All Time US Open, Smylie Kaufman Calls In From Pinehurst, Mike Florio Talking Football + Celtics And Panthers Drop An Stinkers In Game 4's

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Terms and conditions apply. On today's part of my take, we have an awesome, awesome recap of the U.S.
Open with Smiley Kaufman, who was there. He was part of the NBC coverage.
He was 10 feet behind Bryson and Rory as both of those guys came down the stretch for the U.S. Open, which was incredible.
We're going to talk about everything that came out of that. We're going to talk about game four that happened on Friday night.
Hank is back. We're going to talk about game four for the Stanley Cup final.
We got some great who's back. We got a Monday reading and an extra bonus.
We have Mike Florio on because we missed talking about football, and it was great to talk some ball with Mike Florio before we go into the lull period, the phase me period, which you'll find out what that is, of teams breaking for mini camp for the summer. So great, great show for you.
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Okay, let's go. We'll be it higher.
Oh, we're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue. It's Pardon My Take presented by Marshall Sports.
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Today is Monday, June 17th.

And holy shit, boys, that was one hell of a U.S. Open.

Sunday afternoon, Father's Day, Bryson DeChambeau wins the U.S. Open.

Rory McIlroy chokes the U.S open rory mceloroy chokes the u.s open but more than anything i love sports it was great it was an iconic back nine and then uh to see how it unfolded with rory looking over his shoulder at bryson the entire time bryson mugging for the camera yeah and also bryson going back to when he played injured on on saturday he had the hip. He said he was playing at about 80% this weekend.
But you had drone cameras through the treetops seeing Bryson getting his leg worked on. It was a very, very good weekend of golf.
It was like the perfect. Pinehurst was incredible because it was a great test.
We talked about it being borderline. There were moments where it was borderline, maybe over the line, guys hitting shots within like 10 feet of the hole and then having it roll all the way back down.
But more than anything, it was just what you want in a major Sunday. And it was a guy, Bryson, who going into Sunday, it was like, he's definitely going to win.
He's got three shot lead. No one can figure out this golf course.
And then you have the flip where there was that moment where Bryson went to six under. Rory went to eight under.
You're like, holy shit, this is going to happen. And then they get back together, tied at six under, and going down the stretch.
And Rory missing two putts within five feet? Four feet? I think they were, yeah. The first one was about two and a half, I think.
Yeah. The second one was like three and a half.
Listen, I know there was a lot said about afterwards because Rory skipped media. Here's one dramatic reading from a reporter on site.
This is from Steve Reed, AP. He said, Rory McIlroy threw his clubs in the back of a tournament-sponsored Lexus.
Oh, my God. Backed out of the parking lot and spun his tires a little getting out of the parking lot.
Yeah. He did not talk.
Spun his tires a little. Would that not be how a car goes? That's how a car moves.
Six minutes after DeChambeau makes winning putt, Rory spins tires on way out of town. And if you saw the video, it was worse than that description.
They also squeaked a little bit. Oh.
Yeah. And then the camera, whoever was filming it, did a nice little touch because as the car drives away, going probably 10 miles an hour, the camera guy goes, whoa.
Like he almost got hit by it. Yeah.
And it was scenes of Scotty Scheffler before the PGA championship. I thought that maybe there's some bystanders that might have been in trouble there.
Yeah. And then we had people watching Rory and his progress to his private jet and then flight tracker systems tracking Rory's private jet and seeing that he was in the air, I believe, before Bryson's acceptance speech.
Yeah. So he was he was a poor He was a poor sport.
We also had a video of it, and Jay Busby said, Rory McIlroy leaving the clubhouse, he got into his car and drove off. Yeah, well, the tires spun.
Yeah. Usually when you get in your car, you drive off.
Yeah, poor sport. If you note, the majority of the poor sport claims are coming from the media itself, who Rory didn't talk to.
I propose, so I have no problem with this. I understand you wanted, I would like to hear from him.
We will hear from him at some point. I was thinking about it.
The way Rory lost that tournament and the putts that he missed and the 10 years that it's been since he won a major, andryson who we'll get to having like an about face where he's the people's champ out there on the course which if you said that four years ago you'd be like no fucking way i'd be like the people suck yeah yeah right the people have been uh lead poison yes uh all of that and you put it into a bottle and you say rory we want you to stick around and drink this bottle while reporters say, what was going through your head on 18? That is actually worse than any torture that you could ever come up with. Like, ever.
So, as much as you want to claim poor sport, I think that every athlete should get one a year where they can just say, I'm not doing this. And if you don't use it, you lose it.
So you don't get carryover. But you get one a year where you can just be like, nope, no mas.
I can't do it. Because if I were Rory and I had to sit there and have Bryson come up to me and be like, that was an incredible fight you put up.
You played so great. I wish two of us could have won this.
And then go sit and have some reporter say, Rory, talk me through what happened with that putt that you missed. I'd kill myself.
Yeah, well, can you? I would. I would.
You can't do that. You got to get in your Lexus, your tournament-sponsored Lexus, and spin those tires and get the fuck out of Dodge.
Can you imagine if on this show, because we are members of the media.

Yeah.

On this show, if one of us was like a real, real big winner,

and then we made the person who was a big loser sit while the big winner

talked about how big of a winner they were,

and we did that for like 30 minutes and then asked the loser to give us comment on that.

Right.

How terrible.

We would never do something like that because we care too much for the people that we work with.

But for some reason, golf media wants that to happen,

and it could never be us. And the loser then just doesn't show up for the next show.
Yeah, no, that would be. Right.
We're not going to get into that territory. Right.
That's not how we operate. Right.
That's not how we operate. We operate with a little bit more class.
And it's also very funny that it goes back to like the Marshawn Lynch Super Bowl days or Cam Newton when he skipped the press conference afterwards. The media gets so mad at the player.
And then they have all their articles about how this person didn't give them anything to write about. Right.
And he actually, Rory gave everybody so much more stuff to write about. Right.
So much more stuff to talk about by not answering questions than he did if he had stuck around and just given deadpan answers. Credit to Bryson.
He played really, really well. Of course, I'm disappointed.
Very upset that I missed those putts. It's one of those things.
Golf's a hard game. That's what Rory would have said.
I just did his press conference right there. Golf is a hard game.
It's tough to get this close. Credit to Bryson.
He played really, really well. I'm very happy for him and happy for golf.
That's what he would have said. That's's the press comment but the fact that rory sped away like rasheed rice in the parking lot and and could have murdered people on his way out yep uh that gives that gives the the reporters way more stuff to talk about and way more of a storyline and they get and more than anything it gives them a soapbox and a moral high ground to be like you didn't let us do our job but you're right.
The story is that Rory, and again, it's a ridiculous story because I really do think that there should just be a one. Maybe someone has to judge it, and it's almost going to the booth in Toronto or the NFL when they do a replay.
We just have someone who's watching every sporting event, and they just get to get to judge like all right that was actually such a painful loss they shouldn't have to talk because you can't have a more painful loss than what he had yeah what are we missing out on by by not hearing Rory talk I want to know Rick Riley is probably mad at Rory because how is he going to make puns about about Rory after the game or after the match he didn't hear him talk afterwards? Tell you what, Rick Riley, I will give you your lead. Yeah.
Rory, hey, Rory can't find the hole from within four feet twice. Boy, I feel sorry for his ex-ex-wife.
Ex-ex-wife. Yeah, there you go, Rick.
Two negatives make a positive. He had a tweet about the collapse.
Oh, what'd he say? Yeah. Poor Rory.
Golf is the cruelest game. It will pants you in front of the whole schoolyard then steal your lunch money oh sounds a little personal rick wait so rick's talking about a personal like the game of golf being a bully it's like 15 year old rory mackerel his penis is wait but that's actually not right because a pantsing with full balls flopping out is so funny this wasn't funny this was tragic like if you yeah if you had if you pantsed rory and his in his dick and balls flopped out for everyone to see that's one of the funniest moments of all time like if you really pants someone and you get the boxers too yeah it's happened to me that's fucking hilarious i got you can't you can't tell me differently wait jake you've been pants yeah we talked about the show popping out yeah balls we're playing pick up ball me and my friends at home uh-huh it just happened we were in transition yeah damn oh you were in transition so no balls no penis there no balls we're in transition on the basketball oh okay got it got it got it got it uh yeah no so pft you're exactly right that when the story now, for all the reporters being like, you didn't let us do our job, we don't have a story to write about, now you're going to write about this story how you didn't get to talk to Rory.
And on top of that, Rory is going to talk to someone, probably do like a profile or just one of these insider guys is going to reach out to him in three days and there's going to be a long story about how how disappointed he is and we're going to get even more content out of it like four days from now we're going to get a rory story that we can talk about he'll be like i'm i'm sorry that i left this early yeah right i i was in a very emotional state and then he'll do like that whole thing or he could just answer reporters text message like brooks yeah actually should we text brooks i got to see what to see what his reaction about Rory leaving early was? All right. I'm going to text him.
I'll say, we're doing the show right now. We're looking for comment on what Rory would have thought.
Yeah. All right.
Hank, give us your thoughts while I text us because you're the big golfer. And also, congratulations on your Bryson win.
Yeah. Bryson, been riding him every major this year.
two top fives one today felt like he was gonna lose all day uh once he went down to he couldn't hit up drive straight i was kind of worried about him just switching driver like they said he never swung this driver before until the first tee shot which was a little alarming uh stay woke on that we've got a theory with smiley yeah i actually like this theory a lot of that will be his next youtube video is going to be such a banger yes whatever it is it's just going to be like i think i won the u.s open he won the u.s open for the content uh but it was i mean he was hitting it out of the shit every single hole still making birdies unbelievable win and i mean rory is fun to root against he's kind of like i have never necessarily been a huge rory fan yeah and in sports it's always fun maybe i'm just a hater but yeah i always as much as i like rooting for the people i like to root for i love rooting against people too like lebron rory is not as bad but like it's it's it's kind of fun to watch someone choke. Yeah, and this was an ultimate Liv versus PGA showdown, and your Liv boys came up big.
You are a Liv head. Wait, I thought we were told that when a Liv guy won a major, we would get all the other Liv guys on the green waiting for him.
Brooks did tweet right away. He congratulated him.
They rallied? Yeah, it was actually a great tweet. He said, welcome to tweet said.
Welcome to the club to time US Open champ. That's very nice of him.

The guy I was going to say I saw

I saw Dustin Johnson wearing the four

aces polo. Oh, no, he was playing earlier

this week. So that reminded me to ask Hank who

the four aces are four aces

are Dustin Johnson, Patrick

Reed, Pat Perez.

It's a guy who his dad owns something, right? No, I think they had a trade. I'm looking at now.
It's not a guy who's been on the team before. Is it Matthew something? No, you're thinking Matthew Wolfe.
Oh, man, Hank. Is he good? DJ, Pat Perez, Patrick Reed.
When I say the name, you'll be like, yeah, I know him. Is it Patrick? No.
I don't know. Harold Warner III.
Oh. Ah.
Yeah. Bryson.
So he has done the full J.J. Watt rehabilitation where the crowd was going crazy for him.
And we're going to get into it more with Smiley on why he's been able to turn.

Bryson has changed who he is.

Like the revisionist history, I know there's a few hardcore Bryson fans and they should take the victory lap right now.

But it's not like, oh, we were all wrong about Bryson.

I think Bryson realized that he was really annoying and he's adapted

and done a really good job about it.

Like he, it was fun watching him play golf.

We had this take for the Masters.

So this isn't just because he won we we said that we were kind of slowly becoming bryson fans thankfully brooks they've squashed the beef but he is fun to watch i think it's because he has he has a fan base now yeah and when he's happy when he has people behind him he becomes more likable it's when he doesn't have a built-in fan base that he's trying so very hard to be the cool guy and to be the guy that's like you know breaking all the rules doing all the weird shit that's the part of bryson that makes you be like this guy's really really strange right but when he's actually having fun bryson seems like a good dude and i'll give him credit i watch his youtube videos a lot a lot. I've seen a lot of them.
He's pretty good. They're pretty entertaining.
Yeah. They're engaging.
He was, like, interacting with the fans a bunch this weekend. And when he's not fighting with the fans, when they're on his side, he's a very interesting guy to observe.
And I kind of like him. I think he's good for golf.
Well, his game is fun. He smashes the ball.
He makes crazy shots. He screams at his ball.
He screams at the ball. He was interacting with the crowd unlike any other competing, contending player that I can ever remember.
And it's interesting, and it's fun, and it's unique, and he has completely changed. And I found myself – I did bet on him because I got in Hank's hole.
No big deal would never do that for me uh I found myself rooting for him because he's interesting and I think there's it's the classic story arc that we you know you guy gets torn down and then he builds himself back up and you root for it it's kind of like you were just saying Hank that you root against Rory I found myself rooting against Rory I think I'll root for Rory the next time because this was so tragic. Even after he

threw his clubs in the company, the tour-sponsored

vehicle. And spun off.
And spun the wheels.

I think like this,

that's how sports work.

You take the shit and then

when you then have to climb back on top

of the mountain, the story becomes

it's just a deeper, more

interesting story. Bryson is

an interesting story now that

has chapters and layers to it yeah there's some weird things that are still being you know ironed out where he's like hey I went to SMU because of Payne Stewart and they're like but I also found out Payne Stewart went there after I'd already shown up whatever Bryson is trying his best and I think he's actually enjoying playing golf and enjoying interacting with the fans and i found myself being like thoroughly entertained and that's what sports are about he had a couple awesome shots on 18 the one where the tree was in his backswing and everybody watching that was like he's gonna hit the tree yeah he's absolutely it was like when hank and you were behind by the way one of my favorite parts of that video i know so in in. So in the video that we put out, the John Daly Challenge, Hank was about to take a shot.

Most of the comments were, how can Hank be so bad at golf when he plays so much?

Also, people complaining about Snickers ice cream bars.

And those people, I love you for watching, but holy fuck, you need to get your head checked.

That was the biggest issue of your life. But I love the fact that they they care so yeah no i do it keeps us honest honestly yeah it does but but also i just imagined someone typing out like this whole thing is bullshit it was snickers ice cream bars yeah and like stomping off to bed yeah i actually love that i respect it i respect it but yeah so so on this one sequence of the john John Daly Challenge video, Hank has a tree in his backswing.
Big Cat, as a good teammate, I'm not going to say whether or not Hank would do the same thing for Big Cat, but Big Cat sees that, gets out, fights the tree off for Hank. Beat the shit out of the tree.
Hank has a beautiful backswing, no tree in the area. Big Cat steps up, takes his shot from the same area.
Hank does not repay the favor. The tree assaults Big Cat.
It was like Angel Reese against Caitlin Clark. Big Cat gets bodied by this tree, and then Big Cat screams at Hank for not fighting off the tree, which is a fair complaint.
And then Big Cat's like, I can't believe I would kill any tree for my guys. Then me and Big Cat drive off in our golf cart, and Big Cat immediately drives me into a tree.
Yeah, I spun off. He went right into a tree.
It was awesome. Yeah.
But I would fight any tree for anyone. I didn't see that tree.
You also were kind of leaning a little out. Yeah, you were manspreaded.
I was manspreaded. So Bryson has- You had a lot of Snickers.
Bryson has the ice cream bar. Bryson's got the tree in his backswing.
Nobody thinks he can get the ball out, because it's buried, and Bryson was in the native area the entire weekend it was crazy he was just like fuck it i'll hit into the bush um so he gets out gets to the bunker and then hits one of the greatest bunker shots that you'll ever see under the circumstances and then drains the putt um the ending of that tournament was what golf should be about yeah because not only do you have bryson doing all this cool shit but you've also got the multi-cam you've got the picture and picture of rory watching on a what i have to assume is a tiny tv yeah in the very sad back room where they sign their golf and you can see him he's rooting so hard against bryson but he can't outwardly be like come on miss it because he's a golfer and you have to be a good sport yeah so you get to see the putt you get to see the heartbreak all in one it was just awesome tv the whole thing was incredible we also had did you see that we had a uh like uh who's who's better to the fans contest going down the stretch i did see there was a guy uh who was in a wheelchair and it was like rory gave him a ball and then bryson came and signed his hat and like all the media like rory incredible move giving him a ball and then quote treating him like well actually Bry and signed his hat. And all the media were like, Rory, incredible move, giving him a ball.
And then quote, well, actually, Bryson signed his hat. And they were competing in everything.
I was curious if he asked Bryson to sign his hat or if Bryson was just like, I think he just signed it. One chair, sign, see you later.
Credit to Bryson. By all accounts, he was awesome to the fans.
Stayed late, took all these pictures. He was walking around the trophies that he wanted all the fans to touch the trophy.
I love that. You could say it's cheesy and that he's trying to get goodwill.
I don't care. He's giving people a moment that they'll remember forever, and that's all that matters.
Touched the U.S. Open trophy.
It was an awesome, awesome weekend. And then we also had Patrick Cantley, who I got to find.
Is there any fan out there? No, everybody was really. It was like, I will tolerate either Rory or Bryson winning.
I'll enjoy either one of those two. Patrick, just get the fuck out.
Xander Shoffley. Yeah, Xander's a good friend of his.
His wiggle on putts makes me want to punch a hole in my TV. He just stands there and wiggles 100 times.
And this is, I have resting anger face, so I don't, you know. Oh, he's got bitch face.
He's got resting anger face. Yeah.
Like, I see him and I'm like, that's what people think when they see me. Like, he just always looks miserable.
And he's also kind of got like a dumpy, dumpy ass. He does.
Yeah. His body's like kind of dumpy.
I don't know. Yeah.
He could definitely tighten it up. He looks like a really cheap pair not to get personal yeah he's dumpy he's humpty dumpty yeah but yeah it was awesome i i and and shout out the course was incredible oh yeah borderline sometimes over the line it was borderline borderline and and rory hit that one shot on the back nine that it was an awesome shot and then just rolled probably like 40 yards off the green yeah and it was like okay the course isn't fucking around right now i i like to see that the course baked out a little bit i've got a stat from rory uh and his putting specifically uh-oh so this season he was 496 for 496 putting inside three feet this season before he missed that one putt and then he missed the other one which i would assume he's probably a similar statistic from like three and a half four and a half feet i would have made it yeah i would have made it because in a situation like that first one what you have to do oh i would have made the first one second one looked hard you don't no no no but you don't miss the second one unless you miss the first one yeah because then the first one's in your head but i would have concentrated i also would have just asked if it's good maybe they would say yeah that's gimme range yeah that's it right there the um yeah it was a great tournament great fun bryson i think we're trying to get him on the show i mean it is crazy we were i found myself rooting for him yeah but he's done he's done all the right things where he he if he has lingering beef with you guys i would i would respect it Oh, yeah, I would too.
That would honestly make me like him more. But Brooks squashed the beef.
We squashed the beef when Brooks squashed the beef. And then it took us a while to come around to actually liking him, which happened a few months ago.
Oh, you're... Are you team...
Are you trying to... We're a team.
Of course. I wanted to come on the show.
You just said if he had beef with you guys, I'd respect it.

