Blake Bortles, Steelers RB James Conner, And Baseball Is Screwed

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Speaker 1 On today's part of my take, we have old friend, recurring guest, Blake Bortles. We also have James Connor on the show.
Unbelievable story. If you don't know it, it's incredible.

Speaker 1 He's got a new memoir out about

Speaker 1 beating cancer and then getting to the NFL.

Speaker 1 We have baseball being fucked. We have NBA bubble.
We have Hot Seat Cool Thrown.

Speaker 1 And Guys on Chicks, the return of the Mount Flushmore, the volleyback of the Mount Flushmore, things that girls do that guys hate, submitted by girls. Do you have any predictions for that one?

Speaker 1 Taking too long, getting ready. Wait, so it's things that girls do that guys hate.
Don't hate. Said by girls.
Said by girls. So it's fine.
And definitely not male listeners that submitted them.

Speaker 1 Of course, women. Okay.
Hank has done a very deep screening process. Faking pregnancies.
Yes. All right.

Speaker 3 When cool, creamy ranch meets tangy, bold buffalo, the hole 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 1 Welcome to part of my take presented by the Cash App. Go download it right now.
Use code Barcelona. You get $10 for free, $10 to ASPCA.
Today is Wednesday, June 17th, and baseball is fucked.

Speaker 1 Baseball is going to be back, but it looks like Rob Manfred got caught with his pants around his ankles. And I've not seen an emasculation of a sitting commissioner like this, I think, in my lifetime.

Speaker 1 The way that the players are all going at his throat and saying, like, Trevor Bauer had a great thread on it on Twitter yesterday, basically outlining exactly why Manfred changed his stance from 100% we're playing the games to, I I don't know.

Speaker 1 And basically what it comes down to is he doesn't want to announce that the league is coming back right now because they would have to pay the players for more money.

Speaker 1 He's waiting until they can only get ready for a 50-game season.

Speaker 1 The owners, if you don't understand this situation, fuck the owners because the owners essentially are saying if we have to pay the players more than the 50 games that we want to play minimum,

Speaker 1 we are going to lose money and we don't want to lose money. And guess what? We've said it before, we've said it again.
The owners will be making money forever.

Speaker 1 If they had any kind of foresight, the idea here would be take a loss this season, but save the baseball season. And dominate the ratings.
Dominate the ratings. Dominate.

Speaker 1 Like baseball should have been back a month ago. They should be basically saying, here's our opportunity to recapture an audience when there are no sports.
This is the long play.

Speaker 1 Lose some money this year, but keep baseball going. Have everyone triumph baseball and say, that is the sport that came back first.
Hooray, baseball.

Speaker 1 Instead, they're taking the short-term approach, the dumb approach, where they're saying, we don't want to play more than 50 games because we don't want to pay the players prorated salary, which we agreed to.

Speaker 1 Therefore, we're going to give bad faith negotiations all the way through and hope that the general public will buy this bullshit, which they have in the past.

Speaker 1 But this year, it's not. For whatever reason, I think it's a combination of social media.
I think fans are significantly smarter than they were 20 years ago.

Speaker 1 And I think more than anything, if you read the room a little bit, like, guess what?

Speaker 1 Guess who isn't having the best time right now? Billionaires. Be worried about it.
In terms of people of means. Billionaires when there's a pandemic and 40 million people are out of work.

Speaker 1 Billionaires, let's just say we're not crying for them. So it has been an absolute cluster fuck.
They've ruined it every which way. We're so

Speaker 1 goddamn desperate for sports right now that we're talking about Korean baseball in part of my team. Yes, okay.
I'm becoming obsessed with top chef. I have nothing else to do at night.

Speaker 1 I'm desperate for, I'm waking up at three o'clock in the morning to watch Australian Rugby League, a sport that I don't really care about that much. What?

Speaker 1 Because, well, no, I'm a rugby union guy and a sevens guy. Okay.
But

Speaker 1 I'm desperate for sports. We are all desperate for sports.
And all you have to do is just put games on TV. We'll watch them if they're on TV.
We will support. People will come out of the woodwork.

Speaker 1 People that haven't watched baseball in 10 years will will tune in to watch baseball this summer because we're starved for sports and they are absolutely shitting down their own throats and they're getting exposed for it too.

Speaker 1 Like, I can't remember another time when, well, first of all, credit to the players. They've done a pretty good job of holding the line.

Speaker 1 And I'm sure there are some players out there that would like to say, maybe, hey, let's make some concessions. We want to play baseball.
We're already getting paid millions of dollars.

Speaker 1 I'm sure that there are a couple players in the league that would want to go out and say that, but nobody's said it yet. They're all kind of maintaining that line.

Speaker 1 And when they're all unified like that, it's very, very tough for the owners to put any extra leverage on them whatsoever.

Speaker 1 So I think we're all resigned to the fact that it's going to be a 50-game season, which will result in an asterisk on whoever wins this World Series, unless it's the Nationals or the Cubs or the Red Sox.

Speaker 1 So just be warned, we're getting way out ahead of that storyline right there. Yeah, Hank?

Speaker 4 And I think this Sunday's documentary really illustrated this fact even more, but they don't have a steroid boom to come where they can look past and be like, oh, this is great for the sport.

Speaker 4 That's not going to work this time. So when they come out of this year where everyone hates them, they're not going to have that boom of sport that's going to bring fans back.
Right.

Speaker 1 Unless they let people do steroids again. Right, but they can't.
Which would be sick.

Speaker 4 Because they can't pretend like they didn't know about what's going on. That ship has sailed.

Speaker 1 I'm trying to find the tweet, but essentially an agent summed it up perfectly.

Speaker 1 He was like, the Miami Marlins have basically pleaded that they were going broke for years and years and years, gave John Carlos Stanton an insane contract, and then sold the team with multiple offers for a billion-dollar profit.

Speaker 1 So, cry me a fucking river owners. Get your shit together.

Speaker 1 Take one for the team. The Marlins also baseball speak.
They had Marlins Man and the Mermaids lined up as season ticket holders. So that's like a little skirmish.
He's going to spend extra money.

Speaker 1 He's going to make Marlins Man retire. He's going to retire.
He's alluded to it. He's thrown it out there that he might retire.
And that's sad. So I have a fix.
He's got cats to feed. I have a fix.

Speaker 1 On Saturday, I went down a rabbit hole. I want to buy a whiffleball league.
And I watched probably three hours of this wiffleball league in Michigan. I want to buy a wiffleball league.

Speaker 1 I want to bring together, there's like a bunch of different leagues all across America.

Speaker 1 I want to be the Vince McMahon of Wiffleball and bring them all together and and make a national wiffleball league because you know what? I actually think whiffleball can just be the new sport.

Speaker 1 Well, anyone can play. All you need is like a lawn chair, a whiffleball, and a battle.
These guys are from French.

Speaker 1 So whiffleball is sick, but here's the only problem.

Speaker 1 I'm not poo-pooing your idea because I think that it's a good idea, but we have to figure out how to make it entertaining to watch because

Speaker 1 the pitches are sick, right? The pitches are awesome. But if you have a great pitcher, then it's just going to be a no-hitter every time.
No, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 So I actually talked to the commissioner of this league. It's been going on since 2009, and they have stats, they have cy Young's, they have highlights, they do everything.
He said that there is a

Speaker 1 there's a rule that you can't pitch too fast to make it more, you know, a hitters league. And I also want to implement the rule that every team has to have a 300-pound kid who is under 5'8, and

Speaker 1 he gets to use the big red bat. Okay.
So there we go. There's Instant Office.
He's the DH. I'm into that.
Fat kids hitting dingers. That's America, baby.

Speaker 1 You want ratings? Have every game played in a replica stadium of a Major League Baseball. Perfect.
Those things are awesome. Perfect.
I honestly think that there's, like,

Speaker 1 I was a little high, but I watched three hours of it, and it was fucking sick. I went down this rabbit hole, and I was like, these guys are awesome.
Like, the stats, the fact they had a Cy Young race.

Speaker 1 Come on. I think do it.
I like where your head's at. Mike's up.
There's a guy mic'd up in right field. I think the pitcher.
Which is weird because he was like 10 feet away from everyone else.

Speaker 1 Right, so you can just use a boom mic. Yeah, right.
Or just like have the camera pointed at.

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. There should be, a dad needs to pitch.

Speaker 1 A dad over the age of 60 needs to be the one on the mound wearing the official uniform of Wiffleball, which would be no shoes, maybe Birkenstocks, but no shoes, preferably.

Speaker 1 Cargo khaki shorts and like a golf shirt, like a button-up. Flip-flops.
A button flops. Yeah, flip-flops are fine.
A button-up, like a golf polo that's got a brand on the chest.

Speaker 1 It might be a fishing shirt.

Speaker 1 It's too many pockets. It's got a logo on there from one of his clients that he sold something to.
He sold some sort of network solution to that company. That's a insurance five years ago.

Speaker 1 He has a logo on his breast. And yeah, he's the pitcher, and he has to have a beer knitting.
Yes, and everyone has to dip. Yes.
Or just have a big water.

Speaker 1 Which would be problematic because I also imagine that we'll do an age restriction 15 to 25 years old. Anyone older than 25, they can't play anymore.
Oh, that sucks.

Speaker 1 Why did you just age us out of the league, though? Well, we're going to be the commissioners, so who cares? And we can change the rules whenever we want.

Speaker 1 Well, the reality is baseball is fucking this up big time. Yeah, they suck.
So that's what's going on with baseball.

Speaker 1 In another world, basketball is seemingly going to come back, although Kyrie Irving has expounded on his comments

Speaker 1 from the weekend.

Speaker 1 He now wants to start his own league. The Michael Scott Paper Company Basketball League.
I'm down for it. If you can get it together, I feel like that's one of those things, though, that if you start.

Speaker 1 It'd be like a three-on-three league.

Speaker 1 We're about four-pointers. Right, like we can start our own league.
Like, there's a lot of fucking paperwork, dude.

Speaker 1 Like, even this wiffleball thing, the only way this actually happens is if I tell Erica, like, hey, can we buy this whiffleball league? And she's like, yes, we should. And I'm like, okay, great.

Speaker 1 Just remind me after we've purchased it in a year.

Speaker 1 And I don't want to actually have to do. I've already kind of lost interest from what I just said.
When is whiffleball season? Yeah, I don't know. I don't really care.
I'm not really into it.

Speaker 1 One of the outfielders should have also. You also want to flex.
Yeah, one of the outfielders should have a grill in front of him.

Speaker 1 Like, the center fielder should also be flipping burgers during the game. And a dog, a stray dog.
Yeah. Multiple.
So basketball, Kyrie Irving's going to start his own league.

