NFL Reporter Dianna Russini, Russ Wilson Cut, Jason Kelce Retires And Listener Submitted Takes

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Speaker 1 On today's part in my take, we have an awesome, awesome interview with NFL reporter Diana Rossini, friend of the show.

Speaker 1 Also has done some incredible airplane reporting that we will talk about with her. We talked to her on Wednesday last week at the Combine in person.

Speaker 4 She brought two sodas for Max. I thought that was very nice.
Yeah, she brought two sodas.

Speaker 1 Great interview. We're going to talk some NFL transactions that have happened.
We have a hot seat, cool throne.

Speaker 1 Hank's number 10 on his top 10 Patriots list, which actually, this is where it gets fun because you're going to leave someone out.

Speaker 1 And then we have Pardon Your Take, a great Wednesday episode for everyone.

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Speaker 1 Okay, let's go.

Speaker 1 Now in the streets, there is violence.

Speaker 1 And then I love some work to be done.

Speaker 1 No place to hang out or washing.

Speaker 1 And then I can't blame all on the sun. Oh, no, we're gonna rock down to electric avenue.

Speaker 1 And then we'll take it higher.

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

Speaker 3 It's part of my take.

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Speaker 1 Today is Wednesday, March 6th, and I have a very important question for you, PFT.

Speaker 4 I have a very important answer.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Should we feel bad for a man who's getting paid $39 million to not work?

Speaker 4 No. Are you talking about Hank?

Speaker 1 I'm talking about Hank.

Speaker 4 No, I don't feel bad for Hank.

Speaker 1 I'm talking about Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson has been cut by the Denver Broncos.
We all expected it.

Speaker 4 That's the dream. Anytime a coach gets bought out, anytime a quarterback gets cut and they've got this big dead cap hit.
Yeah, I would love to get paid millions of dollars to not work anymore.

Speaker 4 That is truly, schools should teach classes. If you want to prepare young children for how to succeed in America, teach them the best ways.

Speaker 4 to get paid a fuckload of money and to not have to work at their job.

Speaker 1 But with all that comes the territory of being maybe the worst NFL trade of all time. Herschel Walker has always been the gold standard.
Or sorry, yeah, no, Herschel Walker, right? Herschel Walker.

Speaker 1 The Cowboys dynasty was started with that trade. But Russell Wilson's trade, when looking back on it,

Speaker 1 the Broncos gave up two first-round picks. I think they gave up, what, a second-round pick? Two second-round picks, a fifth-round pick, Drew Locke, Shelby Harris, Noah Fant,

Speaker 1 and they got back Russell Wilson in a fourth-round pick, and then they signed Russell Wilson to a $242 million contract, and he played for the Broncos for two terrible years.

Speaker 1 And yeah, I think it might be one of the worst trades in sports history.

Speaker 4 I think there was a fleecing. It was.
The Seahawks won this trade. We can officially declare that now.

Speaker 4 It was still up in the air. Yeah.
But now we can say, yeah, the Seahawks, you dominated the Broncos. Congratulations.
It's another win on your schedule.

Speaker 4 For Russ Wilson, I think you asked me at the end of the season, like, over-under, Russell Wilson starts 16 or 17 and a half more games. Yeah.
I still take the over on it.

Speaker 4 I think that there's going to be a team out there that's going to sign him to be a starting quarterback next season. It might be a team, probably a team that's not very good,

Speaker 4 but I do think that he's going to start next season and he's going to start. Oh, he's cheap now.

Speaker 3 Yeah, can they sign him for nothing? Yeah,

Speaker 1 for pretty much nothing.

Speaker 4 So like you could sign Kirk Cousins or you could sign Russell Wilson for like 5% of what you're going to pay Kirk Cousins.

Speaker 1 I still would probably want Kirk Cousins.

Speaker 4 You think 5% of Russell Wilson or 5% of Kirk Cousins is better than 100% of Russell Wilson? Yes.

Speaker 1 I don't think Russell Wilson's good anymore.

Speaker 4 I think he's like an average quarterback.

Speaker 3 I think in the right system, he could thrive.

Speaker 1 I think he's

Speaker 1 the number one defense.

Speaker 4 He's a weird guy. That's the thing.

Speaker 4 You can overlook signing a weird guy if he's going to be good, but Russell's goodness, his talent, is no longer to the point where it outweighs just what a bizarre human being he is.

Speaker 1 I just don't know where that team's going to be to sign him as a starter when you look at who's got openings.

Speaker 1 Raiders. Yeah, but are they going to draft someone? Are they going to like there? Obviously, whatever, three, four, five of the openings will be filled by someone who's drafted coming up in a month.

Speaker 1 Yep. And then Kirk Cousins, Justin Fields, where he goes.
I just don't know where Russell Wilson fits in in these musical chairs.

Speaker 1 Maybe I'm wrong, but I just think, I think a team will sign him, no doubt. I don't know if they'll be like your guaranteed starter.

Speaker 3 Yeah, what about like a team that's probably going to draft a quarterback and could use some veteran leadership?

Speaker 1 Do you want that type of leadership, though?

Speaker 4 Weird leadership? Leadership to wear.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's weird leadership.

Speaker 3 He's a Super Bowl winning QB. That's a fact.

Speaker 1 True. Yeah.
I just, I don't know where he fits in. Maybe I'm wrong.

Speaker 4 I think there'll be a team that takes a chance on him. Like, if you were to tell me that the Steelers signed him, I would not be surprised by that.

Speaker 1 But he wouldn't be guaranteed starter.

Speaker 4 He wouldn't be a guaranteed starter. Probably not.

Speaker 1 No, you'd be in QB competition. He might win the job.

Speaker 4 If he signed with the Raiders, I think he'd probably be guaranteed starter. Yeah.

Speaker 4 I could see.

Speaker 3 What about like the Dolphins?

Speaker 1 As a backup? Yeah.

Speaker 4 I don't think if you're Russ Wilson, would you want to be a backup?

Speaker 1 For the Dolphins?

Speaker 1 I don't think you would. You don't get to decide.
I don't think you get to decide if you're Russ Wilson right now.

Speaker 6 But he might.

Speaker 4 But Russ might be at the point where if he's not guaranteed a starting job, he might just retire.

Speaker 3 Like Russell Wilson with Mike McDaniel, you know, obviously he'd be a backup, but.

Speaker 1 Fireworks.

Speaker 1 Maybe the Giants. Did you see the report Rich Eisen said that the Giants are done with Daniel Jones?

Speaker 4 He said the two words that are being used with Daniel Jones is buyer's remorse. Yikes.

Speaker 4 At the time, I think when we, I think Leroy, his ghost might have actually broken the news of his contract. That might be his final scoop.

Speaker 4 But when Daniel Jones signed with the Giants, I think all of our reaction was the same, which is like, you should actually, this is a case where you should pay your running back. Yeah.

Speaker 4 And you should franchise tag your quarterback.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because you had a history of a guy who had a very good year when they went to the playoffs, what it was two years ago, and you essentially said, this is who he is now, not the other four years.

Speaker 1 Let's bank on him being the same guy and have this not be an anomaly.

Speaker 4 Yeah, yeah, he had a great year, and he stayed healthy that year, which he normally doesn't do.

Speaker 4 And then you paid him like he was a healthy, good quarterback, which I guess he was in the most recent season that you saw him.

Speaker 4 But then do you sit back and be like, well, the other seasons weren't so good, so we're not going to pay you. And they just didn't want him to hit the free market.

Speaker 4 So it's like, in retrospect, maybe maybe drafting a quarterback in the top 10 because he reminds you physically of your previous quarterback yeah was not the best idea for your general manager yeah but um i think actually

Speaker 4 saquon's an interesting dude that's going to be a free agent because i actually i would i would pay him if i was a gm i i wouldn't treat him like the other running backs that are going to be out there i'd be like saquon deserves a big contract i think like i we have some running backs in dc i wouldn't mind saquan barkley in dc i think everyone would want to see jerry jones would probably want saquan Barkley in Dallas.

Speaker 4 Yeah. I think that'd probably be a pretty good fit.

Speaker 1 So one last question about Russell Wilson before we talk about some other stuff.

Speaker 1 Do you,

Speaker 1 I do have a small part of me that feels bad for him, and I know that's crazy. He's made millions and millions of dollars.
He's getting paid $39 million to do nothing this year.

Speaker 1 If he chooses to do nothing, he'll obviously be on a team. But at what cost? You've basically become a joke to the NFL, and

Speaker 1 everything that happened at the beginning of your career, which was phenomenal, is somewhat tarnished by what happened in Denver because it was just an abject failure.

Speaker 1 And then on top of all of that, you have being part of one of the worst trades in NFL history.

Speaker 1 There's a small part of me that feels bad because I bet you if you hit Russell Wilson with some true serum, he'd be like, yeah, the money is awesome, but I really wish that I wasn't a joke.

Speaker 1 Yeah, maybe, but also at the end of the day,

Speaker 1 also Malcolm Butler. At the end of the day,

Speaker 4 you're married to Sierra. You've got more bathrooms than a number of times you've probably had to piss in the last year.

Speaker 1 Yeah, true.

Speaker 4 So things are pretty good if you're Russ.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they're good. But at the end, like, it's one of those deep down, your head hits the pillow late at night.
You're like, man, I wish that didn't all happen the way it did.

Speaker 4 Yeah, like, things were pretty good in Seattle for me. Yeah, I had a fan base that loved me no matter what I did.

Speaker 1 Yeah, would have let you age poorly and still stuck by you.

Speaker 4 Given you a hero's retirement ceremony. Yeah.

Speaker 6 Yeah, it would have been good.

Speaker 4 It would have been good for Russ to stay in Seattle.

Speaker 4 But I do think that there's going to be a couple GMs out there that want Russell Wilson. They're like, I can bring back Russ.
I can fix him. I'm going to let Russ cook.

Speaker 4 But then I think the first, what do you think if we're doing dominoes, if we're talking about quarterback dominoes, because there's like three big domino pieces. What is the first domino?

Speaker 4 Kirk Cousins.

Speaker 1 Kirk Cousins. Who reportedly is thinking about moving to Atlanta.

Speaker 4 Yeah, per Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk, not fan fiction.

Speaker 1 Mike Florio had some words for you, Hank.

Speaker 4 This is fan fact.

Speaker 1 He was not happy last night. I'm going to pull up the tweet.

Speaker 1 Mike Florio was not happy, and the first person I thought of was you, Henry Lockwood, because you've been giving him a hell of a time online.

Speaker 3 Hell of a time. Read it.
I mean, there's like many shows do interviews. I don't know that that's proof of anything.

Speaker 1 Okay, so

Speaker 3 that was the weirdest flex I've ever seen.

Speaker 4 He had two flexes.

Speaker 1 Two flexes. Okay, hold on.
So Mike Flex.

Speaker 4 I actually thought that his Caleb Williams flex is pretty good the other day on Friday.

Speaker 1 Oh, he's been texting me being like, I'm so mad the Bears are going to be good. I'm like, I feel like you're tricking me.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I'm going to pull up the Caleb Williams one. He said this one.

Speaker 1 He said last night, to the folks who try to dismiss our reports by saying we have no sources or whatever, you realize we had like 50 guests on our show last week from Indy, right?

Speaker 1 You realize pretty much everyone in the league reads PFT, right? You realize they've been doing this for 23 years, right?

Speaker 6 I actually didn't realize most of that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly, because you're a Mike Florio hater.

Speaker 3 But everyone reads PFT. That's subjective.

Speaker 4 Well, here's the thing everyone in the league does.

Speaker 6 Having 50 guests.

Speaker 1 Okay. Here's where Florio.

Speaker 3 You probably pulled the vendors off the street and were like, hey, how's the popcorn selling?

Speaker 1 I'm going to back our guy Florio for a second because he's in that weird gray area where you have the Chefies and the Ian Ratports who will just trade news. They have news.
They'll give you the news.

Speaker 1 There's not opinion. Florio adds his opinion.
So people then take it as, well, he's making things up and it's fan fiction.

Speaker 1 Florio is still doing reporting like Chefty and rap port he just has a little more personality behind what he's writing and and the you know saying like this may happen this isn't happening like here's a here's a fun hypothesis florio is great for what we do because he throws out ideas and things that could potentially happen that get everyone's brain churning not just this guy got traded or this guy signed or this guy got cut I think where people get confused, though, is because with Rapaport and Schefter and, you know, Diana, like, they report facts so when they're reporting something you just assume it's a fact because they're tweeting it Florio does that but then also speculates yeah yes so sometimes people are confused where they're like is this a fact well you got to know your source it's Florio sometimes in especially in the dog days of the NFL calendar year where there's not a lot happening that's when Florio his mind starts to wander a little bit and he he starts connecting the dots and doing the tea leaves and all that stuff and that's fun but when it when it comes time to like analyze players contracts and salaries and predict what's going to happen he's a lawyer so he like he he is able to decipher some of the bullshit that's put out there i think a lot better than a shepherd would and i i like florio i always say this he is more like barstool than he thinks like where again shefter and rap port are just driven by scoops driven by getting reports

Speaker 3 florio's driven by page views so he knows

Speaker 1 you're saying he's doing clickbait To an extent

Speaker 1 to an extent.

Speaker 3 Like he knows dog days of summer. Let me just write write some crazy shit and people are going to click.

Speaker 1 But I don't think that's

Speaker 4 fiction. That's fan fiction.

Speaker 1 You're doing fan fiction on your part.

Speaker 4 You're fan fictioning him. This is Hank Florio.
We've all seen the picture.

Speaker 4 You're at it again, Hank. And what Florio does, I don't think he does it for clicks.
No. I actually think that the clicks.
Come on. No, no.
Shut the fuck up for a second, Hank.

Speaker 4 I think that the clicks happen to be a nice byproduct of what he does. I just think that Florio

Speaker 4 gets crazy sometimes and he puts these dots together that sometimes don't end up happening, but he does it to entertain himself and because he believes that he might be right he also informs speculation i don't think florio ever writes something just being like this there's no truth behind this let me just throw this out there he actually does have kernels of truth that end up being popcorn yeah just hypotheses Yeah,

Speaker 3 I like Florio.

Speaker 1 I'm not your entire life as a Florio hater. Hypotheses.

Speaker 3 I know. That's what my whole point is.
Like, we're more like, sometimes I just think he likes to get mad and be like, how can people not, you know, take me seriously?

Speaker 4 Yeah. So he thinks Kirk Cousins.
He's the best in the business. He thinks Kirk Cousins is making some sort of family plan to move his family and his team down to Atlanta.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 I don't know what that could possibly be. Like, is he trading in all of his sweaters at Kohl's? Yeah.
He's getting t-shirts now. Yeah.
He's getting just warmer clothes. I don't know how.

Speaker 4 My first thought was this is like a kid, kids enrolling in schools thing. Yeah.
But it seems like it's looking house hunting. House hunting.
Hello. His wife is down there.

Speaker 1 Someone's friend's cousin is a real estate agent in Buckhead. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And she's actually taking a meeting. Kirk was

Speaker 4 spotted in Magic City last weekend behind the curtain. Yeah.
Sampling the wings.

Speaker 1 I mean, the Falcons would be really, like, if they signed Kirk Cousins, I would maybe pick them to that. I would definitely pick them to win the NFC South.

Speaker 4 What are the odds right now? What are the odds on the Falcons winning the NFC? Can we look ahead at that? I don't know. Jake, can you look that up?

Speaker 1 Either way, Kirk Cousins, Domino One. Domino one.

Speaker 4 I think Justin Fields, domino two.

Speaker 1 I agree. I think

Speaker 1 Jimmy Garoppolo.

Speaker 1 Remember Jimmy? Remember him? Remember? Remember Jimmy? No, then I think all the other dominoes are draft picks. And then Russell Wilson.

Speaker 1 It probably will go sequentially. He'll probably get signed before the draft picks.
But I wouldn't be shocked if a team signs Russell Wilson, then still drafts a quarterback.

Speaker 4 They do the old Andy Dalton. Right.
Russ is our quarterback.

Speaker 1 Mike Lennon had that happen to him with Mitch.

Speaker 4 Yeah. Also, here's Jaden Daniels.
Yeah, Mike Lennon.

Speaker 1 But Russ will be. Mike Lennon threw out the first pitch, and everyone was like, Mike Glennon time.
Like, whoop, it's Mitch.

Speaker 4 What you got, Jake?

Speaker 8 Plus 1,400 to win the NFC Atlanta.

Speaker 1 I still don't like it.

Speaker 8 It's right in the middle of the pack.

Speaker 4 I kind of like it. With Kirk.
Just based on the speculation of Kirk.

Speaker 8 The Vikings are plus 2,000.

Speaker 4 So another Florio tweet. We just spent 10 minutes with Caleb Williams.
Condolences to the Vikings, Lions, and Packers.

Speaker 4 This guy is the real deal, and the Bears will have their first franchise quarterback since Sid Luckman.

Speaker 6 Yeah, no, he's jinxing. That felt mean.

Speaker 4 That felt mean.

Speaker 4 We can't get into specifics for now.

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah. I'm getting very credible indications that Cousins is seriously considering movies family to Atlanta.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 You know what the original Magic said he wasn't. We can't get into specifics for now.
I could say that about anything.

Speaker 3 I'd be like, well, can't get into specifics.

Speaker 4 It was Bethlehem. Oh, he can't get into specifics.

Speaker 3 I believe him on this one.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 3 But I can see why some people would be like, how can we take this seriously?

Speaker 1 By the way, we should have, we screwed up on Sunday. We should have mentioned.

Speaker 3 I forgot. Well, I guess I would say that, and then I'd be like, wait, he had 50 interviews Super Bowl week.
So

Speaker 1 combine week, actually. Combine week.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Chris Mortensen passing away was sad. Mort was the original.
He was the original newsbreaker. He was the guy who created basically the idea of like NFL news.

Speaker 4 I don't think that there was ever a sports, like an NFL reporter that was on television. before Chris Mortensen.
Yeah. Like as a feature of a show.

Speaker 4 He seemed like a great guy. I never got the chance to meet him.
I don't know if if you ever,

Speaker 4 but he seemed from what everybody else has said, he seemed like a really, like an outstanding human being. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And you could tell just by the outpouring of, you know, people saying their stories about him and everything, he was just beloved by everyone.

Speaker 1 Makes me think sometimes, how many,

Speaker 1 how much, how much hate do you think we'll get when we die versus love? Because there definitely will still be some hate.

