Transcript of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Joe Burrow, Max Parties With The Eagles + Guys On Chicks And Fyre Fest

Hey, pardon my take, listeners. You can find every episode on Apple podcast, Spotify or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.

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On today's part in my take, Life Without Football, we have all the boys back. Max is back in studio. We've got two great interviews for you. Nba Commissioner Adam Silver. We've never interviewed a Commissioner, sitting Commissioner before. Very cool. Then we have our good friend Joe Burrow, who we interviewed at the end of Super Bowl week. We are going to talk a little Super Bowl fallout, Max's Night with the Eagles, Hot Seq, Cool Throne, Firefest. Then we're going on vacation, and we'll have Dungeon and Dragons for you on Friday. We're brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. Hey, basketball fans, are you ready to win real money? Check out Picks 6 from DraftKings when it comes to basketball payouts. Draftkings' Picks 6 dunks on its rivals, including prize picks. When you hit all your picks, you'll slam some higher minimum payouts on pick 6 than flex plays on prize picks. And best of all, you'll win even more cash if you posterize the competition. Track your picks for a shot at huge cash prizes. That's all there is to it. Pick 6 is available in most states, including Missouri, California, Texas, Georgia, and more.

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It was a sad realization waking up on Monday. I think we all felt a little bit empty.

Monday night, I ate a bunch of Girl Scout cookies, and I rewatched the Super Bowl. That's pretty good. It was on TV. I was just like, I need something to watch, and I just turned on. I was like, I guess I'll just watch this again.

I like that a lot. I started to get back into shows again on Monday. I watched The Night Agent. It was very strange not having sports bouncing around in the back of my head constantly thinking about what's going to happen in football. Then Tuesday comes around, and thank God... Excuse me, Monday night comes around, and thank God that the sports gods decided to bless us with Luca's debut.

Yes, Luca. Everyone's ready for Luca. Shout out, LeBron, for letting Luca be announced last. You see that story? Lebron had it. He texted Luca and said, Hey, you know what? I'm going to let you get introduced last. Then Luca was like, Thank you so much, but you'll go last after this. I'm just going to do tonight. We now have everyone breaking down Luca's smiles. I was breaking down- There's a lot of tweets being like, Look at Luca's smile.

I saw that. I was also very confused by LeBron James. We all I know that LeBron James in the past has said a lot of things, sometimes confusing. But one thing that he said that was very clear was back in 2015 when he told his teammates in a passive-aggressive way online, Stop trying to find a way to fit out and just fit in. Apparently, last night, he told Luca, Don't worry about fitting in. Just go out there and fit out. Oh, nice. Wait, what? So I don't get it. Yeah.

Well, I mean, it's reversed. He's just got to fit out now.

But that doesn't make any sense. Is he saying that he's out of fit, like out of shape?

He is out of shape. It's just a lot of people being like, Luca looks so happy. He's never been happier. He's never smiled before. Luca smiling on the bench after the first time out. That's probably because he's sitting, and it's painful for him to stand because he's so out of shape.

He did look big and pale in that Lakers yellow, didn't he?

Yeah, I'm telling you.

Lumbering up and down the court.

Lack of aura. But yeah, Luca and LeBron, they're officially a go. Look at that smile. It's so insane how many people So many people talking about Luka's smile.

Yeah, he's been saved from the basketball, Siberia. That is Dallas, Texas.

Yeah. Listen, he finally will get to play in the playoffs this year. Yeah. Wait a second. Also, did you guys see in Dallas, they finally started, so I think it was their second home game since the trade. They started letting fans actually be on the Jumbotron again, and then a fan got kicked out. They were doing a singalong portion, and they went to this guy. He was fakeholding a microphone, and he was singing, and then he just looked dead into the camera. He just said, Fuck Nico. Yeah. He got kicked out.

They kicked that guy out. Everybody in Dallas, if they show you on the Jumbotron there, you should say, Fuck Nico.

Oh, so funny. I like that a lot. So petty. Yeah, Luca, The Luca Show.

I'll tell you what, I think it might be Austin Reeve's team.

It's not Dalton Connect. If you want to talk about body language, he did not look happy.

Well, he had zero points last night. It was disgusting. They didn't JJ Reddick probably did the right thing and said, You don't have to worry about playing.

It's like a he said, she said. They're contesting the Mark Williams physical, so there's still a chance to don't connect.

But they're also saying, Oh, the Hornets wanted to trade for you. We didn't want to trade you. They just wanted you so bad.

Charlotte, they're the ones that are contesting the trade. They're like, No, he didn't feel the physical. It's actually, he's in the best shape of his life.

Yeah. They also came out with a Mark Cuban report, which was like, he really tried to Nico not to do it, but by the time he found out, the deal was done. Which I imagine a movie, Mark Cuban fell to his knees at Walmart, actually. Yeah. Wherever he was when he found that out, I think he actually fell to his knees.

Yeah. Mark Cuban was the woman when Trump was in 2016. Yeah.

Oh, Luca. They told him late, and Mark said that the biggest mistake of his entire career was trading Steve Nash. He was like, I don't want to make a mistake like that again.

They told him- No, he He didn't resign Jalen Brunson, too.

Yeah, it's true. He's made a couple of mistakes. He's made a couple of mistakes. Yeah, they just gave him a heads up like, Hey, Mark, just so you know, we're going to do this thing that you're going to hate, and you are powerless to stop it.

But in defense of us, Mark, Luka, he doesn't want it enough like a guy like Shaq. That's what's going on here. Did you guys see? Turns out the boycotters of the Super Bowl were not great because it hit a record, 126 million views. Now, they've changed how they've... Yeah, football's back.

Nice job. Football's back.

They have changed how they determine it. I think they're just counting everything now. But still, for all the people who are like, I'm not watching this, you got left out. What? What, Hank? Say it. It's a podcast.

Ratings have never really made sense. So this isn't a current thing because the Nielsen box, every time I heard how that system works, it didn't really add up to me. It didn't make sense. If they're just adding streaming numbers, they could just make up numbers. Correct. Which is what, I guess, all platforms and stuff do. But that means nothing to me.

Now, in other news, our boycott worked phenomenally. The Pro Bowl had its lowest ratings ever, I believe.

So we boycotted the right thing.

So we boycotted the right thing.

People followed us.

Made a difference. But then that means that we were just so starved for football that everyone just tuned back in in the Super Bowl.

Yes. Max, Max. Max is back.

Max.

Our conquering hero, Max Celente, world champion. Max, how are you feeling?

I feel I'm here.

Okay. Very hungover. How was the flight back? Were you surrounded by Chiefs fans?

Yeah, I was surrounded by Chiefs fans. Surprisingly, there was a decent amount of Eagles fans on that flight to Kansas City, which was-They're probably just going to pillage the city. Yeah, I don't know what. There was one guy that... I was sitting in the seventh row, the first one past first class, and there was this one guy who-No big deal.

No big deal. Yeah, that's comfort plus for all the people listening at home. Yeah, comfort plus.

There was a guy who literally just stopped dead in his tracks, and he just looked at me and was like, What the fuck are you doing on this flight?

The last guy you want to see.

Shout out that guy. It's like Max and Russell Wilson, the two last guys you want to be sat next to.

He didn't sit next to me. He was just walking down the aisle and saw me, and he was just so disappointed that my face was what he saw after losing the Super Bowl like that.

That's his worst nightmare He went to bed just having nightmares about Philly fans like Max bouncing around his head. He's like, he's everywhere. That motherfucker is not real.

Tell us about Sunday night after we left you, after you did a bunch of shoes. You went out, you partied. You're with the team?

I was with the team.

That's incredible.

Big Dom absolutely hooked it up. We got into the section with the players and their friends and family and stuff, so that was cool. We were a little bit late getting to the party, so some people were leaving as we were coming in, but there were still some big names in that little section.

Give me some names. What names were in that section?

Also, give us names of people who maybe came up to you instead of you going up to them.

That's only one person. I would like you to guess. I think you'll get it within two tries. Okay. A. J.

Brown. Reid Blankenship.

Bang.

Reid Blankenship came up to me and was like, Wait a minute. You're the guy from Barstool, right?

Hell, yes. Shout out Reid.

So shout out Reid. That's my guy. But I All jokes aside, that was a surreal moment. He's been an integral part of this team all year. He was great. Then being at this Super Bowl after-party and then him coming up to me, and I was like, This should be the other way around.

No, that never gets old. That never ceases to blow my mind. When we interviewed Lane Johnson, Kam Jurgen's was like, Oh, what's up, Big Cat? As we were walking in the hallway, I was like, Oh, shit. That's fucking cool. You're about to go play in a Super Bowl. Who else did you talk? Did you see nick Siriani?

I saw nick Siriani was getting after it. Yes. He was just walking around with a cigar in his mouth the whole time, There was a server that would come. He was ripping tequila shots. As he should. He was having the time. He went up on stage and he did that whole thing.

What's that whole thing?

He sang a speech talking No.

We know that whole thing. You're now-Coaching? We didn't go to this party with you. You know that.

Well, it wasn't like it was online.

It's a famous thing that nick Serrano does after he wins a Super Bowl. It's his deal. That whole He's saying my way?

No, he's saying this, I can't play this song. Oh, vibing.

That's what this tweet says.

No, but he sang a song that was talking. It was basically, Everybody's talking all this stuff about me. That's what he did.

Okay, that's good.

I don't like that from Hank at all.

Hank didn't like the song choice. Hank, what song would you sing on stage? What would be the Hank thing that he's known for?

I played Don't Stop, Rick Ross. That's what they played at the first Super Bowl party I went to. It was electric.

Okay. It was a good choice.

Sexy Red was the performerArmer.

Oh, nice. All right. Then who else did you talk to? Did you take pictures with anyone?

I took no pictures with anyone.

Why? That was what I woke up. I woke up.

I took no pictures.

Me too. Ready to see the chaos.

It's good because you're in the content game, and it's better if we just don't have any pictures.

Yeah, I took no pictures. I don't know. I felt a million people are going up to them asking for pictures. They're trying to enjoy their Super Bowl night, and I just wanted to... I just wanted to enjoy everything that was going on without being annoying.

Okay. But you were a million and one pictures.

As someone who's been there before, you're going to want to look back and regret. At least you'll have those. You can just look back on the memories.

Yeah, which you definitely don't. You're not really doing a good job with your words.

Yeah, no, I was living in the moment.

It was great. All right. Did you talk to anyone else? Did you pay with anyone else?

Yeah, I walked in. The first people I saw were Chris O'Connor and Shane Gillis. Okay, love it. They were fired They were fired up.

Funny Chris O'Connor, side note, he was texting me throughout the Super Bowl, demanding that I ask John Gruden why the Eagles wouldn't do a play-action play and throw it over the top. He literally would be like, Can you ask Gruden? I think my first reply was, Ha, ha, I will. He's like, No, I'm dead serious. Ask him right now. He just kept on texting me like, It's open. It's open. Then they hit the Devante Smith, touched out. He's like, See? It's open. He was just obsessed with it.

Chris O'Connor was He was the main character of that party. He rocks. He was forming a dance circle, and only himself was in the middle dancing in the circle. It was awesome.

What was Pug doing at this party?

Pug got a picture of Seriani. Okay.

Good. Can we see that picture? I haven't seen that picture.

We'll pull up that picture.

Where can I find this picture?

So Pug took one, Ron took one. You were just like, No.

I want these guys to be friends with me for life. I bet you, nick Seriani is like, Who is that fucking dude in the boot that didn't ask for a picture? I need that guy.

I do like how in Max's mind, he's like, Me and Seriani, we're too close for that. That would be weird if I went up to him and asked him for a picture. It's like, I can do that whenever I want.

Yeah, no. Looking back, I probably should have asked for a picture.

I get it, though. You don't want to be annoying. They got cameras over, but I'm telling you like that, at that point, they do not give a fuck.

And in 10 years, you're going to be like, Yeah, I wish I had a picture of that.

Yeah. Jalen Hertz was also there. You know what?

The beauty is, wait, I want to hear about Jalen Hertz, but the beauty is memes. I would like you for the next day find every picture that nick Seriani took with someone and just do the Max face. That way we have a bunch of pictures of Max with Seriani. Every single one. All right, so Jalen Hertz was there. Did you talk to him?

No. Jalen Hertz was there, but he was in a different section within the section.

That sounds about right. Yeah.

But he was one in his own in that section. Other people would come into his section. Yeah, he's Super Bowl MVP. But everyone else was in the mix of everything. He basically had security going in and out of that section. As soon as he moved everywhere, everyone just had a phone just filming him walking around.

You were in the player section, though. Then there was a party section that was different.

Right. There was this pug. What? What an arrival.

No pictures, no nothing. I thought you didn't make it in.

Me too. I saw Chris's Instagram post with you in it.

I was like, Oh, he made it in. I was worried When I woke up.

I took a picture with Chris.

Oh, nice.

No, Chris probably asked you to take a picture.

No, I won't. Me, Chris, and Big Cat were in a group chat being like, We got to meet up. We got to meet up. Then once we did meet up, I sent Big Cat a picture of us.

Wait, so Yeah, I woke up the next morning. I was like, Oh, fuck. They didn't get in. This is bad. I went to sleep. I didn't help. Then it turns out you got all the way in.

Yeah, no, we were in until it closed.

What time did it close?

I think 4: 00. Is that right, Pug? Pug's here.

Pug. I believe 3: 00, potentially 4: 00 AM. Pug. How was it? Tell us everything. It was awesome.

It was just seeing all your favorite players right after the Super Bowl celebrating.

Just so How was asking nick Seriani for a picture?

It was a very quick... He was in the middle of doing pictures with other people, and it was just a quick get in, get out.

Love it. So you didn't bother him. Yeah. No.

It took two seconds of his time. Here's the thing, Max. We didn't need a picture of Seriani, Max, because you gave a recap in words that describe it better than a picture ever could, because it looks like right after you left the party at 3: 08 AM, you I was drunk, tweeded, Sirianni was so sick tonight.

I was drunk, tweeting all night.

That tells me all I need to know. Let's print that out, and then you can look back on that in five years. Yeah, put that behind you.

Remember how sick he was? We need that frame behind you the night you party with the Eagles after winning a Super Bowl. Siriani was so sick tonight. Wait, so did you guys... Can we see the picture of Sirianni and Pug? By the way, every time I see a picture of Pug, I just I audibly am like, he's just the cuteest. I don't know why. I'm just like, he's just the cuteest guy we got.

You remember that chill guy meme that went viral, I don't know, two months ago? Yeah. Pug is the chill guy. He's just a chill guy.

