Michael Chiklis puts the football pads back on, hates the Yankees and how he landed The Shield

Listen, man, I named my dog Tom Brady and part of it is to see people's faces when I go, come on, Tom Brady, make a poo-poo.

All right, welcome to another episode of Throwbacks.

Ferrara and Leinard.

You know what?

If we had a radio show, we could be Ferrara and Ferrara and Liner.

Leonard and Ferrara.

I think it'd be better to be like...

Matt and Jerry.

No, Matt and Jerry, like Turtle and the quarterback or something.

I think we got a plan to turtle more.

Hollywood and Heisman, right?

Or Turtle and the Heisman.

Those are all good names.

Good show for you today.

Kindly ask that you all follow us on our social channels at Throwbacks Show.

We're going to be coming at you with a lot of stuff there.

And obviously on YouTube, a subscribe throwback show over there.

A lot of you have been watching the show on there.

A lot of people watching the pod, not listening.

You're going to want to watch the next few that we have coming up because we have some great, great guests.

And today, I mean, personal favorite of mine.

I'm going to call him.

I don't like calling people by their character names.

He's an actor because like that happens to me all the time.

But if you don't know who Vic Mackey is out there, we don't need to know.

But most people know.

So I'm talking about Michael Chiklis from The Shield.

Awesome guy.

Awesome career, right?

Obviously, know him from The Shield, won multiple MEs, fantastic four, not the previous Fantastic Four.

And we get into that for a second with him.

But also, Matt, he's done like the two things I think I'm most envious of.

He played a coach as like a non-athlete, right?

He played Red Arbach in the Lakers show.

And then he has a movie coming out now.

It's out probably now by the time this interview airs today.

called uh the senior where he plays mike flint who was a 59 year old

I guess, former D3 football player, who then makes the team at 59 years old.

Yes, incredible story.

Also, like a massive Boston sports fan.

Was that the comeback game, right?

The Falcons, Patriots.

Yeah, apparently he says, which has a great story about that.

Great story about that.

And it involves the fake Maddie Ice, Matt Ryan, I think.

Yeah, by the way, Chicklis.

That's a whole different conversation.

But yeah, but the senior comes out,

plays like a linebacker.

It's just, it's a really incredible movie, incredible story.

And Michael Chiklis is an absolute G, dude.

Like one of my, it's literally one of my favorite episodes just sitting down with him.

He was awesome.

He's got an awesome story.

And you know what I like when his name came up and he was promoting the movie was also like Chicklis is not one of those guys that you see on 10 million podcasts all the time.

So we obviously know a lot about him, but to get the kind of intimate sit down that we got.

He hasn't really done that before.

So kind of hyped.

I think you guys are all going to love it.

So

yeah, let's get to it.

I mean, you almost wanted to ask him because like I actually had my first senior moment.

Speaking of the senior, bro, I could barely stay awake for that Canelo Alvarez, right?

Sorry.

I just totally have to get that out.

I could barely, barely stay awake.

It was one o'clock in the morning.

What are we doing, guys?

One o'clock in the morning.

You don't care about seniors, but we care about the senior starring Michael Chiklis.

And here is the Michael Chiklis interview right now.

And he did not bring his Emmy.

Just checking.

He did not bring his Emmy to the interview.

I equated being cut to like getting killed off a show, right?

Yeah.

I was on the show where characters get killed off all the time.

Power.

I was not in one episode, so I wasn't at that table reading.

Came back to the next one.

Four main characters who I was good friends with were gone.

I'm like, hey, where's JR and Lalai at?

Oh, they got killed last week.

So I just didn't even get to say goodbye and they're gone.

You just reminded me of like what is tantamount to a trade because when I did a sitcom for Disney and Hillary Duff played my daughter in the pilot, but Disney wanted her for a show called Lizzie Maguire.

Lizzie Maguire.

So I need a little show.

It's called Lizzie Maguire.

Yeah, yeah.

So

they ended up taking her from us and we replaced her and had to reshoot the pilot based on the fact that they wanted her for

the show explodes.

And that show explodes and my show dies.

What was your show?

Listen, I was Daddio.

Like, I've short-lived.

Let's not talk about that.

No, this wasn't.

I did one one season of it.

Are we rolling?

Well, I think I was going to say too, I think the really cool thing about Jerry and I is from like an athlete perspective, and I love entertainment, movies, music.

I love all the arts.

My wife was an actress, but he's also like the psycho sports fan, but in a good way.

So, like,

so we have a great two different perspectives that we always like.

I'm so like, honestly, when we start talking Boston sports, I'm be like, how are you guys so obsessed with your team?

I don't understand.

He's like watching playoffs.

He's like an athlete thing.

He doesn't get the fandom that much.

I love my Dodgers.

I love my West Coast teams.

My dad raised me.

Like, I love those, but like, I'm not obsessed.

I've watched playoff Knicks games with them and I'm like,

I'm like, buddy, who are you?

Like, it's okay.

He's like, gonna f ⁇ ing kill himself.

Oh, yeah, no, no, I get it.

I know you probably get it, too.

Well, because, you know, what I've noticed with players is you guys, you travel.

It's like us with actors.

You know, a lot of people are.

You know how I'm not trembling when I'm meeting other actors.

You know what I mean?

There may be two that would freak me out, like, you know, that I'd be like,

you know, and I've experienced that already.

So, you know,

for me, it was Anthony Hopkins.

I was going to ask who the first one.

Like, why?

Yeah, you know, when I...

When I met him, I got a chance to work with him for a couple of days on Nixon

years ago.

I just had a, and I took, it was a cameo, really was a small role, but I took it because I knew I was going to be in a scene with Anthony Hopkins.

I was like, like, yes, because just, you know, and there's some people that you feel like, I don't care what it is.

I just want to work with that person.

But really, everybody else, you know, how the sausage is made.

But I've noticed that with athletes, too.

You see Poppy and, you know, and

A-Rod hanging out and everything.

And, you know,

we're all like, oh, no,

right.

You guys care.

What was?

So Jerry just told me the story a couple of weeks ago ago about he did a movie and he ended up getting cut out of it, a lot of it.

But Sully, Clint Eastwood.

Clint Eastwood was the director.

And I'm like, and then me, I'm like, damn, that's freaking awesome.

You got to work with Clint Eastwood.

You kind of just mentioned Anthony Hopkins, but did you have a welcome to the industry moment where you're like, holy shit, I made it.

Or holy shit, this is like, I can't believe I'm doing this.

Or like, was there a moment for you when you grew up?

There's been a number of moments like that for me.

But I had the strangest,

I do not even want to talk about this, but I had a very hard indoctrination into this business, and I want to skate right past it.

I'll just mention it.

It's just that I, you know, it was very fraught.

I, you know,

I came up through the theater and had this vision in my head.

I was going to come up through the theater and get into film.

And it sort of happened that way.

I came up through the theater, got my first movie, which happened to be Wired, where I played John Belushi in the film Wired, and then I was blacklisted.

So it was a very difficult period in my life.

It was horrible.

The late, great Burt Reynolds saved my life and cast me in the middle of it.

And that was one of those moments when Burt Reynolds tricked me into coming down to Florida so that he could

hire me.

Wow.

Which was, he didn't know me.

He didn't owe me anything.

But

the way he put it to me was, listen, I grew up through the, I came up through the McCarthy era and I saw people destroyed for no reason.

And you're an actor, and you took a role.

And

how'd you like to play the villain in this movie?

And I said, say the word, Bert.

You said the fucking word.

And that was.

That's awesome.

And the doors opened back up again, certainly in the television side.

So, you know, I mean, I've had a number of moments where I found myself pinching myself and going, this is surreal.

I can't believe this is happening.

I'm just, you know, what I'm more thrilled about is that I'm still here.

Yeah.

Longevity, yeah.

Yeah, I'll never forget watching Gene Hackman, who was one of my favorites,

doing an interview with, I think it was Michael Douglas years ago when I was a kid.

And Michael Douglas said to him, well, do you think you'll be most remembered for playing Popeye Doyle?

And he sort of bristled and said, well, I hope it's actually more for a body of work.

And I remember literally standing up in the living room and going, that's right, that's it.

And I've always sort of thought thought of that, that, you know, yeah, you, there's certain roles along the way that you want to be recognized for, but you hope that there's enough of them that create sort of a tapestry and a, and a, and a, and a, a career, you know, that, that you can look back at and say, you know, it's a, sorry, it's a body of work as opposed to a single character, you know?

Yeah, because I, I remember too, like when I first kind of came up and, you know, I get entourage.

