 It's really a tale of two Ks. There's West Coast, done hair, done up K, and then this East Coast, I don't have time to do my hair K. There's Sleeps Inn late in California K, and then there's Up at 4 a.m. this morning working out in New York City K. There's all love signs and peace signs and good vibes out in California, and then there's Tough New Yorker K-Adams, and both of those are showing up in today's show. Tough Love and Love Love to a couple of teams who didn't make it through the throw down round. Uh-oh, we'll be able to look out for that. We also have Darius Butler on the show. He thinks, what about the Cowboys and Mike McCarthy? Don't miss it. And we have a big show, huge, literally. Joining us from the Cincinnati Bengals should be all pro DJ Reader up in Adam Starts Now. Only three games left in the season, which is wild and frankly a bit sad. I was thinking about that on my brisk walk through the New York City streets this morning. Just three games left. Is it enough to get me to watch the pro bowl? Probably not, but we got a big show for DJ Reader on. We have Darius Butler, Niners Eagles, gotta get into that. I get to sit down with Boston Scott later today, so I'm looking forward to that chat, and you can catch it after Marissa McBride edits it up, and she's an Eagles fan, so it'll be done very well, I'm sure, and catch that up in Adams later. But the Bengals, they are going to take on Kansas City. The Chief's perennial AFC Championship hosts, they're playing at something called Borough Head, so we'll have to get into that in a bit. I had not heard of that before, and I want to do a start with this, since he matched up with Casey Zach Taylor, addressed the media yesterday, and here's an answer to a question that he was asked about how he is finding ways to motivate his team. I take whatever I can get, and yeah, it's probably the opposite of what people, yeah, 20 weeks in, I'm absolutely looking for anything. You know, week one's easy. Week 20, you'll take anything you can get, and I'll search every inch of the internet to get it. I believe this, I really do, and it makes me have all of these thoughts, because there's plenty of places to find that motivation on all the corners of the internet. The handling of the playoffs by the NFL, for sure, Zach Taylor was the first one to talk about it, I was so impressed by his stance, the everyone thinking that last year was a fluke, that everyone thinking this year couldn't happen, the me informing the O-line needed help, and I'm sending Delta flights to Andrew Whitworth, and clearly they didn't. These guys are seeing this stuff, and it's working, Mike Greenberg, a legend, agrees. Of course, I saw this over the weekend, not sure we've made enough of how much the Bengals felt they were wronged by the league the last few weeks, and they have shown up today like they are making a point. That was game day, I mean, it's obvious, it's, I mean, duh. And then I thought about our show. What are we putting out there? What kind of content are we putting out there? Pro-Bengal, so am I like against the Bengals? Like, should I be putting out more motivation for them and say that they can't do it? It's a real thing that I'm thinking about because all I want is for this team to win, and maybe I don't have to do that because people who come on my show do it for me. Eric Weddell set to join our show on Thursday. Do not miss it. He came on our show, and we have this funny thing going. Huda Nation's been coming after him. After he said the Bengals had no chance to win in Buffalo, this is everywhere, and I asked y'all, what do you want from Weddell? What am I supposed to do when he comes on on Thursday? And here are some of the treats that are actually suitable for television. They don't have to be blurred out and they won't get kicked off of Fandall TV. Okay, Paul King says, an apology and say we own the Ravens on your show. Okay, what's the next one? Tim Cantrell says, it seems Mr. Weddell needs to make amends on your show about our Bengals. What does that look like? Look, I've seen demands for this man, Eric Weddell, to get a Bengals tattoo because he was so wrong. Not only is that crazy and unreasonable and even demanding an apology, he said it, does everybody apologize for the things that they say on television? We have this so wrong, like completely 180. We, and by we I mean you, oh Eric Weddell, an apology. Everyone out there, we should be thanking the Eric Weddells of the world for giving this Bengals motivation. It is working. When you have Joe Mixon tweeting about the league and you have DJ Reader who's on our show today quote tweeting, after this win in Buffalo, he's tired, he probably wants to take it out but he's saying, oh Eric Weddell said, what quote tweet, when you have the coach standing in front of the audience, these media people who are turning out content and saying, I'm looking for motivation and it's working. Even though it doesn't matter, like the NFL playoffs saying, there's no neutral site, the refunds happen, let's move on. They are sticking in, like they want to hear that stuff to keep them going. We've seen it work for teams before and this team it's certainly working for it right now. So you know what Eric Weddell, we apologize. We apologize for saying all of the mean things and all of the just venom from Who Day Nation, we thank you for your support and here's what we need from you. Not only are we apologetic, we're begging you to come on the show this week and pick the chiefs. Don't come on if you're gonna pick the Bengals. In fact, we have a script for you. So it'll be a nice, quick, easy visit. We made a couple edits from last week. Just flip the team name, here it is. Here's what we need you to say. And scene, thank you. I'm sorry to say, the Bengals have zero chance against the chiefs, okay? They can't protect Borough. How can you expect him to go out there and win? That's it, that's all we need. So from the bottom of our hearts, we cannot wait to talk to you Thursday and let's see if this carry over to a game that is hard to mesh with what I'm saying. They're playing the underdog, nobody believes in them. They're selling tickets to this neutral site game. They're so mad, Joe Borough goes out there, never gives any fodder and