Transcript of Week 7 Picks And Preview, Bears Win TNF, Blake Griffin Talking NBA + Fyre Fest Of The Week New

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Trust no one and accuse everyone in Who's the Bad Guy, the official Barstool Sports social deduction game from the brilliant mind of Nick Turanyi. In what's quickly becoming the most popular new party game around, players are secretly assigned unique roles with the good guys trying to expose the bad guys and the bad guys doing everything they can to stay Stay hidden. Each game unfolds under alternating day and night phases with roles like the cool chick, the shy guy, the gambler, El Presidente, the mentalist, the planner, the funny guy, and more. Every round is unpredictable, chaotic, and ridiculously fun. Who's the Bad Guy is great for parties, pre-games, family gatherings, or groups who just love deception-based games. Game night will never be the same. Shop now on walmart.com. On today's part of My Take presented by DraftKings, we've got our good friend Blake Griffin on the show talking about his new show. Everyone should go watch. All AWLs, please go watch. We also, uh, talk some NBA with him. Week 7 picks and preview.

Thursday Night Football, which we're going to talk about, uh, the Bears beat the Patriots. We also have the boys back from New York. They went to Banner Night, so we're going to get a little talk about that. We have Fyre Fest. We're going to send you into a great football weekend and it is all brought to you by our friends at Chevy. Football season is here and whether you're grinding through the week or gearing up for kickoff, there's one ride that's always game ready. It's the Chevy Silverado. There's a reason Chevy's called the heartbeat of America and Silverado keeps that heartbeat strong. Whether you're towing, hauling, or tailgating, Silverado lets you show up strong and tackle any task with best-in-class standard torque, the most functional bed, and the advanced tech that's football guy approved. Check out the current offers on the 2026 Silverado at chevy.com. Okay, let's go. Hey, football guy, Patino, AWM. Welcome to Part of My Take presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Friday, October 23rd, and the Bears are back. The Bears beat the Patriots Thursday Night Football 32-24. Henry?

Yeah.

What's up?

Congratulations. Congratulations. Good win.

It was a great game.

It was, it was entertaining game.

I think what's really entertaining is that we're going to have everybody get to listen to the end of this podcast, which we recorded like 5 hours ago. I almost— a lot of people said a lot of things.

I almost nailed the final score if the Patriots didn't. I think I said at the end of the show, 31-21.

Yeah, it's pretty close.

Bears.

Yeah, no, it was, it was, it was an entertaining game. Defense played well. Drake Maymade got concussed. Bears hit him dirty right before the interception, had a doy-doy interception in the end zone in the first half, and that ended up being the difference in the game.

concussions.

Why didn't you go to the blue tent?

Big Cat.

Oh yeah, actually, no, I know I was at my question. No, I get my question.

I'm not, I'm not on the staff. I'm not sure.

Okay.

My first question, Hank, is can I apologize for not raising my hand at this press conference?

Sure.

Okay.

Question.

Yeah. Dan.

I actually thought Drake May played fine outside of the doy doy interception. He was, it was 2 really good quarterbacks. But I do have a question because you called Caleb Williams a checkdown king. Earlier, uh, today. And Caleb Williams was fucking awesome tonight. He was throwing absolute seeds down the field. Luther Burden in the first half was on fire. Rome with that insane— I mean, that throw out of the end zone. There's a couple. The one where he got face-masked and he hit, I think it was Rome, down the field. Uh, and then, yeah, that one, that one was insane. And then he hit the one to Rome where Rome had to like, you know, adjust his body a little bit. And it was just an absolute dart. Do you still think he's a checkdown king?

I don't.

Okay.

That was based off a graphic that was like the shortest yards per throw in the NFL. He was at the top of it.

Yeah.

Just a little banter. But yeah, no, he played, he played out of his mind. The 3rd down conversions that they had, the touchdown in the first half was like 3rd and 17 to Luther. Yeah, that was a touchdown. And then second half they had him backed up. Twice, 3rd and pretty long, and he converted both times. It was— we just couldn't, couldn't catch a break.

Yeah, he finished with 326 yards total rushing and throwing 308 yards. And he was awesome. Like, he was just— his command of the pocket, the way he moves, that he didn't— I still think the hamstring is like maybe bothering him a little bit because he doesn't run as much. But when he needed to run, He had a couple huge runs, but those throws were just gutsy throws, like shadow of your end zone, just ripping it, ripping it and getting, you know, guys rushing in your face and just throwing it right down the field. It was awesome to see. Colson Loveland looked great. Sucks that Cole Kmet hurt his knee, which I think he's going to be out for a while. DeAndre Swift was just running his absolute ass off. And the defense had a little bit of trouble in this, in the third quarter. But Dennis Allen has this unit like playing way above. They're punching above their weight.

I would say that the defense played okay. Except for one. Well, yeah, there's 2 things. There's one guy.

Yeah.

And there was one play in particular. The end of the first half was bad.

Really bad.

What the fuck was that guy doing?

So I guess it's an Andy Reid play where it's like everyone sets up for the Hail Mary.

So the funny, the funniest thing happened in the cave. We were watching this happen live the very end of the second quarter. And the, the touchdown pass happened. And about 15 seconds later, we were just all sitting there kind of in silence because obviously Hank, Hank was excited. He celebrated, got up, left the room. Everybody in the room is just kind of suffering in silence. And then Stephen Che goes, that's actually an Andy Reid replay. And everybody just looks at Che like, what the— Stephen, not right now.

It was really bad. We had— I think Kyler Gordon ran into Tieneman. I think Malik Muhammad just turned around and ran away from the play.

That's what I was talking about.

Ben Johnson got cooked. It was, uh, it was a really ugly way. But credit to the Bears and Ben Johnson because he came out of half, he's like, that's already happened, we're not gonna do any— like, what can you do about it? And then they come out and score right away. The Bears score right away and they felt like that, you know, that didn't stick. It would have stuck if you come out and you have a 3-and-out.

Mm-hmm.

But the way they came out offensively was awesome. Yeah. I mean, even like the drive, I should have said it, Cairo Santos, Cairo Santos, like that, the drive that the Bears went on with 6 minutes left to basically take the game away. And Cairo Santos, he doinks one from 53 yards. He does not have the strongest leg. I do think that the doink was the reason why Ben Johnson was like, you know what, we're going to let him try a 58-yarder because the doink, even though it was a miss, he had the legs. It hit, it hit up on the upright. And that's the biggest thing with Cairo Santos is very, very accurate. Cannot, doesn't have the leg for 50 plus, 55 plus. But he was like, it seems like he has the leg tonight. So we're going to try it. And that won the game because that was the, that was it. Like if he misses that, there's a pretty good chance the Patriots go down the field and win the game because they were at midfield.

The 4th quarter, the 2 drives that the Bears had, 51 yards, 13 plays, took about 7 minutes off the clock. The next one, 12 plays, 51 yards, took about 5 minutes off the clock.

It was awesome.

So just kind of, they just strangled the clock to death at the end of it. Ben Johnson called a play that I'm glad did not work out.

I think he's— I see. I'm so far— here, explain the play and then I'll give you my theory, which is, I will fully admit, is a sicko. I might be too in love with Ben Johnson.

Okay.

All right. So the play was, I believe Caleb was under center for it, takes it and then hands the ball off, hands it forward to Tooney, the left guard, who then pivots, turns around. Gets tackled about 1 yard short of the, of the line to gain for a first down. And I'm glad that he got tackled short of it because if he had run into the end zone and steamrolled 3 dudes.

Yep.

And then they would have had to call it back because it's an extremely illegal play to run. I would have been so mad that we saw this big boy just stiff-arm people, get in the end zone. So I'm glad that he got tackled on that. It does seem like a play that, like, we all watched it, and I don't think any of us know the exact rule of what is and is not Illegal handoff. Yeah, but, but Ben Johnson probably should know what that rule is.

Okay, so I, I'm assuming that they just didn't execute it well. I would assume that he knows the rule and that was, you know, maybe it's— he's supposed to take a further step back. I don't know. But I'm such a sicko in love with Ben Johnson guy at this point in my life that I saw it and I was like, they actually did that on purpose to show tape of it not working and then they're going to do a variation off of Again, I told you that take was fucked up.

Yeah, you're deep.

You're deep into it. Hey, listen, I need to know how you think this could possibly work as a behind the back. Max, I'm giving you an alternative explanation.

Max, you're too focused on the film right now.

I'm giving you an alternate explanation.

I'm an All-22 guy.

I know, I know.

You're not listening to me.

You're not listening to Big Cat. Big Cat is rationalizing by saying it was intentionally wrong.

Intentionally wrong so that at some point in a key position later in the season, he's going to run a variation off it. where he was intentionally like, let's put something on tape that people have to be ready for.

No one's going to be ready for this.

No. So, Max, here— Big Cat's actually—

You don't understand what I'm saying.

Big Cat's cope might be a little bit wrong. I think that his cope should be that—

Why would he say that?

He ran it wrong on purpose.

Right.

So that way all the other coaches are gonna be like, he's never gonna try this shit again.

Yeah.

Because he knows that if you leave—

That works too.

That works too.

And then the next time you run it, it will—

So that's not what Big Cat was saying.

But that works too.

No, no, no, it's not. No, but I think mine makes a little bit more sense than Big Cat's.

Yeah, no, I— But again, can we rewind the tape? I said it was a sicko take. I said it.

I just want to make sure that we're not, we're not entertaining this take.

I know.

Run the take back for Matt. I'd like to hear it again.

I, I think Ben Johnson ran it wrong on purpose to put, put something on tape that then he can run a variation off of it where it's like, that was a pretty significant play. Like if he runs it and it's like a 2-yard gain, people are like, oh, whatever. That was a flag. Everyone replays it. Now it's like, oh fuck, what are they doing? There's going to be something. There's going to be something. This is the guy who created the stumble play.

Again, but why would they need to study this? Because if you're an opposing team, you want them to run this play.

Yeah, they're going to run something different off because you get a penalty every time they run this play.

You watch.

You don't need to study this play.

It's going to be so different next time. I can't wait to see what—

but that's a different play.

Yeah, no, but it's going to look like that.

But they could have just run that to begin with.

Yeah. And next time it's going to be nuts.

But that has nothing to do with this play.

I disagree.

So if they, if they ran that play, but let's say he handed the ball for— you can hand the ball forward to a tight end. You just can't do it to ineligible.

Yeah.

I just disagree with whatever you're saying right now. I think everything Ben Johnson does has a, has a plan. That will be revealed at a later date. He is Keyser Söze.

So he killed like a bunch of families and stuff.

He had to do what he had to do to win the football game. Hank, thoughts?

Yeah, Hank, thoughts?

I'm with Max.

Okay. Hank, can you say Caleb Williams is good?

He's good.

Is good, not was good.

He's good.

He's good.

Good quarterback.

Because I actually thought Drake, outside of the interception, Drake Maye played well. And he doesn't have a lot of receivers going towards him.

And no offensive line.

Yeah.

No offensive line. He probably should have had another 60 yards. AJ Brown has become a problem.

Disagree.

Okay.

The defender's arm was in AJ Brown's hands.

Malik Muhammad, he made a nice play breaking up his hands.

I feel like probably, probably could have caught. What do you always say, Hank? I got a friend that says you can touch it, you can catch it.

It's true, but it's tough to like, it's different when you've got a receiver's arms in between your arms. Yeah, this is— no, I know what you're— come on, keep it going. Do the thing.

What?

I'm done. I'm just happy about the Bears. I don't care. I said that I thought Drake Maye played really well. I thought he played really good. 2 really good quarterbacks dueling it out.

It was actually a very fun game to watch.

And Caleb made a couple plays. I mean, the sack was the only one that was like, that was not good, but it Didn't matter because Cairo Santos still nailed the field goal. But it was just like it— every time we needed a big throw, Caleb stepped up. And it's just, again, I think, I think he's reached that next level where everything is just going slower for him and he sees everything and he's just, he's so calm in the pocket and he's so elusive. Like that, that throw to Rome, which could have easily been a sack, like where the guy's coming right at him and he's just, he sidesteps him. And it's not like a sidestep to then run. It's a sidestep to throw a fucking dart down the field. So, yeah, I think the Bears are good. Are you— are you— where are you at, Hank, with that game? Just get rested.

Yeah. I mean, Thursday night games, first of all, are kind of flukes in the first place.

Agreed.

Strong agree.

Yeah.

And it was—

it was— I mean, the Patriots played a good game given the injuries and they just needed to get one third down stop. They didn't get it. And then one Doi doi concussion play. Like, that's the difference.

So you think he's tuned up?

So we're saying if he didn't get concussed, it wouldn't have been—

I think he got hit hard, dirty in the head, and then it took him, you know, dirty play.

So it was right after that was the interception.

Do you think the Bears were headhunting?

I—

it was— it is—

it sounds like it's football.

It's football. It's a physical sport.

Sounds like an excuse.

But no, this doesn't deter, you know, division no longer runs through us.

I Oh, that's—

I have to admit that it was a good game. It was a, it was a playoff, felt like a playoff game. It's a good test. You feel, you feel those losses hard and you move on.

Yeah. 4-3 is a good record.

It's not bad.

No, you could still win the AFC East.

Yeah, we could. Okay.

Still in it, Hank. Still in it. Max, did you have, did you have something that you wanted to What? Cheer up our boy? Cheer up our boy with you.

Oh, you get something for Hank to cheer up?

I would love to cheer up our boy.

He didn't have a great night. Oh, let's cheer him up.

I do have a surprise for you, Henry. Actually, Memes, you have a surprise for him.

If you would like to reach under your cushion.

Oh, under your cushion.

I would not.

Well, Memes, why don't you come in here and you reach under your cushion?

Reach under your cushion.

Hank, Hank, reach under the cushion.

Can I reach under your cushion?

Sure. All right, I'll reach under the cushion.

I'd like Hank to help.

Hank, it's not— it's not—

Reach under the cushion.

I'm putting my hand under the cushion. Nothing's going to bite me or anything.

I don't—

I don't— I don't want— I don't want a gift from memes.

No, it's not. It's actually not a gift. It's not a gift. It's not a gift from memes. It's a gift from Pilar.

Oh, no.

He's reaching under the cushion.

Reaching under the cushion.

Under the Cushion.

Yeah.

Get in there nice and deep.

Down the cushion.

There you go.

Oh, hey, he felt it.

He felt it.

Hank, come on.

It's a Hank doll.

What?

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

It's not just any Hank doll.

It's not just any Hank doll. It's a special Hank doll that's new and approved.

Oh, look at that.

Squeeze it in the microphone, Hank. Squeeze in the microphone.

This thing sucks.

It farts.

It farts.

It's a Hank farting doll.

You remember when you wore that?

Yeah. It's so— for people who are just listening, it's, uh, Hank in his Pelicans hat from the famous fart with Kellen Moore. And it's going to be a dog toy that we're going to put on sale. It's a new— it's the new Hank 2.0 dog toy.

Or the Car Stick 5.0.

Yeah, that has— so if you squeeze, if you squeeze this Hank dog toy, it farts.

See?

Is that cute? Let me get one.

Yeah.

Blake's gonna love this.

Oh, Hank doesn't want it, but it is— it's the Pelicans hat is so great.

It's really good.

Because people forget that the Saints facility, it's the Pelicans and the Saints.

It's right there.

Yeah.

Also, the chair was the, the cavern of the chair.

Yeah.

The Conventure.

Hank, it's a different picture of you.

It is.

You look actually very handsome.

Yeah, you look handsome. You look happy. Are you happy with— is this cheering you up at all?

Nope.

No, it's not.

Why are you taking a picture of it? It seems like it cheered you up a little bit.

Oh, Hank.

Oh, come on, Hank. I can't exist.

Look how happy he looks in that.

So happy.

Look at that smile. Do you like this pic? Do you like this picture better than the At 40, it's funnier.

The hat. The Pelican hat. That is so good.

Yeah, it's good.

And it makes a fart noise.

Dogs are going to love this. It really doesn't.

Yeah.

No, it does.

Fart noise.

That's a fart noise.

Squeak. That's a fart. Actually, no, it's not a fart. It's air coming from his butt. Big difference.

Yeah, big difference.

We tried to sue TMZ over this. It's a completely different sound.

Let's pull up that tweet.

Yeah, let's take a look.

It's air coming out of his butt.

Hank, I think this is awesome. I can't wait to give this to Blake. He's going to go crazy.

That's awesome, man.

Yeah.

Do you love it, Hank?

Isn't there part of you that loves how much joy you bring people's dogs?

No.

All right.

Okay.

So anything else in this game? Kyler Gordon, also another sack. I think he has 4 sacks. He's played like, like not— I think he's played like 40 snaps or something. It's pretty ridiculous. So he's been awesome. Oh no, 21 snaps this season.

That can't be right.

I think he's played more than that. But he's got 4 sacks. Yeah, I just— Caleb was awesome. He looks like he's taken that next leap forward. I mean, the completion percentage people have got to be in hell because he's— I think he's over 70% this year now. And it's not— it's not checkdowns. It's taking what the defense gives you, where if it's not a deep shot, then just take the— take the easy thing. You got to take something away.

Ben Johnson's a good coach. You guys had guys open. in the middle of the field the entire night.

Yeah. No, I mean, the way that it's, it's basically—

I said I actually was, I was, I was dead accurate the first drive of the game when the 4th down, I said, this is the game.

You did.

And it was the game.

You called the game when the Bears stopped the Patriots on the 4th down. That was off of a 3rd and 6 handoff that only got 1 yard.

Well, smart.

They did self-scouting.

Yeah. No, Dennis Allen's got— I don't know how the Bears defense is doing it. Again, there was moments where it was like, what is going on? Because you can't get a pass rush. But the pass rush, the sack on I think it was Tiemann and Hardy. The sack on Drake Maye, the second to last drive was massive to make it 3rd and 20. That was a big one that got the ball back. And that's, you know, bleeding the clock out.

What do you think about the hard count where, where the Patriots jumped offsides in the 4th quarter?

I—

because it was on purpose.

Yeah, it was on purpose, right? Vrabel had them jump on purpose. Yeah. Because it was 3rd and inches.

It was 3rd and inches. They had 3 timeouts.

He knows that.

And it was smart. It was a smart play because like you, you, if you burn a timeout on The Bears just getting an inch, that's— you're kind of screwed then. Yep. So that was under the 2-minute warning, I believe.

Yeah. Vrabel, I— that's, that's one guy that when it comes to those types of scenarios, like he knows his shit.

Yeah.

Whoever he has working with him.

Yeah.

He knows exactly. It's so valuable to have a coach that's good at that type of stuff at the end of the game. That was the right call.

Yeah. I didn't— yeah, I didn't walk away like that. Those are 2 really good teams. That wasn't— would you agree, Hank?

Super Bowl preview.

Yeah.

Okay. Anything else from the game?

Anything else, Max?

We do talk about at the end.

Do you want—

oh, there's some— you have another gift for Hank?

I was asking Max if there was anything else.

I don't know about this. I knew about this.

Talk about what my friend may have shown me.

Oh, I don't know. I thought that you had something like on the— your messages that were just pulled up.

Oh, shit.

Oh, shit. Is this from Glenn, I love how Glenn always does the football emoji when he sends a DM.

Yeah, he's a Star Trek guy.

Star Trek. Star Trek. Big Star Trek guy.

Star Trek guy.

And he's a football guy. That's pretty damn cool. Football and Star Trek.

Wouldn't you agree?

Sometimes it takes a while for these videos to load.

I've never watched Star Trek.

Glenn is thorough in his breakdowns.

Extremely thorough.

There's no way he could have done a thorough one. The game just ended. How long, how long does this say?

Oh, 2:45.

2:45. That's nothing.

That's nothing.

Let's see what Glenn has.

This is quick for Glenn.

This is from—

it looks like this may be from this game.

Welcome back to another tape watch. We're going to study the tape. We're going to watch the film. I'm going to wait for all the All-22 to come out on the Patriots-Bears game. But thanks to all the Glintlemen out there, we have been able to covertly install our own cameras We did this Wednesday night at Soldier Field. We got the drones warmed up. So, uh, yeah, we smashed the drone button thanks to you guys' very generous donations, and we were actually able to do our own All-22. So we are able to break down this tape, and what I saw tonight was a great football game. Absolute bomb from Drake Maye to close out the second quarter. Look at this nuke that he delivered. You won't see that from the New York Jets because the New York Jets have been outscored 100 to 6 in the last 2 minutes of the second quarter. People do forget that. We watched this airstrike from Drake May that made the score look a lot closer than it was. I'll tell you what, the Patriots would have won this game if it weren't for this costly first-half interception. Another red zone pick from Drake May early in the game.

And look at that. I mean, his tight end is so open. If Drake hits him in stride, he's still running. The fact of the matter is, he was not In stride. He was actually very, very severely underthrown. Terrible red zone pick from Drake May.

It's true.

And the mechanics were so off.

Glenn's right-handed.

