CFB W/ Tom Fornelli, Ken Burns On The New Ali Doc, And Mt Rushmore Of Things That Make You Cool

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USAA! On today's part of my take, we have a twofer. Friday twofer going into Labor Day weekend.
For who? We have a twofer. We got a twofer, Hank.
We have a twofer. For the people? For the people.
For the people. For the people.
We've got Tom Franelli. Hank just totally threw me off my game there.
I don't know what he's doing. Well, you always say two for the people.
I'm sorry. I didn't.
I was trying to change it up that time. Sorry.
My brain is trained for. I'm sorry.
Okay. Reset.
He is. He is.
No, no. Reset.
Hank went to the gym today. Hank went to the gym today, so he thinks he's tougher than all of us.
All right. Twofer for the people.

Tom Frinelli.

College football.

Huge slate this weekend.

We talk about some of the games this weekend.

He gives you a lock, so you're going to want to listen to that.

And who's going to be good this year.

Then we have Ken Burns, the most famous documentarian of all time.

I think the only documentarian.

Ken Burns has his own genre.

Yeah.

He's incredible, so we talked to him about his new four part series on Muhammad Ali the greatest of all time so we have that and then we have Mount Rushmore things that make you things that make you seem cool yeah can I just say that with Ken Burns if maybe you have a dad that you've been trying to get into part of my take for a while. This is a great dad gateway episode.
Yes, absolutely. So going to be a great show.
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All right, back to part of my take.

Okay, let's go. Boy! Boy! Now in the street there is violence And then a lot of work to be done No place to hang out or wash in And And then I can't play 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 and then we'll take it higher. It's Part of My Take, presented by Barstool Sports.
Welcome to Part of My Take presented by Dave and Buster's The Greatest Place on Earth. Yes, I said that.
Today is Friday, September 3rd, and boys, football is back. Let's go.
He didn't think I was going to do it there. Let's go.
He got football. He thought I was going to talk about Brooks right off the top because I said, yeah, we'll do Brooks right off the top.
Nope. I snuck attack him with the football is back.
Football is back. And guess what? Next week, football is going to be even more back than it is right now.
Again. There's more back.
Again. But right now, this is a great Friday of football.
Yeah. Really good Friday of football.
And then obviously we've got week. Is Friday technically week one or is it still week zero? That'd be week one.
I feel like it's week 0.9 of. No, that would be week one.
We're in week one. And then Saturday, huge sleep.
Tonight is week one. Yeah, tonight is week one.
Actually, last night was week one. Right.
I had UAB, minus 16 and a half, winner, week one. Yeah, so we're taping this early because this is probably our last chance for the next five months to have a semi-early night.
So if Ohio State loses, ha-ha, I think they won't, but ha-ha. Great, great slate coming up.
We're going to talk to Tom Fornelli about college football in this weekend. We should talk about Brooks, though.
So here's our schedule. We're not going to obviously have a show on Monday because it is Labor Day.
We will, though, have a show on Tuesday with our friend Andy Staples recapping all of college football. And then on Wednesday we will have another show and then Friday as well.
So Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday next week because Tuesday we're going out to Liberty National. PFT and I are caddying for our guy, Brooks Koepka, against our boss, Dave Portnoy, in a $250,000 Loser Leaves Town charity match.
But Brooks is a professional golfer. Won't he destroy him? That's a good question.
But he's going southpaw. He's hitting lefty.
He put out a video last week, which is pretty impressive, of him teeing off of Coors Light Bottle and he just knocked the top right off of it. He's deadly accurate with his driver left-handed.
I think having me and Big Cat on the bag is going to be a huge advantage for at least the first hole that we're on until Big Cat and I get too tired and inevitably ask him to just carry his own club. It's going to be an emotional jolt for about 15 minutes for him, us being caddies, because we have our caddy suits.
We're in the big caddy jumpers, which Brooks told me, be prepared to sweat your balls off. So that's going to suck.
Not an issue. Not an issue.
But it's going to be fun. And you're going to be able to watch it on live stream.
I think we'll be on the YouTube, on Instagram, on Twitter. Jake will be there.
Billy will be there. Liam, Hank.
And we have new club covers. Is that what you call them? Yeah, club covers.

We're caddies.

Head covers.

We're caddies.

Head covers.

Head covers.

We got part of my take head covers, part of my take...

Not yarmulkes.

Towels.

No, not yarmulkes.

There's a limited amount.

They're going on sale Friday, 10 a.m.

So if you want one, if you're a golfer, make sure you listen.

Get it at 10 a.m. because they're probably going to be sold out.

And then we're going to...

We should do part of my take yarmulkes. Yeah, why not? For Yom Kippur.
Yeah, and then Brooks is going to be on the show afterwards, so we'll have him on for Wednesday, which will be great. So it's going to be a great day.
Everyone tune in. We wanted to get the message out there in case you get to the show late on Tuesday.
Listening up what? Have you talked to Brooks about how he feels? Yes. So Dave dave is who he's playing doesn't really golf but his mom was a golf uh instructor or teacher coach growing up so he has a good swing good fundamentals foundations there but doesn't really play so he's not he's not like in great golf shape i would say but it really is i don't know i don't know where brooks is at brooks has told me that um he can it far with lefty.
He can actually putt decently lefty. He said the irons are a little dicey.
We don't know where it's going sometimes. That's fine, though.
I honestly think that the long drives are going to be intimidating. Right off the tee, if he can bomb it like 300 yards, that's great.
With us on the bag, we already know that he's got the favor of God and nature. Did you see his putt with the butterfly today? Love it.
A butterfly followed his ball and knocked it in. It looked like Tinkerbell following Peter Pan around.
Is this like a Tom Brady video? He's got nature on his side. Well, I was going to say he does have the same crew that films and edits Tom Brady's videos filming and editing his videos.
No, no, this was during a tournament. It was a tournament play.

Mike Tirico, both perverted and Italian,

was the one that was on the call

and narrated the butterfly

shoving Brooks' ball into the house.

I love it.

So we need more butterflies out there.

All right, so yeah,

that's going to be on Tuesday morning.

It's going to be great.

We're going to be out at Liberty National.

I'm very excited for that.

What happens if he loses?

The show's over. I don't agree to that necessarily.
But it would be thrilling. Was that not thrilling for a second there? We all quit.
My big concern is, well, a couple things. It's the caddy suit, right? So we're wearing the Masters all-white caddy suit after Labor Day.
Some would say that's a fashion faux pas. What do you wear underneath the caddy suit? Do you just go nude? No, I think you wear shorts maybe and a t-shirt.
If you've learned from the Frisbee golf, you should probably wear an undershirt. I should probably wear an undershirt, yeah.
Yes, yes. Otherwise, the ladies will be out.
What happens if they lose? We, uh, I think we distance ourselves from Brooks is probably the way to do it for a brief stretch, And then we come back. How will you deflect blame? I will.
Hmm. Good question, Hank.
I'll probably blame someone around me. I'm going to fake an injury right off the bat.
I'm telling you, like, if it's not looking good in the front nine, I'm going to cramp up badly. Billy did something.
Fill in the blank. God damn it, Billy.
That just sounds natural, doesn't it? So we'll just blame Billy. Maybe we'll have Billy help us.
He'll be like caddy apprentice. He'll walk with us so that we can blame him if things go wrong.
Like we need someone around us who it's like, here's our fall guy. And then maybe Billy is that guy.
Don't you think? jake the jinx jake the jinx is also he's on the board when it comes to blame i'm worried about about billy wearing camouflage out on the golf course yeah i'm just going to trip over billy at some point we're gonna lose him can people come out and watch yeah we can we can not more i don't think because they i think we're full we can blame hurricane ida we can just be like yeah the course conditions weren't great because of the rain yes by the way thank you billy for your service you were pushing cars last night new jersey deep water great guy yeah great guy that's a fucking hero everyone survived hurricane ida that sucked that really sucked yeah it looked pretty dicey for a little bit in my apartment when the ceiling started to crack again same like there was, there was a big gap opening up right above me, and I was like, I'm going to die

a week before football starts, NFL football starts, and that would be, if I'm going to

die, kill me right after the Super Bowl.

Yes.

Don't let me wait through an entire summer and read all these articles about training

camp depth charts and then knock me off like a week before kickoff.

Yeah, I agree.

I agree.

All right.

What else is going on in sports before we get to our Mount Rushmore? Mark Davis has a super layer mansion, which looks awesome, and hopefully has a P.F. Chang's inside of it.
Oh, I love the mansion. I absolutely am digging it.
It's got in the blueprints. It says, here's the man cave.
It looks incredible. $14 million.
It's right outside Vegas. We got to go there at some point.
We got to get an invite. So Guy Fieri, if you're listening, I know you're a fan of the show.
I know you're in close with the Davis family. You're going to get the invite to the pool party.
If you have a plus one, use part of my take as your entire plus one. I need to be there.
There's also big news in ESPN world, which is Stephen A. Smith has found his rotating cast of people.
He's just going to mow down on first take.

On Fridays, who do you think is going to be his co-host on Fridays, Big Cat?

Tebow.

Yes, it's Tim Tebow.

Jesus Christ.

I'm going to call it Good Friday.

That's a PFT trademark, and it's going to be him just –

the whole point of Tebow being on that show

is just so Stephen A. Smith can rub it and skip Bayless' face.

Like, I have your boyfriend, and he's my coer. Yep, yep.
Who else is on? All I paid attention to was Tebow. Stephen A.
versus Jesus H. Michael Irvin, I think.
Oh, Michael Irvin. Okay.
All right. Don't be calm.
He's going to bring him up and knock him down. Just screaming at each other.
Yeah. Get the blood going.
I like it. All right.
Anything else that we should get to before Mount Rushmore? Obviously, there's football games tonight, but again, we're taping a little early. And guess what? You get enough college football with Tom Fernelli.
Michael Irvin with ESPN? I don't think so. I think he just floats.
Yeah, he is kind of a... Oh, no, wait.
He is. I think he's doing both.
I'm wearing this article. It still says he's an analyst for NFL Network.
Yeah. He's a...
Michael Irvin is a freelancer. He just does hits places.
Playmaker, yeah. Just not on the pipe anymore.

Mm-hmm.

He's...

Remember that time he was down

sweating just profusely in...

Where were they?

Might have been Talos.

Yes.

On TV.

It was like, whoa, dude.

He actually trumps both Patrick Ewing

and Chapman.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, tonight, U.S. soccer

kicks off World Cup qualifying,

gets El Salvador.

Would be a shame. The hexagonal has now improved to the octagonal.
It's two more teams. Would be a real shame.
I'm not down with that this year. I'm not down with the negativity from Big Cat.
I'm not negative. Wait, whoa.
When was I negative? I said it would be a shame if we didn't make the World Cup. I think that this is the year.
This is the year for U.S. soccer.
To do what? To make the World Cup. Okay.
But it would be a shame. And if we just kept on missing them, it would be a shame.
I want them to make it. Although, when is the World Cup? Dubai.
Next year? November. This year? No, next year.
During football season? During football season. Don't care.
I like it. Novak's six wins from glory.
The guy just does it all.

I'm down six to go.

Has he buried with Blake?

What?

Blake put up an Instagram with him.

Blake Griffin?

Oh, he's at the US Open?

I don't know.

I think they were at a dinner or something.

Hell yeah.

Jake, how do you pronounce that guy's name?

Sissipas?

Sissipas.

Sissipas.

Sissipas.

He goes to the bathroom too much. The only reason I know about him is he's stopped three matches so far in the U.S.
Open because he just always has to shit during them. Might have a UTI.
No, it's the other hole. It's his butt.
He's got Lamar Jackson-itis. They've had to like delay matches and his opponent is getting pissed off at him because he has to poop.
Cici pass. So that's my new goat now in tennis.
The guy that shits all the time. All right, let's get to Mount Rushmore.

We're going to get right back to the show.

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All right, back to part of my take.

Okay, Mount Rushmore, who wants to start? Or do numbers? Numbers. We're doing the Mount Rushmore of things that make you seem cool.
Things that make you seem cool. Things that make you seem or look cool.
Cool, yeah, right. I'm going to go 50 right down the middle.
17. Playing the odds.
Is this one last dance for Mount Rushmore? I think we go all the way up to NFL season, right? So it will be Wednesday will be the last Mount Rushmore. The last dance.
You know what? I'll say it right now. We'll do it with Brooks.
We'll do the last Mount Rushmore with Brooks. We'll think of something good and that will be it for the summer.
A lot of people have been requesting Mount Rushmore of Mount Rushmore that we've done in the entire past. But we've already done that before.
Have we?

We would never do that again. No, we wouldn't.

Never, ever. We could do the Mount Flushmore of Mount Rushmore's.
Also, why don't we get a lot of PMT

moments? Oh, we did

Grit Week moments. Okay.
We'll think.

We'll consider those. Alright.

17. 22.
5-0.

What did you guys say?

16.

Oh, dude. That's funny.
Cool. 16.
60. So Billy and Jake decide.
The order. We'll go first, Hank goes second, PFT third, and I'll go last.
Now, is this more of a Billy

list or is this a Jake list?

Or is this total collaboration?

It depends how everything goes.

I don't know.

Have you decided already on your 1-1?

Are you doing that right now?

No, they were debating. All I heard when they were getting ready

was Billy was like, we should do this

first. And Jake was like, we should do something

more serious. Buying a frog.
Go for it, Billy. I'm giving you the green light.
Something that is extremely cool, respecting women. Oh, okay.
So that was the one that was like, it's not a joke, but Billy's making a joke of it. No, it's very serious.
Yeah, right. Cool.
Why are you winking at us? That's cool. Yeah.