We're...

Well, hold on a second.

We're...

What do you mean by you guys?

You guys.

We are...

We are...

We are pointing my tape.

No, I'm saying, but there was the shows when all that stuff was happening.

I don't think I was speaking on them.

At all.

But we're...

So you're saying right now that you've always been a Bryson over a Brooks guy? No. He can have beef with me.
It's us. It's us.
But I'm saying like. But that was very specific to you guys.
No, like I wasn't. You guys are the two co-hosts.
I wasn't speaking on those. No, we're three co-hosts.
I wasn't speaking. Listen.
I wasn't speaking on those shows. I'm sure he listened to those podcasts back in the day.
It was probably like, damn, these guys are fucking roasting me. Fuck them.
I don't think I was involved in those roastings, even though I felt the same way. We never do a show where you didn't talk, Hank.
So you're just basically trying to slide out the back door and be like, it wasn't me? No, no. I'm with it.
Do you stand behind everything we've said about bryson as a podcast yes you stand behind everything we've said as a podcast yes okay we'll find some things that you're not going to be uh yeah no i i'm i'm legitimately excited to to watch bryson that was fun he has he's turned it he's turned it he's done the impossible the usa chance rocked and then you had a couple of the the loser golf media people and like the one guy one of the guys who took the live money and you're chanting usa well to be fair to bryson he he did apologize for 9-11 oh yeah that's right you remember that so actually bryson's been on a real hot streak since he apologized for 9-11 yeah maybe that's all it took yeah it was his he he took all the ownership that was an all-time hilarious clip yeah sorry and and uh one last big loser we should just mention is remember when zach johnson didn't put bryson on the uh rider cup team yeah yeah that was fun i just watched full swing in the last two weeks and and that that shit's infuriating yeah crazy infuriating crazy uh okay talk a little basketball? I'm bummed out that we only have, we've only got one more major this year. I know.
It feels like we should have two. Yeah.
I don't like that the PGA changed and jumped ahead. I don't like it either.
It was always nice that they gave us one at the end. Also, a finish like this, I think, needs to put some pressure and momentum on the merger happening.
Because the fact that we get to see these guys clash in drama like this only happening four times a year, that's so unfortunate. There is.
There's an outline now. They have an outline.
So before, like a year ago, almost to the date, a year ago, they had the framework. And now, as per like a week ago, not only do they have the framework, but they've got an outline.
What's next? Well, I think they said they're going to wait. Yeah, rough draft.
They're waiting until Tuesday to announce details because they didn't want to take away from the tournament. So we'll see.
Okay. We'll see how I loved.
I love getting an outline done in school and just being like, yeah, I got an outline. It's basically done.
I think next is actually a verbal agreement on the outline. Yeah.
And then you move to rough draft. But seriously, the fact that we get to see guys like this compete four times a year, we need that year round.
Well, I mean, you get to see it all the time if you have the CW network. No, but Rory versus Bryson.
Yeah, but you can always be like, all right, well, Bryson shot this. Bryson versus Harold Varner.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

All this shit in a team format.

What team is Bryson on?

Bryson's on the Crushers.

Oh, okay.

Is that what's...

That's a great name.

Wait, what is the...

What is Brooke's team?

Smash.

Smash.

Yeah.

Totally different team.

Different name.

It's Crushers and the Smash.

So who else is on Bryson's team, Hank?

Bryson.

Yup.

No, I have no idea.

Oh, that was a guy. No no oh oh that was a guy i thought that was a guy yeah i don't know anyone else this was this was such a bittersweet weekend for greg norman too oh yeah because greg is probably happy with the whole live thing he still considers himself very much part of that and then he's getting booted though but then yeah but maybe not we don't know yet he's still out with outline he's still swimming around yeah the outline outline might not address greg norman it might just be written by greg norman yeah uh but greg norman probably partially happy because the live one but also greg norman started a trend because rory melted down right and they're like this is exactly like when greg norm't win that major.
He gets brought up. Yeah.
Yeah.

Should we talk some basketball?

Some hoop?

We're running out of time.

Oh, we are?

Let's talk some hoop.

How much time do we have, Hank?

We don't have as much tape left.

So we haven't been together since.

Last time we recorded was Thursday night.

So we're up 3-0.

The first 30 minutes were just for the Hank heads out there. Rave there rave reviews from that episode yeah yeah from your parents were very upset uh i didn't really understand i'll defend you for a second hank i didn't understand some of the criticism because you you were literally at tom brady's retirement and he mentioned you imagine if we didn't talk about that on the show.
Yeah. It would be insane.
That would be insane. It was a Hank Lazing.
It was a Hank Lazing, which you deserve. It was your birthday, everything.
Then Friday happened, and the Celtics are still up 3-1. I still think they're going to win this series, probably tonight.
But holy fuck, did they get smoked. get smoked yeah bad 35 points in the first half was shocking shocking they were they down 50 at one point it got close they might have been down 50 at one point yeah it was like it was like 90 to yeah i think it was like 90 to 40 or something i don't know if it was 50 exactly but was 50 exactly, but that was a real scoreboard at one point.

They missed a bunch of layups.

They missed every single shot.

They gave themselves a cushion, though.

Yeah.

Like, that game's not going to matter when it's all said and done.

Unless they keep winning.

Right, but that's not going to happen either. Okay, so what are your nerves? So I saw Dave tweeted this.
He said, I'm 0% nervous about the Celtics, but if they lose on Monday night, I will be very nervous. So the question then, so if you went by that, how nervous are you that they will lose tomorrow night? I think they're going to win tonight, but they built a 3-0 cushion.
Even if they lose game five, obviously then it will be real nerves, losing some sleep, thinking about it a lot. But I still think they would win game six.
And even if they lose game six, they have a home game. They have two home games to win a championship.
It sounds like you're nervous about nervous about being nervous right like you're not nervous yet you're pre-nervous i'm not nervous yet if they lose uh monday night then i would i'd be nervous but you thought about a little i'd be a little nervous i'm zero percent nervous right if they lose monday night i would not be like dave said he would be all the way nervous i would get pretty nervous okay but not even up three two it's like but here's my question then what how nervous are you that they're going to lose tomorrow night or tonight zero zero percent you zero percent chance the mavs are gonna win 15 okay so then you're 15 nervous oh you're 15 to the way to being pretty nervous yeah because then they they lose game if they lose game five then what percent nervous are you 50 40 i don't think you should be nervous i'm not but you are you're 15 nervous well every game you know you get nervous for every single game you can't take these things lately you got to go out there and execute so it's like you can't no don't bring humble hank back you got no well no but you got to be you got to give respect it was your opponent it was really it was a whomping they got absolutely destroyed they were never down 50 they were down 40 plus and the fact that it was that bad would make me a little bit nervous i'm looking the real hoop heads out there aberration they were playing i actually said it in the the moment. It was kind of cool that a bunch of guys that were never going to play

in the NBA Finals got a

decent amount of minutes and you'd be like,

yeah, I scored a buck in the NBA Finals.

Great Joel Embiid stats. Who are some of those guys

out there? You had the one guy

who looked like Jalen Brown. O'Shea

Brissette? Is that number 12?

I don't know.

He looked like Jalen Brown.

You had a... Yeah, he's number 12.

Yeah, number 12. He kind of moves like

Thank you. Is that number 12? I don't know.
He looked like Jalen Brown. Yeah, he's number 12.
Yeah, number 12. He kind of moves like Jalen, but he's basically like a body double.
Then you had – did you have a small Charlie Ville in a wave out there? Yep. Like, what was going on? Jordan Wallace from Arkansas.
Yeah, it was crazy. Oh, I remember.
Yeah, he was good. He was our first-round pick.
I liked him. Yeah.
And the Mavs had – yeah, just – it was crazy oh i remember yeah he was good first round pick i liked him yeah and the mavs had yeah just it was it was crazy yeah i mean i was at a bar where they were playing you know they did the music in between during commercials and then game sound when the game was on third quarter they just they stopped playing the game sound like it was just all music it was it was over i bet him i was like 18 and a half you know pritchard and the bench are gonna fight back and make this thing like respectable and it just went the complete opposite the fact that it was that bad do you think that there's any any part of anybody on the celtics roster that was like i really want to close this out at home no but i think it's when it's that bad it's easy to just forget about yeah no it's it's easier to just completely forget forget about and move on than if it was a close loss that maybe they were winning and should have won, but then they blew it. And that would creep in more, I think, than just getting your doors blown off.
Because it was a combo. The Celtics played bad.
The Mavs played great. And they were hitting everything.
And they were playing defense. Right.
They were playing defense, and their role players were hitting shots. Okay, so you're 15% nervous about tonight.
What about Kristaps? Because that would be the only thing that would make you nervous because they kind of were saying that he could play. I feel like if he plays, it's going to be Kevin Durant in the finals kind of thing.
Like he's's just going to get hurt. Yeah, I kind of read the game four questionable, and I feel like he's probably not going to play game five.
That seemed like a situation where they were going to just – he's questionable to play, and they were going to put him in, like, if they were up and they were going to win a championship. Oh, got it.
To, like, get him on the court? Yeah. I don't think he's going to contribute anything meaningful if he does get on the court no i don't i don't think so everything i've read it seems like if he gets on a court and tries to run up and down he's just gonna get hurt again yeah and tillman was saying in practice like he he's not 100 which is probably not the smartest thing for a player to say about his own teammate but yeah he was like he looks he looks rough let me ask you this now he also questionable before game three, and then they ruled him out, right? So if the games had been flip-flopped, if game three was a massive blowout, and then game four was like game three, would you be nervous? More nervous.
More nervous than it is. Because right now it feels like gentleman's sweep.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, 3-0.-0 cushion though i mean there's no way there's just no way they have two home games no worst case worst case scenario it's not it's not i agree with you no way but it's here's how time works no way here's how time works it's not a 3-0 lead you have a 3-1 lead yeah right it could be 3-2 in 24 hours yeah and then it would about 3-0.
It was almost never 3-0. Yeah, then you just start the series at 3-2.
I don't know what their record is when you combine the playoffs, but they've lost 12 games. If they go 1-4, that would be insane.
0-4 upset at all that would that would that would that they got bounced out of the uh 80 wins 20 loss club yeah what do you think about uh joel and bead finally being uh in attendance for a celtics loss there in the finals he did great he was he was fantastic on the analyst desk i wish max was here he was he was really really good it was good to see him out there. Had some really, really funny points and interesting analysis.
And he was tampering. And the good news is he has time.
This is something he could do every finals. Yeah.
I'm happy for him. I have something positive for you, Hank.
I know they have nothing to do with each other, but... Dates? What? June 17th is like a historical date for the Celtics.
Oh, okay. I thought that's what you were going to say.
Do you want to go... Go ahead.
No, no, no. No, no, no.
Go ahead. No, no, no.
No, I want to know what... You said historical.
I had to look... There's...
I forget what it is. Okay.
All right. You look it up, and I'll tell you what I...
Well, and 617 is Boston area code. Okay., so what I was going to say is they have nothing to do with— That rocks.
Yeah. That rocks.
Did they win on other 6-1-7 days? I think so. I think that's when they beat the Lakers.
They played the Lakers a few times in the history. They beat them.
Okay, I'll look it up. I'll look it up.
That's like the most common NBA Finals matchup in the Celtics. When Hank told me his reason was 6 reason was 617 is the Boston area code, my first thought was like, you fucking piece of shit.
That's the most asshole thing I've ever heard. That's going to happen.
But then I was like, no. I can see a guy with his shirt off with a big 617 tattoo across his chest, maybe on his neck, maybe fresh out of jail for robbing a bank.
He's like the fucking Celtics, dude. It's going to happen.

6-1-7, kid.

What is it?

I'm over 7-8-1 guy.

But Sean Grand, this was from him.

6-17 was the date the Celtics won their last championship in 2008.

Got it.

Three of the icons we've lost in the years since.

Bill Russell, number six.

John Havlicek, 17.

Sam Jones, 24. Game five we played in Boston.
What about Bill Walton? On 6-17-24. What was Bill Walton's number? What was Bill Walton's number for the Celtics? Was he eight? I think.
Bill Walton's Celtics. Which is Porzingis' number.
Okay. I'm trying to do the numerology.
He was number five. Game five.
Game five. Oh, shit, Hank.
Let's go. It's over.
Zero percentage. What I was going to say was, Hank, another positive thing for you.
They have nothing to do with each other, but in my dumb brain, they have everything to do with each other. The fact that the Panthers then lost eight to one in the exact same setup made me feel like both teams are just going to like, listen, I'm not a gambling expert, but a Panthers Celtics money line parlay game five feels like it could potentially happen.
Yeah. That's not a bad idea.
It does stink of like the league needing more games, but, but even those games were such blowouts that you can't blame refs. And it was more like these teams are up 3-0 and they know they can go home and they know they're better.
And the minute the game, like the Mavs jumped on the Celtics, the Oilers jumped on the Panthers. Ten minutes in and you're like, I don't really want it.
Let's just go home. Let's go home and win this at home.
I know that's not how it works, but that does how it works. At some point, it does work like that.
In third quarter, you tell me that Joe Mazzullo was like, no, let's try to win this game. Yeah.
He was like, fuck it. Let's just take it home.
Panthers the same way. I also have the greatest gambling system ever.
I saw I turned on the game. Shania Twain was doing a free concert outside, and I bet the Oilers because I said anytime Shania Twain does a free concert, bet the home team.
It's 1-0 lifetime. Okay.
Anything special about Shania? I love her. Yeah, she's good.
Yeah, she's the best. She is really good.
Don't impress me much. Any man of mine.
Yeah. Didn't she forget how to sing because she got dumped? I don't know.

I think she did.

I think that it took her voice away.

Heartbreak took her voice away.

I feel like a woman.

Can I confess something?

Because I feel like I need to be transparent when talking to our listeners about any sport that we've watched on TV.

I watched about maybe 15 seconds of the game on Fridayiday not because i wanted to skip it okay and i did watch a bunch of highlights very good of you hand up um i planned on being home to watch the game very important game game five or excuse me game four uh i got my car back from the shop and guess what what? She starts. Oh, you're cruising.

I felt like, no, no, no.

I was running some errands before the game.

Do the lights work?

Yeah, lights work now.

The turn signal just goes, it works, but the lever just shifts back and forth.

So I always have one signal on.

You can never tell which one it's going to be.

So I was trying to get home for the game.

I take my car on some errands.