It got me thinking, are we sure that Drake May is right-handed?

Glenn's wrong.

I ran 9,000 simulations of this game, and this is what it would look like if Drake was left-handed. Just a much smoother, more natural throwing ability from Drake May.

Hmm.

It's a wonder that he hasn't tried to switch to being left-handed. It's really, really confusing to me. Now, I know that a lot of you have accused me of being a Jayden Daniels hater, and while it is true I do take it a little bit more serious and judge him more harshly because I have that much faith in him, um, it's unfair if I don't apply those same principles to other quarterbacks in the NFL, like Drake Maye. One thing that Jayden has taught us, he has taught us the value of virtual reality, of simulation theory. So what I've done is I've gone ahead, I've made a full-scale simulation for Drake to practice. Go to hestillrunning.com.

Oh.

Yeah, we can run through these simulations, a daily challenge game where you see if you have what it takes to beat an NFL defense. And Drake Maye, you put yourself in his shoes. Drake, put yourself in your own shoes. Let's see, who do you throw the ball to on this one example that's taken from the Bears game on Thursday night? Do you throw to your tight end or do you throw to the linebacker?

You have no idea.

Uh, if you're Drake May, you probably selected linebacker on that. But guess what? That's why it's a daily challenge game. You could always try again, get better tomorrow. That way, the next time that situation comes across in a real game, Drake is gonna hit him in stride and he's still gonna be running. This has been a quick flash update from Glenn. Welcome back to—

Oh wow.

Okay.

Wait, should we play the game?

Yeah, let's play the game.

Yeah, you got it.

I'm playing it right now.

I was just on it.

He's still running.com. He's still running.com.

Yeah.

Wow.

Hey, great URL. Pretty cool.

Look at that.

All right, let's start.

Let's see what you can do here. All right.

Start. All right. So wait, it says targeting Eli Reardon in the end zone. DeMarco Jackson jumped the route. Who are you throwing it to, the linebacker or the tight end? I think you want to throw it to the tight end, right?

Let's click and find out.

All right.

Wrong. It was actually— so it's who did he throw it to? It looks like in that case he threw it to the linebacker.

Okay.

But I think you're right. You should want— but it's more of a reminder. This is what happened.

Got it.

Great.

Yeah.

So very realistic.

You're not trying to say who he should be throwing it to. It's who he did throw it to.

That's going to be the next up. It's a daily challenge. So I'm sure that there'll be different ratings.

Glenn told you all of this?

Yeah. Well, I know in the video he said it was a daily challenge.

All right.

All right. All right.

So let's try this one.

Okay. Who do you throw this one to?

Seattle, late 4th quarter, forced into tight coverage.

This is like deep red zone.

Do you think he throws it to the wide receiver or the cornerback?

I think he throws it to the wide receiver.

Okay.

All right.

Should we try wide receiver?

Yeah.

All right.

Oh, shit. All right, let's try the next one.

Okay.

This one I think he may have thrown to the cornerback.

What is this?

It was weak receiver. Shot under pressure. Corner had leverage.

I saw this one because I think it was on Warner Glenn's. No, I think— no, I think this was a touchdown pass.

Oh, he's a wide receiver.

Yeah.

All right. Try that one.

Click wide receiver.

Oh, shit.

Oh, that—

but you know what?

That's not fair. It was tipped.

Remember?

Yeah.

That was tipped.

Okay.

What else do we have here?

All right.

So this is week 3 at Jacksonville. Bootleg left. Defender was sitting on it. Who wins this play?

I honestly don't know.

I think it was the corner.

Okay. Let's try the corner here.

All right.

Let's see. He's still running.

So if you get it right, you got hit with it. He's still running.

Yeah.

Oh, that's pretty good.

That's—

yeah, I guess.

Okay.

Week 4, Buffalo.

And so look, I love how Max is laughing at his own website that he made.

Kept the only— they kept the only early narrative going. Who wins this play? You want to try cornerback again? Yeah, let's try cornerback. He's still running.

It's a good game.

It's kind of addicting.

Yeah.

Holy shit. I think there's also a comment section on there.

See results.

Yeah.

See what your results are.

Let's see what our results are.

See the results.

Okay.

We got D. Needs more tape.

We got to get back in the lab.

Click the comment section at the bottom. I don't know. I haven't clicked on that.

Okay.

Comment. You want me to—

Yeah, post a comment.

What should we say?

He's still running. Valuable tape. I learned something today.

What, what do you— what are your thoughts, Hank? Do you like this game?

No, it's not a game. It's a simulator.

Simulator.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Not a fan?

No.

He just has like— you just have no life.

I don't know what you're talking about.

Glenn made this.

Glenn, number one. Number one, Glenn made it. And number two, it looks like something that maybe you could whip up in about 10 minutes.

Mm-hmm.

You just can't— you just got nothing original anymore. It's, you know, you made one dog toy and then you just run that back.

Well, you did the—

you did the—

this is not—

one thing was funny for a week and you just can't give it up.

This is not mine, Hank. This is not mine. I did not— I had nothing to do with the dog toy.

It is a good-looking dog.

It is a good-looking dog toy.

And I do think that if your dog— if your dog liked the first one, they're probably gonna like the second one even more.

Because this one farts. This one farts air out of the butt.

Yeah.

Big difference. Big difference.

I'm going to bookmark that website.

Yeah. He's still running. Dot com.

OK.

I mean, the simulators are all the rage right now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's like 82-0.

Yeah.

Good stuff. 2-minute drill. He's still running.

Hey, can I give you something that actually might cheer you up?

Sure.

Did you watch any college football tonight?

Yeah. I mean, I don't hate— I got nothing against PFT. I root for him and his teams. Like, I'm not— I don't get joy out of his losses.

No, you don't. You would never.

In like a regular season, like, they had no chance at the playoffs. So if they made the playoffs, they're gonna lose by 100. It's like, it's— JMU's not a real football school. It's like a little fun thing for people. It's like the playoffs. Oh shit, we lost by 100, but we made the playoffs. At least you don't have to do that. At least we don't have to listen to that. I think JMU could beat fucking Alabama.

I actually think we can win this game.

Yeah, but I just wanted to cover. We covered against Oregon. Against Oregon.

Yeah, you lost to—

lost to App State tonight. This is it. Like Hank said, like Thursday Night Football games, kind of fluky. Anything can happen. Hank knows ball. What can I say? It was— yeah, App State was a better team tonight. Our defense kind of fell apart in the second half. And not to make excuses, we did have our starting running back go down with a hamstring, so he was not available in overtime. That was tough. But yeah, App State, really hard place to play. And most of all, I blame the kid that said that he was going to eat dog poop if JMU lost to App State. Yeah. And then he deactivated before the game, ensuring that JMU would then lose to App State. And JMU probably won't win another, another football game until that guy logs back on.

Ultimate coward move. Fletcher Shotgun Cox, CPA. I wonder if he's actually a CPA. Said, if JMU, if JMU loses to App State, I'll eat dog shit out of a cup on video. He deactivated in like the 3rd quarter. That was insane. That's insane.

It's crazy. We all knew where this was going to go. I thought, I thought about offering myself as tribute at that time when he deactivated. No, but that was the only way that we were going to win. Yeah. Because of the bad vibes that he put on the program. But yeah, it was— listen, this JMU team, they're not, they're not the same team as last year. They're not the same team as the year before. A lot of, a lot of obvious weaknesses on this team. If you, if you've been watching them, they've had some close calls. So we were not a dominant force as we were in years past. So I'm not surprised that we eventually lost. And it feels like every time we have a great season going, it is App State that comes in and crushes our dreams of that. So, yeah, congratulations to them and fuck you to the guy that didn't eat the dog poop.

Yeah, that's, that's, that's a crazy move. If you say it, you can't, you can't deactivate.

Real loser shit.

Yeah, real losers, right?

That's real loser shit.

Mm-hmm.

Shout out to Ebo's 30th birthday today.

I know that sucks. I did wish him a happy birthday.

Yeah, that's brutal. We love Ebo, but that's a bad way to have your birthday end, to App State.

Yeah.

Okay, what else we got? Uh, the boys went to Banner Night. PFT, you were on the wood.

Yeah, I was at the Wizards game. Yeah. Yeah, it was a great time. Wiz looked good. Frisky. Anthony Davis MVP.

You got mic'd up.

I saw that.

That was awesome.

They mic'd me up. I always wanted to, like, talk to somebody, be like, hey, just so you know, I'm federales. Yeah, I'm feds right now.

Don't talk to me. Did you say that to Steve?

I said that to Steve.

Yeah. Talk to us about Banner Night, though.

Wait, talk about the wood. What was it like sitting on the wood?

I mean, being courtside like that is just so cool. It was right behind the Wizards bench, so I got to see, like, the guys interacting with each other. And surprisingly, I think like DeAndre Ayton seemed like he was the all-time vibes guy. Oh, I know that he hasn't always been seen as that in the past, but he was like, he was the one that was getting everybody worked up. We've got— the problem is the Wizards, they actually might be too deep right now.

Oh, wow.

They've got a lot of really, really good role players on that team.

Yeah.

And I love Bub Carrington. He's, he's become my favorite player to watch just because he's, he's like the ultimate scrappy guy. Great defender. He's like a high-energy guy. And then Trae Young, outside the first quarter, looked like he fit in really good. So I'm excited to watch the team grow and see how they gel together. But I do think just based off one game, and it was against the Bucks, I feel confident in my 1 through 8 seed prediction for the Wiz.

Yeah, love that.

And yeah, Hank, to answer your question, sitting right there next to the court was awesome. Love it.

Well, you say, Max, where were the feet? He said right next to the court.

Yeah, I was sitting right next to the court. He said he was sitting right next to the court, like directly next to the court. Like Patrick Ewing was right in front of me.

That's pretty— that's sick.

Yeah, that is sick. Did he block your view?

A little bit. It's Patrick Ewing. And there's this one guy, I think he's from France. He's another assistant coach on the team. He's like 7'4 and he was directly in front. But yeah, it was, it was still good. Got to see a lot. I got to see most of the game.

Boys, banner night. You guys all went to New York. Talk to us.

Talk about the ceremony, boys.

Yeah, banner night was special. They had Mike Breen do the intros and then they had the starting— they had 4 of the starting 5 from the '73 championship team. give out the rings. We're just going to focus on that because there's currently a story breaking about James Dolan just being an absolute scumbag.

Oh, no.

I read that.

What happened?

It seems like it was something that was just like created out of fan fiction about somebody like from somebody who hates James Dolan. OK. Saying that instead of giving rings to all the assistants, he sent out like phishing emails. OK. To trick them into thinking they were getting rings.

Oh, wow.

But then you clicked on something and it was a cybersecurity—

Oh my God.

Is that real?

That's— that's as evil as when All Business Pete did that to me with a free Uber Eats gift card.

Yeah.

Only time I've clicked on a company email.

Memes, I don't want to spread fake news. So you tell me if any of this is wrong.

I mean, it's getting— The Athletic reported it.

Oh, man.

Is that what it was?

Yeah.

Essentially what they're saying.

That's what they're saying.

Yeah.

But we can focus on— we focus on—

Let's talk about the banner.

Yeah, the banner was so sick. It took like 20 minutes for it to go up, which I liked. Stephen didn't really love it. But yeah, I loved it. I loved every second of it. The game itself was sloppy, but that really didn't mean anything. But we got a banner.

What do you mean it didn't mean anything?

No, we're just 0-1. Just another game.

Who'd you play?

76ers.

Max, what'd you think?

It's game 2.

It's game—

or it's game 1.

Well, yeah, there's been 2 games and I'm gonna overreact. This team is fucking awesome.

Yeah.

And I'm so down to get my heart ripped out because it's incredible what I'm watching. The first half tonight, They got a little swept up in the moment of the, you know, LeBron's first game, the introductions. There's new lights in the stadium, which I fucking hate, but that's one thing or the other. The defensive intensity in the second half tonight and the defensive intensity against the Knicks, Game 1, Game— I thought it was going to take a while for this team to gel, the chemistry to get there, and we're already humming against the 2 Eastern Conference teams.

Really?

Final— Finals participants last year. The 76ers team could be special.

Wow. Okay. Special.

Yeah.

Special.

Yeah.

All right.

What do you think, Hank?

29-point lead tonight. Nothing. Nothing for the Cavs.

Sixers are scary.

Oh no.

Yes, yes, yes.

It's a scary team.

Oh no.

Jalen Brown, really good player.

Great player.

Damn.

Quite possibly the worst trade in NBA history.

They should investigate it.

Zach, did you love Banner Night?

Banner Night was awesome. MSG definitely didn't disappoint. It was an overwhelming experience. And the banner also floated up there. It was pretty nice to see. They took their time, let it sink in a little bit. The other night was not about what happened on the court. It was about acquiring hardware. Those guys worked hard. They got rings. And it's October. So like, what are we doing?

Yeah. Why are we playing these games?

Like, we haven't hit Halloween yet, right? Yeah, it was awesome. Right. All time.

Yeah. It didn't feel like they were going to play a game after that.

They did.

No, they did.

Yeah, they did.

But the last team to lose, Banner Night, went back to back.

So what was— what was up with Roger Goodell?

He's just there.

Why do we know?

Knicks fan.

I also have a theory about that.

Okay.

Don't James Dolan and Adam Silver hate each other?

Yeah.

Do you think that that was kind of like a shot being like, we're going to put Roger Goodell front and center and not have Adam Silver hand out the rings?

Like, this is what a real commissioner looks like?

Kinda.

Okay.

Yeah, sure.

Like, it was so strategic of where they put Roger Goodell during that. ring ceremony. And it was very notable that Adam Silver did not give out the rings.

Right.

Why?

Hmm.

Don't know.

Ask yourself that. By the way, we should give just one last shout out to our guy Florio with the theory of the, of the week. This is why Mike Florio has a special brain, because the NFL cannot do anything without Mike Florio being like, but why is that? His theory goes, the Bears have Thursday Night Football, then they have Monday Night Football against the Seahawks, and they have Sunday Night Football against the Bucs. We saw the Falcons, they went 3 in a row, I believe, primetime games. So Florio basically was like, the NFL is testing out putting teams 3 times in a row on primetime because we're going to get to a point where they start playing Tuesday and Wednesday games. And in order to do that, You'd have to have the same teams play, like, you know, shuffle it up. But like Tuesday would be the Bears and Patriots. Then the following Wednesday would be the Bears versus, you know, whoever played on Wednesday and the Patriots would play on Tuesday against whoever played on Wednesday as well. And so this is his theory and I believe it. I believe it. And I'm not going to like when they do Tuesday and Wednesday football.

Yeah, it's just like a way to test it out to see what the unintended consequences are that you don't see coming. My theory was just that all the teams that are playing in primetime for the most part part, they get the back-to-back-to-back jobs that they are a lot of overteams. And so the NFL just wants—

That could be it too.

Prime time.

That could be it too. Okay. Let's get to ourselves. By the way, I don't know if I said it, but Roma Dunze, I— he's, he's been chastised, but he came up huge tonight. I think he caught the onside kick as well. Just big catches. Fucking awesome. Hank, any last words? Buy the toy. Are we putting it on sale right now or is it going to be Black Friday? Oh, we are.

Oh, very cool.

It's out. It's on sale, right?

It's on sale.

You can get it right now.

Also, Hank, are you seeing Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum online right now?

I did see that.

What happened? I guess they have a comment.

The report posted a video of Jayson Tatum talking about how he didn't get Jaylen Brown traded. And Jaylen Brown decided to comment on that tonight saying, cap.

Oh, again, I don't think these guys like each other.

Could trade him to the West. Had to trade him to Philly.

Hmm.

Yeah. Fucking Philly.

Yeah.

Okay, let's kick it to ourselves. Buy the toy. Picks and preview, and then our good friend Blake Griffin coming up. Before we get to our picks and preview for Week 7 in the NFL, DraftKings. Football has a way of turning one game into a full week of conversation, and DraftKings keeps you close to all of it. The DraftKings Sports app is now live in all 50 states. That means from Texas to California to Florida, every fan is in on the excitement. Follow the teams you love, keep up with the biggest games, and experience the excitement of football all week long. No matter which games you're watching, you're always connected with one app. One app, every sport, all 50 states. New DraftKings customers sign up with code TAKE Spend just $5 and get $200 in rewards within 21 days. Includes all markets. That's code TAKE in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours.

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Those are incredible. Okay, boys. Week 7. Do you want me to say it, PFT?

Yeah, I don't. I don't. But you're gonna say it anyway.

Well, it always happens when we have to change our clocks, which is this Saturday, and you get that, that pang in your heart and you're like, man, this season's going by fast. We're at week 7 right now. Yeah, like we're, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna be changing the clocks. We're gonna wake up a little disoriented Sunday morning. Week 7. How did we get to week 7 already?

I understand that it's not the correct math, but for anybody with a brain, 7 is half of 17. Yeah, we're halfway done through the season.

Yep. Yep. It feels that way. So we got a loaded slate, some good games, some not so good games, some winnable games for maybe the JETS. Jets memes. We'll get to that. Jets and Dolphins. But we're going to start as we always start. With Hank's favorite game of the week, Steelers at Saints in Paris. Saints plus 3.5, over-under is 44.5. The Steelers, by the way, are taking the red-eye.

They're going to do the fly-in, fly-out.

I think they're leaving Friday night. They're arriving, going to go straight to the practice field and then try not to adjust their body clock, go to sleep, wake up. I feel like this is a bad idea when you have a 42-year-old quarterback.

I was going to say it's weird. one thing to try to do this well with Matt Stafford. It's another with a spry young Matthew Stafford, right? It's fresh out of the University of Georgia. It's another thing with old balls-earned Rodgers, right?

So that might be an interesting wrinkle here. I also— do we ever get an update on Mike McCarthy and his injury?

Just that he got stepped on.

I'm— here's my fear, is that when he went into the blue tent, they gave him a concussion test. And Mike McCarthy's concussion test was probably just the doctor holding a mozzarella stick and going back and forth and having him follow it with his eyes. Then he ate the mozzarella stick. Now he sees the blue tent not as the concussion tent, but the free snacks tent.

It's like a dog hearing the dinner bell. Yeah.

Yeah.

I was thinking it would be like a picture menu that they would give him. What is this? It's moo shu gai pan.

All right.

He's good. Send him back out there.

They hand him a cookie. They're like, what do you do with this? He just starts eating it. I think, OK, you're good.

I think he— somebody might have stepped on him. It might have been phantom pains. I don't know. But yeah, just kind of. looked down at his foot. Maybe his foot just broke. Sometimes old people's feet and hips, they just—

they break.

They just give out.

Yeah.

And maybe that's what it was. He looked back at it like it was an Achilles. He's like, oh, there's something wrong with my foot. I don't know how that flight is going to treat him. Like, if it's like a serious foot injury, you don't want to fly with those.

No, he's going to have to wear the compression socks.

Maybe double layers of them.

Yeah, this time.

Yeah. So, no, I don't know what's, what's going to go on with, with him in terms of the injury situation. But this does feel like I mean, the Saints have been good away from the Dome this year. They just haven't been good in the Dome.

And it's a home game for them, right? Because of the French culture.

It should be. Are they playing it on clay?

I don't know, but it is.

They should.

They are technically the home team. I don't know. I, I'm like stuck in that. I actually don't. We've talked about the Steelers a lot. I actually don't think they're the same old Steelers because I think they are better offensively than the Steelers of the last 5 years, and they're slightly worse defensively. So, and like Aaron Rodgers, now he's just kind of doing whatever he wants to do, which is throwing the ball a lot. Like, Jeremy Bernard is good.

Do you think that McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers have, have, uh, an understanding worked out where McCarthy is going to call plays and then Aaron Rodgers is going to run whatever play he wants?

Yeah.

And then they're going to pretend like it was the play that Mike McCarthy called. Yeah, both of them.

Yeah, then they'll just go to— they'll be like, yeah, Mike called that. Well, maybe, maybe they have an understanding that like, hey, listen, all the good plays we're just going to give to you, Mike. Yeah, you know, I got your back on this.

Yeah, I'll give you— I'll toss you some credit every now and again. Great play call. But in reality, I don't know that Mike McCarthy is actually calling all the plays.

No, I'd agree. Uh, by the way, one matchup here, this is from my guys at Sports Info Solutions. Steelers have been one of the most— more inside-heavy run games this year. with almost half their runs going between the guards and a top 5 success rate. That should be trouble for the Saints because they have allowed a bottom 10 success rate on inside runs. I don't think the Saints defense is very good. That's not really saying anything. I mean, JJ McCarthy was throwing YOLO balls, but he did light them up.

Yeah.

Uh, so I feel like the Steelers should be able to win this game. I'm probably going to take the over in this game and just assume that, uh, our theory that Roger Goodell has to make these international games fun.

Yep.

Will continue. So that's, that's, that's where I'm going with this game.