Okay.

Cool.

Very cool.

Nice. Who was the last woman you respected?

Quick.

Margaret Thatcher.

Nice.

Problematic.

Okay.

Me and Bubba will go with giving the waitress your card without looking at the bill.

I love it.

I do it all the time.

It's the best fucking feeling.

Power move.

Because it's just fast.

Speeds it up. Yep.
Speeds it up. Get in, get out.
You don't even need to look at it. I do it all the time.
It's the best fucking feeling. Power move.
Because it's just fast. Speeds it up.

Yep.

Speeds it up.

Get in, get out.

You don't even need to look at it.

It is what it is already.

Okay.

Number one for me.

This is my one-one.

Glad it's still on there.

Executing a perfect dap or handshake with somebody.

Yep.

When it's crisp, when you get that snap, when you get the pop, and it looks like you knew

that you were going to pull it off the entire time, but in reality, you were just full sweating, full anxiety going into this handshake and you nail it. Very relatable.
Very relatable. Very relatable.
All right. I will go with dunking.
Dunking is very cool. If you can dunk, that's a fucking awesome thing that people are like, whoa, that guy dunks.
And then I will go with knowing the bartender. When you go into a bar and you know the bartender, the bartender knows you, people are like, damn, that's pretty fucking cool.
It's like give a little conversation. You're a regular.
It's cool. All right.
My number two is just. You don't think so? No.
No. Oh, no.
I was looking at Hank. I have a similar one.
I'm trying to decipher whether or not it's going to count or not. Okay.
Okay. I had one that is similar too, but I feel like that covers it.
It's a good move when you go in. Yeah.
Especially if other people see you. That's nice.
Yes. But I'll tell you what.
It's even nice if you're the only person going in and it makes you feel cool about yourself. It makes you feel cool.
And also, it makes you like there's definitely when you go into a bar, there's hierarchy of like people in the bar and you immediately jump to the top yep uh my number two is going to be riding a motorcycle nice riding a motorcycle on my list always very cool always it was either that or rollerblading for me yeah it's one or the other usually it's the same person usually that's what they have in the saddle on the motorcycles, their blades. Yeah, I actually like to ride a motorcycle with rollerblades for extra stability.
On the side? Yeah, I just keep my feet on the ground. I don't even walk anymore.
It's wheels all the way down, baby. All right.
Hank? Look of consternation has gone over his face. I've been nailing words this week.
I don't know what's up with that. Similar to yours, Big Cat, but it's when it's like a crowded bar.
There's a line outside and you walk up and you either know like a manager comes out to let you in or the bouncer lets you in and everyone in line sees that you just walk up and get in and they're immediately like, oh, that guy's got to be cool. Skipping a line, yeah.
So I'd say that's legally cutting lines is a very cool move. Yeah.
Yeah yeah like like it's not something that people like oh you can't cut like being able to cut right yep very very good one billy billy's like i had one that we wanted last oh geez these guys it's falling apart playing contact sports sports. Playing contact sports is cool.
Very cool.

Very cool.

How many contact sports are there?

Do you define basketball or is that?

That's not a contact sport.

Football is not a contact sport.

Yeah, that's dumb.

Helmet sport.

No, that's a collision sport.

Football is a collision sport, not a contact sport.

What are you talking about?

Dude, basketball is definitely a contact sport.

Yeah.

It's not too much contact anymore.

Playing basketball in the year 1986. Is soccer a contact sport? Absolutely not.
All right. I don't get this.
Absolutely not. That's an absolutely not for the people at home.
Did you see Ronaldo slap that guy? No. I did see that.
Pathetic. Pathetic.
I just love hating Ronaldo. It's something I truly don't care about, but I love doing it online.
Oh, I really do not like Ronaldo. Yeah, I don't like him.
I don't really care. I don't like him.
All right, playing contact sports, Billy. Your third pick.
Boozing. Boozing.
I'm having a cold one. Nice.
Nice, Billy. Playing contact sports, boozing.
What was your first one again?

Respecting women Yeah he's got it all

We're about to clean up this one

Having a court or field named after you

Yes that is cool

Wait no just a field

Or court

Court's kind of lame

You can't name a court after yourself

The court is the court

But field

Yeah because it's a living thing

You want a bunch of dead stuff named after you? And it literally means you're either filthy rich or you're an absolute legend. But either way, if you're like, yeah, this is my field.
Okay. I was like, oh, holy shit.
Or that you made them name it after you sometimes. That can be an option, too, for a court.
Sometimes you're the most winningest person in your entire profession, so out of of a sound respect, you get a court named after you, just hypothetically speaking. Right.
There's a lot of other examples as well. I was more talking about NBA players that will renovate their town's gym and then they name it after them where it's like they're still – they're not old.
They're like active younger people, but they're just such a G that they have their high school's gym named after them's i think that if you get a court named after you and you're the all-time winningest person at your profession yeah it's actually like that's small potatoes that's almost a slap in the face it should be called like the house that so-and-so built i like that necessarily not necessarily the the court itself but that that counts with like in what with this example like if you say the house that PFT built for the studio. Yeah.
That would be way cooler than being like, this is the PFT podcasting table. Which one would you rather have? For me, the choice is easy.
All right. PFT, your next pick.
For mine, I'm going to go with nailing a parallel park in front of an audience. So if there's an outdoor seating arrangement at a restaurant set up, you pull up next to it.
It's a tough parallel park. The stakes are high.
People are watching. And you nail it.
And not even the front swoop. You just nail it in the very first backup one.
Step out. Hit the button in your remote.
Lock the car. So great pick.
This is something separate. about the pick in specific but i do think that uh parallel parking the art of parallel parking has been completely bastardized by these cameras now yep it sucks it's not the same it doesn't feel even like asterix it really does like i'll parallel park i'll nail it and i'll be like you know what this is just a different it's a live ball error.
It's not the same. It is tough.
It was always awesome when it was like, no cameras, just fucking crush it. I'm always shocked also when I rent a car and it has the backup.
I'm like, ooh, that's fancy. Yeah, and the side cameras, there's everything.
Wow, they've got a backup camera and everything. Yeah, that came out in like 2005.
Yeah. It blows my mind when I see it.
Okay. Let's see.
Let's see. I got to get a couple good ones here.
Okay. Fixing stuff.
So being the guy who can just fix anything. Like, oh, something got broken on the boat.
Oh, I got this. fixed it i you know did this real quick the macgyver of the group the fixer guy is always cool anytime someone could do something with their hands fixing a flat tire which i can do that but uh or like popping a car hood and then like tinkering around boom you're fixed that's a fucking cool thing uh-huh it's a cool thing i mean yeah if it comes to like an appliance in your house yeah one time i fixed a washing machine i saw how to do it on a youtube video and then i just copied exactly what the real cool person was doing yep and did it myself didn't tell anybody that that's how i learned how to do it but i felt like an actual man yeah so fixing things with your hands that's a cool thing um and then last i'll do having a guy.
So having a guy for everything. Like you need tickets.
I got a guy. You need this.
I got a guy. So having just a guy every time you need something.
Hey, I got a guy hooking people up with those type of connections. It feels great.
It's tough, though, when your guy falls through. Yeah, you have to say my guy.
Yeah, you have to have a guy, though. But there's it's a cool someone's like oh i want to do this it's like i got you i have a guy here call this guy and you'll be all set the best feeling in the world all right i rarely have it sometimes i do it with billy people are like i want to get my bench up i'm like i have a guy i got a bench guy i got a bench mob i want I want to get a frog.
I got a guy. All right.
My last one, smoking a cigarette. Yeah.
Smoking a cigarette looks cool. Very harmful.
I don't care who you are. Kids vape these days, too.
Yeah, but smoking a cigarette is showing a side of your age. It's a good pick.
Smoking an analog cigarette is cool as fuck. It's cool.
It is. I haven't smoked in a long time, but I'm telling you what.

Jake? The second I get back to the Northside Tavern, I'm smoking a full pack of cowboy killers. Cop? Thank you.
You don't think smoking is cool? No. I think smoking cigarettes is gross.
Oh! All right. So thank you.
That's the best endorsement I could ever have. Thank you, Jake.
Jake's cool. Having allergies.
So this one, actually, Big Cat is a prime example of this, despite his age and how often he frequenced going out and stuff. But being able to win a chug off in deciding fashion is very, very cool.
I still have that. You still have that.
I can't do it. No matter how much I drink, I can't chug fast.
When you're at a party or somewhere and you see two people ready, three, two, one, and one person just one second chugs and the other person has to take a few gulps, the other guy looks cool every time. It impresses everyone.
It is the one thing that I have in my back pocket. I can't do a lot of things.
I can chug a beer very quickly. And every time you do it, I'm like, that's cool as fuck.
Yeah. Thank you.
I appreciate that. You know what makes it real cool is that you're never the one who's like, hey, let's chug this beer.
No, I always get challenged. So if somebody gets challenged to it, they don't say anything, and they step up, and they just crush the guy that challenged.
Yes. That's the cool part.
Yes. Yeah, you're right.
Because walking around being like, let's chug is kind of lame. That was Billy's fourth.
Yeah, Billy's fourth. Are you an open-the-throat guy when you chug, or do you just muscle it down? How far down there? There's some people that just pour it down.
You want to go find out, Billy? No, I don't want to find out. But I think it's more impressive the guys that don't know that weird trick where they just pour it down their throat.
I think Billy's trying to see if you run a gimmick offense. He's certainly trying to figure out if I have a gag reflex.
The fact that as much as Billy drinks, you would still beat him a chug off. That's cool.
Yes, correct. I would crush you.
Now he's thinking about it. In Billy's head right now, it's absolutely a question of two football teams playing against each other.
One runs flea flickers and reverses. And the other is like, I'll bet you if they just lined up hat on hat against us, we can't.
I don't know. There's some guys.
I don't know what I do. I just drink it really fast.
There's some guys who have that trick where they can just open their throat. I've never thought about it.
Yeah. I've never thought about it.
How far does your throat open, Billy? I can't do that. I have to muscle it down.
There's people out there who know what I'm talking about. God, Bill, you're the straightest dude ever.
Yeah, dude, you couldn't. My throat doesn't even...
I can't even swallow things. I have to put a finger up my ass to get my throat open.
Alright. Our last pick.
This guy blew me. I didn't even come.
Our last pick. It's pretty basic.
Kind of open-ended. Being nice.
Oh my god That's cool You know what You know what I actually think that is cool It's cool Because going What Going back to what McConaughey taught us Yeah chicks take guys that are nice That's the saying If Sometimes nerds are cool When they're cool about being nerds In movies I think that's a good answer Jakeake being nice okay we'll see i mean i do think you are cool thanks yeah and you are nice thanks okay there we go uh what do we miss a lot driving a convertible yeah very cool surfing i had skateboarding on mine skateboarding leather jackets leather jacket oh uh perfect like uh perfect stubble yeah that's a very cool thing when you see a guy with like the perfect facial hair the movie star stubble where it's like maybe maybe it's been two days yeah and it's a full oh very cool i get that a lot for the high school and like younger college kids but uh being able to buy booze underage or like getting into getting into bars with fake ids having a fake being the one guy with a fake ID is as cool as it gets but with great power comes great responsibility it is cool until you realize like how much work that you have to do now that you're the only one that has it when I was in college I had no money and I would just go to the store for like 10 people and then with the extra like few dollars I could buy booze myself. Also, totally hypothetical.

I don't even know if this is what people do or people talk about.

I don't know.

It's just totally hypothetical

being the guy who gets the Coke.

That's cool.

But that's hypothetical.

Being the drug guy.

Yeah, being the drug guy.

Yes, that's hypothetical, folks.

Being Lenny Kravitz.

Lenny Kravitz is just cool.

He hasn't even had any bangers

in the last 20 years,

but he's still cool.

Pulling off a top hat.

That was one of the things I did. That's hypothetical, folks.
Being Lenny Kravitz. Lenny Kravitz is just cool.
Yep. He hasn't even had any bangers in the last 20 years, but he's still cool.

Pulling off a top hat.

That was one where I couldn't.

I didn't want to say it because I can't.

Not top hat, but you know what I'm saying.

Cool hat guy.

Cool hat guy.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

Pulling off a cool hat is definitely... There's just certain guys that you see them.

