Chris Berman, Super Bowl Week Is Here, Kyrie Tried To Highjack The Super Bowl And Tons More

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
On today's Pardon My Take, the Schwam is back. Chris Berman, for an hour and a half, we went back up to Connecticut.
He remembered us, he loves us. What? It was awesome.
It was everything we wanted because the first time we interviewed Chris Berman, it was a lot about his career. This time it was Super Bowl memories, guys talking football.
Just an awesome time. We had a smile on our face, ear to ear.
We are going to talk football. We are here in Arizona live from Super Bowl week.
We are going to talk Kyrie to the Mavericks. He tried to hijack Super Bowl week.
We have who's back of the week. And don't worry, we also have the lottery ball machine.
We pre-taped it. So tune in to see if Hank won.
Yeah. Ever had one of those days when it's just too cold to keep working? Nah, neither has Ariat.
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Arizona, we are inside you. It's a lovely place.
Super Bowl abs, everyone check. Yeah, I'm good.
Check, everyone. I'm good.
Yep, yep. We all got our Super Bowl abs.
Yeah, look at this. Came in nicely.
Washboard belly. That little fucking Italian, Pete Prisco, is going to be eating off my Super Bowl abs.
He was wrong. I was right.
We all got in great shape for this weather. And we're here.
It feels great. Yeah.
No, it's Super Bowl week and there's a feel in the air. We saw Tom Rinaldi in the airport walking around.
We did. He had his headphones on.
Jake speculated he must be listening to the piano music yep he just bangs that non-stop sad

music just looking at people being like i wonder how many people in his life has died have died

from cancer just walking around thinking that about everyone he sees there was a uh there was

a guy holding a sign at the airport apparently that just said florio in big letters so mr big

shots in town it's been it's been pretty nice so far also we should just note um so we have a great

show coming up we have a great show coming

up. We have Chris Berman that we taped on

Wednesday. We went back up to Connecticut for

him. Hopefully, it's going to be our

Super Bowl annual kickoff

Monday at Super Bowl, the Schwam.

But right now, we're

sitting in Arizona. We look like fucking

idiots because we don't have our mic stands because

Hank forgot the mic stands. That's fine.

Hank's in a rare form this week.

He is ready to go.

I think he knows that there are going to be

Thank you. idiots because we don't have our mic stands because hank forgot the mic stands that's fine hank's in a rare form this week hank is he is uh ready to go i think he knows that there are going to be a lot of people saying a lot of mean things to him so he's pre-mad and so it's it's kind of exuding it's coming out of his it's hank's anger is oozing out of every hole we got we got it's me we got off the plane and he's like super bowl week just feels a different without the Patriots.
And I was like, Hank, have you thought that maybe what if – like a lot of franchises don't go to Super Bowl week ever. Lions fans never have gone to Super Bowl week.
That's just a reality. Browns fans have never gone to Super Bowl week.
Jaguars fans have never gone to Super Bowl week. That happens.
You're entitled, Hank. I never said that.
You did say that. I'm going to have to start recording everything, the conversation I have with you, and put out a documentary about the truth.
What you did say was it just doesn't hit different. It hits different without the Patriots.
I love Super Bowl week. I've been to a lot of them.
Coincidentally, the Patriots have been over half the Super Bowl weeks I've been to. But even the ones they're not at, I still have a great time.
It's great hanging out with the guys. It's great seeing everyone, all the fans and stuff.
This is the anniversary of the first time the three of us ever hung out. Yeah, it was nice getting off the plane and being like, wow, eight years ago, a lot has changed.
We've come a long way. Yeah, we have.
It's a little like walk down nostalgia here where we're like, oh, back in Scottsdale, we actually have our own hotel rooms this time, and we're going to have a great Super Bowl week. We have some awesome guests lined up.
It's going to be a blast. I'm looking forward to the game because Big Cat, we're good friends.
Yeah. I put my bet in today.
You did. $8,500.
So did Hank. Hank put in a bet for like $3.20.
He's like, I'm riding with you guys. Not a troll.
But you know what? That's what I did. Let's not feed the trolls, Big Cat.
Yeah, you're right. Let's not because that's what he wants.
He wants the attention. No, I don't.
He thrives off of it. Hank, you do.
He wants the attention. You do.
I'm just here for work. I'm not trying to speak.
I just want to do my job. No, you're not trying to speak.
You just tried to take my chair during tonight's broadcast. We did.
This is insane. Okay, no, we're not feeding the troll.
We are gaslighting way. We're not feeding the troll.
Napalm now that we're using for the gaslights. Don't feed the trolls.
We're good friends at the Super Bowl. It's going to be a blast.
It gonna be a blast um it is it was weird waking up today with no football it always is like a jarring first sunday without football um the pro bowl i don't even know what all i know is i tuned in a few times during the weekend and it was like one time they were catching water balloons another time they were jumping off trampolines into a mat. Like I don't know what they did with the Pro Bowl.
And I think actually what they did was genius because we all complained about how the Pro Bowl isn't real football. And like why are they even playing the game? Whatever they changed it to, I want the old Pro Bowl.
No, it's smart what they did. But I did read one headline about how the Pro Bowl turned out.
So this will be our official Pro Bowl analysis of the game itself, the flag football game. Kirk Cousins leads NFC to a comeback.
So there you go. All the haters that say Kirk Cousins can't win a big game, he just won the Pro Bowl flag football challenge.
I also read a headline, and I've got to find it. It was – It probably wasn't even the NFC.
It was probably like Team Eli or whatever. Report Browns defensive end Miles Garrett suffered a dislocated toe at the Pro Bowl games and limped off the field.
Yeah. So even whatever games they were playing can be – dodgeball can be dangerous.
I saw one highlight from the flag football game, and somebody lateraled the ball to Tyreek Hill as he was crossing the goal line, and Jalen Ramsey just laid him out on the sideline. Somebody forgot to tell Jalen Ramsey that you don't hit and flag football, but it was awesome just to see a little bit of contact, just to perk your ears up a little bit.
Football is actually coming back again this week. It was great to see them out there being like, you know what? This is actually exactly what the players who deserve to be in the pro bowl uh tyler huntley included i saw him slinging it around they were all just looked like violently hung over half speed running around on the field that part is perfect that part is it should be a reward to go to the pro bowl and not having to actually put on pads and be like hope i don't get injured.
They did knock that out of the park because you could see everyone had, like, sunglasses on, bucket hats. Devontae Adams was playing with sunglasses and a bucket hat, and he was just like, yeah, he probably partied all night.
Why wouldn't you? He made the Pro Bowl. They did not invite Alvin Kamara back, right? I don't think so.
I don't think he's allowed in the state of Nevada. Yeah.
Are we ever going to find out, is he going to go to jail? Because I think his trial is still pending for that, isn't it? Yeah, I think so. And yeah, that one's weird.
We had the Joe Mixon thing was weird because it like got, he, he had a warrant and then it was dropped. Well, he, he, he allegedly pointed a gun at somebody, got charged for menacing, which is a very cool sounding thing to be charged with.
then they just dropped the charges he should just join john morant's crew yeah that might have been him that was a wild story did you you didn't hear about that john morant and we're going to talk about kairi in a second but john morant there was a report out that he got in an altercation uh his best friend and like some of his friends got an altercation with the pacers when the pacers were in town and then after the game when the pacers were getting on the bus his friends were like basically saying like come fight us and then they rolled out and uh there was a laser pointer pointed at players in the bus and they thought it was maybe a gun yeah kind of kind of a little too far i would say they asked the nba and they were like hey is was the laser attached to a gun by any chance they're like we don't know we can't comment on that just yet i mean if it was just a laser pointer that's actually a hilarious move because everyone has had a phase in their life where they're like laser pointers are cool yeah let me see if i can try to point it in my friend's eye or if you have a cat that's always fun yeah like i think someone brought a laser pointer to the office last week and i was like let me see that and was just trying to get people in the eye like eye. Or if you have a cat, that's always fun.
Yeah. I think someone brought a laser pointer to the office last week, and I was like, let me see that, and was just trying to get people in the eye.
It's fun. Wasn't there a laser pointer event at an NFL playoff game? I feel like Derek Carr might have gotten a laser pointer shined in his eye.
I think Ronaldo complains about a laser pointer when they're not even there. I'm all for laser pointers.
I just think that they should be green. She's fan cited for shining laser at Tom Brady.
Okay, there we go. They should be green.
Green laser pointers i just think that they should be green for shining laser laser at tom brady yeah okay there we go it should be they should be green green laser pointers always play once the red dot gets involved i've watched too many action movies yeah fuck with those the red dot feels like you're like what the hell is going on here yeah so yeah that was that was a serious story the other the other football story is um aaron rogers just playing in a pro-am winning it and getting asked where he's going to play. Seemed like every hole.
Yeah. Every single hole he was asked where he's going to play.
People making Raiders jokes, Jets jokes. I just want to say, memes, you're sitting right here.
He's a Jets fan, Raiders fans. Don't become pathetic here.
The guy is a jerk. Don't't be pathetic like begging for him he's a jerk yeah don't belittle yourself i would also say the more that you want him the more likely you are to push him away yes you want him to come to you be like yeah it'd be cool if aaron played with us but don't if once you start to smother him then he's more likely just because he is an asshole he'll be like well they really want me so it'd be if I broke all their hearts.
Yes, exactly. Do we have any other coach hirings? I know the Colts are doing like four day interviews.
Yeah. So they're doing like every single only to hire Jeff Saturday.
So Jim Irsay is doing like 12 hour interviews with these coaches. And I think they're on their third round right now.
I think Jim Irsay just wants people to hang out with. Yes.
That's what it comes down to to he just wants to like take people on a tour of his house show them his weird guitar collection show them his patchouli walk-in closet see how long he can go to the bathroom with you know for without them freaking out yeah again i'm i have to say i'm in favor of jim mercy using the restroom as long as he wants to yes i would never walk out of that well you have to take a shit after you do the cocaine it would be nice if he offered the cocaine that's a fact right yeah it's definitely what happened actually you're like dude he's in a house probably nice bathroom that's happens quickly the red flag was probably him not offering josh mcdaniel's wife cocaine she was like that guy's rude at least offer at least um yeah i don't think we had any other coach hirings i know the cardinals are doing interviews yeah i think that's it the panthers hired the broncos defense coordinator yeah but yeah that's about it yeah so and we're going to talk obviously more super bowl all of our props everything as the week goes on um when your home system or appliance breaks down american home shield will help fix or replace the covered item, no matter its age. Visit AHS.com slash listen for 20% off any plan.
See AHS.com slash contracts for coverage details, limitations, and exclusions. Okay.
Kyrie Irving tried to hijack Super Bowl week. Let's just say that right now.
I have a place we can start. I want to read a quote to you about Kyrie Irving and how excited he is.
So he says, so this is a tweet. Have been told that Kyrie is ecstatic about the trade, looking forward to playing for Brad Stevens and understands the Celtics tradition.
Oh, wait, sorry. That was from 2017.
Here's the quote. Kyrie Irving is said to be ecstatic about the trade to Dallas Mavericks and looking forward to joining forces with Luca a league source tells NBA on TNT literally the exact same quote five years six years apart um he's ecstatic he's ecstatic on both ends I think it's a good move for the Mavericks because he only has half a season for his team cancer to spread.
So this is like a good window for Kyrie. Once the first offseason ends, who knows what he's going to come back with next year.
He's going to be like the JFK assassination didn't even happen. He's going to get nuts in Dallas.
He's going to get some weird stuff. But for the first four or five months, I think that's fine.
It's hard to destroy a brand new team in four months. I think Kyrie's up for the challenge.
If anyone can do it, he's the man for the job. I think it's going to be, it will just be whether or not they agree to pay him what he wants.
He wants a max deal. That was how it all fell apart with the Nets.
They were like, dude, you barely play. And when you do play, you also like mix in a little bit of, hey, let's have headlines about the anti-semitic uh documentary you're tweeting about or these weird comments why would you give him 200 million dollars in four years so they're like we don't want to do that he wants that will the Mavs do it if they say no he's probably going to be just as mad yeah so they had offers and pretty good offers from the lakers the lakers offered uh russell westbrook oh great they offered they said tell you what we've got a great you know former all pro guaranteed triple double guy russell westbrook let's get him out there it was him two first round picks swapping another pick and that's where he wanted to go he wanted to go to la reunite with lebron which i was kind of rooting for because that would have blown up that would have blown up pretty quickly i think it would have been hilarious and we we also got the all-time emo lebron tweet he just said after an hour after the uh trade was announced he just tweeted maybe it's me yeah it's so good maybe we had to make that a segment of the show maybe whenever we fuck up something maybe it's me it's Maybe it's me.
I love LeBron. I know that we give him a lot of shit, but I actually love LeBron because he's basically a billionaire, right? He's been a top two player on most teams that he's been on, one of the all-time greats.
Three in the heat. Probably number three on the heat.
That first year when he scored eight points in game four, I think it was. And he's like an international icon, but he still has big time, like, I really wanted to kiss you tonight energy.
Yeah, maybe it's me. Where am I? I'll get it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like, he basically tweeted a text where it's like you've texted a girl five times in a row with no response and just maybe it's me. The only thing that would have made it more melodramatic was putting the two dots after the maybe it's me not even the the full three ellipses maybe it's me maybe it's me and you know what it is lebron it is you because it is your team you have created this team so this one isn't on lebron because they they specifically did not trade him to the lakers joe sy said that said that uh they were doing whatever they could to not fulfill kairi's presumed objective, which was going to the Lakers.
Presumed objective is such a funny word. The counterpoint would be the Lakers have done everything.
They got Anthony Davis because they traded their entire team. Anytime LeBron wants them to trade something, they've just now come around to being like, maybe we shouldn't give in to everything you want.
But yeah, maybe is you yeah part of it is you knew that they were going to do that and told them like he he called their bluff what do you mean he told the nets who wanted to play with the lakers knowing they wouldn't trade him to the lakers because they thought that's what he wanted you know what that breakdown of this that's exactly how kyrie irving if he were in your position yeah would analyze that layers of 7D chess. I do like that we now get to do the only one ball.
Because it is like, Luka and Kyrie are the epitome of only one ball. Both guys need the ball.
Yeah. At all times.
I'm excited to see it work out, though. Not work out, you mean? I think it might work out.
I don't know. You know what would have worked out? Paying Jalen Brunson a max contract, because he's's fucking awesome i know he probably wanted to go to new york and it felt like that's what like he wanted to do that but still you basically just traded uh you know two decent players like good role players for kyrie irving when you could have maybe signed jalen brunson to a long-term deal who's really fucking good you think they're gonna like him in Dallas? I think the Dallas fans are going to like Kyrie Irving.
I don't know. I feel like this is – I read a quote.
Every team likes him like initially. Yeah, the athletic put it – someone put it on – I can't remember who wrote it, but I was reading it on the plane and it was put perfectly.
They're like, this trade to the Mavericks raises their ceiling but makes the floor lava and that's that's perfect like that's exactly what it is like they're yes in a world where this all works out you now added like oh I mean Kyrie Irving is that's the best part about Kyrie Irving is even after all the shit that said he's still every like NBA player's favorite player because his handle is great and his he's he's a walking bucket like he could say he could do anything and be like yeah well he's a walking bucket so the problem is that you do run the risk of completely alienating your entire relationship Luca yeah that's what I'm saying yeah that's the lava part he could hate playing with Kyrie so much that he could end up resenting the Mavs front office for this move. Right.
And then now you've lost your star player. Right, exactly.
So there's the lava, and it's – yeah, but Kyrie, yeah, like, he'll show up. He'll be awesome.
He's going to be staring at the Texas flag counting the points on the star. Okay.
All right. Yeah, I can play here.
He's just going to – I mean, it is funny, so I want to reiterate. So these are the three quotes so after Kyrie hit the big shot in 2016 the the the Cavs win everything's great that off season was it yeah that off season he was basically like I want I'm sick of playing with LeBron or no it was the next off season he was sick of playing with LeBron um went to the Celtics got got traded to the Celtics, said the tweet is,

have been told that Kyrie is ecstatic about the trade,

looking forward to playing for Brad Stevens and understand the Celtics tradition.

