MLB Playoffs With Jeff Passan, CFB With Matt Leinart, Bears Beat Commanders In The PMT Bowl + Guys On Chicks

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On today's part of my take presented by DraftKings, we've got a packed show.

We got Jeff Passin on to talk MLB playoffs, the looming lockout, and a lot of other cool stuff.

He's been on the road with the Blue Jays and Mariners series.

We're going to talk playoff baseball.

We also have Matt Leinert on to talk some college football.

We're going to talk Monday night football, the Bears big win in Washington, the Falcons big win over the Bills.

We got Guys on Chicks.

Great pack show for you on a Wednesday.

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Okay, let's go.

yeah,

part of my take,

yeah,

part of my take,

yeah,

part of my take.

Welcome to part of my take, presented by DraftKings.

The crown is yours.

Today is Wednesday, October 15th.

And listen, we're not leading the show with the Bears Commanders.

It's coming up back in studio, but the Bears did have a big win in Washington on Monday night.

So I just wanted to let everyone know because if they're listening, you're going to be like, hey, why aren't they talking about the game right now?

We were taping the first 10 minutes about baseball, but the Bears did have a big win on Monday night against the Washington Commanders.

And to be clear, we're not leading with that.

Well, we could lead, we could talk about it more.

We've already talked about it, but we could talk about it more if you wanted to.

We're not leading.

We're not going to talk about that at the top of the show.

Yeah, we're talking.

Yeah.

But I wanted to let everyone know that the Bears beat the Commanders, and we're going to be talking about it because they probably tuned in.

They're like, why aren't aren't they talking about it?

I just want to drive that point home for the worst.

But that's why we're not talking about the Bears' big win against the Commanders right off the top.

Agreed.

Yeah.

Actually, what we should be talking about is Zach's big gif from that stream.

I think the real winner of that stream was Zach's surprise reaction face because that GIF is going to outlive all of us.

Have you seen that?

Wait, Zach, talk us through the moment.

What happened and what caused you to do that reaction?

There's a couple moments during this game that could have been that reaction.

I think that may have either been a field goal situation or the handoff.

Hank's a fumble.

So what happened?

What happened?

Walk us through.

Was it an interception fumble or game-winning field goal?

Hank is such a piece of shit.

I'm trying to pull up.

I'm trying to

get away from it.

I think it's all there's the fumble.

Everyone knows the weather.

I didn't see it.

Zach, who fumbled, though?

Who fumbled?

Handoff guy.

Give the comments.

Some call the handoff guy.

Jane Daniels didn't hand it off.

Okay.

he fumbled and your reaction was surprised it was just a bad i mean at you can't fumble there no you can't i just pfd i'm trying to get more you can it's impossible to do the talk of the stream it's happened uh hank you're a piece of for the record but i'm we're not we're not talking about that game right now

you're gonna have to be in later he's giving context to the viewers they don't know you brought it up

Hank, if that happened to you, you would just not show up for the next show.

I definitely wouldn't bring up the worst moment of the game on the top of the show.

I was trying to shed a little light on my man, Zach, because every time I see that GIF, I laugh my ass off.

It's an outstanding reaction shot.

Can you explain the GIF?

I didn't see it.

Memes, can you drop in the group chat?

Explain the GIF and explain what we were watching when you saw the GIF.

We were watching the game.

It could have been one of three games.

It was either the Bills Falcons game,

it could have been the baseball game.

It's a great, great, it's an amazing GIF, right?

This is the fumble phase when Jaden Daniels fumbled the game away, Zach?

It might have been when Terang ducked out of the way of that pitch that should have hit him.

I'm not sure which one it was.

I mean, like, if you show, if you walked on the street and you're like,

what is he watching?

People would just be like, that must be Jaden Daniels fumbling Monday Night Football away.

All right.

I'm being a good sport.

If this was Hank, he wouldn't be here.

If this was Big Cat during this segment, he would have rage quit the podcast, fired everybody.

Brought it up.

That's not true at all.

I haven't rage quit ever.

So

you walked out pretty fast last night.

Listen, we all don't deal with losses well.

It happens.

I don't know.

And we are going to talk about it.

I sat in my car for about 15 minutes.

Yeah.

We all suck at losing.

And everyone who watches sucks at losing.

And then they say, oh, that person sucks at losing.

And it's like, yeah, we all do.

No one likes to lose.

That's fucking, that's reality.

All right, let's talk playoff baseball.

Dudes on dudes.

That's what the Dodgers are.

They just have dudes everywhere.

They just hit home runs.

They had Blake Snails start game one and go eight innings, one hit.

What do you have, 10 Ks?

And then they had Yamamoto go game two and he went eight innings, three hits.

What did he end up having?

Oh, no, he's still going.

It's 5-1 right now.

He's going to go complete game.

He had six Ks.

He's going to go complete game.

He gave up one home run.

It just depends on which night.

If, you know, Muncie's going to hit a home run tonight.

Tiasco Hernandez is going to hit a home run.

Oh, Tommy Edmonds is going to hit a double.

They just, Freddie Freeman's going to have a big hit.

Oh, Shohei, he hasn't even been that good in the playoffs, but he'll get hot.

It's crazy how good the Dodgers are.

It's not fair.

It's not fair.

I agree.

It's not fair.

I was trying to think of an analogy, like a Colin Coward analogy for how good the Dodgers are.

And the only thing I could come up with is like getting divorced.

It's like going to see your attorney.

They slowly bleed you dry over the years.

It's no fun.

Eventually you reach the finish line.

Nobody's happy after it's over.

But the lawyer's going going to make their money.

And that's what the Dodgers are: a divorce attorney.

They're so good, though.

Yamamoto, by the way, I don't, they usually don't let him go nine innings, right?

No, and they, and it was just like, but he used to all the time.

Like, that was his thing in Japan.

Is like, this guy is a beast.

He had like a bunch of complete game, no hitters, a bunch of complete game shutouts.

And I think he won, I think he won a triple, triple crown in Japan, like led the league in strikeouts, ERA, and

what would the other one be?

Wins.

Did that, did that, those three things three years in a row in Japan before, and then Dodgers are like, oh, yeah, here's $300 million.

We're just going to be good for forever.

Yeah.

And so he officially has, he just finished off the complete game.

So he went nine innings, pitched 111 pitches, gave up three hits.

He gave up a

pretty much the meanest way you can beat a team.

He gave up a home run in the first inning to Jackson Churio.

And you're like, oh, shit, he might not have it tonight.

This could be, you know, this could be something here.

And then just gave up two hits the rest of the game and completely shoved.

And the Dodgers also hit.

I say it's not fair in like the most, I'm just jealous of it mode.

You know what I mean?

It's not like I'm like, oh, this is not fair.

I don't, this is like baseball's ruined.

I'm saying it's not fair.

Like, I want that.

I want an owner who's just like, oh, yeah, we, we already have a ton of dudes that are awesome.

Let's just pay another dude $100, $200 million just to get even more awesome.

Oh, all our guys are injured during the year.

It doesn't matter as long as they're healthy for the playoffs.

We'll be fine.

And that's just what the Dodgers are doing.

It's like they're just,

the Brewers are a good team.

They're a really good team.

The Dodgers are just squashing them.

The Dodgers are, there's no doubt about it.

They're a great team.

They're an awesome team.

But I like watching good games.

And we haven't gotten too many of those from the Dodgers.

I mean, well, granted, game one,

it got good.

There was some chaos that happened in game one.

You still think that Bryce Terank should have stayed in and just took one for the team?

You've got to wear that one, right?

So, okay, so, and I, Max, I want to hear your take on it because you played no big deal in college.

Uh,

I, I was thinking about it because, yes, sitting on the couch, we all in the moment were like, how do you not take that one?

I think that's just muscle reflexes, where it's like he's not, you're just trained to not, you know, to get out of the way of a pitch.

And he's not even thinking in that moment of like, oh, if I get hit, you know, you walk.

He just, it was just total muscle memory, dodge the ball.

Of course.

Yeah, that's exactly.

I think the only way that you wear that pitch is if you like immediately identify a curveball and you, you know that it's going to hit you.

And then you can, you can tell yourself, okay, just don't move on this one.

But if it's coming in at any rate of speed whatsoever, you probably do move out of the way.

But that's where I'm saying a guy like me or you would actually be an asset because our reaction time wouldn't be good enough.

We would just, we would get drilled by that.

Not only that, but we would go in and hug the plate and just be like, please hit us.

Max, is that a fair take or is it, is it, is it wrong?

Uh, it depends on the player.

I'm wearing that shit all day, but that was, that was the sort of guy I was.

Actually, no, I got hit by pitch so much, I never moved.

I, I, I, granted, I wasn't seeing a hundred, but I was, I, I saw pretty fast pitching and I never even, like,

there's, there's players out there that are wearing that pitch and he just isn't one of them but that's that right that's that's what I'm saying it's his

one's gonna fault that guy but he's just not that guy

right right and I will

fault that guy

Max how much shit did you put on before you stepped up the bat did you have like the the arm protector did you have like the shingard

I had I had both.

I had a Shingard and an arm because those are the only two things that like

can actually

other than a helmet, but like those are the only two parts of your body that if you get hit, it can actually like fuck fuck you, fuck you up.

And as someone who loved getting hit, like that, if I have those two things, why would I get out of the way?

So

when you would walk in college ball, you were like, remember when Barry Bonds would walk and it would take him like...

20 seconds to undress.

He would just stand there and just slowly take everything off and throw it back.

Like the elbow guard, the shin pad.

Like, it was so funny when you, it would just be this long process of like, yeah, you just walked me.

Now you got to watch me undress in front of you, bitch.

You'd have to have like two kids run out there to grab all of his stuff and take it back to the dugout.

Bonds covered like his whole

arm.

So it was like,

it was like the top part and the bottom part.

I like just had like the little elbow thing right here.

So it was just a one strap.

See you later.

And then

my leg thing was a two strapper.

strapper so it took it took like it took a couple seconds we're i like that we're unironically just doing the yeah if it was me i would take yeah what the fuck is this problem nlcs game one you gotta take that

dude i'm built for fall that's what it's about you got that's that's your moment you just got to just take it you got to be in severe pain i would honestly i would probably get stretchered off the field and taken to the hospital afterwards i'd be in severe pain i need a pinch runner but if i could do one thing it's get hit by a pitch.

I know that I could do that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, man.

All right.

So, yeah, the Brewers are in trouble.

And then the Blue Jays, the Toronto Blue Jays, sorry, are in trouble because the Mariners went into Toronto and won game two.

We talked about game one on Sunday night.

They won game two.

They just mashed.

And it's just like,

they just, I mean, that's crazy that they walked in.

Like after that type of series they had with the with the Tigers,

having to go all the way to toronto play after a 15-inning game win game one which i thought was a throwaway game then just pummel like pummel the blue jays in game two

series over

series over yeah yeah

mariners up up 2-0 so we're going to go west coast mariners dodgers world series i think it's i think it's series over i we'll get into it with jeff passeng in a little bit but i i do feel team of destiny vibes for the mariners now their destiny destiny might be to just get waxed by the Dodgers in the World Series, but I do think that Seattle is going to get there.

That will be an all-time graphic of everyone who's rooting for the Mariners and everyone who's rooting for the Dodgers, because how can you not root for the Mariners in that situation?

Yeah, it actually might be all 50 states.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because in California fans, exactly.

Yeah, there's a lot of people in California.

The Angels diehards,

like 40 of them.

They're going to be rooting for the Mariners as well.

I feel like this might be a clean sweep for America, and then everyone in America loses when the Dodgers win.

Yeah, they might have to add Japan to the map.

Yeah.

Just to even

Japan, probably also the Mariners.

Yeah, Icho.

Icho Hey's a pretty big deal right now in Japan.

He is.

Yeah, that would actually be close.

So, yeah, we should get them involved.

But yeah, I do feel like

this might be series over.

Great vibes for the Mariners.

Seattle is our good friend Spencer Hawes keeps sending me updates about the M's.

Everybody out there is just so excited for the Mariners.

It feels like this might be their year.

I hope it's their year.

Yeah.

I mean, even getting to the World Series they've ever done.

So, yeah, we are going to talk more baseball, extended baseball talk with Jeff Passon.

I had two other things real quick before we send it back to ourselves in the studio and talk football.

One, did you see Coach Cal today at SEC

Media Day?

And he he said he is

going to retire if things get too transactional.

Oh, good, good.

We don't want that in sports.

We don't want transactions in college basketball.

That's a bridge too far for Coach Calapari.

Here's his quote.

The only way you, I want to help 25 to 30 more families, Calapari said during SEC Media Day, basically saying he's going to coach for like, you know, whatever it is, four or five more years.

The only way you do that is to be transformational as a coach.

If you're not, you're transactional.

If I become transactional, I'm going to pay you to do this and that.

Then I don't want to do this anymore.

I don't need to.

I mean, here's the thing.

Coach Cal has been great at being transactional.

I'm not saying that he didn't care about the families.

I'm not saying that he didn't do great things for his players in terms of setting them up for life in the NBA and getting them insane amounts of money.

He did a great job of that.

But a lot of that shit was entirely transactional.

It's like, come play at Kentucky for a year, and then you're going to make a ton of money.

We might not always win the most games, but I'm going to get you drafted and I'm going to market you even after you're gone.

And then, yeah, that I don't think that he should be complaining about that.

I guess other guys have gotten better at being transactional, so he doesn't want to like compete in terms of being transactional.

Yeah, I don't know.

It's just like coming from him, it was very bizarre.

But who knows?

Maybe he's going a little senile.

No transactions.

It's no transactions.

No transactions, though.

There's some other great coach news out there today.

Yeah.

In the NBA.

What is it?

Did you see what the Celtics did?

I fucking love Missoula.

Joe Missoula is the best.

They usually have a media versus media basketball game before the season starts where all the Celtics media plays against each other.

And at the last minute, Coach Missoula was like, hey, we're switching off the format just a little bit today.

It's going to be the media against the Boston Celtics coaching staff.

And they just dunked on him.

They beat him 57 to 4.

I love it.

I love that.

Just like setting the tone, like, hey, we need a power dynamic for all the press conferences for the rest of the season.

Yeah, to be like, hey, I saw you dribble it off your foot.

Like, I know you suck at this.

Don't ask me that question.

When you start asking me about

my lineup rotations, just remember, I dunked on you five times.

Right.

I love that.

I love that.

Okay, last thing I had was

this is a more serious thing.

Our good friend Nick Mangold, who

he's been on PMT.

He's done a case race with us on the YAC.

He's a great guy.

He's been a friend of ours for a long time.

He needs a kidney.

So he posted this today.

I was talking to him about a month and a half ago.

So

he was telling me all this stuff.

He has a rare kidney disease disorder that he's had.

a genetic defect since 2006.

And so he kind of always knew this day was going to come.

He's been doing dialysis

and he needs a kidney transplant.

So he is, he posted about it today because no one in his family has the same blood type.

So he's going out to see if anyone potentially has a kidney.

So we wanted to say it on this show because he is our friend of ours and he's a great, great dude, shirt off the back type of dude.

So if you do,

if you are able to, or you don't even know, but you want to find out, you can go to columbiasurgery.org slash kidney transplant to find out if you can be a donor for Nick.

Type O blood is what he's looking for.

Yeah, and so he

posted this.

So he posted it to his Jets community.

And I want to say that in the last few hours, I don't know if you guys saw this, our Steven Shea has also opened it up to the Bucks community.

So if you're a Jets or Bucs fan, you could potentially give, you know what?

I'm going to open it up to the Bears community right now.

So that means there's at least three teams because I would imagine there were some Bucks fans who saw Nick Mangold's post and they're like, man, I'd love to give him a kidney.

But unfortunately, I'm not a Jets fan.

Now Stephen Che has opened it up to the Bucs community as well.

Like, that's great.

We're getting a lot of NFC love.

The Washington Commanders community has also been exposed to this.

So we're opening it up to all across the NFC.

It would be very powerful if maybe one of the Jets' biggest rivals would also open it up to their community.

Hank.

Hank, would you like to open it up?

Oh my God, Hank.

It's an easy yes.

Yeah, I mean, I guess, you know,

some things, I guess, as the saying is true, some things really are bigger than sports.

So

the New England Patriots community

will open it up to Nick May gold.

All right, so Drake May, if you're listening right now, check it out.

Give up your kidney, Drake.

Shout out to Steven.

that was i i don't know that i would have had the courage to do that if it's crazy kind of started it like that was that was tough to do but because stephen che did it for the bucks he opened it up for yeah yeah because i i know i know how this works there was a hundred percent a guy sitting in tampa who saw nick man gold like maybe even an ohio state fan in tampa and he saw the post he was like i have typo blood i want to give a kidney but it clearly says jets and then stephen chee swoops in he's like hey guys we're going to be open for business now bucks community and now we're off and running So let's open it up to all 32 teams.

Zach, be honest.

If you were,

when you were, when you saw that news, were you like,

how is he opening up to the Bucs community?

Did it seem like it was Steven's place to do that?

I think if anybody across all 32 teams is down to off slide to him a kidney, that would be sick.

And if you want to do it, you should definitely, if you're typo,

Lincoln build, get him a kidney.

Yeah, that'd be good.

Lincoln build.

I also, I should have said that I privately,

when I first talked to him about this a couple months ago, I did privately offer up the entire barstool office.

I was like, I'll find you a kidney.

We got guys who will give a kidney.

So that also is still on the table.

We might have to get everyone tested blood-wise and just figure out someone in the office who's told me.

You know what?

Except Mincy.

Imagine if we're like, we got you a kidney, it's Mincy's.

Nick would be.

No, thank you.

Yeah, I don't know about that one.

But yeah, if we can get a representative from every third, like all 32 NFL teams to say, like, yeah, we're opening it up to our fan bases, I think that'd be a good thing for us to do.

So let's shoot for that tomorrow.

Yeah, yeah.

And he is the best dude.

You know, trying to keep good spirits.

He'll, he got a crack out of Steven Chase.

I sent it directly to him.

I was just like, dude.

And he's like, wow, that's so huge.

So he thought it was funny.

So he's keeping good spirits.

But

I wanted to mention that.

And hopefully we can find him a kidney.

All right.

PR 101.

this this could solve everything mark sanchez if you're listening right now your boy nick mangold needs a kidney go get yourself tested everyone will forget what just happened to you if you just get your blood tested and you sacrifice one of your kidneys for your boy yep right as america will move on yep facts i will drop all charges I'll get in touch with Indianapolis.

We'll drop all charges.

I love that.

Okay.

Let's kick it to ourselves back in studio talking Monday Night Football.

All right, before we get to the rest of the show, DraftKings, NFL fans, what's your favorite touchdown?

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Listen, two weeks in a row, Amon Ross St.

Brown, we're going to have to figure out our Amon Ross St.

Brown problem.

We might have to, he's actually got Monday night games, so maybe we just, I kind of want to triple down.

That turned around in record time right there.

What?

You've been like, we got a problem.

I think we have to actually let's.

No, I said that on Sunday.

I was like, I said to Matt, I was like, I think we got to go again.

