Hey, part of my take, listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. What's up, guys? It's Big Cat and Hank here, and the countdown to the biggest game of the season is on. Hank, how are you feeling about PFT potentially owing you $80,000 for the big game? I feel so good.
I feel so confident. I feel so excited that I already went out and stalked my fridge with twisted tea, so I'm ready for the big game.
Wow. Love that. Twisted tea is a refreshing A hard ice tea with 5% alcohol. It tastes like real ice tea because it's made with real brewed tea, and it's smooth as hell, which is exactly what you'll need when you check in on Sunday night to see who has to pay who. So grab some twisted tea Good luck, and we'll see you in San Francisco. Twisted Tea Brewing Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. Please drink responsibly. On today's part of my take, presented by DraftKings, we have Chris Bermen to kick off Super Bowl week. Our favorite tradition that we've done. I think this is our fifth year. Chris Bermen came on Friday to the studio, had an awesome time with him. Talked ball, talked the season, over an hour, he's the absolute best. We're going to Talk about the Super Bowl because we're here. We've arrived in San Francisco. We got some national sports podcast things to talk about. Maybe a little end of the show, we're going to talk about Max having another flight issue going to the Super Bowl. He's mad at me already, but But we are going to talk about that on the anniversary of two sodas.
Great show, though, for you. First Monday, we've had a long time without football, but we're still going to talk some football. It's all brought to you by our friends at Chevy. Play separate the pretenders from the football guys. It's win or go home, and you need a truck that plays like it's on a rookie deal. Hungary, tough, and ready to grind. Chevy Silverado doesn't take plays off. No drama, no contract holdouts, just pure grit. If trucks had stats, this one's leading the league in pancake blocks and yards after contact. So while your team fights to win the big game, make sure you've got the MVP of dependability in your driveway. Chevy Silverado, Built for the big game, Built for football, guys. To learn more about Silverado, visit chevy. Com. Okay, let's go.
Hey, football guy, but Dino.
A. W. Head.
Pardon, mind take.
Yeah, pardon, mind take.
Yeah, pardon, mind take.
Yeah, pardon, mind take. Yeah, pardon, mind take. Welcome to Part of my take presented by DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Today is Monday, February second, and welcome to Hank Week. Yeah. Henry Lockwood Week. Hello, boys. We're in San Francisco. We are one week away from the big game. We had no football this weekend, which is always a shock to the system. Yeah. But we're here.
Very strange sleeping in on Sunday, not having ball to look forward to, but that's okay. It's Hank week. I'm pumped for him. I'm excited. I think I'm the number one Hank fan this week. There you go. I mean, we're locked in sync right now. We got the bet together on the Patriots. We Here's my concern. Can I share you my concern, Hank? Please.
Let's hear the concern.
Well, I got a massive bet on the Patriots. I also put a bet on Josh Dobbs to win Super Bowl MVP, England Patriot. Nice. The pasternaut. Big-time Patriot. And then my concern that keeps coming up in the back of my head is we can't lose this one because if we lose this one, that's the most Super Bowl losses of any franchise ever. That'll put us number one, and we can't do that. Is that true? Yeah, it would be the LeBron James of the NFL if we lost the Super Bowl today. Because we're tied with the Broncos. That's fine. We can't be number one.
The Broncos have... So wait, what is it? What's the-The most Super Bowl losses. Yeah, no, I know. I'm just trying to think who else is in the running. Who else is even up there?
Bills.
Bills. They've got four.
Bills have four.
Vikings have four.
Vikings have four. And then Broncos have five, and we have five. Okay.
It would still be... I'm not even going to entertain if we lost because we're not going to lose. But LeBron is a crazy, crazy comparison. He's well under 500.
But he's lost a lot of championships. Same thing.
Yeah, but this would make the Patriots 500 overall.
Oh, well, that's not winning.
No, but LeBron is what it was.
I didn't realize that. That's actually bad, too.
That's crazy. You didn't realize that, Hank, when you said that?
Well, two of them, that was pre-Belichick and braided.
This is post-Belichick and braided.
So that doesn't count.
Those don't count.
And this one, does this count? This one counts. Because it's not Belichick or braided, though.
Yeah, but it's the new era. No, I'm not even entertaining that.
Sounds like you entertained it a little bit.
Yeah, you did. You thought about it.
I'm not worried about it.
It's also like, you have to be a great team to get to the Super Bowl.
So that's just honestly a compliment, if anything.
So for LeBron, when he gets to the final-Yeah, but he loses way more than he wins.
And we're off.
No, Hank and I have had a great couple of days. We've been in lockstep. We've been having a good time. I've never been more pro-Hank than I am now. We'll talk about the flight later.
Yeah, we'll talk about the in Spy Glass after the Birmingham interview.
Starting the day after the flight, me and Hank have been just-Okay, so like I said, we don't have football to talk about.
We're going to do Wednesday and Friday. We'll do big previews. We'll do our proper peluza. We'll come up with pics, all that stuff. We do have some national sports podcast of the last stuff that we can talk about. One is the Cardinals have hired the other LaFleur. Mike LaFleur is now the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. It's funny because Mike McDonald, the Seahawks coach, is now just in a division with Shanehan tree. It's He's crazy. He's living in Shanehan's tree.
I don't know. I mean, obviously, you take a job if it's offered to you, but that seems like a not great job to take.
For what reason?
Well, number one, it's the Cardinals. Number two, they don't really have a plan at quarterback at all. Number three, every other coach in your division rocks.
Yeah, I don't buy into the whole, don't go to a hard division thing because it's just so everything's up and down. Like, Sean McVay could retire next year. You know what I mean? Like, Matthew Stafford is going to not play forever. Kyle Shana Han looks like he He might die.
He has a thousand-yard stare at all times.
So that part, I think your one and two are strong points, though. It is the Cardinals, and they don't have an idea what they're going to do a quarterback.
I would say that it should count for something if the other three coaches are great right now in that division, and then you have to play both those teams twice a year.
But I'm saying you don't know what's going to happen year to year. Like I said, Sean McVay could just... He could retire at any moment. Kyle Shannon could... You just never know. I just never By the end of the like, Oh, you don't want to take a job because you're scared of the other teams because the NFL is so up and down. Look at the two teams in the Super Bowl this year. There were 60 and 80 to one to win the Super Bowl.
You should be scared, though, Big Cat, because now you got another head coach in the NFL that's going to be trying to avenge that Lafleur. Another Lafleur, yeah. Another Lafleur. He's just wake up every day thinking, How can I beat Ben Johnson and the bears? I must avenge my brother.
I do like that we have another brother pairing that we can have. If the schedule makers, they got to have one of those Saturday in December. But Thanksgiving, the only problem is you need the lions and the cowboys, so you can't do the Harbaus and then the little floors.
Or if the lions and cowboys just play each other, and then they do the other two.
I don't think that's how it works. That doesn't work. No, they have to have home games.
But that was a good idea.
We should get a brother match up every Thanksgiving.
Yeah, but I'm saying there should be the Saturday in December, although it's now tough because the Harbaus are in opposing conferences. But yeah, we need a Brother Bowl. Have a brother bowl, have the Gruten's on the call.
That would be fun. I hope it works out for him. Seems like a nice guy. He's in that group of boy geniuses, and the Cardinals haven't really had a lot of success recently, so I got to root for a team like that. I would like to see Arizona Cardinals fans happy for a season. That'd be cool. Yeah.
All these hires, you're basically just guessing.
Yeah.
I mean, a lot of them, there's some that you're Okay, that should work, but there's also times when it should work and it doesn't work, and the opposite happens. Yes. So we also have, it's not official, but Clint Kubiak, most likely, Raider's head coach. Yeah. So looks like there's going to be the AFC. That'll be it. Ten openings, and that'll be the 10th opening that gets filled.
Checked them all off the list. Checked them all off the list. They're all done. I was surprised Brian Flores didn't get a job.
Yeah, although isn't Brian Flores? We can segue with it, but isn't he in the middle of a coup with he and KOC taking over all control in Minnesota? Yeah.
So he's also actively suing the NFL. So there's probably a couple of owners that are like, if we had to choose between a guy that has litigation against us Right now, a guy that is currently on good terms, not suing the league, we'll probably lean towards the guy that's not suing us. Yeah.
So before we talk about the Vikings, Kubiak to the Raiders. So that's another Shanahan tree. The Shanahern's tree is just everywhere.
It's the best tree.
It's the best tree by far.
It's the top tree.
It just goes everywhere. So both Shanahan tree guys get hired. Although, is it McVeigh tree for Lafleur?
No, McVeigh is a giant branch on the Shana and tree. It's like touching the ground almost. It looks like it's a second tree, technically a branch. And then the Lafleur has come from that branch. Right.
And Kubiak is its own tree on the Shana and or own branch on the Shana and tree. And then Clint getting hired there. Top tree. I'm not trading. Shout out to Office Manager Brett.
Yeah.
Yeah. Our guy. He told us about Clint Kubiak 10 years ago.
He did, yeah. The Kubiaks, they are football guys. They're a football family. Would this be the 10th anniversary of Gary Kubiak winning the Super Bowl?
Yeah. That's pretty cool. San Francisco. It is crazy that we're here 10 years because we're obviously coming up on our 10-year anniversary. By the way, if you see this right in front of us. If you're watching it right now, I'll explain it, but it is the part of my book. The cover is out. You can also pre-order it on Amazon now. It's going to be coming out this summer. Pre-orders are very much appreciate it because apparently, if we get a lot of pre-orders, we're on our way to maybe being a New York Times best seller, and wouldn't that be hilarious? That'd be very funny. I mean, if we are New York Times best sellers, it makes no sense. Henry Lockwood, a New York Times best seller. How about that? Think about Think about that.
I don't think I'm an author. Well, you wrote a chapter in it. I did write a chapter.
So you're definitely part of the book. You're more of an author than you are a reader. Yeah. You've written more words than you've read.
That's not true. But I understand.
All the boys wrote a... Did you write a chapter? Zack? Zack got the shirt on Memes wrote a chapter. Pfti wrote multiple chapters. Max wrote a chapter about Italian Americans with Mike Florio. It's going to be an awesome work.
It's going to be an awesome New York Times best-seller of the list.
We have all of our friends Got interviewed for it. Long time, the history of the podcast. So please do go. If you're planning on buying it, buy it right now. You can pre-order it on Amazon. Appreciate it very much. But yeah, so the cover looks good. Turn around. What's on the back of your shirt? Is that the back cover? Is that the back cover on your shirt? Same cover.
That's a good spin, Zack. That's a good spin, Zack.
Good spin.
You spin around twice.
Zack will be wearing this shirt all week.
Zack, Zack, walk me through that spin you just did. You spun around a full way, and then you spun around twice to sit down.
Are you a little dizzy?
I was just trying to get full front back coverage.
We should just be full disclosure that Zack's a little flustered right now because... So PFT Hank and Max have been here since Friday because they played Spy Glass. Memes and I flew in about an hour ago. Zack flew in this morning, and we were getting ready to record. And in the 15 minutes we're getting ready to record, Zack may have laid down on a bed and fallen asleep.
I did go out. I was looking at the group chat. I was ready. I was like, Here we go. First day of Super Bowl week. It's a big week. Maybe the biggest week. Let's do it. I was very excited. And then might not be here for a Super Bowl week.
You're good, you're fine.
Just no more naps. It's just very funny that it wasn't like a sleep-in situation. We landed at three o'clock, we got to the hotel, and we're like, All right, we got to record. I think I said, I got to shower and unpack. And in that time frame, you might have laid down for a minute.
Terrible timing.
We asked him if he fell asleep, and he said, If you took a nap, he said, I fell asleep on the bed.
Yeah, totally different.
Yeah, I didn't think I fell asleep. It was more like when you just go out for a sec. You're charging up. It might have been charging up at the worst time possible, you can have a choose to charge.
We're going to move forward from this. Made a mistake. Day one, we can only go up. Yeah.
I'm not counting this as a Zack fucking up, sleeping in. I just want that. This is more like of a little... It's like a little side... It's like an appetizer of the sleep.
I have a question, Big Cat. Yeah. As the leader of No Naps, do you put any blame on Hank for Zack's performance napping?
Did you nap? No.
Okay. Hank did not nap.
I was hoping he did because I saw Max tweeter, Yes, Naps.
Well, that's Max. No, Max. That was just you.
I am pro-napped.
Okay.
Max has been napping so much that it's actually changed my whole stance on napping because it disgusts me how much he's been asleep.
He's been napping?
Yeah.
Hank did fall asleep for an hour on the plane.
No, he was charging up.
I'm not saying that.
He was charging up. What were you going to say about Zack, Max?
How flushed were you when you heard the knock on that door?
I didn't realize you had knocked at first because you said- That was the answer right there.
That was the exact answer.
But we also realized that if we just podcast wherever Zack is sleeping, we will have you ready to go at all time. Right, exactly. Because all I had to do is just walk down the hall, knock, knock, knock, and you're ready to go.
We all need a room key.
We might have to build him a room in the office.
That should never have to be the case for you guys.
Zack, you're good, though. That does not count as an official sleep in.
It literally cost us zero. It cost us the time of me walking down the hall and knocking on your door.
And it also brought some levity to the room, which is always good.
Can't go wrong with levity. Yes. You know levity?
Can't go wrong with levity.
I'm not going to lie to you. I don't know what laughing is.
That's all right. He's like, happiness. Happiness, like laughter.
Yeah.
That's good to get light.
Before, we were just all laughing at Shane, and then you walked in, and then we're just all having a good time. Yeah.
It's like, Hey, Zack's here. It's awesome.
What a week to have a good time, guys.
What a week to have a great time.
On Hank week. Hank week. I'm so proud of you, Hank. Hank's been carrying himself like a champion since we arrived here. He's got the- He's got swagger. Which I love. How many Patriots hats did you bring?
All of them. So I think like six.
Yeah, that's a good amount. It's a good amount.
Big time swagger. Okay, so we should talk about the Vikings. So Quessi gets fired, the GM for the Vikings. There's then a deep dive by our friend Diana Rossini on the athletic. Great reporter. Yeah. The crux of the issue is the JJ McCarthy, Sam Darnold thing, which we all figured. Yeah. Also, there's a side story that he took two weeks of paternity leave during Training Camp, which has now become a big debate online. What, Hank?
I'm a great reporter. I don't understand why the report, basically, he got fired in 2025. The report came out that there was problems or people didn't like that he took paternity leave two years ago. But the report was-Why is that report only coming out now?
Well, it's how it always works with all these firings, losses.
But if that was a problem, why wouldn't they have got... That was such a big problem, Mike.
I don't think it was a firing problem right... I don't think he got fired because of the paternity He got fired because he picked JJ McCarthy over Sam Darnold.
The fact that Sam Darnold is currently playing in the Super Bowl is a problem. Correct. The report was that the paternity leave thing happened two years ago. Yeah. Two and a half years ago, 2023. That was a long time ago, and the sourcing was from around the league. So there's other GMs that were like, I can't believe this guy has taken paternity leave at home. What's that all about? But I feel like if you're a GM, do you have to be a practice every day? I feel like you could do most of your job remotely Absolutely.
Also, as in being a father, the most important job there is.
It is, but I think this is just more... This is one of those arguments that people are going to have online, and they're just talking to no one because everyone... I think everyone can agree Being a parent is the most important thing, and it's such a blessing, and being there when your child is born and then being there for the woman after the child, all that stuff. But then also you have to realize that everyone in the NFL is a complete psycho, and it is not normal to take that much time. And that just is whether you agree with it or disagree with it, it's just what it is. We had the interview with Mike McDonald saying he sees his son for 30 minutes. They're all psychos. This is what the cost is.
The fact is, if Sam Darnold was on the Vikings and they had made the playoff this year, had another good season, I don't think anybody is getting fired about the paternity stuff. He's not getting fired for that. I think that when he does get fired, then other people around the league immediately go back to the one thing they know him for, which is, yeah, this weirdo took two weeks off work to take care of his wife and newborn child. Correct. Yeah.
What a weird guy who does that.