Speaker 4 Should also have the Mark McGuire whiffleball bats, and you get one swing.

Speaker 1 That's a fat kid. No, that's a fat kid.
The fat kid gets it. Oh, there's a 300-pound kid on every team.
He's the DH. He doesn't have to field, and he gets to use that bat.

Speaker 1 And he gets to be a ghost runner. He gets to use ghost runners, too.
And no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We need him to trot.
We need him to trot. If he hits a dinger.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, if he hits a dinger, he gets to go all the way around. He maybe has the runner that starts behind the plate and has to run for him.
Yes, Yes, yes. Designated runner.
I like that.

Speaker 1 Billy, what were you going to say? I don't know. The wiffle ball.
I play. There's no running.
Okay. Well, we don't play the real wiffle ball.
This league is awesome. You run.

Speaker 1 All right. So basketball.
We had, so Kyrie Ever is going to start his own league. And then if they do play the NBA season, Sham's recurring guest had a Shams drop, Shambaum,

Speaker 1 where he

Speaker 1 just

Speaker 1 basically they're going to have like summer camp, and it looks awesome. So hotel amenities, players-only lounge, NBA 2K, TVs, gaming, pools, barbers, manicurist, pedicurists.

Speaker 1 Whoa, whoa, whoa, you left out trails. Trails.
They're also trails. Pool slash trails.

Speaker 1 Trails, 24-hour VIP concierge, daily entertainment, movie screenings, DJ sets, video games, ping pong, pool, lawn games.

Speaker 1 Players can attend other games. This sounds like, I know it probably isn't ideal.
And if you're a multi-million millionaire NBA player, you're probably like, hey,

Speaker 1 I don't really need summer camp because my life is summer camp. But if you're trying to get everyone to be like, it's not that bad, they've done a good job.

Speaker 1 Like, all they missed was Ice Cream Machine. And groupies inside the bubble.
That's a big question that I haven't seen addressed. Is there going to be just like a rotating cast that comes in and out?

Speaker 1 Because if so, you need to test them all before they got there.

Speaker 1 But really, the ice cream machine. The ice cream machine is important, too.
I don't want to downplay that either. But what if it's just the well,

Speaker 1 in your eyes? I would imagine that

Speaker 1 a lot of NBA players' eyes.

Speaker 1 I'm going to guess

Speaker 1 there are some

Speaker 1 NBA players

Speaker 1 that would rather

Speaker 1 motorboat and drown themselves in tits. In 50 years, they'll be like, big cat, you know what? You're right.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 I don't see James Harden pulling that right now. Now, that ice cream.
I want to see how the groupie situation is going to be addressed because, I mean,

Speaker 1 what if the just like rate of technical fouls and physicality of the game goes way, way up because nobody's having sex inside the bubble? That would be great for us. It'd be

Speaker 1 back to NBA. A return to the 80s in BA when men were men.
Rex Chapman, dogs, bro. And Kurt Rambus averaged 9.2.
This is the content we're here for. Fuck yeah.
75,000 retweets. 125,000 likes.

Speaker 1 I like that they're going to have ping-pong. Stolen from a little kid.
Ping-pong video games and lawn games set up.

Speaker 1 They're going to have like, can you imagine the players like actually,

Speaker 1 you know what this is? This is like the world's best apartment complex.

Speaker 1 And when you see the amenities that are listed when you move in you're like that's gonna be sick i'm gonna use the projection screen room in the common theater area all the time pool table pool tables we're gonna be playing on that and then nobody ever uses the pool table and your apartment is one bedroom and like 600 square feet you're like shit you know what i really like another room right and it's a 15 minute walk away from the ping pong table and the lounge that's right next to the property manager and you don't you don't ever want to interact with the guy that you pay rent to it would be really funny to figure out who is like everyone knows the kid uh in your freshman dorm who like there's a common area room who basically didn't have a TV in his dorm room and used the common area room as his room.

Speaker 1 Who's going to be that guy in the NBA? That was me.

Speaker 1 I'll be very honest with you. Well, that's no, no, I had a TV, but no, it's different.
No, it's different than what you're thinking because I didn't use that as my common area.

Speaker 1 I was just, I had a pile back then. I've always been about the pile life.
And then that became the over the overflow of my pile was in the common area. That's brutal.
Yeah. People hated you.

Speaker 1 I got some bad.

Speaker 1 Well, nobody else hung out in that room at all. Right.
Probably. People hated you.
They motherfucked you. They couldn't.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 You were one step below the RA. And if the RAL,

Speaker 1 you were one step above the RA. It was a complete opposite of the RA, is the situation I was.
The RA hated me.

Speaker 1 No, I'm saying everyone on the hallway, they're like, if you had a gun with one bullet, who'd you kill? It'd be like, PFT or the RA. Maybe PFT.

Speaker 1 I also had to fake IDs, so you got to take the good with the bad. This pile's pretty fucking annoying.

Speaker 1 You're willing to overlook a lot of stuff as a freshman in college if the person can come home with a Cuban natty ice. That's true.

Speaker 1 All right, so that's basically everything that's going on in the sports world. We're still in a waiting pattern.
We're basically like circling a city in a plane, waiting to land.

Speaker 1 So the players are going to go to the games. They can.
To the other team's games. That's going to be fun to watch.
Yes, that will be great. That will be great.

Speaker 1 I mean, I want it. I just bring it back.
Let's fucking do it. Let's get it going.

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Speaker 4 Quick programming note for the documentary review on Friday. I have not watched this documentary, but I have it on good, good sources.
I got a good recommendation from someone I trust.

Speaker 4 It's called Three Identical Strangers.

Speaker 1 I've already heard about that. I've already seen it.
It's awesome. It's so fucking awesome.

Speaker 4 All right, so that's fine.

Speaker 1 And it also will kind of fuck you up mentally. Even better, yes.

Speaker 4 Will you re-watch it so you can

Speaker 4 be able to participate?

Speaker 1 That's actually a great description of this podcast in general. No, like

Speaker 1 you're all going to think you have twins. Pete Carroll's going to watch that and be like, fuck.
Did I ever tell you that I saw my twins? It's on Hulu and you can watch it. One time? What aliens?

Speaker 1 No, it was. Yeah, that guy.
That guy was way heavier than me, though. But when I was in fifth grade, I took a sick day.

Speaker 1 I was watching EPL because all the games would be on ESPN2 during the day when I was a kid.

Speaker 1 And there was this one dude in the stands in England that stood up and he looked exactly like me, except he had a mustache, and he was about 15 years older than me.

Speaker 1 So, all right, so three identical structures. You will

Speaker 1 change when you

Speaker 1 thought about it. Yes, I will re-watch it.
It's fantastic. It's the best documentary we're going to do, besides King of Kong.

Speaker 4 That's the good.

Speaker 4 We need that.

Speaker 1 We need quality for the people. Yes.
All right.

Speaker 4 My first hot seat, Booz Bags, Alcoholics,

Speaker 4 Planes, and Airlines.

Speaker 4 I mean, Billy.

Speaker 1 Just got him. Booze bags.
That was mine? Like Franzia?

Speaker 4 Airlines are not going to be serving alcohol on planes anymore. What? Because of COVID restrictions, they're trying to limit the,

Speaker 4 whatever you call it, airline person and passengers. Airline person.

Speaker 1 Airline person, the pilot?

Speaker 1 See if you can find that word.

Speaker 4 Yes, the flight attendants and the passengers.

Speaker 1 The waiters.

Speaker 1 Yep. I almost said airline mistress for some reason.
Airline mistress.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 I can't believe this couple is breaking up.

Speaker 4 So, yeah, booze bags that have to go on long flights. Like, you know,

Speaker 4 I'm sure there's a lot of people that are accustomed to, like, you can't, though. You can't get that through airline.

Speaker 1 No, you can't buy it in there. It's very easy to bring airplane bottles onto an airplane.
Yes.

Speaker 1 This is actually great news if you just think ahead and plan in advance before you go to the airport.

Speaker 1 Because you just swing by the liquor store and you buy their little like one and a half ounce nip bottles. And they're, I don't know, like one, two, three dollars maybe.

Speaker 1 So you're saving a ton of money. You're saving like five dollars a drink.
Bring your own onto the plane. They're underneath 3 ounces, so they don't get pulled aside in security.

Speaker 1 The only problem that you used to have with them was when the airplane person, what are they called, Hank?

Speaker 4 Airline mistress.

Speaker 1 Airline mistress.

Speaker 1 Our mister. Our mister would come down the aisle and see you drinking contraband liquor.
Then they'd take it away from you. Sounds like they're not even patrolling the aisles anymore.

Speaker 1 So it's going to be sucking and fucking and drinking season.

Speaker 4 Okay, that's fair. My other hot season is a lot of fun.
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 The hot dude's jerking off, but yeah. Oh, yeah, that's that part.

Speaker 1 Listen, again, got to take the good week. And like, old ladies eating like hot tuna fish sandwiches.
So

Speaker 1 it could get crazy.

Speaker 4 Billy, I'll let you figure this one out, but you can use Lamar Jackson on your hot seat.

Speaker 4 And then my other hot seat was myself.

Speaker 1 Why?

Speaker 4 I lost in ping pong.

Speaker 1 Oh, how bad? It was announced. It wins a wins and a loss is a loss.
That's all.

Speaker 1 No, I don't think that's true. I think usually when he was swept, you say, I got swept.

Speaker 1 A gentleman swept, right?

Speaker 4 Yes, technically.

Speaker 1 To the vipers? People are talking about your mental weakness.

Speaker 1 Care to come to the bottom.

Speaker 4 I mean, it's five to two in the series, so

Speaker 4 flux happened.

Speaker 1 Flux happened. You are smashing yourself in the face with your ping-pong.

Speaker 4 Listen, when I'm winning, people say that's why I win, and when I lose, people say that's why I lose. It's fine.
I don't care.

Speaker 1 Just a head case. But I will say that the bulletin board material that Hank gave me leading into tonight,

Speaker 1 that put me over the edge. I came out.

Speaker 1 I was actually mad. It was very Jake News by the Jake News Media, who wrote a blog taking quotes directly from Hank, which I thought he was just calling me to chat, like casually.

Speaker 1 Like, if he chokes, you're going to crush people. I'm looking ahead to playing somebody else.

Speaker 1 He named three other people in this office he's looking forward to playing because he's overlooking this training.

Speaker 4 That's like an MJ using a quote that I used and making it.

Speaker 1 Why would you give that person? Why would you give that question?

Speaker 4 Because I am looking forward to us being back in the office and doing stool streams with other people.

