Throwbacks with Matt Leinart & Jerry Ferrara

The Reality TV Jets, Top 3 Sports Video Games and Max Greenfield on the Knicks, Meeting Luka & More!

October 17, 2024 1h 48m
In the latest edition of Throwbacks, Matt Leinart and Jerry Ferrara are joined by one of the stars of New Girl and The Neighborhood (Season 7 premieres October 21st on CBS), the one and only Max Greenfield! Max talks about the thrill of meeting Luka Doncic, being late to the set because he was playing Madden with New Girl co-star Jake Johnson and why he’s decided that the Karl-Anthony Towns trade was something the Knicks had to do.  Plus, Matt and Jerry dive into the Jets acquisition of Davante Adams and discuss how Mike Williams’ route running may have accelerated the deal. The guys also explain which NFL teams may not be quite as good as their record says they are, and Jerry voices his complaints with MLB teams popping champagne when there’s still so much work left to be done.  Finally, in this week’s “Throwback 3,” it’s a big one... Matt and Jerry reveal their top 3 sports video games of all time. Which ones made the cut and which ones missed out? We’d love to hear your thoughts as well!  New episodes of Throwbacks drop every Thursday. Make sure you’re subscribed on YouTube and following on all podcast platforms. Also, make sure you’re locked in on social @ThrowbacksShow on all platforms for highlight moments, bonus content, and to engage with the guys & the Throwbacks community. (ThrowbacksShow.com)   A big thank you to our sponsors:   DraftKings  Don’t miss out on all the action this week at DraftKings! Download the DraftKings app today! Sign-up using https://dkng.co/throwbacks or through my promo code THROWBACKS  GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, (800) 327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY).  Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT) or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD).  [1.5%] 21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT/OR/NH. Eligibility restrictions apply. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min. $5 bet. Max. $200 issued as non-withdrawable Bonus Bets that expire in 7 days (168 hours). Stake removed from payout. Terms: sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos. Ends 10/31/24 at 11:59 PM ET. Sponsored by DK.  Wendy’s  Try Wendy's New Saucy Nuggs Today https://wendys.com/nuggs  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Full Transcript

Oh my God, Luca's warming up.

This security guard comes over with us.

When you see him come to the free throw line,

he's going to make a beeline to like the gate or whatever, the tunnel.

And he's like, just get ready.

And so he comes through and I don't know what I turned into.

But I don't even remember this happening, but it definitely did happen.

Luca, Luca, Luca! Alright, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Throwbacks.
Thank you, everybody. Wherever you're taking the show in today, subscribe to us on YouTube.
Follow us on Apple and Spotify. And, of course, follow us on all social media platforms at Throwback Show.
Because as Matt and I like to say, we actually will respond to you on social media, not ignore you even though you listen to our show. Now, Matt, real quick, we got a good show for everybody today.
I can't stop saying something on Twitter that pisses people off. And I'm not doing this on purpose.
I'm not trying to be Skip Bayless reincarnated. Well, it's because you're on Twitter way too much.
Is that true? Would you say as a friend, I'm on Twitter too much? I would say the days that if it's NFL Sunday or if there's basketball going on, what I'm noticing about you is that you get real, you get real heavy fingers on some of these certain days of the week when you're now that it's playoff baseball and NFL Sunday, you just, you just can't help yourself. So naturally, the more you tweet, the more, the more controversy you're going to.
Now, why can't you ask? I know Twitter is a lot of ways, but you know, I watched the Yankees beat, you know, beat Kansas city, move on to the next round to the ALCS, which is a great accomplishment. But then, and I knew this, I watched baseball.
I know every team celebrates after I wrap, but this particular round, and maybe it's cause it's the Yanke, when they're spraying each other in beer and champagne, I'm like, you guys got to win eight more games. You're a third of the way through the playoff run.
It was their third champagne bath in three weeks. For the Yankees? For the Yankees.
Yeah, but is that because you're just a Yankees fan and you're tired of being let down and you're just like, Hey, focus. Yes.
And no, uh, I guess it is the Kobe fan and me. And you can relate to this too with like, Hey, you're up three, one jobs, not finished.
Nothing to be happy about. You don't see it in any other sport.
Do you pop champagne? If you get to the NFC championship game? No, but it's, but this is baseball though. I mean, this is like a tradition in baseball where they wear the ski goggles and they pop the champagne and they pour the beer.
Every round? And when you clinch a playoff spot and when you win the division, every single round? By the way, when you play 9,000 games in a season... See, that's where you lose me because I'm going to go to a famous quote by Jon Hamm from the show Mad Men.
That's what the money's for. You play 162 games.
Yes, it's a grind. You don't get to see your family.
It's a shit ton of work. That's what the money's for, isn't it? Listen, man, look, I don't care as much.
If they want to celebrate, I've been so let down by my Dodgers over the years that I don't care. If you want to celebrate an NL West championship, go for it.
If you want to celebrate an NLCS, go for it. I will be personally celebrating when we win a World Series.
That's it. I'm not celebrating until that.
Well, we might have to ask at the end of the show to have a poll because this got me to a lot of trouble. Really good show for you today.
Joining us later is one of my best friends in the world, an actor, also a great sports fan, Max Greenfield from new girl you know him from the show the neighborhood he's in like 40 other movies and he also wrote a wrote quite a few children's books he's you're gonna love him i predict you guys are gonna be friends i just predict yeah i feel like we're gonna be friends and i i think it's how you guys met and your guys's stories is is awesome i'm excited to hear him. And, you know, he's a dad.
He's kind of, what a legend, dude. Just writing books, a couple of hit TV shows.
He's got a lot of good. A lot to unpack there.
He's one of my sports. Big video game guy too.
Big video game guy. But when something goes down with the Knicks or the Giants or the Dodgers, even like he's who I call to unpack stuff.
You know, you have that friend who you like to unpack stuff with. That's that's Max.
And then later, because, you know, now we really made this throwback three a thing. You know, I think I came up with a good topic for this week.
I'm going to tease it right now. We're going to do our throwback three all time sports video games Okay? Sports.
Has to be sports. So I'm curious to hear yours.
You know what? We've both done a lot of TV and stuff like this and had to do a lot. This was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.
I'm still debating on my top three. So it's not even a finalized list yet.
It's going to be final when we talk about it. I'm just going to, I'm just going to go with my gut.
I'm going to go with my heart. I'm going to go with what brings me back to my childhood, but there's so many to choose from, but it's a great topic, dude.
I'll give you, I'll give you that. Well, being that you are also one of my unpacking friends, but we do it on this podcast.
Uh, I definitely thought of you and was, we were texting in our group chat

when the Devontae Adams trade went down

New York has got a whole bunch of stuff going on in general

but coming off that loss

my immediate question I wanted to ask you was

we saw that last interception

Mike Williams slips, falls down

did he run the wrong route from what you saw?

I know Rodgers said that in the press conference

and then what does that feel like as a quarterback

when you get the INT

That's going on your record, but the guy ran the wrong route. I would say generally, I would, I don't even say most of the time, but I would say half of, I don't want to put a percentage cause I'm going to get crushed for this.
Let's just say half, okay? Let's just say half. I would say half of quarterbacks' interceptions stem from something that particularly might not be their fault.
And what do I mean by that? Maybe an offensive line, and I'm not throwing anyone under the bus. I'm just saying this is what happens.
In general. In general, when you watch the film, like i i'm gonna lean towards aaron rogers clearly in this one because he's not and and he broke down the exact play what he was supposed to do he's supposed to run an in cut as he went to throw mike clearly went the opposite way and it screwed up aaron rogers and he underthrew it and you can kind of tell now once he breaks it down you're like okay that's like he doesn't miss a guy that badly.
Most of the time, there's a lot of times where receivers might run the wrong route, they might not get the right depth. That's the biggest thing because in the NFL, you might not talk about details and all this depth of a route is the most important thing.
So an in breaking route, let's just say it's, it's 12 to 15 and and go 12 yards to 15 yards and come across. If a guy runs it 10 to 12 yards and comes across, our timing is off.
And that allows for a defensive back to either jump cut it, knock it down, or be in the position. Because we're getting the ball out.
Football is all timing. So you're throwing the ball.
You've seen it a million times. You're throwing the ball before a receiver even looks, right? Because you're throwing it to a spot.
You're throwing it to where they're supposed to be. And that's what Rodgers is doing in that moment.
He's done that. I mean, quarterbacks, we've done that a million times.
But in real time, the blame falls on the quarterback, which it always does, and that's fine. But given the situation in New York and Robert Sala gets fired, and now you have Devontae Adams' name floating around for weeks, you have Mike Williams running the wrong route.
Aaron Rodgers is a pissed off dude right now. I can understand.
I don't look at it as throwing the bus. He's like, listen, this is where I expected him to be.
It wasn't there. I threw a pick and we lost.
Like, that's the bottom line. Do you think, how do I say this? Because, like, I think the Jets have other problems than just receiver.
But who am I? You know, I'm just a fan, right? Obviously, Devontae Adams is an upgrade. But we haven't really seen Devontae Adams be, one, healthy, and, two, effective because the team was so bad with the Raiders.
Jerry, let's be honest. Devontae's been healthy.
He has not been playing. I don't want to.
Are you saying he made a business decision? He has a business decision, dude. By the way, you don't think he and Aaron Rodgers have been texting every day the past month.
Don't worry, bro. I'll get you here.
Don't worry. Just keep nursing that hammy, okay? He wasted three years of his career in Oakland or in Vegas.
And now he gets it. Does it, like now the question is, does it make them the Super Bowl? They're all in, right? They're all in.
Well, one, they're all in. They can't be more all in.
Which you got to credit. Woody Johnson got to credit.
They're, you know, upstairs. But look, you can't teach chemistry.
And those guys were doing it for a long time at the highest level. And when you're on the same page and you just have that connection.
You know, Brady had it with Gronk and Edelman all those years. And Mahomes and Kelsey is a perfect example.
Sometimes you just got it with a guy that you know that they're, one, they're as good as, you know, Devontae Adams, a Hall of Famer. And now you put him on the other side of Garrett Wilson, who we know is outstanding.
They just haven't been able to get anything going. It just, it makes them much more difficult to defend.
Now, does it make them, you know, hey, they're going to win the Super Bowl? No, but I'll tell you what, it makes them a lot better, and I think it gives Aaron Rodgers more comfort in this offense. And has anyone benefited more from Aaron Rodgers being a New York Jet than Pat McAfee? That reveal, I got to say.
That was sick. I'm not going to lie.
I watched it like 10 times. Yeah.
I think of thing, like I watch sports and consume it for the story. I really do.
Like I love stats and I love talking to you about the ins and outs of X's and O's, but I want the story. The reveal of Devante Adams was straight out of an HBO show.
That was perfect. Again, it goes back to like those guys, like they knew, they knew it was going to happen.
They knew it was going to happen. And then losing the way they did, Aaron's like, dude, we got to change something.
My boy is out there. My boy is out there.
And anyway, yeah. I think it's happening whether Mike Williams runs the wrong route and falls down or not.

