Chargers Head Coach Brandon Staley, Tom Wilson Fight Night And Fyre Fest Of The Week

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Speaker 1 On today's part of my take, we have Chargers head coach Brandon Staley on the show. Awesome interview new football guy term that will be unveiled.
You have to listen for it, but it is awesome.

Speaker 1 Maybe even we'll make merch for it. I don't know.
We'll figure it out. But very, very fun interview.
We have a little Adam Schefter dropping a bomb about the Aaron Rodgers situation.

Speaker 1 Tom Wilson fought the entire New York Rangers.

Speaker 1 Blake Bortle's possibly the Packers. Fire Fest of the Week.
And our first ever card. What do you call it? Card pack? Card card and wrap.
We're ripping. Ripping packs.
We're going to rip a pack.

Speaker 1 We're going to fucking rip a pack at the end of the show, and whatever we get

Speaker 1 and we sell it, we'll then disperse it to whoever guesses the number correctly honor code. Was that confusing enough? And I'll match.
And

Speaker 1 I'll match times two.

Speaker 1 Fuck, I can't do that. All right, let's get into the show.
When cool, creamy ranch meets tangy, bold buffalo, the whole is greater than the sum of its sauce.

Speaker 1 Say howdy, partner, to new Buffalo Ranch Sauce only at McDonald's for a limited time. At participating McDonald's.

Speaker 1 No place to hang out or washing.

Speaker 1 And then I can't blame all on the sun. Oh no, we're gonna rock it down to Elite Trick Avenue,

Speaker 1 and then we'll take it higher.

Speaker 1 Oh, we're gonna rock it down to Elite Trick Avenue. It's part of my take presented by Far School Spools.

Speaker 1 Welcome to Pardon My Take, presented by Coors Seltzer. Go buy your Coors Seltzer right now.
We have a scoreboard ready to go.

Speaker 1 Tweet us your picture of your Coors Seltzer case with the hashtag letHank fish, and he will fish with his bare hands for a fish in the East River today in Alaska. This is Friday,

Speaker 1 May 7th. And I get, you know what, Hank? What do you got against the East River? There was a dolphin in the East River.

Speaker 1 No joke, there was a dolphin in the East River. I just, the Seinfeld episode, that one always strikes in my head.
When he went swimming in there in Kramer in a wetsuit? Yeah. He was fine.

Speaker 1 Nothing bad happened to Kramer after that. I actually see all the times.

Speaker 1 People jet skiing. Jet ski all the time.
That gross isn't really a bad thing. very weird.
It's very weird. It is strange to see anybody doing any sort of activity in nature in New York.
Yes, yes.

Speaker 1 Jet skiing in the East River. I want to talk to one of those.

Speaker 1 We should do it. Elon Musk should do it on SNL.
Yeah, he should. He absolutely should.

Speaker 1 He should also, what if Elon just, at the start of the episode, he pulled an Oprah and he just told everybody in the audience he was giving them a million bucks each. Ooh, look under your chair.

Speaker 1 Yeah, look under your chair. It's a million bucks.
It's a mini guillotine. And then he had everybody just get robbed right as they left the studio.
That would be cool. Get his money back.

Speaker 1 I also would like to see Elon Musk. I mean, I don't think he has self-awareness, but it would be funny to do like a board meeting at, is it Musk? What's it? Tesla? Tesla? The boring company.

Speaker 1 That's the Musk. Yeah, the Boring Company.
That's what I was looking for. Where they just reinvent things that we already have, like that time that Elon Musk tried to invent the Subway.

Speaker 1 You know, it would be very funny if he just straight up announced that he bought the Yankees and then dissolved the Yankees immediately. Yeah, or...
The Yankees are no more.

Speaker 1 What if he starts a show and he creates a Super League? That'd be funny, too. I I like that.
And everyone's invited.

Speaker 1 If you're a fan of soccer, can you say no to a super league that invites everyone? No, I don't think you can. And that would truly be super.

Speaker 1 And it should be countries instead of teams and instead of club teams. They should play once every four years.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but the U.S. doesn't qualify.
Sometimes. Most of the time.
Most of the time. And when they do, they're not good.
Right. Yeah.
Well, except for that time we drew against Portugal.

Speaker 1 That was a huge result. No, it was Spain.
No, we beat Portugal. And we drew against Spain.
We drew against Spain.

Speaker 1 We just lose to Ghana. Watch out.
Soccer knowledge going crazy.

Speaker 1 I could actually see him doing something where he injects himself with CRISPR technology, the RNA stuff, and makes himself part Shiba Inu to drive up the price of Dogecoin.

Speaker 1 He better drop some Doge on Saturday night. See that thing go to the moon.
All right. So we got some stories to talk about.
One is,

Speaker 1 let's start with Tom Wilson. He fought the entire Rangers.

Speaker 1 PFT, you were there.

Speaker 1 It kind of goes to exactly what we were saying on Wednesday, that the problem is the NHL not having, they basically got like

Speaker 1 the goon is extinct in the NHL. The fighting has been phased out of the league.
The big guys don't have a place anymore.

Speaker 1 Therefore, Tom Wilson is the toughest guy in the world, and he beat the entire New York Rangers roster. And

Speaker 1 I actually think for the Rangers, like if you go into that game knowing you can't beat up Tom Wilson, don't even fight him.

Speaker 1 It was the best hockey game I've ever been to, besides when they won the Stanley Cup. It was so much much fun in that crowd.
So, like, right as the puck dropped, everybody fought. It was a line brawl.

Speaker 1 That's what they call it in hockey. They have a term for it.
I think that, honestly, like, forget about other sports, which should absolutely incorporate fighting. I think that's healthy.

Speaker 1 Workplaces should allow fighting.

Speaker 1 Like, if you get into a fight, if you know that fisted cuffs are on the table and you can fight in the first 30 minutes of your workday, you'll probably end up having a more productive day after that.

Speaker 1 You're going to get all your frustration out. Like, Jake and Hank would probably be at blows right now after the ass whooping that Jake put on Hank in Stoolstream Stadium today.
Did you play Barstool?

Speaker 1 Did you just invent the plot to Fight Club? Yeah, yeah. Except you should be able to talk about it.
Got it. And you should.
Yeah, you should absolutely.

Speaker 1 It was such a fucking fun game, but you're right. Tom Wilson doesn't have like, he's the apex predator right now.
Yeah, there's no counterpoint.

Speaker 1 And listening to Eddie Olcek between periods go through the list of the Rangers' roster and just saying, this guy, he couldn't beat up Tom Wilson. This guy, he could.

Speaker 1 Tom Wilson probably could have fought his way through the entire roster and the front office, which halfway doesn't exist anymore. Which doesn't exist anymore.

Speaker 1 And come out a winner at the end of the night.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so to make it even worse for the New York Rangers, James Dolan fired the guys who were in charge of the rebuild, who all Rangers fans are really upset.

Speaker 1 And then the Rangers got fined $250,000 for criticizing the NHL. So essentially, the Rangers have played themselves so thoroughly.

Speaker 1 And it's hilarious because I honestly think if Tom Wilson had just been suspended for one single game, none of this would have happened. Probably not.
That's really really all that it took.

Speaker 1 And I appreciate the NHL now giving us more of a, like, if you want to get real woke, the NHL only giving a $5,000 fine was the greatest thing they've ever done because it kept the story going and having people talk about the NHL before the playoffs for another week.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it was actually like, they did not do this on purpose, but we got, we're all talking about hockey right now, right?

Speaker 1 Fighting in hockey, which, I mean, listen, you can try to get fighting out of the game, but the game's better when there are goons going at it.

Speaker 1 Each franchise should take one player, their biggest player that they have in the developmental system, and just be like, listen, we're just going to work with you on MMA, on boxing.

Speaker 1 You don't practice hockey anymore. You're going to be a full-time fighter and just have that guy stashed and ready to go and have that guy at the end of your bench for every single game.

Speaker 1 It would have been very funny if they had just brought up a guy from the minors just to get punched by Tom Wilson.

Speaker 1 They should have, if the Rangers really were thinking about how to really maximize the exposure, they should have just signed Jake Paul. Yes.
Have him fight them. The entire thing was this.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Or Biz.

Speaker 1 It was so much fun being at the game. And because it was like socially distanced in the crowd, I think they're only doing like 10, 20% capacity.

Speaker 1 There was enough space between you and the people around you that even if you were rooting for the Capitals, somebody else was rooting for the Rangers, there was no like threat of violence between the fans because you'd have to get up, walk a couple steps,

Speaker 1 unmask. It's like a waiting period for a handgun.
By the time you get to the guy, you're like, ah, you know what? I don't want to do that. I've walked up three steps already.

Speaker 1 I'll just go back to my seat.

Speaker 1 But it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 A lot of people are saying that James Dolan now choosing to focus his attention on the Rangers is what's actually tearing the team apart, and it's why the Knicks are good right now.

Speaker 1 It's like a three-year-old with a bowl of spaghetti in one hand and like a bowl of cereal on the team. You can only fuck up one thing at any given time if you're James Dolan.
Ooh, that's.

Speaker 1 The thing is, I would say that that's not true. He is.

Speaker 1 You could definitely

Speaker 1 fuck up a lot of things. Okay, a kid could, but I don't think James Dolan is competent enough to fuck up two things at the same time.
He might.

Speaker 1 Don't tempt him.

Speaker 1 That's a bold.

Speaker 1 The people who are listening to this show who are diehard Knicks and Rangers fans have James Dolan in their life are being like, fuck you, PFT. Do not give him a challenge.

Speaker 1 Don't test him.

Speaker 1 I think that... So there was one other thing that the Rangers did that continued to play themselves.

Speaker 1 They ended up getting a suspension from one of their players for cross-checking when he put a stick up into our guy's face.

Speaker 1 And so now, like, they've, they've gone and hurt themselves more through the retaliation. And

Speaker 1 people are saying, like, what if Tom, can you imagine if Tom Wilson did this? Has become the new. Imagine if Patrick Mahomes makes this throw.
Everybody talks about it.

Speaker 1 Or Ray Rice was suspended for only two games. Exactly.
So, like, you can take anything that happens in sports or even outside of sports.

Speaker 1 If it's bad, be like, imagine how people would react if Tom Wilson was caught doing this. This is bullshit.

Speaker 1 Like when Jake Paul took Floyd Mayweather's hat. That's a good thing.
It's like, imagine if Tom Wilson did that. Dude, that was such an awesome troll move.
I know that, like,

Speaker 1 who knows at this point with the Paul brothers, like, you could make the argument, like, everything's fake or everything's fake, whatever.

Speaker 1 Taking someone's hat like that and just saying, got your hat, no matter how old you are, how young you are, whatever it may be, like, you could be the richest man, the poorest man, whatever you are, that bothers you.

Speaker 1 If someone just comes up, steals your hat, runs away and says, got your hat, that fucking sucks. It's even, it's so much worse when the person says, I got your hat.
Got your hat.

