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

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Speaker 1 On today's part in my take, we have a twofer for the people.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 4 Two Italians today. Two Italians.

Speaker 1 Double dipping, the gabagoul. A lot of Italians on today's show.
We're going to talk some NFL free agency. We got Hot T Cool Throne.
We got Guys on Chicks. There's a lot going on in the sports world.

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Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 1 let's go.

Speaker 1 Oh no, we're gonna rock it down to electric Ivenu.

Speaker 1 And then we'll take it higher.

Speaker 1 Oh, we're gonna rock it down to electric.

Speaker 7 It's part of my take, presented by Arsenal Sports.

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Speaker 1 Today is Wednesday, March 13th.

Speaker 1 Standing on the corner, Jameis Winston down in Berea.

Speaker 4 I got standing on a corner Jameis Winston, Cuyahoga.

Speaker 1 Ooh, I like that. I like that.
Jameis Winston's on the Browns. It's the river.

Speaker 4 The river that caught on fire in Cleveland at one time.

Speaker 1 Berea is where the practice facility is, the facility is.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I like Cuyahoga. It made me standing on the shore of Jameis Winston, Cuyahoga.
Yeah. Standing on the shore of Jameis Winston-Cuyahoga.

Speaker 1 Jameis Winston is a Brown. We got NFL free agency.

Speaker 1 We're going to get into a lot more detail with Pete Prisco, but.

Speaker 4 I think Jameis signing with the Browns, that puts a nail in the Joe Flacco discussion, right? It's like Joe. Yeah.

Speaker 4 I think they brought in Jameis because they could have re-signed Joe Flacco. I think Flacco was too popular.

Speaker 1 I think that they were like. Jameis is going to be the most popular.

Speaker 4 That's what they don't understand is that Jameis is.

Speaker 4 Maybe some of Jameis' leadership qualities will rub off. That's probably a bad choice of terms.

Speaker 4 Maybe some of Jameis Winston's leadership qualities will motivate Deshaun Watson to be a better human being. Yeah.
Not rub off.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 That's chaotic good.

Speaker 4 It is. It's good.
I like it. He sounds like he got a good deal, too, like $8 million for a year.
And now all he has to do is wait.

Speaker 1 He should have been Kirk Cousins, who's now made over $400 million in his NFL career.

Speaker 4 Well, maybe. So he's made like...
What is it, $230-something million, and he's got $100 million in guaranteed money. He's probably going to eclipse $400 million over the course of his career.

Speaker 4 It's crazy. $90 million guaranteed at signing, and the other 10 million is guaranteed a year early.
So I want Kirk Cousins agent.

Speaker 1 Yeah, incredible. Incredible.
I mean, like, whatever you want to say about Kirk Cousins quarterback, he has played every single thing right when it comes to

Speaker 1 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,

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Now he gets to start fresh in Atlanta, and it feels like he's going to be the guy for Atlanta's basically saying,

Speaker 1 maybe he'll take us over the top.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I think he's going to be a good quarterback for him. I think it's a good fit for both sides.
And

Speaker 4 he's getting $62.5 million in cash this year.

Speaker 4 He's getting $90 million in the first two years, and he has another no-trade clause. Yeah.
So the GOAT.

Speaker 4 He is the GOAT at getting paid.

Speaker 1 One playoffs. Much off respect.

Speaker 4 One playoff win. He only has one?

Speaker 1 I thought he had two.

Speaker 4 Oh, no. that wasn't the Minneapolis Miracle was what's Chase Keenum.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
And we also had one of my favorite parts of free agency is when guys go to teams that just make sense. Derrick Henry to the Ravens just makes sense.

Speaker 1 And I'll say it, even though they're rivals, Patrick Queen is going to be perfect as a Steeler.

Speaker 4 Yeah, it's going to be good.

Speaker 4 They lost a Queen, but they got a king. Yeah.
The NFL. There we go.
That's the new tagline. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Adam Schefter tweeted out the breaking news about

Speaker 4 Derrick Henry and Patrick Queen and just said the NFL.

Speaker 1 I feel like the Ravens have lost every player. Have they? They all

Speaker 1 have a lot of Lyman. They lost Gus.
They lost Patrick Queen. I think they lost a safety.
Yeah, they lost a safety to the Bengals, which was a great pickup by the Bengals.

Speaker 1 I feel like they're getting gutted, and the Dolphins are getting gutted. Some teams getting gutted right now.
Yeah. We should talk about our new running backs.

Speaker 4 We're zigging while everyone else zags.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. The two of us and Max, we all got new running backs.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 4 Tiki Barber's dead to us?

Speaker 1 I don't know where.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 9 No, I should get him on.

Speaker 1 Let me say this as nice as possible.

Speaker 4 Tiki Barber, you're dead to us until you come on part of my take. Well, here's.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 You can't do that. You can't go from the Giants to Eagles.
Tiki Barber, after abruptly retiring, I should be able to choose when I want to leave and if I want to stay.

Speaker 1 Some people, particularly radio personalities who will remain nameless, criticize me for having a vision or a dream. That's interesting.

Speaker 1 Also, TG Barber, I'm not going to do the low-blow stuff, but let's just, you know,

Speaker 1 when it talks about like loyalty, you're not the guy.

Speaker 4 No. You're not the guy.
No. We can go down that road, Tiki.

Speaker 1 But you're not the guy to talk about loyalty. That was a a crazy reaction by him.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 1 Saquon literally said it. He's like, I wanted more.
Like,

Speaker 1 someone gave me the money I was looking for.

Speaker 4 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 rooting for Saquon.

Speaker 1 And also it works because Penn State, you got the, you know, a lot of, a lot of Penn State fans, diehard Saquon fans, Eagles fans. So, Max, how are you feeling?

Speaker 1 We did break the mold, though, just paying running backs. Yep.

Speaker 1 So did the Packers, Josh Jacobs. So did the Vikings, Aaron Jones.

Speaker 1 This feels like an overreaction. It feels like everyone's like, oh, yeah, maybe that Zoom call, we should listen to this.

Speaker 4 No, it's the new market inefficiency, big cat.

Speaker 4 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 is the time.
If ever, now is the time to to get running.

Speaker 1 Now's the time. Yep.

Speaker 10 I also saw there's something about the cap. There's a reason for that.

Speaker 10 Cap went up. Cap went up.
So cap percentage.

Speaker 1 Cap went up.

Speaker 10 So this is actually in the amount that running backs are getting paid are actually in line with the cap percentage.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 Yep.

Speaker 1 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, okay.

Speaker 1 And then by that time, the cap will have stayed flat. And running backs will be having to get paid less again.

Speaker 4 What about inflation, too? Does that help? Like, is Joe Biden good for running backs? Probably. We can make that argument.

Speaker 1 We can go down that line, yeah. Probably.

Speaker 4 Max, I saw that you also got, you got a fantastic new piece of memorabilia. You have the Jason Kelsey soup can.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, it rocks.

Speaker 4 So how much did you pay for that can of soup?

Speaker 10 That shit was gifted to me.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Are you going to drink it?

Speaker 10 Drink it?

Speaker 4 Yeah, like shotgun it.

Speaker 4 Jason Kelsey would shotgun that soup.

Speaker 10 I don't think you can shotgun.

Speaker 1 I would drink it. You can shotgun anything.

Speaker 4 Yeah, you can shotgun a can of soup.

Speaker 1 How big does that hole have to be? Pretty big. Big hole.

Speaker 1 A big hole. Yeah.

Speaker 10 I mean,

Speaker 10 I'd shotgun that soup. It's great.
I mean, it's a great-looking can.

Speaker 1 Great-looking can. You're never going to eat that soup.

Speaker 1 See, that's a thing. Ah, you got to eat it when he goes into canon.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 10 Actually, that's a great idea.

Speaker 1 Because

Speaker 10 I want to have it on my desk because it's great to look at.

Speaker 9 Yeah, don't eat that.

Speaker 4 Don't eat that. No, you should shotgun it.
He would want you you to collect on it.

Speaker 10 It is like a collectible. It's awesome.

Speaker 10 Yeah, shout out Campbell sending me that soup.

Speaker 1 It's awesome. Max just likes to sit there and look at a can of soup.

Speaker 4 This reminds me of my favorite football player.

Speaker 1 All right, so who else? So Saquon, you're pumped?

Speaker 10 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...

Speaker 10 That hurdle against Iowa will always be like one of the coolest plays I've ever seen. Agreed.

Speaker 10 And it sucked having him on the Giants the past X amount of years because he was like such a fan favorite at Penn State.

Speaker 10 And then when you get him, like I've always been a, I don't want to pay a running back, don't want to pay a running back guy.

Speaker 10 But then when you pay the running back and the running back Saquon Barkley, you just get to watch so many fun highlights. Yeah.

Speaker 10 I mean, like, that's really the best part of Saquon is like, yesterday, I spent so much time just watching Saquon highlights.

Speaker 4 He's got great highlights, too.

Speaker 1 He does. Yeah, he's awesome.
And he's the best.

Speaker 10 I'm so excited.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 It's like, if you've got to pay a running back, I think he's one guy that you should pay. Like Saquon and Swift, I think are two great signings.
Also, Austin Eckler seems like a cool guy.

Speaker 11 That's what I'll say.

Speaker 10 And it's also like, yeah, Saquon is getting older, but he's played behind the worst offensive line every year of his career.

Speaker 10 And he's going to the Eagles that, like, there's some stat that Saquon had the highest percentage of like plays hit behind the line of scrimmage, and DeAndre Swift had the least amount of plays hit behind the line of of scrimmage.

Speaker 10 So it's like we could see a Saquon that we haven't seen before.

Speaker 4 Do you think Saquon is going to be good for the tush push?

Speaker 4 I think he might be. He might be

Speaker 4 getting behind Jalen and have that ass start working.

Speaker 10 I saw a picture of a side-by-side of both Jalen and Saquon's quads.

Speaker 10 Great, great, great set of legs on those two fades.

Speaker 1 Quads for days. Yeah, we have it's yeah, it's free agency frenzy.
We have the chef there doing the fake deals, rap port two, where it's just the agent, you give a little handshake deal.

Speaker 1 Hey, yeah, I'll report that this is a three-year deal for $40 million. And then it's, oh, it's actually a one-year deal for $10 million guaranteed.

Speaker 4 There's also a weird rumor going on out there.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 And we all know that wide receivers, amongst all positions, have the weirdest tweets, the most cryptic tweets possible. Which I love.

Speaker 4 A lot of people are thinking Kirk Cousins leaves Minnesota.

Speaker 4 Justin Jefferson's not going to be too happy about that.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 4 Maybe get a little LSU.

Speaker 1 Jay Higgins is looking for a trade as well.

Speaker 4 Maybe get a little LSU reunion.

Speaker 1 Could you imagine Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase with Joe Burrow? I can't.

Speaker 4 I can't even imagine. I can't.
I don't. No.
I can't even.

Speaker 1 I can't even imagine it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we have all these deals going left and right.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And that's really how I just judge every single deal.

Speaker 4 I'm kind of the same way, and my friend JP Finley in D.C.

Speaker 4 tweeted this out today when the commanders have added like five defensive players that are all like nice, maybe like average, slightly above average.

Speaker 1 $10 million, $12 million deal.

Speaker 4 And JP's like, I love this. Keep hitting singles.
Yeah. It's right.
Yeah, you're right, JP. Yeah, keep hitting singles.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 anyone who's signing for less than three years and less than $15 million, it's literally like great signing. Great veteran

Speaker 4 veteran depth is important in this league. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, it's fun to just what.

Speaker 9 Patriots might have solved their QB problem.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, Jacoby Roussette.

Speaker 4 Yeah, he's a great player.

Speaker 1 That is a good backup. Yeah.
That's a very good backup. I don't know.

Speaker 1 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 overrated Justin Fields a little bit and his contract.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 a potential situation to get the most value out of Justin Fields.

Speaker 4 So I brought that up a few months ago.

Speaker 8 And I said I didn't like it. And you said

Speaker 4 consistent. Big cat's been consistent.
But Big Cat, what was my point when I did bring it up?

Speaker 4 Was that there will be an injury?

Speaker 4 And then his value is going to go up. It still makes no sense.

Speaker 4 Oh, by the way, did you see the player in Arkansas State who's named Caleb Fields?

Speaker 1 No. Yeah, and then

Speaker 4 there's another guy that's on, I think he's on Fairfield, also named Caleb Fields. Oh, wow.
You You can't escape this debate.

Speaker 1 Got a lot of them going on.

Speaker 4 This debate just lives.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 But yeah, obviously, if Ryan Paul 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.

Speaker 1 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,

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 1 It was more Caleb came in and was way better. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Oh, yeah, this guy's really good. Yeah, the fans were like, play Caleb.

Speaker 1 I just, this is just. Too much hand-wringing, too many signings, too many trades happening, and none of them are Justin Fields.

Speaker 4 Yeah, Hank brings up a good point, though. The dome.
The dome in Chicago. Kurt Warner is smiling.
His head is spinning.

Speaker 4 I'm so excited about this. Bear weather is dead.
I don't like it. I don't like it all.

Speaker 4 You come to Chicago and I want to see a bunch of linemen on the Bears wearing cutoff sleeves. We're tougher than the cold.

Speaker 1 I want a retractable dome and open it whenever it's bad weather. Yes.
Like that's what that's what they should do. If I had a team, that's what I would do.
I would have a retractable dome.

Speaker 1 I'd keep it closed if it was like, you know, 50 degrees or rainy. But anytime it dipped below 30, I'd be like, open that bitch up.
Let's play some bear weather.

Speaker 9 It also just gives so much material to Packers fans.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 they're never going to build

Speaker 9 stadiums. Vikings.
I know. Bears.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Dome.
Yep. Yeah.
It's true. Packers are going to be a little bit more.
Tough leg up.

Speaker 1 They're never going to build the stadium, so it doesn't even matter.

Speaker 4 With the winners in Chicago, it's almost like

Speaker 4 it doesn't. Yeah, it's like bare weather might not be as impactful 10 years from now.
Like the weather in Chicago, Hank, I saw you tweet about it. The winner has been.

Speaker 9 Yeah, I had it for my cool throne.

Speaker 4 The winner has been awesome here.

Speaker 1 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,

Speaker 1 don't eat that seal. I always feel bad for the seals.

Speaker 9 No, it's so they're moving forward, though. What else do they have to do?

Speaker 1 Who fucking knows? They keep saying that about everything.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 4 I think O.

Speaker 1 Williams will fix all these problems.

Speaker 4 I think billionaires should pay for their their own fucking stadiums. Agreed.
That's a spicy tip. I know.
Bleep that out, please. She gets a show.

Speaker 9 Is your owner even a billionaire? What?

Speaker 1 What did you say?

Speaker 9 Are you guys even a billionaires?

Speaker 1 Aren't you guys like broke boys? No, I mean, the Bears are worth multiple billions of dollars. So if they are technically billionaires by assets.

Speaker 9 But not billionaires. Oh, no.

Speaker 1 They don't got cash in the bank. No, okay.
No. Virginia McCasky goes to the.

Speaker 9 Like, she couldn't pay for her own shadow.

Speaker 10 She's got like, yeah, she's got

Speaker 4 like $6,000 in there. Yeah.
Yeah. Kadir owner? Yeah.

Speaker 4 Who paid for it? Did he? He spent all that money on the Lighthouse.

Speaker 9 That's how he got the team in the first place.

Speaker 1 Did he pay for his own stadium?

Speaker 9 In a way.

