Conference Tourney Week W/ John Fanta, NFL Free Agency W/ Pete Prisco Plus Guys On Chicks

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
On today's Pardon My Take, we have a twofer for the people. We're talking college hoops with our good friend, John Fanta.
Johnny Fanta, Conference Championship Week. We also have Pete Prisco on to talk a little NFL free agency.
Two Italians today. Two Italians.
Double dipping.

The gabagool. A lot of Italians on today's show.
We're going to talk some NFL free agency. We got hot seat, cool thrown.
We got guys on chicks. There's a lot going on in the sports world.
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Okay, let's go. Now in the street there is violence And then a lot of work to be done No place to hang out or wash in And then I can't blame all on the sun Oh no We're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue And then we'll take it higher Oh we, we're gonna rock down to Electric Irony.
It's part of my take presented by Marshall Sports. Welcome to part of my take presented by DraftKings Sportsbook.
Go download the DraftKings Sportsbook right now. Use code TAKE.
You can turn $5 into $150 instantly in bonus bets today is wednesday march 13th standing on the corner jamis winston down in borea i got a standing on a corner jamis winston cuyahoga oh i like that i like that jamis winston's on the brown it's the river the river that caught on fire in cleveland at one. Berea is where the practice facility is.
The facility is. Yeah.
I like Cuyahoga. It made me standing on the shore of Jameis Winston Cuyahoga.
Yeah. Standing on the shore of Jameis Winston Cuyahoga.
Jameis Winston is a Brown. We got NFL free agency.
We're going to get into a lot more detail with Pete Prisco, but. I think Jameis signing with the Browns, that puts a nail on the Joe Flacco discussion, right? It's like Joe.
Yeah, I think I think they brought in Jameis because they could have

re-signed Joe Flacco. I think Flacco was too popular.
I think that they were like Jameis

is going to be the most popular. That's that's what they don't understand is that Jameis is

maybe maybe some of Jameis's leadership qualities will rub off. That's probably a bad choice of

terms. Maybe some of Jameis Winston's leadership qualities will motivate Deshaun Watson to be a better human being.
Yeah. Not rub off.
I'm happy for Jameis Winston, though. I'm very happy.
He wanted a place, and guess what? Deshaun Watson might not play the whole season, so we might get some Jameis for the Browns. That's chaotic good.
It is. It's good.
I like it. It sounds like he got a good deal a good deal too like eight million for a year and now all he has to do is wait he should have uh he should have been kirk cousins who's now made over 400 million dollars in his nfl career well maybe so he's made like what is it 230 something million and he's got a hundred million guaranteed guaranteed money he's probably going to eclipse 400 million400 million over the course of his career.
It's crazy. $90 million guaranteed at signing, and the other $10 million is guaranteed a year early.
So I want Kirk Cousins' agent. Yeah, incredible.
Incredible. I mean, like, whatever you want to say about Kirk Cousins, the quarterback, he has played every single thing right when it comes to free agency and the teams he picked.
Because I was thinking about it like he probably could have stayed with the vikings they wouldn't have given him as much money and they also would have they've done they've they've had the kirk cousins experience they know they probably would have always had an eye towards who's going to be the next guy now he gets to start fresh in atlanta and it feels like he's going to be the guy for atlanta's basically saying maybe he's maybe he'll take us over the top yeah i think i think he's going to be a good quarterback for him i think it's a good fit for both sides and he's got he's getting 62 and a half million in cash this year yeah he's getting 90 million in the first two years and he has another no trade clause yeah so the goat he is he is the goat at getting paid one much respect one playoff win he only has one i thought he had two oh no because that wasn't the minneapolis miracle was uh what case keenum yeah yeah and we also had one of my favorite parts free agency is when guys go to teams that just make sense derrick henry to the ravens just makes sense and i'll say it even though they're rivals patrick queen is gonna be perfect as a stealer yeah it Yeah, it's going to be good. They lost a queen, but they got a king.
Yeah. The NFL.
There we go. That's the new tagline.
Yeah, Adam Schefter tweeted out the breaking news about Derrick Henry and Patrick Queen and just said, the NFL. I feel like the Ravens have lost every player.
Have they? They lost Gus. They lost Gus.
They lost Patrick Queen. I think they lost they lost a safety yeah they lost a safety to the bengals which was a great pickup by the bengals i i feel like they're getting gutted and there's the dolphins are getting gutted some teams getting gutted right now yeah we should talk about our new new running backs we got great we're zigging while everyone else zags big yeah the two of us and max and Max, we all got new running backs.
DeAndre Swift. You got Austin Eckler.
Max, you got Saquon Barkley. How are we feeling about it? By the way, Tiki Barber, you're a loser, dude.
Dead to me. You are a loser.
Tiki Barber's dead to us? I don't know where. Okay.
No, we should get him on. Let me say this as nice as possible.
Tiki Barber, you're dead to us until you come on part of my take. Well, here's – I have a quote from Tiki Barber after he retired with the Giants.
So Tiki Barber took offense to the fact that Saquon Barkley went to the Eagles and said, you're dead to me. You can't do that.
You can't go from the Giants to the Eagles. Tiki Barber, after abruptly retiring, I should be able to choose when I want to leave and if I want to stay.
Some people, particularly radio personalities who will remain nameless, criticize me for having a vision or a dream. That's interesting.
Also, Tiki Barber, I'm not going to do the low blow stuff, but let's just, you know, when we're talks about like loyalty, you're not the guy. No, you're not the guy.
No, that we can go down that road, Tiki., TK. But you're not the guy to talk about loyalty.
That was a crazy reaction by him. It was nuts.
I get the hatred of your division rivals, but at the same time, it's like you played running back. You know that running backs aren't getting paid.
How are you going to shame a guy for getting paid more money to go play? The Giants could have given more money last year. Saquon literally said it.
He's like, I wanted more. Like, someone gave me the money I was looking for.
It's going to be so sick to see Phillies fans, or excuse me, Eagles fans in the stands next year wearing like Barkley Sixers jerseys. Ooh.
Rooting for Saquon. And also it works because Penn State.
Yeah. You got a lot of Penn State fans, diehard Saquon fans, Eagles fans.
So, Max, how are you feeling? We did break the mold, though, just paying running backs. Yep.
So did the Packers, Josh Jacobs. So did the Vikings, Aaron Jones.
This feels like an overreaction. It feels like everyone's like, oh, yeah, maybe that Zoom call, we should listen to this.
No, it's the new market inefficiency, Big Cat. Our teams are smart.
We saw every other team in the NFL wasn't willing to pay running backs, and we said, you know what? Now's the time. If ever, now's the time to get a running back.
Now's the time. I also saw there's something about the cap.
There's a reason for that. Cap went up.
Cap went up. The amount that running backs are getting paid are actually in line with the cap percentage.
Oh. That's something that I won't figure out for at least three more years.
Someone would point out that actually all these deals were very smart. I'm like, oh, yep.
That's that's something that I won't figure out for at least three more years. Yeah, like someone would point out that actually all these deals were very smart.
I'm like, oh, OK. And then by that time, the capital stayed flat and running backs will be having to get paid less again.
What about inflation, too? Does that help? Like, is Joe Biden good for running backs? Probably. We can make that argument.
We can go down that line. Yeah, probably.
Max, I saw that you also got a fantastic new piece of memorabilia. You have the Jason Kelsey soup can.
Yeah, no, it rocks. So how much did you pay for that can of soup? That soup was gifted to me.
Okay. Are you going to drink it? Drink it? Yeah, like shotgun it.
Jason Kelsey would shotgun that soup. I don't think you can shotgun.
I would drink it. You can shotgun anything.
Yeah, you can shotgun a can of soup. How big does that hole have to be? A pretty big hole.
A big hole. You've got to make a big hole.
Yeah. I mean, I'd shotgun that soup.
It's a great looking can. Great looking can.
You're never going to eat that soup. See, that to.
See, that's the thing. You got to eat it when he goes into Canton.

Yes.

Actually, that's a great idea.

Because I want to have it on my desk because it's great to look at.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Don't eat that.

Don't eat that.

No, you should shotgun it.

He would want you to shotgun it.

It is like a collectible.

It's awesome.

Yeah.

Shout out Campbell sending me that soup.

It's awesome.

Max just likes to sit there and look at a can of soup. Yeah.
this reminds me of my favorite football player all right so who else so saquon you you're pumped yeah i mean saquon is i've watched saquon since he was in college he was so electric at penn state always i mean that that hurdle against iowa will always be like one of the coolest plays i've ever Agreed. And it sucked having him on the Giants the past X amount of years because he was such a fan favorite at Penn State.
And then when you get him, I've always been a, I don't want to pay a running back, don't want to pay a running back guy. But then when you pay the running back and the running back Saquon Barkley, you just get to watch so many fun highlights.
Yeah. I mean...
Like, that's really the best part of Saquon is, like, yesterday I spent so much time just watching Saquon highlights. He's got great highlights, too.
He does. Yeah, he's awesome.
He does. He's the best.
I'm so excited. I like the Swift signing, too, because Swift was awesome last year for you guys.
Max, you know that. And I think that this is good.
It's like, if you've got to pay a running back, I think he's one guy that you should pay. Like,quon and Swift, I think, are two great signings.
Also, Austin Eckler seems like a cool guy. That's what I'll say.
And it's also like, yes, Saquon is getting older, but he's played behind the worst offensive line every year of his career, and he's going to the Eagles. There's some stat that Saquon had the highest percentage of plays hit behind the line of scrimmage, and DeAndre Swift had the least amount of plays hit behind the line of scrimmage.
So it's like we could see a Saquon that we haven't seen before. Do you think Saquon is going to be good for the tush push? I think he might be.
He might be. Yeah.
Get him behind Jalen and have that ass start working. I saw a picture of a side-by-side of both Jalen and Saquon's quads.
great great set of legs on those two quads for days yeah we have uh it's yeah it's free agency frenzy we have the the chef they're doing the fake deals rap port two where it's just the agent you give it give a little handshake deal hey yeah i'll report that this is a three-year deal for 40 million dollars and then yeah oh it's actually ayear deal for $10 million guaranteed? There's also a weird rumor going on out there. Jamar Chase has kind of fed into it a little bit.
He said, I can't wait to tell this story. It's going to be crazy one day.
Oh. People are speculating.
Let the speculation begin. And we all know that wide receivers, amongst all positions, have the weirdest tweets, the most cryptic tweets possible.
Which I love. A lot of people are thinking Kirk leaves minnesota justin jefferson's not going to be too happy about oh maybe get a little higgins is is looking for a trade as well maybe get a little lsu reunion could you imagine justin jefferson and jamar chase with joe burrow i can't i can't even imagine i can't i don't know i can't even.
Can't even imagine it. Yeah, we have all these deals going left and right.
My approach for free agency is just if the Bears sign someone, I'm like, yes, they're back, and then anyone else signs them, it's an overpay. Yeah.
That's really how I just judge every single deal. I'm kind of the same way, and my friend J.P.
Finley in D.C. tweeted this out today when the commanders have added five defensive players that are all like nice maybe like average slightly above average million 12 million dollar deal and jp's like i love this keep hitting singles yeah it's right yeah you're right jp yeah keep hitting singles yeah anyone who's anyone who's signing for less than three years and less than 15 million dollars it's literally like great signing great veteran veteran depth is important in this league.
league yeah so uh yeah it's it's fun to just what patriots might have solved their qb problem oh yeah jacoby reset yeah he's a great player that is a good backup yeah that's a very good backup i don't know bears twitter's freaking out right now because justin fields let's just say that and the dome might have overrated the fact might have over overrated Justin Fields a little bit and his contract teams don't want to trade for him. But now there's this idea that they're going to keep Justin Fields and draft Caleb Williams.
I am very much opposed to that. But that feels like a potential situation to get the most value out of Justin Fields.
So I brought that up a few months ago. And I said I didn't like it then.
And Cat's been consistent. Big Cat's been consistent, but Big Cat, what was my point when I did bring it up? Was that there will be an injury? Yeah, no, of course.
And then his value is going to go up. It still makes no sense.
Oh, by the way, did you see the player in Arkansas State who's named Caleb Fields? No. Yeah, and then there's another guy that's on, I think he's on Fairfield, also named Caleb Fields.
Oh, wow. You can't escape this debate.
You've got a lot of them going around. This debate just lives.
The city of Chicago can't handle having those two guys on the same roster. It would not be good, let alone the locker room.
But yeah, obviously, if Ryan Polis is like, I want to get the most value out of Justin Fields, you keep him, it's a really bad idea. I'm consistent.
I remember when you said that to me, I was like, that's a bad idea because literally everyone in that locker room has said that Justin Fields is the guy. And if you bring in Caleb Williams, you're basically saying, I hope Caleb Williams is so much better than Justin Fields that everyone will watch him play football and say, oh yeah, forget about Justin Fields.
We'll put him on the bench. Maybe two quarterback system.

Didn't they do that with Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams?

And everyone was like, play Caleb.

It was more Caleb came in and was way better.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, this guy's really good.

Yeah, the fans were like, play Caleb.

I just, this is just too much hand wringing, too many signings,

too many trades happening, and none of them are Justin Fields.

Yeah, Hank brings up a good point, though, the dome, the dome in Chicago.

Kurt Warner is smiling. His head is spinning.
He's so excited about this bear weather is dead i don't like it i don't like it all you come to chicago and and i want to see a bunch of linemen on the bears wearing like cut off sleeves we're tougher than the cold i wanted a retractable dome and open it whenever it's bad weather yes like that Like that's what, that's what they should do.

If I had a team,

that's what I would do.

I would,

I would have a retractable dome.

I'd keep it closed if it was like,

you know,

50 degrees or a rainy,

but anytime it dipped below 30,

I'd be like,

open that bitch up.

Let's play some bear weather.

It also just gives so much material to Packers fans.

Well, they're never going to,

they're never going to build lions Vikings.

I know there's yeah. Dome.
Yeah. Yeah.
It's true. Packers fans well they're never gonna they're never gonna build Lions Vikings I know Bears yeah dome yeah yeah it's true that's tough leg up yeah they're never gonna be they're never gonna build the stadium so it doesn't even matter with the winters in Chicago it's almost like also traffic it doesn't yeah it's like bear weather might not be as impactful 10 10 years from now like the weather in Chicago this I think I saw you tweet about it the winner has yeah I had it my cool throne.
The winter has been awesome here. The bear weather is literally a polar bear sitting on a little ice cap with Coca-Cola in his hand, looking cute as fuck, about to eat a seal.
Yeah. Like, don't eat that seal.
I always feel bad for the seals. No, it said they're moving forward, though.
What else do they have to do? Who fucking knows? They keep saying that about everything. It's going to take forever, and they're probably going to change it seven more times, and it's going to cost us all a shitload of money, and it's going to be stupid, and it's going to be a joke.
I think Billionaires will fix all these problems. I think billionaires should pay for their own fucking stadiums.
Agreed. That's a spicy tip.
I know. Bleep that out, please.
You should get a show. Is your owner even a billionaire?

What?

Is what did you say?

You guys even a billionaires?

I mean, you guys like broke boys.

No, I mean, the bears are worth multiple billions of dollars.

So if they are technically billionaires by assets.

But not billionaires.

Oh, no, they don't got cash in the bank.

Okay.

No.

Virginia McCaskey goes to the A&M. Like she couldn't pay for her own fucking city.
She's got like, yeah. Some owners could.
She's got like 6,000 bucks in there. Yeah.
Yeah. Could your owner? Yeah.
Did he? He spent all that money on the lighthouse. That's how he got the team in the first place.
Did he pay for his own stadium? In a way. I don't know.
I'm actually asking, did he? I don't know. I don't know the answer to that.
I'm sure. I don't think any billionaires ever paid for their own property.
No, they never do. But he did buy the property.
Oh, that's right. The way that he got the money was he bought the parking lot next to the stadium, right? No, he bought the deed to the property.
Yeah. The parking lot.
So that if a team was going to buy the team, they're going to have to pay him to operate the whatever stadium. He's a parking lot billionaire.
So the NFL is like, we'd rather just sell it to you rather than give money the key to any new stadium is just two words hotel tax that's what you just always got to say we're gonna tax the hotels because they are no one here is like oh fuck what the hell yeah right tax hotels each each hotel gets taxed play monopoly now who the fuck knows it's a joke uh all right what other free agencies talk dolphins got gutted yeah are the dolphins okay i don't think so i don't think they're okay i think they're in like crisis mode yeah like britney spears shaving her head tyreek also was in another tyreek hill his headlines they're like mad libs now where it's every month it's like tyreek hill was at a concert and pushed a woman tyree kill was uh waiting in line at mcdonald's and got in a fight with a seven-year-old boy like it's just i don't know 73 kids in the last year yeah every headline i'm just like okay maybe this happened no he's he's become like the funniest headline guy by far there was you remember that graphic of uh like all of his ex-girlfriends and baby mamas? Yeah. They all looked exactly the same.

