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I'm still thinking about it.
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Hey. Football Guy, with Dino A.W. Harris.
Welcome to Pardon My Take, presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, June 17th, and boys, the sports keep on coming. We got US Open we got World Cup. But before we do any of that, a little hangover for the Knicks. How are the booth boys? Memes going to the parade right after this. Memes going parading. Memes parading. Has it set in, Zach? How are you guys feeling?
I'm feeling great. I can't wait to experience my first parade. I was trying to convince you guys to suspend me.
Mm-hmm.
But you guys were just nice enough to let me go.
Well, yeah, it was outrageous. You were like, hey, can you please suspend— Just go to the parade, dude.
This is not your first parade.
No, it's my first parade.
You've never seen a parade before?
What about Pride last year?
True, that one.
You do live in Boys Town.
I do.
I do live in Boys Town.
I have actually been to multiple parades.
I've seen some parades, but this is my first championship parade.
Yeah. Water Dogs?
Didn't go to that one.
Okay. Blake Griffin, Blake of the Year Parade. That was pre-memes time. Pre-memes.
Yeah.
All right. So first parade.
First parade ever.
What are you gonna do? Are you gonna get hammered?
Yeah, we're taking the 6 o'clock train in.
Love that.
And then it's just go from there.
Who are you going with? Friends, family?
Two friends. They also are flying in and then we're just going right into the city.
Can I give you some parade advice? The best part of the parade is actually after the parade. The like glow. I'm thinking about like when the Blackhawks parades happen, the glow in the city and the drinking afterwards. It's different than obviously a wintertime parade like that. That is the— that is peak life. Like noon to 7 o'clock, everyone out drinking at a bar with your friends post-parade is just magical.
I'll take all advice.
That's it. That's the only advice. I just get drunk all, all after— like when the parade ends, the parade doesn't end. That's when— that's when it's really fun to just hang out.
I think there's one guy here that's got a lot of parade experience that might be able to tell you a thing or two, like give you some tips.
Hank?
Yeah, you got to bring— oh, I mean, a lot of my parades are when I was underage. You got to bring some water bottles, some alcohol and water bottles. Always a good tip. Shooters. And then, I mean, my last parade, I was just kind of— I was taking the bullets for Coach. I was just— people were throwing alcohol onto the duck boat and I was the one that put my hand up and said, don't worry, I'll drink these. I'll wear that. I did get way too drunk, but it— that— it is like Big Cat said, it's the greatest day of all time. High five everyone, hug everyone, take a lot of pictures. You'll remember it forever.
Maybe get a few, uh, "Who let the dogs out?" chants going when coach comes by.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Maybe tape your nipples up.
Someone did send me pasties.
What kind of pasties? Like tassels? Like cute ones?
No, just, just the ones that cover your nipples.
Got it. Like that. Zach, how are you feeling?
I feel great. It's been pretty awesome just watching all the guys live their absolute best life post-win. Yeah, I'm just watching all the guys just rip around the city, do the interviews, absolutely tanked. I just wish nothing more for these guys, just continue to just absolutely rip through the entire summer. It's been awesome.
So my predictions for the parades, this isn't a bold prediction, but I think that Jose Alvarado has already been named the favorite to be the J.R. Smith shirt-off drunk in random spots throughout the day, weekend guy. Is that fair to say? I mean, he's from Williamsburg, but like, I just close my eyes and see Jose Alvarado, the parade day, it's 9 PM and he's on the Twister at Coney Island with a bottle of champagne. You're like popping up everywhere throughout the city.
I absolutely love the OG Anunoby going on morning time television and just not just being nonverbal.
Yeah.
So drunk that he couldn't talk anymore. It's mean that we make these guys do media hits the morning after.
It's crazy.
I would say no. I mean, I guess I know they want to like go out and like, you know, be in the spotlight for a little bit and celebrate publicly on TV and stuff. I would say fuck no. I would say I'm in no condition.
I'm hungover.
Yeah.
And then we had Mikal Bridges Instagram Live, which was very funny. Him and his dog.
Yeah.
Yeah. It was great.
He was going nuts. We had the clip too of Jalen Brunson saying fuck Wemby. And now people are retroactively saying Wemby was right to not shake hands. It's like, I don't really, I don't know where I land on all this. I don't really care.
So Jalen Brown saying fuck Wemby because Wemby knew that Jalen Brunson would be the kind of guy that would say fuck Wemby. Correct. So that's why he didn't shake his hand.
Correct.
Yeah, I mean, Wemby's very smart like that.
Yeah, that's the Monk shit. Saw it coming. He's seen into the future.
He should have seen Castle's back.
Yeah, the other thing we have coming out of the Knicks NBA championship is we are now heading heavy, heavy into Jalen Brunson legacy talk and where he ranks. Now, I— we, we did on Wake Up Barstool, but we ranked top 10 NBA players, and Stephen Che was on the show. He ranked Jalen Brunson 5, uh, for current top, top 10 NBA players. I rank Jalen Brunson 1. That's the whole point of winning a championship, is you get to spend an entire offseason saying your guy's number 1.
Yeah, that's the point for Stephen Che, right? Like, why didn't He definitely should do that.
Yeah.
Right. But you— but anyone could do it because you can just say, well, like, oh, I think Jokic's better than Jaylen Brunson. Oh, okay. Who scored 45 points in a closeout game?
It's almost like the dumber you are and the more of like a fan you are, I expect you to be way stupider with your rank— more like prisoner of the moment with your rankings. If you're like an analyst guy that is a math-like sabermetrics dude, then I would be like, whoa, how was he number one in your rankings? But if you're a fan of the Knicks, yes, you should be saying You should put— fuck it, let's put OG in the top 10 too.
It's your entire Joe Flacco elite.
Yeah.
The whole point of winning a title is that then the next 4 months you get to just say, my God, my best guy is the best guy in the whole league.
And then if somebody says, but Joe Flacco is not elite, then you're like, he won a Super Bowl.
Yeah.
And then they say, but then so did Trent Dilfer. And then you say, oh, so you're saying that Trent Dilfer is also elite?
Yeah. And oh, Jokic is really good. Yeah, he is really good. Did he play in the finals this year?
He did not play in the Finals.
Yeah.
I rest my case.
Didn't even play in the Semifinals.
People would do with Brady and Rodgers and Peyton Manning where it's like, oh, the skills and the stats and stuff, but it's winning, winning above all.
Yeah. So you get, yeah, you get, then you get in the conversation of like, yeah, you know, Jalen Brunson, he is, he's the best, but is he the greatest?
But you, you, you want winners.
He is a winner.
Who cares about skills? Who cares about, you know, points in the regular season? It's all about winning.
It's just winners.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's just winners.
So how many of the top 10 were Boston Celtics?
Of Chase? Yeah. I think he had Jaylen Brown at 10.
And no Tatum.
No Tatum.
Yeah.
I saw Brandon Walker did— he did a list which was such a cop-out. He just did Jaylen Brown slash Jason Tatum.
Oh yeah. That is a cop-out.
Whichever one is playing better at the time.
It's like the Knicks and KB. Like they're different people.
Yeah. Yeah. No. I've seen a lot of things recently, Hank, about your Boston Celtics.
There's a lot of rumors in scuttlebutt.
There's a lot of smoke out there. My favorite was, shout out, oh, there we go, Senegal just tied maybe, 1-1. We're really into ties right now. The boys are heavy, ah, fuck, it was offsides. We're heavily leveraged in the tie markets for the World Cup right now. I did see that Simmons did his post-NBA Finals breakdown, essentially just entirely on what Boston would have to give up to get Giannis.
Are you gonna get Giannis?
Maybe.
Oh, can we put that as a report? Henry Lockwood is reporting Giannis to the Celtics, maybe.
I mean, Windy said it's like Brad Stevens doesn't deal with agents, like things that he's doing does not leak. So I feel like it's all fake smoke, but there is a lot of scuttlebutt going on online about Giannis in Boston, but it's Giannis. He's the king of this.
He's never going to get traded.
He is the king of scuttlebutt. He's the king of he's going here, he's going there, and then he doesn't go anywhere.
He's addicted to scuttlebutt. Shams and Giannis are addicted to scuttlebutt. I don't know if it's Giannis as much. I don't think— I think Giannis has been worked in the system so much by everyone just knowing that if I talk about Giannis, I can get clicks. I don't know if Giannis is the one who's like, I need to be traded, or it has to happen right now.
But you would want Giannis.
Would you want Giannis? Would you want to trade Jaylen Brown or Jason Tate?
I trust Brad Stevens with whatever he does.
That's a cop-out, Hank. Do you want Giannis?
Sounds like you're not a Giannis guy, and that's fine.
I'm not going to say I don't want Giannis because if we get him, I'll be happy we get him. But I—
Do you want Giannis? Answer the question, yes or no.
No.
Wow.
Okay.
Why?
That's going to hurt if you get Giannis. Would you like to answer it differently just in case?
No.
Okay.
All right.
I think Hank got a little bit scared.
Because we won a championship with Jalen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Why would we—
why would we—
like give that up.
Because then you also lost in the playoffs with both those guys.
No, Jason Tatum got hurt before the season ended and then he barely came back at the end of the year this year, was not at 100%.
You know what? I'm gonna give credit to Hank. You know, a lot of people say Hank, you know, not the smartest, can't read, all this, blah, blah, blah. No, that was smart by Hank. Because if he said he wanted Giannis, I would have said, wow, you hate Jalen Brown.
And I don't, I love Jalen Brown.
Right, exactly. So that was smart.
But then when you do get Giannis, you never wanted the guy.
It was out of my control.
Are you, Do you think what— for Jalen Brown's Knicks, they were talking about— we're gonna get back to the— well, this is— I mean, offseason, it starts at— I have one last thing. Do you think it elevates or decreases Jalen Brown's legacy that he is going to go to college with Zach?
Elevates.
Okay, I'm talking about Streamer University. Jalen Brown is, is, uh, applying, and so is Zach. Zach, where's your application at?
Everything's in. I just got to finish the video portion.
Okay, what are you gonna do for the video?
There's a compilation video that you have to put together. So I've been brainstorming that. I gotta finish.
Yeah, I want explosions.
A little bit of pyrotechnics, I think, should probably throw in there.
I want some explosions.
So Jalen Brown is going to go to Kai Sennott's Streamer University.
Yeah, he's trying to.
And when is that taking place again?
I think he applied. There's no official date yet. They're doing in-person and out-of-person applications right now.
Uh-huh.
Are they gonna teach me how to type left-handed too?
I'm not sure what he would get into. I know there's a basketball program, so he'd probably be on the basketball team.
Yeah. That'd be sick, yeah.
That makes sense. Yeah, that's an awesome bat. Imagine if you were on the same starting five as Jaylen Brown.
Show up for basketball practice.
I'd probably go undrafted.
He plays my position.
Don't belittle yourself, Zach. Come on. Is he—
do we think he's a better basketball player or Twitch streamer at this point?
Oh, good question.
—have.
Uh, how many people are going to get into Streamer U?
Uh, I'm not quite sure in full transparency, but how— he would be like a heavy favorite maybe.
Yeah, because I mean, I feel like more people are in the NBA than there are at Streamer U.
Right. Streamer University, uh, 120 creators. So you're right. Yeah, it's harder to get into Streamer U than it is to get in the NBA. It's fact. That's pretty crazy.
It's physical fact.
So he's a really, really good streamer.
He's a multi-talented guy.
I thought he was very, he was refreshingly honest.
Mm-hmm.
This postseason when he was hopping on the live streams, which I appreciate. He's got step one down cold. Now, do you think that the Boston Celtics might see him going to streamer university and say like, this is maybe not the guy that we want if he's like so committed to the streamer life?
No, he's always been a different cat. Smart guy, likes to do different stuff, especially in the offseason. I don't think they'll have any issue with it.
Mm-hmm.
Memes. James Dolan. There was a release of James Dolan's speech to the Knicks before the playoff run. What was said in that speech? Did he ask them to not fuck?
He asked it in a certain way. I missed it watching the video, but I mean, it's like a Herb Brooks-style speech.
What did he say? He just was like, "I'm not raising the NBA Cup banner." No, he essentially just called a shot.
It was on April 3rd. He brought the entire team in. He said, you guys have what it takes and you just need to lock in for this next 10 weeks and everyone, your loved ones will get a ring. Your friends will get a ring.
Wow.
Yeah. And he said no sex.
He said a version of it.
Yeah. No, said, do you think anybody on the team—
He said just a tip.
Said, oh, the owner's right.
I bet you one guy.
Who?
No, no guys.
Who are you going to say? Because I was going to say Wimby could never. He's too French.
Uh-huh.
I was thinking maybe Tyler Colic, but—
No, Tyler Colic.
No, they fucked.
Are you kidding me? Big time fucks.
Tyler Colic is— his name is going to be etched in history.
Yeah, Tyler Colic fucks.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think— I think everybody on the team is still fucked.
Oh, there they are.
Oh yeah, they're the Knicks. They were watching the World Cup. This is— I mean, they— I actually think that the parade date was so perfect. I don't know why more teams don't do this, especially for the spring sports, summer, spring, summer sports. Make the parade like a week later because you basically are saying to your team, you get to party for this entire week because once the parade happens, then everyone goes their separate ways. Offseason starts. But yeah, if you make the game with Saturday, the parade's Thursday. They just get a stretch where they just get to just be the fucking man. I saw Mike Brown showing up to a restaurant. Everyone stood up and gave him a round of applause. That was cool. Like, you're just— it has to be like one of the coolest things to win it, to win a title in New York City.
Yeah. Especially the start of the summertime in New York City. Right. It's pretty cool. Do you think— do you think that they're going to track Tibbs down and make sure he gets a ring?
Listen, I, I know people are there's, there's people who've been like, oh yeah, Tibbs, like biggest loser. I— they don't, they don't win this without Tibbs. I really believe that. Do you agree, Memes?
Yeah, 100%.
Culture-wise, I, I, I do think there's probably— Tibbs might be watching this and be like, oh shit, I did have a championship roster, and, and maybe if I had pulled some levers a little differently. That, that's probably got to be some tough, you know, self-scouting. But overall, Tibbs inherited a god-awful Knicks team and franchise and made them winners pretty quickly and made them competent. And then yeah, Mike Brown obviously took them over the top, but I— the guy before the guy, I think, still has some importance.
Yeah, he turned the team around for sure. That's what I'm wondering. I don't know what his relationship's like. And it's crazy to look back on where that team was like a year ago. You guys didn't have a coach. That was a crazy thing.
Yeah, they interviewed every, they tried to interview every coach in the league and got laughed at.
Yeah, that's right, I forgot about that.
Remember they tried to like interview, who was it they tried to—
Jason Kidd. Yeah. They asked Joe Mazzulla, that got turned down.
Yep.
I believe it was Doc Rivers, Cleveland head coach. There was a couple others. There was one point in the season, 3 guys they asked all were fired. And now Mike Brown.
Look at you now.
Yeah, I do think this is just like one of the greatest underdog stories ever, especially like with everybody on the team.
Yeah.
I know this kind of changes the subject, but like Mike Brown got swept by the Spurs. Now he's had LeBron, greatest player ever. And then all he needed was Jaylen Bronson and, you know, other guys who were slept on in the league.
Yeah.
To become a champion. It's just a really good story.
Hank, would you have, Would you have given up Joe Mazzulla to coach the Knicks if, knowing what we know now, he would not have won a championship with the Knicks this year or ever?
I would never give up Joe Mazzulla for anything.
Even if he kept memes off the Warriors podium for forever?
No. So you wouldn't, you wouldn't give Joe Mazzulla to the Knicks as a sleeper sell?
No, because his heart would still be in Boston.
Right. He'd still wash the town every day.
I don't worry about the Knicks. Like, I'm worried about the Celtics.
Yeah.
And I want Coach Mazzulla coaching Celtics.
What are you guys laughing about in the booth? What? Give it to us.
They're there. I mean, they were the 3 seed in the East. The greatest underdog story in the history of sports is a little far-fetched.