We put ourselves in a spot where we have to.

What about this?

But not about this.

It's worse that he was the only person that didn't hit 20.

Amon Ross St.

Brown

two shot sounds on Monday night.

Maybe we do that.

Yeah.

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Okay, Monday Night Football.

Falcons Bills.

Okay, you want to talk that game first?

What a crazy, crazy game that was.

Listen, Bijan.

Bajan.

Incredible.

Awesome game from Bajan.

And

I...

Are we worried about the Bills?

Well, they said there is...

Some people have said that Josh Allen has had a little bit of a swoon.

right now.

Yeah.

I think that's fair to say.

I think the Falcons might have figured something out against him.

They just blitzed the fuck out of Josh.

And there's a lot of Bills fans, rightfully so, being like, why is James Cook not getting more carries?

The Bills are 0-2 when James Cook goes under 100 yards.

He had 52% snap count, which was his second lowest of the season on Monday night.

First of all,

the Falcons are good.

I was joking, but we can talk about the Bears commander.

Oh, we can do the Bills first.

It's fine.

Okay.

We have two games.

Chronologically, chronologically.

Two games.

The Falcons are good.

Michael Pennix, that first half, he was awesome.

And Bajan is electric.

And if you're a Falcons fan, you have to be so pumped.

That drive, I think, to take it to 14-7, where it was like

Michael Pennix to Drake London, Bajan for 22 yards, Bajan for another 10, Drake London touchdown.

It's like, that's it.

That's it right there.

That's the whole thing.

That's why you draft these guys high and you have everything kind of putting together in the right time.

When the Falcons have an offense that uses their weapons, you realize how dangerous they can be.

And Bajan might be the best running back at the NFL right now.

Just get him the ball.

Like, it's one of those offenses where, to an extent, like, an eight-year-old could game plan and

put something in place that could be pretty competitive.

Where it's just like, I really like Bajon Robinson.

Let him run the ball.

Yeah, find him in space.

Throw the ball to Kyle Pitts.

Throw the ball to Drake London.

And these are all correct answers for that offense.

And the Falcons have a defense that can match it now.

Like, they have had very good defensive performances.

That Vikings game they played against the Bills on Monday night.

Bills are obviously a very good offense.

The first half on Monday night, Bajan had 152 yards.

Drake London had 147 yards.

And the Buffalo Bills had 131 yards.

Yeah.

And it could have easily been

28-7 if it wasn't for that last second Drake London stepping out like six inches from the end zone as time expired.

That's how crazy that first half was and how good the Falcons played and they did just enough to hold on in the end and yeah the Falcons are a good team and I'm excited.

This goes again to my theory that there are just a lot of like really good teams in the NFC and everyone's competitive and there's no easy wins in the NFC.

Did you see that Drake London touchdown that he had where he was at like the two-yard line and then he just extended his arm?

Yeah.

It's like the last thing that you tell players to do is like extend the ball there.

But his arm is an exception to that rule.

These guys are so long.

They've got so much size on offense.

Michael Pennick said after the game, the Falcons are really legit.

Are they?

Are they really legit?

I think they might be really legit.

I would put them in the legit category.

Yeah.

I think they're legit.

They had two interceptions, four sacks.

Like they were all over the place.

Held the bills to two for nine from third down.

Like they were, they're, I think they're really legit.

Some people are saying that the Patriots broke the Bills.

So let's talk about the Bills because the Bills might have been broken and then the Patriots finished breaking them.

But because if you look at what the Bills have done this year, they started 4-0.

The Ravens game was incredible,

incredible comeback.

But obviously, when you're down 15, you know, with whatever it was, four minutes left, that's not sustainable.

They killed the Jets.

They kind of struggled a little bit with the Dolphins, didn't beat the Dolphins like we expected.

And then, same with the Saints, where they, you know, end up winning by margin, but that game was close in the fourth.

Lose to the Patriots, lose to the Falcons.

Are the Bills okay?

I don't know if they are.

I don't think their defense is okay.

I have a blind resume for you.

Ready for this?

Yeah.

Team one,

record the last two weeks, 0-2.

Points per game, 17.

Yards per play, 5.7.

Team 2, record last two weeks, 0-2.

Points per game, 17.

Yards per play, 5.7.

Jets, Bills.

It's the Buffalo Bills and the Philadelphia Eagles.

They are both in the...

Are they okay category?

I think the Bills will be okay.

Right now, they're not okay.

Yeah, I mean, you know, it's a long season.

But right now, I'd say they're not okay.

They have not been playing great football.

Feels like really haven't been playing great, great football and what we expect from them all season.

You have a tough November, too.

They got a bill, so Hank is in Hank is speaking from the AFC East top spot right now.

Yeah, Hank is going to bed every night looking at that schedule, just cuddling in with his schedule.

You have a great schedule.

Listen, you play who's in front of you.

You know how it goes.

I know, yeah.

Yeah, you got to play, play, you are what your schedule says you are.

They have a by the Panthers, and then in November, they have the Chiefs, Bucs, Texans, Steelers, and then they have the Dolphins too.

Yeah,

you skipped over the Dolphins.

You did.

But I'm saying

four not easy games in the Dolphins.

And it's especially a tough schedule if you just don't mention the Panthers and the Dolphins.

Well, the Panthers, the Panthers in October.

I said they have a tough November.

It's in late October.

I said they have a tough November.

But then they play the Bengals right after that.

Yeah.

That's in December.

And the Browns as well.

And the Jets.

I feel like you guys didn't hear me when I said they have a tough November game.

In November, if you take out the Dolphins game.

Three out of four games.

Well, I mean, the Dolphins have five games in November.

Four are hard.

The Dolphins played

pretty competitively against the Bills when they played on Thursday Night Football.

We don't know what the Dolphins are going to look like at that point.

I've got a pretty good idea what the Dolphins are going to look like.

Well, I meant more like, will they have a coach?

Yeah, well,

maybe.

Schefter said yesterday, like, I don't see anything happening soon.

Was this after Brian Callahan got fired?

This was before Brian Callahan got fired.

Was he speaking specifically about the Dolphins or the league in general?

I believe he was speaking about the league in general, but emphasizing the Dolphins.

Got it.

Got it.

Yeah, Brian Callahan did get fired.

That does hurt your revenge game a little bit.

It really also gives the interim head coach bump.

Who is the interim head coach in Tennessee?

Mike McCoy.

So he was the Chargers head coach.

Fun fact, he was the last San Diego Chargers head coach.

Yeah.

Mike McCoy is one of the most forgettable NFL coaches.

And the Titans have had a few of those.

Who's the Texans coach for a year?

No, the Cardinals coach for a year.

Steve Wilkes.

Wilkes.

Steve Wilkes.

And are you thinking of Cully?

Yeah.

Cully coached the Texans.

But if you look at the Titans' history of coaches, I mean, we can just pull it up, but off the top of my head, Mike Malarkey, Mike Munchak.

Yep.

Right?

Mike McCoy.

They love mics there, don't they?

They love.

That's weird.

Ken Wisenhunt.

They've had some real Jeff Fisher.

Jeff Fisher.

Sometimes you got to go back.

Sometimes you got to go back to move forward.

They would kill kill for eight and eight right now.

Yeah.

But yeah, that, that, that,

it's, it's tough to get fired before even Halloween.

It feels like, oh, man, it was really, there always is one.

Whenever it happens, like, yeah, that probably is right.

Yeah.

But it was, I think it was a mercy kill.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He probably, he was, he had that first inkling of, damn it, I'm getting fired.

And then he thought about it for a second when he was driving away.

And he's like, I'm kind of relieved right now.

Yeah, I don't have to do this anymore.

Like, we were ass.

Yeah.

Cam Ward was right.

We were big-time ass.

Big booty cheeks.

Yeah, did you see also shout out the

ticket rep for the Titans all-time move?

He texted, he texted Paul Kurharsky tweeted out.

He had, or a friend got this from Paul, but it said,

it was just a reply saying, I don't have this number saved in my phone, so I'm not sure who this is.

And the reply is, it's Dan from the new stadium team.

You told me I'm in if Brian Callahan is fired on September 23rd, 2025 at 3.08 p.m.

So he was texting everyone who gave that response being like, hey, now you're ready for tickets?

So shout out that guy.

You got a hustle.

That's a big time hustle.

That's great follow-up.

Excellent use of Salesforce by that guy.

Yeah.

All right.

The other Monday night game.

Bears, Commanders, Bears win.

Jake Moody.

Shout out Jake Moody.

He was cut from the Niners.

Goes into a full storm.

Kyro Santos gets hurt.

Hits four field goals.

The game winner.

Where do you want to go with this?

First of all, I mean, credit to Jake Moody.

Jim Harbaugh said death taxes Moody.

Yeah.

He loved Jake Moody.

And he had a tough start to his career in San Francisco.

I think he was kind of on Kyle Shanahan's shit list from that game against the Browns.

I forget.

That was early on in that first season for Moody.

But after that, it felt like he was just scared the entire time.

And last night, he not only made those field goals, he fucking drilled.

They were all like dead center.

Yep.

No doubters.

So, yeah, credit to him.

And credit to the Bears.

The Bears, this should not have been a close game.

I went back last night.

Obviously, when you have a tough loss, you have to sit in it for a while.

You have to look at everything.

I went back.

I watched a lot of the game.

The refs were terrible.

They were really, really bad.

This was a game that if the Commanders had won, and

to be a good team or a great team, you have to take advantage of games that kind of fall into your lap, like this one did for the Commanders.

The refs, you could make the argument that they took 14 points away from the Bears and that they gave the opportunity to score seven points.

I don't want to say they gave the Commanders a touchdown, but they certainly extended a drive for the Commanders that led to a touchdown.

On the Nation Wright face mask?

Or was that something else?

Yeah, I actually think that the, I think it was the Nation Wright face mask, but there was contact with the face mask, but it was ticky tack.

Yeah, it was small.

And it was also the Montez sweat, which I get.

You call if there's hands on any quarterback.

That one, though, is kind of a 50-50 call, but the Theo Benedict call was terrible, which was a Roma Dunes touchdown.

And the Colson Loveland call, which kind of ended that drive, was a terrible call.

Those refs, by the way, they are the worst refs in the league.

They are number one in penalties called.

Going into the night, they had called 95 penalties in five games and 22 penalties that were declined.

They're a first-year crew.

They're so bad.

I was just happy that the Bears were able to overcome those type of situations where they could have easily folded.

That was a game that the Bears don't win.

And they've now got two of those with the Raiders game and the Commanders game, where the Bears just don't usually win those games.

And that's coaching.

Like Ben Johnson in the bye week, we talked about it on Sunday.

It was clear that the running game was a focus because

he got that thing fixed.

And DeAndre Swift was an absolute monster.

And Theo Benedict making his first start was really, really good.

And it was one of those games, like, hey, the Bears usually, like, they usually fuck this up, and they weren't the team that fucked it up.

The Commanders were the team that fucked it up.

Yeah, I mean, it was a winnable game, and it was not the best.

Like, our run defense was pretty bad.

Our rushing game was not good, especially going up against.

We thought that the Bears, I mean, by the numbers going to this game, the Bears were last in rush defense, running defense.

And the Commanders were first overall with our ground game.

So, did not take advantage of that.

Bill didn't have a a great night.

Bill fumbled.

Didn't have any really super explosive plays in the running game.

There was a lot to like.

Jaden made some great throws.

Cliff, I thought, called a pretty good game on offense.

He schemed up a few big plays, like the touchdown to Luke.

Went back and watched that again.

That was a great play design by Cliff where he had him pretend to block on a screen to Debo and then take off after starting the route off slow.

That was a great play.

I should address the fumble at the end.

He's the best handoff.

If I could take it back,

I wish that I had not proclaimed Jaden Daniels to be the best quarterback at handoffs in the league.

I think we can say

he's not the best.

I shouldn't have said that.

You have made mixtapes exclusively of Jaden Daniels' handoffs.

Will there be one from last night?

No, I'm going to leave that up to the people.

Listen, I got to sit in this one.

I've watched the botched handoff several times.

He fucked up.

He knows he fucked up.

Am I out on Jaden because he dropped a ball when he was trying to hand it off?

No.

I mean, he still made some great plays.

The interception was bad, but he made some great throws last night.

I'm still like, I'm very confident in Jaden moving forward.

I think he's a great quarterback.

I like watching him play.

I'm not wavering on my Jaden stance.

You pause there for a second.

You were complimenting Cliff's play calling on that fumble play call.

Who do you think there's any blame on him for calling a shotgun when you need one yard?

Yes, because

in general, I don't think that I don't like running the ball out of shotgun.

I don't, but it has worked for us.

And when you have Jaden back there that's doing like a read option, historically, we've been able to convert those plays.

So it's worked in the past.

I don't love the shotgun.

I don't love running out of shotgun in general.

But in terms of

snapping the ball to shotgun when it's raining outside, Jaden just fucked up.

Jaden fucked up.

If you can't catch a ball and then hand it off to your running back if it's rainy outside, then

that's on you as a quarterback.

That's not on the play caller.

Was the fumble worse or like the

fact that

you thought in your heart of hearts you guys were going to beat the Bears

or the game?

Yeah, no, I thought, wait, what's the question?

Like, what's worse, the fumble happening or the fact that the whole thing, like,

you thought you were going to beat the, you thought the Bears probably weren't good and you were going to win this game.

I thought that we were going to win the game.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, at home on a Monday night, I like our chances.

It was a close game.

The fumble was tough.

I mean, if you don't fumble that ball, you probably win a game that you shouldn't have won.

And I don't think the Commanders were the better team last night.

I think the Bears were the better team last night.

I think the Commanders are a very average team right now.

Our defense is big-time suspect, and we lack a lot of explosiveness on offense right now.

So, I still think when all is said and done, because it's a long season, we do have a very hard schedule from here on out.

I still think that we're going to make the playoffs at 3-3.

I think that that's definitely a possibility.

But I don't think that we're a very good team.

We're just not.

I don't think anybody, did anybody watch that game last night and think to themselves, damn, I'm scared of the Commanders?

No.

Nope.

Yeah.

You shouldn't because it wasn't that good.

If the refs, if they get

the calls they were getting, that's scary.

That's true.

That is actually a really good point.

If you can bring that crew with you,

then they would be very scary.

Yeah, I mean,

it was a bad game.

Bad fumble at the end, bad fumble by Bill, bad interception by Jaden.

But there's still, you can look at the game and be like, yeah, there's some stuff on offense that was really good last night.

Yeah.

You should be happy with that.

The Bears are, I mean, the gateway game,

the gateway's wide open.

I said to you, if they beat the Cowboys, there's a chance they could be sitting there there at 6-3.

They got to win the games you're supposed to win, especially like against the Saints next week at home.

The best way I'd put how I feel about the Bears right now, I am not ready to say

they are a good football team because there's a lot of stuff that still needs to be cleaned up.

The defense is secondary is banged up, and they are big-time ball hawks where it's like, got to take away the ball.

And if they don't, we can get gashed.

Caleb played okay, not great.

He had moments that were good, moments that were bad.

Uh, but I would say the Bears are not a good football team, but they are unequivocally no longer a bad football team.

And that is a very important distinction to make in the progression of a team.

Yeah, I mean, the running game looked awesome last night.

They said the Bears found something against the commanders' defense, which was exploit the outside, run the ball to the outside, and it worked really, really well.

Yeah, and Ben Johnson's an awesome coach because that's he's, you know, again, these are, it's not a coincidence that we have now won two games that the Bears normally never, ever win because Ben Johnson is a coach and the culture has shifted.

So I'm very excited.

I'm staying six out of 10 excited, but I'm very excited because, again, no longer a bad football team.

We've graduated from that class.

Is Ben Johnson a 25 to 24 merchant?

He is.

Those are the games that we win that we never were supposed to win.

And

we know that people didn't think the Bears were going to win that game because if you were, thank you for everyone who was watching on the stream.

I think we had about like 13 to 15,000 people watching for the majority of the game.

And then, as the Bears went to line up for that kick, it went to like 26,000.

Those are the sickos and perverts after the fun boys.

It's just, there's just people who's sick at their house.

Showed up.

And then they did.

I thought he was going to miss a kick because I was like, I've seen him miss 38-yard kicks, but I was very excited.

I'm excited about the Bears.

Like, they are, again, I'm not getting ahead of myself where I'm like, oh man, this team is awesome.

I'm thinking about thinking about playoffs, so I'm not thinking about playoffs yet.

But not being a bad team feels really good.

It feels good to no longer be a bad football team.

Yeah.

Now we've got to be a good football team, and that starts with beating the Saints, who you should beat at home.

So I said 25 to 24 merchants.

That's back-to-back games for the Bears winning 25 to 24 exactly.

That's the first time since 1926 that an NFL team has won consecutive games by one point with the exact same final score.

Hank, you have any idea who the previous team to do it was?

I don't.

1926 called the Bears.

It was the Frankfurt Yellow Jackets.

And they beat the Detroit Panthers twice.

They beat them 7-6, and then they beat the Bears 7-6.

Pretty crazy.

Wild.

Yeah.

Pretty crazy.

Wild.

Yeah, shout out to Dan Quinn, though, maybe the challenge of the year.

He's a complete psycho.

He challenged a one-yard completion.

I did not know what he was doing at the time.

I don't think any coach in NFL history has ever charged or has challenged a non-first down

one-yard reception.

He got the call overturned on the field, and then it ended up actually making a big difference because we held them to nine yards.

I knew exactly what it is on that offense.

I said it on the stream.

I was like, the Bears are going to get stopped at fourth and one.

And then they got stopped at fourth and one.

Yep.

Congratulations to Hank.

Also,

hit the hater parlay.

What was in the hater parlay?

It was Jay Daniels to throw an interception,

Jayne Daniels under passing yards, Bill under rushing yards, and Bears money line.

Wow, that is a hater parlay.

It is a hater parlour.

But a hit.

And it was,

Jayne Daniels needed like 30 yards in the fourth quarter, and Bill needed like 10 rushing yards in the fourth quarter.

And they got the ball twice, and the only yards they gained were basically penalties in the third and 13, and that was it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think McNichols might have had a good run sprinkled in there somewhere.

But yeah, I saw the sidelines, and Bill did not look, he did not look happy with himself.

It's two games in a row with a fumble.

And

yeah,

it wasn't a great night for the Commanders' offense.

It wasn't, but like I said, there were some good things that you can take away that you can look at and be like, okay, they did this well.

They did that well.

I'm not going to say the sky's falling.

It's Monday night football.

It's under a microscope.

It was a bad loss.

Some bad mistakes, but I'm not like the season's over.

Last year, after the Bears and Commanders played, the season was over for the team that lost.

Does that play a factor into anything?

Are you slightly worried about that?

The result of this question just impacts the other team.

I'll be honest.

I'm just going based off history.

Good question.

It was lucky as shit that the Commanders beat the Bears last year.

That was, I mean, it was a great throw.

You have to set up the Hill Mary correctly.

That was a good drive at the end, but to win on a Hill Mary that's deflected, a lot of things have to go your way.

That was a lucky win.

This was just, we weren't the better team.