It's strictly about him not having Sam Darnold on the roster, I think. It also could be-I mean, his drafts haven't been good either. Right. His drafts haven't been great. Also, me and Big Cat tried to save Questy's job Last year at the Super Bowl at Josh Allen Night. I approached Questy, I got introduced to him, walked up. I think the second thing I said to him after introducing myself was, You need to bring back Ragnar, the unofficial mascot of the Vikings. His contract demands were very reasonable. You guys kicked him out of town like he was yesterday's trash. And then Big Cat showed up. Big Cat went over to him, introduced himself, and the first thing Big Cat said was, You need to bring Ragnar back.
No, the first thing I said was, Hey, man, I got a business idea for you. Can I lay it on you real quick?
Yeah. Second idea was, You got to bring Ragnar back. I think that's the first time he's ever heard of Ragnar, and he heard about it twice in about 45 minutes, and he still ignored our great advice. He did.
We could have saved his job.
This is the paternity thing, though. I I was telling Hank this earlier. This is why I would get a gay GM. You don't have to worry about paternity leave. Be very meticulous when he's studying the bodies going into the combine.
You might have to, depending His income status, it might be dual income, no kids.
Don't have to pay him as much. Don't have to pay him as much, maybe. Yeah. Then GM's jobs are just to let this guy go gossip and be messy. Just unleash him on the league. I feel like he'd be good It's not a bad idea.
It just is funny, though, because there's a lot of people online who are like, This is ridiculous that he's getting criticized for this. Yes, but that's what the NFL is. The NFL is a ridiculous league. These guys are all complete competitive psychos that want to kill each other and win at all costs and do everything to win the Super Bowl. It just is what it is. I don't think it's... It probably is not right, but it It just is what it is.
I also think it shows a lack of foresight and planning on his part. You're going to have a kid pop one out in May.
Yeah, right after July. July is the time when everyone's off.
Have a kid right after the draft.
Yeah, my kids were born in offseason. That's true. Yeah.
If you're a GM at that- Shut up.
Listen, Questy, you could have done it like me.
At that level- June, May. You just got to know, like wrap it up from January through July. Yeah.
Football offseason only. My kids were born within a month of each other, May and June.
Yeah, dude, Listen, January through July, that's pull out season. Do whatever you want after that.
I do think, yeah, it really has... People are focusing on this. If he had had a couple of better draughts in the Sam Darnold, which I still don't disagree with the idea of drafting a young quarterback. That is still the smart way to team build. It's just Sam Darnold won 14 games and JJ McCarthy got hurt, and you didn't know if he was going to be good or not, and you made the wrong choice.
I mean, JJ was going to start that season that Sam started last year.
Correct.
And when he got hurt, then it was like, okay, I guess we're going to roll the dice and see if Sam Darnold has anything left in the tank. And everybody was like, no chance he does. And then the major mistake you could say is letting him go this offseason. But I do understand you have to see what your rookie has. But at the time, I was like, why are you getting rid of this guy? Just because you had two bad games at the end of the season, you're throwing them out?
It's like one of those process results. The process is not totally unsound in that building around a rookie quarterback is a a cheat code with the salary cap and everything. It's just the results are that the quarterback that you had that won 14 games is now playing in the Super Bowl.
Yeah.
And nine was nine.
Yup.
And also not nine sometimes.
Sometimes he was JJ.
Sometimes he was JJ, sometimes he was nine.
I think that's the problem is Quessy drafted nine, and then sometimes JJ showed up.
Also, maybe having Carson Wents as your backup. Yeah. Because you He would have maybe won a couple of games in that stretch with a better backup. Like, Daniel Jones was also there.
That's probably a valid point. It's probably the combo of Daniel Jones leaving, getting out of the building, and having a great season until he got hurt, and then Sam Darnold having the best season anyone could ever imagine. That makes the nine decision look suspect.
Carson Wents was pretty good, by the way.
No, it was.
It was. Did he win some games? How many games did he win? What is his record? How many games did he win?
I think I think he played three games, one, two. That was a complete guess.
Okay, we're going to fact check. Then we're going to fact check.
I did feel bad for Carson Wents at the end of his last game.
Carson Wents played- Went out on his shield.
He lost the Eagles.
Okay, so he played five games. He won two. He won two and three.
That's not bad.
Yeah, it's not bad.
So you mistook two and three for two out of three. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, same thing. Yeah, same.
Numbers are the same. So now Kevin O'Neill is... They're not hiring a GM until after the draft. I actually think this is fine. Kevin O'Neill is a really good head coach. The thing about the Vikings, too, this year is they weren't a bad team. They just had... They ended up, I think, third in the NFC North, nine and eight. They were one of those teams. If you look back, you're like, Hey, if we could have a couple of games go differently, and JJ McCarthy maybe doesn't get hurt. They could have been a playoff team. It just all broke poorly for them. Then someone has to take the blame. Again, the drafts haven't been premier draughts.
But it was weird because they also gave him an extension recently.
Yeah, well, the extension is going to be nothing in the NFL. Yeah, but usually- Unless it's the Bengals.
Usually, yeah. If it's a GM and you give him an extension, that usually implies dude's got some time.
But I think I think it's just power struggle and also the paternity leave. You know what? I wonder if you think that he knew that they were like... Because that would suck if he gets fired and then he finds out that the entire league was talking his paternity leave for two years. That would be brutal.
I never want to judge in a situation like that because you don't know what the mom went through or any of that stuff behind the scenes. So it could be something where it was like he was taking care of some serious stuff. But I think that what he needs to do is he needs to just get a vasectomy and then go talk to when he does his next-He can reverse it. His next interview, be like, I got snipped. It's not an issue anymore, guaranteed. Medically, I'm unable to take paternity leave anymore.
I'm pro, by the way, being talked about in this way.
No. Hank, why are you shaking your head?
What's he yelling about? What is he yelling about?
I just told him to stop. He just keeps You're ADD is all time.
It's Hank week.
You just keep moving the mic.
That's okay. It's Hank week. Also, we had Todd Munkin show up in the most Tim Duncan, Cole's outfit of all time, which I actually... I know this is stupid, but we're a stupid show. I immediately was like, I think it's going to work for Todd Munkin.
Just because of how frumpy he looks. Yeah, I think that you'd much rather have a coach show up in that than Mike McDaniel walking out in his nice suit, right?
In Cleveland, especially. Cleveland, you got to just like, let's go to work.
I got a question for Hank on Hank week. Yes. Hank, do you think that you're going to get invited to Bill Belichick's Fuck You Hall of Fame bash?
I hope so. It looks awesome.
Where is this happening?
I think details are still to come. But apparently Tom braided, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Parcells, and others who were planning on attending Bill's Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Kenton got invited. Also invited will be many of the outspoken supporters from the wake of Belichick's Hall of Fame snub.
That's you, Hank.
That's you. That's you.
I hope so. I would love to go. I would clear my schedule.
Yeah. You would clear your full schedule. I got nothing. I got to do it.
Early August, your full schedule.
Yeah.
Whatever Great. Yeah, defend the wall.
We also had Max, you got an OC, but you might have lost your DC. So you got Sean Manian, but Vic Fangio is saying he might retire.
I think people are confident that he will be back for next year. Okay. I think he's going to do one last go at it.
Okay. Congrats on Sean Manian.
Sean Manion. Always my guy. I love that guy. And we got Chris Rizard.
Yeah. You got Chris Rizard. Chris. Who was on your radar.
He was on the radar for sure. I love that guy. I'll die for that guy. Always was my guy.
I feel like every other job has been... Declan Doyle went to Baltimore. So the bears lost Declan Doyle. He was either going to come back for one year or leave this year, but it doesn't really matter because Ben Johnson calls the plays. It's like the Sean McVay set up, where the best thing that could happen is your coach is good enough that basically the job of OC is just a launching pad for being a head coach. That's what happened to Declan Dua. He was no name, and then he's now the offensive coordinator calling plays for the Ravens.
It sounds like Kingsbury might be going to New York. He's the guy that Harbaugh is looking on bringing in there for the Giants.
You got to be so happy that you wrapped up David Blau first.
So happy.
Because all this chaos.
I wouldn't say wrapped him up. I won the Blau sweepstakes. That's true.
The Blauer ball. That's true.
Max, you're pumped about... It's Kate's cousin, right? Sean Manion? Yep. Pretty cool. Pretty cool. Pretty cool. Pretty cool.
Is that actually?
No. No. Same last night.
That was a niche. Not many people are going to even know what they're talking about.
I know. The way they're going to do it is a matter of value.
I don't even think people know Kate's last name. Yeah, no.
That would have been cool.
Yeah, it would have been awesome.
Okay. Other national sports podcast topics. Paul George did drugs.
Yeah, allegedly.
Max?
Mental health is real.
Mental health is real. What did he do? What did he get?
I don't know.
No one knows?
I don't know.
But the only thing he said- I'm pretty sure you're allowed to smoke weed.
Is that he was working on his mental health, and he took a prescription or any... I don't know if he said prescription or substance that he shouldn't have taken.
Okay. Okay. So he was like, he wanted to get mushrooms? Huh? I don't think they test for mushrooms, do I don't know.
I don't understand.
I don't think there's... I think the drug tests in the NBA, I think they're pretty lax about-I don't think that you can-recreational.
I got to be honest, I didn't know that the NBA tested for drugs. I just-Oh, there's performance-enhancing drugs.
Yeah.
But this doesn't seem like performance-enhancing drugs.
It seems like something else.
Recreational. Got it.
I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I gathered from his statement, it did not feel that way.
$11 million is what it cost him. That sucks.
That sucks. My concern is, is he going to podcast while he's on suspension?
He doesn't podcast anymore anyway.
Yeah, but he should get back into it.
If he did one podcast, like a tell all, that would do numbers. Yeah.
There also was the quote that resurface from last year when Paul George was asked if there was any wisdom to pass on to Embiid to help during his process of getting back to himself, and he said, Drugs help. Those are separate things.
He might have been talking about medical drugs.
He could have been talking about anything.
Yeah.
Yeah. He might have actually said, Hugs. We don't know. He could have said, Hugs help.
He'll be back for the playoffs.
He'll be back for the playoffs?
He'll be back 10 games before the end of the regular season.
Playoff PCP.
So enough time to get himself going and make a playoff push.
What other stories? We're a joke podcast. We don't It's not getting to serious topics, but it feels like a lot of NFL owners were emailing with Jeffrey Epstein.
It does. That was crazy. Memes you want to go first?
Yeah. It was it. All the reporters go silent when the Jets owner pops up in the emails.
What do you mean? They write about all the dysfunction, and then all of a sudden, he's in some emails.
No reports.
But where did we hear this news? We heard it on the news, right?
But a lot of it was Tish. Yeah, Tish was the headliner of the emails. Tish was a bad one.
Tish was bad. Pretty incriminating when he's like, Is this girl going to be a pro or civilian? When you're referring to non-sex working women as being civilians. Very, very bad. You've gone pretty far down that hole.
We had Josh Harris, who we already knew was... We already had heard that. We had emailed with him. And he's more of a Sixers owner than a man or something.
Yeah. Most of the headlines I saw was Philadelphia 76ers owner Josh Harris.
I thought you already fought this battle. You're doing the Josh Harris battle.
Yeah. Yeah, he's got it. You got that. I'll do it. So Philadelphia 76ers owner Josh Harris. I've actually looked into this because I'm not a stranger to having an owner that I hate. I'm not afraid to be like, Hey, fuck this guy. I'm anti everything about the Washington Commander's owner. I've been down that road. I fought that battle. I'll do it again. So I did actually look into it, and it confirmed what I'd already read, which was he was the founder of the Apollo Financing Group with Leon Black. Leon Black is deep into the Epstein universe. Josh Harris actually got Leon Black fired, kicked out because of his relationship with Epstein. Got it. Told him to move on. And then Leon Black was trying to get Josh Harris to meet with Epstein to hire him. And Josh Harris was like, Fuck, no, absolutely not. I'm not hiring Jeffrey Epstein because that was after his first conviction, back in 2007. Got it. 2006. I feel good about Philadelphia 76ers owner Josh Harris's position in all this because it does seem like he did the right thing, I think. I am also open to changing my stance as the story develops.
We're going to wait for all the facts.
We're going to wait for all the facts. Then Bob Kraft was also in a couple of emails.
A lot of powerful people in those emails.
Am I breaking the news to you right now?
I,. What exactly did he say?
I don't know. No, Robert Kraft wasn't.
I didn't see anything on Robert Crile. His name was in the emails.
Because when Robert Kraft got arrested after he got jacked off at that massage parlor after the AFC Championship Game or right before the AFC Championship came, his name was in the news because it was like, Wow, the New England Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, got jacked off in a massage parlor. Then Jeffrey Epstein was talking to people behind the scenes about how to strategize his legal defense for getting jacked off in a massage parlor, which Robert Kraft did.
So he wasn't, yeah. So he's basically not even know. It's just his name.
Yeah. His only crime was getting jacked off in a massage parlor.
Yeah.
Who amongst us? Right.
The Tisch one, though. I don't know how he stays owner.
Tisch got to go. Tisch got to go.
Okay, so Yeah, but it was whenever it was, Thursday or Friday, and then it was just like, Oh, yeah, here's another NFL owner. Here's another NFL owner. It's quite something. It's not good. No, the whole story is not good. I think we could say we disavow.
Disavow Also, I'm starting to think this Jeffrey Epstein guy was a bad guy.
Got kicked off Xbox.
Yeah, that's right. Zack, any thoughts on that?
You can't have guys like that on the servers. You got to go. Yeah. Right. That guy's got to go.
Massive A lot of credit to Jerry Jones for not being in these files. Yeah. That was a surprise.
Yeah, there was a couple. Yeah, surprise. Good for him. Oh, shit.
Dan Snyder. Dan Snyder, not in the files. Not there. Yet.
Yes. Okay, what other national sports What podcast topics do we have? We had a good Saturday of College Hoops. Did you see Rick Barnes said that he was like, I wonder sometimes if my players are betting against us with some of their passes? That was weird.
That is very strange for him to say.
I'm going to pull up the exact quote because I don't want to misquote it. Sometimes I wonder if my guys are betting on games.
That's never a good quote. Yeah, not good. Credits to Kentucky, great game against Arkansas. Yes. It was a game of the year. Kentucky beat him outright. They were six and a half point underdogs.
Revenge.
Revenge for that. Also, one more time at competitive sports, professional sports, and the Epstein thing, he was allegedly supplying Adderall to bridge tournaments. Oh, yeah. Yeah. How about that? Bill Gates was like, hitting him up, Jonesing, being like, Hey, I got a massive bridge tournament. I need that Adderall.
Bill Gates did not have a good weekend. Not a good weekend. Not a good weekend for old Billy Gates. Bad week. How did Brooks end up doing? I saw he shot one-off the cart path.
That was cool. He made the cut. I think he finished around 55th or 60th. Okay. Listen, Brooks, if you look back, if you're a student of history, as we are, his first win on the tour, Hank, you know this, at the Waste Management Open right before Seahawks' Patriot Super Bowl. Wow. Okay. So next week. This is his week. Yeah, this upcoming week.
Is it Thursday, Waste Management? Yeah.
This Thursday. It's Brooks and Hank week.
Believe in Brooks. How are you feeling with Hank week?
I'm excited. I mean, this is Super Bowl week is always fun. It's always one of my favorite weeks of the year. It is our 10th, actually 11th Super Bowl that we've been to. This is a 10-year anniversary. Ten years ago, we were in San Francisco.
Yeah, we didn't have a show.
No, but we collectively- Yeah, yes. I see what you're saying. It is the most fun week of the year, but it's so different when your team's in. I just want to fast forward to Sunday. It's fun being around the guys, being in San Francisco, doing all the stuff we're doing. You want us out of here. But I'm ready. I'm so ready for Sunday. The narratives, the nonsense, blah, blah, blah.
The nonsense is really what gets me. The nonsense, the blah, blah, blah?
Yeah. People are making up Photoshop. They're trying to create false narratives. Jets fans are making up rumors that are not football-related about Drake. It's nonsense. It's absolute nonsense. It's rubbish. What are you referring to? It's fake. This is all fake. So I shouldn't even be pushing it. I shouldn't even mention it on this podcast. There's Photoshop that were made that make Drake may look a bit not good, but it's Photoshop's. Oh.
