Transcript of CFB With Andy Staples, Lions TE Sam LaPorta, Rays In The WS, Commanders Lose To The Niners Plus Listener FAQ’s New

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Cozy season is upon us. Bombas makes your comfiest fall staples so you can make the most out of one of the best seasons of the year. Bombas's new suede moccasins are perfect for fall with cushy soles, a shearling lining, and water-resistant suede. Plus, for every item you purchase, Bombas donates an essential clothing item to someone facing housing insecurity. Head over to bombas.com/audio and use code AUDIO for 20% off your first purchase. That's bombas.com/audio, code AUDIO at checkout. On today's Pardon My Take presented by DraftKings, we've got a twofer for the people. We've got Andy Staples talking an insane college football week 7. Uh, everyone lost. Incredible. We're gonna recap everything— BYU's big win, What's wrong with Arch? Ohio State surviving in Indiana, but can they survive with no Julian Sands? We also have tight end from the Detroit Lions, Sam LaPorta. Awesome time with him, really cool guy, talking some ball with him. We're going to talk the World Series. The Rays are officially there. Monday Night Football, the Commanders, uh, lose in a valiant effort to the 49ers.

Hot seat, cool throne. The NBA is back. The boys are about to head to New York for Banner Night, and we'll finish— what do we have at the end of the show? FAQs. FAQs. It's all brought to you by our friends at Chevy. Football season is here, and whether you're grinding through the week or gearing up for kickoff, there's one ride that's always game ready. It's the Chevy Silverado. There's a reason Chevy's called the heartbeat of America, and Silverado keeps that heartbeat strong. Whether you're towing, hauling, or tailgating, Silverado lets you show up strong and tackle any task With best-in-class standard torque, the most functional bed, and the advanced tech that's Football Guy approved, check out current offers on the 2026 Silverado at chevy.com. Okay, let's go. Hey, Football Guy, Patino, AWS. Welcome to Part of My Take presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, October 21st. And where do you guys want to start with? We got so much sports. We got the sports equinox coming up.

Sports equinox is always a powerful, powerful thing.

Do you want to talk the World Series? The Tampa Bay Rays punched their ticket.

World Series. It's— it is the championship series in a major sport. I think that's where we have to start.

Okay, so the Rays. are going to the World Series, uh, to play the Brewers. They win Game 6.

2 first-timers in the World Series.

Yep.

Love that. Potential first-time champions.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They've never— neither team has won it. Uh, the Rays have been to the World Series recently. The Brewers, 1982. That was actually great showing by the Trop. Let's, let's give them some credit. The Trop showed up. Max, you agree?

Yeah, the Trop, the Trop was bumping. They kind of had I was feeling the vibes from the drop last night. They kind of swayed me.

Yeah.

Junior Caminero, huge home run. Freddie Peralta has been incredible. Remember, we had Anthony Rizzo on the show a couple of weeks ago. The things that he said to us, he said, if you're a hitter, go to Los Angeles. If you're a pitcher, go to Tampa. Freddie Peralta is a shining example of that. They— I saw someone comment on it that, you know, Freddie Peralta was bad for the Mets this year. He gets traded to the Rays. They tell him to throw more changeups. They move where he plays or where he pitches from in terms of on the rubber. He's closer to third base. He's pitching out of the stretch. He's been one of the best pitchers in the last 6 weeks, including the playoffs. And the Rays feel— they feel game. This feels like a fun World Series.

Well, it's also a coronation of nerd culture.

Oh yeah.

In baseball, because I talked about this when the Brewers advanced, but The 2 teams share a lot of commonality in the front office.

Yep.

They've like gone back and forth. There's guys that have played, that have been on, on, on each team over the past 10 years.

Played analytics.

Played analytics. Yeah. They played spreadsheet. They've got some of the best—

Battleships. Yeah.

Spreadsheet guys. Yeah. So, but it is going to be small ball. We're going to see some small ball. We're going to see a lot of like directional hitting. We're going to see steals. We're going to see bunting. So it's going to be a fun World Series, I think, for sure. Have we reached closure on the brass ticket, the forever ticket? Did the Brewers end up doing the right thing on that?

I think they didn't.

They did not do the right thing on it.

I think they—

Very important.

Did give tickets, but I think it's like—

Their version of the right thing, their tickets are in like the $400s.

That's what it is.

So they're not $1,000 tickets.

So they're giving them the ticket. Well, I think they technically are $1,000 tickets in the— what the resale market would be.

It's not the right thing. They're, they're, they're, they're like doing what they legally have to do. But I wouldn't say it's the right thing.

I don't like that. Yeah.

Would you agree?

Like, if you buy that ticket thinking they get to the World Series, like, they're like, oh shit, we got to give them—

Yeah, no, they got, they got, they got like their pants down. I think they were in the midst of 6 losing seasons and they're like, no way will we go to the World Series. And they're like, we won't have to— they're Scotts Tots. They Scotts Totted.

Yes.

They're skating by on the technicality of the resale market is looking like it's over $1,000. And I think everybody actually bought the tickets that you could buy for $1,000 from the team. So that to me, I don't know, feels like they might be opening themselves up to a lawsuit. And also maybe—

Or not.

Or it's a curse.

It's a curse.

It's more than a lawsuit.

Big-time curse.

Big-time curse for the— so, so back to the ALCS. I feel like the Guardians kind of just ran out of gas. It was a Herculean effort to come back from down 2-0 against the White Sox. You could see it. Gavin Williams, their, their ace, pitches Game 5 against the White Sox. He only pitches once in the ALCS. That's brutal. The, you know, his velocity was down. Messick looked like he was getting tired. They just ran out of gas.

Mm-hmm.

They tried to guard ball it. The Rays were the better team overall. I'm excited for this World Series. I think it's, I think it's going to be good. Like, I, I think the Rays have a weird— their bullpen isn't the best until they get to Baker, but they do have starting pitching. Like, Rasmussen has been insane. Freddie Peralta has been insane. And it's like they are very similar teams. They both put pressure on each other. Like the Rays are— the Rays will be able to score and manufacture things unlike the Dodgers being like, hey, if we're not hitting, we're just not hitting. So— and the Brewers do the same thing. It's going to be fun.

Did you see Kim Minero's home run last night? How long it took him to round the bases?

Yeah, I thought it was too long.

You thought that was too long?

Max and I have had a disagreement. We did wake up Barstool today.

30— what was it, 35 seconds?

38.

38 seconds to go around the bases. I think in that moment, in that moment, you can go a little bit faster.

Okay, you can go a little bit faster.

I thought you were gonna go the other way.

PFT, here's my argument.

You can go a little bit faster in that situation. That's crazy. Here's my argument. 36 seconds. If it's a walk-off.

Yeah.

Here's my argument, PFT, uh, uh, against this, because I do love bat flips and I think big moments should be celebrated. My issue is, and this goes for Contreras too, it's double, and Acuña did this as well. It's— you can only stop once. You can't stop twice. He stopped going to first base.

Yeah.

And then he stopped and did the Randy Rosarena, to Randy Rosarena, right before home plate. You get one stop. You get one stop.

Yeah, Rosarena was cool though.

It was, it was.

But you did— then don't use this. I think it's just ridiculous. Like, it's a home run trot. One stop is fine. And that's my problem with like Acuña when he stops at shortstop and like turns around and then stops again. You know what? It's like you get one stop.

It should be if, if you take more than one stop, second one counts as a mound visit.

Well, I would—

you can't use that anymore.

My, my dumb— my, my, uh, Mike Greenberg's dumb rules was every position player has a baseball in their back pocket, and if there's a shot clock once you hit a home run and it's 35 seconds, and if you go over 35 seconds, everyone can throw it at you.

Yeah.

So like the catcher can literally bean you from like 2 feet away.

Get beaned. I think it should count as a mound visit or an ABS challenge. So it should call— if it, if it takes longer, let's say 30 seconds, because at that point I have to assume that you're injured if you can't get around the bases in 30 seconds.

I loved it. I thought it was great.

You got swept up by the trough.

It made it a little exciting in a matchup that you know, wasn't the most exciting matchup.

The most exciting part of the game was how long it took this guy to go around the bases.

Which is— that's what you just said. It was so concerning.

Yeah, well, it was a home run. Yes.

I think— listen, I like it too. And I think that if you're— if you're the Guardians, if you hit a home run after that, then you should be entitled to take twice as long.

You should actually get to, like, legitimately put your— you should get to Bronco Bust the first baseman. Like crotch in face.

Yeah. Kids got to get home for school.

I have one gripe with it. If you're going to do the chest, the chest pound that he did before first base, it can't be a wall scraper like that.

Yeah.

You got to hit a bomb.

Yeah.

Because that's like, whoa, whoa.

Hank's got—

oh, that was a—

Hank was serving big time face.

I mean, he didn't even get a barrel on it. Like, it was a great— it was a good piece of hitting. But like, there's something about the, the, the The chest punch that—

It's a home run in the fucking—

send your team to the World Series, dude. No, I mean, it's still a home run.

I fought, I fought against Big Cat against— I fought against Big Cat on this hard this morning, and I loved it, and I did think it was great, but it was a wall scraper. It barely got out. I, I haven't looked at the, the stat tracks or whatever they call it, but I'm sure that's a homer in like 3 ballparks.

But the moment, it's less— it's less to me about how, how monster of a dong it was and more about what the moment looked— the moment was big, but I agree, it— 30, 38 seconds. 38 seconds is too long.

Again, it goes to like, I, I'm, I'm cool with everything except stopping dead in your tracks twice.

I think they should make it like chess where each team has a certain amount of seconds per game. Yeah, if your guy's wrong twice and then you're, you know, you're, you're in the 8th inning and it's like you got 60 seconds on the clock, you can take your time.

I love that idea. That's such a good idea, Hank, because then you're like, oh shit, it won't count as a home run if, if you have 60 seconds and, and Junior Camarero takes 38 and then you hit another one that takes 15 and now you have to sprint to have a count.

Yeah.

That's a good call. That's a really good call. Uh, all right, so yeah, congrats to the Rays. Also, Yandy Diaz calling his shot, that was cool. He's like, yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna finish it out, and they hit a home run. Like, that was— that we need more guarantees like that. And people, I know that probably people weren't like thinking it was the most high-stakes things. It wasn't a Game 7. But still, to say that and then back it up.

Max is right. Home run in 3 out of 30 parks.

Wow. Oh, 4. 4.

That one says no, 3.

Oh, oh, okay. See, I thought it was Houston, Yankees, Tampa.

Wow.

Max, a ball knower.

Damn.

Mickey Mouse parks.

Damn. All right, so you're back on our side, Max?

No, I'm not. I still think that it was cool. I just— I would like the Jose Batista was such a bomb.

Yeah.

And then, yeah, yeah. And I— batflips are my favorite. I actually love batflips. I think when the change we've made where it's like we've almost lost the batflip and gone to just home run trot. pimping, I would prefer bat flips to be ridiculous. I want guys launching their bats. I want them doing tricks on their bats. I want them riding their bats.

Like a pogo stick.

Yeah, right. Like, like a witch and a broom. Once you start your trot, just do your trot.

One more thing about that game. Yandy Diaz deserves credit.

I just said that.

You were—

you—

it's hard. Okay.

Yeah, I was looking at this, trying to figure out if that was the number.

Yes. It's rare for guys to be able to, like, just confidently say, yeah, we're going to win this game and then win it and then also produce in that. Which he did with the home run.

Sealed the game.

Yeah.

Guards are just the same. Again, they're consistently in the playoffs. They're like small market Yankees who— congrats to Yankees fans bringing back Aaron Boone. Huge news.

Yeah, I said you got it. You almost have to extend him. My problem with Aaron Boone was that you need the guys around him have to have confidence that their manager is going to be there.

Yeah.

And now that they know that he will, I feel like now is the time when Aaron Boone's system really takes off.

Continuity is important. Yes, they treat— they treat Yankees— they treat Yankees players as like, as like old dogs where it's like, we can't— we can't move.

We—

this old dog can't take this move. The surroundings have to stay the same.

You need— you need consistency. And more— more than anything, what is the Yankees organization? Class.

Yeah.

Aaron Boone, class act.

Class. Classy guy. He loses with class.

He does.

That's a fact. If you—

Would you rather win as a scoundrel or lose with class?

Oh, lose with class.

Lose with class. That's what sports is about.

Yeah. You got to be able to lose with class. And he's the classiest loser there is.

Yep.

He's really good at it.

Probably the best to ever do it.

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PFT, Monday Night Football.

Brock Purdy, I think we can agree, probably the league MVP right now. The season ended today.

Yes.

Brock Purdy MVP. He looked awesome until 49ers Absolutely.

He looked awesome in the first half. Yeah, no, Mike Evans going out was, was significant. And I also, I don't fully understand playing Mike Evans when he has to stretch in between each play to keep his Achilles warm.

Yeah. So I don't know what's going on. If that's like Achilles tendonitis and if that's something that's going to get better, if you expect it to get better right now, if he has to go over to Italy, wherever Christian McCaffrey was when he was considering retiring per the walls at Barstool Sports and get like whatever weird platelet injection that he got. But it doesn't seem like a good idea to have his— like, he shouldn't have been playing at all last night, I think.

No.

If that's what it was going to look like. He's awesome when he does play. But yeah, the 49ers are, I think, the best team in football. Yeah. I mean, I don't think that's controversial to say. I think Brock Purdy right now is the league MVP.

Yeah, I'd agree. And it is kind of crazy to look at it through a third of the season. The Niners have a 3-game lead in the NFC West, which we all thought was going to be the most competitive. And they not only have a 3-game lead, They're 3-0 in the division.

Yeah.

So this does look like— and their, their defense, that those 2 plays by Mustafa at the end of the game, incredible, phenomenal, incredible plays. Yeah.

And then Fred Warner just, just dominating people physically.

Yeah.

And Kittle's the man. Yeah.

Fred Warner was just, just like 2004.

Oh, he was like— he's headhunting.

Yeah.

Diving at people's heads.

He was headhunting. The referees were like, well, he just complained so hard.

The refs are like, oh my God, don't Don't hurt us.

Yeah, please.

All right. No, no foul on the play for just diving into a guy's skull.

The refs are like, well, Greenlaw, we, we kicked— we suspended him for a week, so I guess he's not headbutting somebody. Yeah, that's okay. Yeah, let's let boys be boys, Fred. Yeah. But by the way, it is awesome to watch him play. Like, Fred Warner is legitimately like an insane talent, physical freak, and he plays with— and he's such a nice guy, like face to face, the nicest, like most Yeah, we loved having him on. He's like the calmest dude. And then he gets on the field and he's like, I want to murder everybody that I see.

Mm-hmm. Is that it for the recap?

Yeah.

I mean, credit to the 49ers. Great football team. Outstanding football team.

Do we have what? Hank, you got a question? No, no.

Go for a question. I mean, there is some—

do you want to open it to question time?

I do. Can I start with a question?

Yeah, yeah, of course. To yourself.

Were the Eagles trying to get Jalen Hurts killed?

Oh, with the blood clots. Yeah. It's a good question.

What's going on?

We're on Monday Night Football talk right now.

I think I would like—

I have a statement.

I think somebody's life is more important than a game.

Well, we're currently talking about the game.

But some things are bigger than the game.

Well, we could have—

we could have led with that instead. But instead we were talking about—

We should have actually led with NBA opening night.

As a fan of humans, just humanity in general, I'm a humanist. You guys know me. I've been very clear about that.

Yep.

I want to make sure that everybody's okay.

I want to make sure the commanders know that there's 4 downs before you have to get another first.

Yeah, it was the old Tom Brady. He learned that from Tom. Remember that one where he held up like 4 and he was confused?

That was at Soldier Field.

Yeah. So, you know, that happens to the great ones. I would say it only happens to the great ones. We're in a primetime game. You forget.

Well, that was Dan Quinn.

Maybe what Dan was. That was the—

that was the The player, not the quarterback.

Dan Quinn was very clear.

Quarterback may also not have known.

Yeah, Dan Quinn was very clear after the game. He said, I definitely knew it was 4th down. So it's like my, my I definitely knew it was 4th down shirt is raising a lot of questions from people that are already answered by my shirt. Yeah, Dan Quinn, for the record, definitely knew it was 4th down, and in no way, shape, or form could he have admitted that he didn't know what down it was because then he would be immediately fired. and probably just put on a boat and driven out to Alcatraz and not let on the plane back home if he said, yeah, I didn't know what down it was.

So do we blame Dan Quinn or Jayden Daniels?

I think it's— again, it's 100% both their fault. Jayden Daniels has to know there's guys on the sideline that are holding up sticks. Yeah, that say 4. It's the number 4 on them. There's lights all over the stadium that say the number 4 on them.

Also, just maybe like a memory. How many plays have we—

Yeah, how many have we done?

The only possible explanation. And if you want, that whole play was— it reminds The more things change in DC, the more they're exactly the same as they were 10 years ago and 20 years ago, 25 years ago and 30 years ago. It's always the same. That play was so fucking funny when you watch it back.

Mm.

4th and 2, Jayden rolls out to his right. There's a pre-snap penalty, which, yeah, no shit, because we get like 7 of those a game. It's crazy how many pre-snap penalties we've had. And then Jayden rolls out to his right. And then throws the ball out of bounds, well out of bounds. And Sourdough Sam, the mascot for the Niners, makes a fucking hell of a catch. Yeah. Look at this catch, Max. Can you, can you maximize that video? Look at this grab that the mascot made on this pass.