Speaker 4 I don't like to joke about death on the show, Big Cat. Yeah, that's true.
Don't

Speaker 1 get on John Cena. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It'll be love. But there'll be some shit, too.
Oh,

Speaker 4 when Big Cat dies, somebody's going to post the Taylor Swift video. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Be like, this fucking asshole, hope he burns in hell.

Speaker 4 Or just be like, thank God there's one less man on the planet. Yeah.

Speaker 3 This is what being unhealthy does. I knew this was happening.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Like, oh,

Speaker 1 all those donuts. We should have known.
Also, there'll be some of that.

Speaker 4 Shout out to Mort because I think the diagnosis of his throat cancer, which is a super aggressive type of cancer, was that like 2015? It was a long time ago. 2016.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 And so he lived for what, nine years, eight years after that.

Speaker 4 So he, I don't know, it's, it's a very sad day.

Speaker 4 And it was, it was sad seeing like the tributes because people that you watch on TV all the time that are always having a good time, joking around, laughing, they were like on the verge of tears talking about this guy.

Speaker 4 So I wish I got the chance to meet him and he seemed like just a cool dude.

Speaker 1 Would would would you guys, isn't it weird to think though, like, and it's morbid, but

Speaker 1 we'll eulogize each other. Like, if one of us dies first.
Like, Hank, if you died, PFT and I would have to do, would we be part of the eulogies, right?

Speaker 3 Dude, who has to decide that?

Speaker 4 Dibs.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 1 I think it's like the family decides, but I think they'd be like, yeah, PFT and Big Cat, you guys should say something. Like, there's multiple eulogies.
Yeah, of course.

Speaker 1 Like, if I died, PFT would definitely eulogize me. He would be part of the eulogy.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I don't know if you, you would probably procrastinate until the last second.
You'd be like,

Speaker 1 this is worse than doing the stand-up comedy.

Speaker 4 I think that if Hank dies, you should have died. Memes should eulogize him.

Speaker 1 Oh, man. Memes.

Speaker 1 Oh, man. If Hank dies, we need to remake.
I thought the stand-up comedy was good. We need to remake the picture of

Speaker 1 showing up to my hater's funeral. It's just have Max in the picture.
That would be great.

Speaker 3 No, it would be memes.

Speaker 1 It would be memes. It would be, yeah, it would be memes and Max.

Speaker 4 If Dave eulogized you, he would just talk about how you were a ticket taker. Be like, Hank would still be taking tickets right now.

Speaker 1 I think I would have to give a eulogy for Dave, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like, one of them.

Speaker 4 Oh no, Miss Peaches, what'd you do?

Speaker 1 Thankfully he's dead. He can't complain about his shoulder anymore.
That would rock.

Speaker 4 Miss Peaches has bite marks on his throat.

Speaker 1 Oh no.

Speaker 1 Miss Peaches rocks.

Speaker 1 She's very cute. And the fact that she looks like a peach

Speaker 1 kind of takes it to the next stage.

Speaker 4 It's the best life hack ever. If you're naming a dog, if you name your dog after a noun, it's awesome.
If you name your dog after a noun and put Mr. or Miss in front of it, as the noun, becomes cuter.

Speaker 4 It's perfect.

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Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Jason Kelsey retired. Max thought we were going to lead the show with him.
Probably should have led the show. Yeah, probably should have led the show.

Speaker 4 Well, I think, you know, shout out to the Kelsey brothers. He's becoming a full-time podcaster right now, which I think he's going to find out is a lot harder than playing football.
Max.

Speaker 4 But they've done a very good job of

Speaker 4 playing the game, and they do a good job on the podcast. It's a very funny show and a good show, but they also know how to play the game.

Speaker 4 When you got Travis dating the most famous person in the world,

Speaker 4 it tends to help with ratings. When you got the other guy being shirtless on TV, chugging beers all the time, winning football games, it helps with ratings.
So we need Hank. What did we say?

Speaker 4 Hank was going to date Beyonce? Yeah. Hank will date Beyonce.
And then I think that Max, you should just,

Speaker 4 you give your thoughts thoughts on Jason Kelsey as Jason Kelsey. You can just be Jason Kelsey for a minute.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 10 Yeah, no, I will do anything to emulate Jason Kelsey and his life for the rest of time.

Speaker 1 He was an all-time dude

Speaker 1 in terms of like NFL lore, like six-round pick, incredible mainstay of the Eagles this past, whatever, decade plus, where they've gone to a Super Bowl, won a Super Bowl, gone to a bunch of big games.

Speaker 1 Like, he's the guy.

Speaker 1 Were you sad? Did you tear up a little? Also, his speech was great.

Speaker 1 Actually, let me ask you this first.

Speaker 1 Some haters out there.

Speaker 10 I know where you're going with this, and it is disgusting.

Speaker 1 I agree with you, but some haters, I'm not one of the one hater. One hater.
One hater out there. He was commenting on the fact that he didn't put on sleeves.
It's his own thing.

Speaker 6 Yeah. He agrees.

Speaker 10 Whatever the fuck he wants. I agree.
If he was going to Travis's retirement day and everyone else was dressed as nice and he wore no sleeves, then yes, I could see I would be disrespectful.

Speaker 10 It's your thing. You choose the rules.

Speaker 4 I agree. He's a hater.
He sounds like a real loser.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he was.

Speaker 10 It was an all-time ratio.

Speaker 4 Yeah. Who was it?

Speaker 1 It was Rico. Oh, no, really? Yeah.
He was like, can't put on sleeves? I honestly don't know. Max did ratio the fuck out of him.
Ratio him to hell. But yeah, it was a great speech.

Speaker 1 It was a great speech. He hit everything.
He talked about Nick Foles' dick.

Speaker 1 What did you think? What was your takeaway?

Speaker 10 It was great. It had everything.
It was emotional. It was funny.

Speaker 10 It was a great walk.

Speaker 10 That was my dynasty documentary. Just him going through each year by year of his career and the highs and the lows.
I cried.

Speaker 11 It was a lot.

Speaker 10 It was like very, very emotional. I was not expecting it to get that emotional.
Like right off the rip, before he even gets a word out, it takes like a good two minutes of him just like bawling.

Speaker 10 He bawling in his eyes.

Speaker 10 It was tough. Like,

Speaker 10 he was Philadelphia. Like, he is the most Philadelphia athlete I think that there's ever been.
Like, the fact that an offensive lineman was the face of Philly for so long was so big for the city.

Speaker 10 And I think that, like, him being gone is a real problem for the locker room.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 10 He was the leader for so long. And he was also just an unbelievable football player.
Going out last year, first-team all-pro, deserved first-team all-pro.

Speaker 10 Could have almost changed the game of football with the tush-push. He's the best, best personality of all time.
His Super Bowl speech will always be one of the best speeches of all time.

Speaker 10 He's the best. I'm going to miss him so much.

Speaker 4 Yeah, you bring up a good point, though. What happens with the tush push next year?

Speaker 4 Are they going to run it?

Speaker 10 Yeah, they're still going to run it. I don't think it'll be as successful as

Speaker 1 it was. Did you see the Wisconsin center actually finally someone broke the three-cone?

Speaker 1 I think it was three-cone drill that Jason Kelsey had the record for centers for like whatever it was the last 13 years. So maybe you draft him.
Good.

Speaker 10 That's fine.

Speaker 10 Pass the baton.

Speaker 1 He definitely gave like a blueprint for other Philadelphia athletes.

Speaker 4 I feel like Bryce Harper, he wants so very badly to be what Jason Kelsey is.

Speaker 1 Nick Siriani looks in the mirror and he sees Jason Kelsey. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 It's good to have a blueprint, though. It's like you have somebody that everyone wants to emulate.
And if everybody could be Jason Kelsey, then you'd be very, very happy as a Philadelphia sports fan.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Mount Rushmore of six-round picks. He's on it.

Speaker 10 He's the Mount Rushmore of

Speaker 10 Eagles athletes.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Mount Mount Rushmore, six-round picks.
It's Tom athletes. Tom Brady, Antonio Brown, Terrell Davis, and then Jason Kelsey.
That's a good round. That's a great round.
That's a great round.

Speaker 1 Some great picks right there. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Also, first-team All-American beer drinker. Yeah.

Speaker 6 That dude loves beer.

Speaker 4 I love how much he loves beer. Yeah, he's the best.

Speaker 1 Male Speaker 1. You got to get him on the pod.
He's. We hung out with him once.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 When?

Speaker 1 20.

Speaker 4 Probably 17, 20,

Speaker 4 2017.

Speaker 4 Was it Chris's apartment?

Speaker 1 It was Bo Allen's apartment. Oh, yeah.
And it was Chris Long, Bo Allen, and Jason Kelsey. And we just like hung out.
Brent Sellick, too. Yeah, and Brent Sellek.

Speaker 1 And we just hung out for, I don't know, three, four hours. It was awesome.
Drank a dude. Great dude.
Yeah. You didn't know that?

Speaker 10 No, this is the first time hearing of this.

Speaker 1 Have you ever hung out with him? No. Oh, no.
Damn.

Speaker 6 You know what? I really hope that.

Speaker 1 I'm actually surprised he didn't mention us in his speech.

Speaker 1 That was a great night. It was a great hang.

Speaker 4 I hope so much that he hates Max. Yeah.
That would be so good, wouldn't it?

Speaker 1 Come on, don't say that. That would.

Speaker 3 Well, you're appropriating his culture.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 4 That's true. Yeah, his culture is not you.

Speaker 10 You just told me that I have to appropriate culture.

Speaker 4 You look like a guy who's currently in costume on Halloween, dressed up as slutty

Speaker 4 Jason Kelsey.

Speaker 10 Like, he grew out his hair whenever his hair was growing out. That's when I started to grow out my hair, and then I just never looked back.

Speaker 1 You're very

Speaker 4 unsettling in a hat.

Speaker 10 I just want to look like him. I want to be him.

Speaker 1 Great hats. They're going to be out on Thursday.
The just cover hats. We got all new gambling merch for March Madden.

Speaker 12 I don't look good in a hat.

Speaker 12 You will look better than me in this hat.

Speaker 4 I told Max before we started that he looks like when Forrest Gump went on his cross-country run, he just somehow got fatter.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 10 Well, we workshopped that. I said I looked like Forrest Gump.

Speaker 1 You said you look like Forrest Gump. It was a workshop.

Speaker 1 It was a workshop.

Speaker 4 Yeah, credit to Max, actually. Yeah, credit to me.

Speaker 1 It was a workshop.

Speaker 12 But the fatter part was funny.

Speaker 1 Okay, what else do we have before we get to Hank's number 10 Patriots?

Speaker 4 I saw a pretty hilarious fan last night at the Clippers Bucks game. Did you see the guy from Taiwan?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 4 There was a guy that flew in from Taiwan and he held up a poster that said, like, I flew 15 hours or whatever from Taiwan to see my favorite player. Oh, no.
Russell Westbrook. Oh.

Speaker 4 Didn't play. Didn't play.
Brought all his jerseys.

Speaker 4 The man was wearing 15 Russell Westbrook jerseys. Oh, my God.
All on top of each other. And he started to take them all off, showing the different layers of Russell Westbrook.

Speaker 1 But at least... At least you got to see Giannis.

Speaker 4 Yeah, at least he got to see Giannis, which is nice.

Speaker 1 That would have been. I thought you were going to say Giannis.

Speaker 1 Because he got ruled out like an hour before.

Speaker 4 But he was definitely like on a plane overseas, and the news broke that like Russell Westbrook had a hand issue. That's brutal.
That's a tough flight. That's a tough flight.

Speaker 4 And your bag is just filled with nothing but Russell Westbrook jerseys.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think we're at the point, though, with the NBA, that you can't make a long flight to try to see your favorite player with any type of confidence anymore. No.
It's on you.

Speaker 4 You have to actually be in touch with the player beforehand and let them know, like, hey, I'm considering spending $5,000 on this flight from Taiwan.

Speaker 4 Would you just promise me that you're going to play that game?

Speaker 1 Yeah, you need to find a week where they're at home for a straight week and be like, I'm just going to take the whole week because then I might have a good chance of seeing my favorite player play.

Speaker 4 Yeah, but I think, hank, no disrespect, I know that I did crown the Celtics Eastern Conference champions. I think NBA champions on Monday's show.

Speaker 4 I think I'm going to ride on the Bucs.

Speaker 1 Pep.

Speaker 4 I think I got to go with Pat Bev. Belt to ass.
Belt to ass.

Speaker 4 They're just six and no. Last six.
They're fucking people up ever since they got Galinari. Belt to ass.
Haven't lost a game since they got Galinari.

Speaker 3 Is he playing?

Speaker 4 I don't know.

Speaker 1 I think so.

Speaker 3 Celtic's legend.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think he's playing.

Speaker 1 Never played.

Speaker 3 Also, some other people were the greatest rehab working out videos.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Just skipping.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he played last night. He played 17 minutes, four points.

Speaker 4 Some people would just point to the fact that the All-Star break did happen, and they've just been good since the All-Star break.

Speaker 1 But still,

Speaker 1 they have been good. And yeah, I mean,

Speaker 1 it was actually

Speaker 1 no one cares about our bets, but I saw that Giannis was out, and I was like, I'm just gonna bet uh Dame to score over 40 at plus like 400, and then he did because he just it was Dame time, yeah.

Speaker 1 Like, he, I kind of like that. The Bucs have that situation.

Speaker 1 A lot of teams, Celtics have it, where like their best player goes out, and it's like, Well, the other guy's just gonna, is really fucking good, he's just gonna score all the points, and we'll be fine.

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Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Hank, do you want to do your number 10 Patriot? Yep.

Speaker 4 This is big. Yeah, before you announce number 10, I want to give you just a little bit of background here.

Speaker 3 Well, it doesn't matter because the list has already been locked in.

Speaker 4 So we are, yeah, I know, but we already went from, what, six to number one? Is that what we did, the top six or top seven?

Speaker 1 Yes. So give us the sixth through, give us six through one, and then we'll go back to ten.

Speaker 4 Dante Hightower, six.

Speaker 3 Tylaw, five. Julian Edelman, four.
Teddy Brewski, three. Rob Grinkowski, two.
Tom Brady, one.

Speaker 4 Okay. Okay.
So when we left the combine on Thursday, I was hanging out with

Speaker 4 a couple coaches and a couple James, not to brag, but I got a big slap on my back.

Speaker 4 And before I turned around, I said to myself, that's a coach who's too big and intimidating to coach in the NFL anymore. I turned around and it was Mike Vrabel right there.

Speaker 4 And he was like, what's up, bitch? Which is the perfect Mike Vrabel way to say hello to you.

Speaker 4 And the first thing that I talked to him about was the fact that you're doing your top 10 Patriots of all time list and you haven't announced numbers 10 through 7 yet.

Speaker 4 And he said, tell Hank, if I'm not on that list, I'm going to beat his ass.

Speaker 4 So just no pressure.

Speaker 3 Well, it doesn't matter because the list is locked in. That was my point.
Like, I can't

Speaker 3 change it. Retroactive.

Speaker 4 I know, but just so you know, no pressure. I hope you put Vrabel on there because he's going to beat your ass.

Speaker 1 I would love to watch that.

Speaker 4 Dude, he would kick your ass.

Speaker 1 He would fuck you up so bad. You'd be crying.
You'd be bloody.

Speaker 1 So would you. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Yeah, but I'd put him on my top 10 list. Yeah.

Speaker 1 He doesn't want to beat me. Who said I didn't? Okay.
Oh, we'll see who's number 10.

Speaker 3 With that being said, number 10,

Speaker 1 Randy Moss.

Speaker 1 Randy Moss.

Speaker 3 Yeah,

Speaker 3 only player on this list to not win a Super Bowl, but he was that good, that exciting, record-breaker.

Speaker 1 Best receiver of all time.

Speaker 3 Best receiver of all time. When he came to the Patriots, they got him for nothing.

Speaker 3 People didn't have high expectations. And then

Speaker 3 game one, it was apparent he was going to dominate. And that was

Speaker 3 the most fun season until it wasn't. But his years in the Patriots were so fun to watch.
Him and Gronk are probably the most, obviously Brady, but receiver-wise,

Speaker 6 they were just

Speaker 6 unicorns.

Speaker 1 How many Super Bowls? Two unicorns. How many Super Bowls do you think Tom Brady would trade to get 19-0?

Speaker 3 Two, probably. I think he said,

Speaker 3 I could be wrong, but I think he said he would trade like one or two just to have that one.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I had memory hold that one, that one play at the very end of the first Giants Patriots Super Bowl where Brady just chucks it downfield.

Speaker 4 He told Randy to reverse fields when he points at him, and the ball hit off Randy Moss's hands, and they would have been in field goal range. I'd completely forgotten about that play.

Speaker 3 The thing with the time was though, there was only like 14, 12 seconds left. They were all the way on the other side of the field.
They had no timeout. So

Speaker 3 people posted a lot being like, what if he caught this? I don't know that they would have gotten down the field and spiked it, but yeah.

Speaker 4 It would have been electric, though. Yeah.
Tom Brady would have run the fastest 40 of his life.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I don't even know if I don't know. I don't even know if he did when he was 22.
I saw that.

Speaker 4 Yeah, he beat himself.

Speaker 3 I don't even know if they mentioned the record-breaking season in the documentary.

Speaker 1 I don't think they did. Insane.
Who's your honorable mention?

Speaker 3 My honorable mention, Rodney Harrison.

Speaker 1 Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 Rodney Harrison. Great guy.

Speaker 1 Didn't make the top 10. Great player.

Speaker 1 Didn't make the top 10. Yeah, he got no play in the Dynasty documentary.

Speaker 4 I think he talked about

Speaker 4 the helmet catch. They mentioned

Speaker 1 that. Yeah, they're like, talk about the helmet catch, and then we'll just do one quick clip of you winning a Super Bowl.

Speaker 4 My favorite thing about Rodney Harrison is when he gets on TV on Sunday nights, and he just talks about

Speaker 4 how dirty some of these players are and how much they should be suspended for their hits. Yeah.
It's like this is Rodney Harrison telling you this.

Speaker 1 Rodney Harrison.

Speaker 1 Okay, good job, Hank. Should we do Hot C Cool Throne? Sure.
Let's do Hot C Cool Thrones. Give it up for Chicago.

Speaker 13 Sebastian Maniscalco's new stand-up special, It Ain't Right, is coming to Hulu on November 21st.

Speaker 1 30 years ago, Jeff Bezos, complete nerd. Bezos now ripped to shreds on his super yacht, and the boxes keep

Speaker 1 coming

Speaker 13 Sebastian Maniscalco it ain't right premieres November 21st streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers terms apply

Speaker 1 Okay, Hank hot seat cool thrown.

