Christian McCAffrey, NFL HoF Pres David Baker and Super Bowl 54

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You know him from the knock on the door. We have him.
We talk about the NFL Hall of Fame. We talk with Christian McCaffrey about some fun stuff.
And we have the Super Bowl 54 preview. Hey, guess what, PFT? There's a game being played.
Let's go. It's crazy.
Football. It's the last NFL game until September.
It's very sad. It's crazy that this is the last game.
So we're going to embrace it. We're going to enjoy it.
We're going to preview it. We're going to do all of that in a second.
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Okay, let's go. Boy! Boy! Now in the street there is violence And then a lot of stuff work can be done No place to hang out or wash in And then I can't leave all on the sun Oh no We're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue And then we'll take it higher Oh we're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue It's Pardon My Take presented by Barstool Sports Welcome to Pardon My Take presented Take presented by the Cash App.
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Today is Fri-yay, January PFT's birthday. But we're recording it on Thursday, Big Cat's birthday.
Oh my God. Schrodinger's birth.
Look at this. You guys all sick of birthday week? We're actually going to finish the show with birthday FAQs, so we're not going to talk about our birthdays right now.
I'm not going to talk about the fact that it's my birthday today. I'm a very special boy.
Thank you. Happy birthday.
You too. Happy birthday, big cat.
Thank you. Hank? It's not my birthday.
Yeah, I know it's June. When is your birthday? June 13th.
Loser. 1993.
Super Bowl 54. Super Bowl 54 is here.
We are finally here. The last game of the season.
This is a very weird Super Bowl week. It doesn't feel like there's anyone talking about anything when it comes to the game.
It's also the fact that it's in Miami. Miami.
Everyone's just kind of walking around. Here's one thing I've noticed about people in Miami is everyone looks like they work out for a living.
Oh, yeah. It's their job to be in the gym all the time.
So I'm feeling very inadequate walking around here. But yeah, you're right.
There haven't been any huge storylines that have come out this week. The biggest one is probably Andy Reid comparing his grandchildren to sweet and sour pork.
Yeah, so he said his grandchildren are great. They keep them young and they keep them, but sometimes they also keep them old.
Very similar to sweet and sour pork. So he compared his grandchildren to his favorite dish.
He invented the concept of the yin and the yang, except if it was a fried dish from a Chinese restaurant. I would actually, if I'm Andy Reid, I would say they're like your, grandchildren are like your appetite because they's so much fun to spoil.
There we go.

They're like Uncrustables.

It is a very weird feeling for Super Bowl week.

I think it's Miami.

I think also, not to toot our own horn, but the story of the week was Barstool got a strategic investment from Penn National Gaming.

You probably saw it happen late Tuesday, early Wednesday.

What does that mean?

You're right.

We're going full tout.

I'm going to be a pit boss. So, dude, could you imagine if I was a pit boss? I'm going to be a slot jockey.
I would love to be a pit boss and just kick everyone out right in a second. I actually, so when I was meeting with some of the guys from Penn National Gaming, I actually asked them.
Like, it was kind of a serious meeting, and I just raised my hand. I was like, hey, do you think I could go see the Eye in the Sky room? And they're like, definitely not.
Like, legally, no way. And I was like, well, but maybe? And they're like, no.
They knew that you were just going to try to put together an Ocean's 11-type squad. You'd have like Za being lowered from the ceiling, walking out with like duffel bags filled with money.
It was just a funny moment because these guys are very serious, obviously, and really good at their jobs. And great.
We're very, very happy that they're part of the Barstool team now, and we're part of them. But it was just a really weird moment where they're just like, is this guy serious? Like, he just wants to go look at the cameras.
Like, I've always wondered that. It seems really cool.
I'd like to get in that room. I'd like to get a part of my take slot machine.

That would be cool, too. Our face is on it.

We could work on that.

Stella, Leroy.

Yeah.

Maybe some buffalo wings.

What would the other symbols be?

Part of my take slot.

The cherry in the bar.

Tums.

Tums would be one.

Maybe.

Mad Dog 2020.

A three-quarter filled Mountain Dew dip spitter.

Yep.

Maybe a low man trophy.

Just a tire. The three-quarter Mountain Dew dip spitter with just PFT on it.
This is not PFT. Right.
Taco Bell Bell. Taco Bell Bell.
Yeah, that seems good. It pays out in Roman swipes only.
Maybe a picture of Coach K laying on his side. He does the pass out thing.
My favorite gif ever. Mike the Tiger, maybe.
Are you worried, Hank, that Coach K is maybe losing his marbles after yelling at the Cameron Crazies? That was a wild move. No, I think it was a recruiting thing.
And I think if you're a prospective player and you see that, you see a coach that fights for his guys, even if they're on the other team. Right.
That is a great leader. You want to make sure the guy that paid everyone that's on your team gets respect when he comes back home.
It was because of loyalty. He loves his players so much that he loves them more when they're opponents.
No, he just loves them equally. It's a brotherhood, brotherhood for life, and that's a great example of showing that.
But what about the kids? Now, here's where we get into the deep stuff. Is this going to affect recruiting for the Cameron Crazies? If you're just a nut job basketball fan, are you going to want to go to Duke knowing that your coach doesn't have your back? Yeah, that was a bad moment for the Cameron Crazies.
It's the Cameron Crazies until dad yells at us. Yeah, exactly.
You're not really the Cameron Crazies anymore, guys, because once Coach K starts going, he did look a little, Coach K looks crazy looks crazy going nuts and then they all look like they were scolded by their parents yeah this is the tom iso thing though it's like you guys you guys want coaching you guys are like football guys what do you mean you can't tom iso has never done this no when coach when tom iso is yelling at his player everyone was like oh he's coaching too hard players coach k was just he was coaching he's just yelling at random kids kids. Right.
Those kids don't even. You guys are too soft.
You can't take a little. No.
Here's the difference. Those kids in the stands, they don't get paid to go there.
Okay? They are essentially, they're making money for the NCAA. The camera crazies are being exploited.
You can yell at your players if you're secretly paying them with Bitcoin all the time. They're professionals.
They know what they signed up for.'re a student you're helpless you're the victim in this situation yes i think the ncaa needs to take a long hard look as well as the national labor board should look at how coach k is treating his unpaid employees the student section my favorite part about that entire clip was uh when coach k turned to the camera he's like did you get that did you get that do you need do another take? And then he kept on going. That was my favorite part.
That was really nice. It is Super Bowl week, though.
It is Super Bowl week, but we had to get that in because that was... I mean, he might be losing his marbles, Hank.
I'm just saying. This is actually sad.
Roy and Coach K. All in the same year.
No, Roy's coming back. That's fine.
Well, no, he's going to kill himself if his team keeps losing. No, he's asking them to fire him.
Yeah. No, he said, didn't he say he might kill himself? Yeah.
No, he said he's going to die before they get good again. Okay.
Yeah. Coach K just needs to take away all Duke gear from the Cameron Crazies.
Give them a game to get back into it, and they'll use it going forward. They should make them all wear Jeff Capel uniforms.
Yes. Yes.
That would be good. All right.
Let's do some Super Bowl talk. Let's talk some bets.
Let's do everything. Break down the game.
Here's a real quick underrated storyline about the Super Bowl. I just uncovered this one.
Sammy Watkins is thinking about just taking a year off if they win. A sabbatical.
No one's really talking. He said he just might chill.
A leap year. Yeah.
He might go backpacking around Europe. He's a rich kid who's...
Starts signing all his emails using cheers at the end. Yeah, he's a rich kid who goes to Germany for a year right before he goes to Harvard.
Yeah. Andy Reid, how would he describe that in food terms? He's like a brisket.
You need to let him rest for a while. Slow one, yeah, yeah.
You need to let him rest. He's one of those five-star Michelin restaurants that they only can serve five people a night because that wouldn't take so long.
Now, this does back up my theory that I've been investigating over the last couple years that Sammy Watkins is in a cult. Right.
I think that there is some sort of cult behavior that he has planned for his off-season. Right, to go to the off-season.
Maybe go move down to northern South America and develop a Kool-Aid recipe. Northern South America.
So we're talking like Peru? We're talking like French Guiana, Suriname. People forget about Bolivia.
Do they? Yeah. I think when they think of South America, like South America, it's Argentina.
It's Brazil. It's...
Give me another one. Chile.
Chile. That's Australia.
Give me another one. Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador.
Nicaragua. Nicaragua, Central America.
They don't talk about Bolivia. Bolivia, yeah.
They've got some nice hikes there. Well, fading to Bolivia.
They've got the road of death. They've got excellent stimulants.
I'm actually going to look real quick. I'm going to do a quick map, deep dive South America.
We've been getting really into geography on this podcast. into geography on this podcast.
I'm going to tell you real quick which country I don't think about enough. A great tourist attraction.
Yep. Peru? Guiana.
What the fuck? I never even thought about Guiana. Alright, there it is.
That's the answer. Let's do Super Bowl talk.
Let's get there. It's the week of the big game and sadly the last week to bet on football until next season to celebrate the end of a great season.