Speaker 1 I don't know. I'm actually asking, did he? I don't know.

Speaker 1 I don't know the answer to that.

Speaker 9 I'm sure. I don't think any billionaires ever paid for their own stadium.

Speaker 1 No, they never do.

Speaker 9 But he did buy

Speaker 9 the property, which

Speaker 4 was right. So

Speaker 4 the way that he got the money was he bought the parking lot next to the stadium, right?

Speaker 9 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

Speaker 4 stadium. He's a parking lot billionaire.

Speaker 9 So the NFL is like, we'd rather just sell it to you rather than give money to you.

Speaker 1 The key to any new stadium is just two words, hotel tax. That's what you just always got to say.
We're going to tax the hotels. And no one here is like, oh, fuck.
We got

Speaker 1 to get it. Yeah, right.
They're going to tax the hotels.

Speaker 1 Each hotel gets taxed. Play a monopoly now.
Who the fuck knows? It's a joke.

Speaker 1 All right, what other free agencies talk? Dolphins got gutted. Yeah.
Are the dolphins okay? I don't think so.

Speaker 4 I don't think they're okay. I think they're in like crisis mode.
Yeah. Like Britney Spears shaving her head.

Speaker 1 Tyreek also was in another. Tyreek Hill,

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Tyreek Hill was waiting in line at McDonald's and got in a fight with a seven-year-old boy. Like, it's just everyone else.

Speaker 9 73 kids in the last month.

Speaker 1 Every headline, I'm just like, okay, maybe this happened.

Speaker 4 He's become like the funniest headline guy by far. There was, you remember that graphic of all of his ex-girlfriends and baby mamas? Yeah.
And they all looked exactly the same.

Speaker 1 What, what was the, I got to find the most recent one.

Speaker 4 Tyreek Hill broke the woman's leg OnlyFans model's leg in backyard football practice.

Speaker 1 After getting beat.

Speaker 9 Yeah. Like in response to getting smoked.

Speaker 4 Tyreek. Tyreek Hill gets cooked on a go-route, breaks plus-size OnlyFan model's leg in revenge drill.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Tyreek Hill gets crossed up on a basketball court, kicks a dog in the face. Yeah.
Being sued.

Speaker 4 Tyreek Hill assassinates Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Speaker 1 Okay, here it is. Here's the most recent one.

Speaker 1 Tyree Kill in heated clash at Atlanta Comedy Gig escalates after his exit. So it sounds like it was.

Speaker 1 Tyreek Hill was involved in a heated confrontation at Kevin Hart's comedy gig, which escalated in a full-blown brawl after he left.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 5 Like, how does this happen?

Speaker 1 It keeps happening to him. So, yeah.
Unlucky guy. Unlucky guy.

Speaker 1 Any other free agency stuff? I just, yeah, it really is. Just watch the deals.
And if your rival gets a deal, you're like, that was an overpay.

Speaker 1 I would never pay for a fucking center.

Speaker 4 We've had some time to digest the Russell Wilson signing.

Speaker 1 I don't hate it.

Speaker 4 I still don't hate it. I think he's cheap.

Speaker 1 I'm still in like a

Speaker 1 it doesn't change anything.

Speaker 8 I I think he's cheap.

Speaker 4 I think it's a good division.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 4 Well, he's getting paid a shitload. What are the Broncos doing, by the way? Do the Broncos have a plan at quarterback?

Speaker 1 No. I think they're going to gut it, too.
Yeah, they have gut it.

Speaker 1 What were you going to say, Max?

Speaker 10 I was just going to say we didn't bring up Brian Burns.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 They traded Brian Burns for for a second-round pick to the Giants a year and a half after the old regime was offered two first-rounders for him.

Speaker 4 Yep. So smart.

Speaker 1 Awesome. Smart work.

Speaker 8 Great job.

Speaker 4 The Vikings signed Sam Darnold.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 4 Because then you're going to, yeah, 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-round picks. Yeah.

Speaker 1 How many

Speaker 1 first-round picks would Patrick Mahomes be worth? Seriously. All of them? Seven.

Speaker 1 Would it be seven?

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 1 Seven.

Speaker 4 Seven. Seven first-round picks and then

Speaker 4 probably give him another like $600 million.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 That's probably fair for Patrick Mahomes.

Speaker 1 On top of that. Yeah, so yeah, you were saying Sam Darnold to the Vikings.

Speaker 4 Vikings, is he going to be the starter?

Speaker 1 I think he might. Although, no, the Vikings, it feels like they're going to draft a quarterback.

Speaker 4 The Mono-Napolis Vikings?

Speaker 1 Yeah, that will play. Right off the tongue.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 someone if the draft doesn't go our way. Yeah.

Speaker 1 To be sitting here and be like, that guy's played quarterback before.

Speaker 4 Jimmy G could be that guy.

Speaker 1 That's always a smart strategy, just to get someone in the room being like, you know, he has played

Speaker 1 Jacoby Brissette to the Patriots.

Speaker 4 He's played pretty well. Jacoby Brissette might be the best backup quarterback.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the Vikings have the 11th pick, and the Raiders have the 13th pick. That feels like that could easily be Michael Pennix, Bone X, J.J.
McCarthy.

Speaker 4 Yep, right in that zone.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 4 Crushed Arkansas State. Who could root for that? It wasn't even close.
Some people are saying that they were going to spank that ass before the game. No, no, no.
The Red Wolves didn't stand a chance.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 Pretty good team.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 Villanova is going to be in the NCAA tournament.

Speaker 4 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 this year where you get to look forward to living and dying with your team.

Speaker 4 So 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.

Speaker 1 I'm just watching some of the shittiest basketball get played. I was watching Towson, I think, last night.
And was it?

Speaker 1 No, no, Towson. I was watching Towson play.
Towson played Charleston. Yeah, I was watching Towson.

Speaker 1 Towson went to the line with one and one with like 20 seconds left down two, and the kid airballed it. And I was just like, yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 This is fucking March, dude.

Speaker 1 It is good. This is some good ass basketball I'm watching.

Speaker 4 I can't wait. I have a pre-fire fest I told you guys about, but I want to say it out loud because I'm trying to manifest against this happening.

Speaker 4 I have have to be at a wedding that I committed to like eight months ago.

Speaker 4 Unfortunately, it's the Friday of March Madness, which is bad timing in general to have a wedding.

Speaker 4 I'm convinced that it's going to be JMU playing during that time stone.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 I want to be locked in on this game. If I'm locked in, if I'm locked in, we're going to win two games.

Speaker 1 I'm rooting for if I have to watch it on my iPhone, we're gonna lose that game that's how it's gonna go my pre-fire fest is i think and this is a little egotistical but i do think that uh

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 That would be a fun stream. Without a doubt.
Without a round. That would be a fun stream.
Well,

Speaker 4 is there somebody in that room that's an AWL?

Speaker 1 I don't want it. Wisconsin's going to lose whoever they play in the first round, so I'd rather not.
Because J-MU is a good one. Although maybe that'd be a great friend move.

Speaker 1 Be like, here, here's a buy.

Speaker 4 Here's a win. J-MU is slotted to be like an 11 or 12.
Wisconsin would probably be a 6.

Speaker 1 6, but

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 4 And I don't like it. Did he bet on Wisconsin?

Speaker 1 No, he goes, I was like, I don't want, like, we're going to lose. It doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 We stink. We're playing bad basketball.
And Max is like, nah, you'll still believe. And I'm like, shut up, Max.
I won't. We have to pur due for me to believe.

Speaker 4 Max, you got to put a substantial bet on Wisconsin.

Speaker 1 That would be literally burning money.

Speaker 10 I didn't say believe. I said you were like, I just want to get it over with right away, have them lose.

Speaker 1 11 a.m. on Thursday.

Speaker 10 But I said it would be better to be Friday because then you get Thursday as the whole day of just like watching basketball because no matter what, he's going to be a little upset when Wisconsin loses.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 We'll be live streaming it. If they lose that game, there will be no hope, and I will have no, like, that will be full, get it over with.

Speaker 1 Because then it's like they're as bad as I think they are right now. But, uh, and we also might

Speaker 1 have to put Pug on that stream, Seton Hallman. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Is Pug ready for the world?

Speaker 4 Is Pug ready for prime time?

Speaker 1 Dude, Hank's saying no.

Speaker 9 I was watching the game with the not

Speaker 9 Pug's just a, he's a, he's, he's, he's a nice Pug, but I was watching

Speaker 9 filling over Creighton with him, and I was I was trying to fire him up and and and trying to get him fired up on Max. He's just too nice.

Speaker 4 I feel like Pug is like his best

Speaker 9 He's like the anti-Max with his with his he's a normal fan, not over the top.

Speaker 4 I like the idea also that it's like choose your own adventure behind the scenes with Pug. If you're a listener to this show, you get to imagine Pug and what he would be like watching sports.

Speaker 4 And I don't want to take that away from people.

Speaker 1 Ooh, could we maybe get like a microphone set up?

Speaker 1 Uh, behind, like, he could hold the microphone behind the cameras and he could just just be like let's go good shot pug this 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

Speaker 4 yeah just over and over pug does anybody know where the tradition of cutting down the nets started

Speaker 1 probably by gym nance yeah

Speaker 1 He started every March 2015.

Speaker 12 I know it used to be sponsored by Werner, the official ladder of the NCIA, but

Speaker 12 1947, NC State won the the Southern Conference Championship, and Wolfpack coach Everett Case had his players hoist him up so he could cut down the net to keep as a souvenir.

Speaker 1 Do you remember the first time that you were like, that's so cool that they have

Speaker 1 cut down the nets like as a kid?

Speaker 11 Yeah.

Speaker 1 When was it?

Speaker 4 It was actually Duke when Duke won the natty in like 1991, I think.

Speaker 1 Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 4 I remember seeing that. I'm like, that's awesome.
I want to cut down a net.

Speaker 4 Fun story. I won a basketball game when I was like six years old where there were probably no rules rules and actually probably nobody actually won that game.

Speaker 4 And then I asked my coach if we could cut down the net. And he said no, they need it for the next game.

Speaker 12 I cut down the net 2019 America's Championship when Vermont won.

Speaker 1 Oh, they let you cut down the net? I'll send you guys a picture. I remember

Speaker 1 it was when Syracuse made the Final Four in 95-96 season and John Wallace got off the

Speaker 1 he got off the bus with the net in his head like dangling out of his hat.

Speaker 4 That's cool.

Speaker 1 And I was like, that's fucking cool.

Speaker 4 That's awesome. Yeah, like that, that rocks.
Jake, isn't that a bit unprofessional, though? Like, as a journalist, if you're the voice

Speaker 12 cutting down the net, you're a traveling member of the team, I think it's valid. Think about it.
They get rings.

Speaker 1 I don't know. Where is that net?

Speaker 12 It's in my house in Florida somewhere.

Speaker 1 You don't know? I don't know exactly. Holy shit.
Come on, Jake.

Speaker 12 But no, think about it. The voices of the teams, like, they get rings.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 4 You're journalists.

Speaker 12 No, that's a different.

Speaker 1 No, they're the hometown voice.

Speaker 1 They get to be. It's like Hawk Harrelson.

Speaker 12 It's not like Jim Nopens cutting down the net for CBS.

Speaker 4 I bet you he's tried. He's definitely.

Speaker 1 Wait, is this... No, last year was his last file.
Yeah, no, Jim Nobles is this. So who do we have?

Speaker 12 We have I and Eagle next up.

Speaker 4 We got I and Eagle.

Speaker 1 Okay. All right.

Speaker 4 And Noah's probably going to do the NIT.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 12 He's NBC. Oh.

Speaker 1 Oh, okay. Of course.

Speaker 4 I screwed up my networks.

Speaker 1 How could you?

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Speaker 1 I forgot to mention, too, so the chili stream we're going to be doing on Thursday, and then tomorrow we're finally doing it, the pancake bet, five o'clock Central.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 finishes his pancakes, right? Unless someone is so bad that memes laps him, memes has to do 24.

Speaker 4 So I have 12. Big cat, you have six.

Speaker 1 Hank, light work, zero,

Speaker 1 remember? Comedy, yeah. That's right, that's right.

Speaker 4 Yeah,

Speaker 1 Gosh.

Speaker 4 Memes, you don't strike me as much of an eater.

Speaker 1 I can eat. Oh.

Speaker 1 Are you going to lap somebody? I've been watching Matt Stoney videos.

Speaker 4 Okay.

Speaker 1 Pancakes.

Speaker 9 He ate like 100

Speaker 1 in eight minutes. I'm a little worried, though, memes, because I've.
He might be the goat. Matt Stoney?

Speaker 9 Joey Chestnut is the hot dog goat, but Stoney's

Speaker 1 like.

Speaker 9 career across multiple foods is undeniable.

Speaker 1 Okay. I am not very familiar with Matt Stoney's work.

Speaker 9 I went to a cake-eating competition with Caleb once. Oh, yeah?

Speaker 1 And he ate

Speaker 9 a lot of cake in like a strip mall.

Speaker 1 I love it. They're always in the worst spots.

Speaker 1 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,

Speaker 1 hey. You're right, hey.
Water go down.

Speaker 4 Yeah, drinking problem?

Speaker 1 There's 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.

Speaker 1 Why doesn't he have as much dog?

Speaker 4 You don't think? Why not?

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 8 Shoot, go to the hoop.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 4 I think Memes might be the most underrated, unexpected athlete of all time.

Speaker 1 He's got a great Euro step. Yeah.
Memes, what would you say to the people saying you don't have dog left in you?

Speaker 10 I'd say watch the stream.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 calling them out. I'm just going to pounce a pancakes.

Speaker 9 How many hours? Set it over under.

Speaker 1 Are you going to beat Max?

Speaker 1 Maybe.

Speaker 9 Yes. How many hours? I'm going to set three.

Speaker 1 Three hours. What?

Speaker 1 So in three hours, you're going to eat 21 pancakes. Yeah.
Wow. Okay.

Speaker 10 I'm watching my calories, so I wouldn't hate taking the six hours. Get as little.

Speaker 1 Well, that doesn't make it. Well, I guess you eat less.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's kind of a pussy way to do it.

Speaker 10 I mean,

Speaker 10 I'm trying to get strong.

Speaker 10 People around here are pissed about it.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 4 Are we doing Olympic style?

Speaker 10 I don't know.

Speaker 1 KB was teaching him how to bench press. That's not true.
I watched that. That's not true.

Speaker 10 We didn't even bench this morning. We benched yesterday.

Speaker 1 Oh, two days in a row. Fuck yes.
Yeah. No, I mean,

Speaker 10 I got MyFit.

Speaker 10 no free ads. Jason Kelsey said that he was doing my fitness pal and counting calories, so that's kind of why I decided to do that.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's beautiful. I did that once.
That's great. That's great.
Hank, how is Duncan going?

Speaker 9 It's good.

Speaker 9 I'm basically started this week or last week.

Speaker 4 You basically started this week or last week.

Speaker 1 What does basically started mean?

Speaker 9 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.

Speaker 9 Bought a jump rope.

Speaker 9 I'm talking to a trainer next week to get my baseline and what my vertical is.

Speaker 1 Corey G.

Speaker 9 I'm talking to Corey G, but I think we're getting help from Optimum Nutrition People.

Speaker 1 Oh, okay. Nice.

Speaker 1 Will we give the ad money back when you can't dunk?

Speaker 9 No. We should probably write that in the contract because

Speaker 1 I don't want to sell them something that is not going to happen.

Speaker 4 I even forget what the terms of the bets were. Like, how much money do you get?

