Transcript of NFL With Andrew Whitworth, Washington Capitals Dylan Strome In Studio, Texans Beat Steelers And Mike Tomlin Resigns + Guys On Chicks

Hey, pardon my take listeners. You can find every episode on Apple podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Prime. Members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. It's 2026. Getting your protein fixed should be easy with Tropical Smoothie Cafe's new protein blends. They're made with real ingredients like Chobani Greek yogurt and get it up to 30 grams of protein.

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Yeah bar and my team. Yeah barn and my team.

Yeah.

Part of my take. Welcome to Part of My take presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, January 14th, and the Houston Texans have ended Aaron Rodgers career. We think I was wrong hand up.

I was wrong hand up. I missed it. I tried to time the market. I tried to do the reverse big short. The big big and and I was wrong. The Steelers, I thought they would be different this year. I thought that Aaron Rodgers being an average to above average quarterback at this point in his career would be such a massive improvement for that team that they would finally have a serviceable offense that could capitalize on their defense and win a playoff game. And they are the exact same Steelers team that we've seen since 2018 every single year.

So I. I do want to talk about the Steelers, but we should give credit to the Texans first. Their defense was phenomenal. The CJ Stroud was not very good, especially in the first half. He. He got into deep water with the Steelers. Like this game, looking at it, it ends final 30 to 6. It was 10 to 6 in the fourth quarter. The Steelers had gotten to a point where they were playing the. Let's drag them to deep water and hope we can get a couple bounces to go our way. And then the scoop and score happens. The pick six happens. It gets out of hand. But like, if you actually look at this game, this was. The Steelers were doing exactly what they've done all year and almost in a position to potentially steal this game. Except the Texans defense is just so good and they're so nasty and they just fly to the ball. And I. I mean, I'm. I'm very worried about this Texans team. The pinky bet is, is. Is on the hot seat big time. Because essentially they're. They're the AFC Seahawks, in my opinion. Okay. Where their defense is elite.

And you essentially have to get to the point where, like, can you see C.J. shroud or Sam Darnold not making or playing a clean enough game that they can get all the way to the super bowl and win the Super Bowl.

I feel like the difference is, though, the Seahawks have had games where their offense is elite.

Definitely.

Where they're incredible.

The Texans have had spurts of it here and there.

They've had some decent games.

Yeah.

But I think the Texans defense is better than the Seahawks defense.

I'd agree.

And that's not really a knock against the Seahawks. I think the Texans have the best defense in the league. Seahawks have the best defense in that conference.

The Seahawks scheme things very well. The. The Texans just have rabid dogs running to the ball on every play and taking your head off.

Swarm.

They.

They're swarming. That's. That's the key word for them.

It's crazy to watch.

I. I do like how they like the media talks about the Texans defense. Like they invented the word swarm.

Yeah.

Like, we haven't just been like, there's a few things that dumb asses can say when they're watching football on TV and. And sound like they know what they're talking about. All that defense is swarming. Guys are flying around out there. They need to dial something up. They're playing with their hair on fire.

Yep.

They're pinning their ears back.

Yeah.

Swarm has been one of those words that we've talked about for, like, decades. But the Texans, actually, they do it. Will Anderson Jr. Is a monster. I love listening to him talk, by the way. Oh, yeah, he's so funny.

He.

He is the man. D' Ameco Ryan's coach. A hell of a game defensively, the offense still. Yeah, you're right. C.J. stroud first, like two and a half quarters. Little bro ass. Yeah. Little bro was ass last night. Like, let's call it what it is. Little bro ass.

And even though little bro is ass, The Texans, with C.J. stroud and D' Amico Ryan's have now won a playoff game three straight years. We talked about, you know, Justin Herbert is still elusively trying to find his first playoff win. Yep. They've rallied off three years in a row they've won a playoff game. And d' Ameco Ryan's like, what he's done for this Texans team. The three years before D' Ameco Ryan showed up three years total, they had 11 wins and zero playoff appearances. In the three years since he's shown up, they have 35 wins and three divisional round appearances.

I was thinking about Davis Mills last night.

Yeah.

I saw a lot of people online were also thinking the same thing. Like, you had the thought, like, do they put Davis Mills in? Yeah, but. Yeah, you're right. I. I do think that C.J. stroud is. He's not as ass as he played last night, but he does. He's susceptible to ass.

Yeah.

As we all are. But like him, especially for. For quarterbacks that remain in the playoffs. I feel like he just, off the top of my head, he might have the highest probability of ass.

Yeah.

Donald.

Yeah.

But Darnold, I think there's more not ass than ass. With CJ it's like 33.

Donald has some ass in.

Yeah.

And when he's ass, it's a big ass. His ass is bigger than C.J. stroud's ass. But C.J. stroud is. Is higher probability of ass.

And, and it, it's the. So the, the analogy I made with the Seahawks and The Texans, like, C.J. stroud just doesn't. If he just doesn't turn the ball over this game is never even a doubt because of the Texans being that elite of defense. And like the Steelers never, they never felt like they were doing anything. The, the only moment that I was like, oh, man, the Steelers might be live tonight was DK dropping that pass, which was significant. And it was like, if DK catches that pass and the Steelers somehow go up 10 nothing, are they able to control the game exactly how they want? We'll never know. But it's just the, the, the Steelers offense, it. Did you ever think watching that game that like, oh, man, the Steelers offense, they're going to get something going?

I, I think in the first quarter, maybe in the first. They're running the ball pretty well with Jaylen Warren. DK had some big catches and then after he had that drop, Aaron Rodgers thought, I'm not going to pass you the ball anymore. Yeah. And just didn't try to get him the ball until I think the fourth quarter or late in the third was next time that, that he was targeted.

But they were up three nothing with a minute left in the first quarter. And DK drops that pass. If he catches that pass, they're probably at the first and 10 at the 25 yard line and potentially a chance to score and go up 10 nothing. And like, you know what I mean? Like, the Steelers then have a. The pressure then flips to the Texan side where they're. They're starting to feel it a little bit. They did have that really nice drive that was like, what was like 98 yards or something. Yeah, 88 yards.

Playoff drive in Texans history.

It was that. An impressive, impressive drive, but yeah, The, The. The Texans are scared. Are you scared, Hank?

I'm not scared. I'm excited.

You wanted the Steelers.

I wanted the Steelers. I wanted the Steelers bad in the first half. It was like, I don't. It doesn't matter which one of these teams we play. Texas defense is obviously better, but I'd rather be going up against an elite defense and an elite offense, if that makes sense.

Really?

This? Yeah.

It's because of the way you just beat the Chargers.

I just think offenses are a strong suit. I think we can beat any defense. And I'd rather. Again, like, I'd rather. I'd rather the Patriots be playing a team that is known for their really good defense and they're really good offense.

Have you thought about what if they bring back the varsity letterman jackets?

I have not. I don't. I mean, again, it's Texans and Steelers. We both have good, you know, playoff history. Against either one. So I feel good, I feel excited. I think, I think we're going to blow them out.

A little disrespectful. What does blowout mean?

Cover.

That's three, right?

Yeah, it's three.

So blow them out by four.

Yeah.

Blowout.

Yeah.

A little disrespectful to the, to the Texans that the networks waited so long to release the schedule because it seemed like they were waiting for, you know, the result of this game. If it was the Steelers. Yeah, it was gonna be Steelers Patriots. That was going to be the Sunday night game.

Yeah.

And if it's the Texans, they're like, yeah, let's put that earlier on in the afternoon.

Yeah, it was the Aaron Rodgers. Basically when we were waiting for Aaron Rodgers for everything, it's. It was almost a perfect ending to his potential ending to his career that one more time the NFL was held waiting for Aaron Rodgers decision. Was he going to play well and win the game or was he going to look really old and get his ass kicked by the Texans defense?

I'm excited to see how long he can drag out this off season with his. His decision to retire or not. I actually think it's going to be sooner rather than later. Yeah, I think that he's probably going to walk away.

Do you think he's. I was shocked he didn't come back out after the pick six because if it is over, that's his last play in the NFL.

Tom Brady almost had that.

Then he went to the Bucks.

Yeah. His last, last pass as a Patriot.

Yeah. I mean the. Aaron Rodgers will. I guess we'll wait to eulogize him because I actually think there's a chance he might come back.

For who?

The Steelers. The other piece of the Monday Night Football game. Mike Tomlin has stepped down.

Yes.

From the Steelers. Which Important, important. The Steelers having seven straight. Really? Six straights. One and dones probably had something to do with it. Mike Tomlin hasn't won a playoff game since the 2016, I believe playoffs. And this makes sense. I actually think that this was the right move by Mike Tomlin. I do believe that this was his call because I don't think the Steelers would ever fire anyone.

I think at some point the Rooneys and him had a conversation and they said, you know, there's a lot of conversation about your job and Mike, we're not going to fire you.

Right.

We trust you as head coach enough to know when it's time for you to not be head coach anymore.

And it was the same thing every Single year that they were never going to break the cycle of because Mike Tomlin's a good enough coach that they're not going to have a bad year and the Steelers are never going to get better to a point where they're competing for Super Bowls because let's be honest, they have not been competing for Super Bowls.

I think he's a really good coach. The idea that you could get to the playoffs this many times in a row, you can't be a bad coach. And some of the guys that he had on his team, he dealt with a lot of, over the years, to a certain extent. I think he liked it. I think he liked having chaos and. And at least one crazy guy around.

Well, yeah, I. My. My best case scenario or best interpretation of Mike Tomlin's career. Worst interpretation of Mike Tomlin's career. The worst. Which is not fair. But people will say he won with Cowers team. He won with Cowers coordinators. It was Bruce arians and Dick LeBeau. After those guys left, he didn't have a coaching tree. He never really had, like, young up and coming coordinators that were part of the Pittsburgh Steelers organization. The more realistic one that I, I actually agree with is he was a really good coach. He won a Super Bowl. It got stale, but I always go back to Le'Veon Bell, Antonio Brown and Ben Roethlisberger in the locker room, and he kept that together. Yeah, he did. He clearly was a coach that players loved playing for. But at some point, the message kind of loses its luster. And at some point when you lose and not even lose, but not. You're not competitive in these playoff games, you probably got to move on. I feel like all Steelers fans, and this was. I feel like if they had done it one more year and come back and I still don't.

You know, we don't know what, what's going to happen with Rogers, but if they had been like, hey, let's give it one more shot, that's when you get to a point where Steelers fans have real, real animosity towards Mike Tomlin. Yeah, I think it was already bubbling, but at least now he walks away and people could say, well, you know what? Great job. We appreciate all your, you know, hard work and time for a change.

It's kind of like, like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, bitter rivals, died like a week apart. Thomas Jefferson didn't know that John. And his last words were like, and John Adams lives. Yeah, that's. That's Tomlin right now with Harbaugh. Yeah, it's like they were destined to always go their separate ways at about the same time. And I floated out the coach swap possibility, and Steve Biscotti from the Ravens addressed it today. He got this look on his face that was like, oh, they did it.

Well, they. He was doing a press conference talking about his coaching search for the Ravens, and a reporter broke the news to him that Mike Tomlin was fired.

And he got this look in his eye that was like, oh, well, that's interesting. And then he brought it up. He's like, wouldn't that be something if we had Mike and the Ravens had John? Yeah, just keep it going. Keep this rivalry going. I don't know that that's necessarily going to happen. I think there's gonna be a lot of teams that want to hire Tomlin. I don't know if he's going to go into media or if he's gonna take a year off or if he's going to be looking for a job right now. But the Steelers control his rights. So to get Tomlin, you'd have to trade the Steelers, right. To get him. I could see. Still, I could see the Giants doing it. This feels like a Giants move would.

Be like, if they don't get Harbaugh, especially. Yeah.

If they don't get Harbaugh. The Giants crave stability.

That's true.

They want. They want Daddy Tomlin to come in and whip him into shape. And I don't think it'd be a terrible hire. I think be probably a good hire. I think he's a good coach. There's just so many things that you have to think about now, like, does Pittsburgh become the most attractive destination? Forget about the quarterback, the roster, whatever you think about that. Just in terms of general job security, I would say the best jobs in America are number one, coach of the Steelers, number two, Ben Mentz. Yeah. Number three, Supreme Court Justice.

Yeah.

And that's. That's in that order. That's how it goes. I think every coach would love to be hired by the Steelers because they know that they will have the longest leash.

It's the fourth new head coach the Steelers will have since 1969.

Yeah.

That's pretty insane.

It is.

They went Chuck Noel to Bill Cower to Mike Tomlin.

So there's going to be some people out there that are very upset with me for bringing it up, but I was talking to our good friend Jersey Jerry about who he wants. I threw a bunch of names at him. He wants Marcus Freeman. I know what's going on that's number one. And I told him, like, Marcus Freeman is pretty much young Mike Tomlin.

Yeah.

Defensive coach, run the football. Leader of men. I think he'd be, like, in that same mold. But then Jerry was like, I want Signetti.

Yeah.

And I was like, jerry, that's very mean.

Yeah.

Indiana is playing for a national championship. He's like, come home, come home, Sig. Because he is from Pittsburgh. His dad coached at Pitt. And if you're going to do it, if you're going to take a chance on the NFL, that would probably be the one job. Especially the walls closing in now that they've caught up to his drone spygate stuff. Kind of like how Harbaugh left Michigan right at the last second.

Yeah.

I hope that doesn't happen. I hope Signetti stays at Indiana for the rest of his career. But that does seem like, in theory.

You have to call him.

In theory, it would be a fit. But then in reality, you go back to who the Rooneys have hired, and they typically go with younger guys, but.

Still, they gotta call them.

They're gonna call them.

You gotta call him. And you know what, Indiana fans? Obviously, you would never want to lose Signetti, but I'm sure you would trade having a national championship be like, I'm going to give you the two best years of your life. But then he's going to coach the Steelers. You'd still sign up for it, as painful it would be. And also, Signetti has some really good assistants who've been with him for a long time, that one of them could step in and be the Indiana head coach. Yeah, it is, kind of.

But we did ask my boy Rick that exact same scenario, and he was like, I don't. I don't know that I'd want him to go.

And I know Indiana fans are going to be upset that this conversation is even happening, but just remind you, this is part of being successful and being the best team in the country is other people talk about your head coach. That's a. That's a compliment.

Yeah. Guess what? I went through this exact same thing with Kurt Signetti about three years ago.

Yeah.

And it sucks. It sucks that it happens. And I don't think that he would leave for any other team, but I think he would listen to the Steelers.

He'd have to. Have to. Yep. The. What do you think Zach Taylor's thinking right now? So all the AFC north coaches have been fired except Zach Taylor, and he's just. Do you think he has survivor's guilt?

Yeah. Memes have you done John Travolta looking around the room, Gif yet? Not yet.

I just took a funny picture of Zach Taylor and posted online.

Okay.

All right, cool. But he's got it. He's got to be like, man, why? How was I spared? How is this not me?

Yeah. I mean, that is, in a weird way, that's also good job security coaching for the Bengals.

Yeah.

In a much different way from. From the Steelers.

It would be so awesome if they just did a shuffle of the. I want. I want Tomlin in Baltimore. I want Stefanski in. In Pittsburgh, and Harbaugh and Cleveland.

That'd be great. And then who in Cincy?

Zach Taylor for life.

Okay.

He.

He.

He remains Marvin Lewis.

Yeah. Marvin Lewis.

Bring him back.

Yeah, but, yeah, because there's a world. I mean, it probably wouldn't happen, but that. I don't think. Steve Basati also said that after Mike Tomlin did the classic, like, pounding his chest and kissing it in the camera after, which was probably the best way for Mike Tomlin to go out. Don't remember him for Monday Night Football. It was a debacle. The Steelers lose in the same way every single year. In the wild card. They're one and done. Remember him for blowing a kiss to the camera and pounding his chest after a kicker missed a kick?

Was it like a 40 yard or 44?

I did that. Yeah, he missed.

I mean, but the way that he said that made it seem like he was almost flirting with Tomlin. Yeah. We don't want him after he did.

The lot of respect for him. He had a lot of respect.

The Ravens are definitely interested, I'll put it that way.

Okay, so question for you guys. Now that Mike Tomlin and. And John Harbaugh are gone, the longest tenured coach is Andy Reid with the Chiefs since 2013. Tied for second. Do you guys have the names?

All right.

It's kind of shocked me.

Sean McVeigh.

Sean McVeigh is one of them.

Shanahan.

Yep.

And there's a third.

Yep.

McVeigh, Shanahan, and.

McDermott. Oh, so they were all 2017, then. Tied for fifth is Matt LaFleur and Zach Taylor. 2019. And then this one also shocked me. Tied for seventh. Seventh. Longer. Longest tenured coaches. There's two names. And I was like, oh, fuck. They really do change coaches pretty quickly.

Okay, Dan Campbell.

Yes.

Kevin O'.

Connell.

No, it's Dan Campbell and Nick Sirianni.

Wow.

2021 hiring cycle. So, yeah, switch it out. So what are we up to now? We up to Nine, I think a.

Third of the league.

It's close to a third of the league.

Yeah.

It's crazy. And it doesn't feel like the hottest coaching carousel, but someone's going to get a job.

There's a lot of names out there.

Yeah. Todd Bowles also is tied for ninth with Kevin o'.

Connor.

Yeah, Todd Bowles. That's very funny.

Todd Bowles is looking around right now like there but for the grace of God.

Listen, he, he's won three NFC south titles.

He deserves that.

He deserves that. Mike Tomlin did leave us. I will miss his quotes. He will be back. I really do think that it will be interesting to see what happens to Aaron Rodgers. Maybe, possibly Minnesota. Could be.

I see. I don't think he. Do you think Aaron Rodgers wants to be a backup?

Probably not.

Yeah.

I would say probably not. And then the, the, the one thing I would say that's sad about all this is that they, they. Mike Tomlin's last game coached in Pittsburgh in acrisure. Heinz. We call it Heinz. No, Renegade. Yeah, no Renegade. They had Renegade in the Texans locker room after they did not do a renegade in the stadium. But Mike Tomlin does leave us with an all time Mike Tomlin quote when he said afterward, words are cheap. It's about what you do or don't do. People talk too much in our business. You either do or you don't. Mike Tomlin did actually, because he resigned.

He did it.

No, at first when I saw this quote on Monday, on Tuesday morning, I was like, well, he didn't because he didn't win. But he did. He resigned.

No, it's a far, far better thing that he did. The ultimate act of sacrifice. Baltimore and Pittsburgh are the tale of two cities.

I mean, this, this does, this does feel of all the coach firings and hired like this one felt like it's, it's time. It was ready to go.

I think both sides are happy. It was time. Yes.

If we hadn't, if we, if we didn't. If he didn't resign today, we would be talking right now about how he should resign. Yeah. That's how you know that it was the right choice.

In fact, we did talk about how he should resign before he actually did resign. And then we came back in the studio to tape this.

Yeah.

And good job. Thank you for listening to us.

Thank you for listening to us, coach. Yeah. And I, if we repeated ourselves at any point, that's why I don't think we did. But that's why we did the Renegade. I Didn't know if we said. When we said the Renegade, but.

Yeah, he didn't get a renegade a couple great times.

You get a renegade on the way out.

Yeah.

Yeah. Like a funeral almost. Yeah. Like a goodbye parade. A couple great Tomlin isms. Obviously. I want volunteers, not hostages. Cut off our eyelids so we don't blink.

Yep.

The standard is the standard. Yeah. He invented that. And then every other coach stole it. This is maybe my favorite. The catching of the ball needs to be a non discussion when we talk about those who do it for a living at this level. Oh, that's just. Just adding words on at the end. That's just. That's just.

If you touch it, you can catch it.

That's just. It's. If you can touch it, you can catch it. But it's almost jazz. Like he keeps. He keeps on improving.

Give it to me again.

The catching of the ball needs to be a non discussion when we talk about those who do it for a living at this level. It's so perfect. I also like how he.

Yeah, he was writing a report. He's like, I have to. I know that I have to end. I have to get a certain word count limit and I gotta add a few words in here.

Or when you're sending a text and it's got that like autofill that you can click on. He just kept clicking that.

Yeah.

Until he felt he word times. But my favorite part about that is it should be a non discussion when we talk about that thing.

Right.

It's like, what does that even mean? I forgot what we were even talking about. But I know that we shouldn't be talking about it.

Yeah. What?

This whole conversation needs to be burned.

I feel like I would. Yeah. Let's just go out and do violence instead of listening to each other talk more. That's his job as a coach.

Oh, man. Okay, maybe Big Ben is the coach.

Oh, God.

Yeah.

Big Ben is the Steelers coach. Who would rock.

God, yeah. That would rock.

That would be so awesome.

Danny Smith.

Yeah.

Mr. Gum.

Yeah.

What about you think? You think our boy Arthur Smith gets an interview for head coach? I think he'll get an interview like the Rooney rule.

They're so Rooney rule. You got to interview a billionaire. Yeah, Billionaire. Yeah.

You have to interview 1 billion for a job. But like, that would be the ultimate Steelers thing where it's like we're so loyal to coaches.

Yeah.

That we will even interview all of the other coaches after our coach leaves.

Yeah. Maybe Mike Tomlin just goes. He's defensive coordinator.

Now, and it just steps down. Although they did have the opportunity to hire Russ Grimm back when. When them and Cower went separate ways. And I forget if Cower got fired, if he stepped down, he stepped down as well. He stepped down.

They don't fire. They cannot fire.