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Okay, that is a mark of a truly great fullback if you can't pronounce his last name. Yes.
Yes. Absolutely.
Yeah, that means he's done just enough. He's adequately polished.
I know who he is, but yeah, not enough to really make me be able to pronounce his name correctly. There's also something that happens every Super Bowl week where we get to the end of it.
I'm running on fumes. I got not a lot left in the tank.
So I apologize to everyone. Rough and roundy tomorrow, though.
Rough and roundy tomorrow. I don't know if I'm able to get the anthem out.
I'm nervous. I believe in you.
When there was one footprint in the sand, that's when I was carrying you, Big Cat. Thank you.
Let's get to the finish line here. I appreciate that.
So, Super Bowl 54. By the way, I love the tails bet.
Do you think I could carry you? I'm looking back and I probably can't physically carry you. No, you probably cannot.
Okay. No, maybe.
Maybe. You can maybe carry me.
We'll see. Super Bowl 54.
What do you guys like in this game? Where do we want to start? I guess we can just start with tails. Tails never tails.
I love tails. I bet Tails every single year.
I've never bet Tails. I mean, I've never lost betting Tails.
That's absolutely false. I've definitely lost betting Tails.
I think there was one year, actually, I couldn't figure out who I wanted in the game, so I just bet all my money on Tails. It lost.
That sounds like the start of a parlay in Uncut Gems. Yeah.
Getting that going right off the bat. But I lost.
The movie just ended. I do.
Yeah. I like tails.
I like it a lot. I do every year.
I also like purple for the Gatorade. You don't anymore because it basically has been bet all the way down because there was a rumor that one of the teams has purple.
And then there was a rumor that both teams are going to have purple to celebrate Kobe Bryant. Oh.
So now purple is... Okay, purple's all the way down there.
It's basically the worst kept secret. Purple, I think, is like plus 150 now.
It's so stupid. Let me see.
No, purple's all the way down to minus 120. There you go.
Can't bet purple anymore. Not good value on purple.
Here's another one I like. Will Bitcoin price be more at the end of the game than it was at the start that actually is a smart bet to put out there because everyone who gambles uses bitcoin that so i was thinking about that like you could bet on that using bitcoin and you kind of hedge yourself don't you right because if you end up being wrong and you bet that it's going to be worth more then i don't think think this makes sense.
You lose less money because your Bitcoin devalued over the course of the game. Right.
OK. So if you use Bitcoin to gamble on Bitcoin, you'll always make money.
What is you what are you actually picking in this game? I actually think the 49ers are going to win this. I'm taking the over.
You're not picking a side. You're not going to give us a side.
I'm picking the over right now, and I'm also taking the Chiefs. Okay.
I have a lot of conviction in that bet, Big Cat. Yeah, that sounded like it really came from the bottom of your balls.
They're doing it for Sammy. What do you have, Hank? What do you think is going to happen in this game? I like the over pick.
I've thought about this game flip-flopping my brain a million times, And the thing that I keep coming back to is the Chiefs' defensive resurgence, which has happened in the last like six weeks. They've been very, very good against the run.
Everyone's talking about them. I just think that the 49ers are a different animal.
And they can pass the ball if they want to. And Kyle Shanahan is a different beast than everything else the Chiefs have faced.
So I just think the 49ers have that, like they've been the best team all year. That's the thing.
Because they were so bad last year and it took a while for people to catch on and myself included, I think we forget that they have pretty much wire to wire been the best team all year. They played that gauntlet schedule in the middle of the season where they went to Baltimore, to New Orleans, and then the Packers at home.
Basically, they played three teams over 80% or 800% winning percentage. They lost close to Baltimore.
They beat the Saints in New Orleans. They killed the Packers.
Then you go to the playoffs. They killed the Vikings.
They killed the packers like they won in dominating fashion those last two games they had the obviously the weird slip up against the falcons that was kind of a a weird like lull in their schedule and the seahawks games are instant classics but otherwise the 49ers have been close to like a juggernaut you know what i mean like they have played really really well all season long and the chiefs as good as they've been in this last stretch i just i think we're gonna walk away being like that team was so good the 49ers i'm talking about and they were so good all year how how do we not see that coming you know what another different animal is the honey badger the honey badger is making the difference in this game he's gonna have at least one turnover has been the key to the Chiefs defense stepping it up. That dude is a guy that you can't game plan for him because he's just so instinctual.
He's such a smart player too. So he's smart enough to get in the right position and then instinctual enough to just make these snap motions where he gets a shoulder or a fist on the ball, creates a turnover.
He tackles people very awkwardly in ways that they're not used to being tackled. That helps to create turnovers, too, and he's got good hands.
I love the Honey Badger. I would love to see him score a touchdown in the Super Bowl.
So you're betting it not because of Patrick Mahomes, but because of the Honey Badger? No, I'm saying we're talking about the defense right now. I think that he is such a key contributor on defense, and he does change things up.
So I like the Chiefs' defense more than most people do. They haven't lost since November 10th.
They've been on a hot streak. I think they're on an eight-game winning streak right now.
Patrick Mahomes has been laying up. He's super, super healthy.
I think that as long as they don't spot the 49ers 17 points. Which they very well could with the way they've started.
If they spot them 14 points, I'm still okay with it. If they spot them 17, I feel like that's when they have to overextend themselves.
What about 16? 16? Yeah, I'll take 16. That's just two scores.
It's a two-score game. I got you.
I got you. I got what you're saying.
I really like the Chiefs. I like the offense.
Obviously, everyone likes the offense. But they've got they present a lot of problems in the secondary for the Niners, and I don't know if the Niners have enough people to cover Hardman, Sammy Watkins.
Well, of course, you can't cover all of them. It's impossible to cover all of the weapons that they have.
The 49ers defense has been very good, and their front four will get pressure without having to add extra guys. They will get there.
And Patrick Mahomes, he's too good to have a bad game. I do not expect Patrick Mahomes to have a bad game.
I just think it's going to be a close game, and the 49ers are going to win. And we're going to look back and be like, that was a team that was an all-time team.
Do you think that Kyle Shanahan has been kind of sandbagging us and slow playing Jimmy Garoppolo?

Yes.

Like not letting him pass the ball because he has enough confidence that he can make people think like, oh, we're a one-dimensional team.

And then boom, we put in the Jimmy package.

Okay, so that's kind of a joke, but I agree with the reality of it because you go into this game, the Chiefs go into this game being like, we have to stop the run. They have to because that's what the 49ers have shown the last two games.
And then they can open up. Here's a little thing.
There might be some wind on Sunday. Check that.
I will. I'll be monitoring that.
Check that wind. I'm also going to make a bold prediction.
I think that the Niners are going to hit them with a play-action bomb on the first drive. Whoa.
Play-action bomb.

Okay.

So watch out for that one.

Flea Flicker?

George Kittle?

No, maybe a Flea Flicker.

Maybe.

I'm not getting Flea Flicker vibes.

Who's catching it? Who's he going to?

He's going to Debo.

Okay.

He's going to Debo for six.

Nice.

Oh, first score Debo?

Yeah, exactly.

I like that.

Yeah, first score Debo Samuel for six points.

I mean, it would be the perfect time to do it. Right.
After Jimmy threw eight passes in the last game. And you're right, they're going to be keying on the run.
I'm just rooting for Greg Kittle to get Super Bowl MVP, so he has to get tattoos of us. Yes.
That would be so cool. My official prediction is basically a repeat of last year.
The old-timer is going to beat the new guy. Well, no, Kink, from a Patriots perspective, who are you rooting for? And the Chiefs.

Under and the Chiefs.

So you're rooting against former Patriot Jimmy Garoppolo,

who learned everything that he knows from Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. I'm not really looking at it from a Patriots perspective.

I'm just looking at the game.

49ers versus Chiefs.

You look at what you're going to order for dinner from a Patriots.

What about if Mahomes wins this,

and then he is well on his way to be in the grace of all time?

He's got to look at that. He would have to win six more after this one to be in that conversation.
But this is an early start. Yeah, it would be.
I want Andy Reid to win. I do too.
I do. I'm going to bet on the Niners.
This is probably why the Super Bowl has no buzz this year. It's because I really...
You don't care either way. I want Andy Reid to win, but I don't really care either way.
Yeah, when I bet on the Niners and if I lose my bet, I won't – I'll be mad that I lost the bet. But at the end of the day, I'll be like, that's pretty awesome that Andy Reid has a Super Bowl.
I'm excited for him. It's emotion insurance that you're putting on yourself.
I like that. I like that technique a lot.
I'm rooting – I would love very much to see Andy Reid. I think what could happen is you're right that front four on the 49ers, they can get pressure on the quarterback pretty easily.
What is Andy Reid really, really good at? Going back to his Philadelphia. Eating ribs.
That's number one. He eats ribs and he throws screen passes.
His screen game is awesome. It's on point.
It always has been. I think that that's actually a good matchup for the Chiefs.
I don't want to say it's a good matchup because, obviously, those four guys up front are really good, but it's a matchup that the Chiefs are more uniquely suited to counter than most other coaches would be able to. I just really want to have the Chiefs go down big and then say thanks for coming out, Chiefs, and then Patrick Mahomes like it after he wins the Super Bowl.
That would be a pretty cool moment. I'm also just rooting for them to win, to get some fire TikToks from Patrick Mahomes' brother after the game.
Oh, boy. He might win Super Bowl MVP.
Confetti coming down. He might win Super Bowl MVP.
A little inside tip. I'm told this is huge news, by the way.
I can't believe Darren Revell hasn't spoken about it yet. The confetti that's going to pour down after the game is going to have tweets on it.
How cool is that? Finally. We've shredded up tweets and we're dumping them on players.
God, that's stupid. That is so fucking stupid.
The NFL finally gets social media. They're printing out tweets and then dumping them on people's heads.
Who's doing halftime? Shakira JLo I knew that I did know that I always like to bet on the first song of the halftime performance as well I am leaning towards Hips Don't Lie because that's the only Shakira song I know Jenny from the block yes she's from the block I hope Jennifer Lopez wears the green dress from the awards ceremony. Is it Jennifer Lopez featuring Shakira or other way around? That's a good question.
I think it's co-headliners. Whose name comes first? Because Jennifer from the block is always such a banger to start with.
It's like you announce your arrival. I'm still, I'm still Jennifer from the block.
Right. Who's coming first, though? Whose name appears first on the...
It's honestly going to be Pitbull. Pitbull is going to come out.
Pitbull will show up. Jennifer Lopez comes up first.
Okay. So she's had my name.
Jenny from the block. Put it in the bank.
All right. Anything else? Super Bowl? Joe Buck? Troy Aikman? Good crew.
I ran Joe Buck last night at a party. He was kind of walking towards me.
I was going to go over and say, what's up, Joe? And he just makes a beeline right to me

and he gives me a massive hug.

How big was his erection?

I'm talking, he had it tucked.

So I could see the head poking out of the top of the belt,

which is a pretty cool look.

And he was giving me this hug,

like both hands full embrace around my back.

And I was like, hey, Joe,

I guess you're on MDMA right now or something.

So Joe Buck was stripping. He had a pacifier in his mouth? Joe Buck was stripping on Molly last night.
He had a candy necklace around his neck. He was shirtless.
He had mesh shorts on. It was a whole thing.
Just want to touch your face, dude. Yeah.
It's so awesome. He looked good, though.
It is. This is definitely, I feel like, the most CNBC and Super Bowl we've had in five years because of Miami.
Mad Money, CNBC. Yeah, right.
The Miami vibe though, everyone's here. You know what I mean? You don't skip the Miami Super Bowl.
You skip the Minnesota Super Bowl, you don't skip the Miami Super Bowl. So you just walk down the street.
There's people everywhere and celebrities everywhere and people going to the beach and not going to radio. Yeah, listen, I'm very much enjoying the NFL, like the shirts and stuff that they put out.
I know we talked about earlier this week how I enjoy just Super Bowl merchandise. The shirts that they've got here in Miami are fire.
Like they are, it's the pink, it's the green, it's the crazy 80s designs on them. I'm going to go back with like a whole new wardrobe of that shit.
Kind of candy ass. Kind of candy ass, but guess what?

We're in Miami.

Is Dan Marino doing the coin flip?

I hope not.

Maybe Joe Montana?

Dan Marino will get brought out there to flip a rolled up $100 bill.

Really tightly.

That's really mean.

Dan Marino is just a really good guy.

And I like him a lot.

He's just a well-adjusted, like, he loves life.