Speaker 1 It doesn't matter. He's not going to dunk.

Speaker 9 It's like $2,000 if I do it, $800 if I lose.

Speaker 4 That's not right.

Speaker 1 That's not it at all something like that i'm pretty sure it's 10 and 5

Speaker 1 10k and 5k i think it might be 20 20 and 10 no yeah it might be 20 and 10 20 and 8

Speaker 1 and but he could he could he could hit all the threes he could hit 25 threes in a row that's true tune into pm tv this week don't tune in hank and i have a very bad visual don't tune in turns out um don't we're not in shape and we probably wouldn't last long oh fuck

Speaker 1 i was gonna say say we wouldn't last long on a Ric Petino team.

Speaker 4 No, we can't say that.

Speaker 1 Damn it.

Speaker 1 Damn it. Oh, the stalker did text me.
Just an update. People were wondering what happened.

Speaker 1 Let's see.

Speaker 1 Stalker, stalker, stalker.

Speaker 1 He said, congratulations. You went over my head and write 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.

Speaker 1 It's personal now. You claim to come clean, but we're your typical coward self self tick tock.

Speaker 4 TikTok, TikTok, come clean. I'm not going to make it.
I'm not going to say it. He said it.
We didn't. I'm not going to say it.
This guy sounds like he's a petino hater. A little bit.

Speaker 4 He's like setting us up for these jokes. Guess what? Come clean, TikTok.
I'm not going to go there. We're not going to fall for it.
We're Rick Petino's guys. And you know what?

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 1 I agree. How about that? Hank, you want to give us your final Patriot number seven?

Speaker 1 And it's the end of the Dynasty documentary this Friday, right?

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 9 My guess is that they're going to start

Speaker 9 by showing two minutes of the Rams 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, the breakup?

Speaker 9 Kind of ridiculous, but it'll be very

Speaker 4 breakup focused. I want to know what the Malcolm Butler thing is, or whatever decision that it says, like Belichick divides a locker room with a questionable decision.

Speaker 9 Oh, yeah, because I guess so that that is the next game. So it'll be a lot of focus.

Speaker 9 It'll be way more time will be spent on the Eagles' loss than the Rams win,

Speaker 9 which is nonsense. Brady had one of the best Super Bowl performances of all time, so I'm sure they'll highlight that.

Speaker 1 In which game?

Speaker 9 So that's what they're going to do. He did it.

Speaker 9 Brady, he had like 500 yards.

Speaker 10 How did Nick Foles do in that game?

Speaker 1 And also, Nick Foles caught a pass. Brady didn't.

Speaker 9 But they're going to basically say that Brady played out of his mind. He had an unbelievable performance.
Except for Kevin Shaw.

Speaker 9 And the reason they lost is because Belichick benched Malcolm Butler, which

Speaker 1 might be true.

Speaker 1 And he fumbled. And he fumbled.

Speaker 9 But they're going to focus his. Listen, Max, you're not listening.

Speaker 1 Yeah, listen, Max.

Speaker 9 They're going to shape the documentary. Like, Brady played 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.

Speaker 9 And then it's going to be all drama.

Speaker 10 I haven't watched a single one of these. I will probably tune into that one.
Yeah, you got to.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You got to.
So, Hank,

Speaker 1 we're going to do seven right now. So, your 10 will be complete.
And then they actually release these documentaries, I think, Thursday nights. We're going to be here late Thursday night.

Speaker 1 So, Friday will start the post-documentary top 10.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 We're done with this. Like, we should do.
Don't worry, anybody else. This is it.
We should do

Speaker 4 We should do one where it's like Hank's biggest mistakes, leaving these people out.

Speaker 1 All right. Go ahead, Hank.

Speaker 9 Adam Minotary.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 9 Yeah, this is the one, again, I said, you know, after watching it, I wish I probably would have changed some things.

Speaker 9 But he was, you know, won the Raiders game, won two Super Bowls,

Speaker 9 most clutch kicker of all time. But if he doesn't go in the Hall of Fame as a Patriot, then that changes everything.

Speaker 1 So I got pushed back.

Speaker 1 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 hit the, you know, he broke the record with the Colts.

Speaker 1 But if you think about why Adam Veteri 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.

Speaker 1 Those are the kicks. Yeah.

Speaker 9 And he had a game winner against the Panthers.

Speaker 4 Yeah, a game winner against the Panthers. And he had, I think he had two kicks against the Raiders, right?

Speaker 9 Yeah, to go into overtime and in overtime. And to win it.

Speaker 4 Yeah, he's got the more iconic moments, but then the way that he was talking, like, he might be the one that

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it seemed that way.

Speaker 9 Yeah.

Speaker 1 It seemed that way.

Speaker 4 So you got a rat on your list.

Speaker 9 Yeah, I would change it if I could, but the list has been locked in for before I watched an episode of the documentary.

Speaker 1 That's true. So we'll get there.

Speaker 4 Man of integrity.

Speaker 1 Honorable mention. Last honorable mention.

Speaker 9 Matthew Slater.

Speaker 1 Oh, nice. Fair.
A little shout-out.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Good job, Hank.

Speaker 4 Before we do hot seat cool throne, I feel like we should talk about this now.

Speaker 4 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 wanted to scoop the New York Times.

Speaker 4 So I just tweeted, or excuse me, my dead dog Leroy just tweeted it out.

Speaker 4 Aaron Rodgers might run for vice president.

Speaker 1 I still don't understand. When you told it to me two weeks ago, I processed it, and then I I was like, that doesn't make any sense.
But I'm not saying that you're wrong.

Speaker 1 I'm saying I still just don't understand it.

Speaker 4 It's going to be hilarious if it does happen. But how?

Speaker 9 There's no way.

Speaker 1 How?

Speaker 4 How?

Speaker 4 So he's being considered and is considering the opportunity right now.

Speaker 1 So the answer is he won't. So the second

Speaker 9 story breaks, he will say he's not doing it.

Speaker 1 He just wants people to think, he wants it to be known that he was considered.

Speaker 4 Maybe. But I'm just, I'm allowing my mind to to go further down the rabbit hole and think about how funny it would be.

Speaker 1 But he's going to play football. He's got a PFT in you.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 1 But he wouldn't do that. He would play football.
Probably, yes. That's the part that just like he would.
He just wants everyone to know that he was being considered, is what it boils down to.

Speaker 10 What if he quits football?

Speaker 1 I don't think he's quitting football.

Speaker 4 Meme said no.

Speaker 1 He's got unfinished business.

Speaker 10 Yeah, I mean, he almost quit for Jeopardy.

Speaker 1 But he wouldn't quit football for a bid at vice president that will never win in a million years.

Speaker 4 He doesn't think that.

Speaker 1 I think he has at least a little sense.

Speaker 9 What would be the chances?

Speaker 1 I would just say I would consider like 0.0000001%. Did you say that about Trump? I would.

Speaker 1 This is not. He's not in one of the parties.

Speaker 1 We don't have.

Speaker 9 RKK is not a party? No, he's not.

Speaker 1 RKK? RKK.

Speaker 1 He's going to be an Independent.

Speaker 4 Yeah, he's not running.

Speaker 1 I wish that there was a chance.

Speaker 1 I wish there was a chance that we'd have three parties, but we don't.

Speaker 4 It sucks. Yeah, there shouldn't be any parties.
The Green Party.

Speaker 4 Ralph Nader? I think he's running on Independent, and it would be... I'm considering voting for RFK Jr.
and Aaron Rodgers just because it would make this show so much better.

Speaker 4 It would be so awesome if all next football season Aaron was like attending campaign rallies and shit, skipping practice.

Speaker 1 Your brain is gone on this. I thought RFK was a factor.

Speaker 1 What would you say the chances are, PFT?

Speaker 1 They talk about him all the time. It's got to be of him winning? Yeah.
Zero. He's not going to win.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 4 It's a two-party situation. It gets nothing.

Speaker 1 Yeah. They get nothing.
They get diddly shit.

Speaker 4 The real question would be: who would he take more votes away from?

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 4 Would he take more votes away from Trump?

Speaker 1 I don't know, but whoever, it's basically he just gets a complaint with either side.

Speaker 9 Why doesn't he just squat up with the Repubbies?

Speaker 4 Because Trump's running.

Speaker 1 So? So

Speaker 1 he can't have two presidents. He can't have two.

Speaker 4 So actually,

Speaker 4 voting for RFK Aaron Rodgers potentially

Speaker 4 would be interesting because then you could just complain no matter what happened. You're like, I didn't vote for either one of these guys.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I voted for the quarterback. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I just don't think he's going to quit football, but then I do think it would crush memes. Memes would lose all his dog.

Speaker 8 Yeah, that would be so funny.

Speaker 1 That would be the old yeller moment for memes.

Speaker 4 That would be like beyond the pale for Jets fans.

Speaker 1 We finally have her quarterback.

Speaker 9 Yeah, now I'm actually believing it.

Speaker 1 Now I'm actually believing it just because of the Jets factor.

Speaker 8 Yeah,

Speaker 4 that would be the final boss for Jets sadness. It's like we finally got her quarterback.
Oh shit,

Speaker 4 he hurt his foot in the first five minutes of a game. That's okay.
He's coming back next year. We finally have her quarterback.
Oh shit, he's running for vice president.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, no, the Jets factor does make this a reason that it could happen.

Speaker 10 You can't see like a Rodgers 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.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, I'm changing my tune just because I forgot the Jets part. The Jets part, like, Jets are in search of eternal sadness, and this would be the funniest story arc.

Speaker 1 Okay, well, we'll see.

Speaker 4 We'll see. Who knows 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 going to do it first.

Speaker 1 Keep sports out of politics.

Speaker 4 Keep politics out of sports.

Speaker 1 No. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 4 Sports.

Speaker 4 Keep sports out of politics. Stick to politics.

Speaker 1 Yeah, right. What if the New York Times doesn't report this?

Speaker 1 Well, then we did. Then we did.

Speaker 4 Then we mega scooped him.

Speaker 1 Whoops. All right, let's do Hot C cool thrill and then we'll get to both of our interviews.

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Speaker 1 Hank.

Speaker 9 How's he spelling?

Speaker 1 Uh-oh.

Speaker 9 Kobe Bryant. Oh, yeah.
Statue honoring his 81-point game. It has on the statue engraved basically like the lineups and the

Speaker 9 player stats and stuff, minutes, points, assists, everything.

Speaker 9 They spelled Von Wafer, Von Wafer.

Speaker 1 Oh, no.

Speaker 9 They spelled Jose Calderon, Jose Calderson.

Speaker 9 And they had two players that said that did not play for coach's decision. One spelled decision correctly, and then directly underneath it, they spelt decision D-E-C-I-C-I-O-N.

Speaker 9 It would have, it was on the statue engraved forever.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the minute I saw Tom Wafer, I was like, it would be as if Hank or Bubba had made this statue. Yeah.
That was what it was. Yeah.

Speaker 1 They entrusted one guy and no one read over it.

Speaker 1 When I used to send you or Bubba a synopsis or like anything, and you just,

Speaker 1 we would just fuck up and like write a guest name wrong.

Speaker 1 and uh that's what happened yeah it was very relatable reading where it's like oh if if basically did you read did you not notice that there was a mistake well it circled the oh the the

Speaker 1 picture

Speaker 9 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 ref decision with the two c's 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 the the if the red line doesn't pop up yeah sometimes i spell things, and that's also

Speaker 9 where I

Speaker 9 and now you know, technology has probably made me dumber,

Speaker 9 but I just 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.

Speaker 4 Yeah, that's that's an impossible one, too. Restaurant, nobody has ever spelled it correctly on the first try.

Speaker 1 You can't spell, you're so bad at spelling that the computer can't figure it out, right?

Speaker 1 That's great. The computer's like, we're trying to help you, dude.
We literally, we were built to help you, but we can't help you.

Speaker 9 Suggested nothing.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 9 And then my cool throne is Chicago. We talked about it earlier.
I know, you know, everyone listening to this, different settings, different weathers, different places. But I just want to say that.

Speaker 9 The number one, pretty much every single conversation I had with anyone that I talked to in the months leading up up to moving to chicago is like i moved to chicago they say chicago's great the winters are terrible like oh man good luck with the winners oh i would love to live in chicago but the winners i couldn't do you're just tempting this for next winter and also we're not out of it's 70 degrees outside i understand it is 70 degrees me and pfc played golf a month ago i understand but you first of all we're not and jake like it could we could we could still get snow we're not done And second of all,

Speaker 1 why wouldn't you just, it's like a no-hitter. It's like a perfect game.

Speaker 1 Why wouldn't you just let it go it's el nino too just let it go so el nino is not going to next winter you're going to we're going to flash forward 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 spit in the face no i just i i don't know it's been incredible there's been there's been there was four bad days and two of them had playoff football on and i was in dallas for all those days oh yeah came back and it was over yeah so i've experienced you know

Speaker 9 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.

Speaker 1 That's my point. Just put this on a clip card.

Speaker 4 Again, it's El Nino. There's like a documented reason why this winter has been awesome.

Speaker 1 Hank doesn't believe in weather.

Speaker 9 That's a fact. I can only speak from experience.
Hank doesn't believe in

Speaker 9 weather in Chicago this winter has been delightful.

Speaker 1 It has been incredible. It's been an incredible winter.
All right, PFT.

Speaker 4 My hot seat is Sidney Sweeney's boobs.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 On the hot seat firmly, Slate wrote an article about her boobs yesterday. Max, this will be a note for you, pervert.

Speaker 4 The headline was, it needs to be said, Sidney Sweeney's boobs are not that big.

Speaker 4 And right now, as we speak, it's got an all-time community notes on it. The community notes just reads, yes, they are.
And it's a link to her Instagram page. Love that.

Speaker 4 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. Let us enjoy it.
We weren't harming anyone.

Speaker 4 This was fun. We were all enjoying a good piece of anatomy, and then they have to get in and mansplain to us.

Speaker 1 In the history of the internet, this has to be the number one lamest well, actually, of all time.

Speaker 6 It probably is.

Speaker 1 Like, there's someone sitting in Slate, and they're like, well, actually,

Speaker 1 fucking

Speaker 1 Sweden has bigger boobs. Shut the fuck up.

Speaker 4 I think in the article it said there were 34 double D's, which I guess seems big. I guess you just have like publicly available stats of boobs now on celebrities.

Speaker 1 That also seems big.

Speaker 4 It's like we all know KD is 6'10. Everyone knows Sidney Sweeney is a 34 double D.
Sure.

Speaker 4 And they're like, well, lots of women have bra sizes and cup sizes that are in the 34 double G category.

Speaker 1 I don't care.

Speaker 4 Sidney Sweeney's got, she's got nice boobs.

Speaker 4 Let us say that Sidney Sweeney has nice boobs.

Speaker 1 Slate sucks.

Speaker 1 Put a note on Slate. We're going to give him a takey.

Speaker 1 Worst take. But worst well, actually of all time.

Speaker 4 Yeah, but maybe the best well, actually, actually, to them.

Speaker 4 Yes, they are. Yeah.
Nuh.

Speaker 4 And then my Cool Throne. I've got a couple on my Cool Throne.
Cool Throne is the Players. The Players is back.
Sawgrass is back. Oh.
It's the Players this week. And I don't know.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 But I'm going to enjoy watching the Players Championship this week. Okay.
It's going to be good.

Speaker 9 It's awesome because it's impossible to watch this weekend.

Speaker 1 No, I agree. It's not A bunch of TVs with a bunch of TVs.