So they interviewed.

It's Barstool Sports Pittsburgh edition.

Yeah. They. They interviewed Russ Grimm, and everybody thought he was going to get the job. And then they interviewed Tom and Duck.

Yeah.

Like this guy.

Yeah.

So who knows?

Who knows?

But I would. I would expect that every coach is going to at least make a call, be like, please interview me.

Yeah. Because it's not the best situation, but it's also the best situation.

Yep.

Because you'll never get fired. Breaking moves. Breaking moves. What do we got, Hank?

The Kansas City Royals are moving in most of the fences at Coffin Stadium by 10ft and lowering their height as well.

That's not breaking moves worthy.

They're trying to find a neutral park for home runs, find balance, and create a neutral park overs.

So how far? What's the distance on their fences right now?

I don't know, but they're moving in by 10ft and lowering the height.

Okay.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's huge.

That is huge.

That's.

That's. That's.

That's pretty big.

That's pretty. That's pretty big news.

They're moving the power alleys from 387ft to 379ft. Short porch, keeping center field at 410 and reducing the wall height from 10ft to 8 1/2ft.

Oh, it's huge.

All right.

I wonder how many home runs that would have made a difference on this year. Somebody out there is definitely math on that.

Oh, they're just trying to add seats.

Oh, I thought they were trying to add dingers.

They can add one more row.

The adjustments will add 150 seats in left. I guess that's that much.

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I'm sure there is. And if it's not that they probably grandfathered the Red Sox and. And they're like, yeah, if you're. If your fence is this short, it.

Has to be this tall because what if you just. What if you just moneyballed it and.

You moved this deep in center too?

If you move the wal in and then created an entire pitching staff out of sinker ball pitchers.

So I, I do miss the, the old ballparks where they just look completely different. Every dimension was like, it was weird. Like the, the Polo Grounds.

Oh, the Polo Grounds. Such a fun one to look at.

Was it like 500ft to straightaway center field?

It went forever.

Maybe it's just aggregate, like the average distance of your fence.

Yeah.

They're also adding more luxury seats in right field.

Oh, good, Good. Okay. Great breaking moves.

Thanks.

Great breaking moves. Do we have any other cleanup from super wild card weekend? Our matchups are set Saturday. We're going Broncos, Bills, Niners, Seahawks, Sunday, Patriots, Texans, Bears, Rams. I did see someone pointed out, and I wish the NFL would do this. They never will. So credit to this person. I'm sorry I don't have your name, but they had a scheduling fix that I would be all in for for the future of the NFL playoffs.

Okay.

If they did three. So get rid of the Monday night playoff game because I, I think I'm done with it. I kind of. It was a little. Maybe it's because that game sucks so bad.

I'm okay with not having a Monday night game.

It.

It does feel like a big disadvantage.

Yeah. And it just feels like, all right, we did the. We did wild card weekend. So the person said, you rotate every year, but wild card weekend starts Saturday. All the AFC games. Sunday, all the NFC games, divisional round Saturday, the two AFC games. Sunday, the two NFC games, then. And then the championship weekend. Saturday, AFC championship. Sunday, NFC championship. And then it switches back and forth every year.

I like it until the championship. Okay.

Yeah, but that's fine. You could do it because it wouldn't. It wouldn't put anyone into rest and then. But you just do every Single.

Then you alternate each year.

Right.

Who gets Saturday, who gets Sunday.

Right.

And then one of the. One of the two conferences has an extra day of rest before the championship.

Right.

I like that. Yeah. It just would make it very clean, like, all right, Today's the afc, today's the nfc. Yep.

There's a doctor on Twitter who said that the Nico Collins concussion injury, there's a chance. He said he gives him a 30 chance to clear it. And the fact that he played Monday is a big factor.

Oh, yes.

Christian Gonzalez probably will clear it because he has an extra day.

Yeah. No, the concussion pro. Like, it's hard to get out of concussion protocol on a short rest, five.

Steps with each step taking minimum one day.

Yeah.

So the earliest he can clear protocol is Saturday.

And he seemed like he was pretty concussed.

He seemed like he was second one of the year.

Christian Gonzalez. Where are we at on that?

Has he talked to the media?

He posted. He posted like an Instagram story that was like, new week, new blessings, which felt positive.

Or it could just be Monday.

Do you think he does that every week?

Yeah, but. And then this. This doctor said, I'm just going off.

Do you think he's doing that? Does he do it every week? And then he had to do it because he's like, I want to prove that I'm not concussed.

Yeah.

I think, guys, new blessings.

I'm not worried about it.

Not worried?

No.

If he was out, would you be worried?

Yeah.

But if.

Yeah, he's your best defense.

Nico Collins was also out. That would make me feel better.

Yeah. I got a couple other things here. Memes. Post game, Aaron Rodgers was talking to the media. It felt like he was a little bit disrespectful to the Jets. He said the quote was, there's only a few very special places in the league that have the tradition, the town, the organization, and I'm thankful to have played for two of them. Your thoughts? I thought that was fine. I didn't think it was that much of a shot.

Just don't. Jets don't have culture. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was. And also the packers are the most overrated franchise. Whatever. Speak on it.

They had two generational quarterbacks and only got two Super Bowls in the past 35 years.

Speak on it. The. Yeah, the Aaron Rodgers hate watch that I've done for a very long time. It definitely has him being on the Steelers kind of just. It was like, all right, he's on the Steelers. I don't really care. And then also the Bears success this year has dulled it where I wasn't. I wasn't, like, reveling in it the way I. I thought I would. But I also think he's gonna play again because he's gonna love holding everyone hostage. I also think he could go to Minnesota, so that.

That's what I'm hoping for. I don't. I don't think that he's going to, though. I. I feel like the Steelers were the perfect fit for him in terms of, like, looking for a. A seasoned quarterback to lead their offense. A team that might feel like they're one step away. I don't think the Vikings are done with nine yet.

No, I agree. I. It would be as a backup. I. Yeah. The Steelers essentially have two options. One, it's blow everything up, get rid of everything, maybe even trade some pieces or. Which might be more likely. They're just gonna run it back exactly the same.

If. Now, if his last throw wasn't a pick six, do you think that he would walk away?

I don't know. I mean, he. He didn't. He wasn't good last night, but that was the Texans defense. He wasn't. I wouldn't say he was the number one problem for the Steelers.

Not at all. Not at all.

Right. I think he still has the arm.

Talent pretty far down the list. The mobility is an issue for him. Like, he very clearly can't get out of the pocket the way that he used to, even just a few years ago before the injury.

Yep.

So I don't. It feels like he might be getting frustrated with his own body right now.

Yeah.

Where he knows what to do, he knows how to do it. He thinks about it, and then he just can't perform it physically anymore. And that's probably a pretty tough spot mentally to be in as a quarterback. Like, for somebody that's been dominant, like maybe arguably the best quarterback of all time and not. Not the greatest.

Hank.

But, like, physically from, you know, the throw accuracy, throw power. Mentally, he might be the best quarterback to ever play football. And for him to not be able to do, like, the small things like escape from a defensive tackle and roll out to your right and find a guy downfield that feels like it would be. You would start to just take a toll on yourself mentally.

Yeah.

Okay. What other things did you have? Mike McDaniel, by the way, is. Is interviewing for head coaching jobs. Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah. Yes. I still think it would be not the worst idea for a team, given who's out there, to. To get Mike McDaniel I heard a.

Theory the other day. I forget if I listened to it or if I read it online, but it was. It was a team that. That hire is looking to hire a defensive head coach, and they hire Weaver, the defensive coordinator from the Dolphins, and then Weaver brings in Mike McDaniel as the offensive coordinator. Do you think that there's a chance in hell that that would work? Like McDaniel is now, like, okay, yeah, I'll. You can be my boss now.

Yeah. Interesting.

And he did. It did seem last year, like Weaver, he was getting a lot of facetime on the sidelines. He was probably the number one most photographed defensive coordinator.

Yeah, he was.

That would be interesting.

That would be a fun, fun wrinkle.

So there's also a little bit of cleanup with the Eagles. Hertz has. He kind of went out of his way to not endorse Patullo in terms of coming back next year?

Yeah, he didn't have the.

He had.

They gave him every opportunity to endorse Petullo.

Yeah.

And he went the other way on.

Every question, which I think is probably smart.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

And now how many. How many coordinators would this be for Hertz in his career?

Oh, I like, lose count.

It's like, I think it's 10 and 10.

I know. It's more coordinators than years.

Oh, geez. Is it?

Let me look it.

Let me look it up.

We had some mid season changes.

That is crazy.

How many can you name off the top of your head? Patullo, Johnson. Steichen.

Steichen. Kellen Moore.

Kellen Moore. Yeah.

He said a lot. All right, here we go. Kevin. Kevin Patullo. Kellen Moore, Brian Johnson, Shane Steichen, Nick Sirianni. Shane Steichen, Doug Peterson, Lincoln Riley, Mike Loxley, Brian Dable, Lane Kiffin, Steve Sark. That's crazy. Some good names.

There's some really good names.

Yeah. And you can see the years that he had a good year and he had a good name.

Yeah.

And so, yeah, the big one was. They asked him, they were like, oh, is it a problem, like getting. Getting these many coordinators, like, every year that you can't, you know, build consistency? Kind of asking like, do you want consistency? And he was like, well, we've succeeded.

When we've changed before. That was like, yeah.

To me, that was the one that was like, please get him out of here.

He's not a coach killer. Because, like, 50 of the time, the coach that he has ends up getting a better job afterwards. Like a coach promoter.

Right there's. No.

There's just no middle ground now. He. I. I actually think that. So, Kevin Petullo, obviously, what you saw in the playoffs is exactly what you saw throughout the regular season going through that year, Max. The Eagles fans made their displeasure known, and they had a lot of suggestions for how. How Petullo could improve his. His offensive coordinating. And I think at some point, Petullo decides to dig his heels in and not do all the things that everybody kept suggesting, whether it's like, on the radio, in the newspaper, fans that go to his house and knock on his door. He decided, like, you guys, I'm not going to run Jalen Moore, because at this point, that if it worked, that would make you feel good and me feel bad. Do you think that's accurate?

I don't think that's inaccurate. I also think there's a chance he was like, I know they're getting rid of me after this season no matter what, so I'm just gonna make them all miserable.

Yeah, like, I'm gonna get worse.

You guys don't like me. I don't like you.

Egg my house again.

Right.

Kind of like that song, We're Never Gonna Pass.

I think he was like, I want to get out of here.

Yeah. Seven more swing passes. Yeah. I found an egg on my front door.

I'm just gonna run. I'm just gonna be Coach Doug and just play the. Do the same plays every time.

No motion.

I mean, credit to Jalen hurts for. For being a good soldier. Yeah, sure, Kevin. For verts. Yeah, let's do it.

Yeah.

That video. I've watched that video 50 times.

The look Sirianni gave him was like.

Even the look that Tanner McKee gives is. Is insane. He's like, we're really doing this.

For Sirianni to be like, okay, man. When you clearly don't think it's a good. That's your job.

Yeah.

To say, hey, no, no. Sirianni said, like, I. I need to take a bigger part of this offense.

So he said that every. After every loss, he was like, yeah, like, the offense falls on me. And then he just, like, wouldn't do.

Anything with the offense.

Yeah. I did see a crazy stat. I. I don't know if this is crazy.

It's.

It's somewhat crazy, but it also is just. Sean McVeigh is a really good coach and has been in the playoffs every year. Do you know that when the Bears play the Rams on Sunday, that will be the 15th unique opponent that Sean McVeigh's played in?

The playoffs.

That's pretty well. No, because I think it's counting the Bengals and the Patriots. Because he hasn't played Every NFC team.

He has not played.

No, I'm just saying it's 15 games, 15 unique opponents.

No, he's. No, no, he's coached more than 15 playoff games, I believe. Yeah.

Because he's, I thought, got to another Super Bowl.

Yeah, I think. I think he has. Let me see playoffs. Oh, no, you're right, Hank. Yeah, Hank's right. All right. Oh, that is crazy. That's crazier.

So he's never. He's never played the same opponent twice.

Yeah. Whoa, Hank, good call.

Wow.

I thought it was more playoff games. I thought he had played maybe a couple of teams twice. Yeah. So 15 unique opponents in all 15 of his playoff games.

Credit to Hank.

That's fucking crazy. Hank.

I'm going to say to me, Hank, the buzzer sound. Yeah, thank you.

Dude, you're back because you had a. About a week and a half here where you. I don't think you got a single snack. Right, but that was solid.

Got the Royals fence. We got.

Yeah.

15 unique opponents. We're buzzing.

Stay hot, Hank.

PFD. I have one more thing to bring up.

Oh, okay. I think this sounds accusatory.

Yeah, that was.

It is.

All right.

All right.

I think you deserve the listeners an apology.

Yep, I agree.

The Jake Elliott stat was so wrong. It wasn't even close to right. We got community noted.

What are you talking about?

No, we got community.

What are you talking about?

On what?

Memes chime in.

How is it wrong?

Oh, I. I think he's like 90%. We got community on extra points.

This is.

And a couple Eagles outlets picked it up, too. And I think they even got community. Oh, that's awesome. You started a brush fire of community notes.

So I. I had stat look it up and he's got.

It's right under the bus. Well, it is true.

He's got. He's got Jake Elliott attempting 43 extra points and making 31 of them, which leads to 72%.

That sounded insane when you said it.

He's 37 for 43, not 31 for 43. All right.

This is also not the worst percentage.

That's really. They really got you on the community note.

This is. This is, I think, via the pro football reference database. So I don't know.

I was like, it's not.

I don't know. I don't know where that maybe.

I. I like to fight. I'm down to fight back. But there was a lot of. There was a lot of Eagles fans being like, how. How did you allow this. This stat to.

This. Well, I mean, you. You. You were exonerated, Max, in the fact that, like, what are we talking about?

You.

You think that, like, you know, the.

Yeah.

We're not a numbers podcast, so if.

That stat is wrong, I apologize.

If it's not.

Well, no, it.

I think everyone else should apologize.

Wait, are you.

So you're not. You're still leaving it open to maybe not being wrong?

I'm gonna say that's what the pro football reference database says. I'm looking at a screen.

I like being like, yeah, you know what?

I'm looking at a screenshot Never give up of the database right now. And that's what it says. So I don't know.

Okay, I'm. I'm. I pulled up the database. This is good that we're really getting into the. The Jake Elliott. Yeah, it's it on the database right now. His career kicking totals for extra points. Yeah, it says right here, 37 for.

43 in the postseason.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, 86%.

So that would make him. Via this database I'm looking at. Even 86 would put him in potentially last place.

We got a second database or second to last. No, definitely not last place, because, remember, we got community noted. Well said.

Yeah.

Worst.

Roy Gorilla.

Also not the worst.

Roy Guerrella was second to last in this. In the screenshot that I'm looking at, and he had 86%.

Roy Guerrella.

Yeah. 37 for 43.

Wait, that's. That's Jake Elliott's.

So, yeah, they might be exactly tied. Or maybe there's. Maybe there's an error in the coding.

I don't know who's. How do you spell his name?

R, O, Y, G, E, R, E, L, A Roy Gorilla. Yeah. And then third would be Tyler Bass. Oh, 26 for 29 at 89.6%.

This is. Listen, we're not a stats podcast. We never have been. We're not numbers podcast. So. But if you're. If you're just going off like a hot hand. Hank has got a hotter hand than you.

Way hotter. Way hotter.

Also crazy last cleanup is the Patriots. Texans being an ESPN Sunday game.

Yeah, it's weird.

Crazy weird.

I don't really understand it.

It's because of their hosting that they have the Super Bowl. Is it this year or next year?

Yeah, there's no. The CBS and Fox do not have a Sunday divisional round game.

Is that going to be Monday Night Football? On Sunday afternoon.

I don't think so.

I mean, I don't think it's, like, called Monday, but it's going to be Troy and Joe Buck. I'd much rather that than Tony Romo.

Dude, we didn't talk about Tony Romo. He's. We've never been the worst. We've never been more right about anything. I just. Because it. It's rare, and I don't like to take victory laps, but it's rare that in this. On this podcast, we get something so right so early because we got a lot of. For it. People are calling us haters.

Hank.

You'Re misremembering.

Okay, I might be misremembering.

I hated Tony Romo.

Oh, okay.

You guys called me a hater, and then you flipped the next year.

Okay, never mind. Hank, retract. Hank is hot right now. But a lot of the Internet said we were just hating. Just hate. Maybe it was Jake. Jake. Jake definitely would have said that to us. He's so bad.

He.

I saw.

I saw someone. This is a. This is like a month or so ago. But it was that he was so good his first couple years because it was. He knew the defense.

He didn't have to do work.

He knew the personnel.

Yeah.

So he was basically able to just kind of talk about what he had been studying the year before. And as time has gone by, personal has changed. He has coordinated defensive changes. Change. Brady, on the other hand, wasn't, you know, a hundred percent. He wasn't the best last year.

He's gotten better.

He saw the. He saw the comments and. And has grinded his ass off because he's a. He's a hard worker, and he's become great.

Yeah. I wonder if there's maybe a chance CBS tries to poach Greg Olson or.

They just boost J.J. watt.

Yeah. I mean, JJ's been awesome.

Yeah, he has. I. Tony, at the intro, they don't change, though.

Like, they don't. Like, Al Michaels is still calling games next year. Like, they don't.

They don't.

They don't make changes.

House hanging around.

He's not gonna. You're gonna have to drag out my.

I was hanging around and hanging around.

Because they can just play the ratings. Like, they can be like, well, the announcers don't matter that much. Yeah, the ratings are the same.

The intro that he had to that game, the Jags, Bills game, was just the biggest piece of word salad that I've ever heard.

Yeah.

He was like, yeah, you know, the underdogs sometimes they're not the overdogs and the Panthers, and they showed up yesterday against rim, so we'll see.

Jim, I'm gonna do. I. I want to make an announcement on Al Michaels, and I'm gonna try to stay strong with this, and I want you guys to hold me accountable. I do think this has to be Al Michaels last year.

Right.

Next year has to be.

We've said this for the last three years.

I would like Al Michaels. I know that I'm. I'm not a big believer in the retirement tour. Coach K doing like one and just making everyone suck his dick. I would appreciate if Al Michaels would do a retirement tour because I. If he was like, this is it, I would. I would not complain about him at all because I. Yeah, he is a legend of the game. And he is so many, like, incredible moments when you look back in sports history and your own sports history. So, Al, tell us it's the last year so we can embrace you and not be like, Al, Michael's asleep on us on a. On a Thursday night.

Yeah. My position on Al has been pretty consistent, which is. I'm willing to overlook anything without. Yeah. Like he can walk out on his own terms. It doesn't really affect my enjoyment of the game because when it's a bad game. Yeah, he's liable to check out. And that's kind of funny. When it's a good game. I'd like for him to have a little bit more energy sometimes when an amazing play happens.

Yeah.

But I don't think it.

It's the Rams Seahawks game this year, which was an incredible game. That was. That was my low point because he. There was a punt return that he, like, barely called.

Yeah.

That was tough. Like a punt return for a touchdown.

Yeah. So, Max, I'm looking now on Stat Muse. Oh, and has Jake Elliott 86 in the playoffs on extra point percentage.

They must have just changed it.

So I don't know.

Yeah, they must have just changed.

I'm also looking at 86.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I think it's 86%.

Which would make him the worst kicker on extra points.

It depends.

I think it's. I think there's probably a qualifier of how many attempts there's.

This guy. Brett maher has missed five extra points in 13 attempts. Jake Elliott has missed six extra points in 43 attempts. I would say that Brett Maher is probably worse.

So.

Yeah, this one that I have is minimum 50 extra point attempts in a career. This is.

Jake Elliott was.

Only.

Has 43.

We might need to get out of the Jake. We might have to just, you know, just pull the. Pull the ripcord.

Also, it's also a little bit of a skewed stat since extra points are like.

Yeah.

Ten times as long as they. As they once were.

Do you know what? Pft. Can I make a statement on behalf of both of us?

Yep.

We don't care about this statistic.

Yeah, 10 times is also incorrect, by the way.

We don't care about this stat.

Yeah, yeah, I'm actually gonna say I.

Don'T care you Max, for bringing this up. It's boring. It's a boring stat.

Extra points, Max.

We're talking about extra points.

Extra points.

We're talking about extra points on a team that got eliminated.

Extra points matter.

Okay, let's do our hot seat Cool Throne. And it's brought to you by Pizza Hut. So it's Hut Seat Cool Throne. Hut Seat Cool throne sponsored by Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut is the pizza QB's asked for by name. So Pizza Hut is leaning in. If your QB says pizza before Hut will throw your city a party. Tag your QB and use hashtag Pizza before the Hut. Pizza Hut has a reminder for all fans. Don't forget to order Pizza Hut before the first Hut is yelled. Who we thinking could do this? Josh Allen might be to able to. Bo Nicks.

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Order Pizza Hut's biggest pizza before the biggest games. The big New Yorker for just $10@pizza hut.com or in the app. Henry, my husband live.

Oh, yeah. I had this too.

Live golf. Brooks is back.

So back, so back.

The PGA Tour did a hilarious, like, reentry clause in the contract that if you've won a major or players championship since 2022. Convenient cutoff since Phil Mixon won a major in 2021.

Yeah.

Okay. That you can return with some conditions of like paying a big fine and.

Yeah, what are the conditions? He has to pay, like, to charity.

