 Listen, working three Fridays in a row is really tough, but it's a little easier when you have the best trash talker in the business here. CJ Gardner-Johnson reacts to his lion's schedule release, all pro-pastrokes or townstops buy to tell us which games he's got circled, and yeah, look out quarterbacks all over the National Football League, and to tell us how, why, what, who went and ha from the NFL, Charlotte Carey, the senior broadcasting manager and schedule wizard tells us how it was all made plus. Schedule quirks with me. Happy Friday! We like to have a reason to have bubbles around here sometimes, so, and I'm not gonna mess this up. Do you wanna do this, Marisa? I think you should do this. You do this. So we'd like to make a little toast to all of the social media teams, including, what is it, the Red Stallions? Is that what the Falcons are called? All these crazy names. Listen, all the teams crushed it, and we're happy. The bubbly fans have brought me in Tennessee. There you go. There are some, you know, the anime Easter eggs from the Chargers, they crushed it in their big time, prime time this year. Yeah, the bear with Chicago, I appreciate you. All very well done. So here's a toast to these NFL social media teams working their asses off to get all this amazing content out and make it such a fun celebration for all of us. And we've got a new lion on the show. They're opening up the season against the defending Super Bowl champion, Chiefs CJ Gardner Johnson picked that squat. Why? He'll tell us he's on the show today. All pro Patrick Sturtan will pop by as well because we have a schedule people that is a roadmap. It's a symbol of hope. It is optimism. It is LFG vibes up the wazoo. They are high as hell. And I promise we're here to break it all down. So let's start with a look at the teams that are toasting to the prime time life, the bright lights of it all, the high stakes. This is truly the currency of respect from the NFL gods and schedule makers, the chiefs, bills, cowboys and hello chargers who are in a four way tie for the most with six. Never thought I would see the chargers in a group at the top, but I love it for them. Bolt up baby and get ready. Now the Jets, the Packers. Okay, Jordan Love. What do we see in Jordan Love, Charlotte Carey? She'll be on in a second. Vikings, Raiders, Eagles, Niners, they each have five. A moment for the Bengals who only got four. Four prime time games. What? Crickets here. I mean, they're only one of the most successful and watchable teams over the last two seasons. Why would we give them four? Why would we give Jordan Love more? Does it make any sense? That's okay. That's my little gripe. And if you have them, hit us up at Up an Atom Show on Twitter. And the other thing that jumps out is a gripe. For the four teams without a single prime time game this year, we're sending a new love, but I like the undersell over deliver of it all. We do have a poll over at Up an Atom Show. Which team do you think will make the schedulers regret not having a prime time game the most? Will it be the Texans, the Falcons, the Cardinals or the Colts? Now we also got word on so many incredible matchups. So let's get through it here because these are the games and we'll just pop them up. These are the games that everyone is going to be talking about this morning. Okay, the first ever meeting between Rogers and Mahomes that's week four on Sunday Night Football. Mahomes was hurt and missed. Well, it's supposed to be their first meeting in 2019. Aaron at COVID he missed the 2021 matchup. Third time's a high scoring legendary game. Hopefully, Bill's Bengals divisional round rematch that's slated for week nine on Sunday Night. Sure to be emotional on both sides and maybe a preview for what's to come in the AFC. Eagles Chief Super Bowl grudge match rematch. That's week 11 on MNF Niners. They get their shot at Revenge Guys in Philly week 13. So we'll see who's under center that day. Eenie meenie miney moe, hopefully not Christian McCaffrey. I'll say that. And then we got round, we get round five of the best rivalry in the game right now. Bengals at Chiefs that is week 17, potentially with the number one seeding and the entire AFC on the line there. So those are the games everyone is excited and talking about. But here are some games that I love and that I think you should focus on. Are highlighters still a thing? Are we highlighting things? I don't know. Put it in your Google calendar. These are the games. And I wanna start with two of the biggest surprises from yesterday, the prime time love from the league for the Chargers and the Bears. You get to combine 10 prime time games. Six for LA, four for Chicago. But the most intriguing one is week eight when they are playing each other on Sunday night football. The schedule makers are showing faith in these teams, okay? But also in the quarterbacks, listen, you can debate the elite-ness, you can debate the social media-ness of these two guys if you want, but you cannot deny that they are the most, two of the most exciting quarterbacks to watch in this entire league. And I think they're gonna light things up in prime time. This is a highlight factory waiting to happen. This is shot for shot. When they make those lists at the end of the year of like the 10 best plays, I wouldn't be surprised if multiple plays come from this very game with Justin Fields and Justin Herbert. They've also never faced each other. This is all about aesthetic. This is all about just what it's going to look like out on the field. But it also means a lot that it's in week eight because it shows faith from the league in these two teams and that's important. It shows that the chargers are going to be relevant. They have high expectations in the West, but the team that was at the bottom of the barrel, the lowly-woly bears at the bottom, we think they're going to be relevant going into November and that is something that should be pinging your radar and that should be definitely a wow factor. So I'm in. Next, let's focus on, everybody's talking about the Bengals and the Chiefs and everybody's talking about the Bengals and the Bills and all of that in these high-profile rivalry games that since he has the one that's flying under the radar this morning, guys, is week two, bright and early. What does that division look like? They've got the Baltimore Ravens and they're hosting and this game is going to set the tone for pretty much everything, okay? And the entire AFC North and it's likely going to feature Lamar for once. Don't forget, he missed three of the last four games in this series and they've pretty much all come down to the wire, even without him. So Bengals fans, while I love you and while I'm sure the chip is