Went on the Celtics.

Didn't he go in front of the fans being like,

I'll stay as long as you'll have me?

Was that his exact quote, Hank?

Where he's like, I'll stay as long as you guys will have me.

And then demanded a trade from there.

Signed with Brooklyn, said, in my heart, I always knew i wanted to play at home i'm happy to be in brooklyn uh played 143 of 278 possible games in three plus years at the nets kd and kairi played 74 games together kd kairi and james harden played 10 games together and then today says kairrie is said to be ecstatic about the trade to Dallas Mavericks and looking forward to joining forces with Luka. It's just going to keep happening.
It's the old saying, like, when someone tells you who they are, like, listen, this is who Kyrie is. He's going to be upset in a matter of months, and he's going to want to be somewhere else.
And then he's going to go sign a Mac somewhere.

And then a year from that, he's going to be like,

I don't like it here.

And it's just going to keep happening.

What about for the Nets?

How does that work out for the Nets?

The new big three, that's going to be scary. It's Ben Simmons, Spencer Dinwiddie, and KD when he gets back from injury.

Yeah, and Dorian Finney-Smith.

And a future 2029 first-round pick.

So what I really wish had happened is the offer that the Phoenix Suns had made. I wish that had gone through because Chris Paul would have then come to New York to play for the Nets.
Chris Paul, KD. And you want to talk about expectations on Chris Paul's shoulders this postseason? And there's no chance that that Nets team would have won the championship.
Yeah. And that would have been so much more powerful for us to be like, hey, Russillo, explain yourself.
Yeah. Just another year flaming out with the Phoenix Suns.
It really, like, this four years of the Nets is fascinating to look at because they went all in with all three of these guys. And I guess it's like more of a tech.
Because uh this past off season when they got swept by the whomping by the Celtics and then Kyrie said uh KD and I are going to co-manage the team yeah no it's go coach the team yeah no it's co-manage I think he was like talking about the roster and stuff okay yeah so it really shows like you know at some point you have to also build a team where guys want to be there and not just be like, let's get. You have to take the shot with KD and Kyrie.
It just blew up in spectacular fashion. I don't think we knew that Kyrie was like fully Kyrie at that point.
Well, and KD's also asked for a trade too. Yeah, so it's been a disaster.
He might not show up. It's a warning sign.
Like sometimes it's bad to go all in. You can be too all in.
Sometimes just the tip is better. Yeah, and you just let the players decide they're going to co-manage the roster.
Yeah. It could have some ramifications.
It could backfire. Okay, so as much of a shit show as it's been on the court, I feel like the Nets ownership, they've got a lot of questions to answer for all this because of the way, not only did they say co-manage the team, but Kyrie was also like, yeah, we don't really have a head coach.
It's going to be most of us that take turns. And Steve Nash was like, what? Steve Nash has got to be the big winner out of all this.
Oh, huge. Yeah, Steve Nash.
I it was not possible, and this is proving it, because KD, like he could just say, I don't want to be here either. And I don't know what they do then.
It's just Ben Simmons. You're selling Nets tickets with Ben Simmons.
Do you think that you could have found, like, any worse, more drama-filled teammates to be on the Nets than they've had actually on the roster over the last three years like are there any players that are huge head cases that blow up teams in the nba that haven't played on the nets no they've collected all of them yeah they they truly have it's it's wonderful i guess i guess you could say for the nets they did trade in the Kyrie Irving trade. They traded Markeith Morris.

So that would be.

Okay.

I feel like the Morris twins are always ready for something.

You know what?

I kind of like Markeith Morris fitting in in Dallas.

Yeah.

Give us a little edge to him.

No one's going to fuck with Luka anymore.

You need some edge.

Don't let Markeith find out that someone dated his mom.

He'll get fucking pissed. He'll get real pissed.
But it's so who won the trade i'd say america yeah i don't know i mean i here's where how i think it will go is i think the mavs will probably like they'll torch some team in the first round and everyone will say look at this this is real and then either kairi will get hurt or decide not to show up or something will happen and they won't win a title. And then this offseason, yeah, like there's just no way that this is going to end.
There's no way. Could you imagine us sitting here right now? What if I told you like, yeah, Kyrie loves it in Dallas, stays for the next five years, and they win two titles.
You know what? That just doesn't make sense. I might put some money down on the Mavs winning the championship yeah just because what if yeah that'd be can you imagine that it's it's late June whenever the NBA finals start this year and welcome to part of my take it's like June 21st and the Dallas Mavericks are world champions congrats Kyrie Irving their offense is going to be insane that's the craziest part about the Nets when it was when they all were healthy remember what was the hank remind me so they got swept by the celtics last year womped the year before they beat the celtics in the first round is that right i believe so because i think there was a game where hard one yeah 104 points kyrie harden and and KD like and if if KD's foot isn't on the line in that game seven against the Bucs, it could have all worked.
Yeah, that's true. It could have all worked.
They were that close to having it actually maybe work. If his foot was like one size smaller.
Right. Yeah.
So as bad as it all fell apart, like in theory, when they all three were healthy and wanted to be there, it's really just COVID's fault. COVID fucked up.
COVID fucked with the wrong people, and that's Kyrie Irving deciding not to play. Honestly, it was the sickest 2K team of all time.
Yeah. It's also crazy because if like Monkey Pox comes back, now Kyrie can play because he's in Dallas.

Yeah.

So there won't be any restrictions.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But the whole thing is just very funny.

And the LeBron, maybe it's me.

Just so perfect.

I actually am happy the NBA did this because it is nice to like right when football ends

get into NBA season, like there's like, fuck it.

We're all in.

So we're just going to have the craziest shit happen. LeBron definitely thought that he did something too because before the trade was announced, he tweeted out eyeball emoji, crown emoji.
So I think that's him being like, the king's done it again. Yeah.
Brought Kyrie to LA. But he definitely did something because Kyrie hated him.
Kyrie didn't talk to him. Remember before he got traded, the reports came out that they just weren't speaking.
He would just show up and they wouldn't talk. They were like Mike the Mad Dog.
And what, now Kyrie's cool? Because they've been apart for a while. I guess so.
Kyrie will hate everybody that he's in close quarters with if he spends enough time with them. I actually kind of feel bad for KD a little bit.
Same. Tiny bit.
Because he did I I think the internet might have bullied him a little too hard with the legacy talk because like imagine if he just stayed with the Warriors yeah that was a pretty sick situation instead he was like fucking I'm going to start my own thing with the craziest people I can find and then like like playing with James Harden Ben Simmons and Kyrie I would say makes you appreciate Steph Curry a lot more. Oh, for sure.
He probably writes out text messages to Steph at like 2 in the morning and then deletes him being like, I can't show my hand. Like, I miss you.
Like, I'm sorry. It is your team.
I should have been okay with that. If I was KD, I would just get out of town.
I wouldn't want to play in Brooklyn anymore. There's a chance.
There's a chance. He's injured right now.
There's a scheduled update, I think, on his injury tomorrow. Like the Nets had said they're going to give everyone an update.
The update might just be like, yeah, we talked to KD. He doesn't want to play.
You know what would be sick? If KD demanded a trade to the Lakers. Yeah.
But that's actually the worst part for KD because out of all the bullshit aside i actually think that kevin durant loves playing basketball more than any other player in the nba like he just loves playing basketball when he's not playing he's watching best right he's like on those like hoop head uh twitter accounts like watching people's handles at lifetime fitness right so it's got to kill him that this is all happening because he just wants to play basketball yeah and. And it was a plan that was decent on paper that just completely blew up in every fashion.

Okay.

God damn it.

Kyrie, you've done it again.

I hope he demands a trade in like a week.

I mean, I honestly, I wouldn't put it past him to blow up the team before the playoffs start.

But on the other hand, like I can.

He wants. This is the perfect scenario for Dallas because you don't have a long-term commitment to Kyrie right now.
You say that you're interested in giving them a max extension. I don't know how far along those talks are going, if they've even started, but they were, they're open to it or else they wouldn't have traded for them.
Well, you'd hope because if I think they're open to it, but they have, I think you have to be more than more than open to it i think you have to be like we traded for you because we're going to sign you for a long-term deal if i'm mark cuban i give that a little 90 day cooling off period before you sign it to like any long-term contract and the craziest part like of all the the the nuts stuff that's happened with kairi he's still awesome he's been awesome this year he. He's been, like, carrying the Nets this year with KD out.
He's averaging 27 points. He's an awesome player.
That's my point back to, like, every player loves Kyrie because I think every player sees his game as like, he can do stuff that very, very few people can do. Wimbayana.
Wimbayana. No, Wimbayana's handles aren't that tight.
No, he's like 17. I just like saying tight handles.
Tight handles, sick handles. Yeah.
T.J. Smith is probably pretty pumped up because when Kyrie makes the Mavericks flame out hard, that's double dipping on Cowboys.
Yeah. Yeah.
He'll, he'll be like, Jerry, come on over. Yeah.
Let's talk about this. Although Jerry Jones probably would be happy.
Right. He can't, he doesn't want to see the bad.
I'm sure he does. Yeah.
He doesn't, he thinks Mark Cuban is like a young hotshot kid. Yeah, right.
Still, even though he's like 60. He's like 60, yeah.
He's like this whippersnapper just showed up, tried to steal my show. It's a football town.
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75. 43% of people have admitted to getting stuck in a Pringles can, according to Kellogg's survey.
Getting your hands stuck in a Pringlesles happens to the best of us it happens to doctors lawyers chess prodigies goat farmers latvians my old piano teacher i never took piano but i'm just saying that uh i wish i did kids should that's the one thing you should teach your kid music i actually have the the the um the piano like from big that uh the floor one yeah the floor i mean it's it costs like 50 bucks oh okay but uh if you'd ask me how much that cost it was said two million dollars but the the the unintended consequence of having the floor piano is stella's just playing it all the time that's just walking back and forth on it i always laugh when a cat runs across the, yeah. All right, so let's go quick.
Favorite Pringles flavors. I have always been a sour cream and onion guy.
I love sour cream and onion Pringles. I like ranch.
Ranch. It's so boring.
I'm original. No, that's not boring because Pringles are delicious.
Yeah. Sour cream and onion.
Yes. I also like that.
They have great pizza ones. Ooh, yes.
Pizza ones are good. Pizza ones slap.
All right, so Pringles sponsoring us. They are now a new sponsor.
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All right. Who's back of the week the week hank um who's back the week is america oh oh you stole mine yeah shot down shot down the big chinese

balloon yeah we got it waited till it went all across the country ladies and gentlemen we got

them yeah well so if you know anything about air-to-air ordinance big cat you would understand

that firing an am9x sidewinder overpopulated cities can result in some pretty significant

damage to the populations below yeah montana very popular yeah so listen we didn't it's the f-22's first kill we should show some respect first confirmed kill for that like 85 billion dollar program so it shot a hot air balloon down which is pretty hilarious yeah it is that's that's what we spent all that money for it was also very funny uh like i don't even think it was a press conference biden just got off his plane and he just sometimes starts rambling he's like i told him to shoot down wednesday and they told me that we couldn't until it was safe okay i'm wanting credit for shooting like yeah okay cool yeah we should i guess yeah we probably should have shot down wednesday but we had to wait till it was safe i put together a plan for shooting this thing down what about just a on the tip of the airplane? What about just like get someone who just went to the... Sniper.
The 50 cal. What about someone who went to get a manicure? Just pop it like that.
Well, yeah, that's what I'm saying. You put a giant needle on the nose cone of the plane and you fly the plane directly into it and then you just eject right before it hits the balloon.
That's what I would have done. It was cool to see it go down, though.

Fuck that Chinese air balloon.

I'm anti-balloon.

How many times have they been doing this?

So there was a report that it happened three previous times.

I saw the flight path.

It was pretty cool.

It went over Alaska and then it came down through Canada and then it went through Montana,

through Missouri, and then drifted across with a jet stream.

Nebraska.

But was it all off of just airflow?

Yeah.

So they're unsure.

So what they did was they fired a Sidewinder missile at it that usually has a detonated explosion in it.

But this one didn't have the explosive.

They just hit it with a missile because they were trying to keep all of it intact for when it fell into the ocean they go like recover it and see what the fuck they were doing so we don't know what it was doing just yet we're gonna find out we're gonna find out and they won't tell us but we're gonna find out but biden wants credit he said shoot that thing down on wednesday i would have shot it down so fast i honestly could have shot that thing down it just cool to have. It was actually a nice place in place of football on Saturday to just be like, oh, we're just going to watch this balloon get shot.
It's always nice to see an explosion and just everybody watching it go like, fuck yeah, America. We did it.
We got it. We shot a balloon.
That we let fly over our entire country first. Yeah.
We fucking nailed that piece of shit.

We got it.

We fucking got it.

Okay, good.

Who's back?

PFT?

Yeah, I was going to say my who's back was American air superiority,

but that's fine.

If it flies, it dies.

That's what I always say.

Hell yes.

So, memes just in a text.

So, I'll just say who's back?

Potentially Chris Paul.

Ooh.