5 million to St. Jude's 5 million.

To a charity that he and the PGA Tour agree on? I guess maybe they have with St. Jude's and then he's also going to be excluded from the player equity partnership, which could. They estimate that could be like 70 to 80 million dollars over the course of the next few years.

Okay. And does he ever get back into it? The player equity?

I Think after a few years. Yeah, I think it's like a. Maybe a three or five year.

All right, so here it is. $5 million charitable donation. Ineligible for player equity program for five years. Projected 50 million to 80 million in lost earnings. Ineligible for 2026 FedEx cup bonus payout. But he's back. I'm so excited, and I. I appreciate Brooks. You know, he wants to spend more time with his family.

Yeah, it's good. He's a good guy for that.

Yeah.

Great guy for that.

Yeah.

I'm excited to have Brooks back on the Tour. He said that he's nervous to come back on the tour.

He's gonna win.

He said that he's. He's gonna have some weird conversations with. With players that might not be happy with him for leaving in the first place. Knowing Brooks, I'm sure that'll be fine. But he's going to come back. He's going to get refocused. Like, this might be the year of Brooks. This might be the start of the championship dvd. And I think, Hank, when you look at your boys in the live tour, the fact that they said, come to our organization. We'll let you play in shorts, and then they just flipped it on him. The ultimate bait and switch. He's no longer allowed to wear shorts. That might have been the final straw. I think that's fair.

I mean, it's like, if I'm. If I can't wear shorts, I might as well just play on the PGA Tour.

Exactly. And you're making me do. Not 54 holes anymore. We're going 72. Yeah. I'm going back.

What. What do you say is the number one live head out there? It seems like the dam might break.

It depends. I mean, the. The people in that list that are eligible to come back, basically, under those conditions are Camp Smith, John Rom, and Bryson. John Bryson are huge draws. If one of them flips, that's a. That's a second massive domino that it will be tough to come back from.

I. I like what the PGA Tour is doing. They're operating from a. A position of strength now. They're saying, we'll give you until the first week of February to make your choice, and after that, there's no guarantee we ever let you back. He's like, this program, this pathway is open just for three weeks, so you better make up your mind right now. And if you want to come back, come back. But you have to do the charity, Give up the equity bonuses, prove you have no more ties to the Saudi government. You have to enlist in Houthi militia. There's a number of things that you have to do, but there's. They're coming from a place of power in this, which I like for the pga.

I think for John Rom is different too, because Bryson and Brooks like started. They. They. You know, we're in the first wave. John Rom waited a couple years and then went over. Like, for him to just flip right back would be probably tough for him to just do, you know, like on his own. Like being like, I made this big decision and now I'm just instantly flip flopping. Because Brooks did.

Yeah. But it. The dam could break.

Yeah, I think it might. I think John Rom's gonna come back. I don't know about Cam Smith, but Rom feels like the next guy that's going to flip.

Yeah.

I mean, I could see. I. I could see all three of them. I guess it just depends on. On the money. But it's like.

Camp Smith.

They're. They're Cam Smith and John Rom, though. They're international guys. Like, that's kind of the draw of live is they're more of an international league.

What would are you. Now that Brooks has come back and again, I'm so excited. I think he's gonna start winning again. I really do. I think he's gonna get back his fire back to him. Would you. If the live comes calling for you, are you leaving it open? Yeah. Oh, more breaking moves. Kevin Petullo fired.

There we go.

It took a long. It took a long time.

Well, it was like a day and a half. It was.

Took longer than Mike Tomlin. The leave.

Yeah. True.

Played last night.

Greg Roman also was fired by the Chargers. So some teams making some decisions.

A lot of coaching changes.

A lot of guys got jobs. They're losing. That's what's happening.

A lot of guys got jobs.

They're that are.

They're getting.

Yeah.

True class half full.

Do you think that Kevin Petullo will find a job as an offensive coordinator somewhere else next year?

There was a lot of rumors that he's going to go back to the passing game coordinator, but this doesn't say anything about that. So I don't know.

Are you nervous that you are kind of late to this considering that Blau already got the offensive coordinator job?

Right.

I forgot about.

You're a little behind.

I forgot about that.

You're a little behind.

That's why you got to make this decision, like even before your. Your wild card game.

Yeah. We could be behind.

Act decisive.

One guy. One guy. Is not available.

What's your. What's your dream? Hire Mike McDaniel.

McDaniel would be great. But then I would like with Mike.

McDaniel in the NFC east, knowing how close he is with Dan Quinn, I.

Would be nervous about that.

Yeah.

Do you understand?

Because I would just lose. I would just lose two games no matter what.

Throw them. Be like, thank you, Dan.

Thank you, Dan.

You saved my life.

Yeah.

Now let me save your.

And it's cold in Philly. That's the other thing.

Oh.

Oh, yeah. But maybe that's exactly what he needs to learn how to coach in the cold. He demands to be on the sideline.

Yeah. You know, he would be a Booth guy.

You can't.

We already got a booth guy. Vangio is already a booth guy.

Yeah.

Might need a buddy.

Whenever they. They cut the Vangio freaking out in the booth. I always think it's so funny.

It's the best.

Yeah. I like how he called Vangio.

Yeah.

Vic Fangio.

You call him Vangio?

Yeah, Vangio.

Coach Vic. Yeah, Fangio.

Fangio. But his name's Vic Fangio. You call him Van Gio.

Well, Vic Vangi.

Like, it's actually a name for our next Van.

Geo.

Yeah.

Thick.

Thick, vanguard.

I. I think that.

I feel like it's coming out Fangio.

No, it came out first.

Yeah. I think McDaniel would be an awesome coordinator. No matter where he goes. He's like one of the best offensive minds in football. But I think the. The cold is a very important point to bring up. Like, he's going to be so bundled up on that sideline.

What was that face you just made?

I got a little cold back here. I'm trying to fight it.

Oh, no. Booth is sick again.

Booth is sick again. Me and Zach are both memes. Is now healthy, and me and. Me and Zach are sick.

Okay.

Do you think Big Dom could wear Mike McDaniel as a Labubu?

Oh, yeah, for sure. Mike McDaniel would wear the Big Dom Le Boo Boo.

Yeah.

Well, he'll take nose off it and put it in where it is his wardrobe.

Yeah.

Or that.

Or the Hank Dog dog toy, which.

Is excellent, by the way. Excellent.

It's one of the best.

Blake fell asleep on it like a pillow last night on the couch.

It's one of the best dog toys ever created.

He's in love with Hank.

My dog is hidden.

The Hank dog.

My.

My dog hides high value things.

Yeah.

I haven't seen it in forever.

She's hid.

Hidden it somewhere just for herself. Because I was taking it too often.

High value to the dog or to you?

To the. It's high value to the dog.

Just hiding all your meatballs. Where the fuck are my meatballs?

She does.

We give her like bell pepper sometimes. And that's a problem because she just hides them and then like gets bell.

Little.

Little pieces of bell pepper everywhere.

That means that at some point you're gonna. Your house and you're going to be surprised by Hank. Yes, 100%. Oh, there you are, Hank.

Okay. You're cool throne.

My cool throne. I got a couple. First is Charlie Kirk.

Yeah.

Eight receptions, 144 yards last night. Impressive.

Yeah, it was, it was insane. So the Texans released a graphic that said C Dot Kirk. And then everyone's like, oh, that. Like, why don't you. Why didn't you say his first name? And then Stephen A. Smith on first take today said, Charlie Kirk had a huge game.

Yeah.

And they, they had to correct him.

Christian Kerr.

We saw Charlie Kirk catch eight receptions for 144 yards. I apologize. Oh my God. Christian Kirk.

Oh, yeah, he freaked out.

Yeah.

Freaked out on tv. Well, Stephen A. Smith, he, he, you know, he dabbles in other things that he talks about. And I imagine that was at the top of his head at the moment. And it was. He was like more nervous than everyone else. Everyone else on set was like, hey, you got this.

You got this.

You're okay.

Yeah. All right, Hank.

The mother Cool Throne is just stranger things, I guess. Haters or fans who are upset with the way things ended. There was no secret episode never happened. Shocker. But they did put out a documentary on Monday with all the behind the scenes of season five. And it was just kind of like Game of Thrones when they would release like the post episode in look inside into the episode and like the directors just made everything so much worse by like saying how essentially incompetent they were. But it was like an hour long documentary where the writers said they hadn't finished writing the last episode when they were started shooting the beginning of a season.

Yeah.

And there was just a bunch of like clear like mistakes where writers were saying this makes no sense. And they just, they ignored them.

But.

And you can tell that from the final product where it's like, well, if we're going to do this, we should do this. And in the final episode, like that didn't happen.

This is like when, when a coach gets fired and a team just is completely dysfunctional and you get the aftermath report, like the postmortem in the Athletic. That's what happens in TV shows that end abruptly and unceremoniously. Look how. Look how much chaos there was because everyone's trying to pin it on somebody else behind the scenes.

The Sharon Moore one, by the way, was incredible. On the Athletic, it was great. Guy was just walking around, just crying all the time. The time in the office.

We should do an episode of. Of part of my take on Netflix and call it Stranger Things Season five, Episode six. Yeah, right. Is that the one that they.

Episode nine.

Episode nine. Yeah. Stranger Things Season five, Episode nine. Just try to get some of that. That SEO.

Can we just do that? Can we just say stranger things. Mike Tomlin fired.

Yeah.

We'Re gonna give it a shot. Okay. Is that it? Yep. Good job. Pft.

My hot seat is patches.

Ah, yeah.

Le patch.

Le patch.

Le patch. LeBron James is going to be wearing a special edition 23rd season jersey patch starting tonight in Sacramento, where his legendary career began in 2003. The patches will be removed after each game and some will be placed into upcoming Topps trading cards, the company announced Monday. So LeBron is wearing a special patch with his outline on it. Doing the chalk toss. It says 23. It's got three stripes on it. He's got a patch for himself, his own patch.

No one else is wearing it.

LeBron's wearing this patch. Who knows whose idea it was? It could have been the NBA's idea. It could have been the Players Association. It could have been anybody who knows. No, who's to say whose idea it was, truly. But it's got a stripe on there for the Cavs, stripe on there for the Heat, and then a stripe on there for the Lakers.

And he is not said that he's retiring after this year. So we might be doing patches and then another year.

I don't know. I. To me, this feels like it was an idea that they came up with before the season and then the execution took so long that they said, fuck it, let's just do it in Sacramento.

Yeah.

Release it that night to commemorate your very first game ever. This is congrats to LeBron. One of the best to ever do it in terms of congratulating himself.

Yeah. Patch.

It's an all time patch.

He's got a. He, I. He's going to announce that he's retiring this year at the All Star Game. Right.

This is a trading card thing.

Yeah.

This is just to make money off.

Of the trading card, right?

No, it's to commemorate 23rd season.

But like, this is no one's idea, except for how can we make the most amount of money.

Oh, you're so cynical, dude.

You're.

You're. This is actually student.

You guys are just being like, oh, yeah, this is a LeBron self.

No, I mean, it is. No, no, no, no, no. We're not. We're saying that it's a great move. You gotta, you gotta lay. Patch it. You put a little patch on for.

Our 10th anniversary podcast. We should get patches.

Yeah. We should all start wearing patches and then just sell them.

Yeah. Make some serious money.

He's gonna.

LeBron's doing it because this is basketball history. Max.

Yeah. He's going to announce he's retiring at the All Star game. Right. They're going to rig it so that he can win the All Star mvp. It's in la. And then he's going to say, I'm retiring.

I think. So this has got to be his last year.

He's got to do any. He's not going to just retire. He's got to do a retirement tour.

I am a little bit worried that he's coming back for 24 and he's going to make every team do the gifts.

Yeah. And the patches.

Yeah.

Okay. Your cool throne.

My cool throne. I got two of them. One is going to be Marcus Freeman. And this was before the, the Steelers opening came about. But I don't know if you've seen any of the. The hard knocks on Notre Dame.

I've seen bits and pieces.

So, Max, I DM'd you a screenshot from this earlier, but they had a behind the scenes conversation of all the captains at Notre Dame having the conversation of whether or not to play in the bowl game. Okay. And he was kind of walking through that. Look at Marcus Freeman's coffee tables that he has in his office. Look at all the snacks that he's got.

That's pretty sick.

Look at, I mean, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10 different bowls of snacks on his coffee table.

It doesn't look like they're that elite.

Snacks, but they're all in, like decorative glasses that might be colored glass on the outside and presented. Really, they might be delicious snacks inside. Like works of art containers.

They look like old, old lady snacks.

One of them does kind of look like the strawberry. Yeah. Strawberry.

I think it's watermelon.

Well, there's a strawberry. The strawberry ones that are strawberry wrappers.

Yep. I'm an idiot. Continue.

You thought it was watermelon your whole life.

No.

Yeah, you did. No, I'm not going to ever taste one very much.

Looks and tastes like a strawberry. We're just going to strike that from the right record.

Okay.

I don't. I should have kept my. Sorry.

But yeah, I. I was trying to identify some of the snacks that he had out there. I don't think I could identify one. Those all feel like maybe, I don't know, deep cuts at Trader Joe's.

Yeah. Weird.

But it's a great office. It's like, did you have a principal or a guidance counselor in middle school or high school? And you would always love to go to their office because they had the best candy?

Yeah.

That's kind of what he's going for here.

Yeah.

These are whistle weird looking candies. I don't think he's got the best candy. I think he's just got a lot of it.

It's almost like they're. They're works of art.

Yeah.

On the table. But yeah. Also, he did not assault anyone at a wrestling meet.

That's facts.

So he got to the. Oh, and they got the. The portal going too. At Notre Dame. A lot of people were talking about the portal.

Yeah.

Then my other cool throne is Coach Missoula. Did you see this? Yep. Post game press conference. Do you want to do a reenactment of it? Sure. Or table read. Okay. I'll be the reporter and you be Coach Missoula. Take us through the last couple of possessions.

Legal screen.

What'd you say?

Illegal screen.

Illegal screen.

Illegal screen.

What fell apart to get you guys behind?

Illegal screen.

What do you want people to know about that?

Illegal screen.

Is there anything else you'd like to say?

Illegal screen.

That's the end.

Nice.

That was really good, Hank. I. I didn't even give you the lines.

You got that?

Did you practice natural? I'm a natural.

Was it an illegal screen?

Yeah. And you lost because of the illegal screen.

I mean, it's the Pacers. We should have. We shouldn't have been in that position.

That would have been very funny if you're like, no, we actually won the game.

Yeah.

I was kind of waiting for you to say that. That would be Missoula. To be like, they won the game. But he's still pissed.

It wasn't a legal screen.

And you lost.

And we lost by two.

This is. It's Belichick. You got basketball. Belichick here. Seattle. Seattle. We're on Cincinnati.

We're blessed.

Yeah. Someone did say online that it would be so funny if that Lynn Jones woman in Jacksonville. Like, what if she had Done that with Belichick after a bad playoff loss. Yeah, like, you know, you're really good.

Love you. Or if she had said that to Missoula.

Yeah.

It's like, illegal screen, Legal screen.

Illegal screen.

I love him so much.

Legal screen. Okay, my hot seats is our guy. Zach. Zach.

What happened?

What happened?

We had an airtime today. Everyone was here except for me.

Yeah. So this has happened a couple times. It actually wasn't. I don't want to overblow it because we said we were going to record at 9:45, which in our scheduling, usually when we say we're gonna do something at 9:45, we start.

We.

Like, 9:45 is when we huddle up, and then 10 is around when we start. You got here at 10:12, so really, not that you didn't really fuck up our day, but what happened? Like, did you wake. You woke up to the text being like, hey, where are you?

No, I woke up like a minute before the phone call, and I was.

Just like, oh, so you screen my phone call?

No, I was trying to schedule the Uber and the phone call and then pick up at the same time when the screening got it. I was trying to get the fastest trans to work while trying to get out of the. I figured just get here as fast as human possible.

Smart, smart. What time did you wake up?

Today.

Had been like, I guess, like 9:55, something like that. Yeah, not good. Not. Not. Not the right time to be here on time.

What.

How late. How late did you stay up last night?

I was up decently late on accident, so people are.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What does that mean?

I've been.

I've been playing this new game, and it's immersive, and I thought it was.

A little earlier than it was, and.

It was really late.

What time was it?

I'm going to delete the game, though.

How immersive.

Zach, what time?

It's really immersive. So it's. It's PvP and PvE. So player versus player and player versus environment. You go in, you get the goop. And I was watching Peanut and Jamar Chase play, and they were having so much fun. Jamar Chase was cooking. I was cooking. It felt like I was with them.

Zach, what time did you say up.

Till I did go to bed at 5.

Oh, my God.

When we. When we first asked him in the booth. When we first asked him in the booth before you guys were able to ask this question, he goes, not that late. Five o'.

Clock.

Like, in the Same breath. Not that late.

Five o'.

Clock.

What?

Five?

Zach, when you go to sleep at five o', clock, doesn't. Doesn't that feel terrible? Like, if. If I'm staying up late and I see the sun come up, I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach, like, oh, so I. I've got.

I've got the curtains. The light doesn't come in in my apartment unless you choose it to. It's either no light or all the light I was in. Obviously, I thought it was still just evening, so I was in no light mode. I didn't realize how late it was until I, like, went PJs and then tuck in.

Wait, you didn't realize what time it was?

I didn't know it was five until, like, I was head to pillow. All right, what time is it?

We got to, like, go to bed.

And, like, it's an immersive game. I'm going to delete it. I'm going to get rid of it. That's on me.

What's the. So the fact that it's an immersive game is why you up.

The stakes are so high that you go. You go into the battlegrounds and you start looking for goop, and then you're trying to get gooped up, and then a guy comes in, takes it from. You got to start from ground one. And then I figured I was like, oh, professional athlete Jamar Chase is still on. It can't be that late, right?

It's his offseason season.

Yeah, it is. It's not ours.

So people have been saying. And again, this is. This is not like when you slept in for the commercial. This really did not affect our day. It was more like, where's Zach? Actually, how bad did it feel? Because we were all sitting outside the studio, and you walked in knowing you were late, and then we all started clapping for you. Was that. That was probably a tough. With a camera.

First thing you saw was a camera.

That was tough.

I didn't even, like, audibly consider the camera or visually consider the camera auto. We consider the clap. I just heard we recorded the show again, and I was like, yeah, you're just like, this is ultimately how this. This same factor is the same way most. Most things end in my tenure of, like, chapters throughout life. So just.

It was like, here, wait, this is. Sleeping in has ended.

Another job a couple times.

Yeah.

Which ones?

Like, there was this one time I worked at the Publix Deli on a Calicorners in Tallahassee. That did end Because I was late. And there was another time they had my dad fire me because I was late.

What? They called your dad and then they told your dad to know.

At the time, my. I was the guy. My dad, me. My dad and the guy he's working with. I'm employed. They employed me. They gave me drugs. I dropped out of college.

Got it.

And they're like, you. I know you didn't graduate with a degree, but, like, if you.

Let's.

Let's try.

Get.

Let's try to get your feet underneath you.

If you work hard and work, we'll.

Show you how to work. If you're not gonna figure out how to take a test, dumbass. So get in here. And then ultimately I was late, and they just sent in my dad to cut the cord.

What'd your dad say?

He was like, listen, man, you're fired.

And he's like, but I'll see you at home for dinner tonight.

Yeah, I still lived with him.

He should have woken you up.

Yeah. Yeah. Your dad had the ability to get you on time, not his job.

You know what I mean?

Like, yeah, it's on me. It's 100 on me.

So this is a recurring theme.

Did your dad say, like.

Yeah.

Did you tell you we have to go in a different direction? Like, how?

I tried. So it was really just like, sat. He was like, can we talk for a little bit? And I was like, yeah, sure.

What do you want?

Was this in your house?

No, this is at work.

Okay. And then he's like.

You know, they're saying, like, for right now, this might not be the best fit. Maybe find something later. And so I started transport driving.

And then. Wait, when he fired you from your office, did you go home?

I went straight home.

Did he go home with you?

He stayed at work because he was still employed.

Okay.

So he.

He was like. He's like, I'll see you later.

Gotta get out of here. Yeah.

Did.

When he got home. Was there.

I think I spent the rest of the.

We.

I mean, we had dinner.

Yeah.

You know, but I spent the time before then and after them just in.

The room playing video games. Yeah.

It's an escape sometimes.

You gotta.

That would drive me nuts.

So.

Yeah.

Zach. Back to the waking up situation. And I love when you describe it. You become we. It's like it's a team problem.

It's like, yeah, we were getting the goop.

We got to bed late, and then we didn't wake up on time. Where's the issue with the alarms? Because you Have. I know we've been adding on to the alarm situation. We got the bomb alarm, we've got the Alexa alarm, we've got a bedside alarm, we've got a phone alarm. Right, so we got four alarms yet.

Yes, sir. It is for double phone Alexa bomb. And the bomb is like the cure. The bomb does play. I just had to. I had to discontinue the bomb for the last couple days.

Yeah. So we need to figure out a way to solve this issue with the clocks, which is kind of funny because you're a clock.

Sky, why did you have to discontinue?

I got another noise complaint on Friday, so I don't want it. It's a whole thing my business. My building manager is also my neighbor, so I want to keep that relationship, like, semi solid. But I think I'm thinking about going bomb. But if I tuck it underneath the pill, like, if I put it under the comforter, she won't be able to hear it, but I'll definitely hear it.