on your shoulder right now for these four primetime games with Packers F5, blah, blah, blah, don't just start tantalizing and focusing on those fancy rematches just yet, right? None of that matters if you can't take care of business in your own division when you've got Lamar, now you've got Odell, Lamar being healthy. And after the fumble in the jungle, you know Ravens fans are fired up to get this thing going. That will be an exciting game because who do you like in that division? It'll be sort of settled and on pace there to start this season in week two. Okay, and then the last, let me see. Oh, the last sneaky matchup I'm looking at is week seven. It's Sunday Night Football. The Dolphins are headed to Philly to take on the Eagles. Why is this one sticking out to me so much? It's just the first time that these two former Bama buddies, teammates, BFFs, Tua Tunga by Loa, and Jalen Hurts will face each other. So here's how I feel about it. You cannot write the story of either one of these quarterbacks without the other. They're forever linked to a taken over for Jalen to win Bama the National Championship game. The next year Jalen taken over for an injured to it to win the Crimson Tide, the SEC title. They've battled for starting jobs but they've never squared off against each other as opponents. So I'm very excited to see how that one shakes out. And speaking of those two teams, they sit at number one and number two. If you look at the teams with the alleged, I don't know who comes up with this, what permutation or algorithm breaks this out. But this is the toughest schedule guys of the 2023 so far. And three of the four toughest belong to NFC East teams. If you look at the easiest strength of schedule, like you'd have to find an NFL player that tells me anything that they do is easy or they have an easy game. You look at it and the ease belongs to the NFC South, the Falcons, the Saints topping that list, the AFC South, the Texans, Colts, Titans, rounding it out. Now we've got lots of guests on the show. Charlotte Carey from the National Football League, everything we just talked about, she had a hand in. She put together, so she'll join us. Patrick Sertan and All-Pro and CJ Gardner Johnson is on the show, Big One on a Friday. Johnson on the show, Patrick Sertan on the program. But there you go. That was the LA Raider schedule there at Buffalo. Here's what we decided to do. My producers put together everything you should do. I can't really make this up. Let's see. I've got a tailgate on October 1st and the South lot kickoff is at one Eastern. You got some ideas there for what you guys should be doing. I can't make it out, but check it out. We'll put those on social as well. We're gonna have Patrick Sertan. We're gonna have CJ Gardner Johnson. We've got Charlotte Carey on the program as well. But every season, there's a lot of twists. There's a lot of things in the schedule. So we're doing a bit of a segment and then we're digging into some of the unique features of this year's schedule and something we are calling Quirks Ahoy. These are maybe the things that you miss when you're breezing it over, looking at your team, sort of settling your tickets and where you wanna go. And let's start with the Giants. I don't know that I call this a quirk or like a womp, womp, womp. Listen, we have the Giants playing a stretch early on with seven out of 10 games on the road, including two West Coast games in a row. This is brutal. They're the first team to have to do that since 1990. Giants fans, I'm just gonna say this and we can talk to Charlotte Carey about, you can send your hate mail to Aaron Rogers, okay? Because that's why you're on the road. The schedule makers, I assume wanted to make sure the Jets got those games against the Chiefs, the Eagles, the Bills, the Pats in there early with his greatness. Aaron Rogers, very interesting, very tough road for the Giants and of course a fun storyline there is Brian Dable going up and taking on the Buffalo Bills. So that'll be a good one. But Giants, oof, a tough draw for them so I'm understanding the fans not loving that. Let us know up in Adam's Show. We also get what could be, I'm just gonna call my shot here, the Will Leviss Scorched Earth Tour, like move over Taylor Swift, hottest ticket in town. Let me explain, starting in week 12, okay? That's around the point of the season. You gotta think Leviss has taken over for Tannehill. If Tannehill doesn't go right, he's expected to start the season, I get that. But if Leviss gets the start, he will face pretty much every single quarterback that drafted him over the span of four weeks. This is who he's got. He gets Bryce Young in the Panthers week 12, Anthony Richardson in the Colts week 13 and then CJ Stroud twice in weeks 15, 17 and 17. So Leviss really has a chance, which is a rare thing in the NFL to immediately his rookie year, make every team that made him wait in that waiting room, make every team that passed this on him, passed on him pay, right? I can't remember a quarterback getting a stretch like this and so I am very much here for it. So the next thing, I talked about Tua versus Hertz later earlier, they're gonna face each other for the first time ever. Tua is going to face all of the other Alabama quarterbacks back to back to back, starting with Bryce Young in week six, Jaylin in week seven, his former backup, Mac Jones in week eight. And he's got, you know, Nick Saban must be loving that and making plans to go to all of these games. So we love that, that's a little quirk. What's another one that I really like? I'm always here for the drama, okay? And we get a few, I don't know what you call these beef stills. Is that what people are calling them? These are spicy matchups on the slate this year. Week one, you get Juju Smith-Schuster as a patriot. Marissa loves this one as an Eagles fan because he takes on James Bradbury, Darius Lay and the Eagles secondary. What was the beef there? Yeah, well it was the critical holding penalty, right? From Bradbury on Juju, it led to, you know, Kansas City has that game-winning touchdown on the Super Bowl and then this, you know, the Valentine thing that happened a little after that was dramatic, okay? And then like there was a fallout with the entire Eagles defense coming after Juju. So get your popcorn ready for that one. We also get Bobby Wagner who does this in the NFL. He, you know, takes on the Rams who he played for last year before returning to Seattle in the off season. We love that. We have CJ Gardner-Johnson up against Michael Thomas in week 13. We're excited to talk to him about that. That's their first matchup as opponents. Remember Michael Thomas was suspended for punching CJ during practice. So we'll have