So I don't, I'm not.

No, I'm not saying that the the season's going to fall apart because we lost to the Bears.

I think that what you're seeing right now is a team that in this iteration, if they don't improve, they're going to end up like eight and nine, nine and eight.

Max, you just looked up the NFCE standings.

Did you think the commanders were lower than you, you thought they were going to be lower?

No.

What were you looking up for?

The NFC East could just could just not be very good this year.

Yeah.

That's the thing is, yeah, we're, we're, what, one game behind the birds?

Just one game.

And then, well, here here's what i'll say this week cowboys that's gonna there's gonna be like 60 points in that game you must win or can't lose i feel like uh it's gonna be how would i describe this game because you you do have the what the lions and chiefs after that this is a can't lose yeah it's a can't you can't lose this game uh you need to get the offense looking right against that defense and you need to you need to see some signs of improvement now if we lose to the cowboys

will the sky be falling the sky might be falling i think the sky's going to fall.

The sky might be falling.

The sky might be falling.

If you dip below 500 with the Chiefs, Seahawks, and Lions on deck.

On deck, yeah.

And then for the rest of the season, I mean, we have a hard schedule.

If you look at it right now,

the one game that you would point at and say this is probably one that we should win would be the Dolphins, but that's in Madrid.

So who knows what's going to happen over in Spain?

And you lost one that you looked at before the season thing you'd win with the Bears.

Yeah, yeah.

Bears at home.

I definitely thought that that would probably be a win.

And it was not

really.

I mean, it's 25-24, and we should have won the game, but

we didn't deserve to win the game.

The Bears won the game.

Yeah.

Any thoughts on a tattoo?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I thought maybe I'd just get Zach's tattoo.

That'd be sick.

Get the Eagle, the Giant Eagle on there.

We'd be tattooed twins.

Maybe a Tramp Stamp Eagle?

Tattoo Twins are going to be awesome.

I don't know.

I'm open to suggestions about the tattoo.

I want to get it done soon.

Plaid sleeve?

Plaid half sleeve?

I'm going to get that at some point.

What better time than now?

What better time than now?

You talked about it.

It'll probably take a while.

I don't know how long do they let you stream for?

You don't have to stream it.

We just do a PMTV.

Okay.

Get it in pieces.

Time-lapse.

Yeah.

Easy time-lapse.

I'm going to get a plaid sleeve at some point.

Yeah.

Sounds like you're not.

No, no, I've been, listen, I've been playing this out for years.

I can only see, there's only one example of a plaid tattoo that I've ever seen.

And it looks pretty sweet.

It's like you're in constant flannel by the way uh one last thing about the game trekman just hates caleb williams that's fine just say it well let us know so we were watching with the sound was really low so i didn't get to hear what he was saying he just every throw he was like uh like that was a bad throw he's got it like the one that uh zacchaeus dropped yeah like which that was a drop i don't know what else and i don't think i'm not here saying caleb played incredible he played i the way i describe it is he played fine he played there was some good there was some bad he's wins wins are wins and like stacking those wins.

It was this throw.

He's just like, oh, he threw it in the wrong place.

Like, okay, but that's a catch.

Everyone should catch that.

He fumbled a snap and it was a pretty bad snap effectively.

And he was like, that's all Caleb Williams.

It's like, it is obviously you should catch the ball, but it was not a good.

It's not like he fumbled a good snap.

It was a

subpar snap.

It was crazy.

That was also a mistake that Ben Johnson would make.

Snapping the ball with...

when you could take it to the fourth quarter was crazy.

Yeah.

Those are the little things you got to clean up.

After the game, I did, I found myself in a dark place last night when I went home.

I just laid down on the couch before I went to bed and I was just watching as much of this game as I could and then re-watching the fumble and then watching the fumble again and then watching it again.

And

it took me to a website that I'm not proud that I visited last night.

Browsers?

No, I would be

pounding my chest.

Yeah.

Not to brag, I got a password.

Tankathon?

No.

No.

Not tankathy question, Max.

I was looking up Jaden's hand size, which I found out was completely normal, regular hands.

It took me to a website called QBGrip.com.

These perverts over at qbgrip.com have an archive of every quarterback's grip on the ball in NFL history, like a zoomed-in close-up of how they grip a football.

And I spent like 10 minutes just looking.

Yeah,

and they got stories about the grips.

These people are just obsessed with quarterbacks' hands.

How is his grip?

It's a fine grip.

It's a good grip, but it's only hands.

It's crazy.

That is nothing.

But I love the fact that there's a guy out there that is so dedicated to quarterback's hands that he made an entire website with everybody that's ever played.

That's cool.

Yeah.

Tony Roman's got a little pudgy hand.

Gino, scroll up to Gino.

That was the one that stood out to me a little bit.

He really extends that pinky.

Yeah.

He's like trying to make his hand bigger than it is.

Yeah.

That might be some of the weird fumbles and interceptions.

Yeah.

I would fix that grip.

Okay.

So, yeah, that was Monday night.

Thanks for everyone who tuned into the stream.

PFT is going to get a tattoo.

Also,

speaking of footballs,

we were playing for Shane's football.

I have returned the football to Shane, so it's now Shane's football again.

I thought it was the rightful thing to do because Shane loves that football.

For people who don't know, Shane, one of our graphics guys, has a football he absolutely loves where he doesn't let anyone touch it, plays with it all the time.

PFT won it from him, and then PFT fake fucked it, and it, I think it bothered Shane a lot.

It really did bother me.

And I couldn't see him be in that much pain.

So as soon as we won, I gave him the football, and he now has the football.

There is something about that football, though.

Like, after I had custody of it for a week,

it's like the ring in Lord of the Ring.

It turns you into Gollum.

Like, it turned Shane into Gollum.

Now I miss that football.

I just knew that that guy loved that football more than I'll ever love that football, so I had to give him the football back.

back.

He needs a football.

You can do whatever you want with the football.

Yeah.

Now, when the Chargers play, do they play the Eagles?

I don't know, but Shane.

They do.

They do play the Eagles.

Do you want that football?

Do you want that football?

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're going to have to put that football back up.

Well, Shane doesn't have to if he doesn't want to.

No, he does.

Yeah.

No, he does.

No, he doesn't.

Yeah, he does.

No, he loves that football.

Yeah,

now he's a ring guy.

All right.

Should we talk?

Let's talk a little brief college football, and then we're going to have more with Matt Leinert.

I got

big ideas I want to throw out there.

The first is

America, be ready and maybe have a sit down and have a conversation with your children, with your loved ones

about 12-0 Indiana because Indiana is so fucking good and they went into Oregon and I know that that score was only a 10-point game, but they handled Oregon, which was shocking in the way I, you know, I was like, oh yeah, Indiana could win this game, but the way they handled it, this team is for real, for real.

They're not what last year was, where it was like, hey, if they play a good team, they're going to get smushed.

That was, I mean, Fernando Mendoza is awesome.

The way he bounced back from the pick six, Indiana is really good.

Indiana is going to go 12-0.

Get prepared.

We'll see what happens when they're in the Big Ten championship game, but this team can hang with anyone.

Yeah, like last year, Indiana, the knock against them was they're not an elite team.

In retrospect, that wasn't really that much of a knock against Indiana because Indiana has sucked for, it feels like generations.

Obviously, Michael Pennix played pretty well when he was there, but like they have not been good at football.

And then last year, they had the most losses in football history.

Yeah.

College football history.

They were in the conversation amongst being, you know, with the great teams.

They weren't a great team.

They were a very good team last year, but it was year one of what Signetti was doing.

Now this year, I don't think you could watch that Oregon game and think anything besides the fact that, yeah, Indiana just outplayed them in just about every facet of the game.

It was not a fluke.

They dominated Oregon.

I guess you could say, like, was Oregon's win over Penn State that great?

You could look at that.

I still think Oregon's good.

Indiana's better.

And it's just, it's now a two-horse race.

It's Ohio State and Indiana in the Big Ten.

Indiana is, yeah, they are a legit threat.

I'm

looking forward to seeing what happens this postseason with Indiana because I do believe in them now.

Yeah, big time.

And then we had, so the other big, there's a lot of big games, but Bama,

I love Ty Simpson.

He is so good.

I don't know if he's going to end up winning the Heisman.

He probably should.

The Heisman was very difficult this year because it was all over the place.

Ty Simpson is awesome.

He is just like every time you need a big play.

And Alabama did what they didn't do last year where they were, you remember they beat Georgia and then they lost to Vandi.

This year, they beat Georgia.

Then you have two games.

You know, Missouri's good, so it's not like a letdown game in that respect.

They have a number next to their name, but they got up for the big Georgia game, and then they beat Vandi.

They beat Mizzou.

Alabama, it's Alabama and Tex AM in the SEC in terms of right now.

Like, who's going to be, you know, the race to see who gets to go to Georgia?

Yeah, I mean, they do trust Ty Simpson a lot.

They're like fourth down.

Yeah,

Ty's got it.

I'm not even concerned about that.

In the SEC, I do feel bad for Auburn, though.

I feel bad for Auburn.

Oh, they got so screwed.

Auburn just keeps getting screwed week in, week out.

They should have been up 17-0.

I know everyone's talking about the Kirby Smart timeout, fake timeout, clapgate.

It really is more about the fact that Auburn should have been up 17-0 in that game.

Yeah.

And that fumble was ridiculous.

Yeah.

And that kept Georgia in the game.

It was.

I do feel bad.

Who knows what exactly happened with Kirby Smart?

Because he was saying that the safety on Auburn was clapping, and that's what he was telling the refs about.

And when you watch the replay, yes, the Auburn safety was clapping.

And

Kirby was probably telling the refs about that.

But then my question is,

why did they not burn a timeout there?

Why did they just say that timeout doesn't count?

Right.

Like that, that part doesn't make sense for the refs.

Yeah.

And did they issue a statement?

I think they might have said sorry.

So that now they've been apologized.

Auburn leads the league in being apologized to, which is something that you can take some solace in.

They actually should make the apologies like an official count as a win when judging who gets in the playoffs.

Tiebreaker.

You can turn it in.

I think it should be a tiebreaker.

Yeah, for sure.

Hey, we collected six apologies.

Yeah, we only have seven wins on the season, but check out these six apologies.

Yeah, you're in.

As me and Big Cat publicly said, Ole Miss was in trouble against Washington State.

We know ball.

A lot of people were saying, What are you guys talking about?

Big Cat pointed out, like, hey, I feel like this is a letdown spot when Ole Miss has, they got out

Georgia next week.

Georgia on deck this week.

Big time letdown spot for Ole Miss.

I didn't think that the boys were going to follow the coach's instructions and be hydrated on Friday night.

11:45 kickoff.

Like, that's an early, early game for the boys down in Oxford.

Student section sucked.

Me and Big Cat no ball.

We know ball.

Other big games.

Ohio State's defense is so fucking nasty.

I don't really know what else to say about that.

Like I'm Wisconsin plays them on Saturday.

I think Luke Fickle is fired, by the way, soon.

And maybe McIntosh, the AD.

I think they're rightfully not

sending someone to be the interim head coach with Ohio State and Oregon on deck.

Yeah.

Which actually is a correct move because you don't want to have like a new guy just be like, hey, here you go.

The two toughest.

Wisconsin's a dumpster fire, maybe worse program right now in power four, but Ohio State is awesome.

Their defense is awesome.

The Illinois scored a touchdown in the red zone, and it was like the most shocking thing ever.

Yeah.

Holy shit, they actually did it.

Every time you get in the red zone against Ohio State, they just

absolutely smush other teams.

This would be a.

Ohio State is so good.

You're right.

They are better than last year.

They are better than they were last year.

I don't see anybody beating Ohio State.

I don't.

It'd be a huge disappointment.

Huge.

For the Buckeyes if they lost a game.

What about Red River?

Red River.

The shootout.

I'm going to say it.

I don't think Jon Matier should have come back that quickly.

You know what it reminded me of?

Remember when Russ Wilson was like, yeah, I got this broken finger, and it usually takes guys five weeks to come back from it.

I'm going to come back in two weeks because I'm built different.

I think that had something to to do with what John Matier was going through.

I feel like, yes, credit to Dr.

Shin

for getting him out there, but maybe there's a reason why it should take a little bit longer than that to come back.

Yeah, I would say so.

He had a really bad game.

Arch played okay.

The Texas defense was awesome.

Awesome, awesome.

Yeah, Arch had that nice

backyard football touchdown.

It was, I'm not a big Brent Venables.

I mean, he's the guy can only think through defense.

I think I saw a press conference where they asked him, like, hey, what's wrong with your running game?

He's like, well, it's our defense.

It's like, all right, dude, there's two sides to the ball here.

It was very funny that there were articles coming out about Arch being like, is he the first bust in the history of college football?

Yeah, I know.

There have been a few other guys that haven't performed up to their expectations.

I'd say so, yeah.

One would be like there was a guy named Jimmy Clausen that committed to Notre Dame at the College Football Hall of Fame.

Yep.

He did his, yes, I'm going to Notre Dame there.

Didn't really work out that well for him.

But yeah, like, give Arch a little bit of time before being like, yeah, this guy sucks.

He's going to be out of college football.

Yeah, we're kicking him out of college football.

We're not even talking about the NFL anymore.

We're just kicking him out of college football.

Yeah, he's young.

And then

LSU

held serve at home.

There's nothing worse than flying out of Baton Rouge on game day, by the way.

Yeah, that's brutal.

It's the most FOMO that you'll ever get.

You're the only asshole that's driving to the airport in Baton Rouge on a Saturday for a Saturday night game in Death Valley, and then you just see all the tents set up.

People have been cooking gumbo since like 8 p.m.

the night before.

Everyone's hammered at 9 a.m.

Yeah, being in that empty, I've done that a few times where we've like even done the college football show back in the day where it's like

you do the show and then you get to the airport and no one's in the airport.

Yep.

Everyone's at the game and having a great time.

Yeah, I ran into Paul Skeens and his girlfriend on Friday night and he says hello.

Oh, nice.

And

he is a listener to the show.

It's the first time that he'd seen me without my sunglasses on.

He was like, I didn't know you had such beautiful eyes.

And that's a man that knows beautiful eyes.

Wow.

Yeah.

I like ball schemes.

Yeah, he's the man.

Good guy.

Great routine.

He's a man.

Yeah, we've run into him twice.

Man, we ran into him at the UFC fight.

Yeah.

Okay, should we do some hot seat cool thrown?

And then we'll get to our interviews.

We'll talk some more college football with Matt Leinert.

We also have Jeff Passing on to talk some more baseball.

It's just so many sports right now.

It's awesome.

It's a lot.

There's just college football night, too.

I was like, woke up today.

I was like, damn, no football.

And then I forgot.

Yeah, we're in like a 40-day stretch of every day has a football game.

It's awesome.

Okay, before we get to Hot Seat, Cool Throne, it is brought to you by our friends at Body Armor and the Flash IV.

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Okay, Hank.

My hot seat is cookies.

Oh, why?

I'm sick of them.

What?

I had three Oreos for breakfast.

What is this?

What are you doing?

What are you doing?

I don't know what law passed or whatever happened, but every time you go on a website,

there's just so much, so much.

much, like the full screen cookies.

Like, I know there's cookies.

I don't even know what cookies are.

Yeah.

I wish there was a feature to just accept all cookies.

But I don't know if you guys have noticed this or if it's just me, but there's, seems like there's been a phenomenon in the last six months where you can't go on any website without just getting a massive, massive

script about the cookies, and you just have to click accept cookies.

I don't know what cookies are.

I always accept them.

I don't know anyone that would ever reject cookies.

Well, yeah, that's the big trick that they they pulled was calling them cookies.

Right.

If they called them what they are, like devious little tracking devices.

Poison pills.

Hey, do you want these spies on your computer?

You're like, no, get these spies.

But they call, hey, you want some cookies?

Oh, yeah.

But you would still probably accept.

It's like you want to read the art.

You've already committed to clicking something.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're accepting them.

Yeah.

I reject all.

And you can still read?

Yeah.

Oh.

Yeah, I just reject all every time.

Sometimes I just say fuck it and accept.

I accept them all.

No, you can reject all.

It's been like that in Europe for a while.

Like, if you ever went to Europe for the last 10 years, they made you opt into every website, and now it's over here in the States, and it's everywhere.

Yeah, reject all.

It's annoying.

Minor complaint, but it bothers me.

That's fair.

My cool throw.

Real cookies are fine.

Real cookies are fine.

Rank your top three.

Top three, chocolate chip.

Mm-hmm.

Snickerdoodle.

Yeah.

You know, ball.

Oatmeal raisin?

Oh, okay.

White chocolate macadamia.

I don't like white chocolate.

Oh, white chocolate macadamia.

I like chocolate chocolate.

Yeah, I like chocolate chocolate.

White chocolate

on this.

It's a good combo.

Just get chocolate, bro.

Really good combo.

How do you feel about peanut butter cookies?

Delicious.

Also, really good.

Sometimes a little too dry.

That's my problem with them, yeah.

They do get a lot of stuff.

I love the cookies.

The best are the ones with the Herschel kitchen.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What do you think about the cookies that have cookies inside of them?

In the cookies that have like an Oreo inside.

Yeah.

Or the Reese's that we have with the cookie inside.

Those are good.

So good.

Yeah.

So good.

I just like regular cookies.

I mean, you can't beat a nice warm chocolate chip cookie.

Yeah, standard sugar cookies are also pretty good.

Yeah.

You dunk?

You dunk?

Cookies?

Yeah.

What are your thoughts on those?

Not usually.

Cookies with the I dunk my Oreos.

You wash your Oreos.

Wash my Oreos.

Do you still do that?

No.

Yeah.

I brought the Reese's Oreo

hybrid home for my kids being like, oh, a special treat.

And there's four of them.

So my three kids, and then my wife had one.

And I was like, I'm fine.

I don't need one.

And then I got correctly called out for having like eight of them at work that day.

And I was like, yes.

That's why I'm going to pass because I had eight.

Have you guys had a single stuff Oreo recently?

No,

they've changed them all.

Yeah, the double stuff is now the single stuff.

Right.

Right.

There used to be more cream in the double stuff.

And now if you get a single, I looked at a single stuff Oreo the other day and I was like, that is some, that's a bullshit cookie.

Yeah.

That's a bullshit Oreo.

So cookies, we're in, we're pro-cookie podcast.

Pro and anti.

Well, you can reject them all.

But you don't want to reject all cookies.

No, but I'm saying, like, do the online cookies reject all, the real-life cookies, eat them all.

Right, so pro and anti, or anti- and pro.

Okay.

Yeah.

My cool throne, I got a couple.

First one is just the NFL, NFL-rigged.

There was a study, UTEP did a study

that

it's statistically proven that the Chiefs who are the highest highest draw in the NFL

since I think it's like 2015 to 2023

in the playoffs, which is obviously the highest rating sign for the NFL, have gotten way more favorable calls in that time frame.

And they did the research that that did not happen with other dynasties in the past couple decades, a.k.a.

the Patriots.

So it's just the Chiefs.