Yeah, you've got, like, the silence bomb becomes like an emp.

Yes. Put an extender silencer on the bomb.

Yeah.

Okay. Okay.

I mean, are we gonna try to get to bed earlier?

Yeah.

100.

We're gonna.

We're gonna uninstall the goop and.

Yeah.

People were saying.

The.

The. The people are saying online we might have to take away your video games. I don't want to do that.

Maybe just uninstall on before show days.

Yeah, I don't want to take away your videos. Like.

Yeah, you.

You.

You still need to play the games.

You need to play the games.

The games are a good thing for you, maybe. Just not before show days.

Yeah, I just. And I'll pivot to a different game. I can't play that game.

No, you can play.

You can play that game.

No, not days before shows. Too addictive. Max. He didn't know it was 5am yeah.

Once you get in there, you just.

Don'T even know that's going on, so.

It'S like a second world.

He could still be playing that game right now. I. I kind of. Have you been thinking about the game?

But he, like, you gotta. You gotta play the game about a.

Couple times just because I gotta go get my lick back. I gotta get my goop.

All right, you might have. What about our weekends?

Weekends?

Can we go. Can you. Can you still goop on weekends?

I.

No, I'm probably. Probably just the best case scenario for every. Everything moving forward is just pivot.

Just cold turkey.

What if we what? Let's, let's, let's be adults, okay? Let's, let's, let's try to take a step. Why don't you keep, Keep the game? I want you to be. I want, I don't want to steal immersion. Immersion from you. I want you to get immersive when you want to get immersive when you play the game. Set an alarm for yourself so that you can remind yourself what time is it so that you're not staying up too late.

So, so real, Real world clock for virtual world.

Correct. So like, at 2 in the morning, it goes off. You're like, oh, Zach, I gotta go to sleep.

I've got an idea. Zach, you can play all the video games you want, but you have to be streaming.

Oh.

And then, and then if you want to get in the goop, if you want to be immersed late night, you're streaming. The chat's gonna be like, zach, go to bed.

You gotta go to bed.

You gotta go to bed.

You gotta go to bed. You got a big day tomorrow.

The chat will be your reversal alarm clock. Your bed clock.

Mm, that doesn't make a ton of sense as far as, like, crowdfunded accountability.

Yeah, it's the best kind.

Okay.

Zach, are you in the doghouse? Do you think you're in the doghouse?

Oh, certainly.

You got, I mean, the show start. We had a start time of around 9:10, 9:45 today. And you guys have worked a half work day already before, you know, I mean, the least I can do a show up on time like, like I.

Did have wake Up Barcelona today.

Yeah.

Imagine if I gooped last night.

We should get a doghouse. Like an actual doghouse.

Zach, last question about this, and then we'll move on. Do you think you'll get a phone call from your mother about this?

My. Yeah, me. My. I mean, me and my dad had like a pretty long talk about being on time a few times, so he's.

There's that since you started here.

Yeah, definitely, definitely, definitely.

And what has he said?

He just like him. It's unbelievable opportunity.

Like what?

You still doing this thing where you just. You're a idiot. Like, get out of bed, which is completely uncomfortable.

What if. Zach. No, I, I, that's to be too mean. I want to, I want to fly your dad up here.

This is enough.

And have a fake fire. You be like, zach, we got to talk to you, please. Your dad's up in Conference Room 1. He's waiting for you.

That was one of the darkest days so terrible.

You know, this is. Your punishment is over. Let's just. Let's just get ourselves.

Let's.

Let's get back on track again. This one was not like, if you had come in at noon, I would be pissed. You came in, realistically, 25 minutes late. I can. We can handle that.

I'm not upset at all with Zach. I love Zach. We want you. You're not in no danger of being fired, Zach. But I think that if you're going to be playing video games, it should be. It should be for an audience.

Yeah. Maybe you maybe, maybe, maybe move into my house.

Oh, like.

Like Antonio Brown.

Yeah. Right. I have a guest room. It would also make it easier when I fire you.

That was your first example that you thought of when it came to, like, being a roommate.

That was the closest thing. Yeah, that's the first thing popped my head.

Yeah.

I mean, it would make it easier when I. If I ever have to fire you, we can just. I can fire you and we can go have dinner together. So it's like, at least routine for you.

Yeah. Like I said, like, if you're fired, but dinner's ready.

Oh, man. That was that.

Yeah.

All right, well, we'll figure it out. You're good, Zach.

You're good.

You're not in trouble this time.

All right.

My cool throne is Ben Johnson because he was asked on Monday about his fuck the packers comments and everyone freaking out about it, and he did not apologize, and I absolutely love it. He said, there's a rivalry that exists between these two teams, something that I fully recognize and I'm part of. I don't like that team.

Good, good.

I think that he said that team.

I think we're done pretending to be upset at Ben Johnson.

Yeah.

I think America, like you, you put a solid shift in your work here is done.

Well, the new. The new. The new, you know, thing that's come out of this is that I saw there were people reporting that there's, like, a cool kids club in the coaching world, and it's the McVeigh Shanahan coaching tree and LaFleur, and all these guys are friends, and they all hate Ben Johnson. I love that.

Really?

I want that.

It's clicky.

I want Ben Johnson to be the outsider who, like, is like, fuck all of you. I'm here to do a job.

Do they hate Ben Johnson just because he was mean to Matt LaFleur?

I think that maybe because he's just on the outside, he's not part of the tree.

Yeah.

This is A. This again. I can't get enough of this. I love Ben Johnson. The alternative is having dweeber flu sit next to Matt LaFleur at a basketball game and give him all his secrets, which he doesn't even have any.

I think Ben Johnson probably still has Dane Campbell in his corner.

Yeah.

And I think Dan Campbell could kick all those guys asses at once.

It's awesome. I. I love it. This is what sports is supposed to be about. Rivalry. Like him saying, I don't like that team. That's good. It's great. Let's get angry. He's a psycho. I want a psycho. So, yeah. I'm so happy he did, because there's an alternate world where he's like, yeah, I shouldn't use those words. They even said that George McCaskey was. Was cool with it. He's like, we're on the same page, of course. Which is also a Testament to George McCaskey, who deserves a lot of credit because remember, he. They. They banned swearing on Hard Knocks a couple years ago. The only way the Bears were ever going to be good was for George McCaskey to hire someone who's completely unlike George McCaskey.

I forgot.

And that's what he did.

I forget about the cussing on Hard Knocks.

Yeah.

Are you allowed to wear Bears logos in their suite now?

I don't know.

I need to know that. I don't know if the McCaffrey.

I don't think I'm getting invited.

Has eased off that yet.

But he found the thing. He's not like, and he's. That's what you need. You needed an alpha leader of men who likes to swear and yell at things and be mad at people.

Yeah.

I don't like that team.

I. I'm. I think most of the people that were upset with Ben Johnson were probably packers fans.

Yeah.

In which case, like, yeah. You're not used to having this happen in this relationship.

Yeah. Okay, Zach, finish off.

My hot seat this week is going to be Patrick Mahomes. He may have in. In. He may have accidentally caused another Del Mariola.

Yes.

Swap.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah. This is an all time story. So go ahead, tell it.

So, you know, recently, Indiana beats Oregon. Patrick Mahomes has to wear a Oregon jersey on it.

No, no. Oregon beats Texas.

Oregon beats Texas Tech. So he wears the jersey on Instagram.

Yeah.

Then coincidentally, as soon as Oregon loses to Indiana the other day, recruit Dylan Raiola. But it was on his feed three days before, four days before, and he's like, wait, daddy, probably wants me to go to the big O. I'm gonna go. And he goes.

Do you think Patrick Mahomes is weirded out by this?

He's gotta be after this one.

He has to be weird.

So it's obviously a coincidence, but maybe not. He loses the bet to his teammate. Where's the Oregon jersey? One day later, Dylan Rail is like, I'm going to the Ducks.

I imagine the gate at the front of Patrick Mahomes house is. Is guarded, and there's a photo like, hey, if this guy shows up, hit the red button.

Yeah.

Yeah. I would be very worried if I was him.

A little stalkerish. Yeah.

Yes.

I would pay. I would pay Patrick Mahomes $200,000 to put on a James Madison jersey just so I could take a picture of him, because I think that's way cheaper than doing the whole nil thing.

Yeah, that would be good advertisement.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Just. Just get them trapped.

Yeah, it is very funny.

It's very, very funny. Halloween's got to be so confusing for Dylan Rail. If he sees, like, Patrick Mahomes dressed as Groot and he's like, it's probably.

Like, I gotta be.

I gotta be a minion now.

We gotta. We got a game on Halloween. So let's. Let's do our Halloween party three days after Halloween.

Oh, it's a good spot for him because it. You know, I don't know if Dante Moore's gonna stay, but, you know, Dante Moore sat behind Dylan Gabriel. Maybe this is the plan. Is that, you know, to become a. To. To get to that next step. Okay. Your cool throne.

My cool throw. Today is gonna be a Kyle Lowry.

Yeah.

You guys see that?

Yeah.

Moment in Toronto.

Yes.

Thought that was pretty awesome.

Explain it.

So, Kyle Lowry, history with Toronto, long time on Toronto. He's now currently on the Sixers. They had a game last night, and then the crowd started chanting, we won, Lowry.

And it was a blowout. And they were in the. In. The Toronto crowd was like, we want Lowry. And they put in Kyle Lowry, who I assume is not playing much for the Sixers.

He may. He's probably played in, like, less than five games all year.

Got to be the best job in the world. I'm so jealous of, like, when. When. When you. Donnis Haslam stayed around for an extra, like, five years being the. Like, being unk on an NBA roster knowing you don't have to play, but you can just hang out. It's got to be so much fun.

Well, how can we celebrate it when Kyle Lowry does it. But how can we celebrate Kyle Lowry when he does it, but then when Joel Embiid does it, we just jump down his throat.

What do you mean?

Plays in five games all year.

Oh, yeah, that's true.

That's. It seems to me like that's not fair.

That is.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Max, for not being fair.

That's not fair.

Apology not accepted. He's played in six games this year.

He has six. What is he working?

Oh, Lowry.

What about Joel?

Joel Embiid has played in a lot more than that, and he's actually dominating as of late, so.

Oh, wow. He's dominating the regular season.

And he's not even the best player on the team. Sixers could be a problem.

Ask Nicks fans. Oh, I like this. I need Sixers Max back. There's something about basketball Max, watching basketball that I enjoy more than football because football goes slow me. Basketball is fun.

Are they a in the regular season? So did the Celtics last year.

So they're a problem officially. Stamp it problem. Knicks don't play defense. Okay, we had two interviews. We got Andrew Whitworth, and then we have a great interview with Dylan Strom in studio. So let's get to that. Okay, before we get to Andrew Whitworth, the NFL playoffs. Let's go. DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL, makes every moment feel bigger. A running back cuts through the line. A strip sack flips the field. A tight end hauls in. The kind of touchdown grab you'll talk about for years. Postseason games shift Fast, and with DraftKings live betting options, you can stay right in the moment. Plus, DraftKings has your back with an early exit protection. If the player in your eligible NFL prop bet goes down at any point in the first half, you will get paid in cash. New customers bet just five dollars. If that bet wins, you get 300 in bonus bets instantly. DraftKings sportsbook. Every drive, every play, every moment. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app now. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE to turn five bucks into 300 in bonus bets. If your bet wins in partnership with DraftKings, the Crown is yours.

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Here he is, Andrew Whitworth. Okay. We now welcome on a very, very, very, very special guest recurring guest. It is Andrew Whitworth. You can see him on Amazon prime on Thursday Night Football. The season is now over. They ended it with a bang at Soldier Field on Saturday night. You can also listen to the Fitz and Wit podcast with our good friend Ryan Fitzpatrick as well. Wit, good to see you. I saw you on Saturday night. Can we start with that? And I want to, we want to move then to divisional round and talk about some of these matchups, but did you at any point think the Bears were dead?

I'll say this. I was a little upset at halftime. I mean, I was pretty confident in how they were going to perform. So I was, I was very disappointed just at halftime, like, trying to figure it out. Like, damn, I thought they were going to come out and play. I thought this would be the week that they might start in control and stay that way. And sure enough, they do what they love to do, make it chaotic. I, I, I literally, I'm still replaying in my mind how in the world they won the game. When you're sitting there at halftime, 21 to 3, they've been out game doubled in yardage, everything. They're not even running the football well. Something I thought they'd definitely do. I was mystified at halftime. And then you just start to see those little things like, the Green Bay's not pulling away. They're not putting the game away. We got pretty jacked up in the green room, let's say. I could say that.

Yeah. And it was crazy because it wasn't a linear path comeback where it wasn't, hey, the second half started and the Bears scored a touchdown. Then the Bears scored like that fourth and one interception was another like, oh, well, this might be. There's just no chance we can come back. And then, and then having the golden touchdown to have the packers back up 11. But they found a way. It's crazy.

Yeah, we got into it. We, we in the green rooms. Obviously you should want a good game. You want the game to be an awesome game. You, you're there. And I personally was like, man, I feel like this is the Bears moment. So we're jacked up in the green. We're throwing food and drinks and like getting crazy. Like the 4th and 1, we're losing our minds because where, like they're about to Come back and make this thing a game. And then they make the mistakes, and you're like, God, like, what is happening? And then. And then the old lineman catches the pass, fumbles it. They don't get on it. They knock it out of bounds. Like, we're losing our minds in there. Cause we just keep thinking that was the moment, that was the chance, like, they're getting this game if they just take advantage of it, and it's just not happening. Absolutely insane finish, though. What a. What a freaking game.

Andrew, we haven't had you on in a while, but this is a very important question that we. I think we talked to Fitzy about this. You've decided to move on from being a hoodie guy underneath your suit jacket. What was that conversation like with yourself? Like, how did you reach that point where you're like, you know what?

I'm.

I'm done with the hoodies.

You know, I'm gonna still mix them in there, but, you know, just growing up, just maturing a little bit, you know, gotta take it a little more serious. No, no, I. I think it's kind of one of those things that you. You'd be shocked. It's hard to keep finding hoodies that match every single suit that I want to try to wear. And, you know, I think I've worn every brand possible, every material possible, possible. So, you know, it's. It's important, guys. There's a lot that goes into it. You need the thickness of the hoodie so that it sits properly. You got to think of, like, how big is the hoodie? Is it too big? Is it too light? Like in the wind in Chicago, mom was a little light. It kept blowing on my head a couple times, like during the pre game. So, you know, you. There's a lot of things that go into this decision. It's a big decision. So when you want to wear one, it's got to be the right kind. So it's just more figuring out that the right hoodie every week, and you got to People. People yearning a little bit.

I'll get some messages from fans and, you know, on different social media platforms, like, where's the hoodie at? Why are you wearing it? Yeah, so I just. I want to build that suspense when I can, you know, that's the opportunity I'm taking advantage of. Big Cat, I want to ask you this, though. You told me and Fitz a question. I mean, a statement. In pregame, we asked you what it was going to take for the Bears to win. You said it's Going to come down to five plays. So I was just wondering, do you have those five plays?

So Memes, who's in the producer booth was, was filming the whole game. I think I burned my five plays like halfway through the third quarter. I, I used, I used one of my five plays on like a third down in the first quarter. So I, it was, but at one.

Point Fitz turned to me in the fourth quarter, he goes, what do you think Big Cats five plays are by now?

Yeah, yeah, they, unfortunately I was out of, I think I was out of plays. When Caleb made one of the five plays with the fourth and eighth, I was just like, because we got to it and I was like, I've used all I, I, I, I basically, I think I said the first fourth down that we went for, I was like, this is the game in like, you know, five minutes into the first quarter. So I'm probably not good at judging that. So I did. So it was an incredible game and a lot of fun. And now the Rams come to Soldier Field. I had a question about weather because we have this storyline now for both the Texans going to the Patriots and the Rams coming to the Bears. There's a stat floating around that one. I think it's 1 in 14 dome teams playing in under 40 degree weather. Now I think that's one of those stats I'd love to actually dig into because if you're going to someone else's home, you're probably the lesser team. So is it the better team is winning or the cold teams winning? How much does weather actually play a factor for a team playing in, in LA or Houston going to a cold weather climate?

Yeah, I mean, I think it definitely, you've seen it through history. There's been some teams probably coming, you know, when you're coming from California, probably especially Southern California, Louisiana, San Diego, back in the past, and you're going to a cold weather place, it's a challenge just because you hadn't been in it. And I think it's more from the standpoint of like, hey, we're also probably talking about snow in some of these situations or rain or wind. And you just haven't played a lot of games in those scenarios. So there's just little things that happen in those games. Whether it's secure in the football, you know, quarterback's been a little more inaccurate. It's harder to throw it in the wind at times. And so I think to me that probably leads to it. I'll never forget in Cincinnati when we, you know, our year, we Win the division. We're, like, one of the top seeds. We had. We host the Chargers, and we were supposed to have cold weather. It ends up being like the warmest day in Ohio, you know, in history, and they come in and beat us and upset us. Like, you're like, the one week that I want Cincinnati to just be cold and frigid.

It's 65 and sunny, so it definitely can matter. And you look at the Rams. They're owing to under Sean McVeigh in Chicago. So I will never forget going up there and the famous Fangio game. We were rolling on offense in 18 and go up there and play Sunday night football, and, you know, I don't think it was a very good game for us. I think we scored three points maybe, but it was. It was not a pretty outing.

Yeah.

As an O lineman, are you a big time, no sleeves guy in the cold?

Well, Fitz would tell you this. I tricked the system. So what I would do is wear sleeves. Like, the thin sleeves again, goes back to, you know, the hoodies. You know, you got to know the texture of these materials. I would wear thin sleeves in training camp and, like, early in the season, just so nobody could make a comment. When we went to a cold stadium and I had sleeves on, they'd be like, oh, he always wears sleeves. Yeah, but they were like thermal sleeves, and you couldn't really tell the difference. So, yes, I love to rock some sleeves in the cold weather. Probably early in my career, I was like, oh, I'm never wearing sleeves. Later in my career, when you're 38 and 40, the bones just hurt, man. You need a little warmth. All right, I'm not gonna listen. Do you want me to play good, or do you want to worry about whether I'm cold or not in my arms? That's.

That's.

That's my. My thought on it. All right? If the guy plays good, wear freaking sleeves. If you don't think you can play good because of the cold, if you're having sleeves on, then don't wear them.

I. I imagine at some point as you get older, you just don't care if people are like, dude, you're a for wearing sleeves. You're like, yeah, well, I'm warm. Yeah, I'm okay. I'm okay with that. How do you see this matchup actually playing out on the field with the Rams and the Bears? Because I do think that the Bears defense is bad. How can we say? Exploitable bad by a good offense? And I feel like Matt Stafford and Sean McVeigh would be two pretty good guys to exploit a bad defense, but they are opportunistic. They didn't get any turnovers last week against the packers, but that, that didn't stop them. Do you, do you think that the Bears defense has a chance to mix things up and to keep it close enough for the offense to do what they do, which is somehow eke out a win with like 4 seconds left on the clock in the fourth quarter?

Well, I said this in our post game. You know, it starts to become something as a team. It gets in people's head. You think of mentally, we talk about mentally how it plays out in these games, whether it be your confidence or, you know, what you think the other team's capable of doing. Like what Chicago's created now is I, I go back to look at halftime like Matt Leflore, first thing he wants to talk about, man, this team plays all four quarters. Micah Parsons is tweeting out like, hey man, listen, I know we're killing this team. Like, think about how dominant that first half was. And the only thing they're talking about is this team. Like, listen, they play all four quarters. So it like starts to become something you're thinking about, like, hey, don't mess it up. And so I think to me they've created a narrative to where as a team, they create teams being tight and making mistakes because they're fearful of Chicago can come back and win this game. But when I look at it offensively, yeah, the Rams should have an advantage here. When you really talk about the Bears D line, I don't see an advantage they're going to have in this game.

That Rams offensive line, I don't think they've gotten enough credit for how dominant they've been this season. Running the ball play actions, you know, drop back passes, you name it, they've been really, really good. It looks like they're going to get healthier chance. Kevin Dotson's back this week. So huge part of this run game. So I think to me, when you look at that mixture and really the matchups, devonte, I think you look at it coming off a hamstring injury, you know, I didn't think is as good as you've seen him move and stuff like that last week. You're going to see him take that next step now, right? When you come off those kind of things, it's just getting used to opening up and trusting it that, you know, that kind of belief that, hey, I'm good, I'm healthy, I think you're going to see a better version of him even this week. And then Puka is Puka. So I think the challenges the Bears defense has is. Yeah, there's a lot of challenges of different teams with the Rams, the personnel groupings, really how they can beat you in a bunch of different ways.

It's going to be a challenge for them to slow them down. They're going to need the turnovers in this game. I think they're going to have to have them if they want to win.

Maybe my strategy is like, let the Bears get out to a lead so you don't. You don't spend the entire half.

That might be it.

Yeah, yeah.

Two scores.

Yeah. Let them up to score. All right. What about the other NFC game? Because I'm excited for that one. The Seahawks and the Niners, you had you. You know, you. You've covered some of those games this year. I think the Seahawks are just so. I think they're the most complete team left in the playoffs. And I don't know if that's. That's a bold statement, but the. It feels like every game with the Seahawks, everyone's like, well, Sam Darnold, if he stinks, well, sometimes he hasn't had great games and their defense is so good, it doesn't really matter. Do you think the Niners have any answers? Because it was really tough for them to move the ball in that Week 18 game and how they can fix this?