I also like, I'm so pro going to a Super Bowl by yourself. That friendship and bond because I have a buddy who went to one of the Patriots games with another guy we work with that was a random connection, and they still will be like, that's my best friend for life.

I was explaining it because people were roasting me and PFT being like, why would you buy one single ticket? I was Dude, it's a Super Bowl. They're going to... Connor made best friends with his seatmate, too. Yeah.

Again, the Eagles winning this Super Bowl and the way they did it has made me get to relive the Patriots Super Bowl. That's all I did yesterday was just rewatch the Seahawks, to watch the Falcons.

That's awesome.

Get in there and make it by yourself. I love that, Hank. I don't care.

It's true. You guys are talking about no football. I spent probably two hours watching just Patriots Seahawks, Patriots Falcons, Patriots Rams. Those memories that you have this This night, it's the best. The farther way it gets, the better it gets. That's what I've learned in my wisdom of this night will get better with time.

Well, not for Max. He has literally no memories of it. This picture is awesome.

This picture is all time.

You look sick, Pug. Unreal.

With the cigar like that. But the farther way you get, you're going to be like, That was so sick. And it just gets sicker and sicker and sicker.

The funniest part about watching Hank react to Max talking about the night is Hank just think back. He's like, Yep, that's how the Super Bowl parties are set up. They got that other special section right there. Then you got players. Yeah, I know. I'll left that to sick.

Did they have a bathroom for you that was different than everyone else's? Nice. Sick. Same.

It's the best. Somehow the Celtics, like Missoula, shout out to Coach Missoula. But The first Super Bowl party I went to was the best time of my life until the parade.

Max, have you been invited to the parade?

No.

Okay. Do you want to get invited to the parade?

Let's get Pog on the parade.

I don't know. Yeah. It's Valentine's Day. That's a big issue.

That's the issue. I was thinking about that. There are going to be so many dudes in Philly that are like, I'm going to go out to the parade just for a little bit, and then I'll come home and we'll go out on a date and have our night, and they're just not going to come home. A lot of pukes at dinner.

After being gone for eight days and then being like, I had the most unreal night ever, but I need to have another one is going to be a tough.

That's going to be tough, so.

Wait, so-I didn't even ask. What did you guys do when the party ended? Did you go to a bar? Or did you go home?

We went home. Pug wanted to go to Bourbon Street at 3: 30.

Fuck yes. What an animal.

Once the game ended, there's just sworms of Eagles fans like, We're all going to Bourbon. I still was feeling that energy a little bit, but going home was the right move.

Yeah. Then Pug, how was your flight through Kansas City? Were people like, God damn it? My flight was through Atlanta. Oh, okay. All right. You didn't do the Kansas City connection.

There were some issues, weren't Yeah, we got delayed, then delayed again, then de-boarded, then delayed, and then we were back.

What time did you get home? 2: 00 AM. Oh, my God.

We're back. How many times did you look at this picture during the flight?

2: 00 to 3: 00.

Yeah.

Pug.

Pug. All right, so, Max, scale of 1: 10, how unhealthy do you feel? 9 days in Bourbon Street.

15. Yesterday, Yesterday, I was sitting at the airport, I was about to go get food, and then I was like, I shouldn't eat anything right now. I ended up getting Lunchables. Oh, nice. That was my lunch. Nice. Hank, that was my Lunch.

What?

Do you not remember that debate?

Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore? Yeah.

So I had that, and then I had a salad for dinner.

Yeah, salad.

I got a salad for dinner.

You have to eat something green.

I'm going to That heavy diet started yesterday.

You got to book a trip to a sauna or something. You need to sweat loosely for 50 minutes. Just to get it started.

The toxin's out. But you're going on an exercise vacation. Exercise Vacation.

Exercise Vacation. Fitness vacation starts next week.

You're going to ski twice.

He's going to drink so much more than he skis.

I'm also going to a John Summit concert again. Okay.

All right. So any other Super Bowl thoughts? I mean, I had a thought while driving in this morning. Is Patrick Mahomes a Kyle Shanahan merchant? Yes. Two out of three of his Super Bowl is against Kyle Shannon, who can't win the big one? Is he a Kyle Shannonhan merchant?

Interesting. Yeah. Well, he's had two very bad losses in Super Bowl.

Very bad. So I saw a In the chart, someone was like, Hey, if you think that this first half was the Tampa Super Bowl, it actually was so, so, so much worse. Patrick Mahomes, that was the worst half of football he has ever played.

Maybe the worst half, I saw a stat as maybe any quarterback of all time, top 10 worst performance ever.

There was a chart I saw that it was worst play stretches in the Super Bowl. Mahomes had the worst or maybe eight-play stretch in a Super Bowl all time. He also had the best four-play stretch, which was all in garbage time.

At the end?

Yeah, the throw to Xavier worthy, definitely. Which I agree with everyone. You can't count stats after the Gatorade bath. That was after the Gatorade bath that he made that throw. It was an incredible throw.

It was a sick throw.

It was also all the backups. They'd taken away the whole starting lineup.

Yeah, so strike it from the record.

Also, I mean, Mahomes has had to get to the AFC, too.

Yeah, true.

It was pretty impressive.

True. But it's a bad one. It's a bad one.

Jalen Hertz. Actually, Max and Ron were on to something with the Jalen Hertz thing. What? I think he's just better than Mahomes.

I like that.

Their head-to-head matchups with Super Bowl, Mahomes has dominated them.

That's true. If you'd only watch the two Super Bowl that Jalen Hertz and Patrick Mahomes played against each other, Jalen Hertz clears them by a million. Correct.

If you just put the last Super Bowl on regular turf, then Mahomes would be even more of a Kyle Shanahan merchant.

Yeah. I mean, we'd be having to talk about the Eagles being a dynasty right now.

You guys do have a pretty... Do you have a lot of free agents?

Yeah, we're going to lose a lot of guys.

Oh, you are? Yeah. Zack Bond?

Zack Bond, Josh Sweat, Milton Williams.

What did you guys think about the- We're going to try and bring some of them. The All-22 review. Two. That came out, I saw, with all the sacs and all their Travis, Kelsey, and they got to struggle.

Kelsey was not looking great on the film review.

My All 22 analysis is that Lane Johnson is a fucking man. Yes.

Every single time you see Lane Johnson, he's just bodying someone.

That is a man that you don't want him to put his hands on you.

Yeah. There was one that I saw that he throat punched a guy.

Yeah, he was bodying Chris Jones.

Yeah, he was an animal. He just put him out on an island, too. He never had help. The Eagles were just that much better than the Chiefs.

Did you see Kenny Picket?

No.

At the party? Yeah, at the party. No, I did not see him at the party.

That would have been cool.

Yeah.

What type of jumps it was Big Dom wearing?

Big Dom basically got us into the party and then immediately left.

He had a lot of stuff going on.

Yeah, he texted me the next day.

The fact that he got you in is super-respectful.

The Super Bowl after-party is Big Dom Super Bowl. He's got to be on point with that.

Yeah. As he was walking us in, C. J. Garner Johnson was walking out, and he was like, Dom, I'm going to need a ride for me and all these people, immediately. Then he was like, All right, I'll get to you in a second.

Also, I want to- You see the Swifties are at war. Oh, I I want to hear about that, but I just wanted to defend Big Dom for a second because I've seen this narrative being thrown around that he's hunting for the camera. It's his literal job to be next to nick Seriani after a game. If you are upset that nick Seriani is getting a picture taken and Big Dom happens to be behind him, he's not looking for the camera. He's doing his job. That is his job. Shut up, Big Dom. Go ahead. Swift's.

Which C. J. Garner Johnson was the person. He posted on a story a picture of him and Kelsey, and his quote was, Should have stayed with that thick shit.

Oh.

Yeah.

So Swifties are fired up.

They are. Well, there was that picture of Taylor that went viral two weeks ago.

I think they're also mad about her getting I think Travis Kelsey's ex-girlfriend might have been there.

I think she was. But yeah, there was that picture, and it confirmed the fact that Taylor Swift does, in fact, have a leg. All the Swifties are like, Oh, look how thick she is. Look how strong that leg is. It was just like a leg. It was a leg. Now, CJ is saying, Oh, he should have stayed with a thick girl. Then now, all the Swifties have responded by leaving bad reviews for CJ Garner Johnson's Mom's restaurant.

Is that what it is? That's nasty. Nasty work, Swifties. More lose. They've never lost. They've literally never lost.

They weaponize social media. That's what they do. They do.

But that was their first big loss.

Yeah. It was huge. How do you respond from adversity?

I don't know.

We'll see. She's going to put out a banger album about the Super Bowl.

I think he's going to retire.

You do? He looked old.

He did. He did look old.

He is old. He wasn't getting off the line. Yeah.

I mean, the Chiefs, just overall, just looked bad. There was nothing.

Andy Reid might retire.

Chief's run defense was pretty much all you can say was good.

Is this Eagles team the best football team of all time?

Oh.

Well, hear me out. You've got Saquon Barkley. I'd say maybe a top 10 running back of all time, the way that he's playing right now. Not in terms of longevity this season, incredible. Talent-wise.

By the way, just a side note, shout out that one guy who posted a video of him pinning Saquon Barkley in sixth grade wrestling.

Never let go of that.

That was so good. Saquon won a Super Bowl birthday. He's like, Hey, check out this time.

Saquon Barkley, he was in the MVP consideration. He had a great season. Top 10 season of a running back of all time. The offensive line for the Eagles, maybe top 10 offensive line of all time. Defensive line, you could make the same argument. And their pass rush, make the same argument. Impact rookies all over the place. Great secondary. Shut down Patrick Mahomes. Quarterback, better than Patrick Mahomes. Beat Patrick Mahomes in a We're talking about Patrick potentially being the second or going into this game, the best quarterback of all time. A guy that just beat him, you would say that he's probably the second or the best quarterback of all time. Is this the best football team ever?

Max?

I already made this argument on Sunday show.

Did you say they're the best team ever?

Yeah.

He did. He said he was 16 and one.

I just started saying that we basically were undefeated. Yeah.

He He found a way to get out of every single one of their losses. Yeah.

So the Eagle's number one, Patriot's number two.

Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. That, too, it doesn't matter because you can make the argument for anything, but all that matters is they're both Super Bowl champions.

And the Chiefs are not.

And the Chiefs are not.

And Patrick Mahomes is probably going to use his revenge and get way better and win another one right in everyone's face. Oh, you think he's totally done? Hank is unironically He's basically doing the washed trash.

Yeah.

You actually think Patrick Mahomes is done. We went along with the joke. He's got a long, long- But we went along- He's got a huge mountain decline.

If he can win five more Super Bowl's to beat Tom braided, good for him.

No, you've become Max Kellermann.

Wait, but when you did the wash thing on Sunday night, we were going along with the joke. He is going to win another Super Bowl.

Maybe.

Okay. All right.

So he thinks no.

You have become Max Kellermann. Either you die a villain. No, die a hero or live long enough to become a Kellermann.

How many Super Bowl's is he going to go to for the rest of his career?

Nfl is hard. It's hard to stay healthy. It's hard to get back. We've talked to all these quarterbacks in pros where it's a constant narrative on the show. You never know. Probably one or two.

Okay. Would you bet that he'll be back to at least two?

I would look at the other line. It depends how juicy the plus sign was. Who wins a Super Bowl? I I'd probably take no. Okay.

Who wins a Super Bowl first? Even though he's been to five out of the last seven.

Yeah, but again, he's just a check-down merchant now.

Okay.

Who wins a Super Bowl first? Patrick Mahomes or Drake May?

Drek Matt.

Okay.

We're coming.

Okay. We know you're on Hank's side, but you killed him.

Tom braided will never have tape like that first half tape, no matter what. That will be on his legacy forever. That he had a chance to do something legendary and came out with the worst performance in the history of football.

He played worse than Sam Darnold did.

Yeah, he was very bad. Do you think Max, is there anything to be said that Carson Wents is your good luck charm because the Eagles have two Super Bowl when Carson Wents is on the sidelines?

That's a great point.

You need to find him an AFC team next year that will be in the Super Bowl and just have him out there. You're undefeated in Super Bowl when Carson Wents is a backup somewhere. That's an excellent point. He also didn't... I reviewed the tape, Shaded Jalen Hertz after the Super Bowl. I couldn't fully understand if it was he never saw him, but Jalen Hertz was looking to give him a high five, and Carson Wents was walking the opposite direction.

Interesting.

So we'll just go with that.

Do you think Carson Wents still thinks that he's If that were me, I would want to.

Oh, for sure.

I would say Good Look Charm is more nick Foles. Nick Foles even posted, It's really cool that Tom braided got to be... I guess it's Tom braided that's the Good Look Charme. But nick Foles pointed out Tom braided got to be there for the Eagles's two Super Bowl wins. He might be the good-look term.

Well, the good... Yeah, Tom braided. And also Tom braided was there for both the Patrick Holmes Super Bowl losses.

Yeah.

I'm so happy for Tom. What do you...

Review the tape. All right, so here's Jalen Hertz in my homes. The Jelen Hertz goes towards Carson Wntz, and Carson Wntz is like, nah. I don't know. I just like the.

I like the idea of that.

I don't think I don't buy it.

There's so many people in between them?

No, I don't. It's like, you know that you're going to go see the other starter. I don't know if it's customary or not to go see a backup right away.

I just like the narrative. Now, if it's Carson Wins, you have to check in town.

Yeah, you have to.

You have to. Just so you know, I'm in your city.

Yeah. Hey, Jelen, that should have It should have been me. Yeah. That would be awesome if he went out and said that. Just so you know, it should have been me.

It's probably way better to not even make the Super Bowl than it is to make the Super Bowl and get blown out like the Chiefs, right? Yes. Yeah. Good job, all of us. Yeah.

It was playing all along.

That's what braided was saying. He's like, No one talks to me about when I've lost in the FC Championship. I only get talked about the losses in the Super Bowl. Yeah, Super Bowl is the biggest game. And my goal is losses.

Massive. And shout out Jalen Hertz. Incredible story.

Imagine having three Super a negative point differential. That's embarrassing.

This is more Hank's Super Bowl than Max's. I literally felt like I won the Super Bowl yesterday. What are you going to say about it?

I hadn't really thought about how bad it would have been, but after the way they'd lost, I can't really put it in perspective how good it is to win. I'm happy for Pug, I'm happy for Max.

Hank and I have never been more in lockstep than we are right now. Absolute boys.

What was your worst loss in the Super Bowl, Hank?

