Blake Griffin, NCAAT With Stanford Steve And NFL Free Agency

Speaker 1 Hey, pardon my take, listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.
Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.

Speaker 2 We drove 1700 miles of old Highway 61, the whole country top to bottom, just to prove one thing. Comfort food can make anywhere home.

Speaker 2 Crave New World makes the classics you grew up with, cleaned up for right now. High protein, no fake stuff, no shortcuts.

Speaker 2 Bison meatloaf, chicken enchiladas, turkey lasagna, the kind of meals that taste like Saturday night, even on a Tuesday. Crave New World.
Find it in Kroger Isles this October.

Speaker 2 The road trip might be over, but dinner's just getting good.

Speaker 1 On today's part in my take,

Speaker 1 Blake Griffin. Blake Griffin and Stanford Steve, that's maybe the most powerful, strength-wise

Speaker 1 twofer that we've ever had on a Friday.

Speaker 3 It might be the heaviest duo of guests that we've ever had on the show. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, no, what about, didn't we have Kane and Mr. Portnoy on at the same time?

Speaker 3 That's, I'm doing the math. So Kane is probably 400 pounds.
Mr. Portnoy is 79.

Speaker 1 Fuck 20.

Speaker 3 I think, no, I think this is the, at least the girthiest combination. Strongest, strongest.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 We're going to talk a little NFL free agency. We have Fire Fest.
It's March Madness. Everything is great.

Speaker 4 When Cool Creamy Ranch meets tangy, bold buffalo. The whole is greater than the sum of its sauce.
Say howdy, partner, to new Buffalo Ranch Sauce, only at McDonald's for a limited time.

Speaker 3 At participating, McDonald's, let's go.

Speaker 3 Now in the trees, there is violence.

Speaker 3 And then I love the song.

Speaker 3 Look at the handle, low washing.

Speaker 3 And then I can aim all on the sun. Oh, oh, we're gonna rock down to Elite Track Avenue.

Speaker 3 And then we'll take it higher.

Speaker 3 Oh, we're gonna rock down to Elite Track Avenue.

Speaker 1 It's part of my take to get higher from school sports.

Speaker 3 Welcome to part of my take presented by McCain Quick Cook Fries.

Speaker 1 Go check out McCain Potatoes. McCain's new quick cook fries are the best today

Speaker 1 is Friday March 19th

Speaker 1 this

Speaker 1 is

Speaker 3 Mars

Speaker 3 I'm so fucking excited

Speaker 3 I'm so excited It's goosebumps.

Speaker 1 I'm so excited.

Speaker 3 It's literally goosebumps right now.

Speaker 1 All my favorite memories in life came in March Madness and my worst two.

Speaker 3 I think, honestly, some of my earliest memories definitely, like, 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,

Speaker 3 and just having my dad invite his friends over.

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah, that was actually an implanted memory.

Speaker 3 They're just like watching my dad snore on the couch while watching basketball.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 We have Stanford Steve on with betting tips, bracket tips. We have Blake Griffin on.

Speaker 1 Before we do that, though, let's talk a little NFL free agency, and then we'll get full-on March.

Speaker 1 You now, you got me fucked up. Marsh, I keep saying March

Speaker 5 middle school ringtone.

Speaker 1 No shit. Wait, would you mean a ring back tone? Ring, yeah, ringtone.

Speaker 3 It would just say no, the song.

Speaker 1 Move.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 Big J. Of course.

Speaker 1 All right. So, whoa, yeah, we're going to do our choose your own adventure for the, for tonight's games as well, the Thursday night play-in games, the first four.
So, NFL Free Agency,

Speaker 1 not a ton of big news. Mitch is now in Buffalo.
Good for him. Happy for Mitch.

Speaker 3 He's amongst friends.

Speaker 1 He is amongst friends.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 1 Here's why this is actually a very great move for Mitch and his career: is that if he spends a year as Josh Allen's backup, I think that the negative

Speaker 1 media around Mitch will dissipate. And then next year, he will be a name where it's like it's kind of the Jameis Winston.
You know, it's like, oh, well, let's give him a try. He was a top pick.

Speaker 1 He was a number two pick.

Speaker 3 I saw our 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.

Speaker 1 I wouldn't be shocked because the Bears, Andy Dalton had his press conference today.

Speaker 1 He said that he has been told he's the starter, of course.

Speaker 1 The colors popped. The colors do pop.

Speaker 3 Yeah, we told you. I started to be nice to Andy.

Speaker 1 Red hair,

Speaker 3 when he's wearing the orange, the alternate uniform, it's going to look sick.

Speaker 1 I'm not. Andy Dalton deserves zero blame.
I started to be nice to Andy. Hashtag.

Speaker 1 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 McCasky's feet.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 I'm actually, I'm going to say something even nicer about the Bears.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 you get like a nervous excitement like 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.

Speaker 3 That's the feeling I get when I see the NFL Red Zone countdown clock on Sunday.

Speaker 1 I'm so excited. All right.
Other

Speaker 1 NFL free agency news, Kenny Galladay's doing meetings. Will Fuller's in Miami.
That's actually good for Tua.

Speaker 3 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 suspension.
Carryover? Yeah, carryover suspension.

Speaker 3 And Elsie's 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.

Speaker 3 Pro Football Focus said that they won the off-season net editions

Speaker 3 for their team so far. So that's another off-season title for us.

Speaker 1 Yep, that's always in your

Speaker 7 faster for us.

Speaker 3 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, and he ended it just by saying, Let's go football team.

Speaker 3 And I mean, you talk about goosebumps. You talk about getting excited for something.
I'm very, very pumped about what's going to happen next year.

Speaker 3 In fact, like the entire NFC East is getting dangerous. The beast, baby.

Speaker 1 You're a fan of all of them.

Speaker 3 You poked the beast. You're going to wish you never fucked with us.
So we got Kyle Rudolph.

Speaker 3 He's on the Giants now. Dak.

Speaker 1 You can't take it serious when you root for an entire division.

Speaker 3 Obviously, Dak, and then Nick Siriani. So, like, big names being added to every single name in the division.

Speaker 1 Mike Glennon? Mike Glennon. Yeah.
Long note Glennon.

Speaker 3 You know what the NFC Beast is?

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 1 That's a great analogy.

Speaker 3 You're in big trouble.

Speaker 1 Okay, so you're just going to kill some people.

Speaker 3 Yeah, absolutely. We're dangerous.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Again, I cannot take it serious when you root for an entire division.

Speaker 3 Listen, you wouldn't get it if

Speaker 3 you didn't grow up rooting for the Beast.

Speaker 1 I wish you would just say, fuck the Cowboys and fuck the Giants and fuck the Eagles.

Speaker 1 Hey, guess what?

Speaker 3 Fuck the Packers. Solidarity, baby.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, that doesn't fly.

Speaker 1 That's not real.

Speaker 1 It's real right here. That is not real.

Speaker 1 What other news?

Speaker 3 Oh, big news on the media front. What? So ESPN is getting the 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.

Speaker 3 In which case, do they back up the truck for Andrew Ceciliano? No.

Speaker 3 You know that there's a part.

Speaker 3 I'm going to say two words. Mike Greenberg.
You know that there's a part of Greene who's like, I could do this.

Speaker 1 Scott Hanson should they should back up the truck for Scott Hanson and hire him. So Jake, explain this to us.

Speaker 3 What's happening right now?

Speaker 5 So, it just broke like 15 minutes ago. I'm still diving into it.
Oh, okay.

Speaker 5 But it looks like. Dive in.

Speaker 1 Let's actually watch you dive in. Okay.
I'd like to see that live. Okay.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 9 That's only going to be on Twitch. They're like, I don't think that's going to be broadcast.
I could be wrong, but I believe I saw something that's like, they're not even broadcasting TV.

Speaker 1 I love that we are just doing the same thing as TV now. Like I can't, I can't believe no one is making a big stink about the fact that cord cutting, oh, I can cut all my costs.

Speaker 1 Now you just have to buy all of the streaming services, which is exactly what cable was. Yeah.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 3 And then also they get to simulcast the Monday night football.

Speaker 1 There's any flex.

Speaker 1 Monday Football Flex is enormous. But does any is anyone just can someone in big big TV be like, hey, the streaming services are just doing TV? Like, now I have

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 3 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 Chris.

Speaker 3 He's going to be the CEO of the Internet. And then you're just going to have to pay him directly every day.

Speaker 1 I pay $10 a month for Peacock because I want to watch The Office where I eat dinner. Yep.
That's it. I don't watch anything else on there.
Oh, I watch Flurio.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 3 I got something new. I got HBO Go or whatever they're calling it now just for Yellowstone.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you got to get Max. You got to get Go, you got Showtime.

Speaker 3 It's fucking

Speaker 1 what, Hank? That's not HBO.

Speaker 3 I think that's how you watch it online.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 Whoa.

Speaker 3 You care to make it interesting?

Speaker 1 Fact check?

Speaker 3 Hank's a little groggy right now. Hank spent the entire time.

Speaker 1 No, let's make it known. Please, let's make it interesting.
Okay. Okay.

Speaker 3 How would 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.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 Yellowstone available on Peacock, Paramount, YouTube, Sling TV, Fubo TV, Philo.

Speaker 3 Oh, maybe it's Peacock then.

Speaker 1 She's damned. All right, I'm wrong.

Speaker 3 Say you're sorry. I'm sorry, Hank.

Speaker 1 All right, let's.

Speaker 1 So the Monday Night Flex is huge, but I'm grumpy. Yeah, that is ABS and Fox.

Speaker 5 CBS and Fox are holding on to the AFC and NFC, respectively.

Speaker 1 Which should be...

Speaker 1 That would fuck my world up if it was flexed.

Speaker 5 Something I wouldn't do that because they have to make up from like Thursday.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they go goofy flex.

Speaker 3 It's really strange. Joe Bucks.

Speaker 1 Bear Lions on CBS 3.

Speaker 3 How much would you pay to have Chris Berman doing Red Zone?

Speaker 1 $300,000, $400,000? Infinity dollars?

Speaker 1 But it's different because... Grumpy Hank is saying no.

Speaker 5 The boomers, he has time to live.

Speaker 1 20 years ago.

Speaker 5 Red Zone's live, so you can't really think about it.

Speaker 1 I just want to,

Speaker 3 what it comes down to is I just want a live stream on Chris Berman all the time.

Speaker 1 Fair.

Speaker 1 All right. So

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 3 NFL tries to, you know what?