So I've got to go to Home Depot, get some stuff, whatever. to start it leaving home depot and it didn't start again so then my car was busted and now i'm like what the fuck do i do and then i fixed it myself i i went i got gas at a gas station i can and i brought it back it was out of gas nice so i feel like i am becoming a car guy but in that time where i had to bike to the gas station by the gas tank bike back fill the car up then drive to a real gas station to get the tank all the way filled by the time i got back it was past halftime and i i just couldn't watch the full game so hand up i will admit that yeah but i did see the highlights and it wasn't yeah i looked at the box score yeah heavily it wasn't uh it were didn't miss anything.
It was that much of a blowout. And it was, like, you could just tell.
It was a summer league game for the fourth quarter. Yeah.
No, it was. I have never seen that where it wasn't even, it was at the end of the third quarter.
Yeah. They were pulling everyone.
And who do we have MVP right now? right now probably jen brown yeah okay i did see that that uh luca has it's still it's still though it's still if if tatum goes off off he could he could still win it i saw that luca does have the highest plus minus of any player in the series isn't that crazy yeah well he's been really good and then i mean game three he was bad and he got bad fouls but he's scoring i mean every first half he's he's like almost 20 points yeah uh and he played defense on friday he did he moved his feet yeah i think windy and he did a monster couple hands ups like yeah windy woke up woke a monster in that respect uh you also should not feel nervous because Kyrie has to play in front of the Boston crowd. And he has not done well doing that.
Do we want to do who's back of the week? Yeah. Or anything else? There might be one other thing we should do.
Oh. What? What? Maybe a special guest.
Oh, are you talking about Max? We're going to do it after. We're going to do Max later.
Because we have more stuff to talk about. And then he'll do then he'll do more stuff for him to listen to yeah like i was gonna bring up the fact that uh if i'm not gonna do this for who's back of the week but who's back of the week could have been the baltimore orioles because the philadelphia phillies finally played a real team and the orioles kicked the shit out of them yeah uh but that yeah max is actually listening he got He couldn't get his flight back because he's like Rory.
He just took his ball and went home. But we told him take notes and after the interviews we'll have him do Max's minute where he can correct anything that we say that's wrong.
But I saw a report saying that he was crying after Thursday's show. Max was crying.
He was crying. He was crying during Thursday's show.
He was crying during Thursday's show. And so we'll get any corrections to that.
Listen. The Orioles kicked the shit out of the Phillies.
They beat the shit out of them. It was bad.
They fucked them up. They got throttled.
They throttled them. And also, apparently the Philadelphia Water Dogs didn't have a good showing this weekend either.
Our team sucks. I think we should fire Max.
I watched both. We lost in overtime in both games.
Not from the podcast, from whatever role he has with Waterdogs. Yeah, he's a big-time loser.
Max has been fired from the Philadelphia Waterdogs. Saturday's game, we scored with a second left, and it was so thrilling.
And then I went to take a piss, and overtime started, and we had already lost. I came back, and they were celebrating.
I was like, how did this happen? They showed the replay. They just got the fucking face off and went.
I didn't know you were allowed to do that. I'll tell you how it happened.
Max. Yeah.
We suck. Okay.
Before we do, who's back? Game time. Game time.
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What? Holly Pug. Holly Pug.
Game Time did hook him up. Also, Pug screwed me because I've had many people reach out about my tickets, and I've told them all, guess what? Just go to Game Time because Game Time has great tickets, and you can do it right now.
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Big Ed, I actually meant to ask you, this Friday. Yeah.
Can I have your tickets? Sure. I need nine of them.
Okay. I got you.
Do you have nine tickets? Well, no. I'll give you my two.
And then I'll buy seven right next to them. Sell them on game time and then buy nine more.
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Hank, but yes, do go. I'm going to do bleachers.
I wasn't planning on wearing a shirt anyways.. It's the best.
The best. What if I catch a home run? I throw it back.
Well, you got to get there early if you want to get a good split because there's guys that get there the minute they open. I'm going to go hample mode.
They get their seats. But yeah, you go hample mode on their ass.
Hample mode, big time. All right, Hank.
When he's back in the week is Bill Belichick. Yes.
Yes. Old Bill.
Wild Bill. Wild Bill.
Summer of Bill. TMZ came out with a report that confirmed what I think a lot of people already kind of knew or were speculating about.
Did you know? Yeah. I know.
Why didn't you tell us? I did. Why didn't you tell us on the show? Why didn't you tell the listeners? You could have had that.
I'm not going to talk about the coach's personal business. I found out if i found out when hank found out and uh yeah i was i was expecting hank to bring it up at some point wow yeah you knew that's not my business to put out that's not my business he's not yeah it is you've kept it from the listeners that's i hear she's a lovely lady well i actually uh read some stuff about her uh if can i share did you have it no oh okay i didn't read the tmz article um instagram oh you went through instagram do you follow her i do now okay good good uh according to one of uh hudson's what's her name jordan hudson jordan hudson according to one of hudson's former cheerleading teammates hudson first met the 72 year old on a flight from boston area bound for florida way back in 2021 and bonded over philosophy project the student athlete had been working on we're told they swapped contact information after landing and stayed friendly through the ensuing months discussing her school work and the x's and O's of her cheerleading routines.
They bonded over her homework. Philosophy homework, yeah.
Her homework. Bill helped her with her homework.
Yeah. Yeah, listen.
Yeah. How old is she? He loves studying film.
He loves being prepared. That's like his entire MO.
I'm not judging. I'm just saying it's beautiful that they bonded over her homework i think plato was the original guy that said do your job yeah right right what is what is the film room if not but a cave there it is that's all you know is the the dancing flickers of light in front of you showing your tight end laying a block on a a weak side linebacker that becomes your reality yes you have no idea about the outside world uh it goes on to say belichick was spotted rooting her on at a cheerleading competition in march i did homework and cheerleading competition i did hear bill might have uh maybe missed a uh a couple team events to go to a cheerleading practice but he didn't't miss his girlfriend's cheerleading practice.
It's very important, yeah.

Okay.

And then finally, we're told Hudson,

an entrepreneur and philosopher... That's good.

That's a good combo.

...has even begun helping Belichick with his business endeavors.

That's good.

It's beautiful, I know.

I'm just reading from the article.

I'm not editorializing any of this.

I'm just reading the words from the article.

Probably start doing a podcast or something.

It's beautiful.

Yeah, it sounds good.

It would be great.

That sounds really good.

She met an entrepreneur philosopher, and they bought it over homework in her cheerleading

practice.

Entrepreneur, philosopher, and cheerleader.

Cheerleader.

All rolled into one.

Cheerleader.

Sounds like quite a catch for total package.

Triple threat.

Total package.

Triple threat.

And how old is he?

72.

But age is just another.

He's 71.

No, it says 72 right here.

It's 71. No, it says 72 right here.
It's probably not like even a physical thing. They probably were just attracted to each other's minds at first.
Well, she probably thought he was hot. Homework.
Yeah. Anytime you can bond over homework.
Do you think she got good grades on that homework? Do you think they're going steady? Do you ever ask someone for help on a flight?

On homework?

No.

Yeah, just whatever they're working on. I've never asked anybody for help on a flight.

No.

I'm always in control on a flight.

Usually I'm in the exit row, and I have not had a single fatality under my watch.

You think she was like pounding?

She's like, what's wrong?

I just can't figure out my homework.

What is life?

Let me take a look at that.

Listen, Belichick just lived his life.

I'm not judging at all.

It's just you can't tell me those sentences weren't at least a little funny.

Oh, no, it's very funny.

I bonded over homework and cheerily.

I imagined him like looking over at her at her book, not even at her. He doesn't even realize who she is he just looks over he's like what is that nietzsche and then they lock eyes and then they're like oh my god love it first sight you think do you think they have a big calendar in their kitchen it like says like oh jordan's cheerleading practice today i don't know pick meworks.
You got schoolwork, school project coming up. What's your name? Jordan Hudson.
Jordan with an O at the end, though. Two O's.
Oh, that's red flag. That's red flag.
Hank follows her. Any name that has a weird misspelling like that or ends in an I.
Big red flag. Did he pick you up from school today? Jordan Hudson.
Let's see. What kind of entrepreneur is she?

Philosopher entrepreneur.

It actually says right now, philosopher entrepreneur, glamorous girl scout.

Aren't all entrepreneurs just the same?

Isn't that just a blanket statement?

What?

Entrepreneur.

What do you mean is a blanket statement?

Like it doesn't need to be a type of entrepreneur.

Now you're getting philosophical.

Yeah, now you're getting real.

Bill would love this conversation.

Like anyone that does anything is of entrepreneur. Now you're getting philosophical.
Yeah, now you're getting real. Bill would love this conversation.
Like anyone that does anything is an entrepreneur. No, if you start a business, you're an entrepreneur.
I want to know what her business is. Right.
I think she might be. She might just have the entrepreneurial spirit.
That could very much be what happened here. Oh, it was on a, let's see, more recently recently bill was seen in march at one of her competitions and is reported to have accompanied her on a business trip to croatia so she's doing business deals in croatia yeah that's legit yeah i'm happy for bill he seems like he's very happy does he not very happy yeah so we should be supportive she was almost miss Maine.
Oh, that's pretty good. That's not a bad state.
And she's a birder.

But almost. She was almost Miss Maine.
Oh. That's pretty good.
That's not a bad state. But she was.
She's a birder. But almost.
She competed in Miss Maine. Miss Maine participant.
Okay, so a finalist for Miss Maine? She was a competitor in Miss Maine. Okay, okay.
She was the co-main event. Co-main event, yeah.
What were you going to say, Hank? I think she looks like an outstanding young woman. Yeah.
Me too. She was a birder too.
A birder? Oh, she birds? What is that? You don't know bird? You don't know wing? She just looks at birds? Yeah. Listens to birds.
No, no. It's more about- Hank doesn't know what it is either.
Oh, yes it is. It's called bird watching, not bird listening.
No, but you listen. I had a science teacher in high school.
But that's not the main event. The main event is watching.
And he would just take us out. Stop saying main event.
He would just take us out in the woods. Be like, all right, ready? This is what you're going to hear.
And I'd be boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Yeah.
What was that? What was that? He was a bird fanatic. What was that bird? I wish I was more into birds and could tell you.
All right, you know what? We're going to get, let's get a birder on the show for the summer. That's the perfect summer guest.
You know what? I want a birder in studio. We'll do, I want to interview a birder and then we'll have PMTV.
We'll go listen to some birds. Go birds.
Yeah. Go birds.
So Hank, you just said that your bird. Max would love this segment.
Your bird teacher was. My science teacher was a bird.
But he was a birder, but he was saying that this is the sound and that's how you identify them by the sound but the only reason you're figuring out what sound is so that you can look at that bird right oh that's a whippoorwill i've never seen a whippoorwill where is it it's about watching the birds it's not about listening well we'll find out a combination i think it's a combination do you check it off you check it off your little bird list if you're in the woods and you hear a goldfinch? Like, yep, just heard that one. No, but it has to be at least somewhat about hearing it.
I almost saw a goldfinch. You hear them interact? Yeah, we'll find out.
You want to hear them talk? We'll find out. Hey, none of us are experts.
You're kind of sounding like you're an expert. Yeah, you are.
I'm not being judgmental about birds. You're trying to sound like you're an expert.
We all talk to an expert. Okay, yeah.
It has to be at least a little bit of sound. Oh, yeah.
You use the sound, but the point of using the sound is... He's an expert.
I'm an expert. Wait, is she a birder? Yeah.
I guess so. It's literally in her Instagram bio.
All right. That's good.
Okay. All right.
PFT. She sounds very nice.
Very nice. I'm happy for Coach.
Yep. And his philosopher girlfriend.
Me too. Good luck on all homework.
My Who's Back of the Week is Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese arguments. Yeah.
I don't think that we should do a full discussion on this because it sucks. And also it was just a regular foul.
It sucks. It was a flagrant one.
Yeah, but she went for the ball and hit her head. I know, like, whatever.
If you want to hear what Caitlin Clark has to say about it, she said it was just a normal hard foul. You could see where she tries to hit the ball, misses the ball, and then hits her with her elbow on her head.
That play happens all the time in basketball. Yeah.
So get ready. You know what? We haven't even gotten to the Monday takes because there's a lot of people out there that are writing their columns right now about this and what Caitlin Clark and Angel Reeds means to America.
And then there was the other side being like, Caitlin Clark has a responsibility to stand up and speak out against people who are speaking on her back. Everyone just shut the fuck up.
Did you see the article? I'm happy she didn't make the Olympic team at this point. Yeah.
Because we get a break. Now we get a break.
I want a break. It's like the WNBA loses like $20 million a year.
I think it's more now, too. Yeah, they reported.
The private planes. Yeah.
They came out with a report, and it's gotten worse year over year. This is why we can't have nice things.
Yeah. It sucks.
I need a break. I need a time'm asking for a timeout my other who's back of the week uh plug god the dozen oh yeah doesn't tournaments this week so uh i'm competing in the dozen on the experts big cats competing on the yak hank you're you're still competing you're still on that team with a minute champ okay i didn't know that you were still on the team it's actually the second highest score team.
The defending champion team. That's amazing.
How many championships has your team won? We were in the finals the last two years. Ooh.
How about that? Nice. This feels like the year.
This feels like it. Keep talking, Hank.
I hope they ask a question about birds and you don't know it. Jake's on a team.
Jake's on a team. Giant XYZ.
We play tonight. Who do you play, Jake? 7.40 Eastern time.
We play the Booze Ponies.

Okay.

The real mental giants.

Yeah.

And the Booze Ponies.

When he plays Big Cat in the act.

Yeah.

Okay.

And who do you play Big Cat?

The winner.

Okay. So you have a bye.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We were the second ranked team.

Okay.

We're playing Macrodosa.

You have a bye?

Yeah.

Wow.

You were one of the top four teams.

Yeah.

Fuck yes.

That's really, you guys had one of the top four records this year. We have a bye.
We're the top four teams. So that must mean, surely, that one of the top four teams.
Yeah. Fuck yes.
Really, you guys had one of the top four records this year.

We have a bye.

We're the top four teams.

So that must mean, surely, that you had one of the top four records.

You did have one of the top four records.

They had a bye.

Or did you just get the league to write you guys in?

Well, I don't know how the divisions work and conference.

That's true.

Conference.

A lot of tiebreakers and things like that.

That gets confusing.

But, yeah, the winner of Macrodosing versus the Experts

plays against Hank and the Hankettes.

Nice.

So I'm really looking forward to that.

Team Minahan.

Hank is the second leading scorer.

Mm-hmm.

Kirk holds up Hank.

Hank holds up Rico.

I don't know how it goes.

Hank is a trivia god.

Yeah.

Pretty much capped in the team to a bye.

I've been to a – yeah.

I'm excited. You've been to a championship? I went to the championship my first year.
What? Yeah. Me, it was Riggs, right? Dante and Riggs.
Yeah, yeah, that's right. You have.
That was wild. Hank just kept showing up.
He's like, I can't believe I'm still here. All right.
I have two who's backs. The first is British people complaining about normal temperatures temperatures so uh i don't know if you saw but in england this maybe it was over the weekend or the next couple days they're gonna reach uh a high of 26 degrees celsius and it's gonna stay that hot for 48 hours 26 degrees Celsius is Hank.
Guess. 96.

78.

Oh, and I so I was like this can't be real I was gonna say 20 that seems low but if they're complaining already it's got to be apparently all of England doesn't have air conditioning I didn't realize that that's the big complaint that they just don't have air conditioning Yeah. Which, go on fucking Amazon and buy an air conditioning unit.

One, two, if you get above like 75 inside your own apartment. That's bad.
Of course. Just go outside where it's beautiful out.
It does feel, for some reason, 78 degrees outside feels awesome. 78 degrees inside feels like you're in hell.
Correct. What's the difference? Well, because there's probably a breeze.
Breeze. You get the breeze.
Yeah, breeze. So just open your window.
Yeah, you can open the window. You can open your window.
Let the breeze in. I mean, this is 78 degrees.
You can't. And maybe we have some British AWLs you can explain to me.
I also saw some people saying, well, all of our houses are old and we don't have AC. Get a new house.
Yeah, I don't know. Fucking move to America.
Yeah, how old are we talking about here? I don't know, dude. Go.
You know what? Go into a pool. They don't have pools in England.
Yeah, they probably don't. They definitely don't.
They definitely don't have pools. They have fountains.
They have a lot of fountains. That you can go look at.
Yeah, right. But you don't have a pool that you take your shirt off and your pasty white body gets just fried to a crisp.
78 degrees is crazy. And then my other who's back is Jimmy Carter.
Jimmy Carter who it was reported the other day that Jimmy Carter is no longer awake

every day, grandson says. Okay.
Isn't that just dead? So he's back? No, he's not awake every day, but he's not awake. The days that he's just not awake, is he dead? I'll put it this way.
Every time Nick Castellanos hits a home run, I am terrified that Jimmy Carter news is about to happen. There's no terrified left.
He's not awake every day. The guy just let him die.
He's been in hospice for like a year and a half. I actually would be pissed if I was his wife.
Like you die, and then it's like, did you not even love me? You're supposed to die right away after your longtime wife dies. She died like 16 months ago, and he's just been not awake every day since.

Yeah, Big T made a great point.

He said that Jimmy Carter started to come back to life

once he stopped building houses when he was like 98 years old.

It's like once you take a break, then it's like, oh, yeah,

maybe I'm not about to die.

Maybe I was just working out in the sun, putting roofs on apartments all day.

Yeah, dude, there are pictures of him. He actually could probably run for president with the way everything's been going.
I mean, right now. The picture of.
Not awake every day. No problem.
Him, his wife, and the Bidens together is one of the all-time pictures. This one picture of him in a wheelchair, he's not awake in that.
Come on, we got to let Jimmy go. We got to let Jimmy go.
This is cruel. Jimmy Carter.
Here don't here's an idea grandson don't wake him up next time he's not awake for a day don't wake him up the next day let him go yeah don't don't be like hey hey pop-pop wake up no no just let him sleep forever that's what it's called Jimmy Carter on themy carter was president yeah much much much much better person yeah outstanding person sure way better person i don't know but just having a report being like dude's not awake every day that's fucking crazy he's like the guy from uh inception like when they just go and sleep all day in the little den.

Are you thinking of the Matrix?

I don't think of Inception.

I think he's thinking of the Matrix. The den.

Plug him in.

He's an Avatar?

Are you thinking Avatar or the Matrix?

No, Avatar was what they called you in the Matrix.

Right.

So which one are you thinking of?

I've never seen the Matrix.

What?