Speaker 3 I have two hot seats.

Speaker 3 I'll elect to use one because I'm assuming one of you guys will have the other one. That's very nice of you.

Speaker 1 Thank you.

Speaker 3 So my hot seat is spring break.

Speaker 1 Why?

Speaker 3 Miami is opting out of spring break. Yeah.
I don't know how that's going to work.

Speaker 6 I saw the video.

Speaker 4 But they made a video.

Speaker 3 DeSantis was like, we're not, you know, they made a video that was like, it's not, it's not you, it's me.

Speaker 3 We're breaking up, like kind of a parody video of Miami residents breaking up with spring break. And DeSantis said they have a bunch of security measures to, you know, stop it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they did this with PCB

Speaker 1 a few years ago, where they stopped letting people drink on the beach, and then it just kind of ended there. Yeah.

Speaker 3 The war against spring break is raging.

Speaker 1 I was never a big spring break guy because I was too fat.

Speaker 1 Just having to take off your shirt for a whole week, you know, right after March Madness was always daunting.

Speaker 1 But for those who celebrate, I'm sorry for your loss. I never had a lot of time.
Max, are you agreeing with me there?

Speaker 10 Yeah, I played baseball, so we had.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It was always like get in shape or just, I could just stay in Madison and just like drink and hang out.
And I would do the latter.

Speaker 4 I did Panama City Beach one year, and Panama City Beach might be, it might be the worst city in America.

Speaker 4 It's just, you leave the actual beach, and then you've got guys wearing Jinkos riding a bicycle named Travis. Beating up

Speaker 4 beating up future quarterbacks and trying to sell you Salvia on the street. Yeah.
And then there's an occasional preacher that pulls you aside.

Speaker 4 It's like, I'll give you free pancakes if you listen to me preach to you. I'd take that deal.
Yeah, I did. I actually did take that deal.
Worth it.

Speaker 4 I saw Woody Harrelson in a waffle house in Panama City Beach one time. During spring break.
During spring break. He was there eating by himself.
And then as he was on his way out,

Speaker 4 this kid stopped him.

Speaker 4 He was probably like a nine-year-old kid it was like hi mr harrelson and then woody asked his dad if they could go out to the parking lot so his son could ride on woody harrelson's bike and then woody harrelson just drove around the parking lot with this nine-year-old kid on harley davidson took a bunch of pictures dropped him off and rode away that's bad pretty legendary celebrity yeah yes yes okay so spring break out

Speaker 4 hot seat hot seat feel bad for the kids although miami spring break i feel like is not a college kid destination yeah you got to go to mexico yeah or you go

Speaker 1 And you got to come back with all the

Speaker 1 bracelets of all the places you went to. Yeah.
Yeah. I went into Senior Frogs.
I think there's one in Cabo.

Speaker 1 And we went in for one drink in the middle of the day and it smelled like puke and like spaghetti. And I was like, do not miss this.

Speaker 4 Yeah. The good news is there's like 400 other beaches in Florida you can go to.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 My cool throne is having nothing to hide.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 3 The commercial. I think we talked about it a few weeks ago.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 We really should have given people a warning about that commercial because it hit on a monday morning and everyone's like what is this whoops we did a commercial where we're you know basically naked you guys came out great that one side angle of just like it's just an upshot of my side boob not great i haven't seen i think i think you i think i came out the worst i look like two-dimensional i don't know you look big cat looks jacked can somebody say narrow-chested yeah

Speaker 4 send the video because i haven't watched i just walked by max when he was editing something and just our nude bodies were on his his computer screen yeah apologies to everyone for not giving you a heads up because you've probably seen it, especially if you're watching the podcast.

Speaker 1 Our bad.

Speaker 1 We should have been like, hey, there's this new commercial. It's a great commercial.
We love body armor. Also, shout out our billboard.

Speaker 3 Shout out to Billboard on Randolph Street.

Speaker 1 Hank's just fishing with Dynamite now.

Speaker 3 Across from JP Graziano's Good Night, John Boy. It's a great idea.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 you were at a bar on Friday night with the billboard out the window.

Speaker 4 It's interesting that we put it outside your favorite bar.

Speaker 1 Do you even say anything to girls or you just go?

Speaker 3 No, I didn't mention it at all.

Speaker 1 I didn't, I didn't. You just kind of keep nodding towards the window.
Check it out.

Speaker 3 Just yawning, like, oh, whoa. That's a cool billboard.

Speaker 1 You're so lucky.

Speaker 4 Yeah, sorry about this video. I just watched it.
That's tough. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, it was just the fact that it was a Monday morning and we didn't give anyone a prep. It's a great ad.
Gets people watching.

Speaker 1 Body armor is, we love body armor, but we should have been like, hey, there's an ad coming out. You get to see.
And we all saw each other's cocks because they gave us the thinnest

Speaker 1 see-through uh flesh colored boxers

Speaker 1 and i think that i think did we talk about this on the show but hank's got a big cock pft's got big balls i got nothing

Speaker 3 well yeah i think we did because we showed up we were so it was a late sunday night still football season and then we showed up 8 a.m they're like here's your costume and it was just a two-inch like see-through i don't even know spandex boxers yeah it looked like we had we were all like hiding different sizes of birds in our shorts.

Speaker 1 Mine was like a small sparrow.

Speaker 3 At one point, they were saying that was going to be the billboard.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 1 pretty much say yes to everything that's ever been asked of me in my career.

Speaker 1 I think that was the one time where I was like, and I think you guys played it correctly because you're like, let's let Big Cat decide this because he's the one who's going to look the worst.

Speaker 1 No, and I was just like, I said I need to be in a body suit. No, what happened was

Speaker 4 somebody asked me, here's the idea for the billboard.

Speaker 4 You guys are all going to be nude, and you and Big Cat are going to be holding footballs in front of your crotches, and then Hank is going to be holding a golf ball in front of his.

Speaker 3 Oh, man.

Speaker 1 Blurring it out.

Speaker 4 And so I said, I'm down with that, but you might want to double-check with Hank that it's okay because Hank's the one that's going to have to live with that visual.

Speaker 3 And I said, if I'll make a compromise, put me in the Jack's bodysuit. And I'll do it.
And they're like, no.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 It's like, all right.

Speaker 4 No matter who was going to have the tiny ball in front of our penis was going to end up being like, no, I don't want to do this billboard.

Speaker 1 I actually think I'm less, like, if my penis was out there, I wouldn't really care.

Speaker 1 It's everything else that sucks.

Speaker 1 I mean, the penis sucks too, but at least I'd be like, I've told everyone, like, it sucks.

Speaker 4 Bad penis. Yeah, right.
I mean, we're podcasters. What do you expect?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Okay.
Good hot seat, cool thrown. Thank you.

Speaker 1 My hot seat is Arch Manning.

Speaker 4 Yes, I had that as well.

Speaker 1 Is that the one you had, Hank? Yeah. Oh, thank you, Hank.
Good job, Hank.

Speaker 3 Well, actually, my hot seat was ncaa football 2024.

Speaker 4 okay well i'll just i'll just put arch on the hot seat because he's not going to be he's opted out of being in the new college football game um and i i don't really care but it is very funny seeing people because if you just zoom out and look at what you're actually upset about a lot of people are upset that like a 20 year old isn't going to be in their favorite video game right and i so initially i was like

Speaker 1 the the story and i don't know if it's fact was like i just want to focus on football and i kind of have arch bannings back in that respect because if you're in a football game, a video game, you're going to just play the video game as yourself all the time.

Speaker 1 And then someone pointed out that Arch Manning would be in it and his rating would be like 65 and he'd be a backup. And also the Manning name is worth a lot of money.

Speaker 1 Maybe that's why he did it. And then that to me is kind of lame.

Speaker 1 So he should just stick with, I would, he should just do a press conference and be like, listen, if you put me in the game, All I'm going to do is play the game.

Speaker 1 And I don't want to do that. I want to focus on football because I actually buy that.
If I were in a video game,

Speaker 1 I wouldn't be podcasting right now. I'd be just playing myself in the video game.

Speaker 4 Let's reach a compromise,

Speaker 4 EA Sports, NCAA College Football. Arch Manning is not going to be in the game.
However, don't put any filters or blocks on the game that prevent you from making Arch Manning. Right.

Speaker 4 Creating your own Arch Manning. I don't want the last name thing coming up.
Be like, sorry, this last name cannot be used.

Speaker 4 You should be able, if it's just one player, then everybody should be able to make that one player and so you can make the best Arch Manning.

Speaker 1 Yes, agreed. Agreed.

Speaker 4 I have another hot seat, just real quick. Charlotte the Stingray still hasn't given birth.
It's fucked up. I don't think that she's actually pregnant.
I still think it was a lie.

Speaker 4 I've been on Stingray watch for the last like three weeks.

Speaker 4 That bitch ain't pregnant. My cool throne is, I'm going to put Chris Klemmer on the cool throne because I've been watching his solitary confinement stream for the last couple days.

Speaker 4 And he is, I think he was built for this. He seems to be having no problem whatsoever living in solitary confinement.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 It's insanely entertaining somehow.

Speaker 4 So shout out to Chris.

Speaker 4 He's a very strange human being.

Speaker 1 Oh, the strangest.

Speaker 1 He chose to do this.

Speaker 3 We had to do the 24-hour punishment, and I was thinking about it last night. We had

Speaker 3 games. We had each other.
We had guests popping in.

Speaker 3 It was still one of the most miserable experiences of my life. I've been in jail with the Brady 4,

Speaker 3 maybe nine hours where we were locked in a cell. Absolutely miserable.

Speaker 1 Oh, jail sucks. Put it on a quote card.

Speaker 3 He just chose

Speaker 3 to do a hundred hours. He's like, oh, you know, it'd be funny if I did 100 hours of

Speaker 3 Terry. Confinement.
I completely respect it. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Insane. He's down for anything.
Clemer's down for anything. Like, he's, if you could build more people like Clemmer at Barcelona, it'd be great because he is, he'll do anything.

Speaker 1 But I agree with you, Hank, when people are like, this is punishment. You got to stop this.
It's like he decided to do it. Yeah.
It's his favorite. I think he's fine.
Yeah. Like PFT said, he's fine.

Speaker 1 He's just living his life.

Speaker 4 He's actually, so when I started watching it, all the comments were, it was right off the bat like the first four hours They were saying Clemmer's going to go insane by the end of this week No, he's going to make everybody that's watching the stream go insane Yeah, because he's doing he's doing fine with it and his the way his brain works is just so strange that you can't help but watch like I tuned in the other day He was putting himself into a suitcase.

Speaker 4 Yeah, he was just folding.

Speaker 4 Yeah, it's really really bizarre stuff, but uh yeah, I can't stop watching Clemmer.

Speaker 1 Yeah. All right.
My hot seat is Anthony Edwards. You guys see last night, Anthony Edwards lost track of time and he missed the tip-off of the Timberwolves game.
I didn't see that, no. So yeah,

Speaker 1 he didn't start. First time he hasn't started since he was a rookie.
He was at the arena. He was warming up in the tunnel.

Speaker 1 He just lost track of time and so they subbed him in like 25 seconds into the game, but he did not start the game.

Speaker 4 This is the kind of thing that you point to when it's like, yeah, the Timberwolves are good, but.

Speaker 1 Your star player lost track of time.

Speaker 4 Just forgot when the game started. Just completely forgot.
We should do reasons why teams can't win the NBA Finals. Yeah.
And it would be just Anthony.

Speaker 4 Anthony Edwards was forgetting, and it would just be like Chet Holmgren's shoulders.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 It was, there was a, oh man, I can't remember his name.

Speaker 4 Chris Paul. Just a picture of Chris Paul for the Warriors.

Speaker 1 It was, there was a player. Fuck, what was this? He was a pitcher.
Edwin Jackson. Edwin Jackson forgot.
He put in the wrong Google Maps to a Cubs Spring training game like 10 years ago.

Speaker 1 And he's like, yeah, whoops. I just drove to the wrong place.

Speaker 4 I love that.

Speaker 1 I would do something like that.

Speaker 1 Okay, my cool throne is Dak Prescott. He got a new haircut.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 So what kind of haircut is it?

Speaker 1 He also, I think, had a kid, but

Speaker 1 he

Speaker 1 it was just a regular haircut.

Speaker 4 Just a close haircut?

Speaker 1 Yeah, really. I couldn't really see any difference.

Speaker 1 But that is where we're at in the news cycle. Is that like NFL?

Speaker 4 Is that like when moms have another kid and they cut their hair because they don't have time to take care of it? Yeah. Dak Prescott just cut like half an inch off his hair.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and all the.

Speaker 1 Well, he went from beard to goatee yeah and all the oh that was what it was so the aggregators were like uh the ml football the dove climbing were like dak prescott got a new haircut thoughts

Speaker 1 okay my thought yep yeah that's a haircut and he got a goatee i actually like the goatee he kind of looks good he's got a good jaw looks like well dan quinn a little bit not a great job besides the fact it's made out of glass yeah yeah uh okay Jake, your hot seat cool torn.

Speaker 1 Jake is back. Congrats, Jake.
You did a great job with the tournament this weekend. Thank you, guys.

Speaker 8 It was a a lot of fun. Yeah.
It was a great drama. We had Monday morning golf, so an extra time to get reps in.

Speaker 1 Who won?

Speaker 8 His name was Austin Eckroat. First ever PJ win.

Speaker 4 Nice. You were working the bear trap this weekend, which is a great name.
Most of the bear trap. Great name for holes on a golf course, the bear trap.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 4 Brought to you by Jack and Klaus, which I wanted to say really badly, but wouldn't have made sense. So with the PGA tour this year, everyone that's won is the biggest underdog ever.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's really weird.

Speaker 8 There's been eight or nine events, events and there's already been three rookies who've won. Last year in 54 events, three rookies won.

Speaker 4 Yeah, if you look at my odds, they're all between like 60 and 500 to 1 odds that have won.

Speaker 8 Yeah, the co-leader after 54 holes, David Skins, was 1,000 to 1.

Speaker 1 Maybe he has something to do with the fact that like 50 really good players are on the live.

Speaker 4 I don't know what that means.

Speaker 4 We don't include them in our world golf rookies.

Speaker 8 Well, we have the Arnold Palmer and then the players next week. So it's some different.

Speaker 3 Yeah, there's two big boy events if they don't get a big name in neither one. Yeah, we need some big boys.

Speaker 1 We need some big boys. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 8 So that was fun.

Speaker 8 My hot seat is teams who need a wide receiver. Oh.
Because Mike Evans is staying with the Bucs.

Speaker 1 Yes, and one Jersey guy.

Speaker 8 A lot of people were saying if he had free agency, maybe the Jets, maybe the Chiefs, but he's not going anywhere. And he had a great year.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 He kind of, in a way, hit free agency. He was just like, I'm going to hit free agency.
And then the Bucs were like, here's some more money. He's like, okay, thank you.
I'll stay.

Speaker 1 Jason Light's first draft pick as a GM, Mike Evans. He's been there a long time.
Mike Evans, I mean, we talked about it this fall.

Speaker 1 He is, if he plays another three, four, five years, he will be in the conversation for Mount Rushmore of wide receivers in terms of like his total numbers and the dominance he's had.

Speaker 1 Every single season he's been in the NFL. He's had 1,000 yards.

Speaker 4 Yep. Also, Jason Light, very cool guy.

Speaker 6 Very cool guy.

Speaker 4 I like Jason Light a lot, but I still have that red flag in the back of my head with Jason Light that he likes Stephen Che.

Speaker 1 And also he might be Jameson 1 for 1.

Speaker 4 Yes, that too. Yeah.

Speaker 8 My cool throne is friend of the program, Dan Hurley. After winning the Big East title, regular season, he went out to the bar and celebrated.

Speaker 1 Oh, nice. With fans and students.
First time they won it since 1999. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 love him. Was he drinking fiss? Probably.
Literally all Dan Hurley has done since Max joined this podcast is win. Yeah.
It's crazy.

Speaker 8 And they, you guys tell me if I'm wrong, this is the best chance for repeat since the 06-07 Gators.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Probably, yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 8 I mean, usually a team loses some key pieces. They did, but they're going to be one seed.
They have a chance to do it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they absolutely do.

Speaker 1 Okay, good job, boys. Let's get to our interview.
We have Diana Rossini. Great interview with Diana.
It's been a long overdue to have her on the podcast. Before we do that, PFT.

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Speaker 1 Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. She is a friend of ours, hasn't been on the show yet.
It is her, pardon my take, debut, been way too long, probably long overdue. That's our fault.

Speaker 1 It is Diana Rossini from the athletic lead NFL reporter. Can I say that?

Speaker 2 Yeah, senior insider.

Speaker 1 Senior Insider from the Athletic. We were going to talk some Combine.
We're going to talk some football.

Speaker 1 You brought two sodas though um

Speaker 4 are those for us

Speaker 2 no okay who are they for someone really special on the show

Speaker 1 so you broke maybe the the story of the year super bowl week when our producer max delente decided to rip farts on a uh plane with two sodas and a burrito burrito was was the big mistake should we do this part now max do you want to

Speaker 1 it's your show okay it's my show it's our show okay so why don't you come down and sit down here, Max? Let's just get this out of the way.

Speaker 1 This is what the people want to hear, and then we'll talk some NFL.

Speaker 1 My first question is, Diana, you do have a thing for Philly guys. You're married to a Philly guy.
Is there a part of this entire

Speaker 1 escapade where maybe you have a little crush on Max?

Speaker 2 So I've always liked Max on the show, anyways. I just never knew what Max looked like because I just listened to you guys.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 So the entire time he was sitting next to me, I had no idea that was Max.

Speaker 2 And, you know, the biggest issue I had with this thing was the fact that I'm texting a friend of mine, that being PFT, about just my irritation in the moment. And to then reveal the source on it all.

Speaker 10 You had to have known that was going to happen.

Speaker 2 We have a really good, honest friendship. I never thought he would do that to me.

Speaker 4 No, because you usually feed me bullshit stories.

Speaker 1 Like, although I once 100% thought he would do that because that's, I mean, you knew, I think Diana knew what she was doing, but she does send me a lot of bullshit.

Speaker 4 What was the one you sent me yesterday just to scare me?

Speaker 4 Commanders trading out signing Baker.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's what I am.

Speaker 1 I just like to throw something at him just to keep him in chicken.

Speaker 4 It felt, it was very funny, and it was great reporting. The level of detail that Crown

Speaker 1 presents. It was so detailed.

Speaker 10 It was so detailed.