Speaker 12 Yeah.

Speaker 4 You get one on the golf.

Speaker 1 Also, morning. There's not going to be one on the golf

Speaker 1 Friday.

Speaker 1 Definitely not one on the golf on Friday. Probably not one on the golf on Saturday.
Morning. Maybe one on the golf on Sunday.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Sunday's good because there's that little bit of low until selection.

Speaker 1 Definitely no golf Friday or Saturday. PFT also.
I wish it was a different weekend.

Speaker 9 I was thinking that today. Yeah.
Oh, players, and I was like, I'm not all suffering championships.

Speaker 1 That's all I care about.

Speaker 12 Any player who doesn't birdie 17, you can be like.

Speaker 4 I got him. I got him right where I want him.
Yeah. It couldn't be me.
Not at all.

Speaker 4 Well, we talked to Pete Prisk about that. Maybe a little asterisk on the couldn't be me.

Speaker 1 I have something for that. So that was my hot seat.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And 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.
Let me get it up.

Speaker 9 Here it is.

Speaker 1 Hi, Jay.

Speaker 2 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?

Speaker 4 You know, there's been a lot of

Speaker 9 good,

Speaker 9 spirited debate

Speaker 1 amongst our board.

Speaker 1 That's the most obvious yes, everyone has asked for my job.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I'm not just say I'm not fucking leaving.

Speaker 1 Does anyone want you fired? You know, we've had a really good time just chopping it up.

Speaker 8 Talked about it.

Speaker 1 Disagree a lot.

Speaker 4 There's been a wide variety of opinions on that very subject. Yeah.

Speaker 4 I have one, and everyone else has a different opinion. Yeah.
But it's spirited debate. Yes.
That's what this country is built on.

Speaker 1 What was your other cool throne?

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 1 Allegedly. That's bad.

Speaker 4 It's bad. How does that keep happening? It's bad for Boeing.
They're being investigated by the the Department of Justice. We gave you the tip on part of my take like two months ago.

Speaker 4 Don't fly on a Boeing. I've flown on like six Boeings since then.

Speaker 1 I don't even know how to look up what I'm flying on.

Speaker 4 Yeah, but Boeing's in bad shape.

Speaker 4 They got people behind the scenes. He doesn't know.
I know exactly which plane's a Boeing.

Speaker 1 It's a little two-man weave right there.

Speaker 4 If it caught on fire, then it's a Boeing. If it's not, then it's an Airbus.
Got it. But yeah, they're being investigated big time.

Speaker 4 There's behind the scenes videos of people that work at Boeing being like, yeah, you know, like most of the planes, I don't really check that well.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 1 My hot seats is the Yankees, the Janes. Aaron Judge already has an MRI on his stomach.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but that's

Speaker 1 Aaron Judge being hurt.

Speaker 12 Also, Gary Cole.

Speaker 1 What happened to him?

Speaker 12 He's getting evaluated as well.

Speaker 1 All All right. So the Yankees are in the hot seat.
They're fucked. Yeah, that's never good.
Spring training is like, you just want spring training to happen without ever realizing it's happening.

Speaker 1 And then opening day happens and you're like, everyone survived.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 1 It's the Yankees. All right, my cool turn, I got two.
One is Stella Blue Mugs. We got new mugs out, stellbluecoffee.com.
If you see this one, see this?

Speaker 1 It's Max, but he's sad, and it says, my bracket is busted. We got the make your free throws, just cover.
Great new mugs. Go buy some coffee.
You need the coffee. You need the mugs for March Madness.

Speaker 1 So sellbluecoffee.com. My other one is intern season.
So we are going to possibly be hiring a new intern.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I really want a Cowboys fan. That's all I'm going to say.
Yeah, we've been talking about this. I want to die hard Cowboys.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 Like it's already been beaten.

Speaker 9 I mean, I made a bet two years ago, and you guys just pigeonholed me.

Speaker 1 Well, and then you dated Tiffany Gomez.

Speaker 8 You got

Speaker 4 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. Yeah,

Speaker 1 we're back. But I would love a Dallas, maybe SEC.
He went to an SEC school, so we get a little of that. Someone who just really, maybe, maybe like small.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 He can can be very small. We can get a Timon and Pumba thing going with Max.

Speaker 4 Yeah, it'd be good also if he was

Speaker 4 or she just went to, like, they didn't go to college. They're just nothing but Cowboys.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Maybe Cowboys in Alabama.

Speaker 4 Cowboys, Bama.

Speaker 1 Lakers. Either way, we are looking for an intern.
So

Speaker 1 Cowboys fan. For the summer.

Speaker 1 Jake, your hot seat, cool thrown.

Speaker 12 My hot seat is Novak Djokovic.

Speaker 10 Yeah.

Speaker 1 He doesn't count. Not a real turn.

Speaker 12 Stunning loss at Indian Wells, which some call the the fifth major. He was minus 5,000, hashtag DK partner, and lost to Luca Nardy.
And then afterwards, he kind of coached Katem at the net.

Speaker 12 I don't know if you saw this.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he did.

Speaker 1 A little bit. He told him that he's a good player and told him he's got great stuff going on.

Speaker 12 Not exactly. What'd he say?

Speaker 12 He was complaining that

Speaker 12 there should have been hindrance and that.

Speaker 1 Well, should there have been?

Speaker 12 There wasn't. It wasn't called.

Speaker 1 But there should have been. I don't know.
Okay. What the fuck is a hindrance.

Speaker 12 Hindrance is when you stop up, like, Nardi hit the shot and then acted like the point was done.

Speaker 1 So no value. That's false.
It's a hindrance. You should be allowed to do that.

Speaker 1 But it's not in the rules. It's the okie-doke.

Speaker 4 It's not in the rules. Like pretending that the ball went out and then hitting it back.
I like that move.

Speaker 1 So you're saying that Djokovic is on the hot seat for losing even though the other guy cheated.

Speaker 4 Doesn't make sense to me. Well, it's not only that he lost, but also, wasn't the other guy a lucky loser?

Speaker 12 Yeah,

Speaker 4 he shouldn't even be in the tournament.

Speaker 12 Qualify last minute.

Speaker 1 Okay, so, and guess what? He doesn't know how to play tennis. He was doing hindrances.
Also, apparently, Novak complained in Italian.

Speaker 12 This is according to Hubbs.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because he can speak multiple languages.

Speaker 6 Not fair, but well done.

Speaker 1 He can speak.

Speaker 1 Hubbs speaks Italian? No, apparently, Novak said that. Yeah, but you said according to Hubbs?

Speaker 10 Well, he reported it.

Speaker 1 And Hubbs speaks Italian? Sure. I don't think so.
So

Speaker 4 he said it's illegal.

Speaker 1 He's not poking holes through this whole fucking thing.

Speaker 4 He said it's illegal, but good job.

Speaker 1 He played a Joe Schmo off the streets that he shouldn't have even been playing who was cheating. And then

Speaker 1 now we're judging a guy who can speak, who's bilingual, probably more than bilingual. Plus two, right?

Speaker 12 This is a tough loss. Mine is 5,000, hashtag DK Partner.
You rarely see that.

Speaker 1 Who cares? It's tennis in March. Who cares? He's probably wanted to watch Conference Tournament Week.

Speaker 1 If we're being honest, that was smart by Joker. Yeah.

Speaker 12 My cool throne is Trace Jackson Davis.

Speaker 4 He somehow posterized Wembin Yama last night did you guys see this yes I don't know if that's I feel like everyone gets poster at some point but but Wemby yeah no I know it wasn't just the posterization it was the it was the announcer afterwards where he goes he just put the entire nation of France into the basket

Speaker 1 that's pretty good that is pretty good I'm gonna watch it I just I feel like posters

Speaker 1 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. They're both rookies.

Speaker 4 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

Speaker 4 Jesse Ventura about serving as his running mate. Mr.
Kennedy confirmed on Tuesday that the two men were at the top of his list.

Speaker 1 So this is a layup. So this is Rodgers.
Rogers doesn't have in two conversations at the same time.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't know. Wait, so what I heard, half-heard was

Speaker 1 what I said.

Speaker 9 Yeah, he drunk. Hey, bro.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 4 Kennedy said that he had been speaking with Mr. Rogers pretty continuously for the past month.

Speaker 4 So it sounds like there's mutual interest there. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And I don't think it's going to go anywhere. Well, actually, you know, the Jets.
The Jets. It is.
Yeah, he's his running mate. That's facts.
You're right. Musk.
He had it first. Musk.

Speaker 1 No, no, Leroy had it first. Leroy, you told me first.

Speaker 4 No, Leroy told me to tell you first. Got it.

Speaker 1 And you did have it like two weeks ago.

Speaker 4 Please credit Leroy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's get to our interviews. Let's do Johnny Fanta, and then we got Pete Prisco talking some NFL.

Speaker 1 PFT, you got a quick word from one of our sponsors.

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Speaker 4 And now here's Johnny Fanta.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 the big

Speaker 1 doing the biggies, covering the big ease tournament in New York all week.

Speaker 1 By the way, Johnny Fanta, I have to just say, we did a Rick Petino 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.

Speaker 1 But you are the best. You cover

Speaker 1 all college basketball, but the Big East is your thing.

Speaker 1 We're going to talk all the college tournaments, conference championship this week, but I want to start with the Big East, your bread and butter.

Speaker 1 UConn, anyone beating them?

Speaker 11 Man,

Speaker 11 I want to say no.

Speaker 11 And last year, remember,

Speaker 11 we all were ahead of the curve here, right here on PMT. We said UConn could be that team that makes that run.

Speaker 1 Yes. Credit to us.

Speaker 11 But exactly. Credit to you guys.
But for the sake of being different, let's go through the potential roadmap here this week of the Big East Tournament.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 The three losses are... at Kansas to Seton Hall.

Speaker 11 Klingen got hurt during the game, and then Creighton had another worldly shooting performance.

Speaker 11 But what's interesting about this Big East tournament is we could get Friday night at Madison Square Garden,

Speaker 11 UConn, provided they beat either Xavier or Butler, they will, I think. And then either St.
John's or Seton Hall.

Speaker 11 If it's Rick Petino versus Dan Hurley Friday night at the garden, that is.

Speaker 1 That's must-watch. That's must-watch.
I like that. And we also have in the first round the Cooley Bowl part two.
No, part three. Part three.
I know you're a friend of Ed Cooley,

Speaker 1 but Providence has floundered recently.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 So you've got to be excited for another Cooley Bowl.

Speaker 11 Well, Wednesday, yes, I am excited for another Cooley Bowl.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 It's a crowd-watching experience, like to the few people that wear DePaul gear.

Speaker 11 But it's Xavier and Butler, but then that coolly balls the headliner.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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,

Speaker 11 you're either for us or against us.

Speaker 11 And on the other side, you have a guy that

Speaker 11 leaves for another school within the league that's never happened, and his team's won two games, two big East wins.

Speaker 11 But, guys, everything tells me this is not just going to be another Georgetown type of game where they go down losing.

Speaker 11 This, to me, is going to be, is going to provide drama on day one of the Big East tournament. Providence has to win.
They have to win to stay alive. They're on the the bubble.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 1 I like it, though.

Speaker 4 I like the bad blood. It is really, it's good for the sport.

Speaker 1 It's good for the league.

Speaker 11 Yeah, it's always been good.

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 We're not supposed to be soft here. Okay,

Speaker 11 March is a time, like, here's the deal. No matter what side you fall on with LSU in South Carolina on Sunday, we were all talking about it.

Speaker 4 Yep.

Speaker 11 I'm okay with fighting. I'm okay with a little arguing.
You're not supposed to like each other.

Speaker 11 Let's get after it here this March. I don't mind it.
If I see a steel chair, we see a steel chair.

Speaker 4 Let's let's go yeah i love that i love that march is yeah it's not for it's for hard people it's a hard month for hard people put your big boy pants on yeah um speaking of big boys and pants uh max's villanova wildcats uh do you give them how many games do they have to win to uh to get an at-large bid

Speaker 11 well i'm a big boy and i'll have pants on this week and um

Speaker 11 you know villanova

Speaker 11 Max, I'm going to tell you right now, it's now or never here.

Speaker 10 Yeah, I don't like your body language, right?

Speaker 11 Yeah, I know.

Speaker 11 It's like, this is like the conversation between, you know, dad and the kids when things haven't been going exactly right throughout the week, when you come home and, you know, it's Wednesday and somehow the whole box of Snyder's pretzels is gone by Wednesday, but he did shop, they did shopping for the whole week, and you're out of food in the pantry.

Speaker 11 So here's the deal, Max. It feels like your pantry is running low right now.

Speaker 11 Okay.

Speaker 11 So it's time for those pants to get expanded here and for Villanova to show that that they've got something left in the tank.

Speaker 11 At the end of the day, for Villanova, you've got to go out, you got to beat DePaul, and you got to show up Thursday against Marquette,

Speaker 11 who still very well could not have Tyler Kolick.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 11 Kohlik's got an oblique injury. If Kolick 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.

Speaker 11 This roster was worth a couple million dollars.

Speaker 11 $3 million roster. If they miss the NCA tournament, that is an abject failure.
They got to win on Thursday over Marquette, especially if Kolak doesn't play, guys. He's got an oblique injury.

Speaker 11 I think Marquette might hold on to him for the NCA tournament. This season for Marquette was always about making a deep NCA tournament run.

Speaker 11 Fun fact: Shaka Smart has not made it to the second weekend of the NCA tournament, guys, since

Speaker 11 VCU. Really?

Speaker 11 That's it.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 11 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 Kolik to do that.

Speaker 11 I don't see Kolick playing in this Big East tournament. That could change.
He could decide I'm going to play and ride it out. If he does, that's tough for Villanova.

Speaker 11 But Nova better win two games in the Big East tournament. Two games for Bill.

Speaker 4 He threw down the gauntlet.

Speaker 1 Because DePaul doesn't count as a win.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 11 I'm not sure what DePaul counts for right now.

Speaker 1 He doesn't count for anything.

Speaker 10 Yeah, I've been saying it all week. Got to beat Marquette.
I wish we were playing Creighton. I think we match up better against Creighton, but if Kohlic's not playing.

Speaker 10 I thought Kolek was going to play, so I like you think.

Speaker 1 I told you he wasn't, Max.

Speaker 14 Listen to me.

Speaker 1 I told you he wasn't going to play.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 1 That was my thing.

Speaker 11 This particular season, playing DePaul, is like a cutcoat presentation.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
It's brutal. They're very, very bad.
All right. So that's Big East.
Tell me what conference

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 11 Yeah, I can't wait to watch the SEC.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 11 Because I'm rooting for a Kentucky Tennessee round three.

Speaker 1 Yes. Yep.
Yes.

Speaker 11 Last year on this show, he was critical of Cal

Speaker 11 and said they give me Dallas Cowboys vibes

Speaker 11 in general.

Speaker 11 I think this is his best chance to now break through.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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 Calaparry.

Speaker 1 None. I like this.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 He has done a great job with the Gamecocks. Our guy, Bruce Pearl,

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 We could get Kentucky, Alabama, and the SEC semis first to 100 wins. Alabama is not playing an ounce of defense, but I love it.
I want Kentucky, Tennessee, round three.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I think that'd be good. That'd be good for the country to watch that.
Is there any chance that Dalton Connect gets National Player of the Year, or is that just Zach Eady?