Speaker 1 If you just steal the hat and it's like, okay, that guy's weird. You saw Floyd naturally react.
Yeah. He's like, I need my hat back.
He's got my hat. Yeah.
He's got my hat. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's like if you steal somebody's hat and tell them they got your hat, that's bad. If you flick somebody's ear, that's also pretty bad.

Speaker 1 Anything involving the ear really dry willie? Yeah. Ever dry willy someone? That's fucking

Speaker 1 he should have stolen his hat. Pantsing someone.
Pants.

Speaker 1 Dude,

Speaker 1 there is

Speaker 1 like I'm going to count

Speaker 1 very sophomoric here, but a pants. No.
A pants when you can get the underwear as well and the person's dick and balls flop out is the height of comedy.

Speaker 1 Happened to me playing pickup basketball with my friends. With my friends.

Speaker 1 With pants. Like, if I were Elon Musk, if I really wanted to make everyone laugh, I would just go up and pants Lorne Michaels on air.

Speaker 1 Be like, hey, Lauren, I want to do a skit where you're wearing basketball shorts and just fucking pants them, dick and balls flopping out. Funniest ever.
I had to drop my shirt below to pull it down.

Speaker 1 You have to bend your knees and crab walls. It's so awkward.

Speaker 1 If I could go to a Kings of Comedy tour, it would just be people getting pants and puking. Farting, too.

Speaker 1 I'm just describing jackass, which I love.

Speaker 1 Getting pants as you're pushing somebody in a shopping cart into a tree. Oh, my God.
Comedy doesn't get any better than that. It's the best.
All right. So the other story we had,

Speaker 1 Adam Schefter revealed that he dropped all the Aaron Rodgers news. It was an accumulation of information, I think he said, on draft day.
People are very upset about that.

Speaker 1 I actually think i kind of love it by shefty he's i know all right i actually have a question for the big j in the room was this

Speaker 1 will they be teaching this course in syracuse and saying hey this was wrong you should have reported it when either you had all the facts or the first second you had any inkling of this did adam shepher break i'll be whatever the hell i can put his tweet i just saw you saying there's a potential of blake going to greenback okay so all right i'll explain to you so adam shifter went on the the dan patrick show today okay and he essentially was like

Speaker 1 this has been brewing, which we all knew. Like, that was a fact.
We all knew. But Adam Schefter said,

Speaker 1 I tweeted it on the day of the draft. Like, he didn't have to tweet it then.
He tweeted it then for maximum effect. Sure.

Speaker 1 Basically, getting the entire world talking about the NFL, the entire world getting excited for the draft because, like, oh, no, are the Packers going to trade? Or what are they going to do?

Speaker 1 So he sort of withheld information, but also it sounds like it was just like, it wasn't one specific thing. He was just a ton of uh

Speaker 1 talk about aaron rods i also don't believe that this is true

Speaker 1 he didn't the timing is too much of a coincidence of what of like him just randomly accumulating all this information until it reached a breaking point on the morning of the draft well no he's he admitted that he that's not true like he's he basically said he decided to just tweet it on the draft day because it's the draft day so i guess he just took the risk of not being beat to the scoop yeah kind of well he said that he could have tweeted a week later two weeks later it's like rosteen does the same thing right in In the draft start, he tweeted, like, Charleston Southern's hosting Stanford.

Speaker 1 That's a huge news. Right.
But he picked that specific time to do it. But then right when he put it out, it was very funny to see, like, Rapsheet.

Speaker 1 have to jump on it and be like, yeah, I'm also hearing this.

Speaker 1 He's almost instantaneously like,

Speaker 1 no one man should have all the power that Adam Schefter has in the NFL.

Speaker 1 If he tweets, like, on a Sunday morning, if he tweets, like, Taysom Hill is being investigated for murder, Sean Payton will probably bench him that day. He's like, oh, my God.

Speaker 1 That's true. And then Rapsheet will be like, yes, I'm hearing he stabbed somebody.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 The one thing they do teach you is it's always better to be right than be first. But it did feel like Schefter basically went.
He tried to cause chaos. Well, no, yeah, he tried to cause chaos.

Speaker 1 Which I actually is. He's a joker.
He is the joker of the NFL media complex.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and this is where the line, this is kind of the crux of my question, Jake, is Adam Schefter is a journalist, but he also, his job is to get people to watch ESPN. Right?

Speaker 1 And more people are going to watch the draft if they think Aaron Rodgers might get traded during during the draft. So I think that was kind of what he was going for.

Speaker 1 What do we do here? I don't think there's any Big J regulations that go against what he did. I think you have to stop teaching the it's better to be right than first lesson.
It's better internet 101.

Speaker 1 You be first. Do they have a class? Yeah, you be first and you be loudest, and that person ends up being right.

Speaker 1 That's new media, Jake. Yeah, or do they have a class that's like you the number one goal is to make money for your company? Not when I was there.
That's what I would teach.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Yeah, there was comm law. I took calm law with like libel and slander, the differences.
I think there's an ethics class. Yeah.

Speaker 1 No, everything that you're describing sounds a little too ethical for my tastes. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I want my insiders just straight up making up like fake arrest charges just to move the point spread and whatever.

Speaker 1 Well, we have an insider that sometimes just makes stuff up and hits news half the time. Who's that?

Speaker 1 R.I.P. Leroy.
He's dead.

Speaker 1 You just had the correct. You just incorrectly reported that my dog was alive, Jay.
That was libel. Or slander.

Speaker 1 Libel slanders like libel.

Speaker 1 I'm pretty sure libel is written and slander is spoken. Who knows? So you slandered my dead dog.
Congratulations.

Speaker 1 There's been too much dead dog talk. Did they teach you tenses in school? Have or had? Yeah, Calm 101.
Pent versus

Speaker 1 100%. You must have gotten F.
Either way. No, no, no, no.
I'm going to stick out for myself. At Leroy Insider.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's true. That does still exist.

Speaker 1 He was talking about the account. Yeah, I said the account.

Speaker 1 My grandmother's dead, too. Would you like to discuss her? Does she have an account? I don't know.
Maybe.

Speaker 1 And she might have burners. I don't think what I just did was bad.
I don't have any grandparents left. You can say whatever.
Last week, Joe Inslider. He's a fat door cash dagger.

Speaker 1 Oh, no, that's he switched over briefly to be the Bryce Hay Shambeau track. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. My still the same.
I do think

Speaker 1 as an owner of the Green Bay Packers, I kind of agree that they haven't surrounded Devontae Adams with enough talent, and it's probably time for Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 1 I'm officially authorizing trade talks to begin with the Washington football team.

Speaker 1 How gallant. Yeah, so

Speaker 1 if you need a quarterback who can cover the spread against Tom Brady in the playoffs, Taylor Heineke is your man up in Green Bay. Facts.
Facts, which the Packers did not do against Tom Brady.

Speaker 1 All right, so the other fallout of this is that now it's rumored that the Packers are looking for a

Speaker 1 new quarterback. They only have one quarterback on the roster, Jordan Love, and obviously, Aaron Rodgers, but Aaron Rodgers refuses to play for them as of right now.

Speaker 1 So they're looking for someone else for camp. Blake Bortles has been floated out there.
I think maybe a coach on the staff knows Bortles or has coached with Bortles.

Speaker 1 Was LaFleur, was he the

Speaker 1 in Los Angeles when Bortles was there at all? Maybe, no. They have familiar areas.

Speaker 1 Someone on the staff, I saw there was someone who did the linking where it's like this would make sense for this reason.

Speaker 1 Blake Bortles knows the Packers' system of making it to the championship game and losing. Correct.
So Blake is possibly going to be a Packer. I texted him.
I said, please don't. Please, please don't.

Speaker 1 I really, really, I've decided I'm going to choose friendship over rivals and hope that Blake finds a job in the NFL and I'll root for him anywhere he goes.

Speaker 1 And what I just said is completely not true, but that sounded good, right? Did he respond? Yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm not going to say it. I don't want to ruin his channel.
He said,

Speaker 1 who knows?

Speaker 1 He didn't say no. He said, who knows? So it would be.
That's not what he said.

Speaker 1 It may happen. It would be very funny.

Speaker 1 It'd be very funny if Blake Bortles became like a Hall of Fame caliber quarterback after arriving in Green Bay. That's so funny.
For the next 16 years.

Speaker 1 One of the funniest. No, I don't.
But you didn't let me finish. But Justin Fields was a little bit better.
Got it. That whole time.
Hall of Fame Plus. Hall of Fame.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 First ballot. Yes.
And then Blake gets in on the second because he's a gentleman. Yeah, right.
But yeah,

Speaker 1 that will suck. I don't know.
Blake,

Speaker 1 it's too cold. It's too cold.
Yeah, he doesn't know what snow looks like. It's too cold.
Can you imagine that? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Come on. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I want Blake to do well, and the NFL is a better league when Blake Bortles is in it. Fact.

Speaker 1 If it happens to be in Green Bay, and if he happens to just straight up ball out for the next 16 years, I think that's wonderful for everybody. Yes.

Speaker 1 We're protecting the Shield, big cat. Yeah, no, I'm rooting league.
I'm rooting for Blake Bortles. And if he goes for the Packers, I will root for him there.
Nah.

Speaker 1 Okay, anything else? Anything else? We got a great interview coming up with Brandon Staley.

Speaker 1 Any other news we need to get to to send everyone off into the weekend? I'm trying to think.

Speaker 1 Trying to think. And I'm thinking, and I'm thinking, and I'm thinking.
And I got nothing right now. Anyone got anything? No, it's going to be a fun weekend.
It's going to be a great weekend. I think

Speaker 1 it's going to rain in New York. Summer's back again.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Do you know what's going on? Summer's back, though.
Summer's back.

Speaker 1 I feel very excited about the summer. Do you know what sucks about the rain in New York?

Speaker 1 It's hot rain. No, it never fully commits.
Like, it's never, like,

Speaker 1 and when it rains in the Midwest, it, like, rains. In New York, it's, like, just, it lightly spits on you for, like, three days straight.

Speaker 1 It's hot rain that you can sometimes confuse with the air conditioner drops. Like, sometimes you don't actually know if it's raining or not.
Right.

Speaker 1 Just like, I want my rain to, like, show up and fight me like a man, Rain. Don't just do this little drizzle all day shit.
It just kind of like it inconveniences you. Right.

Speaker 1 It's the wet willy of precipitation. Right.
You can kind of be out, but it's like annoying. You have to, you don't know what to wear.
If you wear long sleeves, your arms get hot in the jacket. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 Wet willys are really. Dry willie style.
Do it. Do it.
Stick your finger in your ear and then put it in someone else's mouth. That sounds like something

Speaker 1 Marshawn would do. Yes.
It's very gross. He probably has done it.
Oh, do you see Messier said that he knew how to fix the Rangers? Oh.

