Blake Griffin, NCAAT With Stanford Steve And NFL Free Agency

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On today's Pardon My Take, Blake Griffin.

Blake Griffin and Stanford Steve, that's maybe the most powerful, strength-wise twofer that we've ever had on a Friday.

It might be the heaviest duo of guests that we've ever had on the show. Yeah.
Well, no, what about, didn't we have Kane and Mr. Portnoy on at the same time? That's, I'm doing the math.
So Kane is probably 400 pounds, Mr. Portnoy is 79.
Buck 20? I think, no, I think this is the, at least the girthiest combination. Yeah, strongest, strongest.
So awesome show with both those guys. Great interviews.
Stanford Steve gives us picks. He gives us bracket tips.
Blake Griffin, always great to catch up with him. We're going to do our final fours.
We're going to talk a little NFL free agency. We have Fyre Fest.
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This is March. I'm so fucking excited.
I'm so excited. It's goosebumps.
I'm so excited. It's little goosebumps right now.

All my favorite memories in life came in March Madness, and my worst, too.

I think, honestly, some of my earliest memories, definitely.

I think back to being a kid watching sports on the couch, and one of my first memories

was Christian Leitner's shot, that Duke team, and just having my dad invite his friends over.

Oh, yeah, that was actually an implanted memory. It was just like watching my dad snore on the couch while watching basketball.
Yes. My dad reminded me I went 31 for 32 when I was like 11 years old, and that was the peak of my gambling life in the first round.
But it is. It's March Madness.
We're ready to go. It feels great.
We're going to do our brackets. We're going to do our final fours for everyone here.
We have Stanford Steve on with betting tips, bracket tips. We have Blake Griffin on.
Before we do that, though, let's talk a little NFL free agency, and then we'll get full-on March. Now you got me fucked up.
It's March. I keep saying March.
That was my middle school ringtone. No shit.
Wait, you had a ring backtone? Yeah, ringtone. It would just say...
No, the song. Oh, the song.
Yes, CBS. Big J.
Of course. All right, so, whoa, yeah, we're going to do our Choose Your Own Adventure for tonight's games as well, the Thursday night play-in games, the first four.
So, NFL free agency, not a ton of big news. Mitch is now in Buffalo.
Good for him. Happy for Mitch.
He's amongst friends. He's amongst friends.
You should be happy that he's gone to a fan base that will take care of him. It's like rehoming a dog.
I know that dog adoptions are in the news these days. If you could pick a perfect home for him to go run and play and be happy with, I think it's probably Bill's Mafia.
They'll take care of him. Here's why this is actually a very great move for Mitch in his career is that if he spends a year as Josh Allen's backup, I think that the negative media around Mitch will dissipate and then next year he will be a name where it's kind of the Jameis Winston.
It's like, oh, well let's give him a try. He was a top pick.
He was a No. 2 pick.
I saw a friend Kevin Clark from the Ringer said he'll go rehab in Buffalo for a while, get his name talked about more, and then Chicago is going to bring him back on a huge contract. I wouldn't be shocked because the Bears, Andy Dalton had his press conference today.
He said that he has been told he's the starter, of course. The colors popped.
The colors do pop. Yeah, we told you.
That red hair, when he's wearing the orange, the alternate uniform, it's going to look sick. I'm not.
Andy Dalton deserves zero blame. I started to be nice to Andy hashtag.
I will never blame Andy Dalton for taking money, for taking a starting job when it's promised to him. It all rests on Ryan Pace, Matt Nagy, and the McCaskey's feet.
So Andy Dalton's a nice guy, nice enough guy. Maybe we'll have him on the show again.
I don't know. I'm just sad.
Whatever. I don't, you know what? I'm actually, I'm going to say something even nicer about the Bears.
They did this during the first week of March Madness. So my ability to be sad about it was lessened because I have just been so excited.
You know when you get like a nervous rush through your body? I got that five times last night just sitting on the couch thinking about how I'm going to bet every single game on Friday. That's the feeling I get when I see the NFL Red Zone countdown clock on Sunday.
I'm so excited. Alright, other NFL free agency news.
Kenny Galladay is doing meetings. Will Fuller is in Miami.
That's actually good for Tua. Really good.
It is good for Tua. He's a great player.
But he still has, I was reminded, he's got another game suspension. He's still suspended.
Carryover? Yeah, carryover suspension. And he also has got at least three injuries.
Yeah. The football team is getting dangerous at wide receiver.
They added Curtis Samuel. So now they've got, I think, the two fastest wide receivers.
Pro Football Focus said that they won the offseason net additions for their team so far. So that's another offseason title for us.
Yep, that's always huge to win titles in March. I did see Ryan Fitzpatrick give his intro statement to all the fans out there.
He held the phone up right next to his face.

He ended it just by saying,

let's go football team.

You talk about goosebumps. You talk about getting excited

for something. I'm very, very pumped

about what's going to happen next year. In fact,

the entire NFC East is getting dangerous.

The Beast, baby. You're a fan of

all of them. You poke the Beast.
You're going to wish you never

fucked with us. We got

Kyle Rudolph. He's on the Giants now.
I to wish you never fucked with us. So we got Kyle Rudolph.

He's on the Giants now.

I can't take it serious when you root for an entire division.

Obviously Dak.

And then Nick Sirianni.

So like big names being added to every single name in the division.

Mike Glennon?

Mike Glennon?

Yeah.

Long Neck Glennon?

You know what the NFC beast is?

We're Joaquin Phoenix's Joker.

You guys all laughed at us.

You all made fun of us last year. Now we're about to just flip out and shoot everybody.
That's a great analogy. You're in big trouble.
Okay, so you're just going to kill some people. Yeah, absolutely.
We're dangerous. Yeah.
Again, I cannot take it serious when you root for an entire division. Listen, you wouldn't get it if you didn't grow up rooting for the beast.
I wish you would just say, fuck the Cowboys and fuck the Giants and fuck the Eagles. Hey, guess what? Fuck's what say guess what fuck the packers solidarity baby yeah no that doesn't fly that's not that's not real it's real it's real right here that is not real um what other what other news uh oh big big news on the media front what so espn is getting the uh nfl sunday it looks like they're going to make a play for the Sunday ticket, in which case they would get the red zone,

in which case do they back up the truck for Andrew Siciliano?

You know that there's a part.

I'm going to say two words, Mike Greenberg.

You know that there's a part of Greeny who's like, I could do this.

Scott Hanson, they should back up the truck for Scott Hanson and hire him.

So, Jake, explain this to us, what's happening right now. So it broke like 15 minutes ago I'm still diving into it oh okay um but it looks like dive in let's actually watch you dive in okay I'd like to see that live okay um Amazon is now going to be a bigger player it looks like okay they're going to be the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football that's only going to be on Twitch they're like I don't think's going to be broadcast.
I could be wrong, but I believe I saw something that's like they're not even going to broadcast it on TV. I love that we are just doing the same thing as TV now.
I can't believe no one is making a big stink about the fact that cord cutting, oh, I can cut all my costs. Now you just have to buy all of the streaming services, which is exactly what cable was.
Yeah. All the channels.
So I also saw that ESPN, in their highly touted package that they're getting, they're getting exclusive streaming rights to one international game per year. And then also they get to simulcast the Monday Night Football flex.
Monday Night Football flex is enormous. But does anyone just, can someone in big TV be like, hey, the streaming services are just doing TV.
Now I have Amazon Prime. I have Hulu.
I have Netflix. I have Disney Plus.
And then you look at it all and you're like, wait, I just have a cable package. Be careful what you wish for on that account.
Because if it all combines into one, it's going to be Jeff Bezos running everything. It's just crazy.
He's going to be the CEO of the internet, and then you're just going to have to pay him directly every time. I pay $10 a month for Peacock because I want to watch The Office when I eat dinner.
Yep. That's it.
I don't watch anything else on there. Oh, I watch Florio.
I shudder to think what my monthly bill looks like in terms of new additions that I've made and subscriptions just over the course of quarantine? Yes. Probably like 15.

I got something new.

I got HBO Go or whatever they're calling it now just for Yellowstone.

Yeah, you got to get Max.

You got to get Go.

You got Showtime.

It's fucking...

What, Hank?

It's not on HBO.

I think that's how you watch it online.

No.

Well...

You care to make it interesting?

Fact check?

Hank's a little groggy right now.

Hank's the entire plate asleep on my shoes. Please, let's let's make it interesting.
Okay. Okay.
What do you want to bet? Dinner. You have to get a cat.
I'll buy you dinner if I'm wrong. You have to get a cat if you're wrong.
No. Yellowstone available on Peacock, Paramount, YouTube, Sling TV, Fubo TV, Philo.
Oh, maybe it's Peacock then. Damn.
Maybe it's Peacock. All sorry Hank alright let's so the Monday Night Flex is huge but I'm grumpy that is PBS and Fox CBS and Fox are holding on to the AFC and NFC respectively which should be that would be that would fuck my world up if it was flexed sometimes they do that because they have to make up from like Thursday Night.
Yeah, they go goofy foot. It's really strange.
And like Joe Buck does an ABC, ABC, ABC. How much would you pay to have Chris Berman doing Red Zone? $300,000? $400,000? Infinity dollars? Oh.
But it's different because Trumpy Hank is saying no. The Boomers, he has time to think about it.
Maybe 20 years ago. Red Zone's live, so you can't really think about the one-liners.
What it comes down to is I just want a live stream on Chris Berman all the time.

All right, so Monday Night Flex is huge.

That is enormous.

Everything else we'll figure out later, and everyone will complain about it.

That's such a future.

That's also a classic NFL move to, like, right before March Madness,

try to drop some huge news and be like, hey, everyone pay attention to us.

Oh, yeah.

