Transcript of Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald, Mt Rushmore Of Food Duos, LeBron Is Definitely A Cav Again, World Cup + Fyre Fest

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Stella Blue Coffee is more than just great coffee, it's coffee with a purpose. Introducing We Brew to Rescue, a nationwide campaign using proceeds from our new ready-to-drink cans to help fund 1,000 pet adoptions this year. Every can you crack open helps a real pet find a real home. Simple as that. Made with 100% Colombian coffee, each 11-ounce can delivers smooth, drinkable energy with a boost of protein. Available in Espresso Cafe Mocha and Espresso Sweet Cream. Built for mornings, long days, and everything in between. Drink Stella Blue, fuel your day, and help save a pet's life. You can follow our progress in real time throughout the campaign by watching the adoption tracker on our site. Grab yours now at stellabluecoffee.com, Amazon, and select retailers nationwide. On today's part of my take presented by DraftKings, we've got Tahoe Week, Chill Week still going on. Larry Fitzgerald on the show, great time with him, uh, got a bet with him, we got a bet going forward with him, but he's, uh, Hall of Famer, going in the Hall of Fame this year.

And, uh, fun time with him. We're gonna do the Mount Rushmore of food duos or combinations.

Combination.

And, uh, we also have Fire Fest of the week, and we're gonna talk a little sports. Great show. We got some great interviews this week that are gonna come out in the next week and a half, and it's all brought to you by our friends at Twisted Tea. Summer's here, and so is the Twisted Summer Party Pack. Twisted Tea is a refreshing hard iced tea made with real brewed tea and 5% alcohol. They also have a new summer party pack. It has a brand new Twisted Lemonade. It's a refreshing hard lemonade made with real lemons. It's only available in their new party pack, so grab it while you can. Whether you're hanging out at a bar, hitting the lake or beach for a weekend, or day drinking with friends, Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time. Keep the good times going all day and all summer long. Keep it twisted. Grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today. We were drinking some of the Twisted Lemonades. Uh, I had a party pack. I actually had a half and half out by the lake last night.

It was awesome watching the sun go down. Great scenes. Twisted Tea, great sponsor for Tahoe Week. So go get a Twisted Tea Summer Party Pack. Get that Twisted Lemonade. Get the half and half and original as well while you're there. Get a refreshing Twisted Tea today. Let's get Twisted all summer long. Okay, let's go. Hey, football guy, Latino, AWM. Pardon my take.

Yeah, pardon my take.

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The crown is yours.

Today is Friday, July 10th, and PFT Mbappé and France are moving on.

Mbappé, best player in the world. France again, they just seem to be unstoppable. When we first got the bracket, I said I was going to go chalk and just bet on France. They just seem like there's nothing that you can do to stop them. Yeah, it's between him and Max. Just, he just did the Fat Bastard impression and I think his nickname should be Get in My Dembélé.

Dembélé.

But Dembélé is, is fucking incredible too.

What are you guys looking at over there?

It's the France game that just ended.

Oh, you have a TV, right?

Yeah, I got a TV.

Got it.

Got it. But yeah, France looks unstoppable. I know that we talked about when the heartbreak is going to come for England and how it might be from the Norse god this weekend. Holland. Yeah, I would like to— I think I'm going to push it back a little bit. I think England's going to win this weekend and it feels like it's Argentina, England, Falkland War. They hate each other. The Hand of God, Maradona. Losing to Argentina at that stage, that would be the most heartbreaking loss they could possibly have. So I'm going to give England— you get one more round of, of hope and, and saying that it's coming home, and then you'll have the realization that it might not actually be coming home after all.

Yeah.

And, uh, Wednesday was the first day that we didn't have a World Cup game in like 3 weeks. It was very odd, very, you know, I was just like, where's my soccer game in the middle of the day? So this weekend should be great. The other story, and we're not going to talk only soccer, but the other story is, oh my God, it is open season on Christian Pulisic. People really don't like him. I actually think here to PFT, I'm going to walk back slightly like a baby step, a waggle when you're in the tee box of my take about it's okay, we just suck at soccer. I think with the amount of vitriol that has gone towards Christian Pulisic, we have shown for the first time we might be a real soccer country. Because that actually— it's nuts how he's gotten bashed by everyone and Christian Jelic skates by. It's great. No one says anything about Christian Jelic. Pulisic, he does have a— he does have a broken, uh, he, he had a, uh—

Hank doesn't get it because Hank doesn't listen to the show.

That's unfortunate.

That's okay.

Yeah, um, he has a—

what? He just looked around like, huh?

What's wrong, Hank? The vibes are bad.

Vibes are high as hell.

Okay, all right, all right.

But yeah, you're right, the knives were out for Pulisic.

Like, to a— I mean, he did end up having a real injury, but it was pretty much anyone who's been part of any portion of U.S. soccer at any point, men or female, were like, hey, we all hate that guy.

Yeah, yeah, it did seem— it did seem weirdly personal. I, I'm just sick of relying on him to be the face of U.S. soccer because it's so clear that he's not.

No.

The injury, the tibia fibula microfracture that he had, I've seen some doctors online point out that it's a bone bruise, but it's the type of language where you say like, oh, if you— if you can't say bone bruise, if you dig down and describe exactly what's going on, technically it's like microfractures, a sprained ankle. It's a bone. It's like, yeah, like a sprained ankle. You're like, oh, he's, he's got ligament damage.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's like, uh, yeah, he's got a deep contusion for a bruise. But yeah, listen, I'm, I'm as upset or disappointed as anybody with Pulisic, but there have been a lot of people that have made it weirdly personal, right?

That's what I'm saying. And I actually think that's a positive for U.S. soccer.

The more we lose our minds about something—

yeah, the fact that it's gotten so toxic towards this one guy, it's like, oh shit, maybe, maybe we could become, become a country that people care that much about it.

Uh, shout out Carly Lloyd, because it feels like every 4 years when she talks about soccer, she says something that people like say, whoa, whoa, back it off, Carly, please apologize, that was weird, that seemed personal. And then she has to be like, fuck you, I'm not gonna apologize for jack shit. Uh, she said, I don't owe anyone an apology. This is— she was talking about Pulisic. I don't know anyone an apology. My comment wasn't about his post-game interview. He skipped the Gold Cup because he wanted to rest and be ready for the World Cup. He ended up resting the whole year. That's the facts. Nothing personal against him. Uh, she's way better than Alexi Lalas. Carly Lloyd knows what she's also That's a lie.

Nothing personal. There's some personal.

It might be some person. There's some personal. Um, but yeah, it's actually—

would be—

I'd be— it'd be better if she was like, yeah, there's some, there's some personal in here. I don't fucking like him.

Yeah, I don't fuck with that.

Yeah, yeah, you guys all said he was awesome and he isn't. He's not personal.

Very disappointed.

Yeah, he swerved me for a, for a photo like 6 years ago.

But did they hate him? The other knives are out towards, uh, our coach Pochettino. Pochettino. I never actually— I heard so many people pronounce it different ways. Yeah, I opted out of learning how to pronounce it the way he wanted. Um, but one guy who is in on him remaining ran into Frank the Tank yesterday here in town.

Oh.

And so I just— we walked up, said what's up to him, and, uh, just mentioned bummer about the World Cup. And then he goes, we should keep our coach, out of nowhere. And I was like, Frank, that seems— for free, people to say we should keep coach. And he goes, it's not his fault. It's all these Harvard guys that are telling you how to do the analytics. And he just started ranting about Harvard all of a sudden. And I was like, he's got to be mad about some Harvard guy for the Mets. He—

no, Fries.

Oh, Fries.

Yeah, Fries, the goalie who went to Harvard. That's— he got it in his head.

And so Fries reminded him of the baseball Harvard guy.

Yes.

So it's Harvard's fault.

It's Harvard's fault. Yeah, I'm with Frank on that.

What about Alexi Lawless?

What'd he say?

He, everyone was talking about how, you know, soccer's too expensive, this, that, third. He went the other way and said, you want to tell men and women in America who make their living in youth soccer that they need to make less? It's a business. I want them to make as much money for their service as the market will pay them. If they can make a ton of money, then they should, and I'll celebrate it.

He'll celebrate capitalism. Listen, we're the only country in the world that, that does youth soccer that way. And if we just do it harder, yeah, then we'll be as good as the rest of the world.

Yeah.

It seems like Alexi Lalas might— that might be personal. Or he might have some personal ties to people who are making money off of soccer, off of youth soccer.

I also think that Lalas, I mean, he is actually good for TV. I have my own personal beefs with Alexi Lalas going back to when he told me to buy a really shitty amp when I was 12 years old. But where he was, I was a ball boy for a brief period of time for the U.S. men's national team when they practiced at George Mason University in Fairfax County. And I was picking up a guitar and learning how to play it. I was like, what kind of amp should I get? And he told me, get a Crate, they're really good amps. They are the fucking worst amps in the world. They suck ass. Crate amplifiers up your asshole, buddy. And then I found out later that he was endorsed by Crate.

Kind of sounds like something that's happening right now.

And he didn't disclose that.

Yeah. So what does he— Exactly.

I don't trust the guy.

Yeah.

Who—

who— who— how is he gaining money from youth soccer? I'm sure there's a lot of ways.

I'm sure he is. He's involved somehow in some sort of coaching thing.

Yeah.

But I also think with him, and this is why he's actually good on TV, is because he will just take that contrarian take and he'll just own it.

He needs someone like that and he's actually really good at that.

And so as much as people are getting uncomfortable watching like Henry and Zlatan and him go back and forth, I think it makes really good TV.

Yeah, I love it. I agree. Do you guys want to do something on this show? Do you want to put the show's reputation on the line?

Sure.

You guys ready?

Yeah. All right.

Pardon my take. What's, what's today's date? July 10th. We are the first to report that LeBron James is going back to Cleveland. So please credit us when Shams or Shafter or someone else tries to say that they had it first. We had it first. LeBron James is a Cleveland Cavalier yet again for the third time in his career.

Congrats to the Cavs.

Do you guys all agree?

I 100% agree. We were talking about—

No, Max, you don't agree. Get him on. Get on the mic, Max.

76er Max.

I mean, Steph's been here all week and I've heard people, you know, yelling LeBron's name at him and he kind of like gives him a little wink.

Draymond.

Draymond and LeBron are going on a date. I don't know if you saw that report. Yeah, yeah, they're going on a date.

So I saw Steph Curry give someone a wink when he said LeBron.

So you want to say Warriors and Cavs?

I'm fine with Cavs. It's the podcast reputation. I, for my selfish reasons, hope he's not in the East.

Do we want to split it? Do we want to do 2 and 2 so that way we can be right?

No, I'm reporting the Cavs.

Okay.

I think it's the Cavs, but I'm reading every report in hopes that it's a Sixers. I just, in my heart of hearts, I can't support Cavs when I want it to be Sixers.

I know, but the—

it's going to be Cavs.

It's going to be the Cavs. What he's doing right now. And I guess the Warriors, like the Steph factor, would be the only thing that would— I don't— Miami doesn't really make sense and the Sixers don't really make sense.

He—

what? I don't— I don't think he's going to finish his career in Philadelphia.

I also—

basketball-wise, it makes the most sense for sure.

Oh, we're doing basketball-wise.

Okay.

Basketball-wise.

But we talked to Windhorst. What did Windhorst say?

I wasn't there for that interview.

Oh, you don't listen to the show?

Yeah.

Get his ass, Hank.

He said the happiness is his most important thing that the Sixers are missing.

They need, like, they don't have it. LeBron could be like a true point guard and be a facilitator for the good players on the, for the stars on the team.

And he's a 4 that could defend multiple positions, which we do have space for.

Bronny.

Yeah, sure. You can make space for Bronny.

I don't know. I'd be happy.

Sounds like you don't really want Bronny.

Either way, I think all this is like the Sixers talk, the Warriors talk, Miami talk. He's just making it seem like he has all these options so then he can be the hero to go back to Cleveland.

That's— yeah, me and BK were talking about this a little bit yesterday, and it does make sense. Like when LeBron has done his free agency stuff in the past, there's been no need to have his agent go on podcasts, right, to talk about all the different options that he has. It's like that's something that you do when you're not necessarily operating from that same position of strength that maybe you once had. I'm not saying that there's not multiple teams that want LeBron, but you don't go out and try to like drum up enthusiasm about LeBron and say, we're open for business, send us your offers. If you really are going to have that many offers, you don't say shit and you get a lot of offers, but you don't have to like say, hey, we're open for applications for LeBron's services.

Right.

I think that he's probably there's probably been some overtures made, maybe from Philly. Well, maybe from Miami.

Yeah, I'm not— I'm not saying that those teams don't want LeBron or wouldn't like have the conversations. I just think he's going to finish in Cleveland and this is going to be like drawn out for a couple more days, maybe weeks where it's like, oh, he could go here, he could go there. And then he's like, hey, I had to go home. And I'm like, oh man, what a hero.

Maybe he wants to go to the Blazers because he's like, that's an owner and a family of owners that really know how to win championships.

True.

Maybe he saw the Stanley Cup and he was like, I like the way that guy operates.

So what PFT is alluding to is Tom Dundon, the owner of the Hurricanes. Uh, they got the team's names and team's players' names engraved on the Stanley Cup, and he included 5 of his family— 6, I think, of his family members, including a kindergartner. Yeah, there's a 5-year-old on the Stanley Cup. People are pissed.

I'm rightfully so. The first names, the first names that are engraved are Tom Dundon. He's number 1. Uh, Viroshka Dundon.

Okay.

Caden Dundon. Dax Dundon. Drew Dundon.

Double D's.

Blake Dundon. Blake of the Year. And Tayson Dundon. So they are the first members of the Hurricanes to be recognized for winning a Stanley Cup.

This is crazy. I was trying to wrap my head around it where it's like, hey, if I owned a team, would I put my kid's name on? No, I don't think I would, because it's like These guys work their ass off. Also, you're just putting rich kids' name— those kids are gonna be fine no matter what. Yeah, like, what are we doing?

I would, I would probably put my name.

No, no, your name's fine.

Maybe towards the end.

Oh no, no, the owner I think should be on there. The owner owns the team. The owner is paying— like, the owner makes perfect sense. Anything else, if you don't work for the team, yeah, and you're just a 5-year-old who's, you know, sitting at home probably doesn't— probably even watch all the games, probably had to go to bed, right?

Because some of the games, like, Jason was staying up.

No way. No way. So yeah, that's crazy.

It is crazy that they all went first too.

I know.

That's—

I'd be pissed if I were his player.

Yeah.

Um, or like someone that works on the team. Like, there's a lot of— yeah, training staff actually played a role in them winning.

They said that also, like, this is— this has happened before. I think it was the '83 Oilers maybe, and they, they went back and crossed out the owner's dad, who put his dad on there, so he crossed it out.

The owner was Peter Pocklington, and his dad was—

that name actually should stay.

Yeah, well, though he did— no, I'm saying his dad's name, Basil Pocklington.

Yeah, that should say—

was the father.

That should say—

and they— that should stay.

That should be a name. But Basil Pocklington, yeah, I mean, should stay. Taysom and Drew, get the fuck out of here.

Basil getting crossed out of something that Shane would do, probably. Probably hates that stuff.