It's like they're just John Mayer types where they put on a hat and you're like that guy's fucking cool packing a huge dinger nope I don't think that's cool it's not as cool as you think that it is catching a fish yeah catching a fish is cool you don't think so catching a fish is definitely cool catching a fish taking a picture with your fish and making your Twitter avatar what What Billy said, though, about packing a dinger, it's classic Billy because in the moment, you feel like you're the coolest person. But you're not.
You're actually the most disgusting person in the room at the time. And that's coming from a guy that does it occasionally.
Like, you got to know that. Okay, it was pretty cool at one point.
Yeah, but it's not cool. It's not cool.
Okay. All right? Puking more than everybody.
Hitting a dinger is cool. Hitting a home run.
Catching a foul ball and not dropping your beer or your baby. Yep.
That's very cool. Being all state in the sport.
Yep. Fuck, I had that one on my list, Billy.
Were you? Yeah. Oh, hell yeah.
Fuck yes. What state? New York State.
Hell yeah. Sitting courtside? Yeah.
If you sit courtside, it doesn't really matter who you are. You're cool for that game.
Frankie Munoz sits courtside, I don't think. He's cool.
Oh, yeah, he's cool. You think Malcolm in the Middle's cool? He's cool.
Being verified, Instagram only, parentheses. Ooh.
Yeah. Knowing that it's okay to not be okay? That is cool.
That's cool. Talking about mental health on Twitter.
That's cool. Not worrying about looking cool is cool.
Yeah, that's true. Being chuggy.
Tattoos are cool. Buying around for the house.
Yep. It's got to be like, oh, like sleeves are cool.
Yes, sleeves are very cool. Like if you're going to commit, fully commit.
Oh, being able to take shots with not an issue at all. Very cool.
With no caveats of, yeah, you know, anything but tequila or like, yeah, could you make it SoCo if you're going to go whiskey? Yeah. Just like ripping one and not batting an eye.
Someone handing you a shot and not being like, ah, like actually maybe the coolest thing you can do at a bar is walking in, ordering a nice cold Coors Light and a shot jameson yep ripping the shot drinking the beer shot in a beer yeah uh how about when when you're somewhere and you say i'll have the usual yeah having a usual drink i had that one on my list ordering without looking at the menu that's cool like no we don't we're saying no we don't need that and then telling the server what you want not needing a bottle opener to open a bottle ah yes i don't have a bottle opener and then someone just grabs it and fucking either like a lighter the teeth is i it grosses me out but it can be cool like sometimes like that's one if i can open it with anything yeah that's the one semi cool guy uh being able to tie a sick knot when you're around a boat that's a cool thing like that is being able to just whip out one just be like yeah i got this

what about magic what about knowing magic but not like extreme amounts of magic i'm not down with the jicks uh not extreme amounts of magic where you obviously had to like read a bunch of books or go to summer camp for it that's the only good magic but no no a magic where you like bar trick magic nah where you can just like pull things off on a countertop i don't think it's cool. I mean, it's in theory, but it's also like, because to do magic, you have to walk up to people and be like, watch me do magic.
It's kind of like the chugging thing, you know? Right. Right.
But if you just do it at your table and you're not showing off in front of anybody, if you just casually make a quarter disappear through a table and pull it out the other side, that can be kind of cool. I don't know if this is cool, but I know the opposite is very uncool.
It's very uncool to not be able to shuffle cards. Yes.
I was just going to say being able to shuffle really fast is cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's very cool. But, like, I actually judge people who can't shuffle cards.
I don't know if there's anyone here in this room. I know how to shuffle.
Yeah, I can't.

You can't?

No.

Not cool.

I think bread and butter shuffle nothing fancy.

Bread and butter shuffle.

Just running the power sweep.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's shuffling cars.

What about tipping a dealer?

That always looks cool.

When you're just like, hey, this is for you.

And you toss him a chip.

That's cool.

Having horse tips is cool. If you actually have a winning winning horse tip that's a very cool thing to have that's kind of like a knowing a guy like i got a tip about having frosted tips frosted tips are cool knowing how to drive stick shift yes good job billy that's actually a great one i really wish i knew how to drive stick shift putting a plane in your bio on social media cool people like, wow, that person has been on an aircraft.
Going to Coachella. Yeah.
Yeah. Just Coachella in general.
Yeah. Coachella and all of its adjacent vibes.
Bribing someone. This kind of goes with what Hank was saying, like a doorman.
If you just slip a doorman casually at 20. That's not really a bribe.
Bribing government officials. Yeah, bribing.
That's cool. That's also cool.

Yeah, no, tipping a lot is cool.

Tipping someone who usually doesn't get tipped is cool.

Yeah, like tipping, like throwing the valet like a $100 bill.

That's a cool move.

Yeah, or like Ray Liotta at the start of Goodfellas walking through the restaurant in the back.

He's just like handing out hundreds to the kitchen manager.

Yes.

That's cool.

Anything else?

I mean, that was a good Mount Rushmore.

I feel like we got a little bit of our mojo back.

Thank you. back.
He's just handing out hundreds to the kitchen manager. That's cool.
Anything else? That was a good Mount Rushmore.

I feel like we got a little bit of our mojo back.

I hope we haven't done that one before.

There was a couple things we said that made me think

we might have.

We've done power moves before.

Definitely different.

Definitely different.

I hope.

Is it? Yeah.

Jake's looking it up right now.

I can guarantee you that

Thank you. Definitely different, I hope.
Is it? Yeah. Okay.
Jake's looking it up right now. What about having a- There's definitely going to be, I can guarantee you that parallel parking is going to be on thin fire roads.
Is it? And probably fixing shit. Probably.
What about having a real sick bitching aftermarket stereo sound system in your car? Yep. Cool.
Spoilers. Yeah.
Aftermarket modifications. Putting an aquarium inside of your van oh dude aquarium oh this was this was 2016 before we even did the graphic oh we're good yeah i don't see a graphic oh is it for cool stuff so the real ones the cool move knowing that we might have done something similar to this and not complaining about on twitter here's a here's a throwback pft if you can explain this.
PMT, the Twitter said, today's about Rushmore's power moves, what would you put on yours? And you said threatening to suspend your employees if they don't want to hang out with you and talk about Al Jazeera. I don't...
I have no idea what that means. I don't mean either.
I'm trying to put myself back in 2016. Get it.
Get it. Peyton Manning.
Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning.
Yeah. Threatened to suspend everybody because of Al Jazeera.
Yes. No, the Al Jazeera report.
I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, the steroid report? Yeah.
You can say it. You don't have to speak in codes here.
Remember, Al Jazeera did a whole investigation into the NFL. Yes.
And then I think Goodell. When someone puts a gun to your head and you tell them to shoot.
Yeah, that is cool. That's fucking cool.
Who said that? Or reversing a gun to your head. Broken Atlanta fan.
Yeah, that is cool. August 2016.
Yeah, go ahead and shoot, bitch. Go ahead and shoot.
You won't. Yeah.
That's fucking cool. Yeah, because what's the worst thing that happens? You die, and then you're dead, so you don't remember that you died.
Yeah. But if the alternative is that he doesn't shoot, and then you're dead so you don't remember that you died yeah but if the alternative is that he doesn't shoot and then you're cool well even even if he does shoot then your brain dead yeah or even if he does shoot you then you're like yeah i told that person to do that that person followed my instructions yes right i'm the alpha yeah for in your last dying breath you're like i got him i'm dead but you know what i'm the boss as my brains bleed out of my head i'd be like you'll do whatever i say yeah another score another dub man out on a win rare dub for the winning streak on the way out all right uh we're gonna say philly all right that was a good mount rushmore uh let's get to our interviews we have tom fornelli Burns.
We're going to get right back to the show. The last thing you want to hear when you need your auto insurance most is a robot with countless irrelevant menu options, which is why with USAA Auto Insurance, you'll get great service that is easy and reliable all at the touch of a button.
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USAA! All right, back to part of my take. Here he is, Tom Fer tom franelli okay we now welcome on our very good friend it is tom franelli he is a writer podcaster talker of sports cbs sports uh you can also find him on the cover three podcast he's got picks all the time he's got college football all the time he's one of the greatest college football minds of our time.
Tom, nothing I said was untrue there. I want to start because usually when we do college football previews, everyone asks, oh yeah, Alabama and Clemson, they're going to be in again.
Let's do something different. Who is going to be the worst Power 5 team in the country this year? Oh, that's a good question, but it's Kansas.
Kansas? Okay, wait, you didn't let me finish, and you can't say Kansas. Oh, shit.
I would go worst Power 5. I think it could be Duke.
Ooh. Shame.
I just think they've been turning in the wrong direction the last year. David Cutcliffe probably, like, they had a couple, like, nine, ten-win seasons there for a while where things were going really well, but they've been going the wrong direction ever since.
And I just feel like the worst teams that had been the terrible teams in the ACC have all improved, and Duke hasn't. So there's a real chance that they go, like, winless in the conference.
What is it about Duke? Because I know that the Mannings used to go down there and throw all the time. What is it about Cutcliffe? Like, is he he really a quarterback guru or is he the guy that orders the stuff from the black market and they go down spend a week in his dorm room and then next thing you know they come back healthier than ever next year and daniel jones and daniel jones uh yeah it could be that i think it's just more than anything i think especially a while ago dan uh david cutcliffe was just a very good quarterback coach.
But I think these days, Cutcliffe's probably specialty is more with the kind of QBs you think of with the Mannings, where they're kind of in the pocket. You're not really looking at them as mobile guys.
And I think that now that the game's changing to where it's more of a spread up tempo, you need a guy who can throw and run. I don't know if Cut, as great of a coach as he is, as in tune to to develop those guys as he used to be okay so this made me think of something which I never really kind of uh thought about with college football but we we always are talking about the guys that are coming home so to speak the Scott Frost the Jim Harbaugh they get that extra year they get that extra bump because you know're failing, but they're the golden sun and hopefully they'll turn it around.
I just realized that there's also a class of coaches that coach non-traditional powerhouses that have a little bit of success and that could then get to hang on for an extended period of time where everyone kind of forgets about them. So Cliff is in that category.id shaw with stanford would be in that category i would say harry patterson at tcu like these guys had some really good years and now i'm thinking about i'm like wait they haven't done

anything in a while yeah no i think that definitely happens but i think with like a situation like

cut cliff no no disrespect but it's hank can tell you like at duke i feel like if you're the football

coach you're kind of flying under the radar anyway because because I don't know how many people there are really paying attention to the football program as compared to basketball. But with Stanford, I think Shaw had a ton of great success early, and things have waned off.
And I do wonder if the clock isn't kind of ticking on there, because it used to be like every season you would hear, oh, David Shaw's getting some NFL interest. He might be leaving for an nfl job you don't hear that much anymore so i don't know if that's a bad side for shaw and then as you mentioned with gary patterson it's just i mean the dude took tcu from the whack to the mountain west and then did so well that they got a spot in the big 12 in a power five program so i think that bought him quite a bit of cred in time there yeah speaking of kansas mangino might have might have been the ultimate example of that.
He had like one good season. Everybody's like, this guy is a genius.
One of the best Italian college coaches of all time, would you say? Not a pervert. Not a pervert? No, definitely not a pervert.
Where would you put yourself on the spectrum? Because it is a spectrum like the Kinsey scale. Are you more Italian than pervert? I think the best Italians all have a little pervert in them.
I think that I probably, on the spectrum, I'm closer to Italian than pervert. The older I get, the closer I get to Italian and the less pervert there is.
I like it. That's good.
I like the setup that you got right now. There's a bass in the background that you have displayed there.
You look like the ultimate. You look like a late 90s bass player right now like you you're the understudy for fielding corn or something yes that that actually if you'd have told like 19 year old me i'd be like oh my god thank you thank you i've made it all right let's do something here where uh we have the presumptive favorite in each conference most conferences at this point in college football it's i mean it is what it is like college football is there's a few teams that are incredible and they're above everyone else so let's go through it so Clemson Alabama Ohio State Oklahoma Oregon all expected to win their conferences give me this team that you could see winning each of those conferences out of nowhere I think Florida Florida and the SEC is being pretty slept on.
I know from a talent level, they're not at the Georgia, Alabama, or even the Texas A&M level. But you look at Dan Mullen and what he's always been able to do with teams, even with less talent.
I think that you're looking at Mike Leach at Mississippi State right now. And I think that a lot of people kind of take for granted the success that Mullen had there and how hard and difficult that job is.
And we saw Leach struggle last year. And I think Mullen, you know, they lose Kyle Trask, they lose Kyle Pitts, but he's still a very bright offensive mind and they still do have plenty of talent.
So I think that's a team that gets a prize in the SEC, in the ACC. I really don't think there's another team.
I'll say North Carolina, but I just don't, I don't think anybody in that conference besides clemson loses you know fewer than three games uh big 10 wisconsin i'm not trying to kiss your ass i was setting you up for that yeah no go ahead but it's just like nobody in the east can keep up with ohio state for a full season because ohio state's too good so it's like you just have to if you if you win the west and you get to the big-time title game, you have a good day, maybe you pull off the upset. And I think Wisconsin's the favorite in the West in the Big 12.
I would take Texas before I took Iowa State. Really? Yeah, I just think from a talent level, they're very good.
I think that Steve Sarkeesian coming in, we saw what he was able to do with the Alabama offense, and I think Bijan Robinson is a perfect fit like for what we saw Najee Harris doing that Alabama offense last year I think B. John's better player than Najee Harris so I think that could be really beneficial I just think Iowa State really kind of overperforms its expectations and that kind of causes us to over inflate our own expectations for them but they're coming off a nine and three season and that was pretty or 10 win season.
And we're pretty much asking them to now have the greatest season in program history. Yeah.
I don't, I don't think that's as likely as Texas. And if I'm, we're talking to pack 12 team besides Oregon, I can't pick USC.
I just have no faith in Clay Helton. So I'll just say Utah, screw it.
Okay. Cause I was going to say, you could just say whichever team plays Oregon in like, I't know let's say the second week of November that will be the team that will win the pick because it'll just that's that's just what the Pac-12 does every year they just eat themselves alive the Iowa State thing though is kind of shocking to me because they are the darling right now of all the previews and everyone's saying Matt Campbell Matt Campbell Matt Campbell and they deserve it because they're coming off a.
But I like this. The zag on that is that Texas could be back.
Yeah, I mean, because like, okay, now I guess I'll insult you. Iowa State is Wisconsin.
It is a team. It's a team with a great coaching staff who takes some unheralded talent out of high school, develops them, coaches them extremely well, and is a team that can win nine, win nine ten games they compete but they're not really a team that you think of as a playoff contender what you just said was like the exact opposite of texas yeah but you know you're wisconsin you have to say with iowa state wisconsin is iowa state on steroids then you can say yeah yes because yes because wisconsin's hey wisconsin's recruiting has really kind of kicked it to another level of recent years so that's not that crazy to say but yeah texas i know it's so fucking dumb like we get stuck in the texas is back narrative every year and i'm telling you the narrative is really it's been stupid and overplayed and i haven't been on it but this year i just really think now there's like you know like when you're on Twitter and there's the backlash to the backlash I think the expectations for Texas a year this year are the backlash to the always being overrated and I think we're just kind of writing them off a little too easily because I think that their QB that they just named the starter he is a very talented player he's a dual threat he gives Steve Sarkeesian more that he can use and he'll make that offense more dynamic as I said Bijan Robinson I think is a great running back they have a good offensive line there are questions at receiver that do concern me I think somebody needs to step up there but on the defensive side of the ball they're really talented too and you can't ignore like last year all the crap that was going on off the field with like the eyes of Texas stuff and just the Tom Herman and having to deal with all the kings of Texas and all the boosters that they have they're pulling all the strings I think that Sark comes in with a fresh start they've got a fresh you know if everybody's got a fresh start I think that they're very talented and I think that they're a very good team and I think we're going to see a good season from the Longhorns I still think Oklahoma's the best team in the Big 12 by far right but I think this is a Texas team that could be very good so all that said are you still going chalk like if you're looking the top four, the presumptive four that are going to be there at the end of the year and hold their serve for the entire season, are you going with that? Or are you saying that there's going to be somebody else like one of these Florida teams or one of the ones that you had mentioned? Definitely not Clemson, it sounds like.
That one is pretty much in cement. But besides that, outside of those, if there were to be one that would sneak in, who's the the most likely i am doing the least chalky chalk i can as far as my official predictions i've got my playoff being alabama ohio state clemson and oregon because i do like if you want to it's it makes you seem like you're trying something different when you're still just picking another favorite to get there but like i think oregon since mario cristobal has there, the recruiting that they've done, it's like what Urban Meyer did at Ohio State when he got to the Big Ten.
It's what Dabo's been doing with Clemson and the ACC, where they're just recruiting at an entirely different level. They're bringing an SEC recruiting mindset to a conference that does not have it.
And the rest of the conference, USC keeps up because USC is USC, and they could just pull players based on that. But even that's kind of fading under Clay Helton right now.
And Oregon, the talent disparity between them and everybody else is so huge that I think that even if they lose to Ohio State, they could still run the table in the conference. Then if they're sitting there with one loss and they're only lost at the end of the year is Ohio State, they got a good shot of getting in.
Yeah, Oregon is pulling guys from L.A., which, you know, I mean, Chip Kelly when he was at his peak was doing that but it was also like a different kind of style like Cristobal I mean the line is he's one of the best line coaches probably the best line coach in in college football and they might have the number one pick in the NFL draft on their defensive line in Kayvon Thibodeau he's a tremendous player he is He is probably the best pass rusher in the country. And you know what's

