NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Joe Burrow, Max Parties With The Eagles + Guys On Chicks And Fyre Fest

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On today's part in my take, life without football. We have all the boys back.
Max is back in studio. We've got two great interviews for you.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. We've never interviewed a commissioner, a sitting commissioner before.
Very very cool and then we have our good friend Joe Burrow who we interviewed at the end of Super Bowl week we are going to talk a little Super Bowl fallout Max's night with the Eagles hot seat cool throne fire fest and then we're going on vacation and we'll have Dungeons and Dragons for you on Friday ever had one of those days when it's just too cold to keep working nah neither has ariot ariot work jackets and boots are packed with all the cold stopping waterproof protection you need to get the job done under any conditions so you can take any job out there and always deliver check out ariot in your local workwear retailer or visit ariot. slash work to get 10% off your first order when you sign up for email.

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Okay, let my take. Welcome to Pardon My Take presented by DraftKings.
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Today is Wednesday, February 12th, and we're out of football season. It was a sad realization waking up on Monday.
I think we all felt a little bit empty. Monday night, I ate a bunch of Girl Scout cookies, and I rewatched the Super Bowl.
That's pretty good. It was on TV.
I was just like, I need something to watch, and I just turned it on. I was like, I guess I'll just watch this again.
I like that a lot. I started to get back into shows again on Monday.
Yeah. I watched The Night Agent.
And that's about, it was very strange not having sports bouncing around in the back of my head constantly thinking about what's going to happen in football. And then Tuesday comes around, and thank God, or excuse me, Monday night comes around, and thank God that the sports gods decided to bless us with Luca's debut debut yes luca everyone's ready for luca uh shout out lebron for letting luca be announced last yeah see that story lebron had it he texted luca and said hey you know what i'm gonna let you get introduced last and then uh luca was like thank you so much but you'll go last after this.
I'm just going to do tonight. And we now have everyone breaking down Lucas smiles.
I was breaking. There's a lot of tweets being like, look at Lucas smile.
I saw that. I was also very confused by LeBron James.
Yeah. We all know that LeBron James in the past has said a lot of things, sometimes confusing.
But one thing that he said that was very clear was back in 2015 when he told his teammates uh kind of in a um passive aggressive way online stop trying to find a way to fit out and just fit in yep apparently last night he told luca don't worry about fitting in just go out there and fit out oh nice what so i don't get it yeah well i mean it's reversed he's just got to fit out now. But that doesn't make any sense.
Is he saying that he's out of fit, like out of shape? He is out of shape. Look at all.
Yeah, it's just a lot of people being like, Luka looks so happy. He's never been happier.
He's never smiled before. Luka's smiling on the bench after the first time out.
That's probably because he's sitting. And it's painful for him to stand because he's so out of shape.
He did look kind of big and pale in that Lakers yellow, didn't he? Yeah, I'm telling you. Lumbering up and down the court.
Lack of aura. But yeah, Luka and LeBron, they're officially a go.
Look at that smile. It's so insane how many people.
So many people talking about Luka's smile. Yeah, he's been saved from the basketball Siberia.
That is Dallas, Texas. Yeah.
Listen, he finally will get to play in the playoffs this year. Yeah.
Wait a second. Also, did you guys see in Dallas, they finally started, so I think it was their second home game since the trade.
They started letting fans actually be on the Jumbotron again, and then a fan kicked out they were doing like a sing-along portion and they went to this guy he was fake holding a microphone and he was singing and then he just looked dead into the camera he just said fuck nico yeah he got kicked out they kicked that guy out everybody in dallas like if they show you on the jumbotron there you should say fuck nico oh so funny i like that a lot so petty yeah luka the luka show i'll tell you what i think it might be austin reeves team it's not dalton connects if you want to talk about body language he did not look happy well he had zero points last night it was disgusting no they didn't even jj reddick probably did the right thing and said like you don't have to worry about playing well they're like he said she said they're contesting the mark williams physical so there's still a chance to tell to connect but they're also saying oh that the hornets wanted to trade for you like we didn't want to trade you yeah like you know they just wanted you so bad so charlotte they're the ones that are contesting the trade they're like no he didn't feel the physical yeah it's actually he's in the best shape of his life yeah yeah so they also they also came out the also came out with a Mark Cuban report, which was like, he really tried to convince Nico not to do it, but by the time he found out, the deal was done. Yeah.
Which I imagine like a movie, like Mark Cuban fell to his knees at Walmart, actually. Yeah.
Like wherever he was when he found that out, I think he actually fell to his knees. Yeah.
Mark Cuban was the when when trump in 2016 yeah well they told him they told him late and mark said that the biggest mistake of his entire career was trading steve nash and he's like i don't want to make a mistake like that again and they told him he didn't re-sign jalen brunson too yeah that's true so he's made a couple mistakes but yeah they just gave couple mistakes. Yeah, they just gave him a heads up like, hey, Mark, just so you know, we're going to do this thing that you're going to hate, and you are powerless to stop it.
But in defense of us, Mark, Luka, he doesn't want it enough like a guy like Shaq. Right.
Yeah. So that's what's going on here.
Did you guys see? Turns out the boycotters of the Super Bowl were not great because it hit a record 126 million views. Now they've changed how they've...
Yeah, football's back. Nice job.
Football's back. They have changed how they determine it.
I think they're just counting everything now. But still, for all the people who are like, i'm not watching this uh you kind of got left out yeah what what what hank say it it's a podcast ratings have never really made sense so this isn't a current thing because the nielsen box every time i heard how that system works it didn't really add up didn't make sense this makes if they're just adding streaming numbers like they could just make up numbers correct which is what i guess you know all platforms and stuff do but that means nothing to me now in other news our boycott worked phenomenally the pro bowl had its lowest ratings ever i believe so we boycotted the right so we boycotted the right thing people followed us made a difference but then that means that we were just so starved for football that everyone just tuned back into the super bowl yes yes uh max

max is back max our conquering hero max delante world champion max how are you feeling

i feel i feel i'm i'm here okay very hungover. How is the flight back? Were you surrounded by Chiefs fans? Yeah, I was surrounded by Chiefs fans.
Surprisingly, there was a decent amount of Eagles fans on that flight to Kansas City. Oh, which was they're probably just going to pillage.
Yeah, I don't know what. There was one guy that I was, like, sitting in, like, the seventh row,

the first one past first class, and there was this one guy who.

No big deal.

Yeah, that's comfort plus for all the people listening at home.

Yeah, comfort plus.

There was a guy who literally just stopped dead in his tracks,

and he just looked at me and was like,

what the fuck are you doing on this play?

The last guy you want to see. Shout out that guy.
It's like Max and Russell Wilson, the two last guys you want to be sad next to. He didn't sit next to me.
He was just walking down the aisle and saw me. And he was just so disappointed that my face was what he saw after losing the Super Bowl like that.
So he probably, like, that's his worst nightmare. Like, he went to bed just having nightmares about Philly fans like Max bouncing around his head.
He's like he's everywhere. Yeah.
Motherfucker is not real. So tell us about Sunday night after we after we left you after you did a bunch of shoe is you went out you partied you're with the team.
I was with the team. That's incredible.
Big Dom absolutely hooked it up. We got into the section with the players and their friends and family and stuff, so that was cool.
We were a little bit late getting to the party, so some people were leaving as we were coming in, but there were still some big names in that little section. Give me some names.
What names were in the section? And also, give us names of people who maybe came up to you instead of you going up to them. That's only one person.
And? I would like you to guess. I think you'll get it within two tries.
Okay. J.
Brown. Reed Blankenship.
Yeah, Reed Blankenship. Bang.
Reed Blankenship came up to me and was like, wait a minute, you're the guy from Barstool, right? Hell yes. Shout out Reed.
So shout out Reed. That's my guy.
But I I mean, all jokes aside, that was a surreal moment. He's been an integral part of this team all year.
He was great. And then being at the Super Bowl after party and then him coming up to me, and I was like, this should be the other way around.
No, that never gets old. That never stops to – that never ceases to blow my mind when we were when we interviewed lane johnson cam jurgens was like oh what's up big cat as we were walking in the hallway i was like oh shit that's fucking cool uh you're about to go play in a super bowl so who who else did you talk did you did you see nick sirianni i saw nick sirianni was getting after it yeah like absolutely like he was just walking around with with a cigar in his mouth the whole time.
Ripping like there was like a server that would come around. He was ripping tequila shots like do it as he was out as he should.
He was having the time. He went up on stage and he did that that whole thing.
So that what's that whole thing he did. He's saying that's talking.
No, no, no, no. Yeah, we know that whole thing.
You're now coaching. We didn't go to this party with you.
You know that. Well, it wasn't like online.
It's a famous thing that Nick Serenity does after he wins the Super Bowl. It's kind of his deal.
That whole thing. He sang my way? No, he sang this.
I can't play the song. That's what this tweet says.
No, but he sang a a song that was like talking it was basically everybody's talking all this stuff about me that's what okay that's good i don't like i don't like i don't like that from hank at all i like that from hank at all hank what song would you sing on stage what would be the hank thing that he's known for uh i played don't stop rick ross that's what they played at the first super bowl party I went to was Electric. Okay.
Yeah. Sexy Red was the performer.

Oh, nice.

Yep. I played Don't Stop Rick Ross.
That's what they played at the first Super Bowl party I went to. It was electric.

Okay.

Good choice.

Sexy Red was the performer.

Oh, nice.

All right.

And then who else did you talk to?

Did you take pictures with anyone?

I took no pictures with anyone.

Why?

That was what I woke up.

I woke up immediately to see, ready to see the chaos.

It's good because you're in the content game,

and it's better if we just don't have any pictures.

Yeah, I took no pictures. Well, I don't know.
I felt a million people are going up to them asking for pictures. They're trying to enjoy their Super Bowl night.
And I just wanted to enjoy everything that was going on without being annoying. Okay.
But you were a million and one pictures. As someone who's been there before, you're before you're gonna want to look back and regret you're gonna at least you'll have those you can just look back on the memories yeah which you definitely don't i mean no i'm not really doing a good job with you yeah no i i was i was i was living in the moment okay it was great all right so did you talk to anyone else did you yeah i walked i walked in the first person i saw the first people i saw were chris o'connor and shane gillis okay love it so they were they were fired they were fired up funny chris o'connor side note he was texting me throughout the super bowl demanding that i ask john gruden why the eagles wouldn't do a play action play and throw it over the top he literally would be like can you ask Gruden? I think my first reply was, ha ha, I will.

And he's like, no, I'm dead serious.

Ask him right now.

And he just kept on texting me like, it's open.

It's open.

And then they hit the Devontae Smith touchdown.

He's like, see, it's open.

He was just obsessed with it.

Chris O'Connor, he was the main character of that party.

He rocks.

He was forming a dance circle, and only himself was in the middle dancing in the circle. It was awesome.
What was Pug doing at this party? Pug got a picture of Sirianni. Okay.
Good. Can we see that picture? I haven't seen that picture.
Tell us, Pug. We'll pull up that picture.
Where can I find this picture? So Pug took one, Rowan took one, and you were just like, nah. Nah.
I want these guys to be friends with me for life. I bet you Nick Sirianni's like, who is that fucking dude in the boot that didn't ask for a picture? I need that guy.
I do like how in Max's mind, he's like, you know, me and Sirianni, we're too close for that. That'd be weird if I went up to him and asked him for a picture.
It's like, I can do that whenever I want. Yeah, no.
Looking back, I probably should have asked for a picture. I get it, though.
You don't want to be annoying. They got cameras over, but I'm telling you, at that point, they do not give a fuck if somebody wants a picture.
And in 10 years, you're going to be like, yeah, I kind of wish I had a picture of that. Yeah.
Jalen Hurts was also there. You know what? And the beauty is, wait, I want to hear about Jalen Hurts, but the beauty is memes.
I would like you, for the next day, find every picture that Nick Sirianni took with someone and just do the Max face. So that way we have a bunch of pictures of Max with Sirianni.
Every single one. All right, so Jalen Hurts was there.
Did you talk to him? No. So Jalen Hurts was there, but he was in, like, a different section within the section.

That sounds about right. Yeah.
But he was kind of, like, one in his own in that section. Like, other people would come into his section.
Yeah, he's Super Bowl MVP. But, like, everyone else was in, like, the mix of everything.
And he basically had, like, security going in and out of that section. and like soon as he moved everywhere, everyone just had a phone just filming him walking around.
And you were in the player section, though. Right.
So then there was a party section that was different. Right.
There was this pug. Pug.
What? What an arrival. Nothing.
No pictures. No nothing.
I thought you didn't make it in i me too i saw chris's instagram post with you in it i was like oh he made it in i was worried when i when i woke up i took a picture with chris oh no no chris probably asked you to take a picture no i won't we were me chris and big cat were in a group chat being like we got to meet up we got to meet up so

then once we did meet up i sent big cat a picture of wait so yeah i woke up the next morning i was like oh fuck they didn't get in this is bad i went to sleep i didn't help and then turns out you you got all the way in yeah no we were in until until it closed so what time did it close i think four is. Is that right, Pug? Pug's here.
Pug. Pug.
Pug. I believe three, potentially four a.m.
Pug, how was it? Tell us everything. It was awesome.
It was just seeing all your favorite players right after the Super Bowl celebrating. It's just like so surreal.
How was asking Nick Sirianni for a picture? It was like a very quick. He was like in the middle of doing pictures with other people, and it was just a quick like get in, get out.
Love it. So you didn't bother him.
Yeah. No.
It took two seconds of his time. Here's the thing.
Max, we didn't need a picture of Sirianni, Max, because you gave a recap in words that describe it better than a picture ever could, because it looks like right after you left the party at 3.08 a.m., you tweeted, Sirianni was so sick tonight. I was drunk tweeting all night.
That tells me all I need to know. Let's print that out, and then you can look back on that in five years.
Yeah, put that behind you. Remember how sick he was? We need that frame behind you.
The night you partied with the Eagles after winning a Super Bowl. Sirianni was so sick tonight.
Wait, so did you guys – what did you guys – can we see the picture of Sirianni and Pug? By the way, every time I see a picture of Pug, I audibly am like, he's just the cutest. I don't know why.
I'm just like, he's just the cutest guy we got. You remember that chill guy meme that went viral, like, I don't know, two months ago? Pug is the chill guy.
He's just a chill guy. I also like, I'm so pro going to a Super Bowl by yourself.
Like that friendship and bond. Because I have a buddy who went to one of the Patriots games with another guy we work with that was a random connection.
And they still will be like, that's my best friend for life. I was explaining it because people were kind of roasting me and Pft being like why would you buy one single ticket i was like dude it's the super bowl they're gonna connor made best friends with his seatmate too yeah and and again it's like i've the eagles winning this super bowl and and the way they did it has made me get to relive the patriot super bowl like that's all i did yesterday was just re-watch the seahawks re-watch the the Falcons.
That's awesome. Get in there and make it by yourself.
I love that, Hank. I don't care.
It's true. You guys were talking about no football.
I spent probably two hours watching just Patriots Seahawks, Patriots Falcons, Patriots Rams. And those memories that you have this night, it's the best.
Wow. The farther away it gets, the better it gets.
That's what I've learned in my wisdom of like this night will get better with time well not for max he has literally no memories of it this picture is awesome picture is all time you look sick pug unreal with the cigar like that but the farther way you get you're gonna make that was so sick and it just gets sicker and sicker and sicker. The funniest part about watching Hank react to Max talking about the night is

Hank just think about it. He's like, yep, that's

how the Super Bowl parties are set up. They got that other

special section right there. Then you got the players.