It would probably have been that But the Eagles was-Wait, you're talking about this year?

Yeah, that would have been-This year would have been yours.

Wait, what were you going to say, Max?

I don't know. This is a way more fun conversation than what I was going to say.

It would have been you guys. It would have been an impossible argument to make, and it would have just been a heath that she said.

Actually, I'll ask a question. Yeah, do it.

Ask a question.

Realistically, where do you rank Jalen Hertz as quarterbacks in the NFL right now?

Right now, one.

Right now? I'm ranking it if a team called, would they take salaries out? Would the team do a one-for-one trade? I'd probably rank him.

What if you're drafting? What if the league starts tomorrow, you have the number one pick?

It's tricky with Jalen Hertz because I think that there's a bunch of teams that would not do a one-for-one trade with their quarterback, but Jalen Hertz is better than them in terms of how he fits in with the Eagles.

I'd probably rank him fifth.

Do you think Justin Herbert, do you think the Chargers would trade? I don't think they would, but- That's bullshit. No, Max, I don't think they would, but I'm saying Jalen Hertz is a better quarterback.

Jalen Hertz, it's not even close. Justin Herbert is just a regular-season merchant, and then as soon as the play... It's exactly what you don't want in a quarterback, someone who looks really good in shorts and does bullshit during the regular season, and then as soon as the play-off comes, shits his pants. Jalen Hertz Max, I agree.

I'm saying Jalen Hertz is better, but I don't think the chargers would make that trade.

I don't know. Harbault likes fucking winners.

You got a fresh draft. You're number one on the clock. Every NFL player is available.

I would probably... No, if you just do quarterbacks.

You're drafting Hertz over Herbert.

Do you want to do a draft right now?

I would probably make him fourth or fifth. Does that sound fair?

That's fair. I would say top three, but I'm willing to go to top five.

It's a combination of Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, maybe Lamar, because obviously the play-offs, he hasn't been good, and then Jalen Hertz. He's somewhere in there. I think Mahomes and Allen are first, first two. You would agree. I think, yeah. Like Josh Allen and Perkert.

Hertz is above Lamar. Hertz is above Lamar. Hertz and Lamar have been in the same situation with both loaded rosters, but Lamar cannot win. So four? Yeah. Yes. I'm all right with that.

Four is okay for you?

Four, I'm okay with.

I have him six.

Who's your- I don't know.

It's a mystery. I'm going to do a mystery top five, and then I got her six. It's a compliment. Six is high.

There was a nice straight. Hank just saying, Allen is number one. You are... Mahomesh should retire. Yes, stop. Deandre Hopkins retired. He's already dead. By the way, tough way for DeAndre Hopkins to go out, complaining about the refs and then be like, I'm retired.

Wait, was that not a fake Schefter account? Oh, it was? Oh, I got caught then. I think you got Adam Scheffler. Oh, okay.

I just saw DeAndre Hopkins retired. So yeah, I guess I got Adam Scheffler. He did not retire? Other people... Oh, There it is. Yep, that's fake. I got caught. All right, so he hasn't retired.

He might retire.

He should retire. Oh, yeah. Have you seen Jerry's trying to get Aaron Rodgers to the Stealers?

Yep. Hard. Raji. Hard.

Raji. Okay. Should we do Hot Seat Cool Throne? Let's do Hot Seat Cool Throne. Hot Seat Cool Throne is brought to you by our friends at Farmer's Dog. Blake and Stella are both Farmer's Dogs this year. Healthy habits don't only apply to humans. Give your dog a fresh start, too. Farmer's Dog makes feeding real healthy dog food easy and convenient, and your dog will absolutely love it. The pre-proportion meals are personalized for your dog's needs, which makes it simple to help your dog reach and maintain a healthy weight. If you've ever thought about making the switch, now is the time. It's made from human-grade real meat and veggies that are gently cooked with the safety and quality standards of human food. It doesn't matter if your The Farmers Dog is young or old. It's always the right time to begin investing in their health. That means more happy, healthy, and full years together. Get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food at farmersdog. Com/pmt. Plus, you get free shipping. Just go to thefarmersdog. Com/pmt. Pmt to get 50% off. That's farmersdog. Com/pmt. We are big fans of the Farmer's Dog. If you love your dog, you love your dog, make sure you get them Farmer's Dog because that is the best food out there for any dog.

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My Hot Sea was going to be CJ Garner Johnson, but we discussed that. Still tough to come out of your Super Bowl hangover with the Swifties on your ass. Isn't it?

They're not going away. Is it his mom that has that restaurant?

I believe so.

Yeah, that's tough.

Or someone in his inner circle. The other thing I was just laughing at, thinking how crazy tradition is the Super Bowl, seeing Jalen Hertz at Disney World, and we should have sent Max or Pug to Disney World instead of home. Because that's got to be the most miserable experience of all time. Yeah.

What, Disney World?

They have to go to Disney World at 6: 00 AM.

Yeah, but they fly private. They just go to a couple. I mean, the Tron ride looked sick.

They've got beers at Disney World.

The Tron ride was awesome.

I was more just thinking like, Max's state. If he had to just be at Disney World.

Well, Max, I think Jalen Hertz going Disney World, flying private there, cutting every single line, getting to do some roller coasters and going home is not that bad. Max, yeah, we had sent Max. Maybe it sent Max and my kids. Then Max, you have to go, It's take my three kids to Disney World.

If we sent Pug, Pug wearing the Mickey Mouse ears would be very cute.

Look at the Tron ride. How sick does that look? That is sick. You're sitting forward.

I want to do the Tron ride. Yeah. Going on that hungover would be the worst.

Then my cool thrown is just John Gruden. We didn't really talk about it that much on Friday, and we were in the middle of Super Bowl week last week. But coming out of it, I've spent so much time just thinking about John Gruden. I miss him.

I miss him so much.

We have a crazy, surreal job, and we have moments all the time where it's like, Pinch me, how is this happening? But going away from Super Bowl week and just being like, the amount of time we spent with John Gruden and how just unbelievably legendary of a guy he is off camera on camera, and just the fact that he just hangs with the... It'll be on PMTV, I think, but we had a dumb debate with him for an hour and a half. He was max.

He's the best. I miss him.

You spent the week in his house, too.

Yeah, I would wake up and he would I used to be sitting there taking notes and give me a quiz when I would wake up and I just be like, What's going on?

He's always pumped. John Grunin is the most pumped individual I've ever hung out with in my life.

I tease this at the end of the gambling stream, but I think I successfully talked I'm included in to coming for the first two days of March Madness, which I'm already just so pumped for. I was like, Do you watch college ball? He's like, Yeah, I like any sports. I was like, Do you want to come gamble with us for two days? He's like, I'd be into that.

I was like, Fuck, yes. He's always fired up.

Yeah, I miss him. I just miss him.

Same. The only thing that really pisses him off is when people in the room are not adequately fired up. Yeah. He likes to have energy in the room. Yeah.

He, much like Coach Missoula, and that's, I think, just a trait of a good coach, You just makes you want to be a better person. What are you going to say, Max?

It's Hank. Hank is the one that he gets mad at for not having enough energy.

You do need to bring the juice. No, I know.

He makes me want to be a better person. He makes me want to bring the juice. He makes me want to just go hard.

Are you going to be a better person?

I'm going to try for now that I know he's watching. I mean, Missoula is the same way where it's like, now that I've been blessed to meet him and be in his presence, I want to be better for him.

How can you be better? Because he'll be disappointed.

I can try harder. I can go harder.

That's hurtful, isn't it?

What?

Hank has never considered trying to be better for us.

Yeah, it's true.

For this show, for us.

You guys are like me.

No, he just... What do you mean? I want to... I I want to stay sharp for PFT.

You think we're lethargic?

No, but- What?

We go hard.

You're not coaches.

You don't have to coach. Yeah, but I prep for this show and get ready for this show knowing that PFT is going to do the same.

Your motivation is being deemed to me.

No, but I want to bring my A game because I know PFT will bring his. Excellence brings out excellence. You have never once thought I want to- Not for this show.

I'm talking about in life. I'm talking about in life.

Yeah, but this show is our life.

Right, but...

John Grew is not around you for your life. He's around you when you're working.

I get hard for you guys. Yeah, thank you, Max.

Max gets real hard for us.

I'm always hard for you guys.

That's my hardest boy.

It's okay. We We can't bring out of you what Missoula and Gruden did. It's fine. It just hurts. I just said it was hurtful. I didn't say that you were wrong. I just said it hurtful.

Some people in this world are self-starters, and they don't need somebody to grab them by the face mask and tell them what to do. Other people need to have their hands held, and that's okay.

Yeah, I guess that's fair. That's a fair point.

Broke his fucking face.

Do we need to get harder on you?

It's not like getting... He's not hard on me. It's just his energy. His energy.

That was when we were having a tight-end debate on Barstool Radio, and Grun was like, Grunt broke someone's face. I was like, What? He did? I think he did. I think he broke his neck in half. Kyle Van den Bosch? Yeah. He broke his face. Yeah.

He was like, I like that guy, but he broke his neck off.

He broke his face.

The only other thing that I was curious about was exactly how the gumbo finished. How did you finish that?

I I finished 15 gumbos on the last night. That's my guy.

What did you do?

Hey, can I ask you a question about the gumbos? Did you need Gruden or Joe Missoula to tell you to do that?

I did it all on my own. Wow. I said I was going to do it, and then I followed through because he said a goal, then you hit it. That's how you feel good about yourself.

Love that about you.

It's good to check shit off the list. I do regret doing the gumbo bet. Not a bet. Not a bet. A challenge, the gumbo challenge, just because it made me miss out on so many other good foods that I could have eaten in New Orleans that I would have loved to have had. But yeah, I'd finish it up with two gumbos at dinner on Friday night. Then just went to see Ludacris. Pretty good show. Left before John Summit. Sorry, John. Disrespectful. Embrace debate.

Jack McCarthy is going to enough John Summit for all of us in this room.

Embrace debate. Is it disrespectful to Ludacris to have him open up for John Summit?

John Summit is pretty big now. Me and PFT were having this debate all weekend.

Ludacris might not be as hot right now as John Summit. I think he's got like 20 more- Might not be? You act like Ludacris is fucking chopped liver, Max. Bring up their monthly streams on Spotify. No, I'm telling you.

Don't do that. I'm telling you that John Summit is bigger than him right now, and it's by a good margin, but Luda still does very well.

Luda has been doing this shit for 25 years. He's in Fast and Furious. He's a megastar. A little disrespectful to Ludacris, even though John Summit is harder right now.

Pft was getting mad at us for saying we're going to the John Summit concert, not the Ludacris concert.

Ludacris show.

How many songs in the booth does anyone know by Ludacris?

Total.

Well, Max-No, he played this game.

Max came up to me during the show and was like, I'm sorry for disrespecting Ludacris, he's got bangers.

Listen, I love Luda, but it shows your age, I think.

Well, no, it also just shows that John Summit is much newer and Ludacris has been doing it for 25 years. Talk to me in 15 years and let me know how hot John Summit is.

I agree with that. Ludacris has more longevity.

Yeah. All right. Your cool drone? That was your cool drone. Your hot seat, PFT?

My hot seat is pitchers and catchers. They're reporting. Yeah. I think the Cubs are there.

The Cubs are the first to report.

The Dodgers are there, first to report. I just remember watching part of the interruption when I was a kid growing up, and the first show after the Super Bowl would always be Tony talking about the beautiful cyclical nature of sports. We lose one and we get rebirth. And so baseball is back. Base is so back. Base is officially back. We'll do our baseball preview in probably September.

When we do Dingers Only.

When Dingers Only, yeah. But yeah, they're reporting right now. And then why pitchers and catchers go there first and then everybody else just shows up all at once? Yeah. They don't hang out with the pitchers and catchers?

I think pitchers and catchers got to get a nice jump start.

Just being weirdos down there.

Just warming up their arms.

Long toss. Do they just do long toss for a week and then everyone else It shows up?

Then I think they just do plays to first. That's always the first video. That's what makes the Garrett Cole thing even funnier in the World Series.

In July sometime, there will be a ground out, a dribbler back to the pitcher. That's the first thing they work on in stream training is that, which also means that we're going to get some pictures through chain link fences from reporters where they're standing 300 yards away, the blurriest pictures of all time being like, Look, baseball is back. Baseball's back. There's Shohe. My cool throne is big men. Random big men are back because we've entered the stage of the NBA season where the Lakers don't have a big man. And so now people are just going on TV and saying the names of random big men who could fill in to play for the Los Angeles Lakers, even though maybe some of them have been out of the league for four years. Yes. So Steven A. Smith was making the case for Dwight Howard today, coming back, which Dude, I am in support of that just because it would be very funny. Yes. But I don't think he's very good at basketball. No.

But I feel like he stays in shape.

He probably does, but he's one of those guys that looks in shape, but he probably doesn't have any of the skills that he once had.

Yeah.

He looks ripped. It's like a TEO. Remember when TEO, 10 years after, was still ripped, and then he'd run a 40 and be like, Oh, yeah, that's the difference.

The speed's not there anymore. So I'm going to say some other big men.

Okay.

Blake Griffin.

Love it.

Who says no to Blake Griffin?

Blake Griffin.

You don't think Blake Griffin- By the way, Sean, Blake Griffin, awesome.

Five fouls. Awesome commercial, Red Lobster commercial. You see him dunking? Yeah. He's dunking everything.

Spencer Hawes.

Yes.

Done. Bring him back. But yeah, the Lakers need a center, so you can just say any tall man be like, Yeah, I could see him get out there, give you some fouls. Get him out there. Big perk. Perk. Perk caught astray. He didn't have a hard attack. Not really astray. Instantly. Perk caught a shotgun blast from KD over the weekend.

Yeah, KD was not so happy about everything.

Perk is the guy that the further away he gets from playing, the better he was. Oh, yeah. I love Perk. I'll He wasn't listening to him talk about anything, but he was like, Yeah, I was a leader of that team, and KD was like, This is the most ridiculous thing I've heard said online this whole week. Yes.

Okay. My hot seat is Glenn Taylor because A-Rod and Mark Loury have become official governors, or they at least won the arbitration to be governors. Wait, what does it say? Lay off the burgers, Wendy.

Thirty-five minutes ago.

That's it. Dwight Howard said, Lay off the burgers, Wendy.

Well, I saw Steven A. Smith bring it up and say, What about Dwight Howard? Wendy was like, Yeah, no, Dwight Howard is not going to play. He's about to go into the Hall of Fame. He's not going to come back and play. He's not in playing shape. Lay off the burgers, Wendy.