What was the...

I got to find the most recent one.

Tyreek Hill broke...

The woman's leg.

Broke OnlyFans model's leg in backyard football practice.

After getting beat.

Yeah.

In response to getting smoked.

Tyreek Hill gets cooked on a go-route, breaks plus-size OnlyFans model's leg in revenge drill.

Yeah.

Tyreek Hill gets crossed up on a basketball court, a dog in the face yeah being sued uh tyree kill assassinates archduke friends ferdinand okay here it is here's the most recent one uh tyree kill in heated clash at atlanta comedy gig escalates after his exit so it sounds like it was tyree kill was involved in a heated confrontation at kevin hart's comedy gig which escalated in a full-blown brawl after he left uh okay so sources close to dolphin star wide receiver tells us that after settling into a seat at the coca-cola roxy friday a woman grabbed him claiming he had taken the seat she had paid for like how does this happen it keeps happening to him so yeah unlucky guy unlucky guy um any other free agency stuff i just yeah it really is just watch watch the deals and if your rival gets a deal you're like that was an overpay we've had i would never pay for a fucking center we've had some time to digest the russell wilson signing i don't hate it i still don't hate it i think he's cheap i'm still I'm still in like a – it doesn't change anything. I think he's cheap.
I think it's a good division. And speaking of Schefter saying when he did note that Russell Wilson signed a team-friendly deal.
Yep, I like that. He had no other option.
Team-friendly deal. He's getting paid a shitload.
What are the Broncos doing, by the way? Do the Broncos have a plan at quarterback? No. I think they're going to gut it too.
Yeah, they have gut it too yeah they have everything what were you gonna say max uh i was gonna say we didn't bring up brian burns oh brian burns yes we bring it up with prisco but brian burns the panthers new regime is just as bad as the old one they traded brian burns for a second round pick to the giants uh a year and a half after the old regime was offered two first rounders for him. Yep.
So smart.

Awesome.

Smart work.

Great job.

The Vikings signed Sam Darnold.

How stupid is that?

But just one last thing.

The old regime, if you get two first round picks for anyone,

you should take it because then it just extends your job.

Yeah.

You're like, I have the picks.

Because then you're going to see how those guys develop.

Yeah.

There's only a handful of people in the NFL that are worth two first roundround picks. Yeah.
How many first-round picks would Patrick Mahomes be worth? Seriously. All of them? Seven? Would it be seven? Maybe.
The problem with Patrick Mahomes is that he's become – he's so good at playing football that on an open market, I don't think any football team could afford to pay him to play football. Yeah.
Seven. Seven.
Seven first-round picks and then probably give him another like $600 million. Yeah.
On top of that. That's probably fair, Patrick Mahomes.
On top of that. Yeah.
So, yeah, you were saying Sam Darnold to the Vikings. Vikings.
Is he going to be the starter? I think he might. Although, no, the Vikings, it feels like they're going to draft a quarterback.
The Mononapolis Vikings? Yeah. That goes right off the tongue.
No, they're going to draft a quarterback. I feel like the Raiders signing Gardner Minshew, Vikings signing Sam Darnold, it doesn't.
I think that's the plan is we needed someone, if the draft doesn't go our way, to be sitting here and be like, that guy's played quarterback before. Jimmy G could be that guy, too.
That's always a smart strategy, just to get someone in the room being like, you know, he has played. Jacoby Brissett to the Patriots.
He's played pretty well. Jacoby Brissett might be the best backup quarterback.
Yeah, the Vikings have the 11th pick, and the Raiders have the 13th pick. That feels like that could easily be Michael Penix, Bo Nix, J.J.
McCarthy. Yep, right in that zone.
Yeah. All right, what else? We got college basketball going crazy.
Congratulations to the James Madison Dukes for punching their ticket. We're dancing, baby.
Beat the fuck out of Arkansas State. Crushed Arkansas State.
Who could root for that team? It wasn't even close. Some people were saying that they were going to spank that ass before the game.
No, no, no. The Red Wolves didn't stand a chance.
JMU is a really good team. Yeah, they are.
That's the takeaway. If you watch them play at all this year, they had a couple stumbles, but they have the best record in college basketball, most wins.
They tried to schedule more quad one, quad two games. Fanta gets into that a little bit with us.
No team wants to play them, but they won 31 games this year. Pretty good team.
I'm very excited to watch my team play in March Madness because it's a treat that a lot of people get to experience year in, year out. Like Villanova, they play in the tournament every single year without fail, and it's great for those people.
It's just you can mark it on your calendar. Villanova is going to be in the NCAA tournament.
And for me, it's like I've gotten to experience this one other time in my life March has an entirely different smell to it yeah oh yeah where you get to look forward to living and dying with your team so I'm I'm very very excited about that but yeah conference tournament week is we're in the thick of it right now we're balls deep in conference tournament I'm just watching some of the shittiest basketball get played I was watching uh Towson I think last night and uh was it no no Towson I was watching T played charleston yeah i was watching towson towson went to the line with uh one and one with like 20 seconds left down two and the kid airballed it and i was like yeah yeah this is fucking march dude it is good this is some good ass basketball i'm watching i can't wait i have a pre-fire fest i told you guys about but i want to say it it out loud because I'm trying to manifest against this happening. I have to be at a wedding that I committed to like eight months ago.
Unfortunately, it's the Friday of March Madness, which is bad timing in general to have a wedding. I'm convinced that it's going to be JMU playing during that time slot.
That time slot, if it's on Friday afternoon, I'm going to be watching on the smallest screen possible, being antisocial at a wedding. I'm not looking forward to that.
I want to be locked in on this game. If I'm locked in, we're going to win two games.
I'm rooting for you. If I have to watch it on my iPhone, we're going to lose that game.
That's how it's going to go. My pre-Firefest is, I think, and this is a little egotistical, i do think that uh we've seen it maybe with the nfl scheduling when they throw what we played on thursday night and then i think the what two years ago the bears played the patriots on monday night a little egotistical but i do think they could potentially have wisconsin play jmu in the first round and wisconsin would lose that game oh that would be a fun without a doubt without a.
That would be a fun stream. Well, unless you're there on Friday.

Is there somebody in that room that's an AWL?

I don't want it.

Wisconsin is going to lose whoever they play in the first round,

so I'd rather not.

Because JMU is slotted.

Although maybe that would be a great friend move.

Be like, here, here's a bye.

Here's a win.

JMU is slotted to be like an 11 or 12.

Wisconsin would probably be a 6.

6, but when they lose in the first round of the Big Ten tournament, they'll be a 7, so that might end it right there. Actually, I think they will be a 7 because they've just played so bad.
It's really a bummer. It's really a bummer.
And Max is trying to get – Max is doing me – Max is reversing it on me. He's doing what I do to him, and I don't like it bet on wisconsin no he goes i was like i don't want like we're gonna lose it doesn't matter we we stink we're playing bad basketball and max was like nah you'll still believe i'm like shut up max i won't we had to max do for me to believe max you gotta you gotta put a substantial bet on wisconsin that would be literally burning money i didn't say believe believe.
I said you were like, I just want to get it over with right away, have them lose. 11 a.m.
on Thursday. But I said it would be better to be Friday because then you get Thursday as the whole day of just watching basketball because no matter what, he's going to be a little upset when Wisconsin loses.
I'll tell you this. I won't be upset if they lose in the first round of the Big Ten tournament, which, by the way, you should watch us.
We're going to be streaming from Chili's. The schedule gods graced us with that, so we have I think it's 1.30 Eastern.
No, 1.30 Central Time, I believe, is when Wisconsin will tip against the winner of Maryland Rutgers. We'll be live streaming it.
If they lose that game, there will be no hope, and I will have no... That will be full get it over with.
Because then it's like they're as bad as I think they are right now. And we also might have to put Pug on that stream.
Seton Hall might be playing. Yeah, yeah.
Is Pug ready for the world? Is Pug ready for prime time? No, Hank's saying no. No, I was watching the game with the Pug's just a, he's a nice Pug.
But I was watching the Villanova Crate with him, and I was trying to fire him up and trying to get him fired up on Max. He's just too nice.
I feel like Pug is like his best. He's like the anti-Max with his.
He's a normal fan, not over the top. I like the idea also that it's like choose your own adventure behind the scenes with Pug.

If you're a listener of this show, you get to imagine Pug and what he would be like watching sports.

And I don't want to take that away from people.

Could we maybe get like a microphone set up?

Like he could hold a microphone behind the cameras.

He could just be like, let's go.

Good shot.

Pug.

That I like a lot.

I like that a lot.

All right.

We'll get that set up.

He's like the Wizard of Oz.

But yeah, the man behind the curtain. Go Pirates.
Pug. Damn it.
Pug. Pug.
That I like a lot. I like that a lot.
All right, we'll get that set up. He's like the Wizard of Oz, but yeah, the man behind the curtain.

Go Pirates, Pug.

Damn it, Pug.

Pug.

Yeah, just over and over, Pug.

Does anybody know where the tradition of cutting down the nets started?

Probably by Jim Nance.

Yeah.

He started every March tradition.

I know it used to be sponsored by Warner, the official ladder of the NCAA,

but 1947 NC state,

uh,

won the Southern conference championship and Wolfpack coach Everett case had

his players hoist them up.

So he could cut down the net to keep as a souvenir.

Do you remember the first time that you were like,

that's so cool that they have,

uh,

cut down the nets like as a kid.

Yeah.

When was it?

It was,

it was actually Duke when Duke won the natty in like 1991 i think okay yeah i remember seeing that i'm like that's awesome i want to cut down a net i fun story i won a basketball game when i was like six years old where there were probably no rules and actually probably nobody actually won that game and then i asked my coach if we could cut down the net and he said he said no they need for the next game i cut down the net 2019 america east championship when vermont won oh they let you cut down yeah i'll send you guys a picture i remember uh it was when uh syracuse made the final four in 95 96 season and john wallace got off the uh he got off the bus with the net in his head like dangling out of his hat that's cool and i was like that's fucking cool that's awesome yeah's awesome. Yeah, that rocks.
Jake, isn't that a bit unprofessional, though? As a journalist, you should not be cutting down the net. If you're a traveling member of the team, I think it's valid.
Think about it. They get rings.
I don't know. Where is that net? It's in my house in Florida somewhere.
You don't know? I don't know exactly. Holy shit.
Come on, Jake. But no, think about it.
The voices of the teams, like, they get rings.

I don't know.

You're journalists.

No, that's a different level.

No, they're the hometown voice.

Yeah.

They get to be – it's like Hawkeye Harrelson.

It's not like Jim Nance is cutting down the net for CBS.

I bet you he's tried.

He's definitely –

Wait, is this – no, last year was his last final.

Yeah, no Jim Nance.

This is it.

So who do we have?

Ian Eagle next up.

We get Ian Eagle.

Okay.

All right.

And Noah's probably going to do the NIT? No. He's NBC.
Oh. Okay.
Of course. How could you? I screwed up my networks.
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I forgot to mention too, so the Chili's stream we're going to be doing on Thursday. And then tomorrow we're finally doing it, the pancake bet, 5 o'clock Central.
We will be going into the gambling cave. You can watch it on all of our channels we'll be live for the entire night slate and we will be not leaving until memes finishes his pancakes right unless someone is so bad that memes laps them yeah he has to do 24 so i have 12 big cat you have six h have six.
Hank? Light work. Zero.
Remember? Comedy. Yeah.
That's right. That's right.
Yeah. So Memes, you don't strike me as much of an eater.
I can eat. Oh.
Are you going to lap somebody? I've been watching Matt Stoney videos. Okay.
He ate pancakes. He ate like 118 in eight minutes.
I'm a little worried though, Memes he might be the goat matt stoney joey chestnut is the the hot dog goat but stoney's right like uh career across multiple foods is undeniable okay i am not very familiar with matt stoney's work i went to a cake eating competition with caleb once oh yeah and he What was that like? A lot of cake and then like a strip mall. I love it.
They're always in the worst spots. Maybe 50 people watching.
Yeah. They're always in the worst spots.
I'm a little worried though because I have been sensing, and this is just a little bit of a feeling. Oh.
Hey. You ready? Water go down? Yeah.
Drinking problem? Water. Matt Stoney would pound that water.
Memes has lost a little bit of the dog in him, so I'm worried about this pancake stream for him. Why do you think that? He doesn't have as much dog.
You don't think? Why not? Just based off pickup basketball, I was screaming at him on Friday. We were on the same team, and he just wasn't.
He was so passive. And I was like, you're fucking good at basketball, dude.
Shoot. Go to the hoop.

He just was like, I don't know.

I don't know what's wrong with me.

And I looked in his eyes, and he had no dog left. I think memes might be the most underrated, unexpected athlete of all time.

He's got great Eurostep.

Yeah.

Memes, what would you say to the people saying you don't have dog left in you?

I'd say watch the stream.

Oh!

Okay.

Calling him out.

I'm just going to pound some pancakes. How many hours? Set it over under.
Are you going to beat Max? Maybe. Yes.
How many hours? I'm going to set three. Three hours.
What? So in three hours, you're going to eat 21 pancakes? Yeah. Wow.
Okay. I'm watching my calories, so I wouldn't hate taking the six hours to get as little.
Well, that doesn't make it. Well, I guess you eat less.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, that's kind of a pussy way to do it. I mean, I'm trying to get strong.
People around here are pissed about it. Max was in the gym crew this morning.
I saw him at 8 a.m. Oh, really? Yeah.
KB's teaching him how to lift weights. I love that.
Are we doing Olympic style? I don't know. KB was teaching them how to bench press.
That's not true. I watched it.
That's not true. We didn't even bench this morning.
We benched yesterday. Oh, two days in a row.
Fuck yes. I love that.
I got my fitness. No free ads.
Jason Kelsey said that he was doing MyFitnessPal and counting calories, so that's kind of why I decided to do it. Oh, that's beautiful.
I did that once. That's great.
That's great. Hank, how's dunking going? It's good.
I'm basically started this week or last week. You basically started this week or last week? What does basically started mean? I have a program, and I ordered a bunch of equipment.
Some of it's here. Not all of it's here, so not everything on the program I can do, but I've been going through the motion.
A lot of jump rope. I'm talking to a trainer next week to get my baseline and what my vertical is.
Corey G? I'm talking to Corey G, but I think we're getting help from Optimum Nutrition. Oh, okay, nice.
Will we give the ad money back when you can't dunk? No. We should probably write that in the contract because i don't want to i don't want to sell them something that is not going to happen i even forget what the terms of the bets were like how much money doesn't matter he's not going to dunk it's like 2000 if i do it 800 if i lose that's not right that's not it at all something like that i'm pretty sure it's 10 and 5K? I think it might be 20.
20 and 10? No. Yeah, it might be 20 and 10.
I think it's 20 and 8. But he could hit all the threes.
He could hit 25 threes in a row. That's true.
Tune into PMTV this week. Don't tune in.
Hank and I have a very bad visual. Don't tune in.
Turns out we're not in shape, and we probably wouldn't last long. Oh, fuck.
I was going to say we wouldn't last long on a Rick Pitino team. No, we can't say that.
Damn it. Damn it.
Oh, the stalker did text me. Just an update.
People were wondering what happened. Let's see.
Stalker, stalker, stalker. He said he said congratulations you went over my head and right to the big guy don't think this is over between us you glossed over the horrible things you've said and hurt my relationship with coach it's personal now you claim to come clean but were your typical coward self tick tock tick tock tick tock come clean i'm not gonna make it i'm not gonna say it he said it we didn't i'm not gonna say this this guy sounds like he's a patino hater a little bit he's like setting us up for these jokes guess what come clean tick tock i'm not gonna go there we're not gonna fall for it we're rick patino's guys and you know what if this guy wants us to meet somewhere because i'd like to settle his hash for apparently going against coach.
Yeah. This guy sounds like he's a hater.

Yeah.

I agree. How about that? Hank, you want to give us your final Patriot? Number seven.
And it's the end of the Dynasty documentary this Friday, right? Yeah. Yeah, that'll be it.
The Bill Belichick hit piece. It's got to finish in a certain way.
Like, it's going to finish just terrible for Bill Belichick. My guess is that they're going to start by showing two minutes of the Ram Super Bowl,

maybe less.

It was very boring.

It's going to be like, oh, we won another Super Bowl,

and then just go into drama, which is, again, kind of ridiculous. But it'll be very breakup-focused.