Speaker 3 Roger Goodell has like a little check mark that he puts on his calendar every time, like every time it's this Thursday or Friday, when he he gets one NFL media member to tweet out.

Speaker 3 And this is why the NFL is king. Yes.
On a big day for another sport. Hey, steal it all.

Speaker 1 All right, let's do our brackets. Let's do our choose your own adventure, and then we'll get to our interviews.

Speaker 3 Hey, it's PFT here, reminding you that Boarshead makes game day entertaining elevated and effortless.

Speaker 3 Whether you order catering platters ahead from your local Boarshead retailer, or you create your own spread at home with Boarshead premium deli meats and cheeses, you are sure to impress your guests.

Speaker 3 My favorites like oven gold turkey or blazing buffalo-style chicken, paired with their classic Vermont cheddar or creamy Munster cheese, are sure to score big and help me elevate my entertainment every time, whether it's for a tailgate or a home gating celebration.

Speaker 3 Seriously, guys, it's a game-changing flavor for every gathering. Boarshead, committed to craft since 1905.

Speaker 1 Choose your own adventure. Drake kicked the shit out of Wichita State.

Speaker 1 I like it.

Speaker 3 UCLA,

Speaker 3 you know what? Izzo choked it away.

Speaker 1 I thought you said you were going to be on Izzo this year.

Speaker 3 I flipped it. I flipped it.
I couldn't do it.

Speaker 1 I couldn't do it. It wasn't natural.

Speaker 3 It wasn't natural. I couldn't flip it.

Speaker 3 This is the game where Izzo chokes it away at the end. He mismanages something.
He might even get ejected. Oh.
He might get ejected in the second half. Okay.
And our guy, Mick Cronin, demolishes him.

Speaker 3 People are asking, is Tom Izzo on the hot seat? Interesting.

Speaker 1 This is

Speaker 1 it is

Speaker 1 weird having UCLA and Michigan State in the first four. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm going to take Michigan State and Drake. I don't know who's playing in the other games.
Oh, maybe Appalachian State?

Speaker 5 Yeah, I'll I'll throw it. Approach State and Norfolk State and Mount St.
Mary's, Texas, Southern.

Speaker 1 You're going to take Drake, PFT?

Speaker 3 I am actually taking Drake. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. What?

Speaker 3 That's kind of messed up. Imagine if I never met the Broskis.

Speaker 1 Drop your jokes.

Speaker 1 What's my joke? The 11?

Speaker 3 No, I didn't have a joke. That's

Speaker 3 telling you. When you were sitting in the car.

Speaker 1 You have the joke. You don't transfer a ton of time.
You don't have a joke.

Speaker 1 There are 11 seeds. Wait, what are they? The 11th seed?

Speaker 3 Drake should have no problem giving the shocker to an 11.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 and you combine with which state Drake

Speaker 3 he's salt fade down.

Speaker 1 Nice, nice.

Speaker 1 So we'll be very wrong. Do you want to predict tonight's games?

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 1 Yeah. His name's Tank.

Speaker 5 So he should. Shin Kwan is his real name, but Tank.

Speaker 1 No, his name's Tank.

Speaker 3 Forget that you said that. Yeah, his name's Tank Hemp.

Speaker 1 Hemphill. Okay, and then

Speaker 5 January, February is up.

Speaker 1 Ooh.

Speaker 1 I can't wait till we're wrong. And like Wichita State wins by a million.
I actually have his own. You hate Wichita State last year.
I hate Wichita State. Wichita State fucked me in the face last week.

Speaker 3 I've just heard so many people say that Wichita State shouldn't even be here.

Speaker 1 I've gotten into that.

Speaker 3 But then they're, you know what? They don't do anything good. They're all hearing all week long.

Speaker 1 They're still doing the press. No one wants you here.

Speaker 3 You shouldn't be here.

Speaker 1 They don't do anything good. Shit.

Speaker 3 Ted Lasso.

Speaker 1 Yes, that's true. Football.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Actually, you know what?

Speaker 2 They don't even have a football program.

Speaker 1 No, I know. I think they did that on purpose.

Speaker 3 Yeah, 19, 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 3 Okay, this is a lock. These are my final fours, PFT's locks of the century.
Gonzaga.

Speaker 1 You want to actually do Elite Eight?

Speaker 1 And we're not prepared for a Final Four.

Speaker 2 Okay, all right. That's true.

Speaker 3 That's a lot of pressure.

Speaker 1 Yep, you're right. You're right.
You know what? You're right. You're right.
Pig Cat.

Speaker 3 We're broadcasting professionals.

Speaker 1 He's looking at an empty bracket.

Speaker 9 I don't want to burst your bubble. So am I.

Speaker 7 Sorry, Hank.

Speaker 3 What are you looking at, Hank? You're looking at a bracket that a computer made for you?

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 You randomized your bracket. No.
You hit the random button.

Speaker 3 Absolutely. And also, full disclosure,

Speaker 3 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 pics are wrong, it's because I'm looking at a computer right now.

Speaker 1 It's not the same.

Speaker 3 So out of the west or was that the

Speaker 3 St. Elmo's?

Speaker 5 Oh, sorry.

Speaker 5 Zaga's West.

Speaker 1 You screwed us. Yeah.
With your bracket.

Speaker 1 You gave us on Sunday. I will take the hit for it.

Speaker 3 Also, Jake is my teammate. Jake is my teammate.
Our team name is Marsh Madness. We're competing in Moron Madness on the Barstall Sports book.
And it's going to be a great contest.

Speaker 3 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 not nervous.
He's excited. It's more of a bad thing.

Speaker 1 People are depending on him, Jake. Yeah, but you get their families.
I hope I do them.

Speaker 5 I hope I help them out. But, like, get excited.

Speaker 1 You've never experienced combat before, Jake.

Speaker 3 You need.

Speaker 1 Jake is like a guy that's really good at Warzone

Speaker 3 that signed up to be in the Marines and he's on a helicopter. He's like, I've done this hundreds of times.

Speaker 3 This is the best. On battle.net.

Speaker 1 I just was listening to this on Loop all morning.

Speaker 5 I used to like. Yeah.
I used to do a lot of people.

Speaker 1 You were about to say you used to do Jackalees. No, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 I brought a

Speaker 5 bracket poster to a hotel and would fill it out every game, like a giant bracket poster.

Speaker 1 To a hotel?

Speaker 3 Yeah, like when I would go to a March Madness site.

Speaker 5 Me and my dad, we have this rituals. Every year since 208, we've gone to a March Madness site.

Speaker 1 So where are you going this year?

Speaker 1 Yeah. That sucks.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Real world now.

Speaker 3 Jake, you brought your own bracket with the easel, like Andy Katz. Yeah, I have a picture.

Speaker 1 Oh, let's see it.

Speaker 3 I love it, Jake.

Speaker 5 My dad sends it to me.

Speaker 1 Onions!

Speaker 1 This is where they come back into the studio. Nikish!

Speaker 1 Sorry. All right.

Speaker 1 All right, just give us your final four.

Speaker 3 He'll look at it. Okay, my final four is Gonzaga out of the west.
Okay. Out of the east.
I'm going to go with...

Speaker 1 Oh, that's sick, Jake. Yeah, so this is a true poster that he would bring with him, and they would fill it out.

Speaker 3 Love it. That is very cool.

Speaker 1 Favorite venue you went to see a game at?

Speaker 3 That's like a fathead.

Speaker 5 Jerry World Sweet 16 for Gators FGC. And the Shea Bird shot was cool.

Speaker 1 I hated Jerry World for it.

Speaker 5 Kansas, Michigan, Trey Bird.

Speaker 1 I hated Jerry West. But just like

Speaker 1 basketball.

Speaker 3 Yeah, the atmosphere was cool.

Speaker 5 But Tampa 08, four upsets.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 3 I'm all fucked up now.

Speaker 1 I'm out of my flow. Okay, sorry.

Speaker 3 Let me reset. Goodzaga.
Goodzaga.

Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3 Then I'm going to go with Michigan. Yep.

Speaker 3 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.
Except that. Use that, Virginia Tech.

Speaker 3 No, out of that region, I'm going to take Ohio State.

Speaker 1 Shit, I'm not sure you're going to go all ones. No, I'm going to excited.

Speaker 3 I'm going to zag a little bit on that one. And then out of the Midwest, I'm going with Illinois.

Speaker 1 I love the

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 3 But Kat, if you don't think that I had all ones in my final four,

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 3 And I also watched Ohio State play recently. And

Speaker 3 actually, I really like their guard Walker. He's a fun player to watch.

Speaker 1 They just don't play defense. Yeah.
But yeah,

Speaker 1 it is funny.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 3 Oh, I'm a basic bitch when it comes to this bracket. No, I am too.

Speaker 1 All right, Hank. Kansas out of the west.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Florida State out of the East.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 9 The Illinois out of the Midwest. Okay.
And Ohio State out of the south.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 1 Someone write this down. I like who's in the cash right now.
All right, Jamie. Thank you.

Speaker 5 Gonzaga, West. Alabama, East.
Musbas, Arkansas, South, Illinois, Midwest. Gonzaga or Illinois.

Speaker 1 Okay. I'm going to go.
I have Gonzaga,

Speaker 1 Yukon.

Speaker 1 Huskies are back. Illinois.

Speaker 1 And Arkansas. That's my final four.
That one's the

Speaker 1 picks that we do on Fridays before an NFL Sunday.

Speaker 1 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 and be like, look at us. We got it right.

Speaker 3 I'm thinking that the person who finishes last, the person who has the worst final four picks, should have to suffer some sort of punishment.

Speaker 1 Okay, well,

Speaker 1 let's see if Billy picks up because I want to see. There's no way he even knows that the madness is happening right now.

Speaker 3 No, he's not drunk. It's still St.
Patrick's Day.

Speaker 1 No, but he hasn't texted us to love you guys yet today. That's true.
So Billy, whenever he gets drunk, it could be at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. He'll just text love you guys.

Speaker 1 And that means he's drunk. He did that on St.

Speaker 5 Patrick's Day at 4 o'clock.

Speaker 2 He's not going to pick up.

Speaker 2 And then he's going to call me back in six hours.

Speaker 1 All right, we'll get his final four later. Because his, I mean, it was the most electric QB bracket of all time.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 He's still, his brain is still recovering from that, I think. It needed a hard reset afterwards.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 This is the man who went 12 in a row during, I think it was during February on college basketball picks.