Gardner-Johnson maybe to, we'll probably, I'm probably not gonna bring that up. And then week 17 bangles at Chiefs. Or is it like the Gibronis traveling to Borough Head? Is that the way we're doing that? We're bringing this back. That one, as we all know, is going to be a heated. Next up, let's see, what's another good one? Let me look. I need to figure this out. Okay, so it's Dolphins. Here's the thing about the Dolphins. The, there's, you know, it's a game of inches, right? So everything matters. And the weather, everybody makes a big deal out of it, especially in September when that will look out, look like. So they, they wore out teams. If you remember, in September, they took down the Patriots, they took them the Bills in the first three weeks of the season. The Bills could barely get themselves off the field after that game. So they didn't get so lucky this year, which I hate to see, cause I think it's a fun little, little bit of a strategy, if you will. They have to go on the road through their first four. Why am I taking it down? Including divisional matchups against the Patriots and the Bills. So the positive on the flip side is that they do get to avoid some real cold games in Foxboro, Buffalo and the Meadowlands late in the season. So I guess that's good. But that was a little quirk that I was looking forward to seeing how that would shape up for this year, since it was so impactful and the AFC such a tight little race in that conference. And finally, just because I'm a sick pup and I look at this kind of stuff, and it's one of the first things I looked at. It's which week is gonna suck for my fantasy lineup. This is the football death trap of the season and it is week 13, okay? Look at who's not available. Sorry to be, this is like a negative spin on everything, but the star power that is unavailable to you, you must plan ahead. Multiple top five players at every single position. So prepare yourself accordingly and do not say that I did not warn you to pick up an extra tight end cause you can't play Andrews Waller and you can't play Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen or Justin Fields. But to get a beat on that first sort of negative, then we have Charlotte Carey coming on and this is a hard thing to do and it's part math and it's part algorithm and it's part, you know, making it fair for everybody. And the way that they've always described it, Mike North and Charlotte Carey to me when I was on Good Morning Football and I don't know if they were on this morning, but it's not everybody. The way to have it is that not everybody's really, no one's really like excited and no one's really upset cause you can't make it, if one person's super happy that means somebody else is really not excited about that. Whoever your opponent is for that week or whoever in the division didn't get that sort of love. So it's a hard dance to dance and then you have to really imagine that they bring in Amazon and then they say, guess what, Amazon multiple teams can play Thursday nights and then they bring in extra holiday games and they decide to do an Amazon Friday game and then guess what? International games are expanding at a crazy clip. So how do we adjust for that? When you know from previous years, teams did not want to go to London unless they were playing on the eastern side of the country before making those trips to make it better for their team. So there's a lot of happiness, there's a lot of like disgruntlement that goes on, but I think it's when you get that perfect, like whatever, we hate this, but at least we got this that makes it sort of worthwhile. I think we're waiting and juggling on some guests, but to bring us back to that Giants point, because I would probably say the Giants maybe a little bit more disgruntled than other fan bases. They go through this thing last year where they're rebuilding and then it becomes the fact that they're contending and we all bit off more than we can chew with them. They get this beautiful deal done with Daniel Jones. Now we have Saquon Barkley is really the only deal that we all have our eyes on. Like when is this going to get done? Because they're contenders, they've got table, they've got their guys and they've added and they of course have Waller and they have all of this to see this sled of seven out of 10 games on the roof. And to link that to Aaron Rodgers who's getting all the love after the Giants surpassed every single person's expectation last year, cannot be sitting well with the callers, Matthew Hamilton, from where you are on the other side of the country, up there, you know, that Metro North talk this morning must not be nice if you are a G-Men fan. Oh yeah, there are a lot of angry Giants fans this morning and it's not just that it's seven out of 10 on the road, it's some of the opponents that they're playing in there too, they're going to San Francisco, to Miami, to Buffalo, to Dallas. It's a brutal slate and a brutal stretch of games. Yeah, I mean, what do you think? I mean, when I say direct your hate mail at Aaron Rodgers do you link that to that a little bit or is it just cute? I feel like it has to be a little bit because they gave the Jets three home games in the first four weeks. I think they wanted to get Rodgers at MetLife against some premium opponents. They have the bills, they have the Patriots, they have the Chiefs in those first four games at MetLife. So you have to think, you know, obviously the Giants can't play at MetLife. They did do a creative job of scheduling sometimes like they would give the Giants a Monday, the Jets a Monday night game, the Giants have a Sunday game in MetLife but there's only so much of that you can do. I think the Rodgers thing definitely did play a factor here and I think that makes Giants fans even angry. Yeah, literally, literally. Let us know how you guys feel. I can't believe the Bears have four Primetime games. I'm excited about that. The Jabs, by the way, we were right about our predictions. We said the Jets would have five and then they really have six if you count the Black Friday game with Amazon. So Aaron Rodgers and company getting a lot of love all over the map and then you had, what did I say, the Jags would have two Primetime games. They have three. So people are believing in Trevor Lawrence. We get Trevor Lawrence versus Joe Burrow in Primetime. You love to see that and then a division situation. Otherwise it'll just be a lot of fun and I think Jacksonville is really excited about that. Chargers fans, amazing. Amazing that they're like leading the pack because Justin Herbert is so incredible and fun to watch. So fun matters, highlights matters, schedule matters, Taylor Swift's tour matters, like at all. There's so much that