If you felt like the NFL is rigged, it is Jared Goff also that just, it crushed me, absolutely crushed me.

Wait.

His press conference after he did a press conference.

Wait, can we talk about the Chiefs saying?

Yeah.

That was a genius move by UTEP, I believe, yeah,

to have that headline because everyone saw it and only read the headline.

And then if you clicked on the article, which I did, it said evidence that the NFL officiating subtly favored the Kansas.

Subtly feels like that's probably doing a lot of work there.

Yeah, it was subtly and it looked so minor that you can almost see it, but you really can't.

But the headline, that headline hit.

In the article, it says the study shows that during the playoffs, the research team identified NFL's most commercially valuable period.

Penalties against the opposing defenses of Chiefs' offenses were significantly more likely to result in first downs, cover more yardage, and fall into subjective categories.

That's just Mahomes' scrambles.

It was Mahomes' scrambles and pass interference.

So it wasn't the passer or pass interference.

It was the subjective stuff that's like not so cut and dry, unchallengeable stuff where a referee might throw a flag, might not throw a flag.

The Chiefs get more of those than any other team.

Yes.

Which is true.

But also, the Chiefs put themselves in position to capitalize on a flag that goes in their favor better than any other team, too.

Yeah, you got to capitalize when the when the game is rigged for you, you got to capitalize.

You do.

You do.

That's the thing about the NFL.

They can only do so much.

Yeah.

But yeah, Jared did a press conference and he was like, yeah, I

cannot understand how that was illegal.

I wasn't under center.

He did, you know, he was

stopped before and then went in motion so that just hurt that was just insult to injury what was the um reaction from the awls they enjoyed it yeah yeah i did too that's fine yeah i mean that's that's fair

it was just happening in real time it was just couldn't have worked out better yeah it was the highest of highs lows of lows yeah um and then my other cool throne is is cape verde second smallest country to ever qualify for a world cup and i heard you i overheard you saying we got to bet on him do we i would have to bet on on him?

Yeah.

Hank's got a hometown connect.

Yeah, I mean, one of my best friends, Cape Verdean.

I grew up going to his house a lot.

So a little bit, you know, it's just, it's cool.

You made it seem like there's a lot of people from Cape Verde that there are.

There's a big Cape Verdean community in Situipa.

Yeah.

That's cool.

It's cool.

They're probably going to beat the United States.

That'd be fun.

Are we in their group?

We don't know yet.

You want to talk about the ultimate rigged sport.

Oh, yeah.

Let's wait to see what that draw looks like.

That's going to be an interesting

smallest company.

What do you mean?

Well,

whenever they do the groups for the World Cup, if the host country is playing friendly with FIFA, the host country always gets in a sick-ass group.

Oh, no, we are making it easy.

We're automatically as host country in the top tier, so we're not going to have another top-tier country.

Yeah, we already got it rigged for you.

But sometimes they give those teams like the bottom of the second tier and then the bottom of the third tier.

Because we're not a tier one team.

We're not a tier one team, but what's happened in the past is you get the team that should be, they would not be in tier one, and then they play against by far the last-placed team in tier two.

Give it to us.

That's what, hey, that's what that's what Trump's here for, right?

If anyone can pull it off, Trump doesn't care about soccer.

Oh, he does.

He took the ball from FIFA.

He's been bragging to everybody about how to win a cup.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Make that happen, buddy.

Iceland is the smallest country

to qualify for the World Cup.

Thanks.

I was talking soccer.

My hot seat is Tua.

Because after the game, Tua gave that press conference where he said that guys haven't been showing up to players-only meetings, have been late to players-only meetings.

And then Mike McDaniel seemed like he had his back when he talked after the game, but then he addressed the media again on Monday, and he said, I think you guys caught me before I heard his comments.

Regardless of his intent and what was on Tua's mind after loss as a franchise quarterback, that's not the forum to displace that.

I think he knows that.

Now, I do honestly believe there was no ill intention, but you're talking about, I think, a misguided representation of player-orchestrated film sessions.

That's as tough on a player as Mike McDaniel will ever be.

And we said it on Sunday, but like, Tua, you're the franchise quarterback.

Going up to a podium and saying, hey, we don't have guys showing up to players-only meetings.

Look in the mirror.

You're the guy who has to make sure that everyone's showing up to players-only meetings.

Yeah, he said it starts with leadership.

Yeah.

I think Tua is probably a leader on that team.

It's a problem with Mike McDaniel, though, where he,

it's easier to become less of a hard ass than it is to become more of a hard ass.

Yeah.

So, like, when he started out being like, hey, I'm not like the other coaches.

I'm the cool coach.

And now he's got to say something that criticizes Tua publicly.

I don't know if it's going to sit well.

But Tua.

Talking about the players-only meetings, like they happen all.

I think they might be having way too many players-only meetings.

Yeah.

And I think that a players-only meeting is like probably not, it's good to have once in a while because you get like kind of toxic with it and people yell at each other and you get it in the open.

But if you've got a regularly scheduled meeting where everyone on the team is screaming at each other, I could see why guys would maybe start to think about missing that occasionally.

Yeah.

Yeah, the calling out someone not showing up for players-only meetings, if that happens from like an offensive lineman, you're like, okay, that makes sense.

He's like, he's not the leader of the team.

He's calling out the rest of the guys.

But yeah, the quarterback, like, you can't,

it's like a boss getting in front of him and like, how did we fuck this up?

Yeah, no, dude, you're the boss.

Yeah, if you, if you hear guys talk about a players-only meeting, you're like, Yeah, a lot of things got said.

We need more accountability.

Imagine doing that twice a week.

Yeah, that would get,

you know what?

I think I'm hitting the players-only meeting.

I'm hitting the button for the commanders.

I want that this week.

Okay.

Now's the time.

Okay.

Um, my cool throw before a buy.

No, they have a great playing

game of the week.

Yeah.

Um,

do you disagree with the timing?

No, that makes sense.

You've got to get ready for the game of the week.

I think this is a good, yeah, a good time.

My cool throne is Brees Hall

because he posted on Instagram hashtag free20.

So I think Brees Hall is actively now looking for a trade.

Has he requested a trade, memes?

He hasn't requested a trade.

Or he's not.

But people have been calling.

Yeah.

Maybe he's doing one of those sub-a-thons that Zach was talking about, Free 20.

Just giving out money.

Is he?

No, no, is he?

I got my finger

on the giveaway post.

What about the...

Do you have his finger on his post?

I think he wants to be traded.

Yeah,

I think he should, too.

Yeah.

This could be a giveaway.

Does this qualify as

a trade request if you post free 20?

No.

Why not?

I think he just wants to ball more.

All running backs want the ball more.

That's true.

Okay, so it could be just like, unleash me.

320.

Yeah, instead of just walking up to the offensive coordinator, you just have to post it on Instagram.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right, my hot seat.

I have two.

The first is Sean Moore because

he had a press conference where he got in front of the media and was asked about the loss to USC where they got absolutely smoked.

And he has his blue collar jacket on, and he basically was like, hey, I'm back to work.

He said, the message is pretty simple.

We got to go back to work.

That's why I have the blue collar jacket on.

I'm going to say it.

It worked for Jim Harbaugh because Jim Harbaugh had won at Stanford.

He changed the culture there.

He'd won at the 49ers, changed the culture there, came to Michigan, changed the culture there.

This feels like a cheap knockoff and it's not going to work.

Yeah, it worked for Harbaugh because he meant that.

And Sean Moore is just doing what Harbaugh did.

Yeah.

Jim Harbaugh actually believed during that week that he worked in the garage somewhere.

Correct.

And that he was going to bring his lunch pail.

He probably did bring a lunch pail.

Correct.

I would like to see, you know what?

If Sharon Moore is actually bringing his own lunch inside of either a pail or some sort of thermos this week and eating out of that, then I'll kind of believe it.

Yep.

But I think he's just

wearing the blue-collar costume to a press conference.

Yes.

He's appropriating working man culture.

Early Halloween.

Yeah.

My other hot seat is New York Sports because we've been 5,000 days since New York has won a championship.

Wow.

It's not true.

Oh, New York Atlas, PLL.

Okay, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, okay.

WNBA.

What are we talking about?

5,000 days since a major four sports team from New York has won a championship.

And they have a lot of them.

That should be like 10,000 because they have two teams in like every sport.

When you say, don't look it up, how many days, how many years is 5,000 days?

Because I can't ever conceptualize these things.

Six.

No.

This is good.

That's 11,

an inch.

14.

13.

Okay.

13 years.

That's a lot of years.

13 years.

Wait, so who was the last one?

Was it the

not the Yankees?

Oh, maybe it's more than that.

Yankees.

When did the Yankees win?

It was like 2009?

Oh, it was the Giants.

Giants.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's crazy that it was

the Giants against the Patriots.

Yeah.

It's the last time that New York won it.

5,000 days.

A freshman in college.

That's 5,000 days is nuts, but it's not true.

Because of Liberty.

Because of the Liberty.

Which brings me my cool throne.

We're a little late to this.

Mark Davis won another title.

He's an awesome owner.

Let's go.

Cool throne, Mark Davis.

The Aces won the WNBA title.

Let's go, Aces.

We just got the newspaper about it.

Happened last

Thursday?

Yeah, I mean, the WNBA news doesn't hit as hard if you're not arguing about Caitlin Clark.

I think it was Thursday.

So, yeah.

Friday.

Friday.

Friday.

We're right there.

There we go.

We got it.

Last Friday.

Congrats to the Aces.

Congrats to the Aces.

Their MVP.

Yep.

Asia Wilson.

Yep.

Is that right?

She's the GOAT.

She's actually my GAAP.

Would that be back-to-back MVPs for her?

I think so.

She also, was she the one who scored over a married, a game winner over a married couple?

Do you see that picture?

No.

Yeah, it was sick.

She scored a game winner over a married couple.

That's all.

Two defenders.

In the finals?

Yeah.

I'm pretty sure that happened.

She should get their rings.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They should have to divorce.

Yeah.

Zach, your hot seat, Cool Trone.

My hot seat for the week this week is

a political commentator and Twitch streamer Hassan Piker.

More footage came out about him possibly using a shot collar to keep his dog in frame.

Bad guy move.

Can I someone explain this story to me?

Because

I'm not really on.

Oh, yeah, there it is.

Asia Wilson

with the greatest of all time, man, a game winner in the WWA Finals over a married couple is insane.

That's pretty crazy.

Yeah.

All right, so I.

This is a double,

I'm not paying attention to this story because I don't really go on political Twitter, so I don't fully know who Hassan Piker is.

And two, if you tell me there's a story about a dog getting hurt, I immediately click the button not interested in this post.

That's smart.

So I have no idea.

Can someone explain this?

Yeah, so Hassan, he goes live on Twitch every day.

He does like reaction videos to other videos.

He got into this one debate against this other guy about Israel about like three months ago where by the end of the debate they just had like seven windows of each other arguing built into the one window so it looked like a mosaic from hell

he he was accused of using a shot collar on his giant dog that sits behind him on the live stream and then the dog like yelps like there's a video clip where his like dog's behind him don't like

yelp he walks away from its bed and it like it was just you know the worst sound and then dog like yelping and then hasan claimed to show the collar and was like this is a vibration collar and then people looked at it online they're like yeah i think that's a vibration collar but then some people said that it had like

a mode a mode tape over

he had saw the outlaw the out

backlash came back the next stream and was like look it's a vibration collar but then people zoomed in and you could see that there was tape like black tape over where the actual like shock collar part is so it's like allegedly, it's like a dual-mode collar, and he says that it was on vibration mode, and then people say that it was on shock mode.

So, that's where we're at.

But then there's people digging up old clips that, like, it looks pretty, pretty the evidence suggests it was a shock collar.

And what's the new stuff?

There's just another compilation of him using it to keep the dog in frame during the live stream.

Oh, that's terrible.

So, like, the dog's sit, like, I guess allegedly, the dog's being used as like a prop in the background to show, like, hey, look at this beautifully behaved dog.

Oh, fuck that.

It is a great dog.

Fuck that.

But that's brutal.

You're just not letting the dog walk around because you want it for a prop for your fucking live stream.

That's shitty.

God damn it.

I, I, I try, because, like, I think there's differing opinions on the shot collar on dogs.

I don't know where people land.

I just know that I once tried it on Stella to when she was like a a puppy and she yelped so loud that i apologized to her for like three weeks straight and never used it again you have tried it on jerry though jerry that's totally fair jerry we do do that because otherwise he's not gonna he's just gonna be singing chestnuts jerry needs it but yeah i i it's not for me like i i was like oh i'll give it a try because we need to try to train her wasn't for me i can't stand the sound of a dog yelping in pain yeah Shot callers are

it would like it would break my heart if I shocked Blake and he like yelled in pain and then looked at me like, why did you do that?

Why is this happening?

That's what happened.

I bought like the lowest version of it that was like, this one's the most safe for dogs.

And even that, I was like, I can't do this.

Okay, so he's a shithead.

Cool throne?

My cool throne this week is former 10 Bay Buccaneer Shiloh Sanders.

He went to the previous Brown Steelers game in Pittsburgh and pretended to be Shador.

And it worked on many of the Steelers.

Oh, that's awesome.

He did the jersey with the Shador has the brand, the legendary brand.

He went the legendary chain, the Shador jersey.

And he was even like roaming the stadium during the game.

And people were like, oh, my goodness, great to see you.

But he's like out by the concessions.

It's like, I don't know how you would think that he would be here right now, but he fooled quite a lot of people, Browns and Stewart's fans included.

Yeah, that's cool.

It would not be the most shocking thing in the world if Shador was standing, like walking on the concourse.

Yeah.

I can think, like, yeah, it'd be weird, but I'd be like, okay, yeah, I guess Shador's up to it again.

Also, I mean,

is it kind of cheating?

Like, yeah, no dough, you look like your brother.

Yeah.

But, but Shiloh's way smaller, right?

Yeah.

Yes.

Otherwise, you'd be in the league.

Yeah.

All right.

Good hot seat, cool teron, everyone.

Let's get to our interviews.

We got Jeff Passon talking baseball.

The Matt Leiner talking a little more college football.

Okay, before we get to Jeff Passin, Twisted Tea.

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going to the Cubs game.

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It's game time.

Stock up on ice cold twisted tea today.

I like the original.

The original twisted tea.

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I like peach as well.

But the original, the OG, that is my personal favorite.

Go grab a tea today.

Oh, yeah.

Go ahead, PFT.

I like the half and half a lot.

I had two of the half and halves last night, so that's a hole and hole, and it was delicious.

Yes, yes.

So grab a tea.

It's game time.

Stock up on ice cold twisted tea today.

Okay, here he is.

Jeff Passon.

Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very special guest.

It is Jeff Passon from ESPN.

He is an MLB insider.

He knows everything about Major League Baseball.

It is the playoffs.

We've been trying to do this for a couple of weeks now.

The schedule doesn't always work out.

So we are taping this on Tuesday morning before game two of the Dodgers Brewers, which we will talk about.

But we are in an off day of the ALCS.

So let's talk about that series first.

I, for one,

maybe I shouldn't be shocked.

I'm shocked the Mariners are up 2-0 because I assumed they were going to lose game one after a 15-inning game on Friday.

How have the

Mariners done this?

Can you explain to us the Mariners' team building philosophy?

How are they here where they're now two games away from the World Series first ever in franchise history, and they have three games at home?

Bitcat, I think the reason that you didn't believe the the Mariners could do it is because they have spent 49 years sucking.

Yeah, like they have been nothing but a disappointment for a half century for their fans.

And

you just said it right there.

They're the only team in Major League Baseball right now, of the 30 teams, to have never even made a World Series.

And yet they've had Ken Griffey Jr.

and Randy Johnson and Edgar Martinez and Ichiro Suzuki and like luminaries, Hall of Famers go through that city, and still they haven't reached the point that this team seems like it's going to.

And look, we've seen series in the past, guys, where a team loses the first two games at home and then goes on and eventually wins.

It is very rare, though.

And it's especially daunting for the Blue Jays because this is a good Mariners team.

And it's been built a couple of ways.

It really foundationally started off with their starting pitching.

And they drafted and developed Logan Gilbert and George Kirby first-round picks.

They took Brian Wu, who hasn't pitched this postseason, but has been their best pitcher this year a little bit later in the draft and brought him along.

Luis Castillo, they traded for Bryce Miller, again, drafted and developed.

And that's a lot of what this Mariners organization is.

And the scary part for other teams in baseball right now is Seattle might have the best farm system of any team.

So

they have this staff of pitchers that is really, really good in an era where most teams don't have enough starting pitching.

They have two foundational players at Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez who play up the middle at Ketra and center field and are signed to extensions that go for the next half decade plus.

And at the trade deadline this year, they were aggressive and they went out and got Josh Naylor and Eugenios Suarez from the Arizona Diamondbacks and took a lineup that was decent and really lengthened it and deepened it.

And that's the thing.

They have been hitting, they have been pitching.

And in September, after they went through this jag where they lost 13 of 18 games they went 17 and 4 over their last 21 they looked like if not the best team in baseball then certainly the best team in the american league and they've been playing like it since the playoffs started yeah yeah it's an awesome story they're a fun team to root for and you just put out an article i'll give you a plug for your article uh jorge polanco he's a huge top gun guy sounds like he's bringing good vibes to that locker room.

What's going on with Jorge Polanco and his love for Maverick?

Every time, like just a peek behind the curtain here, my job is I have to go down into a clubhouse and find out something interesting.

And toward the end of the clubhouse time after game two, I didn't have a whole lot on Jorge Polanco.

And

whenever in doubt, go to catchers.

Like catchers are like backup quarterbacks.

They always have the stories.

They always have the pulse of the room.

And I talked with Mitch Garver, who played with Jorge Polanco in Minnesota.

And as Cal Rowley comes walking up, Mitch Garver is like, Did you know that Polo has the Top Gun anthem as his ringtone?

And I was like, I was like, really?

And he's like, yeah.

And he doesn't like silent mode on his phone.

So they'll just be like, sitting there at the clubhouse, and all of a sudden, it'll just go blasting.

Like

it'll just be like that.

And they're like, Polo, what the what the fuck, man?

And he's, he says, I, I like Maverick and Iceman.

And I mean, who among us doesn't?

And so

I hear all this information.

And my, my editor at ESPN, her dad was a fighter pilot.

Like, he was in the Top Gun program.

And so now I know, like, I'm going back up.

I have total wheelhouse for my editor.

Even if I write it extraordinarily poorly, she will love it anyway.

And yeah, Polanco has been awesome this postseason.

He's had three consecutive game-winning hits in the fifth inning or later of playoff games.

He won that 15-inning game, and then he had a game-winning single.

And then in game two, a three-run home run to put the Mariners ahead.

And

he's been awesome.

And this is what...

World Series runs, guys, take.

It takes a middle infielder who nobody thinks is going to be the hero just going and having like the week or two of his life.

And then you just hope alongside that your pitching works and, you know, a superstar shows up and Julio Rodriguez hitting a three-run homer in the first.

Cal Rowley's been awesome all playoffs.

Like, there's a formula here, and the Mariners are following it.