I want to know what the Malcolm Butler thing is,

or whatever decision that it says, like, Belichick divides the locker room with a questionable decision oh yeah because i guess so that that is the next game so there'll be a lot of focus it'll be it'll be way more time will be spent on the eagles loss than the rams win which is nonsense brady had you know one of the best super bowl performances of all time so i'm sure they'll. In which game? So that's what they're going to do.
He did. Brady had like 500 yards.
How did Nick Foles do in that game? And also Nick Foles caught a pass Brady didn't. But they're going to basically say that Brady played out of his mind.
He had an unbelievable performance. Except for catching the pass.
The reason they lost is because Belichick benched Malcolm Butler, which might be true. That is what they're going to do.
Andy fumbled. But they're going to focus.
Listen, Max. You're not listening.
Yeah, listen, Max. They're going to shape the documentary like Brady put out of his mind, the Patriots lost because of Belichick.
Then they're going to be like, and we want to Super Bowl the next year, and then it's going to be all drama. I haven't watched a single one of these.
I will probably tune into that one. Yeah, you got to.
So, Hank, we're going to do seven right now, so your ten will be complete, and then they actually released these documentaries, I think, Thursday nights. We're going to be here late Thursday night, so Friday we'll start the post-documentary top ten.
Okay. We're done with this.
Like, we should do... Don't worry, AWL, this is it.
We should do Hank's... We should do one where it's like Hank's biggest mistakes, leaving these people out.
All right. Go ahead, Hank.
Adam Vinatieri. Oh! Yeah, this was the one, again, I said, you know, after watching it, I wish I probably would have changed some things.
But he won the Raiders game, won two Super Bowls, most clutch kicker of all time. But if he doesn't go in the Hall of Fame as a Patriot, then that changes everything.
So I got pushed back from that just because there was a Colts fan who was like he played more games for the Colts and he broke the record with the Colts. But if you think about why Adam Vitari is getting into the Super Bowl, obviously his longevity is incredible, three Super Bowls, all that.
It's the Raiders' kick and the Rams' kick. Yeah.
Those are the kicks. Yeah.
And he had a game-winner against the Panthers. Yeah, game-winner against the Panthers, and I think he had two kicks against the Raiders, right? Yeah, to go into overtime and in overtime.
And to win it. Yeah, he's got the more iconic moments, but then the way that he was talking, he might be the one that...
He hates him, yeah. He might have given the football.
He might have told the Colts, if you get your hands on a football, keep it and measure the air pressure. Yeah, it seemed that way.
Yeah. It seemed that way.
So you got a rat on your list your list yeah i would change it if i could but i the list has been locked in for for before i watched an episode of the documentary that's true yeah so we'll get the man of integrity uh honorable mention last honorable mention matthew slater oh nice fair little shout out okay good job hank before we do hot cool thrown, I feel like we should talk about this now. I let you guys know like a week and a half ago that this was a possibility, and it seems like the New York Times is about to report on it, so I want to scoop the New York Times.
So I just tweeted, or excuse me, my dead dog Leroy just tweeted it out. Aaron Rodgers might run for vice president.
I still don't understand. When you told it to me two weeks ago, I processed it, and then I was like, that doesn't make any sense.
But I'm not saying that you're wrong. I'm saying I still just don't understand it.
It's going to be hilarious if it does happen. But how? There's no way.
How? How? So he's being considered and is considering the opportunity right now. So the answer is he won't.
So the second the story breaks, he will say he's not doing it. I don't know.
He just wants people to think. He wants it to be known that he was considered.
Maybe. But I'm allowing my mind to go further down the rabbit hole and think about how funny it would be.
But he's going to play football. That's the PFT in you.
If he has to leave practice to attend a debate or if he has to miss the AFC championship game because he's getting inaugurated. But he wouldn't do that.
He would play football. Probably, yes.
That's the part that he just wants everyone to know that he was being considered is what it boils down to. What if he quits football? I don't think he's quitting football.
Meme said no. He's got unfinished business.
Yeah, I mean, he almost quit for Jeopardy. But he wouldn't quit football for a bid at vice president that will never win in a million years.
He doesn't think that. I think he has at least a little sense.
What would be the chances? I'll just say I would consider like .0000001%. Did they say that about Trump? When he first? This is not.
He's not in one of the parties. We don't have.
RKK is not a party. No.
RKK? RKK. He's going to be an independent.
Yeah, he's not right. I wish that there was a chance.
I wish there was a chance that we'd have three parties, but we don't. It sucks.
Yeah, there shouldn't be any parties at all. The Green Party.
Ralph Nader? I think he's running on independent. I'm considering voting for RFK Jr.
and Aaron Rodgers just because it would make this show so much better. It would be so awesome if all next football season Aaron was attending campaign rallies campaign rallies and shit skipping practice your brain is gone and i thought rfk was a factor what would you say the chances are pft you're you they talk about him all the time it's got to be of him winning yeah zero he's not gonna win yeah it's a it's a two-party system it gets nothing yeah yeah they get nothing they get didd.
The real question would be, who would he take more votes away from? Right. Would he take more votes away from Trump or from Biden? I don't know, but whoever...
It's basically, you just get to complain with either side. Why doesn't he just squat up with the Repubbies? Because Trump's running.
So? So you can't have two. Oh, so that's who they're going to.
You can't have two. You can't have two.
Two presidents. So actually, rfk aaron rogers potentially would be it would be interesting because then you could just complain no matter what happened right like i didn't vote for either one of these guys yeah i voted for the quarterback yeah i just don't think he's gonna quit football but then then i do think it would crush memes memes would lose all his dog yeah that would be so far that would be the debt that would be the old yeller moment for memes that would be like beyond the pale for jets fans we finally have a quarterback with a flag yeah now i'm actually believing it now i'm actually believing it just because of the jets factor yeah we've yeah that would be the final boss for jet sadness it's like we we finally got our quarterback oh shit he hurt his he hurt his foot in the first like five minutes of the game That's okay.
He's coming back next year. We finally have our quarterback.
Oh, shit. He's running for vice president.
Yeah. Yeah.
No, the Jets factor does make this a reason that it could happen. You can't see a Rogers press conference where he gets super serious and he's like, at the end of the day, this is just football.
I have a chance to change the world. Yeah, no.
I'm changing my tune just because I forgot the Jets part. The part the jets part like jets are in search of eternal sadness and this would be the funniest story arc okay well we'll see we'll see uh who knows if it's if it's true or if it's actually going to happen but i was just told that the new york times is about to do it so fuck them i'm gonna do it first keep sports out of politics keep politics out of sports no oh yeah sports Keep sports out of politics stick to politics yeah right what if the new york times doesn't report this well then we did then we did then we mega scooped them whoops uh all right let's do hot seat cool throne then we'll get to both of our interviews hot seat cool throne brought to you by our friends at coors light from day-to-day annoyances to the big stuff life throws your way it's easy to to get worked up, but there's a better way, a chiller way.
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Hank. My hot seat is spelling.
Uh-oh. Kobe Bryant.
Oh, yeah. Statue honoring his 81-point game.
It has on the statue engraved basically like the lineups and the player stats and stuff, minutes, points, assists, everything. They spelled Von Wafer, Vom Wafer.
Oh, no. They spelled Jose Calderon, Jose Calderson.
And they had two that said that were did not play for coaches decision one spelled decision correctly and then directly underneath it they spelled decision d-e-c-i-c-i-o-n it would have it was on the statue engraved forever yeah the minute i saw i'm wafer i was like it it would be as if hank or bubba had made this statue yeah That was what it was. Yeah.
They entrusted one guy and no one read it over it. When I used to send you or Bubba a synopsis or anything, we would just fuck up and write a guest name wrong.
And that's what happened. Yeah, it was very relatable reading and words like up.
Did you not notice that there was a mistake? Well, it circled the pictures I saw. Jose Calderson would have been the one that really stood out to me.
Yeah. Vom wafer with an M is.
And also, yeah, I mean, rough decision with the two Cs. It sounds like this guy just texted it to the engraver and then just got it all fucked up.
Yeah. I mean, my biggest thing has always been if the if the red line doesn't pop up yeah sometimes i spell things and that's also but i do it a lot i do it a lot where i i know you know technology has probably made me dumber but i just i don't know how to spell restaurant i just try and get it close but then if the suggested thing doesn't show up i'm fucked yeah that's yeah that's an impossible one too restaurant nobody has ever spelled it correctly on the first try you you you can't spell you're so bad at spelling that the computer can't figure it out right that's great computers like we're trying to help you dude we literally we were built to help you but we can't help you suggested nothing that does happen to me every now and then where it's like you got a long word and you're just like, give me some fucking help, computer.
All right, that's bad. Okay.
Then my cool throne is Chicago. We talked about it earlier.
I know everyone listening to this, different settings, different weathers, different places. But I just want to say that the number one, pretty much every single conversation I had with anyone that I talked to in the months leading up to moving to Chicago, it was like I moved to Chicago.
They say Chicago's great. The winters are terrible.
Like, oh, man, good luck with the winters. Oh, I would love to live in Chicago, but the winters I couldn't do.
You're just tempting this for next winter. And also we're not out of it yet.
It's 70 degrees outside. I understand.
It is 70 degrees. Me and PFC played golf a month ago.
I understand, but first of all, we're not. And Jake.
We could still get snow. We're not done.
And second of all, why wouldn't you just. It's like a no-hitter.
It's like a perfect game. Why wouldn't you just let it go? It's El Nino, too.
Just let it go. So El Nino is not going to be here next year.
We're going to flash forward to this time, and it's going to be like a month of zero degrees. You'll be like, whoops.
Yeah, but I'm going to be driving. Why would you do that? I'm going to be driving a gas car, so global warming is going to really kick in next year.
You spit in the face. No, I just, I don't know.
It's been incredible. There was four bad days, and two of them had playoff football on.
And I was in Dallas for all those days. Oh, yeah.
I came back and it was over. Yeah.
So I've experienced, you know. I lived in Massachusetts, New Hampshire.
Those were way worse. I just, it's more, you know, people that are, I'm not scared of the winter here.
That's my point. Just put this on a clip card.
Again, it's El Nino. There's like a documented reason why this winter has been awesome.
Hank doesn't believe in weather. That's a fact.
I can only speak from experience. Hank does not believe in weather.
In my experience in Chicago this winter has been awesome hank doesn't believe in weather that's a fact i can only speak from experience hank and my experience in chicago this winter has been delightful it has been incredible it's been an incredible winter all right pft uh my hot seat is sydney sweeney's boobs yeah on the hot seat firmly slate wrote an article about her boobs yesterday max this will be a note for you pervert um the headline was, it needs to be said, Sydney Sweeney's boobs are not that big. And right now, as we speak, it's got an all-time community notes on it.
The community notes just reads, yes, they are. Yeah.
And it's a link to her Instagram page. Love that.
So Slate spent like 2,000 words talking about how they're actually not that big in the global scale of things. I don't care.
Let us enjoy things, Slate. Yeah.
Let us enjoy it. We weren't harming anyone.
This was fun. We were all enjoying a good piece of anatomy, and then they have to get in and mansplain to us.
In the history of the internet, this has to be the number one lamest well actually of all time. It probably is.
Like there's someone sitting in Slate and they're like, actually, fucking Sweden has bigger boobs. Shut the fuck up.
I think in the article it said there were 34 double Ds. Seems big.
I guess you just have publicly available stats of boobs now on celebrities. That also seems big.
It's like we all know KD is 6'10". Everyone knows Sidney Sweeney is is a 34 double d sure um and they're like well lots of women have bra sizes and cup sizes that are in the 34 double g category i don't care sydney sweeney's got she's got nice boobs that's crazy let us say that sydney sweeney has nice boobs slate sucks put put put a note on slate we're gonna give him a takey for worst take worst well actually of all time yeah but maybe the best well actually actually to them notes yes they are yeah no-huh um and then my cool throne i've got a couple on my cool throne um cool throne is the players the players is back sawgrass is back oh uh it's the players this week and uh i don't know i feel like i feel like they might actually be on the hot seat because it feels like Scotty Scheffler.
It feels like Scheffler season with a new putter. But I'm going to enjoy watching the players championship this week.
Okay. It's going to be good.
It's awesome because any player. I mean, it's impossible to watch this weekend.
I agree. It's not impossible.
With a bunch of TVs, you can. You get one on the golf.
Also, mornings. There's not going to be one on the golf on Friday.
Definitely not one on the golf on Friday. Probably not one on the golf on Saturday.
Maybe one on the golf on Sunday. Yeah.
Sunday's good because there's that little bit of well until selection Sunday. Definitely no golf Friday or Saturday.
PFT also. I wish it was a different weekend.
I was thinking that today. Yeah.
Oh, players. And I was like, I'm not going to watch it.
All conference championships. That's all I care about.
Any player who doesn't birdie 17, you can be like. I got him.
I got him right where I want him. Yeah.
Couldn't be me. Not at all.
Well, we talked to Pete Prisco about that. Maybe a little asterisk on the couldn't be me.
I have something for that. So that was my hot seat.
I know you have another cool throne, but real quick, because it's golf related. Jay Moynihan talked to the world today for the first time in a long time and um he's on the hot seat because this is maybe the funniest non-answer to a very pointed question i'm going to play it for you uh let me get it up here it is hi jay um at any point over the last nine months have any of the player directors on the policy board called on you or any of the independent directors on that board to resign you know there's been a lot of um good spirited debate amongst our board that's the most obvious yes everyone has asked for my job yeah i'm, just say I'm not fucking leaving.
Does anyone want you fired? You know, we've had a really good time just chopping it up. We've talked about it.
Disagree a lot. There's been a wide variety of opinions on that very subject.
Yeah. I have one, and everyone else has a different opinion.
Yeah. But it's spirited debate.
Yeah. That's what this country is built on.
What was your other cool throne? My other cool throne is Boeing. Boeing's on the cool throne because the whistleblower against Boeing just offed himself in the car mysteriously before giving testimony.
Yeah. Allegedly.
That's bad. It's bad.
How does that keep happening? It's bad for Boeing. They're being investigated by the Department of Justice.
We gave you the tip on part of my take like two months ago. Don't fly on a Boeing.
I've flown on like six Boeing since then. I don't even know how to look up what i'm flying yeah but boeing's in bad shape they're they got people behind the scenes he doesn't know i know i know exactly which plane's a boeing if it if it's if it's a little two-man weave right there if it caught on fire then it's a boeing if it's not then it's an airbus got it um but yeah they're being investigated big time there's behind the scenes videos of people that work at like, yeah, you know, like most of the planes I don't really check that well.
Walls are closing in for Boeing right now. Yikes.
Not good. But, yeah, good thing that this guy just offed himself because they might skate on this one.
Yeah. All right.
My hot seat is the Yankees, the Jankies. Aaron Judge already has an MRI on his stomach.
On his abs. I was thinking about that, like getting an MRI on your abs.
That's kind of a flex just to say they were able to do an MRI on my abs. Yeah.
But that's, um, Aaron judge being hurt. Also Gary Cole.
What happened to him? He's getting evaluated as well. All right.
So the Yankees are in the hot seat. They're fucked.
Uh, yeah, that's never good. Spring training is like, you just want spring training to happen without ever realizing it's happening and then opening day happens you're like everyone survived they took uh they took the mets role so at least if you're a new york mets fan you can be like it's the yankees now yeah they're injured it's the yankees all right my cool turn i got two one is uh still blue mugs we got new mugs out still blue coffee.com if you see this one see this it, see this? It's Max, but he's sad, and it says, My bracket is busted.
We've got to make your free throws, just cover. Great new mugs.
Go buy some coffee. You need the coffee.
You need the mugs for March Madness. So, Stellablecoffee.com.
My other one is intern season. So, we are going to possibly be hiring a new intern, and I really want cowboys fan that's all i'm gonna say yeah we've been talking about diehard cowboys we've been talking about this for a while what's the missing piece of the show hank kind of is a cowboys fan but like you don't have that same fire you don't have that same true belief yeah like it's already been beaten i mean i made a bet two years ago and you guys just pigeonholed me well and then you dated you dated Tiffany Gomez.
That was a coincidence. You got so despondent over one bad Cowboys loss that there's no chance that you're a true Cowboys fan because a real Cowboys fan would be like, doesn't matter, next year.
Next year we're back. But I would love a Dallas, maybe SEC.
He went to an SEC school. We get a little of that.
Someone who just really, maybe like small. Yeah.
He can be like a Timon and Pumbaa thing going with Max. Yeah, it'd be good also if he was.
Ja-ja-tuve. Yeah.
Or she just went to, like, they didn't go to college. They're just nothing but Cowboys.
Yeah. Maybe Cowboys in Alabama.
Cowboys, Bama, Lakers. Either way, we are looking for an intern.
For the summer. For the summer.
Jake, your hot seat, cool throne. My hot seat is Novak Djokovic.
Yeah, he had a stunning loss at Indian Wells, which some call the fifth major. He was minus 5,000, hashtag DK partner, and lost to Luka Nardi.
And then afterwards, he kind of coached K-ed katem at the net i don't know if you saw this yeah he did he a little bit he told him that he's a good player and told him he's got great stuff going on not exactly what he say he was he was complaining that uh there should have been hindrance and that well should there have been there wasn't it wasn't called but there should been. I don't know.
Okay. What the fuck is hindrance? Hindrance is when you stop up like Nardi hit the shot and then act like the point was done.
So no bad. That's fucking hindrance.
You should be allowed to do that. But it's not in the rules.
It's the okey-doke. It's not in the rules.
Like pretending that the ball went out and then hitting it back. I like that move.
So you're saying that Djokovic is on the hot seat for losing even though the other guy cheated. Doesn't make sense to me.
Well, it's not only that he lost, but also wasn't the other guy a lucky loser? Yeah, he literally called a lucky loser. He shouldn't even be in the tournament.
Qualify last minute. Okay, and guess what? He doesn't know how to play tennis.
He was doing hindrances. Also, apparently Novak complained in Italian.
This is according to Hubs. Yeah, because he can speak multiple languages.
It's not fair, but well done. He can speak.
Hubs speaks Italian? No, apparently Novak said that. Yeah, but according to Hubs? Well, he reported it.
And Hubs speaks Italian? Sure. I don't think so.
So he said it's illegal. I'm poking holes through this whole fucking thing.
He said it's illegal, but good job. He said it's not fair, but well done.
He played a Joe Schmo off the streets that he shouldn't have even been playing who was cheating. And now we're judging a guy who's bilingual? Probably more than bilingual.
Bios too, right? This is a tough loss. Minus 5,000, hashtag DK partner.
You rarely see that. Who cares? It's tennis in March.
Who cares? He's probably wanted to watch conference tournament week. Probably.
If we're being honest, that was smart by the joker. Yeah.
My cool throne is Trace Jackson Davis. He somehow posterized Wembe Nyama last night.
Did you guys see this? Yes. I don't know if that's...
I feel like everyone gets postered at some point. But Wembe.
Yeah. No, I know.
It wasn't just the posterization. It was the announcer afterwards where he goes, he just put the entire nation of France into the basket.
Oof. That's pretty good.
That is pretty good. I'm going to watch it.
I just... I feel like posters...
Guys are just so fucking good now that... But you rarely see a seven.
Yeah, no, no. That one's worth it.
And it was probably his first poster, right? Probably. Yeah.
Both rookies. Okay.
So one minute ago in the New York Times, RFK Jr. has recently approached the NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler.
Oh, but he didn't dunk the ball. Jesse Ventura about serving as his running mate.
Mr. Kennedy confirmed on Tuesday that the two men were at the top of his list.
This is a layup. So this is Rodgers.
Rodgers doesn't have two conversations at the same time. Wait, so what I heard, half heard, was they've had a conversation like drunk.
Hey, bro.