The Phoenix Suns are prepared to pursue Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant should he become available league sources tell NBA on TNT that scares me a little bit because I do think that the Suns with Kevin Durant your math future has already gone up they would they would probably become a significant threat to my Mavericks yeah so excuse me. It's my Nuggets this year, but I do feel like Kevin Durant on that team would be, he would be a nice piece to add.
It'd be very fun. I mean, why would it? But it would be so great if they didn't win the championship with KD on that team.
Yeah, it would just be, well, they would, so what would the trade be? It would be Chris Paul and Picks and something else to the Nets? I'm not a capologist. Yeah.
It would just be so – we would get – if that happens, Varsila's on the next show. Probably Jay Crowder would be involved in that deal.
Yeah. Watching the Nets lose in the first round like it's swept by Giannis or something and be like, Chris Paul, what happened? Thoughts.
It would be incredible. Yeah.
Kevin Durant on the Suns would shake things up the West is crazy the West would be so fun every team could win it right now and every team is within like five games of each other go for it Suns every team except the Lakers except for the Lakers they're I think two games out of let's actually let's let's let's look real quick the lakers i believe are in the playing game no they're too too out of the playing game everyone's what they're only five games out of the three seed they're only five games out of the three seed that's a fact yeah that's how crazy the west is right now um okay my who's back is max max. Max, you want to come sit down? You want to take a mic real quick? So Max is back because I've decided I'm going to play a little fun game with Max.
It is the Super Bowl. It is birds.
He's got his Philly sweatshirt on. Now, I've told Max this before, so I didn't want to.
Yeah, what is it? Oh, you're wearing the sweatpants where you look like you're. These are good sweatpants.
You're a dad of four. Normal sweatpants, find a new slant.
And you're just trying to shovel all the kids into the van as you yell at them. And you have maybe some go-gurt and throw up on those pants.
That's what it is. Normal sweatpants.
Those are the pants you put on on a saturday morning side right now what you we are we're on the same side right yeah we are we are i i'm jealous of those pants i would wear those pants i think my saturday morning i think my third grade female art teacher they're very comfortable pants they're very comfortable pants she was showing me how to make pottery and shit yeah those that's actually Max is wearing the Chinese balloon that got shot down right now. Same material.
No, these are comfortable pants. They're in style.
You guys just don't get it. No, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no. They're not in style.
No, they are. No, no, no, no.
No, they are. Max is very defensive today.
Well, it's birds week. All right.
It's a big week. Yeah, it's a big week.
It's a big week. So I've told Max

this before because I didn't want to put him on the spot.

We've had that happen with the Ray

Allen tweet and it went poorly.

So I'm doing a better job

of that. But here's

the deal. Everyone obviously knows

the future I have at play with the

Eagles and I've decided that Max

and our good friend Roan, you might know him

as Angelo Palantonio. Max is going to the Super Bowl I am buying him tickets shout out game time and there's only one rule the rule is if the Chiefs win he has to pay me back every single dollar plus interest where's the interest? well I'm going to charge you a point a week so if it's like four grand tickets you can pay him back later on that night if you pay him in full no yeah you don't have the cash on you don't have to do that part i was just out of that part but yes so you are going to the super bowl correct which is incredible because you get to see your team play in the super bowl i still haven't processed exciting it's it a huge moment.
But if they lose, you have to watch your team lose the Super Bowl and also pay me back for the Super Bowl tickets. Correct.
And if they win, free tickets, because I'll be as happy as could be. Yeah, thank you very much for this.
Well, don't thank me yet. No, well, I mean, regardless.
I mean. You guys are going to win.
Yeah. Shut up, Hank.
There's also, I've also made it very clear. So this is the part where AWL's win is they either get to see Max cry and yell said and maybe beat up a small child at the Super Bowl, which we will document.
If the Chiefs win, you're paying me back, but you're also hustling back to this room where I will berate you for the entire episode on Sunday night. Yeah, no.
No, it's pretty clear that what happens on Sunday, there is no in-between of it's either the number one best day of my entire life or the number one worst day of my entire life yes or the number one worst day of my entire life like the the middle ground like the five grand just puts so much more well here's the question how nice the tickets do you want five grand you sure you don't want to be sitting like you're not gonna pay for 50 yard line well for him. No.
Well, he might have maybe 20 grand a ticket. I mean, what are we doing here? What are we doing here? How deep in Big Cat's pocket do you want to potentially wind up? That's the question.
Do you want to just use up the entire future? Well, here's the thing. I'm fine with that.
80 grand, 90 grand tickets? I mean, I got to talk to Ron. I'll just say this about Max.
If you buy an $80,000 Super Bowl ticket for Max and he loses and he now owes you 80, Max might actually kill you. He's going to have to do a bake sale.
You don't want to be 80 grand in debt to somebody. We would put on the greatest YouTube stream of all time of donations.
No, I'm looking at game time right now. There's some really good seats for like the four four grand range i'm worried about that's what we do i'm worried about max and his eagles because he cut his hair and you had such strong long powerful hair you cut your hair and max went out on friday and got a haircut it took like five inches off five inches you remember when uh when the astros were up on the nationals in the world series and chap shaved his beard yeah that's what happened here this is like right before someone has to admit that they committed a grizzly murder they cut their hair and then they go in and talk to the police or they go into court wearing glasses yeah okay oh no you're fine it's not no no big cat it was like down a year that's this is long hair i know a little trim before the super bowl yeah but when you you never wear your hair down, and on the sides, it's very obvious.
No, yeah, well, the sides, I got the sides trimmed up a little bit. Maybe that's where the Eagles got their power from.
I didn't think about it when I went and got the haircut. It was really, my mother was looking at the stream, and she was like, you better go get your hair cut before the Super Bowl week.
Does she know that the birds are in the Super Bowl? Yes, of course. Max, have you cut your hair at all this season? No.
Oh, God. Let me ask you this.
How nice is your parents' house? Because I might be taking over the mortgage. No, there's a lot of things that could be going on here.
Are they willing to sign? My parents are on board with me doing this. Okay.
Sometimes they don't like if i'm financially irresponsible but this is this is responsibility i mean it's the it's the only option yeah right and i just want to clear because there will be people who will be like oh big cat like if the chiefs win take pity on matt i will know because it has to feel like this because i don't want you to think in the back of your head like oh maybe he'll be not no it has to we need to feel the pressure. I will not.
Because it has to feel like this. Because I don't want you to think in the back of your head like, oh, maybe he'll be not.
No, no, no. It has to.
We need to feel the pressure. I want.
So this is basically like a five, like a $5,000 bet for me. Like the biggest bet I've ever placed in my life is I think $500.
Okay. So this is 10X, 10X of that.
But you could have the greatest of your entire life. And there's no in between.
If the Eagles win, you go party, you call in. Hank has done that.
You don't have to rush back here. Three times.
Yeah. All right.
I walked into that. But you go party.
You know what I mean? You call in. Me and Ron will have the greatest night of our life.
Ever. Because I don't think your flight's until later on in the Monday afternoon.
Yeah, 2.30. If the Chiefs win, you're back here.
I'm going to make you cry again. Oh.
No, I think there's a serious... Like, we always joke about me crying.
Like, if the Eagles lose on Sunday, there's a serious, serious situation where I cry. Okay, we'll save it because I want to see you cry.
I think you're going to cry if they win. Maybe.
Yeah. Tears...
I can't... This is...
You're going to cry either i there this game is seven days away and i should buy the tickets right now on game time no we gotta talk to ron we gotta talk to ron that sounds like you're having second thoughts no no no i think the hair thing has actually gotten to him i think that uh i could wear these pants they're great pants all, we'll buy the tickets on Wednesday's show on Game Time.

Shout out Game Time.

Yeah, I like that.

Maybe we bring Rohn in.

Yeah, that's perfect.

And we'll talk about it.

Yeah, because he will have to be in attendance if the Chiefs win back here.

Yeah, me and Rohn are in this together.

I want him holding like a tissue dabbing your eyes while you try to tell us how you fucked up. I'm going to be talking to you like you played 100 snaps.
I'm going to be feeling like I played 100 snaps. I think that I will feel worse than the player on that team.
Do you have your game day attire picked out in terms of the jersey that you're going to wear? No, I'm wearing Barstool merch. Okay.
Like this sweatshirt. I was going to say, don't buy anything new.

No, no.

There's going to be a frugal week for your boy.

The only other thing we have to figure out is how we're going to get maybe a GoPro.

Should you bring in a GoPro?

Face that your face?

Yeah, we're going to figure that out.

Just hit play the whole time.

I'd watch the whole thing, especially if the Chiefs won.

I'd watch the whole thing.

I'd be like, I need that footage, and I would save it for a dark place yeah yeah yeah it's gonna it it's gonna be the best night of my life i'm just gonna say that okay all right you sound you sound very sure max is so nervous going to this game it's like you right now you're more nervous about the game the actual eagles are. Yeah.
Yeah. No, that's what I'm saying.
Like I am going – like I've never felt more a part of a game than I am going to feel. I would love – or you get some practice reps in this week.
Yeah, just watch old game tape. Yeah.
I should watch the Eagles-Bats Super Bowl just to like remind myself that it can happen you can lose no oh which one yeah yeah not the mcnab puke one no i would love for nothing more than for you to owe me zero dollars yeah that would be that would be amazing just as happy as you all right all right max is who's back i'm nervous for him i've just basically it's a wild pants They're insane Subscribe to our YouTube and like the video The pants are just insane Well no He said the first time he wore me He ripped his pants and had to buy them So that's like an emergency situation But then he just wears them all the time time don't you think like it's not like buying any pants you buy for like uh uh you know my pants ripped you gotta just buy any pants you can get your hands on this is he just wears them like every week this is the dude who has who has four kids he's at the he's at the hockey rink on saturday morning at 7 a.m just hoping that the the the ref calls something bad and he can get into a fight. These are some major I give up pants.
Yes, exactly. I was on, it was the day Penn State was in the Rose Bowl.
I was getting into an Uber and my pants literally ripped. Like my dick was hanging out of my pants.
Like all up in my crotch was ball, dick and balls were out of my pants. So I went in and these were the best things I could find, but they're super comfortable.
These were my flying pants. It's like if a janitor wore JNCOs.
That's what we're looking at. You wear pants like this.
It's just major. Mine are the clutch jeans.
I break them out on special occasions. It's major I want to yell at children pants.

His own or others.

There's a chance that that's how this week ends.

That's like what that giant dude that won the senator position in Philadelphia.

That's like what he would wear to court.

Max, I don't want you wearing those shoes on Sunday.

Okay, all right.

I mean, PFT bought those shoes because you lost to the Commanders.

That was the only game that Jalen Hurts lost. That's such a great point.

Those are sick Eagles shoes.

You were wearing shoes that commemorates the only time Jalen Hurts lost this season

in a game he played.

Do you think that might be a problem?

Do you think that might be an issue?

I've worn them the past two playoff games because PFT, you said the same thing to me in the NFC Championship. Do you remember? I mean, you won.
What size shoe do you wear? 12. Put these on.
You look a lot better. You look more like a dad.
No, no. Get those out of there.
You're a dude showing your socks. All right, Jake, finish us off before we get to the Schwamm.
My who's back is Duke. Yes.
They snapped their losing streak, their two-game losing streak to North Carolina over the weekend. What were the two games they lost? And they are 1-0.
They lost Coach K's final home game and in the Final Four. Oh, wow.
And they are 1-0 in the post-Coach K era against North Carolina. Yeah, what about the rest of their record? Where are they in the ACC right now? They're in the top half I believe.
Oh top half. Is that the Duke standard?

I would say

no. Miami minus Fortnite

hammer play. Against Duke? Yeah.
So

congratulations to Duke. They snapped the losing streak

against UNC. I still think Coach K

should come back. It's sad what's happened

to the program since he left. I watched the whole

game and it bummed me out because both

Hubert Davis and John Shire

like to play defense and that's not my Duke-UNC. Did you watch the Auburn game, Auburn-Tennessee? I think the final was like 43-41.
Yeah. It was awesome.
Yeah, so that bummed me out. That game should always go over.
Also a reminder to call the bowling guy. Oh, yeah.
But it's 12-20 Eastern. We got to do it, right? Hold on.
Now I i gotta save his number i'm gonna save his number into my phone why are you calling him again well it's pete weber's not bowling in the world oh right right right right us open us open us open he wasn't bowling in it some dude with a fro was bowling though that guy looked cool i have no idea who he was he just had a good vibe but i was looking at the scores some guy bowled a 177 so jake you could be you could be in the u.s open i guess it's just it's gross that they didn't let pete weber bowl no it's it's probably i haven't pete weber is better than me i went down to pete weber rabbit hole and he just has he's been a badass since he fucking showed up on the scene.

This is what happens when you're bigger than the game.

They hate him.

They hate us because they ain't us.

Right, Hank?

That was this year.

I mean, that was this game eight years ago.

The Super Bowl?

Hate us because they ain't us.

All right.

I'm going to save this number so that this won't take long next time.

It would be full circle. This was the greatest night of my life.
I think it's, yeah, like 1 in the morning, or I'm calling them. Do you know who the Eagles are going to have to form after? This guy's probably thinking of new ways to railroad Pete Weber.
What did you ask, Hank? Well, it's like, you know, when you come to these and your team's in the game,

you start to try and figure out

who they hired to perform

after the Super Bowl.

Don't listen to him.

I'm serious.

Meek Mill's definitely in town.

Probably Meek Mill,

a little Uzi,

it'll probably be at Unreal.

I hope it happens.

I have a future on them, too.

Stop it.

Fuck you.