It's sad we didn't get to catch up a year later. What? It's sad we didn't get to catch up with him.
The one-year anniversary. Our plan was to interview Dan Marino again and just type out the transcript and try to ask him the exact same questions in the same cadence and see if we could get him to stay a little bit longer.
Or we could do a table read with him of last year's interview. Might be actually better.
It definitely would. His answers would be better being able to read it.
We could change his name to like a different quarterback that he hates. Who does Dan Marino hate? Every quarterback with a Super Bowl ring? Right.
I'm trying to remember on CBS when someone referred to it. Trent Dilfer? He definitely hates Trent Dilfer.
Who was it when they said Peyton Manning might end up like a Dan Marino without Super Bowl and Dan Marino was right there? Like what the fuck? Phil Simms. Phil Simms, yeah.
Alright, so yeah. We'll print out the transcript and have it instead of Dan Marino.
Oh, yeah. And Dan Marino was right there.
Like, what the fuck? Phil Simms. Phil Simms, yeah.

All right.

So, yeah, we'll print out the transcript and have it, instead of Dan Marino, say Phil

Simms for all his lines.

And then at the end, Dan Marino will be like, man, that Phil Simms sure is an asshole, huh?

Right.

Right.

He'll be like, that was you, Dan.

Yes.

The whole time.

That was you.

All right.

Let's get to our interviews.

We got a great interview with Christian McCaffrey.

And then an all-timer with David Baker, the largest man actually probably yeah probably the largest guy we've ever had on it's it's either david baker or kane i think david baker i think he might be bigger than 400 pounds six foot nine he is a massive should have been a wrestler massive man all protein bars generally taste the same but not one bars one made protein bars are actually delicious with Reese's and Hershey's. Only one Reese's Peanut Butter Lover's protein bar is made with Reese's Peanut Butter.
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Find all One bars at a retailer near you or on amazon.com. Okay, here he is, Christian McC mcafree okay we now welcome on very special guest it is running back from the carolina panthers christian mcafree he's here with verizon first question i have to ask you you're doing the one more sunday campaign with verizon and here's what the the campaign is pft they want us to use all the time we watch football and then use that time for volunteer service, community service in the offseason.
Do you realize how much football we watch? You guys are going to be out of a job. I was reading it.
I was like, I don't think we have enough time to volunteer with how much football we watch. Not only do I watch the games, I grind tape.
I'm like an all-22 junkie. I sit down and break that down.
So,, yeah, that's like 80 hours a week. I'm going to have to volunteer.
That's tough. You're going to have to open up your off-season, I guess.
Right. So, my other Verizon question is, are you now in charge of getting us good cell service in every single stadium? Yes, that's my job.
So, we can tweet to you when people can't. Come to me with any of your Verizon questions.
That was a bad mistake. Yeah.
So, yeah, you're going to pay for that one. We'll have all business Pete escalate all our Wi-Fi requests to you.
Everyone tweet a Christian if you can't get service. So can we call you a future Hall of Famer? I wouldn't say that.
No. I mean, you can.
I don't know if I'll agree with you necessarily yet. I was looking through it.
You're 23 years old now? Yep. You have most receptions by a running back in one game.
You have most receptions by a running back in a season. You're one of three guys to do 1,000 yards receiving, 1,000 yards rushing, and you're 23.
I think you're a future Hall of Famer. Appreciate that.
Thank you. Say that to everyone.
That's how I'll start introducing myself yeah you are a swiss army knife but the big question is how quickly can you decipher a text from cam newton uh it takes a minute yeah i have to go see translation on the uh on the instagram feed but i end up getting it done um it's tough you know it's another language that that i don't know how he understands it but he makes do with it you know thing. Have you ever watched him, like, type it out? I've never seen it.
I think his keyboard is set to that whatever you want to call it. So he types normally, but it comes out the way, you know, it comes out.
I don't know what you would call it. Yeah, we're friends with Greg Olson.
He said that he, like, thinks a lot of the reason why he gets passes is because he can decipher what Cam's saying better than anyone else. Exactly.
That's why he's been in the league so long. That's the only reason Greg has stayed in the league so long is because of that.
Have you met and talked with your new coach? I have, yeah. I talked with Coach Rule, talked with Coach Brady a little bit.
I'm really excited. I think those guys are, you know, you look at the history of turning teams around who have been struggling.
And, you know, Coach Rule, what he did at Temple, what he did at Baylor. And I think, I honestly think we got the right guys to do that, too.
You know, we need a lot of guys to step up. But we got a good young bunch mixed with some veteran guys, so it should be good.
Did you bring up the fact that he spit on himself in the bowl game? I didn't even see that, Cliff. That's news to me.
Oh, we need to pull that up. Spit right on himself.
We need to show you. We absolutely need to show you.
But we actually said we we like matt rule yeah and he we think he's a great coach yeah but if you're an nfl owner when you see him spit on yourself that's a no go cross him off the list maybe next year i'd love to have him but right that's like basic things that's something i would do i would spit on myself all the time matt drool is what it looks like here god uh when he talked did you get to meet him he talked, did you get to meet him face-to-face? Yeah, I met him face-to-face. Was he wearing a smock? He wasn't wearing a smock, no.
He changed it, right? I think he said he's retiring the smock. Yeah, I hope it makes a comeback, though.
I'm a fan of the smock, to be honest. Yeah, me too.
Here we go. Here we go.
You ready? Uh-oh. It's bad.
He spit directly on himself. Like right down.

I think it was indoors, too.

It wasn't a wind.

You know, sometimes you're like, wow, that's a crazy wind.

No wipe-offs.

Just right down.

He's dehydrated.

He's stressed for that game.

That's for sure.

That's a thick spit.

It was super thick all the way.

It means he's working hard.

I can respect it.

Yeah.

I kind of have a serious question here because I've always wondered about,

you know, when teams change ownership, the actual, like to day stuff that impacts the athletes. Because I always figure, you know, you go about your job, you've got, you know, the things that you need to work on that, you know, when you go in there.
Is there like a palpable sense in a building when a new owner takes charge? I think, you know, I only know from, you know, the transition from Mr. Richardson and Mr.
Tepper. And I would definitely say there was a new, there was definitely a new feel in the building.
And anyone who knows Mr. Tepper knows that he is such a presence.
He wants to be a part of it. He loves talking with the players.
You know, he loves being in the end, and he is. And he's a guy who's not afraid to make moves that he thinks are going to help us win.

So as a player, it's exciting because you know that he wants to be on the forefront of, you know,

new technology, new treatments.

You know, he's building a new facility, obviously.

He's done so much with our team already.

So from a player's perspective, it does matter.

And it's really cool when you have an owner who's like that. What about the shield at the 50-yard line? Are you going to miss that? Are they changing the shield to the – I love the things that you – I just don't know these things.
We obsess over these things. Mr.
Richardson was – he wanted to give respect to the league, so he kept it as the shield at the 50-yard line. I like, yeah, I mean, you know, not my decision.
Players are like, what the hell is it talking about, dude? I don't even know what's on the field. I mean, we have the, I think we have the Panther now, right? Now you have the Panther, yeah.
I'm very disrespectful, though. Yeah, terrible.
Isn't that terrible? To the league. Oh, it's disgusting.
Well, speaking of questions that, you know, we try to always ask questions that you may not get asked by every other interview uh would you like to use this time to apologize for skipping the sun bowl that's the greatest question i ever got i mean donovan mcnab said that it said a bad message for the kids bad message for the kids that was his direct quote so would you i have a son you shouldn't say things like that when you have like a history of like not not good things. I don't know.
I won't go that far, but you know what I'm talking about. But go ahead.
Apologize. Yeah, I apologize to everybody.
To the kids. Specifically to the kids.
I apologize to the kids. What's the 13 and under? I'd actually like you to apologize directly to Big Cat's son.
So apologize to my son for missing the Sun Bowl. Go ahead.
What's your son's name? It's Little Cat. We call him Little Cat.
But he wasn't even born yet. But if he had been born, he would have wanted to see you in the Sun Bowl.
Little Cat, I'm so sorry. I can't explain to you enough how apologetic I am for missing the Sun Bowl.

If I could do it again, I will replay a Sun Bowl just for Little Cat.

Wow.

I'm actually going to hold you that. In El Paso.

Yeah, I am actually upset that you skipped the Sun Bowl

because the Sun Bowl is the famous game that Ryan Pace went and watched Mitch Trubisky

and was like, damn, they lost to Stanford.

I got to draft this guy.

If you had played, you might have been drafted by the Bears. History might have been different.
You're absolutely right. That's my fault.
That's my fault. Because UNC might have fallen behind by a lot more points, and then Mitch would have tried to press a little bit, throw some interceptions, and then they would have passed on.
Bad decision by me. Do you feel a little slighted that everyone talks about who passed on Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson in that draft and not who passed on Christian McCaffrey? No, I mean, I, I, I get that from me.
Like, man, they picked Christian McCaffrey instead of Pat Mahomes. That's terrible.
You know what I mean? I'm happy with that. I mean, I, it's hard to complain when you go eighth, you know, obviously you're a competitor and you want to be the first pick.
But I couldn't have gone to a better organization. Charlotte's the best.
I'm not just saying that either. I like Charlotte a lot.
I went to a great team. I got guys like Olsen on the team where I got to come into the league and learn from him, hang out with him.
So it's been good. I feel like things worked out pretty well for you overall.
Yeah. With how that shook out.
I grew up a Redskins fan. We you know ron rivera now up there i'm actually very excited i kind of the redskins and i have had a mutual parting of ways over the last five years let's put it that way but now i'm i'm actually reinvigorated because i believe in that guy and i think you know when when uh he left the panthers everything you heard on his way out was nothing but admiration yeah and glowing praise so can you just, like, convince me that the Redskins are going to win the Super Bowl? Yeah.
Well, I think when, you know, I mean, you said it best. When he left, I mean, the Carolinas were, you know, just thankful that you got some time with him.
And he's a great leader, great coach. He's got a great staff.
And he's a winner. You know, I mean, the league is such a revolving door.
mean no one lasts forever and uh you know it's very rare at least so you know when I think about coach I think of a great leader who's consistent um you know he he's not afraid to to put the hammer down you know when needed which I think is something that you know in the league as much as it's needed a lot more than you know people think so uh he's a great coach he's obviously got a lot of the Carolina staff going to him. I'm excited too, except for when we play him.
I'm excited all the other games. Your whole family, incredible athletes.
Obviously your dad played in the NFL. Your brothers are incredible athletes.
Your brother, who is a quarterback at Michigan, Dylan, is he in love with football? He loves football. No, I didn't ask that.
Is he in love with football? He's in love with football. Because Coach Harbaugh, he's a good friend of ours, and he is going to sniff him out.
Oh, no. So Dylan's been there three years now.
Okay. So Harbaugh and him are close, obviously.
So I hope he's the guy.

I hope that they can finally get over that little hump of beating Ohio State

and go from there.

But, yeah, she's in love with football.

Do you think you would have been able to make in the NBA?

Oh, that's tough, man.

You're an unbelievable basketball player, and you played all the sports.

Yeah.

