Andrew Luck In Studio, Brian Windhorst On The Shocking Luka Trade + Monday Reading Live From Super Bowl Week In Nola

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On today's part of my take, it is Super Bowl week,

and we have an awesome interview coming for the people.

Andrew Luck, we've been looking to get this interview done for about seven years.

He came into HQ actually Sunday morning and before we left for New Orleans.

Really, really great interview. Awesome to talk to him.
He autographed our AFC finalist banner. He did.
So very cool guy. I think everyone's going to really enjoy it.
Hot. Some people are saying hot.
We also called the emergency Brian Windhorse bat phone and got him on for 15 minutes to talk about the Luka trade to the Lakers, which shocked everyone. We're here in New Orleans.
We're going to talk a little Super Bowl. We have a Monday reading for the people.
Time capsule. It's Monday time capsule.
Monday time capsule. We do this every Monday before the Super Bowl.
Yeah. We're going to get right back to the show.
The last thing you want to hear when you need your auto insurance most is a robot with countless irrelevant menu options, which is why with USAA Auto Insurance, you'll get great service that is easy and reliable all at the touch of a button get a quote today restrictions apply all right back to part of my take okay let's go i love guys who like football and guys who like football they like me back and i like them back and even guys that don't like football, they try to avoid me because I'm always trying to get them to like football.

Football. Football.

Football. Welcome to part of my take.
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Think about it. Instead of No, it's like.
Max. Max.
Max. Max.
Max. Max.
Oh, yeah. There's a little football game going on, too.
It's like, it's mega. Think about it.
Instead of mega, it's just Max. We're taking this show to the max this week.
Yeah. It's Max week.
I don't know. I'm dialed.
I'm dialed on the birds. I don't know what you guys are trying to do.
You're not wearing any Eagles clothing. You're wearing a dog.
You're wearing a dog on your shirt right now. He's wearing Casey.
Shout out to Roback. Shout out to Roback.
Roback. But the real story is Luka got traded to the Lakers.
Oh, I thought you were going to lead with Duana Bonner signed with the Fever. That too.
Yeah. Big time stories everywhere.
But yeah, Luka Doncic. Instant championship contenders.
That is. Big time.
Fever are actually building a bully. Yeah.
Hank doesn't know because he's a misogynist. That's true.
Pulse. Luka Doncic traded to the Lakers late Saturday night,

shocked the NBA world, traded for Anthony Davis.

So the official trade, listen, I'm not saying that it's Max Week, but the official trade was Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber, Markeith Morris,

and then the Mavericks receive Anthony Davis, Max Christie,

and 2029 LA first-round pick. Two Maxes in the trade.
And now Luka can't get the Supermax. He can't get the Supermax.
And then obviously the Jazz also got in there because Danny Ainge was sniffing a trade and was like, I want in. They traded Jalen Huchofino, 2025 Clippers second, 2025 Mavericks second.
I don't even know how the Jazz get into it, but it's not hyperbole to say this is probably the most shocking trade in NBA history just because Luka is 25 years old. He's one of the top five players in the NBA.
He just took his team to the finals, and he gets traded to the Lakers with no bidding whatsoever. There was a mystery team.
There's a mystery team, which I think was added just to make Nico. What's his name? Nico Hollins.
The what's it? What is his name? The Mavs GM. Yeah.
I'm thinking of Nico Collins. Let's call him Nico.
Nico. Make him feel a little better.
But it seems like they did this deal. Nico Harrison, a guy who screwed up the steph curry to nike deal uh it it's crazy because it feels like luka could have gotten the maps could have gotten way more for luka and instead he goes to lakers and now i don't even know what to like it was a true what the fuck trade well let's choms actually had to say i'm not i have not been hacked yeah this is serious yeah let's kick it over to magic johnson who had a great reply okay summed it up nicely luka donjic will definitely make the lakers a championship contending team he'll take the pressure off lebron because of his scoring ability and playmaking it'll make every laker better lebron james will be a positive influence on luka teaching him his championship mentality that includes taking his conditioning seriously I actually do believe in that part like that if what that's magic calling luca fat well i mean luca's been called fat i mean there was there was a report that he's 270 pounds uh i think it's discrimination against big boys that they're basically they're trying to drag luca through the mud being like the guy's just so fat he can't we had to trade trade him.
When in reality, you didn't have to trade him.

It made no sense to trade him.

I mean, Mark Cuban even, I know he's not the owner of the Mavs anymore,

but remember a few years ago when he said, like,

if you made me decide between my wife and Luka,

I'll see you at the divorce proceedings.

Yeah, I mean, Luka's everything you want.

If you're a fan of the Dallas Mavericks, that sucks. Because Luka, he got you to an NBA Finals last year.

Who cares if he's 270 pounds, if he's scoring 40 points every game in the playoffs? You need a guy like that to get there. You need, as Big Cat said, you need a top five player.
He's one of the best players in the NBA. The Celtics, we looked last year, they had Brown.
You got to have a superstar. Yeah, you have to.
I mean, this is, it's shocking. I don't understand what the Mavericks were thinking.
If you're a Mavs fan, I feel like so, so sad for you because you get a guy like Luka and he's going to be part of your life for 15 years and you're like, we're always going to at least be competing because we have Luka Doncic. And then he gets traded at 25 years old to the Lakers.
I don't know how the Lakers keep getting away with it. I also, is there any chance that Jerry Jones was involved in this because Luka was, you know, the Cowboys have been so bad.
New coach. Luka's the star in Dallas.
Get him out of town. I don't know, but I recall a trade that didn't go through way back in the day.
Chris Paul. You remember that trade? And David Stern was stern was like no i'm not going to allow this for the good of the league uh it feels like this is obviously ad is a great player he's very good defensively he's like been all nba first team defense what like seven times he's a hall of fame he's awesome he's an he's a top 15 so this is not i'm not saying that it's something where the commissioner should step in and be like, no, this trade can't happen.
But if this trade happens and there's nobody else offering anything for it, if you don't put it out for bid across the league, it seems like maybe you owe something. Maybe you're in debt to the ownership of the Lakers.
Maybe you need a favor from the Lakers at a later date and you're playing nice with them.

Maybe the league needs the Lakers to be good.

And they're like,

LeBron's getting old and we got to put a superstar in Los Angeles.

Cause I mean,

that is the history of the Los Angeles Lakers is they just go from superstar to superstar.

I mean,

magic.

I mean,

well,

before even magic,

Kareem,

Wilt Chamberlain,

magic,

Kobe,

Kwame Brown,

Kwame Brown, smush Parker, like all these guys.

Steve Blake.

And now they go LeBron, Anthony Davis to Luka.

It's crazy.

It's crazy.

It is.

So I was looking at the Lakers roster earlier today.

You've got LeBron.

You've got Luka.

You've got Austin Reeves.

You've got Dalton Connect. Why are Hank and Max making eyes together the sultans are playing right now the sixes just blew a 20 point lead okay keep going let me okay so the roster yeah they were literally making like fuck you eyes well no i was telling him i was trying to communicate the score of what is going on.
Got it. Okay.
I'm sorry. Max is locked in on the birds.
Philly sports. Got it.
You've got LeBron, Luka. You've got Austin Reeves, Dalton Connect.
How many balls are there in the NBA? How many balls? There's one. On the court at any given time.
Well, actually, there's two. Lonzo and Lomelo.
Yeah, when they're out there. Yeah, yeah.
But there's one. So the Lakers, I guess you can score your way to maybe a playoff series win.
But I don't know. I feel like it's a great move long term for the Lakers.
I don't know if they're going to be good this year. They'll be good.
I just don't know if they'll win the title. There's more moves to be made.
There's more moves. That's not going to be the roster on Thursday.
It doesn't matter for like – LeBron might not win another title. Luke is 25, and they just have him now.
They're going to give him the max. He's going to stay in LA.
They're going to build a whole team around him. The food is healthier in LA too.
Yeah. Yeah.
He's going to go to Erewhon and be like, what the fuck is this? He's going to lose 10 pounds just looking at it. The conspiracy is when you see what other what other players all-star players all pro players the you know what the teams that traded them got back in return compared to what the maps got for luca that's where the conspiracy really really gets hot because it's like kevin durant they got a million picks yeah paul george the thunder got a million picks i mean we're gonna talk to windy but he i mean like the spurs first round picks, I think.
You don't think the Spurs would have given up nine first round picks for Luka? I mean, he, yeah, yeah, what was, Kevin was four first round picks in Mikael Bridges. And Luka is younger than that.
And like, it just makes no sense. I don't understand it at all.
Mikael Bridges for like three first rounds. I don't understand any of this.
It was shocking. I feel like everyone's still in shock the big loser in all this is the mavs fans i actually think the mavs might i mean anthony davis like they'll be a good team but it's the win anthony davis is a very good player he's 31 years old lucas 25 how bad do you think it must feel for anthony davis where you're like i'm a i'm an nba champion all pro like unbelievable player and everyone is like, what a terrible trade.
This is one of those situations where it's like if you – like two people that cheat on their significant others and then get together, it's like that relationship eventually is going to end up with them cheating again. Anthony Davis got traded to the Lakers when LeBron was like, we need help and we need to get everyone out of here.
And then I'm not saying LeBron said it this time,

but that's how he got there.

No,

he had no idea.

No idea.

He found out just like the rest of us.

Yes.

Now,

did you see the press conference that Jason kid did with Nico?

No,

that was awkward.

Well,

it was also the entire Mavs team sat out tonight.

They basically protested and they lost by a billion to the cat.

It was very awkward.

You had Nico sitting next to Jason Kidd,

who looked like he was in a hostage tape.

And Jason Kidd didn't know about it until the trade happened either.

And then Nico was like, yeah, you know,

this might be one that we look back on.

Maybe it could be the greatest thing that happened.

It could be bad.

And Jason Kidd is just like, Jesus Christ.

What is – did he like lose his –

Something happened.

Something has to have happened because otherwise it makes no sense and it's it can't just be Lucas fat and obviously we had the clip of Nico after they won the Western Conference last year taking the beer out of Lucas hand maybe that's where the rift started you never take a beer out of another man's hand but something had to have happened it can't just be Lucas 270 pounds but he's not bad Luca also twisted the knife I feel reallyavs fans, but his statement where he was like, I love Dallas. I thought I was going to be here for my whole career and win a championship.
I'm sad it didn't happen. If you're a Mavs fan and you read that, that's devastating.
Did you see the Mavs fans with the casket? No. They had a casket outside of American Airlines Arena.
It was just like he died. I mean, I don't know how you...
How do you get off the mat if you're a Mavs fan? You just went to the finals with Luka. Yeah, he's a little pudgy.
Yeah, he's a little out of shape. He's 25.
I do think he's going to get in really good shape with LeBron. That's where it's like, if you treat him because he's fat, that's a fixable thing.
But he's also not. The thing is, he's not fat.
He might be fat he might be a little pudgy he doesn't play defense yeah well he's not in the best shape that he could be in and that obviously you need him to be in better shape but i do i think he's in better around lebron he's in better shape than zion well that was the thing is zion's got to be like i want i would imagine zion was like watching this trade happen he's like wait they can trade you because you're fat? This is going to be bad.

That was James Harden's entire strategy.

Yeah, right.

It's true.

Yeah.

Yeah, but he was just like, uh-oh, I better try to get in better shape.

Oh, no, I'll get traded to the Lakers.

Yeah, right.

You guys already just said what the score is.

That I wasn't even looking.

That was Hank.

You guys are not locked in.

Max is not locked in.

I'm locked in.

No.

Max is not locked in.

Max also isn't wearing any birds gear. Why aren't you wearing any Eagles gear? It's a long week.
It's Sunday. It's Sunday.
We saw a woman with birds gear. Question.
Do you have enough Eagles gear to wear for eight days? With me? No, in life. In life, yes.
So why would you just pack eight days worth of Eagles gear? It's Super Bowl week. I will wear Eagles gear every other day.
Like every other day, meaning you wear it tomorrow, then not Tuesday, then you'll wear it again on Wednesday? No, I'll wear it. Every day this week? Yes.
If there's another Eagles fan that walks by you, they don't know to say go birds. Incorrect.
I think they look at Max and they know. I got it.
Someone did did it in the lobby today right when they as they were giving me shit about not wearing eagles gear and that no one was going to say go birds some guy walked by right away said go birds go birds i would be head to toe on commander skier if we're in this game max head to toe you basically were i've been thinking his clothes stolen come on one point game yeah one point game it is it's sad because i i got here and i just looked at outside and i was like how awesome would this week be if the commanders were in the game i would like our chances if we were playing this game i really would even after losing by a lot no no because if we were in this game no but what if they had just been like you know what you guys are going to this like if all the if every Eagle got arrested, if they shut down the team, there's still time. Would you still like your chances? No.
Okay. No, but if we had beaten the Eagles.
I would agree. If we had won, I would love our chances.
I would like your chances as well. Yeah.
All right. So anything else on Luka? It's baffling.
The Mavs. I need to cube it unfiltered.
That's what I really. I don't know that.
I'm sure he'll release some type of statement, but I would love for him to just. And people are blaming Cuban, which I, like obviously he had nothing to do with it, but he did have something to do with it because he sold the team and Mark Cuban never in a million years would have traded Luca because he understands the NBA.
And when you have a top five guy, you don't trade him when he's 25. And that's all like windhorse and all the other you know guys on tv the insiders are like i've never gotten reached out by this many gms and you know people within the league being like this makes no sense that's what none of it makes sense to anyone except for nico there's gonna be some other stuff that is very yes i feel like we're gonna see the athletic is gonna write a post-mortem on this trade in like in like two months yeah that's when you're going to get the real one yeah it's like here's exactly everything we'll probably hear something later on this week but i don't think we're going to know the full story for a while and i don't think that this is done but hey credit to the nba it's super bowl week yep and all it took was the most bizarre trade of all time yeah to get us to talk about the league they are going to trash luca this week there's going to be a lot of like i even saw something like well they don't know his injury might be take him longer to get back to talk about the league.
They are going to trash Luca this week. There's going to be a lot of, like I even saw someone be like, well, they don't know his injury might take him longer to get back.
Who cares? He could have been out for this entire year. You still don't trade him.
Oh, they were worried about giving him the Supermax. Who cares? It's crazy.
Fourth of July, Kevin Durant Warriors was like the last time. Yeah, we're shocked.
And that was, you know how shocking it is when you saw actual players like Kevin Durant being shown on the sideline and him being like, what? How is this? I just don't understand the part that I can't get over. Like, take out the fact that it's shocking Luka got traded.
Like, the Mavs, they'll be good, but only for a couple more years. Who knows what's going to happen with the Mavs? Everyone wants Luka.
Why didn't you just say, hey, Luka's available? Every team would have lined up to give everything for Luka. That's the part that makes you do the wind horse fingers.
It's like, why? Why this guy? And then why don't you give every other team an opportunity to bring their best and final offer, and then you get a fucking King's ransom? Because Luka even said he had no idea about this, which, again, you're right. We're going to find out more in a couple months.
But the only way that this trade would make sense is if Luka said to them, hey, I'm never signing the Supermax here. All I want to do is go to the Lakers.
And then he has to do whatever he can to get him to the Lakers. But still, even then, your GM just, you have the leverage.

