Transcript of Titans HC Robert Saleh, Spain Wins The World Cup, Ryan Fox Wins The Open And Bryson Melts Down + Mt Rushmore Of Animals You Want To Get Drunk With New

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Stella Blue Coffee is more than just great coffee, it's coffee with a purpose. Introducing We Brew to Rescue, a nationwide campaign using proceeds from our new ready-to-drink cans to help fund 1,000 pet adoptions this year. Every can you crack open helps a real pet find a real home. Simple as that. Made with 100% Colombian coffee, each 11-ounce can delivers smooth, drinkable energy with a boost of protein. Available in Espresso Cafe Mocha and Espresso Sweet Cream. Built for mornings, long days, and everything in between. Drink Stella Blue, fuel your day, and help save a pet's life. You can follow our progress in real time throughout the campaign by watching the adoption tracker on our site. Grab yours now at stellabluecoffee.com, Amazon, and select retailers nationwide. On today's Pardon My Take presented by DraftKings, we've got a World Cup champion, and the game might have set soccer back in this country a few years. We're going to talk about that. We have an Open champion as well, Ryan Fox, Probably don't, huh?

Huh?

Foxy, huh?

Uh, we're gonna talk about that. Also, we had a vintage Bryson performance over the weekend. We're gonna do who's back of the week. We have the Mount Rushmore of animals you'd like to get drunk with, and we've got a great interview with Tennessee Titans head coach Robert Saleh. Awesome time with him, great dude, talking about second chances, what he's gonna do with the Titans, a little Jets talk. Memes gets a question and Memes actually was very respectful, respectful. And it's all brought to you by our friends at Chevy. Summer's in full swing. That means no schedules, no plans, just more the good stuff. Chevy Silverado makes that possible. There's a reason Chevy's called the heartbeat of America and the Silverado keeps that heartbeat strong. These trucks work hard so you can chill harder, whether that's getting out of town, heading to the lake, or just not turning around when you probably should. It's got the capability, the space and the muscle, everything you need for a proper summer. Coolers, gear, whatever your version of chill looks like. Because at the end of the day, Silverado helps you tackle more of what you love. And let's be honest, you've earned this summer.

Now it's time to go get it. So roll the windows down, turn the music up, and just listen. That's the heartbeat of America. That's today's Chevrolet. Head over to chevy.com to learn more today. Okay, let's go. Welcome to Pardon My Take, presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Monday, July 20, and Spain is the World Cup champion.

España, congratulations to España!

Incredible job. Suffocating the life out of Argentina here. Listen, I'm going to— I'm going to be the bigger man here. I love Messi. I wanted Argentina to win. Spain was a better team far, far and away. Maybe it was something to do with the fact that Argentina didn't get a shot on goal until like the 119th minute. Yeah, that could have been part of it.

Argentina's game plan was let's, let's see if we can't just foul the shit out of them every single time they touch the ball because they can't call all of them. They can't give us all red cards. And it worked for a while until it didn't. But so they did a good job with their game plan, which is pretty much just, just make them really pissed off. Try not to concede because Spain's goal is going to be they're going to try to dribble the ball into the goal. I was just— so if you just compress in your own third and you play tough defense and you foul the fuck out of them and you take them to penalty kicks, you've got a great chance against—

see, I— yeah, like, I don't even think it was Argentina's, like, game plan. It was just Spain played the game that they've played every single game for the this World Cup. They gave up— how many goals do you think Spain gave up in the entire World Cup? 7 games? Uh, no, or 8 games?

1.

1.

They gave up 1. They are so— they're a boa constrictor. They just lull you to death slowly, slowly, just keep the ball. Every time they give up the ball, they, they press and they crowd the passing lanes. They can't let you have possession. It felt like watching that game, and I know that at the end there were actually only 10 guys on the field for Argentina, But it felt like for the majority of that game that Spain had a couple extra guys because every time Argentina got the ball, it was like, well, they have nowhere to go. And that's how good Spain's defense was. And they are, uh, I mean, historically they're doing what they did, uh, they won the 2008, I believe, Euro, 2010 World Cup, €2012. They're now back to doing that. They won the Euro 2 years ago, they won the World Cup, they're probably gonna win the Euro in 2 years. They're just different generation, dominating soccer.

Yeah, Argentina, their game plan on defense, it was pretty apparent from the very start because they weren't even trying to step into passing lanes. They were staying in between the guy with the ball and the goal, and they were just like, you can pass around as much as you want. We're just not going to let you dribble the ball inside the penalty.

Oh, and they wanted to pay, and they did pass it around as much.

And they did. And they were able to do it. Argentina was fine with it. And it worked. I mean, it was boring-ass soccer. It sucked. It made me thankful that the World Cup's over, that football's back. Now we can get back into real football, which I'm very, very thankful for. But that was actually— I think that was the best way to end the World Cup because I'm totally fine with no more soccer now. Yeah, after that game, I'm totally fine with it. Now, after Spain—

I wanted penalties, though. I think we all wanted penalties.

Yes.

At that point, we all realized that Argentina had no chance to win the game in regulation.

Argentina should have let Spain score early because after Spain scored early.

Yes.

And then they kind of, you know, they did kind of go into a shell defensively, but Argentina, they looked alive after that. Like, yeah, that's what Argentina is. They're exciting to watch when their backs against the wall. And for the first, what was it, like 110 minutes of the game, their back wasn't against the wall.

Yep.

So they were boring as fuck to watch. If they'd given up a goal in the first 20 minutes, I feel like that could have been like a 3-2 game. Yeah, it could have been a very, very fun game to watch. But instead it wasn't. Instead it was just like Argentina just fouling the fuck out of Spain, screaming at the ref. I feel like Argentina fouled the ref today. He felt everybody. So it was a— yeah, overall I give this game a 4 out of 10.

Yeah. And then the halftime show was a fever dream of Shakira, Justin Bieber, Ted Lasso, the Muppets, Coldplay. What the hell was that?

I like—

I like—

great combination.

It was— I mean, it was— they basically were like, hey, if we throw enough at the wall, someone— there's going to be something for everyone. And they were kind of right.

The Muppets— when I— when the Muppets came out and started playing Seven Nation Army, I was like, they're kind of winning me back right now. Yeah, they lost me for Madonna. And then when Animal was out there just banging skins. I was like, yeah, I get it. I get it.

And it also— there's never been something that made more sense than Tom Cruise doing the intro speech to the World Cup final. I like— he probably doesn't even watch soccer, but he's— that if there's a global stage where billions of people are watching, Tom Cruise is going to be there, probably giving some subliminal message about Illuminati and shit.

Scientology.

Scientology. And but yeah, when he came out, I was like, yeah, that makes sense. Tom Cruise, of course he's there. Of course he's the guy.

Did you ever watch the clip of it in 1994? '94 when we hosted the World Cup, the opening ceremonies with Diana Ross, which she did?

No.

It's pretty incredible, especially if you're a fan of penalty kicks. So she was out there on the field introducing the World Cup, and then they put a soccer ball on a penalty spot for her. Her assignment was to go up to the ball, kick it straight forward into the goal, and then the goal would explode and come down and be pyrotechnics and fireworks.

That's pretty badass.

Diana Ross walked up to the ball, kicked it. It missed left by about 30 feet. It was like the worst shot that you've ever seen. And they still, like, detonated the goal and set off the fireworks for it. It was pretty incredible.

Yeah. Did IShowSpeed perform?

Oh, yes, sir. He did. He did a performance right before the game kicked off.

Wow.

Was it televised?

I was— he was on TV.

You saw it?

I saw virtually online, but it may have been on somebody's TV.

Okay. It could have been on someone's TV overall. Hank, why don't you give us your final thoughts on the World Cup? Are you happy it's over? Are you sad it's done? I'm sad.

I'm sad it's done. Like, again, like soccer today is one of the reasons, like, I don't find soccer super entertaining. I did find the knockout stage pretty entertaining, and I like having sports on during the summer. So like overall, I'm not happy it's over.

Yeah.

If we're—

it's a fun tournament.

If we're power ranking ways to kill the summer and get through those dog days, like as the baseball starts to become more important, as football training camp starts to come back, I feel like the World Cup is one, one. Yeah, it's World Cup, Summer Olympics, and that's pretty much it.

Yeah, I don't know what else would be the 3-on-3. Ice Cube's 3-on-3.

Big 3.

Big 3.

Fanatics Fest.

Yeah, we got to get to that.

Yeah.

Can we just talk about it right now?

Sure.

Well, I—

well, no.

All right, let's finish talking about World Cup. Congratulations, Spain. I also had one bone to pick. The third place game, which is hilarious that they still do this. On Saturday was electric. It was the opposite. It was 6-4. England beat France. I loved it. It's awesome. The fact that those goals count for the Golden Boot is such bullshit. That's stupid. That should not count. Like, that's not a— that's not a real game.

But by getting two of them. Yeah. The first half for France, it was— it was actually kind of like perfect soccer. Yeah, it was.

It was so much fun to watch.

France did not give a fuck. They were not out there to run. They were just kind of being spectators on the field. They're down— was it 4-0 at halftime? 4-0 at halftime. And then Mbappé is like, okay, I need to go win the Ballon d'Or, so, uh, or the Golden Boot.

Yeah.

So I'm gonna go out there and actually— and I did it. Second half.

Yeah. I mean, but again, Spain deserving champion. The, the style that they play in, I, I was trying to imagine, like, it's basically a team that just has a shutdown defense and runs the ball and wins games, you know, like 10-3.

I was gonna say, it's like, it's like basketball before the shot clock.

Maybe, maybe that was the problem. Maybe we needed Spain to come out in like the Baltic more Ravens uniforms and then it would have made sense to us.

We'd be impressed by what they did.

Yeah. Like the Steelers, they'd be like, OK, this makes sense. Like they're just suffocating the other team.

It was a combination because it was Spain doing what Spain does best and what they've always done best. And then Argentina being more than happy to let them do that.

Yeah.

And yeah, just having never had the ball, having zero shots until, until extra time was absolutely ridiculous.

They had 17 touches in the attacking third. But no, this is zero in the, in the penalty area.

This is what happened with basketball. And then they said, we need a shot clock because it's not fun seeing you guys just stand in the corner.

They've perfected soccer. They figured it out.

Williams, the sub that they brought on.

Yeah.

I don't know why he didn't start because every single time—

well, he was in— I think he was injured a bunch this World Cup.

But I mean, every— he wasn't injured today because no, no, every time when he had the ball at his feet today, he was absolutely dynamic. Every time he had it, it was a scoring threat.

He's been a sub this World Cup because I think he's been injured and they didn't want to stretch him out. Hank, question for you.

Yes.

And he was at the World Cup game. Is Tom Brady okay?

What do you mean?

Well, I don't know what's going on.

I think he's doing well.

I don't know. It's the Fanatics Fest clips were troubling. You would agree?

The Undertaker clip where he recreated the Undertaker with the song and like came out of a casket and then hit the guy with the chair for the reason— I don't even know what it was for.

Right. Who did he hit? Oh, just a random guy in a red jersey.

But I also, I don't know if he was like coming, if he was doing an appearance, like if he was doing a show.

Yeah, the whole thing was an appearance.

What was the, the entrance? I don't know what he was walking into. Like, was he just going into Fanatics Fest?

What about the slap? Slap was bad.

He's a good football player.

Fanatics Fest looks like the weirdest football festival.

He might not have the best team around. I don't know. I don't really know.

I, what was the slap for? Is he going to fight Logan Paul?

They've been going back and forth.

Remember they had that whole thing where Logan Paul Paul was like, I'm talking about athlete flag football.

Yeah. I mean, I've never seen a more contrived dynamic back and forth. It's very transparently they're trying to sell us something.

Yeah.

And they're like, oh, I just imagine the meetings that they have behind the scenes. Like, do people are going to go nuts for this, Tom? You're going to slap— you're going to slap them in the face.

I think it's just Michael Rubin.

And then people are going to absolutely love it. And then we're going to sell— we're going to cut up the shirt that you wore when you did it and we're going to put those in trading cards and people are going to buy those.

Thank God Carl Anthony Towns was there to break it up.

Yeah.

I mean, that was going to be a real, real ugly scene if he wasn't there.

Yeah.

And he really broke it up fast and with a fury. You could tell those guys were about to fight big time. They were giving each other the finger at the World Cup final.

No way.

Yeah. Reuben was breaking it up.

Oh, no.

Crazy.

Oh, thank God.

I can't believe Reuben said, like, I keep my guys separated.

Yeah. Whoo!

Another disaster.

Reuben, thank God he was there.

Yeah.

Those are the two guys that I want in my corner if I'm going down a dark alley.

Yeah.

Anthony Towns, Michael Rubin.

It's bad. It's, it's, it's extremely, it's extremely cringy. Yeah.

But you got to just, you just got to pretend it's not happening.

This is not happening. Like, I need further confirmation on like if more comes out that it was definitely him. But it does kind of feel like it was him.

It could have been.

And that would be— that would— that would be— that would— that would change a lot of things.

I think he's just— yeah, he's gotten really weird. Dan Patrick clarified it was not Tom Brady.

Oh, there you go.

Oh, so it's the—

or Diana Rossini. He clarified those two names.

Got it.

Okay.

Okay.

The— yeah, I don't know what's going on at the Fanatics Fest, but every time, every clip, it's like, how can we make it as cheesy as possible? And I'm sure there's some fun stuff because autographs are big these days and like getting to meet these guys. Cool. But The, the other stuff I don't understand.

It just seems like they're selling tickets to cows that want to be milked.

We should— we've actually been offered to do a show for that. Maybe we should do that and just do it as, like, cringy as possible. But just say, like, telegraph it. Tell the AWL, say, like, hey, here's what we're doing. And they asked— they asked me, like, we're going to do a live show and I'm going to pants PFT 5 minutes in.

And then we're going to announce our new crypto. Yeah, we got a new— we got a new shitcoin that we're here to pump.

