Transcript of World Series Champion Sal Frelick In Studio, The Bears Demolish The Seahawks, The First CFB Rankings Are Out + Plus Listener Football Takes

Hey, Pardon My Take fans. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or Netflix.

On today's Pardon My Take, presented by DraftKings, we've got a great show for you. We've got Sal Frelick, World Series Champion Sal Frelick, in studio. We're going to talk Monday night football. The Bears look real, real good after beating the Seahawks in Seattle. Hot seat, cool throne. We have our first college football rankings, so we're going to discuss those. Also, we have the biggest Saturday of the year coming up.

Pardon My Take. Yeah. Pardon My Take. Yeah. Pardon My Take. Yeah. Pardon My Take. Yeah. Pardon My Take.

Welcome to Pardon My Take, presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, November 4th, and PFT, we are on Zoom because we wanted to start the show with the first college football rankings. We'll be back in studio in a minute to talk Monday night football, Sal Frelick, and the show. Also, Max is sick, so he's not on the show after that, but Max is here for the Zoom. But PFT, we're like, he's here, he's here. We're like, hey, the first college football rankings are coming out.

Handle while you react to it.

And we.

A lot of poor decision-making happening.

I think, I think the committee did a great job. I think they did a great job.

Right.

Okay.

And you love the 2014 playoff.

No. Here, follow me on this. We are on the precipice Saturday of a monumental college football Saturday, where a lot of this stuff is going to get figured out. So do I actually think the committee did a good job? No. They fucked a lot of shit up. But I appreciate the committee fucking shit up that will most likely get decided on the field so that we have something to talk about on a Tuesday night. So they basically gave us fodder where they're like, hey, you know what we should do? We should rank Alabama number 5 and Tennessee.

Well, what I like about it is that any time that you can put a two-loss SEC team ahead of a zero-loss Big Ten team, you have to do it. You just got to do it. And if we're doing our political headlines that masquerade as college football headlines, tonight, there was no red wave.

No.

But there was a crimson tide.

Yes. Yes. Alabama 5 is crazy.

At 5. 5 is absolutely fucking insane that they put them at 5. And I think you're right. I think they did it just to get people pissed off, get people talking.

Yeah, because here's why.

That's just crazy. I don't really understand their logic. I heard Hunter Yurichek's big head get on TV and start to flap his gums about what he thought. And basically, he's a punching bag. When Hunter Yurichek is on your TV, he is on there. He's memorized the talking points. He's memorized the different they always have different new slang terms for things that they evaluate differently every year. This year is the pods. The teams were placed into certain pods, like it's the love is blind experiment. And then you evaluate them based on the other teams in that cohort of the pods, which is why you don't have teams such as Ohio State and Indiana being evaluated head-to-head because they're not in the same pods to begin with.

How could we know who's better? How could we know who's better, Ohio State or Indiana?

If they were in the same pods, then we might be able to look at head-to-head. But since they're in separate pods, it doesn't work. With Alabama in particular, I think their entire reasoning was just that they beat Mississippi State.

Well, and also that they were kind of injured against Georgia. I think that was pretty much it too. Like, oh, yeah, they were kind of injured because it does make no sense otherwise. And here's why, obviously, I'm being tongue-in-cheek because it's a baffling rankings. UCLA should be pissed. Tennessee should be pissed. USC should be pissed. There's a lot of people that should be pissed. But again, it's all going to get settled on the field in the next couple of weeks, especially this Saturday. The only thing that they did that they did correctly was the mistake they made last year.

Okay, so there's one other name that's jumping off the screen to me. I haven't really given this one that much thought. So maybe you can help me out and tell me what the rest of the schedule looks like for them. Wake Forest feels like they got fucked.

Dude, Wake Forest is playing good football.

Wake Forest is a good football team, and they've won a lot. They dominate inferior opponents.

They haven't played anyone, though. That's the problem with Wake Forest.

They haven't played anybody, but they're at 16. I don't know what the strength of record is. My guess is it's probably pretty good because they've shit-pumped the bad teams that they've played. So with them at 16 and Texas Tech at 15, if Wake Forest, are they going to win out?

Well, if they well, no. So they would have a chance to go in the ACC.

They win out, they're good.

Well, if they go to the ACC Championship game, they can get in by just beating Miami, which they did play Miami. Actually, North Carolina played Miami really tough, but up until North Carolina, they played, and Florida State did. Miami's got problems. I think Miami's going to be but Wake Forest could win the ACC. They don't have they have SMU still on their schedule. They have Georgia Tech and Duke. Georgia Tech's been god-awful. Duke has been up and down, but they're overall not a terrible team. And Merrimack, so Fasoli's Merrimack, which I don't think that's going to help them much next weekend.

They could win Wake if they don't. Outside of that, it's going to be tough for them. 16 feels a little bit low, just off the top of my head, for Wake Forest. Tennessee, you have a fair gripe, but again, Tennessee, you can do something about it.

Yeah, no, Tennessee has a very fair gripe because they've lost two games by three points. They lost to number one Texas by three points. They lost at South Carolina, a tough place to play, by three points. Meanwhile, Alabama lost at home to Georgia and then got killed by Tennessee. How does that make any sense? I do not understand.

Yeah. Yeah, they got fucked big time. One small thing about the whole process with the committee, my favorite thing that they do is they go into the room, and before they enter the room, they take their hats off at the door. And they hang their hats up on the hat rack. The idea being, once you enter this room, it's not about what team you represent. It's not about the school that you're from. You take your hat off, and you go into that room, and you do the work of the committee. My problem is the hat that they wear is the college football playoff committee hat.

Yeah, it also it was maybe funny the first year, now that they're doing it and they know there's nothing worse than a bunch of people who I think we all just hate because they just they get in there and they make the dumbest decisions. It doesn't feel like they watch ball. They're leaning too much into it. You know when they'll take the picture when it'll be like the hummus tray and a bunch of vegetables and six TVs that they wheeled into the Marriott ballroom, and they'll take a picture and be like, "Look at us watching ball."

Do you understand what I'm saying about the hat, though?

Yeah, they took off the impartial hat for no reason.

Yes, they're stupid as shit. That doesn't make any sense.

But don't see the video itself just pisses me off.

When you're trying to get cute.

He's like, "Oh, 6'7" last year.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, we don't need that. Shut up. You guys should you know who I want doing this? I want dorks. I want dorks who know that they're dorks and they don't try to be cool. I want actual glasses. Kornacki should do it, honestly. Just put Kornacki in this. I trust him to do it. He'd know what he's doing. Just get up on the big board and just throw them around. You don't have to watch ball.

Kacki's going out there, yeah. What do you think about UCLA being ranked at 8?

So I think you can go it's a non-answer. I think you go either way. I fully understand. They have not played pretty much anyone.

Wisconsin?

Yeah, I mean, Wisconsin's bad, and Oregon is bad. So they haven't really played anyone. But I do think that in a year where everyone is losing left and right and there's chaos every single weekend, being undefeated should be rewarded. So they were probably I think they should have probably been you know what? If UCLA was 5 and Alabama was 8, that probably would have been fine. That would have been a good spot for both the teams. I do think being undefeated, you should get credit. Winning all your games is hard, especially in a big conference.

I agree, especially when you have two lost teams ahead of them. It doesn't sit right with me.

But overall, like I said, the big thing is they basically have told Notre Dame you have to win this weekend. And I do think Notre Dame is going to win this weekend, so I think it will solve itself. And Utah plays BYU. Utah is 3, BYU is 9. They play on Saturday. Alabama at 5 and LSU at 14. They play on Saturday. That would be my only it does feel.

Well, here's the thing.

Yeah?

When you look at Houston or, sorry, when you look at Utah, I'd say their schedule is slightly more difficult than UCLA's this far, but it's not like they've played a great schedule either. I don't think it's even that much different.

Yeah, Utah, I mean, going on the I mean, the Cincinnati game was pretty tough. They had to play Oklahoma State, I want to say, or no, Houston came to Utah last weekend. I mean, Houston's a top 20 team.

Yeah, Houston, that's the best one. Then they were at Colorado. They hosted Kansas. They went to Iowa State. Utah stayed at home. They hosted Arkansas, and they hosted Idaho. That's not a great schedule, but they get I don't know. I feel like UCLA got fucked on this one.

I think it's yeah, I mean, I'm okay. I think they got fucked a little bit, but it's like we always knew that they're UCLA always kind of knew that they have to they can maybe take they can take one loss, and that's probably it because the schedule just isn't it's not even their it's definitely not their fault because Oregon has sucked. Oregon has just been bad. You expected that to be a signature win. Oregon's a dog shit team.

I also think I know they're the defending champions, but I feel like I could take any team 6 through 14 that's Kentucky all the way through LSU and a neutral field against this Indiana team. I think any one of those teams could beat Indiana.

I think Indiana could beat any one of those teams. That's the beauty of Indiana. Their defense.

They haven't.

Their defense is so, so good. But you say that they haven't looked great, and they haven't? They're Nick Marsh away from being undefeated. Nick Marsh having his foot out of the bounds is what kept him from undefeated. And again, I think it's like winning the games. Yeah, it has not looked pretty in their offense. I don't think they're going to win the title again, but I would not I would take that defense against anyone in staying in games. And they made the switch. Josh Hoover's been injured, but yeah, I still think Cignetti with that defense and his coaching, I'd still take them against a lot of teams just because they have a knack for it.

And I guess this is all trivial because it will it's going to work its way out.

Yeah. Yeah, but it's fun. It's fun. That's why I said that was my point from the beginning. I appreciate the committee giving us stupid fodder that will be completely irrelevant in a matter of like five days because really, the big takeaway is Notre Dame has to win, and Texas and Alabama are the two SEC teams that can probably get in with three losses. That's what they've told us with these rankings. So all right, anything else on college football?

That's tough.

It's really bad.

That's tough because Iowa truly is that is like the measuring stick for Wisconsin.

Yeah, it's bad. All right, what else do we have? Anything? Does anyone understand the baseball thing that happened today? Anyone want to take a stab at it?

In very broad strokes.

Yeah, go for it.

There was a proposal to not implement the salary cap until 2028, but do everything else that they want to do starting next season.

Okay, so that would be a way to maybe meet in the middle and play baseball right away?

Maybe not miss any games, yeah. That's the idea that they're going for.

And who does this think?

I think.

Yeah, go ahead, Max.

MLB proposed it.

God.

I think that this is like the very, very beginning of the negotiation because there's no way that the players would accept a 2028 salary cap. So it's like, "We'll give you everything else, but we want the 2028 cap." And then it's going to go just way further down the line from 2028.

Yeah, so what happened was Major League Baseball proposed that we do everything except for the salary cap starting next year, and then we implement the salary cap in 2028. And also, oh, yeah, we will increase the cap and the floor from the first proposal that we had. So I think the total that they just projected today was a $258.2 million cap and $180.2 million floor. So that is $13 million higher on the cap and $9 million higher on the floor.

Got it. So are we going to play baseball?

So they are it sounds like they're talking.

Okay. They're having talks.

Yes, they haven't iced each other up. It's good. Honestly, my takeaway from this is this is a good development that we have.

