score it. So, these back courts are too dynamic to. to have on the under. In my opinion, I. think the back courts are just a little. bit better than people think. offensively. I think we're going to see. a significant number threes. That's why.

I would go with the over. But I would. say the first four minutes of the game, first four minutes game, I would say. that Houston has the advantage. And you. guys know in football, I don't know how. you compare it. What's a team that kind. of punches you in the face early and it. takes time to settle in against them and. then once you settle in, you kind of. have a better feel. But you can't. simulate that in your practices. That's. what this Houston team is in terms of. especially a quick turnaround where you. got 36 hours to kind of get ready for. this rock fight. I think that's going to. be an interesting first four minutes. I. like I like Houston.

First five, last five is what we chat. about. And uh that's whenever you find. out if what you thought you had on film. is reality. And you talk about that. Houston team. They seemingly are. relentless by design. AP Tone has a. question for you, coach. Yeah, I do. coach. I I saw a tweet or a post um from. their director of sports performance, Alan Bishop. Their average mile time was. 5 minutes and 19 seconds. And as you. could see from this picture, every. single dude on their team has a 12-pack. is absolutely jacked. Like how what does.

that do for a a team? That looks like a. football team, AJ. That looks like a. football team in there. Oh, yeah. And. obviously they come down from they come. back with the the late performance. yesterday. Like they obviously just. don't run out of gas late, I assume. And. how big is that for them? Oh, I think it's huge. I mean, just. look, that's their identity. That's. their mentality. That's Kelvin's. mentality. You got to understand. Kelvin's an underdog himself. I mean, Mont He was a graduate assistant to Jud. Heathkil at Washington at at Michigan. State. He went from Montana Tech to. Washington State. I mean, that guy, he's.

his journey's been unbelievable. Two. coaches with two very different. journals, but the one thing that's. always been consistent with Calvin, the. physicality is of his team. and he. challenges him mentally, emotionally, physically, and he gets incredible buy. in. Like those guys think that a badass. ass is on the floor, right? I mean, they. Yeah. Look, they practice with a rebound. bubble. So, I want to put this in. perspective. So, they practice with a. bubble on the rim. Now, Pat, when you. have a bubble on the rim, you can never. make a shot. All right? So, every shot.

is a miss. So when the ball comes off, it's absolutely the funniest thing to. watch because you got just bodies flying. all over the place. You know the old. days Thomas will talk about practicing. in shoulder pads like their whole. practice. There's right and wrong. There's no in between. Almost right is. wrong. Like Kelvin Samson coaches those. guys. He is not afraid of anything. Nor. are they. You're watching this video. That is a typical practice. This isn't. made for TV. All right. This is like.

real. Like if you don't hit the floor, you have a problem. And Kelvin, he might. be a little older. But he he can get as. nasty as anyone. I'm just telling you. Yeah. He he he get he can get right up. there. He get in. I assume that's the. case. I I watch him. Yeah. Is he getting. the ball? Is he chewing them out? Probably. I watched him do a press. conference after the Final Four and he. talked about how we don't have a bunch. of cliche sayings. All his assistant. coaches have come up through his program. and he says there's only one word that's. out there and it's culture. And it's.

like basically everybody understands. what it is. You see that weight room. photo. I mean, look at him coming in. dancing. That's an awesome moment with. his team. I assume that feels. immaculate. Especially smacking your. team into the national championship. Good for Houston, especially diner in. Texas, uh, San Anton. But whenever you. see this team and you hear everything. about it, you watch that practice, it's. like that's a brotherhood. You know, Duke talked about a brotherhood. Yes, it. is. But that's how you kind of build the. bond. That's how you build the chemistry. if you, you know, sweat together, bleed. together, I assume, as they're diving on. the board and work out together. That's.

where you really build it. I'm pulling. for them. I'm I like this Houston team. Not that I don't like the Florida team, but I like the way they're built. Debut. Debut has a question for you, coach. Yeah, coach, I want to ask you about uh. these coaching matchups. We're obviously. talking about Kelvin Samson's been. around the game for a long, long time. 69 years old. On the other side, you got. coach Todd Golden, 39 years old. Uh both. very tough teams, but a big age gap. Who. do you kind of I know you've been high. on Florida since the beginning, but who. do you kind of trust more coaching side? We always talk about nerves from the. players and but what about the uh.

coaches in this matchup? Who are you. leaning to in that matchup? Yeah. Yeah. That's tough cuz like Kelvin Samson like. think about a minute 14 to go. They're. down six points. He didn't foul. He. trusted his culture. He said we're going. to get a stop. Technical foul was made. They're down six. Tubler gets a block. They come down knocked down a three. I. mean Kelvin orchestrated. He's going to. manipulate matchups. That's why I talk. about going at Clayton. Todd Golden and. I know him pretty well. He's got some. swag to him. Like like like that that. dude, he can really coach. I mean like. really coach, but he's like the next.

generation. Like he's got a standard. There's an accountability. His practices. are brutal, very similar, not as. physical, but that dude is cutting edge. In fact, I I talked to a guy that he. worked for when he was an assistant at. Colombia, and he had to bring him into. the office. And Todd Golden's a real. analytics guy. So, and and and his. former coach, Kyle Smith, who was uh was. the head coach at Stanford now, he said. when he was first at Columbia, he came. in the office one day, he said, "You. know, if you guys worked as hard on. working guys out as you did with your.

fantasy baseball lineups and figuring. out all the numbers, said we'd have a. better damn team." He was in analytics. way back then, like working on his. fantasy baseball team. So, like he's. cutting edge when it comes to analytics. He sees the game through an interesting. prism. He totally changed the system. playing for Randy Bennett who's kind of. a coach that really controls plays. tempo. Kyle Smith's been a little bit. more progressive. This dude went from. playing that but having a little bit of. a swag and a little difference to him to. basically playing like old school.