Speaker 1 He knows everything about sports, and then we will hop in with Blake Griffin for our second interview, which is awesome. Great to talk to Blake.

Speaker 6 I'm not going back to college to be your friend. I'm going so I can get Uber one for students.
It saves you on Uber and Uber Eats.

Speaker 6 I'm there for $0 delivery fee on cheeseburgers, up to 10% off smoothies, and 6% Uber credits back on rides. Just to be clear, I'm there for savings, not whatever you think college is for.

Speaker 10 Get Uber One for Students, a membership to save on Uber and Uber Eats. With deals this good, everyone wants to be a student.
Join for just $4.99 a month. Savings may vary.

Speaker 10 Eligibility and member terms apply.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 SVPod. Wait, is it SVP pod? SVP.

Speaker 8 SVPod.

Speaker 1 SV pod.

Speaker 1 What's up with Scott's hearing? It's bad.

Speaker 8 Yeah, I heard you guys talking about it. That wasn't nice.
You guys dropped his name, too.

Speaker 1 He's getting older. He's getting older.

Speaker 8 He's got young kids.

Speaker 8 Young kids are really loud. And

Speaker 8 he's trying to get a better. We got volume on it, so it's good.

Speaker 1 He's getting better at it. Is that true, though?

Speaker 8 New New surroundings, new studio. I don't think everything was working well.

Speaker 3 Right, so Big Cat brought that up yesterday. I'm a little bit afraid.
Like, should I not be wearing headphones?

Speaker 8 No, just get your hair out of your ears.

Speaker 1 Okay. Yeah, but that's not going to happen.
He told me that, and I was like, that probably's going to happen to me because you spend enough time just sitting with headphones on

Speaker 1 doing these interviews. And then Daily Wager, which you can watch every single day, he had a streak of 11 picks in a row?

Speaker 8 12.

Speaker 1 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 going to talk some tournament.
We want to get some picks.

Speaker 1 Let's do this, though, macro level. Give the people a couple tools or tips from a seasoned gambler on how to win in March.

Speaker 8 All right. Here's number one.
And it can't help you for this year. I'm sorry.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 I know some people have like futures now on Illinois, all of a sudden, like they're a hot Big 10 team.

Speaker 8 You know, and it just, it amazes me how, you know, everybody just jumps on one team because, oh, wow, let's let's pick the team that played, that won a championship before the bracket came out.

Speaker 8 So everybody's going to pick that. You know, so you just fill out a bracket without everybody saying right at that point, and then you put it away till Thursday, and then you bet against it.

Speaker 1 It's really hard to do but it really works out a lot of the time.

Speaker 8 I promise you.

Speaker 3 Did Big Cat tell you that I have a future in Illinois? No, he listened to that.

Speaker 1 He listened to Podcast because that felt like a directly personal attack.

Speaker 3 I mean, you're 100% right.

Speaker 1 That is me.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 8 Oh, hold on.

Speaker 1 First off, is Hank in there? Is he okay? Oh, yeah. He's here.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 He's okay. Yes, I'm great.
I'm doing great. Steve, I have a proposition for you.

Speaker 9 I'll tell you after the show, though.

Speaker 8 I miss you, Hank.

Speaker 1 I miss you, too.

Speaker 9 I think I have a solution for both of our problems.

Speaker 1 Okay. Okay.
I have a problem though? Yeah. No, no, he misses me.
That's the. Oh, I miss him.

Speaker 3 Why don't you say it right now?

Speaker 9 Because it's a proposition.

Speaker 9 I don't want to.

Speaker 1 It seems kind of rude to a journalist that you brought it up. Well,

Speaker 7 if it works out, then they'll see in the future.

Speaker 1 Just say it, and then we'll bleep it.

Speaker 7 I was talking to Zach, Steve,

Speaker 7 our friend Zach, and he made a suggestion that I should.

Speaker 1 Back to tips. Let's do tips.
So the bracket one's a genius. I wish I had done it.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 8 How about coaches' records against the spread in the tournament?

Speaker 1 Ooh.

Speaker 8 You know, I look at a team like Syracuse. We know, obviously, Bayhan's been coaching for 45 years.
So he's going to have a couple more data points than other coaches.

Speaker 8 But, you know, USC's head coach Andy Enfield, you remember him back at Florida Gulf Coast, seven and oh all time against the spread in the tournament.

Speaker 1 Wow. Seven and all.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 3 Is there any sort of data that backs that up, or is that just me?

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 They don't win that game if they miss a free throw. So yeah, free throw.
I mean, I think,

Speaker 8 like you said, everything gets magnified. Everything's escalated, especially at the end of the game.
Maybe we look at maybe we look at free throws at the last two minutes of the game.

Speaker 8 You know, who's in the one and one? Who shoots two?

Speaker 8 You know, the fundamentals. You got to be about the fundamentals.

Speaker 1 I like that. I think free throws matter to me if you are betting a favorite in that three to six, seven point range.
That's where it matters.

Speaker 1 Because if you miss, you know, if you go one for two from the line,

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Those are the times when I'm like, you got to have at least some good free throw shooters on the floor. Got it.

Speaker 8 I agree. Are you a good free throw shooter in pickup? Do you guys shoot free throw shrows?

Speaker 1 I am actually a very good free throw shooter.

Speaker 3 Excellent.

Speaker 1 I'm probably 82%, I would say. That's about right.
82%. Yeah.
No, I'm 82%. About indoors.

Speaker 3 Indoors. 19%, 20%.

Speaker 1 I could shoot 82%. If you gave me 100 shots in the free throw line, I would make 82.

Speaker 8 That's a contest that needs to be filled. Shit.

Speaker 1 Yeah, now that I'm ready to go,

Speaker 1 that's a pretty high percentage. That's a challenge.
That's a lot of money. Yeah, that's still a lot.
If I get into flow, flow, I actually.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, I think I.

Speaker 3 You can go 78 for 100.

Speaker 1 Bullshit. Yeah, I can.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 8 And right before the snow came down here in D.C., I went out to the park on a nice, a decent day, 50, 50 degrees. And I was a career 65% free throw shooter.
And I was happy I made 68.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I hadn't done that in like 15 years. That was a nice practice with the wind.

Speaker 8 Yeah, wind factors, a lot of things. Now, PFT knows the Potomac winds down here.

Speaker 1 I do.

Speaker 3 How are you liking the D.C. area? How's How's that transition been?

Speaker 1 Love it.

Speaker 8 Love it. Waiting for you to give me some spots where I could drop your name.
Not that we could go anywhere, but

Speaker 8 once we could do that, that'd be fun.

Speaker 3 I was going to say, I know all the best Buffalo Wild Wings in the DMV area.

Speaker 3 I've been kicked out of a couple, but I do know some good spots. And once this, I feel like this is going to be the summer of Steve, actually.
Yeah. This is going to be your first D.C.
summer. Dude,

Speaker 1 Steve, in Arlington, there's a place called Colony Grill, Great Pizza.

Speaker 8 It's from Connecticut.

Speaker 1 I know. That was the joke.
Thanks. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You move there, and that's all we got. All right.

Speaker 1 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,

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And the games are, I'll list them, and you can give me some quick thoughts. Winthrop is going to beat Villanova.

Speaker 1 Ohio is 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.

Speaker 1 And I have talked myself all the way into the underdog that I now say to myself, what's going on here?

Speaker 1 It can't be this easy because it never is.

Speaker 8 I hear what you're saying.

Speaker 8 I think this is the best bracket we've seen the committee put out in a long time.

Speaker 8 Just because you only see one lower seed as as a favorite, that's Rutgers, and that's a one-point favorite. They're a 10 against Clemson.
That's a seven.

Speaker 8 UCSB, they have a ton of power five guys transferred. I think they start four transfers.
A couple Pac-12 guys, one guy from DePaul, like they made a good run. They've got

Speaker 8 a lot of guys in Creighton in that game.

Speaker 8 I don't know what's going on in that locker room. They, you know, they got McDermott back.
They went to the Big East Tournament. They didn't play well.

Speaker 8 They got lucky against UConn at the end of that game, and then they just got dismantled by Georgetown. So I don't want anything to do with Creighton.

Speaker 8 I know Ohio is probably going to get a bump too because you had Mr. Ohio, or is he Mr.
Indiana, Titus?

Speaker 8 I never forget. He claims both.

Speaker 1 He can't play.

Speaker 3 I think if you're from the Midwest, you get your state and then one of the states that borders.

Speaker 1 One of the neighboring states. Yeah, he's at one.
He's Ohio state in Indiana. Yeah.
And then Ohio, he knows the coach.

Speaker 8 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?

Speaker 8 Because I like the fours a lot better than the fives.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 So obviously the 12s are the most picked to go over the fives.

Speaker 8 I saw our computers have a 13 Liberty against Oklahoma State. They're actually, with the metrics and all that stuff, they

Speaker 8 have a higher probability to win more than any other 12 seed.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 8 Yeah.

Speaker 8 And that's not good because I had Oklahoma State in my final four.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 I would not have expected that.

Speaker 8 We're going against the bots.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 3 What's the deal with the UConn Maryland game? So it's on Saturday. Obviously, your coworker, Scott Van Pelt, is a bit of a Maryland fan.
He's a casual.

Speaker 3 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?

Speaker 3 Or is that going to earn you like, he's going to block your number if you go that far?

Speaker 1 Just stop right there. Okay.

Speaker 8 The first thing the whole show staff did was check and see what day the Maryland game is on.

Speaker 5 We work Friday.

Speaker 8 The game is Saturday. We had a private party.

Speaker 11 We forced Scott into work to celebrate that.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 And he just, he wants to prove his team belongs. And I think they've proved that a long time ago,

Speaker 8 even though they won their second game ever in the Big Ten tournament this year.

Speaker 8 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,

Speaker 8 what do you guys call memes or gifts with turtles and dogs and huskies going back and forth? So

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 So the staff is very happy that Scott will be in a safe place watching this turf by himself.

Speaker 1 This is a no-fly zone game.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 I would never in a million years think about doing that for a tournament game because he takes it that seriously. No, yes.
Yes.

Speaker 8 He will, he, you know, the other night on the show, we ran back the last time UConn played Marilyn in the tournament, 2002. Unbelievable game.
Elite A game at Syracuse.

Speaker 8 Karon 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,

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 And getting to know people down here, they're a very emphatic fan base and they love their flag.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 8 It's amazing how much they love their flag.

Speaker 1 That's old.

Speaker 3 That's Maryland. Like Maryland has, they've got the Terps and they won a title in what, 2002.
So they love that. Old Bay.