Yeah.

Take it a little bit further back.

Crossbody.

Crossbody. Take it a little bit further back. Show it in real time, Max.

Great catch.

Yeah, it's, uh, look at that grab. Just like perfect.

That was bad. You can't do that.

Eyes on it.

You gotta— okay, you gotta give your guys a chance.

That's funny point number 1 about the play. Funny point number 2 about the play is the camera naturally, uh, pans over to Jayden Daniels right afterwards. All smiles from Jayden because he's— that was funny. He, he acknowledges like, yeah, you guys see Sourdough Sam make that catch? Pretty funny stuff, huh guys? And then the camera pans over to Fred Warner And Fred Warner's like, hey dude, that was 4th down. And Jayden's like, really? And then it goes to Dan Quinn and Dan Quinn goes, field goal, let's kick a field goal. What?

What?

That was 4th down?

Yeah.

As Jayden's walking past him. And then Dan Quinn starts to freak out afterwards because he understands how bad this whole situation was. And the only possible explanation from this was that Jayden saw the flag and thought it was offsides, free play. In that case, still try to throw it for a touchdown. Don't throw the ball out of bounds.

Yeah.

It's a free play for a reason. It just— god-awful shit from the Commanders in the first half. That was one of those ones where it was like, this is— this is— I've seen this so many times, the exact same vibes of the swinging gate from Jim Zorn on Monday Night Football against the Giants. This is about to get worse. It's going to get worse. And then what does that motherfucker Dan Quinn do at halftime? Somehow he pulls the team together and they go out and they play with their hair on fire and they come back and they almost win. And I don't think that it saved his job. I think Dan Quinn's probably still fired this week and rightfully so.

Oh, this week?

Yeah.

Oh, you have a bye week.

That's right.

I forgot about the bye.

I think it might be midweek firing. I think that Josh Harris told Dan Quinn that he should start wearing his hat forwards in their last come-to-Jesus meeting that they had. Uh, and so Dan Quinn goes out there hat forwards trying to look professional. The same shit just keeps happening. Really bad job by the coaching staff. Really bad job by Jayden Daniels on that play. Um, and then they come back and they almost win the second half and you're like, this is the most infuriating thing that I've ever seen.

Uh, what was your question, Hank?

I didn't have a question. I had more of a statement because like, obviously, you know, PFT is pretty, pretty mean towards Drake Maye and Patriots fans get riled up.

I don't, I don't view our relationship as, you know, I bet a lot of money on the Patriots to win the Super Bowl.

Yeah, you did.

Exactly.

That's what I'm saying. I'm on your side. I'm completely—

I also bet on Jay Maye to beat the Bills the other week.

Yeah. Great pick. Again, like, like I said, we're on the same team. But a lot of people were like tagging me in this tweet saying Jayden Daniels has only won 2 games since his rookie season.

Yeah.

And his last win as a starter came on October 5th, 2025. So that was true. 2 years ago.

True.

Jayden Daniels played unbelievable in the second half.

His last win came what?

October 5th, 2025.

He's 0-7-1 in games he started the last 8 games.

He and people were like, oh my God, so much bad tape and tape watch. Like, get out there. Jayden Daniels played out of his mind, like in the second half. Like, he, he, he was unbelievable.

Yeah, that's, that's what's so—

I would be excited.

I like, I, I think Dan Quinn did save his job.

I think Dan Quinn did save his job.

No, fuck Dan Quinn. He like, for him to not know what down it was, it's, it's, it's inexcusable. Like, coming off a week where he had the big question, the only thing anybody ever talked about for the entire week.

But he said he knew what down it was.

Is there a chance—

no, correction, he said, I definitely knew what down it was.

Can I ask, is there, is there a chance that he didn't know, he got confused because of the throwaway on what down it was?

I think more than—

Because no one would ever throw it away on 4th and 2.

No, because he's also like, he's in the headset comms before that play.

Yeah.

He's got to know what, what play it is. what down it was.

You can't—

if you're, if you're a head coach and your quarterback throws away on 4th and 2, you need to be yelling at your quarterback.

Yeah.

If you also knew that it was 3rd.

No, I think he's confused. He's like, wait, we obviously have another down because he threw it away.

A competent head coach would say, what the fuck are you doing? That's 4th down. Whatever the problem is, it's everyone's fault. Jayden has to know. Really shitty play on his part. Really shitty job. And shockingly, Dan Quinn's biggest adjustment over the last week besides turning the hat around I forgot, I did not report this on Sunday. He's making David Blough stand slightly closer to him on the sidelines.

That's smart.

That was the other thing that he— that Dan Quinn installed as a change. So then, Hank, yes, to answer your question, Jayden played great in the second half and he's played great football this year. We have not won games, I don't think, outside of like brain farts and what happened at the end in the very last play against the Chargers. It's like He's so good.

And then the Seahawks, he almost beat the 49ers.

Yeah. And then in one moment he's so bad.

And you should have— I mean, you beat the Giants.

It's, it's like you buy it, you buy beachfront property, but it's on the Bikini Islands and there's radiation everywhere. It's like there's a beautiful— I'm living in tropical paradise and it's perfect except for the fact that there's an atomic bomb buried underneath my dick. So I don't know. He played so good in the second half too. He played really, really good, good enough to come back and win. We were right in the game. Bad luck on a holding call that brought back the touchdown that would have put us ahead. But yeah, it was— it's so frustrating because he's so good and he plays so well. But then the one mistake that he makes, it is like just soul-crushing. But then he— I mean, credit to him. He came back, played awesome in the second half.

And They did almost run out of time to end the game again.

I will say, I'm gonna back up the greatest ending of all time. It would have been.

Yeah, I'll back up intentional grounding.

I'll back up Jayden Daniels on the intentional grounding. I actually think he had— that's an OC problem because there was no underneath route.

Yeah.

And if he throws that deep and like everyone had— like, it just was a shit show. He couldn't throw it deep because he was basically getting chased. If he takes a sack Everyone has to come back. It probably is more than 10 seconds to get the next playoff. So that one is— that one I had no problem.

Yes, that one was it. Everyone was like, you can't take an intentional grounding. Yeah, I actually do think that was the right play. In fact, I was, I was defending my guy last night.

I got—

Arian hit me up after the game and he goes, big mistake. Another big mistake in a close game. Cuz might be bad, PFT. And I said, he takes that sack there and it's game over, just like last week. And he said, he sucks. He sucks, fam. You sound like a delusional partner whose girl is a hoe. She just likes attention because she never gets it. And I was like, I'm right about the intentional grounding. You don't know ball, Arian.

Yeah.

And in this case, I'm right about that. There's other things that you can, you can say from this game that he fucked up on. The 4th and 2. Absolutely terrible play.

Maybe missing the underneath route on the, on the Burks, which Burks made it. He tried to make a great effort there.

But even on that one, yeah, he wasn't open when he—

Diggs.

Yeah. Diggs was not open at the time that Jaden could have thrown that ball. By the time they broke it down on the postgame, Jason McCourty broke it down and showed like, here's how, when Diggs became open, it was not possible to get that throw off in time.

Yeah.

He still ended up putting the ball in Treylon Burks' hands.

Yeah, no, it was a hell of an effort. It was impossible to try to—

Mustafa just made a great, great play again, like the play on this and the play before.

He might be open there.

No, at the time they broke down on like the wider end.

Oh, okay.

And he was— I mean, you can argue with Jason McCourty, Patriots legend, Super Bowl champion.

Max, you're a film watcher. What do you think?

You gotta wait for the All-22.

Gotta wait for the All-22. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know.

Yeah, it was close.

I think you can still use it, so don't worry about it.

Thanks, Max. He's so open.

He's still running. He's still running. Still running. He looks open.

You can't say that, memes. But no, they did break that exact play down, and at the end of the day, he put the ball in Burks' hand and Burks caught it, and then Mustafa made a great play. And Mustafa made a great play to stop a first down right before that. So like, that's, that's making a good play and it gets beaten by a great play. I don't have a problem with any of that. Listen, I've watched a lot of bad ball in my life. Jayden Daniels, not a bad ballplayer, good ballplayer, great ballplayer, makes it seems like a minimum of one boneheaded mistake per game. And it's like, how do you stop? How do you fix that? I don't know. But I think having competent coaches would help. We've seen a lot of quarterbacks progress when they have competent coaching staff around them. I think a lot of the mental stuff like that would probably get— it wouldn't get worse. It would probably get better if he had a smarter coaching staff around him, preferably an offensive mind. And I love Dan Quinn. He does get the team to play hard for him. His players love him.

Yeah. I mean, this was the same coaching staff for Jayden's first year.

Yeah.

When he was— when he played out of his mind. But yeah, head coach. I agree.

Head coach.

Yeah.

It was Dan Quinn.

Yeah.

Not Cliff. Yeah. Not Cliff.

What's the big board look like? The PFT big board.

Who do I want on the— for coaches? I gotta, I gotta put the Double D, the search committee back into play. Double D's is number 1.

No, Double D's number 1.

Number— well, that's just because I haven't put the official—

no.

Okay. He's number 1, but there's 2 number 1s.

Declan Doyle.

Declan Doyle's number 1.

Ravens OC came from Ben Johnson.

Tied for number 1.

OC quotes last year.

Tied for number 1. We've seen Josh Harris and this ownership group be able to lure megastars from Los Angeles.

Mm. Sean McVay.

It's coming home.

But everyone knows his—

Sometimes you got to go back.

Everyone knows his system.

Sometimes you got to—

remember we talked about that guy?

Not in the NFC East.

Hmm.

Not in the NFC East.

Okay.

Come home, Sean. Come home. You know, that unfinished business in Ashburn.

What if they— what if— what if they had to use, like, shady tactics to get him to sign?

Yeah, go for it. I don't think that he would because—

What if they had to take bets on Fanatics?

Because Michael Rubin's not in the ownership group.

Oh yeah, sure.

But yeah, agreed. I think, I mean, not Magic Johnson. It's time for you to start. This is your call, Magic. I don't know that Josh is going to do it. Make the right call, Magic. He's embarrassing you on national television over and over again. Step in.

Do you not think though, like, I feel like you gave up on the season at the first half.

I did mentally.

Yeah.

That team was, that team was fighting.

Fighting hard. Second half. Hard.

Second half mentally.

They can still win the NFC East.

They can still win the NFC East.

They're going to 100% still win the NFC East.

Hank, I've seen this exact, I've seen this exact team so many times before. And the only difference is they did, they did fight in the second half. There have been other seasons where It would have come out. And I did predict that it was going to get worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. This actually got better as the game went on. I think that Dan Quinn has to go and he's a nice guy. I don't know what happens with Dan Quinn's defenses, by the way, because he's a great defensive coordinator. The second he takes over running a team, the defenses get— the defenses are terrible. His track record— They stopped them the entire—

I don't know. Yeah, no, second half did not watch the second half.

They couldn't— the 49ers couldn't do anything.

They did play well defensively second half.

Problem is there's 2 halves.

True.

The first half goes to the upset.

Yeah, but you gave up after one. That is the problem.

I did give up after one.

You almost won it twice.

Yeah. You had the opportunity to win. We did have the opportunity to win, but Dan's got to go. Dan, I'm sorry. You're— you know what, Dan? You seem like the kind of guy that might— Dan's got 2 moves. Number one, he could fire himself and then name himself interim head coach week to week. You got to prove it every week. 2, he could demote himself and be co-defensive coordinator and let somebody else come in and actually run the team. Because Dan Quinn, he's a great defensive coordinator, really good guy. When he's a head coach, even his specialty, which is defense, that always finishes in the bottom, like bottom 5, bottom 10 in the league. What about Tomlin? That's—

that actually, I've, I've seen it floated.

Why not?

Which would be very funny.

Yeah, it would be very funny.

It would be tough because you make the playoffs.

It would work out.

I mean, we could win that division when you wish—

when you wish to win this division.

When you wish Mike McCarthy on me, I'm going to have to do the same and say that would be very funny if Mike Tomlin was your head coach.

The difference was you had a long rivalry.

Yeah, true. But still, Mike Tomlin being like, well, we know the ceiling.

Yeah. No, it's— listen.

Yeah, Super Bowl.

Tomlin is—

well, no, my Ever since he started Minecraft? No, you'd have to get that in the clause. No more Minecraft.

It's like the Kyler Murray deal.

Yeah.

Tomlin is a, is a possibility for sure. I think that a name like that would be attractive.

You need an adult.

You need an adult. He is an adult.

And it's nothing— you know, your team might be in trouble if it is, if it's ever said we need an adult in the room. I remember when the Bears hired John Fox, it was like, we need an adult, we need adult in the building. It's like, yeah, no, you don't. You need someone who's good at coaching.

Yeah. So that's, that's where I'm at. I think, I think I'm in a pretty realistic place. I just know that after that first half, I resigned myself to the fact that it's going to be one of those seasons. And if you're a fan of a loser franchise, you've, you've experienced this before, but it's going to be one of those seasons where when it's all said and done, all you're going to remember it by is when you go back and you watch Sonny Stiles highlights set to Ante Up. And that gets you pumped about something. That's the only upside that I'm going to have after the season is watching defensive highlights from our awesome rookie.

You're, you're, you're such a—

like, you can still win the division.

The NFC East is a joke.

You can still win the division.

But at the same time, that might be the worst thing for us to win the NFC East.

Well, Max is going through the same thing where it's like almost mean how gettable the NFC East is this year for the, for the Jets.

The Jets could be fighting for the AFC, the NFC East.

Oh, Jets would be the— I would take the Jets to win the NFC East. Yeah. Without a doubt. Yeah, we dominate. Yeah.

What do you, what do you guys think? What do you guys think? Because I've had this discussion with league circles. Okay. What do you think Jayden Daniels goes for? We had the Justin Herbert discussion. What do you think right now Jayden Daniels would go for in terms of a trade package? The answer I've— I'll wait to say the answer I've gotten back.

I believe he would go for A first, singular first.

No, I think you go for 2.

No, because remember, you have to pay him. So it's like different than Justin Herbert. Like, I know that you already paid, but it would be— there's a chance that you would not—

More injured though. More injured.

Right.

That's, that's the kicker.

No, he plays quarterback.

No, that's not what I said.

You said that's the kicker. He said he played quarterback because, because of his arm situation.

It might, it might be less than 2 firsts.

His left arm.

Yeah, but it keeps breaking. You, you say it yourself.

Look, it's— I was— I might have been wrong about that because he's taken some shots the last couple of weeks and he seems to be okay. But he's landed on the left elbow a few times.

You say— you even saying that, it's like—

I'm also, I'm also a worrier when it comes to my quarterbacks, and it's for good reason. It's my history. I think I've got lived trauma.

I think it'd be a first because I do think that the fact that you'd have to get a contract done and you have very short amount of time to figure it out because it's—

You can do 5th year.

At least a first plus.

You could do the 5th year.

Like a first and a first and a second or first.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. There would obviously, it wouldn't be justified. Yeah. But I was just saying in first, like maybe not 2. Why wouldn't someone say?

The answer is I've gone back solidly. It starts like the minimum 2 first rounders.

Okay.

Yeah. I still think.

But Justin Herbert then has to be 3 first rounders because you said he wasn't 2 first rounders.

I think he is a 4th.

No, no. But when we were having that discussion, Max and I were saying Justin Herbert's at least 2, maybe 3. And you said no.

I don't think 3.

But you said no to 2. So you think Jayden Daniels would go for more than Justin Herbert?

I think he might right now. Yeah.

I don't know about that. Yeah.

I don't know about that. I mean, you can— no, I kind of agree with BFT.

You can watch how he played. Okay. Okay. So his last, his last games of football, granted it was one, it was one half against the Cowboys. And in that half, he looked good until he got injured. I would say the second half against the Eagles looked awesome. And then I would say against the Giants, he played pretty good until the big brain fart at the end, which is part of it. And then last night he played really, really good and he did it without even using his feet because they had Fred Warner spying for most of the game. So like the Niners took away a big part of his upside and not letting him run. And he was still really, really good. So I, I would say he's probably more valuable than Justin Herbert right now.

Okay.

Agreed.

Like without a doubt. So that's where I'm at. He's very frustrating, a roofer right now. Somebody figure it out because there's, there's something about his brain that just, it, it gets unplugged once a game. And except for that one unplugging moment, he's really, really good.

We got to flex our game, PFT. You guys, by the time this comes out, we'll know if it's flexed, but we gotta flex.

What is it right now?

Sunday Night Football.

Sunday Night Football.

And yeah, do it for us, for our podcast.

We don't need— yeah, we don't need that.

Well, I mean, the game was entertaining last night.

It was.

But the Eagles are— the Eagles are not—

you can still win that division.

You can still win that division.

No, you can't.

Big game.

We're trying. We're like playing hot potato, like no one We don't want it.

Actually, no, the Eagles can. Monday night's for everything. All the marbles.

All right. Speaking of the Eagles—

By the way, history was made. The NFC East first division since the merger go back-to-back weeks without winning a single game. And now that's going to break, we think, next week because the Eagles and the Cowboys have a game. But that could be a tie. The Commanders might end up getting that. We might actually win the bye week and gain ground in the division by not playing.