Speaker 1 I would love to see Mark Messier try to fix the New York Rangers because he's just basically saying they're not tough enough. So he would make the worst roster possible.

Speaker 1 He would like assemble a roster out of like monster trucks and blood. Yes.
And they'd lose, you know, 50 games in a row and then they win 40 fights.

Speaker 1 And he'd be like, see, we changed the culture here in New York. There should be.
We're New York tough. There should be a certain like

Speaker 1 a salary cap, but like

Speaker 1 a certain level of teams that have to be run by straight meatballs. Yes.

Speaker 1 Every league you need to have, and you could maybe switch it around every year to year or whatever, but there has to be at least five teams that are always run by a true blue meatball.

Speaker 1 And by the way, here's one other thing we got to talk about. Tony LaRussa is getting just hammered right now.
He seems a little out of touch. He's in a bar.
Yeah. No, he's behind a wheel.
Okay.

Speaker 1 So he didn't know the rules to the extra innings, and everyone's flipping out about it. There's two things going on.

Speaker 1 One is I do think Tony LaRussa was a stupid hire by the White Sox, and I feel for White Sox fans because their team is actually really good. Two,

Speaker 1 two, no one knew that rule. No one knew that rule.
It's a weird rule. No one knew that rule.

Speaker 1 If you look at the statistical breakdown of how long Tony La Russa has managed in Major League Baseball and how long they've had that rule, of course he doesn't know it yet.

Speaker 1 That's like it makes up 0.2% of the time he's been in the league. Right.

Speaker 1 So you can't expect, listen, you can get down to like the nitty-gritty analytics stuff and be like, oh, Tony didn't know this or didn't know that.

Speaker 1 The bottom line is Tony is just there for one reason, one reason only, just to kind of like be a father figure, like an absentee father figure.

Speaker 1 And credit to Tony LaRussa for not throwing his whole entire coaching staff under the bus because that's their fault. Like, Tony LaRussa is not there to learn new rules.

Speaker 1 I just thought it was funny because they were like, how did he not know that? I guarantee you, if you asked like 100 baseball fans

Speaker 1 that rule, maybe five of them would have known it. Because I think it's this year, right? I mean, what it's worth.

Speaker 1 It's part of the start. Yeah, starting its second base in extra innings.
Yes. And listen, it's called a

Speaker 1 manager, not a micromanager. You won't get bogged down at the details.
If you told Tony, like, hey, when the beer sales stop, that's when you start an inning with a runner on second base.

Speaker 1 I think he would pick it up pretty quickly. It's about knowing how to teach your guys the right lessons.
Yes. More so than it is just expecting them to know everything.

Speaker 1 And I like the seven-inning game. I like the new rule of starting on second.
I know that a lot of people don't like it.

Speaker 1 I think it's better just because there's nothing worse than games going like 16 innings. You don't like it? No, it's just a sack bunt bunt and a sack fly.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but a lot of times it doesn't work that way. It's weird.
I feel like I've watched. Small ball, baby.
Yeah, but and then this. And it won't matter for the playoffs, but

Speaker 1 I think it's seven-inning doubleheaders. I like that.
Except, I don't know if they're doing this everywhere. I know they're doing it at Wrigley.
It's a fucking abomination. The fifth inning stretch.

Speaker 1 It's terrible. You can't do a fifth inning stretch.
There's nothing to stretch from. Yeah.
That's a good thing. You can't do a fifth inning stretch.
That's stupid.

Speaker 1 So if there was a five-inning five-inning game, you do a third-inning stretch? What's crazy? A second-inning stretch? Yeah, what the fuck? Slippery slope. When you stretch before you even come in?

Speaker 1 How would you feel if college football did this for the regular season? What if they actually did a bunch of different things? Something that was a daily basis. Wait, what?

Speaker 1 Like something where it's like you don't want to go into six, seven, eight overtime. Yeah, they kind of already do that with the starting and 20.
That's their overtime.

Speaker 1 And then you have to go for two. Yeah, that's their overtime.
You have to go for two. Right, but what if they made it even more so where it's like,

Speaker 1 you're right. All right, here.
Hank, did you get it? You started the 25, then you started at the 20, and then you started the forward, and then you started the five.

Speaker 1 Let Let me correct my initial take because I agree with you changing the game.

Speaker 1 I'm changing the game. Here's what I'm going to say.
You're right. The 10th and 11th inning should not be a player on second base.
Once you get to the 12th, they should put him on second base. Fair?

Speaker 1 Yeah. I think

Speaker 1 that's actually where you're right. 10th inning, I'm cool with, like, play it straight up.
11th, same.

Speaker 1 But once you get to the 12th, just fucking get a guy on second base and let's get everyone out of here. Get everybody home.
Yeah. At that point, everybody in this, unless in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 Playoffs are totally different. No, playoffs.
You should never have this rule. Regular baseball.
Ever, ever have this rule.

Speaker 1 A regular season baseball game, once you get past four hours, enough is enough, right? Enough is enough. Let's just move on.
Agreed. All right, let's get to our interview, though.

Speaker 1 We have an awesome interview with Coach Brandon Staley from the L.A. Chargers.
Credit to us for not saying San Diego Chargers. I wanted to say it like four times.

Speaker 1 Shout out, our fans in San Diego. Do we...
They don't listen to podcasts in San Diego. No, my brother's out there.
He does. He does?

Speaker 1 We got at least one. Oh, yeah, him and Mookie.
Yep. I was going to say, though, if you're in San Diego, why would you listen to a podcast? Well, I remember

Speaker 1 when they decided to move the Chargers, we took a lot of shots at the city of San Diego and said similar things.

Speaker 1 And there were a lot of people that were just like, hey, I'm kind of mad because of what you said. Wait, that's not a shot.
Well, we were kind of dancing on the grave a little bit. Oh,

Speaker 1 when I say, why would you listen to a podcast in San Diego, that is the opposite of a shot.

Speaker 1 That means you have a life and you go outside and play volleyball on a Tuesday afternoon instead of listening to us.

Speaker 1 Right, no, what I'm saying is like people were halfway mad and then they're like, but then I walked outside. Right.
And so I'm happy. Yeah, so they proved our point.
All right, let's do that.

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Hey, what's going on there, pal? We saw you at the hockey game on. Do I know you guys?

Speaker 1 I'm Ryan Whitney. I got a drink named after me.
Not a big deal. Pink Whitney?

Speaker 1 That's what I thought. See you, fellas.
I invented the thing, you pigeon. Pink Whitney for legendary moments.
Here he is, Coach Brandon Staley.

Speaker 1 Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. It is head coach of the LA Chargers, Brandon Staley.
Awesome to have you on, Coach.

Speaker 1 Let's start here.

Speaker 1 I was looking at your resume.

Speaker 1 It's insane

Speaker 1 your ascension to head coach in the NFL. You four years ago, five years ago, were coaching at John Carroll and now you're the head coach of the LA Chargers.

Speaker 1 Have you had a chance yet or is that something that might not happen until you like, you know, week one where you're like, wait, literally five years ago, I was coaching at John Carroll University and now I am the head coach, one of 32 in the NFL.

Speaker 2 Yeah, time has gone by awfully fast. You know, my son, Colin's six, he's lived in six states in six years.
So we've been moving.

Speaker 2 But I think it doesn't make sense to a lot of people this timeline. I think the people that who know me well, it makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 2 You know, at John Carroll, guys,

Speaker 2 if you investigate that place and who was with us at that place during that time, we were on a, we had a really special run. We had a lot of awesome players.

Speaker 2 And then, you know, like the coaching staff that I was with, I mean, five of us are in the NFL right now. Three of us were coordinators.
You know, Dave Ragone with the Atlanta Falcons.

Speaker 2 Frank Ross is the special teams coordinator of the Texans. Chris Shula, who's a great friend of mine with the Rams, Jonathan Cooley.
So we just had a really special group of coaches there.

Speaker 2 And, you know, I tell people, guys, like coaching at John Carroll is a lot more like coaching in the NFL than most anywhere in college football.

Speaker 2 I mean, it felt like that that was an NFL environment every single day. And it's a place that's really shaped me.
It's a place that's really close to my heart.

Speaker 2 And I certainly wouldn't be here without that experience for sure.

Speaker 1 I feel like you can say that about the entire state of Ohio. It's like everybody in Ohio is a coach for some sport or another.

Speaker 1 What's it about that state that growing up there just produces all sorts of coaches?

Speaker 2 Well, I think specifically, you know, I'm from Northeast Ohio, you know, the Cleveland area, right along Lake Erie. So Northeast Ohio, you know, that's just.
Football is king there.

Speaker 2 And I think that, you know, I was fortunate, one of my high school coaches, Bob Ritley, he played at Michigan for Bo Shem Beckler.

Speaker 2 And so I had a really, you know, you know, formative high school experience playing for a high school legend who, you know, he's in the Hall of Fame there.

Speaker 2 And so I learned a lot of good football at a young age and uh i just think that that area um just express has expressed itself at all levels of football and i think you know guys that i coached at john carroll now are high school coaches you know back in you know the state of ohio in cleveland you know one of my former players marty gibbons he actually announced the browns second round pick at the draft uh gibbie i mean he's a captain he's a safety for me i was kind of bummed out i wanted him to you know announce the chargers pick not the browns pick so um you know just it's one of those special places where football is king And, you know, I was fortunate to grow up there.

Speaker 1 What do you do in interviews that make it that people just have to hire you? Because you now, you know, you were kind of a

Speaker 1 hire from Sean McVay that people didn't expect when you went and were the defensive coordinator for the Rams last year. Then this year, you get hired by the Chargers.

Speaker 1 Everyone's thinking, Justin Herbert, they're going to go offensive guy. They got to find, you know, find a way to push him to the limit.
And then they hire you. So what's your secret?

Speaker 1 Do you have an XL or something? What are you doing in closed doors in these interviews that's impressing everyone?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I just think being a complete coach, I think that's something that I've always tried to be is a, you know, a complete coach, a guy who has command all three phases of the game,

Speaker 2 guy who can, you know, lead, teach, you know, inspire,

Speaker 2 you know, a guy that has command over not just, you know, the football side of things, but, you know, just from like a management perspective, personnel, sports performance.

Speaker 2 You know, there's so many components to being a head football coach.

Speaker 2 And I feel like, you you know, I've kind of invested my life in sort of knowing that, you know, and I think that it's not just being a defensive coach. You know, I played quarterback in college.

Speaker 2 It's, hey, my offensive background is a big reason why I'm here today. And then knowing that the kicking game is one of the most important aspects of winning and losing a football, you know,

Speaker 2 an NFL football game and how you have to build a team that can stand the test of time. And how do you put that team together, you know, and then, you know, then how can you teach?

Speaker 2 How can you motivate? How can you inspire?