Speaker 1 Verbal meme: this is me looking at an iPad of Hank saying that I choke.

Speaker 1 Oh, he's laughing.

Speaker 4 And then my cool throne is Chris Fowler, Kirk Herb Street.

Speaker 4 Even if college football doesn't happen, they're going to be doing Monday night football. So I feel like it's good for them.

Speaker 4 ESPN announced that if college football isn't happening, they're going to use...

Speaker 1 So they're not going to be the booth

Speaker 4 if there's no college football, but they will be in the booth announcing football games for the NFL.

Speaker 1 So they're going to be the Monday night football team if there's no college football?

Speaker 4 I believe so.

Speaker 1 I feel like there's going to be college football team. They're going to use them in the broadcast.
I don't know if they're going to be in the booth. Dude, we totally forgot.

Speaker 1 Do you have Mike Gundy on your hot seat coach? I don't. Okay.
We didn't mention that. Was that the quickest turnaround? Yeah.
I couldn't believe that they had a video.

Speaker 1 He basically got called out by his player and then two hours later had a video with his player being like, we're going to change the culture.

Speaker 4 He dropped another one today, too.

Speaker 1 He did.

Speaker 1 Double apology. Resay sorry?

Speaker 4 Reading off a teleprompter.

Speaker 1 I don't think I didn't watch that. I think he did.
I think he apologized this time. But in the video, it was him, and it was, is it Chuba or Chubba? How do you put Chuba? Chuba.
It was him, Chubba.

Speaker 1 It's Chuba, but I did say Chubba. They did the Predator handshake, the Drew Brees Photoshop Shutterstock thing.
Nice. The white and black guy doing the high, high five.
It was great.

Speaker 1 Freedom of speech. It was good to see.
Freedom of consequence. That's, I mean, that's crazy that people can't figure that out.

Speaker 1 Like, you can say whatever you want, but you can also have the consequences of your player calling you out. Also,

Speaker 1 I don't know when we expected college college football coaches in general to be the most in tune on these types of issues. The least, yeah, they are

Speaker 1 the worst. I don't think that Mike Gundy actually watches OAN.
I think that he just likes the logo. He's like, oh,

Speaker 1 I think he watches the logo. He likes the logo.
I think he's commented on it and been like, he just gives you straight news. He's like, yeah, I don't think so, dude.
That's like the opposite.

Speaker 1 That's what's crazy about it is that Mike Gundy, you're right. He was on the record like a month ago, just like out of nowhere being like, by the way, have you checked out OAN? Yeah, facts.

Speaker 1 Straight facts, no frills. Gundy's going to come in wearing an American Heroes Channel shirt.
But it is funny that, like, the college coaches, they essentially are,

Speaker 1 it's like back to like feudalism in Europe. Like, they're the kings and the vassals or whatever, their little area, and they don't hear anything.
They don't know anything else.

Speaker 1 They know that they are, like, the end-all-be-all in their little college town, and the world outside just goes on around.

Speaker 1 To me, the story wasn't so much about the actual shirt he was wearing and the objection that the player might have had to what OAN and how they cover the Black Lives Matter movement.

Speaker 1 To me, the story is like when Chubba came out and said that I'm not going to play, and he's one of the best players in the country. Yes.

Speaker 1 When he came out and he said, I'm not going to play unless some changes happen, that to me was a major, major shift in power in college football. Yeah, but

Speaker 1 he said that his team was lined up behind him.

Speaker 1 And if enough players were to say something like that, no matter what the issue was, no matter what they were protesting against or disagreeing with about whether it's the system or what their coach is doing,

Speaker 1 they have a shitload of power.

Speaker 1 See,

Speaker 1 I think that scares some people. I disagree.
I think college players, there's still such an imbalance.

Speaker 1 Because

Speaker 1 they're only there for three or four years. If the coach wins, they can do whatever they want.

Speaker 1 And you even saw it in the apology or whatever the video was. Mike Gundy didn't apologize.
Chubba did. So it was like, wait, what? Who's apologizing?

Speaker 1 Like, it was the imbalance was right in front of us. But I think Gundy apologized later.
You're right.

Speaker 1 There's definitely an imbalance, but a lot of people got very, very scared about what could happen. Yeah, but you still think they just run.
You got these places, like, they just run everything.

Speaker 1 If they have their boosters in line and they win football games, none of them are like winning coaches don't get fired in college football. Oh, no, I'm not saying that Gundy was going to get fired.

Speaker 1 Right. That's not the route I'm going down.
I'm just saying, like,

Speaker 1 you saw the players kind of realize that if they band together, that they can make shit happen. And I'm just saying, we'll see if shit happens.

Speaker 1 I think things are going to change moving forward. I don't know what it's going to look like, but there was definitely a different feel to it.

Speaker 1 All right, who's oh, you're up, PFT? My hot seat is Zubaz. Okay.
Zubaz. Oh, another one, Billy.
Billy, do you want to take this one? No, Zubaz, no.

Speaker 1 Brothers on the hot seat. Yeah.
Yeah, so Zubaz, they declared bankruptcy. So now this means in the last like three months, it's been the XFL, Zubaz, and USA rugby.

Speaker 1 I got to figure out how to start bidding on some shit. No, we turn them all that, and whiffleball, we turn it all into one sport.
Ooh, I like Calvin Ball.

Speaker 4 And all the uniforms are Zubaz.

Speaker 1 Yes. Yes, Hank.
Yes, I like that. You know what this is? This is synergy happening right now.

Speaker 1 This is the universe sending us a big signal. It's time to become commissioners.
Yep.

Speaker 1 My other hot seat is Giants Kickers. So Rojas got arrested yesterday because I guess he drove through an intersection.
He was drunk, allegedly. T-boned a car, tried to run from the police.
Not good.

Speaker 1 So Giants kickers have been on a real, real hot streak of running afoul of the law the last couple years. That also means there's an opening in the NFL.

Speaker 1 Another kicker? I was going to say Janakowski. Bring back Janakowski.

Speaker 4 A little fun fact from our guy, Warren Sharp. No team has kicked more field goals of 35 yards or less, losing by multiple scores in the Giants the last five years.
This is where PFT could excel.

Speaker 4 No pressure. Your team's already getting crushed.

Speaker 1 Damn. Can I just say something? I don't want to play for the Giants.
Oh. I will play for most of them.
That's so big of you to take your name out of the ring.

Speaker 1 Also, the culture that they have of kickers there, I don't feel like that would be

Speaker 1 a legacy that I want to contribute to.

Speaker 4 And you and Weatherford in the locker room?

Speaker 1 He was a punter, wasn't he? Yeah, kickers.

Speaker 1 Punters aren't kickers. Punters aren't kickers? No.

Speaker 1 They're alpha kickers. A punter is a kicker that got

Speaker 1 that lost his Virginia at 22 instead of 21 and a half. Oh, I think punters might be more alpha than kickers.
Oh, disagree. They're always like

Speaker 1 how many points.

Speaker 1 But they make tackles and they kick

Speaker 1 the ball really. Nah.

Speaker 1 Kickers are like the last.

Speaker 1 I feel like punters. I mean, think about like Marquette King.
That guy's a fucking baller. Janakowski, counterpoint.
Pat McAfee. Pat McClure.
WWE. Yeah.
McAfee, both.

Speaker 1 Nope. No, he's a punter.
He's a punter. He was a kicker before he was a punter.

Speaker 1 Yeah, now he was a punter.

Speaker 1 The Grammatica brothers. Oh, getting injured and celebrating.

Speaker 1 Iguayos.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the Aguayos. Dude, when was the last time a punter ripped a turtle in half?

Speaker 1 Turtle. Turtle.
Biggest name ever for a turtle. Fucking shame, man.
Shane. My cool throne is reality show conspiracy theories.

Speaker 1 So, like I alluded to earlier in the show, I've become a big top chef fan.

Speaker 1 I've actually been a big top chef fan going on, I don't know, like 10 years, 12 years, whenever, back in like 2007 is when I first got into, but it's the finale tomorrow on Thursday, and in the preview for the finale, they have Padma awarding the winner and saying, congratulations, you are top chef.

Speaker 1 But people have gone back and rewound it, and they can tell by her inflection that she's genuinely surprised to be awarding it to this person.

Speaker 1 So now the internet is thinking the betting odds have shifted that it's going to be Stephanie, who's not even a chef at a restaurant. She's a private chef who's really good.

Speaker 1 So people are thinking that Melissa, the odds-on-favorite, is not going to win. I'm seeing Melissa through and through.
Anyone that knows me knows that, but it seems like Stephanie might pull.

Speaker 1 I refuse to

Speaker 1 look it up on that.

Speaker 4 You're going to get spoiled.

Speaker 4 Someone's going to spoil it for you.

Speaker 1 It's not, what do you mean?

Speaker 1 They're under NDA. It's like someone, I mean, someone always knows.
Reality Steve. Someone always knows.
Somebody tell me, if you know who wins top chef, let me know so I can bet on it.

Speaker 1 But my money is on Stephanie's. The moment's going to be too big for her.

Speaker 1 And she's going to, I don't know, make a store-bought risotto and still undercook it.

Speaker 1 All right, my hot seat is us

Speaker 1 because I realized something.

Speaker 1 We never, we've been doing this podcast for four and a half years. We've gotten exponentially bigger year over year.
Keep growing, little brag.

Speaker 1 We brought back our intern, Billy Football, and we never reintroduced him.

Speaker 1 And there's probably a lot of people who started listening in the last two or three years who probably have no idea who Billy Football is. So,

Speaker 1 Billy Football is our intern. He was our first intern in the summer of 2016,

Speaker 1 17.

Speaker 1 He was, he showed up for his interview with six pages stapled on his resume, and about five and a half of the six pages were just completely made up.

Speaker 1 He was some of them were stats from his high school football. Yeah, he was like,

Speaker 1 I'm a high school quarterback. I can get you guys in shape, and he is a gem of a person.

Speaker 4 This is what sealed the deal deal for me when I was like, We got to get this kid. I had lost my remote, my TV remote, and we were doing a bunch of interviews.

Speaker 4 I did Billy's interview, and then he was interviewing with you guys in like a few hours. I was like, Hey, I need you to run to Best Buy.
We were on 28th Street, Best Buy was on like 22nd Street.

Speaker 4 I was like, I need you to go to Best Buy and get me a new remote. And he legitimately came back in like two and a half minutes, like full sweat.
And I was like, What?

Speaker 4 How did he was like, dude, I thought I thought I was getting filmed. I ran as fast as I possibly could.