Just give it— maybe be like, maybe like Peter Pan, just take a paycheck and then just give it back to the AWL. Yeah, here you go.

Just go— we'll go over the top cringy and just make, make the worst possible episode of Part of My Take. That would actually be a fun experiment. Yeah, design the worst possible episode of Part of My Take.

See if we can out-cringe— like, go to Fanatics Fest and sit in the meeting and be like, hey, no, no, actually, here's our idea. What if Zach pied Max, uh, and, and, and then, and then Max was like, oh, thanks, Zach, and ate the whole pie. Then he threw up. How cool would that be?

And then we all threw up.

Yeah, then we all threw up.

We all threw up. Would be great. Yeah.

And then Hank came and he hit me over the head with a 9-iron, but he did it lefty, so I was still above the board. What are you going to say, Max?

I got nothing. This shit sucks.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's just— I— again, it's like the— Meeting athletes is cool. Like, that part would be cool. Like, getting autographs, cool. Taking pictures. But, but all the, the planned shit is just like, what am I watching?

It also seems like the most cynical place ever. Like, you can go to an autograph festival or a fan festival and you know that the guys are being paid to be there, right? And they're still like happy to see you, interact with you, all that shit. It just seems like every single thing about being at that place is just designed to take money from the people that are there. Yeah.

Brady also strikes me as a guy that was not like necessarily a huge wrestling fan because like when some guys that grew up watching wrestling, they actually love it.

They, they— Terry Halliburton.

Yeah. Like when they, like when they go to WWE and do the entrances and stuff, you can tell like they're a real fan. Like they know what they're doing. Like Brady, that it was, it was so weird and seemed so out of place for me. Like I don't think he was one that was like, I want to do The Undertaker.

Yeah. No, he's just like, I'm down for whatever. And then they just say, all right, here's our plan.

Yeah.

You're going to hit this guy with a chair, then you slap Logan Paul.

But when people say like, Brady's thing, like, you thought I was dead?

I—

because I don't know what he was walking—

the reason why it works— right out for Undertaker, we do—

with the Undertaker, we're like, oh, that's him in the casket.

Oh, and then he popped out, but we already saw him in the casket.

The reason why it would work with the under— is if he was like hurt or people thought he was done or dead. But like, Tom Brady, we just saw him. He's like, now I'm going to get in the casket, and people would think I'm dead because I'm in a casket.

Yeah. This very well-lit room as I'm rolling in. What are you looking up, Hank?

I was trying to watch the video again.

You're trying to— you're kind of trying to get some eyes on it. Maybe there's something you missed. There could have been something you missed. We don't have the— the TV's not on here. We got to get that on. Yeah, let me do an ad real quick and then we'll talk some Open Championship and Hank's going to review this footage and give us— give us some thoughts. Uh, DraftKings, this summer, whatever you're watching, baseball, Golf, soccer, racing— DraftKings has you covered for every single moment of it. The DraftKings Sports app is now available in all 50 states, bringing the game straight to your fingertips wherever you are. From Florida to Texas to California, you're in on the excitement at the speed of sports. Follow every buzzer beater, every walk-off, every photo finish. Sweat the moments that matter in real time with a seamless experience built for the biggest, uh, season of the year. No matter where you're watching, you're always connected and in the game with one app. New DraftKings customers sign up with code TAKE, spend $5, get $150 in rewards within 14 days. Includes all markets. That's code TAKE. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours.

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Yeah, I, I still don't know what he was even walking into.

You're still not following?

Tough scene.

Yeah, tough scene, man. Very tough scene, man.

How many chicks you think go to Fanatics Fest? What's that demo like? What's the breakdown?

Probably. Well, no. Well, Yorgos Third Floor.

Yeah, the ratio probably comparable.

Listen, there was a robot at Yorgos. I didn't see a robot at Fanatics Fest.

Derek Jeter was there.

Oh, he was there. He was there. Yeah, it feels like I wonder how much these guys are getting paid. It's got to be a fair amount. It really is like the level of like, hey, this is how much all of like any goodwill you have, we could just burn it, but you'll get a nice check.

Yeah, it'll be really nice. Although, I mean, you probably, you probably make your money back if you go to like the business seminar where it's like Eli Manning and Anthony Edwards sitting, talking to a crowd about how to build your brand. Yeah, you probably— the money, the money that you will make with the knowledge you get from hearing those two talk is probably well worth it.

Actually, shocker, like Pete— I don't think Peyton Manning was there. That seems like it's right up his alley.

That's true.

Like, that's kind of weird.

That makes me think that he might be there hiding and he's gonna come out and choke slam Tom Brady.

Yeah, as long as Carl Anthony Towns is there, we'll be fine.

Yeah.

All right, the Open Championship, uh, Ryan Fox—

who?

Yeah, Ryan Fox, 39-year-old New Zealander, wins the Open Championship. Was actually a really awesome golf tournament. We had like, I mean, Cam Young was lights out on Sunday, gets to the clubhouse. We got guys trying to get like Scotty almost gets there. All the Sam Burns just couldn't, couldn't like break through. And Ryan Fox, who I love him because I don't think I've ever seen a golfer golf faster than Ryan. Like even that last putt, which was it just kind of hung up there for an extra second. He stood up there and he just hit it. And he said, he said afterwards, he's like, yeah, it's not hard to pick a club. I'm just, I'm golfing. What do you want me to do? I'm golfing.

I forget which hole it was on the back nine, but he had a shot out of the bunker and he just walked up to it and just hit it.

Yeah.

Like he didn't even stand in there and take like some practice swings. He just had his club, walked up. He knew what he was going to do. I got to chip out and then I got to attack the green because I can't— I don't have a line of sight at the green right now. And he said, yeah, he said zero, zero time standing over the ball.

He said it's not that difficult to pick a shot and pick a club. Yeah, I love that so much.

And then he ended up having to wait on 18 for a long time. Yeah, because the groups in front of him. So he was like, he was getting antsy in the tee box. But yeah, very fun to watch him play because no nonsense.

He said he told a story about how he played earlier in this year in a, in a threesome early in a tournament with Scottie Scheffler. And Scottie afterwards said like, he's like, I feel like we were just playing two of us because you just like you. We never stood and watched you shoot a shot. You just, you just walked up and hit it.

Yeah. The difference between Scott and, and Scheffler this week was very simply just putting because Ryan Fox— I'm sorry.

Sorry.

Yeah, yeah. Fox and Scheffler was just putting because they both played about the same tee to green and then Fox just made every single putt. Scheffler made zero putts. Yeah, zero big putts. So even though Scottie wasn't playing that well, he would be the first to say like, yeah, I putted like dog shit this week. He had a real chance. He had a real chance on Sunday. Just if he made a single putt that was like 10 to 15 feet long, then he probably would have been in the running.

Scottie, I think, broke the record this year for most time being the favorite to win a major and not winning a major, because I feel like every major was the exact same where even like today it's like he's the favorite. It's like because he's somewhat close and he's the best golfer. We also had a little Siwoo Kim that you, you, you shat all over. That was instant. He was like, you texted us. You're like, I was rooting for Siwoo Kim. Yeah, I had nothing live. And you're like, anyone else got Siwoo Kim? And I think he shot a 40 on the back nine.

I was asking if anybody in the group was in the Siwoo crew because he was— I think he was in the lead at the time. Yeah, I think he had the lead and I bet on him before the tournament. I think it was 48 to 1. And so I was seeing if anybody else— because we do sometimes have guys that are in the Siwoo crew.. And the second I sent send on that text, bogey, bogey. Like instantly it was done from that second on. Tough back nine. But I do love—

I got hacked on heavy as soon as you sent that. Oh, I love Siwoo. And we, and we always ride with—

we love Siwoo Tracker.

Yeah, we love betting on Siwoo. And it was instantly— I thought he was going to do it and he was doing the dumb shit like hitting driver off the deck out of the rough. I love watching him golf. He's a fun golfer.

And then, well, one last thing about Ryan Fox. He is relatable, PFT. I don't know if you know this, but representation matters. One of the— like, because Ryan Fox, he— where he came from in terms of this golf tournament, he's won a couple other tournaments on different tours and stuff, but like, he's never finished. He's never been like a top 10 guy in majors. And he was even in this tournament alone.. He was— I think I saw something like he was like 85th after the first day and then like 50th after the second day. Just kind of came out of nowhere. One of the big stories from Ryan Fox in his history is that he had to withdraw from a golf tournament a couple of years ago for kidney stones.

Oh, hell yeah.

So love that we could do it.

Love that.

Yeah, that's a— that's a man's man.

Although I would have played through.

Yeah, I would have too. He also— he also had a very relatable moment that he called his family, FaceTimed his family right after because they they didn't— they weren't there because I don't think they assumed that he would win. And his daughter was just like, when are you getting home? Which was perfect. It's like, you just won the Open Championship. Back to humble pie, brother. Yep.

So, so the stat that I was looking at was most approach shots that were inside 20 feet this week. Fox had 31. Scheffler also had 31.

Okay.

Just Fox was making all his putts. Scheffler wasn't making anything. And Ryan Fox's dad is one of the most famous rugby players in the history of New Zealand.

Okay. So his dad and his grandfather was one of the most famous cricket players. Yeah.

Yeah. His, his dad kind of changed how the game was played in New Zealand. He was a World Cup champion, won the very first Rugby World Cup, and I think he still has the all-time record for most points scored in a single Rugby World Cup. So his dad was a, was a legend. And then his son, you know that, you know that, Ryan, if, if you were to ask him right now, like if you were to trade it in, would you trade in being a professional rugby player or being Open Champion Golf and Golfer of the Year?

Yeah.

You know, he'd probably be a rugby player. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We also had— before we get to Bryson, did you guys see that we have— we have a Tracker fight going on with the rare Tracker fight that I don't think anyone cares about. The Jackson Suber Tracker. There's two of them. And because he had an awesome round, was it Friday? The Super Tracker and Super Tracker were at odds, fighting with each other, accusing each other of not updating accordingly and using AI. Just love, love a good old tracker fight.

Do we know who the good tracker was?

I think so. Super Tracker said, talking about the Super Tracker, saying, you mean the guy who hadn't tweeted about him for 18 months till this week and had horrendous tracking during the biggest round of his career today?

That's fair.

AI memes aren't tracking. Only one tracker has been here from the start. So yeah, I think I'm, I think I'm a SuperTracker guy.

Yeah, I am too. You can't just parachute in if you're SuperTracker. You got to be Superman day in, day out, right?

The SuperTracker. Now, yeah, he doesn't look like he had— so Jackson Super had a nice tournament, but SuperTracker before that, let me just, I want to make sure that we're exactly right. He, so July 17th, when did this tournament start? July 17th. This is important shit. This is, this is the Pablo could never.

I believe it was the 17th.

Yeah, the 17th.

That sounds right.

All right.

So he was active this week. He was getting hyped for this tournament. 16th.

16th. Today's the 19th.

So, yes, he was getting hyped for this tournament. It looks like he was doing some, some nice. Oh, yeah, he's right. So July 16th. And then the tweet before that is March 28th, 2025.

Yeah, fuck that. That's a fair weather tracker. That's not what a true tracker does.

You can't be doing that.

No.

So we're Super Tracker guys, not the Super— get the duh out of your name.

And you know what, Phil Mickelson Tracker, I think I'm more of a Phil Mickelson tracker than I am that Super Track. Yeah, because he tweeted, no doubt in my mind Phil would have been in contention heading into today's Sunday's final round. He always competes at links-style courses. Hashtag The Open. I love like tracking a hypothetical round of a guy who's not playing. That is, that's the real tracker biz. Yeah, the super guy could learn a whole lot from that because like it's not always— listen, being a golf tracker it's just as hard as being a golfer. Like, yeah, the amount of disappointment you have to deal with. You put in the same amount of time as they do. You live and die every shot just like they do. And, you know, 99% of the time you're doing all that work and it's for a guy that's not going to end up winning.

And it was a very difficult tournament to track because NBC was— they were having trouble tracking the ball. Like, I felt like multiple times, like, where the fuck is the ball here?

Yeah.

And they just kind of moved the camera and just hope that, you'd see it somewhere in there. But, uh, it was a good tournament overall. We had Bryson on Friday, which was the ultimate Bryson. He gets a 2-stroke penalty for trampling down the grass, and then, which I, I don't think I've ever seen, they went back out there. He went back out there with the rules officials and argued his case for what felt like 20 minutes. God damn it, should they have mic'd that up? I wish that had been mic'd up. Um, delayed the whole, like, releasing of the tee times for the next day. Hank, you're a rules guy. Did he trample on purpose? Was there intent?

No.

So you think it was a bullshit penalty?

I think relatively, yeah. Like, I think Bryson, what he was doing is what all of them would do. And they were like pretty, pretty strict on him.

Okay.

I don't think he was like, oh, I'm going to, I'm going to intentionally like step on this and like like he wasn't doing it with intent.

All right, I—

so I'm gonna do something rare for me. I'm kind of going to defend Bryson on this. I think that every golfer does stuff like that, and I think Bryson definitely did it, and it's definitely against the rules, and he got caught for it, and they enforced it against him because he's had some— he's had some run-ins before. I don't think the— was it the Royal RNA or whatever? I don't think they're particularly happy with Bryson right now. I know Rory said I'm not particularly fond of Bryson. I think it's performative. I think a lot of it's for attention, which, by the way, I love that Rory is like openly saying I love it all. I love it all. Now, I think that Bryson cheated. I think that he knew that he was cheating. I think everybody tries to do that. Me personally, when I saw what Bryson got in trouble for doing, I thought to myself, oh, is that— is that against the rules? Because I do that a lot.

Oh, I do it by hand.

Yeah, I— that's what I do every time I'm in some—

we golfed a couple of weeks ago and I had— I had Chef Donnie literally sit on an entire tree branch.

Yeah.