Yeah, I know all about that. Did they have

a bathroom for you that was different than everyone else's?

Nice. Sick.
Same.

It's the best. Until the

somehow the Celtics like Missoula

shout out to Coach Missoula, but

the first Super Bowl party I went to was the best night of my life. Like, until the parade.
Max, have you been invited to the parade? No. Okay.
Do you want to get invited to the parade? Let's get Pug on the parade. I don't know.
Yeah. It's Valentine's Day.
That's big issue. That's the issue.
I was thinking about that. There are going to be so many dudes in Philly that are like, I'm going to go out to the parade just for a little bit, and then I'll come home, and we'll go out on a date and have our night, and they're just not going to come home.
A lot of pukes at dinner. After being gone for eight days and then being like, I had the most unreal night ever, but I need to have another one is going to be a tough one.
That's going to be tough sell. Wait, so so I didn't even ask.
What did you guys do when the party ended? Did you go to a bar or did you go home? I we went home. Pug wanted to go to Bourbon Street at like at like three thirty.
Fuck. Yes.
What an animal. Once the game ended, there's just like swarms of Eagles fans like we're all going to Bourbon.
So like I still was feeling that energy a little bit. But going home was the right move.
Yeah. And then, Pug, how was your flight through Kansas City? Were people like, God damn it? My flight was through Atlanta.
Oh, okay. All right.
So you didn't do the Kansas City connection. But there were some issues, weren't there, Pug? Yeah, we got delayed, then delayed again, then deboarded, then delayed, and then we were back.
So what time did you get home? Like 2 a.m. Oh, my God.
Yeah. We're back.
How many times did you look at this picture during the flight? Like two to three. Yeah.
Pug. Pug.
All right. So Max, scale of one to ten, how unhealthy do you feel?

Nine days in Bourbon Street.

Fifteen.

Like, yesterday, yesterday was like, I was sitting at the airport.

I was about to go get food, and then I was like, I shouldn't eat anything right now.

I ended up getting Lunchables.

Oh, nice. That was my lunch.

Nice.

Hank, that was my lunch.

What? Do you not remember that debate? Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore? Yeah.
So I had that, and then I had a salad for dinner. Yeah, salad.
I got a salad for dinner. You have to eat something green.
I'm going to diet. Heavy diet started yesterday.
You got to book a trip to a sauna or something. You need to sweat juicily for like 50 minutes.

Yeah.

Just to get.

Get it out.

Kind of started.

The toxins out.

But you're going on an exercise vacation.

Exercise vacation.

Fitness vacation starts next week.

You're going to ski like twice.

He's going to drink so much more than he skis. I'm also going to a John Summit concert again.
Okay. Alright, so any other Super Bowl thoughts? I mean, I had a thought while driving in this morning.
Is Patrick Mahomes a Kyle Shanahan merchant? Yes. Two out of three of his Super Bowls against Kyle Shannon who can't win the big one? Yep.
Interesting. Is he Kyle Shanahan merchant? Yes.
Yes. Two out of three of his Super Bowls against Kyle Shanahan who can't win the big one? Yep.
Interesting. Is he a Kyle Shanahan merchant? Interesting.
Yeah. Well, he's had two very bad losses in Super Bowls.
Very bad. So I saw a chart.
Someone was like, hey, if you think that this first half was like the Tampa Super Bowl, it actually was so, so, so much worse. Patrick Mahomes, that was the worst half of football he has ever played.
Maybe the worst half. I saw a stat.
It was like maybe any quarterback of all time. Yeah.
Top 10 worst performance ever. There was a chart I saw that was like worst play stretches in the Super Bowl.
And Mahomes had like the worst four or maybe eight play stretch in a Super Bowl all time. He also had one of the, he had the best four play stretch, which was all in garbage time.
Oh, at the end? Yeah, the throw to Xavier Worthy, definitely. Which I agree with everyone.
Like you can't count stats after the Gatorade bath. Yep.
That was after the Gatorade bath that he made that throw. It was an incredible throw.
It was a sick throw. It was also all the backups.
Yeah. They'd taken away the whole starting lineup.
Yeah. Strike from the record.
Also, I mean, Mahomes has had to get to the AFC, too. Yeah.
True. Which is pretty impressive.
True. But this is a bad one.
It's a bad one. I actually like Max and Rowan were on to something with the Jalen Hurts thing.
What? He might be. I think he's just better than Mahomes.
Oh, I like that. Their head-to-head matchups in the Super Bowl, Hurts has dominated them.
That's true. If you'd only watched the two Super Bowls that Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes played against each other, Jalen Hurts clears them by a million.
A million. And if you had just put the last Super Bowl on regular turf, then Mahomes would be even more of a Kyle Shanahan merchant.
Yeah. I mean, we'd be having to talk about the Eagles being a dynasty right now.
You guys do have a pretty... Do you have a lot of free agents? Yeah, we're going to lose a lot of guys.
Oh, you are? Zach Bond? Zach Bond, Josh Swett, Milton Williams. What did you guys think about the...
I'm going to try and bring some of them. The All-22 review.
That came out, I saw, with all the sacks and all their Travis Kelsey, and they just got destroyed. Kelsey was not looking great on the film review.
My all-22 analysis is that Lane Johnson is a fucking man. Yes.
Every single time you see Lane Johnson, he's just bodying someone. That is a man that you don't want him to put his hands on you.
Yeah. There was one that I saw that he throat-punched a guy.
Yeah, he was bodying Chris Jones. Yeah, he was an animal.
He just put him out on an island, too. He never had help.
The Eagles were just that much better than the Chiefs. Did you see Kenny Pickett? No.
At the party? Yeah, at the party. I did not see him at the party.
That would have been cool. Yeah.
What type of jumpsuit was Big Dom wearing? Big Dom basically got us into the party and then immediately left. He had a lot of was like yeah he texted me the fact that he got a lot of stuff going on yeah the super bowl after party is big dom super bowl like he's got to be on point with that as yeah as as he was walking us in cj gardner johnson was walking out and he was like he was like dom i'm gonna need a ride for me and all these people, like, immediately.
And then he was like, all right, all right, I'll get to you in a second. Also, I want to...
You see the Swifties are kind of at war. Oh, I do want to see...
I want to hear about that, but I just want to defend Big Dom for a second because I've seen this narrative being thrown around that he's, like, hunting for the camera. It's his literal job to be next to Nick Sirianni after a game.
If you are upset that Nick Sirianni is getting a picture taken and Big Dom happens to be behind him, he's not looking for the camera. He's doing his job.
That is his job. Shout out Big Dom.
Go ahead. Swifties? CJ Garner-Johnson was the person.
He posted on a story a picture of him and Kelsey and his quote was should have stayed with that thick shit oh yeah so Swifties are fired up they are well there was that picture of Taylor that went viral like two weeks ago I think they're also mad about her getting booed like they're and I think Travis Kelsey's ex-girlfriend might have been there I think she was but yeah there was that there was that picture, and it confirmed the fact that Taylor Swift does, in fact, have a leg. And all the Swifties were like, oh, look how thick she is.
Look how strong that leg is. And it was just like a leg.
It was a leg. So now CJ is saying, oh, he should have stayed with a thick girl.
And then now all the Swifties have responded by leaving bad reviews for CJ Gardner Johnson's mom's restaurant.

Is that what it is?

That's nasty.

Nasty work.

Swifties are sore losers.

Well, they've never lost.

They've literally never lost.

They weaponize social media.

Yeah.

That's what they do.

They do.

But that was their first big loss.

Yeah.

And it was huge.

How do you respond from adversity?

I don't know.

We'll see.

She's going to put out a banger album about the Super Bowl.

I think he's going to retire.

You do?

He looked old.

He did.

He did look old.

He is old.

He wasn't getting off the line.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, the Chiefs just overall just looked bad.

There was nothing.

Andy Reid might retire.

Chiefs run defense was pretty much all you can say was good.

Is this Eagles team the best football team of all time?

Oh.

Because, well, hear me out.

You've got Saquon Barkley.

Mm-hmm.

I'd say maybe a top 10 running back of all time.

Right?

The way that he's playing right now.

Not in terms of longevity.

This season, incredible.

Talent-wise.

By the way, just a side note.

Shout out that one guy who posted a video of him pinning Saquon barkley in like sixth grade wrestling never let go of that that was so

good like saquon won a super bowl birthday he's like hey check out this time all right saquon

barkley he was in the mvp consideration he had a great season yep top 10 season of a running back

of all time uh the offensive line for the eagles maybe top 10 offensive line of all time defensive

line you could make the same argument and their pass rush make the same argument uh impact Thank you. The offensive line for the Eagles.
Maybe top 10 offensive line of all time.

Defensive line, you could make the same argument in the pass rush.

Make the same argument.

Impact rookies all over the place.

Great secondary.

Shut down Patrick Mahomes.

Quarterback, better than Patrick Mahomes.

Beat Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl.

And we're talking about Patrick potentially being the second or going into this game the best quarterback of all time.

A guy that just beat him, you would say that he's probably the second or the best quarterback of all time. Is this the best football team ever? Max? I already made this argument on Sunday's show.
Did you say they're the best team ever? Yeah. He did.
He said 16-1. I just started saying that we basically were undefeated.
Yeah. He found a way to get out of every single one of their losses.
Yeah. So Eagles number one, Patriots number two.
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. That doesn't matter because it's all – you can make the argument for anything, but all that matters is they're both Super Bowl champions.
And the Chiefs are not. And the Chiefs are not.
And Patrick Mahomes is probably going to use his revenge and get way better and win another one. Right in everyone's face.
Oh, you think he's totally done? Hank is unironically doing the washed trash. Yes.
You actually think Patrick Mahomes is done? Like, we went along with the joke. He's got a long, long...
He's got a huge mountain decline. If he can win five more Super Bowls to beat Tom Brady, good for him.
No, you've become Max Kellerman. Wait, but when you did the wash thing on Sunday night, we were going along with the joke.
He is going to win another Super Bowl. Maybe.
Okay. Alright.
So he thinks no. This is, you have become Max Kellerman.
Either you die a villain or you live long, or no, die a hero or live long enough to become a Kellerman. How many Super Bowls is he going to go to for the rest of his career? NFL is hard.
It's hard to stay healthy. It's hard to get back.
We've talked to all these quarterbacks and pros where it's a constant narrative on the show.

You never know.

Probably one or two.

Okay.

So would you bet that he'll be back to at least two?

I would look at the other line.

It depends how juicy the plus sign was.

Who wins the Super Bowl? I'd probably take no.

Okay.

Who wins the Super Bowl first?

Even though he's been to five out of the last seven.

Yeah, but again, he's just a check down merchant now. Okay.
Who wins the Super Bowl first? Even though he's been to five out of the last seven. Yeah, but again, he's just a check down merchant now.
Okay. Who wins the Super Bowl first? Patrick Mahomes or Drake May? Drake May.
Okay. We come back.
Okay. Okay.
We know you're on Hank's side, but you killed him. Tom Brady will never have tape like that first half tape, no matter what.
That will be on his legacy forever. That he had a chance to do something legendary and came out with the worst performance in the history of football.
He played worse than Sam Darnold did. Yeah, he was very bad.
Do you think, Max, is there anything to be said that Carson Wentz is your good luck charm? Because the Eagles have two Super Bowls when Carson Wentz is on the sidelines. Great point.
You need to find him an AFC team next year that will be in the Super Bowl and just have him out there. You're undefeated in Super Bowls when Carson Wentz is a backup backup somewhere that's an excellent point he also kind of didn't i i i reviewed the tape kind of shaded jalen hurts after the super bowl i couldn't fully understand if it was he never saw him but he jalen hurts was kind of looking to give him a high five and and and carson wentz was walking the opposite direction interesting so we'll just go with that do you think Carson Wentz still thinks that he's like if that were me I yeah oh for sure I would say good luck charm is is more Nick Foles Nick Foles even posted it's really cool that Tom Brady got to be or I guess it's Tom Brady that's the good luck yeah but Nick Foles pointed out Tom Brady got to be there for the Eagles two Super Bowl wins he might be the good luck charm well the good it's it's yeah Tom Brady yeah and also Tom Brady is was there for both the Patrick Mahomes Super Bowl losses yeah so he's so happy for Tom what do you review the tape all right so here's Jalen Hurts and Mahomes the Jalen Hurts goes towards Carson Wentz and Carson Wentz is like like, nah.
Nah. I don't know.
I just like the pen. I don't know.
I like the idea of that. I don't buy it.
There's so many people in between them. No, I don't.
It's like you know that you're going to go see the other starter. I don't know if it's customary or not to go see the backup right away.
I just like the narrative. Now, if it's Carson Wentz, you have to check in in town.
Yeah, you have to. You have to say something.
Just you have to say you know i'm in your city yeah hey jill and that should have been me yeah that would be awesome if he went out to and said that just so you know it should have been me it's probably way better to not even make the super bowl than it is to make the super bowl and get blown out like the chiefs right yes yeah so good job all of us yeah yeah let's plan all along that's what that's what brady was saying he's like no one talks to me about when I've lost an AFC championship I only get talked about the losses In the Super Bowl Super Bowl is the biggest game Massive And shout out Jalen Hurts incredible story Imagine having three Super Bowls in a negative point differential That's embarrassing This is more Hank's Super Bowl than Matt's It is I's. I literally felt like I won the Super Bowl yesterday.
What are you going to say back? I hadn't really thought about how bad it would have been, but after the way they'd lost, I can't really put it in perspective how good it is to win. And I'm happy for Pug.
I'm happy for Max. Hank and I have never been more in lockstep than we are right now.
Absolute boys. What was your worst loss in the Super Bowl, Hank? It probably would have been that one, but the Eagles was...
Wait, you're talking about this year? Yeah, that would have been... This year would have been your worst? Wait, what were you going to say, Max? I don't know.
This is a way more fun conversation than what I was going to say. It would have been...
You guys, it would have been an impossible argument to make, and it would have just been a he said, she said. Actually, I'll ask the question.
Yeah, do it. Ask the question.
Realistically, where do you rank Jalen Hurts as quarterbacks in the NFL right now? Right now, one. Right now.
And I'm ranking it if a team called. Would they do like salaries out?