Okay. Yeah, I mean, I'm team there's not going to be a lockout because I refuse to I'm just going to live in blissful ignorance and just ignore the facts and the problems that exist in this world. I ask anyone who would like to join me, join me. It's fun. When the lockout is finally announced, I'll be like, "What? How? Why? Who saw this coming?" That's my reaction. And if it doesn't happen, I'm like, "Told you guys." What?

I do have one question about the lockout that I know no one actually, maybe you can answer it. What happens to the salaries that are already in place?

Good question, Max. So players don't get paid in the offseason regardless.

No, I'm talking about if there's a salary cap.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

And Juan Soto is making like $100 million a year, is that just the whole cap? The Mets are just fucked in 10 years?

Oh, how do they retroactively put in salaries that were done pre-cap?

Like Bryce Harper. The Phillies may have a couple guys and I'm wondering, can we just never sign anyone again?

That's a good question. I think that there's you can't punish a team for signing people to contracts before there was ever a rule in place about the salary cap.

Oh, yeah, yeah. They'll figure out a great way.

They'll figure out some way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's why there might be a ton of free agency action in the next couple of weeks before it happens because teams are like, "Let's just get it in." And then they'll figure it out later. Yeah, no, I.

Okay, that could make the offseason a little fun.

Yeah, no, I think there's.

I was asking about the actual paychecks because they don't start that's when we're going to have the rubber meet the road is when players start missing game checks and their salary that they get paid during the season and owners start missing ticket revenue. That's when if they don't have a deal in place by that point, that will force them probably to get together and work something out.

Yeah, it's become a game of chicken, who can outlast who. Zach?

With the proposed floor, though, the 12 teams would have to spend a combined $636 million just to get to that 180 mark.

Oh, there's 12 teams that aren't.

Yeah, 12 teams under the current 180 that didn't spend that last year. So it's almost a billion dollars that would be pumped in.

I bet there will be some owners that figure, "This isn't for me. I need to sell my team because I don't want to spend that money."

Which would be great. I wish there could just be a floor with no cap. That would be cool. That would be awesome. I don't think that's possible, but it feels like that would fix a lot of the problems, just being like, "Hey, you have to spend more money for all the idiots who just don't spend money." Yeah, you know what? They're not going to lock out. It's fine. We're all good. We're all good. All right, I think that's it. Let's get to back in studio. Max, feel better.

I have one question for you, Big Cat. If you are North Carolina State, who do you hire to be your head coach? Philip Rivers or Russell Wilson? Because they're both getting look.

Yeah, so Philip Rivers, I think, is not realistic, but that one at least makes a little sense. Russell Wilson, this was just a gratuity interview, right? He hasn't coached. They're just doing it so that the next time he can be like, "I've done this before. I've interviewed before."

Yeah.

Right?

Did him a favor?

Yeah. There's no way. Phil Rivers at least coaches high school, doesn't he?

Yeah. What about Trent Delford? Was he a coach before UAB hired him?

Yeah, he was a high school coach. Dion was a high school coach before Jackson.

And isn't Philip Rivers' son?

Which one?

Sorry.

He's got 11.

Isn't his son a freshman quarterback at NC State? So isn't that.

The odds are, yes. I don't know if that's true, but he has so many kids that, yes, one of them is going to be the NC State quarterback at some point.

Quiggs told me that they have a four-star freshman who's Philip Rivers' son that eventually will be the starting quarterback of NC State.

So this is like them.

Wow, how'd they land him?

So that he stays at NC State. Yeah, I guess that would make sense. That'd be funny for him to coach his son in a major college football conference.

Quiggs is also a pathological liar and lies about everything. So that could just not be true at all.

Wow.

That sounded pointed.

He is. He is.

I disagree.

He would lie about this? Yeah, Gunnar Rivers, son of Philip Rivers, commits to NC State four-star quarterback Gunnar Rivers. 2027.

What did Quiggs lie to you about that got you so frustrated there, Max? That felt personal.

If you know Quiggs well, he lies about everything and makes everything a bit, even though it's things that you wouldn't think of as a bit. And this means nothing.

We would never.

This means nothing to the listener at all. It's just the five people that talk to Quiggs very regularly will know what I'm saying.

Yeah, he's very sarcastic and turns everything into some weird little behind-the-scenes ha-ha-ha.

Hey, for real.

Sounds very exhausting.

No, I think it's a pretty straight-up guy in my experience.

So I think Max just intellectually can't understand Quiggs.

This is a pointless conversation we're having right now.

How do we even have this conversation?

That's true. That's true. That's true.

Okay, boys, Monday Night Football, Bears, go to Seattle, Super Bowl champs. Kick the shit out of them. Kick the absolute shit out of them. 34-17. I don't know where you guys want to start. I mean, we start with Big Jeff. Big Jeff has changed my life. The Bears have gone from a defense that was very suspect, little pass rush, had to blitz a lot. I think Dennis Allen was blitzing it close to 50%. On Monday night, they blitzed 20%, still got pressure.

Well, what's great is-.

People call him Big Jeff beforehand?

I think so. Yeah.

What's great is-.

Is that okay with you?

Yeah, I was just curious.

Okay.

Is the orange sleeves.

Well, yeah, it's for his daughter.

Yeah, the orange sleeves. You're like, "I have to watch that guy."

Can't get my eyes off him.

He looked awesome. And then by him being on the field, his mere presence made Montez Sweat have an awesome game too.

Montez Sweat's best PED was Big Jeff.

Yeah, he just needed a bigger Jeff in his life.

It was crazy to watch because it's like the Bears defense last year, the first seven weeks of this season, it was kind of the same thing where it's like Dennis Allen, I said this before, but Dennis Allen had that unit punching above their weight where they were playing okay, they were playing good at times, they're really elite on third down. But the whole time I was like, "Hey, if a good offense plays this Bears defense, they can have us. Our secondary is weak. Our pass rush is not there.

You don't change everything.

You don't tip your opposing GM.

Yeah.

Sometimes you put a little 20% on top of that.

Five-star Uber Eats Tennessee Titans.

Yeah, great job. Yeah, leave a nice review for them. It was awesome to watch that defense look legit. And then after the game, I liked it in the locker room when you had Montez Sweat teaching Big Jeff about the good better bets.

Good better bets.

It was like when a Catholic guy brings his Heathen friend to church. He's like, "Now you got to kneel. Now you got to stand up. You got to know all the moves."

You got to cheer.

And yeah, I mean, also, Big Jeff looks happy as hell.

Dude.

He looks like he's freed of all the baggage that was behind him. Just a complete change of scenery, complete change of vibes. And the Bears, my question for you, Big Cat, is have you allowed yourself to have a realistic expectation for this team? Because I have a realistic expectation for this team.

Oh, no, I.

And I think this win was so impressive that you think back over the last five years, the most impressive standalone wins against really good teams, it would be this has to be right up there. And since it's a road game, I would think back to the Christmas Day games when it was the Ravens just butt-fucking the Texans. And then I think also the Chiefs fucked up the Steelers that day.

I can't even.

But this is a Super Bowl champion with a defensive genius head coach. And what the Bears did was went into their house, which is the hardest place to play, especially at night, and beat them not only offensively, but beat them defensively and also fucked them up on special teams.

Yeah, before the game, when we were in the cave, I said that I before the game started, I said, "I think the Bears are a Super Bowl contending team." And I said all this before we even had a snap. Because I predicted the game that the Bears were going to win 28-24. I was off. I underrated the Bears' offense and underrated the Bears' defense. It was 34-17. I said, "If we win this game and do it convincingly, I think they can." And yeah, I think they are going to be in the Super Bowl. I think they're a Super Bowl team.

He looked great. Caleb Williams.

He's the only quarterback to have over 200 yards against the Seahawks defense this year.

Yeah, no, Drake Maye struggled. Patrick Mahomes struggled.

Caleb Williams looked incredible.

The way that they're just Ben Johnson is able to just get wide receivers open 20 yards in the middle of the field on every play, it feels like it's unbelievable to watch.

And when they're not, Caleb Williams makes a hero play. That play where he almost got taken down and basically jumped out of the sack and then found Romo Dunze down the field. And the third and eight, that basically sealed the game because it did get a little hairy there for a second when it was like I think we were up 10 and Colson Loveland fumbled. Seahawks score. It's a three-point game. It's like, "Got to answer now." Third and eight. And that Khelif Rammond screen where Darnell Wright's just running free and Khelif Rammond finds that tunnel and goes all the way down to the five, that was incredible.

I also thought that that goal line play where Caleb rushed back to the line of scrimmage and everybody on the line of scrimmage.

All the offensive linemen were saying, "Hurry up."

Everybody was doing the same thing at the same time. And then they ran a variation and they suckered the linebackers to come up to stop the run. Caleb boots out to the right, easy touchdown pass. Ben Johnson just out-coached Mike McDonald. That's all that is. And it was awesome to watch. That type of shit, that's a really, really well-put-together, well-coached team. And I do think you should at this point think Super Bowl or bust.

You have to.

But if you're a Packers fan listening to this, do the Packers have any argument to be like, "Hey, don't forget about us because we just beat the shit out of you"?

Well, it's Tyson Bayjon.

It's Tyson Bayjon, true.

Yeah, no, and listen, the NFC North is I think the Bears are a Super Bowl contending team. I think they can win the Super Bowl this year, 100%. The next step is you got to win in the division. Because we haven't won in the division. We're 0-2 in the division. And the division's a gauntlet. And you got to go to the Lions on Thanksgiving. It's going to be a really, really tough game. The schedule is still tough. It's not like I'm sitting here being like, "The Bears are going to win every game for the rest of the season." But I don't see a game that we can't win. You know what I mean?

No. Gray Zabel was in hell last night.

Yeah. Gray Zabel was fucked up.

No, I was going to say, I don't root against Caleb Williams. I think rooting against a quarterback just because you guys had quarterbacks drafted in the same class is a salty bitch move. I'm happy for you and I'm happy for Bears fans in the city of Chicago.

Would you agree that Caleb Williams is a top five quarterback?

Yes.

He is playing out of this world.

He's got a cannon for an arm. He can't get out of sacks every single game.

He doesn't.

And he commands the offense. He's a good leader. You see him on the sidelines, getting him one fired up. He's a great quarterback. There's nothing else you can really say. He's got a fucking rocket ship arm.

Absolutely insane arm. He doesn't turn the ball over. So he broke the record last night.

He tried last night a couple of times. There was a couple of tip balls.

One tip ball, yeah. So he broke the record last night. I think it's 35 games, 35 straight games where he's thrown for 200 yards. And here it is. Caleb Williams breaks the all-time NFL record with 36 straight games with at least 20 pass attempts, no more than one interception. Aaron Rodgers had it at 35. That's pretty crazy. And you know what the craziest part about it all? I still think he has a level to go up.

He was so good that Troy Aikman didn't even have anything bad to say about him.