Speaker 2 Here's the problem. Max was sitting next to me, and

Speaker 2 usually you make some sort of eye contact with the people next to you. Not long, right? Because it's awkward.
It's weird. It's tight.

Speaker 2 he never even slightly looked to his right he just looked straightforward almost as if i got to get through this flight and not vomit that that and he just stunk of hangover just you know that it's like a mix of it's like a little bit

Speaker 2 it's a little bit of b o

Speaker 2 it's a little bit of beer

Speaker 10 it was

Speaker 10 Yeah, no, I put on clothes. I got right on the airport.
It was, it was panic time. I thought I was missing that flight for sure.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you made it. You were fine.
Once you sat, but I could, the sweat was,

Speaker 2 it was obvious. You were sweating.

Speaker 10 I also had like 20 minutes, like once I got to the airport to get through security, get on the plane, and get food.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I can.

Speaker 2 So we've all been there, right? We've all been late. But I don't know about you guys, but I just grabbed a bag of chips, something quickly.

Speaker 10 That was probably, that was the smart play.

Speaker 4 Forget the dry, shitty turkey sandwich that they were doing.

Speaker 2 Hot, saucy, meaty, beef.

Speaker 10 Yeah, no, I regret it.

Speaker 1 I regret it.

Speaker 1 The two shoulders I will fight tooth and nail.

Speaker 2 I obviously am well aware what I'm in for when I see the man next to me eating the burrito. Like, I was in for it.

Speaker 1 You knew he was bad, but then the two sodas, you're like, whoa, this is very bad.

Speaker 2 It was two. It was actually three.
We've been misreporting. No, because it was.
This is wrong.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 It was the... The two Pepsis and then the Mexican orange thing that is just all sugar.

Speaker 10 This is wrong. This is wrong.

Speaker 10 It was,

Speaker 10 I went to the burrito place, got the Mexican orange soda and water.

Speaker 1 That's never, that's a lot of water. Never saw you drink the water.
Never saw you drink the water. That's a fact.
That is a fact.

Speaker 10 And then they came through, and I was asleep during the, probably when I was farting,

Speaker 10 during the soda call, and then they came back to me and said, oh, you were asleep for the beverage.

Speaker 4 Do you want the soda call?

Speaker 1 And that's when I got the Diet Coach.

Speaker 2 And you chugged that thing.

Speaker 1 You threw it back.

Speaker 10 I was thirsty. You know, I missed the.

Speaker 10 I was dehydrated. Oh, you said.

Speaker 2 I usually listen to podcasts on a plane, but I was trying to catch up on work stuff. So I was in like text mode and taking notes based off my text of stories I was trying to chase at the Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 So because of that, I didn't have AirPods. And so I could hear everything, which is why it was so clear how often you were farting and

Speaker 2 so clear why the music was so loud.

Speaker 1 Like, I heard you were like, well, the music was important. You will turn over and listen to the text.
Well, it was just, I,

Speaker 1 it was one of the

Speaker 10 played something, and then it went into like a

Speaker 10 mix of like, like this song that you played. And I was

Speaker 10 in a bad spot. I like didn't want to like pull out my shit to like change anything.
I was like, all right, I'm in this zone. Let me just stay here.
I'll listen to this.

Speaker 1 Well, I also didn't know.

Speaker 10 I didn't know I was farting. Like, I.

Speaker 1 We had two sodas, dude. Well, the soda.

Speaker 10 The farts were before the sodas.

Speaker 1 Well, no, they were probably after.

Speaker 2 Do you remember when I got up to use the restroom? Yeah. Yes.
Okay. So I was wearing like a, like a sweatsuit and it was like a little bit of a crop top.

Speaker 2 And I remember thinking, I don't want to face this guy with half my skin out, you know, and straddle him, but I also don't want to put my butt on him. Like I had to make a quick decision.

Speaker 2 And I, and so on the way there, I went back. And the way back, I went in front.
And I try to make eye contact with you.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I try to give him like the, just the courtesy, like, hey, dude, sorry, I'm giving you a lapper like while we're going to bed.

Speaker 2 And he, you just, you could, i could have been naked you weren't even going to look at me yeah

Speaker 2 you're obviously very happy man

Speaker 2 but you weren't going to see anything you didn't want to see anything you just didn't want to obviously continue

Speaker 1 so diana afterwards did it dawn on you like you're on the plane you're working on all these stories for super bowl week did you realize do you have a moment where you're like and the biggest story of super bowl week was sitting right next to me i did not realize that until i got to las vegas and you guys did the show and people were stopping me all week long i went i three times as a different parties and people were sending me over soda i was like that's that's cool but

Speaker 2 so yeah that's my life but i obviously felt terrible about six sodas i apologize that you're

Speaker 2 you're associated with all these drinks and and and obviously the farting thing which everyone is guilty of doing on on airplanes um but i i'm sorry that that he aired that all out i our friendship has changed completely since.

Speaker 2 I'm not sorry.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I'm not sorry either.

Speaker 4 I don't retract my report.

Speaker 1 Great.

Speaker 6 You can retract yours.

Speaker 10 What you did, that's the best thing that's ever happened to the two of us.

Speaker 1 Oh, absolutely. And you had to know, I don't think that you're innocent in this because content is what drives this whole thing.
The second you sent that text, it was being said on air. But

Speaker 2 I was in a bit of an irritable mood, right? I didn't sleep much.

Speaker 1 You sat next to a farm.

Speaker 2 No, no. And even the guy next to me was hungover and eating.
So I was stuck between these two guys. And Hank made the best point.
Why was I sitting middle seat? You know,

Speaker 2 I actually gave my first class seat up

Speaker 2 to someone in the service.

Speaker 1 So thanks.

Speaker 2 But then, you know, of course, that is not. the truth.
I really just wanted to be part of all the action in economy.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 We know Donnie knows all of that. So that's where the, that's where the fun times are in economy.
So here's the thing. I've flown now twice since then.

Speaker 2 And both experiences, I think I miss you a little on these flights.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 By the way, I found out after all of this, we have tons of connections in Philadelphia.

Speaker 1 Oh, I got that too.

Speaker 2 There's like weddings that I guess we've been at together or our friends have been or something because it's Philly, right?

Speaker 1 Everybody knows everybody. It's just one family.
So you've probably been around Max Farting before.

Speaker 2 Correct. So I am now just used to the scent.
So it's good to be back with you, Max.

Speaker 12 Natural scent at this point.

Speaker 4 There was a moment when

Speaker 4 it was like right as she was texting me these updates. As they were coming in, we were sitting in the hotel room in Vegas and we were getting ready to record the pod.

Speaker 4 And you looked over me and you had this sheepish look on your face. And

Speaker 4 you were like, Was uh

Speaker 4 was your friend Diana on a plane today? And you knew even before I brought it up. So it was like in the back.
I think you might have recognized her, but you're like, I really hope that wasn't her.

Speaker 10 Yeah, that is correct.

Speaker 10 But I also didn't know of the farting. I knew about the burrito, though.

Speaker 1 So I was like, so I remember I. But those are one and the same.
You put a burrito in that body. It's going to produce a bunch of stuff.

Speaker 1 It's a fart.

Speaker 10 If I'm awake, I'm clenching. I'm like making sure that.

Speaker 1 You're like an easy bake oven for farts. You just like put the food in and boom.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Correct.

Speaker 10 But the thing is, it's like if I knew I was farting, it would have been a different

Speaker 1 situation.

Speaker 4 Is there any possibility? I'm not questioning your reporting, Diana. Obviously, this is a wonderful piece of journalism.
Is there any possibility that? I don't want you to ask us. No, no, you do.

Speaker 2 The other guy that was sitting next to you that was also hungry, was there a second farter so i'm really glad you brought him up um because he also chose to eat a sandwich he didn't go burrito style and he was one of those type a types like i could tell like he would take a bite wipe his face he was just he was the complete opposite

Speaker 2 of the man to the left of me

Speaker 2 um but he I could tell he was struggling too a bit. So I mean, what that flight from Newark to Vegas was about five, five and a half hours.

Speaker 2 So yeah, that was up there as one of the worst flight experiences I've ever had. And I've thrown up on flights.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 2 but that probably topped it.

Speaker 4 Sean McDermott will use that as a lesson before training camp.

Speaker 10 I also ate the burrito extremely fast.

Speaker 2 I

Speaker 2 remember thinking that I'm like, this guy is a freaking animal.

Speaker 1 I also,

Speaker 10 I got about like 75% of the way, and I was like, I don't want this anymore. But then, if you think about it, what do you do with a quarter of a burrito? Like,

Speaker 1 you got to wrap it up.

Speaker 1 Like, I

Speaker 1 by the time we took off.

Speaker 10 So I was like, I need to finish this

Speaker 10 before we start moving.

Speaker 1 You need to make more farts.

Speaker 10 You need to have an open burrito as a foot.

Speaker 10 It's not like a sandwich that you can, like, put back in.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 10 You're, like, unwrapping it as you're going. So I remember thinking, I was like, this, I was like, I hope,

Speaker 10 I hope nobody sees this, but I need to finish this immediately.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 1 Immediately. And get to sleep.

Speaker 1 And then they too.

Speaker 10 And get to sleep was really, but I guess those were one and the same.

Speaker 2 Obviously, I was a little ill, right? The fact that I, and I just needed a vent to someone, and you just happened to be the victim of it.

Speaker 4 Well, no, what happened was I tweeted out a picture of Miley Cyrus on TV because it's a Grammys night, and Max was standing in front of the TV, and you saw that, and you were like, Is that guy you just tweeted pictures of the picture?

Speaker 2 No, this is when we landed.

Speaker 2 I was like, wait, that looks like burrito boy.

Speaker 2 And that's when I texted you. I said, hey, is that a producer of yours that you just took a picture? No, I said, who's that man in the picture? That's what I said.
And then you're like, that's Max.

Speaker 2 I'm like, oh, I love Max. Oh, my God.
That was the guy next to me, though. Yeah.

Speaker 4 So, Max, are we cool? Is everything cool between you two?

Speaker 10 Yeah.

Speaker 4 You said that she was your mortal enemy.

Speaker 10 In the moment, you were.

Speaker 10 And I still kind of think that.

Speaker 1 Okay, so then you know what? That's good. Keep the grudge alive.

Speaker 1 Maybe you have to give him, maybe you have to give him some type of insider information about the Eagles at some point to make it right.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, that's Max.
Come on. I'll negotiate for you.
Yeah, no, this would be good. This would be good.
Yes. All right.
Well,

Speaker 1 we'll text.

Speaker 2 Just don't do what he does and read them out loud to people.

Speaker 4 That's not not fair because I told you they were going on the show. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And also the minute you said it. Again,

Speaker 1 you knew.

Speaker 1 You knew.

Speaker 1 I think you knew what you were doing. All right.

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Speaker 1 Diana, we're at the Combine. Now we can talk some football.

Speaker 1 First of all, what does Combine week look like for you? Are you just walking around just getting, talking to everyone, getting all this news? I mean, is it just non-stop?

Speaker 2 So I went to dinner yesterday at 4 o'clock, and I call it dinner. It's not really dinner, right? Because it's 4.
It's like a late lunch, I guess.

Speaker 2 And I sat there and I had six back-to-backs meetings with different people. And the bartender, like four, four dudes in, he's like, are you like on a date, like on a dating service here?

Speaker 2 I said, first of all, why would you ever call me out?

Speaker 2 But I said, no, I'm just taking meetings because I just stayed in the same spot. And

Speaker 2 I just kept eating and drinking. That's a funny visual.

Speaker 1 Just a revolving door of a bunch of coaches.

Speaker 4 NFL dudes.

Speaker 1 You just all different

Speaker 2 agents, coaches, GMs, one owner, just having conversations, catching up, just kind of talking about things that are coming up.

Speaker 2 And most of the conversations I'm having now are really just, how are you doing? You know, no one really wants to get into the football stuff just yet, but

Speaker 2 I'm not traveling as much anymore because I changed jobs, as you guys know. So for me, it's really just getting back in front of people's faces and being like, hey, I'm here.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 So you left ESPN. You're now my coworker at the Athletic.
I write the Premium Plus newsletter. Oh, my God.

Speaker 4 What was the thought process like when you switched over? Are you like any regrets about leaving ESPN?

Speaker 4 Because I know a lot of people, they're scared to leave ESPN because of the magnifying glass that you're under, like the microscope, the megaphone, whatever you want to call it.

Speaker 4 Like there's a spotlight that people think about with ESPN. And then to go out on your own is like, okay, a little bit different change of pace here.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I was scared out of my mind.

Speaker 2 It was one of those situations where you know you got to move. You know you have to change it.
But comfort's awesome. Like, I like to be comfort.
I got two kids.

Speaker 2 The athletic gave me just a pretty incredible opportunity to, to get better, actually. And, and I think it's been a really good few months.

Speaker 2 But that first week when I took the job, it, I was a disaster just trying to understand, like, did I just jump off ship of the best place to work for what I do for a living? You know, it's ESBN.

Speaker 2 There's still a gigantic, you know, media outlet.

Speaker 2 But I figured after about two weeks and I started to actually write and do things with the athletic, I was like, oh, it doesn't matter as long as you have information. Yeah.
That's all you need. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And the athletic's great like i i read it all the time there's always great like plugged in people and you fit in seamlessly there i have one question about your job that's a little weird it's a two-part question so one of the hardest things i think you probably have to do and you could tell me i'm way wrong after a game when you're trying to talk to a player coming off a field how do you approach that because i see that you know i'll see on tv it's like oh there's diana talking to you know travis kelsey walking off the field like how do you because it's got to be like a touch and go situation i'd assume well if it's a good situation, it's easy as heck.

Speaker 2 It's, hey, Travis, how are you? You just lit it up. Oh, how's Teller? You know, like, that's easy.
That day was bad. There was a, you probably saw it on Instagram.

Speaker 2 I was walking off with Travis after they lost to the Jets. And I mean, if you have relationships with these guys, they know what you're doing.
They know who you are.

Speaker 2 And they're just talking, knowing that whatever they're going to say probably is going to hit the print and be on television. But I wouldn't,

Speaker 2 I don't think talking to players after games is really that difficult. But

Speaker 2 if you have a good relationship, that's usually where it can come handy. And think about most of the times after games, you're talking to the happy people.

Speaker 2 You're very rarely going up to Brock Purdy one-on-one on the field being like, so this stinks.

Speaker 1 You lost the Super Bowl. So, all right.
So the second part of the question is you,

Speaker 1 I would assume it's happened many years in a row, but I know this year you were in the locker room after the Super Bowl. Do you go to the losing locker room at all?

Speaker 2 I do.

Speaker 2 I always swing in there first just to see if anyone's acting up or crying or if anyone just wants to talk about situations because that's usually when they're in their most raw state of right after they lost so i did i circled um and i i was just kind of trying to follow my instincts on things and i'm like i think i should probably go see what they're doing in there especially the type of season the chiefs had this year knowing it wasn't as easy as it had been in the past um i bet you they're going crazy and oh my god i have never seen a locker room like that after a super bowl win and i was actually talking to mahomes about it, and he's like, it's the year we had.

Speaker 2 It's just, it just felt that much better, even though he's been there before. He knows what it feels like.

Speaker 2 And obviously, because they've lost a Super Bowl before, for them, just the idea of going back to back and being able to kind of prove to everyone this year that, yeah, maybe we didn't have some top dog receivers, but look at us, man.

Speaker 2 We figured it out and we won the whole thing.

Speaker 1 That's awesome. That has to be kind of a pinch me moment, being in the Super Bowl winning locker room.
Because like, that's it. That's it.

Speaker 2 That's where it is.

Speaker 2 Sometimes one of the hardest things in my job is you have all these conversations and you're running around and sometimes you don't even know what to do because you're, there's so many people you need to talk to and storylines that you want to jump on.

Speaker 2 And there's great storylines. I want to go talk to Chris Jones.
I want to ask him what he thinks about his future now. You know, how badly do you want to stay in Kansas City?

Speaker 2 I want to go up to Travis, talk about what this feels like.

Speaker 2 You know, so you have to kind of quickly, because you're only allowed in there for a few minutes. figure out fast who you have to go to and what you want to get.

Speaker 2 And sometimes I'm in these conversations and there's news there, and I don't even realize it until about an hour later. I'm like, oh my God.

Speaker 2 Like, I went up to Travis and I was like, man, this is awesome, huh? You feel good? He's like, didn't we just do this conversation? I said, yeah, last year.

Speaker 2 He's like, well, let's do it again next year. Let's go for three.
So he said it to me right after the game. Right.
And I was like, do, do, do, do, do, running around, talking to whoever next.

Speaker 2 And then in the back of, then later, I was like, oh, crap. He basically just called it out.
We're going to go for three.

Speaker 1 And he's not retiring.

Speaker 1 There was definitely something.

Speaker 2 So sometimes you have to sort of take a breath in the moment and be like, okay, this, this is something.

Speaker 2 But that locker room was really cool. That's a really fun group, anyways, whether they win or lose.
Even when they lose, I've been around them before. They're all pros.
They're good.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I think one of the best things that the athletic does is the post-mortems, whether it's like a coach that got fired and they go back, they review all the shit that happened there or a season that didn't go the right way.

Speaker 4 The athletic does a very good job of covering like the dysfunction. There was one report that you had earlier this year regarding the Jets dysfunction.
Memes, our producer, called you a liar.

Speaker 4 I think he was very upset. I think a lot of people were upset about the Jets report, but I thought it was pretty well done.
Do you want to address allegations from memes that you're a liar?

Speaker 2 Well, which one of the 30 sources did you think lied?

Speaker 1 Yeah, there were 30 of the 30 sources.

Speaker 4 30 sources, memes. Yeah.
Which one did you source?

Speaker 2 Do you think 30 people just said, you know what? I'm going to tell you stories, then they're all fabricated.

Speaker 1 Memes? Memes. Memes?

Speaker 1 Who are the 30?

Speaker 1 Also, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Speaker 1 he wants all the sources. Wait, wait.

Speaker 4 That's way too many sources.

Speaker 4 30 is ridiculous.

Speaker 2 So at the athletic, because the standards are outrageously high, we're owned by the New York Times. You have to supply the editors with your list of the people that you're speaking to.

Speaker 2 And we had a list together after putting together the piece and writing it, and it was actually 30 plus.

Speaker 1 Oh, more.

Speaker 2 So, and then attach the name that we send to our editor is the information that person gave us, the quotes, the details. So,

Speaker 1 Mimes, so let me ask you a question, Mimes, just hypothetical. Um, what if Diana was, what if her name was Dan Rossini and she was a man? Would you have believed the sources more? No,

Speaker 1 I don't know. Wow, interesting.
Seems like being a little

Speaker 1 misogynistic here. No,

Speaker 1 whoever wrote it would be a liar. Okay, all right.
I actually believe him on that because he just.