Yes. Not a, not a bad theory to work with there. What do you think about the Saints kicking situation?

Is it bad?

Well, Daniel. Yeah, probably. But oh yeah, Daniel Carlson, the kicker for the Saints, he might not be making the trip because his wife's going to go into labor. And so I think they brought the Irish kicker, the guy that they had last year, Charlie Smith. I think they brought him back up.

Okay.

Practice squad. So I think he's going to be the one that's making the trip.

Charlie Smith.

The Boondock Saint.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

I like this guy. An Irish kicker. Like, that's, that's fun.

I like that. Yeah. I have a question for you about Kellen Moore.

Yeah.

Do you think that Kellen Moore is able to, like, to coach the team hard, like aggressively, because he's been put under a lot of pressure from directly from the ownership?

Yeah.

Saying like, hey, if you don't fix this, there's gonna be a lot of changes around here. Do you think that he has— because he's a nice guy— do you think he has the gear in him to be a real dickhead and, and chew players out? Do you think he's going to try to do that?

Possibly.

Because that's what I'm worried about.

Yes.

In a situation like this, a guy that doesn't have that personality— do you remember that episode of South Park where the devil was fucking Saddam Hussein?

Yeah.

And Saddam was like, talk dirty to me, and the devil tried and it just didn't sound right?

Right.

That's what I imagine Kellen Moore trying to Grab somebody by the face mask is like, yeah, it's like, that's not you, dude.

It's not you. What he needs is he needs a defensive coordinator or strength coach that's a real, like, maybe ex-military hardass who could do that stuff for him. And then he can come in and be like, hey, let's go, boys. Let's, let's win this game.

I didn't know that he was talking to you. Yeah. Done this all on his own.

Oh, man. That's crazy.

Well, I mean, their strength coach is a dickhead. Yeah. The neck workout.

Oh my God. He snapped your neck.

He almost broke it.

Yeah. By the way, here's a fun stat that really is just, oh, Sam Darnold missed a few games stat. Tyler Shuck and Chris Olave are the number 1 in yards for a QB-wide receiver duo, 580 this year.

Wow.

So, and Olave is again, that's just the stat that Sam or Drew Lock threw to Jackson Smith-Njigba for a couple of games.

I think, yeah. Olave, is he 2nd in the NFL?

He might be.

I think he's 2nd in receiving yards, having a great season.

Yeah. The— so the second in the duo is Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb. And then third and fourth are actually Jordan Love, Christian Watson, Jordan Love, Matthew Golden.

Oh, that's crazy.

Yeah.

Golden probably should have had another like 120 yards last week.

Yeah.

Okay. Hank, any thoughts on the international game? You would be tuning in. I noticed you're not in Paris.

I didn't make it to Paris. Had some— had some commitments here. I'll be watching the game. I'm excited for this one. Paris should be beautiful, beautiful this time of year.

Yeah.

I like the Saints.

Okay.

Like the Saints.

Any particular reason?

Saints. French.

Yeah.

Home game.

Fleur-de-lis.

Yeah.

Kellen Moore called soccer the other football version of football, which is an awesome way to put it. Yeah. Well said.

Nailed it. He nailed it.

All right.

Back stateside. So I think I actually— main TV probably is gonna be what, Ravens? Yeah, Bengals.

I think so.

But the other one that, uh, I have first listed that could, you know, maybe be switched back and forth is Niners at Falcons. Falcons +3, over-under 50.5. I think this game is fascinating because the Niners defense has been very, very good this year, right? Like, we've all been like very impressed with the Niners defense being younger and, uh, looking good. They're good at stopping the run. But then you also have to ask yourself, okay, who have the Niners played? And that doesn't mean they're not good, but they played the Rams when the Rams tried to cheat time in Australia.

Mm-hmm.

The Dolphins, the Cardinals, the Broncos, the Commanders, and Seahawks.

Mm-hmm.

The Seahawks, you know, that's a tough game, but the other teams I listed, especially— we have some sound coming through, Max— other than the Seahawks, like, those are some broken offenses.

The Commanders—

Broncos are a broken offense.

They are. The Commanders kind of lit them up in the second half.

I know, that's what I'm saying. So are the Niners— is the Niners defense— and I basically, it's a roundabout way of saying I feel like this could be a big Bijan game and people maybe don't see it coming because the Niners have been so good. And it does feel like one of those desperate NFL games where the Falcons really need this and the Niners, short week, travel, road. They're going to just try to survive this. Mike Evans might not play, which also the fact that it's a might and not just a Mike Evans isn't playing is insane.

Yeah.

Like, how are they just going to keep bringing him out and hoping that—

Keep stretching him?

Yeah.

Like in between every play.

But I think this might be a hungry dog pick, Hank.

I agree.

Do you like this in the hungry dog?

Yeah. I mean, the 49ers are a little scary because they're, they're so good. But then that second half kind of has me thinking like they could, they played like that the whole game. They would have got smoked.

Yeah.

They look gettable in the second half. They very easily could have lost that game. And it is Raheem Morris coaching that defense. He was recently with the Falcons. He might be thinking like, okay, fuck these guys. I'm going to show them what they're missing. And to your point, they might not actually be as good as we think they are on defense.

Yeah, they're 12— the teams that the 49ers have beaten are 12-22-1.

Yeah.

So the 3rd easiest schedule by opponent win percentage through the season. And again, I think the Niners are a very good team, but there's got to be a moment and we'll get to it too with— I actually think kind of the same with the Seahawks-Chiefs where I think the Seahawks will win that game. There's got to be a moment where they get caught because this is just such a hard league to win in week to week to week.

So yeah, I don't disagree with that. Lost in all this discussion about that we had, at least on this show, mostly centered around the Jayden Daniels question in the second half and that 4th and 2. Kyle Shanahan would have been very much to blame for giving that game away, not just the defense.

Yeah.

The way that he called plays, it did. It felt like that Super Bowl.

Well, it changed too when Mike Evans went out.

They took no time off the clock on offense in the second half. And it was actually like a disaster class that he put out there. And he should have been under fire for if we had been able to close that game out. That would have been like 80% on Kyle Shanahan's shoulders for the way he called that second half. I don't know. Dan Quinn was there. Maybe just anytime Kyle gets around reminders of that Falcons team, he kind of reverts back to his old ways. I don't, I don't hate the Falcons at all in this game.

Yeah. All right. I got a dumb stat for everyone that is my favorite dumb stats are whenever we just pick an arbitrary number of games and then we, you know, look back and say he has more than, more than this guy. Brock Purdy, arbitrary number of games, first 55 games. Brock Purdy has 9 more wins than Peyton Manning in his first 55 games. He has more passing yards than Aaron Rodgers in their first 55 games and more touchdown passes than Josh Allen in their first 55 games, which really, other than the Aaron Rodgers one, I don't know how impressive it is because Josh Allen struggled his first year. Peyton Manning struggled. His team went and won like 3 games. But I think the Aaron Rodgers one's kind of interesting.

Yeah.

Because that's, that was—

He was ready to go.

Yeah.

He was ready to go.

By the time he started.

Yeah.

Brock Purdy's really good.

Brock Purdy's having an awesome season this year. And yeah. Yeah. McCaffrey, I feel like, is back to what he was a season or 2 ago.

Yep.

He looks really good. This is probably the best match of running backs that we'll have all year.

Yeah. Do we have anything to say about the Falcons' new logo?

Yeah.

Yeah. I got a— I got some thoughts on it.

Okay.

What were your thoughts on it, Big Cat?

I thought it looked kind of cool. I didn't immediately think Nazi, but the internet did. I also think the internet's having fun with it. It's a very different— there's a difference between the internet trying to be like, Falcons, how could you do this? And Falcons, this is funny. Let's Photoshop a bunch of pictures of Hitler in front of a Falcons flag, which it's the latter.

You know what it is for me? It's the brown. Yeah, the brown color that they used really, really popped it off.

I think it's also the head of the, the falcon does kind of have imagery of like, I feel like the Nazis used some of that imagery.

This isn't the first time that the Falcons have done this, though.

Really?

Remember back in 2014, they posted like their old logo. Maybe it was like a throwback week or something, and their old logo looked like the Albanian flag.

Okay.

And everybody was like, what the fuck is this, Falcons? They just— they can't help themselves with this one. I think it was the brown because the black, the red, and Max is just Googling Nazi logos.

Well, I want to— I want to do a side-by-side.

Okay.

Well, yeah, there's—

I feel like that's— that's appropriate for the— for the situation.

It's the colors.

It's the brown. The brown.

See that? See the—

see the—

now we're just looking at Nazi logos. The— did you see— do you see the one with the eagle?

Yeah.

You see the one with the eagle? Click the one with the eagle.

That one.

Yeah.

Yeah. So like that type of— yeah, that type of imagery of—

by the way, not an eagle.

It's the beak. It's a falcon. Yeah.

Is it a falcon?

I don't know.

I think the Nazi one's an eagle.

Yeah. Nazi one's an eagle.

Yeah.

This has nothing to do with the Eagles.

Well, no, but the Nazi one, they, they would chant E-A-G-L-E-S right before Hitler took the stage.

That's incorrect.

OK. All right. That song is—

it's The tan color that they use on the redesign and also the black stripe through the middle. I just saw some of the funniest Photoshops of Arthur Blank. Yeah, they took the mustache down a little bit. My thoughts on it were that they do have a history of hating Julian Edelman. So that kind of checks out.

It's—

and they love throwing bombs to London.

Yeah, there you go.

He's having a good year.

It's true.

It's very true. Is it? So this is Hungry Dog Hank.

Not officially.

Okay. Does the logo get you off the hungry dog at all?

They're not wearing those jerseys, right?

No, I don't—

just the armband.

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

Let's go to the next game.

I'm glad that we've evolved as a society where we're not trying to like get the cancel the art director fired.

Yeah.

The Falcons.

Yeah. The internet's having fun with it. Browns tight Titans. Titans +1.5, over-under 37.5. Titans had a hell of a week. So yeah, we had a situation where a Titans player, uh, left practice to go get their gun and then was talked down. So it was Jordan Elliott, who has now since been cut. This happened last week, not this week. He went to his car to retrieve his gun after a practice altercation with, uh, JC Latham last Thursday. He's been cut. I actually thought Robert Saleh handled it pretty well with his press conference being like, hey, this seemed like a cry for help and he's got no other issues. You know, if anyone's looking for a defensive tackle, he's a— he had a bad lapse in judgment, but he's worthy of a signing.

Yeah. I mean, I don't think we know what, what actually happened and everything that led up to it. I don't think that they're interested in sharing that, which I guess that's, that's between them and the locker room. But yeah, I think that as far as a coach goes, that's, that's a great way to handle it.

Yeah.

Like, don't, don't just like cast judgment on him and fire him knowing that he's in a mentally fragile state of mind. I don't think that's going to help anybody.

Yeah. This is one of those games over-under 37.5. I mean, how, how are they going to score 40 points in this game?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know that the Browns have that many 4th quarter points in them to get Up to 38. Is that what you said?

Yeah, 38. The Browns defense is really good. The Titans defense is really good. The Browns offense outside of the 4th quarter is really bad. The Titans offense just period is bad. What am I missing? I know it's a lot. I know you like can get fucked by like a pick 6 or a punt return, but still, where are the points coming from in this game? This actually is a game when we do our cave parlay, we have to ban a pick from this game.

Yep.

There cannot be a pick from this game.

Agreed.

I do not think there's going to be a plethora of touchdown scores in this game.

Do you know the last time that the Tennessee Titans won back-to-back games?

Oh my God. It's got to be 2 years.

Can anybody guess?

I'm going to say like, I'm going to say like early '22, '24.

It was November of 2022.

Oh, wow. 4 years ago.

It's been 4 years since they've won 2 games today.

You are locked in.

Locked over.

He's locked in. Do you see Deshaun Watson had the whole team to his house for a party? That was kind of cool.

That was nice. Yeah. You see, they had the food trucks.

Yeah. I'm not going to be fooled by Watson having, having people over being like, what a teammate.

Yeah.

What a guy. I noticed he kept them outside.

Yeah. Are the, are the Browns good?

Yeah, I think they're, I think they're good-ish. And I think that their schedule is about to get really good.

They are the schedule this year.

Like the schedule. If you look at the Browns, what they have for the next month and a half or so, they can fatten up pretty nicely.

Yeah.

I don't know that I would trust them in a playoff game.

No, but they could.

But I think they're, I think they're good-ish.

What's their schedule coming up? I mean, they have to win this one. This, this is, I think Dom did say this was a must-win and I would actually agree with him. If you want to be a playoff team, you've got to win. So they play the Titans. At the Steelers, that was a game that was not flexed. We kept Commanders-Eagles Sunday Night Football.

I'm sorry, America.

At the Saints, they suck in the dome. Texans, Raiders, Bengals.

Okay.

Yeah, maybe the Browns. I don't, I don't know if the Browns are good.

I think they're good-ish. But if they, I'll say this, if they do lose this game, this would be the loss that like, forget whatever good vibes you had going. Yeah, you're probably— you might lose out.

I did see a crazy stat. So divisions in which every team is above .500 through week 6 of the season in NFL history: the 2005 NFC East, through 6 weeks they all were above .500; 2024 NFC North; 2025 NFC North; 2026 NFC North; 2026 AFC North. That's the whole list. Wow. So the NFC North, 3 years in a row, and now the AFC North has joined them. Every single team above .500 through 6 weeks.

Yeah. Good division.

Yeah.

Really good division.

I have a did you know?

Oh, okay.

Did you know that Calvin Ridley is on the Titans?

I didn't, but I would have if you put a gun to my head. I would have been like, yeah, he's got to be.

What team is he on? If I framed it, what team is Calvin Ridley on?

Yeah. I would have just defaulted to the last team I remember him on.

Right. So he's still on the Titans. He didn't play that much last year. I don't think he's played this year.

No, I think he's—

Much?

He didn't play much last year. I know that.

Well, they don't really have an offense that features wide receivers. I feel like I remember him playing against the Eagles.

He might have played a little bit against— so he's hurt.

I might be completely wrong. Yeah, no, 2 catches, 35 yards against the Eagles.

There you go.

Nailed it.

You know ball. I forgot that he was, he was on the Titans until I read the injury report today, hand up. And it just made me think, Of, you know, you listed like all the stuff that's happened with the Titans since Mike Vrabel's left.

Yeah.

It just made me reach back and think about all the different old, formerly really good wide receivers that the Titans have signed throughout the years because it's, it's like unique to that franchise that they bring in a Calvin Ridley type who probably will still be good somewhere, whatever his next team is. Maybe he'll be traded at some point. But they had like Julio Jones.

Yep.

They had DeAndre Hopkins. They had Andre Johnson.

Mm-hmm.

Tyler Lockett did the retirement tour in Nashville. Eric Decker, I believe, was there. Randy Moss. This is what the Titans do.

Yeah.

They get this type of receiver and then they end up flipping them and then they usually go somewhere else and have like—

Finish their career.

One last like decent run as a receiver somewhere else.

Yeah.

Calvin Ridley was a little different though.

A little bit. Yeah. A little bit younger.

He, yeah, I think he was, I guess he came in 2024.

It's like basically the, they're the hospital. Yeah, he was. Yeah.

Yeah.

He's, he came there a little bit younger. That's true. It's now like we kind of forget that he's on the team, but he's still really good.

He, well, I don't know if he's still really good.

If he's healthy, he's good.

I don't, I don't know about that.

I think if he's healthy, he's good. He'll, there'll be some team that picks him up as a piece at the trade deadline. I think. And he'll probably be a valuable contributor.

He's— the Titans are basically the hospital. Like, you know, an old person goes to the hospital, gets out of the hospital. They're like, oh, they're actually going to live for a little bit longer. Then it's like, all right, it's over. Yeah.

Retirement home. It's done.

Yep.

They're the stop before the broken hip place. We just need to get them— we need to get their hip fixed and then they'll come back home. Just keep them happy. Yeah. Okay, this game will not be a main sound game. I would say this is going to be a tough, tough watch, right? Yeah. By the way, Deshaun Watson on the Browns hangout for his house for the Victory Monday, they were talking about party at number 4's crib. So we made it happen. The guys always know that my house is always open whenever they want to come by and hang out. We can do it every week. Number 4's crib.

I love that. They just kind of bullied their way into— yeah, him throwing a party.

He said it's one of the closest teams they've ever been on. Also, what do we think about Todd Monken calling him Sean? That might be the rebranding he needs.

Yeah.

Not Dishonored.

I didn't know that he was doing that.

Sean.

Yeah. He said, he said, first off, I had no— talking about the party. First off, I had no idea. I had no idea where he tried to throw the crib out there. That was pretty cool. It's Todd Monken, like—

Code switching. He's code switching.

Yeah.

He tried to throw the crib out there. That was pretty cool. I didn't know anything about it. We were in the locker room and I think somebody mentioned postgame something like a party at Sean's or something. And then he said, yeah, come on over. And I thought he was just joking. Party at Sean's.

Party at Sean's. I like it.

I mean, Sean Watson is a totally different player.

Yeah.

That might be the one thing he needs. Just drop the duh.

I don't hate it. We should just start doing that with somebody here at the office. Just say like party at Max's.

Yeah.

Party at Max's.

And just if we keep saying it, then he has to have a party.

Party at 99's.

Party at 99's.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Meatball 99's. Everyone show up.

There's one 99.

Meatball 99's.

And he unfortunately no longer works.

Party of Pugs.

Party of Pugs.

We should—

we should do a smush party at Zach's.

What's a smush party?

Smush party. I think something that was popularized by the great philosopher Nicky Smokes. It's a party in an apartment where it's so packed that everyone's smushed together and you can't move.

Okay. Yeah, I'm gonna pass on the smush party.

Yeah, let's get— let's get smushed less. Yeah, kind of like elbow room, shoulder room, you know?

Yeah, let's have an air party, like a little, little air between everyone.

What about—

yeah, Riverside party, FaceTime party.

I'd like to do a smush party at Zach's. Just you walk in and just like literally nowhere to go. But we're having a great time.

I might, I might get a hotel. I don't know.

Okay, next up. Colts at Vikings. Colts at Vikings. The Vikings are 6.5-point favorites. The over-under is 41.5. This is who— what do you believe in more? The Colts having fired Chris Ballard and Carly Irsay Gordon.

Is that her name?

Yes. Carly Irsay Gordon, who she is queen, basically telling the whole team like, you're all fucked if you don't start winning games. Or the Vikings coming off a bye and potentially using that bye week to self-scout and have a better offensive plan going forward, which their offense did look better the week before the bye against the Saints, I believe. So which one do we think is more of a compelling argument here?

I don't know. They sound equally reliable to me. Yeah. I'm going to go with the Vikings on this one, Big Cat.

Okay. I think so too.

Competent coaching. And, uh, and a very, very solid defense. It is like a clash of 2 different styles because the, uh, the Vikings, their games are the, uh, most consistent finishing, uh, in the under. They're averaging 6.1 points under the, under the total.

Mm-hmm.

And that's the last in the NFL. The Colts are 8.4 points over average on the total. Um, and a lot of times in the Colts games, there's some There's some bad plays that lead to points being scored. Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. So I think I'm going to go with the Vikings and probably the under in this one.

The Vikings lead basically every single stat in team defense, scoring defense, EPA per play, success rate allowed, pass success rate allowed, red zone convert rate allowed. It's like first all the way down. I think I'm going to go with the Vikings as well here.

I—

they also got healthy. I think that that's a— the bye week came at a good time for him. Has there ever been a bye week that didn't come at a good time?

It's always a good time.

It's always a good time. But I think Jordan Addison is back. I think Jordan Mason is back. I think Hockenson's back. I think— I can't remember. There's like a whole list. They basically all got healthy. So Panthers are the other team that got a lot of healthy guys coming out of the bye week.

Yeah. So right now, the Colts, they have an interim GM, Ed Dodds. As their interim GM.

Okay. That's just to replace a GM.

Yeah, it sounds like the best job ever.

Yeah.

It's like you are a GM. Like you have to address immediate needs, but you're not allowed to do anything that would impact the future at all.

Ed Dodds. You get the big office for a little bit.

You get the office. They probably don't put your nameplate on the office door, though.

Okay.

But you're like substitute teacher.

Ed Dodds was, was with the Colts for all— he's been He's with all of it.

So he is probably reminded on a daily basis, don't get comfortable.

Yeah.

I would imagine Miss Ursae Gordon walks past his office every day and was like, get your fucking feet off the desk. I don't want you to put your name on anything. Don't get comfortable. Don't even sit behind the desk.

Edward Dodds.

Yeah.

Old Eddie Dodds.

Hmm.

Okay. I'm not going to believe in Edward Dodds.

Yeah.

There's nothing he can do. Is he allowed to? I guess he will be trading, guys.

So that's what I was thinking is like trade deadline. If they're really going to blow everything up. There are some names on that team that might be— Quentin Nelson, I imagine a lot of teams would want him.