Thanks for not bringing it up on the podcast.
Did you do that? I mean, we talked about fake news before with the Vikings and Rossini.
I mean, we could talk about fake news here. It seems like you really shoehorned in that dig at Rossini.
That was out of nowhere.
He's just been thinking about it the whole time.
Is his shoulder okay?
His shoulder's great.
Are you going to go doctor mode on us?
No. Why not? Because his shoulder's fine. He was at the send off rally today. He had his arm raised, thumbs up. Looked very comfortable. Looked so comfortable.
I just want to see Dr. Hank.
You know I'm not a doctor.
I know, but that's the whole point. You said the fake doctor's on Twitter. I want you to change your Twitter profile to you in a lab coat and then just start firing at people and be like, Hey, his shoulder's fine.
It is fine.
I know, but I want to hear it from Dr. Hank.
Okay, I could do that, but his shoulder's fine.
Do you think he's going to play on Sunday?
I do.
Okay. That's Dr..
Hank answer. That was someone asking who might have put a bet on Josh Jobs.
Josh Jobs, great value. Listen, I'm room for the Patriots, okay? Whoever that is, and I saw value on one of our guys. What's more Patriot way than taking a chance on a backup quarterback, Hank, and having him win a Super Bowl?
I'm down. I just want to win the game. Yeah. I'm down. Same. Yeah. Just let's just man up. But Dregman is playing, and he's going to light it up.
Do you think Dave will invite me into the game as a Pats fan? I don't.
I don't think so.
He did text me the other day, and he was like, I've been watching your takes from afar. Very ominous. Very ominous take.
Well, Gaz has probably been sending it.
That's what that means. Yeah. Gaz sends the lowlights, but he doesn't send all the times I've been right about the Patriots. Such as? Many times.
You should have just replied and been like, You're welcome for the third and sixth keeper.
Yeah. Listen, I'm trying to help us win. I've never put a bet. This is four times the amount of my most expensive bet that I've ever made in my life, and it's on the Patriots. The old saying is, Put your money where your mouth is. You can see where my money is at right now. It's public. Go, pats, go.
Are you going to bet the Patriots as well, Hank?
I have a future. I have an 80 to one future. Oh, shit. Yeah.
Damn.
Yeah. 300 to win like 25K.
Wow.
That's crazy. So financially, I'm already-No hedge? I got a lot. Hell, no. All right.
I like that. You got to ask. People always ask.
No, we talked about the other day. I could have already hedged. I could hedge multiple I'm not hedging.
You know who the real winner this week is? Josh McCown. You know Josh McCown was the quarterback teacher for both these guys? He was like their guru for both Drake May and Sam Darnal.
Josh McCown, very good Backup Court, and starting quarterback.
And starting quarterback, yeah.
And great hair and awesome guy. Great dude. Really, really good dude. Yeah. Okay, before we do who's back the week, actually, PFT, you want to do Twista T here?
Sure. Yeah, I love Twisted T. I'd love to do Twisted T anytime. It's always a good time for twisted tea. You know that. What's your ideal big game with twisted tea look like to you? I think I got to start with a half and half, and then peach second, original third, and then probably back to half and half for the fourth quarter. Put your fards up. Twisted tea is a refreshing hard ice tea. It's made with real brewed tea, 5% alcohol. Twisted tea is the ultimate drink to pair with the biggest game of the football season. Whether you're hanging out at a friend's house, catching a game at the stadium or at the bar, or day drinking friends, Twisted tea is there to turn your big game day up a notch and make a good time a great time. Grab a refreshing Twisted tea today.
Okay, who's back of the week? Hank.
My who's back of the week is Alktraz. Yeah. The Rock. The Rock. We're in San Francisco and Carlos Alcrez.
Oh, that was actually my Who's Back of the Week. Was Jokowitch's incredible comeback against Sinner. That was incredible. Then I don't know what happened for the rest? Have they finished the tournament yet?
They have Alcatraz.
I don't think they have.
It's Alcatraz week.
What about those that say Alcatraz, he hams up his injuries and he gets time to recover during matches that no other player would get?
I'd like to say that.
Yeah. What about guys like that? Yeah.
What about guys like me?
I mean, Joker, just the fact that he made it to the final proves he's-Well, that's Patriot's mentality.
It doesn't matter if you win or lose. They're like, Oh, it's a great accomplishment to make the championship. Not always.
Did you watch?
No. I didn't get to nap. We'll get to the end, but I was running on zero.
By the way, can I clean something up here? Hank is absolutely allowed to nap. You can nap if you want. Nap right now. No one's preventing you to nap. We were literally saying, please nap.
Stop saying that we weren't allowing you to nap.
No, it's not you. It's Coach Raible.
You said PFT runs a tight ship.
He did say that, and I do run a tight ship.
Nothing good comes from Hank. Don't do it.
I randomly woke up at 2: 30 in the morning last night during the first set. I think it was just like my body is so in tune with Jokowitch. I went immediately right back to bed, but I did wake up. I looked at my phone, saw he had won the first set, said, Job done. Job finished. We got this. Then when I woke up, job was not finished. He got smoked.
Also, we might be taking a field trip to Alcatraz, I'm not sure, but it doesn't seem like it's that far away from land.
Yeah, but the tides, dude, for the currents. Yeah, you can't swim. It's really cold water and shark-infested.
Lots of sharks.
You want to try to swim it?
It didn't seem that crazy.
It's pretty crazy, I think. People have swam it before. If you're a trained swimmer, you can do it.
Yeah, they do with wet suits and shit.
Yeah, and usually a boat next to you. But if you're a prisoner and then you try to leave, the sharks smell that.
I think the current will take you like, there's that many sharks in the Bay?
Yeah. Tons of sharks.
And the current will take you past the Golden Gate Bridge. You'll just be gone, out to sea.
What if you just pick the right time?
Then you make it free and clear. Yeah. That's what Sean Connery did. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen.
You should just get in that water.
We'll mock.
Get in the water.
I'll take a dip. I don't care. With the sharks?
I have a take.
Are there really sharks in the fucking Bay?
Yes. San Jose sharks.
I'm wearing literally the name of the hockey team. See this shark right here? See this orange tie-dye shark? That's what they look like.
Everyone's got kayaks in McCovey Cove.
Great counterpoint.
Yeah, that's a Cove.
All right, I'm looking up right now. How many sharks Alcatraz? Well, San Francisco Bay is home to over a dozen shark species, including the common five-foot There's no specific static number of sharks surrounding Alcatraz. Great white shark sightings are rare but documented without five individuals recorded entering the Bay over a two-year period. So at least five great white sharks.
Yeah, but guess what? It's the ones that you don't see. Yeah. Those are the ones you got to be afraid of.
Shark infested... Shit. The shark infested reputation is largely a myth.
Shit.
Cold water, strong currents, and fatigue are far greater risks to swimmers than sharks.
Yeah, but that's a normal person. Imagine the adrenaline you'd have if you escaped Alcatraz. That could carry you through to the other side. Also, just ride the current. Pick your spots.
Sevengill, soupfin, spiny dogfish.
You can just punch those in the nose. You think so?
Don't run away. I'd punch a shark.
Shark in the nose. Listen, on Hank week, I trust Hank. Just ride the current.
Yeah, the Bayes' lower saline makes it less hospitable for the large open-ocean sharks. So there's really no sharks. But that current, dude, you want me to do how bad is current?
I've been into current. We all know currents are like...
This one's gnarly, though.
You just go in the in between time and you're good. It's not that bad.
I googled the wrong thing. Never mind.
Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes you Google the wrong thing during the show.
Yeah, that's true. Max, look up City Swimming real quick. How bad? I have a take about the bridge.
Some of the strongest and most challenging in the world, often described as a river that can sweep swimmers miles off course. Water in the Bay features fast-changing tides, temperatures from 50 to 60 degrees, and high choppy three-foot waves that can cause severe undertow.
Under toe is a problem. I feel like-Look at this, dude.
Look at that. Look at the currents. They're going crazy.
Yeah, but if you escape Alcatraz, you just have to end up on land eventually.
Death by current might be worse than death by sharp bite.
Also, yeah, true. Wasn't Alcatraz not even that? How long was it Alcatraz?
It was Was it like 50, 60 years?
Was it in operation?
I don't know. I don't think it was-It's not like-I think it's mythologized a little bit. It's too expensive to keep shipping people out. Guards have to go back to land, back and forth. Supplies have to be boated in.
All right. The longest serving prisoner to Alcatraz was Alvin Creepy Carpus, a notorious depressionary gangster who spent 26 years on the island. So at least 26. But that's also, you got to remember, it's like 100 years ago. People didn't even know to swim then.
That's true.
They didn't do swimming lessons.
What do you call it? Evolution. Global warming. The tides might not have been as bad back then.
Yeah, that's a good point.
I got to get my Alcatraz facts going.
We should go.
We should figure out some more Alcatraz facts. Someone tell us.
I got some Alcatraz facts.
Landed bio.
All right, yeah. So it was only a prison for 29 years, 1934 to 1963. So It feels like Alcatraz might be... I think it's because Al Capone was there. It's mythologized a little.
It also got a great name. Alcatraz is a fantastic name for a prison. And the fact that it's the most visible island from the Golden Gate Bridge. That would have been electric, driving over the bridge and just being like, There's the prison down there. That's such a great tool for scaring kids. Every time you see that, you're like, If you're bad, we're going to send you there. That's where you'll go, and we'll never see you again.
Oh, Unless you swim back.
Unless you swim back. Just ride the current. What does ride the current mean?
What do you mean? It's like you're in a lazy river. It's like riding the current.
Oh, so it sounds like it'd be super refreshing to escape from Alcatraz.
You just go up on your back, ride the current. Under toe is a problem. Under toe is a big time problem. I will say that.
So I have some fun facts on Alcatraz because we did an episode on macrodosing of them twelve months ago. There was no death row on Alcatraz. Alcatraz. They made it seem like a badass place, but actually, nobody was on death row there. Al Capone learned how to play the Banjo, and he played in the Inmate Band. That's awesome. That's pretty cool. At Alcatraz. They never filled it to capacity. Nobody ever escaped.
More exclusive that way. Smart.
Yeah. They never had any escapees, but there was one person that tried to escape that they never recovered the body, so he might have actually escaped.
Right now, I just googled and said 13 to 15 prisoners are confirmed or presumed to have died during escape attempts. Yeah. They shot some.
They shot some, others drowned. A couple drowned. But one guy, they never found his body. People would request transfers to Alcatraz because the food there was so good. So other prisoners, like in Levinworth, be like, Get me out of Kansas. Send me out to San Francisco. The food is apparently banging. And yeah, it was shut down because it was too expensive.
And Sean Connery was there.
And Sean Connery. Yeah. Also, the Birdman of Alcatraz actually didn't have any birds. Common misconception.
I didn't know there was a Birdman of Alcatraz. Oh, yeah. But now I do.
Oh, yeah. And he was birdless.
He was birdless.
Al Capone on the Banjo. That's awesome. Yeah.
It is. It's really cool.
Very cool.
Okay. That was good. That was talking tennis?
Yeah. Who's back?
Pft? My Who's Back of the Week is Kindness. Kindness is back. This also broke after we got done recording on Thursday, but Schefter had some major scoopage. The NFL officially appointed influential storyteller Darman as its first ever Chief Kindness Officer and Creator of the Week for Super Bowl LX.
And this guy is- YouTuber. Like a scam artist?
He's a three-time felon?
Five-time felon. Yeah. But his felonies are for weed.
I asked this only because I saw a bunch of people.
He got caught five times.
It was probably the same thing.
So he got made kindness officer, and then the entire reaction was this guy's scam artist. If you're this guy, why would you ever accept this? Because you know you can't take a position like this knowing that most people are going to be like, Dude, this guy's full of shit.
I think the chief kindness officer thing, and by the way, we've named Memes Chief Kindness Officer a part of my take. I love that. So congrats, Memes.
Memes, would you like to give a speech or anything? I'm fired up about it. I'll be saying one nice thing to you guys every day.
Wow.
Except Hank.
That's fair.
What do you say? Except for Hank?
Hank doesn't get a kind thing. Nope.
Memes, when we got off the plane today, he was just like, I'm just going to sit in my room all week.
Okay, sounds good. I think what this guy is going to do.
Do you like to hear him say Memes?
This is a D's not joke. No, no, this is-I don't. It's just deep inside banter with boys for the past two days.
We got a new franchise. We'll get to it.
It's about Shane. But I think this Darman guy, and Max, you're a big fan of his, right?
I don't know the right answer.
This was one of those situations I was very happy that I did not know who this person was. I genuinely did not know.
I don't know anything, so I don't know. I feel like you want me to say yes.
Yeah, but it was There are certain times when someone comes up and it's like, I heard their name, but I don't know what... I had no idea this person existed.
I think he took the gig because J. B. Smooth turned him down. This sounds like a big-time J. B. Smooth type role where they're going to This is Chief Kindness Officer Darman, and it's going to be a funny thing about the NFL trying to be too kind. They're going to try to make it like, I don't think that there's actually a Chief Kindness initiative in the NFL. You should have made Dave.
Yeah. That would have been awesome.
Yeah.
He would have embraced it.
Zero % weed relation to the felonies. He uses real estate company to fraudulently pocket more than $44,000 from city redevelopment grants.
That sounds bad. Yeah, that's fraud.
Disavow.
Yeah, disavow.
It had nothing to do with weed. I thought it had something to do with weed.
I read his Wikipedia after he tried to create... I think it was when the WeWork shit was happening, he tried to create Wegrow.
Oh, so he took like, City Grants to build a drug empire.
It was like, what if we did We Work, which famously went so well and did it for weed? That sounds like the business pitch that he did.
Like just communal farms? Yeah, or something like that.
I did very little research.
You want to come grow some of your weed at my house?
Are we the most lightly researched podcast out there?
Oh, yeah.
We're the opposite of Pablo finds out. We're part of my take doesn't really care if we find out or not.
We find in. Yeah.
We'll loosely Google something and sometimes get that wrong.
I did Google the Josh Harris story for a solid five minutes, and I think I got to the bottom of that one. But again, we'll let the other members of the Sixers front office figure that one out.
Okay. My Who's Back to the Week is Yannis because this is the week, boys. It is NBA Trade Deadline Week. It could be.
It could be.
It could not be. But it's more of a reminder that Who's Back, the NBA Trade Deadline. I can't believe they do it every year during the Super Bowl. It makes no sense, but it could be Yannis week.
What has Shams been doing? The most recent post that he had about it, just say he's demanding a trade. Yeah. Enough of this. Like, Giannis would be open to finding other teams that are interested in collaborative effort on a basketball championship. He's like couching in so much shit. Just be like, Giannis has decided that he would like to be traded. He's asked the front office for a trade. Yeah. Don't- Just say it. Don't go half-ass with it anymore. I think he might go actually to Golden State.
Did you see, though, the most recent on the DraftKings sportsbook, our good friend's DraftKings sportsbook, The most recent update as of a couple of hours ago, the favorite is the Bucks at plus 125. Second is Chicago Bulls at plus 310. I think that's probably just Mikey Betts betting it over and over.
What are the other ones?
Warriors plus 400.
That's what I think is going to happen.
The rumors of him to the Bulls have always been there being like this idea that he loves Milwaukee so much that he's going to stay living in Milwaukee and commute, which he could do, but it would be the most ridiculous thing ever. So, yeah, those have been rumors before. I would highly, highly doubt that that would happen, but it would be awesome.
That would be very funny if he stayed in Milwaukee. He was like, I just love the city too much. I would never turn my back on the city of Milwaukee, so that's why I'm going to be living in my house and still playing for the Bulls.
Jj Reddick lived across the street from me in Brooklyn when he played for the Sixers.
Yeah.
He did. So This could be Yannis week.
It could be Yannis week.
It could be Yannis week. Do you think it's going to be Yannis week?
I think it's going to stay with the Bucks. It'd be fun just because we're here if you went to the Warriors, but I would prefer him go to the Bulls. That'd be even more fun.