Go fucking trade him somewhere else.

I don't think that would happen.

What player would be like, I don't want to sign the Supermax?

Players sign with shitty teams for Supermaxes all the time.

That's how Bradley Beal ended up in Phoenix.

But the thing is, with the GM and his statement that he put out afterwards,

he said, like, this is us getting ahead of what could be a tumultuous summer

as we decide whether or not to give him the Supermax. he basically didn't want to have to make a hard decision it's not a hard decision so he trades a hard decision yeah like i don't know sign him supermax put him on ozempic that's an easy decision i i don't get it i none of this makes sense to me i'll be baffled forever for this trade unless something crazy comes out.
It's like Luka actually is going to retire and move back to Europe. What about the International League? What about it? What if they have Supermaxes? We have a Supermax at home.
I have floated this on the plane. I don't know if that's what Max is bringing up.
That they're starting there's a lot of shit floated out on the plane by the way this might not be a full conspiracy theorist on us it might not be meant for the podcast but uh since max brought it up i was like oh what if lebron with when he starts his international league he gets the saudi oil money in and luca knows that uh he's gonna be able to get paid 500 million was this before or the Hank said that we have like five years max left to live because maybe that's why he's sacred anymore maybe maybe Max maybe Nico is under the line of thinking of of Hank where it's like just joking around Luca we only have a five-year window on life I'm just trying to like the world time Luca being 25 means nothing he's like have you noticed that we don't talk about the bridge in baltimore anymore something's up the dolphins by the end of it i think there's an underwater volcano that's going to go off and no one cares about it i think hank fully believes that we're living in a simulation podcast discussion you brought up the simulation i got you deep into the simulation i didn't even know about the simulation until you brought it up but now you think you're living in No, you think you're living in one and you trying to indoctrinate me. Oh, simulation.
I know. I got you deep into the simulation.
I didn't even know about the simulation until you brought it up. But now you think you're living in one.

No, but you think you're living in one, and you're trying to indoctrinate me.

Oh, wow.

You're too real.

Yeah.

You keep it too real.

I was just trying to have some light combo with the boys.

About we're all going to die.

Oh, while we're on the plane, let's talk about some plane acts.

So yeah, memes just being like, oh, yeah, some British TikToker predicted that there

would be a plane crash of a social media company.

So that was cool.

I'm just... We're on the plane.
Let's talk about some plane accidents. Yeah, memes is being like, oh, yeah, some British TikToker predicted that there would be a plane crash of a social media company.

So that was cool.

Social media.

A couple.

A couple.

Yeah, a couple.

We're a couple.

I'm just going to enjoy all my time with you guys.

So the International Basketball League, that could be a thing.

Worldwide Wob said, I will say this.

Something I've been made privy to this morning.

The timing of the International Basketball League is not a coincidence. Oh, was I right? Worldwide Wob.
Source. Question.
Answer. Score.
Oh, I was looking at Twitter. Answer.
Yeah, it's over. Saltz are at five.
Let's go. Minute 12 left.
Stay locked in on the birds. Yeah, who cares? I want the Sixers a tank anyway.
Other sports. Well, there was one other person that weighed in on this trade, Schefter.
Adam Schefter. And I think we have to discuss this with him at the combine.
But he tweeted out, an NFL equivalent. The Ravens trading Lamar Jackson plus to the Bengals in exchange for Joe Burrow plus.
No, not even close. You don't agree with that? First of all, I don't know.
Ages are different. I told him that Lamar Jackson plus and Joe Burrow plus.
Who is who in this situation? That sounds like a streaming service. Yeah.
Like he's exchanging two different. But in that, there's no ADs.
The one that I saw that made for the nfl would be like after the bengals went to the super bowl because they lost in the super bowl like like the mavs lost in the finals it'd be like trading joe burrow for like dak prescott you'd be like why why would you do that if dak had won anything yeah i guess if dak had won the bubble champion the bubble champion matt stafford but yeah the bubble chain yeah matt Thatord would be a good one but yeah like trading joe bro in his prime yeah right before like to someone who's also good but i guess yeah matt stafford's more because dak is 17th ranked quarterback someone who's older it's like why would you do that that makes no sense but nice try But I like him getting involved. Yeah.
And then everybody else was just putting trades in NFL terms all day. Do you think Woj would have known about this? I think Woj.
Is this a Woj vacuum where we were surprised because Woj isn't with us? Here's what I like to imagine happened. I like to imagine that Woj got the scoop.
Yeah. And he had it first.
He knew it for a week. And he looked at looked at his phone and there was a moment where he thought to himself I'm about to go back to the old me yeah and then he smiled and he goes nope I left that life behind a long time ago and put the phone away yeah and just didn't log on for about 12 hours he's beer man in the St.
Bonnie student section he's like no this is the life I live now yeah i'm here with my people yeah yeah

i like to think he knew he should have he should have just tweeted being like i knew about this yeah just eyeballs it was waiting for this to come out crazy story yeah oh yeah that's right they told me about this two months ago just give us give us the eyeballs next time you know something you don't have to break it yeah he could do that for every single one um all right Other national sports podcast news.

Coach Cal going back to Kentucky, dropped his nuts on Kentucky. That sucked for Kentucky fans.
I also, did you guys see there was like multiple people being like, don't boo him? Yeah, that was a big conversation. Yeah, fucking boo him.
Yeah, boom. Boom.
He wanted to leave. Boom.
You can celebrate him when time has passed and he's not coaching the SEC anymore. There'll be a night where you can have Cal come back and celebrate the 2012 team and all that shit.
You boo him when he comes back right now. Yeah, agreed.
He's a league rival. Yeah, exactly.
Boo him. Boo the fuck out of him.
Chip Kelly's back in the NFL. Yeah.
Raiders. Love that.
Is he just going to bounce around? I kind of like this. Yeah, I think so.
I don't know if one place can tie old Chip down. Yeah.
But yeah, he had a great season at Ohio State. His stock was at a high.
It was at a premium. It was.
And so Pete Carroll, Chip Kelly, do I like what they're building in Las Vegas? I think I might. Yeah.
Oh, I forgot this one. Stat Hole Sports, our guy, he did mention that Luca was 300 points away from breaking the all-time Mavs record for points scored, which is held by Michael Finley.
Michael Finley is part of the front office. Oh, interesting.
So maybe Michael Finley was like, can't lose this stat. What? Breaking moves.
Luca's actually 300 pounds.

Sacramento is finalizing a trade to send De'Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs in a multi-team trade that moves Chicago Bulls' Zach Levine to the Kings.

Yes.

All right.

They did it.

All right.

So De'Aaron Fox to the Spurs.

De'Aaron Fox on the Bulls would be fun.

No, we want to lose.

I feel like that's a great trade for the Spurs. L and I are in a losing offense.
Darren Fox. Where do the Spurs give up? Terms are not out yet.
Okay, so it must be somebody really good. No, that's great.
That's great for the Spurs. I want to see Wimby in some actual serious playoff time this year.
Wait, so what else is in the trade? De'Aaron Fox to the Spurs. So what do the Bulls get? Do they even get a pick? They cut sweet right now.
It's finally, let's lose some games. No, the Bulls actually did it.
Lose, get picks, lose some more and more picks. I mean, they shouldn't.
I'm tired of being the 10 seed and losing the playing game. Bulls need to get mellow.
You want the balls together? And draft solo ball? The balls in Chicago would be electric. Yeah.
The Chicago balls? Chicago balls. Glennie? Glennie's their coach? All right.
So, all right. That was good breaking moves.
It doesn't hit like the Luca trade though. No, nothing's going to hit like the Luca trade.
That wasn't where we're like, that was, I was, I was in bed. Everyone, everyone remembers where they were.
I was also in bed. I was in bed and then I didn't sleep for like an hour and a half.
Like I was, I was ready to go to sleep one last check. And then I was like, there's, way this is happening and then i was sleeping i was taught i was so exhausted from the taylor mathis versus jeff the new spaces that i had to go to bed i was sleeping and steven chase tweet broke with the news to me what was steven chase street again it was so fucking dumb and that's how i found out and i was so pissed a baby that was conceived during the mavericks celtics finals would not yet be born and Luka is no longer on the Mavericks.

What a stupid fucking tweet. I read it like four times.
I was like, what does this mean? And then I finally read the quote tweet underneath. And I was like, holy shit.
It just means less than nine months. It happened.
Yeah. All right.
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Who's back of the week?

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Way to work golf into it.

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Okay.

I saw it.

27th went on tour. He nuked a drive like 340 yards and then hit a 7-iron 220.
Yeah, easy eagle. If I had that distance, it'd be so good.
The Bulls got no picks. All right.
All right. Kevin Herter, though.
Kevin Herter. Red hair.
He's a friend of ours. Yeah.
Fuck yeah. Herder injured.
I knew they were. They just got rid of Levine.
They weren't going to get picks. I think we said this with Russell.
They weren't going to get picks. So they just offloaded Levine, basically.
Yeah, but they're going to get picks when they keep their pick by not finishing in the playing game. They're getting worse.
I'm updating my tweet. Okay, no picks now, but picks coming, I think.
No picks. You got to get worse before you get better.
No picks now. You got to get real bad.
But picks when they lose. Do you guys have cap space? And can keep their picks.
Well, yeah, because Zach Levine was taking up a lot. The picks when they lose, that's the plan.
Balls. Chicago balls.
Picks in the future. Maybe.
Picks in the future, parentheses, maybe. Okay.
Rory McIlroy. Golf doesn't start until the Masters.
What are we doing? But this is a tune-up for the Masters. This might be his year.
This is the Masters tune-up? Oh, his year to what? Blow it and finish second? No. Yeah, this is the year.
You might turn around. You think so? Kind of after this weekend.
I like Jake Knapp. He's a great swing.
A little long shot. A little younger, but yeah.
Yeah. 20,000 to one.
Okay. I like Maxoma.
Same. I do too.
It's Max Week. Max Week.
It's Super Max Week. It's Super Max Week.
Birds Week. Yeah.
Birds Week. Max Week.
Okay, PFT, you're who's back? Truly's really good. Do people call them Truly and Edelman's? I think I might should.
Pass me one of those Truly and Edelman's. I like that.
I like that. I feel like that's got legs.
Yeah. My Who's Back of the Week is Six Nations Rugby.
Rugby is back. Oh, you guys are just so on brand right now.
Yeah. Listen, if you can six nations rugby there's something wrong with you check your ticker it's great wait you don't like six nations rugby hey what was this i forget what day was it thursday we're in the cave or maybe friday friday and saturday morning can you turn on some six nations he was just like what yeah well he's gonna start watching it's incredible uh england ireland had a great match on saturday morning it's a perfect thing to watch on saturday morning when there's nothing else if you don't want to watch soccer sevens no no it's full 15s yeah so it's 80 minute games actual starting national teams for all these countries and they just beat the fuck out of each other it's incredible to watch are we in it no we're not one of the Six Nations.
It's like the four aces. I probably couldn't name all of them.
Italy. Wales.
England. That's like one nation.
Ireland. No, these are the Six Nations.
France. And then who's the Six Nations? Australia.
All Blacks. I was watching some Jordan Mailata.
I think Sixth Nations.

He's a problem.

He was an issue on the pitch.

Is it what they call the pitch?

Yeah, the pitch.

Focus on football, though.

I mean, Jordan Mailata.

Scotland.

Focus on Jordan Mailata.

Scotland, Sixth Nations.

So we're going to win?

We're not going to lose.

We're going to finish second like Rory.

No, we're not in it.

The U.S.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

So we're not going to lose.

We're not going to lose.

That's a guaranteed.

All right.

My who's back of the week is Kanye West.

The Grammys were tonight.

He had his wife fully naked.

Hot.

Not fully.

I guess she had a sheer.

A sheer.

She was wearing a sheer.

Also wasn't invited.

Wasn't invited.

Hot.

Oh, really?

That's why I say I got kicked out on a court of him not being invited not the nakedness yeah so i assume when you read the tweet it's like oh he's getting removed from the grammys because of nakedness i was like no yeah i also think my general rule is if you're not invited somewhere don't show up naked yeah but i also think there should be a rule if you're as hot as his wife you should be allowed to be naked it's not a problem like hot people should be let hot people should be able to get naked he kind of got cocked by luca trade too because he was doing his like once a year random like twitter popping so that was tweets a million things yes so and that probably would have been what people were talking about this morning like oh do you see kanye's crazy tweets and nope so he tweeted uh he tweeted kamala seems like a very nice human i just want to say sorry to her kids and i was like oh that's weird and then uh i didn't realize that he had it was because he had just deleted a tweet that said i used to want to fuck kamala until she lost i don't fuck losers anymore and he spelled losers with two o's i also like i always said anymore that he like he recently was fucking loser yeah kim kardashian she's a loser um and then also uh my who's back is the world rumble so it happened uh jay uso won very popular with fans but huge surprise he won roman reigns and seth rollins were both eliminated by cm punk i I'm just reading Brandon's text to me. Punk was eliminated by Logan Paul.
Speed took that hit. Yes, I Show Speed was speared by Braun Breaker.
Braun is Rick Steiner's son. Cody beat Kevin Owens in a ladder match.
Was that John Cena's last match ever? What? I thought I saw that. No, he's on a retirement year.
It was his last rumble.

Yeah, his last rumble.

Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, that happened.

I mean, the spear was awesome.

It was.

I show speed needs.

That was legit.

He took a big-time bump.

Max Hoosier, who's back the week?

I don't know.

I normally don't do who's back the week.

Arsenal.

Arsenal.

Zao was excited about an Arsenal win. What happened? They beat Man week.
Arsenal. Arsenal.
What happened? Birds, dude.

Zah was excited about an Arsenal win.

What happened?

They beat Man City.

5-1.

Yep.

I was going to say 4-1.