Mark is a great one for that conversation. Oh, Boogie could definitely get back out there.

Zack Randolph?

I saw Zack Randolph. No. Lay off the burgers, Wendy.

No, I think this is... Windhorse He had basically scoffed at the fact that Dwight Howard would come back. Dwight Howard might be saying that because he's going to come back.

What? So you're saying that Steven A. Smith was right?

Windhorse couldn't believe-Yeah, he's being mean, though. Windhorst couldn't believe that Steven A. Smith suggested the Lakers could sign Dwight Howard. He's saying that Dwight Howard is retired. He is not capable of coming back. Right.

But then we follow that.

So then Dwight Howard saying, Lay off the burgers, Wendy, meaning he's offended that Windhorst thinks he couldn't come back.

Yes. Right.

Dwight Howard- But now Hank is taking that one step further and saying it's because Dwight is coming back that he took it so- No, he's just being mean to Wendy.

Yeah, I thought Windhorst said Dwight Howard is coming back, and he said, Lay off the burgers. No, I'm not.

No. He's just saying Wendy's fat.

But if you're Dwight Howard and you're sitting at home and you hear Steve Nath Smith mention your name, you think about it. Yeah. Yeah. Steve Nath Smith is probably going to be President.

That's true. We're just going to do that all the time.

I think so.

Either way, A Rod and Mark Loury, official governors of the Timberwolves, also hot seat, court storming, because now the football is over. We're just going to have this debate at any point. Did you guys see Vandebilt actually doing a new rule? Would they do a minute time out after the game? So lame.

Wait, what do you mean?

They basically... If Vandy has a big upset at home, they pause everything for a minute after the game ends, and then the kids are allowed to storm the court.

Oh, so they're giving them a constructive school-approved way. Yes. They set up points of entrance for them that they go- It's Tim Wood's double consent. Soon you're going to have to buy an extra ticket to storm the court afterwards.

Yeah. Then my cool drone is Lane Kiffin because he's just embracing the fact that his daughter's hot. I don't know if you guys saw, but he just tweeted out an article, Lane Kiffin's daughter, Landry slays tiny shoestring crop top standing next to dad. He tweeted the article. So shout out Lane Kiffin. Yeah. He's just hitting it face on.

I guess so. Here it is. You might as well just embrace it instead of fight it. It's better than being like, if you were to tweet out, My daughter's ugly. Which one would you rather I have.

Yeah, you just be like, Hey, here it is. Oh, Max, I got a stat for you. I'm looking at my bookmarks right now. You ready for this one? You like this one? If nick Siriani goes 6-11 and misses the playoffs for the next four years in a row, he will have just as many wins, just as many playoff appearances, just as many Super Bowl appearances, and one more Super Bowl title in his first eight years than Kyle Shannon has in his. Look at that.

That's just facts.

Those are facts. I said it to you. I know. Right.

But you're doing good. Oh, I also brought the boot. I was meaning to show that when I first came in. It smells horrendous.

Yeah, but you have to save it for next year, right? It might be. Do you think it's... Would you put it on for a Philly's run? No, you can't. It's got to be just birds, right?

Yeah, you don't want to overuse it, and then it runs out of power.

That might be your must win boot.

Yeah. No, but then I'm going to be put in the situations of...

If it loses. Yeah, I think it's just play-offs next year. Just play-offs.

Because then you're going to use that against me.

No, we never. What are you talking about?

Just playoff. It's a play-off. Max is getting a lot better at sniffing these things out. That's the entire thing we're trying to do there.

He's a winner. He didn't sniff out McCarthy, though.

No. Doing fake ads.

What? No.

Oh, he still doesn't know.

Yeah.

Oh, those were fake? Yeah. What do you mean?

He was having to do fake ads to make you do more shoes out of the boot.

Did not know that. That's the first I'm hearing of that. Did you text him to do that?

No, he did it on his own.

I think he actually I don't think those were fake.

No, they were fake. He texted us being like, I'm making him do a bunch of fake ads.

That's not true.

You can listen to Monday's part of my take when we say it on air, and then we played the ads. Dove is real It really wasn't needed. Got it. He did call me. He goes, Oh, is there a CTA? And then just hung out. Yeah. No, yeah. Meaning he was just proving he was going to call someone to pretend that it was real.

He did a very good job. Yeah. Very funny.

Hank, do you have any advice for Max about how to establish a dynasty and what this offseason is going to need to look like to continue this run?

No, you got to soak it in. Now you just got to... Max has been a little bit scared, always worried, always not confident. Now that you're the champions, you have to just be confident.

You have to just say-Be a copy asshole.

Wait. It's playoff time. Wake me up when the playoff start. No matter what happens next year on this show, lose a couple of regular season games, they start trying to get you trolling about Siriani or Jalen Hertz as he washed. Is he the guy? Wake me up when the playoff start?

I don't think I got that in my bag. I don't think I had that.

No, he's going to live and die with every game. Okay, let's get to our interview. We got Adam Silver, and then we We have Joe Burrow. Okay, before we get to Adam Silver, we're brought to you by our friends at Morgan & Morgan. There's a reason why coffee is the first thing people reach for in the morning, just like there's a reason why Morgan & Morgan is America's largest injury law firm. For over 35 years, Morgan & Morgan has been fighting for the people just like you and I, and they have over 100 offices and more than 1,000 lawyers nationwide. When hiring Morgan & Morgan, it's like hiring an army that has your back. If you're injured by the negligence of another, you deserve to be paid. When you hire the wrong law firm, you may be beat before you start. All law firms are not the same. That's why you need Morgan & Morgan. If you're ever injured, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. Their fee is free unless they win. For more information, go to forthepeople. Com/pmt or dial poundla, pound529 from your cell phone. That's F-O-R-Thepeople. Com/pmt or poundla, pound529 from your cell.

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Tax season. Memes You're doing your taxes on Tax Act. How are you feeling? Feeling great. Feeling locked in. You got it locked in? Locked in. Locked down? You get a virtual tax expert.

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Love that. Okay, so go check out Tax Act now. It is tax season. Don't stress when you have Tax Act. That was good. Go get them. That was good. Your mic's still on, Max. That's okay. Go check out Tax Act now. All right, here he is, Commissioner Adam Silver. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest. It is NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, ahead of the NBA All-Star Game Weekend in San Francisco. Mr. Commissioner, should we call you Mr. Commissioner. We've never had a Commissioner on before.

Paul Rable.

Yeah, that's true.

Second Commissioner.

Yeah. I know Paul. Adam, please.

Okay. Adam, thank you so much for joining us. I have to ask because we're very excited for this interview. What was the process for you to come on this show? Did someone have to tell you like, Hey, these guys actually aren't the worst? Because I can't believe you're on. We're excited to interview you.

Well, I went to law school in Chicago. I worked in Washington, DC, for years. I know you guys are DC and Chicago guys. That was a big part of the selling point of coming on. You guys are fun to watch and listen to. You guys do an incredible job.

I appreciate it. I appreciate. Also, one of our producers is a big Duke fan, basically went to Duke. Yeah, you've got connections everywhere on the show. Yeah, that helps.

All right, so All-Star Weekend. How are we feeling going into All-Star Weekend? I know you have tried to tinker with the All-Star game to make it better for fans. How do we feel going into this one?

I'm feeling good about it. One, I love the Bay Area. Obviously, four championships there since I've been Commissioner, so I spent a lot of time in the market multiple finals appearances beyond that. Beautiful new arena in San Francisco. A new format that we've talked a lot about where, in essence, working with the Players Association, we came up with this format where it's in essence around Robin, games to 40, then a championship. I think that's going to be really exciting for the fans. I also, for us, as important as the game itself is, it becomes the epicenter of the basketball world for that weekend. It's essentially Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of events, community events in Oakland and San Francisco. Opportunity to see old friends. I've been with the league for a long time. When you have a neutral site, finals, you can't plan to gather there. So essentially, people who've been in business for us for a long time can mark their calendars, be in the Bay Area, our international partners can all be there as well. So it's a three-day long celebration of the game, and That, for me, is the best part about the whole long weekend.

When did you come to the decision that the format of the All-Star Game had to be changed? Was there one moment in the game last year where you were like, That's it. I can't go back?

I think it was when I was presenting the Championship trophy on the floor at the end of last year's All-Star Game. I think everybody was incredibly disappointed, at least speaking for the fans of the League office. It wasn't what we had hoped for. Then Then once I had an opportunity to talk to the players afterwards, I think they acknowledged as well, whatever happened once they got out there, there wasn't any real competition. This was in Indianapolis. Larry Bird had talked to the team in advance. Julius Irving had others. We thought we'd all come together with something that we thought would be effective. It obviously wasn't. I think then, post All-Star Game, talking to several of the players, the perennial All-stars who we knew we'd be back, we said, Look, we just got to do a better job for the fans. We recognize that you just can't turn the clock back. Obviously, the NFL and Pro-ball went to flag football. Base has made some changes to tweak their All-Star game. So I said, What can we do to make this exciting and entertaining for the fans? And this is how we came up with this new format.

Yeah. I got a really dumb question for you, but we're not the smartest guys. What exactly does a commissioner do day to day? What does your job look like day to day? Because I just would imagine it's just like watching the games and then waiting for someone to text you being like, We got a problem.

That's the evening part of my job. The day part, it's more like a standard business job in many ways than people would think. You've got 30 teams, of course. We got the WMBA we're overseeing as as well. The G League. We have a league in Africa now. We're looking at opportunities in Europe. So part of it is planning for the future. Another aspect of it is just regulating this league. There's constantly things happening with teams, business decisions they're making that if you want to make sure everything's unified as a league, that you have to coordinate among the many teams. We have what I was mentioning before about people coming together in the Bay Area. We have literally hundreds of business partners, licensees who produce our products, broadcast partners, media partners who distribute our games, more traditional sponsors like Pepsi and Amex and Gatorade and companies like that. A lot of it's on the relationship side, continuing to build those relationships with our partners, negotiating deals with them, helping to plan for the future. It's also we're a huge enterprise in terms of our budgets. I think more that's the part where it's more like a standard job.

We have thousands of employees, and we have an HR department, a legal department, a marketing department. Also just bringing all those people together and doing my best I can along with other colleagues, just try to lead this enterprise.

Do you spend any time in your day-to-day searching your name online Because I think you are probably one of the people that gets the most unsolicited advice.

I don't need to search because people seek me out. And so it comes through emails. It comes through people forwarding me things that other people are saying, We have our own communications department here who's sending me things. In all seriousness, I actually find it very helpful because if you work in an industry where you're so closely covered and you have fans in a section of the newspaper we're devoted to you, that you get a lot of unsolicited ideas. One, I think when you look at things we've done over the last several years, the play-in tournament, the in-season tournament now known as the NBA Cup, all those ideas came from initially outside of the league. Then it's a question of processing those ideas. Also, there's understandably fans want changes. You get criticism, you get people feel good about certain things we're doing. But I think it's my job to I do the best I can to incorporate a lot of that feedback. Incidentally, when you have 30 teams, 450 players on the NBA side, part of my job is hearing directly from players. I've been at the league for a long time, so when players are coming through New York and playing the Knicks or the Nets, often they'll stop by the office, and in those one-on-one conversations, I can get a better sense from them how they see the league.

Also, our players are also the age, in many cases, of our core demographic. I'm always interested in how a 26-year-old player is consuming the NBA. Are you watching games on your phone? What social media sites are you on? What podcasts, like yours, are they watching? That's very helpful. Again, it's not just owners of 30 teams. You have team present, and GMs and coaches. So lots of different constituent groups that are constantly providing feedback to the league office and sharing information with. That adage has never been more true, that two heads are better than one. And I just find that part of my job is to be a good listener and get advice from others and then somehow filter that advice and figure out what's in the best interest of the league.

What's the dumbest idea that has gone from, Okay, that's a dumb idea, to like, All right, we should actually think about this. Maybe it never even happened, but you at least paused and said, Hey, just look at this for a second.

Last time, I got that question on a show like this. It was a question that came from Dan Patrick. It was what's the wildest idea you've gotten? I said, 10-minute quarters, and I've been responding to questions 10 minute quarters ever since. I'm going to be really careful how I answer this question. I'd say people have raised the issue around the size of the court and the height of the basket. That's one. I think there have been various times along the way. It's interesting now that there's so much discussion about three-point shooting. You guys probably remember, it was a while ago, but maybe time flies. So more in the mid '90s and later, where there was a lot of criticism around the game because people thought it'd become too physical, and the game, there was too much activity under the basket, and that the players weren't as skilled as they used to be, and that they'd lost the art of shooting. At that time, where there seemed to be a prevalence of dunking, the thought was, it's too easy to dunk. I've always said that. It's quite remarkable then jump ahead till now, where there's a lot of discussion around whether the players are frankly too skilled, that three shooting has become so dominant and that the level of difficulty, in essence, isn't high enough on some of those shots.

I can't say we ever seriously considered either raising the height of the basket or widening the court. But those are issues that have come up over the years. I also think, I'm trying to think of a particular example. I know that a lot of marketing ideas, I got one that I remember when teams first brought to the league the idea that we would put a brand on the uniform itself. I remember at the time when we first discussed that, people said, and I wasn't Commissioner yet when we first did that, David Stern was Commissioner, but I was running the business side and people said, I can't believe you're going to make our players look like NASCAR, cars, et cetera, whatever. I think that's become very accepted. I think we did it in a fairly classy way. It's a relatively small logo on the team jerseys. But that not only has added a lot of value to the league, but for those companies that choose to put their logos on team uniforms, they become that much more engaged in the league. They're that much more incentivized to promote the league. It becomes a virtuous circle of promotion around it.

A few of those things, I think even Looking at... I remember back in the day in the '90s, early '90s now, when the continuous score clock was first proposed. I remember Dick Eversole, still a close friend, was the executive producer of the President of NBC Sports. He opposed that idea, both for football and basketball. It's almost unimaginable to watch a sporting event now and think you got to wait however many minutes till the director decides to show you the score again. But remember, in those days, the initial idea was, no, we don't want to show a continuous score because if people tune in, they see it's a 10-point game or whatever, they'll tune out. It took a long time. Again, that's one of those conventions. It's almost unimaginable now to watch a game where you can't see the score at any moment. My sense is there's, I think, a lot about to change on the production side. As games are shifting from what I would call traditional television, call that broadcaster cable to streaming, it creates all these new opportunities, all these new capabilities of the streamers because of interactivity to do new things on the screens.