NFL tries to – you know what? Roger Goodell has, little checkmark that he puts on his calendar. Every time it's this Thursday or Friday when he gets one NFL media member to tweet out, and this is why the NFL is king.
Yes. On a big day for another sport.
Hey, steal it all. All right.
Let's do our brackets. Let's do our choose your own adventure, and then we'll get to our interviews.
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Okay. Choose your own adventure.
Drake kicked the shit out of Wichita State. I like that.
Killed him. UCLA, you know what? Izzo choked it away.
I thought you said you were going to be on Izzo this year. I flipped it.
I flipped it. I couldn't do it.
You couldn't do it. It wasn't natural.
It wasn't natural. I couldn't flip it.
This is the game where Izzo chokes it away at the end. He mismanages something.
He might even get ejected. He might get ejected in the second half.
Our guy Mick Cronin demolishes him. People are asking, is Tom Izzo on the hot seat? Interesting.
It is weird having UCLA and Michigan State in the first four. I'm going to take Michigan State and Drake.
I don't know who's playing in the other games. Maybe Appalachian State? Appalachian State, Norfolk.
Appalachian State and Norfolk State and Mount St. Mary's Texas Southern.
You're going to take Drake PFT? I am actually taking Drake. Yeah? Yeah.
That's kind of messed up. Imagine if I never met the Broskies.
Drop your joke. What's my joke? The 11th? No, I didn't have a joke.
I was telling him. I thought you were staying in the car.
You have the joke joke. I don't have a joke.
They're 11 seed.

What are they?

They're 11 seed?

Well, Drake should have no problem

giving the shocker

two and 11.

Oh, and you

combine with

which state?

Drake?

I added that

sprinkled in on

salt.

I salt-fayed that one.

Nice.

Nice.

So we'll be very

wrong.

Do you want to

predict tonight's

games?

I like Drake because

they're getting their

best player back.

Tank Hemphill.

It's a pretty cool

name.

That's a very cool

name.

Yeah.

Same's Tank.

So you should

Shin Kwan is his

real name, but

Thank you. games? I like Drake because they're getting their best player back.
Tank Hemphill. It's a pretty cool name.
That's a very cool name. His name's Tank.
Shin Kwan is his real name, but Tank. No, his name's Tank.
I'm going to forget that you said that. Yeah, his name's Tank Hemphill.
Okay, and then January, February, Izzo. Ooh! I can't wait till we're wrong and Wichita State wins by a million.
I actually have Izzo as well. You hate Wichita State.
I hate Wichita State. Wichita State fucked me in the face last week.
I've just heard so many people say that Wichita State shouldn't even be here. Correct.
I've gotten into that. Yes.
But then they're, you know what? They don't do anything good. They're all hearing all week long.
They're still doing the press? No one wants you here. You shouldn't be here.
They don't do anything good. Shit.
Ted Lasso. Yes, that's true.

Football. Yeah.
They don't actually

know it. They don't even have a football program.
No, I

know. I think they did that on purpose.
Yeah.

Was it 1980s, 1990s? They just

said, we're going to concentrate on being a basketball

school. Then they sucked at that.
No

thank you. Then they got Ron Baker and Fred

Van Vliet and everything changes.

All right. So let's talk about the bracket real quick.

Let's go on the record. Final fours.

I'm going to bet every

game. So that doesn't, I mean, that's kind of

Thank you. Van Vliet, and everything changes.
All right, so let's talk about the bracket real quick. Let's go on the record.
Final Fours. I'm going to bet every game, so that doesn't – I mean, that's kind of outside of the Final Four.
PFT. Yes.
Give me your Final Four. Okay, this is a lock.
These are my Final Fours, PFT's locks of the century. Gonzaga.
You want to actually do a lead eight? I'm not prepared for a Final Four. Okay, all right.
That's true. That's a lot of pressure.
You're right. You're right.
You know what? You're right. You're right.
Big Cat. We're broadcasting professionals.
Full disclosure, P.G. is looking at an empty bracket.
I don't want to burst your bubble. So am I.
Yeah. Sorry, Hank.
What are you looking at, Hank? You're looking at a bracket that a computer made for you? Oh, yeah. You're randomized.
You randomized your bracket. No.
You hit the random button. Absolutely not.
And also, full disclosure, I'm looking at a bracket on a screen right now. So I like holding the bracket.
I do better when I'm holding a paper bracket. So if my picks are wrong, it's because I'm looking at a computer right now.
It's not the same. Right.
So out of the west, or was that the St. Elmo's region? Oh, sorry.
Zaga's west. You screwed us with your bracket that you gave us on Sunday.
I will take the hit for it. Also, Jake is my teammate.
Our team name is Marsh Madness. We're competing in Moron Madness on the Barstool Sportsbook.
It's going to be a great contest, but I'm a little bit worried about Jake because Jake is not nervous at all. This is his first time playing with live bullets, and he's not nervous.
I'm excited. It are depending on the tournament yeah but you gotta be families i hope i do them i just hope i help them out but like get excited you've never experienced combat before jake you need jake is like a guy that's really good at war zone that's signed up to be in the marines and he's on a helicopter he's like i've done this hundreds of times this is the best on battle.net i just was listening this on loop all morning i used to like yeah i just do a lot of things.
This is the best. On battle.net.
I just was listening to this on loop all morning.

I used to like, yeah, I just do a lot of things. You were about to say you used to ejaculate.

No, no, no, no, no.

Okay.

I brought a bracket poster to a hotel and would fill it out every game,

like a giant bracket poster.

To a hotel?

Yeah, like when I would go to a March Madness site.

You had?

Me and my dad, we have this ritual.

Every year since 2008, we've gone to a March Madness site. You had? Me and my dad, we have this ritual.
Every year since 2008,

we've gone to a March Madness site.

So where are you going this year?

Yeah.

That sucks.

Yeah.

Real world now.

Jake, you brought your own bracket with like the easel like Andy Katz?

Yeah, I have a picture.

Oh, let's see it.

I love it, Jake.

My dad sends it to me.

Onions! This is where they come back into the studio. The guests! Sorry.
All right. All right, just give us your final four.
He'll look for it. Okay, my final four is Gonzaga, out of the west.
Okay. Out of the east, I'm going to go with...
Oh, that's sick, Jake. Yeah, so this is a true poster that he would bring with him, and they would fill it out.
Love it. That is very cool.
Favorite venue you went to see a game at? That's like a fathead. Jerry World, Sweet 16 for Gators FGC.
Oh, I hated it. The trade-first shot was cool.
I hated Jerry World. Kansas, Michigan.
Yeah, I hated Jerry World. For basketball.
Yeah, the atmosphere was cool. But Tampa 08, four upsets.
Okay. I'm all fucked up now.
I'm out of my flow. Okay, sorry.
Good zaga. Let me reset.
Good zaga. Good zaga.
Mm-hmm. Then I'm going to go with Michigan.
Yep. Then, out of the south, I'm going to go with Virginia Tech.
Just kidding. They suck.
They're not going to win a game. They shouldn't even be here.
Yep. Use that, Virginia Tech.
Yep. No, out of that region, I'm going to take Ohio State.
Shit, I thought you were going to go all ones.

I was excited. I'm going to zag a little bit on that one.

And then out of the Midwest, I'm going with

Illinois. I love the...

That is the most relatable bracket

because it's the... We can't go all

ones, so you go one, non-one

and it's a two. Big Cat, if you

don't think that I had

all ones in my Final Four,

and I went back and I was like, which team do I not know as much about? And the answer to that question was Baylor. So I was like, yeah, I'm not believing Baylor this year.
And I also watched Ohio State play recently. And actually, I really like their guard, Walker.
He's a fun player to watch. They just don't play defense.
But yeah, it is funny. I feel like if you pulled the country, 95% of all brackets have three out of four one

seats.

Yep.

And then one, two, or three, and they're like, I got crazy.

I'm a basic bitch when it comes to this bracket.

No, I am too.

All right, Hank.

Kansas out of the West.

Yeah.

Florida State out of the East.

Yeah.

The Illinois out of the Midwest.

Okay.

And Ohio State out of the South.

Okay. Someone write this down.
I like half those. Who's, Jake.
Thank you. Gonzaga, West, Alabama, East, Muspuss, Arkansas, South, Illinois, Midwest, Gonzaga, Illinois.
Okay. I'm going to go.
I have Gonzaga, UConn, Huskies are back, Illinois, and Arkansas. That's my final four.
That one's the – And guess what? It's like our picks that we do on Fridays before an NFL Sunday. Who cares? We don't keep records.
We just say them, and then if we happen to be right, someone will tweet us in three weeks. It will be like, look at us.
We got it right. I'm thinking that the person who finishes last, the person who has the worst Final Four pick, should have to suffer some sort of punishment.
Okay, well,

let's see if Billy

picks up, because I want to see. There's no

way he even knows that madness is happening

right now. No, he's not drunk.
It's still St.

Patrick's. Nobody hasn't texted us to love you guys yet

today. It's true.
So, Billy, whenever

he gets drunk, it could be like at like 4 o'clock

in the afternoon, he'll just text love you guys,

and that means he's drunk. He did that on St.
Patrick's it like four o'clock in the afternoon he'll just text love you guys and that means he's drunk he did that on saint patrick's day at four o'clock he's not gonna pick up and then he's gonna call me back in six hours i will get his final four later because his i mean it was the most electric qb bracket of all time yeah he's still his brain is still recovering from that, I think. It needed a hard reset afterwards.
All right.

Should we do our interviews? Let's do it. All right.
So let's start with Stanford Steve because he actually gives real tips on the bracket, betting tips. This is the man who went 12 in a row during, I think it was during February on college basketballicks.
He knows everything about sports. And then we will hop in with Blake Griffin for our second interview, which is awesome.
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Okay. Here he is.
Stanford Steve. Okay.
We now welcome on our very good friend. It is the greatest gambler of all time, Stanford Steve.
You can find him on Stanford Steve and the Bear, one of my favorite podcasts. We love the Bear.
SVPod. Wait, is it SVPPod? SVP.
SVPod. SVPod.
What's up with Scott's hearing? It's bad.

Yeah, I heard you guys talking about it.

That wasn't nice.

You guys dropped his name, too.

He's getting older.

He's getting older.

He's got young kids.

Young kids are really loud.

And he's trying to get better.

We got volume on it, so it's good.

He's getting better at it.

Is that true, though?

New surroundings, new studio.

I don't think everything was working well. Right, so Big Cat brought that up yesterday.
I'm a little bit afraid. Like, should I not be wearing headphones? No, just get your hair out of your ears.
Okay. Yeah, no, that's not going to happen.
He told me that, and I was like, that probably is going to happen to me because you spend enough time just sitting with headphones on doing these interviews. And then Daily Wager, which you can watch every single day, he had a streak of 11 picks in a row 12 12 picks in a row 12 picks in a row different days that he was able to get winners so he knows everything we're gonna talk some tournament we want to get some picks uh let's do this though macro level give the people a couple uh tools or tips from a seasoned gambler on how to win in March.
All right, here's number one, and it can't help you for this year. I'm sorry.
But as soon as the bracket comes out, you have to fill out a bracket and stash it away until right before the games are out. Because what happens is, I know a lot of people say recency bias.