He was there the next day.

For sure.

Oh, yeah.

He was probably having dinner with – He was probably at Aaron's house the night before.

Right.

The night they lost.

Listen, it's a –

Wild.

It is the best reality show on TV right now, I think,

is the New York Jets in my opinion.

Well, I want to ask you about New York in general.

Speaking of New York, you no longer live there,

but you're a New Yorker.

This, you no longer live there, but you're a New Yorker. You think about the Mets, the Yankees, you think about the Liberty and the WNBA, obviously, shout out to them.
They got a squad. The Jets saga, the Giants, obviously, you're diehard.
What is the buzz like in New York right now? It's cause it's one of my favorite cities ever to go to, especially this time of the year. Yeah.
There is nothing better. And again, I'm not in New York these days, nearly as much.
I do still go a lot. And my mom and brother is still there.
I always judge it on how my, my group chats are with all my sports buddies. And I actually have to like turn my phone off at night now because sports are going so late with baseball at night.
But, uh, I know major league baseball is probably not hoping for Mets, Yankees. They probably want Mets, Dodgers.
I mean, uh, Yankees, Dodgers, but as far as New York, another subway series, that would be so intense that I don't even know if I could. I mean, I'll watch, but I might be watching like a scary movie with one eye closed because the Mets stuff was cute, meaning for me saying like, oh, I want the Mets to beat the Phillies.
I ran my mouth saying I hate Philly fans more than Mets fans. But I'll tell you what, the thought of losing to the Mets in in a world series that's terrifying because those met fans will never ever stop talking about that ever it will never go away that's on the record that's almost worse than the red sox beating the yankees in 04 the way so are you are you a are you a if they go to the world series whether it's yankees dodgers Mets, are you a, I got to get to a World Series game in New York, or are you, hey, I'm going to watch with my boys on the couch, and it just, I mean, there's totally two different experiences, but I

feel like there's two schools of thought, because when the Dodgers are in the World Series, I always

try to say, like, I want to go to one game. It's right down the street, but I'm also like, man,

it's kind of nice to watch it on the couch, and, you know, with whoever, you know, I've been to a bunch of Yankee playoff games. I've never been to a world series game throughout that run in the nineties and early two thousands.
There was no chance. I was really getting in that stadium and definitely didn't have the money to buy a ticket.
So if they're in the world series, I'm going, but I'll tell you what, another argument, controversial argument I had on this show, even with Dontrell Willis, was, so I'm going Thursday night and tonight and Friday night, Yankees-Guardians in Cleveland. And let me tell you, Matt, if that game was last night, I might not have gone.
Because it was 38 degrees, freezing, hailing rain in and out for the night. I cannot think of a worse experience to go watch a damn base.
It would have felt like a Browns game. Well, honestly, what's worse than that is how come your wife has your boys in Cleveland Guardian hats? Oh, it's over for me.
What are we doing? And, you know, I might have to ask Max this later in the show too because he's raising his kids in L.A., but he's a New York dude as well. What am I doing? Here's how that went down.
Game's about to start. I said, you know, I want the kids to watch some baseball, even if it's on in the background.
Let them see it. I put it on.
And right away, my kids are like, oh, where's my Guardians hat? Because they got a Guardians hat from last year. I'm like, well, son, they're playing the Yankees from New York.
That's where dad's from. They're like, dad, we're

Guardians fans. Well, that's your

fault. That is your fault.
Well,

also, it's because last year I threw out the first

pitch at a Guardians game and they came

on the field with me and that's what they

saw. So it's over.
So I

think I'm okay with it. I think I'm okay with

the Guardians fan thing. I

got to figure out if I'm okay with my kids being like

Browns fans and Knicks fans because that could be lifetime of sports therapy that they might need. I don't know, man.
I don't know how I feel about that. I don't know.
They're trolling too. They know how they're busting balls.
They know the wife is trolling you on Instagram. I'm like, I'm just like, I'm like, oh man, if my, like there's a UCLA t-shirt in one of my boys drawers and drawers and you know i get him help him get him dressed for school and the minute that thing ever i don't throw it away because like you know josey's like oh it's stupid just keep it in there but if they ever come down in that that will be taken off go back go right back in the drawer and go pick out a different shirt the same with like clippers the only non-dodger Laker jersey that we have in the house is, this is going to kill you actually, is a Big Poppy Boston Red Sox jersey.
Dude, what the? But my wife's father, who passed away a while ago, was a diehard Red Sox fan. Okay, so that's a connection to grandpa.
That was a connection that we got him. He wanted a Red Sox jersey.
And I'm like, you know what? That is okay. Yeah.
That was your poppy's team. And you can have that.
And he'll rock it every once in a while. That's it.
But that's all we got, man. We got Dodgers.
We got Lakers. And we got some old liner Cardinal jerseys in there.
Well, to answer your question before we get back into into football what a time to be in sports radio in new york like all the dudes at wfna could yell at each other and yell at fans and michael everyone could just get you just go back to yelling except it's actual playoff games you're yelling about and not something else so yeah good luckway series would be absolutely terrifying. So I wanted to

toy with something with football here. And speaking of sports media and stuff, this is a fantastic sports football quote, but sports in general.
And a lot of people use this quote to end an argument almost. I'm going to end this sports debate because Bill Parcells said, you are what your record says you are.

That's true.

Great quote when he said it. an argument almost.
I'm going to end this sports debate because Bill Parcells said,

you are what your record says you are. It's true.
Great quote when he said it. It is true, but I want to get in the lane of thinking about it the other way.
What teams in the NFL right now are not what your record says you are? Because that is a thing too. I mean, Parcells is the best quoteable quote machine.

But is that really true at this point with football? Because I asked you to make a little bit of a list or pick a team. And I have one here.
But this is what you don't understand. You know how hard it is to win games in the NFL? Of course.
So if, like, it is hard. Like, it is really hard to win NFL games.
Yes. So if like, it is hard, like it is really hard to win NFL games.
So if a team is five and O and, and, and again, we can jobs as an analyst sort of break down. Okay.
Well, you beat this team and you didn't really beat this team at that level, dude, it doesn't matter. So I think it's funny.
Like I want to hear, I want to hear your team, but like, okay. So I mean, we're going to go Vikings.
You want to go Vikings? I know you're strong. I think, I think it's funny like I want to hear I want to hear your team but like okay so I mean we're going to go Vikings you want to go Vikings I know you're no I think I think I think the Vikings are five and oh I think they've been the best team in the league so far I have no problem with the Vikings being five and oh I because they've also outplayed pretty much they've convincingly won four of the five games for the most part so I have no problem with what what the Vikings are doing.
So who is it? Who's, who's a team that you think, okay, they got a good record, but they're, they're a fraud. You might, you might not look, this is, this is a sensitive one because there is some delightful stuff coming from this team.
I can't look at the Washington commanders at four and two and say, yeah, that's a four and oh team that's the leader in the clubhouse in the nfc east right now in pole position to win that division i think jayton daniels is unbelievable i think for the next 10 years they're fantastic i i think they have some wins that are but they've beaten they they've beaten the bucks no they lost the bucks oh they lost Bucs. No, they lost to the Bucs.
Oh, they lost to the Bucs. They lost to the Bucs week one.
They beat the Giants. I get it.
What you're saying is right. You won an NFL football game, so that's the point.
Okay, so. But they didn't score a touchdown in that game.
Okay, so they lost to the Bucs. They beat the Giants.
They beat the Bengals. They beat the Cardinals.
They beat the they beat the Cardinals which that is no that's not in their four wins they're winning by an average of almost 19 points that is wild whether it was the Bengals they won by five but the Cardinals they absolutely blew out the Cardinals they absolutely blew out the Cardinals got blown out by the Packers again they played the the Baltimore Ravens. They played a damn good team in the Baltimore Ravens.
Pretty close. Pretty close, but that's my team.
That's my, you are not what your record says you are. Oh, I disagree.
I think that team is a playoff team, and I think whether or not Jaden Daniels is a rookie or not, he makes them very dangerous. Like, defenses do not want to play that guy.
you man and that do you have a team uh that your record is not what it says you are i'm still i'm still kind of on the stealers and and and uh you know they're four and two and mike thompson is great and again a lot of chatter about russell wilson this week i i don't know i don. I don't know.
You're losing me with that. I don't know how I feel about it.
What you think fields, right? I think you can stick with field. How do you not? Well, plus, I mean, you can, we can't get enamored.
The thing is we get enamored by numbers and stats and all this. It's like, they don't throw the ball.
It doesn't matter what he brings and then the run game. Like you completely take that away

and Russ is a Hall of Fame guy

and I get that,

but you take that away

from what is working for them now

and Russ moves around,

but all that,

but it's just a different offense

and at four and two,

man, I don't know.

Is Russ Hall of Fame?

Is that a dumb question?

I mean, win a bowl.

You win a Super Bowl, you play for 10 years, 12 years. Yeah, I think he's Hall of Fame? Is that a dumb question? I mean, win a bowl.
You win a Super Bowl, you play for 10 years, 12 years.

Yeah, I think he's Hall of Fame.

All right.

Well, then that's great for my guy Eli, too.

Oh, Eli's a first ballot Hall of Famer.

Well, I love people.

We won't do the Eli manning discussion.

People think he doesn't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.

Well, his regular season stuff is...