I'm playing a character named Turtle, right?

It's It's going to be definitely uh, it's going to pop, and you're going to be called that a lot.

Yeah, right, right.

And back then, too, it's still a little bit more like you did TV, that's kind of what you did, and then, and then, right, you know, you cut to all these years later, and all the things I used to be worried about, it's like so different now, and I think it's better in this way where you don't, it is about the bottom.

Yeah, and it's changed a lot.

I mean, the industry isn't the same at all, right?

It's changed and all so many barriers have been broken down.

There was like such a delineation between film actors and television actors.

And rarely did a television actor break into film.

You know,

I love that so many of the barriers are broken down now.

But at the same time,

there aren't as many movie stars as there used to be.

True.

How because it doesn't carry the same event.

Well, I think that the industry hasn't focused on creating movie stars.

That used to be a thing.

This is going to be the next curate a career, right?

And you had guys like, you know, when I was coming up,

I told my parents, apparently, when I was like five or six years old, I announced that I was going to be an actor.

And of course, they went like, okay, he'll be a fireman next midline.

But I never changed my mind.

And my father recognized this and was like, well, kid, if you're going to be an actor, then watch this guy and watch that guy or watch this woman.

And it turns out my mother and father happened to have really good taste and they were showing me Paul Newman and Robert De Niro and, you know,

phenomenal.

You know, we had Friday, I would go out to the movies with my dad.

You know, every week.

It was been so psyched for Friday.

Oh, Friday was end of the school week, Friday night.

Yeah.

And by the way, I saw a lot of films that were totally inappropriate for me at the time.

Like, I think my father took me to see the deer hunter when I was 14.

You know what I I mean?

But he was always there to drive home with me and talk to me about what we saw

and like help me get through it.

You know what I mean?

And that movie shook me to my core.

I was only Russian roulette.

Holy

14, too.

That's yeah, that's tough.

But, you know, I was early.

And, you know,

and also there were some like horror movies that I saw.

I snuck into those.

I didn't see them with my dad.

He wasn't a horror movie guy, but I snuck into like The Exorcist.

Yeah.

Fucked me up.

That terrified my dad.

All the Exorcists.

Still like the ring, the exorcist.

No, no, no.

I don't love the horror movies either.

I don't either.

I scare easily.

Oh, yeah.

Well,

I loved it when I was a kid when they were like Bella Lagosi.

They were campy and they didn't scare you.

But then when they started to get real-ish, you know what I mean?

Like from inside the house.

Oh, fucking, and burnt offerings.

Oh, no.

And, you know, so I,

especially when I had children.

When I had my kids, that was it for horror movies with me.

I can be be in them, but I can't sit there and watch them.

Cause, you know, I don't need the heebie-jeebies any more than I have.

What's the point?

No, because if you hear the scary noise, my thing is with young kids now, you graduate into that role as a parent, like you realize as a dad, oh, I'm the scary noise guy.

Like if they hear the noise outside, I have to, without missing a beat, I'll go check it out.

And I'm usually, that's the guy who dies in the horror movie first.

Yeah, yeah.

So that's why I don't like it either.

Cause if there's that scary noise, I have to act like it's all good.

But deep down, I'm still like, oh, I hope there's no movies.

You know what's a horror horror movie to me that hat you're wearing because you had to you just had you knew i was coming on

did you do this on purpose can i just explain that i don't have hate in my heart for any person place or thing i could tell however i don't

i hate the yankees and dude it's because they made me cry a lot when i was seven so this is just one two of the reasons we were so excited to talk to you one we talked about off-air you don't do a lot of podcasts which to me the best podcast guest is the guy guy or girl who does not do a lot of podcasts because we get a fresh new story and insight and second one way i feel like we're both similar and it bleeds into the work and we're going to talk about your movie the senior and some of your other work but you love sports

To me, that's the fun part about acting is we might not ever get to professionally get coaching jobs playing, but we could pretend for a little while.

It's and it's fantastic.

Listen, man, I named my dog Tom Brady.

That dog's name is Tom Brady.

No, I don't call him Tom, and I don't call him Brady.

I call him Tom Brady.

Tom Brady.

So when I'm walking, and part of it is to see people's faces.

When I go, make good boy Tom Brady.

You're dead serious.

Tom.

Come on, Tom Brady.

Make a poo-poo.

So you're gonna go like, get the fuck out of here.

Your Boston team's down the line, correct?

Because you grew up.

Where did you grow up exactly?

Well, I was born in Lowell, raised in Andover.

We moved to.

That's Mickey Ward territory, Lowell, Massachusetts.

Yeah.

And yeah,

a whole other set of stories.

But yeah,

then I moved to Andover.

Andover, which was very nice.

But I was a townie.

I went to Andover High, not to Philadelphia.

So you're Red Sox, Pats, Celts.

Bruins.

Bruins.

And, you know, and I played football, hockey, and baseball.

Those were my three sports.

I was the captain of my football team in high school.

You know.

I had a number of, I could have played Division II,

I started both ways in high school.

I was a fullback and a weak side linebacker.

He's just cracking.

Fullbacks, yeah.

I was a short yardage and a blocking back.

You know what I mean?

Look at me.

You know,

it's like a new house kind of a guy.

You know, quick off the mark, no speed in the open field because I have limpa legs.

Yeah, but you're good for two yards.

That's right.

And to lead block in the hole.

Yeah, that's right.

And I'll smash you in the head.

By the way,

I want to ask this.

I got to ask this.

Before, so

there's this thing going around where could a normal person get one yard in an NFL game?

I say yes.

Normal, like, you know, Adam over here, right?

Normal person.

Could Jerry?

I mean, I'm five and six and one.

I'm going to talk about the senior because in the senior, you look fantastic playing, you know, line, whatever you're playing with.

Linebacker, yeah.

Could you,

in an NFL game, line up at fullback with the line, get a yard?

One yard.

What do you mean?

One yard out of you, Mikey.

Me now?

Just right now.

Sure.

It depends on who's in front of me.

We'll give you an average offensive line.

You have an average NNGL offensive line.

I'd give myself a solid 50-50 shot.

I like it.

Sure.

Jerry thinks he could.

Yeah, if I could find the seam or if I, you know, if I was off the mark

hot.

But if one of those guys runs into me dead on, no, no.

By the way, because

you know this as a player.

You know this.

I don't give a shit if you were a man, woman, as long as you played competitive sports, there are times that you,

right now, Matt, you wake up and go, fuck.

And you remember moments, right?

Yeah.

And you wish you had them back, right?

And or the triumphant moments where you're like, motherfucker, right?

Yeah.

And that's all of us.

I don't give a shit if you played big time USC, Heisman, or you just played for a little Andover high and, you know, and had your moments.

We all have that.

If you're a competitive person, you have your moments.

One of them for me is my junior year and my senior year.

We were one game away from going to the state finals.

That's it.

And our arrival, Chelmsford, beat us both years.

And one of them, my junior year,

I was a short yardage back.

We were on the one-yard line, 14-0, us.

Seconds left in the clock before we go to the halftime.

I get the call.

I never dove ever.

I always put my head down.

Run through it.

But there was a gap.

And it was, you know, it's a moment in time, right?

And I just went, I dove for the opening.

And this kid, I believe I remember his name.

I love that.

Column and Zakis.

He was a huge Greek kid.

He ended up playing for like Notre Dame or something.

My arm went up like this.

I was trying to just push the ball over the goal line.

And he hit me his helmet under my armpit and

He was twice my size and I by the way, I'm five nine.

I was 199 pounds senior in high school

I was always a big boy, you know like they called me the fire hydrant because I was deceiving you, you know what I mean?

I look smaller than the other guys, but you'd run into me and I wouldn't move, right?

So Colin Monzakis hit me in the

underneath my armpit, flipped me upside down and drove my head into the ground.

My shoulder touched the top of my head.

So he completely dislocated my shoulder.

I got taken off of the field.

We went to halftime.

I did not score.

I did not score.

And that's the one for me.

And I find out after that we lost 21-14.

Isn't it, isn't it?

That hurt.

I don't even like hearing that.

So, right.

So

you just want to ask me.

I know, I know, because I get asked the USC Texas game, right?

We're going for three championships in a row.

No, no, I'm just saying, like, there's always, there's, I remember the plays that keep me up, and I remember the one play that I screwed up on or whatever.

Like, of course, in that game, Reggie pitches the ball, never did that in his life, but in the moment, he just saw me say, oh, shit, trying to make a play.

Sure.

I remember there's a play.

There's, I always say this, there's always like two or three hidden plays in a game that can decide, right?