Yeah, I think that was the most impressive week to me of this Seattle team because I thought you, you really think before that game San Francisco was playing on offense? I mean, they were putting up points. You were saying, hey, man, this team's only getting better and better. They play Seattle and can't move it at all. I mean, could not move the football. And that was the week I was like, man, this defense, this is for real. This is championship level defense. It, you know, I'm not going to compare them to Richard Sherman's group, the Legion, but man, they. That, that kind of dominance where you go, oh, man, offensively we can run the football well. You know, just, just play solid football on that end. We're going to win a lot of games because nobody's going to be able to do anything on our defense. And I thought that was the most impressive week. So this is a huge challenge for them to go to Seattle, be able to play against this defense. And I thought Sam Darnold continue to take more and more steps. You go back to our game and overtime, that drive to where he's showing command.

He's getting better and better in these big game moments. We've seen him throughout the regular season now two years in a row, be able to play productive football. But people always question, what are you going to do? Brightest lights, biggest moments. I thought that Rams hurdle there for him to take it and go win that game, that really gave him the confidence and the belief of this entire football game and organization, football team and organization, like we can win it. And I said on that show that I thought the super bowl winner was going to come from the NFC West. I feel good about three of them still being in it in the nfc. That's pretty crazy. And I still think that. I still think that the NFC west is going to be the super bowl champion and it's whoever comes out of that. Now what I will say is since that moment, you know, the Rams defense in the secondary has given up a lot of yards and some opportunities to guys and Seattle's looked more consistent. And that's the tough part of this. If you're a Ram, you got to get through Chicago, of course, but that's a challenge to go to Seattle and win.

Yeah. What about the 49ers? We've been saying that Kyle Shanahan, this might be his best job ever coaching. Because not only the injuries which we've talked about. I don't know if you're a believer in the electric substation thing that's going around. We. We've reached the point where even if it's not true now, people are thinking about it. So it is kind of true. But not only that, they've had. Brandon Ayuk was supposed to be a big part of their offense and just was never around. They. They've overcome a lot. And with the Brock Purdy, Mac Jones back and forth, back and forth, they keep winning football games. Might be Kyle's best job ever as a head coach. But. But I. I guess from your perspective as someone who's way smarter about football than we are, how. How are the 49ers doing this?

Yeah, I think when you start to see it, man, it what you. One of the things you love. And I think Stafford's this way. Josh Allen, you see some of these guys. Patrick Mahomes has always been this way in the playoffs. Like the ability they have to just say, hey, I thought it was so impressive. Brock Purdy throws some interceptions, but he doesn't care, man. He's going to keep pushing the football, giving his guys opportunities, finding ways to win games like they're not going to worry about, man. If you write an article tomorrow about, man, you know, Matthew Stafford threw the ball and so many interceptions and the Rams lost. He's okay with that. Brock Purdy, he's like, hey, man, you want to blame me after this game? Who cares? I am not going to keep shoot, let you make me stop shooting my shot. It's coming, like, every single play. I'm bringing it, I'm throwing it where I need to think, where I think it needs to go. I'm trusting my guys to make opportunities. And Kyle Shanahan coaches from that position as well. I mean, to think that Kyle Shanahan has not been coach of the year multiple times.

Just think of some of the seasons they've had with the injuries they've had and where they've gotten to in those years. Even regardless of who's in or out of the lineup, I think it's unbelievably impressive, the job he does. He's definitely one of those guys across the league with the Sean McVeighs and others that you go, man, I want to go play for that dude. It'd be a lot of fun. I think this Niners team, to me, is one of the best narratives in the entire playoffs because of you Think of losing Nick Bosa and Fred Warner. They're two absolute dogs, elite players on defense. They've still held it together. And Robert Sala, man, after the jets run, like, to come and do what he's done with this defense, losing his best players, I think it's been crazy impressive. And it shows just how powerful Kyle and Robert were together a couple years ago when they were talented. You know, listen, this team right here, they. There is no quit on them. And I think they're just as dangerous as anybody else because of that belief. They have zero quit. George Kittle goes down early in the game.

Doesn't matter. We'll go on the road, beat last year's super bowl champs, and a chance to go to Seattle, play a great game and move on.

Yeah. Who the hell's the best team in the afc? I actually, you could. I think you could make a case for every single team remaining that they, they. They have the thing that could get them to the Super Bowl.

Yeah, I said this. I said, if you're better, like you, just before the AFC playoffs started, I said, just go put even money on every single team. Like, just see what happens. Because, I mean, I, I don't know. There's no way that you can tell me that there's one Team that you're like, no, this is without question the best team in this conference. Like, I don't think there's any chance, like, even looking at Buffalo, Denver, here we are, we're talking about all Buffalo's, you know, defensive last all this season long, man, the defense hasn't been as good we want them to be. They go into Jacksonville, they find a way defensively to turn the football over, be big in big moments. Now they're going to Denver. Well, Denver all year. Yeah, they're the one seed. Yeah, they're elite team, y'. All. Their defense has been great. We've also seen their defense, like, lay down in some games and give up a ton of points to teams they shouldn't. And offensively, you never know what you're going to get. You get a little bit of the Bo Knicks experience. Some weeks, he's unbelievable. Some weeks you're, like, just left wanting for more.

And the running game, so inconsistent. It's like one of those things where you go, man, why, why can't Buffalo go in here and win? I don't care that they're the one seed and they've had a bye week. I don't, I don't really see Buffalo can't beat this team. So I think to me, when you look at that conference, it's just hard to really say that you truly believe in team. The Texans are unreal on defense, but C.J. stroud has just not really been the C.J. stroud that we saw a couple of years ago. And he's, he's looked tentative, he's made mistakes, things that you just can't do in these playoffs. They overcome him, putting the ball on the ground five times, you know, last night, like, it's just crazy to think who is it that you absolutely believe in and think can make a run. And the Patriots. You got a young quarterback and a defense at times that you think is exposable. So, so I, I, I think that to me, in the afc, it's tough to be a fan there and say that you got a team you think is, without question, the best.

Yeah. What about the, the defense for the Broncos? We talked about them a lot this year, especially towards the start of the year. Do you think what, what they excel at is matched up well against what the Bills excel at, which is, I guess this year it's been running the football. They've been a very good running team. And in the playoffs, you get that extra dimension of Josh Allen where he just says it. I'm going to put my body in harm's way. And if you want to, if you want to try to injure me, you better injure me like five times or else I'm going to, I'm going to keep coming back. How do you see that matchup playing out with, with how the Bills like to play versus the, the Broncos strengths?

Yeah, I think that's the cool part. When you talk about the one seed Broncos is like, yeah, this defense has been good, but really how they're built a little bit, playing a lot of man, doing a lot of things they do under Vance Joseph. When I look at this Bill's offensive line and how they're built, I don't see any opportunities where, on the edges where I'm fearful of those edge rushers against really how good Spencer Brown, Dion Dawkins are. Like, when I look at the interior, like Dave Edwards, he's been in these moments, he's a big guard. He's not somebody Zach Allen's gonna be able to bully a whole lot. Like, he's a big dude. And up front, Osiris Torrance, another monster right guard. Like, I just think this group, how they're built, man, they match up really good against the Broncos front. So this isn't going to be some game where you're going. All right, listen, the Broncos have a big advantage here with these edge rushers with really how they play and what they're going to do. And then if you want to bring a whole lot of pressure, Josh Allen and him escape and run down the field and gain 100 yards, breaking running past linebackers and everything else.

Like, go for it if you want to, but that's not really the team that you could do that to either. And then you got James Cook, who just is an unbelievable football player. I thought Jacksonville did an insane job stopping him, but you could probably say too good of a job. Like, that's what they leaned on. Like, let's just stop him. And Buffalo was really able to take advantage of it and just keep marching the field by taking what they were giving them. So I think there's some challenges for Denver against this Buffalo offense that I think that Buffalo will be able to move it and they'll be able to score. So what does that mean? You're the one seed, you're at home. That's great. But this can't be one of those slow bonix offense days. Like, we've got to get going. We got to be productive.

Yeah, I've got to.

I've got a very stupid thought about that game. Maybe you can tell me how just how dumb I am for even thinking about this. The Bill's strength is not their wide receivers. We. We've talked about it all year. Like, they have have wide receivers that are capable of being good players, but I don't think you've got any. Anyone that's like, truly dominant out wide. The Broncos have great cornerbacks. It's almost like the Broncos are. Are wasting their massive strength on the Bills, like, average wide receivers. Is that stupid for me to even think about that?

Yeah, I mean, that's kind of what I mean is that when you talk about the matchup of this game, like, what is a great strength for the Broncos really won't come into play that much against this team because that's not really what the Buffalo cares about. They're not trying to walk out there with a number one and they're saying, hey, you can't guard them. And. And that's gonna be the whole dictate how it's going to dictate the game. Or we got two receivers, and good for you. You got one lockdown corner and you got another really good corner to where you guys can take away the second guy, too. They don't care about any of that. Like, they're going to do whatever it takes in this game with whatever personnel grouping gives them advantages and an extra lineman, you know, is it playing Jackson Halls a lot? Because he's a hell of a blocker. Like, they're going to do what it takes to go just completely continue to methodically drive down the field. I thought one of the coolest things from last week's game, watching Josh Allen play against Jacksonville and not something you always think about, is that he just took the short throws and the things that Jacksonville gave him and they just methodically kind of drove it.

And to me, if Josh Allen is taking what's there playing so fast like he was in this game, getting the ball out of his hands and taking what that defense has given him and then also has all the hero stuff, too. This is a really tough offense to play good against defensively. So I think it'll be interesting to see to me whether Buffalo can go in and I think put up some points and play well offensively in this game. And then that's going to come down to what are the Broncos on offense?

Yeah. Yeah.

All right.

The other game, the afc, as a former offensive lineman and offensive player, what. What's the answer? And there might not be an answer, but what's the answer for the Patriots against this Texans defense. What do they have to do? What's the game plan going to look like to try to beat this Texans defense? That feels like they do everything great and they all three levels. They have dudes.

Oh my gosh. Listen, as an offensive lineman, this is the kind of game that reminds me why it's really good that I'm sitting here talking to you guys and not having to go play in the damn game. I know that much. I mean, when I watch this Texans group get after it. You watched last night. I mean, one lineman's at Aaron Rodgers feet like Ben over and Rodgers is getting bent over by the other guy knocking him into him. Like they are absolutely annihilating o lineman and making them feel bad on tape. I think to me, when you look at this game, you know, a big matchup. My Guy Will Campbell from 3one8 Monroe, Louisiana. Sh shout out my guy. We're both from the same hometown. Love this dude. Lsu, Tiger. It's going to be a challenge. This is going to be, you know, when you're a young player in the playoffs playing against this rare group of talent, you know, you coming off of an injury, got bowled a couple times in the game this weekend. I think this is going to be a big one because Will Anderson and Daniel Hunter are dudes.

And so they are about as rare as it gets as a tandem. And so I think that will be a big challenge to this game. And can they keep Drake May healthy? We, we keep talking about Drake May and his ability and his talent, his pocket presence and you love those things. But what has always kind of hurt those young quarterbacks is if you can get early interior pressure on them. And I think to me, this D line, it's going to be the story like if they, if they're going to be able to beat the Patriots, it's going to be them being able to take over the game, keep Drake May rattled a little bit, get him making some those he doesn't want to. To me, Texans only chance to win this game is that this D line does. Does what they've kind of done to a lot of quarterbacks this season. We saw what they did to Josh Allen Thursday Night Football and just absolutely dominate.

All right, I got a question. Not about these playoffs and it's. It's more about your career. Because it is. There is an analogy here and it's, you know, you obviously started in Cincinnati, go win a Super bowl in la, so you have a great ending to your career. But that time in Cincinnati, the Marvin Lewis, Bengals. Kind of similar to what's going on in Pittsburgh right now with Mike Tomlinson. What, what does it look like in the room when it's just every single year you're back in the playoffs and you don't get. You don't win a game. And, and do you think that's a situation where it's like, maybe it's better if there's a divorce here. Maybe it's better if we change something because we keep doing the same thing and we keep getting the same results?

Yeah, I think it's tough because that's really what it starts to be. I remember in 2015, after we lost that game to the Steelers where we had the Game one, all we had to do is run the clock out and we fumble the first possession, the first play of the possession, and then they get the ball, drive all the way down. We have the multiple penalties, you know, Burfi Kits, Antonio Brown in the head. Then Pac man gets a personal foul. Then they kick a freaking 50 something yard field goal to win the game and beat us. I just remember that the frustration starts to build up, like, not just amongst, we're not winning, but you're, you know, you can't help it. Like, hey, we're not doing this. Who is it? Which one of it is it? Like, we've talked about this over and over again, how we have to be in these moments, like everything we're going to say on tv, everything anybody's going to say to pick them apart of what they need to do better. You think they haven't sat in a room and had that exact damn conversation at this point?

It's happening over and over and over again. They have. They just haven't found a way to fix it. They haven't found a way to get over that hump. And it's really challenging. So I think sometimes in these situations, if you let frustration build to that point, then, yeah, I know for me, when I went to la, it wasn't like some resent Cincinnati thing. It wasn't something we're like, man, I hate that we never did anything here. But when I started to think about, all right, fresh air, just a fresh opportunity, like, let's, let's go there and like redo this, try to make an impact in a different locker room with a different group of guys and coaches, it wasn't anything against anybody I was already with. It was like, man, that just kind of seemed exciting. It seemed like something that reinvigorated me and gave me, like, new life. Where I'm, I might have been thinking I'm going to be done in a year. Next thing you know, I'm playing five years. And so I think to me, like, yeah, I think that they, they really should sit down and say, hey Tomlin, like, you know, I don't think you'd ever fire that guy.

I think he's an unbelievable football coach. But if you said, hey, you know, for you, is it, is it invigorating for you to go somewhere else and kind of do this in a different place, like to change for all of us, to get rid of some of this frustration amongst us? I think, I think that really is a real conversation that needs to be.

Had because I would imagine, and you can tell me this is way wrong. But, but you, you know, the NFL is a lot about like, you know, next play up and it's a week to week league and you go one and oh each week. But when you do have this kind of playoff drought and it is similar, you know, guys in the locker room every year you come back for training camp and there's still a little bit of that there. There's still the vibes of, yeah, we've, we've gone to the playoffs every year, we haven't won a playoff game.

Yeah, well, think about, we just talked about Michaela Williams. Like, what do you think when it's Chicago, like every single coach that's playing, I'm thinking, well, they might beat us even though we're winning 21 to 3 at halftime time. That's what we're talking about. Like this team might beat us.

Right?

Like now the narrative there is, and it's because honestly, it's almost happening the same way. It's the same story. We keep reading every year they're going to have a winning record. They're going to like almost be in the playoffs or be in the playoffs and lose in the first round. Like it was almost worse in Cincinnati that we had a five year stretch where we're either winning the division or going to the playoffs. And every single year it's ending with the same story. That's what starts to make it so frustrating. And you just start to lose belief. And that's the thing, like Chicago's got belief they can win any game no matter what the score is. Like these teams, the Steelers and in my time during the Bengals, you start to have doubt. Like no matter how the season goes, man, that first week of the playoffs, like, you know, we're going to make some dumb mistake or we're Just going to not do quite enough and we're going to lose that. That narrative is in your head and you can't find ways to shake it.

Yeah.

What was that locker room like after that game? The Bengals Steelers playoff game. That's the craziest ending playoff game I think I've never seen. Vontes and Pac Man, I think running into the tunnel after the fumble recovery, the, the personal foul across the middle, that was an insane ending. Does, does your coach even give a speech after that? Like, is there a wrap up speech or is it just everybody at their locker being like, God damn. I, I think that's a masterpiece. And, and how to lose a playoff game.

Yeah, I mean, you think of that season, I mean, we started eight. No, we, we ended up being a 12 and four football team. You know, like, it's one of those things where you sit there and go, man, you almost don't want to hear what the coach has to say. You almost don't want to come together because you're just like, man, we've heard all this shit. Like, I don't want to hear all this again. I don't want to listen to you tell me maybe next year. You know, Detroit's going through something similar like that, right? Like they had this opportunity, man, they're right there and they just keep missing it. And then this past year, same kind of thing happens, except for now they don't even make the playoffs. Like, you almost get tired of hearing that and you want some other, you want to hear something else. You want to hear a different approach to it, like, hey, this is what we're doing now this year. Or this is like what I'm going to come in and say. Like, it's almost like you want everybody to just own it and say we gotta be better.

Like, I'll never forget, I always say this the year we won the super bowl in la. You guys remember this? The Niners had dominated us. Like, I think they were 6 and oh against us and like the last six times we played them. But our last week 18 game, we had a 17 to 3 lead. I think it was going into halftime, something like that. And, and they come, they come all the way back, take us to overtime and beat us in week 18. That was a chance for us to be the 2 seed. We ended up getting flipped to the 5 seed and have to go on the road and beat Tampa to get that home game against the Niners. But when we walked in the locker room after that overtime, that was the first time that I'D ever seen our whole team be like, damn, the Niners are effing good. Like, they are freaking damn good. We're gonna have to play our absolute best to beat them. So, sure enough, we get the opportunity, NFC championship. We're the ones behind. And you would think how it'd been in that history, it would get snowballed and we'd lose.

We come back and beat them. And so to me, it was like we had to own, like, man, they're just better than us, right? We have to abs. We have to play better than we think we have to play to beat this team. And I think that's what these teams need mentally.

So your experience with McVeigh in the playoffs, he always. He's great at. At putting new wrinkles in and throwing something at you that you might not have seen on tape, but you were also a very good team while you played there in the regular season. So in a playoff week, how much of your mental energy is dedicated to, like, trying to figure out the new concepts that he's having you guys work on something new that you're putting out there versus just maintaining that same level with some of the same stuff that you've been doing all year. Like, how. How innovative is he being week to week, trying to put something new out there against the defense that. That can take him over the top that week?

Well, I think that's what makes him and Shanahan so special. I mean, I can only really speak to those two because I know them both well. Like, it's not just that they can draw it up, and it's not just that they can put it on a piece of paper. And we see this when guys leave them and go places that don't have success, and you're like, well, they're running the system. They're running the plays. Like, why aren't they successful? Like, it's the ability they have to sit in a room and communicate the why and the reasoning for doing it and why you're going to be successful and give you confidence that everything they're telling you to do is actually going to work out and they're going to drop the picture for you. Like, you listen to guys talk about playing for Kyle Shanahan, and it's like, man, dude, you walk out of the room and you're like, man, I didn't understand it at first. And then he started explaining why. Now I'm like, dude, there's no way this play doesn't work. And he explains to you the reason he thought well, this is why the defense.

The defense is going to do this. They're going to set up like this. They're going to move here, then this guy's going to come down here and you're going to be over here. And it's like you draw up the picture and you're like, wow, I don't know how that wouldn't work, but where did you come up with it? Their ability to teach it, not only in the classroom, but on the grass. And as a player, you'd be able to see it. I used to always say this. Great coaches, they can teach me. Like, we're standing on the grass and I'm looking straight ahead because we don't get to sit up top and have some down view. We don't get to look on a board flat in front of us. Like, you got to play from the grass, eye level. And those guys are amazing teachers. Like, I'll never forget what sticks out to my mind. To your point on this. When we played the Minnesota Vikings at home in 2018 on Thursday night Football, Jared Goff had an insane game. And we had an insane offensive, offensive performance against a Zimmer defense. We went through a walkthrough on a Tuesday, and Sean hated all the plays.

And he, like, we look the way you do it on those Thursdays. We do one big walkthrough, take a break, come back for the second one. We come back for the second one, and all of a sudden he's like, hey, forget the script. Just listen to me, guys. And he walks us through the plays we're going to run in this game and what it's going to look like. And he was just sitting back there watching it all unfold. And then we get in the game and it's unbelievable. Everything's wide open, everything's happening. And I was like, dude, this guy's vision for what it is, how it's going to play out, and his ability to articulate it to you. He just walked us, walked around with us on this field, explained to us what we're all going to do, and we all got it. Like, I don't even know how we got it, but we got it. That's what you're going to get out of Sean this week. He's going to have something for this Bears defense to where he's going to want them to play exactly how they play. And because they play exactly how they play, they're going to get exposed.

That's what great play callers do. Ben Johnson's going to do the same thing to the Rams. I don't know if you saw this. They asked Sean about Ben, and I love. I love what Sean said, but it was almost like, to me, I saw it as, like, all right, I'm going to explain everything you do, everything that makes you special, and why you're a great coordinator. But I'm also kind of saying, like, hey, I already know you, and I know what you're going to try to do to us. We'll be ready. Because it was like he knew he was explaining exactly what Ben Johnson will lean on in this game to expose them. And I think that this will be a fun one because you got two insane play callers going against each other.

Yeah. And there's also the. I don't think this actually matters, but Mike LaFlore is on the Rams staff. Sean McVeigh is close with Matt LaFlore. They're going to try to get revenge. Like, they do have the chance to get revenge for Matt LaFleur.

