This NBA player is back in the headlines, but why?

We had to do a little bit of work with Time Zone Management. And finally, we have brought in Will Brinson from CBS Sports and the Pick Six Podcast. I always get you and Patterson mixed up.

Pick Six Podcast with Will Brinson. What's going on, man? What's up, man? It's one of those weird days where you can't figure out mountain time between Eastern time. And look, in our defense, up is down, left is right. NC State is the only ranked team in the entire state of North Carolina. The Tar Heels aren't even getting a single vote. It's crazy.

It's cats are eating dogs. The Duke's not ranked. Carolina's not ranked.

State's 22 in the country. It's wild, man. Any other Wolfpack hype you want to get in here? Just sprinkle it out throughout the interview. Don't waste it. Don't waste it all in the opening moment. No, I'm done. I'm done.

I seriously should. If the show gets bad and I don't have good sports things to talk about, I'm just going to read the sequence of texts that Brinson and I had trying to figure out exactly what time it would be here. It's difficult also because I think we started the thread when you were in Raleigh and then you went to Arizona. That just threw everybody off. I was sitting here at 9.30 my time. I was like, that's weird.

They should have called by now. It was like 9.33. I was like, oh, I guess I could look at my phone and determine what time it is in Raleigh.

I was like, oh, never mind. It's 11.30. In our defense, Arizona, the state of Arizona, which is just a wild place, does not recognize daylight savings time. There's a whole bunch of things going on as it relates to the time zones. If anybody attempts to get me to do something at a certain time, please be aware that I will almost certainly screw it up.

Now you've got a good excuse. Let's start with a team that is not in the Super Bowl this year but might be next year, the Carolina Panthers. I think a lot of people, the Frank Reich decision and more came down to, did you think that Steve Wilks should have gotten the job? Some people were evaluating the Frank Reich hire on that. Putting the Frank Reich hire aside, it sounds like their defensive coordinator hire, Ejiro Iveros, stealing him from the Broncos, not really, but getting him from the Broncos last year, seems like a slam dunk of a hire.

Am I reading that right? Yeah. I mean, I think a couple of things just to filibuster, to avoid you asking me about the Pro Bowl. I would say that I thought the Frank Reich hire was a great hire and people can be, to your point, yeah, it basically boils down to, did you want Steve Wilks or did you want them to stick with the status quo? And like Steve Wilks would have been fine if they'd gone in that interim direction.

But I mean, I said, you know, shout out to ATW, right? I texted, I texted that thread in like November or something and said, David Tepper's going to try really hard for Sean Payton. He's going to strike out in probably fabulously public, you know, horrific form. And then he's going to hire either Frank Reich or Dan Quinn. And that's exactly what happened.

And it's not like, it's not a bad thing. They're like Frank Reich was, which is the playoffs in three of his five years of Indianapolis was fired in his fifth year without giving a chance to, to try to make the playoffs. You know, he's the guy that had five different starting quarterbacks when he took, he took the job after Josh McDaniel's bailed, he kept them in the Daniel staff and they did really well there. Um, he, I think he'll be, you know, I know, um, by pal Adam Beasley reported, uh, maybe for the pro bowl or I'm not, I'm not entirely sure, but that, you know, some papers players were a little missed, uh, about the fact that, you know, Steve Wilks wasn't hired, but they haven't had a chance to get to know Frank. Right.

And I think when they do, everything will be copacetic. Uh, yeah. And getting a Vero for the Broncos, that's sort of, you know, I, it looked like they were going to get Vic Fangio for a hot minute. He's the original division coordinator, the Panthers would Frank right. He's the quarterback, which is just crazy. Um, he ended up going to Miami, I believe in, uh, but if there was a great hire, look how good that bunker Stevens was last year. I think a lot of people were really surprised at the ability of the Panthers to, and again, this speaks to Frank, right? The ability of the Panthers to go and get a quality defensive coordinator that quickly.

Right. And to get maybe the top guy on the market in that space after Denver was willing to let him, uh, you know, go, you know, let him out of his contract. So it's been, it's one of those things where. Again, like Steve Wilks did a great job as interim coach has gotten probably a raw deal, but the spots that he landed, but you're, you're looking at a guy who's like really, really respected around the coaching in coaching circles.