goes into this. Do you have anything that you want me to ask Charlotte Carey? I'm curious to find out. I think to me, one of the toughest decisions would be putting that Chief Stalpin's game in Germany because you wanted to see Tyreek talk so much. He even had, he changed his Twitter bio to like the number one instigator of 2023. He, I think he was really gearing up to make that a moment and the decision to put that in Germany. I mean, beyond just that aspect of it, it's also going to be one of the most exciting games of the year as he said earlier this week, I think that's going to be a super high scoring game and to put that in Germany, I think that's a little bit of a statement. I'd love to hear what went into that. Now, did the Seahawks drop a video finally? Cause we were waiting for the Seahawks. Did they drop one finally? And it was a babies? They did. Yeah. Okay. I was going to say. I know, yeah. Alex from the Saints this morning was tweeted a shout out to somebody with Seattle, the guy who run social for Seattle I've never met. So I apologize. I think his name's Ken. And he started it because they back in 2016 made a cupcake baking reveal video and that's sort of how it caught on. And then I was like, within Seattle, like Hamilton and I were very impressed everybody that Seattle just decided to not put out the video for a while. I was like, this is amazing. They just put their schedule out. This is the best thing I've ever seen. They're like, no, we're good. This is, this is a lot. We're good. But then they got into the mix the normal video I've yet to see. So maybe I'll check that one out during our break here. And hopefully we have C.G. Gardner Johnson and Charlotte Carey joining us. Hamilton appreciates you as always. You're the best. Talk to you guys in a minute. Welcome back to up and Adams are very first guest won a national championship with Alabama. We're gonna get into that before being drafted in the top 10. That's right. He was drafted ninth overall by the Denver Broncos. He's not only a pro bowler, he was an all pro cornerback and he was named mayor of shutdown city many a times by our good friend who joins us weekly on the show, Darius Butler. Please welcome Patrick Sertan. Hey, how y'all doing? Can you hear me? Yeah, I hear you. Oh, I'm so glad. I think we were struggling to get you on but technology does its thing. But we are happy to have you. And especially on a sort of a special day, the schedule's released. I'm so happy to be talking to you, one of the best players in the entire NFL. When you see it pop up the first time, what's the first thing your eyes go to? You know, I just look at the fact that you know, our season coming up, you know, our schedule. There it is. I just think that, you know, it's very, you know, throughout, you know, different divisions, different conferences and you know, you know, it starts off with, you know, pretty good teams, you know, with the Raiders, the Dolphins, the Chiefs, Thursday night, you know, the Bills, Primetime Games as well too. You know, I'm just looking forward to it. You know, just, you know, where you can just feel the urgency in the building, you know, getting excited for these games coming up. And it's also, you know, it will show us, you know, what type of team we are, you know, early and often. Yeah, you guys have four Primetime Games. You mentioned the Bills one, I think that's week 10, but we're gonna show you your four Primetime matchups here. And these are the big boys, right? These are the bright lights. How important is it to you to play in Primetime Games and which one of these games pops out to you the most? I think it's very important, you know, just to play on that national stage, on that spotlight, you know, on national TV to show what you're capable of, what your team is capable of. You know, it just gives us, you know, a sight, you know, just to go against these great teams, you know, on national TV. You know, obviously the Chiefs is a big one, you know, they're in our division. A good team as well, the Bills, the Vikings, you know, all those teams are, they were playoff teams that year. Obviously the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, but you know, those teams are the ones that, you know, I'm looking forward to. You're taking on a lot of wide receivers. Listen, there's a full screen that flies around ever so often of Dorel Rivas. And it's all of the wide receivers that he held to 35 yards or under. And it's insane. Here, oh, here it is. You got Randy twice, Tio twice, Steve Smith, Tori Hill. I want you to channel this kind of energy when I show you these wide receivers that you're going to be going up against. You've got Stefan Diggs on here, Keenan Allen, Tyreek Hill, Garrett Wilson. Who are you eyeing on this list the most? Pick one, Patrick. Yeah, it's a schedule. I'm going to get us a lot of great receivers. You know, probably Diggs or Jefferson, you know, both on primetime football, on national spotlight. I'm looking forward to those matchups, you know? You know, it's going to be a, it's going to be a dog fight. It's going to be a battle going against one of the best in the league, you know, both in their respect, respectfully positioned. So, you know, I'm looking forward to that. You know, I'm always ready for a battle. I always get prepared for that. So, you know, I'm ready for those two. It's true, but let's talk about that first one on there. Devonta Adams, I know you want that, right? Because you faced him, he's probably, you know, you've shut down a lot of those guys, but he, you know, what is it about Adams and how was your mindset going into facing him? Yeah, you know, he's a technician at what he does. You know, we battled it out the first year. We went against each other and, you know, I'm looking forward to, you know, many more battles. You know, obviously he's in my division, so we played twice a year. And you know, you know, we just battled computer at a high level, you know? Manonimano on the field, on the bright lights, on the biggest stage. You know, I'm also excited about that matchup as well, too. You know, as we go against each other this year as well. So, you know, I'm looking forward to that matchup. I'm excited. I'd like to see Denver get a win over the Raiders this year. Yeah, and that's the most important thing, is to get a win over a division rival like the Raiders. So, you know, that's the most important thing aside all the matchups, and you know, and all the anticipation built on that is to get a win in the division. So, that's the biggest thing. How much is that crazy man, who's now your head coach, going to help, going to help you do that? Oh, he's gonna help me a lot. You know, right now I can just tell like