Does, does he hate basil?

Probably. There was one other just brief item that I wanted to address today, if that's okay.

Okay, I had a couple more, but yeah, go.

Okay, uh, so National Sports Podcast, Dan Patrick, we ran into him out here. Great to see Mr. Patrick as always, uh, out on the links here. And he had an interview with Mike McDonald. Did you see this?

No.

So they asked the Super Bowl-winning head coach of the Seahawks, Mike McDonald, Who did you talk to to get prepared for the New England Patriots?

And Hank's rolling his eyes.

Mike McDonald said there's one person he reached out to for advice who helped a lot, but he can't say who it is because it might be a conflict of interest. And it's not Bill Belichick.

Who do you think it was?

Well, I mean, if you want to connect some dots, the the coordinator of the Seahawks would leave and then go to work for the Raiders. Oh, after the Super Bowl. Oh, and so there's a lot of speculation given all the weird stuff that—

and Tom Brady did work with Josh McDaniels for many years. Yeah, and the Patriots offense looked very bad.

Hmm. So a lot of people, not me, But a lot of people are speculating that that individual, given the stuff that he said around the Super Bowl about how he doesn't have a dog in the fight, etc., might be Thomas Brady. Henry, discuss.

That would be egregious if that was true. I don't believe it is true, but if it were, that would be unforgivable. Not unforgivable. That would be a blemish. A big blemish.

Would it be a slap in the face?

Big time.

Hmm. Be a slap in the face of the whole, the whole region. Hmm.

So do you think there's any truth to it percentage-wise? Uh, could you see a world?

No.

Is that because you don't want to see the world?

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay, that's understandable. Yeah, that's—

I get it.

You're gonna hit your hand.

I don't want to live in that world.

You got your head in the sand.

Yep.

It's fine.

Well, yeah, PFT's got his head in, in space trying to, you know come up with these conspiracies. So it's like, I mean, I didn't come up with both in two different spots. You did. You named the player that would be the most salacious.

I said that a lot of people are speculating that that's who it was.

He connected some dots.

A lot of people are speculating, not me. I'm actually with Hank. I don't want to live in that world either.

That's a huge review.

As a football fan and as a guy that bet on the Patriots thinking that there's no chance in hell that Tom Brady of all people would turn his back on.

That's very nice of you. And a friend of Hank.

And a friend of Hank's.

Yeah.

Don't want it. He also said that the Argentina comeback the other day topped 28-3.

What did he say that again?

He said when Argentina had that comeback.

Yeah, yeah.

He said that tops 28-3. Wow. Which I disagree with.

Hank said that or Brady?

No, Brady.

Brady said that.

Yeah.

Hank.

I don't know soccer, so I don't know.

Okay.

I don't think— I don't think it did.

What about— I got a question for you.

That game was rigged.

Yeah, it might have been. I have a question for you, Hank.

The—

there was a report. Oh, they asked Jayson Tatum about the Jaylen Brown trade, and he said he was unaware until it was reported. He found out just like everyone else. Do we believe that for a second?

Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure he knew that he was on the trading block and he didn't know specifically when he got traded and he found out just like everyone else.

You don't think he was told before?

No, I'm— but I'm sure everyone, although all Brad Stevens, Jaylen Brown, they talked about how, you know, he was going to be on the trading block and they were going to try and move him. So I'm sure Jason Tatum was also aware of that. But in terms of he's probably playing a little, little cutesy there where like no one specifically told him, hey, this is the trade. He found out like everyone else, but I'm sure he was not surprised and fully aware what the plan was.

Okay. Yeah, probably right. He probably was. He's probably clued into some stuff. Not every single second that like shit's going down.

Yeah.

He doesn't know the, the, you know, he's like, we're probably going to trade Jalen, right?

Okay.

All right.

Any other things, Zach? Did you have anything?

Uh, no, I'm just looking forward to this, uh, this next round of the World Cup. Yeah, where my full brain, uh, attention is right now currently.

Yeah, I'm excited.

Can't wait.

The Kawhi trade is on hold right now because they have to finish their investigation.

Yep.

And it broke during an interview with an NBA guy, so I guess that'll be a tease. You'll have to wait to hear what random NBA personality has to say in response to the Kawhi trade.

Yeah. Also, Spurs play-by-play announcer all-time fumble. Holy shit. Did you guys see that story? Yeah, that's a— the Spurs are going to be good for a really long time. So story, he's the Spurs play-by-play announcer. His girlfriend accused him of cheating on the sister of a player on the team, posted like all this stuff on social media, and then the Spurs fired him. So that's what—

so he had a girlfriend and then his girlfriend took over his Instagram account while he was away from his phone and posted a picture being like, hey, this is me and my girlfriend. But then I screwed up and I cheated on her with this person who's the sister of a Spurs player.

Mm-hmm. There's probably rules about employees of the Spurs dating family members of the Spurs. I would imagine that's why he got fired. I don't know. I actually don't know how, how that would work.

I feel like it's a, it's a little, the water's a little muddy.

Yeah.

Area.

Yeah. No, that now that I'm saying, yeah, I mean, that doesn't, he wasn't married.

Right.

And also, and it's also not a Spurs. I don't know. Spurs players, they don't know the announce. Find out, do some— give us a 3-minute Zach researches while we finish the other topics and give us all the details of how the Spurs— why the Spurs— I guess they could just fire him being like he's a distraction.

I guess it could be. Yeah, if a player— if the player wasn't cool with it, it's like, hey, don't date my sister. But again, like, that's kind of her decision, right?

She's an adult. Well, I think—

yeah, yeah, as far as we know.

Okay, well, Zach's gonna find out.

Yeah, I got no service, but we can, we can pass. We gotta get this. We got no service.

What do you mean you got no service?

I got the—

it wasn't working.

Come on, Zach, you're under the gun.

You think you get fired for just being a bad boyfriend though?

Yeah, that's the part I don't understand.

Is that against it, against the law?

It's a shitty move if he cheated on his girlfriend, right? That makes him a shitty guy, but You also— all right, he's getting it. Zach's getting it. Uh, did you guys see the guy who cut off his own penis and then lit his mom's garage on fire with it?

I did, yeah. I did not know that.

I don't understand, like, he uses like kindling?

Yeah, penises. Yeah, the fire starter.

I'm your fire starter, you twisted fire starter.

Maybe if you have like chlamydia, it catches on. Maybe that's a burning sensation.

I don't know, but I just saw the headline.

I got a question.

Guy also didn't look like— I, I would— I'd be in tears if I was that mug shot. You got no penis.

Yeah, yeah. Spain and Belgium, they got a preview for that game on tomorrow. PFT, are we rooting for Belgium at this point to further our claim as a good team?

My thoughts, my honest thoughts, or my Belgium cope thoughts?

Belgium winning is good for us, right?

Yeah.

No, I don't know. As a diehard, I'm not familiar. Like, you have to tell me how I should be rooting.

Are you an ultra?

No.

Okay. As an ultra, I think, I think, yeah, I— if Belgium wins and they beat Spain, then I will def— there'll be a big part of me that says to myself, Belgium's just a fucking wagon, and so there's no shame in getting your ass kicked by a wagon like that.

That's kind of how I—

yeah.

Um, also Conor McGregor's fighting on Saturday, just a reminder to people. And change your clocks. Uh, Zach, you got it?

Oh, also It's free Slurpee day.

Yeah.

So Saturday, your birthday. Yeah.

Happy birthday, Slurpees.

That's one of the best days of the entire year. Oh, we have— from what I can see, it's just this guy, bad boyfriend, had sex, player's relative.

But how did the Spurs— the Spurs fired him? Do they say why?

He says canned for an affair.

That's crazy.

Is that an affair, though, if you're not married?

Right. That's just cheating on your girlfriend. It's just being a scumbag.

Right.

Affair was like you're like like, like, weddinged all the way up.

Was she married?

In her law.

But also, I don't understand how they can fire— I, I'm not saying—

Zach, my bad, I had something in my throat.

Uh, I don't— I'm not saying that, like, the Spurs, like, you could fire anyone, and— but, like, to be like, hey, it's because of this, that's weird, right?

Maybe if the play-by-play announcer was, like, really gassing up the player on the Spurs whose sister it was.

Yeah, like, I don't know why this guy's not in the game.

I just know that I read the story and I immediately was like, uh, oh man, like if you, if you got fired as a play-by-play announcer of like the Pelicans, you're like, all right, I'll hopefully find another job. Spurs are going to like— you could have been part of like— they could go on to win multiple titles. You could have been part of like iconic calls and be like, hey, remember this guy? He's been—

yeah.

What if he's just bad at his job and they were like, all right, that's true, could be, could be.

We got a new guy, he's really nice at this, great voice, really talented, deep vocab bag.

Yeah, no sex drive.

Doesn't even think about women.

Yeah, there's a word for that.

Not thinking about women. Yeah, that's true.

Yeah.

What's that word?

Would that be— would that be asexual if you're not into anybody?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think that's like the clinical definition.

You're not an intercourse guy.

Yeah, you're not.

Those guys just— they, they might still— if you're not an intercourse guy, you might still think about women. You're not really into the whole—

yeah, the whole act and dance, like, uh, the whole song and dance. You never said you never— well, he never came out and said that he wasn't a, like, right, a blowjob guy.

Sometimes, like, sometimes it sounds better than it is. You ever, like, uh, you ever have, like, a great date and then you're like, I'm so excited for this, and it's just kind of like, oh man, all right, this is my bad.

Did you come respectfully?

Yeah, I'm actually gonna say no, no, Zach, I always come.

Yeah, that's awesome, that's sick, that's good.

It's the best part about being a mark of healthy body.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, man. Announcers these days, they're just getting canned left and right.

It's kind of a mess.

You hear about that guy who cut off his dick?

Usually.

Crazy, crazy.

Eye-breaking news.

Yeah.

Have you guys seen this Nell:1 stream?

Uh, yeah.

Guess who just appeared?

Who? Oldie.

Oh my God. Well, I guess— are they in Canada?

Yeah.

Oh, they are.

Okay, well, that makes sense.

That makes sense.

Listen, if something's going on in Canada He had a, he had a picture with John Summit and like, he's everywhere. He is everywhere. He owns that. He's— Oldie is essentially like Braveheart, the Irish guy. He's like, it's my island. That's Oldie. Like, if you cross the border, you're just going to have to deal with Oldie.

Canada is a big-ass country and it's like 70% covered by ice and the rest is covered by Oldie.

Yeah, he's actually a great person to have on that because they're— I think they're an hour, like 95 or something.

Like, you finish.

Yeah.

Oh, they finished.

Yeah.

Oh, they got it.

Probably because Oldie showed up.

But that's what I'm saying, like, you need a guy like Oldie to lift the spirits of the squad. Yes, because they got to be so down bad.

Yes.

Also, uh, Brooks Koepka might be back.

Oh, and so is Max. We should have said something about Max on Monday. Max Holmberg, our guy Max, is playing in the British Open because he finished second last weekend. Yeah, so he read—

he—

what? The Open? Oh, the Open.

The Open Championship.

I apologize.

And yeah, Brooks, I think— what do you shoot, 5-under or 4-under in his first round?

Uh, he's 4-under.

4-under. So just one stroke off the lead, but at the Scottish Open.

But listen, and we love Brooks. Did you not see Bryson hit that electric putt in front of tens of people at the LIV Colorado event?

Oh, I think he was doing a YouTube thing.

Oh, that was a YouTube thing?

Yeah. So Bryson was out on the course shooting.

That was LIV.

One of his—

I would— is that crazy to think that would be LIV? Yes.

Why?

No, because the guy had a camera like 2 feet away from him.

Yeah, you—

I—

LIV does great. LIV does golf shorts and louder and all that shit. No one goes to the events.

I, I guess it could have been—

I'm sorry, I should have been— I, I didn't know the, the details of you. Yeah, so I think that live— that could have been a live event.

It could have.

I've watched live events that have looked worse.

Bryson hit a massive—

like, camera—

there was a guy with a camera like a foot in front of him, and the gallery— I, I knew it wasn't live because the gallery was way too loud.

Yes, thank you, PFT. What, what Where was the camera?

It was right behind him. But again, I thought—

don't they do that? Don't they do cameras right behind you in the— in regular golf?

I thought it could have been moved too when I first saw—

guys getting angles, you know?

Yeah, but the fist bump he gave for the YouTube video was— that was electric.

Yeah, he was— he was so pumped. That's not a crazy location of the camera, is it?

I've never seen that in live or—

I haven't, probably.

It looks like us.

Yeah.

Oh, so, okay, sorry, I apologize, but Bryson did hit that putt and he looked like he was having a time of his life. Time of his life. So he's crushing it. Yeah, he's absolutely crushing it. He made the right decision. Um, okay, let's do Mount Rushmore of, uh, food duos, and then we will get to our interview with Larry Fitzgerald and Fire Fest of the week. Okay, before we get to Mount Rushmore Chevy Chill week is here. You know what that means. No schedules, no plans, just more of the good stuff. Chevy Silverado makes that possible. There's a reason Chevy's called the heartbeat of America, and the Silverado keeps that heartbeat strong. These trucks work hard so you can chill harder, whether that's getting out of town, uh, heading to the lake, or just not turning around when you probably should. It's got the capability, the space, and the muscle— everything you need for a proper summer. Coolers, gear, whatever your version of chill looks like, because at the end of the day, Silverado helps you tackle more of what you love. And let's be honest, you've earned the summer. Now it's time to go get it.

So roll the windows down, turn the music up, and just listen. That's the heartbeat of America. That's today's Chevrolet. Head over to chevy.com to learn more today. Okay, Mount Rushmore of food duos. Oh, I think you're gonna Say it.

Food. Food duos.

No, come on, do it. The com— com— food combination.

Combination.

Food duos slash food combinations.

Better than Krüller.

Respect.

Bumerklatt.

Okay, uh, we have—

that means kill white people, doesn't it? I don't know, I've just heard troops say it all the time.

We, we have, uh Uh, tie at first. Team Max Memes and myself are tied with PFT for 14 points. And then in last place are Zach and Hank with second place, 8 points.

No, have you ever seen a golf leaderboard? Hank, me and Big Cat, you're 1, you're 3.

Yeah, you're third.

It's okay. I mean, that's still within striking distance. I know things are starting to feel like there's a lot of pressure. Zach came in, asked me a couple questions about like the, the technicalities of this arrangement, which tells me that there might have been some team dissent. I don't know, some disagreements.

No, they're just like, hey, asking for clarification.

Yeah, pretty—

just trying to figure out the, the way the, the law here on this, uh, draft.

My team's had, had a little internal dissent as well. Like, Stage 1 PFT has been feeling confident, and then there's Second Guess PFT, and I'm, uh— Stage 1 PFT is starting to get upset with Second Guess PFT. Yeah, because it feels like maybe he's sabotaging him.

But Zach's also been throwing around some pretty dangerous accusations. So we'll see how—

I think we're in a good spot. You know, I like to look at this as a marathon. You guys are both— the two other teams are ahead a little bit right now. But if, if you're gassing yourself here, maybe we can catch the corner.

What do you, what do you think about the dangerous accusation you've been throwing around, though? Which one? Early in the season.