And that's how you're able to go get a guy like a Barrow and bring him in. And it doesn't, it doesn't hurt that you have all this talent on defense, uh, for the Panthers. I mean, honestly, Hayes, I think at this point, and it's, I mean, I'm sure this will bite me in the butt later on down the road. If the Falcons straight for Lamar Jackson or something, but right now the Panthers should be the favorite to win the division.

Ah, I like it. Um, what, uh, do you hear anything about what the Panthers are going to try and do at quarterback? You mentioned Lamar Jackson, where if he could end up somewhere else.

Um, cause I imagine that's probably the next biggest piece after a head coach and defensive coordinator since you got an offensive head coach. Yeah. Um, I, I mean, I would be, I would not, Oh, here's a little, a little more pack.

I was lying. Um, I mean, I think Jacoby set makes a lot of sense, right? Yes. Play for Frank.

Right. Play the full year. Um, you talk about a beloved teammate and a guy who would be the perfect bridge type quarterback. If you're going to try to draft a trade up and draft a Bryce young, you know, sit where you are going to CJ Stroud or will love us. You know, one of these guys who, you know, Bryce young, obviously probably, you know, a little more, um, polished and ready to go in, in theory than maybe Stroud or, or, or love us. I know Stroud had, you know, I, I never trust the Ohio state quarterbacks to come in and play right away for some reason. I have a bias against him, but I think when you, you know, when you, when you look at Brissett, it's, you know, he knows Frank right really well. He's a guy who's not afraid to, you know, take a step back and be a, you know, be a veteran presence and a leader and not, and not be, you know, he's not going to make a scene when it comes to, you know, like the rookie playing or, you know, the Panthers drafting somebody else. I mean, my guess is that they'll go veteran and draft because, you know, they, they tried this trade, you know, these trade possibilities with Darnold and Baker and, and it just really hasn't panned out. Right? So to me, it makes a lot more sense to go out and go in the open market and to try to grab a, or excuse me, to go to the draft and try and grab a young quarterback rather than just, you know, trying your head of this trading business again.

Yeah. I would have loved to have had Jacoby Brissett for like the last three seasons like that. He, I would have, I wish we had built the bridge, used him as the bridge quarterback earlier than, than getting him next year. I'd be fine with that. Probably like above 500% 100% percent. We would have won the division.

We would have been, yeah, nine and eight and won the division last year. Um, I was going to, oh, I don't like Will Levis. I don't know why.

Put it, put the word out there. People are talking that they don't want Will Levis. I just, I need you to just spread that as a story and make Will Levis's people not like the Panthers. But just, yeah, for some reason, I don't, Will Levis is either like, people are either all in or all out on Will Levis. I feel like there's no in between a Will Levis. It's just like, that's just how, um, that's just sort of how like people approach it. They're like, this guy's the number one pick, trust me. Or it's like, this guy's undraftable.

There's no, there's no, there's no medium range for Will Levis for, for whatever reason. I haven't, you know, I haven't done a film study on this process to really determine where I would rank him, but I'm not, I'm not like crazy high on him either. I just, I don't want to, I don't, I don't want us to take him with the ninth pick. I think there are better players at the ninth pick.

If he's around in the second round, maybe whatever. Will Brinson, can you join us? Can you stay for another segment? Isn't that what you normally do?

All right, appreciate it. On the other side, we will ask Will Brinson about a subject he knows well. No, not NC State basketball and its success.

Sandbagging your handicap to win a tournament. We'll ask Brinson about Aaron Rodgers. I did happen to tune in at one point and Brian Burns was going against somebody else, somebody good, Miles Garrett maybe and like a thing where they were scaling a wall and then they had to get down and go like under something and Burns was like destroying Miles Garrett at it. He was so much better and you were like, I mean, I know his nickname is Spider-Man, but it was like, yo, he looked like Spider-Man.

He was just flying over the wall and then just hitting his stomach and like sliding under. It was, it was sick. Uh, but I told Will Brinson, we won't talk about the Pro Bowl.

So we won't. I mean, honestly, my, my problem is more hate that, um, I, I was like traveling all day yesterday. Like I would go to Grammys, I think on CBS, right? I mean, I got to watch the Grammys, right? Traveling.