So there was a play no one even talks about in the first half.

It was a quarterback sneak, fourth down, and a long one.

And again, Bush push is going through my mind.

I'm like, oh, we'll get this.

We'll, we'll survive and we'll call timeouts.

Maybe we'll score.

Can you feel goal?

It's four down.

I didn't get it.

And we left.

Yeah, I don't remember that play.

No one remembers a play.

Yeah.

I didn't get it.

We left three points on the board.

We lost by three.

So we could have, yeah.

So that play, I'm like, oh,

you win the sounds.

And that's what the senior really gets into.

Which is amazing.

Yeah.

And I fell in love with this story.

And by the way, you know, book of the same title, The Senior

with the

forward by LeBron.

LeBron, this caught his imagination as the oldest player in the league, too.

You know, this guy saw what an incredible story, and he felt compelled to write

the forward to his book.

You know, again, any of us who have played organized sports, male, female,

listen, I love sports.

I could watch guys pitch quarters against the sidewalk if it's competitive.

I'll go watch eight-year-old basketball.

Yeah, yeah, I don't care.

I watch it all.

I love games.

You know, I just love it.

So, we all have those things, those moments that we want to redeem.

And this is a redemption tale.

Yeah.

And I just fell in love with the story.

And then I met Mike.

Yeah.

When I met Mike,

I shook his hand.

He was 74 when I met him, right?

This, this, when he was 59 and did this.

That sounds like a firm handshake too, probably, right?

It's just like, oh, shit.

You know,

I went, oh, yeah.

He's, he's a strength trainer.

So, so he has that inner strength.

And I just, and I said, Mike, I got to ask you, you know, because he's a Texan, good old boy, you know, he's got that draw.

I said, Mike,

are you fucking crazy?

I said to him, are you crazy?

I didn't swear because he's a Christian boy and he's very, you know, I said, are you, are you crazy?

He says, well, let me tell you something, Michael.

My body deceived me

thinking that I could do this.

Wow.

And, you know, because, you know, being a strength trainer and everything, but there's just, you try to explain it to people.

There's a big difference between being field ready and being fit.

Yeah.

Like,

you know, when you're young, you hit the ground and you bounce.

You know what I mean?

You have pliability.

And that's something that Tom Brady preaches.

Flexibility, pliability.

Because now, man,

that first time I put on the uniform,

first of all, it was the first time in 40 years.

I was so fired.

I was about to say you had to be just like a family.

I was fired.

Kalamazakis.

Put him in front of me now.

I don't believe I remember his name.

I hope I got it right.

In any case, I go out onto the field and then i meet willie bell oh yeah

six three two thirty out of old miss and he goes yeah i'm the one you're gonna be hitting man i'm like that's awesome okay and i like doubted my intelligence and i was like what am i doing like i thought oh i'm in i'm in trouble now thankfully i did have a stunt guy and he did a few he did this the shots where i that's what i was thinking because like i did 90 of my i feel like this is a movie where where too, especially you having the football background loving sports where not that you get carried away, but I know if I was casting any sports movie at all, I'm going to want to do as much as possible that won't kill me.

Right.

I did 90% of it.

There were three shots in particular where I get the two of them blindsided and one just completely taken out.

And thank God I didn't do those shots because Willie

just destroyed my guy.

And that's true.

It wasn't your last day.

You have other stuff.

No, I had to work

12 hours a day.

We're on the field.

My eyebrows hurt, man.

It was.

You get full, like both of you guys, when you're doing stunts and all that, especially in football.

You can pretty much tell them, like, hey, I want to do all of this.

Or did they say, hey, no, Michael?

Like, oh, no, they'll fight with you about it.

They'll fight with you.

Like, like on the shield, I did, it's funny.

I did all but two shots in the seven

layers of the shield.

I did 100% of my stunts.

And the one time my stunt guy, it's like season six.

All of a sudden, he turns to me.

He goes, you're not doing this one.

And I go,

get the fuck out.

How dangerous is this?

He goes, he goes, you're not doing it.

And he never, like, he got real with me.

He was like, you're not doing it.

I had to hop onto a skylight, break through it, fall onto a false floor.

In other words, they put, it's an old gag where they,

a room this size, they replace

what they do is they put down about, depending on your weight, Dixie cups.

Right.

And then they put a plank over it so that when you land on it, the floor collapses.

But

it absorbs the shock, right?

And I had to land on a guy's shoulders and

take him out, right?

So I was on the roof.

I was ready to shoot.

And he came up to me and said, you're not doing it.

Step down.

And we had words for a moment.

And he said, fuck off the roof.

And I was like, holy shit.

When stunk guys say that.

Yeah, that's when I got real.

I was like, huh.

So,

So it turns out, because I was a little bigger than him, a little heavier than him, they didn't take out some of the cups, which were set for my weight.

So it was too stiff.

So when he bounced off that.

No,

his hips were dislocated.

Oh.

Because it was 13 feet.

It was like this, that height.

So you fall and you don't have any squish.

It's just you're falling at that point yeah it's just it's not a stunt it really you know he's coming out on the thing and he's like i told you i'm like oh dude uh that was randy hall man my my guy he was my stunt guy for many things not just the shield what an animal we never got to do stunts obviously on a show like entourage but when we did the movie my love interest was ronda rousey right so i get in the octagon with her and this is at the height of her power right and so we're rehearsing our little fight scene and she's like judo flipping someone over her back.

Like we're working it through.

And then I'm like, all right, I could do this.

Like, it was saved from great stunt guys, but Rhonda came up to me on the side.

She's like, Jerry, you know, I have broken men's ribs who are far bigger than you with this move.

Just let's be careful.

And then I look over and I saw my stunt guy drinking an iced coffee, chilling like that.

I'm like, you know what?

Dude, earn your keep.

Come on, listen.

Let's go.

I love you.

I don't want anyone to get hurt.

But I just, and sure enough, like, she was flipping this dude.

And this dude the next day was like, dude, my ribs are so sick.

Yeah, right.

So, yeah, I don't know.

No, I had to, there were three shots in particular where I got my, and they did one of them right in front of me.

And I thought, thank God I didn't do that.

Because Willie just

fucking destroyed him.

And he took the hit.

The kid was, you know, he was 24 years old.

He popped right up.

Yeah.

And southern boy, he was, I go.

You know, he had that, you know, yes, sir.

No, sir.

You know, he stands up.

I go, you good?

He goes, yes, sir.

I'm like, he had played for

the Crimson,

you know, so he was a monster.

The kid who was my guy,

Jordan Tyler Moore.

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All right, it's time for the fresh take of the week presented by Wendy's Wake Up with Wendy's breakfast.

Big fan of breakfast, even at lunch and dinner for me personally.

In honor of Michael Chiklis being on the show, who played one of the great anti-heroes of all time on the shield, Vic Mackey.

Matt, we're going to do...

our favorite TV anti-heroes.

We're going to name three, but the number one will be our Wendy's fresh take.

So

I had to look this up, right?

Because I know, I kind of know what an anti-hero is, but I was like, villain, anti-hero.

Put your roof for them.

You kind of

have some good in them, but they're kind of like, they make poor decisions sometimes.

Imperfect people.

So I'll give.

So this is what I'm going to do.

I'm going to give two.

Okay.

I'll give two off the get and I'll save my last one, but I'm going to give two

that

also, honestly, this guy's probably more of a villain, but Logan Roy from Succession.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, just an absolute beast.

Just like ruthless.

But, you know, I mean,

if you watch the show, which, by the way, is one of my favorite shows, there's not a ton of good in him.

He split his kids against each other.

Yeah, he split.

He did build an absolute empire.

So, you know, he did do some well.

So do some good.

So that was one.

And then,

and then I'm going with Frank Underwood.

Oh, wow.

You're going house of cards on me.

House of cards.

Again, ruthless did anything he could to to get to the top

to become president.

But just, I thought Kevin Spacey in that show was also launched Netflix.

Let's not forget, House of Cards

pretty much launched Netflix as a rich show.

I was pretty religious about watching House of Cards when that came out every season.

I thought that was a fantastic show.

So

I don't know if you're necessarily rooting for him, but he did have, you know, he did have some

redeeming qualities.

Yes.

Yes.

All right.

So, do you want to give out your fresh take now, or should I go with my two?

Go with my fresh take.

Okay.

So I'm going to disclaimer.

James Gandlofini as Tony Soprano is like the number one.

It's not a fresh take.

It's an easy take.

So we're going to put James Gandlofini to the side.

I have to give that disclaimer.

All right.

My two before.

