Coach O, NFL Divisional Round Preview & Fyre Fest Of The Week

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
On today's Pardon My Take, we've got Coach O back on the show. Great to catch up with him, talk a little Bengals, talk a little NFL playoffs, where he might be headed next, Vacation O.
We get into all of it. We're going to preview the NFL Divisional Round.

A great weekend of football ahead of us.

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Buy! Let's go. And then I can't blame all on the sun Oh no We're gonna rock down to electric avenue And then we'll take it higher Oh we're gonna rock down to electric avenue It's part of my take Presented by Barstool Sports Welcome to part of my take Presented by Sport Clips Go right now, download their app Or go to sportclips.com and you can get your virtual spot in line so you don't have to sit there and wait for your haircut.
Today is Friday, January 21st. And boys, this divisional round, this weekend of football, this is the best weekend of football.
We have four games ahead of us. All four games look like they could be incredible games.
We're going to wash ourselves of the stink of Super Wild Card Weekend, which it's football, so we loved it, but let's be honest, it wasn't the best football. This is going to deliver, though.
I feel it in my bones. We are now PFT.
You hate when I do this, but we have to do it. No, no, no.

I mean, we have to do it.

We have seven games left of football this year.

So enjoy it.

Are you including the Pro Bowl?

You never remember the Pro Bowl.

I did not include the Pro Bowl.

You always forget the Pro Bowl.

Seven games left and embrace it.

Enjoy it.

Sit on the couch.

Take in every single second of it.

It's going to be a great Saturday, a great Sunday.

Getting excited for it. Great times, too.
3 o'clock, 6.30 on Sunday. Let's do it.
Let's talk about these games. Yeah, this is one of those weekends where I'm definitely not leaving my couch.
I need an Apple Watch that's going to buzz and automatically check in on me to make sure I'm okay. You know how your TV does that? That's how you know that you're having a successful day.
Are you planning on going swimming? As if your TV checks in to see if you're alive. Am I going swimming? With the Apple Watch? Yeah.
No, I'm not. If you get close to dying, you'll have your Apple Watch.
That's what I'm saying. I want to be so lifeless over the course of this weekend.
I want to be so stationary. My watch thinks I died.
That would be funny if that were the new ad where it's like I'm sitting on my couch and 911 is like, what's your emergency? I haven't moved in two days because football's on. Yeah, you're like, this football action is so intense.
And then the 911 operator's like, sounds like you're having a great time. And can I come over? Yeah, Apple Watch.
And then they come over and they bring beer. Yeah, it's perfect.
And then you have a nice hang. You just did your job for you, Apple.
I had a drunk idea, even though it wasn't a drunk idea because because I'm basically doing dry January for a little bit here. It was that, like, on a great weekend, like this weekend.
Bubba, are you okay? Well, basically dry January for a little bit is a funny statement. There's a lot of qualifiers.
No, the last couple weeks, I'm doing a hard reset on my body. Pretty much.
I did have, like, a little bit. Except for a little bit.
Friday nights, Saturday mornings. Qual bit Friday night Saturday morning Yeah, whatever makes a little bourbon in with your coffee on a weekday Yeah, I mean I'm on a diet except for Saturdays and also like Tuesday afternoons and a little bit here on Fridays Yeah, so I'm pretty much sober almost and so I had this idea Which is like we need to bring back on big sports weekends like this Spirit days during the week just for our nation because we need to all get on the same page remember like spirit days before homecoming yeah it would be like school colors day or whatever like have have one day be jersey day where just everybody is going around dress up wearing a sports jersey or i was so i'm a big advocate for pizza fridays too yeah just we all get pizza pizza fr are great.
Doing anything on a Friday afternoon where it's like tradition, like this is what we do, is the best. And Sunday Sundays, where everybody has a nice ice cream sundae.
It's why I like to do Donut Saturday. Saturday morning, I look forward to it every Saturday morning.
Go to the donut shop with my son, and we just get a shitload of donuts. It's great.
And I think that we need more things like that that pull us together as a society. Spirit days, maybe hire a clown for everyone.
It's just Football Friday. You just talk about football.
That's really what it is. It's beautiful.
Football Friday. I hereby declare today to be Football Friday.
Talk about the game with someone in your office. Just be like, who do you like this weekend? Make a new friend.
Yeah. So let's talk about who we like.
Let's do Football Friday right now. Football Friday.
All right, so first game, Bengals, Titans. Titans are minus 3.5 right now.
I think the over-under is 47, I want to say. Quick note about this game.
If you didn't already think Derrick Henry is like the most intimidating, badass guy in the world, he's going to be back. And he did his press conference earlier in the week, week and they asked him how he felt and he said he has a big steel plate in his foot but otherwise feels good.
Yeah, that's pretty chill. Okay.
Otherwise, I'm half robot but otherwise I'm feeling fine. So I saw a pro football doc tweet about that and he goes, the thing about Derrick Henry's giant steel plate that he has in his foot is it remains to be seen whether or not he will be able to run 100% on that.
It's like, what the fuck? Like, he's basically Voltron. It's just like crazy.
Like, we complain if we get a fucking hangnail. Yeah.
And he's got a steel plate in his foot. And he's like, yeah, besides that thing, besides being half Terminator, I feel good as somebody that's had the same surgery derrick henry had i wasn't able to jack off eight weeks after i had it yes yes with your feet yeah little little foot job uh no this is going to be a fun game i think i so we're not supposed to respect the titans we're supposed to do coach rabel that favor of uh keep overlooking them yeah um but i i actually don't think that i respect respect the Titans this weekend.
I think it's coming natural to me. I think that this is – Bengals are giving me somewhat Team of Destiny vibes right now.
I'm fully respecting the Titans. I think the Titans are going to win this game.
I think this is one of those spots where you always kind of forget, oh, yeah, the one season. I'm going to basically contradict myself in a second when we talk about the Saturday night game because I want the Packers to lose, but the Titans are the one seed because they beat

the Chiefs.

They beat the Bills.

They beat all the good teams.

They killed the Rams.

And now they're finally healthy.

I know Julio Jones is not what Julio Jones used to be, but A.J. Brown and Julio Jones

and Derrick Henry, I think the Titans are going to win.

I think we're going to walk away from this game being like, oh, yeah, that's why they were the one seed. Rest, Vrabel off rest has been a really good coach.
I'm respecting the Titans. I think one thing we're all forgetting about Coach Vrabel, because he is, as LaFleur was talking to us, he's a giant dude.
He's an intimidating guy. He looks like a meathead.
He's he's actually sneaky very very smart yeah he's he's one of the most intelligent coaches there is and just because he's got like a giant dumb looking face that looks like he's gonna you know kick the shit out of you at any given time doesn't mean that he's not also incredibly intelligent all you had to see was the showdown that he had with him and bill belichick where where they were both figuring out how to change time, how to alter the course of time. And Vrabel ended up beating Bill Belichick at his mind games.
Yes. He's a smart dude, so he's going to have some shit up his sleeve this week.
Here's my prediction for this game. There's going to be a fat guy touchdown.
There's going to be a fat guy. Vrab's got something planned.
There are almost too many fat guy touchdowns. The Bengals are, I think, still banged.
I know Trey Hendrickson cleared concussion protocol, but they lost a couple other linemen on the defensive side. I don't know.
I think the Titans are going to be all up in Burrow's ass, and I love Joe Burrow. We'll talk to Coach O in a minute.
We all love Joe Burrow. We're a Joe Burrow podcast.
I think that Titans defense is getting slept on. Yeah, I'm remembering the Titans.
This is my weekend to remember the Titans. Hank, you like the Bengals? I do like the Bengals.
This is a, I mean, I love both. I love Rabel.
I love Joe. I kind of agree with PFT, though.
Bengals do have a little bit of Team of Destiny vibes. That definitely could be just because we saw them play last week.
We didn't see the Titans play. I'm fully acknowledging that, but also Moneyline.
I love a plus sign. Yeah, it's crazy.
I would actually feel worse about the Titans if they were playing like the Jets or the Texans because if you look at their schedule this year and who they played and who they beat, they beat all the good teams that they played. Wait, didn't the Jets also beat the Bengals? Yes, the Jets beat both of them.
That's crazy. This is the Jets' bowl.
But they beat the Titans, beat the Seahawks with Russell Wilson. They beat the Colts twice.
They beat the Chiefs. They beat the Bills.
They beat the Rams. They beat the 49ers that game where they were down at half.
I don't know. I think they're just, for some reason, it doesn't compute in our heads that the Titans just might be a very good team.
You know what I mean? I think Hank actually hit the nail on the head, at least when it comes to me and how I'm thinking about this game. It's the fact that I didn't see the Titans play last week, and I did see the Bengals, and it's very easy, even if the Bengals, or if the Titans had played on Monday night, it's very easy to forget about the Titans by Sunday.
Yeah, they should honestly start changing it for the bye week because I remember this used to happen to me every single year when it was two byes and you had two teams that didn't play. They should just post a score.
They should be like the Titans beat the bye week 35-7. You know what I mean? The starters beat the practice squad like 74-0.
Just remind us like, oh yeah, they're really good because the reason why they have the one seed is they're really good. An injury update, they actually came out of the bye healthier than they did going into it.
And the craziest thing, like if the Titans went to the Super Bowl, it would be a shock to everyone, right? But I think there's no reason why. They beat the other two teams that they could go up against next week in the AFC Championship game.
So I'm respecting the Titans. Now, this could be the fatal blow for Titans fans.
I feel like if they lose, I'm going to get a lot of the blame. I don't care.
I'm remembering the Titans. Yeah, I'm not.
So I'll go ahead and give you that disrespect card that you can play on me. I think the Bengals, they are a little bit...

The only thing that concerns me about them is that they're definitely in a position

where if you asked anybody on that Bengals team, or anybody that's a Bengals fan,

would you look at the season as a resounding success?

Yes.

If you won a playoff game and lost in the second round to the No. 1 overall seed.

Right.

And you would say, absolutely.