Yeah, but he went on the two bowls. Oh, you're not going to convince me.
I'll put him in. All right, so I hear you on the Steelers because that's going to bring me to the next thing here when we always do our what team needs to win the most this weekend in the NFL.
For me, it's the Jets for all the things we just said. And also, could you believe, again, talking about the TV show that is the New York Jets, they're playing on Sunday night after this trade.
It's insane. From Monday night to Sunday night, and it's versus the Steelers.
That's a good game. That's a good game.
They have to win. They cannot go two and five after putting in all the chips for Adams.
They can't go two and five. It's hard because the matchups this week, I was kind of staying in the NFC East.
I was going to go Eagles playing your Giants. Honestly, I didn't do that on purpose, it's okay.
Just with the Sirianni stuff kind of this week and, you know, like Philly's tough, man. And they're three and two, but you lose to the Giants.
And then we just talked about the commanders who in first. Dallas- They need it.
Like, they just need it because Dallas, I don't know how good Dallas is or not. And I know they got their ass kicked last week, but they're desperate.
There's a lot of teams that are just desperate. And the Eagles, there's a fascination about the Philadelphia Eagles and this coach and if they're good or not.
And I just feel like you get to four and two, you're sitting in a good spot. You're either one game out of first place or you're tied with the commanders.
So I'm going to go with the Eagles playing your Giants. Well, I'm with you on that because here's how I'll word it.
I think they need a convincing win. Yeah.
And the Giants, we're now without Andrew Thomas for the rest of the season, which is horrible for Giant fans. They just need to blow the Giants out.
I was going to say, are you just, I mean, we're over the Giants at this point. It's over.
We don't even need to. And all those things we talked about with New York, notice we didn't really mention the Giants as the Knicks are going to basically tip off next week as well.
The Giants, we don't need to talk about. So do you not watch the Giants the rest of the season or you just kind of have them in the background? I'm officially on the red zone now.
You're on the red zone. And then on my laptop, I'll have like like a specific game depending on who I bet that week.
Which by the way, I caught a rough beat with that Allen touchdown in the Jets game getting called back. That crushed like a seven-legged parlay.
Alright. We're going to now segue.
We're going to go. We're going to bring Max on in a minute, but first we are going to do, it's time for my favorite part of the show, my favorite segment.
We're going to do the can't get enough sauce moment of the week.

Brought to you, everybody, by Wendy's.

This is where we highlight a player who we feel is just, we can't get enough of.

I don't know if you're going to like mine.

Mine is so off the wall.

It's so random.

But I don't know if you're going to like mine.

Do you know the name Jordan Mott?

Does that name ring a bell to you? Okay, he's not a football player, but he's the dude, the Penn State fan that paid the money to run out with USC wearing a Penn State jersey. I don't know how I feel about that.
That's on your school. They should have been aware.
Well, I feel a whole lot of emotions about my school right now. And then I'm on our big noon chat, and they sent that to the chat, USC paying, what, $1,500 to any fan to run the team out.
And I'm thinking, what are we doing? Can't we pay $1,500 to our collective to go get a kid or something? What are we doing? In the story I read, it said they were like, oh, we've never had an opposing fan.

What did you think was going to happen?

Dude, trust me.

And to the point where I think USC has changed

some of the rules of how that goes down.

So Jordan Mott, that was, I mean,

that was spicy ghost pepper right there.

You dip that nug in the spicy ghost pepper and enjoy.

More power to him, dude.

I mean, the balls that takes,

and then to do it, then the win. All right.
Saucy. Saucy.
I'm going with Mark Davis. I know.
Okay, let's hear it. Make the case.
Owner of our Vegas Raiders. Yeah, sure.
A USC Trojan. I did play for Oakland Raiders my last year, so I know Mark.
Love the guy. Little quirky, little out there, but loves his team.
And his quote was, which I thought was absolutely awesome, traded Devontae Adams for Tom Brady in the third round pick. Because Tom now just got approved by all of the NFL owners to be a minority owner in the Las Vegas Raiders.

I thought it was just kind of one of those things

where you have a disgruntled player.

You paid him a lot of money.

He's out.

What a flex to be.

Well, I just traded you for Tom Brady,

who now is an owner of the team with me.

Saucy.

I was like, that's saucy.

That's saucy.

It just made me chuckle. I was like, good on you, Mark Davis.
You got a third round pick. You got rid of a player who was about to sit out the rest of the season anyway.
And then you get Tom Brady who will bring an enormous amount of knowledge, anything to an ownership that will only help your team and make your team more valuable. So I think he won at the end of the day.

All right.

Well, that's our can't get enough sauce moment of the week brought to you by

Wendy's.

Thank you to Wendy's.

I'm hungry now, by the way.

Every time I do that segment, shout out to Wendy's.

Shout out.

Maybe I'll take, we'll take a quick break.

Maybe I'll go get some food real quick.

Cause we're going to come back with my bestie, my buddy.

You guys know him as Schmidt.

I know him as Max Greenfield. Coming back.
Okay, it's March Madness and Wendy's is hyped. The courts are polished.
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He played one of the most iconic TV characters, in my opinion, of all time in the hit sitcom New Girl, Schmidt. We all love Schmidt.
He's the author of some very, very popular children's books, including his most recent one, which he sent to my kids, Good Night Thoughts. And his current show, The Neighborhood, returns to CBS on October 21st for season seven, seven years.
It's like a sports franchise at this point. He's my good buddy, Max Greenfield, joining us.
And also,

he's my first phone call

when something goes down with the

Knicks. Can I tell you something?

Can I tell you something? Not true.

When you walk into Madison Square Garden,

there's a different level of fame.

I'm like, is Jerry Leonardo

DiCaprio?

And not even like, maybe that's a

bad example. It's more like a

pop star. People lose

their shit. I'm Nick's famous.

Is there such a thing as Nick's

famous? Yeah, but in New York?

No, it's a different thing.

It surpasses even Nick's

famous. It's something about...
It's like

Madison Square Garden famous, which is,

by the way, kind of the coolest kind of famous.

Legendary. I can't wait to be your turtle, dude, when we sit courtside.
I'm just going to think whatever you need. Matt, I was a little bit like, you know, people recognize me.
And I was with Jerry. I was like, it'd be nice if anyone gave a shit.
Right. Well, like, hey, by the way, I am on TV, too listen we're we're recording so this is all staying in because i matt the other thing not a lot of new york new girl crossover well that's not true max is lying number one first thing when max and i get to the game you know you never know who you're gonna sit next to right you could be sitting next to Chris Rock.
You could be sitting next to Jerry Seinfeld, anybody.

We get down there, and this is weeks before, I mean,

Aaron Rodgers just joined the Jets.

So they sit me and Max next to Aaron Rodgers and Sauce Gardner.

That was the foursome sitting courtside.

So obviously everyone's looking at him.

Matt, let me tell you, before, so we get to the get to the game and you know Jerry's treated like a king there and we go up to this incredible little lounge or whatever you don't know where you're sitting and we're in this lounge and all these famous people start rolling in and Jerry has been going to these games forever while the Knicks were terrible the Chris D Duhan years. Nobody, nobody wanted to go to Knicks games.
And Jerry was like the only one in this lounge forever. And so we're sitting there and we're like eating.
I'm as excited as I've ever been in my life because I've never been. And Jerry's like, that's usually not like this.
There's so many people there. It's usually not like this.
This is not like this this is oh and uh and i can see and

i know jerry for such a long time he's such a good friend that i'm like he's genuinely anxious right now and getting and getting frustrated and aggravated and at some point he just whispers speeds like this.

Our feet better be touching wood.

And I go, Jerryerry wherever we're sitting it's gonna be great this is this is playoff basketball we have a great team this is so exciting he goes like this i know i know i know look bro i'm i'm i'm excited to be here this is great but like i want to be touching i want to be touching wood this is a good ferrara jerry how pissed would you have been if you were like just second row i would have been fine there's no there's no there's no fifth row he would not have been fine so they take us down and they're like walking us down and we set we at some point like you know make that turn onto the court and jerry just turns down and looks at me because i'm behind him like, oh my god, this is crazy. He's like, they hooked us up, bro.
And they sit us right next to Aaron Rodgers and South Gardner and we were like this. Oh my god.
It's on. That is great.
Did you talk shit to them? No. All I remember and Max, back me up too, Rod just talked deep NBA cuts basketball.

He was so locked in.

It was Knicks Heat, so it was two years ago,

game three of the playoffs, no Jimmy Butler.

He was locked in.

And the Bucs, yeah.

He went deep on the Bucs.

I guess he was a big Bucs fan when he was out there.

See, but Max is being coy, though,

because he's saying he didn't get no love. We came down after halftime, and this is during a playoff game, and I see him talking to R.J.
Barrett. Max, as I start sneaking pictures of Max just chatting it up with R.J.
Barrett, who is a big, was it new girl, Max? Yes, right? I don't know. There was a couple 21-year-old girls who work work at uh they loved you they were excited everybody else was like jerry i can't i can't wait i cannot wait for that night man it's gonna be just a random random regular season game but they're gonna be fired up to see the to see you that's for sure they're gonna put you on the big screen on the jumbotron man i'm gonna wear my brunson jersey i already told.
I already told you. Oh, my God.
Max, what do you feel about grown men wearing jerseys? Got to be the right one. Got to be the right one.
Got to be the right one. You got to know when to wear it.
Okay, explain, though. Because I had this take a couple weeks ago.
It's got a lot of heat on this take. Oh, I got a lot of heat.
Because then they started saying, well, we're going to burn your effing Jersey liner. Screw you.
I'm like, I'm just saying when I see a grown 55 year old guy walking down the street of the South Bay on a Saturday, just like, why? Like, it just, it just, it's just my, it's just weird to me. Well, look, I mean, certainly you have a different perspective than we do as you are an actual athlete.

With an actual jersey.