I'm going Brody from Homeland.

Don't know if you watched Homeland.

I mean, everyone loved him in season one, and then he takes that wild, wild turn.

So Brody in Homeland.

Okay.

My number two, you hear that?

Omar is coming.

Michael K.

Williams as Omar in the wire is just, I mean, I don't even know if you can call him an anti-hero.

He's kind of just, he's a bad guy, but man, I just, that was just my favorite character.

And now we're going to get to our Wendy's fresh takes, our all-time.

Okay, Matt, I'm going to turn to you.

She was phenomenal.

Okay.

She played in the show Ozark,

which is one of my favorite shows.

Wow.

Yeah.

Her name in the show is Ruth Langmore.

That is a great

pick.

Is a beast.

Julia Garner plays Ruth Langmore in Ozark.

What a pick.

Yeah, I know.

That is a fresh take.

She doesn't get enough love for that.

I had to look this up and I'm thinking, like, oh my God, she's perfect for this.

Cause she's good.

Like, she, she comes from a bad background and she's this and that.

She means well.

She's, she's edgy.

She's ruthless.

She's a, she's one of my favorites.

I think she won a ton of awards for that.

She did that.

Shout out to Julia Garner, plays Ruth Langmore.

That is a fresh.

I knew I'd get that one.

I knew

okay.

I'm gonna give you mine.

Okay,

we love breaking bad, right?

We love it.

Yeah, now you probably think I'm gonna pick Walter White.

I'm not.

How do we not get any love for Jesse Pinkman when we talk about these anti-heroes?

Okay, did he not have some of the most gut-wrenching performance stuff, battling all sorts of issues?

Jesse Pinkman, the only one who survives.

The only real one who survives.

We talk a lot about Walter White, deservingly so.

Unbelievable character.

My fresh take, Jesse Pinkman.

That's good.

I think we got two winners right there.

I like that.

Let's get back to another.

anti-hero, Vic Mackey, aka Michael Chicklis.

Did you get a feel for how big, I mean, you know this as Boston, I don't know how big like high school football is in Boston or like New York, but like what the film takes place in West Texas, right?

We're like

how big

like West Texas

football.

Yes, because we shot in

Fort Worth.

Did you get a chance to see like some of the high school stadium just all we shot primarily in high school stadiums.

We go into this one high school stadium.

It's crazy.

It's a 30,000 seat.

I'm like, this is a high school?

I think the high school Kyler Murray just went to, they just did like a $30 million renovation.

The guy's like, this is Texas, son.

Yeah, we, you know, we love our football.

It's real, really.

Yeah.

I was like, yeah, it is, man.

This is like insane.

Huge.

Yeah, and it really is.

I mean, they're into it.

It's definitely a way of like Texas, high school, Texas football, especially like West Texas, where there's not a lot out there, it is a way of life.

It's a way of life.

It is a way of life.

That's right.

And that's the thing that you realize just in the run-up

to making this movie, you realize how incredibly important it is to the the people who live there.

Where does, like, just getting to know you in the sports, like, where does this role, because you've played some iconic roles, you know, you've done superheroes, you've done, you know, obviously the shield and all this.

Where does this role kind of rank as far as you know?

It's high up there.

Yeah, I have to say the body of work.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I'm thrilled at this stage of my life to have a role that I feel is a diamond.

It just came to me out of the blue, too.

It was one of these straight off or you know, that's what I was going to ask you if there's a lot of you went after or just were like, This is the best guy for this.

And by the way, uh, Mark Giardi, the producer, who I mentioned earlier, who did, you know, Miracle,

that's a great thing.

You know, it's on our list.

Yeah, right.

You know,

Miracle

Secretariat.

This is what he does.

He does sports because he was an MLB pitcher.

So he understands

everything we're talking about.

He understands that sports mentality, that, and, and that, and the sports that, uh, movies that move you.

Rudy, that, you know, yeah, this is very much like a Rudy, you know, this movie.

And so out of nowhere, Rod, apparently, you know, he,

Mark Shiardi had bought this rights to this in 2004 when it happened.

Oh, wow.

He saw it on ESPN, the story.

Yeah, it was a big one.

He was running on ESPN, yeah.

And he went right down to Texas to meet Mike.

He was like, this is the kind.

And he made a deal with him.

And he bought the right to the book.

And he's been trying ever since.

I mean,

21 years to fruition.

So

this is a love project for him, something he's wanted to do for a long time.

And several other major actors apparently were cast and then and then

come together.

It's crazy how many movies like that.

It's crazy.

Yeah.

I mean, how many times you hear like, oh, Forrest Gump took seven years to make all these different major motion.

And they're awesome movies.

They're like, this seems like such a no-brainer.

How did this take so long?

Well, it's this business.

It's so fraught.

I mean, it's crazy.

So they came to you like, you're the guy.

You're my best friend.

Something like this.

Yeah, you've been offered the role of Mike Flint in the movie The Space Show.

What a great email or call together.

Right.

And I read it and I'm like, Michelle,

my wife, I'm like, holy shit.

We got one.

I go, yeah, I'm on.

You know, like, you know, when you're, it's freaking awesome.

Yeah.

So when you get, when you get that, I'm just, I, I think this is fascinating stuff when I hear these stories in your guys' industry.

It's like.

No, your football background, you fucking love sports.

You're competitive.

You get this story, which is redemption.

And again, we saw, we saw, we saw it before.

We're not spoiling too much.

That's why we're not giving away movies

when it came to me, the same age.

It's faith, right?

It's faith.

And like, it's got to make you feel like, like, you're just drawn to something.

Like, I always ask Jerry, like, whether, whatever it's like, power, entourage, like, sometimes it's just, it's like a calling, it's drawn to you.

So when you read that, you're just like, this is me, this is it.

This is me.

I have to do this.

Yeah, there's no, there's no second guessing.

There's no, I'm not sure.

Well, whenever I, you know, whenever you get something sent to you, and it's whether you chase it or it's handed to you or whatever and usually you understand I look at me I you know I'm not Brad Pitt no no no but you know I'm not your normal like your average you know what I mean you're sort of classically anything right so so I've had to fight for every inch is what I'm trying to say.

Of course, things don't usually just get handed to me.

I had to fight for the shield.

I've had to fight for the shield.

I love your shield story, by the way.

I don't know if they tell it accurately in this book, Difficult Men.

I don't know if you heard much about that, but but it's more about the showrunners.

Yeah.

But they tell the story about, like, you came in and scared the shit out of it.

I don't want to get too sidetracked for Michael.

You came in as Vic Mackey.

Well, I was pissed.

A handsome kid left the room right before me.

So that just felt like that.

I went, motherfuckers aren't going to give me this role.

You know what?

If anything, I'm just going to, I'm going to

put the fear of God in them right now.

And I walked in and I was already like

ready to go.

And they were just like, I know that I must have, in retrospect,

they say it in the book.

They're like, he's Jesus Christ.

They say

they say it in the book.

Michael walked in the room.

We didn't even recognize it.

They knew who you were.

I was really upset.

I was like, I know.

They think I'm the roly-poly affable kid.

They scared the shit out of me.

They don't know me.

They don't know me.

That's got to be the authentic.

Well, you know, when you have a chip, man.

Look at Tom Brady.

Listen, I texted Tom when I was making this movie.

I said, You're no longer the oldest guy in the field.

Help.

My eyebrows hurt.

And all he wrote me back was, Football's hard.

Good luck.

I went to your house.

I was, that's it.

Like, I don't know, cold plunges.

Like, give me a fucking bone.

I cut out strawberries.

What do I cut out?

Nothing.

Wow.

Nothing.

Football's hard.

Good luck.

So you get the call.

We want you to be Mike Floyd.

Yeah.

But, you know, whenever you're looking for something, whether you fight for it or it comes to you,

you know, the first thing is the story the story of the story you know what is it on the page right yeah and that met every criteria it was a phenomenal script and a great story then who's making it who's involved always and you got an academy award nominated uh director and rod lurry who's phenomenal you know uh last castle just an incredible body of work speaking of body of work and um and uh mark chiardi who is the guy for yeah you know uh sports films i I was like, holy crap, Michelle.

It's a dream job.

Like, my God.

And we're going to shoot this in

football heaven in Fort Worth.

This is looking good, you know.

And then Mary Stewart Masterson gets cast as my wife, and I've always been a huge fan of hers.

And you know what?

It's, you know, and you know this too.

Sometimes you meet people that you love and admire their work and then you get disappointed.

Yeah,

don't meet your heroes.

Yeah, yeah, exactly right.