Speaker 11 Well, unfortunately for everybody else, not named Zach Eady,

Speaker 11 it was locked up the moment that he said he was coming back to college.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 11 His productivity is just,

Speaker 11 it's really not, you can't put it fully into perspective. Like,

Speaker 11 and whether it's fair or not, like, 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.

Speaker 11 He, he is, get this, in my opinion, you guys, I've pushed back on me if you want. Jake, whoever, push back on me.

Speaker 11 I think Eady's dominance is the most most over a span of time that's these two years since Tyler Hansborough.

Speaker 1 Hmm. Okay.

Speaker 1 I'm trying to think.

Speaker 1 Doug McDermott was very good for a long time at Creighton, but that was, you know, Missouri Valley, the couple years. I love Jimmer Ferdette.

Speaker 4 Well, so, yeah, because if you're dominant, you don't really, you don't stick around for two years. Yeah.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 11 Forget,

Speaker 11 Hansborough was 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.

Speaker 4 Hansborough should have played for Duke. He just always gave me, like, he's got the Duke vibe to him.

Speaker 1 Oh, I liked it, though, because he just beat them.

Speaker 4 Yeah, it's like, we got one of your own. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know what's crazy?

Speaker 11 You know what's crazy? Hansborough hates Kentucky more than he hates Duke.

Speaker 1 Ooh. Why?

Speaker 11 He can't stand Big Blue Nation.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 You know what? That's a nugget, but that was a great nugget.

Speaker 4 That's the meanest thing that he could possibly do to Duke.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 1 It's the madman mean. I don't even think about you.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 Hey, John, but I want to talk more with college hoops, but I just, I don't know, I don't know if the first time you came on the show, we did like a deep dive into the history behind Jon Fanta.

Speaker 4 I'm just curious, like, when you were growing up, were you always a die-hard college hoops fan? or were you, like, a sports fan?

Speaker 4 And this is where you found your lane in broadcasting, or has it always been college hoops?

Speaker 11 It's where I found my lane,

Speaker 4 which, which

Speaker 11 lane, now, now I do some bowling.

Speaker 1 Yes. Yeah.
I watched you do bowling. It was electric.

Speaker 11 Did you like it? Yes.

Speaker 1 Absolutely. Anything you do, I'm in Johnny Fanta.
You know that.

Speaker 11 I appreciate that, Dan. I appreciate that.

Speaker 11 I got to tell you what I love about bowling, like 10 seconds,

Speaker 11 I could never believe how much booze is being drank.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 You ever try to bowl sober? It sucks. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You're in a bowling alley.

Speaker 11 So how did I get caught on? Well, so I grew up on the west side of Cleveland and a huge Cleveland sports fan. Still am.
Browns, Indians, now Guardians, Cavs.

Speaker 11 You know,

Speaker 11 I'm seven when LeBron's drafted.

Speaker 11 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

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 1 Love that. He's a great trivia answer, too.
Ton of dingers. Yep.

Speaker 11 Mashed the baseball out of Jacobs Field. And Tom Hamilton, Joe Tate, Jim Donovan, the voice of the Browns.
Like, Cleveland has great voices. So that inspired me.

Speaker 11 Like, at the age of six, I'm just, 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.

Speaker 11 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

Speaker 11 27 on two,

Speaker 11 and I was the left guard. He would audible to 44 on one.
His life would flash before his eyes. I am responsible for two St.
Ignatius quarterbacks separated shoulders.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 And he looks at me and he says, you know, I really like you as a person. He goes, you're a lot better at talking about the game than you are playing it.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 A year later, guys, it's 25 degrees at Fawcett Stadium in Canton, where they play the Hall of Fame game.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 1 How about that? That's awesome. That's a great story.

Speaker 4 Yeah. And so you just, you rolled with it.
At first, were you like, I really want to keep playing football? Or were you like, he's right. I'm glad I don't have to do this anymore.

Speaker 11 He was right, and I was tired of running and getting my ass kicked. Yeah.

Speaker 11 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 left and right.

Speaker 11 That was me as a left guard.

Speaker 1 That's a great story. I love it.
And now look at you now. I mean, this has been.

Speaker 4 You might be the most passionate man in sports media.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You love the game.

Speaker 11 I appreciate that. I mean, when you have stories like James Madison University,

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 But when you've got Rick Betino 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.

Speaker 1 And I love being part of it. I love being part of it.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 Is that true, Johnny?

Speaker 1 I don't. I'm not buying that one.

Speaker 11 How could that be true?

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 11 Yeah, but it's like, it's the word. I mean, it's smart, because can you get teed up doing that?

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, you're right. He's smart.

Speaker 1 He's learned the loophole here. That's actually a smart way to do it.

Speaker 1 You must be like loving it, though, because you mentioned Danny Hurley, who's a friend of this program.

Speaker 1 But the Big East, to become a true basketball conference, again, they needed these characters as coaches. Because I always think that college basketball, I love college basketball.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And you have those guys now all in place.

Speaker 11 It's the characters, it's the coach. And as the ACC ACC tries to figure out Washington, D.C.

Speaker 11 or Greensboro, where should we, like the ACC is doing their conference tournament in Washington, D.C.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 11 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 Petino, with Hurley.

Speaker 1 You're right, Dan.

Speaker 11 You're absolutely right in the throwback personalities. Like, Sean Miller, he was on afraid a couple weeks ago.
He's like, there's a tier system in the Big East, and I'm not in Tier 1.

Speaker 11 So that should tell you who gets to be in Tier 1, you know, indirectly taking shots. Greg McDermott's one of the good guys.
Just gets extended at Creighton.

Speaker 11 Do you know how many places would like to be able to hire him? Shotgah Smart's all fired and fueled up. And Kim English is feisty.
Don't forget about Shaheen Holloway at Seton Hall.

Speaker 11 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,

Speaker 11 and the Big Ten, frankly, are trying to say, we're going to take control of all this stuff.

Speaker 11 To me,

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 Because if UConn wins a title this year, that would mean the Big East would own four of the last eight national titles in college basketball.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 It's a great point.

Speaker 1 You made me think of something.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 11 It makes me think, should coaches be allowed to play three possessions of defense a game?

Speaker 1 Yes, love that. Yes, just random three possessions.

Speaker 11 Who would be the best defender in college basketball?

Speaker 4 Shire would probably flop a lot. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Shaka Smart would be, I mean, he'd be up there. Penny, you get Penny out there.
I think Will Wade.

Speaker 4 I think Will Wade could still bang with the best of them.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 11 Well, Will Wade could make a strong-ass offer as they're coming up the court.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
Jawan. I mean, we know Jawan wants to fight.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, he'd get involved.

Speaker 11 Five fouls. You get five.
No, Shaka,

Speaker 11 I can report that

Speaker 11 the conference has done their part.

Speaker 11 There was a message. Now, here's the thing.
There was a message sent. Now, whether or not

Speaker 11 that's going to be translated here,

Speaker 11 he's still on the court.

Speaker 11 I don't know what you do there other than maybe we implement a rule

Speaker 11 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 on five. But I don't know, I mean, I don't know how you contain Shaka Shaka Smart.

Speaker 11 And when Big East Defensive Player of the Year came out, Ryan Kalkbrenner, 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 Morning.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 11 A lot of people said Shaka Smart was robbed.

Speaker 8 Yeah, he was.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 4 Or just shove him. Yeah.
Just knock him over.

Speaker 4 I thought about it more.

Speaker 4 The answer to your question, which coach would you want playing defense, I think it would be either Bruce Pearl or maybe Kelvin Sampson, uh, because they would just sweat all over the floor, yeah, 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 offensive would just trip.

Speaker 4 I think that, I think that would be great, but uh, but yeah, Shock is out there, he's like going hand-down, man-down on defense. It's crazy.

Speaker 11 The guy's energetic. What can I, what can I say? I, I still, now I'm fully adjusted to Shaka Smart's hair.

Speaker 11 I've got, I've gotten fully adjusted to that.

Speaker 1 Now, uh,

Speaker 11 like, yeah, I mean, here's the deal: The NCA tournament's stricter with the coaches on the floor. So, or at least I would think that they are.

Speaker 11 These officials, like, that's my one issue with this week versus next week.

Speaker 11 If I have one issue, the officials are going to call games differently next week because during the NCA tournament, they're also trying to advance to the next round. They get evaluated in every round.

Speaker 11 Things get tighter. These conferences, these conference officials, they're capping off their conference season.
They know these teams. The players know each other.

Speaker 11 They're going to let them play a little bit. That's That's why we see more and more whistles next week in the NCAAs.
These guys are tight as can be.

Speaker 4 I didn't know that. I didn't know that the refs were also trying to advance, too.

Speaker 8 They got a job to do.

Speaker 4 Yeah, they got a job to do.

Speaker 11 Some refs are sent home.

Speaker 1 They're refing for their job. Yeah.

Speaker 11 Yeah, there is a 16 over a one for the officials, too.

Speaker 4 I like that. So you mentioned the ACC.
It does suck that it's not in Greensboro. That tournament should be in Greensboro every single year.

Speaker 4 It means so much more. It's like the tradition behind it.
All the good teams from that area.

Speaker 4 It's the one thing that Greensboro still had going for it. Let them keep it.
It's a great place. That and Stamy's BBQ.
Two great things about Greensboro. But it should not be in D.C.

Speaker 4 Nobody cares about outside of Georgetown, which doesn't even play in the conference.

Speaker 4 D.C. 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.

Speaker 4 In North Carolina, basketball is like a way of life down there.

Speaker 11 Yeah, it is. It should be in Greensboro.
And also, it's going to be a Duke, North Carolina final, in all likelihood.

Speaker 11 Guys, the ACC, Virginias, the three, they might not even make the NCA tournaments. I know.

Speaker 1 It's crazy. It's crazy.
Do you think, so what was your take on the Duke, the John Shire apologizing, fans throwing stuff? Oh, we got to ask. You're pro court storming, correct? Yes.
Okay, thank you.

Speaker 1 That was enough of a court storming talk.

Speaker 1 Do we think John Shire, I know he's signing incredible classes. I think the 2025 class is like the best ever a Duke.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 that was a tough loss for them. And it feels like UNC's got their number a little bit right now.

Speaker 11 UNC's got their number. They've got their number and they think they've won three of the last four at Cameron Indoor.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 11 But it's so weird that a coach is apologizing to students. Yes.

Speaker 1 Yeah. They're all weirdos and dorks.
You can just say it. They are.

Speaker 11 I mean, I just don't understand. Like the notion that a coach

Speaker 11 is going to go up to undergraduate students who 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.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Get the boosters on the phone.
Don't owe the students anything.

Speaker 11 At the end of the day, here's the deal: all right?

Speaker 11 At Duke, John Shire,

Speaker 11 this second year, they've won 19 of their last 23 games.

Speaker 11 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 the NCA tournament?

Speaker 11 They need to make the second weekend of this NCA tournament. If they do not,

Speaker 11 where the measuring stick is at Duke, you've got to be able to make NCA tournament runs. Like, yeah, he's going to enter next year having real pressure on himself to make the second weekend.

Speaker 11 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 a Duke Blue Devil because he is such a fun player.

Speaker 11 But yeah, the pressure's on here. They still have a really good team.
They should make the second weekend in the NCAA tournament. But Carolina's got their number.

Speaker 11 Carolina, to me, is no question a top-five team in college oops can get back to the national title game.

Speaker 1 Oh, I like that. I like that.

Speaker 4 So,

Speaker 4 who can get to the national title game this year? I'm assuming you said UConn already, so we'll put them in there.

Speaker 4 UNC. And then you mentioned Kentucky.
Their defense,

Speaker 4 Kentucky over Tennessee.

Speaker 1 They've been playing a little better, though.

Speaker 11 Yeah, I've got Tennessee. I would take Tennessee before I took Kentucky.
Okay. I would.
You know why, Tennessee?

Speaker 11 Always known for their defensive ability. They've got Vescovy, Vescovy, and Ziggler back.

Speaker 11 To me, though, now they've got a guy who can be a Doug McDermott, Jimmer for Dead type guy in Connect. Dalton Connect can be that type of figure for their team.
Tennessee's bugaboo

Speaker 11 late in games in the past has been they don't have a 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.

Speaker 11 You're going to connect, and he can overcome any defense. You can't just face guard connect.

Speaker 11 He'll break right through that, he'll be able to score.

Speaker 11 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 the Tennessee, I believe that Kentucky, I believe the Carolina.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 4 Okay, so not like last year. We're not going to see crazy Cinderella runs.

Speaker 11 I think we could get one

Speaker 11 with the right region. I just don't see it.
I think, like, here's the thing. Connecticut has been an absolute wagon.

Speaker 11 I'd be surprised if they're, I'd be downright shocked if if they're not on the Elite Eight. And I'd be really, I'd be surprised if they didn't make it to the Final Four.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 I really like Creighton.

Speaker 11 I think Creighton's seven and one in their last eight games. And Shireman, Alexander, and Calkbrenner are quite the big three.

Speaker 11 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 parry.

Speaker 11 Like, guys, I don't think there's any difference between six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 seeds this year. I don't.
I think there's a clear top. I think from there, it's a total crapshoot.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's a good point on Creighton.
Creighton's been like a top, you know, five, top 10 team in the last month and a half. They've been playing great ball.

Speaker 1 Real quick, out west, Arizona, obviously the class of the Pac-12.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Do you see Arizona winning the Pac-12 and can they go deep? Because this is a team that has a lot of hype.

Speaker 1 They've played some big games this year. They've been tested.
They've won some big games. But it does feel like something's a little off, especially you saw them falter on Saturday night to USC.

Speaker 11 I don't trust them.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 11 I have trust issues with them. I think it's all or nothing, and the nothing is bad.

Speaker 1 That's a good way to put it.

Speaker 11 The nothing's really bad. And, you know, they lost to Princeton last year in the NCA tournament.
And I don't know if those mental demons are totally away. So,

Speaker 11 you know, Tommy Lloyd has done a sensational job as a regular season coach. It takes a different, you've got to have a a different set of stones to win in March.

Speaker 11 And

Speaker 11 right now with Tommy Lloyd, like I'm fearful, I'm fearful, is he

Speaker 11 like a Brad Underwood? Does he have some painter where he's always got successful regular season teams? Even if Fran McCaffrey comes to mind. But then they get to the NCA tournament.

Speaker 11 And like with Arizona, and Lloyd is, like,

Speaker 11 It's probably not fair to him because he's still a relatively newer head coach and he's only 49 years of age.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 Because everybody said Caleb sucks and Caleb's terrible and Caleb's the reason why

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 If I was going to buy a West Coast program during this NCA tournament, I would buy some stock in St. Mary's.

Speaker 11 I like Aiden Mahaney quite a bit. And guys, I'm in on that Mountain West.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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 NCA tournament.

Speaker 11 And if they can get in there, Richard Petino and New Mexico, if they find a way in with Jalen House and Jamal Mashburn, could be in a first-four game.

Speaker 11 Yes, we could get Richard Petino versus his father, Rick, in a first four game in Dayton. That would be juicy.

Speaker 1 I love that.

Speaker 4 I love that little Oedipus Rex action going on.

Speaker 1 I like Big Cat a lot.

Speaker 4 And Big Cat just started watching the Mountain West like two weeks ago.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's never seen a game.

Speaker 4 He's falling in love with them hard.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's crazy. I didn't even know they played basketball out there.

Speaker 11 It's good. That league is a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 Oh, it's a lot of fun. It's good.

Speaker 11 And it's great. You know why? Because I like seeing a different league get tournament units.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 1 Do it, John.