I don't know if Joe Burrow would admit that, but I know at the start of the season, I think their over-under for wins was five and a half. Yeah.
A little behind the scenes, I told him that because I told him I was taking the over on it. And he was like, I'm absolutely going to get you that over on that.
But I don't think that at the time he was like, you know what? I think that we have a real chance here to do some damage in the playoffs. But now that he's here, I don't know.
It might be one of those things where it's like he feeds off the moment. But winning your first playoff game in 31 years as a franchise, and there's no letdown spots in the playoffs, but there has to be an emotional part of the game.
It's what we talked about with the Bills, you know, beating the bully, beating the Patriots the way they did. There has to be a small part of you that's like, it's not the exact same intensity of trying to get that first playoff win at home in front of your fans.
Also, if you look at the game against the Raiders, like that game was an even game. It's crazy to look back, but the Raiders had, you know, they made a couple big mistakes, you know, fielding the punt at the two and the fumble that Derek Carr had.
But, like, in terms of yardage and how the game went, that was a pretty damn even game. I just, yeah, I'm remembering the Titans.
That is what I'm doing. Anything from the couch, Jake or Billy? Any thoughts? Titans have always been a wagon.
It's just they've been injured and banged up this season mm-hmm it is gonna be it will be awesome if tractor see you know like if Derek Henry comes out with a steel fucking plate in his foot and runs for 200 yards gonna be awesome he's lucky that it's a home game because you probably can't get through airport security with that right only thing about the plate I've been thinking about this a lot yes he's up fast, but has his muscles adapted to the extra added weight of the steel plate? I'm not worried about the pain. I'm worried about the weight distribution on the foot.
Wouldn't that make you stronger, though, if you're walking around for the last couple weeks with a giant plate in your foot? It's like you've got some beans strapped up to your ankle that you're walking around with, building those muscles up. Whoever wins this game, the media next week will be like, the NFL doesn't want the winner of this game in this game, in the Super Bowl because of ratings.
Good point. That's a good look ahead there, Jake.
Absolutely. Whoever wins this game, it's going to be like, Bills or Chiefs is better for the week.
Yeah, we don't want Tannehill. Bro, I think Bengals would, if you were looking at just pure hashtag NFL rigged, like who do we want in the Super Bowl, you could make the argument Burrow with just being an up-and-coming superstar.
They want Josh Allen or Mahomes. Yeah, they want Josh Allen or Mahomes for sure.
But yeah, the Titans are definitely in the list of, oh man, the NFL will do anything to make sure Ryan Tannehill doesn't start a Super Bowl. Yeah, so going into this game, I would say that if this game is going to be NFL rigged one way or the other, it's going to be NFL rigged in favor of the Bengals.
Yes. So get ready for that.
We're predicting that. Which is rare to say.
Yeah, Roger Goodell does not respect the Tennessee Titans. Yeah, it's basically like, what other teams could the Bengals get the weight of the thumb of the commissioner on? I would say if you're playing against – Over the Saints, everyone.
Everyone over the Saints. Yeah, everyone over the Saints.
The Jets over the Patriots probably, right, Hank? Right, Hank, obviously. Yeah.
Maybe the Lions. No, the Lions would be a feel-good story.
Yeah, Lions would definitely be – yeah, people would like the Lions. Maybe the Texans.
Texans for sure. Although you could be like big market.
You could sell yourself on – you know know, Houston I don't know if you knew this, but Houston's what? The fourth biggest city in the United States Yeah, we could do that game Maybe the Panthers No one cares about the Panthers I saw, didn't your former coach Pepe Hamilton, didn't he He denied a request To interview with the Panthers He's from Charlotte Yeah, He's from Charlotte. That's my coach.
Yeah, and he's from Charlotte. It's literally his hometown, and he's like, nope, no thank you.
I mean, he sees the right and the right. Pep's a smart guy.
He cut me. He knows football.
Yeah. Okay, so he got invited to go interview for the Panthers job, and he said, well, let's see.
It looks like Matt Rule's 100% going to be fired by the end of next year. So this seems like a real shitty job to take.
I'll just wait six months, and then maybe you'll hire me in the not-so-distant future. But he'll have a job.
Yeah. He just doesn't want to work there.
It's just funny. I mean, I never – there was a Bears GM candidate from the Colts who took his name out of the hat, and I was like, smart move smart move yeah it's a very smart move i was actually thinking um about maybe dipping the pen and and doing like a complete guide to a rebuild because i feel like one thing you should do when you bring in uh like a new gm new coach you change everything you should all commit a crime together so that you have to just you're forever bound you're forever bound together yeah it's like burning start a crazy email chain yeah yeah exactly send the most offensive memes you got like unload them everyone does it at the exact same time yeah it's like ookie cookie with a computer yeah you got i mean it's not a bad idea because then no one's you can always just hold it over each other's uh heads and not try to back Yeah.
I feel like that's a smart thing to do. Yeah, one piece of blackmail per person.
So you don't even have to commit it together. It's just you all show up, and part of your interview process is you have to hand over a piece of blackmail that they can then use against you.
Yeah, and then everyone gets locked up in the same safe, and then every time one of you guys dies, your key goes to the rest of the group until there's just one person left. I like it.
I like it. All right.
So next game, Saturday night. Very excited for this game.
Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers. 49ers plus six.
Over under is what? 47 and a half, I want to say. My computer's acting very slow.
That line. Do you have it you have it for us that line moves 47 47 uh it's now back down to five and a half okay um it's been bouncing around i it's it feels like uh fred warner and bosa are both gonna play right yeah hasn't officially cleared concussion protocol my guess would be that he plays okay um and then on the Packers, they've got two defensive guys.
I think Smith, Zedaria Smith was one of them. Yep.
And then somebody else that was questionable. But I think they're both going to be healthy.
I have a fun stat for you because I basically went digging for stats to try to build up my confidence that the 49ers can beat the Packers on Saturday night. Since week 10, only three teams have averaged seven-plus yards per play per pass attempt.
It is the Green Bay Packers, 7.2, the Kansas City Chiefs, 7.5, the San Francisco 49ers, 7.7. Didn't think that because very efficient yardage they have been very efficient passing the ball i am a little worried about uh jimmy g's thumb in the cold weather uh but so again i've i'm all these things i'm saying are very biased because i've just tried to spin myself into a point where i'm like yes the 49ers are going to win this game uh week three when they played, remember, Debo Samuel wasn't fully featured in the offense like he has been, and it was Trey Sermon, not Elijah Mitchell.
Trey Sermon, not as good of a running back as Elijah Mitchell, and that game came down to the wire. That was the Aaron Rodgers drove them for a field goal to win the game late when they were down 28-27.
I just think the 49ers always play them well. They play the Packers well.
We've seen recent history. I think it's going to be a close game.
I'm excited for this game. I also will mention the Packers have a terrible special teams, and hopefully that bites them in the ass.
Yeah, good news if you're a 49ers fan, and especially a Mike McDaniel fan, their offensive coordinator. Wisconsin does have legalized recreational cannabis, so he's going to be good to go.
Beautiful. Beautiful setup for them.
I think, like, everybody's been saying it, but it's definitely true that the 49ers match up really well against the Packers. I'm a little worried.
You know what part of it is, actually? What? Now that I'm saying, like, you know why I think they match up so well? Because I've got all those memories of Colin Kaepernick just, like, absolutely roasting the of the Packers well it's in Green Bay well it was two years ago too though and remember the NFC championship game when Jimmy G had to throw it eight times and they beat him by like a million yep yep they have like the the Packers if you're a Packers fan you absolutely are scared of the 49ers past history and the fact that the the Packers can be run on and that's what the 49ers are going to try to do I think there's two games this weekend that come down to like both these teams are equal like equally in great great rosters great teams complete teams and it's just a question will the lesser quarterback make a big mistake like it's this game in the Bucks Rams game No, I think Aaron Rodgers is going to do pretty well. But that's what you're going into if you're a 49ers fan.
You're like, can we survive a Jimmy G calamity? Even though he's been playing well, he had the calamity against the Cowboys. I'm also a little worried.
I feel like Kyle Shanahan, great coach, but also maybe not the best situational coach like fourth quarter, making crunch time decisions. We saw it against the Cowboys.
Obviously we saw it in the Super Bowl against the Patriots-Falcons. I'm a little worried about that.
Yeah, and it's going to be a little bit different this weekend going up against LeFleur and not McCarthy. Right, exactly.
Mike McCarthy isn't waddling through that door. You're dealing with an actual coach with an understanding of numbers.
Hello. Man, the floor does think that kicking a field goal down eight is a smart move.
He does. He actually got a little testy about that.
But in a way that I almost respect where you can tell it annoys him, the fact that he did that. So he's just going down with a ship.
He's like, yeah, I'll do it again. I think he was more testy of the fact that everyone, the traditional media won't say that to him now they won't bring

up that question now do you know what i mean he felt like he's moved past it it's been talked about but obviously he knows that i'm gonna bring it up he knew that when he came on but uh yeah i actually woke up the next day and i was like remember the time that i told matt lafor that he can come on the show after he wins the super bowl that's gonna suck yeah i'm just gonna rub it in my face i i I really like the Niners this week.

I really do.

I feel like Kyle Shanahan got the...

He got the nerves out of the system. Last weekend was a nerves game for him.
You saw it at the end. He almost botched that game.
Did you see that picture, by the way, of – fuck, who is it? Shit. Go ahead, Tank.
You say it. I'm going to try to find the picture.
I was just going to say, going into last week, people I feel like have kind of underestimated and forgotten about the fact that the Niners, basically the same Niners team, went to the Super Bowl. They had the experience.
Yep. And they're probably better with Devo Samuel.
Right. Because who was the pass to? Was it Emmanuel Sanders? No.
It was to, yeah, it might have been to Sanders. I think it was.
I think it was. It's like they have a big-time upgrade right now.
And I think it's similar to the thing you always bust my balls for when I was talking about Jared just because it was his first time in the Super Bowl. The first time you're in the Super Bowl is hard, but once you're there, it's like going back there is easier and you have more hunger, I think, to win.
I think Jimmy G is going to be better off going forward having gone there and experienced it and lost and all that stuff. Is it time we just flip the narrative on Jimmy G right now and just be like – If he wins this game.
He's been playing well. Yeah, he has been.
But just be like, it's ugly sometimes, but the guy's a winner. He just wins games.
That's all Jimmy G does is win. If he wins this game, I think so.
I think he becomes a winner. It's very similar, though, to Matt Stafford, where it's like they're good quarterbacks Matt Stafford is a better quarterback career-wise just body of

work but they're good quarterbacks but you just are always holding your breath like will this

will the bad thing happen and his thumb like that passed it to to Greg Kittle where it was a fumble

after but it wasn't a completion that was a thumb pass like he clearly can't grip the ball correctly

so that made me a little worried I found the picture it's Trent Williams Cowboys fans flipping Thank you. wasn't a completion, that was a thumb pass.
Like, he clearly can't grip the ball correctly.

So that made me a little worried.

I found the picture.

It's Trent Williams, Cowboys fans flipping him off,

and him just pointing and laughing in their face. I fucking love Trent Williams.

All-time picture.

Trent Williams is one of my favorite players.

He's the best.

Always has been.

He's been, like, the best left tackle in football,

at least top three left tackle in football,

for about eight years in a row.

And it's insane that he ever got out of D.C.

Oh, speaking of getting out of D.C., enough with the pictures.

Can I just do my Fyre Fest right now?

Yeah.

My Fyre Fest is we're going to see pictures of Sean McVay,

Kyle Shanahan, and Matt LaFleur everywhere,

reminding us that they were all on the same Washington football team staff

in 2013.

I get it. By the way, that's Deuce Gruden erasure because Deuce Gruden was also an assistant on that team as the assistant strength and conditioning coach.
But I get it. All right.
Jay Gruden has a great coaching tree and we made him the head coach instead. It's also like, you're kind of telling on yourself, people, dumb organizations do dumb things.
Yeah. Like the fourth coach in the NFC is bruce arians who i have my own personal history with right who didn't take who who didn't get hired by the bears because he refused to do a fake press conference yeah and i'm sure that we would have fucked up yeah sean mcveigh if we had hired him as the head coach it's not you could just cut out the picture and just say like there are dumb organizations here's a list of them and the washington football team and the Bears are in that list.
Clowns. So, I mean, if you want to actually get into it, at the time, Kyle Shanahan was there because his dad was the coach.
And people were all saying he was only there because of nepotism. There was, like, a big knock against him.
Then Shanahan gets fired, and Kyle gets fired too. So he got fired because his dad brought him in.
His dad started to stink. He gets fired.
There was nothing that would have told you, like, keep this guy around unless you're a smart organization and you identify talent. And then with LaFleur, same deal.
He goes with Kyle, right? And then there's McVay. McVay got elevated to being an offensive coordinator under Jay Gruden.
Yep. And so you're not going to fire Jay Gruden and hire like a 30-year-old Sean McVay.

That's what a smart organization would have done.