Speaker 1 Like, he literally sprinted like seven blocks and then sprinted back with the remote like i literally went to the bathroom and came back here you go what what we need to do though so billy was our first intern he's back with us which we he always had a job back with us he he went with us to uh when we interviewed jj watt he went with us stayed at kyle long's house he he got trapped he went with us to uh espn the first time that we were on their campus with rascillo he almost like he almost fucking truck sticked rascillo in the uh in in the hallway he's like a horse when you bring billy inside somewhere he's always sprinting around places, and then you just like in between taking sips of water, he's just always on the go.

Speaker 1 So we need to, what we're going to do is we'll tweet out the essence of Billy is his first summer, he accidentally tweeted a picture of PFT's dick and also doxxed his phone number.

Speaker 1 So his within 10 minutes of each other.

Speaker 1 His punishment was he had to give

Speaker 1 a PowerPoint. Oh, wow.
Is that small?

Speaker 1 Well, no, if you see the angle that it was at,

Speaker 1 you'll understand. Yeah.
It was so he had to do a PowerPoint on cybersecurity and fire salamanders for the entire office. We have it.
We videotaped it. It was fantastic.
That is Billy in his essence.

Speaker 1 He's a gem of a person. So sorry by us for not reintroducing him, but he's back.
He's better than ever. He's going to get us in shape.
He's got a whoop, which I'll get to in a second.

Speaker 1 And Billy, it's great to have you back. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 And he also doesn't talk in the mic.

Speaker 1 He just never talks in the mic. A little concerned about him, though, because last night I got a notification that he tweeted at us saying that he wants money to create a different species of frog.

Speaker 1 Oh, I'm down for that. To me, I want to hear his explanation behind it because it seems like you're getting into a Jurassic Park type situation where you're like splicing reptile DNA together.

Speaker 1 I'll get to that, but really quickly, I just want you all listeners to know that

Speaker 1 I'm always on the hot seat, and I know I might not do the best on the pod, but I'm always taking care of the guys.

Speaker 1 I know that as long as I can get them candy and Billy's for the boys i can yeah billy's for the boys then billy will fire me billy also put us on a diet that summer and uh would just like hand us food and be like billy are you sure this is okay to be on the diet and he would be like hold on one sec and then he'd run back to his desk google something and then be like actually don't eat that that was also i was like interviewing him i was like billy what what do you want to do this summer he's like i want to train big cat yeah and i was like that okay yeah and he would grill for us every day which we got to bring that back we got to have you start grilling for us again my favorite part of billy was when he he would bring the gallons of water up to us.

Speaker 1 Every day, he'd give us a gallon of water, and he'd have all these motivational messages written on the side of it. Yes.
Bring that back, too. I want water.
I want a gallon of water.

Speaker 1 Get him back into your channel. All right, my cool throne is Des Bryant.
He tweeted tested for coronavirus negative. Hell yeah.
So if anyone was wondering.

Speaker 1 Well, was he hanging out with Ezekiel Elliott? This is just a perfect timing. Like, okay.
Wait, did that. That was also hilarious.

Speaker 4 Yeah. The HIPAA thing.

Speaker 1 Did Des Bryant just commit a HIPAA violation on himself? Yes. Yes.

Speaker 1 All right, Billy, what's your hot seat cool throne? Hot seat, Lamar Jackson, for playing a little beach football. Oh, how'd you come up with that one? Good.

Speaker 1 That was a good. You figured it out.
Yeah, I thought Tony was going to choose it, so I chose

Speaker 1 Zuba. I'm not about to lie.
You didn't think it was. Well, how would I choose it? I thought it was going to be obvious.
But

Speaker 1 yeah, so he was playing football on the beach, and he scrambled, and he almost got hit by a jet ski. But he's okay, which is good.
So cool thrown. I actually thought

Speaker 4 I thought people on the internet were going to be way more upset with him. Yeah.
Like, that was a casual, like, it was a terrible look. Yeah.

Speaker 4 If I was, if I, if that was, like, you know, Tom Brady was on the Patriots, I'd be shitting my pants and furiously.

Speaker 1 Oh, was Tom Brady?

Speaker 1 If Tom Brady had scrambled and run a 4240 down the beach and had to jump 30 feet over a jet ski, you would have shit your pants. Yeah, I would have been heated.
So hot seat Lamar.

Speaker 1 Cool throne Ravens, but also Cool Throne Patriots fans because Tom Brady just came out and me personally, I think that him in the Buccaneers jersey makes him look like a total villain because it's just the color schemes, like big, like Sith Lord vibes.

Speaker 1 Adam Sandler in the longest yard vibes like red and gray like he went from blue and red which is like you know like I feel like synergy good Jedi and then it's like Sith Lord but that's just me but um

Speaker 1 yeah um so he uh I can't even remember what he looks like in a Patriots uniform anymore after seeing he just like he wiped my slate clean see how long he could just talk monologue did you guys want to hear about the frogs yes okay so

Speaker 1 African bullfrogs are really cool they're like the heaviest frogs they get about this big which is about the size of a Thanksgiving turkey. And

Speaker 1 so there's this.

Speaker 1 Have you guys ever seen that thing on Netflix of the guy who injects? He injected himself with CRISPR, genetically engineering. Okay,

Speaker 1 he's turning himself into a chicken. You know, he just could just say YouTube.
Okay, YouTube. YouTube CRISPR.
I forget the guy's name. Anyway, he sells these kits.

Speaker 1 He sells these gene editing kits, and it's for frogs. So he does it on like lab frogs and regular frogs.
So I was like,

Speaker 1 so like, you're not inject, you're not injecting frogs. No,

Speaker 1 are you buying a kit of DNA from a guy on YouTube that shoots himself up with batter?

Speaker 1 Logic isn't bad though.

Speaker 1 Science teachers do it all the time.

Speaker 1 CRISPR technology, so we could make this frog, which is already giant, we could make it even bigger.

Speaker 1 So we're just doing like, can't we eat mutant ninja turtles for frogs? Yes. Can we just

Speaker 1 make a mutant frog? Yeah, I'm bad. But it's totally legal with science because you can like dissect frogs.
It's not.

Speaker 1 You can dissect frogs.

Speaker 1 If I was a frog, I would be like, oh, I'm a frog, but you're going to make me a huge mutant frog. I'd be so in.
But did the frog consent? We're going to ask the frog. Okay.

Speaker 1 I'm going to give you live mice every day. No, here's what you do.
Billy, just set up

Speaker 1 a pad in front of him and be like, jump to the left if no, jump to the right if yes. Do you consent to us making you swole as hell? And then just keep videotaping it until he jumps to the left.

Speaker 1 I think if you look at which frog you're going to buy, you can see in their eyes if they want to be an alpha alpha or not. Yeah, yeah.
Do you really want it? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, get the frog that hates you the most. Yeah, they're really vicious.
They got teeth, remember? Oh, that's right. We do remember.

Speaker 1 All right, so that's Billy Football. We're happy that he's back.
That was part of my take on bioethics.

Speaker 1 All right, so Billy.

Speaker 1 Also, before we get to Blake Bortles. 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.
Okay, here he is, our good friend Blake Portals.

Speaker 1 Okay, we now welcome on our very, very good friend, longtime recurring guest, one of our best friends. I'm going to just fucking say it.
One of our best friends. It's Blake Portals.

Speaker 1 Blake,

Speaker 1 we're calling you because Blake of the Year is coming up. It might actually even be next week.

Speaker 1 We're not going to release it till July 6th, but we we wanted to check in with all of our Blakes beforehand. We talked to Blake Griffin last week.
How are you feeling? Are you committed?

Speaker 1 Are you recommitted this year? Because last year you were disappointing. And how's the general vibe in the Blake Portals household?

Speaker 5 It's pretty good.

Speaker 5 I feel pretty good. I got a lot of redeeming.
A lot of redeeming to do. Last year was tough.

Speaker 5 I had a bad showing there, and I think Blake Griffin probably set a record that'll never be broken and how quickly he answered. So I got a lot to make up.

Speaker 5 I mean, it's all kept going TV playing this weekend. He's got a phenomenal mustache going.
Blake Griffin's obviously the defending champ. So I got to kind of pick my stuff up.
So I'm ready this year.

Speaker 5 Will we get like a week's heads up or how

Speaker 5 much notice are you guys going to give us?

Speaker 1 It's going to be three days. It's going to be a three-day period.
So it's going to be like

Speaker 1 a Monday through Wednesday. The call could happen at any time.

Speaker 5 Okay. I like that.
Okay. I'll be ready because my schedule has never been more wide open.

Speaker 1 Yeah, what have you been doing? So yeah, it's been going on.

Speaker 1 I have a theory, Blake. I think that you're being blackballed by the NFL because you drive a Tesla.
Have you heard about that?

Speaker 5 No, I haven't, but I think it's tough to argue with.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 They're sponsored by all kinds of motor oil companies. I mean, they don't want you to drive clean.

Speaker 5 Right, yeah. They're definitely promoting the gas and the power.

Speaker 1 What is the latest? Like, it's probably, I don't know if it's a source. I think most of the time it's a source subject, but knowing you, you're a go-with-the-flow guy.
Like, what's the latest?

Speaker 1 What's have we got any buzz? Do we need to get the buzz going?

Speaker 5 We could definitely create some buzz.

Speaker 5 Yeah, it's kind of a question that I get asked pretty frequently, and it's gotten to the point now where I just give different answers every time somebody says their ass.

Speaker 5 So, I mean, I've sent the highlight tape to the lingerie league, so I'm kind of just waiting and hanging on.

Speaker 1 Wait, give us all the answers. Yeah, give us all the answers.
Just rattle them all off.

Speaker 5 That's what I...

Speaker 5 For a while, I just pretended like I was going back to L.A., even though I only signed a one-year deal and they didn't re-sign me just to kind of keep the conversation from going any longer and then I've thrown the lingerie highlight tape out there a couple times that's a good line and then a lot of times I just pretend like I don't hear them ask the question okay that's those are three great options right now

Speaker 5 those are kind of yeah those are kind of my go-to so yeah no just hanging out staying in shape uh working out at the house and

Speaker 1 trying to be a dad do all that and uh waiting for somebody to call us so hopefully I'll hear from somebody would you like us to put together a highlight reel for you like we could we could edit a sweet mixtape together Like, put some, have it, like, start in black and white with a heartbeat and then kick in some like EDM music.

Speaker 4 That comes on the sidelines from last year.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Would you like us to do that? To like go out there?

Speaker 5 Yeah. Definitely.
Maybe mix in a little Lincoln Park or something in the background, too.