I know some people have futures now on Illinois.

All of a sudden, they're a hot Big Ten team.

It amazes me how everybody just jumps on one team because,

oh, wow, let's pick the team that won a championship before the bracket came out.

So everybody's going to pick that.

So you just fill out a bracket with what everybody's saying right at that point, and then you put it away until Thursday, and then you bet against it. It's really hard to do, but it really works out a lot of the time.
I promise you. Did Big Cat tell you that I have a future on Illinois? No, he listens to the show.
I listen to the podcast. Because that felt like a directly personal attack.
I do, too.

I mean, you're 100% right.

That is me.

I'm an idiot.

I'm a prisoner of the moment in every way, shape, and form.

So, yes, I wish that we had had you on last week to tell us about this strategy.

Hold on.

First off, is Hank in there?

Is he okay?

Oh, yeah.

He's here.

Is he okay?

Yes.

I'm great.

I'm doing great.

Steve, I have a proposition for you.

I'll tell you after the show, though. I miss you, Hank.
I miss you doing great. Steve, I have a proposition for you.
I'll tell you after the show, though.

I miss you, Hank.

I miss you, too.

I think I have a solution for both of our problems.

Okay.

I have a problem now?

Yeah.

No, no.

He misses me.

Oh, okay.

I miss him.

Why don't you say it right now?

Because it's a proposition.

I don't want to gotcha journalism.

It seems kind of rude to our listeners that you brought it up.

Well, if it works out, then they'll see in the future.

Just say it, and then we'll bleep it.

I was talking to Zach, Steve, our friend Zach,

and he made a suggestion that I should.

Back to tips.

Let's do tips.

So the bracket one's a genius.

I wish I had done it.

What else can we look at or what else can we say like,

hey, look for this team, look for that team,

when you're trying to make some bets? How about coaches' records against the spread in the tournament? Ooh. You know, I look at a team like Syracuse.
We know obviously Bay hasn't been coaching for 45 years, so he's going to have a couple more data points than other coaches. But, you know, USC's head coach, Andy Enfield, you remember him back at Florida Gulf Coast, 7-0 all time against the spread in the tournament.
Wow. 7-0.
What about free throw percentage? I always feel like this might just be me making a vast general assumption that's wildly incorrect, but in the tournament, what you are gets magnified. So if you're a poor free throw shooting team in the tournament on the national stage, you get even worse.
So I take that into account if I'm betting over-unders and also against the spread. Is there any sort of data that backs that up or is that just me? Well, it feels like you just want to avoid being on the wrong side, PFT, because if you go back, Georgetown's not in the tournament.
If they don't go 23 for 23 from the line against Villanova in the Big East tournament, they don't win that game if they miss a free throw. So, yeah, free throw.
I mean, I think, like you said, everything gets magnified. Everything's escalated, especially at the end of game.
Maybe we look at free throws at the last two minutes of the game. You know, who's in the one-and-one, who shoots two? You know, the fundamentals.
You've got to be about the fundamentals. I like that i think free throws matter to me uh if you are betting a uh favorite in that three to six seven point range that's where it matters because if you miss you know if you go one for two from the line a a game that you're leading by five can quickly be a game that you won by two because of the last second three or whatever.
Those are the times when I'm like, you got to have at least some good free throw shooters on the floor. Got it.
I agree. Are you a good free throw shooter in pickup? Do you guys shoot free throws? I am a good – I am actually a very good free throw shooter.
I'm excellent. I'm probably 82%, I would say.
That's about right. 82%.
What? Yeah. No, I'm 82%.
Indoors. Indoors.
19, 20%%. I could shoot 82.
If you gave me 100 shots from the free throw line, I would make 82. That's a contest that needs to be filled.
Shit. Yeah, that's a pretty high percentage.
That's a challenge. That's a lot of things.
Yeah, that's still a lot. If I get in a flow, I actually – yeah, no, I think I – You can go 78 for 100.
Bullshit. Yeah, I can.
Yeah, yeah. And right before the snow came down here in D.C., I went out to the park on a nice – a decent day, 50 degrees.
And I was a career 65% free throw shooter. And I was happy I made 68.
Yeah. I hadn't done that in like 15 years.
That was a nice brag with the wind. Yeah factors a lot of a lot of things now pft knows the potomac winds down there how are you liking the dc area how's that transition been love it love it uh waiting for you to give me some spots where i could drop your name not that we could go anywhere but um once that once we could do that that'd be fun i was gonna say i know all the best buffalo wild wings in the dmv area uh i've been kicked out of a couple but i do know some good spots and once this i feel like this is gonna be the summer of steve actually yeah this is gonna be your first dc summer do steve in arlington there's a place called colony grill great pizza it's from connecticut i know That was the joke.
Thanks. Yeah.
You move there. That's all we can go.

All right.

Here's.

Here's what I'm struggling with right now, Steve. Okay.
Talk me through this. There are certain games that as the week goes on, I'm so much in love with the underdog that I'm starting to think, what the hell am I missing? They don't never make these games that easy.
And the games are, I'll list them, and you can give me some quick thoughts. Winthrop is going to beat Villanova.
Ohio's going to beat Virginia. USCB is going to beat Creighton.
And there's one other. I'm trying to think.
But these are the games that I'm looking at, and I have talked myself all the way into the underdog that I now say to myself what's going on here they it can't be this easy because it never is I hear what you're saying um it's I think this is the best bracket we've seen the committee uh put out in a long time uh just because you only see one lower seed as a favorite that's Rutgers and that's that's a one-point favorite. They're a 10 against Clemson.

That's a seven.

UCSB, they have a ton of power five guys transfer.

I think they start four transfers, a couple Pac-12 guys,

one guy from DePaul.

Like, they made a good run.

They've got a lot of guys in Creighton in that game.

I don't know what's going on in that locker room.

Like, you know, they got McDermott back. They went to the Big East Tournament.
They didn't play well. They got lucky against UConn at the end of that game, and then they just got dismantled by Georgetown.
I don't want anything to do with Creighton. I know Ohio is probably going to get a bump, too, because you had Mr.
Ohio, or is he Mr. Indiana, Titus? I never forget.
He claims both states. I think if you're from the Midwest, you get your state, and then one of the states that borders.
One of the neighborings? Yeah, you get one. He's Ohio State and Indiana.
Yeah, and then Ohio, he knows the coach. My problem was everybody likes to pick 12 over fives, right? And if you look at the fives, it's really hard to even say, all right, what five is going to go to the sweet 16 because I like the fours a lot better than the fives and I know that they're a lower seed and you're supposed to pick the four over the fives but a five seed to make a run when I look at this bracket is really really hard um so obviously the 12s are the most picked to go over the fives.
I saw our computers have a 13.

Liberty. So, obviously, the 12s are the most picked to go over the fives.
I saw our computers have a 13, Liberty, against Oklahoma State. They're actually, with the metrics and all that stuff, they have a higher probability to win more than any other 12 seed.
Wow. Yeah.
And that's not good because I had Oklahoma State in my final four. Yeah, I would not have expected that.
I'm going against the bots. Okay.
What's the deal with the UConn-Maryland game? So it's on Saturday. Obviously, your co-worker, Scott Van Pelt, is a bit of a Maryland fan.
He's a casual. So during that game, if Maryland's losing, what's the protocol for you? Are you allowed to text him? Are you allowed to bust his balls during the game? Or is that going to earn you like he's going to block your number if you go that far? Just stop right there, okay? The first thing the whole show staff did was check and see what day the Maryland game is on.
We work Friday. The game is Saturday.
We had a private party. We forced God into work to celebrate that.
Let's just say it's kind of a buildup. Like he's, you know, a lot of pressure.
He's in the Big Ten. They're officially in the Big Ten since they won a claim of the chair last year of the title.
And he just, he wants to prove his team belongs. And I think they've proved that a long time ago, even though they won their second game ever in the Big Ten tournament this year.
But there's a lot going on because he has a lot of people from work who obviously were Connecticut grads when we were in Bristol. I think there's been a lot of, what do you guys call it, memes or gifs with turtles and dogs and huskies going back and forth.
So it'll be interesting. I'm very glad he will be in his own friendly confines of whatever house he will be at that he owns now watching the game.
So the staff is very happy that Scott will be in a safe place watching this Terps by himself. This is a no-fly zone game.
So I, during the regular season, if Maryland is struggling at halftime and I know Steve's working, i'll do a thing where i facetime steve and be like hey was wondering like just ask him for like almost like a neighbor going over for a cup of sugar and i'll be like hey steve just wanted to check in and scott will be like sitting in the room and be like fuck you like i can't believe you're doing this i would never in a million years think about doing that for a tournament game because he takes Is it that seriously. No, yes, yes.
He will – you know, the other night on the show, we ran back the last time UConn played Maryland in the tournament, 2002. Unbelievable game.
Elite eight game at Syracuse. Karan Butler's on UConn.
Pros all over the floor. And he remembered every single second of the game every shot that went up this is the biggest

shot of the game this that so he is let's just say that he loves his school more than you love yours yeah to anybody out there I don't care what you say and um getting to know people down here they're they're a very emphatic uh fan base and they love their flag yes it's amazing how much they love their flag. That's Maryland.