RFK wants it to be known that he likes Aaron Rodgers,

and Aaron Rodgers probably is like, yeah, you can say that you're going to ask me.

I don't.

Again, I just don't know how it would work.

Mr. Kennedy said that he had been speaking with Mr.
Rodgers pretty continuously for the past month.

So it sounds like there's mutual interest.

Yeah.

And I don't think it's going anywhere.

Well, actually, no, the Jets. The Jets.
The Jets. Yeah, he's his running mate.
It's facts. You're right.
He had it first. No, no.
Leroy had it first. Well, you told me first.
No, Leroy told me to tell you first. Got it.
And you did have it like two weeks ago. Please credit Leroy.
Yeah. Okay, let's get to our interviews.
Let's do Johnny Fanta, and then we got Pete Prisco talking some NFL. PFT, you got a quick word from one of our sponsors.
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Sport Clips, it's a game changer. And now, here's Johnny Fanta.
Okay, we now welcome on our very good friend. It is Johnny Fanta, the man, the myth, the legend.
He is, you can find him on the Big E, doing the Big E's, covering the Big E's tournament in New York all week. By the way, Johnny Fanta, I have to just say we did a Rick Pitino stamina shooting drill two seconds ago.
So that's why my brain is a little flustered and I look like I'm breathing heavy and I'm sweating. But you are the best.
You cover all all all college basketball. But the biggies is your thing.
We're going to talk all the tournaments, conference championship this week, but I want to start with the Big East, your bread and butter. UConn, anyone beating them? Man, I want to say no.
And last year, remember, we all were ahead of the curve here, right here on PMT. We said UConn could be that team that makes that run.
Yes, credit to us. Exactly, credit to you guys.
But for the sake of being different, let's go through the potential roadmap here this week in the Big East Tournament. For the record, Connecticut, in my eyes, is the best team in the country.
They're the frontrunner for the national championship, and they should be.

You know, the three losses are at Kansas to Seton Hall.

Klingen got hurt during the game, and then Creighton had another

worldly shooting performance.

But what's interesting about this Big East tournament is we could get Friday

night at Madison Square Garden, UConn, provided they beat either Xavier

or Butler, they will, I think.

And then either St. John's or Seton Hall.
If it's Rick Pitino versus Dan Hurley Friday night at the Garden, that is – That's must watch. That's must watch.
I like that. And we also have, in the first round, the Cooley Bowl Part 2? No, Part 3.
Part 3. I know you're a friend of Ed Cooley, but Providence has floundered recently.
Is Ed Cooley feel like – I mean, Georgetown's not been good this year. They don't have their guys.
But there will be bad blood, and that's what the Big East tournament's about. So you've got to be excited for another Cooley Bowl.
Well, Wednesday, yes, I am excited for another Cooley Bowl. I'm excited for Wednesday night because typically Wednesday at the Big East tournament involves a DePaul game, which Wednesday does, DePaul playing Villanova.
That's not much. It's a crowd-watching experience to the few people that wear DePaul gear.
But it's Xavier and Butler, but then that Cooley Bowl's the headliner. Here's the thing.
There has never been more vitriol. There's never been more of a sideshow with a coaching move in the history of college basketball for my money than there is with this one here.
Because you got a Providence fan base that is so passionate for their friars that is all about you got to be one of us you're one of us you're you're you're either for us or against us and on the other side you have you have a guy that you know that that leaves for another school within the league that's never happened and his team's won two games two big east wins but guys everything tells me this is not just going to be another georgetown type of game where they go down losing. This to me is going to provide drama on day one of the Big East Tournament.
Providence asked to win. They have to win to stay alive.
They're on the bubble. They're just on the outside looking in.
They need two wins in the Big East Tournament. What would it be if Georgetown spoils that for the Friars? Providence better win this game.
Devin Carter's been the best player in the Big East all season. I expect him to will Providence to the finish line, get a date with Creighton, and that sets up an interesting Thursday night.
I like it, though. I like the bad blood.
It's good for the sport. It's good for the league.
Yeah, it's always been good. It's not supposed to be.
That's the thing with Patino, and you guys had him on. Like, that's what makes the Big East what people like in college basketball.
It's good to have some dislike. We're not supposed to be soft here.
Okay, March is a time. Like, here's the deal.
No matter what side you fall on with LSU and South Carolina on Sunday, we were all talking about it. I'm okay with fighting.
I'm okay with a little arguing. You're not supposed to like each other.
Let's get after it here this March. I don't mind it.
If I see a steel chair, we see a steel chair. Let's go.
I love that. I love that.
March is, yeah, it's for hard people. It's a hard month for hard people.
Put your big boy pants on. Speaking of big boys and pants, Max's Villanova Wildcats.
Do you give them – how many games do they have to win to get an at-large bid? Well, I'm a big boy, and I'll have pants on this week. And, you know, Villanova, Max, I'm going to tell you right now, it's now or never here.
Yeah, I don't like your body language right now. Yeah, I know.
It's just like the conversation between dad and the kids when things haven't been going exactly throughout the week. When you come home and it's Wednesday and somehow the whole box of Snyder's pretzels has gone by Wednesday, but they did shopping for the whole week and you're out of food in the pantry.
So here's the deal, Max. It feels like your pantry's running low right now.

Yep.

Okay?

So it's time for those pants to get expanded here and for Villanova to show that they've got something left in the tank.

The end of the day, for Villanova, you've got to go out,

you've got to beat DePaul, and you've got to show up Thursday against Marquette,

who still very well could not have Tyler Kohler.

Yeah.

Kohler's got an oblique injury.

It's a great opportunity. Meet DePaul, and you've got to show up Thursday against Marquette, who still very well could not have Tyler Kolek.
Yeah. Kolek's got an oblique injury.
If Kolek doesn't play, no excuses, Villanova. You better win this game, or there's going to have to be serious questions asked of this coaching staff off the season.
This roster was worth a couple million dollars. Three million dollar roster.
If miss the ncaa tournament that is an abject failure they gotta win on thursday over marquette especially if colic doesn't play guys he's got an oblique injury i think marquette might hang it hold on to him for the ncaa tournament this season for marquette was always about making a deep ncaa tournament run fun fact shaka smart has not made it to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament, guys, since VCU. Really? That's it.
Wow. That's the only time he's ever made a run.
So some would argue Fade Marquette. Is Shaka going to be able to break through? He needs a healthy Kolek to do that.
I don't see Kolek playing in this Big East tournament. That could change that could change he could decide i'm going to play and ride it out if he does that's tough for villanova but nova better win two games in the big east tournament two games for he threw down the gauntlet well because de paul doesn't count as a win no no i'm not sure what de paul counts for right now he doesn't cover anything yeah yeah i've been saying it all week gotta gotta beatquette.
I wish we were playing Creighton. I think we match up better against Creighton.
But if Colick's not, I thought Colick was going to play. So I like you.
I told you he wasn't, Max. Listen to me.
I told you he wasn't going to play. Did you guys ever, like growing up as high school or college, like when you were that age, did you ever get swindled into one of those knives presentations? Oh, Cutco.
I had some friends that did Cutco. I was more of a show up to a timeshare presentation, take the free tickets for Medieval Times, and then just leave.
Yeah. That was my thing.
This particular season, playing DePaul is like a Cutco presentation. Yeah.
Yeah. It's brutal.
They're very, very bad. All right.
So that's Big East. Tell me what conference tournament you're most excited for outside of Big East.

Because Big East is very thrilling because you not only have UConn,

the best team in the country, but you also have Providence, St. John's,

and Villanova all trying to get themselves off the bubble.

But what conference tournament are you like,

I can't wait to watch this when I'm done covering the Big East? Yeah, I can't wait to watch the SEC.

Yeah.

Because I'm rooting for a Kentucky-Tennessee round three. Yes.
Yes. Last year on this show was critical of Cal and said, they give me Dallas Cowboys vibes in general.
I think this is his best chance to now break through. And this can be the start of it.
This week for Kentucky is big. You've got Reed Shepard, the best freshman in college basketball.
You've got Rob Dillingham. Antonio Reeves would be an All-American for me.
Kentucky, this is your time. Big Blue Nation, you've been waiting for this.
There are no excuses for John Calipari. None.
I like that. This is the week.
I think this could set up an SEC final. We could get Auburn, South Carolina in this tournament.
Lamont Paris is a national coach of the year candidate. He's done a great job with the Gamecocks.
Our guy, Bruce Pearl, he's probably going to have to go up against Tennessee in the semifinals. I mean, if he advances, that's who he's meeting.
That would be quite the heavyweight fight. But I like Dalton Connect.
I think Connect has a chance to be the face of March Madness with the way that he is going, with the way that he's scoring the basketball. We could get Kentucky, Alabama in the SEC semis, first to 100 wins.
Alabama's not playing an ounce of defense, but I love it. I want Kentucky, Tennessee round three.
Yeah, I think that'd be good. That'd be good for the country to watch that.
Is there any chance that Don Kinnett gets National Player of the Year, or is that just Zach Eadie? Well, unfortunately for everybody else, not named Zach Eadie, it was locked up the moment that he said he was coming back to college. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
His productivity is just – it's really not – you can't put it fully into perspective. And whether it's fair or not, you could call it lazy, but at the end of the day, we've never seen a guy at his size do what he's done at the college level.
He is, get this, in my opinion, you guys, push back on me if you want. Jake, whoever, push back on me.
I think Edie's dominance is the most over a span of time, these two years, since Tyler Hansborough. Hmm, okay.
I'm trying to think. Doug McDermott was very good for a long time at Creighton, but that was, you know, Missouri Valley the couple years.
I love Jimmer Fredette. Also, yeah, because if you're dominant, you don't stick around for two years.
Yeah. Yeah, you don't usually stay, you know, multiple years and keep doing it.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you might be right.
You might be right. John, I want – No, people forget, Hansborough was an All-American all four years of his college career.
Like, there are not four-year college All-Americans anymore. Nobody does that.
Yeah. Yeah.
Hansborough should have played for Duke. He just always gave me, like – he's got the Duke vibe him oh i liked it though because he just beat them yeah he it's like we got one of your own yeah you know what's crazy you know what's crazy hansborough hates kentucky more than he hates duke oh why he can't stand big blue nation okay that's a i didn't know what that that's nugget but that was a great nugget that's the meanest thing that he could possibly do to Duke.
Yeah, that's true. Like, I respect that.
I think he actually does hate Duke more, but he has to say that he hates Kentucky more because he knows how much it's going to piss him off. It's the Mad Men mean.
I don't even think about you. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. Right.
Hey, John, I want to talk more about College Hoops, but I don't know if the first time you don't know if the first time you came on the show, we did like a deep dive into the history behind John Fanta. Now I'm just curious, like when you were growing up, were you always a diehard college hoops fan or were you like a sports fan? And this is where you found your lane in broadcasting, or has it always been college hoops? It's where I found my lane, which, which lane.
Now do some bowling yes yeah i watched you do bowling it was electric did you like it yes absolutely anything you do i'm in johnny fanta you know that i appreciate that dan i i appreciate that i i i gotta tell you what i love about bowling like 10 seconds i can't i could never believe how much booze is being drank. Yeah.
Yeah. You ever try to bowl sober? It sucks.
Yeah. You're in a bowling alley.
Yeah. So how did I get caught on? Well, so I grew up on the west side of Cleveland and huge Cleveland sports fan.
Still am. Browns, Indians, now Guardians, Cavs.
I'm seven when LeBron's drafted. I remember when the Cavs won the lottery.
But Browns, I mean, I'm a huge Browns fan. There's nothing like a Cleveland Browns Sunday than in Cleveland, Ohio.
And this past season was just a miraculous, miraculous season in which Flacco, the guy I hated growing up, leads us to heights I've never thought were possible to a season that, you know, sorry to your Bears. That's one of the more unbelievable Browns wins I've ever seen in my life.
So between those teams, Jim Tomey was my favorite athlete growing up. Love that.
He's a great trivia answer, too. A ton of dingers.

Yep.

Mashed the baseball out of Jacob's Field.

And Tom Hamilton, Joe Tate, Jim Donovan, the voice of the Browns.

Like, Cleveland has great voices.

So that inspired me.

Like, at the age of six, I'm looking at these guys on TV.

I'm like, they get to do that.

I played high school football at St. Ignatius in Cleveland.

I was a left guard.

When the quarterback came into the huddle, I was on scout team.

Thank you. They get to do that.
I played high school football at St. Ignatius in Cleveland.
I was a left guard. When the quarterback came into the huddle, I was on scout team.
We were a bad varsity team, so I'm on the JV team. When my quarterback came in the huddle, he'd call the play 27 on two, and I was a left guard.
He would audible the 44 on one. His life would flash before his eyes.
I am responsible two san ignatius quarterback separated shoulders got done they still talk to me got done with sophomore year of high school football i go into the coach's office guy by the name of chuck kyle won a ton of games 11 state championships and he looks at me and he says you know i really like you as. He goes, you're a lot better at talking about the game than you are playing it.

That was the best.

That was the most.

That was the nicest.

My parents were pissed.

All right. They were not happy with that news when I came home.

That was the best advice I could have gotten in high school because it got me to think,

I just got to do everything I can to broadcast this sport.