Take salaries out.

Would the team do a one-for-one trade?

I'd probably rank him.

What if you're drafting?

What if it's the league starts tomorrow?

You have the number one pick.

It's tricky with Jalen Hurts because I think that there's a bunch of quarterbacks that would not do.

A bunch of teams that would not do a one-for-one trade with their quarterback.

But Jalen Hurts is better than them in terms of how he fits in with the eagles i'd probably rank him fifth so like do you think justin herbert do you think the charges would trade i don't think they would but that's bullshit i have no that's bullshit max i don't think they would but i'm saying jalen hurts is a better quarterback jalen hurts it's even close. Justin Herbert is just a regular season merchant, and then as soon as the playoffs, it's exactly what you don't want in a quarterback.
Someone who looks really good in shorts and does bullshit during the regular season, and then as soon as the playoff comes, shits his pants. Jalen Hurts is a complete...
Max, I agree. I'm saying Jalen Hurts is better, but I don't think the Chargers would make that trade.
I don't know. Harbaugh likes fucking winners.
You get a fresh draft. You're number one on the clock.
Every NFL player is available. I would probably.
No, if you're just doing quarterbacks. You're drafting.
Yeah, you're drafting Hurts over Herbert. Do you want to do a draft right now? I would probably make him fourth or fifth.
Does that sound fair? That's fair. That's fair.
I would say top three, but I'm willing to go to top five. It's a combination of Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, maybe Lamar, because obviously the playoffs, he hasn't been good, and then Jalen Hurts.
Like, he's somewhere in there. I think Mahomes and Allen are first.
First two. You would agree.
I think, yeah. Like, Josh Allen and Hurts is above Lamar.
Hurts is above Lamar. You can't.
There's no. Hurts and Lamar have been in the same situation.
Yeah. With both loaded rosters.
Yeah. But Lamar cannot win.
So four? Yeah. Yes.
I'm all right with that. Four is okay for you.
Four I'm okay with. Okay.
I'd have him six. Who's your.
Who's your. I don't know.
I don't know. It's a mystery.
It's a mystery. I'm going to do a mystery top five, and then I've got – Yeah, I got hurt six.
It's a compliment. Six is high.
There was a nice straight Hank just saying, Alan is number one. You are – It's – He's – Mahomes should retire.
Yeah, stop Hank. DeAndre Hopkins retired.
He's already dead. Tough way for DeAndre Hopkins to go out complaining about the refs and then be like, I'm retired.
Wait, was that not a fake Schefter account? Oh, it was? Oh, I got got that. I think you got Adam Scheffler.
Oh, okay. I just saw DeAndre Hopkins retired, so yeah, I guess I got Adam Scheffler.
He did not retire? Other people? Oh, there it is. Yep, that's fake.
I got caught. All right.
So he hasn't retired. He might retire.
Oh, yeah. Aaron.
Yeah. Have you seen Jerry's trying to get Aaron Rodgers to the Steelers? Yep.
Hard. Raji.
Hard. Raji.
Okay. Should we do Hot Seat Cool Throne? Let's do Hot Seat Cool Trone.
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Hank, Hot Seat Cool Throne. My Hot Seat was going to be C.J.
Garner Johnson, but we discussed that. Still tough to kind of come out of your Super Bowl hangover with the Swifties on your ass.
They're not going away. Is it his mom that has that restaurant? I believe so.
Yeah, that's tough. Or like someone in his inner circle um the other thing i was just laughing at thinking how you know crazy for tradition is is the super bowl like seeing jalen hurts at disney world and we should have sent max or pug to disney world instead of home because like that's got to be the most miserable experience of all time yeah what disney world they have to go to disney world at like 6 a.m yeah but they fly private they just go to a couple i mean the tron ride looked sick and they've got beers at disney world yeah i guess the tron ride was awesome i was more just thinking like max's state and if he had to just yeah well max i think jalen hurts going to disney world like flying private there cutting every single line getting to do some roller coasters and going home it's not that bad max yeah if we had sent max maybe it sent max and like my kids and then like max you have to go and take my three kids to disney world if we sent pug pug wearing the the mickey mouse series would be very yeah yeah look at the tron ride how sick does that look yeah you're like sitting forward i want to do the tron ride yeah going on that hungover would be the worst yeah uh and then my cool throne is just john gruden i don't think i mean we didn't really talk about it that much on friday and we were kind of in the middle of super bowl week last week but coming out of it i've spent so much time just thinking about john gruden i miss john gruden I miss him so much.
We have a crazy, surreal job, and we have moments all the time where it's kind of like, pinch me, how is this happening? But going away from Super Bowl week and just being like the amount of time we spent with John Gruden and how just unbelievably legendary of a guy he is off camera, on camera, and just the fact that he just hangs with the... It'll be on PMTV, I think, were we had a dumb debate with him for like an hour and a half like he was max he's he's the best i i miss him you spent like the week in his house too yeah yeah no i would wake up and he would just be sitting there taking notes and like give me a quiz when i would wake up and i just like what's going on he's always pumped yeah john gruden is the most pumped individual i've ever hung out with in my life.
I tease this at the end of the gambling stream, but I think I successfully talked John Gruden into coming for the first two days of March Madness, which I'm already just so pumped for. I was like, do you watch college ball? He's like, yeah, I like any sports.
I was like, do you want to come gamble with us for two days? He's like, I'd be into that. Fuck yes.
He's always fired up. Yeah.
So yeah, I miss him i miss him i just miss him same the only thing that really pisses him off is when people in the room are not adequately fired up yeah he likes to have energy in the room yeah and he much like coach missoula like and that's i think just a trait of a good coach like i you just makes you want to be a better person what are you you going to say, Max? Well, it's Hank.

Hank is the one that he gets mad at for not having him.

Being fired up.

You do need to bring the juice.

No, I know.

He makes me want to be a better person.

He makes me want to bring the juice.

He makes me want to just go hard.

So are you going to be a better person?

I'm going to try for now that I know he's watching.

I mean, Missoula is the same way where it's like,

now that I've been blessed to meet him and be in his presence,

I want to be better for him. How can you be better disappointed i can try harder i can go harder that's kind of higher that's kind of hurtful isn't it what like hank has never considered trying to be better for us yeah it's true no you guys for this show for us for you guys are like me no he just what do you mean i want it i'm sharpens iron i want to i want to stay sharp for PFT.
You think we're lethargic? No, but like... What? We go hard.
Damn. You're not coaches.
Yeah, but like what... Like I prep for this show and get ready for this show knowing that PFT is going to do the same.
Your motivation is being mean to me. No, no, no.
But I want to bring my A game because I know PFT will bring his. Excellence brings out excellence.
You have never once thought I want to. I'm talking about in life.
Yeah, but this show is our life. Right, but John Gruden's not around you for your life.
He's around you when you're working. I get hard for you guys.
Thank you, Max. Max gets real hard for us.
I'm always hard for you guys. That's my hardest boy.
It's okay. We just can't we can't bring out of you what Missoula and Gruden did.
It's fine. It just hurts.
I just said it was hurtful. I didn't say that you're wrong.
I just said it hurtful. Some people in this world are self-starters.
Yeah. And they don't need somebody to grab them by the face mask and tell them what to do.
Other people need to have their hands held.

And that's okay.

Yeah, I mean, I guess that's fair.

That's a fair point.

Broke his fucking face.

Do we need to get harder on you?

It's not like getting hard.

He's not hard on me.

It's just his energy.

That was when we were having a tight end debate on Barstool Radio.

And Cruden was like, Gronk broke someone's face. And I was like, what? He did? I think he did.
I think he broke his neck in half. Kyle Vandenbosch? Yeah.
Yeah, he did. He's like, he broke his face.
Yeah. Gruden was like, I like that guy, but he broke his neck off.
He broke his face. The only other thing that I was curious about was exactly how the gumbo finished.
How did you finish that? I finished 15 gumbos on the last night. That's my guy.
What did you do? Hey, can I ask you a question about the gumbos? Did you need Gruden or Joe Mazzula to tell you to do that? I did it all on my own. Wow.
I said I was going to do it, and then I followed through because you set a goal, then you hit it. That's how that's how you feel good about yourself love that about it's good to check shit off the list uh i do regret doing the gumbo bet just because oh not a bet a challenge the gumbo challenge just because it made me miss out on so many other good foods that i could have eaten in new orleans that i would have loved to have had uh but yeah i'd finish it up with two gumbos at dinner on friday night and uh, then just went to see Ludacris.
Pretty good show. Left before John Summit.
Sorry, John. Disrespectful.
Embrace debate. Jack McCarthy's going to enough John Summit for all of us in this room.
Embrace debate. Is it disrespectful to Ludacris to have him open up for John Summit? John Summit's pretty big now.
Me and PFT were having this debate all weekend. Ludacris might not be as hot right now as John Summit.
I think he's got like 20 more. Might not be.
Well, he's you act like Ludacris is fucking chopped liver, Max. Bring up their monthly streams on Spotify.
No, no, no. Don't do that.
Don't do that. I'm telling you that John Summit is better is him right now.
And it's by a good margin. But Luda still does very well.
Luda's been doing this shit for 25 years. He's in Fast and Furious.
He's a megastar. A little disrespectful to Ludacris, even though John Summit is harder, right? PFT was getting mad at us for saying we're going to the John Summit concert, not the Ludacris concert.
Ludacris show. How many songs in the booth does anyone know by Ludacris? Total.
Well, Max came up to me during the show and was like, I'm sorry for disrespecting Ludacris. He's got bands.
I love Luda, but it shows your age, I think. Well, no, it also just shows that John Summit is much newer and Ludacris has been doing it for 25 years.
Talk to me in 15 years and let me know how hot John Summit is. I agree with that.
Ludacris has more longevity. Yeah.
All right, your cool drone? That was your cool drone. Your hot seat PFT? My hot seat is pitchers and catchers.
They're reporting. Yeah.
I think the Cubs are there. The Cubs are the first to report.
The Dodgers are there first to report. I just remember watching part of the interruption when I was a kid growing up, and the first show after the Super Bowl would always be Tony talking about the beautiful cyclical nature of sports.
Yep. We lose one, and we get rebirth.
Yep. And so baseball's back.
Baseball's so back. Baseball's officially back.
We'll do our baseball preview in probably september when we do dingers only when dingers only yeah uh but yeah they're they're reporting right now and then why pitchers and catchers go there first and then everybody else just shows up all at once yeah they don't hang out like with the pitchers and catchers i think pitchers and catchers got to get a nice jump start just weirdos down there warming up their arms long toss do they just do long toss for a week and then everyone else shows up and then i think they just do uh like plays to first that's a pitcher yeah yeah that's always the first video yeah it's just like them running covering first base yeah and then like in that's what makes the garrett cole thing even funnier yeah in the world series in july sometime there will be a ground out like a dribbler back to the pitcher. And I'll just be like, that's the first thing they work on in spring training.
Which also means that we're going to get some pictures through chain link fences from reporters where they're standing like 300 yards away. The blurriest pictures of all time being like, look, baseball's back.
Baseball's back. There's Shohei.
My cool throne is is big men random big men are back because we've entered the stage of the NBA season where the Lakers don't have a big man and so now people are just going on TV and saying the names of random big men who could fill in to play for the Los Angeles Lakers even though maybe some of them have been out of the league for like four years. Yes.
So Stephen A. Smith was making the case for Dwight Howard today, coming back.
Okay. I am in support of that just because it would be very funny.
Yes. But I don't think he's very good at basketball.
No. But I feel like he stays in shape.
He probably does, but he's one of those guys that looks in shape, but he probably doesn't have any of the skills that he once had. Yeah.
Like, he looks ripped. It's kind of like a T.O.
Remember when T.O. 10 years after was still ripped, and then he would run a 40 and be like, oh, yeah, that's the difference.
The speed's not there anymore. So I'm going to say some other big men.
Okay. Blake Griffin.
Love it. Who says no to Blake Griffin? Blake Griffin.

Blake Griffin says no.

You don't think Blake Griffin.

By the way, show him Blake Griffin.

Awesome.

Five fouls.

Awesome commercial.

Red Lobster commercial.

You see him dunking?

Yeah.

He's dunking everything.

Spencer Hawes.

Yes.

Done.

Bring him back.

But yeah, the Lakers need a center.

So you can just say anybody, any tall man.

Be like, yeah, I can see him get out there, give you some fouls. Get him get out there give you some fouls big perk perk perk caught a stray not really stray like instantly perk caught a shotgun blast from kd over the weekend yeah kd was not so happy about everything well perk perk is the guy that like the further away he gets from playing the better he was oh yeah and i love perk i'll listen him talk about anything.
But he was like, yeah, I was a leader of that team. And kid, he's like, this is the most ridiculous thing I've heard said online this whole week.
Yes. Yes.
Okay. My hot seat is Glenn Taylor because A-Rod and Mark Laurie have become official governors, or they at least won the arbitration to be governors.
Wait, what does it say? Lay off the burgers, Wendy. 35 minutes ago, that's it.
Oh, Dwight Howard said lay off the burgers, Wendy. Well, I saw Stephen A.
Smith bring it up and say, like, what about Dwight Howard? And Wendy was like, yeah, no, Dwight Howard's not going to play. He's about to go into the Hall of Fame.
He's not going to come back and play. He's not in playing shape.
Lay off the burgers, Wendy. Me.
DeMarcus Cousins is a great one for that conversation. Oh, Boogie? Yeah.
Boogie could definitely get back out there. Zach Randolph? I saw Zach Randolph.
No. The lay off the burgers, Wendy.
No, I think this is... Windhorse said, like, basically scoffed at the fact that Dwight Howard would come back.
And Dwight Howard might be saying that because he's going to come back. What? So you're saying that Stephen A.
Smith was right. Windhorse couldn't believe...
Yeah, he's being mean, though. Windhorse couldn't believe that Stephen A.
Smith suggested the Lakers could sign Dwight Howard. Like, he's saying that Dwight Howard's retired.
He's not capable of coming back. Right.
But then we follow that. So then Dwight Howard's saying, lay off the burgers, Wendy, meaning he's offended that Windhorse thinks he couldn't come back.
Yes. Right.
Dwight Howard's. But now Hank is taking that one step further and saying it's because Dwight is coming back that he took it so seriously.
No, he's just being mean to Wendy. Yeah, I thought Windhorse said, Dwight Dwight Howard's coming back, and he said, lay off the burgers.
No, I'm not. No, he's just saying Wendy's fat.
But if you're Dwight Howard and you're sitting at home and you hear Stephen A. Smith mention your name, you think about it.
Yeah. Stephen A.
Smith's probably going to be president. That's true.
We're just going to do that all the time. I think so.
Either way, A-Rod and Mark Lurie are official governors of the Timberwolves also hot seat court storming because now the football is over. We're just going to have this debate at any point.
Did you guys see Vanderbilt actually doing a new rule where they do a minute timeout after the game? So lame. Wait, what do you mean? They pause.
They basically, if Vandy has a big upset at home,

they pause everything for a minute after the game ends,

and then the kids are allowed to storm the court.