Yeah. I mean, listen, I actually kind of followed it though for a little bit because I was thinking about it. KAT's the number 1 overall pick. But he was traded, and guys like Josh Hart— Josh Hart is an underdog story in the fact that he doesn't, you know, do much offensively and he's just an absolute dog. Jalen Brunson is a second-round pick. The Mavs didn't re-sign him.
Jokic, also a second-round pick.
Yeah, Mikael Bridges probably.
Mikael Bridges was a scapegoat with the Suns. Don't forget that.
Yeah, OG won a ring with the Raptors but didn't play. So that little—
I'm saying that the greatest underdog story in the history of —sports is a little—
Yeah, I think memes is right.
I think memes is right. I think to myself, I think of Leicester City in England, and there were 10,000—
Buster Douglas.
Buster Douglas.
The 1980 Olympics.
Yeah, no, I think the Knicks are more of an underdog.
The tie that happened yesterday.
The tie, yeah, the tie.
It was a great tie.
Yeah. All right, the hurricanes. I had a couple things in the hurricanes. One, did you guys see— that Rod Brind'Amour had in the offseason program. He implemented a thing called blue-collar presses that after the workout, guys would have to press up a 35-pound cinder block, which is the weight of the Stanley Cup. That's awesome. So they basically were sneakily training to lift the Stanley Cup.
I love that. Now, did he know that?
I think, I think he did.
Did the players know it?
I don't think the players—
Because that would be an ultimate reveal. They'll be in all, like right after the season's over, right before they hoist the cup up. He's like, hey, I planned this all along.
Yeah, yeah. That, and I think the biggest loser in the Stanley Cup Final is the Portland Trail Blazers. I think they're the biggest loser. I was thinking about it because Tom Dundon owns the Hurricanes, has won a cup doing it his way, somewhat cheaply. I think Rod Brind'Amour is not one of the highest paid coaches. He's one of the best coaches. And, uh, you just saw it because Tiago Splitter is now the Bulls head coach because Tom Dundon said he was going to pay his head coach $1.5 million, which is vastly underpaid.
Yeah.
So I think the Trailblazers are going to have to learn. They're going to have to have this time where, like, imagine if David Tepper won a World Series while owning the Panthers his way, and then he's like, yeah, that reaffirms that I know everything about everything in every sport. In every sport. Yeah. And hockey and basketball are not the same sport. But Tom Dutton's gonna be like, see, guys, I did it. I'm going to do it with the Blazers too.
Yeah, you might be on to something there. Tiago Splitter. Are you happy with that hire?
I am. I mean, listen, players are— it's a players league. You got to— we're going to actually talk to Will Stein, Kentucky head football coach, who has a— he basically has a mantra that's about that. But I'm happy that Michael Reinsdorf went out and hired a GM that was not inside the Bulls organization, and then they hired a coach that was not in the Bulls organization. And Tiago Splitter is a, you know, pop tree, came, you know, played for the Spurs, young guy. The Blazers— it doesn't get talked enough about the fact that the Blazers this season, they made the playoffs and their head coach got arrested by the FBI after the first game. Tiago Splitter was basically handed a team where their head coach was just doing a perp walk out of nowhere after game 1, and he did a pretty damn good job. So look, NBA coaches, I, I, I like— outside of a few, a handful, and maybe Tiago Splitter becomes that, I don't know if there's like a big difference between the 5th best coach in the NBA and like the 25th.
I think it depends on them. It's more about the personality blending in with the guys that you have on your team.
And everything I've read, he is, he's a good, you know, I think players respect players. He's, you know, obviously played, won a championship with the Spurs. And so, and young guy, and he did good things with the Blazers for the time he was there. So yeah, I'm in, I'm in. I really would've been in anyway, no matter what.
I'm in on it.
They could have rehired Billy Donovan and be like, yeah, maybe.
I was gonna say, the Blazers seem like they might be a fun team to coach now though. Maybe, but nobody said Tiago, split her down and say, hey, I know it's a few million dollars less, but I think all the fun you might have—
I think it's a pretty big slap in your face if you're like, hey, every coach is getting paid like between $4 and $5 million and I'm only going to pay you one.
He wants guys that want to enjoy themselves.
Yeah, that's a tough sell.
Jalen Brunson took a pay cut.
True, he did. Did he? Oh. Is that why he brought it up, Hank? Did he? Hmm. Huh. Did he? What do you mean, P.T.?
I didn't, but please do tell.
I mean, I would hope that you would be all over this, Hank. I'm not.
So please enlighten me.
I feel like he did. You're not.
You're not one of the conspiracy theorists out there with Jalen Brunson. I'm not. Okay. So I think Hank should look into this. What did you—
can you inform me? I mean, there's—
are you saying he didn't? I think—
I think every team in the league has creative people.
Oh, interesting. PFT, go on. This is like a Clipper situation.
I'm just thinking there's some— every team— I'm not saying they're the only ones that do it. Every team does it. Every team should do it.
What do you know, PFT?
I don't know anything.
What are you getting at? I just—
I wish that Hank was— was— he said earlier he's not locked in on the Knicks. I wish he was a little bit more locked in on the Knicks as an opponent. Hmm. What do you think, Hank?
Do you think there's a chance? What is he talking about, memes? Is there a chance that there's some malfeasance going on? I disavow what's being said. Okay.
We had Windy on and said the Knicks have a cap expert.
I think he said they have an agent.
No.
Who's the GM.
No, cap expert.
Oh, they have a cap expert, so that's why.
Yes.
Got it.
And he was like, this is $114 million less than that.
Hmm.
So we should do this one instead as a cap expert.
Yeah, yeah, and then he's just gonna get paid in his next contract.
I just think that is awesome that Jalen Brunson said like, I'll take $100 million less. That's team first. That's, that's a team for team first. That is the kind of guy that you would want to win. And listen, I said the same thing about Tom Brady on the page. Like, that's awesome that he's actually not getting paid all this money that they say that he's not getting paid.
Team first guy. Team first guy.
He was first.
Yeah, I know. That's what I just said.
What are you talking about? I literally have no idea.
Yeah, I know. I don't know. I don't know either. I would like, I would like for him to spell it out.
We're just asking questions. He's just asking questions.
Is there like a report coming out that we have a Kawhi situation? No, there's no report coming out that we have a Kawhi situation.
Not that I know of, but that'd be fascinating if there was.
You've been talking to, to Torrey?
I've not been talking to Torrey about it.
So what you're saying is he took $100 million less and won a championship.
Yeah. Which is awesome.
To be the face of New York.
Yeah.
And now could probably get endless money in advertising.
Yeah. I'm trying to, I'm trying to— I do think he's gonna make more money long term.
He is gonna make a lot of money long term. I'm also just hoping that Hank can like, you know, get back on his feet in terms of hatred.
Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna look.
I—
Do some looking.
I don't really know what you're talking about unless it's a Clippers situation.
I'm just gonna say, well, yeah, I mean, did his dad get paid $100 million to be a coach? When Tom Brady was taking all those pay cuts for the Patriots, his wife was— his wife was rich. Yes. When he was married, he had a very, very rich wife. He also had a great charity that did a lot of work. Oh, it really gets hard news to me.
I don't know.
I've never heard that before either. Okay. All right.
All right. PFT finds out.
It sounds like you're talking Torrey.
I'm just—
oh, no, this is— are you doing Torrey right now?
The only thing I found so far is sports investigator Pablo Torrey says he's looking into Jalen Brunson's $113 million pay cut, but that was on September 4th, 2025.
Oh yeah. I listen.
So he's still looking into it.
I just always thought it was interesting, that's all. I thought it was an— I love—
What is going on here?
I just love— I just love interesting stuff, Max.
He's a curious cat.
I'm just trying to stir the pot. That's all. That's all. The pot needs to be stirred a little bit.
It sounds like the pot is being stirred.
Because right now, when I look at Hank, I see a stagnant pot. I see a bunch of liquid that's just not moving around at all, not boiling. And I want that.
I mean, you can't take a championship away.
Like, I don't—
I don't like—
I agree. But I'm worried about next year. I'm not worried about Jalen Brunson and where his money comes from.
But I'm just saying, anytime your arch rival wins something, you have to be ready to tell them why actually it shouldn't count.
Get in the fight.
Was that Knicks rivals?
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I'm— I feel like I'm more of a rival than you are, Hank.
You're just a loser.
I am.
You're, you're, you're, you're just trying to—
like, they won. They have a parade on Thursday.
I agree.
No conspiracy is going to change that.
I agree.
Imagine if they stopped the parade. But Hank, PFT found out.
But Hank, you understand that this is what— this is what I did for decades with the Patriots. Yeah. Just find a reason why they actually shouldn't be as happy. That's what I want you to start doing.
He's trying to steal some joy. Hop in with him. He's being a thief of joy.
I'll look into it. Yeah. I mean, we're going to have to talk after this and then do some FOIAs maybe.
I can't wait to see Hank looking into this.
Yeah. Hank finds out. Yeah, that's what I want.
The other last, last two things. Uh, Tort's out for the Knights, so he's not coming back.
He needs to be like in a remote. Yeah. It's like if your season goes bad, smash the Tort's button. Mm-hmm. And like, I don't really blame the Golden Knights for not re-signing him, even though he was the perfect coach for them this year. Yep. Just whatever team has great players that underachieves halfway through next season, smash the torts button.
Mm-hmm.
Because he's the perfect guy to get in there for a few months at a time, fire you up, and then yeah, he might grind your gears for a little bit and you'll have to get him out. But he's the guy that you want to bring in if things— if you think you've got a team that's good enough to make some noise.
Yeah. And then here's a crazy stat I saw from Dan Marazza. He said that there is not one active NHL arena that's had the Stanley Cup presented on its ice surface more times than T-Mobile Arena in Vegas. Isn't that pretty nuts?
Yeah. I mean, in order to do that, you would have to be good enough to make the Stanley Cup.
And they've only been a franchise for 9 years. They've had it presented 3 times on their ice.
That's tough.
I think there's a couple that are tied, but still crazy.
It's also the best place to win a Stanley Cup.
Yeah, it has to be easily. Not even— I mean, it's 1-1. Yeah, not even close.
Which is probably why teams win it— have won it there 3 times.
Yeah. Or 2 times. Yeah. 3. Miami. Miami would be sick. 11 would be sick.
Yeah, I remember the, like, the Team USA Miami celebrations look pretty, pretty sick.
Yeah, they did. Yeah, but they just went to Miami.
That's, that's fair.
But imagine if they wanted to— Miami, Miami too, be sick though.
But that's what I'm saying, if you want it in Miami, jet lag.
Yeah, I don't have a team in Miami.
How— if you guys— if, if—
let's see, Sunrise isn't that far.
If Pardon My Take won a championship, how, how many and our parade was 4 days away. How many hours of sleep do you think you could actually do? Because I'm always amazed by these guys who are like, yeah, I slept— I've slept 2 hours the last 4 days.
Adrenaline.
Yeah, just naps. I think it's adrenaline. It's also them being younger, in much better shape. Yeah, that definitely helps. Also, they don't like really drink that much all the time, so their bodies are just—
well, that would make it harder.
Yeah, true.
Well, you get drunk faster. That's what I'm saying.
But then you get drunk faster, so you don't have as much alcohol to burn through.
Yeah.
You're just a lightweight.
Yeah. Be fun to just—
So the hangovers probably aren't that bad if you're a lightweight because you don't have to drink that much to get drunk.
You can drink for so much longer when you're not a light— light—
This is the time when I need the Whoop stats. I want— I want to Whoop on Jose Alvarado right now. Like, I'd pore over that data.
See how— yeah, how much sleep he's getting.
Yeah. Yeah. Just how he's at 1% for the last, like, 5 days. Oh, the recovery.
You're looking up, waking up in the morning, looking at that recovery, and you're like, I thought I felt good until it told me 1%.
It would be sick.
I actually feel terrible now.
Okay, let's talk a little World Cup before we do that. DraftKings, DraftKings, this summer the Cup is taking over the US and only DraftKings has you covered every step of the way. The DraftKings Sportsbook app is now available in all 50 states and includes all markets, 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 group stage upset, every knockout round thriller, every stoppage time moment that flips the whole tournament. Sweat all the matches you love in real time with a seamless experience built for the world's biggest stage. No matter where you're watching, you're always connected and in the game with one app. New DraftKings customers sign up with code TAKES, spend $5 to get $200 in rewards within 21 days. That's code TAKES in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours.
Bet with DK Sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 1-800-MY-RESET. New York, call 877-8-HOPE-N-Y or text HOPE-N-Y. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas, bet text pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over. Void in Ontario. Event contract trading with DraftKings predictions involves risk of loss. Sportsbook bonus bets expire in 7 days. $50 in predictions dollars issued weekly for 3 weeks expire in 1 year. Redeem 1 non-withdrawable reward. Availability varies. Predictions offer void in New York. Ends June 28th. Terms at dkng.co/audio. Monday, uh, we had the day of draws.
It was electric, absolutely electric, because we obviously, uh, we did the round robin, the, the, the Quigs and PFT put together every game to end in a draw.
Yeah, it was, it was incredible. 4 draws, 4 games. Cape Verde having a tie with Spain, that's the tie of the decade. I think it was unreal. Yeah, it was unreal. They, um, they just didn't really feel like playing much offense at all. They said, we're gonna, we're all gonna stay inside our penalty box and just make Spain take long-ass shots and hope that our goalie stands on his head. And it worked out. And then their goalie went from having 50,000 followers on Instagram to after the game was over, I think he had like 5 million.
Yeah.
And he might be up to like 8 million followers on Instagram right now.
Yep.
That was incredible. That's, that's why the World Cup is, is the best tournament in the world. Because you get shit like that. Cape Verde has— I think I only knew them as being the islands where like hurricanes start.
Yeah.
In the Atlantic Ocean. They're so small. I think like the third smallest country to ever play in a World Cup and then to tie the Spaniards was, was pretty unreal.
And then did you hear that the goalie that you talked about who got all those— oh, he's 9.6 million followers. Yeah, I guess apparently on the broadcast. He's 40. On the— he's 40. I believe he's 40 years old.
Yeah.
Fuck yeah. On the broadcast, they were just— the announcers were just shouting him out. Not, not the Spanish broadcast, not the American broadcast, the English broadcast. This— the— oh, he's got more than Wembley. The announcers were just shouting out his Instagram handle the entire game.
I love that.
Yeah. So that was, that was a big part of it.
Good for him.
Yeah, it was. It was fun. I'm getting swept up.
The ties were excellent. That was honestly like the craziest tie given the talent difference between the two teams. But that's why soccer is a cool sport because like you can just commit to just playing nothing but defense and praying.
Yeah.
For the entirety of the game. And every now and again, you'll, you'll come out with a point. And then Saudi Arabia's goalkeeper was amazing.
Yeah.
Yesterday too.
That was a great draw.
That was another great tie.
Great draw.
I love every tie.
Yeah.
I was going to say equally, probably not equally, which is kind of ironic for a tie. But I think they're all, they're all special in their own beautiful ways. That Spain-Cape Verde, they'll be talking about that for decades in Cape Verde.
It was the first time, or sorry. Yeah, I think it was the first time since like 1956 that there was a World Cup day where there was 4 ties.
Yeah.
So we timed it pretty good.
We timed it perfectly. It was also a moment that I was like, hey, just chill out because you think that you figured it out. And they're basically saying that it's something that happens once a century.
Yeah, it's probably— it's probably as good as it's going to get for us. And we're going to continue to bet this. Yeah. Every World Cup from now on. And we'll never have a day like—
Oh, we're doing round 2.
Yeah. The second—
second group stage for sure. Yeah. I'm going to keep rolling with it. I thought I thought New Zealand and Iran was a great game too.
Yeah.
Last night.
Yeah.
Shout out, Juss. Juss had 2 goals for them. And then the Iranian team, they're getting the runaround. They had to leave after the game and get their ass back to Mexico. And they didn't say who was kicking them out, if it was FIFA, if it was like a US official, if it was an Iranian official that was saying, get the fuck out of the United States after the game.
Okay.
So the Iranian team is going to play back in the United— they were supposed to start training in Arizona. But then they had to move to Tijuana because the whole war thing that's going on. So now they had to like get out of Los Angeles right after the game. Then they're going to have to come back to the US and play and then probably leave like directly after. I don't know that that whole situation's fucked up for them. Yeah, that's going to be pretty tough on their players.