I'd have been a great 10th man, D-League player. Same.
You're the holdback guy. Defense is special.
We need a foul. Yep.
I'm in. You know, we need someone to maybe turn it over, but probably not.
I'm in. Did you get recruited to play college basketball? By who? Northern Colorado, actually, where my dad's coaching now.
Okay. They recruited me to play.
I was going to play football and basketball. I mean, I wasn't going to, but they asked me to CSU and then Detroit.
Oh. I think the University of Detroit, which would have been fun.
Okay. It would have been something.
I think you made the right choice. So, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, recruited.
I just saw some highlights, and you were just – I mean, you have obviously incredible athleticism throwing it down. Yeah.
And's like, damn. I maybe could.
It's tough, though. The guards are 6'5 in the NBA.
Yeah. The point guards.
So, I mean, I would have been an anomaly. I'd like to see you do the dunk over the goalpost as a celebration one time because that would surprise a lot of people.
Yeah. Maybe I'll do that next year.
I'd have to be early in the year when the legs are a little fresher, though. Yeah.
And in the fourth quarter when you have a lead because I think it's a penalty now. Fourth quarter, the legs are pretty gassed, though.
That's a lot of volume for the game. It might have to be a tone setter, first series touchdown.
I like that. Yeah, I think that might have to be the play.
I like that. Here's a little multiple choice for you.
Would you describe yourself more as a gym rat, a ham and eggs guy, sneaky athletic, or a coach on the field. Tough.
Gym rat. Gym rat.
First one in, last one to leave. Yeah.
That sort of guy? Big gym rat guy. I've always wondered about the first and last out guys because eventually you can't have two of them on the same team.
No, there's only one. And at what point is it too much?

At what point do you get there too early?

Like I'd rather sleep the extra 30 minutes and be better.

You know what I mean?

Right.

I think that's more old school now.

I actually love to sleep and I love to do my process.

But if my process now is over, I go home.

It's Chris McCaffrey lazy.

Yeah.

That's the new narrative.

Good question.

It's just offseason.

Good question.

Did a Heisman voter really tell you that they didn't vote for you because they just didn't watch you play Yeah That's a true story To my face Me and my mother Is right next to me At a Heisman dinner And you're just like Sorry dude I had to go to sleep I was like Should I go Like I didn't know If I should have gone To the deal But yeah I don't know That's a wild story Yeah Alright I have one. It's kind of a stupid question, but how do you get your traps to look so awesome? I think traps are genetic, honestly.
Fuck. That's not the answer I wanted.
I wanted you to be like, all right, here's what you've got to do, 20 minutes in the gym. No, I don't know.
I mean, I think do like cleans. I think that might get the – that's an underrated trap workout.

Don't focus solely on the trap.

Okay.

What about deadlifts?

Yeah, I'm a big deadlift guy.

I like deadlift.

Just picking up like a bag of chips from the ground.

Yeah, it's fine.

Just dropping your chips and then picking them up after four or five seconds.

You get better, you get worse.

That's perfect.

Never stay the same.

Oh, I like that.

You're either getting better or getting worse.

I do like that.

That's a good quote.

Good football quote.

Yeah, great football quote. Is there anyone in your family that's not athletic? That's my last question.
No. You're such a jerk.
We're all just athletes. There's no one that just shows up to a family dinner and is like, hey, I'm doing my crosswords.
No. We all play.
My older brother played. Obviously, I play.
Little brothers both play football I played multiple sports We got lucky We hit the gene pool Which was nice Very fortunate Did you call John Elway Uncle John? I do not call John Elway Uncle John Never even when you were growing up? I've never called him Uncle John Okay Alright Well Christian McCaffrey Thank you very much Appreciate it go check out Verizon do community service

it's going to be a lot

we're basically doing

community service

till next football season

because of Verizon

you have to quit

yeah

and if you have problems

with Wi-Fi in the stadium

tweet it

anytime you can

get your tweets out

tweet it

thank you

alright thanks man

thanks guys

appreciate it Hey, what's going on there, pal? We saw you at the hockey game on. Do I know you guys? I'm Ryan Whitney.
I got a drink named after me. Not a big deal.
Pink Whitney? That's what I thought. See you, fellas.
I invented the thing, you pigeon. Pink Whitney for legendary moments.
And now, David Baker. White bark raspberries have a bluish, purplish hue.
So white raspberries. White bark raspberries is what they're called.
Did you do an image search? No, I just, I literally Googled like, do blue raspberries exist? And this is it. They're blue.
Oh, wow. That's crazy.
White bark raspberries. Mind blown.
And now for something completely different. start, I want to read the business card you gave us.
So you handed us a business card, almost instantly, which that's a classy move, because you're like, hey, I feel like I'm a friend for life. If I ever get in trouble, I'm going to give you a call.
Well, that's good for free admission to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but yet. Oh, you didn't tell us that.
There you go. Oh, I thought it was just like, I'm David Baker, here's my mission statement.
Yeah, here's my mission statement. You let me, you know, when you're coming, and we'll roll out the red card.
Okay, perfect. On the back it says, honor the heroes of the game, preserve its history, promote its values, celebrate excellence everywhere.
So can you explain how you guys came up with this mission statement and what it means? Yeah, the mission statement is something that drives every decision that we try to make at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And it's not always easy.
But to honor the heroes of the game, not only the Pro Football Hall of Famers, but every guy who ever played in the NFL has an archive. And that archive can be added to.
So it's not just the 326 guys who have a bronze bust. It's all those other guys, 27,000 guys who played.
And we can talk about that in a second, too.

To preserve its history, we've got 6 million pictures, 40 million documents that preserve the game. And then it's to promote its values.
It's not just about the worship of the football hero or even the worship of the game of football. But, you know, we as fans think every one of these guys fell out of bed great.
Not one of them did. there's not a guy in the Hall of Fame who's a quarterback who didn't

throw a lot of incompletions

or running backs who fumbled the ball or linemen who missed a block

or defensive guys that missed tackle.

These guys had to earn their greatness.

They had to fight for it.

They had to overcome adversity.

It's really about the values that they use. They are

truly committed people. They persevere.
They don't give up. They're disciplined, they're

diligent. And how do they use those values to drag a lot of other people to greatness?

And then lastly, it's celebrating excellence everywhere. When you look at the life of a

Roger Staubach or a Bill Cowher or Jimmy Johnson who just made it in with the blue ribbon committee um you know you may not be a hall of fame coach or hall of fame quarterback um but you know those same values uh can help us learn how to be a better dad or a better mom uh or a better you know broadcast professional or thank you that was It's very nice what you just said about us. And it can also help us learn how to be a better dad or a better mom or a better you know broadcast professional or thank you that was very nice you know and it can also help us learn how to be a better community and country i learned a lot of lessons from brett farve about how to become better at the internet uh notably like it doesn't matter how many times you screw up as long as you succeed like one or two more times than you screwed up you can be a hall of fame or anything look look what got you what got you here, PFT.
Yeah. I mean, it's incredible.
But I will tell you, Brett was one of those guys. When we selected his class, it was 10 hours of work with all of our elite media selectors who really worked hard on this thing all year long.
But it took 10 seconds for him to be selected. I turned to the Green Bay Gazette because they were supposed to give his presentation.
And I said, the next finalist is Brett Favre. And I turned to the guy from the Green Bay Gazette and he says, hey, I've got a presentation, but do you really want it? And I kind of paused and looked at the room and said, no, let's move on.
It's Brett Favre. That's interesting.
So I did not know this. As part of the selection process, there's a media organization that is assigned to make your case for you, almost like they're a trial attorney trying to convince a room of jurors.
It starts with a presentation of five minutes for those guys. And we didn't even hear the one for Brett.
But when I knocked on his door, he knew I was going to knock on his door. I knew before I ever came to that city I was going to knock on his door.
but when I told him he was one of the 302 best players coaches and contributors

to ever play the game at that time, I got to tell you, he stuck his hands in his pocket like a 10-year-old kid, and he just hung his head, and the word I would express was humility. He knew the shoulders he stood upon, even if you're Brett Favre.
Right. And then if I could, Big cat.
We take him over to the honor show. Our guys who are in the audience, who are Hall of Famers, walk up on stage and shake his hand.
We then have a press conference afterwards. And he happens to be next to me as we started.
And I said, how you doing? He goes, are you kidding? He goes, I just shook the hand of Roger Staubach. And I would have thought these guys played golf or did something.
And he said, no, you don't understand. All my life I dreamed of being Roger Staubach.
And he paused for a second and he goes, hey, I guess I'm on his team now, right? Right, right. And I said, forever.
That's pretty cool. And so it's a great moment when that happens.
I mean, that's fantastic because it is like every single generation, the generation before them, they looked up to the guys that were there and then they joined them. So I just want to really quickly go back to how the actual selection goes down because I think it's fascinating.
So you guys are all in a room. It's 50 people, right? 48.
48. Elite selectors.
Elite selectors. And you have people come up, make the case.
So you whittle it down from a pool of how many to? Generally every year. This is a different because it's a centennial year, and we're having 20 for 2020.
But most years it'll be 18 finalists. Generally that's a senior and contributors that make up three, and then it is players and coaches who make up the other 15 finalists right and the seniors and coaches you know kind of go out on their own uh and then when we get to that 15 you go from 15 to 10 and then you kind of whittle it down to five and now what is that room like are people arguing is it the greatest sports debate of all time like Peter King complaining about the coffee.
Yeah, it seems like a fascinating place to be in. Well, listen, we've learned a long time ago the way to get elite media there is food.
Yes. Okay, so I mean.
Diet Coke. We have cookies for you guys here today.
Appreciate that. I noticed that.
But no, I think it's one of those things, PFT, where Peter King told me that he does 120 interviews all year round just to prepare for that one day. And we've got guys like John Clayton and Sal Palantonio and Jarrett Bell from USA Today.
And these guys take it. I wish fans could see how seriously they take it.
And most of them say that it's the most important day of their year. Well, knowing how much NFL fans love the NFL, I think we should probably put it in the middle of April and make it a TV show.
Well, listen, I'd watch it. It's like the New York Times endorsement where they had the whole editorial board sit down and they put it out.
That would make a very good TV show. I'll watch the whole day.
Well, I'll tell you, there's things that we're looking at in the future that might be a little bit different. But I will tell you, these guys, you know, I didn't get this job just because I'm smart and good looking.
I got it because I'm 400 pounds, and you need a big guy to run this meeting. No one's going to give you any back talk.
You literally have the best knock of all time. I think that was really just the resume, right? They just took a piece of wood, and they're like, here, knock on this.
Actually, do you mind knocking on this table right now? Absolutely. Oh my God, yeah, that's the Hall of Fame knock right there.
That's why you got the job. But let me tell you, we've got to be done by a certain time because we announce our guys live to the world, really in the middle, kind of the high point of the honor show.
Right. And so we've got to move.
But it'll take, you know, many times that I've been here, it's taken 10, 12 hours. For the Blue Ribbon Committee that selected this centennial class, you know, they met together for about 21 hours.
Wow. And guys are passionate about it.
And one of the things I'd love for, I can't share what goes on in that room or what's said, but I can tell you that good stuff, bad stuff. Right.
I mean, the guys really get into it. You have to have an honest conversation.
And that's why it's confidential, so that guys can share stuff and bounce it off. But I do think it's, when you make it into the Hall of Fame, you have gone under an incredible level of scrutiny by a whole lot of people who are experts at doing it.
Yes. What's interesting is that you've got the centennial people that are getting in right now.
You expanded the class a little bit. I think as the years move forward, you're going to run into a lot of log jams along the way because of how the game has grown in the media.
It's expanded so much that people are more way more familiar with players that played in the early 2000s, late 2000s, up to the modern day than they were even with guys that played in the mid 90s. Those guys are, you know, since TV rights weren't ubiquitous, they weren't everywhere, you couldn't watch them on every single bar.
Those guys are in danger of kind of falling by the wayside, even though they had great careers. Is there something that you guys have planned going forward where you make sure that there are some spots in perpetuity for the older players? PFT, that's really what the centennial class was about.
You know, I mean, this year we have 10 seniors in that class. And you may not know Max Speedy or Bobby Dillon or Duke Slater.