I can't judge. I've never.
Hank. Everyone has one.
I've said this a million times. I know what happens.
Red pill, blue pill. Well, no, you don't.
You don't. You'd eat the bugs.
I have a general understanding of what happens, but yeah, I've never seen it. I heard a nasty rumor that Big Cat eats bugs.
I will never eat the bugs. I heard, there were people saying online there were people saying online that you're They're calling me Bug Cat.
Bug Cat, yeah, Barstool Bug Cat. I'll never eat the bugs.
We also forgot to shut out You said last week you'd eat the bugs. I know, I said I'd drink the bugs in the Cicada Malort shot.
That's what they want you to do. First step.
Jake. My Who's Back is retiring on live television because that is what Charles Barkley announced late Friday night.
There was a lot of speculation about the future of NBA on TNT inside the NBA. We have one more year, and after that, it's over.
He is going to be off of television no matter what happens. I don't buy it.
I don't buy it. I don't buy it.
He's too good. That's just what you say at the end of the year.
He's just doing – he's said a million different things. He's like, well, maybe I'll just hire everyone and we'll have a new – we'll bring it over here.
Maybe I'll retire. Maybe – he's just – I love Charles Barkley.
I love, love, love Charles Barkley. I don't buy it.
Charles Barkley could talk about anything on TV that I would watch. It doesn't matter what it could be.
He could do a recap show for Summer House. I don't buy it.
He could do baseball. He doesn't prep.
He watches. I don't buy it.
There's no way he preps, right? But that's what makes him so electric. He watches.
He probably writes down on a piece of paper like terrible. What did he do? Did he do it when he did the hockey game? No.
He was on the NBA TV postgame show in Dallas on Friday night. Yeah.
Did you guys see the difference between the hockey desk that ESPN has for the hockey desk for the Stanley Cup finals and then the NBA desk? No. The NBA finals? It's fucking hilarious.
They put... They ran out of money for the hockey.

Hold on, I'm going to... Can you pull it up?

Yeah.

Memes?

Let me take a look at this desk.

Memes, look at this.

Pete Blackburn pointed it out, and it's very funny.

I just sent it to you, memes.

Or, Jake, do I need to send it to you?

You're not going to be able to Google desk and then find it.

I texted you. DM it to...
Who? This is good stuff. This is good stuff right now.
Cut this. This is, yeah, waiting to see a desk.
We really need someone here to help us out. Who am I DMing it to? Who usually does this? Who am I DMing it to? Max is like...
Oh, Max does this? Fried and Max? Max not here. His, he's crying.
Cause his Phillies got fucking dog walk by the Orioles. Bad.
Max would have. Yeah.
This is, this is really bad for him. Look at this.
Look at these two deaths. Oh yeah.
Well, we can't see the front of the desk in the hockey. We just see the top.
Oh, yeah. It's so good.

It's a bad desk.

It's so good.

The difference is very, very stark.

They got the trophy there.

Yeah.

Shout out Pete Blackbird for finding that.

They're just noticing that.

Unbelievable.

I mean, I don't even think they brought that desk.

That's just, that's an Edmonton desk.

Yeah, that was there. That's built into the stadium.
Yeah. The boys were whooping it up.
Biz manhandled the guy at the game. I don't know if you saw that.
I did see that, yeah. Holy shit.
He looked like he was full of energy. Yeah.
But yeah, Jake, I don't buy it. I just don't.
All right, we'll see. I mean, I'm not.
That's not. I just saw it.
I would love for it to continue and i just think charles is just kind of saying whatever right now i i think that he in the moment he's like yeah i'm rich i don't want to work my whole life i'll just be done in a year and then he'll he'll go off the air for maybe a little bit and then he'll get offered a giant contract to talk about anything and be like yeah you know what it's kind of fun just talking on camera also just play this out for a second right NBC got NBA is that right I think that's what the okay so TNT no longer hope memes just playing biz just beating this guy up that guy's just grabbing look like he looks like Mike McDaniels um so Charles Barkley NBC's got NBA Charles Barkley's out of a job. NBC wants Charles Barkley, NBC's got NBA, Charles Barkley's out of a job.

NBA, NBC wants Charles Barkley to do inside the NBA on NBC.

Who, who is like Charles Barkley bidding?

Who are they bidding against?

No one.

Well, now they're bidding against Charles Barkley retirement.

Yeah.

That's, that's it.

Charles Barkley can't, like if NBC has all the rights to the NBA and that's where the

show is going to be, they'll be like, Hey charles we're going to pay you 10 million dollars a year he can be like no like they know that he has to either do that or not but now he's like oh i'm going to retire now it's a bit against me just not working anymore i would love to see them do a little cross-pollination with their football desk and have it be uh tony dung Charles Barkley at the same time on a desk. Charles tried to talk to Tony about big women in San Antonio.
He's watching Tony Dungy just cry in shame. Yeah, that would be good.
They'd be a great buddy cop. Yeah.
Okay, let's get some interviews. We got Smiley Kaufman, we got Mike Florio, and then we're going to finish with Max's Minute and a quick Monday reading.
Before we get to Smiley, he's brought to you by our great friends over at SimpliSafe. Love SimpliSafe.
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no safe like SimpliSafe. And now here's Smiley Kaufman.
Okay, we now welcome on a very special

guest. He was there at Pinehurst number two 2 for the U.S.
Open on the call on the NBC coverage. It is Smiley Kaufman.
He also has a podcast. You can go check it out right now.
It's called The Smiley Show for more golf takes. Smiley, first of all, thank you for joining us.
You're driving right now from Pinehurst to Charlotte, so we appreciate you joining us. Yes.
What's up, boys? Thank you for having me on. That was some epic TV, I must say.
It was pretty fun to be a part of something like that. I guess I kind of now know what it feels like to be a Chicago Bears fan.
I kind of felt like the double-delink out there for Rory. Did it not? It was a tough scene, man.
It was just hard to watch but epic theater for golf man yes yeah are you okay were you in the parking lot when rory peeled out and uh and mowed down several spectators it looked like it was a violent gruesome scene there after the after the tournament was over yeah it looked like shooter mcgavin leaving uh after he lost to her championship to happy gilmore yeah i mean it sucks man like the guy was right there he hadn't won in 10 years at a major he was just right there for the taking and uh god it's just so hard to win majors but i i feel like that was the most agonizing way for him to ever lose one again because he hasn't necessarily been super close

besides the St. Andrews Open Championship where he had 18 two-putts in one round.
So I just feel for Rory. But man, Bryson hit an epic bunker shot on 18.
And the guy is just the content king if we're looking at I mean, looking at this guy, he's unbelievable.

Yeah, yeah. So I know we want to talk about Bryson because he is the winner, but I think most times when you have a collapse like that, the loser gets talked about a good deal because it's a little bit more interesting in the moment.
So Rory is 8-under going to the 14th. And what happened in the end, missing two putts, you know, four feet in, in, like, how does that happen? I guess is really like, how does that happen? And is that one of the most painful? We know some of the most painful major losses, you know, Greg Norman, Vanderval, all those things.
But this one feels like it might be up there in the Mount Rushmore of painful chokes just because of where he was four holes earlier and how he had been playing and the 10 years that you mentioned. And to have it go down like that, it is, that is an epic, epic, like, loss for Rory.
A hundred percent. I mean, the only other one I can think of, a recent memory that we still talk about that I actually was a part of was the final round in 2016 at the Masters where Jordan had, you know, he had a four shot lead hit in the back nine and makes a seven at number 12.
And Danny Willett goes on to win. That one was agonizing to watch.
It was agonizing i'm sure for for jordan and then rory today but uh dude i can't think of any other golf event that was that entertaining over the last decade besides maybe the jordan uh masters one it was just and how does it happen how do you miss those spots 16 was i felt like inexcusable That one to me was an easy two putt. I don't know what happened on his three-footer that he missed because he typically doesn't.
He's really good inside of three feet. He's not somebody I was worried about.
I was actually walking away, and I was like, oh, my God, he missed it. It just didn't even come into my mind that missing that putt was a possibility and then 18 was a actually a really interesting putt on 18 because i got behind and looked at it i saw like inside left left center and i'd heard from max who you guys obviously have on all the time uh he had told jt that he hit that putt in the practice round and said it's a really weird putt because if you get it started too far out on the left the grain keeps it there but if you start it inside the hole it like breaks off the planet uh and that's exactly what happened so it was a it was a really tough putt that he had but i mean after bryson hit in the bunker i felt like we were going to you know the aggregate scorecard or that not scorecard playoff aggregate uh-hole playoff, and Bryson just got up there and just hit an unreal shot.
Yeah, and you said it, I think, on the broadcast, which made it such great theater going down the stretch that it felt like match play because of the way Pinehurst is set up, that Rory was looking back and seeing where Bryson would end up before he would tee off on some holes. How was that? How was that all breaking down? I even I even heard it might not have been you, but someone said that Rory hit like kind of went fast on one of the greens to put in so that you get the roar right before Bryson had to take a difficult shot.
Like how was that all set up from your point of view? It started on the ninth hole. Exactly what you just said.
And Bryson had hit a long left at eight. It was going to have a really difficult up and down.
And Rory and Bryson kind of looked at each other. And Bryson, I thought was going to go, but Rory was not about to let Bryson hit a chip shot first.
He wanted to make the putt to let him know that he just made

birdie and then Bryson hit an incredible chip it ends up getting up and down and that's when I was like oh boy we're in for some some good stuff on the back nine and then it just seemed like a back and forth of of roars on the back nine which I I think going into the day we love we wanted for Bryson and Rory to be in the same group.

But it worked out way better this way because each person was waiting on each other. Rory pretty much watched every single shot that Bryson hit on that back nine outside of a couple because he would look back and saw exactly what he was doing.
And he knew where he stood. And that's – it makes it that much more heart-wrenching that he knew what he had to do and just wasn't able to get it done.

It also sounds like maybe the wrong strategy too by Rory

because it got in his own head.

Like he was feeling all the pressure in the world

if he's missing two of those putts.

And maybe he shouldn't have been paying that close attention

to what Bryson was doing, but he's like timing out his shots to make sure that he can get the roar before bryson i don't know it seems like it's it's not a usual strategy to take so i'm not it ended up not being that effective but um when it comes to bryson's strategy it seemed like his his uh way of breaking down this golf course was just basically like hit the fuck out of the ball and hope that you get a great lie in the native areas. Like, don't be afraid of the native areas and just hope that you luck out and it doesn't land up like in a bush.
And it worked out pretty well for him. But do you think, do you think he was just kind of taking a reckless strategy towards the whole thing where he was like, I'm just going to hit it long and hope that the lie turns out well for me.
Yeah, no, totally. You're right.
I mean, there was definitely an element of luck involved this week at Pioneer Summer 2. The native areas, man, like for the most part all week, guys were able to hit out of it and kind of get it up near the green.
I think Bryson only had to pitch out one time that I can remember. So there was a huge element of luck.
I think there needs to probably be like have more of that like crazy grass out there because there wasn't maybe enough of a penalty for some of the shots that Bryson was hitting today because Rory drove the absolute crap out of it today. And yeah I mean Bryson hits the shit out of it.
Yeah so does rory they both had averaged like 340 yards off the tee which is just insane to think about um but uh yeah i mean bryson he's he's that big man like he's he's fun to watch in person he's fun to watch on tv and he just wears his emotions on his sleeve and i don't think we we've had a golfer like that, that I can think of in a long time that is just built for TV. He's just box office Bryce, man.
He, he, you know what he is? And I've seen some people were making this. I'm not taking credit for this, but people were saying that he's the second coming of Phil where you, when Phil was at his height, Phil was very, you know he was emotional he would he would wear it on his sleeve his interviews were interesting it's like he is like the the 2024 youtube version of phil mickelson yeah it's a good point you make and in some some ways yes they are similar and i think that bryson's goofier yeah and phil i think is much more of like a know-it-all, if you will.
Yeah. I think it's the best way to kind of describe Phil.
But Phil was like expert in mind games and being able to kind of get not only in his own head, but in other people's heads. And how he kind of worked his way around a golf course and how he treated the media.
Bryson's been interesting, man. Like we need to have like a 30 for 30 on how somebody can leave the PGA tour.
And I would say that majority of the people were over Bryson, but they enjoyed watching him play golf. But as the person to actually root for, I think he had more, it was probably closer to 50-50 whether people rooted for him or not.
And so it's wild to me now. He goes to the left golf tour, and somehow he's become this unbelievably well-liked guy.
And 90% of the dudes that have gone to the live golf tour have become not well-liked. So it's just wild how this is like totally turned in his direction.
I think you got to point to his content, all the stuff that he's done off the golf course. His social channels are just insane.
He's leaning into his audience. And then the TV, too.
He's just fun to watch. I also think it might be one of the cases where he's the one guy where less is more.
If you don't have to watch him every single week, he becomes a lot more palatable and interesting. Where it's like it's work to – like overexposure might be a thing for him and he can find his own audience online which that's you know people are opting into that but if he was there on your tv every single sunday you'd be like maybe i don't love this guy so maybe live was he's the only one who's kind of one on live they don't have they don't have microphones on the course that can pick up you complaining to a rules official about ants being near the wall right they're like getting hit they don't that.
Getting hit. Remember when he got hit by the rope? That rope was fucked up.
And he blamed everyone else? That was a very violent rope. Yeah.
He blamed his caddy. He stared at the rope.
Who fucking put that rope there? Yeah. But I had one question about Bryce and his game today because it was – it looked like he was going to lose it.
And it was like I thought going into today there was – with the way the course was playing, if he shoots even par, he should win, and that's about – I think he shot plus one today. But what happened with his driver? So his driver caved in in practice, and then he had to use another driver.
So you obviously – you're a professional golfer. You know all these guys.
Is it that different when you're like, I need to now use a different driver?

And how long does it take to get comfortable with it?

Because clearly he didn't have the same accuracy on his driver today.

Yeah, I heard that he said that he couldn't turn over the driver today.

And then I think on the front nine he was leaving everything out to the right.

And then he was overcorrecting on the back nine.

But yeah, it's a big deal not to have your gamer you know he was driving that driver so well and i heard he flat his face which is most of the time guys crack the face and that's when they change out to new drivers when i hear flat in the face i actually think about his his driver it's called like bulge and roll, and nobody else has whatever the heck that even means.

It's a curvature of the face, and the best way to explain it is it's like an autocorrect.

So if you hit it in the heel, it starts further left.

If you hit it in the toe, it starts further right.

And I think his flattened to where it was less of a curve,

and I guess he noticed it on the range pre-round and changed out his heads and then went out to the course with something that he probably had maybe maybe he had used that head before but most likely not so it was definitely probably an uneasy feeling especially with Rory getting off to a good start birdieing one but it's just you couldn't make up today man like the storylines today from start to finish were just epic yeah i feel like the content game helped him out with that too because he does a lot of wacky shit like that where he's like i see if i can break par using a set of rented clubs that i just got like five minutes before and so now i mean if we really want to stay woke on it maybe there was some cameras going behind the scenes and we're gonna see like the entire he's like oh no my driver's broken can i win the u.s open on day can i win the u.s open on day four with a brand new driver beast challenge it's a mr beast challenge and it's a driver that he's been practicing with for like six months and he knows inside and out but he's acting like this is i'm just very woke on bryson and i do i have kind of like i'm happy for bryson's fans today for the people like diehard bryson content guys good for them he's he's creative he does some fun stuff and he is more likable i do think big cat's right actually i was thinking that earlier that like you don't get to see bryson all the time so you don't get inundated with all the all the real stuff that he does. Right.
But you do get to see him, and he looks like he's happy, and it's easy to root for a guy who's genuinely happy. I'm mad at Rory, though.
I'm pissed off. I think that all amateur golfers, all people that golf for fun, should be really angry with Rory today because he just made the length of a gimme putt so much longer because now if it's inside Rory range, you're going to have to putt that out.
I've never missed a putt inside four feet before because they say just pick it up. And I'm like, yes, I will pick that up.
Now you don't get those gimmies anymore. So I'm upset with Rory.
I think we all have a right to be upset with him after his performance today. Well said.
Well said. You know what's kind of crazy about Rory today too is is we're going to remember the missed putts at 16 we're going to remember the missed putt at 18 but what we're going to forget is how well he putted today he made everything today he made every important putt he had to make all the way up until the 16th hole but history doesn't uh unfortunately isn't going going to be kind to him on that.
And it's got to be just such a tough, tough feeling driving away from the golf course. Apparently peeling out.
I haven't seen that video yet. It was Mad Max.
Through his clubs. So, all right.
So, talking about the putting, you're there. Can you explain to us, in layman's terms you know our listeners who who've never played piners a u.s open course obviously neither have we no we pretty much did we pretty much did we played mid pines once uh but like the greens putting also i love the fact that if you hit it in the wrong spot the ball just rolls forever.
What does that look like when you're standing there?

And just how difficult is it for the guys who are the best in the world at golf?

You know, it's just scary.

It's an upside-down salad bowl is basically what most of the greens look like.

And when you get the firmness and the speed in which these greens played like this week,

they're just daunting.