Troy Aikman had to compliment him. I think we need a new rule. You know how we have the analytics pop up on the screen being like, "Go for it," or punt? We need to have that same pop-up after an announcer says, "Ooh, I would punt here," and then the team scores a touchdown. Because that fourth and inches at the 50-yard line, when he watch one Ben Johnson game, dude. First drive, he's like, "I would punt here." Then we scored. So we need a graphic that says, "Troy said punt," and they got seven points.

Troy's also feeling a little bit salty, right from the get-go. You can see all over his face. Troy's not having a lot of fun up in the booth right now. We can put it that way.

We just here so he doesn't get fined.

Yeah, yeah. Do you agree with my statement, PFT, Caleb Williams' top five quarterback right now?

I would have to go through the list, but yeah, that sounds right to me. I don't think that you can really argue that the way that he's playing.

I mean, he's played four games that he started and finished.

Josh Allen, I would put him one. Joe Burrow, I would put him in top five. Patrick Mahomes, you have to keep him in the top five as well. Who else is having a big season right now? I think that's right where Caleb Williams falls. I would put him right around four, maybe.

I'd put him ahead of Patrick Mahomes right now.

What about five? Who's your top five?

Top five.

Give your five.

We don't do five out of respect.

Yeah, it's probably Jerry Goff.

Okay.

Jerry's having a great season too.

Yeah, he is.

He is.

Hey, Big Cat, hey, congratulations on joining the club.

What's the club?

Beat the Seahawks.

Yeah, true. True, that's a good club.

Great club to be in. They're a really good defense.

They're a really good defense.

You have to have good quarterback play to beat them.

Yeah, really good quarterback play to beat them.

Yeah.

And so the Seahawks, talking about them real quick, I still think they're a very good team. I do think they need probably another weapon. I was surprised a little bit. Do you guys get the feeling? Because I think this happens with Sam Darnold. Even though he's won a Super Bowl and he's good, you could still have Sam Darnold games where you can almost tell right away, "Ooh, he's not feeling it." The pressure's coming and he's not seeing it. It felt like it was one of those games for him last night where it's like he doesn't feel comfortable at all.

This year, the Seahawks offense is pretty much like Sam Darnold is going to get abused, and then will your defense be able to keep it close enough so that when he hits the JSN button on the bailout plays, that will be enough to win the game? If JSN has two touchdowns and 150 yards, is that going to be enough to win the football game filling in the rest of the cracks with fuel goals? And last night, their defense was not nearly good enough to do that, and it didn't work for them. But yeah, it does seem like that's the only real option there. AJ Barner's a good player, but yeah, I would say that the Seahawks, they definitely need to add a piece.

That was the other takeaway from last night is I do think that the Bears' performance I don't want to say put the NFC on notice, but I feel like some of the other NFC teams there are some really good NFC teams. Again, just because I think the Bears are a Super Bowl contender doesn't mean it's going to be easy or that they can't lose in the playoffs or there's other teams that are really good. But do you think the Vikings, the Packers, the Seahawks, the Niners, they're like, "All right, we got to maybe ante up and fill another hole because of what the Bears did with their defensive hold"?

I do, because I think that the Bears right now, at the start of the season and leading up to the trade deadline, they probably weren't regarded as a team that you have to prepare specifically to compete with and beat. They were looked at as being another good team in the NFC.

They were a shootout team. Like, "Hey, if we can have a shootout, their defense is not good."

Now, if you're a contender in the NFC, you are thinking about that Bears defense and you're thinking about what they do, and that is impacting your decision-making.

Big chef, man.

I think that you should have the opinion, and this is going to be great for listeners. You should have the opinion Super Bowl or bust. The team is good enough, the coaching staff is good enough where you should be disappointed if this team doesn't win a Super Bowl.

So I disagree with the or bust part because of how young Caleb is and Ben Johnson. So it's not like an all-in we have a lot of money coming off the cap next year. It's not an all-in, "This is the end of the line. We have to do everything." Super Bowl, yes, but the or bust part, it's not like next year it's bust. Do you know what I mean? There's a ton of young guys and the way they built Ryan Poles, who deserves a ton of credit for the point is to win championships.

It's a tough league.

It is a tough league. No, listen, I woke up this morning also thinking about with Lamar going on IR, there's a chance Ravens fans are thinking, "Hey, 2023 was our shot." And that was it.

Yeah, the window might.

We're talking about Lions.

Window might be done.

Damn, Caleb, what does it say? Shane, tell us what you read because you spend a lot of time on the cap stuff.

It's looking like negative cap space next year.

Oh, okay. That's not good.

See, that's what I'm saying. Nothing's permanent in this league. And I would agree, by the way.

I thought it was 2023.

I'm not disagreeing that the Bears are set up well because.

I thought it was.

I think they're set up exceptionally well, more so than just about any team that's currently contending. I think that they do have, which should be a big window, but you can't count on that. I'm just saying.

But the bust thing makes it seem like it's the end of the line, like you got to go the Rams are Super Bowl or bust because Matthew Stafford might not play football next year.

I'm just saying.

You know what I mean?

It's okay to believe. This team looks like they should win.

I'm 100% believing. We're arguing semantics right now. I'm saying the bust word makes no sense to me because I think that they're going to be competitive for a long runway. I mean, I think I'm probably thinking about all the different cuts and guys that could come off.

After next year, it says 2028, 196 million cap. So it looks like a bunch of people off the books. Everybody off.

Yeah, okay. Okay. But yeah, the bust part is the only thing I disagree with. I do think they should be like they're a full-blown Super Bowl contender. Again, no team scares me.

What's the path to home field? How many games can you lose?

We got to start winning in the division. That's it. You got to win in the division. We're 0-2 in the division right now. Have to win your division games.

When's the next game? Is that Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving, Lions, and then we have.

Christmas Packers.

Christmas Packers. Then we finish the season week 17 and 18 with a game at home.

That's a gauntlet finish.

Lions at home, Vikings on the road. Yeah, no, there's some really we played the Jaguars. Yeah, after Thanksgiving.

Bills Packers, Lions, Vikings is.

Well, look at before that too. It's Lions, Jaguars. You get one week with the Dolphins, and then it's a tough schedule. It's a tough league, man.

Very tough league.

It's a tough league.

Have you looked into sweets of the Super Bowl yet? Because I've heard some rumblings around this office.

I have not looked into them other than a Google of how much they cost.

I think that counts as looking into it.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, but they don't have them on TickPic yet.

Right.

But you did.

I put them in my cart. The reason that you know that they're not on TickPic is because you looked into them.

Look, you got to plan. You got to always plan.

Yeah, no matter what. I do that every year too.

Ben Johnson's Super Bowl sweats.

Super Bowl sweats. Nice job. It's like 700,000.

He did spell sweets S-W-E-E-T-S, and it pulled up desserts.

I love that. But yeah, it was a hell of a night. A hell of a night.

A couple of little extra things from that game last night. One, did you guys see the flyover before the game?

Yeah, so what happened with the helicopters?

I think there were Black Hawk helicopters. There were like four of them, and they flew right over the stadium, right over the Hawks' nest.

And they shot fireworks.

They shot fireworks right into the dick of the helicopter, the last one.

Damn.

That could have been really, really bad.

Really bad.

That could have been a flying guillotine that just landed in the Hawks' nest. That was weird. It reminded me of that flyover that they had in South Africa. Remember, Hank, your cool throne?

Yep.

At the rugby game?

Yeah, because you're a big aviation guy.

And rugby guy. Yeah, double threat. But yeah, this thing, it did look like they were trying to shoot down that helicopter, which that would have been just disaster if that happened. And then secondly, I think it's past time for NFL fans and NFL teams to have an honest discussion about downing punts. That first punt that the Seahawks had was so fucking stupid.

Really dumb.

What the guy did, and it happens all the time in the NFL, where you have a guy that's running towards the goal line with all the momentum, and guys don't understand to not well, this guy didn't understand to not slide into the end zone. You get a lot of guys that run parallel across the goal line with their feet on the goal line. It seems like the stupidest thing ever that we should never see stuff like that happen.

That first one, he didn't even have to touch it. It was coming backwards.

He didn't.

We also had, yeah, probably the longest block punt ever.

We had the longest block punt that kind of kicked ass. But when it comes to downing punts, do we keep stats for downed punts?

Oh, I'm sure someone has.

Do special teams guys get credit for downing a punt?

Yeah, I guarantee someone has them, right?

Because that.

Because how do you yeah, there's special teams awards, right?

That's the only explanation I can think of of why this guy came sliding in out of nowhere because he's trying to fill up his stat sheet.

Oh, there we go.

They do keep them.

Okay. Austin McNamara, was that 2025? Also, shout out DeAndre Swift. That was a old-school I think his longest run was 7 yards. What was his final stat line? I think it was like 27 carries for 70 yards, but he three touchdowns. You can't run on the Seahawks. You can't. But he just kept on running as hard as fuck.

Manon guy isn't even back.

Yeah, he had 27 carries for 69 yards, three touchdowns. He is sore. That's a sore guy today. The Bears, by the way, what do you think about this move? They stayed in Seattle last night.

To party?

No, to.

Throw some fish around?

No, the one thing that makes me scary and when we do the preview, we could talk about it, but the one thing that makes me a little scared about this upcoming game against the Bucks. So the Bears stayed in Seattle to get rest and actually sleep and then came back on Tuesday. The only other time they did it was after the Sunday night football game against the Niners last year. Stayed an extra day, came back, and then dropped a dud at home against the Lions.

I don't hate it. It sounds like you'd probably get more sleep that way.

Yeah.

So I don't.

And probably recovery and yeah.

Yeah, I don't hate that move at all, actually. I know it maybe didn't work out the last time, but.

Because you'd have to think if they left right after the game, they would probably get home at what, like 7 in the morning?

Yeah, like 6, no sleep.

Yeah, rather get the sleep and then fly back during the day. But it does burn a day of whatever you can do, so.

Because some guys can't sleep on airplanes.

What's the spread? 6? Yeah, I mean, I'm not overlooking the Bucks. Zach and I were doing a little Bucks-Bears talk. It basically comes down I think the Bucks defense, I respect the hell out of them. I respect the hell out of the Bucks offensive line. It's Ken the Bucks complete passes. If they do, then it could be a game.

Do you think that the Bears went to the team hotel and worked on anything related to the game plan right after that game was over?

Ben Johnson 100% did.

Do you think the team had any meetings afterwards?

No, but Ben Johnson for sure did.

I read that after Sunday night, Jaden went to the team facility and he worked out until 3:30 in the morning.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

What type of workout?

I don't know. I don't know what you do that late.

Does that mean he didn't play hard enough?

I don't know.

Yes. Still had gas in the tank?

He was like, "That first quarter sucked. I still got something left over. My mom's got the key to the building. We can get in."

It does kind of be cool to be in the building by yourself, just being able to.

Well, maybe he took a big nap because it was a night game. So he took a long.

He's wired.

He took a well, no, he took a nap, slept for like six hours during the day, and then it's like, "Yeah, he's not going to be able to sleep anyway, so he might as well work out, I guess."

Yeah.

I don't know. Going back to the facility after a game and working out, I don't know that I'd necessarily love that.

But I always think.

How far away is the facility not at the stadium?