For example, I understand the criticism now from people who don't like to see sports betting information during games, whether it's because they don't want it personally or they don't want their kids to be able to see it. I think we're not that far away where you're just going to go click. If you don't want any information about sports betting, you won't have to look at it. On the other hand, if you're someone in a state where it's legal and you can get a bet on sports, you'll see a lot more information if that's what you want. I think things will become much more customized over time.

That was a very thoughtful, nuanced answer. The main takeaway is that Adam Silver has considered raising the basket and extending the three-point line. In the past, you've thought about it. You have. The thought has crossed your mind.

Here I go. Yeah.

Have you thought about- I fell for it the second time. Listen, just throwing this out there. In baseball, every park is different. The Yankee Stadium, they got the short porch. Have you thought about home teams getting to decide their own dimension? You go to Detroit and they've got eight-foot rims. You go to play the Warriors, and they've extended their three-point line by three feet. Every game is different. It's like, Oh, we got to go play here. They're playing on 14-foot rims. That'd be fun.

I definitely can make some news with my answer to that one. I would say no, for the record, I haven't thought about that. But it is an interesting comparison. I will say this because you mentioned baseball, talking about rule changes. I'm a huge baseball fan, and I'm a big fan, I'm sorry, of the changes that they've made. I think the pitch clock, slightly enlarging the bases to make stealing easier and stuff like that. I've looked at those things, and we've talked about that at the League office and with our competition committee, and when I think the most traditional, in my mind, of all sports, the most resistant to change, the fact that they're making changes in that sport to keep up with the times, I'm not sure. Different Baskets Heights, different arenas is the answer. But I think it just means we have to stay on our toes and be open-minded about potential changes.

By the way, I just want to correct one thing. Technically, you have thought about changing the rims because we literally were just discussing it. So we'll put that out there. We You have technically thought of it just through this conversation. We got you there.

Do you ever hang out with other commissioners and just be like, Hey, Commissioner to Commissioner, here's something I'm thinking about?

A little bit. I don't know if they would describe it as hanging out, but when I just got to the NBA in the '90s, Gary Bettman still worked here before he went to the NHL. He worked for David Stern at the NBA, and we stayed close over the years. Roger Goodell and I, I knew him well even before he became Commissioner, when Paul Taglibe was Commissioner. He's been great. When I remember the first thing when it was announced I was Commissioner, Roger was actually one of the first people to reach out to me and said, Anything I can share with you, anything that would be helpful with you. We're obviously competitors in certain ways, but I think we're all fellow travelers trying to help each other to think this notion that a rising tide raises all boats, that it's what's good for premium professional sports, it's good for all of us. Same with Rob Manfred. I think I became Commissioner before he did. We've compared notes on a lot of issues over the years. Again, as I said, I'm a big baseball fan. He's invited me over the years to a bunch of different events that I've been to with him.

I've been to Yankee Games here in New York with him. We all talk to each other. I mean, everybody's running around slightly different seasons, so we don't get to spend that much time together, but they're all great guys.

There's some battles and some problems that only a fellow commissioner might understand, I'm sure that you go through. Do you Hypothetically, not talking about anything in specific, but hypothetically, do you have anything that's in place where you could potentially deny a trade? If a team wanted to send a superstar to another team and maybe the return value on that superstar was not what would generally be expected.

You're talking about Kyle Kuzma?

Yeah. I'm a Wizards fan. I'm not sure what you're referencing. Well, I'm a Wizards fan, and we just sent Kuzma- No, believe it or not.

And there's some confusion. People have yelled out to me for some reason in the last week or so when I've been at games that I should be vetoing that trade the way David Stern vetoed a trade back in the old days. And there's always some confusion there. David never vetoed a trade that when he was the acting owner of New Orleans and the Commissioner at the time, that he turned down a trade that was proposed to him by the general manager of the team. But no, I mean, the way we don't put a thumb on the scale, so to speak, that when a trade comes into the league office, what our basketball and legal folks do is they make sure that that trade works under the confines of the collective bargaining agreement, whatever rules are in place, and then it's up or down. It gets approved or not based on those rules. We don't get to weigh in on what we think the merits of the trade are or should be.

Got you. I am going to miss Kuzma. Big Cat's right. That broke my heart.

Did you at least text like, Are you sure?

No.

Okay. Honestly, let's level. You were probably like, Oh, Lucas is going to LA. Huge market. That's cool.

Honestly, and I promise, look at the league right now, that two clearly smaller market teams, certainly Oklahoma City and Cleveland's a little bigger than Oklahoma City, but not one of the bigger markets in the league. I have the two best records in the league right now, and I think it's great. We've had six different champions over the last six years. This may sound obvious, but I want all our teams to do well and be competitive. Frankly, But really, Dallas is a big market. Was I surprised that he was traded from that standpoint? Yeah, I'm a fan. The teams don't necessarily give the league inside information on those kinds of things. That trade was It wasn't one that I saw coming. By the way, I love Luca. I've known him since the day he came into the league. He's obviously a great player. He's a great young man. And teams make these trades for reasons that in some cases only they know they have inside information about a player. They're living with a player. They have a particular style they want to play. They have a vision for what that team should become. And truly, only time will tell.

The one thing I'll say, I haven't been with this league for a long time. Truly nothing is written. People who say they can predict the future, generally can't. We'll see. I'm rooting for Dallas, and I'm rooting for the Lakers. I'm rooting for Anthony Davis to recover quickly and be the all-star we know he can be and stay healthy for a long time. I'm definitely rooting for Luca to demonstrate to the world what a great player he is in LA.

Okay, so we shouldn't come to Adam Silver for grading of trades because we, in sports media, like to just grade trades instantly and say that we're right and we know the future.

You have your job and I have my job. You got a job, too. My job is to make sure they comply with league rules.

Yeah. You mentioned David Stern. I didn't realize this, but you got into the NBA by writing a letter to a bunch different people asking for advice, and David Stern was one of those people who actually responded. Is that true? Because that's a very cool story.

It is true. I was practicing law in New York, just had only been a lawyer for a few years, and decided I wanted to do something different. I'm still happy I went to law school. It's been very helpful to me over the years, but I wrote David a letter. This is pre-Internet, where you wrote letters and mailed them. I actually When I was looking for advice. It wasn't so much that I thought I wanted to work at the NBA. I'm always telling young people this story because it's so different these days where you can go on the Internet and find out all kinds of information about the MBA and what happens in the league office. There's all these sites where they rate people's jobs and they talk about whether they think they're fairly compensated and all that. I was seeing none of that existed in those days. David was someone who had worked at a law firm in New York before he had made the He came over to the NBA as the general counsel before he was the commissioner. But I wrote him a letter saying, I'm also a lawyer in New York. I'd be interested in making the transition.

I wasn't so sure that it would be to a sports league. In fact, at the time, I worked for a law firm that was representing HBO, and I was fascinated with the media business. David, at that time, had recently done some of the initial cable deals where it was the early days of TBS, and he had done a broadcast deal. Ted Turner was also an owner of the Atlanta Hawks, and he had done a deal with Ted Turner, put NBA games on TBS. Because I was doing a lot of work for HBO, David Stern's name kept coming up in the context of media. I wrote him a letter saying, I'm interested in making this transition. If you ever had time, I'd love to meet you and talk to you. I'd actually met him once before. He had worked at one point at the same law firm as my father. I didn't really know David, but the letter began, I'm the son of such and such, and hoping that that I would build a bridge to him. I remember he called me, and I think in those days, too, you were used to sending a letter and not hearing back for, in some cases, weeks.

It was just everything moved at a different pace. His assistant called me at some point and said he'd like to schedule time with you. My office was in New York City. Where I am today in the MBA office is the same place as we were in the early '90s when Dave was Commissioner, and I was just across town. And the assistant called me, scheduled. Again, everything moved slow. It was like, Are you free two weeks from Tuesday or whatever? I came and saw him, and he gave me some advice about how I might transition out of law. That's what I was interested in doing in some media advice. Then I'll to end the story because I've already been long-winded. At some point, he reached back out to me and said, There's something I'd like to talk to you about. It turned out he was looking for an assistant. He ultimately hired me, and my first job at the MBA was special assistant to the commissioner. I worked for David. I was 30 years old. It was 32 years ago. I came to work here and then worked as an assistant, then became chief of staff, I mentioned.

I then went to what was the entertainment side of the business, ran a division called MBA Entertainment for years, Deputy Commissioner. This is my sixth job being Commissioner. I worked my way up the ladder here at the MBA.

That's awesome. It's very cool that he took the time to do that. Yeah. Very, very cool.

No, it was... By the way, I have to say, I mean, David changed life in so many ways. I had five different jobs before I was Commissioner, all of them working for David. I would joke to people, even when I was the Deputy Commissioner, my job was still the Special Assistant, David Stern. You guys Everybody is. You may have had a chance to meet him over the years. He was full of life. He was a genius when it came to sports marketing. I think as much credit as he gets, maybe not enough for transforming the whole industry, not just the NBA, just everybody's approach, even I remember when I came to work at the NBA, he was the first person who really thought of the NBA as a brand, as a brand marketer, even though his background was as a lawyer. Now it's just a given that NBA is a brand, MLB, NHL, NFL, obviously. But he had a whole different way, a whole different vocabulary of approaching sports. Also, I think about how much of my time now I spend on growing the game globally. I mean, David was so far ahead of his time.

When I got to the NBA in '92, shortly thereafter, it was the Dream Team, which also transformed the NBA. One interesting statistic. At the time that I got to the NBA, roughly 5% of the players in the league were born outside the United States. Now, it's around 30%. You mentioned Luca or Giannis, go down to Wemby. Now the Joker are very best players. Many of them are born outside the United States now. That pool of players, you got a chance to watch some of the Olympics out of Paris, a US-Serbia game or US-France game. There's so much high-level basketball being played around the world. And David really had that vision that this could truly be a global game.

That's very cool. Well, we have you here. I just want to give you a piece of unsolicited advice from me and take it for what you will, but I think a lot of people agree with me. One of the most frustrating things to watch in the NBA, and I love watching basketball, but this is very frustrating when players are obviously flopping and embellishing fouls. Is it in consideration to make embellishment flopping Reviewable technical foul, cut and dry? Don't do it because it's tough to watch on TV.

Well, so it was only a year ago or two years ago, we added the ability to call a technical in-game for flopping. That was a change in rules, a new rule that we did, modeled a little bit after the Fieber rules, the international basketball rules. We have a provision where we do review after the fact. Obviously, we want finality in the game, so we're not going to go back and change scores or anything, but guys can be fined after the fact. At least according to our own reviews of the games, we've cut back considerably on flopping. I will say that for my European colleagues, European friends, there's a tradition in European soccer, or global soccer, of flopping. It was, to me, brought to the NBA stylistically by a lot of the international players. A lot of grew up as soccer players. We've tried to crack down on it. Again, I think we've made progress. My sense is that as various forms of replay get better and get faster... Look, the problem is, by definition, you're fooling the And if you get away with it, especially in real-time, all you can do after the fact is potentially find the players.

I think you said it, the embellishment is the hardest because Now, their teaching in youth basketball is you want to demonstrate to the officials, at least the way they're taught, is to embellish that the official clearly sees. You're often seeing somebody shoved and they're going flying backwards. And So the official in real-time. I understand, too, player frustration, fan frustration, sometimes with the officiating, we're doing everything we can to make it better. But when I watch the officials, it's It's remarkable to me what they can do in real-time. When you think in a split second and the speed of the game to be making those calls and then add flopping on top of that or embellishment that they're supposed to be able to discern the difference and the amount of force that's going into a push and the reaction from the players. I will say that the changes in technology will help us there. Just shifting slightly doesn't go directly to flopping. But guys are constantly trying to fool the officials when who did it touch last and they're pointing and et cetera, that we're not that far away from having technology where, just like you think in tennis, where there's an automated call as to whether the ball was inside the line or outside the line.

It's this technology called Hawk-Eye. It's owned by Sony. We're working with Sony also to bring that to basketball so that whoever's think there's 100 fingers on the floor at any given time, various body parts, to to instantaneously show who the ball went out on, if somebody's foot was on the line, anything that can be objectively determined, goal-tending, et cetera. I think that will allow... So one, there'll be a whole category of calls that will be objectively right or wrong, and will speed up the game from that standpoint. But just as importantly, for those more subjective calls, the officials won't have to both be looking at the feet of somebody's feet to see if they touch the line and their hands at the same time. They can really focus on what is truly subjective. I think we'll be able to do a better job discerning whether there's some embellishment going on. If the standard is perfection, we got a long ways to go, but I think we've made improvements there.

Have you thought about maybe making the standard not perfection? I say that in that I think you've talked about this before, the review system, games slow down at the end. It's a really hard watch for people, and we want to watch the action. What about just doing a week where there's no reviews. Every team knows it, and it's like, Hey, we're not doing any instant replay. We're not doing any reviews. The call on the court stands and just see how the game flow goes.

It's interesting to say that. Number one, we did a couple of years ago, we changed the format at the end of the game. We reduced the number of timeouts, and we reduced the ability for officials to go to discretionary reviews. You recall just a few years ago, virtually every play towards the last two minutes, the players were going like this. So we added one more coaches challenge, but we reduced those discretionary reviews. And I think that's made a big difference. And to your point, I've had many players and coaches tell me over the years that they would prefer speed to accuracy in certain places, because especially near the end of the game, when there's those long reviews, guys are literally getting cold standing there, getting out of rhythm, and they just assume, say, All right, red ball, and move forward and move on, as opposed to waiting for the endless reviews. As I said, I think back to the technology that some people also don't like that we might have a different standard in the last two minutes. But look, when you have a game like basketball where there's a lot of scoring, even if there's a bad call in the second quarter, you can make up for it over the course of the game.

But you can't necessarily in the last two minutes. I'm in favor of there potentially being more scrutiny. But as I was saying, if you can use technology and take a whole category of calls off the table and that they're now objective, I think we can reduce the number of replays because also in those calls, just like in tennis, you'll see the quick animation. I think you need transparency. People don't want to just be told bull's ball. They want to know what happened. Just like in tennis, you'll see some animation, you'll see what's going on. Also, if you think back, like some early days in tennis, there was a lot more arguing with the officials. Now, once you see that animation and there's an oh and an ah from the fans that just barely touch the line or whatever else, but it's play on. I think everyone would prefer that.

Yeah, just think about no review week. It'd be a whole event. We could just be like, Hey, it's no review week. Yeah, suck it up week. This is a fun thing.

If I say I'm thinking about it, does that mean it's under consideration?