Uh, Max, speaking of the Eagles, Jalen Hurts out for the season, blood clots. We have just like weird stories going back and forth. First it was reported that he didn't sleep. So Tom Pelissero wrote like— it was kind of a weird tweet because he was like, how much does Jalen Hurts love football? He didn't sleep and he had blood clots and played football. There was a moment—

awesome story.

Yeah, there was a moment on Monday morning where, uh, essentially the Eagles ruled— as we were being told, the Eagles ruled Jalen Hurts out for sleep but ruled him in for an NFL game.

Mm-hmm.

Was what we— was essentially what it was. I said, I was like, this story doesn't feel like it makes much sense. I feel like he had to have slept. We got to wait. Like, then it comes out later that he did sleep a little, that the Eagles— I mean, Sirianni did a press conference I don't know what's going on.

So he did sleep a little, but the— I look back on it and the report's not necessarily wrong where doctors told him not to sleep. And then later on after the night, they're like, okay, you can sleep now.

But we had a, we had a beat writer.

Yeah. Jeff McClain.

Jeff McClain, Eagles beat writer on the, on WUB this morning. He said that he talked to some doctors. They're like, we wouldn't, we wouldn't say don't sleep in that situation.

I don't know what's going on. The one thing that it looks like is that everyone's kind of just trying to save their ass.

Yes.

So they're trying to get reporters to report certain things to save their ass. And I don't necessarily know who's at fault or what's gonna help, but that's what it looks like to me.

Because the report got changed right before Sirianni's press conference.

Yeah.

Which is strange timing of it all.

Right.

And I think from what I've seen, and I'm gonna be like Sirianni and say I'm not a doctor. Can we all agree, like, we're not doctors? Is anybody a doctor in this room?

Nope.

Nope.

I'm close.

Yeah, you are close.

Yeah.

You're like one credit shy.

Yep.

Medical school.

I mean, he is MD.

Dr. Scholz. I think that what we're seeing is—

Dr Pepper.

Dr Pepper.

Pepsi guy.

Dr Brown's.

Pepsi. Pepsi.

Yeah.

I think what we're seeing is, like Max said, a team covering their ass. I think it was initially framed probably from the Eagles to Tom Pelissero of like, he's such a beast. Anybody that thinks that he doesn't love football, doesn't care about winning games, like he wasn't even allowed to sleep and he came out and he decided he was going to play because we love him and that's how much he cares about the team. And then after the pushback, whatever the source was from the Eagles was like, shit, that really makes us feel— look like we were not caring about his health at all. Let's switch that up a little bit.

Mm-hmm.

From what I saw from other doctors, There are reasons if you've got like a blood clot that it's not advisable to stay still for very long.

Like, oh, like get on a flight.

Yeah, like get on a flight or like get up and walk around every now and again. Don't be sitting still, which sleep would be being still. Maybe that's where the like wires got crossed a little bit. And the Eagles, in their rush to talk about how much he loves playing football for the Eagles and what a great captain and leader he is, didn't think about the ramifications of telling that to a reporter. That's my guess.

Yeah, your guess is as good as mine. I don't know how, how we're going to actually fully find out what happened in London that morning because I don't trust anything.

They keep—

if you're going to keep changing your report, you know what you got to do.

You got to just—

you got to call Tom. You got to talk to Big Tom.

Yeah, I'll see him on Monday. I'll see him on Monday.

He'll give it to you straight.

But I, I don't, I don't know, because the other weird part of it is everyone's saying medical malpractice, medical malpractice. Jalen Hurts is probably, you know, putting together a lawsuit against the Eagles or whatever.

I don't think that's true anymore because—

Because the agent keeps working with the Eagles. Yeah, so it doesn't seem like Jalen Hurts is angry with the Eagles, but everyone else around us is like He should be angry with the Eagles.

Can we, can we throw out what the probable real explanation for all of this is and that it's this? They probably found the blood clot. They probably were like, you know, that's not good. You got to be careful with this. And they probably— the medical staff said, hey, Jalen Hurts, you could play. We can't, you know, like it's up to you if you want to sit out. Jalen Hurts wants to play. All these guys want to play. They will go to lengths to put long-term health at risk to play football. That is part of what happens in the NFL. So I don't think it's like— I think it's going to come out that it wasn't like the Eagles were like, you're 100% healthy. They probably were like, Jalen, here are the risks. You could play. Here are the risks that are— that come with it. You make a decision. And Jalen Hurts is like, I'm going to play.

And then you can make the argument, like, I, I don't even think that Really helps the Eagles case at all. Like, I don't think that helps the Eagles medical staff or whoever's making decisions, whether that's Nick Sirianni or whatever. That wouldn't help them. The only thing that would help them, that would help like the Eagles organization as a whole, would be if like the, the, the, the doctors were right in that time that like playing football actually scientifically is correct. And I don't necessarily know if that's true.

Yeah.

Because it seems to be that like someone, some doctor had to have said, you are, you are good to go for it to be okay.

Yeah.

I don't know if we'll ever know what that doctor said, but for the only, the only way that it is okay for Nick Sirianni to make that decision is if a doctor would be like, he is healthy enough to play in this game.

Yeah.

He can play in this game.

Yeah.

I'm guessing they—

Which I, I think, I, I feel like that had to have happened. that a doctor who looked at his leg in that point of time had to have been like, he is health— he is 100% healthy enough to play, or else they just wouldn't have played him. There were 7.5-point dogs in the game already. Yeah, like it wasn't like it, it was a divisional game to get to the playoffs. I think if there was any—

So you're saying that when we play each other, Max, he's coming back?

No, I'm, I, I'm saying it like the end of the— it's not like it was the end of the year win and get in sort of situation. It was a 7.5-point You're 7.5-point dogs in London against an AFC team. It's very easy to just chalk that game up if there's any question that Jalen Hurts' health is at risk.

Yeah.

So I don't think Nick Sirianni, like, I don't think he, he would have made that risk if he didn't think that he was 100% good to go.

I, I agree that whatever doctor checked him out at the time, definitely, I definitely don't think that that doctor saw blood clots in his lungs and said, yeah, no, you're good to play football.

No, that happened.

That happened.

Yeah, that's, that's because now, now did Now, did they check for additional blood clots in his lungs? I don't know if they, if they did all that. I haven't seen any reporting, but I'm assuming that they did, that they looked for other blood clots and there were none there.

Blood clots confuse me.

Yeah.

That's the other thing. I don't know shit about blood clots because I don't, I don't think Nick Sirianni knows shit about blood clots.

I honestly don't know if playing in a football game, if you have a blood clot in your leg, is a problem or— it sounds like it is, but I'm not— I don't know. I don't know that it would be. It might not be.

Yeah.

Max had a— on national television this morning when this came up, Max said, I'm not smart enough to understand blood clots, so I'm not going to also tell Nick Sirianni, who's probably not smart enough to understand blood clots, how to answer the question. That was true. That was a good answer on national—

That is a good answer.

He basically took the defense of 2 dumb Italian guys. We cannot be held accountable.

Nick Sirianni is supposed to know football. He's not supposed to— I'm not counting on him to know blood clots.

Yeah.

He's listening to someone who is supposed to know blood clots also on that decision.

Part of the reason why I don't take blood clots serious enough is because every time we say blood clot, I think of Troops, Bumba clot. And that's in my head every time. And Pete. Yeah. And Pete wears his little compression socks. So I got— I'll hand up, I got to respect blood clots more. They seem very serious. I just don't understand them.

Agreed.

Yeah, we're on the same page.

Season from hell though, officially.

Season from hell. That's the other thing. If they thought— if they— if they thought there was any risk, he practiced. He came back and practiced right away.

He got on a flight. He got on a flight.

Like, they— they must have just been given horrendous information for—

Or they didn't know it all.

Or they didn't know it all.

Yeah, because I mean, a flight I think is like the one thing you're not supposed to do.

It will give you blood clots.

But then he would have stayed. But then he would have just had to stay in London for the next 8 weeks.

I read 8 weeks.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, shit. I think if you have the option, like get on a flight and risk dying or stay in London, get on blood thinners, you probably stay in London, right?

You've taken a boat.

Yeah, he could have.

Maybe. I don't know.

Air pressure, partially.

Yeah.

Either way, crazy.

The craziest thing to say about the Eagles season is that it's such a season from hell. That it feels like, like 6 months ago that one of their best players in franchise history retired midseason.

Yeah.

Like Lane Johnson feels like ancient history story. And that's how much has happened in the last 2 weeks.

Also, the funniest part, not the funniest, whatever that is, we just forget that they had that game won until— yeah, the game was won. They were up. They were up with 8 seconds left. No timeouts. lost the game.

Yeah, yeah, Amir Abdullah. All right, let's do, uh, Hot Seat, Cool Throne, then we'll get to Andy Staples, college football, and Sam LaPorta from the Detroit Lions. Before we get to Hot Seat, Cool Throne, we are— it is brought to you by our friends at TickPick. PMT is brought to you by TickPick. The NBA is back, uh, last night. Max, Zach, Memes, Stephen Che, all went to Banner Night. We'll talk about it on Friday's show. Thank you to TickPick for hooking it up. They're the absolute best in the business. They were there for LeBron's first game, for Banner Night, Ring Night, also Zach's first time ever in New York City. So that is the best because they, they made it happen. So here's the thing, the Knicks and Sixers run it back 10 days later. In Philly on October 30th. That's Friday night, October 30th. And right now, TickPick, you can get in for about $200. Same rivalry, same LeBron, way less money. If you've got your eye on a game, track it in the TickPick app and it'll keep an eye on the price for you with alerts when prices move. And TickPick has never charged from service fees, so the money you'd spend on fees somewhere else can go toward a cheesesteak.

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My hot seat's Troy Aikman and Joe Buck. It was, it was the definition of a hot seat.

I feel like it was awkward. Yeah, it was awkward.

I also, and I don't know if it was because there was so much discussion, so I was paying a little bit closer attention. It felt like Troy just had a poop in his pants the whole game.

Yeah.

I remember that game where he just like— he went into Caleb Williams. Yeah, it felt Well, like the whole game he was saying that about just about everyone.

Yeah. The refs, the calls.

Except Purdy. He loves Purdy.

He does love Purdy.

Yeah. Yeah. It's awkward. I don't really know what they— I mean, we're good friends with Joe Buck. So it's like, I actually think Joe Buck probably did nothing wrong other than maybe not communicating like well enough because Listen, no free ads, but go buy our book. We talked— PFT and I wrote about this. When you're in a relationship like this, it's very hard. And the only way to make it last long term is you have to be really upfront with each other. And that's what we— when, when PFT had a contract up, when the Penn stuff was going on, we just were very upfront with each other being like, here's the deal, so that neither of us are blindsided. That's probably where it got awkward. They probably didn't do a good job talking beforehand. Right.

I don't know if there was an expectation from Troy that, that Joe was going to keep him in the loop and that they were a package deal. And that, I don't know, maybe Joe got somebody at ESPN talked to him and Joe, like, kept that from Troy. I don't know. I don't know exactly what happened. But if there was an expectation that they were going to kind of go through that negotiation together, yeah. I could see why Troy would be a little bit miffed by that.

Yeah, it, it, it probably— it probably wasn't— I mean, Joe probably just— I don't know if he did it. He might have done this, but just going up to Troy and being like, hey, they're offering me $100 million. I kind of have to take it.

But also, at the end of the day, Troy, you're going to get offered $60 million to talk about football once a week. It's not— you're not solving cancer. You're not, you're not doing anything. You're not like negotiating peace treaties. You're talking about football on Monday night. You're getting paid $60 million to do that.

You're also perfect.

The guy next to you might be making $10 million more than you are every year. Who gives a fuck, Troy? Yeah, this is— you've got the best job in the entire world. Are you going to let the ego get in the way of you having a dream job I don't know, like, you can't turn into a salty, bitter coworker because Joe Buck got paid a lot of money and he didn't bring you along and hold your hand.

And you also have to have the presence of mind of understanding the roles that you guys both have. Joe Buck's career will always last longer than the color analyst's career. You know what I mean? Phil Simms was Jim Nantz's partner, right? They threw Phil Simms to the curb. because he had— all right, he'd been out of the league for 30 years and like he's old. Jim Nantz is still calling games. Joe Buck is going to call games for a long time and probably cycle through a couple color analysts because eventually it's like, hey, Troy Aikman, you won a Super Bowl 25 years ago. Maybe we're going to get someone new in.

Troy Aikman's skill set, I don't want to diminish it because he is good on TV. I gassed him up the other day when I was like, hey, Commanders fans, I don't think we see like a bias necessarily coming from him, even though we hate the Cowboys. But his job is like, you see a play happen, you're like, if he catches that ball right there, I'm not so sure that's not a first down. Like, that's your job. Yeah. If he doesn't get his hands on that ball, I'm not so sure that he's not taking that and getting a— moving the chains on that there, Joe. Back to Brock Purdy, as good as you'll see in this league. Back to you, Joe.

And to Mick's point, like, you were before this, you're a professional athlete, right? It's like literally like huge disparities of pay. And yeah, and some people get paid more and people— and it's like next man up.

And Joe Buck is going to be— again, you, you, the, the, uh, play-by-play guy is always gonna be probably more important and have the longevity. I mean, Al Michaels is still doing it. There's not an 80-year-old player still doing it like that. I know Al Michaels is pretty washed, but this is just— it was always going to come a day where they were going to say, we want Joe Buck still. And we don't want Trey Aikman.

But they didn't do—

sucks that it maybe wasn't communicated. That's always going to happen.

They didn't do themselves any favors by like— no, by, by making it like, let's just, let's be professionals and power through. It was like the beginning of the broadcast was like, oh man.

Yeah.

And Joe Buck did the thing after the game where they were on SVP together and SVP asked them a question. Joe did his thing where he was like, you want me to answer that too? Or Scott, can I answer that? Like after Troy already answered?

Yeah.

Like there's some weird vibes going on in that booth.

We'll stand with Joe Buck, though. Of course, he's loyal to us. So whatever he needs us to do, if he wants us to say like, oh, you did nothing wrong, we got you, bro.

I was— you know what? I was equally for both of them. I wanted them both to get paid until Troy was too sassy last night. That's how— hey, it's a 1-week business. Yep. What have you done for me lately? Yeah, he was too sassy. Made some remarks I didn't care for. Sorry, Troy. How it goes.

All right.

And then my cool throw is Jay-Z.

Oh yeah, it's gonna be mine.

Yeah, so, uh, Jay-Z's like— you remember like, I don't know, 5, 6, I don't know how long ago, but his company, uh, signed a deal with the NFL where his company picks and like finds the talent for the halftime show. And so I don't know if there was just— it was probably hard to book someone or what, but they said it was hard booking someone, so Jay-Z was able to book himself.

Oh nice, he was available.

So Jay-Z is doing the halftime show.

So he just looked around, he's like, shit, we need someone.

Oh, I guess I could Do this. This is, you know, who might be good for the halftime show? Like, I think, I think me. Yeah. When George W. Bush was looking for a vice president, he hired Dick Cheney to run the search firm to try to find him one. And he came back. He's like, I got to tell you something, George. I think it's probably going to be me.

Yeah.

Yeah. So that's, that's what Jay-Z did right here. It should have been Miley.

Yeah.

Should have been Miley. Disgusted.

Should have been Ben Mintz.

We'll have amendments. But yeah, Jay-Z, I mean, power move. Jay-Z's got—

very funny.

He's got some great songs.

He's got some bangers.

Yeah.

But I saw somebody point this out that like most of his bangers produced by Kanye.

Yeah.

Is Kanye going to perform?

Maybe.

That'd be awesome.

You're going to have to repaint the end zones again.

They're definitely going to— I mean, Jay-Z is going to have songs that we all know. Versus some of the halftime shows that we haven't— we haven't had that.

Like what?

Well, you hated Bad Bunny.

I love Bad Bunny. OK, if the Patriots weren't getting fucking dummied in the first half.

What do you think, Max?

I was just thinking about you painting the end zone.

Yeah.

If you just— would it just say start racism if it's Kanye?

No, no, I think we'd have to— like Robert Kraft would have to end racism again. Yeah.

With Kanye?

Yeah, I think you would have to say end racism on one end zone, and then the other says, and also antisemitism on the other end zone. And then and only then will Kanye West be allowed to perform. Because that counteracts all the other stuff.

Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it.

Like the t-shirt, the t-shirt that he sold. Okay, we can forget about that because we painted the end zone.

All right.

Hot seat, cool throne, PFT.

Hot Seat, our ears, because not just Jay-Z, they have announced halftime for Thanksgiving game today. I believe it was— it wasn't Dolly Parton a couple of years ago.

Wait, which one?

I think it was.

No, no.

Which, which Thanksgiving game?

I think it was Detroit. Let me see.

No, no.

Did they announce for this one?

That's what I'm looking at right now. Got it.

Got it. That's Bears-Lions.

Let's see. Oh, no, it's the Thanksgiving Eve game. Oh, my mistake. The first ever Thanksgiving Eve game has its musical performance.

Oh, it's the Packers-Rams game.

And it's U2.

They're going to get on our iPhones again.

Yep.

U2. This is how they do it. U2 has a history of just invading spaces that they're not welcome in.

They—

Oh, it's live on Netflix.

They forced themselves onto America's phones. Yeah. And now they're forcing us— they're forcing themselves into America's pastime.

Yeah, but they solved AIDS.

They did.

Yeah. But then, Bono, where were you during COVID buddy?