No, no. So that's the thing. In DC, it's like the facility is in Ashburn, Virginia. The stadium is in Landover, Maryland.

But is it close to his house?

I assume he probably lives near Ashburn. So the facility is probably next to his house, but still, that's like, I would say, an hour drive back from the stadium on Sunday, counting for traffic.

The one thing I'll say about one of the coolest, underrated parts about being a professional athlete is probably that you can just go to your facility at any time and make someone work out with you. You could just say, if you're an NBA player, you're like, "Hey, meet me at the gym. I want you to rebound for me for the next hour. Meet me in Ashburn. I want you to catch a bunch of passes." You just go play catch.

Yeah. I mean, we could technically do that with Zach.

We should.

Anytime.

Anytime, just let me know.

Right, Zach?

I'm there. I had a stat for you guys I wanted to throw out there. There's just kind of a hmm stat. And it's more something to be thinking about because we're halfway through the season. This is where it's like you kind of know where everyone is. You know what teams are good, what teams are bad. So you try to look for pockets where you can buy and sell different teams. And the Chiefs. So the Chiefs just lost two in a row. I do not think the sky is falling, but I do think the Chiefs are maybe a little overrated.

Bills, Rams, Bengals, Patriots, 49ers.

Oh, Patriots, 49ers. Okay, so that's yeah, yeah, sorry. I missed that. Bills, Rams, Bengals, Patriots, 49ers.

Tough stretch.

Tough stretch. So the next three games, look, very winnable, right?

Mm-hmm.

Where did I I thought I bookmarked the stat. I think it is Patrick Mahomes is 2-8 against teams over 500 in his last 10. Something just say, "Hmm." Is that a hmm for you guys?

That is somewhat of a hmm.

Mahomes is 2-8 in his last 10 games against teams with a winning record. He has thrown 11 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in those games with a 78.9 pass rating. Huh.

Hmm.

Hank?

Hmm.

Huh.

Hmm.

I think they're going to win the next three games. So that would put them at what would their record be? Would they be 9-2, 8-2, and then maybe it's a sell high on them?

I have an interesting stat right here, if we're doing interesting stats.

Yeah, let's go.

This one also involves Patrick Mahomes. This is from an account. I think this is a real stat, even though the account is called Bot. Since week one of 2022, Josh Allen's average rushing touchdowns are longer than Patrick Mahomes' average passing touchdowns. Allen's average rushing touchdowns, 5.74 yards. Mahomes' average passing touchdowns, 5.38 yards. That's interesting. That's more of a Josh Allen stat. Holy shit. This guy scores a lot of rushing touchdowns and is awesome.

That's.

That the Chiefs.

That's hard to believe.

That the Chiefs don't well, this is post, I guess, maybe at the end of Tyreek. So they haven't had a big deep threat.

But like 10-yard, 20-yard, an average of 5 yards is so small for passing touchdowns.

Yeah. I mean, they have no wide receivers right now. I'm just thinking out loud that the Chiefs, I know that they've earned the right for us not to be like, "Oh, they're frauds." But.

I'm sorry. Just to clarify.

Adjacent?

Just to clarify, that's air yards.

Air yards.

On Mahomes's throws. Air yards.

Okay. So yeah, the touchdown to Emmett.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense. That makes sense.

That was a.

It was a checked out game.

It was like a 10-yard pass that went for 70 in the box score.

Right. Like a swing pass.

Yes, yes, yes. Checked out.

Just something to think about, Hank.

Do we have is it Super Bowl or bus for you, Hank?

Fuck no.

Oh, okay.

We're young.

Yeah, I think the young part is it's kind of, yeah.

Although we're old.

Oh, all right.

Our roster is old.

Okay, so which one is it?

The front office is trying to figure out how to, because we don't have a lot of draft capital, how to, through trades or whatever, get a little bit of a younger roster.

I think you have to be I think you have to be old to be or bust. I think it's like the Rams, the Niners.

The younger counts.

The Bills might be just because they've been knocking at the door. If you're knocking at the door for almost a decade and you haven't done it, then you get into that territory. If you're just starting.

But the Niners.

I said the Niners. Yeah.

I think the Lions.

Yeah.

I think the Lions have to be because they've had the window.

I don't know if I'd go that far.

They've missed the window so far.

They can't have Ben Johnson go farther than them this year.

Yeah, he's not.

Or bust. I know. That's what I'm saying. If that happens two years in a row, it's or bust.

I've been thinking more about the Vikings too. They really got to trade for a quarterback. They have a defense that is so good. And again, we touched on it briefly, but I think we need to put out an amber alert being like, "Hey, let's stop calling Kevin O'Connell a QB whisper and an offensive guru because you can't do it for the last two years."

The last two years have been bad.

You just can't say that with how JJ McCarthy's situation went down and how this year has gone down offensively. I think he gets stripped of his offensive guru title. You just can't have it.

There's that. And there's also the fact that Sam Darnold, letting him get away. That means that maybe I know that was a little bit on the general manager who missed up to two weeks on paternity leave, but it has to be somewhat on Kevin O'Connell too for not standing up and be like, "Hey, I want this guy. We can win with this guy."

Yeah, I have some friends that are Vikings fans and they text me on Monday. They're like, "You didn't go hard enough at Kevin O'Connell." Because they're frustrated because they see the defense. And that's got to be very frustrating.

I did hear that Glenn is working very hard on fixing the Vikings offense. Very hard. And I've heard that he might have some very fresh ideas. Just something to keep your eye on.

I like that.

Watch this space for more.

So Glenn's not going to be talking about Drake May this week.

That's a big misconception. Glenn doesn't always talk about Drake May.

That's true. Sometimes he talks about Hank's golf game.

He does. That's true. He dabbles in golf and he also roasted Jaden Daniels at one time. So Glenn calls him as he sees him. That's just a fact. And also, I know he's hard at work on that album that's coming out.

Listen, I am.

I heard some behind-the-scenes stuff.

Maybe an internet invitational breakdown.

He just got the feature back for the very special guest artist on the album and it's something special.

I am a Glenn.

Arian Foster?

No, no. Way bigger than Arian Foster.

I'm a Glentleman till the day I die. If there's 10 Glentlemen.

Boy or girl.

On earth, I'm one of them. If there's one, I'm one of them. If there's zero, I'm dead.

It's a man. A man feature.

A man feature. What do you know about that, Hank?

Not much.

It's a man feature.

No, you wouldn't.

I feel like you don't like that I called him Big Jeff.

No, I just wasn't sure where that came from.

When I hear Big Jeff, I don't know why. I was just thinking Saturday.

Well, part of it is that the big mic that Stephen Shay does has been stuck in my head. So now I've just converted to Big Jeff.

Big Jeff.

Dude, there's nothing like pressure up the middle. You know what I'm saying, Hank?

Yeah.

It's pressure up the middle. When you're just sitting in a QB's lap, nowhere to go. They got nowhere to go.

By the way, I also really liked that design on the trick play that Ben Johnson had last night where Caleb started in the slot and then came back, took the pitch back, just completely designed to make sure that he has a clean pocket to throw from on that play while also pulling the linebackers up. That's a great play. I don't know why more teams don't run that. It seems like that should work just about every time. He just completely Ben Johnson pulled his testicles out and he made Mike McDonald wear them like a ski mask last night.

Oh, shit.

A defensive guru does not get emasculated like that.

In his own house.

In his own house.

In his own house.

I'm sure he'll figure out a way to bounce back from the Seahawks will be great for the rest of the season. But last night was just as good of a road win in a standalone spot that I can remember seeing in like five years.

And now the NFC wildcard, the NFC playoff picture, it's basically the NFC East, the NFC South winners, and then there are seven teams for five spots. It's the entire NFC North and then the Niners, Seahawks, and Rams. And there's going to be a good football team that's left out. It's going to be.

Yeah. I think it's going to be the Rams. I think it's got to be the Rams at this point.

But there's going to be two good football teams that are left out. There's five spots for seven teams. If you want to count all the NFC North and then those three NFC West teams. We'll see. That's why they play the games. Okay, should we do hot seat, cool, throw, and then get to our awesome interview with Sal Frelick? Hot seat, cool, throw, and by the way, Max out. Well, I guess he might have been here for the Zoom portion of the show, but he's sick. Zach has gotten the whole podcast sick.

My hot seat's LeBron.

Yeah, I had it too.

Alcoholic.

The wine.

Booze bag. He was in the middle of the game ripping full glasses of wine, stealing too. He's a thief. Thief and an alcoholic.

And didn't receive consent?

Yeah. He's a thief. He's an alcoholic. He went into the stands.

Also probably spreading Jane's COVID. It still exists.

He had the shake so bad on the sidelines, he spotted someone drinking wine. He ran to them, took the wine out of their hands.

Super spreader event.

Chugged it.

So that was bad. And then also, I don't know if you saw Jason Tatum, what he did, also a super spreader. He was leaving the court last night and he smacked over the hand sanitation station, knocked it on the ground.

Why did he do that?

Because he wants people to get sick.

Well, who'd they lose to?

The Rockets. Paul George didn't play. Second night of a back-to-back. Markus Smart double-burded his own fans.

Okay.

It was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen.

Wait, who was that? Is that Baylor Sherman that picked up the fans?

Is it a cool-ass white boy?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's see. So Tatum smacks it over. Baylor Sherman says, "Not today. I'm here to save lives."

Can I ask a question?

Yep.

Hank, can I ask you a question?

Yeah.

Because I know that PFT is a humble guy. He doesn't want to bring up something just that doesn't make sense to this conversation. Are you getting nervous about the Washington Wizards looking pretty, I'll say, competent?

Yeah, they look decent. I've been watching them.

Thank you.

NBA, I mean, it's.

I told you they look halfway.

Are you feeling a little nervous?

The East is stacked. NBA season doesn't really ramp up until after Christmas.

I agree.

But they're looking competent.

They are on the radar.

I agree.

No bet is easy. There's no such thing as a free lock, no sweat bet.

And I know.

You make a bet, no matter how easy you think it is, you're going to have to sweat it out a little bit.

That's true.

I'm not there yet, but I'm monitoring it. They got a good team. The good news is the East is fucking stacked.

It is good. And we can't.

They could get a nine seat.

I don't want to. No, eight.

I know.

Yeah.

They could be good.

We need to get an eight, right?

Yeah. They could be good, competent.

And you can't get an eight through winning the playoffs.

No, have to regular season.

End of regular season. They could be competent, look good, win some tough games, and still get a nine seat because the East is so stacked.

I'm not trying to do the we should be thing with our record, but I do think that.

Here it comes.

No, I'm saying looking forward, there's room to think that we can even improve by figuring out the rotation because our coach, Keith, has made some questionable rotation decisions and given up massive, massive leads in the fourth quarter of at least two, I think maybe three, but I know definitely two games where we had 15 or 20-point leads late in the game and then just completely fucked up the rotation because we're not used to having these guys play together and then kind of choked those away at the end. I'm not saying that we should have won those games because we didn't.

You weren't even going to bring it up.

No.

I like that.

I wasn't. I wasn't.

I got you.

The Wizards have a winning record past October for the first time since November 28th, 2022.