Which one?

Pandering, you said, and because I picked big tits on weapons. And I simply said, but what about the fact that you were going to pick big tits on mermaids if PFT didn't take mermaids?

I think, yeah, I don't think that was more of like a lighthearted question. But I will say it's a good pick. It's a good pick.

I mean, I was admittedly not a weapons guy.

That's fair. Tits are a weapon.

I don't even think I won that draft. I think PFT—

No, you didn't.

That's also true. Every point matters though, you know, every point matters.

Okay.

All right. So we're doing food combinations.

Combination.

We have first pick. Who has second pick? Maybe Hank and Hank and Zach. Sure. Okay. All right. We, we're going to start with a just run the football. We're going to start with burger and fries. Burger and fries. First pick.

It's good.

Big, big, strong pick. Any problems?

No, we're going to have a lot of strong, like, yeah, this is a strong draft.

This could be a kumbaya draft.

Fries.

Oh, I guess it's not a kumbaya draft. Never mind.

Yeah, burger.

Yeah. How are we having a problem with burgers and fries?

We're having a problem with burger and fries.

So what does a burger consist— burger consists of multiple foods.

It's a burger and fries.

So you do get— you get all—

so we're just gonna—

I'm gonna—

yeah, I didn't know that.

That—

I didn't think burger and fries was one of the most classic combinations you can have.

They're saying that, that there's a problem because a burger consists of meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, it has ingredients, ketchup, mustard, and then fries are the only Well, then we're screwed because we have a lot of combinations that I guess if you, if you break it down, has multiple things in it.

Yeah, food duos was what—

that's, that's most classic.

What did PFT say when you asked?

I asked about, I asked about a bacon, egg, and cheese, and PFT said that's 3 items. Yeah, so if I asked if it's a hamburger, I said, can I come?

Burger, cheese.

That's not what I said. I asked my baby was maybe pick an item item that isn't just a list of 3 things. If you're going to have a combination, like if you say burger and fries, everyone knows that means— when you run into like bacon, egg, and cheese and then coffee or whatever, that, that would open up for dispute because the name of the item is literally 3 separate things.

I think the example was bacon, egg, cheese, and a Slim Jim, and it was like, so that's 2 food items.

Like, I think that would be fine. Yeah, that's a terrible combination.

I can't believe there's contention burger and fries.

I just told Zach that that would open yourself up to dispute if you used bacon, egg, and cheese as one thing, because it's literally listed in the name as being 3 different things. That's all I said. It might open up for dispute. I think burger and fries is an absolute no-brainer of a pick. It's sad that Hank and Zach are disputing it.

Just trying to clarify.

No, it's sad. This is a sad dispute. This is like, yeah, this is like Mike Tomlin throwing the challenge flag.

I'm at a loss. I don't really know.

Isaiah Likely cleared the pot.

We might have to restart the whole Mount Rushmore if Burger and Fries get a flag. We're in trouble.

They could be more of a food duo.

Okay.

All right, next pick.

Hamburger and Bun is a food duo.

All right.

This is sad.

Oh, man.

Sad technicality.

Okay.

We didn't think that was a technicality. I think we thought that was the rules.

Okay, so are Burger and Fries not counting?

Burger and Fries counts. Burger and Fries counts. There's two teams against one.

Yeah, we're in a spot.

I'm not— I'm not gonna try to take burger and fries off the list of duos. It's fucking insane. What's the point of even doing this podcast if we can't agree that burger and fries is a great duo?

Burger and fries, 2. Bacon, egg, and cheese, 3. That's trio.

Well, yes, but bacon and cheese, one sandwich. Burger, one sandwich.

The problem is the name of the sandwich is bacon, egg, and cheese.

Bacon, egg, and cheese has bacon, egg, cheese, bun. A burger has hamburger, cheese, pickles, bun.

All right, all right, all right.

Yeah, bacon, egg, and cheese could have hash brown, could have ketchup, could have—

like, I was gonna say, you guys are gonna hate that we're gonna dip our fries in ketchup.

I, I can't wait to see. I can't wait to see what you guys have picked.

We also put some salt and pepper on our fries, if we want to just be fully transparent.

We could play this game with every pick on this list, correct?

That's what I'm saying.

Our list, our list has everything.

Okay, we picked Duos.

Okay, uh, peanut butter and chocolate.

Okay, we had it on the list.

We had it on our list.

Well, there's peanuts and then there's also butter.

That's true.

So that's—

so that could be—

there's also oil. Yeah, there's oil.

There's oil and salt.

You can make peanut butter by just blending and making chocolate.

I think it's like cocoa and milk that you like make together.

Yeah, yeah, you would have to say— you have to say cocoa bean and peanut.

That makes sense.

Okay, good pick, good pick.

I will, I will have no problem with that pick because—

no problem with that pick.

Okay, hey, these are two good first picks. Um, I'm going to go with mac and cheese. Good macaroni and cheese. Second pick, I'm going to go with Bacon and eggs, like that.

Good, good.

Okay, are these okay?

Great picture. Okay, everyone, okay.

Even though it's semolina flour, that's kind of combined with some other ingredients.

The salt and pepper on the bacon and egg, there's salt.

Yeah, there is some stuff. You have to fry the egg and probably—

yeah, actually, macaroni has a lot of things in it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Uh, we would like to take chips and queso.

Okay, good, good.

Can I say the next one?

Yeah.

Can't believe it's staying on the board. Meatballs is on the board, baby. Spaghetti and meatballs.

Spaghetti and meatballs.

What kind of meatballs? What goes into those meatballs?

There's a lot of things, a lot of, a lot of things that go in the meatballs. Uh, yeah, I think 7 is the pick here. I think 7 is the pick here. I'm sure it will be a problem, but 7 or 6? 7. I think we can get something else. We can, we can save it. We can get value. We can get value later, Max. Max, we get value later.

Okay.

Okay. Run, run the football in this draft.

Feel like Six is running.

We can get value later. Trust the process. Okay. We're going to go chicken and waffles.

Okay.

Is that okay?

That's— I'm fine with it.

Yeah.

Yeah. Two food items.

Okay.

I think it might be— is that your third pick?

That's our third pick.

Kind of a reach for third.

Okay.

But I think it's a fine—

well, it's the third round.

I really enjoy it. I love chicken.

I love chicken and waffles.

We are gonna go with steak and eggs.

Okay, okay, nice.

I'd probably say that bacon and eggs is more iconic than steak and eggs, but I do love steak.

Steak and eggs is better, you know, if you're trying to be a healthy, like, grown man.

What does that mean?

Just better.

Men— adults don't eat bacon?

No, but steak and eggs is like a heartier breakfast.

Man, man stuff, I guess.

I wouldn't know about that.

We're just trying to fill up, you know.

I've been frozen by burger and fries. I, I've been— my brain is— I'm not gonna fight anything. I'm not gonna— that was a good pick.

It's a good pick. Good pick. All right, so now I get 2 more, right?

Yeah.

Okay, I'm gonna go with peanut butter and jelly.

Good one.

Peanut butter and jelly. I can't believe it lasts this long.

That is bread though.

Yeah.

What was your first? Peanut butter chocolate. Chocolate. Peanut butter and chocolate. Yeah, yeah. So they're kind of comboing each other.

You thought— what'd you think?

Yeah, well, you should be in on the draft. Yeah, look at you, got so excited about spaghetti and meatballs, you just stopped drafting. You did.

And obviously we were taking— we were taking that thing.

Yeah, yeah, right. I know, but you did stop looking at the, the list.

You got excited about the meatballs.

Well, you got confused.

For some reason, in my head, peanut butter and chocolate— I, I, I was—

that's okay.

I was— that was peanut butter and jelly.

Okay, peanut butter and jelly. I mean, we could just talk.

Well, I got excited.

Yeah, you got really excited.

Meatballs are still on the board.

All right, what do you guys got?

All-time combination. Wait, I'm up. Oh yeah, peanut butter and jelly. And then I'm gonna go with chicken wings and blue cheese. Okay, chicken wings and blue cheese. Absolutely love it.

We discussed it. The, the issue we had was we were split on, as a group, yes, blue cheese ranch.

You got some Ranch Boys? Yeah.

So that, that's where it became couldn't in, in, in the spirit of Mount Rushmore, we couldn't go to bat for something that we don't all believe in.

I'm a—

as an adult, I'm a blue cheese guy.

As a man, I'm a blue cheese guy.

Yeah.

Okay.

We would like to take with the 4th pick of our draft. Oh, no.

Oh, no. Zach.

No, we're in a good spot. We're in a good spot. Just take— I need to see 2 more seconds.

I'm sorry for that.

The hold up here. I don't think you're going to take— We're gonna take cookies and ice cream.

Cookies and ice cream?

Yeah, that's what we're gonna take.

Okay, that wasn't even on our list. I love it. Zach just went rogue. You want to go—

you want to like that?

Yeah, we're going to take that.

Okay, okay.

What do we do now?

Were you guys going to take cookies and ice cream?

We're going to take milk and cookies, which is—

that's why I wanted to— I want to take that the last round.

What do you want to do now? Why don't you look at the list, Max?

Yeah, I think milk is a drink.

Yeah, you can't do that. Come, Duos.

Food, I guess that's where that was.

Okay, well, we didn't pick it, so—

No, I know, I know, I just— that's where like we were trying to clarify and PFT was just like, nope.

Wait, wait, I— you asked me nothing about like 11.

Meme says 11.

I think, I think, uh, 8 is good. I think 8 is pretty strong. I think 8 is pretty strong. That's something that you just— everyone, everyone can get behind. No, you decide, Max.

I like 8.

All right, we'll go bagel and cream cheese. Bagel and cream cheese, you got to do it.

Good pick.

Okay, um, what do we have for, uh, honorable mentions?

I had ketchup and mustard.

Yeah, we had— there was actually a lot that we, we had, uh, fish and chips, bread and butter.

Bread and butter is good.

Bread and butter, coffee and donut. Although that's not— that's a drink.

Biscuits and gravy.

This is gravy. Grilled cheese and tomato soup.

Yeah.

Oh, that's a good one.

Sausage and peppers.

That's what I wanted.

Chicken tenders and fries. Cheese and crackers, huge miss.

Pork chops and applesauce. Yep, Zach had that.

Lamb and tuna fish.

Um, tuna fish and onions.

Yep.

Brownie and ice cream. Brownie and ice cream, delicious.

Turkey and stuffing.

Turkey and stuffing. I had a few that—

mashed potatoes and gravy, apple and peanut butter, salami and cheese.

I had a few that were not— we're told that they wouldn't be good, but they're personal favorites of mine. Uh, chips in a sandwich. In a sandwich, not, not next to it, in a sandwich. Um, popcorn and candy at the, at the movie theater. Great combination, great duo. Uh, let's see. Oh, beer and a hot dog. Beer and, beer and, uh, and peanuts.

I thought about hot wings, cold beer. Yeah, didn't really think that that was a food combination.

Uh, pretzel and mustard. Yeah, honey mustard specifically. Beef and broccoli for Chinese food.

That's a good one.

Yeah, big.

Anything else?

Chicken and rice.

Steak and cheese.

Chicken rice. Rice and beans.

I said rice and beans. I love rice and beans, but Steak and cheese is a good one. Steak and potatoes was another one I said, but yeah, we thought it was too similar to burgers and fries.

Turkey and provolone. Yeah.

Okay, good draft, I think.

Draft. Good draft.

I don't know. I, I— yeah, it's good draft.

We took the meaning too literal. That's on us.

Yeah, we had like, we had like hot dogs.

We thought it was two things, cheese and a burger.

Like, we took it very literal.

Yeah, well, we do those.

We were gonna do like Chicken wings means two and blue cheese. We're like, that's a sauce. So we took it very literal. That's on us. Okay.

Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, cookies and ice cream.

Yeah, cookies and ice cream.

Yeah, that was good thinking on the fly.

So is that a— is that a just a regular— so there's no chocolate chips in the cookies? Uh, and there's no chocolate in the ice cream.

It's an imagination thing.

I got over that. Oh man, it didn't matter.

Got it.

It wasn't even on our list.

I think everybody's got— you guys got great lists. Great list. Good draft.

You just got a good rogue on that last one. I like—

yeah, panic pick. I like it.

Yeah, it might be nice to kind of throw us off. Yeah, because we were gonna go milk and cookies, or we were gonna go brownies and ice cream, and you took one cookie.

Yeah, we thought about cake and ice cream, but yeah, but yeah, yeah, it's either cookies and ice cream.

Yeah, apple pie and ice cream.

How do you think the voters are gonna— we're gonna vote on this one, Hank?

I don't know.

I'm, I'm, I'm like pecan pie, statistically by far the worst person Rushmore. So I— well, Max, I don't know. I probably will probably come in third.

I mean, getting PB&J in the third is—

yeah, you got you. That's on you for spaghetti and meatballs.

No, you got excited.

You took yourself out of the draft.

Hold on. PB&J would have gone over chicken and waffles.

I get it, Max. But we're a team.

We were talking about—

no, I know, but we're a team and we said going into it we had 9 picks to— and we're like, let's get one of 3 of the 9. Those were part of the 9.

And spaghetti and meatballs was not the problem there.

No, no, you don't understand. If we play back the clip, your excitement for spaghetti and meatballs, you basically like you, you, you essentially did the equivalent of hitting a 3 and not getting back on defense. Yeah, that's what happened.

We talked about the next pick. That would, that would be the case.

But you didn't talk.

You didn't know.

But we talked about chicken and waffles.

That was where I would have taken it.

You admitted that you were so excited about spaghetti and meatballs.

You didn't even know about the next pick, that you didn't realize that peanut butter and jelly had been picked.

But you guys were all— this is a team.

I know, and you hit the 3. You guys also— you hit the 3 and then you were doing the dance, and the memes and I were like, fuck, they're coming back. They, they just did an outlet pass.

This is—

this is numbers against us.

There's 3 guys talking about it that we also forgot about. We all forgot about PB&J. For some reason it's my fault for taking the surefire wide open layup and spaghetti and meatballs.

It's not your fault. We submitted pick 2 too quick. Yeah, you didn't. You're, you're misunderstanding it. We could have been on the clock for 4 minutes. We're not talking about the spaghetti and meatballs pick. That was a great— it was a great pick. That's a great pick. You then— you, you were dancing in the end zone and we were like, hey, next play.

We were talking about the next play. We just weren't talking about PB&J as a team.

I mean, Zach and Hank are the ones that are benefiting most from this.

It's like they're just— they're sitting back and they didn't take P.J.

after that.

Yeah, I don't know.

All right. Good draft.

Good draft. All right. Let's get to our interview with Larry Fitzgerald. Awesome interview with Larry Fitzgerald. Before we do that, PFT's got an ad.

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Larry Fitzgerald.

Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. We're here at the American Century Championship. It is 2026 Hall of Famer, NFL Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald. Let's start with that. Well, actually, weird question. Are you retired?

100%.

100%. Oh, you never told us.

We—

you had the most confusing retirement where we never knew if you were retired.

Yeah, I'm not, I'm not one to— with the public goodbyes, you know, that's not really my thing. I'm kind of like the Irish goodbye guy.

Okay.