Jonathan Taylor.

Jonathan Taylor, a lot of teams would want him. So I would imagine Ed Dodds might— do you think they're going to let him do those trades, or is that going to be from the ownership?

Oh, I think that if— I think when Ed Dodd walks in, you got to get— you got to hand him the keys. Ed, you take this.

I mean, Ed Dodd, when you get a call from Ed Dodds, don't pick up the phone because he's going to fucking Did Ed Dodds do it again?

What if Ed Dodds fleeced Howie?

Oh my God. Howie's— how he's probably called Ed Dodds already.

Yeah. Yeah, he probably— how he's probably buttered up Ed Dodds being like, you know, you— I really think that you're good for this job. You should keep it.

I'm scared of dealing with you. Yeah. And you're probably going to— you're going to fleece me on this one.

And we've got each other.

How am I going to sell this one to Mr. Lurie?

Yeah, we've known each other a long time. And you're not going to— you're not going to screw me over, right? You promise?

Howie's got his work ahead of him.

Yeah.

You think that there's going to be some trades?

Schefter said that he expects the Eagles to be both buyers and sellers.

Oh, I love that.

A little flea market.

That's interesting. Yeah. They're just having a garage sale. Barter anything you want.

Probably. That actually sounds— when you put it like that, I'm in.

How much you want for Saquon?

Well, not for you. He's not for sale for you.

Why not?

Well, that's against—

that's against the law to discriminate against a customer like that.

Well, you guys don't need help at running back. Seahawks, you're for sale. You're for sale. He's for sale. The price has got to be right.

What's the price?

Starts with a 6th.

Ooh, you're sounding like Ed Dodd right now. Starts with a hard bargain.

That was a really good oof. Yeah, that's the sound you got to make.

I mean, I was pretending like I really don't want to give it up, it's like, yeah, it's really got to be.

Yeah.

I don't know.

It's 2nd. Chill.

Damn.

Dr. Dodds, the Dodds maker.

What if I countered with it and said, I'll give you a 4th knowing that Saquon Barkley only 2 times in his career has gone over 1,005 yards?

Damning.

If true, pass.

I'll keep him.

Okay.

Okay.

Have fun with your less than 1,005-yard runner.

Well, Except for the 2 times.

Well, the 2 times were nice. And one of them was with the Giants.

Yeah. This is Ed Dodds here. Some people are calling him an offensive line merchant. He can only run behind that big bad offensive line.

Yeah.

All right. See you later. This has been Ed Dodds. Ed said that, not me.

Ed Dodds.

We're going to see.

Take it up with Ed.

Saquon.

Yeah. Hey, listen, listen, Howie, you want to keep trotting out Saquon behind that offensive line? And we'll see what happens. He's going to have a bad year and then it's going to be— I'm going to call you back in April. It's going to be a 5th. Ed Dodd out. That's how he ends every phone call.

And he just hung up on Howie.

This isn't how we talk. Let's get back. Let's get back to the Colts game.

You do a really bad job as Howie. If I was Howie listening to this, I would, I would want you fired.

I'd be freaking out.

It's a good thing I'm not Howie.

Max isn't allowed to do Howie anymore.

I'm not Howie. Howie is Howie. You're not Howie either.

I'm at Dodd's.

Yeah, you're not at Dodd's.

No.

You know who's not at Dodd's? You know who's not at Dodd's?

You have—

he has cooler sunglasses than you, that's for sure.

Ed Dodd's is a fucking man.

Look at those sunglasses.

Those are tactical.

I would love to get Ed Dodd's on and be like, so what are you doing?

I do.

I really do want to know what the fucking interim GM does. Like, where— what are your responsibilities? And more importantly, what are not your responsibilities?

Did you get a nice parking spot, at least?

He, he probably did, but he probably installed the sign on his own.

Yeah. Yeah. Or his kids maybe like drew him one in class.

Yeah.

Our daddy's the GM.

World's best GM. Yeah.

Yeah.

All right. Dolphins-Jets. Jets -4.5, over-under 39.5. Memes. This is a must-win.

This is a must-win.

And this is a—

things are going to get really dark if they lose.

Oh, yeah.

Like extremely.

Like how dark?

So dark.

Midnight.

It's just— it'll be hockey and basketball season.

It's always darkest before the dawn, though.

Would this put Aaron Glenn on the hot seat if he loses this game?

Yeah, well, I think he'd be solidly fired.

This is a firing game.

Yeah, 100%.

Oh, we're doing a firing—

Not a firing game. He gets to coach the entire season.

But yeah, yeah, yeah, quiet fire.

I've got a question for you, Memes. Uh, the fact that he was just fined $250,000, which isn't technically a fine— the NFL is doing this thing with some coaches where they fine— I think it was Sirianni, Vrabel, and Aaron Glenn. It might be missing somebody else. Um, they fine them $250,000, but they get the money back if they behave themselves. Do you think if Aaron Glenn got fired mid-season Before he got the money back, do you think the NFL would give it back to him?

I think so, but I think he should still keep chirping the refs.

Okay. I think it's disgusting. I don't know why they fined him $250 grand. Was it for the, the red flag waving thing where he dangled it?

No, no.

He must have said something.

I think it might have been the Packers game. Okay. He was in there, but it looks like they only fined a town And Aaron Glenn. Yeah. No, he's Italian.

Yep.

He's Italian.

I think once you take the Jets job, you become Italian.

That's true.

Yeah.

I read a pretty bad stat about the Jets. And I do think the Jets should smoke the Dolphins. There's a lot of stats that I read the other week that are promising. It shows that they've turned a lot of things around from last year to this year. One bad stat for them is that they've been outscored 100 to 6 In the final 2 minutes of the second quarter. Not, not great for end of half management.

That's bad.

Yeah. That was also said on Sunday's show.

OK, well, he reset it.

Yeah, I know.

I'm just—

I forgot.

I forgot that we said things.

OK.

Sounds like you're coming at LG right now.

I'm not.

What's the number?

OK, 100 to 6.

Did you see Gaz was calling you LG?

As first reported by memes.

Gaz was calling you LG?

Did you see Gaz was calling you LG?

Paul?

Podcasting by LJ.

What is the first thing you think of when you think of this matchup? I have one thing and one thing only.

Chad Pennington.

No, I think of the Jets fans doing 2 fingers to Jake Marsh.

Yeah, I forgot about that.

They did 2 fingers to me. Oh, that, that's where this rivalry is. Yeah, that's my, that's my, my number one memory. memory of this matchup.

And what—

Tua didn't even get concussed in the game against Jets. It was just after the Tua fingers.

I think the Jets scored and someone just turned around.

Yeah, it was like 4 weeks after the Tua fingers.

Yeah, it was a reminder.

Marsh got Tua fingered by a Jets fan at the game and forever, forever, uh, changed the course of his life. Yep.

Oh, we're looking up Jake Marsh posts right now and Just pulled up, trying to see if he's posted anything. Just pulled up the same, the same 5 tweet, the legendary same 5 tweet. Same 5, same 5.

Hang the banner. Same 5.

The Dolphins made some news this week.

What?

How?

They had a tryout. Oh, who they tried out?

Who?

Colin Kaepernick?

Justin Tucker. Ah, Justin Tucker.

That's kind of a perfect place for him to go.

Yeah. I mean, they didn't sign him. They signed Zane Gonzalez, the kicker, the guy that's got OCD.

But he got, he got tried out.

He did get tried out. Yep.

Yep.

Which is big.

So there's that. I think that's his second tryout.

Okay.

With no, no job, but he's still, he's still trying.

He's trying out. Yeah. I feel like, yeah, you get a couple tryouts and then maybe someone will get desperate. I don't know what the Rams maybe.

Yeah. I mean, they're, they're getting close to it.

You want to do the super team thing.

They're getting close to it.

Feels like they might, they might kick the old can down the road there. What? We can't find any two of fingers.

The clip.

It would be a great—

what I was trying to find, I couldn't find it.

Yeah, sorry.

Two fingers.

So you don't do two fingers.

You don't do this.

It's fucked up.

All right.

Bucs-Panthers. Panthers -3, over-under 44.5. I think Baker's back.

Yep.

So it seems like he's going to play. Which definitely makes this a watchable game. No offense to Jalen Daniels, did his job, went 1-1. But Zach, how are we feeling with Baker potentially being coming back? And this is a divisional game. If you win this game, not gonna say season's back on, but definitely some, some feelings about like, hey, we're gonna look at the standings, we're gonna look at what's coming up. Like, you'd be, you'd be 2-5. The Panthers would be 3-3. You'd only be 2-2 behind them. It would get some feelings.

We, yeah, wouldn't be all the way back on, but definitely lights aren't out because if we win this game, we have another divisional game the next week. So if we look good here, Baker's back, we get this divisional win. And I mean, our division is what it is. I know we've been over that before. I'll feel a certain type of way if we go 2-2 on the next 2 games. Okay. Certainly.

Okay.

But I'm not—

I'm definitely not gonna overreact like I did last week. Last week I got way too excited. I thought we were back for real after one win.

I mean, you guys were up 16-3 though.

Yeah, which makes it even worse though, right? Like, could have— should have won the game.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But Buka's out for this game. Chris Godwin, maybe he hasn't been featured a lot this season, so maybe he'll get going. I mean, I think the Panthers are just good. And I think, like I said, they're getting A lot healthier.

Some of the Bucs might have been sick this week though. There was an illness going around the locker room. So Bucky, I think, was sick. Cansey was sick a little bit. McCollum was a little sick. So I don't know if it was the flu, but you're right. The Panthers are getting healthy. Their defense is getting healthy and their defense has been really good besides that first game where the Bears lit them up, which was like 59 points. Besides that game, the Panthers defense has been really, really good and injured at the same time. So I think they're going to just continue to— I think the Panthers are just a good team. We saw the emergence of a new version of Bryce Young last week, or maybe they just told us about this new version. Have you heard of Fun Bryce?

No.

So that's what—

oh my God, I want in.

That's what some of the guys on the team are calling this new version of Bryce Young is Fun Bryce.

Date Bryce.

It's, uh, Date Mike from The Office.

Yeah.

So he drew an offside penalty, I think with a hard count last week. And I think Nick Scott, the safety, was saying, yeah, that's, that's Fun Bryce that does that now. He's a new guy. He's playing like a brand new human being. I mean, so watch out for Fun Bryce because he has been fun this year.

Yeah.

He's been a very fun quarterback.

Uh, Fun Bryce sounds awesome.

Yeah.

I'm in on Fun Bryce. Okay. Have I hit any hungry dogs, by the way? Are you going to bet the Jets-Dolphins game?

Yeah, I would bet the Dolphins. I'm scared though. The Jets have screwed me in the hungry dog, I think, 3 times this year. And I think I've sworn off that they're not going to be in it. So I don't think the Bucs— the Bucs will probably be in it. I really want to do the Dolphins, but I have multiple times been like, Jets are done. Jets are done with the hungry dog.

You just do it again.

It's the Dolphins, man.

But I like the Bucs a lot.

You like the Bucs?

Yeah.

Baker back. Their defense hasn't been bad, Zach.

No, defense hasn't been bad. I think it's gonna be important to get the franchise quarterback back. I think there's a lot more to that than what people are kind of offering it to.

Yeah. Okay. Next game we have the Bengals-Ravens. This will be main TV. Ravens -1.5, over-under is 48.5. I, uh, so Lamar is not gonna play?

I don't know. I think he might.

But he was also— didn't practice, had a limp.

Yeah.

What's going on there?

So apparently during the media portion today, he didn't have a limp. That's, that's what we've come to now. Oh, it's like we're analyzing whether or not he's walking okay.

That's okay. So this I feel like this happens every single year with Lamar.

It's every week now with Lamar. It's like, we don't know. Nobody knows. My, my guess until like 2 hours ago was that he probably wasn't going to play. And then I saw that he didn't have a limp. But I know Lamar gets weird about it. Like if he's not 100%, he doesn't want to play because like he's obviously at his best when he's 100%. And I think injuries disproportionately affect Lamar over other quarterbacks because of the style that he likes to play.

So I mean, if this is Stu Huntley, the Ravens are in trouble.

I think it might be Snoop. It's, it's like 50-50. Who knows?

And the Ravens will be like, not only if they lose this, this game feels very, very important for the division because, and I feel like they always have high-scoring games. Is that not right? Is that right? For some reason in my mind, maybe it's just like one or two. Maybe it was like 2 years ago where they remember there was like a game in the 40s, I want to say.

Yeah.

All right.

Look, Max is looking it up. 24-nothing is not a high-scoring game. 32-14, 35-34, 38-41, 38. That— so 2024 is the year I'm thinking.

20-34 too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

20-34.

Yeah.

27-20.

Yeah.

Yeah. So they play— I'm going to take the over in this game and I'm going to hope that Lamar plays. And then if he doesn't, maybe I'll take the over and the Bengals. So that way it's like, If Lamar doesn't play, maybe I can go 1-1 that way.

Is this a, is this a revenge game for the Bengals?

How so?

Against Trey Hendrickson?

Oh yeah. Joe Burrow said he's probably very excited to hit me.

Yeah, I think it's like, it's not Trey Hendrickson. What does Trey Hendrickson have to be upset about? They paid him a lot of money. I think it's more the Bengals are like, hey dude, we paid you a lot of money. Yeah. We're mad at you.

You're a good pass rusher. You're an incomplete defender. We didn't want to pay you Max Crosby money because Max Crosby's better. Right.

Sorry.

That seems fair all the way around.

I think so. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, I think I like the Bengals in this game. What are you thinking, Hank? That's a hungry dog.

Bengals.

Bengals.

I want to ride the hungry dog this week. I don't know why.

We'll see.

Oh no.

You got a gross one coming up. It's not Texans -10 over-under 45. 42 and a half. Oh my God, Hank, you're going to take the Giants money line?

I, again, this is Thursday. I'm not, I'm not committing to these hungry dogs on this podcast, but I love the Giants.

Nice.

What?

Tell us why you love the Giants.

JJ McCarthy was phenomenal last week. He looked great. The Texans are not—

Bad Saints defense.

But the Texans are not great.

The Texans also are coming from a very high leverage game abroad. Traveling back, maybe a little hangover there. Goddamn it. This might be what— because I love the Texans going into this week and I— this might be one of those games.

10.5.

It's a lot of points.

It's a lot of points. You're taking money line.

Yeah.

Oh my God. You're a psycho.

I can't—

sick.

I don't see Harbaugh getting blown out in this game.

I'm losing.

I do.

You do?

Yeah.

I mean, I just— JJ McCarthy, I see getting blown out.

Did you not watch the 4th quarter?

I did.

On pace for 1,000 yards.

I think that might—

16 touchdowns.

I'm going to say this. I think it might be the get-right game for the Texans defense. I'm saying alternate total under 10 points for the Giants.

You were just not a believer in 9.

I just got delisted too. Yeah, that's brutal.

You're back on the list.

God damn it.

They think I'm rooting for the Falcons as much as I'm saying 9.

Damn it. As an underdog of above 3 points, John Harbaugh is 13-4 against the spread in his last 17 games that spot over the last decade. I would say that the Ravens are probably a better team than the Giants, but still, that's significant. That's a significant stat, right?

I would say so. Tank Dell back.

Tank Dell back, which is incredible. I still remember, like, that was what, 2 years ago?

Yeah.

I think I was on the way to the Tennessee-Ohio State playoff game in Columbus, and I was watching on my phone in the car, and I was like, oh my God, that was disgusting.

Yeah, it was, it was nasty. It was as bad as you remember. It was somehow worse.

The—

I would say the problem for the Giants in this game, not a 9 problem. Okay, maybe I'll stay delisted. The Giants haven't been great against—

I already made sure you're back on the list.

No, stop it. I, I stop it. The, the, the Texans should be able to run in this game is what I'm going to say. And that does help significantly CJ Stroud when they have that balanced attack. CJ Stroud's been playing good. He's good again.

I hope they can run the ball there. They haven't been able to. I'm just like the last 4 years.

I'm sad for Jameis. Feels like that's, that's it.

Did you hear, did you hear what DeMeco Ryans said about the quarterback situation before the game?

No.

I feel like it was meant as a compliment. And to me, it's actually insulting to both players.

Okay.

He said, for us, it doesn't really matter who plays quarterback.

Okay.

They're not the same style of quarterback at all.

Although, Nine was doing a little Jameis, like peak Jameis, just chuck it.

Just winging it.

So maybe he's got a little—

the only way that they're remotely similar is they both take a lot of chances with the football. But like, in terms of style of play, I don't know. It feels like he might have been trying to communicate that as a positive, but I bet behind the scenes he's using that as like a very, very negative with his players being like, we're going to get, we're going to fatten up.

Yeah. That's what I'm saying.

It's time to fatten up on picks.

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah.

Maybe a get-right game for them. The, by the way, Malik Nabers, last 2 games, he has gone 11 catches, 20 targets, 11 catches for 121 yards, 12 catches, 165 yards. And the game before that, 6 catches for 112 yards. He's been awesome. Do you want to hear a really depressing list? Because I have the list of every Giants QB Malik Nabers caught a pass from.

You ready for it?

Yeah.

Daniel Jones, Tommy DeVito, Drew Lock, Tim Boyle, Russell Wilson, Jaxson Dart, Jameis Winston, JJ McCarthy. He's only played 25 games in the NFL. That's 8 different quarterbacks.

Yeah, it's pretty crazy. And credit to Russell Wilson. I completely had forgotten about that.

Tim Boyle was a name.

Tim Boyle was a name. That was a name.

I don't remember the Tim Boyle.

I think he was TB12.

Was he TB12?

Yeah, I think he was. I think he wore number 12 with Tim Boyle. Shout out Tim Boyle. So, so Max, are you going to bet the Giants?

Me?

Yeah.

No, my PMT pick is going to be Texans minus 10.5.

Okay. So you don't believe in the 9 either?

I just believe in the Texans. I think it's gonna be a high-scoring game.

There you go.

Okay. So you're, you're, you're playing both sides here.

No, I'm not.

Well, yeah.

I mean, you think you're gonna take the over.

I don't, I don't believe in the Giants defense.

You know what, Max, we'll give you that, but you have to take the over too. Prove that. I believe in 9. I got to pick what I want to pick because if you really believe the 9 like you just said that you did, you take the over. It should hit easily.

I have another total that I like better than that.

But you more confident in them than 9?

I believe in 9.

Sounds like you don't at all.

It's 18.

I wish we could, by the way, bet. Tank Dell said that it doesn't matter what the first catch he has, like it could be 2 yards, 5 yards. He said, I'm spiking the ball.

Hell yeah.

I wonder if he's going to get a penalty.

Wish we could bet that.

Yeah, but I'll be happy for him. I mean, that's— it's pretty crazy. His leg was just basically off.

Yeah. Good for him.

OK, before we get to the afternoon games, we are brought to you by our friends at Twisted Tea. It's football season. We've never been more ready for game day. We're bringing Twisted Tea along for the ride all season long. Twisted Tea is a refreshing hard iced tea made with real brewed tea and 5% alcohol. The Twisted Tea Party Pack Has a little something for everyone with original, half and half, raspberry, and peach. It's got that refreshing taste with little kick, no carbonation, and goes down smooth, making it the perfect drink to keep the good times going at the tailgate all day and all football season long. Whether you're tailgating at the stadium, crushing teas in your man cave, or grilling out with friends, Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time. Grab a refreshing Twisted Tea. Keep it twisted with Twisted Tea. Afternoon games, I think we can all agree the, uh, primo game is going to be the Packers and the Lions. Lions -3, over-under 53.5. Did you guys see, uh, the news about Sam LaPorta wanting a new contract?

No.

When is that?

Is that recent news?

Yeah, it came out on Wednesday.

So like after we recorded our last—

Yeah, everyone was talking about it. Uh, Turns out he wants a new contract.

He wants a new contract.

Technically, people were talking about it after we recorded that.

Yeah.

There was no way that we would have known that this was a news story.

Correct.

Right.

Yeah.

We couldn't have commented it on Wednesday's show.

No.

I mean, I guess he, I guess he wants to get paid.

Yeah. Whoops. Although not whoops, because he, I think he wanted to say that and he does want to get paid.

Yeah. So he clearly knew what he was doing. And it's not that it's even necessarily a bad thing. Guy wants to get paid.

Detroit deserves to get paid.

The Lions kind of did the same thing.

People want to come on the show and give us clips like, oh yeah, yeah, I was thinking the same thing.

No whoops at all. We didn't trick him into saying anything.

No, it wasn't a gotcha.

I think the question was, is this your handwriting, sir?

Yeah, I'm all in on us using this platform as a way for people to ask to get paid more money.

Yes.

Yeah, 100%.

That's—

and I like Sam LaPorta. That was fun having him on. Yeah, we should definitely have him on again.

He— uh, careful when you say that, Max. Brandon is gonna come back on. real soon.