Even standing from the fairway, looking at the green green it looks like you have nowhere to hit it and i think you saw some of the best iron players in the world make shaky swings because they literally have a hula hoop that they're trying to land the golf ball and to keep it to get it close to the hole most of the time we saw guys bail out to to the place to where you could maybe get it up and down but when you get on the greens you can make some putts if you got below the hole the problem is when they stick to the flag sticks on the corners of the green you can't get below the hole so you have all these you know big breaking pots lag pots that are really difficult and some of the ones coming down the stretch it looks like when you get that back hole locations on some of these greens it looks like you're about to putt it over a cliff and so most of the time it will you you end up coming up short on most of your big lag pots from about 40 feet because you know if you hammer it you're gonna have to go hit a 40 yard wedge shot on some of them so rightfully so these guys are leaving you know these putts four or five feet short and giving themselves you know putts they have to make for par in which i thought today a lot of the guys really handled those those tricky lag putts really well and i even the one on 16 it was a good putt that rory hit the first one and just had a brain lapse on the second one i i can't explain what happened what's the uh what's the shortest putt you've ever missed um i missed a putt from probably six inches away and i'll tell you what happened it you know if you're ever playing in the morning when it's dewy and the golf ball collects kind of some sand or collects a little bit of dew on it, and a lot of times players will mark, clean the golf ball, and tap in when you know there's some moisture or some sand on the ball. And so I go to tap it in, not realizing that it was on it, and I hit it maybe an inch in front of me.
It didn't even feel like I made impact. That's how much water and sand was on the golf ball.
So for me, something around the six inches range. Damn.
Yeah. It's very funny that you bring up the stat about Rory's putting actually being very good today.
Like anybody will ever remember that.'s a big like in real life besides that how

was the play miss lincoln like he had uh he had a great day by all objective measures but then the only thing people remember is is those two putts um do you think is it's yeah go ahead it's like i've got to cut you off i'm just thinking about like russell wilson the the interception he threw on the two yard. Like all we remember is that we don't remember hardly the, the amazing pass down the sideline to get them into that position to where they had a chance to go and win the game.
Like that, that to me is like a pretty similar scenario where then it's like, all right, Russell gets down to the two. They don't hand it off.
That's all we ever remember and talk about. Yeah.
Yeah, that's a good comparison. Do you think that there's any chance that Rory can look back on this, I don't know, maybe a month, two months from now, and think maybe it was a good thing? Maybe it showed me that I can compete? Does he get any confidence back whatsoever by being that close to winning another major? Oh man, that's a, that's a good question.
Good question. When it's been 10 years since you've won a major and you let one slip away like this happened today, because it did slip away.
It, you know, I think, yes, he he'll remain confident in his game. I think this one's going to sting for a really long time.
And it won't surprise me to see him pull out of the Travelers this next week. I doubt we'll see him there.
I'd be shocked if we see him there. And, yeah, the fifth major.
There you go. The Keegan Bradley Invitational.
and man, I think we won't see him until maybe the Irish Open or the Scottish Open three or so weeks from now. You know, he skipped out on media.
So next time we'll really get to ask him the question is three weeks from now and we'll see. But the Open Championship is his last shot this year, but the U.S.
Open, that's six straight top tens that he's had at the U.S. Open.
And it's just, we keep saying it's a matter of time, but, you know, you need some luck to win major championships. You know, you have to have the opportunities and he just didn't take advantage of his opportunities.
It was his time to win today, and he just didn't get it done. Yeah, yeah.
So last question about Bryson. That shot he made out of the bunker in 18, can you tell us – can you explain to us how difficult that shot was? Because that was – as much as it was Rory choking, Bryson felt like his tee shot on 18 was bad.

He's in this really tough spot.

Then he goes to the bunker, and then he makes an incredible, incredible shot

to save par on 18 and win it outright.

What did that shot look like from where you were standing

and how difficult that was?

I was probably 15 yards away from him, so I had the best view in the house. And I, as soon as he hit into that, that greenside bunker, I said to my yardage guy, I was like, Hey, let's get ready for a playoff with no chance.
He's getting this up and down. And as soon as he walked into the bunker, there was a, I could tell that there was a lot more sand, uh, than, than maybe some of the other bunkers on the course, which I thought made the shot even more difficult because more sand, it's harder to, you know, because that's how much closer you got to hit it to the golf ball because the further back you take it, the shorter it's going to go.
And I actually tweeted out, I said, if it was me hitting in there in that moment, I would have sent it over to the clubhouse. I mean, a 55-yard bunker shot is one of the more difficult shots in the game.
And Bryson probably hit a, I'd say, a gap wedge is probably what he used, which is somewhere around that 50 to 52 degrees. And full swing, probably that club entered maybe an inch behind the golf ball ball and it's a full swing.
So the fact that he went in there full swing and bringing in literally launching it over the clubhouse and having the nerve to pull the shot off and get it inside at five feet was unbelievable. It really was an unbelievable shot.
Yeah. Yeah.
I'm watching it again. It was crazy.
The shot that that he hit i forget which par three it was he hit an eight iron like 215 yards that was insane just screaming at the ball in the air uh that was one of the most impressive golf shots i've ever seen in my life it's uh you know his iron game is weird because his lofts are similar it's like if his eight iron is like a normal six iron, but it's really fun to say when he has 215 yards and he hits an eight iron. It's epic to say that out loud that somebody's hitting an eight iron from that far away.
So all week I would get the sign of, you know, because we get the flash of, you know, if it's a 9-iron, they flash me a 4. If it's an 8-iron, they flash me a 3.
And some of the times I would be like, are you serious? Like, is that right? And just epic, yeah. I mean, who doesn't like seeing that on TV? I don't know.
The guy's unbelievable. Yeah.
So, wait, what's's the deal with his irons he's got different lofts so like his eight iron is actually a six iron yeah it's all because of how hard he hits it and his all the shit he does is really weird so it's like seven iron link shafts he's got these jumbo grips uh the y angle is really weird and the what he's trying to do is to get the correct apex height and when he explains it you kind of understand what he's talking about so like i'm going to give you what i know about it which is he's just trying to match the flight in which the window that he typically wants a nine and eight iron to fly and once he gets that waft correctly because he hits so much, I guess, up on the golf ball, that's how they settle in on what their nine iron or eight iron loft actually is. Yeah, it's really odd because most guys are, you know, a typical set is, you know, 42 degrees is like a nine iron, I think.
And I think his is, you know, closer to shit. My math, my brain is fried right now, so I don't even want to try to figure out what his loss are.
But just know that they're two irons off of what anybody else's is. Yeah.
He's like the Terrence Howard of golf, it sounds like. He just reinvented math.
Yeah. It's something that y'all should consider, though.

You should probably do it, too, because when you get to a tee box,

you can just be like, hey, what are you hitting?

And they'll say, I'm hitting 7-iron, and then you can be like, oh,

well, I'm hitting 9-iron.

But you're really hitting a 7-iron, so it's kind of a flex.

In their head.

So what I'll do is I'll take my 6-iron,

and I'll just write one little curve on it, so that's an eight now that's my eight iron um all right so i smile this has been awesome i had a couple last questions uh the first was this course this was such a fun weekend of golf and the u.s open is usually uh this way because it's such a great test and they make it so difficult and it's's, you know, if you look at the leaderboard, there was what, there was like seven, seven guys under par. And like, it's just fun golf to see that test.
Do you think that they should do that more often with some of these tournaments? Because birdies are fun. Eagles are fun.
But I think this type of golf is just so much more like exciting, watching guys have struggle and knowing like hey here's the deal you have to hit the perfect shot to get a birdie and if you make a little mistake you're getting a bogey and that's how it should work yeah no the U.S. Open I think is the one week of the year that fans get to root for the golf course yeah you know we root for struggle and it's totally opposite than what we saw the pga championship at valhalla which was by the numbers the easiest golf course ever on a major championship with xander winning i believe at 21 under par i think was the final yeah so it's just total opposite where the pga championship was all about how well could you execute you know could you be able to just hit the shot that's called in front of you, which is not a whole lot of thinking involved versus U.S.
Open, where there's a whole lot of thinking involved, and there's so much to take in, and there's all luck involved, involved with Pinehurst number two. And, yeah, I think there's a time and place for it.
Like, last week at the Memorial,, like was a U.S. Open type of setup.
And I think a guy like Scotty Shepard, why he didn't have a good week this week was I think he was worn out from playing back to back U.S. Open type of setups.
So there's there's times and places for it. But guys don't like playing U.S.
Open style setups every week. And I think the fans like watching putts going for birdie for the most part on most weeks.
But the U.S. Open is different, man.
Like as long as the golf course, you know, doesn't get out of hand, I think. And it didn't this week.
It made for some incredible theater. And you really could tell that the guys on top of the leaderboard were the guys executing at the highest level.
What is out of hand? We were having this debate on Thursday. What actually, we know borderline, but what is over the line? Because it's such a funny concept to me being like, no, this golf course is too mean.
Well, it starts with weather. You've got to start with weather.
if it was blowing 20 miles an hour today, it would have been out of hand. It would have been ridiculous because it was only a five to seven mile an hour breeze.
Totally fine. A lot of times, hole locations too.
You know, there's just certain things with course setup that can be just dumb to players or they just get annoyed with like, what, what is, what is the USGA trying to get out of this? Where I feel like today was a perfect setup. I thought it could have been a little bit harder to, like I think they could have maybe made it a little bit trickier than they did.
But I don't know. It, it, I, out okay.
I mean, it was – I'm still just in awe of what I witnessed. Same.
Yeah, it was shocking. It was also just when the back nine started, you knew that something special was going to happen.
Did you get that feeling? Like, do you know that in the moment that this is going to going to be an iconic finish of a u.s open yep um i think it all started on nine green um and then 10 with rory making a plot and then patrick making it right after and and then bryson burning 10 but really 13 is where i was like this is going to be so sick down the stretch because rory gets up and down from behind the green, makes birdie, gets the eight under and Bryson just makes bogey at 12. And Rory's over his tee shot at 14 about to hit.
And I had known that Bryson's three wood was already in the air and it was on a good line. I was like, oh boy, there's about to be a roar.
And of course, it lands short of the green, bounces up, goes 25 feet. And now Rory has to step off the ball.
And I'm like, we're about to have this epic back and forth where they're going to have to wait on each other to hit because one doesn't want to be hitting while the other hits an epic shot and then in their downswing has a roar that screws him up. So you knew there was going to be this waiting.
And it turned out to be a chess game down the stretch, and it just was epic, absolutely epic. It was.
It was so awesome. And that shot, yeah, that was when it really did feel like it started, when he drove the green on the par four.
All right, so I have one last question for you, Smiley. And thank you so much, by the way.
this has been awesome. Uh, really cool to talk to someone who was right there.
Um, yeah, we're definitely gonna have you back on. So, uh, cause I think you guys have the, the open right as well.
Yeah. Okay.
I got the open championship. Great.
So we'll, we'll, you'll be back on for that. Um, so the last question, rowback question, RHOBACK.com code TAKE.
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Now, you made the Bears comment at the beginning, and I didn't want to do this,

but I'm going to have to do this.

Did you see Alabama's new golf facility?

Because there is no one who's ever going to go golfing at LSU ever again. It's the craziest, coolest golf facility that they made for their team.
I think JT had built the course, and it is incredible. That sucks for you and your LSU Tigers, who I do like, but that sucks for you.
Did you see it? No do like but that sucks for you did you see it no yeah i've been uh you know i live in birmingham so i i'm i've been up to date on everything they're doing in alabama jt's kept me in the loop as well it's sick yeah i mean it's they really didn't need a facility there um because the golf courses there you know at in tuscaloosa i wouldn't call you know first class as far as any of the other courses compared you know the lsu's coming out of me it's bad okay no they really did they really did need to get a golf course at which they can kind of go and practice and do you know hit all different kinds of shots and it looks sweet uh um i'm very jealous and i'll probably end up going there a time or two hopefully maybe with uh jt or trey mullinax or some of those boys but yeah it's sick uh and uh heck i mean shoot when you come down to baton rouge like you do once or twice a year for a football game we'll have to head out there and i gotta fix your posture man we get your golf swing posture is something I've never seen before. Did you – wait, Smiley, did you not see the 28 I shot at Shark Tooth in the front nine on – Oh, you're out of Panama City.
Yeah, I shot a 28 on the front nine. Yeah, did I see that you birdied 17 to like kind of finish with like a 54 on the something like that? Yeah, I ended with an 83, so it kind of got away from me.
But a 28 on the front nine is pretty insane. I was eight under going to the hot dogs.
Yeah, I mean, that's not bad. 28's pretty good out there on the front.
I played like seven holes. It was so hot.
It was so goddamn hot. I played like seven holes and quit.
What was poor noise like breaking? Did he like break par? Is that what it was? He shot. Yeah, he shot four under at Shinnecock, but he had unlimited mulligans.
So he just sat there and they just fed him balls over and over. He shot like a thousand shots.
He won the U.S. Open.
He won the U.S. Open.
Yeah, that was his goal is to try to beat the winning score just by taking as many shots because they thought that he would just run out of time. There aren't enough mulligans in the day for him to complete it, but he brought like five guys out there that were feeding a ball shagging all the ones he was hitting.
So yeah, he dominated that course. My next question is how many golf balls it would take for Poirot to get up and down from where Bryson was in the bunk grade 18.
Oh, I don't know. Well, he's got a bad shoulder now.
He's got a bad shoulder. He can't do that.
He doesn't have a bad shoulder. He'd probably dislike.
He doesn't have a bad swing. He just has a bad shoulder.
But, yeah, we got to play, and I would love for some tips, and you can fix my swing. I have your number now.
Maybe I'll FaceTime you while I'm on the simulator you can you can give me some tips hell yeah hell yeah man uh this has been great and anytime you want to have me on love to do it uh but yeah i definitely look forward to potentially seeing it out at baton rouge like we bump into each other every year with the canes and uh walk on some folks over there at lsu it's a good time they're the best smiley you guys also dod bullet. I guess not you guys, but the USGA did because there were some people that were very much looking forward to Monday golf.
And then, you know, people started to correct them and say like, Hey, actually it's just a two hole playoff now. But if it had gone to a playoff, people would have been really pissed off that we didn't have a full Monday of golf.
Why did they change that rule? Can we bring that back? I love the, I love the extra day of golf. I am so pumped.
That's not a thing. One of my, one of my biggest things now that I'm not playing and I'm just in media, I don't, for the most part, I don't really care who wins.
I just care that they finish on time and there's no playoff so that I can take a call. So, uh, sorry for being selfish on that.
Uh, but I, playoff would have been super epic, and I would have just ended up flying home tomorrow. But, yeah, I don't know.
It would have been fun to have a playoff, especially with Bryson and Rory, or, like, you know, Liv versus PGA Tour battle. Like, now they're looking each other in the eye for, I don't even know what holes they would have been.
I should know the answer to this because I was actually kind of freaking out, figuring out what hole I would need to report to because I was like on one, but I was like maybe it's 17. So I was like kind of walking around in circles like a dog trying to figure out where I was going.
And then Bryson, of course, makes the butt. So I was like, all right, I'm going home.
Yeah, I understand from your point of view you want to get home. But that one year that we got it with Tiger and Rocco, I would put that day up there with any NCAA tournament, any day after the Super Bowl, for the least productive day of work across America.
Nobody did anything. We were just all watching golf, and it was awesome.
Yeah, that's a great point. Monday morning meeting, so there have been a lot of cancellations for sure.
Yeah. All right, safe flight thanks again for doing this, this was awesome man and we'll talk to you before the open yeah let's go Joel and say go Tigers go Tigers, alright thanks Smiley Smiley Kaufman was brought to you by Chevy as everyone knows this is a Chevy truck podcast the greatest trucks ever built and our good friends at Chevrolet have been a big part of the part of my take story from the Silverado helping us dig the biggest hole ever dug in Ohio during grit week to Silverado partnering with us to give college fullbacks all the rightful recognition that they deserve with a low man award to our nonstop cross country trip to the Super Bowl in LA behind the wheel of a Silverado.
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For do-it-yourself projects, to road trips, off-roadgates whatever your thing is it all starts with a chevy truck check chevy out today go to dealership get behind the wheel of a chevy silverado and enjoy it and now here's a good friend mike florio there it is michael hi how we doing. It's great to see your fucking face.
Great to be with you. Great to be seen.
I'm just checking out all your different sponsorships you guys have whored yourself out to. Oh, yeah.
We're Wayne's World. Would you like to sponsor us? Hey, don't roll your eyes, Hank.
Fuck you, Hank. Let's go.
All right. Here we go.
I'm so rolling your fucking eyes, man. I're rolling my eyes.
Why are you being so harsh? I was not rolling my eyes. I'll drive out there and kick your fucking ass.
I wasn't even rolling my eyes. I saw you rolling your eyes, bitch.
All right, let's do it. All right, here we go.
Leave that in. Three, three, two, one.
All right, we welcome on our good, good friend. It is Mike Florio.
Off to a combative start off to a combative start we'll we'll leave in right when when he he told hank don't roll your fucking eyes uh mike florio from pro football talk also i'm going to say this right now to our awls uh awl the the takeies are coming up so i know you know this mike but every year we give away takeies and award-winning listeners are up for the listeners of this show. They've won it seven years in a row.
They're going for an eight-peat. Here's how they could maybe get a little bit closer to getting their eighth AWL status.
Mike has a book called Father of Mine. It's on Amazon.
It's a mob novel. Everyone loves reading about the mob.
There's a sequel coming out in September. Let's boost those book sales.
Go buy it right now on Amazon. Mike has always been...
Is Hank rolling his eyes again? Come to Hank. I've read it front to back, back to front.
Don't you roll your eyes. To be sentimental for a second, Mike has done a lot for PFT and I in our careers.
And me. And Hank.
And so without Mike Florio in our lives, we probably wouldn't be all the way sitting here. We'd probably still be sitting here.
Yeah, you would be. You would be.
We're pretty incredible. You would have ceased and desisted.
If you had ceased and desisted me in year one, I don't know that it ever gets here. So domino effect.
Yeah. You kind of created part of created part of my take yeah so yeah you are a big part of our lives uh but we wanted Mike on because we are at the point of the calendar where teams are about to go on break until training camp and we have been talking about basketball and baseball and hockey uh and golf and we just want to talk some ball we want to talk talk about football, the sport we love, because we know there's not going to be any football news for the next month or so until training camps open.
So we wanted Mike on to talk a little ball. And Mike, I want to start with probably your favorite topic, and we'll have memes make sure that his mic is on for this.
Is there a problem in New York with Aaron Rodgers and the Jets? I don't think there's a problem. And I know that memes had some issue with something that I said last week because I saw the tweet and I had to send it to you, big cat, to get an interpretation like most people of my generation do.
Hey, son, what is this all about? I didn't get it. Here's the issue with Aaron Rodgers.
And I think this is more about the Jets and Aaron Rodgers. They fucked this up so bad last week.
All they had to do is excuse his absence. That's all they had to do.
And I think what happened was some lawyer on the payroll for the Jets said, well, if we don't fine him, then that will become a precedent that gets used against us if other players miss mandatory minicamp and we won't be able to enforce the fines against them. There's a point we have to tell the lawyer, shit down and shut up or sit down and shut up as the case may be, because they just should have excused it.
And I think the Jets would say it still would have been a big story. Think about the difference between the story.
If Robert Sala says last Tuesday, Aaron Rodgers isn't here and it's an unexcused absence versus Aaron Rodgers isn't here and it's excused and we've known about it and it's no big deal. I think that it's 10 percent of the story that it was last week at most if they just would have excused the absence.
So I put this on them. They've known now, look he he's known for 20 years when mandatory minicamp typically is middle of june so whatever ayahuasca retreat he's on he should have tried to schedule it around this but once they knew that he wasn't going to be there they needed to handle it differently and they made it into a bigger thing than it needed to be and that's my that's my take okay so no problem no so there's not a problem it sounds like like sala according to your theory they knew this was going to happen and then sala was like we have to say it's unexcused and the fine is like minimal what is it like a couple grand or something like that 50 grand total 50 grand total for the two days he missed 50 grand i guess that's a little bit more than i thought that it was but they could adjust 35 million a year i'm yeah 50 grand's nothing but i saw your report now the Jets are entering phase me in their offseason.
There's phase one, phase two, phase three, and then there's phase me. So what is phase me? And does Aaron Rodgers' missing mandatory minicamp delay his start of phase me? Well, and that's what was funny about the press conferences last week, both of them with Sala, because we've been led to believe the New York media is this rough and tumble bunch that asks a series of tough questions and takes no prisoners.
And they tiptoe on eggshells around Aaron Rodgers. And when Sala was questioned twice last week, number one, they never asked him, where is Aaron? If he's not here, where is he? Just where is he? Two press conferences, back-to-back days, he was never asked that question.
And on Wednesday, he went from explaining his view on this period of time from the end of the off-season program to the start of training camp, and he calls it phase me. What do you do when you're left to your own devices? What do you do when you could either be going to the beach and drinking all day or going to the gym and properly hydrating and being ready to go when training camp starts? And when you think about, and this is the issue that I have with Aaron Rodgers, when he made that speech in January about what this season needs to be about, it needs to be about winning.
Not some of the time, not most of the time, all of the time. And any bullshit unrelated to winning needs to be out of the building.
building he hasn't lived that and i know he'll make whatever excuse he needs to make but dude beyond missing the two days of mandatory minicamp which are the centerpiece of the off season program it would be helpful if the guy who's the leader of the team is there as they're being sent off for 40 days of we hope you don't fuck everything up by getting out of shape, getting arrested, having this happen, having that. We want you to be focused on football and ready to go when we come back.
It's one thing to have the coach say it. It's another thing to have Aaron Rodgers say it.
And that was the missed opportunity more than anything else last week, that he wasn't there to send that message to his teammates. And there'll never be a bright line.
Whatever they do this year, there'll never be a bright line back to that. But still, having him there, the way he's tried to take over that team and the way that they worship him, what a message if he stands up in the last meeting and says, guys, this is about winning.
And the next 40 days lays the foundation for everything we're going to do the rest of the year. Let's do it right.
Let's think about each other. Let's not think about ourselves.
And for him to not even be there, you know, good luck getting that message across 90 guys. Okay.
I mean, I like that answer. Memes, do you feel okay with that answer? That Aaron Rodgers is selfish, phase me started a little early for him, and there's a problem in New Yorkork do you feel okay with this memes uh i felt okay with everything up until aaron rogers needed to do a rah-rah speech to get 90 guys going okay okay imagine imagine the power of that speech though memes yeah that would have been incredible yeah no they're they're adult professional athletes that they're fine okay So memes last part of this questioning, um, is Florio still the number one Florio?