Could have used you.

Really? Bono really fucked up COVID because that's— you've been prepping for that for your entire life and then you were nowhere to be seen, buddy. So yeah, I haven't thought about U2 in years and now they're going to come on and play.

They have good songs.

Dads are going to love this.

Yeah, they have good songs. Yeah, they have a couple.

It's halftime.

Halftime's quick.

I feel like U2 though, like, I don't know, there's something about them where it's just a little off. It's like they wanted to be—

Bono wanting to save the world. Yeah.

No, but I'm saying, like, in just the fans of U2, it's kind of like a Beatles-Rolling Stones fan, you know, breakdown.

Who's their— who's U2 or who? Aerosmith?

No, probably be Oasis.

Oh, Oasis.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's where it's like the weirdos like U2 The guys who want to get hammered like Oasis.

U2 is— Hank, to answer your question, what's wrong with Bon? He's such a narcissist that he actually thinks that he was put here to save the world.

Yeah.

Okay. God forbid. God forbid.

God forbid.

So is Jesus.

Start with live. If you're going to save the world, start with live.

Yeah. Okay. One swing at a time. And then my cool throw is sunlight, because remember daylight savings this weekend, this Saturday, set the clocks forward. Big change. Fall forward.

I actually like—

Darkness.

What?

What'd you say?

It's gonna get dark earlier.

No, fall forward. We push the clocks forward in the fall. I think you're thinking the spring the other way.

Either way, it's Saturday.

Fall forward, spring back.

Make sure you change your clocks. You don't miss anything. Okay, my hot seat is I'm going to go— wait, fuck, I had it and then I lost it. Oh, Twitter doctors. Do you guys see the Twitter doctor?

Yeah.

Retired.

Yeah.

Love it.

Lost a good one out there.

So this was— what was his name?

He—

Jesse Morse.

Jesse Morse. He got bullied online because he basically guessed like 4 different Injuries for Davante Adams, and everyone's like, dude, thanks a lot. We like— you're a moron. You're just guessing. Like, you said 4 different things that are all very different. Uh, so then he's— he, he got bullied and he said, effective immediately— this is a real thing that happened. A Twitter doctor had to retire online. Effective immediately, I've decided that it's not worth the energy, stress, headaches, negative publicity to spend most of my free time discussing injuries anymore. My reputation is not worth it. Dude, you're a fucking Twitter doctor. I get so much hate. It's just not worth it anymore. It's been a good run. I started in 2017, but I'm tired and I need to put my energy into more productive things. I want to focus my energy on peptide education, helping Peptavo grow and become the number one peptide education platform on the planet, getting peptide education into medical schools, residencies, fellowships, nursing programs. I want to focus my energy on anti-aging longevity medicine, regenerative medicine. So we lost a good one.

Hold on, hold on. He might be back.

Oh, is he back?

He deleted that tweet.

Okay. So I don't know.

So that means he didn't tweet anything about last night's game. And there was some injuries to be talked about last night, but his retirement tweet no longer exists.

I think he just wanted to get drunk last night.

I think he got in his feels.

He wanted to watch football like everybody else. And so he's like, I'm going to do a fake retirement for one day. That's also an ad for this peptide company.

I just love the idea of a— of a— you're Twitter doctor, dude. No one fucking takes you seriously. We all just panic when one of our players gets hurt. We search the energy— the injury, and you happen to be at the top of the search. We don't actually take you as like real.

Well, the role is we search the injury until we find one Twitter doctor who tells us good news.

Correct.

And then that becomes our Twitter doctor guy.

I was trying to find this tweet. I don't know if you mentioned it. I know I've had a bad track record with that recently. Did you talk about how he's big-time anti-vax?

No, he said that, yeah, he's blaming the blood clots on Jalen Hurts.

He, he was like, can we talk about the elephant in the room? And it was just like an article that said that Jalen Hurts took the COVID vax.

Okay.

That is— that's the elephant in the room, though. Also, it's a big Nick Nurse thing. We should We should do that, Max.

Yeah. Elephant in the room.

Do this again.

We should also mention, uh, Dr. Morse, his greatest hits, uh, was when he vehemently disagreed with someone online about Christian Watson's injury, basically saying that Christian Watson, uh, was— he was like, I'm surprised he was able to practice, and saying that it was not an ankle sprain, it was something more. Yeah, he was disagreeing with Christian Watson's dad.

Okay.

About Christian Watson's injury. So Christian Watson's dad, who probably saw the MRI, probably was maybe even in the hospital with Christian Watson, he was going back and forth and being like, just so you know, I've been doing this a long time, I know what I'm talking about. And Christian Watson's dad's like, dude, we literally have a diagnosis and it's this and it's not what you're saying. So We lost a good one, boys. We lost a good one.

It's very, very sad. And also, yeah, so Terry McLaurin last night.

That was bad.

Bad. I heard patellar tendon, which is probably the worst one and maybe the most painful one.

That's brutal.

Might be the end of Terry in DC. And he was a great player even through some shitty teams. That really sucked to watch. So I want to mention him because he's been like a— he's one of those guys, if you root for shitty teams, you've got guys that are like a little ray of light in dark times. And he was that guy for a long time. Great player. I hope that he comes back. plays. But yeah, some of the other Twitter doctors were kind of in unison saying that looks like patellar.

Well, I'm sorry you don't have an actual diagnosis because Dr. Morse—

Dr. Morse, I was waiting for him to confirm it.

Yeah.

Also, that referee, we did get a diagnosis on him.

Yeah, he's out, right?

He's out for the rest of the year.

Damn.

Torn quadriceps muscle for the guy that got carted off in the London game.

All right. My cool throne. I got 2 real quick. One is Colts fans talked about it on Sunday, had to fire Chris Ballard. They actually finally did it. I'm happy for Colts fans. You can't keep going like, hey, well, if this is different, if Daniel Jones comes, plays a little bit better, like, you know, uh, if we get a different quarterback. Chris Ballard was there for 10 years, never won an AFC South. You finally just— it's inexcusable. Also feels like Shane Steichen is very much on the hot seat. If you read the note that, uh, Carly Irsay wrote and basically being like, we expect to still win and be competitive. I don't know how they're going to do that, but Chris Ballard gone. Colts fans, uh, you get a fresh start. You need a fresh start. You've been doing the same exact thing every single year since Andrew Luck retired. And not— I said it at the time, the Andrew Luck retirement is probably what bought Chris Ballard a lot more years because he basically could just keep on saying, well, our plans were screwed up because Andrew Luck retired. But congrats to Colts fans.

The bad man's gone. Mother Cool Throne is basketball. NBA's here. So the boys are going to Banner Night. We will recap on Friday's show how Banner Night went. Do we want to do quick our picks? NBA title picks. Who's in it and who do you have winning? Memes, you want to start?

Yep.

Knicks back-to-back champs versus OKC.

Okay.

Sixers over T-Wolves.

Sixers over T-Wolves? That'd be a fun one. LaMelo.

Yeah, fuck it.

T-Wolves are gonna be fun.

I don't—

I have no idea what the T-Wolves are gonna look like.

Yeah, fuck it.

Could be fun.

Say Knicks walk down Wemby again.

Just do it again. Okay.

I got the Spurs and the Wizards, and we got Sar versus Wemby. A couple French guys going at it, and Spurs win this one. I got round 1.

I got the Thunder over the Raptors. Oh, yeah. What, you don't like it?

No. Okay.

I got the Celtics over Thunder. Team of the decade.

Team of the decade. Calling it.

It's on the line.

Are you guys— how are you guys feeling going into tonight? I'm fired up. Yeah.

I was saying before, I kind of wish it was against the Spurs just because they could make Wemby cry again. Yeah, I fucking hate the Spurs. But this will be fun. Get to watch LeBron and the greatest player in the world.

Yep. Love that. Love that LeBron is greatest player in the world.

No, he called Jalen Brunson.

Yep.

And yeah, there's Jalen Brown could be in there too.

You think the Pope's rooting for— he's definitely rooting for the Knicks, right? He has to.

No other guy.

Well, he's not. Yeah, he has no ties to Philly. Yeah.

Who?

The Pope.

Oh, yeah. Pope's probably— Pope's definitely rooting for the Knicks. Yeah, I'm willing to concede that fact.

Okay.

But this game doesn't matter. I just have to tell myself that it doesn't matter. It's game 1.

Well, it does matter.

No, it doesn't. You're, you're not allowed to say that. You just kept saying how none of, none of these games matter all morning.

It's a home game for LeBron, though.

You didn't just keep saying— And up on national television, I— we had Russillo on and I— my question was, I don't really care about basketball in October. Who's going to win? And then I never asked another question.

That's a fair question.

It's football season. I'm sorry. The NBA starts too early. The NBA should start on Christmas Day. It should be a 60-game schedule. It should start on Christmas Day. It'd be so much better. I, I'll watch because sports are on, but I just can't care about game 5 of the NBA season. I'm just being honest.

I don't really care about game 5. I do care about game 1.

Yeah, game 1. Sure.

I care about game 1 and then whatever, probably like one game during Thanksgiving week I'll care about. And then Christmas Day I'll start caring full time. But game 1, feet on the wood.

Mm-hmm.

Maybe.

I'm so excited to see if the feet are on wood.

Very excited. All right, Zach. My hot seat this week is going to be guys who collect cards. We had a heist. Yeah, I think it was like roughly $960,000 out the FedEx truck. FedEx employee left the truck for like 30 to 90 minutes, came back.

Almost $1 million in cards is gone at the PSA headquarters.

They blamed a broken lock on the truck.

So this is like The Town.

Except with autos and holographics.

Goodfellas.

Yeah. So where was this?

So this was at the PSA headquarters.

So they—

it was a shipment of like roughly 100 packages of cards that were already graded, getting ready to send back to their owners.

And then like roughly 50 of them got taken. So, but like, where is the PSA headquarters? What city?

PSA headquarters, I think, is in California. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, this is a good old-fashioned heist. I feel like we're going to see these cards on the black market. Oh, they're definitely going to be floating around and like, definitely like the trade shows. Yeah, we'll just set up the tables.

Yeah.

It sucks if your card got stolen. That said, I'm— I think I'm always pro-heist.

We haven't had a heist in a long time.

Yeah, heists are— heists are pretty fun.

There was that one at the museum.

Yeah, but they found them.

But that was still a heist.

That was— that was cool.

At the Louver.

Oh, with the scooter.

Yeah, they pulled up on Bird scooters and just got out of there.

Yeah, but that's also— they were trying to heist like old art, like who Who cares? Well, I'm talking— we're talking about a 10 out of 10 Tyler Schuck rookie card.

That's some—

that's some serious shit.

Yeah.

Also, how do you start your FedEx shift with a broken lock on the truck? Oh, you can't. Well, how do you? And step away for 90 minutes? Inside job, Zach. That guy got paid off.

Inside job, 100%. What do you think it feels like to get that text?

Like, hey, do you— I know you work at FedEx.

Yeah.

What are you thinking about? Can you just, uh, Go grab an extra lunch. Leave that lock unlocked.

And I don't want to snitch, but if you work for the FBI, the name of that FedEx driver, Dan Quinn. Look into him. Look into him. Mm-hmm.

Okay. And then my cool throw this week, Bronny James made the team.

Yeah.

Cut it down to 15.

Bronny's still there.

Dalton Knecht did not. Unfortunately, waived.

See ya.

Good job for Bronny. Way to do it without your dad.

Earned, not given.

Yeah, he did it. Paved his own path. Bronny did it. Good job.

Is anybody going to pick Connect up?

Someone.

I feel like he's not—

someone—

he's not rubbish.

Someone pick him up.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm a big believer in if you were drafted in the first round, you're good for at least 5 years.

Yeah. Especially if you're like, if you've got some memorable March games from your college career.

Yeah. Okay, let's get to our interviews. We've got Andy Staples, then Sam LaPorta. Before we get to Andy Staples, this episode is brought to you by BodyArmor Flash IV. Flash IV is packed with electrolytes, delivering faster, longer-lasting hydration without any artificial dyes, flavors, or sweeteners. Whether you're training, traveling, just feeling the heat, or cheering on your team, work hard and hydrate hard with BodyArmor Flash IV. Grab it at 7-Eleven today. We love BodyArmor Flash IV. You boys are going to be drinking Banner Night, having a great time, having—

We're going to need some Flash IVs.

You're going to need some Flash IVs. You got to take some Flash IVs. You know what? You can't take the Flash IVs with you because you can't take them on through TSA. But you can go to 7-Eleven and you get yourself a BodyArmor Flash IV when you land in New York.

You can grab the packets.

What?

Oh, yeah. Packets. Packets. Bring the packets. So work hard and hydrate hard with BodyArmor Flash IV. Grab it at 7-Eleven today. Okay, here he is, Andy Staples. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. He's our good friend Andy Staples. You can find him, uh, On 3 with Ari. You can also find him— he does the, uh, College Football Inquirer on Yahoo. He's everywhere. He's, uh, one of our college football experts. And Andy, good to talk to you. I don't know where you want to start. You decide where you want to start. It was one of those incredible Saturdays that college football can only do. You cannot— we love the NFL, we're an NFL First podcast— you cannot have a day like we had on Saturday in an NFL Sunday. Uh, it just was, it was remarkable from start to finish.

It was incredible, and it just kept rolling. That's the part that was amazing to me, because, uh, you had the noon window where Florida shocks Texas, and, and Arch Manning, you know, it was just collapses at the end of the game. You have Bryce Underwood getting benched at Michigan. Like, that's just the noon window. And then you roll into—

Nick Marsh. Nick Marsh. I was watching the night slate and I was like, I think I tweeted, I was like, Nick Marsh feels like he stepped out of bounds 6 years ago. And it was like, because it was that much stuff that had happened.

And can you imagine if that ball is 6 inches further to the right or Nick Marsh's foot is 6 inches further to the right. Like, yeah, that is, that would be Indiana beating Ohio State on a walk-off touchdown.

Yeah.

Like, what? I know, by the way, Julian Sands hurt. Like that all happened in the noon window and then you roll to 3:30 and all eyes are on, on Knoxville where Tennessee's beating the crap out of Alabama and oh my God, Auburn's beating Georgia.

Yeah.

And then like even my wife who does not care about football at all sat there and watched the entire BYU-Notre Dame game with me, referring to Bear and Tiger as those Bachmeier cutie pies, like getting mad at me because I said, I think probably Notre Dame's going to win this one pretty handily and like rubbing my face in it every time BYU stuffed them.

I think you just hit on something that I think that Saturday passed the tell your wife about it test. And it's, you know, Obviously, you know, some people like, you know, some women are just in— just into college football as much as, as the husband. But my wife doesn't really care about college football. And when I, when I like climb into bed at the end of a Saturday, she's like, what happened? And I was like, I gotta tell you what happened. Like, everyone lost. It was crazy. I was like, this team lost, this team lost, this team lost. Uh, so yeah, it was, it was nuts. I, I guess I'll start with this. When it comes to Ohio State, uh, how do you think Ohio State is going to navigate the end of the season where it's like Julian Sayre might be out for the year? They have, they have one more loss they can, they can give, maybe 2, probably not. Do you think this is a situation where like we could see a playoff without Ohio State?

It's possible because their schedule, this is the hardest Ohio State schedule in decades. So we already knew going in that even if everybody was healthy and everything went right, there was an outside chance they could wind up a 3-loss team. Now you look at what they've got the rest of the way. They're, they're off this week, but their next game's against USC. They play Oregon, which we don't know if Dante Moore will be back by then, 'cause Oregon with and without Dante Moore, 2 very different teams. Northwestern looks like a wagon, except maybe a little bit Saturday where they— that was another one of those games like Northwestern walked off Michigan State. Nobody even noticed because of everything else that was going on.

Mm-hmm.

Nebraska keeps getting close in these games and then gets their guts ripped out. Like, they may win one of these eventually. And then of course you've got Michigan at the end of the season, which they've changed quarterbacks. Maybe that's going to be okay.

Yeah.

If Ohio State is playing Luke Fahey the rest of the year, I don't know if they survive this. Yeah, I don't, because they're not as good as they were last year. I think Indiana and Ohio State, when we watched them play this past week, both of them are not as good as they were last year. They're, they're not as talented as they were last year. Indiana, Josh Hoover is no Fernando Mendoza. Ohio State, their defense is not what it was with Sonny Stiles and Arvell Reese and, and Caleb Downs. So this is going to be nip and tuck. It is like Ohio State people are going to have to sweat, which they're not used to doing. They're used to playing a 2-game season. And this was never going to be a 2-game season. But now it becomes even more fraught.

Yeah. So big picture stuff, if we're looking at Saturday, it was the best— it was the best Saturday that I can remember in recent memory for college football. And it makes me think the gold standard in, I guess, recent memory for just years is 2007. How, how close are we on trajectory to like if we're, if we're doing an AP Top 25 years in recent college football memory, how close are we to getting— are we on track? Are we on track right now to surpass 2007?

Yes, because Miami advanced to number 1 by barely surviving what I would consider a lame duck Florida State.

Yeah.

In double overtime and needed a very bad holding call.

Yeah.

For that to happen.

Yeah.