That's crazy.

That's a pretty good one right there. The Washington Wizards have reached three wins before December for the first time since 2023.

Before December?

Yes, before December.

Three?

Yes. For the first time in three years.

That's different.

Yeah.

It's different.

It's different this year.

It's different.

I'm telling you.

It's different.

And these stats, you're going to see more of them come out and you'll realize just how bad we've been. And I feel completely exonerated for not spending a single emotional cent on these Wizards teams until we hired Winger and Dawkins. And now I'm back in. They held the Magic's 94 points last night. Washington has now held its opponents to under 100 points in back-to-back games for the first time since 2022.

Let's go.

So the defense is good. These are all good stats for the Wizards this year, but it also every single one of them should serve as a reminder for how bad they have been.

When's your next trip to the wood?

Don't know. We gave away this Wednesday's tickets to an AWL.

Nice.

Yeah. So it's a guy that's going to be taking his kid, right, Zach?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. He's eight-time AWL and he's taking his eight-year-old son to the game.

Let's go.

Love that. So I hope your eight-year-old son can see over the giant assistant coach that's going to be in front of you.

Patrick Ewing. No, it's not Patrick.

Well, he's also giant, but there's a giant French six-foot or seven-foot guy.

So nerve levels?

Nonexistent until Christmas.

Okay.

I think that's fair.

Just attacking hand sanitizers, not worried about the Wiz.

Yeah.

Okay.

I think that's fair.

All right. What's your cool throw?

My cool throw is just football, guys.

Why?

Just caring about football. We're a football guy podcast.

Yeah, what's going on?

Football guys, guys. Don't care about the gossipy bullshit nonsense. And that's the core of the show. Bill Belichick just kind of cemented himself as an all-time football guy. Once again, some more details came about the relationship with him and Jordan and how he was basically at a fork in the road between getting more serious, maybe getting engaged and taking the next step with the relationship, but he needed to be more focused on football and he went with football.

Oh, he chose football over Jordan. That had to break him up because that's a hard Jordan's our queen.

I do think that Jordan's the type of woman that would say, "You know what, Bill? You're right. That's your true love. And I'll always be playing second fiddle. And I understand it and I respect it."

And then she comes back and it's like, "I'll just stay in the background." You made the right choice. I actually tested you.

She seems emotionally mature, so she'd probably be like, "If you love something, set it free. If it was meant to be, it'll come back one day."

Oh, they're close friends and they're committed to their partnership.

Is he still going to cheerleading events and competitions?

I don't know. So wait, Belichick might just be doing November.

It's been like a year. He also snapped at a reporter when asked about it.

I also saw in that press conference, the meanest thing that Belichick can say about a team is he said that Miami does what they do and they just kept on doing what they do. Basically saying it's not imaginative. That quote alone makes me love Notre Dame this weekend.

Yeah. I was thinking the same thing.

They do what they do is such a mean thing.

It seemed like he was saying we could have stopped them if we had their player. If we had their players, we would have beat the fuck up.

Yeah. They're not out scheming anyone. They do what they do.

Yeah. You know what? I think the relationship between Bill and Jordan might have just evolved into being strictly physical. They might be friends with benefits and that's it. They fuck.

Alpha.

They fuck and then, "All right, see you later. I got work early tomorrow. You got to go." I think that's kind of what Bill's doing now.

Yeah, as he should.

All right, PFT. Hot seat, cool throw?

Let's see. Hot seat is part of my take geography.

Uh-oh.

We screwed up on Sunday's show.

Uh-oh.

Hand up. We went back and forth a few times about where Jacksonville was playing their game.

Was it Orlando?

No, they were playing in Jacksonville.

Oh, so then why did Jacob, bad job, Jacob. He texted us in the middle of that conversation saying that it was Orlando. You can't fuck those things up with your Jacob. He's going to take this very seriously.

Yeah, I believe.

I wonder where he was when he texted that.

Do you think he was shirt off in the Planet Fitness gym?

It might have been. It might have been. Now, I might also be.

Jay, get Jacob in here.

I might also be wrong about this right now because Chaps told me that the game was in Jacksonville. And so maybe Chaps got it wrong.

I thought the stadium looked a little different.

Well, they've taken out a lot of the seats because they're doing renovations.

The 300 levels are under construction. And it was the first game they're playing there and then they're doing eight games on the road.

Listen, I.

So it was in Jacksonville.

I want it very clear. Jacob's not actually in trouble and I think Jacob does an awesome job and he works very hard. But that is kind of a wild move to send a text to the group because our guys, Shane, Jacob, Colton, Dom, they all are listening to the show live while we're doing it so they can make cuts or clips and stuff. So that's a wild move in the middle of us taping.

I'm sorry.

To send us a text message correction on the group thread.

And also, Jacob.

And have it be wrong.

You went to Gainesville. You went to Florida.

I did. That's why I thought that deep in my heart, I thought they were playing in Orlando because.

Deep in your heart? What about on Google?

It's hard to argue with deep in your heart.

I googled. Well, I did throw in a quick Google. I said, "Are the Jaguars playing in Orlando?"

But we should say.

And the AI overview said yes.

Yeah, he doesn't use AI. He just uses his heart.

Where did they play this week?

Where did the Jags play?

It says Everbank Stadium.

Now, Jacob, follow-up question. Were you topless doing curls while you were listening to this?

I was topless. I wasn't doing curls.

What role did you.

It's 11:30 at night on a Sunday. There's nobody here except the souls in this studio.

What exercise were you doing at the time? When you sent the text message, what were you doing?

I was in between things because I looked on my phone and I googled it and my Google was wrong.

Got it.

I'm sorry to the AWLs. I fucked up.

Your heart was wrong.

My heart was wrong.

Actually, no, I don't want you to say that. Your heart's never wrong, Jacob.

Thanks, PFT.

Google was wrong.

I'm really disappointed in myself.

I would like you to continue working out shirtless on Sunday nights.

Okay. I do.

You're getting better. That's the whole reason we have it there. We're all getting strong.

Shout out Planet Fitness. I want it to be clear that I would never take my shirt off in that manner if it were any fuller in this office or a reasonable hour. But there's nobody here but us once per year.

Do you want someone to get horny?

Maybe.

Yeah.

I do.

Show me if he smokes what a real man looks like.

Usually, I wear a beater or tank top, but I need to do laundry, so.

Hank went to take a piss and he came back and he's just like, "You got to go out there and see what's happening in the gym."

I heard that on the hot mic and it kind of hurt my feelings.

Yeah, because you did kind of hide when I came out.

It was Jacob. It was like it's midnight. It was so late. I went to go take a piss and I just saw what I thought was a naked man out of the corner.

Half-naked.

Just doing pull-downs. I was like, "What the?" And then I saw that it was you, but it was it's just not what you expected to see.

But now we do.

At midnight.

Now, if I go take a piss at midnight on a Sunday and I don't see you there, I'll be upset.

Okay. Is beater acceptable?

Yeah, that's fine.

All right. Cool.

And let's just when we text on the group.

Yeah, just make sure it's right.

Make sure we're right.

I'm sorry. I googled and I thought the Google was right.

I don't think.

I'll be more clear.

You don't necessarily have to apologize to us. I feel bad because we have now joined the national media discourse of disrespecting the Jacksonville Jaguars. And that's not where I want to be. I want to respect. I think we should all take some time, maybe every Friday or Monday recap episode to just make sure that we jag off real quick. We respect the Jaguars because I do think that they are a legitimate Super Bowl contender. And I think that Trevor Lawrence should be getting more discussion as being the MVP considering he hasn't played for 11%.

That was one of my cool throws.

Of Jaguars games, right?

Yeah.

So my cool throne was going to be that Trevor Lawrence, in the last 15 games, he's been pulled early in eight of them and he hasn't played 89 minutes. That shouldn't happen in the NFL.

Yeah. It's crazy. And I think their last 17 games, they might be 14 and 3. We need to do a better job of respecting the Jaguars. So that's why I wanted to bring that up, Jacob.

This is also an insult staff for I mean, the teams they played. It was the Titans twice, the Colts twice, the Browns, the Chargers, the Jets, the Patriots.

Pretty bad teams.

We got to find out how involved the Edinski is just for those who might be looking for a coach.

Okay.

I just want to know.

Are you doing that for.

For research purposes.

For Shane?

Could be for anybody.

I've missed the first part of that. We're looking at Udinsk.

Are you looking for Udinsk?

I'm looking for anyone who can call an offensive play preferably.

What do you mean? You need to find out how involved.

He doesn't call the plays. Liam Cohen calls the plays.

Right. So you got to see, is Udinski drawing them up?

Yeah. How involved? Is he actually a Wiz kid?

Okay. Is Cohen a Udinski merchant?

Yeah.

I'm going to say he's too tall to be a Wiz kid. He's 6'3", 240. That's not Wiz kid.

Yeah, that's a big boy.

He might be a Wiz man.

He's bizarred. A lot of that going around.

Wiz kid, you got to be their GM is a Wiz kid. The Jaguars GM.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

That's a Wiz kid.

Maybe even hot you know what? Udinski might be hotshot.

Yeah. Yeah, he could be.

Hotshot or maybe mad scientist.

Big man on campus.

Maybe mad scientist.

Yeah. Okay. Your cool throne?

My cool throne, I got two cool thrones. One is I will be at LSU in Baton Rouge on Friday. PUPPUNK, my lifelong dream opening up for Shaq at Fred's. I'm excited about that. Might have some special guests there. It should be a good time. So if you're in Baton Rouge, come out, hang out with myself, Ron, Robbie, Frankie, Caroline, Nick. We're going to have a good time. It's going to be a fun night. And Fred's is always Fred's is the best place on earth. So if you're at LSU, you already know that. And Alabama weekend. So we will see you guys on Friday night.

Hell yeah.

Very much looking forward to it. And then my other cool throne, the Low Man Trophy. I do have the watch list for the nation's top collegiate fullbacks. And they are thus: Kemper Hodges at Air Force, Vic Lestory, Navy, Leo Kemp at Bowling Green, AJ Peterson, Iowa State, Strowman Bridges at Army.

Oh, I like him.

Mason Hayes at Air Force, Jake Rendina at Army. His nickname is apparently America's fullback. Andrew Goustad from South Dakota State and Luke Kokatt at North Dakota State. That's the watch list right now. None of that is binding, but those are the guys that we're looking at at this point. And we'll see if the final winner comes from that list or not.

Air Force puts up points.

Air Force puts up points. And they also have one of their guys is technically he was an emergency quarterback last year, so he played quarterback, but he's really a fullback. So he's gone back to being a fullback from quarterback because that's what he wants to do. And that's the most fullback thing ever.

Yeah, by far.

And he's probably going to get to fly an A-10 Warthog, which is the fullback of planes. We all know that.

All right.

Hank knows that.

My hot seats, I got two, is NBA Twitter accounts because we were talking about it before, but Worldwide Wob has retired from he's retired from the internet memes.

Yeah, he said he's burned out.