Oh, so they're giving him a constructive school-approved way.

Yes.

They set up points of entrance for them.

It's Tim Wood's double consent.

Soon you're going to have to buy an extra ticket to storm the court afterwards. Yeah.
Yeah. So, and then my cool throne is Lane Kiffin because he's just embracing the fact that his daughter's hot.
I don't know if you guys saw, but he just tweeted out an article. Lane Kiffin's daughter, Landry Slay's tiny shoestring crop top standing next to dad.
He tweeted the article. So shout out Lanein yeah i mean he's just hitting it face on you know i guess so like here it is i mean you might as well just embrace it instead of fight it yeah it's better than being like if you were to tweet out my daughter's ugly yeah which one would you rather have yeah you just be like hey here it is oh oh max i got a stat for you that i i'm looking at my

bookmarks right now you ready for this one you like this one if nick sirianni goes six and 11 and misses the playoffs for the next four years in a row he will have just as many wins just as many playoff appearances just as many super bowl appearances and one more super bowl title in his first eight years than Kyle Shannon has in his.

Look at that. just as many Super Bowl appearances and one more Super Bowl title in his first eight years than Kyle Shanahan has in his.

Look at that.

That's just facts.

Those are facts.

I said it to you.

I know.

Right.

But you're doing good.

Oh, I also brought the boot.

I was meaning to show that when I first came in.

It smells horrendous.

Yeah.

But you have to save it for next year, right?

It might be. Do you think it's – Would you put it on for a Phillies run? No, you can't.
It's got to be just birds, right? Yeah, you don't want to overuse it. I think.
And then it runs out of power. That might be your must-win boot.
Yeah. No, but then I'm going to be put into situations of...
If it loses. Yeah, I think it's just playoffs.

Just playoffs.

Just playoffs.

Playoffs for the Eagles.

Because then you're going to use that against me.

No.

No, we've never.

What are you talking about?

Just playoff.

It's a playoff.

Max is getting a lot better at sniffing these things out.

He's a winner now.

That's the entire thing we're trying to do there.

He's a winner.

Didn't sniff out McCarthy, though.

No.

Doing fake ads.

What?

No.

Oh, still doesn't know. Yeah.
Oh, those are fake? They're fake. No.
Doing fake ads. What? No.
Oh, still doesn't know.

Yeah.

Oh, those are fake?

Yeah.

What do you mean?

He was having to do fake ads to make you do more shoeies out of the boot.

Did not know that.

That's the first I'm hearing of that.

Did you text him to do that?

No, he did it on his own.

I think he actually, I don't think those were fake. No, they were fake were fake he texted us being like i'm making him do a bunch of fake ads that's not true you can listen to monday's part of my take when we say it on air and then we played the ads dove is real truly wasn't needed got it he did call me he goes oh is there cta just hung out.
Oh, yeah. No, yeah.
Meaning like he was just proving he was going to call someone to pretend that it was real. He did a very good job.
Yeah. Very funny.
Hank, do you have any advice for Max about how to establish a dynasty and what this offseason is going to need to look like to continue this run? No, you've got to soak it in. Now you has kind of been a little bit scared always worried always you know not confident now you now that you're the champions you have to just be confident like you have to just be a cocky asshole wait it's it's playoff time wake me up when the playoffs start no matter what happens next year on this show lose a couple regular season games they start trying to get you trolling about sirianni or jalen hurts as he washed is he the guy wake me up when the playoffs start i don't think i got that in my bag i don't think i had no he's gonna live and die with every game uh okay let's get to our interviews we got adam silver and then we have joe burrow as we progress through the season every fan knows that big wins are hard to come by and tough losses are even harder to accept.
But you know what isn't hard to accept? Discover. Believe it or not, Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide.
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WWE 2K25, available now. Here he is, Commissioner Adam Silver.
okay we we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest. It is NBA Commissioner Adam Silver ahead of the NBA All-Star Game weekend in San Francisco.
Mr. Commissioner, is that, should we call you Mr.
Commissioner? We've never had a commissioner on before. Paul Rabel.
Yeah, that's true. Yeah.
Second commissioner. Yeah.
I know, Paul. Adam, please.
Okay. So, Adam, thank you so much for joining us.
I have to ask, because we're very excited for this interview, what was the sell process for you to come on this show? Did someone have to tell you, like, hey, these guys actually aren't the worst? Because I can't believe you're on. We're excited to interview you.
Well, I went to law school in Chicago. Okay.
I worked in Washington, D.C. for years.
So I know you guys are D.C. and Chicago guys.
That was a big part of the selling point of coming on. And you guys are fun to watch and listen to.
You guys do an incredible job. I appreciate it.
Also, one of our producers is a big Duke fan. Basically went to Duke.
Yeah. Yeah, you've got connections everywhere on the show.
Yeah, that helps. Yeah.
All right, so All-Star Weekend. How are we feeling going into All-Star Weekend? I know you have tried to tinker with the All-Star Game to make it better for fans.
How do we feel going into this one? I'm feeling good about it i mean one i love the bay area you know obviously four championships there since since i've been commissioner so spent a lot of time in the market and multiple finals appearances beyond that um beautiful new arena in san francisco uh a new format that we've talked a lot about you know where know, in essence, working with the Players Association, we came up with this format where it's, in essence, around Robin, you know, games to 40, then a championship. So I think that's going to be really exciting for the fans.
And I also, for us, you know, as important as the game itself is, it becomes the epicenter of the basketball world for that weekend. It's essentially, you know, Friday, Saturday and Sunday of events, community events in Oakland and San Francisco.
Opportunity to see old friends. I've been with the league for a long time.
And when you have a neutral site finals, you can't plan to gather there. So essentially people who've been in business for us for a long time can mark their calendars, you know, be in the Bay Area.
Our international partners can all be there as well. So it's sort of a three-day long celebration of the game.
And that for me is the best part about the whole long weekend. When did you come to the decision that the format of the All-Star game had to be changed? Was there one moment in the game last year where you're like, that's it, I can't go back? I think it was when I was presenting the championship trophy on the floor at the end of last year's All-Star game.
I think everybody was incredibly disappointed, at least speaking for the fans, the league office. It wasn't what we had hoped for.
And then once I had an opportunity to talk to the players afterwards, I think they acknowledged as well, whatever happened, once they got out there, there wasn't any real competition. This was in Indianapolis, Larry Bird had talked to the team in advance.
Julius Irving had others. We thought we'd all come together with something that we thought would be effective.
It obviously wasn't. I think then, post-All-Star game, talking to several of the players, the perennial All-Stars who we knew would be back, we said, look, we just got to do a better job for the fans.
We recognize that you just can't turn the clock back. You know, obviously the NFL and Pro Bowl went to flag football.
Baseball's made something, done some changes to tweak their All-Star game. So I said, what can we do to make this exciting and entertaining for the fans? And this is how we came up with this new format.
Yeah. I got a really dumb question for you, but we're not the smartest guys.
What exactly does a commissioner do day to day? What does your job look like day to day? Because I just would imagine it's just like watching the games and then waiting for someone to text you being like, we got a problem. That's the evening part of my job.
Okay. The day part, it's more like a standard business job in many ways than people would think.
I mean, you've got 30 teams, of course. We've got the WNBA we're overseeing as well, the G League.
We have a league in Africa now. We're looking at opportunities in Europe.
So part of it is planning for the future. Another aspect of it is just regulating this league.
There's constantly things happening with teams, business decisions they're making that if you want to make sure everything's unified as a league that you have to coordinate among the many teams. We have what I was mentioning before about people coming together in the Bay Area.
We have literally hundreds of business partners, you know, licensees who produce our products, broadcast partners, media partners who distribute our games, you know, more traditional sponsors like Pepsi and Amex and Gatorade and companies like that. And so a lot of it's on the relationship side, continuing to build those relationships with our partners, negotiating deals with them, helping to plan for the future.
It's also, we're a huge enterprise in terms of our budgets. And so I think more, that's the part where it's more like a standard job.
Like we have thousands of employees and we have an HR department, a legal department, a marketing department. So also just bringing all those people together and doing my best I can, along with other

colleagues, just try to lead this enterprise.

Do you spend any time in your day-to-day searching your name online?

Because I think you are probably one of the people that gets the most unsolicited advice.

You know, I don't need to search because people seek me out.

And so it comes through emails. It comes through people forwarding me things that other people are saying.
We have our own communications department here who's sending me things. And in all seriousness, I actually find it very helpful because if you work in an industry where you're so closely covered and you have fans and a section of the newspaper devoted to you, that you get a lot of unsolicited ideas.
And so, one, I think when you look at things we've done over the last several years, the play-in tournament, the in-season tournament now known as the NBA Cup, all those ideas came from initially outside of the league. And that's sort of, it's a question of processing those ideas.
And also there's, understandably, fans want changes. Some, you know, you get criticism, you get, you know, people feel good about certain things we're doing.
But I think it's my job to do the best I can to incorporate a lot of that feedback. And incidentally, when you have 30 teams, 450 players on the NBA side, I mean, part of my job is hearing directly from players.
You know, I've been at the league for a long time. So when players are coming through New York and playing the Knicks or the Nets, often they'll stop by the office.
And in those one-on-one conversations, I can get a better sense from them, you know, how they see the league. Also, our players are also the age in many cases of our core demographics.
So I'm always interested in how a 26- old player is consuming the NBA. Are you watching games on your phone? What what, you know, social media sites are you on? What podcasts like yours are they watching? So that's very helpful.
And again, and it's not just owners of 30 teams. You have team presidents and GMs and coaches.
So lots of different constituent groups that are constantly, you know, providing feedback to the, to, to the league office and sharing information with, and that adage has never been more true that two heads are better than one. And I just find that like part of my job is to be a good listener and get advice from others.
And then, then somehow filter that advice and figure out what's in the best interest of the league. What's the, what's the dumbest idea that has gone from, okay, that's dumb idea, to like, all right, we should actually think about this.
Maybe it never even happened, but you at least paused and said, hey, just look at this for a second. You know, last time I got that question on a show like this, it was a question that came from Dan Patrick.
It was, what's the wildest idea you've gotten? And I said 10-minute quarters, and I've been to questions about 10 minute quarters ever since. So I'm gonna be really careful how I answer this question.
I mean, I'd say, you know, people have raised the issue around the size of the court and the height of the basket. Like that's one.
I think there've been various times along the way. I mean, it's interesting now that there's so much discussion about three-point shooting.
You guys probably remember, you know, it was a while ago, but maybe, God, time flies. So more sort of in the mid-90s and later where there was a lot of criticism around the game because people thought it had become too physical in the game.
There was too much activity under the basket and that the players weren't as skilled as they used to be and that they'd lost the art of shooting. And so, you know, and at that time, you know, where there seemed to be a prevalence of dunking, the thought was it's too easy to dunk.
Yeah. I've always said that.
It's quite remarkable then jump ahead till now where there's a lot of discussion around whether the players are frankly too skilled, that three-point shooting has become so dominant and that the level of difficulty, in essence, isn't high enough on some of those shots.

So, you know, I can't say we ever seriously considered either, you know, raising the height of the basket or widening the court.

But those are issues that have come up over the years.

I also think, you know, I'm trying to think of a particular example.

I know that a lot of marketing ideas, I got one, you know, that I remember when teams first brought to the league, the idea that we would put a brand on the uniform itself. You know, and I remember at the time when we first discussed that people said, and I wasn't commissioner yet when we first did that, David Stern was commissioner, but I was running the business side and people said I can't believe you're gonna make our players look like NASCAR you know cars etc whatever and I think that's become very accepted you know I think we did it in a fairly classy way it's a relatively small logo you know on the team jerseys but that not only has added a lot of value to the league but for those companies that choose to put their logos on team uniforms, they become that much more engaged in the league.
They're that much more incentivized to promote the league. And so it sort of becomes, you know, a virtuous circle of sort of promotion around it.
So a few of those things, I think, you know, even looking at, I remember back in the day in the nineties, early nineties now, when the continuous score clock was first proposed. I remember Dick Ebersole, still a close friend, was the executive producer, the president of NBC Sports.
He opposed that idea, you know, both for football and basketball. It's almost unimaginable to watch a sporting event now and think you've got to wait, you know, for however many minutes till the director decides, you know, to show you the score again.
But remember in those days, I mean, the initial idea was, no, we don't want to show a continuous score because if people tune in and they see it's a 10 point game or whatever, they'll tune out. And it took a long time.
And again, that's one of those conventions. It's almost unimaginable now to watch a game where you can't see the score at any moment.
And my sense is there's, I think, a lot's about to change on the production side. I mean, as games are shifting from what I would call traditional television, call that broadcaster cable to streaming, it creates all these new opportunities, all these new capabilities of the streamers because of interactivity to do new things on the screens.
And I think, you know, like, like, for example, I understand the criticism now from people who don't like to see sports betting information during games, whether it's because they don't want it personally or they don't want their kids to be able to see it. I think we're not that far away.
We're just going to go click. And if you don't want any information about sports betting, you won't have to look at it.
On the other hand, if you're someone in a state where it's illegal and you can get a bet on sports, you'll see a lot more information if that's what you want. So I think things will become much more customized over time.
Yeah. That was a very thoughtful, nuanced answer.
And the main takeaway is that Adam Silver has considered raising the basket and extending the three-point line. So in the past, you've thought about it.
Your thought has crossed your mind.