Cause you. Yeah, no, they're adult professional athletes.
They're fine. Okay, so memes.
Last part of this questioning, is Florio still the number one Florio? Because you had it last week. Your rankings were the top three Florios in media right now are Mike Florio, number one, Matt Miller, number two, Diana Rossini, number three.
Does Florio keep his crown? I think Diana moved up. Oh, wow.
Diana's the number one Florio. She's's number one what'd she do uh she was tweeting about an rogers a lot last week okay mike how do you feel about that no longer being the number one florio i'll work extra hard i'll i'll spend all of phase me devoted to reclaiming my crown by the time training camp starts i love the idea of phase me anytime hank takes takes a vacation, he's just going to rebrand it.
I'm on phase me right now. I'm working on that.
Yeah, so it's been kind of a weird story. You mentioned, maybe you haven't thought about this angle of it, though.
Aaron said he wants all the bullshit out of the building. Aaron Rodgers isn't in the building right now.
Maybe he's living his message. Well, and that is quintessential Aaron Rodgers isn't in the building right now maybe he is he's living his message well and that is quintessential Aaron Rodgers it's the kind of word games he played when he said yeah I've been immunized back in 2021 not to go down that rabbit hole but he said and when he was pressed about it back in the OTAs when he was available to the media they said how does this mesh with your message from January.
And he said, we're not in the building yet. We're not in the OTAs when he was available to the media.
They said, how does this mesh with your message from January? And he said, we're not in the building yet. We're not in the season yet, which is very hypocritical, which tells me he's absolutely ready to enter politics.
I think it's inevitable that he's going to get into politics. And he's already perfected the art of saying one thing and doing the exact opposite and not even flinching because he did that whole rant about

no bullshit in the building. And now he's already able to do whatever he wants to do and act like it doesn't apply to him.
And I think that's the biggest problem I have with it because he wagged a finger at all of his teammates. And what's it been with him this offseason? Memes.
It's been one fucking distraction after another. He's going to run for VP.
And this is the story that I think the New York media whiffed on. This guy was thinking about quitting on the Jets, ghosting the Jets, and running for vice president of the United States.
He was considering that. That's what the implication would have been.
He would have said, see you later. Have fun with Tyrod Taylor or Zach Wilson if they hadn't traded him.
I'm out. He at least considered that.
And I think it just makes it harder to stomach what he said back in January the way he's conducted himself the last four months this is why Mike is the best because memes just put Diana Rossini at number one Florio I'm already working he literally just got right back to work I think you're number one again I don't really like how you talk about Aaron Rodgers I'm a converted Aaron Rodgers fan now that he's out my life, and I'm rooting for him to have nothing but happiness with the Jets and memes. All right, so topic two I had.
Someone in this room was at Tom Brady's retirement. It was an incredible night, as he reported.
But what's it like right now in New England with the way that Robert Kraft has contorted himself? No, how do you say? Comported? Comported himself in the last year or so with how he dealt with Belichick, the documentary. What's going on in New England, Mike? Windhorse meme.
That documentary was strange, especially because if you watch those episodes at the very end, the message that came up

on the screen, and I can't remember it exactly, but it was Kraft fingerprints all over this thing. Yeah.
And they had an explanation for it. And that's our story.
And we're sticking to it. It was just kind of a strange thing.
But the overwhelming sense was this documentary on Apple TV Plus was just a way to set the record straight or spin the narrative a different way. And Chris Sims made a great point last week when we were talking about Tom Brady.
Okay, you said that, not me. I love Chris.
I love Chris. Chris makes a lot of great points.
I like Chris as well. I'm giving him a hard time.
His point was, because Brady got up and said about Belichick, it wasn't me, it wasn't you, it was us. Okay, fine.
If you're going to do this whole shebang for Brady, when does Belichick get his? They need to do the exact same thing for him if it's equal. If Tom's right, they need to do the exact same thing for Belichick at some point that they did for Brady.
Okay. Hank, you feel okay about that? I agree with that.
Yeah? Bring Bill back. Wow.
Build a mustache. Mark this down.
Time stamp. All right.
We're good. All right.
You have any beef with Florio right now? No. We're airing the beef.
I had no beef with Florio. Okay.
I love Mike. I always have.
Well, last time it was a little dicey. It was the whole fan fiction thing.
Well, yeah, but that's- You guys really love to stir shit. Well, I just want to make sure the air is clear assholes love you know exactly what to do i'll toss you a softball here's a softball question for you mike uh why was malcolm butler benched during the super bowl hell i don't know i mean i don't i i really don't know but it sounds like as it was said during the Apple TV Plus documentary, it was something personal unrelated to football.
I remember sitting in the press box and we had all the PFT writers in a row. And Michael David Smith said, why is Malcolm Butler not in the game? I mean, I'll never forget that.
It was so freaking weird. And when you consider that it was a shootout at some point you just say go you can't do any worse than the guys we have out there yeah go get out on the field and try to try to at least stop them once so we can outscore them the whole thing the whole thing was weird and who knows if we'll ever get the truth maybe Belichick he's writing a book although I don't think it's a book about his time in New England I think it's just like a football But maybe at some point, Belichick will tell everybody what he was thinking when he did that.
So there's something else that you're working on. And you tweeted out, you alleged, you kind of danced around a little bit, but I'd like you to expand on it if you could.
Your tweet was, there's a small army of reporters who cover the NFL on a constant basis. Meanwhile, hardly anyone is paying attention to a lawsuit against the nfl that could cost the

league billions and revolutionize the way games are made available to fans what does that mean and are you threatening to take football off tv no no i mean i'm trying look hey i'm one of the only ones that is out there looking for any bits and pieces i can get about this massive sunday ticket trial from a case that was filed nine years ago. The judge originally threw the case out.
They appealed it. The case got reinstated.
It's been hanging around and hanging around. And it finally started trial on June the 5th.
And I'm trying to shine the light on what this could be. And I'm trying to get people to at least be somewhat optimistic that at the end of the day, Sunday ticket could be a lot cheaper than it's been.
And, you know, from the moment I first became aware of Sunday ticket, I thought there was something weird about this. Why can't we just buy the teams we want? You're in Pittsburgh and you're a Bears fan.
You just want the Bears games. Why don't I have to spend $400 or whatever the price is any given year to buy the whole fucking package? Why can't I just get the games I want? Why can't I just get the weekends I want? If I'm a Bears fan in Pittsburgh and the Bears are on Monday Night Football, I don't need that weekend.
I don't want that weekend. There's no flexibility.
And it's always felt weird to me. And the NFL has always just kind of pressed forward and made as much money as they could from it.
But this case is about what the NFL allegedly has done to protect the deals with CBS and Fox. And without getting too deep into the weeds, it's as simple as this.
They required, allegedly, but I think the evidence has proved this, they've required DirecTV to charge a certain price so people don't get it and they just watch whatever CBS or Fox has to offer. So if you drop it and ESPN, according to evidence that was introduced last week, wanted to charge $70 for the whole season and give you a team by team option.
Apple TV Plus, I saw this reporting back when they were negotiating the current deal with YouTube. Apple TV Plus just wanted to include it in whatever it costs now per month to have Apple TV Plus, like $6.99 a month or whatever.
They just wanted to give it to you as part of the base package. So the NFL allegedly, but the evidence is proving this out, wanted to keep it at a certain number.
They call it a premium product because they want to protect and preserve the CBS and Fox relationship so they can get a shitload of money from CBS and Fox and a shitload of money from whoever has Sunday ticket. And they've done it for 30 years.
And the chickens have come home to roost. And this all might blow up in their faces.
And they're looking at supposedly $7 billion in damages for what we all paid. And it's a nationwide class action.
It's what we all paid versus what we all should have been paying all along,

at least during whatever window this covers.

And it's 10, 11, 12 years.

And under the antitrust laws, $7 billion gets tripled.

So worst case scenario for the NFL is $21 billion.

And as a practical matter, they're going to have to revolutionize

the way they make the games available.

So if you want to watch the Commanders in Chicago,

you can do it one week at a time. You can do it one team at a time.
You don't have to buy the whole damn thing. So this is good for fans.
And I'm sure the NFL is pissed that I've been covering it the way I have. Of course.
But this is something fans should be happy about because if the NFL loses, and I've said this, we should be rooting for the NFL to lose this because it will make it easier for all the fans to have cheaper choices and broader selections to watch out-of-market games on sunday i like that and if they lose if they have to pay 21 billion dollars is there a chance maybe we get a second super bowl i don't i don't think it's gonna i don't i don't think it's gonna be 21 billion that's just the absolute worst case scenario but keep this in mind they will appeal it and they will appeal it and they will take it all the way to the u.s supreme court and i don't want it to get into the political realm here but the way the court is currently constituted they'd probably be confident at the end of the day they'll win wow so they'll just bide their time and play it out and it may take five six seven more years but i think they're confident if it eventually gets to the supreme court they'll win roger giddell fliesarence thomas out to canton ohio puts it puts it in the hall of fame yeah yeah yeah i like this yeah this could be good it could be good for sports or instead of the second super bowl they could do richard mendenhall's idea and they could do the race bowl and have that played before the super bowl i think that would all i know is samuel alito is going to be flying an nfl flag upside down I like that. Uh, okay.
Uh, next question. Trevor Lawrence just signed a massive, uh, new deal, which, okay.
I, you know, I think he was injured last year. I think he's a good quarterback.
It makes sense. You have to do it if you're the Jaguars, but like all of these new deals for quarterbacks, the question just immediately becomes who's next and what's the price.
And I would assume Dak is on that list. Brock Purdy might be on that list to us to a, so, uh, Caleb Williams, I'm ready to give him his long-term deal right now.
So what, who is next and what are the prices going to look like? You mentioned Purdy. And one of the things I hope doesn't happen this year when we're watching 49ers games I hope there aren't these graphics that are playing up the idea that Purdy is the cheapest starting quarterback in the NFL because the 49ers can't do anything about it by rule if you're drafted undrafted it's two years if you're drafted it's three years you've got to wait three years before you're even eligible to have a second contract so that applies to to Caleb Williams, applies to Brock Purdy.
And that's the time that we've said in the past with other guys, the Texans now with CJ Stroud. You've got two more years before he's even eligible for another contract.
Spend on Stephon Diggs, Daniil Hunter, and Joe Mixon because you can't pay the guy who's the most important player on your team for two more seasons. So Purdy gets set aside in a different category and he's got to wait at least a year and then we'll see what the 49ers do next year.
Dak, I think, goes into a different category as well. I wrote this yesterday.
Dak's leverage doesn't come from whatever the market is. Dak's leverage comes from his contract and the cap number this year of $55.4 million and the cap charge next year of $54.5 million if he leaves.
They need to redo his deal and engineer these cap charges, or they're looking at $110 million over the next two years that's going to be in Dak Prescott's name because most of these contracts, they give you a lot of money early and they kick the can down the road. And at some point you've got to deal with a giant fricking cap charge.
And that's where the Cowboys are. And that's where Dax leverage is because he can just sit back and say, like one of my all time favorite movies, Goodfellas.
Oh, you had a fire. Fuck you.
Pay me. All business is bad.
Fuck you. Pay me.
He can just sit back and say, fuck you. Pay me.
And that's where his leverage comes from. And the Cowboys know it.
And it's keeping them from getting CeeDee Lamb signed. And it's keeping them from even thinking about Michael Parsons.
They're in a mess. And it's all because of Dak's contract.
And it's all because they waited too long to do his contract after he was eligible. After his third year, they made him play under his fourth year of his rookie deal.
They franchise tagged him a year and then they finally realized we got a problem here. And now they've got an even bigger

problem. So he's separate as well.
The deeper question that you raised though, as it relates

to Trevor Lawrence, I said this about him and I said this about Jared Goff and I've said this

about others in the past. Who are these teams bidding against when they make these gigantic