Speaker 2 Which part of the story, because you obviously read it, which part of the story bothered you the most which what detail do you go she's a liar she stinks at her job I hate her

Speaker 1 the headline

Speaker 1 so wait so Diana though like big picture like do you you have to deal with this all the time where fans no matter what because we're crazy and remember I live in Jetsland right so like what has there ever been a specific story that you reported and released that got like way more backlash than you expected.

Speaker 1 You're like, what the fuck? Like, I'm reporting. I'm doing my job.

Speaker 2 About seven years ago, six years ago, maybe now, I fired Doug Marone and he didn't get fired.

Speaker 1 So that was when I was wrong.

Speaker 2 You always have to have one really bad one. That was not one bad one.

Speaker 2 I will say this Jets piece was tough. This one,

Speaker 2 I think, Jets fans are in denial.

Speaker 1 That would be memes.

Speaker 10 Right?

Speaker 2 They just don't want, they want to call people liars because they don't want to believe that it's actually that bad, that the culture's that awful. So don't blame the team.

Speaker 2 Blame the reporter that uncovered all of this. Blame the

Speaker 2 however they sleep at night with it. So because I live in an area where there's Jets fans,

Speaker 2 I have people coming up to me and even just went to the eye doctor and the guy that was helping me was like, come on.

Speaker 2 What do you mean? I'm a reporter. My job is to give you facts.
Don't be mad at me.

Speaker 2 People want me to say, all right, we dramatized it. It's not really that bad.
Aaron's great. He's kumbaya with everybody.
When the reality is,

Speaker 2 it's a mess in New York. It's really bad.

Speaker 1 Per 30 sources. It's true, though.

Speaker 1 You're absolutely right. The Jets fans, for some reason, they're like, this isn't the truth.
We're like, if you wrote that story about the Bears, I'd be like, she probably missed some things. Correct.

Speaker 1 It's probably way worse than that.

Speaker 2 So a lot of people have been asking me how I've been managing the Jets since then, right? Because you would think they would hate me. Right.
They're great. I love the Jets.

Speaker 2 I talk to all of them still because... They know I know and

Speaker 2 they know it's accurate, right? It's when you're wrong. That's where the tension comes with teams.

Speaker 2 Or if you don't inform a team that a piece is coming out. And that's something that we do at the athletic.

Speaker 2 If we're going to put out something with that much intel and information that's going to make the owner, the coach, the GM,

Speaker 2 everybody, the OC look bad, you have to call them and say, here's what we're doing. So New York was well aware of everything that was coming out.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's got to feel kind of awesome, though, when you're, because you're really good at your job and when you do it well and you know there's going to be people like memes that are going to be like, like you're a liar and it's like i'm doing my job and i i crushed it like i know the truth i found the truth yes but i would prefer to tell memes that things are so good yeah but no one wants to read that true yeah but i i am working a bunch of pieces coming up where it's just like how teams have survived issues that the jets didn't figure out like like the Cleveland Browns, how they were able to have success after

Speaker 2 Deshaun Watson goes down. Like, right? The Jets should go down.

Speaker 1 The Jets do that, right?

Speaker 2 So sometimes taking the bad stories and focusing on the dysfunction, you can then go highlight some of the teams that are doing it right. But again, most people

Speaker 2 like the dysfunction.

Speaker 2 Like I did a whole story on the Panthers as well, where it was like hunger games in that place behind the scenes of everyone killing the other to just stay alive and not get fired by Tepper. And

Speaker 2 it was a mess. It seems to be better from what I understand now.
But if you remember,

Speaker 2 when we did that story, it was like early November. There was still so much season.

Speaker 1 You need to forward that story to Peter Schraeger. I think he missed it because he tried to tell us that david tepper is

Speaker 1 not crazy yeah good guy yeah did you know that he bought his old boss's house and then bulldozed it to the ground just normal stuff normal stuff it's a great move i actually like

Speaker 4 i like it in the evil cartoon billionaire mindset like he is actually what i think about when i think of the uh the like power-hungry owner that doesn't know how to work with people.

Speaker 1 Also, if you're that rich, like I would never live in another man's house.

Speaker 2 Owners in general are very,

Speaker 2 they are unique.

Speaker 2 I try not to think about how much money they have when I'm talking to them because I probably would run away like a little girl because they could destroy my life.

Speaker 2 They could just buy my family, right?

Speaker 2 Or just buy, tell someone to kill us.

Speaker 4 Not your dad, though. Your dad could beat up anybody.
Yeah, especially when you went to high school with Doug Marone. He was from the Bronx.

Speaker 1 You remember that? That was a reverse. That might have been my favorite.

Speaker 1 That might have been my favorite shot I'd ever seen on tweet of all time.

Speaker 4 And by the way, wait, wait, let's set the table because maybe not everybody is aware of it.

Speaker 4 When Jalen Ramsey almost got into a fight with Doug Marone, and you said, I think Doug Marone would beat him up because he went to high school, where my dad went to high school.

Speaker 2 He said he's from the Bronx. And I said something like, Doug Marone's from the Bronx, and you don't mess with people like that.
And then, of course,

Speaker 2 all the award-winning listeners flood my Twitter for years, by the way. And we'll just be like, every time the Bronx is mentioned, be like, oh, can you beat them up?

Speaker 1 Like, just whatever it is. It's so annoying.

Speaker 2 It's this like mob mentality. You cannot, and they don't forget.

Speaker 1 Like, you guys don't forget. Don't forget.
We're not reminding them right now. Don't forget something.

Speaker 2 Let me go.

Speaker 4 My second favorite Diana Rossini moment of all time was, I think it was at Foxborough. I think it was 2017.
You were working for ESP and you were doing the pregame report there on the sidelines.

Speaker 4 It was cold. It was giant thermometer season.
And you had a glass of water because we were going to show a science experiment of how cold it was.

Speaker 4 You filled the water up to the top and then you said, I filled this water up 10 minutes ago. Now watch how cold it is.
And then you turned the cup upside down and you just poured out a cup of water.

Speaker 4 Did you think that that was going to fly under the radar for a little bit, or were you immediately like fucked?

Speaker 2 No, in the moment, I just, my head was just like, just keep going. So I was like, and you see, there's the water.
So it's cold out here, but obviously not that cold. But that's all right, back to you.

Speaker 2 And you just, I just kept going, hoping no one would notice that the point of the project was I was freezing the water. But I did get some redemption.
Last year, they sent me to Buffalo.

Speaker 2 It was like negative 9,000. And I did it again.
And it worked.

Speaker 1 And it worked. It worked.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I do miss people ask me, you miss ESPN.

Speaker 2 and i miss it all the time i miss the people i work with obviously you know adam's a friend of the show here and he was one of my good friends when i worked there we're not friends anymore but yeah you're off the text thread yeah yeah they kicked me off their group text um but doing stuff like that was always so it's so stupid and fun but just being out with the fans i used to love that yeah has there been a player or coach who's gotten mad at you for a specific story where they're like

Speaker 2 you you burn me or something like that like that you're like fuck that sucks yeah uh mike rabel um oh he called me the day after an aggregator took something I said that basically said Mike Rabel's too fat to work.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. That was a good story.

Speaker 2 So that was that.

Speaker 1 You didn't say too fat. You said he's a large person.
He is.

Speaker 2 What I shared on

Speaker 2 the football podcast on the athletic was that I had dinner with a GM.

Speaker 2 at the senior bowl and we had conversations about how bizarre this last coaching cycle was and how crazy it was that Belichick and Rabel didn't have gigs.

Speaker 2 And I said, why do you, you, you know, why do you think that Mike didn't get a job? He said, I think they needed a change there in Tennessee.

Speaker 2 But in terms of the next opportunity, I think there's a lot of people who are very intimidated by him. He walks into a room and

Speaker 2 he's confident and he's a physically a big human being. And it's a little startling at first.

Speaker 2 Very normal, right? When we say this to you, right?

Speaker 1 These are all facts, by the way. And we love Coach Vrabel.
And he is, I mean, that's what I'd want out of my football coach. Correct.

Speaker 2 His hands are the size of your head, right?

Speaker 1 He hit me on the back at the Combine a few years ago and I like almost coughed up wrong.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 when the aggregators took that and changed all this,

Speaker 2 you know, the way I said it, so that that wasn't great to hear from a not too happy head coach to begin with, former head coach now.

Speaker 2 He didn't call me after the piece we did on why he got fired, but the piece on him calling him a little fat,

Speaker 2 he wasn't too happy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, I think it was the body shaming.

Speaker 2 Because he only saw the aggregator.

Speaker 1 He didn't see my actual

Speaker 4 way it was framed was like Mike Vrabel's fat and GMs don't want a fat guy. Too fat to coach.
Too fat to coach. And I was like, wait, I like fat coaches.
That's messed up.

Speaker 2 But you guys know his personality.

Speaker 2 He's not very flowery, right? So I'm like, I see him call.

Speaker 1 I'm like, gosh.

Speaker 2 I'm like, hey, coach, what's going on? And he's like, what are you doing? I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, why are you talking about my body?

Speaker 4 The aggregators really do that sometimes, though.

Speaker 4 They're the ones that fans should get mad at. The aggregators.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Not the reporters.

Speaker 2 Believe me, they're good in some spaces, especially someone like me who's at a place not as big as ESPN, whereas I used to go on ESPN. If you say it, it goes everywhere.

Speaker 2 So sometimes it's great to have it aggregated and then it's pushed out and then it probably caught, you know, catches your attention if you don't go to the athletic that day.

Speaker 2 But most of the time, it's completely misrepresented.

Speaker 2 And then all these storylines are floating around the NFL. It's like, what?

Speaker 2 I have a really hard time right now deciphering, is this a real report?

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, there's a there's a lot of clickbait. There's a lot of people reporting stuff.
And it's just like, where did this come from? Like deleted tweets. It's just weird.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And then people just grabbing like Justin Fields celebrating in his kitchen.
I saw, it was all over my timeline today. And someone was like, that was from six years ago.

Speaker 1 Yeah, someone said Falcon's in the background. They're like, oh, he's going.
Yeah. I was like, okay.

Speaker 2 Don't get me wrong. I saw it right away and I was like, I got to make calls.

Speaker 1 I did too. And I was like, oh, shit, he's traded.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 That's crazy. So what's going to happen this week? Are there going to be any trades made? Anything big?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think Chicago is going to get moving on this for sure. With fields.
Yeah,

Speaker 2 I've been stalking their people all week. You asked me what I've been doing.

Speaker 2 So there's some people you can set meetings up with and meet, and there's some people who just aren't going to do it with you, right? So then you have to figure out where are they going to be.

Speaker 2 This sounds so creepy, by the way. But you can figure out just from talking to people around the league who's at what forum or who's going to sit down with CAA or whatever at this time.

Speaker 2 And kind of, you just go float in there and hope that you can catch them.

Speaker 1 So I've been chasing bears for a few days i can help you we can track them down oh you know them yeah i know ryan so we'll set a trap for him what's ryan saying to you uh he told me that i'm actually not allowed to say oh wow it's hard to be a reporter right i think i told you wait tell me exploring all options yeah there was another part of it i'm not allowed to say also i sent him my tape from the combine and he said uh we'll we'll take a look at it I don't think he took a look at it.

Speaker 4 We did a combine last week.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I did.
I sent it was my 40-r daddy.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I got to see how that is.
But yeah, I'm expecting

Speaker 2 definitely some action there.

Speaker 2 I just hope the next few days are actually a little quiet because it's just been crazy. And I mean, you guys are on your phones all the time.

Speaker 2 You know, you just, if, if it's your job to be on your phone, it completely messes up your life.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I mean, we should just clarify, like, you're on your phone, like, working on stories. We're like scrolling Instagram and

Speaker 1 being fucking idiots. True, but you know, you have my college basketball bets.
I'm playing a different.

Speaker 4 I'm playing a flight simulator.

Speaker 2 My thing, that has been the hardest transition for me from going from ESPN to the athletic is the responsibility I do have now in getting information.

Speaker 2 So that requires me to be on my phone at all times. And you can't determine when news is going to break, right?

Speaker 2 So we all have wild stories of when stuff breaks and you're not in a great spot, you know, whether you're driving or you're on vacation, you're skiing.

Speaker 2 And I had one actually, and Max,

Speaker 2 I'll tell you one day what the actual scoop was, but I had someone from Philly call me. It was when everything was starting to fall apart.
And

Speaker 2 I have a two-year-old and a one-year-old, and it was bath time. And I put, they're two little boys.
So I put them in the bath together. And

Speaker 2 there are some people who call you. There's some sources you draw, you don't care about the safety of your children.

Speaker 2 You answer the call.

Speaker 2 So they're in the water. And I'm thinking, this is not safe, but I have to take this call.

Speaker 2 So my thought was, all right,

Speaker 2 I'll pull the drain out, turn the the water off, and they'll just, they'll sit there. They'll be okay.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. They'll be like a bird.
They'll be a little,

Speaker 2 well, I didn't consider a couple of things. So I take the call.
I run and get like a notebook. So I left them real quick because I have to write down the stuff that this person's sharing with me.

Speaker 2 And I'm so locked in on the information. I kind of have half my eye on the boys.

Speaker 2 And then my two-year-old jumps out. And Joey, my one-year-old, is just sitting in there.
And I look and

Speaker 2 the two-year-old runs out and he goes poo poo and my one-year-old pooped in the tub so I let the two-year-old just run away because he just obviously didn't like it and then I just hear him go

Speaker 2 so then he throws up and by the way I'm still on the phone and I'm horrified that this person can hear it too and uh thank god my husband walked in like a minute later and he just you have to kind of decide in those moments when nothing's working.

Speaker 2 Am I going to cry or just laugh at this shit? Right.

Speaker 2 So I just laughed and he laughed too. I was just like, what are we going to do?

Speaker 2 I'm supposed to be this senior insider getting this great story on the Eagles. That's going to, and by the way, he was very invested because it was the Eagles, right? Because I showed him who it was.

Speaker 2 And he's like, oh, I understood why you took that, you know?

Speaker 2 You know, but what are you going to do?

Speaker 1 Poop in the bathtub is the worst. What is that?

Speaker 2 Why do they do that?

Speaker 1 I don't know. I've had it a few times.

Speaker 1 Myself personally, I've pooped in a bathtub. And then a couple of times with my kids as well.
And it's just like, you just panic and you're just like, well, what the fuck? What do we do next?

Speaker 2 That was my thought, too. And when it was happening, I'm like, where do I go first? To the two-year-olds just running around the house or the one-year-old sitting in the house.

Speaker 2 You got to get them, you got to get him.

Speaker 2 You don't want them to get it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you got to get out of the poop and then you got to figure out what to do with it.

Speaker 2 Apparently, I'm around a lot of disgusting.

Speaker 4 It's fascinating to me that you're not disgusted by the poop in the tub, but sitting next to Max. That's where she's.

Speaker 1 No, but I'll actually have Diana's back here.

Speaker 1 There's something, it's like kind of like having a dog where it's like, if you see another dog's poop, you're like, but it's your own dog, like your own kids. I am so desensitized to everything.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's just like, whatever. I've actually gotten really good at timing my son's puke and I'm like three for three on the last three, getting them like to the sink or the toilet.

Speaker 2 I'm like, I'm pretty proud of myself.

Speaker 1 Watching toddlers puke is well, they don't do, they don't, they don't bend over, they don't do anything. They just stand there.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Just like in the middle of

Speaker 1 the day. They don't say anything.
They just start puking wherever they are at that moment. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So I actually had a question about this, like, because you, you're a mom of two, you work all the time. You're incredible at your job.
Like, how do you do it? Like, that's, I

Speaker 1 don't know how you do it. Like, this is, I guess, maybe a compliment, but like, it is insanely impressive.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I lose my mind a lot. You know, I try to, you have to, obviously, I have like a good partnership and somebody that gets it.

Speaker 2 And I married the biggest football head in America who's never played football in his life, but he's just a big nerd. So it helps because I needed somebody.
I married someone that understood it.

Speaker 2 Right. That's not, I mean, I wasn't looking for that when I met him, but it just worked out that he happens to be oddly obsessed with the the NFL.

Speaker 2 So I don't ever have to explain why I have to take calls, why I have to do certain things.

Speaker 2 In fact, 90% of the time, he's the one getting on me to be like, you should get ahead on that, or you know, you know, you should be calling right, which is also very annoying, but, but, but it's helpful in trying to balance it all.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Um, but I like that he understands the importance and the significance of the work that you're doing.

Speaker 4 It's like some people marry like somebody that's creating a vaccine for like smallpox or something, like, honey, your work is super important.

Speaker 4 He's like, you're working on figuring out if Jason Kelsey's coming back next year. That takes priority over our entire night.

Speaker 2 And he, he doesn't really get mad when I have to get up from the table or as long as I share it with him because he loves to like know about it.

Speaker 2 Like, I've answered phone calls in the car on speakerphone. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And he loves.

Speaker 2 I actually have some sources that I'm tight enough now with. I'll be like, hey, I'm in the car or cab.
And he'll like ask a question. And I'll look at him.
I'm like, shut the hell up.

Speaker 1 Like, you are not allowed to talk just because we invited you because I made the person away. This is a three-way way.
All right.

Speaker 1 So I have one question about your husband that's a very important question. I listened to you when you were on with our friend Ryan Rosillo, who I think he's still our friend.

Speaker 1 He has a weird rivalry with me, which I didn't know about that he revealed on his life advice.

Speaker 1 But when you went on Rosillo's podcast, you told the story that your husband was like prepping you and being like, this is a big day because he's a big Rosillo fan. Big one.

Speaker 1 Did he do the same thing for this or no? He doesn't care about us. That hurts.
Damn. That's tough.
Well,

Speaker 4 I can't tell.

Speaker 2 He messaged me right before I got in.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 2 And all he said said was, be nice to Max. Okay.

Speaker 1 Oh, you're nervous.

Speaker 1 Because that's all people stuck in the air.

Speaker 1 What else is new? All right. All right.
I was just nervous that you were going to be like, no, he doesn't listen to this stupid shit. No, he still listens to you guys all the time.

Speaker 2 In fact, you know what he does do sometimes? Because I don't have the time to always listen. You know, I love you guys.

Speaker 2 He commutes a lot, which that's a whole nother, man. God bless people who have to commute,

Speaker 2 especially an hour like he does. So he'll listen to you guys and he'll just like shoot me a text if you guys had something good just to let me know.
So

Speaker 1 that's cool.