funny? There's another kid on that defense,

Justin Flo, a linebacker. He might be

better than Thibodeau in the long run.

I like that. Most important player.

Nice. Not best.

They are just that

talented. And I feel like the only

question is, Mario Cristobal can't get in his own

way. He can be a little too conservative on offense.

Like we saw Justin Herbert at Oregon

put up mediocre numbers year after

year. And then he gets to the NFL and all

Thank you. The question is, Mario Cristobal can't get in his own way.
He can be a little too conservative on offense. Like we saw Justin Herbert at Oregon put up mediocre numbers year after year, and then he gets to the NFL, and all of a sudden he's great because he's in an offense that says, hey, look, we've got a talented QB.
We should take advantage of it. Yeah, that Auburn game still hurts me.
The Bo Nix, when everyone's like, Bo Nix is good. No, he's not.
No, he's not. Where do you stand on the idea that we talked about this at Kirk Herbstreet last week? One of these teams, if Cincinnati runs a table, they go undefeated, are they going to get in over a team that has one loss from Power 5? No.
A group of five teams, as long as the playoff stays at four teams, a group of five teams never get in. Period.
I don't care who they play or what. We have to remember who put the playoff together.
The Power Five. Why did they put it together? For money.
They are not going to willfully share that money with a Cincinnati or a Boise State or anybody. Sounds like you just talked your way into our steak dinner.
So you can come along when we're correct and Kirk is wrong. We're just going to expand the dinner over the course of the year.
I also think Kirk did that because he's got a – Kirk is good at his job, and he knows that petting the belly of the group of five is not the worst thing to do if you're a national TV guy. So it was smart for him.
I just don't – I never see it happening. It just – it can't happen.
The fact that UCF – what did they even finish that year like eighth or something like yeah it's crazy they're so far away from it it's not like they finished fifth so it's it's just it's never gonna happen Tom we're in an alliance um as members of the Big Ten how much did that make you feel better about uh the world of college football because I have to admit right like SEC takes texas and oklahoma the pac-12 acc and big 10 are saying we got to do something let's create an alliance that makes no sense no one knows what it's about but i kind of feel better about it i don't know oh yeah the best night of sleep i ever had after the the formation of the alliance which i i i don't know what it does like they've talked about yeah they've talked about like it's like well we're gonna have like we're working on a scheduling agreement that for the future between the three conferences oh does that mean you're not going to schedule the sec well no no we could keep scheduling the sso it's just going to be the same thing that you've always been doing but now you're going to have maybe a cool logo that you could put on a press release to announce it and that's literally all it is it's the same thing with like the big 12 yesterday announcing that hey we are thinking of expansion we are we we've been talking about that it's it's very much like i just want to look like i'm doing something so people don't think i'm doing nothing yeah it it's it i liked it likened it to like the first night of real world when the guy is guy gets really drunk and then just hooks up with whoever's closest to him. And then the next morning he's like, I think I might be in love.
And then the next morning he's like, wait, we're on this show together for three months here? They just had to find someone to get in bed with. The Big Ten, ACC, and Pac-12 just had to find a relationship to fill that hole instantly because it was a new environment and they were scared yeah and by episode three they're screaming at each other and every single other roommate hates them yes yeah it's but you're right it's basically like 1 50 a.m it's a saturday night the bar is closing down they just turn the lights on they look across the room and they're like, Alliance, let's do this.
Let's do it. Let's do it.
I like where Tom's head's at though, where it's like there's so many people that work in marketing for these large football organizations. And they have to have ideas that they bring to the table, which is how the legends and leaders division of the big got split up a couple years ago.
And somebody just had a PowerPoint. They're like, I got a big presentation.
And they're like, we should do this alliance. They're like, I like that.
I like that. It's very progressive, forward thinking on your part.
But in reality, it's just people that want to justify their own jobs. Yeah, there was some intern there.
This was their big break. Yes.
I did feel better, though, for about 30 minutes. I was like, ooh, looks like we're good like we're good we got an alliance everything's gonna stabilize and then i realized like this actually means nothing um so how about let's do a gambling trend that you're looking at this year something that uh has piqued your interest that you want to hammer hank so you guys know i'm sorry tom he asked me uh you guys know i love underdogs.
This is obviously the COVID year.

It's the first time fans are back in the crowd.

In games involving FBS schools, last week, week zero, home teams were 4-1.

Probably a big reason why Illinois pulled off the upset.

So I'm going to be looking for home teams, underdogs.

That's my trend of the week.

That's great.

Hank's trend of the week. I like that.
What was yours, Tom? Sorry we cut you off. I'm just going to take overs.
God damn it. Firing on every single over I could fight.
That's smart. Tom, I got a take that I'm trying to get out in front of here.
I want to be the first person that I hear say it, but maybe you can back me up and tell me that I'm not insane for thinking this. Alright, Penn State,

Wisconsin. Wisconsin wins by

double figures. James Franklin,

hot seat, true or false?

I think, yeah.

I mean, not like, not

imminent kind of

hot seat, but I do think that

yeah, it would definitely, they would start, you'd

start hearing murmurs because like Penn State,

you know, last year was obviously a disaster

for them, but it was a terrible situation for them

because, you know, they had a couple of their

Thank you. Yeah, you'd start hearing murmurs because Penn State, last year was obviously a disaster for them, but it was a terrible situation for them because they had a couple of their key players, like Micah Parsons, opt out because of the COVID stuff.
Then they lost a couple players to injuries just before the season began. So they came into the year missing key players on both sides of the ball.
Obviously, it took them a long time to adjust, although that said, you would think that with the talent level they had, they probably still should have won a few of those games. They got things together late, but this is a Penn State team that the expectation is to be competing with Ohio State, and maybe you're not beating them every single year, but to be fair, Penn State's kind of entering that same territory where Michigan is, where it's like they really don't have a chance in hell.
When you look at the teams compared to each other, particularly at the QB spot, they can't match up with them, and they're getting run every single year. So at some point, if James Franklin, if they lose to Wisconsin and it looks like they're already kind of out of it going into the second week of the year, yeah, you're going to start hearing whispers about that.
And the best part is James Franklin could be on the hot seat at Penn State and then just go get the job at USC. And we talked about this on the Cover 3 podcast all last year.
I think James Franklin would be magnificent at USC because the one thing at USC that you really need to take advantage of, if your goal is to win national titles, if your goal is to just have a solid football team filled with great guys all graduating and doing wonderful things, fine, whatever, More power to you. But if you want to compete for national titles, you need to recruit.
You need a guy who's really going to try to bring that talent in like Pete Carroll was doing and like you see what all the top programs are doing. And USC has a great recruiting area to work in.
There's a ton of talent in Southern California. If you look at all these top quarterbacks in the country, they're almost all coming from California.
But none of them are staying in california so i think if you got the right guy the right kind of figurehead who can recruit and bring that talent there and then surround himself with a good coaching staff i think usc could once again be one of the powers in the country and i think james franklin's one of the guys who's capable of doing it to be blunt and on the top of all that i think usc is one of the only jobs in college football where you kind of need to be a self-promoter.

You kind of have to be semi, a pseudo-celebrity.

You want that a little bit

and be in the mix and

hobnobbing with rich people

and going to Lakers games and stuff.

You kind of have to have that vibe.

He's got that juice. Clay Helton

does not. No, definitely not.

I love Clay Helton though because

they forgot to fire him

three years ago and he's just like

Thank you. And he has that.
He's got that juice. Clay Helton does not.
No, definitely not. I love Clay Helton, though, because they forgot to fire him three years ago.
And he's just like, all right, well, we're going to win nine games, so what do you want me to do? I'm rough on Clay Helton, or people think I'm rough, but it's like I was saying at the beginning. It's not that I think he's a bad coach.
It's just I think that USC should be competing for national titles, and I don't think Clay Helton is a national title coach because i think he's just a good football coach instead of what usc needs to get there clay helton would be a would be a great coach at uh let's say purdue he'd be a great coach at purdue colorado yeah he'd be a great coach of colorado he would be a great coach i don't know he'd be he's a program builder. He's a good culture builder.
It's just he doesn't have that national title talent. Yeah, something like that.
That's where Clay Helton should be. All right, let's talk about this weekend's slate.
The big game, obviously, Clemson versus Georgia. Tell me who you're going to bet on, or if you're not going to bet on it, who you're leaning towards.
And then also, is it fair to say that Kirby Smart kind of needs this one? Not hot seat, because they have Georgia rolling, but more in the Georgia has the talent to be on the upper echelon level. The coaching hasn't always met that talent in the big game.
Yeah, I don't know if they'll if he'll be on the hot seat if they lose because I do think that it being Clemson, as long as they don't get blown out, I think he'll be fine, but I get what you're saying. I do think Georgia is going to win this game, though.
Oh. And I don't have a great feel – I'm betting Georgia plus the three.
I'm not betting them on the money line, but for me, it's just like these are similar teams. DJ Uyungela lay is a very good qb jt daniels is a very good qb i think that the rest of the offense i have questions about both teams at the receiver spot i think both defenses are terrific with the front seven and i think georgia's secondary is slightly better than clemson secondary at least from a talent and athleticism angle the difference to me is i think georgia's offensive line is much better equipped to deal with Clemson's defensive front than Clemson's offensive line is with Georgia.
So I think that over 60 minutes, that's probably going to push things towards the Georgia side. I do think it's going to be a close kind of interesting game, though, and I think that's really all any of us want.
As long as it's not a blowout, I'll be fine. But I'm leaning Georgia before anything.
By the way, before Georgia fans get mad at me, I'm not saying Kirby Smart would be on the hot seat off of a loss here. There's varying degrees to what happens to a coach.
I think he would be tagged with can't win the big one if he lost this one badly. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely been a problem, and it's not even just that they've lost the games.
It's that there have been, like when you think of the overtime loss to Alabama and other losses that they've had there have been moments and decisions made by kirby smart which led seemingly directly to the outcome of games changing i think that's where it's really kind of that narrative is being yeah so the other big variable is are they going to be wearing the black uniforms i hope not i hate those i hate them too yeah but i i can't i can't not bet on them when they're wearing the black uniforms. It just happens.
I kind of like lose.

I black out when they're wearing the blackout uniforms,

and I lose control.

They look like the Sharks from any given Sunday.

So you start hearing that Al Pacino speech,

and you're like, I got to bet on that.

Yeah, it gets me amped up.

I want to talk real quick about stuff going on in the Big Ten right now.

And we can get to Shiano in a little bit.