Brandon Walker. Yeah, the, uh, also, you know, Detroit radio, TV, social media, you're welcome. Give you a full day.

The Lions, they did the same thing with, uh, with Hockenson, right?

Yeah, yeah.

They don't like paying tight ends.

So, uh, that was a big story. I think the bigger story for the Lions is that I believe Brian Branch might be coming back.

I've been thinking that for the last like 4 weeks, which would be massive. He's so good.

Their defense, Lions off a bye. I just want to, I just want to bet on points in this game. I think Jahmyr Gibbs is going to have 100 receiving yards.

I think, is Detroit 5-0 to the over this year?

I believe they are.

Lots of points. It always starts slow because they're leading the league in scoring, I believe, and they're allowing the most yards.

Yeah.

The—

I kind of want to also just wait for the game to start and Lions come out slow and then just bet the Lions and bet the over. Yeah, it feels like all those games go the same. Josh Jacobs also back. Looks like he's going to play, right?

I know that he's back. I don't know about—

didn't show a lot of remorse.

I don't know about being active for the game. I don't know how that's going to work out. LaFleur did the thing where he just kind of said, Second chances. Yeah.

He said, I think a lot of times you get in a situation where you might not make the right decision. I think people learn from their mistakes. Now, listen, I am a believer in second chances and people should learn from their mistakes. But this was more than just like a little tiny bitty oopsie, like, oh, I jaywalked.

I think that I forgot to fill the car up with gas. It does. I feel like if we— if the video came out, Yes. There might be a lot of people that said, uh, this is not just a little mistake. And again, I don't know. I said might because I, I haven't seen it. I don't know what's on the video.

Yeah.

But if the footage exists and they're trying very hard to keep it secret, um, it, it could end up being— we remember the last time that that happened with Ray Rice. It was like, oh, well, that's really, really bad. We don't want him representing our team or the league. So yeah, I don't know. I, I don't I don't think that we should rush to say like this guy's deserving of a second chance until you've actually seen what happens.

Correct.

I'd agree. Also, Josh Jacobs said he basically was like, I think 6 games is a lot. Shouldn't have been suspended that long.

Really?

So he, in a weird way, he's the victim.

Yeah.

He said, I think 6 games is a lot, honestly, but that's not really up to me to decide. I'm grateful to be playing. So that's not something I'm really arguing or petitioning. Or sorry would have been— yeah, I show remorse, something like that.

Dan Campbell has a chance to make history today.

Okay.

To be the first person to pull off the LaFleur sweep. Ooh, take out both brothers. Both brothers in a year. Never been done before because they've never been both head coaches before.

But that's pretty cool.

It would be the first person to do it, I think.

LaFleur sweep. They should raise a banner.

They should beat both of—

well, I guess he still has to play LaFleur again, so you don't want to—

Yeah, that's true. It's actually— it's the hardest LaFleur sweep.

Yeah, it'd be a premature LaFleur sweep if he, if he wins this one and then loses the next one.

Right. Because Matt LaFleur is like the final boss in a video game. You beat him, but oh wait, he's coming back. Yeah, you have to do round 2.

Now you got to go to Lambeau.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Do you guys have any thoughts on this game?

I like Detroit.

Yeah, off a bye.

Off a bye. Yeah.

I also feel like, I mean, I think the Packers are, I think the Packers are better than what we saw obviously against the Falcons when everyone was like, oh, this team is just dead. But I also think it's kind of almost overcorrected where everyone's like, they're, they're totally fixed. I don't know if that's fully the case.

Wait, this is gonna be a little chess match here. Because the defense of the Packers, their coordinator is Jonathan Gannon.

Yeah.

And the Lions offensive coordinator is Drew Petzing.

Yep. They were together.

They were together in Arizona. They practiced against each other every day.

Yep.

In Arizona.

Yep.

I like that.

Yep. Yeah, I like that too. I, I'm going to take the over, I think. When is Micah Parsons coming back?

I don't think his practice window is open.

Is it kind of weird?

Yeah. I know that he's a full-time podcaster.

All injuries are different. But Patrick Mahomes is 6-0 around week 6 or 7. No, that's from July 28th, Max.

That's—

that was when he was supposed to come back then.

Okay. Good point.

Hey, that was the first thing.

Hey, let's not make a big argument about this. You're right.

How about this one?

Week 9 chance, a realistic chance of returning week 9. Okay. I'm excited to watch this game though.

I don't know.

I don't—

I think I'm just gonna take the over. Maybe a lot of— maybe this is the game we double up on touchdown scores. But yeah, feels like a lot of touchdowns. Feels like a lot of touchdowns. Okay. Rams at Raiders. Raiders +3.5. Over-under is 48.5. The Rams have to win this game, right, guys?

Right.

If they lose this game, it's over.

Yes.

I don't think they're a playoff team if they lose this game. I know that's probably a little ridiculous to say, but 2-5, and this is like— you, you conceivably say these are the 2 easiest games in their schedule, you know, with, with the Cardinals last week, the Raiders this week.

I—

you got it. You got to win this game.

They might not be a playoff team right now.

I know.

As it stands.

Well, no, they aren't, right?

If it—

if the season ended today. Yeah. Yeah. But I, I mean, like The, the, the FPI playoff odds for them are only at 35% now. Yeah.

And it's crazy because they're like the actual statistics and everything. They're still a really strong statistical team, like a top 10 offense, top 10 defense. Special teams stinks, but they have outgained their opponents by a league-best 644 yards this season.

Hmm.

Do you want to know who has the worst total yard differential?

Like the most negative?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Any guesses?

The Titans.

Jets.

The Dolphins.

I knew you were going to say that. -650.

He's hurt. Been injured.

That's a lot. That's a big difference.

Yeah.

Been injured.

Had a lot of injuries.

A lot of injuries. A lot of injuries.

Yep.

Hmm.

I don't know what to make of this. Though the, I know that the, the fact that the Rams won a Super Bowl, flags fly forever, but Jared Goff actually does have a higher win percentage as Rams starting quarterback than Matthew Stafford as Rams quarterback. So he had, he's won more games than Matthew Stafford, both as the Rams. Saying Jared Goff's Rams are better than Matthew Stafford's Rams.

Would not have expected that.

Again, I understand you'd have to kind of memory hole the whole winning a Super Bowl thing, but I did that. I just did. And I made the argument and that's what I'm, that's what I'm doing.

It happened. Jared, better quarterback for the Rams.

Also, it's only by 1%. So I think that if Matthew Stafford wins this game, he might be better.

That's it.

You're going back.

Yeah. Actually, Matthew Stafford was probably ahead of Jared until this season. And then the start of the season sunk him below.

Yep.

Yep.

Okay. Got it.

Okay. Last afternoon game, the Cardinals and Broncos. Broncos -4.5. Over-under is 43.5. Is Bo Nix playing for his job? What's that? What's that, Max? Moving on.

Yeah, this game's— this game's nothing.

Is Bo Nix playing for his job?

It is his job to play. Gotcha.

Gotcha.

Gotcha. I don't think he's gonna be benched. You think steady?

No, I don't think he's going to be benched, but this does feel like a crisis point for Bo Nix with all the conversation. That's how bad they've looked.

That's when Bo Nix is at his best.

You're probably right.

Crisis— when the words crisis point are uttered, that's when Bo Nix comes through. I mean, what's probably going to happen in this game is knowing both teams, the Cardinals are going to take a big lead like in the first quarter and then do absolutely nothing. And then the Broncos, let's say the Cardinals go up 10-nothing in the first quarter. And then it gets to 10-3 by halftime. Nothing happens in the third quarter. And then the Broncos score 14 points in the fourth. Game over.

I, I just feel like there's been a vibe shift where even Broncos fans are like, yeah, this guy stinks.

I think they, I think they get it. They understand the criticism because they're starting to get frustrated too.

Right. And Sean Payton, I said like, we want him to run more. I really do. I think there's a lot of mental that's going on with Bo Nix, like, than it is physical. I know he just— he's coming back from the broken foot, but mentally I feel like he has a little bit of the yips going on, which quarterbacks can get out of. So maybe this is the game they get out of. The, the stat that I, I look to is basically ask yourself this, uh, are the Cardinals going to score 20 or, uh, 21 or more points? No, they're not. Okay. Bo Nix is 22-2 as a star, straight up as a starter when the opponent scores 20 points or less.

Okay. Love that.

So there you go. Take an 18-6 against the spread. So that means take the Broncos.

And he's going to go off for 150 yards.

Yeah.

2 touchdowns and 1 interception.

But that's the formula.

Yep.

If you think that the Cardinals are going to score more than 20 points, bet the Cardinals. If you think they're going to score less than 20 points, bet the Broncos.

After having like a week to think about it, do you think that Bo Nix is disrespectful to the position of quarterback?

Yes, definitely. No, I don't actually. The way he played on Thursday night.

Yeah. That, that play.

Yeah.

It's not a judgment of him as a person.

Yeah.

It's his play in one game.

Yeah.

He is 11-2 against the NFC and he averages over 2 touchdowns a game. So this would be the breakout game for Bo Nix. You know what? I'm going to do that. I'm going to believe in Bo Nix tonight.

Yeah, the fact you said crisis point, it does. There's never been 2 words that—

You're going too hard at Bo Nix.

Yeah, I'm not. If they lose to the Cardinals and he looks terrible— Cardinals are a bad team— the conversation has already begun and it would hit a crisis point.

At some point the tide is going to turn and everyone's going to be like, oh, Bo Nix is the best. Yeah, so that's the same energy, right?

I'm not—

I didn't—

who said that?

Courtland Sutton.

I'm not saying it's a crisis, but I'm saying it feels like an embarrassing loss to the Cardinals where they score like, let's say, 13 points. Could be— would one of Monday's headlines not be, is there a crisis in Denver with Bo Nix? That absolutely would happen.

Definitely the headlines, yes. But I don't think that they'd make a change.

I—

it wouldn't—

maybe not make a change right away, but the conversations would start because that would be a really bad— like, he should, he should do well against this Cardinals defense.

I think Sean Payton is going to go down with the ship with Bo. If that, if that's how it's going to go down, I don't think Sean's making a move.

And I think the Broncos are a really good team. Like overall, I think they're a Super Bowl contender. The way they play defense, if Bo Nix could just figure it out a little bit, if he could play a little bit better, they become a dangerous, dangerous team.

I'm telling you now, I'm very— I'm going to bet definitely on the Broncos now.

Yeah, I'm going to probably bet on Bo Nix.

It's time.

Touchdowns, everything. Yeah.

All of it.

All right. Last game, Sunday Night Football.

Great one.

Seahawks -3 at home against the Chiefs. Over-under is 42.5. I like Seahawks here, boys.

Love the Seahawks here.

I like the Seahawks here.

This is 100% of the hungry dog.

You think, you think that there's not going to be a little extra pep in Kenneth Walker's step?

Oh, for sure there will be. But there also might be a little pep in the other guys' steps too. Be like, hey, we got to stop them.

him.

He's so good and he's— we really wish we had him. Let's just hug him extra hard.

They're going to just be chasing him to give him— to dap him up.

Yeah. I'll just throw this out there. Chiefs 6-0 or 5-0. Patrick Mahomes looks fine.

Yep.

Broncos week 1. The Broncos had the worst tackling performance I've ever seen in my entire life. Absolutely dominated them. Their other wins are Colts, Dolphins, Raiders, Chargers. Now, Dolphins and Chargers are definitely 2 of the worst 3 teams.

Mm-hmm.

And the Colts and Raiders could finish somewhere around there.

Mm-hmm.

Just saying, kind of similar to the 49ers thing where it's like, I think both, I think that both the 49ers and Chiefs are probably the best teams in their respective conferences, but there's always an equalization point. There's always a point where it kind of, you get back, water finds its level. I feel like it's Sunday night. The Seahawks are a desperate team. They're 3-3. They've lost a couple games that you are like head scratchers. You know, the Denver game was a head scratcher. It's like you had that game won. Bo Nix couldn't complete a forward pass and you didn't win that game. I think this is where the Seahawks get right.

The Chiefs have the best point differential in the NFL. They have the second fewest points allowed per game in the NFL. And when you look at the schedule that they have played, that those both those stats do check out.

Yeah.

The second fewest and the one time that they allowed allowed significant amount of points. I was against the Colts and the Colts are an over team every game they play over.

Right.

And they can score. So I guess this is, we're going to learn a lot about the Chiefs.

Yeah.

I think the Chiefs are going to win. I do. But I also think we're going to learn a lot about them. Yeah.

I'm going just, this might be just the hung— I know they're not, the Seahawks are not the underdog, by the way, Hank. So I know you said they're going to be in the hungry dog. I don't know.

My mistake.

Seahawks are 2.5-point favorites.

Yeah.

The Chiefs will be in the Hungry Dogs.

Oh, there we go.

Okay. That changes everything.

Yeah.

Maybe. I don't know why I had that wrong. My mistake.

Because I do think this is a Hungry Dogs run faster game for the Seahawks, even though they're not technically the dogs. Like they got to get going, you know, it's, it's, it's kind of now like you're 3-3. You don't want to dip below .500. Chiefs coming to town, they've looked perfect. I just think the Tyquan Thornton part of it where it's like him being out, the Chiefs not being able to take deep shots, now playing against a real defense where you've played some defenses that aren't very good. That's where it's going to really hurt. This is when it's going to finally show up. So yeah, I like the Seahawks. Okay. Any, anything else? Any other, any other thoughts? Do we have a fantasy minute?

We do.

We do.

Let's go.

Special one. He's excited about this one.

Oh, he is?

Oh, yeah.

I'm excited.

Me too.

I love Jerry.

It was really good last week. The funny one was good last week.

Oh, he's, he's in the Barstool New York office. Okay, let's go, Jerry.

If you had to guess what he's about to do, I think he might be playing a part of maybe a delivery guy, right? Yeah, that's what it looks like.

He also— that vest looks incredible.

Okay, let's find out.

Start the music memes. Start the music memes. Okay, um, so this is what happened. The Uber delivery person came off the elevator. Uh, Gia was like, yeah, let me get my food. Um, there was an argument about the photo. Okay, uh, Security Dan, not to be confused with Security Mike who fights with Shane about tiramisu, came out What's up? And the fight ensued here. The Uber driver got a mounted position on Security Dan. Boom, boom, boom. Gio was like, stop, stop, stop. And then— hi guys, how are you? I'm just reenacting.

It's my fantasy minute.

Hey, what's up? Yeah, Gio was like, stop, stop, stop. Gaz came out, hero. Some Taijin dude came out. No Nikki Smokes. Yeah, no Nicky Smokes, no Mincy. Okay, let's stream, uh, for sure. Let's pick up JJ McCarthy and let's, uh, start.

We'll criticize Max.

I did it!

1 minute.

Fuck you, Big Cat.

Call 1-800-GAMBLER.

All right, that was good stuff, Jerry.

What did he make the mistake of?

You said he was— he was like, can you tell me stuff that happened that I could talk about? And I was like, well, Tommy Smokes was nowhere to be found. So he said, no, Nicky Smokes. So he got the 2 Smokes brothers mixed up.

We got to get Jerry. Jerry's got to come in and stream some games with us on a Sunday or maybe a Thursday.

That'd be great.

That'd be great. It'd be awesome.

I feel like he should give updates about the fantasy team.

Yeah, I don't think we're doing well. I saw he made a— I don't want to say desperate trade, but he phrased it as desperate. So I'm just going off of him. Do you still not have access, PFT?

No, I'm locked out. He locked me out. It's a hostile takeover.

It's not good.

Let me see it. You know what? Let me check. Let me check some things here.

Okay. Yeah, I would like some updates on how our fantasy team is, our fantasy team is doing because it does feel important. I would like to win this thing.

Hmm.

Oh man. Jerry, Jerry. All right.

Yeah.

Here it was. Fortune favors the bold fantasy. He added JJ McCarthy. He dropped Roschon Johnson, which didn't he just say stream Roschon Johnson? So we're starting JJ McCarthy this week.

Yeah, that doesn't make sense.

Against the Houston Texans.

Okay.

I'm scared.

Not me.

Okay. I listen. I give, I give my whole, I give Jerry power of attorney for my life. Hank, what'd you think about that fantasy minute?

I didn't like Max criticizing him. Jerry was trying his hardest.

Yeah, it's a good point. That's a really good point.

He really put some effort into that one.

You always ride with Jerry.

I liked it. He just got— he just said the wrong smokes unless he was doing a bit, unless he was doing a bit of like trying to get them wrong.

Next level. It's next level, Max.

It's meta.

Jerry might have kicked me out of the group chat too. It's either that or some— you know how sometimes the messages don't pop Up immediately.

Yeah.

No, I think he probably kicked you out. That's, that's very funny.

He might have kicked me out.

Very funny.

I'm going to do a deep dive here.

The messages pop up instantly.

That's very funny. Are you looking at it? I'll do— before we do our parlay, football is a way of turning one game into a full week of conversation, and DraftKings keeps you close to all of it. The DraftKings Sports app is now live in all 50 states. That means from Texas to California to Florida, every fan is in on the excitement. Follow the teams you love, keep up with the biggest games, and experience the excitement of football all week long. No matter which game you're watching, you're always connected with one app. One app, every sport, all 50 states. New DraftKings customers sign up with code TAKE, spend just $5, get $200 in rewards within 21 days. Includes all markets. That's code TAKE in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours.

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Boys, can we win one? Did you find out if you got kicked out?

I found the thread. The last, last message was on Wednesday, October 14th. But I mean, it's one of those threads that like pops off for 2 days at a time and then nothing for like a week, week and a half. Because before that, nothing since like October 8th.

Okay. Okay.

So I don't know, maybe it's just a quiet group chat.

Okay.

Who's up?

Who's—

who do we got? I'm gonna go with Amon-Ra.

Birthday touchdown.

Birthday touchdown.

Max, you took mine.

All right. I— let me take a look.

Let's win one, huh, boys? Let's fucking—

I am gonna go with—

fuck me.

I'll go with Christian Watson. Hmm. Same game. Is that all right? Are we cool with that?

Yeah.

I'm going to go with Kenneth Walker. Canine.

Permission granted. I like it.

Sweet.

All right.

What do we got? What are the odds?

Let's see here. If you bet $10, you'll win $57. $100, you win $573.

Good math.

I did that math.

Yep. All right.

Let's go picks.

Let's go picks.

Who's up first?

I believe I'm up first.

All right.

So the standings as of right now. Zach, you're in last. You have 3 points. We're going to go point system so we don't say the records. You have 3 points. Hank and I have 4. PF— or Memes has 6. PFT has 8. Max has 9. Max, are you afraid that you're too good and then you're going to falter at the end and become second place?

PFT is also very good.

I'm saying— that's what I'm saying. You're in first right now. I'm saying—

I mean, I get second place in this literally every year.

Yeah, it's true.

Well, except for the year that Memes did this thing.

stand-up.

It was good.

Good point.

One-man show.

One-man show.

I always say stand-up is one-man show. We'll never know if I'm any good at stand-up. Yeah, I will take the over in the Packers-Lions 53.5.

Okay.

Okay.

I am going to take the over in Niners-Falcons 49.5.

I'm going to take Chiefs +3.

I'm going to take the Browns Titans under.

I like that one. I was going back and forth.

Is it, is it +3? I guess it's, it's -102, -3.

Shit.

All right, I'll do Seahawks -3.

I will take the Dolphins +4.5. Little stat for you guys. The Jets have been outscored 106. At the end of the second quarter.

Shut up.

So no way.

I like under 2 minutes.

I like the Dolphins a lot in this spot. Yeah, end of second quarter, under 2 minutes. And I'm up again, correct?

Correct.

I'll take the over Packers-Lions.

I already did that, dumbass.

I'll take the under in the Packers-Lions. Gotcha.

Good pick, Hank.

All right, I'll take Rams-Raiders.

Fell right into that trap.

Over 48.5.

I'm gonna take the Carolina Panthers.

Has the over in the Steelers game already been taken? Anyone?

All you.

All right, I would like to get over at 44.5 in Steelers-Saints game.

Love that.

I said I was going to take Texans. But I think I'm going to go Titans +1.5.

Wow.

Okay.

Stay hot, Titans.

I'll be going Vikings -6.5. Paul Allen's 500th game on the call. Paul Allen game.

All right.

That was a 9. That's a 9 respect pick right there. I really like Titans -10.5 better than that.

But you got bullied.

I did.

You just bullied—

you got bullied out of that pick.

All right, good job. Let's get to our interview. We got Blake Griffin talking his new show, NBA, everything else, and then we'll finish with Fyre Fest.

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With the, with the Venmo debit MasterCard, you can actually spread that balance and spend that balance wherever you need to. One guy gets the food, one guy gets the drinks, one guy brings a speaker that sounds like it was made in 2007, and one guy contributes absolutely nothing except opinions about the quarterback. Then 3 weeks later, Somebody finally pays you back, the money's sitting in your Venmo balance, and you can use that Venmo debit card to spend it right away. Spend your balance instantly with the Venmo debit card. No monthly fee, no minimum balance. Learn more at venmo.com/card. That's venmo.com/card. Venmo balance account required to use a balance and get the card. Effective November 1st, 2026, the Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancor Bank N.A. And Now here's Blake Griffin.