A year later, guys, it's 25 degrees at Fawet stadium in canton where they play the hall of fan game i'm in the press box in the warmth ignatius wins the state championship and i'm on play-by-play instead of being on the end of the bench that's awesome that's a great story yeah and and so you just you rolled with it at first were you like i really want playing football or were you like, he's right. I'm glad I don't have to do this anymore.
He was right. And I was tired of running and getting my ass kicked.
Yeah. I was getting my, I was getting my ass kicked airborne at practice.
I couldn't block a soul. It was a turnstile.
It's like that video where the guy's checking people into the game and yeah. Right.
Yeah. That was me as a left guard.
That's a great story. I love it.
And now look at you now. I mean, this has been – You might be the most passionate man in sports media.
Yeah. You love the game.
I appreciate that. I mean, when you have stories like James Madison University, when you have a conference like the Mountain West, which I wanted to get to here, I wanted to shout out the Mountain West who could send six teams to the NCAA tournament this year.
I'm bullish on Nevada, Boise State, San Diego State can run this back. Isaiah Stevens is an All-American.
That's the other conference tournament I'm excited about. But when you've got Rick Pitino in New York City, Dan Hurley's yelling at Providence fans like crazy.
We got Purdue. Can they find redemption here? Like, this month is awesome, and I love being a part of it.
I love being a part of it. Did you buy it when Rick told us that he doesn't talk to the refs at all? Like, he said that he hadn't spoken to refs in, what, like, years, right? Yeah.
Is that true, Johnny? I don't know. I'm not buying that one.
How could that be true? I don't know. The way he explained it, he was kind of talking to them without talking to them where like he would just say things out loud he's not like hey ref you blew that call he's more like talking to air being like these refs really got to do a better job which i guess is kind of not talking to them yeah but it's like it's it's the word i mean it's smart because can you get teed up doing that yeah no you're right he's smart he's learned he's learned the loophole here that's that's actually a smart way to do it you you must you must be like loving it though because you you mentioned danny hurley who's a friend of this program but like the big east to become a true basketball conference again they needed these characters as coaches because i i always that college basketball, I love college basketball.
I love, love, love it. But because of the turnover and rosters year to year, it's the characters in your coach that makes a program.
And that gets the rivalries going. And you have those guys now all in place.
It's the characters. It's the coach.
And as the ACC tries to figure out washington dc or greensboro where should we like the acc is doing their conference tournament in washington dc yeah i the big east 42 years at madison square garden 42 years it's an institution in new york and i'm going to make this claim with these personalities with patino with, with Hurley, you're right, Dan. You're absolutely right in the throwback personalities.
Like Sean Miller, he was on a freight a couple weeks ago. He's like, there's a tier system in the Big East, and I'm not in tier one.
So that should tell you who gets to be in tier one, you know, indirectly taking shots. Greg McDermott's one of the good guys.
Just gets extended at Creighton. Do you know how many places would like to be able to hire him? Shaka Smart's all fired and fueled up.
And Kim English is feisty. Don't forget about Shaheen Holloway at Seton Hall.
I think they could be a dark horse this week. He didn't at St.
Peter's. He's got another team this year.
But here's my thing. In a world where Greg Sankey, the SEC, and the Big Ten, frankly, are trying to say we're're going to take control of all this stuff.
To me, the number one thing that's keeping all the football people from just saying basketball's ours, we're going to break it off too, we're just going to do our own tournament, is the Big East. Because if you don't involve the Big East in whatever you're doing, which is basketball only, they're not getting football shares.
Your tournament would be illegitimate. Yeah.
If UConn wins the title this year, that would mean the Big East would own four of the last eight national titles in college basketball. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
I have, that is a great point. You, you made me think of something.
Is the Big East talking at all about the fact that Shaka Smart is, like, literally playing defense on the court? Has anyone mentioned anything? Are they going to stop him? I'm okay if they don't want to stop him and they're just like, hey, this is what Shaka does. We're fine with it.
But, like, he's so close to the action. It makes me think, should coaches be allowed to play three possessions of defense a game? I love that.
Yes. Just random three possessions.
Who would be the best defender in college basketball? Shire would probably flop a lot. Yeah.
Shaka Smart would be, I mean, he'd be up there. Penny, you get Penny out there.
I think Will Wade. I think Will Wade could still bang with the best of them.
Yeah. Well, Will Wade could make a strong-ass offer as they're coming up the court.
Yeah. Yeah, Ju we know juan wants to fight so yeah he'd get involved by fouls you get five no shaka i can report that that he the conference has done their part you know he got there was a message now here's the thing is that there was a message sent now whether or not or not that's going to be translated here, he's still on the court.
So I don't know what you do there other than maybe we implement a rule where you can cash in like money in the bank that you can jump in for a possession or two if you want to play six out of five. But I don't know how you contain Shaka Smart.
Big East Defensive Player of the Year came out. Ryan Kalkrunner, three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year.
The only other two that can say that they got it three times, Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning. Wow.
A lot of people said Shaka Smart was robbed. Yeah, he was.
I think what needs to happen is I think a player needs to just set a pick on him because then it would be like, all right, we got a problem. Or just shove him.
Just knock him over. I thought about it more.
The answer to your question, which coach would you want playing defense? I think it would be either Bruce Pearl or maybe Kelvin Sampson because they would just sweat all over the floor. And nobody they wouldn't send like the mop guy out there because they wouldn't fall down and they would just make it nice and lubed up so that all the offense players would just trip.
I think that, I think that would be great. But yeah, shock is out there.
He's like going hand down, man down on defense. It's crazy.
The guy's energetic. What can I, what can I say? I still, now I'm fully adjusted to shock of smarts hair.
I've got, I've gotten fully adjusted to that now. Uh, like, yeah, I mean, here's the deal.
The NCAA tournament stricter with the, with the coaches on the floor. So, or at least I would think that they are these officials like, that's my one issue with this week versus next week.
If I have one issue, the officials are going to call games differently next week because during the NCAA tournament, they're also trying to advance to the next round, right? They get evaluated every round. Things get tighter.
These conferences, these conference officials, they're capping off their conference season. They know these teams.
The players know each other. They're going to let them play a little bit.
That's why we see more and more whistles next week in the NCAAs. These guys are tight as can be.
I didn't know that. I didn't know that the refs were also trying to advance, too.
They got a job to do. Yeah, a job to do.
Yeah. Some refs are sent home.
They're reffing for their job. Yeah.
Yeah. There is a 16 over one for the officials too.
I like that. So you mentioned the ACC.
It does suck that it's not a Greensboro. That tournament should be in Greensboro every single year.
It means so much more. It's like the tradition behind it.
All the good teams from that area. It's, it's the, it's the one thing that Greensboro still had going for it.
them keep it it's a great place that and stamey's barbecue two great things about greensboro but they should it should not be in dc nobody cares about outside of georgetown which doesn't even play in the conference uh dc is not a college basketball town like you got maryland yeah maryland they were nice 20 years ago but besides that it's like they don't really care as much in Carolina, basketball is like a way of life down there. Yeah, it is.
It should be in Greensboro. And also, it's going to be a Duke-North Carolina final.
It all likely would. Guys, the ACC, Virginia's the three.
They might not even make the NCAA tournament. I know.
It's crazy. It's crazy.
Do you think – so what was your take on the Duke, the John Shire apolog apologizing fans throwing stuff oh we gotta ask you're pro court storming correct yes okay thank you all right that was enough of court storming talk uh do we think john shire i know he's signing incredible classes i think the 2025 class is like the best ever at duke uh but that was that was a tough loss for them and it feels like you know unc's their number a little bit right now. UNC's got their number.
They've got their number, and I think they've won three of the last four at Cameron Indoor. Yeah.
But it's so weird that a coach is apologizing to students. Yes, yeah.
They're all weirdos and dorks. You can just say it.
They are. I mean, I just don't understand.
Like the notion that a coach is going to go up to undergraduate students who are going to class Monday to Friday have zero. At the end of the day, the only attachment that they have to your program is that they go to the school.
Yeah. And you're going to go up and apologize to them.
Don't go apologize to them. You want to apologize to people.
Apologize to the people who pay for your team. Yeah.
Yeah. Get the boosters on the phone.
On all the students, anything. At the end of the day, here's the deal.
All right. At Duke, John Shire, this second year, they've won 19 of their last 23 games.
But how much of that is because they're playing in a league that, frankly, is weak and that could only stand, what, four teams to the NCAA tournament? They need to make the second weekend of this NCAA tournament. If they do not, where the measuring stick is at Duke, you've got to be able to make NCAA tournament runs.
Like, yeah, he's going to enter next year having real pressure on himself to make the second weekend. Because if you go three straight years and you have Cooper Fly coming in next year, who, guys, is otherworldly, I know you hate that Cooper Fly is going to be a Duke Blue Devil because he is such a fun player.
But, yeah, the pressure's on here. They still have a really good team.
They should make the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. But Carolina's got their number carolina to me is a is no question a top five team in college hoops can get back to the national title game oh i like that okay so who can get to the who can get to the national title game this year i'm assuming you said yukon already so put them in there uh unc then you you mentioned kentucky their defense got kentucky over tennessee they've been playing a little better though yeah I would take Tennessee before I took Kentucky.
Their defense stinks. Kentucky over Tennessee.
They've been playing a little better, though. Yeah, I've got tennis.
I would take Tennessee before I took Kentucky. Okay.
I would. You know why Tennessee? Always known for their defensive ability.
They've got Vescovy and Ziegler back. To me, though, now they've got a guy who can be a Doug McDermott, Jimmer for Dead type guy in connect.
Yeah. That can be that type of figure for their team.
Tennessee's bugaboo late, late in games in the past has been, they don't have a guy to go to. And Rick Barnes has crumbled offensively.
Now you're not going to crumble because you know who you're going to, you're going to connect and he can overcome any defense. You can't just face guard connect.
He'll break right through that. He'll be able to score.
So I believe that UConn. I believe in Purdue.
All right? I'm on the Purdue train. I'm not hopping off.
I'm on the Houston train. I believe that Tennessee.
I believe that Kentucky. I believe that Carolina.
Beyond that, you'd have to do some convincing. I'm out on Kansas.
I don't see it with Iowa state. I'm not buying Illinois upside.
I believe we'll get three chalk final four teams. And I believe we will get one team that we do not expect to be there to make it to Arizona.
Okay. So not like last year, we're not going to see crazy Cinderella runs.
I think we could get one. I just with the right region region, I just don't see it.
I think, like, here's the thing. Connecticut has been an absolute wagon.
I'd be surprised if they're, I'd be downright shocked if they're not in the Elite Eight. And I'd be surprised if they didn't make it to the Final Four.
I think one of Houston or Purdue is going to be there. I think one of Carolina or Kentucky figures it out.
From there, I don't know. I really like Creighton.
I think Creighton's 7-1 in their last eight games. And Shireman, Alexander, and Caulk Runner are quite the big three.
But I don't think that this is as wild, PMT, with upsets here this year just because I do think there's a whole bunch of Perry. Guys, I don't think there's any difference between 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 seeds this year.
I don't. I think there's a clear top.
I think from there it's a total crap shoot. If I was picking in the bracket, you'll make some money.
Pick any 12. Pick any 13.
Pick any 14. Any 15.
Just ride those seeds. They're going to win games.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's a good point

on Creighton. Creighton's been like a top

five, top ten team in the

last month and a half.

They've been playing great ball. Real

quick, out west, Arizona,

obviously the class of the Pac-12.

I really, so this is

the time of year where I see some teams.

I could count actually Indiana in this.

They're playing great ball right now. It's like, I really

want some of these teams. They got it together way too

late, but they'd be great in tournament USC is another one where they got it together they got healthy way too late but they've been playing great ball do you see Arizona winning the Pac-12 and can they go deep because this is a team that has a lot of hype they've played some big games this year they've been tested they've some big games. But it does feel like something's a little off, especially you saw them falter on Saturday night to USC.
I don't trust them. Yeah.
I have trust issues with them. I think it's all or nothing, and the nothing is bad.
That's a good way to put it. The nothing's really bad.
And, you know, they lost to Princeton last year in the NCAA tournament.

And I don't know if those mental demons are totally away. So, you know, Tommy Lloyd has done a sensational job as a regular season coach.
It takes a different, you got to have a different set of stones to win in March. And right now with Tommy Lloyd, like I'm fearful, I'm fearful.
Is he like a Brad Underwood?

Does he have some painter where he's always got successful regular season teams? Even a Fran McCaffrey comes to mind. But then they get to the NCAA tournament.
And like with Arizona, and Lloyd is like, it's probably not fair to him because he's still a relatively newer head coach and he's only 49 years of age. To me, the problem with Arizona is I don't know what I'm getting from Kylan Boswell from game to game.
Like Caleb Love is going to be an All-American. And you know what? Credit to Caleb because everybody said Caleb sucks and Caleb's terrible and Caleb's the reason why North Carolina blew up last year.
Stop. You can't put it on one player.
It's on a head coach to direct his team. Caleb transferred to Arizona, and he's had a terrific season.
But to me, they just are inconsistent in their supporting cast, and it feels like Boswell's been way too up and down at times for me to buy into Arizona. If I was going to buy a West Coast program during this NCAA tournament, I would buy some stock in St.
Mary's. I like Aiden Mahaney quite a bit.
And, guys, I'm in on that Mountain West. I really believe that the Mountain West – I don't think the six bids is fluky.
I think it's a huge tournament for them. San Diego State making that Final Four, that gave these other teams a blueprint, an idea of what they could be.
Keep an eye on Steve Alford and the Nevada Wolfpack in the NCAA tournament. And if they can get in there, Richard Pitino and New Mexico, if they find a way in with Jalen House and Jamal Mashburn, could be in a first four game.
Yes, we could get Richard Pitino versus his father, Rick, in a first four game in Dayton. That would be juicy be juicy i love that i love that little oedipus rex action going on i like that a lot and big cat just started watching the mountain west like two weeks ago yeah i've never seen a game he's falling in love with him hard yeah it's crazy i didn't even know they played basketball out there it's good that league is a lot of fun it's a lot of fun it's good and it's great you know why because i like seeing a different league get tournament units yeah like they've mastered the scheduling algorithm the net you know which i think has its flaws can i go to bat for one other team on selection sunday yes do it john josh shirts at indiana state i hope you make it yep you're you're better than all these other high majors that are just like decent to okay that are going to get in because of their schedule.

You couldn't schedule to the same degree because people didn't want to play you.

I want to see Indiana State get to the dance.

I'm all in on a two-bid Missouri Valley Conference.

Yeah. I like that, too.

It feels like it should happen, right?

I don't think we're going to be surprised when it does.

It should because the high major bubble is weaker this year. Yeah.
Weaker. Yeah.
And it's just like if you ask me who I want to see play and what March is about and the Cinderella stories and all these things, I would rather see Indiana State play than Virginia or no offense to Providence

or Nova.

Colorado. Iowa.
No offense

to these teams, but

they play tough schedule.

They play in big conferences, but I want to see the Cinderella

story. Right now,

if you put the four best mid-majors

up against the four high

majors that are on the bubble,

at largest, I guarantee you the mid-majors will go at least three and one. All right, so give me your top four mid-majors.
Creighton? We just love saying Creighton. Gonzaga? Yeah.
No, I'll go outside the box here and get – so to me, the winner of the Ivy League tournament is going to be among my top mid-majors. I hope if Princeton makes it again, just take them in the first round.

They're going to win a first round game.

I like that.

Okay.

That team is back.

It's not fluky.

Like guys, Mitch Henderson, the job he's done at Princeton is nuts.

It's nuts.

That team is balanced.

They got a guard named Zavian Lee.

When we get off, look up his YouTube highlights or I'll send them to you.

You got to watch this kid play.

He's like a mid-major Curry.

He's got that type of game.

Thank you. You got to watch this kid play.
He's like a mid-major Curry. He's got that type of game.
I'm in on McNeese and Will Wade. I believe in them.
I believe in Shahada Wells. I think that they're capable.
I like the winner of the Mid-American. Yeah, matching can happen in the NCAA tournament.
If Toledo can get there, I'm in on the Rockets. Don't sleep on Enrique Freeman and Akron.
And then UC Irvine and Eaters, really good defensive team, balanced enough to pull off that. You know that 9-57 Thursday night game on TruTV? That's got UC Irvine written all over it.
Okay. I like that.
I'm going to remember those. You mentioned JMU earlier, and I'm a fan of yours, Johnny.
And when you did a report on the scheduling issue, which I think has something to do with Indiana State, and it kind of speaks to the power imbalance in college basketball a little bit. Can you speak on that about just how it's become a thing now where big schools will not schedule a dangerous mid-major? Is there a way to get around this? Well, the way to get around it is that you respect and look at these issues more and more face-to-face.

And if you're not going to be willing to schedule them

from a high-major standpoint,

then if these schools do everything in their power,

then you give them a slot in the NCAA tournament.

That's the only situation where I am okay

with the NCAA tournament expanding. And it can expand for me no more than 76 teams i don't like it to begin with but if you're going to expand i want four mid-majors that have the same issues that jmu has because they deserve it here's the deal there is no way pmc to control it there's no way for us to tell alabama and to tell uconn and to tell Florida and to tell Texas that they need to schedule Indiana State or James Madison.
There's just not. There's no upside for them.
Right. But you know what the upside for us is, guys? And I feel that it's our duty.
And I know a John Rothstein. I know an Andy Katz, people that cover college basketball.
Rico Bosco. Rico Bosco.
Everybody. I'll shout it to the moon and back.
Do not exclude the JMUs of the world, the St. Peters of the world, the Fairleigh Dickensons of the world, the Princens of the world.
Do not exclude them from your tournament. You can change up the college football playoff.
We all agree that it should be adjusted, and it is. And guess what? It's better for college football.
It's going to be more fun, more inclusive. I'm all for it.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. They're trying to fix this NCAA tournament.
It doesn't need any fixing. If you want to add a couple more teams because you got to widen your wallet, I'm not going to sit here and be against you.
The more madness, the better. There is such a thing, though, as diluting your regular season so much that our bubble talk would be teams that are 500.
Do we really want to be doing that this time of year? Don't significantly alter the best postseason in sports. I beg of you, college football people that want to now change up March Madness, stay in your damn lane.
Yes. Get him, Johnny.
Yes. I feel so inspired right now.
I want to salute you. Yeah.
You kind of give me vibes. Remember when Dwight Schrute, like people of the world, unite,

and he did the whole speech?