Maryland has, they've got the Terps

and they love their flag yes it's amazing how much they love their flag that's all that's maryland like maryland has they've got the terps and they they won a title in what 2002 so they love that old bay old bay they carry old bay seasoning with them everywhere which by the way i'm actually i'm in favor that it's delicious it's worth it i want to be the person that does that and then they have the flag they've got but they also have things that i'm trying to uh figure out what their favorite animal is because it's like they're turtles obviously but they love crabs too yeah yeah i think it's it's got to be the crab it's either the crab or like a deer that's standing on the side of 495 because that that'll shut down by a lot of deer dead or alive on there the public work system is not great down here. There are dead animals all over this place down here, and it's been something to see down here.
Really eye-opening, driving home at 3 a.m. You are right.
Scott does love Maryland more than anyone loves their school. So give us some other games you're looking at.
Everyone should listen for all your official picks on Stanford, Stephen, the Bear. But give us a few of the games you're looking at, a few of the listen for all your official picks on uh you know stanford steven the bear but give us a few of the games you're looking at a few of the matchups you're like hmm this doesn't make sense or i like this um it feels like everybody's saying lsu is going to beat michigan i would be wary of lsu against st bonaventure st bonaventure is a really good team um had the covet break early in the season i want to say they they played the most games from the start of February to the end of March.
They won their conference tournament. But LSU, everybody watched that game more, the LSU running against Arkansas, and then they lost a one-point game, an unbelievable game to Alabama.
So I would be wary there. It feels like the public's on that.
In the play-in game, or wait, cut here. No, that's what i'm saying all right no say it no tell us because then you'll look like an idiot you're mr plan yeah go ahead go ahead i feel like the world is going to take michigan state okay you know january february you know what i was saying um so i'd be wary of there um i like syracuse i i think i the zone is real.
I've watched a bunch of them late in their year. I know the saying is, you know, they're playing their best basketball at the end of the season.
They got beat at the buzzer by Virginia, who didn't continue because they had a COVID break. But Syracuse is a team, especially in a year like this, where nobody really played out of conference games, that zone can be an MF-er to you.
And I think they have athleticism. Boeheim's been out of his mind.
Doge is really good. Them matching up with West Virginia in the second round is a really, really interesting game.
Brings back the old thoughts of Big East and Pitt Snoggle and stuff like that yeah um but texas tech uh is a team i look at against utah state i just love chris beard the guy's won eight he's won eight tournament games in his two years at texas tech eight that's that's that's incredible um i i think i'm also if i'm indiana i drive the plane to lubbock and don't leave the plane – let it leave until he gets on the plane. Keep him hostage.
I agree. Yeah, Chris Beard, you should not let Chris Beard out of the state of Indiana.
And this could be a public one, but I look at Arkansas. We know how much we all love the Musbuss.
Yep. Colgate.
We know the toothbrushes have been limited this year because they've played five teams. Five.
Five teams total. I get it.
It's not their fault. Everybody went crazy because they were really high in the net because they got – what was it? Oh, Navy beat Georgetown.
So that conference got a bump the way those computers work. Houston's the most fascinating team to me in the tournament because I think that conference is awful.
Like, I don't think Wichita should have got in, but Houston, they're legit. It's just you can't tell how good they are playing against competition that wasn't, you know, conferences when you look at, like, the Big 12 and the Big 10 and conferences like that.
So, Houston's really – I mean, there's believers out there to have – I think Scott has them actually in the Final Four. Damn.
So, that's – I actually like Rutgers to beat them. I think Rutgers is a solid team.
I have Rutgers in the Sweet 16. Love it, yep.
I'm just trying to look at some other things. Give me – I've talked myself all the way into Wisconsin beating UNC.

I'm with you.

Yeah, because I went from –

Not if you remember, Big Cat, 2017, I went on national TV.

I had Wisconsin go in the Final Four.

They beat Villanova in the second round.

Yep.

We went to Madison Square Garden.

Yep.

I took the picture of you outside the garden.

I still have it.

I can post it if you want. Yep.
And it was one of the most heartbreaking losses I've ever been a part of. I mean, I have never ever seen that.
We saw the ball coming all the way down the court. Right in our face.
We had a sweet. We were hooked up.
It was great. We were in the arena being able to have cold libations that we like.
Yeah. Yeah.
It was – Big Cat dabbed. Yeah, I think we got to the point where I think they told her, like, hey, man, keep those down.
You guys are, you know, you're rubbing it in the people. Yeah, we were because, yeah, that's a stupid NCAA rule.
I think we were, like, pointing at people down in the crowd and just pointing up at our beers. We were like, look, we got beers.
Yeah. And Big Cat just – he dabbed in sadness at the end.
It was an unintentional dab. Just crumbled.
Terrible. Terrible.
I'm so numb to it now, too. 2015, there are certain losses that you have in life.
2015 in Indianapolis, a small part of me is just sitting in Lucas Oil, and I'll never get it back. Never, ever will I get it back.
Now, those two losses you were in person for, like, those – you're never going to leave those feelings. Oh, I was in person for 2014 too.
Oh. Kentucky at the buzzer, Final Four.
Oh, I was there at that one. Yeah, we were – Hank and I, the worst part about that one, quick side story is they – we went with Burger King, and the Burger King, like, CEO was like, hey, I have two seats on the floor.
You guys can go sit there for the second half. And Hank and I were like, sick, this is awesome.
Went down there. The shot literally happened like five feet in front of my face.
I was like, why did I have to be sitting here? Why couldn't I have just been all the way up in the rafters? This is terrible. The one time I had unreal seats.
You're like the Mothman, but for Wisconsin basketball, every time just every time you show up bad stuff at no i was at that oregon game which was one of the loudest games ever in milwaukee and the other kentucky game and the other kentucky game which was 38 no that was one of the best games ever uh all right so yeah i do think they're going to win though as bad as they've been this year i think that's like the one thing wisconsin doesn't lose at is they will not let you beat them in transition, and that's what Roy Williams wants to do. I know you don't like Iowa.
We could talk about them. I actually love the idea of Iowa being outside of the Big Ten here.
I think Wisconsin falls in that realm, too, just because of – let's face it. They're not going to beat you with one-on-one ball, and the big 10 with Wisconsin you know like team scout each other you know they're like they're not they're not going to you know hide stuff and try and be with it like they're just going to come out and play and the watch-up I do like with Wisconsin is their veteran guards against Carolina's inexperience in in the at the guard position now Carolina's got some big dudes up front you also have have your guys.
That's a really, really interesting matchup because when you look at that, the winner will most likely get Baylor, who plays Hartford, shout out neighborhood. But Baylor, to me, I have them winning it, but they have the toughest road every round to me.
Like they're playing a legit team in the second round. I think they're going to play Purdue in the Sweet 16.
I think they're going to play Ohio State in the Elite Eight. Like, they're going to have to get it up every single round, whereas a team like Gonzaga, we know that that road's pretty easy.
I have them playing Iowa in the Elite Eight. And Michigan, I actually wanted to, because we have a foot expert on your show, Livers from Michigan PFT has a broken foot.
Okay. And whenever I think of a broken foot, I think of the way you show the determination still coming into work every day and overcoming that, eventually leading to that tryout.
Now, was that your kicking foot? It was worse. It was my plant foot.
So the kicking foot's fine. You can just tape that up and go out there.
It's a pain management issue. When it's a plant foot, that's where everything starts.

Got it.

Yeah, I mean, Jack Dempsey just had half of a right foot.

So it's really the one that touches the ground that makes the most difference.

Liver's foot, I haven't watched enough Michigan to know the impact of him.

But Mark Titus was saying yesterday that he's like, we make the analogy,

when you talk about the Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes is the best player player the most important player on the chiefs last year mitchell schwartz on the offense or travis kelly you always take like that next guy and it's always the tight end by the way it's usually the nose tackle or the tight end the blocking tight end i mean tight ends are are obviously the best athletes on the field no matter what game you're you're the most important part of the sv pod i would say say. But when it comes to livers, Titus was talking about him like, he's not the best player on Michigan, but he is the most important guy because he's the guy that's left open because all their better players are being guarded more closely.
Is that real? That's the problem. You hear guys that have this injury, they can run, but it actually hurts more to walk because you're putting more pressure on it.
The problem is he's's probably not going to practice but he's going to play in the game so how you know fresh is he going to be he's a you said it he's a very important player so I look at there's like four teams I could see winning the the east bracket um that Michigan is the one seed and that's that feels like a tough road uh for me tell me the Iowa your Iowa points so you do like Iowa I you know what I'm gonna put my hand up because I know I bash them I think it's one of those situations where I'm too close to it I I dislike I you hate who you are sometimes and I watch the Iowa team and that's they're basically a Wisconsin team like the best version of a Wisconsin team is what Iowa is this year so I think I just am self-loathing in that respect. You think, though, that them coming out of the Big Ten, they're going to have a lot easier time and they're going to make a deep run? They're really good offensively, Dan.
Really, really good. And when I think of Wisconsin basketball, I think, all right, I'm going to bet the under.
When I think of Iowa basketball, I think I'm going to take the over. I like those teams better.
They can put the ball in the basket easier. Wieskamp's a pro.
Bohannon's phenomenal. Garza's a man.
Even though you don't like him, I love him. And they have other – the McCaffreys are good, sound players.
They got good guys off the bench. Toussaint's a good point guard that could change things up.
Well, Iowa and Oregon is going to be a really, really big game in the second round. I could easily see those teams, the winner of that, going to the Elite Eight.
Because Dana Altman is like low-key one of my favorite coaches. 18-9 career in the NCAA tournament against the spread.
Incredible. Every year they get better.
Impactful play, and we did it out on Daily Wager. Shout out McKenzie, our researcher.

He was like 80-39

in his time

at Oregon in February, March

in Pac-12 play. That's crazy.

Against the spread. That's

nuts. Crazy.
Nuts.

Yeah. That was a weird loss.

I did have a tidbit for you guys to share.

At the water cooler, if you guys go to the water cooler.

Everybody talks about Alabama the last time

they were a two. Patino

beat them. That was the

Thank you. I have a tidbit for you guys to share, like at the water cooler, if you guys go to the water cooler.
Everybody talks about Alabama the last time they were a two. Patino beat them.
That was the first time they were two. They've only been a number two only one other time.
Do you know who beat them? Number two Alabama the only other time. I don't.
Antonio Gates, Kent State. Oh, Maction, baby.
The football player. Hell yeah.
Correct. I want to give that to the football guys.
I like that, yeah. Yeah.
Is there any chance in hell that Patino wins? I don't think so. They could cover.
The problem is Iona, I mean, I think they played one of the least amount. I mean, they played 17 games this year.
They're going to play that Patino, you know, run and jump, hectic style. The problem is what are they going to do if they go behind? Alabama shoots threes and they dunk.
And they probably have the advantage at every single position on the floor. So Iona in a trailing idea, I think they have to play with the lead, but that's really hard to do against Alabama because they do a great job of making you play their style, which is helter-skelter, shoot threes, and dunk.
And they also have – Alabama is one of those teams that's always odd when you see an up-tempo team take a lot of threes. They play great defense, and you kind of miss that part because their offense is fun to watch when it's clicking.
Correct. Give me a 15 seed that there's always one that, like, it looks like they might force overtime or they play closer than they should, and at the end of the game it's like a two, three-point game.
What 15 seed is going to give a two seed a scare? Ooh, that's a good one. I would probably, if I had to take any, how about the other way? How about the other way we go? What 15 seed is going to get blown out.