How much do you stand to make, Hank? $2? Like $5. I could cash out right now for $2.30 if I want to do.
I'm not going to. Okay, let's get to the Schwamm.
He's brought to you by our friends at Coors Light. Two of the most iconic beer brands are about to make history this year.
Coors Light and Miller Lite are back in the big game after 30 years, and for first time they're joining forces for a commercial but the big mystery is which beer is the ad actually for we're team Coors Light as everyone knows uh we love Coors Light it's the coldest beer out there the mountains in the on the bottles and cans turn blue but every detail of the ad is completely under wraps until the actual game so make sure that you're tuning in and make sure you're rooting for Coors Light and have a Coors Light in your hand to show your support mountain cold refreshment made to chill Coors Light is cold lager cold filtered and cold packaged it's literally made to chill the big game hasn't been this refreshing in 30 years be sure sure to tune in to see which of these beer giants reign supreme and pick up your Coors Light to enjoy during the game get Coors Light delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart by going to Coors Light.com slash take celebrate responsibly Coors Brewing Company Golden Colorado okay here he is Chris Berman okay we now welcome on very special guest, recurring guest. Hopefully this becomes a tradition, starting Super Bowl week with the Schwam.
We're back here almost exactly a year from the last time we saw you, back in Connecticut, getting ready for the Super Bowl. Thank you for joining us, first of all.
You made the trek up here. Thank you.
I mean, it's the easiest trek in the world when we get to sit with you for an hour. So thank you for joining us.
I do hope this becomes a tradition. We're like, how do we kick off Super Bowl week? How do we one-up the Schwam from last year? Well, let's just do it again.
Let's run it back for the people. And we're lucky because we're sitting here on Wednesday.
We're going to run this on Monday to start Super Bowl week. Tom Brady retired an hour ago.
He did? So we get, yeah, so we get breaking news. So we get your unfiltered thoughts right away.
So let's start there. I mean, is it a discussion greatest of all time? You've watched more football than probably anyone in the world.
Is he the greatest of all time? Or are you going to say Joe Montana? I know you've got a relationship with Joe Montana, but lay it on us. I do.
It's one and 1A. I mean, but if, and yeah, it can be recurring.
One is an accident. Two is a trend.
No, we often said three was a problem, but we also said when there were good things, three is evidence. So we're out of the way.
I like that. Just as an aside.
So if the ultimate yardstick, again, a football term, no pun intended, is winning, well, so think of this. And I didn't think of this until like an hour ago.
So he played, well, 08, he was hurt. So 21 years, like played.
He was on the Patriots in 2000. But 01 to 22, minus a year.
So he played in half the Super Bowls. Yeah.
He won a third of them, 7 out of 21. And he won early, and he didn't win the very last year.
But he won late, like, real late. He won in different fashions.
Like, football, I don't want to say different Neanderthal 20 years ago. But think of the way, and of course he won the sixth with Bill Belichick and then the one other Tampa.
Think of the way the Patriots of 0-1, 0-3, 0-4 were. Yeah.
They were not ground and pound, but it was a defensive, know the last year 04 was probably their best of those three they had Corey Dillon to run but the other years by 07 which was 19 and 0 if you take off the last minute but for the history books it was Randy Moss 25 touchdowns It was 50 touchdowns in the year, whatever he had. It was that.
Not that they didn't play defense, but it wasn't. That was the headline, Brady to Moss, 50.
Now the one they lost to the Giants in 11, again, only four years. The two tight ends, Gronk and Aaron Hernandez.
They weren't the only offensive players they had, but they were, that was the headline. Now, all along, and I'm going to jump in here, the only constants offensively were a slot.
Troy Brown begat Wes Welker, begat Julian Edelman as we move forward, and always a back. Kevin Falk, you know, and James White later on.
And the fellow that went to the Giants, I'm spacing for a moment. He caught a lot in that Seahawks game.
But those are the only constants. They weren't the headlines.
Although Edelman and Welker caught a lot. So now toward the end, the comeback year, the win against Seattle, which is monumental, the comeback, speaking of monumental, against Atlanta.
And then oddly enough, the only two that he won that weren't at the wire were the kind of 13-3. They won over the Rams and then won with Tampa over Kansas.
My point is, I'm not saying he won with, he still had great coaching, duh. He's still Tom Brady.
And how he threw 700 passes at 45 years old, we actually will never know. I'm going to eat avocado ice cream for the rest of my life, okay? No, you aren't.
No, we aren't. Maybe not.
I haven't found it yet, but I will. Yeah, yeah but i will right so i'm going on but these are like the tom thoughts like so it it wasn't like they want this is what we do yeah right for 20 years we don't do that evolved it was different and he something about winning and the great ones i remember joe montana i think we when joe montana told me once when i interviewed him and i know was before the fourth, and as it turned out, final Super Bowl that he won in 89.
I said, what is it about winning? And he thought for five seconds, and he went, I'm just so darn afraid to lose. I like that.
It's such a simple answer. Yeah.
I don't think that way. Do you guys, like, I'm afraid to lose what? Like, my car keys? Like, I do it every day.
Like, where did I put them? Yeah. So, and I know Tom's the same way.
The fact that he, and one more, and then I'll, I'm talking too much. The fact that maybe he was 36 or 37, I don't know what year it was.
Then I interviewed him in New England, which he was good enough

to give me every year or two, like

just a loan, usually a January

before their first playoff game

interview.

I said, so how long do you want to do this?

Not expecting, I didn't know what the answer

was going to be. He went,

I think 45. And I said,

hold on, Tom, did you say

40? Because that's, he said, no, no. Boomer, I said 45.
Yeah. Swami, he goes, Swam.
I said 45. I went, really? That's like eight year or whatever it was.
He played the 45. Yeah.
He called it. That was a goal.
Yeah. That was a goal that he reached.
And that's the craziest part is, you know, everyone, Mahomes looks like he's on the path to being a multi-super bowl winner and we'll find out if he gets that second you know ring in a week here but the fact that Tom Brady did he won four super bowls after the age of 37 38 like that's just how many guys are going to be able to play that long you see it all the time you know even the greats Peyton Manning, his arm kind of betrays him. You know, Ben Roethlisberger, the end there was a little bit, you know, it's not the same.
He was kind of the same all the way through, and he was able to play till 45 and be that good through 45. Yes, and that good.
I mean, it's not like he threw 700 passes and completed none of them. I mean, they were 8-9 this year, and they lost the playoff game.
But it's like, he's 45, dude. We used to marvel our guy, George Blanda.
Well, he would come off the bench. He would kick at 44, 45, I think, until 46, and maybe come in for a series if a quarterback got hurt.
By the way, the Niners could have used George Blander while he's gone now.

Yes, yes.

You know what I'm saying.

But neither here nor there.

But he's a stud at 45.

And if he wasn't quite Mahomes, Burrow, Allen last year, which he wasn't,

he's the very next group.

And this is 45-year-old Tom Brady, not he's holding on.

And thank God we get to buy a ticket and tell my grandkids I saw Tom Brady.

Thank you. he's the very next group.
Yeah. And this is 45-year-old Tom Brady, not he's holding on,

and thank God we get to buy a ticket and tell my grandkids I saw Tom Brady. I think he threw 50 passes, or more than 50 passes in their playoff loss.

Yeah, like 60, maybe.

Maybe even 60 passes.

And that's what's remarkable about Tom Brady is the longevity of his career.

Football is a violent sport.

I mean, all he had to do was watch that 49ers-Eagles game.

Purdy gets injured in his, what, like eighth NFL game, ninth NFL game.

Josh Johnson comes in.

He gets injured as well after, you know, maybe two series.

Tom Brady, with the exception of his ACL year,

he had a relatively injury-free career.

And it's remarkable to play through your 40s until you're 45

and still be able to get out of bed every morning and be like,

I want to go on a field and maybe get tackled by Ndamukong Su.

It's wild.

You know, you say, well, some guys are lucky.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

It's the little things that the three of us will never be smart enough to know

that he did all his career in the pocket, the little shift.

I see you two steps, not one step, but two later is Ndamukong Su. Yeah.
Not to say that you're the size of Dominick and Sue. Feeling that pressure, yeah.
But after, you know, growing family, Thanksgiving, you know, we all can get it. Little things that he did to avoid, to put the odds in his favor.
One hit can do anything, obviously, as we saw in the Niners. They lost their other quarterback in two games, right? Yeah.
So, I mean, yes, it's to his credit of all the conditioning and whatever he has done, which is unbelievable, but it is incredible. So football coaches will tell you guys, as they've told me, availability goes way up as I evaluate someone.
So before he even throws a pass, he's available for 22 years. Well, you can't tell the story of Tom Brady without the story of Boomer.
Because, I mean, you kind of bookend him a little bit. You were there during the catch game.
People forget that. Tom Brady also at that game.
Tom was like four or whatever, three, four, the picture with him and with the foam finger. That was from another time.
But, yeah, I didn't know that he was there then. He didn't know me then.
He was four. Yeah.
I mean, it was you, Tom Brady, John Candy. John Candy was a little later.
You know, that was the 88 Super Bowl.

Yeah, the Bengals.

No, no, no.

That's one of the great Joe Montana.

We're getting off of it.

That's the Joe Montana story that some of your guys may not know.

So they got the ball down to the Bengals in 88 with four minutes or whatever in their own

and long Super Bowl timeouts.

And they're in the huddle and kind of tense. And Joe pops his head up and he goes, oh, my God, or whatever he said.
Look over there. A few guys looked up.
It's John Candy. He's on the sidelines.
And a couple of the guys laughed. Randy Cross told me, let's go win this thing.
But that's the greatness, too, is those guys, you hear all the stories about Tom Brady when they're in the huddle, knowing that they always have a chance, and knowing that calm, cool, you know, that's the part that I think people probably discount with these great quarterbacks of getting in the huddle with them and having that demeanor of, we're good. Like, we might be down, but we're good i'll i'll lead us there i'll take us down the field i'm calm i'm looking at john candy in the stands like you know you don't i mean that that that is the true greatness of some of these guys it is and to be a fellow player which of course we're not in the huddle to experience that like we have a chance even if we're down 10.
Right. Or 28 to 3 in that case.

It means a lot.

Yeah.

It means confidence breeds a lot of success.

Yeah.

It's not just because Tom goes, we can win this.

We have seen it 100 times.

What about the 101st?

Yeah.

Yeah, right.

They do a lot of psychological studies about what choking means in big moments.

And I think a lot of people have come to the conclusion. Like us over a three-footfoot punt? I didn't mean that.
Yeah, maybe like over a T-bone steak. But no, it's like if you have doubt in your mind, doubt creates these little small moments in your brain that lead to physiological changes that you're a little bit shaky.
But if you have confidence, if you're around a guy that you know has done it before will make you win all of a sudden you don't have that doubt so you're less likely to make the little nervous errors that you are and you're more likely to win as a team and I think that's something that yeah obviously the great ones you know Tom Brady if Tom Brady's in my huddle it's like yeah well he came back from 28 to 3 we can win this game and it strikes me you've seen a lot of some of you've seen the best games of football ever played a lot of them in person what would you say is the best game that you've ever been to well the one thing and that's a good question the one thing i'll qualify it is is that except for super bowls of which this one will be god 41st you know 41st in a row The first Niner one was my first one. Okay.
Montana 16th. But other than that and championship games before we were doing primetime and then it was NFL game day, I wasn't at a lot of games because I'm always in the studio.
So I have to recuse myself from, about that game but I'll give you a couple that

so the best two regular season games and I'm I'm we'll do that first yeah I'm omitting a few but the day the Saints reopened they you know came back after Katrina because there was so much more to it, as you know. And that was in late September, so this isn't.
But I remember on the pregame saying we made our picks. I said the 78 Steelers wouldn't win in here tonight.
Yeah. It's just not happening.
And Gleason, Steve Gleason blocking the punt, which now after all that, Steve, ALS. I mean, you know, who knows how that story doesn't grow, but it, like, takes even more meaning.
And what that meant to the people. The best regular season game I was fortunate enough to be at.
Well, there were two because I went to some Monday nighters. There was the Niners and the Giants each lost their first game in 90, like the week before they're both.

Don't quote me on this 11 and 0 10 and 0.

And there's a candlestick like December 4th or something in 90.

And,

and it was seven to three,

which you wouldn't have.

I mean,

the Giants,

yeah,

Parcells,

but you wouldn't have a Joe Montana game 7-3,

but it was whoa.

And in the end, they played in the championship game,

and Montana got knocked out, and the Giants won on five field goals,

and they upset Buffalo.

But the biggest was the 12-0 Bears.

I knew you were going to get to this.

Whoa.

I'm seeing them like Steve Gleason, and catch, like the hair I get tingles 12-0, the Bears and obviously in the playoffs they obliterated everybody so they were lost but it was as if it was Marino's Super Bowl because in retrospect that was it in 85 he never he never really had it. He never got back, right, the year before they lost to Montana.
Well, this is Marino, the Bears, and I'll never forget. Did we do this last time? I don't know.
We might have. I came out doing interviews before the game, which Don Shula always gave me one.
He was great.

You know, and three hours before

whatever, you go up and get something, and you come out in the old,

the orange was like a nine o'clock kickoff back

then. And you come out underneath

kind of the bowels of an old stadium.

You come out, and it's bright,

and it's Miami, and it's,

and at first, I come out on the Miami

side, like a ten of nine.

And I see Shula with the jaw out, you know, like already.

And I look down to the left of the Miami players.

Oh, there's Larry Zonka and Jim Kick.

Oh, that's Nick Bonacani over there.

I think Bob Greasy wasn't there.

He told me later he wasn't.

But, oh, that's Larry Little. And and I went oh yeah okay I get it yeah Bears are not winning yeah Bears are not winning but the catch of a not you know because it kind of started my not so much my personal relationship with the Niners and Joe and Dwight, the late Dwight Clark and Eddie DeBartolo and all of it, but it was, as history has told us, it was a game that, like the Tuck game, started the Patriots.
Yeah. The Cats started the Niners.
You didn't know they were going to win the Super Bowl two weeks later. You didn't know in the tuck game that the Patriots were going to beat the two touchdown favorite Rams.
There are games like that that kind of, in retrospect, history, jump started. And then we can get to the Super Bowls.
I remitted those. So 41 in a row.
You're 41st. 41st.
Incredible.

So, yeah, favorite Super Bowl memory or play.

So many.

However you want to go, yeah.

So many.

You know, the Niners, except for that Bengal one I talked about with John Candy,

they ended up, they were in control of the other three, especially the Denver one, the last one. I'm not old enough to have attended those Pittsburgh-Dallas ones.
I watched them, but I was high school, college, et cetera. The Super Bowl is the last.
They used to, the majority were blowouts yes no not pittsburgh dallas but majority were blowouts in this century you know 20 22 years they've like three-fourths of them have been kind of like this season right yeah close even you don't think of, okay, I'm not putting this first. Pittsburgh over Arizona.
Yeah. Whoa.
Harrison goes 100 yards. Larry Fitzgerald catches a bomb and is running 80 yards, whatever it is.
And then Ben to home. Sorry, I'm mentioning that.
Obviously, the Giants upsetting in the big toaster. Brady with a minute, under a minute to go.
Like Tom Jackson said, we had to be underneath then. For whatever reason, we weren't on the field the last four minutes and we were watching on the screen.
Tom said I looked like, even though they were down to the seven or whatever they were, the Giants, Oh, my goodness, they completed it.

Yeah.