We are not a smart organization.

Ipso facto.

We didn't do it.

But I get it.

Doy, doy.

I get it.

It's like Big Cat seeing the Deshaun Watson, Patrick Mahomes drafted in front of Mitchell

Trubisky.

We're idiots.

Yeah, we're morons.

I get it.

But now they're just using our moronity as content and it it's everywhere, and it's very annoying to me on a personal level. Mitchell's like the hottest name on the market, by the way.
Who is the coach of the 49ers that everyone's talking about, PFT? I saw you talking about him yesterday. Mike McDaniel.
What's his story? Why is he like— Wait, were you here when we talked about him? I don't think Hank was here. No.
He might have been. Yeah, so he's the offensive coordinator.
He's like a genius. I think you can say he's a genius.
He's in Mensa. He's in Mensa.
He's a genius. And on top of all of that, he's a very chill guy because I read a tweet that a reporter from the San Francisco area said, for anyone who's looking to hire Mike McDaniel as their next head coach, just a heads up, he refuses to take an interview with any team that is in a state that doesn't have legalized weed.
And he also... I'm not joking.
That was a serious thing that was said. King.
He's also the guy that greeted reporter Mike Jones by doing the whole, like, who is Mike Jones? Yeah, that's a clip I saw. He's basically, he's the most Colorado person of all time.
If you were to take the state of Colorado and just drop a police sketch of a random citizen,

the only difference is he would have a blue heeler dog with him on the sideline and a couple forearm tattoos,

and he'd be holding a micro brew.

And he's also, I mean, we're very stupid in the media.

If a coach shows even a little bit, like a tiny little bit of personality, everyone's like, oh my God, this is amazing. Yeah.
Like Brandon Staley, who we like, who we'll have back on. But all you have to do is show that you're not Mike McCarthy.
Yeah. You know what I mean? Like you're not Mike McCarthy.
You're not John Gruden when he's surly. You're not, you know, fill in whatever list of coaches that show no personality and everyone be like oh my god this guy is a breath of fresh air if you use a comb and you wear a shirt that kind of fits yeah reporters will be like the young hot coach yeah right exactly yeah he's not even like i mean he's not like hot but people will say he's yeah if you're because he just he doesn't he's not overweight and and bags under his eyes.
He doesn't have dip spit currently falling out of his chin hair. Yeah.
No, this guy, he's a real put-together guy. But the weed part is funny.
The weed part's very funny. It makes him a chill bro.
He's like Kyle Shanahan's understudy. He's been following him around for like seven years.
I feel like Kyle has six of those guys. Yes.
He pays to hang out with them. People were saying he was on the staff.
He was on that staff as well. Yeah, well, he just follows Kyle's shadow.
He was like a ball boy or something. No, he was the wide receiver coach on that same Washington Redskins team that they keep shoving in my fucking face.
All right, so we're going 49ers. Anything from the couch? We also went 3-13, by the way.
I see this game going two ways. One, a Packers blowout.
Okay. Two, if the 49ers win, I think it's going to be a similar game script to the Joe Flacco at Denver game double overtime.
He's going to have a 50-yard touchdown pass if they win. Okay.
Just straight up calling it. Okay.
I like it. So if they win, he's going to have a big play.
You know what I like is going on over here? Jake saw Billy's dildo prediction last weekend, and Jake's like, I got to step up my prediction game. I got it.
Also, I like it. If you're in between commercials of this game, Jake will be calling the Vermont game, 7 o'clock, Saturday night.
Well, you can watch the first half. I guess the Bengals-Titans.
Nah, that's all right. Titans will be killing them.
Two TVs. But if you tweet about this game, people are going to be like, bro, NFL's on.
Yeah, but I don't care. I will.
We'll watch two TVs, Jake. I'll walk into the fucking Lions' den.
I've watched every single game that Jake has called. Thank you.
And I'm not going to stop. All right.
It's on mute, but I've had it on the TV. Billy.
Aaron Rodgers in a two-minute drill to win the game. Ooh, so similar to week three.
Exactly. Too much time left for Aaron Rodgers.
God, I would love for him to just throw a back-breaking interception. I am full-blown.
People will say it's loser talk. I'm admitting I'm a loser.
But the Packers not winning the Super Bowl is the most important part of my football season now that the Bears season has been over for months. That might be loser talk, but I embrace it.
Whenever I go full Duke hater mode and they're like, you think about Duke all the time, I'm like, yeah. I don't care.
I like to do that. That's part of sports.
It's not just rooting for your team. It's rooting against your enemies.
Rooting for terrible things to happen to your enemies. So, I am full-blown rooting for terrible things to happen to the pack.
I think the Niners win. I think they win outright.
God, I hope so. Same.
God, I hope so. We're on the Niners? Really bad.
Really bad. I don't know.
If you want to go with my computer model, I have the Niners winning this game about 35% of the time, but covering the spread 85% of the time. I looked at the deep numbers.
I don't see a way they don't cover. Yeah.
I don't. Well, 85% is pretty high my my deep numbers are just the uniform matchup yeah it's great uniform matchup great uniform matchup okay is it gonna snow uh i believe it's gonna be too cold for snow oh is that a thing yeah oh yeah too cold for snow yeah when it gets really really cold is that like too drunk to fuck it's it's there's like yeah i'm pretty sure it gets too cold i just see cloudy high of 21 I don't know if that's true.
So it's not too cold to snow. Could change.
But there is too cold to snow. I don't know if that's true.
Can it be too cold to snow? No. I'm pretty sure it can.
No, it cannot be too cold to snow. No moisture in the air.
It's water. Clouds have water in them, and then they fall.
And when it's cold, it turns into snow. There are still certain conditions that can generate snowfall at extremely low temperatures.
But it's very rare. It's rare to snow.
Too cold for predictable snow. That's what I meant to say.
Can it be too cold to snow to answer? No. It cannot be too cold to snow.
I'm going to go with it. I don't think I was doing a bit with the too cold to snow thing.
No, but it's definitely when it gets really, really cold, it's most likely not going to snow. Wait, is it too dry to snow? Is it snow real? Yeah.

Too dry to snow. It's most likely not going to snow.
That's what I meant to say. Most likely not going to snow.
But the reason I asked was because I feel like it's counterintuitive with the Packers, with these Packers. Aaron Rodgers doesn't play abnormally well in the freezing cold.
So what is it, 21? Not like Brett Favre's high of 21. That's not that cold.
No. For Lambeau in January, that's actually...

There'll be... So what is it, 21? Not like Brett Favre's.
That's not that cold. That's not that cold.
No.

For Lambeau in January, that's actually half the stadium will have their shirts off.

Yeah, you know what that is? That's in that weird kind of in-between zone where you're not a pussy if you're an offensive lineman.

You wear sleeves.

Right.

Once it gets down into the lower teens, then you have to take the sleeves off again.

Yeah, and under 10, too cold to snow.

All right, before we get to Sunday's game, PFT, you had a take the sleeves off again. Yeah.
And under 10, too cold to snow. All right.

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The Bucs and the Rams, 3 o'clock. So similar to the Jimmy G conversation, I keep looking at this game.
I think the Rams are very, very good. I'm not going to discredit the Rams.
They have guys everywhere. Obviously, the Bucs are Super Bowl champs, but it comes down to simple Tom Brady versus Matt Stafford, and I don't feel comfortable betting Matt Stafford in a playoff game when the other quarterback is Tom Brady.
Who's more likely to make a back-breaking error that shifts the entire tenor of the game? I'm going to put it on Matt Stafford. I like that phrasing that you used there.
Yeah, tenor. No, no, the earlier one.
That one was okay, but the first one that you said was the Rams have guys everywhere. They do.
They do. They have guys everywhere.
I was thinking about all the different places, and there was a guy in that one. There's a guy in the defensive line.
There's a guy in the secondary. There's a guy in the backfield.
Everywhere. You know where there's not a guy.
There's one place. Safety.
Oh, I was going to say between the ears, Matt Stafford. No, actually, I like Matt Stafford in this matchup.
I mean, Matt Stafford's going to be a Hall of Famer. He got magically healthier over the last four or five weeks.
Remember that report that came out a while ago? Yeah. Saying every part of his body was injured, and he hadn't told anybody about it.
I thought for sure that was going to be a signal that he was going to suck for the rest of the year, but he's gotten better. And so I think I like Matt Stafford in this game.
I don't necessarily trust the Rams secondary because they were playing Eric Weddle at safety and no disrespect to the beard, but he's been out of football for like two and a half years. Yes, yes.
And this is, I mean, once we get to the divisional round, there's no outcome this weekend that would shock me. If the Rams go into Tampa Bay and kick their ass, I wouldn't be like, oh my God, I never saw that coming.
They got guys everywhere. They're really, really, they have the best defensive player, not named TJ Watt.
Like they have, their wide receivers are insane. Cooper Cup, Triple Crown, everything.
Like, it's just Tom Brady, you just don't go against him in these spots. I don't know.
It feels... There are a lot of boats in Tampa for Odell, too, to be around.
There are a lot of boats. The one thing that concerns me, and you'll have to look at the...
We're taping this, obviously, on Thursday, so we'll find out more on Friday after the injury report. Tristan Wirfs and Ryan Jensen are enormous for this game because you don't want to have a backup center trying to block Aaron Donald.
You don't want to have a backup. I mean, that backup left tackle who came in for Tristan Wirfs was so bad.
So bad. He was so bad that Stephen Shea was like, I hate this guy.
Stephen Shea never says that. He loves everybody.
Everyone who's ever been associated with the Bucs. He's the only bad player on the Buccaneers.
Yeah, and so if those two guys are out, I think you can live with one of them being out because I also, like Tom Brady, every time you're like, oh man, he's going to get smoked by the defensive line, you forget the fact that Tom Brady time and time again in the playoffs would just be like, oh, I'm going to have one of those games where we just run up-tempo and I throw it for five yards of completion and I string together 15 completions to score a touchdown on every drive. He can beat you that way where it's like it doesn't matter if you have no offensive line.
He'll just throw the ball so fast that you can never touch him. Well, the crazy thing is Tom Brady can beat you no matter what you do on defense.
Right. He has the antidote to every single problem that you would put in front of him.
It's just a matter of everybody else on the team doing their job and letting him get the ball from point A to point B. Because he's unbeatable.
Right. He's literally unbeatable.
There's no defense that you can ever play against Tom Brady that will befuddle him, that will give you a better chance of beating Tom Brady. You can play defenses and put coverages out there that will give you a better chance of beating everybody around Tom Brady.
But if Tom Brady is healthy, if he's on two feet and he's got an arm, he is able to beat you. Yeah, and he's, yeah, I mean, it could be one of those games where we're just like, why haven't we heard Aaron Donald? Like, well, because they're passing the ball in 1.5 seconds.
And it's just never even been a possibility that he could get touched. That being said, I like the Rams in this game.
Yeah, plus three. Again, not because of Tom Brady.
You mentioned the offense a lot. I think the center is like, Ryan Jensen, that's a big piece.
He did come back in the game against the Eagles. Yeah, he did come back, but he's not healthy.
Yeah, Tristan Wirfs came back and then had to leave again. But yeah, he did come back.
When Tristan Wirfs came back, by the way, it's like, what are you doing? Antonio Brown, there was a moment where we were like, what's going on here? Antonio Brown was absolutely right. I do think, though, the Bucs defense, like if the Bucs are going to win the Super Bowl again, it's not going to be because of Tom Brady.
They won the Super Bowl last year in part because of Tom Brady but their defense played lights out. Their defense wrecked everyone on the path to the Super Bowl.
It felt like they are finally healthy, finally back to that. Holy shit.
Like the Bucs when they're healthy and playing their best defense, they are you can check the box of like violent defense where it's every time they tackle someone, whether it be Levante David or Vita Vey or whoever's out there, they're actually trying to murder the person. Yeah, and Dominic is through a revenge game, too.
Yep. So you got that factor going.
True. And also the Bucs' running game was really good last year in the playoffs.
Playoff Lenny might be back. Playoff Lenny might be back.
Might be back. Who do they got? They got Playoff Le'Veon? No.
Dude, our guy. Kashawn Vaughn.
Oh yeah, Playoff Kashawn. Fuck that guy.
I hate the Bucs A-being the running back like that. Oh, it's the worst.
It's the worst. It's so painful to watch.
And we're saying this just because we had props on it. Yeah, 100%.
Because you can look ahead and know exactly when you're going to die in your bet 10 minutes before it happens, which sucks. Right.
I just want to see Le'Veon get out there a little bit. You remember when everybody in NFL media was staying up at night to figure out where Le'Veon Bell was going to go as a free agent because he dropped a mixtape? Yep.
And so you have like Pete Prisco listening to Le'Veon Bell's rap lyrics trying to decipher them. Wild times.
He was really good for like three, four years. He was incredible.
One of the best running backs. Absolutely.
Killer Bs. But yeah, I think I like the Rams in this game.
I know that there are a lot of reasons not to, but I'm also addicted to timing Tom Brady's demise. Max Kellerman.
I've been wrong repeatedly, so now I just can't get off this bad take. Again, if the Rams win, it's not going to be Tom Brady's demise.
It's going to be like, the Rams are a really good football team. They're just a really good football team.
Yeah, but people will definitely say, is this the end for Tom Brady? Of course, of course. Hank? I agree with PFT, but again, kind of similar to what you said, Big Cat, and out of respect for Tom, everything he's done for me and my family and my people, I'm taking the bucks, but I don't know.
I'm in my head about it. I do think the Rams remove Tom Brady from the situation or remove Tom Brady being my hero from the situation.
I would probably take the Rams. But he is.
It's up taking the Bucs. And it is one of those bets.
And Matt Stafford. Yeah, do you want to be...
You can't be against Tom Brady in the playoffs. Right.
You have a chance. You never want to be there.
You have a chance of winning, obviously, with the Rams because it's pretty much a coin flip game. But with the Rams, you also have a chance of winning, obviously, with the Rams, because it's pretty much a coin flip game.