So that I could swing.

Yeah, he definitely did it on purpose. He definitely got caught doing it. But they're selectively enforcing the rule against Bryson because I don't think they like him. And then after all this happened, Bryson missed a great opportunity to generate some, some goodwill, I think, because if he had like taken it and been, been just like a gentleman about it. Yeah. And not held up the whole tournament and then gone out there and played really well the next day, which he did., I think people would have been more on his side to be like, hey, kind of bullshit that you don't enforce that against anyone else, but good for Bryson for taking it and going out and playing. So like, it's, it's a perfect storm on everyone's part because Bryson had some good PR in the palm of his hand and he went and then just took a big dump on it.

Yeah.

Because he had the moment where it's like, I might not play tomorrow, which would have been the ultimate taking your ball and going home.

Yeah.

Yeah. He— I do think— I don't understand golf rules at all. Tune in to the Invitational coming up. We're taping it in August, but I think I'm a rules official again.

I—

he did, he did have some heavy steps. That's what I would say. And again, I don't, I don't have— I couldn't— you could, you could sit two people in front of me and be like, this is why it's a penalty. This is why it's not a penalty. I'd be like, fuck, I don't know. All I know is just watching it, it—

he did.

He was kind of trampling around, but Also, who was— did that really change? I don't know.

It opens up the can of worms where it's like now all these other videos are coming out of all the top golfers doing pretty much the same thing where it's like, yeah, right.

He, he was—

he was— knew what he was doing, but he wasn't like, this is straight up cheating.

And you can like move stuff with your hands in front of the ball. Yeah, that's— I mean, what's, what's the difference? Yeah, I don't know.

So I also read online that they— that Tirico said that they received the tip via social media, which is illegal, which is against the rules. Yeah.

So, so Bryson should have fought it that way.

Sue.

Yeah.

Bryson. Hey, Bryson, as your new self-deputized PR firm here at Part of My Take, we strongly recommend that you sue. Yeah, he really dragged this into court, Bryson.

He really did blow it, though, because all you do is just take your— take your penalty there. It was so clear on Friday when he's out there. Arguing his case like, they're going to penalize you. There's no way that this isn't a penalty. You wouldn't be out there if they weren't going to penalize you. So nothing you can say is going to change this. Just take your medicine, hope you finish within a stroke, and then everyone can be like, that was bullshit.

Yeah.

And fight for you.

Yeah.

Instead, you made a big stink of it and then you didn't even— tomorrow you didn't even come close.

Yeah. Yeah. That is the— that is so funny.

Yeah.

And then that is so like salty.

Yeah. And then was so— Bryson was apparently hitting. He was at the practice range like whistling and singing and humming and offering like beef snacks to guys. And just— he's just such a— I just don't think he has the— he would actually be perfect for Fanatics Fest.

Yeah.

Yeah. He would do it all.

Fanatics Fest. Just don't go to the Open next year, Bryson. Play. Just go to Fanatics Fest and like, I don't know, chip, chip golf balls with a QR code. Into the crowd.

Yeah, but it was fun. It's fun to see. It's fun to have Bryson back as the bad boy because I feel like we had that phase. We talked about it where he kind of found his home at LIV and YouTube and all that stuff. And then he probably fired all his PR people and now he's back on his own and he can't make decisions for himself that aren't just like, dude, what are you doing?

That's what I'm saying. We should just— we should help Bryson out. Bryson, I know you listen to the show. People have told us that Bryson listens. He'll deny it, but just sue the fuck out of him, dude. Everybody loved that. Like, Bryson, do a deposition in your stupid hat. Yeah, that would be so funny.

Yeah. And hit your— hit all your— your 9-iron and everything's the same length and everything's the same loft. I don't understand any of that.

Just the same is the same length.

Everything's the same.

Yeah.

It was very funny, though, when they were handing down the punishment to Bryson. And they showed him on the telecast and it was like 10:30 at night and he was just out on the range, just hit more golf balls.

Yeah.

Does he do that every tournament or was that just—

that was performative?

Okay.

It was very performative. I think. I think he was— he was all eyes on Bryson. Yeah. Soak in my moment. He had such a good moment and let everyone think I'm not going to play tomorrow, even though I'm definitely going to play tomorrow.

Yeah.

But I also shout out to Rory because that was— that was very funny when Rory was basically—

yeah, Rory, he was like—

he was like, fuck this guy. Yeah, I like that too from Rory. And honestly, like, I think there'd be a lot of people that would take Bryson's side against Rory.

It also is very funny.

The only person that can make me like Bryson.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Because like Scottie was like, I have a lot to say, but I'm not going to say it. And, and I saw our guy Max say it like, because that is the thing is like they— a lot of people came out and they're like, I've not known him to be a cheater because that's a big accusation to be like, that guy cheats. So But Rory was like, fuck it. And then, and then we just got a bunch of clips of Rory being very performative. Yeah, he's, you know, smashing tee boxes, you know, peeling out of driveways and stuff.

God, he almost hit those reporters.

Remember that? Yeah, he did.

Yeah, it was very scary.

I'm looking forward to next year. Next year's major champion. You want to talk about a good slate of major championships next year? We got Pebble.

Okay.

And we got St. Andrews.

Okay. I like that.

First place in golf.

Where are they playing the Masters next year?

That's going to be at Augusta next year.

Oh, OK. Back in the rotation.

Back in the rotation. Yeah.

Yeah. We had a weird major championship here because we had Rory start it with, you know, going back to back and then Aaron Rye, Wyndham Clark, and Ryan Fox.

Yeah.

Not exactly like household names.

No.

And the year that Scottie gets shut out, he's got to be— he's going to be pissed because he is still the best golfer. It's got to— that's got to like eat away.

He's just got to figure out how to putt. You just got to figure out how to putt again, Scottie.

Yeah, very relatable.

There's one shot that he had that was actually super relatable. I think it was maybe 17, maybe it was 16, but off the tee he just— he hits the ball and he goes, how the hell is that slicing? He's like yelling at his caddie. He's like, I don't hit a slice.

Why?

Why is my—

yeah, I saw that.

Why is it slicing?

Why is it slicing?

And then he had— where is it going?

He had the great, uh, uh, ruling of the temporary object in— what is it, TOI?

Can you explain that to me?

So I read a little bit about it, and essentially if they— so Scottie got up there and they were like, all right, you can— it like, we know that it hit somewhere in here in one of these objects. You could take a drop from here. If you find the ball, you might have to take a drop from over there, which was a tougher angle. So Scottie basically told everyone, stop looking for the ball. We'll just take the drop right here.

Yeah.

So I guess it's for all these golf tournaments when they put in stands and all this stuff, a bunch of objects that are not normally on a golf course. You get relief from that. And so that's— is that right, Hank?

Yes. OK. And that's why they were telling everybody, like, don't look.

Yeah. He was like, don't look. Because if somebody said, hey, I got it, I found it, he would have still— it still would have been a drop because it was like under, you know, air conditioning vent or something. Well, no, not air conditioning because it was England, but whatever. You know, if it was under a dentist's office. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, no. Yeah.

A beans hut. They would have dropped from like farther away.

So.

No, he got it from where it entered. So good job by Scottie to use the rules.

Wait, the rules, Scottie?

There's so many fucking golf rules.

So many.

It's crazy.

And the people that think they know them, like, they do not shut up.

I learned a new one the other day that was pretty nuts. Do you know that if you hit, if you hit the ball and you think it goes out and then you hit a provisional and you hit a provisional shorter than where you think it went out, you can hit your provisional again and still go look for your ball?

No, I didn't know that.

That's going to hit your provisional until you're basically at where your ball— it's a free shot.

Basically play 2 balls.

Yeah.

Yeah. On the fairway. Yeah, I like that.

It's pretty nuts.

Yeah, it's good.

Yeah.

There's so many golf rules. I feel like we should— we need a golf rule expert. Zach, just become a golf rule expert.

What is—

what is actually memorized all the golf rules?

I get the textbook.

Yeah, I guess the golf book. Okay. Other stories going on. Well, I'm starting to get mad about LeBron. Because now it's getting to the point where I'm expecting— like, we're taping this right after the World Cup final.

Yeah.

And so we're taping a little bit earlier than on a Sunday. I'm fully expecting him to announce at 9 p.m. tonight.

Yeah.

Like shit like that where it's like I went to a movie on Thursday and I was like, oh, LeBron's going to fucking announce during the movie. He's, he's now fucking us. Mm-hmm.

I'm becoming more convinced over the weekend that he might be going to Philly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I mean, now it's just the Cavs or the Heat.

You think it's a heat? But I mean, what about him dropping like little clues? He was being all cute, being like, I want to trust the process. Trust the process. Yeah.

And then he immediately said it's not true, that that wasn't for the Sixers. But he also said—

isn't that what he would say if it was, though?

But he also, he also said if you listen to the hints, then you, then you already know. And Tyrese Haliburton said it feels like you're on year 76 after saying that they talked about it. Offstage before their podcast.

Yeah.

So there are hints.

Okay.

I think he's going to the Sixers.

I think he's going to the Sixers.

Congrats to Max and the Philadelphia 76ers.

If we had a, what do you call it, memes, sex, sex cult. What do you say that the sex ritual, sex, which didn't have sex, blood magic ritual that the show has, the Sixers would be incredible. I would become the biggest LeBron guy and we would just so we like if you don't, if you didn't win a title, we would make you cry. We would make you cry on the show.

That's not how that works.

Yes, that is how that—

I mean, imagine, imagine—

we would sell you till you cry.

Imagine selling your soul to get LeBron.

That actually makes me not want to get him.

And then he destroys your team.

Like, my entire— my entire— like, my hopes and dreams have been LeBron for the past 2 weeks. Right now they may have just completely—

it would be incredible show dynamic. But yeah, we would—

I would—

we would all be like, we have to make Max cry.

And then imagine if they lost to the Celtics in the playoffs. That'd be awesome. What a tale of redemption for Hank.

That would be a lot of pressure. It'd be championship or bust. You know that. You couldn't, you couldn't say anything else.

And I would say for Hank, like, it would make losing that Game 7 to you all worth it if he could come back next year and beat you with LeBron, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

A lot on the table, Max.

Yeah, I mean, he's going to be— he's going to go to the Heat. So like, Savannah is not— Savannah is not going to Philly. She's not living in Philly.

What about Cleveland?

Maybe Cleveland.

I mean, we already reported Cleveland.

Yeah, well, I think— I think it's now the Heat. Yeah.

For what reason? Why is it the Heat? Because Pat Riley said that he got— they landed one plane, they're going to land the other.

Well, they—

the odds—

the odds jumped like a—

like But that's also— people are just— yeah, every little nugget they're just like freaking out about.

What are the odds right now? Let's, let's look this up.

Everyone's freaking out about every little news nugget or something.

That would be— I would hate LeBron forever if he decided to— if he made a decision on Sunday night after we recorded.

Yeah, no, I think that's going to happen. I think he's going to decide tonight. It's crazy, but I really do. Ludork got traded to the Hawks.

I saw that. So now it's kind of got a nice little team going. Well, how many second round picks do the Oklahoma City Thunder have now?

They got, they got 3 second round picks.

They've got like 9 second round picks now. But yeah, interesting trade. I guess it was kind of a salary dump.

Yeah, it was. It was to be expected because the Thunder are in the rare spot where they just have too many really good players. Okay, so here also the Mavs got Zachary Richardchet. So now they have two number ones.

Yep.

That's kind of cool.

Yep.

The— actually, no, three number ones. Is Kyrie still on the Mavs? Yes. Damn, I might be— I might believe in the Mavs just by draft stock, by draft capital. Yeah. Imagine like being like, hey, we got three number one. It doesn't matter what they are.

Yeah. So the Wizards have two. Anthony Davis and DeAndre Ayton. Oh, 3.

We've got—

yeah, you got—

yeah, Aiton. And then we've got 2 number 2 overall picks too. Um, so here are the odds for LeBron.

That was our Wizards minute.

Next, next team: Cavaliers +120, Heat +140, Warriors +450, Sixers +700, T-Wolves +2500, Wizards +3500.

Okay, so he's going to the Cavs or the, the Sixers.

I mean, the fact that the Heat are that heat— yeah, I'm kind of with Max now.

Heat.

Somebody knows something.

We're on the Heat. Everyone's on the Heat now.

You're right, Hank.

The Warriors have also flipped all over.

Wendy did say the only place he's not going is like he hates them so much, which is good for you.

Yeah, you would.

That's good, Hank.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Fuck them.

And also to be like the first eliminated from it. Like, I think you were eliminated before the Lakers, which is crazy to say.

Yeah.

Lakers probably still are a little bit in the mix because of Bronny.

Yeah, they got to be.

No one else wants you. Let's, let's go back to this.

All right.

Any other national sports stories that are going on that we should, we should talk about? Trying to think. Oh, I got it.

I got one Sabermetrics.

Okay.

For us this week. And it actually ties in to the interview that we have coming up with Robert Saleh. So have you seen Ryan Paganini online?

Yes.

All right. So I guess he used to work for the Eagles, a couple other teams, maybe— was it the Cardinals? Yeah, a couple of teams that it sounds like he was in charge of some special projects. Anyhow, he, he put together a stat online. He looked through every team that has removed a ping pong table from the locker room.

Oh, hell yeah.

Since the year 2001. So the reported— he found 20 confirmed reports of a head coach removing a ping pong table from a locker room. Of the 8 of the 9 teams improved going from a combined 49-96 the previous season to 74-71. So that's when they did in the offseason.

Yeah.

8 of the 9 teams improved in the next year. In season, 5 teams improved, 4 declined, 1 stayed even. So it looks like the stats tell you if you want your team to get better, take the ping pong table out.

Have to.

And then if you want to give it back, you can give it back later.

Yeah. Then you get— then you get the bump as a treat for having the ping pong as a treat.