Speaker 1 Hell yeah. Okay.
Yeah. We can make that happen.
Well, here's the good news is, I don't know if you've caught any coach Dougs, but you actually are the backup quarterback for Tennessee right now.

Speaker 1 So we might just restart the whole career.

Speaker 1 And if I stay with Tennessee another year, you'd be my starter there you go actually somebody told me that the other day that uh they said hey what you did last year is what's going on in coach dougs's career right now you're just over there hanging out on the sidelines yeah perfect man i found a found a nice little home over there yeah and you're you're a five-star recruit um different race but you're a five-star recruit so they show they show your graphic after every uh first extra point to be like look at blake portals out there holding the ball sounds perfect yeah definitely uh i mean i could have got a little tan early on yeah yeah yeah Right.

Speaker 1 Exactly. Are you down in Florida right now? Yeah,

Speaker 5 I'm still in Jacksonville.

Speaker 1 What's that like down there?

Speaker 5 I got the place here, hanging out here.

Speaker 1 Are places closed down or are they opened up now?

Speaker 5 No, Florida, I don't know about all of Florida. I guess Northeast Florida, nothing ever really changed.

Speaker 5 You know, it was kind of like I have buddies, obviously, that are still out in California and L.A., it was kind of shut down.

Speaker 5 And, you know, I don't know if it was mandatory, but I think it was pretty close to being mandatory for people to wear masks.

Speaker 5 And, I mean, there's definitely a majority of people here not wearing masks. You know, restaurants have been opened up up for a couple weeks now.

Speaker 5 So, I mean, it's been pretty active.

Speaker 1 Can we get you back on the Jaguars?

Speaker 5 I don't know. I'm not sure if that's something

Speaker 5 that

Speaker 5 is in their future plans. I think

Speaker 5 they were set with the last goodbye, and I don't know if they want to reunite.

Speaker 1 Hold on, let me finish. So, what if we just did a fucking sick I'm coming home video?

Speaker 5 Yeah, hey, I mean, perfect. I'm in.

Speaker 5 Whatever you guys can do or put together to help me get a phone call and have a job again would be incredible.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, Doug Marone, he's a big, like, sentimental guy. If you can get him crying about something, then I think you can really control his decision-making.
So,

Speaker 1 I mean, we can send him an I'm Coming Home video. I'm sure that watching that, he'd be like, Yeah, you know what? Me and Blake had some great times together.

Speaker 1 If you love something, set it free. If it was meant to be, it'll return, you know?

Speaker 5 Right. Never truer words.
Yeah, maybe

Speaker 5 get him a little riled up emotionally and then just kind of throw some baloney in his face and see how happy we can make him.

Speaker 5 Maybe we could get that done.

Speaker 1 Here's another idea. What if we get Jared to

Speaker 1 maybe do like an E60 where he comes out and says that he was addicted to playing Fortnite last year and you were such a good teammate that you intervened and got him to stop.

Speaker 1 And like, that's just the type of guy you are.

Speaker 5 Right. And then I overtook his Fortnite addiction, you know, so that he didn't have to.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I think that's a good storyline.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 5 Obviously, I had a little more free time than he did. Yeah.
I like that one, though.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 we can manufacture a lot of storylines.

Speaker 1 How about this one?

Speaker 1 You finally went to the dentist and you got your halitosis fixed so you no longer have bad breath. So don't worry about that in the huddle, guys.

Speaker 5 Right, that's completely taken care of.

Speaker 5 Strict tic-tac and gum regimen as well. So nothing to worry about there.
That's clean.

Speaker 1 I love that.

Speaker 1 I think we can

Speaker 1 make sure portals happen in the next couple weeks here. Yeah.

Speaker 5 Hey, I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 Whatever storylines you guys create, I'll neither confirm nor deny.

Speaker 1 What is your facial hair game like right now?

Speaker 5 It's kind of tough,

Speaker 5 honestly, because so I've gone with the shaved head, right? We've talked about that. And then

Speaker 5 the blending of the beard into the short hair on top is definitely an art. And I have not figured that out.
So I get a haircut at the house, and then I kind of shave the face and

Speaker 5 look like a caveman for a little while, and then I shave it again. So it's looking forward to actually going to a a real barber here pretty soon, which I'm pretty sure they're open.

Speaker 5 So, I need to do that.

Speaker 1 What about hair plugs?

Speaker 5 I thought about it. I feel like once, like, the Brian Erlacher thing's tough.
You know, like, once you commit to going bald, you can't just pop up with hair again.

Speaker 1 I think that's a good thing. This would be a perfect time, though.

Speaker 1 Everybody already knows. But this is a perfect time.
Okay, all right. What about forget hair plugs? What about a toupee? No one does toupe's anymore.

Speaker 1 If you did a toupee and you said it, you're like, yo, it's a fucking toupee, guys. Like, that would get so much great buzz going.

Speaker 5 I've uh, whether toupee or hair plugs, I've always kind of wanted to do something like that and just show up back on the scene with a full head of hair and just pretend like nothing happened.

Speaker 1 Yes, like,

Speaker 5 if anybody asked about it, just say, like, I don't know what you're talking about. This has always been here.

Speaker 1 I'm talking something outrageous, too, like a ponytail. Ponytail Blake would be an incredible look.

Speaker 5 Could you imagine that? Ponytail hanging out of the back of the helmet. I'm telling you, I'm running down the field in the lingerie league.
You'd have

Speaker 1 to be beating away GMs with a stick if you showed up out there like you did a private workout with a ponytail like you would get offers within probably 24 hours oh i'll work on it i could i mean i could probably grow a ponytail i mean the the sides of my head go grow pretty pretty rapidly so it's just the top's a bit behind but i mean i could get the balding rat tail going for sure that'd be sick that'd be amazing what about oh what about the bucks could we get you on the bucks with brady

Speaker 1 oh no here's what we do

Speaker 1 that'd be pretty sweet i think gadward's still there here's what we do We just market you. We got to get you a COVID test, okay? That's step one.
We got to get you tested for the antibodies.

Speaker 1 And then if you have the antibodies, we just market you as the quarterback who will not get COVID disease. Yes.

Speaker 1 So that way, if there's a last-minute sub that needs to happen on a Saturday, somebody tests positive, boom, pick up the Blake phone.

Speaker 5 That's all we need. Just a safe bet.
We already know he's cured of this and doesn't have it, and he's ready to go, and he's not going to infect anybody else, right? So there's no risk.

Speaker 1 I love that. And you're a great locker room guy too on top of all this.
All right.

Speaker 1 Jake Marsh, who listens before this goes out, will actually make a list and we'll blog it all. So just put it all out there.

Speaker 1 Like, here are the storylines surrounding Blake Bortles and it's just going to be all like new hair, maybe.

Speaker 1 Coronavirus, also maybe.

Speaker 1 Good breath. Definitely.
I mean,

Speaker 1 well,

Speaker 5 one of these storylines is definitely going to catch on. Somebody's going to see it and at least think about like, ah, you know, maybe we should call him.

Speaker 1 Yes. yes.
How's uh, how's your golf game?

Speaker 5 Uh, golf game's okay, playing a lot. That was one thing.

Speaker 5 I mean, outside of restaurants, nothing really closed down here, but um, the golf course has stayed open the whole time, so got a lot of golf in.

Speaker 5 Um, kind of winding down now, though, it kind of gets a little hot this time of year here, so throwing it back in touch.

Speaker 1 Yeah, um, we have Billy Football here. I don't even know if you've ever met Billy Football.
Oh, you guys have met Billy? Do you have a question for me? Mike,

Speaker 1 oh, wait, hold on. Billy football knowledge is

Speaker 1 gave me uh So on Billy, hold on. Hold on.
Go ahead, Blake.

Speaker 5 Sorry. Billy, I got to tell you this.
I saw this.

Speaker 5 I've seen a couple of Doug's games, and the other night when you gave the X call right into a pick to that backside cover to safety, that was a tough one.

Speaker 1 Oh, he's making fun of your ex-cause. You gave the X-call too late and told Big Cat.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 All right, we're getting Billy headphones. He's not.

Speaker 1 He got triggered. Billy.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 Yeah, in your defense, Big Cat wasn't touched late on it. I saw what you saw.

Speaker 1 Hey, Mr. Bortles, how are you?

Speaker 5 Billy football, what's going on, buds?

Speaker 1 So, you know, when coaches say you can't throw over the middle late, that's a common, you know, thing, though.

Speaker 5 Like, yeah, it's like flying a kite in a forest.

Speaker 1 You know, so, Big Cat, it's a cover two, right, Blake? You got where I'm coming from. So, where do you attack a cover two?

Speaker 5 Down the pipes and outside.

Speaker 1 Right, right. So, it's wide open, and he throws it like 10 seconds after

Speaker 1 the tight end mid.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, no, if you line up, I said

Speaker 1 before the game, before the snap,

Speaker 1 and you threw it like 10 seconds after you broke. Uh-uh.
Uh-uh. When are you supposed to be? Do you have a question for Blake? When are you supposed to throw a bender?

Speaker 1 When are you supposed to throw a bender in the back?

Speaker 5 I mean, you got to throw it early.

Speaker 5 I mean, it sounds to me like the backup quarterback might need to get a little playing time.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Thank you, Mr.
Border. Wait, do you have a question for him? Do you have a question?

Speaker 1 He's just trying to turn Blake against you. Yeah.
No. Go ahead.
Ask him.

Speaker 1 Come on, Billy. That's my own shit.

Speaker 1 Hey, Blake, what's your max squat?

Speaker 5 Good question, Billy.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I couldn't tell you the last time.

Speaker 5 We squatted a little bit. I mean, we don't, especially as a quarterback, like, you're not really maxing out anymore.
We used to do it in college all the time.

Speaker 5 If I had to max out right now to do one rep of squat,

Speaker 5 golly,

Speaker 5 maybe I could do 300 pounds. Doubtful, but maybe a slim chance there somewhere around there.

Speaker 1 Damn. What about still beast? What about bench press?

Speaker 5 Oh, I haven't legitimately bench pressed since college. Big dumbbell bench guy.
Bands, you know, just get the pliability quarterback workout going.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's true. That's true.

Speaker 1 All right. What coach do you think bench press is?

Speaker 5 I mean, Vrabel's got to be up there, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 5 For one, he played. He's still in pretty good shape and relatively young.
Doug's probably up there.

Speaker 1 He's a big boy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 For sure is.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I'd have to go Vrabo. I'd imagine Vrabo probably wins that contest.

Speaker 1 He absolutely is. All right, I got one last question for you, Blake.

Speaker 1 And we're going to talk to you next week at some point. I'll text you when we're going to do the Blake of the Year.
It'll probably be next week.