You know? The 28-3, I wouldn't, that's up there, but I wouldn't, I mean, I'm not putting that one. Although maybe in some ways you should, but I'm not.
Did any of them top the catch for me being at it? Ooh. I'm probably forgetting a great, I'm not forgetting, I don't forget any of them, but.
So the unlikely interception of Malcolm Butler, right? Yeah. The reason, again, this is not that that was 2014 and we're only 2022 season.
Yeah. The reason I will point that as one of the most important games in the 50-plus year history of the Super Bowl is Seattle is about to win.
Would have been two in a row. Would they have won with the Legion of Boom not upset, all those alphas? Could they have won three in a row, which nobody's done? Maybe.
Yeah. Next year, if everything was hunky-dory, right, they won.
We don't know. They would have been the team of the last decade yeah and had

tom and the patriots lost look the two they lost to the giants and that one to seattle they were

both like just the way they won the other ones at the wire but all of a sudden three and oh becomes

three and three or what's the matter they can't win the bit which yeah no and it goes a decade

between winning one right yeah really that jump started the third act of tom brady's yes very

Thank you. Well, what's the matter? They can't win the big, which.
Yeah. No, and it goes a decade between winning one.
Really, that jump-started the third act of Tom Brady's career. Yes, very good.
Yeah. And if they don't get that interception, I remember after the game, I was sitting with a friend of mine, Danny Kelly.
He used to write about the Seahawks, and he lived and breathed that team. And we were talking about it, and he said it perfectly.
He was like, I think we just got a dynasty taken away from us tonight he knew and and i think you know would they have won the next year you don't know but there wouldn't have been unbelievable bickering and this and that and and had they it would have been defensive that led it all yeah and that changed the course of ultra-modern football, if you will.

To your point, I didn't look at it this way.

It did jumpstart Tom's third.

And what I remember about that game, and this is historic too,

and I said it on the air that night, and I don't know why.

So from Seattle to by 10, although they stopped Marshawn Lynch on a third and short, and they kicked a field goal and made a 10 instead of first down

Thank you. And although they stopped Marshawn Lynch on a third and short, and they kicked a field goal and made a 10 instead of first down and then maybe 14.
That's part of the reason why they didn't run Marshawn again. I mean, I do know that.
But neither here nor there. So he completed just about every pass from that point on, Tom, and to Edelman or Gronk mostly.
And then who was it? He went to the back out of the back. I'm spacing, but it'll come to me.
Went on to the Giants. He completed every pass.
And I remember reading, of course, about the greatest game ever played, right? Like 1958, I was three years old. Johnny Unitas, Yankee Stadium, sudden beat the new york giants a game that that's what put football on the tv and in the public eye it grew it like this and then the packers grew it more and then by the 70s they were but someone who was at the game or some writer like your friend was smart enough to write, the iconic voice, Bob Shepard, the PA announcer, I assume it was him at the time, Unitas' pass to Raymond Berry, complete, first down Baltimore.
And I thought, this must be like Johnny Unitas completing all these passes for the tying drive. And then, which, I don't know.
So I bridged Johnny Unitas to Tom Brady at that point. I don't know if anybody else did, but I did.
Yeah. We're going to get back to Chris Berman in a second.
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Oh, I heard that. Was it both you guys were pantsless?

Tom. that uh tom jackson and you after the redskins broncos superbowl oh i heard that was it both you guys were pantsless no no no well it sounds like something illicit but this was so it's our first one that we did 80 i mean i covered superbowls from 81 it was our first one with primetime and tom had just retired in 86 and and was a rookie with me a rookie tv with me and it was our first one with primetime.
And Tom had just retired in 86 and was a rookie TV with me. And it was our first year of having the NFL, and it was a different thing.
And it was at San Diego at the Murph. And, you know, the Broncos were playing in it, and they led 10-0 and all this stuff.
And our site was for postgame because during the week you else. But post-game, you've got to be near the stadium if we're going to go to three-quarters of it and make our way over to the set.
And it was on the top of like a three-story building, but you had to drive around it, but then there was a little creek, okay? So that's why, okay, meet me at the end of the third quarter down here. Let's drive over to the thing.
Well, Tom wasn't there and there's no cell phone. It was in 1987 or, you know, January 88.
I had to go. And he was with the Broncos, not on the field, but whatever.
And by that point, it's a blowout for Doug Williams, right? And, and where's Tom? I don't know. And then about 10 of 8, meaning 11, it's dark now.
Tom, maybe quarter of, he comes up. There was no van.
There was no nothing. No one knew where he was.
He, like a football player, he forded the stream, which looked like, okay, six inches of water. Okay, we've all had wet.
Boom. Like, it wasn't six feet, but he went in it dark.
Yeah. And branches and twigs and snapped off, and he went, like, two feet in.
Uh-huh. Okay? And now he's, I guess it's my first Super Bowl show.
I'm about to get fired. The Broncos get beat, whatever, the 49, 42 to 10 or whatever the hell it was.
Right? Yeah. So all of a sudden he comes up and I see him.
He's shivering. I thought, what the fuck? You know, and I didn't see that he's bleeding.

I don't know how they had other clothes,

or maybe he had what he was going to wear there already probably.

I got shivering because it wasn't like a warm scene.

Okay, well, we're on like in eight minutes. I said, tell you what, Tom, come to me.

I'll just do the highlights.

I'll introduce you, but you're not going to be seen. You got another like seven or eight minutes.
So you get 10, 15 minutes to get together. And they got them together.
And I mean, he got on the air. So by the time the highlight, and the final score was a 42 to 10, whatever it was, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And then we come out to Tom and me. And I said, well, I didn't point out that he wasn't there to do the analysis on the highlights.
I forget who else did that with us. But I said, Tom.
Looked at him with a straight face. I went, if someone were to tell you that the Denver Broncos were to lead 10 to nothing and then give up the next 42 points or whatever it was, you would have told me to jump in a lake, wouldn't you?

And he lost it.

So he wasn't pantsless, but it was nip and tuck for him to get on at the end of an eight-minute highlight.

That's great.

He had to ford the stream in the dark. I mean, this is like Washington across the Delaware.
Yeah, that's amazing. That's a true story.
He was a ball player, right? You laugh about it to this day. Yeah.
That's great. Oh, that's great.
That's great. I mean, the relationship that you and Tom had, watching that evolve over the years, I mean, I think for myself and Big Cat, watching you you guys do the highlights together that was the highlight of our week was seeing you guys do that it's been cool to see you know you've got the studio named after both you guys now um and now you're working with booger who's who's a friend of ours how is how has that transition been to start working with booger after you were working with tom for you know decades well Booger is great and I know he's a friend of your guys

and he's Tom 2.0. Now, Tommy and I still talk every week or every other week.
We talk Sunday morning before the Bengals Chiefs, he's from Cincinnati, or lives there now. And we'll talk next week when I get out to Arizona.
You're not making me drive with you, are you?

No, no, no.

Learn her lesson.

Sometimes you learn things.

It's great, but the period at the end of the sentence.

Yeah.

So Tommy and I could complete each other's sentences.

And what was most fun about Tom, and still is,

and I didn't realize it until a few years in,

I was, boom, I listened to the same

music you did growing up. And I said, well, you know,

I listened to a lot of the same that you did.

And he, from Cleveland,

certainly a different background than me,

football player, Louisville, Ivy League,

Brown, you know, but we both like football.

So,

and he was an

ex-player and a really good one, as you know.

14 years, still among the league, the Bronco leaders in games played, 190 or whatever. He was like, wow, look at that play.
You don't expect a football player. And I was new to that, too, having a regular partner.
They're like fans, too, even though they played and broke bones doing it. So Tommy and I were that way.
Booger, Booger is unbelievably pleasant, which is not the first prerequisite of being my partner. You know, put up with my crap, which I guess that's important.
I don't mean crap behind the scenes. I mean, on the air, like, boom, give me a chance.

So it really was much by week four or five.

So we've done it three years, right?

Three years now.

Is it three or is it four?

Primetime, no 17, no 18 on ESPN, plus 19.

And Tommy did it that one year. Then COVID, Kennedy done.
So 2021-22 with Booger. Like in five weeks, it was pretty seamless.
You don't ever expect that. And what makes Booger great is behind-the-scenes stuff.
A lot of that's unrehearsed. Primetime, there's no commercials.
So we didn't go over. That game just ended the Rams in Seattle, and it was a great finish.
I'm making it up, and the highlights run into it. We don't even have the...
We can't even cheat. I don't know.
I'm the only one in America that don't know who won when we do the highlight, because there's no even timeout. Okay, Seattle won 45-42.
You won't believe the play at the end. I don't get that.
It's, here's your sheet. So I can go to him at the end of a book, like, look to me in that, that Seattle didn't blah, blah, blah.
He's got something intelligent. He's got something unrehearsed.
He's got something, hmm, in 15 seconds. Not easy.
He's also delusional, though, because he thinks that he can be a PGA golfer. Like, seriously.
He thinks that he could quit doing sports analysis, and within about a year, he could step onto the tour. He honestly believes that.
You know, a lot of the great athletes, Sterling Sharp, who worked with us and was a great receiver, obviously, until he had to retire because he might not have walked properly had he got the proper hit and wasn't there when the Packers won the Super Bowl the very next year, but he worked with us. Sterling, I don't believe, played golf while he played.
He certainly wasn't playing in the winter in Green Bay. I know that much, okay? So Sterling is, I don't know about now, but Sterling, because of the athlete and maybe the same thought, like a two or a three, and he didn't play, you know?

And so I get it. Boog, I didn't play with him this year.
We try to do a Saturday in like late September, early October. He'll come in before he's got to get on, and we'll play at 8 a.m.
on a Saturday. His first college hits like 2 o'clock or something.
Yeah, yeah. And we didn't get that done this year.
I forget why not. So I can't vouch for how he played this year.
Is he a much better player now? Well, no. When I heard him say that, I think it was like three years ago.
Oh, wow. So you've probably seen him.
I believe whenever you see an ex-athlete, professional athlete, no matter what sport they play, and they pick up any other sport, you see it and you're like, oh, I see how they move. It's just different.
They throw a ball. They hit a golf club.
You're like, yep, that's the difference between me and you right there. So the hockey players, not every one of them, are great golfers because that's their three--month summer in Canada that they can play golf.
But because it's the shot. Kickers, football kickers.
Is it because we have a tee? I think it's because they have time. So many of them are scratch or really good golfers.

Instead of rude.

George Blander was like a two when he was in his 60s.

Wow.

Okay.

So maybe it's, I don't, I mean, you're not kicking the ball the way you're swinging.

I don't know what it is.

I think it's just because they have so much time on their hands.

I think it's an accommodation of time.

Yeah, a lot of time.

And then also anything that's just a repetitive motion that you have to replicate over and over again.

I don't know. I think it's accommodation of time.
Yeah, a lot of time. And then also anything that's just a repetitive motion that you have to replicate over and over again.
I bet a lot of them are good bowlers, too. Yeah, mental toughness to see.
Same principle. If you get up there, you do the same thing every time.
Who is it that's a 300 bowler? Mookie Betts is a 300 bowler. Yeah, well, we had Pete Weber on the show today.
Pete Weber? And we were talking to him. I mean, come on now.
Yeah, we were saying, like, our memories of. Chris Schenkel.
Yeah, our memories are of watching the Sunday Countdown, watching you, and then be like, all right, and enjoy the games, then boom, it's Pete Weber. Before you could change the channel.
It's like, wait, hold on, it's football time. Tommy loved that word.
Kegler's Tom. Norm, what was his name? Like one of his rivals, Norm.
It was a lefty. Johnny Petraglia was one of them.
Yeah. And there was another one.
Yeah, I'm forgetting. But they were at the Chris Schenkel, I mean, one of the stops on the PBA tour, which got big ratings now in the 60s, 70s.
Yeah. Big.
Up here at Bradley Airport. I don't know, maybe it was right across the street from our airport in Hartford, the Bradley Bowl.
That would be a regular stop. I don't know what time of year it was that the Keglers were here in Connecticut.
That's awesome. That always struck me as ESPN waving just a temporary white flag on Sunday afternoon.
So it was like, here's countdown. And then here's Boomer with a straight face telling you to stick around and watch.
Yeah. Yeah.
Also. Yeah.
That's very funny. Well, we had to put something on that.
Maybe those who don't like football will like bowling. Yeah.
Oh, I don't care about that football. Like those two.
Yeah. It had to be something that I don't like football or tennis.

I'm not knocking any of those moves, right?

Or what do we have now, women's hoops?

I mean, again, it's not a knock.

I mean, it's okay.

Who's not watching football?

How can we get them?

Not the easiest to program. No, Sunday is for football.

Especially the keglers.

We love that.

Boom, we have the last commercial. What's next to keglers? I go, yeah, yeah, we get Keglers from wherever lanes.
I hadn't thought of pro bowling. Yeah.
They could be. Good memory.
That goes back away. It was literally like how fast can you turn the channel because you would just be, all right, enjoy your Sunday.
You might have lost the remote. Yeah, and then boom, wait, whoa, what is this? This is bowling? Okay, we got to get to the football.
Just like that. That's funny.
You had one minute of the keglers. Yeah.
Did you tell Pete to jump like so they don't review like the Eagles did? Did you wonder whether he, as soon as they came on, he just rolled the first ball down the lane and maybe it was a strike? That was the prime real estate right there, the first 30 seconds of the bowling telecast. You got to have a strike on the first ball.
Yes. So everyone sees you.
He's a big fan of yours, though. He wanted us to pass along his salutations.
Well, me too. I mean, Pete Weber, Johnny Petraglia might have been the lefty and there was another with an N.
I mean, you know, we all tried bowling, right? Yeah. Fun sport.
So wait, what are you golfing these days? Hey, you know, I turn. That's the answer right there.
That's his score. It's a different 13 or 14 than I used to be.
Not that anybody cares. A little back surgery a year ago.
And, you know, upper 60s. So this was the year that I refused to give in until the very end.
You know, you're hitting fairways. But you've lost with all your clubs, 10, 15, even though, oh, I hit that pretty good.
Oh, okay. I still have to hit a 7-wood.
And you're not getting on the majority of the par fours anymore like you could but you're gonna put a three a seven wood from 200 on every time the pros don't do that yeah well i'm gonna try it anyway i went 180 and it rolled into the trap on the left and now you know you're, you're scrambling to make a bogey. Yeah.
Screw it up. So only at the end did I come to the realization that, you know what? If you're 50 yards or 40 yards short, learn to bump and run it.
Give yourself a chance at a par. And if you miss, it's a bogey.
Yeah. Just come to grips that you're not getting.
And This isn't a seven iron anymore, your second shot. Not that I put those on.
So I'm playing 87, 88. It's all right.
Oh, come on. I'm not going to tell you like Booger.
I'm going to be a pro golfer. Yeah, yeah, but that's pretty good.
Not even on the ultra senior champions past tour. Yeah.
Anything in the 80s, you're having fun. Because that means that you're not running around in the woods and shooting're having fun.
That means that you're not running

around in the woods and shooting a million

shots. That's fun golf.