So I do think we're in for that level of chaos because it's Miami like that. Now you've got Miami and BYU at the top of the standings. I guarantee you in 6 weeks it's going to look different. Now Miami might be able to stay there, but BYU is going to have some challenges. They got to play Utah. Like this is not going to be easy for them going forward. And then like I'm assuming Georgia will win its way back up and then we'll have the carnage in the Big Ten because Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan all have to play each other. Like there's so much left. And then we haven't gotten into the SEC because it feels like those teams are, are down, squished down because people have lost. But who's actually going to survive? Like, guys, Lane Kiffin, his playoff chances may be done this weekend. Yeah, they play at Auburn this weekend.

It's actually crazy. I want to talk about the SEC because it's nuts to look at the SEC and see like every single team outside of maybe like, you know, Vanderbilt, Arkansas is a disaster. Mississippi State without Kamara maybe Texas A&M. There's, there's like 12 teams that could conceivably be a playoff team if the— if everything falls their way. So right now, if I told you that the SEC gets 4 playoff teams, tell me which 4 those are, because I don't think it's Texas anymore.

Georgia, Alabama.

Okay.

Tennessee.

Okay.

Maybe Kentucky.

Yeah, I was gonna say Kentucky's— 'cause like LSU and Alabama, you have to kind of pick one or the other because they're gonna play each other.

Right.

And that, and they both have 2 losses now. Yeah.

So it's like Tennessee and Kentucky play each other down the stretch too.

Yeah.

And like, if you're Tennessee, everybody loves that Tennessee defense. I, I mean, I, I, my, my co-host Ari Wasserman has compared them to who, the 2000 Ravens. I, I've made an '85 Bears reference. Earlier, they're awesome. But Tennessee fans are looking at this week and going, "Oh my God! Of all the weeks we have to go to Columbia, South Carolina, which has been an absolute house of horrors for good Tennessee teams." And that's the that's the thing about this. Like that Tennessee-Kentucky game could be a playoff elimination game if Kentucky were to drop one between now and then. If Tennessee were to lose at South Carolina this weekend, like nothing is guaranteed. Nothing is certain. If you think you're going to see chalk, that's, that's where you're crazy.

Is Kentucky being hurt right now because the fact that one of their big wins is against LSU and that counts as less of a big win because Kentucky beat them?

Now Kentucky's fine because all they have to do is keep winning. Like if Kentucky's 10-2, they're making the playoffs. So there's, there's not really a style point situation that they've got to worry about. They just have to keep winning. They can drop one. But that's all they can drop.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's crazy to look at. It's just so fun that everyone feels like they're playing each other. And let me go back to the Texas thing because I did say it, and this isn't recency bias. I actually said that before they played Oklahoma, I was like, they're pretenders. Looking ahead at their schedule, I think Texas is gonna have a hard time making the playoff because I just don't trust their offense.

Is—

who, who's gonna, who's gonna get the blame for this? Obviously Arch is probably not gonna be at Texas next year. But doesn't this feel like this is now back-to-back quarterbacks with Sark who have gotten worse as the years have gone on and not better, where they come in promising? And Quinn Ewers kind of same way, which like, I'm not saying Quinn Ewers is bad, but it's not like he got— he took this big leap forward under Sark. So does Sark get the blame here? And what's the future for Sark in Texas?

So you sound like the Texas fans who have been yelling at me for the better part of a month.

Yeah.

Anytime I bring up the possibility that Arch might not be the greatest.

Yeah.

And their argument, and it's really a chicken-egg argument, is, well, it's because of Sark's play calling. It's because Sark can't develop quarterbacks. I'd say the, the, that the results are bearing out their argument, but I would also argue that Arch is not the best Agreed.

I'm not, by the way, I'm not putting it all on Sark. Yeah. I think Arch is bad, has been bad, and it's a mix. I'm saying more Arch, the Arch part of it is going to figure itself out in the fact that he only has so much eligibility. He's probably going to go somewhere next year. What is Texas going to do with Sark if this is the actual problem?

So here's the thing. I don't think Sark's in a position where he'd get fired. I think Sark's in a position where they would demand that he hire an offensive coordinator. And it's fascinating because we watched this play out 2 years ago at Florida where Billy Napier is told in October of 2024, you have to hire an offensive coordinator, you have to fire your defensive coordinator, and then you can stay. And he said, sure. Then he beats LSU and Ole Miss. And he's like, ah, I got some, I got some juice now. I'm not going to do any of that. And then he got fired. What was his first thing he did when he got to JMU? PFT. He earned an OC. He's currently 7-0. So, but Sark is the same thing. Like, and I get it. So I'm more sympathetic to Sark than I think the Texas fans are because Sark got hired for his play calling acumen. It was the thing that made him special. when he got the job. So to give it up, to say that the thing that makes me special, I'm going to let somebody else do. I think that's going to be hard for him, but I think it's also potentially a necessary step.

You know, I've had Texas fans that point out his problems calling plays in the red zone, and it goes way back, long before he called that toss on, you know, short yardage near the goal line against Ohio State in the Peach Bowl or in the Cotton Bowl a few years ago. I don't think it's red zone. I think it's short yardage.

Yeah.

Like if you watch that Florida game, there were 3rd and 2s, 4th and 1s. He just, for whatever reason, can never call the right play in short yardage situations. It makes no sense. And you can say, well, the offensive line needs to block, blah, blah, blah. A lot of it is having the right play dialed up. And I go back to last year when, when they played at Georgia. Mike Bobo, who gets crushed by Georgia fans, their OC. There was a 4th and short and he called the just the most brilliant little bootleg flick out to the tight end. It was the perfect play call for the perfect situation. Will Stein on that walk-off 2-point conversion against LSU, perfect play call for the perfect situation. Sometimes guys just have that and guys don't. And Sark may not have that anymore as he deals with all the other global issues he has to deal with. being the head coach of Texas.

Yeah, I was about to say, do you think that it's 2 different skill sets at Texas? Like, in order to be a good football coach there, in terms of the off-the-field stuff, recruiting, managing the big personalities in the booster room, that is completely different from being X's and O's guy, quarterback development guy, because Sark has developed quarterbacks in the past. Like, he's got a great track record of it. But at Texas, there's so much that goes along with the job. Like, when Mack Brown was at his best there, he was, he was shaking hands and kissing babies.

Yeah.

And, and kind of delegating everything else. If you're gonna be the, uh, the like hands-on X's and O's guy, you typically see other stuff fall by the wayside. And maybe with Sark, it's like he's too focused on the other stuff and he's kind of lost that ability, uh, with his hands full, uh, to really bring Arch and Quinn along.

I, I think that's probably the, the most accurate way to put it. And, and if you look at Mac, you know, and that was a different time, But Mack had Greg Davis as his coordinator most of the time. Mack was the quintessential CEO coach. And that's probably what you need to be at Texas. There are probably other programs where you don't have to be that, but at Texas, maybe that's what you need to be. And I do think Sark will get significant pressure to do that. And look, I'm not saying they're even out of the woods because guys, they could lose this weekend.

Yeah.

And I don't know that that necessarily knocks them out of the playoff because they, they still have the Ohio State win in pocket. But even if, even if let's say they lost this weekend, they still have to play at Missouri and at LSU. And I don't care how bad Texas A&M's been this season. You don't think they would jump on a chance to jump on a down Longhorn team?

Yeah.

Like, so this is going to be a really interesting game because look, John Sumrall and Pete Golding are very close. My guess is Pete Golding, if he didn't talk to John Sumrall, has definitely looked at everything John Sumrall did and Brad White there, DC at Florida, to heat up Arch last week. And they're probably going to do the same thing again because the book on Arch is send a bunch of pressure. He may beat you downfield. Like he had that beautiful 62-yard pass to Emmitt Mosley on 4th and 6 in the 4th quarter of that game against Florida. But you will trade that for all of the throwing it 10 yards over the head of the guy, you know, standing along the sideline or not noticing when he's got a hot guy right here that he can dump off to and taking a sack. Or like you saw in the Florida game, fumbling because you're getting hit from all sides. Like, that's the risk you're going to take. And if you're Ole Miss, which has kind of some of the same secondary issues Florida's had, You don't— I don't want my corners and safeties to have to try to cover Cam Coleman by himself down the field for very long.

Yeah.

I don't, but I don't want them to try to cover him at all. I want Arch on his back so he can't throw to Cam Coleman.

All right. I want to talk about BYU. Incredible win. I doubted them. Like, hand up. I had Notre Dame in the game. I've always thought BYU is a very good team, but not a great team. That was as impressive as impressive gets, especially from Bear Bachmeier with no LJ Martin, the way they win that game. Uh, going forward, is the Big 12 a 2-bid league, maybe 3-bid league? And can Notre Dame potentially lose the Miami game and still make the playoff? I know the 12— the top 12 thing that they got in the Notre Dame clause, but how do you see both of those things playing out for both those teams?

Well, let's start with the Big 12.

Yeah.

BYU did a massive solid to the Big 12. Massive. The Big 12 needed that for, you know, for its reputation, for how the playoff committee will view those teams once they start meeting, because the Big 12 didn't have a signature non-conference win from anybody before BYU beat Notre Dame. And now everybody who is in BYU's orbit benefits. from BYU winning that game. When BYU plays Utah, if Utah beats BYU, they absorb some benefit of BYU beating Notre Dame. It also allows BYU some grace. I don't know that BYU has to win the Big 12 now to make the playoff. Like, yeah, if you have a Big 12 playoff game between, let's say, Texas Tech that comes in at— I mean, and Texas Tech may come in at 12-0.

Yep.

Their schedule kind of lends itself to that. But if you have a 12-0 Texas Tech and they beat BYU in the Big 12 championship game and hand them, let's say, their second loss, they're both getting in.

Mm-hmm.

If BYU and Utah play a rematch in the Big 12 championship game, there's a good chance they're both getting in because I think to even make the Big 12 championship game, you're going to have to be 9-0 or 8-1 in the league. That's why Houston has to win at Utah this weekend if they want to stay in the race. But that lends itself to a situation where you're probably going to have the loser having at least 10 wins. And I think that's gonna, that's gonna get 2 teams in.

Yeah. Yeah. And then, and then in terms of Notre Dame, uh, I don't know if they can lose the Miami game. Like, SMU's their last, their last bullet point, but I don't know. This would be, it would be shocking if it happened again where they go 10-2 and don't make the playoff. But it does feel like they have to, they had to always split the BYU-Miami games. So now this Miami game on November 7th is like, the pressure is insane on Notre Dame.

Absolutely. Now Notre Dame can get some help if some of the teams it's already beaten can do so. If your Badgers can beat USC this weekend and then can win some games down the stretch, it makes that win look much better.

If UNC's not bad, right?

North Carolina is not bad. I think they're like, they're going to lose to Miami, but they're going to keep They're going to keep looking like they're much better than last year. Like they could be a 7 or 8 win team. SMU has 1 loss. If SMU is going to the ACC championship game and Notre Dame beats them, that would help too. But that said, if they lose to Miami, it will put them in the same situation they were in last year. And I know they've got that rule, but if you're below 12, it doesn't matter about that rule. Like last year, it was, you know, are you in the top 11? Oh, was it actually the top 10 because of the conference champion rule? This case was different. They've got to be in the top 12. But yeah, I don't know if they'll be in the top 12 because I don't know if the rest of their schedule is going to be strong enough. So they really do need to beat Miami at home when they have the chance.

So what you're saying is it's time for a different rule. We need a, we need another new rule.

Guess what, PFT? They made another new rule. Yeah, it's gonna be 2014. They did.

They did.

New rule made.

What are your thoughts on the 2014 playoff? We discussed it after the news came out. Um, we love it, Andy. I think it's great for, uh, great for the game, great for the sport, great for the fans first and foremost.

Uh, but yeah, nobody, nobody wants it. Nobody wants this except, uh, coaches who don't want to get fired, ADs who want to justify the money they're spending, and TV networks who think they're going to get better September inventory because you can lose more games.

Nope.

My issue is you just triple the size of the playoff and people got more scared of scheduling good games. Now, I am not a Chicken Little. I do not think this is going to kill the sport. I don't think it's going to kill the regular season. Last week was a great example of this. And again, I would rather them— I'd rather them stay at 12. But Big Cat.

What?

Was it Auburn beating Georgia? I know Auburn beating Georgia is like a 22 beating a 1.

I get it. But let me just push back for a second because I also do not think it's going to kill the sport. I'm still watching the sport.

Yep.

I think having like now you get 3 mulligans, 4 mulligans. Saturday doesn't feel as important when it's like Texas loses to Florida. And we're like, well, they could still lose 2 more. Oh, you know, like—

I disagree with you on that though, because Texas losing to Florida was not about Texas losing, it was about Arch sucking.

Of course, of course. There's, there's always storylines. I just think that like the, uh, the, the, the feeling of do or die every Saturday is a, is a feature of college football that the NFL doesn't have as much. And that's what I love.

If you're an LSU fan, What reason do you have to watch if they lose to Auburn this weekend? What reason do you have to watch the, the last 5 games or the last 4 games if they lose to Auburn this weekend?

Yeah, I mean, I got— I guess you're, you're right on that. Uh, I think you could do the, the counter where it's like the Georgia fans are— are Georgia— is Georgia gonna have the same environment every single Saturday when they know every single year they're just in the playoff, like no matter what?

Yes, they, they had the same environment when they weren't in the playoffs.

Okay, okay.

All right.

I think attendance is the thing that's actually going to be hurt more than anything.

I don't know. I, I watched that Tennessee game, that Tennessee Alabama game.

Incredible scene. Incredible scene. Those rivalry games for sure.

But if you still make it a party, which it still is in, in like in the SEC and the Big Ten, it's 7 reunions a year. I still think people are coming. Like, their attendance, like attendance in the SEC is up.

So Yeah, I just, I, I'm more like the do-or-die nature of, of college football is definitely getting lessened. And it's like, imagine, I just keep looking back. We're never going to go back in time, but we— PFT mentioned 2007. Imagine Saturday in 2007. That would have— it literally would have eliminated like all the teams. It would have been crazy.

What would have happened to those fan bases?

They would have just been like, oh well. They still watch because bowls were important then. That is a fact.

Well, it depends on who you were. Yeah, like that always depended on who you were. Yes, like there's a reason Steve Spurrier said you can't spell Citrus without UT, because he knew that was the most crippling thing he could say about Tennessee at the time.

Yeah, so, but there was, there was a different way. You, you're saying like those fans didn't want— I mean, I remember the days when a 9-win Wisconsin season was a good season. Going to Outback Bowl was a fun season. I watched every single snap. So So I wouldn't say that people just tuned out.

But Wisconsin, for example, it would be very much alive for a playoff berth right now.

That's— and that's why, you know, I'm coming at it from an unbiased take. This is a rule that will help the, the, the level that my team plays in, but I still don't really love it because I just don't— I don't think there are 24 teams that can win it all.

And I don't think— But I think, I, I think we're, we're maybe getting closer to that. And I'm not saying they did this on purpose or they were smart. I'm saying they may have lucked into this.

Yeah.

Because the way the sport is moving, because Auburn does not go win at Georgia 10 years ago. That version of Auburn, there, there obviously there were Auburn teams that could have done that. This version of Auburn does not go win at Georgia 10 years ago because that, that Georgia team is too deep. They have 5 players that Auburn doesn't have. And they just, they just kill them. That's the difference.

Do you ever do the Brian Windhorst fingers and say, hmm, isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting that all the good teams lost to teams that might be in that 20 to 24 range? Yeah, right after they— I did think about that.

I'm not going to lie. I did think about that this weekend. I was like, oh, the Illuminati press a button here to say it can happen. 24 might not be so bad, boys.

Yeah.

You expect upsets, the Cinderella stories coming out of the 24 spot in the bracket, in the tournament as they're gonna call it. It's gonna be amazing.

I— listen, I, I'm— I think it's gonna be strange, like, when there's no conference championship games next year.

Yeah.

That's gonna be bizarre.

I actually think that's the benefit. I actually—

I do.

That's one of the things that I'd like about the 2014 playoff.

Yeah.

Because it became so irrelevant.

The first week, which is the one that replaces the conference championship game week, is teams 9 through 24 playing.

Yes.

That's who should have to play to get into the Final 16.

Correct.

Not, not maybe I'm in on the best killing each other in a, you know, in a, in a rock fight like Texas and Georgia a couple years ago.

Maybe I'm coming around to it. I just more, I, I, I, I do think that we're gonna lose a little bit, but we've already lost it. That's what I keep telling myself. The day that Ohio State lost to Michigan and still won the national title, like we kind of lost that. feeling of the crippling loss that happens to your rival.

Here's the thing I tell people. The old bowl system sucked. The BCS sucked. The 4 teams sucked. You may have pleasant memories of it because you didn't know any better. Like you were living under a very oppressive regime then. And so when you were fed these tiny little scraps, you thought they were good. This version, the 12-team, is so much better.

Yes.

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. 12, I liked. I liked 12. It's not that I'm saying we should go back to the 4 or the BCS. I've seen people actually argue that. I will say I had, I went, I was looking at people discuss this when it first was announced. And I did get some like real, like strong waves of nostalgia because underneath someone's tweet, it was some major, I think it was either Herb Street or someone else.

Mm-hmm.

Was a guy, 2 guys arguing. about Oklahoma State and Alabama in 2011, right? And be like old school BCS argument. They're like, look at what Oklahoma State did. It's like, shouldn't have lost to Iowa State, dude. And I was like, man, I kind of do miss this a little bit, but I don't—

I don't miss it at all. I wanted to see that Oklahoma State team play LSU.