Speaker 1 Have you talked to anyone about tight end?

Speaker 5 No, so

Speaker 5 it was a big part of really what I spent all last year doing was I'd get out early to practice and make sure when Sean got on the field

Speaker 5 that, you know, I'd run a couple routes by him and have Jared drill some at me just to try and, you know, get it in the back of his head, like, wow, he can catch.

Speaker 5 But I got nothing out of that. So it's still out there.
I'm kind of floating the idea around, people, you know, telling everybody I can that, you know, give me an opportunity.

Speaker 5 I think I could make something happen playing my natural position.

Speaker 1 I like that. I like that, Blake.
So we're going to get you out there. We're going to get the COVID buzz going around you.
I mean, the anti-COVID buzz.

Speaker 1 Don't actually get a test because we're just going to say it, and then we can worry about actually backing it up later.

Speaker 1 So we're going to get the buzz going for you being an anti-COVID quarterback, immune to it. What else is there? The ponytail,

Speaker 1 willing to play tight end. The breath is great.
Curing Jared from his Fortnite addiction. Yeah, great teammate.

Speaker 1 Right. Absorbing teammates' addictions.
How's your pooch punt?

Speaker 5 Not bad. I'd imagine probably not as good as yours, but I mean, serviceable.

Speaker 1 Okay, not bad pooch punt. Got it.
Put that on the list, too.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 I'm excited. I think we're going to get it figured out.

Speaker 1 Hopefully, we see you soon as well. It's been too long.

Speaker 1 You also have a job here if you ever want to stop football.

Speaker 5 That's always. Yeah, I think I told you that the other day.

Speaker 5 That could be coming up soon.

Speaker 5 I might be seeing if I can take Billy Football's job here soon. Dungeon internship or something opens up.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and we'll actually pay you.

Speaker 1 We'll pay you. Billy, we won't.
We'll take you. your job, Billy.
Yeah, Blake just said he wants your job. So.

Speaker 1 Oh, he just gave a crying. Man, no way, dude.
You did so much better.

Speaker 1 You would do it so much better. All right, Blake.

Speaker 1 Thank you as always. We'll talk to you probably next week.
I'll give you a heads up, though, all right?

Speaker 5 That sounds good. Let me know.
Good talking to you guys. I appreciate the question, Billy.

Speaker 1 All right. See you.
See you, man. See you, Blake.
Thanks.

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Speaker 1 And now, James Connor. And now for something completely different.

Speaker 1 Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. It is Pittsburgh Steelers running back, James Conner.
He has a new book out called Fear is a Choice, a memoir about his incredible story.

Speaker 1 Let's start there, James. For people who don't know your story, and it is an incredible one, you were diagnosed with cancer while at Pittsburgh in college.

Speaker 1 You were diagnosed while you were checking out your knee, correct? Can you tell exactly how it all went down?

Speaker 6 Yeah, it was the year 2015.

Speaker 6 First game of the season, my junior year, you know, poised to have a big junior year after, you know, a good year in 2014. And yeah, first game of the season, I tear my knee.

Speaker 6 And during the rehab for that, trying to make a comeback, just working out, I knew things were off.

Speaker 6 And, you know, I was shortness of breath, all the symptoms I was having. And I couldn't put my finger on what it was.

Speaker 6 And after further testing, you know, through a little process, it was figured out that it was hosting lymphoma. And so it was just crazy how that came about.

Speaker 6 You know, me being a running back, I'm thinking, you know, my knee is like the worst thing that could happen to me. You know, little did I know what was what was next to come.

Speaker 6 So yeah, it was just like a roller coaster, man. It was a crazy journey.
It's been a crazy journey so far, but here to tell the story today. And so it's a blessing.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I was reading about that. So you tore your MCL, right, against Youngstown State?

Speaker 6 Yes, sir. Yep.
Youngstown State.

Speaker 1 Would it be fair to say that Bo Polini saved your life then?

Speaker 6 You know, man,

Speaker 6 everybody played a part in that. Right.
You know?

Speaker 1 Was there, so, so after you received your diagnosis, I mean, I think we, a lot of us have read your story and heard a lot about you and admire what you've been through and how you persevered.

Speaker 1 Was there, were there any like dark moments in the weeks after the initial diagnosis? Or were you always just like dedicated and you were saying, okay, I'm going to lean on my faith.

Speaker 1 I'm going to lean on the people around me and we're going to get through this?

Speaker 6 Oh, for sure. There was definitely those dark times.

Speaker 6 I tried to you know try to remove all negativity you know because i knew that could do nothing for me you know i had a fight ahead of me and it was going to take you know my max effort and that is where all my focus needed to be um but it was definitely you know after being at top of my game in college and then having to deal with that and um you know just watching like all the other bags and everybody and watching my teammates go on and compete without me uh it was definitely rough so you know it's human nature to have those dark moments And that's where I get the title of the book, you know, Fears of Choice.

Speaker 6 I had a lot of fear, you know, fear if I ever was going to be able to play again or get back to returning to to top shape. So it was a couple of things.
But,

Speaker 6 you know, I definitely leaned on my faith and my teammates. And I had so much support from really everybody around the world who helped me get through what I went through.

Speaker 1 You talk in the book about life's plot twists as well. And I'd have to imagine, and you can tell me,

Speaker 1 the plot twists that have happened in 2020 to America and the world, coronavirus, obviously everything that's going on right now with people fighting for

Speaker 1 justice when it comes to the police and Black Lives Matter. Do you have a different perspective when big things like that happen? You're like, look, I've dealt with things.

Speaker 1 I know how to overcome these things. Can you cope better than the rest of us that might be dealing with these tough things in life for the first time?

Speaker 6 I like to think that I've had to mature early from what I went through at cancer at 21 and was forced to do.

Speaker 6 and grow up just early. But I'm still hurt and affected by the injustice that's going on in America right now and all that type of those issues that we're facing.

Speaker 6 I feel it and I'm hurting for all the people who lost their lives.

Speaker 6 It's very unfortunate. And right now, football kind of needs to take like a back seat because we've got a lot of issues that we need corrected in this country.

Speaker 6 And so, but I think definitely what I went through, I'm able to

Speaker 6 just understand. And I have hope.
You know, I was in a really, really dark place. And my hope, I seen a light and I got pulled out of there and the world.

Speaker 6 and and black people are in a dark place right now but i think if they just have hope um you know

Speaker 1 and you know make positive efforts towards towards change then we then you know we can grow what what has been mike tomlin's uh message to the team because i've i would imagine he is uh you know he's a very noted player's coach player's first coach he always seems to have a really good pulse of his team how has he talked to you guys after you know everything that's gone on he's been doing a phenomenal job with bringing us together um

Speaker 6 Coach was real hurt and affected by it.

Speaker 6 His father

Speaker 6 went through things. He went through now.
His son is seeing things. And so it is tough for him.
It's tough for all of us really on our team.

Speaker 6 But the beautiful thing about football is, our whole life, everybody on our team, we've been in diverse locker rooms. And so we kind of know what a brotherhood feels like.

Speaker 6 And so during our meetings, we've just been trying to come together and think of ways that we can make a positive change and

Speaker 6 just continue to raise awareness more than there already has been and just work on something that's going to better you know the society and so um you know we're trying to do all the right things but we're definitely talking about it and trying to put a plan in place

Speaker 1 so it sounds like the steelers are going to be supportive of whatever you guys choose to do whether that be kneeling during the national anthem staying in lot whatever whatever outlet you guys are going to focus on here the the steelers have your back on this yeah i agree man we have man our owners our cultures our stat man everybody from the the top down what we're all in we're all down with the movement we're all we all know that there's need to be changed so whatever the the steelers organizations come up with um me and my teammates i know we're going to be on board that's great um on a little lighter note big ben just shaved his beard and somehow lost 500 pounds when he shaved it i don't know what it was about the thing that he was growing but it definitely it added a few pounds um are you have you have you gone out and worked out with him yet are you excited to play with him are you worried about the first time that he straps on the walking boot after his press conference and

Speaker 1 kind of dangles that thing around a little bit?

Speaker 6 Yeah, so we, you know, we linked up and we were throwing. There was a little video that got released of us throwing the field with Juju in Switzerland, man, he looks good out there.

Speaker 6 And so we're definitely excited to have our guy back, you know, just taking the field with him. I'm going to do everything I can to make his job easier and getting that run game going.

Speaker 6 But man, his presence alone, just him being back out there, you know, it's year 17 for him. So,

Speaker 6 and I know he'll still have those butterflies and he talks about that. And that's just what makes us play, makes us play, you know, up to our level.
So I'm excited for his comeback.

Speaker 6 The whole team is we're going to rally around him, and it'll be fun. It'll be something special.

Speaker 1 Have you thought about bringing the mullet back? I have.

Speaker 6 I have.

Speaker 6 Not the one that I had in 2018, the first one when I had the lines on my head and whatnot. But, you know,

Speaker 6 I might grow something out the back. I'm not sure.
But as far as that one cut with the, no, that one's retired.

Speaker 1 Oh, the mullet is so nice. So you are like a Pittsburgh legend.
You know, you're from Pennsylvania. You went to Pitt.
You're on the Steelers.

Speaker 1 What makes, define or explain to everyone outside of Pittsburgh, what exactly is a Jinser and what makes Jinser so great? Because we love Pittsburgh.

Speaker 6 Man, truthfully,

Speaker 6 like I said, I played, like you said, I played my college ball here, my professional ball. Really, I'm not even sure the exact definition of a Jinser.

Speaker 6 I know that it probably has to be somebody who just is Pittsburgh through and through, loves it, who, you know, is diehard Steeler fan, Pirates, and and

Speaker 6 penguins and you know just this loves the city so there's definitely yinsers everywhere around here but it's nothing but love in the city they okay

Speaker 1 so that's a that's a different definition than I've heard I've heard it's a Yinzer is heart of gold shit for brains

Speaker 4 I never heard that

Speaker 1 just like salt of the earth people just fucking true sports fans you know kind of meatball sports fans but I we love that's why I mean we we we make fun of everything here but like at the end of the day we kind of are those meatball sports fans where we take things too seriously and get mad too quickly like that's what that's what I always imagined a Yinser is and I love people like that because they are true salt of the earth Yeah, we we definitely got some fanatic fans who who you know who go all out for us and so you know that that's part of Sailor Nation.

Speaker 6 They do it the best.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
What is a more important Pittsburgh tradition? The Rib Festival or when they play double renegade at a night game?

Speaker 6 Oh, I don't think nothing really compares to that Renegade.