Speaker 4 I have an embarrassing story about him. It's also tied into Rosillo.

Speaker 4 So I remember when you went on your first date with him, you called me and you were like, hey, I went on a date with this guy and we were talking about sports.

Speaker 4 And I asked him, who's one like sports media member that you think that you relate the most to? And his answer was Ryan Rossillo.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 2 I said who and not at all, but I said, who, just from like a like a personality standpoint, who do you connect to the most? Like who do you, And he's like Rosillo.

Speaker 4 He just loves Rascillo.

Speaker 2 And at the time, I was thinking, you know, because first date, you're putting on your best, right? You're charming and he was funny.

Speaker 4 And he picked a hermit.

Speaker 2 And he was in a good mood. My husband, he's the most miserable dude ever.

Speaker 2 So he's Ryan, which is why I also love Ryan. I'm obviously drawn to like grumpy ass people.
And I think about it all the time. Like,

Speaker 2 he told me what he was, right? It was, I chose it. He never lied to me.
He was like, I'm basically

Speaker 2 a leaner,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 Ryan. I'll back up Ryan.
Wait, wait, wait.

Speaker 7 This is Mike Rogers.

Speaker 2 I am on this body shamer.

Speaker 1 I'm going mad.

Speaker 1 Ryan's body is banging. No, no, Ryan is.

Speaker 2 Ryan's always been just

Speaker 2 great looking in terms of his physique and all that. And my husband is as well.

Speaker 2 He's not as yoked. He doesn't have time, right? We've got kids and jobs and a house and all that stuff.

Speaker 2 But yeah,

Speaker 2 he's he's a very grumpy human being. And I'd like to try to be the joy in his life.

Speaker 4 That's great. That's very Philly of him.

Speaker 1 You've been around him. You know what he's like.

Speaker 1 He's a good dude.

Speaker 2 He's okay, but he's a guy's good.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's okay, sure.

Speaker 2 He's like, but you, like, you've been around my family, right? My family is psychotic. They're high energy.

Speaker 2 They're, you know, they want to have a good time. And Kev does too, but Kev rather be alone and just watch a game.
Like, he just wants to watch the Philly.

Speaker 4 Do you know, though, that you're the craziest one in your family? Like, you think that your family is crazy but i don't think you're aware of the fact

Speaker 2 that you're the most insane person in your family your your sister is the most normal person in the world your parents are lovely uh they're a little bit crazy you are the crazy one in your family so um i remember pft was going to come down to to my beach house and i felt like i had to warn my parents of like what was coming to the house because that's nice he's a little unique yeah so i said hey i just want to give you guys a heads up you know my friend's going to come down and hang out with us for the weekend.

Speaker 2 He's got a lot of hair. He wears sunglasses all the time.

Speaker 2 You know, and they just weren't really listening. And when he walked in, they were like, what the fuck?

Speaker 1 Like, who is this?

Speaker 2 Who is this person? Right. So we wound up hanging out in like the backyard.
We're drinking beers. And my neighbors start like freaking out that he's there.

Speaker 2 And, you know, my parents are still like, why do people care? What does he do? I said, oh, he's just, he's just on the radio because they don't, they don't understand podcasts.

Speaker 2 Like, I have a podcast starting soon. My dad thinks I'm going to be on the fan.
Like,

Speaker 2 he can't separate it.

Speaker 4 So now you're competition.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 2 Well, I thought we were on the same team. You're at the athletic.
Which, by the way, like.

Speaker 2 Some of the stuff that you put out, the fact that you put it with the athletic now,

Speaker 2 it's so funny to me because sometimes it's believable. I'm like, this is kind of good reporting that we do with the athletic.

Speaker 4 No, I was the

Speaker 4 Mark Davis fired Josh McDaniels using a fortune cookie from P.F. Changs.

Speaker 1 From PF Changs. It was very believable.

Speaker 4 Did they get pissed off about that?

Speaker 2 I don't think they love it because it puts our name with false information when we work so hard to be accurate.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Wow.
Except for when you lied about the Jets.

Speaker 2 I'll be putting out my Jets retractions.

Speaker 4 Can I ask you a commander-specific question? Sure. So Justin Fields is going to be traded.
We can say, like, probably, right?

Speaker 1 I think it's always.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 I think at this point right now, it's going to happen.

Speaker 4 So the commander's probably taking Drake

Speaker 4 or Jayden Daniels with the second overall pick. Is there any chance that that's not what the plan is and we're doing something else?

Speaker 2 Just based on talking to them this week, they're doing the typical, you know, we're going to do our homework on all of it.

Speaker 2 I don't think they have a clear-cut answer to what they want to do because there's still free agent veterans there too that could come into Washington.

Speaker 2 And Washington could obviously trade out if they want, depending on if they're looking to build and get some more picks for the future.

Speaker 1 Kirk Cousins.

Speaker 2 Now, Kirk Cousins is really the story of all of this right now in terms of who's going to land him because he's the starting domino for all of this. I mean, Kirk going back to Washington.

Speaker 2 I mean, that would be,

Speaker 2 I actually think that would be a really good move. That's just my opinion.
Just because when you look at Dan Quinn, you have a first-year head coach, first-year GM,

Speaker 2 owner, owner, right?

Speaker 2 You bring in a guy who, A, knows the city, but B, understands a winning culture, understands what needs to be done.

Speaker 2 I think that would be a good first step for this group, but they may want to take a swing and see if they can get a rookie quarterback to step in there. But here's the problem: you don't know, right?

Speaker 2 You have CJ Stroud. Oh, my gosh, that's amazing.
Of course, everyone knows that

Speaker 2 that's the dream. But on the other side of it, you have Bryce Young, and it's nothing against Bryce.
It's just he's going to need some time.

Speaker 1 He might need more than time.

Speaker 2 I'm interested to see how aggressive Washington will be in the free veteran market

Speaker 2 because that'll kind of tell you where

Speaker 2 they sit on all this yeah I'm uh

Speaker 4 for the record I like Kirk Cousins I think I've I've like done a 180 on you want Kirk Cousins back in Washington I don't know because I feel like if you have this opportunity to take a great quarterback at the top of the draft get him on a rookie deal and then build around that that it seems like that's the right move for a franchise that's trying to move on and and turn like a complete page I you were there during the worst times correct of the Washington Redskins like it's been very dark for us and so having this opportunity to like just move forward and start completely new, I feel like that's a good opportunity that would be hard to pass up.

Speaker 4 Now, if it's Kirk Cousins, to me, that feels like they're trying to win nine games. It's like, let's win nine to ten games and not try to build like a Super Bowl contender in the future.

Speaker 2 I mean, if that's how you want to look at it, but I see why not continue to stockpile these picks and keep getting better and better in all the different positions.

Speaker 4 No matter what happens, I'll spin myself into it. I'll be like, that was a great move.

Speaker 2 You're going to be into it. Which, by the way, I don't know Jason Wright.

Speaker 2 Do you want to meet him? I just have never met him. So today,

Speaker 2 I

Speaker 2 see him pulling in or getting out of an Uber. And I went right up to him.
I said, hi. I said, Diane Rossini, I apologize.
It's taken this long for me to say hello to you.

Speaker 2 And he said, hello, I'm Shane.

Speaker 1 And then took a bag out of a car and kept walking. I was like, oh my God, that was not Jason Wright.
I feel like the biggest idiot.

Speaker 4 Can I give you a lifeline here?

Speaker 4 Sure. It was a white guy, right?

Speaker 1 It was. Yeah, that's tough.

Speaker 4 I know. You just had a mistaken identity.
Classic.

Speaker 4 Happens all the time.

Speaker 1 Damn.

Speaker 2 Oh, my gosh. I'm queen of it.
I do that all the time.

Speaker 2 The other day, we had our athletic summit, right? So here in Indy, we have everyone just comes together and no one really knows each other because we all work remotely.

Speaker 2 We know each other a little bit, but not really. So I was like, you know, I'm just going to bite the bullet here.
I'm just going to go up to people and say, hey, I'm Diana. How are you?

Speaker 2 What's your name? Which team do you cover? Plus, I'm the new girl. So, first person I decide I want to go up to is standing right by where the fruit fruit and the coffee is.

Speaker 2 And I said, I said, hi, I'm Diana.

Speaker 1 Who are you?

Speaker 2 And he said, I'm Sam. I said, oh, great.
I said, what do you do at the athletic? He said, I work at the Hyatt.

Speaker 1 Oh, no.

Speaker 1 Oh. Are you okay? Yeah.

Speaker 2 What's wrong with me? I'm like, I can't pick out the right people. Maybe I'm blind.
Maybe my eye doctor gave me the wrong prescription.

Speaker 1 Do people at the athletic or maybe even at ESPN, are they ever like,

Speaker 1 we report, we study the game, we watch film. Why the fuck do people listen to these two idiots?

Speaker 2 yes everybody says that i say to myself sometimes because i say it to myself all the time on really stressful days like it's free agency days draft days even even playoffs i put you guys on because the rest of it's so stressful to me that i'm like i just want to like slowly start my day feel smarter two guys have no idea what they're talking about exactly figure out how dumb these guys are and go the other way right like figure out how to go the stress that's really smart get information so i can have the accurate opinion on it all based on all the gibberish that they say on this stupid shit.

Speaker 4 It's a good palate cleanser for sure.

Speaker 4 Like if you're getting too much, like if you get too down into the weeds and get too smart about football, I actually do think that it's important to like remind yourself sometimes that the vast majority of people that watch the sport and pay attention to the coverage, just like fucking football.

Speaker 3 Yeah,

Speaker 1 they're us.

Speaker 1 We're idiots.

Speaker 2 I'm starting this podcast. I'm not going to try to compete with you guys.
I'll just be a friend of the show. We'd squash you.

Speaker 1 Well aware. Well aware.

Speaker 2 But I'm going to try.

Speaker 2 So we have a podcast coming up and that's essentially kind of like the tone I want. I want it to be informative good football

Speaker 2 using the stuff that I know, but also kind of just talking regular stuff as well.

Speaker 1 Well, I can give you a tip. I would love some.

Speaker 1 Please. If you want to keep it more casual, do what PFT and I do, where we'll only read the headline of a story because we don't have like a subscription to a certain site.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then we just kind of guess what happens after.

Speaker 2 Are you subscribers to the athletic?

Speaker 4 I am. I am a subscriber.
Yes.

Speaker 1 I am. But there's some times where there'll be like a story and it's just like, well, I'll just read the first two sentences and then we'll just go from there.
It's a good topic. Yeah.

Speaker 4 It's actually not a bad idea because you see what the story is about and then you kind of choose your own adventure as what you think it was written.

Speaker 4 And then you react to what you think was written and you create a much more entertaining show that way out of pure fiction.

Speaker 2 Yeah. No, there's a thing that has really helped me over the last few years.
It's credibility. So I think that's probably some of the stuff.

Speaker 1 Non memes' eyes.

Speaker 2 uh why didn't bill belichuk get a job why didn't he yeah was it too too big i don't think bill's that big i think it was just his big attitude you know just wanting things to be his way i also think in atlanta that situation ownership wanted him there and the other people on the other foot on the other side of the football operation did not which is weird why wouldn't that's kind of what chapter would

Speaker 1 yeah but yeah i get they lose their job but i don't know that's That's just,

Speaker 1 yeah, that's a bad way to run an organization is really what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 If you wanted to hire me to be the new, to be

Speaker 2 on a podcast, which would mean that your podcast would get canceled. Are you going to support my hiring?

Speaker 1 No, no, we'd squash you like a bug. Exactly.

Speaker 2 No, but

Speaker 1 I guess more, I understand the people who are selfishly acting for themselves and being like, we don't want Bill Belch.

Speaker 1 As someone who roots for a dysfunctional organization, and hopefully it's going in the right direction, it always feels like a common trend when it comes to to bad organizations.

Speaker 1 It's a bunch of people trying to save their own job instead of thinking about the future of the team and how can we get better and like playing the blame game and being like, well, I didn't draft that guy.

Speaker 1 You drafted that guy and this, that, and the other. That's just a bad way to run an organization.

Speaker 2 It is, but here's, it is so hard to get one of these jobs. Right.

Speaker 2 You know, you, you look at the guys that don't have them now and there's a lot of guys on the street outside Belichick and Rainbow who are really smart and should be back in football, but can't get back in.

Speaker 2 Yeah. So when you're in the spot, you're doing everything to take care of that so you last.
But does that make sense for an entire organization? No, it's dumb. Every owner should hate that.

Speaker 2 You should hate hearing that anyone would be in self-preservation mode. But unfortunately,

Speaker 2 a lot of these guys have incredible salesmanship to them and they can get an owner to believe in them when that person is really just believing in what they want to do and it's good for them.

Speaker 1 And it's very ironic because the reason why or part of the reason why Belichick had so much success is that he was never thinking about keeping his job he was thinking about what's good for his football team and it's like if you see that why wouldn't you want that yeah and new england's so interesting now too because it seems that they are really pumping up this new way this new post bill belich style gentler well i think they finally realized that um the patriot way is just having tom brady on your team

Speaker 1 that's a big part of the patriot way i don't i don't necessarily agree with all of that i i think bill belich had a gigantic part of course he did no i'm not saying belichek didn't have a big part in it.

Speaker 1 I'm just saying the Patriot way, when you say, well, this is the way they do it, they're kind of minimizing the fact that Tom Brady is the best quarterback of all time.

Speaker 1 And that's a lot of the, like, you could do any way, but if you have Tom Brady, you're going to be successful.

Speaker 2 It was like, is there a Chiefs' way?

Speaker 1 No, they have Patrick Clark.

Speaker 2 Well, I was just going to say, Andy Reid said, yes, or someone said, you know,

Speaker 2 what's the secret to having success? He's like, get a quarterback. Yeah, right.

Speaker 1 Belichick's the best coach of all time.

Speaker 2 I'm just saying, like, but there is a culture.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there's a culture, but it's also Tom Brady being the best, and he sets a culture.

Speaker 2 So, I think when people say Patriot Way, outside of just the superficialness of the Super Bowl wins and Tom Brady, there is a language they those guys speak, players and coaches.

Speaker 2 And this is just from being around it so much over the years.

Speaker 2 I know, within two seconds of talking to someone, if they're New England, and it's not, that doesn't mean because they're cold or they're mean, they're just a little bit more suspect at first.

Speaker 2 They, they, they don't over-share, they're very detail-oriented. Uh, they're usually really smart, actually.

Speaker 2 I really like the New England way, but I prefer it, actually, because I see so many other sides and other guys trying to do it a different way.

Speaker 2 And outside of the Chiefs, I haven't really, and even maybe like the McVay tree will call it, who does it a little different, but almost similarly.

Speaker 2 It works.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but my counterpoint to that would be if the Patriots decided to answer all the questions and be like gregarious with the media, it wouldn't matter because they still have Tom Brady.

Speaker 2 Possibly. Yeah.
Possibly. But I think it's interesting that that their attack on this is to talk about how they're going to be different.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 that part is interesting.

Speaker 2 Just go do it, right? Just go be the team that has eased up a bit and people want to be there to get free agents to come. Right.

Speaker 1 And that's probably their smart. Yeah, no, you're right.
You're right.

Speaker 4 So with the Patriot Way, who would be your number eight ranked Patriot of all time? The show's coming out, what, Wednesday, right?

Speaker 1 Wednesday. Would that be the eighth ranked Patriot? Two is Friday.
One is

Speaker 4 10. Who's your 10th rank?

Speaker 1 What do you guys are ranking Patriots of Art? Well, Hank is.

Speaker 4 Hank's got a list going on.

Speaker 1 He's released one an episode.

Speaker 4 He's doing number 10 when this show comes out. So who is your third? My number.

Speaker 2 I'd say Teddy Bruski.

Speaker 1 Oh, interesting. Interesting.

Speaker 4 He's actually Hank's third.

Speaker 1 Number three.

Speaker 2 He's higher. Teddy would be mad that I put him so low as well.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 But throw Hank a little bit red meat here. What are the Patriots going to do?

Speaker 2 I think the Patriots are obviously exploring the quarterback market, both free agents and draft.

Speaker 2 I know that there's some free agents that they're interested in right now, that they're having some conversations with their agents.

Speaker 2 So I still think they're doing the same thing the Washington's doing, kind of looking at the whole landscape to figure it out. But quarterback is

Speaker 2 very much what they're homed in on. And they're also in for

Speaker 2 a stud receiver. I can tell you.

Speaker 4 Ooh, stud receiver.

Speaker 2 So that could mean through the draft and bring on a veteran. That can mean two free agents.

Speaker 2 I feel like you're so happy with this news.

Speaker 4 Do you have any questions, Hank? About the Patriots?

Speaker 1 He's had a rough.

Speaker 4 We feel so bad for Hank. He hasn't won a Super Bowl in what, like four years, three years?

Speaker 1 Hank, literally, Diana, he's had it so great. He didn't know how the draft worked.
He thought that if he traded the third pick for the first pick, the Patriots would keep the third pick. Yeah.

Speaker 1 He was like, we'll take Kale Williams and Marvin Harrison. I was like, no, if you trade the third, if you trade up to the first pick, you have to give up your pick.

Speaker 3 Not theoretically.

Speaker 1 I mean, okay.

Speaker 3 What are the chances they trade down?

Speaker 1 I don't think very high.

Speaker 2 I don't think the chance that they're trying to turn this thing around now.

Speaker 1 Draft goes through us.

Speaker 3 That's just the reports are coming out, but I feel like that's just,

Speaker 2 you know, you listened to Elliot Wolf yesterday talking about the things that you know Elliot Wolfe.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I listened to him. The things that

Speaker 2 so yesterday he was talking about the type of quarterback he's looking for. And I actually happened to, I didn't see it live.

Speaker 2 I was sitting at a restaurant looking up and I was reading the captions on Sports Center. And so I see what he's saying.

Speaker 2 He's like, we don't want a type of, you know, we're going to look at a quarterback's body language.

Speaker 2 And someone was being very funny at ESPN. They just used the B-roll of Mac, just like,

Speaker 1 worst body language ever.

Speaker 2 So it was like a little editorializing, but essentially was, yeah, we don't want that. Like, that's not the ideal quarterback that we're looking to build around.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay. Well, thanks for good news for you.
Good news for you. What's the other big story?

Speaker 1 Like, you can't tell us what story your big story you're working on, but like any big league things that you see coming that are going to be a story?

Speaker 2 I think the whole fact that the cap went up, it was like very buzzy when I landed here because that does change how a lot of teams are going to operate.