But Duke Slater was an African-American who played for 10 years in the NFL from 1920 to 1930.

Let me tell you, you better be a good player at that time to play in the NFL during that time.

A great player.

And so we have our senior committee, and our senior committee meets all by itself a lot of time, and it's to find guys who may have fallen between the cracks. And then we have our contributors committee, because the league isn't just those guys who are on the field.
It's those guys who were owners who paid for payroll out of their kids' college fund because they had to make it, or those general managers who put these teams together or or a great guy like steve sable you know i mean you guys are a little young no no it's a big part of the reason why we got in the game i'll tell you i fell in love with this because of steve sable it wasn't just the score all of a sudden it was the frozen tundra of land rowfield and that cloud of grass coming out of your face mask and a horrible year of work. To me, that showed you the determination and the courage and the character of things.
And then we're looking at a special category just for coaches because sometimes for a lot of modern era guys, and one of the things the Hall of Fame does that's pretty cool, is you've got to wait five years after you retire to be considered. So if Tom Brady or Drew Brees, you know, was to retire now, or Eli Manning retired just the other day, there's five years from now before he's eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
And I think that's a pretty smart move because it gives perspective. It allows time for history to settle and to go into it.
But it's a very difficult process. It is, you know, with so many media outlets like yourself, with, you know, the cell phone and, you know, Brett Favre on the Internet, it is, there's an opinion everywhere.
Right. And it's extremely controversial.
But what I would say is it should be hard to make it into the Hall of Fame.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's not the Hall of Very, Very Good.

I love that.

It's the Hall of Fame.

People forget that.

I love it.

I want to be your position.

I want to be the president of the Hall of Very Good.

What steps do you recommend I take to achieve that dream?

You know what, PFT, I'll tell you.

You know, you, to me, and I've only known you here for maybe 20 minutes, but I would tell you, you excel at mediocrity. Whoa.
That's nice. That is the nicest compliment I've ever gotten in my life.
Not everyone can do that. I got butterflies in my stomach.
You're on your way, buddy. You're on your way.
Can we talk about you for a second? I'm going to knock on my own door. Congratulations, PFT.
Thank you, PFT. You didn't play football because you were, quote, literally too big to play football.
Yeah. What does that mean? You were a great basketball player.
You played in college. You played in pros.
Where I grew up, they weighed you to play football as a kid. Okay.
Okay. And when I was 8 or 10 years old, I was about PFT side.
So like 6'1", 8-year-old, yeah. And they would have put me in with, you know, with 15-year-olds.
Right. But we kind of corrected this in the next generation with both my kids.
Right. You know, Sam played in the NFL, and he was a three-time All-American at USC, and Ben played both in high school and some at Duke.
But I've always loved football the most. Yeah, I love that about you.
But basketball got me to college. And for me, it's important because we all come from someplace.
For me, my mom and dad couldn't read or write. And if it wasn't for sports, I wouldn't have gone to college, I wouldn't have gone to law school.
Had the opportunity to play around the world. And I certainly wouldn't be sitting with guys like you here.
Which is probably a downgrade, yep. No, we're sitting in a pretty special place.
I love that story, though, because you are the guy who's basically in charge of the history of the game. You're the president and CEO of the Hall of Fame.
And you love football, from everything I've read, more than pretty much anyone who's ever walked this earth. And you didn't play, but that almost is poetic and perfect because that's how much you love it.
That's kind, and I appreciate it. I do love it.
And again, what I love about sports, and this may be a serious topic for you guys, but I'll tell you, I care about it is there are so many lessons you can learn from sports. Yeah, I got the greatest job in the world because I'm hanging with some of the best football players in the world.
But I've learned that there are pretty good people, too. And the game isn't just for those guys who have a bronze bust or those guys who got paid for it like my son.
The game is for guys who become firemen and soldiers and police officers and fathers. And respectfully, when your life is screwed up, and every one of us are at some point, okay, when your life is screwed up, you don't go back to your chemistry teacher, your calculus teacher for life advice.
But I'll tell you, almost all of us go back to that coach. And I really believe, Big Cat, that it's because that coach teaches you how to keep going when you don't think you can or how to get up when you can't.
So I love this because it's great football, and, man, I love football. But I don't love it as much as John Madden does or some of the other guys that I've been with.
I mean, I'll tell you, Bill Belichick. Bill Belichick was on our Blue Ribbon Committee, okay, and he said it was one of the best days of his career.
This guy with eight rings, you know, talking about being at the Hall of Fame on that day, making history by selecting the Centennial class. These guys love the game.
Right. And to me, it's a fun game to be with your friends, to scream and yell, to cheer for your team, to drink a beer.
But there are so many wonderful lessons in it. And it's done a lot for me.
Sports has done a lot for me. It's done a lot for my two boys right and i hope that i and we can give back to it yeah so you've been all over tv the last couple weeks you surprised bill cowher you surprised jimmy johnson the waterworks started to flow you were saying that they were so it was great because you got to see them in the moment where they realize and it all hit them like the culmination of my career is that I'm amongst this elite group and you've got to see that that reaction just from looking at you and you've kind of you've been famous over the years for like we said your knock on the door that's what happens that Saturday before the Super Bowl right you go around you tell everybody uh congratulations you made it I'm wondering if there's one person whose door you may have knocked on that was more memorable than the others whether it's for a strange reason or for something that spoke to you well you know that's like asking me which one of my kids do i love the most well that's actually let me ask you that the kid that went to usc or the kid that went to duke my son ben says i love him most i love them both the same okay but i will tell you uh pft it's um yeah i learned a lot my first year.
We didn't have time to knock on the door, so we had to call guys. We had to get them across New York to Radio City Music Hall, where they were going to be revealed again live to the nation.
So I called Michael Strahan first because he was at his house. I then called Derek Brooks because I knew Derek Brooks.
I considered him a buddy and wanted to give some news to a good buddy. My third one was to Ray Guy, a punter.

Been a finalist 29 years.

He'd been eligible.

And my area code on my phone is 714 from Orange County,

so it's not 330 from Canton.

He almost didn't answer.

But fortunately, I don't like the fifth ring he did,

and he's got this great Southern Mississippi draw, and he said, yes, sir.

And I said, hey, Ray, this is Dave Baker. I'm the new president of the Hall of Fame.
I'd been there two months. I said, he said, yes, sir.
And I said, I just want to tell you that it is my great pleasure. And I got that far.
And I could hear him fall to the floor. His phone is rattling around.
His wife is saying, honey, baby, are you OK? And I thought I'd killed my first Hall of Famer. Not a great first-time job.
But it was like two minutes. It's the one thing you can't do.
It was two minutes to get him up, which is a long time when you're trying to get somebody on the air over to Radio City Music Hall. And it occurred to us, man, we need to let fans see how important this is.
And so from there, you know, I knocked on Jerome Bettis' door, and he got, he got, there had been a couple times that he hadn't made it, so he got tired of waiting and felt he didn't make it again, and he left, and the maid came to the door. I told you, you know, a little bit about Brett Favre.
Right. You know, Kurt Warner was special for me because I'd been commissioner of the Arena Football League.
You know, but Ron Wolfe was an interesting guy because he came to the door, you know, thank goodness, and he was resplendent with a tie and his shoes were signed, but he didn't want to wrinkle his pants, so they were hanging over a chair. You know, so I had this camera crew with me, like your guys here, and I said, said uh i said hey ron i got good news and bad news uh the good news is you're in the hall of fame you're going to canton i said the bad news is you're on national tv yeah and he said it didn't care but most of them cry and and specifically for bill and jimmy uh when i don't have a vote in any of this i just run the the meeting.
I don't have a vote. But when I open up the envelope, which is done by auditors, Ernst and Young did this one, and I'm always surprised.
And I was surprised that it was Jimmy and Bill. And within about 10 minutes, we realized that, hey, one's on TV on Saturday and one's on TV on Sunday,

and we started to go to work on that because, again,

what was really cool about that wasn't Dave Baker being on TV.

I mean, quite honestly, a carrier pigeon could do my job.

I disagree.