Yeah, when it comes to teams of Destiny this playoffs, I do feel like the Mariners are fitting that bill perfectly.

They've had a lot of stuff that's happened that's made you stop and be like,

something is going on in Seattle right now.

We should pay attention to it.

Obviously, Cal Raleigh's season has been incredible.

The home run that he hit to the guy wearing the Cal Raleigh shirt, like right into his lap, that's a Team of Destiny thing.

Big time.

Guys crying

in the stands.

Dudes crying in the stands.

Humpy the Salmon winning his first race that spurs the crowd on to victory in the 15th inning.

This it feels like the guy behind the plate.

Yeah, butt plug guy.

That one confused me, though.

Because was that guy rooting against Cal Raleigh?

And he's like, we're going to stop up the dumper with this butt plug, or was this a pro big dumper butt plug shirt?

I don't know.

I just think he's pro-butt plug.

Okay.

That's fine.

We can agree on that.

But would you agree that right now, if we're looking at Teams of Destiny, it's like the stars are aligning for Seattle right now.

Sure.

And I think it's beyond Team of Destiny.

I think they're just...

better than the Blue Jays at this point, frankly.

But, you know,

Toronto fans, I think before games one and two, would have argued that, hey, this is our Team of Destiny.

We haven't been to the World Series since we won back-to-back in 1992 and 93.

We signed Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

to this $500 million contract in the offseason, and we went and beat the Yankees.

And, like, this is now, this is our time.

And hell, over in the National League, like the Milwaukee Brewers, another team that's never won a World Series before, that had the most wins in all of baseball this season.

They, everyone wants to be the team of destiny, do they not?

And there's like one team, like the Dodgers just can't.

They are exempt from ever being the team of destiny.

So it almost feels like anybody at this point who beats the Dodgers fits that bill.

That's absolutely true.

So I want to link the two series here.

And this is just a thought I had that might be, you might be like, you're so stupid.

This makes no sense.

But you obviously talk to these guys.

You're in the clubhouse.

Is there anything to be said?

The Blue Jays beat the Yankees, their rival.

You could see the energy that Vlad had in that series.

You could see how much they hated the Yankees.

Kind of like the Brewers beating the Cubs, where it's like they're putting up the L flag after, is there anything to be said when these teams beat their division rivals?

And you can't have a letdown in the playoffs, but there does feel like the Blue Jays came out a little bit flat against the Mariners when they should have had the advantage, especially in game one, because they put so much energy into beating this team that they hate so much.

I would love to say, like, yes, that's precisely what happened.

Right.

I'm such a nerd, though.

Like, if I can't measure it, I have a hard time quantifying.

Because ultimately, like, these are professionals.

The Mariners, perfect example.

Like, the Mariners have that 15-inning marathon.

It should have sapped all of their energy.

The next day, they get back to the stadium at 10 o'clock and they're supposed to go on their flight to Toronto.

And their plane has mechanical difficulties, and they have to fly a plane up from LA.

So it's another four hours.

They get into into Toronto way later than they thought they were going to.

And, you know,

it's not like real adversity.

Like, can we acknowledge that professional sports adversity and coaches who are talking about adversity is never actual adversity?

No, Jim Franklin, when he had to take that flight, he had to drive to the other airport.

That screwed up their whole season.

Yeah.

This stuff does matter.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

You can't let us.

We have to talk about this stuff because otherwise

we don't have the analytical nerd side of our brains.

So we have to talk about, hey, actually, yeah, the Blue Jays drank too much after they beat the Yankees.

That's why they're losing to the Mariners.

The Blue Jays did drink a lot after they beat the Yankees.

I was in the middle of that.

It was a good party.

Well, can I ask you guys a question?

Do baseball players celebrate too much?

Okay, so my take on it is that every team should be allowed to celebrate except for the Yankees.

It's beneath the Yankees' tradition and honor.

And it's undignified for the Yankees to celebrate like a wildcard series win.

But everybody else, I don't really care.

That's fair.

I think that when you're looking at professional athletes who are somewhere between the age of like 23 and 35, they probably don't get the two-day hangover.

that a guy like me might get if I go out there and get hammered.

So I think by the time the next series starts, it's pretty much out of their system.

I'm a big believer in celebrate everything.

I know people get upset about it, but it's like the baseball season is so long.

You have to celebrate the ride.

You don't know where your next celebration is going to be.

What I wish, like, yeah, I mean, like, it happened to the Cubs.

And, like, I think they might have drank too much on that Thursday after they beat the Padres.

Then they had to play Saturday at one o'clock.

So I celebrate everything.

Maybe sometimes sneak in a couple like non-alcoholic beers and just, you know, just be like, hey, guys, let's pour the champagne.

Let's not drink the champagne.

But I'm a celebrate everything guy.

I do celebrate everything.

Yeah.

And it's,

it's, it's, it's fun being in there just to see people at like their most primal level of idiocy.

Yeah.

Like under no other circumstances, other, no under certain,

other circumstances is Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

just going to go, no,

Yankees lose.

Like you got to, you got to be a little fucked up to do that.

Yeah.

And the fact that that baseball celebrations bring that out of guys, I am all for it.

Yeah.

All right.

Gonna plug another article by you, Jeff, because you're great at writing.

You had an article on Monday where you basically have set the stage, the Brewers-Dodgers series, which again, we're taping this Tuesday morning, so we don't know.

Maybe the Brewers have tied it 1-1.

You have set the stage that this is not just the Brewers versus the Dodgers.

This is the future of baseball as we know it in a proxy war.

Because whoever ends up winning this series, the other side will use this when the MLB goes to a lockout and fights for a salary cap.

And they'll either say, well, yeah, you can build a championship roster with no money like the Brewers, or the Dodgers are unfair and they essentially spend so much money, no one can compete.

I read the article and I was like, I read the premise.

I was like, there's no way this is true.

And then you laid out the facts.

You're like, it might not be right, but this is what's going to happen.

So are you like, did people respond to you from MLB being like, you're right?

Like, we're going to, we're going to use this.

Like, we're watching this closely.

Everybody pushed back on the premise, actually, saying that it was too simple, which made me think actually it's kind of spot on.

And here's the thing: the, the, I think the important part of this is to separate what happens privately with what happens publicly and to figure out where ultimately they intersect.

So, what's happening privately in any collective bargaining negotiation is that the sides, it's very simple.

They trade ideas, right?

So, we're going to offer you this.

You're going to say yes or no, you're going to come back and offer, and then we're going to wind up meeting somewhere in the middle.

But it's all the stuff that happens publicly, I think, that informs their positions on that.

What I mean by that is

you guys are in Chicago, so it's a big market.

You know, in Los Angeles, the Dodgers fans are in New York, Yankees and Mets fans, like big markets, they have it pretty good.

They have a lot of money.

Even if the Cubs aren't spending what you think they should, it's better than most.

But it's the people in Pittsburgh and people in Cleveland and people in Kansas City where I live and people,

you know, in those smaller markets that look at the state of Major League Baseball right now and ask themselves, can our guys compete?

Like, even if they are extraordinarily good at what they do, like the Milwaukee Brewers' front office is, can they compete in a sport where the Los Angeles Dodgers right now have a $500 million payroll and the Brewers are having $120, $125 million?

Like, is it fair?

Is it right to have one team that has four times as big a

salary as others?

Or does the sport need a salary cap?

Now, I'll sit here and tell you, the players will not accept a salary cap.

So if there's any flaw like the premise that my story has here, it's that we're starting from a point where this is not going to happen.

So, anything Major League Baseball does to try and cajole the players into taking it is going to be met with anger.

And yet, Major League Baseball, if the Dodgers go and win again this year, they have a credibility problem with a large swath of their fan base that wonders, is this sport fair?

And

it's tough.

It's tough for the league to deal with right now.

Now, I don't think that the answer is necessarily a salary cap.

I don't think that going and limiting what players can make, what players have earned, what players can get out on an open market is some sort of like a panacea to the problem.

We've seen in other leagues salary caps be implemented, and the Chiefs have won three Super Bowls in the last six years.

The Patriots won seven Super Bowls.

There was a dynasty with the Warriors and the Heat in the NBA.

In the NHL, you've seen the Panthers win back-to-back.

You've seen the Lightning go and win.

And it all depends really, I think, on what you want out of your sport.

If you want your team to have as fair of a shot as possible, what is the right economic system to project that forward?

And I think there's an answer somewhere in between that doesn't include a salary cap.

But if the Brewers go and win this year, can't you, if you're the Players Association, make the argument that if you can win on $125 million,

then you're doing something right and it's something that can be replicated.

There is a way to do this without Armageddon.

And baseball, you know, I fear is headed toward that right now because the sides are so entrenched in their position.

And there's really a difficult way to find like that middle, that happy medium, that compromise that I was talking about earlier that would allow them to play.

I'm sorry, that was very long-winded, but this is so complicated.

It's going to be the defining story of baseball next year.

So hopefully people understand that this is going to be a big deal.

It is very interesting.

And then I've heard the idea of the salary cap floor thrown out there a few times.

I don't know if that's something that the owners have said, like, hey, yeah, if you accept the cap, then maybe we can do a floor.

Or if any player is open to that sort of negotiation, or is just the idea of the salary cap, that's a non-starter off the table.

Caps and floors come in tandem.

You You cannot have a floor unless you have a cap.

And a floor, frankly, would solve a lot of the problems, I think, right now.

It would force the Pittsburgh Pirates to go out and spend money and put a fucking team around Paul Skeens.

That doesn't exist right now.

The Pirates are a few bats away from being a contender.

And I'm just not sure I have faith in Bob Nutting that he's going to go out and spend the money.

And so the problem with the floor is that

it always comes with the cap.

And because players are just fundamentally opposed to the cap, then the floor can't get put into place.

But it's interesting.

There are some big league players who are tired of all of the fighting with labor and think that a cap would solve a lot of things and that they would get a larger share of the money that's out there.

But as we have seen in all of the other leagues, here's the way a salary cap works.

You are given what's essentially a special introductory rate, like it's a credit card.

Like, hey, at the beginning, we are going to give you 55% of sport-related revenue.

After that, every negotiation is essentially a negotiation against that number, right?

So, the next time, maybe it's 53, and the next time it's 51, and you have no other way to go because it's never going up.

So, you know that that first time through is going to be the best that you get.

Yeah.

All right.

So, as for the actual series, the Dodgers and Brewers,

can the Brewers win this series?

I also,

I don't know, you obviously probably were watching that Sal Freelick, the Brewers lost game one.

The Sal Freelick double play was one of the wildest plays I've ever seen, and it happened in a high-stakes moment in the playoffs.

Do you remember a play like that?

I mean, it was insane.

No,

no, nothing at all like that.

It was a flyball hit 400-plus feet to center field that wound up with a double play.

South Brilliant goes up, tries to catch it, comes down, bounces off the wall, throws it into the shortstop, shortstop relays home, and there's a force out.

Yeah.

Like it did.

We were all watching it in the Mariners Clubhouse.

Cal Raleigh was looking up at the screen.

He's like, I've never seen that before.

Yeah.

And it's true.

Like, none of us ever had.

A totally ridiculous play.

To answer your first question, though, yes, I think the Brewers can beat the Dodgers.

I think we saw in game one, it was 1-0 for the majority of the game.

They're facing Blake Snell, who's been the best pitcher in baseball in the postseason this year.

And then it's 2-0 in the ninth inning.

And the Brewers just fight.

They are so scrappy and just so good at putting the ball in play and making the defense do things.

And they scratch a run across, and Blake Trinan comes in, and Bryce Strang chases the fastball high out of its zone.

Like, that happens, but it was a really good, really competitive baseball game between two really good teams.

It's just

the Dodgers have been there.

They've done this.

They're unbelievably talented.

And,

you know,

they are the new Yankees.

Like, they are the new evil empire.

And they spend more money than everyone else.

And they have the best player that we've ever seen.

And at the end of the day, like, chances are

they're favored to win the World Series this year for a reason.

Yeah, I think the Dodgers, to me, like, I don't, I, it's not like I hate them, but there's been moments in these playoffs where I've been like,

I do kind of hate them, but it's like, yeah, you do, but it's, but it's more like, well, I'm jealous of them.

Let me say, put it that way.

Because I, that's, yeah, yeah.

And that's like, I want an owner.

It's the worst kind of hatred.

Right, right.

It's like, I want an owner who will spend like them.

So it's not a hate, like, I can't believe you're doing this.

This is bullshit.

It's more like, I really want this.

I really, really want an owner to spend this type of money.

But there was a moment, I think it was last series against the Phillies.

Glass now came out of the bullpen one game, and then he started like three games later.

And it's like, this guy is, you know, he's obviously been injury riddled, but like he's one of the best pitchers in baseball.

And the Dodgers are being like, yeah, we'll put you in the bullpen, have you throw, you know, 100 out of the bullpen, and then we'll have you start and go six scoreless.

I'm like, this is bullshit.

This is bullshit.

Yeah, you have every right to be jealous of the Dodgers.

They have built the team that every fan wants to root for.

And

they've done it within the confines of what the rules are.

And I think that's why fans are so pissed off because these rules have allowed them to go do that.

I think the Dodgers have recognized like, okay, it's just money.

And we're bringing in goo gobs of it already through Otani and through 50,000 seats that we're selling every game.

And as long as the rules don't constrain us from going out and spending, if you want to tax us for spending, all right, we'll just have a better team than you do.

And

that's a hard thing for other fans to wrap their heads around because nobody else has owners like that.

I mean, it really is like a George Steinbrenner way of doing business.

Like we're going to build something that is undeniable.

And, you know, the consequences of that may be that you hate us, but we'll just show you our jewelry and walk away smiling and cackling that we want.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean,

it is the exact type of ownership that everybody else should want running their team, but also watching them,

it would be very satisfying to see them get beat by the team with the last payroll.

That would be a lot of fun.

Like, I want to see them absolutely have one of their most expensive guys go out there and choke at the end of the series, and then we can laugh at them, but then secretly be like, that's exactly how I want my team to be run.

I'm just mad that it's not me.

And when it comes to the Brewers, they were 6-0 against the Dodgers this season in the regular season.

So I don't think they're afraid of the Dodgers at all.

What's interesting in this series, and I've seen this more across baseball this year, the idea of an opener, sending out an opener to pitch the first inning.

And after I've thought about it more and looked into the analytics behind why you would use an opener, it makes all the sense in the world to me.

Why don't more teams use an opener?

It's the only time in the game where you can control which batters your best pitchers are going to be pitching against.

And it's, you know, one, two, three, top, their best batters.

That's the

top of the order.

You get to match it up perfectly.

Why don't more teams use openers?

I think the idea behind an opener is great, but you also, if you have like a really good arm, you want to save him for a more high-leverage situation.

You know, in the early innings, when it's a 0-0 game,

I understand every out, there are always going to be 27 of them, and every out is equal in the grand scheme, but some outs have more meaning later in the game, or even in the middle innings.

Like, if it's a one-nothing game and you have runners on first and second with no outs, that's when you want to bring in like those high-leverage arms.

And teams have become much more adept at using full pen guys in different innings.

It used to be much more like, hey, this is your inning.

We're going to keep you there because this is where you're comfortable.

But now they know, like, if I'm good, if I have the ability to strike guys out, I might be pitching in the first, I might be pitching in the fifth, I might be pitching in the ninth.

It's about flexibility.

And,

you know, it's especially like PFT if we're looking at when the right time to use an opener is.

Every baseball team has like these matchup charts where on one side, you've got their hitters and like up top, you've got your pitchers.

And it like rates each matchup.

And so if you have a matchup or a guy who matches up well with the top three hitters, using him as an opener opener makes a ton of sense.

You know, you prevent them from scoring with their big boppers earlier in the game.

And then when you bring your starter, so to speak, or like bulk innings guy in,

he's facing those players for the first time, except it's the second time through the order.

And the reason that that's a big deal is because it's been shown throughout the years that the more times a hitter sees you, the likelier he is to succeed against you.

So that's why you see so many starting pitchers these days getting pulled after two times going through the order because there's that penalty for going through the third time.

So this is what I love about baseball, man.

Like there's so much strategy to it and there's so much thought to be put into it.

And here's the thing: you could put an opener in and he can get his teeth kicked in.

Like it's no guarantee for success by any means.

Sometimes

you're too smart for your own good.

Yeah.

All right.

Real quick about the teams that got eliminated in the division series, which team that got eliminated in the division series is maybe in the most trouble going into next year?

Or, like, hey, that was a shot that they missed that they're going to look back and be like, damn, that was the window is closing, so to speak.

I mean, the Cubs, if they lose Kyle Tucker, it's going to be really interesting to see.

He's not resigning.

Yeah, he's not resigning.

That quote was the most I'm not re-signing quote of all time.

So I've already mentally moved on to Kyle Tucker's not resigning.

Go find, go get another Kyle and Kyle Schwarber.

You want Schwarber to come back?

You want the reunion?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Every team should want.

He's my Kyle.

Yeah, absolutely.

He is the best.

The best.

Like, genuinely, like, the best.

And it's, I, I, you know, I, I'm so curious to see who's in on Schwarber this winter, like, actually in, because I, I think, because of his age, he's not going going to command like the seven, eight, nine year, 10-year deal worth $300 plus million dollars, right?

This is the kind of deal on a three or four or even maybe five-year term that even some of those mid-market teams can do.

Like you want to bring in someone who's going to hit you bombs, take walks, and be like the vibest guy in the clubhouse and just a good mentor for everybody.

Kyle Schwarber works absolutely anywhere.

And I i think the answer to that qu that original question for you is the phillies the phillies like could be in a very transitional phase at this point because this current incarnation of them guys just has failed like they have not been able to win a championship they've gone backward uh or or been stagnant every year and at some point you just got to change the mix in the room Yeah.

Yeah.

By the way, I don't like what you just did because I know what you did.

That was essentially saying the Cincinnati Reds are going to sign Kyle Schwerber because he's from Cincinnati.

He's talked about playing for the Reds.

You just were like, yeah,

mid-market team could sign him.

So that stinks.

That just ranges.

I just want him to come to Kansas City.

No, that's all I want.

Yeah, yeah.

But yeah, the Phillies

feel like that was the end of an era.

What about the Yankees?

Because it feels like the Yankees, and I don't know what it is, but they just, they're the same team every year.

And

it seems like they're

very close to burning

the golden age of one of the best hitters we've ever seen in Aaron Judge is how Steinbrenner, like,

he's just fine with what it's almost like they run it like a corporation now, and it's not what George Steinbrenner was where it was like, we want to win every year.

It's such an interesting thing to see

because George Steinbrenner created this ideal of the Yankees.

Like the Yankees, because of their championships, they had the history, they had the pedigree, but George Steinbrenner branded it.

He made like winning in the Yankees synonymous in the same way that Jerry Jones tries or tried to do with the Cowboys.

And I think there are a lot of parallels actually with the Cowboys and the Yankees, organizations that have gotten so enormously big

and set such unrealistic expectations that now you have a transition in ownership from George Steinbrenner to House Steinbrenner, and he does run it like a business.