Speaker 6 You know, it seems like we make a big play every time that that thing comes on. So there's nothing like it, you know.

Speaker 6 So that's all the fans when the screen goes black and the whole crowd gets pumped up. And that's something to witness for sure.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 do you limit your Renegade intake during the week so that it's that much more special on Sunday? Like if you hear it come on the radio, do you change the station?

Speaker 1 Because you're like, I can't deal with this right now. That's a Sunday song.

Speaker 6 Well, you know, any radio station I'm probably listening to, Renegade's Gay's probably not up next on the playlist. So,

Speaker 6 you know, I hear it on game days, and that's enough of me.

Speaker 1 What's it like having muscles on your back? I'm looking at a picture of you.

Speaker 1 What's it like having muscles on your back that I don't even think I have? I don't think I have those muscles. Like even if I lifted forever, it's a triangle.
You're back in the middle.

Speaker 1 What the fuck is going on with your back, man?

Speaker 6 Man, this is work. I've been getting after it, man.
I changed the diet up.

Speaker 6 I've been two times a day all week, just getting to it and no i definitely i didn't know i had those muscles on my back either so we were just getting after it in the weight room one day and

Speaker 1 that's how it happened jesus christ you're a fucking beast you actually you're one of those people we have guests on every now and then who just make me feel like the smallest person in the world because you had you beat cancer and you were back the next year for your senior year and were phenomenal and then went and got drafted and played for the steelers there's pretty much nothing you can't do i would imagine man that's love bro yeah you know i'm just i'm just trying to do it big man I'm just trying to, you know, give them all, and it's a blessing.

Speaker 6 So everything, I'm just trying to take advantage of this life that we're living. It's been nothing but great so far.
So I'm trying to be a beast every day.

Speaker 1 Yeah. What, um, what how many people have come up to you and been like, hey, man, you saved my fantasy season? I got to imagine that was big when Le'Veon Bell first decided to sit out.

Speaker 6 Yeah, that's the only thing I heard for months, you know, during that season and after that. So it was all love, though.

Speaker 1 You know, people, they get serious over that fantasy football, and they'll let you hear it too when you're not performing so it's cool though dude you're you that actually we're we're kind of joking about that but that actually makes you a legend for life like people fantasy owners will always remember a running back or a wide receiver that comes in and saves their season so like in 20 years people will be like remember that year james conner that was sick well i hope i can put some more years together and i just hold on to one year no it's true yeah Yeah, but I'm saying you have that one.

Speaker 1 Like most people don't have that one. You have that one for sure.

Speaker 1 And it's also because that one year you weren't necessarily the highest touted running back going into that season you were kind of a question mark coming in for l'evion so people probably picked you up in like the seventh eighth round something like that and then you put up

Speaker 6 i've been learning a little bit more about it you know i don't play fantasy football so you know i never understood why it was so big but then i realized that they called it a steal and all of that so you know i'm starting to get the hang of it a little bit have uh has anybody paid you money like given you a cut of what they want in fantasy football and been like hey fair is fair here you go here's a little taste no no, I ain't get that.

Speaker 6 Nobody broke me off that. So, you know, I just let everybody keep their money, man.
It's all good.

Speaker 1 When you're playing and Big Ben comes up limping, are you ever nervous? Are you like, nah, he's like, this happens all the time.

Speaker 6 He'll be fine. I know if he can play, he's going to go.
So I've seen it a couple of times and, you know, he just continued to play on. So

Speaker 6 most of the time, man, he plays through it all. He's really a beast.
And so. you know, I really don't get too worried about it.
I just hope it's nothing, ever, nothing serious.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 What about what about the duck magic last year our good friend uh devlin hodges has has he taught you how to do a duck call man he's been trying uh but you know now he's the expert that he got all types of trophies for it and he he's a legend in that game but yeah man when duck came in he he did awesome and you know he's such a cool dude and man we had a great vibe and and we and we was he was rolling you know for a couple weeks so uh i know he's excited to get back to it as well i always wondered when you when you did come in for l'évion bell uh were was the offensive line like really really excited that they were able to block for somebody that would actually hit the hole?

Speaker 6 Yeah, man. You know,

Speaker 6 I remembered

Speaker 6 in a preseason game, our first preseason game, 2018, and we took the field and I think we scored in like three, three running plays.

Speaker 6 And it was just like, man, you know, they are the line, you know, they hyped me up, man. They showed a lot of love.

Speaker 6 They rallied behind me with the situation, you know, and they was just like, we're going to roll with. whoever's there.

Speaker 6 They still had all the love and respect for Le'Veon, but I just remember that and it was like just rallying behind me. And I think that made it easier.

Speaker 1 Yeah, when it comes to Bell, he's obviously an extremely talented player, and he's an awesome running back.

Speaker 1 I don't think anyone's going to dispute that, but I would also think at the same time, like it's easier for an offensive lineman who likes to move forward, who likes to get in that rhythm, having a dude like you that's going to just go in there and just crack some skulls.

Speaker 6 Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do. That's what I'm trying to get to, you know, sort of line on how to hold their blocks for too long.

Speaker 6 Um, they made it work with Le'Veon, you know, he had obviously, you know, great seasons after season.

Speaker 6 So, I think a couple different styles work, but um, you know, I'm just going to continue to keep playing my game.

Speaker 1 After, I'm sure you've been asked this, but it's the first time we're asking you this. After the famous Miles Garrett Mason Rudolph fight last year, what was it like walking off that field?

Speaker 1 Were you just like, what the fuck just happened there?

Speaker 6 Yeah, that was crazy. I was in a locker room when it all happened and went down.
And I just like, honestly, couldn't, couldn't believe my eyes that, that that just happened.

Speaker 6 And so it was definitely chaotic.

Speaker 6 I just hope nothing like that ever happens again, but it was

Speaker 6 definitely, it was just that, that, the ride back and all that, that we just, you know, kind of couldn't believe what just happened. It was ugly.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 But at the same time, you're like, I'm very glad that I'm friends with Marquise Pouncey. Yes.
Yeah. Right.
Yeah. You know,

Speaker 6 that didn't surprise nobody on the team. We know Pounce is going to ride regardless, no matter the situation, whatever it is.
He's the ultimate teammate.

Speaker 1 That's true. All right.
I have one last question. So we're talking to James Conner right now, Pittsburgh Steelers running back.
He's got a new book out. It is called Fear is a Choice.

Speaker 1 You got to read it. An incredible story.
So going back to your story,

Speaker 1 you get diagnosed with cancer. You go through chemo.
You beat cancer. You come back for your senior year.
You have 1,000 yards rushing, 16 touchdowns.

Speaker 1 And then after that, or I don't know when you said it, but...

Speaker 1 You were 60%. You said you were 60% of your strength that senior year.
That's fucking incredible. Could you really feel it?

Speaker 1 Like, man, I would have made this guy miss or I would have outran this guy if I hadn't just beat cancer and coming off of that.

Speaker 6 No question. You know, that's why, you know, I put a little post up on Instagram about how I was feeling during my training, trying to come back for that season.

Speaker 6 But, you know, even when I say 60%, I'm kind of just

Speaker 6 throwing the number out there. You know, I just knew it wasn't 100.
Early on in the season versus Villanova, I mean, I was exhausted. Nobody knows this.

Speaker 6 I was exhausted running out the tunnel, you know, for the first game of the season season back.

Speaker 6 And I just remember standing there for the national anthem, like, you know, like out of breath from running out the tunnel, that's how, you know, still how much, you know, because 12 rounds of chemotherapy, that takes a toll on you.

Speaker 6 And so I just feel like, I got to play this whole game. You know, I'm starting and all of that.
And I'm already tired before the game started.

Speaker 6 But slowly, you know, week after week, it started to build back up. And then versus Clemson, you know, I had some late runs in the fourth, some big runs.

Speaker 6 And I was like, okay, it's coming back a little bit. But I mean, like I said, people, it takes, you know, almost, you know, year, year and some to recover from 12 rounds of chemo.

Speaker 6 And I had to do it in like two months. So it was definitely rushed, but, you know, we made it work.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
I actually have one last, last question. Sorry.

Speaker 1 You recently bought your dad a truck. So awesome video.
But when you buy your dad a truck, you were doing it because of the kindness of your heart.

Speaker 1 But was there a small part of you like, this shit is going to go so fucking viral and it's going to be awesome? Because those videos are the best. Those videos are the fucking.

Speaker 6 honestly no when i first got to the league or it might have been my last year um my boys aaron donald bought his dad a truck and uh it was recording he liked and and he his dad was super excited about it and me i know my dad i know that he's been wanting the truck for a while um i just i knew his reaction what it's gonna be oh he did well

Speaker 1 he sold it he sold it well

Speaker 6 No, man, it was honestly, I was bringing the car up to Erie to surprise him, but he would actually come down to Pittsburgh to see for some meetings and to stop and see me.

Speaker 6 And so that's why I think it hit the way it did because it was honestly like

Speaker 6 a true reaction. Like, I didn't expect him to see, like, to see him that fast.
So it's kind of crazy how that played out. So, um, you know, well, we needed something positive, and I gave that.

Speaker 6 So, that's just what it was.

Speaker 1 It's an awesome video. I love those videos.
6 million views, 35,000 or 36,000 retweets. There's, but the small party was like, yeah, this is going to be awesome when it hits Twitter, right?

Speaker 6 That's what you want me to say.

Speaker 1 No, I mean, you know, like, I listen, if I

Speaker 1 don't put anything on Twitter for me, they're hoping that thing gets retweeted. Right, like, it's 99% is like, this is awesome.
I'm buying my dad a truck, and 1% is like, this is going to be sick.

Speaker 1 People are going to be like, oh, yeah,

Speaker 1 it's 99 to 1. Yeah, right.
I mean, also, yeah, there's also going to be like millions of people that see that awesome ACDC shirt that you're wearing, too. Yes.

Speaker 1 That's actually the bigger flex, I think, is the ACDC shirt.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I'm just, you know,

Speaker 6 I had to represent. So that shirt was dope.

Speaker 1 Did you get it fully like everything in the inside all set up? Like the computer system and everything, all the upgrades?

Speaker 6 Yeah, it's dope. You know, he just had to set up the Wi-Fi in there and do his music and all that.
And, you know, he's a simple man. So, you know, he didn't even want to do all that technology stuff.

Speaker 6 He just wanted to, you know, he was excited that it was always pushstart.

Speaker 1 Because I always, the cynical part of me is like someone buys, you know, one of those videos drops and it's like they bought like the base model with none of the upgrades.

Speaker 1 I didn't felt seats and stuff.