Here I go. Yeah.
I fell for it the second time. Listen, just throwing this out there, like in baseball, every park is different.
You know, the Yankee Stadium, they got the short porch. Have you thought about home teams getting to decide their own dimensions? So, like, you go to Detroit and they've got eight- rims you go to you go to you go to see play the Warriors and they've got uh they've extended their three-point line by three feet so every game is different it's like oh we got to go play here they're playing on 14 foot rims that'd be fun I I definitely can make some news with my answer to that one I I would say so so no for the record I haven't thought about that but it is an interesting comparison you know i will say just because you mentioned baseball talking about rule changes i'm i'm a huge baseball fan and i'm a big change a big fan i'm sorry of the changes that they've made yeah like i think you know the pitch clock you know slightly enlarging the bases to make stealing easier and stuff like that like i i've looked at those you know, and we've talked about that at the league office and with our competition committee.
And when I think the most traditional in my mind of all sports, you know, the most resistant to change, the fact that they're making changes in that, in that sport to keep up with the times, I'm not sure, you know, different basket heights and different arenas is the answer, but I think it just means we have to stay on our toes and be open-minded about potential changes by the way just want to correct one thing uh technically you have thought about changing the rims and the because we literally were just discussing it so we'll put that out there we incepted you have you have technically thought of it just through this conversation we got you there yeah so have you ever do you ever hang out with other commissioners you know and just be like, commissioner to commissioner, here's something I'm thinking about? A little bit. I don't know if they would describe it as hanging out, but I used to, when I first got to the NBA in the 90s, Gary Bettman still worked here.
Yeah. Before he went to the NHL.
He worked for David Stern at the NBA. So, and we've stayed close over the years.
Roger Goodell and I, I knew him well even before he became commissioner, when Paul Tagliabue was commissioner. And he's been great.
When I remember the first thing when it was announced I was commissioner, Roger was actually one of the first people to reach out to me and said, you know, anything I can share with you, anything that would be helpful with you. So we're obviously competitors in certain ways.
But I think we're all fellow travelers trying to help each other think this notion that, you know, a rising tide raises all boats, that it's what's good for premium professional sports. It's good for all of us.
Same with Rob Manfred. I think I became commissioner right before he did.
And we've compared notes on a lot of issues over the years. Again, as I said, I'm a big baseball fan.
He's invited me over the years to a bunch of different events that I've been to with him. I've been to Yankee games here in New York with him.
So, yeah, we all talk to each other. I mean, everybody's running around slightly different seasons.
So we don't get to spend that much time together. But they're all great guys.
There's some battles and some problems that only a fellow commissioner might understand. I'm sure that you go through.
Hypothetically, not talking about anything in specific, but hypothetically, do you have anything that's in place where you could potentially deny a trade? If like a team wanted to send a superstar to another team and maybe the return value on that superstar was not what would generally be expected. You talking about Kyle Kuzma? Yeah.
So I'm a, I'm a wizard, I'm a Wizards fan, and we just sent Kuzma. No, believe it or not.
And there's some confusion. People have yelled out to me for some reason in the last week or so when I've been at games that I should be vetoing that trade the way David Stern vetoed a trade back in the old days.
And there's always some confusion there. David never vetoed a trade that when he was the acting owner of New Orleans and the commissioner at the time that he turned down a trade that was proposed to him by the general manager of the team.

But no, I mean, the way we don't put a thumb on the scale, so to speak, that when a trade comes into the league office, what our sort of basketball and legal folks do is they make sure that that trade works under the confines of the collective bargaining agreement and whatever rules are in place. And then it's up or down.
It gets approved or not based on those rules. We don't get to weigh in on what we think the merits of the trade are or should be.
Gotcha. I am going to miss Kuzma.
Big Cat's right. That broke my heart.
Did you at least text like, are you sure? No. Okay.
Honestly, let's level. You were probably like, oh, Luka's going to L.A.
Huge market. That's cool.
You know, honestly, and I promise, you know, look at the league right now. That two clearly smaller market teams, certainly Oklahoma City, and Cleveland's a little bigger than Oklahoma City, but not one of the bigger markets in the league, are the two best records in the league right now.
And I think it's great. You know, we've had six different champions over the last six years.
And, you know, this may sound obvious, but I want all our teams to do well and be competitive. And frankly, Dallas is a big market.
And so, you know, was I surprised that he was traded from that standpoint? Yeah, I'm a fan. And the teams don't necessarily give the league inside information on those kinds of things.
So that trade was, you know, it wasn't one that I saw coming. And by the way, I love Luca.
I've known him since the day he came into the league. He's obviously a great player.
He's a great young man. And teams make these trades for reasons that in some cases only they know.
They have inside information about a player. They're living with a player.
They have a particular style they want to play. They have a vision for what that team should become.
And truly only time will tell tell. I mean, the one thing I'll say, I haven't been with this league for a long time.
Like, truly nothing is written. People who say they can predict the future generally can't.
And we'll see. I'm sort of rooting for Dallas and I'm rooting for the Lakers.
I'm rooting for Anthony Davis to recover quickly and be the all-star we know he can be and stay healthy for a long time. And I'm rooting for luca to demonstrate to the world what a great player he is in la okay so we shouldn't come to adam silver for grading of trades because we like to in sports media like to just grade trades instantly and say that we're right and we know the future you have your job and i have my job your job is to grade it's my job is to make sure they comply rules.
Yeah. You mentioned David Stern.
I didn't realize this, but you got into the NBA by writing a letter to a bunch of different people asking for advice. And David Stern was one of those people who actually responded.
Is that true? Because that's a very cool story. It is true.
So I was practicing law in New York, just had only been a lawyer for a few years, and decided I wanted to do something different. I'm still happy I went to law school.
It's been very helpful to me over the years. But I wrote David a letter.
This is pre-internet, where you wrote letters and mailed them. And I actually was looking for advice.
It wasn't so much that I thought I wanted to work at the NBA. And I'm always telling young people this story because it's so different these days where you can go on the internet and find out all kinds of information about the NBA and what happens in the legal office.
And there's all these sites where they rate people's jobs and they talk about whether they think they're fairly compensated and all that. I was seeing none of that existed in those days.
And so David was someone who had worked at a law firm in New York before he had made the transition. He came over to the NBA as the general counsel before he was the commissioner.
But I wrote him a letter saying, I'm also a lawyer in New York. I'd be interested in making the transition.
I wasn't so sure that it would be to a sports league. And in fact, at the time, I worked for a law firm that was representing HBO, and I was fascinated with the media business.
And David at that time had recently done some of the initial cable deals where it was the early days of TBS, and he'd done a broadcast deal. Ted Turner was also an owner of the Atlanta Hawks and he had done a deal with Ted Turner and put NBA games on TBS.
And because I was doing a lot of work for HBO, David Stern's name kept coming up in the context of media. So I wrote him a letter saying, you know, I'm interested in making this transition.
If you ever had time, I'd love to meet you and talk to you. I'd actually met him once before he had worked at one point, the same law firm as my father.
I didn't really know David, but the sort of letter began, I am the son of such and such and hoping that that, you know, would sort of build a bridge to him. He, I remember his, he called me, you know, and I think in those days too, you were used to sending a letter and not hearing back for, you know cases weeks it was just everything moved at a different pace he his assistant called me at some point and said um he'd like to schedule time with you and my office was in new york city i mean where i am today in the nba office is the same place as we were in early 90s when dave was commissioner and i was just across town And again, like everything moved slower.
It was like, you freed two weeks from Tuesday or whatever. And I came and saw him and he gave me some advice about how I might transition out of law.
That's what I was interested in doing in some media advice. And then I'll condense the story because I've already been long winded.
At some point, he reached back out to me and said, there's something I'd like to talk to you about. And it turned out he was looking for an assistant.
And he ultimately hired me. And my first job at the NBA was special assistant to the commissioner.
Worked for David. I was 30 years old.
So 32 years ago, I came to work here and then worked as an assistant, then became chief of staff, I mentioned. And I then went to what was the entertainment side of the business, ran a division called MBA Entertainment for years, deputy commissioner.
And so this is my sixth job being commissioner. So I worked my way up the ladder.
Wow. That's awesome.
Very cool that he took the time to do that. Yeah.
Very, very cool. Yeah, no, it was, by the way, I have to say, I mean, you know, David changed my life in so many ways.
And I had five different jobs before I was commissioner, all of them working for David. And I sort of would joke to people, even when I was the deputy commissioner, my job was still the special assistant.
Right. And I mean, you guys, everybody is, you know, you may have had a chance to meet him over the years.
I mean, he was full of life. He was a genius when it came to sports marketing.
I think as much credit as he gets, maybe not enough for transforming the whole industry, not just the NBA, just everybody's approach. Even I remember when I came to work at the NBA, I mean, he was the first person who really thought of the NBA as a brand, you know, as a brand marketer, even though his background was as a lawyer.
I mean, now it's just a given that NBA is a brand, MLB, NHL, NFL, obviously, you know, but it's like he had a whole different way, a whole different vocabulary of approaching sports. And also I think about how

much of my time now I spend on growing the game globally. I mean, David was so far ahead of his

time. And when I got to the NBA in 92, you know, shortly thereafter, it was the dream team.

And, you know, which also transformed the NBA. I mean, one interesting statistic at the time that I got to the NBA, roughly 5% of the players in the league were born outside the United States.
Now it's around 30%. You know, when you mentioned Luka or Giannis, you know, go down to Wemby, you know, now, you know, the Joker are very best players.
Many of them are born outside the United States now. And that pool of players, I mean, just you got a chance to watch some of the Olympics out of Paris, a U.S.-Serbia game or the U.S.-France game.
You know, there's so much high-level basketball being played around the world. And David really had that vision that this could truly be a global game.
Yeah, that's very cool. Well, while we have you here, I just want to give you a piece of unsolicited advice for me and take it for what you will.
But I think a lot of people agree with me. One of the most frustrating things to watch in the NBA, and I love watching basketball, but this is very frustrating when players are obviously flopping and embellishing fouls.
Is it in consideration to make embellishment flopping, reviewable, technical foul, cut and dry? Don't do it because it's tough to watch on TV. Well, so, you know, it was only a year ago or two years ago, we added the ability to call a technical in-game, you know, for flopping.
So that was a change in rules, a new rule that we did, you know, modeled a little bit after the FIBA rules, the international basketball rules. And we have a provision where we do review after the fact.
Obviously, we want finality in the game, so we're not going to go back and change scores or anything. But guys can be fined after the fact.
And at least according to our own, you know, sort of reviews of the games, we've cut back considerably on flopping. It's still, I will say that, you know, for my European colleagues, European friends, you know, there's a tradition in European soccer, global soccer of flopping.
It was sort of, to me, brought to the NBA stylistically by a lot of the international players. A lot of them grew up as soccer players.
We've tried to crack down on it. You know, it's, again, I think we've made progress.
My sense is that as various forms of replay get better and get faster, you know, look, the problem is, by definition, you're fooling the ref. And if you get away with it, you know, especially in real time, all you can do after the fact is potentially find the players.
But, you know, and I think you said it, it's the embellishment is the hardest because now they're teaching in youth basketball is, you know, you want to demonstrate to the officials, at least the way they're taught, is to embellish so that the official clearly sees. So, you know, you're often seeing somebody shoved and they're going flying backwards.
And then so the official in real time and I understand, too, you know, you know, player frustration, fan frustration. Sometimes with the officiating, we're doing everything you can to make it better.
But I when I watch the the officials it's remarkable to me what they can

do in real time i mean when you think in a split second and the speed of the game to making those calls and then add flopping on top of that or embellishment that they're supposed to be able to discern the difference and you know the the amount of force that's going into a push and the reaction from the players i i i will say that that you know, the changes in technology will help us there.

I mean, just shifting slightly doesn't go directly to flopping. But, you know, guys are constantly trying to fool the officials when who did it touch last? You know, they're pointing and et cetera.
That we're not that far away from having technology where, just like you think in tennis, where there's an automated call

as to whether the ball was inside the line

or outside the line. where just like you think in tennis, where there's an automated call

as to whether the ball was inside the line

or outside the line.

You know, it's this technology called Hawkeye.

It's owned by Sony.

We're working with Sony also

to bring that to basketball

so that whoever's, you know,

think there's a hundred fingers on the floor

at any given time, various body parts,

you know, to instantaneously show who the ball went out on, you know, if somebody's foot was on the line, anything that can be objectively determined, goaltending, et cetera. And I think that will allow, so one, there'll be a whole category of calls that will be objectively right or wrong, but, and, and will speed up the game from that standpoint.
And, but just as, for those more subjective calls, the officials won't have to both be looking at somebody's feet to see if they touch the line and their hands at the same time. They can really focus on what is truly subjective.
And I think we'll be able to do a better job sort of discerning whether there's some kind of embellishment going on. So if the standard is perfection, we've got a long ways to go, but I think we've made improvements there.
Have you thought about maybe making the standard not perfection? And I say that in that I think you've talked about this before. The review system, games slow down at the end.
It's a really hard watch for people, and we want to watch the action. What about just doing a week where there's no reviews and every team knows it.
And it's like, Hey, we're not doing any instant replay. We're not doing any reviews.
The call on the court stands and just see how the game flow goes. It's interesting to say that like, number one, we did, you know, a couple of years ago, we changed the format at the end of the game.
We reduce the number of timeouts and we reduced the ability for officials to go to discretionary reviews. I mean, you'll recall just a few years ago, virtually every play towards the last two minutes, you know, the players were going like this.
You know, so we added one more coaches challenge, you know, but we reduced those discretionary reviews. And I think that's made a big difference.
And to your point, I've had many players and coaches tell me over the years that they would prefer speed to accuracy in certain cases, because especially near the end of the game, you know, when there's those long reviews, guys are literally getting cold standing there, getting out of rhythm, and they just assume, say, all right, you know, you know, red ball and move forward and move on,

as opposed to waiting for the endless reviews. And as I said, I think back to the technology that, you know, some people also don't like that we might have a different standard in the last two minutes.
But look, when you have a game like basketball where there's a lot of scoring, even if there's a bad call in the second quarter, you can make up for it over the course of the game. But you can't necessarily in the last two minutes.
So I'm in favor of there potentially being more scrutiny. But as I was saying, if you can use technology and take a whole category of calls off the table and that they're now objective, you know, I think we can reduce the number of replays.
Because also in those calls, just like in tennis just be you'll see sort of the quick animation i i think you need transparency people don't want to just be told you know bull's ball they want to know what happened and just like in tennessee ding ding ding you'll see like some animation you'll see what's going on but then and and also if you think back like the some early days in tennis there was a lot more arguing you know with the officials and now once you see that animation, and there's an ooh and an ah from the fans that just barely touch the line or whatever else, but it's play on. And I think everyone would prefer that.
Yeah, just think about no review week. It'd be a whole event.
We could just be like, hey, it's no review week. Yeah, suck it up week.
Yeah, this is kind of a fun thing. If I say I'm thinking about it, does that mean it's under consideration? under consideration yeah you've already thought it's under consideration yeah yeah you just have every ref to say life isn't fair yeah right tough you know it's interesting though but i you know i i've actually made that point not using those same same language but you know human error is part of this game yeah it's certainly part of the game when a player misses a shot.
Somehow it gets lost sometimes

that it's also part of the game

when an official makes a mistake.