Hey, where is he? Might even know where the bathroom is.

Yeah, right.

And I just slip out, you know, like, that's, that's kind of how— no, I just— the game is bigger than one individual. Like, I'm not a celebrate me. That's not, that's not my jam. I, I had a great time. I had an unbelievable run, and it was time for some other guys to do it.

Did you ever officially file your paperwork to retire?

Yeah, of course.

Oh, did you do that right away?

I did it the year after.

Okay, so we weren't totally wrong to be like, hey, I think pretty much every year for about 4 or 5 years we're like, hey, is Larry Fitzgerald retired or not? Because you could— that's also a testament to you that we just assumed at any point you could be like, hey, I'm playing and you would just rip off like 75 catches, no problem.

No, no. I knew after that last year I was a wrap. I was a wrap. Yeah.

You want to say goodbye to all the youngsters out there? I didn't use Arizona.

Yeah, I told him, I told him bye.

You said bye?

Yeah. Okay, I just did it personally.

Well, you did each and every one.

You went door to door like my teammates and, and the guys that I spend time with?

Yes, just the, the youth of Arizona. They want to say goodbye to you.

You talk about the kids outside of the game? Yeah, yeah, I do that. I do that through my foundation work. Okay, you know, so I, I, you know, kind of mix it.

Can you give us closure and just say I'm officially retiring from the NFL.

I mean, it's hard to get into the Hall of Fame without having like—

that's not—

he's not retired. He's— you're not retiring.

You might—

you, you're trying to be the first guy in the Hall of Fame to come back and play.

No, that's definitely not Philip Rivers.

Yeah, he could.

He could.

So you're officially retired?

I am. I have officially transitioned from the game.

Yeah, he's not retired. This guy's gonna come back. He's gonna be— you're gonna be a Pro Bowler in 3 years.

I think it's more you might just be Scared of the word retired?

Yeah, it— retirement is what I look at is like, is 70-year-old sitting on in the panhandle of Florida with their feet in the sand at a retire— that's not my jam, you know. I'm just transitioning to something different than what I did before, so I don't want— I don't even like using the word retire.

I hear you.

My grandfather, he told me that retirement kills more people than anything in the country.

Yeah, okay, so you've been so hard.

Yeah, so like your mind starts to atrophy, your body actually like—

okay, so we were right. Yeah, you're just afraid to say that you're retired. We were right, we were dead on.

Okay.

Okay, all right, that feels good.

That's closure.

It feels good to win one. That's just a theory that we had in the back of our head for a long time. I do actually, I, I, I have endless amounts of respect for you as a player, as a human being. I think that you've done incredible stuff, probably some more to come. Um, but if it's okay, I do have one bone to pick with you, maybe something that you could apologize. You know, again, I keep thinking of the kids out there that watched you play football. Um, would you like to apologize for what happened? Well, first of all, do you know what happened? On October 8th, 2018? It was a Sunday. No, it was a game against the 49ers. Your actions in that game— there were kids watching at home. You spiked the ball.

What? You did?

Yeah, you spiked the ball. Larry, 2-point conversion to go up 18 to 15, and you spiked it.

How could you?

Yeah, I do remember that.

I do remember that.

Is that your only spike?

That's my only spike.

Way to show up the opponent.

That's my only spike.

Yeah.

One and only.

Yeah. So, all right, so let's talk about the Hall of Fame. When you get— were you— did you know in the back of your head you're like, look, it's my time, I was one of the best receivers of all time? Or was it still a moment you're like, holy shit, this is actually real, this is happening?

No, honestly, it's one of those things like it's completely out of your hands. Somebody else is making a determination. Based on your resume. And, you know, there's a lot of things that going on— go on with it. You know, you heard the news about, you know, Coach Belichick, and you're like, if he's not Hall of Fame worthy, then who is? And, you know, like, so all of these things start kind of going through your mind. I don't think I ever questioned the fact that I would be. I felt like my numbers and what I accomplished was good enough to get me in. But would it be on the first ballot? I, you know, all of that stuff is so subjective. And so I try not to let my mind go there. I didn't want to— I didn't want to be disappointed if that didn't happen, you know. That's not the right feeling to have either, um, or feel like I'm, I'm entitled to something that I, you know, I— so I tried to manage my emotions best I could. But I tell you what, when I, when I did find out, I was, I was elated.

And how it actually went down was even that much more special, um, to be able to have Randy Moss, somebody who I idolized. I met 1998 as a kid, I was a ball boy on the team. And the relationship that I've had with him for so many years, to know he had just beat cancer, you know, less than a year prior to that, to get on the plane and come down and make my moment so significant, it's just, it was surreal. And so like, that was, that was a really special time.

Yeah. That was cool. Was it on a boat?

Yeah. So my buddy Hollis, I was down there for some board meetings in Boca Raton, and he was like, hey Larry, I got a— I, uh, I actually got a new boat and it's, it's at the slip actually across the street from your hotel. I'm like, that's interesting. Like, what's the irony that his boat would be in Boca? You know, I didn't put anything together. I was like, that's awesome. And he was telling me about this and he wanted me to see it. And on the ride there, it's literally like a 10-minute ride to get there. He's talking about, you know, all the stuff that he put in it, the new the new windows and the new, like, all this stuff. He got me, he got me just so off track, man. I'm walking to the boat, I'm not, I'm not— my mind is just completely elsewhere.

And I expect to see Randy Moss.

No, I didn't expect any of it. And so, like, if you ever want to set up a nice surprise birthday party, reach out to Hollis, man. Yeah, Hollis Kavner. He will, he will, he will make it special for whoever is involved.

It's like a mafia hit. You were like The Sopranos. You're a big pussy going out on the boat. It could have been, it could have been bad for me.

Yeah. Yeah. So, so you— what was the first time that you met Randy? How old were you at the time?

I was, uh, 14.

14. And then what— how long did it take the two of you to, to form like a little bond?

I think you'd have to ask Randy that. I was already in love with him. It was love at first sight for me.

Yeah.

You know, you couldn't have told me he wasn't my best friend from the time I met him. You know, I worked with the receivers, so I was with him for 2 hours a day, 3 hours a day, every day at training camp. I ran irons. I washed his car. So I would have probably had an inflated view of what I thought our relationship was. And I would just, to him, I was just a little snotty-nosed kid that was always asking him questions, right? But then he allowed me to use his car for my prom a few years later. And he would come to my high school games and he wore a size 14 and he was, I wore size 14, and so he would give me— he had the new Jordan contract, so he had all the shoes, like all the one-off sneakers that he didn't want, he would give them to me. And so I thought I was the coolest dude. So I thought Randy was my guy. Yeah, I mean, um, and so it was, it was a, it was this really, really special, special period growing up to be able to do that job.

Yeah. When did you first become the ball boy?

Uh, probably 2 years earlier.

Okay, so Were you— when you were 12, were you telling people like, hey, I'm going to play in the league someday? And were people laughing at you?

Absolutely not. I mean, I was like every other kid. I was— those were aspirations.

Yeah.

But to be crazy enough to think that I was going to be able to do it and— no, it was— that's outlandish. But what I did know that I had a huge strategic advantage over everybody else because I got a chance to watch Chris Carter, you know, one of the best to ever do it.. And I would get to go watch the scrimmages when they would go to, you know, scrimmage the Kansas City Chiefs who were in Wisconsin also. And then I got a chance to go watch them when they scrimmaged against the New Orleans Saints who were also in Wisconsin. So I got to pick up on all these work ethic and nuanced things that they were doing. I saw how they ate. I saw they would get massages, you know, every couple of days at training camp. And so I was able to implement a couple of those things at a very young age. That I think gave me, you know, a leg up on the competition. But, you know, so many things have to bounce your way to be able to have that come to fruition.

Yeah.

How many balls would you catch back then?

You know, Chris, after practice, he would catch those jugs, balls, and he would probably catch 150 every day. And I caught a lot of balls, not like— like they would run a route, they would catch it, and I would run to them and I would catch it. Or, you know, Mitch Berger was the punter during special teams period. I would go catch the punts. Gary Anderson would do kickoffs. Were on sidekicks and I would catch those balls and I would spot them, you know, during 7-on-7, team, inside run, 2-minute drill. I was spotting the ball. So I was handling the ball hundreds of times a day, like in terms of catching it, like that was throwing it specifically to me. Maybe 50. I would have one of the other ball boys throw me some balls and I would catch them.

It just dawned on me. You're the greatest ball boy of all time.

I don't know about that.

Yeah, I mean that. How could anyone argue differently?

No.

You have the best hands of any ball boy that's ever—

there was a guy that came to me and told me he's the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. He used to be a ball boy.

Okay.

So I think he's—

there's no way his hands are better than yours.

No, but I think his life might have turned out better.

Okay. No, I don't think so. I'm talking strictly on the field in terms of like catching the ball. The job of a ball boy.

Yeah.

You were the greatest ball boy that has ever ball boy?

I would say you could put me in the conversation. Okay, because we don't know who else is out there. Yeah, but I would say you could definitely put me in the conversation.

Have you retired from being a ball boy? Because that would be a great next chapter.

Yeah, that, that I definitely have retired from that. But you know, man, you know who else was a ball boy for us? Uh, you remember Troy Walters? Yeah, Blitnikoff Award winner at Stanford, played in the NFL for I think 8 years, played with us, played for the Colts. Um, and he was a ball boy for the Vikings too, so he was like big bro. I was watching him do his thing and You know, I saw him go off to college and ball at Stanford. And so he set a high standard. The bar was high.

So that there needs to be like a book on the ball boy room for the Vikings in the late '90s, early 2000s. That's incredible.

It's like the coaches from the Green Bay Packers in like the early '90s. That's what you had going on in your room. Do you also like when you're, when you're practicing football, do you pay attention to the ball boys?

Do you like judge them?

Absolutely. Not judge them, but I always would have conversations with them even when we were playing against other teams that I would always Hey, what grade are you in? How's school? What position are you playing? And because the guys did that to me, I remember we were playing against the Detroit Lions. This was in like '97 and Barry Sanders, the Lions had won the coin toss. This is back when the like teams actually like took the ball. They didn't defer and they took the ball. And I remember Scott Mitchell was standing next to Herman Moore and Johnny Morton, Lomas Brown. And Barry was standing right next to me. To me and I was just like, I was just like awestruck because it was Barry Sanders. And he looked, he looked at me and said, hey, how you doing? I said, I'm doing great, Mr. Sanders. He said, how old are you? You know, I'm 13. He said, what position do you play? I said, I play wide receiver. He said, I love the way you, I love the way you play. He was like, thank you, thank you. I hope today is a good day as well.

And he ran off on the field. Like he was like the most gentle, kind, nice guy. And remember doing it, seeing Steve Young and Jerry Rice And same thing with like, I remember when the Dallas Cowboys came and played Monday Night Football and Michael Irvin like slapped my hand as he came off the, you know, the field and Emmitt Smith fist bump, you know, like it was, it was some really cool experiences as a child.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's really, and then you got Emmitt Smith was your teammate, right?

Emmitt was my teammate in 2004. He technically was involved in my first catch.

Right.

It was a flu flicker. He took the handoff, pitched it back to, to Josh McCown and Josh McCown do it to me. And I got to catch— my first catch was on Aeneas Williams, who's a Hall of Famer, too. So like it was, it was an interesting play, you know, for the first play of the season to be called. But, you know, it was, it was nice to get it started that way.

Yeah, it's a cool way to do it.

All right. So I know we know you well enough, Larry, just from everything. You're the epitome of class and you're not going to say a bad thing about anyone. The quarterbacks that threw you touchdowns, some of them maybe weren't Hall of Famers themselves. Can you name every quarterback that threw you a touchdown? No, I think there's 16.

No, no. And I tried this before and I failed miserably. And I don't want to— I don't want to be disrespectful to anybody that I didn't— that I didn't name.

Do you know what the craziest stat is? Of these 16 quarterbacks, 2 of them only threw 2 career touchdowns. And you were one of the two. And then two of them only threw one career touchdown, and you were the only one. That's pretty crazy. Yeah, a quarter of the time— the quarter of the quarterbacks threw you a touchdown, they— the only touchdown they threw, that was, uh, Max Hall and Richard Bartle. I didn't even know those were real names. Yeah, but that— they, they threw their only ones.

Rich Bartle and, uh, and Max Hall, both of them great dudes. They worked their tails off, man. They did.

Yeah, yeah. And then, uh, Brian St. Pierre had two total, and John Navarre had two total, and one of them to you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

See, this is really nice what he's saying right now.

Yeah. What quarterback threw the most catchable ball?

I mean, Kurt was— Kurt was very accurate with this, with his ball placement, you know. So as soon as you come out of your break, it would be like right there, like hitting you in your forehead. I mean, he was so accurate with it. And so and he didn't have like crazy arm strength. Like, like, you know, some guys when they have really strong arms, they throw it really hard. And Kurt was, you know, more anticipatory with how he would place it. And so it was really pretty easy to catch, you know, it never like tearing your hands up or dislocating your fingers.

Mm-hmm. I mean, you just didn't drop passes. It didn't matter who was throwing you the ball. I did the famous stat of like the tack— you have more tackles than drops over the course of your NFL career.

41 tackles, 29 drops.

It's kind of— that's That's— you got to be the only guy to have that stat, right?

Oh, no, there's Chris Carter also. He always reminds me that he's also— it's not as big of a gap, but he still has more tackles than he has drops.

Do you remember every drop? Do they haunt you?

No, I haven't. I had an innate ability to be able, like, just to put it away, you know? Like, obviously I wanted to understand the mechanics behind the issue. Like, what did I do from a fundamental standpoint that I need to improve on to not let this happen again? I wanted to know that, but I didn't necessarily need to to like harp on her or watch. I think having the ability to forget and just be able to— okay, it happened, I need to figure out why it happened, and now I'm moving on to the next— is a skill set that I think is necessary, especially in, in sports. You know, you need to be able to have a short memory.

Yeah.

Were you, uh, was there ever a point in your career you were like, felt like you were in the zone? Like everything was just— I know we just said you you dropped 29 passes, so it could be your entire career. But like, for example, I don't think you get enough credit for that playoff run in 2008 where I think I have the stats here. You had 7 touchdowns, 546 yards and 30 receptions in one playoff run. That feels like it was in the zone. Was that just like everything near you? Just, just throw me the ball. I got it.

Yeah, I felt, I felt good. And I also think my youthfulness didn't allow me to understand the magnitude of the moments also, you know what I mean? Like, it's when you're doing it the first time, you're like, oh, I'm gonna be back here every year. Like, this is, this is what I do, right? Like, this is kind of the mindset. And then, you know, as you get older, actually, you get a little bit tighter because you know how hard it is to get to these places. And you, you, you're really harping on all the little things and like micromanaging it as opposed to when you're in your early 20s and you think you're going to be able to do it forever and this is something that's going to happen, I think you kind of dismiss the magnitude. And so I think that was a magical time. You know, I had great teammates, great support, and I also had youth on my side where I didn't understand just how big it was.

Yeah. Yeah.

Also in that playoff run, I, I think you should get credit for one more tackle because I think James Harrison was down at the 1-inch line.