Speaker 1 You can tell the wheels. The wheels are an upgrade already on that thing.
Ice Cube quote tweeted it. That's pretty awesome.

Speaker 1 When Ice Cube acknowledges you as being like, hey, this guy's flexing. That's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 We should do that.

Speaker 1 Our internet dad, Mike Flurry, we should just buy him a truck. We should rent him a truck.
Yeah, rent him a truck.

Speaker 1 We'll put a bow on it. We'll videotape it, drop it off for him and be like, here you go, dad.
And then after he gets in it and starts driving around, be like, yeah, it's rented.

Speaker 1 And the retweets are real. Yeah, you can't take the retweets.
Yeah, on retweet, that's it. Enterprise needs to come pick that up by five o'clock tonight.

Speaker 1 Well, James, thank you so much, man. This has been awesome.
Everyone, go out and buy James' book. Fear is a choice.
Unbelievable story. We're rooting for you.

Speaker 1 I'm sneaky. Like, people make fun of me around here because I'm a Bears fan, but for some reason, I always fall in love with the Steelers in season.

Speaker 1 Like, last year, I was convinced that you guys, if you had gotten in, you would have made a run because that defense was just fucking awesome. So

Speaker 1 I always sell myself.

Speaker 1 I think it's Big Ben slash the uniforms, but I always always sell myself on the streets. Those uniforms at night.
Yeah. We'll always

Speaker 1 in like late November. You don't want to play there at nighttime.
The black.

Speaker 6 Yeah, the black with the lights heading it, you know, home field or anything like that. Make sure you're not sleeping on my boy Mitch, though.
I think Mitch is going to come out.

Speaker 1 Yes. There we go.
Let's go. There we go.
Get him hyped up. ACC for life.

Speaker 6 That's my dog. That's my dog.
Yeah,

Speaker 6 I played Mitch, you know, senior year of high school. We've been going at it, you know, Pitt versus North Carolina.

Speaker 6 You know, it's Steelers Bears, even though, you know, I wasn't playing that year. That was 2017.
I was sitting, but no, I think Mitch, I know, I know his work ethic, man.

Speaker 6 I know what he's about to do, so he's gonna come out fired up.

Speaker 1 That was essentially like you buying me a truck, so thank you. There you go, yeah, you know, like that.
I'm so I'm just as hyped, yeah. Like, that was that was our truck moment.

Speaker 1 No, we'll get some retweets off this, too. You just like showed me a bitch, you're like, Here's a franchise quarterback, it's Mr.
Biscuit. I'm like, Yes, I go,

Speaker 1 I got this for you.

Speaker 1 I love you, big cat. Appreciate y'all, man.
All right, thanks so much, James. Appreciate it, man.
Good luck.

Speaker 6 All right, peace.

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Speaker 1 Okay, let's wrap up the show. We're going to do, again, reminder, we're going to do,

Speaker 1 what is it called? Perfect strange? No, three identical strangers. Three identical strangers.
Unbelievable documentary. Make sure you watch it.
We'll review it on Friday's show.

Speaker 1 Before we go, though, we wanted to give the female listeners a chance to sound off. We did the Mount Rush more, Mount Flush more of things

Speaker 1 guys do that girls hate on Monday's show. So we're going to reverse it here we got the submissions things that girls do that guys hate that girls have submitted

Speaker 4 Hank clap back go when girls talk about reality TV shows even though guys constantly talk about barstool drama

Speaker 1 that's actually a very fair point

Speaker 1 very fair point but I feel different though I feel like Kardashians with no sports going on

Speaker 1 there's like a big overlap there yeah like we're talking about top chef you you talk about real housewives yeah outer banks Well, that's the Venn diagram. That's where we're finding the middle.

Speaker 4 Chicks on guys, what guys hate. When I keep explaining why I'm mad after he already apologized.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I agree with that. It's like once I understand why you're mad and I've said sorry, what else can I do?

Speaker 1 There's literally nothing I can do. There's nothing worse than giving the sorry that's not accepted.
You're like, because you know in your head, in a guy's brain, it's basically playing Monopoly.

Speaker 1 The get out of jail free card is just saying sorry, like, I was wrong. I'm sorry.
And then when you get the, no, what are you even apologizing for? And then you're stumped. You're like, uh,

Speaker 1 I'm sorry, you're mad. Sorry that I apologized without knowing what I was apologizing for.
Yeah, that's on us.

Speaker 4 When girls gasp while they're driving.

Speaker 1 Oh, yes, that it, yeah. When there's like a person crossing the street 150 yards away.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. Oh, when a girl gasps while you're driving.
Yes. Okay, yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, Oh, watch out. Yeah, did you even see that dog? Yeah.
Did you see that box in the middle of the highway? We could have hit it.

Speaker 1 The worst is when they're gasping at something on their phone and it's not even outside. Yeah, and you're like, what? What? You like slam on the brakes? It's probably the dude.
She's fucking cocked.

Speaker 1 It's like, oh, come on.

Speaker 1 Ooh.

Speaker 4 I like some of these responses. You can tell that the girl is listening in real time because she started with like five oohs.

Speaker 1 Like, she was like, ooh. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Ooh.

Speaker 4 When they buy you an expensive ass dinner and you eat like two bites, and then she made this the

Speaker 4 I don't actually bonus if you say you're hungry later.

Speaker 1 I don't actually that that part is bad, but I don't hate it because I just eat it, I just eat everything. There's no problem.

Speaker 1 I don't really have a problem with that because I was going to spend the money, anyways.

Speaker 1 And so, as long as I'm getting my, as long as I'm eating mine, and you get the credits, and you're going to eat, I will eat off of another person's plate. No questions asked.

Speaker 1 I actually usually don't even notice. I'm just like, I ate my food, my steak was great.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 um,

Speaker 4 When it's a one-night stand and in the morning, you're looking forward to some solid sex, you know, start the day off right, and you quickly realize they are a literal two-pump chump and come in two seconds, then proceeds to roll over and go back to sleep.

Speaker 4 But you're at your own apartment, so it's not like you can leave.

Speaker 4 So you walk around the bed banging shit loudly, hoping they get up and leave, and then they have no situational awareness, so they don't leave for another five hours.

Speaker 4 Wait, this has happened to me five hours. At least this is a good thing.

Speaker 1 Wait, that's a sound. That's the thing that girls hate.
Guys don't hate girls. No, she sounds like the the guy got an orgasm and five hours of extra sleep.

Speaker 1 It sounds like she is totally on board with the two-pump chump. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Clears up the rest of the day. Mountain flush more fish than girls do.
Blocking all the girls.

Speaker 1 No, seriously, back in the day, if we're looking at prehistoric times, it was super advantageous to nut early.

Speaker 1 Because then you just move on and you're not stationary, so there are no predators that can track you down.

Speaker 4 Blocking all the girls I don't trust on his phone at night when he's sleeping.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's kind of a psychomatic. Yeah, I probably don't like that.

Speaker 4 Things girls do that guys hate when they can't decide on where to eat.

Speaker 1 Uh-huh. Yeah.
I don't know. What do you want to do? And then you throw out a couple options, and it's quickly like, nah, I don't feel like that.
It's like, well, just fucking say it.

Speaker 1 Because I'm a guy. I will literally eat anything.
My response is going to be either burgers, Chinese food, pizza, wings. I'll eat garbage.
And then I will eat garbage. I'll say burgers.

Speaker 1 Oh, we just had burgers. Right.
I heard a trick for that. Because you're awesome.
You ask them, and you go, yo, where do you think I'm taking you to eat? And then whatever they say, you take them to.

Speaker 1 So them choosing. Wow, that's good, Billy.
Did you take psych in college? No, it shows. No, um,

Speaker 1 another good trick is to say, why do you ask?

Speaker 1 Because a lot of times, why do you ask will spare you from having to make the decision. Like, if the girl says, What do you want to have for dinner? Why do you ask?

Speaker 1 Maybe they're going to be like, Well, I was thinking that we could order from the Italian place down the street, and then it's boom, problem solved.

Speaker 4 Last two, uh, taking forever to get ready to go out. Yep, and then last one,

Speaker 1 that's one of those things that when you're younger, it might bother you. But as soon as you, like, as you get older, you realize like the timing of things.
And that's just free time. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 That's just free play. That's a rain delay that you get before going out.

Speaker 1 You know what that time is? That's sit on the couch and refresh Twitter every two seconds. Right, right.

Speaker 4 And not have to feel bad about it.

Speaker 1 Not feel bad at all. In fact, then she'll come out of the bathroom and be like, I'm so sorry I took so long.
You'll be like, you know what? It's fine. And then she feels good because you forgave her.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And it's also one of those things that, like, the

Speaker 1 older you get, the less excited you get to go places. So the longer someone takes to get ready, you're thinking, if this lasts a little bit longer, we might just say, fuck it, let's not go.

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. Which is a great feeling to have.
It's like almost, it's like the same feeling that you had when your teacher was like 15 minutes late and you're like, substitute?

Speaker 1 It's just fucking thrilling.

Speaker 4 When we ask you guys to take a picture of us and our friends, and we usually don't get the perfect picture until the 30th shot.

Speaker 1 Yes,

Speaker 1 yes, occasionally bad. But then it gives you the opportunity to pull the classic gag of flipping the camera on yourself and sneaking one or two.

Speaker 1 That's just like your chin and your neck into that into that clip. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yep. Always love that one.
All right, those were good. So we will see everyone Friday.
Make sure you watch the documentary. Are we getting Nick on?

Speaker 1 We're not going to say that, though.

Speaker 4 We're doing them tomorrow. I don't want to jinx it.
So Friday, hopefully.

Speaker 1 No jinxing it. Okay.
All right.

Speaker 1 What's the documentary called? Three Three Perfect Strangers. Shut the fuck up, Millie.
See everyone Friday. Love you guys.

Speaker 1 I'm talking away.

Speaker 1 Anyway,

Speaker 1 today isn't my day to find you. Shin it away.

Speaker 1 Oh, I've been coming for your love, okay.

Speaker 1 Needless to say,

Speaker 1 I'm all sitting in spury, somewhere in a way.

Speaker 1 Slowly learn that life is okay.

Speaker 1 Say after me

Speaker 1 at least the better to be safe and sorry.

Speaker 1 Say after me,

Speaker 1 at least the better to be safe and sorry.

Speaker 1 Things that say

Speaker 1 little eyeball, just a way that bury away.

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

Speaker 1 You're shine away,

Speaker 1 I'll be coming for you anyway.

Speaker 1 In the shine away,

Speaker 1 I'll be coming for you anyway.

Speaker 1 Take on me, everything.

Speaker 1 we're going to be