the focus level he has on the team right now. You know, he's very locked in. He knows what we're capable of as a team. You know, we got young talent on the team. You know, I think we're a complete roster on both sides of the ball. So, you know, I'm looking forward to that. And also, he just knows what it takes, you know, to win on the biggest stages. You know, he's proven that in his past before his resume speaks for itself. So, you know, I'm looking forward to, you know, going on the field with Sean, you know, winning some ball games. So, when you say he's really focused, because there's like two sides of Sean. There's like the absolute crazy person who you don't have to say it, I'm saying. He's crazy, ruthless. Trust me, I've seen... Tell me. Tell me what you've seen. You know, he's shown that. He's shown that. How? What have you seen so far? I'll tell you this, Sean, you know, he's very involved with the team. You know, he's going to tell you what it is and what it ain't. You know, he's just very, very, you know, in tune with himself. You know, he's got a high personality as well to, you know, he talks. He talks to talk as well too. So, you know, once you go in and beat him and talk with him, you can understand why, you know, he's one of the best coaches just by his personality. So, you know, he acts just like us as kids, but, you know, in a good way, in a positive way. So, you know, he's a great coach in general all around. But, you know, his personality speaks volumes. Because he's crazy and he's ruthless. But then there's also the side you're talking about. I mean, have you seen this side of him? Yeah, the side where he's dancing. The side where he's having fun. Have you seen this side of Champagne yet? No, not yet. Obviously, we got to win. We got to win some ball games first. But, you know, I'm looking forward to that this season because, you know, I can't wait to see that him bring that energy towards the team, that enthusiasm. And, you know, we can't wait to, you know, celebrate victories like that. And, you know, he always got the fresh pair joined us on his way up to. So, you know, he always going to stay a kick to his style. So Patrick, Patrick, what size shoe do you wear? 13. Oh, is he a 13? I don't remember. But Mark Ingram literally would go up to his office and get boxes of Jordans. Because they were the same shoe size and Jordan just literally sends him all the shoes. So you got, you might have to squeeze a little bit. You might have to put some tissue in the toe, whatever it is. Like, but if you all are the same shoe size, you are set with those Jordans. Oh, yeah. Sean, Sean be, you know, selling us the whole backstory on his, you know, the Jordan deal and how he get his players right, get his players fitted. So, you know, once those busts come to his office, I'm going to go up, you know. Yeah. That's perfect. You know, so. But you got to win, which I love that you, there's a kind of a trick question. You answered it perfectly. Like you can't celebrate before wins keep happening. You got to get win especially against division rivals, especially in that crazy division that you play in. Now there was that footage of like the Nuggets game. And they won last night or whatever. But it was Sean Payton and it was Russell Wilson and Sean's wife between them and they're talking. And I was saying that I literally do not think, Patrick, that there is a more like odd couple, quarterback, coach combo than these two. Like they could not be more different. What do you make of them and how they'll vibe this year? Because you spent a year with Russell. Yeah. I think they'll get along well. Obviously they're two different personalities. You know, Russ is more, you know, with those, you know, he's more like, you know, to himself. But also, you know, he's a very strong leader of work. And he works hard as well too. But you know, I just think they are jail well using a, you know, they both know the game very well. I think that, you know, Sean may offer, you know, him what he sees on the field and Russell teach him some things on the field as well too. So I just think that they'll combine well and jail well in a way. I think they're like, I think they're like Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. They're like Iron Man and Captain America. Like these two and Iron Man is Sean Payton. And then you've got the quiet, like church boy, squeaky clean Russell Wilson as Captain America. Am I wrong? I'm right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like I said, I just think that, you know, those two different personalities, I'm going to say jail together. I just think that, you know, it makes, you know, it makes for one, you know, obviously they've been working already. Get prepared for the season. I can't wait. I'm excited to see what happens because, you know, I'm looking forward to, you know, the offense working and, you know, they work towards the season. So I just, I just believe that, you know, Sean, when you bring a guy like that, you know, it brings the best out of everybody. So I can't wait to see that. You have like a smile on your face about it, which I'm really keying into because I think Denver's got a little something for the rest of the league this year. I think it's a bit of a mystery. Russell Wilson was a huge mystery last year. You were doing your thing. If they can click it and make it happen, then it'll make your job maybe a little bit easier taking on all those wide receivers and having to shut them down. So I'm happy for you. I'm excited for what this year brings. Let's wrap this up with a little game that my producers created. It's in your honor. It's called Are You Sir Tan? I'm sure you've heard that before. So it's a little playoff. Are you certain? Are you sure? So I will make a statement and you tell me if you agree or not, if you're Sir Tan about it or not. So last season, you made an incredible diving, sliding interception to Patrick Mahomes in week 14. You know which one I'm talking about. This year, you'll intercept Patrick Mahomes more than once. Are you Sir Tan? I'm Sir Tan. Yeah. Sir Tan, as I should say. We love to hear it. I can't wait. I make them that pretty. That was beautiful. I almost swore. Oh my God. All right. There are some great former Alabama defensive backs in the NFL right now, Marlon Humphrey, Trayvon Diggs. You are currently the best Alabama DB in the NFL. Are you Sir Tan about that? I'm Sir Tan living. You can say it. Here's Sir Tan. Even though we know this, there's so many great Alabama DBs across the league. They're doing what they're doing, respecting me on their side at the ball. So they just keeps on going from Alabama. It's like a train, it's like a cycle. Just keep on producing DBs