That would be very fun. It'd be very, very fun. Okay, Zack. I think you have two Who's Back of the Weeks, and I want to hear both of them. Give us your backup one, and then give us the one that you came here with before you slept in, which, again, you slept in at 5: 00 PM.
Which is absolutely abysmal. Things were moving about a thousand miles an hour when we did this podcast. I didn't have the backup one, so I just got to stand on the one that I-Oh, you only have one. I only had the one. I didn't want to be on the phone while we were doing. That's fair. It would be disrespectful if I was on the phone the entire time while we were podcast and things are moving quick, things are moving fast. Do you need water? Do you need water? I'll take a sip. Okay.
All right. So Zack has one Who's Back To Me. Can I make one request?
Yeah, you can make it.
You can say no.
Feel free to make all the request. I can do whatever.
Your Who's Back To Me can't be about video games.
He's crushing that.
Can't be about video games. I'm cooked.
It can be about video games. Go ahead.
My My Who's Back Week was going to be land set-up. It was going to be land set-up because-Speak slowly because I don't know what that is. So land set-up is like-The continents?
What does land stand for? I actually don't know the answer.
The acronym? I don't know how the acronym breaks down. I just need to know it's like it means in person. Like physically set up.
Live Action Network.
Part of my take finds out. We'll never find out. Would you just like to leave some things a mystery. Live Action Network?
The local area network? Local Area Network?
Local Area Network.
Oh. That makes way more sense.
Okay, so we're getting land set-up?
Guys are rip it on land set-ups. Diversion world became the physical world because we have competitive call duty back on land for the first time in Dallas, Texas this week.
Okay. And how did it go? Shout out Bush.
Yeah, Bush Made quite the run in the Challenges tournament this weekend on land. Friday. Friday is like the... It's an open tournament, right? So anyone can get into the tournament. So the first day is like there's like 100 teams there. So there's like firing games, trying to whittle down the competition towards the smaller end of the bracket. So first day, competition wasn't as difficult. Kind of walk through Friday, get to Saturday, cops get a little bit more aggressive. Saturday is an early loss. So you knock down the loser's bracket. But then they made a fantastic run through Saturday through Sunday, loser's bracket.
Okay.
They exited Saturday, feeling good, feeling great.
Is anyone following?
Yeah, a little bit.
Okay. Keep going.
I'm not going to backtrack anything that was not-No, keep going.
We lost, we lost, we lost. Then we started winning, winning, winning, winning.
It's a double elimination. They only had one loss that locked them into the loser's bracket. Got it. Then we get to Sunday.
Then you get to Sunday, and then they had...
So Optic has a challenge team called the Huntsman. They played them first on Saturday. Or no, today's Sunday. On Sunday, they were able to defeat them 3-0. So that was a great win. It was a fantastic one. Then when they played Project 7, and they beat them three to one.
Also huge?
No, probably never heard that. Not huge.
Good comp, but not... I think the husband was great. Comp? Competition. Competition. Got it. Yes, sir.
We're just trying to be efficient with comp?
I should have said competition. No, it's fine.
I'm just trying to learn the world.
Zec, I have a question. What can I do for you? What's your role in the Bush? What do you do?
I would say maybe utility guy.
You're the best utility guy in the world.
You're the landman. They need anything at the land. You're the man.
I think Jerry's a landman. Jerry was in the pit. Did you guys see anything from the pit?
He's the pitman.
I think Jerry might have given some of the players on the other team. They might be leaving the event with trauma. I don't know if they're going to be able to play the same way.
I started watching Landman, by the way, as a sidebar. It just should be called dinner, fights, and death. But go ahead.
It's a good show. You're in a landman? Yeah. You watch it? I've seen the first season, yeah.
Dinner, fights, and death feels good.
And rekindled relationships?
Yeah, that's it. Okay, so how did Push end up?
Second place overall. Second place. They made the grand finals, and then they did get beat by Saudi. Say it. Yeah, the Saudis. They got to be by the Saudi. The Saudis took them out.
Wait, is it Saudi-backed or Saudi, actual Saudi?
Rocky Sports, Saudi's.
But are the players Saudi? The Saudis.
Shit. The Saudis took them out. We lost the Saudi. But great placement. Second place. 18k price made me made in the money.
Most importantly, did you have fun?
I did, yes, sir. It was a good weekend.
I could tell. You looked like the happiest boy in the world.
You almost died, though. I took a tumble.
I went down. Yeah, it was tough. I caught one of the cords and I was going to pull it. The tables had cloths on them, and there's drinks, there's laptops. And when I was getting up, I felt myself catch one of the cords. And I was like, I can't take this. So I just stopped. And then no momentum.
Zack, how are you feeling about your first Super Bowl week?
I'm looking forward to the week.
What do you mean? Oh, in Dallas with the Bush?
No, I'm very much looking forward to the week.
Yeah, this is your first Super Bowl.
Yeah, I'm super excited. It's a fun week.
It's a lot of work, but a fun week.
Definitely. Let's get all the work.
Zack, since you're going to be just a walking billboard for the book, part of my book.
Everyone go buy it pre-order on Amazon.
Can you just give the listeners a pitch? Why should they buy this book in your words?
Just a quick synopsis on me. What was your chapter?
Zack, pretend that I'm a customer. I'm a book reading member of the US public, and I'm strolling past the Barnes & Noble, or I'm walking-Sell me this book. Yeah, sell me the book. I'm looking for a book to order on Amazon right now. I don't know what to click on. I could get that one or the Tennis podcast, the book. Which one am I going to go for and why?
So you are in the market for some reading? For a sports podcast.
Here we are.
Sports podcast, sports podcast, specifically?
Yeah. Yeah.
Am I interested in this part of my book? Yeah.
Okay.
What's it about?
I'm hearing a decade of history, BFT, Big Cat.
Did you write a chapter?
I got a tiny chapter in here about? Mine is ice cream heavy.
Oh, nice. I love it.
I'm excited to read as well.
I'm very happy that you had fun with the Bush this weekend. It seemed like a great time. You were in your element. We got to get you streaming, which is coming. We're going to build you the streaming thing in our studio. Are you ready for it?
I'm excited for the streaming. You will be a streaming star. You will be a streaming star.
I think it'll be a good time. Yeah. No, I'm talking about after that. After the 36 hours stream, you stream video games, you will be a star.
We're going to get some good reps. I'm excited everybody get together and entertain the people.
Yeah.
Agreed.
We all agree.
I agree.
Yeah. Okay, what's wrong? What's wrong, Max?
I have one question. Oh, okay. There's another video that I noticed from this weekend.
Oh, no. Is it the guy who got hit in the head with a chair?
When you landed in Dallas, someone was picking you up.
Oh, yeah.
I think They honked at you 32 times before you looked up.
There's no context in that video, Max. We're at the airport. Everybody's honking.
There are so many honks, though.
Me and Muka are exchanging information via text. He's like, ETA, ETA, I'm in an ETA. Then we're sending photos of signs on where to go out. I had just taken a photo of my sign to send to him, and he told me which sign he was going to be by. Yeah, that was terrible.
That's okay.
It's okay. We're going to work on awareness. We're good with that.
We were firing way too much information at the same time.
Got it. Too much info can actually be less info.
Yeah, information overload. We all suffer from it.
That's what we hit. Yeah.
Okay, let's get to our interview with Chris Berman, which was incredible. You good, Zack?
Yes, sir.
You look like you just ran a marathon.
No, no.
Okay. I'm good. Okay. You're doing a great job. What a week. And again, I just want to reiterate the Do you need another water? The sleeping incident today is not an official documented sleeping incident.
It's very officially documented.
No, I'm saying... Yes, it was very documented because it will be on PMTV. I'm saying in the discussion last time he slept in, we agreed that it's going to be a seasonal thing. He already hit his quota for Q1. I don't think that today was even close to egregious enough to be on the radar of an official like, How could you do this? This was a side, funny. You close your eyes on a bed for a minute.
Yeah, so at most, it's a verbal discussion. We didn't write you up.
It cost us Zero minutes. Zero minutes of time wasted.
Actually?
A hundred %. We hadn't even started anything. We were just sitting here busting each other's balls.
I don't think you realize how close your room is to this room. It was like, Oh, we should get ready to pod. It'll be like, Oh, let me go get Zack.
Yeah, let's go knock on his door.
Zack, you could actually just sleep in this room all week if you wanted. Never miss a pod.
Wake you up and pod.
No, we got this. We're good boys.
You got this.
Anything else you need to do, I'll do Okay, so please do go buy the pre-order of the book on Amazon.
Pardon my book, 10 years of Pardon My Take history with chapters from all of us and the history of the podcast.
We talk about everything in the book. Everything. Stuff that we haven't talked about before publicly at all. We dove into it.
A lot of ups and downs, Barstool, VanTox, everything, COVID. It's going to be a very good book. So please do pre order it because us being New York Times best sellers would be very, very funny as a clap back whenever someone says we're dumb because we are dumb.
I think I would get it tattooed on my body somewhere.
Yeah, you know what I would.
New York Times best selling author.
Yeah. Okay, Chris Bermon. Let's do it. Okay, before we get to Chris Bermon back in our studio, we You got the Pepsi Zero Sugar Challenge. And, Memes, you're up first. Pepsi Super Bowl 60 Spot brings light to a similar phenomenon of discovery and truth, the Pepsi Paradox, the idea that when labels and bias disappear, cola drinkers prefer the taste of Pepsi, a phenomenon that blind taste tests have repeatedly proven. Are you ready, Memes? I'm ready. Okay, you're ready. So we have two cups, A and B. You're going to taste them, and you're going to tell us which one you like more.
I'll go with A.
Okay, he's going with A. I'll go alphabetical order. Okay, there we go, Meams. He's drinking it, and he's drinking it. We're going to narrate he's drinking it. Was that good? It's a good sip. Okay.
Meams, whenever you hold a microphone up to your in front of a wall like that, I'm reminded of the standup.
Yeah, now he's going for B. Cup B. And? What do you think? I liked A better. Okay. A. You want to do the reveal? A was Pepsi Zero Sugar. Let's go, memes.
Good job, memes.
Great taste, Buds. In 2025, revival of the Pepsi Challenge, 66 of participants agreed. Pepsi Zero Sugar tastes better than Coke Zero Sugar. Pepsi wins on taste. Sometimes you have to flip your world upside down to discover what's been right there the entire time. You deserve taste. You deserve Pepsi Zero Sugar. Let your taste decide and go try it today. Taste, superiority with Pepsi Zero Sugar. Good job, Memes. You passed the test. It was easy, though, right? Extremely easy. Extremely easy. Pepsi Zero Sugar tastes that great. So go try a Pepsi Zero Sugar today. And now, here's Chris Bermond. What?
Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very do every single year. It's a pinch. We pinch ourselves because we're like, Hey, remember the time we got to interview Chris Bermon, and then it became a yearly Super Bowl week tradition? Here we are. I think this is year four, five. Could be. Could be five. I think the first one was before the LA Super Bowl because that's when me and Billy left from Connecticut.
21, 22, 23, 24, 25. This is five. Chris Bermon in studio, the Schwam, our Schwam, here to talk some balls, some Super Bowl, some memories. But I have a very important question for you before we start. A little birdie told me that did you sleep on the couch at ESPN on Sunday night because you were just so excited to get the show going?
Well, not beforehand. Yes. First of all, the Very, very, very. That's from the Department of Regundancy Department.
Yes, but I threw as many. I think you just broke the record.
Well, thank you for that. No, no. We had 17 inches of snow in Connecticut on Sunday. I mean, we've had it. You have I had here in Chicago. And the day ahead, I said, It's supposed to go all night and then get worse. I've never slept in the building. I mean, I'm 11 or 12 miles. Could I make it? Yeah. Yeah, but it was like 4 degrees after, not 28 as it usually is when it slows. We have a hotel. I see, but that's a mile down the road. I slept on a couch in the executive level. My office is be sleeping on like astroterf. Back might never recover. My kids who are your age, and happy birthday, fellows. Thank you. 41 or 41. Very, very 41, 41. Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't the best sleep I ever had. The executive area had a nice coffee Keurig in the morning, and I had it to my side.
Wait, so this was Saturday night going in Sunday?
No, no, no. Sunday after the game. Did the show, primetime after game.
Yeah, because Booger told me Booger is a little birdie. He's not very little.
A little birdie, sometimes. Get it wrong.
He's actually fat. Oh, no.
Now, the show's over, it would be... And now your car is plowed in at 12: 30 in the morning. You know what? I'm going to follow through. I brought a blanket that our kids had, sleepovers, twin blankets when they'd have ninth-grade sleepovers, right? Found it in the basement. It was fine. A little pillow.
I'm shocked. That was the first time in 50 years or close to 50 years.
I'm a cowboy. I'll drive home. I drove home after the tuck game. That might have been the roughest drive because that was... Until we got in the car, it was 2: 30 in the morning. Yeah. Yes. The Girls aren't 2: 30 in the morning. They're not really... They're out there. So this is the first time I figured in the book, I'll never write, and then I'll finish it. It's a story. I'll never write it, but that story is it. How about that?
I don't know about you, but sometimes after a great NFL Sunday, I have a hard time falling asleep. Because we do the show on Sunday night afterwards, talk about all the games, and I'm all worked up. I just spend all day watching the ball, and I have a hard time falling asleep. Are the same way?
Absolutely. I was up anyway. Plus, I have a lot of Seattle friends, and that's the second game, and that game was tremendous as all these certainly NFC games have been great. Not that the others aren't. I'm up anyway. Anyway, so next thing, it's 2: 00. I go, I don't know what… I don't think this is a Las Vegas pull the shade down. It's going to be dark till 9: 00 AM till I feel like waking up. So I better get to bed about 2: 00 or 2: 30. So you could make the drive. It's not like you're drowsy. But you know what? Why not? It's a first.
I want to pay you a compliment because I watched your interview with Sam Darnold. You still got it as a journalist. That was a good interview. He completely opened up to you. I feel like we haven't seen that side of Sam. He seemed open, honest, authentic. You guys had a good conversation. I'm curious because I did watch the interview and it was great. If you haven't seen it, go watch it. But I'm curious what you got from him off camera, just about Sam Darnold, how he he seems to be right now, where he's at in his life. What did you figure out by... Because I'm sure you talked to him for a while. I did. Without the cameras rolling. What can America learn from what you learned from Sam Darnold?
First thing before we got started, I said, Can I just say one thing to you? There are a lot of people in New York rooting for you. Parentheses. I didn't say it. He got it like... He was, It's nice you to say. I said, No, I grew up at Chase Stadium. I was eighth grade with the Jets, won the Super Bowl, so I can say this. They figured You're not the problem. But he liked that. But he wasn't full steam ahead. He's enjoying. He's not tormented. Easy to say now that they're where they are, but he's not, Oh, God, no, this is my Rams. We just talked about the three games and how he... Well, it was in the interview, the Ernest Jones thing. That's our quarterback. That's our blanking quarterback.
He said that after the bad game when Sam threw four pitch.
Four turnovers. Yeah. And by the way, they had 60-something yard. They lost 21-19. They were that good. A lot of 20-yard drives for touch downs. The defense gave up. Yeah. So to Sam, what did I learn about him? I'd met him just a few times through the years. Still, he's a good guy. Good, quietly, still confident, but not pap answers, both off and on. On camera, sometimes you have to, right? Yeah. Not pap answers. He believes everything that you saw in that interview. He believes that what's surrounding him, obviously an outstanding defense, but what's surrounding him is all supportive, and it's the closest. I've heard this from... I was at the Seahawks, as you know, last week for a couple of That's about as tight a team. There are others. They're tight. Offenses and defense, what do you do? They're special. They're very tight. That stems from the coach, young coach. By the way, we're going to have another one this week. I don't know At what point with him and JSN, how do you get open? I know it's going to you. You're the only Rasheed Shahid now, but you're the only deep threat.
How do you guys do 20-yard passes? You never met each other till the summer or June. You'll find that fascinating. Sam, never heard a quarterback say it. He's got the best body language of any receiver that I've ever scene. Yeah. Body language. That's usually something said in a singles bar. He goes, No comment.