He does run it like a Fortune 500 company.

And you have your PLs, and none of it has to do with going out and doing absolutely everything you can to win.

He still has a very healthy payroll.

The Yankees are not the little sisters of the poor by any means.

They go out and they spend every year, and they spend among the top five teams every year.

Is that enough?

Not when it's been a decade and a half since you've won a championship.

And for other organizations and other franchises, it would be like, okay, yeah, you know, 15 years, drought, whatever.

For the Yankees,

it's like they are

they are like addicts who are fiending so bad right now and just bad, you know, like as a fan of the Yankees right now, there has to be some cognitive dissonance because

you root for this team that all they've done is win.

And now, suddenly, not only are they not winning, but they're not the biggest, baddest team in town anymore.

That's the Dodgers.

They're not even the biggest, baddest team in their city when it comes to financially.

Like the Mets are in a far better position right now than the Yankees are just in terms of willingness to spend.

So I can understand the frustration from Yankees fans.

When you've been taught and conditioned to think that championships are the only thing that matter,

and then you have ownership that goes out there and doesn't fulfill that compact that you as a fan thought you had with the organization.

It's a shock to the system, and they're still trying to figure out how do we take this team that has stagnated for so long and take it over the top.

Yeah, like a victim of their own success.

And with the Mets across town, obviously didn't make the postseason this year.

Where would you put this on the Mount Rushmore of Mets collapses?

I mean, it's

they have such great history of just awful things happening.

Like that entire franchise.

Like

growing up in Cleveland,

you fundamentally understand what it feels like to witness sports failure.

And so it's like, I'm looking at the Mets from afar and I was like, I know that.

Like, I've seen that before.

And with the Mets, they, yeah, this is right up there.

I mean, they had the best record in baseball at one point and not an insignificant amount of time into the season either.

This was like 70 games into the season.

They had the best record in baseball, and then they don't even make the playoffs.

It was a monumental collapse.

And

the way that it went down at the end at the hands of the Miami Marlins, like that is just so incredibly Mets of them.

And it's going to be interesting to see how they pivot away from that because, look, Wanso is still there.

Francisco Lindor is still there.

They still have talent on that team.

And they have a really good farm system, actually.

This was a, for all the things that have gone wrong with the Mets this year, like they have a lot of good young players now.

And the farm system really took a leap forward this year.

So you're going to see some more good young players coming up.

But

this year,

I think it was year five of Steve Cohen's ownership.

And he had said, I want to win a World Series by the time, you know, by my fifth season.

And

they didn't even make the playoffs.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I got a question, one more question about the lockout.

And

I don't know how I'm going to, well, you just explain to me because I don't fully understand it.

So, teams in free agency this offseason, I expect my owner, Tom Ricketts, to basically be like, I'm not spending because I'm worried about the lockout.

I assume there's going to be a lot of owners that are going to do the same thing.

How does it work?

Like, are they just, what are they nervous about that we lock out and that there is a salary cap?

Like, are they nervous about, I would assume they don't have to pay them if they lock them out.

So, what is when they give us, when they feed us this bullshit, what are they trying to skirt around?

Around the reality that they might be shutting down their businesses for the 2027 season.

So MLB owners particularly want a salary cap.

And why do they want a salary cap?

It's under the guise of competitive balance, right?

If everyone

has the same ceiling, then

it's just fair at that point, like, let's go skill versus skill.

You know, let's see how good your front office is.

Let's see how good your team building is.

But the reality is, like, competitive balance doesn't come from a fixed amount of money that can be spent.

The real reason that they want a salary cap in place is because when you look at the franchise values in other sports, they have been rocketing up

in recent years.

And Major League Baseball's franchise values have been relatively stagnant.

And that's an area where if you have a fixed amount of payroll, then you understand what your budget is and you understand

what's going in and out.

And at the end,

because of that, that like security, because of that knowledge, people are going to be willing to pay more for the franchises.

They know that they're not going to have to necessarily go out and compete with Steve Cohen, giving Juan Soto $765 million.

So there's that.

And

this is a time where the league thinks that the players are vulnerable and they're willing to get into this fight where when the collective bargaining agreement expires, if there is no new deal in place, owners essentially lock players out and say you cannot report to work.

And then it just becomes a staring contest.

And if it goes on for too long and they cannot find any place where they come together on an agreement, then games start getting canceled.

And once games start getting canceled, money stops coming in.

You don't have ticket sales.

You don't have television revenue.

You don't have any of that stuff.

And so you need to have a stockpile of cash to withstand that.

And the staring contest at that point becomes who is worse off for not playing games and not having this enormous, you know, $13 billion economy every year churning.

Are the players going to fold first and say, I'm in the prime of my career.

I only have a finite number of earning years.

I'm going to go back because I feel like it's right for me right now.

Or is it the owners who blank by saying, We have these businesses that have been doing extraordinarily well?

What the hell are we doing shutting them down in pursuit of something that they were never going to agree to in the first place?

And that to me is like the most frustrating part of this whole thing.

We know the answer from the players is going to be no.

We just know that.

And

when that knowledge is in place, if you're the owner saying, we're going to say this is what we're doing anyway, like, do you really believe that you're in that strong of a position where you can take this group of 1,200 people who are so like thick-headed and so devoted to what they do that they became professional athletes?

Like, beyond all of the physical talent that they have, guys, do you know how hard it is mentally to be a professional athlete and how inherently inherently stubborn you have to be.

Okay.

And so, okay, let's go in against these 1,200 incredibly stubborn men and tell them this is what you're going to have.

Good luck.

Like, that is not going to work out great.

And ultimately, I think beyond the owners, beyond the players, the fans are the ones who suffer.

Yeah.

Baseball is good right now.

Like, I'm really happy as somebody who loves the sport, the place that baseball is in right now.

I think the pitch clock has been incredible to the game.

I think that, like, like the best.

And I think that when there are automated balls and strikes next year and you can get rid of these shitty calls by the umpires, that's going to be great too.

I think you've got interesting teams and interesting players in stars and in the Dodgers.

You now have a villain.

Like there's this whole universe in baseball right now.

And it's a good story and it's good entertainment.

And to throw that away because you want your franchise values to be a little bit higher, to throw that away because you want to try and brute force players to do something that for a half century they have resisted.

Maybe there is a time where the salary cap will be right for baseball.

I don't think that that's right now.

And if they want to make that fight, then it's going to be awfully interesting to see how it turns out.

This might be a really dumb question, but in the event of a lockout, is there anything in the players' contracts that would prevent them from playing?

Like if

a foreign investment fund, hypothetically, wanted to do like a World Baseball Classic type thing,

pay a bunch of players to play exhibition matches against each other and broadcast those.

Is there anything that would prevent the players from doing that?

Free agents would be able to do that because they're not under contract with the team.

But I do not believe that we could have like an alternative league starting up as much fun as that would be.

I do wonder if a bunch of free agents just went over to Japan and played there.

Like you start an expansion franchise, just call them the ugly Americans.

Yeah.

Just go over there and let them wreck shop.

Or banana ball.

Have them all play banana ball for a year.

We just become bananas.

Are you guys in on the bananas?

I took my six-year-olds when they were here.

So, yes, I am in on the bananas.

They're fun.

Yeah.

They're not like, it's one of those things that,

as a 40-year-old man, I don't think it's meant for me, but I'm cool.

Like anything that grows the game of baseball and has kids excited about watching a sport, about being outside, like you can't,

you can't hate on that.

So I like, what are you going to do?

Like, that's what, like, kids are excited about that.

Kids want to play baseball because they see that.

That's a net positive to me, like, in society.

Dan, kids are also morons.

Yeah, that too.

That's true.

That's absolutely true.

They're very dumb.

But as an adult, imagine catching a foul ball to end the game.

They're so dumb.

Yeah, they're so dumb.

Oh, man.

My son, when I took him there, he ate a banana in front of the banana mascot, and the banana mascot was like, how could you do that?

And it was like, he was hooked from that moment on.

It's like, how could you eat a banana in front of the banana?

Jeff, I got one last question for you.

This has been awesome.

We love having you on.

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So I started this interview and I said that we've been trying to do this for a couple of weeks, but your schedule, our schedule, the MLB schedule has been so crazy.

You've been traveling around.

What is the Jeff Passon?

Like, what do you do after a game?

Are you going to bars?

Are you going to hang out?

Because it's a long time on the road.

I have to imagine you're going to go visit some.

I mean, Toronto's an incredible city.

Seattle's an incredible city.

So, what have you been doing?

So, last night's a five o'clock start, which is like the ideal time, you know, it's because it's it's quick, quick games now.

So go down to the clubhouse, write my story.

Um, I get a text from my buddy Jake Mintz, who works at Yahoo Sports, and he says, We're going to the Imperial Pub.

I have no idea what the Imperial Pub is.

And he's like, It's closing down November 15th.

He had just found it, like, he was searching on like Google Maps for a bar that was open until three o'clock in the morning.

And so I roll into this bar, and the first thing I see when I walk in is carpet.

And I'm like, fuck yeah.

Like

this place has a chance to be really good.

And we go up, we sit down, talk to the talk to the bartender.

His name is Jacob Newman.

And the bar has been in his family for 81 years.

It was started by his great-grandfather.

And they are closing down after 81 years because

a university in the area essentially has like bought and annexed the block and is building condos there.

So the Blue Jays, yeah, it's, you know, gentrification has its prices.

And one of those is this incredible bar because I sit down, I think I got there at like one o'clock, sit down and for the next two hours

had with him and Cameron, who's the other bartender, the most enjoyable patron bartender conversation I've had in my entire life.

Like the guys were funny.

Jacob wanted me to record a video talking shit on all of his fantasy league friends who he had gone and beaten.

Like, you guys get asked to do that too, right?

Yeah.

Absolutely.

It's the best.

It is one of my favorite things about this job when someone comes up to me and says, hey, can you be an asshole to my friends?

And I was like, yeah, absolutely.

Sure, absolutely.

And so we're just, we're sitting there and we're drinking and we're having a great time.

And

Jorge Castillo, my teammate is there, Danny Wexelman, Disha Thosar.

Like, you know, those nights when you just, it's a group of people that you've never been out with, just like the group of you together.

And it's like.

the best time.

And you sit around and you're like, I'm so happy I'm with these people in this moment at this place.

But it dawned on me, like, this is the last time I'm probably ever going to drink in the bar.

Yep.

Unless the Toronto Blue Jays make a miraculous comeback.

And that is why I am urging everybody in Toronto right now.

I'm wearing this, the Imperial Pub.

I'm going to stand up so you can see the address right here.

I don't know if I can read backwards.

Is that

54 Dundas Street East, two blocks east of Young?

Fill that place up for game three, for game four, whatever it is.

They have the staff ready for that.

And

a great bar deserves a great send-off.

And I feel like if the Blue Jays can come back in this series and this bar, listen, it's not going to be saved, it's not going to be salvaged, but all you want out of a good bar is memorable nights.

And they gave me one last night.

And hopefully, the people of Toronto can go and give them some as

they go to the end.

That's awesome.

There's nothing like one of those nights where everything just clicks.

Yeah.

You know, everything feels good.

And it's like, this was a good idea to go out and drink beer tonight.

I'm happy I did it.

And you get to that bar where you're like, you know, someone might throw out, like, hey, should we go somewhere else?

You're like, nah, we got it right here.

Like, this is, you're not, you're not going to go chase something.

It's like, what we have right here is perfect.

Let's just be here.

It was one of those magical nights that I will always remember.

And

it's just, you know, yeah, you live for those.

Like, I'm 45 now, and I have, I have learned over time that don't just like cherish those nights afterward.

Just make sure that in the moment you appreciate all the cool things that you have.

And last night was one of those very cool things.

You're 45?

Yeah, and you look great.

Yeah, you look great, Joe.

You look really cute.

That type of introspection, you sound like a guy who almost died by a tree.

Yeah.

Hey, that's the other tip, everyone.

Almost die by a tree and you will cherish those moments.

Yeah.

Or just stay away from trees.

Yeah.

Stay away from trees.

It's like a very simple rule of life.

Stay away from falling trees.

Yeah.

It's a great idea.

All right, Jeff.

You're the best.

We appreciate it.

Maybe we'll try to do this again before the World Series.

Playoffs have been incredible.

Thank you so much.

Everyone go read those articles, too, because they're really good.

Can you talk shit real quick to Stephen Che?

You're saying like talking shit to a person you're in a fantasy league with.

Stephen Che lost our dingers-only league this year, and he has to pitch.

So, can you just talk shit to him real quick?

Be like, hey, Stephen, fuck you.

Stephen, why do you suck?

Your mom does not like you, and

you have an ugly face.

By the way, that's

an offseason.

If you do get a lockout, an off-season story you can write.

Stephen Che is the commissioner of the fantasy league,

the famous Tommy Fam Jock Peterson,

fantasy football League.

I'm in it.

And Stephen Che is a commissioner.

Stephen Che knew nothing about baseball like two, three years ago.

And he now is like

enacting rules on like Manny Machado and Mike Trout and like dropping the hammer on these guys.

So maybe that's an offseason.

If there's a lockout, you can do like a home league.

I'm just, hold on.

I'm more

like, you're in the slap league?

Yeah, I'm in the slap league.

Dave was in it.

So

they kicked Tommy Pham out.

Dave was in it for a a year.

Dave hated doing it, and so I took his place.

So I'm in the slap league.

But the craziest part is that Steven Shea, this nerd who

literally didn't even know what baseball was six months ago, is basically telling, like, hey, Mike Trout, you can't do that waiver pickup.

So

it's a wild league.

It's a wild text message thread.

Is Mike Trout good at fantasy football?

He's pretty good, yeah.

Yeah.

And he's a football guy.

Is he?

He is a football guy.

He's go bird.

He's a football guy.

Yeah, through and through.

All right, Jeff, you're the best.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Appreciate you having me.

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Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest, recurring guest, Heisman winner.

It is Matt Leiner and he's our co-worker, Matt Leiner at Fox.

Big noon kickoff, going to provo for the Holy War this week.

So tune in on Saturday morning.

Matt, we want to have you come on, talk a little ball.

Also, it is Notre Dame USC week.

So let's start there.

Is USC back?

Because I know we always talk about Texas and Notre Dame, but USC is one of those sneaky teams where you guys have been down for a little bit, and this might feel like the first year where it's like, oh, they could be a college playoff team.

Well, why don't you just, why don't you tell them what you guys were telling me a couple of weeks ago, how we're just so soft on the West Coast and you can't beat anybody.

And then, I mean, look what they did last week against Michigan.

Hand up, by the way, I want to just say, I did not realize that the entire USC team had food poisoning before Illinois.

I mean, look, yeah, they did.

They lost their best defensive player like three hours before the game, but who's counting?

Look, I think, I think, I mean, in all honesty,

last week's win was.

It was as big of a win, if I can remember, from that program since like the Pete Carroll days.

And it's just because of the perception and the narrative, which you guys know and like you talked about, like, can they win the tough games?

Can they be physical?

Can they do it week in and week out?

Can they beat the teams they're supposed to beat?

Losing a game like Illinois, which I don't think they should have lost that game, they lost.

They got pushed around in the second half.

And then I don't know how good Michigan is.

I know they can't throw the football very well, but that's still a team that's invested heavily in the line of scrimmage.

That's where they win games.

And they completely dominated them on both sides of the ball.

So I think at the very least,

it's a confidence booster.

It's a program changer, knowing that now they can do it.

But then you look at this game, guys, and like Notre Dame's really good.

And

the difference is they could throw the ball.

C.J.

Carr is a stud.

I think that this dude's going to be a top five pick in the next couple of years.

So if you do take away the run, now you got to deal with the pass.

That's something they didn't have to do last week.

I love the game because it's important for both teams.

It's a playoff elimination game.

It means a lot more than it's had.

Notre Dame has owned this the last decade.

They just have.

But we got a fight and chance, dude.

I mean, that last game, our offense is legit, and last game, I think, created a lot of confidence for the boys.

Yeah, man, I'm looking at your background right now.

You have your Heisman trophy behind you.

I do.

It's right there.

Is that on top of just a box jump box trophy?

It is.

Yeah, I like to do box jumps while I.

Yeah, boy.

Yeah, look at it.

Wait.

You don't have like a shelf for the Heisman trophy?

You don't have a case for it?

Look at it, bro.

There we go, dude.

That's pretty cool.

That's about 30 pounds.

You know, well, so

I got some weight.

So listen, in my house, you know,

we got a nice house here in South Bay.

You know, we got, I got four kids and the office goes to my wife.

So I have been, I am in my garage in the corner.

I would show you.

I'm in the corner.

So the Heisman was on the floor of my closet for about a decade.

And I finally realized, well, shit, dude, I'm doing a pod now.

I'm doing all this stuff i might as well throw it in the back i might as well throw it next to kobe and and some of the other stuff it's a nice flat that's a great little

thing my heisman trophy i mean yeah it's just little thing here did did reggie ever go over to your place and uh it was just like in your closet on the ground he's like come on man come on come on man like i know but you know who did you know who did is urban and urban uh when urban first joined big noon

what it was like six years ago he came over and you know we're like having drinks in the backyard, just getting to know each other and stuff.

And he goes, Where's your Heisman?

I said, Coach, I was like, Come on up.

We go in my bedroom, and he's like, Are you fucking kidding me, dude?

It's on, it's literally under my wife's dresses, like literally on the ground.

I was just like, Well, like, what I was like, Coach, what am I going to do, dude?

Like, what throw, like, put it out where like everyone can see on a shelf?

Like, I don't care that much, dude.

I don't even know where half my trophies are.

I think they're in storage somewhere.

That's a pretty, we'll take, hey, if you find

like just kind of a nothing trophy you don't care about, we will put it into

play in our studio.

That would be sick.

And we're like, dude,

I got some shit for you guys.

Wait, real quick, before I know we talk about this game, so I got my jersey here, okay?

Yeah.

Because this is what Dave is going to wear this week on the show.

Even though

we technically didn't bet.

So I wanted to ask you guys this and what your thoughts.

And I know you're going to side with Dave and I get it.

But no, that's not true.

true that's not necessarily true so so let me just paint the picture for you so

last week in our meeting and and big cat you've been in the meeting so we're in the meeting and we're just kind of going over the show and i'm like dude what do you want to for the game like like i'll wear you wear my jersey on dave's rant like you do your rant you wear my jersey you wear a helmet whatever we'll keep it cool have a little fun he's like great that's cool so then we're at dinner that night and he goes He goes, if Michigan wins, you basically have to talk shit about Lincoln Riley and apologize to all the Oklahoma fans, how he left and all that stuff.

And I was like, I was like, listen, man, I'll do pretty much anything, but like, you know, I'm in a different position.

I'm not going to, I can't, this is my alma mater and all these kind of things.

And I was like, but I'll do whatever, just come up with something.

He's like, all right, I'll come up with something.

He never did.

So we never technically shook on it.

And then he's texting me the first fumble that our tight end has, he's telling me, you guys are soft, surfer boys, this and that.

And then what happened for the three and a half quarters I laid into this, he basically, he shut me off.