I think Anquan, I think, uh, Antrell Roll should get credit for tackling me on the sideline because if I wouldn't have ran into Antrell on the sideline, I would have definitely got James down or attempted to. I swear to you, man, when I got to James, it was like trying to move a refrigerator by yourself.

Big guy.

Just doesn't happen, you know? And, uh, I mean, that dude is made of granite.

Yeah.

I mean, shoot.

He's insane, man.

Still made of granite.

Yeah, I do think— I think he was down. I'm sure you've watched the replay before. I think—

I think he was down. I think— I think I like to think he was down. And I also like to think that, um, that Santonio didn't have both feet in.

Yeah.

I like to fantasize about that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Use our imagination.

It's never fun to be able to fantasize that, you know, when I'm around Ben and he has his ring with him, you know, because then the fantasy ends pretty quick.

Quickly.

Yeah, yeah.

Does he like to remind you? Does he carry his ring around?

No, no, no, no. Ben's my man. I love Ben. We came in the same class in '04 and play a lot of golf together and always been a big fan of Ben's.

How is the, uh, how's the golf game?

Depends on the day, depends on the day, but, um, it's decent. Like, I'm a 6 handicap, you know. I'm not gonna go out there shooting the 60s and, and frequently gonna shoot in the 90s, you know. I keep it, keep it cool. I play fast and Do you play fast?

Because I heard, I heard you talk about your game and you said that there's— you didn't get into Whisper Rock because you might be too slow.

No, it wasn't because I was too slow, is because I was so poor at golf at the time. I just started in 2013, was when I first started playing. I got a chance to play with the Tsar there and he told me I couldn't, I couldn't be a member there because you were not good enough until I got better. Because so, fun fact, Whisper Rock actually has, out of all the clubs in America, has the lowest aggregate handicap, and they take—

they probably take that seriously.

So it's like a 7.8, I think, last I checked, you know. But when you have JJ Spaun and Max Homa and Phil Mickelson and Kevin Strillman, and like, you just go down the list of all the guys who are tour card carriers, it's pretty impressive. And then you just have a bunch of really good players like Mark Mulder, who's here, and Patrick Peterson and, you know, guys who can just flat out golf their ball, you know. So it's fun to be around that.

Yeah. I'm going to get you to talk shit about something. Do you still hate West Virginia?

Absolutely.

Okay, good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What was your record against West Virginia?

0-2.

Shit. I didn't mean— I actually didn't know.

I did not know. It is what it is. I mean, you are what your record says you are.

The problem with the backyard brawl and Pitt versus West Virginia is each shit pit just rhymes. It does. So that's like, it just— you guys are already at a disadvantage, you know what I mean? Like, what do you do with that?

I mean, but we understand that's all they can memorize though, you know.

There we go.

It has to rhyme for them to remember.

That's true.

You know, it's like a WVU degree is like, it's worth about as much as a cup of water out of Lake Tahoe, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

What are you gonna do with it?

I love it.

It's crazy.

They don't have any fluoride in the water.

Yeah.

Like, have you seen their teeth? Have you seen their teeth? Yeah. I mean, oh yeah, it's crazy. Like, they don't have a dentist in the whole state, it seems.

Yeah. Oh, I like this. I knew I'd get you going with that. The, uh, it is nuts. Pitt might have, like, in terms of, you know, you obviously have the Alabamas, USCs, uh, some of these schools, Michigan.

Let me stop you there. We do have the best.

You guys do. You have, like, the, like, the fact that you have some of the best between you, Dan Marino, Aaron Donald, Jimbo Covert. Like, there's so many guys that are like, those are some of the best NFL players of all time, all came from Pitt.

Like, if you, if you really— outside of maybe USC, like, if you just go position by position, you know, Russ Grimm, Jimbo Covert, Mark Stefnoski, Joe Flacco, Terrell Revis, Terrell Revis, Aaron Donald.

Yeah.

You know, Hugh Green, like if you just go man for man with any college, any, any team, like we have a, we have a stake at possibly being the best.

Yeah.

In my opinion. Yeah.

No, I agree.

Some may say different, but I like our chances.

It's nuts looking at the entire, like, roster of who's gone there. So we were talking beforehand. We got to make a bet. Your son plays for Notre Dame. Yeah, I'm a Badger. We're playing week 1, Labor Day weekend. First of all, how did your son not go to Pitt?

He—

I mean, I try not to get into the recruiting part of it. You know, I'm not forcing him to do it. I love— I love my alma mater. I'm still a Pitt man through and through. But, you know, he felt like there was a better fit for him in Notre Dame. And I respected that. My dad really wanted me to go to Ohio State. My mom really wanted me to go to Notre Dame. But I felt when I was at University of Pittsburgh, there was something something inside of me that was like, this is where you should be. And, you know, I always try to follow my intuition and like things worked out. And so he kind of felt like that. We got back on the visit and he was like, Dad, I think I found my people and I think I found my place. And I was like, you know, tell me more. You know, he kind of went down the checklist that he was running through. And I said, hey, that's how you feel. Like, I think you should, you should make that decision. Yeah.

All right.

So we got to make a bet. You're not giving me any points?

No. I mean, you went—

there's a 19-point spread.

It's actually— it's 20.5.

It's 20.5.

No, but I'm just saying, though, like, have a little pride, though.

I mean, I have— I have pride. 20.5 is a lot of points.

It's Wisconsin, though. Okay. It's a home game for them.

Give me—

give me like— give me— give me 13.5 points. I'll take a discount. We'll make it fun. 13.5 points. That's— I'm giving you 7 points.

Okay. All right. $4,000.

Here's— no, here's what we're gonna bet. So, so for $1,000, I'll donate $1,000 to your charity.

Okay.

I don't want your money, uh, I want an official Arizona Cardinals letterhead note, letter, Larry Fitzgerald retiring from the NFL.

I can't do it.

That's crazy. Why can't you do that? You gotta renegotiate the terms. Is I, Larry Fitzgerald, officially retire from the NFL?

We won't publish it anywhere.

We'll take it. Just put it on.

Well, yeah, you don't have to file it.

Yeah, yeah, we'll just, we'll just put it, we'll frame it and we'll put it in our studio. It'll be part of, you know, this podcast history.

All right, that's fair.

Okay.

All right, good.

All right. $13,500. I'm excited.

Oh, hey, do you got any good John Stocco stories for me?

Did you ever see Legend? Yes.

You ever see him laid out on the street and he read it throwing up on his shoes? Did you see anything?

Stocco was a, Stocco was a legend. They were, I mean, we We, we had a run of like really good college quarterbacks who they didn't go on playing the pros, but Stocco was— he was the man.

He was my high school quarterback at Academy of Holy Angels, and he could spin it. Yeah, great athlete. He could play baseball, he was great at basketball. He was just an all-around phenomenal athlete.

You, you have— you're a really good pickleball player, right?

I don't know if I would say really good, but I can hold my own. I'm a 4 4, close to 4.5. I will wear you out though.

Close to 4.5?

I will give you that work.

Wait, hold on, we got—

we asked you like—

I don't have a duper rating, I'm just telling you.

Hold on, hold on.

Are you better at pickleball or golf?

I would probably say pickleball.

Yeah, yeah. But if you were to trade, would you be better at golf than pickleball?

He's gonna pick Who is it?

It's our head of security, Mike. We're interviewing Larry Fitzgerald right now, and I asked him about his pickleball game, and I asked him for his number. What's the number thing you guys do?

It's called duper.

The duper. He said, he said he's a 4, and then he was like, maybe a 4.5. Do we believe him?

I have to see him play.

I can't—

I don't know.

Everybody says they're a 4.5.

4.5.

They all say that. Okay, so, so he's probably a 4. He's probably more like a 4. Okay, okay, so you could work him?

Oh, I have to work him? Yeah, he sounds like he's in the senior division.

No, no, Mike's, Mike's still running around. He's ready to go.

All right, so I actually, I actually played today.

We're undefeated. Oh, there we go, there we go. All right, thank you.

He's in 70 and over club.

Do you have a partner?

Um, I play, I play with whoever. I play mostly singles though.

He plays mostly singles. Okay, thank you, Mike.

Appreciate it. Yeah, I knew he wasn't gonna like that.

He's our, uh, head of security's, uh, ex, uh, NYPD cop from Staten Island. And he, like, if you say you like pickleball, he'll just immediately start grilling you and like, you don't really play pickleball. Like, it's not real. Like, you don't have your duper. Yeah. So wait, so what other sports were—

I would assume you were just good at I played baseball, ran track, played basketball, played football.

So what— in high school basketball, were you just yamming on people?

Yeah, I was more of a defensive stopper.

So you couldn't shoot?

I didn't shoot it great, but I was a slasher. I could dribble, penetrate, finish. I was always guarding the best player on the defense, on, you know, on the other team. So I felt like I was solid.

Yeah. So it was always football. That was one sport that you, you locked in on.

Yeah.

And most teams recruited me to play defense too. So I played free safety, linebacker, and yes, Wisconsin actually recruited me to play defense.

Did they?

Yeah. I mean, listen, they were— that's actually great scouting. You had more tackles than you did. Good point. You're really good at tackling.

Good point.

I mean, they saw something.

Didn't Mack Brown recruit Andrew Luck, Johnny Manziel, and Robert Griffin to be safeties? Yeah, I think he did.

That wouldn't surprise me.

Yeah, yeah, he just loved defense. Um, are you going to be president one day?

President of my HOA?

Possibly of the United States? No, just senator?

No, no, none of that.

No, zero aspirations to be—

zero aspirations.

I—

because I, I think when we were talking about your, uh, alleged retirement, I was like, I think he'll probably end up in Congress at some point. No, no, no aspirations at all for any of that. You're happy with, uh, You've got so many different things going on. I know that you've got investments across the board.

Politics is a full, full contact sport, way more physical than football ever was. And, you know, when you get into religion and politics, you 100% will not have a consensus on anything. And yeah, that's, that's not something I want to throw my hat in the ring for.

Yeah, probably a smart move on your part.

Yeah.

Doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun.

No.

Permission to ask an inappropriate question?

I think I know what the question's gonna be.

I would say— can I ask? I'm gonna ask. At what point in your life did you realize you have a fat ass? And that's all due respect.

You didn't think I was gonna ask that? I was—

I don't even know. That is not what I thought was coming. I did not— I did not— I thought you were gonna ask me like when I was gonna cut my hair or something like that, you know.

I, I—

so you don't want to answer the question, but you do—

I don't know how to answer.

You haven't—

I don't know how to answer that. I've been the same guy my entire life.

Okay, all right, so that's a good answer. Yeah, yeah, powerful. Yeah, it is the power. It's the powerhouse of everything. Your teammate, the dump truck.

I had a quote from your teammate Drew Stanton. He said he's so strong in the lower half of his body, and you can see it out at practice because he wears tights instead of uniform pants. So, you know, you were—

you know, yeah, you were in the Lululemon.

Yeah.

No, I just— I like to wear the tights. Gives me more flexibility, mobility. Yeah, yeah.

All right, so here's a less weird question because I hit you with the weird one, then I can go like, you know, take it back a little. Um, are you in the Hall of Fame of like guys that should be just fat middle-aged white Irish dudes but aren't? Your name is like Larry Fitzgerald. Do you ever get confused for it? You show up?

Uh, no, not, not really, I guess. But when I do go to Ireland, they always show me love though.

Yeah, that's awesome.

The lady checks me in, you say Fitzgerald?

Yeah.

Yes.

Like, are you Really?

Fitzgerald?

Yeah, yeah, multiple generations.

I love it. Was that— was the ask question too inappropriate?

No, I don't, I don't know what you feel like is in bounds and what's out of bounds.

Yeah, okay, how about that? What's your secret?

Secret?

Yeah, like what's your, what's your workout routine for the dumper?

I think it's more, it's more genetics than it is anything.

Yeah, you—

I I want to apologize. Part of the show and why I think it's successful is we're really just trying to make this guy uncomfortable and he's super uncomfortable right now. So like, it's less about you and it's more making him squirm to the point that he just wants to be anywhere but here right now.

Would you like to apologize to— so speaking of youngsters that are owed an apology, he was a Philadelphia Eagles youngster. Would you like to apologize to him about what you did to his team in the playoffs?

You're from Philly.

Right next to my first military.

Really?

Yeah.

Really?

Where'd you go? Conestoga. Conestoga. Nice. Nice. Nah, Philly's broken some hearts of some people over the years. I think they've gotten their get back.

Yeah.

I think they've gotten their get back.

Yeah.

You definitely, you broke them down pretty good in the playoffs.

Are you happy about the AJ Brown move?

AJ Brown's a really good football player, but it's something that had to be done.

So really something that has to be done.

I can't say I'm happy about not having AJ Brown anymore, but I think we got some value for it for a situation that was never going to be remedied.

So I think Lemoine's going to be a really good player.

Yeah, I'm, I'm very excited.

And it's going to be a really good player.

Who's your favorite wide receiver right now in the game to watch?

Oh man, that's a tough question. I wouldn't say this person is my favorite, but I, I respect and admire the heck out of him about how he goes about his business. And that's Amon-Ra St. Brown.

Yeah.

I mean, he can play outside the numbers. He can play inside the numbers. The dude throws his body around in the run game. He's fierce. He's competitive as hell, breaking tackles. Great leader. And one thing that I've noticed about him too is like he's got a really good talented receiver in James Williams on his team. And whenever James has big games, he's the first one there to show love. Like, he's obviously ultra competitive, but he does not put what he wants to achieve in front of the success of the team. And I think that's really a great testament to the kind of guy he is. He's selfless. Yeah. And I vibe with that.

Yeah. Yeah.

I think you kind of— you would be described that way by a lot of people, too, with your career being a selfless guy. But I also think that if you're as good as you were, you probably had some, like, I'm always open tendencies, right? Like all the great ones do.

No, I was never disillusioned. Like, there was times that obviously the ball didn't come that I thought it should have been there. But, you know, when you play with guys like Anquan Boldin, you know, or DeAndre Hopkins, like, these guys are immensely talented and gifted and they deserve to have their, you know, fair share and their targets and right. But it also makes you hone your own skills much more because, you know, you want to, you want to let the team know and the people know that you're just as capable and you can do damage the same way. But I think just being able to manage your ego in a way where it's not disruptive to the org and what the main objective is, I think is the biggest thing that you have to be able to manage.

I think you and, you and DeAndre Hopkins had a great connection on that one play where he goes down early. You come in from the sidelines, pitches the ball to you, you sprint to the referee, hand him the ball to clock it with like 2 seconds left in the game. You were probably the best at that, at like getting the ball.

That's ball boy.

Yeah, that's, that's the ball boy tendencies.

Ball boy.

Ball boy coming back to me. But I feel like I was always keenly aware of like where we were, what we needed, what the situation was like, all of those things, you know, like I would even do things like, let's say we were in a 2-minute drill and it was an explosive play and one of our offensive linemen was down, right? Like most people would panic. Like I would just go in and play guard, right? And just obviously we needed to have, you know, 7 people on the line of scrimmage. And I would like, you know, my mind was just thinking if those things happened or the quarterback got hit, I needed, I needed to take the snap and spike it or, you know, whatever those type of things I always felt like I was ready for. I knew it. And, you know, I tried to be like an extension of what the coaches were looking for on the field. Yeah.