But Maryland, first of all, is Maryland going to finish behind Rutgers this year? I don't think so. They could.
If they do, I won't be shocked. Maryland is a really difficult team to read because it's been the same case for most of the last decade, honestly.
It's like I look at that roster and I see the way that they're accrued. I'm like, man, there's a lot of talent on there, but they never really play to their talent level.
And they're always very inconsistent from week to week. I think Talia Tagovailoa is talented, but I also think he's wildly inconsistent and sometimes makes some really strange decisions that could really cost you games.
But compared to Rutgers, it's just, I think Shiano's doing a very good job of bringing that program up to at least standard for being a bad Big Ten team and not just a terrible team overall. It's high praise.
I mean, the program Shiano took over was in very bad shape, but I think he's already improved it considerably. And the way they're recruiting, I think, in the next few years, they're going to be pretty damn decent.
But I think right now Maryland's probably better. You're right on Rutgers.
It's like there's definitely a big difference. They might not win a lot of games, but there's a big difference with what Shiano is going to have.
There was a stretch there where when Rutgers played Wisconsin, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, it was guaranteed 50-7 no matter what. It was just every single time that was going to be the score.
I actually have Rutgers circled as the game to break my heart this year because I looked at the schedule for the Badgers, and that would be off of beating Iowa, basically solidifying the Big Ten West, and then going to Piscataway at noon the next week and somehow watching an entire game and being like, they're not going to lose this game. They're not going to lose this game.
No way they lose this game. And then they lose that game.
That would be a very Shiano thing to do. And a very Wisconsin thing to do as well.
Yes. How are we feeling about Burt, my man Burt, who I actually – I don't hate him anymore.
I hated him for a while, but he's just funny, and he has Illinois playing. That drive that he had against Nebraska in the second half, I think it started the third quarter, that was Bielema Ball.
There's something about Bielema Ball that even though we've been through it with him, I kind of just still love him because he just bullies you and grinds you up, and it's fun to watch when it's humming. Yeah, the honeymoon has not ended yet because, I mean, since he took over the job from Lovie, one of the reasons Lovie Smith was let go besides the not winning games part was that the recruiting, especially in the state of Illinois, had completely dropped off.
There was none for the most part. And high school coaches were very open in telling you, it's like, dude, they don't even show up here let alone you know offer our kids so the first thing he does he comes in he he does the Burt thing where he completely establishes himself with the high school we've already seen a huge uptick in recruiting the home state kids I think that as far as the actual roster he's he inherited an experienced roster and there was talent on it so I think that he was lucky to step into the right situation but I think that they've changed to an offense like you said the Bielma ball which is better suited for the Big Ten I think that part of the problem at Nebraska like with Scott Frost like that kind of spread offense we've seen numerous teams try it in the Big Ten Illinois was just doing it with in the Lovie Smith era Scott Frost is doing it Nebraska now Jeff Bromson trying to do at Purdue.
Rich Rod tried to do it at Michigan all those years ago. It very seldom works unless you're Purdue with Drew Brees.
And there aren't a lot of Drew Brees around. And I think that there's a specific style, particularly in the West, that works.
And Illinois has adopted to that quickly on the offensive side of the ball, which I think is good. And on the defense, they're not just playing cover three all the time, like with Lovie trying to force turnovers.
Once you get to the zone they are they played a ton of man last week they mix it up they've switched more of a three four attention to scott frost if you're listening they play both odd and even man front and it's just been really good and it's kind of like the rutgers situation where watching that game on saturday against nebraska was the first time in a very long time i watched the Illini football game and felt that our coach was out coaching the other team.

Yeah.

And good luck.

And I hope that you know where this is leading, right?

Brett Bielema has a tattoo of a Hawkeye on his ankle.

Okay.

All right.

That's okay.

Because you guys are going to go to a couple bowl games and then it's going to be he's going to Iowa. I don't think that.
He might. I can't rule it out.
He is. He is.
Come on. I don't know.
I don't know. I mean, he's already kind of being a pain in Iowa's ass right now with some of the in-state recruiting.
Are you saying that if he goes on a nice little run here at Illinois, that he's going to be head coach for life? You think Beelman's going to settle down at Illinois? I don't know. I mean, he could definitely.
That's the thing because that's the alma mater. But I feel like the pay at Power 5 jobs now, it's like unless you're Ohio State, Alabama, or one of those programs, the rest of the Power 5 are all pretty much the same deal.
Yeah. Yeah.
Or Texas A&M. That was actually a slap in Jimbo's face they didn't go the full 10 years 10 10 million a year they went 10 years 94 million like where was Jimbo going it's so true it's I mean I understand I understand like the urge to when coming off a great season you want to maybe you want to reward your having a great season.
And Jimmy Sexton, this was part of the problem at Florida State. Every time Jimbo had a good year, Jimmy Sexton, his agent, would come to Florida State seeking a raise, and eventually Florida State just got to the point where it's like, no, man, come on.
Like, how much do you want us to pay him? But he's at Texas A&M. He's got a huge deal.
I think it's still got six years left on it. There are very few teams that could take him away from College Station that would make sense or even offer him the money where the job is open.
Maybe USC, but I don't know if Jimbo Fisher's really a fit for USC. So why are you giving him an extra whatever year? Look at what just is happening at Nebraska.
You give Scott Frost an extension that he didn't really deserve, and there was no need to give him because nobody's coming. You see it time and time again at all these programs.
Coaches keep getting extended. They keep getting raises when there's no other jobs on the table.
And then a year later, they have a bad season, and you want to fire them, and you can't because the buyout is ridiculous. So shout out to Jimbo.
I'm happy you got it. Texas A&M, you don't have to give it to him every time at Jimmy Sexton asks but it is kind of nice as an athletic director to just you know not have to worry about a coach for a while it's like yeah I may have messed up paying him this much money but at least I don't have to you know get back out on the market in a couple years and to be fair most ADs probably like if you give Jimbo Fisher a 10-year deal like are you even going to be there at the end of that 10 years probably not right probably not yeah so yeah you as the Twitter thread said like you don't really want to be out here they're pegging out here right now doesn't it's not as great as you think it is when you're in the market yeah what about uh can you talk me down from Indiana because I've kind of fallen in love with Indiana uh just based on the fact that they won games that were on primetime last year and I saw them on my my television, and their quarterback's name is Penix.
I know it's Penix, but there are a lot of intangibles that work their way into the mindset of an idiot like myself, where now I'm thinking, like, Indiana could actually do some damage. Should we take them seriously? Tag me in if you need my help, Tom, because I've gone to war with Indiana football fans.
Well, plus Indiana has receivers named Wap, Phil, Yorn, Ty, Freifogel.

How could you not fall in love with that team?

But no, they're not going to be nearly as good as they were last year.

I think that Tom Allen has done a fantastic job of improving that team

to a level that we're not accustomed to seeing from Indiana football.

And I think they're taking advantage of Michigan State

being somewhat of a downturn, and they've entered that point where the're the fourth team clearly and maybe even the third best team in that division. But I think that there's some numbers from last year's team, and I've been getting killed by Indiana fans since last year because of it.
They were very lucky when it came to turnovers, or at least points off of turnovers. They forced them, and they turned them into points, which is awesome awesome it's just it's not a reliable thing to count on game in and game out and year in and year out so there's likely to be some aggression so i think indiana's still a good team i think they're going to get to a bowl game easily they'll probably win eight games but anything more than that i think you're kind of diluting yourself indiana had a great year last year india tom Allen is a very good coach.
They're going in the right direction. But if you actually look at their season last year, they beat Penn State on a play that, okay, whatever.
And some really dumb decisions by Penn State's fault, too. Yeah, they beat Rutgers, who's terrible.
They beat Michigan, who was terrible. They beat Michigan State, who was terrible.
Like, everyone had a down year when they caught Indiana. And then they lost final score seven to Ohio State.
But that game was not a seven-point game. It was Ohio State could have just done whatever they wanted.
They got bored. They beat Wisconsin.
Yes, I will throw that out there. It was 14-6 in a Wisconsin team that was horrendous, like offensively horrendous down the stretch.

Like one of the worst offensive Wisconsin teams I've seen in a long time.

So everything broke right.

They had a great year.

I'm not taking anything away.

I'm just taking a nice cold shower on Indiana football,

winning 10 games and competing for the East.

Yeah, no, you're dead on.

Again, I think they're a good team,

but they're not the team you saw last year, and to expect that going forward. but it's still like,

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it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it yeah no it's you're dead on i again i think they're a good team but they're they're not the team you saw last year and to expect that going forward but it's still like if indiana goes eight and four yeah and you're an indiana fan yes yes that's the thing is i'm good for you yeah i think my when i got my big argument it was like it was actually nice because it was a random i think day in the spring it was like oh we're talking college football but it was essentially like ind fans being like we've arrived like like Wisconsin's days have passed I'm like you have to do it for more than one COVID year to their defense like they've had some rough times with the basketball program lately so they're just clinging to anything they get their hands on it's true all right let's uh leave with this, Tom. Give us, so every week Tom has

his pick six

on CBS Sports. He does

picks. He's great, sharp

handicapper. Can you give us one that you love?

My lock of the week this week is

actually Illinois minus four and a half at home

against UTSA. That is a straight

up disrespectful line.

Love it. I think UTSA

is one dimension on offense. They have a great running

back and sincere McCormick, but the

Illini defense completely shut down Nebraska's run game last week. And if they could do that to Nebraska's offensive line, I don't have too many concerns with them doing it to UTSA's offensive line.
And if they make UTSA beat them through the air, I just don't think UTSA could do it. So to get that at under a touchdown, it's like I don't think Illinois is some juggernaut now because it beat Nebraska.
But they are definitely a touchdown better than UTSA.

And, Dan, I mean, you can remember Brett Bielema teams at Wisconsin in the non-con playing against a group of five teams.

They don't show any mercy.

They just crush them.

Those were the best days because it was when you were super drunk in a September Madison day when it was still hot out.

You know, just put up like 50 on a team and call it a day game's over by 230 you're good to go yeah um all right tom you're the best thank you thank you thanks for having me on yeah thank you tom best of luck good to see you gambling this season and uh justin field's prediction go quick uh week three okay oh dude miles garrett gonna fucking kill him him yes there's a lot of big guys in the NFL Dan how's Aston Villa doing are they better than Arsenal everybody's better than Arsenal I haven't looked at the table recently I don't know the three of us are better than Arsenal yes yes that hurts all right thanks Tom Tom Fernelli was brought to you by our great friends over at Sling

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And now, here's Ken Burns.

And now for something completely different.

Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest.

You know him.

He's probably the most famous documentarian out there.

He's an Emmy Award winner.

He's got a new documentary about Muhammad Ali coming out September 19th on PBS. It is Ken Burns.
I want to actually start there because I was actually, we're going to talk about Muhammad Ali in this documentary, but I was just finishing something up and someone asked me, oh, who are you going to go interview? And I said, Ken Burns. And they said, wow, are you the most famous documentarian out there? Are you like you have actual when you say the word the name ken burns people are like oh man that's incredible well you know i live in a tie that's very nice of you guys i'm happy to be with you i live in this tiny little town in in new hampshire i've lived here for 42 years so i think i'm the most famous documentary filmmaker in this town but But I'm more interested in the content of the films rather than in the degree of bold face my name might have.
And here, nobody gives a shit, you know, whether I shovel the lawn of my neighbor if they're not doing well in a snowstorm gets me more props than, you know, Emmy nominations or whatever it is. And that's a good way to be.
And by the way, this film is co-directed by my daughter, Sarah Burns, and her husband, David McMahon. We worked together on The Central Park Five and Jackie Robinson and have now been together in this.
So if I say we, it's not a pretentious royal we. It actually has to do with the two others that made the film.
And Sarah and Dave wrote the the script so maybe it's even more theirs than mine so so how does that can you explain that process to us uh you know documentaries especially sports documentaries have become kind of you know 30 for 30 boom the last 10 years how does the process work when you say okay here's a subject you just mentioned script, like, can you just even explain the beginning stages of it for people who might not understand? Yeah, I think we do it a little bit differently than others in our colleagues. I've been doing it for almost 50 years, and it doesn't really matter what the subject is, whether it's sports, or it's war, or it's presidents, or it's artists, or writers, whatever it might be.
So the biggest

thing is that most people have a set research followed by a set writing that produces a script

that informs the shooting and editing, boom, done. We never stop researching and we never stop

writing. So we're corrigible to the end.
And so we're drawn to subjects and we're drawn to

complicated subjects. We don't want to regurgitate what the conventional wisdom is or the baggage.
What we want to do is share with you the process of discovery. And with somebody like Muhammad Ali, for whom there's been lots of films and lots of really good films made about specific fights, about a couple of years in his life, about a fight with the U.S., we wanted to do something comprehensive.
From his birth and boyhood in Jim Crow segregated Louisville, Kentucky, to his death by Parkinson's not that long ago, 2016. And honor the fights, but also honor his struggle with the government about the war in Vietnam.
Honor his faith and his adhering to what was for many people, black as well as white, a reprehensible group called the Nation of Islam that was separatist, where the civil rights movement that was gaining a lot of traction was about integration. So there's lots of undertow and complication to the story of Muhammad Ali.
And of course, when he refuses draft because of a faith-based decision, it's treated, because he's a black man in America, as a political thing and a big middle finger to America. So he's sort of the third strike.
First strike is he's gregarious and he's braggadocio. Second strike is he joins the Nation of Islam.
Third strike, he refuses the draft and he's convicted, going to go to prison and loses three and a half years at the prime of his career. That alone is a great story and has been the subject.
But we wanted to know who his mama was, who his dad was, what it was like to see Emmett Till's mutilated open casket, body in that casket, which was about the same age. What it's like to grow up in segregated America.
And then all these other things, family dynamics, his evolving political and spiritual beliefs, his friendship with Malcolm X, the loss of that friendship, how he treated Joe Frazier, and what happens inside those fights. So our secret weapon in the film is Michael Bent, this former heavyweight champion, who helps those of us who aren't boxing fans understand not just the strategy and tactics, but the psychology and this almost round-to-round,