But no, JSN, we've been singing his praises all season long. I thought the interesting thing, and braided pointed during the NFC Championship game, the way that he keeps his shoulders level at all times to not tip off the cornerback, that he's like a lot of guys, they'll dip their shoulder before the ball or they're going to make a cut. Then they showed a highlight package. I was like, Oh, my God. This is a nuance that I'm not picking up, that he is just... His shoulders are flat the entire time, and it's so hard to guard him and figure out which direction he's going because of that. His hands are phenomenal and control. It's a crazy Super Bowl. It's going to be a fun Super Bowl. Both these teams, you were saying before we were talking, you went to Patriots practice in October, and you didn't think this was going to be... We're going to be sitting here in February talking about them.
No, but I could see I could see a few... I went to one practice. They were kind enough to let me just come and watch on a Thursday. They had beaten Buffalo up there maybe two weeks before. This is toward the end of the month. Then you could see You could see the intermediate to long intermediate passes from Drake May. It was a rainy, crappy late October day. It was like, Darn. He's on it with Diggs, with Hunter Henry, with, these passes are on. When you watch the Patriots play on TV, even in October, with Booger, obviously, who's been on the show many times. I said, Boog, even if the tackles make this, there's three guys standing there, he goes, I noticed the same thing. They're all around there. Nobody's escaping. They're very... I said to them after, I said, Whatever it is you're doing, keep doing it. But as we talked, the Patriots were about 75 or 80 to one, and the Seahawks were 60 to one, which in retrospect, they won 10 games the year before. But here's the Rams, here's San Francisco, and here's Philly. Just a different season. Yeah, it was a crazy season.
Well, it starts Started with... Well, I'm going to go back to before you were born, four years before. I hadn't said this anywhere. It's just history. In '81, my first real season of being aware, professionally, at ESPN, the Year of the Catch. That puts where I'm going. Cincinnati and San Francisco were 6 and 10. Come on. Bill Hall, Silver, A guy, 50 years old. What the hell does he know? Joe Montana, typical Notre Dame quarterback, won't amount to much. Cincinnati, yeah, they got a big line. Anthony Muni is really good. But Kenny Anderson is accurate. Yeah. 6 and 10. They both get there. Now, I know Seattle won 10 last year, so I'm disqualifying it a little bit, but still, they were off the charts. No one really started following them until that '38, '37, nationally, Rams game. Oh, we might have to know. Here's what I will say about both teams. You can, we can. Now we've had all year to watch them. In the middle of November, could you name more than six players? Hey, I follow football. Name me six Seahawks. Name me six Patriots. Am I right? We don't know we do now.
That's why it's really fascinating. So the season, I I did give that good prediction. You guys were kind enough to have me on when they were stupid enough to sign me so I could make 50 years at ESPN. So thank you. We're going to be at that party.
Yeah, we're going to be at that party.
We're having one. We're there. I said, The Chiefs and the Bills aren't going to play in the playoffs. I don't know why. I have no reason. It turned out to be accurate. Seven of eight division winners were different. One was Philly, and they were out right away.
That's crazy. The seven of eight were different. The one that was the same was the NFC East, which hasn't had a repeat division since what, 2004?
Yeah, since Andy Reid. Yeah. Early Andy. They were bounced right away. Ten coaches openings, including 19-year Mike Tomlin, 18-year John Harbaugh, Sean McDermott. I'm at the playoffs every year. So the AFC is on its ear Buffalo made it, but no Lamar. I mean, you know all of it. No Lamar, no Burro, no Mahomes, no Chiefs. They're in every Super Bowl. The AFC is on its ear. As it was In '81, when the bangles got into the bangles, really? It's just different.
It's okay. It's a fun year. It's a very fun year.
The more things change, the more they say the same matchup as we had back in Was that in Arizona? Yes. That was the Seahawks Patriot Super Bowl, the famous Marshawn Lynch, Russell Wilson, coach of that team, Bill Belichick, in the news this week. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this because I'm sure you've thought it over. You were around Bill for long enough. You've been around football for long enough. What do you think about the Hall of Fame, some of the voting members taking their pound of flesh and saying, We're not going to let you in first ballot, Bill?
They look pretty I'm foolish. Look, I'm the emcee there. I don't vote. I'm actually on a committee, but it's one of those that narrows down 100 to 50 old timers. I'm far from my speech half written for Bill. Not that I'm sitting there writing it in January, don't get me wrong. But two things. One is the obvious. By the time this show hits, everybody's spoken like, Well, what more would you like him to do? The system I knew a A year ago when Mike Holmgren was the coach that they put forward, but this system of, well, there's three players, there's a coach, and there's a contributor. You can only vote for three. So he didn't make it. I go, This doesn't look right. So that's the system before Bill. I don't know if it was pound of flesh, but 11 people is a lot. It's a lot. That's a lot. I understand Willie Mays wasn't unanimous to go in the Base Hall of Fame. Apples and oranges. I know, by the way, he got in. But... He loved the du. But it looks... Here's what I would say, and we don't know as we speak what the regular, the guys that are…
If I'm a voter and I were one of the 50, not even on bill, but generally, who's automatically in? Welfare. From the player's side, Drew Brees, Lierre Furtz-Daryl. Do we really need to discuss them? No.
Right.
Okay, so I could vote for three more of them. Let me think about the other nine or 11 or whatever it is. Do I like Lukik, Daryl is it Terry? We could go on and on. Is it Eli? Okay, but those two are good. No, I only got three spots. Okay, so now if I'm a voter in this category, and I have five names, Robert Kraft, contributor, Bill Belichick, coach, and then Roger Craig, and is it Elsy? Who am I forgetting? But the three players, Roger Craig, Elsy Greenwood. I'm spacing for a minute. Okay. Well, Belichick said, So now I only have two spots. If I'm a voter, that's the way I do it.
Yeah, it's almost a disservice to the guys that do get in. It's going to be a night that is about them. It's a celebration of their careers, and they're all tremendously accomplished players.
Ken Anderson, by the way.
Ken That was the other one. We mentioned him earlier. I knew it. It's like, Wait a minute. Just said it.
To a certain extent, that night that should be about the guys that are getting in is going to be about Bill Belichick not getting in.
The ramifications are even more than just, What are we doing? They look... I don't know how it got out, but it got out, which isn't the point. We would have found out on that Thursday, and that would have taken from the Super Bowl a little bit.
In your opinion, Bill Belichick should be in the Hall of Fame?
Oh, God, yes. Oh, God. Well, I read just this today on the plane coming in that when Joe Montana, for example, was eligible back to the '81 season, although that's the only beginning of it, Ira Miller, who was a San Francisco writer, stands up and you present. They don't vote right then and there, but they present. I present Joe Montana, and he sat down.
That's it.
I present Bill Belichick.
Yeah, that's it.
We need to present other guys because I'm torn. Do I go with Ken Anderson, Roger Craig? Do I go with Elsy Greenwood, Kraft? But he's Belichick. No, you're in. Then what? That hasn't come out yet. It's the easiest. Drew Brees and Larry Fruitzero, for example, on the plate. That's done. But maybe not. What did they do wrong? Nothing.
I don't want to burn part of our interview for next year, but next year, ESPN is hosting the Super Bowl. I've heard it. It's going to be on ESPN. Is it a little still mind-blowing? You are the guy who's been there from the whole thing. You've seen the entire to rise to if you went all the way back 45 years ago and said, Hey, Schwam, don't worry. In 2027, this little thing in Bristol, Connecticut is going to host the Super Bowl. Would you be like, No, come on, you're crazy.
Yeah, why did I sleep on a couch last night after a snowstorm? Right. No, chest will be out for all of us because no, we never thought it. But then eight years in, we got the NFL, which was way ahead of the curve. Now, we got Sunday Night Football in primetime. So that was, oh, my God. We got the Pro Bowl. We treated that like the Super Bowl. Now, it's the flag football or whatever it is.
That was when the Pro Bowl was still good.
Well, they played. They had Roni Locke give a speech. Tie game, 12 minutes to go. The difference then might have been 10,000, maybe 15, winner-loser. Ten minutes to go, he gathered everybody, and they played some football. We're here, it's the extra 15K, which now nobody would care. To answer the question, Kat, I didn't even properly do a LeCanche à la Lecanteur. It took me 10 minutes to do the French, sorry. Je regret. Pardon my French. Yeah, pardon my French. Very good. Pretty cool. The only thing I can compare it to is when ESPN, and I had nothing, not acquiring it, but when we got ESPN at the Rose Bowl, and I turned on the TV and I'm home because it's like middle of the week that year, wouldn't it? Espn presents whatever year it was, the Rose Bowl. I went, We have the Rose Bowl. This will be times whatever. A pretty proud moment for a lot of people whose names you'll never know that help put the mortar and brick and that allowed us to do this. Yeah, it's cool. Imagine, you could never imagine this get a Super Bowl. We're going to have the Super Bowl.
Yeah. I mean, pretty cool. Now, I'm sure we'll do plenty associated with it. You'll be hopefully not sick of us by the time we get to September. But very cool.
Yeah, very excited for you guys. It's going to be a great time. You want to talk a little bit about the game? Why not?
I heard that there is one. It's a big game. By the way, it is not only Happy birthday to you guys, but Happy Duh Duh Duh Duh. Yes. Commonly known as Groundhog Day. But on this show, that takes us back to our first one, right? When you guys came to Connecticut. We bring you on the show. I think it It's on that day, right? Yeah.
It might have been. We get you on here to get a little pop. It's an extra pop. Yeah.
From Canada. Sometimes you got a late night with a snowstorm.
You're not driving home.
Yeah. The game, the game coming home. Very excited for this game. Yes. I think the Seahawks seem like they've been the most consistent team if you look in the macro at this entire season. Probably the best week to week. I could hear an argument maybe for the the Rams in there, but they beat the Rams, so they move on. The Patriots, obviously, there's a lot of questions, but Mike Vrabel, awesome coach, great defense, quarterbacks played well. I actually think Ramondre Stevenson played exceptionally well through these playoffs. He's been a guy that was... You could say he was in Vrabel's doghouse earlier this season, and he worked his way out of the doghouse. I don't know what to do with this game. I feel like the spread doesn't matter. The Patriots take a money line or don't take them at all. What do you see going into it?
Well, I agree with Seattle being... Early November, I said to people in our room, I think they're the NFC team. Even with Philly, we weren't sure Philly was going to go, disintegrate or whatever they did. But then, the big picture, are they going to win with Sam? Are they going to win? I think he's answered that by now. It doesn't mean anybody can't have a bad game. I mean, hello. That defense, although, if I'm Josh McDaniels, I have my opinion already. I'm ready to go with it. But twice the Rams ran up a lot of yards and a lot of points. Twice. In Seattle, both times. When they can't hear that now it's Matthew Stafford, I get it. And it's Sean McVay, I get it. But Josh, on a quarterback, Drake May, who, don't forget that he's... Sam did, too. And Drake May is in the Super Bowl. So I can't say, well, that means he's going to fumble three more times. No, he played a clean game in Denver in terrible conditions in the second half. So what is it that allowed the Rams to move Stafford to Pukina Kua? I got it. But they have a dig.
He goes well to the tight end. They will have some things based on the two Rams game. I just I thought of that this morning, twice. That being said, that defense is the best in football. I understand the Houston defense events. I get it. You look at the stat sheet for Seattle's defense. For example, I look flying in today to remind myself. Leonard Williams, one tackle. Boy, he must had a bad game. Wrong. He threw three guys over his shoulder so somebody else could make the tackle. They are Coach McDonald is a defensive McVeigh. I'm going to use it as young coaches. Andy Reid. They're all in the same division with Kyle, too. Shana. Good luck to the New Arizona Coach, but whoever that may be. That defense can play much better than they did in the Championship game. Let's just leave it at that. I mean, that's a defense that San Francisco was We saw twice, they allowed San Francisco three field goals in back-to-back games. That defense, like the Rams went into Carolina twice late, one in the playoffs and one they lost in the regular season. That was nip and tuck, and Seattle held Carolina to nothing.
Until this game, they were averaging nine points. Can New England get to 20? Can they? Yeah. They got a good punt returner as to Seattle. Specials are good. The Rams, it was a... It was a disaster. How do I see the game? I made the spread Five. That's about what it is. I mean, not that I'm an odds maker, but I do it so that I would have trouble going either way until I delved into it and somebody said, Well, you got to do something. You're the swammy. Somewhere in the game, there will be a one-yard countdown run by the Seahawks. I don't know by who not to win it. It won't be to win it. No, we're saving that for the Disney Super Bowl, our ESPN Super Bowl. Someone, Walker, will run a one-yard run because they have to.
Yeah, you got to.
That Super Bowl. How do I see it? Want to pick a score already?
I want the Swammy score.
I I know you're looking for fives and twos, and we go through this, but this is... I had, and we can massage it, 26-17.
Oh, that's Swammy score?
Six. So 17 is a normal score.
Yeah. Maybe 26-19?
I like to make it enough three or four so that opposite the old swammy days, there's no question, Oh, somebody stubborn the toe, the line goes to... It's three or four away from the number. That's why- I think I've told you this, but my childhood realizing it when it would be the scores and then the little thing would be next to the team that was covering.
That aha moment of like, Ah. The arrow is not next to the winner. It's who's covering.
Thank you. We couldn't really say the stuff we told you. I know. I would always say, Closer than expected, or, They might win handily. Something like that. That's what I have at the moment. I know González is a hell of a corner, and then he's not going to be one-on-one with J. S. And any...
They could figure out ways to get J. S. And matched up everywhere.
They have so far. Well, it's also so interesting, the conference champions, because you have, obviously, the weather in Denver in that second half. So how do you figure out where the Patriots' offense is? And the other thing, when you're talking about the Rams did down down, they were going up and down the field. But the final score, 31-27, that Tarek won. They're off the field. And if he doesn't get that penalty, the next play is a countdown. Is it the Rams got a couple of field goals and a couple of touch downs? That looks a little different. Because at that point, that's all they had. And it's like, maybe that's a good thing for the Seahawks that they have a teaching moment because if that happens in the Super Bowl, you can't have those.
No, and that's a good point because it might have been often When the good team's going to be a close game, 26-17 is only nine, so that would be two. It could be up by six and kick field goal. Sometimes the team that's going to win, let's get it to two scores, and it might take 54 minutes to do that. So am I saying that that's what's going to happen? I just think Seattle's... But again, the Rams ran okay on the Seahawks. And to your point, PFT, both Stevenson and Henderson, they run. They will have a tough time. Those rookies are good players on the front line for New England, Campbell, and The Guard. Leonard Williams is a big man. And DeMarcus Lawrence, they're pretty good. By the way, a draft pick that no one's taught. The number one and two by Seattle, Nobody. Again, two names nobody knows. Not you don't. Gray Zable, North Dakota State. We're going to pick an offensive lineman. How'd that go? He's great. He's really good for a rookie. Iman Warrie? Oh, yeah. Whoa. Whoa, you look at him, and he's not 6'5. Leonard Williams walks in the room and hello.
I mean, he's a bigger cat than the big cat. And so, him and Warrie, it's like 6'2, but he has great posture, which I'm already envious. He just looks like he's a large guy. That was a great… And that's the Kyle Hamilton-type role that Mike had with the Ravens. He's an interesting… Here's what I learned from Coach McDonald, and I want to go back to the game 11 years ago because there's something that I hate at the end of primetime, but I want to go into it and see what you guys think. Coach McDonald said to me, and we'll probably get this on this week, too. He goes, When they beat the Rams 38, 37, he said, I'm just a second-year coach still trying to figure it out, which I said, I haven't heard a coach say that. At the press conference, after the game that essentially made them the one seat and didn't come to Chicago. If that two-point conversion doesn't work, they're playing in Chicago and the Rams are home. Think about that. One play changed the whole thing. Then the Rams went on to Atlanta. I was like, What do you mean we can't win the division?
How did that happen? They were just... So they had their head down and they got beat. That two-point, if they don't get it, they're the five. Might have lost in the...
They got to win three games. We don't know. On the road.