But with the Rams, you also have a chance of feeling like an absolute moron.

If Matt Stafford throws two picks, and then everyone tweets at you,

how could you bet Matt Stafford against Tom Brady in the playoffs?

It's like a double loss, where you really feel bad about yourself.

I hate those.

I lost my bet in the national championship game betting on Nick Saban in Alabama. No one's going to blame me.
And it's like, yeah, I'm okay with that. I'm at peace for that.
Nine times out of ten, that bet works out. Yes.
Billy. My take is both these teams are like super teams, like Madden franchise mode teams, and the Buccaneers are the OG super team.
And the Rams, Odell, I think, was a flash in the pan last week because no one was really game planning for him because they thought he was a bust. Well, hasn't he had like four games in a row? He's been really good.
No one was game planning for him last week? Well, no, because that's why he had a big game. Because everyone was like, okay, they weren't taking him seriously.
He's had like seven touchdowns in his last five games. He has been good.
He has been good. Okay, I know what you're saying.
But they're taking him seriously this game. Got it.
It's not going to be as wide open as it was last game. And then Buccaneers lock down.
I think that you're right that these are two kind of like Spider-Man meme teams where they're kind of dream team. You could say that the Bucs are definitely assembled like a dream team would be.
The Rams are assembled like a basketball team and which is an issue especially when it comes to like I feel like their offensive line isn't as physical as the Bucs' offensive line is when it's healthy. I also – I don't know how you can look it up.
Can you look up weight for offensive linemen, like the total offensive line? They got Whitworth. They do have Whitworth, but I've always thought the Rams had a little bit on the lighter side, which is not good when you're going on V to V.
And this might made up completely made up so i'm just saying that right now i wish i could find that stack can you find it i can do it i i think it's list their weights real quick you got them i don't even know what the average weight would be all right this is the research okay what would be light what would be a? I'd say probably like 310. Yeah, somewhere around there.
Which is crazy to say, like 310s. And when you're going up against Vita Vey, who's what? 370? 380? I mean, that would be...
It's always funny when we try to break down football and like the X's and O's. It's like sometimes, it's kind of like when basketball, like sometimes the taller team wins.
Sometimes the guys with the bigger guys win. That's what Booger said last week about Vito Vey.
He's like, he's got too much ass for Kelsey. Right.
And it's true. Like Vito Vey has, his ass can single-handedly defeat an offensive line by itself.
It's like every time we get pumped about a point guard who's like under six feet and then they get in the playoffs, they get bottled up. You're like, oh're playing a guy who's like seven inches taller than him and it matters in the playoffs yeah if you're looking at the order of like things that dominate and are more important than other things it can be like offensive lineman who runs a 4740 offensive lineman that can bench press um 225 pounds 50 times and then just Vito Vey's ass on top of all of it.
Yes. It says the average weight of linemen in the NFL is 314 in recent years.
I would say eyeball test 310 for the Rams. Okay, so a little bit on the lighter side.
According to Billy's eyeball, yeah. So according to my gut feeling, a little bit on the lighter side.
I actually tried to look it up. I couldn't figure.
How do they not rank that? How do you not have just a ranking of total weight of offensive line? I'm on it right now. Andrew Whitworth.
I clicked on his name. Starting left tackle.
He weighs 330 pounds. Okay, so he's on the bigger side.
So he's on the bigger side. Number two, David Edwards.
This is like a Mike Princess of it. No, this is better.
Way better than. All right, David Edwards.
Wisconsin guy. 308.
Oh. Not good.
Get that weight up. I think the cat was on or something.
Get that weight up. You're a big guy.
You're from Wisconsin. You need to be drinking more milk and bathing in butter.
Your center, Brian Allen, 303. Yeah, center's obviously smaller usually, but still.
303, I would like to see that a little bit higher. Austin Corbett, right guard, 306.
Uh-oh. These guys...
I'm telling you... These guys need to hit a Golden Corral buffet before the game.
I'm going to look like a genius if these guys get smoked on Sunday. Wait, that's the same guy that I just said.
Austin Corbett. They're just light.
Rob Havenstein. Also Wisconsin.
That's a heavy sounding name. Also Wisconsin.
Before I look at it, that's a heavy sounding name. Rob Havenstein, 330.
Okay, so their ends. They're Their middle.
Their middle, which is where Vito Vey's ass is. 315.4.
Is what? Their total? Right, but their middle is, yeah, their middle is light. Yeah.
They're like. You can afford to have some lighter guys on the edges, especially considering who the Well, I guess Jason Pierre-Paul is pretty big.
But in the middle, you got Vitoves' ass just staring you down. That big brown eye.
Where else are you going to find this type of breakdown? Nowhere. Where we guess weights and don't even know if it matters.
This goes back to that conversation that we had a while ago. I forget who we're talking to.
Maybe it was Fernelli. We were talking about the...
Andy Staples. We were talking about weaknesses in recruiting offensive linemen in California.
The food's not fat enough out there to keep them big. That's the problem with the LA team.
Hank, how excited are you for in and out all Super Bowl week? Oh, I can't wait. I mean, are you going to eat every meal? And possibly wingnuts.
Are you going to eat it? Oh yeah, I know. I've got to actually get on that if that's a possibility.
I guess we'll know after this week. I also just feel like Ed and Alicia, we could be like, hey, first class, tickets to the game, set you up, and they'd be like, no thanks.
We'll stay here and watch them. I had that thought as well.
They could absolutely say that. I could see them going to a watch party at the stadium.
I could see them doing that. This is not a bit at all, I swear to God, this happened to me This morning at 2am I woke up and I was thinking about wingnuts and I just pulled my phone out and I went onto my own Instagram page to rewind until I got to the wingnuts and I just stared at the chicken wings for about 30 seconds.
Incredible. And looked at them.
They're the best. I need them.
I'm predicting a segment for First Taker Undisputed Monday morning. If the Bucs win this game, they're going to say the Rams went all in, only to forget Tom Brady's in their conference.
Yeah. Kind of like when super teams build with LeBron in the East.
I also think the Rams, for some reason, they've just figured out a way to go all in every year. I don't know what they do.
They don't have any draft picks. Jake, do you agree, though, that if the Rams win, the conversation is, is this the end of the line for Tom Brady? Yes, one of those two will be happening.
Do you think that Tom Brady, Hank, I'll pose this to you, if they win the Super Bowl this year, do you think he would walk off? Yeah, I think it's a possibility. I think it's now.
We're definitely in the range of – because I actually was thinking about this. I don't think he would do the walk-off at the Super Bowl podium.
I think he would wait

like Peyton basically did that.

Peyton was

an all-time, you don't retire from the game

the game retires you.

But Tom Brady, I think he would wait

to make it a big

week-long thing in like

February or March. It would probably be

tied in with one of his new companies

that he's got. Yeah.

Tom Brady week, big announcement coming

on the 12th of whatever month he's in. It's crypto and he retires.
There was drama with the final episode of The Man in the Arena. Oh, really? People were saying, because it didn't come out on the day it was supposed to come out, and people were saying, I was like, in many Twitter threads, Billy reply reply guy but some were saying that antonio brown was in the episode and they were cutting him out post mostly and some were saying that he didn't die they're waiting for tom brady to win and episode 10 is going to be him announcing his retirement whoa so have they not have not released i'm trying to i'm trying to i this was i was looking at it before it got released i didn't check if it ended up getting released.
Probably the ESPN app just crapped out. Yeah, the ESPN app sucks recently.
Wait, they want him to win this playoff game then retire? No, they want him to win the Super Bowl then retire. Hank, are you saying that they're going to hang on to this episode until after the Super Bowl? I'm not saying this is what the people on Twitter replied because people would be like, where the fuck is this episode and then people in the replies were like they're waiting for him

to win the Super Bowl and retire. Well if that's the case then we live

in a simulation because that just means

like if he's like we're going to wait because

I know I'm going to win the Super Bowl. I'll keep going

we'll see if it's out yet. Or if they lose then

he announces retirement?

I don't know. If he loses

before the Super Bowl he's coming back next year. Yes

I'd agree with that. But fuck

the ESPN app.

All right.

Except ESPN 3 is great on Saturday night where you can watch Vermont.

Hell yes.

What do you listen to, Jake?

He's got something.

He's crunching something. Matt LaFleur in his press conference today mentioned the podcast.

What did he say?

I can play it.

Give it to us.

Yep.

All right.

This is off the cuff.

All right, LaFleur.

For Saturday, I see a high of 19, a low of 7.