Speaker 1 Old Bay.

Speaker 3 They carry Old Bay seasoning with them everywhere, which, by the way, I'm actually, I'm in favor of that. Old Bay is delicious.
It's worth it. I want to be the person that does that.

Speaker 3 And then they have the flag.

Speaker 1 They've got...

Speaker 8 I'm trying to figure out what their favorite animal is because it's like they're turtles, obviously, but they love crabs too.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I think it's got to be the crab. It's either the crab or like a deer that's standing on the side of 495.

Speaker 1 Because

Speaker 1 that'll shut down.

Speaker 1 A lot of deer dead or alive on the road the public work system is not great down here there are there are dead animals all over this place down here and uh it's been something to see down here really eye-opening driving home at 3 a.m yep you are right scott does love maryland more than anyone loves their school so uh give us some other games you're looking at you you know everyone should 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.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 Had the COVID break early in the season. I want to say

Speaker 8 they played the most games from the start of February to the end of March. They won their conference tournament.

Speaker 8 But LSU, everybody watched that game more.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 In the play-in game,

Speaker 8 or wait, go here.

Speaker 1 We're doing this Friday. Yeah, yeah.
That's what I'm saying. All right.
No, say it.

Speaker 1 No, tell us because then you'll look like an idiot.

Speaker 3 You're Mr. Plan.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Go ahead. Go ahead.

Speaker 8 I feel like the world is going to take Michigan State.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 8 You know, January, February, you know,

Speaker 8 saying. So I'd be wary there.

Speaker 8 I like Syracuse.

Speaker 8 I think the zone is real. I've watched a bunch of them late in their year.

Speaker 8 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 the COVID break.

Speaker 8 But Syracuse is a team, especially in a year like this where nobody really played out-of-conference games. That zone can be an M effort to you.

Speaker 8 And I think

Speaker 8 they have athleticism. Bayhan's been out of his mind.
Dolce is really good.

Speaker 8 Them and matching up with West Virginia in the second round is a really, really interesting game.

Speaker 8 Brings back the old thoughts of Big East and Pittsnoggle and stuff like that.

Speaker 8 But Texas Tech 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.

Speaker 8 That's incredible.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 1 Keep him hostage. I agree.
Yeah, Chris Beard, you you should not let Chris Beard out of the state of Indiana.

Speaker 8 And this could be a public one, but I look at Arkansas.

Speaker 8 We know how much we all love the Musk Bus.

Speaker 1 Yep. Colgate.

Speaker 8 We know the toothbrushes

Speaker 8 have been limited this year because

Speaker 8 they played five teams. Five.
Five teams total. And I get it.
It's not their fault. Everybody went crazy because they were really high.

Speaker 8 in the uh in the net because they got um they was it oh navy beat georgetown so that conference got a bump the way those computers work. Um,

Speaker 8 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, um, but Houston, they're legit.

Speaker 8 It's just, you can't tell how good they are playing against competition that wasn't, uh, you know, team, you know, conferences when you look at like the Big 12 and the Big 10 and conferences like that.

Speaker 1 So, Houston's really,

Speaker 8 I mean, there's believers out there that have, I think Scott has them actually in the final four.

Speaker 1 Damn.

Speaker 8 So that's a, I actually like Rutgers to beat them. I think Rutgers is a solid team.
I think I have Rutgers in the Sweet 16.

Speaker 1 Yep.

Speaker 9 I'm just trying to look at some other teams.

Speaker 1 Jimmy, I've talked myself all the way into Wisconsin beating UNC. I'm with you.
Yeah, because I went to you.

Speaker 8 Now, if you remember, if you remember, Big Cat, 2017.

Speaker 8 I went on national TV. I had Wisconsin go in the final four.
They beat Villanova in the second round.

Speaker 8 We went to Madison Square Garden. 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

Speaker 8 i mean i have never ever seen that we saw the ball coming all the way down the court

Speaker 8 right in our face guys

Speaker 8 sweet we had a sweet we had a sweet we're the only people in the arena being able to have uh cold libations that we like yep yep it was um big catch down we got to the point where i think they told her like hey man keep those down you guys are you know know you're rubbing it in the meat yeah we were because yeah we were

Speaker 3 we were like pointing at people down in the crowd and just pointing up at our beers

Speaker 1 yeah and big cat just he dabbed in sadness at the end it was an unintentional dab but just just crumbled terrible

Speaker 1 terrible i i i'm like i'm so numb to it now too 2015 was there are certain losses that you have in life 2015 in indianapolis like a small part of me is just sitting in in uh lucas oil and it will never i'll never get it back like that's never, ever will I get it back.

Speaker 8 Now, those two losses you were in person for, like, those, you're never going to, you're never going to leave those feelings.

Speaker 1 Oh, I was in

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 This is terrible. The one time I had like unreal seats.

Speaker 3 You're like the Mothman, but for Wisconsin basketball, every time you show up, bad stuff happens.

Speaker 1 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 38-0. That was one of the best games ever.

Speaker 1 All right, so yeah, I do think they're going to win, though.

Speaker 1 As bad as they've been this year, I think that 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.

Speaker 8 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

Speaker 8 that realm too, just because of,

Speaker 8 let's face it, they're not going to beat you with one-on-one ball.

Speaker 8 in the big 10 with Wisconsin, you know, like teams 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.

Speaker 8 Like, they're just going to come out and play. And the matchup I do like with Wisconsin is their veteran guards against Carolina's inexperienced

Speaker 8 at the guard position. Now, Carolina's got some big dudes up front.
You also have your guys.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 But Baylor. to me

Speaker 8 i have them winning it but they have the toughest road uh 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.

Speaker 8 I think they're going to play Ohio State in 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.

Speaker 8 I have them play in Iowa in the Elite Eight. And Michigan.
I actually wanted to, because we have a foot expert on your show. Livers for Michigan PFT has a broken foot.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 8 And whenever I think of a broken foot, I think of the way you show the determination still coming in to work every day and overcoming that,

Speaker 8 eventually leading to that tryout. Now, was that your kicking foot?

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 3 yeah, I mean, Jack Dimpsey 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,

Speaker 3 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

Speaker 3 when you talk about like the Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes is the best player.
The most important player on the Chiefs last year, Mitchell Schwartz on the offense or Travis Kelly.

Speaker 3 You always take like that next guy, and it's always the tight end, by the way.

Speaker 1 It's usually the nose tackle or the tight end?

Speaker 3 The tight end, the blocking tight end.

Speaker 8 I mean, tight ends are obviously the best athletes on the field, no matter what game you're watching.

Speaker 3 You're the most important part of the SV pod,

Speaker 3 I would say.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 8 And that's that's the problem. Is like you hear guys that have this injury, like they can run, but it actually hurts more to walk because you're putting more pressure on it.

Speaker 8 The problem is, he'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 said, he's a very important player.

Speaker 8 So, I look at there's like four teams I could see winning the east bracket

Speaker 8 that Michigan is the one seed in. And that feels like a tough road for me.

Speaker 1 Tell me

Speaker 1 your Iowa points. So you do like Iowa.
You know what? I'm going to put my hand up because I know I bashed them. I think it's one of those situations where I'm too close to it.

Speaker 1 You hate who you are sometimes. And I watched the Iowa team, and they're basically a Wisconsin team.
Like the best version of a Wisconsin team is what Iowa is this year.

Speaker 1 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 have a lot easier time and they're going to make a deep run?

Speaker 8 They're really good offensively, Dan.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 I like those teams better. They can put the ball in the basket easier.
Weescamp's a pro. Bohannon's phenomenal.
Gars is a man. Even though you don't like him, I love him.
And they have other people.

Speaker 8 The McCaffreys are good, sound players. They got good guys off the bench.
Tassant's a good point guard that could change things up.

Speaker 8 Well, Iowa and oregon is is going to be a really really big game yeah um in this in the second round that that i could easily see those team the winner of that going to the elite because dana altman is is like low-key one of my favorite coaches uh 18 and nine career in the nca tournament against the spread incredible he's every

Speaker 8 year though play yeah in pac-12 play and we did it out on on daily wager shout out mckenzie our researcher he was like 80 and 39

Speaker 8 in his time at oregon in february March in Pac-12 play. That's crazy.
That's against the spread.

Speaker 1 That's nuts. Crazy.
Nuts. Yeah.
And there's that was a weird thing.

Speaker 8 We 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,

Speaker 8 Patino beat them. That was, or that was the first time they were two.
They've only been in number two, only one other time.

Speaker 8 Do you know who beat him?

Speaker 1 Number two, Alabama, the only other time.

Speaker 1 I don't.

Speaker 8 Antonio Gates, Kent State.

Speaker 1 Oh, Maxion, baby. The football player.
Hell yeah. Correct.

Speaker 8 I want to give that to the football guys.

Speaker 3 I like that. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Is there any chance in hell that Patino wins?

Speaker 8 I don't think so.

Speaker 8 They could cover. The problem is, is

Speaker 8 Iona.

Speaker 8 I mean, I think they played one of the least amount of... I mean, they played 17 games

Speaker 8 this year.

Speaker 8 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 and they dunk.

Speaker 8 And they're probably have the advantage at every single position on the floor.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 1 And they also have, Alabama is one of those teams. It's always odd when you see an up-tempo team take a lot of threes.
They play great defense.

Speaker 3 And that's, you kind of miss that part because their offense is fun to watch when it's clicking correct yeah give me a 15 seed that uh there's always one that like it looks like they might force overtime or they're 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

Speaker 8 um

Speaker 8 oh that's a good one uh 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?

Speaker 1 Okay, sure. You like that? Yeah.
All right.

Speaker 8 Well, I'll give you both. Cleveland State is the number, is the number one team ranked in the Ken Pom luck factor.
They've won a ton of games close.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 Houston destroys bad teams. uh 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.

Speaker 8 Now, they don't play in a great conference, but they could. I mean, Iowa's gotten better defensively, but I don't think Grand Canyon will struggle to score.

Speaker 8 So, you like actually having, obviously, having underdogs that can score. Maybe Grand Canyon or Roberts against Ohio.
I like Ohio State. I think they have everything,

Speaker 8 especially if the games were only 36 minutes long. They might be undefeated and there'd be more talk about them.

Speaker 8 But

Speaker 8 I would take Grand Canyon Canyon to cover out of the 15.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 The Houston point is a good one.

Speaker 1 When we talked to Titus yesterday, I just literally just looked it up. 13 out of their 24 wins this year have been over 20 points.
They destroy teams.