Arizona. Three guards that play fast, they play with freedom. They attack you. And those two bigs that protect the rim. are screeners and rim rollers. So I like. Yeah, Kelvin's got more experience. this. guy on the left of my screen, probably. the right of your guys screen, he don't. fear anything like he don't fear and. like he's got something in him. I also like that he turns to the crowd. and does this number. You know, he is a. uh hey, let's make some noise, boys. Todd Golden. Yeah, it is Lafllorike. And.

uh you know, I I was introduced to him. during the tournament. I'm like, wow, that's a child there. Okay, so he's 39. years old. He must lotion. He does well. He is a He must be a moisturizer. He uh. he looks very very good. Arizona guys. from Arizona. Moisturizer. Lot a lot of. vitamin D. Yeah, it makes sense. Haven't. seen the sun in a while. Um okay. Four. ones uh make their way to the final. four. Obviously, that was kind of the. discussion of this particular. tournament, which leads to uh Conman has.

a question for you, coach. Yeah, Seth. Early everyone's pissed off. Uh no. Cinderellas, it's all chalk. This is the. worst Marsh Madness. But now it feels. like especially, you know, last weekend. and this weekend that these games have. just been unbelievable. Do you feel like. because it has been all chalk that this. has turned into one of the most. competitive best March Madnesses that. we've had yet or do you think people are. always going to, you know, [ __ ] and. moan about something? When it comes to. sports, people are going to [ __ ] and moan about.

something. But look, to me, this is good. on good, man. I mean, like you get you. work your way to the Super Bowl, you. want the two best teams. I mean, if you. look at these teams body work during the. course of the year, what do you say? They separated themselves. I want to see. the best dudes play against the best. dudes on the biggest stage. Plain and. simple. And you know, that's fine. We. can get some upsets in the first and. second round. That's great. In the end, I want to see good on good. Like when we. practice, I didn't practice against this. the you know, like the gold team, you. know, that you know, bunch of walkins. No, I want the my goods against the.

other goods to find out just how good we. were. This is This is what This is the. future of college basketball. If you. look at the rosters, there's not a. freshman not a freshman playing in this. game. There's not a freshman playing. this game. You got 13 of the 16 guys. that play are retained, which means they. stayed in school at the same school. Now, think about that. Stayed at school, but stayed at the same school. Right? These teams are invested. I I I'm all. into the good on good. I'm I'm all into. guys having shared experiences, but I'm.

also into let's put the two best teams. that have earned their way in and let's. hey, let's throw that thing up and let's. let's get after it. We always want to. find out who the absolute best is in any. tournament and uh feels like we're going. to we got. everybody's best team duke the hell out. You know, everybody was talking about. this Duke team being untouchable. seemingly and uh now they're gone, which. I liked Sh coming on the show. I like. the Duke team. I enjoyed watching them. But that Houston win, everybody's saying. Duke choked away. It's like Houston also.

was prepared for the moment in a big. way. Can't wait to see what they do. against Florida tonight. Can't wait to. watch game day. What time you guys on? We're on at what are we on? 5:00 here. So 6:00 back there. I think that's what. it is. I think that's right. I don't. know. They come and pick me up at 3:50. I don't know. I got you. I I just show. up. I mean I the light goes on. I talk. and then they send me on my way. Hey. Pat, by the way, your deal your deal to. London and back. I have to admit, you. talk about a beast, dude. You're a. beast. Like, you could play for me. All. right. All right. I never coached a I.

never coached a kicker. I never coached. a kicker, but if I if I had a kicker on. my team, you'd have no problem playing. for me cuz like you understand the gr. Hey, and I will smack the smack the. wood, you know, and uh anything you need. from me. 3 and D. You got it. Ladies and. gentlemen, we'll watch him at 6:00. Eastern. We think college game day for. the national championship. Ladies and. gentlemen, Coach Seth Greenberg. Hey, coach. They put me in a car, they drive me over. there, they turn the camera on, and they.

let me know when I need to speak. Okay, that's what I do. Cuz coach Seth. Greenberg, college basketball season's. wrapping up tonight, AJ. Uh, but that is. not in my eyes. um the most legendary thing that's going. to happen over the last few days. Alexander Ovetkin breaking that record. on Long Island with how that building. erupted for him. Islanders fans were in. there. They knew they were a part of. history. Capitals fans were in there. obviously chasing. alongside Obie's great chase of the.

great one. And it's like they're down. 2-1 at that moment. And the entire team. understands the assignment. The entire. league. There's Gary Bman, the Kamish, obviously Weno. I believe the FBI is. represented up there as well. It was uh. it was a moment I think. I don't know. enough about it, but I I I think I think. that is who who that was. Okay. All. right. Good. It was uh it was a magical. moment and it happened, Nick, in the. exact same amount of games that it took.