I know, I know.

Alabama that year.

I know.

Like, and what's fun is like back in the day we used to do hypothetical brackets. Like, what if, what if they did have a March Madness style tournament? Wouldn't this be awesome to look at? And now I'm seeing the opposite where I'm seeing nostalgia like tweets of people bringing back the computers.

Imagine the BCS standings this week.

Yeah, what would the BCS formula be like? I've seen like the— I've seen the hypothetical computer rankings and people be like, we need to bring back some of the, some of the old-school computers. Like the guy that had UCF, uh, winning the national championship, I've seen that guy's rankings brought back up again. It's, uh, it's a— I, I said this to, uh, Rosillo when he was on, but part of the beauty of college football is that it's an imperfect sport and half the fun of it is sometimes spent Arguing over ways to fix how imperfect it is.

Yes.

Well, it's like, it's like Big Cat always says about the ABS. Yeah. That this eliminates bar arguments.

Right, right.

Like, it's a lot of conversation that we lose. The thing about it is college football still has enough imperfections and just screwball things that go on that I don't think we'll ever run out of those things to argue about. I mean, for God's sake, There was a second left on the clock when BYU-Notre Dame happened.

Yeah, yeah, we should have mentioned that.

We can argue about that all week.

Yeah.

If all this other crap hadn't happened.

Blame Steve Young. He was the first one on the field. So, all right, so you've, you've, you've pushed me a little closer to 24.

No, I think it—

I still think it's bad.

Which I hate because I don't want 24.

I don't want to be the guy proselytizing for it.

No, I think it's overall bad for the sport, but it's not— it's also not the end of the world because college football, it's been broken long before today.

Yeah, that's right.

And it will continue to be broken long into the future.

But that's why we love it. Yes.

I was going to say, the brokenness is all part of the charm. It's a feature, not a bug.

It is. I got a question for you about the upcoming matchup. We're looking into the future a little bit, but Oregon State, Boise State potentially playing.

Do you think—

now, is the winner— I know Boise State is probably penciled in right now as the non-power conference selection. If Oregon State beats Boise State in that game, Is there any chance that they put Boise— that, that Oregon State leapfrogs into the top 12, or do you think that would then go to an undefeated James Madison?

Well, you're leaving somebody out. There's a really big game this weekend in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The North Dakota State Bison are going to play against, yes, former Badger Jason Eck and the Lobos. And if New Mexico wins this game, yeah, and then can beat UNLV, I think there's a chance they're in that mix too. But the Oregon State thing is fascinating. If you guys have not seen Jesse Legree play football, holy crap. True freshman.

It's the best.

Better numbers than Jeremiah Smith. I'm still putting Jeremiah Smith higher on my Heisman ballot at the moment, but Jesse Legree has been awesome. He's probably the best freshman in college football. They have a quarterback named Braden Atkinson who's been incredible. Jamarcus Sheppard is their coach. He was an assistant at Alabama last year, took over, like has just revolutionized this program that remember when the Pac-12 exploded, they were left for dead and they're just incredible. They lost competitive games at Houston and against Texas Tech.

Mm-hmm.

And those 2 teams might actually wind up playing for the Big 12 title for all we know. They're both good in the Big 12. We know that. And so, yes, I think there's a good chance. But PFT, to your point, if they've got to decide between an 11-2 Oregon State, a 12-1 New Mexico, and a 13-0 JMU, I think they may default to 13-0 JMU.

You think so?

I think, I think, I think so.

And every argument that they made last year, every argument that was against JMU that they made last year, you can make again this year, but maybe stronger. It might even be scheduled stronger. It's a stronger case this year. And the fact that Virginia Tech canceled the game really ended up fucking JMU over. They should get credit for that. That should count as a win for JMU for the purposes of the rankings.

We should change the rules that yes, anytime a team cancels on another team, even though we're not gonna put it on their record, when the playoff committee meets, they must give them an extra win.

They're scared.

Assume that team, right? You were scared. You didn't show up. That's a win for the other team.

Yeah, I know. The way I see it playing out this year, I've kind of— I hope that this isn't the case because I did take a, uh, a parlay like week 2 on the JMU Caliphate to all 3 of them make the playoffs. Uh, but the way I see it playing out is that if they— if there's any way for them to be left out this year, they'll probably look at last year, look at the same argument, and then look at the first half of Oregon-JMU and say, okay, let's get somebody new in there.

Well, the thing about it is if there was somebody who was going to come out of the American who was dominant, that would be one thing. But that, that league's gonna be a mess this year.

Yeah.

So that, that's probably the strongest and the deepest of the group of leagues, but they're going to beat each other up. And so it is probably going to come down to the Boise State, Oregon State winner, New Mexico, and JMU. And then you have to figure— the thing is, JMU would probably just hope for some chaos in the other leagues. New Mexico loses to North Dakota State but beats UNLV, and then they play each other again, like something like that. That's— that would help JMU.

Yep. And then in the, uh, in the Big Ten, what if you were to say right now, gun to your head, gun to your head, Andy, gun to your head, what teams, what teams from the Big Ten are going to be in the top 12 at the end of the year? Gun to your head.

This is, this is so hard. Hold on, let me put the gun back on my head.

Yeah, um, you don't have to do it to yourself.

That's Yeah, I mean, you can— like Ohio State with a backup quarterback.

Yep.

Uh, you know what, you're dead. You took too long.

Yeah, I think Iowa has a very good shot. I don't know about Oregon and I don't know about USC.

And Michigan's not dead, which is crazy.

And Michigan isn't dead.

They're not quarterback. Yeah, like If they beat Indiana this weekend, like it's, it's—

oh, they're all UCLA. UCLA.

I'm so sorry.

Yeah.

My apologies to, to, you know, Mikey Volcano and company, but yeah, UCLA, I'll, I'll say they're in comfortably and, and maybe Ohio State and then it gets really dicey after that. But hey, I watched that Iowa team go up to Washington with Jeremy Heckelinski and I know Kirk Ferentz hasn't, hasn't announced anything and he's not going to. But if you, if you go with Hechelinski and it looks like that the rest of the way, that's a playoff team.

Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I was right there. I mean, they, Dave, that, that win against Michigan, I know that the probability of that happening and they got outplayed the whole game. It doesn't matter. They won the game. It's fun. It is fun right now where both, both power conferences, it's like you could flip a coin and there can be 3. I— it's gonna be interesting to see who can survive if there's a lot of 3-loss teams as well, because that's gonna get a little dicey.

I didn't mention Northwestern either.

Yeah, Northwestern.

There's a good chance Northwestern can be in this mix because now before the season we're like, Northwestern's got the hardest schedule in the world, they have to play all these great teams on the road. What if they win a couple of these? Because they could.

Yeah, no, they've looked really good. Their offense is so fun to watch. Uh, in the ACC, is it— is it— I mean, Miami almost lost to Florida State. Florida State got screwed. Wake Forest is good. We've mentioned UNC, they're playing better, but it's, it is still Miami's to lose. And does it feel like it's a one-bid league?

It does at the moment. Yeah, it does at the moment. We'll see. 'Cause like SMU could change some minds there if they keep winning, 'cause they play Notre Dame there at the end. But yeah, I don't foresee a second team. coming out of the ACC. And it's interesting that Miami— so that Florida State game is the game they lose year after year after year, the random— and it's not a random ACC game because it's a rivalry, but given Florida State's circumstances after that Louisville loss where the fan base was already out on Mike Norvell, and then after Louisville they were like, we are completely done, he's got to go. And then all of a sudden they're, they're hanging with a top 2 team on the road.

Mm-hmm.

But that's a game Miami would lose in the past. They didn't lose it.

Yeah.

So maybe they're not going to lose any of these.

Yeah.

What do we think about the last play in that game?

Well, the next to last one's the one that bugs me because I don't think Xavier Chaplin held. I think he did exactly what you're supposed to do. Defensive line was overextended. He grabbed— he pushed down on his back, put him on the ground. That's what you're supposed to do. So that was not holding. The last play, I thought it looked like the DB had the ball. And I know Deuce Robinson is grabbing for it, but it looked like the DB had possession of it with the limited thing we could tell. And, but I do want to, can I say thank you to the ACC here for letting us hear?

Oh, it's the best.

The deliberations, because I said when they started doing that last year, I was like, well, what if you get a situation like the Virginia Tech Miami Hail Mary from a few years ago? where nobody can see shit. Are they going to let us hear those people going, we can't see shit?

Yeah.

Yes, they are.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a weird one because it felt like one camera angle, I could see what they were talking about with the Miami player catching it against his body. The other camera angle, it did look like Florida State initially had possession, like their hands looked like they were initially controlling it.

Johnson is a big, strong guy. Like, it's, it's hard. It would be hard to take a ball away from him. The other angle where the DB appeared to take the ball in and put it in his elbow as he fell down, that's the one that I was kind of going by. And I think that's the one they ended up going by. But again, should have never happened. That play should have never happened. It wasn't a hold on the play before.

Yeah. Can we put in a new rule that allows like important rivalry games to always have the home colors? Because that Tennessee-Alabama game was perfect. It was so good, wasn't it?

Oh, the scene was incredible aesthetically.

And then you had the smoke coming, the cigar smoke coming up out of the field, the sunset. It was, it was beautiful.

But well, it's— you think about it, it's the autumn colors. Yeah, this is— if you're actually driving around Knoxville this week, you get that kind of autumn color situation. So it's, it's perfect. 3rd Saturday in October, orange and crimson. That's, that's perfect.

Yeah.

Also, we should mention The, the probably the most impressive stat still going. It is still 2010 is the last time Alabama lost a game on the road and the fans didn't rush the field. That is, that's something. That's incredible. It's incredible.

Every time they lose— It's a testament to Nick Saban's dominance.

Yeah. It's a huge, huge deal for the other team. And Tennessee would be the one team I like. That was, I watched every clip, every, every highlight of, of the, the postgame with, with them playing Dixieland Delight and Kalen DeBoer almost shitting himself with Spooky Rocky Top.

Spooky Rocky Top is so good.

It was just— that's what college football has that the NFL will never have, was that.

Every time I heard Spooky Rocky Top, the, the only thing that kept going through in my mind is that's a dude singing that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's crazy, it's crazy. Um, all right, Andy, uh, last question, Roback question, rhoback.com. You're wearing it right now. Promo code TAKE. Best Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts in the game. Zach, you ready? Promo code TAKE, uh, rowback.com. Go for it, Zach.

Sir, what's going on, Andy?

How are we? What's up, Zach?

What's going on?

It's a great interview so far.

You the man. I, uh, did have a quick question. Uh, if you had a, uh, let's just say maybe if you had a list that was teams that could fall apart quick coming up soon, who would be at the top of that list? Ooh, I like that.

Oh, I'm so glad you asked this. It's probably the team that is favored at home, but has a quarterback question. And the coach came out yesterday and said he needs a better version of said quarterback. His name could be Joe Smith. It could be Arch Manning. I don't know. But Texas plays Ole Miss this weekend. Texas has to win. Texas is not getting what it needs out of its quarterback. It's not getting what it needs out of its offensive line. It's not getting what it needs out of the play calling. If Texas were to lose to Ole Miss, now remember, they've still got a pretty tough schedule the rest of the way. They have to go to LSU, they have to go to Texas A&M. This could get pretty ugly.

Mm-hmm. I— it's a good question, Zach, and I, I agree. They feel like they're on the brink right now where it's like, this is— Oregon's the other one where I, I know they've already lost twice, but this does feel, with some of the stuff that happened on after the game. Feels like season from hell situation with like Dante Moore. Right.

And with no Dante Moore, they're drastically different offense, whether it's Dylan Raiola or Brock Thomas. Both of them have been horrible at times. Dylan Raiola did come in and lead them back against Nebraska. So maybe there's a, there's some hope there with him, but like they're going to play Illinois this weekend. Like I'll take Brett Bielema against a quarterback that just got benched 2 weeks ago.

Yeah.

That's true.

Uh, one last one, Andy. If BYU continues to win, how soon till we start having the, uh, 2019 LSU conversation with BYU?

You will not get me to ever compare any team to that team. And I realize the person who did compare them, uh, qualified it with a something, uh, you do pretty frequently, PFT. I said people are saying.

Yeah, I was saying.

Yes.

Yeah.

Some people were saying—

some people will say it's not even people are— some people are going to say, yes, it could happen.

Yeah.

There's a lot of people out there.

That's my alma mater's team that was compared or by, by people. Yeah. Was going to be compared by people.

You were going to do it.

Yeah. To 2019 LSU. I'm so glad I never had to actually get to the point where I made that comparison. They are not that good. That said, The Trammell Jones Jr. era in Gainesville might be upon us. We'll see who they decide to trot out there against Georgia in Atlanta next weekend. But that was, that was, that was fun to see him kind of click into place that last drive of the first half. And you're like, oh, oh, the young man is now comfortable. Let's see what happens. And he was awesome the rest of the way.

Thank you for the reminder that the game's now in Atlanta because they're redoing the stadium in Jacksonville.

That's right.

Yes.

Keeping the pool, I think, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. We're gonna do— I think they're keeping the pool. That's also bullshit for you guys because Atlanta is a little easier. That's, that's kind of bullshit.

Well, I mean, look, the Jacksonville people have been good to the series. Yeah. So it's only 70 miles from Gainesville. It's a good deal. I'll take it. But apparently the Georgia people like coming down. I go back to Larry Munson, the great Georgia radio announcer, when when Lindsey Scott scored on that crazy touchdown in 1980 where he's, he's just naming all the condo complexes.

Yeah.

Where Georgia people stay. Like, yeah, it's, it's that everybody loves it.

So yeah.

Okay.

They'll be back in Jacksonville 'cause Jacksonville's gonna pay a lot of money for it. But yeah, you get, get it in Atlanta this year.

Yeah.

I'm usually, I'm usually anti-neutral site games unless the neutral site is outdoors. I hate neutral site indoor games. It kind of, it loses all the soul. If it's outside, that's a different thing. Um, we just need to do a better job of— if we're going to be doing all the other stuff to make money for everybody hand over fist, can we at least put in a clause like, let's limit some of these dome neutral site games?

Well, I, I'm with you there because I like, I like the elements in football too. I, unlike Hank, I believe weather is a thing.

Uh, the—

my thing about Florida-Georgia, and it is Florida-Georgia because F become comes before G in the alphabet and it's a neutral site game. I think it should be played on campus.

Yeah.

That's selfish because I think Athens is the best college town in America. And my, you know, my folks who went to Florida really never get to experience it. And I feel like that's a, that's a shame because they got to go one time in the mid-'90s and they never get to go again.

Yeah.

And I'm telling you, Athens is the best college town in America.

They got a taste. Uh, all right, Andy, you're the best, man. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Everyone go check out Andy on 3 and, uh, like I said, the College Football Inquirer podcast. We'll, uh, talk again in a couple months and we'll, we'll be closer to a 12-team playoff, our last one ever.

We hardly knew you.

We hardly knew you. Thanks, Andy.

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That's promo code PMT. You will also receive an additional 10% off and free overnight shipping on your first order. Visit bluechew.com for more details and important safety information. We thank Bluechew for sponsoring the pod and sponsoring the bedroom. All right. Now to our interview with our good friend Sam LaPorta.

Okay.

We now welcome on a very, very special guest. It is Detroit Lions Tight end, Sam LaPorta, Pro Bowl tight end. Are we still doing Pro Bowls? I don't even know. Are we?

Yeah, I don't know. I think the, the Pro Bowl games are going to be a little bit different this year, I heard.

Yeah.

Maybe. I think the accolade is still out there.

Okay.

Yeah.

Pro Bowl tight end. Maybe no more dodgeball and everything. All right. So Sam, you're on your bye or you just finished your bye week. We have a bunch of stuff to get to because you're An awesome, awesome player. And we respect the hell out of tight ends on this podcast. But I had a question about just the bye week logistics. How many days do you actually get off? And did you go anywhere or do you just sit around? Like, you had the perfect bye week that you had. You got to just watch college football Saturday, I assume.

Yeah, it was good. So years prior, I've always had the Monday night game. This year we did play on Sunday. So we got— we had to go in on Tuesday and then, um, had 5 days off after that.

So that's nice.

Yeah, yeah, it was really nice.

Yeah.

Is that a cat? Was there a cat?

Did you hear her?

You're a cat guy? What's her name?

Her name's Lulu. She's covered in leaves. She was out hunting all night.

Okay, I respect that.

Like an outdoor cat.

She's a beast. Wait, she's indoor-outdoor. Let me put her— you want me to put her away?

No, I mean, that's fine. Lulu can hang out. I just Football guy, does Dan Campbell know that you have a cat?

I think he would respect it because he has a little dog. So I think the cat to the little dog, it's like the equivalent thing.

I mean, he's put the cat away.

I'm wondering if he's ever had a chance to catch up with, with Tony Scheffler. Oh yeah, about their cats, because it sounds like, like this might be a tight end thing. Have you, have you ever talked to Tony Scheffler about his cat Scouty?

No, I don't think I have.

He's got a— like, it's a barn cat, Scouty, that kills like hundreds of mice a year. Yeah, it's like the best badass cat.

She's a beast. We live on like an acre, so there's lots of birds, mice, all the stuff. So she has lots of fun.

So you just let your cat out at night and just like go, go have fun, just hunt some stuff and then come back tomorrow?