Quite a result.

Might have been 4-1.

Quite a result.

Quite a result for the footy.

Huge result.

Arsenal was bad.

Bad result for Man U today.

Bad result for the Lions.

Yeah, are they getting relegated?

No, but they're getting towards the bottom of the league. It'd just be very funny if Man U got relegated.
That would be awesome. That would be the fun.
I'm rooting for that. Yeah.
That would be very late. Me as a fan of the footy? Yeah.
Rooting for that. Max, you're out of your walking boot.
Yeah, but it'll be back on during the Super Bowl. Oh, okay.
I have it with me. If anyone missed Max's performance in the case race, go watch it.

Because he was laying the boom.

I was drunk.

Give him out some bumps.

Laying the boom.

I was drunk.

That was not a Coke reference.

That was like an actual wrestling reference.

The boom.

Yeah.

Did you have any athletes reach out to you?

Colin Gillespie.

Yeah.

Nice.

That was awesome.

That's huge.

No.

Any others?

Colin Gillespie. Oh, I was thinking Colin Gillespie.
Yeah, that. It's weird that there's two guys.
Colin Gillespie, the one of a legend. And what do you say? Animal.
Exclamation point. Exclamation point.
Oh, nice. Nice.
Okay. Let's get to our interview with Andrew Luck.
Then we're going to talk to Brian Windhorst. Then we have a very special Monday reading.

And we're also going to get a prediction from Max on the Super Bowl score,

which we're going to do every single show this week.

Before we get to Andrew Luck, he's brought to you by Mountain Dew.

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Mountain Dew Baja Blast, it's always been part of my game day ritual.

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That is the best. The boys are cranking Dews.
Oh my gosh. I like cranking a Dew right at halftime.
Gives you energy for the second half. Put your fours up when the fourth quarter hits.
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Grab Mountain Dew Baja Blast for you and your crew wherever refreshing beverages are sold. And now here's Andrew Luck.
Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very special guest. This is a long time coming.
It is Andrew Luck in studio. It is so long time coming, Andrew.
I don't even know if you realize this, but your good friend and our good friend Sam Schwarzenegger is here. He's been working on it for probably six or seven years, but there was a moment where this podcast was going to read a book just to try to get you on this show.
Do you know how hard that is for us to read a book? And we were willing to do it to try to get into your book club to have you come be a guest so we've been waiting a long time for this that's amazing to know i do think you can do it i don't know i know i know you can't but that's like just to put it in perspective the our our listeners we've been doing this for nine years are nodding along being like holy shit that's like, oh, do you pay for guests? No, we don't pay for guests. But we did almost read a book for Andrew Luck.
Yeah, we tried to read the book. We bought Boys in the Boat.
I think that was book one of your book club. And we got through like the first page and we're like, this isn't for us.
Then we had Blake Bortles on the show. Yeah.
A friend of ours. And so we said, you know what? Instead of doing a book club, let's just do the Blake Bortles Wikipedia club.
Yeah. Where every time he's on the show, he'll pick a different topic.
We'll all read that Wikipedia page, and then we'll discuss. Yeah.
Did it lead to substantive discussion about new topics? Yeah, there were. Yeah, yeah.
There were a couple new topics. I'm trying to remember what we went over.
I mean, the big one was Blake learned that snow is wet. He had not realized it being from Florida.
From Dool man we well all right let's you know let's start there because i have a million questions but when you see introductory press conference from a coach knowing that you've lived it are you like should we as stupid fans judge this or is it like this is all just the same shit uh what you have to liam cohen doing the dovol oh you didn't you just had quote. I don't have heavy internet presence or access.
Honestly, everybody needs a friend like Sam for many, many reasons, including I know about you guys because he will send me text messages back in the day of big cat soccer takes. Yeah, they were bad.
So that's how I know about you. Yeah, they were always bad.
No, they were great. I mean, we do think.
Yeah, to give me context. Yeah, yeah.
We'll skip that. The phone thing, do you still have a flip phone? No.
When my daughter was born, I realized I needed pictures. Yes.
It was a deep, primal need to take pictures of my daughter and share pictures of my daughter. That's fair.
And see pictures of my daughter. How long did you, I mean, that flip phone thing, that was real.
You were just like, I don't want to be attached to the internet. I don't want to have people be able to text me all the time and call me all the time i want a flip phone yeah i it was real i'll be honest i don't think i thought too much about it i had in high school and i i did not feel the need to upgrade per se and i still am happy i didn't upgrade until when i upgraded yeah still a massive part of me that wants to go back.
Yeah but having a real job and like like look at me now i got two phones baby two iphone oh two computers oh so you're texting like non-stop now i'm trying not to yeah yeah yeah but when you got two it's like yeah you are on call with your real job you are the gm of stanford yeah is that fair to say is that the official title it's absolutely fair yeah so how that? What is your day-to-day like? Day-to-day is a lot. We hopped in during the transfer portal.
And when I say we, I mean the assistant GM as well, also named Sam, different Sam than that Sam. Also Stanford grad, a great guy.
But we hopped in during the transfer portal. And the day-to-day during a transfer portal was a lot different than the day-to-day now of like, okay, the roster, there's some solidity around it.

You obviously prepare for another portal in April, but different focus now.

It feels a little bit like a nine-to-five job, not like, oh my gosh, I've got to call this pairing up of a 20-year-old wide receiver from university XYZ and discuss many things about why why stanford makes sense uh for him so it's been a lot it's been like drinking from a fire hose in many ways but i love the school love the university and we're we're on the right path were you watching tape of some of the transfer portal the system that that we had uh i i inserted myself of watching the quarterbacks because I felt like I had to. I played quarterback.
Obviously, that is where my expertise is. And I'd watch a little bit else.
But no, I trust our folks, our guys and gals to go through the process and make sure we're getting out there with kids that can play ball and handle the academic regularly. So let's just say me and Big Cat are five-star recruits, both play quarterback.
What's your pitch to us? Because we're also getting offers from Miami, LSU, Ohio State, James Madison, all the big dogs, University of Texas. Wisconsin.
And then you want Stanford to be in that. You want us to be Stanford football players.
All right, there's a couple things. One, John Elway, Jim Plunkett, myself, Kevin Hogan.
Incredible history. Our head coach, quarterback.
When I went to Stanford, head coach was a quarterback, Jim Harbaugh. You guys' best friend, I understand.
Yes. Awesome.
Two, we are competitive in the NIL world. And and the stanford decision both is nil here and now and then i think in many ways og nil of like you're going to be connected to the best network in the world in whatever industry you want to you want to go in this place produces leaders at a scale that no other place in the world does i I mean, Stanford is special in that way.

And you're going to have a long NFL career.

You're going to crush it in college.

You're going to go to bowl games.

You're going to do all that fun stuff.

And then at some point, you're going to have to transition to be a podcast host and run

in a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate.

And you're going to want to know Stanford people to help you get there.

Okay, question.

That was a really good speech.

And we're very interested in Stanford. If we attend Stanford, will we have to read a book? Yeah, baby.
Okay. All right, so we're out.
We're out. Now, my condition is I just want to have a phone call with Tiger Woods.
Oh. Can you make that happen? Absolutely.
Oh. Okay, that's a good call.
Tiger was an honorary captain for us twice while I played. I think he's been honorary captain a few times.
There's a great story. We lost both of those games, though, so I got like a bone to pick with Tiger about that.
But it's a great story about Tiger that David Shaw, our old head coach, used to say, and he was our coordinator earlier in my career at Stanford, where David played for Stanford, so they got back at like 2 or 3 a.m. from like Cor or, you know, somewhere played a game on the weekend and it was raining and it doesn't off rain at up in Palo Alto and on campus.
Although it is raining today, I think. Um, when they get back, it's like two or three AM, they're riding their bikes back to the dorms.
And there's a guy standing in like the grass in the courtyard between the dormitories,

like with some type of club, like whacking the ground.

People are like, who is that?

What's going on?

So Coach Shaw walks over and it's like, Tiger, what are you doing?

He's like, it doesn't rain enough here.

I need to practice in the rain.

That's perfect.

I love that.

Committed to it.

When David Shaw was your head coach, were you ever like, hey, maybe we don't punt every time? No. Okay, all right.
That's just a gambling thing where he has punted in like, I think probably on the plus 35. I think I've seen him punt before.
He likes to punt. He's not punted on the plus 35.
I believe so against Northwestern. I'm pretty sure I could find him punting.
Okay, the internet will tell us. I'm going to find you.
David Shaw's worst punts. I mean, I have a – he liked to punt.
He liked to punt. There was times when he liked to punt.
All right, so how are you feeling physically? Do you feel – are you still having any nagging injuries or do you feel good? I feel great. I am grateful for where my body is at.

I can do the – I can ski with my kids and ski with my dad and ski with my friends.

I can go surf.

I can fly fish.

I can hike.

I can camp.

I can try to play old man pickup basketball.

That's awesome.

But that's hard.

Like you got to be in shape.

Yeah.

And I'm not in shape enough to do that.

Or just find somebody that's equally in bad shape and you say, hey, let's just not'll defend you you defend me we're not going to say any picks we'll hang out at three point line yeah that's a good but you don't often get to just do that though yeah you know sometimes you actually have to play defense and box out yeah yeah that's true i don't like every time i play basketball if i just get through without an injury i'm like that's a good day it's a win that's a good day. It's a win.
That's a great day playing basketball. That's a big win.

And it's fun to play pickup hoops.

Like, genuinely fun.

Yeah.

It's good to just get a sweat going.

That as well.

Get a sweat going, not get injured.

That's a successful workout for me.

Your coach at Stanford, Jim Harbaugh, great friend of ours.

We all know he's a special guy.

He's a very different guy.

When was the first time that you realized that, hey, Jim harbaugh is wired a little bit differently from everybody else uh that's a good question good question thank you great question great question thank you yeah fantastic question uh he he certainly has a charisma and an energy that comes off of him that that is authentic uh and it's part of what I think drew a lot of us recruiting wise to Stanford at that moment you know that he was hired after a 1-11 season and some down years um and so to go there around that time I think you you took a leap of faith I certainly took a leap of faith but I I think I think the 17 yearold Andrew myself realized that he was going to get the most out of me as a quarterback, like that it was going to be hard and challenging, but that's, I think, what I wanted, and I think what a lot of the guys who went to Stanford wanted was to be pushed and to get, you know, to become the best version of football player they could be under him. I'm trying to think of specific moments.
I do remember sitting in his office with my father like my dad took me for spring break out to out to the west coast to like do like unofficial visits or whatever and then go ski in tahoe which was an awesome father-son trip and go to a san jose earthquakes game which was super fun too uh i remember sitting in his office and we were sitting there during construction and jim was like i don't mind don't construction. They're building me a bathroom.
We're trimming fat. We're cutting drag.
Really efficient. I thought, yeah, this guy's thinking about efficiency on football so he can have his own bathroom.
And this bathroom's a little bit controversial. I think there's a great Pete Carroll quote about it where he's like, well, we at USC walk down the hall like everybody else.
The rivalry rocks. That's wasted energy.
Yep, cutting drag, trimming the fat. And that was how the experience for playing him was like.
I mean, you were kept on your toes. There was a lot of energy.
You were pushed, pushed hard. It was challenging.
You know, football's not an easy game. It's not easy to be a good team.
It's not easy to develop, you know, players. And he certainly pushed us and challenged us.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, he is a great coach, and you see it even with the Chargers this year. They're in a rebuilding year, and they went to the playoffs, and his culture, you just see it in the postgame and how much everyone buys in.
Was that immediate when you got to Stanford, and you're like, okay, this is like everyone's bought into what he's selling and you can feel it in the locker room and you can feel it in training camp. That's a good question.
I think. Thank you.
I'm going to stop saying good question. Yeah, we're going to do that every single time.
It's like a bit. No matter what.
When you say good question, then we all compliment the question. But it's a very effective technique in terms of like if you get asked a question, then you say good question gives you like five seconds yeah about what your answer is going to be and then we just compliment each other i'm hedging for time yeah yeah uh i forgot the question yeah it was such a good question it was such a good question like in terms of culture when you when you get when you get to stanford and you're watching how he deals with the team and how he coaches the team, was it immediate where you're like, okay, I made the right choice and what he's doing and what he's building here is going to be special? Yeah, I didn't doubt that for a second.
And the staff was awesome. Coach Shaw, Willie Taggart, we were around an amazing staff, our strength coach, Shannon Turley.
But I also think as an 18 year old part of me i think once

you get there you're just like i just want to do everything right and be a good teammate and be a player and and you don't i i wasn't thinking too big picture right about it and i certainly didn't go in like i decided to go to stanford so why would i go in and doubt what this was all about right um so i don't think i was thinking too too too much sort of at the meta level uh about it And then I think the proof does have to be in the pudding on things, right? I think while we registered in my freshman year, we won more games than the previous year. So you can point to that as proof of progress.
And then I think we understood that this was going to work and it sort of did. And like, I got to play around there with some really incredible football players.
Like last night, Sam and I had dinner with Jim Dre, the tight ends coach for the Chicago Bears. He was one of the older guys in the locker room when we came there.
He was an incredibly tough dude. He tore everything in his knee on punt before he got there and walked himself unaided across the field to get off.

Right.

And then comes back, and he's a second.

I think he ended his career at Stanford as second team all-conference,

Pac-10 at the time, RIP, with 17 catches.

Right.

Like what tight end gets a second team all-conference?

Right.

But he was tough.

He blocked.

He did everything right.

So we played with a bunch of good players and had a lot of fun and bought in.

Yeah.

Did they call the big guns when they were recruiting you?

And did they have Stanford Steve give you a call?

No, I didn't talk to Stanford Steve until I made it.

Okay.

Yeah, then he gave me the time of day.

Yeah, then he was like, all right.

I love this, Steve.

By the way, fourth and five from the Northwestern, 37.

Okay.

Punt.

Is that plus 35?

I'm just saying punt.