You've done a good job. Here's the ping pong table back. But yeah, so he went through it and he cataloged every single time that's happened in the report. I think that's very valuable information for us to have.

I'd agree. They just showed Messi crying, by the way. Made me sad. That's it. That's it for Messi.

Es todo, right?

It's probably—

I think so.

He probably would be better. I mean, he could maybe play in the next World Cup and still be better than Ronaldo, but But this is it for him.

This is the stadium that's retired him twice now from Argentinian football.

Yeah.

What a career.

Yeah.

It's— I mean, that's a bummer. I guess you still have Inter Miami.

It's kind of amazing that Messi has stayed so good despite playing in the MLS.

I know.

I know.

Usually a guy goes to MLS and it's over.

Pretty incredible. And when they actually got the ball at his feet in the last 10, 15 minutes of the game, like he was the best player on the field. Yeah.

But fuck, man, Spain was so good. They were so goddamn good. All right.

Argentina really was— they were not a good soccer team at all today.

No, no. All right. Let's do Who's Back of the Week. Who's Back of the Week is brought to you by our friends at Twisted Tea. Summer's here and so is the Twisted Tea Summer Party Pack. Twisted Tea is a refreshing hard iced tea made with real brewed tea and 5% alcohol. They also have a new summer party pack. Has a brand new Twisted Lemonade. It's a refreshing hard lemonade made with real lemons, only available in their new party pack. So grab it while you can. Whether you're hanging out at the bar, hitting the lake or beach for a weekend, or day drinking with friends, Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time. Keep the good times going all day and all summer long. Keep it twisted. Grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today.

Hank.

Hank's back. I'm back. I miss the fuck out of you.

I know. I miss you guys too. My Who's Back of the Week was Tom Brady. I guess also Fanatics Fest, Cam Scadaboo. Yeah, that was exactly what you'd expect out of him. Like, he was also doing an entrance, decided to do a backflip.

John Harbaugh definitely had a heart attack at that moment.

Yeah, but it's also Cam. That's— it's Cam Scadaboo.

Yeah, right.

He did.

That's what he's going to do.

Yeah.

And he fell down and then it looked like he was hurt again. It looked like he rebroke his leg, but then he stood up. He's like, no, I'm good.

The only reason Cam Scottie gets healthy is so he can get injured again. Yeah, that's it.

He is like the Kool-Aid Man. I expect it like everywhere he goes. He's just running into shit.

Yeah.

And then, yeah, just Tom Brady being maybe a strange guy.

Yeah.

Which we talked about.

Yeah, we did talk about he could be a strange guy. Yeah, he is. Okay. Your who's back?

My who's back of the week is Drake May. Drake Maye was playing in a kids football game, like a flag football game this weekend against— I think it was like 10-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and he got picked off. Oh, and for a pick six, it was third and six too. No, it wasn't. Yeah, it was.

No, it was.

It was third and six.

There's no way.

I just made that part up. But you could see how it might be third and six.

Were there—

we had to be because that's the only time that he would ever throw a pick six. True. Like, it's not on first and 10. It's not second and 10. He throws touchdowns. Hank, you see the clip back?

I did not see the clip.

It was like a 10-year-old pick-sixing Drake May. It was pretty cool.

That sounds like he's probably doing it on purpose.

He's giving the kid a moment.

A moment.

Forever remember.

It was a great moment. What a good guy.

Yeah, I was actually a great play by this guy.

Yeah, that's why I think Drake May is such a good guy.

I stepped on him too.

He made it look like he was trying not to throw interceptions so good that the kid will always believe. That it was real. Yeah, that's a great guy.

My who's back is James Harden. He's fat again. Do you see a picture of him looking fat again?

I have not seen the new—

I think that this might— this might actually be why, why we're waiting on LeBron. He probably texted Harden. He's like, dude, can you like show me you can lose £10? Like, just, just get into better shape.

Look at this.

This picture is a tough angle.

I'm looking at him right now.

He looks fat again. He does.

You know, it's the beard too. The beard adds probably £25. Yeah.

And the— my other who's back is— well, Shohei is no longer pitching. Did you guys see that?

Yep.

He is going to take a break from pitching so everyone could maybe win the NL MVP again. I did maybe bet PCA. It's cool. The Cubs had their 2016 reunion this weekend. It was pretty awesome. Awesome. Do you see Theo got instantly got a shirt? He's wearing a shirt, a Twinkle Dee Twinkle Dum shirt. Love that for on Friday. It was awesome.

I love that. Also, did Rizzo catch another home run?

Yeah, he did.

Because I saw I was watching the game with no sound on in a restaurant on Saturday. And then all of a sudden there was a reporter interviewing Rizzo in the state in the bleachers again, pretty much having the same. It looked like they were having the same conversation they had. Last year on Rizzo Day.

He didn't catch it on the fly. I actually think my friend Nick Friedel, who's a reporter for ESPN, might have, might have been the one who caught it and gave it to Rizzo. But yeah, they were— they did a whole thing where the whole team was basically in the bleachers. They were interviewing him throughout the game. It was awesome. It was, you know, seeing Jake Arrieta, seeing Kyle Hendricks, all these guys. It's crazy how fast 10 years has gone because that was the only— like, the only bummer of it is being like, I feel like these guys, some of these guys should still be playing. You know? Yeah. And just seeing some of them being like, wait, shit. But it's only, you know, Javy and Schwarber and Chris Bryant who's— I, I, he's on the Rockies, I think, technically playing. He's technically still on the Rockies. Contreras. All right, Zach, your Who's Back of the Week. Oh, also the part of my book is we're getting close. I think we're, we're actually Saturday was a month away. We're a month away. So get excited. We're a month away from the book coming out. We're very, very excited for everyone to, to buy it and listen to it and read it.

Awesome interviews from a bunch of people. Zach, your Who's Back the Week?

My Who's Back this Week is going to be Caitlin Clark. Yeah, breaking records, dropped another 40-piece.

Yeah, she was awesome.

Impressive. Yeah, she did a fantastic job.

She had what, like, what was this on Friday, Saturday?

It was like 40 and 10.

Yeah, insane. I— you watch the game?

I did not watch the game. Saw some clips, though.

Oh, also, who's back of the week? Zach. Max, can you tell the story about Friday night? Because we went to the Cubs game Friday night, company outing, a lot of fun. You guys went out after and I saw this. What's going on with Zach?

Zach is the most interesting man in the world. And this was just another case of that. We're at the bar after the Cubs game, and he somehow drops to everyone that he's 5'11" when he's just significantly taller than a lot of people who claim to be 6'1". Some even claim to be 6'2", which Zach is taller than. And then he said— and then he dropped the line. He was like, "I think all of you guys are lying about your height. I think I'm right." Mm-hmm. And he goes, "Even if I am 6 foot, I'm going to stick with 5'11"." I love that.

He's the only honest man here.

Zach. I think we're going to have guys who would give anything to say they're 6 feet. You're just— you're doing the reverse.

You know, I just think like we're talking about— I don't know how heights came up and I was like probably 5'11" without shoes. Zach, I think— I think it's more practical than people think. If I took my shoes off and we did height measurements, I'm probably right at 5'11".

Like, how tall are you?

There's no shot you're 5'11".

I'm 6 feet.

All right, come on here, Zach. Yeah, there we go.

Here we go.

We're like lost in a height match.

Take your shoes off. Yeah, you gotta go back to back.

When I go to the doctor, they tell me that I'm 5'11.5", but I'm obviously rounding that up.

So wait, Max, is— are you saying that when he has shoes on, he is 6 feet tall?

He's 6 feet— Zach is 6 feet tall without shoes on.

He might be 6'1".

Yeah, I think he's 6'1".

Zach, get in here.

What happened was we were running into a lot of guys who kept saying they were 6'2", and I was like, well, there's— this discrepancy is too high. Either you're rounding way too far up, and I'm—

and I knew that you were rounding down though.

Without— without—

he's still fighting like Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant refuses to admit that he's 7 feet.

I'm—

here we go. They're coming.

I think Zach is taller.

I think Zach is taller. He also slouches a little bit. Yes, you have to admit, Zach, you do slouch.

You have a little— pull those shoulders back. Yeah, good posture.

All right, there you go.

Stand tall.

Stand back to back with him. Oh, Hank, you got to take off your shoes too then. Take off your hat, Zach. Okay, this is big time.

I think Zach's—

Zach, you're tall.

You're an inch taller than me for the camera.

You're all right. You got a real tape.

Rotate.

Oh, rotate.

Spin. Start spinning.

Oh my God. Zach's done. Keep your shoes off, Zach. You're 6'1".

Zach, I just—

I think there was a lot—

I think it was good. Talk in the mic.

I think there's just like— there was just a lot of hype misinformation out there the other day is what I think we ran into. Can they stand in the middle so we can stand in the middle?

They want to see— stand in the middle. Stand in the middle for the— for the audience at home. Yeah, we were just standing—

no, this camera.

Yeah, stand closer side by side.

Yeah, back to back, back to back.

Yep, closer to the desk. Take the hat off. Stand up tall. Zach, you are a solid— no, what are you doing? You guys are— this is back to back.

It's impossible.

All right, here we go. Zach, you are a solid half inch, maybe inch taller than Hank.

No, we're doing it right now.

Okay, he's got the— he's got the tape measure.

This is—

this is gonna be—

what?

What, Hank?

What?

Hey, he's all right. Max got him up against the wall. Max is going to Measure Zach. Oh, he's got—

okay, we got a book and a tape measure. Got a book.

Max, there's no way Max is going to be able to do all of this.

This is a—

oh, he's— oh, he's drawing a line.

Oh, I like that.

Smart move, Max.

Stand up tall, Zach.

And then every year we should have Zach do that so we can track his growth.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's like Deutsch. Deutsch's dad is convinced that Deutsch is growing still at 37 years old. He's convinced he's got a couple more inches. All right, Max is giving us— and then Max, don't say it until you go back in the, in the room, into the mic. Okay, go, go, go deliver it in the mic. Go deliver the news in the mic.

Go.

This is— you got a special group here.

This is quite something.

5'11"?

It's, uh, officially 6'5" without shoes.

Okay, all right, so it's not even close. You're not even close to 5'11". Zach's got to start saying that he's 6 feet.

You're 6'1", Zach. Like, what are we doing with no shoes?

There's—

they're like—

when he wears shoes, he's closer to 6'2".

You're, you're killing guys that are 5'11" that have just spent their whole life wishing to be 6 feet, and you're just wasting it. You're wasting your 6 feet. So you've been in the 6-foot club for a long time and you just don't want to be in it.

I guess I'm in now.

Okay.

All right.

Congratulations.

Congratulations. You're not even close to not being like— you're 6 foot and a half is 6'1".

But I was also the same height as a lot of guys yesterday were like, I'm 6'3". So it goes the same way.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Wrong. So, Matt— so, Zach, you're, you're the most trustworthy 6'1" person out of all of them. Yeah, because you're legitimately 6 feet and a half with no shoes on. You put a pair of shoes on, you're easily 6'1.5.

You also got to realize, Zach, anything over 6 feet, it doesn't really matter if someone's saying they're 6'1 or 6'2. That doesn't matter. 5'11 to 6 feet is a big deal.

So for— but for me to claim 5'11, it's like, you know, I'm 5'11 at least.

No. So, you know, you could say 5'5 because like you're guaranteed a 5'5.

He's got it. He's got all the numbers up to 6'1. Yeah, he's all of the above. Zach, it actually, for us shorter guys, it makes us look a lot worse that you're saying that you're 5'11".

Right, right. If you're 5'11", PFT's 5'6".

Yeah, that's tough.

I can't— that's not right what you're doing to him.

I, I need those extra 2 inches, Zach. I, I'm every bit of 5'8", but with you saying that you're 5'11", people look at me and everyone that's shorter than you, you're making them look very short.

I was never looking to do that, so if there's any, any feelings of shame from any heights, I'll make sure to claim every inch I need to claim.

I need you to claim every inch but not any extra. I just need you to be honest, Zach.

It's like you'd be walking around with your hat off being like, yeah, I'm bald.

Like you say when you're 6 foot and a half, you're allowed to say 6'1". Like you.

Yeah, you could say 6'1".

No one says 6 foot and a half. You're 6'1".

Like I'm 6'2.5". I don't like—

you're 6'3".

Like I don't say 6'2.5". That's a weird thing to say.

You would just go to 6'2" or do you go—

I say 6'3".

Oh, okay.

All right. You round up.

You learn something.

Someone like nails it down. I'm like, yeah, I'm actually 6'2.5". What do you want me to say? But yeah, you round up. If you're half, you round up.

See, I just— I didn't see it coming because it became something way bigger than I thought it ever was. Very quickly.

Oh man. Well, the people who were— who— the problem was there were a lot of people who claimed that they were 6 foot and Zach was significantly taller than those people. And then they started to get mad.

Yeah.

And then I could see Zach started to get mad. He just called everyone else liars.

But you are kind of like the Batman for making sure that people are being honest about their height.

Yeah, it is like if they're—

if there is somebody that was not 6 feet tall, but actually, no, you're making him dishonest about his height. Yeah, but I'm just saying, like, if they weren't— if they were 5'11" and Zach was saying, hey, I'm 5'11" too, that would be good.

But I feel like my dishonesty, that was out of pure ignorance, the dishonesty, because I was up until right now, I'm an inch off from what the wall was like. That's relatively close.

Inch and a half.

Mm-hmm. Inch and a half.

So it would be. Yeah.

Spain's really having fun with this trophy.

Messi's crying. Did you see Messi?

Yeah, I saw. I said that it broke my heart.

Messi's got one more.

And we got James Corden and Prince Harry coming up for something.

Oh, hell yeah.

No one fucking wants to watch at all.

The big two.

Yeah. Why did he get a show after? Yeah. Was that just— he's got a British accent. So probably like, hey, America, this guy's got a British accent.

When I watch sports, I'm like, that was good. I could go for a nightcap with James. Yeah.