Blood turns the wheels of history.

That's how I felt right there.

I'm passionate about it.

I don't want to see.

March Madness is the best thing college basketball has going for it.

Yep.

We can't F this up.

Yep.

I agree.

I agree.

All right, so, Johnny, I got one last question for you.

It's a rowback question, RHOBACK.com,-A-C-K.com, promo code TAKE.

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Tell me who is going to be the bubble team from these higher conferences

that's going to be very disappointed come Selection Sunday.

The team that you're looking at, you're like, they don't have it.

I don't care if they go on a little run here.

They're not going to – something in their resume is going to falter. I'm going to go with Texas A&M and Iowa.
They're going to be on the outside looking in of this equation. Iowa has come on here late, but I think you're going to end up with a sad Fran McCaffrey.
They have a really, really important Big Ten tournament game to stay alive. Important Big Ten tournament game.
Iowa-Ohio State in the 7-10. Ohio State, yeah, Mark Titus is listening somewhere, could make the NCAA tournament out of nowhere because if they beat Iowa, guys, after that they have Illinois.
If they beat Illinois, they'd have 21 wins, a win over Illinois on a neutral, a win over Purdue, a win over Alabama, and a win at Michigan State. Could Chris Holtman get fired during the season and Jake Diebler make the NCAA tournament? It is possible, but I do think the Hawkeyes and I think Buzz Williams is going to be an upset buzz on Selection Sunday.
Man, Ohio State's crazy. They've gotten so hot, their season was completely dead, and they're playing great ball right now.
I like those answers, though. Those are good answers.
The one thing we'd say for Iowa, they don't have any bad losses, I don't think. So that helps them.
They're not like a Nova that lost to Penn and Drexel, that kind of thing. You were saying that Iowa State to you feels like they don't have a chance to be in that conversation.
So in NFL terms, if we're watching week 10, 12 of the season, the Miami Dolphins can't beat a good team. We call them frauds.
You're not saying that Iowa State's a fraud, are you? No, I'm not saying that they're a fraud. I think they're a really good Sweet 16 team that has their limitations and their ability to be able to make a Final Four.
Typically, if I say you're a Sweet 16 team, I also believe my argument is there's like 30 sweet 16 caliber teams, 32 sweet 16. You know what I mean? Like there's a lot of teams we say, yeah, they're second week of potential.
Like, like, you know, Rothstein does this all the time. It's like second weekend caliber set.
Well, there's how many teams are there? 45 that are second weekend caliber. That's Mark.
That's March madness. To me, they're in the in-between you know they are they're a good they're a good restaurant they're good for a burger or a sandwich but if you're looking for a medium rare steak i'm not going to go to ames looking for that this particular season i like their team i don't love their team enough to say this is where i'm gonna you know propose to my wife is ulterbergerberger going to stay? He's a good coach.
Yes, because of the contract. It's too big of a buyout.
Got it. It's like an absurd amount of money.
He's a good coach. He's a very good coach.
Yeah, he's done a marvelous job at a place that's not the easiest to win. They have a great fan base, but in the Big 12, they're not top three or four in terms of the total package.
He's made them really consistent, really good defensively. And this year with Taman Lipsy, Keyshawn Gilbert, the supporting cast of guards that they've got, I'm really impressed with the job that he's done.
Milan Monsilovich is one of the better freshmen in America, and he plays for the Iowa State Cyclones. I think you just like saying Milan Monsilovich.
Yeah, that was good. That's a fun one to say.
That was really good. I love saying it.
Johnny Fanta, thank you so much. Everyone tune in.
You'll see him all over Madison Square Garden getting interviews with the guys after the games. I can't wait.
I can't wait. And I'm partnering up with one Jim Calhoun this week.
Oh. What are you doing? He's going to be with me for a lot of those interviews and a lot of those breakdowns.
That's going to be good. I love it.
Tell him we say hello. Tell him we say hello.
I will tell him you said hello. And fun fact, apparently he has not talked with Coach Patino in about a decade.
Oh, yes. Oh, I love it.
I love the rivalry. Grumpy old men.
It's perfect. Fireworks.
Maybe we'll get a dime back. Thanks for having me.
All right. Thanks, Johnny.
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Find your true strain today. And now here's Pete Prisco.
And now for something completely different. Okay.
We now welcome on our very good friend, uh, Pete Prisco. We love Pete.
Pete's our guy. Uh, we wanted to do a quick, I know it's conference championship week, but we want to do a quick NFL free agency talk and see where Pete's head is at maybe even touch a little bit on the draft because he does watch the tape the tape, the tape, the tape that's what he says but Pete, let's start with free agency who has won free agency thus far we're a day and a half in it feels like all the big, big signings have been taken care of who are you like man what their plan is I love it well I'll tell you who won free agency is the running backs yeah and that that goes against everything that I believe in when it comes to team building so but you know they got paid they went off the market quickly and I think it's a reflection of the draft not being very good when it comes to running backs, at least on the surface.
It isn't. I'm still a big believer.
You can find those guys in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh round and be just as good as you would be if you got one in the first round. And we've seen that play out over the course of history.
So I don't think that the draft is that bad when it comes to running back that you have to overreact to this degree. But everybody spent a lot of and guys uh you know kudos to the running backs even though they're really on the surface one or two year deals you still got paid for a year or two i'll tell you who lost nfl free agency was pete prisco because running backs got paid and russell wilson got another job yeah all your all your boys coming up pete well you know what though i've been right about running backs for 20 years and i was right about russell wil Wilson going way back to when he was in Seattle.
Okay. I mean, he had the number one scoring defense in the league for five straight years.
I think it was. And I always say this, the fifties dynasty Browns were the only other team to do that.
It's hard not to win when you have that defense. He was a good quarterback.
He's been a good quarterback. The last couple of years has been a bad quarterback.
All right, so we'll get to Russ, but sticking on running backs, just for one last question, can you rank which running backs moves you liked and which you're like, I don't know what they're thinking? Because we had obviously Josh Jacobs to Green Bay, Saquon to Philly, DeAndre Swift to Chicago, Aaron Jones to the Vikings. Who else? Who am I forgetting? Pollard to the Titans.
Pollard to the Titans. Derrick Henry is talking to the Ravens right now.
Austin Eckler to the Commanders. Yep.
Yeah. The Pollard one to the Titans I didn't get.
I mean, you have a third down back, kind of a quick guy in Spears that you can use him in that kind of thing. I don't think Pollard's that much of a changeup back.
He wasn't good last year. That one surprised me a little bit.
I didn't think that, you know, when you hear what happened with the Aaron Jones situation, he had a giant cap number. He wasn't going to come off of it that much.
So you understand why they did that. But is Josh Jacobs a better back for the Packers offense than Aaron Jones is? And the answer to that question is no.
Yeah, I agree. I agree.
That one was a little weird to me because, you know, Josh Jacobs has had some good seasons, but Aaron Jones is younger, I believe. I think they're the same age.
Oh, they're the same age? Yeah, I think they're the same age, but Aaron Jones is like the centerpiece of that locker room. Like everybody respects Aaron Jones and Green Bay.
Oh, I think actually Josh Jacobs is younger. That's my fault.
Yeah, he's younger. I was getting my Packer hate.
Yeah, and Aaron Jones can split out, and Jacobs is okay in the passing game, but he's not what Aaron Jones can bring to an offense. Let's be real.
They're going to build that thing around love and the receivers. They have all those receivers and tight ends.
They're going to build it around them. I think Jones was a better fit for their offense, but if he wouldn't come off that number, I understand a little bit.
But Jones is a better player. Yeah.
Another guy that lost free agency was Joe Mixon because the Bengals waited until after every running back was signed to cut Joe Mixon. That was kind of a weird move.
Is there something personal there behind the scenes? Because you would think that you would give him an opportunity to have a go at it beforehand, right? Well, he's going to end up in Houston, isn't he? I think that's the latest. He's going to end up with the Texans, which I think is a good situation for him.
I mean, look, if you're going to get released by the Bengals, you go to the Texans, you play behind C.J. Stroud, and you want to be behind a good quarterback.
You want to be able to have a threat to throw the football when you run it. So i think that would be a good opportunity for so so pete you but yeah they they kind of handled it poorly but remember they've asked him a couple different times that about taking a pay cut i think he's balked a little bit yeah i would too though if somebody was just like hey can you do the same job for less money i'd probably be like uh can you send me to texas where there's no state income tax that might that's a good compromise me.
Austin Eckler to the Commanders. I've watched every Chargers game last year, but I don't watch the tape like you, Pete.
So you watch the tape on Austin Eckler. Streets are saying he might be a little bit slower.
He might have lost a step. I still think he's pretty good catching the ball at the backfield.
Is this a good signing or a bad signing for the commies? No, I think it's a good signing. He can still catch the ball out of the backfield.
He can still get you. He's not going to carry it 15 times, 20 times between the tackles, I don't think, anymore.
But you don't ask him to do that. You're going to get him in the passing game.
Particularly if you have a young quarterback, you want to have a threat out of the backfield who can catch the football, and they're obviously going to have a young quarterback. So I think that makes sense from that standpoint.
Is he the same runner he was a couple of years ago? Probably not. But backs have a tendency as you get older, they start slowing down.
And what you have to do is hope they don't go off the cliff. Because we've seen backs, they get to that point and they go, oh, they're slowing down.
And then they go right off the cliff. Yeah, they get blown out.
Yeah. Right.
Yeah. So you hope that's not the case.
He might have a year or two left in him. Okay.
So there was the one Austin Eckler thing. There was a guy who tweeted out like Austin Eckler highlights.
Maybe it was like a month ago being like, this guy's still different. And it was all his highlights.
And then the lower bar had obviously the scores happening that day and one of the notes was like kirk cousins uh 17 for 22 for the washington redskins yeah and it was like shit still got it that was a long time ago still got it man you know what's gonna be nice though like i can't remember the last time that we had a running back that was you know even discussed being drafted in the first two three rounds of fantasy. So that's kind of cool.
Yeah. Like perennial first rounder.
And again, if you're going to have a quarterback who's a rookie possibly starting, probably starting, then you want to have your outlets. Get the ball to the back, out of the back.
That's the easiest throw for the guy to make. Check it down.
Let him get out in space. I think that makes a ton of sense for Washington.
I really do one signing i thought was was really good much to my dismay and chagrin was uh saquon barkley to the eagles saquon's dead to tiki barber he's excommunicated um i think it's a perfect fit i think that this is it's a good fit for the eagles dream team back on yeah i wouldn't go that far i mean look like Saquon Barkley. I think he's a really good player.
And he's been really limited by what he's had around them because teams load up against the box. I mean, the quarterback in the passing game wasn't very good.
The receivers don't really scare down the field when you were at the Giants. So, yeah, he's a good back.
He can do a lot of things. But look at the Eagles' defense.
I mean, are you better off spending money on that side of the ball that defense was horrible at the end of last year and that's where the problems are so yes you're adding a good piece to the offense but I would have I think they would have been better off spending money on the defensive side of the ball and spending money on a back isn't usually what they do yeah that's why it's so out of character for him yeah Yeah. All right, so the other big signing, which will start a domino effect, is Kirk Cousins to the Falcons.
I'm very curious what your thoughts are because I like the move and the fact – well, congrats, Kirk Cousins. He got paid over $400 million in his career.
It's incredible. I like the move and the fact that Falcons will be competitive and competent now, and they have all these guys on rookie deals, the skill position guys.

But is there not a belief that you're now setting yourself up,

if you're the Falcons, Kirk Cousins is a good quarterback,

he's good enough that you'll never be so bad that you're in the top of the draft,

and you're kind of kicking the can down the road with trying to find a franchise quarterback?

Bingo.

And like I said on our stuff yesterday, I said,

Thank you. and you're kind of kicking the can down the road with trying to find a franchise quarterback.
Bingo. And like I said on our stuff yesterday, I said, well, the good news is he won't have to be playing in a lot of big games in Atlanta because we know how he's played those games in his career.
Not very well. He's won a lot of games.
He's put up a lot of yards. But when it comes time in the crunch time and his track record shows it, he hasn't been great.
And that's the concern with Kirk Cousins. He was my number one free agent.
He should have been any team that was quarterback needy, which the Falcons are, you have to go get them. He's going to be a good quarterback for them.
But does he put them over the top? Like you said, right. If you're going to go pay that kind of money to a quarterback, you want sustainable success, a, or you want to win a Superbowl in the short term.
And can he do that with that roster? I don't think he can. I don't right now.
And by the way, I still think Tampa Bay is better than them right now in the division. Wow.
Yeah, and it does. I mean, it's a really tough – whenever you get the middle class of quarterbacks, it's just a tough decision to make where it's like Kirk Cousins is a very good quarterback in in the fact that like he is he he will give you he will not get injured obviously got injured this year you will win games he's he's somewhere in that 10 to 15 range better than half over half the league but can he win a super bowl and if he can't what is the long-term play here well and you know you talk about paying a quarterback it when you look at what happened to Miami the last week and a half that team has been picked to shreds in large part because they're in cap hell but they're also readying to pay their quarterback right and it's one of that that's one of those guys you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't you almost have to pay him but what happened where does he take you does he take you into the you're contending every year like mahomes and allen and those guys do i don't know if he does i don't think he does and he hasn't shown up in the big moments in certain games either and so that's a concern but you're right there's only a certain amount of guys where you pay him and you know you're going to be around for the next decade they're going to keep you there that.
Kirk Cousins isn't that, and I don't think Tua is that. Good news for the Falcons.
They had the fewest amount of primetime games last year with zero. That's good.
They didn't play in primetime. That might have been something Kirk circled on his pro and con list when he was deciding where to go.
But you guys are absolutely right. $400 million.
He's the biggest winner winner of them all he's the greatest football player for what he's done he's 400 million dollars god bless him yeah congrats to him like he's a really good guy and if they're gonna pay you they're gonna pay you yeah he played he played the system perfectly the way that it happened so he was what a fourth round draft pick and then he got tagged twice in dc so that's some guaranteed big money right there for just two seasons. Then he goes to Minnesota, gets guaranteed, gets another guaranteed contract.
Now he's going to Atlanta. He has worked the system perfectly for a slightly above-average quarterback that's a good guy to hang out with.
That's his maximum value. Rick Spielman works with us, and every Sunday we're in there, and every time we see we see him i go you gave him that much guaranteed money what the hell were you thinking what were you thinking yeah but it's crazy i mean he's been a good quarterback for them but was he ever like you said is he ever a great quarterback and the answer to that question is no so wait so kirk is gone uh russell wilson to the steelers you saw obviously jamameis Winston, who we think was the number one free agent signing to the Browns.

What does the rest of the QB carousel look like?

Specifically, like, Bears Twitter is going nuts because we can't figure it out. I think it's a mistake if they keep Justin Fields past the draft and have Caleb Williams have to walk into a locker room and see Justin Fields there.

But where's he going to go?

obviously we've overrated his

Thank you. Justin Fields past the draft and have Caleb Williams have to walk into a locker room and see Justin Fields there.

But where's he going to go?

Obviously, we've overrated his value.

So what is it going to be and is it going to happen?

I think it'll happen.

It's a matter of what they want to get for him now.

There's no market there.

I mean, they signed Gardner Minshew.