That wore one professionally for a living as a uniform. Jerry and I do not have that experience.
But I would say, you know what? if you're in the South Bay

and you're watching some dude

on like a cruiser

skateboard riding

up the boardwalk and he's got his Chargers jersey on, let that dude live. He's got his guy.
I actually took a video. He's got shades on.
He's just cruising. Let him live, man.
He's like, J.K. Dobbins is going to have a big one this week.
That's shit. I took a video of a guy last week walking.
I think I should have. Did I not send it to you, Jerry? I took a video of a guy who's wearing a Packers jersey walking into a dentist appointment on a Monday at one o'clock in the afternoon.
I was like, this is why. This is what I'm talking about.
I guess if your kids wear one and they want you to wear one i don't know but i got roasted dude just roasted well speaking of kids max your boy your son ozzy big week in the greenfield house i saw it on the gram now for a little context how old is he eight nine how old is nine nine he already waxed me in 2k when i went to your house that one time. He's in on basketball.
So who did he meet this past week? It's a huge, huge day. So his favorite team somehow, and this is before they got really, really good.
He, I think through 2K and through YouTube, he vince carter oh and nice and the version of vince carter that he latched on to uh was the mabs arrow so random he's a real he's an outside the box thinker yeah um i by the way i read him he was got real into vince carter and and i tried to introduce him to the book of basketball simmons book and we're like you know what here's a great way to do it let's read the vince carter section and then maybe we can this will be like a fun we can read like pages we'll read this book forever it's like a hundred that's like a thousand pages um and so we went right to the vince carter section and simmons kills vince carter and Ozzy got so mad he goes I don't ever want to read that book again

and I had tried section and simmons kills vince carter and ozzy got so mad because i don't ever want to read that book again and i tried to get him back into the book and he goes is that the one with vince carter and i'm like no and he goes i know it is i don't want to read it anyway so through that he became a mavs fan and then latched on obviously to luca donuka Doncic, who is his favorite player. He has made me buy him his high school Teca jersey.
So good. He has a Luka Teca jersey? Because I can't figure out the sizing.
We have one that's this small, tiny, tiny. We have one that fits me, which is really nice, by the way.
Rock it. Which he probably will wear.
And we can't figure it out. Anyway, so he finally gets a Mavs Donch's jersey.
And they're playing the Clippers Monday night first preseason game in the Intuit Dome. Which, by the way, let me tell you.
Oh, yeah. What's the review of the Intuit Dome? What's the let me tell you oh yeah what's the review of the Intuit Dome what's the review home run really home run wow that's big momer put all the money into it and was like I want this to be a great you can tell he's like I really want this to be a great experience for people who come here and I think it's the right move I think there are people because the Clippers are in like a weird place and we're not really sure who's the draw there.
Is Kawhi playing? I think the Dome is really... Is the draw.
It's amazing. Your experience there is the leveled seating.
There's not a bad seat in the house. Then they have this screen that goes all the way around the top of the thing.'s like it's sort of like uh so fi um for basketball yeah it's like so fi for basketball it's got like a little bit of a sphere vibe it's crazy it's i'm so glad we got a review that's like the first throwbacks for you got a legit review thank you bro yeah it was really good we had we had i got seats from uh lamorne has season tickets emmy award winning award winner lamorne morris has season tickets he let uh he uh he let us borrow the tickets because he knows ozzy's a big fan and uh he's second row and some arenas you go second row is like kind of the worst place to be sitting because you're right behind the first row and you're from and if you're down there and you there's usually not any gradient yeah it's stuck if you're stuck behind somebody tall like you can't really see the game like me who's shorter than everyone i mean i got a nine-year-old with me um and so they have the gradient at every level and so you are it was it was incredible and that place is staffed up in a way that is and he got he got what happened yeah what happened to young so we get there super early um and because we want to see warm-ups and so we walk by and we're walking in towards the clippers section and there's a you know i think like harden was out there we're like oh cool all right he's how he, he's playing tonight.
That'll be exciting. And then we walk down to the other side and we see like, oh, my God, Luca's warming up.
He was just so low down there and warming up. And and we were like, couldn't believe it.
And then we thought maybe he's playing tonight. Anyway, so we get down to our seats and we're watching him.
And the two of us are just like, I can't believe this. We're so lucky.
We didn lucky we didn't even think he'd be here like anyway so this security guard comes over to us who is the nicest man i've ever met in my life hey listen he's gonna go to half court he's gonna shoot some shots from half court then he's gonna come to the free throw line when you see him come to the free throw line he's gonna make a beeline to like the the uh gate or whatever the the tunnel right and uh and he's like just get ready and because we were right by the tunnel and so we're like okay okay i'm now like having a heart attack and ozzy's watching him and i'm like ozzy just just get ready, get ready. And we're like, see, it's like, like, like circling the half court line.
So great. Here we go.
Here we go. Here we go.
And I like have the camera, I have my phone ready, but it keeps shutting off because it's on too long. And I'm going like, don't, don't, don't you be the one to blow this? Yeah.
Don't mess this up. I'm thinking we're just going to get a picture and like maybe in like a passing, like sort of maybe a fist bump.
And if I can get the picture of the fist bump anyway. So he finally takes his free throw shot.
He comes down. There was a dad and another kid right there.
And it's preseason, which was really cool because it wasn't like packed. It's chill.
It was very chill. And so he comes through.
There was a kid and a dad there and he stopped and he was so nice. And he took a picture with this kid.
And I thought, oh, my God, are we going to get a picture? and so he comes through there was a kid and a dad there and he stopped and he was so nice and he took a picture with this kid and i thought oh my god are we gonna get a picture and so he comes through and i turned into the dad i don't know what i turned into but all i don't like i don't even remember this happening but it definitely did happen i went luca luca luca with. With your voice high pitched.
It was so bad. It was really embarrassing.
And meanwhile, my nine-year-old son is just like has his jersey out like this. And Luca was like totally clocked it, was like very present in the moment, saw my son and turned around.
He took a bunch of pictures with him. And then this security artist, the coolest guy in the world, somehow slips him a Sharpie in that moment.
What a gangster this guy is. And Luca turns him around, and I can see my son's face like this.
What is happening? And he signs the jersey. And I don't know that we can ever go to a basketball game again.
It's dude you just did you just gave me goosebumps dude that's got it that's what a memory what it was the craziest so cool and like I gotta say you know as somebody who will go through an airport or in as I and sometimes in situations where people would like a photo or whatever it is, I always do it. Always.
Good karma coming your way. And every so often, every so often you're like this, man, it would be really cool if this came back.
Like in this moment. You got it back.
Totally did. But Luca was very cool, man.
He is now at the top of the list. So 30 years from now, when Ozzy is at dinner with some friends and they start talking about, who's your goat? Is it a thousand percent Ozzy's going, Luka Doncic is the greatest basketball player of all time.
That's his favorite player for life now. I think it's going to be hard for him to come down from Luka.
Yeah. And I get it, man.
He's also like, you know, he's one of those guys, like we were watching him just warm up. You were like, he's different, man.
Yeah. He's a different guy.
He's like, this is a top five player in the league, top three, top two. And you know, like at any moment, he's the best player in the league.
He's an L he's an elevated guy. And if things go the way that you think they're going to go for him, he's an iconic, legendary player in the NBA.
You can feel it. This preseason's been kind of interesting.
You, to me, and my Knicks friend circle have had the best quote of that situation. Speaking of fathers and sons, Rick Brunson, Jalen Brunson, Dante DiVincenzo.
Now, I know it's been analyzed, but we are the real heart of this because we are true Knick fans. What were your thoughts on DiVincenzo talking trash at the free throw line and then mixing it up with his best friend's dad? That would be like if I had gotten to an argument, Max, with your father on Thanksgiving.

I just hated it.

I felt like it was like a divorce.

I hated it.

I didn't like it.

Do you remember your quote to me via text?

Oh, I said, yeah, I go, this is what happens when a family makes a business decision. Yes, yes.
Which may come back to haunt them. I don't know.
But I mean, I'm daily on it. I don't know, Matt, if you've experienced Jerry's emotional response.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
I am wrapped up in this Knicks world all of a sudden in the last three months. I witnessed watching a Knicks playoff game with Jerry in New York.

Actually, I'm going to tell this story really quick because I want to get your take.

Jerry has his courtside tickets for what series?

That was Pacers.

It was game two Knicks-Pacers this past playoff.

Game two Knicks-Pacers.

And I'm in New York, and we're doing press and stuff for this podcast, right?

which is Pacers. It was game two Knicks Pacers this past playoff.
Game two Knicks Pacers. And I'm in New York and we're doing press and stuff for this podcast, right? Which was important.
And this was like the first time Jerry and I were really hanging out. 15 blocks from MSG.
I would have been, I would have, with my bad hips and all, I would have been running for those courts. So we're there and it's like, we have to leave at a certain point, but we go on stage to talk about the pod and all this things.
It was like upfronts. And I'm sitting there the whole time.
I'm thinking, dude, like we can make this game. We could get there by the second quarter.
We're going to sit courtside. I'm going to get to see MSG with Jerry Farrar.
He says no. And we watch it from a sports bar, by the way, by the way.
And I'm like, I'm like, are you serious? Dude is the first time we're going to hang. He's so mad at me, bro.
I was so pissed because I'm watching this game. And then I'm watching him.
I'm literally sweating, watching him sweat, watching the Knicks. Because every single point is like, yeah.
Or actually, Jerry's actually pretty quiet. He was just like, stoic.
Like, people are trying to come up to him. And we're mingling and trying to meet people.
And he is just in a zone. like in a zone i'm like dude this dude is crazy but that would have been uh we had courtside seats that he passed up i get it well the indiana series was weird um because this was early it was early it was that it was the game oj og i don't know be tore his hamstring but so point, we were well in control.
Yeah, yeah.

But still, it was still tense.

I felt very tense that whole time.

Would you have gone, though?

Would you have left?

So we were in a place with a 100-foot screen.

The game's on.

Matt and I finished the up fronts.

And if we jet over the MSG, we could get into the seats by probably midway second, you think?

Or early third quarter.

But we would have missed the chunk.

Thank you, Max. I don't like you two uh ganging up on me at all but um listen well okay so where are we at on the trade yes where are we at look this is gonna sit back and listen to this more this is where i've ultimately this is where I've landed today for last night when I was thinking about it because I knew we were doing this today.
But, you know, I looked at the big swing trades from teams that were in contention and that were not as a result of like a player saying, I want out. Right.
Forcing their way out. Yeah.
So Minnesota's one of them. The Gold Bear trade.
That was a good team. And they took a huge swing.
And everyone in Minnesota hated that trade. everyone in minnesota hated that trade everyone

in the world hated that trade and the first year was kind of dicey and the second year pretty good pretty good i mean there was a week of podcasts where everybody was saying that that was the greatest defense that's true that's true they're like is this a top three defense ever um and then And they played the Mavs and you were like, okay.

But ultimately that trade worked out.

I think the Celtics did the same thing I don't think everyone in Boston was like Porzingis is a home run and they lost Marcus Smart in that deal yeah so you're like I don't know but that worked out the Dame thing in in Milwaukee we'll see but they. But they felt like they had to do something.
And I think this was not a dissimilar move by the Knicks, who I have to give them credit are trying to win a title. And I think, look, I think as – I would have liked to have seen it, but obviously they felt like they had to make the move at the timing that they did.
But I don't see a version where we play the Celtics in the playoffs without a legitimate scoring big and win. Because if you have a team that has Drew Holiday and derrick white you can take brunson out of the game and i agree good point the way that we had played all year long the game that i always come back to that was like the most fun game of the year but also the scariest game was that san antonio game where brunson scored like 60 something.
Yeah.

Every time down the floor, it became like the,

the whole team just like went into the left corner and it was just one on ones with Brunson, every, every possession.

And it was like Brunson versus Wembenyama.

And I was like, this is fun, but this is not sustainable.