and league. I can't wait to see what we got this year. I will say you don't like being compared to other DBs and I love that about you. Like you gotta give everyone their love and you say everyone's on their own journey and I've noticed that about you and I really respect. And I do appreciate that about you, Patrick. All right, let me ask you about this show that I've never watched, but I know that you watch FX Snowfall. It just had its series finale. After six years, Snowfall is one of the best series ever. Are you Sir Tan about that? I'm Sir Tan of it. I just feel like they did my dog Franklin wrong. I just don't, I like the way how they did him at the end. What happened to Franklin? He lived though. Yeah, he lived, but you know, it ended up bad. You know, everything went wrong. You know, he didn't get his glory. So I went down the wrong tracks, you know, so. But I love the show in general. I just feel like every season in each episode had me like at all, you know, so it kept me on the edge of my seat. I think Sean Payton's happy. It's over just in time for you to hit the books and watch the Devonte Adams tape and the Devon Diggs tape and get it all going for this year, which is great. Now we've noticed on Twitter, and this is where, listen, I gave you your love, but you lost me here. Now we're not friends because you like videos with snakes in them, okay? This is, are you a snake guy? Are we Sir Tan about this? Ah! I want to say I'm a snake guy because I'm scared of them as well too. But I just thought, you know, the video was interesting because, you know, I just feel like when you see those type of animals like just in a bra like that, you know, it's kind of crazy. Like this video, for example, is like, I would know what to do if I seen a snake like that, like in the open, you know, but it's crazy and it's pretty entertaining to me. But I'm scared of snakes as well too, so. Good. You ain't got to, I don't know. Because I thought you would like, no Patrick, you had like multiple snake videos and I'm like, oh my God, is he a snake guy? Because I can't. I literally, I want a roof for him. I can't, I can't do it. Last but not least, you face, because the schedule was released, you face some of the best quarterbacks in the NFL this season, but you also face two of your former Alabama teammates, which I love. You take on Tua and Mack Jones. You will intercept both of them. Are you Sir Tan? I'm Sir Tan, I love it. Who are you looking forward to facing more of those two? I'm looking forward facing Tua, because you know, it's, you know, it's back at home where I'm from, playing Miami at the Dallas field. I'm looking forward to that game. It should be fun, you know, just going back home, playing in front of my family, in front of my hometown, you know, I'm very excited for it. We're excited for you. Enjoy the season. The smile is saying it all. You're a man, a few words with the smile is selling whatever you've got going on there in Denver. Good luck to you. Good luck to those nuggets. Good luck to Russell Wilson, Sean Payton, the dancing. Good luck to the snake and the cat. The whole thing we appreciate you. Patrick Sir Tan, we're big fans here on Up and Adams. We're all about the defense today. We have got CJ Gardner Johnson on the program. Let's talk about the NFC North Champion Lions. All right, week three, New Orleans at Green Bay. So we made for these beautiful Saints fans that will go visit because they travel so well. You could take the Champions Tour at Lambeau Field. You could have dinner at Crop's Supper Club. Okay, head to a Piggly Wiggly. That's what I would do. You can tour the National Railroad Museum for $12. I wonder how many times 12 has done that. Aaron Rodgers, I would love that. But I want to bring this guy to any social schedule. It is released. This is the life of the locker room. A professional instigator, a true talent in the league. He was a safety for the Saints. We just mentioned the Eagles. And now a team that might win the NFC North for the first time since like the 1800s. CJ Gardner Johnson, how are you? I'm good, how are you doing? It's so good to talk to you. We just had Patrick Sartana. Now I got you, we're talking all defense here. And you have had quite the off season. I think it's very cool that you were at the top of the list for free agents. You test the market, you do your thing and you sign with the Lions, a very exciting team. Tell me about your feelings about Detroit. I'm feeling good. To be honest with you, I'm back with AG, back with Dan. I think the most exciting thing about being here is understanding that he got a bigger role. Like I'm gonna see if I'm being position coaches to head coach to a coordinator. So I think hearing that voice more and seeing what they can do, you know what I'm saying? Being up by their wing and just gathering these young guys so we can try to, you know, win some games together and just continue to get better. Yeah, what are your conversations with Dan like? He seems fun. It's insane since I was in the war when he first saw me, he actually hugged me. We talked about like 20 minutes. It was like how I feel mentally, checking on me and just asking him, I'm ready to go, you know, coming off of Super Bowl loss. Eventually, you know, it's a lot, but I'm ready to get back to it and lead these young guys and get us to what we need to be. I love that. You've been hanging out with some of these guys. You're there, you're settled. Who have you bonded with so far? Aiden Hutchinson, Amon Ross, St. Brown. I think St. Brown, Amon. Aiden, I think Amon really, because we was on family feud together. So I kind of got to see how he really, really reacted. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Tell me about this. What? So I really can't tell the results. For all I know is, me and Amon Ross, we were definitely like, if we had to go again, I think we'd be the best duo ever on the show. I think we had Steve blow it away. Best dress, everything. Wait, but you're saying if you win again. So the first time did it, did you leave something on the table? Do you have like a chip on your shoulder? Did you win? I mean. No, I don't know. We will find out the results when the show airs, but we already know who won. Were you nervous? Because I grew up watching with my grandma. So I actually kind of had some answers in my head just in case they hit me with some old school questions. What's the trick to winning that show? Like, is it just letting it rip? Like, what is your key, your cheat code? Don't overthink it. Oh, okay. Don't overthink. So if they ask you, hmm, what's round and white? Hey, think something simple. I did not. Don't overthink. My head went, I don't even, my head went to like a loaf of