So people who don't know Worldwide Wob, he was one of those guys who watched every NBA game, put out a lot of funny tweets, would basically be on top of every big moment. Now he's just gone. He just walked away. He's a die-hard Knicks fan. Knicks won the title. He said, "My watch has ended," and he walked away. That's a cool move.

He was a one-man red zone for basketball for a decade.

That's nuts.

I read that his personal account is still online, but the basketball stuff, like the keeping up with all the games, he's taken a step back from.

I didn't know you could just walk away from it.

Yeah. He'll be back.

You have to think he'll be back.

Right? Memes.

I don't know. He said he dedicated his life and he's just walking away.

Credit to him. It's like.

Barry Sanders.

Yeah, I treat the internet and doing this job, it's like the mafia. You either end up in prison or dead.

Yeah.

You can't just retire.

He's got to be back. I feel like he's going to at some point.

Yeah, he'll be back. My other hot seat is Gardner Menshu because he's named the starter. That's not good for him.

Yeah. Who do they got this weekend?

Who do they have this weekend? That's not good though. Gardner Menshu, the minute he's named the starter, things go south. You need to keep him as just a you actually should honestly put him in a glass case with an axe that you can break whenever you need some quick instant offense.

He could be technically not the start. What I would do if I was LaFlores, I would either have Brissett or maybe even Carson Beck start and then after one series, put in Menshu.

At the Seahawks. Zach is struggling trying to find the schedule for the.

At the Seahawks?

At the Seahawks.

That's not good.

He even went to the Seahawks schedule.

That's not good.

Now he's going, "Zach, this is."

I was trying to get his here.

Yeah, they go at Seahawks, Rams at Chiefs.

Oh, that's good.

That feels mean to Gardner Menshu. Then everyone's going to say, "Oh, Gardner Menshu stinks." No, he doesn't. He just should be a backup.

Then again, this is just going to preserve our image of Gardner Menshu, which is you got to be very careful with him.

Yeah. Also, Jacoby Brissett, is that the most successful holdout of all time?

Yeah.

He didn't.

No.

He's not good.

Actually, I think he should have held out for more.

I guess, but he got the deal.

If they gave him that, he could have gotten another couple million.

What are you oh my God. J-A-K-O-B-E. This is.

People are saying he could be a Raven.

Yeah.

Tyson Bayesian possibly too.

Jacoby, Zach, what's going through your head right now?

Names are unique. That's going through my head. And previously on the search, I had the game up and then we got hit with a tweet that shouldn't have been up, so I had to evacuate. So you guys caught me in an evacuation plan a second ago. That's what happened.

That was you in an evacuation plan?

Yeah, it was necessary. We don't have to say why, but it was.

It does feel mean to throw Gardner up there. Although he's got ties to the area.

Yeah.

Washington State, right?

Yeah.

That's really mean.

It's also very far away from Seattle.

My hot seat this week is going to be the 49ers because Brent Nykaa has teamed up with Drew Rosenbaum.

Drew Rosenhaus.

Rosenhaus, my bad.

Yeah.

I'm flustered. I'm sorry.

Yeah, what's going on today? Is it because you're in the middle seat?

Yeah, the middle. It is. If we're just if we're just being.

Transparent?

Transparent. Yeah. I know it's next man up, but last eight minutes, a little flustered, but we're good. Yeah.

Drew Rosenbaum's a doctor.

Okay. Shout out to the doctors out there. Doctors are important.

The FBI has confused a bomb farehouse several times.

That is true.

All right.

Yeah.

So you think it's going to be back in the league? If you're the Seahawks, why wouldn't you take him, right?

I mean, he's good. Hasn't played in like two years, but.

You want him?

No.

You want him?

We have no one.

I would love if you got Brent Nykaa.

I don't, but we have no one.

Wow.

You got AJ Brown.

Maybe.

Oh, you don't think that they're good with AJ? I get it.

They're better without AJ.

No, we're.

What?

We need him to play.

Yeah. It's a big part of it.

And the details are murky.

What do you mean?

There's just no concrete timetable. It's just like we're going to see how he looks.

Yeah. I was telling Hank that I was reading an article, regrading the trade between the Patriots and the Eagles. And the Patriots got a D on the AJ Brown trade, and the Eagles got a C. So they're just like everything sucks, which doesn't make any sense at all.

That's impossible.

That's just a hater. That's just a hater writing that. I'll stand up for you on that one, Hank.

Oh, I see this. Jalen Brown names Tyrese Maxey as Sixers leader. Oh, man, I wish Max was here right now.

Like officially? Passing the torch?

I'm going to call him. That's shaded LeBron.

Yeah, big time.

That's big time shaded LeBron.

Well, you can't have your leader be drunk.

No.

Yeah, that's a subtweet to LeBron.

Yeah.

Do you guys not agree?

No, I would agree.

It'd be like Hank being like Max is our leader.

Hello?

We need a comment. I hope you're feeling better. Jalen Brown names Tyrese Maxey as Sixers leader.

Yes.

That's a subtweet to LeBron and Embiid.

Do you guys see that the vibes are so high with the Sixers team that you're grasping at any single straw to bring them down?

You actually sound like shit.

I just had a doctor's appointment. I have the flu.

Oh, you didn't get a flu shot?

Did not get a flu shot.

Damn.

I'm taking meds today, though. The doctor said I'll be fine by Thursday.

Okay, great. But this is concerning. This feels like a subtweet.

No, it's not concerning. You think it's concerning.

What do you think about LeBron stealing somebody's alcohol?

Concerns. I'm waiting for you to call LeBron an alcoholic. I'm prepared for that.

We would never.

Already did.

Yeah, we already did that. And a thief.

You guys are getting all of your you can try anything you want, but nothing will bring down the vibes of the Sixers team right now.

If there was less LeBrons in the world, maybe you would be healthy right now. The flu is something that can be easily passed from person to person. LeBron basically did that.

You know what? That's a fair point.

Yeah. Yeah. So you can blame your sickness on LeBron. When you lay in bed tonight and you feel like shit, be like, "Damn it, LeBron did this to me." And the worst part is he's not even the leader of my team.

Yeah, I'm sure you can do it.

Okay. And Max, you tell me what the difference is between LeBron James getting everybody in Philadelphia sick and Rudy Gobert getting the entire world sick with COVID.

I couldn't hear what Beyoncé said at all.

He said.

It was a great point.

Yeah, it was a great point.

To sissome was a great point.

Yeah, it was a great point. You just got bodied.

Great point, Beyoncé. I guess you bodied me.

Okay.

It's a tough one to do.

This isn't even fun to fight with him right now.

Get well soon, Max.

All right, get well soon, Max.

All right. Bye.

All right. Okay, bye.

But yeah, Jalen Brown, him not getting into LeBron is after that display last night.

Yeah. He did that on purpose. I will say, LeBron, I would never say this in front of Max. LeBron twerking was kind of funny.

I will also say that the Philadelphia 76ers are just.

Really good.

Really fucking good right now.

Although.

I would be worried about them right now.

Although the Bulls are atrociously bad. Really bad basketball team.

Yeah, there's LeBron twerking on it.

All right, did you do your cool throne?

No.

You got sidebarred.

I can cool throne if you need me to. But other hot seat, super quick, since we're talking, Jalen Brown, bought a $20,000 toilet. It doesn't work.

Oh.

He's good with his money.

What do you mean it doesn't work?

He did his.

On Hurley's?

He's.

That was $4,000 and it was also pissed in by Geno Aoyama. Hank, I'm sensing some vibes were coming from you. I think it's a combo of the fact that Caleb had over 200 yards passing.

I'm happy.

More than that?

I was happy watching him smile on my face.

You don't want this urinal.

For my city.

You don't want this urinal to work in our studio.

No.

Why?

You're not sensing that. I said that and I'll say it again.

Why? If there's a urinal right here and we could piss in it, what is the problem?

You need separation of church and state.

No, Hank, you have two options because if there's no urinal, Big Catch is going to.

Don't piss where you put.

He's going to piss in the sink.

That's the age-old saying.

Would you rather have him just.

Don't piss where you pod.

Pee into a sink that people want to.

All right, fine. We have a trough. I'll put it up to a vote. Who does not want the urinal in fully operational, by the way? I'm not saying put the urinal in it's gross. I'm saying it can flush. Zach's going to put ice in it every single day. Who wants the urinal or who doesn't want the urinal in the studio? Hank is the only vote.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.

Thank you for standing my back. I appreciate it.

I'm not going to use it though. You're just voting against convenience, right?

Yeah. And also, it's a talking piece. Sal Frelick walks in and be like, "Hey, you check out our urinal? It's right here. You want to piss?" We could probably see a bunch of athletes cocks. Not that we'd want to, but we could.

You already do that.

You already do that.

What do you mean?

You walk people around and you go, "Hey, you want some ice cream? Hey, you want to compete in the trough?"

Yeah. So now you want another. No, because Hank, you just.

Talking point.

They already have one. You proved my point because when we do a tour of the office.

It wasn't awkward the first time when I asked you to pee in front of me. I'm going to do it again, but this time in a podcast.

I don't ask them to pee in front of me. I actually say, "We have the trough if you'd like to use it." So erroneous. You also hit on a perfect thing because when we do the tour, it's like, "Wow, this is awesome. This is awesome. Ice cream, basketball court, golf simulator, oh, the URSAY banner, oh, the trough." And then you get to our studio and it's kind of running out of things to talk about. Boom, urinal.

Lottery ball machine.

No, come on. Memes can't even get this.

Couch.

We could sell shirts too.

Of the urinal.

No, I took a piss in the bar in my take podcast studio and all I got was a shirt.

Yeah.

You could also sell urinal cakes.

Dude, there's no other podcast that you can piss in the studio.

That's true.

What if it was the next dog toy? Just a urinal, a plushie urinal.

That'd be cool.

Think about it.

Yeah, that would smash.

What if we sold.

Yes, records.

What if we sold pocket urinals? They're just little tiny urinals and they have a vat underneath that you can piss into it.

Like a condom?

No, it's like.

Yeah, and then you throw it out.

The bag, yeah. They actually make those. They're called stadium pallets so you don't have to get up in the middle of the game.

Those could be useful or long drives.

What? You don't know anything about long drives, Lefty.

Long drives?

Like you ever have to pee on a long drive?

Oh, I thought you were talking about golf because that's all you talk about.

No. I was not talking about golf. I have not mentioned golf one time in this whole episode.

You ever know the saying, "You get what you give"?

Yeah.

That's what's happening right now. You get what you give.

And you get.

No, you gave.

You give.

You gave negative energy about the urinal. I'm going to give it back to you.

No, you give piss.

I'm going to give it back to you. You get what you give, buddy.

Whatever. If not wanting a urinal in the studio is wrong, then.

You're wrong. Then you're wrong.

You're wrong.

We could also collect the piss and then we could scan it for drugs.

Yep.

And get blackmail on everybody.

I wish that Chris, the guy who kind of manages and runs things in the building in terms of operations.

Doesn't kind of, he does.

And construction.

Put a little respect on his name.

I am.

No, you said kind of runs things in the operations. No, he's the fucking man and he runs the building.

I would love to give him some true serum and just I just feel bad for him.

Why?