Yeah, you've already thought about it. It's under consideration. Just have every rep just say, Life isn't fair.

Yeah, right. Tough shit.

It's interesting, though. But I've actually made that point, not using those same language, but human error is part of this game. It's certainly part of the game when a player misses a shot, somehow it gets lost sometimes, that it's also part of the game when an official makes a mistake. I get it. If an official makes too many mistakes, they can't be an official in this league. But you're right, perfection can't be the standard. There are going to be mistakes. I think often what separates the best teams is their ability to move on from that mistake. I just lastly say, we have seven-game series in the playoffs. I think that as some of the best basketball minds in the league will say, it's a highly likely that at least for that week or two weeks, the better team is going to win the seven-game series, regardless So they appreciate.

Also, a bad call gives us something to yell about the day after the show. So we'll be screaming. If you just make it perfection, it's like we're the dog that was chasing the car, and then we catch it.

I think you just saw in those trades we were talking about that NBA It seems ready-made for social media. Yes.

It does. Has there been any consideration to adjusting the league schedule? I know it's been in place for a long time in the general format that it's in, but waiting and starting the year on maybe Christmas Day and extending it at the end?

There has been. I mean, that is one thing that we have thought a fair amount about, and we've looked at different proposals. And I think for a lot of people, you're right that there was always this notion that in the old days, we would start on NBC on Christmas Day. We started on network television Christmas Day. The regular season of the NFL had wound down. People could now move their attention to the NBA. The issue we have there is one of moving into the summer. By the way, things are changing so rapidly, culturally, in terms of viewership and everything else, that no idea is ever completely dead, but at least historically, Basically, the thought was we wanted our season to be over by July first, in essence, and was working backwards. If you're going to get the draft in in the last week of June, and you're going to therefore start the finals, but anticipating you potentially could have a seven-game finals, it means you got to start roughly June first working backwards. That's how you end up with a training camp in October season. It starts roughly the beginning of November. People's television habits have changed dramatically.

I think in large part, we all, reaching for my phone, we all carry a TV with us everywhere we go now. I look at the kinds of things I would put you guys in the category of nontraditional media, the amazing popularity now of podcasts like yours, people's enormous amount of time looking at screens, listening to audio feeds of things. The other thing about us moving into July is, let's just say, okay, you can move the finals into July. Then we have our Summer League. When does that... And part of it, it's actual consideration When do they get vacation? Part of it is it's always the tradition of this league, there's the equivalent of a summer vacation that matches up with family vacations. Even once summer league ends, it's the third week of July. Things can settle down a little bit for the last part of July and August. Now, I'm not talking about the league office, largely for the players, and you rest on their body and everything else. So I will say, I think all these things we will We'll continue to look at. I don't think in the short term, we'll do it.

I just last to say, there used to be this notion in television, they call it hut levels, households using television, that traditionally, because of summer vacation and things, that once you got to July first, there were fewer people watching television, which is why, again, historically, all the primetime shows when we were younger would launch in the fall. You can almost think of the beginning of the NFL season, where a lot of shows would launching. I think, though, now, as I said, people's television habits have changed dramatically. Streaming has changed a of those conventions. New shows launch on Netflix all the time. In July, nobody thinks twice about it. I think these are all things that we'll continue to look at.

All right, so I got one last question for you. This has been so much fun. Nba All-Star Weekend this weekend. My last question is a rowback question, robackk question, robackk. Com, promo code take, 20% off your first purchase, QZips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowbackk. Com, promo code take. I have to pitch you my one idea that I've had for many years, and you got to think about it. I don't need credit for it when you actually enact it. There's obviously been issues at times with fans getting a little unruly, maybe talking too much to the players, that whole experience. My rule is very simple. Every single player, when the season starts, gets one chance to call out any fan they want, and they just get to beat the fuck out of them in the middle of the court. Once they use it, they can't use it again for the rest of the year. Thoughts on that rule?

Not a That's a good idea.

Okay, but listen, no, you're not seeing the vision. When you see Kevin Durant, you decide to say something really mean to him, you're like, Wait, does he have his one fight of fan left this year?

You lost me on the Beat the shit out of them, part of it. I was with you up to like, All right, you can single out one fan, and then we'll review that fan's conduct. Think about the ratings.

Mr. Commissioner, think about the ratings. They're like, Oh, my God, we're going to Sacramento, and DeMar Rosen has called out someone from the 10th row, and they're about to fight in the middle of the... They're stopping the game to fight.

We'll bring a cage. Yeah, sure. Of the arena. Is the fan allowed to fight back?

Yes. That's also part of it.

You don't want to call- I didn't fully consider your idea.

You call out someone with cauliflower ears, and you might have been asking for too much.

Are you making fun of my ears?

No, you don't have cauliflower ears. But I have made fun of your ears in the past. I'm sorry. I apologize.

I'm a long-time listener.

Well, yeah, you You can listen to anything. Sorry. You put your alleyou in that for me.

Sorry.

I walked into that. Or maybe at least just allowing fights like in hockey. Yeah. Like, blow it off. Yeah.

You know what's so interesting? I will say I'm a New Yorker. I'm a Rangers fan and go to games occasionally. As you guys remember, there was that era, again, back to the '90s, where there was a fair amount of fighting in the league. And David Stern, he cracked down on it. We had automatic suspensions walking off the bench and all that. And it It's still surprising me to this day when I go to a hockey game and they face up and the official step back. It's part of the culture of hockey. I know I've heard the arguments that by allowing players to fight things out in that way, actually cuts down on violence in certain cases by having enforcers and everything else. It's obviously so foreign to the NBA, but based on the idea you're sharing.

Think about it.

I'll share it with Gary Bettman, too. Maybe just bring fans in as well.

Yeah, well, I mean, that's What's happened before? Tiedomi in the penalty box.

We had a lot more dumb ideas that maybe next time you come on, we can pitch you because I know that we had a ton of them. Maybe we'll just do an entire podcast where we give you the dumbest ideas.

All right, I'm available I did have a fix for the All-Star Weekend.

It was just in line with the LeBron-Bronnie thing that the winning team gets automatically their first born gets a one-year contract in the NBA. That's a good idea, too.

That's a pretty good idea. That's a good idea. Or-legacy League. We But I was going to pitch him, which I won't pitch him, but I was just going to pitch him rigging the draft. Oh, that would be a smart idea. That would be a good thing to do. For which team? For the Wizards. Cooper flagged to the Wizards.

I'm a Duke guy. Cooper's unbelievable.

He's great. We would take such good care of him in DC. You're also a DC guy.

Yes, there you go. All right, well, Commissioner, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Hopefully you enjoyed this, and we can add you on again. Like I said, we'll do a special episode where we just give you the 100 dumbest ideas you've ever thought of. When you think about them, everyone's going to be like, Adam Silver is thinking about this, because you are thinking about the fight a fan rule. You have technically thought of it.

Mulling it over. Yes.

All right, thanks so much. Good luck this weekend. All-star weekend. Thank you, Chris.

Thanks, guys, so much.

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You get the first checkered flag of the season at the iconic Dayton 500. Dayton 500, tune in on Fox Sunday, February 16th, 2: 30 PM. The Dayton 500 is back. This interview with Joe Burrow is brought to you by BodyArmor and BodyArmor Flash IV. It's time to reach for real hydration with Body Armor Flash IV, packed with electrolytes, Zinc, for added immune boost and no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or dyes. Flash IV provides the rehydration that your body needs, whether you're feeling under the weather, if you just had an intense workout or if you're recovering from a long weekend, max. Body Armor Flash IV helps bring you back. The Flash IV also tastes great. Body Armor Flash IV has brought me back after the case race. I spent a day on my couch. I was drinking Body Armor Flash IV. Felt like a million bucks by the afternoon. Felt really good. It gets the hydration back in you. Get yours today at Walmart or at a local grocery store near you. Now, here is Joe Burrow.

Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. It is our good friend, Joe Burrow, who should be the MVP this year, but he's here promoting the FedEx Air and Ground NFL Player of the Year where you are a nominee. Joe, good to see you. This is the first time we've all been together in New Orleans since you won a national championship. It's good to see you somewhat sober right there.

Yeah, I feel great right now. I couldn't say the same five years ago.

Yeah, but you are a nominee for FedEx Air ground NFL player of the Year. I'll confidently say I feel like you reminded everyone about Joe Burrow because we had that conversation in June that people forgot about Joe Burrow. I don't think people forget about Joe Burrow anymore.

I agree. I think I had a great year. I think I had my best year as a pro. I'm excited for... I think there's another level that I can hit, so I'm excited to go and hit that next year.

Okay. What's the next level?

Be better.

Better than this, Joe? Yeah. So 7,000 yards?

7,000 I mean, the stats are going to fluctuate year to year, really. And it just depends on how the year is going, how each individual game is going, because you could throw for four touch downs in the first quarter and then the game's over, but you threw for 170 yards, now you're not really throwing it anymore. So it just depends on the year, but just playing better, really.

If you have a great game, let's say you throw for like 400 yards, four shutdowns, hypothetically, something like that, and you end up losing that game, you You feel bad afterwards, I'm sure, because you want to win. How long does it take for you through that week to be like, you know what? I'm actually pretty happy with my performance.

It's definitely better than throwing for 150 and losing. I would say It just depends on how you feel like you played. Sometimes you could throw for a lot of yards, but then you missed a couple early in the game, you missed a couple late in the game, you made a couple of bad decisions. You don't really feel like you played great, but Most of the time when you throw for 400, you feel pretty good about it. Yeah.

We keep waiting for old Norm Van Brockland's record to fall. Was it 550 yards passing in the game? It's crazy that it... I think it's 545, maybe. It hasn't happened in 50 years. And with the NFL being so pass-heavy right now, you keep hoping like, one of these days, a quarterback will throw for 550. I'd like it to be you. Yeah.

I got to 525 in 2021 against the Ravens. So I think I'm third in that list. But it would be nice to have a 600-yard game. It would be pretty cool. Yeah, I dare you do that. Mahomes had a 700-yard game in college against Baker at Oklahoma. That was crazy.

That box score is a very fun box score to look at where you just like, Oh, shit. Were you in the zone at all this year? Because it feels like you were. There was that, I want to call it five, six, seven-game stretch where it was just write it down, 275, three touch downs every single week.

Yeah. After After the first Baltimore game, I feel like I was pretty dialed in for the rest of the year.

Yeah, because you could tell. I don't want to say it was on easy mode for you, but you could tell me if you ever felt like that. Maybe it's a better way to say it is, it felt like you saw everything so perfectly for that stretch.

It was moving slow for me. It definitely felt easy at times. Definitely didn't feel easy at times, too, but that's how life in the NFL goes.

Yeah. And tonight you've got the NFL honors. Good luck. Thanks. I think, statistically, a lot of people would say Joe Burrow could be the MVP. But more importantly, what are you going to wear to this?

I've got aPlanet plan? I've got a nice alo suit planned.

Anything shocking?

No shirt underneath.

Wait, Allo, is that the place in California with the saunas and stuff? Correct. They don't let guys like us in there.

I'm sure they would let you in.

Absolutely not.

Maybe if you came with me.

Oh, no way. They would just be like, Can you just wait at the car? I see those videos. It's just all hot people.

I mean, maybe.

Yeah.

You just confirmed that. In a nice way, you confirmed that.

Sir, two homeless people just followed you in. Would you like us to arrest them? Yeah. Yes, please.

Aloe is not for us. Do you regret any of your fits this year? The Ellen Degenera's one?

Which one was that?

It was the pink shirt with the white vest and the white pants.

That one wasn't my best.

Okay, all right, good. All right, that feel good because I was nervous about asking about it, but that one you got roast.

Probably my least favorite of the year. I wore a lot of pink this year, but I felt pretty good about most of them, I would say.

Now, we've always wondered, when you wear a fit like that and then you lose, you go straight to sweats right after, right? Or do you go back into the fit?

I think it just depends on the game. If it's a playoff game and we lose, I'll probably wear the fit to the press conference. Because one year, Kam wore a suit to the Super Bowl, and then they lost, and then didn't wear it to the press conference, and people felt weird about that.

Yeah, I actually respected that. I think you should have I'm going to say, maybe you should have a clown suit if you lose. You actually put on a clown costume.

That's not a bad idea.

Deflex it away from you.

What if the NFL made that a rule? If you lose, you have to wear the clown suit to the press conference.

Big red nose.

Yeah, I like that. No, you and I actually have a little bit in common, Joe. We've both been victims of crime this year. I had all my clothes stolen off my front porch.

Why was it on your front porch?

I sent it away for laundry because it was a long weekend of football, so I wasn't home to do the wash. But I had two big-ass bags of clothes that just got stolen off my front porch, and I lost basically all my clothes. I've been trying to dress like you. Do you have any advice for me? Do you have a stylist that you use? Because I feel like now I'm 40, I got to level up a little I got to start stunting on these hoes a little bit. So who's your stylist? And can they also give me some help?

His name's Kyle Smith. He does great. He just brings some stuff, and I tell him if I like it, if I don't like it, and if I'm going to wear it or if I'm not going to wear it. Okay.

That's pretty easy.

You think I could pull off some of those fits?

100 %.

When people say, Oh, you look like Ellen Degeners in this or whatever, they say that about me, but in a bad way. With you, it's like, Oh, yeah, you can You look like a lesbian and be hot. With me, it's like, you look like a fool. Yeah.

When people say that like it's a derogatory comment. Like, lesbians don't dress well.

They dress really well.

Yeah, they do. Minus Ellen Degeneration. I don't think she dresses great.

Well, maybe she doesn't dress exactly like maybe somebody that's 25.

Stop looking at me.

What are you doing right now?

Listen, my stylist is the same four pop-up ads I get on Instagram, and then I buy it, and I'm like, Oh, shit, I already have this shirt.

I think every time I've ordered something on Instagram, it's never come to my house.

Yeah, I just get robbed.

Just a donation.

I just look at one flannel shirt in early October, and then the rest of the winter, I'm just buying flannel shirts.

You're a big flannel guy?

No, but it's the pop-ups. I just buy the pop-ups.

Oh, that's a yellow one. Oh, that's a green one.

Oh, shit. I don't have this one. It comes, it looks exactly like the other one.

I usually buy something in September, and then I spend the next four months just tracking it from China as it's making its way here. It's like on a boat somewhere crossing Taiwan. I'm like, I'm never getting that.

You get it in two years.

Yeah, exactly.