And I get it.

And if an official makes too many mistakes,

they can't be an official in this league.

But you're right.

Perfection can't be the standard.

There are going to be mistakes.

And I think often what separates the best teams

is their ability to move on from that mistake.

And I just lastly say,

we have seven game series in the playoffs. And I think that as i think some of the best basketball minds in the league will say that it's a highly likely that the at least for that week or two weeks the better team is going to win the seven game series yeah regardless of the officiate also a bad call gives us something to yell about the day after the show yeah right so we'll be we'll be screaming.
If you just make it perfection, it's like we're the dog that was chasing the car. I think you just saw in those trades we were talking about that NBA seems ready-made for social media.
Yes. It does.
It does, yeah. Has there been any consideration to adjusting the league schedule? I know it's been in place for a long time in the general format that it's in, but waiting and starting the year on maybe Christmas Day and extending it at the end.
There has been. I mean, that is one thing that we have thought a fair amount about and we've looked at different proposals.
And I think for a lot of people, you're right that there was always this notion that the we, you know, in the old days, we would start on NBC on Christmas Day. We'd start on network television Christmas Day, sort of, you know, the regular season of the NFL had wound down.
People could now move their attention to the NBA. The issue we have there is one of moving into the summer.
And by the way, things are changing so rapidly, culturally, in terms of viewership and everything else that nothing, no idea is ever completely dead. But at least historically, the thought was we wanted our season to be over by July 1st, in essence, and was sort of working backwards.
If you're going to get the draft in in the last week of June, you know, and you're going to therefore start the finals, but anticipating you potentially could have a seven game finals, it means you got to start roughly June 1st, working backwards, sort of that that's how you end up with a training camp in October season, it starts roughly the beginning of November. I mean, people's television habits have changed dramatically.
I think in large part, you know, we all, you know, reaching for my phone, we all carry a TV with us everywhere we go now. I look at the kinds of things I would put you guys in the category of non-traditional media, you know, that the amazing popularity now of podcasts like yours, people's enormous amount of time, you know, looking at screens, listening to audio feeds of things that, you know, the other thing about us moving into July

is sort of, let's just say, okay, you can move the finals into July. Then you got, we have our summer league.
When does the, you know, and part of it, it's actual consideration, like, when do they get vacation? And part of it is, it's always, in our, the tradition in this league, there's sort of the equivalent of a summer vacation that matches up with family vacations. Even once, you know, summer league ends, it's sort of the third week of July, you know, things can settle down a little bit, you know, for the last part of July and August.
And now I'm not talking about the league office, largely for the players and your rest on their body and everything else. So, you know, I will say, you know, I think all these things we will continue to look at.
I don't think in the short term we'll do it. I just last say, I mean, there used to be this notion, you know, in television, they call it hot levels, households using television, that traditionally, because of summer vacation and things, that once you got to July 1st, there were fewer people watching television, which why, again, historically, you know, all the primetime shows, you know, when we were younger would launch in the fall.
You can almost think of the beginning of the NFL season, one of those shows would launching. I think, though, now, as I said, like people's television habits have changed dramatically.
Like streaming has changed a lot of those conventions, like new shows launch on Netflix all the time. You know, in July, nobody thinks twice about it.
So I think these are all things that we'll continue to look at. All right.
So I got one last question for you. This has been so much fun.
NBA All-Star Weekend this weekend. My last question.
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And I'm excited to style their new Sienna skort. It's a more flirty and it's perfect for date night make plans to go out in abercrombie shop their newest arrivals in store and online i have to pitch you my one idea that i've had for many years and you got to think about it and i don't need credit for it when you actually enact it so there's obviously been issues at times with fans getting a little unruly, maybe talking too much to the players, that whole experience.
My rule is very simple. Every single player when the season starts gets one chance to call out any fan they want and they just get to beat the fuck out of them in the middle of the court.
And once they use it, they can't use it again for the rest of the year. Thoughts on that rule? Not a good idea.
Okay. But listen, no, you're not, you're not seeing the vision.
You get, when you go, when you see Kevin Durant, you decide to, you know, say something really like mean to him. You're like, wait, does he have his one fight a fan left this year? You lost me on the beat the shit out of him part.
Yeah. Well was with you up to luck.
All right, you can single out one fan and then we'll review that fan's conduct. Think about the ratings.
Mr. Commissioner, think about the ratings.
They're like, oh my God, we're going to Sacramento and DeMar DeRozan has called out someone from the 10th row and they're about to fight in the middle of the, they're stopping the game to fight. Well, bring a cage.

Yeah, sure.

Of the arena.

Is the fan allowed to fight back?

Yes, yes.

So that's also part of it.

Like, you don't want to call.

No, I didn't fully consider your idea.

Yeah.

Like, you call out someone with cauliflower ears,

and you might have been asking for too much.

Are you making fun of my ears?

No, you don't have cauliflower ears.

But I have made fun of your ears in the past.

I'm sorry.

I apologize.

I'm a long-time listener. Well listener well yeah you can listen to anything sorry you let you you put you out for me sorry i walked into that or just maybe at least just allowing fights like in hockey yeah like blow it off yeah you know it's so interesting i will say i'm i'm new yorker i'm a rangers fan and go to games occasionally and as you guys remember there was that error again back to the 90s when there was a fair amount of fighting in the league and david stern you know he cracked down on it you know we had automatic suspensions walking off the bench and all that and it's still surprising me to this day when i go to a hockey game and they face up and the officials step back.
Yeah. Yeah.
You know, and I get, I mean, there's, you know, it's part of the culture of hockey. And I know I've heard the arguments that by having, allowing players to fight things out in that way actually cuts down on violence in certain cases by having enforcers and everything else.
It's obviously so foreign to the NBA, but, you know, based on the idea you're sharing. Think about it.
I'll share it with Gary Bettmanman too maybe just bring fans in as well yeah yeah well i mean that's happened before ty domi the penalty box we we had a lot more uh dumb ideas that maybe next time you come on uh we can pitch you because i know that we we had a ton of them so maybe we'll just do an entire podcast where we give you the dumbest ideas all right i'm available i did have a fix the all-star weekend it was just in line with the lebron brawny thing that the winning team gets automatically their firstborn gets a one-year contract in the nba that's a good idea that's a pretty good idea that's a good idea or i would you know what i could see league when i was going to pitch him which i won't pitch him yeah but i was just going to pitch him rigging the draft oh yeah that would be a idea that would be a good thing to do for the wizards cooper flag to the wizards yeah you know i'm a duke guy cooper's unbelievable he's great he's great we would take such good care of him in dc you're also a dc guy yes there you go all right well commissioner thank you so much really appreciate it hopefully you enjoyed this and we can have you on again. And like I said, we'll do a special episode where we just give you the 100 dumbest ideas we've ever thought of.
And when you think about them, everyone's going to be like, Adam Silver's thinking about this. Because you are thinking about the fight a fan rule.
You have technically thought of it. Mulling it over.
Yes. All right.
Thanks so much. Good luck this weekend at All-Star Weekend.

Thank you, Commissioner.

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This interview with Joe Burrow

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And now here is Joe Burrow.

Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest.

It is our good friend, Joe Burrow, who should be the MVP this year,

but he's here promoting the FedEx Air and Ground NFL Player of the Year

where you are a nominee.

Joe, good to see you.

This is the first time we've all been together in New Orleans since we since you won a national championship it's good to see you somewhat sober right there yeah I feel great right now I couldn't say the same five years ago yeah yeah but you uh you are a nominee for FedEx uh Aaron ground NFL player of the year I'll I'll confidently say I feel like you reminded everyone about Joe Burrow

because we had that conversation in June that people forgot about Joe Burrow.

I don't think people forget about Joe Burrow anymore.

I agree.

I think I had a great year.

I think I had my best year as a pro.

I'm excited for – I think there's another level that I can hit,

so I'm excited to go and hit that next year.

Okay.

What's the next level?

Be better.

Better than this Joe? Yeah. so like 7 000 yards i mean the stats are stats are going to fluctuate year to year really and it just kind of depends on how the year is going how each individual game is going because you could throw for four touchdowns in the first quarter and then the game's over but you threw for 170 yards now you're not really throwing it anymore so it kind of just depends on on the year but just playing better really if you have if you have a great game let's say you throw for like 400 yards four touchdowns hypothetically something like that and you end up losing that game you feel bad afterwards i'm sure because you want to win how long does it take for you through that week to be like you know what I'm actually pretty happy with my performance it's definitely better than throwing for 150 and losing um I would say it kind of just depends on how you feel like you played you know sometimes you could throw for a lot of yards but then you missed a couple early in the game.
You missed a couple late in the game. You made a couple bad decisions.
You don't really feel like you played great, but most of the time when you throw for 400, you feel pretty good about it. Yeah.
You keep waiting for old Norm Van Brocklin's record to fall. Was it 550 yards passing in the game? Oh, yeah.
It's kind of crazy that it – I think it's 545, maybe. It hasn't happened in, like, like 50 years and with the nfl being so pass heavy right now you keep hoping like one one of these days a quarterback will throw for 550 i'd like it to be you yeah i got to 525 in 2021 against the ravens so i'm third i think i'm third in that list but it would be it would be nice to have a five a 600 game would be pretty cool.
Yeah, I dare you to do that. Mahomes had like a 700-yard game in college against Baker at Oklahoma.
That was crazy. That box score is a very fun box score to look at where you're just like, oh, shit.
Were you in the zone at all this year? Because it feels like you were. There was that, I want to call it like five, six, seven-game stretch where was just like write it down to 75, three touchdowns every single week.
Yeah. After the first Baltimore game, I feel like I was pretty dialed in for the rest of the year.
Yeah. Yeah.
Because you could kind of tell it was just like, I don't want to say it was on easy mode for you, but you could tell me if you ever felt like that. Maybe it's a better way to say it is you just – it felt like you saw everything so perfectly for that stretch.
It was moving slow for me. It definitely felt easy at times.
Definitely didn't feel easy at times too, but that's how life in the NFL goes. Yeah, yeah.
And tonight you've got the NFL honors nfl honors good luck thanks i think statistically a lot of people would say joe burrow could be the mvp um but more importantly what are you going to wear to this i've got a fit plan i've got a nice aloe suit planned yeah anything shocking no shirt underneath wait aloe is the is that the place in california with like the saunas Correct. Yeah, I don't let guys like us in there.
I'm sure they would let you in if you came with me. Oh, no way.
They would just be like, can you just wait at the car? I see those videos. It's just all hot people.
I mean, maybe. Yeah, you just confirmed that.
In a nice way, you confirmed that. Sir, two homeless people just followed you in.
Would you like us to arrest them? Yeah. Yes, please.
It was not for us. Do you regret any of your fits this year? The Ellen DeGeneres one.
Which one was that? It was the pink shirt with the white vest and the white pants. That one wasn't my best.
Okay. All right.
Good. All right.
I feel good because I was nervous about asking about it, but that one you got roasted. That was probably my least favorite of the year.
Okay. I wore a lot of pink this year, but I feel like I felt pretty good about most of them, I would say.
Now, we've always wondered, like, when you wear a fit like that and then you lose, you go straight to sweats right after, right? Or do you go back into the fit? I think it just depends on the game. Okay.
If it's like a playoff game and we lose, I'll probably wear the fit i think it just depends on the game okay if it's a if it's like a playoff game and we lose i'll probably wear the fit to the press conference because one year cam wore a suit yeah to the super bowl and then they lost and then didn't wear it to the press conference and people felt weird about that yeah i actually respected that i think you should have like a you should maybe you should have like a clown suit if you lose you actually put on a costume that's not that's not a bad idea deflects it away from you yeah what if the nfl made that a rule if you lose you have to wear the clown suit to the press conference big red nose yeah i kind of like that no uh you and i actually have a little bit in common joe. We've both been victims of crime this year.
I had all my clothes stolen on my front porch. Why was it on your front porch? Well, I sent away for laundry because it was a long weekend of football, so I wasn't home to do the wash.
But I had two big-ass bags of clothes that just got stolen off my front porch, and I lost basically all my clothes. I've been trying to dress like you.
Do you have any advice for me? Like, do you have a stylist that you use? Because I feel like now I'm 40, I got to level up a little bit. I got to start, you know, stunting on these hoes a little bit.
So, yeah, who's your stylist, and can they also give me some help? His name's Kyle Smith. He does great.
He just brings some stuff, and I tell him if I like it, if I don't like it,

and if I'm going to wear it or if I'm not going to wear it.

Okay.

That's pretty easy.

You think I could pull off some of those fits?

100%. When people say, like, oh, you look like Ellen DeGeneres in this or whatever,

they say that about me but in, like, a bad way.

Oh.

Yeah.

Yeah.

With you, it's like, oh, yeah, you can look like a lesbian and be hot.

With me, it's like, you look like a fool.

Yeah.

Yeah, when people say that, like, it's like a lesbian be hot with me it's like you look like a fool yeah yeah

when people people people say that like it's a like a derogatory comment like right like lesbians don't dress well they dress really well yeah they do mine is Ellen DeGeneres I don't think she dresses great well maybe she doesn't dress exactly like maybe somebody that's 25 me. Stop looking at me.
What are you doing right now? Listen, my stylist is like the same four pop-up ads I get on Instagram, and then I buy it, and I'm like, oh, shit, I already have this shirt. I think every time I've ordered something on Instagram, it's never come.
Yeah. I just get robbed.
Just a donation. I just look at like one flannel shirt in early October, and then the rest of the winter, I'm just buying flannel shirts.
You're a big flannel guy? No, but it's the pop-ups. I just buy the pop-ups.
Oh, that's a yellow one. Oh, that's a green one.
Oh shit, I don't have this one. It comes, it looks exactly like the other one.
I usually buy something in September and then I spend the next four months just tracking it from China as it's making its way here. It's like on a boat somewhere crossing Taiwan.
I'm like, I'm never getting that command. You get it in two years.

Yeah, exactly.

So this season was obviously disappointing for you guys,

but how is it like when you get into a season

and you're playing great, but the team is losing,

like trying to figure out, like what's that like in the locker room

when it's like, you know, the defense went through some struggles,

started playing well at the end.