You add an element of pageantry to the presentation that you cannot simulate. But I think what I try to do is tell them three things.
Number one, you're going to Canton. Canton's a special place with 4,800 volunteers that take two weeks of vacation to put on this enshrinement.
And every player wants to begin his career at the draft, but they want to end their career in Canton. The second thing I tell them is that they're going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
And the third thing is that we're going to keep their legacy forever. Chris Dolman, who passed last night, we will tell his, the guy who's got Dave Baker's job, 100 Dave Baker's from now, will tell the story of Chris Dolman.
Not just the football player he is, but I think a very special man. So, you know, for us it's just telling that story.
And then it's getting out of the way. I mean, Bill Cowher is a private guy and he's got that chin out there on the sideline showing that determination.
But let me tell you, once he heard that and once he saw his wife and daughter and Jimmy, I thought we were going to have to give him oxygen. Yeah.
But that's what we want. We want fans to see how important this is to these guys because when it happens, respectfully, I've had the opportunity to do this maybe 60 times now and look into the eyes of these guys.
I mean, Randy Moss was, I think Randy Moss – I think I got privileged to watch him not just be a great football player but be a great man. You know, he's taken in his son's kids.
I think very highly of Randy Moss. But, you know, when that happens, they're not thinking of records and Lombardis and statistics.
They're thinking about their mom who drove them to practice when they were 10 years old. They're thinking about the dad that didn't let them quit or the coach that inspired them or the teammates, you know, that sacrificed for them.
And, man, it is all that in a flash. It's just 1,000 images, so much so that, you know, Jimmy Johnson just couldn't talk.
Right. So it's real special.
And the special part of that, when we can do it, is to have fans see that. And for fans to see how special that is.
So what we do in the media is we like to say someone's a future Hall of Famer, whether they may be or not. Would you be interested in possibly consulting with us so we can call you up and be like, hey, David Baker, can we say this guy's a future Hall of Famer? Are you allowed to do that? You know, I don't know if I'm allowed to do it.
I'd be glad to do it for you guys. Okay, James Winston.
But, you know, my answer is probably always going to be the same. Yes.
Could be. Oh, okay.
James Winston could be. Could be.
You're not saying no. I'm not saying no.
Alright, that's good for us. We'll take a not no for James Winston.
We'd love to do that. We'd love to say future Hall of Famer this, future Hall of Famer that.
I think we need a committee who's like someone who's heading that committee. Can you say future Hall of Famer? I feel like that could actually just be us.
Would you give us the permission to act on your behalf legally? As long as it does not involve any payment or pay. Absolutely.
We can sign all legal documents as you. I need your checkbook.
We're going to do it all. I need your social security number.
Yes. I'm interested to know, you mentioned the phrase, the elite committee of deciders that get in that room.
It's almost like a 12 angry men situation. What are the qualifications? How does one get into that committee? Well, it's generally somebody who's very respected in the media.
Number one, our bylaws say that you've got it to be in the media covering football. And now we also have two Hall of Famers in there, but they happen to be guys who are involved in the media.
James Lofton from CBS and Dan Fouts, who I believe is with ABC. CBS as well.
CBS as well. But these guys are the best in their business, but they also happen to be Hall of Famers.
Right. And again, what we did with the Blue Ribbon Committee this year was a little bit different.
We had 13 elite selectors who were media guys. We had seven football professionals who were Hall of Famers.
We had John Madden, Dick LeBeau, Ron Wolfe, Bill Pullian, Gil Brandt, Austin Newsome, and Belichick was the other one. And then we had five historians.
And I'll tell you, it was a wonderful perspective. And how can I put it this way? For guys from Barstool Sports, it's like being in the bar talking about stuff with enormous information that's available to you.
Yeah, right. Film, data, other stuff, and having a great conversation.
But the conversation involves stuff like, hey, what if a guy's career was interrupted by four years of military service in World War II?

How do we treat that guy?

What if a guy happened to be a great player, but he's also a great coach or a great GM?

And they're just in-depth conversation from really, really good, intelligent football people that bring different perspectives to it.

All right, a little bit of a different question. Canton, August, it's hot.
You sweat through your suit. Yeah, yeah.
That's impressive. You know what? It's a lot different than Newport Beach, California.
Yeah, yeah. By the way, it's different during the winter, too.
Right, right. Okay, Yes.
But it's a great place to be. But Canton is a magical place.
Yes. And to have all those Hall of Famers, to have all those volunteers there, if guys haven't been, I would welcome them the first week of August.
Okay, so I told you we were going to say this. So we've been – our goldfish is actually buried in Canton.
Oh, that's a whole famer.

We had a goldfish that picked 60% against the spread for an entire NFL season.

We made him a little gold jacket, and we buried him in a tree right on the other side of that highway.

Okay.

Right down there.

The 77.

Yeah, it's next to the river and a park down there.

Yeah, cool.

We had a whole ceremony.

So our goldfish is in Canton.

Is the grave marked?

Yes.

Thank you. right down there.
The 77. Yeah, it's next to the river and a park down there.
Yeah, cool. We had a whole ceremony.
So our goldfish is in Canton. Is the grave marked? Yes.
We put a plaque on the tree. He's buried right in front of it.
It's beautiful. I will look for it, guys.
Does that sound weird to you? Is that a weird move? Not coming from you guys. I got the little sense that it was weird.
I expected. In the grand scheme of things, it's strange, but given the two individuals you're looking at, it's about par for the course.
Yeah, I understand. Maybe that's the start of the Hall of Very, Very Good.
That's the start of – Well, that's disrespectful to Larry a little bit because he was – No, he was very, very good, 60%. He was very, very good.
Maybe – is there an animal wing of the Hall of Fame for animals? Oh. So, for example, if Swagger 2, the new Browns dog, I think he's still undefeated at home.

If he ends his career undefeated at home, I feel like there should be an animal

wing. You know what?

We have talked at one point in time about

having other Hall of Fames there.

We do have the Ford Hall of Fans.

Okay. So on Friday,

I will also knock on the door

of one of the three finalists

here. So at the Z Hotel,

I'm room 15.

He's room 14. I'm 14, but

Thank you. I will also knock on the door of one of the three finalists here.
So at the Z Hotel, I'm room 15. This is room 14.
I'm 14, but we can be in the same room. I'll keep the room open.
I'll keep it open. You don't even have to knock.
Who's nominated this year for fans? Let's see. It is Tampa Bay.
I know that. Stephen Shea? Oh, the guy with the big nut or whatever his name is? These are always guys who you'd recognize.

Yeah, of course.

You know, different stuff.

But the guys who won last year were from Pittsburgh, Miami, and from Chicago.

We actually picked three that first year.

But there's a Ford Hall of Fans that is very, very cool. I love that.

What about the Seattle Seahulk?

You know him, the guy that sits in the front row?

Yeah, I don't think he was nominated this year,

but again, all those guys participated.

What's the process?

Is there just like who's the best fan,

or is there like a community service element?

It's online, and can I say bleep?

Yeah, go ahead.

We'll bleep it out.

We don't care.

I think on bleep, they vote on it.

Okay.

Say it one more time.

We'll bleep it again.

Bleep your report. Yeah, we'll bleep it again.
Bleacher Report.

Yeah, we'll bleep that vote.

Actually, you're speaking in a different Hall of Fame.

Can I interest you in the Big Dog Hall of Fame?

It was an idea of mine a few years ago.

The Big Dog shirts.

Remember, these are a lifestyle brand?

But you don't understand.

If I'm not in a coat and tie, which I live in, I'm a Big Dog shirt.

I'm a Big Dog shirt guy.

Yes.

Okay, so this is actually like serendipity because I said. Big dog on the porch.
Yes. So I said, when I said I want to make the big dog Hall of Fame, I said inaugural class, Glenn Robinson, big dog, the big show from wrestling, Beethoven, the actual dog, Frank Thomas and Robert Tractor Taylor, and I said we need you to be the commissioner of that Hall of Fame as well.
Buddy, let's get an endorsement, get a sponsor, and let's go. I mean, I could go on and on.
Every year, we just induct two new big dogs. They don't have to be great.
They could be whatever. They're just big dogs.
Guys that are just, you know, they come in the room, they're a big dog. Celebrating excellence everywhere.
Right. Yeah.
Even in the field of large animals. Right.
That's what I'm saying. That's a big dog.
My dog, Leroy, is a big dog. He's a big dog.
What kind of dog is Leroy? He's an English Mastiff. So at his peak, he was about 180 pounds.
Okay. But he's also...
What kind of dog do you think I got? He's in the business. You strike me...
Chihuahua. No, French Mastiff.
That's Chihuahua. Cat.
Dog de Bordeaux. Okay.
Let me see. I don't know if you can get this here.
Well, so you're in the Big Dog Hall of Fame now. This is perfect.
This is the greatest day of my life. Let's see.
I've got... You just knocked on his door.
I know. And put him in the Big Dog Hall of Fame.
You're in the Big Dog Hall of Fame. Commissioner.
Oh, there it is. Four-pound Yorkie.
There it is. He's almost lost his life several times when I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Oh, no. Yeah, don't be at home.
Christopher, Adam Cozette. What is your favorite, most obscure item in the Hall of Fame? Like the one thing you walk by and you always stop and maybe look at a little bit more.
So not a Hall of Famer, but an item. I always am interested, like cleats, footballs, however it goes.
I think're probably, I mean, we've got stuff there.

You know, Tom Brady got in trouble for deflating a ball.

Right.

Okay, let me tell you, Paul Brown, Hall of Fame coach,

he had a ball warmer that looks like this pineapple thing that you put the ball in.

Right.

You know, so that his quarterback would have a warm ball on cold days.

There is enormous stuff there.