Who's your favorite coach to play for?

I mean, I have a pretty good relationship and had a good relationship with most of my coaches. I did. You know, everybody, all the coaches are different. They, the relationships are different, but, you know, I respect all the men that I work for. Really, I don't have a bad word to say about any, and my head coaches I've ever, I've ever played for. Yeah.

What about, what about Bruce Arians?

I got a lot of love for Coach.

I love BA.

A lot of love for Coach. Yeah. He's, he's a straight shooter. He's like, you never have to wonder what he's thinking or how he's feeling. And, you know, it's nice to be able to, to have a coach who's— he's a, he is a, an offensive football savant. Like that dude is— his ability to dial up the plays that he would call at the time that he would call them, that's a gift from God that he has. Like, he's, he's by far the best I've ever seen, like situational football, like knowing the exact right play to have the right personnel on the right, on the right hash. Like, that's just, that's like manna from, from, from the heavens, you know, to be able to have that type of skill set.

Was it fun playing for him too, where, you know, like he's going to take a shot?

Yes.

Like, you're going to get your shots because I think it's frustrating for fans. And probably for players too, when you play on an offensive system where it's like they're not going to try to take shots and take the top off. That was what I love watching Bruce Arians like, you know, the shots are coming and he's going to keep hitting them because if all you got to do is hit one of them and you can change the game.

You never had to worry about getting opportunities. Like, honestly, he was— he was— he wanted 8 explosives a game and he was going to— he was going to take 10 to 12 shots. Right. That's just what he was going to do. And it kept teams honest because it allowed them allowed you to be able to make a lot more intermediate plays because the threat of the over-the-top was always present.

Did you ever— did you know that he drank paint as a kid?

Drank paint?

Yeah, he drank paint.

No, I had no idea.

He thought it was milk.

Well, yeah, he, he saw that like if you drink milk you're gonna grow up to be big and strong. And so his, uh, his parents were painting the house and they had this just big tub of paint and he went out, he said, that looks pretty good, it looks like milk. Yeah, drank paint. And he had to get his stomach pumped and they sent him home and then he tried to drink it again.

Yeah.

And they had to pump his stomach a second time.

That's your coach.

Which is probably actually the most healthy thing he's ever drank in his life.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

He drank paint.

Yeah. I had no idea about that.

Yeah, we made a song about it and everything.

It's crazy.

Yeah.

You know, he had more rushing touchdowns at Virginia Tech than Mike Vick. Dead serious.

Are you serious?

Yeah. That's crazy.

Yeah.

That's wild.

He's the original dual threat quarterback.

He's an all-time football legend. Football guy.

Yeah, he is. Yeah, he is.

All-time football guy.

Was there ever a time in your career where you came close to leaving Arizona?

Not on my own volition, but I know I was involved in some trade rumors, um, a couple different times. But obviously I had no, no say-so on that. But I never felt like I wanted to leave. You know, I got tired sometimes of losing, but that, um, you know, the grass is not always greener, you know, on the other side. As Tom Moore would say, the grass is greenest next to the septic tank, you know.

Yeah, there you go.

Yeah. Are you familiar with, uh, Arizona Cardinals superfan Cortez? Um, he's a guy who wears full helmet. He's got Cortez on his helmet.

Yeah, I have seen—

did you ever look up to him for inspiration during a game?

Um, I can't say that I have.

Okay.

All right.

I appreciate the fan.

He'll probably be in Canton Honestly, with the helmet on, I doubt it. No, no, if you see him, you got to shout him out.

If I do see him, I'll definitely go show him some love.

Listen, he's, he's, he's one of those guys, he's not in it for like— I don't even think he has social media. He's not in it for the fame. He's just, he's gonna strap up the pads when the boys strap up the pads, and he's ready to go on Sunday. That's just a fact with Cortez.

I love it, I love it.

Um, all right, uh, Zach, you want to come up? Rowback question, rhoback.com, promo code TAKE. 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. rowback.com, promo code TIG. Larry, this has been awesome, man. We really, really appreciate it. You've been on our bucket list for a while. We like— you've been— we saw you playing pickleball with Trent and Frankie. Yeah, we're like, man, we got to get Larry on. Yeah, he's, he's going.

The boys, they're not very good at—

yeah, well, you aren't either according to security guard.

Yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right.

It's all relative. All right, Zach, go ahead.

How you doing today, Larry? I had a quick question for you. I was curious, kind of on both spectrums of this question. Gearing up for a game on a Sunday, you're looking across the line of scrimmage. Who was like the one-on-one guy you know was just going to— you have to earn every yard and like if you're going to make the catch, he's going to really make you work for it. And then maybe the one-on-one guy of like you maybe woke up a little later in the morning, didn't have to prep so much for, it would be kind of sweet. Like your hardest competition on field and then maybe like kind of a gimme game on a Sunday?

Hard part about the last, the latter part of that is like if the guy was a, I thought he was a gimme, he probably wasn't going to be in the league very long. Like if somebody's getting feasted on, they're not going to be around long. Like it's just, it's just not, that doesn't how, that's not how it works. You know, they're trying to plug the gap. So there's nobody that comes to mind that was, that was like weak that I felt like, like was a limping gazelle on the Serengeti, you know, every time I played him. But the guy that messed with my sleep patterns for sure was Cam Chancellor. He's a Virginia Tech guy, played for Seattle. And, you know, obviously they have Richard Sherman, who will be a Hall of Famer. They got Bobby Wagner, who will be a Hall of Famer. Earl Thomas will be a Hall of Famer. And Cam Chancellor, I don't know if his numbers will support him being a Hall of Famer. But that guy was the heart and soul of that defense. And that defense went with him. He called the plays. He inspired. He held guys accountable.

Like, that dude was a man's man. And that's not somebody you want to cross, you know? And I don't want to cross him.

Good question.

Good question.

Follow up?

I think we're timed. Yeah, we can follow up. We are here at Lake Tahoe for the American Century Championship. Uh, last couple years, game of golf really blowing up, and you see some discourse online, maybe some unoriginal, maybe not some, uh, the most historical golf practices that guys say maybe shrink the game a little bit. Some instances you see on the course that not everyone agrees with. Is it— is— if it's all right with you, I'd like to run through a couple examples and see if you'd rather shrink these options on the course or maybe expand them and see more of it.

Okay.

Uh, first one, we're gonna go with Bluetooth speakers in the cart.

I am okay with them just depending on where we are, all right? So if I'm at— if I'm down at El Dorado at a Discovery property, you know, let loose. People playing with no shoes on, you got no shirts, having a good time. There's a— there's a place for it. But if I'm at Seminole, right, or I'm at Cypress Point or Pine Valley, that's— that's not really where that really makes a lot of sense, and it's part of the game. And so I understand that, you know, young people want to go out and have a good time. And I also understand there's, there's prestigious places that just is not allowed. So I'm good with, I'm good with either. All right.

What are we thinking about club head covers on the irons?

When Aaron Rye explained why he did it, I wanted to go get some iron covers. You know, your dad spent his last to be able to get you something really nice and to see a kid appreciate the effort of his parents, like, that, that means something. And so, like, I love the fact that he keeps them, you know, that, that's, that's something I respect and admire. So I'm good with that.

Couldn't agree more. Yes, sir. And then last one, uh, what are your thoughts on, uh, teeing up the ball in your second shot in the fairway?

No, I would, I would, I would prefer to be able to, um, you know, get a club blown drop out of a divot before you're able to tee it up in the fairway. Yeah.

All right, awesome. Thank you for your time, Larry.

Appreciate you, sir. Absolutely. And, and Zach's also a chess player. I know you, you play— how many games of chess do you play per day?

Who's a chess player?

Zach. Zach plays chess.

He's saying that very loosely.

No, no, he plays— no, he's on, he's on chess.com.

Thank you, thank you for being on our platform.

He's an early investor.

Yeah.

How many games do you play per day?

Um, blitz, probably 10, like 5-minute or less. And then I always have probably 3 or 4 games going at the same time. I I usually go to sleep playing puzzles, you know. Yeah. Working on my openings. It's just, it's a fun game. It's one that you, you never master. It's like golf. Like, you can play— like, you saw Scottie Scheffler a couple weeks ago shoot, shoot, you know, 60, and he was like, man, there's a couple I left out there. You're like, really? Like, you're never satisfied. And chess is the same way.

Yeah, he's actually a pretty good player.

If you're doing, uh, 10 games a day and puzzles before bed, we'll probably never be queued up together. But that's very impressive.

Well, Larry, thank you so much for doing this, man. We really appreciate it. And I look forward to getting your signed official retirement when the Badgers shock the world.

That's not going to happen.

And we're going to go— I'm hopefully going to go to the game, so we'll meet up at the game. All right.

But yeah, the funniest possible outcome is the Badgers lose by 10.

Yeah.

And yeah. And you win the bet.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I win the bet. And then, and then you're like, but we won the game.

No, but that doesn't count. I still lose, though.

Yeah, no, I know. That's what I'm saying.

Yeah.

You'll be happy for your son. Yeah.

How many, how many different NFL players' sons are on Notre Dame? It's like, I know Jerome Bettis, right?

Jerome Bettis. We have Bryce Young, Brian Young's son. We have Plastico Burress's son, Jemichael Finley, Caden Finley. We have James Flanagan. His dad played in the league for a little bit.

Yeah.

So Marcus Freeman, he believes in pedigree.

Yeah, that's a pretty unique environment in college football.

Wisconsin does not have much pedigree. Yeah.

The Evans.

His son does not.

His son's not coming. Oh, yeah.

Where I was thinking wide receivers. Listen, the Watts. We got to get the Watts to go.

Oh, of course.

Oh, Jim Sorgi's son. Actually just signed. Okay.

Yeah.

So I don't know if you ever heard of him.

Of course, who hasn't?

Backed up Peyton for a long time.

Super Bowl champion.

I know.

Yeah, pretty nice.

Where's Joe Thomas's kids?

Do we need to get them? Where the Watt boys at? I know, I tell you, the Watt brothers gotta— they got— we gotta start getting more kids going.

You know what, you know what's sad is that the Watt brothers would have never been at Wisconsin in today's day and age.

I know.

I mean, because I know JJ transferred in. What do you go to, Western?

Or you went to Central Michigan, but then, you know, he would have had 8 sacks the first year and he would have been at Ohio State. Or, yep, TJ would have gotten so much money.

Yeah, he would have been.

Although those guys are different, they might have stayed loyal.

They're, they're, they, they are loyal now. Yeah, but like when it's your first, you know what I mean? It's like you gotta, you gotta get the first one, you know.

Yeah, it's a different game now.

It's a different game.

It's a different game. Well, Larry, thank you so much, man.

Thank you.

Thanks for having me.

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Okay, Fire Fest of the week, Henry, you're up.

Yeah, I got a, I got a few. Uh, I got like the last couple weeks I gotta get through. Okay. First one, uh, the Dillente brothers, like some, some fallout after we recorded the podcast.

Dillente Island.

After the Jalen Brown emergency podcast.

Oh, what happened?

I, that day I think I went back after we recorded, I took a little nap, woke up around noon, and then I was walking into the bar to like get some food, uh, at the pool, and I just hear Double D like, whatever this guy wants, put it on my tab. He's the only guy sitting at the bar.

So that's a nice move.

Yeah, nice move.

I go, Double D, sound like a Fyre Festival.

I go, I go and sit next to him, and he's all just smiling, like, kind of gives me like one of these, like, you don't like to be touched.

Uh, no, I don't like to be— I don't like when you touch me.

And then he was like, when's the pod coming out? And I thought it was more just like, here, you know, like, what, how's your work day going? I'm I don't know, might be out now. Like, we recorded a few hours ago. Like, it'll be coming out later this afternoon. He's like, okay, yeah, I spent my whole morning listening to like every other Boston sports like podcast. I was like, oh, you don't care about the podcast coming out. Like, you just want to listen. Like, he was like a fiend. Yeah, yeah. Like, you got some of that pod? Like, yeah, you got any of that podcast?

So hold on, just pause real quick. So thus far, Double D paid for all your drinks and is a diehard AWL. Yeah, good. Sounds like a— well, it sounds like— no, it's okay.

I was drunk, we recorded the podcast, I fell asleep and woke up and was just like, this is the literally the last first person I want to be dealing with this morning.

Your breakfast, your lunch, and your drinks.

No, and then just one drink.

And then he paid for your salary by listening to the podcast.

Yes.

Yeah.

What else do you want?

Okay, uh, this is my Fyre Fest, so you also forgot the part where we were eating lunch and he, he saw that we were eating lunch from across the pool. No, this was starts coming over with a shit-eating grin, and my mom catches him on the way over, and she's like, let him eat lunch, let him eat lunch. And he turns around like a little kid that just got like yelled at, going back to his seat at the pool.

Yeah, that was awesome.

And then, yeah, Max, Max went away, and I was at the pool later, and I get Double D comes up to me from my— like, on, on land, and he's like, yo, he hits you from land?

Finally.

So he lets me from land, by sea and by land.

And I stand up, and, and he's you know, again, like making fun of me about the Jaylen Brown thing. Then his brother comes up to me by sea, like in the pool behind me. So I'm like standing facing one brother, and then from the other, like behind me, the D'Alente brothers did D-Day to you.

Yeah.

And then it gets better.

Nick's 6-year-old daughter gets out of the pool, like by, you know, storming the beach in Normandy, and then just comes up and was like, bing bong, Hanky, and then like jump back in the pool.

And so they are literally SEAL Team 76.

Celtics.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's incredible.

It was just, it was like, it was, it was the worst way to spend that, the Jalen Brown news day you could ever imagine if you're a Celtics fan. Uh, fast forward a few days, Max's wedding, beautiful wedding, beautiful ceremony. Uh, Nick, his other brother, is giving the, the best man speech. And I think at one point he was kind of, he was like scanning the room. He's like, oh, you know, Max loves sports. And he's like, Hank, yeah, we used to have like Patriots, Eagles. Now we got Sixers, Celtics. Like, it was kind of a, it was a random shot, but not really a shot.

The best man speeches were late. Nick had a couple drinks and he was hammered.

Yeah, he was hammered. But that one was like, you could tell that one was kind of written in. Like, it was like a Max Phillips Philly sports.

There was a point, his speech was like, make sure you roast Tank.

No, that was like written in as like a Max. That was like kind of like, he's just like, you know, you're mentioning other people like during the speech.

Like that playful ribbing.

Yeah. Probably 5 minutes later in the speech, I don't know how much longer, he's just drunk scanning the room and he's like, yeah, and you know, Hank's over there. Hank, we all know you hate the USA. And then he just moved on. And the next day I was like, what the fuck was that? He's like, oh yeah, I said you hated USA soccer. I was like, no, you just said USA. So like 90% of this wedding was just like, what?

Wait, but that also—

This guy hates America?

That's not totally wrong.

It is totally wrong. I've never said that. I love America. I love this country.

If we did a— if we did an entire— if we went to court and we're like, hey, this guy wants all of our football games abroad, he roots for Dominican Republic, he roots for Cape Verde, he kind of hates America.