So this season was obviously disappointing for you guys, but how is it when you get into a season and you're playing great, but the team is losing, trying to figure out what's that like in the locker room when it's like the defense went through some struggles, started playing well at the end. Is it awkward? Is it hard? I don't really understand the dynamic and how it works.

Yeah. I would say it's tough to describe because you're obviously... I mean, you're in it as a team. So everybody's down in the dumps in the locker room. It's not like, oh, where are the offense? We scored 30, but we lost. We're happy. Nobody's happy about that. And there were definitely games that the offense could have closed it out in which we didn't. But When you're playing, like I said, I felt like I had my best year as a pro, and so I was happy about that. Week in and week out, it was pretty frustrating. I've never had a year like this. So it was mentally taxing and challenging to continue to stay disciplined and consistent week in and week out, day in and day out. But at some point you just realize that this is your job and that's what you do. And if I'm going to continue to play as good as I want to, then I'm going to have to keep doing these things daily to put myself in the best position to succeed. Yeah.

It sounds like you guys are a lot more mature than us because we just finger-point instantly. Like, It's literally something... I mean, you walked into it a little bit with the QB skills competition we did last night. We just spent the last 2 hours just sitting in this room just finger-pointing. Yeah, that's hilarious. You can't do that in the pros.

Well, Hank is really bad. And as a quarterback, me and Big Cat, our salaries depend on a guy like the quarterback. If he's making us look bad, then it's like, what are we going to do? We're going to become divas.

So you guys are receivers?

Well, we could be. We're just divas. We're like diva wide receiver, except we're not good at playing wide receiver.

If you said to your huddle, you're like, Hey, I got us guys. Let's go on a drive. And then you went three for 57.

What do you think they would say? They probably lose a little trust in my abilities.

Yeah, that's a good point. Trust. You said something in Pro Bowl week, your wrist is still a little funky?

I mean, I wouldn't say funky, but whenever you have a ligament injury, your joint is going to take around two years to get all the mobility back and everything that you feel like you need.

And you still had the best year as a pro. So Yeah, he is going for seven of K. He's going for seven K.

This could be like, Rookey of the Year situation. What does that mean? Have you ever seen that movie? No. The kid that breaks his arm, all of a sudden, he can throw like, 98 miles an hour. Oh, that would be great. If you have a ligament injury, maybe it just made you a better quarterback.

I hope so.

Does it feel good right now?

It feels good right now. There were a couple of times I fell on it during the year. It didn't quite feel as good, I would say, and just dependent on the day. But we got into a good routine at the end of the year to feel as good as I could by Sunday.

Having a fully healthy offseason, though, that'll probably be nice for you.

Yeah, I haven't had a ton of those. I think that'll just help me level up even more because I'm not going to be focused on rehab and everything. I'm just focused on quarterback-specific things, working out, getting my body the way that I want to for the year. So I'm excited about that.

Have you thought about maybe telling Coach Taylor? I've been thinking about it a lot for the bangles, specifically, a hypnotist comes in and convinces the whole locker room that week one is actually week four, and you've already started on three.

It's not a bad idea.

Yeah, right? Because I feel like the first two weeks-We haven't gone off to the greatest starts in my career, I would say.

So hopefully we can figure out a way to change that. A hypnotist might not be a bad idea.

Yeah, the urgency, because I have power ranking in Rome. I have a computer that does power rankings every week, and it never gave up on the bangles because I was just like, well, Joe Burrows there, and they're going to figure it out. And it was close. It was close. You guys came so close.

Once we hit four and eight, that was tough to come back from.

Yeah, the four and eight, every week was just like, shit.

Every week felt like a heartbreaker. I would get back to my house and be like, how the fuck did we lose that game?

Yeah. All right. So we need a hypnotist or something.

What you could do is you could just play all your starters throughout the preseason and just lose those games.

That's not a bad idea, too.

And then week one is literally week four for you.

I'm pro playing in the preseason, I would say.

You didn't play in this last person.

Did seven snaps.

Okay. You would have been 0 for seven if you were Hank.

What does that feel like going out for a preseason game? You're going to go on the field and you're going to take two snaps, hand the ball off twice, and then leave the field.

Yeah, it's weird because you're not game in planning the opposing team. You'll watch a couple snaps of their defense before the game, but you're going out there and it's like, I wonder what they're going to play because you don't really know, especially if it's a team that you haven't played before or a coordinator that you haven't played before. The offense is at a disadvantage in the preseason. So I always feel bad for these young quarterbacks that go into the preseason and they play like shit because you're not going to play well in the preseason because your coaches aren't game planning their defense and you're just running out and running your training camp plays against a defense that those plays aren't built for. And so when people come out of the preseason, they're like, This guy stinks. Well, it's not exactly the case.

We do it the other way sometimes where somebody will be really good in the preseason and we'll be like, that guy should start. Like Kyle Sloater. He was a preseason legend for a long time as a backup. I don't think he ever played a snap. Could he run? Yeah, he could run a little bit.

Running quarterbacks Excel in the preseason, I would say. Yeah.

And you always think like going to the season, man, this guy should be getting snaps over Patrick Mahomes. This guy's way better than.

You're running. I feel like you had a couple of big runs this year. Whenever you get out in the open field, you're like, oh, fuck, I made a mistake. Me? Yeah, I'm about to get lit up.

The bills this week? Yeah.

I don't think I've ever really felt that way. Okay. I'm getting better at sliding and protecting myselfself. And I'm getting more agile, so I'm making some more people miss. I'm getting a little faster, and I'm going to continue to work on that. So I'm just going to feel better and better about it.

You are getting faster. That's crazy.

I didn't know you could get faster.

Yeah, you've got to-I've just gotten slower every day of my life.

You just have to run fast.

You get a very long slide now, I've noticed. You go seven yards on a slide. I know.

I haven't quite perfected it. Like, Lamar will do some weird stuff and then get down without getting I hit. I don't have that in me, I don't think. So I'm just going to do the baseball slide. I'd like to not go as far, I would say. But I feel like my slide into knee into the ground pop up. It's good.

It's cool. It is good. Lamar likes to dive at people's knees when he goes down, which is a pretty effective way, I think, to avoid getting there.

Because when he gets close to people, everybody just breaks down because they're so worried about him making a miss. So then he starts going like that, and then everybody stops, and then he just goes He gets everyone on their heels.

Yeah.

I don't get anybody to stop like that.

Do you ever learn new moves for open field running? Definitely. You watch YouTube and you're like, okay, I could do this.

I mean, more so like I practice it walking around. I'll be walking through a hall or in my house and I'll try something. I'm working on a spin move right now. Euro stuff.

Just Euro stepping random people on the street. Yeah, exactly.

That's just guys being dudes where I just cross people off. Do you have any pets?

I don't have any pets. I had pets when I was A little, though. I had a cat, I had two turtles, I had two frogs, and I had a lizard.

It's freaky.

That's borderline a weirdo kid. If you had one more snake, I'm like, Oh, this isn't funny anymore.

Yeah, I used I love going to the pet store and getting the crickets and feeding them to my lizard.

Yeah.

What was your lizard's name? Lizzie. Okay, that's a good name. That's solid.

Smart. I was going to say if you had a dog, you could just juke out your dog.

Dogs are too much for me. I like being around dogs, but I couldn't live with a dog, I don't think.

You think you just love it too much?

I think they're just too in your face.

They do like to be in your face. It's true.

Just do your own thing for a little bit.

If you were a dog or a cat, I would say Joe Burrill cat.

Yeah, for sure.

I know you're going to be asked this a lot because obviously T. Higgins is a free agent, and they're going to be like, Hey, Joe, will you take a restructure of your deal? I'm not going to ask if you're going to restructure your deal. I'm going to actually ask What does that mean, restructuring a deal? Can you explain it to us? Like we're five.

Yeah. So you could do a couple of different things. You could convert some of the money to a signing bonus, which will lower the cap hit. You can push some of the money to the back end of the contract, and then when you get to that, that lowers the cap hit. And then when you get to that, that lowers the cap. And then when you get to the back end of the contract, you can restructure it and convert it to a signing bonus. And then you can also just take less money.

And Which one were you going to do?

We'll see. I don't like what Big Cat's doing, Joe. I think that you deserve every penny that you've signed for. You don't have to restructure anything. Don't feel like, oh, I have to keep T around. It's not your responsibility. That's on the team. I think T is entitled to make his money, but you're entitled to make You don't take any money, too, Joe. Don't listen to this guy. Restructuring-this guy's big business right now.

You don't take any less money, right? You just get-You could. Okay.

You could, but most of the guys just convert it to-To a signing bonus.

Yeah. Is that you would do that?

I would do that.

Okay.

I don't like what he's doing. He's putting pressure on you. You should feel entitled to the money that you've earned.

It is a weird situation, though, that you're in, because I think that's just part of what happens with the quarterbacks, where it's like there's a little more pressure on them, where they have the biggest deal. So if they want to get flexibility, a lot of times it comes down to the quarterback to have to be the guy who has to step up and do that.

At the same time, though, this was the last year that all the COVID cap money restrictions across the league were implemented. So the next three or four years, I think the cap is going to just...

Cap's going up. The cap is going up. Okay, we just keep saying cap's going up. Cap's going up. Tee Higgins.

It went up 8% last year. It'll probably be similar. You've looked at this.

You've definitely crunched. You've definitely been laying in bed late at night just looking at a spreadsheet being like, Okay, all right. The gap's going up.

You understand the cap?

I mean, not really. Because we don't think that it exists.

Way more than we do.

Well, Well, definitely some teams seem to make it feel that way. Yeah.

The Saints have just pretended it doesn't exist for a while.

When the Eagles are paying everybody. Yeah. So it seems like the way whatever they're doing.

I feel like adjusting the salary cap is the final boss of how many different things can we change because of COVID. It's like COVID happened. Okay, well, we're going to have to redo the NFL salary cap. We need to make some changes there. It's weird.

In baseball, you have, I don't know what But some teams are paying like nothing, and some teams are paying like $500 million. I don't think that's the way to do it.

And the Shohe contract, it's like $700 million, but he just gets $2 million.

Yeah, we'll pay you in like 50 years.

Which is insane. I don't understand any of that.

What was the deal with that? He got into some controversy, didn't he?

Yeah. His translator, Epe?

Might have a little gambling problem.

I figured you guys would know the ins and of that.

Maybe, perhaps. Yeah, it was a situation.

It's good to have a translator because that person is the ultimate fall guy. I didn't even understand what you guys were saying.

I can't even answer your questions right now. What is this?

We were joking at the time, it would be so funny if it all happened and Shohe was like, Kaiser Soze, and just had a New Jersey accent and just started talking in perfect English. It's like, I've been playing all you fuckers.

You should get a translator. That would be awesome.

Yeah, that would be cool.

That person does all your interviews. You just sit next to him, checking draft kinks. I can put it in a parlay here. Okay, good, good, good. Yeah. So this has been a fun year for you. In other ways, maybe not so much, but this offseason, what are you doing to improve your game? You're getting faster. I know that. But is there anything that you work on in the offseason and you say, I'm going to focus on this?

I think I'm at the point in my career where there's not really anything that I'm like, Okay, this needs to get better. I feel like I'm pretty well-rounded and everything is pretty dang good. But when everything's pretty dang good or great, you can always continue to improve those things and get better at them. So I'm just always improving a little bit of everything, strength, speed, mechanics, movement, efficiency, all those things. I like that.

Just do exactly what you've been doing, but do it harder.

Yeah. Or I noticed that as you get older, you put the same time in the offseason, but when you get to the season, you don't have to quite grind as much because you've seen so much football now, and you've played most of these defensive coordinators before, and they're doing the same stuff. There's little game plan things here and there, but you've seen most of the defenses.

What's your hair plan for next year?

That's a good question.

I have a suggestion.

I don't know what I'm going to do yet. I don't really know what I'm going to do until a couple of days before I do it, I would say. I want to grow it out a little bit, but we'll see.

What about a mullet?

I've thought about the mullet.

You should do a mullet.

I thought about the mullet when I was in college because I grew my hair out in the off seasons in college. So I was going to go into my last year at LSU. That would have been a fun year to have a mullet, but you just have to grow it out so much. And then, I don't know. We'll see.

Yeah. I mean, your hair seems to grow fast, though, because when you shave it, it's like four weeks later. It's like, oh, yeah. Remember when Joe shaved his head a month ago? Now he's got normal hair. Yeah. It grows very fast. Shady look was interesting. I thought that that was intentionally done for preseason and that you would dye it back once the regular season started.

I did it because I wanted frost tips, but I've never seen frost tips look good if you just go to the salon and get them. So I just went brute force, shaved it, dyeed it, and then let it grow out. So then I had the frost tips.

All right. So I know you got it wrong because you got a bunch of stuff going on today, but I got one last question. Roback question, robackkwestion, rhoback. Com, promo code take 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback. Com, promo code take. So I know you're doing a bunch of interviews today. I also know you're not really big on social media. So I just wanted to give you... I'm just giving you something that I saw because I was literally name searching Burrow before you came on to see if there's anything that was going on in the last two days. This is just from a random person. It's a clip of you at the Pro Bowl. It says, I need him in ways that would set feminism back 100 years. What does that mean? I think it's a woman who thinks you're very attractive. So just take that with you. Just take that with you. Nice little confidence booster. I appreciate that. He did in ways that would set feminism back 100 years.

I saw another one from a similar account that said, God made men, and then send us Joe Burrow as an apology. Yeah.

Wait.

Oh, because... Okay.

Oh, okay. Because all men suck, men, you don't.

All men suck, but not you. That's great.

So there you go. Take those with you.

I'll take it back. Thank you for everything that you've done for men, Joe.

Yeah. Those didn't sound like questions, guys.

No, they weren't. That wasn't it. It was a rowback statement. All right. Well, great seeing you, Joe. Thanks so much, man. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Joe Burrow is brought to you by Uber Eats.

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Okay, we're going to do some guys on Chicks real quick, and then we're going to finish off with Firefest because this is the end of the week for us. We have Dungeon and Dragons coming Friday for the people. Hank, Guys on Chicks.

Guys on Chicks. I meant to bring it up in Hot Sea Cool Thorn, but I forgot Montoya.

Montoya. He's going through hell.

He went through it again.

Dude, I said last night- It's a show.

I don't even know how to explain it. It's the crazy show of all time. It's just a fuck show.