James Corden bringing it up. All right, let's do Mount Rushmore, then we'll get to our interview with Robert Saleh. This episode is brought to you by Kraken, the official crypto trading platform of Barstool Sports. Real quick, everybody acts like they called Bitcoin early. Sure you did, buddy. Same way you called the Eagles after they won. When markets dip, everybody disappears. Markets go up and suddenly it's a full stat pack. Everybody's Suzy Colbert. We're not doing that. If you're going to invest, just use a platform that works no matter what's happening. That's Kraken. Over 13 million people use Kraken globally because it's user-friendly, reliable, and doesn't let you down when things get interesting. Here's what you're working with: 600+ tokens to trade, over 11,000 stocks and ETFs, recurring buys so you can stack while you're out living your life, whatever that means for you. When it comes to investing, get off the sidelines, get in the game with Kraken. Kraken.com/barstool. Okay, Mount Rushmore of animals we'd like to get drunk with.

5th.

Uh, Hank is back. Hank, Zach did a pretty good job in your, in your absence. Yes, he did. I heard a rumor that you are— you gave Zach the ball for this.

No.

Oh, okay. Combo.

Yeah.

Okay, great. Um, who said that?

Max?

No, it wasn't Max. It actually was not Max.

Memes?

Yes, it was memes.

So you're equal parts in this with Zach?

Yeah, the ball was not given up, right?

No, I just told him whatever he thought. I like— I, I don't have a lot today. Yeah, whatever you think I have, it's probably less.

It's like I, I did—

I'm leaving it all out there. I'm giving everything I have.

I love that.

I did so bad last week and I was trying to figure out why, and I think it's like, like magic bird thing. Like, I need Hank around. Yeah, iron sharpens iron. I think, I think each other—

Hank's quote was actually, if you think I have nothing, I have less.

Exactly.

That means combined we don't have a lot.

All right. So we're doing Mount Rushmore of animals you'd like to get drunk with. By the way, send in your Mount Rushmore. Zach, open-ended ones are the best. Like we were talking about doing superheroes. Maybe we'll do superheroes later on Mount Rushmore season. But like, those are very straightforward. The open-ended ones that are like, what does this even mean? We're getting drunk with animals. That's kind of fun.

I think there's some clear choices.

Yeah, but, but the more open-ended, the better Rushmore. So send those in to Zach. Uh, you guys are first, I believe. We're second. Is that correct, Memes? No, I think I'm third.

I went third last time.

We fucked this up every time.

I went third last time.

Memes, you know. No, you went, you went first. No, wait, no, he went third.

I went third last time.

He went third.

Larry Bird.

All the good birds were taken.

Yeah, yeah, we're third.

I would have gone bald eagle.

It goes first, third, second.

Yeah, we're second.

No, no, We be, we be third.

Didn't we go first?

We went first on Friday.

Yeah.

So we go second.

But PFT. So it's PFT first.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Got it.

Right. You just move down one, right?

I don't know.

Right.

Yeah.

All right. We got to figure this out.

Let me see what we did last Monday.

Yeah.

We go first on Friday. Every, every week is the same. Max, look up last one.

And last week was the same. The weeks before, not the same because July 4th Fucked us up.

Last week was the same though. Yeah, we were first on the Mondays and then we only had the one.

Yeah, don't say that, that's gonna confuse us.

We're saying too many things.

You're saying things that confuse us.

All we care about is last week.

Don't say that.

All we care about is last week.

We went first on Friday, we went first, uh, Hank and, and, uh, Zach went second.

Correct.

The previous one, Hank went first, PFT went second.

Okay.

So that means— and then we went third.

Yeah, we just moved one to the right, so we're second.

Oh, PFT's first.

Yes, I'm first.

Okay, got it. Yeah, that makes sense.

We went second last Monday.

Yeah, yeah, we got—

yeah, yeah, I know, but I got it right now.

You got it.

All right, all right, ready, Hank?

You got that?

Yep.

So Hank, you're going third. Got it.

Okay.

1-1 gorilla.

Okay.

With a bullet. Would love to get hammered with a gorilla, especially one of the gorillas that knows sign language. And then you can kind of have a conversation. Gorillas would be able to pound beers too.

I thought a little bit too much of this Mount Rushmore of like what animal would also want to kill me after getting drunk, like bad drunks. And that was why I was a little scared of gorilla, but we had it on our list.

No gorilla. Like I've, I've drank with some guys that have the same personality where it's like they're cool, but don't let them think that you're challenging them because then it goes bad. Grill will be a lot of fun.

Well, what do you guys want to do? I think we just go 1-1 there.

Sure.

Let her rip.

Okay. Dog. Everyone's man's best friend. Just get drunk with your dog. Would be so sick. It's good. Back to having a beer on the backyard porch with your dog.

Yeah.

Rock.

We are going to go with a giraffe.

Oh, okay. Now, how would you get it to the— how would you get the beer to the giraffe?

I think you can't really chill with the giraffe.

It's so much taller. Well, so much taller than Hank, not so much taller than Zach.

True.

No, but what if you were just on the second floor of your house and like the giraffe just like, okay, yeah, I like that.

That was actually— that was my main bugaboo with giraffes. Like, how am I going to get the drink to them?

Also, if you're at the bar, you can get the good stuff.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

That honestly does sound— okay, continue.

Yeah.

Zach, like you're on a balcony and the giraffe's just chilling outside. Pretty cool.

Hank, what do you think about going 9 or going 4?

Either one of those.

Okay. We would like to take Donkey from Shrek.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Donkey.

Oh, he'll talk your ear off. Yeah, well, onions get you in trouble.

What? I think we go 3. 3.

Yeah.

3.

Yeah.

All right. Just because we think culturally they can drink very well and you can just kind of stand there and have a good conversation. We're going to take kangaroo.

Kangaroo.

Kangaroos fuck people up. Yeah.

Yeah, I know. So do gorillas.

Box. Yeah, but gorillas, man's best friend. We share 99% DNA.

But what have you ever thought about the fact that maybe kangaroos are fucking people up because no one ever shares their beer with them?

True.

So the minute you start sharing a beer with them, they're just like, oh dude, this is all we've ever wanted.

Just put some ice in its little pouch.

Also, if you become friends with it, he's the one that you'd want on your side in a fight. Kangaroo fight.

Kangaroo would definitely have like a little bag of something. Yeah. Eight ball in their pouch. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, you pat down a kangaroo. You're not going to— you're going to take anything off kangaroo.

No.

Kangaroo Jack.

Yeah, that movie sucked.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They said that kangaroo was going to talk. Never did. Never talked. All right, so now I got 2.

Yeah.

Okay, I'm going to go— I'm going to go with panda bear.

Panda bear.

On our list. Panda bear would be a lot of fun. They're like goofy. They're floppy.

They roll around. They just sleep all day. No, they're chill.

They like to play.

I think you're thinking of cats.

I think of koalas or babies. Koalas are— yeah, they're high all the time. All right, so panda bear. And then my next one, I'm going to go with raccoon. I think a raccoon would be like a little mischievous, a little fun.

I got shut down.

Raccoon.

I said, really?

Yeah, raccoons are like— they're sneaky. The cutest animal.

Fight against them, Max.

Raccoon.

Yeah, they're sneaky cute.

It's literally a trash animal.

They're living. You took two pandas.

They're fun. You're from Philly. They're also like, just, they're mischievous. They'll get you into some predicaments. They'll help you solve some puzzles.

Are you nervous about rabies?

No. OK, I mean, you can make that argument for a lot of raccoons.

Terrible pick.

Although I just know, like, raccoons are the one, one pick of if you see a raccoon in the daylight, rabies.

Yeah. For raccoons being like super, super friendly to their night guys, maybe rabies.

They like to be night.

So, yeah, night owl, you go out, have a good time at night with a raccoon, nocturnal.

Okay, where do we want to go, boys?

I guess 2.

2.

I like—

I like 10 is the other one. I don't— memes. Do you like 10 at all?

We'll get 10. We'll get 10.

Okay, so then do you like 9 at all or no?

I like 9.

2 is so funny. It is funny.

Yeah.

All right, fine. Fuck it. A pig.

Pigs just—

pigs rock. Pigs could drink a shitload.

Like, whenever you watch like a viral video of the people who've got pigs for pets, you're like, that dude fucking chills. And they grub like you would just— they would drink, drink a ton of booze, eat a ton of grub.

Being in like a case race with the pig as your teammate would be awesome.

I, I do like— I, I like the videos of like apartment pigs.

Yeah, that's why I say—

and then they got too big.

Yeah, like there's part of me that thinks that those people that have those pigs are already— are already drinking with their pigs.

Definitely getting drunk with pig.

100%.

That's just— a pig is basically just an offensive lineman for an animal.

Yeah, those guys drink. That's an awesome way to put it.

Yeah, it's— I mean, oh no, I was gonna put a name to it. I'm not gonna do a name because that would be mean. It's like getting fucking drunk with Mike Kadic. Yeah, shout out Kadic. He's actually really strong, like remarkably strong.

He beat the fuck out of this entire—

he would beat the fuck out of— sometimes he puts his hands on me and I'm like, please don't.

Ow.

He's got easy strength. He's a very funny guy. Kind of like a pig would be funny.

All right.

2 for you guys.

We're going to go with a bald eagle.

What?

Okay. I'm pretty sure that's a felony. Why wouldn't you tell us? I want to get drunk to put poison in America's animal.

What would you want?

It's, it's the symbol of our country.

All right, let's rock.

Right.

They're great fishermen, Zach.

We just crush beers and he flies home.

This is the pandering for the graphic that you accused me of a couple of weeks ago. What's wrong with that?

All these at all?

I wouldn't.

I feel like bald eagles, like bald eagles rock. They're spending their time protecting America. They don't need to be getting drunk. It would be a serious animal to fly after beers, though. I think that's— but you want to get to fly and they can fish for you.

What do you mean? Why couldn't we fly?

You know, you get— you get drunk with the— you don't get to become the animal.

Do you think they're strong enough to pick you up and fly you home?

Well, I didn't know we were going to start doubting the bald eagle, but yeah.

But I think, you know, what my issue is, you get a bald eagle drunk, all of a sudden you lose all the majesticness of the bald eagle, right?

Sloppy drunk. Yeah, he's farting, he's throwing—

he's falling over a cliff.

Oh shit, I thought he was—

I thought he was supposed to be, you know, he go grab us a snack, we make ceviche, you know, he just goes, hits the sea real quick.

Okay, okay. Our last partner is a walking snack. Just get him drunk and then just—

that's fucked up. He got bacon.

Okay, get another one.

Lastly, we would like to—

pterodactyl.

Oh, we're going to take Penguin.

Okay.

Pick Penguin.

Penguin's a good pick.

We had got to be cold.

Gosh, Penguin, it's a good pick. If you read the diaries of the dudes that went to Antarctica, like the Shackelford Expedition, there were boys with the penguins. Yeah, they're like their best friends.

I feel like penguins got jokes.

Yeah. Yeah.

All right. I think we should stay. I don't think we should go fictional animals. I think I should say straight.

I like—

I think we should take Nine.

Yep.

Okay. Because they're just dudes.

Yeah.

It's kind of similar. We're just trying to think of like frat dudes.

Dudes.

Manatee.

Those guys are just slow-moving dudes just hanging out in the ocean.

Yeah, they're chill. What? Zach just goes, "Fuck, fuck." Good pick.

It's a good pick.

Just for everyone listening at home, he's been doing that the entire time. After Hank said bald eagle, he goes, "Fuck, fuck." Both good picks, but manatees are sneaky good.

Yeah, manatees, like, you know manatees, Zach. They just hang in shallow water. Like, you just be chilling in water.

You know, he keeps cutting his mic off and then talking to us about what you say.

Yeah, go ahead, talk.

Yeah, I hate to say they do like float around pretty good.

Yeah, yeah, and they just kind of bump into shit. They're fun.

And then you got to stay out of their way.

Yeah, he's legally—

you're legally bound.

Yeah, no wake in this zone.

Yeah, you, you, you say to him, he's like— you're like, Zach, you know, you've seen him. He's like, yes, unfortunately I do.

Love manatees.

Good pick.

Yeah. Um, we just picked fat dudes.

My last pick, my last pick, the ultimate dude. I just want to take Stanford Steve. He's an animal. Okay, technically true. Yeah, it is.

We—

so then we could have just done humans, all humans.

Okay, I'll, I'll take Stan— I, I will remove Stanford Steve from the big board. I understand.

He's a perfect—

but he is correct.

Yeah, he's a correct choice.

He's a great honorable mention.

He's a great honorable mention.

All right, so instead of Stanford Steve, I'm gonna replace him. I'll replace him with, uh, Octopus.

Mm, hold a lot of drinks.

Yeah, hold all the drinks. Imagine, yeah, imagine octopus bartender.

Yeah, bringing all the drinks to you.

Ask him to make you a drink.

I don't hate that pick.

He pours everything at once.

Yeah, but you have to be underwater.

Same with the manatee.

Well, the manatees are very shallow water, so you could kind of just chill.

Octopuses go out of water.

Yeah.

Yeah. Octopus, you could probably get them into— yeah, they could hold all the drinks.

All the drinks.

Okay. What do we miss?

Elephant.

Yeah.

No, I feel like they take one wrong— what if they take one wrong drunken step? Boom, you're dead.

You dance with the devil. They drink all the beer. Yeah, they would drink all the beer, but they know where to get the peanuts.

True, true.

Sniff out some nuts for you. Koala bear, I think, would be kind of cool, but it's already kind of drunk.

Yeah, we had koala bear on there. Monkey. Yeah, a monkey just kind of jumping around, grabbing drinks. Because also a monkey could steal the drinks for you off of the bar without them realizing.

I have a question. I watched the Michael Jackson movie this weekend. Would you think he was just drinking with all of his animals?

Mm. Oh, like Bubbles the Monkey?