It's plus 37. I mean, that's a crazy punt with Christian McCaffrey.
10-3 game, second half, fourth and five on the Northwestern 37. I remember these things.
That is impressive. He's the winningest coach all time in Stanford football.
Doesn't matter. For me it's like I'll I'll just – if I ever meet him, I'm just going to be like, why did you punt on the 37 in 2015 against Northwestern? That game was here.
Yeah, it was. And it was – I just – I'm pretty sure I bet Stanford because I was like, oh, there's no chance that, you know, Northwestern is going to beat Stanford.
And then he punted on the 37, and I was mad for life. I'm so uncomfortable.
You talk about betting on Stanford right now. You guys were good.
No more. What about the bowl game against Oklahoma State when you guys – you ran the same run play, was it 13 times in a row? Was that it? No, not in the bowl game versus Oklahoma State.
Oh, who was it? I need to check the archives with Sam. It was against SC, USC? Sam just said that you punted, what, 30 – We only punted 34 times.'ll only punted 34 times when you're the quarterback okay well you were a little different than yeah the the i mean you you don't have to have your teams punt that much so uh all right so the a punt can be an incredibly effective play from the 37 like i got to play with pat and indy and he had an all pro year aster.
And, like, when you're pinning guys in the 10 and the 5.

Oh, this was a touchback, by the way.

It's a 17-yard punt.

Yeah.

So there you go.

Next topic.

Walked right into that one.

I do love the fact that you enjoy a good punt.

Jim Trestle, he loves the punt. Yeah.

He's got a good sweater vest, too. Yeah.
He's the biggest fan. It's the only play in football where it changes possession.
Yeah. Like designed.
By design. By design.
By design. So what was the hardest thing that you had to do at Sanford? You said that it was like you wanted to challenge yourself.
You get there. And you're like, oh, this is really hard, playing competitive college football.
What was the hardest thing that stood out? And you're like, okay, this isn't high school anymore we had tough practices now as a quarterback practice football practice is fun I think as a lineman football practice isn't fun yeah right uh so like we we used to like freshman year red shirting you know and maybe red shirting is not in vogue anymore and I'm not sure why I think I think uh one of one of coach taylor's's our head coaches quotes we were talking recently was like Andrew you know not all experience is good experience you know you can go out early in football and and be damaged in a sense right but redshirt we used to have these Wednesdays of just like grinder full padded uh scout team you know we were running the scout team I maintain we may have had one of the better scout teams ever in the history of college football like david de castro john martin sam was center uh griff whalen chris awusu would come down and play like he was an all-american kick returner you know fast incredible um it was awesome uh but these would be like 30 play periods of full pads against us and we called it the March. And we would just sort of hum the Star Wars whatever it is.
You know, the whole time. But we survived those.
And I think we proved our mettle to each other. And I think that sort of helped us build this mythology that we are a tough team.
Even whenirting, we're like, we're doing 30 plays in a row of run to get our guys ready. So that was fun.
And balancing school and sports is hard. I mean, it is hard.
Like we do read books and go to class and turn in our work and do all the little things right. And so while it's, you know, you've got to go uh and and i certainly believe that about stanford i also think it's why stanford's so special for me and why i believe in it and that like you know the hard things genuinely have value to them yeah uh and stuff that's given to you for free or for nothing is cheap yeah at the end of the day and there's nothing there's nothing sort of cheap about the stanford experience what was it being uh for two years straight everyone being like he's the number one pick he's a generational talent because I always find that to be interesting to have that kind of pressure on a college kid when we've seen it a couple times where like a guy stays and everyone just is like hey they're talking about him and then what ends up happening is you kind of get picked apart a little bit because it's two straight years of being the number one pick.
And you're like, hey, this is kind of crazy. Just because I stayed, you're going to pick me apart now.
Did you feel that pressure of everyone talking about you like that? Bad question. Okay.
Bad question. So, look, like, I think, did my friends talk about that? No.
Not at all. Did my teammates talk about it? No, not at all.
Did my girlfriend who's now my wife talk about that? Not at all. Did friends on campus, professors? No, and I had a flip phone and I wasn't scrolling through whatever it was at the time.
So I think I was aware of the pressure. I also knew I'd earned, but part of it was like I'd earned.
I was aware also of how good I was at football. Right.
So like, okay, cool. People think I'm the number one pick.
Yeah, I understand why. I'm probably the best player.
Right. That's got to be a cool feeling.
It wasn't like, yeah, it was okay. And I don't mean that in like, yeah, my ego liked it for sure.
But it was also like, I don't know when you know, you know.

Right.

It's like earned confidence. Yeah.
And I knew that we, and I was on a team that earned all of that confidence. Right.
Like it was not bravado. I think it was more of a level of self-awareness that like, okay, yeah, I get it, cool.
But like I wasn't surrounding myself with it in a day. There wasn't a slow drip into my brain of go out to your number one,

your number one, whatever.

That's a very healthy way to deal with it because I don't know a lot of 20,

21-year-olds that would be able to deal with it that way,

having the whole world talk about you that way for two-plus years of,

hey, you're the number one pick.

Whole world, though?

Yeah.

There's a lot of people in the world that don't care about it. They all love football.
That's not true. Those are losers.
We don't care about those people. They don't listen to the show.
They don't exist. Why do you get out of bed in the morning if you're not doing your mock drafts? The whole world that I care about is what I should have said.
Thanks, big cat. As you go into that process and you're interviewing, all the teams are bringing you in, they're talking to you.
Actually, our colleague, John Gruden, said that you blew him away on the whiteboard. I have some questions from Coach Gruden.
Yeah, so Coach Gruden fell in love with you immediately. I'm assuming that you talked to a lot of teams that were not ever going to be in a position to draft you.
But how did those interviews go with teams that just kind of wanted to – I'll be honest, I talk to teams that weren't in a position to draft me not no like i think they didn't want to waste their time they don't want to waste mine like i should say like the 49er staff was all my old stanford staff by and large so of course to talk to them and hang out and chat like when at the combine and show up i wanted to get that experience and go to the room where everybody's sitting there and grab like you know that that was cool but like i i only really spoke with uh indianapolis and washington yeah yeah so and and and again like i think i knew yeah you know and and indy did make it somewhat clear eventually that like yeah we'd like to pick you yeah yeah and just having yeah the horseshoe and luck. Oh, yeah.
I felt like it was destiny at that point.

It's destiny.

Yeah.

Do you want your Gruden questions right now?

Sure.

Why not?

The first one, he said you have the greatest snap count in history,

so he wants you to do the snap count.

He's like, you've got to get him to do the snap count.

Let's talk snap count for a sec,

because this is like such a niche part of playing quarterback

that I worry so much with this whole like clap thing. Okay.
And there's value to the clap etc etc uh but i think pat mahomes is incredible at it i bet if you i bet if your stats if your analytics team i saw the whole analytics quarter we've got a big you've seen our analytics team it's these three guys big analytics how many phd's between they're just gonna google it and they'll probably google it incorrectly but I bet I bet if you look at how many offsides he's drawn over the last his career since starting I bet it's gonna be probably the highest ever it's gonna be probably the highest ever it's gonna be the ref cheat yeah yeah yeah I don't know anything about that Rogers but and then Rogers yeah so those two I I really enjoyed certainly Aaron because he was older and I you grew up watching and I remember you know all the free plays I feel like he would just hit a touchdown every other game to Jordy Nelson on a free play that was Buston to throw it up or Randall Cobb like it was awesome or James Jones and then when I got to Stanford Jim Harbaugh would do like a lesson for us he's like you gotta have, you gotta have, you gotta have a voice to play quarterback.

You gotta have a voice.

You gotta have a, it's gotta be gravelly.

It's gotta cut.

It's gotta cut through.

It's gotta cut through everybody.

You gotta cut, gotta cut.

And so he wanted us to have, not like Reddit, it had to have, like there had to be, it had to cut, you know, it had to go.

So I embraced it.

I think part of why, what I loved about playing quarterback, what there's, there's all these little things that you actually can work on. Yeah.
And working on a snap count was something that was fun and enjoyable. And we didn't draw a bunch of people off sides at Stanford, not at all.
But we were doing like double counts and long counts because we actually had play calls where we killed and alerted things and needed to see what the defense was doing. So I feel feel very fortunate i was taught how to play quarterback while i was there right jim harbaugh david shaw the way greg roman taught run game to me it was a gift right i think i got to one it was awesome art that's what the identity of our team in many ways was this like very physical tough smart run game and also when i got to the nfl i felt like i'd been prepared to handle a run game.
Right. And if you can't operate a run game in the NFL, there's only so far your team's going to go.
Right. I think I truly believe that.
And then, yeah, snap count. Once I got to the NFL, though, Bruce Arians would dog my snap count in the first minicamp because i would sit there and go you know you go like so go red 80 you know to draw it out because i was thinking i was like oh fuck this is overwhelming and you wait wait you know ba and his voice which i can't do a great impression of who was who was amazing as well and worth probably a podcast series on him as a coach.
Yeah. He had some very nice things to say about you, too.
Yeah, we've had him on a couple times. I have very nice things to say about B.A.
as well. So we asked Bruce Arians if you were to take all the quarterbacks you've ever coached, because he's coached so many great quarterbacks, and if you were to piece them together by body part, by brain, okay, whose legs are you putting on here? Whose right arm? Whose brain? Whose heart? Whose hips are you taking? He goes, I'm going to stop you.
It's just all one person. And the answer is Andrew Luck for everything.
That's very kind of person. So he thought that you were the best quarterback at everything that he'd ever coached.
But I'm sure that there was something like when he was working with you that you guys just clicked immediately and kind of got each other uh he was awesome he was he taught football and looked at football in such a different way and like he he treated he coached everybody hard and like hard and it was and i and i appreciated that so much uh and then he'd you know he'd cuss you out or like you know whatever very colorful like. Very colorful.
Like an odd mixture of, like, East Coast and Southern accent. I don't know quite where it lands.
Yeah. Like real pirate-filled language.
And, like, he'd tell Bear Bryant stories. Like, oh, my God, he coached under Bear Bryant at some point.
Yeah. That's neat.
But, like, with the snap count, he was like, Andrew, what are you doing? Speed it up. Like, we got to go.
And this was part of his thing bruce had a he didn't care about time of possession he cared how many points per you know he wanted a point a minute if we couldn't get a point a minute what's you know what's the what's the point of holding on to the ball what does it matter he was awesome and then i realized in snap like guys so with snap i'm gonna go back to the snap that's related to bruce bruce was bruce was really fun to play with adam for a year and it was an incredible year too because coach pagano got sick with leukemia and bruce took over and like i was certainly very focused on playing quarterback because you have to be it's it's too overwhelming of a position to think about much else uh requires but like it wasn't only honestly till i retired and looked back like oh, oh my God, Coach Pagano was going through, he was in a cancer ward five blocks from the stadium. That's scary.
Right. It's nuts.
And so BA guided that ship and then certainly got the opportunity to be the head coach and have this amazing success that I was super stoked for. But with snap counts, because we got to go back to snap counts because it's important you have the best ever greatest snap count in history it wasn't but our our I started to really like Anthony Costanza like left tackles like there's I think there's like two personalities that play left tackle either you're completely type b and just like chill or you are as neurotic as neurotic can be and just like so focused on everything to help give you an advantage because it is a tough position to play.
I mean, really, really, really tough. And so I realized that Anthony and I started having these conversations about how to help each other, how to help each other and realized snap count was needed.
Yeah. And it's obviously there's self-preservation as part of that.
But we, you know yeah, I realized like when you're under center, you know, on the hut, if you're doing a hard count, you need to flex your bottom hand to make it look like the ball is about to come. So if you had a three-tech or a nose who got the jump on hand, like you use that.
You had to marry snap counts and words from previous. And I wasn't, you know, this was a thing, this was an iterative process, so I was certainly better at it at the end of my career than not.
But, ah, snap counts. Snap counts.
I hope football doesn't lose snap counts because they're too good. Yeah.
You try to get me and Big Cat to jump? Yeah. So there's a couple different ways, but, like, the biggest way is this.
Everybody knows, you know, hut is, like, the word to go. So I preferred the hut, hut, hut rhythm

as opposed to the hut, hut rhythm, right?

So an on one would be like,

so go, color number, color number, hut.

So go, green 80, green 80 hut.

And that's the ball snap, right?

And so then a hard count,

the one I preferred, the one I settled on, the one I'd consider as part of my, like, it's my baby. And I'd be curious if other coaches or other quarterbacks think about this.
It was like the, so go, green 90. Green 90, hot, hot, hot.
I jumped. I jumped.
That was awesome. I don't need to do that enough.
Yeah. I mean, it's your baby.
Yeah, I'm just going to start. I'm just going to walk through the airport.
I'm going to walk through Midway today. Thinking about that all day.
That's great. Got you to move.
Yeah. Yeah.
Great question. All right, so here's the other question.
This one's not as nice. He said, I thought he had the ugliest beard in the history of quarterbacks, and I studied this carefully's a weird it's a weird question i like that i studied this carefully because i actually believe does john gruden not study anything yeah right i believe that he literally had like a big board of all the beards and was like yeah i believe i believe in second chances i believe i deserve a second chance it looks good now yeah yeah i think we're in the same sort of i can't grow as well as good of a mustache yeah though but it does get long when it gets long it gets a little unkempt oh it definitely was unkempt yeah what time when you play quarterback do you have to shave though yeah what time you got to cut drag you got to trim the fat you got to focus on what's important you my beard was not important so you you had you had that uh i read that incredible article uh in 2022 about you and like post football and everything in the decision and and you had that quote of like you don't have time for basically anything else if you're a quarterback in the nfl and that one quote i can't remember who said it to you like if you're a quarterback in the nfl you have to think of yourself as god's gift otherwise the the doubt creeps in and that's got to be a weird feeling to have to hold yourself to that and be like, I have to control everything and only think about this one thing.
Not exactly healthy. I would imagine.
Yeah. And I think this is an idea that I would certainly love to keep fleshing out and talk to others about.
Yeah. I think it is, it is fascinating.
And, and it certainly the, the quote comes off as quite extreme and maybe in real life, it's not as extreme perhaps, but I do think there are kernels of truth in there for sure. Well, I mean, you're a quarterback, and they call it the most important position in sports for a reason.
It is the franchise rests on the quarterback's shoulders whether they want it to or not. Yeah, I do, when I think about it and whatever, had the time to process and think think I do think when you go on the field as

a quarterback you cannot leave any room for doubt and I think one way of doing that is is and especially it's connected to preparing and working hard and like you know being on it etc but you you have to go out there thinking that you like you are god's gift right to this thing it's and that's a level, it's an, it is an intense level of confidence. Yeah.
And I do think you, you know, and, and, and I grew up in football. I had like, my dad was my Pop Warner coach.
He played quarterback. So obviously as a kid, I had a schema and like, I want to be like my dad.
I want to play, play quarterback. And then I had great high school coaches, coach Allen, coach green, coach Sanders, you know, Jim Harbaugh, David Shaw at Stanford.
So I was taught that you had to work hard. You didn't just roll the ball out there and feel like, you know, the preparation was part of it.
And so that was part of what I knew. I had to convince myself, you can do this, dude.
Yeah, you're talented, all this stuff, but like you're putting the work in and you're putting the work in with a team and that like, that was the only scheme I, scheme I knew. Uh, and yeah, and I did