And if you're playing the Celtics, like they just have,

they have too much and that's a team you have to go through. And I don't, and then there's no going around it.
So I think, and this was the swing. And I think ultimately, if you look at like just the math of it, I think you have to look at it.
Like it was Hartenstein. we basically gave up

Hartenstein, Randall

and Deven Chen it was Hartenstein. We basically gave up Hartenstein, Randall, and DiVincenzo for Ann and Obi because of the money.
Cat and Bridges. Cat and Bridges.
And to me, if you look at it like that, and a bunch of picks. And if you look at it like that, you're like, I kind of do that every time.
As much as I love Nick's talk, guys, every single day. You us right now i want i i want to transition us into how you guys met because i know max jerry and i were talking this week i'm like there's video games there's the gentleman's league i told him a little bit about our gentleman's league gave a little not show clips yet i want to i'll take us back to memory lane here how'd you guys meet we did um i don't know we've ever talked about this on like a show we've never ever talked about it on this show people just think we know each other so it was right around the time of like cable tv was starting to make real shows um sopranos the shield i mean this is a long time ago.
Throwbacks. I'm right there with you guys.
Throwbacks. Throwbacks.
Oh, but yeah. So all of these cable networks were feeling like, oh man, we can make, we can do a different version of what the network TV is doing and have shows that are, you know, bringing people to our networks.
Um, and so MTV decided they were going to get into the scripted business, put their hat in the ring. And, uh, they bought a script from our, from our friend, Larry Golan, uh, who had written this like sort of young, it wasn't a young Sopranos, but it was like a bunch of guys in new york growing up um i think they were all in high school we were like see yeah my god yeah it was like a high school show this is how long ago it was um anyway so it they were casting out of la and every new york actor who lived in los angeles came to this one like you like you know final audition and there was like three or four guys for every role and Jerry and I met at this reading or like this audition process and I think the two of us had an idea like it'd be cool if it was you and I right this could work we're gonna get this and I've been in those situations before i had the same thing with uh new girl where i met jake johnson and and i think the two of us were like it'd be cool if it was us right yeah uh and so we met during that audition process and then we were lucky enough to get the show um and uh and mtv just mtv hired us and then kept us on hold.
Forever. Before they decided to shoot the pilot.
And they kept extending the hold and they would give us like $2,500 for a month. We're rich.
And the two of us were like this. Holy shit.
I remember that we were like playing Madden in Jerry's basement.

So good.

The two of us were just like this.

Man.

We made it.

I hope they keep this show on hold forever.

So true.

And then I think we were on hold for like six months or seven before they finally passed on it.

And then Larry Golan, who had written the show, got the script back and decided to write it out as an independent film that we made in New York. And so we spent like this wild, long time together and then had this crazy independent film experience in the Bronx.
Yeah, not far from Yankee Stadium. No, not Not at all.
Um, and I've just, you know, been friends ever since. So, so you guys, you guys audition.
And then in that six months, are you auditioning for anything else? No, we're not allowed to. We're not allowed to really.
You're just in the basement playing, living the life, Matt, $2,500 a month to do nothing. That's a great stipend, man.
Just like smoking weed, playing it. I'm just like, man, this is...
This is what acting's all about. Let's go.
We were like, we fucking made it. I remember my mom used to call me like, what are you doing today? I'm like, I'm on hold.
I'm high. I'm on hold, mine.
I'm on hold. So look, you brought up something good there, though.
That's so good. Also, at the end of every episode, we do our throwback three, and we pick a topic.
This week, I picked top three throwback sports video games, right? Cool. You and I have played a lot of Madden.
Some of my favorite memories with you then transitioned to a game that Matt was probably in, and was in several times, NCAA, where we used to play. But then I also did see, you talked about this publicly on New Girl.
You guys used to play Madden, but you were like, were you the OC? And someone was, because I feel like you're cheating on me now. Yeah, Jerry was pissed.
That was like our thing, bro. You played strong safety.
I was courted. That was our thing.
He's like, yeah, I on you. I'd never felt like I was cheating on you.
It felt like a totally different relationship. That's how it always goes.
That's how it always goes. And now that I'm, I apologize.
I'm sorry. And you know, eventually it, look, I, I messed up.
But yeah, so we, we, on that show, there were like lengthy, lengthy periods of time where we were waiting. And I think it took us like a season or two before, maybe two or three before one of us like connected an Xbox.
Either that or it took Jake and I two years to figure out how to. Yeah.
Like who brought it in? Jake brought it in? Whose trailer? I'm not totally sure. Okay.
I don't remember. I think Lamorne like got one for free and then i went to an xbox party yeah he like went to an i i don't really know what happened but we were like so we'll play that and so we we hooked it up in the trailer and we decided that playing each other would have caused we would have just it would have it just would have been it would ruin the vibe So we decided it was funnier

if we played

offense and defensive coordinators

on the same team

and just did a full season

and created characters

for the offensive and defensive coordinators.

The saddest part of it is that that we played many many seasons of that of that game and uh we didn't win that many you got fired a lot of seasons where we were like this turn it off restart quit yeah restart new season and like a lot of the fights that jake and i got on like that you see on camera result we're just like we were so pissed at each other in the trailer that we would then go straight from the trailer onto set and just seamlessly walk into a scene probably not even know our lines and just start arguing and like try to take the football out of it. But that's where it all came from.
Just us screaming at each other about how one of us screwed up, you know, in the fourth quarter or threw a pick or let up a touchdown. It was humiliating.
Isn't that the greatest thing? You guys are probably doing like these iconic scenes on that show and all in your mind you're just thinking how the fuck did we lose that game 30 minutes ago i love that we really thought we and we were there was always like you know a second ad who was like had to knock on our trailer hey guys we're ready we'll be right there hey guys um i wish it was that nice we were like that we're in the middle of fourth quarter are you are you do you play do you play madden against your son you play video games with him madden we've played once or twice he likes it but he plays against the computer because i when i play him I just – I mean there's certain things you know about the game. And he gets really upset.
And so I'm like I'm not – I love it. I'm not playing you.
I'm not doing it because then – because he really likes to talk shit. And I'm like if you're going to talk shit, I'm going to play you for real so and then he gets then he gets crazy um and so i'm like i'm not playing you but i'll play him in 2k and it's it's pretty even see i'm not here yet what do you do matt what you're my so my oldest max is 17 and i used to play uh you know when he was 9 10 when your son's age and i used to just beat his ass ass.
I was like, I'm not, I'm not, just like I did in the backyard basketball.

Like I never took it easy on him,

but he started to get a little bit better.

We played Madden a lot, a little bit better.

And then my boys would come over

and he would talk so much shit to them

to the point where my boys would be like,

they look at me and they're like,

are you going to tell him to stop

or I'm going to kick his ass?

I'm like, it's all you guys.

I'm like, Cole, watch your mouth. They're going to get your get your ass kicked this week he was 10 years old now he's 17 and he we don't play a lot of games he kind of transitioned into like fortnight and he does some of that stuff but um yeah i never took it easy on him but he could beat me now which is unfortunate because you never hear the end of it so run it up if you got like I'm not there yet my oldest is five the video games are coming i could already see the trolliness in them so run it up no mercy sweep the leg is that what we're saying here i think i think you sort of like vibe out with them a little bit you see like emotionally where they are and you're like man i know what i could do right now but this is going to cause an explosion and i'm like i'm like this is going to cause ozzy to yell at me potentially throw a controller yeah oh yeah and then end up in his room for two hours where i then have to like somehow go apologize dude this this brings me this brings me back to you were telling the set i was playing um i was playing a monday game monday night game it was the bears game in 06 and denny green used to allow us to spend the night at our house the night before if you were like whatever bet or rookies had to stay whatever what is um most of the time we're in a hotel even for home games and i remember playing ping pong with my my best friend moved out with me to arizona after college and we were just playing like ping pong at one o'clock in the afternoon i got a monday night game like five hours later and he's just kicking my ass and i end up and i was i'm a, very hyper-competitive person, obviously.

And I started chucking my paddle at him.

I literally gashed him right in the, oh yeah, this is Monday Night Football game, the Bears,

the Bears game.

Never told you that, Jerry.

Yeah, I was thinking, my mind going into that was like, how the hell did I lose in ping pong to this guy?

I was so pissed, dude.

And you smacked.

Oh, I used to, I was the worst.

I would throw controllers, paddles. Yeah, I'm not Yeah.
This is if you beat me in this basketball competition, which we can get into later, I might throw a ball at your face. It's so funny.
I've been to Clayton Kershaw's ping pong a couple times. This is serious stuff, this ping pong.
Serious stuff. Which, by First Night Challenge, which, by the way, is such a wonderful organization.

He's the greatest.

And Cedric, the entertainer, and I hosted it not last year but the year before.

He has all the – the wonderful thing about that Dodger team is they are genuinely all friends.

It's such a good vibe with those guys.

So they all come to the event, and they all pair with each other which is completely unfair they're playing like you know mila kunis and it's like talking about running it out you're like relax and it always ends up being like a grouping of dodgers at the end right they it's like a tournament they run it towards the end and these guys are so competitive it is why it is it's such a it's such a different level you know my daughter plays um volleyball loves it she plays jv she's on the jv team right now she's a freshman um in high school and uh and she plays club but she loves it and she has so much fun with it. And I love going to the games and it's great for her.
But there's such a difference between her and then there's another girl who's the same age, who's in ninth grade, who's like an athlete. Who's going to get, you know, she's going to relate.
She's going to get a D1 scholarship to wherever she wants.

She's on the varsity team.

She's unbelievable.

She hits the ball a ton. You go, what is happening here? This just looks like a different sport.
But you can see the way that she approaches the game is with such a different level of just authentic competitiveness and a level of like seriousness um that is such a wild difference um from you know somebody who's just playing and and and enjoying the game what what kind of what kind of dad are you on the sideline or watching i mean because you're competitive obviously um it i different different levels it depends sort of if i'm like if i'm having a bad day there was one time where i was having a bad day and i was like this she better play fucking good i was like i need this and then i realized midway through i was like you're you need to chill out no i'm pretty good i mean i like to just check in with her and make sure she's like in a good zone and she she genuinely she loves it so much i don't know girls volleyball is the greatest it's fun yeah it's a lot of fun to watch and uh and she she just is one of those she's like has her approach to it is with such a joy and so much fun that i sort of just try to like lean into that and if she's not having fun I'm like I'm more concerned like what's wrong what's going on with you but uh but she usually you know she's the one who's like just cheering for everybody and like runs on the court you know in her rotation she plays libero we're like back um she'll like run on it you're like this is great this is this is sport. Love it.
I already have my cognitive behavioral therapist booked for when my kids start playing sports. Because if you thought me getting upset at OG Ananobi tearing his hamstring, imagine me at a 10-year-old basketball game.
I'm not even ready for that. I've already decided I'm going to have to just change who I am fundamentally as a person.
I coach my son's basketball league. So good.
Me and a shout out to Doug Luchterhand. WME's own Doug Luchterhand.
Yes, sir. Doug and I coach our son's team.
And we were in like the playoffs last year. And there was a moment where the other team was a little bit shorthanded.
And they one kid that was like just dominating and he was scoring all their points. But there was a rule that each player is only allowed to play a certain amount of time.
Right. And they were trying to keep him in in the fourth quarter and already played him out of his extended period and there was one of the dads one of the dads on the sideline uh kept like looking at me going he shouldn't be playing he shouldn't be playing tell me you kicked him out and i was no he was he was advocating for us like Yeah.
Get the kid out of there.