The Raiders paid Gardner Minshew rather than making a move to go get Justin Fields. That should speak volumes about what the league thinks about Justin Fields.
I think, you know, it'd be a good option for him. Maybe like go become a backup somewhere like in Indianapolis.
You know, Minshew's out of there. You have a mobile quarterback that's there that's going to, but he was hurt last year and he's had some injury issues.
So why not go there, there learn that offense and maybe that'll be something that'll help rejuvenate you and show people you can play in that offense if you do indeed get on the field play and then maybe you get another opportunity i i don't think right now there's a starting job for him i thought atlanta was a possibility if they didn't get cousins but where's an opportunity for him to start right now it's the contract too because you because you get him, and then you've got to figure out if you want to pick up the fifth-year deal. Do you think that the Bears will trade him, though, before they draft Kale Williams? Because it does feel like it's a ticking time bomb if you say, hey, we're going to just try to hold on to him and get better value in the season.
That feels like a recipe for some bad locker room vibes. Or you hold on to them until somebody has an injury in training camp and wants to get desperate for a quarterback and you know that happened to the vikings back in the day remember when bridgewater went down they gave up a first round pick for sam bradford which you know turned out to be a disaster but uh so teams get desperate maybe you hold on to them that way and then you hope they they can coexist if they're there together.
And now, whether they can, who knows? You're right. It could have factions in the locker room that think Fields is better, factions in the locker room that want Williams.
He can cause problems that way. But that's where coaches and everybody else come into play.
You've got to be able to handle that. Yeah.
I mean, I could see the logic that keeping him until training camp because you're gonna you're probably going to increase your trade value from like a fourth to a second round pick maybe if you hang on to him that long it's just a matter of how do you handle having an established guy that the locker room has gravitated towards to in the past while bringing in a new guy like is a new guy going to be set back because of that yeah Yeah. I mean, Caleb Williams is clearly going to be the pick now.
You know, that that's quite obvious. And should he be? Probably.
I mean, you know, he's got there's a lot of things to like about him. And if you're a Bears fan, you should be excited.
There's also some concerns about him. I mean, you know, he doesn't throw on time all the time in rhythm all the time.
You know, he's got the wow play wow play down. I take steep drops.
Um, you know, and then he cried after a game, which is never, of course, Pete doesn't like that. You don't like his fingernails either.
I don't care about the, I don't care about the fingernails. I don't, that doesn't bother me one bit.
I just don't think you should ever cry after losing a football game. And by the way, if there was, if there was a death in the family or something that week, I apologize.
But if there was not, you were crying over the football game. Bad luck.
Okay. I think it's always appropriate to cry after a loss and during the national anthem.
I mean, maybe during the national anthem, if you get emotional over something, okay, maybe there was something that went on in your life. I don't mind that.
But after a loss, there's no way you cry after a loss. It means he cares.
Crying over football. No, it doesn't.
Yeah, it does. No, I'm crying over football.
No, it doesn't. It means you're – okay, then why doesn't the rest of the team cry? They don't care? They probably do.
I bet you a lot of guys cry privately without you realizing it. When you were shooting – Yeah, if I have a bad gambling day, like a really bad one, I'll do a little tear in the shower.
When you were shooting those free throws all over the place and couldn't get the streak going that day, did you cry afterward? I was close to crying. If I had missed 39 and 40 that last time, I 100% would have cried cried but that would have been more out of exhaustion because we were up for like 24 hours you know there's no way i i can i can tell you with 100 certainty i from even when i was a kid i didn't cry over losing he's a strong italian man listen i this is why we love having you on because you always give us at least one of these while we're talking about caleb Caleb Williams, can you rank your quarterbacks, the six guys that are going to most likely be drafted in the first two rounds? Yes, and I got more work to do on them, but my preliminary ranking is I think Jaden Daniels will be the best of them.
Oh, this hurts. He's the most improved player I've ever seen in my entire life.
Wow. Most improved.
And, you know, I'm a Sun Devil. I watched him at Arizona State.
One very good. And now what he can do with the ball is his ball placement, his accuracy, his ability to run.
I mean, he can run, too. That's the other thing.
So I'd probably rank him slightly. They're close.
Him and Caleb Williams, one and two. Then Drake May.
And then I don't love J.J. McCarthy.
I don't see it. I just don't see it.
I think he's – I'd take him in the second round, but he's going to get drafted in the top ten. I don't see that.
Then I'd probably go Penix right in there with him. And a guy I like is Pratt from Tulane in the third round.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think he's one of those guys you got down the line guys.
You might end up getting a good quality starter out of that. Pete, I just looked it up.
Tom Brady's cried several times after football games. Not a winner.
Did he? Not a winner. I didn't say he wasn't a winner.
I didn't say he wasn't a winner. It's just Pete doesn't like it.
That's okay. Yeah, you can do that.
Yeah. I mean, it's – I mean, when did Brady cry? What games did he cry after? After the Super Bowl, after the Eagles Super Bowl, he cried.
He's at the podium right now. I'm watching this video after a Steelers loss.
It looks like when he was on the Buccaneers, they lost to the Steelers, and he was getting teary-eyed at the podium. Oh.
Yeah, I don't like that either. Okay.
Oh, yes, Tom Brady got bust. Yeah.
Like I always tell guys, if the worst thing that ever happens to you in your damn life is you lost a football game, you had a hell of a life. All right.
That's good perspective. That's good perspective.
I have a question about J.J. McCarthy real quick, Pete.
How are war rooms deciphering J.J. McCarthy? Because you have these competing things where it's like he wasn't asked

to do a lot but what he did was good but can he do more we never saw it in college that's really

what the the crux of the argument is so how are guys like analyzing it and seeing okay this is

what he could do or we've seen all of it and there's not much more there yeah and again when

you evaluate him there are games he stands in the pocket when he does make the throws and there's

nobody near him. I mean, the offensive line was

Thank you. and there's not much more there.
Yeah, and again, when you evaluate him, there are games he stands in the pocket when he does make the throws and there's nobody near him. I mean, the offensive line was good in protection and nobody near him.
So it's hard to evaluate that. But I think you're trying to take the skill set and translate it to the next level.
There's a lot to like. He doesn't have a great arm.
He has a pretty good arm. He can move, but he's not like Jaden Daniel daniels so there are some things there i just don't i think we're the the league you know what i think the league is guilty of and just like the twitter media and the colts and i call them the draft cult one says it so two says it so four say it then eight say it in the nfl a guy will talk to a guy go hey i really like that mccarthy guy well i watched him i didn't.
I didn't like him. But let me go back and watch him.
Hey, now I like him. I saw what you see.
And then he tells him, and then he tells him, oh, look at J.J. McCarthy.
All of a sudden, they all convinced themselves that he should be a high first-round pick, and that's how mistakes get made. Do you think maybe there's a GM out there that's saying that because he knows that, and so he's going to just be like, hey, J.J.
McCarthy, pretty good, parrot that and repeat it knowing that jj mccarthy is actually not that good yes it's lying season everybody lies to trying but but you know guys you trust and and there are people in the league that trust each other they could go on that i i there are too many guys that i talk to that kind of when i they go they're forcing this up up a little bit and we've seen it play out over the course of the recent drafts. Look at all the quarterbacks from the Trevor Lawrence draft.

They're all, they're all nowhere now.

So I think you got to be careful with that.

Do your own work, do your own evaluation.

If you like them, you like them.

If you don't, don't listen to anybody else.

Yeah, Pete, there's another quarterback that's in the news today.

Josh Allen restructured his deal.

He got just, I guess, all the money up front.

I don't really understand how that works. Great guy.
You are, You're an Italian, so you're an expert in money laundering. How does that work in terms of converting all that money that you will owe him into a signing? But why don't they just do that every year with every quarterback? You're stereotyping the Italian man, aren't you? I'm 2% Sicilian.
I can say it. No.
So what you do is you give them the boat, you make it bonus money so you get it right now and then spread it over the course of the contract and add on years. That's how you make it less of a captain.
It's great for the player because you put it in your pocket right now. It's a great thing.
It's funny how that got framed. It's like, thank you, Josh, for restructuring your deal.
It's like, no, that's good for him. That's great for him.

It's great for him. By the way, there's an exhibit

A on what the

Twitter draft

cult and the NFL can do

to a player. They all

killed that kid for years, and nobody

would ever come off of it. Even during

a draft process, if I remember back to that,

it was criminal what they did to him.

Yep, not us. We're on the right side of history.
Not me. Not you.
It feels good to be right, Pete. It does.
It does feel good because I've had many wrong ones, so I'll be right. I'll take that one.
So you always grade free agent signings. You always say, like, okay, this is the best deal.
This is the best player, most impact, most improved team. What would you say is the one player that you like to sign the most? And then two, which team got better? Which team do you think led the league in improving themselves so far? Well, that's a good question.
Let me, let me, okay. I think, I think the Vikings, the Vikings defense really improved itself and they're going to have to, because they're going to have to win games because Sam Darnold is going to be their quarterback, it looks like, unless they go up and get J.J.
McCarthy. So I think adding Jonathan Grenard is a good signing for them.
Adding Van Ginkle, who's a heck of a football player, has the same hairstyle as you, by the way. You like that.
And then they also added Blake Cashman. With what Fl do with those guys they're in they can do a lot of different things i think they had a good good free agency class on that side of the ball now you lost your quarterback so it kind of negates that a little bit obviously because the quarterback is so valuable uh as far as individual signings uh let me think off top i'm trying to think i see you know me i'm not going to put a running back signing up there.
I like what. Go ahead.
I was going to say I like Christian Wilkins to the Raiders because I think that defensive line is going to be ferocious now with Max Crosby. Put another dude on that line.
And you know what? Everybody doubles Max Crosby, and now if you put Wilkins next to him, you can't double as much. And you're right.
That's a really good sign. I also like teams that went out and bolstered their offensive line.
And I'll give you an example. The Tennessee Titans had been awful on the offensive line.
Will Nevis got abused. He got abused last year.
Getting Cushenberry to play center for them is big for them. It really is.
Now they can draft the left tackle in the first round, and all of a sudden you have a left side with Skaronski and the left tackle. All of a sudden you've got themselves a much improved offensive line, and you've got to build it around that quarterback.
So I think that's a good signing. I think Carolina getting their guards.
I mean, they paid a lot of money for the guards, but you have a little quarterback. You can't have pressure on the inside with a little quarterback.
Now, since you brought up Carolina, they just did it again. They just keep making the worst deals ever.
The fact that they traded Brian Burns for what? A second-round pick? Maybe a second and a fifth or something? It was a two and a five. But it was a swap of the fifth.
Yeah, it's also what the Giants got for Leonard Williams. Yeah.
So it's kind of like they ended up with Brian Burns over Leonard Williams for the same draft compensation. But the craziest part about this is Brian Burns, the Rams were ready to offer two first-rounders, what, a year and a half ago? And they said no on a season that went nowhere.
They just keep doing this. It's insane.
Well, this one is on them now. The other ones were on the last regime.
So you can't really blame Dan Morgan and gang for that. This was one of those situations where if you, if they're okay, let's look at it from the Ram standpoint, if you were really going to give two first round picks away for Brian Burns, that would have been a terrible trade anyways.
I mean, you turned it down if you're Carolina, but if the Rams were going to do that, that would have been a bad trade because you've got to ultimately pay him too. Anytime you trade and pay first round, if you trade a first round pick and you pay a guy, that's where you run into problems because you're giving away cheap assets and players that you build your team around.
For a guy, you're going to have to pay a mega contract. And so I always think that's too risky.
I mean, all you got to do is look at the Russell Wilson deal. How'd that work out? Yeah.
So, Russell Wilson, do you think Russell Wilson is going to play, is going to win the starting job in Pittsburgh? It's going to be a competition. I'm not going to sit here and say he's just going to win it.
I think he's been bad the last couple of years. I really do.
His whole game was predicated on getting outside the pocket and making plays. He wasn't as quick.
He wasn't as elusive. He wasn't as one of those guys that could make those plays.
He leaves so many pockets. Talking to people in Denver, it was so frustrating because he would have clean pockets at times and never step up.
He just leaves or take a sack. And you can put on a tape and watch boatloads of plays like that where I could see where it would frustrate anybody.
So I'm not going to sit here. I'm not one that everybody sits here and says, oh, Russell Wilson is going to put the Steelers in the playoffs.
No, I think he's going to have a quarterback competition with Pickett. And that tells you where Russell Wilson is as a player.
It also Russell Wilson doesn't realize realize this. Obviously, it wasn't what he thought when signing.
But the idea of Russell Wilson starting 17 games for the Pittsburgh Steelers and being the guy who breaks Mike Tomlin's over 500 streak would be – I mean, talk about like the final nail in the coffin in terms of your reputation. Because Tomlin's done it with all these guys, you know, old Big Ben and everything.

Yeah.

Brutal division when you think about it.

The Ravens, we know what they have.

Joe Burrow back, you know what they are.

And then you have the Browns who are a playoff team,

and they're going to get Watson back.

So, no, that's tough to do, even if Russell Wilson is the starting quarterback.

That's going to be a challenge for them.

Yeah.

I don't know if Russ is going to be able to hold up to Mike Tomlin's coaching.

Like, he did not get along with Sean Payton.

He kind of needs to be a challenge for them. I don't know if Russ is going to be able to hold up to Mike Tomlitt's coaching.
He did not get along with Sean Payton. He kind of needs a guy that's friendly to him.
He needs to pat him on the back, all positive energy. I don't know that Mike's going to be that guy.
I would not pencil in Russ Wilson as the starting quarterback just yet. That's what I'm getting at.
Has Russ Wilson ever left the team where everybody was just angry that he left? NC State. Yeah.
That's a good answer. But the NFL, has that ever happened? I mean, when he left Seattle, you didn't hear any people all upset about it.
Then when he left Denver, they didn't care. I mean, he's not a great teammate.
You hear the stories. He's not a great teammate.
Counterpoint, though, when he announced that he was going to Pittsburgh, his tweet that he put out was just the Renegade song. So he gets it.
He's bought in. That was sick.
And the Steelers love the Renegade song, and everybody's taking it and running with it all over the country now. You ever see that in any college football in high school? They play it all the time now.
Yeah, it gets people going for sure. So, all right.
So back to Kirk Cousins real quick, though, because I wanted to kind of dispute one thing that you said. I actually think that this is a great signing by the Falcons because Kirk Cousins going to Atlanta, the expectation is not the Super Bowl.
They had a quarterback for the past two seasons that he would take way too many chances with the ball, right? The knock against Kirk Cousins is he doesn't take chances at all sometimes even when maybe he should. But with the dynamic playmakers that they have, having a safe quarterback I do think makes them the favorite to win that division.
I think that they're like a top three, top four team in the NFC right now just because he is safe. He is that very, very – he's like Matt Ryan Light where you can put him back there.
He's not going to turn the ball over 20 times in a year. He's not going to fumble on the goal line twice in a game.
There's a lot of games that the Falcons could have won last year if they just had a guy that was competent. And I think if there's one thing you could say about Kirk Cousins, he's exceedingly competent.
Yes, he's definitely competent. I just think Tampa's better.
I just think they're a better football team. The offensive line in Atlanta, pretty good.
You know, Robinson can run it, so that's pretty good. Pitts is a guy that's come close to living up to the expectations.
Drake London, maybe now with Kirk Cousins, he'll be better. But what about the defense? Who's the pass rushers on that defense? They don't have any real threats as pass rushers, and that's always a concern.
So, look, they'll be in the mix to win the division. It's going to be close, just like it was last year.
I don't think anybody's winning 11 games in that division. Do you? I don't.
I think the Falcons can win 11 games. Yeah, I do.
Oh, I don't. I don't.
You want to bet? Yeah. Well, yeah.
We'll bet your liquor bottle you walk around with in your pocket. A bottle of Mad Dog.
Yeah. Yeah, there you go.
You have to chug a bottle of Mad Dog at the Super Bowl next year. I'm not chugging a bottle of Mad Dog.
There's no conceivable way I'm chugging a bottle of Mad Dog. You can do it.
You have to finish a bottle of Mad Dog.

No, I'm not making that bet.

I'll buy you one. How about that? Okay, deal.

11 games?

11 games is a lot, PFT.

I think the Falcons can win 11 games next year, yes.

A lot of games.

There's a lot of games.

Listen, I like Kirk.

I like the fit there.