Well, in this case, it couldn't have been more the opposite.

Just

now it's better.

You know, not only is she a magnificent talent, but she's like among the best people I've ever worked with.

Really lovely, substantive, real,

grounded.

Everything about her, phenomenal.

And the boys,

that's the other thing.

I ended up being like a playing coach with these boys.

They all played football.

They all, you know, and that you can see that too in the performances.

You can see their athletes.

You know,

they played and they played Division I and Division II football, these kids.

You know, that's the other thing is that there's a whole wave

of professional athletes moving into the film and television business.

And they're...

What I love about them is their work ethic is they want to get it right.

They don't want to be an athlete that, you know, is trying this thing.

If they're going to do it, they want to hear about the craft.

they want to know yeah about the work you know at least these kids did and they were really coming to me and asking and I loved them

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You would know this, and Jerry didn't play.

You didn't play team.

You played a little bit of baseball, Grand Balls.

I played basketball.

No, I'm so cute.

I'm saying, but it comes off in the movie, but the...

I quit football after day one.

I was like, no way.

You could have gotten football, especially, as you know, the locker room.

You don't play football.

The locker room and the camaraderie is the greatest fucking part about the sports.

And the greatest thing.

And that is something that's so cool when you watch the movie.

And obviously, you're playing a 59-year-old, you know, guy who, you know, obviously has that year left of eligibility and comes back and you can see it come across.

And it's so, it's cool.

And then, and then knowing you now, it's like you get to relive a little bit of your high school days.

And you miss that because sports, I ask them all the time, it's like being on set, I've been on sets before.

It is different.

Like you go to your trailer and you try to build camaraderie probably with your, but you're kind of clocking in, clocking out.

It doesn't always happen.

No, but it depends on the gig.

Exactly.

There are gigs that I've been on where it's just very cold and impersonal.

The Shield was not like that at all.

We were a team.

It was familial.

We never were on our trailers.

We were like

always together.

I got that vibe from Montoure.

The best times are in between times.

Well, it's always the biggest hit, too, because it comes off.

You know, I'm sorry.

I'm going to break your balls about your Yankees.

Come on, let's do it.

buy a fucking championship team now not to say anyway that

some of the worst fucking trades in boston history god mookie bets good job

oh my god anyway what it's not that we don't spend a lot of money in boston too we do but i the thing that makes the difference and it always has is the chemistry of a team.

When you look at the 04 Red Sox team, the Knuckleheads, the Idiots, you know, there was just, you could see they had that chemistry, that alchemy with each other.

And that's the difference that,

you know,

the Yanks of late are a bunch of mercenaries, man.

They're just,

every one of those guys, three deep, would be number one on the call sheet on any other team, right?

They'd be

starters anywhere else, and they're getting splinters in their ass on the bench.

A bunch of these guys.

And you can be deep like that.

And if the chemistry isn't isn't there in the dugout, you're in deep shit.

Same thing in the locker room.

That's the difference between a team that performs or does okay and a championship team.

And you can see it over and over again in every single competitive sport.

And I love making films and television because it's a team sport.

It's 140, 150 people coming together and making something together.

And it's sort of tantamount to asking 50 chefs to go into

a kitchen and cook one chicken.

It can go horribly wrong.

Yeah, it can go horribly wrong.

Well, that's what I mean.

It's the old adage, a lot of cooks, too many cooks spoil the broth, right?

Well, it shows you have to have this equal portion of

restraint.

Oh, it's not my time to put the salt in.

It'll be over salted.

Or it's my time to shine.

It's my time to perform.

And I just love when you're on a team that's working and everybody gets each other.

And it's electrical.

Same thing with a band.

Like, I've been doing bands my whole life.

Which is crazy.

You know, I've been a musician my whole life.

And that's, it's the camaraderie of it.

It's the collaboration of it.

And when it works, it's sublime.

There's nothing like it.

When it doesn't, it's soul-crushing.

It sucks.

And you, it sucks when you go on a set and everyone's sort of cold and analytical and goes to the, and it's a gig.

And you know, listen, I'm an older guy.

I, you know, I go, okay, all right, paycheck.

I'm still going to throw myself between action and cut.

I'm going to fucking throw down because no flies on me.

I don't give a shit.

You know, I'm going to do my best work no matter what, right?

You know,

even when I know, oh, this is, this one's going to suck, you know, because you see the incompetence in the room and you go like, oh, no.

But then you go, hey, man, I'm right here.

Doesn't mean you're not.

I'm going to try to lift it.

Doesn't mean you're going to be.

I'm going to try to lift it.

Yeah.

Gene Hackman.

Has he ever sucked in anything?

No.

Never.

I'm sorry.

All my favorites, even the, and we all make stinkers.

We've all because there's so much that goes into it.

That's the thing, you know, people think, like, why did you do that?

You're like, hey, man, the best laid plans, you know what I mean?

And by the way, they also think that there's a guy in short shorts with a baton in one hand and a script in the other is running to your house, you know, with your next gig.

It's not that way.

Everyone's fighting for that next gig.

Everyone's looking for their opportunity.

And when you finally do get an opportunity, there's so many things to weigh.

You know, finally, if you get in a financial position where you're able to just make choices, good for you.

But I don't know about you guys.

I put not one, but two children through Stephen S.

Weiss,

USC, and Harvard Westlake and fight the fuck on.

That's an expensive place.

I was going to say that.

Oh, my tuition just went up like this.

Dude, you know, I spent at least a million dollars per kid to educate them.

Yep.

And, you know, but I wouldn't do anything else.

I wouldn't change anything.

Oh, but you're in a business that does not guarantee you could have one tremendous year, two tremendous years, and then that third year could be like, oh, I just didn't have the same, like, it could change.

The swings are so big sometimes.

Oh, God.

And it's so life-changing.

Yeah.

When you get a show, when you hear the words pickup, well, now it's, you know, that's actually the pendulum swinging back.

Forever, it was you got a pilot and then you had to wait until it got picked up or not.

And it got picked up for your, your, you know, back in the network days, you got that front

13 pickup.

And that's a life-altering, those two words, pickup, on a pickup,

and then the back nine, you get you,

it was so fraught all the time.

Now, for the longest time, it's been streaming, you know, oh, you got a full season pickup, you're

10 shows, right?

Which is still a life-altering thing.

When someone says you're picked up, you are gainfully employed and in a way that is

going to pay your bills for a while.

I kept my waitering job when we shot the Entourage pilot and then HBO at the time, 2000, they took months before announcing their six, seven months till they announced their pickup.

I kept my job.

So I'm working at the restaurant still and I have this pilot on HBO that I just shot that if it gets picked up, my life completely changes.

But I just, I'm like, it's probably not going to get picked up because most of them don't.

I'm going to keep it.

I love that we're talking about this because there's something that we've done very poorly in this industry is we haven't communicated.

Everyone's so afraid and everyone's so worried about their own perception that they're afraid to speak candidly about this.

They don't want to be perceived as anything less than a star.

And that's created this perception in the middle of the country that we're Hollywood elites.

But there's no such fucking thing.

There's maybe 10 people that are Hollywood elites.

The rest of us are kids from lowell massachusetts and from what what burger you from i'm broke benzene you're from brooklyn you know you're not a hollywood elite you're a kid from brooklyn with no kidding without

dreams and right yeah you know and you know you know

i'm gonna digress into to go to the whole hollywood versus you know or la versus um uh new york thing uh one thing i find really hilarious because i'm an east coast boy right from boston born raised educated lived in new york York for years.

Love New York.

Again, I only fucking hate the Yankees.

I don't even hate the Mets.

That's another thing.

But I do.

I hate the Giants a little too, right?

I fucking hate the Giants.

Okay, I do.

We would be fun watching games together because we have some.

And I'm going to go talk to the Mannings too.

Oh, God help me.

Are you going to talk to the Mannings?

I'm going to.

I'm going to.

Oh, God.

Help me.

Anyway.

What was I talking about?

No.

Oh, the difference between New York and L.A.

is like, New York has like a,

you know, a rivalry with LA.

And LA, man, you guys don't give a shit.

You don't care.

You don't even know where they are.

Hey, buddy, come on, it's cool.

It's like, hey, everything's cool.

When I went to move here, that's how we are.

Listen to this.

When I went to move here, I'll never forget, man, I was living in New York.

All my New York buddies are like, chick, you don't do it.

You know, it's the, it's fucking 10 miles.

It's 10 miles wide and an inch deep.

They're all vapid, fucking

fake and bullshit.

Get out of it.

No, don't do it.

It's a cultureless void.