Speaker 11 Josh Schurtz in Indiana State. I hope you make it.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I like that.

Speaker 4 It feels like it should happen, right? I don't think we're going to be surprised when it does.

Speaker 11 It should because the high major bubble is weaker this year. Yeah.

Speaker 8 Weaker.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And it's, it just, like, if you ask me who I want to see play and like the what March is about and the Cinderella stories and all these things, I would rather see Indiana State play than Virginia or

Speaker 1 no offense to Providence or Nova, like Colorado, Iowa, like no offense to these teams, but like they've, you know, they're, yeah, they play tough schedule, they play in big conferences, but I want to see the Cinderella story.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 11 Right now, if you put the four best mid-majors up against the four high majors that are on the bubble, you know, at-larges, I guarantee you the mid-majors will go at least three and one.

Speaker 4 All right, so give me your top four mid-majors. Creighton?

Speaker 4 We just love saying Creighton. Saga?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 I hope if Princeton makes it again, just take him in the first round. They're going to win a first-round game.

Speaker 1 I like that.

Speaker 11 That team is back. It's not fluky.
Like, guys, Mitch Henderson,

Speaker 11 the job he's done at Princeton is nuts. It's nuts.
That team is balanced. They got a guard named Xavian Lee.
When we get off, look up his YouTube pilots or I'll send them to you.

Speaker 11 You got to watch this kid play.

Speaker 11 He's like a mid-major Curry. He's got that type of game.

Speaker 11 I'm in on McNeese and Will Wade. I believe in them.
I believe in Shahada Wells. I think that they're capable.

Speaker 11 I like the winner of the mid-American. Yeah, Maxion can happen in the NCA tournament.
If Toledo can get there, I'm in on the Rockets. Don't sleep on Enrique Freeman and Akron.

Speaker 11 And then UC Irvine, Anne Eaters, really good defensive team, balanced enough to pull off that. You know, that 957 Thursday night game on True TV? That's got UC Irvine written all over it.
Okay.

Speaker 4 I like that. I'm going to remember those.
You mentioned JMU earlier, and I'm a fan of yours, Johnny.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 Can you speak on that about just how it's become a thing now where

Speaker 4 big schools will not schedule a dangerous mid-major? Is there a way to get around this?

Speaker 11 Well, the way to go to get around it is that you respect and look at these issues more and more face-to-face.

Speaker 11 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 NCA tournament.

Speaker 11 That's the only situation where I am okay with the NCA tournament expanding, and it can expand for me no more than 76 teams.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 There's no way for us to tell Alabama and to tell Yukon and to tell Florida and to tell Texas that they need to schedule Indiana State or James Madison. There's just not.
Right.

Speaker 4 There's no upside for them.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 11 But you know what the upside for us is, guys?

Speaker 11 And I feel that it's our duty. And I know

Speaker 11 a John Rothstein. I know

Speaker 11 an Andy Katz, people that cover college basketball.

Speaker 1 Rico Bosco.

Speaker 11 Rico Bosco.

Speaker 11 Everybody. I'll shout it to the moon and back.

Speaker 1 Do not

Speaker 11 exclude the JMUs of the world. The St.
Peters of the world. The Fairleigh Dickinsons of the world.

Speaker 8 The Princetons of the world.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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 NCA tournament.
It doesn't need any fixing.

Speaker 11 If you want to add a couple more teams, because you got to widen your wallet,

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 And do we really want to be doing that this time of year? Don't significantly alter the best postseason in sports.

Speaker 11 I beg of you, college football people that want to now change up March Madness, stay in your damn lane.

Speaker 1 Yes. Get him, Johnny.
Yes. I feel so inspired right now.

Speaker 4 I want to salute you. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You kind of give me vibes. Remember when Dwight Schroed, like people of

Speaker 1 the world unite, and he did the whole speech?

Speaker 4 Blood turns the wheels of history.

Speaker 1 That's how I felt right there.

Speaker 11 I'm passionate about it. I don't want to see March Madness is the best thing college basketball has going for it.

Speaker 1 Yep.

Speaker 11 We can't F this up. Yep.

Speaker 1 I agree. I agree.
All right. So, Johnny, I got one last question for you.
We drove 1,700 miles of old Highway 61, the whole country top to bottom, just to prove one thing.

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Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 I don't care if they go on a little run here.

Speaker 1 They're not going to,

Speaker 1 something in their resume is going to falter.

Speaker 11 I'm going to go with Texas AM and Iowa. Yeah.
They're going to be on the outside looking in of this equation.

Speaker 1 Iowa

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 Iowa, Ohio State in the 710.

Speaker 11 Ohio State. Yeah, Mark Titus is listening somewhere.
Could make the NCA tournament out of nowhere because

Speaker 11 if they beat Iowa, guys, after that, they have Illinois. If they beat Illinois, they'd have 21 wins, a win over Illinois.

Speaker 11 on a neutral, a win over Purdue, a win over Alabama, and a win at Michigan State. Could Chris Holtman get fired during the the season and Jake Diebler make the NCA tournament?

Speaker 11 It is possible, but I do think the Hawkeyes, and I think Buzz Williams is going to be an upset buzz on selection Sunday.

Speaker 1 Man, okay.

Speaker 1 Ohio State's crazy. They've gotten so hot.

Speaker 1 Their season was completely dead. And they're playing great ball right now.

Speaker 1 I like those answers, though. Those are good answers.
The one thing I would say for Iowa, they don't have any bad losses, I don't think. So that helps them.

Speaker 1 They're not like a Nova that lost to like Penn and Drexel, that kind of thing.

Speaker 4 You were saying that Iowa State to you feels like they don't have a chance to be in that conversation.

Speaker 4 It sounds, so in NFL terms, if we're watching like week, I don't know, 10, 12 of the season, the Miami Dolphins can't beat a good team. We call them frauds.

Speaker 4 You're not saying that Iowa State's a fraud, are you?

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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?

Speaker 11 Like, there's a lot of teams we say, yeah, they're second weekend potential. Like, like,

Speaker 11 you know, Rothstein does this all the time. It's like second weekend caliber.
Well, there's, how many teams are there? 45 that are second weekend caliber? That's March Madness.

Speaker 11 To me, they're in the in-between. You know,

Speaker 11 they're a good restaurant. They're good for a burger or a sandwich.
But if you're looking for a medium steak, I'm not going to go to Ames looking for that this particular season. I like their team.

Speaker 11 I don't love their team enough to say this is where I'm going to

Speaker 11 propose to my wife.

Speaker 1 Is Ultaburger going to stay? He's a good coach.

Speaker 11 Yes, because of the contract. Okay.
It's too big of a buyout.

Speaker 1 Got it. Got it.

Speaker 11 It's like an absurd amount of money.

Speaker 1 He's a good coach. He's a very good coach.

Speaker 11 Yeah,

Speaker 11 he's done a marvelous job at a place that's not the easiest to win. Like, they have a great fan base, but in the Big 12,

Speaker 11 they're not top three or four in terms of the total package. He's made them really consistent, really good defensively.

Speaker 11 And this year with Tamin Lipsey, Keyshawn Gilbert, the supporting cast of guards that they've got, I'm really impressed with the job that he's done.

Speaker 11 Milan Monsilovich is one of the better freshmen in America, and he plays for the Iowa State Cyclones.

Speaker 4 I think you just like saying Milan Monsilovich. Yeah, that was good.
That's a fun one. That was really good.

Speaker 1 I love saying it.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 11 And I'm partnering up with one Jim Calhoun this week.

Speaker 1 Oh. What are you doing?

Speaker 11 He's going to be with me for a lot of those interviews and

Speaker 11 a lot of those breakdowns.

Speaker 4 That's going to be. I love it.

Speaker 1 Tell him we say hello. Tell him we say hello.

Speaker 11 I will tell him you said hello. And fun fact, apparently, he has not talked with Coach Petino in about a decade.

Speaker 1 Oh, yes. Oh, I love it.
I love the rivalry.

Speaker 4 Grumpy old men. It's perfect.

Speaker 1 Fireworks.

Speaker 11 Maybe we'll get a dime back.

Speaker 1 Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 All right. Thanks, Johnny.

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Speaker 7 And now for something completely different.

Speaker 1 Okay, we now welcome on our very good friend,

Speaker 1 Pete Prisco. We love Pete.
Pete's our guy.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 7 Well, I'll tell you who won free agency is the running backs. Yeah.
And that goes against everything that I believe in when it comes to team building. So, um, but you know, they got paid.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 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

Speaker 7 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 money and guys, you know, kudos to the running backs.

Speaker 7 Even though they're really on the surface, one or two year deals, you still got paid for a year or two.

Speaker 4 I'll tell you who lost NFL free agency was Pete Prisco because running backs got paid and Russell Wilson got another job.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 All your, all your boys coming up, Pete.

Speaker 7 Well, you know what, though? I've been right about running backs for 20 years, and I was right about Russell Wilson going way back to when he was in Seattle. Okay.

Speaker 7 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 50s Dynasty Browns were the only other team to do that.

Speaker 7 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, he's been a bad quarterback.

Speaker 1 All right. So we'll get to Russ, but sticking on running backs just for one last question.

Speaker 1 Can you rank which running backs moves you liked and which are like, I don't know what they're thinking because we had obviously you know josh jacobs to green bay saquon to philly deandre swift to chicago aaron jones to the vikings uh who else who am i forgetting uh pollard to the titans

Speaker 7 derrick henry's 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 and that kind of thing.

Speaker 7 I don't think Pollard's that much of a change-up back. He wasn't good last year.
That one surprised me a little bit.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 But is Josh Jacobs a better back for the Packers offense than Aaron Jones is? And the answer to that question is no. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I agree. Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 1 That one was a little weird to me because I, you know, Josh Jacobs has had some good seasons, but Aaron Jones is younger, I believe.

Speaker 4 I think they're the same age.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I think they're the same age, but Aaron Jones is like the centerpiece of that locker room. Like everybody respects Aaron Jones in Green Bay.

Speaker 1 Oh, I think actually Josh Jacobs is younger. That's my fault.
Yeah, he's younger. I was going to jump his hate.
Yeah.

Speaker 7 Yeah. 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.
And let's be real.

Speaker 7 They're going to build that thing around love and the receivers. I mean, they have all those receivers and tight ends.
They're going to build it around them.

Speaker 7 So 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.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 Is there something personal there behind the scenes?

Speaker 1 Because you would think that you would give him an opportunity to have a go at it beforehand, right?

Speaker 7 Well, he's going to end up in Houston, isn't he? I think that's the latest is going to end up with the Texans, which I think is a good situation for him.

Speaker 7 I mean, look, if you're going to get 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

Speaker 7 to have a threat to throw the football when you run it. So I think that would be a good opportunity for him.

Speaker 6 So, Pete, you do.

Speaker 7 But yeah, they kind of handled it poorly. But remember, they've asked him a couple different times about taking a pay cut.
And I think he's balked a little bit.

Speaker 4 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, can you send me to Texas where there's no state income tax?

Speaker 4 That's a good compromise to me.

Speaker 4 Austin Eckler to the Commanders.

Speaker 4 I've watched, you know, I watched every Chargers game last year, but I don't watch the tape like you, Pete. So you watch the tape on Austin Eckler.

Speaker 4 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 out of the backfield.

Speaker 4 Is this a good signing or a bad signing for the commies?

Speaker 7 No, I think it's a good signing. He can still catch the ball out of the backfield.
He can still get you.

Speaker 7 You know, he's not going to carry it 15 times, 20 times between the tackles, I don't think, anymore, but you you don't ask him to do that you're going to get him in the passing game you're going to particularly if you have a young quarterback you want to have a threat out of the backfield who can catch the football and and they're obviously going to have a young quarterback so i think that makes sense uh from that standpoint is he the same runner he was a couple years ago probably not but you know backs have a tendency as you get older they start slowing down and the 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 all right they're slowing down and then they go right off the cliff cliff.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they get blown out, yeah, right, yeah.

Speaker 7 So, you hope that's not the case. He might have a year or two left in him, okay.

Speaker 1 So, um, so there was the one Austin Eckler thing, there was a guy who tweeted out like Austin Eckler highlights, uh, uh, 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.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and it was like, shit, still got it, That was a long time ago.

Speaker 4 Still got it, man. You know what's going to be nice, though?

Speaker 4 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 football. So that's kind of cool.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Like perennial first rounder.

Speaker 7 And again, if you're going to have, if you're going to have a quarterback who's, you know, a rookie possibly starting, probably starting, then you want to have your outlets.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 I think that makes a ton of sense for Washington. I really do.

Speaker 4 One signing I thought was really good, much to my dismay and chagrin, was Saquon Barkley to the Eagles. Saquon's dead to Tiki Barber.
He's excommunicated.

Speaker 4 I think it's a perfect fit. I think that this is a good fit for the Eagles.
Dream team, back on.

Speaker 7 Yeah, I wouldn't go that far. I mean, look, I like Saquon Barkley.
I think he's a really good player, and he's been really limited by what he's had around him because teams load up against the box.

Speaker 7 I mean, the quarterback in the passing game won very good.

Speaker 7 The receivers don't really scare down the field when you're at the Giants. So, yeah, he's a good back.
He can do a lot of things. But look at the Eagles' defense.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 And spending money on a back isn't usually what they do.

Speaker 7 That's why it's so out of character for them.

Speaker 1 Yeah. All right.
So the other big signing, which will start a domino effect, is Kirk Cousins to the Falcons.

Speaker 1 I'm very curious what your thoughts are because I like the move and the fact, well, congrats to Kirk Cousins. He's gotten paid over $400 million in his career.
It's incredible.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 But is there not a belief that like you're now setting yourself up if you're the Falcons? Kirk Cousins is a good quarterback.

Speaker 1 He's good enough that he'll never be like 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.

Speaker 7 Bingo.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 He's won a lot of games. He's put up a lot of yards.

Speaker 7 But when it comes time in the crunch time, and his track record shows 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 him he's going to be a good quarterback for them uh but does he put him 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 super bowl in the short term and can he do that with that roster i don't think he can i don't right now and and by the way i still think tampa bay is better than them right now in the division Wow.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And it does.
I mean, it's a really tough,

Speaker 1 it's whenever you get the like middle class of quarterbacks, it's just a tough decision to make where it's like Kirk Cousins is a very good quarterback in the fact that like he is, he, he will give you, he will not get injured.

Speaker 1 Obviously, he got injured this year. You will win games.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 7 Well, and, you know, you talk about paying a quarterback.

Speaker 7 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 Hel, but they're also readying to pay their quarterback.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 7 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?

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 And he hasn't shown up in the big moments in certain games either. And so that's a concern.
But you're right.

Speaker 7 There's only a certain amount of guys where you pay them and you know you're going to be around for the next decade. They're going to keep you there.

Speaker 7 Kirk Cousins isn't that. And I don't know if Tua, I don't think Tua is that.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 Good news for the Falcons. They had the fewest amount of primetime games last year with zero.
That's good.

Speaker 1 They ain't playing primetime.

Speaker 4 That might have been something Kirk circled on his

Speaker 4 pro and con list when he was deciding where to go.

Speaker 7 But you guys are absolutely right. $400 million.
He's the biggest winner of them all. He's the greatest football player for what he's done.
He's $400 million. God bless him.

Speaker 1 Yeah, congrats to him. He's a really good guy.
And if they're going to pay you, they're going to pay you. Who cares?

Speaker 4 He played the system perfectly the way that it happened. Yes, he did.
So he was with a fourth-round draft pick, and then he got tagged twice in D.C.