Like I said, six million pictures, 40 million docketers, and a ton of stuff. Right.
But I would tell you, seriously, my favorite place is the gallery. I mean, there's a lot of nights that I'm leaving work, and it'll be midnight.
And nobody's there. And I'll walk through those bronze busts.
And Coach Madden had the famous intramural speech where he said that he's convinced that when the last fan is left and the janitor turns off the lights and all those guys talk to each other. I believe that he actually believes that.
And I believe that. He believes it.
You are right, PFT. He absolutely does, and you can't convince him otherwise.
When I go into that, sometimes I'll take an extra 15 minutes walking through that bronze bus room, just me and them. And it's the coolest job in the world.
Does it ever occur to you that one day your bust might be in there as well? I think there's a weight limit. So they probably wouldn't go with a head this big.
I don't think so. It's nice of you to say that.
But there have got to be some moments where you're like, one day this could be me me yeah never whoa never i mean i don't i give me chills you know these guys are so elite and so special um i don't think it's just about the worship of football heroes right or just the worship of the game of football i think there's a lot of good here and you know you guys i think you've interviewed belichick but. We have not.
In my brain. Can you set that up? Let me tell you, Bill is a guy who, you know, you better know commitment if you're going to play for him.
But, you know, all those things are really important in the NFL. Yeah.
But they're more important on the battlefield. They're more important in a family.
They're important in your your company and what you do so that's what i love about it uh you know i'm i'm i'm getting paid for doing something that i really love this is why he's actually going to be in the hall of fame is because the question was do you ever picture yourself in the hall of fame and you just went on to describe all the great qualities of the people that are in the hall of fame and football and how much you love football. That answer of you saying why you shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame was actually the best campaign ad that you could ever have to be in the Hall of Fame.
Right. And my last question was going to be, what suit size are you for your jacket? You know, I'm about a 64.
Okay. So then we'll get it set up.
You guys saw Bill Cower and Jimmy Johnson, right? Yep. And you realize that the camera adds five pounds.
Sometimes more. So I was probably about 405 on that.
Okay. But, you know, I appreciate that.
You know, someday when I'm through with my job and you guys are still doing yours, what I'd love to have you say is, man, that guy cares. Yeah.
I'll say it right now. You care.
That guy cares. And size 64 will get the old jacket.
Size 64. It'll actually be a big dog's jacket.
Yeah. Perfect.
All right. Well, David Baker, thank you so much.
It's been great. Have fun this weekend.
I do have one last, last super quick question. What do you need to have on your resume to be eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame? Do you have to play in the NFL? Well, you have to be a professional football player or be involved in professional football.
A general manager might not have played. An owner, Pat Bolin last year, will XFL players be eligible? Yes, Pro Football.
Well, you know, Pat Bolin last year. What he's asking is arena or XFL.
Will XFL players be eligible? Yes, pro football. You know, we haven't had one.
And by the way, we've got a broadcasting award. Yeah.
We've got the Pete Roselle Award. We're going to focus on the fan award.
Again, I'll actually give you my room key. That'll make it easy tomorrow.
When I come by. No offense, but I suppose I'm not the only person you said that to in Miami.
It's mostly the pizza delivery guys. The ice cream.
We talked about the ice cream. David Baker, thank you so much.
Thank you guys. Thank you guys for all you do for the game.
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Okay, let's get to some segments. Let's finish super bowl week super bowl week super bowl 54 i like to just say super bowl knowing we're not allowed to say super bowl super i think that we are super bowl i think we are allowed to say the big game fuck you super bowl roger udell clown nose super bowl super bowl fraud fraud fraud commissioner illegal federal crime roger goodell i want you to go re-download this episode and give us more money because we're talking about the super bowl super bowl by the way after the sale now we just want to update people a lot of people are like hey you guys must must be rich now uh all business pete he actually got most of that money from it.
So tweet at him, ask him for money. I think he's doing like a cash app thing.
He'll cash app everyone. Where he's cash apping people.
I think it's like $20 for the first 500 people to cash app him. Hit up All Biz Pete.
Bad Pete Monday. Hold on.
Sorry, I like it. Sorry, PFT, you have it slightly wrong.
So the deal is. I don't think I do.
No, no, you do. you do because it's the first 50 people to get to tweet at him get 20 but if you tweeted him more than 10 times then you get re-entered into it multiplier right so after the situation right after the 10th tweet to all business pete every tweet after that is one dollar that he will cash up you so if you tweet him a million times, you will get a million dollars minus the 10 initial registration tweets.
In our official Super Bowl Pete money giveaway. Right.
Also, we're now making $76,000 an episode. Wow.
Big check coming after every episode. Firefest.
So I know I don't take this segment seriously sometimes. I don't really't really have a lot of fire fests but this week i know it's i know it's a celebratory week bar souls evaluation whatever all that good stuff birthday week birthday week you guys 35 years old why you gotta say it like that it just brings me back to when this podcast was started four years ago you guys were just young 31 year old whippersnapper.
I think you were 32 at that point. Yeah, that's how time works.
And we were just going after satire, sports comedy, podcasts, go after traditional sports media. 32, 33, 34, 35.
Yeah, four years ago, we were 31. 35 minus four is 31.
31 and a half. I told you that math class would work out.
Yeah. We were all unverified, just young guys going into the world, going to take on traditional media.
And today, four years later, I am alone. I'm the only one that's unverified.
You guys say nothing's going to change. When the sale is going to happen, nothing's changed.
But I'm just looking in front of you two guys, and I'm just looking at two blue check marks. It's fair.
People that we used to go against the most. It's fair.
I've been verified for a long time to help the airline industry and PFT got verified on Tuesday night. Randomly.
Randomly. I was verified a couple years ago and I gave it back, but they kept sending it back to me.
It's like you move houses and your old cat follows you to a new one. So you didn't ask for the cat to come back.
You didn't send an email. I don't know how these things work behind the scenes.
Everyone in our company got verified at the exact same time on Tuesday night. Of the Twitter agreement and the license.
If Jack wants to come on and explain why he chose to give it to me. But I will say...
Verified after that email. I did use the power of the check to hit on Cardi B.
Nice. Because I figured that's what was keeping her from falling in love with me and responding to me.
Because, right, we got a lot in common. She likes morning sex.
But the only thing she likes more is checks. Right.
And so now I've got the check. Perfect.
And so now I think we're going to live happily ever after. Okay, my only question to you, PFT, is were you bummed out that Mantis, White Sox Dave, Walk the Line...
It's all of you. You're all in the same club.
They're the same as you. Were you bummed out that they all got verified at the exact same time so you couldn't say that it was the XFL randomly verifying you? I didn't even notice that anyone else...
I thought I got verified at least a few minutes before they did. Right, because that was the plan.
It's like, oh, the XFL must have verified me. I don't have a plan.
I didn't have a plan because there was no course of action I put into place. Why would I go and make a plan and an excuse for something I don't need to? The bottom line is, yeah, there's a blue check there.
Nothing changes. I might give it back.
I don't know. I haven't decided yet.
But, yeah. I think you're going to wait long enough for us to forget about it and then keep it.
You're also... I emailed for it.
I asked for it. I openly said that.
I have nothing to hide. I asked for a checkmark.
I need to go out and help the airlines. I'm not going to say I didn't ask for it when I did ask for it and pretend that it was randomly given to me.
Also, my other fire fest is jumpsuit January is over forever. No, it's coming back next year.
It's coming back. Yeah, it's going to come back.
We had to change into our Florida clothes. You didn't want to do it.
You didn't do it this year. No, I had stress about it, and Florida was impossible.
National championship? Yeah, I told you the pocket situation. I wore a jumpsuit that day.
I changed because I didn't want to lose everything that I had. I broke my new iPhone because of jumpsuit January.
Oh, I broke my iPhone last night. Yeah.
At some point in the morning, I woke up this morning and my iPhone was face down on the tile floor. Last night was a movie.
Next to the bed. Last night was a movie.
Was there a tiger in your bathroom? No. Well, I want to jump back to what Hank advised me to do in New Orleans.
That probably had something to do with iPhone falling off the bed. Yeah, yeah.
Jump suit January is not dead. It's not dead at all.
It's not dead at all. You know what? You're killing jump suit January right now with your vibes.
Bad vibes, bro. You got bad vibes.
We're in Miami. We haven't worn jumpsuits for the last 10 days.
That's not true. I wore a jumpsuit on Sunday.
On Sunday and Monday. I mean, we literally wore a jumpsuit on Sunday.
You don't remember Sunday? I'm just sad. Kobe tragically passed away, Hank, and you don't remember the day? I do.
I wore a jumpsuit. It's been an upsetting week overall.
With no pockets on the radio on Monday. I'm just trying to stay true to what we started.
Where's your jumpsuit, Hank? You guys crushed my spirit to go forward. You guys crushed my spirit to go forward.
I take after your lead and when Big Cat's thrown up to January 7th game in jeans, it's tough. I gave you many heads up.
Be mentally strong and don't just be a limbing for whatever Big Cat's doing with his wardrobe. I'm just saying.
Don't be a sheep. Yeah, bft what's your fire fest my fire fest is i was actually going to go in on how twitter went out of their way to verify me and how much i hated it it's so annoying it sucks when stuff like that happens and you're not prepared for it and then everyone calls you a seller even though you didn't do anything to sell out right which just sucks so i'm getting unfairly attacked i feel um but i guess another fire fest would be more towards this is geared towards hank uh there's some rumors going around oh that leroy's been he's been getting some messages slipped under the door of his doghouse and giselle was allegedly touring a school an all boys high school whoa in nashville, Tennessee.
Whoa. So connecting the dots.
What should be your fire fest? Yeah. I'm giving you a fire fest.
I prepared a fire fest for you because I knew that you struggled. Giselle cares about her kids and will take whatever measures to make sure that they get the best.
PFT's fire fest is he has to be the one to break news to you that Tom Brady's going to the Titans.

Tom should explore his options and do whatever he feels is best for him and his family.

Text Vrabel real quick and see, hey, did you hear this rumor?

I actually was texting Vrabel to him.

He texted me and he said birthdays are for pussies.

You used to not text coaches.

Pretty perfect text.

I used to never text coaches. Birthdays are for pussies.
I'm going to reply to Joe Burrow real quick and let him know where we're going tonight. Oh, nice, nice.
Are we recording? Sellout show. My fire fest is there's a picture going around of my right breast that makes it look like it might be a C or D cup.
C. Solid C.
I think if you look closely enough, it was the lighting and some shadows were at play. It's not what it looks like.
Also, my tit was so fucking... You look like I should have been milked.
I look like I was in pain because my breasts were so large and hurt because there was so much milk stored in them. You looked like that meth head guy whose heart just beats out of his chest in that video.
Yeah, but it's constantly out. But it's constantly just engulfed.
Fuck, man. It looked like a skinned coconut.
This big white. And the fact that it was so pale didn't do you any favors either.
It was bad. The whole thing's bad.
Is it bad visual? I don't know what you want me to say. I was looking at that.
It's actually a good thing. I was like, how many beers? It's a good thing because it's like, you know, you have success in life and you need to be kept humble and then your very supple right breast becomes fodder for the entire internet.
Yeah. Kind of puts you back in your place.
Like, hey, you got tits, dude. Yeah.
Like, you might be doing well in life, but at the end of the day, you got tits, and tits are usually for women. Mm-hmm.
That's true. I mean, you got a little treat every time you look in the mirror.
Yeah. It's a tough one to live with.
It's like, hey, actually, can I not be accused of misogyny because I have breasts? I'm part woman? Yeah, that's exactly how it works. Right.
It was also a good move for you to sit so closely to Brandon Walker after that picture comes out because he is, if someone's looking for man tits in a picture, your eyes are going straight to those two puppies. Get close to more tits is what I have to do now for a while.
Boys are going to Hooters tonight. Yep.
Yep. It was bad.
It was a bad picture. I'll be the first to admit very, very bad picture.

That's fine.

Bad visuals.

They happen to all of us.

All the time.

We were doing a hype video

for Greg Kittle

and I looked at some

of the pictures of me

and I,

whenever I play the Gordo guy,

I tie my hair back

in a ponytail.

Yep.

I just looked like a woman.

I just honestly looked

like a woman in that picture.

And you looked like a woman too.

Now, there we go. The world's number one feminist anti-misogyny podcast.
Love it. Love it.
All right. Last up before we get to birthday FAQs, the NBA All-Star Game.
Huh? Mike Greenberg's dumb rules. I don't.
Okay. I don't understand.
They're trying to do a tribute to Kobe. Yep.
They should just make it first to 824 points. That's not what it is.
Instead, it is... All right, I'm going to read this tweet where someone said...
You know it's always interesting when someone says, people, it's not hard. 0-0 to start quarters 1, 2, and 3.
$100,000 on the line each quarter. Take those scores, add them up to start the fourth, take the score that's ahead at the time, add 24 to it, first to hit that number, wins the All-Star game, just watch and enjoy.
That's far too much math for a sport. What if a team is up by, like, 40 to start the fourth quarter? Right.
Okay, so here's what I think happens. How do I bet the over? Here's what I think happens, Hank.
if a team is up by, like, 40 to start the fourth quarter? Right. Okay, so here's what I think happens.

How do I bet the over?

Here's what I think happens, Hank.

If a team is up by 40 to start the fourth quarter,

let's say the score is 100 to 140.

What they would then do is they add 24 points to 40,

so now you're at 164, and that means that the first team...

Wait, wait, wait.