That's our story. We're sticking with it.

Maybe you get one hole to check out the scenery

and the rest of it you're, for the most part,

fairway adjacent.

There's always a couple that's IP

in pocket.

Okay.

And sometimes it's, I hate this hole and it's going to be a seven and it is a seven. The way I get around that is now on the holes and the holes that I know are going to be real trouble, I'll sometimes put a seven before I tee off then if I make a six, you go, found money.
Yeah. That's a different way to do it.

How about that? The power of positive

negative things. Yes, I like that.

You got to get negative and get positive. That's great.

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If it's okay with you, I'd like to just gas you up for a second. Go ahead.
And I think that you don't get enough credit for cable television as a whole. I think you can trace the rise of cable TV in Americaica directly to chris berman because espn think about it people most people uh growing up at least you know my friends my co-workers we got cable because espn was on there sports was on there why were people watching espn it's chris berman helped to elevate that channel i think you should get residuals on every cable TV package sold.
Your agent will love that one. Just retroactively be like, hey, you owe me $5 billion.
Kind of like Bill Rasmus and our founder, who is 90 and who is still, I talked to him several times, he should get residuals, not me. So very kind.
You gassed me. But you were right there at the beginning of the cable TV revolution, and you were a big part of that.
I mean, we always look back on things that we've accomplished, and maybe in retrospect, they seem huge, but at the time, we don't know what we're doing. At the time, did you realize what a big deal cable TV was going to become? Well, we certainly didn't realize when we started.
I think we talked about this. First of all, thank you.
I can't look. I ended up being a quarterback or the, not the quarterback, a quarterback at ESPN.
And so you get more credit than you deserve. Occasionally get more blame than you deserve, but mostly the former.
You know, I started when we put the flag in the North Pole, right? Or one month later, right? We were the first ones to find the North Pole. Or we landed on the moon, more accurate.
So, HBO existed. You had to pay for it over and above and cable late 70s.
We started in in 79 CNN 80. I'm going to deflect this a little bit.
He spent fall 79 CNN at some point, 1980 MTV when it was really MTV, you know, music videos, which is a great idea. 82.
Those weren't the only three channels, but if you're by the mid eighties getting cable or traveling i live in new york chicago where have you i'm traveling to seattle the hotel do they get those three channels yeah i got my music station i got my news station and i got my sports station almost like listening to your local baseball game except this is nationally espn so 80s, I was not alone. I mean, Bob Lee, we can go on.
Tom Meese. I mean, I could name all the names.
And people you'll never know behind the scenes. Without them, we never.
I would have been fine, but we would have been, you know, a test pattern. Right? We did 10 sports centers a week.
So invariably, you're 12, like two a day, and somebody's sick, I'll do it. So invariably, if you were turning on a sports center, you saw me or Bob or Tom or the many others, and I don't mean to eliminate names at all.
I mean, Greg Gumbel, I worked with a lot then, and John Saunders came out in the mid-80s, and we can go on, all my friends. So I was there a lot, whether you liked me or not.
I became one of those synonymous with you turn it on. There's Pete Weber bowling, right? Yeah.
I never thought I'd be compared with Pete Weber. I wasn't as good as him, but...
So thank you. But so ESPN, here's what it was.

I'm going to take me out of it.

I always say that ESPN rode cables, coattails,

because from fall of 79 to fall of 89, it was a graph like this cable TV.

Nobody knew in 1980 people were going to spend for 36 channels, right, in the beginning, 20 bucks a month. What are you out of your mind? What have you been 20 bucks a month for, right? I got to go to sleep.
Yeah. I got to eat.
I got to go to work. We don't have anything to tape anything with.
What do I need? I got five on my TV, you know. So cable did this.
So we rode its coattails, but cable rode ours. I will, on behalf of the thousands of people that have ever worked at our place, I will say that it was a mutual riding of coattails.
We weren't alone. But we went from three million homes when I was there and we signed on to at some point 110 million.
I mean yeah it's not that anymore I mean cable is not this but it's but it's it's it's live sports stands the test of time you know it's it's when I when I think about what TV has become now and it's all the streaming and everything you know is on demand but live sports you can't replicate it's the best drama you can can find. And it's whatever game, college basketball, football, anything, you want to watch the live sports.
And that's the revolution part. Thinking about in the 80s, how many games could you watch a week? Not many.
Yeah, like a handful at most. Now you can watch a game at all times, and that's the best part.
Even games you don't care about. Well, I care about them all because they gamble on them all.
Yeah, they do. Yeah, you want to throw some Italian soccer in my face? I'm in.
Who's Hawaii playing tonight? No, I don't mean in hoop. No, I was just saying hoop.
Oh, no, listen. Fresno State? Listen, when you go, the Hawaii late night game, when you're staying up until 3 a.m.
to bet on that.

You got to reassess some things.

Amen.

Well, it's nice to imagine yourself in the stand.

Yes, yes, yes.

As you sit in the Northeast or the upper Midwest in December

watching the rainbows.

Yeah, watching Hawaii.

Yeah, I mean, those were some fun teams.

They had some when they were doing the running, you know, shooting, just throwing it all over the place. Oh, yeah.
Tommy Chang. Tommy Chang, one of the best all time.
Cole Brennan. Went to the, what was it, the aren't? Against Georgia, yeah, they got smushed.
Yeah, yeah. But it was a good season.
They were closer than TCU. We're not knocking TCU, but, I mean, you never know.
It was a great season, and then that's why they play the game. Yeah, exactly.
You've also seen a lot of great halftime shows at these Super Bowls that you've been to. Are there any that stand out where you were looking forward to it? It hit all the right, like you were not disappointed by it? Well, you're not disappointed by it.
An aside, okay? So sometimes Tommy Tommy and I would always sit in the stands for that. We didn't want to hear any commentary of anybody else.
And of course, you're signing into this, and that's fine. It's a Super Bowl.
But the halftime shows what they became for me as I got a little older. This is a true confession here now on Pardon My Take.
So you wait for the second song. Whoever it is, you got the bathroom to yourself.
I'm Chris Berman, and I'm in the bathroom by myself. I actually could get a hot dog.
I put on like a ball cap, so it can't be him. I'm not wearing that.
It can't be him. It's not him.
he's missing the half time to the second because the first song it takes a while to set the stage up everyone who's been in the bathroom comes running out yep sometimes a little sloppy you know when the lights go down but the second song very important i'm out of here yeah okay so that's that's an inside story now the the one one that, it's funny, Tommy and I talk about this because we had a different vantage point. We go back a long way with this.
So we would be at the game, but never, primetime wasn't on the field in the late 80s, 90s, like the Washington, the Denver story we talked about. We had to go either back downtown to where we were all week or some other site, and we would always leave at halftime.
And now here's the 90s. It was the Dallas Buffalo in the Rose Bowl.
Ended up being a blowout. Remember for Leon Lett, but, I mean, you know, it was actually a very close game with two minutes to go.
I think it was 14 to 10. And Dallas scored twice.
I think the Bills turned it over. It was like 28.
So at the two-minute warning, we go down the portal so we can be in the car at halftime. And we had one of those primitive TVs back then, but you kind of got it, right, in the car TV in 1992.

You know, it was a Philco, you know, whatever.

And Michael Jackson was halftime.

And we're seeing him be Michael Jackson, right?

And then we get to our site in the third quarter,

so I said, Tom, we left, it was a football game because we had a different vantage point than anybody else, different experience. We left.
It was 14 to 10. We heard the crowd twice.
In retrospect, Dallas scored two touchdowns. We got in the car.
We saw Michael Jackson, I think, on the same field where we were watching football. And now they're playing football again.
This must be not right. So that's a different answer than you expected.
No, I appreciate that because you don't think about that. It's the biggest sporting event of the year.
And then halfway through, it's like, oh, here's Maroon 5 for 15 minutes. And then boom, we're going to kick off.
It's weird. I liked it when the Stones did it.
I mean, more my guy. I understand now.
I mean, you've got to appeal to everybody, and I'm not knocking any of the show, but when the Stones did it or Springsteen, it was like, ooh, this is pretty good. Prince.
Prince was Purple Rain in the Rain. Yeah, no, no.
And I always respected Prince. I went huge on him.
I loved him for that. I was young enough I didn't have to go to the bathroom.
Yeah, there we go. There we go.
I like that. That was about the drive started going yeah yeah it was right around the prince that's a good question halftime show halftime yeah but key bathroom stop yeah uh all right so what what's your favorite player to have watched play football we talked about tom brady doesn't have to be joe montane doesn't have to be a quarterback the one guy that you just will always think like man that was fun to watch him play it while i've been on tv i'll give you two answers so obviously joe namath not obviously my hero joe namath because i watched him play at shea stadium 70 times okay whatever the number is yeah 60 you know if he played 70 games at shea you know he had injury years i was at 63 of them Okay.
Yeah, yeah. 60.
You know, if he played 70 games at Shea, you know, he had injury years. I was at 63 of them.
Okay. With my dad and my brother.
Starting at nine years old and then the Super Bowl year I was eighth grade. And then we went at the Super Bowl.
We had the championship game. So, I mean, I actually learned football by sitting in the upper deck for $8 a game.
You know, like lower upper deck seats, box seats, the AFL because they threw. And I didn't know that I was really watching film, not that I'm so smart, but there's John Hadle, there's LaMonica, Dawson threw it enough.
It was a throwing league as opposed to running in the 60s. So Namath is my hero, and the AFL is our, you know, it was so 60s.

It was so Rebels, you know, with a cause.

And we liked all the AFL teams,

even though the Jets had the big rivalry with Oakland

when push came to shove.

They're in our league.

Right.

Hence, somewhat Buffalo with me.

Yeah.

They were the champs of my league when I was a little kid and I remember them.

Hence, always like the Chargers.

Well, they were in my league.

Yeah.

You know?

My league.

Yeah.

Always like the Chiefs.

My league.

Yeah.

You know?

So that's that.

Professionally, and I actually said it both times as MC at Canton when I don't speak much,

nor should I.

I give my own minute and a half, and then here's

the tape and all, and then etc.

I did it for both of these

players, because I wasn't lying.

I haven't said it about any other one.

Brett Favre.

Okay. You always

knew you had

a highlight from him, even if he was

down 17.

There weren't a lot of him then. I don't mean

like Brett played with Johnny Unitas, but

Thank you. new.
You had a highlight from him, even if he was down 17. There weren't a lot of him then.
I don't mean like Brett played with Johnny Unitas, but Brett Favre. And he was like a little boy still playing a man's game.
And then defensively, Junior Seau. Good answer.
Because there would be a play that I would have to say,

make sure, well, it didn't affect the game.

No, no, but he went from that sideline to that sideline to make a tackle and force a punt.

Well, they didn't score on that.

I don't care.

Put it in.

And Favre, I mean, you know, he was the little girl with the curl,

and I lived that with him a little bit.

I'm very close with Mike Holmgren and kind of watched that go from,

Thank you. I mean you know he was the little girl with the curl and I lived that with him a little bit I'm very close with Mike Holmgren and kind of watched that go from three out of every five passes Mike would hide his eyes to two out of every five to one out of every five I'm not four out of five I'm pretty confident he's going to complete this and so I lived it the lowlights were highlights too.
The lowlights were some of the best plays for Brett Favre. For Brett? Yeah.
He'd throw some of the most spectacular interceptions I've ever seen. Kudos to him.
Yeah. To that point, we might have said it last time, but, you know, what you said 10 minutes ago, nobody remembers anyway.
The best answer in an interview I ever got on, you know, I get many. When I thought Brett was finishing up, it was 07 with the Packers.
He gave me a long interview before their game with the Giants. Now, who knew that they were going to go to the Jets and then Minnesota? And by the way, they almost beat the Vikings and he almost played in, you know, almost played in the Saints.
Yeah, it was the Saints, yeah. Almost played in the Super Bowl.
Almost played in the Super Bowl. Yeah, well, and look at the tape sometime after that.
Just look at it. They were going low a lot.
Do I know? Whatever. An aside.
So I went to all of the time he was ahead of so many categories like Tom is now right and I went to like five or six of his yeah you played 300 straight games or whatever it was in 07 what does that mean to you beautiful answer you've thrown the most yards or what does that mean to you and I went went to about three or four of them. All with straight face, beautiful answer.
And I said, Brett, you also have thrown by far the most interceptions of anybody in football. What does that mean to you? And he laughed like a kid.
He went, he didn't know it was coming. He went, well, it means I was trying.
Best answer I ever got. Yeah.
Like, unrehearsed. I set him up.
Oh, you won the Morgan. You won the, you had five MVP, whatever the numbers were.
Most interceptions. I was trying.
Yeah. I mean, there's.
You're right. There were highlights.
Yeah, and there were some interceptions that are, you know, you don't want to have an interception, but you also don't want to have a quarterback that doesn't want to take a risk. So sometimes you see an interception, you're like, look, he's trying to make a play.
It didn't happen this time, but he's trying to make a play. He will make a play later on.
He was fun. And Junior, those would be the two.
I mean, offense and defense. I mean, we're leaving out a ton, but – Yeah.
I said those are the only two at Canton that I and Junior was gone by then. That I said, even in my little bit of words, in my career, professional career, the most fun that I ever had was watching their games.
Now, the other thing you told us right before we started, we missed out on a shout out because Brock Purdy got hurt. So you told us you were going to say you were going to give us the,

were you going to give us the, uh,

Brock and roll all night or were you going to give us,

was it,

or was it going to be rock out with your Brock out?

Oh,

it wasn't going to be that one.

Rock and roll all night and Purdy every day.

I went,

that's genius.

I'm ready to give it to the,

to the part of my take boys.

And I couldn't do,

I was going to on regular TV, not even the ESPN Plus, this was real cable TV, this was monumental viewers, right? And that prime time, I think ran three times like the old days, so at midnight on the West Coast, it ran again. No, I would've, it was, I even had it written down on my notes, like, don't forget it,.
So we did do something for you, though. When Josh Johnson came in, we did our fastest two minutes, and we did 14 consecutive from for Josh Johnson.
I haven't heard that one. Just listing all the games, all the teams he played for.
Teams from the Jets. Oh, you did brilliant.
What was it? The San Diego Fleet? Sacramento Wildcats or whatever. We just went all the way down.
That's genius. I mean, that's funny.
You know, you have a lot of mixins. I did a couple of times do mixins the one way back in a while.
I am the president. Richard Milhouse, Mixon.

But you had a game at Washington,

and you worked presidential names into everybody.