Speaker 1 When they want to kick your ass, they kick your ass. So I like that.

Speaker 8 They play a lot of guys, too. Yeah.

Speaker 1 They're deep.

Speaker 3 I've always wondered about Bad Beats, the segment that you guys do on the nighttime sports center, because I love watching it, especially on Monday nights after football is over.

Speaker 1 Do we really watch it? I actually do. We watch the version on Twitter.

Speaker 3 No, here's what.

Speaker 8 Do you stay up?

Speaker 1 We get your rating.

Speaker 1 You get my one rating.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 3 So I've always wondered, especially when it comes to basketball, see, there's so many games.

Speaker 3 What's the process like in determining

Speaker 3 if your personal bad beat gets on the show?

Speaker 3 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 beats as some of the others, but you're just so, you're so mad because it happened to you.

Speaker 3 So do you have to like submit a bad beat and then you guys both vote on it together? Or is there like a tie-breaking vote that allows it onto the show?

Speaker 8 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 six o'clock and then come back to our office studio.

Speaker 8 We have a Zoom call set up with 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.

Speaker 8 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?

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 1 We have.

Speaker 8 I mean,

Speaker 8 this younger demo that you guys are big with are absolute degenerates.

Speaker 8 A couple of the worst beats we've had is soccer like i would never even know the soccer guy 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 with with the soccer bad beats are ready to go but yes i would guess the the the the the the process would be to get the both the best reaction from um from both guys that are sitting there on the desk doing them.

Speaker 8 I still remember one of the first, I think the first year we were doing it, Scott had like UMass

Speaker 8 in a college football game against like Toledo. They were playing at the Patriots Stadium.
He was watching it on his phone. It looked like an extra point went in.
They called it. It didn't.

Speaker 8 He lost because of that. And he was just screaming his head off because the reception on his phone wasn't good.

Speaker 8 But

Speaker 1 that's him.

Speaker 1 And that's a whole different level. Sometimes I'll send you mine directly because I do think I've always been a proponent that everyone needs gambling friends out there.

Speaker 1 Steve is one of my gambling friends. You need the guy because most people don't care.
Let's be honest.

Speaker 1 They don't really care 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.

Speaker 1 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 important.
Mental health.

Speaker 8 Very important. Very important.

Speaker 8 It was actually, I was thinking of you, Dan, a couple, 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.

Speaker 8 I'm at Madison Square Garden. And, you know, how they have the sports ticker up top, and you're looking at the scores.

Speaker 8 I remember before going into the garden at the bar, I bet Wisconsin-Penn State over in the Big Ten tournament.

Speaker 8 And I remember looking up at the score, and I'm like, oh, 36-33 halftime.

Speaker 1 All right, good.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 1 Final score. It was in the old, it was like 110.
Incredible.

Speaker 8 Like, it wasn't even close to that.

Speaker 1 Not even close. I remember that game.
Not so close.

Speaker 8 I believe it was 36-33.

Speaker 1 It was. It was 36-33 because Wisconsin had.

Speaker 1 Obviously, the Kaminsky years kind of changed things, but there was that stretch where they were good for at least once a March, whether it be Big Ten tournament or in the NCAA tournament, where they would go.

Speaker 1 No joke, like 10 or 11 minutes without making a field goal. But you just expect

Speaker 8 them in

Speaker 8 Michigan State 2000 Final Four is the worst Final Four game ever.

Speaker 1 No, no.

Speaker 1 What about the national championship, Yukon Butler?

Speaker 1 That was the one.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that was pretty bad. It was pretty bad.
I think Butler shot like 17% from the field.

Speaker 3 I mean, the Villanova win was pretty bad, too.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 3 The Villanova win back to what, 2018?

Speaker 1 Yeah, but at least they made it nice.

Speaker 8 Yeah, I mean, at least they were on fire.

Speaker 1 Yeah, right.

Speaker 8 Steven Chenzo got him and made himself a lottery pick.

Speaker 3 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 jokes.

Speaker 1 We also went to, I also did, we also went to that game in Bette Villenova, so we were very happy. Yeah, we were having a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 It was actually a great game in retrospect.

Speaker 1 I'm gonna look it up right now. UConn.

Speaker 8 When am I gonna see you guys at an event?

Speaker 8 Dude, we were saying, 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 he could

Speaker 8 out-leverage me. And then, in one of the most miraculous recoveries, I believe an hour later he was sitting down interviewing ed order on after he won a national security

Speaker 3 yes that was uh

Speaker 1 i still think i could tackle you see if yeah honestly oh you could definitely tackle yeah that's all i would say like i might end up hurting myself in the process but yeah but if you're gonna sign off for 60 minutes we're gonna go 60 minutes that's true yeah all right so here it is ukon butler ucon won this uconn won by double digits They shot 9% from three.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 8 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 and that Husky team.

Speaker 8 I thought they were the best team that year.

Speaker 1 Shout out to Kawhi.

Speaker 8 Kawhi probably still thinks about it.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 3 Was that the

Speaker 3 big undershirt guy, right? Yes. The Giants, the the biggest undershirt.
That's

Speaker 3 Steve. That's what I'm really excited about this year.
Can you give me some undershirts to look out for?

Speaker 3 A couple years ago, I made an all-undershirt team in the history of the tournament because I love that when those come out, like the really skinny guys with the pointiest elbows that wear the triple XLs.

Speaker 3 Is there anybody that comes to mind when I say that?

Speaker 8 Oh, not really. I mean, it is a really big pet peeve of mine because Anthony Davis, who's obviously an MVP candidate in the NBA, like

Speaker 8 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 white shirt underneath.

Speaker 8 They wear purple jerseys, he wears a black shirt underneath. Like, you're the Lakers, man.
Get a shirt that matches underneath.

Speaker 1 Yep, I agree. All right.
Uh, let's leave with this. So, Stanford Steve, everyone go check out, like I said, uh, Stanford, Steve, and the Bear, great podcast, college football.

Speaker 1 They're going to have a tournament preview. SV,

Speaker 1 How do you say it?

Speaker 8 SV pod.

Speaker 1 Did you talk?

Speaker 8 I tried.

Speaker 1 SV pod, which is also great. Our good friend Scott Vim Pelt and then Daily Wager every day.
So Steve, give us your national champion

Speaker 1 and maybe give us your final four if you got your final four.

Speaker 8 I do. We're going to go Zags.
We're going to go Texas, Baylor. And I'm going to go Oklahoma State.

Speaker 8 We'll ride the freshman, Cade Cunningham. He's proven how good good he is, even though I would rather have Jalen Suggs than Cade Cunningham from Gonzaga.
And I have Baylor beating Gonzaga.

Speaker 1 Okay. Wow.
Baylor beating Gonzaga. Interesting.

Speaker 3 Do you really believe that? Or is this, are you doing a coward where it's like, if you say, if you say something different, we're going to talk about it more.

Speaker 8 No,

Speaker 8 I don't believe in that.

Speaker 1 The game we didn't get, right?

Speaker 8 Exactly. Exactly.

Speaker 8 I actually had a bet on Baylor. I think they were getting four

Speaker 8 against Gonzaga. And then the game got postponed.
But

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 They didn't blink. They went to, you know, 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 every position.

Speaker 8 I really,

Speaker 8 I love their guards.

Speaker 8 The biggest issue, and it goes full circle to one of BFT's first

Speaker 8 questions, free throw shooting late in games. Yeah.

Speaker 8 It's one of my,

Speaker 8 it pains me to see these teams, you know, play so well, so latent, and then, and then they blow it late in games. It's obviously a huge factor

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 1 I like Baylor a lot as well.

Speaker 1 And I think, you know, like if you look at their adjusted defense, it's not, it's not in that top 25 that everyone points to, but I do think that they they turn up the defense when they need to yeah 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 and that that's how you got to do it uh you know especially if you're going to be down in in in uh in games knowing what's at line and and there's only 40 minutes i do think

Speaker 1 uh

Speaker 8 Probably Konzaga and Ohio State have the easiest roads to the elite eight.

Speaker 2 Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 I agree with that.

Speaker 8 And I do have Syracuse in Elite 8.

Speaker 1 All right. Well, Steve, thank you so much.
We appreciate it.

Speaker 1 Best of luck betting, and we'll talk soon.

Speaker 8 You guys are the best. Thanks for having me, man.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 Cece Steve.

Speaker 1 Thanks, Steve.

Speaker 1 What's up, guys? It's Big Cat here making my Irish entrance with proper number 12 Irish whiskey. How do you make an Irish entrance, you ask?

Speaker 1 It starts with a shot of proper number 12 Irish whiskey because real friends don't let friends Irish exit a party without a story to tell.

Speaker 1 Original proper number 12 is rich in a smooth blend of golden grain and single malt. Age four years in bourbon barrels.
Mix it up with some ginger ale for a classic and refreshing proper ginger.

Speaker 1 In the mood for something smooth but a little sweeter, try proper Irish apple, a delicious blend of proper's award-winning Irish whiskey with crisp, fresh notes of apple.

Speaker 1 So get out there and make your Irish entrance. Anything else just wouldn't be proper.
Here he is.

Speaker 3 Our best friend, Blake Griffin.

Speaker 1 This, so it makes it look like we were super nice to you.

Speaker 1 Happy birthday, Blake.

Speaker 1 How old are you?

Speaker 11 Thanks, man. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Thank you.

Speaker 1 How old are you?

Speaker 3 40?

Speaker 1 The Big 4-0?

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 Oldest guy to dunk when you do it again?

Speaker 11 I will be, yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's start recording. Here we go.

Speaker 1 That was supposed to be us being nice, and it was not.

Speaker 11 It turned into sort of a roast.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we double-clicked.

Speaker 1 How old are you, 40?

Speaker 8 Do you ever dunk?

Speaker 3 Well, Blake, we have some beef, unfortunately, and I think we have to discuss that. You probably know what the beef is.

Speaker 1 Here we go, let's do it. Yeah, all right.
Three, two, one.

Speaker 1 All right. We now welcome on

Speaker 1 one of our best friends in the entire world. It's Blake Griffin.

Speaker 3 A very good friend.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 So when we read the article, 36 podcasters recommend their favorite podcast.

Speaker 1 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 Dak Shepard's ability to lead all his guests to a place of candid honesty in such a wide range of topics.

Speaker 1 That was you pranking us.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 11 You just got double-crossed.

Speaker 1 Oh, you got me. Damn, watch it on True TV.
Guess what, Blake?