Yes. And, and like, I find like when I'm on a Delta flight that I have a heart attack. I was like, I fired up, like I fired up the glorious bastards. It was like, you know, I like, I love this movie. I love this movie. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it.

It's a great movie. I'm not going to be like, I don't do no commercials. I just get three hours, three hours of nonstop entertainment. So like that's sort of where I'm at.

The other thing, and I'm going to talk about this later. It's like watching, like they've changed the, it's like watching a NASCAR race where like, oh, you get points for this and then there's points for that. And then they're like, dude, I just need them to like race. And then the person who finishes in the front wins. Like the whole time the Pro Bowl is going on, they're like telling me that this is for points and this counts as this and they're doing a race. And like individually, like, oh, it is cool to see this athlete.

I know, you know, jumping over walls and stuff, but the whole competition, everything was too complicated. I think it's like a, it's like a, it's like one of the purest and truest signs that we've crossed through the plane into, uh, like, like, like, you know, where, where we should make fun of our parents and this whole man can't keep up with the rules changes. It's not that I can't, I just don't want to, that's all it is. And once we, once we've, and I don't want, I'm not going to name the particular number, but I think we know what the number is.

And your age when you hit that number and you're like, you know what, I'm not, I'm not, I'm done. They're like, well, this is for your job. You're like, no, it's the Pro Bowl.

It really doesn't affect my job. If you change the rules of the Super Bowl or like football is in general, I'm going to pay attention. But the Pro Bowl, you know, I'm going to like, you know, keep an eye out if something cool happens out here, but I'm not, you know, just, I'm just, I'm just past that. I'm over.

All right. So instead of talking Pro Bowl, an NFL related sports item that we can discuss, Aaron Rodgers got his first win at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. This is a big deal.

All the celebrities try and get in it. And he's played a few times. The one interesting thing that people noticed is in many places, your handicap is like public knowledge and people can go look up what Aaron Rodgers' handicap is at his home course in Wisconsin or whatever. I mean, I think, I think, I think no matter, like if you, and look, I'm not going to call anybody out for not keeping their handicap in the, in the game system.

Josh Brewer. But you know, I'm just saying like, if you know, if you, if you're going to play in these tournaments, you got to keep your handicap going. And Aaron Rodgers, you know, because you can't play in this tournament unless you have a registered handicap.

Right. And Aaron Rodgers at the, at his Green Bay Country Club has his handicap. And like, it's just public.

I mean, anybody can look it up. And he's a three out there, a three. And all his quotes were talking about, he said, I had no confidence coming in.

I shot an 86. Like you could tell he was trying to like, he knew he was going to get called out for it. And he's like, Oh, we obviously don't pick up the clubs all football season, blah, blah, blah. You know, Josh Allen even came up to him and said, could like congratulated him. And then he was like, man, I wish I was getting 10 strokes.

I was only getting nine out there, huh? Like he wanted to bring it up. It was go, go find it. It's on the PGA Twitter thing.

Like Allen was calling him out. So you would never do such a thing, Will Brinson, but, but you have won the, you've won the triangle media at the Prestonwood at the SAS. We won the, uh, the SAS, Adam Gold and I, the SAS media media event. We were actually two time winners myself. Technically me, Adam, Chip Patterson, and, uh, Alec Campbell, uh, won it, uh, as a four man team. Although one year, uh, I keep saying Chip and Alec go ahead and leave early and Adam and I are like, Oh, I mean, we're just out of it. We just sort of, we just totally relaxed and played golf and came in and we're like, Oh, we won.

That's weird. Uh, now in a normal set of circumstances, for instance, like, and this is where the Aaron Rogers came into play. Like if it were just, if it were like two of me out there, I wrote it and it was like, yeah, we shot a 55. I would expect, uh, you know, a moral question, like moral, like moral quandary questions. I would expect attacks on my, uh, on my character and some press justifiable. But if I'm not there with gold, I feel like I've got like a, uh, a moral compass.

Gold is the moral compass? I'm not feeling that. Uh, you're right. You're right.

I'm not, I'm not a key. You're right. You're right. That that's fair. You're using gold as a blanket, as a shield that I can't come back.

I was more going general. If you win the, the, the SAS media cup, you get an accusation thrown at you regardless. Like you can be totally on the level, but if you win, uh, you get an accusation thrown at me. So without any, uh, Look like nobody's going to call out Josh Goodson for bringing in ringers under your name.