Wayne Gretzky to have the previous. record. Feels like the hockey gods were. written all over this one. Great for. hockey, great for the sport, great for. sports as a whole, Nick. Honestly, it. felt magical uh as I was watching from. afar and I couldn't even imagine what. the building was like inside. Nick, absolutely absurd, Pat. a bit. serendipitous as you mentioned in the. amount of games played. Also happened to. be uh the same day 20 years prior in. which the Capitals won the draft lottery. and earned the right to select Alex. Ovuchetkin number one overall. When they.

didn't finish the season with the worst. record in the league, I believe they. were second or third. The team that. finished first in terms of finishing. last for the lottery odds was actually. the Pittsburgh Penguins. So, a bit of uh. fate how it could have been reversed. there. You could have seen Ovetchkin as. a Penguin. And maybe you saw Sydney. Crosby as a Washington Capital the. following season. Uh but here we are. Ovetchkin uh shaking Weno's hand. He's. the greatest goal scorer of all time, not just of this generation. Uh you can. put that debate to rest. There's still a.

GOAT debate in hockey that I don't think. will ever be settled because we get into. it all the time with basketball in terms. of the eras. But you've got Weno, you've. got Mario Lemieux, you've got Bobby Y, and you've got Gordy How. Those are the. four main stays of the older generation. Now you've got Sydney Crosby, Alex. Ovetkin, probably Nick Lstrom, and. whoever else can earn their way into. that fourth spot for the new era. So, it's a great day for hockey. It was an. awesome celebration yesterday. And it's. been really cool to watch the sport come. together to uh watch Oie on this chase.

Yeah, I've enjoyed it all. And I also. like the fact that he goes and cracks. open a cold beer immediately afterwards. AJ, you know, whenever he tied Weno, there was a video of him just going. right to his locker and just cracking. open a beer and everybody's like, "Enjoy. cold beer after you do something great.". Which is why we like hockey. Hockey is. like an old school feel, old school. vibes. And Alexander Ovetchkin. represents all of that perfectly. He. doesn't have an eight pack. He's going. to have a good time. Here's a beer, sir. Here you go. Yep. Welcome. Here's. another beer for you to enjoy yourself.

when he won Lordo for the first time, we. watched him with the Stanley Cup. literally across state lines just having. a blast. The guy is committed to his. sport. He loves his sport and I think. everybody in hockey believes that he. represents it very very well. AJ, it's a. beautiful thing. And you look at all the. records, you know, you look at. everything. 149 game opening goals, which is an NHL record. Okay. Game tying. goals, NHL record. Go ahead goals, NHL. record. Game winning goals, NHL record. 30 goal season, NHL record. 40 goal. seasons, NHL record. 50 goal seasons,

NHL record, seasons leading the NHL in. goals, nine NHL record. It's like this. guy was able to find the net on a. regular basis. And that only comes from. a massive amount of hard work whenever. nobody's watching. the amount of hours. this guy has had to put in with his. stick and a puck, whether it was just, you know, uh, on a street or inside your. house growing up over in Russia, whatever it was, just to get to this. point where you have this much control. of the puck, this much confidence, this. much respect, and this uh much.

greatness, it's a a massive tribute to. the work ethic to get there. And uh, I. think that needs to be celebrated as. well alongside all the records. Yeah. think about like why does it feel it's. so easy to root for Obie? Is it because. he is like what we call a throwback in. in an era where we don't see a whole lot. of guys do it I guess the like be. completely authentic to who he is and. still be the I mean it's unbelievable. when you when you put up all those. records. whatund 140 something go like. game-winning goals or whatever he had. like 291 g go-ahead goals is nuts to me.

to think hey what game's tied here we go. this puts us in the lead like everything. the guy does and then obviously the old. this little swan dive situation was just. a perfect celebration for Obie but this. the game was 2-1 at the moment what. happened the rest of this game. They had. to restart this thing. What did the rest. of the guys do after that? That had to. be a tough transition celebration. This was like when Drew Brees had their. record, right? Uh in the middle, he did. the passing thing down there in the. Superdome, brother, and they stopped the. game basically and had a full.

celebration. I appreciated the fact that. everybody in NHL, everybody in hockey, everybody in the sports world was like, "Yeah, they should stop the game." Yeah, this is uh this is absolutely. unbelievable. But to go back to the. point in the conversation in the first. hour, look at Wayne. That was a good. clap. Seemed like he was genuinely okay. You know, seemed like he was genuinely. thrilled that a record of his was broken. cuz he's going to be remembered as the. greatest of all time regardless. I'm. happy that he's confident in himself. enough to have that, especially with. what we've learned from other sports. potentially in the I'm the greatest of.