Speaker 2 Do you have the pulse of your team how do you do that you got to know that you know coaching an offensive lineman uh in his 12th year is not the same coaching an offensive lineman in his first year and um you know i think that what i've tried to be is a complete coach uh learn as much as i can about the game and then also know that i don't know it all guys you know i don't know it all and and being willing to you know try to you know surround myself with really special people um that can help fill in the gaps and you know also being a good listener you know i i think that you know a big reason why i'm here is i've been fortunate to coach a lot of special players you guys know in chicago you know i was there with khalil mack you know uh akeem hicks kyle fuller um all these guys a roquan smith leonard floyd all those guys i was with at the beginning of my nfl career they've helped shape me you know to this spot i learned a lot from khalil i learned a lot from von miller i learned a lot from jalen ramsey and aaron donald and hopefully you know um you know, those guys have really helped shape my game.

Speaker 2 And hopefully I've been able to help their game. And I think the other thing, guys, is we've been really good where I've been, you know, and that's what it takes too, is you got to produce.

Speaker 2 And this is a performance league. And you guys mentioned I've been around so many great coaches and players that have helped me get here.

Speaker 1 The answer, by the way, was the kicking game part. Any coach that's like, hey, three phases.
Hired. Hired.
We forget that. We fence.
We forget there's a third phase.

Speaker 1 Do you call special teams we fence too?

Speaker 2 Yeah, it certainly is that. It's where everybody joins up together.

Speaker 2 That's why it's such a special phase is that, you know, like I'm in these meetings in the morning now, guys, and it's such a great opportunity to talk to a running back, you know, and like, hey, guys, why is the punt the most challenging play in football?

Speaker 2 Why is that? Well, I'll tell you why, because it's the only play in football where you start out as an offensive player and then you become a defensive player. You have to block.

Speaker 2 and be responsible for all the protection phase from a schematic standpoint. And then you have to go cover the kick and become a defensive player.

Speaker 2 So, you know, and the people that take a lot of pride in that and get the right people in the right seats and understanding how you bring people together,

Speaker 2 you know, I think that there's an art in that. I like that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, or if Jameis Winston's your quarterback, then he's essentially like a special teams player at times too.

Speaker 1 Now, that's actually a good thing that you just did, like being so passionate about special teams.

Speaker 1 Because as a first-year head coach, you're going to get a lot of reporters trying to grill you after games.

Speaker 1 And one of the best ways that you can kind of just get them off your case a little bit is just pick like one guy on like the kick coverage team and talk in in minute detail about how he performed his job.

Speaker 1 And then all the reporters will be like, this guy's a football genius.

Speaker 2 We love him. That's certainly one tactic that could work.
I mean, you have to activate that.

Speaker 1 Thank you for coming.

Speaker 2 I see I'm learning something from you guys.

Speaker 1 Well, I was going to say, how are you with timeouts? Are you ready for that?

Speaker 1 Because that, just so you know, as fans, that's the number one thing that we get to complain about because it's the one thing that we can confidently say we're better at than the coaches, even though that's not true.

Speaker 1 Even that fact isn't true. But how are you? Like, how would you grade your own timeout ability right now before the first season of your head coaching career?

Speaker 2 Well, I certainly know how many you get, you know, and regulation and then in overtime. So that's a good place to start.

Speaker 2 But I think that certainly I think the timeout part of the game, there's so many components to who is responsible for that decision.

Speaker 2 I think it's a team effort and talk, you know, making sure that, hey, you know how it is on offense sometimes where you may have to take one, you know, late in the play clock, you know, where it helps you, you know, to take a timeout or, hey, man, this, this could be a time where, hey, I can be a sounding board for Joe and Justin and say, hey, it's better to take the delay here.

Speaker 2 You know, it's better to take the delay and, you know, hey, we'll live with, we'll live with the result of third down or whatever the case may be.

Speaker 2 And then, you know, guys, I think what you guys are probably understanding, you know, last five to seven years is your analytics team, you know, understanding time score situation.

Speaker 2 And it's not just the coaching staff, it's your analytics team helping you as well and really forming kind of a central command center where you've got open lines of communication.

Speaker 2 Because these, you know, I think what's difficult, right, is when you're in the moment, man, things are happening fast. And in that isolated moment, you may...
you may not be ready, right?

Speaker 2 But when you have other people that are helping you,

Speaker 2 you certainly will be more equipped to make a good decision. And

Speaker 2 I'm hoping that that'll be a strength of our team.

Speaker 1 Let me throw one at you real quick. You're down 14, okay? There's four minutes left in the game.
You score a touchdown. You go for two.

Speaker 1 We're up by 14. You're down by 14.
We're down by 14. You score a touchdown.
Do you go for two? Four minutes left.

Speaker 2 Well, the analytics would tell you to do it.

Speaker 1 There we go. All right.
I like you. Because that's really the only analytics thing I understand.
So it's the only thing I'll criticize.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's the only thing I'll criticize you about if you screw that up. So just don't screw that one up, okay?

Speaker 2 That was kind of a pressure-packed moment because I think the one thing that I've learned, guys, because I think you got to be open about this, the one thing I've learned is like, hey, winning the game in regulation, right?

Speaker 2 You know, because there's that, hey, play for a tie, or hey, we want to win this game in regulation. I think there's that movement that I think more people are aware of now.

Speaker 2 And, you know, I'm certainly, you know, sort of one of those people that have, that have learned a lot, you know, since I've caught the NFL.

Speaker 1 Well, you can always go for two the second time if you miss it the first time. That's correct.
That's correct. That's really high-level thinking

Speaker 1 that we use over here. here.

Speaker 2 The whole math thing, guys. Yeah, numbers.

Speaker 1 Quick pop quiz. What's 11 personnel?

Speaker 2 Oh, wow. That would be.
So the first digit tells you how many backs are in the game. The second one tells you how many tight ends are in the game.

Speaker 1 You know your stuff. Yeah, you do know your stuff.

Speaker 1 I can see, I want to hire you now.

Speaker 2 By process of elimination, there's five eligible receivers.

Speaker 1 Well, now you get too bad.

Speaker 1 Too far, too far, too far.

Speaker 1 You got to know how to coach the dumb guys. Okay.

Speaker 1 Have you considered to kind of like get yourself in the right mindset to call the timeouts at the right time, just playing a shitload of Madden this offseason?

Speaker 1 Just like forcing yourself to be in those late game situations?

Speaker 2 Well, I think gaming is certainly one way of doing it. You know, you see that a lot in like sort of the defense department.
You know, there's sort of those simulators that they go through. So

Speaker 2 I think anything that can give you an advantage, what we're trying to do here is we're trying to create like the situation room here in the springtime where we kind of isolate, you know, hey, two minute and a half, right?

Speaker 2 You know, the clock rules are different, two minute end of game. Well, hey, let's just look at two minute and a half, right?

Speaker 2 And, you know, what's the context? Plus three, minus three. Are we down? Are we ahead? Are we even? And just going through that a bunch, right? And so putting yourself in that mode.

Speaker 2 And I think as many times as you can go through that

Speaker 2 is a positive thing because that's how we want our environment to be here.

Speaker 2 I think that's what I've tried to create is that, hey, we're trying to make as many decisions every day as possible so that, hey, if it doesn't go well, we can learn from them.

Speaker 2 But if you create an environment where people aren't like forced to operate like that, then when the game happens, you're not going to be ready.

Speaker 2 So hopefully it'll express itself in the fall as being, you know, something that works for us.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So this, you feel free to get nerdy on this one, football nerdy, but I'm very curious.
Vic Fangio.

Speaker 1 He has been a great defensive coordinator. He's obviously a good coach with the Broncos.

Speaker 1 He is, you know, if you read about your rise and how you got linked up with Sean McVay, part of that was the Bears-Rams game in 18 when the Bears were able to shut down the Rams and Sean looked around and was like, Vic Fanjio always gives me the most trouble.

Speaker 1 What is it about him as a coach or what does he do differently that he's been able to have so much success, whether it be 49ers, Bears, Broncos, you know, defense when it's such an offensive league now?

Speaker 2 Yeah, Vic's special to me. As you know, we had a great run there in Chicago.

Speaker 2 And that night that you're referring to, that was a special night.

Speaker 2 And our guys came to play that night. And I think a big reason why is because they were ready to play.
We were ready to play. We had a lot of good players, but those good players were ready to play.

Speaker 2 And I think that that's a hallmark of Vic Fangio, his preparation, his detail. I think that, number one, he knows how to utilize his personnel.
wherever it is.

Speaker 2 You know, it's been a little bit different wherever he's been.

Speaker 2 I know that studying him in San Francisco, you know, one of the the guys on my staff is a linebacker who actually played for him, Mike Wilhoyt.

Speaker 2 They were a different team in San Francisco than we were when we were in Chicago, you know, and then obviously he's gone to Denver and they're different.

Speaker 2 When I went to the Rams, we were a little different, but you got to utilize your personnel to the fullest.

Speaker 2 And then I think the other thing he does is he has a really global view of how to attack an offense.

Speaker 2 He knows how offenses operate and he knows what can be challenging for them, both from a blocking standpoint and then from a coverage standpoint, like what an offense has to block and then what an offense has to see in a coverage system.

Speaker 2 You know, and I think that we blend a lot of groupings, a lot of different fronts, a lot of different coverage systems, make these quarterbacks have to operate post-snap

Speaker 2 where they're having to make decisions post-snap. It's a little bit blurry.
They're not quite sure. This isn't a black and white team that I'm playing against.

Speaker 2 This is a team that's all the way in the gray. And that's how we want to play.
We want to play in the gray area. I think Vic does a great job of that.

Speaker 2 And, you know, the thing about him him is his consistency and performance. He stood the test of time in the NFL for 30 years.
And that's what makes him such a special guy.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I have to imagine that part of your interview process in that division was talking about how are you going to be the Mahomes stopper? How are you going to be able to shut this guy down?

Speaker 1 You have to play him so many times.

Speaker 1 For your piece of advice, make him roll to his left, right?

Speaker 1 Make him roll to his left. That's what every dumb person on TV says.
So that's kind of what

Speaker 1 we have to do. Yeah.
Make him uncomfortable with a four-man rush. Yeah, rushing.
Yeah, rushing.

Speaker 1 Get a good pass rush. Yeah, get home with two.
That's actually even better. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So what did you say in the interview to kind of,

Speaker 1 I don't know if you were able to dive into details or what have you, but you probably had to have a plan in place for how you were going to slow down, you know, one of the highest powered offenses that's ever been seen in the NFO.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you know, that's that was certainly a component of it. And I think that, you know, the division I just came from, you know, you got to play Russell Wilson three times in a year.

Speaker 2 You know, you're well aware of him and he's like a magician and they've got that similar playmaking creativity.

Speaker 2 The down is never over.

Speaker 2 You know, he's, you know, he's a champion, you know, Russell. And then, you know, obviously, you know, Kyler Murray, you're in the division with him and then the Niners.