Don't do it.

And I'm, you know, and the thing is, when you first come out here, when you first come out here, you focus on the things they told you, warned you about the traffic at the time, the smoke.

No, good pizza at the time.

Now, LA Pizza.

Pizza.

Right now,

at the time, it was shit by comparison.

But you focus on those things.

So for a year, you're like, well, maybe.

And then January 10th comes.

It's beautiful.

And it's 72

at Las Brisas, stunning.

And you're like,

fuck you guys.

Text Lioner.

That's why I tell everybody.

Everybody, hey, come out here 12.

Come out here for a full year and you'll see it.

Okay.

Yeah.

You've adopted

love with LA.

You've adopted, well, USC.

You've adopted

my Dodgers.

You were at the Freddie Freeman Walkoff Game 1 World Series, and I'm a diehard.

Featured.

You were featured right behind

me.

You died at the Dodger dugout with my daughter, Odessa, my youngest.

Yeah, you were heavily, heavily featured.

dark.

Yeah, right behind home plate.

It was great seats.

It was amazing.

And I brought my Odessa because, you know, I hadn't taken her to enough Dodger games.

And it was just a daddy and me game.

And, you know, I'm a big believer in doing things with the whole family, but I also individually.

You got to

have time with each one.

That's right.

And I took Odessa to this game.

And it was just, it couldn't have been, like, it couldn't have been better.

Soup to nuts.

We, you know, it was a tight tense game

it gets down to it gets down to you know bases loading the yankees the yankees i'm like come on motherfucker oh it was and then he just by the way you gotta love it when

off the bat like from the moment of you know like different sounds yeah it's just oh it's out like that instantaneous the hug with the dad yeah so real quick so insane we have

we have bryce harper on our show on big noon for an Ohio State game because he's an Ohio State, whatever.

This was like, I think a couple weeks after.

So, and he was cool as shit.

I asked him, I said, dude, what'd you think of Freddie Freeman, Dodger Freeman?

I'm just like talking baseball.

And he goes, dude, Matt, he goes, that pitcher who was the lefty relief pitcher, his scouting report is first pitch fastballs down the fucking pipe.

He's like an 89, 90 mile, but that was his thing.

So he's always goes first pitch strike.

First pitch strike, fastball down the, like he'll paint it, but like down the pitch.

Freddy's looking for it.

And so Bryce is like, that is our scouting port.

He's like, so you fucking look and swing first pitch.

And that made sense.

First pitch, he fucking just launched it.

Literally, it was out off the bat.

You just, we just jumped to our feet immediately.

We were like, it's

not.

I was in Ohio.

Actually, it was

in Ohio and I was watching it.

And I'm fucking, let's fucking go.

Being with your daughter has got to make that moment incredible.

All right.

Joining us as she does every week, Annie Agar, courtesy of Twisted Tea.

Grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today.

Annie, we know life is good for you still with your Packers.

How are you feeling this week?

Feeling great.

I'm feeling probably a little bit better than you're feeling, but it was a good, it was still a good game.

Listen, I'm on Giants Trent.

Just throwing blows already, Jerry.

I'm on Giants text threads.

They're like, hey, guys, we're like scoring points.

We're just happy to be scoring points.

450 yards for Russ?

Man,

that's more than Daniel Jones.

By the way, Jones looked like eight games.

He looked like the Seattle Seahawks, Russ.

And Daniel Jones is balling too.

So it's like, it's a win-win for everybody.

It's not a win-win.

Minus your Giants who don't have a win in the win game.

It's a win-win for everybody, except for the Giants.

Now, before we get to twisted trivia, we're going to hit a few things.

We were talking right before we started recording.

And I think you asked Matt or someone asked Matt if he ever had turf toe.

Matt, do you know anything about turf toe as our fellow order back?

Let me know if Burrow has.

Well, first of all, I've never had turf toe.

I've heard it is miserably painful.

And do you guys know exactly what turf toe is?

Or do you

like a surface?

It sounds stupid.

It sounds so like you stuffed your toe on the turf.

They need to rename it some sort of medical name.

Freak is pretty out.

Turf toe is a sprain or ligament injury to the main joint of the big toe caused by forceful hyperextension.

It's common in athletes.

Playing on artificial turf, which is a big deal.

We need actually natural grass.

symptoms pain swelling bruising stiffness um it is absolutely miserable i would i would equate it to like like you know like a like a basketball play like a calf right like you need your calf to move lateral like

you'd be surprised how much you need your big toe when you're planting and you're playing yeah because it's really painful right

we need a name for it that's better than turf toe and you know sometimes there's like breaks that they name after the guy who did the break what if you call it burrow toe

he's got, oh, he's got Burrow Toe.

Like, that's the new name for the next 10 years.

He's got Burrow.

Liner's out.

He's got Burrow Toe.

We could use Joe Burrow's name for a plethora of injuries, but you know, I feel bad for Joe, man.

That sucks.

Wait, Matt, one injury I think you do know about, you broke your collarbone, right?

Oh, yeah.

I wanted to bring that up.

And unfortunately, for

Annie,

Jaden Reed off to a great star point.

Yeah, but

you got a million wide receivers.

Right back, though.

Next man up, you know, gives more

targets to Matthew Golden.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, but yeah, that sucks because he landed kind of like on the ball, and I he rolled over, and I thought, oh, that's either a shoulder and arm, or I don't know.

It didn't look good, but yeah, I think you just had successful surgery, so that's good.

But he's out for six, six to eight weeks.

He's back.

Oh, good.

Okay.

Just in time for us to lose to the 49ers.

I saw that.

We're going to get to twisted trivia in a second.

I got one more thing for both you guys can weigh in.

We're going to do what storyline are you just not buying yet?

Okay.

It's either Daniel, I'm going to give you two choices.

Okay.

Daniel Jones is now a really great quarterback and the Colts are real, or the winner of Chargers Broncos this week is now the best team in the AFC West.

Which one are you not buying?

Oh,

that's a really good one.

I think I did good with that.

I'm proud of that one.

That's a great one.

I might not buy into the Daniel Jones hype quite yet.

Okay.

Do you agree?

I mean, the Broncos game was just so lucky.

Like, it, I mean, he still played really well, but

that was just.

And I mean, the Dolphins are

so.

Yeah, I'd say

he'll falter.

Yeah.

Well, all right, you're not buying Daniel Jones.

By the way,

he's got the Titans.

It's another win.

And then he got the Rams.

Their schedule was pretty easy.

Yeah, because they were horrible last year.

Yeah.

Great agenting again by Daniel Jones' agent.

You know where you're going to go?

You're going to go to the Colts because you're going to win that open quarterback competition easily.

And you're going to have a starting job for one more year.

And you have a good coach over there.

I differ from the two of you.

I don't know if I yet believe that the Chargers or the Broncos are the best team in the West.

I know we're all writing off the Chiefs.

They're going to beat the Giants most likely, like 99, 98%.

It might be like their get right game, too, and they all go off.

And by like week 10, they're going to get guys back.

Rice will be be back worthy will be back like they'll be healthier better i just don't i'm still not buying the broncos chargers of the best team in the west thing just my take the poor raiders we don't even care about them well we did after week tom up in the booth and geno started genoing and just like brutal rough i tweeted that i was up until 1 a.m watching that stupid dumb game gino throws three picks said oh it was terrible Terrible.

You had a great video that just dropped, though, this week.

So those of you go check out.

gives me great content on social great content now for some more good content.

Let's do some twisted Twisted trivia.

You guys are one and one, right?

Did we?

Are we keeping scoring?

Well, one and one, or we score total games overall talent.

I think we're three to three and three.

Three and three.

All right, gentlemen, let's get into it.

Are you ready?

Five questions.

I like that all these questions like relate to things that are kind of happening currently.

So, starting with number one, that's it.

Yeah, yeah, starting with number one.

Who was the last number one overall pick to win the Super Bowl?

This is, this seemed like a very tough one because I forgot about who this was.

And I should know because hint, hint, he's went to a college in my home state.

Last number one pick.

Number one overall pick to win the Super Bowl.

Let me know if you need a hint.

I need a hint, Matt.

Do you need a hint?

The Super Bowl was a win over the 49ers.

That's number one.

The Super Bowl was a win over the 49ers.

It's not a position player, I'll tell you that.

No quarterback, no running back, which is weird.

Oh,

see, we're so beat up to think about quarterbacks only thinking about,

yep, that was literally my first thought.

Let me tell you the college, yeah, yeah, central Michigan

in Number one overall pick?

Yeah.

From central Michigan.

I know.