Yeah, I mean, you. You do have that. I guess we'll. We'll see how the postgame handshake goes, you know, one way or the other. I love, like, us always making stuff about that. It's like, I always think those are so weird. Right? Like, here you are in this moment. These things change your life, winning these games. And we're so worried about, like, what the exchange is when the game's over. Like, dude, this guy just wants to go hang out with his team in his locker room and go absolutely buck wild and accelerate a playoff victory. The last thing he's worried about is what. What the decorum is for, like, handshakes, midfield. So listen, these two coaches. One thing I know about him, like, Ben Johnson, his intensity and why the way it's impacted Caleb and their intensity, like, this game means a lot because you can't forget, like, what they're both known for. Like, Sean McVay. Obviously, it's a. It's a longer period of time.

Time.

We've seen it, right? Test of time, how successful he is and what he's going to be like as a coach. But Ben Johnson has proven himself in this season. He's gotten to have that opportunity against his former coach. And Dan Campbell, beaten Matt LaFleur now twice in this season, as he kind of predicted in his press conference. Like, he's done all that. You think that he doesn't want to beat Sean McVay, the guy who's known as the Guru, the young guy, all those things. Like, he. This means A lot to him. So this game, to me, it's going to be about two intense head coaches that are honestly very, very rare human beings.

And it's awesome. The NFC playoffs, having the final Four be like all the. These guys that are very, you know, Kyle Shanahan's the old guy and it's Mike McDonald is Sean McVeigh. It's. It's Ben Johnson. These guys that all feel like, you know, given their age, could be. They could be coaching in these games for a long time against each other.

Yeah, it's insane. Like, think about it. Like, Sean McVeigh drew plays up for Kyle Shanahan in Washington. Like, like Matt LaFleur, who Ben just beat. Like, he. Drew plays up for Sean in la. Like Mike is drawn plays for both of them. Like, all of them kind of come from these same trees. They've all come up underneath each other, watched each other, been fans of each other. Like, I think there's a really neat narrative there in the NFC of that. And so it's going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. And then, you know, we're not even talking about Clint Kubiak, who. Same thing came up under all these guys. Like, I think it's just neat that all of them have kind of been intertwined in another way of watching each other, being a fan of each other. So we're going to get to see them all kind of break out the playbook a little bit and see who can expose the other.

Yeah, you saw it. You saw live in person last weekend. But the, the crowd in Chicago was a difference maker. They, they, they forced a couple delays games. They were loud. They were very. You've got a bunch of people from Chicago that have been starved for playoff wins. They've. It's cold outside, so they've had, you know, 10 hours to keep drinking and they're going to be. They're going to be noisy again this week. What is, what is Sean McVeigh or what have you done in the past to prepare for just a really loud, boisterous crowd that's going to make it hard to hear the quarterback?

Well, I think this is the reason Sean McVeigh has a such a great road record. I mean, the reality is, I know when we were in the Coliseum, a lot of teams like to travel to la, so we were playing in the silent count a lot. And so far it's been similar against some of these big market teams that travel really well. There's a lot of silent cadence for the Rams home Or away. So they're trained in it. You know, that's just the reality. Like. Like Caleb Williams and the Bears are comfortable coming from behind in a game. The Rams are used to noise and having to fight through that and be in a silent cadence. That's kind of the world they've had to live in. So I don't think that that will play much of a factor. Now, I will say this. Looking at the weather, I mean, about 12 degrees.

Yeah.

Nice and windy. That is a challenge. So I think that that will be the challenge to me for this Rams team is going out playing in, adapting to it and saying, hey, we still got to go. Just play up, be us, play to our style of football and they'll be successful. But that is a challenge. Like, don't you know, you're not used to it. You're not used to it. Listen, I've gotten soft living out in la. I go to cold weather places now. I got to wear an overcoat and some gloves. Like, I don't know what happened to me. All right. I used to be a tough guy. I'm not anymore. But it's a reality. Like when you're not used to it, it is a shock. Just like when you go somewhere, you're from Chicago, you go down to Miami and play early in the season, you were pouring sweat and huffing and puffing like it didn't. It's not because you're soft. Like, just the reality is it's not what you're used to. So there will be some adaptation for the Rams. Like, you're gonna have to get out there, get used to the cold, embrace it, and let's go play some football.

But once that ball snapped, it's compete time.

And with the wind, Matt Stafford's finger is going to be a question too. Big Cat actually had a really smart idea when we were watching the games because we've seen a bunch of quarterbacks get their. Have. Have finger injuries this time of year, hitting them off the back of their. Their O lines helmet. You want to tell me your idea?

Yeah, it was just that. Why. Why are not all O lineme Guardian caps and maybe like a little bit extra level of foam just be like, hey, you know what? We can't have our star quarterback hurt their finger on a helmet.

I understand. Because think of our world a little bit. Okay, like now you want me to wear. I already have a watermelon for a head. You want me to put on this. This foam? Now I look absolutely insane. Not to mention you're Putting me in a white uniform. I look like an upside down popsicle.

Like, okay, let me say, let me put it this way.

We already look bad enough.

Would you rather look ridiculous and block for Matthew Stafford or look cool and block for Stetson Bennett?

I mean, honestly, I'd rather look ridiculous than blocker Matthew Stabber, but I don't know if y' all watch the game. Chargers, Patriots, man, when Trent Brown. They did a close up of Trent Brown coming on the field and those white feet, like, just. He was walking onto the field and he's got that all white on. And I go, man, that dude, he's got to be 390 pounds. Like, that is a big freaking man. All white is not flattering for us. O lineman. Okay, guys, can we get some off color? We need to mix it up a little bit. All right, let's go dark pants, white jersey, something.

Stripes. You need stripes like. Like a fully striped shirt. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, yeah. Big cat brings up a good point. It's like you can look cool and Matt Stafford's quarterback, or I guess you can look ugly and Matt Stafford's your quarterback, or it can look cool and Jimmy Garoppolo steps in and you're not going to look as cool as Jimmy Garoppolo no matter what you wear.

Yeah. You're standing next to the hottest guy now.

You're screwed either way. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's for sure. No, I. Listen, I. I hear you. I. I don't want to put anything else on, though. I'm tired of being dressed. You know, we're already zoo animals. All right. With the old lineman, we're already.

That's fair. Yeah, that's fair.

Just let us look. Dignity, you know, a little dignity out there.

Yeah. All right, last question. Rollback question. Rhobac.com promo code, take 20 off your first purchase. Q, zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com promo code, take. I'm sure you've had to do a bunch of predictions over the course of the year, so let's just give you a. There's only eight teams left. Super bowl and the winner.

All right, I'm going Rams, Bills, super bowl. And I'm going Matthew Stafford and the Rams win the Super Bowl. That's. That's my prediction.

Oh, man, that'd be heartbreaking for Josh.

That would be very tough.

Yeah, I mean, I love you.

Feel good about yourself if you did that. If the Rams snatch that joy from the city of Buffalo, you'd be okay.

With that I really wouldn't. Fitz and I would probably have to end the podcast.

Yeah.

I don't even know if we'd be friends anymore.

Yeah.

But. But you know what? Here's the thing. I'd be okay with either outcome, but obviously I would want the Rams to win. That one's a tough one, though. Two guys, quarterbacks that I think are just absolute studs. Great human beings. Everything else, they're neighbors. So we're going to play a little golf together. It might even ruin our golf experience off season. So I don't know. I might have just set up a bad scenario.

We will remind Josh that you picked the Rams over the Bills.

Thanks. I appreciate it.

If it goes that way.

I love you, Josh.

All right, Whit, thank you so much, man. Really appreciate it. Great, Great having you on. And we'll see you super bowl week.

Yeah, I appreciate it, fellas. Have a great one.

Andrew Whitworth was brought to you by our good friends at Better Help. This podcast is sponsored by Better Help. The new year doesn't require a new you. Maybe just a less burdened you. Therapy can help easily identify what holds you back by offering an unbiased perspective to better understand your relationships, your motivations and your emotions. BetterHelp does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and your preferences. And our 12 plus years of experience and industry leading match fulfillment rate means we typically get it right the first time. If you aren't happy with your match, switch to a different therapist at any time. From our tailored wrecks. BetterHelp makes it easy to get matched online with a qualified therapist. Sign up and get 10 off off@betterhelp.com PMT that's betterhelp.com PMT this episode is also brought to you by New Body Armor Flash IV Caffeine. Zero sugar. If you're dragging but also dehydrated, this is the move. It's hydration with a caffeine boost. It's zero sugar. I keep going around for long days, early mornings. You know, I've never actually tried this before.

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Okay.

We now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very, very special guest. How many did you think you were gonna get?

Ah, I was thinking about it for a while, honestly. Yeah, I'm happy with that many though.

Okay. All right. It's Dylan Strom from the Washington Capitals, who is a big time awl. So we're pumped to have you here. You're in town playing the Blackhawks.

What?

I mean, you, you are. We love having guys on who actually listen to the show. I know you listen to the show. So are you nervous at all for being in this seat?

Definitely a little nervous for sure. I am only a six time awl, though.

Oh, that's still pretty good.

That's pretty damn good.

20, 18.

20.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay. Yeah.

So we started listening in Covid. My brother, my older brother Ryan just told us you guys got to listen to this podcast and check it out. I love that pretty much from then on, it's three times a week and. And it's. It's kind of surreal to be sitting here, honestly.

Do you feel yourself getting dumb?

No. Okay.

Myself getting smarter about football. And I love when you guys. I love when you guys talk about hockey. And now I feel like I know a lot more about football. Maybe not smarter, I guess.

Yeah.

Do you have any, any criticism of our hockey talk?

No.

I love when you guys have biz and wit on. It's, it's. It's awesome.

Not Yandel.

Yan's only been on once or twice.

He's been on a couple times.

I like games too. I. I actually went to a little camp thing with Yan's and I think it was 2019, maybe with. With Patrick Kane. And I met Yan's there and I, I thought he was the funniest person of all time. I was like on the ice a few times, like laughing, like, because he's just so funny at all times.

He is that Guy, do you have any complaints with our analysis of the little exhibition thing they did last?

I. I was wondering if you're going to say that.

Yeah, the allstar game. What do we play Allar?

No, it was.

Yeah, it was US versus Canada All Star.

It was like a practice game, like goodwill type thing.

Yeah.

Actually it's kind of funny because we, we watched I think some of the USA Canada game together.

Yes.

Last year.

That was game at the beginning.

That was the best game ever.

Yeah, that's when I stopped watching. That's the only one I remember.

Well, the US Won that game.

Yeah.

So that was the finals.

Yeah, that was the finals.

No, I mean that, that. That whole tournament was incredible to watch. I mean, like, I guess who really knew that there was gonna be that many fights at the beginning, but when, when hockey players get fired up like that, it's just Bell center in Montreal. I know you witnessed the Bell center last year in the playoffs, which was by far the loudest rink I've ever played in in my life. In that game three was, was wild.

It was absolutely insane there. I still can't get over how loud that arena becomes when they've got something to root for in hockey. Because it's been a while since they've. They've cheered for anything like a game like that in the playoffs. And then was it the end of the second period where just everybody got into a fight?

Yeah, actually, I actually went to the dressing room. So like there was four of us that like just skated off the ice like we normally would because nothing was going on.

Yeah.

And all of a sudden we, we hear like, no one's following us at the dressing room. We turn around and I just see Wilson having have Anderson in the headlock on the bench and the refs like between them on our bench. Our coaches are like right behind it. I've never been a part of a game like that. But that rink, when it gets going like. And then I ran over our goalie unfortunately at the end, at the end of the. That was tough towards the end of the game, but luckily we bounced back.

I can tell, I could tell that you still like feel bad about that. It was an accident.

Yeah. And they scored. And then you're out there for a minus and then it's just.

Wait, what do the guys say when they're like, hey, where the were you for the fight?

Well, I don't think anyone really realized it was only those four of us. We kind of just kept it hush. Like we just kept it. Hey, Just. Just keep it on the down low that we snuck into the room before. Yeah, you're fun to be out there.

You're in the locker room after being like, yeah, you see what I did to that guy? Yeah, we're getting in it.

What does Tom Wilson say when he comes back into the locker room? Like, they have to extricate him somehow, like, extract him. I don't know how they got him out of the. Out of the box, but, like, he was in there with three other dudes, and then they, you know, send him on his way into the locker room. What's his mood when he gets in the locker room? He's like, was he, like, that was awesome or was he still fired up?

I think everyone was. I'm not sure the exact score of the game at that time, but he. I mean, he was fired up, but he.

He.

His neck got like. He was getting headlocked pretty good. His neck was. Was pretty mangled right after that. So then he was supposed to be in the box to start, to start the third period, and then he didn't go in the box.

Yeah.

And, like, you could hear the. The other team was like, you know, pretty happy that he wasn't out there for the third. And then sure enough, he comes strolling out and the arena, whole rink was booing him, and it was just. And then he has that massive hit in game four that pretty much wins us the series. So it's just he's the type of player that. That you love to have on your team, and you really, really got to keep your head up when. When you're. When you're against them.

Yeah, that was awesome. It was a great game to go to. Can we go back to, like, the start of your career in the NHL? Because I think you've got a really unique story.

Yeah.

The way that you got to where you're at right now in Washington. So you were drafted, was it. Were you drafted third overall?

Correct.

So drafted third overall by the Coyotes?

Yeah.

Did you meet Biz when you were there, when you were rookie?

He was actually doing the radio at the time. Yeah, so I. I had met him a few times before that. We do, like a summer camp, and I saw him there, and I had known him a little bit, and then I think I met him once or twice when I was there.

Yeah. So. So you go to the Coyotes. It doesn't work out for you with the Coyotes? There probably had to be a few moments where you were just frustrated beyond belief, for sure. Start of your career for sure.

Well, I was drafted behind McDavid and Jack Eichel, so it was. And then Marner was one behind me. So yeah, there's a few pretty good hockey players around there. But yeah, just for whatever reason didn't work out in Arizona. Probably, you know, a cause of me, you know, not playing very well and, and also not getting the best opportunity maybe. And then all of a sudden on a random Sunday, my parents were actually visiting Arizona. We just got smoked by I think Calgary or Montreal, like 6 or 7 1. I'm just sitting in my. My gaming chair playing Fortnite. Fortnite, Fortnite. And I got a call from the GM and he's like, we just, we traded you to Chicago. You know, wish you the best of luck. Sorry it didn't work out here, but wish you the best of luck. And hangs up the phone. It was probably like a. Probably like a 22nd phone call. I actually asked, asked, who do I get traded for? I don't know why that was the first thing that came to my mind. But I asked who I got traded for. He goes, I can't tell you. So then, yeah, I get traded to Chicago back with a guy I played with in junior, Alex DeBrincat.

We were. Had so much fun in junior, a lot of success together. And the first game I got to Chicago was two days later and. And I played on a line with DeBrincat and Kane in my game.

Yeah, that was just gonna say like, you go straight to playing with Kane and you're like, what the going on right now? And I, I had a question about, about your time with the Blackhawks. Because it was probably, I don't want to say weird, but like it was the. Obviously the end of the cup run. So there was still. Kane and Taze were there, but it was kind of going like, what was the vibe around the team? Because from the, from the outside it's like, oh, these guys are still here. But they weren't winning. Like they were winning.

Yeah.

You know, through the cup run.

Yeah. So I actually got traded two weeks after Joel Quenville got fired. So it was definitely like, yeah, the transition period of.

Yeah.

Of what was going on with Chicago. But you know, for the most part it was like you could just from being in Arizona. It's obviously not a hockey town. You know, you're. You're in shorts and flip flops every day going to the rink and. And then you get traded to Chicago. I remember my first day was like a blizzard when I got here. And I landed and took the red eye and went straight from the airport to the, to practice. And I walk in the room and it's like Taves, Kane, Keith Seabrook, Crawford, Chris Kunitz, like, just guys that were like, you know, legends of the game that had all won multiple, multiple Stanley Cups. And it was just, it was a weird time because at that time when they fired Quinville, they weren't, you know, doing great in the standings. We finished the year okay, but then the next year they actually, we traded for Mark. Andre Fleury.

Yeah.

And it was kind of like, okay, maybe this is the, the year that we can kind of do it again. Because they still had the, the main pieces that they won the cups with and then unfortunately just, you know, didn't work out. We, we could never really get on a good run. But you know, playing in Chicago, as you guys know, living here, it's, it's. The place is incredible. The sports are, are, are second to none. And playing at the, the UC every night was awesome.

Yeah.

And getting that opportunity to actually play.

Yeah.

And develop, that must have felt good. It's like, yeah, okay, I'm not crazy. I'm good at this.

Yeah, you kind of like, for sure. I was drafted in 2015 to the Coyotes and then basically had a, I had a full time role in the NHL by like the end of 2018, basically started 2019. So like you, I played two more years of junior and you put up a lot of points and I had a lot of fun. But when you, you know, you get drafted high, there's a lot of expectations and I feel like just getting to Chicago and you know, getting a, you know, a regular spot and a lot of ice time and just got to develop and learn from some, some pretty cool players and, and you know, luckily it worked out from there.

When you were playing with Kane on the same line, were you ever like, don't this up. It's Patrick Kane, or was he ever like, hey man, like, this is not how I want you to play or, you know, do this differently?

I mean, he's definitely intense a few times. The first. I remember my, my third game. Hopefully doesn't kill me for saying this, but my, my third game ever with Chicago, I had a great first game. Nothing. The second game, in the third game, I made like a, a little flick past to him and it was like kind of like the, a bobbling puck and he, he kind of looked over at me and he goes, it's the NHL. Put it on my, put on my tape. And he was, like, so serious, but, like, ended up becoming one of my best friends in Chicago. And I mean, I got to play with him pretty much the whole time I was there. And it's. He's right. I mean, he wants to puck flat on a stick and. And so it was my job to. To try to get it to him and then be ready because he's one of the best to play hockey. And so you got to be ready for it.

Yeah.

And then you become a free agent and you're trying to figure out where to go, Right?

Yeah.

Is that how it went down? So how long were you in Chicago?

I was in four years, so three, three and a half years.

So after those years, I'm assuming you would have been fine staying in Chicago?

Yeah, for sure. For sure. Well, it was kind of a weird situation because we were like, kind of like a mid tier team. Like, we were kind of like, we would never be last, but we would never be like, you know, in the playoffs. In the four years that I was there, we were kind of always like, right. Right in the middle. And I remember my. My agent called me and I was up for contract and my agent called me, said, you know, come to my office and we're gonna.

We'll talk.

And I got there and the first thing he said was, well, you're not going to be a Blackhawk anymore. And I was under. I was a restricted free agent at the time, which means basically that they can continue to sign you if they want and they hold your rights. And it doesn't happen too often where they. They just don't sign you and you become unrestricted. So I really wasn't expecting that. And. And I was like, all right. It was like four or five days before free agency, and then free agency rolled around and my brother and I were both free agents at the same time, which. Which was cool. We were talking maybe, hopefully, or we could maybe if we're going to be on the same team at one point in our careers. But it didn't end up that way, but landed on Washington and. And it was. It was awesome from the start.

Yeah. I've got a series of OV questions for you.

I figured.

Okay, so. So first of all, what was it like meeting him for the first time?

Just like the. The happiest guy. Like, we. I got there a few weeks before the season started, and then, you know, you hear rumblings like, oh, like the big man's coming, coming, coming in soon from Russia, coming back from Russia. And like, one day he Just strolled into the, into the, to the gym and just gave everyone like the biggest hug and, and said what's up? And just you know, always just like so happy, so happy to be back and see the guys and like the, the most easy going guy that, that I've, that I've probably played with in hockey.

Did you know how big he was going to be?

Did not know how big he was going to be. That was a shock to me. And just how like generous he was like, like that I've seen throughout these last four years how big he is for sure. And like, like the generosity just he's willing to do like you know, give guys sticks after every game, give guys jerseys after every game and sign anything. So it's, it's nice to see.

Yeah, he's, he's a monster. He's, he's massive. He seems like the best dude to hang out with. Does he, does he still drink soda in his water bottles?

Yeah, that is true.

Yeah.

He has Coke on, on the bench.

So like in the Gatorade bottle.

So if you notice that he sits by the, the, the, the forwards door after every time he comes off the ice, he'll never, barely ever slide down the bench. You just, that's his spot. No one goes there. If you're there, he's telling you to, to get out. But his, his water bottle there has, has Coke in it.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

I love that. Has anybody like accidentally ever grabbed it to drink water and they're like, oh.

Not that I've really heard of, but just because it's his spot and he keeps a water bottle there. A lot of the time the trainer has it behind him too, so he reaches back and then, and then grabs it from him.

He's got to drink water at some point. Point. Right?

We were actually like, we had, I mean he's like the topic of conversation always as you can imagine on the team. And we were actually talking, we're like, have you ever actually seen Ovi drink like a regular water? And I, I don't think I have. He drinks coconut water. That's what, that's what he drinks.

Okay, that's good. Yeah, yeah, that's healthy. Does he, does he still love hot Cheetos?

Yes, he does. Actually. Today was one of the first flights as of the dad's trip and it was kind of lots going on and, or the mentors trip as we call it, but it was the, one of the first flights that he's, he's came with it without the subway and the Cheetos to today.

Oh, I don't like that.

Well, we'll see. We'll see what happens. I bet you if he has two or three goals tomorrow, he ain't gonna bring Subway and Cheetos on the next flight.

That's how he quits. Yeah. Is he still super passionate about chicken parm?

Yes, yes. We, some of the dads got to witness it yesterday when he, when he, when he. We eat our pregame meal at the rink after our morning skate. And when he comes in there, he is very, very excited about eating his pregame meal.

Yeah.

And he has, like, all the sauces. He's the sauce crosser, as I think you guys have heard Bell.