not, you know, I did not while I played do a great job of tending to life outside of

it, uh, including relationships and thankfully, you know, didn't burn, burn too many bridges

and mess too much up your vocably, but that it's a, it's an odd, it's an odd balance for those playing think for those playing the position yeah and frankly i haven't talked to many others about it like that that have played quarterback uh in the nfl sort of at at that level and it is something i'm curious to hear from others about yeah of how they sort of psychologically handled it right yeah right i think the the great quarterbacks kind of see that same burden and that same responsibility they have to throw themselves into it because they feel okay it's on me in order to go out there and you know do the best for my teammate do the best for my coach i'm going to need to be the most prepared person in the world but then there's some guys that are just like no it's a job it's fun but they don't reach that that high level of success would you say that like did you get burned out on playing quarterback that's a good question good question thank you damn it no it's okay it was a good question i could tell i could tell you that was a good question like was is there a burnout factor uh uh not about being court maybe a little bit about being quarterback and i think in in that article you referenced, Big Cat, that I think I addressed that to a certain degree. Injuries adding up, I think, is a common theme in any professional athletes sort of coming to an end in a career.
And that was certainly a big part of mine. And yes, parts of it, I think, got tiring.
Maybe that's too light of a way to say it. Maybe burnout is, yeah, part of it for sure.
Was football still fun for you at the end? No, not like a game. And I found the fun in it again, though, not playing, which is, I'm not going to say full circle, but I think the windy way that life works.
I did not love football when I, you know, and I did not love football like you need to to play quarterback. I think I also realized that to go back to playing quarterback, you're either like all in or you're not not it's a print to me in my mind the scheme of of how like how you emotionally invested physically psychologically spiritually invested in quarterback is like it's binary right you either aren't or you are 100% in and I and I hit a point in my life where I was like I I am unwilling to hop to the 100% end, so I can't do it.
Yeah, and the article was, like I said, really great because I feel like you were able to fully explain it. And I, reading it, was like, oh, I think I understand the complexity of this because as fans, we just see it as Andrew Luck just walked away from something that everyone would dream, their dream job.
Like, how could he do this? But were you shocked yourself when you came to the conclusion, like your own conclusion? Were you like, oh, shit, I actually think I can, I do kind of want to walk away. Because I feel like that would be a very illuminating moment where it clicks and you're like, oh, man.
Absolutely. It was by far the hardest decision of my life and then when it when it didn't when it did sort of finally when i allowed the sort of when i allowed myself to ask the actual question that mattered right and then and allowed myself to give an answer to the question that was truthful uh it was like whoa okay this is this has been hard but yeah this is what i have to do Right.
So there was a moment of clarity. It was the hardest decision in my life, but also the most clarity I've had about something.
And look, I did not feel alone through that as well. And I can't imagine going through a process feeling alone through that.
Like my girlfriend at the time, her wife, like my agents, my friends. I mean, Sam flew to Indianapolis to talk to me and this this was this was kick but like man it feels amazing to have people that love you around yeah like that's like we all deserve that and i and and then i'll say this it was my dream to play quarterback and i feel so grateful and privileged that i got to do that right it was awesome and it did not end fairy tale-esque by any means we did you know we have an you have an afc finalist banner yeah it's a great for us you don't have a super bowl banner for for that how many guys can say They have an AFC finalist banner.
It's a great banner. For us, you don't have a Super Bowl banner.
How many guys can say they have an AFC finalist banner? Not a lot. Not a lot.
Not a lot. Because they don't make those banners.
When they hung that up, were you like, oh, God. I didn't pay one bit of attention.
I have no idea when it was hung up or taken down. I understand that you guys have had a story about it for a while.
This is back to you having a flip phone, which is smart. Yeah, which is cool.
But Sam explained on the drive-in that there's going to be a banner there. I was like, I think I know that there's some story behind this.
And then it turns out the banner is huge. Yeah, enormous.
Enormous. So when you do make the decision and you i i always felt bad that it like got leaked obviously with schefter and then you have the moment on the field that that had to be like really hard to have to have it be rushed because you had it probably in your head like hey this is how i want to do it i know it's a big decision i know it's going to shock some people but then have it kind of taken away from you where someone else reports it and you don't get to say it and then you have to deal with the fans on the field and everything that sucks yeah i ain't gonna lie it was difficult yeah uh also like you survive you move on i felt a couple things one i'd i'd written a draft a couple drafts of like a retirement press conference it wasn't like going to be a happy retirement press conference, obviously, not like, you know, like the traditional ones you see.
But I'd written a couple drafts and shared it with Matt Conte, our PR guy at the time, and I still think so. So he at least had a copy of something for me to talk about after the game.
So I was thankful about that. I felt good about it.
I was like, you know, this is like writing a paper for school and you actually put in a couple drafts and get notes back from the professor. Right.
Yeah, good job, Andrew. There you go.
Pat on the back. Yeah.
Two things. I had taken the opportunity to tell the guys on the team on Friday and Saturday morning that I'd been with for a while.
That's good. That I'd felt very much like tethered to, like T.Y.
Hilton. Yeah.
Who I yeah and who I like who made playing football like fun yeah like throwing to a dude like that I don't think people understand how fun it is when like you have a connection to a receiver like that when you're rookies together and you like fun and yeah and and and so that that was like the bittersweet the real bittersweet stuff was telling him

and Jack Doyle and Anthony and Quentin Nelson, who I didn't –

we played one year together as a rookie, but just like a lovable

and loving guy in Ryan Kelly.

So I'd had the chance to tell – and Quentin Gethers and some of the coaches.

So at least – and I didn't have a chance to tell everybody,

and that's what hurts because being a teammate.

But to a certain degree, I was also quitting on them. And I understand that, like, that's hard.
That's hard, and it's not, it's hard to celebrate that. Yeah.
And that's a part of me that, like, yeah, I get. You know, it stinks.
I live with that and own it, and that's okay. It's part of me.
Yeah. The other thing is during the game, like there i remember there are eight minutes left and i i swear i felt the like the cameras turn on me or something and like immediately like i don't know if you've had this experience in life where there's just such certainty that something has happened right it's like oh shit it's out yeah i know it's out and i just remember going and standing next to anthony costanzo i think mark lewinski and ryan kelly uh and just standing between them and just like hey guys i'm just gonna stand between you right for the next eight minutes one last time and i'm gonna stand and again i felt i didn't feel alone yeah and i think i don't mean this in a cheesy way like i felt like they had my back you know for those eight, for those eight minutes.
And I'll be forever appreciative of that and indebted to that because they were great teammates in a moment. They didn't have to be at all.
Then after this all comes out, were you aware that O.J. Simpson had just drafted you for his fantasy football team? Yeah, you didn't think of the fantasy owners.
That was my one qual. Everyone was doing the drafts.
And then O.J., Godj god rest his soul front of the program uh he drafted andrew luck and you just blindsided him did you ever apologize to oj for that uh unaware did not yeah i had no need to apologize yeah no no but the fan think about that question but think about the fantasy owners you were on oj's can't cut list which is a good place to be that is huge place i don't get it I don't get it. Don't explain.
The fantasy owners, though, it is always fun. We mock it because it's like a player will get a gruesome injury week two, and immediately people will be tweeting like, oh, my fantasy team's screwed.
It's like, yeah, but that guy just got really hurt. Think about that.
So, yeah, you screwed the fantasy owners over uh that late in the preseason what do you guys what do you what do you guys enjoy mocking most uh i mean there's a can you give me a good question uh darren revell probably yeah max uh a lot of things basically every where our whole show is basically the fact that sports are taken too seriously and it's just a joke. That I know about this show.
Can I interview you guys for a second? Yeah, go ahead. The genesis of it.
Good question. Yeah, good question.
Great question. Good question.
You can say talk about. Reporters love doing that.
Talk about the genesis. Well, the genesis of it was more of a good statement.
Yeah. Maybe it was.
Talk about that about that tell me yeah enlighten me indulge me so no we got very lucky because we started this at a time when podcasts were very new uh 2016 so we're coming up on nine years so like now everyone has a podcast we were uh not that podcasts didn't exist before 2016 but there was definitely a wide open lane for us and our goal from the very beginning was we have to have fun and make sure people know we're having fun because sports are supposed to be fun and i think this the world got very serious around that time as well so we became a little bit of a breath of fresh air where it's like hey we're not gonna we're not gonna burden you with any big picture things with any like politics with any serious topics we're gonna watch sports and we're gonna make fun of sports and make fun of ourselves more than anything so that's been the big thing and you did screw over the fantasy owners yeah well specifically oj yeah specifically oj like you were talking tell me more about the genesis yeah but you like were you guys watching listening to sports radio like like i used to listen to sports radio driving into school in high school and like we're i think me and big cat both had the same point of view when it came to like the sports media ecosystem which is you know they took themselves very seriously you would get dressed up in a suit and tie to get on tv and scream and yell about the national football league and it was like they weren't they weren't treating the viewers with respect almost it's like they became so self-important when they were talking about this stuff and then i also became obsessed with the comment section anybody that would like comment on an article and their their mindset that they almost took the league more seriously than people who were being paid to write and talk about the league. And it became just this giant, like, big ball of gas and bluster of everybody that was obsessed with insisting their viewpoint was correct.
And it was just very funny that they were taking it so seriously. So me and Big Cat started following each other online, and then we met up, had a beer, and said at some point we should do a podcast together and then you know time ticked by for about a year brought us to the right spot and we're like okay let's do this yeah that's awesome yeah so the etymology of pft commenter yes is that you were actually commenting i was obsessed with the comment section and you and you were injecting a levity and humor and not so serious takes i would in the comment sections or you just reading them I would read the comment section and then I created an account and a character that was like what if you gave your typical commenter their own blog and then gave them like a long-form place to write about everything and they had the stupidest takes on everything possible and so that's kind of where I I was.
So we intentionally have very dumb takes that might have a kernel of truth,

but we're mocking as well.

Like actually when you retired, I went to, in 2015,

I went to the Final Four in Indianapolis.

We got like taken out to St. Elmo's.

We went and sat in the basement where Peyton Manning used to do his dinners.

I think you used to do your dinners. And I asked what you order and i think the waiter said chicken and then like i i was like yeah no shit andrew luck retired he's a chicken guy over steak like that that's my take now you know what i mean like something like that where we're mocking this entire idea that like you aren't allowed to retire when you want to retire like you owed owed it to us.
Cool. Yeah.
So, but you did owe it to the fantasy owners and OJ. So wait, wait.
So the real question though, when you retire, because I think everyone thinks this, was there ever a second where you got a call or you're like, Oh, maybe I want to come back because that's, I think that's the part that people always are drawn to, whether it be Barry Sanders or Calvin Johnson

or anyone who walks away a little bit early.

Brett Favre.

Brett Favre.

They always think in the offseason or just random times like,

oh, maybe Andrew Luck will come back.

You know what I mean?

And so it's a dumb thing that fans do,

but they have that in the back of their head for a very long time thinking,

oh, yeah, maybe he's going to come back.

There was never a second where it was even like a little bit of oh maybe maybe i should do it nope that's i mean that's pretty awesome because i i don't think having that clarity and having that ability to be like that's it yeah because i'm sure you got calls no i i said the one from uh was it frank right texted you being like message in a bottle? I sent it out on SOS. I have a great relationship with Frank.
Yeah, yeah. And Nick Sirianni, I'm stoked for him as well.
But yeah, I would stay friendly with Frank. Yeah.
But no. And again, I love football in a different way now.
I volunteer coached at Palo Alto High School for the past couple years. That's why I'm back in this position for many reasons, you know, at Stanford.
But just not as a quarterback. Yeah.
I do have some tape for you that I want to watch real quick. Max, if you pull it up.
One of the things I loved about you quarterbacking is I feel like you were in the mold of, like, I don't want to swear on camera. You probably don't remember this, but this is tape of you.
You short-circuited when you swore by accident. Do you remember this? I absolutely remember it.
There's more context here. You're literally short-circuited.
I've never seen someone's brain short-circuit live on air. Alright, go ahead.
Look at the highlights.'s the guy that just makes plays. Oh, sorry.
She makes plays and, you know, just. I apologize for that.
Heading into a bi-week decision. You were so mad at yourself.
It was just a swear. You were, like, devastated.
My beard's not that bad. I didn't say your beard was bad.
Gruden said your beard was bad. John, Coach Gruden, my beard's not that bad.
I'm also like, you know, late 20s, not early 20s. I did say that was about Griff Whalen, who was my college roommate, a walk-on, Toledo, Ohio, Sylvania, Southview, earned a scholarship, had a legit NFL career, also one of Sam's roommates as well, one of my best friends in the world.
That was after thever broncos 2015 uh 15 i want to say okay 2015 what's this time stamp of the twitter thing oh this was just me after you retired i just said now you can swear whenever you want oh thanks yeah uh and we that was a uh peyton coming back to indy which which is like cool, like electric atmospheres.

There'd been a lot going on that year.

We were sort of going like this,

and then that year we were going like that.

And I lacerated my kidney in that game

with like seven minutes left.

Oh, no.

When a knee got me.

So I ended up in the emergency room the next day

because I was not feeling so very good.