Speaker 2 So I think that, you know, kind of what I said was, you know, people were saying the same thing when we were in Chicago with Aaron Rodgers, Stafford, and Kirk Cousins.

Speaker 2 You know, back then when I was there with you guys in that city, you know, it was the same thing. It's just, this is the NFL.
It's a tough league. You know, it's a really competitive league.

Speaker 2 And what I told him in the interview is that it's not going to be a one-man band. Like it's not just the defense that's going to be able to help us beat that guy.

Speaker 2 It's got to be a full team that helps you beat that guy. Like the reality is, is Pat Mahomes has only been held under 24 points like three times in his entire career.

Speaker 2 So the reality is you better be able to score to beat them, you know? And so it's going to take a team performance to beat a guy like that. You take a look at what Steph Curry is doing in the NBA.

Speaker 2 You know what? Like Like, Steph Curry's a tough guy to play against, man. You know, it's, it's, you know, you got to have a team, you know, to beat that guy, not just one side of the ball.

Speaker 2 So that was a big part of me talking about, you know, those guys is just, you know, it's going to take all three phases of the game.

Speaker 2 And, you know, we're going to have to be strategic and specific because we have to play them twice a year, possibly three, right, in the playoffs. So, you know, it's going to be

Speaker 2 an exciting challenge for us.

Speaker 1 You mentioned Russell Wilson right there.

Speaker 1 Settle a bet because this is a theory I had last year. I think you brought in Blake Bortles to be a scout team, Russell Wilson, ahead of the playoff game.
Is that true?

Speaker 2 We brought Blake in, and we also had this other guy named Bryce Perkins, who's a really good quarterback at Virginia.

Speaker 2 We had those two guys working for us. So,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 2 we had all hands on deck. No one's ever going to truly represent those guys.

Speaker 2 But, you know, I think those guys did a good job.

Speaker 1 So last year, going back to last year and how good that Rams defense was uh one of the hallmarks that you guys had was just how good you were in the second half you guys just shut teams down in the second half what like what does the halftime look like are you able to implement that many changes in a halftime situation and and change i this is a really stupid question but i'm always thinking like if you go in and you change a bunch of stuff but they also change a bunch of stuff how the fuck are you going to be able to keep ahead of their changes so explain that to me like i'm a five-year-old you make like a really good point there And so, because there's that, that's a true statement, what you just said.

Speaker 2 So I think what we do is I think we have enough inventory in our plan that we can get to in the second half.

Speaker 2 Maybe it hasn't shown itself in the first half, but we can get to it in the second half, where it's not something new that we created.

Speaker 2 It's something new that we've practiced, that we're prepared for, that we can activate that maybe they haven't seen.

Speaker 2 Or maybe there's something that happened in the first half where, hey, they're hurting us doing something.

Speaker 2 Maybe it's just, hey, we've talked through it more and we're just a little bit more certain about how to play it.

Speaker 2 And then I think that the thing that I've tried to do when we go in is get the feedback from the guys, what they're comfortable with.

Speaker 2 And when you have strong relationships, you can talk through things quickly.

Speaker 2 Because what people don't understand, guys, when you go in there, it's not like you have all this time to like, you know, big time powwow and like, hey, you know, fellas, like, let's get a coffee, sit down, like have a seat.

Speaker 2 We're nice and neat. Okay.
It doesn't really work like that. You have to move quickly.

Speaker 1 So I think the thing about adjustments guys is that it really reflects the command your coaches and players have with the plan you know and and and and and and the trust and relationships that you have um because that's what adjustments are about to me yeah yeah we're going to get back to coach staley in a second before we do i want to talk to you guys about our good friends at roman and their roman swipes most guys have tried different ways to last longer in bed but thinking about baseball doesn't always work the folks at roman an online men's health company, are changing the game with Roman swipes.

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Speaker 1 Now, here's more. Coach Staley.

Speaker 1 Have you thought about bringing Boltman back? Yeah. Do you know how to do this?

Speaker 1 Do you know who Boltman is?

Speaker 2 I would be mine if.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 All right, so you've probably given it no thought then because we can educate you real quick. Boltman was the unofficial mascot, the super fan of the San Diego Chargers.

Speaker 1 He was just a guy that had a giant lightning bolt for a head. No, that's not just what he was.
He had a whole, he was immersed.

Speaker 1 It was like an immersive experience for him where he became a bolt of lightning wearing shoulder pads. Yes.

Speaker 1 Very, unfortunately, he is abandoned. He's retired.

Speaker 1 He's retired himself, but I feel like it would be good for the franchise, for the morale of the franchise, as it's kind of establishing a home there in Los Angeles if you brought Boltman back or at least extended an olive branch to him and welcomed him to the team facility.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It's pretty much what's what's your super fan outreach program look like.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I think the bolt is such a linked like sort of symbol. Like that thing I think has got a lot of weight in terms of, you know, I really think that there's power in that.

Speaker 2 And you mentioned a key word, which is so crucial to football success, which is morale. You can never have enough of it.
So however we can increase our morale, I mean, I'm talking in the most,

Speaker 2 I mean, the littlest way possible. We're looking to add that edge.
So

Speaker 2 the mascot could be a huge deal.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Boltman, if you're listening,

Speaker 1 now is the time to strike. Yeah, and I don't want, listen, I'm not trying to tell you what to do.
He's not a mascot. He's a super fan.
Big difference. Okay.

Speaker 2 For sure. Yeah.

Speaker 1 He is a difference. Yeah.
I mean, he showed up to City Hall and tried to keep the team in San Diego one of the greatest pictures of all time in full Boltman regalia. And also, mascots get paid.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Super fans do it for the love of the game. Love of the game.
Right.

Speaker 2 Right. Volunteer spirit is much different than a mercenary.

Speaker 1 Yes, exactly. Exactly.
Have you thought one of my favorite things that happens every year?

Speaker 1 We haven't had it because of COVID in the last two years, but every year when the NFL coaches go to the owner's meeting and they take a picture looking into the sun and I break it down, have you thought about that picture yet?

Speaker 1 Because I'm sure you've seen the picture. Have you thought about where you like? Because I can give you some tips.
Like, guys will squeeze you out.

Speaker 1 There's weird spots that you'd be whether you wear sunglasses or not. Have you thought about that?

Speaker 2 I'm aware of that.

Speaker 2 Sort of give you a preview of what could be happening in the draft room. You know, I went with competitive casual attire.

Speaker 1 Wait, what is that? I love it.

Speaker 2 Didn't want to go with the banker attire. So we went competitive casual.

Speaker 1 It has to be a good thing. Explain competitive casualties.

Speaker 1 A football coach made up. I don't think that that's natural.
To wear sweatpants. Yeah.

Speaker 2 It's actually in the lexicon

Speaker 2 right now of game day attire. But just essentially, like, hey, this is like, we're a coach.
I want these guys to be able to look back on their moment. And it's like, hey, that was their coach calling.

Speaker 2 I'm not some guy that looks like, you know, he runs a hedge fund. So,

Speaker 2 you know, and then from the picture standpoint at the owners' meetings, you know, it's in Arizona from what I understand. Yep.

Speaker 2 Like that's where it's been, which from what I understand, Arizona is a very hot place. I don't know if you're going to be seeing like a blazer and, you know,

Speaker 1 khakis. Topless? You want to go topless? That's McVeigh.

Speaker 2 I don't. Yeah, no, I just think it would be a, you know, my attire will be, you know, indicative of the climate and then my, my, my beautiful bride.

Speaker 1 Okay, so don't go Hawaiian shirt. That's all I'm going to say because that's Andy Reed's corner.
If you go there, I will absolutely roast you.

Speaker 2 That's the opposite of being original.

Speaker 1 Okay. All right, good, good, good.
All right, another nerdy question for you. So,

Speaker 1 you know, looking at, you know, you talked about it, Khalil Mack, Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey. Let's say Aaron Donald.
What does it do for you as a defensive coach when you have a guy like that?

Speaker 1 Are you truly able to be like, all right, I don't even have to worry, like he's going to beat whoever's in front of him and everything else like is built off of that?

Speaker 1 Or is that something we make up in our own head?

Speaker 2 For the fans, like, you know, when you have a player of his caliber, Khalil, Vaughn, you know, Ramsey, whomever, when you have players of those

Speaker 2 players' caliber, it's a really sacred responsibility to get to coach them. Okay.
So you know the amount of attention every single week that's in the plan for that player.

Speaker 2 So what we spend a lot of time organizing is how we can isolate this guy in matchups.

Speaker 2 Spend a lot of time organizing it where as many times as we can, he's playing one, one and a half guys, not two, right?

Speaker 2 And so the amount of time that we, you know, spend thinking about that, both in the run game and in pass rush, you know, we spend a lot of time on that because he's going to play well regardless, like you guys are saying, but it's how well.

Speaker 2 You know, what we want to do is we want those premium players to play their best for us. You know, and I feel like that's something that we've been able to do with guys like that.

Speaker 2 You know, Khalil, AD, you know, AD was defensive player of the year.

Speaker 2 Khalil, I think, you know, the year we were together, guys, in 18 probably would have been the player of the year had he had not missed those two games.

Speaker 2 And then Ramsey was first team all-pro last year and had his best year. So when you join up with those guys, a lot of it is collaborating with those guys.

Speaker 2 Hey, this is where we're trying to go with you. Can you see it? Do you like that? Are you comfortable with that?

Speaker 2 And so giving them that thought process so that they can go full speed ahead and do what they do, but knowing, hey, man, these guys have a plan for me.

Speaker 2 They're not just like telling me to go out there and wing it and go ball. Like, these guys really are trying to help my game out.
So, I feel like that's what we've done.

Speaker 2 And the players like that, you know, it makes sense to them right away how you're trying to use them because they know where the production is in this league and when they get those ops.

Speaker 2 And so, that's what we've tried to do with those guys.

Speaker 1 That's an interesting answer because it kind of is the opposite of what we as fans always think: like, oh, you can just let Aaron Donald go out there and ball.

Speaker 1 You're saying essentially, like, we are actively trying to always get him into matchups where he can ball to that extra level even though he's that good you you are you are like like let's get you on these one-on-ones constantly so that you will always get home that's interesting and then the other thing i think you know the other thing that we opened up those guys eyes is like hey listen what aaron donald and jalen ramsey did for the other guys the other nine guys on the field like if you look at the rams this year

Speaker 2 everybody was playing at a high level. You guys know Leonard Floyd, I mean, just signed a huge deal.
John Johnson, right?

Speaker 2 Morgan Fox, guys that people haven't even heard of, undrafted guys, Darius Williams, Troy Hill,

Speaker 2 you know, Micah Kaiser, Troy Reeder. You know, we had a lot of guys playing rookies, you know.

Speaker 2 And so, hey, Aaron, Jalen, you can also up and open up all these ops for other people because ultimately we want to play team defense.

Speaker 3 We want to play team ball.