You do make a good point about the NFC, though. When you compare it to the AFC and the NFC, the NFC, there aren't a lot of great teams in the NFC.
The quarterbacks are all in the AFC. The NFC is, if you got hot at the right time, you might be able to win the NFC.
You make a lot of good points. I'm looking at their schedule real quick.
They the AFC West it looks like no they just have the the Broncos that's that's the one okay oh no they do they do no they do play the AFC West so they have the Chiefs Chargers Raiders Saints or sorry Raiders Broncos um yeah I don't know 11 games a lot of games it's a lot of games 11 games a lot of games games That's a lot of wins for that team Even inside the division The Saints are always a good game with them The Bucs are going to be good I'm going to step in here I think PFT you should just wait a second on this Because this is your Kirk Cousins I'm caught up Kirk Cousins disease He is I've got the opposite of Kirk derangement syndrome. I've got like Kirk excitement syndrome.
Maybe 10 is where you want to do this bet. 10 and a half.
No, he made 11. No, that's 11.
I know. We compromised.
All right, so Pete, last question, rowback question, RHOBACK.com, promo code. Take 20% off your first purchase.
Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. We should have mentioned the Texans have been – I think the Texans have made some good defensive additions.
Even the Lions made some good defensive additions. But I have to ask because you're here.
You're Jacksonville Jaguars. I like the Mitch Moore signing.
I like the Gabe Davis signing. What do you think? Have we looked at their – are they a Super Bowl team again next year? No, no, they're not.
And the Mac Jones, you got Mac Jones. Yeah, look, last year was a disaster, by the way, and in large part for a bunch of reasons, one being the center.
Thankfully, they replaced him. Mitch Morse can actually move people.
They'll be protected on the inside better. That's good because Trevor Lawrence couldn't step up.
He started getting out of there. I think getting Gabe Davis gives them a deep threat down the field, which they need.
They'd like to keep Ridley. If they could keep Ridley, then I think Zay Jones might be out.
Then you'd have Ridley, Kirk, and Gabe Davis, I think, which would be good for them. Defensively, adding the corner, I think makes sense.
And Darby, not a great player, but didn't cost them a lot of money. They got to get better on the interior of their defensive line.
That's one of their priorities has to be that. And so I think they'll be good.
They'll be better next year. You know, they had a winning season.
They won, what, nine games, and they weren't that good at the end of the year. So I think they can still push to win that division.
But texans have the best quarterback in the division now there's no doubt about that yeah all right credit to us we've gone this entire time talking about the nfl we haven't mentioned hanks dallas cowboys once that's got to be a record for any segment they've ever done but it feels like they haven't done anything right they haven't done anything i mean and and look sometimes you can wait in free agency and get some bargains down the road i mean if, if you look at free agency over the course of history, everybody gets excited about these guys. And most of them are gone in two years.
And so I think you can get some bargains there. But Dallas needs to get better against the run.
I mean, that's, you know, number one priority. They have to be able to stop the run.
They were getting gashed at the end of last year. And so I think that's something you got to keep an eye on.
Do they bring in a linebacker or two and maybe get big guy on the defensive line? They have to. All right.
Well, Pete, thank you as always. You make time for us.
We love having you on. Men shouldn't cry after football games.
What about fans? Are fans allowed to cry after football games? I'm expecting you guys to throw that on a T-shirt soon and you'll be selling those. Men don't cry.
Boys don't cry. Wait, can you cry if you're a fan?

No.

We have a guy that works with us.

He does some stuff with us, and he's a big Eagles fan, and when they

won that Super Bowl, he had

video of himself bawling.

No. Wait, you can't cry

over a Super Bowl win? When are men allowed

to cry in your mind, Pete?

When bad things happen in your life. Losing a Super Bowl is not a bad thing it's a football game what about your wedding are you allowed to cry at your wedding yeah you could cry at your wedding I didn't but you can cry at your wedding what about what about when uh what about when Michael has to kill Fredo that was sad that was sad yeah because you know what you know when you watch like that, you put yourself in that situation.
Yeah, the Italians. All right, we found a place.
I'm going to kill your brother. Godfather's the only time men can cry.
I like that. Yeah, right? Well, you put yourself in that situation.
Can I kill my brother Richie? Let me see. Do I have to put him down? Yeah.
You had to. All right.
What about when Bobby Bacala gets shot in the toy train shop? That was sad. Yeah, that was sad.
But, you know, sometimes you understand why things have to be done. Things have to be done.
Oh, Calvin Ridley's a patriot. This is breaking moves.
Oh, wow. So there you go.
Yeah. So they don't.
So everything you just said, throw it out. They wanted him.
It was just a matter of whether they would go to his price, and I guess they got near it. Oh, wait, no.
I'm reading it wrong. New England is pushing to sign free agent Calvin Ridley, but sources believe that he currently prefers to return to Jacksonville and he's been discussing a deal with Jaguars.
That wasn't phone-worthy, Jake. That was – By the way – Because I read it and I was like, oh, he's a patriot.
He just wants to stay in Jacksonville. Well, here's why he wants to stay in Jacksonville.
Let me tell you. He had trouble learning the offense last year, and so he doesn't really want to go somewhere else and have to learn another one.
Got it. That was serious.
He even said that. It's very relatable.
I'm not going to blame Jake. That was a Schefter dupe.
Schefter tweeting basically that Calvin Ridley hasn't gone anywhere but put the name Patriots in there. That's a weird tweet by Schefter.

He's duped us all.

Well, the Patriots are trying to get him.

Right.

But that was –

Schefter knows that people have notifications set on their phone for him.

So a lot of times he'll bury the actual story behind the dot, dot, dot.

And we got dot, dot, dotted by Schefter.

We got dot, dot, dotted.

Yeah.

We got dot, dot, dotted.

All right.

Well, Pete, thank you as always. We got to see you soon.
We miss you. All right.
Yeah. I thought I'd see you guys at the Super Bowl or something, but I didn't even see it.
What did you do in Vegas? What was the Pete Prisco Lounge? We were at the Bellagio. You were at the White Rhino all week.
I saw your office. Spearman Rhino.
Spearman Rhino. White Rhino.
You guys were there. You had VIP.

You had throwing money around with a little gun shooting the hundreds out into the crowd.

I know how you guys operate.

We should go to a strip club with Pete.

Peter, you a strip club guy?

No way.

I haven't been in a long time.

I mean, a Florida guy. I assume everyone from Florida was like, that's where you get christened in a strip club.

He's a brothel guy.

No.

Back in the day, we used to go to strip joints all the time down here i mean there was a wild wild west back in the day i'm a married man now i don't go to strip joints i was i was down in florida uh like a month ago and my buddy was like yeah we we shouldn't go to a strip club while we're down here because it's not nude apparently you you have to wear pasties down in Florida. Is that true?

It depends on, no, it depends on where you're at.

So, okay.

That's not true.

That's a regional one.

Yeah.

No, that's not true.

Some of them, yes.

Some of them, no.

What city were you in?

Just south of Jacksonville.

I was in Ponte Vedra.

Yeah, well, yeah.

Jacksonville, yeah, that's true.

That's exactly right.

What were you doing in Ponte Vedra?

Look at you, highfalutin in Ponte Vedra. Wow.
I was drilling the 17th green at Sawgrass is what I was doing. And what'd you do? I got two.
I got a birdie. You got a birdie.
You know, I did that once. I got a birdie on there.
It was being filmed. Oh, that ruins the entire thing.
No. We're editing this.
Yeah. Pete Prisco and PFT Commenter, two heavy hitters in the golf world.

I hit like three.

It was like for a thing we filmed for TV.

I put it right next to the pin, made the birdie, and then we played a round.

After we went around, I got to the 17th and plunked about four of them, I think,

in the war where nobody was watching.

That's fine.

No, no, you got a birdie.

We both got birdies, two great golfers.

Yeah, I got a birdie.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I'm not a good golfer, but I did birdie that all yeah are you good no i'm terrible no we're not good horrendous no yeah this guy takes lessons this guy takes lessons like twice a week i've seen him who are you talking about you me i've never taken a lesson in my life i'm not gonna let another man i don't do anything i'm not gonna let another man teach me how to swing a golf club hank you're thinking of hank hank yeah I'm going to take lessons because I'm getting going to let another man teach me how to swing a golf club. Hank, you're thinking of Hank.
Hank takes lessons. I'm going to take lessons because I'm getting frustrated with my game, so I'm going to take lessons.
Yeah, it won't fix anything. You'll still suck.
No, I got – you know what stinks about the game is if you don't start playing until you're older, you're never going to be really, really good at it. Did you play as a kid? Did either of you play as a kid? No.
Oh, we got Derek Henry to the Ravens. How much was the money? $20 million, including $9 million fully guaranteed in the first year.
So it's probably a one-year deal for $9 million. Yeah.
That's a good, decent deal for them. Yeah.
I like that for them. But the problem is, will they run the ball? You have the running back.
You've got to actually run the ball. I agree.
I agree. But also, he started breaking down a little bit the last couple of years.
He doesn't have the same pop he has a couple of years ago. I'm concerned with the speed in which Adam Schefter has these Photoshop ready to go.
We were talking about it the other day. He probably has Derek Henry in three different uniforms just in case, and then he tells them which one to put in his tweet, right? Or he knows it's coming and just puts it out and waits for it.
So he's saying that there's tampering that happens before the legal tampering. You kidding me? Back in the day, remember when the Pro Bowl used to be in January in Hawaii, the whole thing, every age of the world went out there and tampered the whole in Hawaii.
It was, they had deals done in January. Are you kidding me? I just love the idea that the NFL was like, okay, you guys tamper so much, we'll make it legal to tamper, but there's still tampering that happens well before that.
All these deals are done and the pre-agency period hasn't even started. Yeah, it's crazy.
Alright, Pete. Thanks so much, man.
We'll talk to you soon. Pete Prisco is brought to you by Proper 12 Irish Whiskey.
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Okay, let's wrap up.

We got guys on chicks. Henry, read it.
Hey, Big Cat, PFT, Hank, Jake, Memes, Pug, and Burrito Boy. What are your thoughts on how common it is for women to get Botox slash filler slash plastic surgery nowadays? I am 26 years old, and I'm one of the only ones out of my friends who has not gotten a lip fill or some kind of injection yet.
Do guys like the big fake lips? And what plastic surgery Botox injection would you guys all get done to yourselves if you could? Is this Kate Middleton? Might be. She's dead.
Yeah. She's getting divorced, actually.
The woman that is cheating on Prince William? Prince William. It's the most British title of all time.
Yeah, so here's her title. Lady Rose.
She's Lady Rose Hanbury, Marchioness of Colmondele. Yeah, and if you look her up, she looks like the ultimate mistress.
She looks so prissy. And the article that they wrote yesterday about her, which was very clearly planted by somebody who's in the know about this, made several references to the fact that her husband is very old.
Yep. And that she lives right down the street from the royal family.
Yep. Lady Rose Hanbury.
The question is, is it okay to get plastic surgery? Thoughts. Okay.
Go for it. Yeah.
I think lip fillers are similar to my chapstick take. It's like once you get it and then you get addicted to it then you always need it and it's a dangerous dangerous path to go down i am really bad at noticing any type of plastic surgery or anything and that's so if i can notice it then it's too much you know what i mean like i think a lot of girls do this they get the botox to get the lip fillers i don't even know i can't tell any of that shit but if you're walking around and your face looks like wax then yeah that's probably a problem so there's in limits and if i could get it i don't know what would you guys get what plastic surgery would you guys get done to yourselves if you could liposuction i get an implant where your ass chin implant oh yeah rock you should do it into it.
I don't know if it's a chin implant. Wouldn't they have to just break your jaw and then reconstruct it? I don't know.
It can be done. I'm just not that self-conscious.
I'd get a breast reduction. For sure.
I would get calf implants. You remember that guy on True Life? What about the, you can grow.
They can give you five inches.

Yeah, so.

Break your legs.

Yeah, so when that news article came out,

I got tagged a million times and it thanks everyone.

But yeah, they can give you five inches of height,

but they break both your shins.

And then every couple weeks,

they just unscrew your bones further and further apart.

Oh my God.

And then your bone heals in between and you grow. Yeah, I probably do that i'd probably be able to dunk before hank yeah it's like a two-year recovery time i'm dunking you're ready and ready to go in no time hey gang my boyfriend and i just moved in together and sharing a bathroom has already become a huge problem he constantly misses the toilet and the And the next time I walk in drops of piss are always on the seat.
I'm always the one who has to clean it up and I'm tired of it. He says that he is trying to execute the silent piss.
Do all guys try to pee as quiet and as hard as possible? Should I be concerned? Yeah. I'm a huge silent pisser.
Yeah. You got to piss on the, on the toilet, like the, the rim without hitting the water unless i have to pee really bad and then i like to feel the power yeah hear the power the first couple seconds and you're like wow that's like a jet engine on my day yeah uh you could do what i do with my son just put a cheerio in there and be like hit the cheerio that's good target practice so easy i always used to try and hit the x in the urinals in school and then pops back up splashes yeah there's there's a couple moves you can do that probably lead themselves to to sprinkling on the seat a little bit one is like what big cat said where you aim for the side of the porcelain so it's not making the big splash sound the other is timing the flush to coincide with the end of your pee oh yeah do it all which is so much fun to do uh but a lot of times you end up like convincing yourself that you're already done peeing you start to back away and then you get a little on the rim.

Yeah, it's efficiency. You could also

offer him the sink.

I think that's a problem

solved. I never noticed it

in our other bathrooms, really other bathrooms

have been in, but there is a lot of leakage.

It's Brandon Walker.

It's crazy. He copped to it.
He accidentally

It's crazy. We were having the conversation

a few days ago and he was like,

yeah, there's a lot of piss on the ground in front of the urinal. And he's like, yeah, every time I dribble, I'm like, wow, there's a lot of piss on the ground.
I was like, what did you just say? And he's like, that's him. It's him.
I would suspect if there's a significant amount of liquid on the floor in a bathroom, it would be Max, given his recent history. Yeah, no, it's Brandon.
Yeah.

It's Brandon.

Max, you're innocent.

Remember that one person that was putting their boogers on the wall at the old HQ in New York?

Did we ever find out who that was?

We thought it was Mantis, but then it kept on going.

And I can't be mad at Mantis.

Mantis has my heart for life with what he did for the free throw challenge.

Threw in heaven.

He could still be in this office. He's doing a live stream that's not gonna end till he hits 100 in a row whoa where's he doing it probably young mantis youtube okay um what's up pmt boys i'm an awl in college i broke up with my boyfriend of three years before I left for college, but we are still friends.

I met a guy at a party here.

We hooked up and are now

friends with benefits.

I kind of like him, but don't

know if he wants something serious.

He takes me on dates, but we also

go out and party a ton with our friends.

Sounds awesome.

This sounds like

dating. This sounds like just being single in college.

The question is like, I'm single in college.

Your comments. I don't believe, yeah, this is so, like, you couldn't fake this.
I don't think if you tried. I still talk to my ex, and he says, that's crazy because he broke up with his ex at the same time as me, and they don't talk.
Why are you doing that with your hand? I'm talking like she's writing it. Okay.
Keep going. Is this how women speak in your experience, Hank? Do you think he's into me? Should I ask him if he is? All right, so I don't understand the question.
From what I understand, she broke up with her boyfriend. Right.
Went to college. Right.
Hooked up with a guy at a party. Goes on dates with him sometimes and parties with him some other times pretty crazy story right and then he broke up with his girlfriend and they don't talk no i still talk to my ex and he says that's crazy he being the right friend of benefit yeah oh but they're not dating I think she's asking, do you think her ex is into her?

No.

No.

No, wait.

I'm confused.

I got to finish.

All right, let me finish the whole thing.

End up, I'm confused.

Let me finish the whole thing.

I think it'll clear it up.

Do you think he's into me?

Should I ask him if he is?

Also, his roommate asked to run a two-man with my roommates, which is crazy, and I don't think any of us are into that. Thanks, guys.
Love the pod. I think if the question is, do you think he's into me and he's hooking up with you, probably? Yeah.
Well, he's technically, yes. Well, we don't know.
At times. We don't know what hooking.
He's into you and then out of you really quickly. Yeah.
And then back into you again. Sounds like you should just be single and maybe do the threesome thing.
No, two man. Two man.
The two man. Two man Tuesdays.
What are you going to say, Max? I think that the guy likes her, but the guy also wants to fuck other girls. Right.
So then just be single yourself. Yeah.

Be single yourself.

It sounds like this is- You're in college.

This is a great relationship that you're in right now where it's like not really dating

him.

I kind of like him.

The roommate that asked to run the two men was also just the guy telling his roommate

to ask because he wants to probably bang your room.

Right.

So stay single because you're going to get your heart broken if you fall for this guy.

Yeah.

If you end up liking him, just know that he's the kind of guy that wants to share you with his roommate. No, share her roommate with his roommate.
There's a lot going on in this question. Yeah, there was a lot going on.
All right, that it? Yep. All right, good show.
Andrew Santino on Friday. We'll record late after the games as well.
Reminder, Pancake Stream starting at 5 p.m. Central on all of our channels,

and then Chili Stream starting at 1 p.m. Central on all of our channels on Thursday.

Pancake Stream tomorrow, or today, Wednesday.

All right, numbers.

8.

40.

20.

77.

18. Ball's still up top.
Yeah,. Numbers.
Eight. Forty.
Twenty. Thirty.
Twenty. Eighteen.
Ball still up top.

Where's Pug? He's at a doctor's appointment. Again? Another vet? Yeah.
The fuck? Is this guy okay? 92 Love you guys I'm coming for your love of faith. Love of faith.
Take on me. Take on me.
Take me on. Take on me.
I'll be gone. But I'll turn it on, turn it on.
I'm J-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E- It's not a living life is okay Say unto me It's no better to be safe inside Take me on me

Take me on

Take me on me

Take me on me I'll be gone But I'll be gone Suddenly, suddenly I won't say it It's what I'm feeling Still running away Still running away Life is okay Stay up to me It's the better to say it to tell you.

Say it to tell you.

Take on me.

Take on me.

Take me on.

Take on me.

I'll be gone.