Okay.

We now welcome on a very, very special guest. One of our best friends.

He is—

how many times would we decide? 5-time Blake of the Year? 4-time, 5-time Blake of the Year.

Yeah.

Because he did the thing to Brooks.

He's got one for the thumb. It is Blake Griffin. He's got a new show out. It is called The Step Back and it's also basketball season. So you can watch The Step Back on Amazon Prime. We're going to run this on Friday. So the first The first episode of The Step Back came out on Tuesday, correct?

Correct.

Okay, so let's start with The Step Back. You're very funny. Is this show going to make me laugh?

I hope so. I hope so. You know, it's— I've never really hosted a show before, so this is, you know, I could use all the pointers, all the help I can get. I mean, you guys are seasoned, seasoned vets now.

Yeah.

You should make your more famous friends come on the show right at the start, and then you can use their names to get you publicity. and then kind of carry that on through the rest of the show.

He already did that. He had Stavros on the first episode. Yes, yes, exactly.

That's—

yeah, and Stavi was on the first episode.

Are you going for laughs or are you trying to make us think, Blake?

Oh, good question. Uh, I'm actually doing a little bit of both. I think there's room for both in sports. Um, but yeah, I mean, at the heart of it, like, I think we are tackling like bigger issues. It's less reactionary, it's more literally taking a step back on bigger issues in sports. And yeah, so there are some laughs. I mean, we got some awesome writers and it's like very much like true, like late night style.

Yeah. It's a, I watched some of the first episode. The first episode's about sports journalism.

Correct.

Do you have any questions for us about sports journalism? We're sports journalists because it feels like you were kind of taking everyone to task for their takes, which I think That's, that's wrong.

Yeah, I have a question. Where the hell do you guys get off?

Well, you see, Blake, first question. Yeah, we watch the games. So we know better than you who play in the games what you should and shouldn't do.

Right.

I'll tell you what happened, Blake, is somewhere along the line, talking about sports became just as much, if not more of a sport than playing sports.

Yeah. Yeah.

So put a jersey on, then talk to me.

All right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I, I, I listen, I talk, I'm reactionary too. I talk about sports too.

Yeah.

But I also wanted to take a step back and talk about the bigger picture.

Yeah.

It does make sense. I, and I do think that there's room for both in the last 5, 6 years we've seen Like a lot of cutbacks in terms of real sports journalism. Because guess what? Sometimes when you're actually doing journalism, it doesn't get a whole lot of clicks all the time.

Yeah.

And until we figure out a way to package that in a way that like is, is friendly to the social media newsfeed, it does feel like journalism is a little bit, you know, it's the, it's the forgotten child.

Yeah. I also think there's just like not as much accountability, like not, not as much credibility, not as much accountability now. And this isn't really like— this isn't really like— the whole show is not about sports journalism. I'm not like just continually harping on sports journalism. I do see it changing. A lot of these topics is like, hey, this is how sports are now. This is what it used to be. This is what it is now. And maybe this is where it could go. So this isn't really like a show of me just being like, hey, like I have all the answers. It's really like, I don't know, like these are topics that I'm curious about. We have a research team, we have a writer's room. So honestly, for me, it's just about like, hey, I'll do the research. We will present you guys with the facts and then you guys make the decision for yourself.

You know?

Yeah. So I got a question about sports journalism. Is there a level where like when you were playing and you see it with Kevin Durant, my quarterback, Caleb Williams, you know, they pay attention to a lot of the stuff that's said about them and they use it as motivation. But like, was there ever a level when you're playing where you're like to one of your teammates, like, hey man, you gotta, you gotta maybe log off. Like it's too much to like, you can't consume yourself with everyone's takes. Or is it like, hey, every guy gets motivated their own way. I might not listen to anything. You might listen to everything. How, what's that balance?

Yeah. Like there's definitely, I've definitely had teammates who like consume everything. I've definitely had teammates who block it all out. I was more— because it was like Twitter was like brand new when I came in, I like, I kind of first started like reading stuff and then I would, I would sort of tone it down, especially during the playoffs. I deleted every social media thing off my phone. But like some guys can handle it, some guys can't. And like once I got to know a teammate, I saw a guy one time at his, in his locker at halftime on Twitter, like searching his name on Twitter. And, uh, and if this was not— I'm not gonna name names, but this was not a guy who who had the, like, capacity to be able to do that, you know? Like, so to, to each his own. Like, I don't know, it's like, it's like, you know, if you've been, like, dieting and you're, you're eating really well, like, hey, yeah, sure, you know, I can go peak and have, like, a little cheat meal here and there and, like, be okay and get back on track.

But, like, if you have a problem, then don't go down that. It is a slippery, slippery slope, and it's a fucking lonely slope.

Yeah.

Because, like, if you take all that stuff to heart, man, Like, you go home and you'll be sad.

Yeah. Yeah. No, we talk about all the time that humans are not built to have people have takes on them constantly. Like, like, you're not, you're not built as a human being to, like, read thousands and thousands of people's opinions. And it, like, can mess you up pretty bad. Like, we have it all the time. I struggle with it where it's like, you can't read everything. Otherwise, you're just going to be paralyzed.

If you think about it, until like 200 years ago, what was the maximum number of people that knew of one other person's existence?

Right.

Like, I don't know, maybe like 500,000?

Yeah.

Like, nobody's brain has evolved to the point where we can handle a million people having something to say about us. It just doesn't work. Yeah.

I mean, even, even like, like there's one thing about like pre-social media, like, okay, you could read the paper and then you kind of got a general idea like Oh, whatever. Millions of people were watching that Super Bowl game. Like that's what people are probably thinking. But like the constant reminder of every day, and like when it's social media, like your world, it feels huge. Not everyone's talking about this, but you're seeing it. It's your algorithm, and it feels like the entire world. I mean, I've definitely I've seen like it. And what's crazy is it affects like guys' performance. Like why we've seen it? How many guys we've seen lose confidence and they become? become a completely different player.

Yeah.

And a lot of that stems from what people are saying about you.

And I also think like this is one of those things where, uh, it was actually, you know, there's always a conversation, especially in the NBA, like, oh, it was so much easier back then. This is one of those situations where I do think it was easier where you had a columnist write about you, but then that columnist probably had to show up to the locker room. And it's like the people who had opinions about you had to, had to be face to face with And you had a relationship with them whether you liked them or not. Now it's like it's just a bunch of faceless people that you have opinions about you, or guys on TV shows. I mean, we're— it's us too, where it's like we never meet some of the people we talk about. That's not totally fair all the time.

Yeah, see, I don't— I don't— I think that a lot of times, you know, back in the day there's beat reporters and there's, there's people like you said, you'd have to see them face to face. I think it's totally fine to be like critical of players. Like that's completely fair. That's like part of the job. But like when it, when it goes past that level of like disrespectful, like that's when I actually feel bad for guys. And that's when like the not having to see a guy face to face, when you say something like truly disrespectful, like that's when that's, that's the disconnect because you don't have to see him face to face. Back in the day, if you said something really disrespectful, you have to go into the locker room and interview him face to face and put a camera, I mean, put a microphone in his in his face, like, you're gonna think a little bit about, you're gonna be a little bit more cautious. And just maybe just a better journalist, like figure out a way to get your point across without saying something absolutely crazy.

Yeah.

Did you have any rivals in terms of journalists that covered the teams? Like any guy that you just didn't get along with?

I had people I just didn't like really like vibe with, but like, I wouldn't say, yeah, When I got to the Clippers, there was a guy at the LA Times named TJ Simmers, and he was like— I had no clue who he was before I got drafted there, but everybody with the Clippers was like, hey, watch out for him, he's gonna try to get you. He turned out to be a pretty nice guy. He was like kind of an old curmudgeon type sportswriter who was like kind of always negative, but like whatever, you know, who cares? And as you get older, like, you stuff—

you let stuff like If a journalist out there repeatedly called you a loser and never had to see you face to face, would that be something that you would get upset about? Does that cross that line?

No, I wouldn't say calling me a loser is the disrespectful thing. I think, I don't know, I'm trying to think of an instance that, as I got older too, especially you just become more secure with yourself and you're like, you know whether something is warranted or not. And if it's not, you're just like, whatever, forget about it. And if it is, like, honestly, you kind of take it to heart and you— it kind of makes you better. Yeah. Um, so that's another reason why sports journalists— I think people, like, people giving their opinions is totally fine. I, I, I think there just needs to be some accountability to it.

Have you, uh, have you reached out to Steve Ballmer and just see how he's doing?

I've tried, I've tried. I don't— I thought I must have gotten like a Wrong number or like the phone, the satellites must have gotten switched. I don't know if he uses, I doubt he uses like AT&T or Verizon or something. He's probably got his own thing.

Yeah.

Yeah. So maybe I check with his IT guy. I don't know if you guys know anybody, but he's—

Yeah, you should probably, he's probably waiting to shake your hand and just, you know, be like, hey Steve, how's it going? Everything, everything good with your team?

Yeah, it's a tough situation. But you know, it's Clippers. We'll fight back. Clippers always fight back. We'll find a way to get out of the hole.

Yeah.

Did you have any idea how much he loved trees? I was shocked.

I didn't. Well, I mean, I don't know. I think billionaires always have insane little hobbies. I think it was more so I was shocked that Kawhi loved trees so much. I didn't realize he was outside that much.

Yeah, he's an arborist.

Yeah, yeah, the green thumb. I, I really love the, uh, who was it, the PGA player who, um, uh, he was like at Riv, he was like, he would always take the, uh, the other fairway. And, uh, Riv like came in and planted a tree and somebody had this amazing tweet that was like, uh, oh, Viktor Hovland. Viktor Hovland has now planted more trees in LA than Kawhi Leonard. It's true. That tweet would make no sense a year ago.

Yeah.

Just unbelievable today. Yeah.

Can we talk some NBA? So the season's starting. I feel like it's starting too early.

What—

when the season would start for you in October, was there— I mean, is there any urgency in the first few months? I know that you want to play well, your competitors, but it does feel like, especially in the NBA, you're going to The seeding maybe doesn't matter as much anymore. And it's just like, yeah, like we're a good team. We don't have to worry. We're not going to get beat up over a loss in October. Like how does that, how does ramping up to the season actually work mentally?

I honestly, I don't know. I always, I feel like we always had the mindset, like you want to come out of the gate hot.

Yeah.

And like you always have that conversation where it's like, all right, we don't get too high. Don't get too low. Like, you know, a, a 2-game losing streak. Like, you, you have to put it in perspective or you'll drive yourself crazy. So I, I completely understand the, the how it looks, and it's like, hey, it's too many games, 82, these games early don't matter. They like, they, it's just a necessary thing. Like, I don't know how you scale this back. Like, owners aren't going to want to make less, uh, to have less games. You're going to make less money. I, I just, I don't know I don't know. Uh, so I don't know. It's the same thing with like the start of the game. I always tell people like the first quarter, like it, it really feels like guys aren't playing hard. A lot of the first quarter is kind of like, all right, we're figuring out how are they guarding stuff? How are— what's the flow of the game? How are the refs calling the game? Am I— does— do I feel good? Is my shot going? Like, it's a lot of that early on.

I always tell people like, I mean, if you get a chance to like sit courtside even in the first quarter, like you'll feel You'll feel that it's not just guys just dogging it, but these are some of the best athletes in the world making this look very easy when some of this stuff is not. So that's my NBA homer take.

Hank just raised his hand.

Yeah.

Quick question, Blake. You said courtside. Hey, good to see you. You mentioned courtside. How far back does it become where it's still technically courtside? Or is it just that first row?

Um, I mean, I think maybe you get your feet on like the, the ground floor. Maybe, maybe if you're second, second row.

Feet on the ground floor.

Okay. Okay.

Yeah. And that doesn't have to necessarily be feet on the wood. You know, you can be feet on a whatever.

Feet on the whatever.

Yeah.

That sounds just as good. What, what if, uh, what if you're sitting right next to the exercise bike? Does that count as being Courtside? If you're bike side?

It depends on the arena. Some bikes are much closer than others.

Like hypothetically, like the Washington Wizards arena.

Oh yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I would say that's, yeah. Yeah, sure. Why not? You're courtside. If you can touch a player.

Yeah. Well, I don't want to try.

It wasn't just like, hey, a roll. Yeah. Don't a rogue like run into the stands after a ball, touch a player.

Yeah.

If you can touch a player. Why not call it courtside?

Yeah, that's cool. Feet on the whatever.

Yeah.

Yeah. Doesn't matter.

Feet on the wood, it's all good. Or hand on the guy on the bike. You know, that's one strike or something.

Psych.

Yeah.

No, not psych.

No psych.

No psych.

No psych. Who do you like this year, Blake? Were you a Knicks believer last year? How long did it take you to respect them?

You know what we had? So we had the Emirates, like NBA Cup. the Finals being Spurs-Knicks in December, like, felt like a high-stakes game. And the fact that it was like the Finals eventually was honestly pretty cool to see. But like the Knicks, I thought after they had their little skid in January, they had lost a decent amount of games. And then I felt like Jalen Brunson's focus went to like a completely another level. But even then, like at the beginning of the first round of the playoffs, when Atlanta's like kind of dogging them a couple of games, you start to get a little skeptical again. And then they went on that run. It, I don't know, it took me a while, but they, playoff basketball, especially in the East last year, it was kind of like, I didn't know what was going to happen, but like Jalen Brunson, man, like unbelievable.

Yeah.

What about, so the Sixers are obviously going to be a big story this year. Do you have any concerns about the actual fit of the, of the pieces? Because they have incredible players, but you could make the argument their 4 guys all have been alphas on their own teams before. And so how does that all fit now when all 4 of them have to learn how to play together? And, or is it like, hey, it doesn't matter, they're all fucking good, it's just they're, they're going to be good together?

No, I think it, I think it absolutely does matter. I mean, it's like Yeah. Like, it's the LeBron being in the place that he is in his career. I would think that like, he's probably not going to be like the person you're like worried about. I mean, he even last year when he came back, he was essentially like the 3rd option with the Lakers. Not really, but kind of like Austin Reeves was playing out of his mind. Luka's Luka. So I think LeBron is so good at so many different things that he can plug those gaps. The thing that you're— I'm like really looking at of like the Sixers is who, like, does Vijay Edgecombe take the step in learning how to just always play off the ball and cut nonstop, hit a corner 3? I mean, he was great last season. I love him as a player, but like, now you got to go to the next level. And now, now who are the other guys to fit in there? Because like, remember like the Heat teams or any of these kind of super teams that guys have put, teams have put together. It's all like those, those Those intangible guys, those like role players make so, they matter so much.

And they're already a little light on the backup center. And again, Joel's like not always healthy. So to me, it's like those other guys. I mean, like, if, as long as they can be like, hey, whoever's night, it's whoever's night. Jaylen Brown, you go. Tyrese Maxey, LeBron, Joel. As long as those other guys can fit those gaps and fill in the creases that they'll be great.

Yeah. Follow-up question to that. How many balls do they play with at one time? How many balls are on the court at once?

Well, warmups, almost unlimited number. You could, you could get a bunch out there.

That's a good point.

So guys are going to be pretty happy during warmups. I always loved the, like, there's only one ball. It's like, yeah, we fucking know, man.

Yeah.

Sometimes you don't.

Sometimes teams get built and they don't know it's only one ball.

That's true. There's one ball. And there's a lot of guys that like, that like being the guy with the ball.

Yeah, no, it's— I mean, that's— it is valid, but, um, I don't know. I mean, as long as these guys— they seem like they're all getting along, like they're happy to be there, but like, we'll find out who they are like that first moment of adversity. Yeah, you know, like when they have to have a little skid or some guys have some bad games.

What are we thinking about the Pacers? Because they're the, the long-forgotten team in the NBA. They were, they were so close. And then obviously Halliburton getting injured kind of ruined their entire immediate future plans. In the long term, maybe it wasn't so bad because they got to reload in the draft. But, um, they were so close. They were a really, really good team. And I feel like the sky was the limit until that injury. What do you expect from them?

I, I mean, I think they're going to be one of those like sort of not thought about as much teams in the East. Like everybody's talking about Boston and Miami and Brooklyn and New York. But like, that's, you know, if Tyrese is back to his, where he was pre-injury, him with Zubac is such a good combination. I also think Rick Carlisle is just a really good coach. Like he figures it out. Nobody, including myself, thought they were going to make it to the finals 2 seasons ago. And they're just a well-coached team with like a pretty solid nucleus around them. I don't know where I would put them in the East, but like, I think they, I think they, I think they're going to surprise people if people forgot.

All right.

Rate this take because we were talking about sports journalism at the start. By the way, The Step Back, you can watch on YouTube or Amazon. First episode's out on Tuesday. It's good weekly, right? Every Tuesday?

Yeah. Every Tuesday.

Love it.

Love it.

Victor Wembanyama can't win the big one.

Uh, like ever or this year?

Ever.

No, like he, as of right now, he cannot win the big one.

Yeah. Bad take. What? I mean, right now. Yeah. He hasn't. That's a bad take.

Well, so, but I'm, I'm just basing it off facts. Olympics, didn't win the big one. NBA Cup, didn't win the big one. NBA Finals, didn't win the big one.

Thank you for saying that the NBA Cup is a big one.

I, oh, I respect the cup. I respect the cup. So you saw what happened.

I just said it. You saw what happened last year.

Yeah. So I just gave you 3 times he didn't win the big one. Can you give me one time that he won the big one?

Um, Nike contract.

I guess that's okay.

He won the, he won the big one. Uh, spiritually when he was training with the monks.

True.

Okay.

Afterlife.

Yeah.

Nirvana.

Yeah.

It's probably the biggest one.

Yeah. See, this is what you got to do though. If you want to make it in this business, Blake, you got to get to a take before everyone else because everyone else is like, Victor Wembanyama is so awesome. He's going to win like 4 or 5 titles. On this show, we're like, he ain't going to win anything. He can't win the big one.

I think it's a valid point to say achieving spiritual enlightenment could be— that could be the big one.

Yeah.

Also, if we're looking at the playoffs last year, everybody said the Western Conference Finals, that was the real NBA Finals. So at the time he was under the impression that that was the Finals. So that, that was a big one that in retrospect, maybe not as big as we thought.

Yeah. And then everybody just pulled the rug out from under him. Like, oh, we, we had to play more. Yeah. And I get it to hit, like, you know, I don't know. You also like, he, English is his second language. What if he wasn't reading the bracket correctly?

That's true.

Good point.

Yeah, he didn't know what the big one was.

So maybe we, maybe we shore up that English.

Okay.

And then he wins the big one. Okay. He's got to, he's got to, he's got to, yeah, he's got to, he's got to know the bracket.

What about the rest of the West? Because there's a lot of unknowns. We don't know. The Timberwolves might be fun. I don't know. I don't know if they're gonna be fun or not, but I think they'll be wild.

Well, at least their press conferences will be off the charts good. I also think that the, the White Lakers, White Showtime, is going to be pretty fun to watch, led by, you know, our guy JJ, who's been phenomenal in his, in his, in his, the early part of his coaching career. He's been phenomenal. I'm excited. I mean, Luka, like, kind of having his own back. This team is like back to just him. And if he can stay healthy, I don't know. I mean, the West is like, it is a 2-horse race, but like, I do think there's like a lot of like really interesting, like you said, Minnesota, Portland, what happens? Ja, Dame back. I don't know. I think there's some, there's going to be some good stuff out West.

Do you think, do you think the Nuggets have another championship in this iteration of the team, or what do they have to do?

Uh, man, like Peyton Watson leaving the Nuggets is like, that's, that's a, that's a tough blow. Like they needed him last year in the playoffs. Everybody was banged up. So like a healthy Nuggets team. Yeah. Everybody's healthy. Jokic, like he's, to me, still the best player. Like Wemby might be MVP and Defensive Player of the Year this year, but I think Jokic Yeah. Well, yeah, obviously. And Jokic can win the big one. He's proved that. So I don't know. I think, I think that the Nuggets do, but this, this window is closing just because like all this injury stuff. I think once you start to have that injury bug, it's hard to like come back and just have your whole team be like relatively healthy for a whole season.

Yeah.

What do you think's going through Dalton Knecht's head that he couldn't make the white team?

Yeah, I don't—

man, I still think he's going to be good somewhere. We were saying it on earlier, like, I, I'm maybe stupid. Well, I know I'm stupid, but— and I wouldn't be good running a front office. But if you're a first-round pick, I'm just like, you're always a first-round pick. Like, you're good at something. Like, someone saw something in you. You will be good eventually. And that's what I like. I want the Bulls to get Dalton Knecht. Why not? Yeah.