Yeah. So he mixes everything together.

Right.

Mushroom sauce, marinara, meat sauce, and Alfredo.

I love that.

That's incredible.

And then my, my last movie question actually has to do with you.

You were. I was to say, keep going.

Yeah, you, you. You were the secondary assist on goal number 895. What was that like? Just that moment and the build up to it was kind of incredible. As, as, you know, he's getting older, but he's still scoring goals at a crazy clip. That whole buildup and then being there and being one of the guys that set it up, what was that like?

Well, like, last year, to start the season, he had 15 goals in 18 games. And at the beginning of the year, we knew he needed 42 to break the record. That was like the number that everyone, you know, thought about him and wanted him to get to. And he starts off that, that well, and then all of a sudden breaks his leg in Utah. He has a hat trick in. In Vegas. The night before that game in Utah, the first two periods, got two goals. In the start of the third period, he breaks his leg.

Yep.

So he was on, like, a pace, like, even for him, which was, you know, incredible. He was on a crazy pace. And then he breaks his leg. And we're like, after the game, everyone's going to see him and we're like, you know, like, you know, what's the prognosis? Like, what's going on? He's like, broken leg. And we're like, you know, how long he's like, I should be skating in? Two weeks. Two weeks. Like, you know, maybe just like, you know, we want you to, we all want you to break the records at that time. As soon as it happens. We're like, you know, we want you to break the record at some point. Like, everyone wants you to break the record. You want to break the record. So, you know, just take your time getting back. He's like, no, no. Two weeks. I'll be back on the ice. All good. And we're like, all right. So, sure enough, two weeks comes back. It was just after Christmas. I think he. He came back. I think it was. He started skating the two weeks after and then played, like, maybe four or four and a half weeks after, which, I mean, for a broken fibula or whatever, he had.

Whatever that bone is down there.

It's crazy.

And he just kept going. And then. So leading up to the. To the record, it seemed like there was, like, 21 games and then 11 goals, and then 20 games, then 10 goals. So you kind of could feel that he was, like, he was getting there and getting closer and then. Yeah, just leading up to it. I mean, I had. I had an assist fortunate enough. I had an assist on, like, 890, 91, 92, 93. And then the tire was 894, and I didn't get an assist on that. I was on the ice rib. I didn't get an assist. And I'm like, obviously, you want to get an assist. Like, I mean, you're in the record books for. For history. And then he tied at that game. We had an awesome night after that. And then, sure enough, in New York, it just. Everything kind of lined up on the power play in his office and was lucky enough to pass it to Tom, who. Who passed it over to ovi, and it's history.

It's very cool. And so that. That goal will be replayed throughout history, and you're. You're right there for it.

You're part of it.

Yeah, I. I definitely. When I first watched it back, I. I jumped like a. Like a little kid. Like, probably maybe a little too much. Yeah, I'm a. I'm a big, like, stats guy and, like, hockey nerd in general. So, like, just being a part of it was really cool. And then getting an assist, I think I kind of realized, like, as I was jumping up and down the ice, like, trying to get to him.

Him.

So as I watched it the first couple times, I was like, oh, what am I. What am I jumping like that for? But now, like, that. I've watched it probably 100 times. Like, I. I kind of like that I did that. I like that I'm, like, jumping and going crazy, so it's something that I'll remember forever. I got a pretty cool picture, like, jumping behind him as he's sliding on the ice. So, yeah, it was pretty cool.

No. As a. As a Caps fan, my biggest fear a few years ago was that the. The team was going to just essentially tool itself around OV and the chase for the record record and maybe not be as competitive. But then you come in, and I think you're the biggest part of that, of kind of the. The rebuild of the Capitals, where we're a very competitive team, while still doing that, which has been awesome to watch. And you've been playing. I feel like your game has stepped up big time since you've gotten here.

I appreciate that. Thank you. That's very nice. Yeah, I mean, for sure. I mean, when I signed in Washington, Backstrom was. Was hurt and at some point he was going to come back, and it seemed like just a perfect fit at the time. And then. Yeah. Yeah. Just getting to play with ovi, learning how to play with them, learning, you know, where he likes it and what he likes. It's just been incredible. I mean, I could have never have imagined, especially, you know, after a team not gives up on you, but they were. They were obviously going for Bedard and they wanted to. Chicago wanted to get basically worse, and they got rid of like four or five guys that were on the team for a previous couple years, and it just worked out perfectly in Washington. And I'll be forever grateful for that. Just getting the opportunity to. Not only to play like on the same team as a living legend, but on his line for. For multiple years. It's. It's been incredible.

Yeah. All right. So you said you're a stats nerd. What's cooler being the assist on OV's record record breaking goal or outscoring Connor McDavid for the Eerie Otters in 2014? 15.

We won't talk about how many games he played.

Yeah, dude. No, I didn't say that.

I didn't mention.

But you had 129 points. He had 120. That's a fact.

Yeah, those are. Those are pretty. I gotta say. Okay, not. Not.

Yeah.

895.

For sure.

Do you think it's fair of us to say, you know, we have a back and forth with wit about McDavid, who's the best player in hockey, but if he were the best athlete in all his sports, he should just not come off the ice.

I. I wanted to talk about this for so long with this podcast. What about a football? What about the best football player ever? He doesn't play defense.

He could if he wanted. Sammy Ball. Yeah.

David could never come off the ice if he wanted to. In My opinion.

You think he could never come off the ice. He should try it.

Yeah. I don't think it's a bad idea. I mean there's been, there's been playoff games where he probably has like five, six minute shifts, I think.

Okay.

But if you listen to the show, you know that we were massive fans of Travis Hunter.

Yeah, that's true.

And he played both ways.

Yeah.

And that was massive because of.

No, no, no. Just like we're not going to mention the fact that McDavid missed like a ton of games when you beat him in the points. We're not going to talk about Travis Hunter. Bet.

Yeah, I guess that's fair enough. Actually a funny story. In that last game of the, of the regular season in that in my draft draft year, Connor had 120. At the time I had 123. And Marner, who was. We were kind of all right there for our draft year, he had 126 going into my last game. He didn't have a game that day and I did have a game that day and Connor didn't play that last game because we were kind of already locked up for a playoff spot. And I think he was under the weather or something. And so like the coach, Chris Knobloch, who's now the coach of the Oilers.

Yeah.

Back with McDavid, David came in the room before the game and said, you know, obviously we, we racked 49 wins actually. So he's like, you know, he came in the room and he's like, we have, you know, we have lots to play for today. Obviously our position can't move in the standings, but you know, we're, we're one away from 50 wins, which would be cool. And Stromer's three away from, from Ty and Marner for the, the scoring lead. And sure enough, I go out and I think I'm confident enough to say that I had the best game of my career.

And what were your, what was your.

Final four goals, two assists.

That's amazing.

Pretty good for 129 points and, and got the scoring record. So. I always remember Chris Knobloch saying that before the game. Cuz he definitely didn't have to say that.

Yeah.

And then for him to say that in front of all the guys like before the game and guys were passing to me left. Right. I was just. It was one of those games where you just, you're just kind of feeling it.

That's awesome because it's, it is like if, you know, you say it especially in pro sports, like, oh, I'm going after my stats. But in that situation, it's like, yeah, you're locked in.

Yeah.

Like, let's go get the. Let's go get our guy some stats.

It was an 87 win, and it was. It was one of those games that you just, you know, wish. We wish could happen all the time.

Did you know, like, then that Conor McDavid was going to be 100? I mean, the. The speed, I always say, like, when I. I saw him play in person, I think last year, the year before, it's like the speed just jumps off. You're just like, holy, how's this guy so much faster than ever.

Yeah. Like, we're the same age. So, like, he. He got drafted. It's called exceptional status in the. In the ohl, which is Ontario Hockey League, and he got exceptional status. So he played at 50. At 15. When I was 15, we were still playing, like, minor hockey, like, on your minor hockey team. So he was in the OHL at that time. And just when I got to Erie, it was. I mean, I had watched him play because we were on the same, like, minor hockey team growing up. Just. He was playing at a year older as an underager, and just. You had heard stories and, like, you know, everyone knew who he was and about him. But when I really got to Erie, you got to see it firsthand on how much better he was than. Than. Than. Than everyone.

Yeah.

And, like, you know, I went third overall that year, and he was like, obviously that much better. Like, it was. No, not a comparison. So. So it was just really cool to see and see. You know, you obviously want to be the best, and you got to see it every day and. And how. How he competed and how he. How he plays the game and his knowledge of the game and just his hockey IQ is. Is off the charts.

But you had more points than him that year. Well, that's forever. That's forever.

Yeah.

You were better than for that season.

Yeah.

I had you in fantasy.

Yeah.

For.

I think he had 40, 47 games and 100 that we don't care about.

We might put up a plaque leading score on the otters until Connor McDavid comes on the show. We're gonna have a plaque back here and just be like, 2014, 15 OHL scoring title.

The Otters, right?

Yeah.

That's a great name. How did you become Stromer, and why not Stromi? I feel like there must have been a fork in the road at some point.

Yeah, I don't Know, my. My dad growing up has. Has always been called Stromer. And then just. I think for whatever reason, just. Just kind of. Some guys do call me Stromi, though, but. But now OVI has changed my nickname, and now everyone on the. The whole team calls me Zini.

Zeni.

That's my new nickname.

What does that mean?

No idea. I think maybe like. Like you said Stromi and Stromer. Like. Like, Stromzini rolls off the top, and then. Then it just changes.

Zini.

So, like, when he. When he broke the record, he. He signed everyone's hats with their nicknames and, like, a little message on it after the game, on the bus ride back to the airport. And he wrote two Z and he spelled it Zed. I'm gonna say Z because I'm Canadian. Z I, I, N, N, I.

Z I, I, N, N, I. Yeah. Zini. I guess if OVI calls you Zini, you're Zeni.

Yeah, exactly. That's why everyone. The coaches even call me Zini now.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's awesome. So kind of a weird question. I've always wondered about hockey players, though. Like, how. How did you choose your goal song?

That's a good question. No, teams really have goal songs. Like, only. I think maybe two or three teams have, like, their own individual goal songs. I think it's cool. But, yeah, when I got to Washington, I just. I chose the Middle by Jimmy. We're all. And I just. I think it. It sounds nice when I score. I like it. There's not really a big meaning behind it, but I. I just think it. I really like the song, and the words in the song are like, it just takes some time, little girl in the middle. So, I mean, I feel like for me. For my. My career, kind of like you mentioned, like, it just takes some time to be where you're supposed to be, and I feel like that kind of stuck with me, and that's why I chose it.

I like that.

You got any suggestions of what I maybe could change it to?

No, I mean, if it's been working for you.

Yeah.

I don't want to mess with it because, like, you've been a very good player for the Capitals, and I don't want to change whatever's going on.

Does.

Does Riley Leonard. Does he do Freebird?

Yes, he does.

Okay. I like that.

Ryan.

Leonard Ryan. Yeah. Not Riley. Cold squirrel. Yeah, right.

Do you have. Did you grow up with a pond in your. Or, like, did you make a rink in your backyard?

We actually made. We have, like, a Hydro fields right across the street. So like, when it was cold enough enough, we would go over and just kind of shovel off a little area of snow and carry the net from our. From our front yard and bring it over there and just, Just play for.

Wait, what's the hydro fields?

I guess like, you know, like hydro. Like hydroplanes. You know what I'm talking about? No, Maybe that's Canadian.

I mean, it sounds awesome.

What goes on in the hydro field?

Yeah, it's water, electricity. Electricity.

Oh, oh, okay.

What would you guys call it?

Why don't you just say that?

Like a dam.

We call it hydrofields. That's like a hydro fields. Yeah, like a long.

We've got. Max is looking. We got our best guys on it right now. Hydro fields. That just looks like. Yeah, power lines.

Power lines.

That's what I was looking for. Those big towers with the power lines. I guess we call it hydro fields. Okay, so over in the hydro fields there was just like snow. And then we went over one day and we found it was ice and.

Wait, do you call it hydro fields because it's like. Oh, power line is where we play hockey. We put the water on the.

No, just because it's a field and then there's.

And then you put the water on for the hydro.

No, it was just already there. It's just like a little like. I guess it maybe it rained or.

Something and then got it and it froze.

Froze over.

That's sick.

A lot of our friends had. Had backyard rings.

I love the backyard rings. They look so cool.

Awesome.

Every single time someone like in the. In like with lights on it too.

I was like a big goalie. Like, I wanted to be a goalie when I was growing up. So I would, every time we would go to a backyard rink, I was just like, do you have pads?

Like, yeah.

Play goalie.

Did you. When did you realize, like, this is goalie. Being a goalie is the worst, I.

Think like an actual hockey. Like, like with a team. I, I probably. I think I was six. I. I remember one game like, no, no parent likes to be a goalie parent. From what I, from what I've been told. Yeah, I remember that I got a puck let in like the finals of a tournament, like two, two tie. And it just like a slow dribbler, like the last second of the game just went right through my legs. And from then on, my dad just said, you're never, you're not a goalie.

I can't, I can't do like, this.

Is too much well, you got to.

Also be a psycho.

Yeah.

Like, every goal is a little bit of a.

That is very true. Yeah, very true.

So it's, like. It's a natural thing. You're not a psycho.

I'll take it.

Yeah.

How old were you when you first learned how to skate?

I think I was about three. Maybe on skates at, like, two. Like, maybe walking in the house, and then three on the ice and then try to start playing, like, in an actual league at four.

That's awesome. I mean, when I was three years old, I. I could not walk.

Did you get. Did you get shoes or skates first?

I. I'm gonna say shoes, but skates probably weren't far. Like, my brother just had his. My brother Ryan just had his. His third son about a year and a half ago. And, like, we're. We're so excited about, you know, getting him in skates because we all. He has two other older girls. I got three girls, and now we got a boy. So now we're.

He's got. He's. Right away, a little birdie on your team told me that you are by far and away the most superstitious guy. Is that true? And why did TVR say that?

Yeah, that's true a lot of times. As well as Zinnia, I'm also also a little bit known as Stish.

Okay. And what does it look like? Like, what are some of your superstitions?

Just everything. Like, I think. I don't know how deep you want me to get into it.

Yeah.

Do it. Yeah.

I mean, I think it goes even from breakfast. Like, what you eat at breakfast.

So you're waking up every game day, and it's superstitions.

Depending on how the game before went, could change a few things.

Okay.

You know, if you score or.

Yeah.

Wins or. Depending on what time of the season.

So what's the dumbest superstition that you've, like, carried? Worried when you've been on a hot streak?

Probably. We have crybaby gumballs. You know, those, like, the sour with the really sour ones.

Yeah.

And we do, like, this wax where you put your hands in the wax before the game. Like, this little wax machine. And I. I give it to Carlson. Like, I feed him a. A crybaby gumball. And so depending on the. How we did the game before, how it's been going, the colors change. That's probably the dumbest one that we feed him one. Yeah.

Like.

Like he's putting his hands in the wax.

Wax, and you put it in his mouth.

And I just drop it in there.

It has to be the same color.

If depending on the wax thing is like, I think it's perforin wax. Like, I don't want to say the wrong word, but yeah, it just like heats up your hands. And that's also a stitch, I guess, because I have no idea what it does. But I do it before every game. Like, three or four of us do it before every game. You put your hand and you dip your hand in, and then the wax, like, kind of stays on your hands, and then you get. You can peel it off when it's. When it's done.

So your. Your superstitions actually carry over to other people on the team too.

For sure. That's kind of where it becomes. That's kind of where it becomes. Becomes a problem. Because then if, like, things are going really well and like, someone messes up your superstition, but they're also a part of it. Yeah, like, that's when I'm like, you guys got to know this.

Yeah.

So now I talk about it a lot. So guys, like, aware, like, what are we doing today?

So what are you on now?

Well, we just lost and I got no points last game and we lost and we've lost. You know, like, we're not on a good streak. We're looking to switch some things up recently.

Okay. So whatever you do before the next game, you're just going to keep doing that running that if you win.

If we win.

Yeah, if you win.

Yeah.

Starting. Starting to more and more morning. Starting tomorrow at morning skate.

But then when you're on a bad streak, you're not doing as many super.

I would say, like, there's like some that I. I like, do every game regardless. I think like most. Most hockey players, like, tying my skates up at the same time on the clock.

That makes sense. Wait. Oh, wait.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

All right. On the clock. What if the game's.

Oh, the clock countdown. Yeah. So same time every game for that.

And then time yourself. What you have to get it done within a certain amount.

I just start tying my skates for. With 25 minutes, 25 seconds left on the clock.

Okay.

So no matter what, I got to be in my. In my seat sitting down, tying my skates. I take my stick on the bench before every game.

Okay.

After I warm up and then before, you know, sometime. Usually around 36 on the clock.

No, that's not. That's exactly 36.

It's like, it. It. That one kind of differs. But I usually I. I Just know I gotta be back there with my skates on and ready to get them tied up at 25. 25.

Okay, and then what else?

Oh, man. Well, in warm ups right now, there's so many. This is like a topic of conversation on our team, like, every day. I love it. I always shoot in the goalies. Glove hand. In warm ups, we got two southpaw goalies. So that's kind of been new from the caps. Like, I've never really been on a team with a guy with a. That catches south pole. We got two of them. So we're 05 in shootouts this year. And I'm gonna strictly say that it's only because we always shoot on southpaw goalies. We don't actually get to shoot on regular goalies.

Yeah.

For the shootouts. So we're 0 and 5 in that. But the superstitions. Let me just think the gumballs.

Wait.

So.

But when you're on a bad streak, you gotta, like, is it maybe.

Yeah.

So like, you're not doing enough superstitions?

Could be.

Yeah.

So I think you gotta amp it up.

God, that's a lot. There's a lot that goes on. But we. The funny thing is that everyone on our team has them. I think every hockey player has them. Some may call them routine, some may call them superstitions. But like, it's funny when you watch guys that do the same thing on every warm.

Warm up.

Like, OVI goes on the ice and does like two leg stretches, circles around and then stops at the red, at the blue line and stretches. Yeah, like every game.

Yeah.

So like, is that a routine or superstition? Like, does he change something?

Yeah.

Depending on how the team's going or. Or what.

This is the way. This is how you cope with it. Like, not crazy, right?

Yeah. I just need you.

It's 25. 25. I gotta start.

I just need you to open your mouth when you dip your hands into.

The wax for the trust colored dumball.

Yeah.

Last game we went. We went green. Now definitely not green.

No, you can't.

Again, right skate first and left skate. Does that matter?

Yeah, right skate then left.

Why don't you switch that up if you're on the losing streak?

That's what I'm saying.

That's a good point. I think there's just so many that I switch up. Like, the big one that I feel like you switch up when you're losing. Is the suit color like this.

What.

What suit you wear. Okay, so like, that's like the Big one. Because then it's like, now I'm getting to the point where like, if so, say if you score two goals but your team loses and you wear the blue suit for that game.

Game.

Then what do you do? Do you wear the blue suit for the next game but the team lost?

Yeah. It depends what kind of guy you are. Your name on the front guy or name on the back guy?

Definitely I'm on the front guy. So that's why I've been switching my suit. And then I don't score the next.

Game and you're like, what else can I do?

Yeah.

Like it's my fault.

Yeah. Wait, so I, I read a story your. Does your wife give birth to one of your kids while you were playing?

Yeah.

Did she not tell you?

So what happened was a month and a half, month and a half ago. Okay. She was three weeks before her due date and we were home for a 14 day stretch. And we had one game where we were flying. We played on a Wednesday night. We flew to Montreal after the game. We were playing Thursday and then flying home after the game. And I, I didn't even think it was like a possibility at that time because she was three weeks. And we've been through this before. Yeah. And sure enough, yeah, we, I, I finished warm up. I get off the, I talked to her right before I got to the rink. I get off the ice for warm up and our team services guy, Rob, calls me off and he like pulls me into the, like the side room in Montreal. And I'm like, I thought I was like in trouble or something.

Yeah.

That's how much I wasn't even really thinking about, like that could be a possibility. And he's like, your wife's at the hospital. Do, do you want to, do you want to call her? I'm like, I guess I better call her.

Yeah.

So I get on the phone and the first thing I hear is like, she's having a contraction. Is the first thing that I hear. Like, it happened that fast? So I talked to the nurse and I was like, you know, kind of, you know, give it to me straight. Like, do I have enough time to get back here? Like, should I leave right now? Can I make it back? And she's like, I mean, you probably got like five hours. And I'm like, well, it's 6:00 clock right now. Or it's like 6:40 right now. And I'm in Montreal, different country. So if I were to, you know, somehow get a private plane to go back, like, I Wasn't getting a flight out.

Right.

If I were to get a private plan, the best it was probably gonna get me back was around like 12 or 1. And that's the time our team plane was getting, getting back. So I'm like, all right, I guess I'm gonna like. Then our team services guy was like, you your best bet to get back in the fastest is probably with our team team playing.

Right.

So I was like, all right, I'm gonna play. And so I thought, like, I still at this time thought I had like five hours until I could could so maybe I might make it.

Yeah.

I get off the ice for the first period. Had an assist on an OV goal in the first period in Montreal, which is like my favorite place to play. And so I was like, you know, feeling, feeling great. I get to go check my phone to see what's going on. Hopefully everything's good. And I, I walked to the trainer's room and I opened up my phone and I got a message on my phone of a picture of my, of my third daughter. So saying hi daddy.

Oh my God.

And I'm like. So I called her obviously right away.