Yeah, I think it's more— mostly, mostly Bubbles the Monkey.

Yeah, I think Bubbles was because he loves champagne.

Yeah. Yeah. Wait. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

God, I got to get some more.

I got to get quicker.

Oh, you had some beers this weekend. It's not your fault.

Nah, that's no excuse. Wednesday, you guys crack jokes and it takes me 30 seconds to get it.

What do you guys think about honey badgers?

Yeah.

In case you start shit, he's got your back.

I was— yeah, honey badger. I like that. I was thinking squirrel got shut down. I think a squirrel would be kind of cool because it's like almost squirrel kind of just like run around. It's in your pocket. It's not— it's on your shoulder. I feel like a chipmunk too.

Squirrels have anxiety, though.

Maybe chipmunk might be better. Yeah, whatever.

The—

I asked in the group chat. No one gave me an answer to this, to memes and Max.

I was like, who—

whatever the little guy was in Lion King, the Timon and Pumbaa. What?

We couldn't Google. We couldn't Google.

So it is no prairie dog.

I like that.

Those muskrat.

That would be cool.

Maybe a muskrat.

Yeah.

Yeah. That was one.

Maybe meerkat.

I never got— it fell on deaf ears when I asked for that. I was like, someone help me out with this because I don't know what it is.

But I didn't know either. And we can—

you can't Google because they get a warthog too.

Warthog would be great.

Yeah.

Lion. Mike the Tiger.

Oh, Mike the Tiger would have been good if you want specific. We had a couple fictional Patrick Star, Brian from Family Guy, Scooby-Doo.

Scooby-Doo would be nice. What about a wolf? I feel like a wolf would be chill.

Yeah, it's just worse dog.

Yeah, it's a scarier dog.

Yeah, but smarter, but way less.

Thank you.

Oh, you know what would have been good?

I actually don't like getting drunk with smart people. I'd much rather get drunk.

A bison.

Yeah, bison.

Like, hey, go fuck it. Go fuck up that old guy right there.

Yeah.

Next to the chick with the Ryan Fitzpatrick Dolphins jersey.

What about a Clydesdale?

Yeah, I think a horse. We had real donkey, not Shrek. We had an actual donkey. But I think a horse would be cool.

It would be cool because then you just ride home on them.

Yeah. But an orca, he wouldn't eat you.

Yeah.

A dolphin. Dolphin would be cool. Dolphin would be pretty chill. You could talk to them.

Sea turtle's got to be pretty chill.

Sea turtle. Oh, that's a big miss.

Yeah.

Sea turtle would be awesome.

Actually, sea turtle's a great pick.

If this was animal to get high with, I think sea turtle might be 1-1.

Sea turtle's a great pick just because of Finding Nemo.

Yeah. Yeah.

I like— I don't really understand if foxes can like fuck you up, but I They're cute.

They are. Yeah.

I think that would be a cool one to get.

Bushy tail. Yeah, I like it. I like a good fox.

Yeah, fox would be cool.

What about a capybara?

Those guys are chill.

They're like— they're like furry manatees.

Yeah, those guys are chill. Those guys could definitely drink some beers. Yeah, I was thinking sloth, but it would probably annoy you how slow it would be. Yeah, it would be cool to just watch a sloth get drunk.

Not the— not the lady that performs at halftime, but the animal red panda. Red pandas would be kind of cool.

Yeah.

Also the lady that performs at halftime shows.

You want to get fucked up with her?

Yeah.

Would you— Zach and Hank, did you guys have any honorable mentions or was that it?

Zebra, elephant, dolphin, Crush the Nerdle from Finding Nemo.

Oh yeah, yeah, he said that.

Michelangelo, Ninja Turtles.

Yeah, that'd be cool. That'd be really chill. All right.

Good.

Mount Rushmore. And send us— send Zach Mount Rushmore topics.

No one said cat.

No.

Which I agree.

Why would you?

I just want to say, maybe if it was—

who would you want to get like a martini with and judge people? Yeah, that would maybe be a cat. Siamese cat.

Yeah. Who do you want to cry with?

You know, that would— that would not be— that would not be fun. Snake would be terrible.

Snake would be bad time.

By far one of the worst.

Bad time.

Snake would suck.

Maybe.

I don't know. Maybe an anaconda.

No, because they would just— that's an accidental death waiting to happen.

Most of these are probably looking at it.

Yeah.

High likelihood of death.

Okay.

Especially Stanford, Steve.

Good.

Good. Mount Rushmore. Let's get to our interview with Tennessee Titans head coach Robert Saleh.

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Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. It is head coach of the Tennessee Titans, Robert Saleh. Uh, Coach, great to have you here. Thank you so much for coming. We're here at the American Century Championship. Uh, let's start with the Titans. I mean, how, how are we feeling? Like, you get the job, you got a new stadium coming, you got a new quarterback. How's, how is like the beginning of putting in the culture and everything feel?

Uh, it's been great. You know, we've got a really young football team. Um, mixed in there, we got some veterans, but, uh, You know, we've got a young team that we're excited to develop. We're excited to get to camp and attack this thing. We got a really grueling training camp ahead of us. We've got 3 different scrimmages with Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago. So it's going to be— it's going to be fun. We're going to find out a lot about ourselves during the month of August.

Yeah. Now, did you specifically only hire bald guys? Because that's the rumor. I mean, you got Daboll and then Gus Bradley is your OC and DC. It feels like this might be like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Like someone interviewed with hair and you're like, no, get them out of here.

Yeah, yeah. They say when you're interviewing people, you kind of gravitate to people who are similar to you. Yeah.

Did you really— did you have a moment where you're like, oh shit, we might have too many bald guys?

No, you know what, um, bald is beautiful. It's just natural that you just fill yourself— your staff up with beautiful people. But, uh, no, you know what, Dayball's outstanding. He's, he's He's recognized throughout the league. His schemes are tough. He's been— he's developed quarterbacks throughout his tenure. And, you know, Gus Bradley, I thought Gus was going to end up back in San Francisco, so I wasn't thinking about it. And when, you know, when I had a conversation with Kyle and I found out that Gus was available, I was like, I mean, that's a win for the Tennessee Titans for sure. So getting those two as our coordinators, we're very fortunate.

Yeah, it was. I guess it was Pete Carroll's staff, right? Yeah, he had a thing for bald defensive guys too. Again, Quinn, Russ Bradley. Were you bicked back then too?

Uh, I was. I, I gave up. I took a long look at my dad, uh, around 9th, my freshman year in high school, and I was like, yeah, I'm just gonna end this now. And I've been— so I've been shaving my head since about my freshman year.

That was smart.

You got ahead of the story.

Yeah, got ahead of it.

Yeah. So there's one very important part of Tennessee Titans culture.

I'm not—

I don't know if you're familiar with this part of it, but I wanted to just give you a quick pop quiz. Do you know who the mascot for the Tennessee Titans is?

I'm learning it. I know what he looks like. I don't know his name yet.

T-Rac the raccoon.

That's right.

That's right.

Have you seen him? I've seen him around.

I haven't. That's quite a mascot.

He's a rascal.

You know what? Shame on me. I've got to get educated on the, on the, on the history behind it.

Yeah. And the new, the new uniforms look awesome too.

They're outstanding.

That's— I think that's as important as— no disrespect— as important as changing a head coach. It's like, that's a good culture.

You got to look good.

You feel good. Play good. But no, I think the design team and the effort that they put into, uh, for that design, like I said, I think it's a home run.

Yeah. Was there, when it ends with the Jets and then you go back to San Francisco, was there like a moment where you're like, that was my only shot? Like, I'm probably not going to get another shot because it's great. You got another shot pretty quickly. But did you have a moment where you're like, maybe I'm just a defensive coordinator?

Um, Yes and no, I guess. I guess in the immediate aftermath. But, you know, you just— you just— I mean, not to get religious on everyone, you put trust in the good Lord and you trust your family and you do the best you can and you hope for another opportunity. And, you know, the Jets were— my experience with the Jets was outstanding. Like I said, I learned a lot. You know, there's no handbook for first-time head coaches. There's really no handbook for the first time at anything you do. And You know, we had a lot of great moments. We built what I feel was a really good football team. And, you know, the, you know, things would have happened just certain ways, you know, like love Aaron. If, you know, who knows if Aaron doesn't tear his Achilles 4 plays in and, you know, unbelievable teammate, unbelievable football player with that football team that we had in '23, who knows what would have happened. But, you know, things happen for a reason. I'm grateful for the way things have turned out. I'm fortunate fortunate, uh, to get another opportunity. And, uh, and hopefully through all the things that we've learned throughout— for me, just speaking for me— that, uh, we're able to take it to Tennessee and build something special.

What would, what would you like to do, or what would you like us to do with, uh, the receipts? Because you told us to take receipts.

Can we get some, like, refund?

Like, what do we do with the receipts? Because I took a receipt and I was like, all right, we'll have, we'll have this conversation sometime.

It was a pretty long one.

We were rolling. So the receipt thing happened. I'll tell you guys a funny story. So the receipt thing comes out of my mouth, which is unlike me because I'm not— I try not to do headlines. And we're sitting there and Chubb scores to go up 13. The kicker misses the kick. And I'm actually talking to LaFleur at the TV timeout. Hey, give me some notes because I know I'm like, it's Cleveland the next week. And I'm like, I'm going to get frickin roasted. Interested in the media. And so I'm getting myself ready. I mean, it's— shoot, it's— and then they, you know, they have a busted coverage and we hit that whatever touchdown. I'm like, shit, we're back in this. And we get the onside and we score. Like, it was the most bizarre 2 minutes that I've been a part of in a long time. But, but no, you know, that, that season, like I said, that season was rolling pretty good. I think we were 7-4 after the Chicago game. Mike White breaks his ribs. And all hell breaks loose. But like I said, there's a lot of things that I could have done differently that year too.

A lot of things differently that I could have done in '24 and '23 and '24. And with every year you learn something new.

So yeah, we work with a lot of Jets fans, good amount of Jets fans in our office. And the couple of days after that Monday night game, to say that they were depressed would probably be the biggest understatement. Like, I felt like they didn't want to come into work. They didn't want to wake up. Like, it was a dark time for him. And I understand why. What was it like for you waking up that next day and the rest of that week? Were you feeling that same way?

There's a lot of mixed emotions from a coaching standpoint.

You got a job to do.

Yeah, for sure. There's one for Aaron because I know how much work he put in, how important it was for him to have success after being— I mean, just he's a Hall of Famer. He had nothing to prove, but there's still something to prove when you leave your organization. And he was elite with regards to being a teammate throughout that offseason and getting himself and the team ready and unified. So for him to go down and lose his entire season just like that, I mean, I sympathetically just— it sucked for him. And then just, you know, the—

you—

we're very fortunate. I try to tell people that— I tell my wife this all the time— that how many professions in the world get to— or how many people in the world in the world get to experience every emotion the human body has to offer in a 4-hour window on Sunday. Yeah, uh, in this case Monday. And you talk about that, that moment, it still gives me goosebumps because the team comes out the tunnel, which is probably the coolest pregame atmosphere I've ever seen for a regular season game. Um, we're at the high of high to the low of low to regrouping at halftime to winning on a punt return against a Super Bowl favorite. Um, and then the low of the locker room when I, when I went back into the locker room and I'm sitting in my locker room by myself with my wife in just silence because I knew exactly what was ahead of us and the grind that was gonna, that, that was about to unfold. It's just a, uh, fortunate to get to experience it. It sucked, but, um, but again, you, you learn a lot.

That is a crazy day. Uh, do you, do you run into people that assume that you played defense?

Uh, yeah, Yeah, I, I, I— When people find out I played tight end, I was actually 260 back then, a little hefty guy. But, you know, when I, when I first got into coaching, I was on the offensive side of the ball with Bobby Williams. And when John L. Smith became the head coach the next year, they moved me over to defense. I drove up after my— I got my master's degree and I drove up to Central Michigan and asked Brian Kelly for a job. All he had was defense. So I stayed on defense. And I was the defensive quality control for Houston. A couple of things happened, but there was a moment where I could have got back on offense. You know, we had a quality control job on offense open in Houston with Kyle Shanahan as the coordinator. And Kyle wasn't the coordinator yet. I think he was. Anyway, long story short, it was— I felt like it was an opportunity to get Matt LaFleur an interview and Matt got his interview and knocked it out the park and the rest is history.

Yeah, about that.

Yeah.

I mean, as you look like a defensive guy, you look like you played defense too.

So coaching defense is more fun.

Is it? So yeah, I was going to ask you about that. Like, would you rather— if you had to go back and let's say there was, you know, sliding doors moment, if there was an opportunity to coach offense, which one do you think would be more fun to coach and why?

I enjoy defense because there is an emotion to it. Um, you know, I, I joke with the offensive guys that if they, if they eff something up, it's second and 10. If we eff it up, it's a touchdown. And so there's a lot more— I argue there's a heck of a lot more detail and a lot more specifics that have to go into play in coaching defense and getting 11 guys coordinated to be perfect, uh, because all it takes is one and, and bad stuff happens. And, um, and I kind of like the challenge, you know. The entire league is tilted offense. All the rules are tilted offense. Every, every offensive coach is a guru. And so it's, it's a good little battle.

Who would you say is the, uh, the biggest psycho that you've ever been— is it Brian Cushing?

Oh, from a defensive standpoint? Uh, Cush is Kush.

Is he actually insane?

Uh, he—

insane in a good way. Yeah, uh, he's a good man, but you put the helmet on and he turned— he triggered into something else. And, you know, we've had a lot of guys, man. Again, fortunate, you know, the Legion of Boom. Uh, Sherm off the field, elite Stanford student. Uh, on the field, will rip your heart out. Uh, Earl Thomas, Cam Chancellor would end your life on the football field., I wouldn't think twice about it. And, you know, so then you get to San Francisco with those defenses that we had. Fred Warner is probably— I mean, he's going to the Hall of Fame. He's probably one of the best linebackers of our generation. And then going to the Jets, same thing, had a lot of really good guys. So there's, you know, I've been fortunate to have been able to coach a lot of really great players.