And so I think that's truly authentically how I felt in the moment. Griff whalen just made fucking plays that game yeah and we won yeah and that was cool yeah and then yeah and amad bradshaw caught a touchdown to sort of ice the game uh yeah awesome yeah also anybody that sees you retire and is like that that fucking pussy i could i would would kill it to play quarterback.
You lacerated your kidney in a game. And you just described it as, I wasn't feeling very good.
Yeah, most reasonable people, if they went out there and they did something at their job where they went home one day with a lacerated kidney, they'd probably talk to their wife and be like, you know, I don't know if this is the right career for me. Yeah, I think that's a completely fair conversation to have.
And then there is a flip side to it, though. So once you reach that decision where you say, I'm confident, I no longer, my heart's not in it, it's not fair to everybody else.
If I keep playing, it's not fair to myself. If I keep playing, that's got to be a great moment of clarity where you realize confidently, this is what I want to do.
And then after you actually walk away, there's probably going to be some time where you have to establish a brand new identity for yourself. Because your job, if you're an NFL player and a quarterback especially, for so long, that's been a big part of your identity.
And so did you feel like, I don't want to say empty if that's the right word, but did you feel like feel like okay i need to separate myself and start my own new identity at this moment before i answer that i'll go back to the the job thing in the lacerating kidney i it was such a privilege to play quarterback and to make money doing it and do it like it was awesome so i i i never once felt pity for myself for playing the position and getting paid. Amazing.
Right. Amazing.
Two, identity. Yeah, it was way more.
Being a quarterback was way more of my identity than I realized. Absolutely.
And in discovering, I don't mean this, maybe it sounds mumbo jumbo, but like having to learn about myself and discover a new one. And like we had our first daughter born a few months after I retired.
That certainly helped provide purpose. Like obviously there's a deep biological purpose, you know, of like kids, you know, and, and tending to them.
Uh, but my wife also like she, you know, I was processing COVID hits. So we're all together with a little baby stuff.
And I was processing football and I'm on, you know, in a you know finding myself and had some amazing people you know through it and still and friends etc uh and she and she turned to me at one day and I'm an out loud processor like you know I did I just talk and most of it's just like air if I'm just you know and there's and she's like she turned to me one day uh in the middle COVID and I was like, is it possible for someone to talk about themselves more than you right now? And I said, probably not. I kept doing it.
We made it through. But yeah, a big part of it was identity.
And I think it's like sort of locating myself, who I am in the world and grounding me me in and I think that was part of the process yeah did you ever uh did your dad call you up when he started the XFL did he call you and say hey Andrew I can get you 25 really you want to come back for one season game bad question no not at all yeah yeah that's I mean it it's it's reading that article like I said everyone should go read it because it did feel like you do read i do read but it's an article it took me i think i i think that wasn't a short article i think i stopped and started four different times you made it through yeah but i made four quarters four quarters hey when you got to the fourth restart yeah like four quarter do you give yourself i was like hell yes put up the the floors oh man do you ever do you ever dream of football uh i have dreamt of football like do you have memories of like games and stuff where you're dreaming you wake up you're like oh shit that was no no i'm i the last time i dreamed about dreamt about football i want say, was like showing up to a locker room without the equipment

and freaking out.

Like, where's my helmet?

I can't go.

Like the embarrassed dream.

I don't know.

What the heck?

Like the freak out.

I'm never actually playing, but I don't have the helmet.

And my hip pads.

Where are my hip pads?

I need my hip pads and my tailbone pads.

I'm going to hurt my tailbone.

I think it's a pretty common dream. Most people have it just about high school.
They show up for the last day, and they haven't gone to that class all semester. You just think about that like football.
Like, oh, I'm not prepared. But it was once.
I don't remember what it was, but I remember waking up thinking like, oh, that's weird. Do you still watch the NFL? Yeah, I do.
Do you find yourself rooting for the Colts? Do you find yourself rooting for quarterbacks? I absolutely

have a soft spot in my heart for the Colts.

It was, I mean,

spent age 21,

drafted there. I felt like a kid when I

was drafted there. My girlfriend and I

went there. We grew up

in a sense there.

Our daughters were born there.

Highs and lows,

memories. Life was lived there.
Lived. I very much feel that so I absolutely have a soft born there.
Like, highs and lows, memories. Like, life was lived there.

Like, lived.

I very much feel that.

So I absolutely have a soft spot there.

And guys like Quentin Nelson and Ryan Kelly,

who's a free agent now, like Braden Smith,

Jack Doyle played after.

Like, Jack Doyle's one of my favorite teammates ever.

So, of course, root for those guys when things happen um and then watching the NFL for me now is who do I know on the team if anybody which gets fewer and fewer guys every year and now it's more what coaches do I know that are coaching on the teams and like so this year it's like watching Zach Ertz play for Washington it's like I've known Zach since he was 17. I was 18.
He's a year behind me in school. Like, we worked out together.
I accidentally whacked. One time I was, you know, we went through a phase where we were stretching with, like, those long wooden staffs.
Like, I don't know, it felt like a movie or something. And I was sitting there with it behind my back.
And I turned and I just whipped it around and I whacked him right in the face. And Zach didn't beat me up, which was good.
We always worked out together. So I root for him.
Yeah. For sure.
And Tavita Pritchard's the quarterback coach in Washington. And Tavita and I were teammates.
So I root for him, of course. And then Nick Sirianni and Vic Fangio are on the Eagles during their thing.
So I try to root for them as well. It becomes like my fandom, like my fandom is like soccer u.s national team like that's where i'll get fan of or like watching stanford men's hoops or women's hoops or any stanford team like that's where i let myself just be like a like a fan yeah because it's fun to be a fan right like really fun to be a fan uh but when when watching nfl it's more hey you know can my guys make it out healthy right and can they go ball out and win yeah i love that yeah i remember i think it might have been right before the draft you might have done like a walk and talk with peter king at some point and you you fascinated him with your love of architecture are you still a big architecture guy big architecture guy yeah yeah so i have a couple i have a tough question.
Also, I grew up reading Peter King. Yeah.
Yeah. So that was fun for me.
I loved getting Sports Illustrateds. I loved reading Rick Riley in the last page when I was doing that comment.
I died for the Houston Chronicle in the mornings in Houston because Norman Chad had a syndicated column, you know, like the nationally syndicated column there.

I felt like that type of humor hit me as

whatever, a 15-year-old kid.

So it was cool. Those were pinch-me moments

in the NFL, like walking with Peter King.

You guys were looking at the architecture. Was that in Chicago?

I don't remember.

It might have been.

Great architecture boat tour here, by the way.

Great architecture boat tour.

How many times have you been on it? Two times.

It's awesome. It's very fun.
Alright. So are you familiar with the premise FMK? Fuck, marry, kill.
So you got to fuck one. You got to marry one.
You got to kill one. No, no, no, no, no, no.
He's going to search the way. Short circuit again.
I'll listen to the question. I reserve the right to not answer a question.
Fuck, marry, kill, dork columns, Ionian columns, Corinthian columns. Ooh, good question.
Good question. Not answering it.
Could you rank them? Yeah, I rank them. Yeah, look, I want to, if I'm remembering correctly, the Corinthian column is a bit too flowery for my aesthetic taste.
Yep, yep. Doric has a level of simplicity and very much form is connected to function, which I find pleasing.

And Ionic, yeah, it's cool.

It's groovy.

Yeah.

Okay.

I think that's fair.

I think I would say marry Ionian.

I think I would kill Doric and then I would have sex with a Corinthian column.

That makes sense.

So you don't settle down.

That makes sense.

What are your thoughts on Soviet brutalism? No positive thoughts. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Coach Gruden. Coach Gruden.
The Soviet brutalism is also inextricably linked to the use of concrete. Yes.
Yeah. That that's all I, that's my thought.

It's like designed to kill your soul.

Yeah.

Right.

Coach Gruden actually said that he was shocked that you knew every part about cement.

I don't know why that shocked him.

I went on a cement kick,

read a book.

I certainly did not know every part.

Yeah.

He was just like that guy.

He knows everything about cement when I told him you were coming in.

So I don't,

do you still know everything about cement?

No,

I never did.

Okay.

And certainly do not. But I do think what's fascinating about cement when I told them you were coming in.
So do you still know everything about cement? No, I never did. Okay.
And certainly do not. But I do think what's fascinating about cement.
Yeah, let's go. Yeah, yeah.
This is the good stuff. I think they just realized, they just proved this.
Like Roman stuff has stood for a long, long, long time. Like way longer than the roads and bridges we've been building here in the world.
Not just here, but sort of here. And they realized that somehow baked into the property of this, man, I'm going to mess this up.
But when Roman cement like fixes itself, when it cracks, like something about oxygen and water getting in activates like a self-healing mechanism. I think like researchers in Australia, I could be completely wrong in the language I'm using, but just Google it.
What else have you been reading about? I've been on a sci-fi kick lately. Oh, okay.
I think when I realized I'm taking a job, being a general manager, like I'm using brain power again a lot. Yeah.
It was real stuff and et cetera. And so at the end of the night, I like to read before going to bed.
And I've been on the series, the Red Rising series of good sci-fi. Is this a book or a show? It's a book.
Okay. They'll make a show eventually.
Yeah. And then we'll watch it and then we'll say that we read it.
Do you watch Severance? Say it again? Do you watch Severance? I don't watch Severance. You should.
I know what it is. Cool.
That's the second person in the last two days to tell me about it. Jack Muhort, my old teammate in Indianapolis.
I was talking to him because i'm going to toledo and staying with him tomorrow yeah uh we were talking he's like he asked the same question yes sam is very good but you're reminding me of we had a game of thrones book club in our stanford locker room back in the day we would get into real there was there were four or five of us myself included that when i read do you are you you Game of Thrones people? I've seen it, yeah. Okay.
The red wedding scene came up in book whatever, I want to say three, and I read it and stormed into the locker room like very emotionally shook by this thing. And we had a big, it turned out that all of us were in the shower yelling about Game of Thrones at the time.
Like, you know, the whole thing. And a few people walked in like, what the heck are these guys doing? And so I felt like the cool kid when the world was freaking out about the Red Wedding episode.
I was like, nah, you don't know about everybody who already knows about this. Yeah.
Who's had years to emotionally process what just happened. We're ahead of you guys.
All of y'all. We are ahead.
That's incredible.

Did you find yourself ready for it when it came out?

The show?

Yeah, when the Red Wedding specifically happened.

Well, I didn't really watch the show.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, I read the books.

Yeah, you're like, I already know everything.

I mean, I picked episodes here and there,

just whatever is cool.

Yeah.

Well, I'm going to start reading.

I'm going to read one book about cement this year.

You don't have to do that to yourself.

I'm not.

I'll read a Twitter thread. Yeah, that's a good point.
If I can thread. Just really break down that.
So wait, so American soccer real quick. Are we going to win the World Cup? Oh yeah.
We are? Why not? Do you think we would be better if we had like LeBron, Wemby, Luka on the team? Not Luka and Wemby because they represent other countries. No, they would be on our team.
You're better than that. They would be on our team.
You're better than that. Joel Embiid.
Embiid, he's American. Yeah.
Shake SGA playing. I have no idea if we would be better or not.
The answer is yes. Jaden Daniels.
Oh, he'd be so good. Our best players.
No, we just do that to troll and get people upset. OBJ was an incredible soccer player, I want to say.
I believe it. I believe it.
So wait, we're not going to win anything, though. I'm so hopeful.
I'm eternally optimistic as a U.S. soccer fan.
The World Cup's going to be here and in Mexico and Canada. And, yeah, it's fun to be a fan.
It's fun to be a fan of your national team. Yeah.
It's fun to win, though. Also, I got to go to the Olympics.
My wife's a producer for gymnastics on television, so she was working, and I was just having the time of my life rooting for Americans, bringing my daughters to stuff, and like 59 Stanford athletes there, including like friends of ours that we were freshmen together, like Katarina Stefaniti or Eric Shoji. It was amazing.
Like watching Katie Ledecky swim, it was so cool. It's fun to root for America in sports.
It's really fun. Like really, really, really fun.
I enjoyed that a lot. And my wife, but she stole the tickets to the women's gold medal match soccer uh so she got to go with her friends and i was that's the one thing i was jealous of her about from that trip she got to go to that gold medal match of the women and watch us win yeah uh by the way and we love winners here we love winners love winners in america and i'll tell you what the roster that we have right now i've been telling Big Cat this for the last two years, going into this World Cup, that is the best roster that the U.S.
will have ever had at that point. Just looking at the players that play competitively overseas, that's as talented as we've ever been, I think.
And if we're going to do it, it's going to be at home in this World Cup. So get all in right now on U.S.
I'm with you. Get all in.
Maybe I don't have as deep a perspective as you PFT no I just gave you everything I know yeah good well that I like it I'm all I'm all in and I do think it seems like at scale we just we have a lot of guys competing in really important places around the world and the MLS is stronger than it's ever been like our domestic game is stronger than it's ever been and I'm thinking maybe our new coach he's very close with messi why not just have messi become a u.s citizen yeah it doesn't work like that though no it does he's already cap tied to argentina you can do whatever you can't you can't do it yeah cap tied oh he's cap tied oh no we can't figure out a way around that no by the way uh 20 people would never allow something illegal to happen that's not a problem that money can fix. 2014, USC versus Stanford.
Fourth and 13 at the USC, 32 punt. And then fourth and 22 at the USC, 29 punt for a touchback.
That's a nine-yard punt. So I don't think we'll ever get messy on the u.s roster and and i'm very excited and i'm very excited for the world cup you get the show down you get the show anytime we talk about soccer i got one of the things i was stoked about when i was uh i was still playing professionally and I was in Europe for something in the

office.

I was like,

I gotta go see Christian Pulisic play.

Yeah.

I was still playing for Borussia Dortmund.

So I hopped in the car.

I was in Amsterdam and I drove over and I reached out to his agent.

So I got to watch the game.

Unfortunately,

he maybe even played like 10 minutes at the end of the game.

It was like versus Hoffenheim or someone I want to say,

but I got to have pizza with Christian afterwards.

And like,

you know,

like I'm a fan. Yeah.
But I'm a fan and he's cool dude. So I'm stoked for what he's doing right now.
Yeah. or someone i want to say but i got to have pizza with christian afterwards and like you know like

i'm a fan yeah he's younger but i'm a fan he's cool dude so i'm stoked for what he's doing right now yeah uh and then i hope somehow some way we channel the attitude that clint dempsey brought to the soccer team yep and to just sports in general because that dude was so fun to watch I loved watching him from like East Texas.

It was an amazing story, and he was tough. And one of my favorite sports quotes all the time was Bruce Serena when he was the – I think he was the men's national team coach at this point asked about what made Clint different or special.
He was like, because he tries shit, and like Clint did. And he was so fun to watch so he was never scared no never scared like all those clips of him getting i mean watching the clips now they're on the internets and the youtubes and such but like watching him play well like that was an attitude that i think resonated with a lot of us watching you need a guy like that to beat mexico like that's not afraid of mexico and he yeah he was the best maybe uh joe scally's our guy you think so one of the defenders on the team he's one of our security guys nephews yeah really which is pretty cool uh staten island guy we need some like staten island tough guy on our team east texas or staten island yeah fourth and 11 from the cal uh 34 10 minutes left in the game.
Punt.

I mean, you're not going to beat the 29.

29 is crazy.

That's like a piece of art.

Okay, I have a serious question for you.