bread. Yeah, that was, that's like one of those things where you ask the question, just don't overthink it. Dude, give me another one. Okay, cool. Okay. Hmm. What's Furry and Bites? A cat. Is that pretty good? And then you might get a five. You might get a 10 because the answer, it's based on all a million people who will answer this question. So you may never know. So Steve Harvey was cool. Very cool. Fly too. Really? I would be, I think I'd be crying, laughing with him. But like, okay, let's talk, let's talk from cats and to the lions. Let's do it. We'll say in the cat fan, like, and we'll get to your schedule that was released. You get to come out the gate hot and go against the cheaps. Week one, this is, you know, a lot of people saying a lot of love, a lot of respect for you. Is this a personal CJ, GJ revenge game? Truthfully, honestly, no. Stop. I can't like, I can't, it's gonna hurt to see them come out super old champs and I just faced them. So I think I have to channel my emotions so I can go out and play a good game. I think the guy that's on the team to understand the magnitude of how I feel because he wasn't there with me, but I'm still gonna bring the same intensity but I think it's, I got two of my short, I wanna be there. I kinda wanna be there, I wanna spoil the home comer. Take me through like, you're so honest and that's why I love talking to you and I just love watching you, I look, I think you should be mic'd up every game. If I had to pick a player that's mic'd up every game, it is easily you. Take me through the range of emotions, like you lose a Super Bowl, is it sadness, anger, then it's thought like, like take me through the emotions and where you're feeling right now. It bothers, because it's like the team I was on, if you look at the structure of that team, you would never get that many vets in the same room. You never get that much talent in the same room in one year. You never find a system that works for everybody, like no injuries, no flaws, no team issues. It's like, when you have a Super Bowl run year, we're not going back, I was with Malcolm Jenkins in New Orleans talking to him. Everything has to come together. Everybody has to see the same goal, understand what we're there for. So I think losing that game hurt more, because if you were to want it, it's like you got to do it again, and they expect you to do it again. So I think losing it, it makes you humble up and respect the game more because you're playing against the best of the best. So seeing Pat playing against him, seeing Chas, I mean, you can't be upset because you're playing against the best of the best. You just understand that that's the game that you want to be at and you want to be remembered. So I think my knowledge of that game is tell everybody, just be yourself. Don't change. The moment doesn't change. Just play football for 15 minutes, each quarter, let the results take care of yourself. And I think that stuck with me. I really respect how much you've thought about it. Like you've really put, I mean, that takes work to, and in managing your emotions, like you're already thinking about that, not even knowing when that game is. It's amazing. And thanks for sharing that. And then I'm looking at the schedule. And the only thing that's missing is the Eagles on your schedule. Yeah. I mean, I love it. I mean, it's whatever. What do you mean? Pete, listen, I will say this. My producer is 10 feet this way. Her name is Marissa. She's the biggest Eagles fan. She is like, why is he not on the team? And it's a huge conversation. Fans are having fans that not want you to go. What happened? I don't think, no front office from where I've been at to understand the player. They see the hair lash out, going against players on the field. But it's like, you rather got us passionate about you or not passionate about you. So I think when you get to a spot, you give it your all. And then they just turn the back on you. I mean, you just treat it like a business. I mean, I'm just here to do what I gotta do. But my teammates have to understand that you can't put your feelings too much into it. So I mean, I don't, like I said, they wanna take the game away from the player, but you can't really do it because when you put me out there, you can't find nothing bad about me. I'm always there for my teammates. I'm the first one on the spot. But those type of conversations with the agents, teams, I just let it go in one way or the other. Cause the way they see me and the way other people see me, it's two different things. So it's like, you can't fight it. I'm here. I'm blessed to be here. I got an opportunity to play football. I mean, everybody didn't expect me to sit at least in the free agency. But I mean, it's what it is. I mean, it's life. You can't control certain things. You gotta understand that God puts you in the spot to succeed. And I think I'm here to help these young guys get into a better spot. And then some happens, man, season in the season happens. But if not, just I'm ready to play football for another year and see where I can go. I mean, the thing is you can only control it. You can control your right, but you can control what happens here in this new building with these Lions who everybody's talking about. You got a lot of young cats that are gonna be looking at you and saying, what do we do? How do we play more like you when we're on the field? And so you do have control. And I love guys who take that to their next place and they ball out. And that's what we're, you know, we're fans of you. We're expecting that from you. So we're really excited about that. But you are like, I don't want you to like lose what my favorite, you know, like you're trash talking. Like, what are we talking about here? We can't lose my favorite thing about you, which is the fact that you have that in you. Quickly, I'm gonna hit you with one or two topics here. And I want you to give me, you're one of the best Mac Talkers in the game. And we've got your new song, Sky Dweller, playing here. You just dropped it on Spotify. Check it out. I want you to give me the best trash talk about the University of Georgia's football program. The best trash talk about University of Georgia's football program. Well, I only beat them once as I was in school. So I already called them the pups and I actually got them, the pup from Georgia. I think that's the best trash talk I got because I think when you lose and you can't say nothing. Like, I lost two years out of three against Georgia. So I called them the pups. Okay, quickly, cheesesteaks. You like cheesesteaks? Mm-hmm. Talk to me, hurry. I hate them. Cheesesteaks are terrible. I can't think of nothing about cheesesteaks right now. I just don't like