Okay, sure.

You like that?

Yeah.

All right.

Well, I'll give you both.

Cleveland State is the number one team ranked in the Ken Palm luck factor.

They've won a ton of games close.

They had to go to triple overtime in their quarterfinal of the Horizon League against IPFW, where I think actually tournament games are being played. They're getting 20 from Houston.
Houston destroys bad teams. I would look at that as my blowout of the 215s.
And even though we talked well about Iowa, Grand Canyon is one of the best teams against the spread the whole year. Now, they don't play in conference but they could I mean I was gotten better defensively but I don't think Grand Canyon will struggle to score so you like actually having obviously having underdogs that could score maybe Grand Canyon or Roberts against Ohio I like Ohio State I think they have everything especially if the games were only 36 minutes long might be undefeated, and there will be more talk about them.
But I would take Grand Canyon to cover out of the 15. Yeah.
The Houston point is a good one. When we talked to Titus yesterday, I literally just looked it up.
13 out of their 24 wins this year have been over 20 points. They destroy teams.

When they want to kick your ass, they kick your ass.

They play a lot of guys, too.

They're deep.

I've always wondered about Bad Beats, the segment that you guys do on the nighttime sports center, because I love watching,

especially on Monday nights after football is over.

Do you really watch it?

I actually do.

Or do you watch the version on Twitter?

No.

Do you stay up?

We get your rating?

You get my one rating. I'll leave it on.
You get my one rating on the TV as I'm playing Warzone in the fourth quarter of the NFL game. So it's on there.
But so I've always wondered, like, especially when it comes to basketball. See, there's so many games.
What's the process like in determining if your personal bad beat gets on the show? because I can tell that there are some that you bet that you're really pissed off about that might not be as bad a beat as some of the others, but you're just so mad because it happened to you. So do you have to submit a bad beat and then you guys both vote on it together? Or is there a tie-breaking vote that allows it onto the show? Well, let's just say we have a show staff, okay? And now we meet, you know, mid-afternoon before dinner time, and then I'll go on Daily Wager at 6 o'clock and then come back to our office studio.
We have a Zoom call set up at Bristol. And all of a sudden, everybody's rooting against the team that I picked on the show.
So right away, they know exactly what I have. And it really got tenuous during the win streak I had of best bets, where everybody's like, you know, you hear the quiet, yes, you know, on a layup or an and one.
And I'm like, what? Like, people are really rooting against me. And they're like, oh, no, we just thought you would, you know, you won a lot in a row and you would lose.
But the protocol is extensive. We have, I mean, this younger demo that you guys are big with are absolute degenerates.
A couple of the worst beats we've had are soccer. Like, I would never even know the soccer.
I know Dan's a big soccer guy now. But, like, the soccer, you know, those are obviously during the day.
So they'll come to the show meeting with the soccer bad beats are ready to go. But, yes, I would guess the process would be to get the best reaction from both guys that are sitting there on the desk doing them.
I still remember one of the first – I think the first year we were doing it, Scott had, like, UMass in a college football game against, like, Toledo. They were playing at the Patriots Stadium.
He was watching it on his, on his phone. It looked like an extra point went in.
They called it. It didn't.
He lost because of that. And he was just screaming his head off because the reception on his phone wasn't good.
But that's, that's him. And that's a whole different level.
Sometimes I'll send you mine directly. Cause I do think I've always been a proponent that everyone needs gambling friends out there.
Steve is one of my gambling friends. You need the guy because most people don't care.
Let's be honest. They don't really care about, you know, the poker hand you lost or your fantasy football or the bad beat.
But there are certain friends that do care and will be a sounding board. So sometimes I will give you, I will just text you and be like, I can't believe that happened knowing you've been there.
It's's important. Mental health.
Very important. Very important.
It was actually I was thinking to you, Dan, when I think of bad beats, I always think of conference tournament week because way back, I don't even know what it was, seven, eight years ago, Big East tournament. I'm at Madison Square Garden.
And you know how they have the sports sticker up top and you're looking at the scores. I remember before going into the garden at the bar, I bet Wisconsin Penn state over in the tournament.
And I remember looking up at the score and I'm like, Oh, 36, 33 halftime. All right, good.
And then like 20 minutes later, go by. I'm like, Oh, that wasn't an H that was an F that's 36 33 final score final score it was incredible it was like 110 incredible like it wasn't even close to that um so not even close I remember that game so well I believe it was 36 33 it was it was.
It was 36-33 because Wisconsin had –

Obviously, the Kaminsky years kind of changed things,

but there was that stretch where they were good for at least once in March,

whether it be Big Ten tournament or in the NCAA tournament,

where they would go, no joke, like 10 or 11 minutes without making a field goal.

They just expect it.

Them in Michigan State 2000 Final Four is the worst Final Four game ever.

No, no. What about the national championship, UConn-Butler? That was the – you can't – Yeah, that was pretty bad.
It was pretty bad. I think Butler shot like 17% from the field.
I mean, the Villanova win was pretty bad too. What? The Villanova win back, what, 2018? Yeah, but at least they made it nice.
Yeah, I mean, at least they were on fire. Yeah, right.
Dante. At least DiVincenzo made himself a lottery pick.
That was Dante's Inferno. Where literally everybody on Twitter tweeted the same thing at the same time and thought that they were making an original joke.
We also went to that game in Bet Villanova, so we were very happy. Yeah, we were happy about that.
That was a lot of fun. It was actually a great game in retrospect.
I'm going to look it up right now. UConn.
When am I going to see you guys in an event?

Dude, we were saying that.

Yeah.

I was thinking the last time I saw PFT, he was challenging me on Bourbon Street at four

in the morning to get in a three-point stance because he could out-leverage me.

And then in one of the most miraculous recoveries, I believe an hour later, he was sitting down

interviewing Ed Orgeron after he won a national championship.

I still

think I could tackle you, Steve.

You could definitely tackle me.

That's all I would say. I might end up hurting myself

in the process.

If you're going to sign off for 60 minutes, we're going to go 60 minutes.

That's true.

Here it is. UConn-Butler.

UConn won

by double digits. They shot 9% from three.
They won by double digits. Butler shot 18% from the field.
The final score was 53-41. That was the worst game in the Final Four National Championship ever.
Yeah. I still hold it against Kawhi Leonard and San Diego State that year.
They were the best team, and they failed down the stretch against Kemba in that Husky team. I thought they were the best team that year.
Kawhi probably still thinks about it. Yeah, shout out Matt Howard.
Remember him on Butler, the big white guy? He went one for 13 in that game. He just kept on shooting.
That was a big undershirt guy, right? Yes. The giant, the biggest undershirt.
Steve, that's what I'm really excited about this year can you give me like some undershirts to look out for a couple a couple years ago i made like an all undershirt team in the history of the tournament because i love that when when those come out like the really skinny guys with the pointiest elbows uh that were you know the triple xls is there anybody that that comes to mind when i say that oh not really i mean it is a really big pet peeve of mine because Anthony Davis, who's obviously an MVP candidate in NBA, like he's a top five, whatever, paid player, champion. He can't wear a shirt that matches his jersey underneath his jersey.
It drives me crazy. They wear the gold jerseys, he wears a white shirt underneath.
They wear purple jerseys, he wears a black shirt underneath. Like, You're the Lakers, man.
Get a shirt that matches underneath. Yep, I agree.
Let's leave with this. Stanford Steve, everyone go check out, like I said, Stanford Steve and the Bear.
Great podcast. College football.
They're going to have a tournament preview. SV SV How do you say it? SV pod.
Did you, did you talk? Did you, did you, I tried SV pod, which is also great. Our good friend, Scott Van Pelton, then daily wager every day.
So Steve, give us your national champion. Uh, and maybe give us your final four.
If you got your final four, I do. Uh, we're going to go Zags.
We're going to go Texas, Baylor, and I'm going to go Oklahoma State.

We'll ride the freshman, Cade Cunningham.

He's proven how good he is,

even though I would rather have Jalen Suggs than Cade Cunningham from Gonzaga.

And I have Baylor beating Gonzaga.

Okay.

Baylor beating Gonzaga.

Interesting.

Do you really believe that?

Yeah.

Are you doing a coward where it's like if you say something different, we're going to talk about it more? No, I don't believe in that. The game we didn't get, right? Exactly.
Exactly. I actually had a bet on Baylor.
I think they were getting four against Gonzaga. And then the game got postponed.
But I think when you watch Baylor, they just have it all to me. Like, they came out of COVID.
They played Iowa State, who was obviously terrible this year, but they were down 17 in the first half. They didn't blink.
They didn't start jacking threes. They went to the hoop.
They got and ones. They buckled down on the defensive end.
They could guard I like, I love their guards. The biggest issue, and it goes full circle to one of BFT's first questions, free throw shooting late in games.
It's one of my, it pains me to see these teams, you know, play so well, so late in, and then they blow it late in games. It's obviously a huge factor that will be a deciding factor in plenty of these games.
We know that, and it's just crushing to see teams lose their seasons like that. I like Baylor a lot as well, and I think if you look at their adjusted defense, it's not in that top 25 that everyone points to, but I do think that they turn up the defense when they need to.
Yes. And they do the – like, I like teams like that where they can start a rally

by playing better defense, not by hitting shots.

Correct.

Yeah.

Correct, and that's how you got to do it, you know,

especially if you're going to be down in games knowing what's at the line

and there's only 40 minutes.