So let's talk about Friday's game real quick. US, we're going to, we're going to do a pick. PFT, I'm going to defer to you on— we're going to need some help on the pick. You know what? We can come up with a parlay. Yeah, we can do one. We're playing the Aussies. Apparently they're fast. The Socceroos. Are they fast?
I did some advanced scouting on the Aussies. I also watched the game.
Are you the one who told me they were fast?
I've been telling people that they're fast.
Okay, so where is that? Is that— have you been telling people they're fast and they're actually fast? You've just been telling people they're fast.
They're fast. Okay. They're fast cunts down there. So I looked it up and they've got two guys. Up front that are fat, that are both faster than anybody on Paraguay that we played.
Okay.
And then we've got some defenders who might not be the speediest guys necessarily, but speed isn't everything, but it can make a big difference because I think our strategy is going to be pretty similar to what we saw against Paraguay, which is just like, fuck them up and press and attack and press, which also would make us susceptible to a good counterattack.
Yeah.
Which Paraguay didn't have, but Australia might have.
Hank, are you getting into the soccer?
I was into the Cape Verde. One of my best friends growing up with Cape Verdean, grew up with a lot, you know, big Cape Verdean community in my hometown. So I was very happy for them. I'm getting a little bit, a little bit.
Okay. A little bit's good.
I like the fan stuff is great. The fan stuff is great. We talked about it the last, the last week, but that stuff makes me laugh. The Scottish people in Boston is very, very funny.
Do you see the Scottish guys going down the slide? Yep. That was the bagpipes.
They outdrank— they— the Boston said like they're running out of beer and it was 3 times more alcohol drank than St. Patrick's Day.
Yeah.
Which is like, that's insane. That is insane.
By the way, I saw a stat because we love dumb stats. This is— this was as of Sunday, so I don't know if it's still the case, but as of Sunday, Ivory Coast's win over Ecuador was the first team in this World Cup to win while having less bird species than their opposition. Oh, fuck. Yeah, that's pretty big. No, that's That's true.
Yeah, I was thinking about that when I was watching.
It's huge. And when I say less, yeah, they have like 1,100 less bird species in Ecuador.
Yeah. So I was thinking about that. But then you also have the Galápagos Islands are doing a lot of lifting for those Ecuadorian species. That's probably like all the finches.
Yeah.
Darwin knew.
Good for us. We have a lot of bird species.
We got a ton.
So we have 1,167 bird species.
Hell yeah. I did see that. We're absolutely dominating South America. It's been a tough World Cup for South America.
Yeah.
So far, the United States, we, you know, we, we won our game, so we got 3 points. The entire continent as of right now of South America only has 2 points in the World Cup.
That's, that's bad.
And everybody was saying like, this might be a good World Cup for the South Americans because they're used to the heat.
This France game, by the way, went crazy. 2 goals in the extra— in extra time. 3-1 France. Yeah, fun game. Mbappé still got it. Still 19. Still got it. I don't know if that was him. Yeah, it was. What a fucking world-class goal. World-class. Top shelf. World-class. Straight off the top. Top cheddar. Okay, DraftKings. Let's do our parlay this summer. The Cup is taking over the US and only DraftKings has you covered every step of the way. The DraftKings Sports app is now available in all 50 states and includes all markets, 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 group stage upset, every knockout round thriller, every stoppage time moment that flips the whole tournament. Sweat all the matches you love in real time with a seamless experience built for the world's biggest stage. No matter where you're watching, you're always connected and in the game with one app. New DraftKings customers sign up with code TAKES, spend $5 to get $200 in rewards within 21 days. That's code TAKES. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours.
What are we doing?
Bet with DK Sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER, 1-800-MY-RESET. New York, call 877-8-HOPEN-Y or text HOPEN-Y. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas, bet text pass through mail play in Illinois. 21 and over, void in Ontario. Event contract trading with DraftKings predictions involves risk of loss. Sportsbook bonus bets expire in 7 days. $50 in predictions dollars issued weekly for 3 weeks expire in 1 year. Redeem 1 non-withdrawable reward. Availability varies. Predictions offer void in New York. Ends June 28th. Terms at dkng.co/audio.
What do we got?
I'm kind of addicted to ties right now. Okay, I know, I know. I'm just saying, I'm being honest. I'm being honest. Hi, hi, my name is PFT. I'm addicted to ties.
That's fair.
Hi, PFT.
It's, it's— but they're so good.
They're so good.
They're so fun. Um, I got a goal scorer.
Okay.
And he's kind of a juicy goal scorer.
Okay, I'll just say mine real quick. Over 8.5 corners.
Okay, I like that.
Mm-hmm. Corners are fun to bet.
They are.
I know that people are like, oh, that's so lame. No, they're fun. I like— you can get no goals but a lot of corners.
I like Tillman to score. Okay. Malik Tillman. He had a bunch of chances and he should have had at least one, if not two, in the first game. And US to win. And US to win. Okay. So it's perfect. Tillman is +390 to score. Okay.
Okay. I think that all— that sounds good.
I love that. All right, well, go bet on the DraftKings app and all right, should we do—
I'm going to be like Wesley Snipes in New Jack City when I wake up on Friday thinking about Delly, like, going to have to kill you.
Yeah, sorry, buddy. It's not— it's not personal. It's just business. Yep. Hot seat, cool throne. Reese's, by the way, the greatest candy ever. We have the new Reese's Lounge here. Unbelievable. What have you guys been doing with the Reese's Lounge? What have you been getting into?
I love— I mean, the Reese's Sticks, I think, are the greatest candy ever made. And the OG Reese's, like, I love them. The Reese's— those are the options.
I'm taking that. The new Reese's Oreo are so good.
The Reese's Animal Crackers are the best thing I've ever had. I've recently come across them. It's impossible to put the bag down. Yep. Yep.
What do you even get into, PFT?
I like the marshmallow one. And also, yeah, the animal crackers are incredible.
They're so good. They're so good. Reese's is the absolute GOAT. Reese's— listen, Reese's, uh, with their peanut butter and chocolate combo, they're like the Hurricanes. Everyone else is like the, the Knights. Reese's with their chocolate and peanut butter combo, they're like the Knicks. Everyone else is the Spurs right now. Can we all agree on that? That's just a fact. Uh, so go right now. Reese's, the official candy partner of Barstool Sports. Go get Reese's wherever you shop. We love Reese's. It's a dream come true that we have a candy part— I mean, if you, if you told us when you were 10 years old, hey, someday you're going to be in a job where you have an official candy partnership. Okay, sign me up.
Jobs are awesome.
And it's going to be Reese's, the GOAT candy. Yeah, I'm in. So go get Reese's today. All right, Hank.
My hot seat is Texas Tech.
Yeah.
And their credibility.
We got to talk about it. They did a whole—
the press conference that they did explaining themselves after the Brendan Sorsby verdict came down. Came out that he was gonna be able to play. Was a crazy watch. Like, it was weirdly set up. They had the most powerful people at the school. It was set up like, you know, how we would set up like a quick press conference. Very funny. And after all that, all the heat they took, all the hoops they went through to get this guy to be able to play, he announced that he's planning on entering the NFL supplemental draft.
So I actually had it reversed. I had in my cool throne was the NCAA because we finally, like, When we talked about this last week, there are no rules in the, in the NCAA anymore.
There are no rules.
But if there should be one rule, it's that you can't bet on your own team.
Yeah.
Like, that's the one rule we should all agree. Like, hey, if the sport is going to ever survive, we can't have that. So I'm happy that Brendan Sorsby was like, you know what, I should probably just recuse myself from this situation.
It is a tough look for Texas Tech, though.
Well, it's crazy that Texas Tech and Brendan Sorsby—
I don't know who they were. They were okay with it, right?
I don't know who they talked to. Leading up to it, but it was almost like they were shocked that it was a universal opinion that this is very bad and shouldn't happen. And they're like, whoa, we, we thought like everyone would be cool with this.
I think it's funny that it was like the, the entire sport of college football has a big dial that says like, this is fucked up. And then they keep turning it and then they finally took it to a place where everybody in the crowd was like, boo. They're like, okay, we'll bring it back just a little bit. Yeah. And that's, that's the players can't bet on their own teams and still play in games. That was the one that was like, okay, we can, we can't go that far, but it's good to know that that's where the line is. We don't cross it again. Again, there are no rules really. And there, there shouldn't— we shouldn't confuse that because it's not like the NCAA or any sort of governing body is making Brent Swordsby go to the NFL. Right. Like, that's Swordsby's choice. Yeah. So somebody is going to try to do it again. Yeah. At some point. But I think the next person that does will be like, maybe their school will say to them, hey, maybe let's not do this because everyone's going to hate us and not schedule against us. It'll be a big, big thing that we'll have to spend a ton of money on lawyers for.
Yeah. Uh, Sorsby, Jets.
The news broke and I did see a guy riding a bike wearing a Jets shirt, like immediately.
Who's— so, so the rules for the supplemental draft is that it's basically you have to submit— it's a bidding war where you have to submit what you would give up next year's draft, and whoever has the highest pick that they give up would then get them. So you're—
Yep.
So like, it would suck if you said, oh yeah, we'll give up a second round pick for him, and then the next highest was a fifth. You could have gotten them for a fourth. It's fascinating. You should televise it.
Like a big game of poker.
They should do like a— yeah, they should televise it with—
what was the briefcase game? Deal or no deal. Deal or no deal. Mm-hmm. Memes, it's, uh, it's interesting to think about though. Listen, he's— but the only problem is, what if, what if he gets Sorsby and what if he shows you like just enough in year one? Yeah. Where you're like, ah, I don't know, should we, should we use a first round pick on a quarterback?
If he had a good year this year at Texas Tech, he was going to be a first rounder. So you could maybe get him at a very significant discount.
Now, was he really gonna be like top of the line next year?
If he had a good year, yeah. I think this year he would've been probably, people were saying that he would've been in that Ty Simpson zone of mid to late first, maybe slip to the second. I don't know with all the other stuff now involved in it and teams having to, but if you believe in his arm and you believe in his talent, But again, you could potentially get like the deal of the century by getting him for a 5th round pick.
Yeah.
Memes?
I think I would do it for like a 4th, maybe a 3rd, but I think the Jets believe in Cade Klobnik.
Oh.
As at least a backup. If you're drafting Brenton Sorsby, you're drafting him as a backup.
And that right there, folks, is an exactly when the Knicks championship parade ended.
What do you mean?
That sentence.
What do you mean?
You believe in Cade Klubnik.
And that was back to reality.
Cade Klubnik's a stud.
Okay.
What?
Neves, we gotta have a convo.
At what?
Running out for practice.
Okay.
There's a lot of slow motion videos.
Yeah.
You just have to watch. He was a tough watch at Clemson the last couple years. Uh, okay, good job, hot seat. Cool throne?
Uh, my cool throne is me, Max, really all the AWLs. Mr. Bing Bong has retired. Oh, come on. Finally, probably 3 years too late, ran the bit into the ground, and then he decided after, uh, Sunday's show to retire.
Hank, shut the fuck up. He retired because he's a winner.
Either way, it doesn't matter why he retired. I'm just happy that he did.
I—
That's what team said about Michael Jordan too.
We've told Jerry this many, and I love Jerry, and I disagree adamantly with your characterization of Mr. Bing Bong. We do. How many shows do we do a year? 150. How many times? Mr. Bing Bong on a year?
Yeah, probably like twice, 3 times.
Jerry has a problem, and we've— PFT and I have talked to him about this. He's addicted to reading the comments, and you can't read the comments because I— if you read the comments, you have one person say they speak for all AWLs that Mr. Bing Bong sucks, not realizing that 99.9% of our audience never comments on anything. They're not on Twitter, they're not on Reddit, they're on Instagram, they're not in the YouTube comments. They're nowhere. They just enjoy it and they go on with their life. Jerry hasn't figured that out yet. So I hate that you killed Mr. Bing Bong.
I didn't kill him. He did.
Yeah, no, you do. Jerry got into his feelings a little bit.
You did. It's a shame.
You did. You killed Mr.
Bing Bong. I didn't. Do you really think that if the Knicks, if they beat the Celtics in the playoffs next year, do you think that Jerry's just going to sit that one out?
He's going to be back. We'll get Mr. Bing Bong back. We just got to like whisper in his ear, ping pong.
No, that's even going to be even, even, even worse look for him.
And it was funny. And it was also funny. You're— you going back at him was funny. Max, do you agree that you want Mr. Bing Bong retired? I— Mr. Bing Bong was funny. Yes. Mr. Bing Bong is very funny. And he's also Tiffany Gomas' number one fan. What is she going to do?
He's going to see one picture on Instagram and Mr. Bing Bong's going to be back. It's in his blood.
You think he's just scrolling on Instagram and he sees her? He says, oh, oh, Miss Tiffany Gomas.
The tootsies. If he sees the tootsies, he's back immediately. It's going to be the shortest retirement you've ever seen.
I would— I'm hoping that Mr. Bing Bong's retirement is similar to a Brett Favre retirement where he's just—
There's no shot that Mr.
Bing Bong is retired.
But the haters like Hank are just so happy. Sabi, there's no shot.
You killed—
I didn't do anything.
Yeah, you did.
How?
The look on Hank's face when you heard the door.
I was scared.
Knocking on the door.
Dude, banging on the door so loud.
It was so perfect.
I was like a safety thing.
What do you mean a safety thing?
Like I got—
I didn't—
You were scared?
Yeah.
Of Mr. Bing Bong?
I didn't know it was Mr. Bing Bong. I didn't know who it was. I was like, is someone going to come in this office? And like it was Sunday night. No one else was here. Yeah, I was—
I was a little scared. Yeah. I mean, here's the thing. Jerry is— he is going to be ashamed for a little bit because he got bullied by Hank.
And again, he got bullied by like the smallest, smallest, tiniest fraction of our fans. He's going to be back. And they all just get into a hive where they just— they're like, yeah, we do speak for everyone. No, you don't. Million people listen to the show. He's going to read like 3 comments.
He's going to be saying under his breath, bing bong. Yeah. To, to his wife. And to his daughters and they're like, Dad, you have to stop. You're driving us insane. Like, okay, I better call the boys again.
Yeah, he'll be back. He'll send us a voice message. That's when we'll know it's back. All right. Do your hot seat, Kultron.
Yeah. Hot seat. I was actually going to talk about just having sex during the playoffs because of what James Dolan did for his team.
That was a great speech that he gave.
Very, very proud of him. So I'll just say hot seat is going to be Thursday night plans. If you got any Thursday night plans, watch the Dozen live. We're doing our live show here in Chicago. There might be a couple tickets. It might be sold out by now, but there's going to be a good Final Four there. And yeah, Brandon really, really wants everybody to watch him go for the repeat in the Dozen, which has never been done. It's going to mean a lot to Brandon. It's really Brandon's tournament.
Yeah.
So if you like Brandon Walker, tune in.
It's all he has.
He's also—
Brandon's been in the zone. He's been in— by the zone, I mean he's been like extremely nervous and anxious. And walking around with a lot of gas and, uh, but that makes for a good trivia. Yeah. Because when he's, if it makes sense, when Brandon's the most nervous, that's actually when he's the least nervous.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. Good hot seat.
Uh, and then my cool throne is going to be, you know what, fuck it. Let's talk football. Uh, Brandon Aiyuk.
Yeah.
Did you see what Brandon Aiyuk's been posting online recently?
I've seen a little bit of it.
He's like dropping, uh, the like the Google Maps drop a pin location of where he's at. He's in Northern Virginia right now. Okay. There's some speculation that the videos that he's dropping recently that have been weird videos have been from somebody on the Commander's house.
Whoa.
That he might be staying with. I don't know that this is necessarily the best way for him to get released from the 49ers. I think it's just one giant game of chicken where he's like, I'm just going to make I'm going to make your life hell and I'm going to keep talking about how I'm going to get released from the team until you actually release me from the team. And the Niners are like, well, we don't have to until we have to. And we're hoping that somebody offers us at least like a late round pick for you.