Yeah. So you're still high on just guys that have just completely fizzled out.

Oh yeah.

He can score.

Yeah.

You, what was the, what was the Cavs number 1 pick? Anthony Bennett? No. What was his name?

Oh yeah.

Anthony Bennett.

Yeah. That guy could ball.

He's, man, somebody give him a chance.

Yeah.

So, so just so we have this straight right now, you guys' take is, Low on— sell Wemby. Yep. Buy Dalton Connect. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. No, I, I, by the way, you're so right. You gotta get to stuff before everybody else. And I think you, I think you accomplished that.

Dalton Connect, he, in the tournament, he could score points. He filled it up. That's all I remember. And also, if he, listen, if he gets cut by the, uh, the all-white Lakers, that might even be like a little bounce in his step.

Yeah. It actually was the hardest team for him to make.

Yeah.

He, I mean, he, they already had the fill.

He probably walks around a little bit of street cred. Fred.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he goes to like Minnesota and he's just hanging out with LaMelo and Ant.

It's perfect. He's ready to go.

I think I'm gonna—

I'm gonna buy—

uh, question about that is like an opposite Blindside if, if Ant and LaMelo take, uh, connect under his wing.

Yeah, yeah, I like it. Uh, I got a question about the old guys. Uh, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, we already talked about LeBron. Like, one, are you amazed as I am that they're still doing it? And 2, do you think that they still have that? Like, I think Steph does. I don't know about KD, but like maybe it's because they can think the game. I mean, you later in your career, your game shifted and changed where it's like you could, you could think the game better than maybe when you started and you learned more and you could be more of a wily vet. Is there a benefit to that? Some of the guys that maybe Maybe their athleticism isn't exactly what it was when they were in their 20s.

Yeah, but those guys are so highly offensively skilled. Like KD is still like, I mean, he's still one of the best scorers. He just, he can shoot over anybody and he just shoots at such a high clip. Like those guys, those guys will, I don't, you'll never see KD becoming like the, the 8th guy off the bench taking charges, you know, diving after loose balls. Not that he, you know, doesn't play hard, But I don't know, those guys are just like, just anomalies. Like they're just so, so skilled that it feels like they can play as long as they want. And KD is kind of the more impressive one because like having an Achilles injury and still playing at like a really high level at this age is really impressive. Like LeBron's never been hurt.

Yeah, that's interesting, huh?

Really been hurt these last several years.

Oh, that's interesting.

He's never had an injury.

Whoa. Huh.

That's really uncommon, huh?

Oh yeah.

Testament to how much he takes really good care of his body.

Yeah. That's—

I was reading—

I didn't even think about it.

I was reading how much he invests into his body and his health. Yeah.

Yeah.

Never been hurt.

Yeah.

And he's, and he's 24x that investment.

It's worked out well.

It's a good deal in the investment world. I don't know if you guys are up on Yeah, we do some investing.

Yeah, we dabble.

You invested in the Osos.

Yeah, the Osos rock.

Important part of our portfolio. That and the, uh, the Water Dogs. Yeah, world champions.

Yeah, we've won a ring there.

Congratulations, by the way. I don't know if I ever—

the big one. We won the big one. Thank you.

Yeah, we as owners show that we can win the big one, so we'll take that to the Osos.

Where do you rank that championship in terms of like, where does that rank in like the NFL, like a Super Bowl, uh, NBA Finals, where we put that?

Number 1.

I was gonna say it's probably like when you, uh, grab an old pair of pants and you find $20 in them.

Uh, so yeah, the water dog, they're the old pair of pants.

Yeah, with the $20. Like, you're like, oh shit, I forgot that I had $20 in this pocket.

Yes.

Yeah, for me, I put it above. Yeah, yeah, I put it—

what a day.

Yeah, like, I don't care if my favorite team's winning football football and baseball and hockey, basketball. It doesn't— but winning that, it was more meaningful because I had a part in it, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. And what specifically did you like— do you think, like, what was your role besides being an owner? Like, how were you—

I, um, I tweeted about him a couple times.

Yep. Uh, we both—

we—

what?

Named him.

We named him.

We both PFT and I independently looked at the score in the finals, saw that we were winning.

Most important part, we signed, we signed paperwork.

Yeah.

We signed a contract like 2 years after we owned part of the team.

Yeah.

They finally tracked us down. We, we signed.

No, we love the Water Dogs, but I mean, Rabil does it. The PLL is, yeah. PLL is on the up and up. Rabil does an awesome job with it and we've won twice now. So it's also like, Like when people ask us and this gets asked to us a lot, like what's your favorite ring? We're like the next one because we have 2.

So yeah. Dynasty.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

We're talking Dynasty.

We're talking Dynasty.

You know?

Yeah. You can win the big one.

I have won the big—

I mean, 5 times. 5 times you've won the big one.

It's crazy. 5 times. I really need to do a photo.

I need to do one of those photo shoots.

Kobe.

Or MJ. Yeah, with all the rings on the thumb, everything. What, uh, how's your golf game, by the way?

Uh, you know what, I, I hurt my back in March. Breaking news. Um, took a little time away, but I've been grinding recently. Got to play Liberty National, uh, last week. First, first round back was okay, but I'm really working on being a better player. That's like, that's my It's my goal for this next year. I gotta just like smooth the swing out, you know, take it, go on a journey kind of like Hank did, but I'm just going to keep doing right-handed.

Yeah.

What, what, uh, when we had Austin Reeves on over the summer, uh, he said that JJ Redick is afraid of his shadow. Have you noticed that when you played with him?

Yes. I bought, uh, I bought JJ a, um, Puxatani Phil head cover. Because he's like, uh, it's like a fucking groundhog, man. Guy sees his shadow and just alters the course of everything. Um, so I got a custom JJ— is it— it's Puxatani, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um, yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's remarkable. And like, he is so in his head about it. Can't do it.

That's so funny.

My shadow, my shadow. Don't call it out.

Yeah.

So is he like only playing golf at like high noon? Like he can't play it like, you know, dusk because the shadows are so crazy?

He's a real— he's a real golf sicko. So he's playing, he's playing whenever he gets a chance. Oh, it's just something he's got to get through. As like, as just so as locked in as he was as a player and just like laser focused as a coach, like it is hilarious to watch him get up to a tee box and just be furious that his shadow, which has been with him his whole life—

Yeah, yeah.

Is just in his head.

The only defender he can't shake. Was it in Los Angeles? It's like it's there every day too. It's always sunny.

It's always, it's always sunny in LA.

That's crazy.

I, I don't know. I don't know if he's done any— well, I haven't played with him in a little bit, so I don't know if he's done any like mental work or anything. I'm honestly pretty sure he probably has, so hopefully he's better now.

Somebody should hire like an actor to get dressed up in a black bodysuit and just mimic all of JJ's actions. Like right behind him on the bench and just like say that he's his shadow, just to freak him out during the game.

Yeah. The seats right next to the Laker bench. That's, that's brilliant.

Yeah.

If you're, if you're feet on the whatever at the Staples Center Crypto Arena, you should maybe think about doing that.

Yeah, I think, I honestly think we should do that.

Have you been to the new, the new Clippers arena?

I have not. I have not. I, um, I heard it's cool though.

I like the wall behind the basket. Yeah.

Yeah, the wall. Look out for the wall. Um, yeah, it's, uh, and apparently a ton of toilets.

Oh, it's important.

That's good.

That was like one of the, the things, like they didn't want people to stand in line to go to the restroom, get back to your seat and cheer on the Clippers.

I like that.

I heard it's, I heard it's It's phenomenal. And you don't have to— you just walk in, you grab a drink, and you walk out. You know, there's no transactions happening. It's all face scan. So, oh, um, they got a lot of, a lot of— they got a lot of personal information about everything.

That's good.

Yeah, that's really good. Uh, I saw, by the way, you, you had a little take that, that not went viral, but people were writing about it, uh, that the NBA media voters, we need to get rid of them and have it— who, who would vote in your— in a perfect world? Because I actually agree with you. I think it's really stupid that we have We have a system now that guys' contracts are tied to like where they land on first team, second team, third team, and then a bunch of media guys get to vote on it. That's weird.

Yeah. So like when I was, I think when I was talking about it, like I was like, full disclosure, I don't really have a solve for this issue because it's like you can't, the GMs can't do it. The coaches can't vote.

vote.

Players won't take it seriously. They'll vote for whoever. Um, so I don't know. I don't know what the answer is, but I do think maybe you just— maybe you, you, you take the pool down of the number of voters.

I, I think the answer is you. I think it's, it's— you get like 20 ex-NBA players, like had to have played 10 years.

Oh, I thought you were gonna say just me.

Just you would be cool too. But like, you guys knowing the game and a little bit removed, so you can't, you know, there's obviously some bias involved. Maybe it's like a 10-year period before you become a voter, but I'd feel confident with those guys, with guys who know the game.

Yeah, but like, I— you get too far removed and then you get the guys that are just like salty about how much guys are now making. True. And it becomes like the hate thing. So I don't know, there's not like a great— I'm still in that sweet spot, but I still have friends in the league. But once I don't have any friends in the league, yeah, I'm gonna turn into like— I don't know, back in my day we played for nothing.

Yeah.

We played for nothing. And these guys, they can't even play full 82. I never played 82. Can't even play full 82. Unbelievable. That's— I'm gonna— I can't wait to turn into that. Oh yeah.

Maybe we should do it. Just this show should do it.

Our Hall of Fame.

Yeah.

No, the NBA Awards. We'll do it and we'll promise not to be biased. We'll promise not to watch too much basketball because then you don't want to have like too many data points.

Yeah. How much basketball are you watching?

A lot.

I love— I watch a shitload of college basketball.

We've watched every game this year so far.

I watch— it's gonna help you. with the NBA.

Yeah, yeah.

I watch a lot of college basketball.

So you think Don't Connect is, is going to be like MVP?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. That guy could fucking hoop. I watch, uh, uh, not a ton of regular season NBA, all the playoffs obviously. So, and we could just make our votes on the playoffs. So like, if you don't make the playoffs, you just don't exist in our world.

Yeah, that's— I mean, that's, that's fair. I don't— I see no, no issue with that. Maybe guys will play harder during the regular season. Yeah. So that you recognize them in the postseason.

Yeah, we make a promise not to watch till the playoffs.

Can you give me your, uh, your final 2 teams in the East and your final 2 teams in the West?

Oh, I like this. Well, West, let's go Spurs, uh, Thunder.

Okay.

Um, East, I wanna— so we— NBA on Prime has the Eastern Conference Finals this year.

Oh.

We are— I'm gonna be on site going back and forth. I wouldn't mind like a Knicks-Philly. Yeah, that would be a lot of fun. Yeah, let's go. Let's, let's go Knicks-Philly.

Okay.

All right. Philly East, San Antonio, Oklahoma City West.

And the winner of it all?

I'm going to go Oklahoma City this year.

Okay. Yeah.

So Wemby, you also think Wemby can't win the big one?

This year.

What about the, what about the new offensive foul rules? The, uh, the little chicken wing they say they're going to call it. Do you actually believe that stuff when they say they're going to make these little adjustments?

So we have, we do every year, we do this, uh, not every year, last 2 years we've done this seminar for NBA In Prime and, uh, Monte McCutcheon, who's the head of the refs, like he comes and speaks to us. I, I like some of the rules they implement, but also like, like there's, there's so much gray area to these like new rules that they put in and like Like when it comes down to it, certain guys get away with certain things more than other guys. Like that's just how it is. So like, I'm sure it's going to be a point of emphasis and I think they're going to call it a little bit more early on, but like you're, then we're just going to, I think we're going to get back to like what it was towards the end of the season and in the playoffs.

Yeah.

Some guys just get away with it. All right. So everyone watch The Step Back every Tuesday, new episode. It's going to be great. Blake is the best. He knows sports. He's funny as fuck. It's actually— we've said this before— it's bullshit that you are so good at basketball and funny, uh, and good-looking. Got a 6-pack. It's not fair. It's not fair. Some guys have it all. Blake has it all. As, as I can see my reflection in this Zoom and it's like my fat fucking face. Uh, all right, Rhoback question. rhoback.com, promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. rhoback.com, promo code TAKE. Hank, you want to do it? Because Zach's not here.

Sure, Blake. Paul George has talked about playing for Boston and how this team and these guys have brought something out of him that he feels like has been buried for a long time and has a new passion for the game. You obviously spent some time in Boston. What is it? What do they have? And how is that possible going from a playoff team that beat Boston to now being on that team and saying he feels an energy that he hasn't felt in a long, long time? Like what was buried?

I honestly truly believe that certain franchises just have like a way of going about like, there's a standard. Like it's, people talk about setting the standard. We wanted it to be, but like Boston has like a historical standard and like you don't really appreciate it until you get there and you like the, the, the, The vibe there is like everybody works. Everybody works really hard. Brad Stevens to me is like a, he's one of the best GMs. He's just incredibly thoughtful. I think it's that. I think it's like the fans, the organization, and then also the guys that they've drafted, the guys that are on the team, the guys that they sign, like they, that matters to them. And I think that like that seeps through to everything. So I experienced exactly what PG said. So I believe it.

All right.

Awesome.

Blake, always great to see you. Hopefully see you. Well, we'll see you hopefully Super Bowl week in LA.

Yeah.

You'll be there. Let's go play some golf or something.

Yeah, we should. We should do a golf video. I think the last time we did a golf video, it was one of the worst videos.

And maybe we'll just play some golf.

It was tough. We'll just play some golf with no cameras. That would be fun. That'd be a great time.

Bring the cameras.

Yeah. All right.

We'll be working on my swing. I want to show it off, you know?

Yeah. I missed that house that I hit 3 times on 3 different holes.

Oh yeah. That was a bad one.

I want, I want another crack at it.

Yeah.

Honestly, who, why would someone build a house there? Why would, why would someone build a house 100 yards away from a golf course?

3 different holes. All right, Blake, you're the best, man. Everyone go watch the Step Back. We're rooting for you.

Thanks, guys.

Appreciate it.

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Okay, Firefest of the week, Henry. Great week.

Honestly, this might be the nicest week of weather like this. It was every single day sunny, 60 to 70, felt like 75, fall crisp air like this. I've always been a summer, summer greater than, but this, this weather, I'll take this weather over anything.

Fall is anything.

October has been just Pristine, like 72 degrees every day.

Oh, beautiful.

So we worked, filmed, filmed a grudge match with Jerry. Yeah, smoked him.

I was gonna say, your Fyre Fest is probably that you're never gonna quit playing left-handed because you're, you're mowing people down. You mowed down Chef Donnie and you destroyed Jerry. How, how quickly did Jerry quit?

He— I was up 4 after the first hole and I started putting lefty because I felt bad. I was like, I'll just beat you all the way lefty, which I realized, you know, I, I, he started to make the excuse and then I I thought you were going to start making that excuse too. So I will be just every grudge match, all lefty. So it was— I think he quit after the 6th hole. I was up 9 after 2 holes.

Other, other than the Patriots losing to the Bears.

Celtics lost, Patriots won. So those offset.

Just—

we're taping this early in the morning on Thursday. Bears won. So you're— that's a bad start to the season. No, both the Celtics and then—

No, tonight's going to be special.

Okay.

Okay. Okay. I was thinking about it though.

Is there a mayor's bet?

No, there isn't.

We could come up with one. I did bet. I do have a bet with Yandel. Loser has to take winner out golfing to the Grove in Miami. Michael Jordan's golf course.

That's a good bet.

So loser has to take winner out.

You don't want to lose that one.

Yeah, it's gonna be really tough.

Place is miserable.

So you're just mowing down all the competition lefty.

Yeah.

And PFT and Grinnell and then, and that's it.

So when is it? Did you tape with PFT yet?

PFT is coming next week.

Okay, cool. So you're just fucking lining them up, knocking them down.

Yeah, it feels good. I think we're, I think we're on something.

Is there a part of you that's like, I'm going to stay lefty because I just can beat all my friends lefty?

Yeah. That's what I was thinking. Like, that's, that's a true Fyre Fest because like you just did this whole thing of, oh, I'm going to get locked in for Locktober or whatever the fuck weird thing. That didn't happen.

The weather, the weather. Yeah, no, I thought it was gonna be like, oh, it's getting, you know, it's, it's golf season's over, it's time to lock in. I've golfed more than ever. Yeah, I've been golfing more than ever.

Yeah, every day.

And you thought, you thought it was gonna be over? You thought Locktober was gonna be the end of everything? No, no, no, it's just the start.

I mean, when does it get bad?

Fall golf is incredible.

Like, when is it? In November?

Like, I'd say late in Hankvember.

Yeah, I think next week is supposed to get a little colder.

Yeah.

But yeah, no, fall golf is the best. If you can get some night, like 60 degrees and sunny is the best.

Like it's better than the summer, you know? Yes. Like it is the best weather to play where it's like you can wear shorts and a polo and not—

Even next week doesn't look so bad.

Yeah.

November.

Yeah.

If the sun's out, it's, it's great.

It's Halloween.

That's a fact.

Okay.

Yeah.

Great week.

Yeah.

Okay.

Except for the fact that The Patriots lost to the Bears.

Nope.

What was the score?

It was, I think, 34 to 21.

Okay. That's kind of— that's a blowout.

Yeah, it was a little bit of blowout, PFT.

I'll take that exact same score, but it was 34 to 21 Patriots.

Pick your own score, dude. You're the fucking loser who goes to dinner and you're like, I'll have what he's having.

All right. 31, 31, 24 tie game. Drake Maye throws a Hail Mary.

Oh, Hail Mary.

Hail Mary. So you'd still take the extra point?

Yeah, there's like 10 seconds left. Okay, got it.

Oh, Hail Mary with 10 seconds.

That must have been a really far Hail Mary. Or yeah, yeah, to not even try to kick a field goal.

Right.

And 10 seconds left, not even get— not even get extra yardage.

That's like a— that's a super specific window that you had. So hey, I hope it happened.

What do you think, PFT? What's your score prediction?

Yeah, I think it was a I think it was a tie. I think it was, I think it was 30-30.

I will say it's very, it's, it's funny.

Like, who do you want to win?

We're both supremely confident that the Bears are going to win. Yes. You're very confident the Patriots are going to win.

Are you asking me who?

Well, it's like I'm just back against the wall where it's like every single person I've talked to for the last week, it's like, oh, Bears, Bears, Bears, Bears. Where it's like, I just, I'm just, I know. No, I know. But it's like, I would be very funny.

Let's just remember this game already happened.

Yeah, no, that's fine. But this will be fun for people to listen to because I'm supremely confident. Hank is supremely confident in the Patriots. If one of the teams gets blown out, this will be a very funny portion of the show.

I want a tie, but if I can't have a tie, I want the Bears to win because I do have a Super Bowl bet on the Bears, just like I root for the Patriots when I had a Super Bowl bet on the Patriots last year.

Yeah. What if the Bears win, but Drake Maye plays really, like, really, really well? Really well.

That'd be awesome.

I love good football.

You like when Drake May plays well?

Yeah, it doesn't bother me. Like, either way, I like watching good football, Max.

Yeah, I guess. Yeah, good football.

Yeah, we don't know who Glenn is. All right, PFT. So that's it. Your Firefest was— it was too sunny this week and you played too much golf?

Yep. Yeah, my Firefest is— I thought I was gonna be more locked in in October, but I've just been playing like golf in the best weather.

Okay.

Yeah, tough.

Did you Can I ask one question about the Celtics? Did you see Russillo's take?

No.

He said the Boston Celtics are the Jalen Hurts of the NBA. I love this take. He basically was like, it, it, it, it's really tough to watch. It works in theory, but it's really hard to watch.

When they miss—

Russillo, that's an awesome— just, that's just awesome.

Pissing off me and Hank.

I know, something like that. 2 separate fan bases.

I know what he's saying because when—

It kind of makes sense.

When they're missing 3s, it's miserable where it's like, all right, like they, you know, the strategy is to shoot a ton of 3s when they miss a lot of 3s. But, but Jalen Hurts isn't— it's not like Jalen Hurts is like throwing it deep and missing deep shots. And that's like, Jalen Hurts is just bad to watch.

It's wrong.

I don't even know when, like when Jalen Hurts, when he's like, they're more like Brett Favre. Like they're, they're, they're gunslingers. They just sometimes miss a lot.

I just love that he just hit that like he found it.

I've never watched a Jalen Hurts game and like, this is an electric quarterback performance.

You never watched 2 Super Bowls? You never watched 2 Super Bowls?

2 Super Bowls.

That was fucking idiotic.

That was dumb. You sounded like a dumb dumb.

That's, that's literally the only counterargument that you have to prepare for when you're talking about Jalen Hurts. Yeah, that's the only one.

Incredible in 2 Super Bowls.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's a great counter, but if you prepare for it, you can handle it.

Yeah.

You just, just ignored that completely.

Yeah, whatever.

All right, PFT.