Well, it's Temptation Island, Spanish version. Montoya, for anyone who hasn't followed, he has the worst ROI of all time on a lap dance because he got a lap dance, and then his girlfriend on the other island decided to just spend the next week fucking this random guy, getting the bongos played on her ass. And Montoya has to watch all of this happen. Credit to Montoya, he's just... I mean, credit to Montoya. He's great on camera. Basically, imagine if you- How long has this relationship been going? Montoya's basically if you were watching the World Cup and a player just lost in a terrible, terrible way, and you know how soccer players are usually very animated? That's Montoya every episode watching his girlfriend get smoked.

This guy absolutely hates it when his girlfriend cheats on him. Yeah.

Just really watching her go to town.

The one that I saw today, they were under the covers, and they include... I think they might have added in sound effects. Yeah. Because that smack sound, she was getting it in.

To the wall.

Hey, guys. I need your help picking out a Valentine's Day gift for my fiancé. In the past, I've made/gotten my fiancé sentimental things, but I don't think guys really like that stuff. I don't expect him to tell me that if he really doesn't. If it were you all, what are some things you would all actually enjoy getting that aren't basic? Thanks and go, Dukes.

Cash. My answer is always cash.

I think a good one for girls is just whatever a sports team are, find a retro shirt or hat or something. Okay, counterpoint. It's not basic, but it's thoughtful.

Counterpoint. Cash.

You can buy whatever you want with cash.

Even if you have a joint bank account, no one has ever gotten the gift of cash and been like, eeu, no.

Have you ever been like that with a gift card, though?

Yeah. Gift card boxes you in. Cash is limitless.

The problem with a gift card is you never spend the full amount. Yeah. Maybe get him some jail. Or you have to make yourself spend way more money because you're using the gift card to get a discount on it.

Also could get him some jail stool.

No, don't do that. Bad idea. I would Let's see, a good gift for your fiancé. Cash. I don't know if cash is really the way to go. Hank is- Always. I think if you share the personal account, it's like, what are you going to do with cash?

It's still awesome to get cash.

I guess fiancé, maybe they do.

When does that happen?

When does the joint account happen?

Yeah, fiancé, marriage.

Some people don't even have it.

Cash. It's still awesome to get cash even if you have a joint account.

Or like an activity, go on a trip together. Why? Buy concert tickets. Cash. Sports tickets.

Cash. Cash is king.

Golf balls. Why do females typically not like guys playing video games? Seems there could be much worse activities out there. It's a way guys can also hang out without going anywhere. All in all, not one guy complains when a girl goes out with her friends. We just hop on the game. What is the game for girls and how do we get them excited about it like guys do for games and get treated the same when it's flipped?

Wait, so she's saying why do girls care so much when guys play video?

This is a guy asking why his girlfriend doesn't like video games.

Because you're paying attention to something very close. You're paying attention to it way, way more closely than you pay attention to her.

Also, video games by nature, we've all been trapped in one, been obsessed with one. When you remove yourself from it, you do realize you did nothing. I think they're seeing it from that angle where they're looking at it and being like, You just spent six hours. In your head, when you're in it, Yeah, I'm squatting up with the boys. We're going on missions. This is fun. Or I'm finishing my dynasty. I'm accomplishing something. From the outside, they're like, You've done nothing.

I also think girls, their video games are shows, but those are more time. They watch for an hour. They watch The Bachelor. They'll watch something for an hour or two. Video games, if you really like playing video games, you could play forever. Ever.

Yeah, forever.

That's where it's like, I'm getting off in a minute. But if you're playing a battle royale, what feels like a minute is actually 40. Then you look up, you're like, Oh, shit.

I think girls, they care when... They see you so engaged in the video game, and you look forward to it, and you know everything about the video game. You pay super close attention. Then they're just like, I wish that when I talk to you, you would pay attention to me in that same way that you do your video game.

Why don't you talk to me like you talk to your boys? Yeah.

Like, Suck my dick. Fuck you.

Yeah, that stuff.

What they should do. Eat my pussy. What they should do is they should make a boyfriend simulator game. That'd be good. If they made a good one.

Maybe I get her into video games. Probably not, though.

Try.

I don't know. There's something about it. We're wired a certain way that when we start a game, just got to finish it.

Just got to finish it. Or, yeah, you got to get a win.

You're not getting off until you get a win. The problem is, I don't know, you guys might be different, but my relationship with video games has always been if I have a game, I'm obsessed, obsessed with it for a 2-3 week stretch, and that's all I think about. I could see how that would be annoying on the outside, where it's like you're at dinner having a conversation, and all you're thinking about is, I got to get a four-star linebacker for my team.

That shit. I was full-on addicted to Call of Duty for a solid two years.

Oh, yeah. I've been in that for sure.

Covid. I think once I moved, and I think it was part of my routine, and it's not really anymore. But looking back, it was all I thought about it. I was trying to play for... Sometimes I just play for 12 hours a day.

That's a lot.

Now it's golf.

Yeah,golf, yeah.

You remember when you were addicted to golf video games?

I still... Pga, 2K is coming out. I'm excited for that. That game is fun as fuck. It's a great combo. Golf, and then when it's dark, just play golf. Last one. Hey, part of my take. Great pod, big fan. I'm a nurse, and nearly all my coworkers are Chicks. What?

Nurses are hot.

It's a dude. And I had a few over for the Super Bowl.

How's it a dude?

I thought this guy's on Chicks, and he's a nurse.

I got drunk and called Kelsey a pussy bitch after a second drop in the first half. Maybe a dude. A few chicks didn't like that. They are Kelsey fans that were offended by the verbiage. Is this something I have to address with my coworkers? I'm just used to watching Ball with the Boys while I was ready.

No, I feel like nurses Listen, one thing I know about nurses is when they're not on the clock, they fucking party.

They're hot. It's not like corporate.

This is a Swifty thing, too. That's why they're upset.

Yeah, and I think nurses and doctors have what, like a five times greater greater likelihood to smoke cigarettes. They don't give a fuck.

Also, if we're being honest, Kelsey was playing like a PAB.

For sure.

That's just a fact. The Chiefs didn't play well, right, Max?

Yeah, little boy ass play. Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah, try that out next time. Little boy ass. Did you say that at all during the Super Bowl?

No, but the original tweet was about Travis Kelsey.

Little boy ass play. Okay, let's do Firefest.

I can't believe he tweeted that out.

So good. Okay, Firefest time because we are going on vacation. Friday, we have our Dungeons & Dragons episode. Monday, we will have about 20 minutes of us on Zoom catching up on the weekend and then an NBA preview with Ryan Rasillo. Then we will all be back together for Wednesday's show. We're not missing any shows. We'll just have a little bit of a different schedule for the next few episodes. So Firefest, Hank.

Kind of impossible to have a Firefest right before a vacation.

Yeah, you're feeling it right now.

Well, my sleep schedule is cooked. I have not come back from New Orleans. I was up yesterday at 5: 00 AM, couldn't fall back to sleep. Was up today at 4: 00 AM, couldn't fall back to sleep.

Sounds like you're thinking about Josh Allen being MVP.

Got up, yeah. Got up and then fell asleep at 7: 00 on my couch, I almost woke up. I'm all over the place, sleep schedule-wise.

Okay, I feel bad for you. Yeah, it's vacation. You're going to straight that out on vacation. How many rounds?

Well, I'm going a day early now because there's going to be snow in Chicago, so I'm adding an extra one. You have to go.

That's nice. You have to go.

That's Nice.

You got to go a day early.

I do.

Yeah, I know.

Are you planning golf? When you get into town, did you add a next round?

Yeah. Okay, all right, nice.

But it's because of the snow.

It's the snow. Well, yeah. I was like, Well, I should go Tuesday, hit up our friend Isner and was like, Hey, you around? He's like, Yep, come play golf. I was like, Fine. You know what?

Fine. He got to because it's snow.

So Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Wait, what? Say it again. 36 Friday. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. That's six rounds?

Yeah. Wow.

Nice. That's too much golf. At some point, you got to be like, This is too much.

Well, the one tomorrow is like, I don't have any choice.

Right.

He's forced to. Because it's snow.

But come Sunday, are you still going to wake up like, No, I'm itching. I am itching to get another round.

No, I would say after. The second round Friday, I'll probably be hung over and my body will be sore.

It sounds like torture.

And I'll be like, I'm cooked. I'll fight through. You know what?

For the people, I will fight through. I think what Max has What I'm asking is, aren't you going to get bored of playing golf at some point this week?

No, because I miss it so much.

Yeah. What if you suck?

I'll definitely suck.

That's a shame.

I'll report back. Okay. Good. Sure. I'm sure a bit of people are dying to know.

Hank did ask me the other day. He's like, Hey, are you going to play golf on your vacation? I was like, I don't think so. He's like, Can I borrow your bag, your travel bag? So I have to run home at lunch and get the travel bag for Hank so that he can get his golf in tomorrow.

It's Bros Helping Bros. Yeah.

What? It's huge. They make me feel bad for asking you for a favor.

No, I'm just stating facts. He's just stating that he helped you.

You love facts.

Yeah. True. I'm trying to get you fired up.

Well, we can't get him fired up. We can help him, but we can never get him fired up.

Yeah.

We can never light that fire in Hank.

He's probably pumped to see Isner. He's like, Finally, a guy with the energy here. Fire me up. Yeah, he'll tease you. He'll literally fire you up. Will you get tased this week in Hank?

Listen, it's okay. We're not Missoula and Gruden.

We never will be. No, you're not. I feel bad, but also you guys know you're not.

Okay.

Damn. No one is.

Okay. Pft.

Different motivation tactics.

My Firefest, somewhat vacation-related. Really tough to have a Firefest when you're going on a vacation. It's nice to get somewhere warm. Really good point. I guess the only Firefest I would have would be that I really wanted to play golf this weekend, and I don't have my travel bag. What's better than playing golf on an island on vacation? It's all I look forward to doing for the last three months. But Hank needs my bag, so I'm going to give Hank my bag.

I can get another bag. I have a second option.

He's got a bag.

Yeah, you can have my bag. I can tell him in a lot to you. My Real Fire Fest is going on vacation this week, and I did get my chest waxed last week down in New Orleans. Oh, yeah, that did happen. It did happen. I'm going to be hairless in a swimsuit on the beach, and whatever lotion they put on really did not agree with my chest. I got a little rash going on my chest right now. I'm not looking forward to being shirtless this weekend.

Yeah, I completely memory hold the fact because that feels like it happened 10 years ago.

Yeah, it's got a lot better since the day after, but my chest is not at its best right now.

How is time working out in your brain right now, Max? Can't be going well.

No, I'm cooked. My whole body is just done.

All right, my Firefest, actually, the body being done. I knew this was going to happen, but clockwork, we turned 40, and now I'm just starting to get random injuries. I just got a tennis elbow in my left arm, which I don't have. I don't play tennis or golf, and I'm a righty, and Then my right arm, I've had a broken pinkie for three months, and Super Bowl week just demolished me because I was shaking hands. Every time, I was like, Fuck, this hurts. But I think I'm going to get in shape, and I have an announcement for you guys. You ready for this?

Yeah.

I think I'm going to dunk.

No way. Yeah.

I think I'm going to dunk.

There's no way. I think I'm going to dunk. Have you ever dunk before?

I've never dunked, but I think I'm going to train in dunk. How tall are you? 6'3.

You could do it.

I think you could do it, too, for sure.

Big guy could do it.

I have a ton of faith in you to be able to do it.

I think I'm going to dunk.

I hope you could, too. You would have to lose a lot of weight.

Okay.

All right. But that's fine. Really, you're walking around has really trained your leg muscles. Yeah. So you got strong legs.

I don't know when I'm going to dunk. I'm not going to put a time on it or a bet on it, but I think I'm just going to dunk.

Good. Good luck. Thank you. You can definitely do it.

You sound like you're supportive, Hank.

No, I know what you're doing. I would be happy if you did. I'm trying to dunk. I know you're not going. You don't- I would- You don't- You don't believe him? Wow. I've been there. I've been where you are. I understand where you're heading. You tried to dunk?

Yeah.

I'm still going to.

I don't even remember it because you were so far away from it. Big Cat could do it.

No, I wasn't fucking close.

You were not close. I was close. You were not close. I was close. You were not close.

You touched the rim.

You were not close to Duncan.

I was close.

You were not close to Duncan. I think if you gave Big Cat-In what world were you close to Duncan?

I jumped 10 feet, 4 inches. I needed to get 10,6.

If you gave Big Cat a year, he could do it.

We'll see. I'm not going to put any pressure on myself. I'm just going to try. You know what?

I also am going to be Big Cat, you should have John Gruden coach you and train you because he'll get you fired up.

Yeah, that's true. That's a fact.

All right. I'm going to try dunk. Do we have any other hobbies that we're deciding to pick up this offseason? Dunking. Dunking? Hank? Any changes you're going to make to your life? Post-football?

I'm currently the fattest I've ever been, so I'm going to work on that.

Get fatter?

Yeah, but you're a champion when you're fat.

Yeah, no. I got to... That's it.

You can't really think about changing your ways before vacation, but in a week from now, I will-Fitness Vacation. Fitness vacation. Fitness vacation. Well, you got a PFT. You do something? You want to dunk with me?

I could try to dunk. I'm focused right now on long drive because I got a bet coming up that I've been training on already. I don't I don't know if everyone here has been training on it. I'm just going to try to get my drive-I have been trading on it. Over 300 yards if I can. I'm getting more tattoos. I am, too. I'm low-key addicted to getting tattoos. I am as well.

Are you also? I'm going to get at least two or three more. I'm just going to say, Fuck it. They're not going to be crazy big or anything. I don't know. We're just going to do our midlife crisis with tattoos. Yes, speed running. Which is badass by us where it's like we just became a tattoo podcast out of nowhere. I feel like I just see Chris Long and I'm like, That's what a real podcast host looks like.

Yeah. I might get a teardrop tattoo.

How sick would that be? Well, yeah, I'm going to get another one as well. So maybe we link up, get them together. We'll get matching ones.

I like that.

That'd be cool.

I'm going to get the flight simulator going in the office.

Yeah. A lot of stuff. I'm excited for that. I want to get on that flight simulator.

A lot of stuff going on.

Yeah. Okay. Numbers and get ready for Dungeon Dragons on Friday.

Also, prostate exam. Do we have to do that? I think so.

I thought that was 45.

Might as well get it early.

Shut up, Memes. Memes wants us to die.

No, but you should be rooting for us not to get a prostate exam. 40.

You need one. You need it checked. I have to get one early because prostate cancer runs in my family.

Yeah.

Okay. Three. Five. We can all go at the same time. Okay. We should do that.

99, po.

Have an AWL as a doctor? Give us a butthole reviews. Five.

94. 94.

Love you

guys. Let's see.