I do think probably Gonzaga and Ohio State have the easiest roads to the Elite Eight. I agree with that.
I do have Syracuse in the Elite Eight. Steve, thank you so much.
We appreciate it. Best of luck betting and we'll talk soon.
You guys are the best. Thanks for having me, man.
I appreciate it. Thanks, Steve.
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And now, here he is, our best friend, Blake Griffin. This makes it look like we were super nice to you happy birthday blake how old are you thanks man i appreciate it yeah thank you how old are you 40 the big big four zero wow uh oldest oldest guy to dunk when you do it again i will be yeah i think so okay let's let's start recording here we go we're that was supposed to be us being nice and it was not it turned out it turned into like sort of a roast yeah we double how old you well how old you 40 do you ever dunk well blake we we have some beef unfortunately and i think we have to discuss that you probably know what the beef is already let's Let's do it.
Yeah, all right, 3, 2, 1. All right, we now welcome on one of our best friends in the entire world.
It's Blake Griffin. A very good friend.
Blake of the Year. He's got a new show out on True TV.
It's out today. We're going to run it on Friday.
It's out today. It's on True TV.
You know where True TV is because you're watching March Madness. It's called Double Cross where it's a prank show, but he's pranking the pranksters.
And I had an epiphany this morning. I was coming into work and I was like reading up about Double Cross.
And I was like, oh, shit, that's what Blake was doing because PFT and I fashion ourselves pranksters. so when we read the article, 36 podcasters recommend their favorite podcast, and Blake Griffin, the pursuit of healthiness with Blake Griffin said, armchair expert, I was lucky enough to be a guest last year and was completely blown away at Dax Shepard's ability to lead all his guests to a place of candid honesty in such a wide range

of topics.

That was you pranking us.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You just got double-crossed.

You got me.

Damn.

Watch it on true TV.

Guess what, Blake?

I got news for you.

Give it up, everybody.

Great work, team.

I had a whole team put that prank together, and it was sort of a slow roller. I had to make sure you guys saw it and I wasn't sure you would.
I knew it. I thought it was.
When we talked about it on the show, I was like, wait a second. Blake wouldn't do something like this.
But Blake, what if I were to tell you I've got news for you and you don't actually have a television show. Our friends at True TV have been fucking with you this whole time being like blake griffin yeah he's funny we'll give him his own show and then this whole the cameras weren't even rolling oh ashton get out here i should have seen it damn we're double should have seen this coming man there was no cameras the whole time we were filming i was like where are they and they're like oh don't worry they're all hidden but turns out they weren't hidden they just weren't there are you worried that you might get double crossed though because you are triple crossed yeah yeah i gotta i got my guard up now like we we filmed these these episodes and i was just kind of like like checking everybody out and there's like three or four people in the crew that i think are kind of sketchy um so like they might they might try to get me but i'm ready so now that you have a prank show you realize you can do this with everything like you can say that was just a prank when i wasn't dunking for over two years i have been my uh my friend like uh sent me a message after i posted something about double cross and i was like hey man just so you know like our whole like our whole friendship has been a prank.
You just got double cross and I unfollowed him and we'll block his number, everything. So nice.
I like that. I hope that was Dax Shepard.
Have you, uh, have you, have you actually dunked in practice yet? I saw that you're, you're getting back into shape. You haven't done three on three yet.
You haven't done any five on five from what I read uh have you been have you practiced dunking you want some breaking news yes yeah i have dunked and i have played five on five okay whoa yeah okay so in a in a um philosophical level is i would assume it's better to have never dunked than dunk and lose all your abilities to dunk like you. Better to have never dunked than dunking.

Like, you know what it feels like to dunk and you can't do it anymore i've never dunked so i don't know what i'm missing out on yeah i mean beyond just that i think just everyone um everyone in general being like oh this guy hasn't dunked and none of these people can probably dunk is probably worse. Yeah.
Because it's people making fun of me for doing something they've never done. Right, but that's kind of like – Yeah, I side with the fan on that one.
Yeah, like the comment section on U4 where it's like, this guy's got tiny dicks. Yeah, this guy lasted only 10 minutes.
Which in theory is sort of being double-crossed. Oh, true, true.
Okay, we only have dunk questions, by the way. That's fine.
So you're in Brooklyn now. Congratulations.
I am. But when you were in Detroit, did you reach out to Jared Goff and give him any tips about moving from L.A.
to Bright uh the windy city detroit i did i actually actually big cat put us on a uh a group text and um i just said hey man like let me know you know at the time i was still in detroit let me know if you need any help navigating you know the motor city um and then we had a laugh about how big cat uh sort of a mutual, the common denominator between us being friends

and then also getting traded to Detroit.

From L.A. to Detroit, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Which I think our friendship has run its course after this episode.

I would say so.

I'd say this is pretty much it.

This is the final double cross.

Now that we live like a mile from, a mile from each other. Yeah.
I think it's time. When do you think realistically, like I want to give you space, so I'm not trying to be like a hovering friend like, hey, Blake, hang out with us.
But when do you think realistically you, me, PFT, James Harden, Kyrie and Durant will go out to dinner. Well, we're about to leave today for a road trip.
We come back just for a day, go on another road trip, and then we're back for like a couple weeks. So there's a good chance in a couple weeks that we're all at like Mr.
or like what's cool, catch. Catch, yes, catch.
Yes. Then we go to catch and just like really blow it out, like bottles coming to the table.
Done. All that.
So I'll text those guys and see what they want to do. I like that.
I got this app. I think it's called Resi, so I can get reservations on it.
It tells me when big tables are coming available, so let me know. I'll handle all the logistics, all the boring stuff you guys don't want to do.
Yeah, make sure notifications are on.

We want to get a good table.

For sure.

I saw that there was like a little bit of a scrap with your team and the Knicks.

How soon?

Huh?

Well, that was more so, you're talking about Julius Randle?

Yeah.

He was mad at the ref.

It wasn't really our team.

The ref, he was going after the ref at the end of the game. But you guys kind of stood up for the ref in that case because you're like hey he's essentially a member of our team tonight because he's the reason why we won yeah so you kind of had to get the refs back how quickly into a tender with a brand new team do you feel like you're ready to fight for your teammates or at least ready to get out on the court and start like you know barking at barking at people.
I mean, I'm ready now. I was ready.
Like I took the first game just to like, it's like your new kid at school. You want to like, kind of like settle in.
But if somebody steps to you or it's your turn at like at lunch, like you got to like prove yourself. So I don't know.
So far it's just been me trying to impress my teammates for the first week. And hopefully I'll settle into my normal self after that.

What did you and Steve Nash talk about with that picture of you guys sitting and eating lunch?

Everything. Philosophy.
A little bit of basketball.

We talked about the Brooklyn Bridge.

It's pretty impressive.

It's pretty impressive.

I'm actually looking at it right now.

I have a great view of it.

Yeah, we talked about everything.

Some of the stuff I can't talk to you guys about, obviously,

but we hit a little bit of everything.

I saw the subtle flex with the shoes, too.

You had Jordan 4s. What were those that you were wearing? They were nice.
Oh! I don't know. I can't remember what shoes I had on.
I can't remember which ones. I don't know if they're out yet, so I don't know if I can talk about those.
So, yeah, I'm not sure. Those are six shoes.
Do you ever have to actually log on to the sneakers app like the rest of the plebs or do you have like a direct line you can call for any shoe that you want uh well for jordans i i get i get all the jordans you know i've been a jordan athlete for eight years so i get all those but like if you want some special shoes i mean i don't have the sneakers app but um i might look into it now uh was that a plug no no i catch l's all the time i'm just curious like if you're a professional athlete with a shoe deal do you still have to go through the grind that everybody else does are there like different levels where you like if you're an all-star you get the the black card where you can just call up a number and get whatever shoe you want you have like a i have like a jordan rep and i just hit him if i like i need a pair but pair. But the cool thing about Jordan is they send you everything that's coming out.
The next month, they send it to you the month before. So every single shoe that Jordan releases, you get.
What size did you guys get? No, you've done this before. I'm not going to follow it.
No, I'm not going to follow it. Did you not get those shoes that I sent? No, we didn't get those well i it's a double cry i was wondering so your jordan rep did you notice that he uh maybe didn't respond as quickly ever since you stopped dunking um actually yeah now that i think about it i haven't heard from him in a while i mean air jordan and you literally can't get off the ground i i gotta i gotta dunk man you You have to dunk.
It's going to be awesome. Do you know how awesome it's going to be? It's going to be sick.
Floor blade. First basket ever.
You should cherry pick, honestly, until you dunk. That's what Steve and I were talking about.
I was like, listen, I was promised that I could cherry pick and get a dunk for my first play, so we had a whole back and forth on that. Right, because you can dunk, right? You can actually still do it, right? I don't know.
I guess you'll have to tune in and find out. Double-crossed.
I assumed it was just a very long set of events where you didn't have the opportunity. But you...
Well, okay, in all seriousness, let's really talk about this. The whole thing is like, oh, Blake hasn't done since 2019.
My last game that I played was in December of 2019. I didn't play a basketball game for an entire year until this season started.
So I played like, what, 19 games this season?

So it's been 19 games.

So when everybody's like, oh, it's been 400 days, it sounds crazy.

But really, it's been like 19 games.

Right.

But how many days?

19 days.

No, how many days since your last dunk?

I don't know exactly.

It's 467. Oh, wow.
That's a lot of days. Damn.
Yeah, so I got to dunk, man. You have to dunk.
Like, people are coming at us now. You'll get a dunk.
You know we get the residuals, too. Like, people are like, yo, you guys can't even dunk anymore as a podcast.
And we're like, no, we can.

We can dunk.

Don't worry.

We'll dunk when we can.

Just wait.

Just wait.

Blake, you remember when you came to the office to celebrate Blake of the

Year?

I had those isometric shoes, the calf shoes.

I can send you those.

The dunk soles.

Yeah, the dunk soles.

I can send those to you if you want.

They definitely helped with my vert.

Yeah, send them to me.

What size are you?