everybody, everybody hyped them up in Philly. Then when I got it, it was like, this is it. So yeah. Okay, week 13, Michael Thomas. He know what time it is and I'm not gonna say nothing about that. He know what time it is. I don't know. What time is it? Call Sean. What time is that? Tell me. Listen, he better not come out with that crazy stuff. Gotta keep it on the field, keep it at that. Keep it at that. CJ Gardner Johnson, we appreciate you. Thank you. I got nothing on cheesesteaks. Download his new music. Please, over on Spotify, we appreciate you. Listen, I need you back on the show more. I need you back more. Bring it back. All right, let's run it back. Sounds good. All right, week one, chiefs, you take care of that and then we'll talk after the game, after you get that W. Up next, Charlotte, Kari breaks down the NFL schedule. Joining us now to give all the insights, the ins and outs of the NFL scheduling process, the senior broadcasting manager for the NFL, Charlotte. Kari, good morning. Good morning, K, how are you? I'm great, probably not as great as you are because it's done. It's out there. You've dealt with the Taylor Swift tours and the derailments and the broadcast partners and everything. What does success look like for you when the schedule is finally released? Nobody too happy, nobody too mad, I imagine. Yeah, honestly, a full night of sleep is where it starts, but no, in all honesty, I mean, I think for us, like I'm not sure happy is the right word, but everyone being sufficiently okay with their schedule and not too disappointed is what we're always going for. You can't make everybody happy when you have 32 teams plus the network partners. It's just, it's not possible to make sure that everybody is very happy at the end of the day. But thankfully, one of the things we loved about this schedule is that everyone got a little piece of something. And when you open it over the course of the schedule, there's not too many legitimate gripes to look through from any team. So over the course of this whole process, that's one thing that we obviously take into account the whole time, especially when we get to the end, this schedule kind of checked a lot of those boxes. A lot of the things we really liked in here too, but also making sure that everybody we felt was sufficiently taken care of, I think, is the right way to put it. Yeah, the currency of the NFL, as far as respect, is where the NFL schedule is, right? Where do they go? Where are they going? How much are they traveling? So there's a lot of surprises here. Chicago, bottom of the barrel, they get five primetime games. The Chargers get six, which is amazing. And Jordan Love gets just as many as Aaron Rodgers. What do you know that I don't, Charlotte? Oh, I don't know. I mean, I think Chicago, you start with a team like Chicago. They're a little bit frisky at the end of the year. Yeah. And I think their Young Quarterback, fun to watch, that division, I think, in and of itself is a little bit different. This year, it's a little bit wide open. You've got Chicago, Detroit, a new Green Bay, Minnesota, who are all gonna hopefully be in this thing. I think that that was part of this whole calculus. And you go to Green Bay, your point about, Green Bay and Jordan Love and having a lot of primetime, it's still the Packers. We're really excited to see who Jordan Love is and how he does with the team. But still the Packers are such a great national brand. We have to use them somewhere. And I think we're still confident, again, that division is somewhat wide open. So that's how we ended there. Part of its negotiation, massaging, its math, its algorithms, its art, feel, all of that. Outside of the Aaron Rodgers thing, outside of Lamar not knowing where they're playing, what was the biggest challenge in this year's unique schedule? Ooh, all right. So this one, it's interesting. We have a whole new construct this year. Our new TV deals kicked in. So one of the big things was really just the way that everything is structured this year. The past, everything was a takeaway from CBS and Fox for primetime or filling out other packages. CBS had the AFC road teams, Fox had the NFC road teams. So any game you actually were using for anything other than CBS or Fox was considered a takeaway. This year is all different. Everything was a jump ball. Everything was open. So it was great because we still have minimums to meet on certain networks and otherwise. But we got to look at so many different constructions of this schedule. And it was great because it gave us more flexibility but at the same time it made the search phase so much larger. So there was so much to actually look through on a daily basis and get through that we wouldn't have seen in previous years. I wanna ask you sort of like what surprised you the most in the process this year? Clearly it's unique for all the reasons you're talking about, but also you have more international games. TNF changes its rules. What, you know, when you put all the stuff into the algorithm machine is how I imagine it happening and you press the button, what came out that you were like, huh, that's interesting. You know, one that's actually pretty interesting, I think we can even just go with kickoff, right? Kickoff was one that you look at the Chiefs home opponents and they have so many, I mean, all of their home opponents were actually considered for the kickoff game. They've got great home opponents, right? They have division games. They play the NFC North, they play Miami, and then you get to the big guns, right? You have your Philly, you have your Sinsey, you have your Buffalo. What do you use to kickoff? Kickoff is exciting. It's a great start to the year. We let that float around and we saw so many different options of what we were willing to play for kickoff. And honestly, we were willing to play all of them. The, we ended up with Detroit and I think that we all got pretty comfortable with that towards the end. Although we did see it float around even honestly towards the last day, we had different options for kickoff, but we got pretty comfortable with Detroit because the way that Detroit ended the season last year, I think that they were so exciting towards the end of the year and then also to knock the Packers out of the playoffs in game 272, you know, they ended the season with such a bang and we're excited to see what they can do now against the Chiefs in week one. We're all excited, I mean, we nailed it. We killed it. Listen, you go to sleep, Charlotte Kerry. You do everything for the NFL. We're happy, we're excited. We're drinking champagne. We are celebrating and toasting to you, Mike North and everybody who is not too happy, not too sad, we're just ready to play ball.