my generation, you're the greatest of. your generation. Can we get along? Probably not because there's a little. bit of drama and egos and everything. like that. So once again, hockey nails. it. I appreciate in the first hour and. Conman, you might be able to talk about. this because uh you know, you used to be. a fan of the Bruins and then obviously. the Bruins uh have certainly tried to. change up a little bit this year. Yeah. But taking away the pressure of him. having to get the goal record before the. playoffs I think is huge. Like him his. whole team not having to worry about.

just getting the one of the hardest. records of all time now just being able. to focus on hockey. Not that him scoring. isn't good for their team, but that's a. good pressure I think to have off of. their shoulder. They're gone. Man, it's. also great vibes. Like, of course, the. get get the pressure out of there, but. also just for everyone on that team. Like, I know the they they just brought. in a kid from BC who they signed, uh, Leonard, and, you know, for him, he. scored his first goal on the way to this. chase. It was the empty net. Um, but. just for that guy to understand how cool. it is for the history to be made and.

being a part of the team, but just the. vibe of the entire, you know, of the. entire boys, of the entire bench, the. coaches, everything. It's like, okay, now we don't even have to think about. this anymore. Now we can just go out and. play hockey. And they are one of the. best teams in the league, you know. So. it's not as if this was one of those. situations where, you know, a guys on. the team, you know, similar to Steph. Curry really, like you mentioned before, where, you know, they have this record. looming, but also they know, hey, we. have a real shot to win, you know, Lordo. this year. It wasn't one of those.

situations where you're kind of limping. to the finish and then, you know, happy. you get this kind of consolation prize. in a bad season. It's like, no, this is. one of those things they check off on. the road to going to win the entire. thing. And, you know, we mentioned. before, too, Ovuchkin, of course, he. broke his leg earlier in the season, but. like, who says this is it? Hopefully, he. comes back and he has another two years, you know, like this was really cool. Imagine him getting to a thousand. How. cool that would be. would be very cool and I don't know if I.

froze or not if it's just on my side but. would be incredibly cool. There's. somebody that's joining us now that we. were kind of dealing with the tech issue. uh that his opinion worth a lot more. than any of ours. Ladies and gentlemen, six time Stanley Cup champion, one of. the. goats, Mark Messier, how you doing buddy? Good. Doing doing. amazing. What a what a day for hockey. yesterday. It was incredible actually. Okay, so let's talk about it. Your. feelings on basically the full focus of.

the NHL, at least the coverage. I'm not. saying every team has been focusing on. it, but has been this great chase. Has. this been something that has just been. deemed an impossible record to ever be. broken? And how do you feel about the. NHL embracing OV's chase entirely, seemingly through it all, Moose? Well, I. I I I have to say that nobody thought. anybody would break uh Gordy House. records of games played, goals, the. points. Uh sure enough, Wayne came along. and did all that. Uh I don't think.

anybody would have thought that Elvetkin. would have been able to catch Wayne for. 894 goals. It was unthinkable. I mean, we're talking about the statistics last. night, 45 goals for 20 straight years, averaging. uh the longevity, the. durability, the focus, the the. commitment. I mean, you you you can use. all the superlatives that you want to. describe Alex and what he's been able to. accomplish. It's it's. unfathomable. Uh but here we are. Uh.

records are made to be broken as Wayne. has always said. And sure enough, he was. always said he'll be the first one there. to shake his hand when he does if and. when he does break it. And sure enough, he did. Yeah, it was a cool moment watching the. great one and the great eight embrace. each other as opposed to what some other. sports might do. Now, we don't know. hockey anywhere near as much as you or. anywhere near as much as we know our. sport, but we have chatted about this a. couple times. How good do you think it. is for the Capitals who have a great.

team this year that they kind of get. this out of the way now as they look. forward to the playoffs? Do you think. there was a wait on that team to get. this done for Obie because how much they. love them? Do you think it was something. that was a distraction or do you think. they were just excited to get this done. for their guy in Obie? And what do you. think it means for them going forward. now into the most important part of the. season? Well, I can speak firsthand of. being in in this similar situation with. Wayne and Edmonton chasing 50 goals in. 39 games. Uh being a part of all his. records, 60some records that he was.

chasing. Uh there is some uh element of. and I don't call it a distraction. I I I. actually think it's one of the things. that really galvanized this team this. year. And I think one of the most. important factors that we can look at. through this Ovetchkin's race to 895 was. how well the team had played, how well. they galvanized together as a team. Uh. there was a there was a a common thread. that got that team together this year. Yeah, they made some trades in the. offseason. and and they've improved their team and.

a lot of players had great years, but. you can't discredit how important this. was to the team success this year. And I. think it even made it that much more. special that the team was playing well. and they were uh you know leading the. the team the league in in points for. most of the year and maybe have a chance. to win the president's trophy. Um, you. know, I I just think it's been a magical. year for so many reasons for the. Washington Capitals. And I think one of. the things I'm most proud of, to be. honest with you, is how far Alex has. come as a leader. Uh, you know, it.

always wasn't a smooth ride for Alex as. as a player. Uh, obviously is always. scoring goals and doing great things and. they had some great teams back in the. day, but they had a hard time trying to. figure out how to win. And uh leadership. is critical in order for a team to have. success. And Alex has become an. incredible leader on and off the ice for. that team this year. And you can just uh. witness it by the way they talk about. him. Uh their body language uh their. facial expressions when things are like.