10 and a half, 11. Oh, I know that from when I sent you guys.
Yeah, when you sent the Jordans. Yeah.
Yeah, maybe send them. I'll try them on.
I have a real question. I have a real question.
All these have been fake questions. Double cross, no big deal.
Double cross, true TV. This is the greatest promo interview we've ever done, by the way.
Thank you. So you sign with the Nets.
I always just assume great players all know and hang out with great players, especially in this day's NBA, AAU culture, whatever. Did you have a relationship with KD, Kyrie, and James? Did you know them? Have you hung out with them? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, I've known those guys for like forever uh james and i were the high school same high school class came out the same year for uh the draft katie i played against katie since i was in high school uh known kai since he came in the league um i was actually working out a lot with kairi and katie last summer um when because they didn't go to the bubble so we were working out in LA uh together for a while um so yeah I've known I've known obviously known DeAndre forever right so I've known guys a long time and then from like a basketball perspective I would assume uh you coming in they have established team you know are you like is your role gonna be different I would assume it's different but how are you like getting ready for that because we've talked to guys and we talked to Chris Bosh when he was with LeBron he's like yeah I had to play a little bit more off LeBron instead of being like the guy that I was in Toronto yeah I mean I'll obviously I'll be playing off those guys but I think at this point in my career like my game sort of I can sort of do like those things. Like when I was in LA, like I was setting screens for Chris Ball.
I was short rolling, you know, getting sort of being like, you know, facilitating to the other side or lob to DeAndre or attacking the rim. Now at this point in my career, I can pick and pop a little bit.
I can short roll. I I can space in the corner I can space in the wing so um I see myself sort of like fitting in somewhere in there and and like as I play games like that'll sort of develop but um yeah I mean I it's it's definitely a different role especially even on the pistons where I was just like I was like a ball handler for a good majority of the game, but I've done both and, and I feel confident doing both.
So I'm excited to like finally get out there. Are you concerned at all that there's just one ball? Yeah.
See when I originally signed, I didn't realize that until somebody tweeted at me and they were like, how this gonna work and i was like oh shoot and so you know it made definitely made me rethink my my uh choice but you know here we are i'm stuck here it's really funny to to because that is everyone's take when they saw the original kideen katie and kyrie and then james at it, and everyone's like, there's only one ball. How's it going to work? Well, it turns out they're really fucking good basketball players, so they can figure out a way to make it work.
Yeah. And it's like last night, James had 15 assists.
Right. And also, I don't know what he averaged in Houston, but like nine assists?

That's nine shots for somebody else.

Right.

How does he look?

When you saw James Harden, were you like, he's in better shape than I thought?

Or were you like, this is exactly what I thought about James Harden?

No.

So the pictures that we've seen, I actually think, though,

I think it's the warm-ups and the multiple layers of clothing because everybody wears like a tank top right and then you wear your jersey and then you wear your warm-up shirt and sometimes a long sleeve so you got four layers going on so like you know it's it's it's deceptive yeah i actually that's my problem my my theory is that he's got a twin that he's got a fat twin out there that he keeps overweight just for situations like that where he's like, okay, you go out there and play because I'm trying to get out of Houston. I'm trying to get to Brooklyn.
So you go out there, you stink it up for a couple nights, and that will solve the problem for all of us. So keep your eyes out for the fat twin, shark twin.
That was a long play because we've never seen a twin until December of this year. So he really kept that in his back pocket.

There was that playoff game.

And there was also that video where he was at like a festival.

Yeah.

And he saw like Junkyard James Harden and looked at each other.

There's a fat twin out there.

Yeah.

Oh, that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yes.

A lazy podcast would ask you, who's your best friend on the Nets?

I'm going to say.

Who's your biggest enemy? Who is low-key your best friend on the team? Low-key? Yeah. That's just such a messed up question.
If you went to a new school and you ask somebody, who's your best friend after six days? It's embarrassing to say, I don't have any best friends yet like i've been trying but it's hard it's hard when you're not playing you're you're on the bench i sit next to tlc on the bench so you know we've we've we cracked a lot of jokes um he's a good guy landry shamit's uh locker is next to mine so what what about DeAndre I mean you guys you guys literally went to elementary school together if we're doing this analogy I thought you said low key oh low key he's your high key he's answering the low key question he's your high key who's your who's your biggest enemy right now gravity okay good answer really good answer i remember before the season started uh i think it was kairi was saying that there's going to be like a a fluid rotation of of coaches and people that are kind of like taking the lead on instructing the team has it been just steve nash as your head coach or has there been a day where it's like kairi walking everybody through Kyrie's vision of the team? So far, Steve Nash has been the coach since I've been here. But I will say this in all seriousness, like this is kind of how we were with the Clippers.
And I kind of you kind of just forget when you're away from like players like this. Like our team is so like it's so many veterans.
It's like James and Kai and DeAndre and Katie when he's back like just have so much experience that it's like it's a lot of players like governing or like kind of working things out as well you know and Steve does such a good well I was really really surprised he does such a good job of like letting letting the players talk through something and then when he has something he says something or you know it's like a sort of a discussion and it's not just like hey we're doing this because ultimately like we're the ones that have to do it and i think he puts a lot of trust in those guys to like sort of figure it out talk it out and and get to that point because i mean james and kyrie and deandre they're like iq levels are very very high um so it's uh. So there's a lot of player discussions on this team, and that's kind of how it was with the Clippers as well.
I mean, it probably helps, too, that Steve was such a great player for so long because he understands what it's like to be a veteran in the league. My last question, because I know you've got to run, and we appreciate it.
True TV, Double Cross, tune in today. We're running this Friday.
Tune in today.

My last

question for you was, did

Chris Paul call you about maybe

coming to the Suns as a free agent?

The Suns weren't on

my list, so I never really

got that far.

You had a list, so he didn't call you.

I had a list, yeah, no.

He did not.

Trouble in paradise?

Why would he call?

I don't know.

Why not?

I was just thinking.

Now that I think about it, like, yeah, he, wow.

He should have called.

Wait, give us your list.

We'll get a headline from this.

Give us the list.

I will tell you some of the teams. I really liked Boston.
I really liked Golden State. I really liked Portland.
There was a few other teams. But I had a lot of...
It was a was a tough decision um but you know ultimately i had to do what was best for me and and i think like my ability to get a dunk and for the podcast and for part of my take yes for the podcast and for our friendship honestly yeah you know we talked Dan and I talked and you know he offered me to stay at his apartment

yeah friendship honestly yeah you know we talked dan and i talked and um you know he offered me a uh to stay at his his apartment yeah uh you can't with him and him and his family so um that was a big thing too yeah it's a free pad i i'm actually shocked that you didn't have the sons on your list after after the bubble shenanigans last year that would have been like a number one for for most guys out there, I think. Yeah.
The West is tough, man. The West is like, I don't know.
I don't know. I just didn't.
Not a fan of hotel parties. I did tell you, and I'll say it because I'm going to hold you to it.
I did tell you, like, not to make this about myself, you coming to Brooklyn, but my son's nanny is a huge Nets fan, and she was asking if I could get tickets because she knows I work in sports, and now I can. So thank you for that.
I appreciate you doing that. And we'll take two tickets for every game for the rest of the season.
And sign jerseys. I can offer you two tickets for one game every three home games.

Oh, and signed jersey.

Would it be really awkward?

I was thinking if I said, hey, Blake, if I buy the jersey,

can you go around the locker room on your first day

and get everyone to sign it for me?

Yeah.

Hey, what's up, man? Yeah, thanks. Excited here can you guys can you get this for me um from everybody oh wait you're dropping out that's gonna that's for everybody then you cut you cut out one sec say that last line again yeah wait If you want a signed jersey, then it's only going to be two tickets once a month.
A signed jersey, that's a tough... Probably as much as we'll go anyway, so we'll take that.
Also, are you going to do a crossover with Impractical Jokers?

Maybe, yeah. Sal,

I was going to try to name them all. The whole gang, Sal, Q.

Sal, you know, the other three.

Murr, Frankincense.

The guys.

Alright, well, Blake, we'll let you go.

Everyone watch Double Cross

on True TV on Friday.

Thank you.

Good luck.

We'll talk to you soon, though.

You have to come back on before the playoffs.

Of course, of course.

And, yeah, let me know about the ticket.

I think Dax is coming to the next home game.

Okay.

Cut him off.

Cut him off.

All right.

Happy birthday, man.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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That's a huge discount when you go to norton.com slash PMT. Okay, let's wrap up the show.
Get everyone on their way for March Madness. I'm already excited.
Sunday's show. I think we won't have a guest Sunday because we're going to do our classic.
It's going to be similar to a football Monday. We just have so many sports to talk about.

My rhythm is going to be all thrown off because Sunday night I'm going to go to sleep and

then Monday I'm going to be like, wait, college basketball all day again.

More college basketball.

Now that we're in it, now that it's happened, I don't like it.

Oh, wait.

Breaking news.

Okay.

Oh, shit.

Breaking news.

Billy. Billy, we need your final four We're logging them all into the Pardon My Take archives Gonzaga Michigan Texas Tech Okay And Let me think He's going to say Illinois Iowa can't be in the final four, right? Because of Michigan Well, you can if you want to They're your final four It's your final four Alright, so No that's good, though.
Iowa, Gonzaga, Texas Tech, and Michigan. No, but Michigan would have to play Iowa.
No, Michigan's not in the same bracket as Iowa. I'm not lying.
I am not lying. All right.
So who's in your finals? Is it Gonzaga and Iowa in the finals? Yeah.

Is that work?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

So Gonzaga, Iowa, Michigan, Texas Tech.

That is your final four.

Yeah.

All right.

Actually, Michigan over Iowa.

All right.

Michigan over Iowa.

I'm Garza.

Okay.

All right.

I like it.

All Big Ten.

I love it.

All right.

Thank you, Billy.