Yeah.
I don't know that they're going to get anything for him because he is acting really strange, but I would be concerned. It seems like he's trying to force his way onto the Commanders. That's what it looks like. If you're going to have one position that acts like this, having a wide receiver dude is the one that you got to have.
Yeah.
So I'm okay with it.
Yeah, agreed. Okay. My hot seat is Elmo. Did you guys see that Elmo's head was put on a spike at a parade in New York with the words traitor under it? Watch your back, Elmo. So Elmo, before the series, said Elmo hopes both teams have fun. And New York has turned on Elmo because Elmo's— he's He's— I think he lives in— or does he live in the Upper West Side or Brooklyn? I don't know where he—
Where is Sesame Street?
It's somewhere around there.
I didn't know that it was a real street.
Yeah, I don't know if Sesame Street is actually a real street, but it's clearly set in New York. He's a New Yorker. He also— let's just listen. Elmo is also 3 and a half years old, so let's not pick on him too much. West 63rd. Okay. So, yeah, he's— yeah, Elmo, you fucked up. You picked the wrong side. Cookie Monster, by the way, came out and said, I'm always a Knicks fan.
Okay, I love that. Good for Cookie. What about Big Bird?
I haven't heard from Big Bird. He's probably a Jokic fan.
Yeah, I think that— I think Elmo would have something to say about the hypothetical that we get on KSR today. Just tune in for that one.
Yeah, dude, I'm telling you, the call that we got is must-listen, must-listen tag on the call that we got from Andy from Kentucky Sports Radio.
I'd like to also apologize to any members of the blind community for some of my remarks on Kentucky Sports Radio today. Yeah, I want to listen. I want to get ahead of that one.
We just became fast friends with the guy and we forgot some key details about him.
Yeah.
He shared with us.
My cool throne is PCA because he hit for the cycle and it was fucking awesome. He hit reverse cycle, home run, triple, double, single, and then in perfect PCA fashion— and I love PCA, he's, you know, my favorite Cub, he's a superstar in the making, just so good at everything, and he's been on a tear— but in perfect PCA fashion, because he is a little bit of a lightning rod and people who do not root for the Cubs tend to hate PCA, which I love because I think it makes sports more fun. But he hit his single to hit for the cycle and then got picked off the very— not even the next pitch, just the next throw. Everyone was like, oh, that doesn't count.
It's the first time it's ever been done.
So it's— it was both the perfect PCA moment because he gives just enough red meat for the haters after hitting for a cycle, which is so fucking hard to do. And then also the perfect encapsulation of the 2026 Cubs because there was a moment during the game too where his run could have been very, very consequential in a one-run late game. But the Cubs ended up winning in a walk-off walk, which is always electric.
Walk-off walks are great. Yeah. Yeah.
But it was just so funny that this happened. But he's awesome. He's been playing incredible baseball. Zach finishes off.
My hot seat this week is going to be the Tempe Buccaneers because today we did hear back again from Baker update when it comes to the contract situation. That they really haven't made any progress there. I know he's on the last year of the 3-year deal. I would just like to see him get signed. I'd like to see the team come together, Baker come together and get it done. I know he said that once the— once everything gets moving and shaking, that no more negotiations. They're not going into the season talking about it, but—
Bless you.
I don't know. I heard maybe— Bless you.
Okay. What do you think about Baker saying that he wants to do the quarterback show?
They've got the quarterbacks of this year. So it's going to be Baker. Was it Baker, Joe Flacco, Jayden Daniels, and—
I forget who the last one's going to be, but they've asked him to do it before and he said no. And then he changed his mind this year with the contract thing. What do you think about that?
I think maybe part of it could be there's like a lot of exciting stuff that was going on in his life. They may want to document too, you know, that coming together, having a baby and everything like that. Maybe it could be bigger than football too.
By the way, tune into that quarterback show because I'll just say right now,— you might see these faces on it. Nothing really special. They just asked permission to use a couple clips from the podcast. We weren't interviewed or anything. It's just very funny because I saw one of them and it was just like us just sitting, knowing exactly where we're at, like late on a Sunday night, just being like, Joe Flacco's still elite.
I love that. That's top analysis.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Your cool throne?
My cool thing this week is just gonna be James Winston for his World Cup coverage as a correspondent with that Dutch and Japan game, because he fully immersed in the culture on both sides and it was just awesome to see.
Yeah.
He was absolutely just fully immersed. He's kind of the man. Anything he touches just brings that much more energy, that much more excitement.
Yep, I agree. He's the man. Okay, good job, Zach. We have Shane Bacon talking US Open, then we have Kentucky Sports Radio, like I said, had some incredible callers and also an interview with Will Stein, head coach of the Kentucky football team, who is an AWL, which, uh, we immediately liked him. Before we do that, PFT.
Yeah, before we get into all that, including Shane Bacon coming up next, he's brought to you by our great friends over at NASCAR. NASCAR is taking over San Diego this Sunday. Palm trees, Pacific Ocean, all set to the soundtrack of fighter jets and stock car engines. The biggest stars of the sport are going to push limits never challenged before and make history that's never been previously imagined. This isn't just any race weekend. It's full throttle, edge of your seat, walking, waking the hell up kind of spectacle. Every second matters. Every moment's filled with electricity. When the green flag drops, anything can happen. So grab your friends, get the snacks, lock in those picks. We're going to get ready for a Sunday that delivers exactly what the NASCAR fans live for at 4 p.m. Eastern only on Prime.
Yeah.
Don't miss out. Check it out. NASCAR this weekend coming up. And now here's Shane Bacon.
Okay. We now welcome on a very, very special guest. He is our good friend, our golf expert. It is Shane Bacon. You can check him out, CBS Scorecard Show after every single round of the US Open. We have the US Open this week at Shinnecock. Shane, uh, I love this course. Let's start with the course. It is such a gnarly, gnarly place. What do you think the winning score is going to be this week at the US Open?
Well, Big Cat, let me ask you a question. Why are you asking me questions about a golf course that you've shot even par at? Like, shouldn't you be the one that's giving us nuggets about Shinnecock?
I, listen, I was lucky enough to play it once. It is the hardest place that I've ever seen, and I don't really understand how these guys do it. It's like, I, you know, I think people know that the 72, listen, you can, you can get whatever you want on the scorecard. There were just so many times off the tee box where I would just be like, all right, I'm done with this hole. Like, I, I'm not going to go find this ball. This is impossible. And it's, it's just the wind that, that's the biggest thing. The wind to me is always the story of Shinnecock because for people who don't know the course and don't know the area, there is nothing stopping the wind coming off the ocean. There it is. There are no trees. It's just absolutely howling basically at all times, like a, a 15, 20 mile an hour wind. Yeah. Is like a non-windy day at Shinnecock.
It's— listen, people aren't going to love this, but Shinnecock is what Oakmont thinks it is in terms of a golf course. I mean, it is— this is the best host of the US Open. I mean, this is the pinnacle of it. Um, obviously Augusta and the Masters is the biggest event in golf every year. I think a Shinnecock US Open is like 1B, in my opinion. I mean, it's crazy the USGA went so long between US Opens out there, kind of returning to Shinnecock in the '80s and then reminding itself how good this place is and how tough it is. And Big Cat, it's an interesting golf course because I think average golfers think about difficulty and they think about water or out of bounds, things like that. I mean, that's not really Shinnecock. Sure, the, the rough is really high and the hay is going to be high. It's a golf course that you theoretically could not lose a golf ball on and shoot your highest score. Yeah. The fairways are bigger this year than it was back in 2018 when Koepka won, but all those fairways are minimized because of the angles off the tees and really where you want to hit those tee shots.
You want to be on the left side of the fairway to a right hole location, things like that. But really, it's just everything. It's the triangular shapes of kind of these conceptual small courses, if you will, like 3, 4-hole stretches within Shinnecock where you're playing all different types of wind directions within the 3-hole stretch. It's just the perfect golf course for championship golf. And I think people are going to walk away this week considering the forecast, understanding that this is as tough as it gets in terms of pro golf.
Yeah.
The wind that howls there not only affects the ball in the air, it's been affecting the balls on the green too. So can you tell us about that? Like, how real is that, that the putting is affected by the wind?
Yeah. I mean, the interesting thing about that, PFT, is the fact that there, there are rumors that the greens aren't going to be as fast. This week than what we typically see at a US Open because of those expected winds. I'll get into that in a bit when I do my 5 things to focus on at Shinnecock. I mean, the, the wind— when you play really fast greens, PFT, the— you have to hit putts softly that the winds end up taking those balls. So you've got an 8-footer that's a cup and a half out left and the wind's blowing left to right. Now all of a sudden you're playing at 3 cups out because as it's dying, the wind is affecting the golf ball. I mean, you're going to see guys miss putts by a wide margin. You're going to see guys putt off greens this week. Like, all of those things are in play because when it's blowing 25, 30 miles per hour on these greens— and to Big Cat's point, there's no defense out there. It's basically like being on an— on a boat in the Long Island Sound right now. That's kind of how remote, if you will, this golf course is.
A lot of the greens are perched up. A lot of the tee boxes on the back nine are perched up. Like, all of these things are factored into this golf course playing as tough as it plays. But yeah. I mean, the wind's going to affect golf shots, sure, but you'll see just as much of it being a factor when guys have 6, 7-footers that move a lot.
The, the, the, the, the quintessential Shinnecock that's, that's burned in my, my, my brain is Phil Mickelson being so frustrated that he hit a moving ball, which I think we can all agree was the worst thing that Phil Mickelson has ever done. But that, that's it. Like the greens will frustrate a guy like Phil Mickelson to the point where he's just just so mad that he's, he's essentially just morphs into an average or bad golfer who gets frustrated at the end of a hole. It's like, you know what, just give me an 8, I don't care.
First line of his Wikipedia, Big Cat, you think? Is that it? The hitting the ball? That's gonna be the one. I agree with you on that.
They're gonna have to develop a controversy section for his Wikipedia page after that one.
Yeah, probably, probably on there. Probably a few graphs long at this point. Um, yeah, it's, uh, you know, I mean, I remember, you know, we were doing that 2018 US Open. I was with Bucks at the time, and that was the first time that we'd kind of split the booths, and it was me and Brad Faxon, and it was Buck, um, with Zinger. And that was— I think that was a Joe hole. And Zinger's reaction, like, the whole thing was crazy. Curtis didn't know what to say. Um, nobody had really seen that before, basically, that mental meltdown. But again, that, that's what golf courses do. I think something else to remember about 2018 is that the golf course, if the winds are down, is scorable. I mean, we've seen players go out there and post scores. Tommy Fleetwood, famously in 2018, shoots that 63 with a putt on the last for 62. But if you remember on that Saturday, it was Daniel Berger and Tony Finau that went out early, finished like 4 hours before the leaders finished, and they both shoot 66 and vault to the top of the leaderboard. If the winds are down, you can make birdies.
I mean, you can even make eagles on the par 5s. So once those winds pick up, it is a, you know, 2, 3, 4 over is a good score type of golf course.
So, so Shane, last time we talked to you, you were trying to qualify for this U.S. Open. You had a tough a tough go at it on golf's longest day. I, I love that you, you got to the break of your 36 holes and you're like, I just gotta shoot a 59, like no big deal, I got this. But if you— so you're obviously a very good golfer to even get to that point, but then the levels of it to get all the way to pro are just another leap and bound. What would you shoot if you were playing in the US Open this week?
I, I told my wife this morning when I was seeing videos that I said I'm happy I didn't make it. That's basically what I said. I mean, again, I I think it would've been awesome to be a part of it, but I'm looking at some of the videos.
I'm happy I didn't make it too. Yeah, I am too.
I mean, like, I think I would've had a really difficult time if it's blowing 25 to break 85. Like, I think I would've been grinding my ass off to shoot in the mid-80s. I mean, I remember playing Aaron Hills years ago from all the way back. My buddy Brady, who's a bit of a psycho, was like, let's play it as far back as we can play it, a step off the back tees. And it was blowing 20, 30. With the high hay up at Aaron. And I remember we were all struggling to break 90. And I mean, the guys are good players as well. I mean, this championship golf, there's, there's no easy hole. There's no let up. There's no, I can take a break here. Mentioning the par 5s, maybe the only one is a downhill downwind par 5 if you get one of those either on the front or the back. But yeah, I mean, a good player, you're going to see high numbers this week from some of the amateurs that qualified. I mean, I think there were 5 Jacksons— that qualified. So we'll throw one of the Jacksons out, like an 80, 87.5 over-under for a Jackson.
Yeah, I like that bet. What, uh, so, so talk about the golfers. Are we worried at all about Scottie? Because he, he won at the beginning of the season in the Amex. He hasn't won, uh, since. And this is all relatively speaking because he's been in a lot of tournaments, finished top 5. But when Scottie has raised the bar on himself where we expect him to win majors every year and where's his game at, and is this a course that works for him?
So two answers to that, Big Cat. One is, am I worried about Scottie? I'd say a little bit. I think it's very easy to get to a US Open venue like this that's tough and tests every part of your game, and I think it's easy to go, well, that plays into Scottie's hands. Scottie hasn't had that complete game this year. A couple of weeks ago on our Scorecard Show, I compared him to Jordan Spieth and got a lot of pushback on that. The comparison was Jordan Spieth this season has had a lot of weeks where he's driven it well and the iron play has been, been great, but the putter was off. And the next week the putter's there and the iron play is there, but he drives it terrible. That's been what Scottie's run into this season after 3 straight years of like everything working and then finding the putter last year. This has been the year where we have started to see slide holes in the game. That don't show up, but everything else shows up. So yeah, I'm a little bit worried about Scottie this week. I think you're gonna get a lot of guys pick Scottie because the golf course is demanding and the winds are going to make this place difficult.
I look at it the other way. I think that's going to expose the parts of Scottie's game that haven't quite been at that peak level that we've seen over the last 3 years. I don't like Scottie this week at Shinnecock. I, I just— again, I think we've seen him more frustrated this year. I think it's getting to him a little bit, and I think it's a golf course where. If you're not driving it, get great, you're gonna get yourself in trouble. If the iron play isn't dialed in, you're gonna make bogeys. And if you're struggling inside of 5 feet, like we've seen from Scottie this year, you're inevitably gonna start to lose strokes on these greens with the gust. So I don't like Scottie this week. I don't think this is the U— US Open that Scottie wins.
Even though that Sunday is going to be Scottie's 30th birthday for the career grand slam.
And Father's Day.
And Father's Day. New Father's— That is what, what do they call that when the planets, the syzygy? Yeah. Yeah. It's like the, it's the, the universe is set up for Scotty Scheffler to win, but you're not much of a vibes guy. That's okay.
You're, you're, I think you're, you might be the only podcaster in the world that, what was the word? Syzygy?
Syzygy. It's like, I think it's S-Y-Z-Y-G-Y. There's when, when every planet's in, in a line with each other. I'm a big horoscope guy.
Yeah. Yeah. So, so it sounds like something you, you sounds like something you propose to your significant other and they say, no, thank you. I'm good on that.
Yeah. Yeah.
But I, again, I think, listen, Scotty could win any golf tournament. It'd be silly to say he can't do that, but I just don't see kind of those planets aligning, if you will, for Scotty Scheffler this week. I, I look at some grinders, I look at some guys that don't mind making bogeys. I look at some guys that understand going in that it's going to be brutally tough. I mean, if Koepka wasn't dealing with this hand thing, I think Brooks is a perfect example of that. A guy that embraces the elements versus getting frustrated. By them. So I kind of look at that level of player and maybe a little less at a Scottie Scheffler who does seem to get frustrated when things aren't going his way on the golf course.
How, uh, how concerned are you with Brooks's hand? I'm, I'm moderately concerned.
I'm maybe a little higher than moderately. Again, he was playing really good golf in Canada and then had to pull out. Uh, the bummer for Brooks is the thing he struggled with this year is the putter. And he was putting, he was leading the field in Canada through 2 rounds with the putter and all of a sudden he has his hand issue. He's obviously going to play this week, but you know, you're 90%. I just don't think that works at Shinnecock. You're 92%. I think everything's got to be clicking. Everything's got to be working. Anybody battling or struggling with something is going to be exposed. I was, I was ready to pick Koepka. Like I was excited about picking Koepka as my winner. And then the hand thing happens in Canada and I've had to kind of reassess and rethink of where I think he falls. If you got to play 72 holes grinding every shot out and hitting out of the hay occasionally.