Speaker 2 I don't think significantly, though, like immediately when I was when I thought, oh, 30 million each team, wow, we're going to see more teams go, you know, swaying in free agency. But

Speaker 2 I think if there's any position that will probably see better business, it'd be backup quarterbacks, especially after last year.

Speaker 1 We saw so many teams struggle

Speaker 2 by not investing in it. That was the story of the year, right? Invest in a backup quarterback.

Speaker 2 Sorry.

Speaker 2 That was to me.

Speaker 2 You know, make that effort. And memes is well aware that they're telling Zach Wilson that he can go seek a trade, you know, so that the time is over there, which we knew.

Speaker 4 So with the backup quarterbacks, the Cleveland Browns, what are they going to do? Because

Speaker 4 I think right now we can say unless something crazy happens and Deshaun goes off for the next couple seasons,

Speaker 4 maybe the worst contract in the history of professional sports, maybe up there for one of them.

Speaker 6 What are they?

Speaker 4 Do they have any options? Are they just going to have to roll with Deshaun?

Speaker 2 They still believe in Deshaun.

Speaker 2 They're in on that. That's ownership.
They're not going to, even if Stefanski didn't want anything to do with it anymore, which is not true. He wants to work with him.

Speaker 2 They're tied to this and they're going to try to make this work. So, look, I think there were moments last year where we were like, wait, should the Browns sign Joe Flacco on a long-term deal?

Speaker 1 Should he be the guy?

Speaker 2 But I don't see that happening. Although I will say, I talked to people close to Flacco, and apparently he just like loved his time there.
Like,

Speaker 2 was blown away by Cleveland, wants to stay there. So I don't see a world where he winds up there again.
But, you know,

Speaker 4 is he going to look for a starting job? Is Flacco now like, I want to be the guy?

Speaker 2 Yeah, in Washington.

Speaker 1 Oh, shit.

Speaker 2 No, no, I don't. I think he knows.
He knows where he's at. He knows his role.
He may wind up pulling off the same thing he did last year. Why jump back in and do training cap? Yeah.

Speaker 2 If he can just hang out, wait for a team starting quarterback to go down, and then he can get the call and step in so yeah um i'd say that um obviously the salary cap thing is boring as hell but i'm interested what the steelers are going to do at the quarterback position you know are they interested in going with like a kirk cousins bringing him in uh justin fields is there's a lot of chatter about that i i i don't see that happening i'm not saying it won't i don't see it uh it doesn't feel steelers right does that yeah he did say something like he heinz field was his favorite place to play which is weird um i don't know if anyone has it as their favorite place he He didn't play that much in that game.

Speaker 4 Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 1 That's about it. But yeah, that I agree with you.
That feels that doesn't

Speaker 1 seem yeah, it also feels like the Steelers would kind of be doing the same thing where it's like, now we have three quarterbacks again. Like, what are we doing?

Speaker 2 Yeah, three quarterbacks that we don't really know.

Speaker 2 So, I do think, obviously, it's all Bears right now. It's unbelievable how much attention.

Speaker 2 In fact, I talked to some people with the Bears this morning, right before I came here, and I was asking them how they're handling just all the pressure, it feels like all the attention.

Speaker 2 I mean, there's reporters everywhere chasing them, and they seem pretty calm. I will say, my sense was just like they're optimistic.
And if you think about it, they're in control.

Speaker 2 Things are up.

Speaker 1 Things are up for Chicago. It goes through us.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we have the ninth pick, too.

Speaker 4 It's going to be so boring next year for the Bears when they don't have the number one overall pick, probably. Well, what if we're spinning all combine? We'd be like, fuck, this kind of sucks.

Speaker 1 What if we trade the ninth pick, and then we get another number one pick? We can root against another team.

Speaker 4 You get all the number one picks.

Speaker 1 I love having the number one pick. All right.
I have one last question. Then we're going to have Stephen Shea ask some questions.

Speaker 1 This might be a dumb question, but since you've gone from ESPN to the Athletic, ESPN, you were obviously on air at games. I assume you're not at games every single week.

Speaker 1 So what does Sunday look like now?

Speaker 2 It's amazing. I do what you guys do.

Speaker 1 I just sit on my couch. Do you have seven TVs? And watch.

Speaker 2 I don't, but I do have a good setup now because I want. So when I was at ESPN, I was at one game, right?

Speaker 2 So my job was to be on Sunday countdown, cover whatever the biggest, usually was like an AFC, whatever the biggest AFC game of the weekend was. But now I get to watch everything.
It's unbelievable.

Speaker 2 It's so fun. Like I

Speaker 2 said, I feel like you guys now. Like I can hear myself, this is amazing.
This is what people are talking about. But it's been almost 10 years since I was not doing football.

Speaker 2 So to be able to just sit there and consume it.

Speaker 1 Do your kids, are your kids in the house when you're watching on Sunday?

Speaker 2 Yeah, that is hard.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that is something we're trying to figure out.

Speaker 2 You can come watch in chicago we i i leave at like 11 a.m and my kids are like are you going to watch tv and i'm like yep that's amazing that you need to work that out so obviously so we have a little bit of a deal uh in our house where kev will watch the boys for all the games where the eagles aren't playing that time slot so i love when the eagles have a night game because then i get the day yeah and then philly can do their thing okay um that's a good deal so it's it's it's worked out the boys wear their little jersey and they run they think it they think every football item is eagles so they'll just you know they point to eagles eagles yeah no football is just eagles yeah like yeah football is just kids kids are dumb like that my son thinks that every team in chicago is the bears yeah it's it's just like we go by wriggly and he's like the bears i i went back and forth with how i wanted like i think about it a lot actually how i want to raise them because they don't have a choice they're gonna have to be eagles fans my my in-laws are season ticket holders they sit in the last row at the link like closer to the Eagles in the sky.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 One of those seats.

Speaker 2 So I have no choice. I'm married married into this.
But I would really like Mikey and Joey to not be weird about it.

Speaker 1 Like, because Philly people are very.

Speaker 1 That's not going to happen.

Speaker 7 Yeah. What do you mean?

Speaker 1 Uncle Max will make sure they're weird. I just don't know how to do it.

Speaker 7 They're going to be painting their chest next year.

Speaker 2 I want them to just, I want them to love the sport in a way that's healthy.

Speaker 1 That's a no. I'm going to stand up for Kev here.
That's a no.

Speaker 4 It's because it's a good sports town.

Speaker 1 And also, what's healthy is to be unhealthy about football.

Speaker 1 That's what's healthy for guys.

Speaker 2 My household when the Eagles win versus when they don't.

Speaker 2 It's incredibly.

Speaker 2 Kev's 37 years old. He's a grown man.

Speaker 2 There's no reason you should be giving me attitude on a Tuesday

Speaker 2 because the Eagles lost to Washington on Sunday.

Speaker 1 He's probably been through

Speaker 1 a million times. It's with every sport.
Like Wisconsin lost last night to Indiana and it ruined my night. Like it ruined, I was like, I was like grumpy, just like frowning.
And like,

Speaker 1 why can't I just not, it's just what we are.

Speaker 4 Well, if you, if you you lose, if you're an Eagles fan, you lose on Sunday, then you spend the next like three to four days dodging articles. Yeah.

Speaker 4 You just try not to read all the bad shit that's coming out. It's like, oh, here's a new article.
You have to pretend like you never saw it. You look away.

Speaker 4 You're on high alert to like, don't, I don't want to consume any content regarding the game that happened on Sunday. That's exactly what he does.

Speaker 2 He will not look at his phone. He doesn't want to.
If I talk about it, if I even say, like, hey, I heard that. I don't want to know.

Speaker 1 I don't want to know. He's like, whatever.

Speaker 2 Who cares? It's just a stupid game.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 1 he is a well-adjusted male.

Speaker 2 I'll say that right now. But again, like, that's fine, but I'm past.
I'm never changing him, right?

Speaker 1 But I have to say that. Because it's going to be the same.

Speaker 1 With these boys to just make them good guys.

Speaker 2 No, no.

Speaker 1 No, no.

Speaker 4 Joey and Michael, Mikey, the Eagles.

Speaker 1 The guys finish last.

Speaker 4 No,

Speaker 4 they're going to be some real shitheads on Sundays.

Speaker 1 Real creative on the names.

Speaker 1 Max finishes two sones. Good job, Max.
Two saunas, baby.

Speaker 1 Let's get to it. Do I want to check up here? Yeah, so the rollback question.
Okay. Oh, you guys have the rollback question?

Speaker 15 Man, I'll tell you what. When you're hungry out there, you start acting like a rookie quarterback in his first game, making bad decisions, messing up the basics, being all out of sorts.

Speaker 15 That's where Snickers comes in, man. That thing is packed.
Roasted peanuts, nugget, caramel, milk chocolate. It's like the MVP of candy bars.

Speaker 15 And when you bite into it, boom, it sorts you out, gets your head back in the game of life, satisfying your hunger. Remember this: Snickers handles your hunger so you can handle everything else.

Speaker 15 Snickers satisfies, man. That's a winning play.

Speaker 4 Power rank your favorite Jersey Shore bars.

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 2 I'd go Parker House, Bar A, the Osprey, and Leggett's.

Speaker 4 No DJs. No DJs.

Speaker 1 I don't, I can't do DJs. Max is upset.

Speaker 2 I can't do DJs.

Speaker 4 Why can't you do DJs?

Speaker 4 South Jersey.

Speaker 2 Well, Philly, yeah. So I'm new to that.
So if you're from North Jersey, you stop at a certain area. And if you're from Philly, you go to the South Jersey side.
So I'm still pretty new to it.

Speaker 2 It's all the same disaster. Right.

Speaker 2 Except the only difference is you see Jason Kelsey out.

Speaker 1 He's everywhere.

Speaker 2 But Max, is there a bar that you would say I have to go somewhere else?

Speaker 4 What's the bar you got kissed in?

Speaker 2 By your dude. White Briar is amazing.
Okay, that's fair.

Speaker 9 Yeah, White Briar. White Briar.

Speaker 2 So no shower, happy hour. This is what they do.
You just go right from the beach. You start drinking.

Speaker 2 This is a good time. Yeah, this is stuff you did 10, like I did 10 years ago.
No, now I can't do it.

Speaker 2 Although I did do it last summer, I, uh, my sisters-in-laws and I, we just said we were going to go to the bathroom to the guys, and we went to Happy Hour and just didn't come back for two hours.

Speaker 2 That's right.

Speaker 1 That's cool. That's right.

Speaker 2 It was actually the best thing we did. It was a good move.

Speaker 1 Yeah. They didn't care.
All right. So I don't know if you ever met our junior draft analyst, Stephen Shea.
He was at one point a senior draft analyst, but he's a junior draft analyst.

Speaker 1 So he's been demoted. Stephen is a football nut.
All he thinks about is the NFL. Stephen, what are your questions?

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 12 I think we covered a lot of the NFL stuff.

Speaker 11 I do have some, like,

Speaker 11 I think NFL insiders are very interesting, fascinating people. Like, I'm a huge, I'm a Schefter stan.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I saw that picture.

Speaker 4 Does that make you sad to say that out loud, Joe?

Speaker 1 Oh, dude, Shepherd's great guy.

Speaker 2 Do you say admiration or is it inspiration, admiration? What is it about Adam that, because I don't think a lot of people would be like, man, Adam's amazing. He's good at his job, but no one wants to.

Speaker 1 Yeah. No, he looks up to him as a human being.
As a human being. Yep.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Do you think he's funny?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I do.

Speaker 2 Do you think Adam Shepherd is funny? Yeah.

Speaker 11 Well, he's not like selling out Madison Square Garden for like comedy, but I think he's funny.

Speaker 1 If he was, probably.

Speaker 2 I mean, that's great how much you love him.

Speaker 4 A night with Adam at MSG.

Speaker 4 How much would you be willing to pay?

Speaker 11 And this is like the full garden.

Speaker 4 One-man show, the full Madison Square Garden. One night.
You have floor seats.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, oh, floor seats? Yeah.

Speaker 9 Yeah, a couple hundred bucks.

Speaker 1 And that's, I mean, what's the going rate for that?

Speaker 12 I'm probably

Speaker 4 in the twos, high twos? High two figures?

Speaker 11 No, high two digits for like main standing or like not standing.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 4 This concert will never happen. So yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay, so what's your question? Sure.

Speaker 11 So we actually talked at the Jets facility right after you got the athletic gig.

Speaker 11 And something that I remember about that time, and I'm sure is a struggle for people that leave the mothership is what do you do with your Twitter handle because it was was it Rossini ESPN it was Diana ESPN Diana ESPN and now it's DM

Speaker 2 yes so what was the process like to be like okay I got to drop the ESPN what do I go with so it's funny you bring this up because I feel like you might have changed this is the big question it's funny you bring this up because players have asked me this Derek Henry came up to me at camp I hadn't seen him like six months he said hey I got to talk to you about something I said what's that he said your handle you got to change it you don't work at ESPN anymore.

Speaker 2 I said, It's been like three weeks.

Speaker 1 Like, chill.

Speaker 2 So I came up with DM, but I realized after I agreed to it, that it's very inviting. DM.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Right?

Speaker 1 This is DM or something.

Speaker 1 I was like, this was not.

Speaker 2 I didn't think this out.

Speaker 4 DM feet pics you're seeing.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It's like a problem, everyone.
DM or CNN. Asking for it, right? Just like, come get me and send me nasty stuff, which, man, some of my DMs are wild.

Speaker 2 But yeah,

Speaker 2 I mean, it was easy to change, but it was definitely a little bit of a sad moment because I'd been dying to his fan for so long.

Speaker 1 So, but DM now.

Speaker 2 Good question.

Speaker 3 Good question.

Speaker 1 It was really important.

Speaker 11 I noticed that. So I think that's

Speaker 2 what you want to know more about Adam. I can tell you everything.

Speaker 1 Yes, I do. I do.

Speaker 1 But actually, that is kind of my next question.

Speaker 11 Because you are the senior insider at the athletic, you are the person there.

Speaker 1 There are

Speaker 11 natural rivalries between newsbreakers and insiders. Like we have Woge and Shams, obviously.
Schefter and Rapsheet have kind of a built-in rivalry.

Speaker 11 I don't know if they personally dislike each other, but like they're at competing networks. What is your relationship like with other insiders? And if somebody

Speaker 11 beats you to a scoop, are you just like, fuck Jay Glazer? Like, I hate that guy. Or like, or are you internally

Speaker 11 kicking and screaming? Or are you like, all right, great job.

Speaker 2 Oh, no, I motherfuck everybody.

Speaker 2 I'm competitive. So it's not personal.
It's just, damn, they thought to call that person first or man, they were working that story harder than me.

Speaker 2 I usually put it back on me of like, what did I do that I didn't get it? So living in that world is, is dangerous too, because then you just get down about it. And it's so stupid.

Speaker 2 That's another thing where.

Speaker 2 Like, I'm so lucky I have a family that has nothing to do with football.

Speaker 1 Like, my dad's a plumber. My brother's a plumber.

Speaker 2 They don't give a shit about any of this. And they, they'll see me like bummed out about something.
Like, who cares? Like, but in my world, it is everything.

Speaker 2 But my, our relationship, like, all the insiders are actually pretty cool. Like, everyone gets along.
I wouldn't say we're best friends. Like, I don't want to go hang out with Ian Rapport.

Speaker 2 I have no desire. But I see Ian, I'm like, what's up? And I think he's awesome.
He's great at his job. And Adam's obviously the best at what he does.
Adam's the king.

Speaker 2 There's no, there is, there's no qualms about that. Like, there's no one better than him.
Um, but I'm the only woman out here doing it.

Speaker 2 That, that's where it's been, that's where it's been a little different for me because I off queen.

Speaker 1 No, it's crazy. I, I give you like like the question about like parenting and stuff.
Like you, what you do is, it's insane to me like you deserve all the credit in the world

Speaker 2 i'm still trying to get better too at it right because i wasn't doing it a full-time job at espn this is full-time now so the athletic's been really good about there's they're just so psyched that we're doing these kind of stories now and and i actually had a conversation with an insider recently and he was like are you nuts for writing these dysfunction pieces no one's going to talk to you anymore and i actually found the opposite yeah i think more people are talking now because they're there's a little bit of fear in in wow, this person is digging and they know.

Speaker 2 And I don't want to get on their bad side.

Speaker 2 And I don't want to be that. I don't want to be like a doom and gloom reporter.

Speaker 2 But I love this new role of being able to just uncover stuff that fans, whether memes wants to hear it or Max wants to hear about the Eagles and their dysfunction at times.

Speaker 2 It's there and it's why they're not winning.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 So sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 4 I just want to follow up on that because you were saying that now you're like writing. You were reporting like basically on Twitter, on TV before.
Now you're adding in like the writing thing.

Speaker 4 It's, I think it's a Mitch Hedberg joke. It's like going to a chef and being like, oh, you're a great chef.
Can you also farm? You know, like two things that are tangentially related.

Speaker 4 But like becoming a writer at this point in your career, that seemed like a big ask.

Speaker 2 That was the hardest part about it. When they were like, okay, writing sucks.

Speaker 3 They're like, we want you to write.

Speaker 2 I'm like, what? Yeah. The last time I wrote anything was just like my email password.
You know, like, I don't want to have to do that.

Speaker 1 Writing and reading.

Speaker 4 You should be able to face scan your essay. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Then, and just like anything else in life is like the thing that you're most fearful of is always the most rewarding when you're able to accomplish it.

Speaker 2 So now I'm doing it all the time and I love, I dread it.

Speaker 1 It's like a, it's like a report that I did in school.

Speaker 2 It's just like you dread it. But there is nothing better than turning that in, right? Like when you, when I press send to my editor, I'm like, push.
Like, I love it.

Speaker 2 And then especially when I see it published in the New York Times or on the athletic, it's, it's worth it. So yeah, it's, it's, it's definitely been hard though.

Speaker 4 Sorry, last question.

Speaker 11 You obviously go and visit with a lot of teams and stuff like that.

Speaker 11 Today, the grades came out from, I think it was the NFL PA with like grading the different franchises in order of several different factors.

Speaker 11 I don't want you to bash anyone, but who are your favorite teams to visit and are the most accommodating, have the nicest facilities, et cetera?

Speaker 2 I think asking a media person is difficult because we're going to base it on access. Right.
Like the PR staff. It's not the buffet.
And

Speaker 1 that's not the food.

Speaker 2 The food thing does annoy me. Like when they're like the Super Bowl's food, terrible.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'd base it on food. That was so sad.
I was like, come on.