He put me like on unread.

He wouldn't read my text messages.

So then he goes on wake up barstool and says, we don't have a bet because we never formally agreed to something.

What do you guys think?

I think it's bullshit.

I think he has to wear it.

He has to wear this jersey.

I think so too.

That sounds like a bet.

If Michigan would have won, I would have, if Michigan would have won, I would have won his Portnoy jersey.

I was like, listen, I'm not going to do that.

And I get it.

You can call me a coward.

I'm not going to do that, but I will do whatever else you want to do.

He never came up with something.

Anyway, that's a jersey.

Yeah, I think it's.

I think it comes down like a dress.

It comes down to simply if Michigan had won, would he have come and said, hey, you have to do something for me?

Yes.

Exactly.

And you guys know him better than me.

I guarantee he would have done that.

Yeah.

This jersey would look good back there.

I'll give you guys a jersey, maybe, if you want.

I want a trophy, though.

I want a random trophy.

Like if you have like a

Johnny, just Johnny Unidas golden arm trophy.

Yeah, just so.

Well, obviously, you know, the minute you want it back, you can have it back.

But we will display it so that people are like, what is that?

I'll shift something out to you.

Yeah, we're just like, what is that?

It's like, oh, that's Matt Leiner's trophy.

I also like the idea of your wife being like annoyed that your Heisman trophy is taking up Rubin House.

She's like, what are you going to do?

By the way, super annoyed.

Like, I got so much random shit throwing out.

She's like, my golf clubs are right here in front of me on the ground.

She's like, can you move your golf clubs?

Like, what are we doing?

I was like, I was like, dude, I can't win, man.

What do you want me to do?

I'm in the corner of my garage.

It's also raining today.

That's why I got a sweatshirt on.

It's like, it's actually cold today.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

That's brutal.

The three times it rains in Southern California.

It rains three times.

You're absolutely right.

Wait, I got one last question about USC Notre Dame because I,

you know, Notre Dame is

what's the line?

I think it's seven and a half.

I don't know.

Maybe it's a little bit more.

That's a tough one.

Yeah.

I don't even know what the over is.

Yeah.

A lot of pushbacks.

That's a tough one, man, for the boys.

I ain't gonna lie.

So, Notre Dame is one of those schools that they have rivalry games with pretty much everyone on their schedule.

Like, in terms of the USC side, like, is Notre Dame a big game when you were playing, was it like this is our rival?

And did you feel it reciprocated with Notre Dame or was it like they don't care?

They got so many rivals?

Yeah, it definitely, it definitely was our biggest rival in the sense that UCLA was terrible when we played them.

And I can't explain it.

I don't know who, who's like Wisconsin's, what is it, Purdue?

Is it Purdue's rival?

Minnesota.

It's like UCLA was the crosstown rivalry, right?

It's a battle of LA.

You knew a lot of the dudes that went there from high school.

And like, I actually was a ucel a fan growing up the cade mcnown era so it didn't mean as much to me beating them and the games were never close so really like we always were like oh this like they suck okay notre dame we lost uh

my freshman year my red shirt year carson's year i think we lost at notre dame um so i experienced that there as a loss that game just meant more and it also like there was just so much more meaning like it won carson palmer the heisman trophy it essentially won me the heisman trophy that game my junior year playing against them in November.

And then the Bush Push game, my senior year, and how we won that game.

Like it just always meant more and it felt different.

And Pete always did a great job of that game, really respecting the history of the game, right?

And respecting Notre Dame, Montana, and all of the great players that played there.

So yeah, like to answer your question, it meant more to, I'd say, like, it wasn't like, oh, we circled Notre Dame every year.

Like, we could care less.

But when it was game week, like, it meant a lot for

sure.

And it was also like the second to last game or like late in this, I think it was in October, my senior year.

But it always was like, we always had a couple more games left in order to like get to a national championship, right?

That was kind of our thought.

So, yeah.

And this does, I mean, I love that this is an elimination game.

Like, this

game will most likely be a playoff team, and that makes it awesome.

Notre Dame, if Notre Dame wins, they'll win, they're going to coast to 10-2 because their schedule is terrible.

They don't, this, this is the toughest toughest game left on the schedule by far.

And I believe 10-2, we all, I mean, they're in the playoff if they win.

I would think so, yeah.

USC can lose and win out and be in.

I just don't see them lose.

At Nebraska, it's challenging.

At Oregon is a tough one.

And again, like I said, like USC just hasn't proven they can win these games back to back.

So this is a de facto playoff game.

It's elimination game.

It's huge.

I don't remember the last time this game met this much because Notre Dame has dominated us.

I mean, they really have.

So it's a big one, man.

So setting aside the personal beef with Dave and the bet because of the Michigan game, how have you found fitting into the Big Ten?

Like,

have you found yourself developing animosity towards other schools, like feeling a natural rivalry coming into place?

Not yet.

Not yet.

It's so interesting, man.

It's still bittersweet for me to see the Pac 12.

I was a part of the Pac-10 just dissolve.

It's just literally not there anymore.

And, you know, we had a great run there, and it meant a lot to me.

I love the Big Ten.

I mean, obviously we cover it at Fox predominantly.

And

it does remind of the old like Rose Bowl games and the Big Ten Pac-10.

Those games were awesome.

You know, we played Michigan in the Rose Bowl one year and the SC'd Penn State game and all that.

I don't think.

I don't think there's a rivalry yet, but you can feel it a little bit because I don't think a lot of people,

I don't think like, I mean,

like just the whole USC, the whole West Coast soft thing, like, I don't think a lot of people like Lincoln Riley and USC and like that style of play.

And even Sharon Moore last week was talking about, you know, the fans coming in and they're only sold out because of Michigan and like we're physical.

Like they just got their butts kicked by that team that they were just calling out, you know, so I think, I think naturally, when you start to play these teams over a period of time, you start to start to game, but we're, but we're not like, I mean, I don't like, we're not good enough to have rivalries yet.

We've been there two years and we haven't done anything.

Like last year, we lost five or six games, you know, so

you know, we're still trying to find our place in the Big Ten, I think.

Yeah, the whole California soft team thing, I know me and

I mean it's just fun to say.

It's fun to say

and we can have talked about it.

We do think it might be harder to get fat in California.

It might be harder to have like a big lineman.

Yeah.

It's well,

I mean, dude, but this is the thing.

I was a part of an era when we had, I mean, we were dominant.

Like we had dominant linemen.

Like they're here.

I mean, I guess we're known for quarterback skills.

You get the sexy guy, right?

The guy that looks good in the t-shirt and shorts.

There's been a lot of great linemen here.

I mean, modern day, Bosco, all these guys, but the problem is they all left, you know, because USC has been so down for the last two years.

UCLA is not good.

Oregon gets a lot of those dudes with Dan Lanning.

Dan Lanning's built his team like an SEC team with a lot of big bodies, but

yeah, a lot of avocados and salads out here, bro.

My six-year-old, all he eats is salad.

I was was like, what the hell?

What the hell is going on, dude?

And he's big, though.

Yeah, that same kid is eating nothing but chicken, nuggets, and mot sticks in Wisconsin.

By the way, my four-year-old, all he eats is mac and cheese.

So you guys would love that.

He could play for a Big Ten team.

Oh, he could play.

Yeah,

he would line up at right guard for Wisconsin, dude.

Are we sure that UCLA is bad, though?

Oh.

I agree with you, buddy.

There's a world with, I mean, they could like, I was actually thinking, I was looking at USC sketch.

I'm like,

god damn, like USC UCLA might be actually a really good game at the end of the year.

We don't know.

It's not crazy.

Is it the cra like the biggest fall?

It kind of ties in with Penn State, but like, is that the biggest fall from like college football in the history of the sport?

Like what's happened with them in three weeks?

They were one play away from beating Oregon, who I still think is really good, to literally losing to UCLA.

And then Northwestern at home.

Like, I just like, it's, it's, I, and I think UCLA might be pretty good.

Like, Like, I don't know.

Like, I don't want to make excuses for that.

Like, I just, I don't know.

Like, it's, it's, it's crazy.

Yeah, you, the Penn State fall, like, it's so good.

It just happens so fast.

And we were always kind of teetering on it with James Franklin can't win the big one.

Yeah, of course.

But it was like when he can't win the small one, too.

It's crazy.

Who do you think?

Do you have any idea, any intel or ideas of like who would be good for that job?

Because it's a great job.

It's also a tough job because it's a great job, though.

But they expect the Penn State's kind of raised the bar where they expect national titles now, and that's hard to do.

I'm telling you, it's the same two names that you have heard and that we're going to hear in Signetti and Coach Rule.

It's going to be

those two.

I think, you know, the big, I like Signetti, man.

Like, to win in Indiana and to do it now two years in a row, and like, I think they're going to win out.

Like, I think they're going to play Ohio State in the Big Ten title game.

And the way he's done that so quickly, I I think that's why Penn State's like, well, gosh, if he can do it, like we can, you know, we should be able to do it at Penn State.

I think he's the big swing.

Obviously, I think they're going to be playing deep into December and January.

So that's going to be interesting to see the patience that Penn State has.

And then Rule is just the obvious one.

I mean, these are the two obvious ones.

Like, like Rule went there.

He's close with the AD.

His quotes were a little interesting this week about like, you know, obviously talking about that job.

And then

Joel Clapp mentioned this on our call.

So I'll definitely give him the credit.

Brian Hartline was a name that he threw out there from Ohio State who's calling plays and hasn't been a head coach.

So maybe you go that route of a young guy who hasn't had it had that experience, but can recruit his ass off and what he's done at Ohio State.

So

I don't see like a crazy name coming out of nowhere for this job.

Like, I think they have their sights set on a couple guys.

And ultimately, can Indiana throw enough at Signeti to keep him there?

And, you know, Matt Rule, I mean, Rule, that's the interesting one to me.

If he can, if Nebraska can make a run at this thing and maybe they're a playoff team, like, does he stay?

Like, cause Nebraska's got resources too.

So

it'll be interesting, though.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Is there a team that's that's really impressed you in college football that maybe at the start of the year you were a little lukewarm on, but as the year has gone on, you've started to say like, hey, we need to be paying more attention to them.

Well, Indiana's won for sure.

And I was the same as everybody.

Like, do we really, like, do we really think they're good?

And again, that kind kind of goes with just like, it's Indiana.

That win last week.

I played at Oregon, man.

It's a tough spot, dude.

It's, it's, it's tough to play.

That was good.

I think Alabama, man, like, I, I, I, I really like this team.

They lost to Florida State who's not that good, uh, given what we know now.

And, you know, I work with Mark and Big Cat.

You've been around Mark and like just Bama, where they were with Saban and then just last year and already the pressure of DeBoer and all this.

And like, they're like, they're legit, dude.

They're playing really good football.

Like, they're one of the best teams in the country right now.

So that's a team that

I didn't have high expectations for coming in.

It's like Bama, they're going to be pretty good.

They got good players, but like they've exceeded that in this little stretch of games.

And obviously they have a lot more tough games coming up.

Who else?

I mean, Texas Tech.

Texas Tech is legit, dude.

Like they're legit.

I mean, money could buy a team clearly.

Like that, that team is really good.

I don't see them.

I don't see them losing in the Big 12 either.

Typically, that conference is wide open.

We saw them at utah firsthand i mean they're good they're really good yeah yeah ty simpson for alabama i'm so impressed with him he's guys fernando mendoza and ty simpson are your heisman trophy favorites and mendoza deserves it like mendoza i thought the the key to that game indiana beating oregon was actually the pick six and like that moment where you're Indiana, you obviously had a great year last year, but you don't have the history, the, you know, whatever.

It's that moment where you're looking around and you're like, we just threw a pick six, tie ball game, Autson Stadium.

This is where you crumble.

And he goes on a 75-yard drive, unflappable.

It's like, that's a dude right there.

That's a dude.

And those are the moments, like, those are Heisman moments, but those are team moments, man.

Those are like, when a team can do that, that's why I was like, all right, Indiana is for real.

Because we've seen a lot of really good football teams.

crumble in the fourth or they just can't like Penn State's kind of one of them, right?

Like when the game is on the line, who do you trust?

Like it's Penn State never got over that hump.

mendoza's the real deal like he he's a good player uh signetti's quarterback history like even what he did last year with those guys like like he Indiana is really good they've been really impressive

yeah yeah they have

are you ready to join us in saying that Ohio State is better this year than last year oh absolutely okay good we were we were first to it and people were saying that we're stupid that ain't the best team nasty the defense is the defense is the most dominant defense by far.

I was just saying this to someone earlier.

Julian Sane and Fernando Mendoza for the Heisman Trophy in the Big Ten Championship game.

I think that's what's going to happen.

Sane's odds are a little lower right now, but he's going to rise.

Obviously, they continue to win.

Sane's a dude.

West Coast buddy, San Diego kid, I've been watching that kid since high school.

He's unflappable.

The only thing that their run game isn't great.

That's the one thing that it's like, man, if they have an off day throwing the football and they can't run, like, like maybe they run.

It's honestly, it's probably going to be Indiana in the Big Ten Championship game.

It's the only time I can see maybe them stumbling,

but

they're loaded, dude.

They're so good.

Like, they're just

nasty.

And they've been there and

they had the championship kind of pedigree.

So if it does come down to those two, I would have a hard time thinking that anybody else would win the Heisman.

But right now, Carson Beck is the favorite to win the Heisman out of my

Yeah.

So he's at plus 360.

Ty Simpsons 380.

Mendoza's 475.

Are you just looking down?

I'd hammer Mendoza at that.

Like, I think he's got a shot because I think Indiana can beat Ohio State.

Like, I do think that they're

with the way their defense played against Oregon.

Yeah, I don't know.

It's wide open.

Yeah, who do you like out of the SEC right now?

Who do you think is the best team in the SEC?

I mean, AM?

Alabama?

I was thinking, yeah, maybe I would say I think Bama and AM.

I think Bama, just kind of what I said,

they're flawed, like they're big time flawed, but like that QB, you just talked about Mendoza, big cat, like just the moment, right?

He continues to

seize the moment.

DeBoer has won everywhere he's been, so he knows how to win.

A ⁇ M with Marcel Reed, he's a dark horse Heisman guy too, because if they win out, like that kid's got a shot to win it.

They're tough with Elko, like the way, like they're good.

I think those are the two best teams right now.

And Georgia's just like Georgia just hangs around, man.

They're just, they're, they're, they're just good.

Like the culture there.

I, as much as I love Lane, um, Ole Miss to me is a little bit of like, I just don't trust them, you know, um, that guy, they could have lost last week to Washington State.

Uh, but I would go Bama.

I think Bama is number one right now, and AM is number two.

I think those two teams have proven they're the best.

Yeah.

Now, as a quarterback, watching Arch, I know that Arch has had a rough go of it this year.

There are a lot of people like trashing him after every single game.

He hasn't looked sharp, to be fair.

Was there anything out of last week's game against Oklahoma that you saw and you're like, you know, this Arch, he might be pretty good.

And I was guilty of it too, like just jumping on the bandwagon so fast.

And like, it wasn't his fault.

I feel bad because he expects, I mean, again, at the end of the day, you play quarterback.

He's making millions of dollars there.

It is what it is, right?

He hasn't played a lot of football coming into this year.

So like, I think some of us forgot, like, hey, this kid didn't play at a high level in high school as far as the competition we've seen in those videos.

And now he's going to play in the SEC.

And by the way, week one's Ohio State, which is the best defense in the country.

Kind of a tough challenge.

Before I get to Arch, like, I do like, like, the receivers haven't been great.

There's a lot of pieces in this that you need to help a young quarterback.

Look at Julian Sane.

You got two great receivers.

You got a, you got an offensive corner.

You got Heartline.

You got these guys.

Yeah, I liked what I saw last week.

It's just going to take time.

Like, this is a kid that's going to get better week in and week out.

I don't think he's had a ton of help around him.

I still believe Sark is one of the best.

I've played for him.

He's one of the best quarterback teachers and developers in our game.

And I think Sark,

I think Arch will be back next year better than ever.

I really believe that.

Like, I think that there's still a lot in front of them, too, in this game.

Whether they're four and two, right?

They have one

loss in conference play, play and they still got a lot in front of them.

So

I think he's getting better.

I wonder if he's hurt at all dealing with anything.

I think that's the speculation.

It didn't look right a couple weeks in a row there.

But again, I don't know what's going on in that locker room, but the kid's going to be fine, man.

He's good.

Those are the taking a poop faces that Sark brought up.

Did Sark ever mention that to you?

He's like, hey, you're doing a ton of freaking.

Taking a poop.

You're taking a poop face right now.

Are you hurt?

Are you okay?

Guys,

I had Sark when he was like 24 years old.

Can you imagine Sark and lane kiffin it they were literally

oh god they were literally like uh like

freaking frat man they were both like 25 years old just young arrogant coaches who i love by the way i love them both and they were phenomenal but they were like i mean the first that was their first big coaching gigs coaching with those guys um

My senior year, they were both my OCs.

My senior year, my fifth year was freaking awesome.

But

never poop conversations, dude.

Yeah.

i like the explanation what i took from that was like he's got arch's back he's just like emptying the chamber right now with with things that you can say he's gonna def yeah which i love he's defending yeah exactly he's defending his qb so um yeah but they'll be fine over there man they're they're there there's more than just arch uh as a problem at texas right now uh i know you probably thought about it uh

but how much do you think you would have made in nil if they had nil when you were like play matt linert's career exactly the same at USC, Heisman, national championship, all this.

What do you actually think you would have taken home with NIL?

Got at least probably four or five mil.

A year or overall?

I think it might have been more.

Well, my first year, my first year, and then going into my first year coming back, I would have definitely made a little bit of money.

Yeah, I mean, dude, winning after winning the Heisman, yeah, it would have been probably four or five years, years, four or five then, right?

Because that's what a couple of these guys are making now.

Yeah.

Um, to come back for my senior year.

Hell yeah, dude.

Hell yeah.

That would have been sick.

How many, how many stars did you have coming out of high school?

Uh, four.

Okay.

I was, I was, I wasn't like super highly recruited.

I mean, I had, I had offers like Ohio State,

Georgia Tech was a weird one.

Michigan, I almost went to Michigan, Oklahoma the year they won the title with Hypo in 01.

That was the year I came out.

I think I was like 15th or something like that.

And my class was

Kyle Orton, old Chicago Bear, buddy, old Chicago Bear.

Kyle Orton, Derek Anderson,

DJ Shockley.

I don't know if you guys remember him from Georgia.

Brody Croyle was number one, the Alabama kid.

He was the number one player.

Who else?

Those were kind of the big names.

Like Shockley and Croyle were the big names.

Kellen Clemens, who shit, Kellen Clemens ended up playing like 10, 12 years, went to Oregon.

So that was the class, but I wasn't like, I wasn't highly recruited.

That was Pete's first class.

How does it, because

you went through it back then, and now your son is

on the precipice of playing college ball.

How does it work with the star system?

And is it like, is it kind of bullshit?

I always assume it's a little bit bullshit.

It's all bullshit, dude.

It's all bullshit.