But he said also in an interview, he goes, I'm not taking out the book and saying, Okay, it's March 23rd. If you look at Section 3-5, we should be here by then. He's like, Let it organically. Let it play out. If we screw up a lot, I think it'd been Sam, for example. We're not, Hey, don't do that. There may be some things that Tom braided pointed out and Clint Who be acting like footwork and this, but let it rip. Be smart when you let it rip. Not like golf. Part three over water. Whatever you do, don't hit it in the water. Well, now, as soon as you say that, it's in the water. That's just it. I'm going on and on the Seahawks. I'm just so high on John Schneider, the general manager, and Coach McDonald. He really got that right. He and getting Rasheed Shahid, who changed the Ram 38, 37 game.
That kick return.
The kick return. That was the punt, and then the kick return was the Niners.
Honestly, and complete respect for what the Niners accomplish with...
They're like in the Alamo against 2000 soldiers. You know what I'm saying? American history major. Yeah.
No basement in the Alamo.
Right. So Booger will tell you this is true. In the room, quietly, the open and kick return. I said, The game's over. Yeah. Really? I said, Well, due respect to Kyle and Purdy, who's played great. But if the It wasn't a countdown. I said, If the next score is a Seattle touch down, 12 seconds, we're done.
We were talking about it going into that game because COVID, we forget everything. But the Seahawks had not lost a playoff game in Seattle, they were 10 and 0 with fans in the stands. Now they're 12 and 0 in the last 12. It's like that kickoff comes, oh, shit. Shut the door. They're in deep. We forgot about this crowd.
Yep. Hard to forget about them. One other thing for New England, though, they went up against three real defenses. Yeah.
Real. Top five.
Not that defense is playing defense. I'm sure you guys comment on it. They out defenced all three of them. I understand Herb, Oh, he didn't have blockers. Well, that's not your defense's fault. Houston, well, Stroud played not too well. Ass is what we said. But they had something to do with all. At Denver, here comes the snowstorm. If Sean had kicked a field goal, it could be 10-0, but it didn't. They then offensively didn't make the mistake, and all they needed was one by Stidham. One Not like five. That's a New England feather.
They get these leads, and then Vrabel, he relishes having that second-half lead where he's like, I'm going to run the ball down your throat. We're just going to put it on the ground, limit mistakes, eat the clock, and then that's Vrabel is, I think, I made this point on, I think, the last show, but he reminds me in some ways of Dan Campbell, where I think both guys like to play into the the meathead football guy mentality. And the press loves that, right? We love the stories of Vrabel putting on the pads in practice, bloodying his lip up, headbutting his guys. But they're both very, very smart coaches. They're both super, super smart when it comes to in-game management, not just how they construct and develop a team. I think that this, Vrabel being an underdog in the Super Bowl makes him more dangerous than he would be if he was favorite.
Very good point, and absolutely. I still can see that the last playoff game when he was Tennessee and he beat Belichick and braided in Foxborough, and he outruled Coach Belichick with something that Belichick had done all by the rule book, but boy, and I forget what it was, and I thought I was going to watch Bill's head explode four minutes They go like, I know exactly what he's doing, and he's dead on. Oh, my God. He stole time.
They were taking penalties, and the clock kept moving.
He stole time from Belichick. To your point.
No meathead coach there. No, it It's nice to have just a fresh Super Bowl. We make a left-hand turn, and then you can answer whatever else we want to go. Vivid memories of that one in Arizona. Arizona always seems to have a really good game, by the Always, right? Giants and Patriots at 18 and-Chiefs of the Eagles. 9, 10, and 0. Yeah, the Chiefs. Just a couple of years ago, they always had really good games. I could go into the game because I have vivid memories, but not about me. Seattle wins. If they win, however they win, One-yard run, Russell Wilson rolls out, ball's not intercepted, then they run. However, I'm not going back to that. Think of, it's only 11 years ago, the history of the game, because this is not, Oh, if Lombardi had done this, then they would have won eight in a row. This is not that. Seattle wins. Say they do. Now, they've won two in a row. They're the team of the decade, even though we got four years to go or five. That locker room is not splintered at all. Believe me, I know. They still play offs and won a game.
Could they have won three? Could they Yes, have won three in a row. We've seen it. Nobody's done it. But they would have been up for that. Then, New England's narrative, not fair. They went 0-1, 0-3, 0-4. 0-7, they're 18 and nine-tenths of an O, but They didn't win. The other giant one, close, they could have won. Now, they lose this? Oh, Belichick and braided, they're really good. They were three and oh, they're three and three. No, they can't. Unfair, don't get me wrong. Oh, they can't win the big one anymore. What's wrong with them? Not to say they wouldn't have gone on and beaten Atlanta or if that was the same situation in the Rams. But All of a sudden, three and three, Seattle, two in a row. It changed the narrative from both conferences. And so New England became the team of the decade because they want to. It's just interesting how it turned.
Is there another one like that? Because the one I think of when you bring that up, the John Elway's first, they were double-digit dogs to the packers. Packers were going for two in a row. That happens in NFL history where you look back and you're like, Oh, well, that result changed the court. Then the Broncos go win another one. It's just like things change on a dime like that.
That would be one, especially since I think the NFC had won 13 in a row, 12 or 13 in a row Super Bowl, whoever was in, Washington being one of them. Buffalo was in a few, so that didn't work, unfortunately. But that's either here. Yeah, it did. Then John wins the next one, which is going away against Atlanta, and it goes off into the sunset. It did. It changed Denver and his narrative. It didn't change. Well, Green Bay had then won two in a row. They had Brett Farr and Mike Holbrook. Yeah, that's a very good one. I was trying to think of one like that.
I remember- Very good. Distinctly at the end of that Super Bowl, the Patriots of the Seahawks, I was staying in a house with a Seahawks fan. He's a writer. He's Danny Kelly. I think he for the Ringer right now. He's a podcaster. Big Seahawks fan. I went home with him. We went back to the house. We were just sitting in the backyard drinking a beer, talking about the game. He had a thousand-yard stare. I was like, What are you thinking about right now? He said, They just stole a dynasty from us. He was Hey, he felt the deep pain of like, We were about to be a dynasty. Now it's probably over. Even though you looked at that Seahawks team, they were still good coming back the next year. You thought maybe they could get one or two more or at least to crack at it. But that's how it goes. To your point, I don't I don't know that the Patriots have that belief to come back from '28 to '03 if they didn't steal that Super Bowl from the Seahawks.
We'll never know. We'll never know. That's the beauty of it. Here's my the last... We go from the stands. Well, we're watching the game about eight minutes to go to get to the field because prime time is on the field when it's over, as you know. So there's four minutes when from 8: 00 to 4: 00, you're in the bowels, you're hearing, you don't... I'm the only one in America not seeing the game, okay, which is bizarre. And all I heard was, 'Brady's Pass, Complete to Edelman, First Down. ' 'Brady's Pass, Complete to Gronkowski, First down. Brady's Pass, complete to Gronkowski, first down. Brady's Pass, complete to Shane Verine, first down. Okay, and then you're out on the field. Okay, now they have the lead. So I'm at the five-yard line, going the Seahawk direction, even though they were way at their own 30 or whatever it was, and the bomb to curse. I don't know. He lands right here. I'm pointing just off my feet. I turned to Tom Jackson and I say, remember, they didn't review. They didn't. He was in, but you couldn't. I was shocked. They didn't. But he was in because I could see his butt landed.
I'm right here. I went, he blanking caught that ball, Tom. And then I thought, oh, my God, any lip reader, because I'm going to be on the video going, You could say it. Caught that ball. But they had my knees down. Thank God, okay? And then, of course, they go to the one and then whatever, and then, wow. There's no one left from that game. By the way, back to this game, how many guys have even been in the Super Bowl?
Yeah, right.
I mean, the Vrabel, obviously. But in a couple of Seahawks, Cooper Cupp and Ernest Jones with the Rams, but not a lot.
I'm trying to think, and I don't think yet.
Not a lot. I got one for you to check because I haven't checked yet. On the coaching staff with the Seahawks is Leslie Frazier, who played with the 85 bears, so he has a ring. He also was on a coaching staff with the Colts, one paid in one on '06 against the Bears, oddly enough. If he and the Seahawks win, I don't know the answer to this. 40 years apart from being a part of getting a ring with a Super Bowl team, 40 years apart? Yeah. I Hey, unless you're a player like him and you're still coaching in your mid-60s or a grad quality control guy at 25 years old and you're someone else, Leslie Frazier, in the year of your birthday, the 85 bears, right? He might be 40 years. I don't know the answer to that.
The biggest gap between- Yeah, between first and last.
Here's the list. Oh, wow. Here's the list for guys. Matt Collins was on the 2017 Eagles, Milton Williams on 2024 Eagles, Carlton Davis on the 2020 Bucks, Austin Cooper on the 2016 Falcons. That's an interesting one. Then for the Seahawks, Ernest Jones on the Rams, Cooper Cupp on the Rams, and the one we forgot, Sam Darnold backing up- With the Niners.
And the Niners.
But yeah, that's it.
Seven.
Yeah. And a few of these guys weren't really playing early in their career or backups. So yeah, not a lot. It's interesting. Okay, quick break from Chris Bermon to talk to you about DraftKings. I think you know what's going to happen during the big game? Call it with DraftKings Predictions, a new app where you can predict outcomes on football's biggest Make real money predictions on the big game and put your money where your knowledge is. Pick a topic, make your prediction. What will the total score be? Will the underdog cover? Which team will be lifting the trophy at the end? Then see, will your big game smarts payoff? Draftkings predictions is new, simple to use, with big game trading available in California, Texas, Florida, and more. Download now, new DraftKings predictions customers get up to a $75 first trade bonus with promo code Taked. Don't just feel it. Predict it with DraftKings predictions. The Crown is yours. Draftkings predictions is a CFTC-registered, introducing broker. Event contract trading involves substantial risk of loss. One per new customer, opt-in required, non-withdrawable prediction dollars expire in one year. Ends February eighth, 2026. Market availability varies. Eligibility Restrictions apply.
See terms at www. Dkng. Co/predictionspromo. Draftkings Predictions is a CFTC-registered, introducing broker. Event contract trading involves substantial risk of loss. One per new customer, often required. Non-withdrawable predictions dollars expire in one year. Ended February eighth, 2026. Market availability varies. Eligibility restrictions apply. See terms at dkng. Co/predictionspromo. Com. Promo. The other one I got to throw out there, and we're talking about missed moments or how it changes. What changes if Scott Norwood makes the first one? If he makes the one in the Bill's first Super Bowl, do they have the confidence where it's like in the... Because I watched that, I think it was Four Falls of Buffalo. That was great. Great. The thing that struck me is them talking about how at the end, it was just running out of gas. It was just like, Hey, the emotional toll of losing three and then getting to the fourth and then that second half in the fourth and just being like, It's over. If they win that first one. We talked about Bill Wellcheck earlier and him getting in the Hall of Fame, I think his defensive game plan from that Super Bowl is in the Hall of Fame, what happens if Scott Norwood makes that kick?
The Bills win the game. Are we talking about... Obviously, it was still a great defensive performance, but you don't talk about defensive performances and losses. So it's like those sliding door moments.
There are a lot of them if we go through it. No, you're right. That game plan was... Thurman Thomas had almost 200 yards combined. We can't cover everything, but we will hammer everyone across the middle. Conversely, when they beat the Rams, not the same discussion, the big upset, the 14-point, We are all patriots, all one. He told me quietly, he goes, We will not let Marshall faulk beat us, knowing he's great. I mean, not He's parentheses. If Kurt Warner and Isaac Bruce and Tori Holt would get us, I do have Ty Law and some others, but he won't be this. But you're right. Had Norwood made I said it. I said this, and it will sound stupid. I don't know if I've said it on one of our shows, being close with that team, as you know. I think they would have gone two and two. We can't assume they would have made all of it. Right. I got asked, So which one? Washington was better than them. I'm not saying that because I'm looking at PFT. In retrospect, they're better.
That was a great offensive team, yeah.
Defense were pretty good, too. Charles, man. We could go on. It was like, Okay. I got hogs, reincarnate. The one they lost, 52 to 17. Sounds like a stupid thing to say. Dallas, none of them had been there. The Bills, oh, my God, we're in our third one. This is Armageddon if we don't win this. Oh, my God. Now what? This is before they play the game. So it sounds stupid, 52, 17. Dallas proved they were better. I get it. But I think that would have been the one because of the experience thing, and they would have been one-on-one, theoretically. You want an inside thing on the Norwood kick? Who I know? Yeah. I get- From? Well, I forget.
From?
Go ahead. Where?
Jmu.
That's right.
My bad. If ever I say from, it's always JMU. If Big Cat says it, it's always Wisconsin.
We don't have a lot. Well, JMU, they're all in Indiana. Yeah, that's true. Good point. From the whole JMU team. In warmups, 2 hours before, I noticed he was hooking him some, which he didn't usually do. He was not one Now, not that many guys hook it as a rule. Back then, a lot of the soccer, he didn't do it. Now we're at the Pro Bowl. I talked to him. Pro Bowl used to be a week after. Right. He said, Scotty, I noticed you were hooking the balls at that end zone, too, as it turned out. Did you make any change in the kick? He goes, interesting that you noticed that boomer. I actually aimed a little farther right than normal. And of course, he drilled it. Because it's five hours later, by the way. But we get on the third tee and we've hit two left, and we're, Move your feet a little right. There's an inside. No one knew that. Nobody. I mean, I was just fishing. Yeah. Things change. The bills, they could have got there this year, too.
I know.
It seemed like it was.
I know, yeah. We were To break the fourth wall. Fifth wall? Fourth. We were sitting here on Friday before Super Bowl week, and when we were scheduling this, the one thing that we said with the schedule, I was talking to your guy, Josh, who's incredible at ESPN, and he said, Hey, Schwam's in for Friday, but if the bills make it, he's going to go to Buffalo, and he's going to interview Josh Allen. I was like, That's something we can deal with. We can deal with if he has to go. If that means the bills are in it and he gets to sit down with Josh Allen, that's No problem. It would have been great. They just find ways to make it as tragic as possible. It really is something special. I say special in the worst way possible.
We're still not sure if that was an interception or a catch. I couldn't believe what a hurry they were in to get playing. Were they double parked outside the stadium? I'm not really sure.
Just explain it to us.
Yeah, give us the moment to digest it, to watch, to come to our own conclusions, and then break our hearts after that. I'd be okay with that.
Yeah, I mean, you read the rule and okay. If it's called that, yeah, but let's all look. Then the next day, Devante Adams caught the same thing, and that was his catch. I'm not speaking like a Buffalo fan that got jilted because it's borderline. But same thing in the next game, it was a catch.
We had a big debate with Mike Florio from Pro Football Talk the other day because He's saying that the conference championship game should be played at a neutral site in a dome, out of the weather. We told Mike, Get out of here with this. Get out of here. He's a fuckhead. He doesn't understand football.
Well, I'll leave that up to you.
Well, yeah, we'll say it. We'll say it so you don't have to. But the idea of more and more teams getting domes is a real thing that's happening. Forget about the neutral site stuff. It feels like we're losing snow football as a thing. There are a lot of people that were upset with the quality of play and the Broncos-Patriots game. They're like, Oh, it's unwatchable. Me and Big Cat stand on the side of, You should have to prepare for that as a coach. The different places that you have to travel to on the road, getting the one seat should mean something. You have a hard place to go play. Keep that in the game. We shouldn't sanitize the game and make every game 72 degrees, indoors, zero wind. What do you think about pretty much every franchise that's building a new stadium, and the bills are an exception, and God bless them for it, they're not going to put it in a dome. It's going to be outside. But it does feel like the further we get, the fewer and fewer open air stadiums in cold weather cities we're going to have. How do you feel about that as a fan of the game?
No, you got to have it in the stadium sites. By the way, no indoor games the whole playoff.
I know.
It's crazy. None. That was great. Including the Super Bowl. Including the Super Bowl. You can also get 40 degrees in Chicago in January, as you well know. In Denver, first half looked nice. I would be completely I'm not saying, Look, an opinion is opinion. It's not right or wrong.