Speaker 1 I got news for you. Give it up, everybody.

Speaker 1 Great work, team.

Speaker 11 I had a whole team put that prank together, and

Speaker 11 it was sort of a slow roller.

Speaker 11 I had to make sure you guys saw it, and I wasn't sure you would.

Speaker 1 I knew it. I thought it was.

Speaker 3 When we talked about it on the show, I was like, wait a second.

Speaker 3 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?

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 7 And then this whole thing, the cameras weren't even rolling. Nope.

Speaker 3 Ashton, get out here, Ashton.

Speaker 5 I should have seen this.

Speaker 1 Damn. We're double crossing.

Speaker 11 You 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.

Speaker 11 But turns out they weren't hidden.

Speaker 1 They just weren't there. Are you worried that you might get double-crossed, though? Because you are triple-crossed.
Yeah.

Speaker 11 Yeah, I got my guard up now. Like, we film these episodes and I was just kind of like

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 11 My friend

Speaker 11 sent me a message after I posted something about Double Cross. And I was like, hey, man, just so you know, our whole friendship has been a prank.
You just got Double Cross.

Speaker 11 And I unfollowed him, blocked his number, everything.

Speaker 1 So, nice. I like that.
I hope that was Dak Shepard.

Speaker 3 Have you?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I was.

Speaker 3 Have you actually dunked and practiced yet? I saw that 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,

Speaker 3 have you been have you practiced dunking?

Speaker 11 You want some breaking news? Yes. Yeah.
I have dunked and I have played five on five.

Speaker 1 Okay. Whoa.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Okay.
So

Speaker 1 in a philosophical level,

Speaker 1 I would assume it's better to have never dunked than dunk and lose all your abilities to dunk like you.

Speaker 11 Better to have never dunked than dunking.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 11 Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 11 beyond just that, I think just everyone.

Speaker 8 Everyone in general being like, oh, this guy hasn't dunked.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 1 Right, but that's kind of like, it's like, yeah, I side with the fan on that one.

Speaker 3 Like the comment section on you,

Speaker 3 where it's like, this guy's got tiny dicks.

Speaker 1 Yeah, this guy lasted only 10 minutes.

Speaker 11 Which, which in theory is sort of being double-crossed.

Speaker 1 Oh, true, true. Okay.

Speaker 1 We only have dunk questions, by the way. That's fine.

Speaker 3 So you're in Brooklyn now. Congratulations.
But

Speaker 3 when you were in Detroit,

Speaker 3 did you reach out to Jared Goff and give him any tips about moving from LA, the bright lights, up to the windy city, Detroit?

Speaker 11 I did.

Speaker 11 Actually, Big Cat put us on a

Speaker 11 group text. And

Speaker 11 I just said, hey, man, let me know. At the time, I was still in Detroit.
Let me know if you need any help navigating the motor city.

Speaker 11 And then we had a laugh about how Big Cat is sort of the mutual, the common denominator between us being friends and then also getting traded to Detroit.

Speaker 1 From LA to Detroit.

Speaker 11 Which

Speaker 11 I think

Speaker 11 it's I think our friendship has run its course after this episode.

Speaker 1 I would say so. I would say this is pretty much it.
This is the final double cross.

Speaker 11 Now that we live like a mile from each other,

Speaker 11 I think it's time.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 But when do you think realistically you, me, PFT, James Harden, Kyrie, and Durant will go out to dinner?

Speaker 11 Um, well, we're about to leave today for a road trip. Okay.
Come back just for a day, go on another road trip, and then we're back for like a couple weeks.

Speaker 11 Oh, so there's a good chance in a couple weeks that we're all at like Mr. Chat or like, what's cool? Catch?

Speaker 1 Catch, yes, catch.

Speaker 11 Yes, that we go to catch and just like really blow it out, like bottles coming to the table.

Speaker 1 Done.

Speaker 1 All that. So

Speaker 11 I'll text those guys and

Speaker 11 see what they want to do.

Speaker 1 I like that. I got this app.

Speaker 3 I think it's called Resi, so I can get reservations on it.

Speaker 1 It tells me when big chambers are coming available.

Speaker 3 So let me know. I'll handle all the logistics, all the boring stuff you guys don't want to do.

Speaker 11 Yeah, make sure notifications are on.

Speaker 1 We want to get a good table. For sure.

Speaker 3 I saw that there was a little bit of a scrap with your team and the Knicks.

Speaker 1 How soon, huh?

Speaker 11 Well, that was more so. You're talking about Julius Randle? Yeah.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 3 So you kind of had to get the refs back.

Speaker 3 How quickly into a tenure 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 people?

Speaker 11 I mean, I'm ready now. I was ready.
Like, I took the first game just to like, it's like you're a new kid at school. You want to kind of like settle in.

Speaker 11 Um, but if somebody steps to you or it's your turn at like at lunch, like you got to like prove yourself.

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 11 so I don't know. So far, it's just been me trying to impress my teammates for the first week.
Um, and like, hopefully, I'll settle into like my normal self after that.

Speaker 1 What did uh, what did you and Steve Nash talk about with that picture of you guys sitting in and eating lunch?

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 8 everything

Speaker 11 philosophy, um,

Speaker 11 a little bit of basketball.

Speaker 11 We talked about

Speaker 11 the Brooklyn Bridge.

Speaker 1 It's pretty impressive.

Speaker 11 It's pretty impressive. I'm actually looking at it right now.

Speaker 1 I have a great view of it.

Speaker 11 Yeah, we talked about everything.

Speaker 11 Some of the stuff I can't talk to you guys about, obviously, but

Speaker 11 we hit a little bit of everything.

Speaker 1 I saw the subtle flex with the shoes, too. You had what was in the Jordan 4s?

Speaker 1 What were those that you were wearing?

Speaker 2 They were nice.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 I don't know. I can't

Speaker 1 see what I had on.

Speaker 11 I can't remember which ones.

Speaker 11 I don't know if they're out yet, so I don't know if I can talk about those.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, I'm not sure. Those are six shoes.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 11 Well, for Jordans, I get all the Jordans. You know, I've been in Jordan Athlete for eight years, so I get all those.

Speaker 11 But like, if you want some special shoes, I mean, I don't have the sneakers app, but um,

Speaker 11 I'm, I might look into it now.

Speaker 1 Uh, was that a plug? No, I know.

Speaker 1 I catch L's all the time.

Speaker 3 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?

Speaker 3 Are there like different levels where you like, if you're an all-star, you get the black card where you can just call up a number and get whatever shoe you want?

Speaker 11 You have like a, I have like a Jordan rep, and I just hit him if I like, I need a pair. But the cool thing about Jordan is they send you everything that's like coming out like the next month.

Speaker 11 They send it to you the month before. So every single shoe that Jordan releases,

Speaker 11 you get. So, I mean, what size did you guys?

Speaker 1 No, you've done this. No, you've done this before.
I'm not going to follow it. Nope.
I'm not going to fall. Did you not get those shoes that I sent? No, we didn't get those.
Well, I.

Speaker 1 It's a double cross. I was wondering, so your Jordan rep, did you notice that he maybe didn't respond as quickly ever since you stopped dunking?

Speaker 11 Actually, yeah, now that I think about it, I haven't heard from him in a while.

Speaker 1 I mean, Air Jordan and you literally can't get off the ground.

Speaker 1 I got to dunk, man. You have to dunk.
It's going to be awesome. Do you know how awesome it's going to be? Let me sick.

Speaker 1 Floorblade.

Speaker 11 First basket ever. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You should cherry pick, honestly, until you dunk. Just be like, guys.

Speaker 11 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 dunks or first play.
So we had a whole back and forth on that.

Speaker 1 Right. Because you, you can dunk, right? Like, you can actually still do it, right?

Speaker 11 I don't know. I guess you'll have to tune in and find out.

Speaker 1 Like, I just double-crossed. I assumed it was just a very long set of events where you didn't have the opportunity, but you

Speaker 1 like you.

Speaker 11 Well, okay, in all seriousness, let's really talk about this. The whole thing is like, oh, Blake hasn't dunked since 2019.

Speaker 11 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?

Speaker 11 So it's been 19 games.

Speaker 1 So when everybody's like, oh, it's been 400

Speaker 11 days, it sounds crazy, but really it's been like 19 games.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 3 But how many days?

Speaker 11 Oh, 19 days.

Speaker 1 No, how many days

Speaker 1 since your last dunk?

Speaker 11 I don't know exactly. It's 467.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow. That's a lot of days.

Speaker 1 Damn.

Speaker 1 Yeah. so

Speaker 1 I got to dunk, man. You have to dunk.
Like, people are coming at us now. You'll get it.

Speaker 1 You know, we get the residuals, too. Like, you, you, 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.

Speaker 1 Just wait.

Speaker 11 Just wait.

Speaker 3 Blake, you remember when you came to the office to celebrate Blake of the Year? I had those

Speaker 3 isometric shoes, the calf shoes.

Speaker 1 I can send you to you. The dunk souls.

Speaker 3 Yeah, the dunk soles. I can send those to you if you want.
They definitely help with my vert.

Speaker 11 Yeah, send them to me. What size are you?

Speaker 3 10 and a half, 11.

Speaker 11 Oh, I knew that from when I sent you guys shoes.

Speaker 1 Yeah, when you sent the Jordans. Yeah.

Speaker 11 Yeah, maybe send them. I'll try them on.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 interview we've ever done, by the way.

Speaker 1 Thank you.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Did you have a relationship with KD, Kyrie, and James? Like, did you know them? Have you hung out with them?

Speaker 11 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I've known those guys for like forever.
James and I were the same high school class, came out the same year

Speaker 11 in the draft. KD, I played against KD since I was in high school.
I've known Kai since he came in the league.

Speaker 11 I was actually working out a lot with Kyrie and Katie last summer

Speaker 11 when they, because they didn't go to the bubble. So we were working out in LA together for a while.

Speaker 11 So yeah, I've known, I've known, obviously known DeAndre forever. Right.
So I've known that's a long time.

Speaker 1 And then from like a basketball perspective, I would assume you coming in, they have established team. You know,

Speaker 1 are you like, is your role going to be different?

Speaker 1 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 Bosch when he was with LeBron.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 11 Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 11 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 L.A.,

Speaker 11 like I was setting screens for Chris Ball. I was short rolling, you know, getting sort of being like, you know, getting, facilitating to the other side or Lab to DeAndre or attacking the rim.