Like is it awkward? Is it hard? I don't really understand the dynamic and how it works yeah i would say it's tough to describe because you're obviously i mean you're in it as a team so everybody's down in the dumps right in the locker room. It's not like, oh, where are the offense? We scored 30, but we lost.
We're happy. Nobody's happy about that.
And there were definitely games that the offense could have closed it out in which we didn't. But when you're playing, like I said, I felt like I had my best year as a pro and so I was happy about that week in and week out it was pretty frustrating I've never had a year like this so it was mentally taxing and challenging to continue to stay disciplined and consistent week in and week out day in and and day out.
But, you know, at some point you just realize that this is your job and that's what you do. And if I'm going to continue to play as good as I want to, then I'm going to have to keep doing these things daily to put myself in the best position to succeed.
Yeah, it sounds like you guys are a lot more mature than us because we just finger point instantly. literally it's something i mean you walked into it a little bit with the qb skills competition we did last night we just spent the last two hours just sitting in this room just finger pointing yeah that's hilarious you can't do that in the pros well hank is really bad and as a quarterback like me and big cat our salaries depend on a guy like the quarterback right we're not if he's making us look bad then it's like what are we gonna do we're just gonna we're gonna become divas so you guys are receivers uh well we could be we're just divas oh yeah without we're like diva wide receivers except we're not good at playing wide receivers like if you said if you said to your huddle you're like hey uh i got us guys let's go on a drive and then you went three for 57 yeah they say probably lose a little trust in my abilities yeah that's a good point yeah trust um you said something in pro bowl week your wrist is still a little funky i mean i wouldn't say funky but whenever you have a ligament injury your joint is going to take around two years to get all the mobility back and everything that you feel like you need and you still had the best year as a pro, yeah, he is going for 7K.
He's going for 7K. This could be like rookie of the year situation.
Does that mean? Heald, have you ever seen that movie? No. The kid that breaks his arm, all of a sudden he can throw like 98 miles an hour.
Oh, that would be great. Like if you have a ligament injury, maybe it just made you a better quarterback.
I hope so. Does it feel good right now? It feels good right now.
There were a couple times I fell on it during the year. It didn't quite feel as good, I would say.
And kind of just depending on the day. But we got into a good routine at the end of the year to feel as good as I could by Sunday.
Having a fully healthy offseason, though, that'll probably be nice for you. Yeah, I haven't had a ton of those.
I think that'll just help me level up even more because I'm not going to be focused on rehab and everything I can just focus on quarterback specific things working out getting my body the way that I want to for for the year um so I'm excited about that yeah have you thought about maybe telling coach Taylor like I've been thinking about it a lot for the Bengals specifically, like a hypnotist comes in and convinces the whole locker room that week one is actually week four and you've already started 0-3. It's not a bad idea.
Yeah, right? Because I feel like the first two weeks. We haven't gone off to the greatest starts in my career, I would say.
So hopefully we can figure out a way to change that. A hypnotist might not be a bad idea yeah the urgency because I I've I have power ranking world like I have a computer that does power rings every week and it never gave up on the bengals because I was just like well Joe Burrow's there and like they're gonna figure it out and uh it was close it's close you guys came so close once we hit four and eight that was tough to come back from yeah the four and eight it was just every week was just like shit.
Every week felt like a heartbreaker. Yeah.
I would get back to my house and be like, how the fuck did we lose that game? Yeah. All right, so we need a hypnotist or something.
What you could do is you could just play all your starters throughout the preseason and just lose those games. That's not a bad idea, too.
And then week one is literally week four for you. I'm pro playing in the preseason, I would say.
You didn't play in this last person played like seven snaps okay what does that feel like over seven if you were hank yeah what does that feel like in going out for preseason game you're like you're gonna go on the field and you're gonna take two snaps hand the ball off twice and then leave the field yeah it's weird because you're not game planning the opposing team like you'll watch a couple snaps of their defense before the game but you're going out there and it's like oh i wonder what they're gonna play because you don't really know especially if it's a team that you haven't played before or a coordinator that you haven't played before uh so it's the offense is at a disadvantage in the preseason so I always feel bad for these young quarterbacks that go into the preseason and they play like shit because you're not going to play well in the preseason because your coaches aren't game planning their defense and you're just running out and running your training camp plays against a defense that those plays aren't built for. And so when people come people come out of the preseason like this guy stinks well it's not exactly the case we do it the other way sometimes where somebody will be really good in the preseason and we'll be like that guy should start yeah like Kyle Slaughter he was a preseason legend for a long time as a backup I don't think he ever played a snap could he run uh yeah he could run a little bit a lot of running quarterbacks excel in the preseason i would say yeah and you always think like going to the season man this guy should be getting snaps over patrick mahomes yeah this guy's way better you're you're running i feel like you had a couple big runs this year you ever when you whenever you get out in the open field you're like oh fuck i made a mistake like yeah i'm about to get lit up the bills yeah i don't think i've ever really felt that way okay i'm getting better sliding and protecting myself yep and i'm getting more agile so i'm making some more people miss i'm getting a little faster and i'm going to continue to work on that so i'm just going to feel better and better about it you are getting faster that's crazy you've got it good get faster yeah you've got slower every day

of my life you just have to run fast yeah you get a very long slide now i've noticed yeah you go like seven yards on a slide i know i haven't quite perfected it like lamar will do some like weird stuff and then get down without getting hit i'm not i don't have that in me i don't think so i'm is going to do the baseball slide.

I'd like to not go as far, I would say.

But I feel like my slide into knee into the ground pop up it's good it's cool it's good lamar likes to dive at people's knees yes that's which is like a pretty effective way i think to well because when he gets close to people everybody just breaks down because they're so worried about him making a miss right so then he starts going like that and then everybody stops and then he just goes he gets everyone on their heels yeah i don't get anybody to stop like that no do you ever uh do you ever like learn new moves for open field running definitely like you watch youtube and you're like okay i could do this or i mean more so like i practice it walking around like I'll be walking through a hall or like in my house and I'll like try something like a spin I'm working on a spin move right now a euro stuff that yeah just euro stepping random people on the street yeah exactly do you have it that's just guys being dudes where I just cross people up you have any pets I don't have any pets I had pets when I was little though I had a I had a cat I had two turtles. I had two frogs, and I had a lizard.

Whoa.

That's kind of freaky.

That's borderline kind of a weirdo kid.

I know.

If you went snake, if you added one more snake, I'd have been like, uh-oh.

This isn't funny anymore.

Yeah, I used to love going to the pet store and getting the crickets and feeding them

to my lizard.

Yeah.

Wait, what was your lizard's name?

Lizzie.

Okay, that's a good name.

That's solid. Smart.
I was going to say if you had a dog, you could just juke out your dog. Dogs are too much for me.
Yeah. I like being around dogs, but I couldn't live with a dog, I don't think.
You think you just love it too much? I think they're just too in your face. They do like to be in your face.
That is true. Just do your own thing for a little bit.
Your cat. Yeah, that's a cat.
Your cat. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
If you were a dog or a cat, I would say Joe Burrow cat. Yeah, for sure.
I know you're going to be asked this a lot because obviously T. Higgins is a free agent and they're going to be like, hey, Joe, will you take a restructure of your deal? I'm not going to ask if you're going to restructure your deal.
I'm going to actually ask, what does that mean, restructuring a deal? Can you explain it to us like we're five? Yeah, so you could do a couple different things. You could convert some of the money to a signing bonus, which will lower the cap hit.
You can push some of the money to the back end of the contract. And then when you get to the – that lowers the cap hit.
And then when you get to the back end of the contract, you can restructure it and convert it to a signing bonus. Okay.
And then you can also just take less money. And which one were you going to do? We'll see.
Okay. I don't like what Big Cat's doing, Joe.
I think that you deserve every penny that you've signed for. You don't have to restructure anything.
Don't feel like, oh, I have to keep T around. It's not your responsibility.
That's on the team. I think T's entitled to make his money, but you're entitled to make your money too, Joe.
Don't listen to this guy. Restructuring.
This guy's big business right now. You don't take any less money, right? You just get.
You could. Okay.
You could, but most of the guys just convert it to. To a signing bonus.
Yeah. Is that, you would do that? I would do that.
Okay. Okay.
I don't like what he's doing. He's putting pressure on you you should feel entitled to the money that you've earned it is it is a weird situation though

that you're in because like i think that's just part of what happens with quarterbacks where it's

like there's a little more pressure on them where they have the biggest deal so they if they want to

get flexibility a lot of times it comes down to the quarterback to have to be the guy who has to

step up and do that yeah at the same time though the this was the last year that all the

Thank you. quarterback to have to be the guy who has to step up and do that yeah at the same time though the this was the last year that all the covid like cap money restrictions across the league were implemented so the next like three or four years i think the cap's gonna just cap's going up the cap's going up okay we just keep saying cap's going up cap's going to higgins and went up like eight percent last year it'll probably be similar you've looked at this you've definitely crunched you've definitely like been laying in bed late at night just looking at like a spreadsheet being like okay all right you gaps going up you understand the cap i mean not really kind of because we don't think that it exists way more than we do well definitely some teams seem to make it feel that way.
I mean, the Saints have just pretended it doesn't exist for a while. And the Eagles are paying everybody.
Yeah. Yeah.
So that seems like the way, whatever they're doing. I feel like adjusting the salary cap is like the final boss of how many different things can we change because of COVID.
Yeah. It's like COVID happened.
Okay. Well, we're going to have to redo the NFL salary cap, obviously.
We need to make some changes there. It's weird.
In baseball, you have I don't know what the... But some teams are paying like nothing.
And some teams are paying like $500 million. I don't think that's the way to do it.
And the Shohei contract that's like $700 million, but he just gets $2 million deferred. Yeah, we'll pay you in like 50 years which is insane i don't understand any of that yeah what was the deal what was the deal with that uh he got into some controversy yeah his his uh translator ipe might have a little gambling problem i figured you guys would know the ins and outs of that maybe perhaps yeah it was a situation it's good to have a translator because that person is the ultimate fall guy yeah i didn't even understand what you guys were saying i can't even answer your questions right now at the time it'd be so funny if it like all happened and show it was like kaiser soze and just had like a new jersey accent and just like started talking in perfect english.
It's like, I've been playing all you fuckers.

You should get a translator.

That'd be awesome.

Yeah.

Yeah. That would be cool.

Yeah.

That way that,

that person does all your interviews.

You just sit next to them,

checking draft Kings.

I can put in a parlay here.

Okay,

good,

good,

good.

Yeah.

So this has been a fun year for you in other ways,

maybe not so much,

but this off season,

what are you doing to,

to like improve your game?

You're getting faster.

I know that, but like, is there anything that you work on in the offseason and you say i'm gonna focus on this i think i'm at the point in my career where i'm not really there's not really anything that i'm like okay this needs to get better this is like i feel like i'm pretty well-rounded and everything is pretty dang good but when everything's pretty dang good or great you can always continue to improve those things and get better at them so i'm kind of just always improving a little bit of everything strength speed mechanics movement efficiency you know all those things i like that Just do exactly what you've been doing, but do it harder. Yeah.
Or, you know, when I noticed that as you get older, you don't quite, you know, you put the same time in the offseason. But when you get to the season, you don't have to quite grind as much because you've seen so much football now.
And you've played most of these defensiveators before and they're all they're doing the same stuff you know there's little game plan things here and there but you know you've you've seen most of the defenses what's your hair plan for next year that's a good question i have a suggestion i don't know what i'm gonna do yet i don't really know what i'm gonna do until like a couple days before i do it yeah i would say i kind of want to grow it out a little bit but we'll see what about a mullet i've thought about the mullet you should do a mullet you know i thought about the mullet when i was in college because i grew my hair out in the off seasons in the college in college so i was gonna go mullet one my into my last year atSU. That would have been a fun year to have a mullet.

But you just have to grow it out so much.

And then, I don't know.

We'll see.

Yeah.

I mean, your hair seems to grow fast, though.

It does.

Because when you shave it, it's like four weeks later.

It's like, oh, yeah.

Remember when Joe shaved his head a month ago?

Now he's got normal hair.

Yeah.

It grows very fast.

Slip shady look was interesting.