Because he has to entertain you in these ridiculous ideas.

That seems like a dream job. What's the hardest?

Get some plumbing in our fucking studio.

Okay. All right. Hey, Chris, what was the hardest thing you had to do today? I don't know. Just entertain the idea of putting a urinal in a podcast studio. That seems pretty trivial. There's fucking people out there fighting fires, teachers, army, marines, and you're complaining about a urinal?

I'm not complaining.

I also think that's probably a nice little break from being a building manager like that. It's probably pretty boring.

Agreed.

And you deal with a lot of aggressive tenants and people making your life hell.

But you can tell those people no.

The roof breaks.

Yeah, yeah.

The roof breaks, that's a pain in the ass. This is a passion project for both me and Chris.

It allows you to explore.

It's a passion project for him.

It allows you to explore your passion.

He has to be a building manager.

He's going to spend hours.

He goes and hangs out with his buddies that are also building managers. And he's able to be like the cock of the walk. And he holds court telling his friend, "Hey, let us know what those Barstool guys are planning on pissing on this week."

Yeah.

And then he gets to have story time. And then everyone's like, "Man, that's so cool. I wish I managed that building."

Also, if he pulls this off, he's the one who pulled off the trough. He's going to be in he'll have a PhD in piss.

I also think that Hank is just a big you are a naysayer.

Yeah, big time naysayer.

Naisayer.

Big time naysayer.

And big time.

I'm honest. I'm honest.

I'm a dreamer.

I'm the only one that will.

No, you're a naysayer. That's what I'm

I'm the only one that's not going to be like, "Oh, great idea, Big Cat." Someone has to be like, "We should not have a fucking."

Means what do you say?

"Urinal in our studio." It's nice.

They're all good ideas.

Thank you, Max.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Love you, memes.

Exactly. You're not compromised whatsoever into saying that.

Now, can we talk about the flight simulator?

Actually, no, memes isn't memes tells the truth.

We got to talk about that.

Yeah, no. I haven't seen a single bad idea.

I would love to talk to you about the flight simulator.

I don't know.

Where do you want to put it?

I think we can make it happen. I'm seeing it on top of the golf simulator.

Ooh, I like that.

Just got some natural altitude.

Right next to the slide I'm thinking about putting in?

That's a perfect way to get down from the flight simulator. Hit the eject button.

Hank is just the great he's that's who he walks around all day. Golf.

That's true.

Golf.

That's why he's cranky is because golf is shut down.

Yeah, he called the golf season.

It is. It is.

Great October.

Yeah, it was a great October. But yeah, the 4 o'clock darkness.

Did you get all your callouts in?

Yeah. Well, I still got to do Granelly. Granelly's a retirement match.

Well, and I got to we called you out.

And you and Max, yeah.

Oh, we called you out.

Granelly is you've cleaned his clock before.

You cleaned it again.

He seems like he's got he's almost like you are to me. He's got a perverted sex thing going on where he has a humiliation kink where he wants you to beat him again.

Yeah, that's for everything. That's for Lefty Lockwood's future.

If you lose.

We're going to have to figure out some time to go on a Saturday in Florida, I think. But that's just the job.

If you lose to Granelly, we're going urinal and trough in here and shitter.

Great. You can put the urinal right behind me if I lose to Granelly.

Oh, perfect.

You can just pee on my face every day.

Awesome. I think maybe we change the couch to just a big recliner and then next to it, a toilet.

Yes.

There's got to be some fucking WWE.

You should have to do the podcast.

A toilet you can get that can sit on that.

Yeah, you should have to do it on a toilet.

Yeah.

Yeah. Get Triple H's toilet that he used in Toronto in 1998.

Yeah, we don't finish the podcast till Hank does a bowel movement.

You're just.

You want that other thing? Golf. It's truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth. Golf.

All right, do you have a was that your cool throne? Where are we?

We can go cool throne. Yeah, we can go double cool.

Cool throne, National Sports Podcast.

Zach, finish us off. Carl Buschbeat, you got to see that? Carl Buschbeat finally made it home.

Oh, yeah, I did.

Who?

All the way around the world.

Dude, this guy's mom.

His poor mom.

Let's explain what it is.

So a guy started in 1998 from England and his goal was to walk around the entire world and he just got back home.

Which way did he go?

Left.

He left?

He walked out of his door and went left. How ridiculous is that? 28 years he walked around the world, 31,000 miles, and he just finally got home.

I'm wondering how he got through certain parts of Asia where you're not supposed to be.

Yeah, and did he go across the how did he go from did he go Alaska across to Russia?

I mean, if he was smart.

That's what he did?

Yeah, he did. He went across the Bering Strait over the ice.

Holy shit. Yeah, look at his mom. His mom's like, "Dude, I haven't seen you in 30 years."

Yeah, come on, man.

The hell, man.

I wonder what the shortest way to walk across the world is. If you go across the Panama Canal and then you get to Asia would be the tricky one. Asia's going to be long no matter what.

Africa.

You could cut off some time.

You don't have to go through Africa.

Doing the Panama Canal, for sure.

He's got to be miserable, right, getting home?

His calves got to be jacked up.

But I'm just saying, his life this is Brooks getting out of jail.

Yeah.

You can't walk around the world for 30 years and then just be like, "Now I'm going to go back to having tea with my mom at 5 o'clock PM." That just can't happen.

You're not going to have the thrill of waking up every day at a new place.

What's his next one? Maybe he just doesn't again?

Maybe he's run.

Oh, if he's like, "Oh, mom, I'll be right back. I think I dropped something in Asia. My ear pods are in Asia."

Are you asking to go backwards?

I call them ear pods or AirPods.

Undo everything? Maybe swim? I don't know. Yeah, what does he do from here?

Carl Buschbeat. Okay. Good double cool throne.

That is a crazy way to walk.

Hold.

We're trying to figure out how he crossed the ocean.

Yeah, how did he get to?

Well, he went Chile to the UK. So Chile at the bottom start, and then he just went this way and stopped in the UK.

So this way is he went from South America to North America.

Oh, so he didn't walk across the whole world.

It must be miles across.

No, he went from Russia to Alaska. He didn't have to cross the ocean.

No, but he didn't cross between Chile and England.

But landmass-wise.

He didn't start in England and go to England.

No, no, he started in South America.

He went down here and then came up on the other side.

So down here is South America for the audio listeners.

But you understand what I'm saying. He didn't start and end at the same place.

Correct.

That's kind of bullshit in my mind.

It's 31,000 miles, though.

Yeah. I want to know how.

I'm calling erroneous.

How did he get to beef with Africa?

I guess he was just trying to take the straight shot home.

Yeah. He was in a rush.

I also got.

30 years ago, a different time.

How did he get through the Durin Pass in North Columbia, South Panama? That is like you can't get.

Oh, that's like the deep Amazon.

You can't get through. It's actually impossible to walk through that.

Yeah.

So he did no motorized transportation.

I need to find out what happened in Panama.

So that means he was on a horse.

How did that happen?

He was on a horse.

A lot of swimming.

Have you seen?

He was riding a boa.

Have you seen the plants that are in that part?

It's crazy. If you just brush up against them, they got spikes that are a foot long. If you cut yourself, you're just going to have to cut your arm off.

Also, again, he didn't go all the way. Do you guys not agree with me? There's a whole gap between Chile and England.

But he can't walk.

He can't do.

You can't walk that.

Well, you got to figure out a way.

Yeah, maybe you know what you should have done? Get on a boat, but also have a treadmill on the boat.

Yeah.

So you're walking the entire way that you take the boat there.

It's not my challenge. I don't care.

Also, you're right. He neglected Africa.

Yeah. All right, good double cool throne. Let's get to an awesome interview with Sal Frelick in studio. Before we do that, Peter, you got a couple of ads?

Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. It is World Series Champion, Sal Frelick in studio. Sal, congratulations.

Thank you.

Incredible run. I guess we'll just start with the most generic question you could ask is, how do you feel five days after? I would assume a little hungover still?

Yeah, a little bit. You don't really drink a ton during the year, and then you kind of go ham for three, four days.

Yeah.

Body's feeling it for sure, but got some good sleep last night.

Yeah.

Worth it. Entirely worth it.

Oh, yeah.

You went to the Thursday night football game?

Yeah, we did. We literally landed from Tampa, and they were like, "I think we can make it." And we just got on the bus and went. Got there right at the end of the first quarter. And they kind of just rolled us out, and it was sick.

Who is the ring leader for all that? I feel like you have to have somebody that's the person that's handling all the logistics or that person's probably separate from the ideas guy.

Correct.

Who's the ideas guy that was like, "I bet we could go to Thursday night football"?

Jake Bowers was the ideas guy behind that, our first baseman. And then our travel secretary kind of sets up buses and has connections there. But he was the ideas guy, and we were pretty banged up, not a lot of sleep, and we were like, "Is this we don't really want to do this, right?" And then we're kind of looking around like, "I think we kind of have to do this."

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're like, "You never know when you get another chance to do that." So we're like, "Let's get on the bus and go." So yeah.

Yeah.

Awesome. Yeah, it was a special team. You guys were so much fun to watch. You looked like you had fun playing too. It's refreshing to see a team like that win the World Series, where it's like you guys play your own unique brand of baseball, and it's exciting baseball. Did you know that this was a special team? How early in the season did you know that this was a team that could go on to do some really incredible things?

Yeah, I mean, it's been pretty much the same the past three or four years. Core guys that and we had a lot of failure in the postseason. And in spring training this year, it just kind of seemed like there was a lot of people still sour about the last few years of going home when we did. And then I would think maybe by All-Star break, I'm like, "Okay, we're in a lot of games." And then when we won 100 games, I was like, "Okay, this looks like the team to go on a deep run with." And yeah, we just had a blast playing baseball, though, so made it a lot easier.

All right, I'm going to ask a question that I don't really want to ask, but I'm going to ask anyway. At any point in the season, were you like, "Oh, the Cubs are on our tails"? Because it doesn't feel that way. It feels like the gap has gotten bigger the last couple of years, and it pisses me off, but it's also like, "What are you going to do? The Bros are just better right now."

No, 100%. And with a lot of the teams in the NL Central, especially early in the year, it goes back and forth so much. And I would say by All-Star break, you kind of get a good feel of what's going on, but early in the year, for sure. And I think we came here for a four-game set. We lost. It beat us 20 to nothing one game. And I was like, "Okay, they might start turning it on." And they did. But yeah, it was nice having a little room at the end of the year.

And then you guys I know it probably felt different in the postseason, but it felt like you guys were never not put to the test, but you never were in an elimination game against your you know what I mean? The Padres probably played you the toughest.

Yeah.

And so was that just game to game? You're like, "We just have the utmost confidence that we're going to just keep going out there and doing our thing"? Because it also was exciting. You guys would just score basically, every game would go the same way. The team would get up on you guys, and then you'd just score five runs in the sixth inning, and then you'd win.

Yeah, I think we came from behind almost every game in the postseason. But yeah, it's nice, right, not having to face elimination or even being down in a series. It wasn't the plan going in. It was like we didn't think we were just going to sweep every single team and roll through. But I would say after that, maybe the first two games against the Dodgers were like, "Okay, we might have this thing rolling right now."