Speaker 2 And to be the very best, which we were this year, it's got to take everybody. It's not just AD, right? And when we were in Chicago, it wasn't just Khalil.
It was all those guys, right?

Speaker 2 You know, it was Kyle, Roquan, Leonard, you know, Eddie. I mean, it was all those guys balling.
So that's what you're trying to do when you're coaching guys like that.

Speaker 1 What about on the other side of it? Is there a player in the NFL? Like, we always hear defensive coordinators be like, this guy keeps me up at night.

Speaker 1 Have you actually ever been kept up at night thinking about an opponent's defensive player?

Speaker 2 A defensive player or an offensive player?

Speaker 1 Let's say defensive player, because that's what you always hear about. Like, this guy keeps me up at night trying to figure out how to manage him.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, there, there are. I mean, and

Speaker 2 that game within the game is real, fellas.

Speaker 2 I mean, just talk to like, you know, like what's been awesome here being the head coach is you're in these meetings with Corey Lindsley and Brian Balaga and Ode Abushi, Matt Feiler, these guys that had to block all these like really good players, you know, and

Speaker 2 And so you get this other, this rich perspective, right?

Speaker 2 And so, yeah, there's definitely a bunch of guys that you can say, I like, I'm a little careful about just, you know, throwing out one name because then it's like, man, there's just so many other guys.

Speaker 2 Good. Yeah.
You know, but like, it's,

Speaker 2 I think that what makes it special for the fans is you know who those premium players are. And that's why they get paid so much.
And that's why people want to watch them. So, yeah.

Speaker 1 Good answer. That was smart.
Good answer. That's smart.
Yeah. You're smart.
You could have gassed one guy up, but at what cost? Yeah, man.

Speaker 2 I don't want to do that because I got too much. There's too many guys I got respect for.

Speaker 1 You know, like, that's just such a delicate place to be.

Speaker 1 I think that you are, you're instantly one of the bigger football guys in the NFL as far as head coaches go. Just the fact that you dropped, was it competitive casual?

Speaker 1 uh you've said the word opportunity several times ops yeah i like that i feel like we're going in a good direction here in la you came from obviously like uh uh you can call it like a mini cradle of coaches sean mcvay's staff it seems like somebody gets hired from there like every other year um does he ever wear a shirt or is that just on game day is that competitive casual for him to just like hang out shirtless man everyone's giving sean a good uh a tough time man the guy's in shape man he works out you know the guy uh So, I mean, shoot.

Speaker 2 But yeah, I mean, like, besides being an amazing coach, I do think he has a fresh sense of what to wear and how to wear it.

Speaker 2 So, I think that's always been a winning edge of his.

Speaker 1 We like to make fun of Sean because we know him a little bit. We've had him on a couple times.
We've, you know, run into him a few times at the combine.

Speaker 1 And he did say, like, why are you guys giving me a hard time about my facial hair all the time?

Speaker 1 So, once he said that, it was like, well, that was a mistake, Sean, because now we're going to do it all the time.

Speaker 2 Oh, we're coming.

Speaker 1 You just gave us the playbook. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 I think it's more like he saw how bad my facial hair was. That's true.
He's like, this is the guy that's been making fun of my facial hair the whole time. That is true.
Again, I'm 5'10.

Speaker 1 I saw a quote that you had when you first met Justin Herbert. You said he's one of the guys.
I think that's the best compliment you can give a QB. I love that.

Speaker 1 So...

Speaker 1 Have you talked to him about his hair, though? Is he going to grow it out or is he going to keep it high and tight?

Speaker 1 Because we've come across a little bit of a theory that no long-haired quarterback has ever won a Super Bowl. So you might want to just get in front of that right away.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 Tom Brady's got pretty long, you know, he's gone long.

Speaker 1 Not when he won. That was when he was 17 and 0 or 19 and 0 or whatever.
Or 18 and 1.

Speaker 2 So you're talking about actually at the game.

Speaker 1 At the game. Kenny Stable is pretty much the only one.
Yeah. Yeah, that's separate.
Well, do you want to go to the game or do you want to win it?

Speaker 2 Coach, I mean, we all know the answer to that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's why he called me coach.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 I've told this guy is that your hair is a tremendous asset. Okay.

Speaker 2 And the fact that you can do either, I was like, does make you special because all great actors change their look.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 All great actors change their look. So I was like, the fact that you,

Speaker 2 you know, you have the hair and then you know that you can go the other way too. I was like, hey, it's a great advantage.
I think, I think, I think you're aware now of how people feel about it.

Speaker 2 I do think he is aware of how people feel about it.

Speaker 2 But the good thing that is refreshing about him is that he does not take himself too seriously. So I think that when I said he's one of the guys, I think that's also an element.

Speaker 2 Hey, you got to be able to take it sometimes and just, you know, just put that smile on, shake your head and be like, yep, yeah, you know, we'll keep it moving.

Speaker 1 I like that. You can always take away hair if you want, but you can never just like straight up add it on.
But on the other hand, you can get tackled by your long hair and it's completely legal.

Speaker 1 So it's kind of an advantage for the defense.

Speaker 2 It is, that's a fact.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I'm curious how you got into coaching defense to begin with, because as we mentioned earlier, you were a quarterback at Dayton.
You came from an offensive background.

Speaker 1 I looked up some of your stats. You were a dual threat guy.
You were pretty quick out there.

Speaker 1 So, how did you decide that you were going to end up on the defensive side of the ball?

Speaker 2 The coach who hired me into football, a guy named Joe Novak. He's the guy who kind of built Northern Illinois University.

Speaker 2 He was the guy kind of at the beginning of that. And Coach Novak is a huge mentor for me.
He really liked, and he's a Northeast Ohio guy as well.

Speaker 2 But he liked the fact of taking a quarterback you know to coach the defensive scout team you're used to being in the huddle you know and and and taking that lens and being able to kind of operate the huddle that way and so he kind of had that vision um for how he wanted you know the defensive ga to be as a guy that hey can make this clean operation so that we can run more plays you know and then he felt like hey a quarterback is usually responsible for 22 guys on the field could be a really easy adjustment going to the other side.

Speaker 2 You got this perspective. And so,

Speaker 2 you know, I just said, yes, sir, and got to work but he's the guy that um sort of had that vision for me and gave me that first opportunity and um just never looked back from it uh dumb question do you get to decide what colors you wear uh every single sunday i think i'm a part of that movie yeah okay

Speaker 1 i'm part of the production of that movie so all right so then the follow-up is uh what's our strategy for the powder blues are we doing it only in special occasions are we doing it maybe getting on a run uh they're the i think most people would agree probably the best uniforms in all of sports.

Speaker 1 You guys just had new uniforms released, but that is going to be a very interesting thing, probably the most challenging thing you'll have to tackle as a head coach.

Speaker 1 When do you bring out the powder blues and how long do you keep them out?

Speaker 3 Well, just really excited to have the powder blues because it's, you know, the brand, right, is a big deal. And our team has certainly killed that aspect of it.

Speaker 3 As you guys know, our digital media team is awesome here, too.

Speaker 3 So I think having relationships with our guys is also very important.

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 where are they comfortable?

Speaker 3 I think, you know, variety is the spice of life. I do think that we have that variety, but you always want to have that staple.
All right. Got to have it sort of uni.

Speaker 3 And I'm glad to say that the powder blues are a big part of it.

Speaker 1 It's an opportunity. Having the powder blue is just a massive opportunity that you got in your pocket.
Other teams don't have. So you got to take advantage of it.

Speaker 1 What about your personal game day attire? I'm guessing it's probably competitive casual, but do you have, have, have you figured out where you're keeping the challenge flag?

Speaker 1 Because now that's a very, it's an important item that you have to be a steward of almost.

Speaker 1 And you know, as a first-time head coach, like you have to have that stuff thought through, like front pocket, back pocket, et cetera. That's right.

Speaker 3 Probably back pocket, guys.

Speaker 2 Not going to be the sock for sure.

Speaker 3 It'll probably be back pocket because you have the...

Speaker 2 you know, the walkie-talkie thing that you want to have in the front.

Speaker 3 And then so probably back pocket.

Speaker 2 So, hey, man.

Speaker 1 yeah smart uh all right since we're at the stupid portion of this interview um i'm trying to get better as a gambler i'm not going to ask you any questions about point spreads or anything but i am going to ask you do you own

Speaker 1 uh anything uh that could smash a watermelon or do you ever plan on smashing a watermelon before a game The second part of that question, no, can't see that.

Speaker 1 Okay, all right, that's actually all I need. That's all I need because Mike McCarthy did that to me twice last year.

Speaker 1 He smashed a watermelon in front of his team and they won both the games and I bet against them not knowing knowing that. So I'm just doing kind of a straw poll.

Speaker 1 Anytime we get in touch with the head coach, I'm just going to have a sheet that's like, hey, this guy's going to smash a watermelon, never going to smash a watermelon.

Speaker 1 I'm going to put you in never smash a watermelon.

Speaker 2 I think that's safe to say.

Speaker 1 Okay. And if you do, I'm going to be really mad.
I'll be totally honest with you. If I find out you smashed a watermelon before a game,

Speaker 1 I'm going to be pissed.

Speaker 1 I'm going to be really pissed.

Speaker 1 What you got to do at this point now is after a big win where you cover a spread, you have to just say that you smashed a watermelon. I swear I'm just a pissed.
After just to to mess with Big Cat.

Speaker 1 Like, it would be, it would honestly make my ear.

Speaker 1 It would melt me. It would melt me.

Speaker 2 I will tell you, there's nothing better than watching you guys at the end of the game when something's on the line.

Speaker 2 These videos, I mean, you know, just, I mean, the amount of emotion, I feel like I'm there. I mean, I truly feel like I'm there.
And you guys are crushing it as it relates to that.

Speaker 1 I appreciate that. And I guess that's.

Speaker 2 March Madness in particular.

Speaker 2 That's such a key

Speaker 2 watch for everybody.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 yeah all right so that's a perfect segue to my last question because i have to ask it because if i don't ask it everyone's gonna be like why didn't you assist obviously you're on the sideline for uh cody parkey uh what was that like afterwards oh gosh man i mean it sucked for me

Speaker 1 uh

Speaker 2 the hardest part is i think looking at a guy like khalil mack in the face um and you know like we felt like we had certainly the defense that could go on you know a run.

Speaker 2 I mean, and I think the toughest thing is seeing those competitors, you know, the, the, the guys like him, you know, that,

Speaker 2 man, just that heartbreak that, that's a part of sports, right? It's just, that's, you know, that's what we sign up for is sometimes it doesn't go down for you.

Speaker 2 So I think that's the moment that stands out to me the most, fellas, because I remember when it went down just looking at him and, man, what a great run.

Speaker 2 But it's like, for him, you just, you, you wanted it so bad, you know, and this year, you guys saw probably Aaron Donald after we lost to Green Bay.