So who are you looking at this weekend? Who are the, the guys that you think can handle the setbacks, the frustrations, and, uh, and use that to their advantage?
Well, let me, let me roll through my 5 things to focus on. You know, I kind of like to put these together. Um, I know the boys in the booth have had a really good last few days. The question is, number 5, does the summer of New York continue? Um, we're obviously seeing it already. Um, this is a Long Island US Open. Vibes are gonna be really high from the Knicks fans. I mean, everybody gonna be out there ready to rock, excited about what's going on. Weather this week, by the way, really nice if you're watching, maybe not as nice if you're playing, you know, mid-70s, a little bit of breeze. I look at Cameron Young and Chris Goderup as a couple of players kind of in that local area that would be popular picks to kind of keep the vibes rolling for the New York fellas. So looking at that, number 4 on my 5 things to focus on. Number 4. Is traffic. You're just going to get a lot of traffic tweets, guys. Prepare. Already happening. You know, Michael Kim was tweeting today, almost missed his practice round tee time. It's just going to be a thing that we're going to see a lot of.
And I think it will roll into the weekend as people talking about the traffic and how long it's taken, Uber lines, things like that. Big part of any Long Island major championship or golf event.
Yeah, it sucks. It's— I remember when I went to the US Open in 2018, I, I was like in— I was— what, we, we just gave up and we started walking to the course because we were staying at Airbnb, like, you know, 25-minute walk away. And I saw Jon Rahm just like stuck in his little tiny car trying to get through traffic, and I was like, this, this is brutal. This guy's about to play in the US Open and he's got to deal with this traffic.
Yeah, good news is like stopped traffic at majors over the last few years has not been an issue for golfers, so, uh, hopefully everything will will go according to plan. Number 3 is how windy will it really get? I mean, they're talking throughout the week. It was originally Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Now they're talking into Sunday, 25 to 30 mile per hour gusts. Now, I mean, we talked about the golf course earlier, almost unplayable. Greens are going to be slower. You're going to see some enormous numbers. Anything, you know, 2, 3 over is going to be potentially low score of the day. You might see somebody go out there and black out and shoot 2 or 3 under par, But if those are the conditions, this is going to be an over-par US Open. You're going to see 3, 4, 5 over win come Sunday. And if the forecast holds up, that will be the case. It's just going to be demanding across the board. Not a lot of birdies, not, not a lot of good things. A lot of negative things are going to happen. Number 2 is, will the first-time major winner at the US Open trend continue?
5 of the last 7 US Open winners made it their first major win. Gary Woodland did in 2019. Bryson. At Wingfoot, Rahm, Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Clark, and J.J. Spaun last year. Some of the names I'm kind of looking at to kind of fit that mold, uh, Ludwig's been playing really good golf, not able to close out golf tournaments as of late. The question is, who is Ludwig at this point? Is it going to be the guy that, uh, looks like the pro golfer? Is he going to be the guy that collects the trophies? I kind of almost leaning, uh, former, not latter right now with Ludwig. I like him a lot, but, uh, trending in the other direction, Cam Young, Fleetwood, Henley, Burns. I like Joaquin Niemann a lot this week with trajectory, just hitting it under the wind. I think this could be his major championship that he actually bucks that. And the number 1 we talked about at the Scottie Slam, gotta be the biggest storyline. What happens on your birthday? What happens on Father's Day? So much perspective, too much perspective, some would say, come Sunday for Scottie.
That, that's actually a good way to look at it. What about, what about our guy Si Woo Kim? How's this course shape up for him?
So Siwoo is a guy, PFT, that likes to get aggressive. He wants to play aggressive golf and make a ton of birdies. As you've heard me say already, not necessarily that week at Shinnecock. Don't love Siwoo because of that. I don't know if Siwoo yet to this point in his career is the definitive grinder on the golf course. So I don't love Siwoo. One trend I do like, I saw this floating around on social today. By the way, these things are— this is why golf is a bit ridiculous is you spend 4 days talking about it, then you get into the tournament and none of it matters. But, uh, the last 3 champions at Shinnecock for US Open, all 3 were ranked 9th in the world. Corey Pavin, Retief Goosen, Kepka in 2018. JJ Spaun, currently ranked 9th in the world and playing good golf and coming off obviously a win at Oakmont last year. So if you like, uh, dumb, inconsequential, makes no sense stats— Exactly, you got them.
Yeah, that's the entire premise of the show.
Yeah.
That's exactly what we like. So perfect. Now, are you going to be— are there any, uh, like pin placements that you're going to be looking out for? Like, what, what should we expect in terms of like a signature hole on this course with a tough pin location?
I mean, 11 is probably the signature hole. Short par 3. Um, if you remember in 2018, Koepke hit it over the green. That was one of my holes in 2018. And Reed hit it over the green before him and then hit the flagstick to keep it in play. And Koepke, if you remember, chipped it into the bunker to get it up and down. And make bogey. I think 11 is probably the signature Shinnecock hole because it's a wedge or 9-iron, and it's probably the scariest shot on the golf course. 17 as well. I mean, you think about the par 3s on this golf course. 17 will be pivotal. Not really anywhere to get close to, but coming out on the stretch, you might have to make a birdie. 16's a par 5 that if the wind helps, you can get 2-and-2 easily.
Sure.
Opportunity to make up a little bit of ground late. I remember the hole location at 14 on that Saturday when everybody was shooting a million., was almost unplayable. I mean, that's the thing the USGA's got to think about is, do you want to embarrass everybody, or do you want people to have a chance at potentially making a birdie or a par? And so I think the hole locations, with the prediction with the wind, probably not going to be as on the edge, at least early in the week, as what we typically see at a US Open.
And what about the rough and the fescue? I know it does take a backseat to the wind and the other elements, but, but how are we looking, um, in terms of the high stuff?
I mean, nasty, gnarly, thick, chip out kind of stuff. Like, wait, I mean, always kind of the case here. Again, these fairways, PFT, are pretty wide. Like, these are— if you're a great golfer in control of your golf ball, you are going to hit 9 fairways, 10 fairways a round at Shinnecock, right? Um, you shouldn't miss it massively big around this golf course considering what the golf course allows especially this season at this Shinnecock U.S. Open. So the rough will be a factor around the green specifically, but driving the golf ball I think will be important in terms of length. I think long guys can have an advantage here, but I don't think the, the rough is going to be as much of a talking point as maybe what you saw at Wingfoot in 2020.
What about Tommy Fleetwood, who has been playing good golf? He actually has the course record here, does he not? I think 63. Yep. Yeah. How, how was that possible when everyone else was over par and he shot a 63 on this course.
Yes, Sunday. I mean, he just, again, wind was down, he put it in the right spots, made a boatload of birdies, had a lot of good looks. I mean, Tommy Fleetwood is one of those guys that can't get on a heater. Um, I think I said after that US Open I'd pick him in 2026. It's nice that he's played good the last couple of weeks so I can at least lean a little bit deeper into that. Uh, I think Tommy Fleetwood, if he ever gets a major, it's going to be a US Open just with the way he plays. Uh, so I love Tommy this week. I think Tommy is near the top of my board in terms of who I think is going to win this thing. Um, he didn't play great on Sunday in Canada. I don't think that matters. I think he's found something with the ball striking. The putter is still kind of hot or cold, uh, but when it gets hot, Tommy puts himself in contention. So I like Tommy. I mean, I've seen Tommy put it together on this golf course in the past, and I think Tommy has been circling this one on the calendar after basically last year with the TOUR Championship.
That might be my bet. Hank, what do you got? I know that you, you've got your eye on a few things.
Yeah, per usual, the two main things I'm thinking about are the lefties. I got two in mind and then the LIV golfers. I got two in mind. So I'm going to throw out the four names.
Let me hear, Hank.
The two, the twin, twin Thomas's?
Nope.
Oh.
You mentioned one of them, Joaquin Niemann. Love him. And then Cam Smith. That's, please, please, please give me some positives for Cam Smith. Cause he's my favorite golfer to root for, to bet on.. He played well at the PGA Championship. He's been playing well since he changed his coach. Could this be his week?
Hank, I feel like your favorite golfer should be more of a heel. Like, Cam's like the chillest dude in the world. Cam should be Zach's favorite golfer. Like, you, you need the guy that, like, you need Tyrell Hatton as your favorite golfer. But, uh, I like Cam a little bit. Again, driving is, is, is the least essential part of this golf course. Um, if Cam can find fairways, he's gonna have a chance. The way he putted a few weeks ago was really impressive. The fact that he showed life at a major championship was good. I think Cam could come into this thing and if there's ever a grinder, it's that guy, right? The fact that he can grind out rounds and play great or play even par golf. I think he's happy to do both ways. I think Cam has found some level of, of interest in the game once again after kind of a low the last couple years in the majors. And so yeah, I think Cam, I don't think he's gonna win necessarily, but I do see Cam finish in top 25.
And then lefty-wise, Bobby Mack. And then my, my new favorite, my, my new favorite lefty to watch, Sudarshan.
Oh man, dude. Yellow Mirage drives it great. I'm a, I'm a big, you know, we had him on KFT last year, Hank, and he wins, he wins our second event of the year on TV. And James Nitties, who I do Corn Fairy with, they're like, all right, that was a cool story. We'll never see this guy again. And I mean, he's just been very, very consistent. Gets to the PGA Tour, and then he's been probably the best player from that Korn Ferry Tour graduating class this year. I think it's a really good Siddharshan golf course. When he won on the KFT last year, it blew 25 the whole week in the Bahamas, and he was exceptional, hit every fairway in that final round. So I think Siddharshan, if he gets out of his own way, which is obviously tough to do at these big events, these, you know, escalated championships, I think it's easy to let that intimidate you., but he doesn't seem like the type of player that gets massively intimidated by the circumstance. So I think Siddharshan, I like the fact that you're into him. I think Siddharshan can have a good week.
Love that. Love that.
Good questions, Hank.
Which one is the 265-yard par 3?
Oh, on the— that's, that's 2. Well, 2 plays— 2 can play up to 260, 270. Scotty hit 3-wood in the practice round today.
That's crazy. How long do you think they're going to make it? It during the actual tournament?
They'll, they'll push it back probably 1 or 2 days. They'll probably move it up a tee 1 or 2 days, but you'll see headcovers. I mean, you'll see 3-woods, 5-woods, 7-woods on that hole for sure.
That's absolutely crazy. And then the, um, I, I noticed in the layout of the golf course, the very first hole, that's like one of the only holes that goes east to west, right?
Yeah, yeah. So, all right, you'll like this, PFT, because I think you're a bit of a just kind of like a guy that likes design and likes kind history stuff, the way they put this golf course together, you know, the old way of routing was like out and in, you know, so the front 9 went out like St. Andrews and the back 9 came in. And then there was designers that did a bit of a loop where you'd play kind of around the golf course, then maybe come into the golf course. This place has— it's a very interesting design. They're like triangular sections of this golf course where you play 3 holes in all different wind directions. Mm-hmm. So you'll play one to your point One shoots you out west and then you kind of go up the fairway, up into the wind, potentially in the prevailing wind. Two goes a little bit of a similar direction, but the three comes the complete opposite way. So you really face like you've got to kind of control the ball moving both directions with all of the golf shots. I think when you look historically at who's won here, great ball strikers that aren't scared to hit draws and fades.
Mm-hmm.
Dustin played awesome in 2018. If you remember the first couple of rounds, Dustin was in very much control of his ball around that time. So yeah, like, one's a pretty friendly handshake at this golf course. I know Tiger didn't have— wouldn't say that after the opening in 2018. I think he made triple on one, but you can hit a 3-wood or a driving iron on one, get in the fairway and have a wedge in. But then obviously, as we mentioned with 2, that's when Shinnecock really begins.
It is so funny looking back at the scores because, you know, Tommy Fleetwood finished second in 2018, but like like top, top 10 was, was 7 over par. Like that, it's insane to look at. And Brooks won it, you know, 1 over par for the whole tournament. Shane, all right. Do you have a long shot for us? Do you have someone that like, hey, look, this guy probably isn't going to win, but maybe, maybe sprinkle something on him because he could, he could have the rounds of his life.
Yeah. You know, I mean, I, I'll be honest with you. I really like JJ Spaun. I don't think he's necessarily the longest of shots, but I like JJ Spaun a little bit. Ryan Gerard, I think, is a name you could float out there to potentially grind out some solid rounds and have a good finish, maybe something in the top 10. Harry Hall's another name. He's a player that I just like in these conditions. I think he's excited about it. Rory talked about it earlier. He said this US Open feels more European than it does a United States Championship because of the wind and the way the golf course reacts to those conditions. So he was kind of mentioning some of those European players that maybe are a little bit more comfortable in very windy, you know, even parry type of scoring conditions. Henley is the name I like. As I mentioned, Joaquin Niemann, Sam Burns, I think again is a name. He's been playing some excellent golf, played well at the US Open last year. Those are kind of the names I'm looking at. I like Patrick Reed. I think I say him every time I come on the show.
Yeah.
But I just feel like Patrick Reed's one of those guys that, you know, when it gets tough and everybody else is falling apart, he gets kind of excited. So those are kind of some of the maybe not superstar-y type of names I'm looking at.
Yeah, and Patrick Reed finished 4th last time he was at Shinnecock too.
He played pretty well.
He was right there, man.
He was right in it. So that, I mean, we might have an all-LIV podium for Hank. That'd be special. What's the latest on the blueprint of the foundation of the acceptance of the memorandum of understanding of the plan between the LIV and the PGA? Any progress?
Oh, it's— I mean, it's just— it's any day now. Like, you know it's coming. I mean, it's been 3 years of potentially happening the next day, which in theory, like the rapture, could happen tomorrow. Yeah, you know, Revelations tells us that. Like, it could be tomorrow that they shake hands and everybody's together again.
Yeah, you never know. And then, uh, do we have any more insight actually as to like, what is Liv still going to go through the end of the year this year? What is the— what are you hearing?
That's the latest. It does feel like that's going to happen. It feels like a lot of the reports of this being their last week and there's no tournament next week, it seems like they're really going to try to run this thing through the end of the year. Yeah, I think the hope there is just to catch the eyeballs of somebody that might have an interest in investing, whether it be a sponsor or a corporation, whatever the case may be. At least they can prove that they are going to finish out the year. I don't think they're going to cut it short. I think at least from what I've heard, the end of the year is the most likely scenario.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Shane, by the way, everyone watch the Scorecard. Like I said, also last-second Father's Day gift. If you are listening to this and either you're— if you're a woman listening and your husband needs a Father's Day gift, if you're a kid and you're— well, no, you have to be a small kid, right? You go to Amazon and buy Shane's book. It's a children's book. Yeah, you know, it's a good children's book. I have it in my house. I read it with my kids. My youngest is starting to— he notices when I have golf on TV. He's just like, oh, golf, golf. Usually get about 3 minutes where he watches with me and then he's on to something else. But yeah, go buy the book. Last question, Roback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com, promo code TAK, 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com, promo code TAK. Zach, you got some questions about U.S.
Open?
Hello, Shane. How you doing today, man?
Hey, Zach, did you move yet or no?
Uh, I'm moved yet, but moving soon. Like—
Okay, let me know when you— let me know when you're locked in. I got a friend of mine working on something for you, so let me know when you're done. I might actually— might be for all the boys, but you're gonna get the first one.
I don't know if you know the latest with Zach's moving, but he, uh, he's— he got a one-bedroom apartment and he's thinking about keeping the studio life, putting his bed in the living room, and having the one bedroom become his office. Gaming place.
Can I, can I say this? Because I mean, obviously I'm a big fan of Zach and have been since he joined the show. It's your place, do whatever you want with it, man.
Yeah.
You want to have the bed in the kitchen, do it. You don't even need a bed, you can sleep on the floor for goodness' sake.
I appreciate that vote of confidence, Shane.