I'm wondering if that reaches the threshold for your wetsuit, if that will be utilized on Saturday. I don't know.
We'll just have to see how I'm feeling game time. But I definitely will have some layers on.
You know, I always joke with these guys that I don't get the chance when we're making corrections on offense or on defense to go sit on those heated benches so I'm going to make sure I stay warm okay so maybe wetsuit that was that was front of the program Aaron Nagler who I I text with him uh every now and then I am very like I basically it's like a thermometer of confidence for Packers, and his tone tells me whether he truly thinks he can win it all. He absolutely does, and that's making me very nervous.
His answers to me are like, uh-oh. But he's legit with his emotions to you.
He's not always like, we're going to win everything. He's overconfident.
He's realistic. He's very honest, and I'm very worried just based on our correspondence.
What about Tom Crabtree, recurring guest? I feel like he's the guy that's always too confident. Yeah, he's always like Aaron Rodgers is the greatest ever.
He shouldn't be in jail. Because he threw one touchdown to me.
Episode 10 is not out. Oh, okay, so stay woke.
No offense, Tom. I love you.
So we live in a simulation, officially. All right, Sunday night.

I mean, this is the best part about this weekend,

is that we have three games that are all great,

and then we have the Chiefs and the Bills,

which I could not be more excited for this game.

In fact, I've released my game of the year,

my third game of the year, over 54.5 in this game.

People are like, oh, how many games of the year?

Listen, I haven't lost a game of the year yet.

Do you want me to keep releasing winners? I also love that a lot of people have been taking the under, which makes me even more confident because I know it's a high number. I know it's crazy.
Why would you take the under in this game? It's you. It's torture.
Yeah. Torture yourself.
This is a fun game. This is a game where any given quarter, either one of these two teams could put up 24 points.

Right. So my rationale behind it, in terms of the actual game,

which we could talk about who we actually think is going to win,

but the rationale behind the over game of the year

is

the last two times these guys have played,

it's been fireworks, including the

AFC Championship game, so you can't be like, oh, they

play tighter in the playoffs. I think

both teams are going to get at least

one, maybe two, big

time touchdowns. You know what I mean? Like, big

Thank you. FC Championship game, so you can't be like, oh, they play tighter in the playoffs.
I think both teams are going to get at least one, maybe two, big time touchdowns. You know what I mean? Like, big time plays.
I like that. Big time touchdowns.
Big time touchdowns. Not 10 play drives.
I'm talking three play drives. That's one where you say, to the house.
Yeah, right. You're like, that's good for the over.
I'm also, so, for the Chiefs, we'll have to look at the practice reports, but Rashad Fenton, their best cornerback, didn't play against the Steelers, back injury, hasn't practiced this week. He would be very crucial for the Chiefs defense on a team that wants to pass the ball over you.
And for the Bills, I think this is where you really get hurt by Tredavious White. When you look at who the Bills played, he got hurt in that, was it Thanksgiving night?

Did they play Thanksgiving night?

Yeah. this is where you really get hurt by Tredavious White.
When you look at who the Bills played, he got hurt in that, was it Thanksgiving night? Did they play Thanksgiving night? Yeah, the Saints, the Saints and Bills. They then played a bunch of teams that really couldn't kill them with the pass, and also the Bucs who did kill them with the pass.
Remember that game that went to overtime, and the Bucs kind of took their foot off the gas? The refs fucked him. The refs fucked him.
I think this is the game where you're like, damn, really wish we could have Shredavious White out here against the Chiefs offense that can do it on anyone. I think that the Bills are one of the only teams in the NFL that can control the clock against the Chiefs enough to keep Patrick Mahomes off the field.
Hey, big cat, Chiefs can't score when Mahomes doesn't have the ball. True.
That's just a fact. A lot of teams say that.
Well, they can, technically, yes, I know. But, yeah.
But they probably won't be scoring if Mahomes doesn't have the ball. The Bills can do it, though.
They have the offense necessary that can keep their team on the field for a longer period of time, keep their defense rested, and then just hope that you get a couple stops here and there against Mahomes, and then you try to grind it out a little bit. And I'll be the first to admit I kind of fell for the Chiefs defense has completely fixed itself.
And then you look back through it and you're like, okay, who did they play? And, I mean, they didn't fix themselves against Justin Herbert, who's a very good quarterback. They didn't fix themselves against Joe Burrow, who's a very good quarterback.
They fixed themselves. I mean, even the Broncos went up and down on them with Drew Locke.
They fixed themselves against Big Ben. What? What does that mean? Drew Locke? I mean, you had to like, yeah.
It's a sideswipe. It's a sideswipe.
They fixed themselves against, you know, Big Ben, who some of the numbers after this season, like did you see the chart, the pass chart he had? Yeah. He wasn't playing football by the end.
It really wasn't. They played the Packers, but it was Jordan Love, and they beat up on the Raiders twice.
So I think the Chiefs defense is not historically bad like it was. It's definitely a lot better.
It's somewhere in the middle, yeah. But it does feel like when they play really good teams, you see like, oh, yeah, this isn't the strength of their team.
But even if they're playing badly, they're still opportunistic enough where they can make you pay if you make a mistake. They'll turn the ball over.
Tyron Matthews get his hand on a ball that he has no business intercepting or picking up a fumble that he shouldn't even be there for. And he'll get it.
And that's just what the Chiefs defense... I find that happens a lot with teams that are really good offensively, is the defense just shuts everything else off in their brains except for turnovers.
Right. It's like, we'll go out here and you can complete whatever you want on us.
We'll give up a shitload of yards. But we're exclusively playing to try to get the ball out of your hands.
Yeah, that's our contribution. Exactly.
So I feel like the Chiefs defense is good enough to keep them honest,

but I still think that this is Josh Allen's time.

I think we're going to see Josh fucking Allen this weekend.

I want it to happen so bad.

I'm going to focus on the over because it's my game of the year.

I don't think I'm going to bet either side.

I would bet the Bills, but there's just a nagging thing in the back of my brain that like it's similar to the tom brady where every time you think that patrick mahomes like last year in the afc championship game then what happened i it's just like the chiefs are one of those teams that can embarrass you yeah they can embarrass you when you gamble against them bills can too that's i know i know and i want them to last weekend win. But you can.
He's a rookie quarterback. You can easily.
Is it time to move on from Mac Jones? He's a rookie. No.
Are you sure? Yes. I mean he's.
He looked pretty bad down the stretch there Hank. I mean he's a rookie quarterback that took his team to the playoffs.
We're not talking about that. Okay.
You can be embarrassed by Patrick Mahomes. You can go into a game thinking that you're going to beat Patrick Mahomes.
And then have like the. You know.
Like happen on night. Obviously, the Steelers aren't, they're barely a playoff team.
They were a playoff team, but that snowballed on them so fucking fast and so, holy shit, this is what they do. They ran out of fireworks.
Yeah. I've got one quote from the Bills left tackle, Deion Dawkins, that might sway you to betting on the Bills.
Oh, again, I would bet on the Bills if I were – I'm focusing all my energy on the over. Deion Dawkins, he says – this actually might be a new segment for us.
No disrespect, but F everybody. Love it.
He even said F. He didn't say fuck.
But he implied no disrespect, but F everybody. I like it.
I like the entire Bills mindset right now because they still feed off all the disrespect that they got after that Week 13 game. It was recent enough where the Titans lose to the Jets earlier in the season.
People clown them for a week and kind of forget about it and move on. But since that was a Monday night football game and it was so late in the season, since it was such a memorable game, they're still catching shit.
And the Jaguars game, too, happened around that time. Yeah, the Jags game, too.
So it was like a combo. So they're still catching shit for being somewhat fraudulent.
But if you've seen them play recently, you know that the Phillies... They're really good.
And they might get beat this weekend, but I don't think that that would make them frauds. No.
The Chiefs are also really good. That's why I'm so excited for these games.
Everyone is really good at this point in the playoffs. We're sounding like Magic Johnson right now.
Anything could happen. Anything could happen, guys.
You also should watch, not just because he is our friend and he will be back on the show next week, Julian Edelman. Inside the NFL, did see the mic'd up uh Jordan Poyer talking to guys on the bench about Josh Allen he's like he's so fucking good and no one realizes how goofy he is and it was just so awesome it was so endearing they're like I'd die for him I love him I just there's something about when like defensive players like love their quarterback who they probably in an NFL locker room they probably spend no time with them and like having that love for them it means that they're really a dude.
Yeah. And that's Josh.
That's Josh baby. Thoughts on this game from Hank or the couch before we get to Coach O? Going Bills.
Bills money line. Yeah.
Small. Yeah.
Yeah. I do have a hungry dog.
It's Niners, Bills, Bengals. Ooh.
Niners, Bills, Bengals. Okay.
That is a very hungry dog. Where does that lose? I mean, I think one of those is going to lose.
I just don't know which one. Yeah.
No offense. I like the Bills.
You picked the Niners and the Bills, so the Chiefs. And the Bengals.
So you... So I agree with you.
Okay. But I don't think all three.
I'm not delusional enough to think that all three of my bets are going to win. I am.
All right. You've got to have that confidence.
Yeah, I love it. Billy.
Like the Bills, but it's going to be an absolute shootout. Yes, over.
Game of the year. Let's go.
And just so everyone knows, and the guys in this room can back me up, when I say game of the year, I put the chips in the middle. I'm putting the chips in the middle.
It's going to be a responsibly large wager for me. I'm going to be sweating out every second of it.
I might ride with you. Thank you.
It's fun to just be like, let's fucking ride. I increased my units last week on the Cowboys credibility game, which I lost.
But now I've got that big game hunting feeling. It's fun.
PFT, get your fingers ready. This is basic heaven.
Yes, it is. Bills, Chiefs.
Are you worried, though, that it's early? Is it too early for basic? No, I think anytime the Chief Chiefs – it's actually even more perfect for basic time because all the big Js are still awake. No one's tapped out for bed yet.
Barbecue spread in the press box, I'm sure. It's sad how more excited I am for the timing of this game, the fact that we actually can maybe start recording at like 10 o'clock on Sunday night.
It's crazy how much that changes my entire mood and happiness that we don't have to like start recording at midnight. It's insane.
It probably says a lot about like we may football season has taken its toll. Yeah.
On our lives. It's a nice, really nice change of pace.
Yes. Okay.
Before we get to Coach O, quick word. So we started the Coach O interview.
His audio wasn wasn't great we stopped at about two minutes in we got it fixed he got into the uh air pods sounded great afterwards he also gave us at the end of the interview one of the greatest uh compliments we've ever gotten on this show i'm still buzzing from yeah it was you our tombstones. Maybe one of the last times we had him on, he just –

out of nowhere he goes, thank you all for your friendship.

Yeah.

And that made me feel high for two weeks.

Yeah.

I'm still buzzing from what he told us at the end earlier

because nobody's ever said that to us before.

Yes, yes.