Um, pretty good week. Hey, I'm with Hank. Uh, not a lot to complain about. Uh, Wiz are 1-0, about to be 2-0, and then about to be 3-0, and we might not ever lose another game. Um, I guess the only Fyre Fest— it actually just happened pretty recently. I'm getting grilled about something. I don't know why I'm getting grilled about it, but I'm being forced to answer for something that somebody else did.

Oh, no.

And the craziest part about it, it sounds like it was a really nice thing that this other person did. But for some reason, I'm a bad guy.

I'm—

I asked you for advice.

Yeah, I didn't even ask for advice. Reset the table here.

No, set the table correctly.

I'm setting it.

I'm not putting the knives and forks on the wrong side. No, you're putting the knives on That was on the right.

Nice. Cocktail hour. Now I'm about to set the table.

All right. So pigs in blankets are gone.

No more. Bar's closed.

Yeah. Said it correctly.

Wine only.

You'll receive wine at your table.

Yeah.

Everyone have a seat.

Max, you bet you like that, you chick.

Yeah, wine's good.

Okay.

Okay. You like wine?

I like wine. No, you don't like—

you're not—

I do. I just like— I like just making you seem like you— it's a chick thing.

I like Mad Dog.

Yeah.

MD 2020, baby.

I like Twisted Tea.

Twisted Tea is the best. Yeah.

Yeah.

I like Twisted Tea.

I like Pepsi.

So can I set the table?

Yeah.

All right. So I walked in here and Hank confronted me about something, and the confrontation was, what would you do, PFT, if you were in this situation? Apparently, Glenn Tapewatch had 2 tickets for the Patriots-Bears game earlier today.

Oh, wow.

That one of you guys won, or maybe tied. And Glenn Tapewatch sent 2 tickets to Drake Maylover.

Who works here.

Who works here.

Yeah.

Because he knew that Drake Maylover loves Drake May.

Yeah, yeah.

And so it sounds like Glenn Tapewatch might be a bit of a Drake Maylover lover. And so he sent him 2 tickets to tonight's game. Drake Maylover, he is new to Chicago, big Patriots fan. Hasn't been to a Pats game in a very long time. Uh, and so I guess Glenn thought it'd be a good idea to send him free tickets to the game. Um, and then apparently Drake Maylover told Hank about that.

Mm.

And then Hank told Drake Maylover to send the tickets back to Glenn Tapewatch and to not accept them.

Well—

Knowing that Hank had a ticket to the game, but Drake Maylover does not have a ticket to the game.

Now—

And so I'm—

I—

he asked me what I would do in that situation.

Glenn Tape Watch. What?

Oh, that's fine. That's it.

What'd I get wrong about that?

You can't— and then say that.

75.

It's like 75% of what happened.

I will say—

no, no, no, no. Well, then tell the rest of the story because I think that's pretty much it.

Glenn Tape Watch. I was like, PFT, we know. I was trying to deal with Max because, you know, PFT is like, we all think it's Max. It's Glenn Tape Watch. I'm like, how should I— how should I go about the situation with Max? Glenn Tapewatch is an op, and Drake Mailover is new, very fresh, and very like, you know, can be intimidated easily. And he was like, oh, Glenn Tapewatch sent me these tickets, what should I do? And I was like, well, that makes no sense, because if it's Max and we work in the same office, you would think Max would go up and nicely offer him tickets, or maybe DM him from Max's own account. So it was weird to me that the person who's running Glenn Tapewatch is hiding behind their account, which is also a Drake May somewhat of a hate account. So I told him, do not take the bait. Give those tickets back. I promise I'll get you a ticket. So I have— I'm not leaving him high and dry by any means, but we can't be taking blood diamonds. And that's just something that he's got to learn dealing with people like Glenn Tapewatch.

Last I saw, Glenn Tapewatch calls it— he calls it balls and strikes like he sees No, he was not slandering Drake May last week. I think his most recent video, if anything, he was slandering Jayden Daniels.

I got a question.

Yep.

As a gentleman myself, I saw that this ticket was like one of the highest priced tickets in the regular season in a long time. It's like $700.

Wow. Really?

And I'm a gentleman and I subscribe to the, you know, to get the Glenn Tape Watch tape early. So it's like $100, I think.

Yeah.

Part of the Tape Watch University and all these things. How's, how is, how's Glenn Tape Watch affording these tickets? Is my money going to—

I don't know. I saw something about some settlement that he was paying back over the next couple of weeks. But I don't know.

Okay.

He hasn't been online because of that thing where he went to the cabin upstairs.

It'd be a shame if we had a class-action lawsuit against Glenn Tapewatch as Glentleman.

If he would— is this like his Craig Carton turn where he's taking all the subscriptions? Yeah, he's buying tickets and then, and then flipping them. Listen, if he might be—

if the tape keeps showing up, then I won't have a complaint. Yeah, you know I'm saying?

Yeah, I mean, as far as I know, the tape's gonna keep showing up. I have no reason to doubt Glenn Tapewatch. Okay, I just thought it's a shame.

Seems like he's a nice guy.

It doesn't— it sounds also like he's so deep inside Hank's head That Hank doesn't know which way's up. He's telling his subordinates at this company to not accept free gifts and free tickets to a game that was, as you mentioned, super, super expensive.

Correct.

Okay.

All right.

Glenn Tape Watch, as you're concerned, is an op.

Glenn Tape Watch is an op. I know that for a fact.

Right.

I'm a glentleman. Yeah. You're an op. Well, no, we subscribe. You can't subscribe. Some may say that subscriptions are not endorsements.

Subscriptions.

I have no idea Clintape Watch's past and any of his beliefs.

Some may say would actually be a fire name for his album, but it's M-A-Y. M-A-Y-E. All 22-second songs. Yeah. I heard he has a banger feature too. Like, I heard he secured an A-list name Wow. To perform on one of the tracks.

Wow.

Excited to hear that.

I've just been in this, in this game for a long time, and it, you know, they always— the TapeWatch, the age-old saying is like, if something seems like it's too good to be true, it's because it is. Glenn TapeWatch was not just earnestly offering Drake Maylover tickets. I know that for a fact. You think something was gonna come, like there's gonna be— it's some type of like I love it. Afterwards, then now that like you're— he's gonna be compromised and we can't have that happen.

I thought that he was like, I made you this giant cool sculpture of a horse, Drake Maylover, just take it.

Yes.

You're gonna love it.

Correct.

Yeah, we cannot compromise Drake Maylover. We will not.

What could possibly be a negative with Drake Maylover going to this game?

I don't know, but I'm sure Glenn would tell us after the fact.

I just want to say shout out. This is why I remain a Glentleman.

Yeah.

Hank has been so consumed with Glenn tape watch that his eyes are not— have not been on this game at all today. And again, this game already happened. So this is very out of order.

But still, it'd be a shame if there was a curse.

Oh, for not taking the tickets.

Yeah.

Wow.

Well, it's not so much for— I understand why maybe Drake Maylover felt pressured into not taking the tickets. Yeah, but in terms of like forcing somebody that doesn't have tickets to not accept them—

You keep saying that. He has tickets. He's— he went to the game. Better seats than the ones Glenn offered.

Okay, because when you talk—

We don't know that.

We don't know that. When you told me right when we got in here, um, about the predicament that you were in, you said that he didn't have tickets, but you were going to try to figure out a way to get him tickets.

I will go on TickPick and buy him tickets that are way, way better than Uh, whatever the fucking cheap seats Glenn was getting.

I think they're in the $200s.

We had to know when the NFL announced the schedule and they put Bears-Patriots Thursday night, we would put out the most confusing out-of-order podcast possible. And that's where we are right now.

Yeah, but it's—

I don't even know.

I think it's super nice of Glenn Tapewatch.

I don't know.

I don't understand why Hank is so alarmed by a gift.

Yeah.

What could possibly— what could possibly—

do you think that he— that it's a Trojan War?

It's a Trojan War.

There's gonna Like, what, like, what could possibly happen of Drake Maylever showing up at that game? Do you think he sent him fake, fake tickets? There's no way Glenn Tapewatch would do such a thing.

You never know.

That would be a real dirty move if he did, Max.

There's no way. There's no way. Maybe if Glenn Tapewatch was sending the tickets to Hank, there's no way he would do that to Drake Maylever.

You've watched his bullshit videos. He's still running AJ Brown has no arms, all this bullshit. Well, why would he then Offer such a nice thing when so many, so many of his videos have been slanderous?

Maybe you should ask him that.

Yeah.

Glenn Tawatch is a fair, fair NFL scout.

The more I, the more I'm like consuming his content, and I know he did say it was Max for a while. I think he, I think he's just a real person.

I agree. And that would make that track for buying the tickets.

It would. Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Good Fyre Fest. My Fyre Fest is— it's nothing compared to that. I don't know.

I just—

we talked about it on Sunday, but Max and I, when Mike McCarthy went in the blue tent, I just have like— I think I might have a torn ACL and I don't even know what to do with it.

What happened?

My knee just hurts.

I'm back.

I've been lifting again and my knee just hurts. It's not actually torn ACL. I just think I'm— this is why getting any type of like Doing any type of exercise is always scary when you're over 40 because I just immediately am like, well, that hurt and that doesn't feel good. And now I don't know if I'll be injured.

Is it clicking?

No, it's just like a real strain on the outside. I think maybe it's the IT bands.

Is that something you got to roll those out? Yeah, they always say roll those out. But honestly, that's my least favorite exercise to do.

Yeah.

Yeah. No, it's terrible. That's the thing is all the things that like I've been back to trying to do a better job of, especially in football season, I've been walking a lot. I've been lifting. I'm cool. Like if I can go, if I have 30 minutes, I can do some squats. I can do, you know, some throw around a little weight, feel better. All the things I should be doing are like yoga and elastic band work. And that shit is so boring.

It is. It's very boring.

I tried to do yoga. I try to do it every day. It's such a boring way to start.

It's so boring, dude.

It's really— that's my problem is it's just boring. I feel better after I do it.

I need to—

it's just boring. Yeah, they should do— someone should do yoga for guys.

We should have someone come in and give us like a 15-second or 15-minute stretching, like actual do a yoga class. What if we did yoga classes here? What if someone gave yoga class?

We've talked about this before.

And what do we land on?

And we didn't— we We, we said we're gonna do that. Never did it.

Okay, that sounds like us.

Yep. I still gotta figure out how to play the harmonica.

What is it?

Yeah, you do.

What's the hot yoga called?

Bikram.

Yeah, Barstool Bikram.

Dude, I want to get a sauna in here. We were talking about that. Getting like a sauna and cold plunge.

Then everyone just be sweaty at work.

Well, we would make a key card so that only certain people got it.

Like the executive washroom.

room.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I believe me. The minute we— Hank and I actually had this conversation, like, wouldn't it be sick? And then we were like, well, until you walk in and Mincy is just dripping sweat and like he would stand over someone while they're eating lunch dripping sweat on them.

There's that. And there's also the, the Mincy conversation factor.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Consider that for a second.

You can't like— and not, not— I mean, not just Mincy, but mostly, mostly we're just talking about Mincy. But you like if, if you're in a situation at the office where you don't want to get stuck talking to someone, you can kind of walk away or be like, oh, you know, I got something I gotta walk to. If you're walking into the sauna and then the person's already in there, you can't really just turn around and be like, I gotta go. Yeah, I was like, they know you're coming down to sit for at least 10 to 15 minutes.

And also, as a man, and you're just stuck. If you walk into a sauna, you can't leave.

If you—

if someone's in the sauna and you walk in, you can't leave before they They leave. No, they could have just walked in. But it's just a— that's a straight up alpha thing.

Yeah, it's a competition the second you get in.

If you walk into a sauna and someone's in there and then you leave before they leave, you're a bitch.

I also think there's some HR violations waiting to happen if we give Nicky Smokes access to that too.

All right. So maybe not a sauna, maybe a personal sauna for us. We'll figure it out. All right, Zach. Either way, yeah, we got to get more flexible. I don't know how to do that. We might need to hire someone. We might just need to hire someone to like, you know what it is, Max? Because I think yoga, we're just never going to get into yoga. I think we need to hire like an actual medical training staff. Like if we had a training staff with a stretched out like a board, we get taped up before we podcast. That might be the way to do it.

Yeah. Got my treatment.

That was a guy in khakis and polos walking around just like giving, you know, squirting water in our mouth, being like, let me check out your knee real quick.

That was the best part about college baseball is that the trainer would stretch you out before the game.

Yeah, that's what we need.

So much better after.

Okay, I'll look into this.

While we're up to that, we should— you ever see that show Billions? They have the psychologist. There should also just be a psychologist that works here that you can talk to.

That person would— yeah.

They have to be the most well-paid psychologist in the world.

I think they would quit. I think they would be like, you guys are all like— you guys all have something wrong with you.

I think they would write a book. Yeah. Being like, Like, this is the most difficult job in the world. Here's how I got through it.

Wait, a guy got you tickets to a game and your boss told you you couldn't take it and won't tell you why?

No, you're not.

No, you're not the crazy one.

Head on a swivel. All right, Zach, finish us off.

Firefighters Week did have a pretty awesome week. We just got back yesterday.

Oh, hell yeah. Oh yeah, we talked about at the beginning your trip to New York.

That is true. We did talk about in the beginning. Never mind. So Fyre Fest this week is just gonna have to be—

Well, you can say the one part. Say the one part.

One part.

Yep. My Fyre Fest this week is probably that I— we went to New York. It was a lot of fun. I got to experience a lot of new things for the first time. One of those things being the corner store situation.

Bodegas.

Yes. Which was awesome.

Only place in the world that you can buy a snack.

You get it the opposite way.

No, not just snack. PFT. Let's be honest. It's a snack and also toilet paper.

Yeah. But it's toilet paper too. Yeah, forget the cat.

A cat who's sitting inside of where the, like, the candy used to be.

Pet the cat, get the shrimp pasta, then get a Pop-Tarts, which is just like— they should— anyways, not important.

So yeah, it was very exciting.

That's good.

It was very good. It was delicious. My mistake was getting too excited. I found another one after we went, trusted the pizza. Pizza put me in a destructive situation.

Oh no.

Pizza. Yeah.

Not the shrimp pasta.

No, I didn't get that. I should have just got that. that. I went to a different place.

Safer choice.

Got the pizza. Apparently you're not supposed to get the pizza. I thought it was gonna be a good move. And then I was just in the puke zone for about 36 hours.

Yeah, you— the pizza— you get the pizza from a pizza place. You get like a chopped cheese or bagel or sandwich from the bodega.

It was a beginner's mistake. Rookie mistake. Yeah, that's right.

That's on memes.

We went and got— well, no, the pizza was on Zach. We went and we went to the bodega We got— I got him a sampling of a lot of different things. We got bacon, egg, and cheese, chicken cutlet sandwich, Jamaican beef patty, a lot of different things for Zach to try here. We ate our food, we ate together, we all go back up to our respective rooms. Zach goes back down, solo mission. And that's when he got the pizza.

There's pizza places everywhere in New York.

I tried to go back to the same place we went to, but I guess I went left, should have went right, found a different different location. Looked very similar.

It's like, could have been, you know, it's the— he ended up at the bodega right next to the New York office.

Oh, no.

Never had, never had the pizza there.

Saw the biggest rat ever walking like across the food, you know, the one next to the Five Guys. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Like it's like right across the street. Yeah, right where the guy would sell all the—

I specifically did not bring him to that bodega because I know that's not Great bodega.

I was legitimately in a state of mind of could puke for roughly 21 hours.

Yeah.

And I just knew I made the mistake. That was it. Because it was an awesome week, but that was tough.

Did the pizza taste good?

In the moment, it was delicious. I hear the second I finished it. Not good.

Yeah, there's a lot of stuff in the moment. And then afterwards, like, wow, I can't believe I just—

Yeah, like, I did the gentleman's thing. I ate the pizza in the— like, you know, if it's 2 queens, you go one side and then you sleep there. Yeah.

It's not getting food from a bodega because everyone gets food from bodegas in New York. Like, I had one right across the street from me. Like, I'd get one all the time. It's pizza.

Get—

you get the pizza at the pizza place. It's New York.

You get the sandwiches and the, you know, bacon, egg, and cheese. Anything else but the pizza.

Yeah, the pizza is— there's pizza places everywhere.

But yeah, I mean, he had a chef coat on. It looked official.

No, not—

but not a pizza apron. Yeah, there's a difference. The pizza at a bodega is strictly for ornamental purposes. It's just to— just to look What were you saying about the bed situation? Can we read the situation?

Made sense.

Yeah. When— if it's 2 queens, you do all your— you do all your, like, daytime activity.

Oh yeah.

I'd sleep.

Yeah. Yeah.

Down here.

One's a shelf.

Yeah.

Okay.

I put my luggage and I, like, throw out all my shit.

So you put the pizza on the bed and that—

Ate the pizza on the one bed, slept on the other.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yes. Yeah. Throwaway bed.

And then I got in the business Yes, there's a bed where you throw all your luggage and then you also lay in that bed with your shoes on. Actually, probably.

Hank, no, there was a desk. It's an all-purpose desk.

Yeah, no, that's, that's the bed. You, you can lay down on that bed with your shoes on.

Yeah, it's the outside bed.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, that is like your, that is like your backyard if you're in a hotel.

Yeah, there's just all my clothes are everywhere and then I'll push my clothes over so that I can lay down with my shoes because like, you'll, you'll be on a trip and it'd be like, oh, let me run up to my room real quick. And then you just lay down with your shoes for 10 minutes.

Other than that, great week though.

Okay, good job. Actually, no, bad job. Well, good job surviving.

Yeah, it's pretty awesome.

It's, it's funny that he went like— you guys, I actually am going to put it back on Max and Memes. You guys know how Zach operates. When he says he's done eating, he's not.

He's done eating in front of us.

Yes, exactly. You had to be like, hey, Zach, here's some instructions in case— not in case— when we, when we know that you're going to go get more food, here's some instructions.

That's a good point. Well, we told him to record it. Yeah, he didn't record it.

But also, I think he, I think he might have.

My favorite part of it, he forgot where the other bodega was, which was like right next to our hotel.

Oh, the wrong way. The wrong way.

Left instead of right. We both up in there.

Yeah.

Okay.

Numbers.

14.

10.

29. 18.

23.

4.

47.

Shane is now a Timberwolves fan.

15.

Left the Magic.

And 69 for Colton.

Sick.

Well, no, no, Shane was also on the Magic because—

To win, you got to be.

Yeah, you got to be here to— sorry. Shane was a Magic fan because they came in once and They gave him a sweatshirt. They gave him a sweatshirt. I didn't officially leave the Magic. West Coast team, East Coast team, go to war this season.

I think you can do— Not West Coast, West Conference.

Yeah, they're gonna duke it out this year for my fandom.

Both Wolves and Magic.

Oh wow, do the Magic and Wolves know this is at stake?

I don't think so.

I watched the Magic last night, it didn't look like it.

You're gonna have to tell A-Rod. have to let both—

yeah, yeah, places know. And if any other teams want to join—

Yeah, you're gonna make them nervous though.

Well, are you gonna put 0-6 on your resume?

I might have to have nothing going for me. I picked the wrong Sixers number.

78.

Oh, never mind, I thought it was 76. That's fine then.

Oh, you had shock. If you die here, if the lottery ball machine kills you, is that—

No, I think it's our stupid headphones things. It's just like, I need a hook.

I feel like that's super lucky. That's how you die.

14.

Come on, 14. I guess I got 14. No way, 95! I thought it was 69.

Happy birthday to LaVar Ball. Happy birthday to Nick Bosa, Doug Flutie, John Lackey, Pele, Weird Al. And then Saturday, happy birthday to Amon-Ra St. Brown. Jalen Ramsey touchdown, maybe. Amon-Ra St. Brown.

Well, we already did it.

We already did.

And I selected—

oh no, he's in the morning.

Defensive touchdown.

Defense touchdown, Jalen Ramsey. Happy birthday to Y.A. Tittle. Happy birthday to Eric Cosmer.

Happy birthday—

Oh, Haas!

Is that today or tomorrow?

That's Saturday.

Oh, fuck yeah. I love Haas.

Happy birthday, Jaylen Brown. Happy birthday to Wayne Rooney. Happy birthday to Drake. And then Sunday, happy birthday to Pat Friermuth, Sean Tucker, Chris Hansen, Juan Soto, Pedro Martinez, Xander Schoffley, Bob Knight, Pablo Picasso, Craig Robinson, Katy Perry, and memes. I have a question.

Yeah.

Is it your sister's birthday on Saturday?

I don't have a sister.

Okay, good. I'm glad that I asked.

Good question.

Good question.

Way to clear it up.

Love you guys. So that's a no.

It's a no. I got sent a 14-pound blowjob machine.

We're leaving that in.

What'd you say? You got sent a 14-pound blowjob machine?

I got sent 2.

What do you mean you got sent them?

I got— one's for you guys. You guys gotta split up time.