market level offers? Who else is going to take this guy away from you and pay that much money and maybe that would happen maybe maybe if the Lions had said hey Jared we're going to let you become a free agent and you can see what else is out there or not out there you know with Trevor it's different he had two years left but that's the real thing with Tua and the Dolphins because I think Tua wants to get something that starts with a five, not a four. And I don't think the Dolphins want to pay something that starts with a five.
And you have to wonder, will they just say, Tua, go ahead? Because ask yourself that question. If Tua is available to anyone who wants him, what are they going to pay him? What's he going to get on the open market? And I feel like one of these days, one of these teams is going to draw that line in the sand.
The Vikings kind of did it with Kirk cousins. They dared him to go get better than whatever they were willing to pay.
And he did. And I can see the dolphins doing that with Tua, unless Tua comes down from wanting to be in this upper echelon of NFL quarterbacks.
I had one other question about the contracts is Is Patrick Mahomes' contract all of a sudden the best contract that's ever been signed for a team? Oh, absolutely. 12 years.
And what they did last year, what they did last year, when Joe Burrow got his contract, they moved some of the money around so the cash flow for two or three years for Mahomes would be just a little better than Burrow's. And they're going to have to do that again.
And they're going to have to do it again. And when you sign a 12-year contract, you're hoping that the team will do that as needed.
They could fold their arms and say, too bad, you're under contract. The guy that I think should be making an issue here, and I mentioned this to Brandon Bean at the scouting combine, and I think he wasn't happy that I mentioned mentioned it Josh Allen is getting screwed because Josh Allen doesn't have any devices in his contract that would force them to pay him more he's at 45 as well I mean the two best quarterbacks in the NFL are at 45 million per year and now we've got guys at 55 million per year at some point Josh Allen needs to be saying to the Bills we got to do something about this because they yeah all due respect to Trevor Lawrence he's not Josh Allen yeah and if if other guys get close to that it just becomes more skewed and more warped but that that's what happens all the time that's why I've been arguing for years that somebody needs to get a contract at the quarterback position that pays him a percentage of the salary cap so as the cap goes up number goes up, and you never get in this spot where you feel like the guy's getting screwed.
He's always getting a specific 18%, 17.5675, however they would negotiate it, but it's the same percentage of the total cap every year. And then you feel like the guy's being treated fairly and his contract will increase as the market goes.
That also sounds like a lot of math. That would be tough if i was a gm i'd be like that's i have to do too much math for that contract can i just just give me a number and i'll pay that but to big cat's point it's everybody says you have to you have to pay these guys so like when it's trevor lawrence yeah you kind of have to pay him because you're you're afraid of just not having trevor lawrence right you're afraid of what what the open market like.
You're afraid of being single again out there. And so it's like I'd rather take Trevor Lawrence and just kind of I know that I have to take my medicine on his contract than to have to start all over again because I feel like the fan base would get pretty frustrated if that were the case.
There's three types of teams in the NFL, teams that have franchise quarterbacks, teams that don't, and teams that have a guy that they're not sure yet, whether or not he's going to be one. And the Jaguars are betting that Lawrence is going to be one.
And when he becomes one, they've got a damn good contract. That's what that 55 is because one of the things I've been preaching all off season, it's amazing how many teams don't pay attention to this.
The longer you wait, the more expensive it gets. The Vikings waited too long with Justin Jefferson, and it got a lot more expensive.
The Cowboys are waiting with Dak and CeeDee Lamb and Michael Parsons, and it's only getting more expensive. It never gets cheaper unless the guy literally gets hit by a bus or wakes up one day and can't play anymore.
That's the only way it gets cheaper. Teams, I don't think, are smart to bet on the guy all of a sudden falling apart.
You bet on him being good. And the earlier you make that bet, the better off you're going to be.
That's what was brilliant about what the Jaguars did. Because if they had waited around for Dak to get his or Tua to get his or the next guy after that to get his, Jordan Love is the one we haven't talked about.
Jordan Love is going to get paid based on half a season but he's going to get paid you wait as other guys get their deals done it only makes the price higher I think they could have gotten Trevor Lawrence for less if they'd have done it before Jared Goff got 53 yeah so it was smart for the Jaguars to realize hey this is our guy we're willing to go all in with them let's just let's stop the bleeding because it's only going to get more expensive. Yeah, I actually think that there are four kinds of quarterbacks.
There's the guy. That's number one.
There's our guy. That's number two.
And then there's is he the guy? That's three. And then not the guy.
That's four. And I would rather be in situation one, two or four than is he the guy? I think you're right.
I think you're right. Now, the Dolphins are kind of in two or three, and that's the problem.
When you have a large chunk of the fan base that are card-carrying members of Tua and on, they want Tua to get a market-level contract. And I know that Tua's people are making comps statistically between Tua and the other guys who have the top contract.
So there's a belief there that he deserves that. Then you got other people in the Dolphins fan base who are like, wait a minute, we can find 20 guys to do what this guy does.
Now, I don't know who's right or who's wrong, but he's very polarizing. And to your point, you just have to be right.
And once you know he's your guy, maybe he's not the guy, but if he's the best you're going to do, that's when you need to get that deal done. Because whatever he becomes, if he keeps playing well, it's going to keep getting more expensive.
And I don't understand that. I don't know why tiers haven't developed where you have the best of the best, you have the middle and you have it.
But it's all we've seen this in recent years. OK, hey, I'm I'm good enough and I'm eligible for a new contract.
So I want to be the highest paid player in NFL history. And I'd like to think teams are going to push back a little more on that.
But so far, most of them have you. You mentioned doing a contract that was proportional to the, you know then changing it year over year.
Do you think a team would ever, maybe the Dolphins, with Tua would do almost like flash pricing where it's like, all right, here's our schedule. We're going to pay you Joe Burrow money for all games we think are going to be above 80 80 degrees and then any game we think that's going to be below 40 degrees you get gardner minchu money yeah there was a coke machine at one point sorry i know you got the pepsi cans on there maybe it was pepsi it was pepsi and i'm pepsi too i've had pepsi stock for 25 years and i'm helping only pepsi hashtag team pepsi of course you have pepsi stock there was a soda machine that the price went up and down based upon how hot it was yeah there's something to that okay so i think this might be the new i think the dolphin should sit him down and be like look they scheduled this in new england and buffalo in december you're gonna have to take a pay cut that year i'll say this five years ago the rams were on the verge of making jared goff one of the highest paid players in football and i was saying very loudly and very clearly why are you doing that sean mcveigh is the guy running the offense goff had chances in super bowl 53 against the patriots you had brandon cooks wide open on the exact same play once in the first half and he threw it to i don't know't know if it was Alan Robinson or someone else instead.
It wasn't Alan Robinson. It was Robert Woods running across underneath.
Cooks was open and Goff missed him. They did the same play in the second half.
Cooks was wide open. Goff saw him too late, threw it late.
Jason McCourty ran over and broke it up. If you make that throw, maybe the Rams win that game.
And my point was, why are you going to be in a position where you're held hostage by this guy as your quarterback and pay him all that money when you could find somebody else? And the Rams were kind of hostile about it and they were stubborn about it and they paid him all that money. And then two seasons later, what did they do? They gave up an extra first round pick in the Matthew Stafford trade to get Goff off their books.
And look, I think Jared Goff has done very well with the Detroit Lions. Also our friend.
He beat Matt Stafford. He beat Matt Stafford.
He won that trade. I think that the best thing that ever happened to him was the Rams kind of throwing him out the front door because it pushed him to a higher level of achievement.
But that's the broader point. As I said earlier, who are you bidding against? What are your alternatives? And at some point, you just need to have confidence.
And I think that's what the Vikings were doing this year with Kirk Cousins. I don't know this, but I don't think they really wanted him to come back.
I think they made an offer that wasn't so low, it was insulting. And they said, hey, go ahead, see what's out there and cross your fingers and hope that somebody else pays him enough that he leaves so they could reset.
Because if you keep him, how long is he going to be there anyway? They reset with J.J. McCarthy, and they see what happens.
And you have a great play caller, a great play designer in Kevin O'Connell, a great quarterback whisperer. Maybe McCarthy becomes the guy they haven't had really since Fran Tarkin.
And so you have to have the willingness. And I think, to your point, to your point son internet son when you're in category two but you're really kind of in category three yeah you got to be willing to slip into category three and say this isn't our guy and we're going to go all the way to category four and move on no but what usually happens you're in category three is he the guy territory and then you say he yeah you know he's our guy so you like will him into category two but if you go from three to two willing to say fuck it he's in category four you go back and forth from three to two you should be in four yes justin fields mitch trubisky yes if you have that whole time going back and forth between three and two me and big cat are experts on guyism we're guy sexual and we we've been through this song and dance before we know what it is now with kirk cousins him going to atlanta atlanta just got slapped with uh maybe just the most moderate tampering penalty of all time considering how long this investigation took what happened with kirk cousins and atlanta were they talking before the window were they talking numbers during the window where they're not allowed to be i don't understand how there was this big tam big tampering investigation.
And then they're like, you know what? Wasn't that bad. There's two important background points.
Number one, tampering happens all the time. The only people that get in trouble are the ones who are stupid enough to get caught.
Everyone tampers. When you go to the scouting combine every year, it's open season.
The teams are there. The agents are there.
There's no digital trail on anyone's phone because everyone's meeting with each other face to face and you can talk openly and freely and when you leave indianapolis the teams and the agents have an idea of who's going to be pursuing the top free agents so the tampering happens and the other side of it is rich mckay who's got an executive level job at the falcons he kind of got pushed out but up into a higher position during this most recent turnover of the coaching staff. He's very influential in league circles.
He's the chair of the competition committee. He's tight with Roger Goodell.
They had a fake crowd noise thing eight or nine years ago that they only got hit with a fifth round pick. $350,000 fine, but that's a parking ticket for a multi-billion dollar business.
A fifth round pick, that's the currency that gets the team's attention. That's all they lost for deliberately pumping in fake crowd noise and getting caught doing it.
So that's the background of this. I think what happened here was, and this is just my, you can call it fan fiction if you want, really don't care.
I've had enough to drink tonight that I really am not going to get dragged down by that. But I think after following this carefully, they pigeonholed it into, well, okay, these three guys that the Falcons talked to, it was after they reached agreement and it dealt with travel arrangements and other logistics.
I just don't buy that. I think that they were talking to these guys during that negotiating window when they weren't allowed to.
Kirk Cousins admitted four different ways they had tampered with him during his introductory press conference right after he signed his contract. And even before Kirk Cousins blurted out all the different ways they had tampered with him, I was suspicious about the Falcons getting to the point where they're comfortable, guaranteeing $100 million to a guy that all we saw was him on a tennis court or on a football.
How do you get to the point where you're willing to commit nine figures to a 35-year-old quarterback who blew out an Achilles and all you have by way of evidence to feel good about it is what you saw on a basketball court a few weeks before? And anything they would have done to get more information about his health before they made that commitment was tampering necessarily and positively. Because I was sniffing around all that before this happened.
Because it's like something's not right here. They're talking to somebody they shouldn't be talking to.
They're getting information they shouldn't be getting. And here's why it's important.
Cousins had to make a decision because the Vikings were going to move on to Sam Darnold. So Cousins needs to know, Falcons, are you with me? Are you paying me? Because otherwise I'm taking this offer in Minnesota.
That's what makes it troubling if the Vikings really wanted him. He needed to make a decision.
The Vikings needed to know so they could pivot to another guy if they wanted to. And I think that if the Falcons didn't tamper even before the window opened and didn't get the information they needed about his health, they're just stupid.
How would you commit $100 million to a guy and not know anything about his health? Well, they drafted Michael Penix after signing him to that, so they could be stupid. That's an excellent point.
it's entirely possible that they are just stupid yeah or they think they have the greatest uh medical staff in the world where they're like we'll take kirk cousins with an achilles and then michael penix with every leg injury ever yeah maybe they drafted penix just to get his ligaments for kirk oh how long do you guys think that cousins will be? What's your over-under? Two years. Two years sounds about right to me because that's when the guaranteed money runs out, right? And then you have a first-round pick, and eventually you're going to want to see what that guy can do.
And I feel like it's like maybe wins the NFC South this year, goes to a playoff game, then next year maybe like a slow start, and then that's it's the key though next year his compensation is only 27 million dollars so you could trade him i know he's got a no trade clause but if you want to move on to michael pennix jr yeah he wants to play wants to make the starter he'll wave his trade yeah people people get so caught up by the no trade clause hey what's my choice i'm gonna get dicked around here in atlanta or i'm go somewhere else where they want me. And the money's the same.
I'll go there, wherever it is, Miami. I mean, that's, that's back to Tua.
Yeah. I'm not going to pay Tua 55 if maybe next year I can get cousins for 27 and he can come in and run this offense to perfection.
Mike McDaniel was a Kyle Shanahan protege. Shanahan has wanted cousins forins for years, really.
Ever since they split ways in Washington,

Shanahan's been plotting this path to get back to Kirk Cousins

until he got Brock Purdy.

So there could be the Dolphins.

There could be other teams that want Cousins next year.

I think it could be as short as one year with Cousins in Atlanta.

I mean, it'd be very interesting if Kirk's not good to go

for the start of the season and they put Penix in there

and Penix is really, really good.

And then you've just got Kirk Cousins on your bench for $100 million guaranteed. guaranteed that's kind of what i'm rooting for i think that'd be very funny to see uh there's some other other rookie quarterbacks out there uh three people in this room drafted a rookie quarterback so can you give us your initial power rankings of the top three quarterbacks taken in the draft i love caleb williams yep i think he – we spent time with him at the scouting combine, and I was just blown away.
You know, when a kid that young just gets it, it loses out of everything about him. Yep.
We loved talking to him. We loved it.
I loved it. You loved it.
I was trying to get him to say he won't play for the Bears and he only wants to play for the Vikings. I really tried my damnedest to getaden Daniels hey hey son uh when we we I don't know how many guys we interviewed at the combine defensive players from the SEC we tried to ask most of them as long as we could remember who's the toughest guy you faced in college and all those guys said Jaden Daniels to a man it was Jaden Daniels because he's there and then he's gone yeah and he could be more talented at the end of the day than Caleb Williams.
They could both end up being great. The difference between this year and 2021 where you had Trevor Lawrence and five guys who've been traded for day three picks in three years, which is just amazing.
These guys are ready to go. Now, Drake may, I think, may take some time.
Heavy ball. There's a chance we could go four out of five.
Whoa. These guys end up being, being good quarterbacks by the time it's all said and done.
Who do you think is up for three years ago when it was one out of five? Who's it? Who's the odd man out? Six. There's six.
I forgot there was six. Yeah.
So, so just go ahead and go down that list. Who's the odd man out? I go Nix.
I wonder what's going to happen with Nix.

And I wonder, because we're getting weird signals from Sean Payton

about whether it's going to be him or Jared Stidham

or maybe even Zach Wilson.

And I don't know if this is just make the kid earn it.

But, you know, people are wondering

how much of what happened last year was Russell Wilson. How much is it Sean Payton? Is the game passing him by? He's dealing with a lot of that.
He got LASIK, though. He got, wait, did he get LASIK after he drafted? He had cataracts removed.
So did he have the cataracts when he was evaluating Bo Nix? I don't know. I don't know.
That's a great question. I look at it the other way.
If I was one of these guys, I would want to be in Minnesota because look at what Kevin O'Connell did last year. Wait, what team do you root for? That's fine.
Okay, all right. I'm capable of being objective.
Okay, yeah, so am I. I'm not, but I don't do it, but I am.
Let's compare and contrast. If Caleb Williams comes in and kicks ass and is great and has 4,500 passing yards this year and the Bears go to the playoffs, Shane Waldron's gone next year.
Okay, that's fine. And you got to go get a new offensive coordinator and hope it works the following year.
Same thing in Washington. What is that? Come on.
Who cares? We've seen that time and again. But you're being mean right now.
Yeah, you're being mean. It feels like you're being very mean.
Oh,'re being oh you have an office of code because you're like oh big camp pft have never had happiness you should not be happy even though like two days had a 400 yard passing game last and turn it over like seven times that's okay yeah then what happened with the ball okay so i understand what you're saying but what if caleb williams Williams is so good that Matt Eberflus gets another job?

Well, that would be crazy.

Really, what I would hope for if I were you,

and I feel bad saying this because Matt Eberflus has a completely different demeanor.

It's amazing how a guy changes when the best guy in the draft falls into your lap because the Panthers made a shitty trade last year and gave you that pick but Iberflus like he's got the goatee and he's got the hair no he got funked up he got fucked up he's he's he's the man now yeah but I'd almost want if I were you at some level I'd be hoping that it struggles just. So the bears could hire somebody who is Jim Harbaugh, an offensive guru.
And you attach him to Caleb Williams hip for 10 years. Look at what happened with Drew Brees and Sean Payton.
You that's what you want. You want continuity.
You want consistency. Look at the Texans.
Bobby Sloak is going to be gone sooner than later. And CJ Stroud is going to have to figure it out with a new coordinator.
And that's a big deal brings in a new playbook he's got new calls he's got new attitudes he's got new approach how much of that's gonna this is a problem i would love to have like this is a problem if you tell me that caleb williams throws for 35 touchdowns and i know 4 000 yards and the bears go to the playoffs and then we lose Shane Waldron, sign me the fuck

up.

You know what the best problem to have is?

No problem.

That's the best problem.

Yeah.

Everyone's got a problem.

Everyone's got a problem.

All right.

So this is fired me up just talking ball with Mike.

I got the football in my hand.

I got one last question for you, Mike.

Roback question.

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It's actually a question and a comment.