blow-to-blow sense of what's happening, what's transpiring, who's got the bigger heart,

who's got the bigger will, who wants it more. And I think it helps ease us into the 20-25 fights

that we sort of isolate from his extraordinary career and point out, not just the victories,

but the important losses like to Joe Frazier and to Spinks and to Norton. Yeah, Muhammad Ali is obviously a great American to tell this story about.
There's so much rich stuff in his life that you can dig into. I'm curious to know, because going back through the list of films that you've made, and there are a lot of great ones in there, has there ever been a subject that you felt really passionate about? And then you start making it, and you're like, you know what? Maybe this is just something I like a lot, and maybe there's not enough to tell a full story about it in the way that I usually like to tell these stories.
Man, I've been so lucky. I'm knocking on wood because I've been doing this for almost 50 years, and that hasn and that hasn't happened yet.
I mean, what I find people often say to me, man, you worked on Vietnam for 10 and a half years. Didn't you get bored? And in point of factor, this one for seven years, didn't you get bored? It's bittersweet.
I love this part, this evangelical part where I'm going out and saying, you got to watch this film because it's a way to mitigate a sorrow at leaving a project that you want to keep working on. You'd think that making a film is additive.
It's like building a house, but it's subtractive. So this film is eight hours.
We have 50 times eight hours of material. We have 400 hours of stuff.
And all of it is important in somebody's world. And it's how you sort of, I guess, since he was born in Kentucky, how you distill the essence of that 400 hours down to 15 hours to make it and will still be criticized.
Oh, you left this out. And I love that.
Because man, if you make a 18 and a half hour film on baseball or an 18 hour film on Vietnam and people are complaining what you left out you go nobody's saying it's boring as hell yeah so is there the burns cut do you have like a special cut that you're going to drop you know what the reason why I can spend 10 and a half years is I've spent my entire professional life um working with PBS so that's P is in public and S not in system, but in service. And so they, if I raise the money, they allow me to take the time necessary to do it right.
I could go to a streaming service. I could go to a premium cable and say with my track record, hey, I need $30 million to do X.
And they'd give it to me, but they wouldn't give me 10 and a half years to do it. Does that make sense? So every time you see a film, you're looking at a director's cut.
In this case, Sarah Burns, David McMahon, and me, this is our director's cut. This is how we thought it should be.
And so our first episode goes well over two hours. Normally in broadcast television, you know, they cut your head off.
And then some of them are a little bit short of the two-hour time period. But we get to say, look, this is what, between these goalposts of episode one and the end of episode one, this is what the ground we had to cover.
And you tell me where you can cut something. And nobody's been ever, ever able to tell us where we could cut stuff.
And then conversely, I'm not going to fill it out just to make your perfect timing. And that's why PBS has been so great to us.
Yeah. So when you started researching this and you started going through the different clips and talking to people, Muhammad Ali is such a fascinating character for a million different reasons.
But from the angle and the shit talking angle I've always been like he might not have invented shit talking but he's perfected it and now today's age you see it a lot more but it was something totally different then was there like watching all these clips were you even taken aback like he was even better than I remembered or better than I thought? Look, I'm old enough that I remember the Rome Olympics and him coming home with gold. And he was this promising guy.
I remember all the brachadocios so that by the time you get to the Liston fight in 64, there are lots of people saying, just shut him up. Liston's going to shut him up and put this guy because he wasn't behaving the way an athlete should, meaning modest.
Well, you know, I'm open to do this. And he's also a black athlete, not behaving the way

people think a black athlete to be. But we loved him.
He was so unbelievably charismatic.

What's more important is that we've got all of that and lots of it, but there's spaces in between

when this teenager or this early 20-something is speaking softly with wisdom and an unbelievable

I'm a little bit more. of it.
But there's spaces in between when this teenager or this early 20-something is speaking softly with wisdom and unbelievable poise. Like, it doesn't matter that he's a boxer.
His daughter, Rashida, told us in the film at the end, you know, boxing was this much, pinching her fingers together. And you realize that's right.
He could have taken something else. He knew he had a destiny.
And every once in a while, when he loses to Frazier, when the Supreme Court vindicates him, or some other moment when he's talking about perhaps stopping boxing because the Nation of Islam isn't cool about the frivolousness of sports, he's saying, I know I'm here for a purpose. I know I'm supposed to do something.
So while I'm wowed by what a genie, he's the best promoter ever, better than any promoter that ever tried to promote him. And in fact, when he testifies in 63 up in Albany about corruption in boxing, and he's going to go fight in New York City at Madison Square Garden, which hasn't sold out, he's promised to sell it out, and then all the newspapers go on strike.
And so they're saying, look, you're dead in the water, buddy. Guess what? They sold it out for the first time in years because he went door to door.
He went to the radio stations. He talked to the guys.
He went to various places. He walked the streets.
He said, come, hey, watch me fight, you know. And they did.
He did that in Louisville. He went door to door.
And he understood by watching Gorgeous George, this wrestler who was hated, he understood that, you know, it doesn't matter what the crowd thinks about you, right? He says, boo, hiss, throw peanuts, but whatever you do, pay to get in. He got that, he got that part of it that it's just show.
And if you're going to be the guy they boo, then you're going to be the guy they boo. He just happened to be the most spectacular athlete of the 20th century.
I love it because it's such a fascinating part of the fight game in particular because it's very unique to fighting. But you even see now with a Conor McGregor who may be passed his prime, but people are still buying because he's able to promote it.
And it's very few and far between that you have a boxer or a fighter with both talent and exceptional promotion skills. And he was the whole package.
And then also being something else. So the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Muhammad Ali is intersecting with all the major themes of the last half of the 20th century, the role of sports, the role of black athletes, race, faith, religion, politics, war. And now when we have dug into his personal life and his family life and his four wives and all of that, the questions that are about us with the Me Too movement.
So he's as relevant today as at any time. And so I made another film back in 2005 on Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champion.
It was a film called Unforgivable Blackness because when they couldn't beat him in the ring, they just figured out a way to get him out of the boxing ring and trumped up charges against him. And W.E.B.
Du Bois, a great scholar, said it all comes down to his unforgivable blackness. And, you know, I'm not a boxing fan per se, but I really pay attention when it's a Jack Johnson who cared only about himself, or more importantly, a Muhammad Ali who doesn't only just care about himself, he cares about his people.
And that extends to the world. So when this guy dies, he dies the most beloved person on the planet.
And remember how divisive he is in the 60s. What a lightning rod he is for controversy.
I'm interested in that transformation. I think it's as fascinating.
And the problem is, because we live in an information age, is that we're all drowning in information. So basically, we carry our Ali baggage from moment to moment.
We forget him for a while. We remember him, but we just remember that.
And what Sarah and Dave and I, I think, wanted to do is replace the superficial and the conventional with a much more complex and dimensional portrait of who this guy was, good, bad, and otherwise. And we hold his feet to the fire for his failings.
We're not unafraid of it. But let me tell you, man, this guy is a, he's about love.
I mean, it's a four-letter word the FCC lets us use, but, you know, nobody wants to talk about it. It's too embarrassing.
And, you know, there's a great shot early on, I'm sure you guys have seen it, which is in the Fifth Street gym in Miami. He's training for Liston, and the Beatles have invaded.
And there's a picture of him, fake shot, you know, punching John, and it looks like Paul and George and Ringo are going to topple over like dominoes. But then I got to thinking, these five men understood how the universe really runs.
And they'd spend the rest of their lives, three of them are now gone, Ali and Harrison and Lennon, but two are alive, and best embodied for all five of them, including Ali, by words that McCartney wrote, which is, you know, and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. And by the end, this divisive person is the most loved person on the planet.
I want to know how you get from point A to point B and even how you get up to point A from the childhood and how we are now and how much he speaks. There's a wonderful shot at the end of the film of some protest.
We deliberately don't really show you what that protest is on the Brooklyn Bridge. And there's a young black woman and she's wearing a simple black t-shirt with white letters.
And all it says is Muhammad Ali. That's all she needed in this day and age to make a statement about courage, to make a statement about passion, to make a statement about freedom.
Because remember, we talk about athletes speaking their mind and some idiots say, shut up and dribble. That's ridiculous.
We live in a free country. Anybody can say something.
But he risked everything. He lost three and a half years at his prime for sticking up for his beliefs.
And he could have gone into the army. They wouldn't put him in combat.
He'd do USO shows. He'd box and mug with people.
He knew that, and he wasn't going to do it. He said, I'd rather face machine gun fire than to do that.
So all of a sudden, when people begin to look back and say, maybe the Vietnam War wasn't a good thing, he had them. They were, this was the transformation that America needed.
And this idea of courage is there. Now, we have other athletes who take a stand, and you could think that Carlos and Smith in the 68 Olympics risked something.
Kurt Flood, a black man, tried to get the reserve clause, the plantation reserve clause, out of baseball. He had to go take two white guys, Messerschmitt and McNally with Marvin Miller, to make that happen.
And Colin Kaepernick has paid dearly. But these guys that were speaking out today, they're great.
I'm proud of them for speaking out, but they're not risking their Nike contract. They're not risking their football or their basketball contract or whatever.
They're just doing what they believe. They have, though, as the avatar of their example, this man who was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.
in Louisville, Kentucky, and who ended his life, Muhammad Ali, the most famous and the most loved person on the planet. I'd want to know how that happened.
So it's interesting you brought up how we look back at Muhammad Ali as being an icon. We look at him as being a role model and all these things that you talked about when at the time he was so divisive and the uh like comparable person i think about when i hear an explanation like that uh dr martin luther king jr at the time when he was speaking when he was traveling around the country uh he was hated people didn't people didn't like the fbi told him he should kill himself i mean like yes this was a guy that um know stirred up a lot of emotions and a lot of them really really bad from people who are resistant to change but you look forward you know 50 years and he's looked upon as one of the greatest Americans of all time what exactly what do you think happened not necessarily Dr.
King but with Muhammad Ali because you've been researching him what happened over the course of years? Is it that we look back at Vietnam and we're like, maybe he was right about this after all? Or is there something else that kind of... I think there are a lot of things that contribute.
I think Vietnam is one of them. You know, I think it's also when he came back, he wins his first two fights.
Then he fights Joe Frazier in the fight of the century in 71, and he gets beaten. And in the last round, when he realizes he's losing on

points and he has to go for a knockout, he gets knocked down, but he gets right back up. And afterwards, though he's been ragging on Frasier, he's calm and he's talking to the world.
And he said, you know, we're all going to face losses and defeat. And we're all going to, you know, lose a job or lose a loved one or lose a title.
And we have to show that we can take this. This is part of life.
It's an amazingly poised comment. And Robert Lipsight, who was then a young reporter who'd been following him for years, said, you know, in a way, Frazier won the fight, but Ali won America.
And that's when kids who may have been repulsed by the stand in Vietnam now are beginning to understand. And when he comes back and wins the championship for the second time against, you know, against George Foreman in the Rumble of the Jungle, in one of the greatest, most artistically beautiful fights, when everyone thought they were worried about whether he'd survive it, whether he'd even live to do it.
So I think there's all of that, the hero's return. And then I think they're beginning to realize that he was honest and he was direct, and that was refreshing.
He wasn't doing the nuke-la-noosh, you know, oh, I'm just trying to play within myself. And Crash Davis has to say, you idiot, that makes no sense, right? So he was always honest and he was always direct.
And that divisiveness is not necessarily on his account. It's our problem.
So there's a moment when David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker and a great writer about Ali says, you know, maybe it proves that we can change. And I think the reason why we have a holiday for Dr.
King and the reason why we can look back, I mean, people were sending a decapitated black dog's head to Ali before he fought Jerry Quarry in Atlanta to begin his comeback. You know, people don't like my film sometimes, but nobody does that.
And he said, this is what we do to black dogs in Georgia, right? And, you know, this is in the 1970s. This is a big deal.
And so I think that we've learned to understand that life isn't just, even in this binary world, it isn't just on and off, good and bad, black and white, gay or straight, male or female, rich or poor, north or south, east or west, it's much more complicated than that. And there's something really compelling and interesting about representing that complication.
The persons closest to you guys are complicated. They're not perfect.
And neither are you and neither am I. And you can either go with the perfect and therefore nobody's a hero, or you can understand that heroes have always been about negotiating between their strength and their weaknesses.
Remember, Achilles had his heel and his hubris to go along with his great strength. We're all like that.
We're just smaller versions of these big, epic, mythic Greek heroes. So a question along that line.
We got the screener. I watched the first one.
I got the other three to go. So I'm sure you get into it.
But I've always been fascinated about the end of Ali's boxing career. Yeah.
And boxing is one of those sports that for some reason guys hang on for a little bit too long. And it's always very sad.
What was the motivation at the end? Because he is the greatest of all time, and then you have these memories of him, and you have these fights of him at the end, where he's a shell of himself. What was the motivation behind sticking around and never being able to fully give it up until it basically was well past the date? Well past.
I mean, it's true in all sports. We see people, you know, we think of Babe Ruth as a Yankee, but he doesn't end his career as a Yankee.
Think of Willie Mays as a Giant. He doesn't end his career as a Giant.
And so there are people who are hanging on. With Muhammad Ali, it's such a fairytale thing.
He's won the championship three times, right? And so he keeps thinking that he can pull some rabbit out of a hat, and it's way, way past his prime, and everybody's begging him. His corner is abandoning him.
His kids are saying, Daddy, don't fight anymore. And yet I think he's a generous person.
He's given away most of his money. People who are managing him have mismanaged it.
So there's the payday aspect of it. There's the wanting to be in the limelight.
He loves other people. He loves the adulation.
He loves to give back to it. He's always the last person signing autographs.
Do you know what I mean? He had that kind of just basic thing. And it's really hard to turn it off.
It'd be interesting, say, with Tom Brady to see whether, you know, if he has a bad year, he's going to hang it up or whether he's going to say, oh, no, no, no, I can get better, I promise. But it's nothing compared to Ali.
It's excruciating. As you watch those last couple fights, you just want to close your eyes and say, please don't do this.
Please don't do this. And you're already seeing signs of the Parkinson's that's going to encase him and render him speechless.
And that figure shaking at the Olympics in Atlanta 25 years ago this summer, you know, surprising the entire world, and it's really, you know, to answer your question, too, it's that moment that finally does it, you know, where a lot of the hatred, I'm sure there's some people still out there with that unreconstructed view of him, but, you know, when he came up there with the bravery of showing the world just the sheer depth of his affliction and everybody loving him back, you know, that's really when the full rehabilitation takes place. And then remember, he lives another two decades.
He's doing work. He can barely speak.
So Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's, said, I couldn't be still until I couldn't be still, which is a beautiful, beautiful phrase of great enlightenment.
And I think in some ways you could apply that to Ali, this valuable, loudmouth, wonderful, articulate, funny person. He really couldn't speak until he couldn't speak.
And then he spoke volumes. And when, you know, he'd hold a news conference when he was active and the sports world would stop.
He went to Pakistan or Malaysia or Saudi Arabia. The whole country stopped.
Yeah. He was beloved in Africa, in the Middle East, in Asia, all over the world.
He was admired as someone who was speaking for everybody who's felt the boot of the man. And that took a lot of guts and courage because at some point in his life, he's being a little bit cautious when he's being treated badly because he doesn't want to upset the Louisville sponsoring group, the white businessmen who are protecting his career.