No, this is a wrong opinion. You're right.
You're right if you think that it...
But you're right. More domed. Now it favors unfairly so, if you look at it this way, theoretically, a team that's faster.
Yeah.
And neutral sight, it's not like you earned it. Hey, I'm an indoor track team, and I'm trying hard because most of the teams aren't as fast as us.
You could build a team one way. You don't have to worry about having a team that can be diverse in how they play and win football games. I hate it.
I need I do, too. You root for not ridiculous because I think of the fan experience, which- Oh, I root for ridiculous.
Listen, I root for ridiculous. The chaos is fun.
Well, like the Kansas City, 20 people It lost a finger. It went to the Miami game.
Yeah, but when the Rams were coming to Chicago, I went to that game. I was glued to the weather app all week being like, Please get colder. Get colder, get colder, get colder. I wanted it as cold as possible because it is the element of an indoor team coming outdoors.
Not part of it. So more kudos to the Rams who played five quarters in that after they went unexpectedly for them. Four quarters, barely wanted Carolina. No knock on Carolina. Then Seattle allowed and almost won that. They are, in my respect, by the path that they had to take. But that included the weather of a West Coast team where it was also 80 in LA that week, not 60, which is the same if we're living where we do in Connecticut or in Chicago. No. So the answer is no. You can't Because the fans who've supported all year, Oh, I'm Chicago. Let's say Seattle got beat by the Niners. I'm only going to get what you had two games. I get the number one seed, and I get one game.
Yeah.
Well, no.
Yeah. If Seattle had to play that game in LA, yeah, that would have stuck.
Or indoors at the Hoosier Dome, at the drum, at the Lucas Oil drum. Yeah, a championship game where the city has nothing to do with it?
Yeah.
No. You'd be bad.
You'd be bad. And snow football is great. I mean, the tuck rule. You have the image of that game. Adam Vinatari hit maybe the best kick of all time in that snow. I like a little bit of chaos. You said ridiculousness or chaos, whatever word you want to use. I do like chaos in playoff football. I think it's part of what makes the sport beautiful, and they should not take that away.
A different part of chaos. I am adamant about this, but I think the league is going to change this, not that part. That would have a long way to go to have championship games. Until you hear the league start talking about stuff three years in advance, and then we're going to move the Pro Bowl, this is when they played it, to the Dead Week. Three years later, it happened. Here's the thing they're talking about. Why would Carolina have a home game? Keep it that way. It's like a baseball stadium with a short portion. I agree. You win your division. You know what? From a competitive, why should they... We should reseed everybody because... No, no, no, no, no, to go into eight and nine and when you're not winning the Super Bowl anyway. That would be my point.
I like the idea, and I know this is people who disagree with this. I like the idea that when the season starts, goal number one, win your division. That's it. Win your division, win the teams that you play the most, and then you go from there. I think there's some years that it's going to be weird and you're going to get screwed. Some years it will go bounce your way. Seattle played in a division this year where it was the toughest division in football. The beastquake year, didn't they win it at 8: 00 and 8: 00?
7: 00 and 9: 007: 00 and 9: 00.
7: 00 and 9: 00. So, yeah, it happens both ways.
And they were the defending champs. And apparently, they weren't good enough because they would have lost somewhere else. One of the many brutal Sean Payton losses in the playoffs. I mean, there's a long... I'm not saying that he's a friend of mine. I mean, he has a lot. But that was it. Backstory of that, three weeks to go in that season because that division was terrible. Obviously, the NFC West. I told Tom Jackson, Tommy, 14 things have to happen for the Seahawks who were at the time, maybe maybe two weeks ago, five and nine. They're five and nine. Tommy, 14 things. I figured it out. 14 things have to happen for them to host the Championship game. He goes, What? Why would you waste your time? I was up late, whatever, doodling. Thirteen of them happened, by the way. They won the division, they beat the States, and Aaron Rodgers knocked the bears out. No, not the bears out. Aaron Rodgers knocked They were six. Yeah, they were the six. And knocked Dallas?
Probably.
Seattle came to Chicago. It was a really close game, by the way. Chicago won. And so therefore, Green Bay came to Chicago as the two or the three. But Seattle at four would have been ahead of the six. He goes, Thirteen of 14 happened. Chaos? I'm with you.
Chaos is great. It's It's also like we're just too reactionary in general now where it's like, Oh, this thing happened. We have to react to it. We'd become basically the college football playoff where every year they're just going to change the rules and they're going to tinkering with it. No, the rules are fine. They'll be fine. Okay?
Not that things don't need massaging, like the process in, apparently, Hall of Fame voting. That might be one of them. But Yeah, it's a good way to put it. Yeah.
Chaos. I think the packers beat the Falcons that year. I think the Falcons were the one seat. Could be.
Yeah. Yeah.
It was all the things happened. Dallas was a good guess. Yeah. It happened. It was Brian catching it. Yeah, all the years just I'm at. All the years just blend together. Do you have those moments where you're like, I sometimes I'm just like, I think that happened. Wait, no, I don't know if that happened. Or what year was that?
Wait to get my age, and you go, What did I have for breakfast? I think it was an omelet. I'm not sure. No. As soon as you pick Dez Bryant, oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's right.
You can put it in your head. You're like, Oh, yeah.
Football. This every year, you're reminded. We had more comebacks from Whatever. It doesn't even need the stats. By the way, back to the chaos. If you're going to keep imaginizing it, now we're next-gen statsing it. Yeah. Okay. Recommendation.
Go for it.
It's always go for it.
Is it raining or snowing in the third quarter for the right to go to the Super Bowl? Or is this September, nice, fourth and three down by four? No, don't take all the chart out. Then I love, one of the networks puts up. They go farther. They go with the recommendation. Not all of them do. They just say, Recommendation. A couple of times I saw one of the playoff games. Toss up. Duh. Yeah. How's your gut feeling? Are there face cards left? I'm playing blackjack. Right. Jeez, I've seen a lot of twos and threes and fours. I'm going to double down. It came with a four. Well, okay, but your odds were a little better, but your gut told you, go for it.
We're due. We're due. We're due. Double down. It's a tough thing to say.
They're going to bust. Preaching to the choir.
Do you have a touch-down score for us in the Super Bowl?
Oh, God, we had the one. What was the one that I almost... He got one, but it wasn't the first one. Oh.
Anytime. You want to go back, Max hit a Jake bobo. I think he had two catches on the ear, and his third catch in the season was a countdown.
The kid that caught the two-point conversion that got them the home seat, Eric Saubert had four.
Yeah, crazy.
He's not going to be… Okay, so we need it off the… I'm not going to give you JSN, or I'm not going to give you Stevenson or Diggs, right? Because you could do that. Yeah.
Cap might be out of the bag on Bobo, too, because that was such a great route that he ran. That was a legit play. He broke him down. I feel like everybody's going to be betting Bobo now. But for the record, I am also going to be betting Bobo. But yeah, don't include him.
His odds are astronomical, right? I haven't seen him yet.
We might have changed the Bobo odds, honestly. We're talking about him so much.
Max, you got about 30 to 1?
35 to 1.
35 to 1. It was live. I wouldn't be shocked if he was like 4. 5 to 1.
No, he's going to be higher than that. But he's still going to be in the... You got catches, Max. Get the touch downs up.
Yeah, let's take a look here.
Touchdown scores. I'm going to think of it off the chart.
10 to 1 on the draft.
Oh, 10 to 1. Okay.
10 to 1, that's it? On Jake bobo?
Bobo.
For the first score, not any score.
He scores. Any score.
Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Because MBS didn't get the first one.
If he scores, can you call him bobo cop?
Call him whatever you want. Okay. I'm a bobo.
I'm a bobo sexual.
I'll leave that to your show. Listen, we're just cable.
Yeah, we get a little loose with it. There's some things that we say in our boomers on Monday morning.
I want to go with a couple of your nicknames this year that you might have, like the purdy one, which I give you credit every time I use it. But first score. If I'm picking the Seahawks to win, which I did, but by the way, it doesn't have to get the first score. The first score of the game that killed Denver. It was a safety. I don't forget who got credit. That was a team.
Yeah.
First countdown, you're talking. Yeah, first countdown. So I'm thinking, do I really step out and Pick a defensive player. Do I pick? They could either force a fumble and Marcus Lawrence picks it up and goes in, or does Witherspoon pick six? He doesn't have a lot of pick sixes, but he's really good. Again, I'm not eliminating the Patriots. You could do Gonzales that way. I mean, Sam has turned it. Or here's a fumbling that's picked up by... But I'm not going to do I'm not going to do Spalane. I think he's healthy enough to play. I don't know that. So do I pick a Seattle defensive player? Because those will be good numbers. Yeah.
First score, just Seattle. You get every Seattle player, you have 35 to one. Or no, sorry, 22 to one.
Meaning what?
If they just score. If the Seattle defense scores first. Seattle defense. Defense scores first. Do it. 22 to 1. Just do it.
I'll do it anytime. Because I want to give you one that's... I mean, Then the defense is why they're there. Let's go with it. Any player. All right, I'll give you a story. I may have. I keep talking Seattle, but I haven't I got a chance to do it. So on the Denver one in New York, Thursday, I'm in the lobby of whatever hotel I'm in. No, Scheister, nice guy, middle of the day, 1: 00, 2: 00. Hey, Chris, how are you doing? I saw you picked this one. You picked Seattle with the three or four, whatever it was. Yeah, I think so. He goes, Well, let me tell you two bets I made. He goes, You don't know me, and I never saw this guy again. He said, Well, the first one is, I bet, which you can, safety is the first score in the game. I went, Okay, that's possible. Figuring holding penalty at the four-yard line, more likely. Either team. Says, I got one more I went for because Denver scored 600 points that year or whatever the number was. There was odds that Denver by 24 or more, whatever that was.
That's a big number. I mean, 24 against the Legion of Boom. I bet Seattle by 24 or more. I said, Hold on a minute. Now, let me now sit and think about how that could happen. It had nothing to do with a... By the time Percy Harvin returned the kick, it was already done. I went, Okay, so you're saying, a Peyton Manning, they get 16, and Seattle's got to get 40, or 13, and they got to get 37 to 13. I never saw the guy again. I'm sure he's retired. I'm winning those two. That was a ball's event.
Yeah, that was a very good day for him.
I had one last question for you. Again, Schwam, we can't thank you enough for doing this. It's our favorite thing we do every single year. It's a rowback question, rhoback. Com, promo code take 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. You said maybe throw you a couple of boomers that maybe you could use. I just have one, and I think you could use it both ways. It's Sam Darnold's Schwarzenegger. I think you could go, If the Seahawks lose, maybe a shot of him walking off the field, and you say, I'll be back, baby. Then if they go up by two scores late, Assa La Vista.
You could use it many... See, a nickname that keeps giving like that, that's extra credit.
You could use it both ways.
That's extra credit. Baseball, I had a couple like that. Mike Felder, depends where he played in the alpha. He was either left, center, or right Felder. But Jim Gott, who was a pitcher, four. Jim got the win. Jim got the save. Jim got the loss or Jim got no decision. But that space.
The interchangeable ones.
I know I'm all over the map here, which I hope you don't mind. No, of course, we love it. And by the way, before I forget, there isn't a week that I don't get stopped in an airport by all ages. It doesn't have to be 30-year-old male. I had nothing to do with it. I love you on part of my take, by the way. Like I said, But it's October. This year, we did that. But it's October. They've had a few people on since.
It's our favorite compliment. It's our favorite. Whenever someone tells us that, we had Mark Schlerith, who's been a good friend of ours. He says he won three Super Bowl, and he says, If I get stopped 10 times, seven of them are about us and Mark. Sure, we did piss our pants with him. But that's our favorite compliment to get.
Well, I'm giving it to you. It's not about, Oh, I was a good guest. Yeah, they don't hear me all the time. I don't have a point of view every day of the week. But it's a compliment to what this show, and I'm not blowing smoke. It's a compliment to what this show has not evolved into, has been from the start. But you're humorous, you have your takes, obviously, you might annoy people with your opinions, but it's always based on we love football. It is. It just jumps through, if you're on camera, or obviously it jumps through a podcast You're driving down the interstate, and it's, These guys love football, and they're coming from a place that I don't listen. I really appreciate that. I appreciate that. People go, How do you hook up with those guys? I said, Well, we couldn't do it right away for obvious reasons, but whatever. But you guys treat me like I'm royalty, which I am not. You are.
You're doing us a favor. You're doing us a favor.
This is doing me a favor. Primetime, I can't squeeze the last hour and a half in all All these comments about, Well, the Super Bowl 11 years ago, Javan Kirst got it right, and his butt was right in front of my feet. Here's a nickname. Carolina gives you like we had the tube of missile crisis.
That was a great one.
All time. The young man that caught, I think it was nine, in the playoff loss for Carolina to the Rams, Jalen Coker. From Holy Cross, I met a guy in your hallway from Worcester. Couldn't miss him. He had Patriot's garb on left and right, which is fine. Where are you from? I'm from West. I said, Yeah, okay. I know where it is. It's an hour and a half from where I live. I got it. From Holy Cross, Jalen Coker. I thought of it, and I used it only on that primetime, so I think it's only been on once. Jalen, I'm a smoker, I'm a toker. I'm a midnight coker. I catch my passes on the run. Complete the sentence. That's perfect. It had to speak in Charlotte, and I debuted with them and they went nuts.
Oh, that's incredible.
I love that. I don't know if it's quite Jake, daylight come and you got a Deloitte.
Well, there's some. Yeah, Natron means business.
Well, we have a few.
The other one that we had, we're big fans of Tyler Shuck. We've been watching Shuck all year. Kind of fell in love with Shuck. Why not? At one point in the season, I think I did Thunder Shuck, like ACDC. Very good. It was a big time mistake on my part. Why? Because I kept doing Thunder Shuck. Then just now, before you came in the studio, I realized it should have been, You Shuck Me All Night Long. You can have that one.
Because everyone knows that song, even if they don't remember who it is. Yeah, everyone knows. Shuck me all night long. That's a good one.
Shuck Me All Night Long. If you want to get up into the Brian Johnson register and give a little breach to it, too.
That's a good one. All right. In the pocket. Shucks is too easy, although I probably said it. Then, oh, at halftime, one of the fastest three when I had three minutes, maybe a minute, I don't get to squeeze it all in, but that's promoting a Disney movie. And guess what? Those are played in fields way above me.
By the way, I love it when that happens. You sometimes do three minutes, sometimes three minutes. Usually three, but- Then there was one time where it was one minute. I love you when the camera cuts in, you're like, I guess we're going to do one minute. You can tell this, I do not like it, but I'm going to be I'm going to be a good soldier.
Well, one time I brought a shoehorn on. Yeah, that's right. I was going somewhere and I forgot. It was like your nickname. It shuck me all. Oh, Shuck. We wanted Saints, one play. We're not going to show three from the Saints, Falcons. That was probably it, right? He's not shucking oysters. He's shucking the Falcons. Why not? I I love it. That was a good one. Listen, but you guys, I know it's early in the week. You'll have your pics later in the week. You can tell me off mic, I see. I know not to blow the...
That's what we call it tease.
You just said your birthday, you're still getting gitty.
Oh, yeah. So gitty to turn 41. Getting gitty with it. Not at all. 41. What a birthday.
Honestly, I'll give you this speech because our daughter's 40 and my son's about to be 39 in a few months. 40 was one of my favorite birthday. I know you're 41 now, so it's like, eh.
Oh, Big Cat is. I'm not. You're only... Yeah, I'm going to turn 41 tomorrow.
Yeah, not quite. But by the time this runs, there's no turning back. We're both 41. There's no turning back. You're halfway through your life, and hopefully not quite. Yeah.
You're not quite into the...
You're still putting on nine, okay? You're halfway through.
About to get the hot dog.
Now, have you done... Honest, I tell this to my kids, and my daughter was very upset around 40, dad, this and that. I don't know, how are you doing? Professionally, okay, you guys are doing great. Personally, family, however you're... Are we happy with ourselves? And I was at 40. Professionally and personally, by that point, Kathy and I, both kids were born. No, I think we're- It's a good number.