Yeah. And I was like, I'm not going to – I can't do this.
This is – This is kids. These are kids.
These are kids. This is too much.
If they're choosing to do this, I don't think it's right, but I'm also not going to be the one to go to center court. Not dying on this hill.
Yeah, I'm not going to the bench to be like, this eight-year-old has got to get out of the game. So this dad all of a sudden just comes walking across the court and looks at me like, you coward.
Called you a coward. That was the vibe.
He looked at me like, you coward. And then walked past me and walked right to the end.
He goes, that boy should not be in the game. Dude, that's a playoff game, Max.
And they checked the thing and they were like, yeah, no, he's got to get out. And they pulled him and then he walked past us again and looked at both Doug and I like, disgrace.
You know, it's really the team culture, though, that you built over there, Matt. They're taught, like, if we're going on first take today, we're going to be talking about Greenfield and Luchterhan's team culture and what they...
By the way, if that was me, and it's a playoff game, I would have sent my assistant coach to be like, that kid needs to leave. I would have, yeah, we're trying to win.
Well, Aiden's dad really took care of it. Dude, that's so good.
So two more things before we let you go. I'm trying to make this a thing.
I don't know if I could actually get this to become a thing, but I think this is a good place for sports and acting to intersect, right? I used to talk to Kevin Connolly a lot about this. What are rings for actors, right? Because I've thought about this.
It's not winning. You've been nominated for an Emmy.
I don't think it's winning an Emmy or an Oscar because that to me, I would almost say that's like an MVP award for an actor. If you win an Oscar or Emmy, right? Yeah.
But what, like who's Robert Ori in the acting world? Meaning like you got four rings, you've hit some big shots. You never made an all-star game.
Like I could make the case. Look, I did, you know, a hundred only wanted and get nominated which by the way is winning a ring to me 70 episodes of entourage never won i never won power never nominated for nothing good shit like is there a world where i could say i got a ring you have done hundreds of episodes of tv were nominated, so that goes on your case.

Like, are you like one SNL hosting gig away

from being like,

Matt Greenfield got a ring?

He got a ring.

I don't know.

He got a championship ring.

I think,

I don't,

it's a hard comparison to make.

I think it's whatever a ring is to you,

personally,

as an actor.

Season, you're going into season seven, October 21st in The Neighborhood. That shit's a ring is to you personally as as an actor season so you're going into season seven october 21st in the neighborhood that shit's a ring bro seven seasons of a show that's a ring yeah i mean seven seasons and then that's coming off the seven seasons of new girl yeah you're by the way that's your hall of fame status hall of fame status well i mean You're on two major hit shows? The idea.
The longevity? The idea that we've been able to maintain these shows and keep them going. I think I'm definitely more proud of the neighborhood just in the sense that, like, you know, the new girl I was just sort of, like, on.
And I was, like, there for the ride. And I was, like, oh, my God.
I can't believe this is happening. And it was a it was a crazy fun whirlwind experience but the neighborhood was something like okay well now you're coming off of that and then you're building on to the and you're building on this and you're coming in in a more leadership role um and how are you going to approach that and you sort of have to like really i remember like really focusing on and and dedicating ourselves to to

launching that show yeah and that's something we were i wasn't really a part of on new girl

um and so you know i think that's really the thing it's it's a different it's different with

with sports because with the tv show you know you have to like build it in the beginning and

build the foundations especially with a network tv show where like you know you're not doing these

Thank you. with sports because with the tv show you know you have to like build it in the beginning and build the foundations especially with a network tv show where like you know you're not doing these these big arcs you know it's not it's not entourage where you're doing eight episodes a season you're doing a bunch of episodes you're doing you're you're like the beautiful thing about a network tv sitcom specifically is the consistency of it you know people tune into it every week just to be like this is nice these are the people that i invite into my living room every every monday night and like i just enjoy this and this makes me feel nice and i can see that they're having fun and that makes me feel good and i just i like these people um but in order to get there you have to build that and build that trust and make and tell these people, this is real and this really works and this is why.
Well, first of all, Hall of Fame, in my opinion, and Jerry, you too. I have my second ballot, maybe second ballot.
I'm curious even for you too, Jerry, because I married, my wife was an actress and then she's now a lawyer, so I kind of went through this with her at the Tane. And she had, you know, went on shows and had a successful career, but then got burnt out and all that.
Was there a, for both you guys, was there a time, maybe it was from when you were smoking weed in the basement playing Madden to New Girl or to Entourage that you were like, man, this is hard and this isn't for me, or I want to pursue a different passion. Is there ever a moment in your careers where you had that early on? Or was it always just, you know, you're getting picked up, you're getting shows, all those things? Well, no, I mean, I can say certainly, you know, early on, there were moments where you're like, I got to get out of this.
Maybe this is not for me. and you're like auditioning and not getting stuff and i had that for a long time it was like i can't and and you start to get to a place where you're like i'm getting so close and this is not working maybe it's not supposed to work right you know maybe like it's either i'm getting so close this is bound to work at some.
But then it keeps happening and you keep getting turned down and people keep saying no. And you get to a place where you get past that idea and you go, maybe this just isn't supposed to work.
And that's a real bummer. But I would say really like, you know, again, I'll come back to like, you know, the neighborhood.

You get to a place where, you know, you talk about that consistency and you talk about doing it every day. And, you know, I would sort of maybe equate it a little bit to, you know, what you do as an athlete at some point where you're like, we're running the same offense.
and the consistency is what, you know,

it's like the attention to detail and the consistency that really is what you have to focus on but sometimes that can be tedious and you really got to stay like on it because all of a sudden your you know brain starts to drift and you're like maybe i'll do something different this week not like that's not what people tune in to see like mike williams running different routes that's getting him traded out of new york for davante adams keep going keep going yeah and what's beautiful about the neighborhood and you know having been on seven seasons and and especially now when there's so few shows like that and you know we we're still one of the few network tv shows that gets to do 20 episodes you know you look around and it's not again it's like you look around and you're like you have now built a team this is not about you at all right and so you are looking around here like this is about keeping this show up keeping this show in the place that it needs to be so that we can keep going because you're i mean essentially you look around and it's like there's 150 almost 200 people that are employed because of this show yeah you know seven months out of the year because of this show. And so maybe don't get an idea of like, this week I'm going to do it different.
Or like, I'm bored. But also, there's the other part of that is looking at the other stuff out there.
and you've been doing the't do in the show for seven years and you're looking at like oh well I want to maybe I want to be doing what that person's doing or like oh they're you know they're on the new hit show and like you're just like riding through it and you're like no man this is where I need to be and I love these people and we're so proud of the show and we're so excited that it's that it's doing what it's doing and that we're in season seven. Cedric the Entertainer.
The best. He's so great.
Is the greatest. Killed it on power too when he came on power.
Killed it on power. He's just a killer.
But he's definitely our – he's the number one on our team. He's just – he's the greatest and I cannot say enough about him and he's got the greatest sports stories oh we you know what something you could help us with i would love to get cedric on this show you gotta get him on the running joke on the show is that like he'll come in on we tape on mondays and tuesdays and so he'll come in on monday and every once in a while be like he'll like look at the sides or whatever, look at the material that we're supposed to do that day.
And he'll go, what are we doing here? And I'll be like, did you not run lines with Dave justice this weekend? He's in a golf tournament every weekend. He's like golfing with Dave.
He's got like this crew of retired athletes that he's always at with. It's like Dave Justice, Dave Winfield.
There's a bunch of guys. The Daves.
I'm with the Daves. He was at the Cabo event, Jerry, that you didn't go to.
He was at the Cabo? Oh, that's right. I'm coming to that.
They did a whole comedy show and he kind of hosted that. He's awesome.
He's the greatest. Magic Johnson's his best friend.
He's got the greatest magic stories. That's one favor I would love from my old offensive coordinator, Max Greenfield, too.
Yeah, yeah, he would love this. Get us, because I don't hear him talk sports enough.
I know you, behind the scenes, he's probably always, but publicly I haven't heard him talk sports a ton, so I'd love to ask him. No, he's got great stories.
St. Louis guy.
Yeah. Last thing, too, which, look, we're talking about what's a ring and Hall of Fame career.
One of my most proud things, I see one of my friends, my friend's an author. I had never thought growing up in Brooklyn that I'd have a good friend who wrote books and stuff.
And the books are 40 pages. 40 pages.
That's one's 32. You've written some very, very popular children's books, the most recent one, which you sent me, Goodnight Thoughts, and Jacob loves it.
We got to send some for Matt's kids. Matt's kids are my age, too.
I would love a book. But really quick, before we let you go, number one, and then I have a pitch for you.
I have a book pitch for you. I'm ready.
Now your friends are going to start pitching you books. That's what's going to be.
Now it's not going to be scripts anymore. Your friends are going to start pitching you books.
But what is the difference between that sort of – I've seen you've been on like a press tour and promoting a book versus promoting a TV show. Is it the same or is it – it's got to be grueling in its own way.
Yeah, it's definitely – yeah, there's something. you can sort of do a TV – you can get a TV show out there through media I think a lot more effectively.
I think with a book – the wild thing about a book is you have to be sort of on the ground with it. Right.
you're like willie lowman you're like selling stuff you're like a salesman yeah and it's not even like it's just showing up and like reading the book well what's wonderful about the children's books right you get to read them in front of people like we'll take them out and won't when we go on tour we go to like schools and stuff and i'll read to kids and that's the most rewarding experience you know it's great you get to see their reaction and now that we've had a couple of them come out you know they know the first couple books and when you know there's like fun surprises in the first book when you read it it's like an interactive experience but now they know the book so well that you're like you're sort of ruining my like my experience with this it's supposed to be a surprise but uh but yeah Like it's, it's, it it's totally different so you're really just you're out there and you're sort of share you're sharing that book with those people and you it's it it would be like be taking a tv show out and showing them and then sitting there afterwards and being like okay so now let's talk about awesome. Which is really like not something that you do.
But I'd say it's much more rewarding in that sense where you really get to share the experience while they're experiencing it. You know, usually you get people who run up to you and you're like this.
I watched all 146 episodes of New Girl last week. Right.
All right, man, you've got to chill. But, you know, with the book, it's like you'll read it to them and you get to sort of feel their experience with it.
And it's the best, especially with the children's book. I don't have an experience with, you know, a real book.
Well, stick around now because we're about to go behind the scenes. We're going to peel back the curtain.
I'm going to pitch author Max Greenfield on a kid's book. You ready for this? Okay.
I read a lot of books to my kids. Most of them involve construction sites or bedtime thoughts.
Wonderful things. My kids know more about construction vehicles than I do because of these books.
We don't really have a good sports book for really, really young kids. So my idea is it's a little sandlot, right? It's like a neighborhood, so to speak, the neighborhood.
And these kids come together every day after school and they play a different sport.