Yeah, it is what it is. I mean, there's coyotes and stuff out there, but we give her a little, uh, little treat and we send her on her way. Tell her be safe.

That's actually kind of cool.

Yeah.

All right. Watch out for the coyotes, Lulu.

Yeah, I respect that. Yeah, that's a self-sufficient cat. That cat's a grinder.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Do you think that, uh, as a tight end, um, do you think— first question about that is, Iowa officially tight end you? Are they number one?

I think we have to be. I think as of recent Definitely. Going back to like the early 2000s with KF and starting with Dallas Clark, Moyocki, Brandon Myers, you just go down the list. And then the recent years starting with George, just, it's been ridiculous since then. It's almost like every starting tight end has had a chance to make the NFL roster after they come out of Iowa.

Yeah.

What do you think it is about Iowa in particular? Because they're not necessarily known for being explosive offenses all the time. Um, but fullbacks, tight ends, they have some, have some good pieces there. Like, what is it about Iowa that, that makes great, uh, offensive pass-catching tight ends once they get to the league?

They have some sort of formula, but I, I think they recruit high school receivers, they teach them how to be tough at Iowa, and I think the toughness part you can learn. You know, you learn to block, but the ability to um, be crafty in your routes and such. I think that, you know, that's a little more God-given. So they do a good job with the recruiting. KF always has done. So I got maybe attributed to that.

Yeah, yeah. It's also interesting because it feels like every time a guy pops from Iowa, like, you, you can look at their career in Iowa, it's not like they were catching, you know, 40 balls and, and a bunch of touchdowns at Iowa. It's like they have the They have the skill set, but they weren't used that way. And then GMs in the NFL are like, all right, that guy is an Iowa guy. We know he can block and now he can catch. Is that like— did you know that you could be this dynamic of an offensive weapon when you got drafted by the Lions?

Well, you got to consider the fact that my, my last 2 years at Iowa, we were not, we were not exactly dynamic on our side of the ball. So, you know, I was catching a couple passes here and there, but I think the GMs are more the credits to find the diamond in the rough, per se.

Yeah. So, so, but when you get, when you get to, to Detroit and it's, you know, Dan Campbell and Ben Johnson's there at the time, was there, was there like a meeting where they're like, hey, I know that you didn't play in like a crazy offense at Iowa, but we think you can do this and like kind of instilling it in you. I mean, you did have 58 catches your senior year. But like instilling it to you that you're going to be used in a way that you were never used in, in college.

Yeah, being like a pivotal part of the offense was not new. You know, I did get the ball my last couple years at Iowa. It wasn't an issue in terms of targets, but in terms of offensive quality, just being, you know, I feel so bad, you know, shitting on my former offense, but No, it's not. We struggled at times, you know?

So yeah, you guys struggle sometimes. Yeah.

Coming into that league with Ben Johnson as the OC and I'm like, oh my God, we're scoring like 30 points a game consistently. Like, this is unbelievable. You know, that was just an eye-opening moment. Like, that offenses are supposed to operate this way at a high level.

Yeah.

It was neat.

Do you think, do you think Coach Campbell coaches you harder as a tight end himself?

Definitely. He said— I mean, he'll say that to us, to the media, to everybody. He's like, we're gonna be harder on you guys than anybody else.

Oh, I like that. Yeah, I like that. I also—

Yeah, you gotta respect, but it's also— yeah, he's trying to elevate your play. Yeah, you respect and you appreciate, but at times it's tough.

Yeah, yeah. I, I was wondering about this with Coach Campbell. We're, we're big fans of Coach Campbell. Uh, we've had him on the show a couple times.

Yeah.

But his aggressiveness, and this might go also to, you know, Ben Johnson when he was the OC there, and I see the Bears do it all the time as well, but his aggressiveness, you know, going into the game, he's going to be aggressive, right? Like there's no shocking, there's no— so like I always make the argument when, when people are sitting on their couch and they're like, oh, how can you go for it there? Like that's so deflating for the offense or the defense is left out to dry. It's like, You— I would assume going into games, you, you guys are very clear of like, these are the situations we are always going to go for it.

He's gone into particular weeks where he's told us, we got 4 downs up and down the field. I don't care if we're on the -20, we're going. If it's 4th and 8 on the -20, we're going for it. And on Wednesday afternoon, you hear that in the team meeting, you're like, oh shit, we better buckle up this week, boys. Like, we're going the length of the field. all 4 downs.

I mean, that's awesome.

Cool to have that dude like putting the wind in your sails saying like, this offense is not gonna be stopped this week. Like, like, boys, you better buckle up, it's time to go. And you're like, all right, let's fucking buckle up, let's go then.

4th and 8 from your own 20. I could see it, I could see it happening. Is that the craziest scenario that you guys are prepared for, or has there been a crazier one?

I mean, -20, that, that's probably the craziest. Your back would have to be against the wall, like a dire situation. and end of the game. But we've been at midfield going for it on 4th and 5, 4th and 6 before.

Mm-hmm.

I always remember 2023, we go out to Baltimore week 6, and it was— we were behind already quite a bit, but it was 4th and 7 at like the 50-yard line. And at Iowa, that's like a clear punt situation. It's my rookie year. I'm like starting to jog off the field, and I just see hands up from the head ball coach. I'm like, we're about to go for this? It's 4th and 7. Yeah, we're at the 50-yard line. Like, what are we doing? You know, I don't know if we converted either, but yeah, that's— yeah, there's definitely a switch up.

That is a jarring, like, cultural change from Iowa offense where you punt to win to Detroit position.

Yeah.

Now it's like, no, we don't punt because punt— I like it. I think There's obviously a lot of back and forth discourse on, on like coaches getting too aggressive. Punting is a turnover. You are turning the ball over. You're giving them the ball. I know that it's for field position. There's definitely times to do it, but I like when teams are aggressive and I always go back to like, what am I rooting for if I were, if I were facing this team? It's like, I don't want them to—

Right.

If a dynamic offense on the field, I want them to punt when it's 4th and 3. I don't want them to go for it. for it, there's a good chance you're gonna get it.

Yeah, and I know there's people in the front office that are doing all the analytics and whatever. They're in the, the head ball coach's ear, the mic, like, this is a, this is a go-for-it situation, coach, if he wasn't already planning to go for it. I know we have those people.

Yeah, yeah.

How's, uh, how's your back doing? I know that you had— you had— did you have full-on surgery on a herniated disc?

Yeah, I had a microdiscectomy last November, so we're coming up on like 11 months, almost a year, but feeling good. Um, I was talking to someone this morning actually about it, and I made the example of in training camp we go live a little bit, but your teammates are still gonna like take it easy on you. So week 1, you know, you take a couple of shots and you kind of bounce up off the turf like, oh yeah, I guess I can still do this. Like, I can get smoked. get up and go back in and play like 90% of the snaps or whatever it was.

Yeah.

So it's just, yeah, kind of an eye-opening moment, but cool to bounce back from that.

Who's the—

who's the hard— what's the hardest hit you've ever taken?

It's a good question.

Good question.

I don't know if I have any diagnosed concussions, so I shouldn't be— I don't know what the statute of limitations are with my medical staff.

Yeah.

You know, there's, there's been some times where the ears are ringing as you go back into the huddle and you hear the quarterback like— and you're like, am I—

Yeah, right.

Am I cool? Like, am I good? And all you can hear is like the faintest voice of all time where you're just standing right next to the dude. You're like, oh my God, like, maybe spray some water in your face, you know? Shock you back into, into play a bit. So I won't give an exact scenario.

Yeah, that's just Jared fucking with you. So we, we've known Jared for a long time. Uh, we love Jared. He's, he's a great dude. But I heard— I saw that you called him a diva quarterback, which I'll say this, we've known Jared since the day he was drafted. He's never really changed as a person. He's had tons of success, hundreds of millions of dollars, but he's— is he a diva now?

Let me clarify. On game day, the dude will get smoked by grown-ass men, 350-pound D tackles, pop right up. He never looks to the refs for a call. He's never bitching and moaning. But in the facility on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday afternoons, he's fun to mess with because he's in there getting his boo-boos treated. He's, you know, he's acting like a human being, which is just different than what you see on the field because he is that fearless leader. The same consistent person that you're talking about. But it's fun to see him in the facility like, oh, you know, I got hit one time the other day. Like there was one pressure, but that one pressure, like, oh, you know, I landed on my elbow or my hip or my butt. You know, I'm just like, really, dude? Like, you were standing in the cleanest pocket I've ever seen, but like now you're gonna— Now you're gonna tell us about your bumps and bruises. So that, that's a better example. Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's fair. Yeah. He hasn't changed a bit. He's always been a diva.

Yeah.

I've only known him for 4 years, so that's my, that's my impression of him. He's not. He's very tough, but he likes to, he likes to let us know. He likes to be one of the guys.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

It's just, yeah, he wants you to know that he's going through the same things that you are on a day-to-day basis, except one is like a hanging Mm-hmm. Yeah, a little bit. We all go through some something every now and again. What's it like blocking for Jahmyr Gibbs? Does he ever outrun— is he sometimes too fast for you to block for him?

Of course.

He's unbelievable.

I mean, many times throughout the season, I will be out there running, blocking, and out of the corner of my eye, just a flash goes past me and number 0, or previously number 26, And it doesn't feel good. Like, when my top speed is like 19-something miles an hour and then he's in shoulder pads, in a helmet, running away from a defender, carrying the ball at like almost 23 miles an hour, it's just jaw-dropping. Like, unbelievable.

Yeah.

Who do you think is faster, him or Jamo?

I think they're a little bit different because Jamo's really got the top-end speed. and the long strides, but Jahmyr is running full speed after like 5 yards. Yeah, his burst, his quickness is just incredible.

Yeah, he's wicked. He's special to watch. It's pretty insane. Do you, uh, because we're also good friends, we talked about tight end U and, and, and Kittle. Do you, do you enjoy blocking the way that like a Kittle does where I think he likes blocking more than he likes scoring touchdowns. Like, just—

Yeah, George is kind of a psycho.

Yeah.

I'd say it's, it's about even.

Okay.

When you know that you are important in the scheme and a guy like Jahmyr is going to pop a big run because of a good block that you had, that feels good.

Yeah, of course.

But when it's the 9th play of the drive and The coach is calling your number again. Like, go move this 280-pound defensive end whose only job is to set the edge or on 3rd down rush the passer.

It's like, let me buckle up my chinstrap one more time.

Yeah, right. Yeah. Those are not the fun times. That's fair.

Yeah, those are tough.

Yeah.

Do you think—

gotta buckle up there.

Are you the, uh, the best current Italian NFL player?

Ooh, it's a good question.

Good question.

Do you have— do you have a list there?

Tommy DeVito.

Yeah.

Tommy DeVito. The Bosa brothers.

Yeah.

Geno Smith.

Yep.

Italian name. Who else? Max.

Italians.

Yeah.

What are the Italians?

Let's think.

Just naming Italians.

Sanzalone.

Yeah.

Name Italians. Oh, Joe Flacco.

Joe Flacco. Matt Milano.

I get down with Joe Flacco. Do you think— I don't know. Maybe. So I'll tell you this. I did put in my name for the Italian flag football team for the LA Olympics in '28.

Okay.

So I'll see if they want to use me.

They should.

I know that they're doing okay. And many of my— a lot of my buddies, when I told them that, were like, why didn't you submit your name for the American flag football team. And I was like, dude, there's no chance. Come on. Like, let me try to represent my heritage here. But we'll see in a couple of years if that happens or not.

Yeah, they should want you, I think. Yeah. I mean, I'm thinking who else that they could possibly have. Also, we played a little scrimmage against the flag football team. Flag football is a completely different sport.

Yeah, they're really nasty.

Like the different rule changes and stuff. It takes a while to get used to those. And to be able to, like, take advantage of those rules. So the tight ends in the Flag Football Olympics, they might have— I don't know, they might be like 5'10. You never know.

Okay, that's true.

You should do it. Like, we saw Vinnie Pascottino and a bunch of Italian Major League Baseball players represent Italy in the World Baseball Classic. They had fun. You should do it in the Olympics.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. If they want me, I would love to do it, to play. I mean, especially since it's stateside, like, that makes it a lot more convenient as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we— yeah, Flacco, the Flacco to LaPorta connection would be generational.

That would be.

But yeah, DeVito cracks me up every time he's in. He's out there flicking the wrist.

Yeah, it's good. Representation matters. Our guy Max here in the booth, he thinks that there's a lot of anti-Italian discrimination going around in general, so we got to have more guys like Tommy DeVito out there all over the place across all sports and platforms.

It's fun.

So I'll tell you this too. I'm only a quarter Italian and people make lots of jokes like, dude, you're not even full Guido and you're out here talking, you know, you're trying to speak broken Italian to people and, you know, grazie. And I'm like, come on, I'm trying to represent, you know? And they're just like, get out of here. You're not Italian. You're not real Italian.

Blah, blah, blah.

I'm like, come on, you know, trying my best here.

Yeah, you got the vowel at the end of the name means you're good. That's 100%.

That's from The Sopranos, right?

Yeah.

Just because the vowel at the end.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, all right, so I got a question for you about, uh, your upcoming— I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but you do have an extension possibly, uh, coming up.

Yep.

We will, uh, you know, we've been doing this podcast for 10 years. We will mention you every single show in a positive fashion Until you sign your extension for 5% of your new deal.

Oh, 5%. That's hefty.

Yeah, it is. It's hefty.

I think I'd rather take the slander from you guys than the 5% of my next contract.

Oh no, it can get ugly.

Oh, that's gonna get real ugly.

Like, how much slander do you want us to do?

Yeah, the Lions are gonna pay us 10% of everything they save if we slander.

We'll go— Listen guys, there's a lot of content out there that you guys have to cover. I don't think the slander is gonna be too much.

So I don't know.

We got some guys that are weapons on the internet over here. Yeah, some guys that'll come up with deepfakes you haven't even thought about.

Yeah, yeah.

You got like, you got like 10 burners, PFT, or what?

No, I have zero burners.

All I'm saying is, absolutely no, no. Along with the Italian heritage, it would be a real shame if, if something used— if something happened to your name, you know, on these internet streets.

But we can protect you.

We can protect you for a little Yeah, just wet the beak. We'll, we'll make sure your name stays clean.

All right, we'll see. We'll see.

No, the, uh, is it— I know that you are dealing with it. Is it weird having to play and be like, well, or is that something you just have your agent deal with? Like, hey, you tell me when we're good or when we can get to a point, because that, that part of the sport does suck, I'm sure, where it's like you want to be compensated for how good you've been and the Lions have to think of like big picture. So that part sucks.

I think the combination of, like, getting your heartstrings twisted, as well as the violent sport that we play, you know, it sucks. And it's disappointing that you go out there every week and you bear the risk of getting hurt. You know, like last year, whatever it was, week 9, week 10, you know, I break my fucking back for the team.

Mm-hmm.

And then I'm going out there this year, And I'm balling, and maybe they're just not showing the love.

Yeah.

So it sucks. Um, I'm gonna continue to be a pro, and, you know, I dish a lot of that to my agent, and he handles that great. Jack Beck does handle your buddy George as well as a lot of other guys. So I'm gonna continue to go do my thing and ball out, and in 3 months, if I don't get to wear the Honolulu blue and play for the Lions anymore, It's gonna be all good. Yeah, I'll get paid somewhere else. So whatever.

Yeah, that's a smart way to look at it. It's like all you can do is control what you're doing playing the game.

If it were me, I would pay LaPorta.

Yeah, I would too. Dude, right there, dude, we would pay you, and I think the Lions should pay you. And this is the type of stuff that you can, you can get from us for a small nominal fee of 5%.

5%.

5%. We're gonna get 10% from the Lions. We're gonna turn around and be like, hey, it's the slander. The slander train's gonna happen.

Has anybody ever called you the Swiss Army knife? I feel like anyone who's referred to as being a Swiss Army knife, oh, that's always worth another 10% in their contract.

Yeah, that's true. That's a great compliment as a tight end, being, you know, being able to use in any capacity. Yeah, that's a good one. I like that.

Have you been used on QB sneaks?

No, I have one career rushing attempt. It was a fullback dive.

Hell yeah.

4 yards.

Okay, a little flashy.

So I'm a career 4-yard rusher currently. If I get another one, you know, gonna have to uphold that standard.

We might need to get you into doing some tush push and be like, hey, Sam LaPorta.

That'd be good.

Yeah, he's unstoppable.

Yeah, or get you involved in some of those weird lateral plays that they like to draw up on the Lions a lot. Like, oh yeah, you should do— just take this play, just take it, take it to your coordinator. Run the Penei Sewell Uh, lateral play again.

That was awesome.

We need to— oh dude, that guy's a monster. We need to get him the rock a little bit more.

Yeah.

Can you talk me through, speaking of plays, and this has been a lot of fun, Sam, we have a couple more questions, but speaking of plays, uh, my current coach Ben Johnson, the, the, the stumble bumble play when he— yes, which he did against the Bears in 2023. You caught the touchdown in that play. When he installed that, we all like, well, this is fucking insane. What are the— like, Jared's gonna intentionally try to like trip and then Jahmyr's gonna be pretending to trip? Did you guys do— or was it just a buy-in right away? It's like, all right, fine, whatever you say, we'll do.

Because of how good he had been in the past, I think the buy-in was almost immediate. And then he showed sort of the context of— I can't remember what week that was.