Speaker 4 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. Like

Speaker 4 he has worked the system perfectly for a slightly above-average quarterback. That's a good guy to hang out with.
That's his

Speaker 1 value.

Speaker 7 Rick Spielman works with us, and every Sunday we're in there, and every time we see him, I go, you gave him that much guaranteed money. What the hell were you thinking?

Speaker 1 What were you thinking? Yeah. But it's out.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 1 So Kirk Housing is gone.

Speaker 1 Russell Wilson to the Steelers. You You saw, obviously, Jameis Winston, who we think was the number one free agent signing to the Browns.
What does the rest of the QB carousel look like?

Speaker 1 Specifically, like I, I'm, uh, Bears, Twitter is going nuts because we can't figure it out.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 Obviously, we've overrated his value. So what is it going to be and is it going to happen?

Speaker 7 I think it'll happen. I just, it's a matter of what they want to get for him now.
There's no market there. I mean, they signed Gardner Minshew.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 I think, you know, what would be a good option for him? Maybe like go become a backup somewhere like in Indianapolis. You know, Minshew's out of there.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 So why not go 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 i thought atlanta was a possibility if they didn't get cousins but where where's an opportunity for him to start right now it's the contract too because you got to then you get him and then you got to figure out if you want to pick up the fifth year deal do you think that the the bears will will trade him though before uh they draft kale williams because it does feel like it's a ticking time bomb.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 7 Or you hold on to him 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.

Speaker 7 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 so teams get desperate.
Maybe you hold on to them that way.

Speaker 7 And then you hope they can coexist if they're there together.

Speaker 7 And now, you know, whether they can, who knows? You're right.

Speaker 7 It could, you know, have factions in the locker room that think Fields is better, factions in the locker room that want Williams, he caused problems that way.

Speaker 7 But that's where coaches and everybody else come into play. You got to be able to handle that.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean,

Speaker 4 I could see the logic behind that, keeping him until training camp, because

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 It's just a matter of how do you handle having an established guy that the locker room has gravitated towards in the past while bringing in a new guy.

Speaker 4 Like, is a new guy going to be set back because of that? Yeah.

Speaker 7 I mean, Caleb Williams is clearly going to be the pick now.

Speaker 7 That's quite obvious.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 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 down.
I takes deep drops.

Speaker 7 You know, and then he cried after a game, which is never.

Speaker 1 Oh, of course, Pete doesn't like that. You don't like his fingernails either.
You think about the pain.

Speaker 7 I don't care about the fingernails. That doesn't bother me one bit.
I just don't think you should ever cry after losing a football game.

Speaker 1 By the way,

Speaker 7 I apologize 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, so

Speaker 4 I think it's always appropriate to cry after a loss and during the national anthem

Speaker 7 i mean one maybe during the national anthem if you get emotional over something okay you know 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 means he cares crying over football doesn't yeah it does crying over football no it doesn't it means you're

Speaker 1 okay then why doesn't the rest of the team cry because they don't care they probably do i bet you i bet you a lot of guys cry privately before without you realizing it like

Speaker 1 Yeah, if I have a bad gambling day, like a really bad one,

Speaker 1 I'll do a little tear in the shower.

Speaker 7 When you were bricking free throws all over the place and couldn't get the street going that day, did you cry afterward?

Speaker 1 I was close to crying. If I had missed 39 and 40 that last time, I 100% would have cried, but that would have been more out of exhaustion.
We were up for like 24 hours.

Speaker 7 There's no way

Speaker 7 I can tell you with 100% certainty,

Speaker 7 even when I was a kid, I didn't cry over losing he's a strong Italian man.

Speaker 1 Listen, this is why we love having you on because you always give us at least one of these.

Speaker 1 While we're talking about Caleb Williams, can you rank your quarterbacks, the six guys that are going to most likely be drafted in the first two rounds? Come on.

Speaker 7 Yes, but I got more work to do on him, but my preliminary ranking is I think Jaden Daniels will be the best of them.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 7 he's the most he's the most improved player I've ever seen in my entire life. Wow.
Most improved. And, you know, I'm a sundevil.
I watched him at Arizona State. One very good.
And now

Speaker 7 what he can do with the ball and his ball placement, his accuracy, his ability to run. I mean, he can run too.
That's the other thing. So I probably rank him slightly.
They're close.

Speaker 7 Him and Caleb Williams, one and two, then Drake May.

Speaker 7 And then I don't love J.J. McCarthy.
I don't see it. I just don't see it.
I think I take him in the second round. I wouldn't put, but he's going to get drafted in the top 10.
I don't see that.

Speaker 7 Then I'd probably go Pennix

Speaker 7 right in there with him. And a guy I like is Pratt from Tulane in the third round.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 4 Pete, I just looked it up. Tom Brady's cried several times after football games.

Speaker 1 Not a winner. Did he? Not a winner.

Speaker 7 No, I didn't say he wasn't a winner.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's.

Speaker 7 When did Brady cry? What games did he cry?

Speaker 4 After the Super Bowl, after the Eagles Super Bowl, he cried. He's at the podium right now.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 7 Yeah,

Speaker 7 I don't like that either. Okay.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. So Tom Brady got busted.
Yeah.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 1 All right, that's good perspective. That's good perspective.
I have a question about J.J. McCarthy real quick, Pete.

Speaker 1 How are war rooms deciphering JJ 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?

Speaker 1 We never saw it in college. That's really what the crux of the argument is.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 He had 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.

Speaker 7 He has a pretty good arm. He can move, but he's not like Jaden Daniels.
So there are some things there. I just don't, I think we're that the league, you know what I think the league is guilty of?

Speaker 7 And just like the Twitter media and the cults in the, I call call them the draft cult.

Speaker 7 One says it, so two says it, so four say it, then eight say it. And in the NFL, a guy will talk to a guy and go, Hey, I really like that McCarthy guy.

Speaker 7 Well, I watched him, 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.

Speaker 7 All of a sudden, they all convince themselves that he should be a high first-round pick. And that's how mistakes get made.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 7 McCarthy, pretty good, knowing that people will 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 and there are people in the league that trust each other and 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.

Speaker 7 If you like them, you like them. If you don't, don't listen to anybody else.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 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?

Speaker 4 But why don't they just do that every year with every quarterback?

Speaker 7 You're stereotyping the Italian man, aren't you?

Speaker 4 I'm 2% Sicilian. I can say it.

Speaker 7 No, 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.

Speaker 7 That's how you make it less of a cap hit. It's great for the player, but you put it in your pocket right now.
Because it's very great thing.

Speaker 4 It's funny how that got framed. It's like, thank you, Josh, for restructuring your deal.
It's like, that's no, that's good for him.

Speaker 7 That's great for him. It's great for him.
It's great for him. By the way, there's an exhibit A on

Speaker 7 what the Twitter cult, draft cult, and the NFL can do to a player uh you know they all killed that kid for years and nobody would ever come off of it and even with during the draft process if i remember back to that that was that was criminal what they did to him yep not us we're on the right side not me yep not me it feel you feels good to be right pete it does which does feel good because because i've had many wrong ones so i'll be right i'll take that one so you always grade free agent signings uh you always say like okay this is the best deal this is the best player most impact most improved team um what would you say is the one player that you like to signing the most?

Speaker 4 And then, two, which team got better? Which team do you think led the league in improving themselves so far?

Speaker 7 Well, that's a good question. Let me, let me,

Speaker 1 okay.

Speaker 7 I think the Vikings, the Vikings' defense really improved itself.

Speaker 7 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

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 And then they also added Blake Cashman.

Speaker 7 With what Flores can do with those guys,

Speaker 7 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...

Speaker 7 negates that a little bit, obviously, because the quarterback is so valuable. As far as individual signings, let me think off the top.
I'm trying to think.

Speaker 7 See, you know me, I'm not going to put a running back signing up there.

Speaker 7 I like

Speaker 1 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. You can put another dude on that line.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 you know, 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.

Speaker 11 Will Nevis got abused.

Speaker 7 He got abused last year. Getting Cushenberry to play center for them is big for them.
It really is.

Speaker 7 Now they can draft the left tackle in the first round and all of a sudden you have a left side with Skoronsky and the left tackle.

Speaker 7 All of a sudden, you got themselves a much improved offensive line and you got to build it around that quarterback. So I think that's a good signing.
I think Carolina getting... their guards.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 1 Now, since you brought up Carolina,

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 4 Maybe a second and a fifth or something?

Speaker 1 Well, it was a two and a five. But it was a swap of the fifth.

Speaker 7 Yeah, it's also, it's also what they got, 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.

Speaker 1 But the craziest part about this is Brian Burns, the Rams were ready to offer offer two first-rounders, what, a year and a half ago, and they said no on a season that went nowhere.

Speaker 1 Like, they just keep doing this. It's insane.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 This was one of those situations where if you, if the okay, let's look at it from the Rams standpoint.

Speaker 7 If you were really going to give two first-round picks away for Brian Burns, that would have been a terrible trade, anyways.

Speaker 7 I mean, you turned it it down if you're Carolina, but if the Rams are going to do that, that would have been a bad trade because you got to ultimately got to pay him too.

Speaker 7 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

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 How'd that work out? Yeah.

Speaker 1 So, Russell Wilson, do you think Russell Wilson is going to play, is going to win the starting job in Pittsburgh?

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 You know, his whole game was predicated on getting outside the pocket and making plays. And, you know, he wasn't as quick.
He wasn't as elusive.

Speaker 7 He wasn't as, you know, one of those guys that could make those plays. And he leaves so many pockets.

Speaker 7 It was, you know, 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.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 I'm not one that everybody sits here and says, oh, Russell Wilson's going to put the Steelers in the playoffs. No, I think he's going to have a quarterback competition with Pickett.

Speaker 7 And that tells you where Russell Wilson is as a player.

Speaker 1 It also, Russell Wilson doesn't realize this obviously 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 Tomlins' over 500 streak would be

Speaker 1 talk about like the final nail in the coffin in terms of your reputation.

Speaker 1 Tomlinson done it with all these guys, you know, old Big Black. That's a brutal division.
Yeah.

Speaker 7 Brutal division when you think about it. The Ravens, we know what they have.
Joe Burrow back, you know what they are.

Speaker 7 And then you have the Browns who are a playoff team and they're going to get Watson back.

Speaker 7 You know, so no, that's tough to do, even if Russell Wilson is the starting quarterback. That's going to be a challenge for them.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I don't know if Russ is going to be able to hold up to Mike Tomlinson coaching. Like, he did not get along with Sean Payton.

Speaker 4 He kind of needs a guy that's friendly to him, needs to pat him on the back, all positive energy. I don't know that Mike's going to be that guy.

Speaker 4 I would not pincil in Russ Wilson as the starting quarterback just yet. That's what I'm getting at.

Speaker 7 Has Russ Wilson ever left the team where everybody was just angry that he left?

Speaker 1 NCC.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 7 That's good. And the NFL, has that ever happened? I mean, when he left Seattle, you didn't didn't hear any people, you know, all upset about it.
Then when he left Denver, they didn't care. I mean,

Speaker 7 he's not a great teammate. You know, you hear the stories.
He's not a great teammate.

Speaker 4 Counterpoint, though, when he announced that he was going to Pittsburgh, his tweet that he put out was just the Renegade song. Yeah.
So he gets it. That was sick.

Speaker 1 He's bought in. He bought in.
That was sick.

Speaker 7 And the Steelers love the Renegade song, and everybody's taking it and run with it all over the country now. You ever see that in any college football and high school? They play it all the time now.

Speaker 4 Yeah, it gets people going 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.

Speaker 4 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

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 But with the dynamic playmakers that they have, having a safe quarterback, I do think makes them the favorite to win that division.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 There's a lot of games that the Falcons could have won last year if they just had a guy that was competent.

Speaker 4 And I think if there's one thing you could say about Kirk Cousins, he's exceedingly competent.

Speaker 7 Yes, he's definitely competent. I just think Tampa's better.
I just think they're a better football team.

Speaker 7 The offensive line in Atlanta, pretty good.

Speaker 7 You know, Robinson can run it, so that's pretty good. Pitts is a guy that come close to living up to the expectations.
Drake London, maybe now with Kirk Cousins, he'll be better.

Speaker 7 But what about the defense? Who's the pass rushers on that defense? They don't have any real

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 I don't think, I don't think anybody's winning 11 games in that division. Do you?

Speaker 4 I think the Falcons can win 11 games. Yeah, I do.

Speaker 7 Oh, I don't. I don't.

Speaker 1 You want to bet?

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 7 Well, yeah, we'll bet it. We'll bet your

Speaker 7 liquor bottle you walk around with in your pocket.

Speaker 1 A bottle of Mad Dog. Yeah.
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1 You have to chug a bottle of Mad Dog into the bottom.

Speaker 7 I'm chugging a bottle of Mad Dog. There's no conceivable way I'm chugging a bottle of Mad Dog.
You can do it.

Speaker 1 You have to finish.

Speaker 7 it's a you have to finish a bottle of mad dog there's no no i'm not making that bet i'll buy you one how about that okay deal um deal the 11 games 11 games is a lot pf

Speaker 4 i think the falcons can win 11 games next year yes a lot of games that's a lot

Speaker 7 of games i've listened i like i like kirk i like i like the 50 but you make a good you will say i 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 right The quarterbacks are all in the AFC.

Speaker 7 The NFC is, if you got hot at the right time, you might be able to win the NFC.

Speaker 1 You make a lot of good points. I'm looking at their schedule real quick.
They play the AFC West, it looks like. No, they just have the Broncos.
That's the one.

Speaker 1 Oh, no, they do.

Speaker 1 No, they do play the AFC West. So they have the Chiefs, Chargers, Raiders, Saints, or sorry, Raiders, Broncos.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't know. 11 games, a lot of games.
It's a lot of games.

Speaker 7 11 games is a lot of games.

Speaker 7 That's a lot of wins for that team.

Speaker 7 Even inside the division, just the Saints are always a good game with them. It's tough.
The Bucs are going to be good. Yeah, that's tough to get.

Speaker 1 I'm going to step in here. I think, PFT, you should just wait a second on this because this is your Kirk Cousins, like, you're

Speaker 1 caught up. Kirk Cousins' disease.
I think you're.

Speaker 1 At least.

Speaker 4 I've got the opposite of Kirk derangement syndrome. I've got like Kirk excitement syndrome.

Speaker 1 Maybe 10 is where you want to do this bet.

Speaker 1 10 and a half. No, he made all that.
No, that's a lot. I know.
Now we compromise. Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right. So, Pete,

Speaker 1 last question, roback question. R-H-O-B-A-C.com, promo code, take 20% off your first purchase.
Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. We should have mentioned the Texans have been.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 I like the Mitch Morse signing. I like the Gabe Davis signing.

Speaker 1 What do you think? Have we looked at their schedule?

Speaker 1 Are they a Super Bowl team again next year?

Speaker 7 No, no.

Speaker 11 And the Mac Jones, you got Mac Jones.

Speaker 7 Yeah. Look, last year was a disaster, by the way.
And

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 Defensively, you know, 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.

Speaker 7 That's

Speaker 7 one of their priorities has to be that. And so I think they'll be good.
They'll be better next year.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 But the Texans have the best quarterback in the division now. There's no doubt about that.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Credit to us.

Speaker 4 We've gone this entire time talking about the NFL. We haven't mentioned Hank's Dallas Cowboys once.
That's got to be a record for any segment they've ever done.

Speaker 4 But it feels like they haven't done anything, right?