In each story, there's

a lesson. Hold on.

This is what happens in Hollywood.

He's bumping me. It's a pass.

I was going to say, he's not interested.

Each book.

For instance, like...

They passed. Book number one

is, you know, we're going to teach why we clap when a player gets hurt, even if he's not on our team. Not the lessons of how to play baseball.
Sportsmanship lessons. Are you in, Max Greenfield? I got to wrap my head around it.
You're going to get back to me? Here's the issue with it. You want to sort of – like baseball is so specific specific so if you're it could be any sport though any sport i know but any sport is specific you want to keep these things wide for kids interesting cast a wide net okay i like the idea of like a like a what about a series of books so you what you would want to do is a book about competition.
So it's really about Matt throwing a controller or a ping pong. Like a cartoon character of Matt throwing a ping pong paddle across at someone's head.
And we make it for kids, so maybe it hits them in the shoulder. Or maybe it's like a soft paddle, like a foam pad.
Yeah, and the lessons we learned from that.

Buddy, you're the best.

I can't thank you enough for doing this.

Can I ask one question?

Are you kidding?

Okay, here's my question.

It's for Matt. And this coincides with acting.

This is a good acting and sports crossover.

All right.

I don't think Woody Johnson talked to woody johnson talked to aaron rogers about uh about firing sala i don't i don't think he did everybody thinks he did i don't think he did i don't think when you it's like every actor on a show you hear people on like game of thrones or or sopranos or whatever it is like they're like I didn't know I was getting killed until I read the script at the table.

It happened to me on Power.

Yeah.

Totally. And how did they tell you? They called me in the office and Courtney Kemp looked at me and smiled and was like, so this week we're going to kill you.
I was like, what? So you don't think a player of Aaron Rodgers' stature

has the power to have a loose conversation with an owner

that is heavily involved

and talks a little bit about the trajectory

of where this franchise is going?

Here's what I think.

That's how I'm phrasing that back to you.

So you got him fired up now, Max.

This is what I deal with.

Here's a little bit. franchise is going here's what i think and that's how i'm phrasing that back to you so you got him fired up now max is what i deal with here's what here's what i think and i know nothing i think i think the way that it went down and the way that it was and the way that people are framing it in the moment is tough for me um i think those conversations in a broad in a broad sense probably have been going on for a lot for a long time and i agree with that yeah and i and i think there could have been a conversation that you know these are things i think I think about that could have gone like this.
How are you feeling? It was a rough one. And just like got the vibe and was like, this is not the team that I thought we were going to have.
And the guy that we're paying all this money to is not in a good mood. And like we've got to change something i would think to your point there's it's it's obviously there's more to it and i told jerry this i'm like there's more within those walls that maybe and robert solo was my db coach when i was in houston he was great he's a fantastic coach um but there's more going on behind the scenes that we don't see but i will just say this and.
And to your point, he brings in Alan Lazard. Devontae Adams all of a sudden is in the background, him doing McAfee this week.
That was crazy. Which was awesome.
So I just know, and I've been around teams where some of your heavy hitters and some of your guys that have been around have a lot more power than you would think. Now, do I think he went up to johnson said solid needs to go or i'm out no but to your point there's a little bit of a conversation be like well this is a shitty year if we don't make a change and that's that's all that has to be said so i don't plausible deniability yeah it's that that happens a lot i mean it happens all the time when you're a tom brady or you're an aaron rogers someone like that rogers got a lot of pull there man i'm telling you i i don't i don't disagree but i really like i don't think he was i don't think the way that it's been framed by so many people is that he was the one who got rid of him yeah i don't i don't think i don't think he went up there and said salah's gotta go i don't i don't think I don't think he said that.
I think there's a way that that conversation happened where what he was

like,

I see,

I see where this is going and it's not going in a direction that's,

you know,

healthy for our organization.

Yeah,

totally.

And I've,

I've,

I've been around shows and big actors before,

and I've seen them have that communication with the people who are running

the show.

And I've seen those conversations happen communication with the people who are running the show.

And I've seen those conversations happen about big things that are happening within the show. And there's a way that they talk to each other because they know how this goes.
It's like, look man this is this is sort of where I'm at with things. But I know you're going to make whatever decisions you're making.
You do what you need to do. God, I wish we could talk to you longer, man.
I'm so fascinated in your guys' world. I love it.
Max got good stories, dude. He's got good stories.
Buddy, you're the best. Dude, that was awesome.
Neighborhood Returns, CBS, October 21st, and goodnight thoughts. My kids love it.
We're going to send one to Matty Ice over there. And love to the family.
I look forward to coming over and Ozzy destroying me in 2K soon. Oh, my God.
Thank you guys for having me. This podcast is so much fun.
I've been listening to all of them. When Jerry comes out to LA, we all got to get together.

By the way, I think mid-November it's happening.

And I can't think of a new budding friendship more than the two of you.

I could already see Max down in Manhattan Beach with you,

hitting the CrossFit over there at Rosillo,

meeting you for an iced coffee.

I could already see it.

I could already see the friendship.

It was love at first sight, guys.

Yeah, man. We'll do some lunges.
Let's go get some coffee. That's all you need.
All right. I'm pretty excited for this one.
We started doing our throwback three a few weeks ago. We've had some good ones.
This is my favorite. Now, I picked it, of course, so I could be biased.
This is my favorite, too. Are you ready to do your throwback three? Top three sports video games of all time.
Now, these are yours. So these are your opinions.
Do you know how hard this was for me? This was a hard one. I sweated while I was doing it.
Because you're thinking about eras. We were both born in the 80s.
You're 1980s? I'm November of 79. Okay, so my bad.
You're 79. So we grew up 80s video games, 90s video games, which I think are some of the most iconic games.
And then obviously now we're not probably playing video games as much. But the child, thinking about these games and the nostalgia and the memories that came back, I mean, this is, this is my favorite, but this was so hard.
I'm, I'm going to be curious to see what everybody else thinks too, because there's not really a wrong answer. No, this is all personal.
This is a very personal thing. And I know the old heads who listened to this podcast are going to love this because they're going to recognize a lot of the names we're going to talk.

For you youngsters out there, not everything was 2K and all these great grabs.

Just so you know, give it a Google.

If we mention a game you've never heard of and you're like, why? They're going to have no idea what games we're talking about.

Do one search and you'll see.

And I think it's worth your time.

If you truly love video games and you consider yourself a gamer

and you don't know one of these games, throw it a Google so you can take a look after the show. You ready, Matt? Are you ready? You want me to start with number three? We're going to start.
We're going to go three to one because we do need an all time. So what is your number three? RBI baseball.
Wow. Do you remember that game? Of course I remember.
I feel like I used to use the Oakland A's a lot in RBI baseball. So the original baseball was just the game called baseball.
Baseball. Baseball.
And that one, I almost put that on there because I played hours in that. But RBI baseball was one my brother and I played after school.
He's five years older than me, but every single day. And I had to get a baseball game in there.

There was a Ken Griffey baseball was in there.

That's a great one too.

That was right there for honorable mention,

but I'm going to go with RBI baseball.

Yeah, you know, that was back to

when they weren't able to really make any difference

of what a player looked like.

But I do remember they had like a great knuckle curve

that looked like a strike coming the whole way

and it just hit the dirt.

Thank you. any difference of what a player looked like, but I do remember they had like a great knuckle curve that looked like a strike coming the whole way and it just hit the dirt.
It was an unhittable pitch. All the players look the same.
And all the players look the same. That's a, that's a great one.
Okay. My number three, I'm sorry, I have to do it.
And it's not even that, it's not that old. Yeah, that's a good one.
I'm going, this is is a 2k it's 2k 11 now i know that's only 13 years ago but there's a method behind my nba nfl nba 2k 11 with michael jordan on the cover where you could play out the michael jordan storyline but the biggest thing for me was this is where they made throwback teams in 2K that changed the game for us. You could play the 96 Bulls.
Oh, yeah. You could play the 18-year-old Kobe Lakers.
You could be Sean Kemp and Gary Payton, be the Sonic. So here's what me and my buddy Charlie O'Connell, formerly of The Bachelor, used to do.
We'd go to his house. We would take all current teams out, and you could put in all the throwback teams, me and him, and then we would have a draft.
You draft your own team, and we would simulate the playoffs, so we met each other in the playoffs, and we'd do a best of seven series. I had teams like Michael Jordan, John Stockton, Patrick Ewing.
For me, it was the throwback teams, and it was unbelievable. That's my number three.
That was good. Okay, so my second one is an all-time classic football game.
I'm going back to original and Nintendo console because that's where I spend a majority of my childhood video games. Tech Mobile.
I was, it's an obvious one, I think in a lot of lists, but for me, it was the first football game. And then that led into, um, Bill Walsh college football for Sega Genesis, which is my honorable mention.
I used to play with SC 79 and Notre Dame 88. And I mean, just again, my brother and I just battles.
But Tecmo Bowl was just one that it was like, I don't know, every day you come home from school, you throw on Tecmo Bowl, you play for about an hour, you do your homework, you go back and play. So I'm going to go with Tecmo Bowl, number two.
Did you always use Bo Jackson in the Raiders? Bo Jackson was, yes, he was the best player in the game elway's broncos are pretty legit in that game i think uh not very good but lawrence taylor was an absolute yes lawrence taylor and bo jackson um elway i think marino i think i might have used marino in that game sure um but yeah i mean who else are the seahawks were in there, right? The Jets were in there.