Zachary Taylor.

Oh, yeah, Zachary Taylor.

I mean, you got presidents in Washington.

And then the Mixon one that I, Mason Mixon line.

Yeah, Mason Mixon line.

Which, of course, he plays for Cincinnati close to the Mason Mixon line.

It wasn't like playing for Minnesota.

Look, I know it's the tip of the cap, but you're picking up big yaks,

yards after catch with a lot of them.

I commend you for it.

Hopefully Purdy's got a long career.

Hopefully he can work him in next year.

It would be an honor.

It's in.

It really does make our year if you were to do something like that.

It's in.

And we need some advice, honestly, because we do it as a tip of the cap.

We sometimes do the Raiders, you know, the real low.

Why not?

Why not?

I'm having trouble right now because we've tried it over the course of the season,

and every time I do it or when Big Cat does it,

immediately after we're done we have to turn our head and just cough for like 30 seconds. How do you get a real guttural Raiders sound? Raiders.
You can't go all the way down. Somehow it's got to stop here when you're there, but you're up here with it, not...
Okay. Because that's your...
Hold on. Where's my...
Yeah. Where's my...
Diet Coke. Yeah, we've uh, um, Diet Coke or my chloroceptic spray? I get, I do the neck.
I go, and I got to stop that. You got to somehow bring it up before you start it.
So it's only coming from here. Try that.
But make it sound good. Can you give us the full one? Huh? Can you give us the full of the Raiders? Well, the full, yeah.
The Raiders. But it's like, I mean, and you can go louder.
I mean, it's just, and that's an Odell Davis. Yeah.
Because he went, the Raiders. It'll work on it.
It'll work on it, yeah. They're not in the Super Bowl.
You don't have to use it yet. Yeah, we got some time.
I do want to say, I think our whoops have gotten a lot better. Great.
And you certainly use enough. Yeah.
We use a lot. Thank God you go to Costco and get the full whoop bargain.
Sometimes you get a little whoop heavy. Yeah, that's true.
So what? That's a fact. You know what? I get with the young ones.
That's what I get stopped for the most now. Can you say it? Whoop.
Some is the rate. Can you say whoop? Ah.
You know. Whoop.
Do you know what's. Whoop.
There it is. No, your whoops are good.
Yeah, do you know what's great, too? I'll see a play, and I'll just think of the whoop. Patrick Mahomes fumble in the AFC Championship game.
Immediately thought of you. The ball slipped.
When it slipped, that was a whoop. It doesn't have to be a leap.
Yes. Or a turn.
Yes A whoop. I mean, but it came from, as we said, with Barry Sanders.
Yeah. And that was courtesy of the Three Stooges.
Yeah. Of Curly.
Yeah. But I swear, I see it.
I mean, it's the Three Stooges. This is how much you live in our brains, and I see that fumble, and I'm not like, what a fumble.
I'm like, oh, that's a schwarm whoop whoop right there I'm worried about you you guys have been on too long yeah I'm worried about you no it look sound effects they're not for everybody you know a couple of guys you go on with I mean they don't relax it's just for fun right and I mean you guys relax you know what I mean but it's not that this is exactly right, but I tell our folks cutting highlights, and I didn't know this when I started TV in my 20s. When words and pictures match up, one plus one equals three.
when words and pictures don't match up, either your narration or you wouldn't normally try a sound effect on a whoop

when a guy's just running the ball. You wouldn't, but one plus one equals one.
Yeah. But you know what it is? You just said something there, and I think this is probably why we're drawn to you and a lot of our success.
Football and sports are supposed to be fun, and you've always had fun. And that, that is something that translates to the people, because I think there are a lot of people now who talk about sports and they don't make it as fun.
It's a lot more serious. And there's, I've always, we've always had the mantra with our show is like, life's hard enough.
Sports are supposed to be the thing that you watch for fun and that you, you know, like, you know, we'll make fun of people's teams. We'll make fun of our teams.
But, like, at the end of the day, what is it? It's not hard life. It's not, you know, we're not talking about serious topics.
We're talking about sports. It's fun.
Correct. And that's what people listen in.
Now, you guys have great wit. I'm not saying people, not everybody on has great wit.
They do in different ways. Bob Lee and I are two different animals.
Bob Lee is a great professional. I look up to him in a lot of ways.
I don't know that he looks up to me in a lot of ways, but we're great friends. It's all of them.
Right? But he's him. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't get what you just said.
It's just for him now to be gregarious would not be him, and now you're acting a little bit. Yeah.
I'm not saying he would or did. I'm that way.
You guys are that way. I mean, you have more boisterous than here.
But the combination is we're just having fun. And if we're busting, it really isn't mean-spirited.
It's busting on somebody's team. Yeah, they stunk today.
They did. Right.
I mean, usually. You know, sometimes people go a little more.
It shouldn't be personal. Right.
And the athletes are also people, you know. And so I don't mean to make this analogy, but so the Bills, which is an unbelievable season packed with everything, and this sounds like an excuse for why they lost to the Bengals.
The Bengals were better from play one to play 100, okay? So let's start with that, in that game. I wondered, and I said it, and I'm close with them.
But they're human beings.

DeMar Hamlin, with that being the game they played against the Bengals,

like the first week there was an exhale, like he's even in the building.

He, we think, is going to be really okay, even if it takes a year.

Well, you had that for three weeks, maybe not sleeping at night,

worrying about him.

Yeah.

You had two six-feet snowfalls where you're going to Detroit now. You guys didn't have power last night with your wife and your three-year-old.
You did by the time you left, but you're leaving them alone, and you're going to play football in Detroit. You're going to go through Canada.
Well, they cleared the airport for them, And then you're going to come back. And there was the shooting in the supermarket in the black neighborhood in the summer.
They're not the only franchise that have, but this was a lot. And I wondered how much gas did they use up to get to this point? Is that the reason they lost to the Bengals? The Bengals were better.
But they're human beings. So to make them, what were they? They didn't care.
They acted like they did. It's a slow leak in the tire.
Yeah, yeah. They weren't running on the rims, but they were closer to it.
I diverged there, but I brought it up to date here to say, what were they doing? Yeah, no.

Remembering that people are humans.

Yeah, the people you're watching on Sunday, they're human beings.

They got stuff going on in their life.

It's absolutely a great point.

There was a moment where I was like, hey, maybe we get the Schwam this year.

Maybe we get the Bills Niners.

It's going to happen eventually.

Well, I found the football.

How many years in a row, by the way? Did you predict it? Well, seven in a row, one of the two of them made it. Yeah, and you predicted it.
Like 10 or 11 or 12. Because it was like, I got to take August off.
I don't need to do any homework. I know who I'm picking.
Yeah, it's Niners. Even if I'm wrong, I don't care.
They've carried me this far. From 88 to 94, one of the two of them made it.
Bill's Niners every year. The Niners made it three times.
They won all three. The Bills made it four times.
They lost all four. But I was 50% for seven years.
Nobody you know was 50%. And I didn't change a thing.
That's a fact. So they send us, I think they still do, the footballs on Championship Sunday of the four possible combinations, like a model, you know, Super Bowl, whatever it is.
And in 92, I kept the ball, even though the Niners, they got beat Alvin Harper in Dallas. That was the play in the championship game, the bomb from Aikman to Harper that started them on their mini dynasty there, three out of four.
I found it. Maybe that was why they lost to the Bengals.
Forget everything else. I found it.
I said, I think I know where this is. So it was the 92 ball, Buffalo versus San Francisco in Super Bowl, whatever that was, Michael Jackson, that one, okay?

It didn't happen.

But I saved that one.

I didn't save seven of them, but I saved that one.

That's great. And I was ready to bring it on set, just like I was ready to go

rock and roll all night, and alas, alas, it'll wait another year.

Yep.

It'll wait another year.

What are the chances that we get a Bill's Super Bowl here in this window?

It feels like the Josh Allen window.

It feels like the Josh Allen window, which could, who knows,

We'll see you next time. wait another year yeah so wait another year what are the chances that we get a bill super bowl here in this window it feels like the josh allen window it feels like a josh allen window which could who knows uh what was his contract for he's got another like five years on it something around there what are the chances you think we're going to get an actual buffalo bills super bowl championship in that time period i think they'll be in one at least one because he's really good and he was hurt.
I mean, he, Burrow, and obviously Mahomes at the top, they're the best three. By the way, they all win divisions, so they're all going to play each other in the regular season, and they're going to play each other like Manning and Brady did every year.
They're winning their division nine times out of ten. So they don't have to go through – I don't want to say the NFC is easier.
That sounds like we're knocking Hurts and the Eagles and what they've done, which is the best record in football, right? So we're tied. They'll get him one.
This – God, they started – remember they blasted the Rams. Oh, yeah.
Nobody goes on the road when they're unveiling the banner and beats the hell out of it nobody does that I remember that game so well too the week one game the opening of the NFL season because we had Julian Edelman who's our friend of ours watching the game with us and he said he's like it's just so easy for Josh right now he's like like he's just it's too easy for him yeah and you could feel it like everything was just easy like everything he'd look comfortable in the pocket and yeah he got that uh elbow injury against the jets and it felt like they were i i still wonder it's crazy to say but if damar hamlin doesn't happen and they play the bengals and the Bengals beat them, is that a wake-up call that they needed maybe to – Could have been. Because it did feel like towards the end they were kind of – they were winning games, but it didn't look exactly like it looked at the beginning of the season.
Yeah, they beat the Chiefs. Right.
Right, in October. Right.
So, yeah, I'm very confident that they'll – Coach McDermott, Brandon Bean is sharper than hell, the GM. It's a franchise.
This fan base speaks for itself. So, in other words, they're the only – I mean, they're just adored.
I mean, other than Green Bay, as you know, it's the smallest city, right? So it's different. Yeah.
Cincinnati is smaller as well. I like that two of the smallest cities bonded for the wrong reason, you know, over the Hamlin injury, but it was...
Not that New York would. I'm not saying that.
No, but it's different. It's different.
It's just a smaller... Somebody wrote on their sign right at the Bengal game praying for number three Hamlin as a Bengal fan.
Yeah. Quite a magic marker in his or her pocket.
So the answer is they'll get in one, but Mahomes and the Chiefs and Andy Reid aren't going anywhere, and Burrow and Zachary Taylor, they're not going anywhere either. And what does Sean Payton and Russell, they're in the same division with Herbert, they're all in the Chiefs.
Trevor Lawrence. Yeah, there's a lot.
AFC is, they're going to be in one. Maybe next year.
I don't know if this was subconscious, subliminal. You said Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid aren't going anywhere.
I know you've got to be close with Coach Reid. I am.
I'm sure that you guys are thick as thieves. Probably going to be rooting for him in the Super Bowl, I would imagine.
You think Andy's going to stick around for another five, six years? Well, I do know that he loves coaching and doing what he's doing. Like the setup, sometimes even the smartest, and I would include Bill Parcells in that.
I would include, you know, they all want to be the coach, GM. I'm going back a little way to answer your question.
In Philly, he was at some. You know, he's a cap guy.
I mean, you can't do math all day long when you're trying to devise a play, right? But he even realized, as Parcells quietly, probably grudgingly realized, and I say that with love and respect for Bill, and Balochek's a little different story, but just, you can't, Mike Holmgren wanted to do a, you can't do it all, right? When he went to Seattle, he did the Grand Poobah, I called him, you know, his friend, right? But even he probably at the end realized, you know, if I had a really good GM, who won this? Well, that's the situation at Kansas City behind the scenes.

Brett Veach, who was on his staff, not so much as a coach, but as an assistant and quality control, et cetera.

He's great at that.

They're simpatico.

And the ownership is great.

And the fan base is great.

And now we get to the quarterback.

Yeah.

So if I'm a coach, and I still love it, even though I'm 60, 61, whatever Andy is, I still love coaching, which obviously Coach Belichick does too. He loves coaching.
He loves turning on the film on a Tuesday and looking at the other team before I have to even address my play. Like, what do they do? And they still love that.
And you have Patrick Mahomes. What's the rush? Yeah.
Unless there's something we don't know that's going on. You don't feel, you know, you're fighting, which he's not.
You know, like every now and then coaches have to get out because, I mean, Terry Francona goes through stuff.

He still manages.

He loves it.

I have Patrick Mahomes, and I have this situation set up here.

And so I would think I would be to put a number on it.

Will Mahomes play more than five more years?

Yes.

Let's hope so.

Yeah.

Hope he doesn't get hurt.

Because we like football. Yeah.
You don't have to root for the Chiefs. Yeah, yeah.
If you like football, you want to see him play football, right? Yeah. Yeah, I'd be surprised if he – he's not driven by, ooh.
You know, if he wins this game, I could be wrong, don't quote me. And then I think the next win next year, he would tie Tom Landry for four.
He's not driven by that. He's not.
It's not who I got to get to. He's not driven by that.
I mean, 270 wins, I think, is Landry's number. I think Andy wins.
He's 268. I could be wrong, but he's in the, you know, there's Don Shula.
There's Bill Belichick. There's George Hallis.
And there's Tom Landry. And Andy is five.
Mm-hmm. So if he still loves what he does, and I know he does, and I have him, and I have this set up, where am I going? Yeah.
Yeah. You ever go out for a steak dinner with Coach Reed? We've eaten.
I don't know about a steak steak. We've eaten.
we heard a rumor that he eats three steaks at a time sometimes I don't know about any more I don't think that's true it might be a once a year or maybe just as a dare I haven't heard that we haven't talked about it and I haven't seen it so I'm not going to say it wouldn't surprise me. I mean, he's slimmed down quite a bit.
You can tell. He's shed some of the pounds.
He still wears the big jacket, so sometimes you don't realize it. He's lost some weight, but I feel like, I think we heard that maybe it's at the combine.
Was it Prime? Oh, at the steakhouse in Indy? Yeah. That's a famous one.
That could be. I've not been at that.
It's like a cheat day once a year. A side state.
You know what? Once a year, it's February. Yeah.
Might as well. Do I know that he's done it? I don't think so, but could he do it in the day? I'm sure he could.
Is there a coach over the years that you've become closest with? He would be it. And he's your closest guy? Of all.
I mean, and I don't mean to, but that would be him. I mean, I'm very close with quite a few others.
It's kind of all, not all. There's a couple of trees that if you chase my football family history.
So this is the Bill Walsh tree and the Niners tree. You don't think so.

So here's Bill Walsh, who I learned,

not that he sat me down in his office an hour at a time.

Let me not misrepresent that, Chris.

So here's how we run the West Coast offense.

Like, I didn't get that audience, okay?

Nor should I have.

But I lived it, the Niners, and I got it.