this are happening. He galvanized. encompassed everybody in this moment. which I think made it so much special. So special for the whole organization. the players, managers, coaches, trainers, anybody in that ecosystem. Fans alike shared in this moment. Yeah. Hell yeah. And that's the hockey. difference, you know, that's the. beautiful part of your guys' sport. It. does feel like everybody's more together. than any other sport in the current. moment. You only played for 25 years in. the NHL as a captain, so what the hell. would you know? AJ has a question for.

you, Mark. Yeah, speaking of that, playing playing for 25 years and being. one of the all-time greats in the NHL, I. guess for former stars like you, how how. does it feel with Ovkin breaking this. rule? It feels like for me, at least as. an outsider, kind of a casual, like it's. so easy to be happy for the guy because. he seems like he does it his way. He's, like you said, he's grown into a great. leader, but he also seems like a tough. dude that will stand up for every one of. his teammates and could play in any era. So for you as former players, like how. does it feel knowing, hey, this this is. a great guy that actually beat Wayne's.

record? Well, you know, for me it was. emotional uh watching it yesterday. because of the my history with Wayne as. a friend, as a teammate, winning. championships, watching history, watching genius my whole career on a. day-to-day uh uh basis with Wayne, I. learned so much for him. Uh his his his. I his ability to put everybody else. ahead of him. uh the way he put the game. ahead of everybody uh including himself. Um and I think uh you know when Gordy.

How was there to greet Wayne and shake. his hand when he passed Gordy How uh. that resonated with everybody I think in. our sport. It certainly resonated with. Wayne because he was a big Gordy How fan. and he understood the magnitude and. gravity of the moment yesterday in the. history of our game and he uh Wayne did. such an amazing job uh you know as an. ambassador to the game. His whole career. he did but then again yesterday was on.

full display. Uh and it it couldn't have. been a better moment for our league. It. couldn't have been more inspiring for. our boys and girls that, you know, have. their own goals and aspirations. And. this is something that the new. generation of players should be hanging. on to because wow, when you talk about. the greats that ever played the game, Alex Ovetan is going to always be. recognized as probably the greatest goal. scorer of all time. And that is. something that uh not to be taken. lightly. I like that you 25 years in the NHL,

sixtime Stanley Cup champ, know Wayne on. a personal basis and everybody else. You. go probably the best goal scorer of all. time cuz you know it's going to be a. debate amongst people. Everybody else is. like greatest goal scorer of all time. stamped, signed, sealed, delivered. I. appreciate your perspective now. What is. your perspective as a man who played for. 25 years in the NHL? Connor has a. question. Yeah, Moose. Do you see this. being the uh kind of end to Ostrich's. career? Obviously, you know, who knows. what happens in the playoffs, but let's. say, you know, the Capitals go on and. win Lordo. Do you think Ovetrian kind of.

sails off into the sunset or do you. think he might still have a few years. left here with the Capitals, especially. because, you know, they kind of made it. out of the rebuild and they're a great. great team again. Yeah, it's amazing how. quickly they've come out of this. rebuild. I don't think anybody in hockey. saw the success that Washington's had. coming into the year this year. But, uh, you got to give everybody in that. organization a ton of credit, especially. the players. Um, it's funny how teams. can grab traction sometimes. You never. know what that's going to be or what's.

going to galvanize a team. Clearly, they. galvanize around this pace with with. Alex. Uh, but I think for for me, if I. was a guessing guy, and I don't know. Alex well enough to know what his plans. are, but I would I would have to think. that uh he's going to come back at least. for one more year, I think his contract, his contract is up after this year, and. then I think it'll be determined where. he's at. You can see his kids on the. ice, his wife, uh whether he wants to go. back to Russia and and uh make a family. life there for himself or go back and.

play there. I don't know. I don't think. anybody really knows. But uh I know one. thing that he'll be back for another. year which is just going to increase. that goal lead by even more. Yeah. Up. over a thousand obviously inevitable. seemingly if he's going to play another. year. And hockey seems like such an. interesting sport cuz you know like. basketball. We were talking to Braun a. couple weeks ago. They had Luca so he's. able to go off ball a little bit more. now. He's still doing windmill dunks at. the age of 40 which is absurd. I mean,

he's 6'9, so people are going to say he. should be able to do it. It's like at. the age of 40, though. I'm 37. I just. pulled a hammy taking a dump in uh. before the show started. But. nonetheless, in hockey, you can't really. hide, right? Obie's playing his best. season, having his best stuff still, and. he's playing the same way he's been. playing his whole career, or is there a. way that you can adjust as you get older. to be able to keep up with the young. lad's game? Yeah, I I think his game has. changed. I don't think he covers quite. as much ice as he used to. I think he. conserves his energy. He's a smarter. player now. He still gets into the same.

positions to score that he always did. It's just a different look for him. I. don't think he's quite as physical and. and let's be honest, he's almost 40. years old. Uh if he doesn't have some. young guys around him doing the carrying. chopping the wood and carrying the. water, they wouldn't have had the year. that they they have had this year. He's. a he's an incredible weapon uh a goalc. scoring weapon and that is how they're. using him this year. And I I kind of. compare it to Michael Jordan later in. his career. It's not like Michael Jordan. couldn't get to the dhoop and dunk and.