says, better get those refunds sent to those people who bought tickets. And on the other side, the Bengals have won three against the chiefs and you've got a less than 100% quarterback who hasn't even, are they rolling them out there? Officially, I don't know, but we're anticipating it's gonna be my homes out there. Who's the underdog in this matchup? Like are the Bengals coming from a place of strength? They're calling it Borough head. So those two things meshing together is something I find interesting heading into this week and which one works and which one doesn't. And the Bengals, they're moving on. They're at the AFC title game again. I was there last year and we'll leave that storyline here for now. Do you wanna take a minute this morning to put a bit of a wrap on a couple teams that saw their seasons end this weekend? And I wanna start with the Giants. Now Giants hands, I understand the disgust you feel. 38 to seven is never fun, especially to a division rival in the playoffs. You could hear it from Brian Dabel when asked after the game if the future feels bright in New York. Probably a little bit too early. And look, I'm proud of the guys, the way we competed. I'm proud of the coaches, the staff members. To really only do this for one reason at this level. And it hurts when you lose. I appreciate this from Coach Dabel. He's not lowering the bar for his team. He's not making excuses. He's coaching to win every single game. I just wanna make sure that everyone, and I'm here in New York and I haven't seen one Giants jacket or a Giants hat or anything since I've been here, which I'm a little weirded out by. There's a big picture to keep into perspective here. Remember, this was year one of what was supposed to be a three-year plan to dig out of that awful cap situation that we bring in Joe Shane, we bring in Brian Dabel. They come in and they inherit that. And the Giants, they're ahead of schedule. They finally found their head coach, lead this team into a future with Dabel. The fans finally have an answer on what Daniel Jones can be for this team after all of us talking heads have debated this on every show. It's one of the only things that these shows have in common. This is the conversation always. Now, they have to work out some contracts. Seh Kwan, I'm confident they will, especially he's hearing what Shane said in the press conference yesterday. And I think he might've slipped up a little bit here. Listen to Shane's words. We're happy Daniel's gonna be here. We're happy he's gonna be here. Hopefully we can get something done with his representatives and that would be the goal to build a team around him where he could lead us to win the Super Bowl. Shane's gonna be here next year. We're gonna have these off-season meetings here at the end of the week and we're gonna talk about it. And then with the resources we have, we're gonna talk to his representatives and hopefully be able to get something done. This feels a little like when Gromp comes on the show and he'll be on on Wednesday and he says something that he's doing with Fandall, like before the kick of destiny was announced. He's like, I'm shooting something really cool and I'm like, Gronk, don't say it. Like, I'm not supposed to announce it. And that's sort of what that looked like. Quote, we're happy Daniel is going to be here. Do you understand? Followed by a little smirk from Dave Bull when the reporter called Shane out on it. Shane did not recover well. But what else he was supposed to do? And we'll see if it means what it looks like it does. But either way, with those two running the show, I think the future's going to be very bright in New York. I just, I thought that was a cute moment. Okay, I'm not feeling that. So that was my weirdly towards New York. That was my more like West Coast chill K vibe. We're being positive about that. I'm not feeling as positive about their NFC East rivals. The Cowboys failed to advance past the division around for the 27th straight season. How can that possibly be true? And it's not the fact that they lost the game that is upsetting me. The Niners are a loaded team. We get that. I honestly didn't expect them to win, but it is how they lost that has to make it tough to stomach for Cowboys fans. They caught San Francisco on an off day. The defense stepped up. Dak and this offense couldn't take advantage. Up and down. What do I make of Dak? I never know. And here's Dak talking about the missed opportunity. Yeah, just disappointing. As I said, I mean, guys that played their asses off, defense who gave us an opportunity to win this game, who played hard against a really, really good offense, a really good team. And for us to only put up the points that we did, that that's unacceptable. And it starts with me and I've got to be better. I mean, that's no other way to sugarcoat it. Okay. You can't question Dak's leadership ability. There's no answer you can give that's going to be satisfying for this entire situation. But the way he takes responsibility on his shoulders is admirable. Literally, if I was power ranking, how quarterbacks react to the media, Dak is probably number one. I'm trying to think of who is better with the media than Dak Prescott is. He says all of the right things all of the time and it's admirable. And he's got the brightest lights on him. That being said, at some point, saying the right things and proving yourself as a leader only means so much. This team has higher expectations. And at some point, Dak has to take the step forward for them. And it's not all on him. Once again, and I talked to Chris Carter about this in a Hall of Famer yesterday, how much is on Dak, how much is on Mike McCarthy? And McCarthy's decisions down the stretch are fairly being called into question. I defend McCarthy a lot. The decision upon, on fourth, I mean, what are we talking about? What was it, on the Niners 40 and then it led to San Francisco's go ahead touchdown drive, what is that? And for the second straight year, the final play of Dallas' season just made no sense to any of us out there watching wherever we were. Like what, what was this? I know winning the game at this point was a long shot regardless, but not only was it completely bizarre, but I feel like the Cowboys are stuck in Groundhog's