This might be something special. So was there something that was said in the dugout when you get to the fifth or sixth inning where it was just like, "Hey, guys, now we got to lock in"? Because it did feel like that. And I don't know. I mean, it was also a big credit to just how you guys we talked about it on the show. The approach you guys had at the plate, it felt like it was true 9v1 every time you watched the Bros play. Whereas all you guys were so locked in. And I think of the Bowers at bat against Yamamoto, shit like that where it's like, "This is what they do. They just grind you down."

Yeah, and I would say it's just like you start to get to those later innings after you're getting shoved on pretty much. And as a collective unit, we kind of knew it was just like, "Okay, which guy is it going to be today?" You didn't know, but you knew someone was going to have maybe their moment or their big at bat, which would then just get everybody going. You talk about that Bowers at bat that one day or Terrain hitting a homer off Scooble left on left. And it was someone different every game. And when it keeps becoming a different person, you just have so much more confidence that you don't feel as much pressure on yourself to do it, and it's going to happen if you just keep applying pressure.

Yeah.

Can you tell us about the rally cigarettes, the jacks, the heaters?

Yeah, so I guess.

Where did that start?

I guess Pasan smelt them in our cage when he was walking by.

What a narc.

Yeah. Yeah. Great dude.

He walked by, started coughing.

Yeah. Are those coming from are those coming from inside? And we're like.

Hey, weed is calling 911.

We're like, "No, we're not doing that because that will be."

Call Sal's mom.

That will be doesn't allow it, so.

Of course.

Why would we be doing that? But no, I was telling Becca, they're around. They're always available.

Yeah. He can't actually say he was doing it.

Yeah, they're not.

It's not legal. And also, that would be funny if you win a World Series and then you still get your mom mad at you.

No, that's inevitable.

Yeah, now when you show up at home and she makes you smoke a full pack of cigarettes, like, "Oh, you like them? Huh? Let's go."

You think this is cool?

Yeah.

You think it's cool now that you won a World Series?

It's here.

What happened?

But if there were cigarettes around, I could definitely see the team like.

Oh, for sure.

As a bonding experience.

For sure. Yeah, kind of old school, especially if there were to be a slogan, kind of smoke heaters to hit heaters.

If there were to be one.

That's pretty good. Yeah, pretty good slogan, I would say.

How many letters from Eucher did Pat Murphy read to you guys throughout this stretch?

So one each time we clinched.

Okay.

When we clinched the playoffs and then each series after, so.

So Bob Eucher wrote that many letters, and he knew exactly who you were playing?

I think some people actually do think that, but.

Well, the first one was.

The first one we did. The first one, we were all looking around like.

Pat Murphy didn't really explain the first one well.

And we're like, "Wow, he really knew or forecasted exactly what we were going to do this year." But no, yeah, Murph just went with it. I think even Murph knew he was getting some heat for it, and that just propels him to do it again, so.

Yeah. He does. I don't. He drives me nuts because he's such a good manager and the whole underdog thing. But he does feel like a guy who just is in tune with everyone and motivates you guys in a way that very few managers do. Is that pretty accurate?

Yeah. I think and he'll tell you, he always says baseball, especially managing, is a relationship game. And that's why they're not called coaches. Every other sport, it's the head coach. In baseball, it's manager because it's a different job. You really are managing. You have to manage the clubhouse, manage the game, pinch hitters when you're going to the bullpen, whoever it may be. And so sometimes when you get managers that coach, it can get hard. And he's really good job at managing while also still coaching and not getting players mad or whatever it is. He's mastered it.

Yeah, he pushed all the right buttons, it felt like.

Yeah.

What was it like meeting him? Is he a guy that waits to bust balls, or is it right off the bat?

No, out the gate. The first time I met him was my first spring training after I got drafted, and he told me he was the video guy. And he was the bench coach at the time, so Council was the manager. So I wasn't aware of everyone on staff. So I just believed it. For probably a week, I had asked him numerous times in the days after for him to send me videos of my at bats. And he just goes along with it until the first spring training game where he was at the end of the dugout.

You saw him, and you're like, "Wait a second."

Why is he in baseball pants and have a clipboard writing the lineup? And everyone's like, "Oh, Murph, he's the bench coach."

Does he have a type?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, so he was in the college game for a while before Pro Bowl, which is kind of unique. And I would say, just having been a college guy myself, we definitely play a more collegey type style than other teams. And so I will say, I think he loves his college guys. Not even guys that went to college, but that play that way of getting bunts down, base running, defense, all comes before stats and everything. And so he loves those kind of players.

I'm a 5'9" guy myself.

He would love you.

Yeah.

And it seems like that might also be his type. Top to bottom, everyone's 5'9" except for Yelly.

Yeah, pretty much everyone. I think we might have the smallest team. No, you would fit right in. He would love it as long as you just ran hard.

Representation matters. There's a lot of 5'9" guys at home that are watching that are like, "I see myself in that world series."

Oh, yeah, for sure.

It meant a lot to me.

For sure.

That's funny. Just short guys. He's got a fetish.

Yeah.

Does he kind of not like Yelich because he's too tall?

No, I mean, he loves Yelly, but I'm trying to think if there's been some other tall guys he didn't like. I don't know because it's not too many short guys.

What about Miz? Does he like Miz?

Yeah, no, he loves Miz. I would say the relationships with starting pitchers are probably different with the guys playing every day, so his relationship with him is different. If it was a position player, though, I don't think he'd like Miz.

Yeah.

When you're in the field and Miz is pitching, what do you have to do differently?

I do nothing. I don't even get a ball. Rarely get a ball. Back up, first base on swinging bunts or ground balls. It's pretty insane watching him pitch. Fridays sometimes because they're late against him, I'll be a little more active, but not a lot of balls in play.

When you guys did so you guys had these long breaks, and I was asking you about it earlier, the simulated games that you play and everyone's pitching. In the simulated game that you're playing, does Miz still complain about the mound?

Yeah, and we still chirp him as the hitter. I get it. I mean, he's strong. That was the first and the first time I faced him was in one of those simulated games. I'm like, "I got to face Miz. I got to see what it's like. I've never faced him before." And I get in there, and I'm just like, "Oh, my gosh." He strides all the way down the mound. The ball's feels like he's placing it in the catcher's mitt.

Yeah, he's like 50 feet away when he let's go.

It's different. And yeah, it was the first time I'd faced him. I was like, "I don't want people to hit this."

Does anyone get hit in those games?

He hit me.

He did?

First at bat.

During the postseason run?

Yeah, before the World Series.

No shit.

And I got, "Oh, my gosh." I was like, "Yeah, it was like 0-2 also." I'm like, "Just throw a fastball, strike out. I'll walk back. It'll be great." And he threw one off my back foot.

Did it hurt? First second, were you like, "Oh, my God, did I just break my foot?"

Yeah, it hurt.

That would have been the worst luck ever.

But yeah, I skid. I think it was actually a cutter. It was still like 97, but I think the 100 would have probably done some more damage.

Yeah. Did Ashby give up any runs in simulated games?

No.

Okay, that would have been awesome. I could have walked around with that being like, "Well, actually, he didn't technically have no runs in the postseason."

True.

Did you have ABS in the simulated games?

Yes, we had umpires that were not the professional level, but then we had one of our tech guys in the dugout with it in case we wanted to. It was unlimited, so.

You guys are really good at ABS this year.

Yeah, William was unbelievable.

Insane.

And in spots that we were like, "You don't necessarily need to challenge here to lead off the game the first pitch." But he was right. And it's like he practiced it. He would get in the cage off of the trajectory of a pitching machine, receive as people are putting in pitches, and would practice it. So he just knew it like the back of his hand. That's what it seemed like.

That's awesome because he was dominant. And in the regular season, he wasn't that good. But in the World Series, it was like, "We'll probably never see an ABS performance like that ever again."

Yeah.

What was your final stats for ABS this year? Do you know? Were you allowed to? I feel like Murph.

Rarely. If it was me, it would have had to been bottom of the ninth, 3-2 bases, loaded two outs type situation. I think I might have had I think it was maybe like two for four, something like that on ABS, but yeah.

So if you challenge it, would Murph be like, "Dude, you can't challenge that. What are you doing?"

Yeah, if I got it wrong, for sure. We let the guys like Yelly or William that maybe would hit a home run the next pitch challenge it. So not a lot of challenges for me.

All right, I want to talk about your home run in game two of the world with game two of the World Series.

Game two, yeah.

What was going through your head when you hit the home run? Because you hadn't hit a home run in a while.

Long time.

Yeah. You said you hadn't gotten the ball in the air in a while.

That's what it felt like.

So when it goes over, you just like I mean, what's going through your head? That's got to be the greatest I would assume you were just floating around the bases.

Yeah, and I don't think I've ever hit a home run to center field. I've never been able to hit a ball hard there and at the right launch angle. And I hit it pretty low. So right off the bat, I was almost telling it to get down in front of the center fielder because I was like, "It's not going to burn him." And then I saw him going back and kept going back. I'm like, "There is no way." And then when I saw it go over the fence, it was just like, "Yeah, I blacked out, just started saying everything under the moon." I think I gave the bullpen like seven fingers. It was just great.

Well, it's got to be nice knowing you could do whatever, and it would still be half as long as William's returns going around the bases.

Yeah, he takes his time. I always said on the small sample size of home runs I've hit, I like going around quick to get back to the dugout and celebrate with the guys. I'm trying to get back with the boys. I think maybe once I have to try William's trot, though, because it does look fun.

That would be funny if you did. Yeah, everyone's like, "What is he doing? That was his third home run of the year."

The bazooka to the bullpen.

Did you play for Italy?

I did, yeah.

How was that?

Oh, blast. And that was in '23.

So it wasn't his most recent one?

No, it was the last one. And a big reason why I wanted to do it too is because we were in Taiwan for the first that's where our pool was. And I was like, "This is a great opportunity to go somewhere I've never been." So we went to Taiwan. It was unbelievable. Great baseball fan base there. And then we won there. We won our pool there by chance. It was crazy. Then we went to Japan and played the Japanese team in the Tokyo Dome, which was also unreal. We got smoked, but super cool experience there.

Yeah, that's awesome. And you were a football player, right?

In high school.

Quarterback.

Quarterback.

Quarterback. And how did you decide baseball? Because you were pretty good.

Yeah, so I played football and hockey as well through high school. I didn't want to ever give one up.

That's pretty crazy. I would imagine there's not a lot of baseball players in Major League Baseball who played three different sports all the way through high school.

Yeah, I would say maybe some of the older guys. I've seen younger guys now you see specializing, but it was like I couldn't give it. I committed to Boston College for baseball my sophomore year of high school, and I was like, "I don't want to stop playing football and hockey." And they're like, "That's fine." And then after my junior year, Boston College offered me for football. And I was like, "Oh, this is great. I'll go play both. I don't have to give up football." And my baseball coach at BC was basically like, "Hey, if you come here, you're going to be on full scholarship with them. Baseball doesn't give out full scholarships.