Speaker 11 Now at this point in my career, career, I can pick and pop a little bit. I can short roll.

Speaker 11 I can space in the corner. I can space in the wing.
So

Speaker 11 I see myself sort of like fitting in somewhere in there. And

Speaker 11 as I play games, that'll sort of develop.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 11 yeah, I mean,

Speaker 11 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 I feel confident doing both.

Speaker 11 So

Speaker 11 I'm excited to finally get out there.

Speaker 3 Are you concerned at all that there's just one ball?

Speaker 11 Yeah. See,

Speaker 11 when I originally signed, I didn't realize that until somebody tweeted at me and they were like, how's this going to work? And I was like, oh, shoot.

Speaker 1 So.

Speaker 11 You know, it definitely made me rethink my

Speaker 11 choice.

Speaker 11 But, you know, here we are. I'm stuck here.

Speaker 1 It's really funny to because that is everyone's take when they saw the original Kaidi and Katie and Kyrie, and then James Harden gets added, and everyone's like, There's only one ball, how's it gonna work?

Speaker 1 Well, turns out they're really fucking good basketball players, so they can figure out a way to make it work. Yeah,

Speaker 11 and it's like last night, James had 15 assists, right?

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 11 and also, he's he's, I don't know, I don't know what he averaged in Houston, but like nine assists, like that, that's nine shots for somebody else, right?

Speaker 3 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?

Speaker 11 No, he, so the, the

Speaker 11 pictures that we all, that we've seen, like, I think, 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?

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I actually that's my problem.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 3 I'm trying to get to Brooklyn. So you go out there, you stink it up for a couple nights, and that'll solve the problem for all of us.
So keep your eyes out for the fat James Harden twin.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 1 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 Hardener.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 There's a fat twin out there. Yeah.

Speaker 11 Oh, oh, that.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yes.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 A lazy podcast would ask you, who's your best friend on the Nets? I'm going to say.

Speaker 3 Who's your biggest enemy?

Speaker 3 Who's low-key your best friend on the team?

Speaker 1 Low-key? Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 11 That's like just such a messed up question.

Speaker 11 Like if you went to like again, if you went to a new school and you asked somebody, who's your best friend after like six days like it's embarrassing to say i don't have any best friends yet like i've 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

Speaker 1 he's a good guy landry shamett'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.

Speaker 1 I thought you said low-key. Oh, low-key.

Speaker 1 He's your high-key.

Speaker 3 He's answering the low-key question.

Speaker 1 He's your high-key.

Speaker 1 Who's your biggest enemy?

Speaker 1 Right now,

Speaker 1 gravity.

Speaker 1 Okay, good answer. Good answer.

Speaker 1 Really good answer.

Speaker 3 I remember before the season started, I think it was Kyrie was saying that there's going to be like a fluid rotation of coaches and people that are kind of like taking the lead on instructing the team.

Speaker 3 Has it been just Steve Nash as your your head coach, or has there been a day where it's like Kyrie walking everybody through Kyrie's vision of the team?

Speaker 11 So far, Steve Nash has been the coach since I've been here.

Speaker 11 But I will say this, in all seriousness, like,

Speaker 11 and 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

Speaker 11 our team is so, like, it's so many veterans.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 And Steve does such a good job, what I was really, really surprised is he does such a good job of like

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 And it's not just like, hey, we're doing this because ultimately, like, we're the ones that have to do it.

Speaker 11 And I think he puts a lot of trust in those guys to like sort of figure it out, talk it out, and

Speaker 11 get to that point. Because, I mean, James and Kyrie and DeAndre, they're like, IQ levels are very, very high.

Speaker 11 So

Speaker 11 there's a lot of player-like discussions on this team. And that's kind of how it was with the Clippers as well.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 My last question, because I know you got to run, and we appreciate it. True TV double-cross.

Speaker 1 Tune in today. We're running this Friday.
Tune in today.

Speaker 1 My last question for you was: did Chris Paul call you about maybe coming to the Suns as a free agent?

Speaker 11 The Suns weren't on my list, so I never really got that far.

Speaker 1 You had a list, so he didn't call you?

Speaker 11 I had a list. Yeah, no.

Speaker 1 He did not.

Speaker 1 Trump Paradise? Wow.

Speaker 11 Why would he call?

Speaker 1 I don't know. What up? I was just thinking.

Speaker 11 Now that I think about it, like, yeah, he, wow.

Speaker 1 He should have called. Wait, give us your list because

Speaker 1 this will get it. We'll get a headline from this.
Give us the list.

Speaker 11 I will tell you some of the teams.

Speaker 11 I really liked Boston.

Speaker 11 I really liked Golden State. I really liked Portland.

Speaker 11 There was a few other teams,

Speaker 11 but I had like a lot of, like, I had, I had a, it was a tough decision.

Speaker 11 But, you know, ultimately, I had to do what was best for me and, and I think like my ability to

Speaker 11 get a dunk.

Speaker 3 And for the podcast and for part of my take. Yes.

Speaker 1 And for the

Speaker 11 podcast. And for our friendship, honestly.
Yeah. You know, we talked, Dan and I talked.
And,

Speaker 11 you know, he offered me

Speaker 11 to stay at his apartment.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You can.

Speaker 11 With him and him and his family. So that was a big thing, too.

Speaker 3 Yeah. It's a free pad.

Speaker 3 I'm actually shocked that you didn't have the sons on your list list after the bubble shenanigans last year. That would have been like A number one for most guys out there, I think.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 11 The West is tough, man. The West is like,

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 11 I don't know.

Speaker 11 I just didn't.

Speaker 1 Not a fan of hotel parties.

Speaker 1 I did tell you, and I'll say it because

Speaker 1 I'm going to hold you to it.

Speaker 1 I did tell you, 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And sign jersey.

Speaker 11 I can offer you two tickets for one game every three home games.

Speaker 1 Oh, and sign jersey. Would it be really awkward?

Speaker 1 I was thinking if I said, hey, Blake, can you, if I buy the jersey, can you go around the locker room on your first day and get everyone to sign it for me?

Speaker 11 Yeah.

Speaker 11 Hey,

Speaker 8 what's up, man?

Speaker 8 Yeah, thanks.

Speaker 11 Excited to be here. Can you guys get this for me?

Speaker 1 Oh, wait, you're good.

Speaker 11 That's for everybody. Then

Speaker 1 you cut out one sec. Say that last line again.
Yeah, wait. Hold on.
Stop moving.

Speaker 11 If you want to sign jersey, then it's only going to be two tickets once a month.

Speaker 11 That's probably signed Jersey's, you know,

Speaker 11 that's a tough.

Speaker 3 That's probably as much as we'll go anyway.

Speaker 1 So we'll take that. Yes.

Speaker 3 Also, are you going to do a crossover with Impractical Jokers?

Speaker 1 Maybe. Yeah.

Speaker 11 Sal.

Speaker 11 I was going to try to nail him.

Speaker 1 The whole gang, Sal, Q. Sal, and, you know, the other three.
Myrrh. The guys.
Frankie. Q, Merr.
Yeah. Yeah.
The guys. The guys.
All right. Well, Blake, we'll let you go.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 11 Of course, of course. And yeah, let me know about the ticket.
I think Dax is coming to the next home game.

Speaker 1 All right. Cut him off.
Cut him off.

Speaker 1 All right. Happy birthday, man.

Speaker 11 Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 12 Lucy's the obvious choice for a true nicotine pouch connoisseurs. That's why their official nicotine pouch partner at Barstool Sports.

Speaker 12 They go up to 12 milligrams in strength and have a unique shape that feels great. We all use the breakers.
They're the only pouches with a hydration capsule inside.

Speaker 12 They're a totally new kind of pouch, only available from Lucy.

Speaker 12 You pop it in your mouth, break it with your teeth, and it's instantly hydrated, releasing that nicotine faster, and it's a burst of flavor. No other pouch has that, I promise you that.

Speaker 12 Gas station pouches get the job done, but once you've tried Lucy, you won't want anything else in your pocket.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's wrap up the show. Get everyone on their way for March Madness.

Speaker 1 I'm already excited. Sunday show, we will.
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.

Speaker 1 We just have so many sports to talk about.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 1 I am. Now that we're in it, now that it's happened, I don't like it.
Oh, wait. Breaking news.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Billy,

Speaker 1 Billy, we need your final four. We uh we're logging them all into the pardon my take archives.
Uh, Gonzaga, okay,

Speaker 1 Michigan, okay

Speaker 1 Texas Tech, okay,

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 let me say

Speaker 3 Illinois

Speaker 3 Iowa can't be in the final four, right?

Speaker 1 Because of Michigan. Well, you can if you want to.

Speaker 3 They're your final four, and it would be Gonzaga.

Speaker 1 All right, so

Speaker 1 no, so that's good, though. Iowa, Gonzaga, Texas Tech, and Michigan.
No, but

Speaker 1 Michigan would have to play Iowa. No, Michigan's not in the same bracket as Iowa.
That's

Speaker 1 not okay. All right.
So who's in your finals?

Speaker 3 Is it Gonzaga and Iowa in the finals?

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Is that

Speaker 1 work? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
All right. So Gonzaga.

Speaker 1 So Gonzaga, Iowa, Michigan, Texas Tech. That is your final four.
All right.

Speaker 1 Michigan over Iowa. All right.
Michigan over Iowa.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 3 Okay, all good. All right, okay.
All right, thanks for asking.

Speaker 1 Three teams on the left side of the bag. I speak out right now from pardon my take, Hank or Jake.
Billy, breaking news, Billy's final four.

Speaker 1 We didn't lie to him. No.

Speaker 1 We could have, but that wouldn't be funny.

Speaker 3 I know. This is Billy.

Speaker 3 You don't want to change Billy. Yeah.
The second Billy starts to get in on the joke, then it's all over.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 watch with COVID, he ends up being right. Like, watch an entire bracket gets wiped out.
They're like, well, we got to pick two from the West now. Gonzaka and Iowa are both in there.

Speaker 1 Okay. Firefest of the week.
PFT, you want to start?

Speaker 3 Yeah, my Fire Fest of the Week is

Speaker 3 I got phished. I got hacked by Brogan Robeck.
So

Speaker 3 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,

Speaker 3 I could have probably told you it would have been through a Brogan Robeck-related phishing scheme. But he DM'd me yesterday from his account.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 3 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?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I'll wear the Brogan Roeback 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.

Speaker 3 And then a bunch of like Arabic writing flashed across my screen. Yeah.
And I was like, this is not good. What I've just done.