Speaker 2 The Super Bowl in Tampa, the COVID year, amazing.

Speaker 1 Oh, so good.

Speaker 4 Steve is a Bucs fan.

Speaker 2 So I would say the stadium outside of Dallas, so Dallas, Jerry obviously does a top-notch. Outside Dallas, the team that does it the best in terms of the kind of food I like is New England.

Speaker 2 Because they do pasta. They do lobster roll.
They lean into who they are, right?

Speaker 2 There's some Italians, some seafood, and they take care of their media because they probably knew that the media is going to have to deal with grumpiness. So they're like, let's feed these guys,

Speaker 1 let's feed these guys. That's smart.

Speaker 2 But in terms of just dealing with different organizations, it's all over the spectrum. You deal with some teams and they just make your job so hard.

Speaker 2 And then you deal with people like the Chiefs who have every reason in the world to be arrogant and they're not. They're great.
Like Patrick Mahomes

Speaker 2 is really open to doing stuff. So that's helpful.
But then you'll go to some teams that are not good at all. And it's such a pain to deal with.

Speaker 2 But in terms of facilities,

Speaker 2 the Jets actually have a beautiful facility.

Speaker 2 I like going there. And they feed you.
That's another thing, too. They feed you at lunch.
I think I'm a little bit more like you than I thought.

Speaker 2 If you feed me, I'm happy.

Speaker 1 If you put out a good spread,

Speaker 1 nothing else really matters.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right. Good question, Stephen.

Speaker 1 Diana, thank you. Like I said, it was long overdue.
And now that you're a recurring guest, we'll definitely have you back on in the football season. Good luck with the podcast.
What's the name of it?

Speaker 2 Scoop City.

Speaker 4 Scoop.

Speaker 4 More like Scoop Shitty. Uh-oh.

Speaker 1 Is that? Are you scared? Scoop. No City.
Is that? I'm just trying to Jack Mac.

Speaker 2 I actually was hoping.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 We got a guy who is actually a very good reporter. And he is, he says Scoop City.
So.

Speaker 2 Well, I wanted to reveal on the show my first guest. I thought it'd be like a really good guy.

Speaker 1 Is it Jack Mac? No, it's Max. Oh, Max is your first guest.
Yeah, Max. Max.

Speaker 2 All the listeners at the Athletic are like, what?

Speaker 1 Who is this guy?

Speaker 4 It's just Max.

Speaker 2 We're just going to put

Speaker 2 the microphone next to his butt and just fart the whole time.

Speaker 1 I'll be number one before you know it. He did finish the two sodas.
We gave him $600.

Speaker 4 Proud of you Max.

Speaker 1 Proud of Max.

Speaker 1 What's up guys? It's Big Cat here making my Irish entrance with proper number 12 Irish whiskey. How do you make an Irish entrance, you ask?

Speaker 1 It starts with a shot of proper number 12 Irish whiskey because real friends don't let friends Irish exit a party without a story to tell.

Speaker 1 Original proper number 12 is rich in a smooth blend of golden grain and single malt. Age four years in bourbon barrels.
Mix it up with some ginger ale for a classic and refreshing proper ginger.

Speaker 1 In the mood for something smooth but a little sweeter, try proper Irish Apple, a delicious blend of proper's award-winning Irish whiskey with crisp, fresh notes of apple.

Speaker 1 So get out there and make your Irish entrance. Anything else just wouldn't be proper.

Speaker 4 Also, I don't know if you guys saw this. FedEx is taking their naming rights away from the commanders effective immediately.

Speaker 4 What do you guys think about part of my cheese steak stadium? I like it a lot. Should we submit a bid? I love that.
We're going to submit a bid.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Let's get that bid submitted, Hank.

Speaker 4 And then when it doesn't get approved, we'll just be like, we're banned from the NFL. Yeah.
The bad boy cheesesteak. Yeah.

Speaker 1 By the way, speaking of stakes breaking moves.

Speaker 1 Breaking moose.

Speaker 1 The one baseball player who keeps us all connected, who is that? Schwarbo. Schwarbo.

Speaker 1 The MLB did one of those TikTok videos and they asked every single player

Speaker 1 on the video. Obviously, it was like probably 35 players how they like their steak cooked.

Speaker 1 Kyle Schwarber, Medium Rare Plus. Okay.

Speaker 6 Love it.

Speaker 1 Schwarber. And we love Kyle Schwarber.
We do love Kyle Schwarber. We love Kyle Schwarber.

Speaker 3 We should do that as a special.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Medium Rare Plus.

Speaker 4 What special?

Speaker 3 Like part of my cheese steak special.

Speaker 3 Cheesesteak will be medium rare plus.

Speaker 4 We did order steaks in Indianapolis. The medium rare was the exact same as medium rare plus.
No, it was. Yes, it was.

Speaker 4 Yes, it was.

Speaker 1 No, it wasn't. That's not true.

Speaker 1 Hank, pardon your take?

Speaker 3 Pardon your take.

Speaker 1 These are long. Uh-oh.
A lot of reading.

Speaker 3 I think Boston is going to become the new tortured city.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 3 The Pats are going to be weighed down by their terrible owner. The Celtics have had recent success in the regular season, but always will get face fucked by the heat.

Speaker 3 The Bruins are aging fast and don't really have a strong chance of winning the cup.

Speaker 1 What are your thoughts on that one?

Speaker 3 That one's valid.

Speaker 3 Although they're really good this season, so maybe not. Yeah.
I just... The Bruins that I know aren't on the team anymore.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 I got to get familiar with them.

Speaker 4 Aging fast. Pasta.

Speaker 1 Julia. Yeah.

Speaker 3 The Red Sox ownership pay their fans and are much more interested in selling the Fenway Park experience and playing good baseball. That's a fact.
Red Sox owners suck.

Speaker 3 This totally could come back to bite me in the ass, but I think the whole city is about to become the new Dallas Cowboys.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 6 The whole city will

Speaker 6 become the Cowboys.

Speaker 3 I mean, you can't torture a city. Like, I've won, I think, 10-plus championships since I was nine years old.
Like, you can't torture. That's not torture if we don't win a championship for a few years.

Speaker 3 The Celtics are the favorites to win the championship this year. The Bruins are in the top five, I believe, in standings in their division.
Patriots, new coach, they're going to be really good.

Speaker 3 Top three draft pick. Really good.
That doesn't sound torture to me.

Speaker 1 You think Patriots are going to be really good?

Speaker 6 It will happen at some point.

Speaker 3 Yeah, championship of the next four years.

Speaker 1 Where everything goes down. Is there a chance that it's going down right now?

Speaker 1 No. Okay.

Speaker 3 The Celtics are like the most

Speaker 3 that I've watched since the big three. I love watching the Celtics.
They're fun to watch. It's going to be an exciting postseason.

Speaker 3 Bruins, I hop on once we get into the playoffs.

Speaker 1 Max has a, has a, he's got a crinkle in his face.

Speaker 4 Do you ever, Hank, do you ever feel like the best years of your sports life are behind you, though?

Speaker 1 I think that is a fact. There's no way that that's a fact.

Speaker 3 I'm okay with that. Like, the best sports years of my life were when I was like 16 to 25, and they were the most fun years of my life.
I'm never going to, I can't replicate that.

Speaker 3 Even if, even, I would rather have had the best years of my life be at the age that they were than when I'm 30 in Chicago.

Speaker 1 You know?

Speaker 4 No, you're right. That right.

Speaker 3 The prime years were my prime years as well.

Speaker 4 And if the Celtics win a chip this year, then that extends that window another three to five years. You're like, oh, we just recently won another one.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 What were you going to say, Max?

Speaker 10 You say that they can't be tortured. Would you say that current Cowboys fans are a tortured fan base?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 12 The answer is yes. Yes.

Speaker 1 But that's. Yeah, no, there's enough time.

Speaker 3 That's a long time. Right.
Enough time.

Speaker 10 Yes, but that's what this person is saying that it's trend, that it could trend in the world.

Speaker 3 By the time I'm 40 years old, we'll be tortured.

Speaker 4 Yeah, next thing you know, know, your quarterback is going to be a good thing.

Speaker 7 You're 30.

Speaker 4 That's going to be shaving his head like he's going to be 20.

Speaker 3 Right, but the Cowboys are tortured because they won. When was the last time they won? 95, 96.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 So.

Speaker 10 But you would have said 40, like you're like, when I'm 80 years old and dying, I'm a tortured fan.

Speaker 1 If you don't win another championship in the next 20 years, you would be tortured. Yeah, but I don't like, I'll be old by then.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you will be. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Being a tortured fan is.

Speaker 1 People get mad at it.

Speaker 3 It's a young man's game.

Speaker 3 I don't know.

Speaker 1 There's probably some old people. Well, Yeah, but they've never, that's

Speaker 1 one. That sucks.
They've never, they've never won.

Speaker 4 It's funny because like Hank is, Hank has experienced being a fan in the same years as like his potential athletic prime. So now he's like looking at

Speaker 7 every guy to retire.

Speaker 6 I had a great run.

Speaker 4 Now I get to watch the other teams do it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay. All right.
Next one.

Speaker 10 Wait, also, why can't you be a fan when you're older?

Speaker 1 No, I'm saying that.

Speaker 4 That's right, but Hank's not looking at it that way. Hank's like, I'm retiring from being a sports fan.
I actually think

Speaker 4 I'd like to thank the city of Boston.

Speaker 1 I also think that there's, there's like, when you're older, it might mean just like it gets, you know, if you have kids and you, in your, you know, 30s and 40s, you got other shit, your career going, like, you maybe not paying as much attention.

Speaker 1 But like, when you're 50, 60 and you got nothing going on, your teams probably mean a lot.

Speaker 10 That's what like my dad looks forward to at night is like going home and watching the Villanova game, right?

Speaker 1 The Phillies game. Like, that's tough.
If I have kids.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's tough. What you just described is tough.

Speaker 10 What, seeing two national champions?

Speaker 1 No, but this year, I'm talking about this year.

Speaker 1 Well, I mean, we're playing good ball right now. Okay.
Yeah. And the future on them.

Speaker 10 Phillies haven't really upgraded, but it's fine.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 3 If I have kids and then the teams go through hardships, maybe by that point,

Speaker 4 it will be torture. Yeah, but this is kind of like the last dance for you, Hank.

Speaker 3 It's not. You can't.

Speaker 1 One final chance at a chip.

Speaker 3 Jason Tatum is 26.

Speaker 6 He's 18.

Speaker 1 Okay. It's 19.
But

Speaker 3 Sup, King Cat, PF Tits, Golf Boy, Mr. Positions, and Double Soda Don.

Speaker 4 What does PF Tits mean?

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 3 Dan Hurley drinking what looks like piss before every game had me thinking. Would you guys drink your own piss before every game of the season if it meant your team would go 17-0 and win the season?

Speaker 1 Yes, without a doubt. Are you kidding me? That's the easiest question ever.
Definitely.

Speaker 4 Jake, you would drink piss? You would never

Speaker 1 jake. That's a lie.

Speaker 8 Oh, no, if I was the coach of that team.

Speaker 1 Oh, no, we're talking about his fans.

Speaker 1 Yeah, not fair enough.

Speaker 4 The question might have been like, if you you were a coach, but we'll just say, yeah, no, as fans, I would do it.

Speaker 1 Easy.

Speaker 1 I would drink piss every fucking Sunday just to have the Bears be in the playoffs. Don't even guarantee me anything, but just be like, you guaranteed the playoffs.

Speaker 1 That would be piss every Sunday, no matter what. Wake up, mouthwash, piss.

Speaker 4 I agree. I would do it actually every day.
Yeah. Not even every Sunday.

Speaker 10 You should just do it next year.

Speaker 1 Yeah, maybe we will. Maybe we will.

Speaker 1 Tell me I won't, Max. Yeah, tell me I won't.

Speaker 10 I think you guys are all talk.

Speaker 1 I don't think we'll talk to you. I about this next year.
Yeah, maybe we will.

Speaker 4 I drink Max's piss for a Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 Ah, that's too far.

Speaker 4 His toilet can't even do that.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 12 sure.

Speaker 10 I eat so much asparagus.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 3 Hey, fellas, I'd like to draw your attention to one of the biggest conspiracies in modern college athletics.

Speaker 3 Did you know that the one-two seat in the WCC tournament automatically start in the semifinal and get three buys?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 This means that basically every year, all Gonzaga has to do to guarantee a tournament birth is win two games.

Speaker 1 Well, no. That's not all they have to do.

Speaker 3 Even with this ridiculous ridiculous format, Gonzaga has still failed to ever make a single Final Four. It's truly shocking.
Love the show.

Speaker 4 But they would have to get that by.

Speaker 6 Yeah, right.

Speaker 1 Saying, like, oh, well,

Speaker 1 Gonzaga only has to win two games. They have to win all the games in the regular season to get the one and the two seed.

Speaker 8 Max pulled up the visual. It's a great-looking graphic.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, it is. It's a greater thing.

Speaker 8 But I like how they do it. It makes the regular season mean a lot more.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, no, it's not a conspiracy.

Speaker 1 It is kind of crazy, but it's not a conspiracy.

Speaker 4 Looking at the bracket makes me think it's more of a conspiracy because that is a shocking bracket.

Speaker 1 Well, it's just you got to play well in the regular season. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And they only have nine teams.

Speaker 1 Okay, next.

Speaker 3 All right, last one. I'm so fucking sick of Sean Payton getting away with being a bad head coach.

Speaker 3 Name another coach that gets away with throwing his team under the bus, wasting their rust seasons, and being so bad that nobody wanted to buy his contract, so he had to go on TV for a few seasons.

Speaker 3 He gets away with too much for winning only one Super Bowl with Breeze as his quarterback.

Speaker 3 Bill Belichick gets crushed for being a far superior coach, but Sean is the same guy with much worse accolades.

Speaker 1 Was this written by Hank?

Speaker 3 What does Sean Payton know?

Speaker 4 This is written by Roger Goodell, I think.

Speaker 1 I actually kind of agree with this take. I kind of agree with this take.

Speaker 4 I'll say this about Sean Payton. He's too miserable all the time compared to what he's done.

Speaker 4 Like you have to earn the right to be that ornery all the time and that pissed off at your own players. Yeah.

Speaker 4 I don't like the way that he treated Russell last year, who, by the way, was not very good.

Speaker 4 I'm not like going to stand on the table for Russell Wilson, but like everything was Wilson's problem last year. Right.
Even when it wasn't.

Speaker 4 Like that game against the Lions on Thanksgiving when he was like, yeah, it's your fault that this happened and turned out that it wasn't at all. Yeah.

Speaker 4 He needs to, he needs to tone down the pissed offness like a couple notches until he gets to the playoffs again.

Speaker 1 It's also a great lesson that if you can win a Super Bowl with a franchise that everyone assumed was never going to win a Super Bowl, you do get way more grace than if you win a Super Bowl with, you know, the Cowboys or the Steelers or the Packers.

Speaker 1 Like that, that's a fact. Yeah.
Because Mike McCarthy and Mike Tomlin have a Super Bowl, and they're talked about completely different than Sean Payton because Sean Payton won it with the Saints.

Speaker 4 I think Sean Payton could have been that pissed off and thrown his team under the bus if he had stayed in New Orleans. Yeah.
But now that he's in Denver.

Speaker 1 I think, yeah, now it might turn on him. Yeah.

Speaker 1 If he doesn't get it right, it will turn on him.

Speaker 4 Also, Hank, I just remembered you said that the Red Sox ownership doesn't care about the fans at all. Are you excited at all about Theo?

Speaker 1 Theo's back.

Speaker 4 Did you know that Theo is back? No. Yeah.
Theo's back. Yes.

Speaker 3 I mean, they haven't signed anyone. They don't do anything.

Speaker 1 Well, he's not back. He's like with the ownership group.
So he's not like the Red Sox GM.

Speaker 3 The ownership group does not care about Theo. But he will, I think.
They care about golf. They care about soccer.
They care about

Speaker 3 NASCAR. They care about everything but the Red Sox.
Yeah. They started with the Fenway group.
They started with the Red Sox, and now they're on to bigger and better things.

Speaker 3 And they know that they'll sell out. They'll still get a lot of money from people coming to games, even though they suck.

Speaker 1 So why bother? Yeah. It's a shame.

Speaker 4 It's tough.

Speaker 1 Okay. Good show, boys.
Great interview coming on Friday with Pat Bev. Awesome, awesome interview.

Speaker 1 In person.

Speaker 4 Numbers.

Speaker 1 40.

Speaker 1 80. 20.

Speaker 1 18. Oh, shit.
Did I beat you to that?

Speaker 10 77. Three.

Speaker 6 Wait, wait.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 4 Are you looking up Jason Kelsey's number? No.

Speaker 1 No, you already said your number.

Speaker 10 I know.

Speaker 1 Pug 99. 99, Pug.
Okay, there we go. And Shane's got 21.

Speaker 10 He's got a doctor's appointment, but he sent me that.

Speaker 1 Beautiful.

Speaker 6 What is it?

Speaker 1 I wouldn't be shocked if Pug actually goes to a vet.

Speaker 1 Just sitting next to like a doodle in the waiting room, panting.

Speaker 1 11.

Speaker 1 11.

Speaker 6 That was 77. Oh, it's 11.

Speaker 1 Love you guys.

Speaker 1 I don't know what

Speaker 1 to say. I'm staying anyway.

Speaker 1 Today is all my days to find you. Shyade.

Speaker 1 Oh, I'm coming for your love of day.

Speaker 1 Shyade.

Speaker 1 No, I'm coming for your love of day.

Speaker 1 I'll be

Speaker 1 your love,

Speaker 1 I'm a little bit more of a dream.

Speaker 1 I'll be

Speaker 1 Say after me

Speaker 1 life's no better to be safe and something

Speaker 1 say after me

Speaker 1 Life's no better to be saved for something

Speaker 1 on,

Speaker 1 I'll be.

Speaker 1 I'll be

Speaker 1 good to you.

Speaker 1 Things that I say

Speaker 1 every little I want, just to play my burning away.

Speaker 1 You are the things I've got to remember.

Speaker 1 Shining on you.

Speaker 1 Love and coming through the main light.

Speaker 1 Shining on you.

Speaker 1 Love and coming through the main light.

Speaker 1 Come on.

Speaker 1 Take on me. Take me

Speaker 1 up.

Speaker 1 Take on me. I will take

Speaker 1 you.

Speaker 1 Take on me,

Speaker 1 take on me. I

Speaker 1 don't

Speaker 1 take on me.

Speaker 1 Take on me.