do all the crazy things that we had seen. him throughout his whole career, but he. also developed an incredible outside. jump shot from 20 or 25 ft, which made. him even that much more dangerous. And. if you think about Ovetchkin, he can. still score from the inside when he. wants to. He can still get to the. inside. Nobody can move him because he's. so big and strong. And he, of course, he. one of the best weapons that he's had. his whole career is his shot, which he. can score from the outside. So, he's. still a double threat in that regard. Uh, his game, I would say, if there's.

anything, he just does not cover as much. ground as he once did. Uh, he uses his. energy probably smarter uh than he did. when he was younger. He had more. obviously more giddy up and more. horsepower probably then. But, uh, he. still finds a way and you got to evolve. He's played 20 years now. If you don't. change, if you don't evolve as a player. and as a person, then the game the game. will pass you by. him and Sydney Crosby. both who came in at the same time have. been able to evolve as players, keep up. with the times, keep up with the.

technology, and have remained incredibly. relevant in what we consider a young man. sport. You're the best. We appreciate the hell. out of you. That's Mark Messier. We'll. be back next week on ESPN. We continue. on digital. We'll see you there. Hey, Moose. We appreciate the hell out of. you, man. Thank you for taking the time. on this historic Monday. Thanks for. having me on. Thanks for having me on. We'll see you guys soon. Playoffs are. starting soon. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Let's go. Moose.

Moose. Good nickname. Moose. 25 years in. the NHL. Debbut. 25 years in the NHL. Hard years. They're running sprints. Hard years. They're running sprints. That That's insane. We all know I'm a. new NHL fan, but I mean I understand the. physicality of the game. So to play that. two and a half decades, I saw obviously. a conversation this morning about. comparing OV to LeBron and how the. records compare and you know how. physical different sports and any sport.

you can play and dominate and play at. anywhere near the highest level for two. decades is super impressive. But I. didn't know I know he was coming up and. playing the same time as MJ. I didn't. know Moose knew ball like that. Yeah, Moose Moose knows ball. Moose knows. Moose knows life. Moose Moose knows. leadership, too. That's why him talking. about O's leadership, you can see like. Mark Bessier like yeah and he became. like a guy, you know, in the change room. that is uh a guy that wants to win had. to change up their style in Washington. so they could win Lordo Stanley Cup.

because it was just the Pittsburgh. Penguins, baby. Now the end of Obie's. career vastly different than seemingly. the end of Sydney's uh career. Nick, what's going on with the Pens? Are we. are we is there any chance to make the. playoffs Pittsburgh Penguins? I almost. wanted to ask Moose that, but I didn't. want to embarrass myself for not. knowing. No, no. Officially eliminated. from playoff contention. They did get a. win over Gumpy's Texas hockey, though. Sydney Crosby scored a hat-tick. Still. doing it at this age. Uh, still a point. a game player. We got Hey, Sid's still. the goat. Okay, thank you. The minor.

league team is on a great pace. They're. going to make the playoffs. They got. some dogs coming next year. The dogs are. coming next year. The boys will be ready. to run. Ready to talk about You can't. say that. Oh, you're going to get us. Oh, what happened with the Rizzer? I saw. him throwing baseballs. Is that right? He's firing that thing. Stop. 12 and six. Car. Stop it. I. thought it was a spinker. Kid's [ __ ]. 12 years old. He can't. He He's two. hopping a ball from ft away. He looked.

like Barry Zto out there. That's a good. That's a good throw. No, it's not good. It was an 02 count. He was trying to get. too many sweatshirts on under his. jersey. Oh, you got to [ __ ] get it. there. No, Rizler. That's good throw, Rizzler. They set you up. He should have moved. closer. He wanted to move closer. He. knew his distance. He's a Rizler. They. told me he had to back up a little, but. yeah, there's no way he's more than 10. years old. Whatever the case, four or. five. Well, if he's four or.

five young seems young. Resler is 8. years old. So, I'm proud of you stepping. up there and delivering that. And also, exactly, RZ needs to just keep on. growing, keep on going. And Tai, you. should be happy that it was with the. Mets, not with the Yankees, cuz isn't. that your guys's thing? They came the. Yankees and they ruined us or yada yada. He went to the Mets where everybody's. headed. Okay, don't worry about what the. RZ is doing. That wasn't the Rizzler. That was the Boom family. And uh if you. notice, they they weren't anywhere. around Yankee Stadium opening weekend.

when the Yankees, you know, were hitting. homers left and right. So, I think maybe. someone in New York, you know, heard. what I had to say about a potential, I. don't know, blood sacrifice or, you. know, something to kind of reverse the. curse. But listen, Big Boom is going to. be around. Big Boom's going to be. around. I don't know cuz he's I, you. know, listen, I love Big Boom. I love. AJ. I love Mama Boom. Sister Boom. It. kind of sounds like they're just, you. know, willing to sell themselves off to. the highest bidder. I think I saw him. booming at the at the Marlins park, you.