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Okay, here he is, our very good friend, Coach O. Okay, we now welcome on one of our very special guests, one of our good friends.
It is Coach O. He is live from Miami Beach.
You look fantastic. You look like you're happy, sun, everything.
We're going to talk about Joe Burrow, the Bengals, big playoff game, but let's first do this. I mean, what, unemployed Coach O look like? It looks like a pretty good life right now.
You're doing well. I've been enjoying myself, man.
I've been enjoying my family. I've been enjoying my time off, working out, doing a lot of things that I haven't got a chance to do.
Very appreciative of my time at LSU. Feeling great.
Yeah. You look like you've been spending some time with Ray Baker down there.
You still friends with him? Yeah. I just went running with it, man.
It kicked my butt again. It got me.
I love it. Are you lifting right now? Are you benching? What are you doing? Yeah, I'm lifting and running every day, man.
Every day I can. And boxing at night.
Oh. Okay.
All right. So what are you benching right now? I mean, you know, I think you're, you're the one who told us that you have to be able to bench a certain weight to get respect in the locker room.
Yeah. You know, and my goal was I had to wake up every day and bench three 15.
I've got it. I got to tell you, I'm not there yet.
I got to get back at it. I got a little work to do.
Okay. That's a good goal.
That's a good goal. You'll get there for sure.
So is there a part of you that has started to miss football? Or are you just like, you know what, I'm going to enjoy my time off. I'm going to take some time for O.
Yeah, I'm taking some time off, watching a lot of football. All three of my sons want to get into coaching.
So, I mean, we're on the phone. We're networking.
It's like I'm young again, trying to get jobs all try to get jobs get plays get competitive so i spend a lot of time doing that with my boys yeah i was actually going to ask you about your son is he still talking to you after you sacked him eight times that's messed up i was looking at the stats from that game he had he had negative 60 yards rushing that's mean that was a mean thing you did to him you know what know what he says? He said he loved the game. He said, Daddy, I scored in Tiger Stadium, man.
He said, I'll never forget it. He thinks the positive.
You know what? He's tough. He knew it was going to happen.
And I was just happy when that game was over. I got to tell you the truth.
Yeah, I love it. Okay, Coach O's back.
We had to do a little technical thing here to get a little bit better audio um this is this is life at the beach right like this is you know it's not like you're in a conference room set up to do a bunch of meetings i love it this is this is perfect uh setup so um we were talking about uh missing football how is it watching the games like you know being in football for as long as you have been football, can you watch the games and enjoy them? Or do you watch the games and you're like, oh, they got to do this different. Or I wish I could see the All-22.
I wish I could see something differently. Yeah, you know, I enjoy watching the game.
I sit down. We get a lot of food with my kids.
We're on a sofa. I didn't get a chance to do that for 42 years.
You know, on Sundays we're working. On Saturdays we're working.
So I enjoy watching the football games. I enjoy sitting there.
So actually I really enjoyed being with my time off. And I know there's a lot of good football being played right now.
I'm excited about the playoffs. There's a lot of great teams.
For sure. Yeah, the Bengals are looking really, really good.
And I know that you're keeping up with them because obviously they got Joe and Jamar on the team. And the last time we saw those guys playing together and saw you was uh it was down new orleans when you guys were winning national championship that was a pretty fun night have you um do you stay in touch with joe do you talk to him on a regular basis yeah you know i text every once in a while and he always texts me back uh my son was going through a tough time through a couple of picks he.
He gave him a call. He's always there for him.

I talked to his dad, very supportive, very proud of what he's doing.

So the Joe Burrow-like path is incredible to me because, you know,

obviously he goes to Ohio State and transfers to you guys at LSU.

And we were reminiscing on Monday.

We were at that game his first year at LSU when he played Alabama. You know, you guys, I think, got blanked.
And we watched the game. I remember coming away from that game being like, one, Joe Burrow's tough as hell because he got beat up.
Yeah. But two, I didn't walk away being like, that guy's the first pick in the draft and he's going to be a future franchise quarterback.
And then from that point on, it's like the explosion of his talent, everything. Did you see that? Did you in your wildest dreams be like, this guy is going to be a bona fide superstar in the NFL? We didn't see it when he first came, to be honest with you.
I saw his leadership. I saw his guts and his character.
But he had some things he had to work on. I think Steve Insman, our quarterback coach, did a tremendous job with him.
Joe grew as a football player that was sure. He had to compete.
Like you said, man, we got beat by Alabama. Nobody was happy, but Joe came to work the same day, same way, same attitude.
And I think when he really exploded, when that summer that he had to get 10,000 balls with each receiver, they grew together. The game against UCF he had a great game there and then we went to the spread offense with Joe Brady I think that was the evolution of Joe that was more his wheelhouse and he could be more in control of the game and in terms of his toughness because I think that's an underrated part of Joe Burrow like you know because obviously guys are all there's a lot of tough guys in the NFL but at the quarterback position Joe Burrow it feels like he is always going to give his receivers an extra second and take that hit and stand in the pocket and I it's something that you just can't teach and I would imagine speaking as his former coach like the rest of the team sees that and just galvanizes behind him.
Is that not how it works? Hey, I'll tell you what. It fired up the team, man.
It's in his DNA. Now, Joe will fight for you.
Joe will work his butt off. He'll be first in the waiting room.
He's consistent. I remember his first game.
I'm walking right behind. We had a pregame warm-up, and I'm walking right behind.
We're going in there. I'm about to talk to the team, and Joe has his helmet on, and he's banging it against the cement wall.
Settle down, man. You're going to be okay.
But that's in him. Joe's tough, and that's in him.
It's going to be like that every day with Joe Burrow. It's great, too, because the way we watch football has obviously changed, analytics, and the

way people talk about football,

but I just love when you

see a guy and you're like, yeah, he's just a tough

motherfucker, and that matters

a lot for football.

It matters in the locker room.

Our team believed in Joe, and he took that

hit against UCF. It was a late

hit. I called timeout.

I said to get Miles in. He used some words at that that coach, I ain't going out.
We're down 14 points. We went down and scored the next three possessions.
I think that's when he won the team over. Yeah.
Yeah. And it always seems like he's unflappable too.
Like, yeah, he does. He does take a lot of hits and he gets right back up.
And I think, you know, his players, his teammates obviously his teammates obviously respect that. But he also doesn't lose his cool when he's back there.
He's got a very even temperature about him where he's dodging around guys that are coming at him that weigh 100 pounds more than he does. And he doesn't seem like he's even breaking a sweat.
That's his intelligence. That is his confidence.
Joe studies film. And like I said, you guys know this.
We had a football meeting, the recruiting, there were six people in the room. All of us in there, our coaches, Joe was the smartest guy in the room.
He's the smartest football player I've ever been around. He studies, he's consistent.
He has one goal in mind is that's to be great. You know, the year we were going on a championship run and you know, he started, think about this.
He started the season. He was a projected six round pick pick.
He ended up being the first-round pick. You talk about development, getting better throughout the year.
But you know what? As we grew and as we started winning games, Heisman's trophy started talking. That was not his goal.
Our goal was one thing. It's to win the championship.
And he led us that way. Yeah, you mentioned recruiting.
I'm curious. Do you miss going on recruiting trips? Do you miss being invited into Mama's home and having some of the gumbo? You know what? Hey, I did it for so long.
Think about this. I've been in college for 42 years, man.
That's a long time. It's time to take a break.
I'm enjoying my break, but you know what? I do miss it. I do miss football.
I do miss my team. I miss the excitement.
I miss the competition. So, um, not to, you know, dwell on the past, but how often do you think about the national championship that night? Because I will tell you right now, I probably think about it once a week just because it was that much fun.
And it went like going out after new orleans and then getting to interview you the next day when we were very very drunk uh how often do you think about it though you know it happened so fast and derrick would tell you guys will know that man you'd have a chance to take it all in and uh but you know being a boy from louisiana and always want to win the championship for the people in louisiana now that I get to think about that, it was a special night. It was a special night for the state of Louisiana.
Think about this, man, 15-0. All they can do is try to match it.
Good luck. They can't take it away from you ever.
They can't beat it. I don't know if you remember this, but right after the interview that we had, where as Big Cat alluded to, we were fairly intoxicated still from the night before his festivities.
We interviewed Joe. And then after we interviewed Joe, you were still in like head coach mode where you were running around, grabbing me, and you were like, everybody get on the bus right now.
The bus is going to leave without you. And you were making sure everybody, and everyone, your whole team was like, what the hell do we need to get on the bus for? We just won the national championship.
We don't have practice tomorrow. But you're right.
I don't think that you were really – you're not a guy that, like, sits back and would soak things in. You're always on the go, right? Yeah.
You know, and the next thing's up. You know, we had to get back.
We had to get back. We had to get recruiting.
We had to get going. You know, we wanted to keep that thing rolling.
I'm so appreciative of the coaches and the players. Think about this, man.
The way you win championships you get great players. Great players make big-time plays and big-time games and how guys do it.
I assume that you did watch the college football championship this year. Did you have a rooting interest? Were you pulling for Georgia or Alabama? I was interested in watching the game.
I was really interested in seeing a lot of players that we recruited. We played Alabama very tough.
We played about as tough as anybody. And I was pleased to see that Georgia played their best game.
I'm happy for Kirby Smart. Obviously, I got a lot of respect for Coach Saban in Alabama, but I'm happy for Kirby.
I know how much it meant for him to win the national championship, for him to be at a school that he played for in Georgia. I'm very happy for him and his team.
You talked about winning it for the state of Louisiana, the people of Louisiana, being from Louisiana. Have you had any talk maybe in the transition with Brian Kelly, maybe tell him how not to do a Louisiana accent? Has that come up at all? Has he reached out and been like, hey, coach, I could really use some help pronouncing the word family? Not at all.
Hey, you know what? Man, we went to LSU. We were going to work every day, and I knew one day in the comm that I walk out of that building.
I said, once I walk out of that building and I'm leaving it alone, I'm doing everything I can, very appreciative. I never had a bad day at Louisiana State University.
I wish all those guys would love, but now it's up to them. I got nothing to do with it now.
Yeah, and you deserve credit because it's a very tricky situation. It's not often that a guy, you know, is told, hey, you're not going to be here next year, but we still need you to keep coaching for the rest of the year.
And, you know, I think that's a testament to your love for the school and the state of Louisiana. So you deserve credit for that, for sure.
You know, we were going to stay and fight. I wasn't going to leave my team.
And I knew after the Kentucky game that wasn't the LSU standard performance. We had a meeting.
I understand. I get it.
I understand the LSU standard performance. It just wasn't there.
But I was going to stay there and fight

for the team. And think about this, man.
We played

Alabama tough. You know, we're a couple

of plays away from winning that game. We played great

defense. We played

Arkansas overtime.

And then we beat Texas A&M. And I kept

telling the team, stay together.

You know, we had a lot of new guys play. We had a lot

of guys that didn't play. And those

guys that stayed, I told them, if you keep on working, something good is going to happen. And, man, what a great game against Texas A&M.
A great member. That was.
And do you regret at all the sissy blue shirts? Because I regret it. Because I bet on LSU after you said that.
And then it just didn't really work out. Yo, not at all.
Yeah, not at all. And listen, that's something.
Listen, man, that's a long-going thing with USC. I used to say that at USC a long time ago, back in 1999 when I was there.
You know, I was walking in there, and the fan provoked me, and I was just joking with them, you know, about the sissy blue shirts. Well, they did whip out there, and I got to give them credit.
Yeah, yeah. We just need to know, Big Ken big can i because we've talked about this a little bit we're um we like lsu we we like louisiana state university we love the state of louisiana but we're also just like coach oh guys so you you really upped our love for that university you essentially recruited us when you were there whether you know it or not we need to know is it still go tigers right now are we now? Are we still pulling for them? It would always be Go Tigers.
I'm always pulling for them. I wish them all the best, man.
I've got a lot of people that I love there. I've got a lot of players that are recruited.
I don't know Coach Kelly well. I think he's a great coach.
I think he's going to do a great job. I wish them all the best.
I'm always going to cheer for the Tigers. So let me throw this idea out there because I think I'm getting the vibe that you are enjoying your time, but you're not going to say no to like coaching, you know, again, you'll be back out there at some point.
Have you thought about being just an interim head coach for hire? Because you're the greatest interim head coach of all time. When you took over for USC, that was my initial love with you, was you took over for USC in what it was, 2013,

and you guys went on a tear against the spread and straight up.

And then the same thing happened when you took over at LSU.

There's something about you that you can galvanize a locker room.

So have you thought about that?