Speaker 1 When you said that you clicked on a link, I was like, okay, anyone could have that happen.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 Because that's...

Speaker 1 That's like rookie boss.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 3 I immediately started to sweat. And I was like, I've got to change all my information.
I hit hit him back. I was like, hey, man, that link looks a little sus.
Are you sure this is you?

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 3 And apparently other people got hacked via a Brogan Roeback-related phishing scheme too. Like a bunch of his former college teammates were tweeting about it today.

Speaker 3 So I wasn't the only one that did it, but I changed all my passwords. And

Speaker 3 I was like, this link. does look suspect.
I don't think that it's you, Brogan. He's like, oh yeah, it's still me.
Just give me your phone number. I'll text you pictures of the shoes.

Speaker 3 And I was about about to give him my phone i was like yeah that sounds secure i was like no you give me your number and then he just went radio silent on that

Speaker 3 so yeah i'm uh we'll see what happens but if i if my account starts to tweet out just

Speaker 3 uh links to hardcore pornography like albert breers did a few years ago or james browns did that was him just on you jizz yeah little 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.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 Absolutely.

Speaker 3 I've never really understood why porn websites have the tweet this video button right next to the video.

Speaker 1 Sexy little brunette bitch sucking and fucking her personal trainer's big cock. Yeah.
That was James Brown tweeted that out.

Speaker 3 James Browner.

Speaker 1 Sorry for anyone who's listening to this with their kids in the car.

Speaker 3 But that's just a fact beforehand.

Speaker 3 As to which we are.

Speaker 1 Wait, did I read that right? Can you read that for me, Jake?

Speaker 1 I don't think I pronounced it.

Speaker 3 Can you spell it out?

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 1 How you spell it? Kyle C. K.
It's there.

Speaker 1 Okay. All right.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, that's, it's hilarious that you got fished by Brogan Roeback.

Speaker 3 Yeah, if I had to pick a way to get my account hacked into, I'm glad that it was at least through Brogan. He's very on-brand.
Also, this is, people forget about the Albert Breer

Speaker 3 hacking that happened back in 2016, I think.

Speaker 3 He was like, Pornhub, thanks for letting me shoot the awesome anal scene with Ava Adams.

Speaker 1 Bert.

Speaker 1 I hate my job.

Speaker 3 I'd rather work as a porn star.

Speaker 3 Nothing would make me happier than if Chikri cummed a little more on my face. Oh, my God.
It is with a heavy heart I am to announce that Albert Breer passed away last night at 3.37 a.m.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 9 Do you have any new athletic gear coming out?

Speaker 3 Mike Glennon? Any scarves?

Speaker 1 Oh, I don't know.

Speaker 3 Neck warmers? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Shoes? Shoes? Yeah. No, it's...
No, this was a tip. No one asked me to click on a link.
I don't click on links.

Speaker 1 All right. Hank.
I don't have a Fire Fest.

Speaker 9 It's March Madness, best day of the year, best weekend of the year.

Speaker 9 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.

Speaker 9 There's going to be a lot of people with some rough Mondays.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Honestly, this is the perfect time of year to just quit your job. I had some friends that did that for a couple years.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 3 And then they'd just come, they'd go back on the job hunt in like mid-April, late April.

Speaker 1 Worked out well for them.

Speaker 1 The Monday really is going to fuck people really bad. And

Speaker 1 I was thinking about it more like it. Saturday is going to be so bizarre because Saturday was always the day that you had two days straight of just chaos.

Speaker 1 And then you had that like nice little Saturday morning where the games don't start till like 12:30 or 1 o'clock, and you ease your way into it.

Speaker 1 Now it's just Saturday is just going to, we're going to get blitzed again all day.

Speaker 3 Fuck. Hank, I've got a Fire Fest for you if you want one.
Okay.

Speaker 3 I didn't want to tell you this on

Speaker 3 Wednesday night, but I won another game of Warzone.

Speaker 1 Wow. Oh, and you're facing it.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 9 Wow. So, I mean, I'm happy for you.
I've never won a Solos game myself.

Speaker 1 I was going to ask you if you've still not ever won that.

Speaker 3 He hasn't.

Speaker 1 Never have. He has not.

Speaker 3 Jake, you've been playing for a while.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 1 Is this your Fire Fest that you noted that? No, no. Oh.

Speaker 1 I mean, that could be.

Speaker 5 But I think the end is near for Alan Chris because NBC

Speaker 5 signed

Speaker 1 Drew Brees. Mike Trico.

Speaker 5 Which is bittersweet because the fellow Serokees alum.

Speaker 1 I got a hot take. I don't think Drew Brees is going to be that good in the booth.

Speaker 3 He might not be. Well, Well, he's not going to be in the booth immediately, right?

Speaker 1 No, but if what Jake is saying ends up being true,

Speaker 1 I am not.

Speaker 1 There's going to be a wave, and we saw it with Jason Wynn. There's going to be a wave of people being like, and as much shit as we give Tony Romo, he's objectively good.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Our problem with Tony Romo is just that he just like... Bukakis weird noises into our ears at random times.

Speaker 3 I also think our problem with Tony Romo is a problem with ourselves, where it's like we have to find something that's wrong with everybody to laugh at and to joke about.

Speaker 1 He's objectively very good. Very good.

Speaker 3 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.
You're right.

Speaker 1 Drew Brees.

Speaker 3 I've never cheesed once watching Drew Brees give a press conference. Right.

Speaker 1 Tony Romo, even when Tony Romo was playing, he had a personality. I don't think Drew Brees has a personality.

Speaker 3 Yeah, he's never done anything cool like gone to Cabo before playoffs.

Speaker 1 Hey, it's not a knock on him. It's just, it's just, I don't think he's...

Speaker 1 Yeah, I would sell all my stock on Drew Brees being good in the booth.

Speaker 3 Also, with the rib injuries, his lung capacity is an issue. Yeah, I think it's a good idea.

Speaker 1 You can get winded pretty easily. So we won't have Alan Chris much longer.
I don't even know know who that is. Alan Chris, Al Michaels, and Chris Collins.

Speaker 9 Oh, I thought you were saying Alan Chris.

Speaker 1 I did say Chris Michael. I'm wondering if you're saying Alan Chris.

Speaker 3 And I was pretending to be like, yeah,

Speaker 3 that's going to be tough to get over.

Speaker 1 He was not Israel Pros, bro. Very like Ruth Chris.
Bad of you to not do the last names, too. Fair enough.
What are you both Carrie Underwood?

Speaker 5 Sunday Night with Alan Chris or something? Isn't that in the song?

Speaker 1 I don't know. You're big.

Speaker 3 They're the best on TV, according to Carrie Underwood.

Speaker 3 But yeah, you should have said Mr. Michaels and Mr.
Collins. Like this guy called The Miracle on Ice, Jake.

Speaker 1 It's true.

Speaker 1 He's not spouse.

Speaker 3 But although Alan Chris would be a great name for a generic sports broadcaster, yeah. Yeah.
That might be my burner. I might create a burner.

Speaker 3 Chris.

Speaker 1 Apologies. All right.
My Firefest is. It's not that the Bears sign Idiot, and this is just the memes that get sent around and I get tagged.

Speaker 1 And 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.

Speaker 1 It doesn't even fucking make sense because the N is used in

Speaker 1 the Wilson. It's O-N,

Speaker 1 and then it's not used in Andy.

Speaker 3 So it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense at all.
It doesn't make any sense if you already guessed. He gave you R-S-T-L-N-E.

Speaker 1 Correct. Yeah.
So fix your fucking memes. I'm not mad about it.
Wait, wait.

Speaker 3 Let me pull up this meme real quick. I'm so mad about it.
Don't stop sending it to Biquette though. Stop sending it to him.

Speaker 1 It's not funny. And everyone's like, oh, my God.
Look how funny this is.

Speaker 3 I like the one where it was

Speaker 3 Andy Dalton with Russell Wilson's hair.

Speaker 3 Did you see the video of Russell Wilson Wilson riding his Peloton wearing an oxygen mask?

Speaker 1 Yes, yeah. Jesus Christ.
He looked lame.

Speaker 3 He looked limited. So lame.
He looked very limited. He was such a lame-o.

Speaker 3 Let me pull up this meme real quick here because there was something else that was wrong with the Wheel of Fortune.

Speaker 1 Jake's got it right there.

Speaker 1 Okay. It's just a problem.

Speaker 1 Okay, so here's the problem.

Speaker 3 Big cat, here's the problem, right off the bat. R-S-T-L-N-E is given to you all the time.

Speaker 1 No, that's only in the bonus round.

Speaker 5 The

Speaker 2 real puzzles.

Speaker 1 No, that is the.

Speaker 3 Jake, that's the bonus round puzzle right there.

Speaker 1 Are we we sure? Yes, that's the bonus round.

Speaker 1 So R should be there for Russ.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. That whole thing doesn't make sense.

Speaker 3 It's stupid. Stop sharing it.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 that was a mistake by me. Terrible meme.
Let's guess numbers. I got the generator right up.
27.

Speaker 1 99.

Speaker 1 Wait,

Speaker 1 I'll do 69. 69.
Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. You got to take it back.

Speaker 1 No, I can't guess too. What? Okay.
No, I can't.

Speaker 1 19. Oh, so close.
Damn.

Speaker 3 It's a pretty good one. Did you have 19? No.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 This would be like, can we all agree that if we, if anyone guesses it on the road, it's like a half a guess?

Speaker 3 Yeah, it doesn't really count.

Speaker 1 It's not a full share of a win. It's a half a win.

Speaker 3 It's like you winning on another podcast.

Speaker 1 Right, that didn't count. That was a half a guess.
That's an exhibition. Right.
It was just exceptional. It was two in a row.
But yeah,

Speaker 1 I don't take claim as a two-time winner. No.

Speaker 3 Annual fact of the day: a pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes. Good job, Billy.
Love you guys.

Speaker 3 Say I'm taking

Speaker 3 my

Speaker 3 Today's on my day to find a new shiny.

Speaker 3 I'm coming for your love of dreams.

Speaker 3 I'm only

Speaker 3 all

Speaker 3 here.

Speaker 3 Come to the

Speaker 3 state.

Speaker 3 Is it all

Speaker 3 just to be the one we're

Speaker 3 all things out to run?

Speaker 3 Joy and I.

Speaker 3 I'll be coming for you anyway.

Speaker 3 Take on

Speaker 3 me.

Speaker 3 Take on me.