A lot of these guys,

like, it's interesting because the way it's like, kind of like club basketball right so like a you basketball and all this stuff and now you're seeing a lot of that in football where you have these seven-on-seven tournaments i'm my son's played in them some of them um and you get stars like like based on offers sometimes or you get stars based on like playing in some of these tournaments it's it's on it's just i can't even keep up but i had a conversation with uh who was it with lincoln and chip kelly lincoln and chip kelly were at modern days practice when my son was there as a freshman And I was talking to them about this.

Like, hey, do you guys like getting advice?

Like, hey, do you think Michael should play like seven on seven, all this shit?

And they said, dude, we don't recruit one kid from seven on seven circuits.

Like, we could care less.

And now maybe other, whatever.

So I think to ask your question, like,

stars mean absolutely nothing.

Like,

I think Cole's a three-star, like, which, by the way, I mean, that's fine.

Like, he's got SMU.

He's going there next year.

But

how they pick stars and who's this and that i've seen a lot of five stars up close and personal who are terrible i mean i just have so uh yeah i i don't i don't get the system i don't know how they do it uh per se um and it doesn't mean anything because we've seen some of the best three four star kids end up being some of the best football players ever you know and some of the five stars not so yeah yeah so it's like almost you have to pay to play if you do some of the seven on seven circuits like to get to get yeah like seven on seven is all about

it this is the craziness of our world man It's all about social media, dude.

It's all about like, and it is part of it.

Like, I do think it is part of like branding yourself because so much is consumed on these sites.

Like, whether it's like under the radar is one, and like you have on three now who's doing all these evaluations, which literally I have no idea where they're even getting the numbers from.

So it's all about like, hey, come do the 707.

We'll do a highlight film for you.

By the way, it's 150 bucks.

I literally, I'm like, I'm like, come on, bro.

Like, it's just a money grab.

Now, like, you get like a pretty cool one-minute highlight tape that you can post on your Instagram.

And, like, coaches do see that stuff.

But, like, I mean, is that how you're evaluating players?

Like, no, I don't know, man.

It's just, it's all, I think there's some like competitive value to it because you are playing.

It's like AAU basketball, which again, my son played that too, like at a high level.

There is some of that where you're playing good competition and you're just getting reps and experience, but I think it's all BS, to be honest with you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What do you think about Missouri?

would you say that missouri is completely out of it kind of switching gears here that's a major show i mean are you a missouri do you like missouri

i was thinking about missouri this morning

whether or not whether or not they're like completely out of it or or would you think that they're good enough to have a shot i know they're disappointed with what happened with alabama what are they one um they got one loss right they just lost one loss they didn't really play anyone up until yeah

uh that game you know like the kansas game they obviously kansas is decent they beat kansas but that i'm looking at their schedule.

That game was closer than the box score because I had Kansas in that game, and it was a bullshit cover by Missouri.

So they got to go to Vanderbilt and to, oh, they're at Auburn.

Auburn, Vanderbilt, Texas A ⁇ M, Mississippi State's bad.

Oklahoma, Arkansas.

I mean, they're not going to, I mean, they're not a playoff team.

Yeah, I was just.

I like their coach, too, man.

I like him.

I like their running backs as stud.

They're just one of those teams that

I just don't trust them.

Like, I, I don't, like, they haven't done it enough, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I was trying to find a team that that's on the outside looking in that nobody's thinking about that might be able to sneak in, and they were the first one they came around.

Brady Quinn talked about it last week.

Virginia, yeah,

Virginia is good.

Virginia guys is like Brady Quinn, Greta Tan, like they might make the college football playoff, dude.

Yeah, chair schedule is awesome.

It's dude, they're gonna, they're Washington State, North Carolina, Cal, Wake Forest, Duke, Duke.

Duke is the toughest game on their schedule at Duke at the end of the year.

They'll be 11-1.

And if they lose to Miami and the ACC like 11 or 10-2, whatever it is,

it's like what SMU was able to do last year.

That's the one team, dude.

I think that's the one team that no one is talking about.

That's got a real shot to get in.

Yeah, they're plus 650 to make the playoff.

That might be the pick.

I like that.

That might be the pick.

That might be the pick.

Georgia Tech, too.

Yeah, Georgia Tech's.

Yeah, one of those two is going to make it.

one of those two will make it yeah yeah uh matt i got one last question for you it's the rowback question r-h-o-b-ac-c-k.com promo code take 20 off your first purchase q-zips polos hoodies joggers shorts rowback.com promo code take you mentioned it earlier but uh the meetings for big noon on friday so i was i filled in for dave in evanston it was a lot of fun got to hang out with everyone got to go to the meeting uh there was one thing though that's been bugging me about the meeting there was a full spread for lunch and i was terrible got a it wasn't great but i see a full spread and i eat the full spread and i got a couple comments being like whoa you're really going in the spread do we not eat in that meeting like what's going on who said that what do you mean who said that i can't remember it might have been

was that like the third time you went back that was like the third time i went back a couple times but i just was like hey guys we like there's food out are we not eating free food do we not eat free food yeah and i was the only one eating

well i don't remember that i think i think i think the boys were were just giving you a hard time because it was like your first big noon meeting.

You know, it's just like, it's like, I don't know if Portnoy told you this the first meeting we came.

This fucking shit was funny.

Brady was like, Dave, so what's your story, man?

Get up in front of the group and just tell us your story.

And Dave's like,

what the fuck are you talking about?

And

Dave stood up and gave us like a three-minute story on like his whole life.

He's like, we don't want to know about Barstool.

We don't know about what's your story, bro?

And Dave, Dave was a good sport.

He's been awesome, obviously.

And like, you've been in that meeting.

It would have been like us just saying, like, hey, Dan, just get up and tell us, like, hey, what's your story, bro?

Like, tell us where you're from.

I couldn't do that because I was eating the whole time.

I mean, you and Bear, bro.

I mean, Bear just eats like a bear.

You're a free food, by the way.

But our spread, we had a good spread last week.

We've had a couple games.

We've had a couple of weeks that have been a little disappointing.

I mean,

it was Northwestern, dude.

It wasn't like, you know,

it wasn't a great game.

And you're out there just like slumming in in the rain, dude.

You're just taking one for the team, bro.

It was fun.

I just, I just remember walking out of that meeting being like, do they just not eat during this meeting?

Like, did I

ask?

Is that a faux pas that I just get around?

Like, I had like multiple brownies and everything.

It was crazy.

All right, Matt, you're the man.

We'll see you soon.

Good to see you, boys.

Appreciate it, man.

Yeah.

All right, boys.

Take care, man.

Send us a trophy.

I'm going to go into storage and go see which one I'm going to send you guys.

That's the most random one you got.

That's what we want.

All right, later.

All right.

All right, see, man.

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The Venmo MasterCard is issued by the bank court in A.

Okay, let's wrap up.

We got guys on chicks.

Henry.

Sup, boys.

What a win last night.

Dubairs.

Any advice on the first trimester of pregnancy?

My husband and I are pregnant with our first kid, and I have been struggling with morning sickness.

My husband's the best and has been waiting on me hand and foot because of how nauseous I am.

For reference, I'm throwing up at least twice a day.

Oh.

Normally, I would offer BJs as thank you, but I can't keep anything down and cannot stand being touched at the moment.

Oh.

Any ideas on how to show him?

I appreciate all he's doing for me and my baby.

Also, Hank, as a resident objun, any tips to help with morning sickness?

So, morning sickness is basically like a hangover.

I would say just eat a cheeseburger and jerk off.

Smoke a little weed.

No, it's also

pregnant.

That is messed up that pregnant women can't do anything like that.

Dude, they can't even have like deli meat.

Yeah.

It's you can't, you can't have tuna.

Nope.

Sushi?

Nope.

Yeah,

all I got is, yeah, smoke weed, jerk off, cheeseburger.

Yeah, I don't know how to get rid of being nauseous.

There's really nothing that you can do.

I don't think that you should have to give him head all the time.

That seems like it's nice of you to think that.

But you don't have facts to the connection.

Just be like, hey.

Get him a pocket pussy.

Yeah, be like, hey, normally I'd give you a blowjob right now, but you know, I'm pregnant.

And he'll be like, okay, I understand.

Hey, guys, huge fan of the pod.

I'm writing in for suggestions on how to get my husband to be more into football.

I'm from Buffalo, born and raised, so obviously, Bill's culture runs deep.

He's not from the area, and it'll actually root for both teams when we watch the games.

It drives me nuts.

He's been the over.

We're going to a game in November, so I'm hoping the tailgating atmosphere will change that.

Any other ideas is much appreciated.

Thanks.

Yeah, I think tailgate that's going to help.

I would say, also, like, marry a dude next time.

I don't know.

Where's this guy from?

Mars?

A place where there's no football?

He's not from the area.

Maybe Canada?

But they got, oh, happy Thanksgiving, Canada, by the way.

Yes,

let us be the last to wish to.

I think it was maybe Sunday.

Oh.

Whoops.

Yeah.

I think take him to a tailgate.

Let him enjoy it.

Let him get caught up in it.

It's kind of hard, too, because if you're trying to get him to be a Bills fan, like,

there will be a moment this year where it's like, why do we do this yeah so

he's like can you do this every year yeah you kind of need the bills to win the super bowl for it to sink in for him uh tailgate though yeah would would definitely help tailgate would make it would hopefully get him captured how i don't know i'm like i'm struggling to understand this concept that he he watches the games but he doesn't he he doesn't care about the football is he playing fantasy football like rooting for both teams yeah maybe get him into fantasy football yeah that's actually a good call then Then he learns some players.

Yeah.

But this is very foreign to me.

Then, yeah, he'll learn some players, and then whatever guy does the best for him, he'll naturally start to like that team.

Yeah.

But you got to carefully monitor his draft.

You got to make sure that he's not picking up any division rivals or anybody on the Chiefs because that's going to cause a problem in your relationship.

Yeah.

Hi, female AWL here who loves the show.

You have helped me get into football, which my husband loves.

One question.

Do you guys have a consolation show that you watch with your wife, girlfriend in exchange for them watching football all day Sunday, Monday, Thursday night, and college football Saturdays?

I feel like I've earned the right to have my husband watch Bravo or Trash Reality TV competition show, so I want to hear your take.

Yeah, I mean, I used to watch Real Housewives.

I haven't watched since they did like, they changed the cast in New York.

Kind of sucked.

I like to hate watch the countess.

But yeah, it was a lot of real housewives.

I don't know.

There's usually like, is there a good show out right now?

I feel like there's been a good show out that I'm missing.

Is there a good one?

A good news show?

Yeah.

There was a show that somebody kept telling me to watch over the weekend, and I kept task.

Yeah, yeah, I kept nodding my head, but I was thinking about football the whole time.

It's

it's it's like it's it's based in Delco.

It's uh

that's why oh, yeah, it's the mayor of Eastown people.

It's the mayor of Eastown people.

I don't really know how to explain it.

It's not it's not a whodunit, but it's like a

you're really you're showing you're showing you're showing like the head of the police and also the head of i'm in like a bad guy but you like feel for the bad guy how many episodes has it on sounds like the what delco wire yeah all right i'm in the the water i've only watched two episodes because we've been so busy but i i the two episodes have been phenomenal yeah this is a tough time of year where it's like there's just not a lot of time for

wednesday shows i've also noticed that the The documentaries on Netflix have been getting worse and worse and worse.

Oh, it's just total brain rock.

It's really bad now.

Like there's documentaries that are done.

The one that was like about reverse catfishing people.

Yeah, the mom.

Yeah.

Oh.

Oh, yeah, that one was total.

I had to turn that one off because I was like, why am I watching a random person in Michigan be catfished and harassed by their mom?

Yeah.

I do not care.

Some of the worst, like the, obviously they're like high school kids, but they were, the, the interviews they were doing were so bad.

It was like they were reading off a script.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then after you find out who the catfisher was, there's still like an hour left in the documentary to just like watch watch her destroy her life total brain rot yeah um any other good shows i i just you know what i do i go back if there's no sports on i find myself just re-watching stuff so like i'm about due for a rewatch of the wire um i just re-watched the sopranos i recommend that and i'm re-watching breaking bad too

they're still good still good shows

Yeah,

I'm in on the rewatch stuff.

Yeah.

I like to re-watch stuff as well.

Because you also just know, it's like I can make a commitment and I also can, if something pops up, I can just walk away from it.

Chad Powers, also good.

Oh, nice.

Great show.

Hey, Big Cat and Chris's dad.

My boyfriend and I were watching the Lions Chiefs game when St.

Brown dropped a catchable pass.

My boyfriend said, I could have caught that.

When I laughed and said, no way, he pulled up his high school huddle highlight tape

and they were 20 seconds long.

I know this was from about 10 years ago, but should I still be embarrassed?

No, you should be proud.

Yeah, he could have caught that.

He could have caught that.

Sounds like you were dating like a stud.

Yeah, it sounds like he probably could have made it to the NFL, but coach hated him.

I mean, he's got a huddle tape.

Yeah.

I mean, he probably believes if you can touch it, you can catch it.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's a fact.

It is true.

It's a correct belief.

Yeah.

Ah, okay, is that the last one?

Last one.

Can you give me your top five most attractive NFL players based solely on hotness and not how good they are?

Also, shout out Zach.

I think I could turn him into an intercourse guy.

Oh,

How about that?

Let's go, Zach.

I would say

number one,

Sam Harmon.

Yep.

Jimmy G.

Yep.

Braxton Berrios?

He is a good-looking guy.

Can we throw a coach on there?

Andy Reid.

D'Amico Ryan.

D'Amico Ryan's very attractive.

It pains me to say it.

Jalen Hurts, good-looking guy.

Yeah.

Jalen Hurts is a good-looking guy guy.

Very good-looking guy.

Very good looking guy.

Sometimes he dresses kind of like a weirdo, but I shouldn't really say anything about that.

I actually like how he shouldn't.

I feel like he's just cool.

He's basically just doing like 90s, like Martin dressing.

Wait, was that fuck you to me?

I don't know.

Maybe.

Yeah, yeah.

No, yes.

I admitted I shouldn't say anything about that.

Are you a little upset that the Eagles have lost two in a row?

Because otherwise, you could rub it in PFT's face a little bit more.

Yeah, I can't say shit.

Right.

You've been neutered.

The Bills losing last night felt good.

I love Bills fans.

I like the Bills, but it's good to see someone else going through what I am already doing.

You're not alone.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That it's like 4-0, you're feeling good, and then two games where you just look bad.

Yeah.

Did the Bills have anybody retire?

We don't have to talk about that.

Oh, yeah, you had a guy retire.

I thought we were going to get through this year.

Yeah, when'd he retire?

No idea.

Didn't he say just like a couple months ago?

I'm so ready?

No, it was like three weeks ago.

It was like,

I love playing this game.

I got a lot more football left to to play.

And then three weeks later, retire.

Pug thinks he got hit hard and that he doesn't want to get hit anymore.

And I like that take from Pug.

That's as good a reason as any.

Like, hey, actually, this sucks.

Yeah.

I just realized, like, I've been getting hit for 12 years.

It doesn't feel good.

Yeah, in the offseason, you're like, oh, football's so fun.

Then you get hit once and you're like, ah, maybe, maybe I'm just like, oh, this sucks.

It's not good.

Yeah.

Do you think that will ever happen to us?

Where it's like, we do like a week one

fastest two minutes.

There is no offseason.

No, but I'm saying like we do a week one fastest two minutes.

You're like, oh man, that hurt.

Yeah.

I don't really want to do this.

I think it's going to be more like you have a heartbreaking loss and then you're like, why am I doing it?

Why am I doing that?

Like Max.

Max definitely thought about that.

Yep.

Yeah.

Absolutely on Thursday.

We're like, I should get a new job.

It crossed my mind every Sunday.

Every Sunday for memes.

I didn't necessarily think about that yesterday, yesterday, but on the way to work for the stream, I almost got just jacked up by a car going like 40 miles an hour, making a turn across my lane.

And then I'd slam on the brakes, it went in front of me.

And then on my way home, I thought to myself, like, what if that car just hit me?

Not like killed me.

Yeah.

But maybe like I had to go to the hospital.

I didn't have to watch that game.

Yeah.

And then that might be a little bit better of a feeling.

Yeah.

But then I quickly said, okay, no, not yet.

It's not that bad.

You could always be Max.

Stick it out.

Super Bowl.

Super Bowl.

You're an inspiration for me, Max.

Yep.

Numbers.

Three.

Who was it?

Max.

It might have been Max.

Sounded like Max.

I'll give it to you, Hank.

Oh, I love that.

Okay, I'll take it.

Be me.

What?

That'd be me.

Pug, make the rules.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Wait, did you...

Wait, did Hanks.

I didn't say it.

I didn't say it.

Memes, what would be back?

Oh, I thought you said it.

Memes, what would be your backup number?

That's fine.

My backup number?

Yeah.

29 for the dumpy.

I'm going to do 29.

I'll do 33.

I'll do 22.

61.

22.

Nope.

Jack.

No.

No.

No.

Pick a new one.

45.

76.

He doesn't have headphones in.

I do think you're just taking his number every time.

I've been taking 22 since the summer.

That's just not true.

Yeah, it is.

Every single game?

Every single time?

Most of the time, unless I get three.

I like calling these games 99.

Poke.

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All right.

I'm going to go 15.

I got 29.

What happens first?

Do you think New York gets another championship or memes gets a lot of New York?

What team would it be?

Yankees.

76.

Shane.

Shane!

Yes!

Let's go, Shane!

Shane!

Shane!

Shane!

Let's go!

What a day for Shane.

Oh, man.

Shane.

Post-game press conference, Shane.

How did you do it?

The rings.

The rings.

You're one to know with the rings on.

Show the rings to the camera.

There it is.

Post-game press conference memes.

How did you not do it?

I got to say what I was actually thinking.

Yeah, I just got to get rings.

Are you mad at Shane now?

No.

No.

Not a little bit?

No.

You just got to get rings.

Jealous?

No.

This machine means nothing.

I don't know about that.

How's the pressure feeling in the memes household?

None, really.

You know what's crazy is that Shane has done five...

Let's see, how many...

No, you've got three wins.

Yeah, that's my fourth.

Now four.

So you've won the Lotto Ball four times.

Dynasty.

That's crazy.

Nothing on Pug.

And you just, you won back in August.

Yeah.

Damn.

Late work.

Two and a half.

You're awesome, dude.

Only a 50-day drought for Shane.

Memes.

I'm the only one who hasn't got it.

You know what's great?

The lottery ball, it's been hot.

The last two months, we've had three winners.

It's actually,

we're in the live ball era where everyone's getting it.

Yeah.

It's the easiest it's ever been.

That's true.

I bet you the lottery ball machine would have made that handoff.

Oh,

that doesn't make sense.

Would have delivered it right to him.

That doesn't make any sense.

Makes sense to me.

Yeah.

All right.

All right.

Made sense to me.

Good one, memes.

Thank you.

They don't have hands.

They have balls.

Yep.

Yeah, they do like facts.

All right, let's see everyone on Friday.

Love you guys.