Means more than you know.
A lot of guys saying a lot of square footage comments on, on setups, but that was huge.
It's your life. Okay, go ahead, Zach.
I was curious, I did have a quick golf question. As a man who is, you know, alumni of golf's biggest day, you're quite nice on— from the tee box. If there was a glitch in your game tomorrow and you could no longer hit the driver, where are we going?
Like, what club are we going?
Yeah, like, if you woke up and just like the driver's not an option anymore, you can't hit that, the glitch is confirmed, where— yeah, what, what club are we reaching for?
I mean, a lot of people say 3-wood. I'd probably go my, my driving iron. 2-iron is like my favorite club right now. Um, I'm obsessed with it. I hit it a whole bunch. So I'd say probably that club club, um, like for the rest of my life. If it was like marry, fuck, kill the clubs in your bag that's not a driver, that'd probably be the marry one.
Yeah. Now Zach, is this question specifically because we actually were lucky enough for a charity golf outing to go play Shore Acres, which I think is a top 100 course in America. Awesome, awesome place. Zach showed up, he had 4 clubs. Uh, I— what were your 4 clubs?
Oh, I had a 4, a 5, a putter, and, uh, like an approach.
Yeah, so he didn't have a driver.
So wait, you had a 4-iron, you had a 4-iron, a 5-iron, a sand wedge, and a putter?
Yes sir, which feels like some mainstays of any golfer's bag, man.
Man, I gotta be honest, that, that you got to be the only guy that's ever played, you know, like the Scorigami shit. You got to be the only guy that's ever played a golf course with that combination. Yeah, that's like nobody's ever played with a 4-5 sandwich putter ever.
That's disheartening. I thought I kind of had a solid like— as far as like a full set goes, I thought I was kind of in a decent spot.
Yeah, the backbone to the—
Same club. One of your— one of your clubs are the same club.
I know, but if one of the two doesn't do what you need to do, you can just forget about it and go to the other one, which kind of thought like start fresh, you know.
Do you— now let me ask— let me ask you a follow-up here. Sorry to— sorry to ask you the questions, but did you— do you have a full set of clubs?
Uh, Yeah, not on paper, not on paper.
Hypothetically, we have a million clubs.
What does not on paper mean? Like, I haven't fully assembled the bag yet. People say like, on paper I have a full set, but you said not, right? You don't, you don't have one?
No, not currently. Like, hypothetically, yes, I will, my bag will get to my game address.
No, no, no, that's the same thing you just said.
Hypothetically is the same thing as on paper. But both of these things don't make any sense.
Shane, what he's trying to say is that he has access to to so many golf clubs. Not only does— Okay. Not only do we have full sets here in the office by the simulator, but I have an old— my old set is sitting in my garage, which is a nice set because I got a new one from, from TaylorMade. Hank has offered his old set. I think PFT might have a couple sets.
Like, I've got an old set that, yeah, Colton has right here.
He could snap his fingers and have a full set of very, very nice golf clubs in a matter of, like, less than an hour. Yeah. Yeah, so on paper he's got a, he's got, he's got a, uh, he's got too many clubs. Zach, do you have another question?
Uh, yeah, I guess I can follow that up. Uh, with this tournament coming up this weekend, is there a guy that you know isn't gonna do it that I should stay far away from? Like a guy who's like predicted maybe could, but you're like, yeah, he's guaranteed to lose.
Yeah, you, you know, I'll give you Collin Morikawa. I don't think he's gonna do I, I, he's been battling since the injury at the Players has not been the same golfer's popped up a couple of times with some solid finishes, but going back to that needing to be 100%, I don't think he's 100% right now. And if you're not 100% around this place, it's just going to eat your dinner. So I don't, I'd say Collin is the guy in terms of that maybe top 15 ranking that I don't think has a real chance of winning.
That's a great answer.
It's good info. I appreciate that, Shane.
Shane, I got a question for you as a guy that plays a decent amount of golf. Golf. I have a real problem, and it's time for me to admit it. I've got a, I've got a big problem with losing clubs on the golf course, and it's always a wedge. I lost one at Hank's Club the other week. That course swallowed up my pitching wedge. I left one greenside like 2 weeks ago, my 60-degree, so I've just been hitting the 54 instead of that. Is there a tip that you have? How do you not— how do I stop forgetting my clubs?
I gotta be honest, the fellas are struggling with just golf club intake. Yeah, I mean, you got— Zaz got 4 clubs. PFT's losing left and right. Um, where do you leave— you leave— you always lose them when you're around the green, I'm assuming, right? Yeah, you—
yeah, green side typically.
I would say you want to leave it in this— where the pin is and the cart, leave it in that direction. So when you're walking back to the cart, you inevitably have to walk over it or by it. I trip. Don't leave it right outside the bunker you just hit out of. Place it in your, in your exit path, if you will.
Okay, that's good.
Yeah, and also don't leave it in the rough. Like, if you leave it in the rough, it's got no chance. You're not gonna see it. Put it on the fringe or on the green or whatever. Hey, Big Cat, real quick, I got a question for you.
Yeah.
Um, I sent you the, the version of that children's book. Um, do I get a version of y'all's book? Because I want to read it.
100% signed version. When is it?
When is it coming out? I'm excited.
This is a great toy. It's coming out in mid-August.
So I'm excited about this. Yeah.
You can preorder now, but yeah, we'll send you one for sure. Absolutely. Okay.
I'll Venmo you money for it too.
No, no, no. This one's on the house. This one's on the house. Okay. Yeah. All right.
I'm just making sure. Yeah.
I'm excited about that. Listen, I'm fully, I'll be transparent, like a parent buying their, their kids Girl Scout cookies so they can get the prize. I will be purchasing a bunch myself. And just like putting them in my basement. So I will have some extras.
I did the same thing with mine. And I gotta be honest, you give them away way faster, you know, because the last thing you're gonna do is if somebody asks you about your book that's at your house, you're gonna say, yeah, here's the Amazon link. You gotta give them the free one. I'm like, what are you? You can't be an asshole about it.
Exactly. Yeah. Anyone who comes to my house for the next 5 years is getting a book. That's—
That's big cat. Do people come to your house? No.
You got kids. No.
Yeah. You got— No one comes to my house.
Nobody comes to my house. I'll see that.
I think only Jerry O'Connell, Jerry stopped by one time.
Yeah. Jerry did stop by and he, my, he was, he had some language around my children that was not, he, he lets it fly. Listen, he's open to anything. He's open to the world. He's open to the universe. Hey, can I, can I ask this?
Can I ask a sports question too before I go? Yeah. I've lived in the Northeast. I moved here in '21. My son has kind of grown up living here basically. He's like a Northeasterner, right? Or whatever you would call it. I wanna, I wanna like be a Knicks fan. But I feel like then I'm going to be labeled the bandwagoner because of the success.
They just won.
Well, but I feel like I've wanted to be one for the last couple of years because we live up here and my son is kind of into Jalen Brunson. Is that okay to be a Knicks fan or no?
I think it's whatever your son picks for players is like, just let him just follow. Cause like, you know, kids are going to find their favorite players and, and yeah, I mean, listen, this would be right. Just be like, hey, I wasn't rooting for them when they won the title, but now I am. Now you're getting in as back at the bottom, right?
Right. I mean, everybody's— everybody's— nobody has a win or loss starting next season.
Exactly. I don't, I don't recognize that. It's actually— you could just say that it's actually 54 years for you because you weren't, you weren't around for last year.
Yeah. And also you can just celebrate the parade. You can be a fan of a parade this weekend.
Parades can be awesome. Yeah, parade's fun.
Do love a good parade. Um, I wonder how much this is going to affect, uh, this US Open because obviously I think a lot of people will probably be be a little bit more involved in the, um, festivities and maybe a little less about the golf. Maybe— what is it, the parade Saturday?
No, it's Thursday. But here's the thing about New York, there's a lot of people.
It's a good point.
They can go everywhere. Yeah, there's a lot of people in New York. It's pretty nuts that they could pack— they can pack multiple events at the same time.
Memes, do you accept Shane into the fandom?
Absolutely. Yeah, you're a winner now. Memes, the winner.
Yeah, I mean, Mims just lightened up. He's happy, man.
He gets to celebrate. Life's good. It's actually— we're all on pins and needles to see how long Mims, like, sticks with a smile and a good affect, because it's not going to be— he says he's changed everything. There's no way. There's just no way. If the Jets get killed in week 1, he's going to want to kill all of us. Yeah. So it's coming. It's just—
it's tough. It's like Arizona making the Final Four and they get smoked by Michigan. And it's like, what do you— how do you leave that? You know, are you like, happy about it that you made the final four. You bummed out that they lost. I, I, can I say one more US Open thing? I think Rory's got a chance to win as well.
Yeah.
I, I think the wind plays into Rory's hands. He was hitting this like bullet driver at Riviera this year that we'd never really seen him hit this before. And I think that comes out to play a lot this week. I really think Rory is top 2 or 3 pick if you're looking at like one of the favorites.
Okay. Love it. Well, Shane, you're the best. We appreciate you having on everyone. Check out the Scorecard and have fun out in, on Long Island, in Long Island. Long Island.
In, in Long Island.
Inside Long Island.
Yeah, in Long Island. Thanks, fellas. Appreciate you.
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This is a paid advertisement. Good morning, Kentucky. It is not Matt Jones. It is Pardon My Take, the Pardon My Takeover. Big Cat here, PFT next to me. Good morning, Kentucky.
All right, let's start with Andy.
Go ahead, Andy. Andy, what's up?
Hey, what's up, guys?
Hey, Andy.
I got a question for you.
Mm-hmm.
Okay, uh, I had called in and asked Matt and the guys, uh, a little over a month ago a question, and it kind of took off and everybody wanted to talk about it because it was so weird, but it would make you think. And Matt said something about you guys might have mentioned it on your show or whatever afterwards based on that. I'm not sure.
Okay.
But the question is If you— if someone broke into your house in the middle of the night and the only thing they did was hold you down for 5 minutes and tickle you, they didn't steal nothing. They didn't assault you in any other way, didn't bother the pets, anything. They just left. Would you report it? And if so, what would that conversation be like?
Is this Graham Plattner? Who's this? I don't— I don't know why I wouldn't report it. I think, I think I would be more freaked out by that.
Andy, can I ask some questions before we get to the hypothetical?
Go for it.
All right, where, where are you calling in from?
I'm calling in from, uh, here in, uh, Pulaski County in Bronson, Kentucky.
Okay, nice. So Andy, is this your hypothetical or did you see it somewhere else? Is the Andy original?
No, no, no, I came up with this on my own.
Okay, so this is an Andy original now. So I'm happy you answered that part. My follow-up to that is, has this happened to you, Andy?
It has not. I sit around and think of hypothetical questions all the time when I have just idle time or whatever. Yeah. And I, you know, it kind of based it on books that I read and shows that I listen to on television because I'm blind. I just listen to them.
I love that. Wait, wait, I have one other question, Andy, about the tickling thing. Are you, are you very ticklish yourself?
I was when I was a kid, not so much now.
Okay.
And Andy, is this something that you—
I was thinking of that question.
Is this something that you want to happen to you?
Well, no, not in that respect. Now, if it was a female, maybe.
Yeah, true. That's gonna be another question.
That's just guys rock.
Like if a chick did it.
That's a different situation.
Yeah, we know, Andy, listen, it's 3 guys just talking here. We— yeah, we'd like to get tickled by a hot chick, you know, big breasts maybe.
Uh-huh.
Mm-hmm. I think, Andy, uh, absolutely. I think that you might secretly want somebody to break into your house and tickle you deep down inside.
Not in respect to that question. Now, I'm just thinking I wouldn't report it myself because first of all, the police are not going to believe that. They're going to tell you you're full of it.
I, I think—
And then you got to go to court. Then you got to go to court and testify against that person and just say, well, all they did was tickle me. Yeah, that would not be fun.
Yeah, I think, um, I think it also depends on if you at any point got aroused, because if you got aroused while you're being tickled by another man in your house, I think then you just never talk about it again.
Yeah, I'm not getting aroused.
Well, you don't know. You haven't— like, there's, you know, the middle of the night, the terror part of this. You're being surprised. Like, listen, Andy, I'm with you. Like, I'm a straight man. Like, I probably wouldn't get aroused. But you also have never been in this situation and you don't know, like, what could happen here.
So I— Andy, I have seen a lot of The Pit. I've watched a lot of ER in my day. There is something called a fear boner. And that's something that I would be actually very, very scared of achieving at that point. And if that happened, I would actually probably be more likely to call the cops.
Right.
Because then I'm like, well, you— that's assault now. Now it's become assault because now I'm questioning myself and now I'm in a bad place mentally.
Yeah. Like, did you make me a little gay? Now is that assault?
Yeah, because I wasn't before. Right. So it's like somebody's got to answer for that. It's not going to be me.
Right.
Yeah, well, it is assault with the legality part of it, right? It's just the whole embarrassment of all they did was tickle me.
I got one more question about that. Are they, uh, are they tying you down and are they using any instrument to tickle you, or are we just talking fingers?
I hadn't gotten that deep in the hypothetical of it. I don't—
and are they saying Gucci Gucci Goo while they do it, or is it silent?
Oh, do they do a raspberry? Are they blowing on your tummy?
And then also, what if you're not ticklish at all?
Right. That'd be kind of weird.
That's probably where you get the boner.
Yeah.
All right. So, Andy, do you have other hypotheticals for us? Also, people online are now saying that you want to be tickled. Can we just— we're just saying you do not want to be tickled, correct?
I hope— I hope it's women and they're volunteering.
All right. Okay. All right.
I don't want to be tickled by no man.
Okay. All right.
We'll make that clear because it did seem to me like me.
It sounds like maybe you wouldn't hate it, right? Like maybe it'd be like, oh no, I hope I don't get tickled.
Oh, stop tickling me.
Oh, there's somebody lurking outside the house. I really hope they don't come in. I'm all tied down and very ticklish.
There's a feather.
Maybe not.
Yeah. Yeah. All right. So what else do you have for us, Andy?
Okay, so if you woke up tomorrow and for the next year you would only— you could have your 7-year-old voice or your 7-year-old body, but the other way, you would have your 7-year-old voice in your original body now for the next year, or you would have your 7-year-old body, but you would have your normal voice. Which would you pick?
Oh, that's a tough one.
And you're getting your same, like, brain no matter what, right?
Yes, yes.
Ooh. I don't know. I don't know about that one. Uh, I think I'd have to go with 7-year-old voice.
Oh, but think about how weird that would be.
Yeah, think about how weird it'd be if you had a 7-year-old, but big cat, what, you walk in, maybe your wife's at home, you're stepping out of the shower and it's like, oh, whoops.
Yeah, but PFT, this is, we're, we're like, in terms of doing our jobs, we're podcasters. But we would just have to do, I think I'd have to go body and be like, hey guys, we're not doing video anymore. Anymore. I gotta just keep doing my job and get through this year.
I'll put it this way. Uh, my body right now isn't that different from my 7-year-old body. I'm not a tall man. I'm not a large man. Um, I'm kind of used to that frame. Uh, but I, I do think that there might be something in the marketplace for a 7-year-old doing sports podcasts.
You have 7-year-old body.
7-year-old, like a 7-year-old voice.
Yeah.
A 7-year-old brain. The dumbest kids ever.
Yeah.
I could see that. Sitting around a coffee table in the basement.
Yeah, but then you talk about never have anyone, anyone see you on camera. Okay, good one. What else, Andy?
Okay. The other one is if there's 3 people, you can hit a button and fix it to where 3 people of your choosing could never tell a lie again the rest of their life. Who would the 3 be?
Ooh. Mm. Good question. Hmm. I feel like you'd have to go with—
these are tough ones.
Some type of politician or something, right?
I guess so. But do we really want to know the horrible truth?
Yeah. And also, yeah, like, this is tough because, like, would I pick, like, my spouse?
No, because, like, then when I say, oh, just white lies can be good.
Sure. Make me look fat. And she's like, no, you look fine. I know. Deep down, she's thinking I'm looking fat. Hmm.
Hmm. I think I would. I would. Oh, yeah. LeBron.