Yeah.

And I'm like, like, what just happened? Yeah, you were like, you know, you were. The nurse told me you had five hours. Right. And so she actually left for the hospital at 605 and her. And she was born at 7:37.

Oh.

So like I was thinking like, even if I had a game at Capital One arena and she was like, at Capital One arena and then had to go to the hospital and like left before me and I was like, okay, maybe I'll, I'll play and let me know how it's to going. I don't think I would have made it.

Yeah.

Even if I was at a home game.

Okay, so I have some follow up questions. By the way, this happened for my third child. It's not as cool, but I was in, I landed in West Virginia for rough and rowdy to call a shiz at the Rizz at fight. And my wife called me like, hey, I'm going in labor. And I was like. And I, I did get back. I did the national anthem. So someday I'm gonna like for my son, I'm just gonna be like, hey, I sing the national anthem the day you were born. But I was like, like it took her like six or seven hours. So I got back and I had like maybe an hour to spare.

So. But you got there before.

I got there before. Not saying, not comparing, but yes, I'm a better father than you.

All right. It's stressful, though. How stressful?

Oh, so stressful.

So I went into the game like, like, kind of just like not really thinking about hockey. Obviously, other stuff was on my mind.

Right.

And sometimes you play your best when. When that happen.

Yeah. Well, I also got lucky because we took a private plane there and I was able to literally, like, I got in the green room and my wife called me and I was like. And then the pilot was like, I can take you back. So I was like, all right, great. Like, I would have been otherwise.

Yeah.

So there was just no chance.

Yeah.

Like, I. I would have loved to have been back, but there was just no. There was no possible.

You scored a goal and we won.

3 assists and we won.

So superstition. We. So we need to figure out a way for you to have your wife's.

Unfortunately, have a lot more children.

Yeah.

All right, so here's my follow up. So one would. How much has your wife held it over your head? Because, like, not like, I don't think she. She obviously is not mad as it is what it is. But that's got to be an awesome situation for her where, like, if you ever get in a fight, she could be like, yeah, well, you missed my daughter's birth.

I think she mentioned it like, once, like, the first, like, couple days I was back. It hasn't been brought up.

Okay. But you know that it's there.

Oh, it's there.

Yeah.

Like, definitely there.

Like, the next time you're like, oh, like, I had a bad day, she's like, well, you missed the child.

Yeah.

And then number two, like, you know, know, and. And maybe someday your kids are listless, but, you know, you have to, like, make your third child your favorite child because, like, someday she's gonna be like, daddy, where were you on the day I was born?

Oh, that's tough.

You are. But you just gotta. You just gotta. Like, I. I went through these thoughts when.

Yes.

My third was being. Well, like, he's automatically has to be my favorite because I might miss it.

I know I'm not at the stage yet where I think I have to like, pick a favorite child. But, like, my first is my firstborn. Obviously she's born in Chicago.

Yeah.

Just drove past where she was born. Born. My second is the middle child. Right now. I'm a middle child.

Yeah.

So I obviously have that connection with her. And then my third, I wasn't even there.

And.

And so I don't know. I don't know.

You have to overcompensate.

Yeah.

I do. The rankings, like the College Football Playoff, we do weekly. Right now. It's my youngest, my middle, and then my oldest in terms of who I like the most, so. And it can change day to day. That's fair, and I'll say it.

I say other things to learn when my kids get a bit older. I mean, they're only four, two, and one month right now, so there's not. Not a whole lot going on with who I can choose, but we'll see.

That's a crazy story, man. That's, like, that.

She did mention, like. Yeah, that, like, I actually got to start the third. Start the second period. We're on a five on five on three, and I'm like. Like, that's a great chance to score. And I'm on the 5 on 3 power play, and I'm literally lining up for the Face off, and my daughter was born, like, 20 minutes ago, and I'm literally lining up.

Yeah.

And I told her. I looked over at the ref, and I'm like, I just had a kid.

A kid?

Yeah.

He's like, what are you talking.

Wait, did you already have a name picked out?

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

Yes.

I was gonna say that would have been very funny.

Yes.

You got back, and she had. She had been like.

I looked over, and he's like. He's like, what? I'm like, yeah, like, my wife just had a kid. And he's like, congrats.

Yeah.

Our third. We couldn't pick it. Like, we were so out of.

It took us. That was the longest, for sure.

We literally were leaving the hospital. They're like, you have to name this child. We're like, all right, fine.

Well, we had two girls first and then the third girl. And so we were like. Before we. We found out the gender a while ago, but. But it still took us that long. Like, after the third. The third girl name is. Is tough.

Yeah.

Like, it's tough. So Wesley, Emerson, and Sutton. So now Sutton's. So Sutton strong, and then you wrote.

A book for him, right?

No, Sutton Stromy.

Sutton Zini, Sutzini, maybe.

Yeah. So you wrote a book for him?

I'll give. My wife wrote that book.

Okay.

Yeah. A lot of people seem to think that I wrote the book. It's.

It's.

It's pretty cool. She just. It's. It's very simple, but it kind of just explains, like, what I do as. As a job and. And why I'm not home a lot of the time. And A lot of people online and my, my kids, both my four and two year old love it. They could recite the whole book. They love it. So it's. It's awesome.

I was going to ask if you had any tips for us about writing our book. I know yours is a kid's book, but our kids can buy our book too.

I'm so curious to know about this book. Like, are you guys actually going to write anything about this?

Yeah, we have. We're writing it right now.

You said that. I've heard so much about the ghost.

Yeah, we do have a ghost.

So what is a ghostwriter? I've never heard of that.

He's sat down with us for like, like extensive periods of time and we like talk through everything and then he goes.

But then like, are you like typing and like writing the book or is he doing.

His name's Matt. And so he, he sends us what he's written and then we edit it and we give him some feedback. We're. We are actually like sitting down at a computer and typing out some stuff.

You are for the book?

Yeah. Yeah. But I'd say the, the lion share is going to the ghostwriter. But then we're going to interview the ghostwriter and put that in the book. He also has to write that. Yeah, yeah, that's fair.

I mean, we've been.

How long is the book going to be?

Do we know?

I've never read a book in my whole life. So you're reading it.

You have to read longish.

Yeah, it's going to be like. But not too long or.

You don't know yet?

Yeah, no, we don't know. We have no idea.

When is it coming? Is there a date? Is there an end?

I think it's going to be. We actually are going to announce the date, I believe super bowl week. We're going to announce the date. So I think it's going to be summer.

Summer Ish. Fall.

Summer Ish.

Fall Ish.

Maybe not.

What's the title?

We still might pull the plug.

That's fair.

Just like, we're not doing it.

Are you paying the Ghost Raider currently?

Yeah. Does he get paid?

Does he get paid regardless?

He's been. He's been paid.

Okay.

So. But that, I mean, listen, that's just like. Hey, there's.

Or you could do like, maybe like you, like you only have like 50 copies and then you can.

Yeah, I'm sure the publisher would love that.

No, but that's good. Then you sell them for the Wuang album. That, that Dude, Martin Shkreli bought.

Yeah.

We make one copy of the book.

Yeah.

And then we sell it to the rich, richest guests that we've ever had.

Yeah. That's a good idea.

It's a very good idea.

I got one last question. It's been awesome, Dylan. We really appreciate it. Roback question. Rhobac.com promo code, take 20 off your first purchase. Q zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com promo code take. You are a big awl. So give us some feedback. What do we got to do better? What do you not like that we do?

The one thing I didn't like was the last year the. The fantasy boys. Okay, yeah, that was the one thing that I was like. I kind of just skipped through that. But now the J. Jerry one's awesome.

That was actually. It was the last second call before we taped, like, our first episode of football season. Me and Big Cat were just sitting here. We're like, do you not want to do fancy boys this year and just have Jerry do it?

Well, you know what it was? It was Julian Edelman got in our heads, like, three years ago. He. We. He was. And we've known him forever. He's a good friend. He, like, came in to hang with us and he's like, guys, the fancy boys thing sucks.

Well, like, we're like, wait, what? I know you guys don't talk about fantasy football a ton because no one wants to hear about your fantasy team.

But even though we did way too.

Much, I liked it. Everyone does fantasy.

I know, I know.

But, like, the fantasy boys, I feel like you didn't really, like, it wasn't really, like, about fantasy. And now Jerry's minute. It's like this, like, five random guys that, like, he's like, maybe stream, like, whoever, like, at the time.

Yeah.

The one thing that I always wondered, and you guys watch football more than probably anyone, is why in NFL, on the. On the broadcast, watching the game, like, when you go to a game and there's like, a deep ball thrown, you can, like, see if the guy's open. Open.

Yeah.

One thing that I've never understood is why don't we see either the whole field or, like, an end zone cam?

Yeah, no, it's true. It's. It. It actually. Football would be better. They never would do this. I mean, our. Our guy Sam Schwarzeneg, who does the Prime Vision on Amazon prime, is awesome because they give you that big, like, picture. I never understood why we don't like when you play Madden.

So Wait, you guys have a. You can see. You have one.

See it.

If you.

If.

If on Thursday Night Football and actually the. The. The. The Bears packers game, like the prime vision, there's an alternate broadcast you can see.

I haven't seen that yet.

It's awesome. But I agree, like, I don't know why we don't do the. The camera angle that you play Madden on.

Yeah.

Behind the play where you can see everything open up.

Like, how many times in a game when you're watching, like, the ball goes up and everyone's just like, yeah, is there a guy open or not when you're at a game? I've only been to like four football games, but.

Oh, you met Coach Gruden.

Yes, we did.

He's the man.

That was awesome. Yeah, it was so cool. We saw him like, we were like. We knew he was there because we saw Dave. Dave's post and we saw that he was with Gruden. And then sure enough, we're in a box for a rookie party and we looked down and literally two suites over. He's just sitting there.

Yeah.

And we, like, we're like banging on the glass. And he, like, he's like. He definitely didn't know who we were at the. Rate at the beginning. And we're like, funny. One more story. Funny story. We were on the way up in Tampa Bay to our suite and like six or seven of us have got.

Had.

Got to the suite already and we're like, where is everyone else? And the elevator got stuck on the way up to the suite and it was like. Apparently it was like 100 degrees. Like, it was so hot. So, like, when Gruden looked over, there must have been like five guys with no shirts on. Like, before the game started. He's probably like, what is going on?

So.

But did you. How did you get him to realize it was you guys? Did you, like, put Obi in front? You're like, no.

Like, I think we just banned on the glass long enough. He looked over like a few times and we started waving and we tried to like put over there. And then I think Tom texted Biz. And that's the whole story.

Yeah.

And I know Dave was like, you know, like, those guys definitely didn't want to meet me, but we all wanted to meet him. Yeah, I wanted to clear that up. Yeah, I just remembered that right now. Like, we wanted to meet him too, but it was just Gruden was on our side and Dave was on the way other side. I guess we didn't even hear that he gave us a suite number because some of us would have gone over and said, hello.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Groon's the man.

He is.

He is just like. People always ask us, like, what's it like hanging out with him? He is just him all the time. And that's what. Exactly. What you get just sitting next to him on the couch much is like what you see when he's doing his breakdown videos.

Someone was, like, amped up about something. Someone was like, can you give us, like, you know, we got the rookies here. Can you give us, like, something, like, to tell the rookies? And he's like, his one thing, and we say it all the time in the room. And now he's like, stay in the channel of success.

Oh, I like that.

And so now we're like that. That's kind of been our. Our thing a little bit this year.

No matter what that looks like, what superstitions it is, that. That's your channel of success.

There you go.

Something that works. I have one last, last question for you. So you. You are a big stats guy, right? Like, you, you memorize statistics, stats, and you spend a lot of time looking at them. How many career goals does Paul Bissette have? Six.

Right?

Six.

I'm seeing seven.

Seven.

I'm seeing seven goals.

Okay, sorry. Maybe I was wrong on that.

How many. How many career penalty minutes does Paul Bissette have?

Maybe, like, if he played, like, maybe like, I don't want to get it way off.

I'm going to say 1200, 300, and 40 penalty minutes.

Okay.

But that was. That was generous.

That was way off.

Yeah. He acts like a tough guy. He's also a teddy bear. Deep down, we all know that.

Yeah, he's an awesome guy.

Yeah. All right, Dylan, thank you so much, man. We appreciate you coming by. And anytime you're in Chicago, come. Come back by. We got to get you some ice cream, too.

Yeah. Thanks for having me, guys.

Yeah.

Dylan Strom was brought to you by Twisted Tea. It's a refreshing, hard iced tea tea. It's made with real brewed tea, 5% alcohol. It's the perfect drink to keep the good times going all day, all season long. Whether you're hanging out a friend's house, catching a game at the stadium or at the bar or day drinking with friends, Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time, a great time. I love Twisted Tea. Love drinking it during football season. Had one Monday night when I was watching the Steelers and the Texans I had a half and half at my house. Delicious. Doesn't fill you up.

Up.

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Okay, let's wrap up. We got guys on chicks.

Henry. Yes.

Hit us, hit us, hit us. Bad boy.

I have a question about That's.

These are about weigh in tomorrow, by the way, boys. Are we nervous? Well, while Hank finds it. Are we nervous weighing tomorrow?

It won't be as good as last week, obviously. I don't think it'll be bad.

Memes got the flu the first week in, so that was sick. I think I'm gonna be down this week too. Oh. From the flu. So, yeah.

So down from down last week.

So down also this week, more down. Wow, Zach, it's your first weigh in.

It is. I'll probably come in either neutral or a little lower.

Okay, nice. Let's go, boys. Max.

I think it'll be good. I think it'll be.

I think I'm gonna be a little lower.

I won't be as good as I was last week, but I still think I'll be lower.

If I don't eat dinner, I'm going to come in like, probably a half pound lower.

So we're skipping dinner.

Okay, go ahead.

Hey, PMT experts on the female experience. My husband is an awl. I have a male personal trainer in the gym. My husband tells me that you guys have mentioned on the show that men in that situation are naive. How can I assure him he has nothing to worry about? Thanks.

Tell him that it's not a personal, like gym instructor. It's a jiu jitsu instruction instructor. He has nothing to worry about. Yeah, yeah.

Not good.

Not good.

Not good.

What? Not good?

I just think it's not good.

It's awkward. But you listen, you trust your. Your girlfriend, you trust your significant other. You'll be fine.

Why not get a female personal trainer?

It's a good question. Hank.

I think what you have to do.

Here, that's how you can assure him to answer your question.

Well, no, the. The real answer is a gay personal trainer. That's. That's the sweet spot.

You got to tell him this guy's gay. You guys hang out, you work out, and you talk about heated rivalry.

My girlfriend started seeing this guy. They've only gone on two dates so far. Oh, it's a girl saying this, but he's hit her with at least 10 babe via text and love. Should she run for the hills or is it normal boy behavior? He's 35 and she's 31. If that adds any context.

Next, when you say love is. Is he like calling her love, love or babe?

Like he's using those, he's interchanging those. Thanks. Love.

Is he. Is he British?

Babe is weird.

British would change it. British if we're British, it would be very normal. Yeah.

Thanks both. If he's Australian, he's like, thanks.

If he's.

Completely different meaning if he's.

If he's American, I think that's weird.

Yeah.

If it's American, he better at least be like a die hard soccer fan. Yeah. Pretends that he's. That he's British.

Babe makes. Makes me feel it gives me like the heebie jeebies. Can't say that. Hey, babe. Yeah.

I think the 35 to 31 thing is nothing.

The only thing it says is like, hey, if you're getting to the point where you want to settle down. Yeah. If the worst thing that. That he says is babe, it's okay.

Yeah. 35 and 31. That you're the same age.

Yeah. Yes. You become the same age.

How old are you?

32.

You become the same age. Basically after 25, it's like tranches. It's like 25 to 30, 30 to 35, 35 to 40, then 40 plus. So like kind of all the same.

Yeah.

Like that.

Yeah.

Hey, PMT boys. With 2026 finally here, what steps are we taking as a group to take care of ourselves not only nutritionally, but mentally? With the volume of content that gets produced in Chicago, it's important to have a healthy work life balance. So awls like myself could enjoy this content for years, maybe decades to come.

Go birds.

This is a trick question because I feel like we had the same question.

We might have.

Memes are saying that we. We already did that question.

What do we say?

I think we said exercise.

Yeah.

Oh, I might have been looking at the last batch.

I'm gonna smoke better weed.

Oh, yeah. This is when I said I'm. I'm actually. Okay, follow up from last week, I stopped doing the coffee memes and I have started. I do not get on my phone until 8am and it's actually been really nice. Like, I get up, I get my kids ready for school, I drop them off to school. Then when I drop them off to school, then I sit outside the school for like 15 minutes and doom scroll. But it's a nice start to the day.

At least you're not waking up that way, right?

Exactly.

I recently took a look at my. My health app on my iPhone and you know, it says like your Steps per day on there. And I shouldn't have done this, but I scrolled back on it, like, for the yearly total. And I'm just seeing the last seven years. It's just. It's a mountain. Oh, yeah. Going downhill.

Yeah.

So now I'm like, I'm just getting my steps in.

Yeah, we got to get steps in. I saw you on the treadmill.

I. I did the treadmill. I did some squats today.

Dude, I've been doing that too. I've just been doing a mile and a half on the treadmill.

I'm back. I'm back. My steps are going to be all time high this year.

That's.

That's my resolution.

You know what's crazy? More steps. Even doing a mile and a half. A half walking on the treadmill. It sucks.

Yeah, it does. It's way more boring than running.

It sucks. I've realized that any type of exercise sucks. You don't think it sucks, Max?

Nah.

Milana.

Oh.

I don't do it on the treadmills. Treadmills in themselves are inherently variable.

You're right. You're right. I should start doing it outside.

Like, me and my fiance have been going to.

We've been.

We've been walking around the track of our. Of our gym. It has, like, an indoor track of.

The car club of the club.

Yeah.

And, like, that's. That's, like, absolutely fine, because we're talking about random, and it goes by quickly.

I have.

You're probably talking about what you're gonna have for dinner. Yeah. Honestly, every single time. I'm not shaming you. Every single. I realized that, like, I think I realized that over Christmas break. Like, I don't know, 75% of conversations is just, what are we gonna have for dinner?

We. We were planning out what we were gonna eat not only for dinner last night, but for. For every meal the rest of this week.

Are you getting. Are you getting. Are you getting recognized at the club too much?

Oh.

Anyone who's listening, If I'm in a towel. Towel in the locker room, please, please do not come up to me at the club.

Well, at least you don't have. Because that's.

Wait till he takes the towel off and it's completely naked.

I got a club. I go to a club, but it's, like, more geared for my kids, and it's like. Like, a bunch of, like, kids go there after school, so I get the recognized, but it's like 6 to 15 year olds. That's tough.

Yeah, that's. Yeah, that's no good. That's no good.

The locker room recognized. Thing is, it's awkward.

Yeah.

And it's where I get. It's because it's the closest face to face interaction.

Yeah.

So it's where the people feel the most comfortable to say something. And it's the least comfortable, I feel.

Yeah.

Remember when you tried to that dude. Yeah.

You're gonna have to narrow it down a little bit. No, I know. I know what you're talking about. I. I had somebody call me a liar for that the other day. Somebody was like, remember when PFT made up that story about the gym locker room? It's like, why would I.

Why.

Why would I make up the guy trying to fight me in the locker room?

Yeah.

But, yeah, it happened to be one time Max in the steam room.

Ooh.

And that was. That was really strange. And the guy waited for, like, everyone else to leave. I probably tried to. That guy. Yeah.

Give you a. He give you a bracelet.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I like. I like talking to people, but there's something about if I'm.

If I'm in a.

I'm already uncomfortable in the towel. And then it's like, if I'm clothed. Yeah.

Clothes.

So that's all. Yeah. Go for it. Okay. Is that it?

Yeah.

All right. Great show, boys. Great show.

Great show.

Numbers. Not the three.

Oh, you're 22.

Are we gonna get a new machine? Yeah.

It's expensive, but it's. It's.

It'll be right.

It's worth every dollar.

Ready in a month.

It's worth every do. What does it look like?

I'll show you.

Is it big?

Yeah.

Is it awesome?

It's. It's. It's an upgrade.

I love it. But then. But did you make it not too big that we're gonna. Because we're. If we all get it, we're gonna have to make it an even bigger one.

The starting price point is this is, like the. The worst model. So, like, we're kind of stuck.

No, we got to keep going bigger, right? Yeah.

But it's just going to be more and more expensive. They. There was. There was. There was like, a catalog I was looking at, and it was like, oh, let's get this one. Like, that's a hundred thousand dollars.

Like, all right, we'll have to get that someday. We'll do the show forever, and we'll get it. Thirteen means you said three. What'd you say?

Hey, 22.

What do you. What do you guys got in the booth?

77.

66.

8.

99.

Put 10. I'm gonna go 71.

Jake Elliott's extra point percentage.

Damn.

40.

40.

Say 40.

Nope.

Nobody said 40.

We're gonna be 41.

This next one can select multiple balls at the same time.

We care about that being 41. It's the same. I think it's the same as being.

It's the same. I feel nothing about my birthday.

Like you said, the tranche. The tranche is.

Yeah. We're in the plus.

We're in the extra.

We're in the Ready to die.

Yeah. Love you guys. Love you guys. Happy birthday to Dave.

Also, Zach, my clock is wrong.

Dead wrong.

Dave didn't hear that. Happy birthday, Dave Gold.

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