Like, hey, you're going to fire your coach?

Bring in Coach O.

Pay him like $5 million. He'll finish out the season, probably win some games you're not supposed to win.
Hey, that's a good idea, man. Hey, I'm ready.
Hey, I didn't think of it like that, but hey, I'm one phone call away. I'm ready, I'm rested.
And look, hey, I've been off for what, six weeks now? I got the itch. I do think I'm going to coach again, but it's got to be the right thing.
I'm not going to – I'm going to spend some time. I'm going to do the things that I need to do.
But if it's the right thing, I'm getting back at it. Are we limiting ourselves to college? Are we thinking, like, if the right pro team called in the right situation, you do that? Yeah, all options are open.
All doors are open. You know, I'm going to be 61 this summer.
I'm healthy. I got a lot left in the tank, man.
Whatever it may be, whatever's going to whatever's gonna happen is gonna be for the right reason I do believe that let me throw out another one um and now I never know with coaches it's always tough college football is a cutthroat uh business so I might say this name and you're like oh we had a falling out like 10 years ago you didn't know but you were a coach you were on the staff when Mario Cristobal was a player at Miami. Maybe Coach O comes back to bring some juice back to the U, you know, defensive line, you know, defense, whatever it may be, get the boys going again.
Is that a possibility? It may be. You know, I'm not far away.
Yeah. I'm going to pass the car again.
We're going to ride through the Keys. But you know what? I talked to Mario, and I love Mario.
I think he's a great fit for the University of Miami. He's got a lot of pride.
It reminds me of going back to LSU, and I think he's going to do a great job there. And, again, I'm keeping all options up.
Okay, so I'm going to put that one out in the rumor mill just because, like I said, I never know. Like, I could probably list 10 coaches that you've coached with or been around and like eight of them you'd be like oh yeah we don't talk anymore because that's just the nature of the business right like that's just that's how it always seems to work where you mention someone who's like oh yeah you didn't hear there was a falling out over a recruit or whatever it may be you know what i can't tell you that all the guys i've been with with friends i talked to lane kiff another day i talked to talked to Sarkeesian, Pete Carroll, Clay Hilton, all these guys.
You know, we tight. I mean, we're a one family.
And this stuff happens in football. It's competitive.
But you got to let that stuff go. You got to move on, you know? Would you ever consider leaving the South? Like, could you see yourself working in a city where it snows for four months out of the year? Well, you know, I got to tell you, I coached in Syracuse, New York, with Paul Pasquale.
I'm very gracious of the job. And Syracuse was a great school.
But when it snowed May 1st, this Southern boy had to leave. I was shoveling snow out of my driveway.
Down here we balled crawfish and we played basketball outside. And the snowing May 1st was little different for me, I've got to admit.
Yeah, May 1st, that's just God telling you you're not supposed to be living here. It should be the summer.
You should be able to have your shirt off somewhere and a cocktail in your hand on May 1st. I would get out of there too if I were you.
I had a question about Big Cat brought up the interim coaching thing. Rick Basakia is the coach of the Raiders, right? He took over on an interim basis.
He was thrown into a really, really tough situation, and I think he handled himself really well this year. You can see that his players care about him, that his players played real hard for him this entire season.
They kind of outperformed those expectations there. What was it, do you think, about what you did at LSU that was able to give them the confidence that, okay, we're going to take this guy that he's had success being an interim coach and we're going to give him the keys? What do you think, what kind of case could Basacci make for himself that might lend some credence to the fact that he should stay, he should stick around as the head coach there?

Well, the good thing is that he had a job interview every Sunday.

And I thought the guy did very well.

And he had a job interview every day.

They saw the inner workers.

They saw the way that he had got that team to play.

I think the guy did a great job, man.

I hope they give him a shot.

I think he deserves it.

I know Rod Marinelli on that staff. I know Walt Jewel, one of the scouts there.
Everybody loves him. Everybody's talking great about the guy.
I think when you step in like that and you're not ready for it, and then you go in there and you galvanize the team, I think that a guy deserves a shot. I think he can do a great job.
You know, I was very fortunate, and Derek was there right with me, and I talked to Joe Lee the other day, and I thanked him for hiring me. We won the first choice.
It wasn't the second choice. It wasn't the third, but it didn't matter.
You know, we got the job, and what I said, you know, once we get the job, I will go to win the national championship. We wanted to build a championship program, and we did, but'm grateful.
So when you're watching the NFL, we were just talking to Derek before this started. There's LSU Tigers on the Titans as well.
Is it like watching fantasy football where you're just rooting? You're not rooting for a team. You're just rooting for your specific guys to ball out? Yes.
I'm watching individuals play. You know what? I'm so proud of all these guys.
They're doing so well, man. They took the NFL by storm.
But you know what? It's no surprise because they're team players. They're about the team.
They're about winning. All those guys had a tremendous work at it.
Think about this. In the spring, going into our championship year, on a Saturday morning, we had a recruiting weekend,

and spring ball was over.

And my own campus recruiting coordinator called me and said,

Coach, can we take the recruits to watch your team practice?

I said, we don't have practice on Saturday morning.

Spring practice is over.

She goes, no.

She goes, Joe and Jamar and all those guys,

and Justin Jefferson called the practice.

Clyde Edwards-Lair called the practice.

The whole team was there 100% on Saturday morning, practice at 9 o'clock. That's loving football, man.
Wow. Some of those guys, they got that in the DNA, and I'm so glad that they took it to the NFL and have the success.
It also goes to show you when we recruited these young men, we talked about development. We talked about you're going to get better.
Five-star, four-star, three-star,

two-star. It don't matter.

Look at Devin White. Look at what he's

doing. Look at Justin Jefferson.
I don't know if he was

a star. It didn't matter, but they

developed at LSU. And also,

you guys know, playing in the

SEC is one notch below the NFL.

And the competition level

there is fierce. I think that's why

those guys are having so much success in the NFL. Yeah.
And the speaking of guys in this draft, how good could Derek Stingley be? Like he's going to be a first round pick. He was one of your, your, your great players on the championship team as well.
Is he going to be another guy who you just like, we're going to, we're going to look back. Cause it's actually, it's great for your legacy too.
we, 10 years from now, it's like, look at LSU's roster from that year. It's insane.
And Derek's thing will be added to that. Derek's the most out of the corner I've seen in a long time.
Corey Raymond coached him, and he said he's as good as Patrick Peterson. Those guys have been around Patrick.
I love Patrick. I think he's a great player.
I know that Derek has not reached that status, but we all believe that Derek can be a great all-pro player. He's got to stay healthy.
He's got some things to do. We wish him the very best.
You know, his dad did a very good job of coaching him. When Derek came, he came as a mid-year graduate.
We were playing, and we wanted him to play in the bowl. He just started in the bowl as a high school football player.
That's how good he was. That's crazy.
Big Cat was mentioning, you know, some of the players that had come out, Justin Jefferson being one of them. He kind of fell in the draft a little bit.
When you were watching the draft and all these other receivers, were you like, what are the Eagles doing not taking Justin Jefferson? Yeah, we knew how good he was. And, you know, Justin's another story.
Look, Justin didn't get eligible until June. And I think he was like the 2,500 player ranked in the country.
But we saw him at camp. We liked him.
He got eligible. He developed.
His route running is excellent. We had Jerry Sullivan on our staff.
He was one of the greatest teachers in route running and football. He's with the Arizona Cardinals.
And he took Justin Ernie's wing, and Justin just grew, man. And what a great player.
We always thought that he'd do great in the NFL, but I'm going to be honest with you. He took it on by storm a little bit faster than I thought he would.
What a great player. Have you learned how to gritty? Do you know how to do the gritty? You know, the team asked me how to do that one day.
I ain't got no gritty in me, man. I got to tell you.
I got one name to throw out there for you. And we haven't talked to this person about this at all, so feel free to dismiss it out of hand.
If you're open to a group of five school, Houston, Dana Holgerson, pretty close by, I don't think there's enough Red Bull in the world to keep the fridge of stock between you and Dana, but we could try.

We could make a call for you.

Hey, a great coach.

A lot of respect for him.

You should drive by him.

I think he runs a great program.

Okay.

All right.

Let's maybe link that up.

So my last question, Coach, this has been awesome to catch up with you.

What are we eating on our cheat day now that you're getting back in shape?

I need to know because I think that would probably be the thing you missed

Thank you. been awesome to catch up with you uh what what what are we eating on our cheat day this you know now that you're getting back in shape i need to know because i think that would probably be the thing you miss the most from the recruiting is you don't get you know jambalaya and gumbo in mama's kitchen like you gotta what are you doing now hey man hey we're in miami beach stone crab man it's as many stone crabs that we can put down.
We ate stone crab last night. We're going to go eat them again tonight.
I love them. But you know what? I love being at home.
I'm starting to cook now again. I'm going to ask Coco, all right, my mom, she's going to come over to my house, and I'm going to spend seven days.
I always ask her to write down her recipes. She don't ever want to write them down.
So I'm going to make sure that I'm going to learn how to cook

all the favorite foods that she cooks with me

so I can keep it in our family legacy.

That's my next goal in the next month.

Put out a cookbook.

Let's put out a cookbook.

That's right.

She don't want to put it down.

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

It's tricky.

Like if you're making a ruse,

sometimes it's not about the ingredients that go into it. It's about the love you put in it, Coach.
Exactly right. A little bit there, Sha.
A little bit there. I'll say, Mom, how much you put it in me? Put a pinch there and it takes it back there and makes sure it gets brown and then watch it get brown.
She's wonderful. That's awesome.
Yeah, we need the cookbook. We appreciate you joining us.
You're always with us. We got a signed poster that's over my shoulder here.
Right? Every single show. I love it.
When they zoom in on my side, we got the Coach O'Day. I don't know if you can see it.
Thank you, guys. It's Coach O'Day from honoring Ed Osher on LSU Tiger head coach when you went back to LaRose Civic Center in 2017.
So we have a signed poster that's always here. We've got a candle, too, that we light occasionally.
Yeah. So you're with us, and we're excited for whatever you've got next.
And we're rooting for Joe this weekend. I mean, we love watching him play.
So we appreciate your time and enjoy the time off. But let's get back out there.
Interim head coach. All right, man.
Yeah. All right, guys.
Hey, call me anytime in the air. I appreciate you guys.
Everybody loves you. You guys are fantastic.
You're great for football. Thanks for having me on the show.
Thanks so much, Coach. Appreciate it.
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Free for three days by going to sling.com slash barstool. Okay, let's finish up with Fyre Fest of the Week.
By the way, I just looked, and the over-under for the Chiefs-Bills game is actually 54 so I like it even more even though it's dropping which should make me nervous but it doesn't you should love that everybody else is a dummy alright Hank your FireFest my FireFest we talked about it on Sunday the video got over a views. People have just been kind of joking and mocking me at my expense all week.
What video was that? I thought I put a bet on TJ Watt to win the score of the first touchdown on Sunday. Well, good for you.
Good news for you is that there are no Watts left. Yeah, that is good news.
That's why I bet the Rams was the right pick. No brothers left at all.
They're just singular brothers. No two brothers from the same sibling duo is still remaining.
That's a shame. But it was Derek Watt that I bet, so when TJ Watt scored, I thought I won three grand, posted it, tweeted it, everyone was celebrating it, and then I had to find out live on stream in front of everyone's face that it was derrick watt and then i lost money and didn't win money so that was tough i like the people that said that you were faking it yeah that was our master plan for you there are people that are still you know of that of that thinking that we're acting like what what how i just don't even...
TJ Watt scored the first touchdown. Like what? We planned that? We're all like, hey guys, if TJ Watt scores the first touchdown, let's plan this whole thing out.
Or that I was smart enough and understood the moment enough to be like, to first of all, bet Derek Watt to score in the first place. And then be like, I know that I bet Derek Watt, but I'm going to pretend like I thought I bet TJ Watt.
I'd be the greatest thespian of all time. I mean, Hank was literally shaking.
He even told us he was shaking in the moment. I was so excited.
Now, you know what the problem is, is that Nick's timing with how he said, that says Derek Watt, was like perfect, because he has just good natural timing. And so it ended up looking like a great punchline, which it was, at your expense, unfortunately.
But yeah, Hank, I assure you, was not. Hank could not act that good.
The only good actor we have in this group is Bubba. Yeah.
As evidenced from the Coors Light. Coors Light.
On Naturally Click. Yes.
All right, so PFT, you did your fire fest?