Speaker 2 You just, you guys don't realize how much it means to these guys. And, you know, I think that's probably what I'll remember the most.

Speaker 2 But at the same time, you go in the locker room, guys, and that's the bittersweet part for fans is when you go in there in the locker room,

Speaker 2 then you're, it's that bittersweet part of it, knowing that, hey, we had a special run and you're really proud of everything that happened.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
That's a good answer. Yeah.
You don't want to feel like you let a guy like that down. Definitely.

Speaker 1 My last question is, just do you get recognized in Los Angeles?

Speaker 1 Are you a star now?

Speaker 2 I mean, guys, when I say no, not even a little bit.

Speaker 2 Like, I might as well be, I mean, there's probably a lot of, you know, analogies or metaphors I could use, but no, the answer is no. And that's, you know, I'm excited about that.

Speaker 1 Okay, so, all right, so we're going to just throw a challenge to our listeners. If you do see Coach Staley out there, just go up to him and be like, love John PMT.

Speaker 1 So that we can get you recognized for that, at least. That's fair, right?

Speaker 3 Could be. I'll give you some feedback

Speaker 3 on that aspect of it. I seriously will.
Me and Josh will get back to you on that.

Speaker 1 Perfect. I love it.
Because that's always our, that's like the highest compliment we ever get is when a guest is like, yeah, I get stopped and people like mention PMT.

Speaker 1 And that we're like, that's perfect. That's our best marketing out there.

Speaker 2 No doubt. It's like the, it's like the pizza review deal.

Speaker 2 Like, yeah, I mean, I mean, like, I actually, one of my, Relatives down in South Florida was just watching this guy and like went to that pizza shop.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 right.

Speaker 2 It's unbelievable what you guys are doing for people. It's awesome.

Speaker 1 It gets you noticed. Yeah.
Yeah. Now, I don't know if that's the same thing.
I don't know if we want to. No, it is.

Speaker 1 Exactly. Get coach noticed.

Speaker 1 You're going to regret saying this because now people actually people just go up to like any white guy with short dark hair wearing charger skin. Wearing charger scare and be like, are you coached?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Lucky on PMT.

Speaker 3 See, that would be the greater question is how many they get wrong.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 1 You know, like that, that would be the

Speaker 3 more interesting data. Yes.

Speaker 1 All right. Well, coach, this has been awesome.
Best of luck. And you're a recurring guest now.
So we look forward to maybe talking to you in the future. And thanks so much for your time.
Good luck.

Speaker 3 Big fans, guys. Thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 4 The Pro Football Football Show is presented by the Chevy Silverado. Built for the hustle, ready for the game.
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Speaker 4 Whether you're grinding through the week or gearing up for kickoff, the Silverado is one ride that's always game ready. Just like football, it's about grit, grind, and getting it done.

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Speaker 1 All right, breaking moose.

Speaker 1 As we're recording this,

Speaker 1 guy on Twitter, no, Garrett Savage just tweeted me saying Matt Nagy totally farted on the herd and he has video, so let's play it. And you two are obviously the premier experts on forensic analysis.

Speaker 1 So here we go. I'm nervous.

Speaker 1 Psychologically, you get into a season, you're four and four, and you're thinking to yourself, I'm in a battle here.

Speaker 1 I don't know. Inconclusive.
Inconclusive? Inconclusive. I didn't even hear it.
You got to send me the clip. We'll pump it in.
We'll have to check. We'll have to send it to Law and Order.
As VU.

Speaker 1 Damn. Not as conclusive as PFT's.
No. Shut up.
I'd agree. Shut up.
I'd agree. There's no scale of not fart to PFT.
That's a... PFT's wet.
No fire fart. No fart.
I got dry farts, bro.

Speaker 1 Oh, man. All right.

Speaker 1 Hank, your firefest of the week. And we're ripping packs, by the way.
Oh, man. Yeah, I've been looking at this all day.
Can I remind first? Yeah, yeah. So the fire fest.

Speaker 1 So obviously the football guy term that we're going to be going now with is what was it? Competitive casual. Competitive casual, which is when you.

Speaker 1 And I was talking to a friend of ours who used to play for a team that Coach Staley coached on.

Speaker 1 It's pretty easy to figure out. Yeah, I'm lost.
You know who it is. He says a huge jumpsuit guy.
So that's

Speaker 1 competitive casual? Yeah, competitive competitive casual at all times.

Speaker 1 I just love the term competitive casual. Yeah.
Because it implies that like you, yeah, you're dressed, you could go to work, but you could also get into a fight with somebody on the street.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's like it's like hardcore leisure. Yeah, hardcore.
It's khakis, but they've got two folds in them from carrying your tins of two around. Yeah, I don't even know.

Speaker 1 I think you might not even have to do it khakis. I think it might just be the type of, it might be sweatpants with a zipper on it.
That might be competitive casual.

Speaker 1 Joggers with a holster on on the side. Yeah, or like the

Speaker 1 joggers that are like, you know, at the bottom, they have the rubber band that actually makes it so it doesn't just flop everywhere. That's competitive casual.
That's all you need. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Bulletproof romp hems. Yes.
It's a romp hem, but it's got the plate carrier in the front. Competitive casual.
All right.

Speaker 1 You're ripping? Are we ripping packs? I'm ripping. I've gotten all trash before.
I got an RJ Barrett, a red one. I don't know.
All right, so we're looking for a signature.

Speaker 1 There's one signature in this pack. Ooh, C.J.
McCollum. Ooh, nice.
Ricky Rubio, Tyrell Terry, Cam Reddish.

Speaker 1 One here next year. This is great.
This is great. Green Prince.
People are like, oh,

Speaker 1 I got Big Cat's favorite player on the sweet red card. Chris Paul.
Ooh, nice. Chris Paul, number 93.
I don't respect him enough.

Speaker 1 Oh, Hank, I got a fearless Kevin Garnett. Timberwolves.
I got a downtown Kimball Walker. Cam Johnson, Rudy Gay.
Rudy Gay is still in the league. Wow.
I got our boy RJ Hampton. Nice.
Ooh.

Speaker 1 I got an Alan Iverson. Wait, you guys aren't going to believe this.
No. I got Mellow.
This is wild. You got LaMello? Carmelo.
Oh, that is wild. And he went to Syracuse, and he went to Syracuse.

Speaker 1 Shake Milton 131. All right, that was terrible radio.
But yeah, my favorite. And PFC, I still have another pack.
I broke my foot playing ping pong, and I don't know if I'm ever going to be hunting.

Speaker 1 It's pretty much broken foot.

Speaker 1 It's dropping right now. I'm sitting here.
I've been, you know, trying not to make noises and whimper, but I can feel it.

Speaker 1 I don't know if I'm going to be able to take my foot off because it's so swollen. You think his joints fracture? Yeah, I'm going to have to go to the doctor tomorrow, I think.

Speaker 1 Maybe even the ER. Wait, this is the signed one.
What is in Hampton? Oh, hello. Argentina? Hell yeah.
Dude, congrats. Chase that thing.
I've got a Seth Curry Prism.

Speaker 1 I think they're all Prism.

Speaker 1 Patrick Beverly.

Speaker 1 Oh, Blake. Pistons.
Let's go. Let's put this up somewhere.
We'll put this right here.

Speaker 1 Tyler Bay rookie card. Blake Griffin Pistons.
Ever heard of him? One of our best friends? Genus. I got a genus at

Speaker 1 Antoine. Nah, I got shot.
Trash, trash, trash.

Speaker 1 Oh, Big Cat. Can you please stop doing this? No, this will make it all worthwhile.

Speaker 1 Big Cat, we don't say this enough, but I love you. Yeah.
And as a present for being here today, I have a Lou Dort card for you. Oh, fuck yes.
That's the nicest thing anyone's given given to me.

Speaker 1 Thank you, PFT. You're welcome.
Wow. Big Cat gave you a turn.
I did give you and a Caruso. And a Caruso.
I was just giving and a JJ Beret. I was just handing PFT all the white guys.

Speaker 1 I got a Kevin Herter for you. We were in a meeting with the guy from Golden.
Was it Golden Auctions? Yeah.

Speaker 1 And he was probably very confused because Big Cat was just literally handing me white players the entire time. He's like, here you go, PFT.
You love this guy.

Speaker 1 All right. What was your fire festival? Oh, you broke my foot.
You broke my foot. Yeah, you broke your foot.
Pretty much. I think fully.
Have you tried drinking smart water? No.

Speaker 1 Or the Russell Wilson concussion water. I think I'm going to keep my shoe on tied really tight.
That's all you got to do.

Speaker 1 Honestly, if you never take your shoe off, you will not have a sprained ankle. I've definitely learned that from playing basketball.
You guys got to ask him how he broke his foot.

Speaker 1 How did you break your foot? Because it wasn't from the penguins. Wait, first of all, will you ever be 100% again? I don't think so.
Okay. And how did you break your foot? I kicked a cooler.

Speaker 1 And why?

Speaker 1 You know how it goes. I was just, you know.
Who were you playing?

Speaker 1 It doesn't matter. That's irrelevant to the story.

Speaker 1 It has nothing to do with my fire fest. My firefest just felt my foot.
Were you excited? And you were happy enough to get it? Something like that. Yeah, I was definitely worked up.
Uh-huh.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you sure were. I won't say the guy's name, but this injury, like kicking a cooler and hurting your foot, is a very somebody type of injury to have happened to them.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 We got two names we don't say right now. So you decide, listeners.

Speaker 1 Well, it's pretty obvious because.

Speaker 1 I actually am confused myself, so I don't know how obvious it is. Well, it could be

Speaker 1 there's a nerd and a jock version of two names. We're not

Speaker 1 Voldemort.

Speaker 1 And both could kick you. The reason I'm here.

Speaker 1 Correct. That's true.
Yeah. Well, and yeah, both ways.
The reason why we love you and the reason why you're here.

Speaker 1 This is now the worst we've ever done. I got ripped cards and then just

Speaker 1 side jokes.

Speaker 1 You know what?

Speaker 1 Side jokes that we don't even understand inside this room right now you know what this is so this is actually great advertisement for the youtube channel because like hearing us open packs of cards sucks ass and i'm sorry that you had to sit through that but you know what kicks ass is watching somebody else open packs of cards so someone uh hit me up on twitter and said that we gained 4 000 followers on uh after we talked about the youtube channel on tuesday and if at that pace we would hit 500 000 by July 13th, I don't think we'll hit that pace because that's a lot of people every single day.

Speaker 1 And the listeners don't have it in them. Yeah, they don't have it in them.
We're not going to hit 500,000. We're not going to be able to do the live streams.
They're listeners. They're not watching.

Speaker 1 It's too bad. August 15th, 500,000 by August 15th.
We will start doing different content that we can put up on the YouTube that won't be part of this podcast. So you might as well subscribe.

Speaker 1 We'll hold that.

Speaker 1 How much does it cost? It costs $5.