Yeah, we were talking to Larry Fitzgerald the other day and he said he specifically singled out Cam Chancellor and said that guy— he didn't say that he was afraid of it. It was like respect. It's like, you did not want to go near that guy in the middle of the field. And that's— that's— I think he's right that that's one dude that his name— I'm not saying that we forget about him, but it does kind of get lost over the years just how intimidating Cam Chancellor was and how great of a player he was.

He was— it was transitioning to the new rules when he was right at the transition line. So I'm sure that— not to get into his business, but he had fine after fine. We had to go back to the drawing board to figure out exactly how we We want to teach tackling because he kept getting fined. But that dude, his career ended way too soon. Elite, elite safety.

Yeah. How does your body feel now that you're away from the substation?

You know what?

You got a little bounce to your step?

You know, I got— there's got to be something to that.

That's just it.

When you put down an electronic reading in a microwave, something— You can't tell me that's not doing nothing.

It's not nothing. It's probably not a lot, but it's also like there's something's got to be.

Maybe, maybe death by a million paper cuts. I don't know. But I don't know. I know that the— I'll say this. The York family is— they lead the charge in the NFL with regards to health and safety of the players like that. They're second to none when it comes to doing everything they can to help those kids be better. You got to see their regen. Region area. Like, there isn't a dime that they won't exhaust with regards to regen and helping those players go. So that's first and foremost. So if there really is a problem, I promise you the York family is going to figure it out.

Yeah, fixed. So you do feel better though? Yeah, yeah.

I was just—

it's a mental thing, I'm sure. We have one next to our office.

Yeah.

And so I've had like 7 kidney stones.

There's a reason why real estate is, is, uh, I mean, if you live next to a power line, you're, you're probably not getting a premium.

Yeah, I was just at that stadium for the, for the World Cup game And I didn't realize how big the substation— like, I didn't think it was anything until I went there. I was like, it's a pretty fucking big substation.

From my understanding, it's always been there. But, but I guess it grew 10 times when the stadium went up.

Yeah, we, we were talking to, to Kittle about this. I think we might have mentioned it to Fred Warner too when we had him on the show. But it's a free idea you can take because, you know, obviously the Niners have had— they've had bad injury luck in the last couple of years. Maybe, maybe you just start What if you just took your second team and you had your second team start on defense and then over the course of the season you have bad luck with injuries, then your backups that you put in, that's actually your first team. Have you thought about something like that in Tennessee?

You know what? I always tell people that you go tell the second stringer that he shouldn't be a starter, you know, like that's— and I think that's why San Francisco is able to weather the storm. Every single player there knows that they can go in there and produce and And who are we to say that they can't? It's our job to get them ready. And I think last year was a perfect example of that. We won 13 games with a roster of, you could argue, second-tier players, but those are all starters in our mind.

Yeah, pretty incredible. It was actually maybe one of the best coaching jobs in the NFL, if not the best last year. It's like what that team was able to accomplish after losing so much was incredible. Now, granted, we watched how it ended, which wasn't a great game. Which one? The playoff game.

The second one. Seattle.

Yeah.

Seattle.

Yeah.

That was tough. The very first kickoff. Did you know that it was over after the kickoff? We knew it was over after the kickoff.

No, it was— I mean, it is hard when that snowball gets rolling up there.

Yeah.

It is hard, man. It's an outstanding venue. But now, you— sure, we still thought we had a chance there at halftime. You know, you come out of the locker room, just the ball bounces your way. Our offense has been scoring at will the entire season. We just need to find a couple of stops. We just held them to 13 points a couple of weeks prior. So, you know, crazy shit happens in the NFL, you know, and you never know. It's never over till it's over. Yeah.

Quick break from Coach to talk to you about Lucy. Lucy's the obvious choice for the true nicotine pouch connoisseurs. That's why they're the official nicotine pouch partner of Barstool Sports. Every other pouch is the same. Lucy Breakers are the only ones doing it differently to give you the longest lasting flavor in pouches. Lucy pouches go up to 12mg strength and have unique shape that feels great. Lucy is in stores nationwide now. Or get Lucy delivered to you ASAP on apps like DoorDash and GoPuff. Lucy's the only pouch that delivers long-lasting on-demand flavor. Find a store near you at lucy.co/stores or get it shipped with 20% off your first order at lucy.co/pmt using code PMT. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age and every customer's age verified. Warning: this product contains nicotine and nicotine is an addictive chemical. Okay. Back to Coach Salah. Um, I got a, uh, family question. You have 8 kids? 8 kids. Okay, so I have 3 kids. I feel like 3 kids is a million kids. And I, I always joke with my wife, when we went from 1 to 2, 2 to 3 was the jump where it was like, fuck, we're screwed.

You go from man defense to zone.

Yeah, but so my theory, and you could tell me if this is way off because I don't understand how anyone has more than 3 kids, does it get— is 3 actually the worst number to have? Because then the worst— yeah, because then you start start getting to a point where they're just taking care of each other.

100%. So it's zone defense, so you're spread out anyway, right? So whether you have 3 or 8, it doesn't matter, right? We're at the point now we're like— I mean, it's—

you made babysitters for your next kid.

I got cheap labor. My buddy was in town and, uh, he's just— he's got little infants still, so— and he's just working his tail off. And I didn't get off the couch. I drink water, I give it to a kid. I need water, kid comes, brings it to me.

It's—

I'm not moving at all.

My kids are— I mean, Yeah, we raised them, we paid for everything. The least they can do is get up and get us a—

Yeah, I gotta teach Mike. So what are the age gaps?

What's the—

My oldest is 15. He's actually on the bag this week, so he's setting for me. That's awesome. And then my youngest is 1. We got 6 boys, 2 girls.

So you went right back.

You done?

That's, uh, we, we said we're done, but yeah.

How many times you say you were done?

Uh, this is the first time.

Yeah, dude, 15 and You have a kid in high school and then you're back in diapers. Yeah, that's— God bless. But yeah, I guess I really do think that there's— in, like, you tell me this is nuts, like, I— you get to a point where they're all kind of like watch each other a little bit.

They're 100%. My 11-year-old daughter is— I mean, she's 11 going on 20. She just— she's like a little mama already. But, uh, there's two things I'll always tell people. One, good Lord will never put you in a position you can't handle. And two, you'll never find a second other parents that wish they had fewer kids.

Yeah, no, you're right about that.

I have more kids.

No, I know. No, you, you were right. And it's like, I, you know, having kids is like, I— we should have done this earlier. Like, it's the best.

So 100%.

That's— at what point do they get drafted onto like the parents' team? Is it always— is it like 10, 11? Is that the age where they finally— okay, we're not on the kids' team anymore. Now we're— now we're helping mom and dad.

Yeah. Do you have like a mafia ceremony where you're like, all right, now you're part of us?

As soon as they can wipe their own ass.

That's, that's bullshit. Can I just say, and my kids will probably be mad at me when they listen to this 20 years— it's bullshit. They don't tell you when you become a parent that it's not just diaper, it's then like the year or two after where they're like, hey, come wipe my ass. What the fuck?

That's the word. I thought diapers were done. I'd rather change the diaper.

Yeah, I know, it's because they—

because you're sitting right over the toilet and you walk in the toilet and you got man poop in the toilet.

Yeah, and they got their hands on their ankles. You're like, I don't want to do this, goddamn it.

But as soon as they go can wipe their own ass, they're on their own.

Okay.

All right.

I got, I got 2 that can wipe their own ass. So I'm close.

I'm close.

What are you, what are you looking forward to? What was it about the Titans job in particular? We're going to steer this back to great football conversation about the Titans job in particular.

Now, you know what?

This is, this is a great spot.

No, for sure. First off, you know, different perspective for me, right? You know, I felt like I was in a position where I could, I wasn't in a hurry to go back. I could interview the team more than the interview could interview me. So there was a lot, I did a lot more background on this, this go around than I did the first round with regards to the teams I was interviewing with. And I'm going to start with Miss Amy. And I mean this like she's, she has grown so much just from, I mean, if you think about it, she's only been the owner at full, in charge since what, like 2016, '17, I think. And, you know, just her words, just the way she's evolved as an owner, the amount she's investing in the organization, the rebranding, the stadium, the amount of renovations. You go into our facilities now, the amount of renovating that's going on, that all starts with her. And then you mix in the fact that, you know, Borgonzi is an unbelievable GM, just a matches my vibe with the kind of person I want to work with. A very young team.

The salary cap is in good— is in perfect— we're in perfect position from a salary cap standpoint. And I'll say it again, Miss Amy is willing to spend whatever she needs to spend to build a winner. And that's all you can ask for as an owner or as a head coach. And we've got a really exciting young football team. Cam Ward is— I really believe in this young man. He works his tail off. He's got tremendous talent. Front, showcased a lot of it during OTAs. So excited to see him play against other teams. And again, once we get pads on, the D-line can participate. But it was all of it, man. Like the city of Nashville, no income tax is nice. Yeah, yeah, sure.

Yeah, you got 8 kids.

You know, it's the Bible Belt. It's home. I mean, it's just very wholesome. You know, you got 8 kids. Where do you want to raise your kids? I don't think there's a better city in the in the country better than Nashville.

So, yep. Yeah. That's, uh, so I mean, the no income tax definitely, that definitely helps a lot. Uh, have you thought about the fact that you're now going up against Liam Cohen twice a year?

Oh, Liam's great, man.

No, come on.

I'm still convinced that was all for show.

We want, listen, as fans of the league, we love when there's rivalries. Like, I'm a Bears fan. I love that Ben Johnson doesn't like the Packers and like, they're, they, there's hatred there. I want hatred. Between division rivals.

You know, the hatred is natural just because it's a division rival. And you're, you know, anytime you step on the football field, and I say this to the player, to our players all the time, I don't care what relationship you have with the man in front of you. He's trying to take money off your, out of your bank account, food off your plate. Matt LaFleur is my best, my best friend. And if we ever played the Green Bay Packers, it is our, I want to, I want to win. I want to make sure he can't eat for the entire week because he's sick about what happened on Sunday. That's just in our nature. Right. And so when it comes to Jacksonville, Houston, Indianapolis, it's like it's, it's us or them. So it's so the rivalry is already there. But, but off the field and, you know, Liam's a good man and I know you guys are looking for something spicy, but the Duvall thing was weird, though.

You can admit that.

Yeah. I mean, you got to be prepared for.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

You got to be. You got to be prepared for that moment.

Yeah.

You gotta fix.

Yeah. Are you close with, uh, with D'Amico though?

Oh yeah. Uh, are you going to be able to—

we— because we want that hatred. Yes, it's the same thing.

Like, the D'Amico— D'Amico's not going to pull no punches, you know. Like, if, if, uh, I mean, it's like old Street Fighter. If I'm sitting there on my, on my back, he's gonna rip my heart out, you know. It's just, uh, um, there— it's— we're in this profession to win. And, uh, what's great about this profession is that we could compete at the we compete at the highest level and it's not personal. But at the end of the day, when the game's over, obviously, and I think D'Amico feels the same way, but if you ever needed anything, you could always call and vice versa.

Yeah.

And you, when you were quality assistant, I don't know what you even, maybe a special consultant to the Green Bay Packers. Was that, was there any small personal stuff in there? I feel like when you joined the team, they were going up maybe against some teams that that you weren't super happy?

You know what, I've said this to a lot, and I know these, uh, that whole thing was therapeutic for me. I was probably more of a distraction for Green Bay than I was an actual help. But, uh, you know, it was good because I got a lot of inside insight to how they operate and took a lot from it. You know, Matt LaFleur does an outstanding job, and the way he handles his players, his coaches, their meeting structure, their scheduling, I thought I thought it was really, really, really well done. And, you know, so there was a little competitive advantage there on my end. But overall, it was just great to— if you haven't figured out, I'm more of a positive person. Yeah. And, you know, sitting there watching—

Yeah, I mean, you thought you were going to still win the game when the Seahawks returned the kickoff kick.

That's right. We got that. Always, always, always. And, you know, there are different mindsets. You know, I had just gotten fired from the Jets and I'm watching my family. And every week is just this hatred and this desire for that team to lose. And I can't watch my family live that way or for myself, I can't live that way. And so for me, going to Green Bay to have my family cheer for something rather than against something was far more important than the actual experience.

That makes sense. That actually makes a lot of sense. So you're like, the negative energy can kind of eat you up.

Yeah, it's not good.

And you can't— and especially like something that you can't control.

No, you know, and, and, and truth be told, like, you know, with that Jets team, there's, there's still a lot of guys and there's still guys there that I cheer for all the time. I mean, I, you still wanted the personal success for Jeff Ulbricht and all the coaching staff and all the players, whether it was C.J. Mosley or Quinnen and Quincy and Aaron. Thought he, I thought he had a hell of a year that year.

Yeah.

Garrett Wilson, Breece Hall, all of them, you know, all the guys that that we touched and were able to help develop. But, you know, it is what it is.

Are you a ping pong table in the locker room guy?

Yeah, I don't care. You know, that locker room, like, I've got a thing with our staff. No one steps in the locker room. That's the player space. You know, that's their domain. Trust that Jeffrey Simmons, trust that the leaders of that football team will handle it the way it needs to be handled. If things get haywire, then we'll intervene. But for the most part, you know, that's their space and we try to let them do what they do.

So, so there's— if there's ping pong table in there, how many losses in a row before you take it away? We love when coaches do that. We actually consulted with some coaches in the league being like, even if you're not a ping pong guy, put the ping pong table in because then you can take it away. You know what I mean? Like it's something you could be like. And that's always story. It's like, hey, look, it's serious, you know, it's late November. We got to take the ping pong table away.