Nobody's going to do that on this show. Uh, so do you think Aaron Rogers was sandbagging and how, uh, how bad is, uh, like, do we need to be, does he need to be morally abraded for this? Yeah. I mean, I will say that I think, yeah, he was sandbagging. Um, should we accost him from a ethical standpoint? Uh, possibly, but I do think that more so than any other athlete out there, Rogers had to deal with so much noise from the crowd.

Like even, um, uh, uh, no, no, because like, cause he's like, he's like, he's like, someone's like, the cult notes is yelling. Like, and he's going to the T's like, Aaron, you look great. The cowboy hat, like maybe visitors, like mostly Raiders people who are doing it. But like all these different fan bases were coming out and using the farmers open, the Pebble Beach program, um, to, uh, to, to try and, to try and get Rogers to come to their team. Like, I'm sure there's somebody out there from the, probably the Panthers fans out there. Like, Hey, Rogers, you want to come to Carolina baby? Uh, well, I think he brought it on himself and Josh Allen should have told the crowd to call him Brooksie.

That would have, that would have been more fun. Um, I, since it is Superbowl week and I don't know, gold might even have you back on it. So be like, wait a minute, I didn't get Brinson during Superbowl week.

Um, uh, but, uh, this is when you normally come on Mondays and I'm here on a Monday. So I get the Brinson, uh, we got a couple, we have about three minutes to go assess the Superbowl for me. You know, if you don't want to make a prediction, you don't have to, I don't care, but tell me like what to look for that will lead to say like, who's, who's going to win the game.

Like if this is happening, that means this team's going to win. Well, I think he was making the Superbowl before the season. I picked him, like I picked him to go to the Superbowl. I had him losing to the Ravens in the, in the first hypothetical Allbirds Superbowl.

That's obviously not happening. So, I mean, I'm going to ride out my Eagles pick. Um, yeah, I think my idea was that Jalen hurts to take a small step or some kind of step as a passer that with the addition of AJ Brown, this team would flourish a little bit in the passing game.

He did a huge step and I think it's really being underrated. Like this guy's 24 years old and he, he's been around, he's been in our football consciousness for like, like 20 years because of Bama and Oklahoma and all that. Um, to me, the most interesting things are one, what are the Eagles do on offense? Do they come out and run the ball or do they come out and throw the ball?

Because we've seen them do both. They're a very team that were against Pittsburgh and Tennessee this year. They came out like chunking the ball deep because they knew the Steelers and Titans were going to load up the box and try to stop the run. Uh, they can do that, right? They can attack. And these, these, these are like rookie corners that Kansas city is trotting out.

And then from a, um, defensive standpoint, what is Philadelphia? Can Philadelphia force Patrick Mahomes to move to his left? Because if you watch the AFC championship game, my homes look pretty much fine running around for the most part until he rolled to his left and had to make a throw on the run. To his left because the, you know, just, you think about the mechanics with the right plant leg and just the way that you land it. So it's a much more likely that you'll reenter that ankle moving to your left. And so I sort of wonder, will they overload? You know, the left side of the defensive line and try and flush my homes that way.

Um, and you know, like the hell's in my homes is ankle key. Obviously Travis Kelsey's back, uh, important in all these cases to the receivers. I think it can be an awesome game. They can be a shootout. Last time we had a super bowl here, super 49 Patriots, Seahawks, incredible game. Maybe the best football game I've ever watched in my entire life. If not, it was the Eagles and, um, uh, Eagles and Patriots game. I think we get a three point victory either way.

I'll go Eagles, but it's, I think it should be a fun, fun Superbowl. Very good stuff. Um, from will Brenton. I appreciate the, uh, the watch them homes roll left. That's some great analysis.

That's a thing that you can actually be looking for. Um, see if the Eagles do indeed try and flush them that way and see how the, the, the chiefs respond huge game tomorrow night pack at Virginia. Uh, let's get it done. Make sure you, who would have thought that NCK to Virginia was a bigger game than Carolina. I love it. Make sure you get the time zone right and find a place out there where the North Carolina tar heels won the Superbowl.

I won the final four just six years ago. Make sure you find a great place to eat and watch the game. Enjoy it and have fun, man. Thank you. All right. See you, buddy. Take care, man.