It was like 16 or 15. Yeah.

Yeah, so I caught that pass, whatever, week 15 or week 16, but the Bears were playing the Packers earlier in the year.

Yep.

And the exact same situation happened. They were running the sneaky out the back door, but I think Jordan Love had actually fumbled the snap.

Yes.

And they cut Luke Musgrave loose down the sideline. So he basically said that we're going to recreate that. And I was like, I was like, that is fucking genius. That dude is so smart. Like, to sit up in your office for hours on end like those coaches do and to pick that particular play out and convince the entire offensive staff that you're going to install that purposefully with the fake fumble and the fake— the fake fumble, the fake stumble, the fake fall down by JG. Really wicked.

Yeah.

Good for that dude. Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I love him. I'd die for him. I'd do anything for him. I have one other Bears-Lions related question. When Matt Eberflus just didn't call a timeout, were you guys all like, what the fuck is this guy's problem?

Yeah, that was, that was crazy.

That was—

was that Thanksgiving?

It was Thanksgiving.

Yes, it was Thanksgiving Day.

Yes. So we had a former snapper that was playing for the Bears that year. Shout out Scott Daly. Scott was going to come back to our house afterwards for Thanksgiving dinner. He got the the approval from Eberflus. And after the game, I'm like, Scott, Eberflus is— he has to be fired tomorrow, right? Like, that is probably the worst botch I've ever seen, at least in my playing career. And he's like, dude, yeah, I don't— he's so nice, Scott wouldn't tell me. But of course, the next day he gets fired.

Yeah.

Like, that was a horrible botch. What a bad beat. Like, on Thanksgiving Day, in front of millions of people sitting on their couch, eating their turkey and gravy and you do that, like, that's— that was a tough look.

Yeah, it was so— it was so bad. Like, the Bears never fire coaches in the middle of the season, and that—

that—

it was so bad, they're like, we actually have to do it this time.

Yeah, you had to. Yeah, that was— that was really bad.

Yeah. Do you, uh, do you like playing on Thanksgiving?

I think it's the best time slot in the NFL. It's a home game too for us. Yeah, we always have that midday game At home by 5 o'clock. I'm either sitting in a restaurant or at home eating dinner. That actually is like— it's incredible. And I have the rest of the day.

Yeah. And you get the weekend, right?

The weekend too.

Yeah. Yeah.

Incredible.

That is actually sick.

That's a pretty good deal.

Um, all right. Uh, Sam, we got one last question. This has been awesome, man. Uh, if you're ever in Chicago in the offseason, we'd love to have you come by the office. Our last question. Yeah, we should definitely do it. Rowback question, rho-back.com, promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rho-back.com. Zach, you ready?

Yes, sir.

Go for it.

Sam, I was—

I did have a quick question.

I was wondering if you had any superstitions that you practice going into a game.

Superstitions. On Sunday morning before the games, I do a weekly waffle. Which is kind of lame to admit, but I feel like the hotel breakfast that we get, not too bad on game day. So I wake up at the hotel, I get downstairs, get a little scrambled, scrambled eggs and a, uh, a waffle. So every, every Sunday I partake in that.

That's not lame.

That's interesting. No, the continental breakfast.

Yeah.

No, I thought you guys were maybe gonna bash on it.

No, I do waffles on Sundays with my kids all the Waffles are delicious.

I was saying the other day, I feel like the continental waffle for free at a hotel breakfast when I was growing up, it was amazing. But most of the ones I've been to recently have been off the mark. I feel like they're cheaping out on the batter. But if you find a good one, it's really, really good.

I always get it fresh too. Yeah, you know, I hate to be a diva in that regard, but I, I go straight up to the person manning the waffle station. I say, could I get a fresh waffle please? Which they happily agree to.

Yes, yes, you got it.

You can't have them sitting out for too long on the burners, you know, that's no good.

No.

Yeah, I'd agree, I'd agree. Um, all right, well, Sam, this has been a lot of fun, man. And, uh, yeah, we hope to run into you in the future. And, uh, shout out Lulu the cat. Uh, how many— how many— how many, like, uh, mice has she killed?

She brought home a, uh, a good-sized mouse about 2 weeks ago, so she's been slacking. I'll get her on it. She always brings it up to the back door.

You gotta—

you get it as an offering for you.

You gotta put a GoPro on her, uh, on her, uh, like collar just to see what she does all night.

Okay, then the next, the next thing she catches, I'll send it to y'all.

Okay, nice.

This is the product of Lulu.

I love that.

Tell her to go get a bird.

Yeah, yeah, you guys can post that.

Yeah.

All right, thank you so much, Sam. We appreciate it, man.

Appreciate y'all.

Sam LaPorta was brought to you by The Farmer's Dog. This episode is brought to you by The Farmer's Dog, the official pet food of the NFL. Farmer's Dog makes real food for dogs. It's never ultra-processed, just real meat, fresh veggies, all gently cooked. You can look at it in the bowl. You can tell exactly what it is. I've got Farmer's Dog. Blake eats Farmer's Dog. He has since he was a puppy. First thing I got Blake when picked him up a couple years ago, got him some Farmer's Dog food. He absolutely loves it. He loves it. He's eating the turkey and he never got sick of it. He's enjoying it every day. He comes running for his breakfast, comes running for his dinner. He absolutely loves Farmer's Dog. I actually have a box of Farmer's Dog that's being delivered to my house right now. I got the text yesterday. They always tell you your package is on the way, so you never have to go out to the store. You never worry about running out because the package arrives. I'm going to cut it open, open when I get home today, put the Farmer's Dog food in the freezer.

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Okay, let's wrap up the show. We've got FAQs.

I also have a quick— I forgot, I got a bone to pick with your computer, Big Cat.

Oh, okay.

I know, I know it's not you.

It's not me.

Just, yeah, whoever, if you can, you know, punch us into the code and just let them know.

Okay.

I listened to you guys just, just shit all over Bo Nix on Sunday. You're talking about how he's clueless out there. Don't know what he's doing. You put the— you put the— your computer put the Broncos as Super Bowl contenders.

Yeah. Does, does that say Bo Nix is a Super Bowl contender or says the Broncos?

How can you be a Super Bowl contender if your quarterback is as bad as you said he was?

Because the Broncos have Bo Nix. Has won 18 of the last 21 starts and the Broncos just keep winning. That's the Broncos. Is that the Broncos? Bo Nix can win a Super Bowl? Can you look further down?

I can't see.

I think there's a place where Bo Nix is too.

I can't see. World's—

zoom in. Can you zoom in, Max?

I got to save it first and then Twitter doesn't let you do it. All right.

I'll zoom in for you.

You can definitely zoom in on Twitter.

You could definitely zoom in.

Not on desktop.

Okay.

I think you can.

Down further, Hank, on the computer power rankings, which again is not me.

Zooming in.

Oh yeah, no, I can see that better now. It says that's Bo Nix at the bottom.

Still life's greatest mysteries. And there's Bo Nix, Amelia Earhart, who shot JFK, where's the G-spot, and the Malaysia flight.

But you think Bo Nix can win a Super Bowl?

Broncos are Super Bowl contenders, not Bo Nix.

So you think Bo Nix can win a Super Bowl?

I think the Broncos can. You're going to ask me a different way and I'll just answer the same way?

No, I, yeah, your computer, it makes no sense.

Broncos, my computer, take it up with my computer.

I did.

I told you to send a message.

Without Bo Nix.

Yeah.

They kind of proved last week that if they played the Seahawks, they won.

Yeah.

They were one game away from the Super Bowl and almost won the game to go to the Super Bowl without Bo Nix. And then last week beat the Super Bowl champions with, with Bo Nix playing the worst football possible.

And if you don't like it, my suggestion to you, Hank, would be number one, either do your own power rankings. You could buy your own computer. Yep. Or number 3, why don't you just beat whoever's, whoever the computer's favorite team is on Thursday night?

Facts. Mm-hmm. That's facts.

That must be the computer.

Battle for the only 2 good teams on this podcast.

Yeah, it is.

It's kind of crazy how this season has gone. It's falling apart. The rest of the podcast falling apart quickly.

Max and I are both in contention for our division.

True. So great point. Honestly, so is Zach, weirdly.

Yeah.

Fighting chance. All right. Go ahead.

If Max could be any type of meatball, what type of meatball would he be?

I mean, I, I think he'd be a big one.

I'd be like a turkey.

I think he'd be really big.

Turkey would be fit.

I was not—

that's incorrect.

Max would be a big meatball. Yeah, he'd be a big dumb meatball.

I'm the beef pork beef.

He might be a vegan meatball the way he's been acting recently. He's got a lot of chick tendencies. He got mad at me yesterday.

Ponytail.

Well, yeah. Wine drinker. Yeah. Bath taker.

Yeah.

How I Met Your Mother watcher. Guys watch and loves blankets.

None.

Yeah.

Who doesn't like— doesn't watch Monday Night Football.

It doesn't watch Monday Night Football since crisscross applesauce.

Yeah.

I mean, Monday Night Football was very much on the back burner last night. I was, I was guard ball, ray ball.

Got it. Yeah.

Not a football guy. That's OK.

I mean, they have—

we had— did you have your little blanket after your split screen?

I mean, split screen. I'm over split screen. Yeah, I had it on the iPad.

I got a crazy take. This doesn't make any sense in my head, but it does. It makes sense in my head, but I know it doesn't make any sense what I'm about to say. I can follow QuadBox better than I can follow Squid.

I agree with that 100%.

It's because the borders, it's the wasted space.

Yeah, the wasted space pisses me off.

Yeah, it pisses me off big time. I would I might even like— I think I like the, the tri-box.

Yeah.

Better than the— because they're like the same size.

Yeah.

And at least in the tri-box you have one that you're focused on.

When I'm watching the split screen, it's almost like I'm watching a broken TV.

Yes.

That has access to a non-authorized channel. They gotta get it bigger.

I don't know how.

It's 50% bezel. What if you stack it like this?

It's aspect ratio.

It's aspect ratio.

Oh, fuck.

Yeah. If they did it top and bottom.

Stretch it out a little bit.

I think that'd be better.

Yeah, that's right.

They should make TVs that are more, you know, square. Yeah, that are better for the, for the dual box.

I guess just like a much wider— you should have a TV that's your dual box TV specifically. Now it's probably not your everyday TV, but you have your specific very wide kind of narrow TV or only for use in split screen.

Or just get 2 TVs.

Breaking news.

Oh no.

Breaking news. AJ DeBance has been ruled out for the season opener against the Bucks.

No.

That's all right.

Oh man, that was scary for a second.

That's okay.

I thought, yeah.

I, I thought that this might happen. Thought it might happen. I was gonna get him on—

Is his knee?

Is he gonna be running, uh, like biking on the bike?

His ankle, right?

I was gonna get him on, uh, One Question with a Wizard before the game, and they told me that he couldn't do it at the last minute yesterday. So I figured he was probably going to be out. We'll just have to pivot. We'll get somebody else on One Question with Wizard. But yeah, maybe he'll be on the bike next to me.

That'd be cool.

Stay in shape. Yeah, that sucks. But listen, I got a great team without him. Yeah, we'll early start tanking. That's a very funny joke.

Thank you.

Not a joke.

Hi, PMT boys. How many interviews end up getting shelved and never end up on air? We know you interviewed John Summerall. Timing ended up being bad. No, at least the interview What are some examples of interviews that were done? Was that, was that like a gotcha?

No, we said we were going to interview him.

We had him planned to— we were going— we were— we had it planned to interview. Then they got absolutely smoked by Mizzou and we're like, there's no way he wants to do it. So we mutually were like, hey, let's find another time. We never actually taped it.

There's less than like 5 interviews, I think, that have been shelved.

Dan Bilzerian.

Yep.

Chris Paul.

Yep.

Yeah. Dave Ortiz.

Big Papi.

Pudge Rodriguez.

Yeah. Pudge.

Yeah.

Well, he didn't speak English.

I didn't realize that part.

That was a lot. That was like in 2017.

It's a phone interview with his translator.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Was there one you guys just forgot? Million Dollars Worth of Game.

Yeah.

We just forgot to run. They came into the office. I think it was during football season. They came to the office and then like 3 months later, we're like, wait a second. And they were like, we can't fucking— you can't run an interview 3 months after.

Yeah, Snooki.

So that was our fault.

Snooki. Snooki and Sanford Steve.

We need to have Snooki back.

I want Snooki back on.

We held Snooki for like 9 months.

Yeah. No, but then we dropped a Friday.

Yeah, we need—

so mad.

We need to do it. It needs to be an— and we tried this year. We actually— I like tried to get Snooki this year, and I think she was sick or something, but we were going to run Friday March Madness Stanford Steve Snooki and make it a tradition every year. Tradition back on.

I want to, but I want to ask her about the Friday slate.

Yes. Yeah, 100%.

100%.

How many hours of sleep do you guys get during NFL season when it comes to show prep, interview prep, taping the shows, lives outside of work? I can't imagine it's more than 6 hours a night.

Yeah, it depends night to night. You got some like Max gets a lot of sleep on his— he makes up for it on Monday nights because he doesn't watch the games.

That's not true.

But Thursdays are typically pretty late. Sunday is typically pretty late. But outside of that, like Tuesdays, we typically don't go that late unless it's like a World Series game.

I don't want to make this sound like a complaint. I don't know the last time I got more than like 6 hours of sleep. But that's just also life, uh, currently, both with football and my, my youngest is just— he's just decided to come in every morning or in the middle of the night. Every one of my kids has done this right around 3 years old. So, and Stella is now old and gets up in the middle of the night. So yeah, it's been a while since I've had like— I can't tell you the last time I felt really good waking up. Waking up is more like, okay, here we go again. Not a complaint. Just a matter of someday all my kids will be able to just sleep, then wake up, then get their own breakfast. And I can just stay in bed till 8 or 9 o'clock. That day is not today. And it won't be tomorrow either. And it won't be the day after that. But someday.

Yeah, I usually get a good amount of sleep. Let's say early tee times, early tee times sometimes like it can be tough. Where it's like, yeah, you got to get up at 6 to get to the course early. Like those, those days can be long days.

But the Sunday night, going to bed at 1:30, then having my son come in the middle of the night at like 3 o'clock, then waking up at 6:45. Those are the ones that killed me. But we good. We're good.

Some athletes have a pregame meal ritual or superstition. Do you guys have any pre-podcast rituals? Can't press record until you've done something specific.

Yeah.

Take it down, play Wordle, change your socks. The people deserve to know. You guys rock. Thank you, Megan.

Yeah, we all pee sometimes.

The phases. Yeah, we talked about the phases.

Phase 1 is we sit on the chairs outside the studio and we talk. Phase 2 is someone says, you guys want tape? Mm-hmm. And then we're like, yeah. And then we don't move. What's phase 3? Phase 3 is Big Cat and Hank pee.

Mm-hmm.

Phase 3.1 is I pee.

I'll say this.

3.2 is, is Zach brings in waters.

We're—

and then one, either me or Big Cat's like, hey, can we have an energy drink?

Yeah.

And then Zach gets that.

We're basically the exact opposite of like late Mike and Mike or Mike and the Mad Dog. When you hear all those stories, how they would basically walk into the studio right before, sit down, and that would be the first time they talked all day. We spend way too much time sitting around talking, wasting time. But I do think there is something to be said for it. It's a lot of like pre-show kind of catching up with each other, busting each other's balls. It's like almost a warm-up to this. So there's, there's use to it. But yeah, we, we spend a lot of time doing absolutely nothing.

Prep.

Yeah, prep. A lot of our job is like The Sopranos sitting outside of the pork store. I'll just say it. It's awesome. I can't, I can't deny it's fucking awesome. It's just sitting outside the pork store with your friends. Oh, just busting each other's balls.

Yep.

That's really a good part of Sunday night. Speaking of sleep, like, I do make bad decisions. We— I stayed an extra like 20 minutes after the show. We just were doing like a round circle on how bad the Chargers were to Shane's face. It was like, I should go home.

That lasted an hour.

Yeah, it was so bad.

But you need that, especially.

Yeah.

Like you're tiptoeing around going back into the house. Like, yeah, when we do a long show like that, you need a kind of a comedown before you need them.

Yeah. You can't just go right to bed. Your brain is all wired and shit.

But he also needed to know.

Yeah.

We had to tell Shane he was very—

yeah, they never, never had a true one receiver. Yeah. Never in his life.

His words.

Yeah.

All right. Is that it?

That's it.

All right.

Great show.

You know, we're talking about—

no, you don't know.

Numbers 11, 19, 29, 3, 23, 17, 69.

15. Come on, come on. 94, anyone?

94.

94.

We got 94.

Come on.

Just yelling out the numbers like a butcher shop. 94, we got 94, 95, can I help 95? Then like the old lady's like, oh, I had 91.

That's the worst.

Yeah, cuts in front of everyone.

No one, no one said 2.

No.

What did you say, Mims?

He said 11. 11.

Jaylen Bronson.

Yes.

Happy birthday to Carson Steele. Happy birthday, Joey Harrington. Happy birthday to Ricky Rubio, Judge Judy, Glenn Powell. Happy birthday on Thursday to Brian Branch, Heath Miller, Travion Henderson, Brad Stevens. Happy birthday to Bob Odenkirk. 21 Savage, Ichiro, Shaggy.

Shane. Love you guys.