Hypothetically, the Colts make it to the Super Bowl,

but Anthony Richardson and Joe Flacco both get mono,

and they can't play. They weren't kissing each other.
They were kissing somebody else. And you get a call.
Andrew, can you play in the Super Bowl for us? You don't even have to practice. You probably want to practice.
You have to practice three days and then play in the Super Bowl. What do you say? No, thank you.
Appreciate it. And I'll tell you why.
That's cheap. That's not.
You got to go all season. You got to earn it.

You got to earn that. You got to earn it.

Yeah.

What if.

I'd be hyped for the Colts though if they're there.

What if Jim Merce calls you up.

He's like, hey, we got this new technology.

We're turning injuries off for an entire season.

Would you come back and play injuries off?

You literally cannot get injured.

I'd ask to be able to invest in the technology.

Okay.

All right.

That's a smart answer. We need to get this technology.
Did Jim Mercer ever show you his guitar collection? His guitar collection is sweet. Yes.
It seems like it's pretty awesome. I grew up listening to classic rock because my dad's a classic rockophile.
The first concert my dad took me to was ZZ Top in Houston, which is like, yeah, it's a great gateway concert into live shows. It it's amazing and i went to springsteen we actually came to chicago one year to see the stones at uh whatever the basketball arena is united center yeah uh and so i go into his office he does have an incredible guitar collection and then when you go to stanford you realize the gratefulateful Dead is a thing.
And Jerry Garcia, and we have friends that are deadheads, and the Dead used to do impromptu shows on campus back in the day. There's a whole culture in Palo Alto around the Grateful Dead.
So to see him like a Jerry Garcia guitar actually meant a little bit of something to me. And the Beatles drum set.
Yeah, he's got it all. It's cool.
He's convinced, and I think he's convinced me that the technology will exist one day to extract all the sounds that have ever been played out of an instrument and just have it play. I guess the best way to say it is he believes if you buy a guitar from eric clapton somewhere in that wood is the it's the actual music and the actual notes that were once played and eventually we'll be able to hook a machine up to it and get that exact sound out of the guitar do you believe that cool yeah i believe it i believe it i if he believes it i believe it things i don't understand I just believe.
Yeah. It's a good default.
Yeah. Yeah.
Just like, all right. That believe it.
I believe it. If he believes it, I believe it.
Things I don't understand, I just believe. Yeah.
It's a good default. Yeah.
Just like, all right, that sounds cool. Healthy way to live life.
Yeah. I mean, would you rather that that technology existed? I would.
Yeah. I would choose to live in that world.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
This conversation is devolved. Yeah.
It always does. This has been so awesome, though.
We really appreciate it. I have one last question for you it's a roback question rhoback.com promo code take 20 off your first purchase q-zips polos hoodies joggers shorts roback.com promo code take uh go right now huddle hoodie is the new one that i love uh roback.com promo code take is there that's so well stop i do it every time that was wow we we we have a Roback question to finish every interview.
Shout out Roback, our wonderful sponsor. Again, so well done.
Is there one pass that you think of? You're like, yeah, that was it. That was it.
Remember me for this one pass. This one play.
Remember me for this. No, but I would assume there's one that you could think of like, man, did I absolutely fucking crush that.
It's funny. I think of interceptions I've thrown more than I think of sweet tutters.
Right, right, right. No, I'll be honest.
Part of what was so fun, what was so – Frank Reich asked me this. What do you love about football? We were sitting talking before I retired I said like dude I get to throw the ball to my friends like yeah you're playing catch yeah it's really cool that's awesome yeah and so so there is not one throw there's not one throw to rule them all but like throwing throwing to ty hilton and jack doyle and an amazing year with you know eric ebron had this we had an incredible year together and and kobe fleaner and griff like i got to play in the nfl with my college roommate yeah and cut touchdowns like he ran a bang eight on the skinny post i think on one of the texans corners in the big game.
This is an undrafted guy, a walk-on receiver. That's awesome.
Kobe Fleener and I played together in college. So I feel very fortunate that I got to throw the football to my friends, especially T.Y.
Hilton. I'll say this again.
It's fun to play with's fun to play with a guy who's different, and he was different. Yeah.
And I'm not sure he gets the respect he deserves for what he did on the football field. I'd agree with that.
He brought an attitude that was just awesome. And, like, you know, we probably couldn't have come from two different places, but, like, it's part of what's amazing about sports and football in particular i know this is a this is an unserious podcast but i will i will be serious like i get like we're friends right i don't get that otherwise right like that my life is like way better for that and that's just one micro i got to play with frank gore who's awesome, by the way.
No one knew pass protection

better than Frank Gore. The dude got football.
He would pick stuff out before I would pick it out.

He'd start yelling at the linemen about what technique to use. He is the teach tape on how

to be a pass-protecting running back. And he's also the teach tape on how to be a gap scheme

running back. The dude was unbelievable.
I got to play with Ahmad Brashaw from Bluefield, West Virginia. Yeah.
Right? He's a dog and tough. He caught eight touchdown passes one year.
That part of football, I think, honestly, grateful. Yeah, I got paid, and I get to make choices in life that I know others don't.
I get privilege, and it's amazing. But it's more that I get to play football.
I get to throw a ball to my friends and nerd out over snap. A portion of my salary went to finding a better snap count.
I got paid to sit in a room and go out to practice and think about and talk to left tackles and guys, all right, this week, guys, we're going use black as the color that's the the live color we're going to do a triple count we're going to say it three times we're going to go yes i go and then i'm gonna go kill kill kill because last week we did kill kill kill and we ran the ball and then i'm ready ready hot hot hot and then we're gonna go black 80 by you know like yeah it was awesome yeah what type of life is that that is awesome and now i get to be back in football in a different capacity with Stanford, an alma mater that I love. And people are counting us out, and they're wrong to count us out.
So get on early, just like the U.S. national team.
Yeah. Now's the time.
And this interview has been everything we wanted for, you know, it's been a seven-year wait. And I want to say that this has been so awesome to have you here.
And also you're making us better podcasters because you got a little emotional there. And you mentioned Frank Gore.
And I didn't mention the fact that he has enormous balls. And I used to take videos of him running without any type of underwear on.
His balls would be flopping everywhere. I think I would have done that.
I was this close to saying it. But I was like, you know what? Let me let Andrew finish his moment.
So thank you for making us better. That's good discipline.
I'm really proud of you. If they zoomed it on my face, I was just like, I'm really proud of you.
Say Frank Gore has huge balls. Look at this.
Look at the picture. It's how big his balls are.
That's insane. I think you get the show now.
If there's not one pass to remember you by, what about a half?

What about that playoff game against Kansas City?

Yeah.

How cool was that?

We've had some good halves like that.

Also been part of some bad halves.

Yeah.

Some of them in New England.

How fun was that?

How fun was that half? Yeah, that was cool.

Actually, Alex and I were talking about Alex.

Alex Smith's awesome, by the way.

I mean, you want a role model in life.

That dude is cool. But we were talking about that recently.
We live not too far from each other and get to run into each other every now and then and um that one i was glad to be on the other side of it uh the ball bounced our way i think they they lost like four guys in the secondary throughout the game right so like we were rolling but uh i do remember one play from that game we were in a timeout uh. We had Fleener, T.Y., and another receiver.
I wasn't sure who. Ready to go.
I don't know what down in distances was. We were sitting there.
Pep and I were talking. Pep Hamilton, OC at the time.
We were sitting there like, let's switch. Originally, Kobe was supposed to run a clear out post and T.Y.
was going to get the corner. I think one of us us or either T.Y.
was like, they can't run with him right now. They just can't run with T.Y.
Hilton. So let's put T.Y.
on the post and Kobe on the corner. So we came out of the timeout.
We did it. I remember looking in the huddle at T.Y.
and saying something like, run, motherfucker. Like, run.
Like gonna get it like you're gonna get it and

ba used to bruce arians used to just call ty little motherfucker come on little motherfucker all the time and uh oh is that what cussing on on podcast feels like that's a good feeling but uh so so he He ran, and he took the top off, and we protected it up, and the ball made it there, and he scored. But it was fun to feel like the first half was everything could go wrong, and the second half was sort of everything was just going right.
It was an awesome game. It was a great game.
It was an awesome game. Well, Andrew, thank you so much, man.
We really appreciate it. You're a recurring guest now, so you have to come on any time we ask.
I don't know if you knew that. You didn't read the fine print for that.
That's right. You're Stanford fans now.
Yeah, yeah. Listen, when we want to push Stanford because little old Stanford needs some NIL money, we'll help you.
Stanford doesn't need anything. You guys got it.
Turn that fire hose on. All right.
Me and BK, we're also thinking about, as quarterbacks, we want to start a company that just need one drop of blood, and then you can examine that, and then you can change the world. Do you have contacts that can help us? There's old Theranos office space.
I think that's available. Okay.
Okay, good. Yeah, we're in.
Good. Let's do it.
We're in. Come play quarterback.
No, good luck. we'll be rooting for you yeah we will yeah i mean it's fun when stanford uh gets in the mix i mean those your guys teams with harbaugh was it was fun just watching you especially like it's watching pete carroll be like this isn't supposed to be happening like stanford's not supposed to beat us like it would it was just fun to watch so i had fun watching stanford after too watching christian mccaffrey and bryce love yeah and coach shaw's teams and yeah we'll get there yeah great basket there yeah great the best the tree yeah uh thanks so much andrew appreciate it man my pleasure andrew luck was brought to you by dove men's as you prepare to host your big game celebrations what are some possible whole body odor related issues that you might encounter that might make you feel a little less confident in your hosting duties? Maybe taking your shoes off.
Maybe you're afraid that your feet stink. Maybe sitting down on the couch next to somebody that you kind of know, but don't really know that well.
You sit down, you catch a whiff. And for a second, you think to yourself, is that me? That can't be me.
Well, you can tackle whole body odor with Dove Men Plus Care Whole Body Dio. If you're afraid to take your shoes off when you're going to your friend's house,

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We don't understand. What don't we understand? What's going on? And I don't have a great answer.
This was, this is one of the most shocking transactions I've, and I, I mean, I can't speak to the NHL or whatever. It's one of the most shocking transactions in American sports history for the magnitude and the way it came out of the blue.
Yeah. So, so let's talk about that part first.
So this shocked everyone. So were the Mavs just, they weren't shopping Luca.
They just did a deal with the Lakers. Is that, is that correct to say? Yeah.
So as So as far as I understand, and I'm going to be honest with you, I don't have the full 360 of this yet. I'm trying.
But picture this like you had a really nice house, all right? And you wanted to sell the house. How would you go about that? Would you put it on the market to get a lot of offers? Probably.
And let's say you had somebody that you specifically wanted to sell it to. You wouldn't sell it to that person for a discount because if you're going to buy something off market, if it's something of high quality, which Luka Doncic certainly is, you have to overpay for it.
If I'm going to keep this off the market, you got to pay me everything I. So think of Luka like a super nice beachfront house.
But that's not what happened here. This was a pocket sale that went down where they got a discount.
The Lakers got a discount. That's not to put down Anthony Davis, but Luka is a 25-year-old, not even in his prime yet, megastar.
I mean, Luka Doncic has made more first team all NBAs than Steph Curry has. Yeah.
Okay. So the fact that this trade would happen, that they would trade a 25 year old in their own conference, where if this goes sideways, they could be beat over the head with this for the next decade to do it, youandestinely where it doesn't hit the open market and to do it in this nature is just absolutely – nobody can get their mind around it.
Yeah. I've seen some people say that the Mavs are in win now mode.
They were already winning now. I don't understand what addition – how is this going to help them win now more than Luka would? Basically, they're like, okay, we're not going to take the 25-year-old with warts.
Definitely has issues. Definitely could hold him back, no doubt about it.
But they're basically like, okay, we're going to take the 31-year-old and the 33-year-old or whatever, Kyrie's 33 or 34. And we're going to say that's what we're going to do.
Yeah. and who guys who knows what they could have gotten if it was on the open market like there's some teams out there that are holding enormous amounts of draft picks so granted you wouldn't have anthony davis but mikhail bridges got five first round picks mikhail bridge has never been an all star luca has been has been first-team All-NBA five times.

He's 25.

Right.

It's shocking.

And then the one piece that nobody's talking about,

the Utah Jazz were involved in this trade.

Why was that?

Oh.

Can you imagine?

This is what I'm thinking.

Justin Zanuck and Danny Ainge.

Can you imagine?

They get a phone call in the last couple of days.

Hey, we need you to take on a salary as part of a deal.

Okay.

Who's it going to be? Jalen Hood-Shiafino. Okay okay maybe we'll do it for a second round pick what's the trade oh it's luka donchich for anthony davis i'm sorry what did you just say like the jazz is rolled in the situation like they must have been can you imagine them on these conference calls yeah like they like the i would pay good money to see the video of them listening to the conference call going do you believe this like they're putting it on mute they're gonna do it can you believe they're actually gonna do it they're gonna give luca to the lakers yeah yeah we'll take the 2025 second yeah okay back on you oh my god i can't believe this like this is i can't even imagine what it was like in the jazz offices the last couple days yeah and the luca like personally he had to have been shocked he also loses out on the supermax so how much how much money does he end up losing because he can't now sign a supermax with the lakers he could have with the mavs how much money does he end up losing out on it might be a hundred million dollars jesus so you know i i'm not bobby marx i don't have numbers right in front of me but here's the thing when you super max means you get five percent more of the cap per year it's something like it's worth like something like 70 or 80 million the difference between getting the super max or not the super max at lucas spot so part of that is an extra year that you get which would be at like like 50, 60 million.
He's eventually going to play that year and get money. But he also is when you build your next contract off, you're building it off a lower contract.
So that's a lot of mumbo jumbo. It's tens and tens and tens of millions.
Plus, he plays in Texas right now for like half or so of his games, he pays no state tax. Now he goes to California where he's going to pay 14% state tax for, you know, almost all of his games, most of his home games and all those games in California, it's going to cost him millions of dollars a year in state tax.
So I'm not saying like that is why that makes a big difference, but you tack out all that on, it's potentially a hundred million dollar, you know, slap in the face to this guy who thought he was going to be a Maverick for a long time. So was there any inkling that the Mavs were thinking about? Was there any just through sourcing, like Luka is not happy or the Mavs aren't happy? So it was really as shocking as shocking could be.
I mean, I think the Mavs are frustrated, have been frustrated with him. I mean, he's a guy who frustrates you.

He's also a guy who's so amazing, you live with it.

And certainly at age 25.

I mean, maybe in a couple of years, if the things weren't working out,

if he had a couple more pouting sessions

where he killed them in the playoffs.