day. Okay, fans are beyond frustrated and it's hard to blame them. So we'll see if any changes are made this off season. I was walking by into the building this morning and I saw the incredible Marcus Beers who I adore. And on get up this morning and the bottom thing said, like, should they fire Mike McCarthy? What should they do after this loss? And I didn't think it was possible. You have Jerry out there saying, I don't care what happens going into this game. It doesn't mess anything up for McCarthy. And then you hear, after the game, he says the same thing after the loss. I thought, that could do it. It's not going to mess up stuff with McCarthy. But how many more shots does Jerry Jones have at this thing? Is it apropos to do whatever you can to get your team over the hump? It might not be politically correct. He got your team, he got him a playoff win, blah, blah, blah, but something has to be done here. And if you can get a Sean Payton, you better bet Jerry Jones will do that. So I don't know what it comes down to. I don't know, Mickey Loomis is probably involved in it in some way and all of that. But if there's a move to be made, I believe it would be. Okay, we've got Darius Butler on the show. I hear he has a take on Mike McCarthy and Dak and the Cowboys. And we're excited about that, of course. I don't know this take, but I know we got a new Mayor of Shutdown. Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, coming up. DJ Reader on the show as well. See you better. How about them later? What a two-move. We don't like the Cowboys. One down, another to go. You better send those refunds. Me and this thing, they doubted us. We got the strong healthy, the second thing that we spelt, blah, blah, baby. We get to go and play to go to the Super Bowl next week. If you don't care what they throw at you in any way, shape, or form, You just walk on the field and take care of your business. Lay everything on the line. These are once in a lifetime opportunities we've got right in front of us in our hands. So what are you going to do? Hey, great team win today, everybody. Hooray! Hooray! They're going to be the bagels. Let it go, three, one, two, three! Throw down round winners. There we go. Lots of excitement, of course, with those. We've got DJ Reader coming up on the show. We've got to ask him about Eli Apple. And last year, there's Butler about him, too. We'll have to wait and see, of course, who we'll be celebrating after championship weekend. But one thing is, sure, we have to ask our governor of Shutdown City, former Patriot Colton Panther star, is your internet OK, Marissa is asking? Hey, it looks like we're back for now, you know. But soon as this season's done, hey, U-Verse, Direct TV, I don't know if you guys have any partnership. You're dead to me, all right? You're dead. Going to Starlink, baby. But we're good for now. Starlink. I don't know if Starlink is. It sounds like a movie starring Chris Pratt. OK, we've seen a few things. This week that made us over at Up and Atom say, we need a DBPSA. Can you help me break these down? Let's get it. Yeah. Stefan Diggs. Oh my god. Stefan Diggs, not thrilled at his entire team towards the end of this 27-10 loss, of course, the Bengals this weekend. This video, talk me through it. He gets into it with Josh Allen on the sidelines. Yeah. What's up? You know, Diggs, he's passionate. He's passionate. We know that. And obviously, this is an emotional game. He's one of those players that wears his emotions on his sleeves. And he's a receiver. You know, all these receivers, all these star receivers have a little diva in them. And that's a very dependent position. He wants the ball, target at 10 times, only four catches, 30-something yards, and a huge game. You know, he was mad about a lot of things. I get it. You know, I don't like to see it, especially at the end of games like this. But I understand it from a player that is as passionate and as talented as the five Diggs is. I know. I love him. He can't kind of do wrong. He just cares about the game so much. And then he tried to leave the stadium, though, before the rest of his team was even. Don't love that. Don't love that, Kay. OK, talk to me about this. And listen, he got a lot of heat. A lot of people didn't love it. He tweeted this in response. Let's take a look. It's easy to criticize my reaction more than the result. Want me to be OK with our level of play when it's not up to the standard? Nah. Want me to be OK losing? Nah. He deserves a smoke? Yeah. I mean, of course, I think so. I think so. You know, you're a leader in the team. You know, you got that seal in your chest for a reason. Obviously, you know, it's going to be good things. It's going to be bad things. That team, you know, that locker room, obviously have been through a lot this season. Not only on the football field, but obviously off. You know, teammates losing people, the shooting in the city, the Mark Hamlin. You know, it's been a lot of emotion. It's been a roller coaster. And those are humans, you know, inside of those buildings playing that game. So once again, I understand it. And sometimes you look back, you say, hey, maybe that wasn't the best thing to do. We're actually going to talk to him out of the Super Bowl. He'll be out there on radio roll. You got to come on the man to man pod, too, on that fan duo set. But we're going to talk about it a little more in-depth. But, you know, you still, after the season, after the game, the win, loser draw, you go in there with your guys, you talk about it, and then you leave. So like I said, I didn't love it. I'm sure he probably will look back and do things a little differently. But, you know, it's a tough, tough loss once again for him in the Buffalo Bills. Have you seen this Eli Apple tree tip? Man, look, Eli Apple, he is the ultimate, the king troll right now. And, you know, he's not the best corner out there. But he's legit. He's a good player in this league. And he was trolling in Kansas City Chiefs last year, I believe, and now trolling the Bills. This is what he does. And I obviously got a big game coming up against the Chiefs again. This is what he does. And he's been backing it up somewhat on the playoffs. So can't fault him too much. But it's no fun when the rabbit got the gun. And