Because that was an 80s game.

Yes.

The Jets.

I don't remember, but I remember Bo Jackson.

Maybe not.

I don't know.

But yeah, that's a great one.

So full disclosure, I left Madden out because we could have an entire draft

of just which Maddens are the best, what year.

So I didn't go that route. That's a great call.
All right. and out because we could have an entire draft of just which Maddens are the best, what year.
So

I didn't go that route. That's a great call.
All right. I didn't really want to do this,

but we got to do it. I go Mike Tyson's punch out since we're going Nintendo.
And if I am just

thinking of a game that imprinted things on my brain, I still remember the code to get directly

up to Mike Tyson. You're doubting me? 0073735963.
You think I'm looking at Google? 0073735963. That's the code to get right up to Mike Tyson.
There were two games that had remember Contra? Up, up, down, down. Left, right, left, right, ABAB or whatever.
Contra Mike Tyson's punch-out, man. Honestly, maybe the greatest game of all time.
After we're done, I'm going to go rip something off the walls. Wait, what do you have? Let me see.
You want me to do it now? Yeah, do it now. Hold on.
We could cut this up to make this move quicker. I'll keep talking.
Mike Tyson's punch-out, the best part about Mike Tyson's punch-out, the code directly to Tyson, but also the characters. And there's no way right now, if you're listening, Jerry is going to get something off his wall that appears to be the characters of Mike Tyson's punch out.
I'm telling everybody what you're doing right now. Well, here's the appetizer.
There's a little appetizer. Something I bought.
Oh, no shit. You have contra tips.
Something I bought at an art show. You want to know what else I bought at an art show because I'm a maniac? Oh, dude.
That might be a little harder to show. This is every character from Mike Tyson's Punch Out in like chronological order I know there's a lot of glare on the computer see Glass Joe forget the Russian dude's name Piston Honda King Hippo King Hippo Bald Bull and Soda Popkinski.
Super Macho and Soda Man. That is the greatest thing of all time.
There's the man himself. Let me get that in the camera.
There's the man himself. Mike Tyson right there.
Just biting an ear off. By the way, that is legendary.
Great poster. Let me tell you, this not cheap.
This is a great poster. Can't say I'd walk into an art show.
I'm not really the walk into an art show and buy something, dude. But when I saw that, I said that has to be a little bit.
By the way, the fact that you have Contra, too, just randomly is awesome. That's like the best two-player outside of Super Mario at times.
That's like the best two-player game. So if we ever do a non-sports game, Contra will be up there.
Okay, my number two. That was my number two.
So now we're going to your number one. I haven't even given honorable mentions yet.
So if you want to get any other honorable mentions out before your number one, now's the time. Gosh, Mike Tyson's punch-out was on my list.
So I texted this to Andrew, our producer, 10 yard fight. You remember 10 yard fight? He didn't, he's like, what game is that? I said, are you? What a pull.
Are you kidding me? 10 yard fight. Hell yeah.
Up, up, up, up, whatever the sound was. Ready, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut.
10 yard fight. And then you would just go left to right and up.
I can't believe you just pulled 10. And you get tackled by 14 people.
Dude, good for you. That is an amazing pull.
So 10-yard fight. And then the other one, which RC Pro-Am.
And I don't know. I guess that is, does that count as a sports game? I'll give you an honorable mention there.
Yeah, because I wanted to put in a lot of wrestling games too. There's so many wrestling games i mean i could dude i have a list of a hundred and i could go off on the and we haven't even said fifa or all the ones but blades of steel the hockey game which is all time here's some here's some honorable mention of those nintendo remember just ice hockey where you could pick the fat guy the medium guy and the skinny guy that was a That was a great one.
Double dribble. I masked the half court shot.
Bases loaded. Did you ever play bases loaded? Of course.
So that was all college teams, and there used to be a glitch where if you hit the cleanup batter in the seventh inning, he charges the mound. And I made it happen one time.
Bases loaded was so good. I was the coolest kid in the neighborhood because I made that happen.
Did you ever play baseballball Stars? Baseball Stars is right here, yeah. Climb the wall.
First game where you could climb the wall. Those Nintendo games were out.
They were all-time. Actually, I have the little system where you can go online.
You can buy the little thing that has 400 games in it. Do yourself.
I might have to do that. 50 bucks.
Go get it. Plug it into the the back of your tv you will play every game for about five minutes and then you're over it but it will bring you back to 1989 all right you ready for my number one yeah what's your number one this is pretty interesting because it's it's probably my fourth favorite sport maybe maybe fifth favorite sport but not as a kid.
But I still, to this day, will say this sport translates to the best sports video game in general, NHL 94. Specifically, NHL 94.
The one that Vince Vaughn says in Swingers, want to see me make Wayne Gretzky's head bleed where you could check a player who just collapses on the ice and his head explodes blood. This game was iconic.
Also, first time you could have a manual goalie. You could actually switch to the goalie, play goalie.
You get a hat trick, hats on the ice. Chicago Blackhawks.
We're dirty, bro. The Blackhawks were dirty Jeremy Roenick Chelios even the Red Wings Iserman and Fedorov just great teams I'm looking up right now because it is by far that's arguably my favorite game of all time I used to smash people in that game too when my friends and I got together and we we got going on Genesis and we would draft teams, some teams get stuck with the Vancouver Canucks, which weren't bad, but even the Penguins, they weren't good, but they had Lemieux.
They had a young dog. I'm looking this up right now.
This is so great. It's so good.
I'm sorry. And the one-timer.
The one-timer. The one-timer, yeah.
Changed video games. And to this day, I'll pick up a hockey game every now and then.
And it's still, mechanics-wise and feel, it still plays the best. And it's the most fun to do the team up with.
Teaming up in 2K is fun. Teaming up in Madden is fun.
Teaming up in hockey is awesome. Dude, I used to rock Jeremy Roenick every day.
I remember. Yeah, that's a good one.
So that's my number one. I hope all of you listening, hit us on Twitter or Instagram, wherever you're on, at throwbackshow.
Let us know yours. Look, we left off things, of course.
There's no real winner here, but I can't believe you had a 10-yard fight. Dude, I still have my number one.
I haven't even given you my number one yet. Let's hear it.
I'm still blown away by that. Let's see your fight.
I know it's so good. Um, all right.
I'm going basketball and maybe the most iconic arcade style game of all time. NBA jam, NBA jam.
He's on fire. And the reason why, well, it was fun, but talk about the old school pairings.
I'm thinking about it right now. I'm thinking the teams that you could beat, the Gold State Warriors was Tim Hardaway and Chris Mullen.
The Blazers, I think, was Clyde Drexler. Porter? And it might have been Porter or it might have been Dale Davis.
Right. Because they needed a big guy.
Yep. That game still to this day, man, NBA Jam.
I think it was on Sega Genesis too because that was just past Nintendo. Yeah.
Awesome, awesome game. So I remember going down.
I could close my eyes and I could smell the pizza because i used to go to the pizzeria that was the arcade game in the pizzeria oh yeah and you put your quarter up for next that's how you decided you had next game when people were playing you put your quarter in like you line it up and i learned i could taste the fountain fruit punch and just go right up and yeah how dope is it dope is it that the creators of those games too, like they like put, they were like unlockable characters. You could unlock the actual creators of the game.
They really did well with the cheat codes too, like the big head players and all the things. I'm looking, yeah, I'm looking at some of the other teams.
It's a great one. That's one if you're going to buy an arcade game for your house ever.
That's one you throw up.

My brother is 46 and just is a child.

He's got a room in his house with all arcade games.

Does he have NBA Jam or no?

No, he's got Golden Tee, which by the way, I almost put in there,

but it's more of an arcade game.

He might have NBA Jam.

He's got Pac-Man and the room is small,

but he's got like five arcade games.

And so I texted him this.

I'll see you next time. more of an arcade game um he might have nba jam he's got pac-man and the room is small but he's got like five arcade games and so i texted him this i was like dude what are your best sports games of all time i think he put nba jam golden tea um but a lot of the games that we said bill walsh college football was our game that we played growing up that's a i mean that the game was hard too also shout out you mentioned golden tea i i left out probably my most favorite honorable mention was Tiger Woods 2004 golf.
Tiger Woods, I mean, that game was hard, too. Also, shout out.
You mentioned Golden Tee. I left out.
Probably my most favorite honorable mention was Tiger Woods 2004 golf. Tiger Woods.
I burned a lot of time on that. Yeah, Tiger Woods was great.
The FIFA games have been awesome. Pretty much the NHL is great because every hockey game is, for whatever reason, it just translates into a video game.
It is so much fun to play. Well, let us know yours.
I can't wait to see what people say because, gosh, RBI, bases loaded. Bases loaded.
Bases loaded. I used to be that Omaha team.
I almost remember the player's name. There was like one good guy on there.
Look, there's a lot going on this weekend, and I know you're traveling again, so I know you're going to – but what are you watching this weekend? I mean, you've got a lot of good matchups in college football. We've got a good one.
We're at Indiana this week, so no longer a basketball school, Jerry. We're a football school now.
Six and O, they're playing Nebraska, so kind of a big game for both teams. But Georgia-Texas is the big one.
That's the big one. That's a big one.
Bama, Tennessee is big, but Georgia, Texas is, you know, Texas is rolling a kind of a passing of the torch game, maybe from Georgia to Texas. If Texas can win, Georgia already has a loss.
So that will be, I think it's one versus five or one versus four, something like that. So one verse five, and we're coming off an Epic last weekend of games.
Oregon, Ohio State was lived up to the hype. So this, another great weekend of college football and another great weekend of MLB baseball, man.
I have to say it's baseball. You know, I'm watching.
Like I said, I'm going tonight. I'm going tomorrow.
Dude, have fun, man. I'll be freezing my ass off, but it's going to be great.
And I'll be watching over the weekend too. Have fun, dude.
Well, safe travels to you. Enjoy that game.
Again, big thank you to Max Greenfield for joining us. I'm still reeling off the video game thing.
We should go grind some video games at some point soon. Dude, I'm just still thinking about you and Max in the basement of your apartment back in 1998.
Just smoke. Yeah, man.

It was a good time.

We're getting that 2,500, 2,500 a month to do that.

Hey man,

what are you doing,

Jerry?

Dude,

I'm rich,

man.

I'm on hold.

I'm on hold.

And this is a good life.

It's a good life.

Thanks everybody for listening.