I'll start with the comment. Was writing this headline maybe one of the lowest points of your career in terms of, holy shit, we need football back? Mike Florio published this today, actually.
Today, Sunday, Father's Day. He's working on Father's Day.
U.S. Olympic swimming trials set attendance record at Lucas Oil Stadium.
That's your NFL tie-in that it happened at the Colt Stadium. Listen, listen.
Lucas Oil Stadium is in the top quartile of the upper quartile of all stadiums, as Jim Irsay would say. And don't you accuse me of pandering to my corporate overlords when all I got to do is look around at all that stuff you guys got there.
It's Olympics. It's Olympics.
Alright, that's fine. But I just saw that headline.
I was like, we're talking about a swimming record at a football stadium? Was the roof open? Did he open the roof for it? That's the big question. I have to keep the cock happy.
Yeah, sorry. You got to keep the cock happy.
Alright,, now give us – we've talked a lot of facts that Mike Florio knows. Let's go opinions that Mike Florio is thinking.
Give us a team you think is going to surprise us when we get back to football. Steelers.
Oh, Steelers. So you like Russ.
You think Russ? Or Justin Fields. I just think that bringing Arthur Smith in there – and it's funny how many Steelers fans lose their shit because Arthur Smith oh he's stunk as a head coach yeah but he was good enough as a coordinator to become a head coach true now he's a coordinator again so he's not your head coach he's running the offense I feel like there was just enough shit that went down late last year with Mike Tomlin maybe considering his options and enough of that trickled up to Art Rooney, the second, the guy who runs the team to realize we got to do something about our offense.
So in comes Arthur Smith. They blow up the quarterback depth chart.
They've still got a great defense and look at what they've managed to do. Tomlin superpower is to take a room full of guys that you would individually look at them and say, okay, and slap them all together and make

it into a playoff team. And I know other coaches who will, and this isn't just Antonio Brown.

There are others that fall into this bucket. Guys who played for Tomlin that go elsewhere,

and they're like, this guy's a fucking pain in the ass. I had no idea this guy's a fucking pain

in the ass. How does Mike Tomlin do it? He knows how to speak to the better angels of all these

Thank you. tomlin that go elsewhere and they're like this guy's a fucking pain in the ass i had no idea this guy's a fucking pain in the ass how does mike tomlin do it he knows how to speak to the better angels of all these players and get the most out of them you bring in russell wilson who's on his last chance this is it for him if he blows it now he's done he took a team-friendly deal mike i read that headline no no no he didn't take a team-friendly deal i know i know yeah that's $39 million this year.
That's said he took a team yeah it's no team friendly deal i know this is his last chance he's got to hold off justin fields and he's got to play well this year because after this year he's gone he's free agent fields after this year he's gone he's a free agent in a weird sort of way it's like the old seinfeld episode where lloyd braun and costanza were trying to sell computers and the winner gets a water pick and the loser gets fired. One of these guys is getting the starting job in 2025.
And one of them is getting fired. Yeah.
And I think what's going to happen, once those Steelers fans start seeing what Justin Fields can do on the ground, and if he's running circles around guys playing second string in the preseason, they're going to fall in love with him. So Russ had better get it done because if he struggles at all, the Steelers fans are going to be chanting for Justin Fields.
And I think Tomlin knows how to handle all that. But I think when you see the odds out there, I think that we had the DraftKings odds on PFT Live recently.
It's stunning how little people believe in the Steelers based upon where the odds currently are.

Okay, yeah, and Justin Fields, one of the best games he played as a pro,

I was there Monday Night Football against the Steelers at Heinz Field.

So they know.

And people forget that's also where Russ did his little pantomimed huddle thing

where he was pretending to call plays when he was injured. That was at Hein at Heinz Field yeah so he's got experience running visual drills on that field whoa because he did he I think that might have been where he did the the fake fist bumps too for some reason I thought that was at Lambeau but then Lambeau was the game that he came back remember when he got healed so fast a miracle yeah it was a miracle but then he sucked because he clearly still had a broken thumb yeah oh Mike I i got a uh topic just to get you wound up on real quick because i'm sure that chiefs fans love you um how do you feel about the chiefs off season this year uh most specifically dealing with legal issues well i i know this they must really love rashi rice because we know how this goes if you're good enough they'll themselves and not just the chiefs, any team at any level in any sport will twist themselves into knots to excuse bad behavior.
If you're borderline or scrub, you're gone. You're the guy we're going to make the example out of.
And they really do believe in Rishi Rice. And one of the things I learned when I was poking around on some of these edges with the we all know about the street racing incident, eight felony charges that are pending.

There could be more because he's yet to be charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving injuries.

So he's got legal issues and I'll be surprised if he's playing week one.

He's either going to be on the commissioner's exemplist or he will have pled guilty to one or more of these felonies and he'll be suspended under the personal conduct policy.

They love him because he came in last year and he figured out the offense quickly, faster than Tyreek Hill did. He had a better first year in Kansas City in the Andy Reid offense than Tyreek Hill did.
So they see a ceiling for him that is just going to potentially explode. That's why they're dealing with it.
And the other thing too is, and we've seen players like this over the years, when they go back home and run with guys that they've known their whole life, they get influenced in a certain way. You know, it's the whole Aaron Hernandez thing.
If he'd have been drafted by the Seahawks or the Rams or the Chargers and away from New England, who knows what the alternate universe might be. But to be around those guys in Dallas, like Rice was, I think the Chiefs believe if they can use everything they have to get him pointed in the right direction, keep him away from the guys in Dallas that have gotten him into trouble, that he'll break a certain way.
But eight felonies. We've seen the video.
I don't know how he gets out of this without a major problem with the NFL. So he's going to miss some time to start the season, I believe.
But the Chiefs are tolerating it because they know what he can do. And look, I picked the Chiefs to win the last two Super Bowls.
And it really isn't a stretch. I mean, really.
Now, and the thing I love about the Chiefs, because I remember growing up in the 70s and the Steelers would kick the shit out of everybody and then another team would come along kick the shit out everybody the chiefs make every game they're in interesting the playoff games there's never a blowout every super bowl they got to come from behind it's like going to it's like going to a batman movie you know batman isn't going to get killed but it's you're going to have moments where you're like oh what's going to happen to batman that's what happens the Chiefs. So it's never boring.
It's always exciting. And hell, I mean, even with everything that's happened this offseason, does anybody really think they're just going to go away this year? I don't.
No. They're going to win again.
Yeah. Do you want to pick them to win again right now? No, but I probably will by September.
I just did. I picked them to win again.
All right. Well, Mike, everyone please do go buy Mike's book.
He is one of our favorite guests. Like I said, you can't tell this history apart in my take without Mike Florio.
It was great just talking ball. Yeah.
It feels like you ever read. You were starting to read my Christmas book, but I never heard from you again.
So I assume you didn't finish it. No, I did.
I read a couple pages. I got the gist of it i got the gist of it i read it and uh and then blake took it from me and he started eating it and he i love blake he like is awesome he looked very dog so bad i love my dog i just want another one he looked very happy while he was eating it so he loved your book yeah yeah it's probably better on the way in than the way out yeah yeah i got the g got the gist of it.
It's a book. All right.
Thank you. But Mike, you are the best.
And welcome to phase me. We'll talk to you maybe in August.
Thanks. What's after phase me? Is it phase you? Phase we? I don't know.
Phase P. I don't know.
I have no idea. Okay.
All right. We'll enjoy phase me.
All right. Mike.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry to end on such a low note.
I don't anything witty to say so what the fuck all I can say is goodbye and I love you Hank Hank just did the wrap it up thing where he's like Mike is talking too much he did that get fired up at Hank again no that's fine. Love you.
Bye, Mike. Bye.
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Uh, we're running long, so let's, we'll, we'll put Monday reading to next Monday cause it can wait. Max has been here the entire time.
Now, Max missed his flight cause, uh, he was so sad about Thursday's show. So he missed the show today, but he's been listening the whole time.
He's been taking notes for Max's minute. So, Max, hello.
What did we get wrong? Hello. Not everything was – not much that was actually wrong.
I just have some notes of things that I would like to say. Okay.
You're like Luca Brasi right now. Okay.
Why are you not able to speak? I can speak. Okay.
I'm literally speaking. By the way, shout out Big Dom for sending us these.
Big Dom's the best. Great.
Big Dom sent us a care package, and I texted Big Dom a picture of it and said, thank you so much. And he just replied, my paisans.
And I fucking love it. I hate how much I love my mother.
It's so excited when I showed him that that response that it just said my paisans, my paisans. OK, ready? Yes.
Loser winner thing mean loser tried to show up. Loser hates Philadelphia Airport.
philly airport is dead to the loser wait what's rushing what was this this is my man he's referring to himself as the loser okay you are the loser the loser minute can you can is a loser in the room with you right now i'm the loser okay that was when you were doing like the whole metaphor thing of like there's a loser and the loser didn't show up. Oh, you mean like Bryson and Rory? Yeah.
So you're Rory? Yeah. Yeah, he's Rory.
I'm Rory, correct. Minus the hundreds of millions of dollars.
And the major championships. All right.
You're the one who said it. What?

You sound hypothetical. You're the one who was inferring that I was the loser.

I think, no, you just heard.

You inferred yourself.

Yeah, we never said anything about you.

What they said was up for interpretation, and you interpreted it.

You can't.

We were talking.

We were doing the show, and you were literally writing,

I think they're talking about me because they mentioned a loser.

I distinctly did not mention your name.

I was saying that we would never do something like that on this show. I hate you guys.
Okay. Can I continue? 0 for 1.
Hank's wrestling anger face is so much worse than Bryson's. Yeah.
It wasn't. We were talking about Bryson's 0 for 2.
0 for 2. We were talking about Patrick Cantlay.
Yeah, we were talking about Patrick Cantlay. Okay.
Yeah. Actually.
Yeah. No, Patrick Cantlay and Hank kind of kind of similar in that respect.
I'm going to pull up his face right. You're not.
You do not have a dumpy body like he does. No, soon though.
What? I'm trying to get a fat ass. You are? BBL Hank? Yeah, dunking.
Lower body. How fat are we talking? I mean, just anything that's like not inverted would be nice.

You know,

permission to look when you get it.

Yeah.

Okay.

You get caked up on a side.

Nice.

Peaches.

That's going to look real good with a shaved head.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're going to look like a Sigourney Weaver in alien. Hot.
Hot. You didn't see that movie.
No. Okay.
Max, 0 for 2. Tatum went 15-5 and 3 on 4 of 10 shooting.
He is now shooting 36% from the field and 29% from 3 this series. I just thought that we should talk about that.
Okay, that's actually a good addition.

One for three.

Yeah, yeah.

One for three, similar to Tatum's shooting.

Yeah.

Would you say that you're having a good show then?

What?

Would you say you're having a good show right now?

You went one for three.

No, I'm having a bad show.

Okay.

You're smart.

You're learning.

You're smart.

The Chris stops, get him on the court to win a championship was such a dumb statement. Put him on the court for no reason.
I don't know why, but in the moment I was like, yeah, that makes sense. Like just trot him out there at the end of the game.
What were you thinking, Hank? Like in like the third quarter, they would get him? No, they're up 15, 20, and then he checks in. For the last 30 seconds? Yeah, something like that.
In the NBA, no, they wouldn't do that. We'll see.
There's still time. Okay.
Joel Embiid, very talented man, not tampering. Men are allowed to roll their eyes.
They're allowed to roll their eyes. I don't knowoles are allowed to roll their eyes i don't know about that they are i think that's a i think that's more of a woman's thing that's what rolling your eyes i don't know if men are allowed to roll their eyes men roll their ours yeah i don't think so like it's not it's not illegal.
I think it should be.

Okay, keep going.

Alright, fine. Or those would have had to sweep the series if you were to consider

it a throttling. You don't know

throttling. Okay, well, they throttled

them because they lost one game in extra

innings and they beat them 6-2 and 8-2.

They throttled them.

That means nothing.

They won two games.

They won two games, they lost one.

Yeah, they throttled them.

Thank you. 8-2.
They throttled them. That means nothing.
They won two games. They won two games.
They lost one. Yeah, they throttled them.
A throttling would be a sweep. In the games that they beat them, they throttled them.
The game yesterday was not a throttling. It was a one-run.
But it was a one-run game, and then they throttled. Had a they throttled.
The insurance runs, yeah. They throttled them.
They really – Technically, they had a one-run lead, and then all the other runs were just insurance. Right.
Yesterday was a good game. Throttled today.
What – I don't know. Waterdogs – Waterdogs just don't have a face-off guy, which is crazy.
Is that true? They just choose to lose. What about Sowers? They choose to lose every face-off, guys.
No, he's just a score guy. He's a guy who scores.
So is our new coach just not doing face-offs? I think they just don't do face-offs because I think their face-off guy got hurt, and they just choose not to do face-offs. Because that's how he lost saturday was they just won the face-off in overtime and scored two seconds later yes that guy had three goals just off of the face-off the face-off guy yeah so crazy should we get a new face-off guy should we wait for our face-off guy to get healthy uh i don't know we need we need a face-off guy this i learned a lot about lax this weekend it was kind of fun okay um go birds we were just talking about birds okay um i talked to jack mac he said there's no bugs in the impossible meet that was something i wanted to come back to oh okay got it it's soy right no there are bugs yeah the impossible no bugs okay bugs.
Okay. All right.
So, you're still kind of on your side.

Lastly, I would like to ask Hank if Game 5 is must-win.

Oh, great. Good question.

Hank or Max, you may officially be having a great show.

Yes.

It's a must-win?

Yeah.

So, that means that when you said earlier that you weren't nervous at all,

then you lied. Yeah.
You lied. A must- must win you have to be nervous about a must win i told you i was a little nervous i'm 15 no but you're way more than 15 if it's a must must wins are not 15 but it's at home it's 617 is it a must win 617 it's a must win 617 if it's a must win you have to be nervous i told you guys i was a little nervous not must win nervous you sound more like can't lose nervous but every game is a must win don't do that no every single game no this last game wasn't a must yeah you were up three nothing friday night was not a must win but now it's now it's three one you should have made you should have made friday night a must win sounds like you didn't Friday night was not a must win.
But now it's 3-1. You should have made Friday night a must win.

Sounds like you didn't take Friday night as a must win.

No, I didn't, and I learned from my mistakes.

So now every game's a must win. Yes.

Okay.

So you are nervous.

A little bit, yeah.

It sounds like you're a lot nervous.

A lot nervous.

If you're making must wins.

For a must win.

Yeah.

You're up 3-1.

You're basically up.

Well, no, you were up 3-0.

Great job, Max.

Thank you. I muted myself.
I'm sorry. okay all right uh good show boys good show it's great being back in studio oh max do you have any comment about the uh the guy on the eagles that was caught on camera after uh banging an only fans model and then she videotaped him running naked down the hotel room hallway uh he was probably sleepwalking okay all right that's fair it was more sleep running yeah it was a very funny i just have no idea what you're talking about it's a very funny video it sounds like you're not locked in on your birds it was uh terrell terrell lewis t-loo i don't even know that t-loo t-loo likes the only fans ladies allegedly and then the only fans lady tagged him and a bunch of coaches from the eagles on twitter big dom will take care of that yeah yeah uh okay numbers eight twenty eighteen i'm not gonna do one you have to do one you're on the show you have to do one six or 17 all right fine 56 but this is mickey mouse if i win oh it's not real ball.
Six or 17. He's trying to take 617.
Yeah, but you can't do two numbers. All right, 17.
That's a panic move. No, I just want to try to sneak one in there.
You never know. It almost worked.
Sneak in two numbers? Okay. Shane? 21.
99, Pug. Pug's got the headphones on.
Yeah, Pug. Holly Pug.
Holly Pug. Pug to plug.
Pug, what, real quick, anything you want to apologize for? What? You're getting hit up for tickets now? No, no, no. No, no, not that.
I don't care. That I didn't end with pug.
Yeah. Yeah, I got caught up in them.

I was too focused on the ad.

You did a whole ad, and I was like, who did this?

I know.

You just never said pug.

I dropped an immediate apology, though, pug.

Okay.

Terms apply.

Terms apply.

All right, memes, what was your number?

Three.

Max, have you ever gotten this?

No.

So I'm actually kind of rooting for Max to get this

because he said he doesn't want it to count.

So you're saying it won't count?

No, well, you said it'll count.

I said it'd be Mickey Mouse.

Thank you. So you're saying it won't count? No, well, you said it would count.

I said it would be Mickey Mouse.

Okay, so it will be Mickey Mouse.

Yeah.

24.

Love you guys.

Imagine if it was 20.

You would not have reacted that way if it was 20.

I know, I know. We would just cut your screen off.
20. You would not have reacted that way if it was 20.
I know.

I know.

We would just cut your screen off.

Yeah.

You wouldn't have come back.

If it was 20?

Yeah, I don't know.

All right.

See you for one second. Thank you.
Shining away, I'm coming for your lover's game. Shining away, I'm coming for your lover's game.
Take on me. Take on me.
Take me. Take on me.
I'll be gone I'll be gone Take on me So needless to say I've all sent in But I feel so relate and wait Slowly learning my life is okay Take on me I Take on me. Take me.
Take me on

Take me on

Take me on All the things that you say Every little rifle Just to lay my brain Lead away Through all the things I've got to remember You're shying away Or I'll be coming for you anyway You're shying away, I'll be coming for you anyway Shine away, I'll be coming for you anyway Take on me Take on me Take me Take on me

I'll become

It is a young child

I'll become

It's a long time