But age 25, if there was a reason why this happened,

like a precipitating event, maybe that is true. I don't know it.
And I'll say something else. There's people that have been trying to figure out, like, well, why did the Lakers do it? Was there like an issue with AD and JJ Redick? Was there an issue with AD and LeBron? The Lakers did it because they got Luka Doncic.
Right. The end.
Right. The end.
You know, I know that they were probably annoyed that AD did that interview with Sham Sharani the other day where he was like, get me a center. I'm sure that didn't make the Lakers weak, but they did this because of Luka Doncic.
That's why they did it. They have now a succession plan for LeBron.
Now, how does LeBron work into this where it's like, does LeBron say from a basketball fit, I don't know how much it fits, but you just figured that out later because it's Luka and you just go get him like you said. But is this LeBron like, hey, I'm going to play for three more years now because I got Luka with me? Yeah, so we're waiting to hear on that.
So I'm not going to speculate on that. I do know that LeBron has an incredible affinity for Luka.
He's loved him for a long time. He's tried to get into business with him at different occasions.
They actually, I think, fit together beautifully because you can take the stress off of LeBron having to play so much point guard, but they can kind of play together. I could see LeBron being like, this could help me extend my career.
Because one of the things that's happened over the last few years is LeBron has wanted Anthony Davis to take on more of a role he's really been like pushing that and supporting that not just because Anthony Davis is a really good player but because LeBron's like I can't carry this load so I could see LeBron saying I'm bought in here I could also see teams calling the Lakers and saying hey you just picked up a 25 year old do you want to offload your 40 year old? Now LeBron has no trade clause, but I could see that those calls coming. I will say this though.
The Lakers roster is now lopsided. They have no center starting quality center.
Their best center right now is Jackson Hayes. So they got to find a trade between now and Thursday where they get some sort of center.
Um, also Austin Reeves, I'm not sure how he fits. Um, this is actually one of the amazing things about this trade is that the Lakers did this deal and somehow are still holding a first round pick 2031 and holding Austin Reeves.
Yeah. Nobody understands that, but they still have those two things.
And maybe there's a world where Austin Reeves stays. Reeves is having a great year, but Reeves is only really successful when he has the ball.
Right. And now he's going to be down the line.
So we'll see what happens. That may not be something that happens till later.
They may try it out, but they now have too many ball handlers. They have no perimeter defense and no rim protection.
So the Lakers have been on this, they've won eight out of 10. They've been playing really good.
Now their team's a little lopsided. So Lakers are going to have to make some, you know, make some more, more moves and either by Thursday or certainly by the summer.
Yeah. Very important question.
Who gets the last shot? That's the most important question. Let's one shot.
Let's let's open first take with that. I'm going to speak to Mr.
Smith about, about setting that up One shot. And if it's not LeBron, will LeBron be happy that he's not getting the last shot? I think, in all honesty, I think you want to fall in Lucas' hands.
I think LeBron would agree with that. Is there another domino that's about to fall? I feel like there has to be, right? No, definitely.
I mean, there's going to be – be i i kind of wonder you know how in college so right now there's like all these sort of large contract players that are sort of just dangling on the market zach levine brandon ingram jimmy butler de'arren fox this is i feel like this could be like you know how when the conferences in college like realign like there's all this sort of tension and then like one team one conference makes a move and then there's like 17 other conferences and next thing you know boise state is in the acc that is what could happen here not for sure but there's been sort of pent up stuff this could be a cascading thing that ends up leading to some major movement by thursday we thought this was going to be a quiet deadline we We should have known better. Yeah.
What if Rob Polinka last night, he's doing this deal, and the Mavs say, we're ready to do this deal, but we demand Bronny. Does he still do the deal? Big Cat, that is an amazing question.
Thank you. Thank you.
Here's the thing. Like, I actually believe that LeBron didn't know know i know people don't believe that um but i think the reason they didn't i think they don't tell lebron because they don't want it on lebron he's got to make a decision on ad or not right i don't think they want that so but it would have been fascinating if they were like we got to have brownie um we need some minutes at the backup backup backup uh wing um you know they would have to go to LeBron.
And I got to believe that LeBron would say, send us Luka. But that is remarkable.
Fascinating. One last question for you, Woody.
Gun to your head, where does Jimmy Butler end up? Guys, I'm not sure he's getting traded. Wow.
I think it's either going to be phoenix or golden state um but phoenix can't seem to find a home for bradley beal and they've been trying for six weeks and i don't know if that's going to happen the next four days and the warriors have other options and you know i think if it happens i think golden state is more likely than phoenix but you know but i tell you something. The easiest way you can look like a fool right now is to try to predict this trade deadline.
Prediction for the trade deadline, that business is over because nobody saw this one coming. Yeah, yeah.
All right, Wendy, I got one last question. Rollback question.
R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. Promo code TAKE.
20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts.
Roback.com promo code TAKE. What do we say to Mavs fans? Because I feel very bad for Mavs fans.
They woke up. They thought, you got a guy like Luka.
He's 25. We know what the NBA is.
You need a top five player to win a championship. They had Luka in their minds for the next decade, and then they wake up and Luka's not there anymore what what happened like I don't even know how the fan base reacts to something like this

the only thing I can say is that when Nico Harrison their GM did the Kyrie Irving deal

two years ago I thought it was a terrible mistake I thought that would not work I did not think

Nico made a smart move I told this to him to his face I saw him a few days after the deal and I

said good luck with this one because Kyrie's situation in Brooklyn had gone so poorly and Nico knew what he was doing. He knew the, he knew the, you know, Nico was previously at Nike for 20 years.
His number one client was, was Kobe Bryant. By the way, his agent was Rob Palenka.
I think that might've had something to do with, there's a relationship that goes back 20 years with Rob Palenka. I'll do it for sure.
They first started doing business together in 2003 when Kobe came from Adidas to Nike, which in today's day and age would be a massive story. Back then it was like Sports Business Journal.
But Nico, when he did that deal with Kyrie Irving, he's like, this is what I think our

team needs.

I believe in it.

I thought it was a mistake.

It's turned out to be a genius move.

It's totally transformed the franchise.

So I will just say, while I don't understand this, and I think this is potentially a catastrophic

mistake, Nico Harrison has got some capital with the Mavs fans, but my God, if Luca turns

into this, if this pushes him into like focusing on the right things and getting rid of some

of the got some capital with the Mavs fans, but my God, if Luca turns into this, if this pushes him into focusing on the right things and getting rid of some of his bad habits and the Lakers have another era and Luca has a statue outside crypto and Luca puts up more banners, Nico Harrison will live in infamy. And that is on the table right now.
It is absolutely on the table. What were those business deals that you were talking about with luca and lebron so lebron really wanted luca to be in his shoe brand at nike lebron hasn't had guys like that it's not been like jordan where like guys wore his shoe and he wanted luca to be the first guy to like be the in the lebron shoe and he like recruited him and everything and ended up going with jordan And I'm sure Nike made that choice as well.
But he really, really wanted him to be in there. And then, of course, he drafted him in the draft, in the All-Star draft.
But he drafted a bunch of guys in the All-Star draft. Half of them he's gotten on his team.
Half of them he hasn't. I'm not sure what to make of that.
All right. Well, Wendy, you're the best.
Thank you for picking up the bat phone.

Get some sleep and we'll talk to you. Enjoy the Super Bowl, guys.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. We're off right now.
We got a flight right now. So thank you so much.
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Together, let's drive. Okay, let's wrap up.
We got two things we got to do. We got to do Monday reading and Max, you want to, while PFT pulls up the Monday reading, we were going to do this every single day, every single show this week, score prediction for the Super Bowl, and you're allowed to change it however you feel.
Like, if you're not feeling super confident right now, and then by Friday, you finally put on some Eagles gear, and you feel confident, you can change it. Right now, I'm going to go 32-24 Eagles.
32? How'd you get to 32? A couple two-point conversions. Okay.
A couple of them? Maybe none of them. Is that a missed extra point there? Two missed extra points? Maybe it's four touchdowns all with two-point conversions.
Touch pushes all of them? Four touchdowns to all two-point conversions.

Okay.

And do you think that the Chiefs get their – you said 24, right?

24.

Is that like backdoor 24?

Like you're smoking them?

Are they leading?

They're up 32-21 with five minutes to go.

But I thought your final score was 32-24. 32-24.
Okay. And then they get a field goal to make it a one-possession game.
Okay. And then they don't get the ball.
They don't get the ball back. Wow.
What was the halftime score? 17-10. Wait, no.
I thought it was – I don't know. I thought it was two – They can't get 17-10 if.
1610? Okay, yeah. 1610.
Two touchdowns, two point conversions. I don't know how I get to 21, though.
What's the best commercial? 167. No, 1610.
And then the Chiefs are like, oh, we got to start going for two. Yeah, right, right, right, right.
So then it's 24-18. Then it's field goal.
I have it all thought out. Don't worry about it.
All right. Do this really nice Monday reading.
What is it about, PFT? Well, it's the time capsule. Oh, yeah, yeah.
It's the part of my take time capsule. What? We do a cyber super bowl.
Every super bowl, yeah. We actually do.
Yeah, so we're going to flashback a random moment in part of my take history. Okay.
I hope you do a super bowl week moment. It actually is.
Oh, wow. So it's exactly one year ago today.
Wow. On the Sunday that we were flying out to Las Vegas.
Remember we landed and Adam Schefter tweeted out that thing about the commanders have arrived at the Super Bowl. Yeah.
That whole thing we're recording. We're watching the Grammys.
Miley Cyrus looked fantastic. And I get a text because I took a picture of Mileyiley Cyrus on the tv and Max was actually in the picture that I took and I tweeted it out and I got a text from our good friend from the Diana Rossini show um Diana Rossini the host the co-host of Diana Rossini and she said I know I don't like listening to this does max live in new york and i said max who i sat next to a guy in a plane who's really big is max big whoever you just posted a picture of ha ha ha yes he was in new york this weekend she says he's disgusting he ate his food on the plane like a monster, was basically breathing heavy and smelled terrible.
Don't tell him I said it, but I was so grossed out. And then I sent her a picture, this picture right here of Max.
Was this the guy? It's Max wearing a Sixers shirt. Ask me if he sat aisle row.
If so, he farted during his naps. It was United Business.
he sat aisle row if so he farted during his naps it was united business he sat right next to me ripping them during the nap with uh i think six or seven peas there he is one of the most disgusting human beings i've ever sat next to ask him if he scarfed some burrito sandwich before we took off i said yeah it's him and she says he's definitely single parentheses cute face by the way what a nice thing to say face cute face he was completely in his own world he smelled of hungover he's also very unhealthy two sodas did you write this down or something amazing level of detail i asked her she says no i observed i was so grossed out and bothered god damn it i thought i was done the people get the point i said i said you're a great reporter she said thank you he listens to his music way too loudly i'm very concerned about max's overall health he's gonna die by 25 he was blasting techno he's 29 right now he just farted and belch they're wrong yeah there you go yeah i don't want to be mean-spirited but i changed poopy diapers six to eight times a day and his smelled like my kid's diaper genie i recently read about a guy who got kicked off a plane for farting so much and i texted my husband and said i want this guy kicked off swear to god so um that was a year ago today and now you guys are the best of friends i know i just that made me want to hate her again oh that's the best cute face by the way yeah time capsule monday reading time capsule we always do that we always we literally always tradition it's a yearly tradition and i think we can't wait for next year i wonder what we're gonna do for next year oh my god ripping farts uh i don't think i was i don't think i was ripping for one thing i noticed about max on on today's plane ride when he falls asleep he tucks arms. He pulls his arms all the way inside of his sleeves and then wraps them around his stomach inside of his shirt.
So he's like hugging himself with just these loose arm sleeves hanging off to the side. It's very bizarre.
Well, that was on a plane. It was a little chilly.
It's almost like a blanket if you feel like that. Yeah.
Hank took a nice nap. Got a little cranky when he woke up.
We had to play the game of like, who's going to wake Hank up? Because it's going to be. It just had to be me.
Hank, do you want to educate the people on some of the stuff that you're saying? Come on. Just a little bit.
No. But all this stuff keeps happening.
Listen, there's a lot of things going on in the world. Why aren't we talking about the bridge? People moved on from the bridge.
Listen, we're in New Orleans. People moved on from New Orleans.
It's a serious subject. You guys are trying to make light of it.
I was just trying to have some playful banter on the plane. Should we bring up the bridge in New Orleans like every episode? No.
It wasn't you guys specifically. I didn't say we should be talking about it on the show.
We're part of the media. As we reminded Hank of all these things that we're talking about.
The underwater volcano and the dolphins. Yeah.
Dolphins are swimming away. That's not a conspiracy.
Volcanoes do go off. Underwater volcanoes? Yeah.
I think it goes off once every, like, 50 years. Probably going to be an earthquake.
Are you going to think that's related to the bridge? No, no, no. You guys are trying to paint me and label me crazy and put this narrative out there, and that's fine.
Hank does think that we're part of the problem. You're a simulation boy.
When I told Hank, I was like, the reason why we don't think about these things is because life's hard enough, and you just got to kind of move on and keep it moving. He just looked at me like, you're part of the problem.
Yeah. Okay, good show, boys.
Yeah, Hank, national sports podcast. Use your voice.
Yeah. Sports podcast.
Speak up sports and bridge. We got a big week in NOLA.
Big week in NOLA. How many gumbo so far? I just had one.
Just one, but I'm about to have two nightcap. Okay.
Nightcap. I'm going to go.
I'm going to end up having two today as well. We should get a total gumbo for the whole crew.
For four of us. How many gumbo? We have.
Have you had one? You're about to know. one i don't think i would have i don't think i'm making it all week but i'm no i want to try it feels good though like i want to po boy i want some catfish i want some shrimp and grits like i'm i'm gonna try and like poke all the things and then and then diet starts next week yeah this isn't helping the diana diet starts next week this is sodium This is sodium week.
Aren't you going on vacation? Two weeks. So you're going to start a diet a week before vacation? Skiing is basically a fitness vacation.
That's so true. You're going on a fitness vacation.
All right.

All right.

Well, we did the lottery ball

back in the studio.

So let's kick it to ourselves.

Numbers, boys.

I'm going to go with 76.

I'm going to go three.

I'm going to go 40.

11.

I'm going to go two.

Two.

11.

That's one I guessed correctly for PFT.

That's the one I got. No, that's the one you got

PFT. That's my ball.

71. That looked like

11. Someone guess 11?

Oh, Max. Maxie.

Maxie, Maxie, Maxie.

I guess.