know, wearing Marlins tarps. I thought. they were Yankees fans. I don't know if. they are, but you're right. I mean, you. know, the Rizzler, he can do his stuff. with the Mets. That's fine by me. All. I'm saying is I know the Rizzler is a. good athlete. I've seen him on that BMX. bike, okay? He might be a future Xgame. gold medalist. I just can't have him, you know, four hopping it from 15 ft. away. I just Yeah, they they set him up. for failure. You saw it. We saw it. Uh, I agree. I agree. But then, you know,

then that's the Metro scum. How would. you set him up for success? I'm sorry. How would you set him up for success on. that one, Pat? Yeah. Move him closer. You just move him closer. Hand and do a. handoff. Like, what are we going to do? I mean, you can get him some pitching. lessons with one of the goats, Michael. Rubin. Have him got to show him. Okay. That was better than that. Exactly. Exactly. His kid's eight years. old doing his thing. Um, let's talk about let's wrap up all. the news of today. Terron Armstead.

retires from the Miami Dolphins. Congrats on a hell of a career. He and. Julio Jones announced their retirement. Let's go to Miami Dolphins uh super fan. Bubba Gambino. And then we'll obviously. get Darius Butler's thoughts. Dolphins. in a good spot or or what do we think. here? Gumpy? Terron Armstead and Kas are. two uh leaders of our team gone in the. same week. It's uh it's tough. Something's going to have to step up for. these boys. And uh I think we got one. DTackle heading into the draft. You.

know, we need some safeties. We need. some quarterbacks. We need a lot of. things for uh but two is having a good. offseason. He was having fun. It's good. to see. Boom. Yeah. Deep. Anytime you. lose a legend, Debut, anytime you lose a. legend, it's going to affect your team. Obviously, Terron Armstead's retirement. I don't know if any of us were talking. about it. Offensive line stuff. Who. knows if you're doing that. What a hell. of a career by this guy. Legitimately 12. years or whatever at the top of the. goddamn field. Yeah, great run. Uh. towards the end he was, you know, always. battling, you know, not not only like. one injury, I felt like every week it.

was like three or four different. injuries that he was battling through. trying to get out there and play. Um so. yeah, we we're, you know, we're in a. tough spot right now, but it's April. You know, Chris Greer, he's still there. He's, you know, got a chance to figure. it out. We still got Mike running the. show. Still got Tua. Tyreek is still on. the team for now. We'll see how he stirs. the pot continue going forward. I'm sure. we'll see more tweets, more Tik Toks, more [ __ ] from Tyreek, but hopefully we. can get him back at an elite level. Um, good acting. That was good acting. That. was good acting. He didn't give anything.

away there. He didn't give anything. away. Always going to be in shape. Always. going to be fast. You know, Ian Raport. didn't love that he didn't make his bed. But I will say, you watch this video, you you can't take it either way, which. I think is why he was good acting. I. think he probably recorded this, sent. this around, and said, "What do you. think this mean?" He got four different. responses. This was like perfect. Doesn't mean anything then. If it means. four different things, it doesn't mean. anything. Sends it out. Let's go ahead. and stir Paul a little bit. That's. Tyreek Hill. Football. Speaking of. football, maybe Tyreek should put some. uh hockey skates on. You know, maybe.

Alexander Ovetchkin since he's got the. record if he sails off in a sunset. Maybe he plays American ice football. Did you see what was hitting the. internet this weekend, AJ Hawk? Yes, I. am. I am here for this. I would like to. attend a game in person at some point. Well, it's West versus East. Uh, not. 100% sure who's representing where, but. I know if you're spinning it on the ice. and you're high knee and high heeling. it, this is exactly where you want to. be. Bye-bye. You know, uh, we've obviously.

had the run on frozen streets before. growing up in four seasons. I like how. like hesitant they are. Very, very, very. hesitant runners. Uh, but I also. appreciate the athleticism that's on. display and the possibilities of pain. that could happen here as you slide in. for a tud AJ Hawk. Yeah. Can I I just. want to know can I wear like old school. golf spikes? You know, the old metal. golf spikes. That would give me a big I. like that the rep is on skates though. These guys got linesman working the.

correct. are what is this? He breaks two tackles. He breaks three. tackles. This man is unstoppable. He's. at the seven, then the three and a half, now he's at the. touchdown. That guy, what a hero he was. Bad snaps, avoids disaster, breaks three. tackles, hits it up the sideline for a. tud. That guy's a hero. That might be. the American Ice Football MVP for all we.

know. But AJ, you got to have good. footing. It's hard to break. Defense. kind of sucks, but if you get a good. shot at him, you got to take them down. Yeah, good luck. Good luck, guy. Debbut. getting into a backpedal and the guy. breaks across the kick. Good luck. That's my first time seeing the kick. That's the first time seeing a kick. right there. Has to be as slick as possible to go. back to your question. If they're. wearing bowling shoes because you could. also He got a neck tattoo. That guy is. going to be tough to stop. And a face. couple face tattoos. I like the way that.