He wants to look good.

And then somewhere along the line, he just sheds that and just becomes who he's supposed to be.

It's a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, which if you float like one and sting like a bee, you're Muhammad Ali.

Yeah, yeah.

So the rope-a-dope.

I think we've all heard the term. A lot of us have seen the fight.
A lot of us have watched various movies that have been made about Ali. But when he executes the rope-a-dope against George Foreman, was there anybody in his camp while it was leading up to the fight that said, hey, Muhammad, this is fucking crazy.
You're just going to let George Foreman punch you in the stomach until he's tired, and then that's your plan to knock him out. He didn't even tell him what the plan was.
They had been practicing. He had his own plan.
And so it's not like beforehand this is fucking crazy. They get in the ring, and they're screaming at him, get off the ropes, Angelo Dundee, get off the ropes.
You know, Boudini, get off the ropes. Everybody is doing that, and he knows what he's doing.
He has calculated the odds. The great kind of classically tragic dimension to this is, of course, an ability and the willingness to absorb those blows, not just to body but to head, are going to ultimately end his career and his life.
But until then, that fight goes down as the Mona Lisa, as, you know, a masterpiece, because he, you know, people were worried that he wasn't going to get out of that alive. It's just amazing.
And they're screaming at him to do this, and he knows what he's doing, And it's right. And if you watch that fight, this is a guy that, you know, they just assumed would be the champion forever.
And Ali, old and out of shape and, you know, having lost to not only Frazier, but, you know, to others, he just demolishes Foreman. It's just one of the most amazing things I've ever seen, and it's because he's doing it a different way, and he's had to adapt from the float like a butterfly stuff that he was already doing.
It's great. It's honestly insane to think that that's what his game plan was, going into the fight.
It's like, yeah, you know what? I'm just going to let George Foreman punch me until he's tired. And then I'll be able to knock him out.
It's crazy. He has so many iconic moments like that.
I want your Ken Burns. If you had true serum or gun to your head.
Not actual gun to your head. But Sonny Liston won.
Did Sonny Liston use something in Muhammad Ali's eyes? Yeah, I think so. I think it was Linament.
That's what Ali said. That's what most everybody said.
Somehow Linament got in his eye. Something happened.
He was clearly winning on points every single round, which has startled the Liston camp and probably surprised the hell out of Cassius Clay. He's Cassius Clay then.
And then he's blind against one of the most ferocious boxers for a round and a half at least if not two rounds and then he comes back and there's a kind of vengeance. And so, you know, it's just an amazing...
It's incredible. You can't make it up.
When you watch Ali basically be blind and his hand out, knowing that if he's touching Sonny Liston's head, he can figure out where the punches are coming from. The force had to be with him, right? It's incredible.
He had to do that blind, and you can't make this up. You tell this to a Hollywood producer, and they go, nah, but this is what happened.
And so one of the greatest fights of all time has to be that first Liston fight, just because the improbability of him being able to understand how to handle Liston and then be able to take the worst possible thing, this liniment in the ice. And he's saying, cut the gloves off, I'm done.
Get me out of here. I can't see because he knows exactly what you've just said.
If Liston lands one punch, his career is over, right? I mean mean he's just out and he's not going to get a another shot at it and so you know the fact that he lives through that and then comes back and now you know if he was mad before he's really mad and liston doesn't stand a chance at that point all right and so then my follow-up question was liston too is that a phantom punch or no like where do you land because you tell the story but where do you if you had to say i don't have the chops i i gotta believe remnick sort of david remnick sort of suggests you know like we'll never know that's true we will never know was it fixed i can't believe that it would be fixed in that regard it has to come down and i and I don't think that punch was that good. So regardless of what he was saying, I think somewhere along the line that Liston, who had trained really hard before Ali got sick, and then was sort of dissipated, just sort of said after a round, you know, oh my god, it's the same as Miami.
Here they are in Lewiston, Maine. I've already put the check in the bank.
You know, first time he gets me, I'm going down. And he's acting.
As Michael Benn said, it's bad acting. It's bad acting.
You know, as Michael Benn says in our film, it's bad acting. So, you know, it's going to be one of those mysteries.
So I don't count that in a good fight. First Liston, fabulous.
I think first, second, third Frasier, unbelievable. The third Frasier is maybe the greatest fight of all time because it's not even a fight anymore.
It's about two men as close to death as you can get. And then the masterpiece, Cleveland Big Cat Williams and Ernie Terrell, What's My Name, What's My Name? And then, of course, the masterpiece of all masterpieces, the rumble in the jungle, the Kinshasa Zaire fight against George Foreman.
Yeah, Liston 2 is famous because it's the most iconic picture of all time too. When you think of Ali, you think of that picture.
Of towering over him, going get up. You actually chose a very photogenic person to make this documentary about.
There's so much great footage out there. I'm pretty as a girl.
I'm pretty as a girl, right? He understood. He had the guts to be able to say that when nobody would say that.
And he was right. He is the most gorgeous specimen, athletic specimen, and shape.
And he understood that by promoting that attractiveness, he was promoting what he was doing. Yeah.
What do you think is the most boring subject that you could make an entertaining documentary about? Vacuum cleaners. You could do it? Well, I hope it wouldn't suck.
That's awesome. Damn, we walked into that one.
You guys walked into that. That was good.
That was good.

Oh, man.

I had one last question for you, Ken.

So we talked about, obviously, the rumble in the jungle.

I remember watching When We Were Kings.

My dad actually took me to it in the theaters. Really great film.

Yeah, he's like, you got to watch this.

It's important.

That was kind of like the first big, big sports documentary.

Now it's everywhere.

What do you think about, like, there's a weird spot we're in right now where there's some documentaries where the subjects are part of it and and they get to tell their own stories how like do you think that this is good for everyone or do you think there's a point where we're maybe doing too many documentaries no we can't do too many documentaries but documentaries, but I do worry, and PBS doesn't permit me, I can't have somebody who's the subject of the film being a co-producer of the film, or the producer of the film. It just doesn't work.
It's not based on what the congressional mandate, or what you guys would expect. You just can't do that.
So, you know, I'll make my films. At the end of the day, if the film is good, the film is good, and people will watch it.
And that will be, that's the ultimate judge of it. And I think, I'm thrilled that now sports is being taken seriously.
I mean, when I was making my baseball film, people were going, you can't tell the story of America. I said, this is the sequel to my Civil War series.
They go, you're out of your mind. I said, the first real progress in civil rights after the Civil War is Jackie Robinson coming up.

Of course it's the sequel. No, but sports aren't as important.
Sports are really important. They're a perfect mirror through which we can see us.
And I've spent the last nearly 50 years telling stories about the U.S., but I've also told stories about us, the two-letter, lowercase, plural pronoun. All of the intimacy of us and all of the majesty the complexity the contradiction and the controversy of the u.s and man i feel privileged like i have the best job in america yeah i love it in your baseball documentary i would say is probably it's the best father-son piece of art maybe in america do you get that a lot people i get that all the time like up to my dad, but me and him sat down and watched.
I've watched your baseball film more than you, and I'm going, that's impossible. And he goes, yeah, no, my dad and I watch it every January.
And I go, okay. So it's now been 20 whatever years I guess you have, right? That's one documentary that I can sit down with my dad and watch at any time and it does like it's a it's a family experience watching the story of baseball in america could we make could we make a documentary about ken burns like could i do that and then call it a ken burns documentary and then hopefully pbs will get confused and give me a bunch of money listen talk about vacuum cleaners that would suck um well everyone should

go check it out september uh with september 19th correct september 19th pbs muhammad ali as you've

never seen it before there's been a bunch of documentaries about him this is going to be all

of it soup to nuts yeah and and we really appreciate you coming on ken hey it's been my pleasure thanks

so much for having me you guys all right All right. Thanks so much.
Be well. Great to meet you.
Be well. Ken Burns is brought to you by NHTSA.
For more information about Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign, you can go to trafficsafetymarketing.gov. Check it out there.
But it's Labor Day weekend. That means that the U.S.
Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is working together with law enforcement community to decrease impaired driving. I'm just going to tell it to you straight.
I'm going to go off script right now. There are going to be a lot of cops out this weekend.
It's Labor Day weekend. You're going to be partying.
You're going to be having fun with friends. You're going to be having fun with family at cookouts.
You name it. You're going to be out at bars watching football.
It's not the time to drive drunk. If you drive drunk, if you drive buzzed, you're going to get pulled over.
Best case scenario is that you get a DUI and you get a big strike on your record that's going to make your life a whole lot more complicated. Worst case scenario is you hurt or kill yourself or somebody else.
During the 2019 Labor Day holiday period, 38% of fatalities and traffic crashes involved a drunk driver. There's no excuse to drive drunk with all the options that you have for different ways to get rides.
You can get a designated driver. You can call a cab.
You can use one of the apps on your phone that you have to get somebody to come pick you up and get you home safe. There's really no excuse to be driving drunk.
Don't want to hear about any of our listeners getting into trouble. Don't want to hear about

any of our listeners losing their lives, getting

hurt. So please, please, please

don't drive drunk. Drive

sober or you get pulled over.

That's the bottom line

and that's what we want to see out of you guys.

No drinking and driving this weekend. No drinking and driving

ever. But this weekend, I'm letting you guys know

ahead of time, there's going to be a ton of

cops out. Be safe.
Get home safe. Get home in home in one piece okay let's finish up, we got Firefest of the week reminder, Tuesday, no show Monday Labor Day, Tuesday new show with Andy Staples Wednesday, new show with Brooks Koepka and can I say the guest? yep, Logic.
Yeah. Yeah.
Awesome interview.

Already taped it.

Logic.

And then we'll have Friday.

We'll do a big preview with Warren Sharp getting us into week one of the NFL.

Football is all the way back, baby.

It feels great.

But let's do Fire Fest of the week.

And also tune in to us at Liberty National on Tuesday while we caddy Brooks Koepka.

9 a.m.

9 a.m.

Ish.

My Fire Fest. It's Barstool Sportsbook-related, living in Jersey, Sportsbooks Live there.
My usual routine is, I'll wake up, check the Sportsbooks, see what I like, and then I forgot. Sometimes I'll put pics in at my apartment before I leave on this particular day, yesterday, Wednesday.
I waited until I got to the train station. There was a 10-minute wait from my train.
I was like, going to put my picks in there's a feature on the app where you can I made 3 MLB picks and there's a feature where you can parlay them which I like and I'll just sprinkle a little bit on the parlay just to see but because the train was so close to the border of New York City it wasn't like registering my location so I couldn't put couldn't put it in. Obviously, the picks went 3-0.
That's tough. That is.
And one of them was the Dodgers. It was the last game of the night.
It was close. I thought they were going to lose.
I would have been like, all right, 1-2, didn't win the parlay, whatever. But 3-0 with a potential parlay on top of it would have been nice.
I'd rather go 0-3 than have that happen. Right.
That's why I was rooting for the Braves. I was watching the Braves-Dodgers.
I was like, I hope the Braves win just so I don't have to have that hanging over my head. Not only did I go 3-0, but I also would have had the parlay hit.
So really like 4-5-0 if you're looking at unit numbers. But whatever.
That's brutal. Really, gambling is just about how you feel mentally.
So in a way, you've got to have some confidence going into the weekend. You're hot right now.
I think that still qualifies you as being hot. I don't know.
Yes. No, it does.
You're hot. But that's bad, though.
That's almost worse. When you're hot, you know you're going to be not soon enough.
No, but Big Cat's right. You're wasting your hotness on losers.
You're wasting your hotness without any benefit. You could just fade me publicly.
Yeah, obviously. And tweet about it.
You're Zach Galifianakis right now, sitting down at the blackjack table. Yeah, it was hurtful.
It was a troll move. I didn't expect my guys to do it.
You guys were talking about, I was trying to promote the sports book. You guys were holding.
That's a troll move, not an inside the house move. Calls coming from inside the house.
But it's also like you were acting like it's not. It hasn't been a reoccurring thing that's happened for the better part of like 10 years.
Yeah, but it hurt. You were texting me as if it was the first time I ever hated you.
It hurt.