I thought that that was intentionally done for preseason. and that you would dye it back once the regular season started i did it because i wanted frost tips yeah but i've never seen frost tips look good if you just go to the salon and get them yeah so i just went brute force shaved it dyed it and then let it grow out so then i had the frost yeah um all right so i know you got it wrong because you got a bunch of stuff going on today but i got one last question roback question rhoback.com promo code take 20 off your first purchase q-zips polos hoodies joggers shorts roback.com promo code take so i know you're doing a bunch of interviews today um i also know you're not really big on social media so i just wanted to give you i'm just giving you something that i saw because i was i was literally name searching joe burrow before you came on to see if there's anything that was going on in the last like two days um this is just from a random person it's a clip of you at the pro bowl it says i need him in ways that would set feminism back a hundred years what does that mean i think it's a woman who thinks you're very attractive so just take that with you just take that with you that's just like oh well you don't bump up the ego nice little confidence booster i appreciate that i saw another one from a similar account that said god made men and then sent us joe burrow as an apology yeah wait oh Wait.
Oh, because, okay. Oh, okay.
Because all men suck and then you don't. All men suck, but not you.
Sounds great. Yeah, so there you go.
I'll just take those with you. Thank you for everything that you've done for men, Joe.
Yeah. Those didn't sound like questions, guys.
Yeah, no, they weren't. That wasn't.
It was a real back statement. Nice.
All right. Well, great seeing you, Joe.
Thanks so much, man. Thanks, guys.
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And guys on Chicks is going to be brought to you by Aroxon. Let's talk about the elephant in the room.
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Visit Aroxon.us to learn more. Okay, we're going to do some guys on chicks real quick, and then we're going to finish off with Firefest because this is the end of the week for us.
We have Dungeons & Dragons coming Friday for the people. Hank, guys on chicks.
Guys on chicks. I meant to bring it up in Hot Seat Cool Throne, but I forgot Montoya.
Montoya. Oh, he's going through hell.
He went through it again. Dude, I said last night.
It's a show. I don't even know how to explain it.
It's like the crazy show of all time. It's just a fuck show.
Well, it's Temptation Island, Spanish version. And Montoya, for anyone who hasn't followed, he has the worst ROI of all time on a lap dance because he got a lap dance.
And then his girlfriend on the other island decided to just spend the next week fucking this random guy, getting the bongos played on her ass. And Montoya has to watch all of this happen.
And he's just, I mean, credit to Montoya. He's great on camera.
He just imagine how long is his relationship going Montoya's basically if you were watching the World Cup and a player just lost in a terrible terrible way and you know how soccer players are usually very animated that's Montoya every episode watching his girlfriend get smoked this guy guy absolutely hates it when his girlfriend cheats on him. Yeah.
Just like really watching her go to town. The one that I saw today, they were under the covers.
And they include, I think they might have added in sound effects. Yeah.
Because that smack sound, she was getting it in. To the wall.
Hey, guys. I need your help picking out a Valentine's Day gift for my fiance.
In the past, I've made slash gotten my fiance sentimental things, but I don't think guys really like that stuff, and I don't expect him to tell me that if he really doesn't. If I were you all, if it were you all, what are some things you would all actually enjoy getting that aren't basic? Thanks, and go Des.
Cash. My answer is always cash.
I think a good one for girls is just like whatever a sports team are, find like a retro shirt or hat or something. Okay, counterpoint.
It's not basic, but it's thoughtful. Counterpoint cash.
You can buy whatever you want with cash. Even if you have a joint bank account, no one has ever gotten the gift of cash and been like ew no have you ever been like that with a gift card though what yeah gift card boxes you in cash is limitless the problem with gift card is you never spend the full amount yeah maybe get them some or you or you have to make yourself spend way more money yeah because you're using the gift card to get a discount on it also could get him some jail stool no don't do that bad idea i would let's see a good gift for your fiance cash um i don't know if cash is really the way to go like hank is always i think on the if you share the personal account it's like what are you gonna do with cash it's still awesome to get cash i guess guess fiance, maybe.
When does that happen? Yeah. It's what? When does the joint account happen? Yeah.
Fiance, marriage. Some people don't even have it.
Different folks. Cash.
It's still awesome to get cash, even if you have a joint account. Or like an activity.
Go on a trip together. Buy concert tickets.
Cash. Sports tickets.
Cash. Cash is king.
Golf balls uh why do females typically not like guys playing video games seems there could be much worse activities out there it's a way guys can also hang out without going anywhere all in all not one guy complains when a girl goes out with her friends we just hop on the game what is the game for girls and how do we get them excited about it like guys do for games and get treated the same when it's flipped wait so she's saying why do why do girls care so much when guys play video yeah asking why his girlfriend doesn't like video games because you're you're paying attention to something very close you're paying attention to it way way more closely than you pay attention to her also video games by nature uh we've all been trapped in one you know been obsessed with one when you remove yourself from it you do realize you you did nothing so i think they're seeing it from that angle where they're looking at it being like you just spent six hours and in your head when you're in it like yeah i'm squatting up with the boys i gotta you know we're going on missions this is fun or i'm finishing my dynasty like i'm accomplishing something from the outside they're like you've done nothing i also think girls their kind of video games are are shows but those are more time like they watch for an hour they watch the bachelor like they'll watch something for an hour two video games if you really like playing video games you could play forever ever yeah forever and that's where it's like i'm getting off in a you're playing like, you know, a battle royale, like what feels like a minute is actually 40.

Yeah, I do think you look up.

You're like, oh, shit.

I think girls, they they care when they see you so engaged in the video game and you like look forward to it and you know everything about the video game.

You pay super close attention.

And then they're just like, I wish that when I talk to you, you would pay attention to me in that same way that you do your video game. Why don't you talk to me like you talk to your boys? Yeah.
Like, suck my dick. Fuck you.
Yeah. That kind of stuff.
Eat my pussy. What they should do is they should make a boyfriend simulator game.
That'd be good. If they made a good one.
Maybe get her into video games. Probably not, though.
Yeah. Try.
Yeah. I don't know.
There's something about it. We just were wired a certain way that when we start a game, just got to finish it.
Just got to finish it. Or yeah, you got to get a win.
Like, and that is, we get a win. And the problem is, I don't know.
You guys might be different, but like my relationship with video games has always been, if I have a game, I'm obsessed, obsessed with it for like a two to three week stretch. that's all i think about and i could see how that would be annoying on the outside where it's like you're at dinner having a conversation and all you're thinking about like is i gotta i gotta get a four-star linebacker for my team i was full-on addicted to call of duty for like a solid two oh yeah i've been in that i've been in that for sure I think the move, like once I moved and I think it just, it was part of my routine and it's not really anymore.
But looking back, like it was all I thought about. And I was trying to play for like, sometimes I just play for 12 hours a day.
That's a lot. Now it's golf.
Yeah, golf. Yeah.
Yeah. You remember when you were addicted to golf video games? I still, PJ2K is coming out.
I'm excited for that. Yeah.
That game's fun as fuck. Yeah.
It's a great combo. Yeah.
Golf, and then when it's dark, just play golf. Mm-hmm.
Last one. Hey, pardon my take.
Great pod. Big fan.
I'm a nurse, and nearly all my coworkers are chicks. What? Nurses are hot.
It's a dude. And I had a few over for the Super Bowl.
How's it a dude? I thought this guy's on chicks, and he's a nurse. I got drunk and called Kelsey a pussy bitch after his second drop in the first half.
Maybe a dude. A few chicks didn't like that.
They are Kelsey fans and were offended by the verbiage. Is this something I have to address with my coworkers? I'm just used to watching Ball with the Boys, so I was rowdy.
No, rowdy no i feel like nurses is like yeah listen one thing i know about nurses is when they're not on the clock they fucking party like yeah they're hot it's not like corporate this is a swifty thing too that's why they're upset yeah and i i think nurses and doctors have what like a five times greater likelihood to smoke cigarettes yeah like they they don't give a fuck also if we're

being honest Kelsey was kind of playing like a pab for sure like that's just a fact they did the Chiefs didn't play well right Max yeah little boy ass play yeah exactly yeah try that out next time little boy did you say that at all during the Super Bowl no but the original tweet was about Travis Kelce. Little boy ass boy.

Little boy ass boy.

Okay, let's do

Fyre Fest. I can't believe you tweeted that out.
So good. So good.
Okay, Fyre Fest time because we are going on vacation. So Friday we have our Dungeons & Dragons episode.
Monday we will have about 20 minutes of us on Zoom catching up on the weekend and then an NBA preview with Ryan Rosillo. Then we will all be back together on for Wednesday's show.
So no, we're not missing any shows. We'll just have a little bit of a different schedule for the next few episodes.
So Firefest. Hank.
Kind of impossible to have a Firefest right before a vacation yeah you're feeling it right now well my sleep schedule is cooked cooked has not I have not I've not come back from New Orleans like I was up yesterday at 5 a.m. couldn't fall back asleep was up today at 4 a.m.
couldn't fall back asleep sounds like you're're thinking about Josh Allen being an MVP. Got up, yeah, got up, and then fell asleep at like 7 on my couch.
Almost woke up at, you know, I'm all over the place, sleep schedule-wise. Okay, I feel bad for you.
Yeah, it's vacation. How many rounds? Well, I'm going a day early now because there's going to be snow in Chicago, so I'm adding an extra one.
Oh, so you have to go. Yeah.
That's nice. You've got to go a day early.
I do. Yeah, I know.
Are you playing golf? Like when you get into town, did you add an extra round? Yeah, yeah. Okay, all right, nice.
But it's because of the snow. It's the snow.
Well, yeah. I was like, well, I should go Tuesday.
Hit up our friend Isner and was like, hey, are you around? He's like, yep, come play golf. I was like, the snow so wednesday thursday friday friday saturday wait what say it again 36 friday wednesday thursday friday friday saturday sunday the six rounds yeah wow nice that's that's too much golf at some point you got to be like i i'm i this is too much the one tomorrow is like, I don't have any choice.
Right. Because it's snow.
But like come Sunday, you're still going to wake up like, oh, I'm itching. I am itching to get a little around.
No, I would say after. The second round Friday, I'll probably be hungover and my body will be sore.
It sounds like torture. And I'll be like, I'm cooked.
I'll fight through. You know what? For the people, I will fight through.
I think what Max is asking is like, aren't you going to get bored of playing golf at some point this week? No, because I miss it so much. Yeah.
What if you suck? Oh, I'll definitely suck. That's a shame.
I'll report back. Okay.
Good. I'm sure people are dying to know.
Hank did ask me the other day. He's like, hey, are you going to play golf on your vacation? I was like, I don't think so.
He's like, can I borrow your bag, your travel bag? So I have to run home at lunch and get the travel bag for Hank so that he can get his golf in tomorrow. It's bros helping bros.
Yeah. What? It's huge.
They make me feel bad for asking you for a favor. No, I'm just stating facts.
He's just stating that he helped you. You love facts.
Yeah. True.
I'm trying to get you fired up. Well, we can't get him fired up.
We can help him, but we can never get him fired up. Yeah.
We can never light that fire in Hank. He's probably pumped to see Isner.
He's like, finally, a guy with energy is out here. Yeah, fire me up.
Yeah, he'll tase you. Literally fire you up.
Will you get tased this weekend, Hank? Listen, it's okay. We're not Missoula and Gruden.
We never will be. No, you're will you're not and that's what i kind of feel bad but also you guys know you're not okay damn no one is okay uh pft different motivation tactics uh my fire fest all somewhat vacation related really tough to have a fire fest when you're going on a vacation it's nice to nice to get some more warm really good race going um i guess the only fire fest i would have would be that i really wanted to play golf this weekend and i don't have my travel bag and i mean what's better than playing golf on an island on vacation it's like all i've looked forward to doing for the last three months but hank needs my bag so i'm gonna give hank my bag i can get another bag i have a second option like he's got a bag yeah yeah no you can have my bag i can tell i'm in a lot to you.
My Real Fire Fest is going on vacation this week and I did get my bag. I have a second option.
He's got a bag. Yeah, yeah.
No, you can have my bag. I can tell it meant a lot to you.
My Real Fyder Fest is going on vacation this week, and I did get my chest waxed last week down in New Orleans. Oh, yeah, that did happen.
It did happen. And so I'm going to be hairless in a swimsuit on the beach, and whatever lotion they put on really did not agree with my chest, and i got a little little rash going on my chest right

now i'm not looking forward to being shirtless this weekend yeah the the i like completely memory hold the fact because that happened that feels like it happened 10 years ago yeah it's gotten a lot better since the day after but uh my chest is not at its best right now how is time I'm working out in your brain right now, Max.

Can't be going well.

No, I'm cucked.

My whole body is just done. All right, my fire fest.
I actually, the body being done, I knew this was going to happen, but like clockwork, we turned 40, and now I'm just starting to get random injuries. I just got a tennis elbow in my left arm,

which I don't play tennis or golf,

and I'm a righty.

And then my right arm,

I've had a broken pinky for three months,

and Super Bowl week just demolished me

because I was shaking hands,

and every time I was like,

fuck, this hurts.

But I think I'm going to get in shape,

and I have an announcement for you guys. You ready for this? Yeah.
I think I'm going to get in shape, and I have an announcement for you guys.

You ready for this?

Yeah.

I think I'm going to dunk.

No way.

Yeah.

I think I'm going to dunk.

There's no way.

I think I'm going to dunk.

Have you ever dunked before?

I've never dunked, but I think I'm going to train and dunk.

How tall are you?

6'3".

You could do it.

I think you could do it, too, for sure.

Big Cat could do it.

I have a ton of faith in me.

I think I'm going to dunk.

I think I'm going to dunk. I hope you could do it too yeah big cat could do it i have a ton of faith i think i'm gonna dunk i think i'm gonna dunk i hope you i mean i i hope you could do you would have to lose a lot of weight okay all right but that's fine it's like you've really you're walking around has really trained your leg muscles yeah so you've got strong legs i don't know when i'm gonna dunk i'm not gonna put a time on it or a bet on it, but I think I'm just going to dunk.
Good. Good luck.

Thank you. You can definitely do it.
You sound like you're supportive,

Hank. No, I mean, I

know what you're doing. I would be happy

if you didn't. I'm trying to dunk.

I know you're not going. You don't.
I would

you don't put a time on it. You don't

believe him? Wow. You know,

I've been there. I've been where you are.

I understand where you're headed. You tried to dunk?

Yeah. I'm still going to.
I don't even remember it because you were so far away from it. Big Cat can do it.
No, I was fucking close. You were not close.
I was close. You were not close.
I was close. You were not close.
You touched the rim. You were not close to dunking.
I was close. You were not close.
I think if you gave Big Cat what? In what world were you close to dunking? I jumped 10 feet 4 inches. I needed to get 10'6".
If you gave Big Cat a year, he could do it. We'll see.
I'm not going to put any pressure on myself. I'm just going to try.
You know what? I also am going to be... Big Cat, you should have John Gruden coach you and train you because he'll get you fired up.
Yeah, that's true. That's a fact.
All right. I'm going to try to dunk.
Do we have any other hobbies that we're deciding to pick up this offseason? Dunking. Dunking? Hank? Any changes you're going to make to your gonna make to your life post football i'm currently the fattest i've ever been so i'm gonna work on get fatter yeah but you're a champion when you're fat yeah no i gotta that's that's it you can't really you can't really think about changing your ways before vacation but in a week from now fitness vacation yeah well you got pft you do something uh you want to dunk with me i could try to dunk um i'm focused right now on long drive because i got a bet coming up oh yeah that i've been training on already yeah i don't i don't know if everyone here has been training on it so i'm just gonna try to get my get my drive up.
I have been training on it. Over 300 yards if I can.
I'm getting more tattoos. I am too.
I'm low-key addicted to getting tattoos. I am as well.
Are you also? I'm going to get at least two or three more. I'm just going to say, fuck it.
They're not going to be crazy big or anything. I'm just, I don't know.
We're just going to do our midlife crisis with tattoos. Yeah, speed running.
Which is like kind of badass by us where it's like we just became a tattoo podcast out of nowhere i feel like i just see like chris long and i'm like that's what a real podcast host looks like yeah i might get a teardrop tattoo how sick would that be well i yeah i'm we're i'm gonna get another one as well so we'll maybe we link up get them together maybe we get we get matching ones i like that. That would be cool.
We get the flight simulator going in the office. Yeah.
A lot of stuff. I'm excited for that.
I want to get on that flight simulator. A lot of stuff going on.
Yeah. Okay.
Numbers and get ready for Dungeons and Dragons on Friday. Also, prostate exam.
Do we have to do that? I think so. I thought that was 45.
Might as well get it early. Shut up, memes.
Memes wants us to die. No, but you should be rooting for us not to get a prostate exam.
40. You need one.
You need it checked. I have to get one early because prostate cancer runs in my family.
Yeah. Okay.
Three. Five.
We can all go at the same time. Okay.
We should do that. 99, Pogue.
Have an AWL that's a doctor.

21.

Give us butthole reviews.

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Five.

94.

Ooh, 94.

Love you guys. Thank you.
Thank you.