Yeah, it's just that I'm going to get that graphic rubbed in my face.

You will.

All weekend.

That's all right.

And whatever.

Don't fight back.

Whatever.

Just lay down.

At least we had them.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, what am I going to do?

Like, I didn't know that the Washington football team was a clown show.

It's news to you.

All right, my fire fest.

I know that at least one person in this room is going to hate me for saying this that means me that means hank but i'll explain myself and i didn't ever think i'd get to this point um when you're a father you end up liking things and watching things you never thought you would like um and enjoying things maybe in your past life that you thought were lame. I enjoy watching Dude Perfect with my son.
And also, I'm kind of jealous of their life. That's a fact.
I will never, ever, ever contradict that. They just play games all day, and it looks like so much fun.
What about Beardo being attention whore? I still hate him. I still hate him.
Yes, okay. So that's actually good.
Thank you, PFT. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I understand what Big Cat's saying. You guys already had this take.
No, yeah. Well, I found myself enjoying more of the purple hoser.
I feel like he doesn't get enough light um but we need to remind ourselves that beardo is still the leader of no they did a fucking they did like the uh where you have a big glass of water and everyone has to pour a little bit in and whoever makes it go over loses and fucking beardo like everyone was doing real pours and beardo was doing like very little drops and i was like fuck you dude so yeah I still hate that guy yeah he's a prick but as a whole dude perfect I find myself seeking out their videos and I'm jealous of them they played fucking like real life call of duty with paintball guns and balloons strapped to their back how cool is that? No they live the dream. I mean it's insane.
It's oddly satisfying like in their office like they're just shooting hoops all the time. I still think that they're jackass for youth pastors.
But I'm there because I have a kid. This is where I'm at.
I could see myself going to one of their live shows. That's what I was about to ask.
I mean, we got invited to go to one of their live shows, but we said- I'm not going to interact with them. We can't.
It sounds like they might be coming on the podcast. No, no, no, no.
I would have the purple hoser on and that's it. There's a difference.
I can like them. This is not content.
This is fan from afar. If we were going to have one person from Dude Perfect on, which one would you want on? One of the twins.
No, purple hoser. One of the twins and try to break up the twins.
If you break up the twins, the whole thing crumbles. I mean, the funniest, like, that's still things I laugh about is that we, and this was all, like, off the air.
We never even talked about it. And I think it was the original group week.
We spent, and it was more me and PFT, I think. We spent, like.
No, I was involved. A significant amount of time planning how we were going to infiltrate them and break them up.
Yeah, and it can't be done. We talked about it for a long time.
The twins are definitely... Over the course of multiple days.
Correct. The twins are definitely the key to that situation, I think.
Yeah, the weakness. And also just getting everyone to be like...
I think the conversation was essentially, we just need to show up and be like, hey... We're going to make burner accounts to tweet at the twins and be like, dude, you're not getting enough shine as the other twins.
Yeah, Beardo's kind of a dick. Yeah.
Because you know deep down they absolutely think that. The guy is just, he's got an aggravating personality that comes through on camera.
But yeah. Well, let's be real here.
I seek them out. Who's your son's favorite? Let's be real here.
The twins, because it's like how do twins work. The twins.
He has twin girlfriends at school. It's crazy.
The twins. He does.
He's a fucking baller're easy to get to because you can you can leverage them one of two ways one way would be to turn the twins against each other and to be like oh toby cody uh-huh is the better twin the better looking twin yeah and then the other way would be to just turn the twins against like those two versus everybody else because the twins will always have that subtle little psychic connection. And they're the logical choice.
If you were to make a spinoff show, you would want the twins. Yes.
Right? The twins would be the first to get the show. The twins would be a fun show.
Although Beardo would fucking insist on crashing it and announcing everything that the twins were doing and just ruin it probably. I want to fight Beardo's dad.
Yeah, Beardo's dad's the worst. He's like their agent.
I want to fight him. I would fist fight him.

Unless he's big.

If Britney Spears' dad was in charge of an entire group under his management,

that's what you're getting with Beardo's dad.

But I like them from afar.

So what can I say?

People change.

People evolve.

Soften up.

Soft cat.

That's fine.

Billy.

So I've been doing a lot of cooking lately.

You know, cooking at home. Buying groceries.
And I put in a lot of work to some of these meals. And then I'm like, hey, you know what? I'm going to post this online.
And they just get destroyed. Yeah, never post pictures of your food online.
And if you do, post it in black and white so everyone gets mad at you. Make a nice breakfast, you know, bacon, eggs, and grits.
And I make like- That was bacon?

Yeah.

Oh.

Well, the most shocking part is Billy's eggs.

Billy's eggs are just brown and crispy.

How do the eggs- I thought that was a piece of beef jerky.

No, what you do is, is you put, like I have put milk in my eggs, and then they're like

almost like a pancake when you do them.

But apparently the nice browning of the outside of the eggs is like- It's browning of the outside of the eggs is better than gooey, icky eggs. Just learn to eat your eggs like a man.
How? Did you delete the tweet? No, it's down there. And then everyone roasts my bolognese, which I thought was pretty scrumptious.
And some air-fried vegetables. Anyway, you need to just stick to the basics if you're going to post it online.
I'll become a huge air fryer guy. Oh, air fryer's goaded.
Can I just say like air fryer, I think everyone has the exact same situation with air fryers. They buy it.
They think it's the greatest thing of all time. And then like a month later, you're like, this is kind of annoying.
Actually, I got an air fryer and I never even got that big first step of loving it yeah i got it and i was like this reheats things decently but i'd rather just put it in my cast iron pan on the stove stir it around reheat it that way yeah no it's it's i i think i think 90 of people have air fryers get it it changes their life for a brief period of time and then they're like well whatever well are you meal prepping it meal prepping? It's great for meal prepping. Do I look like a meal prepping? I think Hank and I appreciate it much more.
Well, no, Hank's in the honeymoon phase. When did you buy yours? No, I've had one.
You've used it? I used it, never really used it, and then Billy's got me into meal prepping and now I'm like, this is great. Recently you started using it.
Yeah. So you're in the honeymoon phase.
No, but I bought it. Call me in a month.
Did the honeymoon thing. All right.
Yeah, I will. Call me in a month.
I will. You know what I discovered? You got my number.
Yeah, I will. You know what I discovered yesterday? Because I was looking at my air fryer.
I was thinking about using my air fryer for some meatballs, and I ended up not using it. But I looked at my microwave, and I was like, when did we just start disrespecting the mighty microwave? Yeah.
The microwave is invention maybe of all time. You put something in there, it gets so hot.
You preheat your microwave first. You preheat the microwave.
You put your shit in there and it gets so hot in like 15 seconds. It boils water in 15 seconds.
And everybody's just sleeping on it, acting like it's not the coolest thing in your kitchen. Microwaves are pretty beat.

Shut up.

You don't know shit about microwaves.

I just proved how good the microwave is.

Microwaves are pee.

Microwaves make everything soggy.

I've been waiting an hour and a half to get one. P is now dead.

Is pee cap?

Well, cap has been dead.

P is now dead as well.

So pee is cap.

No, I'm done. Air fryers give a little crisp to it, and that makes it more seem like it's not some nuked piece of meat.
Dude, you can put rice in a microwave for 15 seconds and your dinner's ready. It's insane.
If you're cooking your steak in a microwave, I agree with you. Yeah, but if you meal prep stuff prep stuff okay for Billy Billy for a microwave it's disgusting okay if you live in Billy's house and have to cook human food for his dog then use an air fryer but for the rest of us microwaves are go to yeah they are all right Jake wrap us up nothing too crazy on Sunday came to the office and I left my fridge cracked open the whole day.
So wait. It's a killer.
So when you went home, how open was it? Just cracked open. So was it? Enough to keep everything warm.
So you threw it all out? Yeah, there wasn't much, though. I feel like Jake's a big throw-it-out guy once it goes bad.
Yeah. Is your fridge sad? You give me sad vibes.
It's like water're sad? So wait, you threw out the water? No. The water went bad? How much do you guys respect expiration dates on milk? Milk? I actually think a couple days.
I'm woke about expiration dates on milk. I think usually it goes bad before the expiration date.
I just sniff it. Yeah, I sniff it.
The other day I made a... Yesterday, the expiration date was the 17th, but I didn't want to buy new milk.
I just sniff it. Yeah, I sniff it.
I smell it. The other day I made a, yesterday,

the expiration date was the 17th,

but I didn't want to

buy new milk.

I just sent it.

You know what's full,

you know what's total bullshit?

Expiration date on eggs.

Eggs last forever.

Yep.

Shut up about

expiration dates on eggs.

Cheese and eggs, ever.

They're not even expiration dates,

they're sell-by dates.

That's true.

Yep, that's how they get you.

And then on cheese,

even once it starts

to get a little bit of mold, that's how, like the French love And that's penicillin, right? Yeah, it actually gets healthier and tastier. And if you want the most fresh milk, get it from the back.
As someone who used to stock shelves in a grocery store, they put the new milk in the back so people buy the more recent milk. So if you want to get that super, super fresh fresh milk go to the back my ice my uh i just almost said my ice cream store my grocery store which is my ice cream store changed where they have the ice cream and it fucked my whole like week up it's just in a different spot i saw clen my ice cream store oh my god mint chocolate chip uh reesey pc ice cream i have to have it i have to find it i saw that i just i i fully realized I just referred chocolate chip Reese's Pieces ice cream.
I have to have it. I have to find it.

I saw that.

I fully realized I just referred to the grocery store as my ice cream store.

I mean, it is, right?

It's where we get the ice cream.

All right, numbers.

Good luck to everyone's bets.

Game of the year, over 54.

88.

Six.

44.

60.

Last week's Wednesday's winner, out of play.

75.

What happened to Djokovic?

22.

Is he arrested?

No, he's just not playing.

70.

Oh, Billy.

Went off your huge.

Third time.

Jaguars like to trip.

Like fall?

Physically or psychologically?

No, they like eat stuff to make them trip.

Or like they cross lines and they're like, they disrespect you.

Like trip wires?

Gotcha.

Love you guys.

talking away Bye. Shying away, I'll be coming for your love of peace.
Shying away, I'll be coming for your love of peace. Take on me, take me on.
I'll be gone In a J.O.G Needless to say I'm all dissentist But I'm used to a late. Further learning, life is okay.
Say up to me, it's no better to be safe than sorry. Say up to me, it's no better to be safe than sorry.
Take on me.

Take me on. I'll be gone.

In a day of tears. Thank you.