We were saying there's something that happens around 40 where it might be because of my kids, but it's a lot of, listen, there's a lot going on in the world. Care about the things that you can control. Everything else, let it go. I've gotten good at that where it's like, if I can't control it, if I can't control how people think about me, if I can't control this situation, if I can't control that, no time spent on it.
I feel like I've been having a midlife crisis my entire life, so I'm well-reverse for this. I'm ready for it.
Can you give us one whip on the way out?
I mean, that's almost What do we call? Status quo, rigor, to speak French one last time on this show. I mean, you want a cosmic one? Oh, yeah. Well, listen, I've enjoyed my stay here with you guys. As always, have a great Super Bowl. And if all else fails, things aren't going great, watch your ears. You can always do, what?
The Schwam. Thank you. That was great. Thank you so much. We love having you here. Thanks for having me.
You're the best. Thanks, Schwam. I'm proud of you guys.
Yes. Appreciate it.
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Okay, let's wrap up the show. We got some story time.
Some real good story time.
You guys left on Friday. We did Chris Bermann, the Schwam, which was phenomenal. I seriously can't stress enough how much I enjoy having him come on the show once a year. He flew to us and came in our studio. It was so much fun. Then after that, you guys had a flight at 5: 00 to go to San Francisco to play Spy Glass. He left the office right after we wrapped with Chris Berman. You guys didn't leave Chicago till what? 10: 00 PM?
About, yeah, 8: 30, 9: 00, something in there.
So what happened?
Well, first of all, back to the Chris Bermen thing. Whenever Chris comes on the show, we spend about an hour having a conversation with him before he does the podcast, and then about an hour afterwards talking. We did three hours worth of podcast with Chris Bermond. Only one got recorded. Yes. But it was awesome having... You got to pitch yourself every time you're sitting in the same room as the Schwam. So then we get to the airport. There was a snowstorm in Chicago on Friday, so we got there plenty of time.
These guys are just laughing at us. I think it's the set up.
Max was just aggressively pointing in Memes' face. What's going on?
They're very distracting today.
What's going on?
Continue. You guys have to talk. Why was he pointing in your face? This ties in after-You're not allowed to gesture unless you're going to talk. When you guys laugh in there, when we're telling something and it's not funny, we have to stop and be like, What are we laughing at? Memes just laughed too much. Memes just laughed too?
Memes is just too happy of a guy.
Max just looked at me and said, I'm going on the attack. See? That should be shared. I'm going on the attack. It should be shared.
Everything that I say, I want people to know that Hank and I have had a great last two days together and we're boys thick as thives. Again, lock step. Hank week. He was being such a fucking bitch on Friday. I'm such a fucking bitch on Friday. We got to the airport. He started saying, You guys better let me nap. I need to nap on this plane. And me and Max kept being like, You can nap. You are free to nap at any time. He's like, Because we're going to get there, then we're going to have a two-hour drive, and it's not going to be safe for me to drive if I haven't taken a nap yet. Zack, swap out. Max got to be here. Hank was just absolutely becoming a terrorist, threatening us.
Okay.
How many times did you get mad at us for not allowing you to nap After we had told you we want you.
That is such a crazy way to describe what I was doing.
It is an accurate way.
I was just saying this no nap's policy might have to be revisited for the safety of all of us, which was, again, me looking out as a kind person, looking out for you guys.
And we said, We want you to nap.
They were texting saying, Please nap.
Sly little faces, like PFT. I know how he does it where he gets me on the record, be like, You're not going to nap. You're not going to nap. You shouldn't nap. Everyone wants you to nap. And I said, I gave my word. I'm a man of my word. One thing about me, I always keep my word. I said I would not nap. So I was like, Fuck. I wish I had said I couldn't nap because we got a five-hour flight and then a two-hour drive and we're delayed six hours. A nap would be nice.
But you ended up napping.
I never napped.
You charged up?
I charged up for a little bit.
But, Hank, you were the one that said you would stop napping. You can't put that on me.
We were walking, talking. Max was giving us a tour of the airport.
We got new Max lore. New Max lore for the files. Max is an excellent traveler. Yeah, excellent traveler. We got to the airport, and we're in Terminal One. We got ours to kill now. And Max gives the lay of the land for the entire airport. He's like, There aren't that many good restaurants in Terminal One, so we got to go to Terminal Two for those. And then he knows where every Delta United club is. He'll be like, Yeah, there's another club that's on this side of the terminal.
What restaurant did you hit?
Well, we went to Chili's. Chili's was over-crowded.
Both of them were.
It's packed because it's Chili's.
So In between terminals-Do you know where Summer House is? Yeah, Summer House was full. Wicker Park Sushi and Seafood was also full.
Yeah, I know all these places. It's great.
Then we were going to go. I was like, We can go to this Chili's. It's smaller. I don't think we're going to be able to get in. There's also the Black Hawk's bar if you go right in the fork. I was like, Or we can go to the other Chilli's. I think it's a little bit bigger. There's more of a chance that we can get a four top.
He was a tour guide. If we go to Terminal 3 for that Chilli's.
This is good. But then on the way to Terminal 3 Chilli's, there was prime real estate at the Cubs bar, so we just-Is that the one next...
Is there ice cream? In between Terminal 2 and 3. There's ice cream right there? They do have ice cream. There's ice cream right there, T-C-B-Y? We didn't have any ice cream. I know exactly what you're talking about.
Yeah, Max knows every restaurant at Chicago O'Hare. It's good. Every single one. You need to. I travel a lot.
Yeah, good traveling pleasure. But you also need to know the Summerhouse one is people don't know that, especially if you're traveling early, they have great breakfast sandwiches.
Summerhouse is great. Yeah. So then Hank was just complaining-If he was bitching about not being...
He was asking people for a wheelchair because of his calf.
That's not true at all. We're just inventing facts.
I want to hear it all.
We're just inventing facts. I want to hear it all.
What was the lie world, buddy? Hank was literally being a bitch for five and a half hours nonstop. Max, you can back me up on this. Bad night, bad time to be with Hank on Friday.
Cap.
I thought we had a good time. Yeah, me too.
Because we're making fun of him. Me too.
Okay. And then you guys all got on the plane, right?
Then we got on the plane. Me and Hank did. And then Shane got on the plane. So we settled in.
All right, so I'll take over here. Okay. So this is what happened. Everyone ready for what happened?
Yeah, I would love to hear what happened.
We're on our way to the airport. We find out. We're all checked in. Everyone's checked in. We're in separate Ubers. We're in separate Ubers. We're chatting.
Oh, shit. Is this like the Yankees, the 25 cabs?
We had a lot of shit.
Hank had a lot of Patriots gear.
A lot of golf clubs. So we find out our flight gets delayed. So then we're talking like, Oh, should we move our flight? There's another one at this time, that isn't delayed. Let's try and get on that. Then immediately, once that was even brought up, it was not even confirmed, I panicked, switched my flight to that.
Max brought it up and then switched his flight. Before any answer.
I panicked. Then we were like, Actually, no, we should go back to our original flight. So then I checked in for that flight, then went back to my original flight, and I thought that the original check-in would stay as my check-in for going back to the last flight. There was a lot of flight cancelations from what I have done research on this. Okay, you've done research. And I have talked to people that are in the know. When there are a lot of flight cancelations, they...
I got no more of that to talk about that.
The airlines make way more money by shipping heavy cargo rather than packing the plane with people. So there was a lot of heavy cargo that was stowed underneath the plane. So they kicked off every person who wasn't checked in at boarding because of a wait capacity. There were three people who I was waiting with. It was myself, a skinny Asian man, and an older small woman that they told the three of us that we were not going to be able to get on the plane because of a wait capacity. I told that to the people. That is the story of what happened. Obviously, they liked to...
Let's just do a live reading of the text. Yeah, I'm going to do it right now. I'm fine.
Let's just do a live reading of the text, right? Okay. That's That is what happened.
That was you. That is what happened.
You have spent four days coming up with that story.
That is a fact. Here we go. Here we go. Hank said, Flight boarded, Max not boarded. Pft said, Where are you at, Max? Hank said, For those keeping track at home, and it's just a picture of Max's ass crack outside of the terminal.
I don't know that's Shane.
Shane took that picture, yeah. Hank said, There's someone in F5, Max. Max said, Holy shit, they booted me off this flight. Dude, Dude, what? That's PFT and Hank. I said, Shut up. He said, I swear to God. Pft asked, Why? Hank said, Is it full? He said, Max said, Completely full when I switched my seat. Maybe someone won't show up. Pft said, Max said, This is insane.
There's two seats. I said it was completely full because I just assumed it was completely full that they gave my seat away.
But then when I checked, that's when I checked in. Also, Max was like, I'm going to get F5 so I can monitor you napping. So don't say that you were asking me to nap. That's why you wanted to be in F5. Fact or fiction.
There's two seats open in first class. Max said, They said there's a weight limit. He said, When they switched my seat, they unchecked me in, which is absolutely insane.
That's what I just said.
She also told the small woman next to me there was a weight limit. That's what I just said. That probably made you feel a little bit better.
Sure did.
Hank said, I just watched a 600-pound man walk past me. Then Max said, There's now four people this has happened to. He went on, They just keep saying they can't add anyone because of a weight restriction. So you got weight limited?
Yeah, me, this skinny Asian guy and the older small woman. We all got weight limited.
Why did you keep bringing up race?
I was just painting a picture for the viewer of what the scene was.
So they kicked you off the plane and said there's a weight limit. Are those two facts correct?
No, they didn't allow me onto the plane.
No, you said there's a weight limit. No, I'm asking. I'm just asking.
Let's just keep doing this thing of creating a narrativea narrative that doesn't exist.
No, I'm not creating a narrative. You texted this.
No, let's just bully the guy who struggles with his weight. It's really funny for all the listeners. Let's just keep doing it.
I did tell Max, I was like, you probably shouldn't have put that in the text thread. But he's right. But everything Max says is right. I'm true.
Oh, I'm now getting to me. I said, let's agree to not bring up the weight thing, and then I pledge to not bring it up on the show. Liar. Well, no, I just got to that part. Now, I won't bring it up.
All right, yeah, good. Done. Great show. Numbers? Oh, we never did Numbers.
No, we didn't. No. Yeah, the lottery ball is done. Who cares? So how was Spy Glass?
Spy Glass was wonderful. Thank you. Credit to Hank. Again, after we landed, then Hank and I became great friends again, and we've had a great time ever since then. Did a great job staying awake the entire time he was driving down to Spy Glass. Nice. We got about two hours of sleep, woke up the next day. Hank demanded that he get the bed closest to the window so the sunlight could wake him up, but there's no sunrise until 8: 00 AM here, so there's no sunlight. But we're moving past that. We got to the course. Had a great day. Bft. Bft.
Kicked me out of my bed. I woke up. I kicked you out of your bed. Sorry, it wasn't your birthday yet.
We shared a hotel room, which was wonderful.
It was wonderful. Pft, I was up, I was making coffee. I might have spilled some water on PFT's clothes. That was an accent. Did not. But PFT, I'm waiting for him. It's getting to the point where I'm like, We got to start moving. I'm all about sleep, and we had none.
Well, you're all about golf over sleep.
But I was like, All right, let's see.
You should have seen how Gitty Hank was off of zero sleep. I've never seen anything like it. Shocking. He was so happy.
I mean, it was fine. That's one of the greatest courses of all time. Shout out to Pebble Beach for having us. It was incredible day golf. But PFT, I'm waiting. It's getting close to the point where I have to start shaking him. We got to go. I'm making noise and just hoping he just gets up. I just hear him go, Mincey hasn't posted his concert review yet.
I fell asleep thinking about this. That was the first thing he said. Because Mincey was having a great time at a concert, and he said, Interview with these guys coming later.
You fell asleep waiting for the interview?
We spent the entire car ride to Spy Glass. I'm refreshing Mincey's Twitter being like, This interview has to be coming soon. Oh, man. And then I woke up in the morning and still wasn't up.
It was 3: 00 AM Pacific Time when we went to sleep. So he was looking at that from 4: 00 PM central to 3: 00 AM Pacific Time, continuously asking, When are we getting the Mincey interview?
I wanted the interview. I was looking forward to the interview, and I didn't see when I woke up. So yeah, I'm sorry, Hank, that I was trying to support a cohort.
It was like, I wonder if he's awake, and all I said, and I just hear a sign of life. And then she hasn't posted this concert review yet.
But it was a great day. I appreciate Hank setting that up. A great way to spend the birthday. It would have been the best birthday of my entire life. It It was almost the best birthday, hands down, of my entire life. It was so close to being the best birthday of my entire life.
15 inches.
I missed a hole in one by a foot.
Oh, that would have been incredible.
By a foot. And then, yeah, It was still cool. It was a great course. Yeah, but that would have been insane. But getting a hole in one on spy glass. On your birthday. Never tell me anything. On your birthday with a plaque. It would have been great. I would have done a lot of stuff. That would have been so sick. Yeah, it's been awesome hanging out with Hank. He's in a great mood. If it's golf, it's just getting ready for another Super Bowl, hopefully win. It's about 50/50 with the Patriots, historically, but he feels like this is his season.
I mean, we had fun. It's fun road trip with the boys. We had some time today. We did some sightseeing, tourism stuff. It was been a fun couple of days.
There you go. Are you mad at me?
No, I'm good. Happy.
I want to say for the record, everything that Max said is 100% true.
Yeah.
But you also shouldn't have texted to the group. Wait a minute. You're not letting me on because of wait a minute.
Your ass crack was also out when Shane was passing you to board the flight to out. My ass crack is always out.
It's always out. He's got a high ass crack. It's not his fault.
There is no If you're taking a picture of me from behind, my ass crack is out. It's facts.
His eyes are up here. How can we celebrate Sydney Sweeney for her cleavage? And we make fun of Max for his.
Great point. Thank you, Mr. Comment. Thank you, Max.
Thank you, Max. Great point.
Mr..
Max.
We had a fun day. And yes, Naps.
Yes, now. Max is napping.
I've been napping so much.
He's napping for two. He was sleep-talking yesterday, snoring.
Was he sleep-talking? Oh, yeah. Max sleep-talked a little bit in the car.
You sleep-talked, too, sometimes.
Oh, yeah, all the time.
I don't know what time he got mad at us.
I'm over-pointing right now. No, that's old me. That was when I napped. Yeah, nice. I've come around. Watching you nap, like I said earlier, has made me never want to nap.
It's so disgusting watching him nap.
You normally are first-team all napper.
But then, yeah, Coach Rable is talking me the way.
So even after the Super Bowl, you're-We'll revisit it after Super Bowl.
Yeah, come on.
This week's no naps.
All right, we'll do random number generator to finish the show. What do you guys got?
100. 7.
0 to 100? Zero to 100. 7. 0 to 100? 0 to 100. 1 to 100. 50. What are you going to take? Jona's got 23. Dump. 98. I was going to take 14. I'll go 23. Ready? Zack, did you guess? What did you guess? 14. I'll go 97. Colden, what did you guess? 30. 30. 97. 96. Oh.
Damn.
You wouldn't want it.
Damn. Yeah, that would be tough. It'd be tough to win this one.
Why?
Why?
Because-you don't want to waste wins.
Yeah, you try to claim it as a natural victory.
You can't burn wins right now. You can't burn wins right now.
Only guy with a win this year. And Jack.
And Jack. All right, Super Bowl week. It's going to be a fun week. Go Pats. Go Pats, baby. Love you guys. Happy birthday to Stephen, Shay, and Shaquira.
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We’re live from San Francisco for Super Bowl Week aka Hank Week. We talk the remaining 2 coaching vacancies filled, Vikings firings, national sports podcast news including Paul George and more. Also our book is now available on Amazon for Pre-Order (00:00:00-00:38:42). Hot Seat/Cool Throne including Australian Open and possibly Giannis being traded week (00:38:42-01:06:05). Chris Berman joins us in studio to talk Super Bowl 60, football memories, ESPN and tons more (01:06:05-02:19:38). We finish the show with some travel stories and the boys playing Spyglass (02:19:38-02:35:12).You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Netflix. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/pardon-my-take