I mean, that's impossible. LeBron number one would be very funny because he'd have to tell us everything, like exactly how he feels and wouldn't be able to say he predicted everything. I'd take LeBron one.
What do you think about your son's game? LeBron? Yeah. Where would you— where do you think he ranks in the NBA? Yes. I would like to know. Yeah, I mean, I think our dear good friend Richard Patino. Yeah, might be a good one. That'd be interesting. We would have to know some, some cold hard facts about.
Yeah, I would like that as well. And then, hmm.
I know you know your friend Rick, Rick Patino, that you guys had him on a couple of years ago. I've met Rick. He's put my name in his book.
Really?
Side note there.
For the—
When I was 11, I was— I was K. Wood's favorite caller when I was 11 years old. And I met Pitino and went back to the locker room, met the guys, and he put that book, Full Court Pressure, he wrote. I'm on page 18 because I tried to bet a beer with him when I was 11.
That's awesome.
That is pretty good.
That's incredible. And then my last one would be Matt Jones, just so he could actually tell us where he's going on vacation for once. Andy, you, you, you are a hypothetical master. I love that you just sit around thinking of them. We appreciate you calling in. Any, any thoughts on Kentucky sports, basketball, football overall, how you feel about Jay Bat? Just give it to us.
Feel pretty good about the guy. I'm hearing good things. Forward thinker. I wanted someone in there that's younger than me. He's a year younger than me. They're just good at fundraising. And we, we definitely need to start doing things in the right direction based, you know, getting ahead of the curve. And as far as the basketball team, I, I was very pessimistic until we got Montilovich. And I think that moved them up a few pegs. And I'm not predicting the championship, but I would be happy with an Elite Eight.
This year. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Uh, Silovich is actually really, really good. I mean, that was a huge, huge add for you guys, especially late in the transfer—
I was calling for that guy in March.
Yeah, he's an incredible shooter. Yeah. Uh, is there somebody in Kentucky that, that you would like to see step up and maybe contribute, um, towards some of the fundraising for NIL that you think has been sitting on the sidelines for too long? Who's the whale out there that we need to reach?
Oh, that's a good question. It's not me.
But, but I bet you know somebody. I bet there's somebody out there that Kentucky fans are like, you know what, I have heard there's one thing that Kentucky can do, and that's bring back the old school Wildcat logo.
Yeah, they could do that.
It's an amazing logo.
PFT, you're telling this to a guy who's been blind since birth.
That's a great point. That's a great point.
Andy, I apologize to my friend PFT there.
I forgot about that, Andy. I forgot. Hand up. That one's on me. It's fine. And it's a really good logo. Has anyone, has anyone ever described to you the logo change?
I've heard about the logo.
Have they described it to you being like, Andy, you would love this?
Yeah, I heard it. It's kind of big.
Yeah. Yeah. It's good.
Yeah. Andy, you're the best. Thank you so much for this call. This is like whenever we host this program, we always are hoping for calls like yours. So We really appreciate it. I appreciate it. Yeah. If we host next year, call back in. We'd love to talk to you again.
No problem. Absolutely.
All right. Thanks, Andy.
Andy's the absolute man. That's all he does.
Screwed up. I did screw that one up. Yeah, it's all right. But it's okay. That's fine.
And I think he's got a great sense of humor. He's just thinking of hypotheticals.
I'm not treating Andy any differently than I would any other caller. That's facts. Yeah. And I do think that Andy does want— he does. He's got like a sign outside of his house that says like, hey, tickles. I leave my door unlocked. Yeah. And my feather primed. Body ready to be tickled. Yeah.
All right, we're back. It is Pardon My Take, takeover for KSR and Matt Jones on vacation. We now welcome on a very, very special guest. It is head football coach of the Kentucky Wildcats, Will Stein. Coach, can you hear us?
Big Cat, I got you, man. I am a longtime listener. I consider myself an AWL. Love you, love PFT, love Henry. I'm, uh, fired up to talk to you guys.
I love that. I did not know that, but I love to hear that. So how, uh, I mean, now I like— that's, that's the best thing you could ever do. Completely disarmed us. Yeah, we were like, we're just gonna, we're just gonna keep praise on you.
Flattery will get you everywhere.
Yeah, you have the, you have the best, easiest interview ever set up right now. Not that it was going to be hard before that, but, uh, how's, how's everything going? You, you got the job at Kentucky. A few months ago. You got spring ball done, training camp coming up. How are we feeling? Top 25 recruiting class, which is the first time in a long time, or maybe ever, at Kentucky football. Feels like things are going the right direction, but how's everything going from your perspective?
Yeah, so far so good. I thought we had a really good spring. We got, you know, 44 new people into our program in January, which was absolute craziness. You know, I was the offensive coordinator at Oregon before, and was going through the playoff run with them while also being the head coach at Kentucky, which is, um, something I don't recommend any new head coach to do. But, uh, was, was fortunate enough to have 3 unbelievable seasons with Dan out there at Oregon. And now coming back home to my home state in Kentucky, where my dad played, which is really special to me, um, and building this thing, you know, in a different way, which is, uh, which has been really fun, really exciting. And our guys have bought in and have done a great job so far.
Yeah, I mean, this is a, it's an interesting situation that you're in as a guy that did play quarterback at Louisville and now you're at Kentucky. Now you've said that you wanted to play at Kentucky when you were growing up. That was a school that you wanted to play football for. Just so that we can put Big Blue Nation at ease, do you bleed blue or do you bleed red?
I bleed blue for sure.
Oh, you should get that checked out.
Yeah.
One, we should prove it. Yeah.
And then two, also get it checked out. Yeah, we should prove that. Yeah. No doubt. Yeah, definitely got to prove that. Yeah. But no, yeah, man, my dad played here in the early '80s, and I grew up coming to Commonwealth Stadium like every Saturday that the Cats played here and would go to Rupp Arena on those like Tuesday night, like 9:00 PM tips. And yeah, I grew up a diehard Kentucky fan and wanted to come here up until about 3 months before my senior year was done in high school and ended up going to Louisville, which You know, I can't say anything, you know, bad about my experience there. It was obviously really good, but it did feel so much at home to put the Kentucky colors back on, uh, in December. So fired up about this opportunity.
So you mentioned like it's a unique way to build a team that you're going to have an opportunity to do. What is— what's going to be different about how you're going to build this Kentucky team than maybe what they've seen in the past?
Yeah, I mean, I think we're just aggressive in recruiting, you know. Like, I think if you want to like get these great players Like, you just, you got to wake them up in the morning. You got to put them to bed at night. Like, you got to constantly recruit. It is truly the lifeblood of our program. And the best teams I've been on, whether that's Little League or high school football or college football now, had the best players. And so how do you do that? You got to be ultra-aggressive. You have to develop real relationships with these players. And in the age of NIL and portal where money does matter, it still goes back to just building these relationships with the players, with their families, with their agents now, with their coaches. Everybody in their circle to where when they come on your campus 2, 3, 4, 5 times, they feel at home. And then really the deal comes in after that. So we're, we're fishing with the big fish, you know, and, uh, and not sitting back and waiting.
Yeah, the— so as you know, Coach, and people are listening who maybe don't know our program, we, we judge acronyms, we judge sayings. You could tell a lot about a coach depending on what their sayings are. You know, this is the Matt Iber— I'm a Bears fan. Matt Iberflues had the hits, which I knew right away. So stupid, because I'm pretty sure the T in it was the ball, which made no sense. But you have a saying that I have to say, I'm gonna tip my cap. I believe in it. It's feed the studs. Can you explain to us what feed the studs means on a day-to-day basis?
Yeah, for sure. I mean, ultimately it means like players win games. You know, we have great scheme. I pride myself on having a great offense, great defense, great special teams now. And everybody runs inside zone and 4 verticals, but it looks a lot better when you got good players doing it. So that's our job, is to get our best players the ball as many times as possible. So, um, it's not just like wideouts and running backs to me. It's like, we got a big left tackle named Lance Hurto. I'm so fired up to have on our team. And how do we get him out in space? You know, um, how do we get our defense playing relentless, uh, on that side of the ball with great pressure packages and allowing the best rushers to rush the passer and not just clicking out in coverage every single time. So it's really just a mantra, it's a mindset more than anything, like get our guys the ball, get our players in positions to make plays.
Yeah, because you— I mean, we do do something similar here at Barstool, uh, HQ in Chicago where on Sundays we feed our studs studs. And that's just us getting like probably about $1,000 worth of takeout and eat throughout all of NFL Sunday.
So we're in on Feed the Studs. Ice cream machine. Do you have an ice cream machine in the facility?
What? Uh, we don't. I just got like a margarita machine at home though, which is pretty— okay, I definitely recommend that.
Yeah.
Um, but no, I mean, what's the— what's the order for the guys? Is it like we just going straight like Buffalo Wild Wings?
No, no, on Sundays it's every— it's, it's basically You know, if you're— if you are coaching a football game and you're— and you're talking about like leaning on them in the run game, wearing them down, that's what we do with our food game. So it's like somewhere around 11 noon kickoff Central Time, 11:30, they'll probably be wings, just like 100 wings. Then around 1 o'clock, there'll be some type of cheesesteak or something like that, sandwiches. Then we'll hit them with the pizza when they're not expecting it. That's about 2 o'clock, 2:30. Oh yeah. And then we'll come over the top around 5:00 with some Chinese food. And that's pretty much every Sunday.
There's also one important step before the fourth quarter of the opening games on NFL Sunday. You know, you might put your fours up. I go to the ice cream machine. That's when I restock. That's when I get some dairy in me for health, for energy. And you burn that fat off in the fourth quarter.
Feed the studs.
Yeah. When everybody else is feeling down, I get an energy boost right there.
Is there like a fourth quarter song? Is it like "Jump Around"? Do we have anything going on?
No, although I got two cranks. I just got— We just came in possession of two different cranks, one from MLS team and then one from the Bradley Braves, the sirens. So we're going to start doing sirens in the office.
We're going to start cranking. Does Kentucky have anything like that before the game?
Well, that's what I'm in the mix of working through with our marketing team is like, how do we get this thing like rocking? So I got, I got a couple ideas for a walkout song, you know, you know, third down. I'm thinking like the Purge siren. You guys know that one?
Oh yeah, I like that.
Kind of creepy, you know, something different. So. So, you know, whenever people ask me that, I just like word vomit what I'm thinking, and then our marketing team is probably right now just like going crazy, like pissed off that I'm just putting all this stuff out there. It's kind of funny.
All right, Coach, we ask every guest that we have on our show and on Kentucky Sports Radio this question: if somebody broke into your house in the middle of the night and you were asleep and they held you down and tickled you for hours— No, no, 5 minutes. 5 minutes.
5 minutes.
And then left. Would you call the police? Would you report it?
Didn't do any other— any harm or anything else.
Just tickle.
Just tickled you 5 minutes, got up and left, just walked away. Would you call the police?
I mean, I don't know if it'd be like an initial call. I think I'd have to report that person. Be a little creepy, but—
Listen, your first time head coach, I just want to jump in and do some PR 101 for you can you imagine the headlines that would come out the next day after you filed that police report? Kentucky head football coach held down and tickled in the middle of the night. No injuries. Called the cops. Yeah, that'd be a little soft, wouldn't it?
Yeah, I think you can't call—
okay, all right. Yeah, I can, I can pivot. I can pivot. Yeah, you gotta have a growth, growth mindset right now, and I'll fix that thought.
Yeah, I love that.
No cops being called.
I think your mentality should be like, if somebody breaks in our— we don't, we don't feel pressure, we apply it. You got to tickle that guy first.
Mm-hmm. Tickle back.
Yeah, tickle back harder. Tickle back.
Coach, are you, are you going to continue this tradition, which I was just made aware of today, of Dan Lanning taking off his shirt before third down period every single week, every single practice that you guys did that? Are you going to start doing that? What is that? Why do you do that?
You know, I think it just, it started when it was cold outside and, you know, it was kind of his deal of like, hey, it doesn't matter, I'm taking my shirt off. Like, you guys can act cold and have your hands in your pocket, I'm not. You know, I'm like, I'm not the guy that's like, how tough can I be and like brave the weather? I'm like, if it's cold out, I'm gonna put a jacket on, you know. If it's raining, I can put a rain jacket on. I mean, you can call me soft, you can call me the tickle guy, whatever. But like, you know, I'll let Dan do that. I feel like if I do that and that goes on social media, I mean, that's, that's like, it's such like a, a copycat deal. Yeah, it was great because one of our managers, kind of a heavier set kid, he was awesome, uh, Mitch. Shout out Mitch. He'd rip off his shirt too. So it was like Dan versus Mitch in this like shirt-off contest on third down, period. And it was, uh, it was a lot of fun.
I do love that. Also, by the way, Coach Coach, you don't have to tell us that, you know, you're a little soft. You literally just told us 2 minutes ago you'd call the cops if you got tickled for 5 minutes. Come on, that's crazy.
That's right.
Golly.
Also, shout out Mitch catching some strays on Kentucky Sports Radio this morning.
No, I mean, but that actually— you needed, you needed to say that part because it was obviously like part of the whole, whole thing. But yeah, that's, that's very funny that he would take off his shirt like that. I think he was just trying to show off his tattoo. Tattoos.
Yeah, he does have a lot of tattoos. I mean, not just his wife's, uh, his face, but you know, he would like— he'd get some tattoos for like recruits, you know, they commit. He's like, I'm getting a tat of your name. So he's got like names plastered all across his body of just like the Coran Moore and all this stuff. It's hilarious.
Yeah.
Uh, Coach, Kentucky, is it a football school or is it a basketball school?
All right, I'm gonna ask you this first. PFT, JMU, women's lacrosse school or football school?
Everything school. And you know that because you got to see it firsthand the second half of that bowl game.
I did. I saw JMU. And then I'm going to ask you, Big Cat, Wisconsin, women's hockey school or football school?
Oh, women's hockey. We have a dynasty going. We're the greatest to ever do it. It's not even close.
Yeah. Yeah. No, listen, I'm in the mindset like I'm obviously the football coach. I want this to be the most elite program in the country. So that's my mindset. And I'm the biggest Kentucky basketball fan too, like talking about growing up a UK basketball fan, used to go to Tubby Smith basketball camp and play against like Tayshaun Prince and Keith Bogans and all these great players. And we come to UK football camp and see great players as well, Tim Couch, Jared Lorenzen, just to name a few. So I'm in the mindset, especially with our new athletic director Jay Batt, like why can't we be good at both, you know? So I'm fired up to watch Kentucky basketball play, but I know one thing, we play, uh, our first game September 5th. I think it's like 79 days out if I'm right. So, um, I'm fired up about Big Blue Nation being there and, and having an awesome season.
Uh, have you heard about the SEC coaches group chat that goes down?
Yeah, I'm in it.
You're in it? No, no, no, we're not talking about that one. We're talking about the one with Lane and Kirby, the one where things get a little special.
One— oh, I have, I've— okay, different chat.
Yeah, the one that you're in, you're talking about the one with the, uh, commissioner, and it's like just a way to immediately let every coach know official SEC news. Yeah, we're talking about the one in the lane where there's, there's GIFs and there's images and some questionable emojis that get tossed out every now and again.
I've heard about some chats that, that are out there, you know. I, I may have seen a few chats myself, but, uh, yeah, I think there's some, you know, guys have a good time. Yeah, you're gonna have to— any group chats? I mean, it's like, it's like the group chats with my buddies back home. I mean, yeah. They can get a little bit outrageous.
Yeah, you're going to have to earn your stripes though, because we asked Lane when we were at—
There's no doubt.
—in Baton Rouge. He said he wouldn't let a first-year head coach— we, as we, as far as we know right now, it's, it's Sark, Kirby, Lane, and then Drinkwitz.
I think Drink is in it. Yeah, I think he confirmed that to us.
So do you have to go like do yoga with him first? Like, are you guys in a chat now?
So we are, we are in a group chat. It's a different group chat.
Not to brag.
But yeah, I would actually highly recommend doing yoga early in the morning with Lane Kiffin. It's a great way to wake up.
Mm-hmm. How was it? Was it like the intense cardio yoga?