right now, Eli Apple is taking his victory lap. And he does that. But he's got such a crazy history. Yeah, it was, I think it was Tyra Kill last year that he had this. But Eli Apple is a character who always has something. And his mom was tweeting during the draft process. Remember, like, his draft knock was that he couldn't cook or something. There was like, he's always been picked apart, Eli Apple, for weird stuff. And, you know, don't let him win, Casey, or he'll come after you again. That's just how he is. Exactly. OK, let's talk about him. He's turned full heel ever since then. Mike McCarthy's, oh my god, Mike McCarthy's last play of the game. I mean, I just talked about it. What were they trying to accomplish here? Zeke got levels. This couldn't have been the design, right? I mean, no. And then he says after the game, hey, it's obvious that that wasn't a play we wanted to run. And that's not how we practiced it. No, it wasn't obvious, Mike. And, you know, as a former coach, I've been a part of a terrible play that you knew was kind of doomed from the start before it even started. This play, honestly, I was a little excited. You know, Zeke obviously reported ineligible. He was snapping the ball. Got a good snap off, by the way. But I saw 21 at center. I'm like, OK, what are the 49ers? And McCarthy, Kelly Moore got cooked up here. But it was the opposite of that. It was anticlimactic. Even before that, you know, Dalton Schultz along the sideline, not getting both feet down, getting knocked backwards. The San Francisco 49ers obviously been well coached, knowing that clock will continue to run. So it was complete mishaps at the end of the game from Mike McCarthy. Just like last season against the 49ers and the playoffs once again. But I think when it's all said and done, I think Mike McCarthy will be the head coach once again on the sideline for the Dallas Cowboys. You do? Obviously been. I do. Yeah, I think it's kind of going to be that same song and dance that he'll be back. Just like what we see with Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay every offseason. It's a question, it's an instance of that. Now, would I be completely shocked if Jerry Jones fires him and moves on and gets Sean Payton? That would be the only replacement I could see. Who's the Super Bowl winning coach as well. Which Mike McCarthy is as well. They both got one Super Bowl coached great quarterbacks for a large majority of their careers. That's the only move I would see. But I expect Mike McCarthy to be back on that sideline. Hopefully they should pay whatever they need to pay to Dan Quinn to keep him on that sideline as well and keep that defense humming because they player their asses off. I just don't know where else Sean could go. Like Sean, you know, like I don't know what good will he have still with the Saints like with the trade like I don't think I just don't think Arizona is a fit. I think the Chargers probably would have been interesting to him returning home Carolina. I don't know, is Mickey Loomis like going to swallow that and trade their Super Bowl winning coach? Never, never maybe. I heard he's asked for 20, 25 million. I know, but that's Jerry Jones money, right? Like that's, let's go. Like if he wants to check, cut the check. The only thing he won't have there is, you know, control. Control, exactly. And we know Sean Payton and you have Mark on all the time, Mark Ingham, so he knows better than we do most likely. But it seems like he has his hands all over the organization. You know, final calls at Rossers and things like that. And that's not the case with Jerry Jones, unless maybe they have some type of an agreement like, hey, I'll take a step back and let you handle it. Don't see it happening. So once again, I think Big Mike will be on that sideline again. And, you know, Dak, Dak and that offense got to figure it out, man. They got to play better than that, especially when your defense shows up and holds this dynamic San Francisco 49er offense to 19 points on the road. You got to find a way to push the points up and win that game. I'm excited that you invited me on the Man to Man podcast because I just want to come on. I want to do Shutdown City. I want you to say, okay, let's go to Shutdown City. Take us. Let's go. I didn't even know we were ready for this, but let's go. I'm always ready for a trip to Shutdown City. D'Amore de Lenore. Once again, back to back weeks and to start his playoff career, back to back weeks, first week wild card we got a pick in Seattle this week against Dallas. Got a great pick again. So he's back for another week in Shutdown City in the playoffs after the division around. Going out to Cincinnati. Your Cincinnati bingles. Big game. I kind of gave away this defensive game playing with Big Lou and how they were going to get after Josh Allen. Send him Mike Hillie. Now this is Shutdown City in a different way. Five pass rushes and created four pressures last week against Josh Allen. Expect to see that again against Patrick Mahomes. The Hobbler Patrick Mahomes this weekend. But the mayor out there, they blew their doors off your New York Giants. I know you're out there in New York. James Bradbury, who's kind of put together an all pro year opposite of another all pro in my book, Dairy and Slay. James Bradbury got his revenge. A team that let him go, let him walk. Eagles signed him. Eagles just signed all these great players. He played great. He was locked down, had a pick, had a big third down. Stopped early in that game and just like been lights out. So he's the mayor coming out of the division around going into championship weekend. James Bradbury, baby. See, and I love context. You're breaking down what you're seeing on the field. What I know is I used to live in New York as you know, James Bradbury, you know we had a little something extra on this. Giants kind of in the off season, Darius. He spent what, two years in New York. He earned a Pro Bowl bid in New York City. They get rid of him and now he's a what? All pro, all pro in his first season as an eagle. That's the kind of stuff we like to see. That whole Eagles team, man. All those guys got a chip on the shoulder. Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, he didn't get paid in Tennessee on the defensive side of the ball. Chancy Gardner, Giants got an incredible year. New Orleans didn't want to pay him. Bradbury was on the street. Slade got traded from Detroit. Everybody's got a little Hassan Reddick who didn't get paid where he wanted to. Like it's a lot of dogs on there. 100%. Hungry dogs and they eating, baby. And then their coach is like insane. Like I think he's insane. I love, I love Sirianni. Now look, he completely, completely failed the opening press conference when he got the head coach. But everything from then on has just trended upward. He's been incredible. He came on Pat's show one time and just really just see and listen to it. That's really him. You know, that's really him. And that's really how you get through and lead those men in that locker room. It's just being genuine and knowing that you care about the guys. And that whole team would run through a wall for that guy. I don't, I don't want to watch the Eagles Niners game because I've championed and I love both teams. But like how can I not pick the Eagles? Cause that would mean I wouldn't get Sirianni in the Super Bowl. And like what kind of fun is that going to be? I don't want a world where that doesn't happen. So it's going to be really tough. But let's look at these weekends games. I can't believe there's two left. It's insane. Yeah. What's your one thing to watch DB Lens that you're looking at on that Eagles Niners game? Oh, Eagles Niners, the front of that Philadelphia Eagles defense. You know, you got four guys, you know, over double digit number of sacks. They led that category by a wide margin during the season. And obviously you got a bunch of coverage guys I just talked about in the back end who helped those guys up front hunt. So San Francisco 49ers up until last week planning against Dallas Cowboys. You watch their tape, Kate. Honestly, no disrespect to their opponents. It looked like scout team a lot of times like, hey, I'm a fake here and then we're going to go here. That guy's going to be wide open. He's going to run in for a touchdown. It looked like that a lot. The Cowboys kind of stymied that a little bit. I think it started up front. So that's why I'll be keeping an eye on this week. This NFC championship matchup is how the Philadelphia Eagles defensive front can affect that San Francisco offensive line. So I think this game will definitely be won or lost in the trenches. Now, don't you Eric Weddle me with this next question. Rematch last year's AMC championship game, Bengals, Jeeps, what are you looking at? I mean, you know what, I love the Bengals and the Bengals have all the confidence in the world. Obviously going to Arrowhead that they can get to win. And once again, I'll be seeing how they, how big Luanna Romo will produce pressure and getting after Patrick Mahomes who we expect to be hobbled with that high ankle sprain. You know, coming in that first week, obviously you're playing with you injured in the game. A lot of adrenaline, you went to halftime. I'm sure they shot you up with some of that good stuff. You get through a game, you know, this week they're going to have to manage it. Maybe get one good day of practice, but we're not going to expect him to be a hundred percent. So I expect, you know, Cincinnati to get after and get some pressure after them. And now last, last year, you know, Lu did an amazing job adjusting, keeping them off his heels with Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelsey out there. Now you kind of only have to worry about Travis Kelsey and maybe deploy a little more of those resources up, you know, getting after them up front. So that's what I expect to see from the Cincinnati Bengals defense. Coach, I can't wait for where we'll come back on. Coach Lu needs those head coaching gigs. He needs it. It's crazy what's been going on now. We're going to say bye to you, but not before, listen, you're mentioning all the stuff about Mahomes. A guy who has done really well against the Chiefs is on next, but a guy who's never sacked Patrick. And you cannot tell me that if Patrick isn't a hundred percent, the DJ Reader is going to get his hands on him and bring him down. I can't wait, right, DJ? Oh yeah. What's up, what's up? Hey, what's up, man? What's up, dude? How y'all doing? DJ, what's happening, man? Nothing much, man. Nothing much. I'm at the facility hanging out and getting the lift in. How y'all doing? Hey, doing good, man. I can't wait to see y'all get after it once again this weekend, man. I'm excited about it. Y'all boys up there up front hunt, man. 9-1, 9-2, 9-4, all y'all boys, get after it, man. I can't wait to see y'all go to work this weekend. Man, man, we're going to get it after it. The guys are going to always go get it, man. Yes, sir. All right, Darius Butler, we appreciate you. We'll talk to you, and I can't wait for, to see you at Radio Row in a couple of weeks. DJ Reader won't be able to be on Radio Row Super Bowl, because he'll be playing in the game, and he's going to stick around and tell you why. Next, don't miss it. I'm back to throw on second and five. I'm fakes. Now he's going to launch it deep downfield. BFF, oh, excuse me. Really, Defensive Tackle DJ Reader, graded out as the highest among bangles, and their crushing defeat of the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. You know, it was not surprised me, and we're lucky to have him right now, joining us in his seventh NFL season, third with the Cincinnati Bangles. The should be all pro, Defensive Tackle, my guy, Grave Digger, AKA DJ Reader, hey. What's up, what's up, what's up, Kay? How you doing? DJ, I've had about four coffees here in New York this morning, but I do not need them. I am so excited for this game. So you're lit, you're lit. Oh, 100%, show me where you are. Are you at the facility? Yeah, I'm in the facility. I'm in one of our equipment guys in this little office. Sam, it's my guy right here. So he's got a cool little poster behind me. He's got like a little wall of fame door right here. Hopefully, I never make that door. It's a couple X names, so I don't ever want to be on there, but Sam's my guy, so he let me use his offer for the interview. Did you show up at the facility bright in the earliest morning to make sure that all those fans got their refunds