He hates America and he loves—

let me just get this straight. You're not gonna— you guys aren't gonna root for any other team in the World Cup now?

I'm just rooting for Messi.

Now that—

so you hate America?

No, I'm just Messi.

I'm gonna root for who I put my American currency on.

Yeah, I'm not rooting for Argentina. I'm rooting for Messi.

That's crazy. I didn't know that was part of being Americans, that you couldn't have any— well, also likes of any other countries.

And timeout. We are also rooting for these teams now that America is out of the tournament. You rooted for Dominican Republic and Cape Verde when America was still in the tournament.

Yeah, I guess again, like, I don't think I would like to see what the judge said if that was your—

no, the judge would definitely side with us.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't think so.

Dominican Hank, that guy hates America.

So Dominicans hate America?

No, no, you specifically, you have a choice.

You rooted for the Dominican Republic against the United States.

The US was in the tournament.

Got it. All right, yeah, I'd like to see what the judge has to say.

Okay, we'll go, we'll find a judge.

Um, so yeah, that was the wedding part, and then leaving the wedding, I Left on Sunday, 10 AM shuttle from the— from Oyster Bay. Beautiful resort. I got to— I got to Lake Tahoe Monday night at 10:45 PM. So it was a 40-hour travel day. I flew to Newark. Our— it was like a transfer. We're going Newark to Chicago, like 8 o'clock flight. That flight got delayed a couple hours, delayed a couple hours. But I'm sitting there watching. You can see the tracker, like, where's my plane coming from? My plane was in the air going to Newark, so I was like, this plane's going to land. They're going to transfer it over. Like, the pilots are going to have enough time. Midway through that flight, that plane got diverted. So I was like, all right, that— our flight home's canceled. Try to get a 6 a.m. flight to get back to Chicago so I can get on the original flight to Tahoe. That plane I was checking, and then that was from LaGuardia, so I had to take a 45-minute Uber from Newark to a different airport in New York. Just to be, like, close to the hotel, just to be close to the airport so I can wake up early.

Right before I go to bed, it's like 12:30. That flight diverted, canceled. Uh, so I wasn't getting here with you guys on the PJ. Then I had to book— there was, like, there was no flights to get here. I booked a flight to Reno, took forever, flew to Denver, flew to Reno, drove here. And the whole time, every step of the way, Big Cat's just texting me being like, oh, wish you were here, we miss you, we're golfing right now, this is awesome.

Again, another good friend move. I think of my friends when they're not around.

Hey, can I tell you something?

It just reminded me of Grit Week a couple years ago when you freaked out.

I was on the way home. Different, different. Made a mistake, different.

Took it out on me. I was just screwed by the airline.

Well, the DeLente screwed you, and I didn't say— I didn't say, oh, you're screwed, like, Hank, you fucked up. I just said We're golfing. Also, I wasn't the only one who said that. Memes said it about 1,000 times.

Hey, more specifically, it wasn't— it was Max that screwed you by getting married and inviting you to that very, very, very nice resort that you spent time at. And the fact that they didn't have any flights out on, uh, on Friday or Saturday or Sunday. Like, when did you fly out?

Sunday morning.

Sunday morning. And there were, there were no flights out.

Max screwed you. I just wished you were there.

We had a great time.

So hey, did I not find us a really good wedding? Was— did I not—

wedding was Friday, so you're saying I just don't go to the wedding to get back?

No, there would have been—

yeah, there are no flights out on Saturday.

Saved yourself the roasting from Double D.

Yeah, no, that was Nick—

Nikki D. Oh, Nikki D. So, uh, hey, to be fair, also, while we— you would have loved playing golf, so we wanted to keep you updated on our golf round. You like watching people's— you—

I'm gonna read some of these texts. Okay, all right, while you read it, while you read it, let me, let me just Keep in mind, I'm sleeping in an airport and you guys are like—

let me ask two questions. Hey, you called me, let me ask you—

like you didn't know what my situation was.

I got confused. That was just confusion that was on the show. Let me ask you two questions, Hank. One, would you have loved playing golf with us on Monday?

Yes.

Okay, so where was I wrong on that? Two, uh, did I not find us a golf round at an incredible exclusive club that I paid for that you never thanked me for? 2 days later.

Okay, true.

Okay, so yeah. Oh, I'm sorry, but like, this is— wait for the thing. I'm still waiting for that thank you.

I'm, I'm, I'm Fire Fest waiting for that thank you. Thanks, Big Cat. I paid for your golf the other day multiple times. What did you say thank you? Uh, one at Sydney Marovitz, one at Beverly.

Wait, you did not pay at Sydney?

I did.

I definitely did. Pre-book it, dude.

I, I've, I've gone in and paid for everyone. I don't ask for thank you. That's just how it goes.

No, no, no, we'll have to double check because book that online and pay online with my credit card.

I'll pull up, I'll pull up my statement.

Okay.

What you do have to do there, because I did that the time we played, is you have to go in if you want to get carts. You have to pay for the carts. Oh, okay.

Sorry. I thank you for the cart.

Oh, paid for a full round.

It's fine. $130. Sorry, I, I will pay for that next time.

Well, like, yeah, that's how I feel.

What do you mean?

I'm not going to be demanding. Thank you.

No, I, I'm just saying the point of you're mad that I, I chirped you a couple times being like, I wish you had played golf with us on Monday. I then found gave us one of like the most exclusive courses to play 2 days later and got us on that course.

Well, I'm talking about my— this was my Fyre Fest as I was living it. Like, you're talking about like what happened 3 days later. I was like, I was fucking pissed off all day and you guys were rubbing it in.

I feel like I've read it wrong.

Hank, we missed the fuck out of you, bro.

Who said that? You. Okay, shit.

We're all gutted you won't be golfing with, with us today. Memes reluctantly is taking your spot. I had to make them.

I don't see—

I was like, gonna be a great video. I said, can't do a golf video without a golf guy. Uh, it's facts. What else did you say?

No one else said anything. Memes did say he was gonna— he missed Tank a thousand times.

Hank, how you doing?

That was okay.

Checking in, seeing how your travel day is going.

Here's saying, where's Hank? And just going up to everyone saying, where's—

here's me telling— here's me saying, uh, what's the bet tonight? I really want to bet PFT's parlay. Let's turn this shit around. Yeah, you want to take back that USA thing?

Yeah, no, that was good.

Yeah, thank you.

I think I said— and then what I say—

wait, wait, wait, wait, because that's after the DeLente roast. They, they turned you into being a USA fan. They shamed you into it.

I had—

should we open a tab with the cart girl or not? I've never played this course.

I've never played the course.

This is all while I'm just sitting, literally sitting in a hellscape airport.

We had, we had the Hank doll. We took a picture of the Hank doll.

I didn't say— oh yeah, where's that Hank? You're just coming after me? I had nothing to do with taking a picture of the Hank doll and sending it to you.

But I was just saying, like, Hank would love this.

You want to, you want to maybe spread this around a little bit?

I said— Memes just said Hank, you would have loved it. I mean, the Hank doll.

You're only coming after me.

That—

no, the Hank—

there's the Hank doll.

And who sent that?

Memes. But like, memes— I hate memes. That's not like— all right, there's nothing that memes can do that's gonna like— I expect that from me.

That's a fair response. That I actually—

I—

that's very funny and very fair. What about PFT? PFT is the one in the Hank doll picture. He's the one who brought the Hank doll.

I did not— to be fair, I didn't realize I had— I just keep—

you didn't expect that from PFT?

I just keep that thing on me.

Yeah, I would. Yeah, I didn't bring it out here just to troll. I think what we're getting to is like, I— we're just such good friends that you— and I own that. I'll own that part. I shouldn't have— I, I own that. These guys are mean to you. I shouldn't have done that. I own that. I, I actually have turned this around into we're just such good friends and I got to be a better friend. I like that. That's a good experience.

And I, I would— I I actually wouldn't have done the same thing because I know it's like I'm not that much of an asshole, but it was like, it just sucks to be stuck in an airport and your friends are rubbing it in your face.

But then we had a great—

no, you say that, but I was thinking, I would— then I was thinking the whole time, I was like, remember when Big Cat forgot his passport and freaked out on me?

Yeah, I mean, that was also on the way because I was existing. Like, I wanted you to say anything.

Hey, can I say, right, but like, I want to give Big Cat credit.

Situation.

I also, I also came clean, said I was being a bitch.

I want to give you a chat.

Tomorrow you hopefully will say that to me.

I want to give Big Cat credit for one thing.

I'm not—

as we're playing this round of golf, as I was— as it was on Monday, as we're playing this round of golf, I opened up the 18 Birdies app and I said, I, I think I'm going to— because Hank and I are friends on it— I said, I think I should invite Hank to follow along with my round on 18 Birdies.

I actually, I actually would have liked that.

Oh really? Okay, the big cat said don't do that. That's—

I said that was me. Yeah, no, it would have been me and then I had nothing to do.

That would have been fun to follow. I would have been chirping you the whole time.

I said, I think Hank likes to follow when I play, but also you're right, that would be mean.

I was like, we're going too hard on this.

I would have, I would have liked that.

I fucked up everything. But again, don't do that.

Get credit for trying to not be a dick.

Yeah, I was literally like, hey, no, we've gone too far, we've, we've texted him enough, like, just leave him alone. I said that to PFT on the golf course.

But you acknowledge you went too far.

Thank you. Yeah, I was saying that.

Case closed. All right, anyway, this is all, this is all, this is all my Fyre Fest as I was living in Monday.

How nice.

Beautiful part. I'm not, we're not even there yet. Lake Tahoe is the best. And like, once I was driving here, like, Monday night, like, once I got here, I was like, I'm it, it, it went away instantly. Like, it was 39 hours of hell, but like, once I got to Lake Tahoe, I was like, yeah, this place is the best. So it was a tough Monday. Tough Mondays happen, that's the way she goes. But once we got here, it's been great vibes.

Tahoe week.

Also, this was Max's fault, 100%.

Delente's— the Delentes are a curse. Like, I like the, the brothers. I hope I never see them ever again because every time I see them, bad things to happen to my teams.

That's true, but good things happen to our team, right?

They've done—

I don't want to happen. So it's like, yeah, good guys have a good life.

Memes, can you do the Photoshop of Hank on the couch and all the DeLentes around him, behind him? Thank you.

The Hank, how you doing? Is that— that was a just genuine text. I'm reading it back right now and I'm getting blamed for saying Hank, how you doing? That was a gen— as genuine a text as it gets. My text, we were just standing on this beautiful golf course with the beautiful mountains, and I just thought you would have loved it.

Yeah, yeah, that pissed me off a lot. I like—

like, the only text that I made that was mean was the, the open the tab with the cart.

It's also like, everything else I was just actually asking, how are you doing? No shit text of all time. Like, you could have been at— like, you could have been at any course and been like, you would have loved this.

Like, I know. And then I just said, hell yes, we missed you at golf. That's not mean.

What about the phone call on Sunday night?

That was PFT calling you, and you were saying— I was like, I, I think I asked you what's up, and then you reminded me that you were stuck, and that was—

yeah, what was that mean?

But we're all gutted you won't be golfing. Let's say memes reluctantly is taking your spot.

Like, no, that one was Yeah, but the other ones, like, I did— I was genuinely asking, how are you doing? I shouldn't get blamed for how are you doing.

I still don't— I don't understand.

After all the sarcastic texts, it's like, it's all sarcasm. Like, you want me to give a bad update so you guys can sit there and laugh? Again, I was— I was mad because I was stuck in an airport, so I was just not— every text I was not happy with.

That's fair. How was golf on Wednesday?

Golf on Wednesday was great.

Great.

Beautiful course. Great time.

Happy we were able to—

thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I owe you everything.

How'd you shoot?

Uh, I shot well.

Shot a 44. That's really good.

Striping it.

Turn the week right around.

We only played 9 holes, obviously.

Oh well, you don't have to—

you never know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, okay, is that it? Anything else?

I'm fat again, but that's— that is what it is.

I didn't expect the whole Firefest to turn against me, but it's— I'll own it. I'll own it.

Not the whole Firefest. It was— it was The Double D's. And again, that was— it was just—

it was—

yeah, it was— it was—

that was good. Memes gets— I, I like that Memes gets a pass because he— you expected from him. Well, you missed your playing Rocks for me because I got to play that and I won some money off PFT. Like, it was a good day for me.

Yeah, yeah, a lot of money.

That's being what he's doing right now.

No, I like— I, that—

I got his opportunity.

Yeah, he's making the most of an opportunity.

I would have never—

I would have never played that too because you weren't there.

There.

Yeah, I'll say it, I was pretty— I appreciate how strong you were at the airport because then everything moved around. We— a couple of us got to hit the lake and the lake was beautiful. So I appreciate how strong you were in the, in the airport.

You're welcome.

Hey, I think it's like one of those situations you get the maddest at like the people you love the most, you know what I mean? Like the— like you can't— you know that like family can't— they're not, they're not gonna get rid of you. Like you can't, you can't break up family. So it's like you'll get more mad at your siblings or your parents like they know than a friend. That's what's going on right now.

It's also like how he hates the double D's, right?

Yeah, right, right, exactly. It's like he knows, like, you can get mad at that because, like, hey, we're gonna be fine. We're gonna— we've made it through everything, so we'll be just fine. If anything, you should be concerned because you did send the— you did send the picture of Hank in the—

no, no, no, I, I posed for the picture. It was my idea to take the picture, and it was your doll that you kept with you, but Memes took the picture and sent the picture.

Okay, all right.

I did not send it. Yeah, I did ask Memes to send me the picture so I could send it to Hank, but then I saw that Memes already sent it.

I was the only one who said nothing because I did feel personally responsible.

Yeah, it was your fault.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I said nothing.

100%.

Hank, it— okay, so now that we've established this was a bad trip for you, I'm sorry.

No, it was a good trip. No, we established it was a bad Monday. How great trip.

Great trip.

Like after, you know, the, the luxury of time passing a little bit, are you feeling any better about the trade?

No, a little bit, but no. Slight— like, I was feeling absolutely dogshit terrible about it.

Mmhmm.

I would say now it's just dogshit terrible. Like, we've gone up a—

Taken away the "absolutely." Yeah.

Uh, one last question, Hank. What time did you get in on Monday night?

Uh, 10:45.

Was there anything in your room?

Yeah, Jacob McCollum met me. Uh, they got me some laundry detergent so I could do my laundry, 'cause I obviously didn't I was supposed to go in Chicago, repack, come here. I just have my wedding, my wedding week linens and outfits, uh, but we have laundry in our room. So Zach— I mean, Jacob and, and Colton got me some laundry and they got me some balloons and Reese's sticks.

Whose idea was that?

I didn't know. The card wasn't signed. Oh, and it was mine. They were the ones that stayed up.

It was my idea. To get you that stuff.

Well, you should—

you should— Zach too.

If you had signed the card, I would have said thank you. I didn't know it was just a card. I assumed it was Jacob and Colton because they were—

no, it was Zach. Was it? Who, whose idea was it to get him that stuff?

We were just the messenger. It was Big Cat's idea to—

oh, thank you. I, I thank them because they were there, but I didn't— and the card wasn't signed. But thank you.

You'd be mad at Madison, the people you love the most. It's fair.