Yes. Or was it just like stretch?
It was CrossFit. We had weights. Oh damn. Yeah.
And he, yeah, that's tough.
And Lane looked at Zach and said he doesn't have any fast twitch muscle. I was like, you didn't have to have us come to yoga to figure that out, Lane. We could have just told you on the phone.
Right, right. Then they screamed at us when we left the room to get warm.
Isn't it amazing how like, isn't it amazing how like a, like a 5-pound weight feels like £45 in my hand?
Oh, well it grew. Yeah. Well here's the trick. So they told us to get like, I think I think they said get some 20-pound weights, and, uh, we went back to the weight rack and the 15-pounders looked exactly like the 20-pounders. So we said, yeah, we'll just grab those.
I yelled to the boys, I was like, hey, don't grab 20s.
No, no, absolutely not. And then how good it feels when you open up that door when it's all done.
I mean, the best, the best. Sounds like you're a hot yoga.
It is like one of the best feelings. Yeah, I've done it before. Like, I know PFT, you lived in Austin, right? I lived in Austin, did that CorePower Yoga. My girlfriend at the time, now wife, like we would go— I think we got like a month subscription or something or membership and I felt like I was literally just going to pass out every single time I even just started it.
Yeah!
And then there's people to my left and the right doing like headstands and some crazy stuff.
I'm like, "How is this possible?" And then yeah, you walk outside into the Austin heat and you get no relief whatsoever from the heat that you were just in there a second ago. Exactly! I was looking at your, uh, your resume. It is kind of interesting because you went from Texas, you were there with Coach Strong, and then, uh, you went to coach at Lake Travis High School. What was that like? Because some would say that Lake Travis is, you know, they, they kind of run their football program more like a, a college program than a lot of schools across the country. But what was it like coaching in high school then?
It was awesome. You know, I, I'd been in college football for 5 years as like a quality control and just really wanted to to get my hands on calling plays. And so the Lake Travis job opened up, and I spent one year with Tom Herman in his first season at Texas. And then I was like, you know what, let me go— I want to try this myself. So I interviewed for it and got the job, and a kid named Hudson Card was my quarterback. And then I had some receiver named Garrett Wilson, if you guys know him, he was my wideout. And so, I mean, it was like crazy, you know, designing plays and things for Garrett, who absolutely dominated high school competition. And we had a blast. You know, I learned a lot. I learned how to call plays. I learned how to, you know, be in a program like Lake Travis that had 6 state championships up to that point and really, you know, engross myself into their culture and try to lead a group of men that had been in that program coaching for, you know, 15 years. So I enjoyed it.
I loved it. It allowed me to stay in Austin for 2 more years and end up getting married during that time. And so I would never take it back being a high school coach in Texas. It was awesome.
Yeah, I did not realize that you were worked for Coach Herman when you were at Texas too. As a quality control guy, how instrumental were you in terms of hanging up the Longhorn football hydration charts above every urinal?
Um, I don't know if I was really responsible for those, but it's funny how that hydration chart and like got throughout all of college football. Like, you could go in facilities across America and they have these like, you know, intense hydration charts and basically call you every name in the work as, as dehydrated as you become. So, um, it's funny, man. I think you guys should get one in your office, you know.
Oh yeah, yeah, we did.
Oh nice, we hung one up. It was, it was just all— we were all bad guys. Yeah, we were the, the last one on the list. Yeah. And I remember the, the second to lowest was, uh, blatant disregard for your teammates. You were headed to Area 51. What was Area 51 for having dark urine?
It was like the, uh, you know, where the injured guys would go that were trying to get back on the field and, you know, they made it to where it was like complete hell going to Area 51. Like, if you had a sprained ankle, you'd go over there and do like 1,000 bicep curls, you know, like you couldn't even feel your arms anymore. So it was kind of the spot that would make you not want to be injured to get back on the field as fast as possible.
Gotcha.
Uh, Coach, we really appreciate you joining us. Uh, now that we know that you're a listener, we'll have to have you on, uh, Pardon My Take as well anytime you're in Chicago. But best of luck We are rooting for you. That's literally all it takes is if you say that you like us, we are now going to be rooting for you forever. So thank you so much for joining us. And, uh, you know, let's go, let's go win the SEC this year.
Let's do it. Why not? Why not us? I appreciate you, Big Cat. PFG, thanks for having me on. All right, go Cats.
Thanks so much, Coach. Uh, Shannon, who do we have on? Let's go to Matt. Matt.
Hey guys, it's an honor to be getting to talk to you guys. I'm a big fan.
Love it. Huge fan.
Thank you, Matt.
I'm barefooted out in my garden. Just got done meditating in beautiful Hyman, Kentucky, up in a holler. And I got two questions. Do you know why they call it a holler?
I don't know.
No.
You can holler all you want. Nobody gonna hear you.
Oh, I like that.
That's good. That's good. Okay.
And, and the second one, the second one is which before we got Milan, you know, we were unranked. Can you name the 5 teams that started the season off unranked and won a national championship?
Oh, boy. Oh, I don't, I don't know that I could.
Give me a, give me a couple of years, like year, like decades.
There's probably gonna be some of the '80s.
Okay. Okay. Yeah. Two in the '80s.
You got—
Villanova. One Villanova.
Yep. Villanova. Yep.
Yep.
NC State.
Kansas.
Okay.
Oh, Kansas.
Okay.
Syracuse.
Okay. The Carmelo year.
Florida.
Yep. Yep. Uh, Florida the first year when they, uh, did the back-to-back.
Yep.
You know, in '11. And UConn.
Oh, Kevin Ollie's UConn.
Yep.
Or was it, was it Dan Hurley's UConn in 2023?
No, no, it was, uh, it was at Ollie's.
Yeah, the Ollie year. All right, so Matt, um, did you— now you said, is it Hindman or Hyman?
Hindman, H-I-N-D-A-M, Hindman, Kentucky. Okay.
Knox County, Kentucky.
What's, what's going on there? So you're barefoot in your— do you ever step on like a fire ant or anything?
You worried about that?
No, my garden is like my— it's my paradise. I take such good care of it. I can walk around in this thing barefoot. I till all day long barefooted. I love it. I love it. What do you— have you ever— have you ever just took your shoes off and just— just walk around in the grass?
Yeah.
It does feel good.
Yeah.
It's the best. It gets you grounded to start the day.
Do you— what do you grow out there? Yeah.
Oh, I got sweet potatoes. I got Yukons. I got romaine lettuce. I've got onions. I just picked about 8 heads of onions. I've got cabbage, green beans. I've got peas. I mean, I've got anything, all kinds of tomatoes. We— I was raised to grow a garden.
I love that. I love that. So, so Hindman only has 700 people. Like, have you lived there your whole life?
No, I grew up in Hazard, Hazard, Kentucky.
Okay.
But, but we've always had this. This is like my, my parents' home place.
Yeah.
And I built a house beside them and, and it's just, it's, it's secluded. I can just do whatever I want and nobody bothers me. And I love it. I love it.
I love it. I'm looking at it right now. I'm in right now and it's It looks like a perfect little Appalachian town.
Sounds beautiful. Tell me about the gingerbread festival y'all got there.
Yeah, well, you know, we had a couple floods here. We're getting back to normal now, but it really, it really wiped us out there for a while. I was actually trapped up in my holler for 7 days. Couldn't get out when we had that flood. But, but the gingerbread is awesome. Gingerbread is awesome. The blooming onions, the gingerbread. Oh, so good. We usually have some good music, good bluegrass music. You know, everybody's friendly. It's nice.
Love that. Love that. Well, thank you so much, Matt, for the call. Great talking to you. And sounds like you got that garden. It sounds like paradise. Paradise, like you said.
It does. Have fun in the holler.
All right, thank y'all.
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Www.gymshark.com/pmt. Okay, Hank, wrap us up. We've got FAQs.
A couple weeks ago you laughed that it's hard for McGregor to stay motivated to get his face punched in while getting a blowjob on his mega yacht. With all the success of the podcast has had, do you ever have times where it's hard to stay hungry? And if so, how do you deal with it?
I was gonna say, um, with—
I'm always hungry.
The thing difference there's a lot of differences between this podcast and Conor McGregor. I'll put it that way.
He also, I would say—
There's also no end goal. Podcast was just, it's just for fun. It's not like we were trying to, there's no championship or belt to be won.
Yeah. He also has, I would say, a very large amount of money that's more than what we have, I would imagine. But no, I think the big difference is too, is that like in the fight game, the training and everything goes involved, involved with it. And then you're fighting what, once a year, maybe twice a year. With the podcast, we podcast 3 times a week. Like, I don't want to put out a bad product. I want to— I take personal pride in it. So the hunger comes from more like, I don't want to be washed.
For us, the training is the product.
Yeah.
If that makes— your practice is a product. I do think that, um, big difference is like Conor McGregor, he was the GOAT, like in his division. Nobody was touching him for a while. He still has the opportunity to get back and become—
Double champ.
Yeah. So, so for us, we know that we're never going to beat the Tennis Podcast. So we don't, we don't ever have that feeling like we've achieved everything.
I also will say that we have definitely done a better job overall. Like the first couple of years, it was not— there was no breaks whatsoever. We're doing, we're mixing in a couple couple here. Yeah, we've done a good job of that, wouldn't you agree, Hank?
Definitely.
Yeah. Uh, what's up boys? Me and my buddy are 10 episodes into starting our podcast. Not looking for a plug, but was just curious if you guys have any tips about growing the pod. I'm 31, huge AWL. You boys inspired me to start this thing up. Any tips would be awesome.
You should try to get sued.
Yeah, I was gonna say, I actually wrote a chapter in the Pardon My Take book. Go buy it on Amazon, uh, it's out in August. You can pre-order now. All pre-orders very appreciated. Uh, I think it was the title of the chapter was 4, 4, uh, keys to starting a podcast, and one of them was getting sued.
Getting sued is the best way. Yeah, all press is good press.
The other was, I think one of the others, I'm not gonna give away the whole book, the other one of the other ones was, uh, have someone on who says that Adam Morrison has an apocalypse bunker.
That was a big help. Good advice.
That's really big help.
I'd say be so smart that you get everything right or be so dumb that you get literally everything wrong. Those are the two best ways to go.
When people ask me this, my, my answer is usually the same. And it's, it's, it's not— it's a boring answer. But I think it's also one that is not— I'm not gonna say correct answer, because it's not like I know everything about everything. But the key to it, in my eyes, is dependability. You have to say, if we're doing the podcast 3 times a week, we do it 3 times a week, every week, no days off. Like, you have to deliver for the fans. You can't be like, oh, well, you know, oh, there's no sports to talk about Friday, we're not gonna have a show, or oh, we're, you know, not feeling well. Like, you just have to do it because to be successful in this world, you have to become part of people's routines and, and be dependable for people to be like, okay, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I open up my— I open up my phone and part of my take is there. And the first time you stop doing that, people then break the routine and go find something else. So that would be my biggest— the easiest way to clear the smallest bar is to just be there and do it over and over.
And even if you get discouraged right away, you got to keep going because that's, that's what gets the audience.
Good answer. All right, well, end with this one. Hi, Big Cat, PMT, Hater Hank, and Married Max. Now that memes is a winner, who is the biggest loser on the pod now? I think it's a pretty easy answer.
Who?
Let's do playoff droughts. Have you made the playoffs this year?
Yeah. In multiple sports.
Max? Yes, in multiple sports. Zach?
Yes. I have.
Actually, my answer is yes in every sport.
But that's sick. That's sick. That's an— 2 out of 4. You think? Have you, uh, if the season ended today, the, uh, Nats would be tied for the wild card. Okay, that's—
oh, oh yeah, you—
I was such a good— PFT came up to me today and he was like, hey Max, uh, congrats on being tied in the wild card. And I'm like, I'm just not tied in the wild card, I'm firmly in the wild card. And I was like I was like, but the Nationals are tied in the wild card with 3 other teams. And then he was like, he was like, well, if the playoffs ended today, uh—
We'd both be wild card.
That's also not true.
Yeah, we'd be wild card.
No, he came over to me, tried to dunk on me that the Nats were tied.
I was trying to congratulate you.
They were a game and a half back of the Phillies, not tied with the Phillies.
I came over to congratulate you on making the wild card.
No, you tried to come over and dunk on me for the Nats having the same record as the Phillies, which they do not.
Not true. I was trying to congratulate my friend on having a wildcard team. That's the last time I'll do that. Noted. Got it. Message received, Max, loud and clear. I've learned my lesson. I won't be so nice in the future.
So I think— is that the answer?
So yeah, the answer you were looking for— you were just asking me if the Nats, if the playoff, if the season ended today.
No, no, I said that. Have you made playoffs since last time? When you made the playoffs.
And the answer to that is yes.
Made the playoffs. Cubs would be in the playoffs. Your answer was a hypothetical answer, which—
Right now.
Is the answer.
I think the podcast is a hypothetical answer.
Shows how much of a loser you are.
Tiebreaker over the Nationals.
Pause.
Cubs would also be tied for the wild card.
Correct.
So we're doing playoffs now. You're the one who said—
That's what defines, yeah, winning.
What, making the playoffs, Hank?
Well, it's a good indicator of who's the biggest loser. It means you lose the most. Our teams win enough to at least make the playoffs.
Okay.
You guys just lose in everything.
Get your heads—
If we did rings, then I would be the loser because I have the longest drought.
When was your last— 2016.
2016.
So yeah, I would say like losing on the biggest stages might make you more of a loser.
Oh, the biggest loser.
Yeah.
Was the question biggest loser?
Yeah.
That might be you.
That's what I'm saying. Like, yeah, you lost Liv. Lost Liv.
Not yet.
Lost the Super Bowl.
Mm-hmm.
Listen to Daddy Yankee.
Got good at golf, then switched, lost that.
I mean, if getting to the Super Bowl and losing makes me a big— the biggest loser, I'm fine with that.
You made us lose Mr. Bing Bong.
I did not. He just quit. Quitter.
That's fine, Hank. Get your hits in now. Get your little chuckles in now.
Ooh, you gonna Dan Hurley him?
Yeah, get your chuckles in now, Hank. We'll see. We'll see. You don't see what I see. That's fine. All right, numbers.
He was talking about getting sucked off. Uh, 3.
Who was that? Memes always like to throw dig at shade right before lottery, y'all.
Yeah.
19.
Uh, 50. 28.
39.
30. Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up.
95.
25.
Jacob, 25.
5 for Colton. 5 for Colton.
5 for Colton.
58. Anyone? 58. Nope.
All right, one more.
Same number, same again. 28. 50. 6, 6, 6.
It's close. This thing is humming.
One more, one more. Let's do one.
Yeah, let's do one more. Why not?
I feel like someone's gonna get it right.
I'm rooting for PFT. Why? I don't know.
Hank just said he needs to win. Hank, have you gotten this?
Yeah. You did, right?
It's just PFT Memes. Money money.
37. Oh, that was close. Hey Memes, I appreciate it.
Yeah.
You're a good guy, Memes.
Thanks, man. Just want to see my boy succeed.
Uh, happy birthday to, uh, Amari Cooper. I hate that. Me and him, little broing me now.
Yeah, he just little bro'd the fuck out of me.
Happy birthday to Cristiano Ronaldo Jr., Venus Williams, Kyle Bowler, and Brianna Chicken Fry. Also happy birthday to Antonio Gates. Happy birthday to Scooter Braun, our GOAT.
Yep.
Love you guys.
The Knicks hangover from Saturday and Jalen Brunson is making every list right now. PFT has a theory and Giannis maybe a Celtic? (00:00:00-00:31:25) World Cup draws are sweeping the nation (00:31:25-00:40:46). Hot Seat Cool Throne including PCA’s cycle and Mr Bing Bong retiring (00:40:46-00:58:21). Shane Bacon joins the show to break down the US Open at Shinnecock, who can win, why the course is perfect and should we be worried about Scottie (00:58:21-01:35:12). We hosted Kentucky Sports Radio and have our best calls including the best hypothetical ever and an interview with HC Will Stein (01:35:12-02:10:37). We finish with listener FAQ’sYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Netflix. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/pardon-my-take