yet? Oh, I don't know if they got the refunds, but I was here this morning, ready to go, man, because I got another week. So hopefully they can exchange those tickets for something, though. I know they don't get back to processing fees, though. They'll be holding processing fees. That's on them. That's on them. That's such a good take. I love that. You took care of business against the bills. That's not even like the right thing to say. Y'all killed it, dominated. I was on a plane. I was the poor person next to me had to deal with me. I had champagne. I'm going crazy. Y'all are out there freezing your asses off out there, but everyone talks about offense. This was so defense. I scream Coach Lu's name all the time. I'm always talking about you, but to hold the bills, DJ, to six to three total rushing yards and only 10 points. When they were running all over everybody all year, how were you guys able to do it? How did you do it? Man, you know, we got the mastermind Lou back there. So he's going to get us in comfortable calls, but it's just really a team effort with us. There's a bunch of guys who will do whatever the cost is every play to get it done. Whether that's in the run game and guys in the back ain't got a fit. They're going to come up and tackle. And when it's in the pass game, we're going to do our job of clogging up the holes of getting pressure while also being decent at our rush lanes and being disciplined. And we know that game going to come sooner or later, but a lot of people just can't be disciplined and Lou, you know, it's something Lou preaches. So I really think that's what it is. Well, I want to talk about Coach Lu, but I don't know how I handle this because we want to give Coach Lu love, but we don't want to give him like too much love so he leaves us. You don't want our secret to get out there too far, right? Well, hey, I know how you feel. But that's one of those things of progression, man. And you know, we got to give him all the love because he deserves it. He, I watched him work his ass off this year, not just the field-wise, the mental, the he trained every day because Lu and some of the best shape of his life right now, like he trains, he works hard. And he tapped in with the guys, man. And you know, as a person who plays for him, I couldn't ask for more out of my coordinator to really trust in us the way he do. And like, it's the process he trusts. He don't come over to the sideline. He not yelling at us. He not honest like that. He talking us through everything. He a real teacher of the game. And being able to study under somebody like that, this is a true blessing for the show. DJ, he's doing some special things over there. It's all of you are. Top five defense, three wins over Patrick LaHomes. Nope, who can say that? Then you hold Josh Allen, like we were just talking about, to their lowest point total the entire season. So many other awesome, prolific, well-paid, big names, guys getting interviews, all this stuff. They've tried, they have tried and failed to contain these top coverbacks in these big games. What is it? Give me like one thing that sets Coach Lu and his game plans apart. He got a lot of smart guys. We have a lot of smart guys on our defense and what he trusts us to do, the different looks and disguises. I think he's went out there and really hand picked his defense the way he wanted it. He has exactly what he wants from his defense and he trusts that process. He makes sure we know we learn so much and understand how to get there, how to go about the game and never give up on it. He got the right group of coaches. He got guys who were like, every coach in our defensive staff cares their presentations throughout the weeks for awesome. Like, I take notes on all of them and I never get bored listening to any of them talk about the game because they study it so much. There's a lot of good people in this organization on our side, especially it really helped us learn the game. You did a great job with that for sure. There's a lot of DCs or even offensive coordinators that are really good at that but then when they make the head coaching thing it doesn't work like they're just, it's okay to be a great defensive coordinator. It's okay to be a great offensive coordinator. How would, because I like that you're talking about his leadership, how he is with you guys because that's what matters as a head coach. How would Coach Lu be as a head coach? I think he'd be awesome, man. I wouldn't say that about a lot of DCs because it's hard for some the offensive guys to respond to defensive guys. I think Lu does a great job of just talking to players. Whether that be offensive, defensive, especially anything, I think he could be a great coach of men. So I think he'd be an awesome head coach the way he lets his team hold leadership but he holds you to that standard. He's not gonna let you get away with it. He's gonna teach you the right way and you gotta do his techniques but he doesn't want you to be a robot. So I think that's huge when it comes to understanding coaching and with all players. I think he'd be an awesome head coach. I love to hear it. All right, let's go back to this game really quick because I'm watching and I could not believe that I was hearing these bangles fans in the crowd. It does not happen in Buffalo and then I could hear it. I know you could hear but let's make sure everybody just listen to this. Take a listen. I was like, it was crazy. I was like, I'm good. There it is. I do think right now the biggest difference is I heard it. You've got to get the ball out of his hand. You heard it. Talk me through this. What did this do to you? I went out there for the first drive and usually, you know, it's this silent when the office on the field. I went on a first drive and I came here to call from Logan. I'm like, I come back to the sideline after that three hours and it's kind of loud out there. And then my boy Josh looked at me and he goes, well, look at all the black jerseys in the stadium. We lit out here today and I was like, oh man, it's up. We about to be on them. And then, you know, we went up 14-0 and I was like, you know, we come out of this drive where we want to. We can take it up from here. And we did, man. The guys really, we stayed on it all