It hurt to publicly do that.

I can't believe you did that.

I can't believe you did that.

I was ready to put on my shoes and go fight someone's new boyfriend who didn't end up

being a new boyfriend.

Yeah.

I was going to fight him.

I appreciate that idea.

Got trolled.

It means a lot.

Hey, you look good though.

I wasn't trolling.

Oh, yeah.

What about your trainer? Your new workout regimen. That's just fire.
Yeah? Why? No fest. Yeah.
Why is it fire? Because I'm getting jacked. He's getting jacked.
You are getting jacked. You have a...
What's this guy's name? Yeah, what is his name? Don't worry about it. What's his name? I'm not telling you.
Who's your trainer? I don't want you to know. Is he big? Yeah, my trainers, they're in shape.

They're in shape?

So it's non-binary?

Is it a she?

I don't like to give people pronouns.

Is it a chick?

You never know whether or not people want to go by.

What does she look like, Hank?

Who cares?

You have a female trainer.

PFT, any questions?

I never said that.

Is there a boxing training class that you can sign up for

and the trainer puts on a nightgown and then runs you over with a zero radius mower? I don't know. I'll have to look into that.
Okay, if there is, let me know. It's actually SoulCycle.
Oh, okay. Okay.
Like it. You got it.
Do you like her? My trainer's nice, yeah. My trainer's nice.
Like more than a trainer? You're a training bra right now. Does she listen to this show? I don't know.
Okay. Probably not.
Well, if she does, sup. For Hank.
Sup for Hank. Sup.
See you, trainer. Hank really likes the body blows.
Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I don't even know what we're talking about.
Me neither. I'm never telling you guys anything.
No headshots. All right, PFC, you're fire fast.
It's very funny to just imagine Hank getting beat up by a boxing trainer. Regardless of the gender.
I know what you think is funny to imagine me doing. Oh, yeah.
What? I don't even want you to. I don't know what you're talking about, Hank.
Okay. Listen, bros are rooting for bros right now.
I'm pulling for you. We're pumping each other up.
There you go. 2021.
Physically. Mentally.
Spiritually. Hell yeah.
Is that it? Yeah, that's it. My fire fest is I, well, I sat down with KFC yesterday and recorded a behind the blog episode where we got really deep into like my past, my present, like a lot of stuff about me that I don't really share on this podcast a lot because we like to have fun, talk about sports, keep it moving, et cetera.
We got pretty deep and he's real deep, real deep Hank. And so he started asking me about, you know, the sunglasses and things like that.
And I told him something I've been thinking about for a while here, which is the at at some point can be a big hindrance to me and not only like just being around the office when people are filming things I have to worry about you know if I'm in the background toss the glasses on real quick if somebody catches me and then they put it out on Twitter the person who videoed me just doing their job gets a lot of shit because I happen to be in the background that's not fair to them because that's not their decision. It's my decision.
So it starts to impact other people at times. And then if we're doing an interview with somebody who might not know us and they don't have a lot of time to get to know us or haven't heard what we're about, they sit down and they're like, what's the deal with the guy with the glasses? And you can see usually at the start of the interview before they get into the rhythm with us, they're just like it throws it off a little bit.
And that's something that I've been noticing and thinking about for a while. And also when we do live streams, the one thing people don't really know is that when we're doing a live stream, when we're watching TV, I can't see the television because of the polarized glasses.
So I have to put my head to the side. And it sucks.
It makes NFL Sundays way worse. If I'm doing a live stream I have to like look out of the corner of my eyes the entire time and strain them so I'm trying to think of ways to partially lose the glasses and I'm also thinking that people are going to be pissed when they see my eyes at least for a little bit not because they're like freak eyes I think I'm a pretty normal looking guy but it's just something that hasn't been out there for a while.
Big time freak eyes. Huge freak.
So I'm trying to think of ways to ditch the glasses at times, not fully. And in certain points, picking and choosing for those reasons that I put out there.
It's not something that like, oh, and also if I have to wear them like in a bar at nighttime, we're doing like an event. I just walk into tables.
Yeah. I might as well be a blind person.
That kind of is funny, though. Walking around.
I think that you should put it to the AWLs to try to get them to maybe subscribe to a certain YouTube. Speaking of that, a lot of Grit Week videos coming out today.
There we go. So that's a good start.
Gas it up. So how many subscribers do we have right now? 270? 270.
270. We need 300, right? If we get to 300.
Let's get to 300. We'll push it to 300.
I'll do it. Everyone go subscribe, and we'll do it on the YouTube.
We'll do it on the YouTube. We'll do it on the YouTube.
We got to figure out a cool way to do it. Yep.
But yeah, it's something I've been thinking about for a while. And obviously, I would still keep the glasses for most of the time that we'd be doing the show.
I know you'd probably be weirded out just because we've been doing the show. Yeah, it would be a little weird, but that's fine.
You do whatever you want. I support you in all your endeavors.
What about you, Hank? Hank's got a little smirk. What's the smirk? No, I support it.
I think it's impressive how long you've gone keeping them on as often as you do. Yeah.
All right. So that's just what I've been getting off my chest.
Also, if you think it's a shitty idea, let me know. There will definitely be some people that will be mad, but guess what? In like two days, they won't even remember that you had glasses.
Yeah, I can't see people holding onto your grudge for a long term. Is there a wrestler equivalent to this? Like, Kane taking off the mask, too.
And now he's a mayor. Now he's a mayor.
Yeah, what happened with that? That's what I'm trying to think of. Yeah, that's sort of weird.
I was weirded out, but then he'd get over it. Did Ray Mysterio ever take his off? I don't know.
No. He did an interview, but not on WWE.
So there it is. You're right.
I don't think... Or what's his name from Kiss? Those guys, when they took their makeup off.
Oh, yeah. It was very weird.
That's really strange when they do that. I think you're right.
I think that there will be people that will be upset for a couple days, but I can't see somebody months from now being like, I wish we would put his sunglasses back on. Right, so 300,000.
Let's get it. Let's get the people motivated.
300,000. We'll do the reveal on a YouTube.
We'll figure out a way to make it fun. Let's fucking do it.
And they're freak eyes. They are freak eyes.
Yeah. So you want to see them.

Real nasty.

They're fucking gross.

I'm going to puke.

You've never seen eyes like these before.

They're actually gray.

He's got no soul.

It's like Cal Ripken Jr.

You see right through them.

Actually, he's like Max Scherzer.

Yeah.

I should wear it.

I should get some sick contacts.

You should.

Maybe red contacts.

Or what was it?

Witches.

Yes.

Where they had purple eyes.

That fucked me up for a really long time.

What about the people?

Have you ever seen the cat eye contacts?

You can see contacts that make it look like you have cat eyes. Yeah.
Or goat eyes. Yes.
Those are the devil ones. Yes.
Yes. All right.
Oh, my Fyre Fest. Yeah.
I broke my computer, and I'm about to have a seizure looking at it. So that's about it.
How'd you break it? I closed it with a pen inside of it, and now the screen is completely smashed, and it looks like I'm going to have a seizure. How hard did you close it? That was it.
And it did it. Computers are fucking soft.
They're soft-ass bitches. You should try to get one of the super durable ones that they give to people that have to go out in the field on oil rigs.
Ones that have the plastic and rubber around the side. What are those called? Toughbooks? Oh, yeah.
You get a Toughbook. It's that and the Nokia that basically is a walkie-talkie, not a phone.
Or is Nextel. Yeah.
Nextel. Yeah.

Dude, that's the starter set for being a badass.

I've actually... That actually is really cool.

Being on a construction site is cool.

A cell phone hoser guy is pretty cool, too.

What was that called in those commercials?

Uh, fuck.

I don't remember.

You know the commercial I'm talking about.

They were the coolest commercials.

For the cell phones?

Yeah.

It was like... Oh, yeah.
The chirp ones. Was it just chirping? Fuck.
I'm talking about. They were the coolest commercials.
For the cell phones? Yeah. It was like.

Oh, yeah. The chirp ones.

Was it just chirping?

Fuck.

I'm going to find this.

New cell phone from Nokia.

Oh, yeah.

This one's not for pussies.

They were yellow.

Yeah.

Two way.

Two way.

Yeah.

All right.

Jake.

I have two FireFests.

I hinted at both of them earlier this week, but they're still bothering me to this One is I still have a stiff neck My neck is still diagonal Pussy Yeah Of course Let's just get right to it And my shoulders Are still not even Whistling through the weed patch You are a Yeah People think Jake Is a nice guy And he is He's a savage with the box straight up yep straight up uh put that on a quote card I mean you people always wonder Jake how how is your mouth so good at pronouncing all these difficult names well a lot of training yeah yeah exactly and number all Jake does all day at his desk is is tie cherry stems to try to impress people he's got like a stack of starburst wrappers next to him. Yeah, so hopefully it loosens up over the weekend.
I've tried pretty much everything. Jake loves to eat pussy.
Exactly. And second off, we are one week from NFL kickoff and Scorigami is still down.
So I'm really officially getting worried. What? This is bad.
Jake, can't you just go back and look at old Scorigami charts? And then you can just manually fill it up? I mean, the website is like the master list. If you don't have the website, nothing else is.
It's like the yellow line. Yellow line is unofficial.
It's Scorigami. Yes.
Scorigami is the chains. Everything else is the yellow line.
So what do we do if it's not up? I don't know. I saw a different.
How about Kill Ourselves? I don't know. I saw a different.
That's crazy. What's the point of watching football? If you don't know i saw a different about kill ourselves i don't know a different that's crazy what's the point of watching football if you don't know if that score's ever happened yeah i saw a different media companies doing a feature on the score gami guy this weekend so hopefully there's some answers unveiled there we'll see that's probably what it is if they're unveiling like yeah they're revamping it like a new user yeah new UI that's all set up

next gen Scorigami

yeah so we'll see but I'm nervous

I like the old school feel of the Scorigami

website though it's like when you go on to

the ELO chess rankings and all that

and it looks like it's straight out of 2009

yeah I like that

Superbowl squares on steroids yeah you don't need to

you don't need to update something that's already perfect

yes yeah so I'm nervous but we'll see

Billy give us your fire fest and also

anything that we missed

Thank you. Squares on steroids.
Yeah, you don't need to update something that's already perfect. Yes.
Yeah, so I'm nervous, but we'll see. Billy, give us your fire fest and also anything that we missed.
Yeah, so I have some waterproof boots. A lot of flooding last night.
Camouflage on them? They're just desert colored. So I went to wade through all the flooding.
Wait, Billy, why would you ever buy waterproof boots that are designed to blend into a desert environment? I don't know. Anyway, so I stepped into the water.
One of the boots had some sort of hole in it. So I have one dry foot, soaked foot Are we looking at it right now? Yeah Wait Is your right foot just soaked right now? Yep It's the next day Well no this morning Oh There's still water Got it I have to go back through a lot of water to get home It's very clear which one is not waterproof.
Yep. Well, got one soggy sock.
You wouldn't make a good... Well, no, you got in here, so you would make a good troop.
I got through. Have you considered wrapping up your legs with something as you're walking through? Oh, no.
Because I see all the brown water and I'm like, if somebody has a scrape on their leg, there's some parasites in there. Yeah, so definitely going to go with some plastic bags next time.
Okay. Always wrap it up, Billy.

Does Mike Vrabel actually hate Tom Brady?

I don't think so.

I saw the video.

For sure.

Definitely.

It's real animosity between Tom Brady and Mike Vrabel.

And not at all just because they're former teammates

that shared a locker room for years and years and years

and won Super Bowls together.

Also, speaking of Tim Tebow earlier, Jake Paul wants Tebow to box.

Oh, another thing that Tim Tebow can fail at.

Yeah.

You think he'd be a good boxer?

Exactly.

That's what everyone said with the tight end.

Imagine how long it would take for him to throw a punch.

I don't know.

I think he could do.

Okay.

I think he would be a better side.

He would look so stiff and he would get knocked out and everyone would be like, well, he tried. But then he would be a better side.
He would look so stiff and he would get knocked out

and everyone would be like, well, he tried.

But then he would rise again.

Anything else?

No.

I think Coley said that Tim Tebow is like the ultimate Joe

in Pros vs. Joes.

He should just have a reality show

that has him competing and getting defeated

by every single former professional athlete in every sport. I love it.
I love it. 84.
99. 8.
18. I should credit my source.
It's Nina Kimes doing the Scorigami feature. Excited.
Okay. Shout out to Nina.
Oh, the feature. Oh, Justin Herbert also is a cart return guy.
69.

11.

First timer.

Whoa!

Score gobbled. We still have like 15 left.

15?

We have 6, 14, 15, 20, 22, 26, 27, 29, 44, 49, 51, 63, 76, 78, 81, 88, 97.

That was very fast.

Your tongue was really working on that one.

I'm going to start taking 97. I'm going to will 97.
All right. Sharks can't clap.
I love you guys. Talking away.
I don't know what to say. I don't say it anywhere.
Today is a rock day. I'm going to find you.
Show me. I'm coming for your love of cake.
Save me. Save me.
Thank you. I'll be coming for you, lover.

Take on me.

Take on me.

Take on me.

Take on me. Take me.
It's part of my take.

It's part of my take.

It's part of my take.