guy looks. I'm betting on that guy in. American Ice football. Curling, you. know, curling. They have that one shoe. that has like a couple cleats on it and. then the other one is a slider. Feels. like they probably make rules that you. got to have the bowling shoes on so it's. as slick as possible. Debut, how would. you fair in American Ice football you. think? I you know I don't know. I would. be very very uh afraid of falling that. ice taking a bad fall. Um the footing. I'm not sure the footing double moves. impossible to stop but how do you run. him as well guy? I mean seen one guy get.

out of the post yet. So a lot of bad D. Uh, I thought from the first few. highlights, I for sure thought these. were elderly uh, men and possibly women. as well until I saw Yeah, cuz I mean I. mean like what what are we never be this. this this down bad? I did see some. Indiana freight highlights that were. absolutely. I mean what [ __ ] stator they huh.

and unfeated fish I'm sorry I'm sorry. I. need to put some respect. So, yeah, that. that's something I can get into. That. [ __ ] right there, I'll never be that. damn good. Come on. It does feel like that is a Caucasian. sport there, the American Ice Football. Uh follow up on the Fisers Freight. Uh. that team's home arena is actually in. Bruce Browns's parking lot. So, he has. kind of taken them uh as his team. He is. now a season ticket holder. He was on. the field for the Fischer Freight uh.

home opener the other night. They kicked. an on-site kick. They had some. electrifying stuff. Bruce Brown, how's. your front yards uh football team doing. to Fish uh Fischer Freight. All aboard. the Fischer Freight train. We are on a. straight ride to Tucson, Arizona for the. NFL championship. We actually do look. like the team to beat in this [ __ ]. league. We got Stokes, a dog. Bit of a. Debo Samuel comp at uh at wide receiver. Gia Writes, our quarterback out of Fort. Wayne, Indiana. He's a dog. All grit.

sandpaper jam running it in there. And. then yeah, our kicker uh kicked the. onside kick. The McAfee special. Perfect. uh execution right to himself. Look at. the crowd. Oh, we were going crazy. We were going crazy. He He did miss a couple field goals. though. Might have to get those dialed. in, but uh still stole the possession. here to get us up 14 nothing early. It. It was an absolute blast to be honest. with you. Bruce was on the field, AJ. He. was posting pictures if there was nobody.

in front of him. Bruce, you sat front. row. How much were you paying for that? He's in this I think. Aren't you, Bruce? Where? Uh I I was right there. Yeah, he. ran it in right in front of me. Um those. were 80 bucks a pop. Front row, end. zone. Um hell of a view. You're right. into the action. The guys around me were. talking a little bit too much [ __ ] to. the other team's players. So they were. kind of turning around and looking at. me, and I was like, "Guys, look, like. I'm just here having a good time. I'm. not sell I'm not talking [ __ ] to you." I. I think it was close. The um the Fuel.

recently had a sellout that I think was. 7,000 strong. This was about uh 6,700 in. the background. Okay. On that note, if. you want to get tickets to see the. Fisher Freight in Bruce's backyard, why. don't you use our friends at Segeek, the. greatest ticket buying platform on. planet Earth and the Moon. They have 28 million downloads, AJ. 28. million. That's so many downloads. Okay. And they're still the number one rated. ticketing app across the board. That's. because each ticket that they sell is. rated on a scale of 1 to 10. So look for.

green dots. Green means good. Red means. bad deal. Red means, hey, it's a low. scoring uh on their AI scale. You can. get a cheaper, better ticket somewhere. else. Maybe not even on Segeek. But if. it's green, it says, "Hey, our AI super. smart. Scan the internet. It's a good. deal. It's a good ticket. You'll never. get catfish with our friends at. SeaGeeek." And the men's national. championship game is tonight. The NBA is. heading towards the playoffs. Baseball. is electric and the Fisher Freight are. just getting started on their journey to. Tucson for the Championship. But it's.

not just sports, it's all anything live. Get $30 off tickets with code PMS 2025. right now. Doesn't matter if you're a. new or repeat purchaser. $30 off with. code PMS 2025. Restrictions apply, which. is if the tickets cheaper than 30 bucks, probably. All right, boys. Let's get out. of here. We got Wednesday night big. night and uh 8:00 it'll be on YouTube, Tik Tok live and X reair with behind the. scenes footage like a documentary style.

on Thursday at Hulu. There's going to be. massive surprise. I mean I can't say. this enough. Massive surprises, massive. giveaways, massive singalongs, hopefully. some big laughs and uh hopefully a night. that'll be talked about forever and will. be an additive to society, which is all. we're trying to be. I got to get out. here, get ready to roll. The boys got to. travel over to Pittsburgh. We will see. you all on Wednesday. Enjoy tonight's. national championship. Enjoy the. Masters. Enjoy life. And hopefully. you'll enjoy Wednesday night alongside. of us. And if not, we'll see you next. Monday. Uh we're all in this thing.

together. Let's never forget it every. single day trying to be an additive. Hopefully that's my mission. Hopefully. that's yours as well. And uh let's. remember, we might disagree on some. things, but we got to live here together. as a whole. Be a friend, tell a friend. something nice. It might change your. life. We're in this thing together. Team. on. me. Team on three. 1 2. 3. Goodbye.