Speaker 7 They haven't done anything. I mean, and look, sometimes you can wait in free agency and get some bargains down the road.

Speaker 7 I mean, 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.

Speaker 7 But Dallas needs to get better against against the run. I mean, that's number one priority.
They have to be able to stop the run. They were getting gashed at the end of last year.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 7 I'm expecting you guys to throw that on a t-shirt soon, and you'll be selling those. Men don't cry.

Speaker 1 Boys don't cry. Yeah, yeah.
Wait, can you cry if you're a fan

Speaker 7 no oh well what if we have a guy that we have a guy that works with us he he does some stuff with us and he is a big eagles fan and when they when they won that super bowl he he had video of himself like bawling i mean no wait you can't cry over you can't cry over a super bowl win when are men allowed to cry in your mind pete

Speaker 7 uh when bad things happen in your life losing a super bowl is not a bad thing it's a football game what about at your wedding are you allowed to cry at your wedding

Speaker 7 yeah you could cry at your wedding. I didn't, but you could cry at your wedding.

Speaker 1 What about what about when

Speaker 1 Michael has to kill Fredo? That was sad.

Speaker 7 That was sad.

Speaker 7 Because you know what? You know, when you watch stuff like that, you put yourself in that

Speaker 4 situation.

Speaker 1 We call you please.

Speaker 7 Kill your brother.

Speaker 1 Godfather's the only time

Speaker 1 men can cry. I like that.
Right.

Speaker 7 Well, you put yourself in that situation. Can I kill my brother, Richie? Let me see.
Yeah, I have to put him down.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 7 Yeah, you had to. All right.

Speaker 4 What about when Bobby Bocolo gets shot in the toy train shop?

Speaker 1 That was sad.

Speaker 7 Yeah, that was sad. But, you know, sometimes you understand why things have to be done.

Speaker 7 Things have to be done.

Speaker 1 Oh, Calvin Ridley's a patriot. This is breaking news.
Oh, wow. So there you go.

Speaker 1 So they don't want

Speaker 1 everything you just said.

Speaker 1 They wanted him.

Speaker 7 It was just a matter of whether

Speaker 7 they would go to his price. And I guess they got me a moment.
Oh, wait.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 That wasn't phone worthy, Jake. That was

Speaker 1 because I read it and I was like, oh, he's a Patriot. He just wants to stay in Jacksonville.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 Got it.

Speaker 1 That's serious.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 That's a a weird tweet by Schefter, who stooped us all. He knows that he's.

Speaker 7 Well, the Patriots are trying to get him.

Speaker 1 Right, but that was...

Speaker 4 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 dot, dotted.

Speaker 7 You got dot, dot, dotted. Yeah, we got dot, dot, dotted.

Speaker 1 All right. Well, Pete, thank you as always.
We got to see you soon. We miss you.
All right.

Speaker 7 Yeah, I thought I'd see you guys at the Super Bowl or something, but I didn't even see you.

Speaker 4 What did you do in Vegas?

Speaker 4 What was the Protestant?

Speaker 1 You were at the White Rhino all week. I saw your office.
Spearman Rhino. Spearman Rhino.
White Rhino Superman.

Speaker 7 You guys were there. You had VIP.
You had throwing money around with the little gun, shooting the hundreds out into the crowd. I know how you guys operate.

Speaker 1 We should go to a strip club with Pete.

Speaker 4 Peter, are you a strip club guy?

Speaker 1 No way. I haven't been in a long time.
I mean, a Florida guy.

Speaker 4 I assume everyone from Florida was like,

Speaker 4 that's where you get christened in a strip club.

Speaker 1 He's a brothel guy.

Speaker 7 No, I was, you know back in the day we used to go the strip joints all the time down here i mean there was a wild wild west back in the day back in the day yeah

Speaker 4 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 have to wear pasties down in florida is that true depends on no it depends on where you're at So okay.

Speaker 1 That's not true.

Speaker 4 That's a regional one.

Speaker 7 Yeah, no, that's not true. Some of them, yes, some of them, no.

Speaker 7 What city were you in?

Speaker 4 Uh, just south of Jacksonville, I was in Ponte Vedra.

Speaker 7 Yeah, well, yeah, Jacksonville, yeah, that's true. That's exactly right.
What were you doing? Look at you, high falutin in Ponte Vedra.

Speaker 4 Wow, I was drilling the 17th green at Sawgrass, is what I was doing.

Speaker 7 And what'd you do?

Speaker 1 I got two, I got a birdie, you got a birdie.

Speaker 7 You know, I did that, I did that once and got a birdie on there. It was Phil being

Speaker 1 PFT3.

Speaker 1 We're editing this, yeah.

Speaker 4 Pete Prisco and PFT Comet are two heavy hitters in the golf room.

Speaker 7 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 around.

Speaker 7 After we went around, I got to the 17th and plunked about four of them, I think, in the war when nobody was watching.

Speaker 4 That's fine. No, no, you got a birdie.
We both got birdies. Two great golfers.

Speaker 7 Yeah, I got a birdie. Yeah.
Yeah. No, I'm not a good golfer, but I

Speaker 7 did birdie that all.

Speaker 1 Are you good? No, I'm terrible. No, we're not good.
I'm horrendous. No.

Speaker 7 This guy takes lessons. This guy takes lessons like twice twice a week.
I've seen him.

Speaker 1 Who are you talking about?

Speaker 7 You.

Speaker 1 Me? I've never taken a lesson in my life. I'm not going to let another man.
I don't do anything.

Speaker 4 I'm not going to let another man teach me how to swing a golf club.

Speaker 1 Hank, you're thinking of Hank. Hank, Hank takes lessons.

Speaker 7 I'm going to take lessons because I'm getting frustrated with my game, so I'm going to take lessons.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it won't fix anything. You'll still suck.

Speaker 7 No, I got break.

Speaker 7 You know what stinks about the game is if you don't start playing until you're older, you're never going to really, really good at it. You know, did you play as a kid? Did either of you play as a kid?

Speaker 1 No. oh i got derrick henry to the ravens

Speaker 1 how much was the money 20 million including thirty uh nine million fully guaranteed in the first year so it's probably a one-year deal for nine million yeah that's not that's that's a good decent deal for them yeah i like that for them but the problem is will they run the ball but you have the running back you got to actually run the ball I agree.

Speaker 7 I agree. But also, he started breaking down a little bit the last couple of years.
He doesn't have the same poppy as a couple years ago.

Speaker 4 I'm concerned with the speed in which Adam Schefter has these Photoshops ready to go. We were talking about it the other day.

Speaker 4 He probably has like Derrick Henry in three different uniforms just in case, and then he tells them which one to put in his tweet, right?

Speaker 7 Or he knows it's coming and just puts it out and waits for it.

Speaker 4 So are you saying that there's tampering that happens before the legal tampering?

Speaker 1 Are you kidding me?

Speaker 7 Back in the day,

Speaker 7 remember when the Pro Bowl used to be in January in Hawaii? The whole thing, every agent in the world went out there and tampered

Speaker 7 in in Hawaii. They had deals done in January.

Speaker 1 Are you kidding me?

Speaker 4 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 the goals.

Speaker 7 Yeah, exactly. Like all these deals are done and the free agency period hasn't even started.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's crazy. All right, Pete.
Thanks so much, man. We'll talk to you soon.

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Speaker 1 Okay, let's wrap up. We got guys on chicks.

Speaker 1 Henry,

Speaker 1 read it.

Speaker 9 Hey, Big Cat, PFT Hank, Jake, memes, Pug, and Burrito Boy.

Speaker 9 What are your thoughts on how common it is for women to get Botox slash fillers slash plastic surgery nowadays?

Speaker 9 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 you guys like the big fake lips?

Speaker 9 And what plastic surgery, Botox injection would you guys all get done to yourselves if you could?

Speaker 4 Is this Kate Middleton?

Speaker 8 It might be. She's dead.

Speaker 1 Yeah. She's getting divorced, actually.

Speaker 1 A woman that is cheating on Prince William?

Speaker 4 Prince William. It's the most British title of all time.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so here's her title.

Speaker 4 Lady Rose.

Speaker 1 She's Lady Rose Hanbury, Marchioness of

Speaker 1 Colmondeli. Yeah, and

Speaker 4 if you look her up, she looks like the ultimate mistress.

Speaker 1 She looks so prissy.

Speaker 4 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 and that she lives right down the street from the royal family.

Speaker 4 Yep.

Speaker 1 Lady Rose Hanbury.

Speaker 4 The question is, is it okay to get plastic surgery?

Speaker 1 Thoughts. Yeah, go for it.
Yeah.

Speaker 9 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

Speaker 9 dangerous path to go down.

Speaker 1 I am really bad at noticing any type of plastic surgery or anything.

Speaker 1 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, they get the lip fillers. I don't even know.
I can't tell any of that shit.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 9 What plastic surgery would you guys want to get done to yourselves if you could?

Speaker 1 Liposuction?

Speaker 9 I get an implant.

Speaker 4 Where? Your ass?

Speaker 1 Chin implant. Chin implant.
Oh, that rock. You should do it.
I've looked into it.

Speaker 4 Well, I don't know if it's a chin implant. Wouldn't they have to just break your jaw and then reconstruct it?

Speaker 9 I don't know.

Speaker 9 It can be done. I'm just not that self-conscious.

Speaker 1 I'd get a breast reduction for sure.

Speaker 4 Okay, calf implants. You remember that guy in True Life?

Speaker 9 What about the they can they can you can grow? They can like give you five inches.

Speaker 4 Yeah, they so break your legs. Yeah, so when like that news article came out, I got tagged.
I got tagged a million times in it. Thanks, everyone.

Speaker 4 Um, but yeah, they can give you like five inches of height, but they break both your shins.

Speaker 4 And then every couple weeks, they just like unscrew your bones further and further apart, and then your bone heals in between and you grow.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I'd probably do that. I'd probably be able to dunk before Hank.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 It's like a two-year recovery time.

Speaker 1 I'm dunking. You're ready and ready to go in no time.

Speaker 1 Hey, gang.

Speaker 9 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 next time I walk in, drops of piss are always on the seat.

Speaker 9 I'm always the one who has to clean it up, and I'm tired of it.

Speaker 9 He says that he is trying to execute the silent piss you 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 yeah you could do with what i do with my son just put a cheerle in there and be like hit the cheerio That's good target practice.

Speaker 4 So easy.

Speaker 9 I always used to try and hit the X in the urinals in school and then pops back up.

Speaker 1 Splashes, yeah.

Speaker 4 There's a couple moves you can do that probably lead themselves to sprinkling on the seat a little bit.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, do it all.

Speaker 4 Which is so much fun to do. 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.

Speaker 1 You could also offer him the sink.

Speaker 1 I think that's the problem solved i never noticed it in our other bathrooms really other bathrooms i've been in but there is a lot of a lot of leakage it's brandon walker it's 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 we're 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 like what did you just say and it's like that's him it's him i would i would expect 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.

Speaker 1 Brandon.

Speaker 1 You're innocent.

Speaker 4 Remember that one person that was like putting their boogers on the wall at the old HQ in New York?

Speaker 4 Did we ever find out who that was?

Speaker 1 We thought it was Mantis, but then it kept on going. And I can't be mad at Mantis any

Speaker 1 Mantis has my heart for life with what he did for the free throw challenge.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 9 3-1-Heaven.

Speaker 1 He could still be in this office.

Speaker 9 He's doing a live stream that's not going to end until he hits 100 in a row.

Speaker 1 Whoa.

Speaker 1 Where is he doing it?

Speaker 9 Pro Young Mantis YouTube.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 9 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.

Speaker 9 I met a guy at a party here. We hooked up and are now friends with benefits.

Speaker 9 I kind of like him,

Speaker 9 but don't know if he wants something serious.

Speaker 9 He takes me on dates, but we also go out and party a ton with our friends.

Speaker 1 Sounds awesome.

Speaker 4 This sounds like dating. This sounds like just being single in college.
The question is like, I'm single in college. Your comments.

Speaker 1 I don't believe it.

Speaker 9 Yeah, this is so like you couldn't fake this, I don't think, if you tried.

Speaker 9 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.

Speaker 1 Why are you doing that with your hand?

Speaker 9 I'm talking like she's writing it.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 4 Keep going. Is this how women speak in your experience, Hank?

Speaker 1 Do you think he's into me?

Speaker 9 Should I ask him if he is?

Speaker 4 All right, so I don't understand the question. From what I understand, she broke up with her boyfriend,

Speaker 4 went to college,

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 9 I still talk to my ex, and he says that's crazy. He being the friend of the benefits.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Oh.

Speaker 1 But they're not dating.

Speaker 9 And I think she's asking, do you think

Speaker 9 her ex is into her?

Speaker 9 No. No.
No, wait.

Speaker 1 I'm confused. I gotta finish.

Speaker 9 All right, let me finish the whole thing.

Speaker 1 I'm confused. Let me finish the whole thing.

Speaker 9 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.

Speaker 9 Thanks, guys. Love the pod.

Speaker 4 I think

Speaker 4 if the question is, do you think he's into me and he's hooking up with you?

Speaker 1 Probably. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Technically, yes.

Speaker 4 Well, we don't know.

Speaker 4 We don't know what hooking, he's into you and then out of you really quickly. Yeah.
And then back into you again.

Speaker 1 Sounds like

Speaker 1 you should just be single and maybe do the threesome thing.

Speaker 9 No, two-man. Two-man.

Speaker 1 The two-man. Two-man Tuesdays.
What are you going to say, Max?

Speaker 10 I think that the guy likes her, but the guy also wants to fuck other girls.

Speaker 1 Right. So then just be single yourself.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 Be single yourself. It sounds like this is

Speaker 4 a great relationship that you're in right now where it's like not really dating him.

Speaker 1 Also,

Speaker 9 the roommate that asked to run the two-man was also just the guy telling his roommate to ask because he wants to probably bang your roommate.

Speaker 1 Right. So stay single because you're going to get your heart broken if you fall for this guy.

Speaker 4 Yeah. If you end up liking him,

Speaker 4 just know that he's the kind of guy that wants to share you with his roommate.

Speaker 1 No, share her roommate with his roommate.

Speaker 4 There's a lot going on in this place.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there was a lot going on. All right.
That's it? Yep. All right.
Good show. Andrew Santino on Friday.
We'll record late after the games as well.

Speaker 1 Reminder: pancake stream starting at 5 p.m. Central

Speaker 1 on all of our channels. And then

Speaker 1 chili stream starting at 1 p.m. Central on all of our channels on Thursday.
Pancake stream tomorrow or today, Wednesday. All right, numbers:

Speaker 1 8, 40, 20, three, seventy-seven, eighteen.

Speaker 1 Ball still up top. Yep, got it all.

Speaker 1 Where's Pug?

Speaker 10 He's at a doctor's appointment.

Speaker 1 Again, another vet. Yeah.

Speaker 1 The fuck?

Speaker 1 This guy okay?

Speaker 1 92. 92.

Speaker 1 Love you guys.

Speaker 1 I'll be coming for your love of faith.

Speaker 1 Needless to say,

Speaker 1 I'm outside. So I'll leave some little play.

Speaker 1 Sure,

Speaker 1 life is okay.

Speaker 1 Say unto me.

Speaker 1 It's for better to say the time, didn't say time, didn't say.

Speaker 1 Tell me.

Speaker 1 I won't say it's funny, it's done right away.

Speaker 1 Something that life is okay, say I'm dreaming.

Speaker 1 It's the better to say it's on you, say it's on you, say it's on you.