I didn't, I didn't know it was from you.

That's actually why I was mad, most mad at you last year for it because I know that I can be mad at you and we'll be okay. Yeah, that's it. We're just doing— we're replaying. It's fair. It's all fair. This is all fair game.

Yeah, I just didn't rub it in your face.

But yeah, I mean, let's ask you, how you doing? And we played a great round yesterday.

I mean, that again, you're— I'm just telling you how mad I was Monday. You're acting like the players' day is going to take away how mad I was Monday. I'm not mad. Once I got here Tuesday, you were good. I was good.

I saw those balloons.

I was just angry. And I, I took PFT's parlay. I really, really wanted to win that bet and had to watch that game and just, it was, it was devastating.

It feels like now you're just mad. Now you're just turning on me for giving you a bad parlay.

You brought up, I'm just going, well, I'm just going through my Monday and where my anger was at throughout the day. And early it was Big Cat memes. Late it was you and this country.

United States. Yes, in the United States. You guys, you got— you fell back on your old flame to hate the United States.

You were mad too. What do you mean?

I was mad. I was right madder than you.

Yeah, yeah, maybe not on Monday.

That's true.

What's your Fyre Fest PFT?

Uh, well, I mean, that's hard to top, Hank. Yeah, that's a tough Fyre Fest. Um, my Fyre Fest is I accidentally stole a car on Tuesday. So, hand up, that one's on me. Uh, we rented 2 cars from the airport and then we drove them to the hotel. I rode with Big Cat on the way to the hotel. Uh, the other guys drove the other car. And so I was in Big Cat's car when we got to the hotel. Got out, went out, watched the, uh, soccer game, played a beautiful round of golf with Memes. And then, uh, Tuesday morning, woke up, came out here to tape the pod., and I had to pick up the, uh, the rental car from the valet at the hotel. So I gave them my last name and they brought the car around. I got in the car, there was nothing in the car, drove away, uh, drove up to this, uh, this beautiful recording space that we have here, got out, recorded an entire episode of Pardon My Take, and then got back into the car to drive to the golf course where we filmed a golf video.

As we got to that golf course, as we get to the car to leave from here, uh, we started looking for— Max, was it your set of clubs?

My golf clubs.

You started looking for Max's golf clubs in the back of the rental car that I had, and they were nowhere to be found. And then we stood around and I said, this might not be our rental car, because it was the same make and model, different color. The rental car that we did get was white, uh, the one that they gave me at the valet was like a dark gray.. And so we just sat around thinking to ourselves, like, is this— did they give me the wrong car? And then I asked Big Cat, I was like, is this, is this the wrong car that we have? And Big Cat said, I was going to say something. I don't think that's the right car.

Yeah, I was the whole time. I was like, I feel like it was a white car, not a dark green car. But I also watched you like— I watched the valet give you the keys and you walk confidently. So I was like, maybe I misremembered it.

Yeah. So I go back to the car., and I drive it back to the hotel and all the valet guys are waiting for me at the front. I was like, I think I got the wrong car. And they're like, yeah, you definitely have the wrong car. Uh, by the way, the person that owned that car left a bottle of water in the center console and I, I pounded that. So sorry for drinking your water. Uh, so we, so we get back there and they, they bring around the other car and the valet's like, yeah, the guy that owns this car, he was actually supposed to go to the airport to pick his wife up this morning. And he didn't have a car, so we had to take him in a shuttle there and back.

Oh my God.

Yeah, yeah. And yeah, and so I said, hey, that's my bad, that's my bad. I probably, I probably should have known what color rental car that we had. Um, but I, I don't know, I, I will take, I'll take a certain amount of, I don't think I should have all the blame. No, yes, but I'll take, I'll take like 33% of the blame.

Leaving the car running and, well, yeah, I was gonna get, I was gonna ask that part too.

Yeah, yeah. So then when, when I got here, I, I stepped out —because I've been conditioned through some of the cars that I've owned, uh, that it's got like a proximity thing where you step out and then the car automatically turns off. So I'm not— I'm out of practice hitting the button. You want to shame him? And then taking the key.

Yeah, no, I— everyone was at the first tee box and I had to go return something to the car, and I ran back to go return it, and I was like, this car just still on.

Still. Yeah, yeah.

And it would have been still on if I didn't have to bring something back.

To the car. That would have been actually poetic if somebody then stolen my car. Yeah, yeah. After I stole somebody else's, I think I deserve like, yeah, about a third of the blame for, for stealing the rental car. Where's the car now? Uh, the car right now is in this parking lot. Okay. Yeah, we got the keys. We've— I've got the keys. I've got eyes, I've got eyes, ears on it. So yeah, I, I technically kind of partially committed grand theft auto before Grand Theft Auto came out. Yeah, this—

listen, it happens. Felt like a badass. I mean, it's more the valet was probably freaking out.

Yeah, that's a big thing that they were like, it's my fault, it's my fault, it's my fault.

Yeah, they were sweating. Um, but I kind of wish I'd gotten pulled over driving the stolen— that would have been awesome.

It was also funny that it was like, uh, we've just been doing it for like a, what, 800-yard drive?

Yeah. Well, they did. That's a 12-minute walk.

Yeah, uphill, uphill, uphill. That's, that's—

and, and altitude. We—

Zach, I did it yesterday.

You would have known about the altitude if you were there Monday, Hank.

We did the walk the other—

and it's hard, it's hard walk.

The other full loadouts.

Yeah, we had full loadouts.

They didn't even try to call me. I figured that they would have tried to like let me know that, hey, this car has been this car that you have, it's not yours. But I didn't know— no one did that. Yeah, well, whatever.

Um, okay, uh, my Fyre Fest is, uh, Team USA lost. And, uh, I missed the fuck out of my guy Hank on Monday when we were playing golf. Yeah, that's— I really wish he was there with us.

You would have loved it. How'd you guys play? Decent. Really good on the first hole. I've got a problem that I'm trying to solve, which is I For the last, like, 10 rounds that I played, I always, like, par the first hole and I feel great, and then the wheels fall off for, like, the next 3 holes. Some mental coach out there has to be able to help me with that. Max's solution was it's good that you're nervous on the first hole. Maybe you just get too calm, you have to get re-nervous on every hole.

You have a good hole and then you're like, oh, I'm good at golf. Yeah. And then, and then you, you go to the next hole thinking that you're good at golf And then you become bad at golf.

Then I go back to being bad. But I'm— I don't know what it is. I need to just trick myself into thinking I'm on the first tee.

Yeah, the starter's there, starter's watching, everyone else is behind you. There's, there's just more pressure on the first hole and you just relax a little too much.

Yeah, there's something going on upstairs. I need, I need a psychologist or OZ to contact me and let me know what to do.

Also, reverse fire fest, we got a resolution to the, uh, onion situation. From last year, Shane. We went back to the scene of the crime and we got an apology. I demanded an apology from, from the restaurant for lying to Shane about the onions in the tuna salad. And we made the— we righted the wrong. And Shane got his— he ate with us and we had a great time. Shane, this is a famous storm out situation last year. Yeah.

I mean, coming back here is obviously something that was weighing on my mind the entire time.

So it was nice to—

Yeah, you didn't want to go back.

He's not lying when he says that. He— it was weighing on his—

I mean, it was also involved in almost every conversation.

Yeah, but it was weighing on your mind.

And that whole— that whole day, you guys like, you ready for onions tonight?

Yeah, we're like, we're gonna get redemption.

This is—

yeah, yeah. But it felt good, right? Yeah. Also, I hate to have beef with anybody, so like— yeah, it was, uh, the guy was a— the guy who took our order was a Stoolie. Very, very cool guy. And, uh, it was very funny because we did a— it was like 10 of us, we all ordered, and then he came to our table. This is after the apology, after we made good. Shane was like, all right, I'll order dinner, I'll sit here, I'll dine at this restaurant. They hugged it out. Yeah, they hugged it out, everything. The guy comes up to our table, he's like, hey, I accidentally deleted one sandwich, can we just go over everyone's order again? And the one sandwich he deleted was Shane's. And I wish he had not come up and fixed that because that would have been incredible if we had gotten all our food and your food just wasn't there.

That would, that would be past the breaking point. There's no return there. That would be ultimate beef for life.

Yes. Yeah, you would. And I would your back. I would have had your back on that one.

You'd become the Joker.

The onion thing, you were a little bit ridiculous. You were being a little bit of a child. But the other stuff, I would have, I would have been like, let's rock.

How did the role play help? I feel like you were confident and calm when you had that conversation at the restaurant. I mean, yeah, anytime, anytime you can practice something, get reps in, it makes, it makes the game time a lot easier. So, so true. Yeah, no, I was happy you guys helped me through that. But okay, I was happy to see growth from you, Shane.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, it was strong.

Zach, uh, my Firefish of the week, uh, kind of Firefish to everybody because, you know, uh, unfortunately Portugal did lose and will, uh, will no longer be able to see Ronaldo play on the world stage.

Ah, he, uh, is that true? Maybe not.

Well, he, he—

did you see what happened today?

Wait, wait, wait, full transparency, no, because it's about 9:30 and I, I didn't— I wasn't online that much this morning.

Uh, wait, what happened? They hired— Portugal hired, uh, Ronaldo's club coach to coach Portugal for the next World Cup. So everyone's connecting the dots and being like, he's def— and the World Cup is in Portugal.

Oh, so that's a hometown, home team victory right there.

So they're basically like, there's no way that this guy's actually retiring. He's gonna do the exact same thing in 4 years.

They're gonna do it in Portugal. Portugal's actually going to qualify.

Well, no, they don't have to qualify.

I know, but They could if they—

if they know, but they don't have to.

They'll get the invite, but they could if they needed to.

They don't— we don't get a free invite this year.

They do. Yes, but we needed our free invite. Ronaldo never needs a free invite.

Right. So he is playing. He's got— if he's going to—

if he's got the club coach for real and this isn't like a sick joke. No, then that would be awesome. I'm being serious. I love that for us. Then I take it back. Reverse Fyre Fest. This is a cool fest. Let's go.

Do you think that if Ronaldo was somewhat holding his team back in this World Cup, he's going to be better in 4 years?

I think there's a world where he can learn from this World Cup and realize that maybe he takes a different role on the team if he does play next World Cup. Not, not so much a cheerleader because he can contribute, but more so like maybe you let some of the young guys get in.

Sub them in in the last minute of extra time in case it goes to shootout.

That can be one of the attributes because he is phenomenal at those, even at— I guess he'll be 44 when the World Cup comes around. Uh, but yeah, hopefully he can kind of take a different seat on the team and then, you know, bring one home for Portugal. That'd be, that'd be awesome.

Do you think he's the kind of guy that would take a backseat?

He couldn't do it this year, but maybe, you know, you learn growth. Yeah. Okay. But he definitely couldn't do it this year, unfortunately.

Yeah. I'd also like to quickly say, for all the people that think I hate soccer, which I've said, uh, this, this, this week, every night, I've just been watching soccer documentaries. Untold Jamie Vardy. One of the best documentaries I've ever seen. Basically, Liam Gallagher became like a soccer player.

Did you call it a sockumentary? That's a good name for it.

Sockumentary. And then last night I was watching in Norwegian the Netflix documentary about like how they qualify for the World Cup. So. Alright.

Just something for the haters. Alright. Take that, haters.

Take that, haters. You should— Hank's been watching.

You should have watched the US one before. Yeah, you told me that.

I wasn't, I wasn't as into it then.

Yeah, you were just watching other countries.

Yeah, you like every other country's documentaries about soccer except for these. I started watching this week.

I'll watch it now.

Okay, well, now, yeah, now it's, now it's pointless. Yeah, yeah.

Jamie Vardy one's awesome. Cool. Okay, um, Max, you have anything? Any wedding recap?

Uh, I found out that I'm, I am Bridezilla.

Yeah, you are.

Yeah. I, my wife is very low maintenance and doesn't really care about like normal bride things. And I find out I really care. Cause when things went wrong, I started to freak out and stress and my wife literally couldn't have cared less about anything, but I was going around yelling at the wedding planner, yelling at the venue when like minimal things were going wrong. And it took me like a good 2 hours into the wedding for me to actually like enjoy it because I was stressed about things that weren't going perfectly. So I'm Bridezilla.

I found out I am the picture I just sent.

Let's see, this is Max before— right before the wedding started. So stressed.

Oh yeah, I was stressed. I was stressed. I'm, I'm an anxious guy. I'm an anxious guy and I wanted everything to go perfectly, but everything went perfectly, right? Yeah, everything, everything went great. Perfectly. Everything went great. Oh my gosh, I felt great in my suit. Shout out Conover Wellness for the needle.

Max, do you think that maybe, maybe she's like so calm and carefree because she knows that you've got her back and that you're gonna take care of it? That's good.

That's a good—

that's a good husband move.

But wedding week was awesome. Uh, truly like the best week of my life. I think everyone had a good time. Super fun. I, I won't ever do it again, but it was, it was delightful.

Yeah, that's a good thing to say.

You don't know that. Never again. But if you renew the vows— yeah, yeah, then maybe you just get crazy, and then we could have Hank back on.

I'm also a crier. I'm also a crier. Well, yeah, we know that.

I cried. You're an emotional Italian guy.

It's a beautiful thing. For at least 70% of this, it took me until like the last 30% of the ceremony for me to stop crying.

Yeah. If you renew your vow, that's, that's because somebody cheated, right? Yeah. People never, people never say like, hey, let's just renew the vows. Or if you just want to party.

Yeah, I guess. I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess a party.

That could also just be an anniversary party. But renewing the vows implies that maybe, maybe the vows need to be renewed.

Max, now you can do the, speaking of, you can do the fun trick that my wife loves when I do is when I introduce her to people as my first wife.

Yep. Yeah, that is technically true.

Yeah, she does not like that. Yeah, also not funny to her.

Did you guys talk about the— Max and Taylor Swift got engaged the same day and married the same day? Damn.

Not engaged the same—

I think we got engaged like the day after, but yes. Your wedding was better than Taylor Swift's.

My wedding was awesome. It was incredibly fun and like way more fun than I was expecting. Especially the day after. We all went to this—

better than we went to—

we went to the island, and I had— I kept saying the day after was better because I was so stressed the day of about everything going perfectly. And then the next day we just got absolutely blitzed. And like, boat picking us up from the resort, dropping us off at the island. We were there from like 11 AM to 5 PM. Just— we drank so much. We drank so much wine that they had to leave the little island off of St. Martin to go onto the island to get more wine to bring it back to us.

Hell yes.

So it was great. It was unbelievably fun. My card did get declined and Hank did have to put it on his card. What a guy. Um, I did pay, I did pay him back, but nice.

It was, it was, well, I was also like, it was like one of those things where it was, if it was like a club in like America, it would've been like 40 grand, but it was, but it was like under 10. Yeah. But it was, it was like, I was like, I got it, I got it. And I was like, I think I got it.

Uh, all right, good, good, uh, Tahoe week, boys. Another one in the books. Uh, we'll be back in studio on Sunday night. And I'll say this, Monday, big, big guests. It's an awesome, awesome interview.

Happy birthday to Jessica Simpson. Fuck. Love you guys.