This is this is old.

This is really old then.

You might need another

2013.

I had to, I didn't remember this at all.

There's no way a central Michigan player was waiting.

Okay.

I know who beat 2013, who beat the Niners.

Number one overall.

It wasn't the Ravens who beat the Niners.

The Ravens.

Nope, it was the Chiefs.

Drafted by the Chiefs.

Oh, he's drafted drafted in 2013.

Oh, he's got to be a lineman.

This is brutal, guys.

Don't let me tell you, I'll give you this.

Yeah.

Eric Fisher.

Offensive technical.

That was.

That

shocked me.

That shocked me.

That was the number one overall pick in 2013.

Yeah.

Isn't that crazy?

I thought he went to Texas A ⁇ M.

I think he transferred on.

I mean, I just, Central popped up because

tough.

trivia.

Well, that was a really hard question.

Okay, we'll bounce back.

This is a this is a more recent one.

Who was the last quarterback to win offensive player of the year?

Last quarterback to win offensive player of the year,

which means it was like a

running back who probably or wide receiver who won MVP because they did.

The last quarterback?

Because usually you don't win.

Yeah, no, it's a quarterback.

It was a quarterback.

Who's the last quarterback to win offensive player of the year?

Usually.

Jamar Jackson.

Nope.

That's a good guess.

Right up there, though.

Josh Allen.

Nope.

Joe Burrow.

Nope.

This is actually hilarious.

It plays into our, it plays into our talk really well because we just said that they're becoming non-existent or their run of reign of terror is over.

Patrick Mahomes.

Pat Mahomes in 2018.

He wasn't even on your top three answers, and I actually love that for us.

Love that.

Yeah, I just always think that like quarterback wins mvp and they usually give it to like a wide receiver or running back yeah that's my brain all right 2018.

um okay brandon aubrey's 64 yard field goal was the fifth ever 60 yard kick against the giants only one team has had more against them what team is it really i thought the giants were by far number one think of a team that just gets crushed the cleveland browns last second all the time the cleveland browns Nope.

No.

And like, it's like only, well, I mean, they get crushed all the time, but more specifically in the fourth quarter.

Like last-minute comebacks that just destroy the franchise.

Buffalo?

Nope.

That's good, guys.

This one's a personal

personality.

Nope.

A team that just Chicago.

Oh, the Bears.

No, no, you would think so, but no.

Suck.

These questions are, these are random.

We're going to have kickers.

They are.

That's the perfect word.

Very random.

This is twisted.

This is twisted.

It's very twisted.

Yeah, a team that's lost by like last-minute vehicles over and over and over again.

That would be a personal favorite of mine.

Nope.

Minnesota.

Minnesota.

I can't even take these wins.

I can't even take these wins.

I feel like that's cheating.

We've named all 32 teams.

Oh, yeah, these are hard.

No, that was a tough one.

Okay.

Number four, two more questions.

Who was the first team to ever lose a Super Bowl by one point?

Buffalo Bills.

Yes.

How'd you know that?

That was because the Giants beat them.

Oh, that Scott Norwood.

No good.

Giants win.

That's

one of their four.

Yep.

Okay, Jerry.

There you go.

So Matt, are you taking the Vikings?

Absolutely.

We named 28 of the 32 teams.

I named the right one.

Okay, last one.

Jerry Rice has the record for most career receiving yards and touchdowns in the playoffs.

Who is second on both lists from most career receiving yards and touchdowns?

Most receiving yards.

It's Kelsey.

Travis Kelsey.

And touchdowns in play.

Yep.

I was going to say Terrell Owens.

Terrell Owens.

What are your Kelseys having?

Yeah.

Other than that drop, you know.

I feel so bad because I should.

I'm happy for him.

I just like to, it's just great content.

Like, I love making fun of it.

So much fun.

Do you know what else is going to be great content?

And I want to ask you about this real quick.

Oh, dear.

Matt, tell Annie what you're doing this Saturday.

Annie, guess what I'm going?

Guess what I'm doing Saturday night?

After big noon, after he finishes his big Fox show, watch what I'm doing.

I'm running my boys out the tunnel, USC, Michigan State.

No.

You know it.

You know.

Oh, my God.

I did it about 10 years.

I did it about 10 years ago.

Gosh, I did it a long time ago.

That is so cool.

Yeah.

So they have like a tunnel captain.

So I always bring back.

I'm surprised you haven't done it more often.

I'm just always, I'm never home for the game because I'm always on the road.

So very, very few times they have a night game where I'm home before the game starts.

Isn't it a late one too?

It's like eight o'clock.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

But it's going to be fun.

Jerry asked me if I'm if I'm a hype guy.

Well, that's what I want to ask.

I know.

Are you going to be like full Dabbo and just sprint out there and leave the guy?

Oh, yeah, dude.

I'm getting hyped.

You're going to sprint?

Wait, how fast?

Are you like full sprint?

No.

You're going to open up?

No, no.

I don't really sprint.

I'll jog, but I will get the crowd hyped is what I'm saying.

You got that 73 Madden speed, bro.

Be careful.

I might be all I remember.

What I remember most about Matt is being at the Notre Dame, Wisconsin game in Chicago and the amount of people that were

like shouting at you.

And you handled it so well.

That's because it's Notre Dame.

Like, you need, I need to be at USC with Matt.

I don't need to be at Notre Dame with Matt.

Annie, if the Packers ask you to be the tunnel captain and run the team out on the field, are you going super hype or are you staying more like focused inner determination?

Oh, gosh, I couldn't.

I'd probably pass out.

i'd be trampled by everybody because i'd be so excited little wayne does that

i'd be like i'd full lil wayne right now yeah i would be i'd be hype i'd probably i'd probably full sprint

well thank you annie uh i will say maybe go i don't want to say go easier on this next week because i do think the audience is gonna like to hear us struggle but if you beat the chiefs though could you imagine jerry

Oh my

well, we're going to have, it's going to be like a barrier.

We're all going to be up here going, the Chiefs are done.

Chiefs are over.

Yeah.

Oh, and three idiot for my Chargers

Broncos take.

I'll look like an idiot.

Oh, well, good luck to you.

I'm enjoying the tweets, so I'll keep watching.

I was quiet.

I was a little quiet this weekend.

Yeah, it's okay.

There wasn't much to talk about.

All right.

Thank you, Annie.

Enjoy.

Good luck to your Packers.

We'll see you next week.

Thank you.

Sounds good.

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Greatest sports moment

of all time for you.

If you can go back.

Okay.

I got to say the comeback was

the comeback.

I'm sorry.

It's and I've been to like

all of them, right?

And I had a backstage pass to this because Tom and I are friendly.

You know, I got to.

Come on.

Now you got to understand.

FX took me.

So I was with the FX people and we were on the 50-yard line on the first row

behind the Falcons.

Oh, behind the Falcons.

Oh, so you won't.

So first of all,

I was such a prick on this game.

By the way,

it didn't help because Matt was incredible in all world that game.

And I think I made him better because I was going, I literally was going, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt.

Do you feel him coming, Matt?

That's the way I was doing it.

They were down, though.

Like, you were still.

And Matt's such a great dude.

Yeah, I was such a great dude.

He was from me to this camera away, and I was going, Matt, man, I knew he could hear me.

I was hitting him with my stage voice.

Never looked at me, but I could feel his body stiffening, you know?

But then he'd go out and he was killing it.

But one thing I did see was that every time the defense came off, they were gassed.

Yeah.

And everyone, the New England contingent, see, we were sitting with the guys from Atlanta, and they were were

celebrating.

They were celebrating, right?

Totally, they thought it was a party in the back and half is going to be a party.

It's 23 or 28.3.

28, you have to.

It's 28.3.

It's no, it's

almost at the end of the third quarter.

It's 28-3.

And everyone's despondent.

And I have to say proudly, I would not let it go.

I was like, right now, right fucking now.

I'm like, I was a good sample person.

It has to happen now or it's not going to happen.

And my friend Chuck Saffler, one of the heads of FX, despondent, incredible photographer on the side, left and he walked away from us and he went up into the upper deck, unbeknownst to me at the time.

And he took a photograph right at that moment.

And it's 28-3 with like two minutes left.

And the name of the photograph, because he had it framed and he gave it to me, is called Never Give Up.

And it was because I was just going, no, we can do this, right?

And

it was because I knew if we could get the ball back, we would score every time against this gassed defense.

And Brady's just, that's what what he said.

And also, this miracle's the catch.

We don't call it the Immaculate Reception.

We call it the catch.

Julian Edelman's catch.

Holy catch.