No, I don't know. I— they're grown men, you know, and I think, I think especially now with how educated these players are with regards to their branding and how to process, like, they're, they're way more advanced than when I first entered the league with regards to preparation for themselves. And I don't know, I just look at a player and I tell them, hey, this ping pong table is the reason why you're losing. Takes accountability off me. Me, and I'd rather—

that's smart.

That's what you do. That's how—

yeah, no, not to tell you how to do your job, but that's what you got to do.

I know, but, but it's basically telling the player like, obviously I'm not screwing this up, you are, because you're playing ping pong. Yeah, I'm, I'm more concerned with trying to find a, find a, the winning edge through tape.

But you have to sometimes throw something under the bus. But I'm understanding, back from London, you're like, Mr. Johnson, we're taking the ping pong table out.

Yeah, maybe I would have bought me another one.

Yeah, no more Xbox. Listen, listen, you— I think you're probably approaching this correctly in terms of like, it's about football and these guys are grown adults. But just listen to our side where it's like, as much as you can get the blame off of you, you gotta do it.

And I know, and from a— from an accountability standpoint, we're like, yeah, they held them accountable. Yeah, we, we, um, there's a couple things like, uh, because accountability— Gus Bradley and I joke about it all the time because if you lose, you're you're a coach that doesn't hold people accountable. If you win, you can be the nicest guy in the world and, oh, look how he holds them accountable. It's all results. And but at the end of the day, like the most accountable moment that you'll have with the players in those team meeting rooms and your position rooms. And, you know, like I'll never get up in front of the media and ever say anything negative about our players. Never. Because I just don't think it's right. But when we go into the meeting room and close the doors and we're watching tape, it's put your sensitivity, uh, hat down and we're rolling. We're just trying to get better. And, uh, but, you know, I, I just look at when, when you blast things out, it's, it's like, it's like my wife and I, we argue, we argue all the time, you know. And, but I'm not going to let the world know that we're arguing, right?

Well, you just did, but I know. Yeah, I'm kidding.

No, no, no, you're right. No, no, there's a, there's a teammate aspect. Yeah, like there's if you badmouth your wife to other people, that's like, what are you doing?

You know, like, what are you doing, dude? It doesn't make sense, right? And you lose trust. And so we'll badmouth each other, and players will, you know, we'll have hard conversations because those have to happen, but, uh, just never out in public.

Have some, some more like analytical type questions for you. We're going to test your knowledge when it comes to like deep intel Sabermetrics stuff.

Shit.

And the NFL.

You got this.

All right, so I'm going to give you a hypothetical situation. And you tell me what the right thing to do is as a head coach. Okay. So let's say that it's the championship game, the conference championship game.

Conference championship.

So important stuff. And you are trailing 31 to 23.

Okay.

So you're down, you're down 8 points.

Yep.

And there's 2 minutes left in the game, 2:09 left in the game. It's 4th and goal. So again, you're down 8 points. 2:09 left. It's 4th and goal from the 8-yard line. Do you kick a 26-yard field goal, or do you go and try to score 8 points in the end zone that's 8 yards away?

Okay, um, I'm gonna try to score.

Um, smart.

And the reason being is because the, the— I'm still down a touchdown.

Yep.

So I'm still down the possession.

That's the right answer.

If I could change the possession, change the numbers, then I'll— then Like if you would have said you're down 5, or no, go down 9.

Yeah.

You know, or say 5 where I can get it to a field goal. Yeah. That changes the dynamic. That's smart.

And the part that I didn't tell you about the hypothetical is that the other quarterback is like the best quarterback to ever play football. So if you kick a field goal, you're not gonna get the ball back. So that's pretty much game over in this hypothetical. But again, you didn't even know that part of the hypothetical and you still got it right. So yeah, you got, you got to trust in your process.

Yeah.

Good job.

What about if you score, you're down 14, there's, let's say there's 3:10 left in the game in the fourth quarter. You're down 14. You go for 2.

You know, that, that, that one's interesting because I know McCarthy kind of brought that one out and it is an interesting dynamic in that one. It's there. There's the numbers say you go for 2 and because you have a chance to go get it.

If your 2-point play is good enough, if your 2-point play is over 50%.

But you're always going to think that your 2-point play is good enough. But, but yeah, that's it. It makes sense. You know, that way you can try to go for the win later or you can still try to tie it. But, you know, it's that one, that, that one I feel is a lot more 50/50. And yeah, you can't go wrong either way.

How much like from a, from your perspective, are you coaching on analytics versus, you know, vibes and gut feeling?

It's both. Like, um, if you, if you sit in a box of every NFL game with every NFL team, their little analytic book says go for it all the time.

Yeah.

I mean, look at the TV, it's always go for it.

Yeah, I like how you refer to that, their little analytic book. Yeah, like they've got these times.

God bless them because there is use for it, but the analytics book isn't telling you that, uh, you're on your third string right guard and Dexter Lawrence is standing over top of them, right? Like, it's not equate— it's not equating whether weather's the shits or whether you're averaging 4 yards of play and you need 5, you know? Like, it's just there's a lot of different variables in there that you've got to think about. And, you know, your defense could be rolling and it might be time to pin them back to see if you can get a safety or create a new opportunity for yourself. So there is a— to me, I think what it's done is it has allowed coaches the ability to go for it a hell of a lot more and wipe their hands of it because the book said to go for it. But, but I think there's still a gut feeling to it. Yeah, that has to be had.

Memes, our Jets fan producer, do you have any questions for your former coach? Be nice, Memes. I'm going to be very nice. He's going to be nice.

He's a New Yorker.

He's going to be. He's not.

He's— Oh, you just want to— I just want to— I just want to— He's a different guy now. Everything's sunshine and roses for him. How excited are you to coach John Franklin Meyer again?

Oh man, I love JFM, man. I mean, like, he's— I wish we were able to keep him during that '24 season. Obviously things didn't work out the way we were hoping, but he's one of the— I think he's one of the top 5 interior pass rushers in all of football over the last 4 years and elite worker, elite teammate, and glad he's back.

Have you ever thought about texting Greg Zuerlein and be like, hey, if you made that kick against the Broncos, probably finish out the season?

That was the start of it all, right? You know, there's a— man, that was tough. You think about those games. We lost to Minnesota. They went to— they won 13 games. Denver went to the playoffs and then San Francisco was healthy when we played them. But, but yeah, it was a tough kick. We wish we would have got a little bit closer. It was raining. I mean, the rain was going sideways. It would have been a hard kick for anybody.

All right. Good job means you're nice. You got anything else? It probably rained 90% of your home games.

How excited are you to just get in the sun in Nashville?

It did, didn't it? You know what? It's— I'm excited for the new chapter, to be honest with you. You know, like I said, Nashville is It's hungry for a winner. There's a lot of change going on, but like with the stadium, the rebranding, super young football team that we're excited to develop and we're going to do something good.

Yeah.

How, how good was Brick Johnson in Madden? Because like, that's a part of the story. I don't understand if he was awesome at Madden. Why are we, why are we saying he can't be GM?

You know what? I do know this. They, they He's— it's important to him, Brick Johnson, and, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's— if one day he's, he's running that thing.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, we're Brick Johnson guys.

Yeah, yeah, big time. Um, you have a great birthday. You got the same January 31st. Oh, he's the 30s.

Yeah, yeah, I'm January 30th. We're 36 hours apart.

So I have my— Zane is, uh, was born on the 29th, my, my My fifth was born on the 30th.

There we go.

I'm on the 31st. I really don't have a birthday.

No, you definitely don't have a birthday.

It got wiped off.

That's completely gone. That's crazy.

That's also— that's football season.

Yeah.

What are you doing having kids during football season, man?

January 31st?

Yeah.

Well, ideally, yeah.

Bad mindset.

Oh, well, we're going to have to cut this.

And that's the conference championship.

You're right.

Yeah.

We got to change that mindset.

We get it in after the season.

I'd take a ping pong table away from you.

Yeah.

The one I see you're saying.

Yeah, you're right. You're right on your other side.

Yeah.

So the non-football season.

Yes.

They're conceived during non-football season.

Yes. Yes. But then they're born during football season.

All my kids. So Adam was in September, 3 boys, obviously. And then we have one in November, the June 23rd one that probably had— maybe that was the bye week.

That one's the outlier.

We should actually go back and look at that because you might be— I think you might not be joking. We got, we got, uh, Zach.

All right, so Roback question. This has been so much fun, Coach. We really appreciate you coming on.

You guys are doing this.

Awesome.

Yeah, Zach, a Roback question. rhoback.com, promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com, promo code TAKE. Go ahead, Zach.

How you doing today, sir? I, uh, did have a quick question for you. You, uh, with New York Jets being your previous head coaching job and then now you're here with the Titans. I believe that that Week 1 matchup is against the Jets, not only your first game coaching your new team. Uh, I was kind of curious, what's— if we get a peek into the headspace of kind of how you're approaching that game, the energy you're coming with, what you're thinking, and kind of what it means to kick off your, your new job kind of going up against your, your, you know, your old, your old piece.

No, for sure. You know what, I don't think anyone at the Titans organization or anyone currently at the Jets organization, maybe the business side, you know, there's been so much turnover in the NFL. I don't think anyone really cares. I think it's probably more for the fans and just for the NFL for the talking point. But as far as the men in the locker room who are actually going to suit up and play, they probably have them, probably don't even know the Jets had a coach at one point. Yeah.

Okay.

I appreciate that insight. One more quick follow-up question. This year you guys don't have any international games on your schedule. Do you prefer it that way, or is that something you kind of would have been looking forward to?

I prefer 12 o'clock every Sunday.

Yep.

On repeat.

Yep. Yep.

Yep.

As God intended. That's facts.

Thank you, sir.

Oh, I had one last question. Is if we had every coach in the NFL in a big Royal Rumble, are you winning it? You're always up there when it comes to— it's like you, Dan Campbell, Dan, Dan is a monster of a man.

I mean, I just feel like he's got the chew in his mouth and yeah, like that'd be his superpower, just spit you in the eye and just beat the piss out of you. But, uh, I don't know, there's a, there's a lot of— I mean, Sean's running around with a six-pack all over France, so he's—

yeah, no, he's a pretty boy.

Yeah, those are, those are popcorn monsters.

He cares too much about his—

you'd be surprised, like, don't play basketball with him, he's way too aggressive. Aggressive at our age. But, um, Vrabel. Vrabel.

Vrabel. Yeah, he'll body you up. He'd be a problem. He'd be a problem.

But all those guys, all those former players— D'Amico.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, but all those Liam Connors they got—

yeah, Liam Connors will fuck you up.

Liam's done a good job. He's gotten in shape. Liam's gotten in shape. But, um, but all those former professional athletes, they got an edge over everybody else.

Yeah, yeah.

I have one last thing. It's not so much a question, just want to say thank Thank you. Uh, you, you beat the Washington Commanders when Ron Rivera was our head coach. Last-second field goal. Oh my God, I loved that game.

Like 28 to nothing at one point.

I love that game so much, uh, because that season was a wash for us as a Commanders fan, and because we lost that game, we ended up drafting Jayden Daniels.

You know who thanks me all the time too?

Who?

Adam Peters.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, we, we truly appreciate that. So thank you.

He's, uh, Jayden's special player, man. DQ's done a great job over there.

Yeah, he's the man. Um, all right, well, Coach, best of luck and thank you so much for coming on.

Appreciate you guys.

Yeah.

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Okay, let's wrap it up. By the way, did you guys see It's similar to our caller, Kentucky caller, who called in with the hypothetical, if you got tickled for 5 minutes, would you, would you call the cops? There's a guy in Ohio that is suing Taco Bell for explosive diarrhea. So yeah, I feel like you can't, you can't be like, hey guys, I just want to let everyone know that I've just been diarrhea-ing all the time, constantly.

It's implied. Yeah, it's implied. Don't you know what you're doing?

That's a real Also, it's not Taco Bell.

Come on.

You know what you're doing the second you say, I think I'll have Taco Bell for lunch, right? You start— every—

I would actually be very funny if it came out that it's like, actually, there was none of the bad batches at all where you ate.

Yeah.

Like, sir, you have no— you just, you just couldn't handle a chalupa.

Yeah. Listen. Yeah. It's a social contract. You know what you get into when you get in that drive-thru line. You know that you drive straight to your house. That's a, that's a home game. We need Taco Bell.

All right.

Good show. Take-ease Friday. Take-ease Friday. Reminder, take-ease Friday. So get ready. Let's do numbers.

66.

I'm going to go with 6-7-5.

I'll go 7-6.

Let's go 27.

I'll go 10.

For Messi.

Gotta be for Messi.

Mm-hmm.

He'll be back.

You think he'll be back?

Yeah.

Why can't he play on the bench?

I think if he was able to get away with walking 65% of this tournament—

oh, that's really mean.

You can walk 75% of the tournament, still have an impact. Think of the impact you have with 65% walking. At 75, he should be good.

Also, quick Jacoby Brissett update. Yeah, he still doesn't have a contract.

Oh, oh, the boys didn't get their numbers in. Pick 17, 26, 86, 35.

What were your numbers?

We'll do one more.

What were your numbers?

35 was the number. What were your numbers?

Say them again.

26, 17, 86.

And who hasn't gotten Colton, PFT, and memes? I have, but I have—

no, you only have—

I mean, stop. What's your number?

I'm rooting for Colton.

I'm rooting for Colton. I'd rather Colton get it than that.

97.

97. Oh, Shane, that— how is that? Shane reacted like he was close.

Yeah, you thought he said 87.

Oh, he also didn't say that.

Yeah.

Oh, double not close.

Double not close, Shane.

Sorry, Shane.

Well, you're whatever.

Shane, you were double not close.

Yeah, you're double not close.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Good accountability.

I love that.

We've been working on that with Shane. It's progress. Happy birthday to Ben Simmons and Gisele. And happy birthday to Steven Strasburg. Love you guys.