Here it is. Here it is.
The first team to get to 164 would win the game. Right, but the team that's up 40 is obviously going to get there first.
Right. So, I mean, it's rewarding the team that's been playing better.
Why are we resetting it after every quarter? Correct. Because they want to give out $100,000 after every quarter.
Why don't they just give out $300,000 after the third quarter? But there's a box

score that shows who won the quarter.

Listen, I'm not on the side of the NBA here.

You could just give $100,000 to whoever

won the quarter. You don't have to set

the score back to 0-0. Like, if

I turn on the NBA All-Star game and it's

four minutes into the second quarter

and it's 8-6 and I'm like, what's going

on? That is going to fuck with you if you're betting the

over on it. You're going to have to have your own abacus

in your living room keeping track of what

the score of the entire game is.

I think it's eight to six. And I'm like, what's going on? That is going to fuck with you.
If you're betting the over on it, you're going to have to have like your own abacus in your living room, keeping track of what the score of the entire game is. I agree.
That's, that's mess. I'll tell you this.
Kobe didn't want this. Kobe didn't want this.
He would, he would have liked maybe eight verse 24. That's what they should have done.
One. It should have been teammate versus team 24 or team Mamba versus team Mambasita.
There's so many ways to, to do like great things for Kobe's legacy and have this moment. They just decided to make it really, really confusing.
And I guess it's working that we're talking about it. Yeah, it's the classic way to stay relevant, baseball, except for basketball.
I've got a couple ideas. Why don't you just have every player, whenever they shoot the ball, they have to say Kobe when they shoot it in the game.
I i like that or this is actually an idea that could work you know how the nfl has their football it's named the duke name the basketball the kobe and it's the ultimate ball dominant move i like the most ball dominant player of all time i like that forever be ball dominant because he's gonna be stamped right on there here's one last one'll throw out there. How about you have a dunk tank behind one of the hoops, and every time that hoop is scored on, Smush Parker goes into a bed of lava.
I like that one, too. Maybe the other one could be Jason Whitlock.
So it's like, do the Kobe haters of all time, and they just continually get dunked all game long. I would love to see what happens to Jason Whitlock's hair when he goes into a dunk tank.

Oh, he would staple that fedora to his head so no one could see.

It's just nailed in there?

Yeah, yeah.

That would explain some of his takes.

Either way, obviously it's going to be a very emotional all-star game,

and they should do something for Kobe, but I don't understand this.

Like, why this?

Just make it first to 224.

That's perfect, too. Team 8 versus Team 24 makes so much sense.
Whatever. Or just outlaw passing.
Outlaw passing. No assists.
Yeah, I like that. I like that.
Or you can only shoot if you're triple teamed. Yep.
I like that, too. These are all better ideas than what the NBA did.
I actually do think they should just name the ball the Kobe, though. I like that.
Or maybe make the, I don't know what the all-star or the MVP trophy is for the finals MVP. That's Bill Russell, so they're probably not going to change that.
All right. And then Larry O'Brien maybe changed.
Who is he? Larry Kobe O'Brien. I don't want to slander Larry O'Brien before I know how important he is.
Maybe name the ball Kobe on the trophy, and then the stand is the Larry O'Brien stand. Oh, I like it.
It's like when they have a stadium, like Daryl K. Royal Stadium, and then Joe Jamil Field.
Right. Correct.
Got it. Larry O'Brien was an American politician and basketball commissioner.
He was Democratic Party's leading electoral strategist for decades. Name it the Kobe.
Great job, by the way. Name it the Kobe.
Yeah. So now the Larry O'Brien trophy is the Kobe Bryant trophy.
All right, birthday FAQs. Can I actually start, though, before you do the FAQ, PFT, are you mad at me about my birthday this year? Why am I mad at it? Did you see the fact? Did I see the fact? The fact? No.
Today is the 6,969th day after 2000 oh cool i probably would have laughed at that three years ago oh damn you're mad you're mad i'm very you would have loved to have 69 69 i'm very what no because there was no day zero no they did the whole thing don you don't. Bad math.
You really talked yourself into a bear trap on that one.

Hank, go ahead.

Quick late-breaking moves,

but Greg Olson and the Panthers

have decided to part ways.

Mutually.

Okay.

Shout out to G-Ed.

He's retiring?

So Jason Witten to the Panthers,

Greg Olson to the booth.

Greg Olson coming home to Chicago.

Okay.

Bring back Mike Martz.

All right.

Birthday FAQs.

Happy birthday, boys. Congrats on being as close to 50 as you are to being 20.
Shut up. That was...
Shut up. No, but we're farther away from 50 than we were from 21.
Who counts to 20? Mm-hmm. Call me next year, idiot.
Good point. Also, Big Cat's closer.
I'm not yet. True.
Happy birthday, Mr. Cat and Mr cat and mr commenter which is appropriate now considering you're almost old enough to start receiving social security i'd like to ask if you'd consider retiring in miami or florida for that matter after spending some time in the sunshine state no i hate florida i don't hate florida but uh it does turn your body into just like a humidity tent when you step outside arizona the best Bowl by far.
I've had a great time in it. Yes.
No, no. I mean, I haven't seen the sun really, but yeah, it's a great Super Bowl.
You went to the beach, Hank. Must be nice.
Yeah, a couple times. Hank, would you retire in Florida? Sure.
Yeah, I don't have a problem with Florida. Me and Florida are on good terms.
It's too humid. Me and Marlins, man.
Dry heat. Drinking some Mai Tais.
Yeah. What's the better deal? Buy two for the price of one or buy one, get one free? Two for the price of one or buy one.
Two for the price of one. Two for the price of one because it sounds like it's more.
Because you've got the number two in there and the number one. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yes.
Also, when you do buy one, get one free,'re getting let's say two pairs of like the same shirt or like the same shirt and you're getting two of them you get the first one first of all don't buy that shirt if you're doing a buy one get one free shirt that's what I'm saying so if you buy a shirt and you pay for the shirt and they're like oh here's another one that second shirt even though it's the exact same feels like a piece of shit right like that's a bad shirt that's like well why are you giving me this shirt two for the price of one it's just like oh they're both on sale right right happy birthday to birthday cat an old but still kicking pft since you are both of legal age to run for president what would the first thing you would do in office as the president of the United States? Probably put a cigar in an intern's vagina. Nice.
Nice. I think that's usually good stuff to do.
Yes. In the Oval Office.
Super Bowl Monday is a national holiday. Done.
Also, no more taxes. That's going to be a challenge.
I feel like that's bad. We'll figure it out later.
No more taxes for me. Let me finish.

Here's what you do.

You outlaw taxes, but you don't publicize it.

And then only nerds continue to pay.

Correct.

And all the bad boys that just skate on the radar, guess what?

You're home free.

Yes.

What is the plan for your soon-to-be midlife crisis?

I think I already had mine because I started a podcast.

I think that's what you do, right? That's the new buy a Corvette. Yeah.
I've been thinking about it. I don't know.
I'll probably dabble with some HGH at some point in the next few years. I'm going to continue to dye my hair probably even more so.
Maybe a tattoo. I'm going to start doing some sort of weird fitness trend.
I got this class pass thing, which I've just been abusing and only using the points to do massages and relaxation stuff. But I think I'm probably going to get...
I'm going to try to get a six-pack at some point. I have a question.
Can you have a midlife crisis? Have you already just accepted that you're midlife? I don't really go out. I don't i don't know if is that am i eligible for midlife crisis yes i feel like midlife crisis is when you keep trying to chase it trying to be the young guy basically for the next 15 years any crisis you can have it can be like it's a midlife crisis technically but you know what i'm saying like i don't but you you might chasing it i don't care i don't want to be young anymore right now no i yeah i don't want to be young but that could now.
No. Yeah.
I don't want to be young. But that could change.
But you think I'll stop going out less than zero? Yeah. If you start going out more, you're already going out zero.
So if you start going out once a week, midlife crisis. Well, yeah.
What if you become a club guy? Got it. Got it.
Okay. Think about it this way.
Understood. I don't think I'm going to have that happen.
We could potentially die. That's the that's the point we could potentially die tomorrow right and so that would mean that our midlife crisis already happened when we were 17 years old right and so like our midlife crisis is i want to get a high school degree right and that's what i did for my midlife crisis and bought a minivan uh is that it hank after hearing that andy actually i'll last two many many are calling age 35 the baby back bitch year is this year we can expect a certain someone to come on the pod to discuss yes i will say if i don't if if we don't get kevin durant on this podcast in our age of 35 cancel my birthday next year oh shit yeah i'll just stay 35 forever yeah oh heaven forbid kevin you better you better not back out of this one stay 35 forever that's what we call a win-win right there yeah that's a threat i say if we don't get kevin duran on this year we we're not allowed to say his name ever again right right all right last one hey, last one.
Hey, boys, would you guys watch The Bachelor,

but instead of people picking their soulmate, it's just Philip Rivers deciding who his favorite kid is.

Of course.

That sounds like the best television program ever.

It's probably going to be the one with the biggest arm.

Yes, absolutely.

It's just the best athlete is his favorite.

Actually, this is how Phil Rivers should decide his next team.

He should have all his kids wear a T-shirt for anyone who's interested in him and just throw the ball up like it's the fourth quarter and he's down a score and whoever intercepts it that's the team he goes to it's like at his wedding when he's throwing the bouquet right so he stands tosses it over his head right and they fight for it right i like that it's perfect i like no he's got to throw it real and run around and stop around and panic.

Okay.

And then throw it up.

And then whoever gets it, you're going to that team, Phil.

And then he has to put a garter belt on the kid that catches it.

I hope this isn't it for Phil.

It's not.

Phil is addicted to blood.

Again, as we've said on this show, he is going to be faced with a choice of staying at home with nine kids.

And having more sex and more kids.

Are going to work and getting a break from those nine kids.

I think he's going to go to work.

Okay.

All right.

All right. choice of staying at home with nine kids and having more sex and more kids are going to work and getting a break from those nine kids i think he's going to go to work okay um all right that's

our show we taped some awesome interviews this week so we got them coming up we also have of

course monday will be the recap of super bowl 54 enjoy it embrace it it is the last game of the

year i don't know how we got here but we we're here, and we'll see everyone Monday. Love you guys.
Talking away. I don't know what to say.
I'll say it anyway. Today's another day to find you shining away.
I'll be coming for your lover. Take on me, take me out

Take on me, I'll be gone It is true, it is true I'm telling you what's the same

I'm saying it's my peace Oh, tell me what's to say. Oh, say it.
Spoke me, stumbling away. Sound and learning that life is okay.
Say out to me. It's no better to be safe than solving.
Take on me sound Take on me

Take on me Take on me I'll be gone And I'll be gone Take on me All the things that you say Reason like them Just explain my words Reason like You are the things I've got to remember When you shine, I'll be coming for you anyway. Take on me.
Take on me. Take me.
Take on me. I'll be gone.
Take on me

Take me on me

Take me on me

Take me on me

Take me on me Take take on me Oh, take on me

Oh, take on me

Oh, take on me