Speaker 1 To Colin Cowherd. It doesn't cost anything? It's free.

Speaker 1 It's free. It's free.
But why wouldn't we want to get money from this? Because then on the YouTube channel, we can sell dick swipes. Got it.
Okay. So it costs $0.

Speaker 1 Get that dick swipe back. It costs $0.

Speaker 1 All right. PFT, your Fire Fest.
My Fire Fest of the week is, well, I've got two. I'll just say, I'll get in front of it.

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 1 am starting.

Speaker 1 Where did that come out of?

Speaker 1 That was just unnecessary, Hank. I was telling you.

Speaker 1 I hope you have to get your foot amputated.

Speaker 1 yeah i hope it's real bad i hope it gets infected like jack daniels when he kicked his safe and he he died afterwards

Speaker 1 i hope you die hank

Speaker 1 and i'll steal all your cards and your dog hank i also hope you die okay this has gone too far yeah well you didn't let me finish i was gonna get a die list but it's not you it's andrew ciciliano

Speaker 1 I'm not even going to argue

Speaker 1 I know how this goes every time. Honestly, that 5-6 comment was more applicable to Ceciliano, but also

Speaker 1 it was chugy as hell.

Speaker 1 I got choog vibes. No, I think that wasn't trying too hard at all.
That was true. That is very true.

Speaker 1 5'6.

Speaker 1 People are genuinely confused when they see me and I'm not 5'6. Because you're 5'5? Yeah.

Speaker 1 I thought you'd be taller. What's your.

Speaker 1 My Fire Fest is

Speaker 1 I'm starting to get Team of Destiny vibes from the Washington Capitals. Oh.
Because Cap's back. Two very.
That was a highlight. That was a championship DVD starting game last night.
The boys

Speaker 1 championship DVD would start with, and the puck is dropped, and everyone's fighting. Everybody was in the box last night.
It was like a sick bar that you're now allowed to go back to in New York.

Speaker 1 It was awesome being at that game, watching the guys just enjoy fighting other people.

Speaker 1 It got me going, and then TJ Oshi scored a hat-trick on the day that his dad passed away. I don't know if I've ever told this story.

Speaker 1 I definitely haven't said it on the podcast, but the night that they won the Stanley Cup, it was the night that TJ was on the ice with his dad and he gave that quote about like my dad doesn't really remember anything anymore But I know that he's gonna remember this because it was like a magical moment He woke up the next morning remembering it, but um He got on the same elevator I was in in one of the casinos TJ Oshi TJ Oshi did nice and right after the cup he was like he had like tears coming out of his eyes He was crying, but he had like the biggest smile on his face at the exact same time and I just thought to myself like that that is a drug that will never be replicated Like, if you're just experiencing all your emotions at once.

Speaker 1 Yes. So I've loved the guy ever since and loved him before that.
Captain America. Captain America.
I'm starting to get Team of Destiny vibes. Okay.

Speaker 1 And Cap's back. Put a little tickler file on it.
I like it. I like the call.
Dan Orlovsky dropped the hottest cap of the year on us. Yeah, that's got to be the end of that.

Speaker 1 Well, once you got cool guys like Dan Orlovsky and Dave Portnoy getting

Speaker 1 on the capsule. We're talking about it on BFF.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 We're back, baby. At least you were like a week early.
No,

Speaker 1 I was like a month early, at least. And now I got to start thinking about another phrase.
I'm thinking, now that's paper.

Speaker 1 I tried to bring back now that's paper a while ago, but it feels I feel like the time's right. Yeah, now that's paper.
Go with bet. I like beta.

Speaker 1 When someone says, like, oh, I'll meet you there. You bet.
Bet. Lickety split.
I like that. I like bet.
Bet, okay, I'll do that.

Speaker 1 Bet always sounds cool when someone says that, like, oh, yeah, let's meet at one o'clock. Like, bet.

Speaker 1 I'll try to work one bet and one now that's paper into next week's podcast, and we'll see which one sounds worse. And then I'll go with that one.
What about on dogs? Oh, on dogs? On dogs.

Speaker 1 What are you talking about? What's the one I'm going to start doing? What did you guys tell me I had to start doing? Big ups?

Speaker 1 Yeah, what about one love?

Speaker 1 No, I think on dogs, on dogs would play. Like, it's like for real, like, on dogs, on dead dogs.
Shut the fuck up.

Speaker 1 On dogs. Damn.

Speaker 1 I don't like what it is. It's a good phrase.
On dogs. Damn.
All right, my Fire Fest is,

Speaker 1 I now am like laughing at

Speaker 1 the dad humor. Did you see that guy went viral for his press conference? It's kind of actually like Joey's Molinaros, which are always funny videos.

Speaker 1 But talking about a press conference after dealing with his kid all day. And I thought it was the funniest thing ever.
What did he say? Well, especially when he's like, yeah, you know,

Speaker 1 we went with a snack 30 minutes before dinner, and then all he had was three bites. So that's on me.
And I was like, yep.

Speaker 1 I always try to go chips hard.

Speaker 1 And then someone asked, like, is that talking about you or your son? I was like, dude, do you think that I've ever had a snack slow down my dinner? You're fully into

Speaker 1 dad life now. Yeah, I mean, it's okay.
We got to get you on those commercials where you go to the hardware store with a dad coach.

Speaker 1 I'm ready for it. Except, no, fuck that.
Have you had any reflection on your snow day? I saw there was a lot of confusion over those. No, because I don't.
I loved snow days as a kid.

Speaker 1 I was giving a zag. I said it beforehand.
I was giving a zag. I was giving an alternate counterpoint for discussion.
You were playing the devil's advocate.

Speaker 1 And it was distilled into this, I hate snow days. And then, whatever.
What can you do?

Speaker 1 Once it takes course, there's nothing you can do. Yeah.
It cats out of the bag. Yeah.
What are you going to do? And then Billy came. Oh, I can't say his name.

Speaker 1 He valiantly came out to working less, and I couldn't believe it.

Speaker 1 I've noted off-brand. I've noticed that Billy is going out of his way.
I just said it again. Don't say it.
I've noticed he's going out of his way to let us know that

Speaker 1 he's now listening to the show.

Speaker 1 He's definitely looking for extra credit. Extra credit given.
There it is. Boom.
Liam, do you have a fire fest before Jake does his? Then we wrap up?

Speaker 1 I actually do. I threw up yesterday morning.

Speaker 1 Are you pregnant? No, just from like sinuses or something.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 It wasn't even like a food throw-up. It was just like I woke up yesterday morning and just immediately was like, I feel like I have to throw up.
Dude, are allergies really bad right now?

Speaker 1 Allergies are back big time. Okay, because I actually.
Mine are much worse in Florida than here.

Speaker 1 I sneezed like four times in like three consecutive days, and I thought I had allergies. Then I remember I'm just an alpha.
I always have Zotec on me if you need. It's always always myself.

Speaker 1 No, I said fuck no to it, and now I'm cured. All right, but it felt like allergies, what it would feel like.
It's bad, though. The pollen's out there.

Speaker 1 I think it's just always good to have something in your back pocket that you can blame anything that goes wrong on.

Speaker 1 Well, it's that's why I lie and I say that I have allergies because if there's anything that's like that's remotely wrong with my day, it's the pollen. Right.

Speaker 1 That's how the whole office got coronavirus. That time you came in and said you're just a bad person.

Speaker 1 I came in and it was just because I had been next, I stood next to a tree for two minutes, and then next thing you know, everybody was dead. Yeah.
All right, Jake. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I was about three inches away from getting my head cracked open today

Speaker 1 in the stoolstream's room. The rock, paper, scissors table.

Speaker 1 But you didn't. Yeah, but the thought of it was scary, and it's enough for a fire fest.
So now you're thinking, like, this whole time, what if I'm actually dead right now? I could be in the evening.

Speaker 1 You've done borrowed water. I was so earlier.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 You're going to start appreciating life more? Yeah. It's like in Fight Club.
Your next meal will taste better. Did you watch Fight Club?

Speaker 1 I went to the Rangers Capitals game. That's true.
You did. The table shattered, and it was very close.
Whoa. I'm okay.
Hank.

Speaker 1 You got a pretty much broken skull. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You could be dead to hell. Oh, Zertec commercial.
What are the odds?

Speaker 1 How many times have you watched it back and been like, damn, I almost died there. Damn, look.
Look how close I came to dying.

Speaker 1 All right. That is our show.
Also, quick shout out. Our good friend Sam Schwartzein works with Rachel, who's a big AWL who's going through chemo and is just working her ass off still, too.

Speaker 1 So she gets a shout-out. Shout-out, Rachel.
Shout out, Rachel. Fuck you,

Speaker 1 fuck everything. Yeah.
And also, maybe don't have to work all the time. I'm just going to give you.
I'm going to give you a day off. Okay.
Boom. Rachel, you get a day off.
There it was.

Speaker 1 All right, numbers. 42.
Eight. Jackie Robinson.
18.

Speaker 1 We're going 23. 81.

Speaker 1 Hernandez.

Speaker 1 47. Fuck.
47. We've had that before.

Speaker 1 Okay. Not our first time.
Chris Cooley. See everyone on Monday.
Fourth. Mountains are blue.
Parrots will selflessly help each other out. Love you guys.
Great fact.

Speaker 1 Actually, oh, by the way, Jake, I want you to start giving us big J facts. Like facts about journalists

Speaker 1 and journalists. Okay.
Yeah, that'd be good. Plus the animal or just no.

Speaker 1 have have one of each ready. Yeah, you got it, dealer's choice.
Love you guys.

Speaker 1 Shy it away.

Speaker 1 Oh, I'll be coming for your love, okay.

Speaker 1 Take

Speaker 1 on

Speaker 1 me,

Speaker 1 Take

Speaker 1 me

Speaker 1 on

Speaker 1 I'll be

Speaker 1 gone

Speaker 1 to me.

Speaker 1 Needless to say,

Speaker 1 I'm on the edge, but I'm eating some

Speaker 1 little way.

Speaker 1 So the love life is okay.

Speaker 1 Say after me.

Speaker 1 It's no better to be safe and sorry. Say after me.

Speaker 1 It's no better to be safe and sorry.

Speaker 1 Take

Speaker 1 on

Speaker 1 me.

Speaker 1 Take

Speaker 1 me

Speaker 1 up.

Speaker 1 I'll be

Speaker 1 gone

Speaker 1 in a day of truth

Speaker 1 All the things that you say

Speaker 1 just to pay my worries away

Speaker 1 You are the things I've got to remember

Speaker 1 When you shine away

Speaker 1 I'll be coming for you anyway

Speaker 1 You can shine away

Speaker 1 I'll be coming for you anyway

Speaker 1 Take

Speaker 1 on

Speaker 1 me

Speaker 1 Take

Speaker 1 me

Speaker 1 up

Speaker 1 I'll be

Speaker 1 God

Speaker 1 your

Speaker 1 day