Love you. Do you need me for the show? No, we're doing it right now.
Okay. All right.
I like it. All Big Ten.
I love it. All right.
Thank you, Billy. Love you.
Do you need me for the show? No, we're doing it right now. Okay.
All good. All right.
Okay. Bye.
Thanks for asking. Three teams on the left side of the bracket.
Can you tweet that right now from part of my take, Hank or Jake? Yeah. Breaking news.
Billy's final four. We didn't lie to him.
No. We could have helped him out a little bit.
We could have, but that wouldn't be funny. I know.
This is Billy. You don't want to change Billy.
Yeah. The second Billy starts to get in on the joke, then it's all over.
I mean, watch with COVID. He ends up being right.
Like, watch an entire bracket gets wiped out. They're like, well, we've got to pick two from the West now.
Gonzaga and Iowa are both in there. Okay.
Firefest of the week. PFT, you want to start? Yeah.
My Firefest of the week is I got phished. I got hacked by Brogan Roback.
So if I'm going to get my account information stolen, if I'm going to have somebody hack into my account and post whatever they want, I could have probably told you it would have been through a Brogan Robackak related fishing scheme but he dm'd me yesterday from his account and i thought it was actually him because we've dm'd before but he goes hey bro and that's just how i started so i was like obviously this is pure brogan this is actually him and i was like sup he told me he was running a shoe company and that he wanted to give me some shoes that i could wear and talk about. And so I was like, sure.
You know what? Yeah, I'll wear the Brogan Roback ones. Send them to me.
And then he gave me a link to click on, which I did. And then that link asked me to log into my Facebook account, which I did.
And then a bunch of Arabic writing flashed across my screen. And I was like, this is not good what I've just done.
When you said that you clicked on a link, I was like, okay, anyone could have that happen. Probably not from Brogan Roback, but whatever, that makes sense.
But then you were like, yeah, I went and I filled out all my passwords. That was like, I had a moment where I was like, is PFT okay? Because that's like rookie ball stuff.
I filled out, this is how excited I was to try on Brogan Roback's new select line of athletic wear. So, yes, I filled out my password, all that information.
Then I went back. I immediately started to sweat, and I was like, I've got to change all my information.
I hit him back. I was like, hey, man, that link looks a little sus.
Are you sure this is you? He's like, what are you talking about? Yeah, it's me. Like, the person that did the hacking did a very good job.
Yes. And apparently other people got hacked via a Brogan Roback related fishing scheme too.
Like a bunch of his former college teammates were tweeting about it today. So I wasn't the only one that did it, but I changed all my passwords.
And I was like, this link does look suspect. I don't think that it's you, Brogan.
He's like, oh, yeah, so let me just give me your phone number. I'll text you pictures of the shoes.
And I was about to give him my phone. I was like, yeah, that sounds good.
I was like, no, you give me your number. And then he just went radio silent on that.
So, yeah, we'll see what happens. But if my account starts to tweet out just links to hardcore pornography like Albert Breers did a few years ago or James Browns did.
That was him just on Uges. Yeah, was it little blonde bitch fucking and sucking her personal trainer, I think? Yeah.
Actually, now would be the perfect time for me to just get a little loose with my direct links that I tweet out. Yes, absolutely.
I've never really understood why porn websites have the tweet this video button right next to the video. Sexy little brunette bitch sucking and fucking her personal trainer's big cock.
That was James Brown. James Brown 2016.
Sorry for anyone who's listening to this with their kids in the car. That's just a fact.
As to which we... Wait, did I read that right? Can you read that for me, Jake? Are you sure? I don't think I pronounced cock right.
How are you... C-O-C-K, it's there.
Okay, alright. it's hilarious that you got phished by Brogan Rovac.
Yeah, if I had to pick a way to get my account hacked into, I'm glad that it was at least through Brogan. It's very on brand.
Also, people forget about the Albert Breer hacking that happened back in 2016, I think. He was like, Pornhub, thanks for letting me shoot the awesome anal scene with Ava Adams.
Bert. I hate my job.
I'd rather work as a porn star. Nothing would make me happier than if Chicory cummed a little more on my face.
It is with a heavy heart I am to announce that Albert Breer passed away last night at 3.37 a.m. The cause of death is yet unknown.

Amazing.

Oh, I want to be a gay porn star so bad.

Cry face, cry face, cry face, cry face.

It was an ultimate hacking.

But yeah, so if my account goes haywire, it's not me.

I got duped by Brogan Roback,

and I honestly wouldn't want it any other way.

Yeah, yeah.

By the way, I just got a DM that Mike Glennon might be at AWL,

so we will try to get him on the show.

Do you have any new athletic gear coming out? Mike Glennon? Any scarves? Oh, I don't know. Neck warmers? Yeah.
Shoes? Shoes, yeah. No, this was a tip.
No one asked me to click on a link. I don't click links.
All right, Hank. I don't have a Fyre Fest.
It's March Madness, best day of the year, best weekend of the year. If I did have one, I mean, we don't really have real jobs.
It doesn't affect us as much. I do feel bad for the people that are going to have.
There's going to be a lot of people with some rough Mondays. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Honestly, this is the perfect time of year to just quit your job.
I had some friends that did that for a couple years. They would just get a job, and then they'd quit it for March Madness through the Masters every year.
And then it was actually the hard factor guys. And then they'd just go back on the job hunt in mid-April, late April.
Worked out well for them. The Monday really is going to fuck people really bad.
And I was thinking about it more like Saturday is going to be so bizarre because Saturday was always the day that you had two days straight of just chaos. And then you had that nice little Saturday morning where the games don't start till like 1230 or one o'clock and you ease your way into it.
Now it's just Saturday is just going to, we're going to get blitzed again all day. Fuck Hank.
I've got a fire fest for you if you want one. Okay.
I didn't want to tell you this on, on Wednesday night, but I won another game of war zone. Wow.
Oh, in your face. Solos.
After we, after we got a couple of dubs with Billy, I said I was logging off for the night. I played one game of Warzone.
Wow. Oh, in your face.
Solos. After we got a couple dubs with Billy,

I said I was logging off for the night.

I played one game of Solos, got another dub.

Wow.

I mean, I'm happy for you.

I've never won a Solos game myself, so that makes me feel bad.

I was going to ask you if you've still not ever won one.

No, he hasn't.

Never have.

He has not.

Jake.

You've been playing for a while.

So with the whole NFL media news,

also one thing I omitted that's important,

ESPN and ABC is now in the Super Bowl mix. Is this your fire fest that you omitted that? No, no, no.
Oh. I mean, that could be.
But I think the end is near for Alan Criss because NBC signed Drew Brees, Mike Tirico, which is bittersweet because a fellow Syracuse alum. I got a hot take.
I don't think Drew Brees is going to be that good in the booth. He might not the booth he might not be well he's not gonna be in the booth immediately right no but if if what Jake is saying ends up being true I I am not there's gonna be a wave and we saw with Jason Wynn there's gonna be a wave of people being like and as much shit as we give Tony Romo he's objectively good yeah I our problem with Tony Romo is just that he's he he just like Bukkake's weird noises into our ears at random times I also think our problem with Tony Romo is just that he's, he just, like, bukkake's weird noises into our ears at random times.
I also think our problem with Tony Romo is a problem with ourselves. Correct.
Where it's like we have to find something that's wrong with everybody to laugh at and joke about. He's objectively very good.
Drew Brees, you're right, I think he's kind of got a little bit of that Jason Wynn. He's kind of a robot.
Right, exactly. I've never cheesed once watching Drew Brees give a press conference.
Right, Tony Romo, even when Tony Romo was playing, he had a personality. I don't think Drew Brees has a personality.
Yeah, he's never done anything cool like gone to Cabo before a playoff game. It's not a knock on him.
It's just I don't think he's – yeah, I would sell all my stock on Drew Brees being good in the booth. Also, with the rib injuries, his lung capacity is an issue.
Yeah. He might get winded pretty easily.
We won't have Alan Criss much longer. I don't even know who that is.
Alan Chris? Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth? Oh, I thought you said Alan Chris. I did say Alan Chris.
And I was pretending to be like, yeah, that's going to be tough to get over. He's very like...
Ruth Chris. Bad of you to not do the last names, too.
Fair. What are you friends? Sunday Night with Alan Chris or something? Isn't that in the song? I don't know.
You're big, Jay. And they're the best on TV according to Carrie Underwood.
But yeah, you should have said Mr. Michaels and Mr.
Collins. Like this guy called the miracle on ice, Jake.
It's true. He's not a spouse.
But although Alan Chris would be a great name for a generic sports broadcaster. Yeah.
That might be my burner. I might create a burner.
Chris. Apologies.
All right. My Fyre Fest is – it's not that the Bears signed any of y'all.
It's just the memes that get sent around and I get tagged in. Pretty much my messages are just one long shitting on the Bears meme for like three days straight.
So I had to put out the public service announcements that I did see the Wheel of Fortune one. It doesn't even fucking make sense because the N is used in in uh the wilson it's o n and then it's not using andy so it doesn't make sense doesn't make sense at all because if you already guessed it they give you rst l and e correct yeah so fix your fucking memes i'm not mad about it wait wait i'm gonna let me pull up let me pull up this meme real quick i'm so mad about it don't Don't stop sending it to Big Cat, though.
Stop sending it to him.

It's not funny.

Everyone's like, oh, my God.

Look how funny this is.

I like the one where it was Andy Dalton with Russell Wilson's hair.

Yeah.

Did you see the video of Russell Wilson riding his Peloton wearing an oxygen mask?

Yes, yeah.

Jesus Christ.

He looked lame.

He looked limited.

So lame.

He looked very limited.

Such a lame-o.

Let me pull up this meme real quick here because there was something else that was wrong with the Wheel of Fortune. Jake's got it right there.
Okay. It's just so stupid.
Here's the problem. Think at it.
Here's the problem right off the bat. R-S-T-L-N-E is given to you all the time.
No, that's only in the bonus round. The real puzzles.
No, Jake, that's the bonus round puzzle right there. Are we sure? Yes, that's the bonus round.
So R should be there for Russ. Yeah.
Yeah. The whole thing doesn't make sense.
It's stupid. Stop sharing it.
That was a bad – that was a mistake by me. Terrible meme.
Let's guess numbers. I got the generator right up.
27. 99.
Wait, I'll do 69.

69, yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

You got to take advantage.

I can't guess two.

What?

Okay.

No, I can't.

19.

Oh, so close.

Damn.

That's a pretty good one.

Did you have 19?

No.

Oh.

This would be like, can we all agree that if anyone guesses it on the road, it's like

a half a guess?

Yeah, it doesn't really count.

It's not a full share of a win.

It's a half a win.

Like you winning on another podcast.

Right.

That didn't count.

That was a half a win.

That's an exhibition.

Right.

It was just exceptional.

It was two in a row.

But yeah, I don't take claim as a two-time winner.

No.

Animal fact of the day.

A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes.

Good job, Billy.

Right.

Love you guys.

Love you guys. We'll be right back.
Thank you. Is it all I know? Just a little bit of a way to life.

Your old friends have come to remember.

I'm going to shine.

I'm coming for you to many light. I'm coming.

I'm coming.

I'm coming.

I'm coming.

I'm coming.

I'm coming.