It's up there.

That catch goes up there with David Tyree.

David Tyree's catch with Eli in the Super Bowl beating the Patriots is that happened right in front of Elijah.

That even one was a little more skillful.

But that one was his head got mashed into the

key.

Rodney hit him and it sort of pushed the ball against him.

Julian's catch.

He doesn't catch that.

And you can see it perfectly the way it got caught where he let it go and grabbed it again.

And it's just this phone.

I'm going to be telling you about being down 203 in football, no matter who it is, is virtually impossible.

It's impossible.

You don't get enough time.

You don't have enough time.

Yeah, enough time.

And the immediacy and to be there for that, I have to say, as far as

sports moments, to be there for that and watch it, the elation and to see it actually happen and to feel it growing, to feel it over the course of the whole fourth quarter.

Oh my God.

And I'm going, Matt, Matt.

You had a message.

You were a big reason why.

Was that?

You were in their head.

No.

No, because every time Malcolm.

Let me tell you something.

Also,

I'm sorry, and I believe it was the same offensive coordinator.

You get to fact check this.

I don't know.

But I believe the offensive coordinator for Atlanta that year was the same coordinator who was for Seattle.

Oh, who called that pass that Malcolm picked off.

Shannon called plays.

It was Shannon.

I don't know why I know that.

Let me tell you something.

When he ever called that

pass from

the shotgun,

all they had to do

was run a short running play and take an E and let the clock run, and we were fucking done.

But because

who was it who sacked him?

I saw it.

There's just so many moments again.

And this is what I love about the senior.

I got to take it back to the movie is it's about moments.

It's about all these different moments in time.

And it really isn't about,

you know, it's a sport, right?

I mean, at the end of the day,

football, baseball, basketball, it's a sport, but it's about,

you know, overcoming adversity,

the people that

your comrades, the guys that you're on the field with, in the locker room with,

these are the great value lessons and things.

I don't know about you.

I know about you.

I know.

The best things you've ever learned in your life were through those memories with your teammates, with your comrades on set.

Sure.

With my good, bad, and ugly.

You know, I might even get choked up talking about it.

My coach, Coach Dick Collins, great champion, high school

football coach, one of the most integral men.

This guy was phenomenal.

And he taught us how to be young men.

My father did too, but it's different from a coach or a dad.

It's just a different.

Like one of the things I'll never forget in my life is we, you know, we

were a good team and we were beating everybody.

And like, as I said, we lost our last game to Chelmsford, but we won every game before that.

We were nine and one.

So

we're winning, we're winning in one game.

We just trounced the shit out of this team and we were gloating.

And he tore us anew

because

he taught us how to win with dignity.

Yeah.

Which is something that's kind of gotten lost.

Lost, you know, everything that showbow and everything.

I loved

every value lesson that guy ever taught us.

The way he made us look out for each other, that he made us pick each other up.

I just, you know, these are things that stick with you for a lifetime.

Here I am, about to be a 62-year-old man, and this is high school and I still remember it.

And

I hope that people go to this movie and

it's that kind of movie that pulls at your heart.

There's a lot of humor in it.

There's a lot of laughs, but it also you find yourself wanting for this man.

You find yourself going like, hey, man, I want him to succeed.

And I think that that's a big thing in any great story.

You want, you know, some people get lost in the explosions.

They're so about the action and the next thing blowing up.

They forget that you don't give a shit about what blows up if you don't care about the

people who are at risk

in the blow up.

Correct.

That's right.

There's two, I don't want to spoil too much of the movie, but the two things I think we could talk about.

One is also,

you know, so to me, when I watched it, so much of what Mike Flint was going through was also him reconciling his child with his dad.

And by the way,

my good buddy James Badge Dell played Mike Flint.

And he's great.

We did our first, my first movie ever was with Badge.

She'd already been acting.

He's acting, you know, he was in Lord of the Flies as a kid, right?

Yeah.

So that stuck out.

Terrific.

Then I have a question for you about the, is this scripted or is this improv?

Because I have a take.

And you might have shown, you might have.

Give me a little answer there.

I don't know.

One of my favorite parts where I laughed out loud because I've had this moment was you talking to the young receiver about the longest yard and he thinks it's an Adam Sandler movie.

and you have the part where you're like wait adam sandler that was scripted that was great that was scripted that's why it's great writing because that's a real conversation you mentioned burt reynolds earlier i'm like yeah i laughed out loud when i read it i was like i love this this is fantastic

of kids who think the longest yard is an adam sandler film and i enjoyed that one too but that's not

i love that rod added that it was pouring rain yes because that's the kind of game you're standing out

they all go to the yeah they go to the ground game there's less there's i love that line i laughed out loud and and I'm like, I have conversations with teenagers all the time about the remakes.

He's like, Yeah, you know, for me, it's, you know,

the longest yard.

And I go, yeah, well,

your eyes light up.

You're like, North California.

He's like, never seen that one.

Well, Adam Sandler.

I was like, wait, Adam.

We love Sandler, but that's, you know, that's not the longest yard.

Oh, shit.

I guess it's hardwired into us,

to the human condition back to the days of the Coliseum and before it.

You know what I mean?

Where there's something

battling.

There's something about the human spirit and, you know, not just fighting, but competing.

It's something that drives us.

It drives innovation.

It drives us to just be better.

You know?

You talk about your daughter, Odessa?

Yeah.

Okay.

And you have two daughters?

Autumn and Odessa.

So I just became a girl dad first time.

I got three boys.

Oh, wow.

I'm sending my oldest to Smith.

Now you can be the the youngest daughter that's fantastic sending my oldest to smu for college football wow two little boys and then

advice you can give me being a girl dad and we'll let you go what's the best advice she's so with all my children i said the same thing i i said listen i never want you to think dad's gonna kill me no i'm not i'm gonna help you tell me yeah come to me

just don't lie to me and because i can't help you if you lie to me if you come to me and tell me the truth you'll never get in trouble I promise you.

We'll talk through it.

I'll fix it.

We'll fix it together.

We'll work it out.

That's great.

But don't lie to me.

Just tell me.

And listen, like, you know, I think parents remember their own youth, so they get afraid.

So they want to, like,

you hold more.

This is my father.

I'm a Greek philosopher by like blood.

I can't help it.

My father would say, you hold more sand in an open hand than a closed fist.

So a lot of people squeeze and the kids squeeze between their fingers, but it's this balance of letting the kid sit on an open hand rather than choking them out.

So they have to make their own decisions and you have to be there for counsel.

You have to be there to hear them out, but you have to continually trust them and allow them to live their life.

So what happens is people forget.

They either remember too vividly what it was to be a parent,

which makes them strangle, or they forget what it is to be a kid.

They forget, hey, you know, remember when you were a kid?

You know, you did all this stuff.

Nothing happened.

You were okay.

You have to, like everybody wants to bubble wrap their children.

It doesn't work.

It doesn't work.

You got to let them fall.

You got to let them land on their ass.

That's part of the learning process, you know.

You obviously.

It's terrifying.

There's nothing more terrifying.

And you don't want to see your kid struggle or get hurt.

That's the only way to learn sometimes.

Yeah, but it also shows them that they can overcome adversity, that they can, you know, that they can be brave, that they can bounce, that they're resilient, you know, all those things.

So that's great.

Man, it sounds to me the fact that you even asked me that question says so much.

I mean, I have three boys, and I've been, so my oldest is 18.

And we'll let you know.

Jesus Christ, you have an 18-year-old?

Going to college.

A fucking football player.

By the way, S.M.E.L.

Good athlete.

Shockingly athletes.

Good athlete, right?

And then two boys.

So my wife and I had a, we had, we were, you know, we just, she's six months old.

So like, I've only known boys, which is different.

It's just fun.

It's different.

Sure.

But I grew up in like

testosterone.

My house is very much that.

But now I live in estrogen house.

I'm surrounded.

So that is.

There are so many feelings in my house.

I'm going to get there one day.

But yeah, it's just feeling that all my boys who have daughters are like, dude, it's like they wanted me to be a girl dad so bad because I'm like, I've had boys and I love my boss.

The final boss.

But it's the final.

analysis.

Yeah,

you got our girl.

And she already Nelson.

You're so fucking fucked.

Yeah, you're dead, but in the greatest way.

I know.

It's the greatest thing.

It really is.

Congratulations.

The senior, I think it's September 19th.

You're always been one of my favorites.

And every time we've run into each other, man.

Thanks, man.

Thanks for having me.

Great performance, by the way.

Congrats, the senior 919.

Check it out for sure.

Thank you.