And it was new.

The football kind of changed then a little.

Mike Holmgren was the direct descendant, if you will.

There were others and many the coaches.

That's the direct son of Bill Walsh kind of, sort of.

And then, of course, he had Brett Favre in that offense of the 80s

or early 80s, which was already different in the late 80s

when Montana was a better player and the Niners had Roger Craig and Rice, and I mean, they didn't have that in 81. Mike Holmgren was the descendant, as I see it, in Boomer-esque history.
And Andy Reid is the descendant of Mike Holmgren, even though Holmgren was still coaching Seattle when Andy was coaching Philadelphia. That's the direct.
Andy coached under Mike, as did a lot of really successful coaches under Mike. And now to look at the successful coaches under Andy, John Harbaugh and I are very friendly.
Well, he was on Andy's staff, so I got to meet him through the years. Coach Belichick and I are obviously very friendly, not just to throw names.
And there's, and of course, Marv Levy and I, I mean, you know, from, but that tree. Okay, we could talk about others, but to me, oh, we were on the West Coast offense.
There's 10 coaches that say it. It's more like the, it's not really the West Coast offense.
It's some, it's not really it and, oh, we're running that. And the West Coast offense properly run growing through the years is still really effective.
Yeah. So I have the ultimate respect for the way all these guys thought big picture and little picture.
Bill Walsh, Mike Holmgren, Andy Reid. and so the fact that I've grown close with his family and he with me

and little picture bill walsh mike holmgren andy reed and and so the fact that i've grown close with his family and he with me and and um didn't didn't get to meet him as an assistant thinking oh here's a guy's gonna coach for 25 years and tie tom landry no he was the quarterback coach i went into the quarterback room he was the quarterback coach and every thursday they had brett farve like cajun

beans and and this and i think want to come in chris yeah sure oh god you know talk about guttural with the raiders i'll come in yeah when that's mariucci was in there i mean so that's my derivative so it really goes back farther than anybody knows even though i didn't I didn't know him well when he was an assistant,

but I knew my staff well enough.

Yeah. my derivative.
So it really goes back farther than anybody knows, even though I didn't know him well when he was an assistant, but

I knew Mike's staff

well enough. Yeah.
And

that would be the closest.

That's great. So

it's just interesting that the more life,

you know, the longer we live,

we go full circle, yeah?

So he's coaching against the Eagles.

By the way, he drafted three of these players

that are still playing. Yeah.
Kelsey,

Jason Kelsey,

Cox, and

I'm going to break it. So he's coaching against the Eagles.
By the way, he drafted three of these players that are still playing. Kelsey, Jason Kelsey, Cox, and Graham.
They're still playing. He hadn't been coached in 2012.
Howie Roseman was the GM. Like, it's the same owner, obviously.
I mean, it's interesting how, but he won't see the Eagles as, oh, my God, this is without them I wouldn't be here. He already knows that.
You don't have to play them to know that. He already knows how good they are.
But it's just interesting how it, and two Kelsies, and two, heaven forbid, African-American quarterbacks, which I didn't even think of it. We put up the graphic at the end of the show.
These are the youngest two. Yeah.
By 15 days younger than Marino and Montana, when you add up the years and the days. Like, all right, that's interesting.
And then, oh, by the way, I didn't even think of that, which I think is going to make me a better. It's great.
No, yeah. I mean, it's important to a lot of people, and a lot of African-Americans watching, obviously, they will notice it.

Of course.

But to us, it's something that I think it's a good thing that it doesn't stand out to us anymore. Yeah.
Right. That's what I meant by it.
That doesn't make me any different than you guys. Yeah, yeah.
I didn't, in the early 80s, I interviewed early in my career,

Doug, Tampa being in the Norris division, which Tampa didn't – geographically with Minnesota, Chicago, Detroit, and Green Bay and Tampa. But Vin Sevens, the quarterback in the Bears, and Doug Williams, the coach in the Bucs.
I interviewed both of them in 82 after the game. It didn't make me any different, but I did that interview 40 years ago.
Now it was after the game, so they weren't sitting together. It wasn't any big.
But it was you guys are playing against each other twice a year in the last couple of years, both African-American quarterbacks. And so I don't...
It's 40 years ago. Yeah.
The fact that it finally happened in the Super Bowl isn't... I guess it...
I mean, it's a milestone. Yeah.
It's a good milestone. It's a great milestone.
Yeah. Right? So we don't think like that.
Yeah. They're both really good.
Yeah. Very good.
How about that? Very, very good. One and two.
By the way, have you seen the size of Jalen Hurts? I saw him walking in. He showed the shot of him walking in.
I thought it was A.J. Dillon.
Yeah, he's insane. You should watch this on the YouTube because if you're listening to it, Boomer kind of trailed off there.
He's talking about his thighs. Thighs.
He said Jalen Hurts' thighs. I just want to make that clear in case the audio was a little bit murky on that one.
But he squats, what, 600 pounds? Yeah. He's a monster.
It's awesome. It's 600 pounds.
I mean, that's more than three steaks. Yeah.
So let's do this because this has been fantastic. Last question.
Hopefully we do this again next year. I'd love for this to be a tradition.
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Super Bowl week. We need your prediction.
I want a Schwami score, too. I want the weird scores.
I remember as a kid when I saw the arrow with the team that didn't score more, I was like, what's that? And then I realized, oh, it's point spread. Yeah.
I want the Schwami score. Well, I'm not going to pick three to two, which I have done as a Schwami.
And I remember greatest show on turf against Brett Favre one year.

I think I had 78-75.

Okay.

People go, whoa, you mean that's an over? No, I'm just picking. Just relax, you know.
I guess it's an over. I don't even look at that anyway.
I never picked the scores with regard to that. So I won't pick three to two, and I won't pick 78-75.
So as much as Jalen Hurts has gone this from that playoff game against Tampa and the whole Eagles team, they were dreadful to this

and have won two games, say what you want.

The history will say 38-7, 31-7.

Okay. I understand the 49ers are running a single wing.
I get it. Not their fault.
A single wing is not going to work in 2022. And given that pass rush of the Eagles, will that be better than Chris Jones and Frank Clark? Well, it might be because they're seven strong.
They play. Adamak and Sue comes in for 18 plays.
Yeah, Linval Joseph. Well, yeah.
Well, nine of them, they're going to be a real factor, right? Even though they're not. I mean, Redick is Redick.
And then, oh, I'm forgetting, 97. They're loaded there.
Yeah. Yet both teams, I'm not, I'll give you a prediction.
Both teams sent three of their offensive linemen to the Pro Bowl. Or flag football or whatever it is.
Yeah, yeah. Or they're not going.
Dodgeball, yeah. Whatever it is.
So do I think that's going to be, since all the bigs are good, will that be a neither advantage either way? Maybe so. Mahomes won't be better than 80%.
Who knows what he'll be. We're taping this on the 1st of February, and we don't think anything will happen to him, but he's not.
They ran most of – most. Most of probably what they could do.

I don't think certain moves in this, nor will that change in two weeks.

His hurts hurt a little.

He says so.

He had that one series where he ran the ball,

which I think was a signal to whoever they were going to play next.

Yes.

We're okay here.

Yeah.

Maybe it wasn't.

Yeah. Maybe they wasn't.
Yeah.

Maybe they wanted to just put it away

and make it 28-7 and we're done.

Mahomes is, you know, Chiefs receivers.

God, they ended up with nobody.

But I'm going to pick the Chiefs.

Score?

27-24 sounds boring that's not a swami but I'm not going to do that because it's a Super Bowl and I don't think this is the 78 the Steelers against the purple people which by the way the score of that game at halftime was 2-0 love it look. Look it up.
Love it. 2-0.
Did they get to the 30s? Because I haven't gone there yet. Yeah, yeah.
We're not even out there. Could it be 31? 27? I think it could.
Yes, it could. About 29, 26.
Have you made Schwam? Yeah, that's a Schwam. Like when you get nine and six on your Super Bowl board, you're really annoyed, right? Like my hundred bucks just went down the drain.
Yeah, yeah. I always used to remember Schwam.
You needed two. Yeah.
Becats right about the arrow. That was, I think a lot of people got woken up to gambling because of arrow yeah eyes open um there's always one even number and one odd number okay swamp score yeah well has there been i mean i don't know if there always was did i do it on purpose no no um the only thing i did with the score all those years was make it at least three points different from whatever the number was when I taped it on Friday.

So there was no mistake.

Unless Patrick Mahomes isn't playing and Henny's playing.

We don't know that to Sunday morning.

Well, then the line would move.

It was always at least three different. And then I put that arrow and use words like closer than expected or they may win more handily than you think you know like that and so i didn't know about even odd i i didn't do that knowingly if i did so what's the official prediction i'm going to sprinkle a little bit on the exact score.
So what did you say, Big Cat?

Did you say 29, 26?

I was like, schmummy, yeah.

Do we want to stick with that or is there?

Yeah.

Yeah, much more interesting.

Yeah.

If I get it, I'm thinking of the bizarre numbers when you, like a two.

Although 32 is not that.

22 is a bizarre number.

Yeah, that's a bizarre one.

And I think we're a little over.

We could pick 25, 22. Okay.
That's a bizarre one. But I don't think the game's going to be that bizarre.
Okay. I don't think it's, we're not going to see the single wing or the wishbone, you know.
Let's hope not, right? I announced the game once in college where Holy Cross ran a wishbone against Brown. And I had to learn, I went to our coach.
I went, just give me 10 minutes of something so I know what the hell I'm doing in 1975. They're running a wishbone.
I know what it is. But whatever, that's an aside.
So we want to move that to 25, 22. I like 29,

26. I think

I don't even know

what the early over-under is, by the way.

I think it's like right around 48, somewhere

49. But I never

picked them worried about that.

My score was never

trying to think through everything.

So if it's

29, 26, that's over.

That's an over.

Yeah, which I like.

People want that.

They do want that because you're always in it.

Yep.

Yep.

You want it.

The under is a nervous.

Yep.

Terrible bad.

But the best in the day was when you took a team, regular season, well, it would still be now because you wouldn't kick an extra point in overtime. And you're getting seven and they go to overtime.
Yep. Five things can happen, all of them good.
Even ending in a tie, which, of course, is Super Bowl. Well, now you have to kick the field goal.
Or you have to kick the extra point because both teams get a possession. Right, you would.
So getting seven and a half. Yeah, you would.
You would now. I had to remind myself of that when the playoffs started because, like you, you get to overtime, you're home free.
Yeah, yeah. Well, nobody's going to be that.
That number won't be that. I mean, it'll be a field goal will make it either way.
I mean, I don't think. I mean, again, by the time this runs, we may have moved three times, but we're just BSing, and you may not even include this a little bit, but I don't think it'll get to three.
Yeah, I don't think so either. Both defenses are pretty damn good.
Three's a big number in this case. Chiefs play a ton of rookies in their secondary.
The Eagles, it could be a little lower than that. So what are we going with, 29, 26? Yeah, although I feel like you're 25, 22.
You didn't get the Brock and Roll. I'm going to give you guys the nod with the score.
Okay, all right. The score contribution.
Yes, I love it. How's that? Yeah, that's great.
Remember, my favorite saying of all time, it's all in the delivery. We're all in this together alone.
I love it. I love it.
Remember, that's what we're doing here. Yes.
Chris Berman, thank you so much. Hopefully a tradition every year.
We appreciate you. And thanks again for giving us an hour and a half of your time.
I enjoy that you guys are football fans, legitimate football fans. You probably bring a lot of fans to the game that you don't know that you're bringing to the game.
Like in our early years of primetime, we didn't know we were bringing some people to the game that might not have watched six hours, and you're doing that as well. I didn't even do the French.
You know, Le Grand Chat etur. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry about that. With the Olympics coming up in Paris, never too early to start working on it.
Yes, get your French. Good to see you guys.
Happy Super Bowl. I'm glad you're not driving.
Happy Super Bowl. Thanks, Swam.
Enjoyed it. Boomer was brought to you by C4.
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Okay. Chris Berman was awesome.
I love Chris Berman. I love him so much.
I love that you can hear him before you see him. When he comes around the corner and you just hear him talking, you hear something and your ears perk up and it's like it's on.
And it's also, I hope this is just a Super Bowl tradition that we have him on to start every super bowl week as long as he'll come on um it's hilarious because we go up to this hotel he he rents this huge conference room in a hotel in connecticut and then after we finish the interview this happened two years in a row now there's just like a massive spread of food that is just out there for us to have lunch and it's like it it's very old school way. It is.
And all the Diet Cokes that you can drink. Oh, yeah.
Just stocked with Diet Cokes. And he gave us like a some spread.
I was eating and he walked up. He was walking out.
He's like, how's the food? And then he caught himself. He's like, how's the food? Some spread? Yeah.
I love it. He gave us like the whole history behind the some spread.
We basically, every time we sit down with Boom, at least the last two times, it goes on for like another 30-minute podcast after we're done recording. Yeah.
Because he just, you wind him up and he just goes. He's the best.
He's the absolute best. So thank you to Chris Berman for coming on.
Hopefully it is a tradition. We have pre-taped the lottery ball machine because we knew we would be out of the office oh yeah so we know what happens congratulations Hank let's find out if Hank has finally won kicking it back to ourselves in studio love you guys no you don't get to say that I love you guys no I love you guys not Hank okay we're back in the studio end a Monday show.
Yeah, he said love you guys. No, I love you guys.
Not Hank. Okay.

We're back in the studio.

End of Monday's show.

Yeah, he said love you guys in the last one.

We're going to do the numbers.

So we're actually, this is, we're taping this on February 3rd. We're going to do the numbers for the entire Super Bowl week to see if Hank can get it,

which he won't, because he'll never get it.

Hank, have you ever gotten it?

No.

Okay.

Numbers.

17.

69.

18. 51.
20 90 90 where'd that come from Hank random and there's a lot of money in the pot right now 97. That one was really close.
That's the closest you've ever been.

Awesome. 97 Oh that one was really close That's the closest you've ever been

False

Third time

Third time in 2023

Love you guys

Dragons might have been real

Definitely done that before

Thank you. Come for your love, I'll be.
Take me. Take me.

Take me.

Take me.

Take me.

Take me.

Take me. Take me.
Take me on, take me on Take me on Take me on Needless to say What's in? Thank you. The medicine, the sage, the sound of the world.
Thank you. I'll come to you when you're right.
I'll come to you when you're right. Take on me.
Take on me. Take on me.
I'll come to you when you're right. Take on me.
Take on me. Take on me.
Take on me. I'll be gone.
Take my feet.

Take my feet. Take my feet.

Take my feet. We'll see you next time.