night. A lot of communication. But having that fan crowd, the way it was, it was so loud out there, Kay. Like it felt like the first playoff game here in the Ravens. It wasn't as loud as it was usually as we on defense, but it was nowhere near as quiet for the office as it should be. Talk to them. Talk to this Bangles team that's booking flights to Buffalo that's probably coming to Borough Head. We'll get to that in a minute. Talk to these fans and how they show up for you. How much you need them. We appreciate Who Day Nation, man. We appreciate, y'all keep turning us up because y'all give us life. Y'all give us so much life. And we playing for y'all. We not trying to let the city down. The Who Day Nation down. So we out there playing for y'all. We appreciate y'all support all the way. That's from the heart. Y'all do everything for us. Y'all do us this energy to go out there and play every weekend for sure. We see y'all on the Twitter threads. We see y'all on the Twitter threads. We see y'all everywhere having our back. And we appreciate it. We got y'all back too. Let's talk about these Twitter threads because you are hilarious. But it's not even just you. And I don't even know, like I don't know who's in charge of these guys tweeting. Nobody has any notes for y'all. There's no class you took. There's no, I don't know what's happening here. But let's start with this. Zach Taylor, I thought it was super interesting in his press conference. He talked about how he's going to scour every inch of the internet, looking for motivation for you guys. And I would just like to know from you what has been working? What has been motivating you? Just, I already know who I am as the person, the player, man. But it's just always funny. I read Twitter for comment. I read Twitter all day. My girl would tell you, I used to dare to scroll through Twitter and just laugh all day. And they're like, because it's the funniest place in the world. You got no time for sensitivity on Twitter. They ain't caring. But I read through it and I find some motivation. I might stick with it for a week. I might hold that little piece of my heart for a week because I need it. I need that little extra push. Like I said on the tweet, motivation is already free, but it feels good when you see somebody going out there saying no chance. Like those aren't even takes you should have. Like as a person, I've never counted just everybody out. I've never even been that type of person. When I see those type of highlights, I'm like, oh man, that's a perfect one to hold on to right here. That's a good one. That's a good one to hold on to. And you know, it played in my favor. So that's really what it is. I go to see what they say about me sometime. So I'm going to say you're welcome because I handed you that N-F-L-T-S-E-R-C-W-E-T-L zero chance to win. You tweeted about it, but I think we have the tweet, which I loved seeing because it all makes sense. The motivation is working. I mean, I'm sure the handling of the playoff format also is motivating you guys, even though it doesn't even matter anymore. But would you like to thank Eric Weddle right now? What would you like to say to Eric Weddle? Oh man, appreciate, appreciate the just zero chance, Eric. I just appreciate that. Amazing player, amazing career. You know, you got us in the Super Bowl last year. I love watching you as a kid, especially with the no gloves, which is crazy to me. But you can't zero chance, bro. You know better than that. Come on, man, zero, come on, dawg. We was just back here. Why would you even say that to us like that? You know those bad takes. You know that's bad locker room talk. You don't even go out like that. You smarter than that. You wouldn't do that as the head coach of your high school. I know that. Oh, oh, I love that. He'll be on our show. I'm very curious to see if he'll come and double down and pick the Chiefs, which I would love nothing less. That's okay. He probably would. We're good on that. Listen, people are counting out this team. They did it. A ton of people did it last year. Y'all made it to the Super Bowl. This year, you know, it's a different team. Different season. No two years are the same. I get that. Does this squad you have right now, does this squad pass the Super Bowl bound vibe check? Really think about it. Is it a better team than last year? Is there more chemistry? How does it feel compared to last year at this time? I think there's more chemistry in our team and everybody here. A lot of people here were on that Super Bowl run. I think there's more chemistry in our team than just in general, because everybody's more comfortable with what we have going on. So yeah, I think, you know, we do take care of business this weekend and you'll see some special hours. But I think it's a special team just because of the group. Everybody's gotten older. Leadership's gotten better. So like you said, there's just more of a bond. The locker room's different. Everybody's in there. You're not coming off that weird COVID year. It's not the first year of football. It's expected and it's exciting and everybody's a new year to this fun. It's a fun team. I wish everybody could be in our locker room because people wouldn't talk the way they talk if they were in our locker room and saw us together and saw the guys, saw us at practice all the time, saw how we interact with each other, what we're like on a day to day. We don't get that type of coverage. So people don't see that. But if they did see it, I think their opinions about us get a lot different. Do you think you have a better perspective because you spent time with the Texans and you came there now and then they embraced you? I mean, this Bangles team, and I remember when I met you, I said, what is happening? The Bangles don't make moves like this. The Bangles don't bust out the checkbook and wrap their arms around anybody and then you became the highest paid nose tackle at the time. So what is that locker room like? You're saying we never know. What is it like? What makes it unique based on what you had with the Texans? That's awesome. Being in Houston, it was a great experience for me. I learned from a lot of great guys, a lot of pros, man. I was blessed to be in a locker room that was kind of similar. And especially on the defense side, we just had chemistry. Coming here the first year was the first year was really different for me. And so it was kind of like, oh man, then you kind of get into that next year and you just kind of see it broad. Guys in the locker room spending time, everybody's not rushing to get out of here. We're playing ping pong. And not just some people playing ping pong and you got quarterbacks on there, specialists on there, defense line, office line, everybody's playing cards together. It's not nothing that's divisive about it. You see guys hanging out with each other that you would never think hang out with each other. They were all in groups and cliques and group chats. We talk all the time. So it's just different. And it's super competitive. We got a young team. So guys over here, I can beat you in flipping quarters. I can do anything. They can pin it about it all. And it all starts from the top. Our quarterbacks are a dog. He's a dog back there. And so having that on offense with the weapons that he has and the guys and the guys is able to lead the way they play together. And then what we bring on defense is just a special, just a special team there. I'm happy to be a part of it. You say he's a dog and y'all renamed. I don't know who it was. You can tell me who renamed Arrowhead or Burrowhead. I need to know who was it. I don't even know who said that. I don't know who brought that one. Well, I love it. That's funny. That was a good one. Okay, but you run things on the defensive side. What is the defense's relationship with Joe Burrow? You're saying he's a dog. We see that. He is a killer, cold-blooded to every defense. Does he go after you guys? Is he, how we see with you guys at practice? And do you like it? Yeah, we love him. He played cards with us. We played pool. We played ping pong in there. We go in there. We got a gym in there. So Joe's always around and he embraces the defense. He talked to us. We all talk all the time. It's not our locker room. Everybody can see each other. You can sit in our locker room. You can see a guy all the way in the corner. So it's not like you can avoid people. He's got the first locker to the right when you walk in. So he talks to everybody. He says words you might see. It's so interesting. You might see a scout team guy during camp be over there. A guy who's an undrafted strategy. Joe got a little chest thing. He set up his locker. He might come over there and get beat. I don't see him losing too much in chess. He's super good at chess apparently. They all are sitting there struggling with him. So he's really good. So they'll come over there and play with him and he's just that type of person. He's very open. But he's serious about the work and he got that attitude and that dog and that confidence in him that you love to see in a person. You're somebody you don't always ride with. Like if he leave me in anywhere, I feel good with Joe Burrow in my corner. Yeah. I'm just squeezing a couple more questions. I want to get a couple in about this game. But since that locker room is so open, I got to ask you, have you heard the name Justin Reed come up this week? Nah, I ain't heard nothing this week. You know, J. Reed, my dog. He had another bad take. Can't get that type of bullshit board material, man. And then no right, not know the names and numbers. But J. Reed, my dog, man, he a great player. So we'll see him this weekend. I'm sure they're excited on the office. I'm sure he's excited to see them too. I can't see any fouls from Chase. You got to go talk to him in that locker. I don't want to see anything between Chase and Reed or whoever. No, no, no. He didn't cool down. Good. So listen, so we don't know about the homes, right? And I'm sure you guys, I know you guys are preparing like he'll be 100 percent. But if he isn't, let's say if he's not 100 percent, explain to me, help me understand like, what does that mean for you going into this game? Man, don't change our game plan. Our game plan to go back there and get after them. And you know, lock them up on the back end. And that's the game plan. I hope they get changed as much as what we have going on. He's a dog, man. It can say whatever it's going to say. Patrick Mom's a dog. He's one of the best players in this league. And he going to do whatever he can do to get out there and play. And I think when you get out there, even if he's not 100 percent, it's where to go home. He going to try to make the most plays out of everything. So I don't expect nothing different in our area. And no matter what. What's up? DJ, you're telling me if he's not a half step slower, that you aren't going to get your hands on him? Oh, we're going to get after him for sure. That's not changing. That's going to change whether you're there or not. I don't think that that's going to change our game plan. He's amazing. You see some of the stuff, he's still going away with one leg. I see him go back there. He had to do a skip on the same leg to hand the ball off the other way. So I mean, is it going to change much of what he got going on? Yeah, I mean, that's what I'm saying. He's a ball player. He's a ball player. He a gamer. Well, you're a gamer. And I cannot wait to see you. I hopefully, maybe I'll show up at Borough Head this weekend. We don't know who called it that, but it wasn't you. And that's all that matters. We got to go though. We got to go. Our show's over. Our show's over. I'm getting in trouble. They're yelling at my ear. DJ, you're one of my favorites. You know that. We'll see you. I'll see you in Arizona, my friend. All right, K. I'll see you. Bye. Back on up in Adams. I wonder how lit that Bangle Super Bowl win post show on Fandal TV would be like. Yeah, well, you'll see it Monday after the Super Bowl live in Arizona. We'll be right back. Big thanks to DJ Reader. We kind of blew off the second half of our show because he was so incredible. We appreciate the time, of course. Bangle's chiefs round four. We'll have Boston Scott to talk about the NFC later on. Tomorrow we have Mark Ingram on the show and Rob Gronkowski on the show. And somehow I need to get them together on your screen. So we'll see you guys in the morning. Enjoy your day. And I'm going to go find Craig Carton to call him a ding dong. Goodbye.